Fantasy Football Today - Busts! Davante Adams? Derrick Henry? D'Andre Swift? (08/14 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 14, 2024

Want to be in our next mock draft and have a shot at being on air? Check out our St. Jude Draft-a-Thon Store here: https://tiltify.com/@fftfundraising/fantasy-football-today-draftathon-2024 Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts Which players are Dave, Jamey and Heath avoiding at their average draft position? We start with a definition of "Busts" (4:40) for Fantasy Football purposes, and then get two busts from Jamey (5:45): Davante Adams and Jahmyr Gibbs ... A quick thought on Cooper Kupp (15:45) and then two busts from Heath (21:00) and Dave (30:00). Heath is worried about a couple of running backs who are being drafted in the Top 20 while Dave has concerns about Kyle Pitts and Zay Flowers ... News and notes (37:30) and more busts from Heath (44:40), Jamey (51:35) and Dave (1:03:00). Among the players mentioned and debated: Josh Allen, Travis Kelce, Dak Prescott, James Conner, Brandon Aiyuk and D'Andre Swift. There are plenty more names and not everyone agrees with all of these bust calls ... Email us at [e-mail] Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts 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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I had no idea. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. He's just going to go the distance. Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. And welcome, everybody, to Fantasy Football Today, presented by BetMGM. Yesterday, we had sleepers. Tomorrow is our breakouts bonanza.

Today, we are talking about the biggest busts in fantasy football, and we've got some big names between Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Some of the names you're going to hear. Josh Allen, Saquon Barkley, Ramondre Stevenson, maybe Justin Jefferson, maybe Jameer Gibbs, Devontae Adams, Brandon Ayuk. These are some big-time names here, so we're looking forward to talking about it before I,

he's having fun with the comments. Yes. Josh Allen will be mentioned. That was before the show. I thought it was hilarious because before the show Matt says, has anyone said Josh Allen? And it's the very first name you say. And I didn't see that comment by the way. I have some announcements to make real quick here before I get the guys in involved. The FFT Open is full. And I want to thank everybody.

That means we raised $33,000 for St. Jude. Yeah. Wait, where's my applause thing here? It is right here. Yeah, way to go. Thank you, everybody, for participating. And drafts. The drafts will probably start next week.

They're going to be untimed drafts or slow drafts, maybe like four hours on the clock. I'll let each individual commissioner figure that out. But they'll take place, you know, and... 30-minute time limit. Yeah, extend into maybe a couple weeks it might take. But it's only a 13-round draft, so it shouldn't take too long. But don't worry about it. If you haven't gotten your invite yet, don't worry about it.

These are going to get sent out hopefully today, but by the end of the week. Now, the podcast league. Our podcast league is Monday, August 26th. This is our 14-team league. Monday, August 26th, 9 p.m. Eastern, we are drafting. Usually, I ask for submissions for this. But this year, we just want to raise as much money as we can.

So these are going to now, now that the FFT Open is full, now we're going to put our podcast league spots. And I think there are only, there's six to eight of them available. 14 team PPR league. Our draft is Monday night, August 26th at 9 PM Eastern. So keep an eye on tinyurl.com slash draftathon 2024. I'm thinking maybe on Thursday, there'll be available to be bid on. Don't hold me to that. Really kind of rude to Jamie, ruining his bid. Jamie can't put people in the podcast league anymore?

He cannot put people in the podcast league unless you go tell them to pay up for St. Jude. However, the podcast Leftovers League, this one is going to be free to enter. And this is going to be the following night, Tuesday, August 27th at 8 p.m. Eastern. This is me and Heath against nine of you. A 10-team... 16-team league, right? Nope. 10-team Superflex League. 16-team league. A 10-team... It's the same

league we've done for like eight years. I know, but things changed this year. No, they don't. Don't make it Superflex and do it 16-team league. We need to add some people. Yeah. 16-team league. We need to add some people yeah 16 team we need to add some people in 10 team super flex league anyway send us a submission i'm gonna do a 16 team leftovers podcast league myself all right can you guys just stop for a second you can do whatever you want do it on another why you're

muted oh you you muted me you cannot mute me i can you cannot mute me You cannot mute me. You cannot mute me. You cannot mute me. I'm doing a 16-team podcast league myself. There we go. All right. All right. Please. It's getting confusing.

10-team Leftovers League Superflex, Tuesday night, August 27th. If you want in, 8 p.m. Eastern, send some submission to fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. If you want to send something creative, go for it. You want to send a poem, a video, you know, whatever it is, try to put it on YouTube so I don't have to download anything. If you want to say, hey, I won in the league, just do it. Hold on, Heath. Fantasyfootballatcbsi, the letter I, dot com, and put podcast league in the subject line.

Yes, Heath. How many syllables is poem? I say that one weird too. Poem. Okay, yeah, poem. And tomorrow is our Breakouts Bonanza. We're actually going to record these all today, this afternoon between 1 and 3 o'clock Eastern.

That's Wednesday afternoon. If you want to watch those at youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday. Four different episodes, three tremendous guests from around the industry. We have Alfredo Brown, Chris Harris, and Joe Pisapia. We're going to be doing a 20-minute episode on each position for breakouts. Now, on to the show. Sorry for delaying.

What is a bust for you guys? Is it just someone who doesn't meet their ADP? Is it someone who's absolutely terrible? Dave, how are we defining bust? Probably a combination of the two. Somebody that isn't worth what the average draft position says or where you took them probably is more appropriate in the draft. And then they just are terrible. Thinking back to last year, a lot of people got really excited about Calvin Ridley. Calvin Ridley didn't even finish as a top 24 receiver on a per game basis. A lot of people were excited about Devanteley. Calvin Ridley didn't even finish as a top 24 receiver on a per game basis. A lot of people were excited about Devante Adams. Devante Adams had one of his worst seasons,

but it was still good for fantasy. Some would say that he was a bus last year. And so I think that that's kind of what you're looking for from a bus is somebody who could underperform. And those are the guys you of course want to avoid. Yeah. Devontae Adams was wide receiver 17 per game in PPR. He was drafted probably as wide receiver 6 or 7. He was definitely a bust. Tony Pollard was a bust. Alright, if you guys have anything to add, we can, or we can just

start naming some busts. Name, name, name, name, name. Alright, Jamie, you can go first. Give me two busts for 2024. Jameer Gibbs and Devontae Adams. Jameer Gibbs and Devontae Adams. Okay. Just a quick note, by the way,

when I give the round that these guys are going in, we use 12 team leagues, and we typically use PPR, ADP. Jameer Gibbs and Devontae Adams. So let's talk about Jameer Gibbs and where you think he should be going over the last, just yesterday actually. I just looked at NFC drafts yesterday

and there were only six of them. Jameer Gibbs was RB6 and he was going 15th overall. What do you think? A little bit lower than that in both categories. Yeah, I've got him 8th at running back and 17th overall. I have him ninth and 20th overall.

So I'm still the high guy on him. I've got him 14th overall and probably like fifth or sixth among running backs right now. Sixth. This is Jameer Gibbs we're talking about. So Jamie and Heath, who did you move ahead of Jameer Gibbs? I moved him behind. I had him fourth, so I moved him behind. Barkley at five, Taylor at six, Kyron at seven, Pacheco at eight, and Etienne at nine.

Kyron, Cook, and Etienne, as well as Marvin Harrison. Yes, and I put him behind those receivers overall. So Puka, Harrison, Drake, London, and Chris Olave. Is it just the hamstring, or is there more to it? Because you had him ranked higher all offseason long. It's the hamstring. It's the second hamstring this offseason, so I'm concerned about soft tissue injuries and recurrence.

Sure. And not just, like, it is the hamstring, but it's also, they've talked all offseason about it. They want Jameer Gibbs to have a bigger role than he had last year and he has to have a bigger role than he had last year to justify a first round adp and i don't know that they'll give him a bigger role when he's not been able to stay healthy in shorts yep he was uh last nine games with david montgomery number 10 running back per game on pace for 200 carries and 45 catches and 17 touchdowns. If you watched the live stream last night,

I'm sorry for being so repetitive, but number 10 running back per game last year after David Montgomery returned from injury, and he was averaging a touchdown per game, but only on pace for 245 touches overall. All right, so that's Jameer Gibbs. You know, if you're still high on him, you might actually get a discount.

That's the good news, but the bad news is the hamstring injuries. Devontae Adams showed up on both Jamie's bus list and Heath's bus list. Dave, do you actually disagree with that call right now? Devontae Adams is wide receiver 10 on CBS, wide receiver 10 on Fantasy Pros, wide receiver 12 on NFC.

Oh, I've barely got him as a round two pick. On CBS? Wide receiver 10 on Fantasy Pros? Wide receiver 12 on NFC? No. I've barely got him as a round two pick. I'd much rather have him in round three. And he's going round three in our drafts, but more like 20th in Fantasy Pros and NFC ADP. Jamie and Heath, where do you have Devontae Adams ranked? Why is he a bust?

He's 16th for me and middle to the end of round 3 I don't know exactly what number He's 24th for me in round 4 Holy moly We need some names Who are we drafting ahead of Devontae? He's in the mega tier

so I'm not saying that there's a huge difference between him and wide receiver 14, but we start at wide receiver 14, which is where the mega tier starts. Cooper Cup, DK Metcalf, Drake Lund, T. Higgins, Nico Collins, George Pickens, maybe. Debo Samuel, Brandon Ayuk, maybe. Amore Cooper, DJ Moore.

Why so low on Devontae Adams? Well, I think that there is a chance that this Raiders offense is just a complete disaster. I think that you look at Devontae Adams last year in terms of his efficiency metrics, and there was a major drop-off from what he has been in the past. And I have a rule with wide receivers that are over 30

that when they show you a drop in production, believe them. Can you go back, Thomas? Can you put the graphic of his projections up? For what? Yeah. OK, so projections are 954 for targets is scary. It's not really that scary. That's still going to be him, but still going to be a lot more than most of the people he's being drafted.

It certainly is. And again, this is, I guess, where Heath and I differ. I don't expect him to completely fall off, but a big reason why he's been successful, at least last year, was 170 plus targets. I mean, that's significant. That's 20 targets difference. He's dropping

a target per game. Huh? If he goes from 170 to 154, he's dropping a target per game. I think it was 170 to 154 he's dropping a target per game i think it was like 177 it was 175 last year but 154 targets is still going to be among the league leaders and if you like adams which people do obviously people are higher on adams dave where do you have him he's wide receiver 12 for me right now but he's in uh he's called it a mega tier i call it like this this range of guys who are de facto low-end wide receiver ones but are more wide receiver twos you gotta admit he's toward the top of that range you got him in mega tier has a better better ring to it then yeah but

mega tier sounds like an awesome tier and he's tier sounds like a bunch of wide receivers that have upside to be wide receiver ones but are probably going to be wide receiver. Do you know what's awesome about the mega tier is that some of them are going in round three and in CBS draft, some of them are going in round seven. And so when you get one around six or around seven, it's awesome. I will say like 154 targets is almost exactly where I have him. The big difference is, is he an eight to nine yard per target guy? Like he was the five years before last year, or is he six and a half? Like he was last year. Cause 154 targets

at six and a half yards per target is barely a thousand yards. If that is he a six to 7% touchdown rate guy, like he was the prior four or five years, or is he 4% touchdown rate guy? Like he was last year. Cause a 4% touchdown rate with 154 targets is seven touchdowns. Go ahead. Different system, but what was our complaint about Michael Pittman with Gardner Minshew last year?

All targets, no touchdowns. Yeah. Yeah, okay. I don't know that it translates, but it's i don't know that translates either but it's it's certainly something to consider yeah it's i think what's kind of interesting is like if you i don't know the answer to this but if you polled 32 nfl gms or any nfl executives and you ask them hey who's a better receiver right now davante adams or mike evans What do you think the answers would be?

Devontae Adams. People are going to love Devontae Adams. This is what I'm saying. I don't know if anybody's saying that his talent is bad. Heath is. That's what I'm saying. This is a fantasy reality conversation. No one is going to say Devontae Adams is worse than Marvin Harrison Jr.

No, no, no. Well, I mean, he might be, but that's like. No, no, no. I'm not going to say davante adams is worse than marvin harrison jr no no well i mean he might be but that's like no no no i'm not going to say that no one's going to say that okay but you see what i'm getting at heath you see what i'm getting and i'm not i'm not trying to criticize you might be right maybe what he showed statistically was the real decline but what i'm saying is if people don't really think that that real decline is there and he just had a bad season for whatever reason last year and if they still think he's better than, say, Mike Evans, then I am going to take those 154 targets from Devontae Adams and take that in the second round. Yeah.

Yeah, all targets are just not created the same. getting reasonably accurate targets 15 yards downfield and davante adams is getting scatter shot targets eight yards downfield they're not as valuable yeah right or you know you could do just avoid them both you could but okay uh all right we gotta take a break here and we'll come back and we'll get a lot more uh many more busts so So far, Jameer Gibbs and Devante Adams. By the way, if you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use the bonus code FANTASY. You're going to get up to a $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager with BetMGM. And here's how it works. Download the BetMGM app and sign up using the bonus code FANTASY. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. You will receive

up to $1,500 in bonus bets if your bet loses. Just make sure you use the bonus code FANTASY when you sign up. We will be right back on Fantasy Football today. If you wouldn't mind, call.ca it's free it's easy it's the law data sourced from the orcga 2023 dirt report if you wouldn't mind i'd like to take kind of a segue here something that happened last night that really just got my brain cooking um because we're talking about busts and you stayed awake watching a tv show no i fell asleep watching a TV show. Gotcha. The season three of The Bear, which should be called The Boar. It's a good one. It's just not good. I've never seen it, so it's a good one.

Although I fear it gets better. I just can't get through it. But anyway, we were doing a draft last night, and Cooper Cupp went ahead of Puka Nakua. This was one of our St. Jude drafts. It was middle of the second round for both of them. But, you know, you talk about Devontae Adams, Mike Evans, maybe he's on this bus list.

Drake London might be on this bus, whatever. This whole group of wide receivers after the first nine, some of you are going to have different bus, some of you are going to have different breakouts, whatever. And I'm starting to think, should Cooper Cup be wide receiver 10? I know this is not a bus show. I know this is a bus show, and this doesn't really qualify.

But if you try to make the case for all of these guys, Pukunuku is hurt right now. Pukunuku has an extensive injury history. Cooper Cup did play through injury last year. Should he start going ahead of all of these guys? Sorry for the detour, but I just thought it was kind of relevant in this discussion where we're talking about bus wide receivers in this range and Cooper cup,

I see continues to gain some momentum. He's, he's starting to, you know, depending on where you look and, and people who, you know, comment in our chat and,

you know, you see different, you know, chat stuff of, of things where, you know, these things are discussed. I mean,

look, Dan's been saying it all off season, right? Yes. You know, so there are people who believe it. The problem is, again, I'll go back to this. And clearly it sounds like we have three different opinions on these three guys. At least it appears.

Cooper Cup, Devonta Adams, Mike Evans. They're 31 years and older. There's been 63 wide receivers since 2014 at 10 year span that have played at 31 years or older. Eight have been top 12 in PPR. So there's clearly a chance one or all three can do it. They could finish top 15. They could finish top 20 and still be successful. In some cases, depending on when you draft these guys, how receivers get pushed up, you may draft them at wide receiver 20. It's just, you're, you're taking a risk at this age. As he said, when they start to show you something, whatever it may be, performance, efficiency, injury, they start to tell us in some way, shape, or form that they're

not the same guy. And something has changed in some capacity for all these guys. For a cup, we saw it last year. Somebody came on to the team and dominated him. Again, in whatever capacity, missing time, performance, whatever you want to say. New go-to guy for Matthew Stafford. May change back. For Adams this year, they drafted a first-round pass catcher,

and they have a new quarterback, potentially., maybe bad, who knows, but it's a change for Evans. Godwin's going back inside last five games, more targets than Evans. And they have what seems to be an upgraded third receiver that is getting rave reviews in Jalen McMillan. Again, something changed plus a new coordinator. So there's something different for all these guys. We'll see again how it affects them. Two of them, maybe three, are Hall of Famers. Yeah. And so will they continue to produce at age 31 when history tells us they start to decline and potentially steep decline?

And I'll just go back to Adams again. Went from 19 plus ppr points per game to 15 the only one of these two that did not get hurt these three that did not get hurt that had a big decline all right fair enough wait a minute wait a minute cooper cup got hurt right he's saying he went from 22.4 to 13.7 but it got got hurt. Oh, he didn't get hurt. He was saying Adams was the only one who declined without an injury. His situation got worse in his production. Took a massive hit in the middle of the year. And the reason Evans is the one that I'm still high on is he's the one guy that didn't show us last year.

In some metrics, he had the best year of the last five. Right. But do you want to stay on that train or get off before the train derails? And that's, I think what people have to decide. And I think if you're going to get off the train with one of these guys, you probably should get off the train with all three of these guys. And then the question becomes, which receivers are you targeting when you get to round three, which was fertile ground for receivers when we were considering these guys.

And now maybe it's not because we're lifting the old guys out of the pool. But then again, it comes down to how you draft. And so if you draft receiver, running back, receiver, or receiver, receiver, receiver, getting one of these guys in that range as your second guy, or more importantly, as your third guy, that's a hell of a build. I'll take my chances all day long you tell me devonta adams might get my third receiver please but it makes

me puke to think about going running back running back or for the home leaguers out there running back quarterback and then you take one of these guys as your wide receiver one i don't think that works all right and i like adams i i like adams the best of the bunch get off my train we need that uh soundbite by the way movie you know when did we switch from canoes to trains i don't know do you know what that movie but that movie is get off my train come on it's ghost sounds like arnold it's ghost okay uh heath not arnold been talking. Been talking about old wide receivers. Maybe we should talk about old running backs. Who are two of your busts?

Yeah, I'll go with Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley. As bad as the history that Jamie gave us for wide receivers over 31 is, it's pretty, pretty awful for running backs over 30. And especially, like the Ravens have a pretty significant history of sharing touches amongst their running backs over 30. And especially like the Ravens have a pretty significant history of sharing touches amongst their running backs. I think most of us thought that will change a little bit with Derrick Henry and they can't stop talking about how much they want to play justice Hill. And Lamar Jackson's definitely going to have 30% of the team's rush attempts.

And Lamar Jackson's definitely not going to throw the ball to Derrick Henry, but you didn't really catch passes. Anyways, Gus Edwards scored, what? 13 touchdowns last year and finished somewhere around RB 40. Derrick Henry is going to need 20 touchdowns to be a top 12 running back.

I mean, Gus Edwards didn't really have that much. Then he carries though, right? Henry's definitely going to out carry Gus Edwards. You would think, right? I think so.

And then the other running back who he's not quite old yet, but his body might be based on his lack of explosiveness recently. Saquon Barkley going to the Eagles. I don't think you're getting the Eagles offensive line from the last two to three seasons. It'll be a slight upgrade, but he's not going to catch a lot of passes. And Jalen Hurts is still going to run for more touchdowns than him. I would not take Saquon Barkley based on CBS ADP, and we've been talking about this for a month,

but it's still happening. He is RB4 as the eighth pick overall, maybe ninth now, eighth or ninth. Ninth right now. Where do you have Saquon? Pick 19 as RB9? Yeah, I'll give ADPs for both these guys. So Saquon Barkley, I have give ADPs for both these guys so Saquon Barkley I have three ADPs I have CBS

Fantasy Pros and NFC ADP over the last week he's RB4 and 9th and 10th overall in Fantasy Pros and CBS and over the last week he's RB6 in NFC this is Saquon Barkley and 13th overall. Derrick Henry is RB8 or 9, and 19th to 21st overall in full PPR and half PPR in all three of these sources. So, Saquon Barkley is basically being picked anywhere from 9th to 13th. Derrick Henry is right in the middle of round two. Does anybody disagree with Heath

about Barkley and Henry being busts? I do. I don't think Henry being busts? I do. I don't think they're busts at all. I just, I like where they're being drafted. I wouldn't reach for them. Yeah. I mean,

look, I have Barkley at RB4 also, and he's now creeped into the back end of round one just because of Gibbs and Puka moving out. And Henry's right in the same range. I don't know exactly what number overall, but he's RB 10 for me. I just look, I, I don't disagree with the history.

It's, it's a little nerve wracking, but in terms of Barkley, I do think that even the worst Eagles offensive line version of the Eagles offensive line is a hundred times better than the version of the Giants offensive line. And my gosh, he, did you not see yesterday? He caught a swing pass that, that made all the highlight reels. I mean, he's going to be involved in a passing game. Come on. I think we're going to see him involved enough in the passing game to the same level that DeAndre Swift was at minimum, which was a, you know, 40 catch season. He got 39 catches in 16 games. Is it going to be the best version of Saquon Barkley? Is he going to get back to his rookie

numbers where he had, you know, almost 24 PPR points per game? That's hard to ask, but you know, again, different versions of this Eagles offense, you know, two years ago, Miles Sanders double digit touchdowns with Jalen Hurts still, you know, finding the end zone 10 plus times as well. I think Barkley is a better version of Miles Sanders. I think he's a better version of DeAndre Swift and yes, he's still young enough where he can still be productive. So I think all these things sort of factoring in, uh, keeps me at least in, in the stake one

Barkley camp and on, on this up upgraded offensive system as a whole, uh, Henry's tougher to buy, but you know, I mean, certainly I I've been banging the drum for a few years now about, you know, don't draft him. He's going to get hurt. He's he's old and he just continues to defy logic. So it's not really like, I'm sorry, I'm not going to argue, don't draft him if you're out. I do think the double-digit touchdowns are there. Is it 20? That's a big ask. 15? I do think if he stays healthy, that's realistic.

And he will be better than Gus Edwards. So I don't know if that's the comp really to make because I don't think they make this acquisition if they're going to have a Gus Edwards type So I don't know if that's the comp really to make, because I don't think they, they make this acquisition. If they're going to have a Gus Edwards type of running back, I think they're going to use him, abuse him. And again, the narrative that they've had to hear all off season of, we didn't run the ball in our biggest game of the season.

I think they're going to rectify that a little bit. I, that is what I disagree with. They ran the ball more than any team in football, but not in their most, not in their playoff. So that when they get to the playoffs... It's been in their brain for six months.

It's not going to change their regular season plan. The other thing I don't like is we've got these two veteran running backs that it's not like we're saying they're changing teams and have to be as good as they were. They're both being drafted to be significantly better than they were last year.

Saquon Barkley scored 10 touchdowns last year and finished as RB9. Derrick Henry scored 12 touchdowns. Yeah, but his rushing ethic was terrible. Yeah, and I think some of that was the Giants' offensive line. I think some of it's the fact that Saquon Barkley is not Saquon Barkley anymore. Derrick Henry scored 12 touchdowns and was RB17. The thing with Henry that I'll go back to is performance and wins versus performance and losses. So I think game script matters for him tremendously.

21 plus points per game in wins. Harbaugh averages 10 wins a season. I mean, you know, if this season's a complete disaster for the Ravens, then yes, he's going to be terrible. If they're the typical Ravens and they're competitive and trying to win division and, you know, last year they were the one seed. I have a hard time him not getting favorable game scripts. And so he may not be as productive as he was that's certainly the case and it's going to be a i think a fun discussion of the team that he left forget about what it was a year ago the team that he left may have a better offensive line now than the team that he's on now the titans upgrades that the offensive line may be especially with callahan and his dad

may be better than the Ravens offensive line with the losses that they've sustained. That being said, this Ravens offensive line is much better than the Titans offensive line from 2023. And so I think game script, I do think, again, matters. I just think, you know, when you get to that round two range, and I'm a big James Cook guy, you want to take Cook over him, you know, you get past him.

Josh Jacobs is certainly gaining plenty of momentum with the Marshawn Lloyd injury. Rashad White's very productive. You know, all those guys in that range. I put Pacheco ahead of him. Pacheco, right? Ahead of him? I'm sorry? Pacheco, right?

You said ahead of him? I put Pacheco ahead of him. But again, you want to put him in this category. You know, people may take Henry first. It's hard to overlook what Henry still could be. And so for me, that's why, again, I don't want to reach for him, but I still think he's okay. So I'm not afraid of both those guys at their somewhat current costs.

I think eighth overall is too soon for Barkley, but back in around one of them. I agree. These are two teams that are super bowl contenders. They're smart teams. They've made great acquisitions through the years. They both went out. They both did what they had to do to get a veteran running back who they think is an

upgrade for their offenses. I just want to tell you what these guys did when they had work last year. And remember, Saquon was worth the Giants. He had 11 games with at least 15 touches. He averaged 18.6 PPR points per game. I think that's a ceiling. That's not what Saquon was once upon a time, but that's still really damn good for fantasy. Derek Henry, 13 games last year with the Titans

and that terrible offensive line and awful play calling. He had 13 games with 14 or more touches. He averaged 17.9 PPR points per game. That's his ceiling. He might even be able to break that in Baltimore. I'm good with where they're being drafted. I don't see either of them as busts. Adam, I know we have to go faster,

but I've got a crazy rankings take based on ADP and based on the rankings, and I'm going to try to get you on board with it because we don't agree enough. Full PPR. If we're going to take an old running back, I'd rather have your old buddy, Alvin Kamara,

than Derrick Henry. Okay, I'm in. I just needed someone else to support me on that. You've got a back injury now, though. Be careful. Okay, I'm in. I just needed someone else to support me on that because I didn't feel totally okay. You got a back injury now, though.

Be careful. Yeah, mild back injury yesterday. And, you know, how many... Okay, he scored almost all of their touchdowns last year. Like, you talk about this, like, Derrick Henry,

when he got work, when they won games. He was their entire offense last year. They threw for 3,500 yards and 14 touchdowns. It's not going to happen with the Ravens.

They have other options. They have Lamar Jackson who's going to run for probably five and 14 touchdowns. It's not going to happen with the Ravens. They have other options. They have Lamar Jackson who's going to run for probably five or six touchdowns. He's going to throw more touchdowns. They have weapons. Derrick Henry is not the entire offense like he has been for Tennessee over the last six seasons or whatever, five seasons. All right, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get the last word in there.

How many carries do you have in protected for you? 230? 231. That's a good guess okay i take you over all right dave you're up give me two busts let's start with kyle pitts who i saw in person i wanted to see if he was better than than he looked last year and i would say that he was but he he was fourth on the team and targets over two days with the first team offense. That scared me a little bit. Uh, Kirk Cousins saying that he's trying to get him to catch passes away from his body and to run as fast as he can all the time. That scared me a little bit. And then watching Drake London step

up and be the number one guy and hearing Kirk Cousins just fawn over how Drake London reminds him of his favorite target at Michigan state, that made me like London more. And I think that London's going to be far and away the top target getter in Atlanta. And I'm not totally convinced that Kyle Pitts is going to be this difference-making, number-two target-getting guy for the Falcons. And so I know that other people are racing to draft him. They're still banking on the promise that he carried when he was a rookie. We've had three years of Kyle Pitts disappointing us.

I don't want to be on board that train when it's another year of him disappointing us. Another bust that I have, let's keep it with the Ravens. Zay Flowers. I've been talking about this all offseason long. His best games, especially late last year, no Mark Andrews on the field. He also had a lot of great games when the Ravens run game could not get going. Now, Mark Andrews is healthy. Derek Henry's there.

I have a really hard time buying into Zay Flowers at his current ADP. I love the talent. Wish he was on a different team, but I can't get into the idea of him being a true breakout this year when there are so many other pieces in place in Baltimore that hinder his chances of getting a lot of targets, catching a lot of touchdowns. You know, the thing about Flowers is we've been talking about him going too early for a while, but his ADP is really dropping. He's now around five, six pick like around the five, six turn in both CBS and fantasy pros PPR average draft position. NFC is just bananas for wide receivers, so it's almost like every wide receiver is a

round earlier, and Flowers is going in round at the 4-5 turn, basically. But he's wide receiver 26 in all three formats, in all three sites. So it's CBS ADP, Fantasy Pros, NFC ADP over the last week. Wide receiver 26 for Zay Flowers. Is that too early for Flowers? A little. A little, but not much. I've got a different question,

because I haven't talked to Dave a lot since he went to camp, and something's really bothering me. Who was Kirk Cousins' favorite target at Michigan State? B.J. Cunningham. So this guy has played with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison and Pierre Garcon and Stefan Diggs and Adam Phelan or Drake London too and the best comp he's got for Drake London is BJ Cunningham he called Drake London the first round version of BJ Cunningham and just for the record BJ Cunningham had like 1300 yards yards, 12 touchdowns, tons of catches, like 80 catches, something close to that at Michigan State.

Yeah, it's fun. I get where you're going with it. I think it's hilarious, too. But this is what he's got. He doesn't have a guy on this team that he's comparing to Justin Jefferson or to Sean Jackson or whoever else he threw to. Pierre Garcon, even? Zay Flowers going ahead of T. Higgins.

We don't like that, right? No way. No. Going ahead of George Pickens. If they acquire Brandon Ayuk, would you take Flowers or Pickens? Flowers. Flowers. Probably Flowers. I should have said, would you pick Flowers? Does anybody ever say that? Pick Flowers?

Couldn't somebody? You can draft both and name your team Pickens Flowers? Pickens Flowers, yeah yeah you could do that you'll finish like five and nine in your league if you do that but zay flowers or amari cooper cooper cooper i've got zay flowers as a low-end wide receiver three i'm not getting them i'm not drafting them all righty uh okay so to recap jamie talked about jamira gibbs who we'd like to see go closer to the middle of the second round and davante adams drafting him. Alrighty. Okay, so to recap, Jamie talked about Jameer Gibbs, who we'd like to see go closer to the middle of the second round,

and Devontae Adams. Heath talked about Derek Henry and Saquon Barkley as busts. Got some pushback from Jamie and Dave. And Dave talked about Kyle Pitts and

Zay Flowers as busts. Yeah, can we go back to Pitts for a second? We have, no, don't have time. Give me 30 seconds. I just think, first off,

he's appropriately priced it's only been two years that he's disappointed us not three because his rookie year and then the two years prior to this year um i i think the one thing about the situation for him now is the last time he was with a veteran quarterback he had a very amazing season for a rookie you know so forget about it you know touchdowns were a problem but uh any rookie that's getting a thousand yards as a tight end is pretty impressive. I just think the price tag's fine. You can debate him versus – because it's that trio.

It's Kittle, him, and Ingram. And so if you want to buy into Ingram being that guy without Christian Kirk and performing at that level, great. If you want to put him behind Jake Ferguson and expecting Ferguson to take a step forward, I get it. But you know, at some point you got to ask yourself the question, is this the time I want to get a tight end? And is this guy have still the ability to be a difference maker? That's when I asked myself when I get to this point with him and the answer is still yes. So I think last time I checked, cause I did the ADP story yesterday,

I don't know if it's changed. It was like 76 in that range. Like that to me is fine when you're talking about that trio of tight ends. And so I have him ahead of Kittle right now. If Iuk is traded, I'll certainly move that. I'll switch that around.

But Kittle trending in the wrong direction. Ingram, I don't think, produces at the same level that we saw last year. I'll take my chances with the upside of Pitts as the number two target in Atlanta. Okay. Right now, he's around

6'7". I'd say round 6. Maybe falling into round 7 in CBS. Tight end 8 in CBS. Tight end 7 in Fantasy Pros. Tight end 6 in NFC ADP over the last 7 days. If he hits, he's a league winner. But he did disappoint all 3 years

because he was drafted as tight end 4 as a rookie. And he finished as tight end four as a rookie. And he finished as tight end six overall. But he was tight end 12 per game. He's only had one touchdown. But still, I think 1,000 yards. He led the Falcons with 110 targets as a rookie. 1,000 yards as a rookie.

I mean, he showed you what he can do. Yeah, sure. He had every opportunity in the world to do it. I don't think he's going to get that many targets this year. I just wanted to note that I'm still going down the B.J. Cunningham wormhole. He played nine special team snaps in his NFL career, did not play an offensive snap. All right. We got to take a break here. We do have some news and notes to get to and a lot more.

We haven't talked about Josh Allen. All right. Well, we'll be right back on fantasy football today. Yeah. All right. What's up? Welcome back, everybody, to Fantasy Football today. Talking about our busts here, and are we throwing Justin Jefferson in the conversation? J.J. McCarthy is going to have surgery for a torn meniscus. A timetable will be determined after that. It's possible he misses the season, which really stinks.

So Sam Darnold's going to be the quarterback for the foreseeable future, maybe the entire season for Minnesota. Dave, this is someone you put on your bus list for this purpose of this show as you're starting to think about maybe putting Jefferson there. Give me your thoughts on this situation now. I still have Jefferson as a first rounder. I still have him as a top 10 pick, but I moved him behind Chase Amonra and A.J. Brown in full PPR. I just don't trust Sam Darnold at all. We're talking about a quarterback with a career completion rate of under 60%,

a quarterback who's never connected with a wide receiver for more than 850 yards or six touchdowns in a single season. You'll point to D.J. Moore's year in Carolina with Darnold. It took another quarterback to get D.J. Moore over 1,000 yards. He probably would have gotten Carolina with Darnold, it took another quarterback to get DJ Moore over 1,000 yards. He probably would have gotten there with Darnold. But I think he's just a problem at quarterback for any wide receiver that works with him, including Justin Jefferson. He can still be really good, but he's not a top five pick for me as long as Darnold's the quarterback. I almost kind of wish Nick Mullins would get that chance under center again, because we saw good numbers with Mullins and Jefferson and Mullins, his career numbers are,

they crush what Darnold's done. So I'm, I'm hoping that JJ McCarthy's time on the shelf is short. I think McCarthy can be a better passer than Darnold. That's what I was banking on when I had Jefferson ranked as high as I had him ranked. But for now I'm going to try and let other people get Jefferson. And if I end up drafting him, it's because he falls to me in the late part of round one. Yeah, I just don't think Nick Mullins is actually good. Oh, you think Sam Darnold is good?

No, he doesn't need a good quarterback. He had 427 yards in the last four games last year with Nick Mullins. Yeah, but two of them were against the Lions. Two of them were against the Lions. Two of them were against the Lions. Look, this is what happened with Alexander Madison. Alexander Madison, whenever, it was weird. It was like- Oh, please do not compare Madison and Jefferson.

No, no, no, I'm not. Please don't. I'm not. I just think whenever Dalvin Cook got hurt, Alexander Madison would come in and face the worst run defenses in football, and he would put up these big numbers. Nick Mullins- Yeah, because Jefferson's never done anything against good defense. Just stop for one second.

I'm talking about Nick Mullins. Nick Mullins. Yeah, because Jefferson's never done anything against Goodby. Wait, we'll just stop for one second. I'm talking about Nick Mullins. Nick Mullins torched the Lions twice. And yes, in those games, Justin Jefferson had 141 yards and 192 yards, and he had a touchdown in both games. The other two games, he had seven for 84 on 10 targets and five for 59

on 10 targets. But it is worth mentioning, he had 10 or more targets in all four of those last four games. I know he played two games against the Lions, and he only gets to play two games against the Lions this year, but his 17-game pace was 128 catches for 2,023 yards

in those four games. Right, so obviously he's better without Cousins than with Cousins. I'll just go back. We talked about this on Monday. I like the fact that they stayed aggressive, that O'Connell stayed aggressive in the first debut of the Donald McCarthy era. And Donald made, I don't know who the throw, maybe it's to nail her or whoever it was, where it was just, you know, a great second level throw where he was, you know, roll, roll. That was a good throw. And again, you know, it's sometimes these guys just need to get with the right coach and brings out the best of them. The best of Sam Donald is never going to be Kirk cousins. The best of Sam Donald,

maybe Nick Mullins. And that's okay. Because all he has to do is 10 targets per game to Justin Jefferson. And seven of those will be catches. All right. Just draft him. What overall Justin Jefferson, fifth, fifth,

fourth, overall seventh, nine. Okay. Uh, Brandon, I, you could be headed to Pittsburgh.

It looks like it's going to be Pittsburgh or San Francisco and could happen today. So get ready for a bonus pot. It happened tomorrow. Pittsburgh has never next year. Yeah, it could. We're,

we're not supposed to have a show tomorrow because we're recording it today. So I'd like to have the boarding off. If you wouldn't mind, uh, Pittsburgh has not decided who's going to start at quarterback this week in their preseason game. Dallas linebacker,

Micah Parsons is very confident that CD lamb will play in week one. Jamar chase was not at practice on Tuesday, which is different for him. So holdouts getting, uh, it's getting close to getting worrisome for Jamar Chase and for CD lamb. We're not quite there yet. A couple

more bangles. We got right now, right? Calf injury. Hold out. Yeah, there's like four safe injury for now. Cincinnati backup quarterback Jake Browning is going to miss time with a rib injury and their second round pick Mike Hall Jr. was charged with domestic violence.

Pretty disturbing details if you read that article. Marquise Brown... Mike Hall is on the Browns, Adam. Oh, okay. I'm sorry about that. Cleveland, not Cincinnati. All right, thank you, Dave. Marquise Brown expected to miss four to six weeks with a shoulder injury, according to Jordan Schultz.

So what did I take him? I took him like 105th last night, Heath? 15? Yeah. That's definitely my point. Would you guys take Marquise Brown in the top 100 at this point? Yeah. Yes.

Yeah. Let's not overreact here. Malik Neighbors says he has no doubt he'll be ready for week one. Good news on Tyrone Tracy. It turns out Dave did not ruin his whole season, just maybe the first few weeks. He has a low ankle sprain. Washington signed wide receiver Martavis Bryant.

Alvin Kamara missed practice with back tightness. And is Keenan Allen really 230 pounds? Because that's weird, if he is. Have you seen this? Have you heard about this? He's apparently like 230 pounds. I don't think that's the case. I watched Hard apparently like 230 pounds he did not look 230 pounds um one of the reporters who was there like wrote that not one of the beat reporters one of the national reporters keenan allen jacob gibbs brought it up

in one of the newsletters then i saw it on twitter as well it's another it's the thing is like when you talk about those old wide receivers keenan allen was better than all of them last year and being drafted six rounds later yeah things have changed a little bit from him yeah he's 25 pounds heavier apparently he's been hanging out with me all right let's talk about some busts here here's what we'll do i'll bring up a name and you give me like the 15 second overview or whatever have you ever go to the um ice cream museum what's the ice cream museum oh come on man i don't know it was on hard knocks last night dj moore took his kids where is never heard of the ice cream Museum in my life. It's in Chicago?

I went to an aquarium in Chicago once and it was miserable. You went where? The aquarium? Like 4 million people there. Couldn't see anything but people. I can see those anywhere. Aquariums are a little overrated. The animals just

kind of swim. They don't really do anything. Adam's looking for a variety show when he goes to the aquarium. You got to get that with the sea lions. All right. So I'm going to say the bust, and then he— So far, we got the boar. Kirk Cousins' best receiver is some college guy from Michigan State. And aquariums suck.

All right. We're off to a great start. No, they don't suck. They're just a little overrated. All right. Give me the overview. Josh Allen, he's QB1. He's going two, three turn.

I don't know if anybody heard this or not, but Stephon Diggs is not in Buffalo anymore. We don't know who his number one wide receiver is. We just saw Patrick Mahomes have a disappointing fantasy season without good wide receivers. I don't believe he's going to repeat the 15 rushing touchdowns. I do believe the Bills are going to be more run heavy than they have been during the Josh Allen era, at least the Josh Allen QB1 era. And he is QB what for you?

Four. Okay, four, okay. Jordan Love, he's at QB8 right now on CBS, QB9 on fantasy pros qb8 on nfc jordan love we saw it again last night in the muck he went in the middle of round six kyler murray goes two rounds later jordan loves adp on cbs is currently 65th a round ahead of kyler two rounds ahead of purdy four rounds ahead of tua and jayden daniels and caleb williams and tre and Trevor Lawrence. Jordan Love is not the type of quarterback that you elevate to that range. He's not going to be a top three or four guy. All right.

Josh Allen, Jordan Love at quarterback. Saquon Barkley, Derek Henry at running back. Devontae Adams at wide receiver. We talked about them. Stefan Diggs. He is wide receiver 23 at the 4-5 turn on CBS. He's wide receiver 19 in Fantasy Pro's PPR ADP in round four, and Diggs is wide receiver 24.

He's a round four pick on NFC over the last week. But we'll look at the 4-5 turn wide receiver 23 ADP at CBS for Diggs. The positive for Diggs was that he played all of the two wide receiver snaps. I don't actually believe that will be the case over the full season. The Texans like to rotate those spots, and I think at this stage of their career, he is their number three wide receiver. And he is what for you?

Right. I mean, he's a wide receiver three. Okay. Would you rather have Zay Flowers or Stefan Diggs? Diggs. Okay. And then Travis Kelsey, tight end one. This is a guy who's ADP.

I mean, his ADP is 24th on both CBS and Fantasy Pros. Travis Kelsey. I see in drafts, like, no predictability when the tight ends are going to go. But, yeah, I never see them go as early as 24. But that's what ADP is telling me. So, Travis Kelsey is tight end one. When would you be comfortable drafting Kelsey? After Trey McBride and Sam LaPorta and Mark Andrews have been taken.

Okay. Round four pick for you. The three, four turn for Travis Kelsey. For me, I think you can take a little bit of what we said about the older pass catchers. When they show you a little bit of dip in performance,

believe them. I think when you're talking about a chiefs team that knows they're going to be playing in late January, there's no reason to believe they're going to use Travis Kelsey like they have in the past, unless you're talking about last year in the past. And I think they very much might, especially considering they added two new,

much more qualified pass catchers than they had last year. By the way, if you're looking at the video, I said, Travis Kelsey was 24th in ADP. This has him at 31. This is non PPR, which you're seeing on the video, full PPR. He's 24th in ADP. This has him at 31. This is non-PPR, which you're seeing on the video. Full PPR,

he's 24th. So I think that if you see any ADP, it's probably non-PPR on the video. I just have a question, Heath. You said you'd take Kelsey at the 3-4 turn? Yeah, into round three. So you would take the other three guys in round three? I have the other three guys in round three, yes.

I know you've been saying, at least i thought round four for the tight ends i well what i usually do because i have trey mcbride first and he goes in round four as i take somebody else in round three and i take mcbride in round four gotcha do you feel like stefan diggs has the least upside of the three texans receivers yes yeah yes but also the most upside like it I feel like all three of these guys like you can make an argument for both all for both sides why is Nico how come Nico Collins isn't on anyone's bus list in the third round because he's the best of the three Heath you don't take Nico Collins, right? Typically? I don't.

I do have him ranked the highest of the three. I just don't have as big of a gap, I don't think, between him and Dell. I have Nico at pick 38. Okay. If anybody wants to jump in on any of these, Josh Allen, Jordan Love, Stefan Diggs, Travis Kelsey, those are the four that we have not yet debated. Debate me, Dave. On who?

I don't care. I mean, I'll debate you on Kelsey. He was tight in one per game last year with five touchdowns. But here's the thing. If Travis Kelsey scores 14.5 PPR, any tight end that you're taking in round two, that scores 14.5 fantasy points per game. Even if the whole position just sucks and he's still tied in one, you don't want to draft that 14 and a half points per game in round two.

Yeah, I agree. So he's at the two, three turn. I think I'm probably on this show, the high guy on Kelsey. If Schneier were here, he'd be the high guy on Kelsey.

I started looking for Kelsey around 30th or so overall. And if no tight ends have been off the board at that point, I'm probably not taking him because I think there's a decent chance. I get Andrews and McBride the next round and maybe Kincaid around after that. But yeah, I think you could make this like, if you don't, if you don't want to talk about the players themselves and I'm fine with that

and you just want to talk strategically, it's the same argument for Kelsey or Allen is I think there's a top four quarterback there's a top four at tight end there's not enough difference between them to take one of them a full round earlier than you can get one of the other ones and you can always find a tight end around after Kelsey goes you can always find a quarterback around after Allen goes. That's in that top tier. I guess I just can't quite get over his postseason. 71 yards,

75 yards, two touchdowns, 161 yards and a touchdown, 93 yards. He showed he still has it. And he was playing with a foot injury last year. Definitely tight end one in playoff leagues. I just,

I just, I don't, I don't think, I know it's like, it sounds like I'm just being like the, the overconfident chiefs fan, but they don't, they're not going to have to use. And I think I have that concern a little bit with Henry and Barkley. Like Dave said, these are super bowl contenders that are very smart teams. I'm not sure they're going to give their aging running backs 20 touches a game when they're going to be in the playoffs and need those guys to be healthy. All right. Let's go over to Dave's busts here. But before we do that, I did want to bring up a Twitter poll. It's kind of a bust take from Heath. Almost 70% of respondents have a TV in their bedroom based on two different Twitter polls. I, yeah. I don't think I ever argued that like a majority of people don't do that.

I guess you didn't. All right, fine. You don't lose. You don't lose. All right, Dave's bus. I may have to go if you want to do mine first. All right, let's go to Jamie's bus. Dak Prescott, he is QB9 going in round six.

Very similar to what Heath was talking about, Jordan Love. I was almost going to jump in and say that's too soon for him um this CeeDee Lamb holdout is making me nervous because if he doesn't have Lamb for any stretch of the season it's going to be an absolute disaster for him clearly everybody will run away from Dak Prescott but um it's more about where he's being drafted versus some of the other guys that are going behind him I actually do like Love better than Dak I think there's very similar profiles speak from a rushing standpoint standpoint and how they'll perform. So I would prefer Love. I definitely like Kyler better, and I would take Jaden Daniels.

At this point, I've been like that for a few weeks now, but I would take Jaden Daniels over Dak as well, just because, again, more upside there. So that's my argument against Dak. All right, Jameer Gibbs we already talked about. Let's go to Arby's 19 and 20 in ADP. James Conner and Aaron Jones, they're both going in round five in CBS,

about the 5-6 turn in Fantasy Pros, and round six in NFC ADP over the last seven days. So James Conner and Aaron Jones, too old, Jamie. Thank you. Next. If they were 19 and 20 years old, yes, I would absolutely be all on board, but both are 29. And in the case of Aaron Jones, you know, we we've heard a couple of things that there's going to be a shared workload there. And so I would absolutely not be drafting him in the spot where he's going. He is outside the top 24 for me.

Connor is at 24. I was mildly encouraged by Trey Benson's lack of explosiveness. So it makes me a little bit more comfortable that Connor may not be coming off the field for somebody else. But we did see some things last year that are a little bit concerning. First off, his role in the passing game was disappointing. And I know it changed a little bit when Kyler Murray was back. But in terms of his targets and catches per game, lowest since his rookie season, highest yards per carry in his career.

So that's good. But I'm just concerned that we've seen a guy miss three plus games in four of the last five years at 29, just not somebody that i'm comfortable drafting at that spot so there are a couple of running backs i like better than him and a handful that like better than jones and if you just want to put the other old running back who's being drafted as a top 24 guy here as well on cbs raheem uh numbers 24 he most started his number 24. I don't buy him being anywhere close to what he was a year ago and 32 years old with what I'm hoping to see. And there's no guarantee,

but I'm hoping to see a bigger role for Devon agent, which I think is what everybody's looking forward to. So potentially three running backs in his backfield now. So just these guys at their age, at their cost. No, thank you. Yeah. potentially three running backs in his backfield now. So just these guys at their age, at their cost, no thank you. Yeah, I made the case on HQ that round five is the worst round for running backs.

It's basically just Connor and Aaron Jones, maybe like Zemir White gets in there. But it's also because you've got these, you've got Higgins and Zay Flowers and Amari Cooper and Tank Dell in there. You've got the option of taking Joe Burrow, CJ Stroud, Anthony Richardson. You've got your chance to get Dalton Kincaid, maybe.

And the running backs in rounds like six, seven, eight, I don't know that they're that different than the running backs in round five. So I just thought like, this is not the right time to be taking a running back. But like, I agree entirely with everything Jamie said. Who is drafting these guys this early? Drafters.

I just said they're Connor and... What do you mean? I know, but it doesn't seem like... I don't hear anybody pounding the table for them. But it's happening. I'm just trying to figure out why, right? I understand why people

like Connor.or makes sense. Conor performs every single year on a per-game basis. Jones is coming off a great finish to what was a terrible season. The start of it was horrible. He's on a new team. I don't get it with Jones. I get it with Conor, though. Conor, I don't take him there, Jamie, because of all the things you said.

But I do see him even in these expert leagues that I've been in. I see that Conor goes in round five pretty consistently. You better like him a lot more than the guys going later because you're passing up on really good players at every other position. All right, Brandon Ayuk, what's your thought on him right now? It's more what happens in Pittsburgh, but even the San Francisco situation, everything feels off. I hate the whole thing.

In San Francisco, he would be around four pick for me. In Pittsburgh, probably around six pick. I think people are forgetting that Brandon Ayuk had this historically efficient season last year. How many targets did he have last year?

110? 115? Yeah, something like that. Yeah, and that was with Debo missing some games. DJ Moore is a round four pick. He's wide receiver 18 in CBS. He's wide receiver 22 in Fantasy Pros. DJ Moore.

Yeah, I've been out for almost the entire offseason on where he's been going. And it's just, again, he was awesome last last year he's going to be very good this year I mean you you watch hard knocks you see the rapport developing with Caleb Williams you saw the the big play that you know they needed the first down in the preseason game that's where Caleb Williams looked he's going to lead the team in targets he's going to have a very good season he's just not going to perform at the same level that he did a year ago he did that last year with nothing around him. Now they have the guy who got the most targets per game last year on the field with him in Keenan Allen. They

have a top 10 overall pick on the field with him in Romo Dunze. And so asking a rookie quarterback to support all these guys while more playing at that level again is just not realistic. And so to take him as a number two receiver at the back end of that group or as part of the mega tier, you know, depending how you want to phrase it, I'm fine with it. End of round four, round five is where I would take DJ Moore. I'm just not buying him where he was going around three. And even now I think he's going too soon.

And David Njoku has tight end 10, round eight pick on CBS, tight end nine, round seven on Fantasy Pros, and tight end 10, eight-9 turn on NFC. David Njoku. I was just looking for a tight end that I don't like, and that's the spot I get to. So for me, he's not a top 12 tight end. I would rather, at least at this point,

I'd rather take Pat Frymuth over him. I would take Dallas Goddard over him. Both guys going behind him. So I think for Njoku, he was unbelievable. He won a lot of people's fantasy championships last year, but that was with Joe Flacco and his numbers with Deshaun Watson just weren't there. So will he still have some good weeks? Yes. Will he have great weeks? Probably few and far between. We know what his career has been. So a borderline starter? Yes. A top 10 guy? No. All right. So does anybody disagree with the bus calls on Dak Prescott?

We won't do Jameer Gibbs or Devante Adams or Stefan Diggs here. They're on Jamie's bus list, but the ones that he just talked about, Dak Prescott, James Conner, Aaron Jones, Raheem Mostert, Brandon Ayuk, DJ Moore, David Njoku. I got three names that I disagree with. Oh, all right. Who? Well, Dak's just been awesome for the last

several years when he's actually been on the field and playing and not dealing with injuries and anything like that. You're talking about a floor of 24 fantasy points per game. If CD lamb is gone, I don't even know if Dak gets drafted, but if CD lamb shows up, gets into the swing of things in training camp and is ready to roll week one. I think that's all Dak needs. I think that the rest of the offense can balance off of that. We know that their run game is a humongous question mark, and we've seen Dak put up very reliable fantasy numbers. So I'm okay with him as a top 10 fantasy quarterback.

Yeah, I think the only way that I see Dak busting is if, like the vibes in San Francisco and Dallas are both pretty terrible right now. And if there's a problem with Dak's contract or he doesn't play through an injury, or if there's a problem with Lamb's contract or he doesn't play through an injury, that's a big-time problem. If Dak and Lamb stay healthy all year long, I think it's more likely he's top five than not top ten. August 25th is my deadline for CD lamb. If he's not practicing by then, then I start to get worried and I'll start moving them down. Dak will also move. Have you communicated this deadline to him?

He doesn't care about what we think. Okay. I would like it. Who are the other names? He showed up at somebody's fantasy job last night via zoom. Oh, cool. Dave,

who are, who are the other guys? Connor. It's kind of the same thing as what I said with Dak. We've got three straight seasons of him getting at least 15 PPR points per game. No question he's going to miss some time. But we like this Arizona offense. We like where they're going.

I don't see anybody that's really a threat to James Connor's workload right now as the early downs back. Averaged almost 20 touches per game in eight games last year with Kyler, and that includes just 2.9 targets per game. He's going to lose third down work. I think it might end up being Michael Carter that takes that role and not Benson, not Demarcato, but I think he's too big a part of what Arizona does that we just, just scrap him because he's too old or too worn down.

I still think that if you draft them as among those last best RB2s in that round five range, maybe you load it up on wide receivers early, I don't have a problem taking James Conner then. Do you guys... Oh, sorry, go ahead. I just looked something up with James Conner and the thing is,

it's kind of like what I said with Dak and CeeDee Lamb. I don't have Conner ranked as high as he's being drafted and I wouldn't draft him there. If he's healthy for the fantasy playoffs, then he's probably a good pick there. And he's been healthy each of the last two years for the fantasy playoffs. Those are also the only two years of his entire career that he's been healthy for the fantasy playoffs. And I will say this is about Dak. It's not about as much as performance.

It's about his cost. By the way, James right by the way james connor averaged 17.8 fantasy points per game in the last eight games of the season with kyler murray that's top four last year yeah that's terrific um just has to hopefully he stays healthy do you guys agree with that premise though that round five is loaded at the other positions because this is round five right now in CBS starting at pick 49. It's roughly DK Metcalf, CJ Stroud,

Stefan Diggs, Trey McBride, Zemir white, James Connor, Joe Burrow, Aaron Jones, Amari Cooper, Dalton,

Kincaid, Anthony Richardson, George Pickens. And we haven't even gotten to those guys. Just don't belong. Right? Like the, the receivers,

the running backs the receivers tight ends and quarterbacks are just great there I love the wide receivers and Trey McBride yep you don't like Burrow and Richardson you don't like them around I mean I don't think it's great I don't think like it's for me to say it's great it would mean they should go before that Burrows

fine in round five but I kind of feel like I'm settling yeah that that those don't sound like values to me. Okay. That quarterback. But they're better than the two running backs. They just feel like they have more league-winning potential than the running backs. 100%.

But I can find a quarterback with league-winning potential after round five, too. And you can find a running back that's not 29th. Can that... That running back might give me 11 points per game. Look, it's fair. I think it's a good... You know who's coming to round five very, very shortly,

probably by the next time we do a podcast, is David Montgomery. Oh, yeah. He's already there for me. He should go ahead of those two guys for sure. Yeah. He should go ahead of Jones. I've got Connor once by the head.

I want to get to Dave's busts here. So DJ Moore is one of them, Zay Flowers, Kyle Pitts, and'm telling you. I've got Connor once by the head. I want to get to Dave's busts here. So DJ Moore is one of them, Zay Flowers, Kyle Pitts, and maybe Justin Jefferson. So there are only two left. Ramondre and DeAndre. Ramondre Stevenson, he's RB25. And we'll go in order

because DeAndre Swift is RB22. Ramondre Stevenson is RB25. These are round six picks in 12 team leagues in PPR. DeAndre Swift and Ramondre Stevenson. What 25. These are around six picks in 12 team leagues and PPR Deandre Swift and Ramondre Stevenson. What's your beef? So the beef is that I'd rather spend that round five pick on Connor and Montgomery and hope for the best with those guys than I would with either Stevenson or Swift, even if I can get them a little bit later on, we saw Stevenson. He got the big role for New England last year, had a two and a half

point per game drop in PPR points, really has never done well in divisional play. The Patriots offensive line still stinks. I don't like that offense at all. You want to talk about bad vibes, they're in the graveyard as far as offenses go. And I don't want to trust a running back on that bad of a team. So Stevenson's someone that I'm pretty much trying to avoid. And DeAndre Swift's on a good team, but he's going to share as of now with as many as two other running backs. And this team has just unbelievable talent as far as pass catchers go.

And they've got a quarterback that can dive for touchdowns. He did that in college. He'll do that in the pros too. I'm nervous about just how good DeAndre Swift will be. He's on his third team in as many seasons. I think he has one year in his last four with more than 13 PPR points per game, something like that. So maybe that's appropriate for a running back in this range, but I still just don't want to draft DeAndre Swift.

Okay. Anybody, any rebuttals? I draft these guys straight up over the old guys, but I don't find myself drafting any of them very often. Agreed on both. Yes. So what does that mean then? So does that mean that you guys are taking running backs like two with your first four

picks? Are you trying to land that position early on so you can just completely avoid running backs in round five through eight? Something like that? No, I take one and then I take two to three of Pollard, Robinson, Chase Brown, Spears, that group. The old hero RB? Yeah, that works. I like that too. And then come back around and take some of the next group of guys, which is unfortunately falling apart right now with Marshawn Lloyd

and Tyrone Tracy and those groups. But in any event, yeah, this is not the range where I like to take running backs. But if I were to dip my toe in this pool, it would certainly be the younger guys over the older ones. And I do think that the Chicago offense is going to be very fun and productive. And I think Swift is going to lead the group. I don't think it's going to be three. I think the two guys behind him will end up cannibalizing each other. And one will step up to be the second guy if they're still on the roster.

So I don't really worry about that so much. And then for Stevenson, yes, the offense is going to be bad. Is it going to be much worse than the Vikings offense as a whole? I mean, that's certainly debatable if you're talking about those two guys in terms of Jones and Stevenson. I would say the Patriots are worse, but I don't know how much worse. And Stevenson was coming on last year by the time he got hurt. He started to look more like the guy that we saw.

And I do think that his volume will be enough, Coming on last year, by the time he got hurt, he started to look more like the guy that we saw. And I do think that his volume will be enough, especially still having a role in the passing game. Even with Antonio Gibson there, he'll catch enough on first and second down. That should put him in a good enough spot to be in that 13 PPR point per game range, which is around RB20. So again, I would take him over the older guys just based on still having more upside. Yeah, and there's just three guys that go behind these guys that I prefer. take him over the older guys just based on still more still having more upside yeah and i i like there's just three guys that go behind these guys that i prefer and it's pollard it's giovante and it's jaylen warren um and if you like naji harris he's right in the same range too um and then i just take a bunch of back or and if i i'm looking for a third running back i usually take jonathan

brooks uh remandre steven by the way, scored 13.2 or more PPR fantasy points in seven of his 11 healthy games. But when he struggled, it was usually because he wasn't catching passes. So will they keep throwing to running backs on first and second down? That's a big question. It's not a big thing that Brissette has done in the past.

It's not really something that... Or Van Pelt. Or rookie quarterbacks. Now, in terms of Van Pelt, he runs an outside zone scheme. It's not really something that... Or Van Pelt. Or rookie quarterbacks. Now, in terms of Van Pelt, he runs an outside zone scheme. That's what Ramondre Stevenson ran in college. He says he's very comfortable in it, so he's hoping for kind of a boost there. He's actually been terrible at it in the pros.

I mean, he knows how to do it. He's just got to be able to execute, and the offensive line not being good could hurt him. Okay. All right. That is it for Fantasy Football today. Our bus episode. Now, if you're on Wednesday, if you're around from 1 to 3 p.m., we're going to have four different breakouts episodes

with four different guests. We look forward to you joining us for that, or you'll hear them throughout the day on Thursday and wherever you listen to podcasts. Have a great day, everybody. We'll talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football. Have a great day, everybody. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Have a good one. Bye.