Fantasy Football Today - Derek Carr, Franchise Tags, NFL Combine Reactions (03/06 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: March 6, 2023

JOIN OUR BRACKET CHALLENGE! https://picks.cbssports.com/college-basketball/ncaa-tournament/bracket/pools/kbxw63b2hazdeobtgy4a====?pool-join-key=3nwmh3dy803sd203tc593rx2jbex5wvt&invited-by=ivxhi4tzhiytenztgqzdombu&via-medium=copy&ttag=FF23_lk_cbssports_cbb_bpm_copySetupInvite Busy show today! Derek Carr is headed to the New Orleans Saints and we start the show with our thoughts. What does this mean for Chris Olave and the rest of the receiving corps? What trends did we see from the Saints late in 2022 that could carry over to 2023? ... A lot of NFL news to cover (13:15) as Josh Jacobs and Evan Engram will reportedly receive the franchise tag and the same may be true for Tony Pollard. We also read some emails (21:30) before we talk about the NFL Combine ... It's time to talk NFL Draft! Ryan Wilson joins us with a recap of the NFL Combine, beginning with Anthony Richardson and the quarterbacks (37:15). Ryan also talks about Bijan Robinson and the running backs (43:30), his favorite wide receivers (48:40) and more including Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Zay Flowers ... Your emails at [e-mail] Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. He's just going to go the distance. Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. What could be a very fun couple of weeks here on the NFL schedule. Just started off with kind of a bang. Derek Carr, not quite official, but looks like pretty much

official. Going to the New Orleans Saints as we sit here at about 11 a.m. on a Monday morning. Welcome, everybody. Adam Azer, Jimmy Eisenberg, and Heath Cummings. Hope you all had an awesome weekend, and hope you are ready for franchise tags. The deadline is tomorrow. Free agency kicks off

next week. Hopefully, we'll get some trades. Hopefully we'll hear from Aaron Rodgers soon. This is good stuff. What's going on, guys? Are you ready? I'm surprised none of us watched The Last of Us. I thought we'd be able to talk about that, but we're not. Instead we're going to talk about football. All of us watched that. What's up, Heath? How

you doing, man? Yeah, I don't get to watch television anymore. My life is just podcasting and coaching Little League basketball, apparently. But no, I heard it's fantastic. I hope you're enjoying it. Not really. Only midway through the first episode. It's very okay.

Jamie, what's going on? I have not seen The Last of Us. I hope to catch up with it at some point soon. Like Keith, I was spending a lot of time coaching a lot of youth sports. It was a very busy weekend. Well, I've got to give a lesson to you guys. If you ever coach a league that has a salary

cap, the salary cap does not matter because the Saints are getting I do think, though, if you go look at the Saints' future salary cap, they've already spent money, like if you go look at the saints future salary cap, they've already spent money like $15 million in 2027 players that are not going to be on their team. It does matter.

They're not ever going to be really good with this plan. It does matter. There've definitely been some big free agents on both of the line of size of the line of scrimmage, like Davenport and Armstead, that they have had to let go. So I see that. But they are going to sign Derek Carr, apparently. How about this?

In the last five seasons, Derek Carr has produced a tight end that has finished top seven per game in PPR every year. Jared Cook once, Darren Waller four times. So what do you think overall, Jamie? I mean, I don't think we're starting with Jawan Johnson or anything, but overall Carr going to the Saints. I mean, it certainly makes Jawan Johnson or Adam Troutman, you know, who we've been kind of waiting for for the last couple of years, more interesting to see what happens there because you look at this receiving core and it's Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed and okay, what's left, you know know so there's going to be a very interesting draft process for

them now that Carr is what you would consider the short-term solution I don't think he's the long-term solution at his age in this point in his career so do they consider still drafting a quarterback and I think Adam Schefter tweeted the last first round quarterback that they drafted was Archie Manning so that tells you how long it's been since they went and got a quarterback in round one. So I think it's going to be very interesting to see. So I need to pick a 29th, if I'm not mistaken. And that would be...

No, they have a pick? I don't think they have a pick. I thought I saw a 29, if I'm not mistaken. They traded their pick to the Eagles. Did they get a different one? Let's see. I'm looking at something that says they do not. Yeah, they don't have one.

They could take one in the second round. Oh, they do have one. Oh, wow. Be the 49ers. Alright, I was looking at something outdated. Sorry about that. I'll take my apology later. All right, I was looking at something outdated. Sorry about that. So I'll take my apology later.

So at 29, that's the receiver spot. So that, I think, is something that they should explore. They could also look to add a tight end in the draft. It's a very good tight end class. So adding some weapons there, I think, is a big priority. How did they get the Niners' first round pick? Don't remember that. They traded someone to them? I don't remember that

at all. I'm going to think it was a defensive player. They didn't have McCaffrey. Okay, anyway, Heath, what do you think about Olave? Is this good for Olave or were you hoping it would be someone else? I think it's probably as good as it was going to be for Olave.

I wrote the quarterback free agent preview today, and it's not a bunch of guys that you're super excited about unless one of these guys who's under contract ends up getting traded, or I don't think Aaron Rodgers was ever considering them. Andy Dalton from an efficiency basis last year was pretty good. I've said, and you've been mad at me for saying that, I don't think there's that big a difference between Andy Dalton and Derek Carr.

That is crazy. What's that? That's crazy. I know, but statistically they've been basically the same guy. Oh, come on. This stage of his career? Well, look, Carr had a really bad year last year, so there's that. Yes, throughout their career.

I think Carr is a mid-range QB, too. The really interesting thing is they've only had a 49% pass rate the last three seasons. And Dennis Allen's first season as a head coach, they threw like 504 passes, 512 passes. Carr doesn't run, so he needs the big, big pass numbers to have a chance to be even a top 12 quarterback. I don't think he's probably going to get those, and Taysom Hill is going to come onto the field for however many snaps as well. Yeah, so Carr has basically been

QB 18-ish so many times in his career, right around there. Is that more or less where you guys will rank him? Probably slightly behind, you know, depending on any of the rookies that get a starting job or the chance to start at some point during the season. Carr's just not a league winner, as he said. You know, he just had arguably, you know, certainly since the height of maybe Cooper Crabtree,

his best receiving core. Now, granted, Darren Waller missed time and Hunter Renfroe missed time, but still, to not take advantage of that with that group and be better. He's never been a consistent 4,000-plus yard guy. He's not going to be a 35-plus touchdown guy. As we've talked about a lot with the situation in New Orleans, what made them somewhat successful last year was be ultra conservative lean on your defense and try and

win these low scoring games and so it's the same group that's there from a coaching standpoint so obviously i i do think at this point in their careers yes maybe the majority of the career any dalton and derrick are similar i think car is better than Dalton now. And so, you know, there's clearly a little bit more trust there. Obviously, Dennis Allen coached him previously as well. So they probably have a little bit better sense of, you know, leaning on their offense maybe. But to expect Derek Carr to be good, really this is just about the weapons there in New Orleans.

You know, if Alvin Kamara is not suspended for a significant amount of time, I think this will help him. If they add a tight end, that will probably help. I don't think you're getting two consistent producers from a pass-catching standpoint and factoring

in Kamara. Chris Olave, as we've seen even last year, Devontae Adams still put up pretty good numbers with Derek Carr. I think Olave will be fine. I just don't know if this maximizes his talent. I'll give you one good thing and one bad thing, I guess, for Chris Olave. Good thing would be that Derek Carr led the NFL, I believe, in passing touchdowns of 25 or more yards. Almost all of them went to Devontae Adams.

But he did show that ability to chuck the ball deep and produce big plays. The bad, yeah, he led 13 touchdown passes with 25 or more yards. Nine of them went to Devontae Adams. But you guys have kind of been talking about the Saints' philosophy. How about this? From week 10 on, they went 4-4, but the Saints ran the fewest plays in the NFL. They scored the second fewest points in the NFL ahead of only the Jets, and they were 26th in pass rate.

Their defense was arguably the best in the NFL. They allowed the fewest yards per play in football from Week 10 on. It turned into a defensive juggernaut that just did not throw the ball and played very slow, I guess, and didn't run a lot of plays. I don't know if that carries over, Heath, but I wonder how that factors into your projections. Yeah, I don't project them to be near as slow as they were last year. I definitely think they'll regress towards the mean a little bit,

but I do think they're probably a below-average offense, and I think they're going to be run heavy. And so I won't project them to be above average by any stretch of the imagination in terms of play numbers. All right, so... Oh, sorry. Jamie, give me a round for a while. Look at it. above average by any stretch of the imagination in terms of play numbers all right so oh sorry jamie give me a round for a look at it i mean they have arguably the best team in the division right now you know with what all these other three teams are looking at now granted tampa bay is a quarterback away i don't know who that is but from probably being better than them you know

carolina's roster build is somewhat similar. Very good young defense that could take a step forward, but offensively still a little challenged. Frank Wright can correct that. Atlanta's in the same similar situation, but from a quarterback standpoint, you've got to feel the best about them today. We'll see what happens

moving forward. I don't anticipate them going out and say, okay, we have to outscore this team in our division to win it. We don't have to do this to, you know, be better than them. On paper right now, they're just as good, if not the best team in the NFC South. Give me a round for Olave, guys. Sorry, round for Olave. Three.

Three or four, yeah. And just to poke you one more time, Adam. Oh, please. Pro Football Reference does keep track of a statistic called on-target throw percentage. Yeah. Your guy, Daniel Jones, was number one in the NFL last year, followed by Aaron Rodgers, Joe Burrow, Geno Smith,

and Andy Dalton at number five. Derek Carr ranked 27th. Carr had his most inaccurate year last year, in a while anyway. Remember, his brother said that Josh McDaniels didn't let him change plays at the line of scrimmage. So you wonder how much that affected him because statistically it was a really bad year for Derek Carr. Is that a credible source? I would say. All right, guys.

We have a big week of football coming up, obviously, but college basketball. Holy cow. Now's the time. And brackets are back, and you get to hear me say tournament like 100 times over the next month or so, so that's exciting. And you get to be in our bracket challenge. You can get In the Madness today on the CBS Sports app. You can run men's and women's pools with friends and enter our bracket challenges for the chance to win a new car and trips to the 2024 final four play today on the cbs sports app or visit cbssports.com

slash play to sign up no purchase necessary see terms and rules for details now specifically for all of you listeners if you were in our bracket challenge last year you're still in it you're automatically entered in this year's challenge if you want to be in the bracket challenge last year, you're still in it. You're automatically entered in this year's challenge. If you want to be in the bracket challenge, I will put a link to the league, to the contest, in the podcast description and in the YouTube description as well. And if you want to reach out to me via email, you can email fantasyfootball at cbsi.com.

I'm happy to send you a link. You obviously have time. The conference tournaments are starting this week, You obviously have time. The conference tournaments are starting this week, so you have time to get in. You've got a week, more than a week, to get into the big dance tournament.

And we'll see you there. All right, we'll take a break. When we come back, we have more news. Cowboys running backs, Josh Jacobs, Evan Ingram, and more after this.

Oh, and I don't know if I said this. Ryan Wilson's joining us to talk about the NFL Combine in about five minutes. God, you're terrible. Yeah, I I don't think I said this. Ryan Wilson's joining us to talk about the NFL Combine in about five minutes. You're terrible. Yeah, I know. Press for time today. We'll be right back on Fantasy Football today. Miller Light. The light beer

brewed for people who love the taste of beer and the perfect pairing for your game time. When Miller Light set out to brew a light beer, they had to choose great taste or 90 calories per can. 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. Metrolinks and Crosslinks are reminding everyone to be careful as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert, as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals. Be careful along our tracks, and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. Let's go through the rest of the news before Ryan Wilson hops on.

You take off one show, one show, and you don't even introduce, maybe the best guest we'll have all year. You love Ryan Wilson. Who doesn't love Ryan Wilson? He's okay. So anyway, he's very busy and he's taking time out of his schedule okay. So anyway, no, just kidding. He's very busy, and he's taking time out of his schedule to join us today, which is nice enough.

All right, Tuesday's the deadline for the franchise tag, so expect some bonus pods. It's a good chance Daniel Jones gets tagged, maybe Lamar Jackson. The Raiders plan to use the franchise tag on Josh Jacobs. This was the biggest, I think, Raiders-related fantasy news of the weekend. So let me ask you this, Heath. The first three years of his career, Jacobs had been kind of around the RB12 to 15 per game range. Last year, I think he was RB3 or 2022.

RB3 per game, maybe RB4. What changed and what carries over into next year um well i mean he had obviously his most efficient year and i don't know if that was i don't i'm going to suggest that was more circumstantial he averaged 4.9 yards per carry averaged 4.8 was his career best and he'd been at four or 3.9 the two years before that but maybe more importantly he got 20 carries a game and stayed healthy for 17 games. I think he is a top 12 running back. And that role in the passing game will be really interesting because Jamie talked about it last year. And it's proven to be true.

If Waller was out, if Renfro was out, his role in the passing game really spiked when those guys were in. Didn't play quite as much in the passing game. The thing is, though, there's so many of those running backs that are perennial top 12 guys that are 27, 28, even 29 years old. I think those guys are much more likely to fall off from what they did last year than Josh Jacobs is, especially since he's staying with the Raiders. How old is he, would you say? Did you say 25? I think he's still 25, yes.

Yeah. He started young, for sure. Just turned 25. So, Jamie, how would you rank Jacobs with, let's say, Ken Walker and Etienne? Until I see who the quarterback is right now, he's behind those guys, because that's a big piece that's missing, clearly.

We don't know what this team is going to look like, and there's still the potential of, at least it's been speculated, that maybe they trade Devontae Adams. And so if it's hit the reset button and try and lean on your ground game and maybe develop your defense and groom a young quarterback, that could be terrible for Josh Jacobs. So I think it's still a little bit of an incomplete. I agree with Heath.

He's a top 12 guy, but for me, he's behind those guys. He's he's like him and him and Derek Henry are two running backs that I will rank in the top 12 that I probably will not draft a lot of just because they make me a little bit nervous age circumstance for Henry. And, you know,

just the potential of, as we see from this position, you know, just the potential of, as we see from this position, you know, Dan Schneier said this on Thursday's show last week, the position that scares him the most from a contract year situation, I think he might've said of any player in any sport is running back because you see these guys get these big seasons and then they tend to fall off. And so I don't have the historical data to back that up, but I think that's kind of what Dan was alluding to. And so Jacobs getting paid, I do like

the fact that he stays with his team, but could be back to being still a very good player, just not an NFL leading rusher elite fantasy type player. But he is still in a contract year again. He is. That's fair, yep. Fair point. Okay, and then let me say one other thing.

Tuesday is the deadline for the franchise tag. However, there is now still a window to sign a long-term deal. The franchise tag could be a placeholder for a long-term deal. So it's not a certainty that they won't sign him, but not the worst thing for his 2023 value if he is playing on the franchise tag. It's a great point, yes. And when you guys say top 12, you're talking about at the running back position. I don't think you're taking him in the first round.

Is he a second round pick, Josh Jacobs? He should be, yes. If they have Jimmy Garoppolo or better at quarterback, he will be a first round pick for me. Okay. So Dallas could franchise tag Tony Pollard. Again, we'll have a show tomorrow or whenever. Bonus shows. We'll have some more

episodes to keep you updated. And also, Dan Graziano of ESPN says it wouldn't be surprising to see them cut Ezekiel Elliott. They can save almost $5 million if they cut Ezekiel Elliott. I will give a Pollard goal line stat next time he's in the news, which will be,

you know, as early as tomorrow, the Jaguars plan to use the franchise tag on Evan Ingram. Where's he in your tight end rankings guys, Evan Ingram. Top 12, like eight, nine.

Yeah. Nine, I think is where I've got them. Okay. Josina Anderson says the hour, Josina Anderson of CBS Sports says, the Dolphins are exploring all options at quarterback this offseason. By the way, let me take a quick break there and ask you, have you figured out how the Saints got the 29th pick?

That pick has changed hands many, many times. If you could give the journey, it'd be impressive. I want to say it's involving the Dolphins. It is. And does it involve Teron Armstead? No. No? It's involving the Dolphins.

Dolphins gave up their first-round pick for someone in the middle of the season at the trade deadline. Yeah, to get Chubb. And the Broncos acquired who? The Broncos acquired... Chase Edmunds? Sean Payton. This is a Sean Payton pick.

But this was originally the 49ers pick. They traded it to the Dolphins, who traded it to the Broncos, who gave it to the Saints for Sean Payton. That's funny. I'm sorry. That's why I didn't remember they had a first-round pick. More news.

A report from Jeremy Fowler says the Chiefs are expected to attempt to re-sign Juju Smith-Schuster. It wasn't such a set-in-stone report, so we'll see what happens there. Dan Graziano also saying the Patriots have not made much progress on a deal with Jacoby Myers. Dalton Schultz looks like he's likely to hit free agency. He worries me. Which one, Myers or Schultz?

Schultz. I'm worried he could go somewhere and turn into a 75-target guy. Yeah. What if he goes to the Chargers, though, where Kellen Moore will light up the scoreboard? If he follows Kellen Moore, that'll be great. Okay. The Cardinals expect offensive lineman Roddy Hudson to retire

and some combine stuff. Bryce Young weighed 204 pounds. CJ Stroud did not run the 40-yard dash. Anthony Richardson is apparently a good athlete. The best athlete to ever go through the combine as a quarterback? Basically. I was trying to explain to one of my kids yesterday about how we wasted Anthony Richardson at Florida.

And I was thinking about him like, it's not the first time that a great quarterback has been wasted at his college. So I'm like, it's okay. Like who? Well, it's not like the Texas Tech one with Mahomes. It's not like Tennessee's national championship came with T. Martin after

Peyton Manning left. It's okay. I thought you were going to say the guy that everybody's copying him to, Cam Newton. He was a Gator at one point, wasn't he? Cam Newton was a Gator, yeah. Very briefly. I got some updates from? Yeah. Cam Newton was a Gator, yeah. Very briefly. Very briefly. Got some updates from Ryan Wilson.

Ryan Wilson was, we used StreamYard to do our shows. He was backstage about 15 minutes ago. And I said, he said 11.20, right? And I said, I'd say 11.25. He said, all good. Jamie was messing with me about being late. So Jamie, you made him show up 15 to 20 minutes early. But he is also having... I sent him a text.

I said, Adam's freaking out that you're not here. Where are you? And I compared him to another one of our colleagues. You can probably guess who it is. And he said, he told me 11.20. And I said, gotcha. He's like, I can't believe you. I don't think we're going to have him on today

because he's having some audio issues, some technical issues. What? So we might have to reschedule. But I'm texting him now to figure that out. We do have other things to talk about. Let me read an email while we get that sorted out. Here's one from Nick, fantasyfootballatcbsi.com.

For a redraft, where would C.J. Stroud rank among quarterbacks, and what would his ADP be if he gets drafted by the Raiders? If C.J. Stroud goes to the Raiders, where would you rank him, and what do you think his ADP would be? And the Raiders have the seventh pick. I mean, his ADP is going to be around 12-plus at best. Yeah, I think I'd probably rank him around, I'd definitely rank him ahead of Derek Carr.

16-ish? Is Devonta Adams still there? I'm assuming so. Yeah, that's too high for me, but probably close to Carr. 20, maybe. Okay, we are not going to have Ryan today, so we'll reschedule with him.

And we can talk a little bit about the combine if you want, or we can just save that for another day. And I did kind of zoom through all the news and notes, so if you want to go back to anything like the Cowboys running backs or Evan Ingram or something, feel free. Well, Ingram's interesting because he's, you know, if he stays now, he's staying with a much more robust receiving core around him with Calvin Ridley now there and Zay Jones there. Um, so will he be able to replicate his numbers? Now? I think the,

the Jaguars are making a commitment to him for a reason because they were pretty pleased with what he did. And I think if I saw correctly, I think he's excited to stay. So he's someone that makes me nervous just knowing that, again, Calvin Ridley is a huge upgrade over what Zay Jones and Marvin Jones were, and now Zay Jones is still there. So give me a Christian. Yeah. I mean, it helps a little bit that they threw the ball 115 times last year to Marvin Jones, Jamal Agnew, and Tim Jones.

So Ridley can take those. It's going to be so interesting to see who Ridley is. Yeah. Are you pro-Ridley or pro-Kirk? I'm Kirk for now. Yes, sir. Ingram, here's a stat that could easily change, but for some reason he was fourth on the team and not even close to Kirk and

Zay Jones in red zone targets. He was behind Kirk who had 22 red zone targets. Zay Jones who had 18. Marvin Jones had 11. Ingram had eight in the green zone inside the 10 yard line. Kirk had 10. Zay Jones had seven. Marvin Jones,

five targets. Evan Ingram only three. He was also fourth on the team in end zone targets, and they did have the 3rd most end zone passes, end zone targets in the NFL. Actually, I think the 2nd most. Go ahead. This is 5 years in a row of that

type of problem in terms of scoring. He scored 4 touchdowns last year. It was the most that he'd scored since his rookie season. Yeah. Peterson's track record, though, is so good with tight ends. Also, Ingram's played five years, and in three of those years— Oh, six years. Okay, sorry.

One, two, three. Oh, okay. He has played six years. In three of those years, he's been on a team that's ranked 31st in scoring. So he's been on three absolutely miserable offenses. What were those games again? What did you play? I don't remember.

But this was his best offense in terms of points per game. They finished 10th. And I guess the only thing that was – I mean, it's tough to be super excited because it's such a crowded receiving core. But there were – basically, when you look at the games that Trevor Lawrence did well, threw for a lot of yards, 275 or more passing yards, Ingram did well in most of those games.

So if Lawrence can become a 47, 4800-yard passer, which is asking a lot, but people could expect it from him, then you'd be excited about Evan Ingram. But hey, there's Calvin Ridley joining the fold. Is that asking a lot, though, in 17 games? Yeah, I think so. I mean, I don't think it's unrealistic. I could see it happening,

but I don't think he came close to that this year. It was 4,116 and a half. I don't think I can azerst that. I don't know how to get that. No, you got to remove the bad weather. Yeah, and the bad weather. Okay, I can remove the Jets game. Why would I take out week 18?

Week 17. Well, I have to only take out about... I'd have to take the two and a... No, okay, fine. I'll take out week 17. No, I looked at the games where Lawrence threw for 275 or more yards, and Ingram was good in most of them. 275 passing yards per game.

Four quarterbacks did that last year, averaged that. Eight quarterbacks averaged that the year before. But I think, again, the Calvin Ridley thing lingers. I'm not excited to draft Evan Ingram. I'll just throw that out there. I think a good comp for Ingram, from an optimistic standpoint, is to be Dallas Goddard, Dalton Schultz. Good player in crowded offense that hopefully will throw the ball out.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Not number one or two in targets. Evan Ingram or Juwan Johnson? Oh, Ingram. Yeah. All right, we'll do some more comparisons later in the year.

I mean, you know who the Saints tied in is going to keep that streak going is Taysom Hill. Maybe. The Derek Carr tied in streak. I don't know. If you signed Derek Carr, stop using Taysom Hill. They're paying $20 million this year. Go ahead.

If you're the Saints and the Broncos offered you a seventh-round pick for Taysom Hill, knowing you'd get the contract off the books, would you do it? Yeah. I don't think they can, though. I think the way they've like the way they are maneuvering the salary cap, I think they've already

paid that money to Taysom Hill. They'll just spread it out over later times. Yeah. So, Taysom Hill. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just spread it out over later times. They keep pushing it out. Yeah. Yeah. So Taysom Hill is valuable. I mean, he's annoying for fantasy, but he's pretty good at what he does.

He's good near the goal line. He's a special teams guy, so I kind of get it, but it's weird. Okay, so we've got a 22-year league on CBS, an email here from Tag Team, and they have an issue with rolling waivers. Free agent pickups are open after waivers run between 1.30 to 3 a.m. usually.

At times, the night owl saves his waiver priority and then about six times per year does middle-of-the-night free agent pickups. Jamie? Usually it's that bi-week wide receiver or DST that he doesn't want to waste priority on and then go back to the bottom of the night free agent pickups. Jamie. Usually it's that bi-week wide receiver or DST that he doesn't want to waste priority on and then go back to the bottom of the order. We do not want to go back to resetting waivers each week based on reverse order of standings.

A guy is threatening to leave the league over this. What do leagues around the world do about this? Oh, sorry. The easiest thing is fab. Yeah, what should we do to make it more fair for those that don't want to be sniped before getting up at 6 or 7 in the morning? Fab.

If they want somebody, they could just make a waiver claim for them. Right. This does not really feel like that big of a deal to me. Right, so I do this a lot because I end up working late this does not really feel like that big of a deal to me. Right. So, so I do this a lot because I ended up working late most of the football season.

And so if I know there's five quarterbacks available and I'm fine with all five of them, I'm not going to put a waiver claim with the chance that maybe one other person's picking up a quarterback. So I'll just wait until waivers run and then I'll pick up a quarterback. But if Keith wants a quarterback, he can just, as he said, put in a waiver claim for a quarterback. So I'll just wait until waivers run and then I'll pick up a quarterback. But if Keith wants a quarterback, he can just, as he said, put in a waiver claim for that quarterback

and then he's going to get him as opposed to the person who's waiting up for waivers to run. So, I mean, that's the easy solution. Yeah, you're certainly allowed to run waivers or do fab more than one day per week also. You know, so. Okay, I think you can figure that out. Nobody needs to leave the league. or do fab more than one day per week also, you know, so. Okay.

I think you can figure that out. Nobody needs to leave the league. We do have to take one more break. We will come back in just a moment and read another email and figure out the rest of the show. I do think, though, like you said, nobody needs to leave the league. If this guy continues to cry about it and says, I'm going to leave the league if you don't change it and nobody else has a problem with it, then let him leave the league.

Correct. Come on, Heath. We're not going to change the rules because one guy doesn't like something 11 others do. Bring people together. By the way, I'll tease a personal thing when we come back. We'll be right back. What does possible sound like for your business? It's having the spend that powers your scale with no preset spending limit.

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whether your skincare routine is working because you look the same or is doing nothing because you look the same and whatever the heck red light therapy is. It's definitely not that don't overthink how you hydrate. Life's full of choices. Smart water is a simple one. Okay. So I'm getting a lot of, uh, a lot of compliments for the beard from the people watching. What do you guys think of the beard here? It's very nice.

I think you should leave it. I think you should grow it out further. I don't think so. It's what? It's March 6th? Yeah, I think I'm going to shave the neck at least. Shave the neck. Grow it out for a week.

However many dollars Daniel Jones gets, grow it out for that many days. That's a great call. Guaranteed. However many guaranteed. So if it's just a franchise tag, then it's just 32 days. But if they guarantee him 120 million,

then it's 120 days. Oh my gosh. Now, remember, Jamie, I got set up on a blind friend date. Oh yeah, you're going? That's tomorrow. So am I going to be bearded? No, I would say you definitely want to be bearded because your natural look is to be clean shaven.

And so if your new friend can take you with the beard, then he could obviously take you forever. And, yeah, this is kind of an unsafe situation. You're going to meet someone you don't know anything could happen i think you the beard toughens you up just a little bit yeah i do think your friend um who is in california correct the one who set me up on the blind friend date yeah california yeah i really hope this is a prank and like he's got some sort of like the person showed up in like a clown suit or something and he's got camera set up and it's part of like a new reality show that he's doing

i would be fine with that because i'm still gonna eat a delicious cheeseburger tomorrow so i don't i really don't care about the circumstances oh my gosh by the way reality shows you guys following vanderpump rules these days all right yeah i'm really reaching here for content i got one more question to read and then i'll get your thoughts on the combine, because Ryan can certainly give us plenty more whenever he joins us, which hopefully will be as early as Wednesday. All right, so this is from Chris in Austin, Texas. I am in an eight-team Superflex league.

Two running backs, three receivers, and a flex, and a Superflex. I can keep Justin Fields in the 13th round or Garrett Wilson in the 18th round, which is the last round. It's a very touchdown-heavy league. You get one point for every 50 passing yards, 20 rushing or receiving yards. It's half PPR and four point per passing touchdown.

And he has the eighth pick and ninth pick, so he's at the turn. Would you keep Fields in the 13th or Garrett Wilson in the 18th? Fields for me. I think you've got to keep Fields in this format. Yeah, I think so. Oh, wow.

Ryan Wilson has fixed his issue. Let's go. All right. Come on in, I'll tell them. What are we going to talk about for the next 30 seconds here? How was your weekends? Who had a better weekend, Jamie or Heath? Let's see.

From a sports standpoint, we went 4-1 in baseball, my family, and 1-1 in basketball. Yeah, we weren't quite that good. We went to a bigger tournament than we used to. There were 131 teams this weekend, so it was teams from all over the state. My son's team went two and two, made it into the Division I bracket,

and then lost in the second round of that. The eighth grade team won a game. And I didn't curse at anybody. I didn't get any technicals. So, you know, I'm all right. Nice.

And, uh, yeah, like do you, what is your demeanor on the sideline? I am mostly an encourager. Um, trying to give them energy,

except like effort or ball hogging. I will just absolutely lay into something. Really? Usually on the sideline, yes. Oh, okay. Wow. These are 13 and 14-year-olds. Okay.

They're ready for it. Okay, good. Good stuff. Ryan's here! All right! Yay! You're late, bro! Man, I was mad at you because Jamie said that you said that I was late,

and then you were actually not telling the lies that Jamie said you told, and then I couldn't get my machine to work. I sound like an old person, but I banged on it, reset it, and we're good to go, Azar. All right, Ryan Wilson. It's been a long week for you, buddy. Let me intro him real quick and plug his podcast here. With the first pick, it's an awesome podcast.

It's a lot of fun. Check out Ryan wilson and all of his friends great draft analysis it's actually how i got more acquainted with a lot of the prospects so check out the with the first pick podcast we have so many mock drafts and so much stuff uh for you here if you go to cbssports.com you can find all of our draft content pretty easily ryan thanks for coming on man how are you i'm happy to be here even though jam Jamie gave me a heart attack because he knows that I'm OCD and don't like to be late. And I should have trusted you, Hazer. My bad. Hey, Heath, how you doing, man? What's going on? I'm so glad that you're here. I don't have to talk to Adam as much.

Hey, man. Adam looks good. Adam, when are you trying out for the superhero role with the haircut and the beard there? I haven't seen you in a while. You look pretty good. I'm keeping the beard. It's official. I'm keeping the beard. Apparently, I'm a superhero. Before you start, though, you've got to tell Ryan just what I saw, at least the funniest part of the draft

coverage you guys did on HQ, the combine coverage of Pete dressing up as a chair. It was great because you guys know Noah Mandel, the producer, and Noah gets angry because Noah has him working all the time. But as you guys know, if Pete wasn't working, he'd be complaining about not working enough.

So he really had nothing to say, which is a rare occasion for Pete Prisco. So when Chris Hassel, the anchor, said, you look like the chair, and then Amanda chimes in off camera and says, oh, by the way, Noah says the comp is the actual chair. Pete had nothing. He's like, well, I'm not coming to work next week, Noah. All right, Pete. Whatever you say there, old timer.

So he was dressed the same color as the chair. All you could see was his face. It was like a floating little orange head. That is awesome. I wish I had seen that. We have to get that viral. No, it is. It's been tweeted up. All right, listen. So we only have 15 minutes, Jamie. All right, quickly. No, that's all right. I got I had seen that. We have to get that viral. No, it is. It's been tweeted up.

All right, listen. So we only have 15 minutes, Jamie. All right, quickly. No, that's all right. I got to tell you one thing real quick, Jamie and Adam. The only reason that you didn't see the clip is because you unfollowed me on Twitter. Okay, go ahead. Oh, no.

All right. So you were at the combine. And, you know, I don't know. Give me the biggest winners, maybe biggest losers. Whose stock changed the most probably anthony richardson um because when you see someone in person that changes your opinion of him even though he's still the same football player was during the fall he's every bit of 6-4 i think he weighed over 230 maybe 235 i have to look at the numbers then he ran a 4-4.

And you see him throw the football live, and that sort of changes your opinion. It shouldn't, but I think he was a winner. He was all the quarterbacks. He, C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young were all great to talk to in person. Will Levis had a little edge to him, but that's probably because he'd been answering questions all week from teams about why his season went the way it went. And he was honest. He didn't make excuses. He had injuries, and he talked about some of those, But that's probably because he'd been answering questions all week from teams about why his season went the way it went. And he was honest.

He didn't make excuses. He had injuries, and he talked about some of those. And he didn't say it, but the reality is that they had a new offensive coordinator, the offensive lineman. Three of those guys left to go to the NFL. The wide receivers were, for the most part, freshmen, so on and so forth. And now you have to do the math and figure out which one of these guys is likely to be the best. It's still Bryce Young for me, even though he's my size. He weighed 204, but that ain't a legit Ryan Wilson 204.

That's a guy who chugged three gallons of water before he got on the scales 204. He's not going to play at that weight. He's 5'10 and an eighth. I think that's the way he came in at, but he's special. The problem is that he's 5'10 and an eighth, and there's not one quarterback on planet Earth that was a top five pick that was at that height. Kyler weighed more, and he's thicker than Bryce, but I think Bryce is a special football

player, and if I'm a team at the top, I would take him first. We'll see how that goes. I'm going to let Heath and Jamie ask you some questions. Can you rank the top four quarterbacks? How do you rank them? Bryce Young won, and then what? Yeah, I'll give you the top five because we talked to Hendon Hooker as well. One is Bryce.

Two is C.J. Stroud. He was a good football player that no one's talking about because there's really nothing controversial about him. Three is Anthony Richardson for me. Some people have Will Levis ahead of him, then Will Levis. And then Hendon Hooker, who's 25, and he's coming off an ACL. So he wasn't able to do anything here or at the senior bowl, but he's a great young man. He's, I said, by the way, quickly,

Jamie made fun of me during our time in the combine, because I was always referred to the players by their, by their full name. So what does Anthony Richardson going to do to get better? My new thing, apparently Jamie is saying young man. And in one, one, in the a block of one of the shows we did, I said it 17 times, apparently. So I now say young man a lot. He's a great person, hidden hooker. The age is an issue, the ACL less so,

but his teammates couldn't speak highly enough of him as a leader and obviously the way he played during the season. But those are my top five. So do you think any of those top four get out of the top five picks? Do you think Richardson made himself a top five pick? I think the top nine is probably the max, Heath. But what's going to happen, unlike last year, the teams are trading up for quarterbacks.

It starts at the top of the Bears. I don't think they're going to stay put unless something drastic happens. And if they can trade down and get a ton of picks for Justin Fields and helping that team, that'll happen. And then the question becomes how far does Houston move at two? And then the culture at four. And then seven are the Raiders. Then nine are the Panthers.

And then, I mean, you go as far as 19 with the Buccaneers. Are they thinking about moving up? They don't have a lot in the way of salary cap space or draft capital. So that may limit them. But I think there are going to be a lot of teams that move up inside the top nine. And if it gets inside the top five, that would be a crazy first hour, hour and a half of the draft, which I'm all for. I don't know if we see that much happen.

Jamie, why don't you ask a question, sir? Well, you said Richardson's third for you. He's clearly flying up the draft board. When you look at draft odds of who's going to go first, and people like to gamble on those type of things. Could you see a situation where a team just falls in love with him and takes him ahead of Bryce Young and ahead of CJ Stratton yeah but it feels like a long shot like I had teams tell me um in January that CJ Stratton will be in the mix for quarterback one the problem with I had a team

tell me straight up that and they weren't being jerky they're being honest that they said we could see Anthony Richardson in five years being a really good quarterback. Or if you told me he was an amazing tight end, sort of like Logan Thomas. Logan Thomas wasn't the quarterback coming out of college that Anthony is. I could see that too because there's so much uncertainty. I mean, Jamie, you know you're a Florida guy.

He threw fewer than 70 passes two years ago when Emory Jones was still there. And he told us on the set, he said, the Utah game last year, the first game of the season, he was the best player in the country. Then he had some rough spots. He said, I was just trying to do too much. I was trying to play too much hero ball. You'll find it's easy to believe. He said, I've always been the biggest and fastest kid on the field, so I can do whatever I want. Then once the talent level started evening out, it became a little more difficult. Bryce Young is the safest for me.

But back in the fall, a general manager said, listen, how many quarterbacks in the NFL look like Bryce Young? How many look like Will Levis? And that's where they're coming from. Because unlike me, where I can say things and not necessarily get fired for those specific things, guys are getting fired if you draft the wrong quarterback. So I think certainly Anthony Richardson's in the mix. And once the owners get involved and the coaches get involved in the sort of scouting process that's been ongoing for months now

for the personnel department, then things also get even more interesting. I think the perfect landing spot for Anthony Richardson, actually for any quarterback on planet Earth, is San Francisco, but that's not going to happen. But after that, the landing spot matters a lot because you could put Patrick Mahomes in Cleveland out of that draft, and he's probably not the same person he is now. Yeah, and Richardson doesn't have to come in and play as a rookie.

He's a really interesting prospect for those of you who don't know. His completion percentage, really, really, like, extremely inaccurate quarterback. And some notes from our CBS Sports research crew. 24 career touchdown passes would be the fewest by a first-round pick quarterback since Michael Vick in 2001. And 55% completion percentage in college in his career would be the lowest by a first-round pick quarterback since Jake Locker in 2011. So there's that, but then he just had basically the best combine that a quarterback's ever had in terms of the testing

and all of the athletic stuff. He's an unbelievable athlete, so he's very interesting. We could talk about him forever, but I think people want to talk about Bijan Robinson on this podcast here, right? So Bijan Robinson, what did you think? Was he as impressive as you were hoping, and where do you think he gets drafted? Yeah, no, he was.

I was sort of interested. I was surprised that he wasn't six feet even. Saquon actually measured taller. Saquon doesn't feel that tall to me, maybe because he's so well-proportioned and, more importantly, so thick. But Bijan is a similar type player to that. I know on the broadcast, on the NFL Network broadcast,

they had comps to Marshawn Lynch, but Marshawn ran, I think, a 4.57, and Bijan got a sub 4.5. He's a special player. And the issue becomes, does he go in the first round? Not because he's not a top 10 talent, and he is a top 10 talent. The issue is, is there a team that will take him in the first round because his running back's class is so deep?

And once you get towards the bottom and a team like the Chiefs or the Eagles decide to take a flyer on him, that would be interesting. The Chiefs have Isaiah Pacheco, and the things didn't work out with Clyde Edwards-Alaire a few years ago. Maybe even the Bills could be in the running that took James Cook last year in the second round. And I know that has implications fantasy-wise that aren't the same as sort of NFL Sunday-wise,

but it would be a situation for him where he doesn't have to carry the load and get all the tread worn off the tires, whatever the cliche you want to use and be in a system where he's going to have success. He's also fantastic as a receiver. He's a really good blocker and Adam, I'll mention one name quickly. His teammate, Roshan Johnson actually was taller than he was. He ran a four or five, eight, but he is incredible,

an incredible special teams talent, both on coverage and as a returner. He's maybe one of the best blockers in this league coming into this class, I should say. And he hasn't played, taken a lot of snaps, and he is going to be a RB1. So you guys can get ahead of the curve and put him on your list because it's like Bryan Robinson

last year, right? He waited his time in Alabama, came out, and was drafted higher than many people, myself included, thought. So B. John's special, there's no doubt about it, but Roshon Johnson is a name to keep an eye on as someone who is going to play a lot of football next year and do a lot of really good things.

Everybody is so excited about having that 101 in a rookie dynasty draft because they get Bijan, but how big do you think the gap is between him and everyone else at running back? I know that it's a deep class, but what's that second tier look like j jameer gibbs out of out of alabama by way of georgia tech they're neck and neck in my mind people don't want to hear that and that's fine bijan's bigger jameer's a little smaller but uh

jameer compared himself to christian mccaffrey and most folks myself included compared him to alvin kamara or dalvin cook that's the type of player is. That's how dynamic he is. And he does a lot of things well. So if you told me that Bijan went five or six picks ahead of Jameer or even in the right situation, Jameer went ahead of Bijan, it wouldn't surprise me. And there are, I mean, there are a lot of backs like Jameer that are not 220 pounds, but are incredibly shifty, will help you in the pass game. Tajay Spears, for example, out of Tulane. Devon Achain out of Texas A&M. He came in at 188.

He runs between the tackles as hard as anyone, and he does it effectively. And you're not going to catch him. And again, he has returnability. Zach Charbonnet is actually one of the few guys who was sort of big, 6'2", 14. So it feels like almost he's like two years ago when Jonathan Taylor, DeAndre Swift, J.K. Dobbins All those guys went clustered in the second round We're going to see that after Jameer Gibbs and B. John Robinson, whatever order they go, go off the board

They're going to be a run of guys in round two that are going to be contributors immediately And again, at the top of that list for me is Roshon Johnson And the second tier of guys who has a chance to be a really good football player really early. Ryan, you mentioned the size of some of these guys, and I think some people have concerns about can they be workhorse running backs? You know, they could be the Alvin Kamara types, but those seem to be a little bit more rare in the NFL to be that good. And so do these guys with some of these slight frames concern you a little bit that they're just going to be more complementary backs

as opposed to lead backs? Yeah, that's a fair concern. And, I mean, even how often these days are these guys feature backs, right? You have, I mean, Dalvin, when Dalvin's healthy, he's still taking a few series off for Madison. And Kamara, when he's healthy, I suppose he is sort of the guy. But it feels more and more rare to see that be the case. Saquon is the guy, but he would occasionally take the series here

and series there off in part because he's probably still coming back from a knee injury. But, yeah, no, that's a fair concern. And it's a bigger issue for you guys, of course, than for me just sort of watching on Sunday. But I think we saw this with Kenneth Walker or Ken Walker. He still likes to be called Ken, even though we refuse to call him that. And then Brees Hall before he got hurt.

They were getting the carries, and they're not big guys. We saw them on the set last year, Jamie. They're both north of 200 pounds. But I think when you're talking about an A-chain, like I mentioned, who's 188, maybe that's a concern. He's more of a home run hitter, take a few plays off. You can move him in the slot if you want, more of a jack of all trades. But that is a fair concern when you're talking about guys that you want to carry the ball 20, 25 times a game.

I know you have to go in a couple minutes, so could you tell us about the wide receivers who really stood out? Who are your top three? Yeah. So this is interesting, Adam, because this wide receiver class isn't nearly as good as recent classes. And it's sort of weird to say because it's a trickle up effect from high school where you see these guys and they go to college and they ball out there and then they make their way to the NFL. But there's no – I don't say there's no, but there's not going to be a Jamar Chase. Quentin Johnson's at the top. Jordan Addison's at the top out of USC by way of Pitt.

He didn't run a great time. He plays much faster than that. I think Zay Flowers has a chance to end up sneakily being the first wide receiver drafted out of BC. He actually went to the Shrine Bowl, didn't go to the Senior Bowl, and he is a fantastic football player. All three of those guys are. Quentin Johnson is the one. He's 6'3", I think 6'4", and he didn't run,

but he runs well when you watch him play. Addison, as I said, is fast on tape, even though he ran a 4-4-9 or whatever it was. Let's see who else is there. I want to get your thoughts on Jackson Smith and Jigba, if you don't mind. Oh, yeah. A year ago, after his 2021 season,

I felt like he was going to be a top-five pick. How much can we just explain the struggles on the injury? Because I do think that fantasy managers, when he gets drafted, a lot of them are going to kind of be thinking what I'm thinking is, this guy might just be the best wide receiver and was penalized too harshly by his injury-plagued 2022 season how are people feeling about jackson smith najib out of ohio state right now he had a good workout he didn't run but the the drill said he did um otherwise i think people felt okay about and look he only had a hamstring so it wasn't into the world i think he only played three games had five catches and i got the sense that he did otherwise, I think people felt okay about. And look, he only had a hamstring, so it wasn't the end of the world.

I think he only played three games, had five catches. And I got the sense that he sort of Nick Bosa'd it and shut it down. Nick Bosa had the core muscle injury coming out. And he, after a few weeks, said, I'm good. And no one cared. The concern is that people want to see how fast he is. He plays in the slot primarily. But C.J. Stroud and Garrett Wilson both told us that he was the best wide

receiver on that team in 2021. He led that team in receiving. He led that team in receiving yards. That group had Olave, Garrett Wilson, Marvin Harrison Jr. Marvin Harrison Jr. might be the number two overall pick next year once we get past all the quarterbacks or whenever that happens. People want to see how fast he runs.

If he runs a 4.6, that's a problem. If he runs a 4.49, no one cares. I do wonder, though, we talk about quarterbacks being in systems, if Smith and Jigba needs to have a number one next to them. Can he be the number one going from day one? I don't know if that's the case. But it's also a case, Adam, of what have you seen from me lately. And to your point, we sort of dock guys for not doing something most recently.

And I'll mention quickly a guy who has done something recently, Jalen Hyatt, the wide receiver out of Tennessee, played with him in Hooker, had what felt like 50 touchdowns last year. He was a backup. He was a number three. He got to play because Cedric Tillman, the number one, got hurt. And all he did was torch Alabama. And he ran a really good time.

I think he had a 4-4-0. He's a big kid, six feet. And we talked to him, and he has an edge to him. He wants to get better and he's if you're looking for a home run hitter to compliment say a cd lamb in dallas jalen hyatt feels like a really good pick where he doesn't have to do everything there'll be other guys around him taking some of the pressure off and he can just mike i call him mike wallace you can just mike wallace it down the field and go routes all night long well young man i want to thank you

very much for coming on our show today. And we appreciate it. Yeah, Ryan. Right on time. And yeah, man, again, with the First Pick podcast, it is a must listen. Ryan Wilson, thanks, buddy. Thank you, guys. Good seeing you. And that's going to do it for us. For Jamie and Heath and Ryan and Thomas, I'm Adam.

We'll talk to you probably tomorrow or maybe later today with some breaking news. We'll have a lot of episodes for you in the next couple of weeks. Have a good one, everybody.