Fantasy Football Today - Bills and Packers Outlooks, Coaching Changes Recap (01/25 Fantasy Football Podcast)
Episode Date: January 25, 2021Who was worse on Sunday: Sean McDermott or Matt LaFleur? And who is going to win the Super Bowl? We start the show with those topics and some trivia (8:40) before discussing where we would like to see... Matthew Stafford and Deshaun Watson end up (9:45) ... With Buffalo and Green Bay eliminated, we look ahead to their 2021 outlooks starting with a QB comparison (13:10) and some more Packers questions. Then we turn our attention to Buffalo (20:30). Is Zack Moss going to be a Fantasy starter? And on an unrelated note, would the Patriots have made the playoffs this season if Tom Brady had been their QB? ... News and notes (31:00) and then some Fill in the Blank (33:00) centered around the new head coaches and offensive coordinators. Which coach are we most excited about? Which NFL players will benefit the most and which ones will lose the most Fantasy value? ... Your emails at fantasyfootball@cbsi.com Subscribe to the FFT in 5 podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to FFT. Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @CTowersCBS, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos 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/ Want winning picks each morning in under 10 minutes? Subscribe to 'The Early Edge: A Daily SportsLine Betting Podcast' on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever else you listen to 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
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM, an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League.
Yard after yard, down after down, the sportsbook born in Vegas gives you the chance to take action to the end zone
and celebrate every highlight reel play.
And as an official sportsbook partner of the NFL, BetMGM is the best place to fuel your football fandom on every game day. With a variety of exciting features,
BetMGM offers you plenty of seamless ways to jump straight onto the gridiron
and to embrace peak sports action.
Ready for another season of gridiron glory?
What are you waiting for?
Get off the bench, into the huddle, and head for the end zone all season long.
Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions.
Must be 19 years of age or older.
Ontario only.
Please gamble responsibly.
Gambling problem?
For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario helpline
at 1-866-531-2600.
BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement
with iGaming Ontario.
This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports.
On his way to the end zone.
I'll tell you what, that was a spectacular play.
It's time to dominate your fantasy league.
What a play.
Off to the races.
Touchdown.
Oh, he's done it again.
Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Ben.
All right, the Super Bowl is set.
It's the Chiefs at the Buccaneers.
Buccaneers hosting a Super Bowl.
What's going on, everybody?
Welcome to the show.
This is Fantasy Football Today.
Today on the show, we're going to review all of the coaching hires.
We've talked about it.
Obviously, you guys talked about it over the last couple of weeks,
but we'll review it a little bit, the best and the worst.
We've got some offensive coordinator news.
And, of course, we're going to talk football.
We're going to say goodbye to the Packers and to the Buffalo Bills.
And who do we like better next year, Josh Allen or Aaron Rodgers?
And how close is it?
You know, those types of questions.
Where's Aaron Rodgers playing?
Yeah, we're going to see him green back.
I think Aaron Rodgers is ready to say goodbye to the Packers.
I hope not.
I hope not.
Well, why not?
You know, maybe he needs a change of scenery.
I don't know.
But, yeah, we'll talk about all that. Hey, guys Maybe he needs to change the scenery. I don't know.
We'll talk about all that.
Hey, guys.
It's good to be back.
Welcome back.
Thank you.
We missed you.
We did?
I listened.
We did.
I'm just being nice, Dave.
Okay.
We actually missed Heath.
We didn't really miss you.
Heath will be on later this week.
You guys did a great job without me.
Well done.
FFT in five was great.
Good stuff.
And yeah,
and let's go.
All right,
here's a couple of hot topics.
Number one,
which head coach made a worse decision
by electing to kick a field goal
instead of go for the touchdown?
Was it Sean McDermott twice
or Matt LaFleur?
Matt LaFleur.
Matt LaFleur.
Yeah, I don't know that I agree.
What?
And he's back, folks.
Both of them
were wrong.
Both of them were wrong, but
Matt LaFleur, look,
I understand the thinking. He had four timeouts
in the two-minute warning.
And Brady was playing pretty poorly at that point. He had a bad second half. They were getting off the thinking. He had four timeouts. Right. Especially with the two-minute warning. And Brady was playing pretty poorly at that point.
He had a bad second half.
They were getting off the field.
They, it wasn't.
You have the MVP.
I don't care.
It wasn't like they were stopping.
Yeah, but it was fourth and eight.
They had gotten zero yards on the previous three plays.
You basically said, if this is why Aaron Rodgers wants to leave,
I can't blame him for it.
You basically said, I don't trust you in the biggest moment of the season. Yes. At the 10 yards to go. They were, they were one of the
best teams in the red zone. Obviously one of the best quarterbacks. He doesn't make many mistakes.
The Bucks defense was playing great, but you have them on their heels and it's, it's, it's a play to
get yourself to the super bowl and you took it out of his hands and put it in the hands of your
defense, which yes, it played well in the second half, of his hands and put it in the hands of your defense,
which, yes, it played well in the second half,
but it was handed to them in a lot of ways.
I mean, Brady made mistakes,
but there weren't mistakes that they created.
Those were mistakes that were almost generated by themselves.
Yeah, it was the wrong call.
I would have gone for it for sure,
but I think McDermott twice,
I think it was fourth and goal
from the two or the three
at the end of the first half, and then early
in the second half, actually about five
and a half minutes left in the third quarter,
it was fourth and two or three from the
eight-yard line. So you're inside the ten twice.
That was the difference. I mean, it was fourth in goal
from the eight for the Packers. This was a much
more makeable first down twice.
And meanwhile, you know,
the Packers' defense had been doing a decent job
in the second half. The Chiefs, when McDermott kicked the field goal the second time to keep it a two possession game
the Chiefs had scored 24 points on their previous four possessions there was no way you're winning
that game with field goals there you can't get any stops so I think that was I think that was
yeah they both were wrong I mean that's where I'm the weirdo and I think that was, I think that was, yeah, they both were wrong. I mean, that's where I'm the weirdo. And I think that the bills decisions were worse, but, uh, like, I think there's almost no chance you win after kicking the second field goal. So like he at least had the benefit of game clock,
whereas LeFleur knew that he was potentially kicking the ball away and not
getting it back.
Now, to be fair, if the game is called the way the game is called the entire
game, it was certainly a penalty on Kevin King.
Absolutely.
Finally on Kevin King, but they let everything go that game,
everything go.
And they decide then that they're going to make the call.
Now again,
call should have been,
that was such an obvious call though.
Agreed.
Agreed.
But if you're playing,
if you're,
if you're reffing the game that way for 48 minutes,
you got to be consistent throughout the course of the game.
Sure.
But I didn't have a problem with the call.
I had a problem with the timeliness of the call.
Cause it felt like the ref,, he had his flag tucked in.
He waited.
Yeah, he waited a long-ass time.
But when you see a defender grabbing jersey like that or undershirt,
whatever it was, it was the right call.
There was a play earlier on the interception from Rodgers
where Lazard was held on his shoulder pad.
For sure.
It was not as egregious.
Not as egregious. It could have been missed. It was not as egregious. Not as egregious.
It could have been missed.
It was still pretty egregious.
I totally agree.
It could have been missed,
whereas rather than overlooked.
In game action, it wasn't egregious.
Right.
But that was pretty obvious on Kevin King.
The problem is just
you've been calling the game like that
the entire game,
and then you decided that moment.
So had LaFleur got the ball back,
it could be a totally different story.
Yeah, and the thing with LaFleur is
even if you go for it on fourth and goal from the eight
and you don't get it,
you still have four timeouts with the two-minute warning
and a chance to get the ball back with good field position
if you get off the field.
Obviously, you need to score and get the two-point conversion.
It's not going to be a five-point game,
but yeah, they both screwed up, unfortunately.
And he made a brilliant coaching move, which a
lot of people don't.
Yeah.
Who is when it was second and one.
Oh, yeah.
He's able to get in the first down
and save his time out.
Well, why didn't they decline that
though?
I know that was bad on Bruce
Arians.
Yeah.
Well, I.
All right.
And another thing, I don't want
anybody to get mad at me, but have
you kind of felt like the playoffs
have been a little disappointing
so far?
What?
Did you not watch yesterday?
Well, did you think the Chiefs game was good?
It was entertaining.
Was it a great back-and-forth, nip-and-tuck game?
No, but it was fun.
It was a lousy AFC Championship game,
and let's be honest, it was a blowout.
We've had some good games.
We haven't had the photo finish yet, you know?
Sure. So I just think we're missing that. We haven't had the photo finish yet, you know? Sure.
So I just think we're,
maybe we're saving that for missing the Sunday.
Yeah.
Hope so.
Um,
all right.
Final hot topic here.
Two of two,
who wins the super bowl?
Give me your early pick.
I mean,
it's hard to pick against the chiefs,
but the fact that it's Brady again,
and the Eric Fisher injury to me is so concerning because that defensive
front for the bucks is so good.
They really got after him.
Rogers.
You saw the absence of Bakhtiari and how much that meant to the Packers
offensive line.
But I mean,
my homes is just on a different level right now.
You know,
you see when he's playing and you go back,
it's hard to say,
you know,
you look at the previous games because these two, these two games,
the AFC and NFC championship games were rematches from early in the season.
Well, the Superbowl is rematched from week 12.
Tyreek had 200 yards in the first quarter in that game. I mean, you know,
it's I don't know how Tampa is going to stop them unless they just beat up
Mahomes. And if they beat up Mahomes, the Bucks are going to win,
but I'm going to pick the Chiefs as of now.
Me too. I, I, too i i i'm gonna look into
just how which team has the better pass rush that's always been a factor for me when picking
who wins a super bowl and uh i just last year i picked against my homes look good for three
quarters uh i don't think i'm gonna do it again they're unstoppable i mean you cannot cover tyree
kill you can't cover travis kel Tyreek Hill is playing. He's just
on another level right now. You can cover
Kelsey if you didn't have to worry about the rest
of the receivers, but you do.
That's why Kelsey is not coming. They may get
Watkins back. You're going to have Clyde Ebersolear with
two more weeks to get healthy.
I do think the Fisher injury is tough for them.
I don't know if Mitchell Schwartz can come back. I'm not
sure if that's possible or not. I don't think he can.
I saw somebody speculate on that that there was a possibility, but I think you're right, Dave. I don't Schwartz can come back. I'm not sure if that's possible or not. I don't think he can. I saw somebody speculate on that, that there was a possibility,
but I think you're right, Dave.
I don't think he'd come back.
I posed this question on Twitter.
Is Travis Kelsey now the best tight end in NFL history?
Most people said no.
Really?
Okay.
I thought maybe in the moment people would say yes to that.
No, it's funny because I tagged the Chief Chiefs and you get a lot of Tony Gonzalez,
you know, so I'm sure being respectful of what he did.
Obviously, Gronk, you know, like somebody replied.
No, it's Gronk.
Prime Gronk is still better than Prime Kelsey, but it's close.
It really is.
If you look at the numbers, they're close.
They're really close.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's in the conversation.
It's pretty.
He's just this was the best year ever for a tight
end you'd have to say that um the yards certainly uh all right trivia question for you who had the
highest catch rate in the nfl minimum 40 targets he played yesterday?
Highest catch rate in the NFL.
Minimum 40 targets.
He lost yesterday.
I will say Cole Beasley.
I was going to say Beasley too,
but it could be Alan Lazard.
He is on Alan Lazard's team.
Tunyon.
Robert Tunyon.
88% catch rate for Robert Tunyon. We're going to talk about him a little bit later. He ended up as the number
three, I believe the number three tight
end in fantasy. Here's your sad
stat of the day.
Detroit has now gone six straight
seasons without a running back reaching
650 rushing guard.
650. That's
pathetic. Six straight seasons.
That's really bad.
Maybe they can fix that with a new coaching staff.
Coaching staff's coming up later today.
New quarterback.
New quarterback, yes.
Matthew Stafford and Deshaun Watson could be on the move.
That's going to be pretty exciting if those guys get traded.
I mean, not for the Lions and the Texans.
Could you imagine that this offseason you have Trevor Lawrence coming in the NFL.
We expect him to be a star right away.
You have Wilson from BYU.
You have Fields from Ohio State.
Those guys have the chance to be potential starters.
And now you have potentially on the move Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers, Deshaun Watson,
and San Francisco thinks they're getting all three of those guys.
I saw a blogger for the 49ers tweet Stafford on first down Watson on second down and Rogers on third down.
How do they lose?
Garoppolo could be on the move.
Darnold could be on the move.
Wentz, probably not, but possibly there's there's just a lot of moving parts for a lot of potentially great quarterbacks.
It's going to be a really crazy off season in the NFL.
All the while with the salary cap being crunched down from what it was the
year before.
I asked Chris,
you know,
where do you want to see Stafford and Watson go?
And he said the number one destination for him,
this is one FFT and five would be Denver.
It makes a lot of sense.
You got a really good young receiving core there.
I,
you know how much I love Kyle Shanahan.
And I think when you just look at the efficiency of Garoppolo
and even Beathard and Mullins, what these guys are able to do,
I would love to see a great quarterback end up there.
Where would you guys want to see whichever quarterback,
whoever gets moved first, where do you want to see him go?
Those are the two spots.
Watson and Houston.
That would be fine.
Good luck with that.
I mean, yeah, Stafford to Denver. To me,
the prime locations are
fantasy-wise right now
would be New Orleans, if Drew
Brees does retire. Denver,
San Francisco, and
Carolina. Those are my four favorites in terms of
teams that could have potential openings
or get a quarterback upgrade. Now, the Colts are very good from an NFL standpoint, but they just don't have the weapons right now. I mean't have some of the better options quite frankly but washington san francisco
new england indianapolis and indianapolis got 45 of the vote crushed the competition and that kind
of surprised me a little bit um okay uh we're gonna take a quick break here on fantasy football
today when we come back, conference championship questions
as we talk about the two teams that were eliminated yesterday,
Josh Allen versus Aaron Rodgers.
Also, would the Patriots have made the playoffs with Tom Brady this season?
Think about that during the break. We'll be right back.
Whether in the game or in life, the right coverage can make all the difference.
Securian Canada gives you that coverage.
For more than 65 years, Securian Canada has been helping Canadians build secure tomorrows.
Their insurance solutions are designed to help protect you and your loved ones financially,
giving you the peace of mind to focus on what truly matters.
Find their products through banks, credit unions, and associations.
Or visit SecurianCanada.ca.
Securian Canada. Insurance designed for life.
Did you know that across Ontario, utility damage happens 19 times a day?
That's over 4,222 incidents a year.
Don't let your next dig be one that causes costly delays or safety risks.
Before you break ground, 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.
So looking ahead to 2021,
let's assume Aaron Rodgers is back with the Green Bay Packers.
Dave, how far apart in the rankings are Josh Allen and Aaron Rodgers and who do you prefer?
And these were the top two quarterbacks in fantasy and the top two scoring offenses in the NFL.
I've got them six spots apart with Allen. I've got Allen as my number two quarterback. I think
I started with him as my number three. Check that. He's going to be number two behind Mahomes. And I'm nervous about Aaron
Rodgers coming close to replicating what he did in 2020. So Rodgers is down a little bit for me,
not Josh Allen. Jamie, how about you? Yeah, right now I have Allen two and Rodgers six.
And so I think, you know, um, I hope Aaron Rogers stays in green
Bay. You know, it'd be, it'd be a shame if he wins an MVP, gets the NFC championship game two
years in a row and is unhappy and leaves and goes to a potentially worse situation. You know, um,
San Francisco, I don't think would be such a downgrade, but, um, you know, I, I would hate
to see it from all of the parties involved from the Packers skill position guys as well.
But I think, you know, Dave sort of references he had a nine point jump in his fantasy points from 2019 to 2020.
Rogers did. Allen had a big jump as well.
But, you know, you're seeing a player ascending as opposed to Rogers, you know, maybe just having sort of a, not a fluke season, but you know,
maybe just a significant spike for whatever reason, you know,
second year in the offense, feeling more comfortable.
There will be some level of letdown,
but I still think Aaron Rogers can be a number one fantasy quarterback.
And I'm not going to go down that road and say he's not.
Yeah. One kind of sneaky issue with Aaron Rogers is his rushing totals.
Now two straight seasons. He's actually set a career low in rushing yards per game.
So he's not going to get you 200 rushing yards.
He got you about 150, 149 this year in 16 games.
He had a 9.1% touchdown rate, which is really, really high.
It's basically what Lamar Jackson had last year.
And there was some regression.
Jackson had a pretty high rate this year,
but not even close to last year.
All right, question number two.
Robert Tunyon, he was the number three
tight end in fantasy.
You already heard the stat.
He had the highest catch rate,
caught 88% of his targets,
but only had, I think, 53 targets on the year.
Is he a top 12 fantasy tight end for you
going into 2021 as of right now, Jamie?
He is, you know, and we'll see if that changes once the rookies are in and any movement where Hunter Henry goes, who replaces Henry,
you know, some of those things.
But, you know, I think you just look at it right now is this receiving core has holes.
You know, Valdez, Gantling, and Lazard are good.
They're not great.
They're not the type of number two receiver that you like to see for an elite quarterback. Obviously, Devante Adams dominates targets. He should. Hopefully,
that remains the case. But they've used Tunyon quite a bit. And even when Lazard came back,
you wondered how it would all work with him coming back from the abdomen injury that he
suffered earlier in the season. And Tunyon was great. He's touchdown dependent. He's not a,
oh my God, I have to have Robert Tanyan on my fantasy team.
But once you get past the five or six guys
that you're going to be happy about,
you know, certainly after the top three,
I think he's in that conversation
to be a guy that you'll settle for,
you know, mid round to late round pick.
And, you know, he can get you
through the first couple of weeks
knowing that Aaron Rodgers trusts him
and he's not going to make a lot of mistakes.
Dave, would you take a shot on a guy
like Evan Ingram or Robert Tunyon?
I'd probably veer toward Tunyon.
And I actually, when I initially sent in my tight end rankings,
Tunyon wasn't in there.
Yes, he is a top 12 tight end.
I think Jordan Love is going to have to lean on him quite a bit next year.
Short area target and outlet form?
No, we don't know if that's going to be the case.
I hope it's not for Packers fans, obviously.
But Jamie's right. They do have holes at receiver. I think that Rodgers may be building confidence in Valdez, Scantling and Lazard as the season went on.
Certainly those guys made plays. Valdez, Scantling made a great play against the Bucs,
but if the Packers do add more help at receiver that theoretically would
take targets away from Tanyan, there is some bus potential for Tanyan at tight end, which is why
he probably won't be any higher than like fifth or sixth and probably no lower than 10th or 11th
in my tight end rankings when they come out. Okay. But just to be clear, he had 53 targets. These were the targets for the Packers.
Devontae Adams had 149
and he missed almost
three full games. He missed like two and a half games.
Marquez Valdez-Scantling
and Aaron Jones were second.
63 targets!
149 for Adams while
missing two full games and half of one.
63 targets is
next best on this team,
except Aaron Jones also missed two games.
Tunyon had 59 targets, sorry, 52 catches on 59 targets.
All right, third question here.
Is the Brady versus Belichick debate settled?
And would the Patriots have made the playoffs this year
if they had Tom Brady?
I don't think it's fair to judge Belichick's season this year.
Cause the,
you know,
he had so many guys opt out a lot of key players on defense and,
you know,
the quarterback situation was a mess.
Now that's partly him to blame clearly,
but I think Brady wins round one.
It's hard not to say he won round one.
I mean,
when it's a zoomable,
but I don't,
I don't want to say that Belichick is never going to be successful again
without Tom Brady on his team.
Would they have made the playoffs?
Yes.
Yeah, I think so.
They would have needed 10 wins
to be in the conversation to make the playoffs this year.
And what, they have six wins with Cam?
Yeah, I don't know.
So many passing touchdowns. That roster's really just not very good this year.
The roster hasn't been good for years.
Well, it had some good defensive pieces, though,
that, as you mentioned, opted out.
Well, certainly on the defensive side of the ball,
that was the case, but on offense,
like, if Brady's there and Edelman were to stay healthy,
that would always give the offense a semblance of life.
Is Grock resigning if Brady stays in New England?
Like those are the factors.
Like who's staying in New England?
Well, just know if the same season, except instead of Cam Newton.
I'm going to say that they don't make the playoffs.
They're probably nine and seven and on the outside looking in with Brady.
Okay.
This was the first time in his career that he's made the playoffs
and not won the division.
You know that?
Oh, interesting.
When was the last time a wild card team made the Super Bowl?
Made the Super Bowl?
Yeah.
It doesn't happen that often.
Were the Eagles a wildcard team?
Or did they win the division?
No, they won the division.
I'd like to look into that.
Schrager, what do you think?
Can you look into that?
Yeah, I'm thinking the Ravens did it a few years ago.
That was more than a few years ago.
I mean, that was probably 10 years ago.
Seven years ago.
Oh, when they won, yeah.
Were they a wildcard team?
Yeah, remember the game in Denver?
No.
But I'll take your word for it.
Blacko with the big play at the end of the game?
The big mom at the end of the game?
No, I don't remember.
By the way, I saw this.
This is from ESPN Stats and Info.
Brady has played in as many Super Bowls in his 40s
as Aaron Rodgers, Dan Marino, and Drew Brees have in their careers.
Wow. That's wild.
All right, let's go up to the Bills here.
Questions about the Bills.
How are we feeling about Cole Beasley and John Brown, Dave, next year?
I think Beasley is still going to be that safe security blanket
that Josh Allen leans on in the slot.
I think that's what his role is. John Brown is a receiver that the Bills can walk away from if they don't
want to pay him or if they want to replace him. Maybe they think that they've got something
special with Gabriel Davis. Maybe they want to get younger at that spot. I could see John Brown
being on a different team in 2021. So I think Beasley is the piece that's going to be there
for sure. Okay. I feel like an idiot, by the piece that's going to be there for sure.
Okay.
I feel like an idiot,
by the way,
Shrugger letting me know the 2018 Eagles were a wildcard team.
So I thought they might have won the division.
I thought so too.
Um,
okay.
So 2018 Eagles,
the last team that went to the Superbowl and they won it.
Uh,
yeah.
You look at John Brown,
his 16 game pace and Cole Beasley's 16-game pace, it really wasn't even close.
Beasley, almost about 200 more yards, 28 more catches,
and 114 targets.
That was his pace compared to 92 for Brown.
There were some injuries involved, some mid-game injuries,
but Beasley was much more productive than John Brown.
Let's say they're both back on the bills.
Who are you drafting first, Jamie, John Brown or Cole Beasley was much more productive than John Brown. Let's say they're both back on the bills. Who are you drafting first, Jamie, John Brown or Cole Beasley?
I probably will still take John Brown first.
Beasley's it's closer in PPR than non PPR,
but I still think John Brown ceiling is higher.
If I'm Buffalo, I run it back from a passing game perspective.
You know, Brian Dable looks like he's going to be there.
And I think, you know,
barring any changes to like I think, you know, barring any changes to, like Dave said,
you know, they can move on from John Brown, which wouldn't be a surprise, but I would, I, you know,
I mean, Buffalo had an amazing season and the AFC East looks to be theirs for a while. They have,
you know, arguably the second best quarterback in terms of young up and coming quarterbacks
in the league with Alan behind Patrick Mahomes.
The upgrade for them is their running game.
I mean,
that's the biggest thing they got to fix,
you know,
whether it's their run blocking or just getting better talent back there.
But I think,
you know,
if,
if they can keep the band together and,
and,
you know,
you have a speed threat and Brown,
you have a good slot receiver in Beasley.
You have a guy that could do everything.
It's the font digs.
It's a very good unit.
And then Dawson Knox is
a tight end that works well in their system.
Oh, yeah. That's my next question. Is
Dawson Knox a sleeper tight end?
A bit of a touchdown binge these days.
Who is he playing in week one?
He's a poor
man's Robert Tunyon. He just doesn't
score as consistently.
Again, you miss. I think he's
somewhere closer to 15 to 20
as opposed to 12 to 15.
But he's in that conversation.
He showed you some things. You saw
last night, or excuse me, Sunday night, when
he was featured, when they were throwing the ball
all over the place. He made some nice plays.
That was last night. You could say last night.
Sure.
Everybody's going to listen to this as soon as it comes out. They know I'm back.
They've been waiting. Five touchdowns in his last eight games now including the postseason for
dawson knox that's way better than he did in college okay zach moss do you think dave is
zach moss going to be a fantasy starting running back no why not no i think buffalo and this would
be the scary thing about taking
Josh Allen as the second quarterback off the board right now is that Buffalo could really
find somebody that they love at running back in the draft. And that would potentially take the
ball out of Josh Allen's hands. Uh, he, he, the, the entire offense all season long ran through josh allen everything was him uh there
there was not a run game that was legitimate in buffalo pretty much all season long they didn't
trust moss and singletary so if they try to improve that area of course that's going to take
away everything from rushing yardage and rushing touchdowns to pass attempts from Josh Allen in 2021.
And I think Moss is a solid running back and a complementary back, a physical back,
but not somebody who's going to be their feature guy or even their 1B going into next year. He'll be on the roster, but he won't be there. I would be stunned. I'll put it this way. I'd be stunned
if he was their feature back. I wouldn't be. I just don't.
I mean, again, you know, what's your investment level in that position?
You know, are they drafting somebody else?
Are they spending money on somebody else?
You know, do they feel like that's their missing part of their offense?
So if it's the same two guys, I think Moss has a chance to be.
He's the better of the two in my opinion.
I just think he runs better than Dem Singletary.
I don't think that Singletary is,
you saw it last night.
They lost faith in him.
They mentioned,
uh,
for TJ Yeldon,
you know,
so,
um,
I hope Moss is healthy.
I hope he gets to show a little something that he didn't get to show this
year.
Uh,
he got hurt early in the season as well,
but if,
if that's the same two guys,
then I think Moss will be somebody that falls in drafts,
rightfully so can end up being a flex option for you and let things go well.
It's such a good offense.
That's just the thing that they haven't done very well is
you can throw to score and then run to win.
They just didn't run to win.
They threw to win, and that was the problem.
They didn't have a lot of production late in games from their ground attack.
It is a good offense, but it's also an offense that
right now doesn't throw to the running backs a lot.
Singletary had a decent amount of catches,
but so many of them were in the first four weeks.
And then after that, he had almost a very, very little role.
And a lot of that came when Moss was hurt.
Two of the games, yeah, were with Moss hurt.
And two of the four.
And then the other thing was,
Josh Allen has eight or nine rushing touchdowns,
three straight years.
That's hard to do.
It's just like hard to predict he's going to have eight or nine.
But these guys don't score.
It stinks.
This was a terrible,
considering they were the second highest
scoring team in the league, I think.
I think it was Green Bay one, Buffalo two.
For them to have such bad production
from their running backs
is kind of startling and surprising.
You want to see one of those two guys
or whoever else they bring
in become damien williams from 2020 2019 you want to see that type of player offense was fantastic
for the chiefs they still got good production from a running back yeah so well one of those
two guys do probably not but you know if they get you 75 of that that'll be a decent fantasy
option for you as a third running back or fourth running back. All right, last question here. Who would you rather have in a dynasty league,
Stephon Diggs or Devontae Adams?
Adams one year older than Stephon Diggs.
Who would you rather have in a dynasty league?
Well, I know who Diggs' quarterback
is going to be next year.
That's true.
I'm telling you, man, Rodgers is ticked off.
And rightfully so, like we talked about.
If Adams is catching passes from Jordan love or
somebody else at any point of his career,
I can't say that he's going to be the best receiver in the NFL.
He needs Aaron Rodgers and he needs Aaron Rodgers playing like Aaron
Rodgers played this year.
I'll take digs.
I would take digs,
not necessarily so much for 2021,
but more for 2022,
because I think Rod Rogers is almost certainly
gone by then. And so I would imagine Diggs and Allen are there in two years. The other thing
about this is, and this is a little broader conversation, but I think our audience,
especially the people that are listening to it now are probably too smart for this. But
if you're looking at it, you should be making offers right now to any of these teams that are
looking at quarterbacks for their wide receivers. You should be looking at right now to any of these teams that are looking at quarterbacks for their wide receivers.
You should be looking at the Jets wide receivers to try and get them cheap.
You should be looking at the Broncos wide receivers to try and get them in trade.
You should be looking at Michael Pittman to try and get him in trade.
Because if any of these teams get these quarterback upgrades, Stafford, Watson, Rogers, Wentz,
any of these situations where it's not a rookie coming in and there's a little bit of
a slow build to it, you could be in great shape if you get them at the right price.
So be aggressive, try and trade for these guys. You know, I mean, you can probably get Jameson
Crowder cheap. Denzel Mims is cheaper now than he was as a rookie. Brashad Perryman, if the Jets
decide to keep him for whatever reason, you know, those type of players, obviously, you know,
Brandon Ayuk is going to be expensive. Michael Pittman is going to be expensive, but you know, you might be able to
get these guys in trade. And if they get a Deshaun Watson, or if they get a Aaron Rogers, just think
about where their value now becomes do it before the move happens, be aggressive. Now in your
dynasty league, don't go crazy for Crowder though. The jets can save over 10 million.
If they can, I'm not saying that guy in particular, but I'm saying, you know,
any of these teams that have
significant quarterback upgrades coming,
especially if it's a veteran guy,
the Jets get Deshaun Watson.
That's really his preferred destination.
Think about what Denzel Mims could be.
Get him now before it happens.
I find that so hard to believe.
Well, couldn't that also become
Will Fuller's preferred destination?
Yeah, baby.
It could be anybody.
Will Fuller could be a matching pair.
This could still be the number two.
I get what you're saying.
I love what you're saying.
The minute that the Jaguars said that Daryl Bevel was their offensive coordinator,
Marvin Jones tweeted the Jaguars team site with a Grinch symbol.
He's a free agent.
I'm sure he'd love to go play with Trevor Lawrence and go there.
Wait, a Grinch?
Isn't that a bad thing?
I mean, I'm not.
No, it's like the smiley, like sneaky smiley face.
Oh, okay, okay, okay.
All right.
All right, so we'll talk about all those new coaching hires in just a moment.
Want to promote something, though?
The CBS Sports app.
All right, you got to download it.
And we've reached the point of the year.
There's a lot of sports going on right now.
You got the NFL, obviously.
You got college basketball. Hockey. Hockey's back. NBA in full swing. Golf is a sport, according to some
people. And that's why we wanted to tell you about the CBS Sports app. And it's not just the best
scoring app for your phone. It's also where you get breaking news alerts, stories by your Fantasy
Football Today crew, standing schedules, team pages, all the sportsy digital stuff that you're used to.
And, of course, if a game is airing on CBS,
that means it's streaming on the CBS Sports app.
It's pretty easy.
You just go ahead and download it.
Re-download it if it's got that little cloud logo next to it on your phone.
And you know we love those five-star ratings,
so don't hesitate to drop one for the app.
If you do, tweet us a screenshot along with a mailbag question for us to use on an upcoming episode. Leave us a nice five-star
review for the CBS Sports app and a question. Give us a screenshot. Thank you very much to our
FFT listeners for helping us out and downloading that app. All right, so the news and notes. So
Detroit's looking to trade Matthew Stafford. Deshaun Watson wants to go to the Jets,
followed by the Dolphins. That's according to the Miami Herald. Deshaun Watson wants to go to the Jets, followed by the Dolphins.
That's according to the Miami Herald.
Let me ask you a question about Kenny Galladay.
Are you shaking in your boots
if you're a Kenny Galladay fantasy manager, Dave?
Why would I be shaking in my boots
if I'm a Kenny Galladay fantasy manager?
Why?
Why?
Because he's going to lose Matthew Stafford.
Well, I mean, he might also gain
potentially a better quarterback than Matthew Stafford
because he's a free agent.
He's definitely going...
We don't know where he's playing.
Yeah, this seems like a franchise.
You're right.
You're right.
If they franchise him and the Lions
with Anthony Lynn as their offensive coordinator
and a new quarterback, yes.
That would be very bad for Kenny Galladay.
Okay. But not for his accountant.
Pittsburgh signed Dwayne Haskins.
Jamie, quick thoughts on Haskins and
Dynasty. He's a great move
for him, looking at a destination
where there's not a long-term quarterback
right now. I mean, Roethlisberger's got a year or two
at most, and if he goes
in, goes through the Steelers car wash
and hopefully comes out clean on the other side and learns
a few things, maybe he could be their starter.
So Dynasty is a hold if you have a deep enough roster,
but shallow rosters,
I don't think he's a priority to hold right now.
I'll get to all the coaching stuff in a minute.
Greg Olson's retiring.
Julian Edelman expected to play in 2021.
Tampa Bay, according to Ian Rappaport,
wants Antonio Brown back in 2021.
Hopefully he can play in the Super Bowl for their sake.
Imagine that when the season started, you would have said Antonio Brown,
Leonard Fournette, Le'Veon Bell are all going to play in the Super Bowl.
You would have been laughed out of the room.
I would have said, Madden?
Yeah, pretty wild.
We'll see if Bell plays, I guess.
But you'd think Brown has a decent chance of getting there.
I think Bell might be inactive for the Super Bowl at this point.
He might, but at least they're on the roster.
Good for them.
All right, new coaches and offensive coordinators.
Let's recap, because since you guys last spoke,
there have been some hirings, including Nick Sirianni in Philadelphia. The Jets hired Robert Sala, San Francisco defensive
coordinator. He's bringing over Mike LaFleur, Matt's brother, who had been working with Kyle
Shanahan in San Francisco. The Chargers went with Rams defensive coordinator Brandon Staley,
and they are closing in on Joe Lombardi, the Saints quarterback coach, to be their offensive coordinator.
Urban Meyer for the Jaguars.
And they brought in now Daryl Bevel,
formerly of Seattle and Detroit,
offensive coordinator.
That's the coaching staff there for the Jaguars.
Nothing yet for the Texans.
Atlanta brought in Arthur Smith,
Tennessee's offensive coordinator.
And his OC will be Dave Ragone, the Chicago passing game coordinator. But it's going to be Arthur Smith, Tennessee's offensive coordinator. And his OC will be Dave Ragone,
the Chicago passing game coordinator.
But it's going to be Arthur Smith's offense.
Detroit brought in Dan Campbell,
who sparked the best discussion we've ever had
on Fantasy Football Today last week
when Jamie was talking about coaches
that he would not want to fight.
And Campbell being at the top of the list.
I'm sitting in the car listening.
I'm like, Sala! Sala!
Like, don't fight Sala!
And then Schrager finally brought it up.
So good job, Schrager.
Yeah, but then we had Campbell's press conference where he's
going to gnaw off people's knees.
It was after that. But
yeah, I think
Robert Sala is not intimidated by Dan
Campbell, and I would take him in the Mortal Kombat
head coaching
tournament. Oh, that's a good, that'd be a good
fight. That'd be a great fight.
Let's see. So, uh, Anthony Lynn is going to be the offensive coordinator for Detroit. Anthony Lynn has had a, uh, a 50 catch running back every year as an offensive coordinator or head coach. So that's, it's great for Deandre Swift. Yeah. Fantastic. Uh. Philadelphia, Nick Sirianni is going to be their head coach.
He has been a coordinator, but he's never called plays.
He's bringing in Shane Styshen, Chargers offensive coordinator as his OC.
And two teams losing their offensive coordinator for now.
Well, yeah, Minnesota, Gary Kubiak retiring and Tennessee lost Arthur Smith.
Of course, I guess the Chargers also lost an offensive coordinator.
The Colts did, too. but that's Frank Reich's offense.
But anyway, let's do some superlatives here, some fill in the blanks.
The coaching hire you are most excited about could be a coordinator or a coach.
Coaching hire you're most excited about, Jamie, I'll give you the first word, is blank.
I'm going to go with Nick Sirianni.
I think I'm curious to see.
It's not with anything that I can tell you from an example standpoint,
because like I say, he's never called plays,
but he's got a lot to work with, you know,
and I hope that for one,
the run game translates from Indianapolis to Philadelphia from Miles Sanders
standpoint.
I hope they stick with Jalen Hurts as their quarterback,
as opposed to Carson Wentz,
because I like the upside of Hurts at this point more so than Wentz.
I hope they let Wentz go to another team where he can get a chance to start.
But I just want to see new blood, new play calling, new situation
for a guy that is getting an opportunity.
I'm excited about it.
So hopefully he turns around that mess in Philadelphia after what we saw in 2020
and getting those offensive linemen back I think is going to be a big part of that.
Dave, how can you not say Urban Meyer in Jacksonville?
And I don't think he will necessarily call plays.
I think that'll fall on Darrell Bevel, but I would imagine we're going to see a pretty good mesh of the two.
Both of them certainly love their run games.
Although Meyer, we've seen his offense transform from Utah to Florida to Ohio State.
And I just think he's got a sharp mind, and I think he's innovative.
I think he's proven that.
And I think that getting Trevor Lawrence to be his quarterback, which seems like the most obvious thing,
he called him the best quarterback in college football ever last year.
So I think that there's
I think the sky's the limit
for Jacksonville.
I think they really did a good job.
So even though I'm curious
to see how Arthur Smith
does in Atlanta
and how he maybe reboots
that offense,
I think Urban Meyer
in Jacksonville
adding a few pieces
along the way
is the one to be
the most excited about.
Okay.
Like, honestly,
Tim Tebow is a better
college quarterback
than Trevor Lawrence.
As far as just is a better college quarterback than Trevor Lawrence. As far
as just like... He's a better performer.
He's not a better prospect,
but he's arguably
the best college quarterback ever.
He was an amazing athlete.
Yeah. I know he
wasn't a great passer, but just in terms of
production and playing, he won two championships.
He's only the starting quarterback for one of them.
Yeah, well, his coach just said Trevor Lawrence was
the better quarterback in college.
Well, he saw it coming that
he was going to be coaching Trevor Lawrence way in advance.
All right, so Urban Meyer,
other noteworthy
offensive-minded college
coaches that made the jump.
Spurrier, Kelly,
Kingsbury, Matt Rule, all four of them had
offenses that scored more points in their first year as head coach than they did in the year
before. Rule was the least successful, but Chip Kelly, Philadelphia scored 162 more points in
Chip Kelly's first season. So that was a good precedent, I guess,
for a guy like Urban Meyer.
All right, how about the NFL player
that gains the most from a new coaching staff?
Dave is blank.
Player that gains the most from a new coaching staff.
I think Matt Ryan qualifies here.
Just knowing that we've got a play caller now in Atlanta
who is innovative and is clever and
creative and does a good job manipulating defenses and has a good two-year track record of big
success with Ryan Tannehill as his quarterback. So he's getting an upgrade there to Matt Ryan.
And I just think that it's a total flip of what he had in Tennessee. He's basically inherited this
amazing passing game and they need a run
game. I don't think he's going to say, well, we need to find the next Derrick Henry, and then
we're going to pound him 20 times into the line. I think we're really going to see the creative
juices flow from Arthur Smith. I think he's earned the chops to have this job, and I think he'll do
well with it. Maybe Matt Ryan has a year like Aaron Rogers just had where he's, you know,
motivated to prove that past couple of seasons were flukish and he really is a winner in the NFL.
Jamie, who gains the most NFL player? I'm going to go unknown because I want to see the running
back in Atlanta and the running back for the jets. I think those two potential spots are going to be
fantastic because like Dave said, Arthur Smith, uh, we saw what he did with Derek Henry. Obviously Henry's a,
an alien as we discussed previously. Um, but he's, uh, he's proven that he can get his run
game going to a very high level. So I hope the Falcons make a smart choice and get a good running
back there. And then the jets, obviously, you know, if you're going from the Shanahan tree
and you know, you've seen one LaFleur do great with his running game with what Aaron Jones
showed you.
And it may be Aaron Jones going to the jets as a free agent.
I wouldn't be surprised if that's moved.
That happens if the jets decide to go aggressively in free agency to get a
running back.
But the two,
the two running backs in those particular situations,
I think will benefit greatly from the coaching staff and the play callers
there.
All right,
then let's go negative here. The player that loses the most from a new coaching staff is the play callers there. All right, then let's go negative here.
The player that loses the most from a new coaching staff is blank.
Jamie, go first.
It may be the skill players, the passing game guys,
whoever ends up being the players in Detroit.
Because you're seeing now two significant changes.
You have a new head coach coming in, so so there's change and then the quarterback going out the
door so um if Galladay does get the franchise tag and stays or they're able to work out a deal
you know I don't know how much he's going to benefit by losing Stafford on top of the coaching
change um and then you know while Anthony Lynn is good for DeAndre Swift you know we'll just see
what the uh the the quarterback there is so it's more of the personnel as opposed to the coach, but that's the situation that makes me
the most concerned right now. I'm a little nervous about Justin Herbert in, uh, in LA with Joe
Lombardi taking over and Lombardi. I think he had one good year. He was only the offensive
corner for two years in Detroit. And I think he had one, his full year there was pretty good.
And his second year there, maybe not quite as good i might be wrong he might have had three years there and got fired there in the third year but i'm i'm a
little nervous about the direction of that offense under lombardi lombardi got this job because he's
pals with brandon staley lombardi called plays for staley at uh mercyhurst College in 2005 when Staley was their quarterback.
So did he get this job on the merit of what he did in New Orleans and Detroit?
No.
He got this job because he's tight with the new head coach.
And that happens all the time in the NFL.
But usually when it happens, the coach that's a buddy, like when Frank Reich
went to Indianapolis, he brought Nick Sirianni
with him from San Diego.
Happened for Staley.
That's perfect. It happened for Staley too.
But usually,
I don't know
if Joe Lombardi's qualifications
are necessarily that good.
I'm a little nervous for Justin Herbert.
He's got a Super Bowl trophy named after him.
Give him a break, man.
Is anybody worried about Ryan Tannehill
without Arthur Smith?
Yeah, that's a good one.
You know, losing Arthur Smith could be interesting
to see what they decide to do to replace him.
So yeah, Tannehill could be in a little bit of trouble.
Sure.
Could Henry?
Absolutely.
All right.
The free agent that you want to see switch teams is blank,
and you want him to sign with blank, Dave?
I have three,
but the one that I think is maybe the most obvious
is Curtis Samuel going to Jacksonville
and reuniting with Urban Meyer.
That's obvious.
I think to me it was,
I,
you know,
you guys can give me one that's a little more obvious than that,
but I think Curtis Samuel could be dynamite there.
I don't disagree.
I just don't think it's obvious.
Okay.
Well,
that's one of them.
I'll let Jamie go next.
And then if he doesn't name who I have on my list,
then I'll,
I'll,
I'll spew it out.
Okay. Jamie. Um, I hope, I'll spew it out. Okay. Jamie.
I hope, I hope I'm not as obvious. I, I mean, I said, you know,
Aaron Jones to me going to one of those respective destinations and I'll throw a third one in there, Seattle, if they move on Chris Carson.
So Carson could also be in the mix to go to one of those teams as well.
But I do think, you know,
any of those running backs that end up in the for the Jets,
because I do think that offensive line
is on the rise, as we saw last year.
I think the Falcons will get
their situation fixed with Arthur Smith.
And I think Seattle obviously
has shown you what they want to be
once again.
So any running back
that ends up in those spots,
but Carson Aaron Jones
would be the two highlights
of this free agent class for me.
OK, the other ones I had were Trent Williams of this free agent class for me. Okay.
The other ones I had were Trent Williams going to either Jacksonville or LA with the Chargers.
And Jonu Smith could be the best free agent tight end on the market.
Hunter Henry is better.
I don't know about that.
I'm not sure.
I think Jonu with the Jets.
We know that the passing game coordinator is now there with the Jets.
The floor is there.
Is he going to try and find his next Kittle?
And John,
who isn't much as a blocker,
but as a,
as a,
a matchup nightmare for defenses,
he could be pretty good there.
Well,
I think the obvious,
obvious one is Alan Robinson getting out of Chicago.
I think we would all,
right.
But where would you want them to go?
Where you would be with among the teams with new coaches
where you would be super excited?
It didn't have to be a team with a new coach necessarily,
but if we're just limiting it to that,
honestly, almost all of them.
Okay.
Jacksonville, I'm sure that's not going to happen,
but that would be tremendous.
Not the Jets.
The Jets, no.
Well, if they get Watson.
If they get Watson, then hell yes.
Atlanta, no, that's not going to work.
Yeah.
Philadelphia?
Anywhere but Chicago, I think.
Philadelphia would be great.
Yeah.
You got some good options there.
All right, good stuff.
Let's recap for you.
The coaching hire you're most excited about.
Jamie said Nick Sirianni.
Dave said Urban Meyer.
The player who gains the most from a new coaching staff,
Matt Ryan for Dave.
The unknown Jets and Falcons running backs for Jamie.
And I think we agree DeAndre Swift stands to be a winner here
with his new coaching staff.
The player who loses the most from a new coaching staff.
Jamie said the Detroit passing game could be in worse shape.
And Dave's a little worried about Justin Herbert and the free agent.
You want to see switch teams is Curtis Samuel to Jacksonville.
It would be pretty fun for Dave Aaron Jones to the jets,
Falcons or Seahawks.
I don't know,
Jamie,
like,
do you really want to see Aaron Jones leave green Bay?
I guess that's the question.
Are you just assuming he will?
Yeah,
I'm assuming yet he will,
you know, I just can't. If they haven't signed him already
after the entire landscape of guys
from his class and what those other
players accomplished compared to what he accomplished,
he should have been compensated
along the same lines already.
They clearly told you in the draft
last year by taking A.J. Dillon,
their plans. If I'm Green Bay, I sign
Jamal Williams to a cheap deal.
Yes.
Keep him there.
Obviously go with AJ Dillon.
Let those two guys fight for the starting role.
Most likely Dillon's the guy on first and second down.
Jamal Williams is on third down.
And you let Aaron Jones walk.
Not that Aaron Jones is not a great player.
He is.
But I think you can get good enough production there for Jordan Love
to get that Packers offense in good shape.
All right. Let's read some emails.
We're laughing about it now, but two months from now.
You know what I'm not laughing about?
Kevin King had such a bad, bad game on Sunday.
Bad game, you're giving him credit.
Wow, was he bad.
I mean, obviously the Hail Mary-ish play,
the deep ball at the end of the first half was bad.
His coverage on Mike Evans on the Evans touchdown was so bad.
The first touchdown was terrible.
What was he doing?
It's like he thought the ball was going to be underthrown or something,
and then he gets the pass interference.
And there was just, I mean, I tweeted about it, I know,
so sorry for repeating if you saw the tweet.
But he got up at one point in the game, late in the game,
and he started talking trash.
Mike Evans whipped him, beat him, and dropped the ball downfield.
That was just before the Brady interception
that went off Evans' hands.
Evans had a drop earlier in the drive.
He beats Kevin King and drops the ball.
King had already given up two touchdowns at that point,
gets up and starts talking trash.
What are you doing?
That's a quarterback mentality, man.
Oh, come on.
You got to be better.
By the way, he's a free agent now.
I do props
on HQ before every
playoff game. I do it during the week also
for all the primetime games.
I always go with the
plus props. So
the ones that are always juiced in her favor.
And so
I hit on all three of my props yesterday, but the one
that I was a little nervous about was Mike Evans
under four and a half catches. It was at plus, uh, plus one 10.
And so he has two catches in the first round. I'm like, Oh man, I'm dead.
There's no way this is with three. It's amazing. Uh, that he couldn't,
he couldn't get more than the two catches, but, uh,
the two easy props in that one was, uh,
Leonard Fournette over his three and a half receptions.
I don't know what William Hill was thinking with that one because he had four
catches in each of the two playoff games.
So that was easy. And then
over 11 and a half
carries also was an easy one for him
because he's clearly the best running back for
the Bucs right now, whether that
translates to the offseason or even the Super
Bowl. But he's been their
leading ball carrier for three games in a row. I am
so sick of that running back situation.
Ronald Jones didn't play. Not if you're banking on
Fournette right now. No, but I'm just sick of like,
oh, it's Ronald Jones. He loves Ronald Jones.
Jones didn't play against Washington, right? He was out.
Well, no. He
was hurt. He got hurt in pregame warm-ups.
Right, but he didn't play.
He didn't have a touch as far as I recall.
All right, let's go to some emails.
FantasyFootball at CBSi.com.
Michael in Castro Valley, California.
When doing rankings and projections for next season,
how do these factors rank in order of importance?
One, head coach and coordinator changes.
Two, year-to-year consistency.
Three, injury history.
Four, strength of schedule.
All of it matters.
Yeah, how would you rank that?
The strength of schedule matters the least of it matters. Yeah, but the strength of schedule matters
the least
of the four.
Your consistency has got to be where you start, right?
Sure.
That's the selling point for any player.
Yeah, the coaching staff matters too.
Injury history matters. I mean, it all matters a lot.
I don't think there's one you say
is that much more important than the other.
They all go hand in hand.
You don't think that just general...'m sorry you know i know it sounds obvious but just what a player has
done is the most important thing by far right but we just got through talking about coaching changes
so what a player has done and now you're bringing in somebody different it matters but okay so let's
use an example let's use an example then.
Establish a player.
Aaron Rodgers has now been
two years into a new coach.
Last year was terrible.
This year was fantastic.
Yes.
But you ranked him
based on him being Aaron Rodgers
in 2019,
not based on him having a new coach.
Right. And then we ranked him based on having a new
coach and how bad it looks in 2020.
And then he was Aaron Rodgers again.
So it goes hand in hand.
Question number two
from Dwayne.
Where's Dwayne from, Dave?
Silver Springs, Maryland.
Yes. Would you ding
both Dalvin Cook and Saquon Barkley
for being injury prone?
Or is just Dalvin Cook considered injury prone?
Saquon's the one who's missed chunks of the last two seasons.
Right.
But two years ago, it was the first two seasons.
I think they're both the same.
They're both injury risks.
Dalvin has proven now
to hopefully overcome it. Hopefully Saquon will as well. I'm always more inclined to say guys
that are missing time for soft tissue injuries are injury prone as opposed to guys that suffer
significant injury. And both those guys suffered ACL tears. Cook is a rookie, Barkley last year.
The high ankle sprain injury for Barkley was a problem,
clearly, in his sophomore campaign.
Dalvin, you know, I appreciate the fact that what he did this year,
he had the groin injury.
He missed a game that I think he could have played based on the reports.
They had their bye week the week after.
He sat out that game, sat out the bye week, was back the following week,
and then finishes out the season until the untimely death of his father in week 17.
So, you know, I, if you're talking about, you know, like to me, and I don't want to use this
just on him, but like, think about Devante Parker, the first few years of his career,
it was always a hamstring or, uh, you know, calf or, or, you know, something soft tissue related, those guys to me are injury prone.
Something that you get a fluke injury,
and I think an ACL is still a fluke injury,
high ankle sprain is somewhat of a fluke injury.
Those things, I'm not going to fault the player
for those types of situations.
How many times did Dalvin Cook fake us out though?
Hobble off the field and it's like,
uh-oh, I'm putting in my notes,
Dalvin Cook left in the second quarter and then'm putting in my notes. Dalvin Cook left
in the second quarter and then deleting it in my notes.
Happened a couple times.
That was LaShawn McCoy's deal
in his prime.
All right, Garrett
is from Frankfurt, Germany
and he says, who's a good running
back trade target for my Michael
Thomas in half PPR
dynasty? Is Chubb for Thomas fair?
Sure.
It's probably fair on paper, but
I mean, let's just say
Michael Thomas gets Matthew Stafford
or some miracle gets to
Sean Watson or Aaron Rodgers.
Receivers are always going to have more shelf life.
So even though he's probably
a year or two older than Nick Chubb,
he probably still has a longer shelf life as a better fantasy option.
So I would probably want Chubb
and maybe a little bit of a draft pick compensation on top of it.
Yeah, don't forget, Chubb's 25.
He had a long college career, so he's kind of an older running back.
Whereas like Saquon Barkley...
Thomas is what, 28, 29?
Thomas?
I'll check. I don't know.
How old
is Barkley? Barkley is
almost 24.
He'll be 28
by next season. He'll be 28 in March.
Yeah.
Alright, guys. Good show.
Good to shake the rust off.
Thank you. Welcome back. Oh, I forgot.
Cobra Kai is Cobra Bai.
Didn't like it.
Not good.
Oh, you're a terrible man.
Yep.
I get that a lot, but I just, it was.
You're terrible.
It got better as it went along.
You got, what, six episodes in, you said?
I think eight.
I think eight.
Eight episodes in?
I just couldn't do it.
I streamed it over like three days.
This is not good.
It's good.
Yeah, I don't know, man.
It's fun.
It's fun.
It was kind of fun.
No, I'm watching a show that It's fun. It's fun. It was kind of fun.
No, I'm watching a show that's extremely fun.
It's so good.
I'm not even going to tell you what it is.
I'm not going to tell you until I finish.
Wow, I need a new one.
I'll tell you off the air. But the listeners are going to spoil it for me by just saying something like a little kind of benign that tells me something I don't want to know.
So I will tell you all this great show when I finish it in a couple weeks.
I started Schitt's Creek.
Yeah.
And three episodes in,
I like it so far.
It's great.
And then when I'm done with that,
I still have to get to the second season
of The Mandalorian
and I got to go,
do you see Ozarks?
Yeah, Ozark is awesome.
You're like,
you just sounded like an 80 year old
and you called it Ozarks,
but yeah, it's Ozark.
It's not for me.
Ozark is one of the best shows.
Yeah, it's a must-see.
Okay.
All right, cool.
Good stuff.
Thanks, everybody.
We will talk to you tomorrow
with a look at the tight end position,
and I think Heath's return, right, Traeger?
Yeah, if Heath comes back, yeah.
All right, yeah.
Well, hopefully we'll have Heath tomorrow.
So looking forward to that.
Have a good one.
Talk to you then.