Fantasy Football Today - 2022 Top 12 Overall; Coaching Change Reactions (01/12 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: January 11, 2022

Jamey and Chris reveal their Top 12 players for 2022. Only one of them has Jonathan Taylor #1! We'll get into it with a Christian McCaffrey discussion (7:30) making the case for and against him as the top pick ... More debates including Dalvin Cook's 2022 value (16:30). Is he Top 5 or more like Top 10? Chris also makes the case for the TEs as Top 24 picks (21:45) and then we debate Joe Mixon vs. D'Andre Swift (27:30) ... All of the latest news (39:00) and our reactions to the head coach firings (41:00). Which players could be impacted most? Which coordinators do we want to see get hired? ... Email us at [e-mail] 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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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. 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. Top 12 for 2022. Jonathan Taylor is the first running back to finish as the number one running back in PPR with 40 or fewer catches. He had exactly 40 since Adrian Peterson in 2012. It had been nine years since that happened. So is he going to be number one in our 2022 rankings?

Find out right now. I'm Adam Azer with Jamie Isenberg and Chris Towers. Guys, what is the most surprising thing in your top 12? The most surprising ranking. Chris. In the top 12 overall? Yeah, overall. Oh, most surprising thing in the top 12 overall.

I would guess it's that I don't have Jonathan Taylor as the number one overall player. That's probably the most surprising. Gasp. Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. I think I know who it is.

We'll find out. Jamie, who's, what's the most surprising ranking? I mean, just the fact that Justin Tucker's 10 for me. I'm tired of guessing on kicker. So it was about time just to solve that problem.

And I think we should... I think it's important. Kickers count. Except I don't know that you got the right one. Do you have a real answer? The most surprising thing is that it will probably not look the same today that it will tomorrow and then tomorrow from a week from now and then a week from now for a month from now.

So it's a working list as it always should be. I'm going to just tell you about a quick, fun podcast that you need to listen to. It's the Fantasy Football Today DFS podcast. Frank Stample, Mike McLaurin, Sian Ajad giving you the cash and GPP analysis on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And now's a great time to be playing some DFS

because, you know, your seasonal fantasy football leagues are over. We're going to be playing a ton of DFS. We're going to be helping you out with that on Thursday, but we're not as good as those DFS guys. So check out Fantasy Football Today DFS wherever you listen to FFT. Can I tell you how perfectly flawed

my Saturday night DFS lineup was? Oh, yeah. So this was my lineup for the Eagles-Cowboys game, and it was so close to being perfect. It was just so frustrating. So let's see if you can guess who the captain was in my team. So I had Dak Prescott, Sed Wilson,

Corey Clement, Kenneth Gainwell, Gardner Minshew, and Greg Ward. It was Minshew. If I put Wes Watkins, I would have been even better. It was Minshew. Minshew was my captain. Chris, who do you think was captain?

I would say Minshew. I It was Minshew. Minshew was my captain. Chris, who do you think was captain? I would say Minshew. I don't think it's Minshew. The way Jamie responded to that, I think, gave it away. Here's a tell. I'm going to say it was Sed Wilson. No, it was Kenneth Gainwell. He scored a touchdown, right? Yeah.

It's got to be whoever Gainwell didn't score. Gainwell scored. Gainwell scored. Gainwell. He scored a touchdown, right? Yeah. It's got to be whoever Gainwell didn't score. Gainwell scored. Gainwell scored. Gainwell was awesome. Dak was awesome. Wilson was awesome. Gardner was okay. Clement was awesome.

Ward, bad. Minchie was okay. Got off to a great start. Had I played Dak or Wilson in the MVP spot, I wouldn't be speaking to you right now. All right. Yeah, that's fun, man. a Dacker Wilson in the MVP spot, I wouldn't be speaking to you right now. All right. Yeah, that's fun, man. It's fun to hit on a

DFS lineup. It's fun when it's great. It's okay when it's fine. Adam, have you begun dabbling in the sports gaming world since it became allowed? Thank God I haven't because I definitely would have been on Alabama last night night i had over under 64.5 rushing yards for both josh jacobs and uh austin

eckler on sunday night jacobs ends up with 130 with the big uh they neither had it by by the end of the fourth quarter jacobs gets there oh wow e Eckler ends up one yard short. Oh. I really think that overtime just should not count in gambling. You know, especially with totals, over-unders. Then you have to adopt hockey rules. Brandon Staley would like that, too. You have to adopt hockey rules. What's hockey rules? You get a win.

You don't get a loss if you go to overtime. Well, no. I mean, if you go over-under, right, and you go over the total, and it doesn't get there until overtime, in my opinion, you lost. Those points count. Those points count. Yeah, they shouldn't count. Overtime shouldn't count.

It's very frustrating. Yeah, there'd be a lot of people that would like to beat you up right now. All right, let's go to our top 12s here. We're also going to talk about the coaching changes and the coordinator changes as Anthony Lynn is out in Detroit as well. You know, and we know about all the head coaches that have been. So far, Joe Judge is still a head coach. So we thought maybe.

He's keeping the job. It's the most ridiculous thing ever. Maybe. You don't know that he's keeping the job. He's very much up in the air. So we'll see if he's fired by the end of the show. I don't know how you bring back a guy who ran a QB sneak on third and nine. I don't know how you don't, Chris.

You got to admire the chutzpah, okay? I don't know how that guy didn't immediately, like he should have lost the locker in months ago with the play calling over down the stretch. That's not his play calling. Like I don't know how you look your players in the eye after that. Look, you got to play field position in this league, okay?

You don't want to give him the ball at the 48. You want to give it to him at the 50. All right, top 12. What's our next show? Thursday? What's that? Our next show, Thursday? Thursday, yeah. Here, I want you to azerstat the bleep out of this thing. I want you to

from the time you could either do one of these two timelines Daniel Jones injury so Mike Glenn and Jake Fromm combo or when Jason Garrett was fired one of the two there are points per game over 17 games

oh well it's I mean with the injury it's with the injury the last six games that he didn't play was ridiculous it was five touchdowns in six games, I'm pretty sure. And four of them were in garbage. Where is that historically? Over 17 games. Oh, I'm sure it would be the worst ever.

I mean, that might be a stretch. It's probably in the top ten. Do you know the last time they had more than 316 yards of total offense was? No. 2020? Week four. Week four. Jesus. Pathetic. time they had more than 316 yards of total offense was no 2020 four pathetic yeah i would say the glenn and from era was was uh over extrapolated over a 16 game season probably was one of the historically worst offenses i think they're going to talk about that in the same vein that they talk about the sims hosteler era yeah exactly all right so anyway uh let's get to our top 12s here for 2022 and then we'll get to the coaching changes later

i'm going to tell you about delicious butcher box which i can't wait to talk about um all right let's do uh let's do our top six first so chris you said jonathan taylor is not number one for you who's number one through six yeah Yeah, I really hate Jonathan Taylor. He falls all the way to number two for me. I go Christian McCaffrey, Jonathan Taylor, Austin Eckler, Cooper Cup, Devontae Adams for now, and Derrick Henry. So I think it's probably a slightly different order than most people have. But, you know, do we want to get into the Christian McCaffrey of it now? Yeah, in a moment.

So this is, by the way, full PPR. So that's a huge distinction. Full PPR, McCaffrey, Taylor, Eckler, Kopp, Adams, Henry. Jamie, your top six. My top six is Taylor, Eckler, Dalvin Cook, Derek Henry, Christian McCaffrey, Alvin Kamara. Taylor, Eckler, Cook. Henry, you said? McCaffrey, Kamara?

Henry's four, McCaffrey's five, Kamara's six. Yeah, I think we should start with McCaffrey, Jamie. You have him fifth. And I know that it's tempting. I mean, I think we all feel the same way about McCaffrey. If he's healthy, he's—correct me if I'm wrong. If he's healthy, he's – correct me if I'm wrong. If he's healthy, he's number one. Obviously, Chris feels that way.

I feel that way. I think he's going to be number one per game. Jamie, what about you? Yeah, no, he's easily the one that will move up the most probably of anybody in the top 12, and that's saying a lot because he's already five for me. But it's kind of a wait and see with him because it's not just his health. I want to see the offensive line was a complete disaster, one of the worst offensive lines in the league this year.

I want to see who the quarterback is. I hate Matt Roles saying Sam Darnold's going to come back and potentially be the starter. I'd like to see an upgrade there. I don't know who it would be. But there are those three significant situations. And as of now, Matt Roles is still the coach. I anticipate him being the coach.

But they just made a slew of moves this morning of firing all their assistants on top of firing Joe Brady. So who's the coordinator? Is there any more competition brought in? Is the offensive line fixed? Is the quarterback fixed? He, as himself, is he fixed. So understandably so with him, a lot of questions, but understandably so a ton of upside.

Alright, why is he number one, Chris? I think he's the best player in fantasy i still think that is true you know one thing that's worth pointing out is as good as jonathan taylor was this was the lowest fantasy points per game for a number one running back uh since 2015 since that davante freeman season so not to take anything away from jonathan taylor just to say that because the pass-catching role that he didn't have, or at least sporadically had, did he have a catch in the final four or five games of the season? He had zero heading into Week 18. I don't know.

Over the previous four. I'll tell you right now, his game log up. He had three catches in Week 18. So he had three in the last five weeks. He had four. Four? Yeah, he had one in week 17 and three in week 18. You can't trust anything I say.

But still, it's a good point. He went 0-0-0-1-3. And if you take out the two games that Christian McCaffrey left with injuries, and I know we're cutting a seven-game sample down to five now, but if you take those two games where he left with injury, he averaged 23.6 PPR points per game, which would have been number one amongst running backs just ahead of Derrick Henry. And that was while only scoring 0.4 touchdowns per game. In his previous two seasons, he was

at one point, actually going back to 2019, he was at 1.3 touchdowns per game. So even if he was half as good as his 2019 and 2020 runs, where he scored 1.3 touchdowns per game, he would have been at 26 fantasy points per game. If he had scored at his 2019 and 2020 pace, he's at 28. So I just, I think you look at it and it's just when healthy, and that's the big question with Christian McCaffrey, when healthy, I think he's still not just the best fantasy player, the best player in fantasy. I don't think it's particularly close. I would expect if you project out 2022 right now, I would probably project Christian McCaffrey to be at least 10% better,

if not 15% to 20% better per game than every other player in fantasy. I just, I think his, and you know, we've got questions about the quarterback and we've got questions about the line and we've got questions about the coaching staff. But one thing that I thought was very promising was I've seen a lot of people suggest, well, given the injuries, maybe they're not going to use him the same way they have in the past. While Matt Rule yesterday said that one of the things they're looking for in an offensive coordinator is to find creative ways to use Christian McCaffrey more. They talked about using him in the slot. That never really happened.

So I don't think we're going to see a lesser role for Christian McCaffrey. I think he's still going to be in that incredibly valuable role and as bad as Sam Darnold is and as bad as the Panthers offense and organizational structure is we've seen him be the best fantasy player since LaDainian Tomlinson yeah in bad situations before yeah Why does this keep happening? I keep trying to post a damn Twitter poll, and it keeps cutting off the R in Jonathan Taylor's name, and I look like an idiot.

I've already... So I did a poll with the Fantasy Football Today newsletter. All right. Who should the number one overall pick be? And Christian McCaffrey wasn't even number two. People are mad at Christian McCaffrey. I know. It's basically the same stuff we heard about Joe Mixon.

We're taking it personal. It's not the same as Joe Mixon. Well, it's the same as Joe Mixon. Christian McCaffrey is much better, but has missed more games. It's the same in the sense that people were just mad that Mixon burned them with injuries, and they didn't want to draft him again. And, yeah, I mean, it is two years in a row for McCaffrey, and that is bad.

But at his best, he has averaged 28 to 30 PPR fantasy points per game, and Taylor averaged 22.2 this year. And even Derrick Henry early this season, when he was on that incredible run, was averaging 23.4. So I just – Henry's finish for the season was 24.4. So, I mean, you know, his – No. mean you know well it depends i mean what side are you right where on whose site on our site hmm uh i've got a 23.4 i'm not sure what the difference i mean i did i looked at last night if you go to our fantasy

site the home page and go by stats by ppr that what it has. So if that's wrong then that's wrong Yeah, I mean either way either way Christian McCaffrey's best has been My four to five points clear of every single other player when he's right. He's right. He's the best And so there's no doubt about it So it's just a matter of you know What you want out of your first round pick and like I said, it's it's something that I think if we get to August And he's fine and there's no issues and there's some of the questions answered, most likely the quarterback is not going to be great. Most likely the offensive line is not going to be great. I doubt they're going to spend significant capital to bring in another running back.

I would imagine that they have to be somewhat fine with whether it's Chuba Hubbard or Amir Abdullah or somebody of that caliber. Hubbard will definitely be there, but will somebody like Abdullah be there? So it's just a matter of what your preference is. I think for me right now, I don't see any flaws. I don't see as many flaws without the upside, clearly, with Taylor and Eckler. So I could see myself having McCaffrey third. The one – I can see Jonathan Taylor ahead of him.

I'm really struggling with how many people have Derrick Henry ahead of Christian McCaffrey because I think a 28-year-old running back at his size with his workload history coming off foot surgery, even if he looks great in the postseason, I think that carries much more risk than Christian McCaffrey, who has had random shoulder and hamstring injuries, basically, like sprain in the ankle. I think the non-recurring random injuries that are never serious

are less of a concern than significant injuries that require surgery. That's a pretty good point. Because I have Taylor one. Like with with Aaron Foster at the end of his tenure, when soft tissue injuries become a consistent problem, it's sometimes hard to overcome. But that has. I mean, so who's that? And that's not that's not. Well, that's very hamstring... Harry Foster was a couple years

older. McCaffrey, the wild thing is he's only going to be 26 in 2022. Let's move on to some more players here. Chris's top six is McCaffrey, Taylor, Eckler, Kup, Adams, Henry. Jamie has Adams and Kup coming up

after his top six, I think. Taylor, Eckler, Cook, Henry, McCaffrey, Kamara. So you have Cook third. And Chris, where do you have Cook? I think Cook is number eight for me. Ooh, me too. It's not a knock on him. I think the top eight are kind of,

there's a tier separating them from everyone else, I think. Jamie, Cook third for you. Still a lot of faith in him after. I just call it a down season. About ninth per game. If you want to remove the game with Sean Mannion, where he's coming off the COVID list, had a terrible game. If you just take that game out, he's sixth per game in non-PPR.

And there was that other game early in the season where he only played 49% of the snaps because he clearly wasn't healthy when he came back. Well, that's Dalvin Cook. But all right, Jamie, give me your thoughts on Cook third. Yeah, another scenario of who's the coach. That's one that will probably change what the scenario is there. But I think you look at what this offense is.

Still a very good offensive line. Amazing skilled players around him, so it's hard to say you're going to just load up to stop the run. And this is something I want to work through myself, but it's worth talking about. Drafting these guys at the top of the first round, is it better to take someone that has a clear-cut handcuff for scenarios like we saw with Dalvin Cook this year?

So you know you're getting that guy. You have to obviously make a concerted effort to get Alexander Madison probably sooner than you want to. Could take up a dead spot on your roster, but there's no drop-off. So one guy goes out, one guy goes in. you don't want to think like that, obviously. And this is what, like I said, I got to work out my head if I want to really go this route and recommend it.

But there was some comfort factor. If you had both those guys on your team, okay, Dalvin's out, Madison's in, I'm good to go. You know? And there's, there's, there's several scenarios where that would have worked this year. You know, the chiefs, for example, the Cowboys, had there ever been an injury the cardinals i i won two fantasy championships having both chase edmunds and james connor on my team because one was out one was in and it was it was easy once that unfolded so um you know i think that's

something to take into account when you're looking at the top of the draft and eighth i put him eighth because i just you know i i just see this downward trend in terms of health especially he's always's always had health issues, and when he plays, he plays hurt. When he hobbles off the field and he comes back on, it's starting to worry me a little bit. He's changing his number, though. Coaching change could be good, but his role in the passing game is decreasing a little bit, but a coaching change could be bad

because maybe they start using Madison a little bit more, which they should. Why did you have a Mayeth, Chris? So I could see the case for Dalvin Cook's passing game role increasing. I could see like a 20, what was that, 2018 Ezekiel Elliott when he saw a big increase in passing after only 58 catches in the first two seasons. He had 77 in 2018.

I could see something like that happening with a new coaching staff. But for me, it's just I tend to be pretty injury agnostic. I think we're much better at projecting performance than we are injuries. And in Dalvin Cook's case though, I think he probably carries the most injury risk of any running back. It's just the repeated shoulder injuries in both shoulders. Now you've had dislocations in both shoulders. I think he's had four or five different shoulder injuries dating back to college in both shoulders. So I just think then you add in he's had a torn ACL. He had that hamstring injury that really hindered his second season.

You had the groin injury last season it's just it's always something with him in the same way that it has been something with christian mccaffrey the past two seasons but he's also got that recurring serious injury that may require surgery this offseason with his two shoulders so i just that might be a good thing though maybe yeah but you know it's also possible he hasn't had surgery yet so maybe he won't this offseason in which case i just think the risk of what's that the season just ended two days ago right right we don't know if he's gonna have surgery well you said he hasn't had surgery yet so i mean no no i mean in the past for the previous versions of these injuries because he

had a separated shoulder in college um so i just you know it could be a thing where he just doesn't want to risk it and i just i think eight is the right spot for the balance of upside and risk i lied actually i'm ninth so i'm the low guy all right let's do the rest of our top 12 here. Again, for Chris, it's McCaffrey, Taylor, Eckler, Kup, Adams, Henry. For Jamie, it's Taylor, Eckler, Cook, Henry, McCaffrey, Kamara. That's six running backs to start the top 12. All right, Jamie, give me the rest of your top 12, 7 through 12. Adams is 7, Kup is 8, Jefferson, Justin Jefferson is 9, Jamar Chase is 10, Joe Mixon 11, and Najee Harris 12.

Okay, receiver, receiver, receiver, receiver Mixon, 11. And Najee Harris, 12. Okay. Receiver, receiver, receiver, receiver. Adams, Cup, Jefferson, Chase, and then Mixon and Harris. And for you, Chris, you've already got two receivers in there with Cup and Adams at four and five respectively. Give me the rest of your top 12 after Derek Henry

at six. Kamara, Cook, Swift, Jefferson, Hill, Kelsey. The one i think naji harris not being in the top 12 that's probably the one that i would consider changing but yeah mixing in the wide receivers there and i'm still going to be the high guy on the tight ends i think four tight ends should go in the first two rounds next season why because there's still such a there's still such difference makers the thing with kelsey that i struggle with is how much of his decline this season was based on him being 32 how much of it was just the weird thing that happened to the chiefs offense and can they fix that? But I think having someone who I think you can lock in for, you know,

not 17 points every week, but averaging roughly around 17 to 20 points per week. I just think that's such an edge, even in a tight end landscape that we think looks better than it has in years past. If you actually look at the fantasy points per game and fantasy point totals this season, tight end was just as bad as it's always been heath uh heath went over that a couple like 10 days ago on twitter i think um so i just getting guys with elite potential tight end can be such a difference maker for your team no i don't have a problem with kelsey or andrews but four though because you went this route last year with three in the top, what, 20?

Top 15? No, I think you said three in the first round. Top 15, yeah. And only one was good. Now, obviously, again, like you said, you're not necessarily going to look at injuries, but there is a track record with Kittle. So if you're going to bring up Cook's track record,

Kittle is just as bad. Well, not just as bad. It's been fewer serious injuries for kittle no but i mean you know he plays a style of football that is going to lead to probably you know this type of thing happening to him and he's getting older and his quarterback situation might be worse uh than he's ever had because of what trey lance might do with his legs and then in terms of waller oh it's not waller it's not well i'm putting pits in the second oh okay that's fair um the the the extent like i think he was viewed as a disappointment for fantasy and he he was obviously but kyle pitts had an unbelievable rookie season considering he was the third youngest player in the NFL, averaged almost 10 yards per target,

was top 12 in yards per route run, top 12 in targets per route. He just had an unbelievably good rookie season. Oh, no, I'm with you. He's the third tight end for me, but I wouldn't take him in the first two rounds. No, it's a philosophy thing for me. I just, I'd much rather try to find my third wide receiver

or third running back or second running back than have to try to play the touchdown or bust game at tight end. Yeah, sure, absolutely. And you have Kelsey at the end of round one. Jamie does not have a tight end in round one. I know Andrews is your number one. 15 and 16. 15 and 16, Andrews and Kelsey.

I have Kelsey 10th ahead of Cup and Chase. I know people might think that's crazy. I don't know what to is your number one. 15 and 16. 15 and 16, Andrews and Kelsey. I have Kelsey 10th ahead of Cup and Chase. I know people might think that's crazy. I don't know what to make of Cup yet. I could see him moving up, but I just don't have an explanation for how unfreaking believable this season was. It just reminds me a little bit of Stefan Diggs. Diggs went to a new team. Cup got a new quarterback.

Everything went right. Everything went right. Like I said a couple weeks ago, one game with fewer than 92 yards the entire season. I mean, that is, when you look at Calvin Johnson's record-setting season, I think he had five games with fewer than 92, maybe six. He also had like a 300-yard game or something wacky like that. But the consistency for Cup was remarkable.

So it just felt like one of those years where everything went right, and there's just going to be some obvious regression next year. But I don't know. It's hard to justify Kelsey over him because you're right, Chris. I mean, I'm going to do it. I have it that way right now, but it's tough. But it is the question of what happened to Travis Kelsey and what happened to that Chiefs offense because you think,

I mean, there was only six games. The first six games of the season, Travis Kelsey's 16-game pace was 101 catches, 1,248 yards, 11 touchdowns. And that's round one. That's top five value out of a tight end. And then the last 10 games, his 16-game pace was 80, still pretty good.

86 catches, 1,051 yards, eight touchdowns. That's very good. It's not kelsey like but i don't know i mean the offense has really struggled for much of the last i think 11 games because i think he missed one of those games and the playoffs the last 11 games of patrick mahomes season he averaged 7.1 yards per attempt and a 4.6 percent touchdown rate those are decent numbers like that that would be a good like i don't know derrick carr season but that's really bad for patrick holmes who is sitting on a 6.4 percent touchdown rate and 8.1 yards per attempt and yeah

and kelsey can they figure out how to adjust to the adjustments that defense has made to them? I have to think they will. They're so talented. But it is a risk betting on a soon-to-be 33-year-old Travis Kelsey. The number of tight ends who've been elite at that point in their careers is, I think, just Tony Gonzalez. Yeah. Yeah, and he had 34 or fewer yards in four of his last five games, including week 18 when Tyreek Hill didn't even play. I know Kelsey got a little beat up in that game.

But, yeah, it's a little bit. He got beat up in the last play. Kelsey? Yes. No, he got beat up earlier in the game. He had a, like, didn't he limp off earlier in the game? That was the last play of the game he got the hip injury. Oh, all right.

I thought it was earlier in the game. He might have got hurt early in the game? That was the last play of the game. He got the hip injury. Oh, all right. I thought it was earlier in the game. He might have got hurt early in the game, but the injury that everybody was looking and concerned about was on the final drive. We all have Mixon in our top 12, right? No. No? I do not.

Oh, you do not. You have Swift. So let's do that. Let's do a Swift versus Mixon debate here. Jamie, you take mixin over swift chris has swift over mixin and jamie has mixin 11th and chris has swift 9th uh jamie go ahead do your first word well i i think when you look at um i don't have swift 11th i mix them oh no i said you have mick i'm sorry you have Mixon 11th and Chris has Swift 9th,

and neither of you have the other guy in the top 12. I just look at what Mixon, you know, hopefully will continue doing the passing game when he's been used in that capacity because I think you see what the upside is there. And it felt like down the stretch in all their big games, he was used in the passing game. It was like we're not going to screw around with Samaj P. anymore.

I hope that's the case moving forward, that he's going back to what they said in the offseason, last offseason, of he's never coming off the field. Now, who knows where their postseason run ends, what they do again to retool this team in the offseason, but this could be the best offense in the NFL next year. I mean, just based on what they have, the ascension of their quarterback, the play caller, and everything that's kind of fallen into place next year. I mean, just based on what they have, the ascension of their quarterback, the play caller and everything that's kind of fallen into place this year. I'm going to guess the area of emphasis

on their offensive side of the ball is going to be on their offensive line to add more pieces there. So he's, to me, in such a good spot to score so many touchdowns and just continuing to be a workhorse guy on that team. So the one that I struggle with, honestly, is between him and Najee Harris,

because if the Steelers get a quarterback upgrade over what Roethlisberger has been and continuing to retool their offensive line, that's the one that I would move, would be Najee ahead of Mixon. I love the upside of DeAndre Swift, but I still need to see a little bit more from what this team's going to look like.

Chris, you're higher on Swift, and I do wonder what you think about that now without Anthony Lynn there and if that really decreases his catch potential, which is so much better without Anthony. It's better. I mean, it's more carries, but it's probably fewer catches from from what I've heard from people who know that team. Anthony Lynn was so clueless about what was going on, which is why Dan Campbell took away his play calling and other offensive coaches on that staff thought he was just completely lost. I understand that, but Anthony Lynn has a track record of just throwing, of having the running backs be a huge, huge part of the passing game. And you could see a clear mark of when Dan Campbell took over the play calling and fewer targets for the running backs, especially DeAndre Swift.

He did deal with injuries during that stretch, so it's a little hard to see. Yeah, I mean, he only played. When did Dan Campbell take over play calling? After the bye. Okay, yeah. So right around midseason. Yeah, Swift only played, okay, week nine bye.

He only played five games with Dan Campbell calling plays. He had 33 carries and 14 carries in two of those games. And then he got hurt and he really wasn't used the same way in the final three games, you know, especially those final two. So I don't know. I just look at the willingness Dan Campbell has to put his best offensive players in positions where they can get the ball in space in interesting ways. You saw the way they used the Monroe St. Brown. I think that's going to carry over to next season. I think that fits with the philosophy, and I think that fits with DeAndre Swift's skill set. Yes, losing Anthony Lynn did impact Austin Eckler's role in the passing game a little bit, but not really that much.

He ended up with 94 targets in 16 games this season. But he ended up with an offensive coordinator who was Alvin Kamara's offensive coordinator. Right, but I think if you have it. The thing that's bad about Anthony Lynn, and this was, I think, a problem for Austin Eckler, and kind of held him back a little bit, to be honest with you, is that he likes a bigger running back.

I mean, he's talked about that. That's why he wanted to play Jamal Williams so much. And so I think Anthony Lynn gone is good for this team. Oh yeah, I think when you have an Austin Eckler, an Alvin Kamara, and I think DeAndre Swift, you know, I don't know if he's

exactly in that category, but in terms of the skill set, the best way to use him is like those guys. I think you use them. And, you know, I think we generally see that around the NFL. Alvin Kamara had a frustrating season, but his target share was still 22%, I believe. So the issue there was just, they didn't throw the ball much. They didn't run many plays in New Orleans, but they still used him that way. So I'm really not concerned about Swift's passing game role. I think he's a good candidate for 70 catches next season.

And it's just like we talked about earlier. It's a math problem. If you're going to catch 70 passes and you're going to have a role in the running game, you're probably going to end up being close to a top 12 running back, especially if you can get even eight touchdowns, you know, not a huge number. So I just, oh yeah, go ahead. I think he's in that Austin Eckler type of range

before Austin Eckler made his, you know, really big leap this season. And where'd he end up for you, Jamie DeAndre Swift? Oh, he's in round two. He's top 12 running, top 10 running back. I mean, you know, there's, he's right behind this group, you know, so we're probably splitting hairs about where we're taking these two guys.

But this is another one. I want to see. I really like what Detroit is doing. I mean, this is an offensive line, I think, that doesn't get enough credit for what they have and hopefully can keep. I think Jared Goff gets knocked too much for not being a good quarterback. He may not be great or elite, but he's still very good, and you saw that in flashes this season

as they were working through their receiving court. I think if the defense gets better and they have more favorable game scripts, he'll certainly have more opportunities, Swift will. And to be honest, I'd like to see them move on from Jamal Williams. Not that he's a bad player and certainly a good locker room guy. He's got one more year left on his deal, but that could be really the only issue, I think, with Swift because I'm going to guess they like Craig Reynolds just based on the things that Dan Campbell has said.

And so does the next guy calling plays, you know, whether it's somebody on their staff or somebody that they bring in or Campbell, which I'm going to guess they probably don't go that route again. I really do think they'd add more to the Anthony Lynn than anything else. else um if they do bring in a different play caller i don't think that's bad for swift as a whole but it could just be bad for maybe what his overall ceiling can be because of it might not be 70 catches because they don't want to use him fully in that role or it might not be you know 200 carries because they don't want to use him in that role you know and this is another guy you have to worry about maybe some injury concerns based on how end of college early early nfl career has gone to and with regards to mixin i i do worry that they finally realize that their passing game is a lot better than their running game and that mixin you know throughout his career there haven't been a lot of times when he's been a

super efficient running back he's mostly been volume dependent. And even this season, to a certain extent, obviously the touchdowns really helped in that regard. But I kind of think a lot went right for Joe Mixon in a way that you can't necessarily count on moving forward. And I think, you know, I probably have him ranked right around where I had him ranked last season. And there's only one running back in between him and Swift, and it's Najee Harris. So it's mostly wide receivers and Kelsey between those two. So Mixon being 15, it's not really a knock on him. I just, I think this was probably close to the best we're going to see from him. And I think Swift just has more upside. Yeah.

Per game, he was fourth in non-PPR, sixth in full PPR. That's Joe Mixon. I think it's interesting to compare his 2019 season to his 2021 season, which I'm going to do in just a second. But right now I'm going to tell you about an amazing limited time offer for real. You've got like a week to take advantage of this. Go to butcherbox.com slash FFT. I don't know exactly when this offer ends, but butcherbox.com slash FFT to get the ultimate New Year's bundle in your first box. This deal includes ground beef, chicken thighs, and pork butt. That is more than seven pounds of meat added to your first box for free. ButcherBox.com slash FFT.

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that's more than seven pounds of meat added to your first box for free. Get this New Year's bundle before it's gone by going to butcherbox.com slash FFT. Now, final word on the top 12. Just want to give you the numbers on Joe Mixon. 2019 to 2021. In 2019, well, this year, he had 15 more carries and 7 more catches.

He played 16 games both seasons. He averaged 4.1 yards per carry both seasons. That's very, very similar. He was a little bit more efficient as a pass catcher actually in 2019. But 16 touchdowns this year. Eight touchdowns in 2019. So that was the difference between being a top five running back this year and 12th or 13th, depending on the format, in 2019.

It was basically all because of the touchdowns. And what happened? The Bengals were 30th in scoring in 2019. They were 7th. Almost 6th. Two points away from being 6th this year. So workhorse running back on a great offense. You see the difference, the potential.

Eight more touchdowns in 16 games on a great offense compared to a terrible one. And that will matter. That will factor in. And it's something we'll talk about throughout the offseason. All right. We're going to to a terrible one. And that will matter. That will factor in. And it's something we'll talk about throughout the offseason. All right, we're going to take a quick break. We're going to wrap it up with our thoughts on the coaching changes and the coordinator changes,

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Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. So back here, we'll go through the news and notes real quick. Good stuff for the playoffs here. Pete Carroll, well, sorry, for next season. We'll get to the playoffs stuff. Pete, but first for next season. Jamie, Pete Carroll expects Chris Carson to be ready for training camp.

And Houston signed Rex Burkhead to a one-year $2.35 million deal. Do you think either Carson or Burkhead, as of right now on January 11th, do you think they'll be fantasy relevant in 2022? Carson, for sure, if Penny leaves. I mean, he's a free agent, so if Penny walks and they don't add anybody of significance, so it's Carson and DJ Dallas and Travis Homer,

and I don't know the status of their contracts, but I mean, Carson back as a lead running back for Seattle and their status quo with Russell there and Metcalf and Lockett and Carson's right. He'll be somebody that you're looking at as a late second, late number two running back, probably in that round five, round six range.

I I'd like to see Penny stay as we talked about yesterday, but Carson still could be, you know, their guy. And Tyree Kill expected to play. Darrell Williams expected to play. Clyde Edwards-Ziller is making

progress. Actually, a lot of great injury notes. Joe Mixon expected to play. Leonard Fournette expected to play. Tony Pollard is going to play. The Eagles are taking their guys off the COVID list. Everybody's expected to play. Yeah, the Packers are getting healthier. They've got two weeks, but they're going to have their tackles, their center

it seems like. They're going to have, hopefully, their best pass rusher and cornerback. It's good stuff right now. Grayson's expected to be fine. That's good. Oh, MVS got hurt. We'll see if he's back in two weeks. So that's excellent. For anybody playing in any playoff challenge,

I did a rank list that should be up by the end of the day on Tuesday. So you can check out, you know, just there's so many different formats. We can't get into all the specifics, but just I rank the players, how I think that they'll go. The best exercise I could tell you is map out the postseason. Most of these leagues are cumulative. So you want the guys that are going to play the most games, whoever you think is going to rake the Super Bowl.

Wild card teams are the best ones to look at. We can probably talk about this more on Thursday if you want to when we do DFS, but I think just if you're looking for some playoff challenge rankings, they'll be on the site today. So, so far, Chris, we've had Vic Fangio, Mike Zimmer, Matt Nagy, Brian Flores fired as head coaches, Anthony Lynn out as offensive coordinator.

What's the biggest fantasy deal here? What are you looking at? I think it's potentially either the Bears with Matt Nagy or the Vikings with Mike Zimmer just because we could see a change in philosophy in those two situations that could have a big impact you know Justin Jefferson is I think he's my wide receiver four nope wide receiver three and he I think he might just be the best wide receiver in football at this point in terms of skill and talent and if they decide to make him a 30 percent target share guy like he was down the stretch for a whole season he could be the number one wide receiver in fantasy so

if they go with a coach who's a little more pass heavy and will use him more like a true davante adams cooper cup ask number one i think he could join that tier for fantasy. So that's a big one. And then with Matt Nagy, it was just, he was so frustratingly unwilling to adapt to Justin Fields' skill set for most of his rookie season. And even, you know, eventually they started using Justin Fields more as a rusher, but it always felt grudging. And it was something going back to Mitchell Trubisky who was a very good athlete for the quarterback position if you go look at Trubisky's 40-yard dash he ran the same 40-yard time as Sean Watson and the best we saw of that Bears offense during Matt Nagy's time

was the like eight weeks when they were using Trubisky as a rusher consistently so I think they have to get a court a coach who's going to use Justin Fields the way the Ravens use Lamar Jackson. And if they do that, I think Justin Fields absolutely has top 10 QB potential. And Jamie, what are you looking at in terms of these coaches? Well, I like the fact that the Bears are talking to Brian Dable. I think that would be good for Justin Fields. Absolutely.

We see what Josh Allen has done. Even Tyrod. Huh? Even Tyrod back in Buffalo days. Even Tyrod Taylor, yeah. But I think you look at Dable seems to be somebody that a lot of people are getting excited about for a couple of different coaching spots. The Vikings, I saw maybe Doug Peterson

as a name that they mentioned, and that would be good, I think, also from a standpoint of what they would do in terms of being creative offense. I'd like to see offensive guys get those jobs. I was thinking about Matt Nagy, Adam, with your whole Joe Judge thing.

Brian Flores is obviously a weird one. Why was he fired you know there's clearly something going on behind the scenes based on the reports hearing about power struggle or you know the horrible factor because of stephen ross but matt nagy you know when you were saying like why do teams change coaches as opposed to maybe trying to fix the personnel you know i think that was your point um realize you know i don't think people realize that he's been to the playoffs two or three years. Now, obviously, there's been some circumstances why they've made it

to the playoffs. But, you know, had they maybe given him another, not another year or so, but more time with Fields, I wouldn't like that. But I could see, just based on your philosophy with Joe Judge, like maybe that would work. But in any event, you'd like to see somebody that's going to work with Justin Fields. That's the big key, because there's nice pieces in place there. They have to replace Allen Robinson.

I still think there's a lot to like about Cole Kometa, obviously Darnell Mooney and Montgomery. But yeah, I think Peterson, a guy like that to the Vikings, a guy like Dable to the Bears, those type of moves I think would be encouraging for sure. I think when you're talking about Justin Fields, you need to bring in a coach who can work with any type of quarterback, a pocket passer or a mobile quarterback who's had success with those types of quarterbacks. And I really think that's Urban Meyer. I think that's what the Bears need to look at right now. Yeah, Denver's obviously pretty interesting.

They need somebody. But I think they need a quarterback to unlock the talent. Yeah, Denver's obviously pretty interesting. They need somebody. But I think they need a quarterback to unlock the talent. Yeah, quarterback's more important than coach there, I think. Denver sounds like they have their two candidates in mind. Whether they get them remains to be seen. We talked about this the other day, that George Payton has a relationship with Dan Quinn, according to our two guys, Jason Lacofora and Pete Prisco.

So sounds like that could be the situation. And like Pete brought up that Dan Quinn reportedly turned down an interview with the Jaguars because there might be a wink-wink scenario of we're getting rid of Vic Fangio. You're our guy. You know, don't consider any other jobs. And then Nathaniel Hackett, which the thought would be is if they get Hackett, they get Rodgers. And so Rodgers loves Nathaniel Hackett. That would be amazing for everything Denver

and terrible for everything Green Bay. But something to keep an eye on there. Yes, I think the quarterback is much more important to the Broncos situation, fantasy-wise, clearly, than it is the coach. Denver's such a – they're – like, Jared Judy's still – I saw he was still, liketh and startup uh dynasty adp in like drafts over the last month at wide receiver and it's just like that's way too high without knowing who the quarterback is based on what we've seen and he's only going to go up if

they get a good quarterback it's it's really hard to like buy low in denver people are still really really high on skill players there. Well, I think you're buying low mostly on the other two because those two, Sutton is, people are so sour on him. And you see Patrick just cannibalizing him. And Patrick, obviously, is just the name that people don't either realize how good he has been based on the limited amount of time that he's touched the ball, but he's been fantastic.

He's been their best wide receiver the past two seasons. Yeah. I mean, well, two years ago, it's hard to say, you know, that that's a fair assessment because of the play, but you're right. He has been their best receiver. Did he drop a pass in week 18 for the first time? I think he's had a couple of drops this year. Has he?

Okay. But he did not drop a pass in 2020. And Noah Fant, obviously, has been a disappointment, but I think he's still a buy low as well. So if you can get the Broncos, you know, without having to overspend, and Judy's probably the one you have to overspend on, they're the target.

And we were saying this last year, too. You know, buy low on these guys, too, because we thought they were going to upgrade and all they got was Bridgewater, but maybe there's a bigger fish out there for them to get. Okay, and just in case one of your teams is looking to hire a head coach and you want it to be an offensive head coach, the Cowboys, the Bucs, they're the top two scoring teams in the NFL.

They have offensive-minded head coaches, but the Bills are number three. Sean McDermott was a defensive coordinator. The Chiefs are number four. We know Andy Reid. The Chargers are number five, and Brandon Staley was a defensive coordinator. So you can hire a defensive-minded head coach. He's got to hire the right offensive coordinator and have the right players in place.

We thought that was Matt Ruhle, that bringing in Joe Brady would be the answer. Oh, Matt Ruhle. And that's another thing about McCaffrey. Matt Ruhle wants to probably lead the league in rush attempts. We haven't really talked about that, but that's what he's looking for in offensive coordinator is like 30 carries

a game. So we'll see how that plays out. You got to have a good team to do that. The Jay Gruden rumor scares me. Oh, God. I got to go, guys. I'm sorry. We are out of here. Sorry. That was really kind of a mean reaction to Jay Gruden. My apologies,

Jay. We will talk to you on Thursday with a look at the weekend's games, some DFS talk, and some other 2022 talk as well. Please send us your emails at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Please leave your Apple Podcast reviews, your Spotify reviews. For Chris and Jamie, I am Adam. Have a great day, everybody.

Talk to you on Thursday.