Fantasy Football Today - 🚨 Carson Wentz to Washington! What Does This Mean for Terry McLaurin? (03/09 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: March 9, 2022

Is Carson Wentz an upgrade over Taylor Heinecke? Does Terry McLaurin move in the rankings? We also discuss the RBs on the two teams and Michael Pittman. Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday 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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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson yesterday. Carson Wentz today. All right, that's okay. This is interesting. Carson Wentz going to the Washington Commanders. First time I've said that, by the way.

Washington Commanders. Called them the football team last time around. For two third-round picks plus a swap of second-round picks in the deal, and one of the third-round picks can become a second round pick. How much of an upgrade is this for, say, Terry McLaurin, who's probably the most relevant player to talk about here? Heath, first of all, everyone's here. Dave, Heath, Jamie, thank you guys for being here.

Heath, what do you think? Is this an upgrade for Terry McLaurin? Are you going to move him up or down or stay the same in the rankings? Oh, yeah. I mean, I think when you read off the list of names, Taylor, Heineke, Dwayne Haskins, Alex Smith, Case Keenum, Kyle Allen, Colt McCoy, Garrett Gilbert, those are the quarterbacks who have thrown passes in the NFL to Terry McLaurin. This is an upgrade. I bumped him up a couple spots. I had him 15th in my wide receiver projections. He moved up three spots to 12th. He's somewhere in that high-end number two, maybe borderline number one range. This gives him a better floor and a little more upside. Anyone agree? Disagree? He's not that high for me.

He'll probably be as high as 15. It's definitely an upgrade over Taylor Heineken, and just hopefully Carson Wentz can somewhat resurrect himself. It's hard to expect. He's 29. He's not 22 anymore. And so injuries, the mental aspect of the game may have just, you know, totally wrecked what was a promising prospect once upon a time and caused you to call Heath an idiot moron.

But I do think that, you know, when – The good old days. Well, hopefully, you know, realize that this is probably his last chance to still be a starter in the NFL. Going back to the NFC East might help. You know, a change of scenery could be good for him. But, you know, last year was was a complete disaster from what the Colts expected. Obviously, the compensation that they gave up.

Kudos to Chris Ballard and the staff there for Indianapolis to unload his contract because that's a big boost for the Colts. But for fantasy purposes, you know, Wentz is what he is. He's number two quarterback in two quarterback leagues only. And hopefully, like Heath said, he's an improvement for Terry McLaurin over the disappointing QBs that he's had for the majority of his career. Okay. And then I have been long waxing

poetic about how outside receivers have done from Carson Wentz. And over the last two seasons, just in terms of touchdowns, it's worked out that way. 24 touchdowns just to wide receivers, period, from Carson Wentz the last two seasons. Basically, kind of sort of the same offense over the last years,

but same type of philosophies as what I think he'll be in now, maybe a little bit different, maybe not as much downfield. But of those 24 touchdowns to wide receivers, 18 were specifically to receivers lined up wide. And I think that that's going to help Terry McLaurin. I don't think it necessarily knocks him down, but I look at him as a, as a number two fantasy receiver still last year, he was right around 12 and a half PPR points per game, maybe a little bit less than that. Whereas Pittman was at 13 and a half, let's say. So a point different in terms of PPR points per game. I could see McLaurin getting 13,

if not maybe even like high 13s, low 14s in PPR points per game with Carson Wentz as his quarterback. For however long Wentz is actually healthy for, he's getting a big downgrade in offensive line, moving from Indy to Washington. That's going to be a problem for a guy who's had a hard time staying healthy. I also think we're going to see Washington still probably invest in the rookie, too. Wentz is clearly not the long-term answer. If they get the right player at the right pick,

it's certainly not out of the question for them to go after one of the quarterbacks because bringing in competition from Wentz would probably be smart and then obviously trying to find the long-term answer because Wentz, barring something significant changing, is not going to be the guy two, three years down the road for Washington. Would you rather have Terry McLaurin or Jalen

Waddell? Waddell is not particularly close for me in PPR. Yeah, I've got McLaurin higher. See, there you go. By the way, tell me what you think about this. Taylor Heineke, higher completion percentage than Carson Wentz. Significantly, I'd say. Wentz was awful.

62.4%. And same exact 6.9 yards per attempt. I'm just asking, are we sure this is an upgrade? The touchdowns and interceptions were a big difference. 20 touchdowns, 15 picks for Heineke, 27 touchdowns, 7 interceptions for Wentz. I think I just read that he threw for more than 200 yards twice in the last 7 games of the season or

8 games of the season. But he barely threw 27 pass attempts per game. They got very run heavy. But you know look quarterbacks don't grow on trees and the Colts as Jamie you said how open they were about it at the Combine, it was kind of surprising to you. I mean, the Colts are kicking this guy out. So, I don't know, I guess, Heath, what convinces you

that Wentz is actually an upgrade over Heineke? Well, you did state a couple of statistics that would say that Heineke was almost as good as Wentz. But I think Wentz was basically a borderline, I mean, he was the epitome of a league average quarterback last year. Their passer ratings were not close. I think it was 95 for Wentz and 85 for Heineke. That was touchdowns and interceptions.

He's been much better in his career except for that one year, which was two years ago, where he threw a ton of interceptions. He's been much better in terms of touchdown and interception ratio. So I just think we've seen enough from Carson Wentz and Taylor Heineke to say that. Yeah. And even in fantasy, he was pretty much league average.

I think he was 16th in fantasy points per game last year. Yes, I think he was. Yeah, he was. He was 16th and six point per passing touchdown leagues, 19th and four point per passing touchdown leagues. Okay.

How about Logan Thomas? Would you rather have Logan Thomas or Albert O? Oh. Oh, Albert O. Yeah, I'll have Albert O higher. Well, all right. Let me just play devil's advocate.

Every year, people get excited about Russell Wilson's tight end and it pretty much never works out. And he's got three receivers that we like to throw to for the Broncos. I don't know if Alberto's going to be any better than Gerald Everett was. Logan Thomas was a top five tight end last time we saw him healthy. I think he got off to a pretty decent start. I haven't looked at his stats, but got off to a pretty decent start.

He wasn't bad the three games he played. Right, right. So I think this is a reasonable question here. In fact, you all said... Is he going to be healthy? Will he even be on this team? Yeah, he's going to be 31 years old before the season starts. And that 2020 season that you're referencing

is the only season he's caught even 20 passes in a year. More than Albert O. He has just not stayed healthy to play... What's that? More than Albert O. Actually, I don't know if that's true i have no idea how many he's got i think he probably caught one i don't think they should be viewed as that far apart because i do think logan thomas has some value with the way the receiving court

stands right now um you know it's clearly uh an incomplete group yeah um and i i've said this you know a lot i hope they go back to using curtis samuel kind of the way carolina used him and maybe figuring out that he can be, you know, sort of a dual threat. Um, but I, I think you just look at it like one guy should be ascending,

you know, it's kind of telling that the Broncos, I'm sure we're not going to really stop in anything to get Russell Wilson, but they allowed no offense to go in the trade, uh, feeling probably pretty comfortable. They have a guy that could step in and play at a high level like

Alberto. Whereas Logan Thomas, as, as Heath referenced, you know, he's a former quarterback you know they've been sort of lucky that he produced the way they did in the 2020 season so he's still a decent player and he's still gonna you know give you some decent production if he's healthy but i think you're always looking for upside and right now alberto is much more upside okay how about this by the way how many catches for alberto heath did you find it? 33 last year. Oh, okay.

I believe that is more than any two years of Logan Thomas' career put together except for the 2020 season. Right. Okay, so anyway, Michael Pittman. Michael Pittman last year had two fewer targets than Terry McLaurin, but he had, I'm just doing the math in my head, 11 more catches, about 30 more yards, and one more touchdown. Michael Pittman had a better year than Terry McLaurin in both non-PPR and full PPR. Dave, how do you feel about Pittman right now without Carson Wentz?

I feel pretty terrible. I don't want to trust a guy who, this this is i was about to say wentz was the best quarterback that he worked with but no phil even philip rivers the shell of philip rivers felt like that it feels like he was the better quarterback compared to wentz and either way pitman wasn't a dynamic fantasy wide receiver he ended up being like a high-end number three guy. And I think you have to draft him that way right now, knowing that the best case scenario is a rookie or Jimmy Garoppolo.

Let me see where he finished. He finished 18th, but per game he was probably closer to what he said. Yeah, because he played 17 games. He was 31st in full PPR, probably more like 29th if you remove guys who played one or two games uh so 100 right high end number three mid-range number three kind of guy uh is that how you view him now guys michael pitman yes yeah okay yeah i i don't

think it's that's the weird thing about the wins thing is they have very few outs here to upgrade on the position for this year but i do think the best case scenario for pretty much all the teams right now, assuming Watson's not getting traded in the division, uh, is Jameis Winston. Well, Ian Rappaport already tweeted that Jimmy Garoppolo seems likely to Indianapolis, which makes sense because 49ers can get out of sending him to another team in the conference. And there's a need. The problem is that the Colts don't have a first-round pick, so are they going to have enough compensation to get Jimmy Garoppolo? But a guy coming off shoulder surgery, what's the demand for Jimmy G?

So it seems to make some sense that the Colts would send off Carson Wentz. Again, they made it pretty clear that that's something they wanted to do. They unloaded his contract. But I'm sure knowing how Chris Ballard operates, that there's a backup plan in place, so they may already have a trade in the works and we could be doing this again tomorrow. Today.

Today. Yeah. The Jimmy Garoppolo podcast. Keep your schedule open. Huh? Keep your schedule open. Yeah. So it wouldn't be surprising if that's the next domino that falls here.

Most likely it's not Deshaun Watson. And it's seeming more and more likely that Deshaun Watson may not play in the 2023 season, 2022 season, maybe the 2023 season as well. That's a story for another day. But we could be looking at, you know, again, Trubisky, Mariota. I think the Garoppolo news kind of makes sense because it just kind of seems like it's a likely situation. And I don't know if that necessarily changes the outlook dramatically for a guy like Michael Pittman. Do you know, can you name the six past, or no, this will be the sixth one. One, two, three, no, the last six quarterbacks to start week one for the Colts.

Can you name all six of them? There have been six different ones. Or five different ones. I can name four. Vince Rivers. Luck. Brissette. Brissette.

Painter? Nope. Is that too far back? Manning? Or was it Brissette then? Manning's not one of the six. No, no. There's got to be six since him.

It's five, but six seasons. Okay. You've already named the guy who did it twice, which was Luck. Oh, yeah. Oh, Luck did it twice. I thought for some reason I thought Brissette. No, Brissette took over midseason. What was his name? Oh, I can almost see him. Peyton Manning, Heath. Luck did it twice. I thought for some reason I thought Brissette. No, Brissette took over midseason. What was his name?

Oh, I can almost see him. Peyton Manning, Heath. No. You don't know Peyton Manning? Wow. All right, last question for you. Two more questions. Number one, any change in value for the running backs, Taylor or Gibson?

I think until we see who the quarterback is. For me, no. I think Gibson kind of is borderline number one running back, you know, depending on how you like him and compare him to some of these other guys. So for me, he's like 12 in one format, I think 11 another. Taylor's still number one. You know, the offensive line is still great in Indianapolis. Again, I think they're going to find a solution at the quarterback position

that's at least on the level of Carson Wentz, if not better. So I'll buy into that. I'm speaking to Jonathan Taylor sometime in the next few weeks, along with his offense coordinator and running backs coach. So hopefully I'll have some answers to that for you and, and get some insight as well as to what his thoughts are on losing Carson Wentz. But in any event, I think, you know, Taylor is still going to be, you know, stud and the first overall selection.

Okay. Final question here actually is from the chat. in any event, I think Taylor is still going to be stud in the first overall selection. Okay, final question here actually is from the chat. It is from Weldon. Question for the four of you goats. Who would win in a game of Monopoly? Me. Me. Probably

not me. If I'm playing board games, I'm likely to be drunk, so I don't play board games sober very often. I'm going to go with Dave. Dave had a lot of confidence when he said, you know, me. So I think I'm going to ride that confidence. Definitely not me. That is a long, boring game.

Okay, thanks for tuning in, everybody. Anytime there's breaking news, you know where to go. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, youtube.com slash fantasyfootball today. Join our Facebook group. And, of course course check out the podcast and tell all your friends for dave and jamie and heath i am adam see you later