Fantasy Football Today - Beyond the Box Score: 2023 Rankings, Daniel Jones and More (01/02 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: January 2, 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.  We give our thoughts on the Steelers-Ravens game (3:00) and debate J.K. Dobbins vs. Najee Harris in 2023. Then we'll update you on news and notes (11:10) including playoff scenarios and which teams might sit players in Week 18 ... Advanced stats (13:45) on Ken Walker, D.K. Metcalf, Drake London and a few others. Then Dan reviews some Jared Goff tape (22:40) and the Fantasy Cops pay Dan a visit (31:10) ... Four Big Topics! We reveal our Top 5 RBs and WRs for 2023 (34:50), discuss the 2023 NFL Draft class (45:05), talk about the "start your studs" approach (49:30) and break down Daniel Jones (51:00) and his breakout season ... 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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Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Greetings, fantasy champions, or other fantasy football listeners. What's going on? It is Monday. It is beyond the box score time. And the really smart one on the show isn't here either. Jacob Gibbs is taking today. All right.

I mean, let's be real here. Taking today off. I'm Adam Azer with Dan Schneier here on this Monday afternoon. Today, we're going to look a lot at 2023. We're going to give our top five running backs and wide receivers. We're going to talk about the rookie class, the 2023 rookie class. You've come to the right place because Dan is constantly

scouting these guys. Benching your studs for matchups. And we're going to talk about Daniel Jones. You've come to the right place because, you know, we like Daniel Jones here. But he is a top 10 quarterback right now in fantasy. How's it going, Dan? What's up?

It's going really well, Adam. Obviously, yesterday, for those who don't know, but everyone knows, the Giants clinched the playoff berth, their first since 2016. It was their first time scoring over 30 points in 43 games, Adam. 43 games. Wow. That's amazing. 43 games.

First home winning record since 2016. Biggest margin of victory since 2014. It's a good day for Giants fans, and I am one of those. Yes, you are. You have your shirt on and everything, so we won't kill you with Giants stuff. I am thinking about going to the Giants-Eagles game in Philadelphia, and Dan told me that there is a place in Philadelphia that has, quote, the best sandwich, what, in the world?

In America. Okay, the best sandwich in America. And it has a bad ingredient on it. So you wonder how it could possibly be such a good sandwich. A bad ingredient, according to Adam. Broccoli rabe. Does anybody like broccoli rabe? Let's just take a really good vegetable and make it bad.

That's Broccoli Rob. I think if you marinate the Broccoli Rob right, like they do at this place, it's actually pretty damn tasty. A case can be made that the sandwich would be better with Broccoli Rob versus regular broccoli. I don't think you can throw regular broccoli on this kind of sandwich. Can I get it without the Broccoli Rob? You could. Make sure you get the sharp provolone, though. That's really the best part. And it's still going to be great, but I think it without the broccoli, Rob? You could make sure you get the sharp provolone though. That's really the best part.

And it's still going to be great, but I think it's the combination of flavors, the balancing of the flavors. This sandwich, for those who don't know, we don't need to tease it any longer. It's the roast pork sandwich at the Knicks in Redding Terminal in Philadelphia. My opinion, it was described to me as the best sandwich in America. I was like, this is never going to live up to the hype. Anyone who's ever said you're about to try the best thing ever, it never lives up to the hype. Somehow, this did.

The roast pork is phenomenal. It's tender. It's juicy. You dip it in the juice. You ask them to. The sharp provolone is fantastic with the broccoli rabe. It's that flavor combination, Adam. Hopefully, I can get down there and check it out. I'll give it a shot. Pittsburgh 16, Baltimore 13.

Of all the stats, of all the games, of all the seasons, how about the last three times that Baltimore and Pittsburgh have played, the score has been 16-13, 16-14, and 16-13. It's one of my favorite stats of the year. It's amazing. Why did we not pound the under last night?

I was thinking about it, too, as that game grinded to a 6-3, a 6-3 haul. I was like, what am I doing here? It's cold. No one's scoring touchdowns in this game. No, not until the very end, basically. With the game-winning touchdown catch from Najee Harris, Kenny Pickett didn't do anything all game until he made three amazing throws on that drive. So good stuff from him.

But any fantasy takeaways from Pittsburgh, Baltimore from Sunday night? I like the usage for nausea that we've seen lately. Obviously, the passing game usage isn't what we wanted this year. But one thing that seems to stand out to me when watching the Steelers now versus watching Steelers the beginning year is this offensive line is starting to come into its own. And they're playing much better football than they have. And probably at this point, like two or three years, the Steelers, I'd love to hear that take from a Steelers fan to see if they kind of agree with that or disagree with that to me it looks like just from watching the games that they've taken that jump so if that offensive line takes a jump it could mean a lot for the

entire offense for 2023 Najee Harris not even a top 20 running base 21 per game in full PPR he's 19 per game okay yeah in non-PPR, which is really disappointing for a first-round pick. Maybe you got him in the second round. What about the second half of the season? Good question. Since the bye week, and I think you can probably break his season down

into the two halves. The bye week was basically right in the middle of the year. There's a chance he just got healthier. Remember, he had the foot injury, the plantar fasciitis in the beginning of the year. I don't know how long it took him to shake that off. He is a top 10 running back per game since the bye week. He is number eight overall in PPR.

He is number 10 per game. He's averaging 4.2 yards per carry. He has the second most carries in the NFL in that span, so a little disappointed to have the second most carries and only be number 10 per game, but three of his four best games have been in the fantasy playoffs. So that's pretty cool. Let's see, 14.6 points against the Panthers,

15.5 against the Raiders. And last night, last night was a lot. 18-ish points. Don't do the math. But 123 total yards, two catches, and a touchdown. So that do the math, but 122, 123 total yards, two catches, and a touchdown. So that's 20 points, basically, for Najee. Anyway, you know

what I was going to say about Najee, though, Dan? His longest carry this year is 36 yards. He has one carry of longer than 20 yards all year, and I harp on it a lot for different analysts. Different metrics are more important than others. For me, explosive plays are really big for running backs, and he just doesn't do it.

He's got to have a huge workload to be a real difference maker because he's not ripping off big runs. The way he was running, I was like, oh, that was a really nice run. It went for eight yards. Ken Walker had a 60-yard run on the first play of the game. That's why I just can't get too excited about Najee. I'd like for him to lose a little weight, honestly,

be a little lighter, and maybe have a little bit more explosiveness. I think that's fair, especially because he had a little bit more explosion back to his days at Bama, but I don't know if he's ever going to be because there are some, I don't want to call it similarities, Adam,

but I can see a little bit of the blueprint for everybody counts him out like we did Josh Jacobs last year. He's nearing the end of that contract. It's only year three three but i don't think they're going to well we'll see what happens there after what they did with james connor but and then he has that like nobody buys into him kind of season next year i kind of get that feel as that offensive line starting to gel but at the same time josh jacobs can house runs you said it fast like josh jacobs has that breakaway ability now she doesn't so it's definitely something to put a halt at least to some of that optimism.

Oh, you're drafting right now for next year. JK Dobbins or Daji Harris. Oh, JK Dobbins for sure. I love JK Dobbins for next year. Yeah. All right. Still not catching anything. So that's always going to be an issue. I don't think he ever will. Not with Lamar Jackson in the lineup, but I don't know if it matters. Like when he runs the way he runs, he's, he's Nick Chubb. He's Chubb ask,ar jackson in the lineup but i don't know if it matters like when he runs the way he runs he's he's nick chubb he's chubb-esque i should say in the sense that he can really do that amazing job of setting up his blockers using his patient and processing the runs process mental processing for the running back position is by far and away the most underrated trait no one ever talks about it no one ever gives it enough credit but it plays a huge role and if these guys can

have success on their runs. And he has great mental processing. We were doing the show on Sunday morning on YouTube. Those are done, by the way, but if you were part of those live streams, thank you very much. We were talking, who's going to be the, oh, of course, he has a big game

in week 17 when he's finally on my bench. Who's going to be that player? I guess you could say Mike Evans, except that we all liked Mike Evans. We all loved him, though, right? Mark Andrews, though, is the one. 100 yards, caught all nine of his targets. Were you really benching Mark Andrews, though?

Who could you even start? I guess if you had multiple tight ends, like an Ingram or something, you might have done it. I would have benched him. I'm sure he would have been a top 12 tight end if I had done rankings, but I would have benched him. Would you have started Evan Ingram or Darren Waller? I had that decision in the fantasy football today championship game

that I played Marone in. I started Ingram, and it could cost me the matchup. I was totally off the Raiders. Totally off the Raiders. It was a huge shock that the Niners' defense performed so poorly. It's amazing to me that not only did Jared Stidham nearly throw for 400 yards. Please take this into account what's going on here this is Jared Stidham and he had a two minute drill drive against that defense that's like the craziest part about the whole thing I don't that shows how unpredictable the NFL is that game that was one of the most insane

things that I who could have predicted that I mean look CBS like the uncle Slayer here CBS was talking about sitting Andrews for all kinds of wild trash. I get it. Did you see what Mark Andrews was doing? Did you have Mark Andrews on your team? Did you see how bad he was the previous four weeks? He got a quarterback in Tyler Huntley that I think has thrown two touchdowns in, what, four or five games?

I think it was an appropriate sit. There was no way to see this coming. A tough matchup, too. Good defense. They showed a stat yesterday during the game. With TJ Watt playing, I think they got the third best scoring defense in football. Without him, they're garbage. So, yeah, there was

no way we could have foreseen Mark Andrews. Yeah, okay. Uncle Slayer. No, I get it. No hate. Just stating for the record. Yeah, I know. We were wrong. And the always start your studs versus play the matchups thing is going to come up later

with one of our big topics. You can cherry pick, you know, obviously if you sat Devante Adams, you feel foolish. If you sat Jalen Waddle, you look like a genius. Both those guys obviously dealing with quarterback changes. Okay. News and no. dealing with quarterback changes. Okay. News and no... Oh, wait. First promote.

Jacob's not here, but we'll promote Sportsline anyway. Sportsline's awesome. And you can get your first month for 99 cents when you use the code TACKLE. So that's the code TACKLE. If you go to Sportsline.com and sign up for that month, well, you sign up for the monthly subscription. And what are you going to get there? You're going to get great gambling advice,

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TACKLE for $0 99 cents for that first month. And let me say this about Sportsline. Only about two weeks ago, they started debuting player prop picks. Yeah, player prop picks. And I've taken every single one from our experts, and I am up a lot of money taking every single one. Our experts have been phenomenal so far. I mean phenomenal on the player prop picks

percentage is well over 75 you can look it up the cool thing about sportsline one final push for it is that they track all the results so you can see what each expert has done over its last x picks on player props or on you know and they track it down to like over unders he's seven and two on his last nine over unders things like that or he or she. So just check it out. I love the accountability of Sportsline more than anything else. But yeah, they've been really hot on the player props. All right, let's look at our news and notes. Seems like the Giants, after Brian Dable said,

no, no, we're not resting our starters, seems like they might rest their starters for what's a meaningless game for them in Week 18 at Philadelphia. Tampa Bay says they're going to play their starters. It's also a meaningless game. The Giants and the Buccaneers are locked into their seeds. We were talking about this last night. I think they are the only

teams locked into their seeds right now. Definitely in the NFC. For sure in the NFC, the only teams locked in their seeds. I'm not sure about the AFC situation, but I think that's probably right. The Bengals might be... No, no, you're right.

Well, the Bengals play tonight, and they're definitely not locked into their seat because if they win tonight, then you've got a three-way tie for the one seed between the Bengals, Ravens... Sorry, the Bengals, Bills, and Chiefs. And if they lose tonight, if the Bills win tonight, the Bills have a one-game edge on the Bengals, Ravens, sorry, the Bengals, Bills, and Chiefs. And if they lose tonight, if the Bills win tonight, the Bills have a one-game edge on the Chiefs,

but still have to go win that game. Who won? Wait a second. Am I right about this? The Bills can't clinch the one seed tonight, right? They lost to the Chiefs, I think. I'm not exactly sure. Sorry. No, Buffalo beat the Chiefs, I think. I'm not exactly sure. Sorry.

No, Buffalo beat the Chiefs. So what the hell am I... Can they clinch it tonight? Somebody in the chat must know. Yes. Rely on the chat. No, I'm sorry. They have the same record.

My bad. I thought they had a one game lead over the Chiefs. Okay, they have the same amount of losses. If the Bills win tonight, it's... I was wrong. I was wrong. If the Bengals win tonight, then's... I was wrong. I was wrong. If the Bengals win tonight,

then the Chiefs are the one seed, but not locked in. The Chiefs lock it up with a win. Basically, there's a lot to be determined in the AFC. There really aren't going to be a lot of players resting this week, I don't think. Maybe the eliminated teams don't want to play their injured guys. But just the Giants and the Bucks, I believe,

are the only teams locked in. Sorry I got confused there. What else? We're looking at James Conner. He left with a shin injury. Corey Clement came in, got a number of carries. Jacoby Myers has a shoulder injury. Tyler Lockett left

with a new injury but came back in. Those are the main injuries on offense. So it was not a bad week in that regard. So it could be a fairly normal looking week 18. All right. Stats and some game film. We got a surprise fantasy cops on the show today. Oh,

I didn't know that was coming. Definitely aimed at Dan. Definitely. Yep. Yep. What I do now. We'll see. We'll find out.

God, let me give you some advanced stats though. Definitely. Oh, no. Yep, yep. What do I do now? We'll see. We'll find out. Oh, God. Let me give you some advanced stats, though, if you want to call these advanced stats. Ken Walker, he has now three carries of 60 or more yards. He's the only player in the NFL with more than two carries of 50 or more yards. So that's the appeal of Ken Walker. I did my running back rankings, had him in the top 10. Definitely. Yeah, I put him in the top 10. Definitely.

Yeah, I put him one spot ahead of Josh Jacobs. I think he could push for top five. He's just not that involved in the passing game. But I think when you look at the guys, at least that I put in the top 12, not a ton of them are. It's not that reliable of a thing for these guys, but you know, it is for McCaffrey and it is,

remember what you said before the year, Adam, remember what you were talking about before the year, how just in general targets to running backs have plummeted so much. We were discussing that in the preseason. I'll be interested to check those stats out again, this off season with you and take a look because I feel like that trend is even moving even further in that direction.

We do have more 50 catch running backs this year we have okay 11 maybe not then no I wouldn't say that because we only have 460 catch running backs we do have an extra we do have another game to play let's see how many 60 catch running backs we had last year we had four and we had four. And we had only seven 50-catch running backs. Okay. So let's see who they are, though. Are they fantasy-relevant guys? A lot of them will be. Eckler, McCaffrey. No, this year, I mean.

Okay. The 50-catch running backs. Eckler, McCaffrey, Fournette, Stevenson, Barkley, Aaron Jones, Kamara, Mixon, McKinnon, Josh Jacobs, Rashad White. Yeah, they're pretty fantasy relevant. It's a big deal. So, all right, back to the advanced stats here.

Darren Waller. Let's talk about Darren Waller. He's been awesome in the fantasy playoffs. I know. And he hasn't even played 60% of the snaps yet. I know. Since coming back. Over the last three weeks,

Darren Waller is third in fantasy points per target among wide receivers and tight ends with a minimum of 10 targets. Only George Kittle and Kalief Raymond are averaging more fantasy points per target than Waller. Also, he's got two touchdowns in the last three games. They're a 24-yard pass and a 25-yard

pass from different quarterbacks, and he absolutely schooled a defensive back and a linebacker on them. I don't know, Dan. I just think it's nice. I think he could be a value next year. I doubt people are going to be too excited about Darren Waller, but it's nice to be reminded of what he's capable of doing. I think that's fair.

He's still one of the best tight ends in the NFL as far as matching up one-on-one against a linebacker. And as long as you get those matchups, you're going to get them from time to time in every game when they play man coverage. He's still an excellent option. And so we'll see what happens at the quarterback position there, Adam, because that does kind of change a lot of where I'll view Waller. And I don't think they're going to hang on to Derek Carr. I think that's pretty obvious.

If it's Stidham, I can get too excited over one game for him, but we'll see what happens there. Uh, DK Metcalf, he's an interesting guy. Isn't it hard to believe that he's not even a top 20 wide receiver per game? For a guy that's just a clear must start. Of course, before last week, he was I think like wide receiver 17 per game

in PPR, something like that, but he had one catch against the Jets, but he has 22 end zone targets this year. That is six more than any other player. And DK Metcalf has only six touchdown catches on 22 end zone targets. But he's all right.

Does that mean he's unlucky? I don't know. But that was interesting. And then I know you love Drake London. You know that the top four wide receivers in target share, so percentage of targets on their team, Devontae Adams, Tyreek Hill, Justin Jefferson, Drake London. Wow.

He's tied with CeeDee Lamb. If you want to look at weeks one through 11, when Kyle Pitts was playing, he was ninth. Basically the top eight or seven or so in target share were those guys plus Cooper cup and just studs. Right. And then you had this group of three players though. Uh, Darnell Mooney, Drake London, DJ Moore. They were all top 10 in target share in those first 11 weeks. So what does that mean to you when you see that, you know, look, Drake London, obviously

that was great to see for a rookie, for a rookie to get that kind of target share. It's impressive. But at the same time, if you're on a bad passing offense, it might not matter. It might not matter, but I do tend to chase volume. I do tend to chase target shares. I think one thing that we've learned over time, we used to kind of feel like, oh, just take a look at target and make the decision based on, you know, oh, this quarterback favors that receiver. They have a good rapport. But what we've learned over time is good receivers command high target chairs by getting open and creating separation. I did the one film study on Drake Ludd and Adam against the Steelers.

I think that was now three, four weeks ago. And like I said, at that point, that was one of the better receiver films I've seen all year. He was creating separation consistently at all levels of the field, his ability to get in and out of breaks. That means kind of his quick feet getting in and out of breaks is kind of phenomenal for a guy, his size. And I kind of always knew that watching his USC tape, he had a lot of those types of receptions. He doesn't have the deep speed, but he has surprising speed on like the deep post routes and all those vertical combinations. So I do like him moving forward. He's going to be, I know Jacob's going to love him. I can already tell. Yeah, I know. And I, I'm going to talk to, I know I'm going to have debates with him about it because like Darnell Mooney is the, and you know, and even DJ Moore,

who's going to end up with a decent season. They're the reason why you stay away from Drake London, depending on his ADP. You know, I don't know if he'll be a top 24 guy, but I just, I just think these, guy, but I just think Arthur Smith and whatever the Falcons have right now, if they don't seriously improve it, it's just going to be really bad for him. There's certainly an opportunity to improve it, though, because I think they could be the suitors for Ryan Tannehill.

We'll see if that happens. If you consider that an improvement, we'll find out later. I just have a good feeling that's going to come to fruition. I also think at the same time, Mooney is not the best example. I think Moore is a better example. Mooney is not the best example because I always felt like Mooney was overhyped a bit by the fantasy community from a talent standpoint, just from a pure talent standpoint. He's a fourth round receiver, doesn't have size, not great in contested cat situations, has pretty good speed. And that was kind of any small.

That's not. So I think they're a little bit, they're harder to compare now dj moore is obviously a really good talent so that's a good example yeah okay so by the way i forgot uh just talk about ryan tano i forgot one news item josh dobbs is going to start for the titans this week at jacksonville in the in the winner take all game for the afc south god i hope for our sake it's going to be the jacks would you rather see trevor lawrence in the playoffs and josh than anything going yes or take all game for the AFC South. God, I hope for our sake it's going to be the Jags. Wouldn't you rather see Trevor Lawrence in the playoffs than anything going on? Yes, and the thing is,

and I don't want people to think I'm a Patriots hater. I don't really care about the Patriots anymore. I don't want to see them in the playoffs. They're so boring. They're so boring. That's a gross-looking... They'll drag down the whole playoff game. It'll be, like, nasty.

There'll be, like, defensive touchdown. Just nothing great. Or they're going to get killed, like last year against the Bills. Right. Right, Or they're going to get killed like last year against the Bills. Right. Because they're going to play the two seed, which is either going to be the Chiefs, the Bills, or the Bengals. They're probably going to be the seven.

I'll take a look at the standings. I should probably stop talking about the standings right now. But right now, the Patriots are the seven. Yeah, they can't be the six. They're only going to be either the seven or they're going to be out. So, yeah, they'reots are the seven. Yeah, they can't be the six. They're only going to be either the seven or they're going to be out. So, yeah, they're going to get killed by the two seed, in my opinion.

And it's annoying. On the other hand, the other teams that are up for that spot are the Dolphins and the Steelers. Kind of think it's going to be the Steelers because they need the Patriots to lose to the Bills and the Dolphins to lose to the Jets. Skyler Thompson is the quarterback. I think

the Steelers, who are playing the Browns in Week 18, have a pretty good chance to make the playoffs. I don't really want to see that. I mean, I want to see the Dolphins. I want to see Tua back healthy in a couple of weeks, hopefully. And I want to see the Dolphins in the playoffs. Obviously, just want to see the potential there.

Think about it. If you're the Bills, Chiefs, or Bengals right now, and you got the two seed, and you can choose between either the Patriots, the Steelers, or the Dolphins, who would you want to play? Let's say the two of them are healthy. I would want to play the Steelers.

Over the Patriots. I think the Patriots are a better team than the Steelers. I'm not high on the Steelers um over the Patriots I think the Patriots are better team than the Steelers yeah I'm not I'm not high on the Steelers at all I think yeah pick up threw together like one decent drive last I saw someone like tweet out like rookie watch Kenny Pickett's on fire and then it was like last four games three total touchdowns they were like touting I'm like come on this guy has three total touchdowns one one rushing in a four-game span, and he's on fire. That's an offense I don't want to watch ever again this season in the playoffs,

and I just think if I'm the opponent, I'd love to play the Steelers. Yeah, and not to mention, he has thrown for fewer than 200 yards in three of his last four games. In all of those, right. Yeah, exactly. Or three or four. Right. But down the stretch, he's been good. All right, let's get Dan's film review here. I wanted to see what you thought about Jared Goff. Is this guy legit?

He threw for 255 yards and three touchdowns. Absolute star so far in the fantasy playoffs the last two weeks. 31.7 points at Carolina, 28.4 against the Bears. He struggled at the Jets, which was no surprise a few weeks ago. So what did you see when you broke down Jared Goff? I see a lot of what I see when I watch the giants in the sense that this is a team that is benefiting from a weekly coaching edge. Ben Johnson, the core offensive coordinator is likely going to get a head coaching job

this off season. I would guess, uh, assuming what happens with, you know, not sure what happens with Sean Payton and all the different things. Now we hear Jim Harbaugh might throw his hat back in the mix that could confuse him things. But if those guys don't go back into the mix, I think that Ben Johnson will be hired and he's doing a phenomenal job. A lot of what golf got done against the bears was off of play action. And I love that. I love the route combinations that Ben Johnson uses. They're vertically oriented off of the play action pass, which is perfect for a quarterback like golf. Cause one thing you can't

question with golf is that he has a really good combination of upper body mechanics and arm talent he can really rip the ball on the intermediate and deep throws it's a compact throw over the top over the shoulder throw and it's got a zip it's got velocity and it's got ball placement and so he's doing a great job operating this system right now now i think part of this week adam just watching the film was there were some open receivers off of these play action throws. The Bears defense is in total shambles right now. They're just not. The communication is horrible on the second on the back end. And there's, you know, different things, factors working in there. There's injuries. But either way, golf is operating the system really well right now. He's in full command and it's a great system. So I can trust somebody who's running a great system right now,

similar to the Daniel Jones situation. I wish I had paid more attention to, or at least given more consideration to the stat that we talked about a week ago, where the Bears were one of the worst teams recently in yards before contact allowed to running backs. Jeez, when you let Jamal Williams have that kind of game, and DeAndre Swift have that kind of game, the Bears defense is a layup of a matchup.

And that's if you're playing into week 18, Kirk Cousins should bounce back very nicely against the Chicago Bears and the whole team should bounce back nicely. But Goff, would you rather have Daniel Jones or Jared Goff next year? In fantasy? I would rather have Daniel Jones personally, because I just trust so much in fantasy football, the value of having that rushing floor.

I mean, Daniel Jones is 700 plus rushing yards on the season had 91 yesterday at seven rushing touchdowns, which is insane. So yeah, I would, I think it's actually more rushing yards. I think I under just undercut him.

So I just like the rushing floor. You know, I think it's actually more rushing yards. I think I just undercut him. So I just like the rushing floor. I'm surprised. It was brought up almost immediately on yesterday's show, but I am surprised that you have not mentioned that I was put on freezing cold takes yesterday. Oh, yes. Okay. I'm surprised I haven't mentioned this yet either.

I actually almost forgot. So amazing moment for Adam and I yesterday, and mostly for me. I maybe became the first person in freezing cold takes history and for those who don't know freezing cold takes is like a phenomenal account they track like all the bad takes around the internet and fantasy football and football and then call you out for it right away so this guy must have been sitting on this by the way like for months now just waiting for the giants no i don't think so because uh

he tweeted it right after the game. He did? I thought it resurfaced. I thought someone else tweeted it. Didn't someone else tweet it to us first and then it got on that? I gotta check that. Maybe. But I think it was from that. I'm not exactly sure. But anyway, Freezing Cold Takes Account

retweeted an Adam Azer tweet that was actually a quote tweet of my tweet. So Azar's tweet. So my tweet was from August 11th, this past August, where I said, look, I really liked the direction the giants are headed in from what I've seen. I think they're going to have a coaching edge each week. I also think that while the passing game is going to start slow, it's going to come into

its own toward the end of the season. Really pretty much a perfect take for me. And I said, I can't see how this team can't get to nine wins with their schedule. And Adam said, what? Schneier's the biggest homer ever. Nine wins? How about five?

Dot, dot, dot. And so, bang, that got cold takes. And it felt so good to just have a great, again, the first person maybe in freezing cold takes history to have a good, to be retweeted by that account. And it's a good, and sheds a good light on you. So I'll take it. Yeah, that's well done. Well done. was it was funny it was fun and i don't know if i call

it a great twitter account it's like just just someone trying to embarrass people all the time true i guess that's why i saw it's why i never was into deadspin i hated deadspin it was like um they were just their just whole life was just to embarrass people but i think freezing cold takes is really all in good fun so i had fun with it i got random text messages from people like hey you're famous you're famous i was like wow this is unbelievable this is what i've had so many bad takes through the years this is the one that gets me i got the same thing i got all those texts too like oh my god i just saw you on freezing cold takes so funny um okay oh wow schaefer thinks the vikings may not play their players this week yeah i think the same thing i was yeah they have two offensive line like schaefer said they got two offensive

line injured um and it's that bears field it's a great great take by schaefer i would not be surprised if they if they said sit there guys especially if the giants decide to rest their starters because that's like basically there's a 91 probability it's going to be giants vikings I would not be surprised if they sit their guys, especially if the Giants decide to rest their starters because that's like basically there's a 91% probability it's going to be Giants-Vikings in round one based on the fact that the 49ers are 13.5 points. Right, so the Niners have to lose and the Vikings have to win in order for the Vikings to get the three seed.

Wait, no, the two seed, sorry. Yeah, so it's most likely not going to happen. So if the Giants come out and most likely not going to happen. So I, yeah, if the giants come out and say, we're going to rest our starters of that lead, you know, if there's enough smoke that the Vikings believe that I do think that they'll rest their starters too.

Wow. So what do you think Shaver? We got to do something fun for that. Who's going to win? We got to do something fun. Cause I think the giants are going to win that game. Who do you think is going to win? Who do you think is going to win?

The Vikings. Now you guys are all believers in the giants. I know Dan, you know, that game. Who do you think is going to win? Who do you think is going to win? The Vikings. No, I don't think so. Now you guys are all believers in the Giants. I know, Dan, you've always been a believer this year, but Azar, come on. Even if the Vikings lose, I don't think Azar has any room to talk because he's

been pessimistic the entire season. It's a moment. I'm picking the playoffs. This and that. He's been very pessimistic. I agree with that. I think the Vikings would moment. I'm picking the playoffs. This and that. Yeah, he's been very pessimistic. I agree with that. I think the Vikings would win. I'd pick the Vikings. See, this is what you do

when you're setting it up for you to not be sad if they actually do lose. That might be true. I'd still be pretty angry. It's a great way to play fanhood. They just have no answer for Justin Jefferson.

But the difference is that they'll probably... Corey Jackson might be back. Yeah, they'll probably have two defensive backs back for that game that didn't play last week, so it's a big deal, but yeah, I think the Vikings are better than the Giants, but...

Defense is awful. They have the worst defense in football. This is the worst defense I think I've ever seen us ever have. I'm not so sure the Vikings are better than the Giants. I don't think that with the defense that bad, how can you definitely be better than another team? There's just so much more explosive. They are,

but, but yeah, if not for two turnovers in the red zone last week, the Giants win that game. So I guess so. All right. We're going to take a break. When we come back,

we're going to hear from the fantasy cops calling out Dan Schneier. Always fun. The best part about being on this show is that I get to pick all the content. We'll be right back on Fantasy Football today. All right, Fantasy Cops. What do we got on this Monday afternoon? This one comes from Todd Gwynn. Now, if you recall on Friday's Mailbag,

Dan brought up the fact that he was helping a friend who's on a TV show with her fantasy league. Did you end up winning? She is coming into tonight as an 84% favorite. She has Joe Burrow and Gabe Davis against T. Higgins, and she's down, I think, three points.

All right, Todd Gwynn did not find this to be so kosher. He said, I have a different take on Dan helping a manager who is an entertainment actor manage her team. I agree that we all get help from podcasts, but in my mind, I combine the input of multiple sources and make the final decisions about drafting and setting my lineups, making me ultimately the winner if I win and solely responsible if I lose. I may have this wrong, but I believe I heard Dan say that he drafted the team, entered the lineups, even at this late point, and locked them in.

He also used his unique expertise to lock out certain players to the competition. An expert move not found in nature. My belief is that Dan is playing this team for this person. In my opinion, the star is not playing in the league. While this is just entertainment and this email is only about a game, I happen to love the sense of competition and the brain work involved.

And I would be heartbroken to find out that I was not playing against someone like me, but an industry expert instead. The litmus test would be to announce to everyone that Dan was helping her and get their feedback. Maybe everyone is doing it. Maybe this should be how the league is played. However, if Dan is the only expert among a group of friends who are playing fantasy football for entertainment, then I think that Dan should have exited shortly after drafting. If these are the circumstances, then I think that Dan's team should be disqualified. It's not. First of all, let me explain myself. It's not Dan's

team. I only drafted this team because the manager was deathly sick with COVID when the draft happened and she was going to auto draft. And I said, please don't auto draft. You have no chance to win a fantasy league if you auto draft. So I drafted the team from that point on, I did not make lineup decisions until the very end. So every single week that manager set her own lineup and made her own lineup decisions, made her own trade. She was offered trade. She, she didn't ask, she asked me, but she was the final decider on all those in the playoffs. When the playoffs came around, hold on, Mr. TD shame on you, Dan.

When the playoffs came around, yes, I offered them expertise, like blocking quarterbacks, which in ultimate matter, because Gardner Minshew played. And yes, I had, you know, some decisions on the lineups that we went over but she was still ultimately the manager she picked up the bat the defense that we used for this championship game it was all her i said you have to pick the defense because we were streaming defenses she chose the giants i was happy to hear we were streaming defenses we were streaming defenses yes it's still a we i'm helping yes i'm helping her like she's asking questions and i'm giving advice that's what a fantasy analyst does i agree most of people don't have aren't tapped into fantasy analysts that they can ask

every day about questions but you know what i don't feel wrong about that at all i help all my family and friends my brother asks me questions i answer them my dad asked me questions his fantasy team i answer them all of my friends and family will get that personal advice that other people don't get and i don't feel wrong about it at all. Good for you. Good for you. I think it's okay. It was close, close to crossing the line. So if you set in some lines, I think there's enough, there's enough distance between you and the team that I think it's okay. All right. We got our four big topics for today. This one comes from Grant Miller. Grant says, who are your top 20, your top five wide receivers and running backs for 2023? Let's start with the running backs.

Do you have a list? Yes. So top wide running backs for 2023. Number one overall by far, Christian McCaffrey. I think he'll be back into the 2021 McCaffrey range where we were drafting him as the unquestioned one. Every single draft will go by with him at one overall as it should. Number two overall, the only person I think can kind of compete with him will be Austin Eckler. I still don't think he's at McCaffrey's level from a volume standpoint,

from a passing game involvement standpoint. Now, there are some things to be concerned with McCaffrey, like if Trey Lance is inserted back into that lineup, does that impact McCaffrey in a negative way? But I still think he has proven to be that guy. He's my two, Eckler. My three, this is where it starts to get interesting, Adam. My three is going to be different

than everyone else's here, and it's Nick Chubb. The reason I like Nick Chubb is my RB3 overall. In PPR? I mean, are we talking pure? I always consider half PPR. What are we talking? I try to meet it in half because everybody plays a different league. I was going to do full PPR. Nick Chubb's not even in my top 12. Let's go half PPR. It's the most

commonly played format, and it meets in the middle. And he's my RB3 overall. Combination of things. One, both DeErnest Johnson and Kareem Hunt are set to be free agents this offseason. So that could give him a workload that he's never seen before. Two, I'm starting to like what I've seen from Deshaun Jackson. I'm sorry, Deshaun Watson, not Deshaun Jackson. I was watching the stupid Ravens-Steelers game.

Deshaun Watson last week, this past game game was the best he's looked by far this season he was confident he beat like uh he beat some he beat a tampa inverted tampa 2 coverage we recognized it fast and hit the out like he's looking good again which could mean big things for that entire offense and more scoring opportunities for nick chubb so i will say this that pumps him up as well. He's my RB three overall. My RB four is going to be Saquon Barkley. I'm very confident that the giants are going to resign Barkley and Jones, which I think helps Barkley's value because Jones and him have started to really develop a connection. There's a good passing game involvement

there with Barkley. There's a good volume upside he's proven this year. So Barkley is my RB four overall. And then fine. Finally, RB five overall for me, this is a closer one. There's a good volume upside. He's proven this year. So Barkley's my RB4 overall. And then finally, RB5 overall for me. This is a closer one. There's guys in the mix like Jonathan Taylor and Derek Henry, but I think ultimately they're going to be trending down. Henry based on age and a bad offensive line in Tennessee that hasn't been replenished and the possibility of a new quarterback situation, which will hurt him ultimately. And then Taylor, because that Colts offensive line is really starting to downgrade. I don't know what they're going to do at quarterback so i went outside the box with my last one adam and i went with an upside swing here with tony pollard i'm kind of just hoping he gets like signed by like the dolphins or like an offense like that or the

chiefs or something like that or i don't know there's other options potentially that will be interesting so upside with my fifth swing in Tony Pollard. Yeah, he was the hardest one. I mean, I think he can be, there's a scenario where he's the lead guy in Dallas and I'd probably take him third overall or something like that. I think you have to have some questions about Pollard

and whether or not he can withstand the full workload. There was a quote from their running backs coach, I don't know, maybe a month and a half ago, where he said, well, we don't want him to get higher than 30 snaps. He can wear down. It was something like, I'm kind of paraphrasing, he could wear down after that. And then they completely went away from that,

and they gave him a ton of snaps while Zeke was out. But, you know, he missed the game with a thigh injury. So he's never done that workload before. But if he's the lead guy in Dallas, then I think he could be the number one player in fantasy. I think we've seen that when it's been out. Uh, so he didn't make my top 12, but that's just kind of because I'm waiting to see what happens with him. My top five is McCaffrey, Eckler, Jonathan Taylor, three Saquon Barkley four. And then I put, this is cheating.

I guess this cheating Bijan Robinson, five. Ah, Bijan. I like that. I mean, that's bold as hell. But we're pretty close, really. I mean, with the only misses we have, you put a rookie in for fun. That's like my Pollard pick. And you have Jonathan Taylor.

I have him outside of it. And I don't have Chubb because I was doing full PPR. Chubb would be something like RB8 in half PPR. I just don't think he's ever finished top five and in half ppr because the lack of catches uh they just limit his upside even in any format um joe mixon is my next non-bijon robinson running back and i struggle with that because he's had such a crappy year running the football it's it's pretty pathetic quite honestly and he hasn't been that good of a running back in his careers but but his his opportunity is

as good as it gets his role in the passing game is so good even though he doesn't play on third downs um i don't think he has true competition in the backfield so he's next it's tough because it's it's mixing henry then you've got the year two or three guys walker's my honorable mention i have etn ahead of walker but okay because i think etn catches more passes but etn walker josh jacobs neither of us had josh jacobs in our top well no because he's going to be i don't know right that's exactly uh deandre swift you know who's interesting that we haven't mentioned two eight the two acl guys breeze hall and giovante will exactly breeze hall if he comes not giovante but breeze hall why not not Javante? I'm not as high on Javante. I was never as high on him from a talent standpoint as Brees Hall anyway,

and I don't like that Broncos situation as much as the Jets. The Jets is so much better. Jets isn't so great. They were at least running the ball really well with Brees Hall. We never saw any example of the Broncos running the ball well with Javante, really. So Brees Hall, though, if he can come back clean, and we don't know, though, we'll see what that injury.

I think he'd be RB three or four if he didn't have an injury, you know, but I agree. The, uh, the, one of the biggest lessons I learned this year was to downgrade players coming back from serious injuries,

uh, wide receivers, your top five wide receiver. I'll go first. Okay. You know, it really, I think the debate really Okay. You know, it really, I think the debate really starts at eight,

personally. But, Okay. I went Jefferson, Chase, Cup, Tyreek Hill, Stefan Diggs.

Jefferson, Chase, Cup, Hill, Diggs. I wanted to put Cup second, but he is older, and I don't know what's going to happen with that offense.

But Cup was the best wide receiver on a per-game basis. Chase is not necessarily suited to be the number one wide receiver in PPR. He doesn't have the same type of target share because T. Higgins is so good. He doesn't catch as many passes because he's so explosive. But he's still super young and super incredible. So Jefferson, Chase, Cup, Tyreek hill stefan diggs is my top five we have the exact same top five so there's nothing fun none that we can't have too much of a fun debate i have a little bit of a different order but not much i have jefferson one cup two chase

three hill four digs five um and i think adam six years here i have adam six but i think there's a drop off for my next year, which is like Adams, lamb, AJ Brown. And I have them on Ross, ain't Brown up there. I,

I had a hell of a time filling out my top 12 after the top seven. Cause I have Adam six. Yeah. Let lamb seven. I have Hopkins eight. I mean, he was a star. Um,

but so like the situation there there the thing is after that the every other receiver that you're going to consider there is like jaylen waddles got tyreek hill um t higgins has chase has chase a.j brown and mike williams smith right keenan allen chargers i have chris godwin 12 so i so i went hopkins okay hopkins 8 aj brown 9 higgins 10 waddle 11 chris godwin 12 i can't have godwin in my top 12 personally why this is there's a chance i'm gonna have no interest in that offense potentially the depending on how things shake out this offseason there's a strong chance I have zero interest in that pass game. I don't buy into bad pass offenses. So that's no second-year guy.

So no Garrett Wilson, no London. Well, yeah, that's what I'm saying. I would take Devontae Smith, Garrett Wilson, and Olave right now over Chris Godwin personally. Well, if Brady's back. And I'll be honest with you. You know who's really interesting? What'd you say about Brady? If Brady's back, I think you're overreacting. Oh, no, no. If Brady's back. I don't think Brady's going Brady's back. And I'll be honest with you, you know who's really interesting? What'd you say about Brady? If Brady's back, I think you're overreacting.

Oh, no, no, if Brady's back. I don't think Brady's going to be back. And if he is, I don't think it'll be with the Bucs. Okay, well, that's why I'm ranking. I think it'll be with the Raiders. But having said that, you know who's really interesting that we haven't mentioned, who's like outside this top 12 range, but could be really freaking good? Who?

Let's see if you can guess it based on all of the film studies I've done this year and the hype I've brought to a player that he's surrounded by and the intrigue of him potentially being the number one for this player, for this quarterback.

Oh, oh! It's 100% Amari Cooper. I should have said him. No, no, but that's definitely somebody who is in the same boat. Who? I do love Amari Cooper with Deshaun.

Calvin Ridley. Oh, no, I don't know. Why? Maybe, maybe. Why not? Oh, that. Calvin Ridley. Oh, no. I don't know. Maybe. Why not? Oh, that's just a long layoff, man. That's a long layoff. He's a hell of a football player. He was so bad at the beginning of 2021.

Was he so bad or was Ryan so bad? Well, his route depth was so low. But I do think he's a hell of a player yeah but i i would have to go trevor lawrence i would have to go cooper over over ridley probably but i could see a ton of upside with ridley going into next year and i'm really excited about getting you know this is the biggest sleeper for me as a guy to finish like top eight um i couldn't think of a name on youtube says i thought dan was gonna say to say Christian Watson. Yes. I swear he, he to me has like,

if he, he, what we saw toward the end of the season last week, not this past week, notwithstanding, he's got the potential to be that guy for Aaron Rogers. If Rogers comes back, if Watson is that guy,

that means, you know, we saw it with Adams every single year, Jordy Nelson. Before that we saw it with Alan Zard, the first half of the year, that means consistent red zone, green zone, end zone targets.

Christian Watson started to become that guy. He's got so much upside. With the ability to also factor in on deep throws and the deep areas of the field and those design runs that they use them on.

They also use it on. He was my most drafted player this year, Watson. So he's right. I have gushed about him all year. I was happy to see the breakout. Love the talent. I'm just a big believer in buying into traits. And he has all the traits you want

from a fantasy superstar. Six, four, insane vertical leap, insane broad jump, insane vertical speed. And obviously, like I mentioned, that breakaway ability. Okay. How about from Aaron? Aaron St. Dennis says 2023 rookie class in comparison with the rookies at their positions for the last two classes so I have full plans Aaron to get basically my TL DR on this too long didn't read as I have full

plans to get back to you during this offseason on different podcasts with Adam and whoever I can get on with to talk rookies with you before the draft and get you my good scouting but I haven't had time to really scout the guys on the surface level i can tell you this just from the little scouting i've done so far and just you know i try to keep up with the draft even during the season when it's harder to this is not going to be a superstar wide receiver class i don't think there's going to be a jamar chase in this class i'm not even sure there's going to be a garrett

wilson or a drake london i really like addison at a USC. He's kind of like a Garrett Wilson light, though not as good as Wilson, but reminds me of somebody who can make an impact immediately because he's able to create separation on a consistent basis, almost like Calvin Ridley when he came out of Bama. So keep an eye on him out of USC, Mario Addison. But there is one superstar coming into this class and Adam hinted at him earlier, Bijan Robinson, the running back out of Texas.as i mean this guy is going to be the next star for fantasy i am sure of it no matter where he lands pretty much it's he's into he's basically matchup or landing spot independent this he's that good he has

incredible balance contact balance and he has even better ability to kind of get in and out of the holes set up his blocks and create yards after contact B. John Robinson, the running back out of Texas, the real guy to keep an eye on. And I think he's worth, he's worth, you know, potentially taking, we'll see where he goes at him. It depends on the landing spot, but I can easily see him being like a second round draft pick a mid second with all the hype by the end of like August. It's funny. He has two of the top wide receiver prospects going into this season both had really disappointing seasons. Kayshaun, I think it's Booty. Booty out of LSU.

Yeah, he got hurt and didn't have a great year. And Jackson Smith-Najigba out of Ohio State only played in three games. But he had 1,600 yards in 2021 with Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave on his team so I thought he was going to be a top 10 pick uh I but you know if you can get over the injuries I think he's you know you could get really excited about him uh TCU's wide receiver Johnston he's one to watch next week he might be the first wide receiver drafted uh Bijan Robinson is yeah we're really excited for him. I did notice a little bit that he kind of beats up on the inferior competition

and not so much against the good defenses that he played. So that's interesting. I feel like Leonard Fournette may have been similar, especially against Alabama. I think Fournette really struggled against Bama in college. But there are a lot of running backs in the NFL that are great that struggle against the top run defenses at this level. So I think Inette really struggled against Bama in college. But, you know, there are a lot of running backs in the NFL that are great that struggle against the top run defenses at this level. So I think I can overlook that.

But Robinson's a guy who can catch the ball and be a three down back and be a star, I think, right away. Bijan Robinson. But the wide receivers, yeah, they'll be pretty interesting. You mentioned Addison. And I think Smith Najigba and Keyshawn Booty, I hope that's how you pronounce his name, I think they're going to be risers during the draft process because people

will get over the fact that they get, we're hurt basically. And the next year in 2024, we can all draft Marvin Harrison jr. Marvin Harrison jr. Is the surest thing I've seen as a prospect. And I said that about Jamar chase. I think he actually is somehow a better prospect than Jamar chase, which is insane to even think about. That's amazing. Uh, did you

mention the quarterbacks? Cause obviously the quarterbacks are much better this year than they were last year. To an extent. I really like Bryce, Bryce young, and he's somebody who I'll be happy to draft in fantasy as playmaking ability could be a runner, a little more of a runner at the NFL level. CJ Stroud. Um, uh, I like, but I'm a little bit, you know, queasy on. Oh, man. He played incredibly well on Saturday. He played so good. But Desmond Howard said that was the best he'd ever seen him look.

By far his best game. By far his best game. It's a shame. You know people are going to hold the Ohio State quarterback failures against him. Which I don't like. I hate helmet scouting. It's one of my most hated thing, but there is something to be made of just being a system quarterback and then coming to the NFL and playing in a different system.

Yeah. All right. I'm completely out on Will Levis, unfortunately, but I do think down the line, Anthony Richardson has a chance to be an insanely fun fantasy quarter. Yeah, he's he'll be fun. Okay. This is from Jersey Wolf. The fact that I benched

Devante Adams for Garrett Wilson and now that I have to pray or whatever that Higgins doesn't have a 17 plus point game. So yeah, like I said, you know, one of the biggest surprises to me of the entire week was how many points the Raiders scored and what they did against the Niners.

Just shocked. And I didn't love Garrett Wilson. I mean, I definitely would have started him over Adams, but I felt like we were all sort of ignoring how good the Seahawks were against wide receivers. And I was trying not to ignore that, but I don't know, man, like I, the whole start your studs thing, no matter what I don't buy into it. There are too many examples of studs doing poorly. The Raiders totally backfired on that theory. But I don't have any regrets about telling people to sit Devontae Adams or Josh Jacobs. I'm completely stunned by what happened. Same.

I mean, this is why the NFL is so crazy, man. You have a backup quarterback coming in and jared stidham who's already proven throughout his patriot stint that he wasn't a good quarterback no offense to him and he comes out and just rips through the best defense in the nfl it just makes no sense um so it's hard to predict um are you looking at the chat here dan the private private chat are they crushing me? No, the private chat. The private chat. I saw some of Thomas' comments in the private chat.

I chose not to respond. Okay, okay. There's something that people are wondering in the chat, and I guess we're not going to bring it up. We won't bring it up. All right, our last topic here is from Tracy. Tracy wants to know about Daniel Jones. So I think it's appropriate that we're ending Beyond the Box score

with some Daniel Jones talk. He is currently QB 10 in six point per passing touchdown leagues, QB 7 in four point leagues. On a per game basis, QB 15 in six point, QB 8 in four point leagues. He has 708 rushing yards with

seven touchdowns on the ground this year. Still only 22 touchdowns on the year, but five interceptions. Pretty amazing. I'm pretty sure that he's got the fewest in the NFL. Fewest in the NFL, yep. I'm sure players who have barely played have fewer, but

Daniel Jones has really cut down on the turnovers. Yeah, I don't know. What do you think? Is this a legit breakout year for him? I think it is a legit breakout year for him. I think we heard after the game, John Mayer, Giants owner, basically all but confirm the Giants will be bringing him back in his, you know, without actually saying it. And the thing that's most interesting about Daniel

Jones moving forward for fantasy is the Giants have evolved their offense over the last three games to something that they hadn't used all season long. And it coincides with Daniel Jones really ramping it up. I used Daniel Jones in the fantasy football today championship game. He scored me an insane amount of points, gave me a chance tonight if Jamar Chase goes off. And I had a feeling he was going to break out against the Vikings. He did. Then he had a feeling he was going to do really well against the Colts matchup.

He did. But what it coincides with is the Giants have gone to a more shotgun heavy offense and they've gone to a fully 11 personnel. Look, they used to use 12 personnel at the beginning of the season and 13 personnel. And they even use these wild packages with six offensive linemen on the field. Jones was under center the whole time. They ran the ball.

They ran some play action off it, but mostly ran the ball. Now they're letting him run the offense. He's in the gun. It's three receivers on the field for 89% of the snaps this past week against the Colts defense 89 and the good news is he's operating it really well he's throwing accurately he's throwing on time he's operating these quick game concepts really well he's escaping the pot in the red zone and then throwing to open receivers something he's never done in his

career he's taken so many tangible jumps as an nfl quarterback that for fantasy i'm excited because he still has that rushing ability as a coach who's willing to use them on a rush. I mean, he called quarterback power and quarterback draw in these games. These are designed quarterback runs in addition to what he offers as a scrambler for runs. And that improves his fantasy floor every single week when he runs for X amount of yards at 91 yesterday, but more importantly than all that, Adam, as far as moving it forward, it's probably likely this is going to be his worst receiver group that he has the rest of his career, right? Like, you can't imagine if you're the Giants,

him not upgrading those receivers. They're not going to trot into the season with Richie. And I like these guys, Richie, James, Terry, Slate, and Hodges. I think they're better than people realize and give credit for it. But there will be upgrades there. So that should also improve his fantasy. I like Bellinger, too. I think he could be a factor.

I also think there's a chance if Evan Neal, who was the seventh pick in the draft, if he becomes good next year, he could have one of the best tackle tandems in the NFL. It's a huge deal. They've improved a lot as a team. You can watch them and realize, Dan said this earlier about the Lions and the Giants,

you can watch them and realize how well coached they are offensively. And everyone talks about Dable, but their offensive coordinator, Mike Kafka deserves a lot of credit, ton of credit. The next step for Jones has got to be better throwing the ball downfield. And he needs better personnel to do it. Daniel Jones has the,

um, the low, the fifth lowest off target percentage in the NFL, but on passes thrown 10 to 20 yards downfield, He has the fifth lowest off-target percentage in the NFL, but on passes thrown 10 to 20 yards downfield, he has the fourth worst. No, I'm sorry. No, he's still good there.

10 to 20 yards downfield, he's still the fourth lowest off-target. 21 to 30 yards downfield, fourth highest off-target percentage. Better if you, you know, really deep balls, but he does have to be better there. I just think they need need a playmaker they need somebody who can do something after the catch and if they do that then i you know as i was doing my top 12 quarterbacks he's not going to be 12 but 13 14 15 he's certainly in that range it's going to be him

geno smith kirk cousins der Carr, depending on where he ends up. But yeah, he's going to get drafted next year. And you rush for 700 yards, you're getting drafted. It might not be that. He won't rush for that much next year because I think he'll throw more. I think at the end of the day, I think the Giants want to throw more. I don't think they want to be a ground and pound team, Dan. I think that they want to be like a good modern NFL team and be a passing team. Yeah.

All right. Thanks for listening, everybody. Appreciate it. And I hope you've enjoyed Beyond the Box score. We are going to try to have some episodes during the offseason here and there with Jacob and Dan and all of you. So good luck tonight. If you're still searching for that championship, what do you need? Like a 30-point game from Chase tonight?

I think it's 29-point something. I had only started Waller over Ingram or just not made the last second decision to bench Gabe Davis for Christian Watson. That's the one that really kills me. All right. Well, you're still alive. Good luck, man. Bye, everybody. Talk to you tomorrow with the waiver wire for week 18