Fantasy Football Today - Big News and a Mailbag (07/28 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 28, 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.  Vote for Fantasy Football Today for "Best Male-Hosted Podcast" and "Best Sports Podcast" on PodcastAwards.com Happy Friday! Let's answer your questions after we give you the big news (3:10) on Joe Burrow, Calvin Ridley, the Chargers offensive philosophy and what to expect from James Cook. We start with your emails (20:30) as we talk auctions, Nick Chubb's schedule (25:45), rookie RBs (30:45) and plenty more ... Dan Schneier tells a remarkable story that will have you questioning why Dan associates with certain people (43:05), then we read your Apple Podcast questions (45:15) ... We get to your YouTube questions (1:04:00) at the end of the show and talk Bijan Robinson and keeper conundrums ... Your emails at [e-mail] SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. And happy Friday, everybody. Welcome to Fantasy fantasy football today it is a mailbag show we've got your apple podcast questions we'll have your youtube questions at the very end of the show and we will have your emails at dan what is the email address the email is at fantasy football today.com. No. What? I don't know. I don't know the exact email address. You just put an ad side?

You're on the podcast and you don't know our email address? I knew you wouldn't. I don't know the exact email address. I'm not emailing this email address. You know what I mean? I got other things going on. Do you know your own cell phone number, Dan? I know all my own things, Dave.

I don't answer the emails. That's Adam's job. That is great. Now, all you have to do is you just put the at side, and then you put fantasyfootballtoday.com. It's like you've never used email in your life. What is it? Just give me the exact thing.

It's fantasyfootballatcbsi.com, the letter I. Fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Yeah, come on, man. All right, let me start with our email of the day. There is a point to this. I promise it's from Chris from Canada. Where, come on, man. All right, let me start with our email of the day. There is a point to this. I promise it's from Chris from Canada. Where's he from, Dave? Vancouver.

I have listened to the show for over 10 years, often watching the YouTube stream as well as listening to the podcast. Last season, I felt good about my draft, but I started the season 2-5, and needless to say, I was in last place, leaving me feeling gutted. I decided to play it out,, I was in last place, leaving me feeling gutted. I decided to play it out knowing I was in tough. I continued to listen to the podcast and make moves and finish the season eight and six. And I made the playoffs going on to win my second championship in the last three years.

Don't give up, people. Do not give up. Two and five. I've done the same thing. Don't do it. Don't give up. And that's why I like it. My good friend went from last to the sixth seed three years ago, won the championship thing. Don't do it. Don't give up. And that's why I like it. Well, you know,

my good friend went from last to the six seed three years ago, won the championship. So you just never know. Beautiful. I had a league where I was one in five, won the championship. Yep. Yeah. And that's why I like the playoff system.

You know, some people like kind of do it like a total points, you know, most point I like, I don't know, kind of a best ball without playoffs. You got to have playoffs. You got to give people hope. Let them keep participating.

Playoffs. Playoffs. All right, we got a lot of news and notes. Obviously, we'll tell you about Joe Burrow and if this should change anything on drafts. Very interesting what they're saying about James Cook in Buffalo and what Calvin Ridley said, that he is him. And we'll get to that in a minute.

Podcast awards, I think this is the last time I'm going to tell you. I believe voting ends on the 31st or nominations, whatever you want to call it. So please go to podcastawards.com. I've been doing my part tweeting every day. I don't think Dave is doing his part. But tweet, let everyone know. We have a few days left to nominate us for Best Sports Podcast, Best Male Hosted Podcast, and people's choice.

It's so easy. Just go to podcastawards.com and get to voting for fantasy football today. Best male hosted podcast, best sports podcast, and people's choice. All right, news and notes. Dave Joe Burrow has a calf injury. He may have a strained calf. I don't know if they've officially said what it is, but luckily it is July 28th. He luckily, it is July 28th. He suffered this injury on July 27th. Last year, he had an appendectomy on July 26th, oddly enough. But does this change anything for you? Obviously, he's going to miss some time during training camp preseason.

Does this change anything for you with Chase Higgins Burrow? Well, I think there's a dip that can be bought with Burrow, at least in drafts until we know a legitimate timeframe of when he'll be back. And if you're drafting him as the sixth or seventh quarterback off the board, I think you're winning. I expect him to be back. I expect him to be ready to go for week one. As of now, they didn't say torn Achilles or anything like that.

I think they would have known that by the time that we're recording this. It's been 12-plus hours since he hurt himself. Yeah, if you're drafting, maybe you're doing a best ball, you're going to see Burrow slide. You might even see Higgins slide. Take advantage. Draft him because I'm sure that he'll be – or at least I can't say I'm sure.

I hope he'll be okay. And even if he's not, we've talked about it all offseason long. There's depth at the quarterback position where you can find a good enough replacement to be three, four fantasy points per game shy of what Burrow could be. Yeah, I understand buying the dip. However, let's just say there's no dip. Are you still comfortable? Did you move Chase Higgins or Burrow or Mixon or whoever in any of your rankings?

Not yet. Okay. All right. So we move on to the greatest quotes from Sean Payton about everything that went wrong with the bra. I was that amazing. Dan Schneider. What was it out to you?

I've never seen a coach say that much and that much negative, like inflammatory comments about another coach who's still in the NFL. He didn't retire Nathaniel Hackett. He is over there coordinating an offense for the jets right now. They're going to play each other this year. Lasted just blasted him. Yeah. He said it was one of the worst coaching jobs.

It might've been one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL. That's how bad it was. Sean Payton said, everything I heard about last season, we're doing the opposite. Dan, do you have general Broncos optimism offensively? Yeah, I've actually carried it all offseason.

I've seen so many things play out in the NFL, and one of them has been the impact that a coach can make. I don't know if it will definitely happen with Sean Payton, but his track record speaks for itself. I think we're already starting to hear some of the same things I heard with Brian Dable and Joe Judge, the transfer of power there with the Giants last year, which is everything feels different

in the building. He's a good teacher, I keep hearing. That was obviously not the case with Hackett. It wasn't the case with Judge. It was the case with Dable. And we saw the difference in the Giants' offense. So I don't fully believe in Russell Wilson right now, but I do believe in the coach.

And I think he's going to make things so easy for Russell Wilson that it's going to work out. He's going to have this first, he's going to have so many different things going that I like, but the classic Sean Payton that we're going to see all year is those three receiver sets or those two receiver sets with Marvin Mims on the field or Jerry Judy, just running those basically clear out routes to clear out the open,

the middle of the field. So I think we're going to see a lot of play action, intermediate shots, throws the running backs, easy things for the quarterback, easy to find reads. All right. Calvin Ridley,

very optimistic. He says he's Calvin Ridley. Hasn't lost the time. Him. I'm him. I don't know if he was saying I'm him in that room. He said, I'm him. I'm Calvin Ridley. You think he lost the I'm him. I'm him. I don't know if he was saying I'm him in that he said I'm him. I'm Calvin Ridley. You think he was just saying I'm him?

I hate the I'm him thing. I don't really think it's that cool. I don't think it's that funny. Like everyone said, oh my God, Calvin Ridley said I'm him. What do you mean I'm him? Well, in a draft we did on Tuesday, Travis Etienne and Calvin Ridley went back to back in round three

uh picks 31 and 32 overall I believe Dave who should go first ETN or Ridley I think you can make the case for Ridley at this point simply because of the fact that in PPR all those catches are going to count I'm not sure that ETN is going to get them and I think it's becoming increasingly clear that ETN will not be an every down guy in this offense and that they brought in help so that he doesn't have to be that every down guy. For what it's worth, ETN apparently had a great first practice in the passing game, was catching a ton of passes, all of that. I'm skeptical it will carry over to the regular season. Trevor Lawrence, to me, is just not that kind of quarterback. He throws way too aggressively into the intermediate areas of the field.

You need a check down quarterback for a big reception total on the running back. You need someone who's going to get to that check down. To me, from what I saw with Lawrence last year, it was aggressive hole shots over and over and over again. And now he has Ridley to add to the mix to throw those hole shots. The only pushback I'd give is that remember what he did in college, Dan? He was, yep. Now, it's been two years since then, and last year is evidence against it, but he leaned like crazy on screen throws and short throws at Clemson.

Yeah, and I could totally come back because he has that rapport with Ridley. I mean, I'm sorry, but with ETN, I just feel like now with another weapon in the passing game, he's going to be even more aggressive. We'll see. All right, big injury for the Dolphins as Jalen Ramsey tore his meniscus. Could be out until December. It's a huge problem for their defense because now they won't be able to play nearly as many exotic types of fronts as they could have with Ramsey there.

And they still have potentially a very good defense, very good secondary, potentially maybe one of the best defensive coordinators in the Fangio, but that is a tough course for the Dolphins. That is. Garrett Wilson hurt his ankle. Nothing appears to be serious right now. But Alan Lazard and Randall Cobber also dealing with injuries, so the Jets are a little depleted there, but it's early.

The Chargers, everything you read, they are going to throw the ball downfield more this season. Oh. Last year we were having an argument, should Mike Williams be drafted ahead of Keenan Allen? That argument does not exist this year. Does anybody think it should exist? Should Mike Williams be drafted ahead of Keenan Allen in any?

No, but I also feel like Mike Williams' ADP has been pretty depressed the entire offseason. Every draft we do, and he's sitting around at spots that I don't believe he should be sitting around at. I think overall people are kind of tired of Mike Williams, a lot of injuries, no breakout season yet, but you're still getting a big threat who's going to be a big-sized threat who's going to be used in the red zone with one of the best quarterbacks, one of the most aggressive coordinators in the NFL. I feel like that still has a lot of value. Okay. Herbert last year was tied for fifth in most pass attempts of 20 plus yards,

air yards. And the adjusted completion rate on those throws was 37%, which was outside the top 20. So it Quinn Johnson needs to be him on those deep throws. And so does Mike Williams, if they're going to connect on them again this year, but he was already aggressive throwing downfield last year. You're telling me that he's going to be more aggressive this year.

I love it. He's just, he needs dudes that can catch it. So I got, I got a buddy, one of our listeners. His name is Andrew. He's been helping me out with Acer stats.

He's come up with a very, very good formula. Is he beating? Is he, I have a feeling that this is, this is this probably was a weird, risky move by you, Adam, because he might be better than you at your own game with the Acer stats. Well, we'll find out soon. Oh, he is. That's not good.

He does it for everyone. This is your claim to fame. Well, I mean, he's put it into a spreadsheet, basically. Oh, no. There's no chance you've ever considered a spreadsheet. No, no. But what he does is he gets everybody's fantasy points and their typical snap shares and then he eliminates games he eliminates games where they play 50 or less of their typical snap shares whatever and he re-ranks everybody because i don't know how to do any of

that so anyway uh mike williams was tied with Jerry Judy, who both of those guys would get really azer-statted. 15.2 PPR points per game if you adjust it and take away the partial games that they played. And that's really good. That's just below Jalen Waddell, better than Devontae Smith, slightly better than Devontae Smith.

That's what Jerry Judy and Mike Williams did last year. The year before that, Mike Williams was, I think, a top 15 wide receiver as well. He was 17th per game in 2021, 14th overall. So that's two years in a row, if the A's are static, where you've gotten a top 18 wide receiver on a per game basis in PPR. There have obviously been circumstances.

He played a lot of last season without Keenan Allen. So now he's got Quinton Johnston too. But those are good kind of raw numbers. Top 18 two years in a row if you want to remove the games that he's left early with injury. I prefer you look at just the raw number of it over that, Adam, because if you're doing like top 18, that's not factoring that other people could have been A's or stats. No, that's what I'm saying.

Oh, everyone in the pool has been vetted for A's or stats. That's what ouroring that other people could have been Acer stat. Oh, that's what I'm saying. Oh, everyone in the pool has been embedded for Acer stats. That's what our guy Andrew did. And if everyone gets Acer statted, he was wide receiver 17. Oh, this is, it's only the games he played. How many snaps?

Ace. What Andrew did, I believe was he, he removed any game that a player played less than 50% of his typical snap share. Okay. Okay, so these guys, most of these wide receivers

are playing, you know, more than 80% of the snaps, so probably have to play less than 40, 45% of the snaps, and that game doesn't count. And it does jive with a lot of the stuff that I've done, too,

like Jerry Judy being at 15.2 PPR points per game. That's the same as Mike Williams. But anyway, let's move on. We get bogged down in that a little bit too, like Jerry Judy being at 15.2 PPR points per game. That's the same as Mike Williams. But anyway, let's move on. We get bogged down in that a little bit too much, and thanks to Andrew for helping me out on that. Arizona head coach Jonathan Gannon says he is 100% comfortable with James Conner being a bell cow.

Oh, yeah. Doesn't have a choice. Let's talk about another running back who might be a bell cow. Here's what Minnesota's offensive coordinator, Wes Phillips, said about the run game. I look at it more as the average over time. Absolutely, Dalvin Cook is a big-time playmaker, so maybe that gets filled in other areas at times.

But as far as the run game, consistently producing yards and keeping us ahead of the chains, where you've got more of your call sheet available, I think is really important. And what they went on to say in the article, I think Kevin O'Connell as well, is that Dalvin Cook, yes, he was a big play generator, but they had a lot of negative and zero-yard runs last year,

and the Vikings want to be more consistent. They want to just stay ahead of the chains. You may not get the splash face of Madison, but this article was also saying Madison can be a three-down back. So James Conner, Alexander Madison is my, I remain very, very skeptical of what Minnesota is trying to tell us because they were one of the few teams on my list who'd brand a very, very lack of diversity in their run game. It was almost all zone. They had zero plays on film that I saw where they pulled a guard or pulled anyone on that offense or on power and gap.

Dalvin Cook didn't like it. He didn't run well behind it. It was the worst I've seen Dalvin Cook. There's not the system for him. Maybe it will be for Madison. To me, I think a run game that has no diversity and just running the same thing over and over is going to lose in the long run. But I thought you liked Madison.

I like Madison for fantasy. I don't. And I think he's going to be used in the passing game. I don't like a run game, a run blocking scheme. That's running the same thing over and over unless it's Shannon. It's less. It even Shanahan doesn't run the same thing over and over.

He uses a bunch of different stuff. They will too. I don't think it's going to be a hundred year two. Hopefully they will, they will expand that run game, but it felt like in year one, they were just like, this is the run game.

We don't really care. We're going to throw the ball 65% of the time anyway. All right. And so Connor Madison. Madison for sure. For me, not even a question. I have them back to back. Both is around four picks.

Madison over Connor. I like Madison. This guy, he's on a really good offense. The Connor thing for me, he's underrated, but that offense scares me a little bit with McCoy once we get to the regular season. James Connor was number nine per game last year on a team that had the third worst record in football,

and he had great numbers with Colt McCoy. Can we Acer stat his McCoy days? Yeah, no, he had great numbers with Colt McCoy the last seven weeks of the season. I think that was mostly without. I mean, it was definitely mostly. I don't know if it was all without Kyler. He was the number five running back per game.

He was on pace for 350-ish touches, 360 touches. He was playing nearly every snap. He scored 18 or more PPR fantasy points in five of his last seven games. He did score a lot of touchdowns, and Kyler only played in one of those. Let's go to just a few more news items here. Kansas City, on this edition of As the Kansas City Wide Receivers Turn,

Rasheed Rice has gotten the most first-team reps of all wide receivers so far, according to The Athletic. Two bills notes here, Dave. Gabe Davis said that he lost... Wait. We can't pass over the Chiefs without without Justin Ross stuff, too. Oh, we talked about it yesterday. Oh, you got it yesterday.

Okay. I missed that. Gabe Davis said he lost a step after hurting his ankle in week two last year. I think it just bolsters the sleeper call that we've been giving on him all year. And what about Ken Dorsey, their offensive coordinator, really speaking highly of James Cook and saying that he's an every-down back. What do you make of that? I like it.

I think the Bills are leaning into Cook being their primary running back this year, and then they look at Harris and Latavius Murray as supplemental guys. The thing you've got to worry about with Cook is touchdowns. How many scores is he going to get? Because I don't see him getting short yardage goal line. And I would have a hard time expecting him to have even more than like three or four of those types of touchdowns just because Josh Allen's there. And he's going to take away. So he's got too much competition in that area of the field.

But as far as playing time and touches go, would you be surprised if he had less than 13 touches per game week in and week out? That could be nine carries and four catches. Some games he'll have more. I get the sense that Buffalo wants to diversify their offense. He's one way they can do that. And I fully expect him to be on the field more than anybody else there. And they did use pretty significant draft capital on him a couple years ago in two drafts.

Second round pick, right? Yep. And that's significant for them especially. They hadn't been using, they'd been using like threes and fours at that position. Also, when they did it, remember they were talking about how they think he can be an extension of the run game via the pass game. And that's not something they've really tapped into as much

during the Josh Allen era. So maybe that just needs to come in year two. All right. How about Rashad White, James Cook, Cam Akers? Rank them. It would be Cook, Akers, White for me. I think I've got Cook at the bottom of that list right now. White at the top.

All right. So that would be White, Ak at the top. All right. So that would be White Acres Cook. We'll take a break. When we come back, we've got your emails at at fantasyfootballtoday.com.

And we got a funny story from Dan Schneier that he'd like to share that I don't know. Why am I supposed to know that email, by the way? Am I using that email ever? Am I receiving emails

from that? No. Adam has already mentioned it on the show. Every show for the last 10 years you know what i'm gonna collect some things that you guys have forgot and you guys will continue to forget and i'm gonna start coming up with some good stuff each time i see one of you guys on this show i'm gonna stump you guys okay i'm gonna stump you guys with something you quote unquote shouldn't and then we're gonna go from there i have a set i have a question what you think about this segment? So Zach Brooke,

one of our producers came up with an idea. AI versus AIZER. It's me versus chat GPT answering football questions. Oh, I love that. It's not, it's actually kind of funny. It's a funny segment.

We can try that idea. All right, we'll take a break. We've got your emails, your Apple podcast questions, your YouTube questions when we come back. Before you break ground, make it a point to request a locate. It's not just the law. It's a step to keep your team and community safe. Visit OntarioOneCall.ca and avoid unnecessary damages to get the job done right. Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report.

All right, this question is from Mike. Welcome back, everybody. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, everyone, for your emails. Big thank you for your Apple podcast reviews as well. Those are very helpful. Leave us a five-star review. You can ask a question in there, too, and most of them will get read. about your strategy in auction drafts. So yeah, almost all of my leagues are auction drafts, 12 teams, $200 cap.

Would love to hear your thoughts. And yes, I agree. I would love to spend a lot of time on this, but let me give you guys two to three minutes. And Dan, I know you love this format. You always advocate for auctions. So give me a starting point if I'm doing one. What do I do? Starting point for auctions. So give me a starting point. If I'm doing one, what do I, what do I do?

Starting point for auctions for me is you got to build your own plan for the auction. So you have to, in my mind, you have to allocate how much you want to spend at each position. But what I really like to do for auctions, especially if it's not a start, if it's an auction that's been done already with that league in that format is use last year's results, then sort them by position, then put those results next to your rankings with those numbers. And you now have an idea of what each tier and each range of running back is going to actually go for. And you could build out mock teams via that. Now, if you don't have a year of results from a league, this is something maybe do in year two, if you're starting year two, you could still probably use projected values or ranked values and then put them in an order and figure out where you can start to build your team out. So let's say you

can look at it like I want to go hero running back. You can know what you're going to have to spend on that one running back and then build out your receiver core, your tight end, your quarterback after that, based on that. So if you're doing a one QB league, my strategy is probably in auction, especially do not pay for QB. It's okay. And snake to pay for it. I think in auction, I think you're better off just waiting for that 12th, 13th quarterback and getting two of those guys in that range. And they're always going to go for like two or three bucks at that point because nobody wants to spend on a backup quarterback. They've gotten their starter. It's a little bit different than a snake when you'll see people kind of reach for that backup

quarterback because it's a snake. That's one of my strategies. A few others would be bidding, bidding strategies I can give you would be never bid on the guy you want. Never nominate the guy you want. Always nominate a guy you don't want. Always nominate a buzz player if you don't want him. If he's buzzy, always nominate. If you spend big at quarterback, start nominating quarterbacks. If you spend big at running back and only plan to go one running back, start nominating running backs immediately as you can. Also, if you play with a kicker defense, I like the idea of nominating the kicker and the deep, the best kicker in the defense you want early best case, you get them for a buck. Worst case, you get someone to spend two bucks of their budget on, on that player. Either way, it's a win for you. It's a very easy win-win scenario for you. So that one I like, um, let me think of any others

that come to mind stuff, top of my head. Those, those, that's definitely a good starting point. That's good. Yeah. Okay. Dave, I, uh, the tears were invented as a strategy piece for auctions, meaning that you're going to put players in groups of expectations. And then when the auction begins and you start seeing, you know, you'll see what Christian McCaffrey goes for. You'll see what Austin Eckler goes for. Now you've got an idea of what you should spend on the next tier of running backs or maybe even Bijan. And it should be cheaper than that. Um, I love the first thing you have to do is tier up your players. And whether you just copy somebody else's tiers or you make your own

or you adjust your own after seeing somebody else's, it's a necessity. The other thing you have to commit to is paying attention in your auction. You want to see who's got the most budget left to spend. And one of the things that you can do to nominate is nominate players that that team might need to spend a lot of money on. For example, someone in your league still has 80% of their budget.

They don't have any wide receivers. Nominate the receiver that you think is going to go for the most money so that they go and they spend their cash. You want people to burn through their cash. That's another reason why you want people to necessarily spend more on quarterback. You tend to see that happen more in auctions than you do in snake draft. So I think Dan's right about that. Look for a little bit more of a value on quarterbacks in an auction.

I also love the 2050 rule. Save 20% of your budget for the last 50% of the nominations in the auction. You will be so glad if you do that because you will find- That's a lot, right? I mean- What do you mean that's a lot? Just to put in so glad if you do that. That's a lot, right? I mean, just to put in perspective, if you do that, you'll have more money than most people, right? And you will be able to pick up a couple of steals because it's human nature. People love to spend, people love to shop. And so when they're in these auctions, everybody's all hyped up and they're going to go and they're going to spend their bucks as soon as they can. If you're a little bit patient about it and you're keeping track of what everybody goes for, you will, I promise you will come away with some steals or at very least three players or four players that you'll get for two or three bucks that you'll be thrilled

to have on your team, even if it's on your bench. And that right there is the beauty of the auction too. The fun part of the auction is where it's the snake is the snake. Everyone's going by a list. No one falls through the cracks in an auction. Players fall through the cracks and they get nominated later. And then as Dave saying, if you save some of your budget, you're taking these players.

You're the one who has $3 to spend on these players. Yeah, that's great. Those, those are the big keys and there'll be, we're going to do an auction live stream. There'll be auction strategy pieces on the website yep we got you starting next week it's the best way to build a

team okay fits in detroit says hey nick amari deshawn and elijah browns yes i'm not a huge schedule person but have you noticed nick chubbs start to the year cincinnati pittsburgh tennessee baltimore bi-week san francisco um yeah i did notice that all of his first five opponents were notice Nick Chubb's start to the year? Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Tennessee, Baltimore, Biweek, San Francisco. Yeah, I did notice that all of his first five opponents were top 10 or among the 10 best against running backs last year. Two of them were the two best against running backs last year. So it

is a tough schedule to start. Does it matter? And he also gets the Jets in the playoffs but it gets easier after that. Does it matter to you? A lot easier. Does it matter to you for Nick Chubb's running schedule?

It doesn't to me and I'll say I went back I looked at what he did against those opponents last year because most of them are in the AFC North and he did just fine and I've actually looked at that

in the past with him. He's just he runs on everyone. You can hardly ever stop Nick Chubb. And if we expand this to a bigger discussion, I really think, I said this when the schedule came out. I mean, the one team that I'm really nervous about with the schedule, and I'll exclude Darren Waller from this,

but it's the Giants. And it is a tie, it is a Barkley tiebreaker for me, in my opinion. They have such a bad schedule. You never know with these things. I've gotten burned in the past looking at schedules. Guys get injured. Things don't play out the way it seems.

But God, the NFC East got it rough and the Giants might have the worst defense. I know I've mentioned this like 30 times on the podcast, but it's worth mentioning again. Dave does a really good job of breaking down the schedules in a more in-depth way than the typical way you can find that all on the site, just type in projected strength, the schedule plus Dave Richard, plus CBS sports.com, uh, CBS, I.com or whatever it is now. And what you'll see is the giants have maybe one of the toughest schedules, according to his metrics that I've had, at least as far as I've been,

as far as I've worked at this company and edited that article, the giants have had by far and away, the hardest schedule for all positions, by the way, every single one. Yeah. Every, I mean,

listen, it's really just a by-product of playing the Eagles, Cowboys and commanders twice each. And get the NFC West too. And the AFC East. I agree. And yes, the AFC East,

I think is going to have a tough road of defenses as well. Yeah, I graded each defense and put it into the schedule, and it spit out a number. It's a lot better than how many wins and losses did the team have last year. The easier way to find that stuff, do a Google for Dave Richard P, as in Peter, SOS. P-S-O-S, Dave Richard, and it'll come right up. There you go. And by the way, on Nick Chubb, I do have him as the 27th easiest first four games.

It is a tough schedule, but over the course of the year, eighth easiest. So if you don't draft Nick Chubb and he gets off to a slow-ish start, trade for him before October 1st. I like it. All right. Good luck with that, though, because I think everyone with half a brain is going to know that he's about to turn it on.

If he sucks for the first three or four weeks, I bet you can procure him from the team that drafts him. Next question is from Jeff from up north. 10-team 2QQB, PPR league. I have the first pick. We get to keep three players from the year before, and their keeper status goes up two rounds each year. So he has the first pick.

As of now, he's keeping Justin Herbert in the sixth, Amonra St. Brown in the eighth, and Deshaun Watson in the twelfth. So he's got his two quarterbacks. Christian McCaffrey would then be his first pick. Nothing wrong with that. Herbert, St. Brown, Watson, McCaffrey. But he could keep Calvin Ridley in the 10th

or Alexander Madison in the 13th and then take Patrick Mahomes with the first overall pick. So what do you do? Do you take Mahomes and maybe throw back? Would you rather keep Herbert in the sixth or Watson in the twelfth? Let's start with that. I would prefer Watson in the twelfth over Herbert in the sixth, but I would be keeping both if it was me.

You have to keep both in a two-cube game. Well, you don't, though, because you could keep Watson in a two cube yeah this is just what you don't know because you could keep you could keep watson in the 12th you're still giving up there's still massive opportunity cost by saying you don't right because no you're just getting why not no because okay if you throw back herbert in the six and you don't keep him then instead you're keeping say ridley in the 10th or madison in the 13th so you're doing better there in terms of your keeper value and you're drafting the homes ith. So you're doing better there in terms of your keeper value and you're drafting Mahomes. I don't think you're doing better there in terms of your keeper value.

I don't either. Herbert as a 6th is a way better keeper than Ridley as a 10th in a 2-2 lead. Okay, sorry. I just meant you're saving a 6th round. You're doing something good. Yeah, I agree. You're getting something back.

So you're going to stick with the quarterbacks and you're drafting McCaffrey? Yes, and then you take the best running back or receiver at one overall, whoever that is. Okay. Not to mention you get to keep Herbert for two more years. Oh, you're giving that up too. Wow.

Yeah, it's true. Definitely not throwing that back. This is from Todd. Which of these guys have the best chance to be an RB1 or RB2 for a season or two over the next five years? Rashawn Johnson. This is his order. Rashawn Johnson, Tajay Spears, Kendry Miller, Chase Brown, Tank Bigsby.

Nice list. I'm going to go with Tajay Spears. I think the Titans drafted him to take over for Derrick Henry. I think he proved at the collegiate level, at least. I know it's a smaller school, but he proved he can carry a massive workload last year. He also proved he could do it in their power five against the power five team USC in their bowl game when he put the team on his back with over 200 yards and touched the ball basically every snap.

And that was behind a horrific Tulane offensive line where it's like accountants playing there at 225 on that offensive line. It looked like almost against USC. So to me, it's Tajay Spears. The film speaks for itself. I know there's a long-term concern about his knee, but we said five years. So JGI had long-term concerns about his knee. He put a RB one season in one of those five years before that broke down. So I'd go with Spears. Spears might be last on my list, Dan. Sorry. Okay. Roshan is who I'd pick.

Coaches love him. This regime drafted him. I think that he's got that skill set that could translate well to eventually be the lead running back for Chicago and potentially an RB2 in fantasy. And then I have a little bit of a tough time with the remaining guys, but I think Bigsby is who I'd bet on next. Just because I think Johnson and Spears from here in their own tier. Right. Like I know that Kendrick Miller's got a path to getting there. He could get there as soon as next year, but I'm a little bit worried about him a being really good or be staying healthy for him to actually accomplish that feat.

If I had to rank it, he might be third and then Brown would be fourth. And then Spears would be last for me. Okay. Drew from Seattle, dear Carnell, Ronnie, and Brandon. Carnell... Oh, those are Auburn running backs.

Auburn backs, yes. Damn it, damn it, I knew it. Drafting third in a 14-team half PPR league. If I get Chase and then Devontae Smith, would you take Jalen Hurts in the third round or grab a running back like Najee Harris or a tight end like Andrews? Oh, I would take Hurts in a heartbeat

over Najee and Andrews. I think so. I think you have to. This is something I never used to do, by the way. I never used to take the quarterback in this range. Now I'm actually doing it in some mocks. Okay. You want to know a good reason to do that?

This is a 14-team league. Oh, my God. So those quarterbacks that. This is a 14 team league. Oh my God. So those quarterbacks are going to stretch a little bit thinner. You're going to have a positional advantage. You'll have the positional advantage with Andrews too, but I think, I don't think it, I know that you'll get more points per game with hurts.

Yeah. And I think that that advantage will help you more than Andrews. Agreed. Next, next question is actually a team name. Tuesday. It is from Ryan. is actually a team name Tuesday. It is from Ryan. Not even a question.

Says, hey, Peter, Joe Cleveland, and Quagmire. Here are some team names. Levis 501. What's that one? Like Levi's. It's the same spelling. It's good. Okay.

I think you need to have jeans in there at the end. Levis 501 jeans. Jeans, I agree. No, I don't think so. I disagree with you guys. You're wrong. My abinacanda don't want none. You got to say it the right way.

My abinacanda don't want none. I like that. That's good. I do too. And then the last one I don't think is very good. Easy as Dell? Is that the Dell slogan? What, dude, you drafted a Dell? Dude, you're getting a Dell.

I wonder if there's somebody's name that sounds like you're getting a. I don't think so. Thank you, Ryan, for your team names. This is from Trevor from a city two hours west of Toronto. How far is Calgary? I was going to say Alberta. Alberta's a province. That shows how much I know.

Dear Scott, Jordan, Jackson, and Myers. Oh, those are kickers, aren't they? Trevor says kickers. Jason Myers, but I don't know who else. I don't know. I was just guessing. I think you just saw the Myers and thought it was kickers. No, it's about questions about kickers. Jason Myers, but I don't know who else. I don't know. I was just guessing. I think you just saw the Myers and thought it was Kickers. No, it's about questions about Kickers.

Okay. Kickers score points, therefore they belong on fantasy rosters. What? That's a question or a statement? It's a statement. That's a statement. I tend to agree. I tend to disagree. You disagree that Kickers score points? Wow, Dan.

I disagree that Kickers belong on fantasy rosters. All right, keep two in PPR. Kelsey or Tyreek Hill in round one. Adams in round two. Damian Pierce in round six. And Kamara in round seven. And he has the 10th overall pick. I'm going to go Kelsey and Pierce.

I don't mind that go Kelsey and Adams Kelsey and Adams is probably what did he say Adams was the three two two definitely not going that all right this is from Brandon

Giordano he said he could keep them as long as he wants he yes that makes me lean toward Kelsey and Adams why would it make why would that help because i don't know if damian pierce is going to be worth around six in a year or two oh okay um brandon is in a full ppr league i have the eighth pick i'm very much on the nick chubb bandwagon do you think eighth overall is too early for him in PPR. Yeah.

It feels a little too early. I feel like the opportunity you're giving up at eight overall. You're probably giving up in my mind. You're passing on a receiver who could probably get 150 targets. I think that's a little too steep. Right. You might be able to get Tyreek Hill there. Diggs there. Cop.

Cop might be there. Maybe tyreek hill there digs their cop might be there maybe what about trading down what if he trades down to 11 that i like moving back gets chubb there yes yes i think i don't think chubb goes before barkley i don't think chubb go in typical drafts before some of these other backs that you'll see go ahead of him if If this were a non-PPR league, I'd be all about it. Yeah. I mean, Nick Chubb in 2020 scored 12 touchdowns in 12 games and caught 16 passes in 12 games. And he still was only RB8 per game in PPR. I do think that he played a very, very short.

I think he had a partial game, but this guy cannot crack the top five in PPR per game, no matter what he does. He's going to have to catch more passes. Right. And that's the thing. If he gets that opportunity, then he will beat his career high,

which is 16.6 PPR points per game. This is from Hunter in Chicago. How do you analyze keepers? You know, in terms of, is it value? Is it best player? Do you guys look at dynasty rankings? So he's deciding between Eckler or CeeDee Lamb.

And he can keep, I guess he can keep keeping them. So that's a really tough call. If it's one year, it's obviously Eckler. But like, who would you guys keep, Eckler or Lamb? I think I'm going to keep Lamb because of what you just mentioned. If it doesn't happen soon, he'll be an

outlier. If Eckler continues to produce at this level, he'll be an outlier because at least for the rest of the NFL, the running back position because he's now, what, 28? He's a different case because he has such a light workload yep that's fair you know he's never had a 20 carry game in his career i don't he didn't have it last year though but he has had seasons where that have been more by

injury though i know the recency bias is kind of like with us but well it's not like he's avoided the injury bug his entire career agreed But he's also delivered unbelievable fantasy production the last two years. And it's hard to give that up knowing that someone else in your league can go and draft that guy. But if you're playing the longevity game, lamb makes all the sense in the world. You've got to figure that you're going to get great seasons out of him for at least the next five years,

at least five. You're not going to get that out of Eckler. The flip side to that is what happens if you get Lamb and then you find the next Austin Eckler like what if he drafts Bijan this year and then who does he keep next year yeah right you're probably going to flip to Bijan right then if you if you add you're right at any point you beat it with a better keeper then this becomes mootot anyway. You could marry this with where you're drafting. And if you've got that early pick and you're sure that you're going to get somebody that you can keep long-term,

then you keep Eckler and you throw lamb back. And I know that sounds silly, but you're doing with the idea that the person that you draft early, if it's Bijan is who you're going to keep long-term. We don't have time for it, but I want to get a quick hot take out. I hate leagues where you can keep the best players. I just hate these kinds of leagues where you keep these first round guys and over and over again, they're not put back into the draft pool.

Half the first round is like just like second round, third round picks. Like that's not what keeper should be about. In my opinion, it's not fun. Keeper should be about the later mid round picks being kept, not taking every great player off the board before your draft. The draft is supposed to be the best part of fantasy i just had to get that ran out all right here we go next question that's a good rant mike from weppinger falls new york whip i have no idea who are some backup players who could be potential keepers because they sign

with a new team or the player in front of them leaves i'm thinking players like pollard or madison from last year oh um let me run through this in my head running back's definitely where i'm going to first of course it's really the only position you can get where this happened eric gray of the giants parkland on one year deal i don't hate it but they could easily report they could add to that position you would never be with the Raiders like when you said that Adam I thought of oh Zemir White but like Zemir White isn't going to never going to get that

I'm honestly Roshan Johnson's interesting if they move on from Herbert that's who Dave mentioned I think Tank Bigsby should be on your Raider I'm going to be the biggest Tank Bigsby there's no way BTN's not going to be on the team next year they have to try just for next year right he's still on the rookie contract as. There's no way ETN is not going to be on the team next year. They have to just for next year, right? He's still on the rookie contract. As long as he's

still on that rookie contract, he will be on the team. Correct. Just for next year. Well, Chase Brown maybe for the Bengals. Joe Mixon got one more year max there, right? So we got Chase Brown. And by the way, if you're watching this right now, please hit the like button. It takes like two seconds and we could really

use it. All right, let's move on here. You one more name one more crazy deep but he's been on my radar for a while sean tucker in tampa bay oh sean tucker in tampa bay yeah i like the idea he's healthy i think i love his tape me i just don't know about the health situation he's practicing and by the way that likes thing wasn't out before. I got a call in from the upper bosses. We need to get more likes on this. Hit the like button, please. Yeah, we're not answering your YouTube questions until we get to 100 likes.

It takes two seconds. All right. Dan apparently has a really funny story. Oh, it's repulsive is what it is. All right. We'll take a break. And when we come back, Dan's story and your Apple podcast questions right after this. All right, Dan, you're on the can. You know what? That's very fitting for what the story I'm about to tell that I wasn't even sure if I should tell on the podcast, but I will. So remember a few months ago, we had the situation where Adam was, for some odd reason, brushing his teeth in the kitchen sink and his, in his kitchen, home kitchen sink.

I still don't really understand it. We we've, we've picked past it. He still does it apparently. But the other night, hanging out with a few friends, can't give any names. People have to remain anonymous for the story because it's absolutely insane.

And one friend that I'm with is a father of two young kids. Okay. I almost don't even want to say this father, two young kids, his bathroom upstairs is attached to the kid's room and the bed and the toilet is on the back of the wall and the kid's beds are on the back of the wall. So every time at night, when he uses the, when he used to use the bathroom, I say used to for a key reason here, he would wake the kids up. So now at night, he lives in an apartment complex with two kids, not a house. Now at night, he uses something else to go to the bathroom. So he doesn't risk waking the kids and flushing. And that's something else is the kitchen sink oh my god he told us this and everyone's reaction was the same like how did you expect us to what was what did you think we're gonna react

to that story why did you tell us this how why what is going on oh my god like use the shower if you're gonna also also not good well it's better than the sink how about you just don't flush or if it's yeah you know the old road trip when your dad wouldn't pull over so you had to be in a gatorade bottle was i the only one who had to do that but that's an option too and a bottle like i never peed in a bottle i had to plenty of times ron schneier was not down to stop on a road trip but you you should watch Dumb and Dumber for sure. Wow. All right.

If that doesn't get us to 100 likes, I'll just never know what will. And then it was just 30 minutes of us being appalled and asking so many questions. Yeah, no, it's disturbing. All right. That's a great story. Legendary story. Okay. Here's an Apple podcast question from Andy.

Are we overrating Calvin Ridley? He finished fourth in points per game in 2020, but has never finished higher than 18th in any other year. With a full year off, I'm even more worried. It's actually really more like two years off. So are we overrating Calvin Ridley? We're saying he could go in the middle of round three, guys. I took a step back on Calvin

Ridley when I uncovered a stat about Doug Peterson's track record with wide receivers. Did I ever recite these stats on the show? Have I yet? I mean, we talked about it, you know, he never had a bottom line is that the target per route run rate for wide receivers, even those that run a hundred plus routes in Peterson's offense, both in Jacksonville and Philadelphia, was never higher than like 21.6%. So he's going to get work, but I think Peterson does like to spread the ball around. And we saw that last year, right? We did. There were two guys on the team that had over, I think it was over 120 targets each

or 110 targets each, and then another one with like 90 targets. And that doesn't include the tight end so i i watch i've watched that's it wait that does include the tight end right ingram had no the tight end his target per hour on right last year was almost 19 percent oh no but he's gonna get involved obviously yeah ridley looks fantastic and i someone stooge off to me that he's in unbelievable shape, and I heard that before training camp started. And that was part of the reason why I was very excited about him. Is there a path for him to get north of 130 targets

and just absolutely dominate? I'm not sure that there's such a great path to that. Time out, time out. Give me the stat again in Philadelphia and what was it? From 2016 to 2020 and in Jacksonville last year, these are all Doug Peterson years where he's the head coach, no wide receiver with 100-plus routes run had more than a 21.6% target per route run rate.

Right, but Christian Kirk did have that, and Zay Jones was at 21.2%. Okay. I just think when Alshon Jeffrey is your best wide receiver, no offense to him, he was good. The fact that Christian Kirk got to 21.8% or 21.5% or 6%, I think that bodes well for Calvin Ridley, personally. Do you think he can exceed that?

Yeah. To like 25%. I don't really know target per out run rates that well. So can he have a 25% target share would be my question. Kirk's was at 23.2% last year. I definitely think Calvin really can have a 25% target share. Okay. And that gets you close.

If they're throwing the ball 600 times, that gets you close to 140. And that would be great. That's 150, right? If they're throwing six ball 600 times, that gets you close to 140. And that would be great. That's 150, right? If they're throwing six, if it's 25%, it's 150. Yeah. I think until we get, until we see him move into the range where Courtland Sutton was being drafted last year, remember at the end of it, we were like push, not we, but some people were pushing him all the way

up to mid round too. Once we get to that point, I think then he can be overrated. I didn't mean that as a shot or anything. I just think a lot of people like no i know it came out that way we've all had our misses and our makes but like uh that there's always going to be that one guy who gets pushed up is my point it's not like a fault of anyone it's like you get to a point of that mid second round where it's like well that tear drop happens at running back and receiver you need to push someone into that mix when he gets pushed into that mix, I think that'll be overrated.

But right now you're still seeing mid round three, early round three. And yeah, I, I, I like early round four. Oh, you're,

if that means late round three on Calvin Ridley and full PPR, then I'm not going to slam you for it, but top 24, I'm not even close to that. Okay. Just so you know, Calvin Ridley at his peak is a very good yards per target guy.

So he can compensate. Maybe less so in PPR. Maybe if he doesn't get the targets. But he can compensate because he's a big play guy getting fewer targets. I think if he's at 130 targets, I still think he can give you round three value.

Me too. Gronk324 says, I've got the 101 in a 10-team league. Is it crazy to think about taking Travis Kelsey at 101 in a 10-team league? We've talked about this a lot, I feel like, on the pod, but I think you and I had the same opinion of this, right? We don't think it's crazy?

Or is that just me? I don't think it's crazy. I think it's less crazy in a 10-team league because you can make it up for the same opinion of this, right? We don't think it's crazy. Or is that just, so I don't think it's less crazy. I think it's less crazy in a 10 team league. Cause you can make it up for it at the other positions, but he is so good and so valuable, but he is also going to score just in terms of raw points. So many fewer points than Jefferson Jefferson and Jamar chase. It's just,

I had him at number one in January when I did my top 10 or whatever. Yeah. I have him as like six now. I also take it back. I actually like him a lot more in 12 and 14 team leagues. I need the advantage at the tight end position to be even greater for it to be worth value. It's another way to look at it.

Dave, you're taking Kelsey. Where? Seventh overall PPR. This is Dan from Nutley. Wow. He's close by them. Dan from Morristown.

All right. West Orange. There we go. Wow, he's close by. I'm Dan from Morristown. All right. I grew up in West Orange. There we go. Hey, Devin, Brian, Charles, and Lance. Devin, Brian. This looks like, oh, these are Bears. Oh, those are first names. Bears, Hall of Famer, like Bears, yeah.

Yeah. Great Bears. They were big-time Bears on their Super Bowl 41 team. There you go. There you go. Okay, I think I'm starting a 16-team redraft PPR league, and I'm looking for roster suggestions. I have no problem getting rid of DST and kicker,

but how many running backs, wide receivers, and flexes should there be in a 16-team PPR league? P.S., Cole Clement will finish top five. I could not believe the disrespect he received in the tight end tears episode. I could not believe the contract he received, so we're both on the same page there, things we can't believe.

Okay, give me a roster breakdown for a 16-team league. I don't play in any of those. I haven't done a 16 in a while. You could do the exact same one that we suggested earlier this week. You can pick. I wouldn't go super flex. One quarterback is fine. That's going to make it challenging for everybody.

One tight end is fine. Two running backs and two wide receivers. And then you can decide between one or two flexes. Yeah. And, you know, how deep do you want people to get into it in a 16 team league that second flex is going to be pretty dicey from week in and week out oh yeah especially once buys and injuries hit okay cole commit's not going to finish as a top five tight end get out of here you never know every year we get surprised top top five tight ends this is not to show for a bit

it is crazy to think about how Cole Komet could get $50 million and we can't get a running back long-term deal. It is interesting we've gotten to that point in the NFL. All right, this is Peyton. Starting a dynasty league this year. 10-team veteran-only draft. It is super flex. No kickers or DSTs.

Every team must still draft a kicker, and the order of the kickers drafted will determine the order of the rookie draft. When should I draft my kicker? That's pretty cool. It is super flex.

So you're thinking about if you were doing a startup, where would Bijan go? I'll tell you. I'm doing a startup like the Baked Burgers Dynasty League that everybody at CBS except for Dave is in. Bijan went, I think, seventh. It is super flex. So the first five picks were quarterbacks. Then it was Jefferson.

Then it was Bijan, I believe. That's the range. If not, maybe even a smidge higher. Can you explain it one more time to me, Adam, so I can follow it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you draft your kicker, the order in which you draft your kicker is the order that you will draft in the rookie draft. Okay, and we're talking

Dynasty, correct? Yeah, it's a Dynasty startup. Okay. And Superflex or regular? Superflex. First person to take a kicker is getting Bijan. Okay, wow. I'd probably take him in the second. I'd probably take my kicker in the second round if I were the first one. Right, after the first one goes, I'm waiting forever.

I don't know if you have to wait forever. Not ever, not forever. I can't wait forever. But I'm more of like, I'll wait for a little run to go. I don't want to be the person that drafts a kicker eighth or later. I also definitely don't want to be the person that drafts a kicker second. If I don't get Bijan, I don't want Jameer Gibbs. Actually, Jameer eighth or later. I also definitely don't want to be the person that drafts a kicker second. If I don't get Bijan, I don't want Jameer Gibbs. Actually, Jameer Gibbs I like.

I'll take Jameer Gibbs and like, yeah, I just took Jameer Gibbs in the Big Burger League. I took him in the third round. So, yeah, after Gibbs, though, that's when I probably... Yeah, but it's super flex. So you could take Richardson, too. Yeah, you really like Richardson.

Yeah. Alright, it's super flex. So you could take Richards. I don't need, right. Yeah. You really like young and Richard. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So, yeah. All right. It's interesting. If you're going to be the first one,

I think second round is a good time to do it. A good thing to do before the draft is look at a super flex startup mock that does have rookies in it. You'll see where Bijan Richardson Gibbs, all the receivers go, and then you'll have an idea of, okay, if I take a kicker at this spot, this is the type of player I can get. By the way, can I just say this is an incredible idea.

I love it. I love that. It's incredibly creative. This is what fantasy needs, ideas like this. Great job by you. All right, let's see how you feel about this idea from John in K-Town. A Week 18 idea. So I'm guessing the premise of this. A Week 18 idea. So, I'm guessing

the premise of this is that Week 18 and Week 17, sorry, Week 17 is your championship and the winner and the runner-up split the pot in the league. John says, I propose that if the loser of the championship game wants to challenge the winner of the championship

game to a winner-take-all game in Week 18, the winner can accept or decline the challenge. If the Week 17 winner accepts the challenge, we play through Week 18, and we combine the scores from Week 17 and 18, and the winner takes all. If so, the loser of the final Week 18 game

would forfeit their winnings to the ultimate champion. If the loser of the final week 18 game would forfeit their winnings to the ultimate champion. If the winner of the week 17 championship championship game declines the offer, that's the end of the season. And that's it. Everyone goes home. What do you think of this idea? We are not going to do it, but I think it's something fun to add to a lead.

This is so good too. So the best of that great ideas. This is amazing. As the winner, you have the chance. You want to push your chips all in the middle and gamble it. You can win again. And you have the lead because you're combining scores, but it's fantasy.

Anything could happen. It's week 18. There's bi-weeks. It would be so fun. If the winner got cocky, push the chips in the middle, played it out and ended up losing it. This is almost the end of rounders where he wins enough to get his money back or get Edward Norton's money back.

And then Teddy KGB talks him into playing a little bit longer. All right, guys. But here's the thing. If the winner blows out the loser, the loser, why would he challenge? He's just going to take his money. No, he's not going to take his money and go home. No, he's not going to. It'd have to be close.

Right. Yeah. And I think it would be rare for the winner to accept the challenge. If everybody in the league is for it, then add it. Why not? Why is the baiting bringing this to my league? There's no downside. This is so good.

Now, this is from Gaberhole. In a 1QB 10-team dynasty home league, I've got Kelsey and Pitts. It's not tight end premium, and I've got other good players for flex. What do I do with Pitts if I'm in win-now mode? You keep him? I don't. Well, yeah. You start him?

He's got Kelsey. He's got Kelsey. He's got Kelsey. He can flex? It's a weird spot because you're in win-now mode and you have Kelsey. Obviously, otherwise, I would be suggesting to trade Kelsey, It's a weird spot because you're in win-now mode and you have Kelsey. Obviously, otherwise, I would be suggesting to trade Kelsey, but your best option here is to either flex Pitts if he's productive or put him on your bench.

Trading Pitts right now in Dynasty is, in my opinion, the worst possible decision you can make in Dynasty. The one player that I think is the worst possible player to trade right now in Dynasty is Kyle Pitts. I've felt this way for over a year. I will continue to feel this way. You're trading him at his absolute lowest. That is never good for you. What if he's offered the third overall pick in a rookie draft for Pitts?

Is that enough? Third overall pick in next year's draft? No, this year's. Oh, this year's current draft. Is that enough? I would personally never do that. I don't think I would either. What if it's the second pick? That's when you can start to consider. Me too. You can consider it. Me too. Gibbs is probably going to help you more than Scherber. Me personally, I still wouldn't do it because I think Pitts will get to a point in his career where he'll be a massive advantage at the tight end position. I'm not so sure Gibbs will be that for that long.

Running backs don't have huge shelf life. He's 190 pounds, so his should be even shorter than most running backs. But for now, you're trying to win now. Gibbs is going to help you win now. And so you have to factor that in as well. He's going to help you win now faster than Pitts will. Okay, guys, let's move on here.

We've got a few more. How are we doing on likes, by the way, Schaefer? We need 100 before we read the YouTube questions. Where are we at? That story I said didn't get us to 100 likes. I mean... All right, come on. J.D. Chat's keeper help. Keep

two of the following players. 10 team PPR League. Brees Hall in the third. Josh Jacobs in the fifth. Jalen Hurts in the sixth. Devante Smith in the 10th. Chris Olave in the 11th. Ooh. Olave.

Yeah. Jacobs. Keep two. a, yeah. Jacobs. Keep two. Oh, a lot of a Jacobs. I'm keeping the receivers. I can do that too. I'm fine with that too.

From core. Hey, from core, what keeper rules would you implement for a first year keeper league? I love what we do in my keeper league. When you draft a player and you want to keep them, you can keep up to three players, but it costs you a draft pick two rounds higher than where you kept them the year prior.

And once that player gets to a first or second round pick, he cannot be kept the following year. Okay. Sounds fine to me. I don't play any non-auction keeper league, so that sounds good to me. From Bridget, do I keep Cooper Cup in the fourth round?

Devante Smith in the eighth round? There's also Lockett in the ninth. So just keep it with those two. Cup for me, for sure. Especially if it's for one year. You can think about it a little bit if it's Devontae Smith for an eighth round pick for multiple years. But Cup in round four is easy.

All right, a couple more questions. John Matthew Stafford is in a Superflex. That's a quarterback. Yeah, Superflex six-point-per-passing touchdown auction league with Keepers. I essentially have Mahomes for free. If you could pair him with any other quarterback, who would you choose? Or would you focus those? Jalen Hurts?

Well, but I guess the question is really, do you have Mahomes? Do you pay up for Hurts? If I have a free Mahomes, which I don't even know how he has, but sounds like broken keeper rules because Mahomes entered the league in 2017. But I'll let you guys sort that out yourselves.

But if I have Mahomes for free somehow in 2023, I would pay up for quarterback. I actually want to try this this year in one of my auction leagues. I played a bunch of two QB leagues. I want to try to go the two elite quarterback route and see, and it'll be over 50% of my budget. I'll have almost nothing left. I'll have to punt running back for sure.

Probably punt most of receiver, but I want to see where it goes. This is from The Ego, formerly known as Joel. 14-team half PPR league. The commissioner changed it to a 14-round draft instead of a 15-round draft. Does that change anything for you?

No. Not really. Personally, no. I think it might make me less likely to take a backup quarterback. I think it's a little harder to do a handcuff when you have one few rounds.

You got to keep that in mind. Shorter bench in the season. I'm not going to go into the draft. Yeah, that's a good point, Dan. I mean, that's going to help the waiver wire. I'm not going to go into the draft changing anything,

but there you go. Now, listen, before we get to your YouTube comments which we will time for a segment called Dan is holding up the draft which is a little unfair he's only been on the clock that is so unfair I just got put on the clock during this podcast you want

me to just go to another window and make a pick baby let's see what you got let's see Dan's team so far you want me to make a pick right now there's no shot of making a pick right now on air. Come on. You had the second overall pick. You have to look through my whole thing, Adam.

I have to see through. I don't know the last 10 picks. I'm just going to rush an incredibly important pick like this for a fantasy analyst to make a draft pick. I mean, I have an early lean anyway, but I haven't looked through. I have one guy left on my queue, but he's been on my queue for a while now and i don't let me take a look this isn't happening right now which league is this in bakeburger dynasty so london's been picked i have to go through my rankings my dynasty rankings which i'm doing now this isn't this isn't good on air stuff well i'll draft for you too much pressure too much pressure all right who would you take adam i would let's hear who

adam would take i was certainly not going to impact my opinion. He's got Josh Allen, Brees Hall, and Jameer Gibbs. Oh, you froze. What? I froze? Oh, maybe I froze. Sorry. Yeah, you froze.

It was Adam. Adam froze. Josh Allen, Brees Hall, and Jameer Gibbs. He's not picking again for a very long time. No, no, no. That's not true. I have two picks. That's not true.

He's got two picks. I would take Christian Watson here. Personally. He's definitely on my short list. There's also Devontae Adams, Jerry Judy, Ken Walker. He's not going to take Ken Walker.

He's got two young running backs. DK Metcalf. So I think in your next pick, you're going to come away probably with two of Adams, Judy, Watson, and Metcalf. I highly doubt that. Quarterback is almost guaranteed to be taken.

Oh, I forgot. I forgot. You need your super flex. That's right. Who's the best quarterback? You've got to take Daniel Jones, bro. Of course. He's the only one left on my queue. He's most likely going to be the pick, but I need to just make sure I don't want to take Watson or something instead. How many more picks until your next pick. Only a few picks.

Do you think Jones can slide that? Who's yes. He will be two quarterback. Why will he be the, the guy drafting in between you with the back to back picks has Dak and Mahomes. So I'm definitely not taking Jones here. Then I really, I'm definitely not making this pick on air. Cause all right. All right. Every running back receiver depth. depth all right then let's get to our uh our uh by the way he's taking Daniel Jones over like Kirk Cousins Russell Wilson older guys older guys in a dynasty league yeah I got it okay let's talk let's get our YouTube questions here um yeah I was asking Dan to make a pick and Don said it's not like it's Dan's job or anything. It is my job. And that's why I want to take it seriously and not just make a pick all

willy nilly in a dynasty league. Okay, Don, this is from Zed. Am I the only person left on the planet that thinks a rookie running back should not be drafted in the first round of redraft? Yes, you are.

That depends on the year. Yeah, right. I mean, B John Robinson should definitely be drafted in the first round yeah i mean look zeke barkley those guys were terrific picks in the first round edgar i think the last six running backs that were drafted in the top 10 have finished this top 10 fantasy running backs that's uh but was clyde did clyde ever move up in their top 10

okay nfl draft oh in the end cly in there? Top 10 in the NFL draft. Oh, in the NFL draft. Clyde was the last pick. Oh, in the NFL draft. Was Fournette the first year? Yeah, Fournette, I think, made it. Here's a funny fact. The last one who didn't was Christian McCaffrey.

Wow. He was in a bit role that year with Jonathan Stewart. I remember that. Jonathan Stewart taking work away from CMC. Which is it? Which? I'm really dumb now. And then Dave Gettleman signed him to take work away potentially from Saquon Barkley. He said, I watched a film. He hasn't

lost a shot. That's your Dave Gettleman impersonation? I have a bad Dave Gettleman impersonation, but it's been used on the podcast. It's not good. No, I think that McCaffrey season is the thing that scares me a little bit about Jameer Gibbs. Because McCaffrey is one of the few first-round running backs in the last seven years.

There have only been, I think, two running backs drafted in the first round of the NFL draft that didn't average more than 15 touches per game. And McCaffrey was one of them. The other was Rashad Penny. But McCaffrey didn't do it because he was behind Jonathan Stewart. And that is the most similar situation to Jameer Gibbs. Case due. However, if you had drafted McCaffrey

late in the third round, it would have worked out for you that rookie year because he had like eight catches. No, we don't really have a lot of questions here. Okay, what is the deal with top QBs yet again being ranked so low? And in Justin's opinion,

so low is after the top 20 for Mahomes, Allen, and Hertz. That's funny because I feel like they're ranked higher than I ever remembered. 22, 21, 24

in one QB league, Justin. That to me is pretty high. And this is the first time I think it's justified. Agreed. Yeah. I think that's pretty high i don't know where justin would take them maybe you can respond um okay i'll look for your response i think justin what did the answer what the deal is the deal is this a lot of us who play

fantasy believe that in one quarterback leagues with only 12 starting on a weekly basis in your fantasy leagues if you're in a 12 team league or 10, if you're in a 10 team league, which makes the point even more pronounced, you have 32 to choose from. There are matchups against really bad defenses. Sometimes with quarterbacks ranked 16 through 20, who will be on your waiver wire in these one QB leagues that can produce just as well as some of these guys. You might use a first round pick on probably not the first-round pick guys, but maybe if you push everyone up, and now the third-round pick guys,

the second-round pick guys, the fourth-round pick, the fifth-round pick guys, if we were to push every quarterback up, you're getting too much out of the replacement value guys who are on your wire in these 12 and 10-team leagues where you only start one QB. It's all about that. It's just simply a math thing in my mind.

All right. He says he would a math thing in my mind. All right. He says he would take them in the first round. Connor says, if you had to pick one middle round wide receiver to break out, who would it be? Middle round. Hmm. I'm thinking round four through six.

That means around four to six. Okay. For me anyway. And that's Jerry Judy for me or Christian Watson. Definitely not Jerry Judy. Judy's on my breakout list. It's not goingerry judy for me or christian watson definitely not jerry judy's on my breakout list it's not going to be watson for me london are in that range watson and london are in there not going to be pickens is in there not going to be pickens is later to me anyway but uh is is amari cooper going in that range i just i i'm not saying that i I feel like he is. Hold on. I'm not saying that.

Can you just wait? If you, if you, I'm not saying that I would take Judy over Cooper. I'm pretty sure I would take Cooper, but I cannot call Cooper a breakout. I think Cooper can be a breakout. Why can't he be?

Do you think he's going to put up career best numbers? I think he can definitely put up career best numbers. So that would be something along the lines of like 1300 yards and 10 touchdowns. Yeah. I like him a lot. Okay. All right. One or two more questions here. I don't know if I see it, but okay.

I definitely – I guess you could say – do you see it with Judy? Yeah, because he's never had a 1,000-yard season. I think he totaled 1,000 yards last year. But in this offense with Sean payton knowing how payton deploys his receivers i think the only thing stopping judy is health dave what is your tight end whisperer pick oh i don't know if i've got one that i feel comfortable saying yet it has been it's kind of been trey mcbride but it sounds like like Zach Ertz actually has a chance to play. Yeah. And then stay with Arizona, which is just, it kind of blows my mind.

Others who are on the list, Sam Laporta, even if it's just as a, you know, temporary potential starter to the beginning of the season. Gusecki is absolutely one of them. Jake Ferguson in Dallas. Gusecki, that just blows my mind. I know, but it's just a total situation change for him with an offensive coordinator that recruited him out of high school

to play at Penn State. They still have Hunter Henry. I mean, it's not like he's being tied in. Yeah, but Henry's going to be more of that short-range guy, and Gesicki's going to be a field stretcher. Patriots like having that type of player in their offense. And he costs you nothing. You can literally take your kicker before Gusecki

if you had to. Keeper question. Kelsey in the second, Madison in the tenth, Christian Watson in the fourteenth. Watson. Actually, I like them all to some extent. I'm going to go pass up Kelsey in round two. I know. Watson in round 14

is nice though. In these types of leagues, round 14 in a keeper league, it's going to be absolutely barren. Okay. Keep two from Ty Ty. No penalty. AJ Brown. I love the picture. I know.

This picture really threw me off. AJ Brown, Amonra St. Brown, CeeDee Lamb, Jalen Hurts. No round. Seems like a one QB league. I will go Lamb for sure, obviously. Lamb and AJ for me. Probably Lamb and Amonra for me, I think. Okay.

Thank you, everybody. Long show today. I appreciate you hanging out with us on this Friday. Go get your weekend on. Avoid the kitchen sink at any of Dan's friends' houses. One friend. I used the term friend loosely. No, just kidding.

I just... It was appalling. It was repulsive. It was appalling. It led to at least an hour-long discussion and ribbing, and people are stunned. No. Okay.

I don't even know what to say. I will talk to you. But I'm running the water the whole time. Like, I don't think that makes it better. He didn't tell you that while you were like rinsing lettuce in the sink. We weren't at his house. Thankfully, I was not going to. I'm not going.

That is a bar. Yeah. Yeah. Set a perimeter. Don't go within six feet of his sink. All right, see you later, everybody. Have a great weekend.