Fantasy Football Today - Downgrade James Cook, Dameon Pierce and Dalton Schultz? (03/21 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: March 21, 2023

VOTE FOR US HERE (Fantasy Sports & Betting Category): https://www.sportspodcastgroup.com/sports_category/fantasy-and-sports-betting/ 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.  We're on top of the latest news as the Texans have signed Devin Singletary and Dalton Schultz (16:35) while the Bills have signed Damien Harris. Is this bad news for Dameon Pierce and James Cook? Dave and Jamey debate! 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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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. A little bit of a bonus pod for you here on Tuesday early afternoon, late morning. Welcome everybody out of Mazer Day. Early afternoon? No, it's late morning. It's 1030. I can't make the case.

I can't make the case. Maybe it depends on what time the person is listening. Maybe they're listening at like 3 p.m. and it's an early afternoon podcast delight. I'm sick. Give me a break. I woke up sick. I'm going to battle here. I'm sorry if I sound terrible. Maybe I should just let Dave and Jamie do the talking. We got big news for the Texans as they get both Devin Singletary and Dalton Schultz and the Bill signed Damian Harris. After I wrote Damian Pierce's name so much, I don't know how to spell Damian Harris's name.

I know it's not the same, but it really. H-A-R-R-I-S. It's pretty easy. There you go. All right. So let me ask you, going with these, you're two running backs now. Obviously, they were in different spots in the draft, and Damian Pierce and James Cook.

We'll get to Schultz a little bit later. We'll start with the running backs. Dave, is this a total downer for these guys? Adding Singletary for Pierce and adding Harris for Cook? Look, I think we knew that Buffalo would add somebody into that backfield. It's almost a blessing that it's Damian Harris and not Bijan Robinson or somebody of that ilk. Not that there's many players of that ilk that they could add to their backfield, but having Damian Harris there as,

as, as a guy who is just a well-known running downs type of back, it kind of defines things a little bit for Buffalo to a degree. I think the worst case scenario is Damian Harris handles short yardage and some of the first and second down work and James Cook gets the rest. But I think there's upside for James Cook to take some more work and that make, and that would make Damian Harris more of like a, like a 10 touch per game type of guy. It makes it harder to bet on James Cook as a massive breakout. I'm not ready to call him like around five or six pick or anything like

that, but I think he's got some potential. I think that Damien Harris has way more potential. I am not worried at all about Damien Harris, Devin Singletary being there. It's nice. He's going to be a good number two. Sorry,

sorry, sorry. Yes. He got confused. You got all your Damien's confused. No, I didn't. Why? I said Damian Pierce.

Damian Harris with Devin Singletary there. You said Harris twice. I said Devin Singletary. You said I'm not at all worried about Damian Harris with Devin Singletary there. Wait, what do you think I said? You said I'm not at all worried about Damian Harris with Devin Singletary there. And I'm not worried about Damian Pierce either. With Devin Singletary there. And I'm not worried about Damian Pierce either. With Damian Singletary there.

There's lots of Damians. Bottom line is I'm not really moving Damian Pierce down. I think he's still going to be the best running back there. Yes, Devin Singletary will get some work. No, I don't think he'll be any good for fantasy. And I think that's where we're coming out on those second-year running backs. Interesting. This sucks for both of them. It's absolutely terrible for both of them. And I don't think Buffalo's where we're coming out on those second-year running backs. Interesting. This sucks for both of them.

It's absolutely terrible for both of them, and I don't think Buffalo's done either. I think Buffalo's still going to look in the draft because Damian Harris is not the long-term answer, and obviously James Cook is not going to be their feature guy. I think D'Amico Ryans and bringing the 49ers coaching staff with him is going to make this more of a committee in Houston, and signing Devin Singletary, again, another team that's probably not done. Damian Pierce was good last year because he had a ton of volume,

and now that volume is going to get less than what we were looking at a day ago. And so is he still a good number two running back? Probably so. He's still a better running back, I think, in Houston. Is he a borderline number one guy? And I think Heath had him as a top 10 guy. Not for me, no way. Singletary may end up being the better talent than Damian Pierce,

which we may come to find out that he was just underutilized in Buffalo. You noted this time and again, Adam, just how explosive he's been when getting the opportunity to touch the ball. And this offensive line, I'm so impressed with what Houston continues to do for the last couple of years to build this offensive line and I think will continue to do so. And so as long as the rookie quarterback that they draft is competent, I think this will be a team that runs the ball with a lot of success.

And so Pierce will be the lead option going into the season, but it would not be a surprise at all if Singletary is the better of the two and he will definitely be the better value of the two if you want a piece of this backfield. So what I said yesterday, congratulating Thomas, no more. Not a third-round pick anymore on Damian Pierce. Now he falls back into the dead zone. If you want to take a chance on him, I get it.

I still think he's the better of the two. But for me, I'll be looking at Devin Singletary probably three or four rounds later. Go ahead, Dave. He's a round three pick. Damian Pierce for me is a round three pick. I'm going to let Jamie have Devin Singletary three or four rounds later. I'm going to bet on talent. And yes, there's going to be sharing going on.

That is what the 49ers kind of overall philosophy is when it comes to running backs. And Bobby Slowick, the offensive coordinator, they're a disciple of Kyle Shanahan. But we also saw them give a lot of work to the best running back many, many games over the past several seasons. Christian McCaffrey definitely in a different type of league than Damian Pierce. I said Pierce. I think that Pierce is still going to be the better running back compared to Singletary. I'm not interested in Devin Singletary. I'm very interested in Damian

Pierce in late round three. Yeah, I want to talk about these running backs in terms of their stats. Well, first of all, you know, Jamie, you mentioned the volume for Damian Pierce last year. So week one, he split with Rex Burkhead. Week 14 was the last game he played. So weeks two through 14, you basically could not have gotten less of a split. In weeks two through 14, you basically could not have gotten less of a split in weeks two through 14. Damian Pierce had 209 carries and the other Houston running backs had 20 carries. Damian Pierce had the fifth most carry, actually tied for the fourth most carries in the NFL. And those were the, you know, that was the games. He was healthy minus week one.

And that's gone now. That's probably gone. Is it? I mean, to that degree, it's definitely gone. You know, obviously. Of course it is. And then I just still don't know who's going to work on passing downs. I don't know what's going to happen there. The next guy that they bring in.

Well, that would suck if they brought, well, they had Mike Boone. They added him. Is that going to be their answer on passing downs? That would make if they brought, well, they had Mike Boone. They added him. Is that going to be their answer on passing downs? That would make me sick. I mean, the thing, and the other thing is, you know, Singletary, you used the word explosive, and I have used that word because true media, where I get the advanced stats, has an explosive run, as I did the Austin Powers or Dr. Evil air quotes there,

explosive run as 12 or more yards. Devin Singletary gets a lot of those. He's not going to get a lot of 30 plus yards. He's not that kind of back. But, you know, basically since he's entered the league, there have been 55 running backs with 300 or more carries and Devin Singletary is 10th in yards per carry. He is 5th in explosive run rate, 12 or more yards.

He's 6th in avoid rate. Yeah, the point I was making is that he actually and Damian Harris, they both have had very good careers so far, at least in terms of the metrics. Devin Singletary's averaged like 4.6 yards per carry or more. I think every year he's led the Bills in rushing four straight seasons. I don't know why they haven't given him more work. It makes me think that he's not as good as the numbers, and they know that. And maybe Damian Pierce is? I don't know. What is your read on that? Jamie, you said basically you wouldn't be surprised if Singletary were the better running back than Pierce.

Is that accurate? Yes. I mean, I don't think that going in, but it wouldn't surprise me at all. You know, this is, you know, Dave said bet on talent. Devin Singletary's, what, five, six-game stretch at the end of 2021 was as good as we've seen in the last couple of years, you know, maybe aside from that, that stretch from Rashad Penny, you know, of, of the

non elite guys. And so the bill finally gave him an opportunity to be their lead guy. You know, it was bye-bye Zach Moss. We didn't have James Cook at that point. And he was somebody that we were very excited about during that stretch of games. And so I don't think he's going to get that type of volume of Damian Pierce is healthy. But now it's going to be a situation where you're chopping it up among two guys. And so if you're telling me that the price of Damian Pierce, based on what Dave just said, is round three,

no thank you for me. I still think, again, he's the better of the two. But if I can get him in round five, I will take it. I would rather take Devin Singletary three or four rounds later if that's the cost of getting a piece of the Texans running back. It may be a situation where I hope for Damian Pierce. Look, I have a lot of shares of Damian Pierce in Dynasty. I hope it's a 70-30 split, but I could see 60-40 if not 50-50

based on how these guys could potentially perform. And so this is a great landing spot for Devin Singletary based on what the options were of him to go behind a guy who never featured guy in college. Obviously I know that very well, uh, showed last year that he was great when he got the opportunity, but didn't hold up. And you talked about this yesterday, Adam, you know, is he an injury prone type of player? I don't think, I don't think he is. Well, we'll find out. I mean, you know, again, there, there,

there's a reason why he wasn't a workhorse in college, and we'll see what the Texans decide to do with him in year two under a different regime. Let's not forget, that was a different coaching staff that used him last year in that role. So I'm just looking at it this way. If the cost of the Texans running back is round three or

round seven, I will take the guy in round seven for a guy who's got a pretty decent pedigree when he's gotten the chance to be the guy. Yeah. Um, okay. And then I think, uh, I just wonder, like, is it worth, is it even worth taking Singletary in round seven? Cause is, could there even be a chance in this scenario where he's anything more than, you know, you're lucky if you get eight points out of him or something like that. He's just a complimentary role, unless Pierce gets hurt.

That's been the upside of the number two running back in the 49ers backfield the past two seasons. And let's be clear. I mean, in terms of blocking, they were 29th in run blocking last year. They did trade for Shaq Mason. Maybe they'll be better, but we're not talking about the 49ers here.

No, but it's the same system. And if the offensive line can adapt to the system, which most offensive lines can, then they'll be significantly better. And I like the offensive line too. I'm kind of curious which quarterback they get and whether or not that guy will matter. We saw CJ Sharp barely throw to his running backs over the past two years

at Ohio State, Bryce Young a little bit more, but neither one of them really set the world on fire throwing to the running backs, so I'm not sure how much work they'll do. And if you're going to comparison shot between Pierce and Singletary from last year, they both had good explosive rates. Singletary a little bit better overall. Pierce had the better avoided tackle rate. They were real close in yards per carry, first down per yards.

Rush EPA, both were negative in Rush EPA. And if we're going to take the numbers from Devin Singletary's breakout at the end of 2021, we should take the numbers from Pierce's breakout in the middle of 2022 when he averaged 18 PPR points per game. If, if there's, if there's a discussion to be had about how these guys are used,

and this is going to lean toward what Jamie was saying, we, I don't think we can necessarily totally blow off the idea that these running backs are very similar. And if the, if the Texans view them similarly, they might just rotate them in series by series. And then we're just waiting for one of them to get hurt and they're both

headaches. And if that's the case, then taking one around three would be a little bit of a mistake. And by a little bit, I mean a pretty freaking big mistake, but that's if that's, if the coaching staff use them similarly and then use them similarly, that's a possibility.

But I also think that Damian Pierce is just the better back of the two and he will continue to see more opportunities in Singletary. Okay. Good difference of opinion there. We'll take a quick break. And when we come back, we'll talk about a little bit more on the Bills backfield and Dalton Schultz after this. All right, everybody. Thanks for tuning in for this surprise podcast on a Tuesday.

We have a draft later today. So very interested to see these results. We also have got to have a mailbag at some point. I will make that happen. So many emails coming in. I just, with free agency last week, just have a mailbag at some point. I will make that happen. So many emails coming in. I just, with free agency last week, just have not had time to read them. So I appreciate it.

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All right. For the Bills, do you feel like we're just basically back where we started? Do you think Harris and Singletary, Harris this year and Singletary last year have similar roles, Dave? Does it basically play out that way? I'm going to call up the numbers for Harris and compare them to Singletary as far as explosiveness and all that other stuff that we talked about when we compared Pierce and Singletary. And I'll give that to you. But yeah, it does feel like we're right back in the exact same situation where Buffalo is going to have multiple running backs and they're going to be a team that's going to lean on throwing anyway. And this just, this just fits their MO of not spending a lot of capital, be it draft picks or salary cap space on the running back position. And they're just going to make use of the guys that they have and lean on them based on their

strengths and not necessarily give them a ton of work. Singletary averaged 0.2 more yards per carry than Damian Harris in 2022. Their rush EPA Harris was actually a little bit better, but both were negative. Explosive rate that favored Singletary over Damian Harris avoided rate that favored Singletary over Harris. So this might be a little bit of a downgrade. But if you look at the four years they've been in the league, they're both very good.

I'm looking straight, right. But I'm looking just at last year. No, they're both, I mean, this is the thing. Both of them have been very efficient running backs. They lack, I think we can say, they lack big play ability. I mean, they're not superstars. We're not saying that.

But they've been very good running backs. I think this is why I was so interested in the running back, in the free agency running back class. I knew that, you know, we probably weren't going to get something huge, you know, but because Barkley stayed, but these are good players that could mostly just be a detriment to some other running back that they're sharing a back that they're going to be sharing a backfield with. I think that, right. They're not, unfortunately for James Cook and Damian Pierce, they didn't add some washed up scrub.

Like they didn't add Jamal Williams. Sorry. I know he's not a washed up scrub necessarily, but wouldn't you have preferred them add Jamal Williams than Damian Harris or David Singletary? But they could have also drafted a guy. Or they could have made a splash or, you know, done something to try. Like they could have gotten a splash or you know done something to try like

they could have gotten miles sanders sanders is an upgrade over all these guys they didn't do that this is about the best case scenario short of either team not adding anybody or like a day three pick at running back and that's it all right and uh jamie would you rather have miles sanders or damian Pierce? Sanders now. And Dave, you're going to stick with Pierce, right? I'll stick with Pierce. Let's talk about Dalton Schultz. Dalton Schultz, the Texans on a one-year deal,

could be worth up to $9 million. Where is he going to be in your tight end rankings, Jamie? Until I see what the quarterback situation is and the rest of this receiving core, I mean, he fits the profile of what we like right it could be number one or number two and targets uh for the texans and so that's that's a benefit but if it's you know uh not the best quarterback situation which at this point you know you're probably looking at bryce younger cj stroud so you kind of know what you're

getting but it's really the receiving core at this point i think he's still got top 10 upside um you know he's not the most explosive at this point. I think he's still got top 10 upside. You know, he's not the most explosive player. He's clearly benefited from being in a system that's featured him, and we'll see if the Texans do so. Clearly didn't pay him very much, and I think you hear some of the chirping coming out of the Dallas media that he turned down, I think, a three-year deal worth more money and is not in the best of situations from a financial standpoint

where he could have been. But in any event, you know, he gets a chance on a one-year prove-it deal. And so hopefully he goes out and puts up big numbers. He does not have top five upside in my opinion, but he definitely has top 10 upside. So closer to 10, still a number one tight end, but he'll be in that group of, for me, Pat Fryer, Muth, Greg Dolchich, the younger tight ends

of the guys he'll settle for as opposed to the guys you'll target. Dave? I think he's slightly better than the Fryer, Muth, and Dolchich group, but in that top 10 type of range, and I agree he doesn't have the same type of upside that he might have had at this time last year. But going back to what we were talking about with the running backs in Houston, this is Bobby Slowik as the offensive coordinator. He's coming from San Francisco. They've got a pretty good move tight end in San Francisco in George Kittle, and they utilize that position

quite a bit. So I would imagine that Dalton Schultz will be in line to get a good amount of targets like I'm a little bit better in PPR than non PPR. Certainly think he's a top 10 tight end that you can settle for. I've got him as a top 100 player. I've got him at 92nd overall in my current ranking. So when you're in that round eight, nine range and you need a tight end, I think Schultz can be okay. One last thing,

neither quarterback CJ Stroud or Bryce young through to to his tight end more than 13% of the time in their past two seasons. That's a problem. We'd like for one of these quarterbacks to actually lean on their tight ends in college. It didn't happen. Whether or not they do in Houston remains to be seen, but I would guess that they would based on the drain

at wide receiver that Houston has. I mean, why would you throw to your tight ends when you're thrown to the best wide receivers of the country year after year? Well, at Alabama, they had a pretty good tight end. And he was utilizing the red zone to a degree. So I get the argument with Ohio State and Ohio State's tight end made a bunch of mistakes.

Alabama always has great wide receivers. Sure, of course. But they had a good tight end as well. And he still threw him. So, okay. So, what was I going to say? You talked about the system in George Kittle. It did not work out for Mike Kosicki.

In fact, it was a terrible system for Mike Kosicki. Well, Kosicki wasn't the same kind of fit either. Okay. Want to expand on that? Because I feel like. Yeah, Kosicki doesn't block. either. Okay. Want to expand on that? Cause I feel like, yeah, you sick.

He doesn't block. And so I think the coaching staff might've been unhappy with him overall. And, and again, look at the receivers that Miami had compared to get Secchi. So I don't think that he was necessarily a good fit. This isn't me saying that Dalton Schultz is about to score 11 touchdowns or however many touchdowns that Kittle had last year, but I think he can come up with, I think he'll be north of 50 catches. That's a good start. I think he'll be a target in the red zone.

Okay. You know, the only comparison I could come up with a guy that was going to be the clear number one target on his team on a maybe bad offense was Higby. After Cup and Stafford got hurt last year, he was terrible, but they barely threw the ball. He was tight end 16 per game, but they threw the ball like 26 times per game. So I don't even know if it makes sense going to that, but he was better with stafford and cup than he was without both of them and i don't know if there's that's the only kind of comparison you're going from like dac and from being with dac and uh lamb to you know with like a backup quarterback basically and uh a rookie quarterback and nobody i don't know and kellen moore don't forget that too and kellen right kellen moore all, that probably doesn't matter, but I just thought,

hey, you know, has there been a tight end recently who's been the number one guy on a bad offense and has been good? Maybe you could say Hawkinson two years ago. St. Brown kind of came alive after Hawkinson got hurt. Hawkinson was fine. He was good with the Lions. But Higby really struggled last year when they were a bad offense without Stafford. But they were very run heavy. Okay, that's it for today's show. Thank you to Dave and Jamie for hopping on. Appreciate

it. So interested to see the results of the mock draft that we do later today. So we will reveal those to you on Wednesday. We'll talk to you then. Also, could talk to you before that. There's always the Aaron Rodgers thing, and apparently DeAndre Hopkins is close to being on the move, so stay tuned for that. See you later, everybody.