Fantasy Football Today - Divisional Winners and Losers; Offseason Questions (01/22 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: January 23, 2023

Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Kicking off today's show with some trivia (3:05) before we reveal our winners (4:40) and losers (8:55) from the weekend. Kadarius Toney and Brock Purdy are gaining momentum for 2023, while CeeDee Lamb has played like a first round Fantasy pick since Dak Prescott's return. Meanwhile, where is Juju Smith-Schuster? And should we be concerned about the way Trevor Lawrence finished the season? ... News and notes (18:50) on several star players and then we have a fun dynasty trade to discuss (25:45). One of our listeners traded some superstars for five first round picks, but did he get enough in return? ... Offseason questions for the Jaguars (29:30), Giants (33:40), Cowboys (41:30) and Bills (46:00). Christian Kirk or Calvin Ridley? Daniel Jones or Dak Prescott? Are we excited for James Cook in 2023? ... Email us 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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Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. 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. The four best teams remain. Of this, we have no doubt. It is the Chiefs hosting the Bengals and the 49ers visiting the Eagles. And it is four of us here today. Heath's back. Hooray! The whole gang back together again.

What's up, Heath? Welcome back. How was your staycation? It was fantastic. Got some camping in. Got some youth basketball in. Watched a little bit of football. Wonderful. Is it really fun for you to play against youths? It would be so much fun. I actually do it pretty regularly. Probably will tonight because anytime we don't have an even number for a scrimmage, I get in there.

But he was coaching. It was a joke. What's that? He was coaching. I was coaching this weekend, but no, it is a lot of fun to play against the youth. Playing against middle school kids, I swatted a kid off the wall last week. It was fantastic. How would I do against middle school kids? They would dominate you.

That's how it's done. 100% they would dominate you. All right. Well, what's going on, Jamie? How we doing? Doing great. Can't complain. Good weekend of football.

Dave, not really. Dave, you said that divisional weekend is usually the best weekend of football of the year. It really wasn't this year. No, no, no. We got let down a little bit. The closest thing that we had to a nail-biter was the Cowboys 49ers game, and it wasn't even really a nail-biter. So fake divisional playoff weekend.

Hopefully the conference championships make up for it. Hopefully the conference championships make up for it. Hopefully the Super Bowl makes up for it. We've got a shot at some really exciting Super Bowl combinations. I want to go back to Adam playing against kids in sports. I know he'd be terrible at the middle school basketball, but I think on Jamie's oldest baseball team, how would Adam do? Oh, let's see. How old?

Backup catcher. Nine, ten? Ten to twelve. He would probably, can you hit a 60-mile-an-hour fastball? Yes. Yeah, I could do that. But not a curveball. A curveball, no.

A 60-mile-an-hour fastball? Yeah, I could. From like 45, 48 feet. Yeah, that's not from 90 feet. That's from 45. Yes, if a 10 to 12-year-old can hit it,, I can. From like 45, 48 feet. Yeah, that's not from 90 feet. That's from 40. Yes, if a 10 to 12-year-old can hit it, then I can hit it, okay?

Give me a break. All right, next time you're in Florida, my 10-year-old who's lefty, so you have a little bit of an advantage, lefty-righty matchup. My 10-year-old is lefty.

We'll pitch to you. I'm in for that. I don't want to hire you, by the way. You're how tall? 5'9", let's just say. No.

We'll round up. We'll round up. Not 5'9". I'm rounding up. We always round up. He's 5'2", so he's almost your height. What is this,

decibel scoring? Come on. All right. Let's get into the show here. A couple trivia questions for you. We'll talk about the news and notes,

and I have an off-season question for each of the four eliminated teams. Trivia question number one. Of all the running backs with 80 or more carries, the top two in yards per carry were both rookies. Who were they? 80 or more carries for a running back,

the top two in yards per carry were both rookies. Who were they? Kenneth Walker? No. Tyler Algier no no Brees Hall

yes I want to say Pacheco no no does Travis Etienne count no no even though he should

he played this weekend this past weekend what about Isaiah Pacheco no no did someone just say Jordan Mason James Cook James Cook 5.7 yards per carry Brees Hall won This past weekend. What about Isaiah Pacheco? No, no. Did someone just say? Jordan Mason? James Cook.

James Cook. 5.7 yards per carry. Brees Hall, one. James Cook, two. Khalil Herbert, three. J.K. Dobbins, four. Those are your top four in yards per carry. 80 or more carries.

DeAndre Swift, five. All right. Trivia question number two. You only have five seconds to think about this one. How many quarterbacks scored 20 or more fantasy points last weekend? You mean the games on Sunday? I don't know. The most recent weekend. Yes.

Divisional round. One. Dave says one. One. One sounds right. One sounds wrong. Jalen Hurts and Joe Burrow. It was only two.

Burrow scored 24. Hurts scored 27. And Mahomes maybe got 20 in decimal. I don't have decimal scoring. He had 19. You get the Chiefs TQB there? What's that? You get the Chiefs TQB there?

No, I don't get that. But it was a surprising weekend. Not a lot of big points production from the quarterbacks. All right, let's do a fantasy winner and a fantasy loser. Heath, we haven't heard fantasy talk from you lately, so why don't you go first? Give me a fantasy winner from the quarterbacks. Alright, let's do a fantasy winner and a fantasy loser. Heath, we haven't heard fantasy talk from you lately, so why don't you go first? Give me a fantasy

winner from the weekend. You always do such a good job of going to me first because you know I'm going to be prepared for these types of questions. Yeah, I think the winner probably has to be Brock Purdy. Even though he didn't play well, even though he didn't score very many fantasy points,

I don't know how he doesn't start week one. He just took the 49ers to the NFC Championship game in his rookie season. I'm going to say Brock Purdy. Dave, fantasy winner? How about Isaiah Pacheco? But this time I mean it for real.

Dave Robot is broken. He might be Kansas City's lead running back next year. He's played well enough to earn at least consideration for it. Explosive, maybe a little too herky-jerky in the way that he plays, maybe a little underrated as a pass catcher. I thought that in this playoff game they'd get away from Pacheco. Important games, usually this is where Jared McKinn get away from Pacheco. Important games. Usually this is where

Jared McKinnon shies. Uh-uh. Pacheco was their lead back. He had a good game. Almost had 100 yards. I think he's going to increasingly gain steam as an RB2

as we head into fantasy drafts. 12 carries, 95 yards for Pacheco. And they could activate MVS this week. We'll see what happens. You mean CEH? Yeah. Sorry about that. Elemento V.

MVS actually has been active. It just hasn't been obvious for a lot of the season. That's true. He did catch a touchdown. For one play on Saturday, he was activated. Pacheco's long run, I think that was on the Henny drive, right? I mean, that was one of the biggest plays of the game. Huge play.

Jamie, fantasy winner. I'll stare at the Chiefs and say Kadarius Toney. Seven targets. He's still not playing a full-time role. And, you know, I hope a full offseason and what he's capable of doing can only unlock what his potential is. Obviously, staying healthy is going to be a big part of that. But seven targets, five catches.

You know, it's a receiving core. We've talked about this quite a bit, you know, that we don't know exactly what it's going to look like next season because Juju's a free agent. Nicole Hartman's a free agent. MVS, who knows if they're going to be, you know, stick with him't know exactly what's going to look like next season because Juju is a free agent. Nicole Harman's a free agent, uh, MVS who knows that they're going to be, you know,

uh, stick with him based on the contract and the lack of production. So, uh, Cadareous Tony, I think could be a huge winner next year. Yeah. Tony's still playing about 30% of the snaps.

Um, I'm going to give you the science game away. I don't blame him. Um, well, I just don't think it was going to work for, for anyone there. You know, I think it's going to be good for, for Tony for sure. Well, I just don't think it was going to work for anyone there. I think it's going to be good for Tony, for sure.

And I think it was just they needed to move on. I'm still waiting for him to play the majority of snaps, though. He's playing about a third of the snaps. It was actually lower than that. Yeah, that's what's the great thing about it is what happens when he is. When he starts playing as a full-time role? Sure, that'd be great. Yeah, if you're a targets per route run guy,

Kadarius Tony has looked like a future star. He was last year, too. He had 20 snaps, six touches, seven targets, and a carry. That's a lot. Put that on a 17-game base, 17-game pace, where you're playing every single snap and he'll lead the league in touches.

It's not going to happen. All right, so let me give you a stat line. Tell me if this is a first-round player. 17-game stat. 114 catches. 1,468 yards, 11 touchdowns on 148 targets. Yes, that's a... Oh, yes.

That's maybe a top-eight player. That's CeeDee Lamb in week seven through 18 when Dak Prescott came back. And that doesn't even count two postseason games where he scored, let's see, 16.8 and 21.7 fantasy points. He scored 16 or more fantasy points in 10 of 14 games with Dak, seven of his last eight. Sean Payne's going to love him.

You think so? No. McCarthy's not going anywhere right he said i don't i don't know that he did i mean look if you can upgrade to sean payton that's one thing but i don't think you can put anything on mike mccarthy can you no i think sean payton's just got like he could get a handful of coaches fired with a phone call. Right. Right. All right. A fantasy losers. Jamie, why don't we start with you this time?

A fantasy loser. Um, let's go with, let's go with Tony Pollard just cause the injury. I hope he's fine. I really do. You know, going into free agency, you know,

with a broken tibia, hopefully our fibula, uh, hopefully should be, you hopefully should be 100% by the start of training camp. But that could just put a little bit of a damper on maybe the contract that he was going to get or hopefully will get. I would love to see him stay in Dallas. I know there's a talk of maybe franchise tag for him. But let Zeke go. Let Pollard stay. But just seeing somebody get hurt as they're heading into free agency in their final game just always sucks for me. How much did Pollard's injury remind you of Mahomes' injury?

They almost kind of, they didn't look exactly the same, but leg getting bent around and all that, it made me marvel when I heard there was a fracture. I was like, dang, that wasn't a sprain just like Mahomes had, where you get bent around, you never know what you're going to get out of it. But I don't know if I'm – I think he's going to be a loser in terms of his free agent deals. I wonder if this is going to cost him a little bit of money there.

But he's still got potential to be a good fantasy running back. He can heal up from this and be ready to go for week one. I hope so. I think the concern would be that because maybe he doesn't get one of the feature back contracts and he ends up in a situation similar to what he is this year.

Did this prove that the Cowboys coaches are right about him? No. This is freak play, I think. I hope. He was great down the stretch. He was much better last week than this week, but he didn't play against the 49ers. I think Dave was referring to that he can't handle the big workload.

No, if that's their answer, then they're idiots. Yeah, all right. And Dave, who's your fantasy loser? Let's go with Gabe Davis and how much a difference a year makes. Bad game, big spot for Buffalo couldn't come through I took a look at his game log five of 17 games this year where he had more than 70 yards 10 of 17 games where he was under 50 yards he had eight touchdowns in

seven games and I wonder if this is just what he is it's like a big play guy and those guys are typically number three receivers for their own NFL teams. That means that someone else might have to be the number two receiver for Buffalo. Going back to the winners, maybe Dawson Knox is a winner because he's been that number two option for Buffalo's passing game the last six weeks, something like that, where he was scoring every single week. And then on Sunday, he had five for 65 so i wonder if gabe davis is just going to be what he is and he never takes that next step to being

a great nfl receiver slash fantasy receiver well i mean i was going to save because i was going to ask about him later but i mean i i can make the i can make a great case for well i can make a funny case i said it it's not i mean it's it's azer theories it's just i can make a very theoretical case where if you really want to believe in gabe davis i'll make you believe in gabe davis uh all right oh you it's not even it's not even that difficult you just look at his pace before josh allen hurt his elbow that's exactly what right but you also i think can even be a little bit more lenient and understand It's not even that difficult. You just look at his pace before Josh Allen hurt his elbow. That's exactly right. But you also, I think, can even be a little bit more lenient and understand some of his bad games.

He was hurt. He missed week two. He got hurt in week one. He stunk in weeks three and four. I specifically remember the Pittsburgh game was on CBS, and it was a Nance Romo game, and Romo said, this is the healthiest I've seen Gabe Davis since the beginning of the season. He went out in that game. He had 171 yards and two touchdowns. He got rolling a little bit here. And, you know, for the next four weeks, he and Josh Allen were healthy. And when Josh Allen

had a good game, Gabe Davis had a good game. When Josh Allen had a bad game, Gabe Davis had a bad game, which is by the way, what happened in the playoffs. And I don't think we saw really Josh Allen get healthy until week 18, but this is good. Again, this is just a playoffs and i don't think we saw really josh allen get healthy until week 18 but this is again this is just a theory i don't know but that's when he started throwing the ball down field more and gabe davis had 10 targets in week 18 he had a bad game he had a he had a great game and against the dolphins and then every like i don't really hold this game against him because the bill's bat passing offense was really bad okay no you should have just stuck with the one that i often know because i'm, because I'm tying him to Allen's production. So basically, the overarching theory is

when Gabe Davis and Josh Allen are healthy, Gabe Davis is good when Josh Allen is good. That's basically what we've seen. So I think there's more potential than what we saw this year. He finished as the number 28 wide receiver per game in non-PPR, number 38 per game in full PPR.

I think he can be better than that. I mean, like, look, he is right. He's not going to be like a true, he's not going to be T. Higgins or something. But I think he can have more boom weeks next year, health permitting. That's the art. He'll be a great value pick

because he was overdrafted this year. And I think that's something that will help. I also think that they need to get something else from someone else. You know, Isaiah McKenzie just wasn't that guy. I'm hoping Khalil Shakir is that guy. Because he could be fun and he saw some moments from him. You know, you go back to a year ago and maybe that's what Josh Allen was missing a little bit. You know, the Cole Beasley type of player.

You know, someone to be, you know, more of a possession type of guy and help Stefan Diggss in that role. Uh, like they said, maybe, you know, thoughts and oxy, he certainly performed well down, down the end of the season, but still feels more touchdown dependent than that type of receiver. And so, you know, Shakira was, was expected to maybe have a little bigger role. And when he's gotten opportunities, he performed. So he's somebody I'm excited about with, you know, later on pick next season. And my losers Juju Smith Schuster, he has 11 targets in his last four games and is being phased out i don't really understand why um it's not like tony's playing that much as we said but okay heath i'm sorry did you give a loser i don't think you did i skipped no i didn't

i was trying to decide between trevor lawrence and daniel jones and i decided since you said juju that i'm gonna say daniel jones um wow oh no no daniel joneswood is only that i think like if he had played well and they had lost his i think his contract numbers really got affected and maybe his guarantees yesterday i hope he did not look like someone who could actually be a long-term answer um and but with trevor lawrence i think it's really interesting because he had that, what, four or five game stretch early in the second half of the season where it looked like, oh, wow, he's turning into an elite fantasy quarterback. And then for a variety of reasons, and some of the excuses are valid and some are not. And Azar, I assume in July is going to Azar stat why Trevor Lawrence is- I did it last week. Bad finish. You shouldn't hold against him. But I think it's a real question mark how you value him.

I think he's got to be closer to QB 12 than he is to QB 6 entering next year. Ooh. Well, fine. So let's talk about the bad finish because the bad finish was the Jets game on Thursday night. I already weathered Azerstadt at that game, right? Terrible weather. The next week was Houston. He played like two and a half quarters,

and they ran all over Houston. The Tennessee game was legitimately a bad game, a surprisingly bad game against a great matchup. That was week 18. They went to the playoffs because of a pick six, basically. The Chargers game, I don't know how you view that one. He scored like 27 fantasy points, right? So it was a good game.

It was the ultimate Bortles. And then the Chiefs game, yeah, was disappointing. So there's an excuse for a lot of it, but for two of the games at least, for the Jets and the Texans game. I don't know. We talked about that last week. It was like, yeah, he did so much.

And he really didn't even have, he didn't really have that good of a season, really. In fact, because I was looking it up for Christian Kirk. Believe it or not, Christian Kirk, the 2020 Cardinals and the 2021 Cardinals threw for more yards per game than this

Jaguars team. And I think they threw for more touchdowns than this Jaguars team. And one of those teams played only 16 games. So it wasn't like a huge season for Lawrence Heath, to your point. No. Not at all. And it was easy at one point in the season to look at,

okay, he struggled early in the year. This is basically his rookie year because Urban Meyer's terrible. And now he's figured it out. But it's hard to say that when you look at the way the last month and a half went. Anyone disagree? I mean, I'm not going to judge him based on his fantasy points. I'm judging him based on the way that he looks, and he looks like a guy about to explode and just be a star.

So I'm not concerned about him having a bad half against the Texans and a bad game in the weather against the Jets. Yes, the Chargers game in his first playoff game was a little bit disappointing, and then he rebounded and played well, and he had to go into Arrowhead. I mean, what are we judging him on here? He's about to get Calvin Ridley. He's going to be another year in Doug Peterson's system. They're going to have to do some retooling of the offensive line because Jawan Taylor

is a free agent. We don't know Cam Robinson's status, so those are concerning things. But if they bring Evan Ingram back and you tell me he's got Kirk, Ingram, Ridley, and Zay Jones with Travis Etienne and Doug Peterson, that's rocket ships. He's about to be a star. Okay.

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News and notes, Jalen Hurts was not playing at 100%. I don't know how you guys felt. I felt like he was a little reluctant when he was running the ball. Mm-hmm. Yeah. felt. I felt like he was a little reluctant when he was running the ball. Well, hopefully, he becomes a little more reluctant in running the ball moving forward, too. That's something that all quarterbacks have to do.

The running quarterbacks, and Josh Allen's the one who's gotten away with not doing that. He still just runs to contact, but he's got to learn to do that a little bit better so he can stay healthy. They are so much better than every team. They're incredible. In fact, if they had

gone 16-1, maybe they'd win both those games and win the Super Bowl. They're a legendary all-time team, I think. I mean, they're so good. You think they're significantly better than the 49ers? Yeah. If they're healthy, yeah, I do. I mean, they're so good. They're significantly better than the 49ers. Yeah. If they're healthy,

yeah, I do. I just don't think Jalen Hurts is not healthy. No, I think they just beat up on a team that didn't belong. They did. I don't think they're significantly better than the 49ers. 100%. Well, the 49ers are very good, but what is the difference? I don't know if they're significantly better than the Bengals. What are the Chiefs? Well, they're half the Patrick Holmes. If you put the Eagles'

defensive line against this Bengals' offense, they would disrupt the Bengals quite a bit. Mm-hmm. What's their weakness? They don't have a weakness. They don't have a single weakness. I guess we'll find out next week, next two games. Yeah, well, no, because that's the thing.

Jalen Hurts is clearly not 100%. So that's the best part of making this proclamation, is if they lose... Oh, God. I can just blame it on you. So if they lose to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl and Mahomes is limping through that game, what's your justification then?

Yeah, that wouldn't be good for me. No, I just think that they're so good. They're overwhelmingly good. And they don't have a single weakness. Patrick Mahomes, high ankle sprain. Aaron Rodgers, a trade for Aaron Rodgers is a very realistic scenario, according to Adam Schefter. Dave wants him to be the Giants quarterback next year.

I thought about that, yeah. Could be a possible solution to their problems. Think about the teams in the league that are a quarterback away from being a Superbowl contender. I think you can make the case for both New York teams, but certainly more of the jets and the giants, but the giants, they improve their defense a little bit more than they replaced Daniel Jones

with Aaron Rogers. And that offensive line is moving in the right direction. I'd still like them to get another receiver to go along with Rogers, but they could be pretty good I think they'd be one of the best teams in the NFC I would think the Raiders if they can't get Brady are they but are they a quarterback away from being a Super Bowl contender like I feel like the Giants are closer than the Raiders are based on everyone else on the team of I would think a team that just made it to the division around the playoffs is closer, so yes.

But I think that any team viewing themselves as a trade partner for the Packers is going to view themselves as they're getting a two-time MVP in the last three years, and they're going to consider themselves Super Bowl contenders. They'd have a great offense if they had Aaron Rodgers. Yeah, obviously their defense is a problem. They would definitely have a great offense if they had Aaron Rodgers. But, yeah, obviously their defense is a problem. They would definitely have a great offense if they had Aaron Rodgers

before this year. Yeah, he might be. I don't know. I mean, to be fair, though, to be fair, I think most people, understandably so, would have said that Brady's last couple of years in New England, he looked like he was done. Right. And then got rejuvenated and won the Super Bowl and looked like an MVP.

So he goes to a different place. You never know how that looks for him. But it's not a bad option if you can acquire Aaron Rodgers without giving up Russell Wilson-type compensation and make yourself in a good spot while not mortgaging your future. Speaking of Brady, all signs point to him leaving Tampa Bay. Ian Rappaport saying he's not expected to re-sign. Julian Edelman said it as well. That kind of hinted that he doesn't expect Brady back there. So if you were an NFL team and you could sign one guy for one year,

would you sign Rodgers or Brady? I would sign Rodgers. I would sign Rodgers. I would sign Rodgers, too. The answer is Rodgers, but your question is not what the situation is. You've got to trade draft picks to get Rodgers. You can sign Brady and just give money. Right, if Rodgers was cut. Yeah.

If Rodgers was cut and you're looking at both those guys, then it's easy. Then it's Rodgers, yeah. But in the current situation, I think Brady's the top priority. What do you guys think the compensation is going to be for Rodgers? It's definitely a first-round pick. The Packers aren't letting him go for less than that. It's a first, and whatever else comes on top of it. Now, is it a Russell Wilson deal?

Then you're stupid to try and make that trade for a guy that's near the end of his career, and who knows what the long-term future holds for him unless you're having a conversation with him and it's yes, I'm in for five more years. Then you've got to pay up. Because it's not just trading for him. You've got to give him a new deal too.

I was thinking about that with the guy who's leaving the Raiders. What's the compensation for Derek Carr? To pay Derek Carr? No, you've got to give him a draft pick to get Derek Carr in the next couple weeks. Well, otherwise he's going to cut, right? Yeah, he's going to get cut. You have a chance soon someone would trade for him, but maybe not.

It certainly wouldn't be a first-round pick. It might not even be a day-two pick. Because he could just as easily get cut. Wouldn't the Raiders want to just take anything for him at this point so they don't have to pay him? I think he has no trade costs, too. He can't just take anything from anybody. It has to be his.

But yeah, they want to get rid of him, it seems like. All right, a couple more notes here. Dallas reportedly could use the franchise tag. How about Derek Carr with the Giants, Adam? I thought, yeah, I'm... You'd like it. You'd like it. You'd like it. I think I'd rather just roll the dice with Jones.

That seems like... I'd much rather have Daniel Jones than Derek Carr. I think that's a Ron Rivera type of thing, or a Carolina, one of those two teams. Or a Colts. My brother, the two Jets fans I know seem pretty convinced that Derek Carr is going to the Jets, so you heard it here first.

New Orleans. He's got his former coaches there. Right. Oh, yeah. All you heard it here first. New Orleans. He's got his former coaches there. Right. Yeah. All right. The coordinating wrap report, the Cowboys could franchise tag Tony Pollard.

He's out three months with a broken leg. Saquon Barkley does not want to be franchise tagged. He and Daniel Jones are both free agents. Does that mean he wants out? No.

Barkley does not want out. He wants to stay. He made that clear, but he does not want to be franchise tagged. But he said nobody wants to be franchise tagged. So, you know, he's like nobody would want that. But wants to stay. He made that clear, but he does not want to be franchise tag. But he said nobody wants to be franchise tag. He's like, nobody would want that.

But he was pretty realistic. I would guess 90% of the league would be pretty happy if they got a franchise tag. I guess nobody in Barkley's situation would want that. That's like $10 million for one year for a running back. Who wants that money? Tweet of the day from Steve Haddock. I thought this was really interesting.

He is going total rebuild in his 12-team Dynasty Superflex half PPR tight end premium league. He's going rebuild. He traded Jamar Chase, Jalen Hurts, Ramondre Stevenson, and Mark Andrews for five first-round picks in 2023, including one and two, 101 and 102. So he traded Chase, Hurts and two. 101 and 102. So he chased Hurts, Stevenson, and

Andrews for five first-round picks, including the top two. What do you think about that in a super-flexed Dynasty League? I hate it. You hate it? I do. Why? What if he only had, like, three first-round picks and he kept Jamar Chase?

I still hate it. I mean, you're giving away a top two overall player in Jamar Chase. That's fair. Yes. You're giving away, I don't know where you have him ranked, Keith, but I assume Jalen Hurts is a top five quarterback. I'm just doing tiers today and he is the only guy in tier one with Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen.

And Jamie, this is super flex. So between him and Chase, those are two top five players. Right. That's two of the top five picks in your draft. And then it's tight end premium, right?

Yup. And Mark Andrews has still got another three, four years of pretty excellent production. I would assume unless it's total rebuild in Baltimore, but you got to still like that. So that that's three of the five players. Plus, Ramondre Stevenson, if he's the guy in New England, that's two to three years of maybe top ten production.

So you got to get back five home run superstar picks to replace the four potential home run superstar picks you're giving up, players you're giving up. I hate it. And you don't – that's the thing. When you do a rebuild, you don't that's the thing when you do a rebuild you don't have to tear the whole thing down if even if it's going to take you two to three years to be good again you would still want to have jamar chase on your team then

like just just keep jamar chase put him on the bench if you want to lose right but but keep jamar chase i would just think if you're if think if you're giving away young star players like that, you don't just want to get back 2023 picks. You better get back two years' worth of draft pick haul that you're setting yourself up for, okay, by three years, I'm the best team in the league. You might have had the best team in the league right now with just those four guys alone.

All right. I thought it was a funny trade and good reaction, good stuff. We'll take a break. One question for each eliminated team. Christian Kirk or Calvin Ridley next year? Who we draft in first? We'll tell you when we come back on Fantasy Football today. The Jaguars, the Giants, the Cowboys

and the Bills have been eliminated. So we'll give you a question for each of those four teams. Let's start with the Jaguars, the Giants, the Cowboys, and the Bills have been eliminated. So we'll give you a question for each of those four teams. Let's start with the Jaguars. I teased it going into break. Dave, you can start. Christian Kirk or Calvin Ridley? Next season, Kirk will be 26 and Ridley 28. Assuming that Ridley is the same guy as when we last saw him,

I would take him over Christian. You're not going to do this. That's part of the... So when do I have to decide this by? Right now? When you're drafting. For argument's sake, right now. I mean, yes, if you want to see,

obviously we can see what happens, but that's why it's a tough question. Ridley's best year in 2020, he was averaging close to 20 PPR points per game. Year after that, he was right around 14 PPR points per game. That's where Kirk was this year. That was a career high for Kirk.

I think they're both, they're going to be one and two in targets in Jacksonville. I will still take Ridley. I think he's the better receiver. Okay, Ridley. Anybody voting for Christian Kirk here? I'll take Kirk right now with the understanding that I don't know what Calvin Ridley is going to look like. So

come training camp, that might change, but right now I'll take Christian Kirk. Just remember, Ridley's not coming back from like a crazy injury or anything like that he's also not coming back from playing for a year and a half yeah the son watson had no injury um no and he was with his team for a year for whatever that was worth working on the practice squad yeah but i think really i don't think really he's going to come back and he's going to have a beer belly and forgot how to run routes or anything like that. No, but he might have a hamstring injury and then another. I mean, I would probably, like if I was betting on it,

I'd definitely bet Kirk right now today. If they're both being drafted in the same place, I'll probably take Ridley because I think he has more upside. I think the, should we maybe consider Michael Thomas? That's what I always figured people would do because Thomas missed about a year and a half due to injury. But he had injuries. Yeah.

And he was okay. Ridley just had parlays. Let's see. What did he have? He had 171 yards, only 57 yards per game, but he caught three touchdowns, 22 targets in the first three games of the season. It was surprisingly good. In fact, he's

a top 10 wide receiver per game this past year, Michael Thomas. Christian Kirk, in case you're curious, finished as the number 11 wide receiver in fantasy for the season. Per game, he was 19th in non-PPR, 20th in full PPR, and he was very matchup

dependent. Almost all of his good games came against easy competition, and almost all of his bad games came against tough competition. I also think there's a chance that Doug Peterson, as good and creative as he is as a play caller

with this many weapons, could turn this into a Kansas City situation where there's not going to be a number one, who's the number one this week and the number one next week and the number one next week. It could be a frustrating situation with all those guys. Kind of was like that this year. Yeah.

We saw that during Lawrence's hot stretch, you know, it was Ingram for a couple of weeks. It was Kirk for a couple of weeks. It was a Jones for a couple of weeks. I think a lot of it will depend on if Ingram comes back to, you know, because if you're taking that away,

you know, and then what's the replacement option, you know, do they bring in another tight end of his caliber or or better you know or is a young tight end they're going to build around i would be very surprised at this point just from talking to people know that team that they're going to let ingram leave sounds like he's a candidate for the franchise tag as well so we'll see what happens there but um you know all those guys are there then like he said it could be just great for the quarterback, but nobody that is a slam dunk week-in, week-out starter

unless somebody stands out early enough. All right. Christian Kirk, by the way, 28 targets, 14 in each game in the two postseason games. That's a lot of targets. All right, let's get on to the next one. It almost feels like it could be a Tampa Bay situation where Kirk is more like Godwin.

He'll just be a lot of catches. And Ridley's more like Evans, where he'll be the big play guy. Yeah, and let me just say for Christian Kirk, his career, his last two years have been his best. He is meant for the slot. His last two years, he's been in the slot a lot. The first three years of his career, not enough. He's playing behind Larry Fitzgerald.

And I want to thank Jacob Gibbs for pointing that out in the preseason. He was very high on Christian Kirk because he thought the slot numbers would translate that they'd use him that way in Jacksonville. And he was right. Second question is for the Giants. What is Daniel Jones's upside? And as I mentioned earlier, he finished as on a per game basis, number eight in four point per passing touchdown leagues, but number 14 in six point per-per-passing touchdown leagues. And when you want upside, you need big weeks. He had very few of them.

Points per game, he was just about even with Trevor Lawrence and Jared Goff. Lawrence and Goff both had 6 games during the regular season with more than 23 fantasy points. Daniel Jones had 3, so he almost never had a big game. So what is Daniel Jones' upside? That's the question. Heath, first word. If the roster remains as it is, then I think it's pretty close to what you saw this year. I think this year is pretty close to a best case scenario for the Giants based on their roster. If they go out and go get him an A.J. Brown, a Stephon Diggs, something like that as a number one wide receiver, then I think his upside is in four-point-per-passing touchdown leagues,

top six, and in six-point, probably top ten. Jamie? Yeah, I mean, I said it last week. He's one of nine quarterbacks in NFL history with 3,000 passing yards and 700 rushing yards. We crave those things, guys that are going to run the ball like this. And so I agree with Heath. I think, you know, this is a – and he did this, you know, again,

to whatever extent, he did this with Isaiah Hodgins and Richie James and Darius Slayton. Now, two of those guys are free agents. So, you know, you'll see what happens there in terms of Slayton and James with what they decide to do. But Wanda Robinson at some point will be back. you know, hopefully what we saw from him and some flashes can add to that, but yeah, they need to, you know, invest in their receiving core. You mentioned this, Adam, that the offensive line is certainly Trevor Dave. One of you guys,

the offensive line house trending in the right direction and hopefully we'll continue to get better, you know, in drafting Thomas and Neil in the last couple of seasons. So, you know, he's, he's got clearly a great play caller behind him and supporting him. Sounds like they may lose, you know, one of their assistants if Kafka leaves, but I think Brian Dable deserves a big part of that. You know what he was able to do with Daniel Jones. You always got to be a little bit leery about guys when they're in free agency years, you know, is, is this peak Daniel Jones or is this, you know, kind of where he's trending,

but, you know, to his point, I think I've been talking about off the agency years you know is was is this peak Daniel Jones or is this you know kind of where he's trending but you know to his point I think I've been talking about off the air you know where he's been in his career versus one season he clearly finally had a play caller that is going to bring out the best in him and so I think you got to just give it a little bit of a an edge to the small sample size there but yeah I think this offseason is going to be very telling first does he stay second what do they do to support him? Is their premier running back there too? Because that might put a little bit more on his plate if they don't have a guy of Barkley's caliber and upside. So I think he's very much, as I said before,

if you tell me right now, Tua's uncertainty, even with his great receiving core, versus Daniel Jones right now, I would give a slight lean to Daniel Jones because of his rushing upside. Over Tua, wow. With the fantasy production, yes. I think there's slight lean to Daniel Jones because of his rushing upside. Over two? Oh, wow. With the fantasy production, yes. I think there's a lot to like about a guy that's going to run to his level.

Yeah. Okay, Dave, you want to get in there? What's Daniel Jones' upside? I agree with both guys. I think if they give him another talent to work with, and if Wanda Robinson steps up and manages to stay healthy, he's a good yards after catch slot receiver type. So they need somebody that can improve these numbers.

He was 25th in yards per attempt. This is this year with Brian Dable tied for 21st and passing touchdowns with Marcus Mariota. That number needs to go up. His ADOT was 6.4 yards. His deep pass rate was 5.9%. Both of those tied for 32nd among qualifying quarterbacks. He needs, he, I think if he has to do it alone,

this year showed what he's capable of doing. And he was like right around QB 12. If he gets help, then yes, he can be better than that. He can be just inside the top 10 and certainly be worth taking before. He'd be worth taking with more than one of your last three picks on draft day. I mean, really the only thing that changed that much in terms of the passing this year was the fact that he stopped turning the ball over. The key to him being good this year is they let him run. He ran for as many yards this

year as he had the last two combined almost. But he wasn't, it's not like he made a big leap as a passer or was good as a passer i think also you know just to tie in trevor lawrence too you know and and this is something you talk a lot about adam is rookie receivers how the year goes on and they get better these guys both had new play callers this year and you saw you know some struggles early on you know mostly for lawrence but as as he picked up the system and got more comfortable in the system as daniel jones got more comfortable in the system, as Daniel Jones got more comfortable in the system, and he started to say, okay, these are my guys around me,

in Jones' case, because of some of the injuries, Sterling Shepard going down and Wanda Robinson going down, the trading of Tony, he looked the part. And so forget about how the game ended against the greatest team ever, according to you. Yeah, one of them. He looked the part. And so that's the thing you've got to buy into. Yes, some of the matchups were more in favor. He looked the part against the greatest team ever, according to you. Yeah, one of them. He looked apart. That's the thing you've got to buy into. Yes, some of the matchups were more in favor than the other.

That's the concern I have, Jamie. It was the Vikings twice and the Colts. I get that. I certainly get that, but it's not like he had a good game against Philadelphia. The first time they met, he left the game. Terod Taylor ran for 40 yards, but he

had 169 yards and two total touchdowns in that game. You know, he had a good fantasy game. That was a good game. He didn't have a good game, but right. But, you know, you give him year two in the system, better weapons around him. He's got the chance. He's not going to be a superstar.

I don't think that's, you know, his, his range of outcomes, but he's got a chance to be in that where Matt Ryan has been, where Matthew Stafford has been, you know, guys that are, you know, Derek Carr has been, you know, you know, whatever, whatever slot you want to put him in a guy that's going to be knocking on the door. If things go really, really well for him, but never going to break through. I don't think he's ever going to be like that. And that's probably, you know, I'm probably going to disservice the guys like Ryan and Stafford, but you know what I mean? You know, not going to be the best. And that's probably, you know, I'm probably going to disservice the guys like Ryan and Stafford, but you know what I mean. Not going to be the best in the league. Cousins.

Reliable fantasy starter. I'm just talking about a reliable quarterback. A chance to put up good fantasy numbers. He's going to do it a different way, but he's got a chance, I think, to be good for the Giants. Really good for fantasy at times. And, you know, again, right supporting cast could help you win a fantasy league.

He's got to follow the blueprint that Jalen Hurts has. Okay? Because this was Hurts' second year with Sirianni. He got a big boost during the offseason with A.J. Brown. And then he went out and he was a monster for fantasy. That's exactly what Daniel Jones needs for his second year with Dable. Okay. Let's move on.

But he's not going to be Jalen Hurts, though. No, no. That's not what we meant. I don't think he'll be as good as Jalen Hurts though. No, no. That's not what we meant. I don't think he'll be as good as Jalen Hurts. It's just the type of offseason he needs. Yeah. The problem is, look at the free agent wide receiver class is horrible. So it's going to have to be a trade or someone gets cut or they draft someone.

Tyreek wasn't a free agent. Devontae Adams wasn't a free agent. Just saying. It's going to have to be a trade. That's what I said. A.J. Brown too. They'll have to do that. Maybe it's Diggs after his blow up on the sideline.

I mean, they're not going to be able to go out and get Kenny Galladay again. Okay. No, the thing that you got to do is you got to do exactly what all those other teams did is look at the guys that are going into the final year of their rookie deals and who's in a bad spot. Like if I'm the Giants, I might call the Colts, say is Michael Pittman available? You know, those type of guys. You know. Yeah, I mean, okay.

Let's go to our next question. I think actually Schaefer, we have a Paramount Plus. Let's see what's coming up on Paramount Plus. New Sunday. My son works across town at Three Rock. Wait, isn't that a prison firefighting camp? Yeah, he's an inmate.

Hellfire's coming to you! You run into fires like a superhero. I didn't think that I was worthy of wearing a Cal Fire uniform. If you let me save your life, you'd be saving mine. Fire Country, special episode Sunday after the AFC Championship game on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. Dave, you get the first word on our next question here. Cowboys have been eliminated. How do you feel about Dak Prescott? I think he's still a top 12 fantasy quarterback

and one of the guys that you'll settle for on draft day. Curious to see what their offseason moves are. I don't think that they should stay status quo. At running back, at wide receiver, tight end, Schultz was playing on the franchise's tag this year. Do they tag him again, or do they give one of their younger tight ends a chance to replace him? It's almost the same story with Dak.

He'll run a little bit. He's good enough as a passer. He'll have some huge games. We saw that two games ago. And he'll have some duds. We saw that two games ago. And he'll have some duds. We saw that on Sunday. That's the type of quarterback that you should aim for when you end up whiffing on

the top at least eight quarterbacks on draft day. He'll go in that same range as maybe Deshaun Watson and Daniel Jones and Tua and those guys back half of the draft. How do you feel about Jamie? Because Jamie's leaving. Gotta go.

Bye. Bye, Jamie. Jamie had to run. Heath? That description I don't think was completely unfair. I don't see any reason, though, that I would draft Trevor Lawrence over Dak this year. Oh, I would.

I know you would. You're ready to go. I would too, but I think they'd be closer for me than they would be for you, Adam. I think Dak would be something like 10 and Lawrence would be six. Six? Yeah, Adam ahead of Fields.

Yikes. Well, we talked about this last week. We did. We did. You have the right to that. I wasn't. I'd still take fields. I went Herbert five, Lawrence six, field seven.

I look at the fields. Sorry. Lars behind them as well. Yes. Lawrence is an ascending player and a potential superstar. He was ascending. And then he. I don't.

I just look at it. I don't judge him. I agree with what I mean. I view him the same way Jamie does. I mean, I just think incredible talent getting better. ending and then he i don't i just look at it i don't judge him i agree with what j i mean i view him the same way jamie does i mean i just think incredible talent getting better and uh this is when guys break out you know so dak i like just has to throw more past attempts were down this year safe kind of guy not a huge rusher but enough enough. I don't know. I can't see him repeating that season

where he was the number two quarterback. He was number four per game. I don't see as much upside with him, but nice player. Nice player. Happy to have him. What about you, Heath? I think he's a mid-range QB1.

Somewhere in that 7-10 range. Yep range yep wait a second look at this comment forgot about that how different is trevor lawrence's game if christian kirk catches that beautiful deep ball was a brilliant throw come on heath yeah we should go back and add all the dropped fantasy points that every quarterback had this year and and then we could get their true production. Too hard on him. Where do you have him ranked, Heath? Where do you have Dak ranked? Maybe 10.

That's where I have him. 8, 9, 10, somewhere in there. Right in the same range as Lawrence. Yep. I've got Lawrence 8, Deshaun Watson 9, Dak 10. Lawrence, Watson. But, ten. Lawrence Watson. But I've kind of always been the Dak guy, I think. So I'll stick with him.

And I expect that he's going to have a better number two wide receiver going into next year than T.Y. Hilton. Or Michael Gallup or Noah Brown. This was the first – forget about receiver. I mean, Schultz was his number two receiver. Forget about wide receiver. This was the first time in four years the Cowboys didn't have

three receivers with 800 or more yards. They only had one. Dalton Schultz was the number two receiver on the team. He didn't even have 600 yards. Well, that's because their pass attempts cratered this year. Yeah. I had Dak 12th, by the way, in my rankings from

three weeks or four weeks ago. Heath, you have him 10th. Jamie, 11th. Dave, 10th. Chris, 9th. Who do I have ahead of him? I put Tua ahead of him and Kyler. I'll stand by that.

Yeah, I definitely don't think I'll have Kyler ahead of him. I'm not sure Kyler's better than him when they're both 100%, and I don't know that we'll see Kyler the first month of the season. Yeah, I don't think I knew at that point that Kyler wouldn't be ready for week one. So I don't think anyway. Let's go with that. Next question for Buffalo.

More excited about James Cook or Gabe Davis in 2023? It's going to be greatly dependent on what the bills do at those two positions. But if there's no Devin Singletary and like, I just don't think that's a question we can really answer. But I do think like hearing you guys talk about Gabe Davis earlier, I'm probably going to turn into the Gabe Davis guy this year. Me. What? Didn't I to turn into the Gabe Davis guy this year. What about me? Didn't I already turn into the Gabe

Davis guy? Well, yours was a little... Nobody's going to buy that. I do. And butts, yes. The clean look at Gabe Davis before Josh Allen got hurt, he was better. How about Cook going ahead of

Gabe Davis in both of our early drafts so far this January? In our half PPR, Cook went in round six. So we're drafting him as one of those breakout type of running backs. Gabe Davis went in round seven. In the full PPR version, Gabe went in round eight, and James Cook went in round seven. So a round ahead.

Cook over Gabe. Even if they don't bring back Devin Singletary, are the Bills going to actually allow a running back to be good for fantasy? That's almost the first question. How are they going to react

to the end of this season? Do you really think that if they were able to run the ball better against Cincinnati, they would have won that game? No, they weren't going to win that game. I don't think so. I really don't think so. They may continue to view the running back as more of a complementary piece to their overall offense.

It almost doesn't matter who their running back is. The fact that there's going to be multiple guys in that role just makes it even worse. So taking James Cook a round ahead of Gabe Davis might not make sense, especially when we're talking about round six, when we know that James Cook might not ever be, you know, 225 touches, 8 total touchdowns. He's fun to watch.

He's an exciting player, but the offense just does not seem to want to give a lot of work to one running back, certainly over the balance of 4 months of the regular season. James Cook advanced metrics. Out of 52 running backs

with 80 or more carries, he was 17th in Rush EPA. Remember, more carries, he was 17th in rush EPA. Remember, 52 running backs here. 17th in rush EPA. Cook was 15th in success rate. He was second in yards per carry, first in yards before contact per run, 23rd in yards after contact per run,

17th in percentage of carries for five or more yards, third best in percentage of carries for 12 or more yards, and best in percentage of carries for 12 or more yards. And 18th in avoid rate. And to compare him to Devin Singletary, who's a good running back. He's a very underrated player. He's had a nice career. James Cook was better in every single one of those metrics except for one. Success

rate. I don't even know how that's calculated. We kind of do. It's a little... It's little it's complicated okay I knew that but anyway you know behind the same offensive line same situation is a good running back Devin Singletary he was better in almost every single measure didn't catch a ton of passes but was brought in to do that we know he can do that. He's an exciting player. I think people will be excited about him. Can the Bills give you a sustained must-start running back? I don't

know. A really good rookie season for James Cook. I don't know if there's anything else to say, guys. Probably not. I'm sure we'll talk about it later this week. I'm sure we will. We're going to do our top six wide receivers. Probably not. Well, I'm sure we'll talk about it later this week. I'm sure we will. Whatever there is to say.

We're going to do our top six wide receivers, which might be consensus, actually. Should we go a little deeper? Maybe the next six wide receivers. Top six wide receivers and then top six tight ends and some DFS advice. How'd you do in DFS, Dave? Usual. Yeah. Won some,FS advice. How'd you do in DFS, Dave? Usual.

Yeah. Won some, lost some. My playoff challenge team is busted. I went all in on the Bills. And so now I got to replace those guys. I got no chance of winning. I should have called out Jamie while he was here. Because what was his Super Bowl pick?

Wasn't it Bill's Eagles or Bill's something? Mine was Bill's Eagles. I don't remember what his was. I think his was, no, his was Bill's Eagles. I don't remember what his was. I think his was no, his was cheap. Whatever. It wasn't Bengals. I went with Bengals Niners. All Bengals and all Niners in my playoff

challenge. It wasn't my Super Bowl pick, but all Bengals all Niners in my playoff challenge lineup. And so did Jamie. And he's got more points than me, so his Bengals and Niners are a little bit better than mine so far. And I'm a little upset about that. So I should have, because I think it's not true to what he predicted.

So that's my beef with Jamie. Okay, that was his hedge. Is this, Schaefer, is this real? This what you sent me? It's just a report right now, but. The New York post is reporting that Jeff Bezos is going to sell the Washington post to buy the Washington commanders. That's interesting. I'm surprised those two are of comparable value.

Which one would you think would be worth more? I think the commanders, I would think the commanders is worth more than the Post. Although I don't know all the other parts of the Washington Post are included. It's a media group, right? It's not just the newspaper

and their digital site. There's got to be more to the Post than that. He bought the Washington Post 10 years ago for $250 million. So it's definitely not worth what the commanders are going to fetch. That doesn't increase in value the way that sports teams do.

That's a pretty big leap from 2013 to get into the $5 million range. I mean, they've got a lot of subscribers. They do a good job. Oh. All right. That's it for today's show. See ya.