Fantasy Football Today - Divisional Round Winners/Losers, 2025 Thoughts, Superlative Winners! (01/20 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

We recap the weekend with our Fantasy winners (6:00) and losers (12:50). Sam LaPorta and Joe Mixon were winners, but Isiah Pacheco and some of the older wide receivers did not have good games ... What was the best game of the week (18:15)? Was it Ravens-Bills? Was it Rams-Eagles? Was it Commanders-Lions? We also have news and notes (23:00) and a question for each eliminated team as we talk about Mixon (24:15), the Lions pass catchers (28:50), Kyren Williams (33:25) and the Ravens pass catchers (37:15) ... Now that the votes are in, we reveal the winners of our Fantasy Superlatives (47:40)! Did Saquon Barkley win MVP? Who is the Biggest Bust? Comeback Player of the Year? Rookie of the Year? Best Waiver Wire Pickup? ... Email us at [e-mail] 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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It's time to dominate your fantasy league. No! This is gonna go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath. Welcome to your Monday show. Holiday weekend, yeah, three day weekend. What's up everybody? January 20th, we welcome you to Fantasy Football Today

presented by Met MGM, the Sportsbook born in Vegas. We're gonna recap the weekend. It was a great, great football weekend. And Heath, oh my gosh, Heath is here. Guys, don't say anything. Don't do anything mean to Heath. You will get penalized for unnecessary roughness. That's just how it goes this time of year.

I'm just so excited that football season's finally here. That was the longest pre-season ever. The real season's finally here. Oh man, what a weekend. So are they still underdogs? They opened as underdogs, right? I thought they opened as one and a half point favorites. Okay, now they're one and a half.

I thought I saw the Bills open as one point favorites. Now it's one and a half for the Chiefs. It may have always been that way. It may have gotten bad information. One and a half point favorites for the Chiefs. The Eagles five and a half point favorites. I'll get your official picks on Thursday guys, but go ahead, give me your unofficial

Monday morning quarterback picks. Chiefs, Eagles. It's probably where I'm gonna land. That's where I've been since the start of the playoffs. Oh, look at me. Well, I mean, I really went out on a limb there. Why don't you sing a song about it? He'll do it.

Yeah. Don't do it. Fly like an eagle versus the chiefs. Anyway, I feel like the commanders are giving me some 2007 Giants vibes right now. And if Jalen Hurts is hurt, and he is hurt, he's obviously playing through something. He's going to play this weekend, but I think they've got a pretty good chance to win that game.

I think I'm going to take them. So are you saying that Jayden Daniels will be Eli Manning to Patrick Mahomes to Tom Brady? Very possible. Wow. You know, they're kind of living off turnovers and the Eagles don't turn it over. So that's what's holding me back from just picking the commanders.

But like the Eagles, something's just not right in Eagles, in Eagle world right now. Oh yeah, they're awful. On offense. They all fold their way to the MSU. On offense, you admit it, admit it. On offense, something's not right.

Here's the, yes. But also like if you look at the passing production for Jalen Hertz, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes over the weekend, like none of them threw for, none of them threw for 200 yards. I don't think I'm not sure if any of them threw for 150. Um, it was just like, that's kind of the way that it went with some really bad weather games or cold weather games at least, but I, I realized something this morning that I don't know if I forgot this or if I just didn't ever know it.

I've seen a lot of people talking about Alan versus my homes being Manning versus Brady. Um, did you know that Peyton Manning had a winning record in the playoffs against Tom Brady? What? Hmm. Really? Peyton Manning was three and two against Tom Brady in the playoffs.

No, I had no idea. I always compare it to Knicks Bulls in the 90s. I think I said it last year. The Knicks were so good, they could never ever beat Michael Jordan. And that's what the Bills have been, unfortunately. So all three of Peyton's Super Bowl appearances were the wins against Brady? I don't know that. I was just looking at the years. Brady won

the first two, Manning won the last three. I forgot about the Broncos era. So one of them must have been with the Broncos, I'm assuming with the Broncos. It might have been all three. If you want me to check, I can. He's been to four, right? He's two. Yeah. He's been to four, right? He's two. Oh, man. A wild stat.

Good stuff, Heath. All right, welcome back. Anyway, listen to FFT Dynasty. What's your FFT Dynasty? Give me like a little promo. Tomorrow we have one of the favorite shows we did from last year with John Bosch. Basically, we're calling it So You Want to Start a Dynasty League. And John Bosch is the best dynasty fantasy football commissioner I know.

No offense, Adam. You do a really nice job. And so, we just break down everything we would do if we were starting a new dynasty league. And then we'll give also like, if you're not quite as insane as us, what you might do if you didn't want it to be totally that involved. And then on Friday, I have both Dave and Dan, and we are going over dynasty tiers. And I think next Tuesday, Jamie's coming on and we're doing a dynasty mock.

Jamie, did you pay me yet? Yeah. Sure. I paid you. I told you. Oh, you paid I told you. Yes. Yes. I'm actually uh the record pace. I'll pay it out except for one league. Let's get some fantasy winners from the weekend. Uh Jamie, you can start. Who's a fantasy winner? Uh let's go Sam La

Porta. You know, just uh another strong game to end the season. Unfortunately for the Lions fans ending the season but you know, clearly was a rough start for him in the 2024 campaign for the number one or three tight ends that were drafted. And people were saying when we did the bus show, when I wrote the bus column, 2024 bus, that he should have been the tight end instead of developing. Well, he finished the season helping fantasy managers in a big way for the fantasy year. And then another touchdown know, another touchdown in the playoffs. And it's going to be interesting to see where he gets drafted in 2025,

because he's not going to go ahead of Bowers or McBride or McBride or Bowers or whatever order you have, depending on the format. Can he be the third side in that? You know, are you going to draft Kettle ahead of the Florida? For me, he'll be fourth, even if Kelsey comes back. And clearly, Kelsey had a strong – another strong playoff game. It's amazing how he steps up in the playoffs. But I think Laporta, depending on what – again, we've said this a lot – who the offense coordinator is for the Lions, what everything looks like this entire offseason for them.

But for me, I think he's reestablishing himself as still very productive fantasy tight end. And just a great catch, by the way, in the end zone there for the Lions and their loss. I thought it was interesting. After the buy, they had a buy in week 11. Here are the targets for the Lions from week 12 through 18. St. Brown, 63. Laporta, 51. Williams, 63. Laporta 51. Williams 50. Gibbs 34. Very evenly distributed. You know, St. Brown did the most with it,

but they but like, let's see 123, five players had three or four touchdowns. Those were all very evenly distributed as well. All right, Dave, how about you give me a fantasy winner? How about Isaiah likely is someone that will likely get picked within the first, I'll say 10 rounds of fantasy drafts next year began the season and we go on to someone that was a big target for Lamar Jackson and then was in and out of it. Obviously Mark Andrews stepped up. I think it was like week six on Mark Andrews was a, was a big time touchdown

score for, for Baltimore. Then at the end, we saw Isaiah likely catch the touchdown that put the Ravens within striking range of tying the game. We'll talk about what happened after that. If they don't add another big time wide receiver, I think this is who they should put in their offense a little bit more, give them a little bit more work. I almost feel like I was saying the exact same thing after week one. And that was the impetus for adding him off the waiver wire was this is somebody that the Ravens could just lean on all season long to be like a number two wide receiver for them. But he plays tight end. And I hope they learn from that. And I think that he's someone that's going to go from

another year of not being drafted to being a late rounder. So we did two drafts last week or within the last couple of weeks and likely went with the 11th pick of round nine in one of them and the 11th pick of round seven in one of them. Yeah, round seven is ridiculous. I have no interest in Isaiah likely, I guess he is going to have as many two point games as 15 point, four point games as 15 point games.

Zay Flowers has been out. I don't really know if that matters, because Bateman's gotten some targets too. Zay Flowers has been out as likely as been good last couple of weeks. Like how could I, he's like a handcuff to me. I honestly feel like he could be tight end one, if, and three, if Andrew's got her.

But if not, like, I don't know. I can't, look at his regular season. I can't do anything with that. I wonder if this is somebody that teams would be trying to acquire, NFL teams. Right. He's good. We're 100% sure that Mark Andrews

is gonna be on the Ravens next year, right? I'm not talking about because of yesterday, but it was a big time down year for him based on what expectations were. It's the final year of his contract next year. He's got a $17 million cap number and 6 million of that's guaranteed. So they'd save $11 million by him not being on the team. Well, expectations for the Ravens?

Because I'm pretty sure they were probably pretty pleased with what he did. Andrews? Oh, yeah. they were until like 12 hours ago. By the way, my heart was breaking for Mark Andrews. Oh yeah, me too. Likely's in a contract year as well next season. So it makes sense to train him. No, that's a good point you make Heath. I mean, obviously that's a game changer if Andrews is cut,

but if Andrews is cut, but if Andrews is on the team, would any of you take Isaiah likely in the first 10 rounds? No. If Andrews is on the team? Yeah. No. Round 10 at the earliest. I wouldn't take him. I wouldn't draft him at all. All right. Heath, who's your fantasy winner? I'll go Joe Mixon. He had I'll go Joe Mixon. He had such a tough finish to the year and this narrative that he was just bad against good run defense. It wasn't just a narrative, it was true. But in the playoffs, 194 yards rushing and two touchdowns against the Chargers and the Chiefs.

He did not just completely break down and wear down based on usage. And I think you've got a question coming up about Joe Mixon. And I think he is a top 12 tight end for next year. Yeah, my question is why is Joe Mixon not a top 12 running back? I don't know how many of you can look. Yeah, he won't be a top 12 tight end, but. I mean, he'll probably be number one tight end.

Probably. He's a logical player. So we'll talk about that in a little bit. In the meantime, if you have not signed up yet for BetMGM, let's go use the bonus code fantasy. You're going to get up to a $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager with BetMGM. Just download the BetMGM app, sign up and use that bonus code fantasy. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game, and you're going to receive up to $1,500 in bonus bets if your bet loses.

Just make sure that you use the bonus code fantasy when you sign up. It's a real quick betting story. I was placing a bet. Chiefs Texans was nine and a half, and they won by nine. And I was going to bet the Chiefs minus nine and a half. And this was like seconds before kickoff started. And for whatever reason, the line, as I was looking at it, jumped from nine and a half to 12 and a half. I was like, you know, I think I'm actually going to take the Texans. There we go. Very lucky.

And then they returned the kickoff. They got the ball like the 12 yard line or something and it worked out. Anyway, bad beat if you had nine and a half and then they had that safety at the end. All right, let's go to some fantasy losers here and we're going to go reverse order. Heath, who's a fantasy loser? I'll go with Joe Mixon's teammate, CJ Stroud. No passing touchdowns. He hasn't thrown for 300 yards in a game since October the 6th and only did it twice in the

regular season and playoffs combined. He did a little bit with his legs in this game. We know that's not something we can count on. And if you're not someone who runs in fantasy football, you've got to be an elite producer in terms of fantasy production through the air. CJ Stroud was not that at all in his second year. He's a QB two at best double digit rounds. Dave fantasy loser. Pick an old wide receiver. Amari Cooper, Deandre Hopkins, even Cooper Cup. I know Cup actually had stats. The other two wide receivers didn't have any stats, but guys with names that we know have been around a long time.

But guys with names that we know have been around a long time, just coming up pretty empty, literally empty. In the case of Hopkins and Amari Cooper, I think there's going to be some serious trust levels with each of those guys in drafts next year. Cooper has just barely played. His snap high, his snap share high with the Bills is 54%. He played 36% against Denver, 34% of the snaps against Baltimore. He just barely plays. Well into the second half, his live line for receiving yards was half a yard. He took the, did you bet it? No, it was juice. If it was like normal odds, then I probably would have taken the under.

He had one target after that. But you're right. He barely plays. He might be hurt. Maybe there's something that'll pop up after the season that says. I'd be surprised if Hopkins gets drafted next year. Cooper will probably end up with a team that'll have a role that will say, okay, he's worth the late round pick. Hopkins just looked completely washed up. All right. Let's go to, oh, Jamie, sorry, fantasy loser for Jamie. And we talked about this last week, I believe, when we were looking at the top 12 running backs.

What would Isaiah Pacheco do in the playoffs to maybe give us more confidence to buy back into him as a top 12 guy? And obviously that did not happen in the first playoff game. So still has potentially two more games to showcase himself, but to put himself back into that category. So as we sort of, I think, I'll speak for myself, as I settled on, just outside the top 12, somewhere in that 13 to 20 ranges where he'll probably end up because he'll

be healthy and barring significant competition coming in. But he's still the lead running back for the Chiefs and end up as we said, you know, one of the better value picks as we talked about, I think it was Jake Grogan's, Grogan's taking him twice in each of the drafts that we've done PPR and half PPR. And you commented on that both times, Adam, that you thought it was a really good value pick, which I agree. And so we'll see just how this finishes for him. But I just think, like we said, going into the injury and when he came back, they wanted to make sure he was healthy for the playoffs. I don't think that's the case right now. Kareem Hunt is still getting the job done for them. So we're just not going to most likely, we're most likely not going to see the best of Isaiah Pacheco until probably next season.

Jaren Verne00 And I think that's the point is there's a much better chance that he's the best running back on the Chiefs next year than that I think he's the best running back on the Chiefs next year, then that I think he's the best running back on the Chiefs in the next game or two. Just because he just, guys have broken their legs and come back after an off season and not been the same guy at the start of the year. He tried to do that in one season and it's just not, he's not the same guy right now. How hard was it for you when you were making that sentence to not say in the next two games instead of the next game or two? You know, I don't know how many games, how many more games the Chiefs are going to play.

I'm starting to just fear that they're going to bring Kareem Hunt back and that Hut's going to be like the goal line guy or something. I just, that's, that's what's kind of concerning me right now with Pacheco. But you're right. I did say he did a good job finishing that game out last night. Like I know that you kind of mock him because he never makes anybody miss, but you're right, I did say it. He did a good job finishing that game out last night. I know that you kind of mock him because he never makes anybody miss, but that style is useful in situations.

I agree. And if it's not Kareem Hunt, it could be somebody else too. There's nothing stopping them from drafting one of the running backs in this year's class. There's definitely gonna be somebody there to take work away from Pacheco. Pacheco's in the contract here, so they need somebody long-term.

It's not Carson Steele. All right,'s in the contract here. So they need somebody long term. It's not Carson Steel. All right. What was the best game of the weekend? It would have to be one of the two Sunday games. I'll get the answers from Dave, Heath and Jamie when we come back. We're going to take a quick break on fantasy football today. We'll be right back. Okay. So we had four divisional games, Buffalo 27, Baltimore 25, Eagles 28, Rams 22, Washington 45, Lions 31, Kansas City 23, Texans 14. What was the best one in your opinion, guys?

I just always like how you project your feelings onto us. It has to be the Sunday games. I mean, doesn't it have to be the Sunday games? I think Heath's favorite was the first game. I thought Commander's Lions was the most exciting game. Right. You think so? Was that the best game? It was the most exciting game. Right. You think so? Was that the best game?

It was the one score game, so Adam doesn't like it. Oh, I don't. That is you. That is not me. I'm the one who finds fault in the one score games. It was a one score game going into the fourth quarter though. I don't think Washington, Detroit was the best game. I mean, do you?

Five turnovers? Are you freaking kidding me? I think it was. It was the most fun. Yeah. I don't? Five turnovers? Are you freaking kidding me? I think it was the most fun. Yeah. I don't know, I don't think I agree with that either. But fine, was it the best game? When you watch teams do stupid things sometimes and go, what the hell are they?

Like, what were they doing? Like what? Well, please don't say the Jameson Williams. Oh, please don't say that. You're gonna say the Jameson Williams pass? It was a bad call at that time. It was not a bad call. It was a bad play by Jameson. I knew it. I knew it. I hate this take. Was it a bad call when they ran a reverse to Jameson Williams in a 61 yard touchdown run? No, it's Jameson Williams fault. Should have thrown that ball away. You run

that play. You got to trust your player to make the right decision. Throw that ball away. No, he's trying to throw a completion. So I want to go to your point. Like you said, it wasn't the best game because there were five turnovers. And I understand that Josh Allen had zero turnovers. He also threw for 127 yards and ran for 20 yards. But he didn't turn the ball over. I just think that like the best game,

the ones that came down to like photo finishes basically were better games than the Lions commanders. This game was a blowout in the middle way, through the fourth quarter. I mean, how could this be a better game? I think I would have enjoyed the Ravens-Bills game more if it hadn't like, it was, it came down to the wire and it was so exciting.

It was the last play, but then you just walk away feeling terrible for Mark Andrews It wasn't like somebody went and did it It was somebody dropped a pass that was in their lap while they sat in the end zone Imagine if Andrews catches that pass now, it's a tied game Josh has the ball with a minute 33 left Then it would have been the best game. Whether the Bills march down and kick a field goal or the game goes into overtime, that's the best game. They also left a lot of time on the clock too. Minute 33. Yeah, of course. And that's why I don't think like it was a slam dunk that Baltimore was going to win even if Andrews had caught the pass. No. No. My favorite

game was Rams eagles because it went down to the wire. Not your favorite. What was the best game? was Ramseagles because it went down to the wire. Not your favorite. What was the best game? That one. If there is some objective thing to measure, which football game was it? I don't want that thought to agree with him. That's what it is.

What was the worst game, Adam? What was the worst game? The worst game is, that's the easy one. It was the Texas Chiefs. Like that was the worst game. A lot of passion about that game. People were very angry. Dude, that was ridiculous.

You know what? Just make it reviewable. Just make roughing the pass or necessary roughness, all that stuff. It's not that hard. Yeah, make it reviewable. Come on. I don't know what my answer is.

I think Ram's Eagles. That's my answer. It was a great, it was a really good game. I was watching it with a couple of Eagles fans. I'm like, this is a great game. I thought that Ram it was a really good game. I was watching it with a couple of Eagles fans. I'm like, this is a great game. I thought that Rams did a really good job using their defensive ends to keep hurts in the pocket. And which is I think why he took so many sacks

because he couldn't really get out of the pocket. He couldn't, you know, then he would get called for intentional grounding. Obviously he couldn't throw the ball away. That was a really good strategy. It worked. But they were just, it was one of the Sunday games for me. Dave's official answer is Rams eagles, Jamie yours is Rams eagles. Oh no, sorry, mine's Rams eagles, Jamie yours is...

Jamie yours is Washington Detroit. Tell me what game I like the best, Adam, I'll agree with you. Washington Detroit, is that your answer? No, it was a night game. It was Ravensville. Heath? Whatever you say, boss. Well, I have a Twitter poll up right now and I can't believe it, but Washington, Detroit is the early leader. I'm very angry about this. It was the most fun. It may have been the most fun, but I just don't see an argument for it being the best game.

By the way, the Dolphins, if they don't, I'll say make the AFC championship game this year, because this guy's not gonna be a head coach in Canada this year. They need to fire Mike McDaniel and hire Chris Schuylow just for nostalgia. And obviously he's a good coach. Bring him back, bring back the fam.

All right, let's get to some news and notes here. As Baltimore Buffalo has now pulled ahead in this winter poll to some news and notes here as Baltimore Buffalo has now pulled ahead in the Twitter poll. And news and notes. Matthew Stafford undecided. Your favorite game. I mean, what's your favorite game? Matthew Stafford undecided on his future. It certainly sounded like he's going to come back, played pretty well, and hopefully he comes back. They're going to be a good team. They're gonna be a really good team. The defense is gonna be legit. Yes.

Half rookies. They're just so good. I mean, it's hard to find a better combination. The Chiefs obviously have it of coach GM. Like just what the Rams do with okay, we're gonna spend all this money throw away all these draft picks, we're going to Super Bowl, then they have to go reset. And they just hit on all these draft picks, we're going to Super Bowl. Then they have to go reset, and they just hit on all these mid to late round picks without first round picks. It's just amazing what Lesney does.

100%. Jalen Hurts hurt his knee. Philadelphia cornerback Quinian Mitchell left with a shoulder injury. He says he's gonna be good to go against Washington. Well, he says he'll be good. I don't know if he'll play against Washington. But the commanders will be without right guard Sam Cosme

who tore his ACL. So that's a tough break for them. And one question for each eliminated team. So Jamie, if you wouldn't mind looking, my question was why isn't Joe Mixon a top 12 running back? How many of the six rankers for CBS, the four of us plus Dan and Jacob, have Joe Mixon, or as of week 17 or 18,

whenever we did that, had Joe Mixon in their top 12? While Jamie's looking, I can say I had him at RB7. Okay. And you may- I know there was somebody, maybe two. So Heath, yes, had him at seven. I wanna say Dan did too. So Dan had him at seven. I want to say Dan did too. So Dan had him at 11 and Jacob did not.

And we didn't, right? You and Dave did not. Okay. So, Dave, I'll start with you. Dave, why did you not have Joe Mixon in your top 12? He's right on the brink. I have got him at 13. And if anything happens to one of McCaffrey, Breece, Brown, Bucky, or James Cook, then he's going

to jump right back in there. He had as many total touchdowns as Jonathan Taylor, had more catches, didn't quite average as many PPR points per game as Taylor, which is a little bit weird. I think it had to do with how his season ended. He didn't have any games with 15 plus PPR in his last four. He got hurt twice during the year. So there's a little bit of concern about how he'll hold up, but I, I would assume that the Texans are going to spend a lot of capital this off season on

their offensive line to try and just fortify that part of their offense. Not sure how much they'll address their passing game, but they've got to feel good about Mixon being their guy for one more year. So even though he's not top 12 as of now, I think he's got a chance to get in there and I don't have a problem drafting him in late round two, early round three. A lot of people in the chat saying he's 28 or he's a senior citizen or he's really old. He'll be 29 next year. Two things.

If you didn't draft any running backs who were 28 or older this past season, you probably had a bad time. I can testify to that. And if you don't rank any running backs who are 28 or older as top 12 running backs next year, your top 12 is going to look really strange. So he, it's pretty weird. Didn't it just feel like he was having a great year? But at the end of the day, if you look at his stats, his advanced stats, his basic stats kind of like the

same player. In fact, he had his worst percentage of carries for zero or negative yards. I hate that. He didn't really have a lot of explosive plays. But I just remember so many times during the season watching Joe Mixon be like, man, who is this guy? He I don't feel like he was doing that with Cincinnati. And that was I mean, that was what social media was saying, too. He would have these like really impressive runs. I think the last four games left a bad taste

in people's mouths really the three playoff games that he barely played against Tennessee, which kills his per game averages, right? In week 18, the guys they came in, they played like a quarter and they left. They also left week two early with an injury. So that also hurts his per game average. You take away those two games. He averaged 19 PPR fantasy points per game. That's a first round player. His two playoff games, he averaged 18, like point three PBR fantasy points per game, roughly. So that's a first round caliber player.

I don't think he'll go in the first round, though. Another thing, the guys who actually did average 19 fantasy points per game, Alvin Kamara is going to be 30. Derrick Henry is going to be 31. Saquon Barkley is going to be 28. It was mostly old guys. Yeah. Henry is already 31. The thing, I would just disagree with Dave on one thing. I'd be very surprised if they didn't address their passing game, you know, just knowing that

Tanktel is probably not going to play and Stefan Diggs is a free agent. So it'd be shocking if they don't spend something there to go get some receiving help and not deal with Robert Woods and John Metchi and, you know, Hutchinson and those guys. So we'll see how that sort of plays itself out. John Metchi and Hutchinson and those guys. So we'll see how that sort of plays itself out. And I think every team's going to hopefully beef up their offensive line. It'd be very surprising if that's not a focal point for every team's off season.

Nixon, 29, I think is a very good low end number one, high end number two running mate. Just depends on how you value him. So I think Dave said it best. Late round two, early round three is kind of where he'll settle. Maybe mid round three, depending on how you value him. So I think Dave said it best. Late round two, early round three is kind of where he'll settle. Maybe mid round three, depending on how, you know, the drafts shake out, but you're right, Adam.

The last four games were tough to swallow. He took him in round five last week. First pick of round five. Amazing. Okay, next question. Sam Laporta or Jameson Williams? I asked you your lion's question here. Who goes first, Sam Laporta or Jameson Williams? I asked you your Lions question here. Who goes first, Sam Laporta or Jameson Williams?

Jamie, who do you think will go first and who should go first? Laporta and Laporta. Any disagreements? Who's the offensive coordinator? Let's say- Tanner and Stranis. Yeah, Dave said they're gonna promote from within. So Schefter just tweeted about this and saying that since the Lions are most likely going

to lose their top two guys, here are the candidates for their respective coordinator positions. He says it also could be their running backs, coach Scotty Montgomery, along with Tanner, how do you pronounce Dave, Engstrand? I think it's Engstrand. What happened to your board behind you? Yeah, I was about to say who would notice first. Totally just fell in the middle of Jamie's sentence. I look up, I'm like something's different.

It's been falling. And then to replace Aaron Glenn, their linebackers coach, Kelvin Shepard. So these are the guys that are in-house that they're looking at. So might not necessarily be just their passing game coordinator, it could be the running backs coach. the guys that are in house that they're looking at. So it might not necessarily be just their passing in coordinator could be the running back. So why, why Laporta Jamie, I'll just go back to you. Why the port over over Jamison? I mean, look, James had an awesome third season and you know, deserves to be, I think in the top 30 receivers, I don't think he's going to crack anybody's top 24. Laporta could be

the number one tight end again. I mean, you know, he's going to crack anybody's top 24. Laporta could be the number one tight end again. He's got 10 touchdowns on his resume. He's got the potential to be an 80 plus catch guy, 1,000 yard tight end, I think is on the table for him. He hasn't done that yet. So, you illustrated what it was like from week 11 on, from there by week on, how the targets were distributed. That's probably something that's going to hurt him.

But still, when you look at this offense and how productive it still should be, even with Ben Johnson gone, I just think finding a player of his caliber at that spot, he's in the upper echelon of tight ends, for me at least. So I would take Laporta over Jameson Wood. I guess Laporta, I don't have a strong feeling on this at all.

You wanna know where they went in our drafts? In one of them, they went back to back in the fourth round. Jamison Williams, 4.8 and then I took Laporta 4.9. I don't know if that was, I think that was. I think that's, I think both of those are higher than I want to draft either player. And then, well then you'll like the full, the half PPR one we did last week, Jameson Williams went with the 11th pick of round five and Sam Laporta went seven picks later in round six.

So Williams actually went ahead of Laporta in both. I didn't love my Laporta pick in round four. That was too early. Yeah. He, the case for Laporta is, is he's on a great offense and gets the targets that you need for touchdowns. He gets a lot of green zone targets, a lot of end zone targets. Jameson Williams, he doesn't. And he did score seven touchdowns, actually eight if you count the rushing touchdown, but he had the second most touchdowns of 35 or more yards in the NFL ahead of only

Jamar chase. And he wasn't even close in targets. He, his touchdowns came from three yards out, 37, 52, 64, 70 and 82 yards and a 42 yard lateral. Remember the 49ers game. So that's just, you can't repeat that production. The question is, You can't, but he's going gonna have a lot more of those. Like, Tamil Porter's not scoring from like half of those out, probably. Right. I'd rather have the guy who has the more reliable end zone

role than the guy who is relying on like, six touchdown catches, 35 more yards is insane. That's so- It is. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. They both are. That's so it is. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. They both are like, let's see. So so will Williams 17 game

pace was 103 targets. His 17 game pace in his last nine games. So this was after the buy I mentioned earlier that was evenly distributed was 115 targets. Laporta 17 game pace was 88 targets. I don't know what it was after the buy. Let's say it was close to 100. If they're both, if Laporta's getting 100 targets and Williams is getting 115 targets, it might be a stretch, but I'll give it to them.

What rounds do you think they should go in? So in the PPR Jaffee reference, I took Kittle in round six. That's where I would take Laporta. And I'd rather have Kittle. Kittle's three for me, yeah, same. You took the poor two rounds ahead of Kittle. I do. Yeah. Well, you know the thing with Kittle.

He's usually not great when everyone's healthy, but there's like four games a year when everyone's healthy now. Well, I mean, you have IU coming off an ACL tear and who knows what happens with the rest of the team. Yeah. All right. Kyron Williams outlook. My next question is Kyron Williams outlook. Dave, what's your Kyron Williams outlook? Positive. I think we've seen it now two straight years. He's been the main back for the Rams. We've come to embrace the main running back in Sean McVey's offense. And he's been really good for fantasy. 17 PPR points per game this past year. Not as good as he was in 2023, but still very, very

good. Easily someone that should be anywhere literally from like 13th to 20th. I've got Kyron at RB4 and Redraft and RB4 in Dynasty. Is anybody concerned at all about the fact that he just he was not very efficient this year. He had two carries the entire season of 20 or more yards with a long of 30 yards. That's in the regular season. He had a very good post season. Um, and, uh, basically was, you know, not not a ton of catches for Kyron Williams. His 17 game pace, he played 16 games. 17 game pace was 36 catches, but 336 carries. I guess I would say that last year he was super efficient.

This year he was really more volume dependent. Yep. 15 or more touches in each of 18 games, including the postseason. That's awesome. Love it. It is great. He just wasn't that dynamic with it. And you just, including the postseason. That's awesome. Love it. It is great. He just wasn't that dynamic with it. And you just, I don't know. I'm just saying, I'm just just to bring up the counterpoint.

He's got 579 career carries and he's averaged 4.5 yards per carry. He was 4.1 this year. It's not like he was bad. No, he wasn't bad. But if they, you know, he wasn't great. Like, I'm only- If they draft a running back like a Blake Quorum? If they... Two carries of 20 or more yards on 316 carries is bad. This guy was a day three pick. He had a major drop in efficiency. You got to stop with that though, the day three stuff.

I don't have to stop with that. There's a pretty good track. Well, it's... Again, you got to shift the goalpost on how this is viewed. First of all, I'm playing devil's advocate right now. Okay. Just so we can have a discussion about it. But if we don't need to have a discussion about it, if he is what he is, he's a high volume guy

and a great offense who scores a lot of touchdowns and good draft Kyron Williams early. We're gonna take a break and come back and talk about Zay Flowers versus Mark Andrews for 2025. Is it similar to Jameson Williams versus Sam Laporta? We will discuss after this on fantasy football today. Okay, so we've got one more question for an eliminated team and then we're going to review our fantasy superlatives and see who the winners are. Fantasy MVP, biggest bust, rookie of the year, comeback player of the year, and best waiver wire pickup. We will tell you what the people on Facebook voted for. But yeah, my question, Dave, Mark Andrews or Zay Flowers next year? Who you drafting

first? It'll probably be Zay Flowers, but this is the Lions question further down on draft day. If we're taking Jameson Williams and Sam Laporta in the round five-ish range, then we're taking these guys in the round six, seven-ish range. I don't know how much to make of like, it was a terrible game for Mark Andrews in a game that ended their season, but he was also better than Sam Laporta this season. We've got a longer history of Mark Andrews being a great tight end and having this rapport with Lamar Jackson. I think Andrews versus Laporta is pretty much a toss up. I'd probably go Andrews

over Flowers though. Flowers went way ahead of him in the two drafts we've done. So in the full PPR one, no, sorry, yeah, let me go to the full PPR one first. See Flowers went with the fifth pick of round four. Same guy? No. So Jacob took him with the fifth pick of round four. Same guy? No, so Jacob took him with the fifth pick of round four. Mark Andrews went in round seven, second pick of round seven.

In the half PPR draft, which we did a week later, Zay Flowers went with the last pick of round four, and Mark Andrews went with the first pick of round seven. So that was, and actually I think that was the same guy in this draft drafted both of them. Yeah, so I of them. Yeah. So I wouldn't recommend that, but yeah, that Zay Flowers crushed him.

And I don't know, Zay Flowers in the fourth round, I don't, that he was in both of our drafts, I don't really see. Wasn't he drafted way too early last year too? Or this year? Last year? ADP was certainly one of the ones that we did not like. Early, but I think toward the end, I think his ADP was like round six or seven.

Well, he finished his wide receiver 36 per game. Yeah, I wouldn't say it was a bad pick though. I think that's probably close to what his ADP was. He was pretty hot through the first half of the year. And then he fell off and Mark Andrews started catching touchdowns. I think Andrews here, I have it right here. 11 touchdowns in his last 12 games did not score in two of those last 12 games. It's pretty good.

If he can be the Kyron Williams of tight ends, then he should be drafted higher than round seven. Just like 69 targets in 17 games. Let that sink in, you know, that's so low. But that's the beauty of this offense. They're so efficient. I guess so, but even a guy like Heath who loves Mark Andrews would say you ain't catching 11 touchdowns on 69 targets. You're not. He did have 60 of those 69 targets in his last 13 games.

I think that there's a pretty good chance. Like he had a car accident in the preseason and that right. That was, it didn't come into the year. Um, at 100% had two, five, one, and one targets in his first three games of the year, and then like even 79 and 30 or 60 and 13 games is not a good enough pace. But I think we have to, we have to, we're gonna have to azer stat, Mark Andrews stats, but I think you said it right. That there there's that's where I think the discussion starts to come in between

Laporta and Andrews. Like I think those are the top five tight ends will probably be the consensus. Top five will be Bowers, McBride, Kittle, Laporta, Andrews in some order. So if Kelsey doesn't come back, I think Kelsey's behind them. And I don't think he cracks that top five based on how the season went, because you now have two years of, okay, they're going to keep him in this sort of role. And then playoffs come and he's, you know, superstar again, especially it will be 36 in October. Right. How many, how much are you going to buy into it despite this amazing potential playoff

run again? So I like, there'll probably be somebody that gets a lot of hype and you know, Dalton Kinkadish, you know, sort of, um, expectations. And you know, I think he just got to keep that in check. To me, those top five are locked in right now. I'll put Kelsey at six if he's back. And then it's, you know, the Nijoku starts the probably the next group of guys, the, you know, the bridge, if you will. So we'll see how it sort of unfolds. But I think, you know, the four or five is really interesting between Andrew's and his touchdown potential. And now

maybe the narrative of okay we have to make sure he's still our guy at least early in the season after this unfolded and like Dave said contract here you know so I'm sure Lamar is going to want to get him paid because they've been together forever and then what does the rest of the receiving core look like you know because they're they clearly were trying you know they bring in Deontay Johnson you know at the trade deadline and you're probably not satisfied with who they're even maybe second receive. What's the third year i think flowers is really interesting just because going in this third year you know show some flashes that you like to see in your one and your two. And unless there's a significant addition you know i'm you know. I don't know Chris Godwin but you know something along those lines of just big free agent signing.

I don't know Chris Godwin, but something along those lines of just big free agent signing, then Flowers as the number one receiver will probably end up being a good value pick. I would probably lean toward Andrew Silver Flowers. So we have a couple of comments in the chat. One person saying, Jimmy J says, are you Jimmy J? Zay never going to have fourth round upside. And then Disbanded Brotherhood says Zay Flowers isn't getting any better. So I wanted to bring up Zay Flowers. I thought I would complete this group.

Yeah. I wanted to bring up Zay Flowers stats versus another wide receiver. Flowers had 116 targets. This other wide receiver had 112. They had pretty much the same amount of red zone, green zone, and end zone targets. They both were on very run heavy teams. Flowers quarterback through 477 passes, but the other guys through 510. So very run heavy teams.

Flowers quarterback had a much better year through 18 more touchdowns. Lamar Jackson through 18 more touchdowns than this other guy. But so let's say that they were within four targets of each other. The other receiver had eight more catches. He had about 90 more yards. I think he had exactly 90 more yards. He had three more touchdowns. The other wide receiver was Lad McConkey.

And I just thought, is Lad McConkey a better wide receiver than Zay Flowers? I don't know, maybe, but I think they're both really good. We've seen it with our eyes. Zay Flowers is awesome. He could have had that type of efficiency. You know, he's great per catch. He's great per target. Great yak. Had the 22nd in target per route run rate. Justin Jefferson was 21st. Unfortunately, they don't throw much. But all I'm saying is, I don't think it's crazy for Zay Flowers to have a lad McConkie type season.

He just really needed more touchdowns. Only four touchdowns for Zay Flowers, which is insane when the Mar Jackson threw 41 touchdowns. And he only had four. But if he had seven, people might think about him as a fourth round upside guy, you know, instead of some people here in the chat who are very doubt on him. So I would just say that he's so good that he's a good player. I think there's two different questions there.

When you say fourth round upside, like the upside that deserves to be drafted in fourth round, which means you could be a lot better than that. You could be around one or around two player or the upside like your best is to justify a fourth round draft pick, in which case you should probably be drafted in round six or round seven. Yeah, do you do you think well, I think he has the upside to be worth a fourth round pick? Yes.

What do you think the difference is between him and Lad McConkey? Because obviously right now people are much higher on Lad McConkey than Jay Flowers. They're both talented. One's a first round pick, one's an early second round pick in run heavy offenses. I'm not sure that the Chargers are a run heavy offense. They were last year. But you think they won't be. They started off the year being that.

And then in the second half of the year, they're like, Oh damn, we've got Justin Herbert at quarterback. Maybe we should let him do his thing. I need to see the chargers improve their run game before I buy into Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman going back to their old ways. Well, you also, I think in the second half second of the season you had their best running back missing four games to. Yeah it's true but to me the their. I think they're best games when justin herbert was doing his thing mccaukey certainly grew into a huge role what was the averaging like is i, I have it here, 19 PPR points per game in his final six, and he averaged 15.1 on the season. And he's got room to be even better and get more opportunities. Even in Zay Flowers, like I talked about Zay Flowers, his first eight, nine games,

whatever it is, he still only averaged like 7.4 targets per game. And so there's target up size with McConkey. That's an offense that I don't think is going to get away from its quarterback, and they'll throw a lot more. We'll just see what they do at wide receiver. If they bring in one of the free agents or they spend a first round pick on a wide out again, yeah, that'll hurt McConkie. But I think he's got upside to be better than he was this past year. Well, I think that the biggest difference is that McConkie is clearly the best receiving option on the Chargers. And-

Sure. Flowers is in a little bit more of a crowded situation because of Andrews, because of likely, because of Bateman. Like, you know, it's Quinn Johnson and we'll sprinkle a little Will Disley here. You know, it's a, there's just a lot more to like about McConkie's situation. But I, if your point is talent wise, Adam, I think if you told me next year, the Ravens are trading Zay Flowers for Lad McConkie, I think Zay Flowers can be as good as Lad McConkie in that offense. But even if the Chargers are run heavy, they're still going to throw the ball considerably more than the Ravens. All right. Are you guys ready to find out who won our superlatives?

Yes. Sure. All right. Let's do it. Fantasy. Hold on. Let me pull up the results. I didn't put them in the notes because I didn't want to spoil it.

I want to make you guys guess. I will say that my guesses or my answers as I voted, we're not, I don't know that I had the winner. I had the winner in one of them. One of them. Did you have Derrick Henry as a comeback player there? No, but your guy, Zach Ertz, was awesome. I mean, he had a whole 2% of the vote.

All right, fantasy MVP. Yeah, come on, I was gonna vote for Zach Ertz. Yeah, I don't think so. Fantasy MVP, Lamar Jackson, Jameer Gibbs, Saquon Barkley, and Jamar Chase. Those were our four finalists. Lamar Jackson, Jameer Gibbs, Saquon Barkley and Jamar Chase. Those were our four finalists. Lamar Jackson, Jameer Gibbs, Saquon Barkley, Jamar Chase. I voted for Lamar Jackson. Who would you guys have voted for? I mean, I gave the MVP on our site to Chase. So I might as well vote for the guy that I gave it to. Yeah. I think the clearly correct answer is Jamar Chase.

Yeah, I think I think the clearly correct answer is Jamar Chase 23.7 PPR points per game for Jamar Chase. Yeah a first-round pick Whereas the Mar Jackson was not and he averaged three more fantasy points per game than any other quarterback But you guys are entitled to your wrong opinion, which everyone else shared with you He won Jamar Chase 47% of the vote. So good job. How many people voted? I Don't know. I don't think I have that How many people voted? I don't know. I don't think I have that. I was going to say you didn't try to just make your take part of everybody else's opinion.

I don't know. No, I did not. I don't know how many people voted, but 1,600 people saw it. So hopefully most of them voted. Alright, so that's our fantasy MVP. It is Jamar Chase. Congratulations, Jamar Chase to get some hardware. The biggest bust was Marvin Harrison Jr. Travis ETN, Tyreek Hill, or Breece Hall. We were doing non injury busts, by the way, Marvin Harrison Jr. Travis ETN, Tyreek Hill, Breece Hall. I

voted for Travis ETN. How about who would you guys have voted for? Tyreek Hill. Tyreek Hill, Breeze Hall. I voted for Travis Etienne. Who would you guys have voted for? Tyreek Hill. Tyreek Hill. What they said. And I actually got this one. Yeah, Travis Etienne was first 45%. Tyreek Hill was second at 37%.

Travis Etienne, congratulations. You are the biggest fantasy bust of 2024. The Rookie of the Year. Jaden, it was really a two man race. Jayden Daniels, Malik neighbors, Brian Thomas and Brock Bowers. I voted for Brock Bowers. You guys? I would vote for Brock Bowers. For me, it would be Thomas.

I'm surprised if it's not Daniels. Well, it probably is, but I'm gonna vote for Bowers. Who are you voting for, Dave? Bowers. Okay, we are in second place. So, Jaden Daniels won at 47%. Brock Bowers, 38%. Brian Thomas Jr., 13%.

Malik Neighbors, 2%. So, Jaden Daniels is the the rookie of the year in fantasy and probably IRL. All right. Fantasy comeback player of the year. Oh, Zachary? We have the special distinction on our rule like the NFL does, or could this be anybody who was bad last year? What's the NFL rule? It really needs to be like in some sort of injury that they overcame or

circum special circumstances. Not just, not just bad play. Um, all our guys were injured last year or actually I don't think Sam Darnold was injured last year. Was it? No. Um, all right. Our four candidates were Joe burrow, Sam Darnold, JK Dobbins, and we

didn't really have a fourth one. So we went with Zach Hertz, the Joe burrow, Sam Darnold, J.K. Dobbins, and we didn't really have a fourth one, so we went with Zach Ertz. The Joe Burrow, Sam Darnold, J.K. Dobbins, Zach Ertz, Ertz actually ended up with 1%. I voted for Sam Darnold. How about you guys? Darnold. Burrow, for sure. Darnold with a landslide win.

66% of the vote to Sam Darnold. Joe Burrow 20%, JK Dobbins 13%. Congratulations, Sam Darnold, fantasy comeback player of the year. And finally, best waiver wire pickup. I am really mad about this one. This is the one that really,

I think people are so wrong about this. Of course, I voted for what I think should have been the right answer that the winner Baker Mayfield. So it's Mayfield, Darnold, Bucky Irving, John who Smith, best waiver wire pickup, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Bucky Irving, John Smith. Again, I voted for Baker Mayfield. Who would you guys have voted for? But yeah, I think Bucky's probably the right answer. It's either Bucky or John who I'm afraid that the crowd voted for Donald again.

That's what I would say. Yeah, no, the crowd. Donald was in last 4%. They may feel was in second 19%. John Smith got 9% Bucky Irving 68%. I'm surprised. I mean, I feel like Bucky didn't really pay off until the end. Baker Mayfield was a week one or week two waiver wire.

He was great in the middle. What are you talking about? Yeah. What week do we think Bucky was picked up? Second half. Yeah. That's the other thing. Like when was Bucky Irving picked up? I went through and did this looking at the first four weeks of the waiver wire column and he was at 60% rostered in week two. Oh, okay. So yeah, I don't know, man. I think Baker was the easy call for me, but Bucky Irving, another landslide winner, 68%. So Bucky Irving is our best waiver wire pick up

of the season. That's it. Those are our fantasy superlatives. On Wednesday, we will be back with the top 12 tight ends and we'll do some fantasy cops and read some emails. Then on Thursday, we'll get into the games. I'm sure we'll have another topic as well. We'll get into the championship games,

AFC and FC championship games. Looking forward to that. What's going to replace the draft on your wall? Just more tape and the same draft board. I'd like to, I think I'm ready for a new background. I just think like now that the season started, we can probably get rid of the draft board. Like we used that before the season. That draft board is three years old or something. I don't really have anything good. I don't know have anything good. I don't know. You still have to pay off the bed

of putting a picture of me behind you. I could do that. That would be fantastic. Yes, that picture. Do you get to pick the picture or do I? No, it's the one of me scaring you. Oh, the one of me scaring you is good, yeah. Oh, that's actually a pretty funny idea.

If anybody has that, I could go to Staples and blow that thing up. Yeah Have a great day everybody. We will talk to you Wednesday and I think I'm possibly gonna go sledding soon. So that should be pretty interesting Don't get hurt. Wait, the three of us are gonna go right down Mount Trashmore in Florida Sample Road There's several of them, you know, you never know. All right, everybody, we'll talk to you on Wednesday on Things Football Today.

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