Fantasy Football Today - Deebo Samuel Traded! Plus NFL Combine Winners and Losers (03/03 Fantasy Football Podcast)
Episode Date: March 3, 2025We react to the Commanders acquiring Deebo Samuel with our initial thoughts on how Samuel fits in the offense and how much he has left in the tank. Does this lower Terry McLaurin in the rankings (7:3...0)? Does this change anything for Jayden Daniels (9:30)? ... Biggest winners and losers (18:55) from this trade and our thoughts on the best Fantasy value for the 49ers receivers. Then we've got some news and notes (22:40) ... NFL Combine winners and losers (26:00)! Basically, the running backs were good and the wide receivers weren't. We talk about Jalen Milroe's hands, Omarion Hampton's big weekend and much more. Also, a big dynasty trade at the end of the show! ... Your emails at fantasyfootballl@cbsi.com Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Shop our store: shop.cbssports.com/fantasy SUBSCRIBE to FFT Express on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-express/id1528634304 Follow FFT Express on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6qyGWfETSBFaciPrtvoWCC?si=6529cbee20634da8 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 SUBSCRIBE to FFT DFS on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dfs/id1579415837 FOLLOW FFT DFS on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zU7pBvGK3KPhfb69Q1hNr?si=1c5030a3b1a64be2 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." Visit the betting arena on CBSSports.com for all the latest sportsbook reviews and sportsbook promos. 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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This is fantasy football today from CBS Sports.
What a play!
Can you believe this?
No, I can't.
It's time to dominate your fantasy league.
Talk to the races and he stays out of the way. What a play! Can you believe this? No I can't.
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Off to the races and he stays at his feet.
This is gonna go the distance.
Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath.
Monday, March 3rd. Welcome to Fantasy Football Today.
Here it's Adam, Heath, Dave and Jamie.
And we are talking about Debo Samuel going to the Football Today here. It's Adam, Heath, Dave, and Jamie, and we are talking about Debo Samuel
going to the Washington Commanders,
some other news items from around the NFL,
and the winners and losers from the NFL Combine.
And it really feels like with this Debo trade
and free agency coming up, the off season,
it's kind of over, right?
It's like, it's game time now.
There's gonna be a lot.
I mean, seriously, Dave,
there's gonna be a lot of stuff happening.
Trades, signings, people getting cut.
And then of course all the drafts set up.
Yeah, I mean, usually the real dead spot
is after many camp ramps and wraps up in June.
And then like almost all of July, nothing happens.
But between now and then a lot of stuff's gonna happen.
A lot of players are gonna change teams.
We've got our first one with Debo Samuel. And you got to keep tabs on it. I talked about it all the time during the
season. This is, this is where fantasy managers get better at fantasy football, by paying attention to the league in
general. You get ideas on how players are going to do with their new teams. You're not thinking about it on the fly in
your draft. There's going to be some idiot in every draft that goes,
wait a minute, Debo Samuel's on the commanders,
but we know about it now and we talk about it now.
And we'll do it with every other player that changes teams
or gets a contract extension like Matthew Stafford got.
So he'll stay with the Rams.
You get my point, Adam.
Okay, so let's look guys at the Debo trade.
So the commanders acquire Debo Samuel for a fifth
round pick. They're going to pay his entire salary. The commanders are for 2025, which is $17.5 million.
Here are some fun facts. Terry McLaurin had 16 end zone targets in 2024. That's a lot.
Debo Samuel has had 17 end zone targets in his entire career.
He had two last year.
These two guys were in the same draft class.
Debo Samuel is actually younger than McLaurin.
They're both 29 years old.
Debo was drafted 40 picks ahead of Terry McLaurin.
In Terry McLaurin's six seasons in the NFL, only once has a number two receiving option on the team
had more than 92 targets and a number two receiving option on the team has never had
more than 670 receiving yards in McLaurin six seasons. Will Debo Samuel top 670 receiving
yards in 2025?
Can you imagine if he doesn't?
I can't, unfortunately.
He misses half the season.
Yeah, I think if he's healthy, he definitely does.
I probably in that the interesting thing is going to be how Cliff Kingsbury kind of moves
him into this offense.
We know Debo at his best has been a low a dot guy.
A lot of the low a dot stuff last year went to Zach Ertz and Austin Eckler.
And Debo can definitely function in that part of the field.
And those were guys who I think when they got to Washington, we kind of thought, man,
is it over for this guy?
Is he washed?
Zach Ertz is just going to play a couple of games before Ben Sennett
takes over, right? But they seem to like surrounding their young quarterback with veteran playmakers.
I think this could be a really good situation for Debo if he can stay healthy.
It's a great move for the commanders. It's absolutely no brainer move for the commanders.
They gave up nothing to get him. The 49ers paying a salary, fifth round pick. It's absolutely no brainer move the commanders, you know, they gave up nothing to get him for nine is paying a salary fifth round pick
It's it's a smart move by them to see what he possibly has left and to your point
He's the commanders were top five in wide receiver screens last year
So this is something that could clearly benefit Debo if he does stay healthy
But I think you know, it's it's it's two separate conversations
It's Debo's fantasy value versus what it does for Jayden Daniels and the commanders.
Commanders win, Jayden Daniels wins.
He gets another playmaker that's an upgrade over Diami Brown and Noah Brown and these
guys.
Look, if Debo has anything left, he's going to crush those guys, clearly.
But does he still offer a lot from a fantasy perspective?
And I would say the answer is probably not unless he just has one of these magical turn
back the clock type of seasons.
He was miserable last year.
He was absolutely awful.
Got off to a good start.
But if you were to say going into the season, Christian McCaffrey is going to play three
games and Brandon Iuke is going to tear his ACL early in the season.
Ibo Samuel is going to be an absolute monster.
And he had the worst year of his career.
So clearly the 49ers told you what they think of him.
They gave him away for nothing.
And so they are not paying his salary. They gave him away for nothing. And so-
But they are not paying his salary.
The commanders are paying his salary.
I thought they were paying salary.
I will double check, but according to the ESPN article I just read, they are.
That's what they're getting.
It's a salary cap dump.
Yeah, it's a salary cap dump for the 49ers.
I thought they were paying a salary.
So still, I mean, you know, take a chance on a guy for what he has, you know,
hopefully left.
I mean, if you're looking at it on YouTube,
you can see what his player page looks like.
He got off to a great start the first two games.
Yeah, scroll down.
And then it was really downhill.
Scroll down though, because look at this,
first two games, 19 targets.
Remember Brandon Iuke played,
but he was coming off a holdout.
And no pierce-all.
Yeah.
Misses week three.
If you want to sit here and make excuses for Debo Samuel,
he played through a lot of injuries.
He missed week three with a calf injury, I believe.
And then, you know, he dealt with some other injuries.
He had that one game where he had like pneumonia
and he barely played.
I think that was probably-
He was in the hospital.
Yeah, and then he actually played that week.
So like the following game, he didn't miss a lot of time, but he was very injured.
He had an oblique injury.
So I look at the first two games,
gets off to a blistering start.
Then he misses week three and we've used that excuse,
for example, for DK Metcalf, right?
He was terrible coming off the injury.
Unfortunately, this injury was in week three,
but maybe he just had an extremely injury plague season.
How about the fact that in 2022,
Debo had a really bad year
and he bounced back with a good 2023.
Does anybody think he can be a top 24 receiver?
No, I'm not drafting him as a top 36 receiver.
I will draft him as a top 36 wide receiver.
I will not draft him as a top 24 wide receiver,
but I think he could be, sure.
Do we lower Terry McLaurin and if so, how much?
No, a little bit, but not much.
Where did you, so I struggle with Terry McLaurin
because I love the guy.
I had him as a top 20 receiver before the trade.
I don't think this is gonna impact his target volume much,
if at all.
I think Jamie nailed it when he said that Deebo is an upgrade over
Zacchaeus and who else was in there? No, Noa Brown played more on the outside. Right, Diyami Brown and Zacchaeus.
All right. So first of all, I think one or both of those guys are free agents anyway. So Deebo replacing them as a
short-area target. His A-dot's been under 7, basically his entire career, but certainly the last 2 years. Zaccheaus
and Brown, Diami Brown, they had a low A-dot as well. That's the replacement. And that's what he can do. But this is a
team in Washington last year, they didn't throw the ball very much. I think they were like at a 52% pass rate. So on
average, what are we going to see from Jay and Dano? How many times is he gonna throw the ball? Maybe 30 times a game. And so that could lead to like 6 targets per game for Debo. And I like that. That's a 20% target share. But he's not, he's not an
end-zone target guy. I don't think he needs to be that. I think McLaurin can be there. I think McLaurin is still a
No. 2 wide receiver. I'm having a tough time putting guys like Devonte Adams, DJ Moore, for now Chris Godwin, ahead of Terry McLaurin,
even though I do expect touchdown regression to smack scary Terry.
I will say, I think situationally, this is better for Devo.
Like they threw eight fewer passes than the 49ers last year, and there's not near as much target competition as there was in San Francisco.
There's a much better chance for Devo's volume to go up in Washington than there
was if he had stayed in San Francisco.
Well, that's assuming that they're done.
Also, like, they get younger at that position.
Yeah.
If, if you just say Terry McLaurin is Brandon Iuke, I think that even if they
make more additions, they're probably not getting to what San Francisco has in terms of target
competition.
I would agree.
Yeah.
And, you know, Jaden Daniels.
But you also have a mobile quarterback that's going to run too.
But Jaden Daniels started out his season not really throwing that much.
Right.
In four of his first five games, he was at, well, each of his first five games, 30 or
fewer pass attempts. Let's just go to week eight because
Carolina was week seven. He left that game with an injury through
two passes. Jane Daniels from week eight on played 12 games,
not including week 18, where he puts through 12 passes. He
threw more than 30 30 or more passes and 11 of those 12 games.
And the way Jane Daniel, and honestly, Dave,
I wasn't even aware of it until this morning.
The way he finished his last eight games,
including three playoff games,
he averaged 32.5 fantasy points per game
in six point per passing touchdown leagues.
Now that is not including week 18,
which they pulled the starters.
So his last eight games that he finished,
his 17 game pace was 4,281 passing yards,
43 touchdowns, six more rushing touchdowns,
444, and I have to be wrong about the rushing yards.
Sorry, no, I did the rushing yards wrong.
It's probably about 850 rushing yards or something.
If not more.
This is all extrapolated pace.
Yeah, this is last eight games.
He just went berserk and not including week 18 again.
He played six, half a game.
But they were throwing more.
And they gave up a lot of points in those games.
They gave up almost 30 points per game.
So we have to keep that in mind.
They gave about 26 points per game
before the Eagles hung 55 on them in the championship game. But they were a
little more pass heavy than I realized, which is encouraging. Does this move?
You should probably trade for them.
Yeah, Heath and I are both trying to trade for Jaden Adels in the dynasty league. So
the price is steep and the guy who has him thinks that his trade value just went up in dynasty
I don't really know if I agree with that because like D Dibos 29
But did it go up in dynasty and and did his value go up in in redraft?
I I think it got a look just a little bit safer and there's just a little bit more upside
It's really hard to rank a quarterback in dynasty ahead It got just a little bit safer and there's just a little bit more upside.
It's really hard to rank a quarterback in dynasty ahead of Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson,
but Jayden Daniels is right there knocking on the door.
If somebody wanted to say that Jayden Daniels is now the number one quarterback in dynasty,
I think it's close enough that I wouldn't argue that much.
Right. But wouldn't you have been there anyway without the Debo trade? How does the Debo trade
suddenly catapult him ahead of- Debo Samuel is, I think in most people's minds,
offers significantly more upside than De'Ami Brown and Olamide Zaccheaus as a weapon.
Sure. But for how many years? Right. Well, it speeds up is 2025 and two to three.
He's got two 29 year old wide receivers. Yeah. This is a team that could add another wide receiver.
I take everything we're saying and throw it down the toilet. I would say and take this, you know,
for what it's worth. They're basically following the Houston model, right? Rookie quarterback has
an amazing
season go out and get a veteran guy that you think is going to help your receiving core.
You know, Houston did it with Stephon Diggs, obviously worked out for half a season before
or whatever, how many games he played before the ACL tear. You know, this is a different
franchise, you know, with this front office and coaching staff, you know, they're going
to be aggressive as they're showing you. And especially in this early window of his rookie contract for Dane Daniels, it makes
sense to go and spend on pieces that you think are going to help you.
So they identified Debo Samuel as somebody that could help them.
Again, you know, using the same offensive system that they had a year ago, you know,
he'll work in the short area range.
You know, maybe they don't bring back Zach Ertz.
Who knows if they, you know, trust Senate or don't think that Ertz is worth whatever contract.
We'll see what they do with Austin Eckler, another older player.
So this, this team is going to turn over quickly.
It's going to have to, you know, because of McClearn and Samuel and
Ertz and Eckler and their ages.
But they're showing you that they're going to be aggressive in putting
pieces around their quarterback.
They did it last year.
They're doing it again this year.
You know, I think as we're sort of illustrating, they have to get younger. I think when you think about Devo Samuel's production, don't forget all the rushing.
You just don't, you don't know if they're going to use him even the same capacity that
they're going to use him.
I think that's the biggest thing.
I think that's the biggest thing.
I think that's the biggest thing.
I think that's the biggest thing.
I think that's the biggest thing.
I think that's the biggest thing.
I think that's the biggest thing.
I think that's the biggest thing.
I think that's the biggest thing.
I think that's the biggest thing.
I think that's the biggest thing.
I think that's the biggest thing.
I think that's the biggest thing.
I think that's the biggest thing. I think that's the biggest thing. I think that's the biggest thing. I think that's the biggest thing. I think when you think about Debo Samuel's production,
don't forget all the rushing.
You just don't know if they're gonna use him
even the same capacity and his rushing totals
keep going down.
His stat page ain't so hot.
And the two areas that were really bad for Debo last year
were yards per carry, actually as yards per carry
was 3.2 yards per carry.
He's usually around five and a half or six.
And I think the bigger issue for me
is target per out run rate.
Why wasn't he targeted?
Especially without IU, without McCaffrey,
like we said earlier, his target per out run rate
was 19.5%.
It had not been below 23.7%
in any of the previous four seasons. And that was,
and he didn't play every down either. He was like, year over year, he was like in like the high 60%
route participation rate range. Say that five times fast. It just sounds to me like he wasn't
healthy. Or it, that's the thing. It was part of the thing not healthy or was he, is he just in steep decline? He's only 29.
I mean, like 29 is not great for dynasty, but it's, it's not old for a wide receiver.
Right. A wide receiver, 29, you'd expect he's got three good years left.
But the problem is, is he was never a guy that separates. And so he's going to have to rely on
contested catches and creative offensive play calling, which I think the latter certainly applies, but he's never going to be, I think, a high
target guy.
You know, I, I, I just don't see that being part of his game.
And so like he had the one breakaway touchdown against Seattle last year, he got off to a
good start because the targets were up.
Is that the norm?
Is that something to expect in this offense?
I don't think that's the case, you know?
So it just depends, I think, on where you're valuing him
and what your expectations are.
You're expecting him to be a number three receiver
with a chance, like he said,
he could still be a top 24 guy
if he scores a lot of touchdowns.
And the number one receiver in Washington last year
scored a lot of touchdowns.
That's something that I think we could see from
maybe a couple of the McLaurin touchdowns go to Debo
if you're gonna just start to spread around the numbers
from a year ago. And again, if they move on from Zach Debo, if you're going to just start to, you know, spread, spread around the numbers from a year ago. Uh, and again, if they move on
from Zach Ertz, then you're talking about a second year tight end that didn't play very
much if that's the replacement, a lot of upside in Benson, but can he assume that role? So
you got some moving parts here still again, what do they do still in free agency, still
in the draft? Um, you know, Noah Brown made some plays for them last year. I think he's
coming back. Uh, the Emmy Brown, I think it's still in his last. Um, you know, Noah Brown made some plays for them last year. I think he's coming back.
Uh, the Emmy Brown, I think it's still in his last year of his rookie deal.
He's not, he's a free agent.
Okay.
Well, it was a key Brown, both Browns and Zacchaeus are free agents.
So the only guys that are coming back over everything there, Luke McCaffrey
is still there, but I don't think that again, he didn't do very much, you know?
So what does the rest of this receiving core look like?
Is it these two guys and a bunch of young players then, you know, it's a great situation for both of them.
But if it's, you know, go out and get, let's say,
not this name, but this type of move, you know,
a Darnell Mooney type of player, you know,
a veteran guy that could still offer a lot, you know,
that somebody's willing to give up or is on the market,
you know, then it changes, I think, the conversation.
Yeah.
Should be noted, it's a pretty horrible wide receiver market,
assuming Higgins stays and they, Bucks obviously seem to want to retain Chris Godwin. the conversation. Yeah, should be noted. It's pretty horrible. Wide receiver market, assuming
Higgins stays and they bucks obviously seem to want to retain Chris. They're not they're not
going to get Devante Adams, for example. Yeah, he might be the best of the guys that actually
change teams. We'll see. All right, we got to take a break before we do that, though. It is March.
So that means it's March madness time. So that means you're going to have to compete against
us in a bracket challenge. I'll give you details as we get closer, but it's a very fun time of year and we're gonna do a bracket challenge and
whoever wins it is gonna be in the podcast league. Let's take a break and we have not even spoken
about the 49ers side of this, so we'll do that. Although I think we did that a couple weeks ago
when the trade request was granted or whatever, but yeah, we'll be right back to talk about the
rest of this deal and I'll throw out some names, you know, Debo Samuel or Terry McLaurin or after this,
who's the biggest winner in the Debo Samuel trade from fan, from a fantasy perspective,
Yeah.
Joanne Jennings.
Yeah.
Jenny's Pierce Hall.
Kettle.
Uh, Dave.
I'm, I'm in full agreement.
Okay. Well, Jamie threw out three names, so I don't know they know that's fair, but biggest loser.
Olamide Zaccheaus. We hardly knew he us. I don't know if there's a loser to be honest
with you. I think Debo is gonna I don't think he goes up much in my rankings.
I mean, I already said, I don't think he's a top 36 wide receiver.
I'm not going to draft him to be a starter in three receiver leagues.
Not McLaurin though.
You guys seem unfazed.
I mean, a little bit, but not enough, I think to, you know, spot or two in the rankings. Maybe not.
Like it's going to take another significant addition.
Like there was plenty of room for Teebo Samuel
to walk into this offense.
And if he has a career high 120 targets,
it may not impact McCorran.
I guess, I guess if there's a loser,
it would probably be the starting tight end for Washington.
Okay.
Best San Francisco value.
And this is just based on the most recent draft we did, which was half PPR.
When we didn't know that Debo salmon.
Well, we knew Debo was getting traded.
We didn't know we'd go to the commander.
So where did they go?
Where did Jennings and Pierce all by four George Kittle in round four,
Joanne Jennings in round seven, Ricky Pierce all at the nine 10 turn.
I think I like the Jennings value the most.
I think I do too.
Pierce all for me by a mile.
You guys are going to rank Jennings ahead of Pierce all.
As of now, I don't.
Yeah, almost back to back.
Jennings inside my top 36. I have
Pierce all just outside my top 36. I think Jamie said it really very well. Back to back.
All right. They're one of them ahead of I you for you guys. Both. Yeah. I've got Jennings
ahead of I I got a Jennings I you Pierce all right now. But I mean, that's the next domino
out of San Francisco.
He's, he's getting moved to, I don't know how they could move them.
They're not going to get anything.
They, they had their shot to get something.
And then I, you're right.
I'm branding my, you're going to get a seventh round.
Jennings and Pierce hall just studs.
Right.
Yeah. If that's all they're going to get is a seven, then I don't know why they do it. Unless he's just a total malcontent. Well, I, you. Yeah. If that's all they're going to get is a seven, then I don't know why they do it unless he's just a total malcontent. Well, I, you, yeah, they're doing it for salary.
If they trade them. And there's certainly some evidence that he's at least not, not
all the way. I'm not sure if I want to go to malcontent, but he's not been content.
I mean, if you have to, you have to pay perty, You have to pay some guys on defense.
Trent Williams wants more money.
I get it.
Would you rather have Debo Samuel or Joann Jennings?
Joann Jennings.
I've got Debo right now.
I got Debo at the bottom of everybody we've talked about except for Olamide Zaccheaus.
You'd have Pierce all ahead of Debo Samuel.
Yes. Does Debo in the drafts we did last week kiss. You'd have Pierce all ahead of the Devo. So, yes, yes.
Does Debo in the drafts we did last week before the trade, he went just ahead of Jennings.
He went in the beginning of round seven was Debo, Samuel,
Jerry, Judy, Jawan, Jennings, Michael Pittman.
Sounds about right to me.
Uh, would you rather have Debo Samuel or Jayden Reed?
Reed. Great. Well, or Jayden Reed? Reed.
Reed.
Well, I guess today it's Reed.
Let's see who ends up on the Packers.
That's a good point.
Very fair.
If DK is a Packer, then definitely Debo.
I might rather have Debo now.
All right.
All right.
Well, that is our recap of the Debo Samuel trade and good stuff.
Let's see, what do we got?
More news and notes.
So the Jets are expected to trade
or move on from Devonte Adams.
And we are excited to see where he ends up
or maybe we're not, I don't know.
Are we?
Yeah.
She's gonna destroy Malik neighbors.
Oh man, yeah.
Oh.
You're looking forward to the New York Jets giant?
I don't even know anymore.
Uh, it wouldn't be the worst thing.
Oh God.
Rogers and Adams.
You can't actually sign Aaron Rogers and then draft cam ward and expect that's
going to work out well.
Why not going to have the chance to get cam ward?
Now they're going to trade up for camp. Five years
ago, Aaron Rodgers didn't want to have a rookie quarterback on
the team with him. Two years ago. He did. Wasn't he trying
to mentor Sam Darnold or Zach Wilson? No, Zach Wilson was
trying to mentor Zach Wilson and he did. Yeah, he did. There
was a second year guy. Okay. It doesn't matter. He wanted to
admit it was obvious. Yeah, right doesn't matter. You want to admit it. It was obvious that he was a threat.
I don't know.
I mean, Aaron Rodgers is a standup guy.
If they do it, it'll be great content.
It would be a terrible idea.
Aaron Rodgers is a standup guy.
He will be great for any locker room.
It'll be wonderful.
Yeah, so speaking of all the court,
well, first of all, the Patriots are apparently
not planning to pursue-
Daniel Hackett as your offense coordinator.
T Higgins, according to the Athletic.
Matthew Stafford agreed to a restructured contract
with the Rams who are also giving Aleric Jackson
an offensive lineman a three year, $57 million deal.
Okay, so then the Giants were really in
on Matthew Stafford apparently.
They are still interested in signing a veteran quarterback.
And there is a lot of buzz that they're
going to try to trade up to the number one spot in the draft
to draft a rookie quarterback.
Don't know who.
They've been linked to Sanders.
It just seems like everyone has Cam Ward higher
than Chaudhry Sanders.
Rightfully so.
I also saw Travis Hunter.
I'll double check on this,
but last I saw he was he had very long odds of being the number one pick like
plus 800 or something like that. I want to look that up. I feel like that's
that could be interesting. Plus 600 I'm seeing here. It's Cam Ward and Abdul
Carter apparently are the top, but Abdul Carter has a stress reaction in his foot.
Keep that in mind.
This would be an interesting trade.
The Raiders could be interested in trading Michael Mayer.
They're now gonna be third year tight end,
who was the 35th pick in the draft in 2023.
Good prospect, but of course he got Brock Bowers.
And Jeremy Fowler thinks Justin Fields has an edge
over Russell Wilson to be Pittsburgh's starting quarterback.
Dominoes are gonna fall.
Of course, it'll be cheaper.
Yeah, well, it's just gonna be a very interesting week
and well, I don't know, however long it takes
for these quarterbacks to end up somewhere.
Okay, let's talk about the NFL combine and
Dave, your, your overall takeaways from what we saw at the combine and as it relates to fantasy
football. I mean, it feels to me like the best players were the ones you didn't see
running around and underwear drills and getting, well, they got measured. Like Ashton Gentey was
there and he got measured and cam ward and all that stuff. But a lot of names are going to be on
fantasy managers' radars just because of the 40-yard dash. And that's always an attractive thing. You want to look at
players that run fast. That's a really good skill to have if you're in the National Football League. And so a lot of
questions on Matthew Golden from Texas. I think he's fantastic. I think he might be
the best wide receiver in this draft. A lot of questions about Basial Tutin from Virginia Tech. He had the fastest
40-time among running backs. He was at the Senior Bowl. Honestly, none of the running backs at the Senior Bowl were
overly impressive, but he's going to get a lot of attention. You can bring up anybody you want, Adam. I still believe, and this includes the running backs,
I think it's a solid class.
I think it's deep, running back receiver tight end,
but I don't know how many studs there are outside of Janty.
And honestly, I'm not even sure if the other tight ends
can be like at that Brock Bowers tier elite level type of like superstar for fantasy purposes. It's
really going to come down to where these players go, how quickly do they have an opportunity? And, you know, how can we
see the path for them to see for a tight end, 6 targets per game, for a wide receiver, seven targets per game for a running back, 15 touches a game.
You know, we know we're going to get that with Janty.
Who else in this draft class can we see that
immediately for?
Not sure.
Hampton would be fun.
I mean, Hampton is, so this is a Amarian Hampton from UNC.
Six foot, 221 pounds and he ran a four, four, six. And I was reading on cbssports.com, he had, 221 pounds, and he ran a 446.
And I was reading on cbssports.com,
he had a relative athletic score, RAS 9.93,
which ranked 14th out of 1,909 running backs since 1987.
That's pretty good.
So that might've been the unofficial numbers.
I think he's down to a 961 now.
Cause he, a 448 and the 40, right? And those two,
one hundredths of a second might've brought his score down, but it's still really good.
And he's a great player. Send him to a team where he's going to get a lot of,
send them to the chargers, please. Janty goes ahead of him in the draft. He's the
second running back off the board. Send them there. But what, whatever we would say about Hampton going to the chargers would be
almost the exact same thing.
We'd say about Caleb Johnson going to the chargers or one of the, um, Ohio
state running backs going to the chargers.
I prefer Judkins over Henderson, but who knows what they'll do.
It's just, I thought this weekend really affirmed the idea that like we went from
having zero running backs in round one of super flex drafts last year, uh, super
rep flex rookie drafts to likely half of the first round could be running backs.
And super.
Yeah.
I got you.
It'll probably depend where they end up, but it, right.
That seems, this seems a little aggressive, but I think four to five.
Makes sense.
Yes. Four to five. I think funding for certain almost unless it's just something disastrous happens on drafts graph gate for one of these guys.
Right. There's going to be one team that just completely poops all over us fantasy managers and takes a guy with a with another player that in his prime.
Like a Charbonne with Ken Walker. Right.
Yeah.
So, but Hampton, you know,
as someone who has the third pick in a Superflex draft,
what Hampton did made me very happy
because I don't think I'm going to get Gentie.
I'm probably not going to get Cam Ward,
but those would be like my big three, you know,
and then maybe Tyler Warren too,
I think great tight end prospect,
although he had the shortest wingspan of the tight end group
and pretty small hand size apparently.
So he did not have a great, he did measure me.
I think you should definitely take Tyler Warren.
Yeah, why, you have the fourth pick?
No, I have like the sixth pick,
but I just think that's the only chance
that he's gonna go before me.
Oh, you think so? Yeah, well, anyway, I thought it was very, I think Hampton helped himself so
much that made me feel better about having that third pick. Cause I feel like if I get
Gentie Hampton award, I'll be pretty happy. A lot of people have Ted McMillan going in that
top three also. And I like Henderson a lot. He didn't test quite as well as Hampton,
but not bad. Harold Fanon, just kind of a mediocre day at tight end. There was a lot of
not bad enough to rule them out, but not good enough to get excited about. And that's kind of
where I'd put both Henderson and Fanon. Save Save that quote. That's the draft outside of a handful of players.
Now, right.
I think I'm a little more optimistic about the running backs and
tight ends than you are.
Um, but, and I think the, the wide receivers and quarterbacks,
it's a pretty bad year.
I think that again, for, for fantasy purposes, there's going to be a team.
Like what the chargers did, where they, or the giants, you know, they end up with. Tracy and, and Vidal, for example, you know, there's going to be a team like what the Chargers did, or the Giants.
They end up with Tracy and Vidal, for example.
There's going to be situations like that where the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth
running back ends up in the great spot and second, third, fourth running back ends up
in a crappy spot because that's just what teams do.
They go and get their best player that's on their board and they don't see necessarily as,
well, yeah, Trey Benson, eventually he'll be good. Well, James Connor hangs on for another year and
then they resign him and now it could be two or three years before we see the best of Trey Benson.
You know, so it's just, it's just unfortunate that we can't say, okay, yeah, let's just send
Hampton to the Chargers. That'd be great. The quarterback wild card has got to be Jalen
Milrow just from a fantasy standpoint, right? Cause the upside is insane.
He had 20 Russian touches.
How did his hand size grow so much?
Oh, right. Yeah.
That's a crazy thing.
He's doing stretching.
Just doing some stretches.
Right. And so nine inches is apparently the minimum
that you're going to, that NFL quarterbacks should have
in terms of hand size.
Milro went from under that to like well over that in a week or whatever.
What was the senior bowl that he got measured?
When was it?
Senior bowl, he was under nine inches.
And then at the combine, suddenly he was like, it wasn't even like nine and a quarter inch.
I don't know exactly what it was, but his hands got bigger.
He's still growing.
He drank his milk and ate his Wheaties and growing boy.
By the way, I was reading about this, you know, officially it's cosmetic surgery that
a lot of men are having where they get something put in their legs to grow three inches.
And I read this like $75,000 to grow three inches and you could do it up to two times.
Man this sounds bad.
So I could, I could, if I had 150 K, I could be the tallest person on the show.
Wow. You go from a, you'd be five, six by the end of the surgery.
I don't think, I don't think 150,000 is going to get you.
Adam's going to need 225,000.
How tall are you Heath?
Six, three.
Ooh, okay. Yeah, no, I'm going to need another,
I'm going to need another 25K to match that.
So wait, wait, wait, hold on.
How did you stumble upon this?
It just came up in my news feed.
It was like the cosmetic surgery
that men are splurging for or whatever.
Why would cosmetic surgery for men be in your news feed, Adam?
I don't know, it's just totally random.
Totally random, but yeah, just something,
just something to think about for all of you short people out there like me.
All right. Let's take a break. We'll talk a little bit more about.
Adam shows up to his tennis match with Dan six foot two.
I should try and give you a tennis update if you want, by the way, I'll give you a tennis update.
All right. We'll be right back on FFT. All right. Any combine losers that we want to talk about? I do think it's
interesting to note that Cam Ward and Ohio State quarterback
Will Howard have nine inch hands, which is the smallest
acceptable size. They so they have the smallest hands basically
in the quarterback class, unless they're someone who's under
nine. Oregon wide receiver Tez Johnson, 154 pounds.
He's lost weight since the senior bowl.
Yes, that's, that's.
He was 156 at the senior bowl.
He made a bunch of great plays in practice,
but when you go and you watch Tez Johnson play,
every time he takes a hit, it looks like he could be dead.
Well, like if you're 150 pounds,
shouldn't you be running faster than four or five?
Yes, that's another issue.
I can try.
But not till after my six inches of leg surgery.
And then a lot of people really love Caleb Johnson
running back out of Iowa.
He's big, he's 6'1", 224, he ran a 4'57".
I don't think that's terrible for his size,
but he had the slowest 10 yard split
amongst running backs, 1.62 seconds, 10 yard split, whatever.
So, um, again, like this stuff shouldn't define anybody.
And for, for the evaluators in the NFL, they use these data points as exactly that.
Well, but it seems like it had a pretty big impact on Bucky Irving last year.
And look what it did with the end result.
Well, he, the team seemed to react to it.
Sure.
But if they hadn't, if they had really studied and listen, every team studied
Bucky Irving's film, but maybe in the back of their mind, it was, Oh, you
didn't run a fast 40, he's not that fast.
He's not that good.
I think people looked at Bucky Johnson or Bucky Irving and said,
this is a guy who can only play in passing situations and Tampa. Listen,
if Tampa really knew that he could play in rushing situations,
he would have been starting week one. So ultimately I think that it's the film.
It's the film he did, but he wasn't dominant. He didn't play a ton.
He wasn't like it was at the end of the year.
What do you have nine for 62 or something like that?
Maybe, yeah, I don't remember.
I'm old, I forget stuff.
But teams are gonna look at the film.
They're gonna judge the player's character,
what he's like away from the team
and what he's like when he's in the facility
and all that stuff.
And this stuff is gonna be mostly secondary
unless there's enough compelling evidence
with height, weight, speed, all these
other metrics where they don't fit certain criteria, where it's like, you know, 90% of
the wide receivers that are under 170 pounds don't make it very long in the NFL.
So like something like that would crush Tess Johnson.
Here's a comment. I bet Adam's internet search history is pretty
interesting. Alright, so give me a letter. I'm going to type in a
letter into the search bar and let's see what comes up. Pro
football reference. Any other letters?
What's the second one under?
This is only gonna get you in trouble.
I don't know why you're doing this.
This is my work computer, okay?
Nothing is gonna get me in trouble.
I will take out your cell phone then.
Geez.
All right, Bucky Irving, by the way,
Bucky Irving ran a four, five, five, 40,
but he did that at five, nine, 192 pounds. Caleb Johnson
ran a four, five, seven at six, one, 224 pounds. Sure. Bucky Irving also had a 29.5 inch vertical,
which I guess is bad. And I wrote in my notes, not the best athlete, but also I just think people
were worried about his size because he is still small. Right. He was small small then and I don't think we should
completely ignore it this year either yeah I think so it's a valid point all
right I don't know if you have any other combine thoughts or we can read a couple
emails let's go to the emails I can also tell you about my tennis experience
because I play a lot and every single time I play I think about what I'm gonna
do against Dan every time. I'm like,
okay, maybe I'll win. So I played a guy who's very good, the best player I've played against
Thursday night. And I knew he was great. I'd heard and his first time I played him. So this was a big
measuring stick for me. I think I won one point in the measuring first. Did you have to pay to get bigger? I think I won one point in the first four games.
He beat me so thoroughly.
He kicked the crap out of me.
It was horrible.
It was very humbling.
And.
How does he compare to Dan?
He'd beat Dan.
He's better than Dan, but.
So then you shouldn't be that upset over it.
Yeah, but I realized I can't beat Dan right now.
I would think you'd start getting better at some point. I am getting better. But here's the thing
There are two this is like there are two worlds of tennis for me
There's the non topspin world and I'm very good in the non top some more
Like if you don't hit with a lot of topspin, I'm gonna I'm probably gonna beat you or come close
Like we're gonna be fine. It the players who hit with a lot of topspin
I I haven't played against it enough and I struggled mightily with it and this guy hit with more topspin than Dan but Dan's
pretty good with that and that was the biggest challenge for me so I need to
play against more players like that before I face Dan again but it's just
another world but Heath I was a 3-0 and now I'm a 3-5 I would say Dan is a 4-0
I cannot beat a 4-0 yet, but in four months
You play at the gym near your house, right? Yeah. Yeah. And
You set up these games or you just is it like pickup basketball? So I'm in a kind of a league
We don't have any standings or anything, but I get matched up every Saturday. Gotcha 730 in the morning
I wake up at like 615
Wow, but no that's dedication you want to get better. I'm morning. I wake up at like 615. Just very warm for me.
Wow.
But no, that's dedication.
You want to get better.
I'm impressed.
And I play some good player.
I played a guy who,
I played a 4-0.
He says a 4-0.
I think it's like close.
This past Saturday.
And he beat me 6-3
and then I was up 6-5 in the second set.
So that was good progress this weekend.
But otherwise I just schedule games with my friends
and this other guy.
You get participation trophies? No, I don't get any trophies. But it's just schedule games with my friends. And this other guy gets to get participation trophy. No, I
don't get any trophies. But it's all about beating Dan is the
only reason I'm doing this. So coming for him. But I got a lot
of work to do. Well, if you ever want to feel better, you can
come down here trying to get taller and better at tennis.
Yeah, I do need to get taller for sure to get taller. Also,
Dan Dan's a lefty. Lefties are tough, tough to play against.
You can't request like lefty topspin for a player.
That was the guy who beat me, who destroyed me on Thursday. Top spinning lefty. All right.
Emails from Jake at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com is our email address. This is from Jake. He
says I'm in a good place to make a run for it this year. These are all dynasty questions, but my, yeah, he, I got no,
I got nothing.
I got nothing.
You forward me dynasty questions for my show and then you
answer them the day before on this show.
I read other ones. I read different ones.
Okay.
I didn't forward you this one.
So I haven't received this one.
I'm pretty sure you have not.
Okay.
The ones that say, Hey Heath, are the ones I forward you.
Okay.
All right, so he's in a good place
to make a run for it this year.
His quarterbacks are all risky.
I'd like to keep Anthony Richardson.
I also have Darnold and Pennex.
Who is a good quarterback for me to target in a trade?
The rebuilding teams are most likely to trade.
Their quarterbacks are Mayfield, Stroud, Lawrence, Nicks, and
Mahomes.
Oh, by the way, Dave, this is Jake from a town west of
Chicago.
So like, uh, oh, what's that town in Iowa?
Council Bluffs.
No, that town sucks.
Um, Cheyenne, Wyoming is where he's from.
All right.
So he's, he wants to see what I was thinking for.
He wants a safer quarterback to pair with Richardson.
He mentioned Mayfield, Stroud, Lawrence, Nix, Mahomes.
Who would you guys be making trades for?
I think last Tuesday, what I told him was that Baker Mayfield was the best targets.
Are you for real Heath?
Oh, 100%. Yes.
Oh my gosh.
I mean, you should be trying to trade for all these guys.
Well, I think the problem with anybody other than Mayfield is you're going to
have to pay for the age of the younger quarterbacks or the upside of the older quarterbacks.
Well, if you're trying to trade cheap, you're trying to trade for Lawrence and hope that he hits.
Right. But even then, I would imagine that the Lawrence manager would expect to get something good, not necessarily huge.
I would expect a bigger return for Mayfield than I would for Lawrence.
return for Mayfield than I would for Lawrence. I have Baker Mayfield one spot of head of Trevor Lawrence in my dynasty quarterback rankings. He should trade the
line. I think that I have an idea Heath. I think it's time for you and the
dynasty show to get your and I don't mean this in a mean way,
you've graduated, you need your own email address.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, that'd be great.
That's what we need to do.
Yeah.
Cause I want to answer some dynasty questions
on this one too.
Adam.azerparamount.com.
All right, this one is from.
Eric.
Did you read this one yet Heath?
I don't know. Probably
Eric or from where the sticks meet the boonies.
I could be anywhere. That could be anywhere west of Chicago.
Greatest trade in a 10 team PPR super flex league. Give Jonathan If Jonathan Taylor, pick 102 and 209, get Jameer Gibbs and a 2026 second round pick.
That's a lot.
One more time, please.
All right.
So it's Jonathan Taylor, pick 102, 2.09 or 2.9 And in a 10 teams PPR Superflex league,
you get Jameer Gibbs and a second round pick in 2026.
I don't like it.
Yeah, I think I'd rather have the Taylor side.
I would much rather have the Taylor side.
Okay, and then here's a separate trade.
Give Patrick Mahomes and a 2026 second round pick.
So he would actually have to complete
the first trade to do this.
But then he was gonna turn around and give that second round pick in 2026 second round pick. So he would actually have to complete the first trade to do this. But then he was going to turn around and give that second round pick in 2026
and my homes for coal, Komet and 106 in a super flex league.
Why? No, no, no bad trades.
Oh, sorry. Eric.
I just played the last Boy Scout song instead of the Eric Salbite.
Bad trade for Eric.
He's got 102 you said?
He's got 102, yeah.
I mean, this almost feels like
he just wants to trade to trade.
So, like trade after the draft.
Cause you have some capital there,
especially if you get either Genty or Ward or Sanders,
whoever you like.
Wow, I have, I don't know if I should do it.
You guys tell me.
I just got, as we were speaking,
I just got a Jayden Daniels trade offer in our dynasty league.
Ooh, ooh.
I should bring it up.
Should I bring it up?
Yes, of course.
I don't know.
I feel bad for Tim.
You already told me in Heath what the trade is.
So I mean-
No, no, this is no,
we've been going about this for like a week,
exchanging offers. So I mean. No, no, this is no, we've been going about this for like a week exchanging offers. So I have, uh, all right. I offered Trevor Lawrence,
Lad McConkey, and a 2026 first round pick for Jaden Daniels and 107.
He countered and said, I'll do this if you add two Oh three this year.
So then I would give up Lawrence, McConkey, my second round pick this year, two Oh three
and my first round pick next year for Jayden Daniels and one Oh seven.
One Oh seven this year.
Yeah.
Well this year.
So you still have one Oh three.
Yes.
Yeah.
I don't know why you're asking. Yeah. I think I'm going
to do this. Yeah. So I have Lawrence and Ladd basically equal to Daniel's.
So that would mean I'm getting 107 for 203 and next year's first. Yeah. If you think that's even.
Okay. I mean, you're just gambling that if you suck, you're giving him a very high draft. Yeah.
Right. Yeah. It's not really a gamble. I think I'd want to make with your roster.
My roster could be good after this.
If I stay healthy, that's, that's the cat, but you're losing your second best
receiver, right?
Yeah.
I hopefully Odunze can, can be good, but, uh, I like the trade.
I think you should have made the trade.
I'm going to send this offer.
Honestly, do you ever-
Off the top rope in the private chat.
What'd you say?
Oh, private chat?
Yeah.
Oh, Schaefer does not like my team.
All right. So, all right.
I'll make this trade.
Thank you guys.
Do you ever feel like you make trades
that you don't think are great
just because trading is so damn fun
and you wanna make one.
I did that like 20 years ago.
I don't do that anymore.
I don't know if this is a great trade for me,
but I wanna make a trade.
Trading is the best.
No, so like if that's your motivation to make a trade,
you're probably losing out.
It's good that you're giving them a chance
to get their 10 points. I thought your motivation
was to get Jayden Daniels.
Like you wanted to have this guy on your team.
He's Heath's QB3 in Dynasties, is that right? Of course I wanna get Jayden Daniels. Like you wanted to have this guy on your team. He's Heath's QB3
in Dynasties. I want to get Jayden Daniels. Like even more excited when I saw how much he threw
down the stretch and he averaged 32.5 fantasy points per game in his last eight. I was like,
damn. So what's your team look like now pre-draft after this trade? He has one quarterback. I have
Garoppolo. So I have, I have Jayden Daniels.
So Trevor Lawrence was your best quarterback.
Yeah.
My only.
Oh dude, this is great then.
Jayden Daniels, Ken Walker, Malik neighbors,
Roma Dunze.
I don't really think we have to talk anymore
about this team.
Yeah.
Yeah. There's no way that first round pick you just gave up.
Yeah. You gave up a top five pick for 2026.
No, because I'm going to have... 103 and 107 are going to be good for me.
I'm going to have two starters.
You should try and get to 101.
Maybe. I also have... I have Roma Doomsday.
I have Roma doomsday.
I have tank Bigsby.
I have,
thank bigsby your fourth best player.
You're in trouble.
That's it.
That's your, that's your RB two and your wide receiver too.
I think we're taking a running back at one Oh three and a receiver or quarterback.
He doesn't have a second quarterback yet.
That's not going to be hard for him.
Yeah, I'll be, I'll be all right. I have Trey Palmer. second quarterback yet. That's not going to be hard for him.
Yeah, I'll be I'll be all right. I have Trey Palmer.
I have Khalil Herbert.
I have Cooper Rush, Cooper Rush,
the Sean Watson.
I see you trading for a lot of old guys.
Azer, I think you need to consult your co-manager.
He hasn't he hasn't looked at the league since we started.
I don't know why he's still with that roster. I wouldn't. I think I could, I think I could make the playoffs if I nail my,
my first round picks. If half the league is taking again. Yeah. You got a shot. I don't think,
I think there's only going to be one or two tankers. Okay. If I have Jayden Daniels, Ken Walker,
Daniels, Ken Walker, Omarion Hampton, Malik Neighbors, Roma Duhunze, and Dave, who'd you say your favorite wide receiver in this class was? It might end up being Matthew Golden. Matthew Golden.
But you might, I don't know if he's going to go seventh. Well, some thumping of that caliber.
Right, sure. Right. That's not so bad. This is a league where you have to start three more flexes,
and you still don't have your second quarterback.
I'll get my second quarterback.
I'll figure that out.
You'll draft Tyler Schock or Jackson Dart.
Well, they're going to be.
Oh, you don't have a second round pick anymore.
No.
I might.
You just traded it.
No, I might have another one.
Yeah, anyway, thanks guys.
Thanks for screwing my team.
We'll talk to you on Wednesday on Fantasy Football Today
as I think we're looking at the year two and three tight ends
on Wednesday's show.
So we'll be back for that.
A lot of Michael Mayer talk.
See you later.