Fantasy Football Today - Best and Worst Second Half Performers (02/20 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: February 20, 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 Tera Roberts joins us today and we'll catch you up on the latest news (2:15) about impending free agents, teams that could be looking for quarterback upgrades, Tank Dell, Bill Belichick and more. Then we take a look at one great and one bad performer from Weeks 10-18 at each position and discuss which performance is most likely to repeat in 2024. At QB (9:30), we discuss Dak Prescott and Jalen Hurts. Do we have legitimate concerns for Hurts who struggled down the stretch? ... At running back (17:50), Joe Mixon was great down the stretch and Travis Etienne was pretty bad. Which is more likely to happen again next season? At wide receiver (24:00), Amari Cooper was WR15 per game in the second half and A.J. Brown was WR40 per game! Are we missing some red flags for Brown? ... Finally we talk about Travis Kelce and David Njoku at tight end (32:25). Who is more likely to repeat his second half performance? Does Njoku really have that upside? ... Your emails 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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No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. He's just going to go the distance. Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. It's showtime, and it's Tara time. Tara Roberts joining us today, one of our favorite guests from the fantasy industry. And she got to meet a whole bunch of people from the fantasy industry.

I want to know what her first encounter with Heath Cummings was like. Could be scary stuff for some people. Anyway, welcome everyone. Only for you. Yeah, for me. And welcome to our Tuesday show. I hope everybody had a great three-day weekend. Adam, Jamie, and Tara Roberts here.

And we're going to talk about the best and worst second half performers. So I'm going to give the two analysts today, I'm going to give them a good second half performer and a bad second half performer, and which one is more likely to repeat itself in 2024? Jalen Hurts struggling down the stretch, or Dak Prescott taking

over the fantasy football world down the stretch? That kind of stuff. So we'll discuss that. We have some news from around the NFL. But Tara, welcome back to the show. How are you doing? I'm doing wonderful. I am fresh off of Vegas last week, and it was awesome to get to meet and hang out with everyone.

I had a great Heath encounter. It was wonderful. Oh, good. Yeah, so there was a fantasy convention out in Vegas last week. Heath went to Vegas the day after the Chiefs won the Super Bowl in Vegas. So yeah, how did that go? How was your Heath encounter? It was good.

It was good. Yeah, all positive. Everything was wonderful. Yeah, I have zero complaints about anything. Did he say anything about me? Only good things. I don't like that pause. I don't like that pause. I don't like that pause.

What's up, Jamie? I hope some of the second half performers you have are either Clemson or Green Bay related to make Tara happy. I have Travis Etienne on here. There you go. There's a Clemson Tiger. Let's do some news and notes.

Mike Evans, there's a whole bunch of players whose contracts voided yesterday. We have a list on CBSSports.com. So their contracts voided ahead of free agency. I wouldn't say that makes them free agents. They can still work something out. But Mike Evans

is one of them. I think Baker Mayfield is one of them. In fact, the Bucs have many of them. Dalton Schultz is one of them. So it's, I guess, maybe a little free agent preview. And apparently Mike Evans and the Bucs are not super close to coming to a deal, so he could be hitting free agency.

Jamie, what do you think of the Jimmy Garoppolo situation? Suspended two games for a PED violation, and now they might be able to void his contract. They're planning on releasing him, so things are going to change in Las Vegas. I did not anticipate him coming back.

I'd like to know what performance was enhanced because he didn't obviously play very well despite whatever was going on there. In any event, he's going to be a backup somewhere, wherever he goes. Nobody's going to give him a chance to be a starter at this point. He'll take an injury for him to probably get back into that

situation, that scenario. So we'll see where he goes. But his days as a starter, at least going into week one, barring an injury, I think are limited. The Raiders have the 13th pick in the draft. There's some smoke, some buzz that they're going to want to move up and try to get a quarterback.

Tank Dell expected to be ready for OTAs after the ankle surgery. Tara, who do you like better? Nico Collins or Tank Dell? I like Nico better. It's super close, though. You can't go wrong with either. Nico is obviously the

one that is probably going to be drafted higher. I just think he's the safer pick overall. Tank Dell might have more of that is probably going to be drafted higher. I just think he kind of, the safer pick overall, Tankdell might have more of that boom-bust nature to him, but Nico by a smidge. I just came up with a team name. Nico Suave. Right?

Wow, you're so right. Okay, it's a song. Rico Suave. Seattle told Gino Smith last time... Oil of Olave. Yes. Last time we talked, we talked about Seattle potentially releasing Geno Smith, but he is still on the roster, and according to Schefter, he will remain on the roster in 2024.

At least they told him that. So Geno Smith, as of now, is still the Seattle starting quarterback. I wonder if that move was maybe as a potential trade chip. If they decided to move on from him and maybe give him the opportunity to go someplace else with a new head coach in Seattle, maybe going the tanking route. I would not be surprised if that happens. Baltimore signed wide receiver Nelson Aguilar to a one-year extension.

Bill Belichick, according to Jimmy Johnson, does not need to have personnel control at his next job. Philadelphia center Jason Kelsey, we think he's going to retire, but he said, what did he say? He said he's still figuring it out when he was asked by Shaq about retirement. And then we had this, Tara, we had this interesting Pittsburgh story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the Steelers that they're not interested in bringing in a quarterback who wants to be a starter.

So that would be Justin Fields, Kirk Cousins, anyone like that. And that there's some internal division about whether Kenny Pickett or Mason Rudolph should be the starting quarterback. What's your read on the Steelers right now? I hate it. I sincerely hope that that's a smokescreen and that's not the intention there because they need to go out and get a quarterback. And when the rumor of Justin Fields is floated, I like that. I think that's a great landing spot for him, going to a run-heavy team,

something that's not going to push aggressive pass volumes. So if they go into the season with Kenny Pickett or Mason Rudolph, I think it's a major, major mistake on their part. I wonder if that's the destination for Tannehill following Arthur Smith. Because it kind of fits the mold of what they're talking about, that he doesn't have to come in and be a starter, but could clearly start if they needed him. Not that that's the upgrade we're looking for,

but you just wonder if some of these guys like Garoppolo, Tannehill, these guys that are going to end up being backups in places where they were previously starters, you know, you start to connect the dots with who is comfortable with them. And Arthur Smith, so far, his best success has come with Ryan Tannehill. Steelers have the 20th pick in the draft. And then Cincinnati unlikely to resign Tyler Boyd, according to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler. Tara, do you play fantasy baseball? I have in the past. That's actually the first fantasy sports that I started playing back in late high school, early college.

All right. Well, listen, if you want to get back into the game or if you want to take my spot on Jamie, the team that Jamie and I have shared for a decade, so I don't want to do it anymore. I want one fantasy baseball league, but I will be, and I have shared for a decade. So I don't want to do it anymore. I want my one. I want one fantasy baseball league, but I will be. And I do this every year.

This is when I start listening to fantasy baseball today podcast. The position previews are underway. This is the time. All right. You get your great strategies. You get your sleepers, your breakouts, your busts. If you like fantasy football today and you like baseball, you will like fantasy baseball today.

So please watch the podcast CBS or YouTube dot com slash fantasy baseball today and you like baseball, you will like fantasy baseball today. So please watch the podcast, youtube.com slash fantasy baseball today, or you can watch it or you can listen anywhere, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, anywhere you listen to podcasts, fantasy baseball today. Scan that QR code as well if you're watching on YouTube. If you're not watching on YouTube and you want to see what we look like, you want to watch our show, you can go to youtube.com slash fantasy football today. Let's get into our second half performances. So, again, I'm going to tell you this is from weeks 10 through 18. You know, who finished as what or who was what per game. I'm going to give you two things, and you tell me what's more likely to happen.

Even if neither one seems all that likely, which one's more likely to happen in 2024? This is, first off, this is total points or points per game? Per game. And this is Azerstadding or not Azerstadding? No. Just ran a report weeks 10 through 18 per game. Here's what it said. Got it. Dak Prescott was

QB1 per game. Sarah, are you familiar with Azerstadding? I am. I am. I would consider myself a minor in uh azure statting yeah well i mean well adam had seven different but that's just an azure stat yeah i did i did i want to play a game with with terror okay did adam minor in this subject in college? Chemistry. You can say yes or no. No. Economics.

Hold on, Jamie. It's not minor. It's major. Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't know you had double major. Did he major in chemistry? You said no.

Did he major in economics? I can say economics. Okay. Did he major in theater? No. Did he major in journalism? Yes. Adam, reveal yourself. what were your majors

broadcast journalism three semesters of economics and five semesters of theater so I quit economics and went to theater and how do you spell theater smart move we in the biz

t-h-e-a-t-r-e is how we spell theater you would spell it er but we would spell it re all right so dak prescott was qb1 per game jalen hertz was qb10 per game and uh tara what do you think is more likely to happen next season dak dak qb1 or Hertz QB10? Dak QB1. And I feel like with Dak, we have to ask ourselves, do we genuinely believe that Mike McCarthy is going to change the way that the offense worked last year? Because I get Dak in the playoffs and all of that, but there was no real issue with the offense during the regular season.

And after they made the change to push more past volume to target CD lamb more to make that aggressive attack, it was so successful. It was not broken. I don't see any reason to make that adjustment. Obviously Tony Pollard's efficiency was an issue. So them making a change, probably not bringing Pollard back,

making a change at running back, whether they, you know, draft someone and try to make a committee there or dip into free agency. Maybe that could kind of take a little bit away, but it's not like they weren't abandon the run altogether. So I still think that there's a good path for Dak to be closer to the overall QB one than where he is being drafted now. I think there's a lot of upside with him. Jamie, what's more likely to happen, Dak QB1 or Hertz QB10?

I think, unfortunately, Hertz QB10, just because it's tough for Dak to play at that level again. He can still be good, and everything Tara said is accurate, but for him to be that good with everybody else being mediocre would surprise me. And I would say he's probably closer to like QB5. Hurts could clearly struggle again, which is I think the more likely scenario here is his potential failures a little bit as opposed to Dak's potential success, if that makes sense.

So I think Dak could still play very good and not be QB1. Hertz could struggle, be QB10, and still be within 5 to 10 points of being QB, or a point, point and a half of being QB5, just based on how things could unfold points per game. So I would lean more toward the struggle as opposed to the success of Dak repeating that. But really, I think the thing that might make a little more sense with these two in particular is who's likely to change their fortunes. And I think Dak could still be very good.

I think Hertz will change his fortunes. I think Hertz will be better. I don't think he'll be QB 10 again, but if I had to pick which of these two is most likely to occur, I would take Hertz struggling as opposed to Dak success. Yeah. When I look at splits within a season, I try to ask you, what happened? What was different in this really good stretch, really bad stretch?

So for Dak Prescott, he started out the year, his first five games, he was terrible for fantasy. He was on pace for 3,600 yards and 17 touchdowns. His last 12 games of the year, 4,900 yards and 17 touchdowns. His last 12 games of the year, 4,900 yards and 44 touchdowns. So obviously we don't expect those splits to be so extreme, but what was different? For Dak Prescott, he was throwing more. He threw about three more times per game

and his ADOT, the air yards per target, went way up and he started throwing to his wide receivers more. As you, Tara said, started throwing to CeeDee Lamb more. So there was a bit of a change there for hurts I can't really figure out what happened to them I'm going to talk about AJ Brown a little bit later too because he was wide receiver 40 per game down the stretch but I don't I mean like I don't know what the problem was for that Eagles offense everything just went stale it seemed but they didn't have a major injury I don't consider Dallas Goddard, and I think he only missed three games. The

offensive line was mostly healthy. They just weren't as good. And I guess my question, Jamie, is are you leaning, I think you kind of said, you think he's going to turn his fortunes around. Was that a sign of things to come? Kelsey probably retiring, Lane Johnson another year older, or do they get everything back on track? Because the first half of the year, Jalen Hurts was more or less picking up where he left off the year before, and he was super elite. I mean, we've got to see about the tush-push and what the outcome will be there at the owners' meetings

if they decide to change something. I don't think they will, but if they do, that's a big red flag for me with Jalen Hurts because of all of his production that comes with that and those rushing touchdowns. But I think also, you know, look, he has to evolve a little bit. Um, he's got to stop just looking through to throw the ball down the field, you know, when things aren't, you know, available to him. Um, and I think that kind of speaks to AJ Brown struggles as well, but he's got to mature a little bit as a quarterback. And so he has still run, you'll still get that type of production, which I think will be safe.

And I think he will get better as a passer. So that's kind of what I'm banking on. But you remember the Nick Bosa statement. We gave you the blueprint on how to beat the Eagles. They kind of got figured out a little bit. Shane Steichen leaving, changing in coordinator. They have another change coordinator coming again. I think Kellen Moore will be good for that team and that offense,

at least I hope. So I'm still a Jalen Hurts believer, and I think he will bounce back and play better and look more like the guy that we saw, I think, closer to really two years ago than opposed to really the entire season last year. Tara, I think yesterday was the first time that I had actually typed out the words tush-push. But I did some tush-p push research because Jalen Hurts, I don't think there had ever been a quarterback with two straight seasons with double digit rushing touchdowns. And he's now done it three straight seasons. So I went and I looked at every single

one from the last three years, uh, from one or two yards out and how many of them were tush pushes. And last year he had 15 touchdowns. He had 11 from one to two yards out, and they were all tush pushes. 2012, he had 13 rushing touchdowns, seven from one to two yards out, and only four of those were tush pushes. In 2021, he had 10 rushing touchdowns, which would still be great,

and none of them were tush pushes, and six of them were from one to two yards out. I do think you could see, I do think if you watch them, you probably see the beginnings of the tush push in 2021, like toward the end of the season, that guys were giving up a little bit of a shove, but it was not part of the formation, almost felt like kind of improv. But my point is he did score 10, 10 rushing touchdowns in 2020 before that happened. So I, I think people will make a big reaction if they do eliminate the

tush push. Should they, if that happens? No, I don't think so. I mean, I'm with you. I mean, there could be a little bit that comes down, but not enough to really justify panicking over him. And I agree with you guys 100%. It was coaching. The fact that the run game was a major issue,

the defense was a major issue, the team as a whole was broken. So it's less about Jalen Hurts and worrying about him. And we'll, we'll talk about more about Kellen Moore and his addition. We talked about AJ Brown, but yeah, I think that's going to be a major benefit to him.

So I'm, I'm not super worried about Jalen Hurts. All right. That's going to be our quarterback discussion. We'll come back. We'll talk about a Clemson Tiger and Joe Mixon. So Travis Etienne and Joe Mixon, we'll talk about them and what they did in the second half of the season

right after this break on Fantasy Football today. I am so dreading groceries this week. Why? You can skip it. Oh, what, just like that? Just like that. How about dinner with my third cousin? Skip it. Prince Fluffy's favorite treats?

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That's why Bumble is changing how you start conversations. You can now make the first move or not. With opening moves, you simply choose a question to be automatically sent to your matches then sit back and let your matches start the chat download bumble and try it for yourself running back second half of the season joe mixon was rb6 per game travis etn was rb21 per game and joe mix, like a little shout out to Joe Mixon here. He's been a top 12 running back per game in five of the last six seasons now.

So that's pretty impressive. But Jamie Mixon was RB six per game from week 10 on and Travis ETN was RB 21 per game. What's more likely next year? Are we just putting mixing back on the Bengals? I think I'll give you a blank canvas. You can do whatever you want with him. If he's not on the Bengals, no chance he's number six running back.

He'd have to go to the absolute dream, like go replace Tony Pollard in Dallas and nobody else comes. That type of situation. I'm not going to anticipate that happening because at his age and probably the money that he will be asking for, I don't think a team will be committed to him. So I would lean more toward ETN being a top 20 running back.

I don't even think makes him, I don't know where I'll rank him, but it probably will. He's definitely behind ETN no matter where, where he's playing. I saw some, I'll simplify it. I'll simplify it. I'll simplify it.

So let's say he goes back to the Bengals. What's more likely? Mix in RB6 per game, Etienne, RB21? Yeah, again, I just can't see him being RB6 again. So I'll take Etienne being RB21, but still being good. Kind of similar to what I said about the quarterbacks. Tara? Yeah, I agree with that.

And I do think there's a small chance that since he already took that pay cut last year that he takes that pay cut. This is would be a nightmare for him to try and enter into this market. I sell Joe Mixon RB6 and I buy, unfortunately, sorry, Travis ETN RB21 again. Uh, I mean, it's, it's tough, um, because it's, this is not a fade ETN kind of situation, but it's definitely more likely to happen that he ends up being around RB 20 just because, I mean, it's, it's tough for a lead young back to finish, you know, around that area, but technically it does happen. And we saw it with Tony Pollard we saw it with James Cook they're usually those kind of mitigating factors that push someone back you know efficiency lack of touchdowns and efficiency was an issue for Travis Etienne only 3.8 yards per carry barely

a thousand yards on 17 games it's kind of concerning and he didn't have any you know injury issues at all so I do get kind of worried that that kind of top 10 upside isn't really there with him. He's safe and solid, but it's a good possibility that he ends up towards the back half of an RB2. And to clarify, Etienne was RB21 in the last eight weeks of the season, or nine weeks of the season. Overall, he was RB7 per game.

It's almost like when you said to sell him. Exactly. and overall he was RB7 per game. It's almost like when you said to sell him. Exactly, exactly. And yeah, so he had 267 carries in 17 games, which isn't a great number, but 58 catches. Overall, it's a really nice workload. They had the second worst PFF run blocking grade ahead of only the Chargers and all of their running backs really struggled.

But they also were terrible at run blocking according to PFF in 2022. And Etienne averaged like five yards per carry. So I don't know why he was so bad. But I thought to myself, could Etienne finish his RB21 again? Well, he didn't finish his RB21. He only did for half a season.

But could he finish that for a full season? So I would say no if he's going to be a lead back. It's so hard to get that many touches for your team and really be the goal lineback and be RB21. But the thought I had was, what if he's 3.8 yards per carry? What if he's not getting the job done again? Does he become Miles Sanders or Damian Pierce? And then you have your path to him not get fully benched, but he'd have to play himself into a timeshare. And that, to me, is what would scare me for ETN because there is something about his profile that I don't like. It's now two years in a row where he's been a big... He's been really bad in percentage of carries for zero or negative yards.

And in 2022, he made up for it with a lot of big plays. But those weren't there in 2023. And I don't love that. I mean, one year, I can forgive it. Two years, it starts to get a little bit worrisome. So that's my fear, guys, on Travis Etienne is too many negative carries. I would say that I put Ken Walker in the same boat, by the way. And if they bring in better competition for him, then he's got a lower floor than it would appear.

I would be surprised if they brought in more competition for him in terms of anybody from a big name standpoint. I could see another Dearness Johnson situation because they already spent an early draft pick on ETN, spent a draft pick on Tank Bigsby. I think it's more we have to fix the offensive line blocking up front, get him some easy, you know, touches and carries and take some pressure off Trevor Lawrence that way as well. You know, so I don't necessarily think it's going to be somebody substantial coming in. Now, obviously, that's a huge red flag if it is, because now they're throwing a lot of capital

three years in a row at that. Well, four years in a row, three of the last four years at that position, which is not the smartest thing to do from a, from a front office standpoint, from, from I think a philosophical philosophical standpoint. But I, I do think that there are legitimate reasons for concern because we've now seen a regression for an entire office,

you know, really outside of, I would guess Evan Ingram, you know, so Calvin Ridley was not better coming to Jacksonville. Christian Kirk took a step back, I think with the additions there and Trevor Lawrence was, we've talked about a lot and, and, and anybody can realize from watching the season, he took

a significant step back. So, you know, what is the, is the cause? Is it the system? You know, is it press Taylor? Is it Doug Peterson? Is it Lawrence himself? You know, and it could just be the offensive line and maybe just, you know, keeping him protected and doing a better job for the run game in general. So, you know, again, I'll go back

to the quarterbacks, uh, what we talked about, I would buy a return, return on investment being better for Travis ETN and him being closer to RB six than Joe Mixon falling into that regard because of him being a year older. And I do think Tara made a great point that Mixon may look at it and say, I'll take less to stay. Let's try and run it back with everybody healthy because they were a Super Bowl contender last year, and they just had a lot of injuries just, you know, rip that apart. All right, Tara, let's go to the wide receiver debate here.

Second half performances. This is an easy one. I know what's more likely here, but I think it's still worth talking about these two guys, especially A.J. Brown. Amari Cooper, in the last half of the season from week 10 on,

he was wide receiver 15 per game. A.J. Brown was wide receiver 40 per game. Now, that one does include week 18, which he played, he left really early with an injury. I don't even think he had a catch. So, probably more like wide receiver 35 per game or something like that.

But still outside the, let's say a number four wide receiver, a number four ish wide receiver, AJ Brown, wide receiver, 35, 36 ish, or a Marty Cooper wide receiver 15 per game.

Which one do you think is more likely to happen next season? Yeah, you're right. This is easy. Um, I'm already Cooper. I'm buying it. Wide receiver 15, selling AJ Brown. I mean, it's simple with Amari Cooper. He can finish overall wide receiver one for the week and then overall wide receiver 90 for the week it can be a complete nightmare with him but it still averages out to around wide receiver 15 and i

i figure deshaun watson full season with him and developing more chemistry it'll come together the sample size there was pretty small aj brown.J. Brown, though, is very intriguing because we talked about Jalen Hurts and the issues that he had. The lack of touchdowns in the back half of the season was a major issue. A.J. Brown had literally one touchdown that can't get it done.

But I think the addition of Kellen Moore will... Is it going to be great for getting them back to the Super Bowl? No, but fantastic from a fantasy perspective. Like I'm really pumped up about it because of what happened with Justin Herbert and Keenan Allen last year. It kind of gets obscured because of the injury issues with both of them and falling off. So the overall numbers get ugly. But when you look at Keenan Allen last year in his healthy, fully healthy games, he was wide receiver two behind Tyreek Hill. And he's been fantastic his entire year, but wide receiver two, you have to attribute a lot of that to what Kellen Moore

brought to the offense. So I think it's very possible that if we get a full season of AJ Brown, he could try and push Tyreek Hill for that number one spot. It'll be tough, but he can push for it. for AJ Brown, for each of the two seasons with the Eagles, he's been wide receiver seven per game in PPR. And one year that was with like 88 catches, and one year that was with 106 catches. So, you know, I think what I'm trying to say is he's going to be a first round pick for a lot of people. Let's say AJ Brown will be somewhere around the one-two turn. But we've got two years of him in Philadelphia,

and while he has been really good, he's been number seven per game each year. However, first half of 2023, we saw him as one of the most valuable players at any position in fantasy and wide receiver two. So I don't know what you do with that information. Do you say, all right, look, he's probably going to be more like wide receiver seven.

That's what he's been two years in a row. Or do you say, well, actually, we saw potential for a lot more. He's got potential to be the best wide receiver or close to it. Jamie, how would you approach that? You understand? Does that make sense? That statistical breakdown? What I'm trying to say?

Yeah, I mean, I think what you said is accurate, that he's going to be drafted somewhere toward the back end of round one. Look, he's not going to get drafted ahead of what is going to be most people's top four wide receivers in whatever order of Jefferson, Lamb, Hill, and Chase. He's not going ahead of those guys. And then it's a matter of does he go ahead of, let's say, somebody like Amara St. Brown or – I don't think Puka has gotten past A.J. Brown at this point. But those are kind of the receivers that are in that range. So those are all potential first-round picks.

So, yes, I think he still has the opportunity to be that good. Um, but again, I think we have to see a better Jalen hurts and hopefully Kellen Moore's influence will, will help that. You know, I think the, the Keenan Allen comparison is interesting because Keenan Allen really didn't have a significant counterpart. AJ Brown has a Brown has a pretty significant counterpart in Devontae Smith. You know, I mean, Mike Williams in the couple games that he played was good. And, you know, there's always different factors for that Chargers offense. But I think, you know, hopefully Kellen Moore will open up opportunities for both those guys. So if you tell me that A.J. Brown's wide receiver seven

and I'm getting like wide receiver 15 performance from Devontae Smith, I'd rather have that than A.J. Brown being wide receiver two and Devontae Smith being wide receiver seven and I'm getting like wide receiver 15 performance from Devante Smith. I'd rather have that than AJ Brown being wide receiver two and Devante Smith being wide receiver 25, you know, so I'd rather have a little bit more balance to get more production from both of those guys. Plus you factor in Dallas Goddard being healthy and then whatever they do at running back. So yeah, I think it's easy to buy a Mark Cooper at 15. The one thing about that though, is will he be as good with the Sean Watson? Because a lot of the second half performance was with Joe Blackman. And so I'm hopeful, like Tara said, you know, that, you know,

more consistency, more rapport, you know, better performance from those two guys across the board. I was reading something from one of the Cleveland writers this weekend about what their draft needs are. And one of the suggestions were, you know, fixing some of the depth at wide receiver. And that's interesting because, you know, Elijah Morris, I think still going to be there if I'm not mistaken.

You know, Najoku clearly had a breakout season. Amari Cooper is going to be 29. So they have to, you know, start thinking about the future. But they did draft a guy in Cedric Tillman last year that has some potential. I'd like to see a little bit more from him. So I'm curious to see what they do if they do invest in some receiver help in the draft. But can Deshaun Watson, you know, make Amari Cooper better? But yeah, wide receiver 15 is so easy to buy for him

because that's kind of just the range that he lives in, even on bad years. But he's actually going to be 30. He's going to be 30 in June, Amari Cooper. Jamie doesn't like 30-year-old receivers. In the first three rounds. I don't think he's the first three rounds. No, so my last question for both of you.

If I told you that A.J. Brown were going at the 1-2 turn, at what point in the draft, would you say Amari Cooper becomes better value than AJ Brown at the one, two turn? In a three receiver league, anything after round five. Yeah. Yeah. I think,

I think what's going to happen with Amari Cooper is we start getting these other players, the free agency figured out a little bit is I think he'll end up being drafted as a high-end wide receiver three, which will be good value. It'll be good value. So I don't think we have to reach on him or anything. Okay, let's see. In our drafts that we did in January, he went about 50th overall.

So I don't think he's making it past round five, but I think round five will be pretty realistic. He did have 90 or more yards, Amari Cooper, 90 or more yards in four of five games with Deshaun Watson. All right, let's take another break here, and we'll come back and we'll talk our tight ends, and then we'll try to read your emails,

fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. We'll be right back. Did you know that across Ontario, utility damage happens 19 times a day? That's over 4,222 incidents a year. Don't let your next dig be one that causes costly delays or safety risks. Before you break ground,

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We'll talk tight ends now. We've got in the last half of the season from week 10 through week 18, David Njoku was tight end two per game. And I think Evan Ingram was tight end one, by the way, I'm pretty sure, but I'm going with the joke here.

David Njoku tight end two per game. Travis Kelsey was tight end seven per game. Tara, which one do you think would be more likely to happen in 2024? Njoku finishing as tight end two or Kelsey is tight end seven. This is tougher than you would think. Because I do think that David and Joku has the talent throughout the entire season to be the overall tight end too.

He could be the tight end one, but the problem is, is that we know all of that came with Joe Flacco and we've had a decent enough, it's small, but decent enough sample size to look at him with Deshaun Watson and say there just wasn't enough volume to support that so I sell David Njoku unfortunately even though I know he can

be with the right situation and I do buy Travis Kelsey as tight end seven per game I still firmly believe that he's going to be a top five tight end. But what I will say is, is that I think that the top four tight ends are going to be one giant tier that is very, very close to each other. There's not that separation between Travis Kelsey and everybody else in the past or Travis Kelsey and Mark Andrews and everybody else. We're not going to get that. We're going to have those top four, maybe even someone sliding in from the top five, making it kind of jumbled up to where they're all very similar.

So it could technically happen that he ends up as tight end seven, just because it will be oddly close as we've got these other tight ends that are emerging and becoming very prominent. Jamie, what's more likely in ajoku tight end two per game or Kelsey tight end seven per game? Yeah, no, Tara nailed it. It's Kelsey tight end seven.

I think we have to be concerned about age for him. He'll be 35 in October. What do the Chiefs do this offseason to enhance their receiving court? Because they need to. They can't just try and run it back and hope that their defense carries them again and Mahomes just has to make a few plays.

I think they'd like to make it a lot easier on this team and still have a little bit more balance because they weren't very balanced during the season as we saw. So I think there's more reason for concern of Kelsey slipping as opposed to Njoku doing that again because I don't think, like Tara alluded to, we're going to get that type of production from Deshaun Watson to David Njoku. You know, it really was every other quarterback but Watson because, if I'm not mistaken, a couple of those games in 10-18, week 10-18, weeks 10-18 was not Flacco.

So, you know, there's just not enough trust for me, at least, to buy David Njoku finishing as even a top three. Like Tara said, talent-wise, he can certainly do it. He showed that. But I just think the situation is a little more troublesome for him and definitely a little bit more, unfortunately, favorable for Travis Kelsey to fall back as opposed to seeing Njoku do that again. Isn't it weird that Njoku is going into his eighth season? I was going to ask you, do you remember the third tight end of that group?

Because you mentioned the two. O.J. Howard, yeah. Yeah, O.J. Howard. Yeah, it's weird. Evan Ingram's going into his eighth season. It's weird. And those are guys who basically had, not Howard, but basically had a seventh-year breakout, you know?

I would say Ingram had a sixth-year breakout. Was it sixth year? His first year in Jacksonville. Yeah, I mean, his first year with the Giants was really good, but was this his best season? Probably so, but I think just in terms of, like, if you want to talk about a revival, I would say year six, first year in Jacksonville was pretty good.

Yeah. Yeah. This was a lot better, though. I mean, I didn't even realize this per se, but I didn't realize this necessarily, but now that I'm looking at his page, I mean, he had 98 targets in 2022, Evan Ingram. He had 143 last year. He went from 73 catches to 114. He went from 766 to 963 yards, same amount of touchdowns. But I mean, you can't give up on a player just because he hasn't really done it in his first five, six years. These things can happen.

Is that it? Is that it for our tight end discussion? I think it is. All right. Tara, who's your top four? Because you referenced top four. I just want to see if we're on the same page. It is... I'm going to guess Laporta, Kelsey, Andrews, and who's the fourth? Yeah, Laporta, Kelsey, Andrews, and who's the fourth?

Yeah, Laporta, Kelsey, Andrews, and then McBride. Yep. Okay. On the same page. Is that your order? Mm-hmm. Okay. All right. Let's read some emails. Fantasyfootball at cbsi.com. The letter I. Please put anything in the subject line. I'll figure it out.

But what would actually be cool is if you left us a five-star Apple Podcast review with a question there. I will start reading those. So please help us out there. Leave us a nice review on Apple Podcast. Question from Kevin. Kevin, it's a Dynasty question. It is a Superflex PPR tight end premium league.

He has the first two rookie picks this year. Ooh. And he already has Jalen hurts, Justin Herbert, and to a tongue of ILOA. Other managers are in need of a quarterback and they're starting to sniff around about trades. I'm considering my longterm build here.

Would it be crazy to start the rookie draft with Marvin Harrison, Jr. And Malik neighbors with the first two picks. He already has Hurts, Herbert, and Tua. You have to trade back at least one or two spots and get extra picks. That's your future. I'm pro Marvin Harrison Jr. with one of those picks if you want to take that first overall. And then trade on the side love

neighbors but it'd be interesting to see as we get closer what the what the general consensus around how gms are filling like what's what's the actual gap there but yeah i say i say trade one of them because there's very unrealistic that in that type of format two receivers go first and second so if you want to just make sure i I'm not screwing around. I want Marvin Harrison Jr. Keep one, trade two, see if you can get four and next year's first,

four and a second and a player. Something can still help you out there pretty significantly. This is from Joe. I recently went out to dinner with some friends and three of the four guys kept the stick in their sandwich while eating. What is happening here? Are you familiar with keeping the stick in a very topping-heavy hamburger?

Yes, and I do that for maybe like the first four bites or so, and then I abandon the stick. Of a burger or of a sandwich? Either one. Yeah. I've just never seen it done with a burger before. A sandwich I get, but the burger I never see. Honestly, I would throw out the stick anyway, Jamie. I've seen big sandwiches that are stick.

Oh, I feel you. Oh, I guess I'm lying because I did it with the chicken and waffles, right? I kept the stick in for the chicken and waffle. Did I? I don't remember. Couldn't tell you, buddy. We weren't there. I put a picture of it on Twitter.

Why don't you ask Tara if she agrees with your bagel choice, your sandwich? I mean, obviously she's not going to. She's not insane. Okay, ham and cheese. Ham and cheese, you like? I do. Tomato. Swiss cheese, by the way.

Ham and Swiss, throw a little tomato on there. Wow, if you're struggling with tomato, it's only going to get worse from here. It's only going to get worse, yeah. Okay, I should go with the tomato. Now we got Russian dressing. Okay.

On a cinnamon raisin bagel. Oh, yeah, you lost me there. I lost everyone. I had a cinnamon raisin bagel just yesterday. It was lovely.

This is the best part about this, Tara. So this was your Sunday football sandwich, right? Yeah, it was my football Sunday tradition. So then he stopped eating it for a while, and then he decided he wanted it again. But it's such a crazy concoction, he was afraid to go to the store, so he called it in.

Yeah, I was too embarrassed to do it in person, so I called it in. I didn't want anybody to stare at me. All right, two leagues, two different keeper questions. We got to pick one in a 10-team PPR league. Tyreek Hill in round one, Jalen Hurts in round two, Chris Olave in round three, Jonathan Taylor in round nine. Yes.

Nico Collins in round 12, Tajay Spears in round nine. Yes. Nico Collins in round 12. Tajay Spears in round 15. Two? No, pick one. Oh, Taylor. Taylor in round nine. Yeah, it's Taylor. Yeah.

All right, a different 10-team PPR league. Keep one. Garrett Wilson in round one. T. Higgins in round three. Spears in round 12. Laporta in round 14, Kyler Murray in round 16, and cinnamon raisin bagel with ham and cheese in round 18. Laporta for me. Spears for me.

I mean, it's early. It depends on Henry and whatnot, but I can get to Spears. And I'll keep the bagel. But if not the bagel, I'll keep Laporta. This is from Matt. Dear Jamie, Tyrion, Tywin, and Lancel. Who's Lancel? He's like a cousin.

Must be Dan's... What did Dan think Game of Thrones was? Yeah. yeah oh what did he think was game of thrones that was so funny i don't remember you're right lancel is a cousin lancel lannister oh what did he think was game of thrones gotta text them uh 12 team superf flex start three running backs and four wide receivers and super flex remember and it's standard scoring i traded josh allen and breese hall for jalen hertz aj brown and jonathan taylor and Jonathan Taylor? I don't hate it. I mean, standard scoring benefits Taylor a little bit more

to get towards Brees Hall. So yeah, I don't hate that to get A.J. Brown. I mean, it's fairly even, I think, right? Slight quarterback downgrade, slight running back downgrade, and you're throwing an A.J. Brown

on top of it to sweeten the deal. How big of a downgrade do you say throwing an AJ Brown on top of it to sweeten the deal. How big of a, of a downgrade you say slight breeze hall to Jonathan Taylor in non PPR. I don't think very much. Yeah. That's a good point. And it's not,

I don't know if it's dynasty. Yeah. It's probably dynasty, but their ages are so close to begin with anyway. I mean, not like Taylor, right. Taylor,

but Taylor's got four years under his belt now, right? Or three? Partial. Four. Four. So he just completed his fourth year

and Hall completed his second year. That's not a, that's not a small deal when it comes to running backs. I mean, look, I,

I, I give, like I said, I think it's even, you know, you're, you're adding to the lesser side by throwing an AJ Brown. Yeah.

Yeah. Okie dokie. Thanks for watching and listening, everybody. Tara, thank you for joining us. Always. Thanks, Tara. God, who the heck did he think is from Game of Thrones? This is killing me, Jamie.

I don't know. Anyway, watch FFT Dynasty in eight minutes right here at youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday or you can listen to it you can watch it on demand or you can listen to it Fantasy Football Today

Dynasty with Heath Cummings and we'll talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football Today.