Fantasy Football Today - Dalvin Cook; Where WRs Line Up; ADP Combos (06/10 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: June 10, 2020

Well, a stud RB is threatening to hold out. Must be football season! Let's talk about Dalvin Cook (1:50) to start the show and more notes (9:15) on DeSean Jackson, Hayden Hurst and more ... We've got data on where WRs line up on the field (12:30). Which WRs avoid the slot? Which ones play there the most? What about RBs and TEs? And why does this matter? Does it help some WRs avoid the top cornerbacks? We'll sort out the data and tell you the players to focus on ... Has our producer Ben Schragger ever heard the song "MmmBop"? Find out (26:00)! And then we do some Fantasy combos based on ADP (28:40). Would you rather have Travis Kelce and Brandin Cooks or Hunter Henry and Mike Evans? ... Your emails at [e-mail] 'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow the new FFT Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/FFToday Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @YardsPerGretch, @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 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

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. Here we go! Email us at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Here we go! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Let's go! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. No wide receiver had a lower percentage of slot snaps than Darius Slayton.

He lined up in the slot about 5% of the time. That was the lowest in the NFL. But, you know, guys like Calvin Ridley, A.J. Brown, D.J. Moore, they weren't that far ahead of Darius Slayton. So what does it all mean? Today we'll talk about the significance of lining up in the slot and, you know, who benefits from it. Not just that, but lining up outside as well.

Basically, does it matter where a wide receiver lines up on the field? That's what we're going to try to answer today. Adam, Dave, Ben, once again, what's up, guys? Would you be slot receivers, outside receivers, hybrids, if you played in the NFL or in the flag football league, let's say? I think I'd be a tight end. Yeah, I feel comfortable saying that as well. Yeah, I mean, I'm big and slow with a nice catch radius,

soft, supple hands. Okay. Ben, you would be a, what do you think? What would you play? Me? Yeah. Quarterback. Oh, okay.

That's what I mean. You don't have to move around as much you just throw the ball yeah yeah i like that i'd be the center on the flag football team you really i can get hit a little bit uh so we'll talk about that stuff plus dalvin cook a lot of dalvin cook and i'm going to try to ask you guys some more adp questions as we follow up from yesterday's show let's get right into it dal Dalvin Cook threatening to hold out. Now it feels like the NFL is almost back. A star running back is going to hold out potentially. He wants to make reportedly more than $10 million a year.

Hot take. The Vikings should not pay him. They should let him walk. I think a lot of people would probably agree with that, but I feel bad for running backs. There probably should be some type of provision where running backs just get a little bit more money than everybody else the first few years of their career

because they're going to get screwed later in their career. But guys, this is serious stuff here. So Dalvin Cook threatening to hold out. And if he sits out the season, he's not going to accrue a year toward free agency. The new rules make it less advantageous to sit out. And what do you make of all this, Dave? It's ugly.

It's not what you want. And I don't know how it's going to end up benefiting Dalvin Cook if he doesn't agree to a deal that maybe he thinks is a little less than reasonable. I think I saw ESPN reported that he would happily sign for $13 million per year, which would make him a top three running back in terms of salary per season, I believe, which just I don't see that happening. There are metrics where he and Madison are on par, if not Madison, a little bit better. It's things like elusiveness and receiving stats where cook has a significant edge on Madison, but let's face you're saying he just accumulated stats. No, he was amazing. He was very explosive.

He was very good. He wasn't a compiler. But the fact that he was able to stay on the field for 14 games enabled it to happen. He missed 17 games in his previous two years. And now he's looking. It's like he had his one big year, and now he's saying, Okay, now you've got to give me a contract like Ezekiel Elliott has and more than what Melvin Gordon got. Otherwise I'm going to sit out.

And the thing that I just don't want to do as a fantasy manager is get into a guessing game on, on what Dalvin cook is thinking, because we don't know if he's going to threaten to hold out and then show up, you know, for training camp, which I believe he, he can miss like five days or something like that and not lose his accrual toward 2021. I'm going to get nervous drafting him as the fifth best player overall now. And by the time August gets here, I don't know if he's going to be a first-round pick for too long if he's not with the Vikings. Okay, Ben, if Dalvin Cook says,

I'm going to sit out the year, where would you draft Alexander Madison? Let me just understand the question a little better. If he just says that and we don't know for sure or if we know he's sitting out. If we know he's sitting out the year, where would you draft Alexander Madison? if we know he's sitting out if we know he's sitting out the year where would you draft you know he's sitting out the year i'd probably draft madison third round oh no no no no no sir you will not get him in the third round okay i don't like

running back i was thinking like first round i think some people might take madison in round one but i think i'd probably be more comfortable with Drake. Not sure. Certainly a non PPR. I think I take Madison ahead of Eckler. He, he could be a top 15 pick in non PPR and a top 20 pick in PPR. Yeah.

He, he, he was too high for me by a lot. That's over like Nick Chuck. Like why, why would Madison, like we wouldn't know for sure that madison would handle all the passing work and all those things i know you'd have a big workload but

amir abdullah played quite a bit on passing downs last year for them madison wasn't their only back well madison wasn't there when when cook went down remember those two games where mike boone was supposed to be the guy and that that's really where Amir Abdullah stepped up and played passing downs. There's no telling if that would be the case this year, where Madison does the lead work and does the goal line, and Amir Abdullah handles passing downs. I want to bring up one more thing on Dalvin Cook. So he ended up as RB5 and non-PPR, RB6 and PPR,

but per game he was top three. He, as Dave mentioned, everybody knows he has an extensive injury history. Four games, 11 games, and 14 games played in three seasons. And, you know, I don't know what to make of this, but he may have been slowing down at the end of the year. He's getting a pretty big workload. The last eight games, if you include two postseason games, the last eight games of the year, he averaged 3.7 yards per carry or worse every single game.

And that's pretty bad. And you just wonder, since Madison was so good, do you think they split the carries a little bit more evenly? I mean, Cook dominated near the goal line. He had 15 carries while missing two games, 15 carries inside the five, which was third most in the NFL. Nobody else on the Vikings had more than two. But, you know, maybe he keeps that role. But do you think they would split up the carries a little bit more to try to keep Dalvin Cook healthy? It's possible. It would make sense if they did it.

It would hurt for fantasy if they did it, but they're trying to win games and keep their starters on the field for as long as possible. So it's a possibility, and it could almost be a certainty if Dalvin Cook decides to skip training camp and then show up a week before week one

and say, all right, I'm here. I'm ready to play. Well, you're probably going to see Alexander Madison get rewarded for being there for the team and get the start. And it could take a little while for Dalvin Cook to get into that role. And when you think about the lack of leverage that he has, okay, his whole argument for why you should get paid like a top five running back is I just had a monster year. And if you take my per game averages over my career, they're good.

But he got hurt in his first year towards ACL. Second year, missed a bunch of games. Last year was slowing down toward the end of the year. Like you said, like I don't get his argument for what he can go to the Vikings with and say, here's why you should pay me. And the Vikings clearly hold all the cards here. They could easily say, okay, go ahead. Don't show up. We're going to, we, we get your rights this year and you're a

restricted free agent in 2021. There isn't going to be another team that comes to your rescue. Like Le'Veon Bell had, you know, the other 31 teams learned from the Jets mistake by giving Le'Veon a huge contract. And then Le'Veon didn't do anything last year. And we'll see what he does this year. Teams just, they absolutely devalue the running back position unless you are a very special player. Now, am I getting myself in trouble by suggesting that Dalvin Cook isn't a very special player? I think when he's healthy, he is,

but you can't ignore the fact that he has a hard time staying on the field. I don't think that if you don't learn the lesson from Todd Gurley and then, you know, and Le'Veon Bell, then shame on you. It's like just paying running backs. An insane amount is a very risky.

It's even going to be David Johnson. And I think Melvin Gordon is a really interesting one too. I mean, he held out last year, didn't get anything eventually came back. And then what he wound up getting from Denver was a lot less guaranteed than what the chargers were offering. Right.

Uh, like he should have taken the chargers offer. I'm like, objectively, let's do some news items here. Just go real quick on these and then we'll get into, um, the crux of the show here.

Uh, Carlos Hyde said, everyone knows Chris Carson is the starting running back. Okay. Yeah, we know. Uh, Todd Gurley passes physical.

Hey, that's good news. That is good news. Uh, we know. Todd Gurley passes physical. Hey! That's good news. That is good news. Matt Ryan said Hayden Hurst is one of the fastest and most athletic tight ends he's ever played with. That's called foreshadowing to the later part of the show when we talk about slot usage. Okay. Deshaun Jackson is expected to be the Eagles'

top receiving threat this season, according to MikeKofNJ.com. What do you think about that? Wouldn't surprise me, but that's another one who's got to stay on the field. Their top receiving threat is kind of a big... I mean, we know Jeffrey's going to be out, and we've talked a lot about Rager having a big opportunity, but like Dave said, it wouldn't be surprising.

Deshaunson's good enough but man he's he's older he's had a hard time staying healthy and that's it's a big big statement he's definitely a value if he's their top receiving threat he's also a value because you can take him literally with your last or second to last pick in a fantasy draft and you just put him on your bench and you see how he goes this year he could easily be a usable boom bus flex in any format let me look at the game last year yeah his average position huge 170 160th for deshaun jackson and uh that's ppr adp and like he was on pace before his injury for 2,464 yards and 32 touchdowns. He played one game before his injury last year

and then 14% of the snaps in week two, missed a whole bunch of time, 5% of the snaps in week nine, and that was it. So he really only played one game last year, even though officially he played three. And let's see if I have any other news items. I think I had one. What was it? Oh, Tennessee coaches.

They still really like Corey Davis according to their team website Titans.com. Any sleeper Corey Davis or Deshaun Jackson? Deshaun Jackson. 100 times out of 100. Everyone's concerns about AJ Brown and the volume have to apply to Corey Davis, but we also

have a longer track record of cory davis not actually being very good like not being very productive on the volume he does see and he was the number one for a lot of that he's not the number one anymore like very i think i think we can say that comfortably i mean i know i'm a truther but aj brown was very good as a rookie i think we can say pretty comfortably. I mean, I know I'm a truther, but AJ Brown was very good as a rookie. I think we can say pretty comfortably that AJ Brown is going to be the higher targeted player. So you don't want the number two receiver who isn't maybe even necessarily that good on a low volume passing offense. I want to promote a couple of things. Facebook, facebook.com slash fantasy football. Well, the link is in the episode description, sorry. But if you go to facebook.com and you search for fantasy football today,

you'll find our group. Or you can just click on the link in the episode description. You can ask us keeper questions. You can join the new Dynasty League and discuss draft strategies. We have a lot of fun stuff in there. Shout out to Robert Thomas, who along with Ben Schrager, both of them do a great job moderating the group. So join our Facebook group and leave us an Apple podcast review.

We much appreciate it. You can ask us an Apple podcast question. We'll read your questions on the show. So slot receivers, you know, you might be surprised that like Julian Edelman lined up in the slot two thirds of the time. He's not like a hundred percent. Cooper Cup, two thirds of the time. Larry Fitzgerald, 87.5% of the time he's not like a hundred percent cooper cup two-thirds of the time larry fitzgerald 87.5

percent of the time um you know we'll talk about running backs and tight ends who get out there in the slot i know that's why mike is so interesting to to ben but all right let's start with this which players come to mind when if i ask you who could be impacted the most by where he lines up on the field? I mean, I think Justin Jefferson is a really interesting rookie who played outside in his second to last season at LSU and then moved inside and his numbers really exploded. But something that we talked about during the prospect season was LSU more than doubled their passing yardage from 2018 to 2019 so his percentage of the offense was actually it actually went down his yardage percentage even

though he had way more yardage so he wasn't necessarily bad outside but the reason that's notable is he got drafted by the vikings and adam thielen has been a pretty decent you know has been has been lining up more in the in the slot over the last several years than Diggs. And so Jefferson didn't really seem like the perfect one-for-one replacement for Diggs. It's not really clear who will get bumped outside. But Minnesota definitely is interesting. Minnesota is definitely interesting. Dave, do you have any names that come to mind?

I'm kind of framing your question as it relates to quarterbacks. The first one that came to my mind was Brady and how he's always been kind of an inside-out type of passer. He likes the slot. He likes middle-of-the-field targets a little bit more than he does the outside targets. My mind went to Godwin, Gronk, who's not a receiver, obviously, but someone like that who could step in and be that easy, familiar player who's in a familiar area for Brady to throw to. seriously affected by um by brady being there and brady's tendency to lean on slot receivers and i know godwin can line up anywhere and he was better you know certain metrics were better

outside than they were on the inside but i'm uh i still think you're gonna see godwin play quite a bit in the slot and another one i would throw out my my initial reaction i thought of uh two guys jarvis landry and cooper cup who are thought of as guys, Jarvis Landry and Cooper Cupp, who were thought of as really heavy slot guys, and they are, or were. Jarvis Landry maybe not so much anymore. But the Browns, we expect to go too tight end heavy a little bit more with Kevin Stefanski. That's what the Vikings did a lot last year, which would, an extra tight end basically means it would push Landry out to the outside, not all the time, but a good, good amount of the time.

Cause you can also, you know, have two tight ends and have both wide receivers on the same side of the field. And then Cooper cup, same thing. The Rams could go to more two tight ends. So how do those players perform inside and outside? And it was actually interesting to dig into the numbers a little bit because both cup and Landry are pretty much fine on the outside as well. I wanted to take a look at guys like Amari Cooper and DK Metcalf

and even DJ Moore. I've identified some wide receivers that I thought had, on paper right now, going into the season, the toughest matchups in terms of the cornerbacks they will face. And those three really come to mind. Cooper, Metcalf, DJ Moore. You know, for Moore, he's in a tough division. He's got Marshawn Lattimore.

He's got Jamel Dean and Sean Murphy Bunting in the Bucs defense, which got really good against number one wide receivers toward the end of last year. They did great jobs on some of the best of the best almost every week it seemed. The Cowboys are going to be facing Patrick Peterson and James

Bradbury twice, Darius Slay twice, and Cooper's a guy who really stunk against good cornerbacks last year. 48 yards against the Saints. Let's see. Darius Slay, well, I don't know how much he faced Slay, but against the Lions he had 38 yards. No catches against the Saints. Let's see. Darius Slate. Well, I don't know how much he faced Slate, but against the Lions, he had 38 yards, no catches against the Patriots. Eight for 85 against the

Bills was really good. Faced Jalen Ramsey and the Rams had one catch for 19 yards. That's their week one matchup, the Rams on the road. So the fact that Cooper almost never goes into the slot, the fact that DK Metcalf was in the slot even less than Cooper last year, although I have a feeling that's not uncommon for rookies. They said they're going to move Metcalf around a little bit more. And DJ Moore, I was surprised. He's only in the slot about 15% of the time. I thought he played inside a little bit more than that. So that kind of jumped out to me, guys. Those guys, they stay outside based on last year. They stay outside Cooper, Moore, and Metcalf, and they're going to face some really tough corners this year. And I wonder if that impacts you at all. Sure, it does. It matters

if those teams decide, you know, you've got to think about exactly how the teams prefer to play their defense. Some teams just like to line up their guys. A cornerback has a specific side of the field. It's his, it doesn't matter which receiver lines up there. Um, and I'm thinking of Buffalo and San Francisco is two teams that were successful this way. Um, Richard Sherman's got his spot. He lines up there 90 to 95% of the time. And he just, he's got to cover the man that's in front of him and that's it. And defenses will know going into the game. Okay.

I know Richard Sherman's going to be here. So I need to have a plan B in case Richard Sherman's having a good game or if we don't want to throw Richard Sherman or whatever. And then you've got teams like the Patriots that love to man up their corners. Teams that do that, they tend to blitz a little bit more. They can manufacture sacks a little bit easier because they've got man coverage and corners teams that do that. They tend to blitz a little bit more. They can manufacture sacks a little bit easier because they've got man coverage and they trust their cornerbacks to, to cover their guys. Stefan Gilmore did a ton of that last year.

So it really comes down to just how each defense is going to be. And in a case like the giants, they've got a new defensive coordinator there. Maybe we have an idea of, of the type of defense that they're going to play, but it's not a sure thing that one week they're going to, or that every week they're going to be a man coverage team. In fact, they could end up being zone coverage a little bit more often than man, or they might mix it up from series to series, which a lot of defenses aren't doing yet, but that day will come where defenses really mix up their coverages on a,

on a, like a play to play basis versus a game to game basis. Ben, I know you wanted to talk about running backs and tight ends and how they're affected. And I'm, if you want to talk about more wide receivers, go for it. But other major takeaways from this. And I think let's look at the Falcons and what, who could benefit from playing in the slot there yeah the falcons so i'll readily admit i don't look at this a ton but we dug into the numbers and and i think it's interesting to to look at and try to find players that are

better inside and and or better in the slot um and then also obviously the usage like you mentioned the falcons are interesting because ridley only played in the slot 11.7% of the time. That's a very low number. And Julio does move into the slot some, but I think that maybe is thought to be higher than it actually is. He was only in the slot 22% of the time last year. That's also not a very high number. I think you got to get up over 30 or 40% to really start thinking about guys

that are spending a significant amount of their time in the slot. And so who was playing the slot for the Falcons? Well, it was primarily Muhammad Sanu before he was traded. Russell Gage has a 67% slot rate, and he was their primary slot guy late last year. And he's a guy who could be a value right now in drafts, definitely. He should play in their three wide receiver sets but another guy is austin hooper lined up in the slot 45 of his um of his routes which is

a high number for a tight end um and and with tight ends and running backs like you said and just generally we want to look at guys that are getting out on routes and tight ends can be held in to block plenty but when we see a number like, okay, Austin Hooper's out in the slot 45% of the time, that's what helps him have fantasy value. And then you look at Hayden Hurst and over in Baltimore, he was in the slot almost 50% of the time, 49.8% of the time. He wasn't a full-time player, but you know, to the top,

Matt Ryan said he's an athletic tight end. Like he's. This is another piece of evidence that suggests he's going to probably fill that Austin Hooper role. And I think it makes a lot more sense to like Hurst than say Hooper even, who now goes to Cleveland. And one of the things that we've been hearing out of Cleveland is how much better of a blocker he is than David Njoku. And they didn't protect Baker Mayfield well last year. I think Hooper's going to wind up blocking a lot more in Cleveland than he did in Atlanta. And Hurst is a guy who can step into a lot of those slot

snaps that Hooper was getting in Atlanta and potentially rack up a lot of targets. Do you have the slot numbers, by the way? I know we're skipping around a little bit, for Devontae Parker. I was trying to look it up, but Ben Gretsch was messing with my spreadsheet i got it via google messing with your spreadsheet can we can we just get into this for

a minute yeah i think we should i felt really bad about what i did uh earlier the show sorry before the show started so sorry ben i apologize i I pulled some slot numbers and I was doing some research in there. And then Adam jumps in the sheet and just starts sorting by all sorts of columns. I'm looking at things. I somehow deleted the headers and then I reverted back to an old version of the sheet and then deleted the headers again and then sorted by position. And it was like, what are you doing? Yeah, I don't know.

He bonanzed your spreadsheet. My spreadsheet was like possessed you know we're sharing a google doc and you can edit it at the same time i'm trying to figure things out all of a sudden i got all this like tasem hill stats like what the hell is going on here i don't want to see anything about tasem hill but ben wants to know about tasem hill i guess that's the only explanation he's he's interesting that's why he wanted to do it. Devontae Parker played in the slot 23% of the time last year. So he's going to face the Patriots, the Bills, in weeks one and two. He'll have a three-game stretch in a row of the Chargers, Rams, and Cardinals.

And I think most of that is early in the year. And then he plays the Patriots again in week 15. But that was so impressive about Parker is he kind of torched the Patriots and the Bills late in the year. At least the Patriots. They had the best game of any outside receiver against the Patriots, 137 yards in week 17. He also had 135 yards against the Bills.

You just don't do that. But, yeah, week one is New England. Week two is Buffalo. He'll see San Francisco. Yeah, it's week seven, eight, and nine. Chargers, Rams, Cardinals. Yeah, I'm not sure if that means anything to you guys, but maybe you'd like to see a guy move around.

You know Michael Thomas is not going to get shut down by cornerbacks, so he's going to move into the slot a lot. But a guy who plays there only 20% of the time, maybe a little more susceptible to being shut down in bad matchups. And in theory, he's easier to cover for defenses because they'll know where to expect him and they know where to plan for him. Whereas if, let's just say week one comes along

and Devontae Parker, just miracle of miracles, 50% of the time he's in the slot, well, that's going to cause a problem for the Dolphins' next opponent because now here he is moving all over the place. time he's in the slot well that's going to cause a problem for the dolphins next opponent because now here he is moving all over the place more cornerbacks have to be more intimate with what he does so that they can defend him properly and they do have a new offensive coordinator so there is a possibility that they move him around more or they change things i mean adam you mentioned giziki giziki has the highest slot rate of any tight end at 71.8 there's definitely the possibility that giziki isn't playing in the

slot that much it is one reason why i like him he was getting a lot of targets in air yards and he wasn't very productive but splitting out and being out in a lot of routes is a very positive sign for a player like him with this type of athleticism um but we don't know if the new coaching staff will do it the same way. So some of this stuff is a little bit tricky to buy into too much. One interesting note here with the tight ends, though, both of Carolina's tight ends, Greg Olson and Ian Thomas were top 10 in slot rates for tight end. Now they have a new coaching staff as well. I don't know how much that'll carry over for Ian Thomas or how they'll use their players because Jarius Wright's gone, who was their primary slot receiver last year.

They added Robbie Anderson, who's a primary outside guy. And Adam was talking about a guy like DJ Moore. He might bump into the slot more or Curtis Samuel comes down into the slot and plays closer to the line of scrimmage. We don't really know how they're going to use their three receiver sets because right now they look like they have three outside receivers. But that's a different offense. But basically their offense moved to Washington

because Ron Rivera went there and North Turner's son, Scott Turner, is going to be the offensive coordinator there. It will be interesting. Like Washington has the most depleted tight end core. I don't even know who their star is going to be, Logan Thomas or Jeremy Sprinkle. But seeing these really high... Who's that?

Thaddeus Moss could end up stealing. Yeah. And seeing these really high Carolina slot tight end rates makes me think, hey, maybe we should keep an eye on the Washington tight end battle. They need pass catchers. Maybe somebody there ends up having a Darren Waller type season. Ben, you're writing an article about this, right? Yeah.

Okay. So for more information, check out the story, cbssports.com slash fantasy. And hopefully this was helpful stuff. I put out a tweet earlier today.

It said, hey, friends, new game for the podcast. Yesterday we learned that Ben Schrager, 23 years old, had never heard of Tom Green.

I want to find a pop culture reference each day to ask Ben, hey, do you know who or what this is? So give me some suggestions. Think early 2000s or late 90s.

I already have 90 responses. Ben Schrager, are you ready to see if you know these pop culture references? This is going to be rough. Okay, here we go. The Hanson Brothers, Mbop. Nah. You don't know Mbop? What? this is gonna be rough okay here we go the hansen brothers um bop no you don't know um wow all right you gotta go on youtube earlier how about have you this jersey jen she's a a fantasy analyst as well um have you ever called 411 know what my dad has.

I'm just like, use Google. What else would you do? How about we do one more here? Scott White, colleague Scott White. Mr. Bigglesworth. Do you know who Mr. Bigglesworth is? Austin Powers? Yay!

All right! Okay, we got that one. Shaggy B. All right, well think... Okay, we got that one. Shaggy B. All right, well, look, I've got plenty of these. We'll go through them in the coming days and weeks. We'll take a quick break

on fantasy football today. When we come back, some average draft position questions. Would you rather have this combo or this combo? And then we'll read your emails, fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Kick off an exciting football season

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First of all, I can't wait for CBS ADP to come out because it's going to be so different. Leonard Fournette is a top 30 pick. Are you kidding me? So is David Johnson, 31st. What? Very running back heavy, first of all, but I can't believe that, especially Fournette.

Am I crazy for reacting this way? I would drive neither of those guys anywhere near those marks. So, no, you're not crazy. Nope. Well, thank you. But that's just proof that there's a lot of people out there that analyze fantasy football and a lot of people who play fantasy football.

And it's like going to an art gallery. I might like a Picasso. Adam might like a Rembrandt. So I'm not sure if there's a... There are people that like a Picasso. Adam might like a Rembrandt. So I'm not sure if there's a, you know, there are people that like these guys. Some of them are touting them. Other people just, you know, they remember what Fournette did last year

and they think that they can get that again. Beauty's in the eye of the beholder. I'm not sure if I've ever been to an art gallery. In your life? Yeah. I mean, I probably had like on a field trip or something. Right.

Like when you were a student, you probably did. I've never been like, hey, let's go to an art gallery. Have you ever been to Paris? I've never been to Paris.

I've been to, in Vegas, I've been to Paris. Yes. Not the same. That's not what they say at the hotel. They basically

say it's the same. You're saying that they're wrong? Yeah. It's not the same. I've been to both. How was Paris? The actual Paris? Yeah.

Yeah, that one. Beautiful. Good. Okay. Fantastic. Everybody should go. And the Vegas Paris, I lost 50 bucks.

And the thing is, I would love to go to Paris, but I would not go to the Louvre. I would not go to an art museum. No, you should absolutely go to the Louvre. If not for the art, then for the objects. There are objects that are thousands and thousands of years old there. Wait, you wouldn't go to? I wouldn't really. He's going to fly halfway to Europe

and not go to one of the greatest places to see. I don't like art. Would you go to the Musée d'Orsay? I don't know. What is that? It's another art museum. No, then I don't want to go there. No.

Stop trying to make me go to art museums. Have you ever been to an art museum in Europe? I don't think so. I don't really have any interest in going. So I understand you don't have the interest, but have you ever done it and just seen if you liked it? I think we were just talking about it. I said probably in a class field trip.

Have you ever owned a coloring book? Do Mad Libs count? No. That's not cool. Yes, I've owned a coloring book. But Mad Libs are awesome. Yeah, they are. If there was a museum for Mad Libs, I'd go to that.

Okay, so your first pick is Alvin Kamara. You've got your stud running back. Would you rather have Kamara, Clyde Edwards-Elair, and Adam Thielen, or Kamara, Chris Godwin, and then I don't even know who to go with. Maybe Chris Carson, maybe Melvin Gordon, Todd Gurley, because the ADP is so screwy. We're talking about Leonard Fournette territory,

David Johnson territory, according to this average draft position. But pick a third-round running back that you like, that you would actually take in the third round. And would you rather have Kamara, Edwards-Elair, and Thielen, or Kamara, Chris Godwin instead of Thielen, and that third-round running back? Who would that running back be, and what side would you rather have? I'll take the Godwin third-round running back combo.

I reject the premise that I have to take a running back in my second or third round, and I will take Kamara, Godwin, and a third-round receiver. Adam Thielen? Sure. Okay, so you wouldn't take Thielen? No. Would you take Beckham, Cooper, Kupp, Robinson, Ridley,

Galladay, Evans, maybe? He's taking A.J. Brown. Me? I'm taking D.J. Moore. No, I'm taking D.J. Moore in the early third, and then I take A.J. Moore in the fourth. All right, so here we go. Revised ADP question. Kamara, Clyde Edwards-Elair, and D.J. Moore.

Or Kamara, Chris Godwin, and D.J. Moore. Godwin and D. and DJ Moore for me. I'm going to go the same way. Okay. And it's not just as simple as like, who do you like better, Godwin or Clyde Edwards-Ziller? It's a philosophy question. It's how you want to build your team. Okay. Second one, Travis

Kelsey and Brandon Cooks or Hunter Henry and Mike Evans? Hunter Henry and Mike Evans for me. I don't trust Cooks. I don't want to trust Cooks, but I'd love to have Kelsey. And I don't know if I want to trust Evans or Hunter Henry. So I'm going to take the Kelsey side, and I'll take what I get from Brandon Cooks.

But what round am I taking Brandon Cooks in, according to this? Six? Yeah, something like that yeah that makes me feel like i need to seventh seven evans is an interesting one we should maybe talk about for a sec because the student spent over a thousand yards all six years of his career he's been very good for the majority of it i know there's a lot of concern about brady and throwing downfield but the one year brady's average depth of target in the last like four years was that was anything reasonable was the one year that Brandon cooks was there.

And he actually had a good downfield weapon. He was still able to push it down the field. He actually led the NFL in passing yards. I think it was 2017. So I don't think it's like that crazy that like Mike Evans still has a good year. Like he's always been very good. He's 26 going to be 27 before the season starts. He's always been very good. He's 26, going to be 27 before the season starts. He's right in his prime. I think he's getting knocked down a little bit too much.

I mean, this guy's been a very good, arguably one of the best receivers in the league for his entire career. How many touchdowns can we count on? Because I think 1,000 yards is easy for Mike Evans. Can he get to 1,300? That seems a little unlikely. Can he get to 1,300? That seems a little unlikely. Can he get to seven touchdowns? I'm a little worried about it

because of Gronk's addition. And Godwin is also not going to see a lot of double coverage. It's going to be really interesting to see how teams defend the Bucs when they get into the red zone and which pass catcher they're going to decide to double cover I've got some work to do in my future on the Bucs here are two things that still

stand out to me one Brady still has the arm strength to push the ball 50 yards downfield I'm not certain he's got great accuracy to go with it that's something I need to look into but the second thing is that Bruce Arians wantsady to let it rip he wants him to you know if there's a one-on-one matchup down the sideline he wants him to take it he doesn't want to check down charlie it's a quote that's going to make our team preview on the box so that's if brady and most quarterbacks would love to do that most quarterbacks don't want to check it down. Brady's going to want to chuck it deep. And the receiver who's going to be most likely to do that is going to be Evans. So I think what we'll see from Evans is he'll finish with a good stat line this year.

But it's going to be as inconsistent as maybe Brandon Cook's stat line was the year that he was with the Patriots, where one week it's huge. The next two weeks suck. The week after that, it's like a three touchdown blow up and you know, you're locked to win your DFS lineup with Evans in it. And then another week after that, he's five catches for 45 yards. It's going to go up and down. One thing I will say though,

is Jameis was never a particularly accurate downfield passer. He was actually more accurate than average when you talk about like the intermediate depths, like the 15 yard depths. But really pushing it down the field was never really accurate. And that's one big reason Deshaun Jackson struggled big time with the box. But he's kind of a precision deep receiver who gets by guys with speed and needs the ball delivered accurately. Evans has always been a kind of with winston because he's not necessarily a guy who wins down the field with speed and separation

he's able to go up and get the balls right he's a 50 50 guy it's it's possible he can still be fine and you you ask if he can get 1300 yards well since his rookie year, Mike Evans has been on pace for per 16 games. Not his rookie year, but since then, 1,286, 1,321, 1,067. Had a bad year three years ago. 1,524 and 1,424. So in four of the last five years, he's been on pace for at least 1,286 yards. He's good, and people are afraid of him. So, yeah, I think there's good chances.

The question is, is he elite? Is he worthy of being put into that top tier in fantasy? Well, you know, in PPR— I think people are worried about doing that now with Brady there. In PPR, he's never had 90 catches. So he's a yards-per- in PPR. He's net. He's never had 90 catches. So he's, he's a yards per catch guy. He's not,

you know, I guess, you know, it's like Kenny Galladay, right? And it's no, he had a 96 catch season. He did.

Yeah. Year three. And he's only played. Oh yeah. He had 175 targets that year. So, but he's probably not going to have 90 catches. Sure. Yeah. No, your, your point stands your point stands but um and also today's point like he might not necessarily be in the elite but the reason i

kind of wanted to take a second to talk about him is he's going too late i think the gap between him and godwin is too big based on how we think brady will fit and dave's point about what arians wants like brady's tendencies in the past aren't a lock to be the same in a Bruce Arians offense which is very vertical it was very vertical with Jameis it was also very vertical with Ryan Fitzpatrick it's not just and it was very very vertical with with uh Carson Palmer back in Arizona it's not just been uh you know any individual quarterback it's been more Arians style um so I don't know man I I don't understand personally why Godwin goes so far ahead of Evans. Well, he doesn't in this ADP, fantasy football calculator.

They're actually only separated by three or four spots. But you're right. In our leagues, it seems like Godwin is 12-13 turn, and Evans is almost at the next turn two full rounds later. It's kind of crazy. Yeah. All right. Let me ask you one more ADP question, guys.

Lamar Jackson and A.J. Green. That's your combo number one. Lamar Jackson and A.J. Green or Russell Wilson and Kenny Galladay? Wilson and Galladay. Yeah. Clean sweep. That's an easy one. All right.

Let's read some emails. Fantasyfootball at CBSbsi.com. This one comes from Bryce Coffendaffer. Looking to pick up a tight end in my dynasty league after our rookie draft. I currently have Eric Ebron, Noah Fant, and Ian Thomas. I want to drop Ian Thomas. Which tight end would you recommend?

Jack Doyle, Blake Jarwin, or Chris Herndon? I'm on board with dropping Ebron for Jarwin. You would hold on to Ian Thomas? I want to see what I get out of Ian Thomas. This is the first time in his career, his three years, this is his third year in the NFL. It's the first time he's got a clear path to playing time. And I think he can be i think he can be used nicely in that carolina offense i agree who was the third tight end uh chris third

tight end that he could add do i don't know that he has he had he's got ebron fan and ian thomas yeah i would do the same thing i'd drop ebron for Jarwin. All right. Next email comes from Joseph. And just one last thing. I think that there's more long-term potential in Jarwin than there is in Doyle and Herndon and Ebron. I have Herndon not far behind Jarwin, and I might actually drop both Thomas and Ebron. I agree with what Dave said about Thomas, but I still think I would drop both Thomas and Ebron

for Jarwin and Herndon. I'm not feeling it with Herndon. Joe is from Pittsburgh. He's in a 10-team PPR league with three keepers, two veterans, and one rookie. I'm keeping Zeke and Miles Sanders. I have Dalvin Cook, but the Camara owner cannot keep Camara

due to his contract restriction being up. Would you trade Dalvin Cook for Alvin Camara? I hate when things like this happen in leagues where teams can trade players because they can't keep them before the draft. If it happens during the regular season, obviously it's fine.

That's fair game. Yes, of course, if you can trade a guy who might hold out and his serious injury concerns on top of it. He said this before that so i have camara had a cook okay yeah let's put let's pretend the holdout thing isn't really a thing right now let's pretend alvin cook signs for 13 million the vikings just lose their mind sure i'm still making the trade i am too camara i mean yeah breeze is probably gone after this year but

he had a high ankle sprain last year, and he still was pretty good. And he still got 81 receptions for – exactly 81 for the third straight season. It's one of those weird stats. His explosiveness was sapped a little bit, and because of that his receiving explosiveness was down. But really it was mostly just touchdowns. The touchdowns weren't there. We talked about this a little bit in a couple pods a couple weeks ago um new orleans saints running backs almost every season have 20 running back

touchdowns plus almost every year have for for several years and last year they only had 12 between camara and latavius murray i'm expecting that to bounce back for sure i don't think that's all taste and hail i don't think that's all you know some big trend change i think it was uh kind of more fluky compared to what they've had over a lot of years. And I expect Kamara's six TDs last year to look more like the 13 and 18 that he had in his first two

years. Next email is from Goodman Brown. I have the first pick in a 10-team PPR redraft league. You start two running backs, two receivers, a flex, and a tight end. Picking McCaffrey first overall is mostly a no-brainer. It's a no-brainer.

But the big question is, who do you take with your second and third picks? So these are going to be picks 20 and 21. I'd be curious to see what all of your opinions are on who should be taken with these picks and what strategies you might be considering. Go ahead, Dave. I was going to say if you can have a great running back or a great tight end, one of the top two tight ends fall into your lap, you take them.

What you should probably do before your draft is know which tight end, it's going to be Kelsen Kittle, which running backs, it'll probably be some combination of Drake Eckler, Chubb, and Edwards Hilaire that you would take ahead of a wide receiver. And the wide receivers that would be there, they'll range from Kopp, Galladay, DJ Moore will be there, Ridley will be there, Mike Evans will be there. Adam Thielen will be there. Rank those guys.

You're probably going to end up taking two receivers to go with McCaffrey, but obviously be open to taking one of the other positions if they slip. Yeah, I agree a lot. I think my running back dream scenario would be if Miles Sanders is there in the 10 team. I think it's at least possible. And I agree about the tight end thing. I mean, receiver is deep in the 4-5, 6-7 round range, and running back's not. So I agree with Dave.

Getting a Sanders or a Chubb or an Eckler or a Kenyon Drake, and I'm a guy who doesn't really like running backs, you might even want to start running back, running back, running back. And then maybe you get DJ more at the 4-5 turn. I've seen him fall far enough that that might be feasible in a 10-team league. A.J. Brown, all sorts of the Cooper Cups, depending on your league. I like Stephon Diggs. There's a lot of receivers going to some of the young guys.

D.J. Chark and Terry McLaurin you can get in later rounds. Tyler Boyd, Will Fuller. There's so many guys that you can load up on a receiver that I really like in those next several rounds that will be easier to fill out in a 10-team league especially. So I probably, like typically in a 12-team league, I might start running back wide receiver, wide receiver. But in a 10-team, I'm more likely to hit another running back, maybe even hit three running backs depending on who's available there. And along those lines, you could even splurge on Mahomes or Jackson. Oh, so that was, I was going to bring that up, right?

How about this strategy? And we've talked about this for years. It's just, and Ben just mentioned it, it's easier to find, you know, the depth is going to be there in a big way in a smaller league where there's only 10 people drafting or 10 teams drafting that you want to make your lineup as much of a differentiator as possible. That's one way to do it. Right.

So be open to the idea of going running back, quarterback running back. Wait, wait. Running back, Mahomes Kelsey. Could do that too. Well, Kelsey's not going to make it to 20. Why? He might make it to 20. Fine. Running back, Mahomes Kelsey. Could do that too. Well, Kelsey's not going to make it to 20. Why? He might make it to 20. Fine.

Running back Mahomes Kittle. I wouldn't go that far. I think it's interesting because you try to get... I've done things like that and you find out the number one. It is only a 10-team league, but you find out pretty quick that you now have to fill your RB2 spot and all your wide receiver spots, and you wind up thin at both.

And I don't know that those two onesie positions you're going to get enough because part of the other the other side of it is in a 10 team league now if you wait on quarterback your your replacement quarterback might be carson wentz you know it's not it's not daniel jones you know it's going to be a little bit better on that end too and same with tight end like you can grab hayden Hurst late. So I would still want to get at least one running back or receiver personally. Okay. I would too. I'm just throwing that out there. Eric from Park Ridge, Illinois.

Dear JJ, John B., Topper, and Pope. This is apparently a show called Outer Banks. Outer Banks. How do you guys not know about that? Yeah, I knew it. I was like, Schrager probably knows Outer Banks. Outer Banks. Oh, yeah. How do you guys not know about that? Yeah, I knew it. I was like, Schrager probably knows Outer Banks. 12-team PPR Dynasty League. DeeDee Westbrook is still available following the rookie free agent draft.

What's his Dynasty value? Is he worth more than Miles Boykin or James Washington? No. I'm going to say no. Okay, moving on. From John, how much would you give up for the number one pick in a 12-team half PPR redraft league with no keepers? How much would you give up in a 12-team half PPR redraft league

basically for Christian McCaffrey? I have been offered picks 1, 25, and 48. I would be getting 1, 25, and 48 for 13, 19, and 36. I wouldn't do that. I would definitely do that. You would go back from one all the way to 13? No, I'm going from 13

to one. You get one and 25. All right, so let's put it this way. You get one and 25. You give up 13 and 19. That right there. You don't even have to give up a first round pick? Hold on, hold on. Or is this a 14?

Is that a real question? It's a 12 team? No, hold on, hold on, hold on. Easy. You get one in 25. You give up 13 and 19. Right there, it's easy. You take one in 25.

But now you also have to give up the 36th pick and move back to 48. So you are losing 12 picks. You're going from round three to round four. You're losing 12 picks there. So you're getting one, 25, and 48. You're giving up 13, 19, and 36. Okay, but you're giving up 12 picks from 36 to 48.

You're getting 12 picks from 13 to 1, which I think we could agree are probably 12 more important picks. And the only difference in pick value is that little change from 19 to 25. That's six pick. I mean, yeah, I'm definitely moving up 12 picks to 1 for 12 picks for the third and fourth round for a little six pick drop back in the second round. Why does this never happen in any leagues that I'm in? All my leagues are filled with smart people who know what they're doing. And I never get offers like this where I just...

The trade's already done. I'm already cutting up vegetables for my dinner tonight. So I've only made one trade before a draft. Nah, that's a lie. I don't eat vegetables. In my fantasy career, I made one trade before a draft. And it was... I changed draft slots with Frank frank stample way before he started working for us probably the first time i met him he's now our fantasy baseball today host

i traded draft slots with him it was one of those flex drafts we did it live in person in new york city um and he i forgot what he said i think he either won the league or was the runner-up so i gave up i gave up the winning spot or the runner-up spot to frank i did the uh i did something similar with our producer jack capotorto we traded draft slots um and i finished runner-up to him ah in the championship it was for our fft league the one that we run uh every year with everybody who's on fft yeah i bet if you didn't make that trade you probably would have picked all the same players oh totally yeah it's a science

alright everybody thanks so much for listening Dave good stuff Shraggy B thanks for contributing Ben Gretsch stay off my spreadsheets and we'll talk to you on Friday with another edition of Fantasy Football Today thanks for listening everybody