Fantasy Football Today - FFT Dynasty - Favorite Veteran Values, ADP updates, plus Rookie Debates! (05/21 Dynasty Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: May 21, 2024

Dive into FFT Dynasty as Matt Price from Dynasty League Football and Heath Cummings clash over the May rankings! Who's the better WR2: CeeDee Lamb or Ja'Marr Chase? (11:45) Is Sam Laporta truly the tight end to target early? (19:10) Heath unveils his favorite veteran values, including Brock Purdy (21:55), James Cook (24:05), and Zay Flowers (28:45). Then, we wrap up by discussing (32:48) the 2024 rookie class! 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

It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Gold tenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too.

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I am your host, Heath Cummings, joined today by Matt Price, Dynasty League Football. You can find him on Twitter, at MattPriceFF. Matt, thanks for being here. Tell everybody where they can find your work. Yeah, man, it's great to be here. Thanks so much. It's been a couple of years, I think, but always good to talk to you, Heath. You can find all my stuff over at DynastyLeagueFootball.com. I co-host the DLF Dynasty podcast with Ryan McDowell and Dan Myler.

That's kind of a flagship show at the site. I do, you know, all my written work is over there and everything. We also have a dynasty game night. If you're into game shows, we play a game show based on the game that we play based on the game that we watch on Sundays. So that's a lot of fun as well. That's with John Bosch, Russ, Russ Fisher,

and Rocky Petrella. So those are the main places you can find me right now. You know, you said those names, and we've had a lot of those guys on FFT Dynasty in the past. Bosh, McDowell. Bosh has been on three or four times. It's about time to have him on again once he gets done with all this fantasy football eliminator and getting all the live drafts set up for Scott Fishbowl. But you mentioned Dynasty League football, and on today's show, we are going to kind

of take a look at the May average draft position from the Dynasty League Football mock drafts. There are some values that stood out to me. There are some, at the top of the rankings, I think some really interesting discussions about who should be number one or number two at a variety of positions. But as always, we will start with three questions for our guest. Matt, you're starting a new Dynasty League. What is your one non-negotiable rule or setting? There's two that are really close, but if I have to pick one, it's got to be Superflex.

I've eliminated all one-quarterback leagues from my portfolio at this point. It's just, I mean, in one-quarterback quarterback leagues you can get a top 10 quarterback in the 10th round or later and that's just it just doesn't uh you know it doesn't really jive with me with the way we value quarterbacks in the nfl and i know we don't have two quarterbacks in the nfl playing at the same time generally but uh we have to stop this thing where we're trying to make fantasy look like like real football right right? So that's the easy one for me. And then if I could pick a second one, it would be auction format over draft format. Whenever I'm in a draft format league and I can't make a trade to move up

to grab the player that I want to spend a startup or a rookie draft or something, it's so infuriating. But in an auction format, I can go after whoever I want, especially in a startup draft. So those are the two that I, if I'm ever starting a new league, those are the two that are definitely going to be in it. I do appreciate the fact that you added the second one. Cause we went about two months on this show where I banned guests from saying super flex and you were the first guest where I took that rule away. I was like, you know what? It's been long enough. Let's see what he says. And of course, the first thing you say is super flex. But I appreciate the fact that I agree.

I do definitely prefer the auction format for acquiring players, especially like each year in terms of the rookie drafts. It is you can give you can make it still make it more equitable and give the worst team more cash in that auction. But just give everybody a chance to spend their money how they want to question to who is your fate? We're gonna talk a lot about values and startup drafts. Who's your favorite rookie value according to rookie ADP right now?

This is, this is a tough one too. I'm really bad at giving one, one off answer. That's fine. Two is better than one. I like to, I've been attacking the running back position in this draft. I find a lot of the values are there.

This whole offseason, we've gone through that, oh, this isn't a great running back class. So whether you want to start at the top with Jonathan Brooks, who's going, I mean, I got him at the 202 in a Superflex draft recently. I think now he's starting to creep up in that 110 108 109 range um but he's he's one that you can start with but i'm gonna go to the two deeper guys marshall lloyd um the most efficient college football uh running back last season 8.2 uh 8.2 uh uh crap where's my notes 8.2 uh 8.2 yards per touch was the most efficient in college football right now

just the start stop ability is incredible he's got a 97 percentile speed score can make defenders miss in the open field he does have some warts with the fumbles the ball security and his vision is sometimes questionable but in that Packers offense I think he's going to be very efficient obviously you have have Josh Jacobs ahead of him. But I mean, the comments from the coaching staff so far, what we've seen in many camps and things like that showed me that he's going to be involved, I think, a lot more than necessarily A.J. Dillon was when he was the running back to there. So love that value. And then my absolute favorite value, my probably my favorite player in this entire class is Ray Davis. I think he's extremely underrated for what he is. I know he's old. I know he didn't get the extremely great draft capital, but gosh,

he's just so much fun. If you don't know his story, he grew up, he was basically homeless at 12 years old. And then he got to Kentucky, you know, 33%, 33% of Kentucky scrimmage yards last year was from Ray Davis, like of the entire team, the entire offense, Ray Davis had 33% of the yards from that. He had 31 carries of 10 or more yards last season. He has a 15.6% best season reception share. Just my kind of running back, low center of gravity, elite contact balance.

And I really think we're going to see more from Buffalo that we saw at the end of last season where they went shifted really run heavy. I mean, if Keon Coleman doesn't necessarily work out all these other kind of journeyman receivers don't necessarily work out we have have Don Kincaid as the top receiver in the passing game and the outside of that I would say the best the best talent is at the running back position so really like Ray Davis there would not be surprised to see him even out carry uh receive more carries than than james cook this season wow and so that was one of the things like i i agree

with you entirely on the way this buffalo offense is going that's kind of caused me and we might talk about a little later in the show to really kind of bump up james cook because i do think it's going to it might be a situation where we've got a 1a 1b in buffalo but still can be very valuable for both those guys i want to go back to jonathan brooks because i've got him higher in rookie drafts than most it seems like is it how early do you think is too early to take brooks amongst the position players um and in super sorry i'm in i'm in super flex mode let me kind of convert over. Yeah, and you can factor in the quarterbacks if you want.

But you've got the first three wide receivers, and then you've got Worthy, you've got Brian Thomas, you've got Ladd, McConkie, Brock Bowers. We generally see at least all seven of those guys go before Brooks. And I'm really pretty much fine with Brooks in one QB, or if you want to talk about quarterback amongst position players, at the fourth or fifth highest guy. Yeah, I think I want worthy over him of those second kind of second tier receivers. I mean, Roma Dunze has fallen a bit for me. I know it's not the same situation as JSN last year. I know it's a little bit different. He's a different player, all that

kind of stuff. But I just don't want to be in a position, again, this time next season, where we didn't see a whole bunch from him. We're wondering, is he still the lead prospect we thought he was? What do we do with him? And that's kind of how I feel like we are with JSN right now. So I don't want to be in that situation. Anywhere after Odunze and Worthy, I would even maybe, especially in a non-Titan premium league,

probably consider him over Brock Bowers. In a super flex, that's like 108-ish, 108, 109 range. In a one quarterback, I guess that's probably 106, 105, something like that. So yeah, three or four receivers, and then super flex the quarterbacks, and then after that, it's Brooks. Yeah, I'm right there with you so i want to talk more about veterans for the rest of the show and i've got some of my favorite values by current adp but who's your favorite veteran value for contenders to target and trade uh this question when i get it i almost always go to the veteran uh like you know, not necessarily formerly elite, but the community views them as formerly the guy, the wide receivers that are 28, 29, 30 that are,

uh, you know, called a quote unquote past their prime. Um, so I would look, I pulled up some trades in the, in the DLF trade finder, which is a really cool tool we have over at DLF where it actually pulls actual trades that were made on my fantasy league.com. So I've got, I've got a few receivers here. Number one, Cooper cup. Cooper cup is the most recent trades in the trade finder to 12 straight up Ramondre Stevenson straight up. Somebody sent the two 12 for cup and also got sorry, somebody sent a, yeah, the two 12 for him and got the three 10 back as well. So he's just kind of dirt cheap. And I mean, I love Pukunikua,

but would it be that surprising if Cup rebounded and outproduced Pukunikua this year? I really don't think so. Devontae Adams is another one, 208, 308. For him is the most recent trade there. Again, these guys are going to be very good target earners this season, I believe. And then one that isn't so old,

you guys have probably talked about him ad nauseum on this show, but Rashi Rice. I bought him last week for the two, I bought him last week for Malachi Corley and a 2026 second. You can get him right now on the trade finder for a 2025 second straight up, the 211 straight up. Rice and Kendry Miller for the 207, the 211, the 411. So these three guys are really like screaming value for me right now. I'm really trying to buy these on contending teams for these prices. When Rice is on the field after whatever he has to deal with due to the off-field concerns, do you think it's pretty clearly he and Kelsey

as the top two target earners in this offense with Marquise Brown and Xavier Worthy there now? I think it's, you know, you have to look at the rapport that he's already formed with Mahomes, I think, a little bit, right? I do think Worthy is a better talent. I don't think once both of them are back or once Rice is back, I don't necessarily think Marquise Brown is the answer there. He signed a one-year deal. I think he's kind of that rental player or a prove-it contract where, you know, if he does really excel this this year then maybe the chiefs bring him back um but for me it's those two guys and kelsey like he's still very good i think he was first in first in points

per game last year amongst tight ends despite his you know relatively disappointing season as most people viewed it but um i i don't know it seems like they want to save him for the playoffs almost you know? So I think it's Rice. I think it's Worthy as the receiving set down the stretch once he gets through this legal trouble. And definitely I would think 2025, that's the plan for Rice and Worthy to kind of be the one and the two.

Although we'll see how much longer Travis Kelsey can keep this up. Let's take our first break. When we get back, we will jump into May Dynasty League Football ADP. It's hockey season and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goal tenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries and we deliver those too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please

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is at the top, it doesn't seem like there's a great consensus for who is the wide receiver two, who is the RB two, who is the QB one. Like we see different guys going in those spots within the mocks i'm not sure that's the way it's always been so i want to start right here with this one and this is definitely a change from last year maybe even a change from recent months cd lamb is now wide receiver two over jamar chase by adp i have chase still ahead of lamb do you think that it's like kind of a coin

flip between those two? Do you have a strong preference? Does it matter if you're contending this year or if you're playing for the future? We just did a show on DLF, but it might be out now. We just recorded it yesterday talking about wide receiver tiers after the NFL draft. And these are the three receivers that are, those two you mentioned, Chase and Lamb, and along with Justin Jefferson, are the three in the top tier, right? So I feel like they're pretty interchangeable. I think you can make a case for any three of them

as the wide receiver one or the wide receiver two, like we're talking about here. For me personally, I still have Jefferson one, but I could see an argument for Chase at one, honestly, with the situation they're both in. Jefferson, he's not officially holding out yet, but he wants a new contract. The same with CeeDee Lamb. The quarterback situation is obviously way up in the air in Minnesota. So Jamar Chase feels like the safest amongst this group. So I'm leaning towards moving him ahead

of Jefferson and putting him at one. But Lamb, I mean, you can't deny what, what he has going on down there with Dak. Uh, and, uh, he's, you know, there's, there's it's Brandon cooks and Jake Ferguson and nobody else. They only added Ryan Flournoy, I believe in the draft. So, uh, there's just not a lot there. And it's, it's clear that he's going to get all the volume that he wants. It's just, he has a contract situation to deal with. Dak just he has a contract situation to deal with. Dak Prescott has a contract situation to deal with. So if you're asking me between these two that are wide receiver two, it's Jamar Chase for me, and I think Chase might be closer to one.

Yes, I've gone back and forth over the last two years, really. I've had Chase and or Jefferson at one, and they're so close that it doesn't take much of little change, but I do think that like, that's the kind of the key is there's a quarterback question mark for Jefferson this year. And there's a quarterback question mark for lamb as soon as next year. And I just don't think there's really any question that Jamar chase and Joe

Burrow are going to be playing together for the better part of the next half a decade, at least, and probably decades. So I I'm with you on that. I would take Chase over Lamb. It does seem like the community right now barely has Lamb over Chase. So maybe an opportunity there to create a little bit of profit at running back. I was more surprised by this one and I get it because Christian McCaffrey has been Christian McCaffrey whenever he's been healthy for the last five years, but he is RB2 based on current ADP. Brees Hall, RB3. I have Hall ahead of McCaffrey, and I know I'm factoring in a three- or four-year window that I don't think exists there for McCaffrey. Is this as simple as if you're a contender, you should prefer McCaffrey, and if you're not, you should prefer McCaffrey. And if you're not, you should prefer Hull.

I'm going to be, you mentioned that there's not a lot of consensus at the top, and I'm definitely outside of consensus on all of these guys. I have McCaffrey at four, and it's not because I don't think he's amazing. He's one of my favorite players in the NFL. I think he's most people's, especially if you play fantasy and you have him on your team right but in a startup format we're talking about adp here so i mean are you going to invest in that in that profile and in the first round into the first round early second round and in a one quarterback league i just i can't do it uh so it's easily breese hall between these two for me i actually have gibbs at two and breese hall at three and mcafree four um but you know we're splitting. I think it's easily the top tier is Bijan, Jameer Gibbs, and Brees Hall. And McCaffrey's almost like in a tier of his own. I would rather trade for McCaffrey than I would to draft him,

if that makes sense. But between these two, it's Brees Hall. And I agree with you. I don't have McCaffrey at three either. I've got it Bijan, Hall, Gibbs. And I actually have Jonathan Taylor, who's three years younger than Christian McCaffrey, one spot ahead of McCaffrey. Although if I was trying to win right now, I'd probably rather have McCaffrey.

I just it's and it's really surprising to me because at other positions, I mean, you mentioned the 28 and 29 year old wide receivers for the most part with running backs, wide receivers and even tight ends to a certain extent, the industry seems to be wanting to get off these guys a year or two before the cliff. And everybody can see that it's coming for McCaffrey very soon. Hopefully it doesn't happen this year, but there's going to come a time where his value is going to go from consensus RB2 to not a top 20 running back. It is an expiring asset, and it's expiring relatively soon. Let's talk about quarterback. We mentioned the Chiefs receiving core.

We talked about the Bills' lack of a receiving core right now. Josh Allen is still currently QB1 over Patrick Mahomes. This is another duo that I've kind of gone back and forth with as terms of the last two or three years, who my favorite quarterback is. This might be easy enough to say if it's six points per pass touchdown, you should prefer Mahomes and four, you should prefer Allen. But I have Mahomes ahead now, partially because Allen lost digs and I don't think they've done a good enough job replacing him, partially because what I think it seems like that Bill's offense wants to do, getting the running backs more involved.

And I don't want to count on Josh Allen rushing for 15 touchdowns. But I think it's also fair to question which one of these guys is going to age better. Which one of these guys are we looking at at 32 years old and still viewing as an elite fantasy quarterback? And I think it's far more likely to be Mahomes. Yeah, I agree with you there between these two. Again, I'm off consensus again. I think I'm the only one, only ranker at DLF

that has a different quarterback as quarterback one. I have Lamar Jackson there. I just really highly value the rushing. I have Jackson at one and Hurts at two, Mahomes three, Allen at four because of that offensive situation that you mentioned there in Buffalo. I just from a production standpoint, it's just so much harder for these these quarterbacks that don't provide a lot of rushing floor or production or a ceiling. I look at a rushing production as a

floor for a lot of these guys. Some people look at as the ceiling, whichever way you want to look at it. If you don't provide some some amount of rushing, then it's just so much harder to be a difference maker at the quarterback position, especially in a one quarterback league. You know, you've got to really threaten 40 for 4,500 yards, 35 to 40 passing touchdowns, just to be, have a, have a chance to hit the top five quarterbacks. Right. And a one quarterback league, if you're, if you're sitting there with a back end quarterback one, I mean, I mean, who cares, right? It's just kind of a replaceable part on your roster. So if you're really looking for the upside, you need to get the rushing in there. So for me, there are three quarterbacks, maybe four now if we want to count Daniels in there,

but there are three quarterbacks that can threaten both for 1,000 yards rushing and 4,500 yards passing, and that's Lamar Jackson. It's Jalen Hurts and it's Kyler Murray for me. So, um, you maybe, maybe Jaden Gaines can get there. Patrick Mahomes. I mean, you can't deny what he does, but he's never going to provide you with that elite rushing floor. Right. So, um, I think you're right. I think you're right. He's going to age better. Yeah, no, you're really the only quarterback who's shown us that 31, 32-point upside in a six-point pass touchdown league. Correct. But in a four-point, that doesn't really exist like it does with the rushers.

I do want to jump over to tight end here because this seems to be a difficult position for people to analyze right now once you get past Sam Laporta. This is the place where there's no question who number one is. Laporta's the only tight end being drafted in the first three rounds of startups. And then you've got kind of this glob of tight ends within 15 picks of each other. Trey McBride, Mark Andrews, Brock Bowers, Kyle Pitts, Travis Kelsey, Dalton Kincaid, even TJ Hawkinson's not far behind those guys. Do you agree that Laporta kind of stands out by himself as the only tight end worthy of a pick in the first three rounds of a startup? I don't think I agree with that, but I think I

know why it's happening. I think it's because, I mean, we've done this for a few years now, for a long time where we've said, oh, the tight end position feels really good right now. But it just really does feel good right now. Tight end 10 is George Kittle. Tight end 11 is David Njoku. I feel like we have – tight end 12 is Jake Ferguson. I feel like we have at least 10 tight ends we can feel really good about right now so if we're going to have a a league that doesn't have tight end premium of some sort and even 1.5 isn't really i don't really personally

consider that a premium um you really need to get to like 175 or two for it to really matter especially for those top end guys maybe even a two tight end league which are just brutal by the way i don't recommend playing in those they're they're real tough um but just because of the value at the position and the you know general lack of production compared to the other positions i think we've seen that there are a lot of these guys are very similar they're all within a similar age range outside outside of travis kelsey and maybe kittle right they're all in this 23 to 27 28 range and these are players that are going to play for a very long time and pretty much all of

them are the number one or number two target on their passing offense so why spend the the top two top three round pick on laporta when i can wait two rounds and get you know mark andrews right like why like mark andrews is the history of producing elite fantasy numbers so why not wait a couple of rounds and get somebody like that so i think that's why it's happening i don't necessarily think it's right but uh that's why it's happening i'm just not sure i see quite as big of gap i mean it's basically 20 picks and startups between laporta and trey mcbride and i i i think in especially in that offensive system even with marvin harrison there we're going to see trey mcbr still see seven, eight targets per game and probably be more efficient than he was last year. I think it's actually a pretty decent.

They're within 10 picks for me. So I'm not sure the gap should be quite that big. And I think you made a good point about whether or not Laporta should even go in the first three rounds. Let's kind of change gears here and talk about some of my favorite veteran values. We'll start with a couple of quarterbacks, QB 15 and QB 16. Different, but I think still values. Brock Purdy is QB 15, Tuatunga-Vailoa is QB 16. I had plenty of doubts about Purdy going into last year, even early in last year. It does seem like many can't just keep being this efficient, but every quarterback in this offense has been efficient.

It seems undeniable now that the 49ers are going to give Purdy a long-term deal. Tua seems now more likely to get one pretty soon than Trevor Lawrence with the way the talks have been about those negotiations. I just, I view these guys as pretty surefire borderline qb once yeah and i wouldn't even say necessarily borderline brock purdy quarterback six last year they you know maybe one of the receivers are gone or maybe one of those top two receivers are gone in trade so

they've been talking about that forever i kind of feel like now at this point like they're just going to keep the band together for for for another run here. They added another receiver, and Ricky Pearsall is very exciting. They're clearly trying to help this guy out, and he succeeded with less than he has now. So I see no reason for him to be down there at quarterback 15, two of the same quarterback nine. I know he's got a contract situation. He's playing on his fifth year right now, and he wants a new deal. I feel like that's going to get done, but I mean, I don't know for sure. So there is a little bit of more risk there with Tua.

But I mean, both of these guys are rock solid, especially in a one quarterback league. Again, you can have both of these guys. The Tua's ADP right now is 129. So you can have him basically after the 10th round. And Purdy is basically the same 120 120 the 125th and the 127th player off the board in a one quarterback format so you nailed this one so we've got i look at the adp and they're like the guy that probably stands out the most to me that's ahead of them is dac prescott at 30 years old because it seems i I'm more worried about his contract situation than

I am the other two guys. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, he's great, but is he going to be in Dallas? How are they going to pay both him and Lamb? I mean, maybe they'll figure it out with the salary cap magic, but it seems unlikely at the moment. So I have James Cook as one of my favorite high-end running back values, but I'm not sure that you totally agree with that, with the way you feel about Ray Davis. I kind of view Cook as a, a borderline RB one this year. And he's also one of the younger backs that we could say that about,

but do you think Davis is going to keep that from happening? I mean, it really depends on how they use them at the goal line, right? Like who gets the most touchdowns is probably going to be be the winner of this backfield i would say and you know davis to me profiles is more of that that that guy a little bit more compact build 5 8 2 15 to james cook's cooks like was he 5 11 195 something like that so a profile is more to me i think james cook is a better i've always thought he was kind of a better space player

but you know, that, that provides fantasy goodness to the two high value touch areas of the field are with, or categories are receptions and touchdowns. Right. And, and I think both,

both of these could lead in one of those two categories. So I don't hate having James Cook at, at, at a fringe. Where did you say you have him? I know he's a quarterback. He's right around RB12 for me, RB11, RB12. Yeah, I think that's fair? I know he's a quarterback. He's right around RB 12 for me. RB 11,

RB 12. Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, it depends if you, if you, if you're not high on Rashad white, for example,

people are starting to come down on him. Kenneth Walker's in that range. Isaiah Pacheco is in that range. I think James cook fits right in there, especially if they are going to have a much more high volume rushing attack and Buffalo this year. So I don't hate that. He's just not necessarily my necessarily my guy, for example.

I will say that if you're right, and this is a true dogfight for touches, right now, according to ADP, you're using a late fifth round pick in a one QB league on Cook. And it is round 12 for Ray Davis at pick 138. So there's an enormous gap. And I'm not sure.

I know they're both 24. Is Cook actually younger than Davis? Is that maybe part of the difference there as well? That could be. Yeah, I think it's close within a couple of months. Or maybe Davis is going to be 25 when the season starts. I forget. Certainly older for a rookie.

But, you know, Cook had 60% of the rushing share last year. Why wouldn't he get that again if Davis takes the 40% that went to Latavius Murray and who else was there last year? Leonard Fournette for a small stretch, I think. Damian Harris, too. Damian Harris. Damian Harris, right. So Davis is going to be an upgrade on those guys.

So if he only gets 40% of the touches to Cook 60, I think that's fine. I think they can both eat pretty well in that offense and another running back who was a rookie last year going into year two at zach charbonnet and i think that whole situation when i like ken walker a lot as well but i think that situation is really interesting because of the coaching change i don't know they both basically had the same draft capital. They both have some skills that are kind of different from each other. And I don't know that we should have a real good reason to expect one of them to definitely be the guy this year. But you look at ADP and Charbonnet is RB 31. You see Ken Walker at RB 11. So there's obviously a big gap there. The community thinks it's clearly Ken Walker's job.

How do you feel about Walker and Charbonnet at cost? Yeah, I think the gap should definitely be smaller. You know, guys above Charbonnet, Austin Eckler, Taji Harris, Taji Spears, Jalen Warren, Ramondre Stevenson should probably be farther below that. Nick Chubb should certainly be, I think, below Charbonnet at this point. So I think you make an argument for Joe Mixon should be maybe below him, Javante Williams.

So there's a lot of running backs in between those two that could be lower and Charbonnet should be higher. It's just like you said, you don't know how the coaching staff is going to value these guys. I think we know the profile of both these. Walker is kind of the home run threat. He's probably going to be pretty inefficient on his touches, but when he does hit, he's going to hit that long explosive play, which, which, uh, the coaching staffs like, of course, but Charbonnet provides that consistency. He's not going to fumble the ball. He can catch

the ball very well out of the backfield athletically. He's not nearly near the athlete of Kenneth Walker. I would, I would argue, but I mean, you don't necessarily need that from Charbonnet given what he does well. So I think both of these guys are, I think Walker is overvalued, honestly, and Charbonnet is undervalued if we want to really make a fine point on it. Yeah, and I think like looking at where they're being drafted amongst the rookies is you're probably, you shouldn't have any trouble using a late second round pick to go get a Zach Charbonnet. You might be able to go, you might be able to do it for an early third round pick. And that's just speculating on a guy that might stumble into 55% of the high value touches in Seattle this year. Let's move over to wide receiver. And this is one, I got a couple of wide receivers here. Zay Flowers at wide receiver 23, George Pickens at wide receiver 29. I'm higher on both of these guys, but I also understand, I think it was Ryan Heath just put out a chart this morning, yes, last night

or this morning about number of catchable targets that each team had per game last year. And the Steelers and the Ravens were two of the worst teams in the NFL. The Ravens because of the number of passes they throw. The Steelers because of the quality of passes that we've seen. Now, we have seen a quarterback change in Pittsburgh. It's either going to be Russell Wilson or Justin Fields. It might be both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields this year. Man, Deontay Johnson's gone. I just could see a monster breakout from George Pickens this year.

He and flowers are both top 20 dynasty wide receivers for me. Uh, yeah, I, I completely agree. Um, I need to update my rankings. I'm, I'm a little bit lower on George Pickens than I want to be, but I mean, it's, you can't argue with what he has as it's, it's, it's Roman Wilson and it's bad for Ironwood. Those are the two major competition, uh, for, for, for targets. Right. And Pickens is, I think is clearly the the alpha there it's just um you know like what are what are we going to do with this arthur smith experiment has moved right so like how is that going to work out are they going to let him

throw the ball uh enough to make it i hope i hope i hope it's a different situation than it was in atlanta i really do because pickens is that kind of talent that could be, I mean, would it be that shocking to talk about him as like a top 15 wide receiver next year in Dynasty? I really don't think so at all. And then, you know, a similar story with Zae Flowers. They did resign Rashad Bateman, who I did love coming out. So I'm still holding a candle to him. But other than Flowers, really, it's just Andrews.

And Andrews is going to command the targets he's going to command. But Andrews has also, you know, had some injury troubles the last couple of years. If he goes down and we see Flowers as the primary receiver in that offense, then, I mean, again, I don't know if he's going to get the top 15, but top 20, absolutely. And I guess he's only 20. He's 23 right now. So wide receiver 15 to 20 range I think for him is is pretty reasonable I think a thousand yards five to eight five to eight touchdowns is pretty

reasonable for him so um yeah I like both of those picks when you look at the quarterback situation there in Pittsburgh is it fair to say that Russell Wilson is the best quarterback that both George Pickens has ever had and Arthur Smith has ever had even at this stage of Russell Wilson is the best quarterback that both George Pickens has ever had. And Arthur Smith has ever had, even at this stage of Russell Wilson. Um, he, yeah, probably.

Yeah. I think that's fair. I, I, I, I, I still think it's going to be just maybe not, obviously not right away,

but I still think it's going to be Justin Fields at some point. I, I would prefer him at almost every level to, to, to, to Russell Wilson right now, but either way, they're the best quarterbacks that he's had. You're right.

Let's take a short break, and we'll finish up with some rookie ADP talk. Metrolinks and Crosslinks are reminding everyone to be careful as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert, as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals, be careful along our tracks,

and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. Mama, look at me! Vroom, vroom! I'm going really fast. I just got my license. Can I borrow the car, please, Mom? Kids go from 0 to 18 in no time.

You'll be relieved they have 24-7 roadside assistance with Intact Insurance. Mom, can we go to Nana's house tomorrow? I want to go to Jack's place today. I'll just take the car. Don't wait up, okay? Kids go from 0 to 18 in no time, don't they? At Intact Insurance, we insure your car so you can enjoy the ride. Visit intact.ca or talk to your broker. Conditions apply. And we do have a comment in the chat. Somebody got Charbonnet for a third. I would just encourage everyone to go offer a third round pick for Zach Charbonnet

today. I'd be happy to give up two third round picks for him, to be honest. I saw somebody last week on the show had turned two third round picks into Tajay Spears. So it's a good time of year to be trying to make moves like that. Especially in the middle of your rookie draft, you get to that third round pick

and there's somebody in your league that thinks, oh, this guy should have gone in round two. I'm smarter than everyone else and ADP. I'm going to give up the guy I drafted last year early in round two for this round three pick to get my hands on him. Let's talk about a few guys and where they fall in the startup drafts,

but they're rookies. Michael Penix and Bo Nix. And I noticed that Penix is actually one spot ahead of Nix. He's QB 25. Nix is QB 26. I assume that's based on what people see as the long-term upside. But I kind of expect Bo Nix to come in and start and maybe be a low-end QB 2 this year. How do you rank these two?

You know, this is a really tough one because I think people are looking at Michael Penix a little bit incorrectly. To me, I'm viewing him as, if we're going to assume that Michael Penix is the starter in 2026, let's treat him as like a 2026 first round pick. Between now and the time Michael Penix actually starts a football game, his value is just going to increase, right? It's going to continue to increase until that point, at least in my opinion. So if you're thinking about him that way, then his ADP makes sense and his draft value makes sense in a rookie draft. But Bo Nix is going to start, maybe not right away, but he's going to get touches this season

or he's going to get starts this season, absolutely, right? So he has a chance to increase his not right away but he's going to get touches this season or he's going to get he's going to get starts this season absolutely right so he has a chance to increase his value right now whereas pennix you're going to have to wait a little bit however if nix comes out and completely tanks completely crashes he's not the guy that they wanted to draft he's just terrible then at that point like nix immediately becomes less valuable than pennix in my in my opinion because pennix is that unknown my opinion because pennix is that unknown he's that lottery ticket he's that first round draft pick that is going to continue to increase in value so if nicks tanks he could be worth less than pennix but right now i think i think i agree that or i don't know if you said that but i would say that nicks

should be ahead of pennix at this point yeah i've got nicks ahead of pennix i think you make a good point that bo Nix could do something before Michael Penix ever takes the field that just makes us not care about Bo Nix anymore. He could lose all of his value much faster. I will say the only pushback I would have against Michael Penix being the 2026 first that's only going to gain value is Michael Penix is going to keep getting older during that period of time. The 2026 pick is going to be 22, 23 years old. He's going to be 27 before he starts a game. If we think he starts in 2026, that won't matter. If he is a good NFL quarterback, he'll, he'll still have the 10 year window. And so we're not really going to care that much, but it will be, I could see Penix

losing a little bit of value in the first half of 2024 if kirk cousins is just really good yeah that's fair let's take a look now at some some running backs and you mentioned one of these guys i'm gonna i'm gonna guess that you think we have them in the wrong order blake quorum comes in at rb 35 jay at RB37 Marshawn Lloyd at RB38 are those guys in the right order and are they in the right range of the running back rankings um I I definitely prefer Lloyd and and Wright to to Corum I I don't know why. Maybe you convinced me on Corum, Keith. He is not the kind of running back that excites me. He's behind a very high volume running back. I think they're going to lower the touches of Kyron Williams this year. He's playing like 90% of snaps or

something ridiculous last season, and that got him into a little bit of trouble health-wise. So I don't think that's going to happen again. Corham's going to be involved, but he's a small, kind of two-down running back. He's going to be good. He's going to be solid, but does he have the ceiling that an athletic marvel like Jalen Wright and Marshawn Lloyd do?

I just don't think he has the same ceiling as that, and I think those two guys are in a little bit better of a situation. Lloyd, we talked about him a little bit already, but I think he's going are in a little bit better of a situation. Lloyd, we talked about him a little bit already, but I think he's going to be involved in some capacity right away. Jalen Wright, I think, is the direct handcuff to Raheem Mostert. And Raheem Mostert is 32 years old. So this time next season, it's probably Jalen Wright and Devon A-Chain as the two running backs there. And I think you can use them kind of interchangeably.

So just based on situation and the athletic talent, I have Wright and Lloyd ahead of Quorum. And in terms of where they're going in startups, you know, it feels a little low, honestly. Like Zach Moss, certainly for this year, is just ahead of those two. Zach Moss is really going to be probably more productive than all three of those guys this season.

But, you know, beyond that, who knows? James Conner, the same thing. Brian Robinson, same thing. Aaron Jones, Najee Harris, all these guys. I would rather take a shot on these rookies with a higher ceiling than some of these veterans that are just going to be, you know, maybe solid running back two or flex plays. So, yeah.

I agree with you entirely. I think they're all three just a little bit too low i've got them all but like three to five spots higher in my running back rankings than where they're being drafted so that makes sense jaylen right is my favorite of the group and i might just be giving too much of an edge to mike mcdaniel in that system i mean if the dolphins don't make the playoffs this year it might not even be a mike mcdaniel team anymore but no i i do think like he seems to fit what they want to do so well the case i would make for quorum because i think you're completely right about the athleticism and the upside part of it i thought he seemed like the type of running back that was going to do whatever do exactly what the coach wanted him to yep yep and we and and probably the kind of guy where fantasy managers in a year or two are upset

that he's receiving the touches that he is and they wish the guy they think is better was touching the ball and i just i when i look at what sean mcveigh's done i need it with cam acres for a couple a month here and a month there. He did it with Kyron Williams for an entire season last year. But I wasn't particularly enamored with Kyron Williams going into last year. So I think he is behind Williams right now. But if like three weeks into the season, it turns out Kyron Williams just got bumped and we have no idea why.

And now Blake Corum touches the ball 20 times. I wouldn't be that surprised. And I would assume that Corum's going to be a top 12 running back if that happens that's that's that's fair i mean i would definitely rather have i mean like nick chubb is up at running back 25 do you want nick chubb and his no knees at 28 years old over any of these three guys like that's i mean that's 12 spots higher do you know like like what what are we doing there so um the the biggest point of the biggest point of agreement we're going to find on this show is is a complete um lack of understanding of the ranking of nick chubb in dynasty rankings because

yeah i think it seems like there is a bigger chance that nick chubb's just not nick chubb anymore than there is that he ever returns to what he was. And at his age, that could be somebody that just completely disappears from the dynasty landscape really, really quick. Let's finish up with three wide receivers, a little bit higher end, and they're not quite as close. Xavier Worthy has jumped all the way up to wide receiver 27,

which is right about the place that I have him. But then we've got Ladd McConkie at wide receiver 33, Brian Thomas Jr. at wide receiver 27 which is right about the place that i have him but then we've got lad mcconkey at wide receiver 33 brian thomas jr at wide receiver 34 are these three in the right range and do you believe that there is a little bit of a tear break behind worthy to mcconkey and thomas um i would you know before the draft i kind of had worthy and and Worthy and Thomas in their own tier. McConkie, I think, at least for me, is definitely the third of this bunch. I feel like Worthy is the perfect wide receiver for this era of the NFL defense where they want to take away the deep ball with those two high safeties because, yes, Worthy is super fast and he can be that deep threat,

and he probably will if once marquise brown moves on but he can be used close to the line of scrimmage uh he can create instant separation and out of his breaks he has a stutter step to get his men off balance i think as a runner he has surprising contact balance for his size so um worthy is is a little bit ahead of these guys for For me, I have him. I have him. I definitely have him higher than ADP does. Right.

I've got him a little bit. While you're looking that up, I have Worthy at wide receiver 24, Thomas at 26, and McConkie at 27. I think maybe the place where I stand out is that I don't have very much separation at all between Roma Dunce and Xavier Worthy. That's where I've come down to. He's like, I think before the draft, like, you know, I think he was probably, you know, you could separate them into tiers with Rome, you know, either in his own tier up with those other two guys. And Worthy was down with Thomas and maybe Mc if you if you liked him him more but now i think worthy has separated himself based on landing spot and situation like we talked about rome a little bit earlier and i just i just don't want to be in the same situation with jsn let's be aware this year and um so worthy i have a wide receiver seven uh right wide receiver 18 just

behind pitman and metcalf just ahead of tank dell and and T Higgins so uh I I just I I'm probably I'm going to be extremely overweight on Xavier Worthy this year and maybe it doesn't work out I don't know but you tell me tell me about this Heath I've seen people out there saying that because he ran super fast because he ran that 42140 that immediately like docks him because no other super fast which wide receiver at the combine has really been that productive whether you want to talk about john ross or or taekwon thornton or who or whoever but the profile is so much different the profile the production profile the ability to run routes all that kind of stuff is just so much different than anyone else who

has run this fast so get the nut landing spot uh to get a situation where Rashi rises, maybe not involved for the first handful of games. I mean, if worthy comes out in week one and catches a 70 yard touchdown, where are we ranking him in dynasty? He's a top 15 guy, right? Like no,

no question about it. And I think that's like that, that speed thing. I joked about that on this show just because, because you know, it's, it is true, but most of the guys that have gotten bumped up because of their speed, we're not near as good a wide receiver. Xavier Worthy is actually a good wide receiver, and he just happens to be the fastest guy in the class. That's an excellent combination and not something I want to shy away from at all, especially if you're going to put him with Patrick Mahomes, who can actually just throw the ball over the mountains.

And if you're worthy, we'll go get it. So excellent stuff. I might have to move Worthy up a little bit. I don't want you to be that much higher on him than I am. I'll get him into the top 20 as well. Matt, really enjoyed. I always enjoy talking to you. Really enjoyed this talk today.

Again, just tell everybody where they can find you and where they can find your work. Yeah, Hugh, thanks so much for having me on. Had a blast. Always love chatting and chopping it up with you. You can find all my stuff over at DLF dynasty league football.com to fly check DLF dynasty podcast with myself, Ryan McDowell and Dan Myler. And then any written work is also found over there. Thanks so much.

Yeah. And thanks to everybody who was participating in the chat today. Thank you all of you guys listening on the podcast. We will be back on Friday. We'll talk to you on Friday.