Fantasy Football Today - 2023 Lessons Learned Plus Arthur Smith, Ben Johnson and More (01/31 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: January 31, 2024

Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts We got some pretty significant offensive coordinator news on Tuesday so we'll start with that (1:30). With Arthur Smith to the Steelers, Ben Johnson back to the Lions and Bobby Slowick back to the Texans, which is the most significant? Are we out on Diontae Johnson and George Pickens? What do we think about the Broncos hiring Pete Carmichael? ... Lessons learned from 2023! How should we value good preseason performances (19:30)? We also talk about specific things and types of players that we do not want to necessarily buy into (23:30) including old wide receivers and marginal talents who are projected to get big roles ... More lessons learned (37:15): rookie quarterbacks, WRs with bad QBs, finding the next CeeDee Lamb (42:55) and what our listeners learned in 2023 (49:10) including how to deal with preseason hype as we try to find the next Puka Nacua ... Email us at [e-mail]  SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection 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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He's just going to go the distance! Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. And good morning, everybody. Welcome to our Wednesday edition of Fantasy Football Today. Kind of weird. We don't have a game to prepare for this weekend. But we do have plenty of fantasy to talk about, as always. And I'll update you on next week's schedule, which will have five episodes.

Pretty exciting week for fantasy football today. Hello, Jamie. Hello, Heath. Good morning, Jamie. What's going on? I'm just excited for what you'll choose for Game of the Week next week. It's going to be a tough call. It's not what, it's how.

How are we going to do it? What could we possibly do to throw Dave off his tracks a little bit? Heath, what's going on? Just happy to be here. Looking forward to discussing all the lessons that we learned in 2023. It's my favorite episode of January. I spent a lot of time thinking about it. Yeah, I mean, the lessons learned.

You can't just go through everything that fantasy managers got wrong and say, oh, there's a lesson to be learned there. A lot of it is just, I don't know if I want to use the word random, but completely unpredictable and not necessarily repeatable. But there are lessons to be learned. Maybe there's

a lesson to be learned about Arthur Smith. He's back in the news. He's the offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yesterday was kind of crazy, right? With all the office coordinator news? Yes, it was. So let's get to it. Which was the biggest one? So that you're talking Pittsburgh hiring Arthur Smith, johnson staying in detroit bobby slowick staying in houston um

there panthers are hiring an offensive coordinator brad idzik but dave canalis is going to call the plays idzik was the wide receivers coach for the buccaneers and pete carmichael who was the saints offensive coordinator for the last 15 years, is now joining the Broncos staff. I don't know if it's officially going to be offensive coordinator or not, but I think the first three are really the ones we're going to focus on. Pittsburgh hired Arthur Smith and Bobby Slowik back to the Texans and Ben Johnson staying with the Lions. Jamie, what's the biggest one here? Ben Johnson to the Lions for me. mean just the fact that he was considered to be one of the most sought after head coaching candidates uh basically for for a year plus and you know you had the report our Josina Anderson CBS Sports Josina Anderson um in the middle of the year I

think it was suggesting that he was going to ask for a pretty hefty salary. Uh, I think it was $15 million was the report. And this could kind of explain why maybe he's not getting the job that he wanted or jobs that he wanted, um, that he was asking for too much money. But, um, look, he's going to assuming that the Lions don't fall on their face and have a terrible season, he's going to have the opportunity to get a great job again next year. You know, there's plenty of, you know, paths to jobs that you could see unfolding. You know, Dallas specifically would be one, you know, that if things go bad, Mike McCarthy's on the final year of his deal. Mike Tomlin's on the final year of his deal, you know, so two prominent jobs that could come available and obviously there'll be a lot more firing. So he's young enough. He's got a, a, a good start on his resume that he'll get hired

no matter what opportunities he's looking for. Just maybe have to maybe lower his price tag a little bit. So, you know, him going back to Detroit, um, for me, I thought it was Washington all along. And so losing the opportunity for the upgrades that we were hoping for in Washington with a new quarterback coming in, most likely. But staying in Detroit just keeps those guys on a pretty high level that we love for the Lions. We don't necessarily lose. It's not, okay. It's not gonna be Ben Johnson. If you were a commander's, you know,

dynasty stakeholder, if you had someone on the commanders, you were hoping probably for Ben Johnson, but Hey, look, we're going to get a new quarterback, right? That's where it starts.

So they could still, you know, they could still upgrade. Right. But you know, Aaron Glenn, for example, the defense coordinator for the lions is still a possibility.

Dan Quinn, Mike variable, you know, these guys are still out there. Obviously, Bill Belichick. I was hoping to see a young offensive mind on the cusp of turning that team around. And it still could happen, like you said. It just feels a little deflating. I'm sure our buddy Zach Brooke, who's a Commander's fan, is probably disappointed as well.

Now, has Ben Johnson, did he lock back in? And, you know, I'm sure our buddy, Zach Brooke, who's a Commander's fan, is probably disappointed as well. Now, has Ben Johnson, like, did he lock back in? Or could he change his mind in, like, I don't know, 10 days, 11 days, 12 days if somebody retired? He could probably change his mind, right? Okay. Just hypothetically, if somebody, like, a week from this coming Monday decided that they were going to retire. No, that was the thing that I thought was like. Wouldn't they just promote Spaggs?

I don't know. Maybe. I don't know if Spaggs wants to be a head coach. He doesn't ever even seem to interview for those jobs. But I think, and I tweeted about this yesterday, but Jamie referenced it. It'd be great to have a rookie quarterback, and they have a lot of salary cap room there in Washington. But, I mean, there's a pretty decent chance that you've got the chance to go coach either Josh Allen or Jalen Hurts next year, right?

I mean, Jamie mentioned Dallas, but one of those two guys, if they lose in the first round, probably are looking for a new coach. Yeah, maybe Daniel Jones, too. You never know. I mean, that'd be a dream scenario for a new coach. Yeah. Maybe Daniel Jones, too. You never know. I mean, that'd be a dream scenario for sure. You could go somewhere with Daniel Jones, maybe. Right. And all right.

So we love continuity is great. We know what to expect from the Lions. Good things. But Arthur Smith going to the Steelers. More good things. Is that sarcasm? I mean, I think it's probably good things for the running backs yeah or how about this here are where the last five arthur smith seasons as two as offensive coordinator for the titans three as head coach for the falcons here's where those teams have

ranked in tight end target rate eighth fourth third fifth first they have been top five four straight years top eight four five straight all five seasons where he's been the head coach of the offensive coordinator 25 of one of those little apple pies that comes in the in the plastic wrappers is not the same as 25 of a full regular apple pie. And based on what we just saw, so Darnell Washington's going to be in a great spot. Well, I mean, look, it was Pitts the last three years, but before that it was like John U. Smith, Delaney Walker, and Anthony Ferkser combining in one year.

And then in 2019, it was just Smith and Ferkser. But yeah, they throw the tight ends in that offense. But I mean, look, people don't like Arthur Smith, whatever, I know the fantasy community didn't like him, but he's done some pretty good things as an offensive coordinator, I mean, there's a reason why he got hired as a head coach, he's got good running schemes, so what do we think for

Najee Harris and Jalen Warren, Jamie? I mean, it's good for them, you know, we're still in the same situation of, you know, can you really we're still in the same situation of, you know, can you really rely on either one to be better than the other from how their skill sets are different? You know, last year we saw Najee was very touchdown dependent and he scored a lot at the end of the season. Um, Jalen Warren started to take on a bigger role in the passing game, which is what we were kind of hoping for all year. They didn't do a lot um of significant production

individually you know uh warren was outscoring nausea in the beginning part of the year with kenny pickett and so we'll see how things go with pickett back at at the quarterback if in fact he is the job the uh ownership there certainly was not very fond of or didn't wasn't very uh didn't give a resounding vote of confidence to Kenny Pickett, understandably so. So I think we've got to see if there is a potential quarterback change or somebody brought in to compete with Pickett. It sounds like he's still going to be the guy there. So that's really the thing that holds this offense back. But in terms of the running backs, I think it's a positive.

So Najee is not going – I don't think either guy is getting drafted as a starter. But if you do go zero RB or hero RB, this is your first or second running back, either of the two, um, you should get good production out of it. I would expect the same kind of split where Warren is getting the, uh, excuse me, Najee is getting the majority of carries. Warren's getting the work in the passing game. Najee has more touchdown potential. And unless one of them is injured, you're going to have probably a frustrating decision on a week-to-week basis. Heath, are we just more or less out on Deontay and Pickens?

When do they come into the equation? Yeah, I mean, hopefully Deontay goes and finds a new team. But that would be the only way that I'd be in on either one of those guys. They're going to be, I would guess round seven or later. I would, I would prefer Pickens because he's the type of guy who could succeed on lower volume.

We've seen that on occasions recently. But if they're, yuck, if they're both there, it's, I'm not going to be super interested in either one. Okay. You know,

once upon a time, AJ Brown had a great season. I think he only played 10 games, something like that, in his second year in the league. But Smith did a great job with Tannehill. Can we say that? I mean, he kind of revived Ryan Tannehill.

I don't know if it was him, but that happened under Arthur Smith's watch. But, you know, you got to wonder if is Tannehill and and and this is you know more of an indictment on on pickett and probably ritter is tannahill just a good enough quarterback that even in a i don't say crappy system but just not the most you know um dominant system from from a passing standpoint you know just good enough to run that offense. Whereas, you know,

pick it. Has he been held back by the system in Pittsburgh or is he not have the talent to get the job done? Well, look, Arthur Smith in his last five years, he's had Ryan Tannehill twice, Matt Ryan at the end of his career and Desmond Ritter slash Taylor Heineke

is his quarterbacks. This is where they've ranked in yards. play in those five seasons, his teams. Fourth, fourth, 23rd, 16th, and 15th. That's two great seasons, one bad season, two average seasons. It's pretty good, I think, given the quarterback situations there. Anything else that you guys want to talk about? Do you think Pete Carmichael going to Denver matters? And it's, you know, linking them back up. I'd be, I'd be really,

really just sick and concerned if I was a Broncos fan, not because of, not because of people, Carmichael, but just because it's like, it's just bring in all the old saints guys. We're going to do it like we did it a decade ago. Right. And it worked there, but it worked there because you had a Hall of Fame quarterback. And it's a little different when you don't have that, as Bill Belichick found out when his Hall of Fame quarterback left him. So that's the biggest thing.

They have to address the Jared Stidham situation now because if they go into the season with him as a starter, as capable as they may feel him to be, I don't think we expect that to be a great passing situation if he's the guy. I think I saw some Bo Nix Broncos connections on Twitter the last couple of days too. Maybe they're going to draft one.

Stevie Nix. Kareem Hunt had sports hernia surgery. Charles Omena, who a pass rusher for the Chiefs. Saints. For the Chiefs. He tore his ACL against the Ravens. He's out.

The Chiefs have some injuries here. It's getting a little dicey, Heath. A lot of injuries. It is. It is. 49ers are definitely the better team. Thankfully, the Chiefs have Patrick moments. They are more talented,

right? Like top to bottom talent, more talented roster. The 49ers. Are you counting the quarterback? Yeah. No. Then why are they favored?

Because they're, because I think the, the different, you're saying that the 49ers are not more talented than the chief. Not if you count with Patrick moms. I mean, Purdy had a better year than Mahomes. Well, I mean, clearly the quarterback favors the Chiefs. But there's a lot of other spots that favor the 49ers.

There are several spots. I said I think the 49ers are the better team. Yeah, but nobody knows if you're being serious right now. That's the problem. I said the Ravens were the better team. I picked the Chiefs. I'm picking the Chiefs again. But I think top to bottom, just talent on the roster,

I think the 49ers have more of it. Yeah, but quarterback and head coach favor the Chiefs. It's so strange because outside of quarterback especially, the 49ers offense is so much more talented than the Chiefs. And I think the Chiefs defense is a lot better than the 49ers.

I don't know if I'd say a lot. It's better. Yeah. They're both struggling to stop the run there. I would say the Chiefs are much better at stopping the pass. I mean, if the Ravens

had a smarter game plan, there's a good chance they win that game. I mean, they didn't run the ball. What were they doing? Well, you mean with Lamar Jackson or with Gus Edwards and Justice Hill? The whole thing. They're not one running back at four carries. Their running backs stink.

Well, they didn't have the ball. They got very, I don't know, 21 minutes or something. They could have run the ball plenty of times. I don't think they wanted to run the ball. Well, but think about the game. They were making a comeback in the second half, right? Yeah, you could still run. They should have run the ball with Lamar more. They absolutely should have run.

Lamar needed more design runs. All right, TJ Hawkinson had surgery on his torn ACL. He also had MCL injury, so it was a significant knee injury. But that's a long time to wait for the surgery. So he had surgery in late January. We're not going to speculate on a time. I don't think he's going to be a top 12 tight end, probably. You know, I think what would help him.

He'll be somebody that you draft with Dallas Goddard, Ferguson, maybe Pitts if he falls, depending on how the public feels about the new situation in Atlanta. Maybe Kate Otten if Mike Evans leaves, one of those type of guys. What would help Hawkinson is if he starts the year on IR. Then you can just stash him in an IR spot, and maybe that would increase his draft value a little bit. So you don't have to waste the bench spot. Or it could just be like a Noah Gray, uh,

Hawkinson combo, you know, chiefs tight end. All right. All right. Let's, uh, let's, uh, take a break here. We come back and we'll, uh, we'll go through some of our lessons learned from 2023. And we have some of yours as well. I asked you on Twitter, so we'll see what you said. Lessons learned for 2023. We'll be right back on Fantasy Football today.

We just saw a Las Vegas promo for the Super Bowl. You're going to Vegas, right, Heath? I'm going to Vegas two days after the Super Bowl. How about that? I'm on the end of the month, too. There we go. You're going, too? Yes, I'm actually speaking at an economics class at UNLV.

They know you're not an economist, right? They do. They do. All right, that's pretty cool. Why are you doing that? Well, I do it at Florida Atlantic University for their economics club. I explain what fantasy football is and just talk about the job. And they seem to like it.

And so the professor at FAU that I'm friends with is friends with the professor at UNLV. And he has asked me to come out there and do the same thing. So this whole time we've been in economics and I had no idea. Fantasy football. I love it. Did you know that I majored in economics for I had no idea. Fantasy football. I love it. Did you know that I majored in economics for three semesters, but it

was too hard and I quit. So you majored in economics acting? No, theater. So I dropped economics for theater as my second major. Well, it kind of works. You deal with numbers and you pretend to host. How about that? I'm acting every day. Alright, what's coming up next week? Well, I mean, it kind of works. You deal with numbers and you pretend to host, so you're good to go.

How about that? I'm acting every day. All right. What's coming up next week? By the way, we got to recognize our nomination from the FSWA. Please, go for it. Please. The FSWA, the Fantasy Sportswriters Association, has named us CBS Sports Fantasy Football Today Podcast as the finalist for Best Fantasy Football Podcast.

It's a very tough category. There's a lot of amazing nominees, but it's awesome to be recognized, and we appreciate it from the FSWA. We've been nominated multiple times. I don't know how many nominations we've had, but we have actually four nominations from CBS cbs sports um our fantasy baseball today in five has been nominated for best video right if i'm not mistaken best short form video a short form video um so that's awesome uh scott white for best baseball article and i was uh lucky enough to be nominated for best

football article so um hopefully we get at least uh one i would like it to be nominated for best football article. So hopefully we get at least one. I would like it to be one of the football awards. No offense to the baseball guys, but our podcast won and we appreciate everybody for watching as always. And you don't have to vote. So that's right. Yes. I don't have to tell you to go vote.

But congratulations to Jamie though, for once again, being nominated as the best football writer. So that's awesome stuff. And actually best economist as well. He's one of the five finalists for that from the FSWA. Next week, we have five episodes. Gear it up for the Super Bowl.

Of course, we'll preview the game, but also we'll do a live mock draft. We're going to have a beyond the box score episode. So you don't have to be on that, guys. You're in luck. Jacob and Dan will join me for that. We'll have a great week planned. And tomorrow we'll talk about bounce back candidates for 2024. Let's do some lessons learned.

And I might be driving the ship here. I understand that. I gave you guys a little late notice on the topic. What? Oh, no. I've got several. Oh, good. Good, good, good.

Well, there's only one that I'm super, super passionate about that I will definitely be taking it in next season. Good preseason performances, I don't want to say they mean nothing, but they might mean nothing. So just don't go crazy over good preseason performances. I went to that Giants game, week three against the Panthers. Every pass to Darren Waller. They looked amazing. I thought they were going to have a really good offense. The Steelers were the darlings of the preseason.

They finished 28th in scoring. I don't know if Jahan Dotson really falls into that. He didn't really have a great preseason or anything, but he had like one big play. But if you look good in the preseason, I don't care anymore. If you look bad in the preseason, I don't care anymore. If you look bad in the preseason, okay, that's a problem. But if you look good in the preseason,

yeah, I'm sorry. I don't really care. So that's my big one. This might turn into kind of a lessons confirmed, because I think on this show last year, I said that if I had not watched the preseason, I would have been more accurate. But there were some guys like, I think Dell was pretty awesome in the preseason, I would have been more accurate. But there were some guys like, I think Dale was pretty

awesome in the preseason, right? Yeah. Was Puka pretty good in the preseason? I don't think I don't know. But they never play their starters. So he probably played, but they never played like Stafford. So I don't know. Yeah. Anybody else in the

preseason that played? So DJ Moore and Khalil Herbert had big plays. I remember that. But Justin Fields actually didn't look very good in the preseason that played? So DJ Moore and Khalil Herbert had big plays. I remember that. But Justin Fields actually didn't look very good in the preseason. He was pretty inaccurate. So you say that, though. And the two situations you bring up in terms of the Giants and the Steelers, specifically the Giants, it was a new thing.

They changed something. Yeah. And so I think that's hard to avoid when you see something that's different. Like the Steelers were kind of a certain group, right? Yeah. Well, the Giants were too. All they did was add Waller. Is that what you're talking about?

It's a pretty big add. I mean, that's... And the game you're referencing, it was six of seven targets went to, six of seven pass times went to Darren Waller on that drive. So it was like, how do you not get somewhat excited by that? Now, granted, you still understand the same pitfalls of what Darren Waller is, which played itself out, that he's an injury-prone player at an advanced age.

But I think whenever there's something that's different, new coordinator, new quarterback, new running back, whatever the case may be, you kind of have to sort of let that take you somewhere, whether it's, you know,

I'm, I'm buying in completely or I'm staying away, you know, especially if there's like, I'm trying to think like, uh, a guy, you know, TJ Hawkinson shows up in training camp. You still know that he's not 100%, right?

Or he probably won't play in the preseason. It's a bad example. But let's just say he did. Would you be more encouraged by it? Well, a guy getting on the field is one thing. I'm talking about, you know, I'm talking about Kenny Pickett doing absolutely nothing as a rookie to make us excited, and then all this Pickett buzz, and then the Steelers look good in the preseason.

The point is, it's really not that hard for teams to look good in the preseason. You know, defenses are doing nothing schematically. They're very vanilla. And then especially in training camp against your own... It's like, oh, Darren Waller's killing the then especially in training camp against your own it's like oh darren waller's killing the giants in training camp you know it's shouldn't really be yeah no i'm not i'm not disagreeing i'm just trying to play devil's advocate i guess so um like cd lamb had a monster training camp against his own defense cd lamb. I have more on CD lamb later. Actually. I want to read my notes from what I wrote about CD lamb in my notes in

2023 and see if we can maybe apply it to 2024, but go on guys with some more lessons learned. Um, another lesson confirmed that I'm going to continue to try to get better at is to stop drafting these running backs who we don't know if they're any good, but they're projected to get a bunch of touches because that doesn't last. Especially those mid-round running backs

that we're really only drafting them as starters because, yeah, the situation looks like they're going to get the ball 15 to 20 times a game. So who? Sorry. Go ahead. No, I want to know who. Are you talking about

miles sanders well and miles sanders is going to come around in the next one also but miles sanders didn't quite quit for fit that for me because i thought that he was really good right um damian pierce did you think he was good because he's interesting you know what's the lesson there? He had a good rookie season. He had an encouraging... Damian Pierce wasn't Mike Davis. He wasn't Miles Haskins.

You can attach it to Damian Pierce. You can probably attach it to Alexander Madison. Alexander Madison is an even better one. Yeah, that's a great one. Guys that are getting opportunities, but are they good players? Tony Pollard. But then what about this guy, this comment from Don?

Miles Sanders could have easily been Rashad White. Right, Rashad White is like the counter to that, right? We were not really certain at the beginning of, like, there was a lot of speculation about, this guy's going to take Rashad White's job, or this guy's going to take touches away from Rashad White. Yeah, maybe I guess. But yeah. I agree with your I agree with your lesson completely. I wasn't trying to disagree. I was just curious who you were specifically referencing there. Okay, so Madison, I think is a good example. Yeah. All right. What's your next one then that involves Sanders? Maybe don't give teams quite so much credit on,

they paid this guy this a lot of money. And so this is guaranteeing a big role. Miles Sanders got the biggest running back contract and lost his job halfway through the year. Derek Carr was in this, like I said, this is what I was right about when I was wrong about Derek Carr was supposed to be a huge upgrade over Andy Dalton because they paid him $25 million instead of $1 million for Andy

Dalton. And for Chris Olave particularly, and Olave averaged fewer yards per reception, fewer yards per target, the same number of yards per game. And Derek Carr wasn't really very good. Okay. Contracts.

Bad contracts are given out all the time. Absolutely. Jamie, any lessons? More, more confirmed. And it, it sort of worked out both ways for a couple of players,

but staying away from 30 year old receivers again, you know, that was a, I know a big thing for me and it it hurt me with keenan allen mike evans because i voted those guys and they were great it helped in regards to devante adams deandre hopkins cooper cup and adam thielen to an extent but he was more of a later round pick so you want to throw him out of the the conversation but um i mean you you saw the fall-offs for a lot of these guys you know and and, and Evans and Allen sort of debunked it a little bit,

but, I mean, Adams struggled. And again, there's not just the player specifically. Adams had a good season for who he is, but he just wasn't elite again. Hopkins was pretty bad, and Cooper Cup injured and played injured, seemingly for a good portion of the season. So, you know, those receivers that got older struggled. I struggle with this one, though, because it's not that easy. And Tyreek Hill could be the number one pick for a lot of people next year,

and he's going to be 30. So, I don't know. I mean. He's not going to be the number one pick for me, partially because he's 30. So I don't know. I mean, he's not gonna be the number one pick for me partially because he's 30. Okay. You know, um, you know what I'm saying? Look, there, there are, there are examples of it, of this not working out and there are examples of it working just fine. So I don't know what you do with that. Just downgrade them a little bit, avoid them entirely. Well, there's never a player you're avoiding entirely when you're talking about great players. And so it's

avoiding them at cost. And so that's the thing you have to deal with. Because look, Evans fell to a point where he was definitely worth the draft pick. I just happened to not draft any of him. Keenan Allen, I think, was falling to a point where he ended up being a good value pick by comparison to where he was.

Devontae Adams, you had to draft him the first 15 picks. I was never drafting him if he was in that range. The only league I drafted him in, I think, was the 2QB league because he fell and fell and fell because of all the quarterbacks. So any of those type of players, I was out on because of how I felt about it. Do you think Adams had a bad year because he's getting old or because his, the quarterback play just wasn't right for him? I think both,

you know, look, part, part of this situation, you know, and again, I talked about this prior to the season, you know,

without going in, in, in depth on every single wide receiver is some of it is out of their control, you know, and that's depth on every single wide receiver, is some of it is out of their control. You know, and that's not just 30-year-old receivers. That's every receiver. You know, so you look at certain situations. I mean, look, Cooper Cupp had good quarterback play. Matthew Stafford had a great season.

But somebody else emerged. You know, and that was part of his downfall. DeAndre Hopkins, I think, was a fine player. I don't think he necessarily looked like he completely lost everything that he had i mean look at that game against atlanta when he's making you know huge plays down the field once will levis took over but it wasn't consistent because of maybe his age or just you know a combination of age and quarterback play okay uh anything else that's it all right i have more for that oh i have i have another one yeah go ahead well it's more along the lines of what he was talking about but with like tony pollard like don't always

fall for the great situation oh that one drives me crazy i can't i almost wonder if the if the lesson learned with tony pollard is be careful of guys coming off major off-season surgery and that's... It could be that, or it could be be careful projecting part-time running backs to be just as good when they're full-time running backs. That's, I think, what more it feels like to me, is that the Cowboys told us the year before, when he was sharing with Ezekiel Elliott, that we don't want to give him more.

The reason why we're still using Ezekiel Elliott is because we don't want to give more to Tony Pollard. And then Tony Pollard steps into this great situation and you wondered if they had somebody else who was just a little bit better in terms of the backups. Would he have had this much of an opportunity? And I think that's kind of their lesson learned is that they're probably

not going to have, unless they go get a stud, one specific guy. I think they want to have a tandem backfield. And it worked out much better for them from a running game perspective two years ago. He did, however, Tony Pollard did, however, acknowledge about a little bit more than halfway through the season,

I believe, that he was not 100% and that he had not fully recovered. He was good enough to play, obviously, but he wasn't back to his old self. That was one of mine from last year was just like, don't draft her players um but i think like you could make the same you could fit kyle if you wanted to shape the tony pollard one as in guys coming off major injuries you put kyle pitts in that same boat too i don't think kyle pitts was ever healthy this year no he

acknowledged that actually as well uh you're absolutely right and that's why ultimately i switched nico collins ahead of tank dell i don't know if you feel the same way you know you that actually as well uh you're absolutely right and that's why ultimately i switched nico collins ahead of tank dell i don't know if you feel the same way you know you like but it's a broken bone for tank dell so it's not like an acl or something like that but that's what it was for tony pollard yeah right exactly so i think pollard's was a little bit diff i don't know but pollard's was a little bit different and it was closer to a joint. Right. And it was in January,

you know, I think it's more that, that when, when the injury occurred and the fact that he had never been a full-time guy before having to take on that workload, just, it's, it felt like just a perfect storm of everything falling apart for him.

Okay. Of what, of what felt like just a dream situation. And I think that, that, that continual don't, don't draft guys who are hurt, like Joe Burrow would have been into that one this year. So who are the guys that we would be avoiding now

in terms of draft guys that are hurt? Well, we don't know yet because there are going to be some preseason injuries, and I think that's when you dig into that. Well, I think just in terms, like, Hawkinson is clearly one that you won't be drafting as a top tier guy. I mean, look, we've gone through already top 12 tight end rankings.

And he started out, I think, top five for Dave in particular. At least that's the story on the site. And he, I think when we did the podcast about it, had him close to 10, you know, so dropped him significantly. And I remember saying on the show, like, he's the one that will fall out of the top 12 for me if he's not ready, as Heath just alluded to, you know, won't draft him as a starter. So who are some of the guys right now that I think you're looking at and saying I'm not drafting? To me, I'm not avoiding Tank Dell from his injury,

but I certainly will not be drafting Nick Chubb, I can tell you that much, unless it's just at an unbelievable cost because his age and his injury are two huge red flags for him. I wonder if I'm going to be more cautious about Aaron Rodgers than everybody else is. I know that he was almost back, but it's still a major injury. And the same with Kirk Cousins. You asked this question, Adam, about who's got the most potential of the three quarterbacks listed.

I forget who it was. It was Lawrence, Watson, Cousins. Right. And Dave immediately said, is it a perfect scenario, perfect world, or whatever it was? You know, he's completely healthy. But you can't say that with him. So those two guys are, I think, Cousins, if I'm not mistaken,

is 36 or 37, maybe older. Rodgers is going to be 41. You know, so, yeah, those are two guys that as a second quarterback, sure, if you want to take a gamble on them to see what they have. But there's no chance you'd want to take them as your number one guy, even in a 14-team league. That's easy to say. However, are you going to extend it to Jeffersonfferson and say well cousins could really struggle coming back from this injury maybe i shouldn't take jefferson as the second one maybe he should be the fourth wide receiver which is a big thing about garrett wilson too i mean i i think when

you talk about you know quarterback injuries how they relate to the receivers it's it's a huge part of this and we saw it with both um uh jam and Tee Higgins, you know, in terms of how that unfolded, you know, for those two guys in particular. The year before it was Jalen Waddell and how he was impacted by the loss of Tua Tungabailoa. Not so much Tyreek Hill, but, you know, still both those guys had down season. So, yeah, you have to factor that in, I think, as well. And it might just be, okay, C.D. Lamb's the easy choice as the number one guy if you're talking about the top tier wide receivers because he has no health concerns with his

quarterback coming into the season so i think it's it's that and then it's when we get to july and august if we get one little blurb about darren waller has tweaked his hamstring or christian watson has tweaked his hamstring or those guys who are constantly battling the soft tissue issues, I think you get a little more worried about them. Those in particular, I think people are almost not completely out, certainly not on Watson, but it's easy to fade Darren Waller at this point. But Waller is another guy, like if you're taking two tight ends late and Hawkinson falls to the late category,

you should be able to get one full season out of those two guys. We should hope. Last word for me on Hawkinson falls to the late category. You should be able to get one full season out of those two guys. We should hope. Last word for me on Hawkinson. I just want to know what you guys think about this. He's not really an explosive guy, right? He's mostly doing it through volume. Didn't he explode? So I don't know that he needs to get back to his old form.

It won't be as good. I mean, yeah, but as long as he's out there playing on a team that might lead the league in pass attempts, if Kirk Cousins is healthy, he could return very good value. He just has to catch it. Basically, he just catches a lot of balls, right? I mean, it's not like he's – I don't know what – I didn't look at like his yak this year, but that's been his thing.

He doesn't make big plays. He just catches the ball. Oh, that was the thing they said in Detroit was he would basically catch the ball and fall down. Yeah, I think his situation is fascinating because you have him coming back from an injury, Cousins coming back from an injury, hopefully better play from Jordan Addison. Oh, by the way, the best receiver in football.

So there's all those things working against him. And so I think again, it volume will definitely help. He's on a team that's going to throw the ball out, like you said, but can he, can he produce top five production in 2024? I'd be very surprised. Let's take another break here. I got a few more lessons learned, and then we'll go to the tweets and see what you learned in 2023, and we'll be right back on Fantasy Football today. All right, so I'm just going to rattle off a few that I wrote down. You let me know what you think.

This one, I have a question mark. Rookie quarterbacks should be taken seriously? That's a great, it was a very good year for rookie quarterbacks. Just two of them, basically, but Richardson was phenomenal, and then obviously Stroud, QB nine per game in both four and six point.

But there have been a lot of misses at rookie quarterback between this class and between the Herbert Burrow class. Mostly misses. What do you think? I think I would still stick with the rookie quarterback should be taken seriously if they run and just view C.J. Stroud as an outlier is where I'll be. But if,

if somebody else does that, like is, was CJ Stroud the bigger surprise or Sam Laporta? Is it rookie QB should be taken seriously or rookie tight end should be taken seriously. Yeah. I think I'm just, I think I'm done.

I, I think I'm pretty much done with the whole rookie tight end thing that they can't be good. I feel like, you know, football has changed enough. I'm pretty much done with the whole rookie tight end thing, that they can't be good. I feel like football has changed enough. I'm fine with it. I don't think they're probably not going to catch 10 touchdowns. I've got another one.

They're good. Yeah, what? From this rookie class, stop discounting star-wide receivers because they're too small. That's like a three or four year run. We're on now with, with guys who are too light or, or too small.

And they've just been really, really good. Yeah. Um, all right. How about this one? The rookie quarter, this is going to be a fascinating class.

Yeah. So, I mean, clearly there's going to be some buzz about if he, but let's assume it's Washington, Caleb Williams, you know, goes to the commanders or somebody moves up to one the Bears you know decide to take him and they trade

Justin Fields you know so he's going to get drafted close to being a number one fantasy quarterback I would assume you know unless it's a a disastrous situation you got to assume Jaden Daniels is going to be drafted close to being a number one quarterback again unless it's a disastrous situation maybe drake may maybe panics maybe bonix you know there could be you know a situation where you look at these guys as i'm taking them as a starter but most likely a number two quarterback but i mean we were saying this last year about richardson that you can draft him as a starter you know i think he was somewhere near the top 12 for all three of us, if not in the top 12. And I know I think Heath and I were probably the – I don't want to speak for Dave, but I think you and I were probably the ones that were saying draft him

and just take a backup and see what happens because there's so much upside based on his rushing potential. And clearly it didn't manifest itself that way because of the injury, but he was showing flashes of just being an absolute superstar. And I think that's your point, Adam. But clearly, you know, if you're saying this, rookie quarterbacks are good. The guy who was drafted first was awful.

Yeah, but he was our least favorite. And by the way, when Jamie said all three of us about Anthony Richardson being ranked high, he meant Dave, not me. I don't even have rankings, but everybody knows. I think I'll probably, to this conversation, I'm probably, we'll see landing spot and everything, but my expectation is I'm going to rank Jaden Daniels

the highest of this class in redraft and Caleb Williams the highest in dynasty. It's funny that, I don't know if we want to get into this now, but Daniels may not have a starting job right away. You know, he may go to a situation where there's going to be starting problems. Yeah, he's older. He's 23.

You know, he didn't have the, he didn't have a great career, I guess. There were some bumps in the road for Jaden Daniels, but a huge final season at LSU. Well, let's get into that another time. Yeah, and here's another lesson learned, a lesson confirmed, I guess. We can't completely dismiss wide receivers

with, quote, bad quarterbacks. And I think of Amari Cooper with Jacoby Brissett two years ago, and of course, Mike Evans this year. I think I even said Mike Evans could end up being this year's Amari Cooper, and I didn't draft him in a single league because I just didn't buy it. But yeah, if you have a late round pick

of an established, or mid round pick of an established wide receiver and you hate the quarterback, hey, it might not be as bad as we think it's going to be. But we just got through talking about the older guys that struggled with bad quarterbacks, right? Devontae Adams had bad quarterback play. He struggled.

DeAndre Hopkins, bad quarterback play. He struggled, right? Yeah. Adams still had a good year. I mean, he wasn't worth a draft pick. He was solid, but again— No, I'm talking about seventh, eighth-round pick kind of guy, like where Cooper and Evans were the last couple years.

Okay, so who else falls in that category? DK Metcalf? I mean, you consider him having bad quarterback play? Well, he won't go that late, though. That's what I'm saying. But two years ago, I think we thought

he was going to have bad quarterback play, and he was really good. Well, let's see. I guess I could take a look at a mock draft here that we just did. And the receivers... I'm just trying to get an idea of here that we just did. And the receiver.

I was trying to get an idea of like who you're, who you're referring to. Well, Terry McLaurin, I think he could fall into that range this year. Yep. Um, for the seventh year in a row.

No, he's usually like around five pick. Let me see where he went. He went around, he went in the middle of round six in our draft. Uh, anyone else? Let's see.

Hopkins. Um, Deontay Johnson. Yeah, like it could be could be Johnson or Pickens. They could be outperform that. All right, great. Good stuff. Cooper wasn't expected to have bad quarterback play this year, though. No, no.

I mean, two years ago with Brissette. He was actually very good with Brissette. It was terrible at the end of the year with Watson, but he was very good with Brissette. And was terrible at the end of the year with Watson, but he was very good with Brissette. And then let me talk about CeeDee Lamb. I want to read what I wrote about Lamb because I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, going into the year,

we felt like CeeDee Lamb was super safe, deserved to be maybe a late first round pick, early second round pick, but didn't really have wide receiver one upside, overall wide receiver one upside uh what i wrote was lamb was the number six wide receiver overall and number eight per game with dak prescott missing five games and dak not having anywhere near his best season compared to the other elite wide receivers dallas threw the ball a lot less and didn't have a very good season passing the football. This is from 2022.

This is going into 23. If Dak has a better season, Lamb could be amazing. Dallas has been a top three offense two straight seasons, but in very different ways is what I also put. So I do find that, by the way,

if you look at some of the streaks that Stefan Diggs has had, even Travis Kelsey this year, it often coincides with how their quarterbacks are doing. CeeDee Lamb, the same exact thing. So maybe there's a wide receiver that could actually get better quarterback play. I don't know if Jared Goff has another level to reach. I don't know.

But maybe St. Brown could be a wide receiver one overall. You know what I'm saying? Here's this wide receiver that we already know is very good. But if his quarterback has a huge year, then you could be a wide receiver one overall. You know what I'm saying? Here's this wide receiver that we already know is very good, but if his quarterback has a huge year, then you could be talking about, even if you take him 15th overall, you could be talking about one of the best picks in fantasy.

That's what Lamb ended up being. We all had Lamb ranked. I just looked at our magazine. So we all had Lamb ranked sixth across the board. Last year. Yes, at wide receiver. Right.

So you know what I'm saying here? It basically, I think you look at those receivers, can the quarterback get better, take a big step up? And for Dak, maybe it should have been a little easier to see. I think we felt like they wouldn't be so pass heavy, that they wouldn't throw the ball as well. Oh, I mean, McCarthy said that.

McCarthy said that, and he qualified this. You know, I think we said this enough that I know when I came back from the owners meetings, he was basically backtracking off of what he said. He was like, you guys took me a little too literally. His criticisms of Kellen Moore of wanting to light up the scoreboard every week and they wanted to be more balanced. But I think the thing that came out of it was, you know, he had said, you know, we're, we're still going to throw enough and, and the passing game will be a little bit more of an extension of the run game and just of how we operate. But, you know, I, I think McCarthy was good for Dak, you know, the system was good for Dak and CD lamb certainly took the step forward that we were hoping we would get from him. Who else can do that? I'm going to throw a name out there. I'm going to ask you, what about Stefan Dix?

Because let me, at 30. Yeah. Are you saying no, especially since his, like I'm saying no, especially since his, like I'm saying no also, but it's the 30 and his downfall coincided with the, the,

the new offensive coordinator, right? Yeah. To me, dig digs feels more like Mike Evans, Keenan Allen, as opposed to CD lamb, like,

you know, older receiver who can still be very productive. Garrett Wilson would be the CeeDee Lamb, right? Yeah, except... It's much better quarterback play. The offense is much better than it's ever been. He's just a super-duper star. Yeah, except I think people are already counting on that.

We're going to count on that with CeeDee Lamb, though. No, that's what I think was missed is that people counted out Dak. You know, if you think that we I mean, we just said that Lamb was a late first round pick and I just told you we all had him ranked sixth. It's not like we weren't expecting CeeDee Lamb to be great. No, I know. But but we didn't expect Dak to be great. And we didn't we didn't think Lamb had as much upside as he did because we didn't expect Dak Prescott to have the season that he had. Well, I don't think anybody, because we would have ranked it differently,

had the expectations that C.D. Lamb would be the best receiver in fantasy. But I don't think anybody has the expectations for Garrett Wilson. I do think that he's going to be ranked in a similar range. He's going to be drafted in a similar range. We've already seen that in a couple of drafts that we've done already. And part of that is because we're expecting better quarterback plays, Heath just said. So does Aaron Rodgers get to the level of Dak? No. But does Aaron Rodgers have to do that for Garrett Wilson to do that? No. Also. Yeah. I guess the parallel I would

make is this. Stefan Diggs' struggles last year. I don't have, forget the playoff games. I don't have those stats included here. The last eight games of the season is when, you know, he really, he was just bad. I mean, you could maybe back it up a few games before that. But the last eight games of the season, Josh Allen was on pace for 4,000 passing yards and 23 passing touchdowns. I mean, that's really low. And 19 rushing touchdowns. So what I'm saying,

and that's also what happened at the end of 2021 for Diggs. So that's what I'm saying. If Josh Allen gets back to being like a 4,800 passing yard type of player, which we've seen, and 30 plus passing touchdowns,

then maybe Diggs has more upside than people would think. I think you're right. He does has more upside than people would think. I think, I think you're right. He does have more upside than probably we're going to give him credit for because you're going to, and he's just laid it out for you the way that this season finished the change in coordinator,

the fact that he's going to be 30 and I'll throw in just, you know, maybe better complimentary play around them because I do think that Dalton Kincaid is better than anything that he's played with in terms of what his potential could be. And maybe Khalil Shakir as well, just because he's a different number two receiver than what Gabe Davis has been.

They're going to replace Gabe Davis in some capacity. They're not just going to go with the same status quo. It could be in the draft, could be free agency, could be whatever. And so I think digs is one of those older receivers that you'll hope for a bounce back as opposed to expecting him to be the same type of player. All right. By the way, we have an episode of FFT in five that we're going to record after this where we'll talk about lessons learned.

But I'll try to give some different ones that we didn't discuss on today's show. Here's what the people are saying on Twitter. Heath Cummings. Vincenzo says two lessons. Be patient with rookies. When the talent is there, the usage will eventually come. And number two, pay very, very close attention to preseason hype.

The Rams talked up Puka Nakua all preseason, and now we know why. And this, I think, like the fact that two of yours kind of seemed to contradict each other and this one kind of contradicts with our first one about the preseason. Does illustrate a point that you can't learn a lesson in everything,

especially not in every player. If there's six wide receivers that are bad with bad quarterbacks and six wide receivers that are good with bad quarterbacks, we can't learn both lessons. Maybe it's just don't take... So I think maybe the point with the preseason is, like we were saying, don't pay too much attention to it.

But you can't completely ignore it either because there are things like Puka Nakua that happen. The other one, though, is a much better one. You should be very, very patient with early round picks as rookies if you thought a guy was a stud coming in and he struggles early in the year stay patient okay i do think i think it would be interesting to see what would have happened with jameer gibbs if david montgomery had not gotten hurt right because he was a huge bust at the beginning of the season and what would have

happened with jonathan taylor as a rookie if marlon mack didn't get hurt in week one um because remember the giovante williams year where he never took but that's the that's the reason you have to be patient because they might get an opportunity oh for sure be patient i'm just i would love to know what would have happened if remember you guys said like oh you can't you can't put that back in the box after Gibbs just went off in Montgomery's absence I just wonder what would have happened yeah but you also I mean you know Dan Campbell was saying after the first game when he had all those broken tackles that we have to get in more work like I think by the end of the season the type

of production that you were getting you probably would have gotten something close to that. It just would have maybe taken a little bit longer. All right, from Jaquan. Lesson learned. Rookie running backs don't always eat into an established running back's workload. Best example is Tank Bigsby. Also Charbonnet.

And even Gibbs was not getting much run early on. Yeah, does it matter? I think what matters is how good is the established running back. So you were very much on this one in terms of Ken Walker and Charbonnet. You were still banging the drum for Walker, saying he's talented, the history of Pete Carroll, not necessarily using a second guy,

and you didn't think that it was going to be a huge impact on Walker. And it obviously was an impact, but still Walker was the guy for the majority of the time he was healthy. You know, some passing down situations, some, you know, two-minute drills, whatever you want to say. Obvious passing downs, you know, when they were chasing points. Charbonnet was on the field a lot, but Walker was still getting the majority of production. Bigsby is another good example. But then you also have the flip side of that, you know, where Tajay Sharp was, you know, cutting into Derrick Henry enough

that when they were behind, when the score wasn't in their favor, certainly at the end of the season, we saw a little bit more of it. You know, Sharp was enough of a thorn in Henry's production. He had a great year despite being, you know, his age and all of his workload that that impacted him a little bit so it's probably case by case and like you said it's you know how good is the established running back um in the case of the dolphins for example where he most had a great season so did devon achan you know so um it it probably and the same thing with the with the lion situation but like he's brought up rashad white you know there was sean Sean Tucker and I think there was another guy,

you know, maybe Keyshawn Vaughn, uh, was, was the, another guy that you were referring to Heath of he's going to take his job or this guy's going to take his job. Clearly those guys weren't very impactful.

They weren't, you know, Tucker was a undrafted rookie free agent, so not the same comparison, but, um, yeah, I think basically just wasn't good.

Yeah. I thought, I thought there was legitimate reason to be concerned about ETN not having a goal line role. That seemed like it was going to happen, that he was going to lose. And I think he did early in the year. Bigsby just didn't really do enough. But does it have to be rookie running back? And I know that's what the suggestion was here.

Because, like, think about Kyron Williams. It was supposed to be Cam Akers' job, right? Akers finished last season strong, and Kyron Williams did nothing as a rookie. That might be more of a Sean McVay lesson. But I do think that – I wasn't even thinking about that connection, though, Adam. But the Ken Walker, Zach Charbonnet, Travis Etienne, Tank Bigsby, discussion. You could be completely opposite sides of those two things, which were kind of the same thing.

What do you mean? It was a rookie running back who was supposed to have a role in the offense. And in one case, you thought that the established guy was going to hold on to it. And in one case, you thought the rookie was going to negatively impact the guy. I didn't really think I drafted Etienne more than any other player. So I didn't really think Bigsby was going to have that big of a role. But I did have concerns about the goal line. I still thought that Etienne would be good enough in the third round, even if he lost goal line

touches to come through. But I wasn't... Those two situations, like a day two or a day three running back doesn't really scare me. Obviously, second round is a little scary. Anything after that, and that's what Charbonnet was. Bigsby was round three, right?

In the NFL draft? Bigsby was round three, yeah. I mean it fell draft. Bigsby was round three. Yeah. I mean, Charbonnet was, I think by most accounts and he's probably a better recollection of this, the third running back and a lot of people's draft boards, fantasy, you know,

it was clearly the top two were established, especially after they were drafted. And then it was, is it Charbonnet? And I think maybe HN was the next one, you know, just based on, again,

going to a team with older running backs, um, you know, four through the next one, you know, just based on, again, going to a team with older running backs. You know, four through seven probably, you know, could have been Sharp, could have been Bigsby. There was some Kendra Miller love too. Oh, yeah, Kendra Miller. That's a good one. Oh, Rashawn Johnson also. You know, his situation going to Chicago.

That's another one, you know, where he didn't take over the job by any stretch. You know, and his situation is really unfortunate because when Khalil Herbert had his ankle injury, Johnson had the concussion and missed all that time as well, which is when Deontay Foreman got the chance to, you know, do it, everything that he was, he was doing at the time. So, you know, we, I would give him kind of an incomplete a little bit. Um, but in terms of, uh, the in terms of the ones that were referenced, yeah, they didn't impact the starter at all. I remember Dan was certainly banging the drum for ETN to struggle. He didn't like how he ran in the system that Doug Peterson runs. And I know that was big for him.

And he's owned up to that one saying that he was wrong. He kind of did struggle though. The other thing I think Dan say. Sorry, Keith. I think Dan was expecting Tank Bigsby to take over. Or Dearness Johnson. He really liked Dearness Johnson. Did he? Which Dearness Johnson did eventually take Tank Bigsby's job.

So I think Dan was right about that one. Yep. But I don't want to push back too much on what we've done for the last 50 minutes. But I also think we have to remember what happens during an NFL season. Something happens week three, and then something completely different happens week four, and then something completely different happens. That's the way that football

in the NFL works, and that's especially the way that fantasy football works. Be careful not trying to take too many lessons that you're definitely going to apply to next year based on what happened in one year of football, based on two or three guys and what they did. I think just want to bring up something because it kind of applies

because Heath brought up a great point on one of our shows recently about some of these running back situations that have failed over the years. So James Robinson, Damian Pierce, and I think there's one other guy falls in this category of these late round or kind of out of nowhere guys and struggling. And he brought up the point of coaching change. And so, you know, we're, we're going to hear, can Kyron Williams do it again? Pacheco last year, can he, you know, do it again? And, and he's had a great reference of same coach, you know?

So, so maybe the consistency matters there. Do you put Stevenson, Ramondre Stevenson, in that? He wasn't a late-round pick in the NFL draft, so I don't think he qualifies. But I think the fact that the coaching staff is somewhat similar from hiring in-house is not going to impact him. I mean, he's been a solid running back for the last two years. So I think if the Patriots are looking at their needs,

that should be very low on the priority list. Would Brian Robinson fit that maybe? Again, you know, I think, yeah, you know. I don't view him as having – these are guys with pedigrees. You know, these other guys just didn't come into the league with the same amount of expectations. I mean, well, I have to disagree with you just on Stevenson because Stevenson was a fourth-round pick.

And I think he was 120th overall. Damian Pierce was 107th. So that's why I put them in the same... Yeah, I guess it's fair. Yeah. And they're both kind of bigger slower to be quite honest I mean that was I was almost going to say don't draft slow running backs

that's my philosophy like everything else doesn't work out every time. Aaron Williams is one of the slowest guys in the league exactly and I know exactly so is Damian Pierce ran a very slow 40 Stevenson is kind of slow.

But it doesn't always work out. You should have been all over Pacheco then. Pacheco's weird, man. Well, he had one of the fastest 40s that year. I think it was the fastest running back then. I'm not mistaken. I don't care about the fast. Usually, the fastest guy at the Combine is just famous because he was the fastest guy at the combine is just famous

because he was the fastest guy at the combine. You know, it's like Anthony Schwartz. But yes, slow running back. I think anything

close to like a four, six forties should be a red flag, but sometimes it works out. All right. That's it for the show.

We'll see on FFT in five very shortly. If you want to hop over there, check out that podcast. It's a good one. If you want to hop over there, check out that podcast. It's a good one. If you don't have 65 minutes, you can have five minutes to spare for fantasy football.

Thanks a lot for all your contributions, people. Talk to you later.