Fantasy Football Today - 🚨Curtis Samuel to Washington and More Big News (03/17 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: March 18, 2021

Where are we ranking Curtis Samuel? Does this affect Terry McLaurin or Logan Thomas? Is Ryan Fitzpatrick inching toward the Top 12? We also touch on A.J. Green and Marlon Mack. 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

Curtis Samuel to Washington on a three-year deal. Last eight games of the season, Curtis Samuel was really good. 63 targets, 589 yards, 48 catches. Really came on strong. Can he keep it up? Welcome to a bonus edition of Fantasy Football Today. Adam Azer and Jamie Eisenberg. It is Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, Dave Richard and Keith Cummings

will be here to talk about the big stories from Wednesday. Maybe there's a chance Kenny Galladay signs. It looks like the Giants are the frontrunner right now. And by the way, we have a Fantasy Football Today video special on CBS Sports HQ, 3 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, so check that out. But, Jamie, let's get your reaction to Curtis Samuel going to Washington. I find him to be a very difficult player. If I were doing rankings, I would have trouble ranking him.

Do you feel that way? I mean, a little bit. This is more, I think, one of those moves that you like better in reality than fantasy just for what he brings to the team. It's a great signing. He's being reunited with a lot of people that he knows. Ron Rivera, Scott Turner, head coach, offense coordinator. They were clearly with him in Carolina.

His teammate in college, Terry McLaurin, they both played at Ohio State together. So there's that connection. Um, but the, the hope would be is that he's used similar to what the coaching staff in Carolina did last year, where I think they maximized the skills as opposed to when he was with Scott Turner and Ron Rivera. And I think they tried to make him a deep threat, which I don't think is necessarily his game. So I think he's a borderline number three receiver. I think he's slightly better in PPR than non PPR because I don't know how many touchdowns I'll actually score,

but I do think if he's used in the short area passing game, he has a chance to be successful. He's a great number two receiver to pair opposite Terry McCorn. Adam is so excited. He just had the most giant sneeze everywhere in his office. Sorry about that. Curtis Samuel is in a good spot. I don't think this hurts Terry McLaurin at all.

I think it's going to hurt slightly. Logan Thomas is going to hurt JD McKissick, but this is going to be a fun offense, man. I'm telling you with Ryan Fitzpatrick stays healthy with Fitzpatrick McLaurin, Samuel Thomas McKissick, Gibson, a good offensive line,

they have the chance to be, I think, still the top team in the NFC East. I would put my money on Dallas because I think they're better offensively, just based on paper, but it wouldn't surprise me if Washington repeats as a division champion. They've improved a lot this offseason,

and I think it's going to be a fun offense and a fun fantasy team to follow. If the Giants go get Kenny Galladay, the Eagles are just going to be, I think everyone's pick to finish last, which means they'll probably finish first. That's how the NFC East works. But there's really a lot to unpack here. So where do you have Curtis Samuel ranked? I put him in the low 30s in PPR and the high 40s in non PPR. You know, I hope that he still gets a

handful of carries, you know, maybe three to five, but that's going to be hard, you know, just looking at remember last year, it was Mike Davis got a little bit of a rut when McCaffrey was hurt. And that's when they started to give Samuel some carries. So three to five is probably being optimistic, maybe three is the number. But, you know, if he's able to do what he did, you know, read the numbers again that you said at the end of the season. I mean, he was so much better than Robbie Anderson just at the end of the season.

His last eight games, 48 catches, 589 yards, two touchdowns on 63 targets. That's 96 catches, nearly 1,200 yards, and four touchdowns. And he also, he was second in the NFL in rushing yards for wide receivers behind Cordero Patterson. And I'm, I did this last time we talked about it. I'm almost positive. It's two years in a row. He's been second in the NFL. Yeah. Two years in a row. He's been second in the NFL. The catches that he had in the stretch that you're referencing are the same amount of targets,

48 that the number two receiver in Washington had for the season, no receiver in Washington besides McLaurin had over 48 targets. So it's going to be a complete change of what they're used to doing. Certainly last year. Now there is some talk about maybe adding another tight end, another pass catching tight end. So we'll see what they do there. Wait, are you sure about that? No.

You think you're talking about 2019? Because last year, Logan Thomas had 110 targets. No, the second receiver. Oh, receiver. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. But Logan Thomas had 110 targets. McKissick had 110 targets. Yes, yes. The tight end and the running backs did. But the wide receiver, Cam Sims was at 48

to be the second guy at that position behind McLaurin. And so you're talking about obviously a guy coming in with 48 receptions in that stretch of games that you're talking about alone. So obviously he's going to get probably in the neighborhood of, I would say a hundred targets. You know, I think that's a fair number. So Thomas loses, you know, I think with the Curtis Samuel signing McKissick loses, um, as we talked about with Fitzpatrick signing, he doesn't necessarily feature the tight end. He doesn't feature the running back.

Now that's mostly in a Chan Gailey offense that doesn't lean on one player. Now they're running back groups in Fitzpatrick's. And again, Gailey's offenses have done that. But I think you could see that McKissick and Thomas are going to lose regardless. But Samuel, I think, is going to help this team. I think he's see that McKissick and Thomas are going to lose regardless, but you know, Samuel, I think is going to help this team. I think he's going to be somewhat similar to what he was last year when

things were clicking, if things go right with Fitzpatrick. But, um, I think again, it's going to be a fun, it's a fun sign. Curtis Samuel led the NFL and catch rate last year,

79.4%, but such an outlier first three seasons. He only caught 55.1% of his targets. Maybe he just truly broke out. So you still really like Terry McLaurin. That's awesome. Are you moving Ryan Fitzpatrick up? I mean, is he going to be really like the top 12 guys, 13 guys, you know, we talked about this. You know, I would not be shocked if Tannehill, if Fitzpatrick is better than Tannehill of the two Ryans, if he's better than Stafford. I have right now Taysom Hill ahead of him. You know, that's something that I could see changing. Matt Ryan right now is ahead of him. I could see that changing.

Kirk Cousins, you know, this is the group of quarterbacks that Fitzpatrick's, you know, should be grouped in. Is he going to start 16 games? You know, as Dave Richard referenced, you know, if he goes through a poor stretch, do they decide to go a different route and go to Taylor Heineke or Kyle Allen? That would be bad for Curtis Samuel with Kyle Allen because we saw that marriage once upon a time and it wasn't very good for Samuel. So there's still a lot of play here to see what happens. You know, I would hope if you're Washington, you go out and Fabie draft a quarterback, you know, it doesn't have to be day one,

but it could be day two or day three and see if you find a guy of the future. Cause they don't have that on the roster right now. So if that happens, is that something that could change? But for right now, the way that it looks adding Fitzpatrick, good for the team to keep them in playoff contention,

adding Curtis Samuel, good for the team, great for the team to, to upgrade that position. So it's a good sign. And just to clarify the stat I gave about the catch rate leading all wide receivers in catch rate, and there's actually a minimum of 50 targets. There were a couple of wide receivers, Isaiah McKenzie and Kiki Cutie, who had a higher catch rate,

but they did not have more than 40 targets. A lot of running backs top the list, obviously, in catch rate, which makes a lot of sense. Okay, so were there any other one or two signings today that really caught your eye, have a fantasy impact? Yeah, two. Obviously, A.J. Green going to the Cardinals. I think a lot of people are going to look at this and say, what does this mean for everybody not named DeAndre Hopkins?

And we don't know if Larry Fitzgerald is coming back yet. I would guess that he probably will, but still remains to be seen. But I think this is bad news for Christian Kirk, obviously. You know, Kirk was a guy that, you know, what was the segment that we did? Remember when? Oh, what the heck was it called? Or did it surprise you that or something like that? Let's not forget.

Let's not forget, yes. Yes. So let's not forget that Christian not forget yes yes so let's not forget that Christian Kirk is probably going to get replaced as a number two receiver in this offense um or at least not have the same opportunity so um for right now I moved AJ Green ahead of Christian Kirk uh he wasn't good last year he's going to be 33 in July but you know I think with uh with Kyler Murray playing opposite DeAndre Hopkins you know he's going to see the second coverage third coverage in some situations.

Hopefully that will benefit for, be a benefit for him. So, you know, I'm not really interested in AJ Green, but I'm, you know, less interested in Christian Kirk now, but it's a, it's a, hopefully a help for Kyler Murray. You know, I don't think this was the ideal number two receiver that they were looking to add, but clearly with what the Cardinals are doing, getting Rodney Hudson, getting AJ Green, getting JJ Watt, they're clearly showing that they're going for it. They lose Patrick Peterson, but we'll see how the defense shakes out. But this is a good situation for Kyler Murray, I think, to get another pair of reliable hands.

And then the other signing I think that's just worth noting is Marlon Mack staying with the Colts. Don't worry about Jonathan Taylor. Mack is coming off an Achilles injury. Hopefully he'll be okay. He'll be a good backup option in case something happens about Jonathan Taylor. Mack is coming off an Achilles injury. You know, hopefully he'll be okay. He'll be a good backup option, you know, in case something happens to Jonathan Taylor, if he's right. But Jonathan Taylor is still very much in play as a top six overall pick. I'm not not worried about him just because of the last thing you said,

top six overall pick, because he's going to come off the field for two running backs. Now, potentially what if, what if Marlon Mack gets five, six, six carries a game, you know,

the, I just think he could be out touched because you know, Heinz is going to catch passes. And if Mac has any role, I think Jonathan Taylor is going to be out touched by the other types of running backs that you're taking with those types of picks. If you're trying to decide between Saquon Barkley and Jonathan Taylor, if Marlon Mack is making progress,

and I think the report was that he's looking to be healthy for training, he's on track to be healthy for training camp, that's not nothing to me. Only because we're talking about such high stakes with Jonathan Taylor.

I don't think it's, not to use a double negative, it's not nothing. I think it is something. But I don't think it's something to the a double negative. It's not nothing. I think it is something, but I don't think it's something to the fact that you have to panic about Jonathan Taylor. If you want to drop them down a couple of spots, I certainly understand that.

You know, like you said, we're talking high stakes. We're talking about a top five potential overall pick a top half of the first round selection. So is, is this something that could cause bus potential for Jonathan Taylor? Sure.

And I think I said in the past, like ideally I would like to see them bring in like a Carlos Hyde type as opposed to bringing back Marlon Mack because he's somebody that Frank Reich clearly likes and trusts. But it's still Marlon Mack coming back from an Achilles injury, and that's not an easy injury to overcome. So with what Taylor showed you at the end of last season, I think he's the guy, you know, I don't remember exactly what Jordan Wilkins was doing in terms of touches at the end of last season, I think he's the guy, you know, um, I don't remember exactly what Jordan Wilkins was doing in terms of

touches at the end of the season. I know it wasn't much, but I think that's kind of what Marlon Mack might end up taking over for now, you know, so we'll see. Um, I'm still pretty confident and comfortable taking Jonathan Taylor early.

I did move him behind Barkley and PPR. I did not do that non PPR, but if, uh, if Barkley, the reports are fine on him, that's something that I will do as well. Last thing here, NextGenStats keeps tabs on the average separation for wide receivers, how much separation they're getting from defensive backs.

And I don't know how much to make of this, not just wide receivers, by the way. Number one is Debo Samuel. You know, he just didn't... He got a lot of cushion, too. They also keep track of cushion. Robert Tunyon, two. Demarcus Robinson, three. Last, all the way at the bottom, the lowest separation was A.J. Green.

Now, Allen Robinson is bottom 10. DJ Chark as well, so I don't know what to make of it, but A. but AJ Green, dead last tied with Devante Parker. The least amount of separation. The thing that makes it a weird signing is that they got slower

with this because Hopkins, I wonder where he is because he's not a burner. Hopkins is an alpha, but he's not a guy that's going to run away from you. He's middle of the pack, 3.1 yards. Yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah. Same with Devontae Adams. So this is not a how good are you list, but it is interesting that A.J. Green is dead last. Yeah. It's an interesting sign. I think a lot of people were hoping Will Fuller went there. Yeah.

That would have been fun. And look, he still might. Okay. That's it for Jamie's portion interesting sign. You know, I think a lot of people were hoping Will Fuller went there. Yeah, that would have been fun. And look, he still might. Okay, that's it for Jamie's portion of this. We'll have Dave and Heath on tomorrow to talk about everything we saw on Wednesday and hopefully there's some big news overnight or in the morning. Thanks, Jamie.

Thanks for doing all these. Appreciate your dedication, sir. I love talking to you. And as I tweeted, still have time to sign up for your brackets. And if you are the winner, on top of all the prizes that

Adam has mentioned he will call you personally and sing Brian which song that's your choice or the winner's choice which song would you prefer

summer of 69 it's kind of an easy song to sing here give us give us a bar I can play it it's very easy and fun to play on the guitar so that's it I'm not gonna sing Here, give us a bar. I can play it. It's very easy and fun to play on the guitar. So that's it.

I'm not going to sing. I'm chickening out. Come on. Chickening out. Good night, everybody. We'll talk to you tomorrow morning.