Fantasy Football Today - Mailbag and Fantasy Cops! (08/12 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 12, 2023

Donate to St. Jude as part of our Draft-A-Thon! Bid on guest spots on our show, Zoom calls with our analysts and more! https://tinyurl.com/fftdonate 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. We're starting today's show with the Fantasy Cops! Can you miss your wedding anniversary for a Fantasy Football draft??? Then we've got news and notes (6:00), your emails (13:00) at [e-mail] and Apple Podcast questions (31:35). We talk about what to do with the second or third pick in your drafts, Ja'Marr Chase's outlook, a wacky league format and more.  SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 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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Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. Oh, yeah. How about that? Starting the show with the Fantasy Cops. What's up, everybody? Welcome to your Saturday Mailbag. Hope you're watching live or watching on YouTube on this Friday afternoon. Adam Azer and Dan Schneier answering your Apple podcast questions

and your emails at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Leave us a five-star Apple podcast review. Dan, I've got, I think, an egregious fantasy cops to start the show. You ready? Oh, boy. Good? Yeah, let's do it. All right, let's do it.

Usually we save the best for last. Let's hear it. This is from Anthony Silva, and he says, Dear Gronk, Luck, Megatron, and Sanders, these are guys who left the league. Lions players. I can finally get this. No, they're not. Gronk house? Oh Megatron, and Sanders. These are guys who left the league. Lions players. I can finally get this. No, they're not.

Gronkowski. Oh, no. Andrew Luck. Andrew Luck and Gronk. Just listen. He even put in parentheses guys who left the league early. Okay? Early retirees, I guess we'd call them. A longtime league member is threatening to leave our Smitty City Fantasy Auction

League because the draft is on his wedding anniversary. He got married the last weekend of August, which is very inconvenient for fantasy. We have accommodated him for years, but multiple people are flying in, so the draft date can't be changed. He has until Saturday

to either designate a proxy, quit the league, or we are kicking him out. Is this too harsh? Is fantasy more important than friendship? Please give us your advice. This is an interesting one, Adam, because I feel like this has gone over in my league every single offseason. We have an unbelievably hard time figuring out a draft date. We never hit a Saturday. We luck, we're lucky to get a Sunday. And for us, it's still a live draft for most of us.

Cause we still live in the Jersey area with like three call-ins and now there were weddings like every summer. And so like, we always had a problem, but I will say this and Aniver. And now this is a similar situation to one league member of mine who has his wife's birthday on the weekend. We like to do the draft and he calls in every time.

Can he just call in for this? Because do call-ins but i guess i guess this is like a situation where he needs the whole day to himself with his wife um so yeah i think he just has to find a proxy that's the fair thing to do we always have we've done that in the past we've had proxies one time a proxy won the league for us like a proxy came in drafted for, and then they won the league. Yeah, find a proxy. But the other thing I'd say is anniversaries, to me anyway, they rank pretty low on the list of things that you need to celebrate. Like his wife, I think, should just let him go to the draft. The anniversaries. Does your wife listen to the podcast, Adam?

I don't think she would care that much, honestly. Does she listen to the pod, though? No,? I don't think she would care that much, honestly. Does she listen to the pod, though? No, but I don't think she would care. A birthday? I would never miss my wife's birthday if I didn't have to. But anniversaries? Like, okay, whatever. I mean, you don't even know about other people's anniversaries.

It's not like a date that people have circled that they're posting on your Facebook wall or something like that. It's just, I, that's, this takes going to get me in some hot water for sure. But for me, I mean, apparently not because your wife apparently doesn't listen to the pod news to me.

And also very devastating to hear. I wonder how other people feel about that. But of all the things that we celebrate the, okay. Fifth anniversary, 10th anniversary, something significant. Sure.

But just an anniversary. It's not I don't know. It's not to me. It's not really that big of a deal. So this is going to get you killed. Yeah. Good old good old Adam says one commenter. He's a classy man. But one person says, you know, good point. The other guy says it's not worth like leaving the league. But if you can never make the draft, then, yeah, then you can't be part of the league so you gotta do something you got designate right it can't be a one-time solution is a proxy but that can't keep happening right

that's fantasy cops for you that's me oh i'm really regretting this i don't know if that's just yeah that was a mistake i'm not worried about my wife she won't care it. It's audience members that are going to be mad at me that I'm worried about. More importantly, Dan, I was talking to your parents the other day. They wanted me to ask you, when are you going to get married? That's going to happen not anytime soon. All right, come on, man. You're getting up there. You got to settle down.

Yeah. You have to. You deserve it, Dan. it dad alright just don't get married in August you're playing therapist today for me we've got our draftathon we've got our draftathon it's August 30th

from 4 to 10pm eastern it's going to be a live stream with no commercials can I host 6 straight hours without a bathroom break? I doubt it, but I will try. But more importantly, we're going to be raising money for St. Jude, not just that night, but the entire month of August. Go to tinyurl.com slash FFTdonate

and see all the things that we have available on that page right now. You can get into mock drafts. You can have private Zoom calls with our talent. You can have spots on this podcast. You can be on FFT. Go to tinyurl.com slash FFT donate. Let's see. Guest appearance on FFT right now is going to be 234.

All proceeds go to St. Jude. All 100% of proceeds go to St. Jude. Exactly. So this is a great cause. We raised $22,000 with the FFT Open, but that's just a fraction of what we want to raise. So yeah, help us out. We also have live streams every Tuesday night,

YouTube exclusive, youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday. And these are great because you might have a non-PPR mock draft coming up or a Superflex mock draft coming up or a super flex mock draft coming up. And all of these live streams are different format mock drafts. And if we don't talk about it enough on our show, head over to our YouTube channel, watch a live stream, check out the draft board and all the analysis,

youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday. All right, let's go through the news and notes, and then we'll do the emails and Apple podcast questions. There's still no timetable for Jonathan Taylor's return, but head coach Shane Steichen is hopeful that he'll be back with the team soon. Anything you want to say about Jonathan Taylor? When would you take him, Dan? I just finally put together my tears for the first time this offseason,

and I know some people have been asking about him, so I'll probably try to release him on, I guess, Twitter or something. Cause I can't put them up on the site. I have Taylor currently ranked in my second tier of running backs as my RB 10 overall. I did not like him originally for reasons being, I think Richardson might steal some red zone looks. I think that offense might be punting a lot, But as I looked a little deeper into the schedule, it's a really, really running back friendly schedule for Jonathan Taylor. And he didn't have that last season.

And I think that could be a good situation for him as well. Just to really help him out as we get into, especially the playoff weeks, where I think it's two Texans matchups, if I'm not mistaken. So I moved him up to RB10. I don't have any concern at all that he'll be holding out. Jonathan Taylor, I am not seeing that.

He has Houston in week two. Okay, maybe I was looking at the wrong. No, he's got him in week 18. But he has the Raiders in week 17. This should be a good matchup. Yeah, I might have mistaken my backs there. Sorry, guys. No, that's all right. There's a mix of good and bad. He does have an easy schedule overall. That I can confirm.

Rashad Bateman's off the pup list. George Kittle is out already, but he's only out about a week with an adductor strain. What do you make of all this Kenny Gainwell stuff? Kenneth Gainwell, Kenny Gainwell, whatever you want to call him, he's getting a lot of buzz as an early downs back for the Eagles.

Do you buy it? I do buy it because Kenny Gainwell had a really nice postseason run. And we saw two, two off seasons ago, last off season where Shane second, or I'm not, not Shane Steichen where, um,

why am I blanking on the head coach of the Eagles? Nick Sirianni was like wearing the Gainwell shirt and being like, I love Gainwell. He's one of those glue players for them them and he's going to get a little bit more of an opportunity this year. I don't think he's going to be a lead back or anything, but I think he's going to eat into the workload of both Penny and Deandre Swift and makes that situation a lot more complicated.

Okay. All right. But we're not buying into he's the starting running back or anything like that. No. And starting it. Look, he might get the first snap,

but he's not the lead back. Okay. Sky Moore appears locked into that starting slot role for the Chiefs. He's also on the field in two receiver sets, as we talked about on the wide receiver preview. Arizona quarterback Clayton Toon could start some games, according to NFL Network's Greg Rosenthal.

How about Kyler Murray? Can we get something on Kyler Murray? Man, has that been a mystery? Yeah. Just a handcuff note. Chris Evans is reportedly ahead of Chase Brown as a backup running back in Cincinnati. And that could mean that there's really no good handcuff for Joe Mixon. Or it could mean that it's Chris Evans.

Or it could mean that it's eventually Chase Brown. But, you know, it's not a surprise for the veteran to be ahead of the rookie this point in training camp. Pittsburgh wide receiver Calvin Austin is having a good training camp. Deep league name to know he might be a slot guy for them. And how about Tank Dell? We had two preseason games Thursday night, which is last night for us. If you're listening, I know there was a lot on Friday that obviously hasn't happened yet, but I don't know that. I can't ignore it. I can't ignore Tank Dell because it's not just what he did in the preseason yesterday. It was the mini camp, the training camp,

all the buzz that he's generated since joining the Texans. And I think we're the, a worthy late round flyer here. Your thoughts on tank Dell. Yeah. Tank Dell is a, one of the players I had an opportunity to scout and write up for our fantasy draft profiles, which would come out every April. Me and Dave Richard hit them all up and tank Dell had some of the best film of any wide receiver in this class. One of the few players I thought on film, in addition

to Jordan Addison's a flowers who wanted all three levels, the short, the intermediate and the deep way and the, and the deep area of the field. The only reason tank Dell wasn't drafted high is because of his size. And he would be an outlier to hit. Because if you look at the players of his size and his BMI, we've actually made in the NFL, the list is one or two players total. So he has to be an outlier for sure. But everything he does on film is when, like he is a unbelievable route runner. And something that was interesting is people said, Oh, look at his body type, Adam.

He has to play the slot in the NFL. Well, he played 14 of 18 snaps, I believe, on the outside last night, including that amazing back shoulder touchdown catch he made. He's a real talent. The issue for me with Tank Dell as a late round flyer, Adam, is I'm very, very concerned with C.J. Stroud's ability to move the offense in year one. C.J. Stroud, to me, looked unbelievably uncomfortable in that game.

Terrible. He took a ton of sacks at Ohio State. Yeah. What did you say? He looked terrible. He took a ton of sacks at Ohio State yeah what do you say he looked terrible I mean he took a ton of sacks at Ohio State to me first of all you know but what'd you say I'm not I'm just I'm not gonna overreact to his you know first preseason I'm not gonna base it on that but I'm gonna base it on how he was under pressure at Ohio State which didn't happen often because he had two elite tackles one who was drafted in the top 10 the other who was drafted like around late around or two later just because he was a little overrate dewan jones but he had unbelievable center luke whippo like he had an unreal line there at ohio state that's not going to be the case right now uh with texans outside of tonsil so i don't know i just have a

big concern with that offense moving the football and i'm honestly after watching that performance and not just that performance just thinking about rookie quarterbacks in year one, many have struggled, Adam, Trevor Lawrence included. So I don't know. I don't love the offense. Okay. Got a Twitter poll up about how big of a deal is your wedding anniversary. So let's see how that...

That was a mistake by you. I just want to make sure I'm not alone in that. All right. We'll take a break here. I don't think so. So far, the results are in my favor. We'll take a break. When we come back, emails at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com.

Please put the letter I in there, and we will be right back. Did you know 66% of utility damage is caused by not requesting a locate? Don't let your project become part of this statistic. A quick locate request can save you from unexpected downtime, financial penalties, and keep you safe. Don't let avoidable damage cost you time and money. Click before you dig. Ensure your next project is safe.

Visit OntarioOneCall.ca. It's free. It's easy. It's the law. Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report. First email is from Anna. She says, I think you can get this, Dan. Dear Jordy, Randall, and Donald.

Okay. Packers receivers. Very good. Finally. 14-team full PPR. I have the third pick, and I'm thinking I'll have to choose from McCaffrey, Chase, Kupp, Eckler, and Tyreek Hill.

Who would you take third overall if Jefferson and who's Bichon, I'm guessing she thinks is going to be second, are off the board? I like McCaffrey in that spot, personally. The way I look at it is this. There's... What do I have it at? Let's look at my tiers real quick. At running back, I have nine

running backs I'm comfortable with in that bell cow row, and I like a hero running back approach. I'm not going to get one if I don't take McCaffrey or any of them there on the comeback. So instead, I'll take one here and I'll load up a receiver with my second and third round picks. 14 team league. I'm more likely to take a running back there because yes, yeah, I just it's going to dry up pretty quickly by the time you get to the 26th pick.

Whereas I think at receiver, you're still going to have the Olave Smith Higgins group. You might be able to get two of them. So I'd go McCaffrey in your situation. 12-team league, I don't really have a set in stone top five, but if I had to do it, Jefferson's definitely one for me in a PPR league. And then I'm probably, yeah, you know what? It is Jefferson Chase one and two for me. I had Eckler as RB1.

After the RB preview, i think i'm gonna just go back to mcafree i feel like i'm getting a little bit too cute especially since the main point against mcafree is the presence of elijah mitchell which is hardly ever there uh so i'll go can i give you an interesting can i give you an interesting stat adam yeah and this doesn't really impact my draft strategy because i'm not personally trying to find the best player in fantasy with my first round pick. I'm go for the opposite route. I've discussed it on the podcast before.

I like to not lose in round one. Other people go for the, you know, go for the Gus. So try to win. Listen to this. Justin Jefferson, kind of the consensus.

Number one, overall, if Justin Jefferson does finish as the number one overall player in fantasy this year, he will become just the sixth wide receiver since then. And this is courtesy of our, of our stats team. He'll become the sixth wide receiver since 1970 merger to lead all non QBs

and PPR fantasy points. And he would become just the third wide receiver since 1970 merger to lead all non QBs and non PPR points. Just think about that. This is, if you're going for the best player overall, it's not likely to be a wide receiver. It's almost

always going to be a running back. Touchdowns I think are the big reason for that, but just keep in mind it happened two seasons ago with Cooper Cupp. Yeah, that was one of the six. I know. It's tough. I just wish I wish McCaffrey and Eckler didn't have

yet. I know if they had more of a bell cow row, well, Eckler should, no, it's not that they just have some question marks. Jefferson doesn't. So I don't, I think,

I think Jefferson is the, I don't want to lose. Right. And that's good. Cause that's what I'm doing too. But I'm just saying, if you're going for the gusto and you want to go balls to the wall, I want first place. I don't care. Then you might want to take gusto and you want to go balls to the wall, I want first place.

I don't care. Then you might want to take a chance on one of these running backs. I kind of agree with you. I just wish one of them didn't have as much warts. Honestly, the one who I think has the best chance to finish one one might be B. John. Oh, yeah, I love it. I can't do it in full PPR.

I think Eckler and McCaffrey are going to crush him and catches. But yeah, but in half or not, they will crush. All right. Let's go to our next email. It is Mike Tavares. He says, even the guys were, oh, okay. He said, I listened to the wide receiver preview, and even though the guys were joking on Adam

for Azor statting the top five wide receivers, I thought it was interesting how Chase seemed less dominant than the other four in the top five. Does the consensus feel that he is going to take a third year leap leading to his top two wide receiver ranking? Maybe the consensus feels the way I'm not sure. I'll tell you how I feel about why I have him as my wide receiver two overall. The reason I have him there is simple NFL schematics. I've talked about this before. There's no way to play Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes anymore outside of two high shells.

You cannot play man coverage with one safety over the top. So what happens in these two high shell looks with split safeties is wide receivers have to win press man on the outside. And Jamar Chase is better than almost every wide receiver, at least according to Matt Harmon, who charts these receivers, reception, reception, at beating press man coverage on the outside. And the rapport he has with Joe Burrow is as good as anyone in the NFL right now, I would say with the exception of maybe Mahomes and Travis Kelsey at this point in

time. So you get at the back shoulder, you get the vertical go ball, maybe some in breakers, but either way, I just find their connection a little more unbeatable to me than let's say Tyree kill into who I don't know if two is going to play out the whole season or Stefan Diggs and Josh Allen, who don't really have that same thing going on right now, in my opinion, at least, or didn't last year. Uh, and then maybe even CD Lamb and Dak Prescott. Well, now that's another situation where I think we're not going to see the same, especially because Lamb plays inside on the slot. So I just feel like Jamar Chase has the best situation when it comes to rapport with the quarterback already built in the system in place where I just think he's going to have a lot of nice outside looks.

Okay. Uh, this is from Josh. He says, Hey, Mike, Henrik and Igor. Let's feel like hockey.

Uh, something's that, uh, Rangers goalies. Okay. They're just goalies. Yeah. Mike Richter. Henrik Lundqvist. I just think of Heinrich Lundqvist. The only Hein're just goalies. Yeah. Mike Richter.

Heinrich Lundqvist. I just think of Heinrich Lundqvist. He's the only Heinrich I know. All right. 10 team. And I think Igor's a goalie. Yeah, definitely. 10 team PBR super flex.

It's kind of. I have any clue about hockey. Kind of a dynasty startup. It's super flex. Not sure if you would call it dynasty or keeper. We have a 22 man roster and 12 keepers. How would you go about this startup draft? Would you draft like a dynasty league where you keep your whole roster? What would you do differently?

100% draft this like a dynasty. Adam, I don't think baked burgers are that bad of a take, but I would use a grill or a stovetop first. Okay, thank you. I'll address both here. Let me address the first part, or the part that's more interesting to me. Baked burgers are a horrible take.

Okay. Why in the world would you want to dry out a burger by putting it in an oven? You don't try it out. You don't try it out. And I bake. How do you not try it out? Because you don't. I mean, you don't try.

You put a lot of things. Devante. I'm going to explain that to me. When I put grilled chicken on a stovetop or a grill versus when I put grilled chicken in an oven, there's a considerably drier taste coming out of the oven. Is that not the case for burgers? Obviously, I've never tried it. I'm not going to be crazy enough to put a burger in an oven. I think I would agree it's drier, but it's not dried out.

Okay. So it's just a drier version. Why would you ever want a drier burger, though? That's the question. It's just easier. You know what it is? It's not the league winner. It's the safe pick. It's the Jefferson. No, that's easier it's like you know what it is it's not the league winner it's the safe pick it's the jefferson you know that's not a safe pick though it is not a safe

pick it's hard to get a burger it is not not safe you know what that is that's that's miles gaskin around five that's mike davis in round four remember when you did that all right josh your other question i wouldn't i don't know that I'd treat this as a dynasty startup. I mean, what's the point of taking... No, you have. Why? I don't know. With your late round picks,

with your late round picks, you should be taking guys who can win now, not these... That's fine. I say maybe you go 15 potential keepers. Your first 15 rounds should be potential keepers. Okay, that's fair. That's fair.

All right, we have a question from Andrew. My friends and I have created a steal league. This will be our fourth season. Basic rules are if you win your weekly matchup, you get to steal a player from your opponent. You give a player from your team, but it has to be the same position. Running back for running back, tight end for

tight end, etc. There is only a two-player bench in this league. By the end of the season, there are usually two stack teams, but crazy things have happened where the last place team won, and they went on a roll to win it all. It becomes everyone's favorite league. What do you think? You win a matchup, you swap player, you steal a player

from that team you beat, and you have to swap the positions, and you get a two-man bench. You like it? Not really. I'm going to be honest. It just seems very gimmicky to me i get it like it's okay i i like it if if i have other leagues that are competitive yeah right this is my only league and we switch to this format i don't like it i also think the buy-in should be pretty low for a league like this just for fun almost or throw a little bit in uh by you know

something interesting but not crazy because it's adding a ton of variance to fantasy football. There's already enough variance in this game, and we're adding even more variance. This one is from Saeed. Hello, Hawkeye, BJ, Frank, and Trapper. I had to look it up. When you hear the name Saeed, by the way, Adam, do you think of a TV show?

Because I do. No. What do you think of? Do you ever Because I do. No. What do you think of? Did you ever see Lost? No. That's what I think of. There's a character named Saeed in Lost. I can't believe you never saw Lost. Yeah, I'm not interested.

Horrific ending. One of the worst endings in TV history. And by ending, I mean the entire final season. In my home league, I have the number two pick. This is half PPR, two receivers and a flex, 12 teams. I already know the first pick is going to be McCaffrey. This league values running backs a lot more than most. So I expect more running backs to be gone by the time I'm picking again at the end of round two. Should I change anything, anything in my strategy or go with Justin

Jefferson second overall? I would go with Justin Jefferson second overall? I would go with Justin Jefferson second overall. I would also look at this as an opportunity to kind of flash back to the 2015-2016 time of fantasy football when, wow, why am I blanking on his name right now? I can't believe I did this. Sean Siegel created the zero RB approach. And essentially the reason he was able to win the FFP, it was one of the high stakes leagues, is because of his approach. And essentially the reason he was able to win the FFP, I was one of the FF, the high stakes leagues is because of his approach. And what it did is he zagged when others were zigging by taking all these receivers and just throwing late round dart throws on

running back. I would use this as an opportunity to use that strategy. I would load up at receiver and then throw darts at running back late or not late, but in the middle rounds and throw multiple darts there. And I think you're going to have a chance to win this league by using that approach. Now you might bottom out with this approach. That's the whole point of zero wide, zero running back. It's a high risk, high upside, but it's rare to find that opportunity anymore these days because everyone's starting to understand and realize the value of wide receivers. And that's why we've seen such a shift in drafts and in ADP because people are finally starting to get that you shouldn't load up at running back. It makes more sense to put your asset,

the value, you know, your valuable assets at wide receiver for a variety of reasons. So I think this is a good opportunity for you to just load up and get the best wide receiver core ever. Well, I think I would have a Jalen Waddle cut off as I believe the 11th wide receiver off the board. And if you are fair,

if you are confident that you can get Jalen Waddle in the second round, then I would actually probably take a running back in the first round. And it might be Bijan Robinson. Cause it's half PPR. If you have to get into Devante Smith, T Higgins, Chris Olave, then I would take Justin Jefferson.

You seem to know your league better than I do. And if you don't think, if you think Waddle will be there, then I'd be thrilled with him. You would go Bijan over Eckler, Adam? So it's half PPR. So I'm debating that. It's a real big internal

struggle for me. Rookie running backs, man, like guys like Zeke and Barkley, they just had, they were very high draft picks. We knew they were going to be used a lot and they were just awesome. I don't have a lot of concern for Bijan Robinson, but that's fine.

Pick one of those running backs. I would probably go running back in your league if you think that you can get Waddle in the second round. Jefferson's a great pick, though, either way. This is from Joe, and he says, there's a big miss in the tight end preview. Not one word about Taysom Hill throughout the entire show. I don't even think I've ever heard his name said all offseason.

Is there a reason for this? And he plays in a standard scoring league. Taysom Hill was, I believe, the fifth best tight end per game in standard scoring. So Jamie brought it up. Jamie said, why would they bring in Jamal Williams and still give Taysom Hill all of those touchdowns?

They brought in Derek Carr. That means Taysom Hill is going to have fewer games where he throws a random passing touchdown. You know, they're going to be less gimmicky than they were with Andy Dalton last year. I think he's worth drafting in a, in a non PPR league,

but that's, that is it. Yeah, I would say the same as you. It is interesting though. I mean, he was super productive on a per game basis, still has the qualification as a tight end, but I just wouldn't be able to trust him. I think the problem with him is the production is going to be unpredictable and hard to make him a weekly starter. And I just have other players like even on the saints, likean johns i think he could be a better play overall than days of mill this one is from jerry 14 team ppr league i'm drafting from the number two slot the league championship is week 16 given the favorable matchup against the raiders should

i take travis kelsey with the number two overall pick so i can get that championship matchup against the raiders no no i think it's never a good idea to look forward to the schedule and make your decisions based on that, especially a first-round capital type of decision. Things change. There's injuries. Matchups that look easy don't become easy. Things of that nature.

Let's see what he did against the Raiders last year. Seven catches for 25 yards and four touchdowns in week five and only six catches for 38 yards in week 18. So he actually had two of his worst yardage, the two, the two lowest yardage performance performances of his season against the Raiders. I don't remember if they were,

I don't think they were sitting guys in week 17. I think they had to win that game to lock up the one seed in week 18. Pardon me. All right, Dan, we got to take a break when we come back. Well, look at the Twitter poll about the wedding anniversary. And I want your take on what I said about preferring to have a league without one player who is so much more valuable than everyone else. I don't know if you're aware of this debate. I'm not aware of this debate. It's been a busy week for me. Yeah, so I said I'd rather have a league where, kind of like last year, where

Jefferson was the best player, the most valuable player, not the highest scoring, because those are quarterbacks, but not to the point where he was LaDainian Tomlinson or Christian McCaffrey or Todd Gurley or something like that. It was much more evenly spread out. He wasn't super elite.

And I'd rather have a league like that. So I want to get your thoughts on that when we come back. We are back. The Twitter poll that I put up, Dan, was this is not about your team. This is about fantasy football in general. Is it better if there is, A, one player that is just so much more valuable than everyone else, like Tomlinson or McCaffrey of previous seasons, or, B, no one player that is in his own tier.

I got crapped on for this. Like who? Jamie and Heath. Oh, you don't want league winners? You don't want this? You know, like, it's completely, like, intentionally misinterpreting it.

66.2% of the Twitter respondents said they would rather have no one player in his own tier what about you i i think this is pretty straight up of course i wouldn't want one player in his own tier in a fantasy league having said that this is even more so true because the majority of our leagues are snake drafts in snake draft football snake draft fantasy football which again i compared to playing madden on rookie mode versus auctions which are all pro mode it's completely unfair to have a player like mcafee and snake drafts no one has a chance I compared to playing Madden on rookie mode versus auctions, which are all pro mode.

It's completely unfair to have a player like McAfee and snake drafts. No one has a chance at that player in an auction where anyone could bid on them. That I'm more interesting because you could see you set the price. So he may go for 65. The next guy goes for 50. And now you have an interesting dynamic there where it's like, is it worth paying that extra 15 for that player? How much is it? And Lee can determine that and decide it.

In a snake draft where it's just random and somebody gets the first pick, of course I don't want that. So 100% pure mustard is the name of the YouTube commenter says that was Adam's worst take since hating on mustard. I don't like anything. Wait a second, you hate mustard? I don't like anything spicy. I don't have anything against mustard.

I don't like anything spicy. Right, it'd be one thing if I liked a lot of spicy things, but not mustard. I just don't like anything spicy. I don't have anything against mustard. I don't like anything spicy. Right. It'd be one thing if I liked a lot of spicy things, but not mustard. I just don't like anything spicy. I can't believe you don't like anything spicy. I can't do it. It hurts me. It hurts me. It's a physical thing. Don't make fun of my ailment. I never knew this about you. Don't make fun of my ailment. That's really inconsiderate. This is not an ailment. This is psychological. It's not psychological. I can't do it. You can get over it. Hold on.

I have something to say. So Azar complained about this Mexican restaurant he went to. And of course he's going to complain if he doesn't like spicy food. Like, what are you getting out of it? What did I complain about? You said it sucked. When was this? Recently or?

Yeah, like last week. The last time we went to a Mexican restaurant. Oh, off the air I said that. Off the air. Yeah, yeah. Oh, it sucked. It was really below average. No, but what I'm saying is if you don't like spicy food, how are you, like what are you getting at a Mexican restaurant?

There's plenty of Mexican food. Chicken quesadilla, you know. Plenty of Mexican food that's not spicy. I mean, that's like an know i mean you would get like a plain chicken quesadilla that's like i get a chicken burrito i you know chicken unbelievable this guy oh man um handle spice i don't like spicy food chicken how do you get your chicken wings uh hot obviously like buffalo yeah miles no god actually i prefer teriyaki teriyaki chicken wings or i think yeah put a sweet sauce over there you go sugar it up okay uh other twitter

poll is about your anniversary how big of a deal is your wedding anniversary huge deal 12.6 percent pretty big deal 33.9 percent average deal 36.3 percent not a big deal at all oh 17 the full should have been would you miss your would you not celebrate your anniversary if you had a draft on the same day okay let's do that then would you miss your wedding anniversary to attend your fantasy home league fantasy football draft the most important one yes

no okay on to the Apple podcast questions this is from C Lawler I knew when Schaefer jumped on there it was going to be anti-Azer by the way dear Julio, Ty, Luis and JP

I have no idea those feel like Dodgers Julio, Ty, Luis and JB JP no idea I'm in a super flex auction draft 4 point per passing touchdown who would you target

in an auction 4 point per passing touchdown league instead of versus your six point ranks? Yeah, it doesn't change all that much for me specifically. There are a few guys I would move up. Like I'm looking at my QB tier right tears right now, you know, in a six point,

I might move up my tier that has the DAC cousins, Gino Rogers, but in a four point, I might move Daniel Jones a little more into that tier. Maybe a few spots up. I might move Anthony Richardson a few spots up. I might move to Sean Watson. I had surprisingly better rushing than I expected down the stretch last season. A few, a few, a few spots up. I might try to target Kyler Murray a little bit later, who I think can get super cheap if you're drafting this weekend. Um, and we still don't know when he'll come back but that is kind of why you'll get him cheap so players like that i might move burrow a spot or two down behind maybe a fields

and a jackson uh that type of thing yeah uh daniel jones did you see that i know you saw actually i think i saw you tweet it that throw he made that touchdown in the corner of the end zone, what a throw. It was awesome, but it was practice. I know. It was just a great throw. We need to temper our expectations. I want to see those types of things in games, and then I'll get excited. Alright, next question here. I am offering Olave

and Ramondre Stevenson for Amandra St. Brown and Miles Sanders. Do you think this is fair? No, I think it's a terrible trade for you. You'd rather have a lot of they enter Mondray. Of course.

I think a lot of is going to have it. I love what I'm seeing from a lobby so far. I think he's having an amazing season. Not as good as a Monroe St. Browns, but the drop off from Ramond Ray Stevens into miles Sanders is going to be a big one. In my opinion,

what are you laughing? I said, from Ramondre Stevenson to Miles Sanders, is going to be a big one, in my opinion. What are you laughing at? I said, would you miss your wedding anniversary to attend your home league fantasy football draft? And someone wrote back, you had me at wedding. Would you miss your wedding? By the way, so far, seven votes. Six of them say yes, they would miss their anniversary. We'll keep an eye on it, folks.

Okay. Okay. By the way, you say you you what you've seen from olave he's not a player i've heard a ton about so far in training camp what have you seen or heard about olave just been listening to derrick derrick car talked about him today about how he ran a route today that he car basically said for a second year receiver to understand where i wanted him to break on that route i think it was an option route to get away from Tyron Matthews cutting to intercept it. He's like, I haven't seen that type of thing for a second year receiver. And that's kind of what we saw last season with Olave. It's just immediate explosion burst off the line of scrimmage that leads to him getting vertical fast.

He can win in the vertical game. Obviously, we saw the air yards last year, but I think that he also has that unique ability to stop and start and to get in and out of breaks at the top of his route. And so that's going to make him just a demon in the middle of field. Well, I'm kind of just in breaking and out breaking routes in the intermediate range. I just think a lobby is due for a really, really big year. And we know Derek Carr is not afraid to pepper that number one receiver with a lot of targets and really funnel a passing game through one player. So I just have high expectations for a lobby this year. He's somebody I've moved up recently.

This is from Wes Bob, dear Steven, D'Angelo, Anquan and Donald really know Bolden Anquan Bolden. Yeah, I know, but Steven Jackson, Angelo,

Steven Jackson, D'Angelo Williams. I don't know what these people have in common. Yeah, me either. Dynasty question, know what these people have in common. Yeah, me either. Dynasty question. Getting ready to push all in. How do you balance... Steven Jackson, D'Angelo Williams.

Isn't that Rams running backs? Was D'Angelo Williams ever on the Rams? I don't think D'Angelo Williams was, no. Okay. But what is that? Anquan Bolden wasn't on the Rams. No, and this is... Okay, this is just bad.

Let's move on. Bad form. Getting ready to push all in in Dynasty, but how do you balance strengthening your current roster while allowing yourself a cushion in case luck doesn't fall your way in the playoffs? I don't think you should look at it like allowing yourself a cushion. When you're in this mode, what does that look for?

He said, answer to the names is unGoogle-able. It was my first four picks of the league in 2006 that's awesome that is very good um yeah but i think you do have to just make your decision and and kind of go all in on either building either trying to win now or rebuilding i just made the decision to rebuild in a league just sent a package of tyreek hill as alexander madison george kittle for a future first, Jordan Addison and a future second. And I'm at this point now in full cell mode. And I think if you're in win now mode, you just kind of lean into it and you don't worry about balancing things out. All right. So he picked Steven Jackson in round one, D'Angelo Williams in round two. Let's see how he did. Jackson had,

uh, wow. He had like 2,300 total yards and 16 touchdowns. Steven Jackson. It's awesome. D'Angelo Williams. I don't think had a good year. He had a terrible year. Uh,

so that was bad pick. Anquan Bolden was, Anquan was wide receiver 15 and Donald driver was wide receiver 15, and Donald Driver was wide receiver 6. Pretty good. Good job. Okay, next question is, Zach from the Seven Cities.

What are those? Are those the Game of Thrones? Seven Kingdoms? No, no, no. Y'all are awesome. You watch? Thank you. Yeah, of course I watch Game of Thrones. You Kingdoms. No, no, no. No. Y'all are awesome. You watch? Thank you. Yeah, of course I watch Game of Thrones.

You know this. Okay. Ten-team PPR league. Two quarterbacks. Two flex. Two tight ends. Three receivers. Oh, hate two tight end leagues.

Go on. I know drafts always end up depending on who is taken available, and you can't have a concrete plan going into one, but any general tips to keep in mind with this kind of roster? Two quarterbacks, two receivers. Get Kelsey if you can. Get Kelsey if you can is my first tip. Three wide receivers, two tight ends,

two flex. What? Ten team. Yeah, I'm trying to read the roster here. You just did it. You just did it. I'm trying to read it again. You're rereading. Yeah, I'm a rereader. I'm a repeater. You know that. Okay, go for it. I'm a repeater. You know that. No, that's all right. I already did it. You just did it. I'm trying to read it again. You're rereading. Yeah, I'm a rereader. I'm a repeater. You know that. Okay, go for it. I'm a repeater.

You know that. No, that's all right. I already did it once. All right, what are your... A lot of roster spots here, including Superflex. I would prioritize a great tight end if you could. But if I don't get a great tight end, I think I'm fine with,

you know, the Ingram and Dulcich or something like that. But super flex, I'm not, I'm not missing out on the super flex. I want to top 15 to 18 quarterbacks if possible. If I was in this format, there's almost a 0% chance I'm investing anything at running back.

I'm almost punting the position because I need to put my resource into quarterbacks. I need to find a way to get one of these top tight ends somehow, some way. I want to get a good second tight end. I don't even know what I... I can't be sitting here week after week with a total of 5.3 points for my tight ends. And if you punt tight end in this format, you're going to get 5.3 points. But everyone's going to have a crappy tight end, pretty much.

Yes, but if you have Kelsey and you hit on your second, you're going to have such a huge positional advantage. It's going to make up for anything you might lose out on at running back or receiver. If you have Kelsey, yeah. I bet anyone could hit on their second. So, I mean, would you take Kelsey and Andrews?

I wouldn't do that. See, I don't think anyone could hit on their second. That's my thing. I look at tight end now. I'm looking at my tears. I just meant, I just meant there's 20 needs to be. I just meant that the Kelsey owner is just as likely to hit on his second

one as the guy who, you know, the, any, any manager, right? It's like, I can't even say prioritize it.

Right. All right. I'll just sum it up. A quarterback is still more important to me than tight end in this format. Okay. I agree. I think you're going to be able to find a lot of tight ends who are just the same toward the end of your draft to be your number two tight end,

whereas quarterback, you're not going to have that luxury. I want to have a good one. All right, this is from... I want to have two good ones. This is from HGHKOBV. Dear Moe's, Creed, and Bob Vance of Vance Refrigeration and Daryl. These are office characters?

Yeah. You know my office. Yeah, the wrong one. It's a great show. It's just not as good as Parks and not close. 10-team half PPR league, not too competitive. I give up Chris Olave and Alexander Madison. I get Amonra St. Brown and Joe Mixon.

Yes. Yeah. Love this deal for you. All right. This is the best trade-off we've heard yet. Utah, super flex redraft, 10-team league. I have the 10th pick. Assuming the top nine picks are Mahomes, Allen, Hurts, Lamar, Burrow, Herbert,

McCaffrey, Jefferson, and Chase. That's six quarterbacks, McCaffrey, Jefferson, and Chase. What do you do at the 10-11 turn? Do you go Fields and Lawrence? Do you go Kelsey quarterback? What do you do? Fields for sure because there's a teardrop for me. What do you do? Fields for sure. Cause he,

there's a teardrop for me. He's my last guy in tier two. So I'm definitely taking Justin Fields. And then I'm, then I'm probably taking Kelsey as well. I'm probably going Fields, Kelsey. Definitely Kelsey for me.

And then your favorite quarterback, Fields, Lawrence, whoever it is. This is a baked burger level question from Tyler. I know you said no more keeper questions, Adam, but I'll make it a two-part question. Adam, has anyone ever confused you for Nathan Fielder?

Oh my God. It's a pretty good call. Do you know who Nathan Fielder is? Will you stop acting like you're so much cooler than I am that you know all the funny things? That's not cool. That's not cool because I have no life and I watch a lot of TV.

That doesn't make me cool. But do you know who that is, right? Have you seen Nathan For You? Yes, Nathan For You is amazing. I love Nathan For You. It's like up there for top five comedies of all time. I'm trying to now figure out if I think you remind me of Nathan Fielder.

You don't really look that much like him, but you kind of look like him. I can kind of see it, but not really, not fully. Voice, tone, no, not really. I don't really see you as like a nathan fielder type i think i see more as like a jerry jerry seinfeld type like jerry seinfeld like the high pitch voice you know you have that high pitch voice at times that's why you know jerry what's the deal with it you know you kind of do a little seinfeld with a high pitch voice type thing

shaver can you pull up a side by the can you pull up a picture of nathan fielder and we'll do a side by side here yeah let's see a side by up a picture of Nathan Fielder? And we'll do a side-by-side here. Yeah, let's do a side-by-side with Azern Fielder. Let's get Dan out of the picture just for a second. Oh, I thought my picture would get bigger there. Turn your head toward it. I can kind of see it. Not really, though.

I'm trying to do his face and I'm pointing, but nobody can see. And you don't have the dry humor. You have more of a damper brand of humor, if that makes any sense. He's got the dry humor. He's very funny. And if anybody remembers that story that was all over the news about the goat who saved the pig or the pig who saved the goat. I think it was the pig

who saved the goat in the water. Nathan Fielder completely manufactured that as a publicity stunt. And I didn't know that. That's not his only one. Oh, really? He did that with Dumb Starbucks too.

Do you remember that one? Yeah, you're right. Yeah. That was also all over the news. He's literally like fooled news stations multiple times. It's incredible. I will say this, though.

His new show, I didn't like that much. It was a little too weird. Did you see that one? I watched only one episode. I didn't love it. Even without loving it, there's some moments where I cracked up. My favorite thing from that show was the pizza delivery, uh, the pizza company or the pizza place where he said, we're going to do delivery. And here's what we're going to do. We're going

to tell everyone that we're going to deliver in five minutes. And if we don't get there on time, you get a free pizza. And the guy's like, Oh no. Yeah. You got a free pizza. The guy's like, I can't do that. He's like, don't worry. The pizza is going to be this big. And it was the size of like a not even a basketball it was like the size of like a little kid so it was so good because some of his pranks don't land as well with the with the public as the others that one landed so well the people got so angry when they received that little pizza they were so pissed off just brilliant okay sorry back to the show yeah uh would you you rather have Tony Pollard in the eighth

or Ken Walker in the tenth? Pollard. Easy. Really easy. This is from Scumbag Joe. Saquon in the third. Amonra in the sixth. Dobbins in the sixth.

Damian Pierce in the seventh. Rashad Bateman in the eighth. Christian Kirk, eighth. Dallas Goddard, ninth. Ken Walker, tenth. Christian Kirk, eighth. Dallas Goddard, ninth. Ken Walker, tenth. James Cook, tenth. Jordan Love, 18th round super flex. Pick two.

Amon Rob Barkley. Yeah. Easy. Yeah. Well, Jordan Love, 18th, is interesting. I know. I just don't like him at all. All right.

Fine. EST 1992, or established 1992. Hey, don't like him at all. Alright. Fine. EST 1992. Established 1992. Hey, Dan, Bob, Ryan, and Jay. No idea. Yeah, I have no idea. Who do I keep? PPR. I need two. Eckler in the

second. Waddle in the fourth. Adams in the sixth. Taylor in the ninth. Oh, wow. Olave in the fourteenth. Fields in the fourth adams in the sixth taylor in the ninth oh wow olave in the 14th fields in the 15th remandre in the 16th whoa i think i'm going to lave in remandre i got these wrong value how i got these wrong oh okay okay it's waddle in the second Adams in the fourth Taylor in the sixth Olave in the ninth fields in the 14th round remandre in the 15th round I think I'm still going remandre and Olave personally yeah okay it's just great value and we have another keeper question here which I hate but I appreciate the five-star reviews.

And we have to go soon anyway, because Dan has to go to the dentist at 2.30, which sounds like a joke, but it's legit. Look at these beautiful teeth. You know why it's a joke, right? You know the 2.30 joke? Yeah, 2.30. 2.30, yeah, yeah.

Oh, 2.30. Yeah, you did know the joke. He's keeping Jamar Chase in the third and Christian Watson for a 12th. Pick one. Samaje, P. Ryan in the 16th, Evan Ingram in the 16th, Damian Pierce in the fourth,

or James Cook in the seventh? P. Ryan, next question. Okay, I'm fine with that. Tog Jones. Cup or ETN in the third? Cup in the third, ETN in the 12th? Oh. Or what is this?

That's it? No. We'll start with ETN in the 12th for sure. That's fire. Oh, I get it. Okay. So he can keep one of those, and if he does,

it'd be the second year in a row today. He's keeping ETN in the 12th and he would lose his second keeper, or he can keep any combination of two from Jalen hurts in the seventh Jamison Williams in the 13th Hopkins in the eighth or Berks in the 11th. I'm sticking with it. ETN. Yeah. I'm sticking with the value is just too good yeah it is interesting though this is from matt bav he says can't believe dan can't wrap his head around oil of ole

agreed i mean i don't know why you can't believe it we've had multiple people recently come out and say i've seen it on twitter i've seen it in youtube comments that it's a bad take by adam it's not a good reference um look the commercials that are supposedly out there, I've never seen one. Okay. I don't even know what Olay is. It's Oil of Olay. It's a brand. Yeah.

I don't really want to say that in case they're a sponsor at some point, but probably a great brand and great products. But look, I've never seen it before. I've never seen it before, and I've never seen the commercials. And so it's just a random reference. It's like me saying, like, let me think of something that Adam doesn't know. You can't think of anything. You're bad at this. Yeah, I am.

Well, I actually had a really good team name in our Dynasty League, though. Tell me that was good. And you didn't even, like, appreciate that enough. What was Dan on the toilet? Live from the toilet? Live from the toilet. Like, live from the toilet. I thought you'd love that.

You just want the puns. Like, you're just, I need a pun. A funny pun. I like puns. Pun guy. I'm a pun guy. Yep.

All right. Ted and Steve. I'll think of a pun for you. You will not. You have about two minutes. There's no way you will think of anything. In fact, I will read and answer this Apple Podcast question

while you will not think of a pun. The question is, do I keep Josh Jacobs in the sixth, Jalen Hurts in the seventh, Dalvin or James Cook or some cook in the ninth, or Trevor Lawrence in the 16th round? And I would keep, right now, I would keep Josh Jacobs in the sixth.

If not him, I would keep Trevor Lawrence in the 16th. With that keeper in mind, who do I take at 105? Top four is likely Jefferson, McCaffrey, Chase, Eckler. I'm leading Cup or Kelsey. I'm going Cup still. So do you have my answers? I think I go Kelsey. All right, what do you got, pun boy?

I didn't say I was going to do it. I wasn't talking about now. I'll come up with one in a league we're in and you'll see it. And then I'll bring it up. Okay. How about, um, taste,

taste the Dwayne bow. How about that one? Okay. You know, people have done that like a million times. It's totally not original. So I thought I'd sneak that through. Yeah.

Good job though. Uh, it's been reading Dwayne Lowe is really what it was. How about Tony Soprano? Kadarius Tony, if you have him on your roster. Or Tony Pauly. Tony with an E. Really, really good, Dan.

Really good. Thanks for watching and listening, everybody. Have an awesome weekend. We'll talk to you Monday. With preseason rankings movers on Fantasy Football Today.