Fantasy Football Today - Dave's BOLD PREDICTIONS plus Jake Ciely of The Athletic (6/3 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: June 3, 2020

Bold prediction week continues as Dave Richard makes his bold takes and we're joined by Jake Ciely of The Athletic. Before the 2020 predictions, we recap the latest news and notes (4:36) about the Colts RBs and Henry Ruggs. ... Dave's bold predictions begin with a hot take about Josh Allen's passing game (12:08) and Odell Beckham Jr.'s role in Cleveland (16:57). Dave likes Ceedee Lamb over Michael Gallup, but what about over Amari Cooper (22:31)? Can Miles Sanders finish in the top 5 (28:34)? Dave's final prediction is a dark horse pick to finish as a top 5 tight end (33:50) after nailing the Darren Waller call in 2019. ... We finish with Jake's bold predictions (41:05), including his favorite late round QB, his pick for this year's late season breakout running back, and why Terry McLaurin could dominate in 2020. Email us at [e-mail] and tweet questions using #AskFFT. 'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Watch our FFT Twitch poker tournament: 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

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Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Special Bold Predictions podcast for you today as we welcome in one of our favorite friends. Well, maybe not Adam Azer's favorite friend, but one of our favorite friends. Jake Seeley from The Athletic joins us. I'm Jamie Eisenberg. This is Fantasy Football Today with Dave Richard and Heath Cummings. And Adam, once again, is not going to be on the show. This one, though, is on purpose because we invited Jake to come on,

and Adam said, you know what? I'm going to sit this one out. So, Jake, just tell us what's a little bit with this beef you have with our buddy Adam and why you guys can never seem to be in the same place at the same time. I don't know. I think it dates all the way back to Flex when we were drafted in New York, and I sat next to him, and he drafted.

Who did he draft? It was back with the Broncos at the time and he drafted like the backup option and i mocked the hell out of him it was like the fifth round and i think he's hated me ever since uh that sounds like that sounds like our buddy adam uh holding a grudge about a fantasy pick um no surprise there so jake's gonna uh join us here this is dave richards turn to give us his bold predictions for 2020. We went over mine earlier this week. Keith will be coming up on a later show with Liz Loza joining us from Yahoo sports, but you can follow Jake at all in kid on Twitter.

Jake is again, like I said, with the athletic, he works with our buddy Nando DeFino and Jake, what are you doing at the athletic now? What can you tell people about what you're working on? Yeah, actually in the middle of the fourth one that's coming out this week is the next breakout blank so the next breakout quarterback running back wide receiver and tight end is this week every oh everybody's favorite tight end and then our draft kit that's going to be diving straight into updating the rankings because that's coming out middle of june because that's what we do now we keep pushing it

up earlier and earlier and earlier by the time we get around it's going to be the end of the season we're going to be launching draft kits. Our draft kit came out at the Super Bowl. That's how early we do ours. We didn't wait until the NFL draft. Like I said, we're doing bold predictions here for Dave, but we're going to get to Jake's bold predictions as well. Jake, give us one of your bold predictions for 2020. Yeah, it's probably the one I'm getting the most pushback on in my initial rankings is that clyde edwards-solaire is a top 10 running back now of course i don't want to say like i don't want to immediately put a caveat on this but you know that's assuming the offseason goes quote

unquote as planned you know if we don't get any practice time if we get to week two of the preseason the guy you know edwards-solaire is not even getting runs with the one because he didn't get any time with the team so as long as everything goes this offseason as planned, you have a team that you've heard read, you've heard Patrick Mahomes, you've heard everybody falling over him. They took him in the first round. I understand Damian Williams is there, but if anything should tell you their confidence in Damian Williams was bringing in LeSean McCoy last year.

I don't need 20 touches a game. You give me 15 from a running back in that backfield, it doesn't matter if it's Edwards Hilaire and that talent that's like a Camara level. You give me 15 touches that running back in that backfield it doesn't matter if it's edwards hilaire and that talent that's like a camara level you give me 15 touches that are kansas city running back and i want him as a top 10 running back where do you have him ranked jake in ppr i actually right now as soon as the draft was over i had him at running back six wow wow you're more aggressive than i am i haven't seriously and jamie jamie's bull prediction was that or yeah that he was going to be a top five running back. So the two of you need to get a room here with Edwards-Alaire.

You guys are – wow. Well, I mean, look, I think Jake said it. He's in a good spot. He's in a situation where if he does get around 15 touches, hopefully more. On top of the fact, like Jake said, they've been trying to replace Damian Williams what seems like for two years. He's had a hard time staying healthy. So if he's not on the field, that's when he'll open up more touches for Clyde Edwards-Hilaire.

But yeah, we share that sentiment. And Heath and Jake actually share the same sentiment of their love for kickers. So if you're ever in a league with Jake, he requires you to draft two kickers. Heath actually requires you to draft three kickers. I just, I don't understand why you guys love kickers so much. The funny thing is I thought that was why Adam hated Jake was because Jake's always tweeting ban kickers and Adam loves kickers so much

and thinks they're such an important part of fantasy. Well, we'll get to Jake's bold predictions after we go through Dave's. And Jake, we had to tell him only three bold predictions for kickers. So the rest, along with Clyde Debrisolaire, will be kicker-less. So if you follow Jake, he's very much anti-kicker. So that's his thing, and Heath as well. So no love for the kickers here.

Some news and notes that we'll get to. A couple things going on in the NFL. Obviously, it's been a little quiet, but Colts coach Frank Reich said there's definitely inherent respect for the starter returning. That's a quote from him in talking about Marlon Mack joining Jonathan Taylor or vice versa, I guess, Jonathan Taylor joining Marlon Mack. He also said that Nike Hines is a, quote, role-playing starter. So, Keith, when you look at this backfield,

we've talked about it a lot following the draft the fact that reich is once again talking up marlon mack is that just respect for the veteran or is it maybe we're going to see probably more of a committee than we hope well i think it's i mean i think it's kind of like the kansas city situation i definitely believe jonathan taylor is a much more talented running back than Marlon Mack, and I expect he's going to have a much better and longer career than Marlon Mack as a starting running back. But I think the most likely situation is that week one, Marlon Mack gets the first carry. And this one's even complicated a little bit more because Naheem Hines is probably going to dominate the passing work. So it really, as much as I love Jonathan Taylor and loved him before the draft,

it really worries me, at least for the start of the season. I think at some point the talent's probably going to win out, and Jonathan Taylor's going to get a majority of the touches. But I will say, like, we've talked about the fumbles a little bit. I don't really care that much about the fumbles, but if they were going to care about his college fumbles, the one place he might have a hard time getting on the field early, other than passing bounce, is in short yardage, because Mack's been pretty good at that. Jake, when you look at Edwards-Hilaire or Taylor compared to Edwards-Hilaire,

our colleague Ben Gretsch still actually, I think, may prefer Taylor to Edwards-Hilaire, just based on that offensive line and certainly some of the long-term opportunities for him once Marlon Mack is gone. How do you sort of look at this Colts backfield with all three guys, Taylor, Mack, and Hines? Same way. And I gotta say that for next year, I could see Taylor leapfrogging him. I could see Dobbins, and that being Edwards-Hilaire, I could see Dobbins jumping in front. Depending on what Patricia does, even Swift, because those are the three that I had in tier one before the draft. Edwards-Hilaire, most years would have been Tier 1. I called it like a Tier 1.5. But I'm kind of in agreement with Heath in the fact that we might be looking at

like a Miles Sanders situation this year where it takes injury or that he just outproduces Mack for a few weeks before he takes over and it probably won't be right out of the gate, especially with what's going on this offseason. So I think that's the case is Taylor's definitively a better talent. Actually, when Mac came out of college, I said he tries to do too much with plays sometimes instead of just taking a zero yard. You see, they're basically getting stuff at the line. He tries to dance around. It takes a loss. So I think it's Taylor's backfield in time. I just don't think it's going

to be week one. And as you mentioned with Naheem Hines, I think we're looking at a potential kind of like Austin Eckler with Phillip Rivers there now. Yes, that's something that I've been saying a lot. I'm excited about Hines even after the draft that he's somebody I think that in PPR, more so than non-PPR, will certainly have a benefit, but we'll see how this all works out. Dave, is this a backfield you find yourself taking pieces of or avoiding? Right now we're seeing Taylor's ADP. This is based on fantasy football calculator. He's about the 25th running back off the board and going in round four.

Mack's certainly going later. He's the 35th running back off the board going in round seven. Hines even later than that. And then when you look at these three guys, are you trying to get pieces of it or are you trying to avoid it? The piece that I'm probably most interested in getting is Hines. I'm kind of with you guys on that one because of that role that he's going to have as the passing down specialist, the two-minute drill running back.

That's the role that I think he's going to keep for 16 games. So unless Hines gets hurt, I think you're going to see him. I think you can see him flirt with as many as 60 catches, maybe 70 catches this year. I don't think he'll be what Austin Eckler was in 2018, but I think he can still be a good value in PPR. And I'm not messing around with Taylor or Mack. I think Mack can keep that job.

Schedule's easy for them early in the year. I could see Mack hanging on to that job for the first month and Taylor not coming close to giving you the value that you'd hope that he would give you, taking him as a top 50 pick in fantasy. Jake, real quick before we move on to the next news item, how does Taylor stack up for you with Cam Akers and DeAndre Swift? So, like I said, pre-draft, Taylor and Swift were tier one together with Dobbins. Akers is on tier two.

I thought he was disrespected for how terrible that offensive line was in college. I don't know what's been going on with that program for a while now. Oh, we love it. You're talking to a gator in a hurricane on this show, so we love Florida State beatdown. We don't have much of a problem with it. Well, I remember I was very young when it happened, but I still remember when Notre Dame got screwed out of the 93 championship,

so I hate Florida State too. All right. Tons of hate here. So there you have it. There's no way Adam could hate you. That's true. There's plenty of other reasons. Have you not seen me there's no way adam could hate you that's true there's plenty of other reasons have you not seen me on twitter that's everybody loves to hate me uh but the thing

is this with here is i actually think that acres is a good comparison for taylor situationally like as of today it looks like all three backs are going to be involved for different ways and different aspects and i think that it's just going to come down to who wins the job first between all these situations and swift's in the same boat swift is arguably the best pass catcher of those outside of edwards hilaire but he's dealing with patricia who's coming from that patriot system where he just refuses to give the guy the ball i think they're kind of done with carry on johnson but as i said the incumbents there and i think there's going to be frustrating backfields i to ask answer the question you, Dave, I would almost just stay away from these backfields, take the cheapest option,

and then kind of pull like what we did last year with Miles Sanders. Maybe go get the one we think is going to take over in like week five or six in a trade. Yes. He's talked about that a couple of times on various shows that the aggressive move is to, while these guys are not getting to work, trade for them, hopefully cheap, get them when they're about to take off like we did see from Sanders last year. And that's a good way to win your fantasy league, as we'll talk about Miles Sanders coming up with one of Dave's bold predictions. Other news item that we have here, Henry Ruggs on crutches

after recently injuring his thigh while, according to reports, moving furniture. So we kind of joked a little bit about this, like what would be the injuries via Zoom, via staying home during quarantine and this is the one we got so far so i was expecting somebody to slip in the shower fall down the stairs for henry rugs maybe got you know some new furniture after getting his big deal or you know signing his deal his record contract and getting some money in his pocket and he uh he hurt himself and he's on crutches so expect it to be fine apparently the raiders are aware of this but we'll talk a little bit about Ruggs coming up here

with one of Jake's bold predictions. But I'll ask you this, Heath, does this concern you at all about Ruggs? I mean, I know you're really worried about this offseason, but the rookie's now an injury on top of that. I will, I'll give him a free pass as long as he's ready to go for the start of camp, whatever that starts.

I'm still more concerned about the offseason than I am about this current injury. It sounds like it's not that big a deal. We'll hope it's not. Right. But for a speed guy on crutches, June, not a good thing. When I read this injury, the first image that came to mind was Ben Stiller moving furniture and there's something about Mary and you heard his back. I don't know why that's the thing I thought of, but that's what I thought of was... I thought of the pivot from Chandler and friends. Uh, pivot. Yeah, that's right. Going down the stairs. Absolutely. That's a great furniture reference as well. All right. Join our Facebook group, search fantasy football today on Facebook, or click on the link in the description to chat with the FFT team and other

fantasy fans. Ask keeper questions, join a new dynasty league and discuss draft strategy. Our Facebook group is awesome. So again, search fantasy football today on Facebook and join our Facebook group now. So today's show is all about Dave's bold predictions. I'm going to give you a hard time about a bunch of these though, Dave, because I don't feel like a lot of these are bold. I'm going to make you make them a little bit bolder. They seem to be some predictions, but we're going to get to them right now. Let's go with the first one here. And this one, I got to give you a little bit of a pushback on so josh allen will not be a top eight fantasy quarterback that's your bold predict that just feels like a prediction

he was the number nine quarterback last year like if you're gonna tell me say he's gonna be top 10 quarterback he's not gonna be a top 12 quarterback he's not gonna be a top 20 between top 10 and top eight i'm trying to make it as bold as you have him ranked number nine you're saying he's not going to be top eight. I don't think anybody should go and get him. I'm taking Drew Brees and Tom Brady. But that's not bold. That's just a prediction.

Give me bold. I want to hear bold. Fine, fine, fine. Josh Allen is going to run for prime minister of Canada and win. That's bold. And he's not going to help you in fantasy unless you're in like a fantasy global politics league. That's bold. Josh Allen will not be a top eight fantasy quarterback is the prediction.

So he's the number nine quarterback in 2019. He led quarterbacks with nine rushing touchdowns. He was third in rushing yards. We know he got Stephon Diggs this offseason with John Brown and Cole Beasley. What is your opposition to Josh Allen this year as a top eight fantasy quarterback? I don't trust him as a passer. Last year, he completed 59% of his throws. That was dead last among quarterbacks with at least 240 pass attempts.

He's terrible with the deep ball, 18 of 68 connected. That's bad news for Stephon Diggs. He ranked 29th in completion rate on passes of inside 15 air yards, according to Sports Info Solutions. He's never thrown for 275 yards in a game. He only has four games with over 250 yards. So you better hope he scores a lot of rushing touchdowns. I did a little bit of digging on this.

And you can tell me whether or not this is relevant or not. I know that each of his two seasons, he's had either eight or nine rushing touchdowns. Last year, nine. Four of them came from the one-yard line. Three of the four came after Frank Gore had at least one opportunity to score. And we know that Gore's gone. If the Bills can find a goal-line solution between Moss, Devin Singletary, maybe TJ Yeldon makes a miracle comeback and he fills a role for this offense. Anybody. I think that takes touchdowns on the ground away from Josh Allen. I don't see him as a guy that's going to run for a ton of yards.

I think the Bills want to protect him a little bit. I think they want to see him try and develop more as a passer. I just don't think he's got it. I don't think he's going to be one of those quarterbacks that gives us a lot of 300-yard, three-touchdown types of games. There are people that are way too excited about him. I'm not one of them. Dave.

Okay, so then why – buddy. Dave. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not one of them. Dave. Okay, so then why, buddy? Dave. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is the name of this show today? Bold Predictions. Bold Predictions. Your bold prediction was that he's not going any better than he was last year and that Josh Allen is bad as a passer.

Or drafting him like he's going to be. You're drafting him like he's going to be. This is like old predictions. These are things people have been saying. Be bold. Say he's not going to be top 12. Say he stinks. Because I think he can be top 12.

I think he'll be top 12, but I don't think he's worth taking him around. I'm looking at your rankings here. You have him ranked 9. You have Matt Ryan 10. If you're so opposed to Josh Allen, why not put Matt Ryan ahead of him? I might by the time we get to the preseason. I haven't done all my research on him. You might by the time we get to the preseason. I haven't done all my research on him. You might by the time we get to 4.17pm

on the time of the show. It's 4.16. Jake Baker over him. Jake, where do you have Josh Allen ranked, and what do you think about that bold prediction? I'm with you a little bit, Dave. At least say he's not going to be a QB1. Come a little bit stronger. I actually have him at 8, and I don't have

him rushing for 8 touchdowns or 9 touchdowns. I actually have him running for six. Now this is, I want to say this, Dave is like, I'm actually disagreeing with you, but this is coming from somebody that hated Josh Allen coming out of college. The exact quote you can go back to when I said he came out into my profile was that he can fit, he can fit it through a pinhole on a door, but he can't hit the damn door. Like that's how good it's a good, but see, I think the damn door. Like, that's how good – Okay. It's a good – But, see, I think the Stefan Diggs part, this is where I'm kind of comparing him to Cam Newton. And I think he is a Cam Newton version. Cam Newton initially, what people remember,

they tried to give him a bunch of big wide receivers to make him better. And they found out that didn't work. What you needed was guys that can get open and get open quick and get open short. And you're right, the deep ball sucks. But I think Stefan Diggs brings another dimension to this offense where he can find another option in the intermediate routes, even in the short game. And I think what they're doing is they're trying to go the Cam Newton route where you had DJ Moore and the quicker options of Steve Smith and those type of weapons where I think he can

be a little bit better as a passer. I don't ever think he's going to be a 65% passer or anything like that, but I think he can improve enough to have a respectable passing yards and the rushing is not going to completely go away. Where do you have him ranked Jake? Eight. Eight. So, uh, in the same range, uh, as all of us. Uh, okay. So there's bold prediction. Number one, Josh Allen will not be a top eight fantasy quarterback. Let's go now to bold prediction number two here. And this is one of Jake's favorite people in the NFL. I know Odell Beckham, not a big fan of you, right? He has been blocked on Twitter. I've seen you tweet about that a few times. Yeah. Your former coworker still hasn't helped me out there with the Browns to get me unblocked. Oh, Nathan. Nathan Zagura. Yeah, Zagura. You're supposed to be working on this. Yeah. So you hate, or let's see, Giants tie with

Adam Azer. He hates you. Odell Beckham, a former Giant, he hates you. And you're a Giants fan too, right? Yeah, well, this in French, well, that's not the best word. I've basically boycotted him until they get rid of Gettleman. Okay, so a non-Gettleman Giants fan that we have here. And Adam Azer, Odell Beckham, not big fans of Jake Sealy. So let's talk about Odell Beckham here. So Dave's bold prediction is Odell Beckham won't top a thousand yards.

So last year's first year with the Browns, he was the number 25 PPR wide receiver had over a thousand yards, 1,035 to be exact on 74 catches with four touchdowns on 133 targets. Our consensus ranking on CBS sports.com is the number 18 wide receiver. He's the number 18 wide receiver for you. So Dave, if he's not getting to a thousand yards, why is he ranked number 18 wide receiver. He's the number 18 wide receiver for you. So Dave, if he's not getting to a thousand yards, why is he ranked number 18? Because I still think he can get you maybe 900 yards and six touchdowns. He'll be good enough to be a number two wide receiver, but he shouldn't get overdrafted. I don't like that the injuries have been an issue for him each of the last three

seasons. Last year, especially, he wasn't the same guy. And hopefully, he says he's healed up. He says he's better. I need to see it to believe it. But I'm also concerned about the direction of the Browns' offense now with the addition of Kevin Stefanski. I think they're going to be more conservative. I think they're going to lean on Austin Hooper in the red zone. I've already mentioned that a third, more than a third, of Baker Mayfield's career touchdowns have gone to tight ends.

I think they're going to continue to be fed toward him in the red zone. I think they're going to run the ball a hell of a lot. And it's going to be rough for Beckham, who already saw his target average dip by two per game last year. And he had one catch in the red zone last year. And I expect that number to go up, but I don't think a lot of his other numbers are going to go up. And I don't think you can count on him to be a surefire stud

like you might have drafted him to be each of the past three years i think he'll actually be as good if not worse neck this year that is that he was last year he if you haven't ranked 18th in ppr what do you think about beckham as a guy that may not get to a thousand yards or maybe worse than he was a year ago so i'm supposed to talk about beckham and not the fact that dave's second bold prediction is that odell be Beckham is going to have 36 fewer yards than he had last year? It's actually that he's going to be worse than he was last year. That's what I wrote for the site. There is concern about injuries, and I think betting against Odell Beckham playing 16 games might be a pretty good bet to make. There's certainly concern about pass volume with Kevin Stefanski taking over that

offense. And listen, if Jarvis Landry is fully healthy, I don't know that we have any reason to expect that Beckham's going to dominate targets there with Landry and Hooper and Joku and Cream Hunt. So there's plenty of reason for concern. I can't rank him any lower than 18th though, because I still believe like he has top five upside. I don't believe it's that. I think it's within the 80th percentile that Jarvis Landry starts the year on the pup. He's talking about hoping to be ready in August or September. We don't really know with him yet.

So I still think there's a ton of upside. I still haven't projected for more than 1000 yards, but not far from 1,000. Jake, his average draft position, Beckham's average draft position on Fantasy Football Calculator as the 10th wide receiver off the board. He's going in the middle of round three. Is that the right spot for him?

How do you come out on Beckham? Take your hate, put it to the side for his hate of you. Don't worry about that. Just talk about him as a football player. What do you think about Beckham going in that spot and how do you view him for 2020 i actually have a giant's beckham jersey a brown's beckham jersey and a funko pop of him so i do love the player i will say this uh i kind of straddled the middle and i don't want to straddle middle like say i'm not taking a side here it's the fact that i do think eight i think 10 is too high i think 18 is

a fair spot, maybe a few spots ahead of him because, and I don't want to do this to everybody on a football podcast, but I'm going to compare him to a baseball player. And the fact that it's Giancarlo Stan, like if we, if he plays most of the season, we know he can finish top five. And that's the appeal here. Like his injuries, unlike Stanton are more actual tissue injuries. And that's where I lean with Dave a little bit. It's like, there's the concern of that, but I also agree with Heath and the fact that if Landry's not ready to start the season as much as we're worried about Stefanski killing the passing game you know there's going to be a lot on his plate to start the year so maybe he's somebody you ride early and then sell before it gets worse when Landry's back but I think the biggest concern that wasn't mentioned

so far is Stefanski but I think that's where Dave was pointing at is that this is going to be a run heavy team we've seen what Stefanski did to the Vikings and that's my biggest concern that wasn't mentioned so far is Stefanski, but I think that's where Dave was pointing at, is that this is going to be a run-heavy team. We've seen what Stefanski did to the Vikings, and that's my biggest concern, that he barely gets over 1,000, and maybe it's a little bit more of an A.J. Brown type of season where there's a couple big weeks and some really bad weeks. Yeah, I had one of my bold predictions was that the Browns would have the eighth duo in NFL history to have two players on the same team rush for 1,000 yards because Stefanski with Kareem Hunt and Nick Chubb. And as we talked about, if that happens, that's going to be really bad for all the receiving options for the Browns.

But, you know, a lot of mouths to feed in this offense. That's kind of something I think that ran into – that Beckham ran into a little bit last year with the Giants, as good as maybe Sterling Shepard was becoming or, you know, the other receiving options they had there. You know, Jarvis Landry and what he brought to the table as the second option there, I think hurt Beckham a little bit as well. All right. So there's two bold predictions in, we've got three more to go.

And here's the next one here from Dave. So bold prediction, number three, CeeDee Lamb will finish with more fantasy points than Michael Gallup. So as we saw from the NFL draft, the Cowboys go out and draft CeeD. Lamb with the 17th overall pick. In the first round, a surprise, I think, to some. But we saw last year that Gallup, on a point-per-game basis, he was right there with Amari Cooper, 15.1 points per game in PPR. Cooper was at 15.3.

Right now, Lamb, the consensus ranking on him is at 38. Gallup, the consensus ranking, this is on our site, cbssports.com, the consensus ranking is 32. So Heath and I have Gallup ranked still ahead of C.B. Lamb, but Dave, you have Lamb ranked ahead of Gallup, and you think he's going to be better than the third-year wide receiver. I do. I think that he's certainly more versatile of a receiver than Gallup. I think he's got better hands than Gallup. I think they're kind of similar in terms of stature. And I might get to the point where I start to knock down Cooper too. I think that all three of these guys could end up taking away from each other.

It's a lot of mouths to feed in that Cowboys offense. I think they're going to throw a good amount. But Lamb's going to be the one that's going to see a lot of single coverage. And I think that's going to only benefit him. The fact that he plays in the slot, I think that's going to benefit him. And I got to nitpick Gallup a little bit. And he was my guy when he came out. I loved him. But last year, catch rate was under 60%. He dropped 13 passes. That has to be a reason. That had to have been on Jerry Jones' mind when he ranked CeeDee Lamb sixth on his draft board. He ranked him sixth.

He didn't need a wide receiver, and he just went and got CeeDee Lamb anyway because he fell into his lap. I like where he fits. I think he's going to be a big-time player for the Cowboys long term, and I think by the end of the year, he's going to have better numbers than Michael Gallup. Heath, I'll give you the first word again. What do you think about this bold prediction here?

For Dave, the ranking is Lamb at 34, Gallup at 35. So the bold prediction is he'll finish one spot better. Well, I think it's bold because I don't really care what Michael Gallup's catch rate was last year. He was a 23-year-old wide receiver that put up 1,100 yards in 14 games. He averaged 16.8 yards per reception, 9.8 yards per target. That's elite. If you're being targeted down the field like he was, you're not going to have a high catch rate. That's right in the Mike Evans range. So I don't think we should hold that against him at all. Dave made the point about Ceeley. I'm

seeing a lot of single coverage. I think that's true. I think the way the Cowboys are built now, everyone's going to see a lot of single coverage, and that's one of the reasons that Dak Prescott's easily my number three quarterback. There's enough room for Cooper, Gallup, and Lamb to all be useful in fantasy, but I can't expect, and again, it kind of goes back to what we talked about with the running backs. I just can't expect that CeeDee Lamb's going to come in and take away a chunk of target share from Michael Gallup, early in the season especially, when they've got 170 targets to replace from Jason Witten and Randall Codd. There's plenty of targets for CeeDee Lamb. Does it bother anybody that Gallup's best game was in Week 17 and that he really wound up... If you take away Week 17,

his PPR average was 11.4 per game. But he had 32 PPR points in the last game. It doesn't bother you that he had that one big game to kind of inflate his total number? No, because I pretty much ignore Week 17. I think what bothers me is the people that still like Cooper watching Gallup outplay Cooper towards the end of the year. So look,

I'm not kind of really taking a side on here. I guess my, if I had to say the Cowboys bowl prediction would just be like, I don't want any of them. I just, because I don't play the Cooper game. I've never played the Cooper game because he's so wildly inconsistent and puts up 50% of his stats in three games.

I would have loved, I was hoping this is where you're going. I was loving if you were going to say Lamb was going to finish with more points than Cooper. Because here's what I say about this after the draft. The best case scenario is now we're kind of looking at to what Heath was pointing to is it's McCarthy with the Packers. And then what we're saying is it's three wide.

This is a bad news situation for Blake Jarwin, the excitement that we had for about three weeks of Blake Jarwin. But the three wide receivers, best case scenario is we see them mimic those Packers where one's a top five, one's a top 15, and the other one's like 35. That's the best case. But for real life, that's a bad thing. But I don't know if we get that because Lamb is a rookie.

I think that we could be looking at it's Cooper week, it's Lamb week, it's Gallup week, it's Gallup again, it's Lamb again. And it's just stay away because you're never going to be able to predict week to week to week unless you're diving in and looking at the cornerback matchups and playing that game, which is fine, but you're not going to be able to play that game in seasonal. Well, and even so, their schedule is brutal. They're facing a lot of top-tier cornerbacks where one guy may get taken away

if they stay on the side, if the guys don't move around. It could be frustrating for all of them. I tend to lean toward what you're saying, Jake. I haven't found myself drafting any of the Cowboys guys I just think Cooper's going a little bit too high for what the scenario could be and as we saw last year you know he played through some injuries maybe it was a a factor of the contract situation trying to prove that he is a tough guy to stay on the field we tend to see that from time to time I also think that one thing that we could end up seeing is that, you know, the run game.

I mean, you know, it's one of the best run games in football. So, you know, that could be a scenario where we get back to Ezekiel just dominating, you know, touchdowns. And we haven't really seen that from him to the same level over the last couple of years like he was earlier in his career. So I'm concerned about that. I'll still take Gallup over over Lamb, but it could be a situation like Keith has said, and you alluded to Jake as well, that could be a guy you trade for, you know, right before the breakout happens. And, you know, maybe that's the case. One thing though, Dave, about the week 17 performance, they were still fighting for the playoffs. So that wasn't an important game for them. It wasn't like, you know, they were just kind of coasting at that point. You know, they

were trying to win that game to win the NFC East. As we know, Philadelphia won, they got into the playoffs, Dallas missed and here we are. So, you know, that's something I think to keep in mind. But Dave is taking CeeDee Lamb over Michael Gallup, and the consensus for us, Heath and I at least, are taking still Michael Gallup over the rookie. Next bowl prediction we have here is Miles Sanders will be a top six running back with 1,500 total yards and 10 total touchdowns. So Dave has Sanders ranked number six.

We've had this conversation time and time again. The one draft that I'll point to was an early PPR draft. Dave took Miles Sanders over Devontae Adams. That was a big cause of uproar, I think, of how that went. Jake, I'll ask you this question first. Who would you have taken? I think it was the seventh overall pick in a PPR league. We would start three wide receivers.

Dave took Sanders at seven. I think everybody else, I did a Twitter poll on that as well. I didn't say that it was Dave. I just said, who would you have taken at number seven overall, Adams or Sanders? And a lot of people asked me if I was drunk. Who would you have taken in that spot, Jake? I would have taken Adams. I would also have taken Derrick Henryry nick job joe mix and nick

uh who else josh jacobs uh so look i understand it like i understand the appeal of miles sanders it's the same appeal we've always had with the eagles offense but it's the pushback of doug peterson and i understand as of right now it's only him and boston scott and if this holds true even you know the rumors of Carlos Hyde or whatever, I don't think anybody's coming in and taking away from Miles Sanders on a weekly basis. I actually just think Boston Scott's going to be more involved than people realize because, and I'm not saying you, Dave.

I'm sure you know this, but you go back to Darren Sproles, and Darren Sproles was the only running back under Doug Peterson who never touched the ball 60% of the time, and it only happened in three games. entire career only happened three times so it's a it's hard for me to sit back and say you know what maybe doug peterson's changed i'm not saying he can't because if he is and if you are right which i'm assuming is where you're headed with this is miles sanders sees 70 of the workload every single week he will be near the top five he's that good people overlooked how

good he was because of who he replaced in college at Saquon Barkley. That was just unfair to him. So it's not a question of talent. It's just the question of, is it going to be 18, 17 touches every single week? If so, get me on board. I just, I can't do it yet. I've been burned too many times by this backfield. Well, he was getting close to that workload, if not exactly that workload. I can go back and double-check. At the end of the season, here's my immediate pushback. His best receiver at the time was what, Greg Ward? They had no receivers at the time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so look at what he was doing when he didn't have receivers to help push the safeties back. He was still putting up huge numbers. His 16-game pace over his final eight was 1,526 total yards and eight touchdowns. Right. It's not the talent, and it's not the talent per touch. Right, sure, but he still had the opportunity.

I don't believe those touches. He had 290. The 16-game pace, again, I'm referring to it over the eight games, was 296 touches. Right, but I don't believe in those touches with everybody healthy at wide receivers, is what I'm saying. I think that was a big factor in the fact that they were playing. Their two top weapons were Ertz and Goddard. Yes.

And in those five games, he didn't play, I think, at all in Week 17 or he got hurt. From Week 11 to Week 16, he had 23 catches over that span. So the catch total is something that you can look at and say, okay, maybe that comes down from basically, you know, over four per game to, you know, closer to three or maybe even less, especially if Boston Cot is a factor there. I hope you're right. Well, we know based on reports that they are probably going to add somebody else. Devontae Freeman's the name that they could be looking at. Freeman's also in some conversations with the

Bucs. Again, according to reports, Seattle's already made Devontae Freeman an offer. And he said he may sit out if he doesn't get the type of money that he's looking at. And his career if he sits out. Yeah, mostly. I mean, I think that's the guy that people are looking at. Heath, we've had a lot of talk about Miles Sanders. I guess just put your two cents in here. Where do you come out on this?

Could he be a top six guy, or is he going to be finishing closer to maybe number 10, which is where we have him ranked at the consensus? I've argued against Miles Sanders in the first round quite a bit, and I'm getting more comfortable with the idea of doing it in non-PPR at the very end of the first round. He could absolutely, if he plays 16 games, he's got a decent shot to finish as a top six running back. I don't think, I'm not projecting it, I don't think he probably will,

but it's not that far outside of the range of possibilities. They're going to share some. There won't be as many targets as there were in the second half of last year, so I agree with Jake on that. I do still think 1,500 yards, I've got him projected for 1,498 and

10 touchdowns, so that's a top 10 running back. Beautiful. A year from now, there won't be any debate.. That's a top 10 running back. Beautiful. A year from now, there won't be any debate. He'll be a first-round pick. Hopefully. Again, we haven't seen Peterson over 16 games feature a guy. There's been stretches. Jay Ajayi, when they made the trade from Miami,

was getting good enough or close enough to feature workloads. Josh Adams, that little stretch where he was a factor for the Philadelphia backfield, Sanders last year. Look, the Philadelphia receiving core, while it may be replenished a little bit, we're still talking about, they could be looking at JJ Arcega-Whiteside, Greg Ward, and a couple of rookies with Jalen Rager being the best one. If Jeffrey's not there and Jackson gets hurt again, you know, so it could be a similar situation where they're still

trying to piece it together and having to rely on these guys once again. So I think we all like Sanders. Dave obviously is the highest on him based on where he has him ranked. And as you can see, he expects him to finish as a top six guy based on the bold prediction here. All right, Dave's last bold prediction is Tyler Higbee will be a top five tight end. As we saw last year, it was basically a five-game stretch that helped Higbee finish as the number seven tight end in PPR. Over those last five games, he had either a touchdown or 100 yards, and he saw at least 11 targets in all five of those games.

So, Dave, you have him ranked number five. The consensus for us is number seven. Average draft position right now is the 10th tight end off the board, according to Fantasy Football Calculator. So you expect Higby to pick up from where he did last year in those five games and carry that over to this season. Sure. And remember back earlier this offseason when Austin Hooper was my fifth

tight end. And I said, until somebody comes along that I think is just a much safer bet to finish in the top five, I'm going to keep him there. Higby came along to me when I went back and watched his final five games and I'm sold. He's the Rams version of George Kittle. He's quick. He's huge. He's a matchup nightmare.

He's big time version of George Kittle. He's quick. He's huge. He's a matchup nightmare. He's big time in the red zone. And look, he averaged 8.6 targets in those final five games. He's not getting that. He just won't. I don't think he will. And he had 100 yards per game in his final five. He's not going to get that either. But I think he's got a shot to have a bunch of weeks where he scores

and a handful of other weeks where he finishes north of 70 yards. I think he's still going to be involved in the offense. McVay would be a moron not to. And remember, he put up the numbers that he did last year in those final five games while still working as a blocker on 20% of the passing plays in L.A. So just imagine if he starts getting the type of receiving role that a Zach Ertz gets or that a Mark Andrews has, which he's probably not going to get. He's too good of a blocker to be completely out of that realm.

But I think that they can use him quite a bit. They were using him on screens, guys. How many tight ends outside of the elite guys are used on screens in the NFL? There's no doubt that he's going to end up being a very valuable fantasy tight end. The fact that you can get him as the 10th tight end off the board just makes me want to just wait on draft day, get to round eight, take him then, and not worry about the tight end position. Maybe, maybe draft the second tight end, just in case I'm wrong.

But I doubt it. I think he's too good of a player. All right, Heath, you have him ranked number 10. So based on where his average draft position is, that's where you are in sync there. We saw most of these numbers come without Gerald Everett as a factor for the Rams after he left due to injury. Running back situation, as we talked about at the top of the show, different with Todd Gurley gone, and Brandon Cooks is gone,

replaced by a combination of most likely Van Jefferson and Josh Reynolds. So you're a little bit down on Higby compared to Dave. Why? It's uncertainty. Like I was with most of what Dave said in terms of Tyler Higby upside. I really struggle with just like, what is Sean McVay going to decide to do? Like they're going to change something again

I would assume he's one of the more creative offensive minds in the game and not very stagnant which isn't great if you're trying to do projections and where targets are going to be distributed because he's not necessarily easy to predict within a given season much less year over year and like things did not go well for the Rams last. So I can't go as far to say they'd be an idiot if they didn't go back to what they did at the end of last year because they missed the playoffs and only won eight games, or they missed the playoffs for sure. So I think that there's definitely top five upside for Higby, but I wouldn't be all that surprised if they go back to the offense

they had two years the offense they had two years ago where they didn't really even use the tight ends that very much in the past game. And for what it's worth, Higby for an offensive line that struggles, he's the better blocker of the two between him and Everett, and we'll see if he has to do a little bit more of that. So, Jake, where do you come out on Tyler Higby? Are you with Dave?

Are you going to sort of saddle the fence, or are you going to go maybe completely against this one? No, it's the first time. I'm definitely more with Dave. I'm at six, so I'm right there with him in one spot off. You're looking at that, where you're talking about those final few games. He was also, for people out there that don't know, he was tight end one, period.

In points per game and overall. He was just destroying the position. Obviously, as Dave said, we don't expect that to happen over the full season. That'd be ungodly if he did an unsat Kelsey and Kittle. You'd have a playoff ticket if he does that. Yeah, exactly. But I think the big thing we're looking at here is, to tie this into something else, Higby, where I'm buying in, is actually where I start to lean towards the concern of Cup. You mentioned Van Jefferson's aosh reynolds show little flashes here and there

but the biggest thing is when they're running the 12 towards the end of the year is cup kept coming off the field he was out there 60 of the snaps 70 of the staffs he stopped seeing 90 and i think it was because the higby situation was working so well to heath's point like i don't trust that mcveigh's going to do that for the entire year but at least has a hesitation in my mind that whatever breaks right this year for them higby at worst is the number three option. He might be the number two option, depending on what happens. So I'm more concerned about the cup and the wide receiver situation. I feel good about Woods and Higby.

Where do you have cup ranked? I have cup just outside wide receiver one, and I don't love it. And to Keith's point, it's going to come down to, I mean, just the percentage change in target share is going to drop them potentially further. And again, the running situation could be different if they get back to running the ball better like we saw two years ago or certainly three years ago. Maybe that changes some of the output for Jared Goff in the passing game.

This is a defense that's changing, new coordinators, some new faces. It's a lot of change going on with the Rams. So if they just continue to do with what worked, we know McVay, that kind of became a problem for him after a lot of people think the Patriots figuring him out in the Super Bowl and what we saw from the production last year. So we'll see if he continues to reinvent himself, a lot of new coordinators as well.

So he changed over a lot of his staff, and we'll see how that impacts some of the things the Rams do. But he'll be definitely going to be drafted as a top 10 tight end. For me, I have him ranked number seven. So ahead of Heath, behind you guys, but just slightly. So I think we all share the same optimism that Higby could be a number one tight end and certainly should be drafted that way. So there's Dave's bold predictions.

Just to wrap them up, he's got Josh Allen finishing as a – not finishing as a top eight quarterback. He's got Odell Beckhamham won't top a thousand yards cd lamb will finish with more fantasy points than michael gallup miles sanders will be a top six running back and tyler higby will be a top five tight end now we're going to move on to jake's bold predictions but first we're going to take a quick break and when we come back we'll get into what the athletic is telling you to do here about being bold in 2020. Whether in the game or in life, the right coverage can make all the difference.

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They chose both because they knew the best part of beer is the beer. Your game time tastes like Miller time. Learn more at MillerLite.ca. Must be legal drinking age. So we told you the top of the show that Jake's bold prediction, his favorite bold prediction, is that Clyde Edwards-Tolera will be a top 10 running back. He's got him ranked number six.

I said he would be a top five running back, so even though I don't have him ranked the way that Jake does, I have him being a little bit more bold in terms of where Clyde Edwards-Tolera will be. But Clyde Edwards-Tolera, as we talk a lot about, and Jake likes him a lot, will be a top 10 running back for 2020. I want to go to another thing. We're going to skip ahead to your last bold prediction because I want to tie in the news item from earlier.

So Henry Ruggs hurting his thigh on crutches, expected to be fine. But you like him as the best wide receiver, not just for the Raiders, but can also be a top 30 fantasy wide receiver this year. Yeah, absolutely. I think he's already the number one for the Raiders obviously again this goes back to the Edwards Hilaire and you know offseason depending on what happens with the NFL being able to practice and stuff like that could change things and now hurt all rookies and all free agents moving to new teams but as of today I think Henry Ruggs got too much disrespect which is crazy to say in the draft process a lot of people pushing, yeah, he wasn't even the best receiver on his team.

But if you just watch Henry Ruggs, people want to liken him to Ted Ginn. I thought that was one of the most disrespectful things I've ever seen in my life as well. Because Henry Ruggs, yes, he's a deep threat. Yes, that speed's so attractive. And he's such a big play threat. But it undercuts some of Miles Sanders in a different way. Because he's so good at that people overlook the fact of how good he was as a route runner how much separation he created the

only nitpick where i had of them is he doesn't find space and zone too well that's more of a vision thing that's something you can obviously learn but i want to see players also especially wide receivers being able to run routes coming out of college and he's not the best but he's better than people gave him credit for he can run more than the deep ball he's just not a nine guy and his competition is hunter renfro who's going to be in the slot come on tyrell williams which again maybe i think tyrell williams is what people think he might be and you have another rookie in brian edwards you have zay jones cast off from the bills he has zero competition he is the number one wide receiver he will finish as a top 30 wide receiver as long as everything breaks right this offseason, as mentioned before.

I hate to put that caveat, but it's true. How does he compare, just to tie in one of Dave's bold predictions, to CeeDee Lamb? And you could factor in Jerry Judy, Jalen Rager, you know, the other wide receiver is Justin Jefferson, you know, whoever your second, third, fourth option may be, if Ruggs is in fact number one yeah i i have as my number one as you said the number one rookie wide receiver uh next closest i actually have is justin jefferson and then after that cd lamb and judy are back to back 41 and 42 so they're close in range those three that being justin jefferson and then judy and and lamb but i think he landed in a terrific spot and for everybody that wants to poo-poo Derek Carr,

his deep ball is better than people think it is. It's not terrific, but it's better than Josh Allen, that's for sure. If you actually look back at his numbers. Hey, let's go back to forget the fact that he made Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree both wide receiver ones in the same season. Derek Carr is not the worst quarterback in the NFL. Does it bother you that he doesn't throw deep very often? Right, just the amount of times he goes deep.

But again, yeah, I think it's the amount of times I think he really hasn't had a true, if you saw Tyrell Williams for there, everybody's getting super excited about Tyrell Williams and catching those touchdowns. And a lot of them were 20 plus. So he will. I just don't think that's been who he's had around him to really take advantage of it. If you love Derek Carr as much as you love kickers, how do you feel about this Henry Ruggs-Wald prediction? Well, I haven't looked at his schedule to see how many cold-weather games

he has this year. Listen, I don't think Derek Carr is the worst quarterback in the NFL. He's slightly below average. That's fine. I would like it better, actually. One of the things Jake said, I think the way that Ruggs could be the number one wide receiver this year is if the Raiders used him as more of what they did with Hunter Renfro, played him in the slot,

and he could get a ton of targets in this offense. I don't like the idea that Ruggs and Tyrell Williams are going to be working outside. Renfro and Waller are going to be working the short area targets, and they're going to run the ball 350 times with Josh Jacobs. I just don't think there are enough targets that are going to go down the field to Ruggs in that scenario. I still think, obviously, that Tyrell Williams is a very good, not great wide receiver, so he's going to get some of those targets.

I just don't love the opportunity if the plan is to play Renfro inside and Ruggs and Tyrell outside. Can I help you out with one thing? Maybe from week nine through 16, Heath, there's three road games, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and at New York is the latest one, December 6th. Everything else is at home and everything else is indoors, so you're good. That helps me out. You didn't have to go to Kansas City or Denver late in the season.

Denver's week 17. If he's still the starter there, I mean, you could see a situation where Mariota replaces him. You just never know. John Gruden could get upset with a few bad there card throws, and maybe they do turn to the former number two overall pick. Because something to keep in mind if you're looking at the Raiders, I do expect Carter to start most of the season, but you never know.

Next bold prediction for Jake. Going back to the Giants. Daniel Jones will push for QB1 status. So, as we saw last year, very highs, a lot of lows, but four games with at least 35 fantasy points and leagues where you're six points for passing touchdowns. He ran. It's certainly a bonus for him.

Receiving core, if everybody's healthy, looks nice. Tell us what you like about Daniel Jones. I'm going to say the same thing when he was drafted. He's discount Jameis Winston. And I don't want to say poor man's because poor man's knocks him down. That's too far. He's discount version. He's probably not going to be quite as 5 000 as james winston but the one thing i liked about him and this is i pulled up on sports radar 360 it's in my article

about him is his pastor rating went from 61.4 to 95.8 when not pressured he threw 21 of his 24 touchdowns when not pressured his catchable passes went from 48.6 to 70.9 when not pressured. The Andrew Thomas addition, the attention to the offensive line this offseason with some more depth, and the fact that he'll now, as of now, today, have actually a healthy receiving core, including Evan Ingram. He has all the weapons there. I don't care about the turnovers because just like Jameis Winston, we didn't care about the turnovers. Jameis Winston was a top five quarterback. I'm not even saying he's got to be top five,

but I think he's going to be nipping at the heels of the QB1s, if not in the QB1. Where do you have him ranked now? I actually have him at 14, I think, right now. Let me double check. And I think I would have to push him up because of my bold prediction. But, yeah, it's right around Matt Ryan or Carson Wentz, right in that range. I think Jake caught the date bug here.

Wasn't Daniel Jones pushing for QB1 status in his starts last year? Not a word. He was the guy that we were talking about as a streamer. I thought he was pretty close to QB1 on a per-game basis if you just looked at the game as he started. On a per-game basis, I thought he was like 16, somewhere around there, wasn't he?

I don't remember. I don't have the actual numbers. I just wanted to be a jerk. That's my job. He was QB 17 in points per game. Yeah, but one of those games is like a partial game, right? It doesn't count. What do you mean it doesn't count?

All right, so Jake, let me ask you this. Okay. Let me ask you this. That's not a major thing. Let me ask you this. When you're looking at, you know, you miss on your quarterback that you like. You know, whatever the case may be, whoever you have ranked, let's say 10 through, you said you have Jones at 14, so 10 through 13.

You're in that range. We're going to see probably Aaron Rodgers in that range. We're going to see Roethlisberger in that range, Stafford in that range, maybe Wentz and Ryan in that range. Do you play the game of I'm just going to wait and take the last guy that I like and maybe Daniel Jones, or do you start to maybe prioritize Daniel Jones a little bit? No, I'll probably go more the route where that's when I started considering drafting two quarterbacks.

And I know that's like this day and age. And some more people are starting to move back in that direction, especially if you're not playing super flex. But once you get past the big six, in my opinion, and that sixth is Deshaun Watson, whether it's Russell Wilson, whoever it might be for you guys. But after that, that's when I started thinking about, you know, do you pair a Matthew Stafford, a Tom Brady, a Ben Roethlisberger with that point of their careers with a Daniel Jones or a Gardner Minshew? And that's where I'll do it. So like I would pair Daniel Jones with a

safe option like a Tom Brady, which might go before that, but you understand what I'm saying is I'll take one that has the potential to break out and be a top 10 quarterback. I'll take the other where, you know, if that guy completely bombs and looks embarrassed, then I have the safe option. So that's kind of like where I'll go when I'll draft two quarterbacks. Hey, where do you like Daniel Jones right now? Is he somebody that you target if you miss one of the guys that you like, or you still think you need to take two quarterbacks if you're taking Jones just because he may not have that type of upside like we're seeing, and it may not be on a consistent base yeah there's no way i want daniel jones as my only quarterback coming out of a draft but he's he's probably at

the top of the list of candidates to pull what lamar jackson and patrick mahomes did each of the past two seasons where you get them in the double digit rounds and they end up being an amazing fantasy quarterback for your squad, and you're on your way to the playoffs and maybe even a championship. I love that he runs a little bit. I think that the weapons and everything that Jake talked about are spot on. The schedule is tough, and at first, that deterred me from liking Daniel Jones, and then I thought about it a little bit, and it just means he's going to be doing more passing and more running. And I think that it might not be what the Giants want him to do, per se. I don't think New York really wants to have an explosive passing offense. I think if

Joe Judge had his druthers just coming from New England, I think he'd love to just lean on Saquon Barkley and let him churn. But Saquon can catch passes, too, and that'll come from Daniel Jones. And yeah, I think he's got, I think he's got a lot of high upside. I don't love having them right where I have them right. And I've got them 16th. And I look at quarterbacks that I have in front of them, like Roethlisberger, Goff, Aaron Rodgers. And, and I think to myself, you know what, those guys are probably safer than Daniel Jones. They're the types of quarterbacks that I'd like to pair with Jones when I walk out of my draft. And that way, if Jones is that guy, if he is the 2020 version

of Lamar Jackson, then I don't really care who the other quarterback is that I took. I've got Jones. He'll be my starter. And I just roll baby. He was on pace, uh, on 16 game pace to be the sixth best rushing quarterback, just under 400 yards rushing. So maybe that goes up closer to 500, and he's in the same range as guys like Kyler Murray and Josh Allen, if that's the case. So he has that potential. And as we saw, in a limited capacity, he did have those four games with 35 or more points. That is certainly something that he can strive to be more consistent with and would put him on a much different level in terms of his fantasy production, like Dave said, maybe in the Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes category.

That's some very, very big shoes to have to fill if he's able to do that. You will be thrilled with getting him with basically one of your last picks on draft day. Next bold prediction for – I'm sorry, go ahead. Well, I just wanted to clarify that I was correct in my being a jerk. He did only play five snaps in week one, which throws off his per-game numbers. If you look at his per-game numbers after that, he scored more fantasy points per game in a standard CBS league

than Carson Wentz last year. And Aaron Rodgers. So he'll be top 10. Is that better, Heath? All right. Darius Geis, next bowl prediction for Jake. Darius Geis will be this year's Miles Sanders. So clarify that, Jake.

What do you mean? He's going to be the guy that we look at late and come on strong, or is he going to be just the guy that comes out of nowhere to be a potential superstar? Bold, but it's going to take some weeks because, you know, the biggest thing is Geist needs to be 100%. And he's very similar to the career path of the guy he replaced at LSU, Leonard Fournette, who also, while at LSU, was overlooked for pass catching ability because LSU at the time then the throw their running backs uh now i will

say this about guys he's a better pass catcher for net a lot of his volume last year and passes came off dump balls guys can run a little bit more routes than for net can and i keep bringing up for net for the fact that he also outperformed him at lsu in a lot of areas including yards created put a touch which he almost doubled him up on. So Geis, I say all that to say I thought he was a better prospect for Fournette. We've seen what Fournette can do. Geis hasn't been able to stay on the field. We know that 100%.

I don't think Washington's going to rush him out there from week one and immediately give him 20 touches. But I look at the fact that Adrian Peterson, over 1,000 total yards last year in what was a pretty pathetic season at this point of his career, but that still got him his RB29. And my point being is that if Geist has this backfield, it's probably going to take to the middle of the season,

but he'll have the backfield where he gets 16, 17 touches per week, whether it's Love, whether it's somebody else getting the pass volume a little bit more than he is. He can get to the point where towards week 9, 10, through the end of the year, he can be a top 15 running back just because of the talent. And that offensive line isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Even with no Trent Williams, it was middle of the pack for run blocking last year.

So where do you have him ranked right now? Guys. And that's the fact that to your point of how you phrased the question, I actually have guys as 28, but that's factoring in, you know, lower touches for the first six, seven, eight games with the bigger volume coming in the second half of the year. So this is going to be somebody that if you don't get on draft day, you'll be looking to make some trades for if it goes a little sluggish to start the season. Yeah, I would, to be honest with you, if anybody's in my league that's in my home league and

they bring my rankings and articles and stuff like that, read my stuff, draft Geis, then get frustrated because you didn't pay attention to everything I said, and then let me trade for him in week six. So, Heath, I'll start with you on this. We have Peterson still there. They don't exactly know what role he's going to play just based on what you're reading, but he's going to play a role. Antonio Gibson, they're talking up as the next Christian McCaffrey. Jake mentioned Bryce Love.

We don't know what role he'll play if he's healthy. And they did bring in Peyton Barber and J.D. McKissick. So it's a very crowded backfield. I think we're all in agreement that Geis, if healthy, is by far the best one there, even Peterson, because Peterson is in his mid-30s at this point. So, Heath, do you agree with Jake on this one, that Geis could be this year's Miles Sanders,

that by the end of the season he's somebody that we're not just starting across the board, he's helping us win championships. Yeah, I absolutely love this one. I don't really have any doubt that Darius Geis has the talent to make this type of thing happen. I don't know that Washington's going to be a terrible team to be on for a running back this year if things get sorted out. And unfortunately, like what it took for Miles Sanders to break out, and we kind of forget this, it wasn't like he was just playing with Jordan Howard, outplaying him, and then all of a sudden he took over the job. That breakout doesn't happen unless Jordan Howard goes down.

And I hope that Geis doesn't need that. I hope Geis can just stay healthy for the full 16 games. That would be awesome. But I do think he's a really good candidate for this type of breakout if he can stay healthy and something happens to thin out that Washington running back room. Dave, I know you're excited about Antonio Gibson. Do you find yourself targeting Darius Geis as well as average draft position

based on fantasy football calculator around seven right now? I can't take him then. For Jake and I, we should go back to talking about Tyler Higbee or something because we're not on the same page when it comes to guys. And I'm, I'm worried about the opportunities in Washington. They added hop Gibson Hopkins. Where'd that come from? They've got Adrian Peterson still some of these other guys like McKissick or whatever, they're going to play a role. And I,

I think they're going to use guys, but they're really going to limit him. They want him to stay healthy. And so it's going to have Geis, but they're really going to limit him. They want him to stay healthy. And so it's going to have to take a lot of injuries. I think two of the guys that are on that depth chart are going to have to go down for Darius Geis to have that opportunity to break out. The talent, I loved him coming out of LSU. It frustrates me to see him get hurt season after season. I can still find good players in round seven who I think I can count on

for a full year. To me, that's not the right time to take the chance on Geis. So when would you take a chance on? I think he's more of a round nine type guy, so I'm probably not going to get him. Two rounds later, you're going to be aggressive with Geis. Maybe it is round seven. Maybe it's even a little bit earlier. He is the number 32 running back going off the board for us, Jake. You have him. You said 29. We have him consensus ranked at 31, so in the same range. And, again, I think we're all hopeful for Darius Geist.

You know, maybe Dave's a little bit more pessimistic, but after only seeing him play five games over the last two seasons, it just would be nice to get him on the field. Jake, as he told you, he's a frustrated giants fan because of dave gettleman so two of his bold predictions involve the washington redskins and as we go now to the last one here terry mcclurin will be a top 20 wide receiver he was number 29 wide receiver just based on his total stats uh last year in ppr we have him ranked consensus wise as the number 22 wide receiver off the board so we're not far behind jake in terms of what his bold prediction is and his average draft position on fancy football calculator is the number 22 wide receiver off the board. So we're not far behind Jake in terms of what his full prediction is.

And his average draft position on fantasy football calculator is the number 26 wide receiver off the board. So scary, Terry, tell us why you like him for this season in his second year. Yeah. And to put it in perspective too, and before Heath pushes back on it, cause top 20, I mean, top 20, I think would be, well, no because I think it'll be also respective of the other wide receivers that he's going in front of for me like

I would take him in front of Tyler Lockett and Calvin Ridley and AJ Green and DJ Moore even and it comes down to the fact of you know it's so quickly the fans of him haven't forgotten but it's so quickly people forgot how he started the season with Case Keenum through week six last year when he was a top 10 wide receiver and actually wide receiver three and fantasy points per game. And Dwayne Haskins, look, Dwayne Haskins had a miserable rookie season, but people are making the same mistake.

I'm not saying he's Lamar Jackson because he's not even close to a runner. And I mean a runner, period, not even a runner like Lamar Jackson. But they haven't learned the lesson from writing off Lamar Jackson from year one, writing off Jared Goff from year one, writing these players off after year one and the talent that Dwayne Haskins was, where two years ago people were talking about Dwayne Haskins the way they were just talking about Joe Burrow, what he did to the college team and what he did for that offense. And if you looked at the last three games when Haskins started playing, respectably better, still not great, still not the ceiling I think he has. Those last three games got him on a pace for those first five

with those last three. And I'm not saying extrapolate those eight games, but just for the purpose of it, 78 receptions, 1,362 yards, and 14 touchdowns. You're not going to come close to that. That would be wide receiver one. But if you just look at it as yards per reception and even knock it back two yards, the full two yards, and give him 80 receptions in a full year, he finishes with 1,100 yards and probably seven or eight touchdowns,

and that's top 20, maybe even top 15. How does he compare for you to some of the veteran guys, the ones that we're seeing drafted around in T.Y. Hilton, who does get a hopeful boost with the return or the addition of Phillip Rivers, A.J. Green, who hopefully is going to play 16 games that we just don't know, and I'll throw Stephon Diggs in there also with his move to Buffalo. Do you like McClurin better than all three of those guys? I would take them over all three.

Well, T.Y. Hilton I could go back and forth with. T.Y. Hilton will be a roster construction situation from Terry McLaurin. If Terry McLaurin is going to be the more consistent option, I believe, T.Y. Hilton is kind of in that Amari Cooper range. But honestly, you can probably get both of them because you're getting the discount on Terry McLaurin compared to T.Y. Hilton's kind of in that Amari Cooper range. But honestly, you can probably get both of them because you're getting the discount on Terry McLaurin compared to T.Y. Hilton in drafts right now. All right, Keith, you want to be a jerk?

Is saying top 20 not bold enough? No, I think for the most part I agree with everything Jake said except taking Terry McLaurin over DJ Moore is crazy town banana pants. I just don't like Ben Gretsch isn't here, so maybe I should do a thing for him, but I think McLaurin definitely has an opportunity to be a borderline top 12 wide receiver

if he plays 16 games this year. He'd be a top 15 guy. I don't have him ranked quite that high, but I do expect Haskins to improve. I don't think there's anybody there in Washington that should get in the way of a 25% target share, and that gives them a chance, if Washington throws the ball a little more than they did last year,

to really have a true breakout year. Dave, you said I think both sides of this question I'm going to ask, so I want to ask it in regards to McLaurin. I know we were talking about Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley, you said if Julio were gone and now all the attention goes toward Calvin Ridley, you said that will worry you a little bit because of what? Because I don't know if he can beat the double. Right.

That's where you're going with McLaurin. That's the biggest gripe I got with him. The question would become, like Heath just said, he's going to be getting the majority of the targets, which as we saw last year was a good thing, but the attention would be a little bit different for him. And now there's a book on him. And, you know, I'll go back to the conversation I had with Mike McCoy after Keenan Allen's

rookie season, when he surprised a lot of people. And then McCoy very honestly, which you rarely get from a coach said he's got the target on his back and he's got to beat the expectations. He didn't necessarily say beat the double, but he's got to beat the expectation. He didn't necessarily say beat the double, but he's got to beat the expectation. And so do you come out on that with McLaurin? Are you concerned about that? Or do you like the fact that he's sharing a wide receiver room with Steve

Sims and Antonio Gandy Gibson and, um, you know, uh, Cody Latimer for what it's worth, if he's still there and you know, the rest of the guys, uh,

Kelvin Harmon, you know, it's not exactly the most attractive receiving quarter, but that's why I think McLaurin can be good. And no tight ends. How dare you talk down about Jeremy Sprinkle? Come on. Yeah, that's the concern.

And I don't know if I've got the answer for that. I think the answer will probably come down to how often he was double teamed last year because it probably didn't take teams that long to figure out that McLaurin was the number one guy in the offense. And the offense is also going to change a little bit. It's not going to be the same type of system it was last year. I think it'll change a lot. Yeah. So I hope that that helps McLaurin. Yes, it'll help for the better for McLaurin. Because once Bill Callahan took over, it was, you know, 1988 NFL football and it was great for the run game, not so great for McLaurin.

He was a little up and down after that. But I do think Washington's going to be in their fair share of games where they're going to have to throw. I know their schedule opens up starting in week six. They've got a bunch of games against the Giants and the Cowboys, the Lions, Bengals. I think after that it gets ugly. So if you draft McLaurin, I think you've just got to stick with him

through the first two-thirds of the season, which probably means you're sticking with him all season long. If you don't draft McLaurin, I think trading for him just before that schedule lightens up could be really good for your team. And then you'll know by then whether or not he's getting double teamed, if he's beating double teams. Are other guys in Washington stepping up to take some pressure away from McLaurin? You'll have the book on him.

So I think I'd almost prefer to not draft him. I think he's going to be a number two fantasy receiver, but I think it's going to be more of like, all right, I know what his potential is. I'll take him rather than targeting him on drafting and saying, I got to get Terry McLaurin on my team. So, yeah, and that's where I'm leaning because to your question that you asked, Jamie, what you're talking about is the fact that I, and I'm not saying you guys didn't watch, but you know, I was, I'm big on, I was bullish on Dwayne Haskins just as a prospect in general general so i was paying attention to a lot of those games and i think your point about mclaurin actually came true last year that downfall was the middle of the season that downfall was him

adjusting to like you said jamie the attention switched quickly after those first five games the first six weeks of the season and to your point dave is you start to see that but also at the end of the year it was the combination of of McLaurin learning to work with that extra attention a little bit more and Dwayne Haskins knowing how to find them. But even worst-case scenario, the reason I dropped two yards off his reception was the volume was still there, which was good to see. There's 12 targets against, I think, the Lions the one week. And then even if you pull back the attention,

so maybe he's not averaging as high yards per route run and all that type of stuff, that's worst-case scenario for me. I saw signs, at least in my opinion, from what I saw at the end of the season, that that extra attention he was starting to adjust as a smart receiver would. And part of the Keenan Allen situation, I believe, was Tyrell Williams hurt? Somebody was hurt and came back his second year. I forget who it was, but that was part of, I think, the problem for him.

I know Antonio Gates missed some time. Um, I think it was Travis Benjamin. I think it might've been Tyrell Williams, um, coming back or was it missing Jackson? Was he still part of the team then? Um,

might've been, I don't remember, but there, I thought there was some injury situation also that impacted Keenan Allen's second year. I could be wrong, but, um,

in any event, you know, Terry McLaurin certainly has some ups. I'll tell you the best thing for me about Terry McLaurin is ADP. If you're telling me I can get Terry McLaurin around six, which is where he's going right now in fancy football calculator, that's a steal because if he does live up to the expectation, like I said, we all have him ranked consensus wise around 22, you know, whether it's a couple of spots higher or lower. So we're in the same range of where Jake is going on this. It's just an opportunity for

him to, uh, you know to be a steal at that spot, the 26th wide receiver off the board right now. So I love drafting Terry McLaurin whenever I can, certainly in round five. I've been aggressive in taking him in round four, so I'm excited about it. Jake, you got another thing to say? No, Malcolm Floyd. All right, I'm going – I'm not with Floyd. That's what it was.

All right, so I'm going to read through Jake's bold predictions. Jake, I want you to think of a message to deliver to Adam Azer that he's going to hear while he's sitting at home listening to this and critiquing us. So Jake's five bold predictions. Clyde Edwards-Hilaire will be a top 10 running back. Henry Ruggs is going to be the number one receiver for Oakland and a top 30 wide receiver across the board.

Daniel Jones will push for quarterback one status to be a top 12 guy. Darius Geis will be this year's Miles Sanders. And Terry McCorn will be a top 20 wide receiver. So Jake, your message for Adam Azer is? Hey, I've invited you since you're one of the flex to be in there. So you should send some love my way. That's all on you, Adam. I'm playing the high road here, even though I undercut you a little bit. There you go, Adam. We hope you enjoy that while you're sitting at home. You can follow Jake on Twitter at AllInKid. Check out Jake's work on The Athletic and we'll be back later this week with Liz Loza of Yahoo Sports

to break down Heath's bold predictions where Dave gets to be a jerk and pick apart some of Heath's bold predictions. Jake, thank you so much for joining us here on Fantasy Football today. Gotta go, bye.