Fantasy Football Today - Former NFL OC Scott Turner With All You Need to Know From Around the League (06/17 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: June 17, 2026

Former NFL Offensive Coordinator Scott Turner joins the FFT Crew to give the latest from minicamps around the league (4:15). He also reflects on players he coached like Breece Hall & Garrett Wilson during his time with the Jets (10:15). Scott talks the elite upside of Brock Bowers (22:23) plus how DJ Moore (32:35) & AJ Brown (37:26) fit with their new teams in the AFC East. Working closely with Christian McCaffrey, what are his age and workload concerns after a big season? (41:40) We finish up the show with questions from the chat (57:31) and Scott gives his favorite memories being around the NFL at a young age (1:08:20).Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcastsWatch FFT on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

This is fantasy football today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? It's a no idea. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races and he stays on his feet. It's just going to go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.

June 17th, a special edition of fantasy football today, a more professional edition of fantasy football today. That's a good one. I mean, look, it's not that hard to be more professional than what we usually are. We're not going to talk about how you hope Riesce's days end. No, I don't think yesterday was a little sophomoric. But here we are, Adam, David, Jamie. And Dave, we have a special guest today that you lined up.

And we thank you for that. And go ahead and be the hype man, Dave Richard. Yeah, this is Scott Turner. He's the co-host of the family business podcast along with the sister Stephanie and Dad Norv Turner. You may also know him as a play caller with the Raiders and the commanders. He was on the Jets staff last year. He's been in the league a long time. He's been in the places and made the decisions that we can only dream of.

So I'm thrilled to have him here. I'm thrilled to talk about his podcast, which is like I said, the family business podcast. He's had Chris McCaffrey on, Cam Newton, Jimmy Johnson, Troy Eggman. The Christian McCaffrey episode, which is pretty recent, Scott, was intriguing to me specifically. because I've been doing a ton of research on McAfrey and the fact that he's coming off of 450 touches. And it was an awesome opportunity to get inside his head on that subject, along with your head and Norv's head,

about how it's really not as much about the touches and games as it is the preparation and practice. So we'll get to Christian McCaffrey later and whether or not you think that he can have another smash season like he just had. It's hard to doubt him, but a lot of touches, and he's turned the dreaded 3-0. But I'm glad to have you here today, man. Thanks for jumping on.

No, thank you for having me. Yeah, looking forward to it. You know, that'll be good, I think talking about Christian. We've had a lot of fun on the podcast, and I kind of joined after the season. My sister and my dad did it throughout the whole fall. So I think there's like 24, something like that, episodes out. But I've enjoyed doing that. And, yeah, Christian is about as special as they come.

And we enjoy that episode because I think, people don't really understand like how much personality he actually has. They kind of see him as like a football robot, but he's a, he's a, he's a hilarious guy. And him telling some of those stories were a lot of fun for sure. It's a good listen. It's a good watch. You can find the family business podcast on YouTube and wherever else you get your

podcasts. And yeah, actually it's funny because I came away from that being like, whoa, he's kind of a football robot because when he was asked about the, uh, the touches, he's, he basically was just like, just give me the ball. You know, I want the touches. I want to get in rhythm. And he's like, you play and you coach to win. And I loved that.

I was really inspiring stuff. Anyway, we're going to ask you about minicams. We're getting all these minicamp reports. You know, what matters, what doesn't, what's just noise? Ask you about some of the players you've coached recently. And if we have any questions later from the chat, we can definitely get to those as well. But let's start with the minicamp subject here, Scott. And so what do you think matters right now?

What we should be looking at? who's running with the ones, who's looking good. You know, I think about Cam Ward and Jackson Dart, maybe struggling a little bit with new offenses. I'm assuming that's not too surprising. What storylines would you look for coming at a minicamp that actually would move the needle for you? So I think a lot of, you know,

the thing about minicamps is every team's approach is so different, you know. Like obviously you're allowed a certain amount of practices with the OTAs, all right, and then everyone has their mandatory minicamp. And like, for example, like some teams are still practicing today. I think the 49ers have been done for two weeks. Like they've had more of a veteran group. They shut it down a little early. So, you know, and then you have, like I said,

or like you were talking about some of the new staffs with Jackson Dart, Cam Ward that are going to use every single opportunity they have. So every team's approach is different. So I think you have to evaluate that to start. The one thing that you said that I always think would jump out at is like, who is going with the ones? Like when 11 personnel is out there for a certain team, like who's getting the reps? And that's going to tell you like at least at this point who the coaching staff believes

are going to be the key contributors in that personnel group. Now, a lot of that can change, obviously, through training camp and preseason. And, you know, they might have a rookie going with the twos that they expect to be with the ones, but they want that player to earn it or they don't want to waste the quarterback's reps because that player's a little bit unsure. you know what I mean so a lot of times too like those starting quarterbacks particularly the veteran guys they're very particular about you know which which skill players are in with them because they want to make sure that those guys aren't wasting their reps and they're doing you know what they're supposed to do um you know everybody's zero and zero right now everybody's feeling good everyone says oh this is exactly what we wanted to get out of the off season you know I mean so you got to cut through a little bit of that you know um but I I think just the participation of who's out there on the field, really when the starting quarterback's out there on the field.

And those are the guys that, you know, at least at this point, have the trust of the coaching staff, the quarterback, and then, you know, we're going to be getting the opportunities once the game start. Scott, how much of this time of year is more like just getting to know the players, especially when you're part of a new staff versus like installing stuff? or does that start to come into play more at the start of camp? I think, no, I think that it's a combination of both. Like, I've been a part of staffs before where, you know,

we'll start with installs in phase one, even before we can get on the field with these guys. And then I've started, and then like places I've been, last couple places where we didn't, the coaching staff in phase one didn't even talk to the players. Like it was just strength coach and like, get back in the weight room, make sure these guys are in shape,

and then we start our installs more phase two and then into the phase three, which is like the OTA practices. I think you get to know them while you're installing. I think that's the thing that really happens. And like with all these players, like they got to know they can trust you and you got your best interest. So that's a lot of building those relationships on a new staff. You know, that's a lot of what this time of year is about. And also just like setting the foundation of what the expectations are, you know, when from the coaching staff, you know, holding players accountable, those types of things.

I mean, you do that this time of year because if you, if you wait until too late, then they're, they're not going to listen to you. What's the process like when a player's struggling in mini camp? Maybe he's not getting the playbook. Maybe he's just wrong place at the wrong time. But you want to try. I guess you're going to encourage that player more. And hopefully he turns a corner by the time training camp starts.

I don't know if you can tell when a player is struggling, but you're confident that he'll turn it around. Yeah, for sure. And I think a lot of that depends on who that player is too. You know what I mean? Like if it's one of your guys that's like you just gave a long contract to and he's a receiver and it's a new offense and he's having a hard time picking it up, like you're going to have a little more patience with him.

And you're going to, you know, you're going to make sure he's doing what he needs to do Now, you can't, there's a set amount of time that these players can be in the building during this offseason. So you got to really encourage those guys to take time outside of the building. You know what I mean? To really, to really get it down. You know, and then if it's, you know, if you get younger players that are more like fringe, whether or not they're going to make the team or not, like, okay, yeah, you're working with him as coaches to get it. But like, they got to kind of pick it up and get with the program.

And it's a little, the patience a little bit less. a little bit, you know, a little bit thin there. The rookies, like a rookie player, if they're having a hard time, you have more time in the day. So you can meet with those guys a little bit more. You know, you try to squeeze every minute you have out of that, whatever it is, six-hour limit that the league gives you. Minicamp, there's a little bit more time. But it's just as much time you can with the player, whether it's, and you do use different things. Like sometimes you'll just, you'll show them the plays.

But there's times you've got cutups of film of, like, other players doing it from the past, from places that, these guys have been before. And just do maybe some few extra walkthroughs. But, you know, just find different ways to try to get it to where you know it's going to click for them. So let's start talking about some of the players that you've coached recently last year with the Jets. I want to ask you about the running backs.

I know you were the passing game coordinator, but just on the topic of mini-camp storylines, Aaron Glenn saying that he wants to have a three-headed monster. And I seem to recall the same kind of talk last year. and it didn't play out that way, even when Braylon Allen was healthy, unfortunately had the season ending injury. But we don't see a lot of three-headed monsters. We are seeing a lot of committees, though.

But if you were deciding, we were very hopeful for Breeze Hall. I mean, we saw what he did as a rookie. But there just seems to be these obstacles in the way, whether it's being held back, not having a lot of goal-line opportunities or having competition, whatever. What do you think it's going to look like for Breeze Hall?

how much work would you give him? Would you spell him with Braylon Allen? Would you spell him with Isaiah Davis? Would you make it a three-headed monster? And what do you think is going to happen with the Jets this year? Okay. So, yeah, and obviously Braylin got hurt pretty early in the season for us. And, you know, the thing about the running back by committee or the three-headed monster,

like, it sounds good, you know what I mean? But it's a little harder to implement than. then maybe, you know, just saying it, you know, a lot of times, especially on a team like the Jets, and we'll just be honest about it. Like when you're losing in games, like it's hard to continue to run the ball. So like sharing carries with backs, it gets a little bit more, gets a little bit more difficult, you know? So there's just the logistics of that. Braylin was a guy that we were really excited about coming out of training camp, you know,

and then for whatever reason, like even like you said, before, before Brayling got hurt, you know, he wasn't, we'd try to get him carries, but then like you'd have a short drive and then you'd come back to Brees. Breece is a better pass receiver, so you'd like to have him on the field in that situation. Isaiah is actually a really intriguing player that I wouldn't have thought this, except for being around him for a year. He's really a good back. Like, he's got good vision.

He's a great pass protector. He can, he's kind of a jack of all tradesmaster of none. And I don't mean that in a bad way. But like, you know, he can play on third down because of that because he can really catch the ball. He's really smart. He's a guy you trust in those, in that situational football. So that's why I think, you know, they're talking about getting all three of them opportunities because they all, they're three of really the better players on the team, specifically on offense.

just you know I think brief is going to get the the bulk of the carries you know I anticipate that I do think they'll use brailin and short yardage and on the goal line like you were talking about because of his size you know and then Isaiah is going to be a guy that's going to play sometime in situations like they'll use briefs on third down some but like once it gets longer and you get more of the exotic pressure packages I'd expect Isaiah to be out there and then you know Isaiah can spell like in two minute situations. I'd say a mix of Breeson and Isaiah. But I think I think Breast is the guy that is going to lead the charge with those other two players really supplementing him. Now the hard thing, and I know we're talking about fantasy football, and I'm not going to claim to be an expert

in fantasy football, but I do know people get upset when the running back comes out on the two-yard line. And then another guy, what is that? What is it called? Touchdown Volture. Oh, yeah. That'll work. Yeah, so, yeah. So I do know a little bit, but, but yeah, and I would think that that could potentially happen here as well. Breese has got a, that's what can't, like when we'd sit in meetings with Cam Newton and guys would get tackle on the one yard line, he'd be like, hey, man, all you're, all you're doing is getting ready for that Superman dance. He's like, he's like, you better get it in because otherwise you're giving it to me. You know, he'd always get all the, you know, don't be afraid to be great. That's what he'd always tell the, uh, the other, you know, the other,

skill players in Carolina. And that's what it is, man. You got to, if you don't, if you don't want to get attention to somebody else, you better score from further out. Did they get frustrated with that with losing the touchdowns to Cam Newton? No, because, I mean, what are they going to say? It's like the best goal line back in the history of NFL. Like, what are you going to be?

And he's a quarterback. Like, you're not giving him the ball, you know? Like, so, you know, especially at that point when he was really, you know, when he was really rolling there. All right, I got to take a quick break. When we come back, I want to ask you about Garrett Wilson, who was off to an awesome start last year before his injury. We'll be right back with Scott Turner after this.

All right. So we talk about stats a lot. We use stats to guide us. And since he entered the league four years ago, there have been 130 wide receivers with 100 or more targets. Among those 130 wide receivers, Garrett Wilson ranks 45th in yards per outrun, which is okay.

But 95th in yards per catch, 104th in yards per target, 86th in catch rate, 110th in fantasy points per target and 102nd in big rate, in big play rate. It's weird. It looks like if you didn't know, if he didn't watch any football, it doesn't look like a very good receiver, but we all see it with our eyes what he's capable of. And I think it was happening at the beginning of last year, but I'd love to get your

perspective on what you saw from Garrett Wilson and how good he can be and is Gino Smith the guy to get him there. What do you think about Garrett Wilson in 2026? I'm a big fan of Garrets. I really enjoyed getting to know him last year and being around him. Again, he's an intelligent player. He loves football, you know, very competitive. Like a lot of receivers, you know, can, you know, he wants the ball.

You know what I mean? And he lets you know that, you know, which is, which is fine. I think he's a guy that, and like you said, like we were, we were really feeding him the ball last year. You know, it was a little bit of a transition for him. he's really been a mostly an outside guy and we were trying to use him some in the slot which you know he's good at i think he's a little bit better outside but so he was getting used to excuse me doing a little bit of that um but i think he's a guy that is just a pure one-on-one receiver like he's going to beat if he gets one-on-one coverage like he's going to beat his guy

more often than not and he's great at making plays on the ball down the field so like that's where um you know we struggled to use them that way at times for whatever reason. But that's where I think Gino is going to help him. And we know, you know, obviously, Gino has been, had ups and downs in his career. Last year wasn't a great year for him. But I don't know if, you know, that was a great situation for anybody in Vegas. But I think, I think Gino being able to get the ball down the field that Garrett is really going to, really going to help him. because that's where, you know, Garrett can get separation,

and then he does a great job at playing the football. And we've seen some of the catches that he's made, obviously the one, the Michael Jordan Poe's catch on, you know, the one night game. And then last year, like in Monday Night Football Against the Dolphins, one of them they called the Offensive Pass interference on, and then he made another catch in the other end zone, which is like just unbelievable ball tracking ability

and kind of getting that last second separation. So that's really where his strength is. And I think that they'll continue to move him around just because he's a little bit smaller frame-wise. So you don't want those DBs to get their hands on him at the line of scrimmage. But, you know, he's a he's a top-level player. And I was actually just surprised by some of those numbers you were reading off. But, you know, it's hard to say if there's anybody that's had a, you know, kind of a worst quarterback situation than he has over the past few years. Obviously, the one year with Rogers, but, you know, that was a little different.

And they got Devante. He was having a great year. Then they traded for Devante. And he obviously wouldn't get into targets that he was getting. But yeah, sorry, last note, he's been a top, like top 10 wide receiver for the first six weeks of the season two years in a row. One time he got hurt. One time he got the Adams trade. Jamie, the floor is yours.

Sorry for that. No, you're good. I have two more Jets questions, Scott. One, what was it like to work with Adnan-Mitchell when he came over in the trade last year? and what do you see for him moving forward now that the Jets have obviously added a few different pieces with Cooper and with Sadiq, and then obviously working with Gino. And then just kind of sticking with the quarterbacks there, how surprised were you or how much influence or maybe not did you have in the quarterback decision that went on last year between fields and Tarot Taylor?

Yeah. So as far as AD, he was really great. Once we got him there, he's really talented. at Blair. I mean, he really truly has the talent and the, um, of a, of a number one. Like, I'm not saying he's going to be a number one, but like that's like he has that, that type of ability. Again, he's a bigger body. Um, he can run for a guy his size. Like, he can transition in and out of breaks, which that's, that's the biggest thing that, that'll get to separation, um, in this league. And he'll make, he makes really does a good job

making plays on the ball. Um, and he's a physical player. I think he, him not ever, playing like we didn't really get him and garrett together on the field and that you know that we always we're hoping for that and it just didn't it didn't work out so I think it'll be good to see those two guys playing playing together and hopefully for him because I you know I really like him for a personal note I think I hope he can make that next step and I hope you know gino will will help him be able to do that and as far as the other one like we gave our opinions and that other question and you know I don't want to get too much into that. But, you know, that was not, you know, the personnel people really kind of made, made that decision. And as a coach, you, you coach the guys that are, that are there,

you know. Got it. Interesting. Garrett was one of my favorite players coming out talent-wise when he, when he left Ohio State. And I would say the exact same thing for Brock Bowers. I was very outspoken about Brock Bowers when he was coming out of Georgia. And you, you got to work with him in Vegas in 2024. Rookie year was amazing. Thank you for that because his big year helped make me look good, help my fantasy teams play well. And then last year, some injuries took effect and he wasn't as good. But share with us what it's like to work with this unique talent in Brock Bowers and whether or not you believe that he can be used as the same way that you would use your typical number one wide receiver where there's just heavy volume and you you design

targets for him because he's such a rare breed of football player yeah so i don't i'm not saying this is an exaggeration um i'm not sure i've ever been around a football player better than better than him just as far as i mean now christian it falls in that category um but as far as just like he is so dialed in as far like football just makes a ton of sense to him so a lot of times Like we've had versatile athletes like that, not like Brock, but that you can't use the way you necessarily want to because mentally it's too much. You know what I mean? But like, you know, like you'd like to move these players around,

but they can't handle that mental load of it where Brock, there's no, there's no like limit on what he's able to do. Like you just call a play. Like he understands the concept. He could play any position on the field and do it, you know, have success. I think the thing that he doesn't give enough credit for, I think, is like he's actually like a good blocker.

He has so much explosion in his body. But like you don't want to use him like that because you want to throw him the ball, number one. And then number two, like you don't want him to get banged up in there because he's so valuable as a receiver. You know, he from the day one, like he was clearly the best player on our team. You know, you could tell that. And we were just, you just want to feed, you know, you just want to feed them the, the, the, the football. And find different ways to do that. I think if he, like, actually just played receiver, he'd be very similar to, like, Drake London.

You know what I mean? If he just played, you know, he's probably a little faster, to be honest, as a little bit more. But, you know, that, but that type of player, he's 200, you know, he's 2405 pounds. But, yeah, I mean, you know, he, he has a great way of, like, just move. like the quarterback can throw the ball behind him. And a lot of players would either not catch the ball or have to like totally stop and catch it and fall down and not getting any extra yards. And he just has ability to just kind of reach back, catch the ball and keep moving. The yards after catch is huge.

You know, the thing that happened to him with his past year or the injury, you know, he probably should have missed time initially. But he's so tough, like he's kind of braced it up. And you could tell like he wasn't, he wasn't the same guy. but doesn't talk a lot, doesn't say much at all. It has a good sense of humor. All his teammates like him, but he just, you know, he knows how to play ball. And he understands, like, leverage and just kind of those things that you try to teach players sometimes and they don't ever get it. They all just, everything just comes so naturally to him.

And that's why it's easy. I mean, the quarterbacks love throwing the ball because it's easy to throw it to them. you know, he makes the tough, the tough catches look routine. Like I said, I can't say enough good things about, about him and what he brings to the table as a football player. And so just the fact that he's able to understand, like, the nuances and the minutia of a playbook, you don't have to be long on this. You can be brief if you want to, but that would bode well for him going into, you know, a West Coast offense, sort of, you know, sort of similar to what you did, but also what Kubiak is going to do this year.

Yeah, I mean, they obviously threw the ball. I mean, they threw the ball of Smith and Jigba, right? Sure. And that, and I would say, obviously, they're going to be different type of routes, but like Clinton knows, obviously knows, like, how to get the ball to your top player. And Brock's ability to move around and play different spots, you know, you can be a multiple tight end. Like, you can be in 13 personnel, but really you're in 12 because Brock's your receiver.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Like Brock's playing the ex-receiver. and then you got whoever in playing Z and then you have the two tight ends, you know, in the, in the core of the, the offensive formation. So I think they're, I mean,

I think they're going to feed him the ball. They're going to find a way, they're going to find a way to give him the ball consistently. Whoever plays quarterback for him is going to understand, like just go find number 89 because he's going to be open. And if he's not, he's still going to make a play on it. So he's kind of a can't miss guy for me. So kind of along those same lines,

as a play caller, looking at this receiving core that they have there for Las Vegas, it's obviously not the most dynamic and certainly from a name perspective, not the best group of names. So another two-part question for you. This one, I won't be a little bit less intrusive. But in regards to just as a play caller, when you have a player like Brock and then the rest of the receiving core, how much do you just have to get away from just designing so much stuff for him?

And then you obviously had a young Trey Tucker there as well, who might be their number one receiver. Just talk about him a little bit if he can. Yeah. So when I, when I took over second half of the year, I told the coaching staff, I was like, we're, obviously we got to run the ball, but as far as the passes, like we're throwing the ball to Brock or we're throwing the ball to Jacobi, Myers. You know, that's when we had Jacoby and he had his, his first career, or his only, at this point, thousand yard receiving year. And then, you know, we'd take a shot to Tray every once in a while because he's a speed guy. He was kind of like our third guy. And then I would always say the rest of the great guys, they get the rebounds, which is either like the second or the third

reading, the progression, the checkdowns, you know, those types of things. The ball just kind of finds the other guys. But, and I, like, I don't know, I've always felt like, like, everyone goes to practice. All the players go to practice. Like, they understand Brock, like, no one, like, if they got a problem with us trying to get the ball to Brock, then that's another conversation that you have to have with, with these guys. And, and, and they're professionals, you know, so I think if you're open when honest with players like and again you want to be dynamic on offense so you want the ball to spread around i i understand that part of it but there's a human element to it too you know like for these guys where all the balls are going there now um i think like tray obviously is a candidate

for this uh i think you know as the as their offseasoning progresses like they're going to want to get the ball to michael mayor too michael mayor is a really good player and he's kind of been overshadowed by brock um and he's missed some time so like but he's another guy that they can really make plays. And on any other team, I think he'd be, you know, you'd be talking about him as a, like a top 10 potential tight end. Like he has a bit, that ability level. It's just a matter of, you know, so to me, like those are two best players.

They're going to try to get them the ball. But, you know, you're going to want to design. Because just because a play is designed for a guy doesn't mean that the ball actually goes there. You know, so like you could have 12 plays designed for Brock and he could give three catches on that because the defense knows that too, right? That's who they're primarily going to stop. So I hope I answer your question there. But that's what, you know, that's kind of how you got to take that balance in your head

when you're when you're game planning and scheming teams up. So it's interesting from a fantasy perspective that Bowers is coming off this season where he really struggled and Trey McBride is coming off basically a historic tight end season. And they're essentially back to back in draft position. So fantasy managers are valuing them. the same. A couple other guys who are like that being valued very similar are Terry McLaren and DJ Moore. McGloreen wide receiver 22 off the board. DJ Moore, wide receiver 26 off the board. You coach both of them and they're looking to kind of bounce back McLaurin kind of like

Bowers last year. You know, her just disjointed season. DJ Moore didn't get a lot of targets with the bears. He's a tough one. I don't know. I call him the most confusing player in fantasy football because his career has these big huge years and then these kind of quieter years, but he's so talented. Now he gets Josh Allen. So Terry McLaren and DJ Moore, are you optimistic for these guys in 2026? What do you think about the fits for them, you know, offensively? Yeah, so I was able to work with both of them, you know, DJ, his first two years in Carolina,

where, you know, he had, you know, he had a lot of success specifically in that 2019 year. and then Terry, you know, three consecutive thousand yards receiving year. He was a rookie before I got there in 19. You know, he was short of a thousand yards that year and then had three consecutive thousand yard season. I think he did not have a thousand last year, but he was, he'd had it every year until then, well, from his second year until then. And they're two, you know, kind of different players.

I mean, Terry's one of those guys that, you know, it doesn't maybe look like it's supposed to all the time. Like he's not like maybe the most natural catcher of the football, but he doesn't drop balls. Like he always catches it. He's one of the more ultra competitive people. I've been around. He, he, you know, I don't necessarily like the word gamer, but he is like he, he steps up

his level of play on game day compared to, compared to practice. And that happened about, and it's not that he doesn't practice hard. And maybe it's just because in the games, you know, we design more stuff to go to him as far as practice that your balls is spread around. But I'm high on Terry. I think the quarterback, as long as the quarterback stays. I think it had a combination of both. Terry was hurt. The quarterback was hurt.

The quarterback obviously trusts Terry. You saw that from his rookie year. And he finds a way, he's going to find a way to get in the ball. So I'm high on him. And then same with DJ. So DJ, there are two things that I've always said about him. He's always moving faster than you. think? He's a very smooth runner. So he's always moving a little bit faster than what he

appears to be. And the first guy never tackles him. So when he catches the ball, like very rarely you see the first guy tackle. He's such a, he's got a really good center of gravity and he's really strong. So he's able to kind of brush off that first player and get the extra yardage. I think the combination of DJ with Josh Allen is going to be huge because Josh can extend plays. I think DJ will be very good in that scramble drill, getting the open space and then getting the catch and run after those in those situations. The other thing is, you know, DJ, I think is going to be really valued in Buffalo. They're really excited to have him.

So they're going to find ways to give him the ball. And we also know, like, I wouldn't say the bill's receiving core talent-wise is, you know, one of their better position group. So he really stands out, you know, as someone that they're going to, they're going to get the ball too. So, yeah, I would be, you know, again, I'd be optimistic with both of those players. You know, obviously they have to stay healthy. Terry is the one that's had the injury issue last season.

But for the most part, those guys have been able to stay on the field in their careers. Do you notice, like when a situation like that arises where a player like DJ Moore goes to Buffalo where they've sort of been craving that type of player and needed that position, there's more of a focus. on featuring that type of guy and that player has a chance to have maybe a better season than they did previously. I don't know because of either the place that they were, situation they were in, or just the new optimism for going to a new place. I think it's everything you said there. I think it's all, you know, sometimes, you know, a fresh start's good for everybody involved. And I think that that fits here with DJ.

I think that, like, you know, they haven't had, I mean, since Diggs left, they haven't had a guy that was a dynamic, you know, they've had a lot of really good receivers, but not like a true dynamic place. So I think the excitement of having a guy like that is big. And I think that that kind of spreads through the organization and will help DJ. I think, you know, Diggs is smaller. But like the success that he had with Josh, I think that DJ can have some of that, especially early, like when Diggs first got there when Dayball was there and everything. I don't want this to be a knock on DJ.

And obviously, I think we all agree that he's going to be the top target eater in Buffalo. and the fact that he's got familiarity with Joe is going to go a long way too. Should we, is it a strike against a football player when he's traded by two different teams? Is it a strike against a football player when they're on a third team in as many seasons? This is just general. This isn't about DJ. But when a player ends up on different teams, is that a sign? Because NFL teams want to keep their best players.

When teams move on from a guy, it might suggest that the team, team that had the player doesn't value him? I think that's 100% correct. I mean, I think you always have to evaluate that. There's a reason, you know, that these guys go from team to team. And I think the thing you got to do is look into it. Like in this case was specifically with DJ, like, you know, Carolina when they traded him, like they, we know why they trade them.

They wanted the number one pick, you know, and they needed a quarterback. So it's hard to really fault DJ for that one. now this last one you know they had success like um in chicago um but they you know they were ready to move on so yeah i mean i think it's clear that chicago didn't necessarily value him uh like buffalo does now um and i i guess you know you just see kind of how that how that plays out but that's definitely something they consider i yeah i think you're right um about that for sure i think buffalo i'm sorry i think chicago like they're high it seems like they're really they're really high on Luther Burton.

They're going to get the ball to Colston Loveland. I know that. I know that for sure. Because the way he played that second half of the season, he's going to be a guy that they're going to want to get it to kind of like with Ben did with Laporta. You know what I mean? I would see,

you know, that type of, I think I would anticipate that type of production. So they were thinking, hey, DJ's a little bit of an older player. We got these young guys coming on. Let's,

you know, let's see if we can get something back for them. And again, that they still could have kept them, you know what I mean? And they chose not to. So you got to consider that. But that's how I anticipated it. Or that's how I viewed it, I mean. So, but we'll, you know, we'll see. Well, got to ask you then about A.J. Brown. What do you think about him going to the Patriots? You think it's a great fit for them? I mean, I'm very excited for it. And he's going to be on a much different type of offense than what he's been on. But that was a situation, a trade that

played out in public, you know, so much differently than the. Bears situation. What do you think about Brown to the Patriots? Yeah. I mean, that's a, it's a whole another deal. I know, I know this. Like, I worked for Josh McDaniels for a year and obviously an offseason and then half of a regular season. And I got to spend a lot of time with him. And he's got a great track record for these types of situations. I mean, going back to even, you know, Randy Moss when he was there and, you know, with the Patriots. I mean, going way, way back. I mean, look at Diggs last year, who's a guy that's, again, I know Stefan and I have a, you know, whatever. He, I know he has a, doesn't have the greatest reputation, but, you know, he's going to work hard and be in the building.

And I don't know anything about A.J. Brown personally, I just know that that freaking guy's hard to cover. He makes a lot of, he makes a lot of plays. And it seems like there was a bit of a frustration with him and the quarterback. You know, obviously the stuff on the sideline, some of the social media activity with A. and all that, you know, but the guy's a talented guy. And I know I can bet you that when he walked in that building for the first time, Josh showed him a whole presentation of how he was going to be used and how they're going to feed him the ball. Because obviously that's what he wants. Like he wants the football.

And, you know, they won the Super Bowl and he didn't even seem like he was necessarily that happy because he wants more touches. You know what I mean? And it is what it is. And he's going to get a lot of targets. in New England. I would very much count on that. You referenced that a little bit with Garrett Wilson, that is a guy that wants the ball.

When you have receivers that are like that, because that's obviously the reputation of some of these guys why they could call divas. Like how much ego management goes into your job when you're dealing with receivers like that? There's a lot. I mean, there's a lot of that. It's, you know, football is a people business.

It's a relationship business. And these guys, like everyone in those buildings, you know, is, is like the best of the best. I mean, the guy that we're talking about as a potentially making the team for, you know, fifth receiver, like when they were growing up, they were the best player in their, in their area. They were the best, you know what I mean? They were highly recruited in college.

Like for the, I mean, 95% of these guys, that's kind of what they're used to. So there's a lot, I mean, there's a lot of ego walking around these buildings, players and coaches, you know? So, yeah, you got to deal with those guys. a lot of these guys are facing adversity for the first time in their life because they've been so talented and done so well. So, yeah, you got to show these guys the plan of, hey, these are all the plays that are, you know, that are geared for you. Like, we want to get you the ball. And I never really worried about that.

Like, all you, Stefan Diggs is a perfect, perfect example of this because we were with him. I was with him young when he was early in his career in Minnesota. And like, he's one of those competitive, hardest working guys I've ever been around. and like he's the type of player you want on your side when the game starts. Now, are you going to deal with some stuff? Yeah, but his comes from he, like the thing about it, I always ask is like, do they want the ball because they want the attention and the accolades or do they want the ball because they feel like that's the best way for the team to win is if they put the

ball in my hands? You know what I mean? Because that's how these guys think of themselves. And I never have a problem with it if that's how they feel. Now, they're not always right, you know, and you've got to explain it to them and be like, hey, you're going to have more opportunities if we spread the ball around and then you'll get more, you know, you'll get more one-on-ones, you know, whatever the case may be. But that's more important. Dealing with the players is more important than any X's and O's or anything like that is making sure these guys believe in what you're selling them and that are going to give you everything they got, you know, because, again, it's so competitive from from week to week. That reminds me of the interview that you had with Christian McCaffrey and how Christian McCaffrey said, well, you know, I just want to win.

So if winning means giving me the ball 25 times in the game, lay it on me. So I want to ask you a little bit about that. And I know you've coached him and I know you're friends with them. I'm a little nervous about him this year because the track record of running back specifically when they've had over 400 touches in the season isn't very good. and there's going to be a whole article on it on CBS Sports and you'll see it on socials and all that. We'll give everybody the information. And he's also turning 30, but it's Christian McCaffrey. And so you want to win.

I know Kyle Shanahan wants to win in the 49ers. I mean, he was basically the best part of their offense last year, and that was with him having a poor rushing average. Any of this stuff, should it worry us as fantasy managers when we go to put him on our teams because we know what he's capable of? of. We know that he can get us, you know, this doesn't mean anything to you, Scott, but 20 plus PPR points per game. Right. That's a lot. Yeah. But, but we know that nothing lasts forever and father time's undefeated and, you know, workloads are what they are. Just your, your opinion from where you sit on Christian and this upcoming season. Yeah. So I think, um, everything you said, like you got to, there's some validity to everything you said. I think you got to take into account.

what you were saying as far as the carries. I know Christian, like, he prepares and trains year round, and he prepares for this. Like, because, like, what you referenced to our interview, he wants the ball. Like, he doesn't want to be taken off the field. When he was in his second and third year with us in Carolina, like, he was on the field almost every single play, which is, like, doesn't ever happen for a running back. And, you know, we didn't have great players behind him. that was part of it.

But also, like, he would tell us, like, this is what I train for. Like, I trained to be out there. Like, I want to be on the field. And it's hard to take him off because every game in the NFL is, I mean, it's designed to be a three-point game. So you don't want to, like, it's harder for a coach to take him off the field, knowing how important every possession is. Now, I do think, and again, what actually happens will see. I do think Kyle, like they drafted the running back from Indiana. I think he wants to use some of these other guys a little bit more.

Now, when you get into the tight games, what will actually happen? You know what I mean? Out the window, right? You're going to go with Al McAfree. Yeah, and if there's one guy you don't want to bet against, it's Christian. And, you know, he's going to be prepared. Now, he's had some soft tissues injury in the past. He's had the calf.

I mean, he's missed times. That's why Carolina traded him. And then obviously he's been really good for the 49ers, you know, but he was banged up a little bit, not necessarily last season, but the season before. And he's always going to manage it. And that's what he talked about in practice. Now, he talked about that on our podcast where, like,

he wouldn't do as much on Wednesdays, which I kind of gave him a hard time. Like, you're growing up, bud, because you used to be like, I can't miss any practice reps. I got to get my reps. And it's like, all right, now you're maturing and you're understanding. Like, we're trying to, we were trying to help you here. with that. So I think, you know, kind of that management throughout the week in practice, he's an older

player. He's got history and Kyle's scheme, so he knows what he's going to do. He's another guy, like I talked about Brock where football just comes easy to him. You can move him around, you know, do some different things with him. You know, it will be interesting to say, like, is he going to be healthy throughout the whole season? I don't know. If he's out there, though, he's going to be productive.

Like, and even, even last year, like, you know, I look at, I like looking at all the analytics and the different numbers and the efficiency numbers. And those guys that live and die by that, and I don't know if you guys are like that. I'm not trying to call you out if you are, but like they're not high on Christian. They're like, this guy really wasn't even that good because his efficiency numbers. But like, it's a lot of body blows. And Christian does a lot to keep the offense on the field, convince converting third downs. he's such a good receiver. I mean, I truly believe if he wanted to,

he could like cut a little bit of weight and be like a true slot receiver and play a little bit longer and not take the wear and tear being a running back. He has that type of ability. So, you know, that's the other thing with him. Like you can use them in different ways instead of just as a true running back.

But no, everything you said is correct about the 30. but being over 30 or just turning 30, the wear and tear with how many carries he's had. But the flip side of that coin is like, I know that he's doing everything he possibly can over the course of an entire offseason to make sure he's ready to take whatever, you know, whatever load that they give him over the course of the season. Yeah. As far as the stats thing goes and whether we live or die by it, I think it's become a different. a bigger part of our job than it used to be.

But certainly, as we've learned more about stats and advanced stats, there's just so much context as needed. Everything I just said to you about Garrett Wilson, for example, I think we all know he's better than like the 1002nd best wide receiver in football over the last four years. Quarterback matters. Sequin Barclay, I mean, Sequin Barclay was a guy who struggled with efficiency basically since his rookie year up until the time the Giants, you know,

decided not to resign him. And then he goes and he runs for 2,000 yards. and I think it was an example of just the situation around him being good enough to let his talent shine through. So I think you just can't get too caught up in the stats. You've got to find the context around them for sure. All right, we've got to take one more break. I want to ask you about the lions and what you expect from them. And we've had this discussion about offensive coordinators and their tendencies.

So we're going to ask you that about Drew Petzing. And we'll be right back with that. And also we'll have some time for chat questions as well on fantasy football today. right back. So the Lions have a new offensive coordinator, Drew Petzing, and he's got this history of heavily targeting tight ends, and it was Trey McBride. And

Kevin Stefansky is another guy. We talk about a lot, this great history of targeting tight ends. And I just always wonder, is that the coordinator thing, or is that personnel thing? Do they care about specifically looking at a position? Or they just say, well, he's our best player, let's get the ball on his hands. And

you know, Sam LaPorte is a really good player, but so is James and Williams. Obviously, St. Brown's going to get his. Gibbs is going to get his in the passing game. But your thoughts on the Detroit Lions and how they might distribute targets this year, Scott. Yeah. So Detroit's a team that I think is really going to kind of get back to where they were. They were still a very productive offense, but it was a little bit different last year.

They kind of, especially early in the season, was a lot more dropback. I think Drew, petting is going to, you know, and obviously Dan Campbell's got his influence on the offense. but I think Drew's going to get back to the style they want to play, which is the physical, you know, they're going to be an outside zone. I think, you know, Drew's history in Arizona with a lot more gap scheme runs. So I think they'll get a combination of those. And then just the play action off of the run game where they can balance each other out. They're going to rely on those things.

You know, to talk about Drew and Kevin in their past where they really targeted tight ends, I think it's a combination of both. I know in particular, Kevin really values tight ends. Drew was with Kevin as the tight end coach and the quarterback coach before you went to Arizona. And then once they got to Arizona, like they just, it was clear that that was their best player and they're going to get him the ball. Whereas there's a little bit more talent. But they also got a, and I just, I did the receiver. I know everyone's talking about Marvin Harrison.

And I just lost his name. the receiver. Yeah. Who am I thinking of, guys? The Stanford receiver. Michael Wilson? Michael Wilson. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they got him the ball, especially in the second half of that season when Jacobi was playing. So, you know, they still are going to get, he still, you know,

spread out a little bit. Obviously, though, with, with Tray and McBride, they're going to, they're going to feed him the ball there in Arizona. I think with the talent level in Detroit, it'll be interesting. I think they'll still be a little bit heavier. I mean, There still be a decent amount of 12 personnel, but they're going to want to get the receivers on the field. You know, they're going to want to deploy Gibbs out of the backfield and throw him the football. I'm a big fan of Jameson Williams.

I think he's really, you know, I think he's ready to really make a jump. He's such a dynamic player as far as his ability to get down the field, the run after catch. He's a big target. Jared Gough likes to throw the deep end breakers. and he's really good at that route, and I think he'll have a lot of success doing that over the course of this, over the course of this season.

So I would expect that, you know, that the targets are going to be a little bit more spread out in Detroit than they were in Arizona, just because of the amount of talent they have across the board. And we're not even talking about St. Brown. You know St. Brown. I mean, St. Brown's probably going to lead the team in targets, and we just talked about Leporta and Jameson Williams,

And a lot of that too is the quarterback. I mean, Jared Gough has such a great rapport with St. Brown and the situational stuff, the third down. And St. Brown is so good in the slot because he's tough and he understands zones. He's not afraid to catch a ball and take a hit. And that's where he really makes a lot of his money in there. And as far as I know you're talking about the tight-in usage and this in the NFL, the way I see it, like when you put 12 percent on the field, nowadays, in the old days, like, people go play base defense because it used to always be stop the run, stop the run, stop the run.

And teams on defense, they want to stop the run, but they're understanding now it's about stopping explosive plays. Like you can't give up explosives. And I had a good conversation with a defensive coach last week about this, where he said, you know, four-yard run, that's not a bad play anymore. But in the, you know, back in the old days, you know, used to be like, that's too much. we can't let them impose our will. But you're understanding that you can't give up these big explosive chunks.

So what I'm saying is you put 12 personnel out there. You're getting mostly nickel in that situation. So now what offenses are doing, they're playing 13 personnel or maybe a fullback on the field, whether there's 21 or 22. And that's to get base defense so you can throw the ball for the most part. You know what I mean? You're going to have your runs you want against based defense. but you want to be able to get that base defense on the field so you can work Leporta against the safety as opposed to a third cover guy.

You know what I mean? Or you can get Gibbs out of the backfield on the weak side or, you know, the safety is down strongly tight end. Now I'm going to get Gibbs release and now there's a linebacker cover number. Even if it's his own, he's working on a linebacker in that zone, which we know what type of matchup that's going to be. So that's where, you know, to me, that's where the beauty of putting the multiple tight ends on the field, it's because you're trying to get those matchups in the passing game by getting base defense on the field. Do you think that we're going to see a lot more of that? Because obviously a lot was made of what the Rams did with 13 personnel and McVeigh and everybody loves him.

So are we going to see a lot more of that, you think? Yeah, for sure. And I think you're going to get some defenses that are going to say, you know, we'll play nickel or maybe a big nickel. of like a corner in there at the nickel. It's like a third safety that can help you a little bit more in the run support, but you're not getting as bad of a matchup in the past game. And again, like people talk about the shell coverage being a deterrent. And I think that's part of it.

But I think it's also because defenses are playing with a smaller past, you know, like more of a past defense personnel. because again, like I said, they don't want to give up the explosive chunk plays. All right. Let's get some chat questions here to finish the show. And, well, I think you're especially qualified to answer this one. You did touch on it a little bit. But why isn't Breeze Hall being thrown very many passes?

Yeah, that's a good question. You know, I don't, you know, I'd have to look. You know, we, we had some plays to try to throw on the ball. Didn't always work out. I think Greece is a good receiver. He's a good route running. He's at every ability to do that. It's just kind of maybe the way the game flow went over the course of last year where we

weren't able to get him those targets. And also as the year went on, you know, playing with a younger quarterback, too, you know, he's maybe not getting to that part of his progression as much. How much of an upgrade is Mike McCart? for the Steelers offense? So I'm a big Mike McCarthy fan. I know he's had some issues in the playoffs where the team hasn't necessarily played great, but as far as the regular season, his win-loss record is very good.

His offenses have always performed well. He does a great job with the quarterback position. He has a great job of scheming up different defenses and getting guys the ball. I mean, you look at the years that DAC had underneath them, obviously, Aaron Rogers before that, and these are very talented players, but DAC has really played his best football with Mike, with Coach McCarty. So I think that they'll really make a jump offensively. You know, they're obviously Rogers is there and I know they're trying to figure out the rest of their quarterback situation. And, you know, they're work in progress as far as, you know, getting that offense installed. I would look to his track record and what he's been able to do this league on offense

and think that they're going to be a lot better than they were a year ago. All right. I don't know. This one's testing your scouting, I guess, on these rookies. I don't know if you have a strong take on if you like Jordan Tyson with the Saints, Carnell Tate with the Titans or Mackay Lemon with the Eagles this year. Okay. So I can answer this question.

I would say I like Tate, obviously. he was a fourth pick and draft for a reason. I think Tate's the best player of these group. I think the guys that it's going to get the most opportunity and have the most production is going to be Lemon. I think with AJ Brown leaving, and then Lemon is a guy that is going to be a run-after-catch guy. He shows so much toughness.

I'm a big fan of his from the tape, just as far as the level of toughness he plays with. And those guys, I think he's going to, endure himself to the city of Philadelphia with his play style. And I think, you know, I think that he's going to have a pretty good year. That would be my prediction there. They're going to try to get take the ball. They're going to do all that.

It's, again, it's just tough when you're, you know, you're not very good, which I don't know how good they're going to be this year, where I think Lemon the situation for him on offense and the other players that they have around him, you know, is going to free him up for some good opportunities. Dave, I know we wanted to talk about rookie running backs. there's a question here about Tyler Algier, but we can just make it about the Arizona backfield in general, Dave. Definitely.

Scott, you had, it was Brian Robinson and before him, Antonio Gibson and Washington, rookie running backs. I'm not going to sit here and say that they're on the same level as Jeremiah Love, but I'm curious how you go about implementing a rookie into your running back scheme. And maybe it's going to be a little bit different with Love

compared to AG and Brian Robinson, but how much do you put on the rookies plate? And does it just depend on, you know, how wired that that player is? Yeah. So Jeremiah Love is obviously a better player and he's a better prospect coming out. But it's pretty similar to the,

with Antonio Gibson when we had him in 2020. Now, that was the COVID-shorten year. So we didn't have as much time going in training camp. But the thing that Antonio could do that Love can do is he's a true like three-down back as far as like he can catch the ball of the backfield you can hand the ball you can put him in the slot like you can do different things of them so what i told antonio his rookie year is i'm sure what they're telling jeremiah love we you can we're going to deal with you as much as you can handle you know what i mean so if he shows that he can handle men and this is what we talked

about earlier with brock bowers if he can handle the mental side of you know playing in different spots, they're going to find ways to get him the ball. We know about the tight-in situation. You know, Michael Wilson, I know they're going to try to get Marvin Harrison going, but it's not like there's a lot of, there's a huge amount of talent on that offense. So he's going to be the main focal point of that, of that offense. Now, this is another opportunity for me to use fantasy lingo. The touchdown vulture will be the who the question is asked about there. The same reason that people were mad at him about B. John Robinson getting off the field here. think it's going to be a little bit of repeat of that where i mean a jir's a really good back i mean he's

um and you know it takes a little bit off especially a guy like jeremiah i loved that's a rookie and the rookie wall is real like normally these guys are done playing games till thanksgiving at around thanksgiving and here you still got like seven eight games left so you know they're going to want to do that where they manage him to so he'll last over the course of the season and it's going to be the same thing we talked about with Christian McCaffrey, it's going to be like, yeah, it sounds good. But then, like, you're in a close game in Arizona. I think, you know, no offense, nothing against them. They're going to be fighting for every win they can get.

So it's going to be hard for them to take this player off the field, I think. But I think that's where Alger is going to kind of fit in for them. Okay. Do you think this is something that bothers fantasy managers. And I think that maybe your expertise could help here. When the Cardinals signed Alger, Do you think they had any idea that they were going to draft Jeremiah Love? And if they did, then why did they sign Alger in the first place?

Well, I hope they did. I mean, they knew they were picking, I mean, would they pick third? Yeah. Yeah, they knew they were picking third. So if they were going to pick, I hope they knew they were going to draft Jeremiah Love. I mean, only there was only two people in front of them. And, you know, so they had a good idea he was going to be there. So, you know, I, but like it's at that position, like, I think it's good, like, for what I just said, like, I think Al Juerre, I think he's a good back.

I think it's hard to go into the season where you have one true guy. Like, so, you know, again, now I love being the third pick. He's, what is he, the highest paid running back in the NFL or it's top three or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not necessarily like the quarterback situation where you can, if you have a rookie quarter. back, that numbers down a little bit so you can sign a more expensive veteran. So there's a little bit of cap management that goes into that decision.

But I think to have a good veteran guy to pair with a rookie early in his career, I don't think it's a bad decision. Now it'll upset some fantasy guys when he's all, when Jeremiah loves off the field. I understand that. But I hate to break it to you guys. I don't think teams factor that in their decision making. We don't expect them to. Right.

Yeah. I guess the better question would have been, do team? teams have enough foresight. And maybe it's more so for the teams in the back half of round one to know what they're going to get in the draft and make their free agency moves, which is, you know, a month or two ahead of the actual draft. Do they have that kind of foresight when they make their free agent signings? Yeah.

I think they try to to a certain extent. I think it's like I think in this case, it, it shouldn't have been hard. You pick third. Like what you're saying, if you're picking later in the, if you're picking 21st, like you know you got a and everyone's roster is different right but my personal feeling is always at the end of free agency you should have it to where like you don't really have a need like you can go play a game and then you then in that case you're drafting best player available and you're going to make your overall roster better that's ideal now not everyone's roster

is in that position that they can that they can do that but that's what the best that's what the best teams do um so that's where you see like a certain team will we'll we'll sign a player and then draft somebody at the same position um but the the way that players cycle through rosters nowadays like it's it's hard to it's hard to not do that at times i think we got to read dan schneyer's question you have you have a few more minutes scott you need to balance yeah i'm good um dan schnire is one of our one of our staff members on our show. He's coming on tomorrow, actually. And Dan, if you're watching,

I'll let you know tomorrow on the show if I'm going to drive you to Philadelphia. But your question here, he's a film guy. He said, with so many defenses playing some variation of middle field open, how would you rank the roles in the offense that are best suited to attack this? Slot, tight end, boundary wide receiver,

etc. So if you're playing, if you're playing middle field open, right, what that means is there's more space in the middle of the field from the line of scrimmage till about, you know, 15 yards deep after the snap, once the safeties and everything get their depth. So the tight ends, the slot wide receivers, and then the running backs working on the linebackers and those interior matchups, that's the guys that really should benefit. it and that's where you should that's where you can really attack the defense because you know the the reason you know like you show defense user shell they're putting a shell on it they're putting a shell on the defense they're trying to stop the explosives that doesn't mean you can't hunt them you know try to grab the safety and throw over top of the if it's a quarter's coverage uh cover two whether it's attacking down the middle of field or down the sideline if you can get a safety to overreact but for the most part the space is in the middle of the field um you know like i said

line of scrimmage to, you know, 12 to 15 yards deep. And so the guys that are going to make those plays are going to be your tight end and your slot receivers for the most part. And then you can factor the backs into that as well. Awesome. I wanted to ask you, you grew up coach's son. I'm sure you spent a lot of time in locker rooms and practice fields, whatever. Any favorite memories you have of meeting players when you were a kid and like,

oh my God, I can't believe I'm talking to this guy. Yeah. So, and it's, well, it wasn't so much that, just because I was around it so much. But like my favorite locker room memory was when I was like, I think I was like 10 years old. And my dad was an office coordinator for the, the Cowboys. And they won the Super Bowl in Pasadena, 52 to 17 over the bills. And I got to go in the locker room after the game. And Michael Irvin was dancing with, and I had nothing.

nothing on but his champion hat. And he's singing, we are the champions in the locker room. And he ended up throwing me the hat. And I still have it. It's got the sweat marks on it and everything. So that was one of the coolest ones. Obviously, I saw my dad, I saw my dad, you know, I saw my dad, you know, win a Super Bowl, which was great.

And then, but seeing him do that. But we're like, you know, there's a lot of relationships that, I mean, my dad is obviously still close with Troy, Aikman. And so I have a relationship with him because of that. he was only at the Cowboys for three years, but they went two Super Bowls, and we get more people coming up to my dad talking about the Cowboy Days than almost anything else. So there's still a real close relationship with a lot of those players. But, yeah, I don't know if there was so much, oh, my gosh, I'm meeting this guy,

but just being able to experience being around those players was really cool as a kid. and not anything I really understood how cool it was until I got a little older because it was just kind of like, hey, my dad's a coach. I go to practice, you know, so. But I got to, you know, I got to experience that, which is good. So, Scott, where were you in 2002, 2003 when your dad was in Miami with the Dolphins? So I was in college. So I was at, I was at UNLV playing football there. So that was one of my early stops in my career.

I was a young reporter covering the Dolphins for the Palm Beach Boats. and your dad was awesome. Okay. You know, so it was really cool to be around him. And what he did for Ricky Williams that year was, uh, was sure a lot of fun for.

Yeah, talking about the guys giving people a lot of carries, huh? Yeah, he was, he was that guy. We love, we loved your dad for that.

Yeah. So I got a funny, it's funny you asked about being in locker rooms. So on my 15th birthday, I hold this picture up. I just found this unpacking. This was when my dad was a head coach of the Redskins. And the players,

tape me to a chair and then take the chair to a dolly and then dump water and shaving cream. So that's me is on my 15th birthday, right about to start my freshman. My birthday is August 7th. So it was training camp. And I think I was heading back the next day to go to start my freshman football year. But that was, so I've had some definitely had some locker room, some locker room stories that have been around. That's a fantasy punishment for Adam. We're going to do that to him when he finishes in last place in our league this year.

You got to beat me first, buddy. That's no problem. Scott, thanks for coming on. This was so insightful. Great stuff. And actually, before you go, just like tell us more about your podcast. Yeah. So, you know, it's something that my dad and my sister started.

And, you know, they've really had a good time with it. I came on right after the season just as a guest. And then I got let go by the Jets. And, you know, I, you know, kind of made the decision that I was going to, you know, take the year off. You know, there were some things we were looking at but didn't work out. And so then I kind of joined it full force. They go do it in a studio. My sister lives in L.A.

My dad lives in Del Mar. So they'll meet in Long Beach in a studio. But, and I just join them like this remotely. And, you know, we've had a couple episodes where it's just the three of us. But we've gotten some pretty good guests. We actually got a couple. We're trying to get a couple guys on there. We're talking about DJ Moore.

I think we're going to get him on there, hopefully get him on there. Shane Steichen trying to get him on there coming up soon. So we're taking a little bit break now and then we're going to gear it up in August, you know, starting to get back into training camps. But it's something that we've had a lot of fun doing. We've really, it's kind of a mix between some older stories and then the current NFL and kind of their direction that. the direction things are going in. And it's really kind of, it's a way to document all these stories, too.

We really enjoyed doing that. And we think that the more people that see it, the more they'll, you know, kind of enjoy, too, the stories of the old NFL, but then also just, you know, talking to these players and what's going forward. Well, look,

if you're looking for anything else to do in this year off, play a little fantasy football. If you have more than welcome to try to leave with us. You got some excites. Yeah, I might take you up on that. That'd be a lot of fun. I think you'd do great. All right, that's Scott Turner.

But not too great, not too great. We appreciate his time. Thanks so much to everybody for watching and listening. We'll talk to you tomorrow with a mailback episode on Venetian football. On podcasts. What's the mission? This is a man-hound killer capture. The critically acclaimed series, The Agency, is back.

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