Fantasy Football Today - 🚨Hunter Henry to the Patriots ... WHY!? (03/16 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: March 16, 2021

With the Patriots signing both Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry, does that mean both of these guys are out of the Top 12? What does it mean for Cam Newton? And how much do the elite TEs gain with this news? Subscribe to the FFT in 5 podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to FFT. Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @CTowersCBS, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Want winning picks each morning in under 10 minutes? Subscribe to 'The Early Edge: A Daily SportsLine Betting Podcast' on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever else you listen to 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

Big news! The New England Patriots will sign Hunter Henry. They really need a tight end, so I'm glad they fell. Wait a second! Yeah, but this is terrible! You know, I understand people have hated the Patriots because successful franchises get hate. I'm not about that. But now I hate them because they have taken the top two free agent tight ends and have they ruined the values of both Hunter Henry and John Smith? What is going on? First of all, Dave and Jamie.

Jamie, you first. Who do you rank higher? Who will you rank higher, Henry or Smith? Devin Asiasi. All right. They just drafted two tight ends last year. They drafted two guys in the third round last year. What is going on here?

Four tight ends set.. They drafted two guys in the third round last year. What is going on here? Four tight ends set. Yeah, I hate this. Who will I rank higher? I'll rank Hunter Henry higher. I think there's better touchdown potential for him. This stinks. This really absolutely stinks.

I mean, obviously, what was it? Less than an hour ago, we just got finished talking about Johnny Smith. Yep. It is hilarious to watch Twitter and

unfortunately, but more unfortunately, I'm glued to Twitter for the next week just because of all the news happening. To see all of the Johnnie Smith memes and winners and losers and truthers and not truthers and how excited people

were and how disappointing and depressed people are now. You know, this is not the 2011 Patriots. This is not Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. Tom Brady is, Cam Newton is not Tom Brady. So this is not going to be the same outcome. This is good for New England. It's good for Cam Newton. It's bad for fantasy.

Well, I think we know what the Patriots are going to do and that's throw the ball. I don't know what 700 divided by 16 games. They're going to let Cam Newton's arm take control of this offense, and they're going to lean on both of these tight ends. Makes sense to me, right? Let's win it on Cam's arm and utilize these two great tight ends. I don't think you were obviously sarcastic enough there. I think

people may have taken you seriously. No, I don't think anybody took me seriously. I would hope that they pass more. This was a team that threw the ball 49% of the time last year, and they were stead dead last and in a deep ball attempts, 20-plus yard attempts. And the numbers that John Yoo and Hunter Henry put up last year were pretty good, and they were on limited targets. Maybe they're still on limited targets, but I can't see them being as good. I like John Yoo a little bit better because I think the Patriots are going to use him more as a receiver, and Hunter Henry will be dual threat guy. Maybe Hunter Henry ends up with as many touchdowns as John knew,

but it stinks for both of them. And what, what really needs to happen is for another quarterback to come into, to new England and the way they're spending money. Maybe they'll do that. Maybe they'll draft somebody, but I, to me,

the, the sticking point is Newton and the fact that he wasn't a good passer last year. I don't see how he rebounds to a big degree this year. I don't see how this offense suddenly becomes one that throws 550 times like the Raiders did last year or over 600 times like the Chargers did last year. I don't feel this at all. And I think I'm looking at a tight end and Johnny Smith that I might be okay with having as my number one tight end to start the year. And Hunter Henry is one where maybe I

take them with a, with a pick past the midway point of my draft as a low, low end number one tight end. Yeah. Are we talking about top 12 guys here? Nope. I'm not sure if I'm going to put Henry top 12 and Johnny, Johnny, my Johnny was 10th for me to begin with, might keep him right there. All right. We're talking about Logan Thomas, Irv Smith, Noah Fant, Evan Ingram, that group. They're behind them? Yeah. Hunter Henry will probably be behind most of those guys for me. Yeah, both for me. And I would take Henry over John. Well, where does Cam... Cam has now gotten two tight ends,

two wide receivers in like 24 hours. So if he's the starting quarterback for the Patriots, you know, we, we just did a big long hour long podcast talking about all this stuff. And if you heard it, it was obviously before the Hunter Henry signing. So outdated information.

We didn't expect John who Smith have this kind of competition. But we, we called Ryan Tannehill a loser. He's around 13th or so. Would you put Cam Newton ahead of Ryan Tannehill? No. I don't think he's playing 16 games as a starter. I think they have to address their future at the position.

And so if the free agent market is where they're going to spend all of their money to fill some of these holes the draft i think is they're going to probably be aggressive to try and go get a quarterback to some capacity you know and so uh i think cam is he's now got top 20 upside i don't think he's got top 15 upside but this could be a short-lived ranking situation if they are aggressive in the draft and go get somebody maybe in the top 10, but I do think you're hearing a lot about Mac Jones as a fit there, and if that's the case,

then midway point of the season, you could see a replacement happening if their team is not successful. Is that why you're saying Cam does not have top 15 upside because you don't think he'll get the 16 games or because you don't think he's good enough because i would just say that regardless of how bad he is as a passer his rushing prowess gives him top 15 upside

100 right it's more about the the ability to play and be the quarterback for 16 games but this feels very much like they're going to be still a low volume passing offense this they're going to play their defense is going to be dramatically better. And that's going back to, I think, the blueprint of what they want to be. And I think you're going to see them run the ball a lot. I think Damian Harris and Tony Michel benefit from this in a big way.

They're both good blocking tight ends. You had Damian Harris as a loser an hour ago. How do you feel now? He still is. He still is because he's going to share the ball and he's going to lose goal line to Cam. He's not going to catch passes. You know what? This feels like

a team that will be easy to avoid on draft day this year. Just take your Patriots off your draft board. Are they going to sign Will Fuller in an hour? I mean, what is happening here? So do you like their offseason thus far? I think I like that they're giving themselves a chance to be competitive in the AFC East. For fantasy, of course not. But look, they do have some interesting

mismatch pieces now that they can attack defenses with. The problem is still a quarterback. The problem is still Cam Newton. If he were more accurate, maybe he somehow fixes what's wrong with him. His shoulder's fine and he throws better. Then, yeah, sure. Play action might be great for them this year because they will be viewed as a run-first type of offense. And then when Cam drops back, he can throw.

But he's got to be on target. He's got to do better than he was last year. 29th and on target percentage last year. That's not good. Yeah. But adding these guys is a big piece to making him better. I mean, you know, you don't bring in these two tight ends. They don't necessarily improve his on target percentage.

Bringing in young guys that have the chance to make plays. This receiving core was a joke last year, you know, so Cam did not play well, but it's not all on him. I mean, you know, the offensive line is better. He's going to be better protected. The receiving core was a joke last year. So Cam did not play well, but it's not all on him. I mean, the offensive line is better. He's going to be better protected. The receiving options are dramatically better. That's going to help him in a big way. Hopefully he's healthy, full offseason.

I mean, all these things factor in. So I think you look at Cam and say, okay, let's see what he can do. But also, again, I think they're going to go and address the position because they have to for the long-term benefit of this franchise. And does this make Travis Kelsey, Kittle Waller in particular, even better? You are now taking two guys who could have been top six, top seven tight ends, taking them out of that equation.

So how much better does it make those top three and maybe top four? That's a great question. Dramatically better. Because these were two guys that, you know, no matter what you thought of where they were going to go, that they had the chance to be top 15 options because John still had a place to, you know, had to go to a place that was going to feature him like we thought New England was 24 hours ago.

So now you're looking at it as they're going to negate each other and negate each other in an offense that's not going to be high volume. So if you feel like you have to get one of the premier tight ends, you got to be aggressive with it. And it's not just those, you know, I think you got to put Mark Andrews in that conversation too, based on what he did a year ago to a lesser degree, but he's still a top five round pick. And then you look at TJ Hawkinson and maybe Dallas Goddard as the next two guys as well. Okay. So the Patriots guys as well. Okay.

So the Patriots are making moves. They're definitely going to be better on defense when you consider they signed Judon, they signed a couple of other complementary pieces, and they're getting a lot back, players who opted out last year. They're going to be kind of... If they keep those guys. Yeah, but they're going to be a little boring, but they could be just a gritty, defensive, low-scoring team in a Belichick mold.

It's probably the best defense in the division. Dolphins? That's the competition. Yeah. Buffalo's pretty good. Buffalo came on strong, yeah. Jamie loves the Jets. Maybe the Jets' defense would be big.

I think they're forward. At least be coordinated better. All right. So that's it for this bonus podcast. We will be back when the Patriots sign Kenny Galladay and Wilford. Talk to you then.