Fantasy Football Today - FFT Express - Preseason Week 1 Guide (08/09 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 10, 2024

Want to be in our next mock draft and have a shot at being on air? Check out our St. Jude Draft-a-Thon Store here: https://tiltify.com/@fftfundraising/fantasy-football-today-draftathon-2024 In this episode of FFT Express, we break down the crucial elements to watch during Preseason Week 1 to boost your fantasy football strategy. Tune in for expert analysis and key insights that will help you identify rising stars and potential sleepers for your upcoming drafts! 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 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs. You can listen to Fantasy Football Today Express on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today Express podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today Express podcast." Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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for life. What should you be watching for in preseason week one? We'll tell you right now on Fantasy Football Today Express. Adam Azer and Jamie Eisenberg, and we had a couple of games last night. We can start with that, Jamie. Did we get any takeaways?

Anything important from the Giants, Lions, and Patriots, Panthers? So I think any time you have, and mostly it's going to be a lot of who's the backup because we're not going to see a lot of the starters, you know, on these games. So let's go to the Giants, for example. Eric Gray had the big run. Tyrone Tracy had the playing time. What matters more to you for me? It's the playing time, you know? And so while gray look great, um, and I think it just should be more of an indication that if something happens to Devin Singletary, we're probably getting a committee or, you know, more of a tandem than just a one guy replacement type of situation.

So playing time is, is very important, especially when it's a rookie or a new player joining a team. Um, I wouldn't look too much in it. Like, you know, I know you and Heath sort of touched on it on, on the wide receiver show about Malik neighbors, not getting a lot of involvement after being so involved in practice and, uh, joint practices with the lions, you know? So anytime you have confirmation, anytime you have a feeling on somebody and there's some confirmation bias one way or the other, you know, like the, the, the stories come out of new England, for example, Joe Milton looked awesome and he looked great. He's not pushing for the starting job. Like, let's not be silly here,

you know? So don't overreact to certain performances take a look at playing time that matters um you know when there's a depth chart so you you referenced on the mailbag kamani vidal's role on the depth chart six on the depth chart if he comes out in in the chargers preseason game or a chargers preseason game and looks awesome let's say it's the first one and he's still six on the depth chart is that something that matters so much or is it, you know, they want to motivate a rookie, you know, and we don't know, you know, it's just how you parse it. So again, the biggest thing is don't overreact. We had the Darren Waller drive.

I'm thinking about two things in recent memory, the Darren Waller drive, right? Oh man, he's good to go. It'd be awesome. And the Josh Jacobs hall of fame game, right? How are they playing him in the Hall of Fame game? I think you're going to see the rookies, right? That's the good thing. You're going to see a lot of the rookies. You're going to see the rookie quarterbacks.

We saw Drake May on Thursday night, and it was raining. It was ugly, and there's really nothing to take away there. He's obviously behind Jacoby Brissett. But I guess J.J. McCarthy, and let's start with that so the rookie quarterbacks um jayden daniels is going to play we'd like to see him do well and really solidify himself as the guy right i'm 100 you know i mean he comes out and looks awful then you're going to have some pause about drafting him as a potential top 10 quarterback i don't think it you know should necessarily scare you away

completely from drafting him. But you know, when you, when you're comparing players that are in a similar tier or similar range, you know, so I know I have Daniels ranked ahead of Dak Prescott and Jordan Love because of the rushing upside. So if you are scared off by what you see from what he does in the preseason game, then easily you pivot toward the veteran guys who have a very safe floor. You know, so I think anytime, you know, you have these, these scenarios of young players playing, especially that position, you know, they're, they're going to struggle. And, you know, it's just a matter of how you feel about them moving forward and how much confidence you have in them based on a small sample size of them playing quarter. Maybe in some cases they play half. All right. We got to talk about one game in

particular with maybe the most interesting quarterback situations we're going to do that after this break on fantasy football today express did you know that across ontario utility damage happens 19 times a day that's over 4222 incidents a year don't let your next dig be one that causes costly delays or safety risks before you you break ground, make it a point to request a locate. It's not just the law. It's a step to keep your team and community safe. Visit OntarioOneCall.ca and avoid unnecessary damages to get the job done right. Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report.

So to me, Jamie, Raiders-Vikings, one of the more interesting preseason games because you're going to see J.J. McCarthy and you're going to see both Raiders quarterbacks. And that is a legit competition there. It doesn't seem like McCarthy has much of a shot to be the week one starter. But let's say you're drafting Justin Jefferson. What do you want to see here?

Do you want to see McCarthy pushing or do you just want to see Sam Darnold? And then we'll talk about the Raiders after that. At this point, I want to see more do you want to see mccarthy pushing or do you just want to see sam darnold and then we'll talk about the raiders after that i at this point i want to see more sam darnold you know and similar to the patriots i want to see more uh jacoby persett you know it's not like the denver situation where jared stidham i know zach wilson sort of fallen out of favor no surprise um jared stidham doesn't inspire a lot. Not that you should feel that confident in Sam Darnold or Jacoby Brissett, but at least you know that they have a chance to make some plays, either based on pedigree, in Darnold's case,

and now getting a system that may just finally enhance his skills, or Brissett, who we know has done a good job for his receivers. At some point, I'd like to see McCarthy take over, just because that's the future, at least based on how they drafted him. I'll add one more to this. I want to see what Justin Fields looks like for Pittsburgh. Oh, yeah. If he comes out and lights it up to whatever degree,

runs for 100 yards in whatever time he's out there, 50-plus yards, that's 100 is unrealistic in a short amount of time. But if he has like a big run connects on a couple big plays sorry russell wilson i'm not starting you if i'm the steelers you know i think fields gives them a wild card and something that can make their team that much better so yeah that's another big one too it's huge and then for the raiders are you rooting for one of the quarterbacks in particular? For Adams' sake? I mean, Minchu's obviously more fun.

And what we saw from him last year with Michael Pittman is what you'd like to see from him with Devontae Adams, is just peppering with targets. That being said, O'Connell's last four games, he peppered Adams with targets. So to me, it's not really a, this guy is going to dramatically change how I feel about Devante Adams. No,

but at least with Minchie, you know, you've seen it over a longer span in his career. Okay. I wish we could

know if, uh, how much I think, I think the Bengals starters are going to play, um, this weekend.

So that's huge. We are dying to know what that running back situation looks like. You don't know how many series the starters are going to get. But I'll have my eye on that. And I'm just thinking, the Bills starters are going to play a series, Jamie. What if

the Bills starters play a series and that series ends with a James Cook one-yard touchdown run. Top five pick. You'd be excited about it. I'd be excited about it just to see that he's even on the field, and it's not someone else. But I know we can... Are we going to panic if it's Ray Davis?

I'm almost expecting it to be Ray Davis at this point. I'm taking James cook in the, in the third round, whereas ADP is for sure. Even if he's not the goal line guy, but if, if it's Ray Davis, I think it might give me a little bit of hesitation to take cook in the

second round. I like the way that I look at the bills goal line options. It's Josh Allen is one. Yeah. Josh Allen with James cook on the field. Josh Allen is one. Josh Allen with James Cook on the field, Josh Allen's still one. Josh Allen with Ray Davis on the field, Josh Allen's still one.

Then it's Davis probably three and Cook four. Yeah. Yeah. Just hope that Cook mixes in, that he gets some five. If I told you right now, he's scoring five rushing touchdowns. He's a two, three turn kind of pick. He'll probably get two rush, two

receiving touchdowns. But that's not that good. I need a little bit more than that. We'll see. I'm hoping for ten total. Yeah, that would be really good. Alright, well preseason week one, we're going to have a lot to say about it. We'll give you the winners and the losers and the rankings risers and the rankings fallers, and we'll do that on this show and on Fantasy Football Today.

So that'll be our Monday episode of Fantasy Football Today. We'll tell you everything you need to know, everything you missed, because you don't have to watch. You know what? You take the weekend off. You go do some fun stuff. We are going to watch preseason football for you. For Jamie Eisenberg, I'm Adam Azer.

Have a great weekend, everybody. We'll talk to you next time on Fantasy Football Today. We'll see you next time.