Fantasy Football Today - FFT Dynasty - Free Agency Frenzy! Reacting to Top 8 Free Agent Signings! (03/12 Fantasy Football Today Dynasty)

Episode Date: March 13, 2024

Looking to dominate your fantasy league just like your redraft league? Look no further than Fantasy Football Today Dynasty hosted by our very own Heath Cummings! Download and follow Fantasy Football Today Dynasty on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you find your podcasts.  Fantasy Football Today Dynasty is available on the Audacy app and Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts! Fantasy Cares March Madness Bracket: https://donorbox.org/ncaa Rich Cooling of The Fantasy Sanctuary joins Heath Cummings to dissect the blockbuster offseason moves that promise to redefine dynasty rosters and draft strategies. Witness the Atlanta Falcons' bold move to acquire (10:10) Kirk Cousins, adding a veteran quarterback presence to their lineup; what does this mean for Drake London and Kyle Pitts? Then we shuffle to Russell Wilson's (18:50) move to the Pittsburgh Steelers and what it means for George Pickens and Diontae Johnson. We analyze the Green Bay Packers' acquisition of Josh Jacobs (26:45), transforming their backfield after releasing Aaron Jones. And as if that's not enough, brace yourself for the fantasy frenzy as Saquon Barkley (33:40) lands with the Philadelphia Eagles, injecting a potent mix of talent and opportunity into their offense. Take advantage of our in-depth analysis of these moves and their impact on dynasty fantasy football leagues! 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

When it comes to Smart Water Alkaline 9.5 plus pH with antioxidant, there's nothing to overthink. So, while you may be performing mental gymnastics over whether the post-work gym crowd is worth it, if you'll be able to find a spot for your yoga mat, or if that spin instructor will make you late for dinner again, don't overthink how you hydrate. Life's full of choices. Smart Water Alkaline is a simple one. 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. Welcome to Fantasy Football Today Dynasty. I am your host, Heath Cummings, joined by a very special guest today, Rich Kooling, a.k.a. Dynasty Island on Twitter. He is from Fantasy Sanctuary.

Rich, thank you so much for being here. No, thank you so much for coming on. It's a true honor. So, yeah, really appreciate it. Now, Richard, you reached out to me a couple of weeks ago, wanting to share with me the Fantasy Sanctuary Rookie Draft Guide. And I would like for you to just take a minute to kind of tell everybody all about that and where they can get it. Yeah, I really appreciate that. So it's, yeah, year two of me creating a draft guide. So last year was first year, just tried to, I guess, combine my love of film and analytics.

So try to watch as many players as possible, but also add in all of my kind of rookie models for the running back wide receiver tight end position. So got it all in one place. So yeah, 80 players I watched in version one, which we released last week. So got kind of film breakdowns of them. And then all my rankings, all the rookie model information all in one place.

My aim every year is to get every single player that attends the combine and is drafted in the guide. So yeah, I think we're probably looking about 110 players this year. So that will then be released a week after the draft in early May. Now, I'll give everybody a peek behind the curtain because the way this works is I talk to guests and we make a plan maybe a week or two in advance. We're going to talk about this random topic. And I thought, you know, I want to give Rich a chance to tell everybody about the prospect guide. So we will talk about rookies. And we've talked about a lot about rookies lately. And then yesterday happened.

I sent Rich a message in the middle of the afternoon. I did not expect day one of free agency to go like day one. And I guess day one and a half. No, we're still on day one because it's been 23 hours. And maybe 23 running backs have signed. So I said, we're going to have to shift gears today. We are going to talk everything free agency from a dynasty perspective. We will talk Kirk Cousins on the Falcons.

We will talk Josh Jacobs on the Packers, Saquon Barkley on the Eagles and more. But first, I do want to squeeze in a little bit of rookie talk, since that's what I told Rich that he'd be coming on to talk about in the first place. Rich, we start every show with three questions for our guest. One of them is the same question everyone gets. Well, it's been a little bit different the last couple of episodes because everyone's answer was the same. So what is your one non-negotiable rule when it comes to a dynasty league? It cannot be super flex because everyone's

already said that yeah it's the way it's the way the world's gone isn't it for me it's it's depth i i will i'm only interested in leagues that are kind of 30 roster spots deep um i basically want to almost completely rule out waivers as a way of acquiring players. And yeah, I'm looking for really deep leagues that I'm not having to think about cutting players or adding guys off the way they were. That's an interesting, like I've really liked taking the lineup setting decision out in some of my leagues, going with the best ball. And I hadn't heard it framed like that, that it kind of takes the waivers out of the league in those deeper leagues.

It certainly does. I'm curious what you do or prefer in the off season on those leagues, because we had a guest last week and we were talking about how I really like to limit waiver additions in the off season so we can get to July or August

and have like a mini free agency period like the NFL is having right now? Yeah, I'm the complete opposite. I like it open all year round. I really like the ability to be active if you want it. For me, because I'm playing in those deeper leagues, the chances of someone signing in free agency or getting traded, not being on a roster are pretty small. So, you know, if you want to go out and add up, you know, Kobe Parkinson or someone like that, by all means, go and do it. But yeah, there's no leagues where some of those lesser players that are potentially fancy relevant are going to be on waivers. So I'm happy keeping them open all year round, really.

Awesome. Awesome. Okay, so who are, let's get to the rookies now, who are your three favorite rookie running backs? And then after all this mess of the last 23 hours, give me your favorite landing spots for them. Okay, so I'll caveat this by saying I think the the top three is tough because i've sort of got a tier of six and i think depending how draft capital goes it could it could be that but my rb1 at the moment is jonathan brooks um i think he's the most likely to be a true

three down workhorse at the next level for landing spot i've probably gone a little bit different i've picked arizona as my ideal landing spot. He is obviously coming off that ACL injury. I think that the scheme fit and the fit with Kyler Murray at quarterback and what we're hoping is going to be an explosive offense if they add a stud receiver. James Conner is under contract this year, and I think he's potentially, this will be his last year in Arizona, and I think that you could almost redshirt Jonathan Brooks for a year,

maybe get some work at the back end of the year and then take over as the true three down workhorse for 2025 and beyond and then next guys so I've got Trey Benson going to Baltimore I think look that's a great landing spot for whoever ends up being the guy there I think he'd be a you know potential three down back and would be a really nice compliment to Lamar and then my final guy a little bit worried after the combine, but Bucky Irving. I think he could be kind of the lightning to, if it's Gus Edwards, Gus Edwards thunder. I think he could be a really nice one-two punch in Los Angeles for what we're expecting to be a run first offense under Harbaugh.

I do think it's interesting that Los Angeles is one of the places. I mean, they added Gus, sure, and he'll probably get his eight to 10 carries per game. But they didn't go big in the free agent market. And that is a place with Harbaugh and with Greg Roman where we expect a bunch of rush attempts this year. And so that will be a favorite landing spot, I think, for rookies, even with the Edwards. I want to go back to Brooks for a second, because I agree with you in terms of evaluating the running backs based on what they could be eventually. Brooks is the guy. And you mentioned that red shirt season.

And so that seems to me like it makes him a better pick, because I'm pretty convinced an RB is going to end up in round one. Probably two, but at least one. And those teams are generally the win-now teams. Not always. There's lots of trades and everything. But it does seem like it's easier to pull the trigger on Brooks if you're one of those teams picking early in round two than if you're one of those teams that's trying to win this year and you feel like you're running back away yeah absolutely i guess i guess the the question there is a lot of the leagues i play in those kind of late firsts have already been traded to rebuilding teams there's not a huge amount of contenders that have kept their first round picks but yeah i think

you know if you're in that win now window and are looking for a player that's going to push you over the top i'm not sure brooks is's going to push you over the top, I'm not sure Brooks is potentially going to be that in year one. I mean, it could be that he's a fantastic player. If you've got a competitive team, you can get through the first 10, 12 weeks of the year without him. When he's really healthy and up and running, he could be great for those playoffs. Like last year, I kind of shied away from both Javante Williams and Brees Hall coming off the ACL. And it turned out that Javante Williams didn't really ever get back to what he was. And Brees Hall took like four weeks and then he was producing his RIV1. So it is possible that

Jonathan Brooks could take the Brees Hall path and just be 100% by the middle of the season. That's a good point. And that's really, if you're a true contender, all you care about is what he is this end of the year anyway third question who is your favorite rookie sleeper so i'm going to cheat here and have two so i've got like a a mid sleeper um frank or junior i think analytically there's some really interesting aspects in terms of you look at yards per team attempt he's in 90th percentile that kind of thing and obviously you know being frank or son you know the n NFL bloodlines are there my deep deep sleeper is is Jordan Whittington out of Texas he's an interesting evaluation because he played running back in the first part of his career then

transitioned to wide receiver he's one of these players that can line up outside in the slot out of the running back position he could get the ball in all sorts of interest ways. But the really fascinating thing for me is he's clearly a very smart football player. And I think he is phenomenal against zone, which, you know, we saw Pukunukuwa and I'm not saying he's going to be Pukunukuwa, but obviously he had a fairly incredible year last year. And a lot of that was basically him really understanding NFL defenses and being able to pick apart zone coverages. That's what I see in Jordan Whittington. So yeah, he's probably going to be a day three pick in the NFL draft. He's probably going to be a fourth, fifth round pick in rookie drafts, but there is an interesting profile there that I think I'm looking for upside in those later round picks. And he's the kind of guy that could potentially have it. What I love there is you gave us a name

and it may not be a name we've talked about because it's the kid, but a name that everybody knows in Frank Gore. It's Frank Gore Jr. And then a name, Jordan Whittington, I don't think has been mentioned on this show yet during draft season. So we got a new name. We got an old name. The old name is the young guy. That's fantastic. Let's take a short break, and then we will get into what was a wild first day of free agency. Take back your free time with PC Express Online grocery delivery and pickup. Score in-store promos, PC Optimum points, and more free time. And still get groceries. Shop now at pcexpress.ca. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey.

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then sit back and let your matches start the chat. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Okay, Rich, so we are back and I tried to order these things kind of as I saw them in terms of relevance because I know we're not going to get to everything today. But I want to start with what seems like the biggest shoe to drop and Thomas is maybe crying backstage or maybe happy backstage. I'm not sure how Thomas feels about it. Kirk Cousins goes to the Atlanta Falcons. Four-year deal. Who knows how many years he's actually going to be there, but more than one, I think. Two feels very safe. This is such a huge huge huge change in the landscape of the atlanta falcons we've spent the last couple of years in the arthur smith offense with the extremely run heavy approach

now they've got a defensive head coach i'm not sure they're not going to throw it 650 times like the vikings did but let's just start with what it means for the pass catchers. Drake London, just absolutely to the moon? Yeah, absolutely. I love Drake London as a prospect. I think he's been phenomenal in fairly challenging circumstances, both in terms of quarterback play, but also, you know, you said being a run first offense and all that side of things. You look at the advanced stats, 14th in targets per route run across the last two seasons, 25th in yards per route run. I think he's massively underrated. I'll let everything land where it lands with free agency and then fully update. And London's going to be somewhere around 12, I'm confident. You've got him 6, 7, 8, 9, right in that range?

So he's 10 for me. So he's in a tier along with Chris Olave and Ty tyreek hill um just ahead of pitman dj moore jalen waddle that sort of guys okay yeah a lot of those same guys in the same range i think that will be a pretty common assessment like i i don't think anybody's going to be too skeptical of drake london going into next year we're all just going to expect that he makes this massive leap i'm not sure it's exactly the same for kyle pitts just because i mean it's been three years of excuse making for kyle pitts and some of them are i don't want to say that in a negative way about him some of them are very valid excuses but where he came from as like the 101 in some rookie drafts to a definitely a first round startup pick

to year two was rough year three was maybe hurt johnny smith taking production away from him how back in are you on kyle pitts i'm pretty back in um i'll be honest i wasn't i was never really hugely out uh i've always been a bit of a believer but i guess for me the way i play dynasty i don't overly value the tight end position i think over the last few years we've almost been spoilt by travis kelsey and you look at his kind of value over an average player of sort of seven eight points per game that's been massive you compare that to like guys like sam laporta and Trey McBride, who were phenomenal last year,

but were only kind of four, five points per game better than an average replacement. And I think that we're almost valuing those young tight ends as if they're Travis Kelsey, but actually they're only a little bit better than average. And I think that for me the way i'm playing dynasty i'm looking for upside and i think that of those top six seven tight ends cole pitts has got more upside than basically anyone so he's tight in four for me i'd quite

happily tear down from sam laporta or train mcbride to go and get Pitts plus in a trade if I'm looking to make that move. Also tied in four for me. I actually had him one spot behind Dalton Kincaid before Cousins signed with Atlanta. He moved back in front of Dalton Kincaid. I've got Laporta, McBride, and Mark Andrews as the three tight ends in front of him. And I think it will be interesting. I've got some late firsts that I thought about seeing. I wonder if somebody thinks this is their chance to get out on Kyle Pitts. I might send that offer. I don't think you're probably getting a top eight pick in a super flex draft or a top seven pick for him.

It will be interesting to see if anybody decides it's time to move off of him based on this news. I did want to start with the positive of this move, but I do think it's worth saying because Kirk Cousins has been a borderline QB1 in Minnesota. In fact, better than that at times. Even with the great weapons in Drake Lennon and Kyle Pitts, I feel like this is a pretty significant downgrade for Kirk Cousins from both 2024 and a dynasty perspective? Yeah, I mean, how can you go from the best wide receiver in the league,

probably one of the best wide receiver twos and an elite tight end? It's always going to be a downgrade wherever you go, isn't it? I think for me, it's a significant downgrade for 2024. The fact that he's got a secure home now probably looking at the contract for three years that's that's kind of held his value in dynasty i think this you know there's probably what 10 guys at the moment that you can comfortably say are going to be a start for the next three years so that has essentially kind of negated the the short-term downgrade because it's a slightly up-term upgrade longer term as such when you look at cousins versus say jared goff and baker mayfield just got the new the new deal that probably means he's starting for two years um is he clearly ahead of those

guys is he right in the mix with those guys i've got him in that low-end qb2 range with those guys yeah see i've got him a tier ahead of Baker Mayfield. I think both the longevity and the production, I think he's going to be better. I've got him a tier behind Jared Goff, and that's based on me expecting Jared Goff to get some sort of extension this year. Going into the final year of his contract,

I'd be shocked if the Lions allowed that to play out. And I think we're going to see probably a similar contract to what kurt cousins signed maybe a little bit more money down the road kind of thing but i think jared goff is going to have at least that sort of longer term security that kirk cousins has got yeah i do think that like i guess the one thing that might change that is what the lions have seen from end and Hooker. But yeah, somebody had mentioned to me when they looked at my quarterback rankings, they said, it seems like Hooker's too high. I said, well, I kind of liked him and they've not extended Jared Goff yet. And so there's just that little bit of window that I'm not entirely sure, but you're right. It's probably an absolute monster

deal for Jared Goff that all of us in 2016 or 2017 would have just been flabbergasted by. Can't wait to see it. Any fear creeping in about Justin Jefferson, about Jordan Addison, about TJ Hawkinson that the Vikings did sign or will sign Sam Darnold? That doesn't necessarily mean he's going to be their starter, but he's the best quarterback on their roster right now. And that's a pretty big downgrade from Kirk Cousins uh are you downgrading those guys at all I'm not moving Justin Jefferson I think he's good enough I think we've seen plenty of bad quarterbacks be able to sustain one kind of superstar and I think Justin Jefferson's so good that he could put up fantasy points with me throwing him the ball quite frankly um I think it

is a real concern for Jordan Addison I think if it is Sam Darnold if we do see them perhaps get aggressive in the draft and bring in like a JJ McCarthy or something like that it's normally the second receiver that we see take the hit so I was a huge Jordan Addison guy coming out last year he was my wide receiver one in the draft but but I'm concerned about him moving forward. And then TJ Hawkinson, I was already lower than consensus that late season injury. I don't know how healthy he's going to be to start the year, whether he ends up on, on pop or something like that. So I'm already a little bit concerned about TJ Hawkinson. This is probably exacerbated that a little bit, but yeah, Justin Jefferson, I think is, is still the wide receiver one. And I've got very few concerns. Yeah. I think, I think Hawkinson gets into a real tricky range now because he's definitely still in his prime and he, and he has

two or three years left, but he's not the type of guy that I would want to be rostering if I'm not competing this year. And if I am a serious competitor, I'd certainly rather have the older guys like Kelsey or Kittle. And so I don't know that you can't really probably have much success dealing him right now. It doesn't seem like anybody's going to be super interested in acquiring him. You might be surprised at the signing that I chose as my second most impactful, but I am still a little bit of a believer in Russell Wilson. He did just sign a one-year vet minimum deal because why wouldn't you stick it to Sean Payton if you could under these circumstances? Good job, Russ. He's certainly cooking. He was my QB 24. He is currently my QB 22. I always kind of felt like he was going to

get another chance, and I expect that he plays well enough that he gets another chance next year, but that's certainly not guaranteed. Do you have any hopeless left for us? Yeah, absolutely. I said a couple of weeks ago on Twitter, I said that to me, Russell Wilson signing for the vet minimum is going to be one of the best free agent signings ever because the hate went a bit too far. He, yeah, he, he's not a superstar. He's not worth certainly what the Broncos paid for him in the trade and a bit too far he yeah he's not a superstar he's not worth certainly what the broncos paid for him in the trade and and that contract but he's still a average nfl starting quarterback and an average nfl starting quarterbacks getting paid 40 45 million dollars a year him playing on 1 million is is a cheat code quite frankly he's cheaper than almost all of the uh the

rookie quarterbacks that are starting outside of brock purdy i think so yeah i really like him i think for me there's a little bit of concern from a dynasty perspective just because he is on that one-year contract there is no guarantees he's going to be in pittsburgh next year there's no guarantees he's going to be a starting quarterback next year so i'm i'm a little bit hesitant to kind of go all in I've got him valued in a similar range to you um I think realistically you know he was QB 14 last year I wouldn't be shocked if he was in that similar range sort of high QB 2 again this year but just that uncertainty of next year and beyond means that he's got to be a back-end QB2 for me in Dynasty. Right, yeah. And I saw immediately after the signing happened,

somebody in one of my leagues, Superflex, of course, sends me a trade offer, wants to send me. And I say this a lot, but in a Superflex league, for the most part, a guaranteed starting quarterback generally gets a late first as kind of a minimum. You could usually get more if they're any good. And he sends me Russ for my 2025 first. Well, I've got that roster is teetering right now.

I'm not sure at all that I'm actually going to be a contender this year. Things go really bad, and that 2025 first could be a good pick. And so I said no. But he was able to trade Russ and I think one more piece for a good pick. And so I said, no, but he was able to trade Russ. And I think one more piece for a 2024 first. If you're a contender, are you giving up your, your pick 10,

11, 12 for Russ this year? If you need a quarterback, I think I'd rather go in, probably go and fire the similar pick, maybe a high guy that i perceive has got higher upside but also a similar flaw in you know matthew stafford or aaron rogers who have also got perhaps a little bit more security next year um but yeah if those guys aren't available

and i'm absolutely desperate for you know a qb2 or a qb3 perhaps and that's the only deal i can get yeah i'd hold my nose and wouldn't feel particularly happy about it, but yeah, I would, I would make that move. If you could get them for a second, you love it, right? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Any second I'd happily do that. Okay. Yeah. Agreed completely. So I've been a little bit higher for the last few months. It seems like than George Pickens had him at wide receiver 25 before this he's up to wide receiver 23. I, I'm afraid that if

the reports are positive early I'm going to get out of control on George Pickens because I do think that this that when Russ is good what he really does well could turn in a top 12 season from George Pickens um and so I wonder where you are at on Pickens. Is there a chance this completely unlocks him? I was so excited about Pickens when they brought in Arthur Smith as the offensive coordinator. Because I was like, we know George Pickens is fantastic as that true X, outside receiver, between the numbers and sidelines. We know he's got that. Where he basically never ran roots under Matt Canada was those in-breaking routes. That's what Arthur Smith's been fantastic you know you go back to Tennessee days of AJ Brown on those those digs and slants that's where he feasted I was like if if we can unlock that part of George Pickens game

he's going to be a superstar and then they saw Russell Wilson and I'm like he doesn't throw over the middle that's true he struggles between the. So are we going back to just George Pickens being a true outside receiver who doesn't have those kind of in-breaking routes and add that piece to his game? So it's kind of called my hopes a little bit. I still think, you know, he's kind of Courtland Sutton plus what he was last year.

I think he's going gonna be probably better in best ball than redraft because those outside the numbers targets are a little bit more boom bust a little bit more high variants but i think yeah he's one of those players in that range that's absolutely as you said got that top 12 wide receiver outcome i'm just a little bit confused quite how his role is going to develop because arthur smith and russell wilson probably are slightly diverging opinions on what works it's interesting too because they said they spent so much time together um i'm really i'm curious to see how because like have there been two more maligned characters in the nfl over the last 12 to 24 months than arthur smith and russell

wilson for different reasons. But I do think like what Pickens has nine career touchdowns in his first two years in the league. I'd love to see what kind of odds I can get on a 10 touchdown season. Cause I, I almost expect that for George Pickens this year, a couple other guys on that roster though. And one of them was consistently viewed kind of in that same range, that borderline wide receiver to range,

if not higher for a while, Deontay Johnson has always been fantastic at getting open, but not great at turning that into fantasy production. And Pat Friermuth, who had a couple of good years and then a complete bust last year. Do you have any hope for those guys or are you just trying to shop them off this news and hope you can sell one last time well i've got a serious dionte johnson problem um i'm a i'm a big believer i was banging the drum i can't remember if it's three years four years ago that he was criminally underrated and he had that overall i think wide receiver eight season um so yeah i've probably got a little bit of a blind spot when it comes to dionte johnson evaluation okay i i still think that he fits really well with russ we see, yes, he's slightly

undersized, but he still runs those routes outside the numbers and could potentially be a kind of a stud there. And I think he could potentially work well in this offense. My concern is that we've seen trade rumors over the last couple of days. And yeah, it's hard to get excited about a guy when we basically have no idea where he could be playing football next year. So yeah, I'm concerned about Deontay. He's just kind of a mare at tight end. He's a guy that if you have him,

you're always looking for an upgrade. If you don't have him, you're never going to go out and pay anything to acquire him because you're always looking for someone that's slightly better so yeah he's kind of going to end up probably high-end tight end two back-end tight end one but you never really want to start him or never really want him on your team quite frankly i'll be also really interested and i i don't have an answer to this but what happens to the running back targets in the Steelers offense? Because I know people were making a lot about how much Russ threw to his running backs last year,

but I think that was entirely a Sean Payton thing. That's not really something he did a lot in Seattle. And so it is something that Arthur Smith's done, though. So whether it's Najee or it's Jalen Warren, I'll be interested to see that as well. But I don't think we have any real reason to feel like we know the answer at this point. We're just going to have to wait and see. We'll get to the running backs now. Josh Jacobs signed with the Packers.

They released Aaron Jones. And I think I saw this morning that Aaron Jones signed with the Vikings. Or at least he's heading that direction. Is Jacobs your top-ranked dynasty running back that moved yesterday? No, but he's back to back with somebody that I'm sure we'll talk about in a minute, but yeah,

he's, he's very close. Is he a top 12 dynasty running back? He's running about 10 for me right now. Yeah. I think he, he jumped up a couple of spots. I was shocked that he got the money he did.

And I'm so excited about him in this offense because I think that he basically fits what Green Bay's been looking for and hope they were getting in terms of AJ Dillon when they drafted him. And I think that he's going to mesh perfectly with that true thumper between the tackles with a really exciting offense

in terms of the wide receivers the tight ends john love i think has ascended to a huge level so yeah very very excited about what he could be in this offense they've definitely put it put a good team around him and i think they like they are all in so let's let's go see what the packers can do this year um zamir white kind of the guy left behind in Las Vegas for now, and there's not a whole lot of guys that I think we'd be certain are going to take that job away from him left in free agency. I've been pretty wait-and-see with Zemir White,

and I probably will stay that way. But I do have him on the back end of a couple of dynasty rosters. He's currently right around rb30 for me how how excited are you do you think he's going to get a chance to just be the lead back or would you be seeing if you could sell during rookie drafts yeah no i'm i'm super excited uh i think what he showed at the back end last year was fantastic i think we know that antonio pierce is is gonna look to run the ball i I think bringing in Gardner Minshew, I think reiterates that,

you know, Gardner Minshew is not a guy that's going to push the ball downfield a huge amount. He's going to check down an awful lot, which I think is great for Zemir White, but we're going to run the ball also. He's running back 18 for me. So I'm,

I appreciate I'm probably quite a lot higher than consensus, but there was, there was some reports yesterday that the Raiders aren't going to look to bring anyone in. He is going to be their running back one. They'll probably look to draft somebody on day three. So yeah, I think that he's going to be a kind of 60% to 70% opportunity share guy,

and there's not many running backs that you can kind of bank that in for. Well, I had a team where I lost Khalil Herbert yesterday, but I also have Zamir White, so maybe we'll be okay yet. No, I think it's time for something we don't do on this show very often, but it's a little bit of breaking news here. And I had Thomas go check this, make sure it's right. Joe Mixon's not being released by the Bengals. Joe Mixon is being traded

to the Texans. We've got the tweet from Ian Rappaport, so we're moving with it. This is, like, I was going to ask about the guys who hadn't been signed yet or who had been cut and didn't have a job yet and, like, how concerned we were because this, like, we've seen it multiple years. The last veteran running back to sign

sometimes doesn't sign until camp now mixon's on the texans in a situation that we were we were mocking rookie running backs to go to we were trying to get saquon barkley there we expect this to be a very good run offense because of the people who are designing it, right? Like this was supposed to be a highly efficient run offense. We didn't really get that last year, although Devin Singletary was pretty good in the second half. How excited are you for Joe Mixon on the Texans? Yeah, I think if you're looking for a one-year rental,

I think it's fantastic. It'll be interesting to see whether the Texans pay him any more money or he just ends up playing out on his current contract because I think it could potentially be exactly that for the Texans pay him any more money or he just ends up playing out on his current contract, because I think it could potentially be exactly that for the Texans in terms of that one year rental. So yeah, I love that offense. You know, I want pieces of this offense. I think what Bobby Sloak did last year and certainly what CJ Shroud did, I think they showed that they wanted to run the ball more, but they didn't have the horses. Hopefully the offensive line is going to be healthier this year because, you know, we talk about a lot of teams,

what they did with that patchwork offensive line where it seemed basically everybody got injured almost every week, I think was phenomenal. And hopefully, yeah, I don't think Joe Mixon is going to be a truly elite kind of RB1, but this offense is probably going to score enough points and move the ball enough where, yeah, he's going to be in that RB2 range and hopefully help those contending teams

that need that kind of final piece. Yeah, I could absolutely see a high-end RB2 season. I think the one-year rental is exactly the way that the Texans and dynasty managers should look at this. He'll be 28 this year. If he's not turned 28 already, I always use the age at the start of week one. And so you shouldn't expect anything beyond this year, but I think you should expect a starting fantasy running back.

And I don't even know that I'm going to rank him much lower in Houston than I would have in Cincinnati. In fact, they actually seem to want him. And the Bengals may have thought Zach Moss was better. So I may like Joe Mixon a little more in Houston than I did in Cincinnati. I guess while we're here, we should go ahead and talk about the guy who made this trade possible. Zach Moss signed with the Bengals. They've now got Zach Moss and Chase Brown.

I'd assume you'd much rather have Chase Brown in a dynasty league than Zach Moss. No. Brown, I'd assume you'd much rather have Chase Brown in a dynasty league than Zach Moss. Um, I know, I think I've basically, I've got him in the same tier is the true answer. Um, I was talking this through with, with some of our members in our discord this morning. Um, I think I really liked that. So I think this is going to be a kind of a 60, 40 split in favor of Zach Moss. I think that Chase Brown is is going to be explosive I think he's going to have some incredible highlight plays but I don't know if he's going to be able to see the bankable volume that you feel comfortable putting in your lineup every week I think if you're looking for that sort of boom bust flex type great that's where Chase Brown's going to be

but I don't know if we're going to be able to pencil in kind of 10 12 touches a week so it might be that he needs a big play to be fancy relevant. So I think Chase Brown's probably that better and best ball type. Whereas Zach Moss, I think what he showed at the beginning of the last year with the Colts, I think he's hugely underrated. And I think that he could be a really interesting kind of check down check down option for joe burrow but also in that kind of power you know duo gap led run scheme that the bengals are looking to run yeah it will i think at the very least if you had him on your bench it's it's kind of found money

um and hopefully we can get some startable weeks i was just i think it's a three-year age difference between Brown and Moss. But that doesn't matter as much if Brown is never capable of being a guy that touches the ball more than 200 times in a season. Let's take one more short break. We've still got Saquon Barkley, DeAndre Swift, Tony Pollard, and more. Whether in the game or in life, the right coverage can make all the difference. Securian Canada gives you that coverage. For more than 65 years, Securian Canada has been helping Canadians build secure tomorrows.

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Should have skipped it. Skip to the good part and get groceries, meals, and more delivered right to your door on Skip. Okay, Rich, we are back. Let's get to the guy who I assume is your highest-rated running back that moved yesterday. That's Saquon Barkley going to the Eagles on a deal that we think is going to guarantee him two years as the Eagles starting running back. There may be a little bit of mystery there.

I had him at RB19. I moved him to RB16. It sounds like you think that's way too low. You have – what percentage of Saquon like this is a kind of an off percentage of like rookie and second year Saquon Barkley do you think it's still left I think a lot of it I think he's still an elite athlete I think his issues last year were more Giants related than Saquon Barkley related I think if you look at the numbers, so he was hit in the backfield on 46.6% of run plays last year. DeAndre Swift was hit the lowest in the league at 28%. And I think that that's, to me, speaks wonders of the Giants offensive line was awful outside of Andrew Thomas, who then got injured. And I don't think that the quarterback situation helps the teams are just loading the box and asking Saquon to kind of beat them so yeah I'm really excited about what he's going to be

in this offense with you know teams can't put eight in the box because you've got AJ Brown Devonta Smith and and Dallas Goddard to play with so I think he's going to get lighter boxes we know that he's that explosive home run threat he's probably not going to get lighter boxes. We know that he's that explosive home run threat. He's probably not going to be, you know, four yards a carry every single snap. He's going to be two yards, two yards, 30 yards. That's just how Saquon Barkley is. And that's going to lead to some boom bust weeks. But I'm really excited about what he could be. And I also think that the knock I've seen certainly in the last 24 hours is,

oh, well, Saquon Barkley lives on the receiving game. and I also think that the knock I've seen certainly in the last 24 hours is oh well Saquon Barkley lives on the receiving game and and he's going to see less targets because of Jalen Hurts last year Saquon Barkley averaged 4.2 targets a game the Eagles averaged 5.2 targets a game to running backs last year so even if you're adding in targets to Kenny Gainwell or I don't even know if Boston Scott's still on the roster. Boston Scott's always on the roster. I think we're basically seeing a kind of basically negligible difference from the amount of targets he got last year. And there's some potential upside as well in terms of if Jaden Hurts continues to check the ball down more and become a more rounded passer and stop scrambling

so much. It gives that ceiling that Saquon Barkley's not had in the last two years in, quite frankly, an awful offense in New York. Yeah, I think it's a double-edged sword, because I 100% agree with you that the rushing efficiency is going to be much better. The situation is, offensive line is incredibly better. The passing game is much better. It it's two things it's the target volume and i do think you're right it could be what it was last year but not what it was earlier in his career when it was way more than four targets per game um but then also it's the touchdowns and barkley hasn't scored a i think he has 10 total touchdowns each of the last two seasons for the giants so it's not like he's been a 15-20 touchdown guy regularly.

But Jalen Hurts was a 15-touchdown guy last year. So I think it's the combination of the passing game. And then what? He's a year older, year and a half older than Jacobs is. I do think that more people will be where you are with Barkley over Jacobs. I'll still lean ever so slightly to Josh Jacobs. Let's say you were a contender. Rookie draft is coming up.

You need a running back. You don't like any of the backs in this class. What's the highest rookie pick you would give up for Saquon Barkley? I'd probably pay about the 108, 109. I don't think I'd probably pay about the 108, 109. I don't think I'd, I'd probably pay, pay more than that. I don't like paying for basically running backs on second contracts, quite frankly. Um, I'd, I'd rather go and get, spend a second to get a cheaper running back than spend a first on someone like Barkley, quite frankly. No, I agree with you. Another problem I have with it is that I don't really like trading for

veteran running backs this time of year. I'd like to see who's healthy in October, and then we'll make a decision who we're going to trade for. But I also know that if I had, say, Kwon Barkley, I'd be heavily shopping him. And if I wanted to trade him, I'd be trying to get that deal done before I had to carry the risk of him getting hurt in week one or week two or week three and losing that asset. So you might get pushed into a situation where if you want to make that trade for him, you're not going to be waiting until the end of the season. We'll now talk about the guy who was in Philadelphia. DeAndre Swift joins the Chicago Bears. Another small boost for me from RB20 to RB18.

Another really, I'm not sure about the situation. I don't know if this is going to be a good offense for Swift. You know, he's shown in the past an ability to be efficient with really good run blocking. This will probably be the worst offensive line he's had his career. He's had good success in the passing game. I don't know how much Caleb Williams, I assume, or Justin Fields, or how many designed pass plays Shane Waldron's going to draw up for a running back. So where are you at on this move for Swift?

I really hate it. I don't understand it at all. I, like you, am quite a big fan of Khalil Herbert. I think that he's, if I'm being honest, a better pure rusher than DeAndre Swift. I don't understand when you've got Herbert and Roshan Johnson, why you go out and spend money on a running back that's got some clear flaws. He's dropped down to running back 28 for me.

I think that I can't guarantee he's going to get the receiving work because I don't know if it's Caleb Williams or Justin Fields. I don't know how much either of them are going to check down. Both of them look to scramble. I also think that Roshan Johnson, you know, he's probably one of the best young past protectors in the league. So are we going to take him off the field to put jandre swift on i don't know i don't know how much work he's going to get in around the goal line so are we just

saying he's a first and second down back between the 20s and isn't getting the targets and isn't getting the touchdown production so that's what i'm looking for those high value touches of targets goal line touches things like that and i'm not convinced that john joseph's going to get there he's probably going to have some really nice weeks because of the type of player he is in terms of he is an explosive threat he's you know can score from anywhere on the field quite frankly so he's going to have some really nice highlight plays but i don't know if he's going to have that bankable week-to-week production, given the fact he's probably going to be, yes, the head, but it's going to be a three-headed committee.

Yeah, exactly. And you mentioned Roshan Johnson and his pass blocking ability. I think there's a lot of very nervous Roshan Johnson fantasy managers this morning. What is your level of hope for him? I wasn't hugely high on him coming out. So I wasn't, I was more of a Herbert guy than Roshan Johnson guy. But yeah,

I think it's hard to see him being a startable fantasy relevant player without there being at least one injury to either Swift or Herbert. I think he's that bench stash that you're waiting for a potential injury for him to get into any sort of lineup right now. We also had Tony Pollard joining the Titans. Another situation where we've got kind of a new offense. We've got Pollard who excelled in terms of efficiency in a 1B role, really struggled last year.

And a lot of people have pointed towards him coming off the injury. In fact, of people have pointed towards him coming off the injury. In fact, Tony Pollard pointed towards his coming off the injury and said he felt better in the second half. But in another situation where we had Tajay Spears already there, we were ready to anoint Tajay Spears. And that doesn't look to be happening now. What do you think? What do you envision this split looks like between Pollard and Spears with the Titans yeah I was I was very high on Spears and very hopeful see I was I was crying last night but I I think this is going to be a kind of 65 35 split I think when a team goes out and pays the amount of money that they have to

Tony Pollard's they're going to use him um you know they've got the Callaghan's in in place and we know that it's going to be a really good offensive line, a really good, well-schemed up run game. I think, Tony Pollard, you mentioned the injury from week 11 on, I think it was. He was the number one ranked PFF in rushing grade. So I think he showed back end of the year that he's still that player. He's still got that home run potential. And yeah, I'd have loved both of them to to get full workloads but i think it's it's going to be back end rb1 maybe for tony pollard but he's probably going to settle in as like an rb2

with tajay spears as that sort of boom bust flex option so i had made a joke tweet after this signing was was announced that i was going to go send third-round draft pick offers for TyJ Spears. And you know how Twitter is. I get some people saying, this is really smart. And I get some people telling me, I'm a terrible dynasty manager and they'd never want me in my league because that offer is so terrible. So, Rich, since you were high on TyJ Spears and the bad news has just hit um anywhere you don't have him what's the most you would give up in terms of a rookie draft pick for spears right now i'd still pay kind of a mid to late second i think um which is probably about where he was going in rookie drafts last year

um i think the the knee potential issue of don't know if he's got much cartilage or ACL left in his knees. And there was the reports he could only play for sort of three, four years, but he's incredibly explosive. And I think that if there is a Tony Pollard injury, he's got top 12 upside. So that's the kind of guy that I'm looking to potentially roster as. Yeah.

He's, he's kind of cheaper because there's a guy ahead of him, yeah, he's, he's kind of cheaper because there's a guy ahead of him, but if there's an injury, he could be a league winner. Absolutely. And so I think if, if the fair price is a mid to late second, nobody should be too angry at me for sending an offer of a third. If you don't like that, just counter with a second and then we can talk about it. But that's, that's the way that that's the way the trading works, right? Absolutely. You got to ask, you don't get. So you've got to ask the question. You don't. My dad said something very similar to me when I was young. It's always stuck with me.

It's like, you might as well ask and find out. I've got some rapid fire questions here. But since we do have an extra minute before we get to those, I want to talk about Austin Eckler going to Washington on one of the smaller deals. He was one of the guys i veterans i was most concerned about he'll now be presumably sharing with brian robinson in washington you think this is a situation where eckler is mostly just a passing downs back or they're going to split early downs work or you think he's going to be the clear lead back and Brian Robinson's just a bench piece? I think this is going to be a really clear, natural first, second down satellite back split. I think it's going to be almost what we saw with Melvin Gordon and Austin Eckler back at the start of Austin Eckler's career where Brian Robinson is going to carry the ball between the

tackles. He's going to get the goal line work. Austin Eckler is basically going to be situational and passing down work. And I was really low on Austin Eckler last year. I thought with the way his contract was structured, I don't have a huge amount of hope for him in terms of fantasy relevancy. So yeah, if somebody is buying into him off the back of this news and thinks he's going to be the lead back in Washington, I'd happily sell right now. Okay. Excellent. Excellent stuff. Let's get to some rapid fire. You can be as quick as you want with these. Who is the starting quarterback week one for the Raiders? Gardner Minshew. $12.5 million a year. That's more than backup money. Love it. Love it. I'm going to go follow up here that you don't know is coming, but

Superflex League, who would you rather have on your roster, Gardner Minshew or Sam Darnold? Gardner Minshew. Gardner Minshew. Absolutely love it. Does Gus Edwards matter in 2024? Yeah, absolutely.

I think that knowledge of that scheme and he's probably the best short yardage back in the league that's got a contract right now. I think he's going to be at least flex worthy. I think he's going to get short yardage back in the league that's got a contract right now, I think he's going to be at least flex-worthy. I think he's going to get a high volume of touchdowns. Okay. True or false? Gabe Davis makes everyone on the Jags offense better.

True. I think he's going to come in and basically be the replacement for Zay Jones. We saw last year what happened with Calvin Ridley, what happened this entire offense when Zay Jones was on the field. And I think Gabe Davis is just twice as good as Zay Jones. So yeah, really love it for this entire offense. And I'll add that I think it even helps Travis Etienne because Gabe Davis is one of the better blocking wide receivers.

And Etienne, kind of like you mentioned with Barkley, one of those home run hitters at a running back, there might be one fewer defensive back downfield to stop him once he breaks past the line of scrimmage. They need someone to block because we know Evan Ingram and Christian Kirk certainly are doing it. So yeah, it'll help out a little bit. Now, maybe the biggest loser, unless you just kind of expected this, and there are certainly people on Twitter this morning who want you to know how smart they are and that they did expect this. But Justin Fields' trade trade market depending on who you believe

maybe non-existent um what's the least that you would take for him in a super flex league right now yeah i've been concerned about fields i did a video after week four last year kind of urging everybody to sell because i was convinced that he he was done um as a kind of long-term starter. So I'm probably not the most optimistic, but I would happily take the 112 for him in a super flex league right now. Okay. So as of right now, your expectation is he's probably not starting this year? I just don't see situations. I track kind of quarterback landing spots.

I've got a spreadsheet. And basically the only one left where he could go that I'd expect it is Denver. Because I think the only other ones are New England and Minnesota. And I think we've seen Donald come in. We've seen Brissette come in. And I think that both of those are probably going to draft a rookie. So it's Denver. And I don't think really Sean Payton would like him.

I don't think Sean Payton would like him at all. I saw somebody floating Seattle. And that I could see making sense. If you really want to just run the ball, and I think Mike McDonald might just run the ball 550 times, then maybe he thinks I can build a Baltimore West out here with Justin Fields. My concern is I don't think he's better in 2024 than Gino Smith.

Right. So if you're trading for him, you're trading for him in 2025, as in for the 2025 season, but at which point you've then got to extend him and pay him a lot of money. So do you want to trade him for a potential downgraded quarterback? I get the points that he could be really interesting in terms of that rushing side. But I think Gino Smith is an above-average NFL starting quarterback right now. And I think, yeah, he might not be dynamite for fantasy and dynasty.

But in terms of NFL, I think Gino Smith is head and shoulders above Justin Fields. That's what we always have to be careful with when we've got a regime change like this. What does the new staff think of gino smith and that's that's what we'll find out over the next couple of weeks and months this is gonna hurt so i'll just prepare you in advance do i have to hold khalil herbert through my rookie draft if i've got to drop people to make spots to draft rookies do i have to hold them yeah yeah i mean this this comes back to my point at the beginning this is why you play in deep leagues so you don't have to have the pain of dropping someone like little herbert but yeah i think if if we're talking rookie picks i'd probably take him

mid third round so if you're dropping him for a guy that you know you're taking later than that in in your rookie draft i'd happily keep him and find someone else to drop. Same for Damien Pierce. I'm less, less excited about Damien Pierce. Um, I'd, I'd, I'd trade him away for a box of beans right now. I've got no hope or upside there. Uh, what about Antonio Gibson? I, I don't see a world in which he carves out a good role i think ronjo stevenson is better in every aspect of um basically running the ball receiving the ball whatever so i think he's again an injury away so yeah if if you need the roster spot i'm happy moving on from antonio gibson truly, Rich. Remind everyone where they can find your draft guide.

Yeah, so you can find it. We're on YouTube, the Fantasy Sanctuary. It's at the FFF Sanctuary. It's free to all of our members from silver and gold tier. So you can hit the join button on Twitter and go subscribe that way there. Short programming note, I will be back with you on Friday.

We'll talk about the rest of the free agency news here on Fantasy Football Today Dynasty. I will be off next week, but we will have a show prerecorded for you. So one show next week, back to our normal schedule the following week. Thank you for listening.