Fantasy Football Today - Best Second-Half Performers of 2022 (02/21 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: February 21, 2023

Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  You may have forgotten how awesome James Conner and Keenan Allen were in the second of the 2022 season. How about Tyler Allgeier, Christian Watson and Daniel Jones? We talk about the best finishes and what's repeatable in 2023. First, we go over all of the news (2:15) from the weekend. We've got new offensive coordinators to discuss, plus news on Aaron Jones, Alvin Kamara and Derek Carr and a very strange way to eat potato chips (15:40) ... Our first batch of strong finishes from 2022 (18:30) is Justin Fields, Tony Pollard, James Conner, Keenan Allen and Christian Watson. Jamey and Heath debate which performances were flukes and which were legit ... We continue the debates with the second round of top performers (32:50): Daniel Jones, Jerry Jeudy, Evan Engram, Tyler Allgeier and Dawson Knox. There's a big disagreement on Jones, but we agree that Jeudy has Top 12 potential ... Email us at [e-mail] Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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He's just going to go the distance. Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. In the second half of the season, James Conner was the number two running back on a per game basis in fantasy. Keenan Allen was the top five wide receiver per game. Justin Fields was awesome, as we know. What are we buying? What are we selling? We know James Conner and Keenan Allen are not being drafted as of right now. They're not going to be drafted, you know, the way they finish. So we'll talk about those best second half performers with a twist, with a twist, which I'll explain a little bit later. Welcome back from an awesome, hopefully awesome three-day weekend. I'm Adam Azer with Jamie

Eisenberg and Heath Cummings. Heath, how awesome was your three-day weekend? It was pretty awesome. Pretty fantastic. Did really, really great. Did you coach basketball? Did you win? I did not coach any basketball. I had the weekend off playing this weekend. Okay, great. Jamie, same question to you.

I did not coach any basketball. Coach loved baseball. It was a great weekend. Thank you. How was yours? I think it was good. I think it was fine. I don't remember.

I have this void in my life. There's no football. And there was no basketball other than the All-Star game. Well, there was good. I think it was fine. I don't remember. I have this void in my life. There's no football, and there was no basketball other than the All-Star game. Well, there was football. No, I didn't watch it. Did you watch it? No, I watched a little bit of the All-Star stuff, basketball stuff. Great All-Star weekend. The dunk contest, dude.

What was his name? McGlung or something? Mac McGlung. Oh, my God. He was incredible. Superstar. Amazing. Okay, wait. I was incredible. Superstar. Amazing. Okay. Wait, I have a couple of movies to recommend. I did watch some movies. I filled the football void

with movies. Where the Crawdads Sing on Netflix. Yep. That's a good one. You saw it? Oh, isn't that great? That's a good one. That was great. And I didn't realize they made two Predator movies. So I watched The Predator, which came out in 2018. It's pretty good. And then I started watching Prey. Didn't finish it, so I can't recommend that one yet. But The Predators was surprisingly good. It was good.

Okay, guys, before we get to the best performers from the second half, let's talk about the coaching news from the weekend. Jamie, what was the biggest coaching news? So we have coordinator hires in different spots, in Arizona, in Carolina, in Indianapolis. I think I'm forgetting one. What was the biggest news coaching-wise from the weekend, if there was any?

I guess it would have to be Eric Viettami leaving the Chiefs and going to Washington. That was the one I forgot. Yeah. You know, just to see what he can do on his own, essentially. You know, leaving the friendly confines of Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid and Travis Kelsey and going to the situation in Washington.

I hope he succeeds. I hope he does well. I'd be a little bit nervous. But, you know, I think there's, you know, I see why he's doing it, you know, trying to separate himself from the Chiefs situation and try and establish his own identity and hopefully get a head coaching job someday.

Well, you don't always hear a player speak negatively about a guy who just got hired. The Sean McCoy, though, played for Eric Bien-Ami briefly and did not, was not praising the hired Chief. Heath, excuse me. Actually, someone in our comments uh called you chief cummings should we just should we do that that was one of my nicknames in high school because you were a chief's fan no no everybody there was the chief's fan oh okay yeah i don't want to brown fans in Missouri yeah what did you make of that with Sean McCoy kind of trashing Eric Biennemi

I don't he didn't have a great ending to his time in Kansas City he didn't have a great time while he was here I don't think I don't make much of it here wow yeah I didn't make much of it here here wow chief um yeah I I didn't make much of that like I think

it is going to be really interesting it kind of stinks obviously for BME that you're the offensive coordinator of the best offensive team in football for five years and go to three super bowls and now you have to go to the commanders and prove that you're good right with potentially new ownership soon and a coaching staff that could be out so it's kind of an interesting uh interesting development there are you guys mac users or pc users mac okay both so i uh i have a word document with all my notes and it somehow moved over to another screen you know how you have like... Uh-huh. Yeah, and I can't get it back. So I don't know how to fix that. But yeah, I'm struggling here with the rest of my notes. Okay, so let me see if I can do them from memory.

Let's talk about the Packers. Did you email it to us? Oh, yeah, that's right. I can do that. The Packers. Aaron Jones. Damn it. Aaron Jones restructured his contract,

and it seems like aaron rogers the reports seem to indicate that the that he's going to be traded uh one reporter saying he's still in the dark i don't think so i think that's over well no he hadn't last week they were reporting he was coming going into the dark and then he went on one of the shows that he goes on every week and and i think basically said he and rapaport doesn't know anything right and he was not in the dark so i don't know if he's currently in the dark or if he's not gone in the dark yet i just want to make it clear that i do not know what aaron rogers is doing so he won't say that i don't know what i'm talking about um okay fair enough but anyway um yeah jamie what do you make of aaron jones

restructuring his contract to stay with the team? He was, I think, running back 11 per game in PPR last year, an interesting year for him. I think if you just read everything that came out of that, he wanted to be there, they wanted him there. And if they're going to move on from Aaron Rodgers and have a run-based offense, which seems to make the most sense, if they're going to go to Jordan Love, then leaving him in the at least one a role makes a lot of sense. So the contract that he signed, the deal that he got at least for one year is very on par with what the franchise tag deal is. So, you know, I think, you know, for what he's been able to produce and what hopefully

he still will produce, which is clearly more important. Seems like everything worked out according to what he was, was happy with and what the team was happy with. So, you know, fantasy wise, I think you're looking at a guy that's going to be drafted somewhere in the late round two, early round three range would be my guess,

depending how, you know, running backs get pushed up most likely around three for me. And it's still someone that can produce at a very high level, depending on who the quarterback is. Yeah. I um this may not be the last one of these also um there's just there's so many cheap running backs that are gonna be available in free agency and then we've got a dozen coming in the nfl draft um joe mixon and dalvin cook are probably going to have to take a pay cut as well if they want to stay on their current teams

how about green bay carries inside the five yard line last year aj dylan had 10 aaron jones had two something to keep an eye on monitor it's amazing that that's true and aaron jones was still so so much better than aj dylan was in fantasy um yeah aj dylan really struggled but dylan had seven they had the same amount of touchdowns and jones had 31 more catches and a lot more total yards uh all right so derrick car's brother david car former quarterback said this to nfl total access he will not be going to the texans it's been a tough scenario i think the biggest thing for for Derek is why it didn't work out with the Las Vegas Raiders.

He was excited at the beginning with Josh McDaniels, but there was just a difference of opinion as far as how to run offensive football and how to play offensive football. When you're a veteran quarterback, you've got veteran guys. They want some control at the line of scrimmage. They want to be able to utilize their superpower. He wants to get to the line,

decipher what the defense is doing, get in an appropriate play. And that skill wasn't utilized in Las Vegas under Josh McDaniels, and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. But Heath, you know, it was a pretty bad year for Carr statistically, and maybe this maybe just wasn't a good fit, but apparently I guess he just wasn't really able to do that much at the line of scrimmage. So you think that maybe helps explain the struggles? Yeah, I mean and i was trying to hope you would talk for a little bit longer so i could look um like it was a little bit worse than

what he's been through most of his career but i i just don't think like going to a place without davante adams and maybe a little more control of the line of scrimmage is not going to make a huge difference. I just think he's a number two quarterback for fantasy purposes. Yeah. Okay. Works for me. Alvin Kamara was among four people indicted by a grand jury on charges of conspiracy to commit battery and battery resulting in substantial bodily harm. Do we have any fantasy takeaways from this of Alvin Kamara being indicted or should we just wait and see? I mean, obviously, I think wait and see, but clearly he's a sell in Dynasty if anybody's buying. He's certainly not somebody you should be

overly excited about based on this potential suspension that's going to happen, because now the fact that there is an indictment, from what I understand, you know, now he's subject to Roger Goodell's, you know, punishment. So we'll see what happens. But I would expect, you know, depending on how this all gets resolved, that he's going to miss some time in 2023, whether it's, you know, two games, four games, who knows. So, you know, at this point, you should be concerned if you have a long-term investment in Alvin Kamara. The Giants signed wide receiver Isaiah Hodgins to a one-year deal.

In the last five games of the regular season, he averaged 50 yards per game. He caught four touchdowns, and he caught 76% of his targets. Hodgins had a big game against the Vikings in the postseason, 105 yards and a touchdown on nine targets. And then, like everyone else in the Giants, it was terrible the following week. One catch for three touchdown on nine targets. And then, like everyone else in the Giants, it was terrible the following week. One catch for three yards on two targets. In a, let's say, a 15-round draft where you're drafting a kicker or drafting a defense, so 13-round draft without those positions,

does Isaiah Hodgins get drafted, guys? What else do they do? Fair enough. All right. He absolutely gets drafted, yes. Okay. And the Giants are likely to franchise tag Daniel Jones, according to one report. Fair enough. All right. He absolutely gets drafted, yes. Okay. And the Giants are likely to franchise tag Daniel Jones,

according to one report. I'm not so sure about that, but it's certainly a possibility. Jones apparently wants close to $45 million a year. The franchise tag is much lower than that, but it's bad for the salary cap. Franchise tags could start coming now, right? Is today the first day? Today was the first day that players are eligible to be tagged. If I was the Giants, I would probably tag Saquon

and work out a deal with Daniel Jones. Not at $45 million a year. Well, I mean, when you think about what quarterback contracts are, yes, you're saving $13 million if you franchise tag Daniel Jones and you are able to hopefully work out something long-term. But at the same time, if you get him for, let's say, a three-year, $45 million a year deal now, as opposed to franchise tagging him and he has another huge season,

then you're paying him probably $60 million a year. Not 60. With what contracts are going to be as the salary cap continues to grow? I just think another huge season is a little bit. Right, he didn't have a huge season. Well, I mean, another playoff-bound season where he plays better than he did when he actually has weapons? Look, if they give him a franchise tag and they sign Saquon Barkley,

how are they going to give him weapons? I mean, they've got other players to sign as well. The salary cap is not what matters. It's the cash. It is what matters, especially when you use the franchise tag. Because the franchise, yes, it is. Because the franchise, Jamie, yes, it is. How are they going to get him weapons if they use their cap?

The salary cap is not what matters. Well, you can do what the Saints do. Of course it matters. You can do what the Saints have done. But the Saints are going to be terrible for the next five years because of that. But not when you use the, that's the thing about the franchise tag. Signing him to anyone, to the franchise tag, let's say it's a quarterback making, I think, $32 million on the franchise tag.

Compare it to signing him to a multi-year deal at $45 million. You can structure the multi-year deal differently so that you're actually saving money in the first year and freeing up more cap space for this year. And then you can put void years at the end where he's not even playing and he counts against the cap, but it helps you in the short term. You use the franchise tag on a quarterback,

it really hurts you in salary cap perspective. You cannot do anything with that. You can't defer it. You're paying all of that in year one. So anyway... That's what I'm saying. That's why I would pay Daniel Jones and franchise tag Saquon.

Yeah. All right, let's see. What else we got here? Kansas City expected a franchise tag Saquon. Yeah. Alright, let's see. What else we got here? Kansas City expected a franchise tag. Orlando Brown, their left tackle. That would be for the second straight year. The Saints, according to Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer, they are interested in

Baker Mayfield. The Eagles are looking to sign Jalen Hurts to an extension as soon as possible. Alright, then we get to the hiring. So Washington hires Eric Biannimi. Arizona hires Drew Petzing, who was the quarterback's coach and previously the tight ends coach for Cleveland.

I do not like this, what's happening in Arizona, especially for Kyler. Like, defensive coach, first-time offensive coordinator, maybe losing DeAndre Hopkins. Yeah. And may be hurt for the first month of the season. The Panthers hired Carolina, or sorry, the Panthers hired Rams assistant head coach

slash tight ends coach Thomas Brown, former running back, as their offensive coordinator. The Colts hired Jim Bob Cooter, a familiar name, but he will not call the plays. Shane Steichen will call the plays. And I think that's it for the offensive coordinator stuff. So you have Bien-Ami going to Washington.

You have a guy from Cleveland, Drew Petzing, going to Arizona. You have Thomas Brown coming over from the Rams going to the Panthers as their offensive coordinator. And you have the Colts hiring Jim Bob Cooter, who has three years of coordinator experience, but will not call the plays.

I don't know. It's not one of those things where it's like, oh, okay, well, they hired Cliff Kingsbury. Here's all of his tendencies, and he's going to... You know what I mean? Why not the first one is? Which one? The enemy. Not really, because he didn't call the plays. He called some of the plays.

Right, but it was still andy reed there's no tendencies to take it really okay i this is this is the same thing like there's nothing that happened with the chiefs was eric bnme so we don't know anything about him because it was all no no but i i mean i don't think he's going to have ring around the posy and then they're throwing two offensive tackle i mean it's patrick holmes i mean you know i don't know like doug peterson's one of the most creative play callers in the NFL. He came from the Andy Reid tree. I don't

know why we wouldn't think that would transfer to Eric B. too. That's fair. I just don't know. To me, it's the Jimmys and Joes. It's not the X's and O's. Andy Reid's been able to do it with multiple guys. I don't know how many other people have done that.

Chief Cummings there, really sticking up for the enemy. I'm not talking about the guys who are currently on the Chiefs. I'm talking about the guy who gets absolutely zero credit for what he's done for five years. Once a Chief, always a Chief. I'm not saying you're wrong because you're right about Peterson. He did a great job. Matt Nagy just did the exact same thing that Brian Dabble's done.

We'll see if Dabble follows it up better than Nagy did. I really would have to look into that comment, and I'm not going to do that. We're going to take a break. Oh, wait, there was one other thing. Thank you to Zach Brook, our producer today, filling in for Thomas Schaefer's on a little vacation. Graham Gonneau, Giants kicker, he tweeted this. I'm just going to say his wife is correct, by the way.

He said, Graham Gonneau said, My wife thinks I'm crazy because when I eat a bag of chips, I crush them all up and pour them into my mouth instead of pulling them out one by one. I can't be the only one that does this, right? I've never heard of that. I don't hate it, though. I hate it.

I think you're losing so much of the chip experience like that. Like, I know that crushed up chips on a burger are good. I don't know, man. I, yeah, I'm completely against it. I'm trying to find it. You're going to try it? Okay. I'm sure it tastes good, but you're losing the crunch.

There's an experience of eating the chip that you don't get there. Jamie, what do you think? Is the goal to have the experience of eating the chip or just eat the chip? Both. I mean, you want everything. You want all the – yeah, I don't know. I'm with Adam. The advantage I can think of is if you did that, the crunching of the bag in a different room,

because my wife, she doesn't enjoy it when I eat chips in the living room if she's not eating chips. It's kind of annoying to hear somebody else eat chips. Yeah. You can crush them all up beforehand and then just have that experience. It'd be better for the people in the room with you. I guess it also would make me less likely to ask for chips, you know? You don't have to share. Yeah, yeah. Nobody, I'm not going to be like, hey, can I have one of those?

Can I have a cup full of those? That's not going to happen. All right, we're going to take a break. When we come back, we'll talk about the best second half performances from the 2022 season right after this. damage cost you time and money. Click before you dig. Ensure your next project is safe. Visit OntarioOneCall.ca It's free. It's easy. It's the law. Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report.

Alright, so I gave you guys five second half performances. Heath has an extra four that we'll do later. And what I want you to do is I want you to rank these performances. Oh, did you want them from us? No, that's okay. Heath in a separate email. I have one. Send some.

Alright, then we'll put that on the Heath list. What's yours? Tyler Alger. Do you know what he was? The last six games of the season he led the NFL in rushing. Okay, I'll look up where he finished in fantasy. Alright, so that'll be another five. So I gave you five and they were Justin Fields.

By the way, when I say second half, it's weeks 10 through 18. No, I didn't give you Tyler Algier and what I thought you said with the twist because we're doing sophomore running backs at the end of the week. That's true. No, that's okay. You were not required to do anything. Heath did extra credit. Anyway, Justin Fields was QB five per game from weeks

10 through 18. If you go back a few weeks before that, I think he was QB three per game, but I just specifically looked at weeks 10 through 18. Tony Pollard was RB five per game. James Connor was RB two per game. Keenan Allen was wide receiver five per game and Christian Watson was wide receiver nine. So we have one quarterback, Justin Fields at QB5, Tony Pollard, RB5, James Conner, RB2, Keenan Allen, wide receiver five per game, Christian Watson, wide receiver nine per game.

It's great that all these guys have the exact same situations next year that they're coming off of this year. Nothing's going to change for any of these guys. All right, so why don't we approach it as Justin Fields is Justin Fields, right? Things might change for him, but let's assume he's going to be the starting quarterback. Tony Pollard will be back with the Cowboys. James

Conner will be back with the Cardinals. He's still under contract with them, right? Yes. Let's say Keenan Allen's back with the Chargers, and then Christian Watson is back, but we'll assume different quarterback at this point. So he's the only one that's different, as opposed to the free agent, the guy who might get traded, and the guy who might get cut.

Look, I can only do so much with what I have here, right? I know. What I want you to do is I want you to rank them, one through five, on what you think is the most believable for next year or maybe the most sustainable. Well, if we're playing make-believe, is Ezekiel Elliott back with the Cowboys? I think you're going to have to use your – all right.

I think – all right, you got to say yes. Let's say yes. I think Connor and Zeke are in similar contract situations. It would almost – like those guys are as expensive to cut right now as they are to keep. I could see a situation where the Cardinals keep connor just you know based on maybe no kyler start the season as you alluded to defensive coach new coordinator maybe try and just keep the backfield somewhat similar knowing that he's might be done in a year from now and it's not like they have an

heir apparent on the roster all right so it Obviously, the Cowboys don't technically either, but you know the situation with Pollard. I'll keep it simple, right? It's Fields as a top five quarterback, Pollard and Conner as top five running backs, Keenan Allen as a top five wide receiver, Christian Watson as a top 10 wide receiver. He's obviously getting drafted last, Watson.

Yeah. No, no, I guess maybe Fields would would be if you're doing a one quarterback fantasy league so for me I would go Pollard Allen Watson, Connor, Fields okay Pollard

top 5 would be your most realistic Allen top 5, Watson top 10 that's Christian Watson, James Connor top 5 Justin Fields top 5, Heath what top five would be your most realistic. Allen top five. Watson top ten. That's Christian Watson. James Conner top five. Justin Fields top five. Heath, what would your order be? I think I have Jamie's last as my first. I thought so too, yeah.

I think Fields top five is my most believable. Oh, I'm sorry. Most believable. I thought you were like who we're drafting. No, no. What's the most believable of these finishers? Yeah, I agree with Heath. Fields is the most believable. And I you were like who we're drafting. No, no. What's the most believable of these finishers? Yeah, I agree with you. Fields is the most believable. And I think Pollard's still second.

I think Connor is last. And I will go... Watson, what? Top what? Ten. And Allen, what? Top five. I don't believe either one of those at all. Not even kind of. I'm not going to make Connor last anymore. I'll't believe either one of those at all. Not even kind of. I'm not going to make Conor last anymore.

I'll go Fields, Pollard, Conor, Allen, Watson. I'll go Fields, Pollard, Allen, Watson, Conor. Okay, so why James Conor, third for Heath, last for Jamie? Jamie, why last for you? He's not exactly old. I think he's going to be 28. That's old. Well, okay, but we're drafting Austin Eckler

and Derek Henry in the first two rounds. They're both either the same age or older. And, you know, he just had so many touches, and he's the only guy there right now, only guy worth mentioning, basically. So why is Conor, Jamie Jamie the least believable for you? Age, situation, I feel like the Cardinals could be an absolute poop show just based on everything that they're going through.

Total regime change, quarterback coming off ACL, losing their star receiver, everything sort of Heath alluded to earlier. And I just don't buy him doing this again at this age you know so uh could he still be a top 10 guy in this situation yeah maybe you know i'd probably say if if i'm looking at a ceiling firm it's probably more like top 15 so i don't see this being sustainable for him at this age and the situation i think like the there's obviously an enormous difference between Austin Eckler Derrick Henry and James Connor and that like he did it in the second half but one of

the reasons he's highlighted as a second half guy is because he was so bad in the first half of the season he was yeah this was like a seven game stretch we're talking about where he was awesome but the first half of the season was miserable and And he's 28 and on maybe a terrible offense. Okay, but here's the difference between the first half and the second half. First of all, the first five games of the season, James Conner left two of them with an injury. Secondly, he was platooning.

In the second half of the season, he played, in almost every game, he played 95% or more of the snaps. So he was, I'm not saying he wasn't like great or anything, although he performed pretty well, but he just got so many touches and so many catches. So if they use him as a three down back again,

you know, why not? Why not? I don't know about top five, but yeah, why not top five? Since I did phrase it that way. This is a good time, I think. I'm really strongly considering becoming an ageist this year. I think this is the year that we've got some old stars that are really going to fall hard.

Yeah, okay, okay. How about Keenan Allen? So he has been a top... Speaking of ageists. Yeah, right. So he has been a top 13 wide receiver in ppr on a per game basis six years in a row uh he will be 31 next year but he was terrific at age 30 he caught 74 of his targets which was nearly a career high so that'll probably come down a little bit but

still um last eight games of the season uh he had 675 yards. He had 83 targets in eight games. So you're talking about a guy who, on a 17-game pace, was getting 10 targets per game, so over 170 targets. Anyway, we've seen some great value, Jamie, on Keenan Allen in the early drafts that we've done. Is age the only thing? And again, I know there's the trade rumor, or there's cut rumor, but let's just say he's back.

Is age the only thing keeping Keenan Allen from being a round two or three pick? I don't think you necessarily need to attach age so much with guys that play in the slot. If you think about it, how that typically has played itself out because, you know, you look at it and some of it was guys transitioning to different spots from being a primary outside receiver to a slot receiver. And a lot of it has been tied honestly to the ones that have been successful to Bruce Arians, but Heinz Ward in Pittsburgh, Larry Fitzgerald in Arizona, Reggie Wayne in Indianapolis.

Obviously you look at the guys in new England and how they played in the early thirties and Julian Edelman and Wes Walker. Thank you for bringing that up. Edelman averaged 70 yards per game at age 32 and age 33. Yeah, it's, you know, it's typically the outside guys that fall off a cliff. And so Keenan Allen, I think, can maybe do this for another year or two. You know, I don't think he's going to do it, you know, into his mid to late 30s. But obviously, as we're seeing, you know, as evolution is changing, you know, guys are

playing at a high level a little bit longer at different sports. Um, but I think for what his game is, um, in, in the right situation, certainly with a quarterback like Justin Herbert, now with a hopeful better, better system from Kellen Moore, uh, I think he can still be, uh, at a play at a very high level. And I think even if he goes to a different team that has a, you know, good enough quarterback and certainly good enough system, and he stays in that spot, um, he could still be playing at a very high level. So he think even if he goes to a different team that has a, you know, good enough quarterback and certainly good enough system, and he stays in that spot, he could still be playing at a very high level. So he's a great route runner. He gets open space and limited space and, you know, right quarterback, you know, being on the same page, great rapport. I think that can,

you know, still be very sustainable. Yeah. I think like there's a couple other yellow flags, not red flags. Cause he has been awesome. I agree with most of what Jamie said. I think like the touchdowns are obviously of concern. He's scored more than six touchdowns once in the last nine years. It's hard to be a top-five wide receiver with six or seven touchdowns even. And then I'll be very interested to see how the ball gets distributed with Kellen Moore calling plays and Mike McCarthy not there. Because before last year, there was not a guy who was getting 150

targets in Dallas. Allen has thrived on volume, but not on efficiency. He's needed that nine, nine and a half targets per game to be a top 12 wide receiver. I don't know that he's going to get that now. Yeah, this is Keenan Allen we're talking about. It's obviously only a PPR argument, and I'm not really arguing for him to be a top five wide receiver, but I'm just saying that you look at his overall numbers, week one and week seven, he barely played. He played a third of the snap in both of those games. There were four games where they both played, both were healthy, and Keenan Allen still had huge numbers. And actually, in those four games, Justin Herbert only averaged 38 pass attempts per game, which is a lot,

but it's not, you know, it's not as what the heights we usually see from Herbert. That's another thing. I think there's a good chance we don't see as many pass attempts from Herbert this year. Yeah. Right. I would suspect, but how many did he average? I mean, he had to have averaged more than 38 per game, right? Probably. Yeah.

All right, I don't know if there's anyone else we want to highlight here. Justin Fields as a top five quarterback is pretty feasible. He's going to be ranked close to that. Tony Pollard. Tony Pollard in the two games he played without Zeke, which is ridiculous. And then the fact that he was top five per game

in that stretch, where he actually had fewer carries than Ezekiel Elliott, Heath. So, you know, what does that mean? They were a pretty run-heavy team, and they were very effective, and Pollard just obviously has been an awesome running back in his career.

Yeah, I still think it's probably going to be close to a 50-50 split in terms of carries with him and Zeke. And I just looked. I think it's 11 million split in terms of carries with him and Zeke. And I just looked. I think it's $11 million dead money they've got if they cut Zeke. So I'd really – maybe they'll do that. That doesn't sound like Jerry Jones. So I think he's going to have to be wildly efficient.

He probably will be. It'd help him if there were a few more targets available for him. And he was really, really good in the passing game, so there might be that too. He could have an Austin Eckler or Alvin Kamara type top five season, and it wouldn't be that surprising. Jamie, 50-50 split. What do you think about that projection from Heath between Pollard and Zeke? Just rushing,

not passing. It wouldn't surprise me just knowing how much they still want to feature Zeke Elliott to whatever reason they want to do it. Whatever he has on Jerry Jones, kudos to him. I don't know why they would.

I think, you know, whenever you watch them over the last two years, they're clearly a much better offense when Tony Pollard is getting more opportunities, as we've alluded to quite a bit, you know, and I'll go back to a conversation we had with our guy Tom Spencer, who was in the booth with Jim Nantz and Tony Romo when they had the Cowboys early in the season. And at that point, he was being used a lot more as a receiver than he was just a rusher. And they were saying, and the reports came out a few weeks after that,

about how they don't want to overuse Tony Pollard. So whatever they have concerns about, and granted he's coming off a pretty significant injury, how much do they want to run him into the ground per se? se and so i i could see yes on rushing down to 50 50 split i'd probably say it's more 60 40 if they're going to commit to signing him to whatever they do franchise tag or deal um so you know i i think pollard returning to dallas puts him in a pretty good spot for fantasy managers man and even if he plays if he plays three games without ezekiel elliott you know gosh those could be just such huge games for him yeah i think it's interesting

because i was going to look eckler's never had more than 206 carries in a season um camara was like 190 ish for four years and the most efficient running back in football. Then two years ago, they gave him 240, basically 18 carries a game, and that was the point to where he had the major drop-off in terms of efficiency and production. I think it's a really interesting point because Pollard, you're thinking about him as he's like a five-plus-yard-per-carry guy, one of the best in the NFL, but that did not hold up over the second half of the season.

I won't get into all the numbers, but he was more like 4.5 yards per carry in his last eight games, but it was even worse. Wow, he sucks. Week 16, 9 carries for 19 yards. Week 18, 7 carries for 19 yards. So there was some more struggle. Like 10 carries for 42 yards and a touchdown against the Texans.

That's really bad for most running backs. So those were all later in the season. It is possible that he got worn down. I think if you look at the last four regular season games, he was probably well under four yards per carry. Okay, so let's go to the other list.

Last question. I'll just wrap it up here. If Jordan Love is the quarterback, Christian Watson would be a top blank wide receiver in your rankings. 30? I'm sorry, Jordan Love's quarterback? Yeah. 22, 23.

Oh, okay. All right, let's go to the list of Heath and then one from Jamie. So Heath says in the last half of the season, these are the things that stood out to him. Daniel Jones was QB7 per game. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Jerry Judy was wide receiver 12 per game. Evan Ingram was

tight end 3. Dawson Knox was tight end 8. All per game. Sorry. And Jamie added Tyler Algier and I'll just have to, in the last 4 weeks of the season, he really got going. He was the number five running back overall, number nine per game. So Daniel Jones as QB7.

Jerry Judy, top 12. Evan Ingram, tight end three. Dawson Knox, tight end eight. Tyler Algier, top 10. Let's do the same exercise here. Rank them most believable going into next season. Knox, Judy. Dawson Knox, tight end, eight.

Jerry Judy, wide receiver, 12. Knox, Judy. Algier and Jones are fourth and fifth. I forgot the third one. Evan Ingram, tight end, three. Algier, Ingram, Jones. Oh, man. You put Daniel Jones behind.

Daniel Jones QB seven is less believable than Evan Ingram as tight end three. All right. So that's Algier top ten. Jamie, how would you rank them? Judy, one. As wide receiver, 12. your top 10. Jamie, how would you rank them? Judy 1. As wide receiver 12. Jones 2. Ingram 3.

Knox 4. Algier 5. Austin Knox. Okay, so just in case anyone is confused, Daniel Jones was QB seven per game. Jerry Judy was wide receiver 12. Evan Ingram was top three. Dawson Knox was tight end eight. And Tyler Algier was RB nine per game in the last stretch of the season. Heath says Dawson Knox being tight end eight is the most believable.

I agree. I just, you know, like it won't be a glamorous season at all. He'll be on the waiver wire, but he'll be tight at eight. But you both had Jerry Judy very high. Jamie had Judy wide receiver 12.

That is the most believable one. Heath, you had that as the second most believable one. You disagreed pretty strongly on Daniel Jones. So why don't we start there? Daniel Jones is QB seven. Jamie had that as the second most believable. Heath had that last of the five. So Jamie, go ahead and say why you could believe that more so than Heath,

Daniel Jones being QB seven per game. I mean, he's in rarefied air with 3,000 passing yards and 700 plus rushing yards. That doesn't happen very often. And so he did that with Isaiah Hodgins, Sterling Shepard, Wandel Robinson, the corpse of Kenny Galladay and Richie James. You know, so I would hope that there's some investment in some better weapons for Jones and second year in Brian D'Abel's system, assuming that's where he stays. So if he leaves, then I wouldn't necessarily buy it unless he, you know, somehow miraculously ended up with the chiefs um but i think you know

just if he stays with the giants i you know i i don't think 4 700 is is necessarily a huge leap for him to get there with better passing weapons and running quarterbacks are hard to find at that level so 4 000 yards and 700 rushing oh that'd be a lot it's just don't you figure like he's gonna throw much more if he's going to throw much more, if he's going to throw for 4,000 the rushing total will come down? I don't know how that gets back. I don't think it's

based on how he plays and how this system has allowed the last two quarterbacks that Brian Dables had his hands on, one is a superstar, one is certainly a player on the rise, Josh Allen and Daniel Jones. Um, there there's the potential still to run and, and still be a successful passer. You know, you know, if it's 4,600, I don't think anybody's going to be upset about that. You know, if he gets to that level. So, um, I, I think clearly

a lot of these are stretches to begin with, but you know, if Daniel Jones has another season where he's using his legs and gets better weapons, I would not be surprised if he's in the top 10 of fantasy quarterbacks. Yeah, Heath? Yeah, I don't think it's a coincidence that the fewest pass attempts per game for Daniel Jones is also his best fantasy finish.

I don't necessarily know how much getting weapons is going to help him, because if he throws more and runs less, I think that'll probably be worse for his fantasy production. A big part of the difference between him last year and years past was he had seven rushing touchdowns.

I think he had two was his max in a year before. He has one season with more than 15 passing touchdowns. I just think... It's also his first season with a real coach, though. Yeah, I mean, you got to buy the player or not.

People are going to just, some are going to buy the player and some are not, I think. Definitely, Jamie buys the player more than Heath does. I don't necessarily buy the player. I buy the circumstances. And look, I'm not buying him as a top seven quarterback. I'm certainly not drafting him that way. But I think just in terms of what he is able to do based on his skill set

and, again, what Brian Dable has allowed his quarterbacks to do. So how many rushing touchdowns did he have last year? Seven. Seven. So in Brian Dable's last how many years calling plays, the quarterback has run for how many touchdowns? It's true. It's a good point.

It's always around that number. I think that... He didn't call plays. For the record, he did not call plays. That is my Catholic cosplay. His system. Yeah.

No, you're right, but I just... Whatever. Go ahead, Heath. No, I just think that what we saw last year was kind of the ceiling outcome for the Giants

and for Daniel Jones, and they're both going to be worse next year. Very well could be the case. If they have the same personnel, if they can find a way to get a playmaking wide receiver, maybe a Kadarius Tony, that could change things. I just sit here. I just don't know how it's going to happen

unless they use the first pick in the draft or trade. You need Wandale Robinson to turn into that guy. Yeah, I don't know. Coming off a torn ACL, and I don't know if he is that guy. Yeah, maybe, maybe. But I think that they opened up the offense a lot late in the season. Schneier talked about it a lot. They went from 12 personnel to three receiver personnel.

Or they went to three receiver personnel a lot at the end of the year. They want to throw the ball. They want to be a passing offense. So I don't think we've seen the ceiling of their offense. I just think they need more talent somehow. We're going to have to reevaluate if they do acquire that talent. Jerry Judy, though, you guys seem to agree

on, has a decent chance of being a top 12 wide receiver? To me, of all the players that we've discussed, maybe outside of Justin Fields, it feels like that's of all the players that we've discussed maybe outside of justin fields it feels like that's not a huge stretch for him because you know we saw it with for whatever russell wilson was last year certainly one of the best if not the best quarterbacks he's played with um obviously from a from a resume standpoint but i think even as poor as russell wilson played

that's still better than some of the trevor simons of the world that, you know, Jerry Judy was stuck with previously. I think better coach, better system. The pedigree is clearly there of a first round pick in the NFL draft and what he was able to show in college. He's an incredible route runner. And so, you know, I think if Russ is close to being, you know, his prior 2022 form, then Jerry Judy could be an absolute star. So yeah, I think top 12 as well within the realm of possibility for him. Yeah, and that great finish

where he was top 12 in the second half included one game without Russ and one game where he only played 38% of the snaps. We could throw that one out. I would, yeah. See ya. Yeah, he was very good. It took about five weeks for him only played 38% of the snaps. We could throw that one out. I would. Yeah. See ya. Uh, yeah,

he was very good. It took about five weeks for him to really become the number one wide receiver because Cortland Sutton was that guy early, but that ended fairly quickly. Jerry Judy, pretty good year, 972 yards and six touchdowns in 15 games. And he had three games where he had a game where he played 1% of the

snaps, 14% of the snaps, 38% of the snaps. So you want the snaps, 38% of the snaps. You want the A's or stats, here's the 17-game pace for Judy if you remove all three of those games. 88 catches, 1,269 yards, nine touchdowns on a per-game basis.

That's a top-12 wide receiver. I think it would have been about 15th, believe it or not. I feel like 88 catches is not that many in a 17-game season. But still, top 15, so very good. All right. Jamie, why did you put Tyler Algier last in the believability thing?

Tyler Algier is a top 10 running back last. I like to see who the quarterback is once we get to the start of the season, you know, it could be Desmond Ritter, but I mean, look, he was great. You know, I, I think it's hard though, as we've noted a lot, and you certainly mentioned this all the time, Adam, you know, when you're not catching passes, it's difficult to be at that level. So is he going to be the full-time featured guy? We, you know,

we saw a few of those games where Cordero Patterson still had, you know, pretty significant role. And then, you know we saw a few of those games where cordero patterson still had you know pretty significant role um and then you know if if he's not heavily involved in the passing game then you know to be a top 10 guy is it's tough to manage you know unless you're scoring 15 plus touchdowns like derrick henry's done so i think a top 20 caliber running back is certainly you know possible you know maybe top 15 if the touchdowns are there and they do increase his role in the passing game. He's going to do a good job running the ball. I think he showed you the ability to do that. Hopefully, that's something that carries over

to his sophomore season. Anything else, guys? In terms of Evan Ingram, he's a free agent. Is there a scenario where you could see ranking him in the top five? No.

It's hard to rank him ahead of clearly the top two, you know, so you're starting at three. I think Hawkinson's in a better spot. I think Goddard's in a better spot. I'd probably still take the chance on the upside of Pitts and then, you know know kittle and waller okay well i mean coming back to an offense that has you know calvin ridley now thrown into the mix right all right all right heath any final thoughts words of wisdom no i was just trying

to think of the place that would be best for ev Ingram. I guess if they did not sign a wide receiver and they traded Keenan Allen and they signed Evan Ingram. Okay. Then I could see maybe Evan Ingram's a top five tight end. Yeah, he'd have to be the number two guy somewhere. Or if he went to maybe, I don't know, the Giants? Giants could use a pass catcher.

That'd be interesting. We're all about Daniel Bellinger here. All right, guys, thank you very much. He said some nice things about Daniel pass catcher. It'd be interesting. We're all about Daniel Bellinger here. All right, guys, thank you very much. Travis Kelsey said some nice things about Daniel Bellinger. Yeah, he's a good player. He's basically a fullback. I don't know how great he's going to be for fantasy. So, Travis Kelsey.

Paving ways for the 700-yard rusher. Travis Kelsey. That better be Daniel Jones and not Saquon Barkley. I don't know how much I can trust Travis Kelsey. That better be Daniel Jones and not Saquon Barkley. I don't know how much I can trust Travis Kelsey after the nobody believed in us thing, whatever he was saying. Everybody does that. All teams do that. No. Okay.

The Chiefs have no business doing that. They're the Kansas City Chiefs. You can never say nobody believed in us. If he just said nobody thought we'd win the Super Bowl again, that's fine. Nobody thought we'd make the playoffs. Is that what he said? Nobody thought we were going to make the playoffs? I'm excited.

It's something crazy. It's like crushing a bag of chips and drinking it. My favorite thing, though, in response to that, because I'm a homer, has been all of the Chiefs fans who have gone back and found the clips of people saying the Chiefs were going to miss the playoffs and just making threads of them. Because there were lots and clips of people saying the Chiefs were going to miss the playoffs and just making threads of them because there were lots and lots of people saying that. I think I said that.

Oh, wow. You should be. You should have been on old takes exposed, not me. That's it for our show. We'll talk to you tomorrow. We'll talk about sophomore running backs later this week. Tomorrow's topic is someone that I do not remember. Do you guys remember tomorrow's topic? Oh, crazy stats.

That 10 crazy stats from 2022, which I better start working on right now. For Heath and Jamie and our producer, Zach Brooke, I am Adam Azer. I'll talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football Today.