Fantasy Football Today - FFT in 5 - Trust or Bust: Anthony Richardson, Jordan Addison, and the Rookie Class (07/21 Fantasy Football podcast)

Episode Date: July 23, 2023

Jordan Addison figures to step on the field in a significant role, and could be a must-start Fantasy option from Day One. Anthony Richardson has the potential to be as well, but his price might be ignoring some risk. Dan Schneier and Chris Towers talk about a few other rookies you'll be considering on Draft Day. You can also follow the full-length Fantasy Football Today podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-podcast/id261735167 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 in 5 on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today in 5 podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today in 5 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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Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash businessplatinum. Which rookies can you trust and which ones will bust? We'll talk about it next on Fantasy Football Today in 5. Welcome to FFT in 5. I'm Chris Towers.

I'm here with Dan Schneier. We're talking about the rookie class for 2023. And there are some big names here. This is one of the most touted tight end classes of all time. We've got two top 12 picks for running back. We had four wide receivers, and obviously, the first two picks in the draft were quarterbacks. So, the potential for a lot of difference makers this season among the rookie class. But the thing you have to keep in mind with all rookies, well, maybe not all, maybe not B. John Robinson, but most rookies, you're going to have to exercise

some patience. You know, it might not be week one that you can trust all these guys. But Dan, what I want to do is we're going to start with one rookie that you trust this year. Who is it? Well, I don't want to take the low hanging fruit and go with B. John Robinson. I want to expand this a little bit. He's the free square on the bingo board. Right. I don't know. Everybody knows that one. I'm going to go with Jordan Addison, the wide receiver who just drafted the Minnesota Vikings out of USC and formerly of Pitt.

The reason I like Addison so much is because of the offense he's joining. Kevin O'Connell, one of the past happiest offensive play callers in the NFL, a really good play designer as well. There were open targets and there were opportunities for Adam Thielen last year, but I don't think Adam Thielen was playing at the highest level that he had been in the past. Addison is a much better receiver, in my opinion, right now than Thielen is at this point in his career. He's going to get open. He's going to give layup throws for Kirk Cousins. And if teams play the Vikings like they had toward the end of the season, like some giants, for example, did, which is constant bracket coverage on Justin Jefferson the entire time that's a really good

spot for Jordan Addison so I really like Jordan Addison yeah he is when you look at the consensus rankings Jamie has him 36 Dave has him 33 I've got him 32 Heath has him already as a top 30 wide receiver however he's gotten 27th and you just you look at the situation that he's joining, the Vikings dropped back to pass on 61.2% of their plays last season. That was the fifth highest in the NFL. There's some concern, I suppose, that the defense could be better than 28th

and they won't throw as much. But look, Kevin McConnell's going to play a ton of three wide receiver sets. He's going to throw more often than most teams. I think it's confident to say. And so, yeah, there's a chance for Jordan Addison to just step on the field and earn 120 targets right away. The only thing I guess I would point out is just he was cited for speeding the other day, going 140 miles per hour in a 55 mile per hour zone. That was earlier this week. We don't know if there's going to be any kind of punishment for that,

but obviously that is something worth noting about Jordan Addison. Now let's go to a rookie who you think is going to bust this year. Bust is interesting. Maybe I'll go with Anthony Richardson here, even though I don't think he's definitely going to bust. I think we're getting a lot of the upside already break baked into the price now that i see him creeping into the quarterback 11 quarterback 10 range in some drafts i think somebody took him as the ninth quarterback and in the drafts we're doing with our group he's going like eighth or ninth it's

like trevor lawrence goes off the board and anthony richardson's right after him yeah and i just think there's a little bit too much risk based into that profile with it with the idea of yes he's the most athletic quarterback to ever enter the NFL. That's cool. That's impressive. But can he keep the passing game in rhythm and on schedule? And if he can't, we're not going to see a lot of offense. We're going to see a lot of punts.

We're not going to see a lot of scoring opportunities. Yes, he could get a floor with the rushing upside, but that won't be worth the eighth or ninth quarterback selected off the board in a deep quarterback class. So I just think there's a little bit more risk baked into his profile. Yeah. I mean, we kind of saw it with Justin Fields last season, what the floor and the upside can be with a very, very limited quarterback.

But Justin Fields was also second all time in rushing yards for a quarterback. Right. Anthony Richardson could do that. It's asking a lot. And, and that was, it wasn't like Justin Fields was a top three quarterback when he was doing that.

He was more consistently like fifth, sixth, seventh. So it's still like there's got to be some passing skills there. And you saw the floor to write Chris the beginning of the season before Fields was let go and let out the rush. It was he was scoring six fantasy points, eight fantasy, right? So it's like they don't let him to run Richardson like Fields. I don't know. And we know with Jim Irsay, there's a lot of pressure to win right now. I mean, this team does things.

They hired Jeff Saturday as their head coach. They do things. I don't know if those things are good all the time, but they do things. And they have a pretty good backup in Gardner Minshew. So I do think there's a chance that if Richardson struggles early on or just Minshew gets the job out of camp, that this team could be competitive with Jonathan Taylor being the focal point of the offense.

And yeah, he's like QB 15 in NFC drafts. Love that. That's phenomenal. When you start to get it where you have to take him as your starter, that's when it gets a little scarier. I will go with a quarter or a pick that I think has some bus potential as a rookie. That's Dalton Kincaid. I get the arguments for him that he's going to be potentially a starting slot option for the Buffalo Bills. And maybe that's enough

to overcome the rookie tight end struggles. Rookie tight ends historically very rarely make an impact for fantasy because they're ostensibly learning two positions. You got to figure out how to get open, run your routes, but you also got to be a big part of the blocking. And so if Kincaid's not going to be really lining up in line and taking part in that, maybe it streamlines the process a little bit, but I just, I feel like we could get to a point where he's being drafted as a top 12 tight end. And I don't love that. So that's another potential bust.

And why don't you really quickly give me one more rookie you like drafting this year? One more rookie. I like drafting a lot of Zach Charbonnet in the rounds nine through 10 range. I just see a nice path here for sharps. If he can win that red zone role and the passing down role, which I think is well within the range,

you know, reasonable expectation there, he's going to be the one scoring those key opportunities there. You want the guy who's on, who's getting the catches. You want the guy, especially in the red zone. So I like his talent a lot.

Anyway, coming out of UCLA is one of the best film, my opinion, the best film on BJ, BJ Robinson, the entire class, including Jameer Gibbs. So I just like buying in on the talent and potentials for the situation to be

good. All right. That's going to do it for FFT and five. We'll be back next week with training camps, reporting for every team. We'll see you then.