Fantasy Football Today - Jamey's Bold Predictions! (06/05 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: June 5, 2023

Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Bijan Robinson will set records this year (2:15)! Find out more about Jamey's first bold prediction as we debate if Tyler Allgeier will screw this one up. Then we've got a lot of news and notes (9:50) including some talk about Dalvin Cook and DeAndre Hopkins ... Are you ready for the Year of the Sophomore Wide Receiver? Jamey is! His second bold prediction is incredibly bold (17:40). Can Treylon Burks keep up his end of the bargain? How about Jameson Williams? ... Jamey's third bold call is about the Jaguars WRs (25:15). What will Christian Kirk and Calvin Ridley do that no other WR duo will accomplish? ... Your emails at [e-mail] Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. All right, let's see how bold we can be today and all week long on Fantasy Football Today. Yes, this is Bold Predictions Week. We're going to start it with Jamie Eisenberg giving us three of his boldest predictions for 2023. I will actually start the boldness off right now. Are you ready? Nuggets in five. Nuggets in five?

Nuggets in five. Wow. That's a little strange considering what they just accomplished last night to heat. I just don't get it. I don't get it. They stink. There's so many players that just stink. They're playing out of their minds.

I don't understand. It can't happen anymore. Well, what stinks about the fact that they beat the two top seeds in the East and they've been an incredible team, arguably the best coach team? They're great. I love them. They're great. If anybody should understand this, it's you.

Didn't your team win, like, two Super Bowls as a seventh seed or something? Sort of. The second time around, they actually won their division, but sort of. You know what? Weren't they wild won their division, but sort of. You know what? Weren't they wild cards both times? No, no. They beat the Falcons at home in 2011. They won the division that year.

But, yeah, so they did have one home game in that stretch. But, anyway, I just wanted to give a bold prediction and give a shout out to the Heat. Nice win last night. Nuggets in five. Are you worried about your Panthers? Yeah, I'm a little worried, but honestly, it doesn't really bother me that much being a bandwagon fan. That's the nice part about being a bandwagon fan.

Just get right off if I have to. I did speak to a Canes fan last night who said, we got Texas in basketball. We'll allow them to get us in baseball. Oh, yes. I hope you're all paying attention to the college baseball regionals. Big Gators game today for Jamie and Schaefer. Anyway, this is Fantasy Football Today.

Jamie actually gave me five bold predictions. If you want to hear the other two, check that out on Fantasy Football Today in five. Let's start with one here from Jamie. We have a lot of news to get to, but Jamie, give me one of your three bold predictions. The three that you're going to use. So this is a story I'm doing for our magazine that Bijan Robinson will be the number one running back in fantasy

and set the rookie record for most fantasy points scored, which was done by Eric Dickerson in 1983. So a very long-standing mark held by one of the greatest of all time. But i think bijan has the potential to do that but again we're talking bold prediction so it doesn't necessarily come true but i think he's going to have a uh a big rookie season actually spoke to arthur smith uh on friday

and um it was a great conversation and so looking forward to writing the story i'm hoping to track down eric dickerson myself um but i do think that b john's got an opportunity here to be pretty special as i think we all know uh but to a heights that we have not seen in uh what is that 40 years yeah yeah 1983 wow pre-easer no 84 was a big year. Wow. The greatest season in your lifetime is coming up. What do you mean? The greatest rookie season

in your lifetime. Yeah, yeah. I thought you were going to say like rookie running back production has been way down since Azer was born. So that was 390 carries, 1,808 yards,

and 18 touchdowns with 51 catches as a rookie. That's a lot of work to do, Bijan. He struggled the following year. He set the record with 2,105 rushing yards, but only 14 touchdowns. Eric Dickerson. All right, Heath, what is your reaction to this bowl prediction?

I love it. There's nothing about Bijan Robinson that would prevent him from doing this. If he is given the opportunity to do it, he could do it. He has that type of ability. And the Falcons have an offensive system and an offensive line that's going to generate good rushing, which will impact how many, can he catch 50 passes on a team that throws 450 or 500 if Kyle Pitts and Drake London both have as many targets as I think they're going to have. It'll be interesting. And then I wonder, I wonder if Brother Smith talked about this, how much Tyler Algier and Cordero

Patterson are going to play this year. He did talk about that, and he expects them to have a pretty significant role. He wasn't going to tip his hand about who's getting this amount of carries, that amount of carries, you know, he did say throughout the course of a game and the course of a season, you know, a guy gets hot hand and, you know, you like to ride that hot hand. I asked him, you know,

given the fact that he coached Derrick Henry as the offense coordinator of the Titans. And he said, we would never ask anybody to do what we asked Derrick to do that year. You know, he was basically Superman and, you know, understandably so, meaning his last year that he was there, which was 2019. So, you know, it's again, it's a big stretch for Bijan to get to that level. But I do think the first part of that is somewhat realistic that he might be the best running back in fantasy for this season. Because as Heath alluded to, you know,

he's going to be in a great system. He's going to most likely be a little shocking if he's not the lead running back there, but get the opportunity to get, you know, I don't think 250 carries is out of their own possibility. If not more, you know,

because they ran the ball 550 times last year. So, you know, when you walk into a situation with 250 carries, if he gets, let's say, just be conservative, 35 receptions, you know, based on his skill set, I think that's realistic. Then whatever he does on top of that, I think is, you know, pretty fun. So it's a great opportunity for a rookie running back to step into

and to potentially be the best in his first season. It's a little surprising. Here's a comment from Don. I just don't see it in today's NFL. Tyler Algier isn't just going away. Well, the last four games of the season, Algier had 17 or more carries in every game, and Cordero

Patterson had 14, 8, 9, and 5 carries in those games, so he still averaged 9 carries per game. Cordero Patterson, while Algier was averaging, I don't know what it was, almost 20 carries a game. So, you know, I'm not sure what the split's going to be. Heath won't be 20 and 9, but there's probably room for two.

But what do you think? I mean, how big of a role could Algier have while Robinson finishes number one, number two, somewhere around there? Well, I think the third name that I said will determine that. Like, does Cordero Patterson play offense at all? Does he play running back at all? Is he just playing wide receiver and special teams now? If Cordero Patterson's playing running back,

then Tyler Algier cannot also have a big role while Bichon is a top-ten running back. I don't think all three of those things work. The way I've got it projected right now is 337 total touches for Bichon and about 195 for Algier and Patterson combined. All right. So first bold prediction, Bijan Robinson will be the number one running back in fantasy and have the best fantasy rookie season of all time.

Better than Eric Dickerson's 1983 season. Anybody know the last rookie running back to finish number one? Saquon. Saquon it is. In fact, we had a stretch 2016, 17, 18, where we had Zeke finish as RB2 as a rookie, Kareem Hunt and Alvin Kamara finished three and four, and Barkley the next year finished number one. So it was three straight years

where at least one rookie running back was top four. Okay, let me tell you about... You have seen some great rookie performances. I have. Nothing like Eric Dickerson, but yes. Rookie running back was top four. Okay, let me tell you about... There you go, Adam. You have seen some great rookie performances. I have. Nothing like Eric Dickerson, but yes. Let me tell you about Morning Buzz on CBS Sports HQ. If you missed some of the action while you were sleeping,

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on Jamal Murray's missed three-pointer at the end of the game against the inferior team that won game two and everything else. Jamie, did you go on Tron? No, we did not go to Magic Kingdom. We went to Ep epcot and hollywood studios so it was a little impromptu trip and we kind of planned it on the fly but um fun nonetheless so very cool

yep always fun a lot of fried a lot of fried food at disney not uh i actually i was having this conversation with a buddy of mine. I think I eat the best in my life when I'm at Disney because I don't eat because like we, we wake up in the morning and I'm like, let's go. And you know, my kids are like, Oh, we need food. I'm like, no, we got to get to the park. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. And so I ended up feeding them, but then I don't eat myself because I just want to get out and get there. And then I'll, it's basically like a intermittent fasting because you know i'll eat like six o'clock at night with dinner whatever and then i won't eat in the hotel

i won't eat all day until like lunchtime so uh it works out better for me i guess that smart boy i would have not enjoyed being your kid because like getting up at the butt crack of dawn to go to disney i'm like come on give me a break it's not that early. The park opens at 8. Yeah, that's pretty early. You're there at 8? I try to be. We failed, but we tried. You should be in line when they start taking money for parking. When they're ready to let you in, you should be there ready to go.

The best thing you can do, honestly, if you can manage it, and for me it's hit or miss, but if you can stay on property it's you get early entry so that's the best part of it yeah all right let's get guided tours let's go into the uh news and notes here so this i don't know that we have talked much about it but interesting story that came out i think on friday russell wilson apparently declined trades to the eagles and the commanders in 2022 boy history changed so much with that move going to the Eagles and the Commanders in 2022. Boy, history changed so much with that move, going to the Broncos instead. That was according to Sports Illustrated.

Prior to the season. Let's talk about DeAndre Hopkins here. Aaron Wilson, who covers the Browns, of KPRC, said there's a strong possibility that the Browns signed DeAndre Hopkins. And the Houston Chronicle saying that Hopkins is

interested in returning to the Texans. I don't know. Should we talk about this, Heath, or just let it play out? What do you think? I'll let you decide. Well, I think the first thing we've seen is that the Chiefs and Bills are not willing to pay him $20 million a year. He came out and wanted to play for a winner, and then he also said that he wanted $20 million a year, and those two didn't seem to go together. So the possibility of teams has widened. If he goes to Cleveland, I might have a hard time not ranking Deshaun Watson as a top five quarterback again. Who said that recently, though,

about they wanted to get a certain amount of money, and then they ended up getting it? We were surprised. Oh, Odell. Beckham, yeah. Yeah. Insane. Tony Pollard says he's not really limited right now.

Things are going in the right direction for him. He expects to be fully ready for training camp. He injured his ankle and his leg in January. All right, let's talk about Dalvin Cook. So ESPN says all indications are that Kevin O'Connell would use Madison as an every down back. By the way, the article was basically like, he's pretty much gone. It seems almost like a foregone conclusion.

You can read the story on ESPN.com, but there's a lot of it. People don't really seem to think Dalvin Cook is going to be on the Vikings. And now O'Connell's talking about Madison. He called him a three down back, basically. So, oh man, this is going to be a huge story when it actually happens. Let's say

Dalvin Cook goes to the Dolphins and Alexander Madison is the lead guy for the Vikings. Heath, when would you draft both of those players? Man. I'm probably going to say that I'd be early round three on Dalvin Cook and not too far behind on

Alexander Madison. Jamie, who'd go first? Madison for me, and I would probably look at both in round four. I think for really for Minnesota situation, I think Madison's the biggest winner of all this, you know, Dalvin going to the Dolphins, there's still going to be some level of a crowded back. I don't think it will be a solo act in Minnesota, but I think if they're making this move, knowing that this is a wide-open division now and they're coming off of a playoff run, that you're not looking at doing this.

I know money's clearly involved, but you're not doing this unless you are confident that Madison is going to be the guy. So Cook at his age, going to a new team, going to a team that's going to have a lot of mouths to feed in that backfield. Now somebody's going to get cut. It's going to be a matter of whoever it is.

It could be just Ahmed or Myles Gaskin, but I don't see the Dolphins necessarily giving Dalvin Cook the same amount of work that the Vikings will give Madison. I agree with all of that, except I'm not trying to poke a chafee tea here. Maybe I am. Adam, can we call what the Vikings did last year a playoff run? More like a playoff fall?

Well, they ran to the playoffs. They fell in the playoffs. They threw to the playoffs, I guess, and then they blew it in the playoffs. Yeah, but they played a really good team. You can't really blame them. The playoffs stumble? Yeah. Look, there's no shame in losing to a Daniel Jones-led team,

so it is what it is. I also think the bigger story here, not the bigger story, the second part of the story is who's the number two guy in Minnesota? Because as part of those stories, there was multiple on them since I think the ESPN story was first. That Ty Chandler would be the number two guy right now. And then Nguyen Ngu would be involved as well. But I really want to see what they do with Dwayne McBride.

Because this is a guy that did well in college, had a hamstring injury coming out, didn't run at the combine. I have a little intimate knowledge of the situation just because of his trainer, but I do think that he is going to surprise some people in camp, and we know that Madison's never done this before. So if he fails or gets injured, who could be that next guy up? And so that's a big part of this to follow. Like the Dolphin situation, I think you know, Dolphin would be that next guy up? And so that's a big part of this to follow. Like the Dolphins situation, I think, you know, Dalvin would be the lead guy,

but we probably see whoever's left share that workload there in Miami. If in fact he goes Miami, that's not a done deal to begin with. I think just a lot of people have connected the dots there. Yeah, and the Miami Herald said it's a real possibility that Dalvin Cook could end up on the Dolphins, which is why I threw that hypothetical out there.

Some more news items to get to after a quick break on fantasy football today. All right, back to our news. Welcome back, everybody. Eagles running back Rashad Penny is participating in OTAs, so that's good news. Seattle right tackle Abraham Lucas was a good player for them as a rookie last year.

He's had shoulder surgery, and Pete Carroll says he's expected to be ready for week one. We should do like a hashtag Pete Carroll says. I think that's funny. I think we're going to do it. I'm going to start that. Hashtag Pete Carroll says. Rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud,

because nothing, you can't believe anything he ever says. C.J. Stroud, rookie Texans quarterback, basically had strong OTAs, seems like he's going to be the starter. Not a surprise, but it looks like week one is more likely. And, yeah, he drew some good reviews. Buffalo needs to beef up their pass rush. They signed Leonard Floyd.

How about this? When they had Von Miller, the first, I think, ten games, I think weeks one through 11, they had the seventh best pressure rate in the NFL. Beginning in week 12, when Von Miller got hurt towards ACL, they were 24th after that for the rest of the regular season. Miller says he expects to. Beginning in week 12, when Von Miller got hurt towards ACL, they were 24th after that for the rest of the regular season. Miller says he expects to be ready for week 1.

We'll see, but they did sign Leonard Floyd, which is a nice signing for the Bills. Khalil Herbert said the Bears are going running back by committee. Andy Reid said second-year wide receiver Justin Ross has Patrick Mahomes' trust. Heath, I'll throw it to you on this one.

Should we be drafting Justin Ross? How deep of a draft do we have to be in for that? I'd probably have to get to round 20, is what I've been thinking. Maybe 18 in the right settings, but somewhere in that range. I don't think in a standard 15-round draft I'm ready to draft him yet. But there's not one sure thing on the depth chart of wide receivers standing in front of him.

You're talking about wide receivers. What's that? Good best ball dart throw. Right, yes. Back to the bold predictions. The first one from Jamie was that B. John Robinson will be the number one running back and have the best fantasy rookie season of all time. Number two, why don't we stick with one that's somewhat have the best fantasy rookie season of all time uh number two

why don't we stick with one that's somewhat related because drake london is part of this jamie and your sophomore wide receiver bowl prediction it's kind of a mouthful do you need me to read it for you no i know what it is okay uh so five and this is total points five sophomore receivers will finish in the top 24 and and those five are Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, Christian Watson, Drake London, and Traylon Burks. Seven, including those five, so the next two, would be George Pickens and Jahan Dotson finish in the top 36. So if you're starting a three-receiver league, all seven will be starters for you. And then eight, in terms of Jamison Williams, this is the hardest one I think they have to get to.

Eight sophomore wide receivers, so one more, Jamison Williams. They will all average at least 14 PPR points per game. Now, that was the 19th. There were 19 receivers who did that last year, so it's a big stretch for them to do that. But, again, we're trying to be bold here. So it's a fun class. I think there's a lot of opportunities for all these guys and hopefully they all step up. You know, it's some of them

are easier to, you know, see the path to success, but I think there's significant opportunities for all of these guys and hopefully they deliver. I think, like, I know it was a lot of words, Adam, but I think that the last one was what really made it bold for me because I've got seven of these guys in my top 27, top 30 for sure. The Pickens is the one that I'm getting more and more scared of just because I'm not sure there's going to be a huge change in how many targets he earns, but I love these guys. Let me read it again. Okay, so five wide receivers, five sophomore wide receivers

will finish top 24 in total points. They are Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, Christian Watson, Drake London, and Traylon Burks. That's pretty bold. I mean, based on the average draft position or early rankings, Traylon Burks in the top 24 is pretty bold. Then two more will finish top 36, George Pickens and Jahan Dotson, and they're all going to average at least 14 PPR points per game.

And so is Jamison Williams after he serves his five-game suspension. So really, he's also calling for one of the greatest wide receiver seasons we've had. Yes. Because two of those guys are going to score 14 fantasy points per game and not be top 24 wide receivers. Yeah. Well, no, no, no. You've got to factor in Williams is not playing the full season, so he's not going to score 14 fantasy points per game and not be top 24 wide receivers yeah well no no you got to factor in williams is not playing the full season so he's not going to get there and there's

probably going to be some injuries along the way that's true that's why i said i think there's going to be five that have great seasons because the games that they play but also they're going to average a great number per game yeah and then you're going to see a few guys miss some time but still perform at a very high level when they're on the field. This would be like hitting the lottery. There is... Greatest parlay ever. Really, really difficult.

Which one concerns you the most of this whole thing? What concerns you the most? What part is the most... Oh, the 14 points per game. That's the hardest part. All right. So what about Wilson, Olave, Watson, London, Burks as top 24 receivers and Pickens and Dots

in top 36? What concerns you? The first four, minus Burks, I have inside my top 24 already. So I'm not as high on them collectively as Heath is. Burks, I think right now is at 30 and then the other two guys behind them are in the top 36 so uh the more i like i i see about burks and um if you want to do some some light reading i i did last week uh some ota wrap-ups of the nfc

and the afc split them up into two stories and so i went through basically like a lot of beat reports and uh the research was more more heavy lifting than the writing just i'm trying to find things that were relevant but you know you just hear some great things about burke so far i think you've heard me reference that i spoke to chico conqua earlier this offseason he was very high on him um again they're in shorts and in t-shirts you know they're they're running against air um but you go back to last year this time last year for him was an absolute disaster. He had the conditioning issues.

Ended up finding out that he had asthma. I found one quote where he said, I can breathe when talking about what's the difference between this year and last year. There's so many targets available. A healthy Ryan Tannehill I think is going to be huge for that team in general as long as he stays the starter because Malik Wills was a disaster last year, as we saw from a passing standpoint, really from a quarterback standpoint. So maybe we'll Levis if he's a little bit better as a passer, that will help Burks. But I mean, there's really so many opportunities in this passing game

for just chances to succeed. And so I would not be surprised if he's, you know, top three of this group. But, you know, you see, again, the path for all of these guys. There's just so many chances. And I'm with Heath, you know. Pickens is somebody that I sort of, you know, waffle on between him and Dotson about who's next after that five. And it's not that I don't think Dotson is talented, but I'm also concerned about his quarterback situation.

You know, Sam Howell has played one game, you know, and is he going to be a guy that enhances his receiving core? This is a guy that ran for 800 yards his final year at North Carolina. Is he just going to be a guy that escapes the pocket? He's probably somebody we don't talk enough about from a late-round dart throw type of quarterback because he could be a 2,800, 700 guy, based on looking at what Daniel Jones did, for example.

He could be a Daniel Jones, yeah. Less of a passer, but more of a runner. But in any event, you know, so those two guys are the ones that make me the most nervous. And obviously, if Jamison Williams was playing a full season, you certainly see the upside there, which is why I kind of put him in the last category of just points per game. You know, so if he plays to what his potential is, he could clearly be a star, but he's not going to get their total points based on his missed opportunities. Heath, isn't it easier from a projection standpoint

to expect Traylon Burks to be a top 24 receiver than Drake London? Just such an easier path to targets, I think. And then you've got the Bichon factor who's gonna have an 1800 yard rushing season right um isn't it easier to get burks into that than than london i don't um maybe it's it's harder for me to believe that the titans are going to open up the passing game and throw more than they did last year and i expect that the falcons are going to throw more than they did last year because they threw more when desmond Ritter was the quarterback, and they've talked about how they have to throw more.

But there's one less significant piece of competition for targets, but it's still just one guy. The number two wide receiver on the Falcons is Matt Collins. There's absolutely no reason that Kyle Pitts and Drake Lennon couldn't both have a 25% target share. Or maybe one of them is 27% and one of them is 25%. But there's not other guys to throw to. Okay.

Speaking of target share, how about two wide receivers on the same team? Just crushing it. And, Jamie, your last bold prediction that we'll get to today. Again, if you want to hear more, check out FFT in 5. About the Jaguars' wide receivers. Go ahead. So I, the bold prediction is that Calvin Ridley and Christian Kirk will be the best wide receiver duo in the NFL from a fantasy perspective.

But you know, the, the ones that they, I think would have to leap over because I think it's easy to say based on how we have them ranked. That's kind of the way I approached this was Jamar, Jason T Higgins, Devante Smith and Ray J Brown and Devante Smith to be respectful. how we have them ranked. That's kind of the way I approached this was Jamar chase and T Higgins, um,

Devante Smith and Ray J Brown and Devante Smith to be respectful and Tyree kill and Jalen model. I think those three based on fantasy duos go into the season as the best trio. Now there's obviously some other teams and some guys you can throw into the mix and, you know, certainly up for debate.

Uh, but let's have some fun with the Jaguars guys. And if Calvin Ridley can return to form and Christianirk can sort of build off what he did last year i do think that trevor lawrence is going to have a big season so the way i the way that i sort of stumbled upon this was um in the five that i gave you you know i was trying to think of you know just some that are fun and i was like you know i want to do a trevor lawrence bull prediction because i think he's going to have a great season and so i gave gave the Anthony Richardson one, which we'll talk about on the other show. So I don't want to give you too many quarterback ones.

So I was like, let's get a Jaguars one in here somehow. And, okay, let's look at the receiver. So I think these guys are going to have huge seasons. To what level, we'll find out. You know, the other way I was sort of toying with this was, are they going to be the new, because you've heard me say this a few times, are they going to be the new Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, you know, in terms of how they produce, you know, in terms of one guy,

big play throughout one guy catching a lot of passes. But I think taking it to another level was just a little bit more fun. So if Ridley and Kirk are the two top dogs by a significant margin for Trevor Lawrence, you know, no Evan Ingram, no Zay Jones, you know, no running back involvement, and Zay Jones, you know, no, no running back involvement. And we are getting 150 targets for both these guys, um, which is clearly a stretch,

but, uh, I think they can have just absolutely monster, monster, monster campaigns. So Heath, I'm going to throw out some stats for you here. Uh,

looking at Trevor Lawrence who did so much of his fantasy damage in 2022 in a five game stretch, it was by far the best five game stretch of the season for the Jaguars offense. Lawrence, who did so much of his fantasy damage in 2022 in a five-game stretch. It was by far the best five-game stretch of the season for the Jaguars offense. And Lawrence was on pace for 4,913 yards, 44 touchdowns, three interceptions. So a best-case scenario for Lawrence, I could see him flirting with 5,000 yards in 17 games, 4,900 yards. I could see it. 44 touchdowns, three interceptions, not going to happen. But if you just look at the yards, he averaged 38.4 pass attempts per game. In those five games, Christian Kirk was on pace for over

1,300 yards. Zay Jones was on pace for over 1,400 yards. And they both had a target share between 24% and 26.6%.an ingram actually had a 20 percent target share in that stretch but really nobody else got targeted so can you see a 4900 yard season from trevor lawrence and if he gets there what do you think about jamie's bold prediction that this is the best receiving duo in fantasy okay i want to address two things first first yours, then Jamie's, because I do think like,

if you look at the best five game stretch of every quarterback in the NFL over the last 10 years, a lot of them would have projected for a 4,900 guard season the next year. There are a lot of quarter. What? I'm aware. I'm asking. Okay.

I just want to make sure everybody else. I'll say, I'll go on record. Say, I think Trevor Lawrence can throw for 4,900 yards. The thing that I like the most about the full prediction is I think the talent is there. If Trevor Lawrence becomes the quarterback that he was projected to be and has one of those, he could do that. Calvin Ridley, we've seen him be that guy.

Christian Kirk was a borderline top 12 wide receiver last year. The talent is there. The thing that I think the player gets into trouble is kind of the opposite of the Atlanta situation. There will be a lot more pass attempts. That's one way. The talent is there. The thing that I think where it gets into trouble is kind of the opposite of the Atlanta situation. There'll be a lot more pass attempts. That's one way it's the opposite. But also I don't think there's going to be two guys with a huge share of the target because I do think that Evan Ingram is going to be involved and I

do think they're going to throw each of their running backs a little bit and I do think Zay Jones seems to still be a big part of the plan. But I've come around more and more on the kirk ridley combo and i think i have them both inside my top 24 now um but i mean obviously it's pulled that's the reason yeah you know what's funny the hardest thing about this is it's not them it's that jason higgins are pretty damn good brown and smith are pretty amazing and that i agree kill and jay

the wild are pretty good and then you factor in you know you can make a lot of other cases i mean jefferson and whether it's addison or osborne you know uh cooper cup and whoever else is there you know there's just so many great you know lead receivers and then the second guy i mean i think you know you know you mentioned this heath and i'm glad you youined a little bit of light on Kirk. But really, he's the one, I think, that has to step into a secondary role now, if Calvin Ridley, to what you said, if Calvin Ridley returns to form, which is what would have to clearly be the case for this. But if he is that guy, again, does Kirk still get the chance to shine? And for this to come true, it would have to be the 1A, not just a 2.

He would have to clearly be better than Jones, clearly be better than Ingram, and then really being like that. Because I think you're right, Adam. You can see Trevor Lawrence doing everything he needs to do with the heavy lifting to make these guys successful. The offense should allow these guys to be successful. It's can these two receivers, one, get back to a level, one, sort of adjust himself and then get to another level as well and that would be i think the hardest part of this

yeah by the way last year i just looking at this now tyreek hill and jaylen wattle destroyed in this category they had over 3 000 total yards 3 000 receiving yards combined of course chase and higgins both missed time with injury uh The second best duo would have been the Eagles guys, Brown and Devontae Smith. They were around 2,600, I think. But the reason I just brought up that five-game stretch is because if there is a scenario where Trevor Lawrence throws for 4,900 yards,

I just wanted to see what it might look like. And you had Zay Jones actually lead the team in targets. He had a 26.6% target share. It was amazing in those games. Christian Kirk, 24%. Evan Ingram, 20%. And Travis Etienne had nine targets in those five games. Who is the, like the Texans come to mind for me, but the worst duo?

Oh, could be the Giants, honestly. I mean. Oh, for sure. Well, I don't know. Texans could have been. No, Brandon Cooks. We're not counting Darren Moeller. Cooks I don't know Texans could have been uh no Brandon Cooks yeah we're not counting Darren Muller Cooks is not with the Texans no you mean who's going to be this year who was last year oh I'm sorry I thought you meant last year no we could we could find out

so we got Nico Robert Woods and Tank Dell and Mechie a lot of unknowns there. I'm more certain that the Giants are bad, but the Texans could be worse. You underestimate Darius Slayton. He's not that bad. You know, so for the magazine and for the site, a little peek behind the curtain for those of you who don't know, when you click on a

player page and you see those player outlooks, we write all of those player outlooks. Myself, Heath, Dave, Dan, Chris, Adam doesnris adam doesn't know the rights he doesn't do this um but we we do all those player outlooks so uh i have the nfc east and the afc east you have the west the west dave does the south and um i think chris and dan split the rest um or split the north um so i was doing the giants player outlooks uh the other day and slayton actually wasn't horrible you know it's funny because he got he got overlooked by what richie james and isaiah hodgins did at the end of the season but there was a stretch before those

guys where he was producing fairly consistently he missed a portion of the season but he's he's very very intriguing you know it's it's uh it's clearly not somebody that you're going to target on draft day but if wandel robinson and sterling shepherd aren't back and you're talking about jalen hyatt trying to feel fit some role you know he he was asked about this uh where does he feel most comfortable playing a slot playing outside i think it's pretty clear at this point point that Hodgins and Slayton are the two outside guys. And so Hyatt's going to have to fight with, and this is going to sound funny, but he's going to have to fight with Paris Campbell, I think, for the slot role

if those other two guys aren't healthy. It's so many, so many moving parts with this passing game. But I do think that Slayton and Hodgins, Hodgins is going to be the one that gets the most attention. But Slayton's not a bad dart throw either with a late run pick. Bold prediction. Then we get to your emails. The Giants wide receivers

in just yards outgain the Chiefs wide receivers. Interesting. I don't know why. Okay. All right, let's take a break.

I've gone crazy. Speaking of that, it is a funny exercise that if it was any other quarterback looking at that group in Kansas City, he'd say, like, I'm not drafting that guy. No. And here we are. He's number one for everybody. I mean, are the Chiefs going to have an 800-yard receiver?

Does it matter? No, it doesn't. But the Giants have, I think, a better chance of having an 800-yard receiver than the Chiefs. No, I wouldn't say that. But not much worse. All right, enough Giants talk. We'll be back with your emails. FantasyFootball at CBSi.com.

Stick around. All right, here we go. A few emails emptying the inbox here. We've got back with your emails. Fantasyfootball at CBSi.com. Stick around. Alright, here we go. A few emails. Emptying the inbox here. Got some great Dynasty emails that I hope Heath is able to read on his special Dynasty show on Tuesdays. Check it all out. YouTube.com slash FantasyFootballToday. If you want to watch it, YouTube.com slash FantasyFootballToday.

You can also hear it just on this podcast. Alright. Anyway, first email comes from Scott from the land of the second greatest switch hitter in baseball history, Eddie Murray. Well, is that Baltimore? I don't know where Murray is from. But Scott is having problems reconciling why Quentin Johnston is not ranked higher in dynasty than Jackson Smith and Jigba and Jordan Addison. His quarterback is far superior to JSNs and Addison's and his ascension to wide receiver one is clearer than that of those two.

And by the way, Dave said he does have, he does have Johnston ahead of Addison, not JSN, but Heath, what do you think? I think it's more, and we've talked about this on the dynasty show a couple of times. He's right. There's the upside there playing with Justin Herbert. If he becomes the true number one for Justin Herbert, he should be.

There's a lot more concerns about whether he's going to be able to get open as the number one in the NFL versus JSN and Addison. They are much, much, much better at getting open at this point in their careers. He has the physical traits. He has some things that he's really going to have to improve on, though, if he's going to be an alpha number one. Jamie, how do you rank them? He would be third for me. But I do think there's a clearer path to him having a better chance,

as Heath said, to be the number one guy. Because, again, he's tied to the best quarterback. Cousins, who knows how much longer he'll be in Minnesota. Justin Jefferson is clearly not going anywhere. And then you talk about the Seattle situation. At some point in the near future, they're going to hit the reset button on their quarterback position as well. And if it's not somebody that steps in right away.

I also think, though, from a Smith and Jigma standpoint, that the narrative seems to be, oh, he's the third guy steps in right away. I also think though, from a Smith and Jigma standpoint that, you know, the narrative seems to be, Oh, he's the third guy. And they've never had a third guy. They never had a guy like this. You know, it's, it's been so many also rands and maybe this, and maybe that this guy is a Supreme talent that has the chance to be their best receiver. You know, as good as DK Metcalf has been as good as Tyler Lockett has been, this pedigree is better than both those guys. And so we'll see if he takes advantage of it and gets a chance to be special. So I would put Smith Najigba and Addison ahead of Quentin Johnson for now because exactly what he said is his route running, I think,

still needs to improve and the ability to separate is going to be a big part of his game. But clearly you'd like the guy tied to the best quarterback, and that's easily Quentin Johnson over what we see from those other two guys. Alright, next email is from Shane. Hey, Fox, Oliver, Kennedy, and Gillen. Fox,

Oliver, Kennedy, and Gillen. Jamie, you should know this one. I don't. They're Jamie's. Okay. How do you not know that? Grade these trades. Half PPR Dynasty League. My top receivers are Higgins, Garrett Wilson, Keenan Allen, and Drake London.

I traded Jahan Dotson and a mid-2023 second-round rookie pick for Damian Pierce and Rashad Penny. Oof. round rookie pick for Damian Pierce and Rashad Penny? Oof. I'll say D+. D plus on a trade? I'd rather have Dotson than Pierce and Penny

in Dynasty. And he gave up a second, too. He got Dotson or he traded Dotson? He traded Dotson. And Penny in Dynasty. And he gave up a second, too. Okay. Wait, he got Dotson or he traded Dotson? He traded Dotson. Look, he has Higgins, Garrett Wilson, Keenan Allen, and Drake London. So he's trying to upgrade a running back. He traded Dotson and a mid-2023 second-round rookie draft pick

for Damian Pierce and Rashad Penny. I think, look, on the surface, you don't want to give up a young receiver for any running backs because just the you know return on investment is never going to be great but it's so hard to turn a player like Dotson right now into an elite running back talent now I think if you were saying I'm competing right now you would target one of these 27 year old running backs that might be on a team that's not competing. And then you give them

Dotson and a pick for someone that's a little bit more proven that can help you right away. But look, I mean, Pierce may have a four or five-year window of being a consistent number two running back. And if that's the case, then I think that'll even out. But Dotson's ceiling is

certainly higher. So I'll say C just to be fair. Okay. And the second trade, I don't know what side he's on here. Elijah Moore and a 2025 second round pick for Brandon Ayuk. That's the thing we didn't talk about with Hopkins and possibly going to Cleveland. Like is Elijah Moore going to get overlooked again after we thought he finally got somewhere they wanted him to be? I think I'd still rather have the Moore side. I would probably rather have the Moore side right now

because of no Hopkins. I think there's more pass opportunities, especially the quarterback situation being what it is in San Francisco, not knowing who's going to be the guy there. But yeah, obviously if Hopkins goes, forget about it. You want IU. All right, next question is from Aaron from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. I'm looking at making some running back trades with my rookies

if they escalate to starters. Half-point PPR between Chase Brown, Kendri Miller, and Dwayne McBride. Who has the most upside? Should each one take over as a starter? Which to establish running back would you put at their level? Like would McBride be as good as Akers or Gibson, et cetera? So Chase Brown, Kendri Miller, Dwayne McBride. If they're starting?

Yeah. Who has the most upside, and then how good would they be if they're starting yeah who is the most upside and then how good would they be if they were starting i think it's hard to overlook chase brown starting for the bangles and not say he has the most upside i don't yeah i mean it seems like because joe mixon could get cut that's the one that's easiest to see although miller with the saints and a couple of old backs and one of them legal trouble i guess i'd probably go mill go Miller, then Brown, then McBride, but I would say that Brown and Miller are closer for me than McBride is. Yeah, Brown and Miller are definitely the top two for me.

It's just, and also, you know, if we're just talking about this season, the guys behind Joe Mixon, Chase Brown should be the best. The guys behind Kamara, I think even though he said two older guys, but I don't think Jamal Williams is not going to have a role, no matter what the situation is. So Miller I don't think is going to step ahead. And I think probably the same thing with the guys behind Madison. Madison were to be the starter there, and then he missed his time.

I think we'll see Chandler, Nwagnu, and McBride all sharing work. I don't really know how to answer the second question, but if they became the starter, Chase Brown in Cincinnati, Kendri Miller with the Saints, and Dwayne McBride with the Vikings, where would you rank them, I guess, around which other running backs? Well, I'll go back to the way you started the show. They'd be in the same range as Madison and cook, you know, round four, round five for me, you know, if, if they are the guy and I think we're talking dynasty here. Yeah. Okay. Um, like I think they would be below,

but of that, I agree with what he's saying in that if these guys become starters this year, I'm looking at trading them. I think that would probably be a good choice. They'd be the type of running back that we don't feel confident is going to keep his job from year to year, and we're looking each offseason to see if they draft or sign somebody to replace them. So we're talking about, I'm sorry, where they would be drafted in a startup dynasty? What they would be valued like. He's thinking if one of these guys becomes a starter, I'm immediately going to try to flip them because I don't trust they're going to stay a starter. Yeah, I think that's certainly fair. You've done a good job of illustrating this about the James Robinsons and these guys that don't have the first or second round pedigree. And typically what ends up happening to them is that they, they tend to not

have the long-term shelf life that you'd look for, for some of these guys. However, the NFL has changed, you know, and, and, and so, you know, some of these, like Damian Pierce can be a great test case. You know, if, if he has another smash season, he's not going anywhere, you know, and maybe looking at a chance at a second contract with the Texans as opposed to what we've seen from some of these guys in recent years where there's very rarely an Arian Foster that has a chance to have some

longevity with the team that they're on despite not being targeted as a guy in the draft. Last question. FantasyFootball at CBSi.com. It comes from a loyal listener in Michigan who says, go Lions. This is a 12-team, full PPR, super flex keeper league, and it's four-point-per-passing touchdown, one-round deduction for each year a player is question, definitely take Patrick Mahomes. You have the first pick. And he says if he waits until the 2-3 turn, the top 15 will be off the board.

So take Mahomes. The keeper options are Kelsey in round one, Brees Hall round three. Remember, this is super flex. Travis Etienne round three, Ramondre Stevenson, round six. Jalen Waddell, round seven. Ken Walker, round ten. Kenny Pickett, round ten. Calvin Ridley, round eleven. Jamison Williams, round eleven.

Pick two of them. The only confusion I have here is if he keeps Kelsey, does that mean he can't draft Mahomes? I would say yes. All right, then don't keep Kelsey. Right, agreed. Okay, then who would be the two i would probably go waddle and ridley and you're starting with a quarterback you know i i mean the value on remandres was was pretty good um ken walker's value is still pretty good despite the

fact that he could be in timeshare but to me i'm i'm keeping the sure things of what i think those two receivers will be able to do at that cost. It was three for me. It was Waddle, Stevenson, or Ridley. So yeah, just go Waddle and Ridley to make it easy. That's what I was going to say. All right. Well, thank you for watching and listening, everybody.

We've got a lot more content coming your way this week. We've got Heath's bold predictions, Dave's bold predictions, my bold predictions, plus Beyond the Box score. That will be a bonus episode that you'll hear over the weekend or you can watch it live. I think Matt Harmon is joining us.

So that should be a great one with Jacob Gibbs. And that will be on Wednesday at looking like 1 p.m. But Eastern, stay tuned for that. You can watch it youtube.com slash fantasy football today or just wait for the audio

to be released over the weekend. Tomorrow, Heath's Dynasty show at 11 a.m. Eastern. Great stuff. Keep sending your emails, fantasyfootball at cbsi.com. Nuggets and fun.