Fantasy Football Today - 🚨 Diontae Johnson to the Ravens! Is Zay Flowers in Trouble? (10/29 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Breaking news, big fantasy football news, the rich get richer. The Baltimore Ravens acquire Deontay Johnson for a swap of late round picks. And we welcome you to a bonus edition of fantasy football today. And it's Dave and Jamie here. I'm Adam. All right, Dave, go. Well, which breaking news? Just Deontay Johnson.

Starting point is 00:00:21 We're not going to talk about anything else that's happened in the last literally 45 minutes. It's been a wild midday in the national football league. I just had to rewrite 5,000 words. Oh yeah. Of course you did. So where do you want to start? I didn't know if we were doing, I thought this was just a Deontay Johnson one. You got Deontay Johnson, you got Joe Flacco, you got Stefan Diggs.

Starting point is 00:00:42 I mean, no, this is a Deontay. Wake up, man. Host the show. This is a Deontay Johnson. We already talked about all that. We knew Stefan Diggs was going to be out for the season basically. We didn't say that he was going to be out for the season. We suspected. We suspected. Yeah. And honestly, like that's the least impactful. I mean, obviously if you have Stefan Diggs, you're without him now and you've got to go to the wave one. You're playing your stupid pitman soundtrack over and over and over again. You're without him now and you got to go. You're still in the soundtrack over and over and over again.

Starting point is 00:01:05 All right. Yeah. So Anthony Richardson got benched, but this title of the show is the Deontay Johnson News. So let's put a cheery spin on it now and talk about just Deontay Johnson and how good it's going to be. The bigger news is the Colts. Honestly, it is. But we have to say. It is not the biggest news because we know what the Colts look like with Joe Flacco. We know go pick up, we know go pick up the Josh Downs. We know get Michael Pittman in your lineup. We don't know what this means

Starting point is 00:01:35 for the Ravens and the Panthers. That's why I want a fresh opinion on a new situation, buddy. Can I start making my list on who this is good for on the Baltimore Ravens? Yeah. Lamar Jackson. Lamar Jackson. Derek Henry. I think I'm done.

Starting point is 00:01:51 I think it's actually good for Mark Andrews too, because now you'll see them in a little bit more 11 personnel as opposed to 12 personnel, so likely less on the field. Yeah. I assuming that they use Andrews in that role and not likely. And it might be a steam thing and who they're playing, but for the most part, I think I agree. But likely is absolutely destroyed by this. Like, not like we were using likely anyway. So here, here's the thing. He's still raw. Why did they get Deontay Johnson? Can you,

Starting point is 00:02:24 right? I think that's they can't. Right. I think that's really as simple as that. I think Rashad Bateman made too many huge mistakes last week. Adam, you talked about the drop. He had two bad plays through the air. And then Nelson Aguilar, do they really want to count on him if they want to move past Bateman? This is a very good and another very versatile receiver who they know well because they've

Starting point is 00:02:45 schemed against Deontay Johnson when he was with the Steelers. The price tag is minuscule. It is insane what they gave up to get Deontay Johnson. So it's an easy upgrade for their offense. I don't think they're going to force feed anything to Deontay Johnson. I don't think they're going to make it where he gets eight targets a week like he was getting with Andy Dalton. Anything close to that. So I think this crushes Deontay Johnson. I don't think they're going to make it where he gets eight targets a week like he was getting with Andy Dalton. Anything close to that. So I think this crushes Deontay Johnson. I don't even know if I want to start him as even a number three receiver. I don't know if he can, but the

Starting point is 00:03:13 question is, does he take Bateman's reps or is it just going to be a hodgepodge between all the receivers behind Zay Flowers? And then what does this do to Zay Flowers? I kind of think it makes them a little bit more volatile, but I still think he's going to get his targets. And, and this is another red zone option. This hurts a flower. For the Ravens. There's, there's no way that this doesn't hurt Zay Flowers because this is a much more complete route runner, better receiver than Rashad Bateman, he's going to

Starting point is 00:03:40 command more targets than Rashad Bateman. He is going to run a lot of similar routes that Ze Flowers runs. And so this is something that, you know, Flowers had essentially put himself in must start territory with the way that he's performed this year. And at least for the short term, you should start him. But I think down the road, we could see this become a problem for him where he goes to becoming more of a number three receiver. Bateman is, look, he'll have some shot play stills, not like he was dominating targets.

Starting point is 00:04:08 You know, four targets here, five targets there, you know, he had the one eight target game. You know, this puts the cap on his ceiling because again, you know, I just don't think he's going to all of a sudden take a step forward. So you wonder when these conversations started, you know, with, with Carolina, because we know Carolina has been shopping him around the league. And I wonder if it goes back to last week when Flowers had the injury. Did they start the ball rolling then, maybe as just insurance?

Starting point is 00:04:33 And then realizing, like Dave said, where Bateman had the bad drop, blaming the sun, and not wanting to have to rely on some of these other guys there. But this just makes them that much more formidable as an offense and it's hard to defend them already. It's gonna be even worse. You know, so I don't think the out day Johnson's completely useless now, but if he's just stepping into the target share for Bateman, then it's gonna be a problem.

Starting point is 00:04:55 Yeah, I mean, that would be a problem. Now they are 24th in pass attempts per game. They are third lowest in pass rate percentage of times they throw the ball. Lamar Jackson does have three games with 38 or more pass attempts. He has a game with 34 pass attempts. He also has four games with 26 or fewer pass attempts, including a 15 pass attempt game, an 18 pass attempt game. But those two games were weird.

Starting point is 00:05:21 Weeks three and four, that's when everybody was freaking out about Zay Flowers and we said go buy low on him. I don't think they're going to be a 18 past 10. I mean, no team is an 18 past 10 game, but 25 to 30, I think, you know, it's realistic a lot of weeks. And that's- They're not going to stop people. And so it's a matter of can they outscore you,

Starting point is 00:05:39 which I love, you know, and how will they try to outscore you? Do they try to outscore you with just Derrick Henry? Well, that's happened a couple of times this season, or were they going to outscore you? Do they try to outscore you with just Derek Henry? Well, that's happened a couple times this season, or were they going to outscore you just as a complete offense? So maybe the past temps do start to rise a little bit. Maybe I have to ask some questions here. Deontay Johnson or Zay Flowers rest of season? Zay Flowers. Deontay Johnson or Xavier Ligette at rest of season? Still Deontay Johnson, especially if Bryce Young starts morning.

Starting point is 00:06:07 Yeah, it's Deontay. But it's it's it's not by a ton. Josh Downs or Zay Flowers? Downs. I'll take Flowers. Michael. Yeah, Michael Pittman or Zay Flowers was outscoring who when Flacco was under center because I'm looking at that. Downs was was 15 and a half. I was at least 15 PPR points, but Zay Flowers has more upside

Starting point is 00:06:29 and he's got like 18. I don't know if he has more upside now. I think he does. I think it's crazy to think that Deontay Johnson's going to ruin Zay Flowers. I don't, I don't. It's not that Deontay Johnson's going to ruin Zay Flowers, it's that Joe Flacco's going to lift up Josh Downs that much. There's, there's some of that. That's fair. It's also it's very hard, almost impossible to be a top 10 PPR wide receiver on a team that's bottom five in pass attempts. The Ravens, I don't think are bottom five in pass attempts. I just said they're 24th in pass attempts per game and they haven't had their buy. So Lamar's averaging 29 and a half pass attempts per game. So they're probably not. Black hole is going to be around 40. They're not bottom five in past attempts, but this they're going to be close to that. And look, DJ Moore was, I think

Starting point is 00:07:14 the, I think the bears were six fewest past attempts last year. DJ Moore was obviously amazing. If I have hope for, no competition, I know, but if I have hope for flowers, I look at a team that had the fewest pass attempts in the NFL last year. You know who that was? 49ers. 49ers. They gave us two must start wide receivers and they gave us George Kittle. It was actually not really as good as his final numbers if you ask me because he kind

Starting point is 00:07:37 of benefited from the games where Debo missed or Ayuk missed something like that. And they threw to McCaffrey all the time. You're not going to get that from the from the race. I get Lamar Jackson running. You're going to get Lamar Jackson running. You're going to get Derrick Henry, obviously scoring. Not as you know that he's a wash with McCaffrey, I guess, basically. But you did.

Starting point is 00:07:53 But what you need there is hyper efficiency. I you and Debo. They were just stupid efficient last year. It's it's I don't know if Flowers is that kind of guy. I don't know. I don't know. This was that. Now, the other factor't know. I don't know this place that now the other factor here that I think we should bring up. It hasn't worked out so great in the early going for Devante Adams

Starting point is 00:08:12 for Amari Cooper in one game for Deandre Hopkins. He barely played. So there might be a little bit of a grace period is Denver this week for what that's worth for Zay Flowers, but maybe the midseason trade, maybe it won't be as good. Guy just jumping in mid-season, maybe it's not gonna have as much of an impact. I mean, to your point,

Starting point is 00:08:28 Gary Wilson's been awesome with Devonte Adams. The two other Bills guys have been awesome with Mark Cooper. And hopefully Zay Flowers continues to play at this level. Look, these receivers have the rapport already established with their quarterbacks. I know you could say Adams, okay, walking in, he should know what Aaron Rodgers wants to do, but he's still stepping into a year, two years removed from being with the quarterback and in a new offense on a new team

Starting point is 00:08:48 Plus, you know in the case of Adams you're older, you know, Deontay Johnson Look, this is this is now two offenses. He has to learn in the same year. This is now Three quarterbacks. He's had to play with in the same year. Yeah, this is this is a lot of you know moving parts for him But he's one of the more polished route runners in the same year. This is a lot of moving parts for him, but he's one of the more polished route runners in the league. He's going to have an opportunity to get a lot of single coverage because there's no one worried about him with everybody else on the field. And so this should be a lot of easy wins for Lamar Jackson throwing to Deontay Johnson. The hope would be is that it opens up things for Zay Flowers as well. So it's

Starting point is 00:09:25 just a matter of if they stay 24th in pass attempts, if Lamar Jackson is around 29 per game, if Derrick Henry has some games where he's still scoring touchdowns but struggling and not getting 150 yards on the ground, which may be rare, but then we're looking at, I think both these guys should be able to have some productive games. All three of these guys when you factor in Mark An And just probably not in the same game You know like we talked about a lot of these teams two of the three may eat You know one gets left out, but this is this is not the best Situation across the board for these receivers you would have liked to see the aunt a Johnson go to a place where he could be

Starting point is 00:09:56 In competition to be the one he's not here You'd like to see his a flowers not have competition for anybody that's going to take some stuff away from him That's not the case now. And so it just sort of takes away from, from I think all these parts. I wouldn't be surprised if he's replacing Rashad Bateman. Bateman goes to like their number three receiver because they kind of play the same role as it is, you know, Deontay this year had played more on the outside than in the slot and Bateman's been an outside receiver.

Starting point is 00:10:21 So I wonder if he's just there to help win on the outside. That's an upgrade over Bateman. There's no question about it, but does he get, how many games does he get seven or eight targets per? And we've already seen Zay Flowers get nine to double digits. Like I said, three of the last four in the game, he didn't, he got hurt in. Yeah. I, I'm, I'm, I listen, this is going to make me just hearing what you guys are

Starting point is 00:10:42 saying is going to make me try and prize a flowers from other fantasy managers and see if I can get them at a discount because I don't think his role is changing. I think it's the anti Johnson who's like you said, Jamie got to learn a new offense and new quarterback and all that other stuff. And he's got to know the rules for when Lamar decides to start scrambling. Is he going to be greater? He's not going to be anything close to what he was in Carolina. Okay. is he going to be greater? He's not going to be anything close to what he was in Carolina.

Starting point is 00:11:05 Okay. So do you think Zay Flowers will be better than T Higgins rest of season? No, he wasn't going to know if he's by himself. Oh, all right. I mean, he's been pretty damn good. Yeah. Higgins was, Higgins was ahead of Zay on the trade chart to begin with. Okay. Do you think he'll be better than Marvin Harrison Jr. rest of season?

Starting point is 00:11:24 No. Do you think Zay Flowers will be better? Not the version we saw Sunday. Do you think? How often are we gonna see that version? I hope we do for Crying Out Loud, but a lot of deep catches for Marvin still. How about Amari Cooper or Zay Flowers? All flowers. Agreed. All right, how about, well, I'll give one more.

Starting point is 00:11:45 How about, uh, Devante Adams? Flowers. I might go Devante. All right. Zach has a question. Would you trade Deontay Johnson to get Tank Del? I think you can do better. Yes.

Starting point is 00:12:04 Deontay Johnson or George Pickens rest of season. Oh my gosh. Pickens. Pickens over Flowers rest of season. Yeah. Pickens over Flowers rest of season. McLaurin over Flowers rest of season. Picken Flowers.

Starting point is 00:12:15 Love it. All right. That's it for today's show. We'll see how this plays out and quite a test with the Denver Broncos defense coming up. And yeah, for more analysis, head on over to the website, cbsports.com slash fantasy. For Dave and Jamie, I'm Adam. This, by the way, is fantasy football today presented by Bet MGM, the sportsbook born in Vegas.

Starting point is 00:12:36 We'll talk to you next time on FFT.

Fantasy Football Today - 🚨 Diontae Johnson to the Ravens! Is Zay Flowers in Trouble? (10/29 Fantasy Football Podcast)

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