Fantasy Football Today - 2022 (and Week 18) Tough Calls! Barkley? Deebo? Aaron Jones? (01/05 Fantasy Football Podcast)
Episode Date: January 5, 2022Interested to know which players were on the most championship rosters? We'll reveal that list (5:00) and react! And we'll give you your news and notes (8:40) and discuss some tough calls for 2022. W...hen will we be drafting Saquon Barkley (13:10), Aaron Jones (19:40), Elijah Mitchell (21:30), Deebo Samuel (25:10) and D.K. Metcalf (28:40)? ... Dave and Heath square off in a round of "Weird Trivia" (34:00) with an exciting and controversial ending! Then we move on to Week 18 tough calls (44:00). We discuss the Cowboys offense, Eagles RBs, D'Andre Swift and Odell Beckham ... Your emails at fantasyfootball@cbsi.com and your Apple Podcast questions 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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This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports.
On his way to the end zone.
Tell you what, that was a spectacular play.
It's time to dominate your fantasy league.
What a play.
Off to the races.
Touchdown.
Oh, he's done it again.
Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Beck.
Today on the show, a perfect blend of 2022 and Week 18,
which is to say a lot of 2022 and a little bit of Week 18.
We'll give you some tough calls.
The Week 18 tough calls will be Dak Prescott.
How much does he play?
How much do we trust him to begin with?
Kenneth Gainwell. What if he's the lead guy? What do we do with him? DeAndre Swift.
Can he bounce back from a six-touch game
at Seattle? But also the
2022 tough calls. Where are we going to rank Debo
Samuel, who
I think he was 45th in routes
run among wide receivers. Yeah.
45th in routes run, and he's the number
three wide receiver in fantasy. And how about his teammate, Elijah Mitchell? Pretty interesting stuff on him as well.
Good morning, David Heath, especially to you, Heath. Good morning. As we were speaking off the
air, you are very confident in the Kansas City Chiefs. I think you're already punching their
ticket to the Super Bowl. That's just kind of the impression I'm getting. No, no.
I was expressing the feeling I've had all season
that the regular season never really mattered to the Chiefs.
They're going to have to win the playoffs,
and it stinks that they lost against the Bengals,
especially in the way they did.
So they have to win four games instead of three now
if they win a championship.
But I don't know if they're going to make it to the Super Bowl or not.
I just don't think the regular season really mattered.
If they play three or four of their best games, then they will.
Did they play their best game last week?
Did we finally learn about their defense?
Healthy defense against the good offense.
And it was bad.
Yeah, I think it's hard to get a read on that
because of the way that the game went.
I mean, you could make an argument
that they got like four fourth down stops.
But none of those counted.
I mean, that's kind of true, yeah.
I don't know.
I mean, it'll depend on, I guess,
which crew they have in the playoffs.
That was a pretty wild sequence.
Dave, who are you feeling right now for a Super Bowl pick?
I am...
I think I'm feeling the Packers,
which I know it's chalk, whatever,
but I think that they are going to put it all together.
They're going to get some bodies back on defense that'll help them play a little bit stronger. And I just like the way that they're
vibing right now. I think that this offense is going to be tough to stop and this defense will
be a little bit better than how they finish the year. I'm trying to think because I know on the
AFC, the game that I want to see if we're going to get what I think are the two best teams,
would be Bills and Chiefs in the AFC championship game.
I know in the NFC, one of the teams would be the Packers.
I don't know if I'm most interested to see Brady against Rodgers
or the Cowboys against Rodgers or the Rams.
There's just so many more teams that I think
could actually put up a really
interesting NFC Championship
game. Niners. I am
all about the Niners.
Not with Lance. If Garoppolo can be
healthy and they can actually make the playoffs,
I'm kind of thinking they won't, actually.
Yeah,
that's the problem. So the team you're really excited
to see in the NFC Championship is the team you don't think is going to make the playoffs. I don't think they're going that's the problem. So the team you're really excited to see in the NFC Championship
is the team you don't think is going to make the playoffs.
I don't think they're going to make the playoffs.
So for them to miss the playoffs, they lose this week to the Rams
and the Saints beat the Falcons, right?
I think that's going to happen.
It sucks, but the Niners are a total dark horse for me.
I love them.
I think the Niners beat the Rams.
You think the Rams aren't going to go for it?
I think the Rams are struggling right now.
Past two games.
I think they were struggling.
I don't think Cole will win the decision after all Rams will make the playoffs
as a wildcard team.
So will the Niners,
but the Niners are to me,
they're the total wildcard.
As long as they keep Trey Lance in there.
No,
I don't want Lance.
I know you,
you want Garoppolo.
Yeah.
Lance can't Lance is not ready for this.
He's definitely not, but he stepped up in the second half last week.
He threw some amazing passes and he really didn't unleash himself as a
runner and he's, he's going to cause problems.
Eventually it would be interesting if he started to cause those problems
as soon as this week.
Look at me, just all about Jimmy Garoppolo to take this dark horse team to a Super Bowl.
Speaking of which, who won the fantasy Super Bowl last week? We've got a list of the 12 most rostered players on championship rosters. So on championship team. Yes, you do get to guess. I
will say that I did did not my guess for who
would have been number one was wrong so you can guess who number one is who's so which player was
on the highest percentage of championship teams and uh there was only one quarterback in the top
12 you can guess that as well so go ahead fire away with your guesses guys and stay off twitter
i'm about to tweet the list. Stay off Twitter.
Okay. I'm never on Twitter during the show.
My full attention is always
given to whoever is speaking.
I had one player who was
on all four of my championship teams.
So I'm going to
assume this player is in the top 12.
If not, that would be weird. And it was Mark
Andrews. Oh, I thought you were going to say Jamar Chase.
Okay, Andrews is your
guess. Dave, who's number one?
Oh, I was just doing a guy that was in the top 12.
I'm sorry, but yes, I'll go Andrews
still. Andrews won. Okay, Dave?
Amonra St. Brown.
That was my guess, too. We're both wrong.
So is Heath. Who's the
quarterback on the list?
Was Mark Andrews in the top 12? I'm sure.
Assuming he was. I don't know. I only saw
a quick glance. I'm sorry. I thought that's what we were
guessing. Well, take another guess.
Who do you think the most rostered player on championship
rosters?
Mm-hmm.
No.
Who?
I was kidding jonathan taylor all right jonathan taylor that's a good guess and hopefully we have a trivia game coming up later so hopefully this won't be the last time
i get to use this but that is incorrect it's cooper cup now who is the cooper cup oh you said
amanda st brown first That was your official guess.
Nobody heard you, Dave.
I joked around and said Allen Robinson,
and then I said Cooper Cup.
You didn't hear me say Cooper Cup.
I didn't hear any of that.
What a shock.
What a shockeroo that Cooper Cup
was the biggest league winner in fantasy this year.
Yeah.
Who was the quarterback on the top 12?
One quarterback.
Joe Burrow.
Dak Prescott
all right Schrager
let's see the list
all right let's get it up
here's the top 12
most rostered players
on championship teams
here we go
any minute now
there he is
Cup 62%
Justin Jackson
even though
he did nothing in the championship game.
Tom Brady's the
quarterback. He's 10th.
For those of you who can't see the list, it's Cup 1
Justin Jackson, Jonathan Taylor,
Debo Samuel, Ronald
Jones. People won their championships
I'm assuming starting Ronald Jones.
They inherited Ronald Jones and obviously he didn't
help them win. He did the week
before obviously. Amandra St. Brown,
Rashad Penny, Justin
Jefferson, still won a lot of
leagues with a dud, kind of dud in week
18, 17. Eckler,
Brady, Andrews, Mixon,
and no Jamar Chase on there. That
shocks me. Wow.
Wow.
Alright, there you go.
So, we have three podcasts per week during the off season they are
going to be on monday tuesday and thursday next monday we have the uh award nominations
tuesday is going to be the top 12s for 2022 and thursdays as long as the games are going on we'll
we'll do some playoff previews some dfs previews stuff like that playoff challenge those types of
things um to help you in your fantasy league
if you're playing any fantasy playoffs or playoff fantasy stuff.
So remember, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays going forward for months and months
until we get closer and closer, and it's four a week and then five a week, whatever.
But we don't go away, and you will get at least three episodes every week.
Let's do some news and notes for week 18 here on the COVID list.
We got the Bengals with two linemen,
two defensive starters on the COVID list,
and they have a game against Cleveland on Sunday that wouldn't necessarily be
irrelevant.
They could like,
if the chiefs went on Saturday,
then the Bengals are eliminated from the one seed.
So if they don't get these guys back from the COVID list,
Burroughs beat up, Mixon, they might rest a bunch of players.
Meanwhile, in that same game, Baker Mayfield.
It's not just the one seed, right?
If the Chiefs win, they'd be eliminated from the two as well.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Okay, then for sure.
This game, Cincinnati-Cleveland could have a lot of backups.
Baker Mayfield's not going to play.
Dearness Johnson is now on the reserve COVID list.
And Chubb's got that rib thing. So, you's not going to play. Dearness Johnson is now on the reserve COVID list.
Chubb's got that rib thing.
We'll see.
I wonder with Chase.
I think Chase is 44 yards shy of the rookie receiving record.
No, he got it.
No, he got the Super Bowl era.
Bill Roman
in 1960 had 44
more yards than Justin Jefferson. Interesting had 44 more yards than Justin Jefferson.
Interesting.
So it was 44 more yards than Chase or Jefferson?
Than Chase, yes.
Okay.
Both Detroit starting offensive tackles for the Lions
are on the reserve COVID list.
Two Vikings offensive linemen are on the COVID list.
Three 49ers defensive backs right now, including two huge contributors, are on the COVID list. Three 49ers defensive backs right now,
including two huge contributors, are on the COVID list.
Remember, all these guys could come back by the end of the weekend.
There were some records set on Monday night.
Ben Roethlisberger set the record for the fewest passing yards in a game
in which a quarterback threw 45 or more passes with 123 yards.
Mayfield and Roethlisberger combined for a record the lowest combined yards per attempt in a game with a minimum of 80 pass attempts.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau.
I thought that was kind of a high minimum, but they averaged 3.67 yards per attempt.
This is definitely some of the worst quarterbacking in NFL history, I think.
18 combined off-target throws
between the two of them.
It's a perfect finish to this season.
I mean, there's still one more week.
There's another week.
We'll probably get bad quarterback play, too.
Because, as Chris Towers has talked about a lot,
the level of quarterback play in the NFL
in the second half of the year,
we've seen it's almost like the shift in baseball is what I would compare it to.
Defenses have come up with something that kind of kills the fun.
And not for everybody, but for a lot of players in fantasy football.
Meanwhile, Mike Tomlin set a record most consecutive seasons
without a losing record, 15.
Good for him. The Washington football team, maybe consecutive seasons without a losing record. 15. Good for him.
The Washington football team, maybe they'll have a new name.
They'll announce it on February 2nd.
So we'll find out soon enough.
How about this?
If you are a Steelers or Ravens fan and you need the Colts to lose to the Jaguars, right?
Is that the scenario?
Yep.
It is for Pittsburgh.
Baltimore needs a little bit more than that.
Okay.
Jacksonville has won six straight home games
against the Indianapolis Colts.
Their only win last year was week one against the Colts.
So they just play them very tough.
It's very strange.
Clyde Eberd-Zehler, a mispractice.
He has a chance to play this Saturday against Denver and Lamar Jackson
could play this week.
Don't want Daryl Williams
again. Okay.
Get to the point where he might be their best running back.
Oh, no. Dave
Richard telling you
I don't know. He doesn't really do
why they're giving him all these
valuable situations. He may
not be as explosive as Clyde.
I'll grant you that.
He's a goal-line guy.
Whatever.
He's better in the passing game, and he's better in short yardage,
and Clyde's better at everything else.
All right, let's do some 2022 tough calls here.
So that's the topic du jour.
Tough calls for this week, tough calls for next season.
We also have some weird trivia coming up.
I have very strange trivia questions.
They're just different. I don't know. They're just different.
I don't know if weird is the right word.
But they're looking forward to stumping David Heath there.
All right, 2022 tough calls.
This list provided by Heath Cummings.
Saquon Barkley.
Give me a round that you're thinking right now for Saquon Barkley.
Heath.
If I had to guess this second, I would say end of the third round for Saquon Barkley-Heath? If I had to guess this second, I would say end of the third round for Saquon Barkley.
I think he'll lead off the dead zone in 2022.
Dave?
End of the second.
Ooh.
If not the middle of the second,
that's where you're going to see him go.
People are going to be remembering the name.
They know what Saquon Barkley can do.
I am certain that the Giants will make some improvements to their offensive line that will get everybody excited.
I'm sure Saquon, provided that he gets out of Week 18 healthy,
will have a normal offseason.
There will be some nice headlines about him.
People will gravitate back toward him with a round two pick.
I'm not saying it's right, but I'm saying that's where he's going to go.
Oh, you did actually have him in your top 24.
I was going to say,
I don't think any of us probably had him in our top 24,
but you did.
Where?
Where did Dave have him?
Dave had him 24th.
24th, okay.
I think maybe if Dave could have thought a little harder,
he would have thought of another name
that he would like to draft before Saquon Barkley.
Do you guys think that it's just health with him,
that if he's healthy,
he can still be a fantastic fantasy asset?
Well,
it's not just the name that I should have thought of.
I don't know.
I just think that you probably would like,
there's probably somebody else like who,
um,
I could go through my top 24 and see who you didn't
list but sure uh no it's definitely not just health with saquon it's he's on the worst offense
in football and they don't appear to have any desire to make it better okay they're going to
run it back look i'm not going to sit here and defend their honor right now they're the worst
offense in football they weren't the worst offense in football with Daniel Jones.
They're not good.
Since Joe Judge has become head coach,
they have been the worst offense in football
by every way of measuring it.
That's got to be so weighted down
by the last four or five games
with these scrub quarterbacks.
Sure.
They're not...
Where were they last year?
Were they bottom 10 last year?
Probably.
I think they were...
Yeah, I think they were bottom 10,
but they weren't...
Oh, no, no, no. Last year, they were
horrible. Yeah, they were the second worst.
They were the second worst last year,
but then they brought in Galladay, and they drafted
Tony, and Barkley was supposed to be healthy.
I don't know. They're not...
They're not good.
Don't get me wrong.
I don't think they're totally...
I don't know.
I think it bears level.
I don't think they're totally... I don't know. I think it bears level. I don't know who...
I don't know what team has already committed
to going into 2022
with a worse quarterback than the Giants.
I don't know what team has already committed
to going into 2022
with a worse coach than the Giants.
I'll agree with half of that.
What's that?
I'll agree with half of that.
The quarterback part not the coach part but i we already have the end of next year you'll you'll agree with all of it probably maybe maybe but jury's still out there but um
no that's fine obviously it's not it's not an offense that's beneficial to him. We could agree on that. But, yeah.
All right.
There's also a chance he's not on the Giants next year.
If they're going to try and improve their team,
this is a tradable asset.
They're not going to get anything great for him.
Okay, fine.
If he were on an average offense, do you think Barkley
is still capable of
being a great player?
Oh, okay. I was
going to say a top 24 pick, definitely.
A great player. Like a first-round pick?
Yes.
You're saying the Chiefs wipe out what they
have? No, I'm saying the
Vikings.
I think it's possible, but I don't think we've seen anything more than maybe four plays in the last two years that would indicate that it is.
It would be one of the greatest comeback stories I can recall after what we've had the past few years.
I don't think it would be one of the greatest comeback stories i can recall after what we've had the past few years i don't think it
would be one of the greatest comeback stories i do wonder if he'll ever get back to i don't think he
can get back to where he was but i think he can still be a volume workhorse yeah i don't know i'm
trying to think of like demarco murray was written off at one point that's a great call and he came
back 2016 he had 293 carries 1 28,287 yards, nine touchdowns.
He also had 53 catches in that season.
That was a 12-touchdown season.
I feel like LeSean McCoy probably had a nice bounce back at some point.
And people are probably going to have to wonder
how much they're going to buy the injury excuses
because it's going to come out that he was playing with a bad ankle for this and that.
Right. The DeMarco Murray one,
he did not miss any time with injury,
and he had one bad season.
He had a pretty short career.
What's that?
Go ahead.
No, I'm just saying the thing with Saquon
is it's like there's all these different things
stacked on top.
It's the, the abysmal offense and his injury problems and his ineffectiveness.
And we don't, maybe the ineffectiveness is entirely his injury problems and the inept
offense, but Devante Booker in the same situation the last two years
has been more effective.
Yeah, interesting stat that I saw.
Well, we saw it a few weeks ago.
I can tell you right now.
I have it pulled up.
Yards before contact per carry.
Devontae Booker is 13th.
1.62 yards per carry
before being contacted.
Saquon Barkley is 38th.
0.97.
And he's dancing.
Yes.
Very tentative.
All right, let's go to our next guy.
I don't remember him being like that
two years ago.
He was a little bit.
He was always a boomer bust running back right
oh it kind of barry sanders like always looking for the home run just not hitting him anymore
um aaron jones aaron jones in his last four games is averaging 9.5 carries 3.8 catches per game
that's since returning from the injury and not counting that first game back from injury where he only had 10 carries and one target
and then they had their bye. Yeah, he's going to be tough for sure.
Aaron Jones or Saquon Barkley, Dave? I currently have Jones ahead of Barkley.
I think that he's got, as things stand
now, I think he's got a chance to maybe build back in a little bit more of that role that he
had in Green Bay than what he had at the end of the year.
I wrote about it. It's going to be in SSSB this week. Since he's come back from
his injury, his touches have been 10, 8, 15, 17, and
13. And in those five games, he has two carries and one catch
inside of 10 yards. And the Packers have played 34
snaps inside of 10 yards in those five games so
they're not using them that much down there they like AJ Dillon down there can you reclaim more of
that going into 22 yeah I think he might be able to to a degree but I think AJ Dillon isn't going
to go away in that offense and it I also have questions about who the quarterback's going to be
I'm kind of ranking everybody in Green Bay as if Aaron Rodgers is staying.
And so if Aaron Rodgers is staying, that's going to be great for any running back that's back there.
I think Jones is still the more explosive back of the two between him and Dylan.
He's someone that I would also look at as a mid-to-late second-round pick as of now.
Yeah, this is another guy.
I think Dave and I agree that we would both take Jones over Barkley next year with the information we currently have.
I didn't have Jones, I don't believe, in my top 24 either.
But unsurprisingly, I had a lot more wide receivers in my top 24 than Dave did.
It's one of the new resolutions I'm trying to break, Heath.
So running back heavy.
I don't know.
I think it's a lot more possible that Saquon Barkley gets
300 touches next year than Aaron Jones.
But I'm
far more
likely to believe that Aaron Jones
is good or
has a chance to score 10 touchdowns.
Yeah, and play more games.
I would think so.
Okay, Elijah Mitchell.
How about this?
Elijah Mitchell, looking at yards before contact.
I remember I said where Booker and Barkley were.
He's 39th, which is surprising.
Usually 49ers running backs are very high on this list, I feel.
I guess I haven't looked at it all too recently,
but that's what I recall.
39th among running backs in yards before contact.
Third in yards after contact per carry.
And check this out.
Raheem Mostert has two games in his career
with 17 or more carries.
And there was one game with 17, one game with 19.
Elijah Mitchell has eight games this season with 17 or more carries. And there was one game with 17, one game with 19. Elijah Mitchell has eight games this season with 17 or more carries.
He has four straight games with 21 or more carries.
He's a big play machine.
Very impressive stuff.
Heath, Barkley, Jones, Eli, Mitchell.
I noticed none of us had Mitchell in our top 24 either,
which probably isn't.
I mean, he didn't stay healthy,
but if he had, he'd be a top 12 running back right now.
I would say that I believe it will be Jones
and then Mitchell and then Barkley
with Jones at the 2-3 turn,
Mitchell in the middle of the third,
and Barkley at the 3-4 turn.
I just don't see Saquon falling that far.
I don't think Mitchell's going to fall that far either.
The thing that gets me is that there's been a different running back leading the 49ers in rush yards and, I believe, rush attempts
each of the previous four seasons.
Actually, it's five seasons now.
Mitchell's going to be that guy this year.
So each of the last five years, it's been a different running back leading the way for San Francisco.
Haven't had a back-to-back guy yet with Kyle Shanahan as the coach.
That's not by design, right?
I mean, they wanted it to be Mostert.
Well, because they draft.
They always have a running back they're not really paying.
And they seem to somehow always have an injury-prone running back.
And that's what Elijah Mitchell is.
I think the way Jacksonville treated James Robinson this year
is a cautionary tale about Elijah Mitchell next year.
The benefit for him is that Kyle Shanahan's still going to be there.
And we've never seen Kyle Shanahan have a player break out as a rookie
and then end up in his doghouse
to start his second season.
That is not something that Kyle Shanahan does at all.
Sarcasm alert.
Sorry, yeah, that's Brandon Ayuki he's talking about.
Dante Pettis.
Oh, sure, yeah.
Are you mostly pretty much buying
the performance from Eli Mitchell?
Yeah.
It's just a matter of is it repeatable?
He'd have to stay healthy first and foremost.
And you know that he's going to have company.
We're going to give the 49ers.
It's not going to be one or two weeks, a full offseason
to rest up their running backs.
They're going to replace Raheem Mostert on the depth chart.
They're going to add somebody else.
Could be a sixth-round pick in the 2022 draft.
I'm promising you 15 games.
I'm promising 15 games of Elijah Mitchell in 2022.
15 games.
As the starter?
I'm not promising anything else.
I'm promising he is going to play 15 games.
He would absolutely make my top 24.
Yeah.
Well, you know, the only thing that would worry me would be Sermon
if they are invested in him and they want to just give him
eight carries a game or something like that.
That's one of the things I think where the Shanahan thing helps
because he doesn't seem to care about that at all.
Okay.
All right.
Next up is his teammate, Debo Samuel,
who is the number two wide receiver in non-PPR,
number three in full PPR.
And that is, as I mentioned,
45th among wide receivers in routes run.
He has a Kyle Shanahan high, six touchdowns,
the most receiving touchdowns,
the most by any player in the Shanahan era in San Francisco.
And I want to say the most in like eight years or something in San Francisco.
I think Vernon Davis was the last guy to have more than five receiving
touchdowns. He also has seven rushing touchdowns, a strange,
strange season. Unlike any other, I, in terms of a wide receiver,
I'd be so bizarre. All right. So Debo Samuel is,
is he getting drafted ahead of all the running backs we've talked about?
Holy cow.
I just realized,
and this was not intentional and I assume I'm going to get roasted for it on
today's podcast or today's episode of FFT.
Debo is not in my current top 12 for 2022 wide receiver,
which would mean that he wouldn't get picked in the first 24 picks, obviously. is not in my current top 12 for 2022 wide receiver,
which would mean that he wouldn't get picked in the first 24 picks, obviously.
But looking at where he was,
and I don't have Jamie's here,
but I think everybody else has him like eight or nine.
I've got to meet.
It's so hard with guys like this
who do something that nobody else does
for the first time it's true and so
right i generally bet against those kind of guys and i i probably will next year i'll probably have
debo like we may just go through the entire third round with the hard to rank 2022 guys
yeah right that's that's a tough spot in the draft.
Where do I have Deebo?
Did I not put him in my top 12?
You only did 10, but I don't believe so, no.
Was I supposed to do 12?
Just Dave and I did 12.
Oh, yeah, I did 10.
And I did not put him in my top 10.
Yeah, I...
Okay, was that a mistake?
Would you like to have a mulligan?
Adams, Kup, Chase, Tyreek Hill, Jefferson, Diggs.
Not putting him ahead of those guys.
Godwin, A.J. Brown, Keenan Allen, C.D. Lamb.
I think I should probably put him ahead of someone in there.
I should probably revise that.
He's incredible.
I mean, I had no idea, but his speed is ridiculous.
What he did this year was unsustainable.
Four touchdown catches of more than 40 yards.
Very few red zone targets.
Very few green zone targets.
Not that many targets to begin with when you compare him to other guys.
So I do think he's had one of the luckiest seasons.
But can he be top 10?
Can he keep taking another step?
Can he earn more targets?
I think he could.
Then Trey Lance also complicates things.
Right.
Are there as many targets?
He could earn a higher target share next year
and still get fewer targets.
Maybe I shouldn't put...
You know what?
I'm going to stick with it.
I'm going to stick by it.
I think he's going to be a little bit of a bust next year
if he goes as a top five.
If I had it to do over again,
I would have put him 12th
just so I didn't have to answer for it.
But I don't think he'll be top 12 in my projections.
That's full PPR rankings too.
I think you could justify taking him over,
say, Keenan Allen and non or half PPR.
But probably not full.
All right, and last one is DK Metcalf.
Is he going to be a top 48 pick first four rounds?
He, by the way, Metcalf yeah there's so much uncertainty with him metcalf is currently wide receiver 11 and non-ppr and 14 and full ppr
uh his his numbers aren't terrible but in 16 games 909 yards that's pretty bad and 12 touchdowns is
what saved him including three last week uh so he is a top 15 wide receiver and that's pretty bad and 12 touchdowns is what saved him including three last week
uh so he is a top 15 wide receiver and that's a guy gets drafted in the first four rounds
certainly but he says yes dave how about you is he a top 48 pick next year he's probably a top 48
pick he's definitely not a top 24 pick we don't know my. He is. I can't put him there without knowing who's his quarterback,
who's his play caller, what's his offense going to look like.
There are just some factors that I'm not ready to commit to Metcalf on,
and I think it is damning that he didn't have 1,000 yards this year.
What happened there?
He's not done yet.
Well, okay.
After 16 games, he had 909 yards that is absolutely shocking
right especially for someone that i mean the upside for him we talked about in august he
could have been the best receiver in the nfl heath why is he in your top 24 this is one where i just
don't like have an explanation for what happened to DK Metcalf this year.
And Tyler Lockett will be another year older next year.
And I just kind of expect that it's going to get better.
I would not be like, I'm concerned about Russell Wilson leaving.
But I also think if Pete Carroll leaves and they bring in a new offensive mind,
that maybe things get better there because the offense has just been so stale for so long um and dk is one of the best or most talented wide receivers in the nfl and so i just assume
he's going to get it figured out he's a physical specimen to be sure he's fast to be sure but he's
still not a perfect he doesn't have tons of diversity in his route running.
There were a bunch of end zone throws that he should have caught that he did
not catch.
So the touchdown number could have been higher.
There's a couple of throws that Russ could have made this year.
There's the one few games back that he was off target on.
He should have had over a thousand yards this year.
Maybe the case could be made that he could have had 11 to 1200 yards with a
better quarterback. So there's just, there there's upside there. There's no question about it, but if
he gets a downgrading quarterback this year, and if the offense is totally fresh and brand new again,
I wonder if he's going to be a touchdown dependent wide receiver. And if you draft him,
you're hoping he gets you 10 plus over the course of the year and that he
doesn't hurt you too bad in the games where he doesn't
score. Twitter poll time
because I have Debo in my top
24. Dave and Chris, or I have DK.
Dave and Chris both have
Debo in their top 24, but not
DK. I'm going to run
a Twitter poll. Who scores more PPR
fantasy points in 2022?
Debo Samuel or DK Metcalf?
Cool. Let's see what the results are.
I think Debo's going to win because people just always go
with who's better now. Right. Recency bias.
The Seattle Seahawks
have run 897
plays in 16
games. I don't know.
I'm going to just go through the last
five years or so and see
the lowest.
Yeah, Adam Gase was always in that range.
Yeah.
I mean, it's hard to be great.
The Texans last year had 940.
That was the lowest.
So Seahawks blowing that away.
I don't have to do this on the air,
but I'll just try to do one more year,
and then we'll go to break, and then we'll do some weird trivia.
885 for Washington in 2019.
So what did I say?
897 for the Seahawks?
Really, really low number,
and no time.
They'll run more next year.
What's that?
They will run more plays next year.
Yeah.
All right, let's take a break here
when we come back.
Weird trivia for Dave and Heath.
We need to make them compete one last time
in this 2021 fantasy season.
And then week 18, tough calls, your emails,
your Apple podcast questions right after this.
Let's do some trivia.
Get a little bit weird here.
All right.
First of all, you gain one point with a correct answer.
You lose half a point.
I don't know why, but we're getting weird.
You lose half a point with an incorrect answer.
Do you have to answer?
No.
There are, ah, screw it.
I want to encourage answers.
So you won't lose any points.
Yeah.
I think you just lose a full point if you don't answer.
Oh, that's interesting.
All right, fine.
No deductions.
No deductions.
Okay, we'll just keep it normal.
One point for a correct answer.
Tom Brady.
We'll honor that.
Yes, right.
We don't need the host.
What rule are you honoring, just so I know?
You don't have to worry about it.
One point for correct.
Half a point negative for incorrect.
Full point negative for no answer.
Who would not answer that?
Ridiculous.
I was going to move the microphone away for the entire segment.
That's mean.
All right.
Tom Brady.
Tom Brady leads the NFL with 456 completions.
The next three on the list,
on the completions list,
have 409, 409, and 408 completions.
By the way, say your name to buzz in.
All three of those quarterbacks,
they play in the same division.
Who are they?
Heath.
Heath.
AFC West.
Who are they?
Oh, Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, and Derek Carr.
Ding, ding, ding.
One point for Heath.
All right.
Next up, five of the top six running backs in carries.
Okay, five of the top six in carries have rushed for at least 1,080 yards.
They are Jonathan Taylor, Najee Harris,
Joe Mixon, Dalvin Cook, and Nick Chubb.
Then there's a running back who is fourth in carries,
but he has rushed for 891 yards.
Who is he?
Yikes.
Fourth in carries.
He's the only one who hasn't rushed for at least 1,080 yards.
He's rushed for 891. The names of the ones who have.
Yeah, it's not Jonathan Taylor. It's not only one who hasn't rushed for at least 1,080 yards. He's rushed for 80. These are the names of the ones who have. Yeah.
It's not Jonathan Taylor.
It's not Najee Harris, Joe Mixon, Dalvin Cook, or Nick Chubb.
He's fourth in carries, 891 yards.
Heath.
Yes.
Najee Harris.
Okay.
I already said it's not Najee Harris, so you just lost a half a point.
Okay.
Dave, you have to guess.
You have five seconds, so you lose a point.
I'm just going to say James Conner's name.
I know that's not even close to being right.
It saved you half a point.
You both lose a half point.
I have to think about it.
Oh, let me take a real guess.
No, I don't know if this is right either.
Try.
David Montgomery.
No.
He's 10th in carries.
If I had told you going into the season
that Antonio Gibson would be fourth in the NFL in carries,
man, he may have been a first-round pick,
but he's done very little with it.
891 yards, six touchdowns, and he is rising.
So, updating the scoreboard, I am at plus a half a point.
Dave is at minus a half a point.
Yes, yes.
All right, next weird question.
In the previous five seasons,
we had,
these were the amount of 50 catch running backs
that we had.
11, 14, 16, 13, and 8.
That's how many running backs
caught 50 passes in the last five seasons.
11, 14, 16, 13, and 8.
How many 50 catch running backs have there 14, 16, 13, and 8. How many 50-catch running backs
have there been through 16 games this season?
Dave.
Dave.
Five.
Heath.
Heath.
Nine.
Six 50-catch running backs.
Najee Harris, Fournette, Eckler, Swift, Jacobs,
and Aaron Jones.
What about Debo?
So it's
zero to negative one.
You know what? Should I count
Cordero Patterson? I don't know, but we'd
both be wrong regardless.
But this is interesting.
This is a really interesting trend.
So down the last two years. Eight last year and six this year. All really interesting trend. So down the last two years.
Eight last year and six this year.
All the running backs have gotten hurt the past two years.
I feel like it's more than that, though,
because we had 16 and 14 the two years before that,
2018 and 19.
You know?
I mean, maybe that's not all of it.
Are rush attempts up?
What's that?
Are rush attempts up? Are they running it more? Oh, that would take's not all of it. Are rush attempts up? What's that? Are rush attempts up?
Are they running it more?
Oh, that would take a little bit of research.
I don't know.
Okay, well, that's something I'll look into in a week.
It has definitely been a trend coming into this year
that targets were going away from running backs,
just like on a team percentage of throws basis.
But I also think like the injuries the past two years have been excessive.
And I'm wondering how many running backs are.
So like we've got 10 to fit 12 of them between 40 and 50.
And most of those guys missed a few games.
And it's almost all like Camara Gaskin.
Um,
David Montgomery has 40 and 12 games.
Gibson has 41.
Yeah.
Like there's a lot of guys right now.
You know, that's not uncommon. Uh, there's a lot of guys right now you know that's not uncommon
uh there's always running back injuries i don't know if it's been worse this year it's been the
worse specifically to barkley and mcafree and this year camara uh but i don't know it's going
it's trending down and makes me wonder if i should de-emphasize it a little bit i don't think so i
mean i think i mean you still you'd still like to have a running back that catches a bunch of passes.
Yeah. It's still going to be a talking
point and a reason to take somebody.
But a lot of those somebodies are going to go in round one.
Okay, next
weird question. Right now, Dave has negative
one and Heath has zero points in our
weird scoring. Alright, two
more questions. Cordaro Patterson and Debo
Samuel lead all wide
receivers in rushing yards.
Who is third?
Who is third amongst wide receivers in rushing yards?
Well, Cordero's are running back.
Fine.
But he's not receiver eligible.
Yeah.
Okay. So who's receiver?
Who's next?
And he's a legit wide receiver.
Well.
And he plays in the AFC East.
Oh, okay.
Come on.
Hold on a second.
All right.
Five, four, three.
Heath.
Heath.
Kendrick Bourne. Ohrick born oh that's big that's the game right there
heath with one at least dave is spared the the the negative points but that's a yeah 111 117
yards for kendrick boar never in 1 million years you knew that you guessed that or did you peak
i was thinking no i did not
peak i was thinking of wide receivers in the afc east i almost said isaiah mckenzie but i couldn't
remember any big plays he's had and kendrick bourne had that stretch yeah where he just was
making big plays in the score a touchdown every time i touch the ball. All right, last question. Are we going to have to discuss on Kendrick Bourne now?
Last question, and I'm going to make this one worth 2.1 points.
Dave is down by two points, so change the rules here.
Cordaro Patterson and Deebo Samuel have combined for 13 rushing touchdowns. How many rushing touchdowns has every other wide receiver combined for?
More than 13, less than 13, or exactly 13?
Heath.
Heath.
Less than 13.
Dave for the win.
Exactly 13.
Hey, Dave wins!
He comes out of nowhere!
Yeah!
Every other wide receiver has combined for 13 touchdowns the same amount as patterson and
debo samuel rushing touchdowns congratulations dave you had it all the way of course good try he's
i'm uh protesting no i'm just i'm just checking your math. Please do.
He's just going to change how many points I got at the end.
While you do that, we'll do some Week 18 tough calls.
How about, you know, Heath submitted this list.
Dak Prescott, Kenneth Gainwell, DeAndre Swift,
Odell Beckham, Darren Waller.
Why don't we expand it to the Dallas passing game?
I feel like CeeDee Lamb is also a very tough call at this point.
Dave, you can have the first word.
He's taken a turn for the worse over the last couple of weeks.
I think everybody that has him on their fantasy team knows that already.
Okay, so according to my math,
the other wide receivers in the NFL have combined for 14 touchdowns.
Okay, let me see.
Braxton Barrios and Jarvis Landry
both have two.
Yes. Jamal Agnew,
Devin DuVernay,
Chris Godwin,
Devin DuVernay is not on
this list.
Would you like to look Devin DuVernay up
and see if he scored a rushing touchdown this year
why would he not be on this list
I don't know what list you're using
I'm on fftoday.com
this has caused you problems in the past
yeah usually it's
but not if a guy has a statistic
oh he is two rushing
oh no no he is two receiving
um why would he not be on this list oh he is too rushing oh no no he is too receiving um
why would he not be on this list as having a rushing touchdown
I don't know but I would like
he does not have a rushing touchdown
he doesn't?
no
what I'm looking at says he does not have a rushing touchdown
get out of here Heath
on my side it could be wrong
I've not accepted it yet
which side are you on?
I don't want to say in case it was wrong.
I'm going to pro football reference.
I'm looking at his.
Yeah, I agree.
It does not show on pro football reference.
So the side I was using was wrong this time.
Yes.
Vindicated.
That's so weird.
I wonder what caused that.
Yeah, me too.
All right.
I'll send an email. I, me too. All right. I'll send an email.
I'll send it.
All right.
Week 18, tough calls.
Cowboys passing game.
So are we starting these guys?
First of all, are we expecting a full game?
Let's start with that.
Are we expecting a full game from Dak?
I would say no.
I would expect not a full game, but a half of dominance
to three-quarters of solid play, something in that range.
This is just a guess.
I think that the Cowboys want to kind of build some momentum.
They know that they've been so inconsistent on offense
the past couple of weeks that they want to try and get something going
heading into the last game, or their first playoff game i should say and eagles probably don't care one bit and
they're going to play a bunch of backups i think it's going to be kind of a momentum building
thing that the cowboys use and that's why i think that can be good for let's set the basis at 225 and two touchdowns okay i really hope for cowboys fans
sake that their coaches are not risking player injuries because they think that beating the
eagles backups is cool and gonna build some sort of momentum for the playoffs but i think that dave
might be right um i just assume they're going to play until the game's over which i think will be
halftime probably because i don't think the eagles are going to play until the game's over, which I think will be halftime probably,
because I don't think the Eagles are going to play anybody.
The problem is, the reason I think it's a tough call is because they could possibly blow the Eagles out
without Dak having a very good day,
depending on who doesn't play for the Eagles
and how many more COVID positives they have.
This is a Saturday game, less time to come off the COVID list,
a lot of starters out on the COVID list right now for the Eagles.
All right, so that turns our attention to Kenneth Gainwell.
Yeah, so if Scott and Howard, we know Sanders is going to be out.
If Scott Howard and Sanders are out, Gainwell,
is this like Daria Gumbawale where you have to basically get really lucky?
Well, I think it's different because I think Kenneth Gainwell is better
than Dario Agumbawale.
And I think even in the Eagles, half starters is probably better
than the Jacksonville offense.
Man, I think this could be a situation where Kenneth Gainwell
is a Week 18 top 12 running back league winner
for people playing in week 18.
But as Dave said yesterday on FFT,
there's a chance that they call up some other guys and use some other guys.
It's just that they expect mile Sanders back for the playoffs.
And with mile Sanders is back,
then Kenneth Gainwell is their fourth running back.
There is nothing to save him for,
and it might be worthwhile to see what they have in him for next year.
Mile Sanders, by the way, leads the leads leads all running backs in yards before contact per carry.
Blowing away the field, I thought you might care.
That stat can be, especially if you don't have a ton of carries,
can really be heavily influenced by one run where you run 90 yards without getting contacted.
Okay, so what did you send me, Dave? influenced by one run where you run 90 yards without getting contacted. Okay.
So what did you send me, Dave?
I found the Devin DuVernay play in question
that made somebody think that it was a rushing touchdown.
You might remember earlier this year against Kansas City
when Tyson Williams, remember Tyson?
Tyson Williams was going in for a touchdown.
The ball came out.
It popped in the air.
And DuVernay caught it and scored.
That is not a rushing touchdown.
It is an offensive fumble recovery for a touchdown.
And didn't he catch that ball in the air?
Yes.
It's hard to catch a ball on the ground.
And didn't that ball go backwards?
I don't know. I don't that ball go backwards? I'm watching it right now.
I don't think it was ruled as a...
Yes, it did go backwards.
It did.
So why would that not be a lateral
and a rushing touchdown?
I don't think that means
that it's a rushing touchdown, though.
Let's see how it was scored.
If you run the option
and pitch it to somebody,
it's a rushing touchdown
for the person who catches it.
Yeah, but if the other team
pitches it for you... It's a rushing touchdown for recovery. who catches it. Yeah, but if the other team pitches it for you.
And when you catch a pitch, that's not a fumble.
Oh, here it is.
Oh, we had the video about that.
I missed it on the YouTube stream.
Because a pitch can turn into a fumble when it hits the ground.
Look, Heath, you were wrong, okay?
Just concede.
That's it.
Let's petition the NFL and have them change the
stat to a rushing touchdown for duvernay uh so anyway is kenneth gainwell in your top 15 this
week no because i'm uncertain and i'm a scared little boy that the eagles are gonna just run
out a bunch of nobodies and
Gainwell won't be one of them.
I'd like to get some sort of clarity from the beat reporters.
We might not know this until they're warming up before the game.
Who's first or second in line for warmups.
We tend to look for that every week from the Eagles reporters that are on the
scene.
Yeah.
I've got a fort line.
Right.
So if it's,
if it's clear as day that he's going to be the guy that they're going to
just hand the ball off to 15 times,
then he would be up there.
But remember the Cowboys defense is going to,
the Cowboys defense will play their starters for a while too.
As long as the offense is playing their stars,
the defense will as well.
And the offensive line that game was going to run behind won't be the same type of offensive
line that he would be running behind in general.
So I would be
nervous to go with Gainwell this week.
Cowboys are fourth best
against running backs. It's
weird. DeAndre
Swift.
You know what, Heath? I want to go all
in on DeAndre Swift this week. I think
I think you're going to get more touches.
Let's go.
Start him.
I do not feel that level of confidence that you do.
Neither do I.
Yeah, I think that DeAndre Swift could be unleashed
and be the number one running back this week,
or he could be protected and not be a top 35 running back.
What I will tell you is that he barely played in the first quarter,
and I thought that that was a little weird.
There were 14 snaps that the Lions ran in the first quarter.
Switch was in on three.
I don't have the exact details from the remainder of the game.
I could call them up if you want me to.
But he played a considerable amount
in the second, third, and fourth.
Now, obviously, playing
and then getting the actual touch
are two totally different things.
And he didn't touch the ball enough
to make us feel good
about him this week.
They got basically blown out last week.
But still, there shouldn't be
a bad game script for him.
I will say that
if you look at Detroit
running back targets
in the last eight games,
6-6, 9-4, 2-4,
6-7. How many games has Dan Campbell
been calling plays? I think eight.
I think it's basically right around where it started
because that was when Swift had that 30-carry game.
It's somewhere around there. If he gets all of those targets, around where it started because that was when Swift had that 30 carry game. Somewhere
around there.
If he gets all of those targets,
that's not so bad, but if he gets
five, then it's going to pretty much
cap him because he had six
or more targets in seven of his first nine
games.
In the last eight games, they've had more than seven targets
only once to running backs.
Gainwell or Swift?
I have Swift higher.
He played 30 of 45 snaps in the final three quarters of the game.
So a 67% snap rate.
Yeah, I've got Gainwell quite a bit higher. I have no faith in Dan Campbell this week.
How about Odell Beckham?
Odell Beckham has caught a touchdown in five of six games,
and he will get the 49ers, who I don't know if Mosley will be back,
but they have just been terrible defending the pass without him.
And as I already mentioned at the top of the show,
they put three defensive backs,
two of them significant contributors on the COVID list yesterday i believe um so starters and just you know it's it's k k k one williams
i think i'm pronouncing that right it's either k1 or kwan uh and jimmy ward yeah it's the other one
uh so starters at beckham he has fewer than 40 yards in four of his last six games and three
straight games some people didn't like the
fact that i called pat fryer muth um cj uzama last week because odell beckham and on the rams is
actually the real cj uzama there's a lot of names there what does that mean it means you need to be
decent uh yeah yeah a touchdown makes him a borderline number two wide receiver and if he
doesn't score then he's um absolutely nothing that was a good that was an unintentional spaceballs
quote there by the way um one of my favorite absolutely nothing but anyway uh beckham okay Beckham. Okay. So would you start Beckham or Lamb or Cooper?
Oh, I'll start.
Oh, let me double check to make sure
that I'm backing this up. I think I feel
a little bit better about Cooper.
No, I got Beckham right ahead of Cooper
and Lamb. Lamb was third on the list for me
for sure, but they're real close
between Beckham and Cooper.
I have Cooper and Lamb.
Sorry, go ahead.
No, please.
Save me from it.
No, I would like to hear.
The only reason why Beckham retires is because I'm assuming that he will play four quarters,
and I'm also assuming that the Cowboys guys will not.
Cooper's been better than Lamb the past couple of weeks.
He's certainly been more involved in the red zone than C.D. Lamb.
I'm willing to ride that
for one more game especially against a bunch of backups but i think beckham has mild upside to be
a number two fantasy receiver almost everything like i have cooper and lamb projected a lot higher
than beckham because i've not worked in a way to project might not play all the game. And here's the 17 receivers who might. But I moved
Cooper and Lamb just behind Beckham in the wide receiver 30 range.
You know, one thing I want to look into, I'm trying to look into it right now with Lamb
is he going to play outside more? Because he's just been so
slot heavy recently, but now with Gallup out, they didn't
yeah, they did kind of move him out wide.
He played his lowest snap,
his lowest slot snap count in five weeks.
He played his most outside,
out wide since week nine.
So I think that even though the production was not good,
that actually encourages me with CeeDee Lamb.
That they moved him outside?
Yes.
I thought he was better generally when he was inside.
No, I mean, if you just look at his season,
he was barely playing in the slot really early in the year,
and then that all changed when Gallup got healthy.
And then he's been basically a slot receiver
in weeks 13, 14, 15, 16, and his production's been basically primary he's been a slot receiver in weeks 13 14 15 16 his
productions cratered uh i don't know the in-game breakdown but last week was the first time he
played more out wide uh in the last five weeks so i'm thinking you'll remember that gallop got hurt
uh right toward the end of the first half so this is strictly the second half of the game last week. Lamb played 86.4% of his snaps out wide.
And Cedric Wilson in the slot, 85.7% of his snaps.
That'll give you a pretty good indication
of what the Cowboys are going to do moving forward.
Were all of the Cowboys who were drafted
in the first six rounds busts?
No, I don't think Dak was.
I think Dak's mostly...
I think they all were to varying degrees.
Where's
Dak going to finish this year among
fantasy quarterbacks? Right now he's QB 9.
Hold on. Let me change this.
If it's 9, even if it's 7,
it's below where he was
drafted. Well, it's going to have to be per game
because he missed the game. So hold on. He's 8 and per game he was drafted. Well, it's going to have to be per game because he missed the game.
So hold on.
He's eight.
He's eight.
And per game, he is nine.
I guess.
I mean, that kind of makes him a bust.
That surprises me.
He was so damn good.
Cooper's a bust.
Zeke's a bust.
It's true.
Yeah.
I call them mild busts, though.
You know, They're not...
Allen Robinson is a bust.
These guys were solid.
Except Cooper.
They were startable for sure.
The thing that I know...
Except Cooper?
Yeah, Cooper wasn't really that good.
Like, points per game,
he's like a point behind Lamb.
Am I wrong here?
Because I know he has two games all year
with more than 70 yards,
or maybe three.
Do you have a lot of touchdowns?
He has two more touchdowns
than Lamb and he's played
I guess he only played one fewer game.
Yeah, I don't know. I guess the touchdown
saved him a little bit.
To spend it toward this week, we know that CeeDee Lamb
hasn't been as dominant in the red zone as we
had hoped all year and especially over the last
couple weeks that hasn't been the case.
What I've noticed is that he's not separating in time to be open for dac to throw to and dac is getting rid of the ball
quickly whether it's because of you know the play that's drawn up or pressure coming at him
so i think it's just a timing thing between him and cd lamb that might get rectified this year maybe this week
against a bad backup defense but i'm there's a little concern and i love cd lamb but there's a
little concern about him going into next year i think we're dead i'm definitely gonna have to
you know watch the out wide versus slot splits uh I think it could be pretty telling.
We'll see how he finishes and we'll see how he does in the playoffs.
Okay.
And that's it for the tough calls.
Let's go to the emails.
Fantasyfootballatcbsi.com.
This is from Tyson.
Hey, Billy, Brett, Butch, and Baugh.
Those are gunslingers.
So you got Brett Favre.
You got Sammy Baugh.
Butch Cassidy?
Billy the Kid?
Billy the Kid, yeah.
Okay, there you go.
Tyson is from an oil town in Texas, Dave.
League City.
I took over an orphan team that was next to last the year before I came into the league.
I traded away my older players for picks and attempts to rebuild,
fully anticipating losing the most games this year.
But I won the league!
Thank the Lord for Rashad, Penny, Daryl Williams, Tyler Huntley, and the gang.
The team I beat in the finals is stacked for years to come.
I, however, appear to be a few pieces away despite the trophy.
I have Lamar, Dak, and Fields.
It's super flex.
I have Najee and Taylor
at running back, but no other real studs.
Needs wide receivers. I have
five first round picks over the next two years.
What's my play here? Do I use
my picks to try to trade for a couple stud
wide receivers or a third running back?
Or should I hang on to them and use them
in the draft to attempt to build an actual dynasty?
Your running backs are young enough
that I'd probably just draft a whole bunch
of wide receivers.
Maybe see if you
could turn one of those late first, early
second picks into DJ Moore.
Okay. Alright. Alright, next up
from Celeste.
Devante Adams or Jacoby Myers this week?
Full PPR.
I'd go Adams.
Yeah.
From George.
I love your pizzas,
by the way.
From the city,
LeBron left twice.
That would be Cleveland.
How come Nick Chubb is always so low in the preseason rankings and in general on this podcast
you don't really hesitate to say start him
but rarely do you hype him up
are we too low on Nick Chubb
depends on the format
we know he's just not a factor in the passing game
and that hurts him in PPR
I think you mentioned it Adam
he's outside the top 12 in PPR this year.
And then in what was he?
And I take a step forward in that regard.
I definitely like him like in my running back rankings for 2022.
He's in there toward the bottom.
I don't know if he necessarily should be or will stay there,
but Dave,
he's 12 per game.
Okay.
So a low end number one,
I think that's fair.
And he's higher in non-PPR.
Yeah, he was finished 10th, 9th, and 12th
the last three years in full PPR.
I think the main reason, main answer to the question
is because we talk about PPR a lot more than we do non.
Or half, for that matter.
I do think that you saw the downside with Chubb because he didn't score. He scored eight
or eight rushing one receiving in 13 games. And look at his last five games in full PPR,
5.9 points, 9.5 points, 5.8 points, and then two pretty big games,
including week 16. But when he didn't score this year, he really struggled,
and that happened more often than it usually does.
But even with all that, he finished 12th among running backs in full PPR.
From Brian.
This should be a topic for a new show because we're kind of at the end so remind me to
bring this up is zero wide receiver the new zero rb uh in a three receiver league so we'll talk
about that and we've got another day yeah um i i have a question though adam for you okay very
important okay okay i want you to put your, what's the Raiders head coach name?
Oh, Basaccio.
Rich Basaccio had on.
So you are Rich Basaccio.
Uh-huh.
And Jacksonville has defeated the Indianapolis Colts.
And Brandon Staley, with all of his computers, comes to you and says,
I've done the math, and if we tie, we both go to the playoffs.
So I am suggesting Rick that every play of this game, the team that has the ball downs it.
And we just down the ball for four quarters and we both go to the playoffs.
What do you think I'm going to say? What do you say, Rich? You know me well enough. That would be the biggest disgrace to the last week of the regular season
since all the way back to 2021.
Or 2020, I guess.
Sorry.
The entire point of their season is making the postseason
so you can compete for a championship.
That is the whole reason you are there.
And there is one way that you can guarantee that you have a chance to compete for a Super Bowl. Why would you not do that thing? Didn't we already talk about the 1984
national championship game of the 1983 season, January 1984? When Tom Osborne lost the national
championship because he had too much pride? No, because he was
courageous and he did the right thing.
Have you ever seen white men can't jump?
Sometimes when you lose, you
really win. And sometimes when you win, you
really lose. Okay? You play
to win the game. Hello?
Alright, we've got a couple more questions here.
You should definitely, Rich should
definitely take that call. From
Dylan and Wyatt in Toronto. a father-son duo.
My eight-year-old son Wyatt just posted a review on Apple Podcasts,
and yes, we got it. Thank you.
We both listen to the podcast every night.
This year we invited Wyatt to join our 12-team, 30-roster spot IDP Dynasty League.
He's eight years old.
The league also has an
empire pot that grows each year and goes
to the first team to either repeat or to win
three total championships. The team
that Wyatt inherited was an absolute dumpster
fire and was projected to go 0-12
and he lost Cam Akers in
the preseason. But he traded
Miles Sanders and Julio Jones for draft picks
that turned into Javante Williams and Jamar Chase.
He picked up Dalton Schultz on waivers against all odds with a lot of streaming and shrewd waiver
wire moves. He scraped through and snuck into the playoffs. He picked up Tyler Huntley in round one.
He picked up Justin Jackson before Eckler was ruled out. He picked up Rashad Penny. He was the
underdog each week, but he made it to the finals. He was a heavy underdog this week. His opponent was the defending champ,
and the $900 Empire pot was on the line.
Right now, yeah, they wrote this on Sunday night.
He won. He won. Spoiler alert.
So a big win for an 8-year-old
entering a crazy dynasty IDP league
that was about to get empire'd, basically.
And his opponent, fun fact, is very
salty about losing to a kid, and he is
my financial advisor, so if my investments
suddenly plummet, we will know why.
That is Dylan and Wyatt in Toronto.
An awesome story about fantasy
football, and a great win for Wyatt. Way to
go, my man. Way to go.
We have an Apple Podcast question from
WakeUp23. I'm in a league
that will have two keeper picks at the end of the season.
I noticed the league member dropped Christian McCaffrey.
I decided to pick him up in thoughts of using him as one of my keeper
picks.
What are your thoughts?
My other options are Josh Allen,
Justin Jefferson,
Aaron Jones,
and Sony Edmonds.
I don't know what he meant there,
but he did write.
You are going to keep McCaffrey and Justin Jefferson.
Congratulations.
Yeah. good job.
Pretty good.
All right.
Thank you so much for the emails and all the questions.
And I think you learned you've got to peek into the soul of Heath Cummings.
He will do anything to win, including tying, which is truly disgraceful.
So thanks again, everybody.
We'll talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football Today.