Fantasy Football Today - Ask Coach Anything with Scott Turner! (07/21 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 21, 2026

The FFT crew welcomes former NFL offensive coordinator Scott Turner for an insider's look at the biggest storylines heading into training camp, kicking things off with a fun round of training camp fill-in-the-blank (3:03). Scott shares what it's really like handling player holdouts & off-field distractions from a coaching staff's point of view (5:18), then breaks down the fantasy outlook for Marvin Harrison Jr. entering his 3rd season (14:29), DeVonta Smith's expanded role without A.J. Brown (20:43), and if De'Von Achane can deliver fantasy value on a team expected to struggle in 2026 (30:42). The conversation continues with DJ Moore's fit in Buffalo (43:44), whether TreVeyon Henderson can emerge in the Patriots backfield (56:47), and Scott's favorite and least favorite play calls (1:00:38). From coaching strategy to player usage, Scott's firsthand perspective provides the fantasy insight that can help you make sharper draft decisions and gain an edge in your league!Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcastsWatch FFT on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? It's a no idea. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Up to the races and he stays on his feet. It's just going to go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.

Special edition of the Fantasy Football Today podcast, Training Camp Edition, you might say, as we welcome back Scott Turner, who made a huge mistake. He was so good. time it came on the show that we roped him into another episode. If you thought you were going to be one and done, you were too good. Scott, welcome back to fantasy football today. How you doing? Doing well. Appreciate you having me back on. Oh, yeah. It's a pleasure because you really were so insightful last time.

And now we're going to ask you some more questions. Scott, by the way, is the co-host of the family business podcast, which he does with his sister Stephanie and his father, Norv Turner. You know, every episode shares their unique perspective from a collective 40 years of experience with interviews with coaches, players, and football minds like Christian McCaffrey and Troy Aikman and Jimmy Johnson. And Scott, of course, has been an offensive coordinator. He's been a play caller. He's been a coordinator for Carolina for Washington for the Raiders. He was most recently the passing game coordinator for the New York Jets.

Dave and Jamie are here as well. They are co-hosts of the Fantasy Football Today podcast. Hello, Dave. I'm still waiting for my chance to call plays for like a flag football team in South Florida. You got to do it. I would love to do it. It would be so much fun. Yeah.

You'd be great. I think he'd run the, he'd be way too run heavy, though, I think. Maybe. In flag football,

that would be something. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. I would call for a lot of like hook and ladders and laterals and all kinds of stuff where I'm just going to turn the ball over too much. Yeah.

Give it back to them or get big plays, right? Right. Yeah. Jamie? Yeah. Good morning, Jamie. Good morning.

All right. That's Jamie. All right, here we go. Let's get to, let's get the Scott Turner here. I got some very fun, easy stuff to intro the show.

Training camp. fill in the blank. Training camp is very blank. Important. Players blank training camp. Dislike. Joint practices are blank. Valuable.

I think the NFL should have blank preseason games. I think three. I think it's fine where it is. Okay. Do you think the joint practices are more helpful than the preseason games? Yeah, I do. I think, you know, what happens is, you know,

There's so much riding on, obviously, the season, you know, and it's very easy, like, when you put a plan together in the off season to talk about, hey, we're going to work these players hard, you know, we're going to, you know, we're going to test them physically. You know, we want these guys to play in the preseason games. And then as you get closer and closer to regular season, like the threat of, you know, having those guys not out there for a couple games because of injuries is real. You know what I mean? And you, you know, you tend to pull back a little bit.

maybe you have some guys that get some soft tissue injuries, you know, whatever it is. And so, you know, the preseason games. And then also there's coaches are paranoid. They, oh, we don't want to show our stuff. You know, we don't want to, even though everyone runs the same place. But, you know, but in joint practices, you have an agreement. The film's not going to go out.

You know, you're not bringing guys to the ground. You know, the quarterback can get live reps against a different defense. So it just, it's a lot more controlled environment. to get the guys that are actually going to be playing games on Sundays in the regular season to get them reps against another opponent that's not your team. Whereas like the preseason games, I mean, mostly, you know, you'll get some guys in there for a couple reps here and there that are starters. And then, you know, it's really guys that are going to be your practice squad players or maybe special teams players that are on the bubble that they get them or guys that are going to get released that are going to get majority of those, majority of those reps. So having joint practices, I think, is something that's really, really valuable for teams and able to get a look against different defenses.

All right. So let's get into our first topic. And it's training camp holdouts or hold-ins here. And Jacoby Reset, for example, the Cardinals are about to start training camp. We don't know exactly what kind of participation he's going to have. But Jacob Brisset is supposed to be their starting quarterback. He wants a new contract. How does something like that affect the team?

and as a coach, you know, how would it affect you if you're starting quarterback or not participating in training camp? I mean, it's huge. I mean, you're talking about, you know, the guy that you're, you know, that you want to lead you in the season going forward and he's not there getting the reps. And it's a brand new staff. So they're putting in a new offense. So he doesn't have the reps, you know, calling the plays in the huddle.

Now, Jacoby's a veteran. And I think he'll be fine. but as far as like dealing with the other players, they got the young rookie running back, you know, anytime, you know, your starting quarterback isn't there. I mean,

any starter isn't there, but especially the quarterback guy that's leading the offense, you know, that's a big loss. So it's just the same type of answer, if it's a wide receiver or running back that's holding out? Yeah,

of course it is. Now, it's just very much exemplified when it's, when it's the quarterback position. Got it. Scott, when we see guys hold out, like last year, Terry McClorin for hold in, whatever you want to call it these days, but Terry McLaren, Jonathan Taylor, Josh Jacobs, you know, some guys in recent history, they get off to slow start so they struggle with injuries.

Do you see a correlation as a coach to those things just because? I know that, I know that's happened. I think that I think it makes sense naturally, right? Like, it's just a natural conclusion to make. I haven't like done a deep dive into that. I know the examples that you just, that you just. that you just stated. But no, there is something to, you know,

those guys are working. Like I know Terry personally. Like we, I worked with them, you know, for three years in Washington. There's no one that's going to work harder or be more more prepared. But it's different like,

you know, running routes on your own, uh, compared to, you know, going out there, you know, with,

you know, running right football practice, you know, getting yourself in true football shape and being ready to, to play the game. And that's why, like, these sports science departments in the NFL, like, they do such a great job of, you know, structuring practice. So guys are having a workload and they track everything with the catapult as far as your GPS. So they do a good job of ramping the players up and like not doing too much too early. And then, you know, what happens with a guy like Terry, like by the

time he comes into camp, they're going to have an individualized program for him to make sure he's not doing too much too early like last year. But what happens is, you know, he wants to be out there with the starting offense. And now all of a sudden, maybe he does a little bit too much. And I don't know if that happened. I'm just using an example for that. So yeah, it's not only the mental side of it and getting your players ready to play,

but just the physical part of conditioning yourself for a season. I remember we work with Logan Ryan and he said there's a huge difference between being in shape and being in football shape when a 300. hundred pound guy is leaning on you or falling on you, you know, comparatively to, you know, just running around and, you know, trying to get yourself, you know, lose a few pounds. Yeah, absolutely. So holdouts are one thing.

Off-field distractions are another. And there's two players that I think fantasy managers are worried about in Rishi Rice, Josh Jacobs, they've had some off-field issues. I'm not going to ask you about those things. But when a player comes to camp with whatever issue it might be, does that affect the team? Does that affect the coaches? like what's the impact of that?

You know, I think it's a case by case difference. I think, but I do think like these guys are professionals, players and coaches, and they understand like once they're back in the building, you know, if the team's allowing them to be there, then we all got a job to do and they're going to be ready to work and move forward. I think guys can move past that pretty quickly. But, you know, there is some organizational things that you've got to deal with. And then you're talking about possible suspension.

so then how much of reps do you guys do you want to give these guys if they're going to be out early in games, you know, those types of things. I think I've been around some similar situations to where guys have been off the field for disciplinary issues. I mean, like I can go back to 2013. We had Josh Gordon and, you know, he missed the first two games of the season with the, you know, a failed drug test. And, you know, he was in training camp the whole time and then he had to go away from the team for two weeks. He was actually allowed to be amazing, came back and, you know, guys pretty much embraced him and he was ready to go. I think it matters on the individual. As long as those guys are showing up every day and doing the work, then the team's going to rally behind them and it'll be fine.

When you as a coach see that, you know, however you see it, you know, ESPN, CBS, you know, comes across your phone somehow, you know, internally. How pissed do you get? Just like, why? Why would you do that? Yeah, I mean, you do. You feel bad. I mean, you know, you feel bad for everybody involved. Obviously, I'm not saying I feel bad for someone that, you know, commits a crime or does something bad.

But like, just to put yourself in that situation when you have so much going for you, it really is, it's sad more than anything. Obviously, you feel bad for the victims of the situations if there is one of those. But yeah, I mean, this is like the, this, we're getting to the end of it because training camp is about to start. But this is kind of one of those scary times for the coach. where the players or guys are kind of off on their own doing their own thing. And, you know, they could potentially get into, get into some trouble and have some issues like that. But yeah, it is. It's always just disappointing is the biggest thing I would say. There's two photos that have been sort of making the rounds a little bit with wide receivers

looking pretty thick, bulking up in terms of Marvin Harrison and Travis Hunter. We talk about this a lot when we see running backs add weight. and you tend to see a little bit negative responses from their production during those seasons from that particular position. But as a coach, when you talk about a player's body changing fitness, all those things and the things that they do to sort of improve themselves, does it worry you at all when you see a player that has maybe a certain frame and they add muscle to it? Or you hear trying to get bigger from a receiver standpoint to be more physical, running backs, adding weight, stuff like that. Like how do you approach from a coaching standpoint just when you see things like that? Yeah, so, you know, we always had individual plans for each player.

So we would have like, or this is your goal weight. You know, we've had some guys in the past or say, hey, you can pull, you can pull a couple of muscle on from the receiver position. Like the number one most important thing is separation, like guys getting open consistently. So whenever guys add weight, you know, that tends to concern me a little bit because that doesn't necessarily lead to, you know, getting more open. especially like in Marvin Harrison's case, this guy there was a little bit of a bigger receiver to begin with. There's other guys like Xavier Worthy or something. And you're like, okay, yeah, you need to gain weight.

You know, you're a little bit of a smaller guy and that won't hurt you. So again, it's a case by case deal. But in all, but generally speaking, when the receiver position, when they tend to get bigger, I don't necessarily, that's not something that excites me about them moving forward. Why might a coach ask a receiver to put on weight? You know, a lot of times it's not necessarily putting on weight. And I don't know, like, I can't speak specifically.

A lot of times it's just like you want to like change your body. Like if you're a, you know, if a receiver is 13% body fat, like, hey, let's try to get you down to nine. You know what I mean? And it might, the scale might read the same, but like the body fat percentage just to shed some of that extra, you know, body fat. But if a guy's just getting absolutely destroyed the line of scrimmage, so you want to get a little bit more strength, you know what I mean, to get off a press if that was an issue, you might want to bulk up, you know, a little bit there.

That would be the biggest, the biggest thing. I don't know if I've never personally had a receiver gain weight because I wanted him help him block in the run game, but maybe there's some teams that might want him to do that, you know. That would be the other reason, I would think. contested catches, maybe a reason? Yeah, potentially, but I've never, like, I've never, like, tried to create a contested catch.

You know what I mean? Like, I'd rather the guy just be open, you know, and not have it be contested, you know? And I think also, like, you don't have to be big and strongly. Like, DeVante Smith in Philly is unbelievable contested catches, and he's like the littlest receiver in the league or one of them, you know, so I don't know if that necessarily has much to do with it. I think it's more of, like, that initial,

so they can't don't get smothered at the at the line of scrimmage. That's not in your playbook, the contested catch play? No, we tried to get guys open. It didn't always work, but that was the goal. What is your take on Marvin Harrison, Jr. As a reminder, his father was 27 years old when he finally broke out. It was his fourth year, Marvin Harrison in 1999, had 1,663 yards, but hasn't quite happened yet for Marvin Harrison Jr.

and, you know, I think this is kind of the second year, because I think he's gained weight, is he gained muscle this year. Last year, I remember him talking about that too, like trying to get stronger to run through contact a little bit more on his routes, but I guess I'm surprised that he has an overtaken, Trey McBride, he's an incredible player,

but I thought when they drafted Marvin Harrison Jr., that he would be the number one target on the team. Hasn't quite happened that way. Any thoughts on why it's unfolded the way it has? No, I mean, no, I think sometimes, like, you know, and this is really hard for people to admit, um, both in the media and, and the scouting department, like, sometimes like maybe your evaluation was just wrong. Like he, he's a good player.

Like I'm not saying he's not a good player. Like, but what was he drafted? Fourth. Yeah. Second. Yes. Yeah. So like, maybe he wasn't supposed to be the fourth pick in the draft, which is okay.

You know what I mean? Like there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. And I don't, and this isn't a knock on him. Like he was a productive player. I think, I mean, you looked at last year and when Jacoby was playing at the end of the year, like, it's not even, it was Michael Wilson was the guy that they were getting the ball to after Trey McBride, too. You know what I mean? So I think he was going to have a really good career. Is it going to ever match that number four overall pick? I don't know. Like, I don't know. I don't think right now that you would say that it is. But like you're saying, like his dad broke out at 27 years old. And maybe he just, you know, he was a young player who's three years and gone out of Ohio State. So maybe just needs a little more time to mature. You know, I know he had some rough moments.

And a lot of times what happens with guys like that, and it's not just for serial position, but any position, like you get picked at that spot. And you're expected and go to a team like Arizona that hasn't had a lot of success. And you're expected to come in and like, you know, be the savior. And that's a lot of pressure for a young player. And then if you combine that with maybe, maybe he, He isn't that type of player. It can steamroll and get kind of worse than what it should be for him.

And I think, you know, there were some moments where it looked like that happened. He bounced back and still had some good games at times. And I think that he's got a chance to have a really good career. I just don't know if it's going to be, you know, what maybe people thought it was going to be when he was drafted. Do you have any, you know, I don't know the right word here, but any, like, inkling of what it's like. for somebody like him who has a father who's had such success in the league and just, you know, any sort of like, you know, living up to expectations, maybe? Yeah.

I mean, you know, I think, you know, you've been around different guys like that. I mean, it's not the same at all. I mean, my dad was a head coach for three different, you know, franchises. And I came into coaching and, you know, there's an expectation. And, you know, people kind of view you a little bit differently because of that. But, you know, there's a lot of benefits that come from that, too. same with him. You know what I mean? So I think you've got to take the good with the bad. But I think it goes to what I'm saying. Like your dad's a Hallfam receiver. You were the fourth pick in the

draft. People said you were the best receiver prospect in however many years. You know what I mean? And that is, you know, for a kid, you know, for a guy that's 21 years old, you know, trying to make a name for himself in the league. Like there's a little bit of, there's a little bit of added pressure to something that's already hard enough as it is. Adam, I think it probably helped that his fourth year he got, there was third year, at least he got Peyton Manning. Probably, probably did help a little bit. Do you think? I want to ask Scott about another wide receiver if he's about to live up to the hype.

He already mentioned his name briefly. I also want to promote, we have some email questions from our audience. We asked you for those. You gave us those. I want to make sure we get to those. We're going to be right back after this break on fantasy football today with more from Scott Turner. Sky, you gave us great nuggets on a lot of players. last time. I hope we didn't talk about this guy. You just mentioned Devante Smith being so good at

contested catches. We're so optimistic and hopeful for Devante Smith this year with AJ Brown now on the Patriots. He says he's going to live up. He was the 10th pick in the draft. Do you think this is the year? And he's been really good. He's been really good. But he's just been held back by kind of low pass volume and dealing with AJ Brown is awesome. Is this the year he finally breaks out? You see a big season coming for Devante Smith? I do. I think they're going to, you know, they're going to feed him a lot of targets. It's obviously with A.J. Brown being out, being gone. You know what I mean? That's part of it.

It's going to be really interesting. I think Philly is one of the more interesting teams offensively going into this season because they're doing a total, they're totally changing their offense. You know, they've had this same system. You know, even the coordinators have changed, but they've been in the same system for this many years. And now they're totally going to the, you know, again, Jalen Hertz is someone that's used to playing in shotgun, and they're going to be mostly under center. you know, the wide zone, the naked, whether it's the, you know, the Green Bay system.

I mean, it'll be interesting to see. I'm sure, you know, Sean Mannion's got his own, you know, how he wants it to look. It's not going to be just, you know, plug and play Matt LaFlor's offense. You know, so it's going to be interesting to see kind of how, what they look like, what they decide to do on offense, number one. And then, you know, how they decide to structure the targets. But I would think in the passing game that DeVante Smith is going to be their number one guy with the targets. And that should lead to a big year for him. Because he's, I mean, he's such a good player.

I mean, you go back to watch him in college and what he's been able to do. And then really, he's always taking advantage of all the opportunities he's had. And like you said, because of high run volume and the presence of, you know, AJ Brown, maybe the opportunities weren't there. So with the increased opportunities, I think he'll just be able to, you know, kind of have an explosion of productivity. Awesome. All right. A couple of other things I want to ask you about before we get to the emails here.

Let's talk about the Vikings. And Ian Rappaport, he kind of surprised me. He said that this quarterback competition could go through the preseason for the Vikings with Kyler Murray and McCarthy. And I think we all kind of, in the fantasy community, we just sort of expect Kyler Murray to win the job. But how do you think Kyler Murray? if he does win the job, fits into Kevin O'Connell's system.

And, you know, does he stay in the pocket more? Like, how much does he run? And then I'll ask you about mobile quarterbacks with wide receivers because you just coached Justin Fields. You were on the staff there for Fields. But anyway, the fit of Kyler Murray in Minnesota, if he does win the job, what do you think about that? First off, I think he'll be their quarterback.

I think that, you know, you got to say, certain things publicly. You know, obviously JJ going into his third year being a first round pick. I don't think they're just going to hand the job to somebody else. But, you know, they brought Kyler Murray in there for a reason. So that's another one that is going to, that's going to be interesting as well. Like, you know, again, Kyler is someone that likes to be in shotgun. Now they were under center more with through petting than they were with Cliff, obviously.

But still, you know, he likes to play in the gun. You know, Minnesota, you know, they've been more a little bit more. a little bit more balanced. So, you know, with Kevin O'Connell, like, how much is he going to adjust for Kyler or how much is he going to expect Kyler to adjust to fit into what they do? You know, with the weapons that they have on offense, I think that he'll be productive. Kyler's always been a productive player, obviously what he brings with the legs. He's going to feed the ball to Justin Jefferson.

I mean, you know, you know that. And then be able to extend it and make plays. I think a lot's going to be seen as far as just what's. they try to do a lot is yet to be seen as far as just schematically. Like, what are they going to try to do schematically, um, kind of merging Kyler into, into that system. Fair enough. I think you pretty much answer the question for me. Dave, I know you. Yeah. And I wish I could be more specific. It's just like, yeah, you don't know what they're, what they're going to, what they're going to try to do.

I think Kyler is capable of doing everything. Um, you know, you got to, you got to get a little bit of a little more depth in the pocket for him because he, so he can see because of his height or create some passing lanes or get him on the edge. And I think that Kevin, uh, we know, will do that. What's the conversation like with with J.J. McCarthy, knowing that Kyler comes into essentially take his job. Like how do you sort of manage those expectations for a young quarterback who still has clearly a bright future, but it's coming off such at this point season? Yeah, I think, um, you know, those are tough. You know, there's a tough. It's never, there's no easy way to

handle that. I think you got to be honest with them. Be like, you know, we brought them in because, you know, we, we expect the quarterback position to have to play better. And, you know, we need to raise your game. Now, what you, what we're talking about, though, is like, part of what having a quarterback controversy are saying we're going to have a quarterback, you know, we're going to have a battle going through training camp is so you're, you're, you're delaying this conversation also, too. You know what I mean? Because you're going to, which is, but sometimes it's to the detriment of the team, right? Because you're giving JJ, you know, how long you're going to give him first team reps?

getting ready for the season, that these are now reps that Kyler's not getting. And that's where quarterback competitions are tough, you know, because you only get so many practices leading up to the first game of the season. And, you know, every single one of those reps is valuable. And to have a quarterback competition, you know, you're basically taking reps away from whoever wins a job. Someone's going to get slighted. You know what I mean? and that's where, you know, that's where that can be tough.

But I think honestly, like, JJ knows and just being honest with them, whatever that is, you know, and they see everything every day in practice and being straight up with them about, you know, that players respect that more than, you know, kind of putting it off. And then, because the truth always comes out, you know. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I know how you feel about Mackay Lemon, Carnell Tate, Jeremiah, Love. about them the first time you're on with us. But others in the draft, and maybe guys that are a little under the radar that you noticed

in the draft lead up. Okay. Well, I know I forgot we had talked about Mikhail Leman because that was my guy that I was going to say today. Okay. Because I do think, and we talked about, you know, obviously, Philly with Devante Smith, and I think a lot on offense is going to have to do with, you know, what they do offensively. But I think he's got a chance to be a successful rookie.

everyone you know you brought up Jeremiah love and and I actually had some conversations with people about him like he's the guy that they're going to just feed the ball to I know we again we taught I'm bringing up guys we've talked about but like they're they're they're excited about him they're going to feed him the ball and you know we talk about like you know running backs and especially like running backs on teams that are on like poor teams you know I mean teams aren't very good right like it's hard for them to get a lot of carries in second half of games But when you got a guy like Jeremiah Love, it's going to catch the ball a lot. And that's where like in 2019, when we had Christian McCaffrey in Carolina and he had that,

the record-breaking season where he had a thousand yards rushing, thousand yards receiving, like, you know, we weren't very good, especially in the second half of the season, but we threw him the ball so much that you were still able to, you know, he was still able to be very, very productive. And that's where I see, Jeremy, I love, no offense to the Cardinals, but obviously they're rebuilding their program. They're in a tough division. It's going to be, you know, it's going to be a tough, a tough year for them more than likely.

Their whole schedule is impossible. It's one of the toughest schedules. Yeah, I mean, just six year games every year, Seahawks 40-9s-Ramp. So just start off there. And then, you know, and then, yeah, you're right. I mean, the rest of the schedule as well. So, you know, again, I don't, I didn't answer your question because I just,

I just said names that we've already talked about. But that's all right. It's hard for me to think about. you know, right now just, um, on top of my head, some other names. Maybe as we get closer to the, uh, to the season, we'll do this again. I might have some better, better insight for you. I still like, I like the doubling down on lemon and love. Yeah. And honestly, we have a different audience now than we did a month ago whenever you were on. So we have more people listening that didn't hear the first interview. So if you don't, don't worry about repeating anything. It was great

information. Um, and the people wanted to ask you a lot of questions. So I think we should get to those. First question is from Jake, who's a CBS sports content editor. And he says when projecting a running back's statistic success, no matter how talented he is, how much stock are you putting into the strength of his offensive line? How much should fans emphasize the offensive line? A ton. I mean, those things go hand in hand. I mean, you're, you know, the perfect example is Genty at the Raiders last year.

like who really like he was he would the he was contacted you know the earliest of any running back I saw those stats as far as like they couldn't get him started and then when they were able to get him started like he had some success but there really wasn't much you know he can do so I think that uh you got a factor in the line um you know a lot of times it can be even more so where like you got a back that maybe you're not so high on but you really like the line like those guys are going to produce some yards, maybe more than, maybe more than you would think. I think it's, you know, sometimes you might even want to factor the line in more than the, than the player.

I have something similar to that. We talked yesterday a lot about Devon A. Chan and the situation in Miami. And I don't know how much you've, you know, kept up with what's going on there. But clearly there's a rebuild going on and a lot of questions about some of the skill position players there. So when you have a talent like a Devon A. Chan who clearly can be. one of the best running backs in football, so dynamic can do a lot of different things, catching the ball, et cetera.

But you know that everything around him is a little bit suspect. Quarterback doesn't necessarily throw the ball to the position as much. The receiving core is very, you know, at least on paper, looks pretty bleak. Do you get concerned that just defense is just going to focus on taking that type of player away and as a play caller, how much do you just want to put the ball in his hands as much as you possibly can? But knowing that, obviously, the other side of the ball is just game planning to take him out. Yeah.

I mean, you know, especially with the quarterback situation, and I like Malik Willis. I think he's a good player. This isn't, again, about him, but like when, especially early in the season, like, when teams are going to play them, they're going to say, we are not going to let these guys run the football. You know what I mean? Now, they're going to have an ability to do a little more in the run game because of, you know, Malik Willis's ability to run and what he can bring in the run game. But, like, it's going to be an. uphill battle. You know, they're going to make Malik win, beat him with his arm.

You know, that's what teams are going to do. So, you know, they're going to take A.C.N. out of the games. Now, the other thing with A. Chan, he can catch the ball. So he's going to be productive in other ways. He's not just a one, he's not just a one-trick pony. But I think, like, early in the year especially, until they show or, I mean, if they show that they can be people throwing the football, it's going to be, hard for them to consistently run the ball.

And then we get into the factor two, I was talking about, whereas, like, if they get behind, you know, that's going to be hard to feed the ball to H-N as well. So I think that that's a very tricky situation because you look at, you know, you look at the type of player he is and, you know, how productive he's been. But again, it's a, it's a tough, it's a tough situation to be in. As a play call, just another one in regards to that. We had this conversation yesterday. Malik Willis, his target percentage throwing two running backs,

lowest in the NFL the last two years. Yep. As Adam brought up, the two running backs that he's played with mostly, correct me if wrong, I'm Derek Henry and Josh Jacobs. Yeah. Not Devon A-chan. So when you look at that as a coach and you see, okay, this is what our personnel is, now he's going to a situation where the personnel is much different,

where, again, Devon A. What he does as a pass catcher. Do those things sort of dictate how you, work with Malik and play calls for Malik in terms of, okay, I know what his history is, but now we have this different style and how much do you sort of, you know, implement with him, you have to use that as opposed to maybe using your legs to escape or just not relying on that position in your passing repertoire. Yeah, no, for sure. I think now, did you say it's the lowest percentage of passes to running backs? Was that the stat that you said? And conversely,

two of the highest in that two years span. Two and yeah of course yeah yeah no absolutely and I think and it's a different offense in Miami than what Tua played in you know with with Bobby

Sloick and and like you said like though and a lot of it like scheme wise and Green Bay they don't they don't I don't think I mean Jordan does Jordan love I don't think he throws a ball to backs very often either right like right

he doesn't throw that much I think what he doesn't throw that much to begin with but yeah yeah good But no, I think that's part of it. I think that's part of it. I think you've got to play the strength of your personnel. And I would be surprised if they're not throwing the ball to Achan.

You know what I mean? Just based off of the other guys that they have out there. I think that you just got to make, you know, Green Bay, you know, they were going to throw the ball tight end or the receivers, the play action pass where, you know, the back is really going to only get in the ball in the checkdowns. And then they didn't have those backs that are the third down option. option route type runners which not um so they're not you know you're not featuring those guys in that part of the passing game as well uh so i think that had something to do with it um i'm sure that's something that they've worked on uh through o t a training camp is you know throwing them all the backs and and i don't think he's going to go from last to first but i'd be surprised if they're

not targeting a chance mleek willis had an 8.6 percent running back target rate which is unbelievably low. Matthew Stafford had the lowest in the NFL among qualified passers at 10.7%. And Malik Willis was even lower than that. Jordan Love was about league average, about 16.6%. And Tua was third, 25.3% behind two 49ers quarterbacks, Mac Jones and Brock Purdy. Yeah, which makes sense.

Because they're throwing them, Paul, the McCaffrey. Exactly. Okay. Here's another email. So one thing we love in fantasy. in PPR leagues where you get a point per catch. We love screen passes or design plays for easy catches. I mean, if a guy catches a screen pass and goes six yards,

that's 1.6 fantasy points. It's just easy money. So the question for Max is, primarily for wide receivers, but maybe tight ends too, regarding easy button targets or design targets, and he gives the chargers as an example. Do teams gravitate towards giving the easier targets

to the guy less capable of separating on their own? and he thinks that in this case would be Quentin Johnston, or do they lean the other way and give it some more talented wide receivers in this case, Ladd-McConkie, and that's who they ultimately want to funnel the ball to. So do you think any type of wide receiver

is more likely to get those lay-up targets? Yeah, to me, the players that you want to get those targets to are the guys that are going to create. So like the yak, guys are going to get you yards after catch. Like, all right, hey, you know, whether it's, things are going good or bad, but like, let's get the ball. ball in, you know, you know, whatever, like in Washington.

Like, we would say, hey, let's get the ball in Terry's hands. He's not catching and get vertical. He's going to be tough to tackle. Let's get some yards and get him going. So that's where those go. Like with the screens, it's whenever we would game plan screens or those, you know, perimeter plays, it would always be, you know, we wanted to get the ball to someone that we felt like was going to make, was going to not let the first guy tackle him.

Like DJ Moore and Carolina, we were in Carolina, we'd always get those to him. because he's great in space, you know, and that's where, that's who those targets go to or, or should go to. You know, you talk about like tight ends,

like Tyler Kraft in Green Bay, he's come off the injury, but like he's amazing yard drive to catch. So like, they just wanted to get him the ball on, you know, flat routes or, um,

and see, you know, again, have them, have him make somebody tackle him, you know, and, and that,

that's where those targets go very, I've never been around where like, um, you felt like you needed to like give a guy a charity. target like hey we got to get this guy going because he's not feeling because he's pouty you know we don't we haven't really dealt dealt with that to me it's just you know get uh get the ball in the hand and get the ball and the hands of the guys that are going to be able to go uh gain yards anthony lind once told me that he views those types of throws as extended runs yeah and he especially loved to

lean on them when he felt like his run game couldn't get going is that kind of a general thought across the league? I don't know if it's necessary. The run game couldn't get going. I think that there's something to do that. I always thought of it as the same way. I thought of like the receiver screens as perimeter run game. And I'd be like, you know,

we throw them and we get a five-yard gain and guys would be like disappointed. I'm like, guys, if we ran inside zone and gained five yards, like the line coaches would be chest pumping each other. Like it's, you know, it's five yards is five yards. And it makes the, it makes the defense cover the whole field. Like make those, you know, if you ever go to a football practice,

the first drill the defenses do is called pursuit drill, where they throw the ball of sideline and everyone runs to the football and then runs back. Well, like, make that 320-pound nose guard run from the middle of the field all the way out, outside the numbers, and then get lined up. So, like, and they do have a threat of big plays. Like, if you get them on it, if you catch them against the pressure, you know, you can get it, you can get a big play. But, yeah, I think of it the same ways, extended perimeter runs.

And again, just trying to get the ball in the hands of guys that are going to be able to do something on their own. You know, you got to block two guys out there instead of inside the box where you got to block seven, you know. I'm showing you here, by the way, the leaders in screen catches, screen pass catches last year. Yeah. A lot of, it's kind of a mix, actually. Debo Samuel, number one. The fact that Rishi Rice is number two is amazing because he played basically half a season. You have 25 catches on screens.

Where's the Tray McBride? That's pretty crazy. That's just a screen is just, that's just qualified any catch behind the line of scrimmage, I'm assuming? Or basically at the line of scrimmage. Yeah, at or behind. Yeah, I think so.

That's how this works. So it's Debo, Rishi Rice, Trey McBride, Khalil Shakir, Wondale Robinson, Malik Washington. Really? Chimery, D.K., Justin Jefferson. I didn't know of Malik Washington at 21 catches. That's all good last year.

It might be a huge chunk of what he does this year, too, based on what I saw at minicamp. But it is something I love about Justin, like Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase being up here. He may not think about that, but those guys consistently get a lot of screen pass targets and it helps. Absolutely. I mean, but both of those guys, again, I mean, as good as they are getting down the field, everything like that, they're just as good with the ball in their hand. So that's, that makes sense. And Luther Burden, I mean, he didn't have that many targets.

And he had 17 screen passes and he can do a lot with the ball on. hands. I love that. Yeah. No, he's definitely a guy that's going to be exciting to watch this season coming up. All right. Let's take a quick break and get to the rest of our email questions here, including one about coaching trees and some coach speak, a Romeo Dobbs question, a DJ Moore question. We'll be right back on fantasy football today. So last time you came on, you talked about DJ Moore and we thought it was really insightful stuff. You coached him. I'll never forget you saying he's running faster than it looks. He's going faster that it looks like he's going

because he's such a smooth runner. But Andy's question is, do you think DJ Moore is done or did the Bears just not utilize him properly? No, I don't think he's done. And I don't, and I don't, so I don't think he's done. I think he'll be great in Buffalo. I know he's getting older.

I think he's 29 years old. But I think he fits well with Josh Allen as far as guy that's going to, again, he's going to all, he never lets the first guy tackle him. He's going to get some yards after catch. He's a smooth route runner. You know, he's been productive. I know last year, you know, he didn't get the targets that he had in the past.

And I think it was just time for both guys, for them to move on. I think, you know, like we said, I think the bears feel good about Luther Burden. So, you know, DJ is an older player. They were making a decent amount of money. And they were able to get. get him to Buffalo. And I think it's something that's probably going to be good for both parties.

But I'm excited about DJ this season and what he's going to do in that offense with Josh. And I don't know maybe he wasn't the best fit with Ben in that offense. But I think he'll be great in Buffalo. Scott, last time you're on with us, you mentioned something just about a call from above in regards to a certain you know, personnel situation. When you have a move like this that happens where there's draft pick compensation, there's contracts given that there's players brought in with obviously a certain expectation.

As a play caller, do you feel obligated or do you sometimes get a mantra from above, like we have to feature this guy? Like I brought this up several times. Like it feels like the Jaguar is going to have to justify Travis Hunter's draft pick and trying to get him on the field offensively because I think if he was just a defensive back, they're probably not taking him second overall. they took him because he's a unicorn. So it feels like we're going to see a lot of Travis Hunter

forced into certain situations that he's probably not better than the three other receivers they have on that roster. DJ Moore goes to Buffalo, draft pick compensation, etc., AJ Brown, those type of things. Do you sometimes as a play caller feel obligated to have to feature this guy knowing he's a good player, clearly, but sometimes like, okay, the GM may have said something,

personnel may have said something, somebody may have put a bug in your, like, we got to get this guy the ball as much as possible because we did this. Um, yeah, I, I, so there always is that kind of like elephant in the room, I guess. It's not like, those things are never like said or at least I've never been in that situation where someone's like, we have to throw in the ball. Like when we went like in, I mean, you know, my going into my last year in Washington, like, we signed Terry to a new contract, McLaren. And like, but like, I always want to throw Terry the ball anyways.

Like he was our best player. And like, I think that's the same situation. been like in in Buffalo where, you know, they're going to want to get, they're going to want to get DJ the ball, AJ Brown, same situation in New England. Now the Travis Hunter one is interesting. Now, I hope they're not doing that just because I think that that like, every, that creates a negative effect for your offense,

but also throughout the whole building. You know what I mean? Because it creates like a certain level of resentment from other players, even if they don't say it. You know what I mean? Like, it's just human. nature like um you know the that travis hunter thing and then we could have a whole conversation about this because um like they uh if they didn't have the success they did last year i think people

would be making a much bigger deal of of that you know i mean as far as like what they traded away for him and then obviously you got hurt and and and people get hurt and everything like that but you know they were having a successful year they were obviously you got a good good year, got to the place, everything like that. So that kind of, people talk about it, but it's not, you know, it's not talked about like it would be if they were, you know, six and 11, right? You know, so I think that going forward, that's going to be something to follow. You know, I don't know what they're going to do.

Like, with him as far as he's going to be playing on defense and then how much on offense, you know, the whole human body can only take so much. So it'll be, that'll be another thing. It's interesting to see what the plan is. Like, if they only play a limited amount on offense, then yeah you can get him a target here and there and it's not as big of a deal as far as like taking away from the offense but the other thing is too like you also don't want him in a situation where every time he goes on the field they everyone knows that that's where the ball

that's where the ball's going right you know so but yeah there is something to that um I I know I kind of went round around there there's something to you know knowing that like you know we got to get this guy's ball um because you know we gave up ex for him or we paid him this much money. And that's where, you know, Josh McDaniel said this to me a while ago, and it's so important, it's one of the most important things in the NFL is you want to pay the right players. Like you want to make sure you're paying the right players on your roster.

And that way, you know, if you're paying someone that doesn't deserve it a ton of money and they're not matching the production, then it creates these issues that we're talking about. You know what I mean? That again, like I said, like it's hard enough already. So you want to stay away from creating more problems for yourself. An email from Jay. He says, I often hear that a coach came from another coach's tree. Does that actually mean much?

Do coaches have to kneel before a head coach before they leave to swear allegiance to continue the philosophy that they were taught? Or is too much given to that theory? Besides your dad, do you feel that you are a branch of anyone's tree? So, um, so no, they obviously you don't have to pledge allegiance, but it's just, but it's, but it's, it's like, it's what they know. tattoos? No, like it's like for like for example like David Blow in in Washington. Like let's use him for an example. Like he was with, he was with Cliff. But before that, you know, he played. He was with Ben Johnson. Like they're going to be running that system. Like that system's been successful. But also like that's just what that's what he knows. Like so he it's not like he's going to like get a job. He, you know, you got the job because you were part of this system and this, the team. And this, the team. And the team. team that hired you wants to run this system. It's not like you're going to like all of a sudden come in and research something else and be totally different. You know, so that, you know,

those, that's the offense that they know. Now, as you get going, you're going to have your own twist on it. You're going to have your own, you know, different plays or, you know, try this have a different formation. Let's add this motion to it. But as far as like the, the genesis of, you know, the offense and the verbiage, it's got to come from somewhere and they're going to use the offenses that they've been around, and that's where the coaching tree part of it comes from. Obviously, you know, you talked about my dad. I spent time with Rob Chisinski, either, both before I worked with my dad, and then when I was, you know, together, we worked with him in Cleveland. I learned a lot from him. That was my first job in the NFL as the Carolina. And then, you know, I've been

fortunate to spend this last few years in a bunch of different offenses and learn, you know, I was like, I talked about Josh McDaniels being around him. really valuable time. It wasn't even a full year, but the whole offseason, then half a season, you know, spent some time with Luke Getzzi and learning that, which is basically the Matt LaFleur, the Patriots, I'm sorry, the Packers system, being around that. And then with Tanner, Engstrand, you know,

with the Ben Johnson lion system this past year. So I wouldn't say I'm a part of any other tree, but I've been exposed to almost every offensive system that's in the NFL. and there's a lot of cool stuff out there, and there's a lot of different ways to do the same things. And I've been fortunate to be exposed to those things. There are 14 new defensive coordinators in the NFL this year. There's 18 new offensive play callers in the NFL this year.

But just for the defensive coordinators, when you go up against a new defensive coordinator, do you look back on who they were with and who their biggest influences are to help build a game plan? Yeah, absolutely. You have to. So, again, I keep using why. So I think it's better if you use, like, specific examples.

But is it Dante Jones? Who's the defense coordinator in Washington that just came from Minnesota? Oh, crap. But anyways, we know what I'll get to the name. So he, so you're, so you're coming and you're playing, let's say you're playing Washington week one. All right. So you're going to go back and look at Minnesota. And this is a, this is a hard one because, so, like,

like base, base downs, you're going to see, okay, what's their front structures that they use? These are different coverage structures they use. And then you're going to break down every single pressure over the whole season. And then, like, in different periods in training camp, you're going to, like, show those pressures and make sure you're good on it. And then, you know, it's always, it's the worst. Like, first game, brand new coordinator because you're, like, pulling up, you're turning over rocks of like, because the last thing you want is, like, your first third and eight, a guy to just come totally free and just freaking tattoo your quarterback. in the back because you weren't prepared because they ran a pressure that you didn't show your offense.

And again, you have the most time leading up to week one. So, yeah, you're going to look at, okay, where were they an assistant and just look at, okay, what's the structure of that defense? And then, again, you've got to practice the blitzers. Like, you've got to rep those because they're complicated. And then, you know, the other thing is you've got to be a little bit more simple, maybe going to that game. And, you know, you know, the kind of the, there's going to be jitters, week one, guys are excited to start the season. You're going against, you know, unscouted looks.

So try to be basic kind of in your approach. But, yeah, as far as the research you're doing, you're just looking at where they've been, guys, they've been around and just, and try to do that. And just know, like, tell you guys, expect the unexpected. Like, this guy's first time ever having a chance to call defensive NFL, like, you're going to get some crazy blitz on, at some point. You know what I mean, that he's been, like, cooking up for like, oh, when I'm a Deerance Quarry, I'm calling this. You know, it's just, you know, guys want to do stuff like that. So you got to, you know, you got to be ready for that. And players have to trust their rules.

I had to look it up. It was, it was Durante Jones. Durante Jones. I'm sorry. Yeah, right. Yeah, hey, you knew better than I did. Does it work the same way for defensive coordinators going up against first time OCs? Yeah, I think it's the same thing.

I think, I think they'll look at, you know, again, if you're, you know, Shaw Manning, we talked about him in Philly. So whoever they play week one, I can't remember, like that defensive coordinator. Oh, okay, so there you go. So he's, that'll be fun for both of them. They're both just like pulling, pulling, you know, pulling cards out of a hat there. I have no idea what they're going to see. But yeah, they're going to look at Green Bay.

They're going to expect, you know, again, the Eagles hired Sean Manion because they wanted to run that system. So that's what, you know, they're going to get that. And then, you know, the preseason, again, people aren't. showing what they're going to run in preseason, but they're going to at least run their base stuff. So you're going to see some of that. So you're going to look at the preseason games, especially as an offensive coach,

looking at defense as far as just the front structures, because that's what you're going to see. They're not going to just run a totally different front. You can see some variation, but they're going to run what they run. Is there a defense coordinator you hated facing? Yeah, yeah, for sure. you know, Dan Quinn, you know, Dan Quinn was tough for me.

In Washington, in Dallas, we beat him my last game there, but we had some tough games. They had some really good players, but I thought he always did a good job. And he did a really nice job, but once he got to Dallas of really adapting what he'd been doing in the past. Jim Schwartz, when he was in Philly, you know, was someone that I thought did a really good job and was tough to go against. those are the two guys. Those are two division division matchups that I had in Washington. You know,

go in at the Raiders. Vance Joseph does a great job. Again, really good defense, really good personnel, but does a really good job of getting his guys in the right place, kind of try to keep you off balance, you know, had some good games against him.

So talking more about, you know, people really want to know about coaching tendencies. We do make somewhat of a big deal about it here on fantasy football today. So obviously you work with Josh McDaniels. You've talked about him a couple times. One of his tendencies, I don't know if it's on purpose or it just worked out this way. Throughout a long history of play calling, a lot of running back committees.

Very few leadbacks. Josh Jacobs, though, was an example of a lead back. You look at the Patriots this year. Do you think there's any chance they don't have a chance? they don't have a committee for the entire season. I mean, we know they're going to start that way, but I think people are hoping, fantasy managers are hoping,

that Trevian Henderson, with his talent, emerges and sort of takes over a bigger role, a big role in this backfield. What do you think the chances of that happening are? I would say, probably not great. So I don't want to crush dreams here, but I think as, you know,

as a second year, As a second year player, he's a second year player. I think he's going to be what they'll call the sub-back, where he's going to play in passing situations and on third down. And then, you know, he'll get, you know, I'm sure he'll get some carries in there as well. Now, again, I've been wrong before. So, you know, he could grow into that.

But I think also, too, is just like, it's a tough position to play. And the day in, day out, you know, pounding you're going to get. It takes a special type of play. to deal with that. And I don't know if they're going to ask a second year guy to do that, especially when they have some other backs that they feel good about, you know, on the,

on the roster. And I think, you know, Josh is the, we never really had this conversation specifically about just the running back position. But, you know, just a different skill set.

Like, you know, that guy that's going to hit in between, you know, Josh likes 21 personnel, where, you know, the backs fall on a fullback.

You know, that's where the Ligarrett came into back in the old, you know, Patriot War days. and then the Dionne Lewis is and the white and the guys are going to throw the ball too on the passing downs. You know, that's a different skill set.

You know what I mean? So I think that's really it. It's for no other reason than that. I mean, that's the simple answer. I mean, I love the, I don't love that for any of, you know, with the particular players in the backfield, but I love the outlook there. It's very helpful.

We had another last emailer here. Last email questions from Shane. And again, it's about the Patriots. Shane thinks people are sleeping on Romeo Dobbs, and he wants to know what kind of role you think Dobbs could fill in this offense. We have sort of, you know, forgotten about him, I guess, since the AJ Brown trade.

But four-year contract, you never know. I think it's four-year $68 million. Who knows how much is actually going to get paid to him, but they invested a lot in Romeo Dobbs. What kind of role do you think he'll have for the Patriots? Yeah, I think he's a really good player. I've liked watching him play in Green Bay and on tape. And I think he's going to get some favorable matchups.

Obviously, you're playing with a very good young quarterback. He's only going to keep getting better, you know, A.J. Brown. And then you've got a coordinator and Josh that knows how to distribute the football. So I think that, you know, I think this, that offense is really going to take a step. You know, obviously they lost Diggs, but then you're playing with AJ Brown and Dobbs. I think that that's going to really open things up for the rest of the offense as well as getting the ball in their hand. So I think that he'll have a big year. And I think that they'll be a very productive offense.

He's one of those fascinating guys, Adam, because like you said, the Packers don't throw the ball very much. So if he does get a somewhat spike in targets, we see what he's capable of doing. Yes, I sure will. All right, we have time for a few more questions. Jamie, I know you had a fun question you wanted to ask Scott. Yeah, so I remember all of my few good calls. a lot of my bad calls, you know, in fantasy suggestions. Do you have a play call that stands out to you that just everything worked perfectly?

And then one that you called and you immediately was like, oh, crap, I should not have said that. Yeah, we, yeah. So we played in Jacksonville. We played Jacksonville week one in 2022. And we had the ball. And like, we were down by, I think you were down by two. And it was in the four. quarter like a minute 30 left and it was third and seven and we were all right outside the red

zone and it was uh it's it's actually funny um that you say that because it was a mike colbo was first time defense coordinator he'd been with todd bulls um so he's his first game ever calling defense and when we had played Tampa um we had played Tampa um we had played Tampa in the past two seasons and in that situation Todd Bulls had had called a like a zero pressure um and they just sat on routes. And I had run like a max protection and ran a quick out to the single receiver both times and gotten conversions on it. So I had told the guys, if we get in this situation, I'm going to call a double move.

I'm going to max protection and then call a double move. And it was Johan Tootson. It was his first game. And the corner, Tyson Campbell, he'd already had an interception in the game on an out, a quickout. It was Carson once as a quarterback. So we called it and they went max pressure and he was sitting all over him. And Carson actually kind of under threw the ball. But Johan made an unbelievable catch for a touchdown and gave us the lead and we were able to win the game.

And that was one of those ones that, yeah, that I called and worked out great. And then conversely on the bad one, we played Atlanta in later on that same season. And it was kind of a four-minute situation. And we were in 11 personnel. and I didn't see that the defense had base defense, and I called a toss play where we didn't have enough guys to block in the edge. And it was late in the game where we don't want to call a timeout, and we ended up taking, took a loss there that was tough.

Now, we ended up punt, and then luckily defense stopped and we won the game. But that was one that definitely one of those calls that you'd like to have back. I remember that Dotson play for sure. Yeah. So I think we were off to the races with him talking. about how much we, we loved him. And, oh, he's going to be awesome for fantasy. Look at this great first play that he had and first game that he had.

He had two touchdowns that he had two touchdowns. Oh, we know. We know. We remember. Well, he had, and again, he had seven touchdown. That's the thing. And who, who did he sign with in the offseason? Does anyone remember?

Atlanta. Yeah, he's with Atlanta. I mean, I got a shot. I'm excited for him. I've always liked him. I mean, when he missed five games, his rookie year with me. And he caught seven touchdowns that year. And I don't know what have.

I left after, you know, I was let go after that season, so I don't know necessarily what happened. I know it didn't work out in Washington. Then he goes to Philly where he's, you know, the third or fourth option, fifth option on a team that doesn't throw the ball very much. So, you know, I think that, I think he's still got a change. He's still a young player. And I'm looking forward to him going, his career going forward.

John, God. We got one more for you. Adam lost power. So he's, go ahead. So he had a question in regards to grass versus turf because we got a lot of conversation recently with the World Cup and, you know, how the stadium's turned over and used grass. And a lot of the players were saying,

hey, look how great this has been. Your thoughts on grass versus turf in a lot of stadiums now. Yeah, 100, I mean, I think it's 100% grass. I mean, players like grass. I mean, we have turf fields. We have an indoor, we have everywhere I've been has an indoor facility. And unless it's like absolutely pouring down rain, like the players all would rather go play outside on the grass.

Because it's just the, the where, the, the, really the back, the joints. It's like that turf is just hard on them, you know, the wear and tear. Even if, like, you're playing a game on turf, like, we still practice on grass all week. So, you know, again, I know that there's different things. They got, they got hoops. They got to run through and through. I know it's more expensive, everything like that. But I think that it's better for the players' well-being.

And there's no doubt that the grass is. But even for, as a coach, like, standing out on the turf and practice and, like, you're, you know, your low back, it's tight. And you'd much rather be out on the grass. And then last one for you, Scott. What's your favorite football movie? The program. Oh, nice. Nice.

We have a big debate on our show here. Is Jerry McGuire a football movie? Yeah, it is. Yes. Okay. Well, thank you for answering that. What? Adam doesn't believe so.

Right answer. I mean, I understand, I understand like the main theme isn't about football, but like, you know, it's a football movie. Oh, yeah, the program, that's the first one, Friday Night Lights. I mean, all those ones. But the program was like when I was a kid and that it was, I always got the biggest kick out of it. Yeah. Unbelievable.

One of the more underrated sports movies, certainly one of the more underrated football movies. Never gets that. It's always usually remember the Titans or something along those lines. Yeah, no, remember the Titans, Friday Night Lights. I mean, obviously all really good movies. But yeah, no, no, everyone kind of forgets about the program. Yes.

Well, thank you to bring it up. Dave, anything else? No, no. I think we're ready to let Scott loose. And now he's got to deal with that tough weather that he's coming with. Del Mar, so get to enjoy it. Yeah, man. Nice.

Scott, we appreciate it. Make sure you check out the family business podcast that Scott hosts with his sister Stephanie and his dad, North Turner. When's the next episode coming out, Scott? You know, we are going to film one so that we feel there's a studio in Long Beach because my dad's down here in Delmar, my sister's in L.A., so we're going to meet. We're going to film one in August. We don't know who the guest is going to be yet, but we'll have,

went out in the beginning August and then there'll be one a week, you know, as we get into training camp and then the regular season. Fantastic. Listen, again, it is the family business podcast. You find out our podcasts are available. Scott, his sister Stephanie and his dad, Norv Turner. Scott, we really appreciate you joining us once again here on fantasy football today. Hopefully we'll catch up with you again soon. And we really enjoy your insights for Adam Azer, Day Richard, our producer, Sam. I'm Jamie Eisenberg. Thanks for watching and listening to Fantasy Football Day.