Fantasy Football Today - Mailbag! Nico Collins, Bucky Irving, Travis Etienne and More (07/11 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 11, 2025

Bid on Draft-A-Thon items here! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tiltify.com/@cbs-sports/fft-draftathon-2025⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Vote for Fantasy Football Today in the "Sports" category: https://podcastawards.com/app/signup We've got plenty of your questions to answer after we start the show with some news and notes! We'll read your Draft-a-thon questions (7:50) and take a look at a couple of Twitter polls (40:00) before reading your emails at [e-mail] (52:10), Apple Podcast questions (1:03:15) and YouTube comments (1:06:35). We'll talk about Bucky Irving's outlook and some historical comps, the Top 8 wide receivers, the Jaguars backfield, which position is more injury prone (RB or WR?), auction leagues and more. Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts Watch FFT on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Shop our store: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠shop.cbssports.com/fantasy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  SUBSCRIBE to FFT Express on Apple: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-express/id1528634304⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow FFT Express on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/6qyGWfETSBFaciPrtvoWCC?si=6529cbee20634da8⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ SUBSCRIBE to FFT DFS on Apple: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dfs/id1579415837⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ FOLLOW FFT DFS on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/5zU7pBvGK3KPhfb69Q1hNr?si=1c5030a3b1a64be2⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FFT team on Twitter:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @FFToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @AdamAizer⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @JameyEisenberg⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @daverichard⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @heathcummingssr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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 Fan 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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This is gonna go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath. It's mailbag time. Welcome everybody. It is Friday, July 11th. Time for a mailbag with your questions from our draftathon page. Your questions via email at fantasyfootballatcvsi.com. That's the letter I. Apple podcast questions. Please leave us a five star review on Apple podcast. Tell people why you love our show. And then you can ask a question. And of course, your YouTube comments.

Adam Azer and Jamie Eisenberg know Dan today. That is sad, but he'll be back hopefully on Monday on CBS Sports Network. We're gonna be on CBS Sports Network Monday at 1 p.m. Eastern. So please check that out. What's up, Jamie? I think we should have our audience guess where Dan is.

And then Monday we ask him to see if we're right. Because I don't know. I have no idea where he is. Yeah. All right. So post your comments on our YouTube chat or wherever you want to send them. And we'll see who has the funniest guess of where Dan is. This is a great idea.

All right. So we got a couple of news items here. Najee Harris suffering an eye injury in a fireworks accident, but seems to be fine. Apparently a superficial eye injury. So I don't think this changes anything, right, for Hampton and Harris? I did see it was either Rappaport or Scheffler. One of their reports on this suggested that he may not be ready for training camp. I think the agent may have said that. So something to keep an eye on there, but it does not seem like it's anything major, but you just don't like to see stuff like this clearly from any perspective.

And, you know, hopefully, uh, you know, I, I believe somebody lost maybe finger or a finger injury, sounds terrible. Um, you know, hopefully Naji's fine and can compete with Hampton for the starting role. I was just telling, we were talking about that on July 3rd. I was hanging out with my friend and we grew up in South Florida together and in South Florida, you can just go buy really big fireworks. I mean, almost professional fireworks that just go explode up in the sky. They're really cool, but you can't do that in New York. And we were just saying like, man,

we were so stupid in high school. I can't believe we did that with no supervision, some really dangerous stuff. So please take it seriously people. It's injures every single year, just too many stories like that, like nauseas. Matt Mayaco of NBC Sports Bay Area expects Brandon Iyuk

to start the season on the pupless, which is no surprise, but he did say that week one is not out of the question. So that is good news for Brandon Iyuk. The expectation still would be that Iyuk starts on the pupless, which would be a four game absence. Okay, we got some- Do you watch quarterback yet? No.

I've heard some good things. Is it good? Yeah, I just finished it last night. It's good. I mean, I'm always, you know, into the documentary, especially, you know, Omaha Productions, Peyton Manning and those guys, they do such a great job. And so like, it's just great. Like the, you know, the whole Cousins Penex thing—

Dr. Justin Marchegiani Yeah. Dr. Ben Juehlin Was uh—was interesting how it was handled and Joe Burrough's uh—season, you know, in the Bengals—I mean, you know, you saw a lot of it with the uh—uh—hard knocks, you know, the—when they did the AFC North hard knocks. So you got a chance to see some of those things. But like the Burough break in situation was crazy. And Jared Goff, you know, he was it was it was interesting a little bit more Jared Goff because he's very, you know,

very behind the scenes kind of guy. Anything fantasy relevant? Nothing huge. You know, I think there's any, no, nothing really. Okay. All right. Got some- The week 17 game, the T Higgins game. You know, Burrow was like, T's hot. It's a T game.

Oh yeah? Yeah, that was one thing I guess you could say. That's cool. But nothing going into this year. All right, folks. You got your guesses on where Dan is vacationing. They're very good. We got, it, you got your guesses on where Dan is vacationing. Very good. We got it's colonoscopy time for Dan.

Dan is watching the Superman movie and IMAX. Dan is wearing a pedicure while wearing a purple robe and then going to get an orange Julius. Is that a reference of something? To drink. No, I get that. But is that is that like the Big Lebowski or something like that? Oh, maybe. I don't know. I don't know that movie that well. Um, let's see. To quote it, at least.

Yeah, it's overrated. Uh, Dan is in physical therapy for tennis elbow. Oh my gosh. I thought I had tennis elbow. I don't thankfully, but um, I have a little bit of an elbow injury. I'm recovering though. I'm almost back. I think I need elbow surgery. No. This is undiagnosed. But like, I've thrown so many pitches in the last like five years. Oh, no. To my children and my children's teams. Like, it's painful. Tommy John? Maybe. It hurts. Wow. Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. And the funny thing about it is like, uh, I don't know with, with Andrew, like if he w how he takes batting practice or what, but like my, my kids, especially my two older

ones, I can't throw without a net in front of me at this point, cause they'll kill me. And then that keeps getting closer and closer to home. They're like that. Why are you so close? You want to read this joke? Um, sure. No, it's all right. We'll leave it up there for the YouTube audience. Okay, let's get to the show here. First of all, vote for us on podcast awards.com. Go to podcast awards.com slash app slash sign up. We want to get to the show here. First of all, vote for us on PodcastAwards.com. Go to PodcastAwards.com slash app slash sign up.

We wanna get to the next round. We wanna win this for a second straight year. You all helped us win it last year. Great stuff. PodcastAwards slash app slash sign up. Vote for Fantasy Football Today in the sports category. If your name is Magic Giants and you, that's probably not your real name,

and you donated on our Tiltify page and you donated on our tiltify page and you asked us a question we didn't get your question so basically what you do is you pay for the question 50 bucks at least you can pay more and think magic giants in fact did and then in the comment section you asked your question and i'll read it on the air magic giants we did not get your question our helper our employee claire our teammate working on this Draftathon project, Claire emailed you, please email her back with your question and we'll read it next week. Here are the other nine that we're reading today.

This one is from Liam. I know you've often mentioned that if a player shows you their age, you should believe them. Do you feel the same way about often injured players or is that more of a random, random slash circumstantial feature? So the the I'm a little confused I guess the question would be is if a guy's coming back from injury or has dealt with injuries. Do you think if a player is often injured that means they are injury prone basically? That kind of ties into the question you asked about quarterback. Joe Burrow was talking about him being potentially

injury prone. He goes, yes, I've dealt with injuries. Do you consider Joe Burrow to be injury prone? I don't, but it is worth mentioning, but like appendectomy, I don't, you know. So you have an appendectomy, you have a torn ACL, you have a wrist injury, like, you know, calf injury, like he's dealt with four pretty significant injuries at times in his career, right?

And they've hindered his fantasy production. I wouldn't necessarily consider him injury prone because the ACL is, you know, not something up. There we go. Hit the mic. Somebody will complain. Um, uh, the ACL is, you know, he was tackled in a very awkward way. The wrist injury is not something I think that's, I hope not, at least not problematic

year over year. So a player like that, for example, no, Christian McCaffrey, would you consider him injury prone? I think so. I mean, so again, if anyone is, he's up there, he's up there. I think, I think to sum it up, for me it's, do they continue to suffer from soft tissue injuries? Because you break an ankle, you know, you tear ACL, those type of things to me are more fluky.

If it's continued, you know, like Christian Watson with the hamstring injuries, like that was so frustrating year over year. Like the ACL tear, okay, that's, you know, awful. But when he was continuing with the hamstring injuries, like that to me was more problematic than, you know, because you could run away from that if you're looking at him as a fancy option. Yeah, I just remember one year where Dalvin Cook played all but one game where he played every game. I think the same year,

Deandre Swift came in with a lot of injury questions and he stayed healthy. I can't remember. I think McCaffrey is one of them too. There were three high profile players that were always injured and they stopped. They didn't get hurt. And that's basically when I just said I, I more or less don't care about injury history. There will be some exceptions. I think I think I think for me, but I still I still I acknowledge T Higgins is probably injury prone if there is an injury prone wide receiver being drafted early, but I don't care.

I draft, I'll draft T Higgins all day. Dave, Dave says this a lot. I know the most recent one is Tyree kill. Like you would rather not have him on the field hurt. Playing hurt. Yeah. Because like we were starting him every week, right? For the most part. Yeah. Because like, we were starting him every week. Right? For the most part. Yeah, they start percentage of everything ever went below like 85%. And so those are the

players that really frustrate you, you know, guys that clearly are dealing with something, you understand why they're playing, they're fighting through for their team, they're trying to be good teammates. But then you have this awful scenario of they're just not producing. By the way, okay Remember I said in week 17. I benched Tyreek Hill for someone and I couldn't remember who it was Mm-hmm. I'm pretty sure it was Don Tavian Wicks

He had four catches for 43 yards on five targets Don Tavian Wicks scored eight point three fantasy points Tyreek Hill Because two it wasn't playing, had nine catches for 105 yards in horrible weather at Cleveland in week 17, scored 19.5 fantasy points. So I lost 11.2 points. I would have lost the game and I lost in the finals that week, would have lost anyway, thankfully, but that was who it was, Wix. All right, next question from Richard.

I often hear it said on the podcast that running backs have a higher injury risk than wide receivers. This may be true, but does this factor in the injury risk to a wide receiver's quarterback? Every year we have elite wide receivers who end up becoming unplayable after their quarterback goes down

and a terrible backup comes in to replace them. I mean, that might be a little bit of a stretch, but it's a good point. And then he says, should we therefore be factoring backup quarterbacks for our wide receivers more? For example, should the Falcons, Rams, and Giants pass catchers get a small bump

as they at least have serviceable backup options? It's certainly something to consider. I mean, we have the Dolphins situation from a year ago when Tua went down, the six games he didn't play. You know, you mentioned the Tyree kill game in week 17 was good for him, but for the most part Tyree's numbers suffered. I mean, clearly there's gonna be some situations where, you know, the backup comes in and the other players still play well, right?

So look at Dallas, right? CD Lam fell off but then fall off completely when Prescott went out, right? Cooper Rush was okay for him. He just wasn't great. It was okay. Lam was playing hurt too. Right. You had the situation in San Francisco those couple games when there was no Brock Purdy and Jennings was peppered with targets with Josh Dobbs. I mean, it's a little rare situation because those two guys have a history together from their time in Tennessee in college. So I think if you, first off, you shouldn't necessarily draft really ever based on what

happens if the quarterback goes down unless maybe it's Miami just because Tuah is another guy that you could say is, I guess, in the injury prone category. So I'm not basing my chief's evaluation on backup quarterback. You know, I think Carson Wentz is the backup quarterback there for Kansas City, right? Like, you're not going to do that. You're not going to do that. And, you know, oh my God, I can't draft Jamar Chase with Joe Burrow if he goes down again. Like, Jake Browning is going to kill those guys, right?

You know, so it's not something you really want to factor. And now again, if you're nitpicking completely, the situations that what they say, the Giants, the Giants, the Falcons and the Rams. I mean, maybe if you're, you know, close on a player, you know, so if Yeah, Rams, neighbors in Drake, London, I don't know, Ramsey or Garoppolo. No, I think it's a good point. Right. If you're close on a player and sorry, wait, who's who the heck is Dallas is back, Joe Milton is Dallas is backup. So if you're a close on like Puka versus lamb, I mean, I do think that let's say, Dak and Stafford, both of them who have injury histories,

they're both out for the year. I would take Puka in a second over CD-LAM, right? So you could factor that in if you wanted to. I just wanna talk about this idea that running backs might be more injury prone than wide receivers. I meant to look this up before the show and I ran out of time. So I only have one year of data. Okay. But I looked at just the top 12 players per game at both positions running

back and wide receiver and wide receiver was so much worse. Right. So you're looking at the best performers at both positions per game. There were, let's see, one, two, three, four top 12 per game running backs who missed at least three games and only one who missed more than three games. And that was Ken Walker. At wide receiver, you had Rice, Rashid Rice played three games, Chris Goblin played seven, Nico played 12, Evans played 14, Adams played 14.

Oh, I forgot, Puka played 11, Higgins played 12. Four of the top five wide receivers on a per game basis. Rice, Godwin, Puka and Higgins played 12 or fewer games. So I'm not even sure it's true anymore. I know that's only one year, but I'm not even, I don't even look at running backs as more injury prone than wide receivers at this point. All right.

Next up, question from... Oh. I wonder if you could do that though from a draft perspective, how that would look. I'll try. I think it's a worthy exercise. I've done it before. A few years ago, I did it, and running backs did show to be a little bit more injury-prone, but then I feel like that kind of flipped.

I'm not really sure why. I mean, you do get older wide receivers being, you know, wide receivers. We'd like them at older ages than running backs, but I don't think that matters because I think young players get hurt too. Anyway, this next question is from Eric and he says, I love salary cap drafts. Care to explain why it is the best and where do you follow values for auction drafts? I don't know what he means by that, but thank you for the question. Oh, sorry. The Heath mode there instead of Eric, we got to take a break.

When we come back, we'll answer this question about salary cap drafts. And in case you missed my stupid tweet from earlier, I'm looking forward to talking about Bucky Irving and some numbers on him in a little bit. We'll be right back. This episode is brought to you by Adidas. When the frustration grows and the doubts start to creep in, we all need someone who has our back. To tell us we'll be okay,

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So, what should we talk about? No sugar added? Neutral. Refreshingly simple. Alright, so let's talk about salary cap drafts and why they are the best. And I can't wait to get the softball team together for our draft in person auction draft at my house, pizza, water for me. It's going to be awesome. But why do you think salary cap drafts or auction drafts are the best? You're doing it at your house? Yeah. Yeah. Last year we did it at a bar and it took so long that they were just dying

for us to leave. I felt so bad. So I'm going to host this time. Um, do you have a sponsor for yourself? All team? No. I mean, that's the way you're missing out. What you got to do is you get the bar to sponsor your softball team and then you guys go there after every game. We, we, yeah, they, a lot of guys do. Yeah. So, I mean, it's perfect setup that you get them to sponsor and

then they'll stay open for you. Yeah. They did stay open for us. They just, they were nice about it, but I felt really bad. Anyway, um, guarantee that they're you're going to spend a significant amount of money there, which it sounds like you do anyway. Yeah. Oh yeah. They, they, they cover your softball fee. That's the way you go. Uh, salary cap drafts are the best because they are the most fair. Everyone has an opportunity to bid on every player. What do you like about them? I mean, you said it, you know, it gives you an opportunity to, you know, basically control however you want to control it, you know, getting if you wanted to get both of, you know, Jason Jefferson, Bijon and Barkley, you know, two of the top four or five overall players,

you could certainly try and do that. You can, you know, not have to be at the mercy of waiting for your pick to come up in a draft. And so it takes lot of that you know it's more control on your own hands depending on how you want to you know build your team so in terms of values we do our own values so I follow my own values for the most part of how I you know view players so if you look at our rankings page on CBS sports you can see how we have these players priced out. I was looking the other day, I think Dave is a little bit higher than me and Heath on the top end, guys. So we go on a $100 budget. If it's $200, we just always tell you just double it.

But the values would be the same players that we consider sleepers and such. So if you're looking at it from that perspective, I have quarterback and running back tiers on the side already. Wide receiver tiers will be up today. Hopefully tight ends not far after that. So you can see how we tier those players. That's always a good way to go about salary cap drafts is you know, getting the last player in a tier of there's a group of guys that you like. Yeah. And Jamie said we use $100 budgets on our rankings page, which you can go to CBS sports.com slash fantasy and just click on football, click on rankings. He said double it. If you're in a $200 league, probably not necessarily the case for $1 players. $1 players

could still be $1 players, I think in any format, right? It's just like, it's your low bid. Jamie has a great strategy where if he wants a DST or a kicker, he nominates them super early in the auction and usually nobody wants to put $2. He nominates them for a dollar, nobody wants to put two on it. If you're in a $200 league, maybe you spend two,

nobody wants to put three on it and then you just get your DST or your kicker and if you don't, really not a big deal. Anyway- The other big strategy I would also recommend is put players up forer. And if you don't, really not a big deal. Anyway- Big strategy I would also recommend is put players up for nomination early that you don't want. That you don't want, get money off the board, yeah. And we owe more time to auction strategies.

I think it's a tough topic because snake drafts are somewhat predictable. Auction drafts are just, every single one is so, so different. So it makes it a little bit challenging, but we'll talk more about it. All right. This is from Mike in Los Angeles. My friend Nick is one of those fantasy know-it-all guys. He says that 10 team leagues aren't real and are too easy. Will you please explain that 10 team leagues are legit and tell him that he's wrong, wrong, wrong? They are legit. I mean, obviously a lot of people, first off, we encourage you to play

as much as you can clearly. And if you can only find nine other friends and that's the only people that do it, why would you not participate in a 10 team league? Uh, 18 league, if that's all you can find 16 league, it's like fine. And there's different strategies to all these guys. Yes. 10 team leagues are a little bit easier because you're getting much more of a diluted talent or a robust talent pool of everybody having good teams. But there's still strategy to that and there's still ways you have to sort of find a way to differentiate yourself. My oldest league is a 10 team league and it's one of the toughest leagues to play in because

you have to find ways to be better than the nine other teams that are always stacked. So everybody would come out of their draft with, you know, a loaded roster. So it's definitely fun. But it's, you know, I think there's got to be, you know, ways to sort of make it a little bit different, you know. So do you add a second quarterback? Do you add, you know, additional flex plays, you know? So there's ways to, you know, if you want to make it even more challenging, but still,

you don't have to, you don't have to, though. I mean, no, no, a regular team league is fun. It's perfectly fine. And it's fun when we get into 10 league discussions, which we don't do often, but we probably should as well is you hear us say it's, it's okay to take a quarterback earlier. It's okay to get a significant position advantage early because there's, there's so few of those elite guys that if you have Lamar

Jackson versus somebody taking Justin Fields, like that could be an eight point difference. And that's tremendous in those leagues. All right. How about who's next here? Glen, Glenn and Elijah from two towns. One is about nine miles from Dan that starts with a P and ends with a Y. The other is around the corner from Heath, Dave and Jamie's office. I'll let you handle that one.

I won't touch the other one. What near office? Around the corner from your office. What town is there? Pompano? Yeah, probably. He says dear Jaden, Jamir, Terry, Malik and Saquon. Those are the his winning team from the FFT Open last year. Like a good neighbors. This is our Glenn and Elijah, our our FFT Open defending champions. According to Glenn and Elijah, our FFT Open defending champions. According to Glenn and Elijah, I forgot, I forgot,

but congratulations. And they say, as the winner of the FFT Open last year, we wanted to know if an additional stake could be added for the winner. While charity is a great thing and we happily donated, could a guest spot on the show or free merch or a trophy be added? We didn't or a trophy be added. Where did you get your trophy?

There are rules about what can and cannot be given. I'll just say that. I don't really know. Cause when you do things for charity, it, you know, it's just, there are a lot of rules. So I don't really know all of the rules. I'm going to be honest, but yes, something like being on the show, we can absolutely do.

And I'd love to hear from Glenn and Elijah. Maybe they can share their FFT Open strategy from last year or something like that. So I will reach out to you guys, or actually, why don't you send me an email, fantasyfootballatcbsi.com, just make it clear who you are, and we'll chat and hopefully get you on the show because you do deserve some recognition. And yeah, I think there should be something for winning the FFT open. But just so you know, I've talked about prizes with people

where I don't really have, I don't know the answer, but there are just certain things that can and cannot be done when it comes to charity and prizes and things like that. We're not trying to hold out on you. John, you finally noticed that we're wearing the same. when it comes to charity and prizes and things like that. We're not trying to hold out on you. All right. Johnny finally noticed that we're wearing the same. I know, we really are wearing like the same exact color. And it's a little bit different, but it's not a conventional color.

It's very weird. Oh wait, we have a birthday in here. Where's, I think it was Benjamin. Where are you, dude? Happy birthday, Ben. If it was Ben, in fact. Yep, there he is. dude? Happy birthday, Ben. If it was Ben in fact. Yeah, there he is. It's my birthday you fools.

Me, me, me. You should feel that way. I feel that way on my birthday a little bit. Like it is about you. Good for you, Ben. All right, next question. I don't have a name here. Is this a different question or is this from the same?

Is this also from Glenn? I think it's different. Okay. Two running back, two wide receiver, two flex PPR 10 team. Should I keep Jonathan Taylor in round seven or T Higgins in round eight? So again, 10 team league, how are you going to separate yourself? The round differential is not so much for me. Oh, sorry. I had big, big fact fact here I have to give you. Sorry.

He can keep T Higgins in 2026, but not Jonathan Taylor. Then that's easy. You're keeping Higgins. Yeah. Okay. From Jack. Is it a mistake to take a tight end in the quarterback within the first four to five rounds to have advantages at those positions? Would league or roster size make any difference? rounds to have advantages at those positions. Would league or roster size make any difference? So go read our latest recap of our mock draft on cbsports.com. I actually did this with the 12th pick in a 12 team PPR mock draft. I started with Amara St. Brown and Ashton Genti with my first two picks. And then we got to rounds three and four. And I didn't love the value for the

wide receivers and running backs. So I took the best available quarterback, which was Lamar Jackson, first quarterback off the board, and George Kittle, who was the third tight end at the time. So I don't love doing that personally. What a non Jamie team that is. I love it. Very, you know, and again, that's the thing. And I will tell this to anybody as much as possible. We are in mock draft season and you are July to August. You have the opportunity to do as many mock drafts as you possibly can. CBSsports.com is a great mock draft product.

I'm sure there are other sites that do great mock draft products as well. Do them. Pick the draft spot that you think you're going to be in, especially if you know it already. But try them all and try different strategies. So once I did and committed to that, then it came back in rounds five and six and I was, okay, now this is something totally different from what I'm used to doing or typically do and now I've got to find a different way to approach it.

So that's the thing I think you need to find out. Do you like it? Do you not like it? And so I did not have a problem with it because When you take a step back, right? We always in the middle of a draft like oh, I love my running backs I love my receivers a quarterback. Maybe I tied in maybe but you take a step back from it, right and You have the the full scope of the roster I have if they hit from what they did a year ago number one quarterback and number one tight end in terms of points per

game from what they did a year ago. Number one quarterback and number one tight end in terms of points per game. Jackson Kittle. Yeah. All right. So I'm going to tell you I got if you're watching on YouTube, I got Jamie's roster up. If not, I'll read it to you. So he's got Lamar Jackson at quarterback, Gentie and Judkins at running back. Amanra St. Brown, Travis Hunter and Darno Mooney at wide receiver, George Kittle at tight end and Stefan Diggs at flex, but on the bench, Trevor Lawrence to back up Jackson. I love your bench. I love your bench, except for one pick. Eckler, Tajay Spears, Keon Coleman and Jayden Reed. I think you did great here.

I mean, on the surface, St. Brown, Travis Hunter, Darno, Mooney, Stefan Diggs, and you're starting lineup. I'm sure you'd like to be a little bit better than that, but you picked really good players late, like Mooney and Coleman and Jayden Reed. I don't love the Samson pick. I feel like he's useless. I feel like Jerome Ford is the guy to get if you drafted Judkins.

But who am I to disagree with you? It's a great team. And I will say, the minute I clicked Trevor Lawrence, I should have taken just Raheem Oster. Okay. Yeah. To back up Gentie. I mean, I love, I think it could work. Absolutely could work. I probably need Jackson and Kittle not necessarily to be as great as they were last year to be standouts at their position. And I would say Travis Hunter is the swing pick for you, is the guy who's going to determine, you took him 60th overall at the Hunter is the swing pick for you, is the guy who's gonna determine, you took him 60th overall at the five, six turn. Hunter to me is the guy who's gonna determine the fate of this team that won't be played out.

So, and one other thing that I did do consciously was I was staring at Montgomery and Jameson Williams, and I was like, ah, I'll just differentiate instead of taking all the lines. I probably should have taken Montgomery instead of Judkits. Oh, that's interesting. Okay. Do you realize that Montgomery has scored 25 touchdowns in 28 games with the Lions?

Since they drafted Jameer Gibbs, he's been one of the best picks in fantasy Montgomery. You know, he he got hurt a couple years ago, but he's just been a really good value. All right. Glad to meet you. Hold on. So that's 25 in the last 28 games. So they've scored 42 rushing touchdowns in the last three seasons from non Jameer Gibbs, non Deandre Swift.

Jamal Williams and Montgomery. Wow. All right. This is from Jake in New Jersey. This is cool. Listen to this. I've been a listener since I was in high school 10 years ago and I listened to you guys on the daily.

I can't tell you how many times back in high school my teacher would tell me to take out my headphones in class because I was too busy listening to you and not her lol. Now that I'm in my late 20s and still listen all the time, I wanted to donate to this great cause. Thank you, Jake. Redraft 12 teams, six point PP, six point touch. Before you go on. So I'm going to do the what we call it last year.

Oh, the left over. six. You know what? Wait before you go on. So I'm going to do the what we call it last year. Oh, the left overleaks, the left overleaks. Yeah. Yeah. Jake, you're the first entry in the leftover leagues. That's awesome. Send an email to what's our email address again? No, I've been saying it for 16 years. Fantasy football today at CBS. No, no. Fantasy football at oh wait, what is it? Now I can't think of it. Fantasy football at cbsi.com. All right, Jake send an email to fantasyfootballatcbsi.com and put leftover league in it.

Only Jake, I'm not opening it up yet to anybody else. Actually, no, you know what? We'll just do it through Claire. She's got Jake's email address. Claire will reach out to Jake. All right. We got you, Jake. You're in the leftover league.

Yes, good stuff. All right, Jamie did a bunch of those last year. All right, Jake's in a 12 team, six point per passing touchdown, full PPR league with one quarterback, two flex, two wide receiver. What would your desired draft slot be? And what would your strategy be with that desired draft spot?

And PS, I'm five foot eight and I'm looking at Dan on camera and there is no way that dude is over five, six. Yes, he is. For anybody who missed the show yesterday, the best compliment Adam's ever gotten from Alfredo Brown. It's so funny. It's like Alfredo thought I was the second tallest among Dave, Heath, Jamie and myself. Like that's not insulting to me.

Like Dave should be pissed. But it's just, it just makes you wonder like, how could anybody possibly guess height just by looking at a picture where the four of us all look like we're the same height. Yep. Right, and I'm by far the shortest. All right, so this is a pretty standard league

except two wide receivers, two flex. Where do you want to draft in its 12 team format PPR? Which pick do you want and what's your strategy? I would probably look to take one of the first four picks. If you want to guarantee yourself one of Chase or Bijan, which I would love to have, I would take two. You know, so at least you're getting the second player there. There's so much variance that we're seeing in the second round at this point You know of players like think about what we had the conversation yesterday the fit of the football guys ADP has Christian McCaffrey around

Too we're taking him in round one Devon H. And still going around to we just had him go third overall Are the tight ends gonna be in round two where the quarterbacks gonna start to come off the board? So I would just want to try and guarantee myself one of the top picks in round one. And then when you get to round two, there's going to be so many players that are in somewhat somewhat of a similar tier in the 20 to 24 range. Like, why not guarantee yourself the top player or player players in the first three or four picks for me, that would be Bijon and then the three receivers of Chase, Jefferson and Lamb. And then you're still going to get a very good player or a couple of players in that round two, three range.

So I would go early in the first round. Okay. An argument against that might be taking the seventh pick or the eighth pick, something like that, and getting two of the top, let's say 18 players, which maybe ends at AJ Brown. Because after that you do have a really big tier of really good players, but they seem less safe and less certain. And if you have, let's say the seventh pick,

if you had the seventh pick in the draft that we just did, who would your third round pick have been? Probably, let's see. Seventh pick. Oh, so I had the sixth pick. So I went McCaffrey, AJ Brown, which is exactly what I wanted. And then I took Tyreek Hill.

It's incredible. Well, it is. It's risky, but it's incredible. It is right. McCaffrey, Tyreek Hill, how many times have I talked about it? They're two of my favorite players. I'm a little nervous to have them both on one team. And the first draft we've done a long time.

I took them both on one team. So you can't pass up that value, though. And I certainly I was very happy to get AJ Brown. Now, James Cook went ahead of him. Drake London, Jonathan Taylor went ahead of him. But, you know, the two tight ends went after him. But if you think like AJ Brown is sort of a cut off of proven elite players, maybe you don't. It tight ends went after him. But if you think like AJ Brown is sort of a cutoff

of proven elite players, maybe you don't. It depends how you see it. I wouldn't mind getting two of the top 18 players because I still think in the middle of the third round I can get a pretty damn good player. But I don't, honestly, I don't know that there's a right answer here. Just how you see the draft.

And it also depends on how you feel about the tight ends. You want one of those two tight ends or not? You know, that kind of influence. But I think one will be, I mean, again, based on ADP that we're seeing, one will probably be there at the two, three turn. It's risky to rely on that, but based on ADP, you know, the ADP we talked about yesterday with Alfredo,

that is where Trey McBride is going. If you want to play a little safer, you might want to take like the fourth pick, because I think then you'll get McBride or Bowers. Okay, and the last question is from Andrew. He's got the first first pick in a 10 team to quarterback league. Right now he is keeping Brock Purdy, Brian Thomas Jr. and Bucky Irving. He also has four of the first 21 picks. First 13thth, 20th, and 21st. Planning on taking a quarterback with the first pick. So what direction would you go with the next three picks? Would you

grab another quarterback and get a third? Take the best running backs and wide receivers available. So at this point, he will have Purdy, a second quarterback, whoever that might be, Brian Thomas Jr. and Bucky Irving, and he'll have three more picks in the next 20 picks. 13, 20, and 13, 19, and 20 basically after he picks, or 12, 19, 20, whatever. What would you do there? I'm a little confused. So everybody's keeping three players?

Looks that way, yeah. And his keepers are Purdy Tom Brian Thomas Jr. and Bucky Irving. He has the first pick to 10 team league. He's going to take a quarterback. So he's going to have his two quarterbacks Brian Thomas Jr. and Bucky Irving. He then has after that pick, he hit well, he has picks 1320 and 21. Is it smarter to take a quarterback first or to take gente first? Oh, I would take genteie. I would take Gentie too. And let well, it's possible that there's great quarter. There's a great quarterback, but probably not. So he's saying other quarterbacks most likely being kept are Stroud, Mayfield, Love, Kyler, Stafford, Darnold and May. Right.

But why wouldn't someone keep Josh Allen? Okay. Right. If Josh Allen and Jackson and all that are available, then different conversations. Okay. So if you can take Lamar or Allen, that's the smart way to go in round one. And since it's a 10 team league, he's picking 13. Is that what he said?

Yes. First 13th, and 21st. So you, you, I don't think you get Gentie at 13. But if these are the keepers, yeah, but I write like if you can take a super elite quarterback at one, do it otherwise, right? Take Gentie. And if, if you're going to get a Trevor Lawrence type of player or a two, or something like that, oh, I would think I mean, if we're telling him, we're telling Andrew to take Genti first off, I mean, the Caffrey might be

available if you trust him more than Genti for a redraft. But yeah, I think Genti is probably the best non quarterback keeper. Hard to say. Unless again, those quarterbacks there. But if, if there's let's say four or five, no, I think you take the quarterback. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go back on that because if, if we're talking 10, 10 team league, you're, you're gonna get an all five of the top quarterbacks are available. They're all going in the first round. So 13, you're still going to get a very high end player. of the top quarterbacks are available, they're all going in the first round. So 13, you're still

going to get a very high end player. If all five of them are available. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Depends. Okay. All right. I'm sorry. It's a little confusing. Just listening to what Jamie said. We're going to take a break and come back with your Apple podcast questions, your emails, your YouTube comments, a couple of Twitter polls, and we'll be right back after this. Introducing TurboTax Business, a brand new way to file your own T2 return, a couple of Twitter polls and we'll be right back after this. Experts are standing by to help and review while you file, so you know your return's done right. Intuit TurboTax Business. New from TurboTax Canada. Some regional exclusions apply.

Learn more at TurboTax.ca slash business tax. So you said this would be the summer of you. But then you remembered? You have kids, and now you spend every sunny day at water parks and petting zoos. So be it. We do the prep, so you can get your you time back with freshly prepared ready for you dishes from Sobeys. We are back on Fantasy Football today.

Let's take a look at this Twitter poll I did this morning, the second iteration of it, because in the first one I had a stupid typo, of course. Looking forward to talking about Bucky Irving today. How do you feel about drafting Irving at the two-3 turn? Let's say 24th overall. Great, fine, or nope, too soon. And honestly, it's pretty close. Only 301 votes. It's a pretty new poll. But let me zoom in a little more. Sorry. But But yeah, great has 34% fine 39% nope 26 for 27% 28%. How do you feel about that? Bucky Irving 24th overall that was his ADP I believe on football guys. That's where I haven't ranked you know, back into round two early part around three. I

mean, I think you look at he's in that group of running backs. We spent some time talking about this yesterday, you know, so Jonathan Taylor, Josh Jacobs, Bucky Irving, Chase Brown, Kyron Williams, you know, I think before the James Cook, Kenneth Walker, Alvin Camaro range of guys. So these are going to be running backs that sort of and going back to the, you know, where do you want to pick your draft slot? You know, so if you like these running backs and consider them to be, you know, top 10 caliber players. Look, the way Bucky Irving finished last year, is that a sign of things to come?

Is he going to dominate touches like he did in the end of the regular season into the playoffs or is it going to be more of the split that we saw earlier in the season? So I'm fairly confident, you know, you're going to hear some more Sean Tucker talk. I don't think he's someone to really worry about. It's really does Rashad White get back to having a role? He's had 50 catches in every year of his career. Last year he matched his career high with nine total touchdowns. He averaged a career best 4.3 yards per carry. Does Rashad White's role get back to

being what it was, or is he just completely minim? So Irving was still very good, even when White was, you know, getting those opportunities early in the season. So I think if you were to say that White's role is completely minimized, then Bucky Irving's probably going in the Devon Aitchin range. Like that's how good he was at the end of the season. Oh man, he was top five or six running back per game from week 10 on, and he didn't really start getting the feature work until a week.

I want to say 16, the last four games of the season, Bucky Irving, including the playoffs, the last four games of the season, he had 72 carries and Rashad White had 10. But you know, I did a little bit of digging just for some comps, some comparisons, because what's the, what's the nervousness about Bucky Irving? Well, he ran a pretty slow 40 time. He doesn't have great speed. And he was a fourth round pick in the NFL draft in 2024.

We've been burned in the past by day three picks or undrafted free agents that have been really good as rookies and disappointed for the rest of their career. James Robinson, James Robinson in his second season, I think that was- He was undrafted though. That's a- Yeah. No, he was. He could have been better. They didn't use him right, I think, in his second season. Alfred Morris kind of flamed out. Philip Rivers. There were a couple of guys. None of them were nearly as good as-

Philip Rivers? Philip Lindsay. None of them were as as good. Philip Rivers. Philip Lindsay. None of them were as good as Bucky Irving. Bucky Irving averaged 5.4 yards per carry. He had arguably the best advanced metrics of any running back, right up there. I mean, there are like eight categories that I look at and he was top 10 in seven of them on TrueMedia. So amazing, but I looked at the yards per carry leaders for running backs with a

minimum of 100 carries as rookies. Number one, with a bullet 7.8 yards per carry, who is the best rookie running back of all time? In just a recent yet? Yes, recent just in terms of yards per carry. just in terms of yards per carry. 7.8. Very, very recent. You just said his name. Bucky? Devon H-an. Oh, oh yeah.

H-an one, Kamara, Dobbins, Maurice Jones Drew, Thomas Rawls, Adrian Peterson, Franco Harris, Andre Ellington, Clinton Portis, Demarco Murray, Carion Johnson, Bucky Irving, Ontario Smith, Philip Lindsay. These guys all average 5.4 yards per carry or more with at least 100 carries as rookies. It's got a little bit in common with Karrion Johnson who was a second round pick in the NFL draft.

Bucky was fourth round pick, but Karrion Johnson's ADP in his second year was 29th. He was a huge bust. Thomas Rawls, undrafted free agent, averaged 5.4 yards per carry, or no, 5.6 yards per carry, one of the best marks ever for a rookie. And then he averaged 3.2 yards per carry in his second season. You know what his ADP was? His ADP was 43rd. So people bought into him enough. Andrei Ellington averaged 5.5 yards per carry as a rookie, 3.3 yards per carry in his second season. His ADP, according to Fantasy Football Calculator, Andre Ellington's ADP in 2016 was 24th overall. It's exactly the same as Bucky Irving. So I don't know if these comps matter to you at all,

but other guys who had exceptional rookie years should be noted, they were closer to 100 carries whereas Bucky was over 200. Thomas Roll's 147 carries, for example, but they flamed out. I still have that concern in the back of my mind. And the draft you mentioned, the one we did a few days ago

Bucky Irving versus Tyreek Hill in the third round. It was a tough tough call for me. Ultimately, I went Tyreek Hill but what do you think about just these comps to these These second year running backs who really struggled We just had a comment in the chat, which I think is relevant about when does the draft capital stop mattering for some of these guys. And we've had these discussions. It really goes a variety of different ways because like how the NFL is valuing this position,

right? Kyron Williams, I know he didn't have much of a rookie season because of the foot injury but he was a day three guy. Look at how he's performed with the same system. Isaiah Pacheco, prior to getting injured last year, I think everybody would have seen how he would have produced and we'll find out what they think of him this year. Buck Irving is another guy that's now a day three guy coming off a strong rookie season. We've obviously seen some first round rookies not exactly perform up to their expectations.

Rashad Penny, for example, not performing well. I think he's sort of discovered something, talked about this maybe two years ago, that if the coaching staff is the same, there's a better chance of these guys hitting because these are the guys that invested in and saw them had success, right? James Robinson's coach changed or he was... Yeah, I think it was Irvin Meyer, just kind of screwed with him and didn't use him enough, I think. But they also drafted ETN, you know, so there was part of that too. I kind of fall into that line of thinking, it makes sense. You know that if the regime is the same, you know, these are the guys that sort of discovered this player and like them.

Damian Pierce is another one, right? That we got excited about because of the way that he performed his rookie season and then coaching changed and all of a sudden he's not as good. Yeah. So, it's hard to say that there's, oh, OK, this happened. This happened the next year. It's going to be the same for every player, every spot. I think that's the tricky part that we have to sort of parse through. And for Bucky Irving, yes, there's a coordinator change.

The personnel is the same, but that's potentially good or potentially bad because you have some talented players in that running back room. I just think that Bucky's got an opportunity to build off what he did and Todd Bowles loves this kid. Rashad White's probably not going to be resigned. He's heading into his final year of his rookie deal. They may use White.

I'll just take it that the way that I'm viewing it is not the way Bucky finished last year because otherwise I would have him ranked higher. I'm viewing it more like what we started to see as the breakout was unfolding. Like he's going to be a 60 to 70% snap guy as opposed to an 80 plus snap guy. Yeah. Two more things on Bucky Irving. And he's a fascinating player because of what he showed last year. But among running backs, he has one of the, or he had last year year one of the lowest third down route participation rates

route participation rates. Rashad White had the highest he was tied with who is he tied with? Tied with Kyron Williams actually and Rashad White had the highest route participation rate among running backs like relevant running backs with 100 more carries on third down. So Bucky Irving is almost never on the field on third down. In fact, one game that Rashad White missed, he played five third down snaps. That was a season high for him. He ran five third down routes.

Sorry, I think that was a season high for him. That is kind of a big deal. The only running back that's gonna be in the same range as what Bucky Irving was last year in terms of route participation on third down and be drafted early is Derrick Henry for sure and maybe James Cook. So maybe Taylor, but I haven't, I didn't see him on that list in either of the last two years. So, um, I could take another look at Taylor. Cause I think Taylor actually plays now Taylor plays on third down. So, so far in his career, more

than you would think Bucky's only this year he met that may change him. Okay. That would be bad. Uh, anyway, I don't want to spend the whole show. The rest of the show. I mean, he was still good with only 18 catches. He was, but it's not super important. Joe Mixon is a guy I always talk about. He wasn't the third down back for the Bengals. He wasn't the third down back for the Texans. And he still manages about 50 catches most years because they throw to him on first and second down.

Right. But Taylor's not going to have that scenario. But yes, but just speaking in terms of Bucky Irving, while Mixon wasn't the third down back, his third down route participation rate was still higher than Bucky Irving's was. So anyway, topic for another show, I guess, to get into a little bit more because he's, you know, talking about getting a guy like him in the third round, we've seen he can produce like a first rounder. He's a huge pick, a really interesting player.

All right, second Twitter poll here I wanted to share. I want to get your thoughts on it. What would you have done? I don't know if you voted in this one. Sorry. Just killing time. Okay, ready to share my screen now. Okay, Monday, I marinated chicken strips and put them in the fridge to cook tonight, which was Wednesday. So I put this on Wednesday. I marinated chicken strips and put them in the fridge to cook tonight, which was Wednesday. So I put this on Wednesday. I marinated chicken strips and put them in the fridge on Monday in the hopes of cooking them Wednesday. Tuesday night, I left the refrigerator open

for about 60 to 90 minutes, pathetic. Everything in the refrigerator was warm. Fast forward to Wednesday, I smell the chicken, it smells fine. Would you still cook slash eat the chicken, Jamie? Yes. Okay, that's what I did. The Twitter polls, I had almost 2,000 votes,

58% said yes, 42% said no. This was definitely the tweet that had the most comments with the word diarrhea in it that I've ever posted. None of that, I'm happy to report none of that. I ate almost all of the chicken and it was a success. So I always, when I have stuff like this, uh, questions about food, the first thing I always ask myself is what I give it to my children, but I didn't give it to my children. That's the 100% answer. Yeah, I didn't give it to

them. Um, so yes, that yes, I did draw the line there. Why did you give me McDonald's, Dad, but you're eating that. Yes. All right, Matt from a town on the Jersey Shore. I don't know any towns on the Jersey. Oh, Kate May. Hey, Isaiah, Gus, Ray, and Brian.

Isaiah, Gus, Ray, and Brian. Isaiah, Gus, Ray, and Brian. Isaiah, Gus, Ray, and Brian. So, hmm. I don't know. Oh, are these Rutgers running backs maybe? Pacheco and Edwards? I don't know. I can keep Nico in the third.

How's Isaiah spelled? What's that? How's Isaiah that? Yeah. Isaiah is spelled like Pacheco I S I A H. I can keep Nico in the third or T Higgins in the fifth full PPR. I'm keeping Nico. Yeah. He's a little worried about Nico because the numbers dropped off after the injury, but that's exactly why I'm not worried about Nico because I feel like it was obviously because of the injury. I'm hoping anyway, I got my fingers crossed. And that's that kind of how you feel. Yeah, I'm not so worried about his injury. As much as I am the Texans offensive line and the unknown of what the other receivers will bring

because it's a completely revamped receiving core, right? Kirk and Higgins in, um, there's, there's just some, okay, how much targets does he, you know, keeps him from his high end potential, but it's so hard to overlook how great he's been and how much CJ's job relies on them. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. He's still, okay, this would be disappointing. I know, but Nico after the still, okay, this would be disappointing, I know, but Nico, after the injury, after he missed five games with, I think it was a hamstring,

he averaged 15.8 PPR fantasy points per game, which would be good. Yeah. All right, this question is from James in Queens. I am the commissioner of a longstanding 14 team, non PPR league. After what seemed like years of nothing, but running back and wide receiver in the first 10 rounds,

we made the switch to Superflex about five years ago. The move gets annual belly aching from multiple league members. First question, was going to Superflex in a 14 team league dumb in the first place? Secondly, a suggestion was made this year to keep Superflex, but make it a two quarterback per roster maximum.

Current maximum is four. Also open to any ideas about 14 team roster equity such as half PPR, adding an additional flex spot, et cetera. Does he have the scoring for the quarterbacks there? No, but it is a non PPR league, which I think you should not do Superflex and non league, which I think you should not do super flex and non PPR. I think you should always do full PPR with super flex personally.

Or half, at least to give some benefit to the positions. I think going from four to two is a mistake. I'd probably cap the quarterback roster limits at three, so at least give people the opportunity to carry a backup to the back. So what we were talking about earlier, if you want to carry Joe Milton or if you want to carry, if you want to carry, you know, Grappler or one of these guys, you know, just don't really handicap people from only carrying two quarterbacks.

But I think if you're at four points for passing touchdowns and it's full PPR, then it sort of balances the, you know, the teams that are going to have some crappy second quarterbacks or from crappy super flux quarterbacks. So it's tough in 14 team leagues clearly, but I think, I think you can still get it done, but you just have to make sure the other, the other positions are balanced scoring. Yeah. Balance scoring wise.

Right. I would not want to play in a 14 team super flex league personally, you get an injury at quarterback and you're just screwed. I wouldn't want to play in a 14 team super flex league that capped it at two quarterbacks is then you actually have starting quarterbacks on the waiver wire, which is weird. Um, but if you're going to go through with it, yeah, you've got to figure out a way to, to devalue quarterback. You do that by PPR, adding other flexes, stuff like that. You just can't make it so that a team that has quarterback injuries is just done. This is from no name or city, sorry about that.

I've compiled a list of who is this year's version of last year's player. This year's Breece Hall, a top three pick at his position that falls outside the top 12 at his position. My pick is Justin Jefferson. Hate it, but okay. I mean, if you're gonna pick a top three guy at the position, we're not gonna like any of them,

but that would be Chase, Lamb, or Jefferson, and I would go with Lamb, I guess. Not Jefferson. Who actually? I mean, look, you gotta be worried about McCarthy, right? Right, who's more of a concern for you? Lammer or Jefferson? Um, neither, but I guess if, if, if I am nitpicking, I would say Jefferson because there's a huge unknown.

This year's Travis ETN, a top 12 pick at his position that completely falls off. My pick is Bucky Irving. Again, if you think that it was flukey and coordinator change and really like White or Sean Tucker, then okay. I don't see it, but okay. I don't see it. I, boy, who could it be? If we're putting somebody in this category,

I would say it's James Cook. I don't know if he's top 12, but he's close enough. Oh, it's gotta be top 12, Sorry. He's 14 on football guys ADP I would say oh man between Bucky Irving Chase Brown and Kyron Williams. I think it would be one of them But I yeah again, I'm hoping it's not this year's Anthony Richardson a top 10 quarterback that flops. My pick is Justin Fields Probably injury related like anytime the guy's been a starter. He's been 20 plus points per game My pick is Justin Fields. Probably injury related. Like anytime the guy has been a starter, he's been 20 plus points per game. Who else would it be?

A top 10 quarterback that flops? I don't think he's going top 10. Nick's, I guess. Bo Nicks would be my answer. I know there's rushing there, but. He would be my answer. And I'm not a huge Mayfield guy but I think I'm being stupid there.

I think he's gonna be fine. This year's Zamir White, a mid-round player that is only getting drafted because of projected volume but he busts, my pick is Deandre Swift. You can see it. Any other people come to mind there? Oh, for me it's Chuba Hubbard. But he's like, he's going a little earlier than that. I mean, if you're banking on the rookies to get a lot of touches in terms of Harvey,

Judkins, and Caleb Johnson. And Tony Pollard, Tony Pollard is a better pick than Chuba Hubbard, and he goes like three or four rounds later, but I don't know that the volume is even going to be there. The difference is Pollard is really good. You know, he's not Samir white this year's bright. Yeah. I mean, the mirror white was so fluky. Yeah. This year's Chicago bears a projected decent offense, but becomes bottom 10 in scoring. He didn't give an answer for this. And this year's commanders are projected bad offense but becomes top 10 in scoring.

Bears again. Yeah, I honestly think so. That the Bears could just, could have a Caleb Williams problem. I don't think that's going to happen, but that's the team that does jump out at me as could be really disappointing for fantasy. And then a team that comes out of nowhere scoring wise.

Yeah, I can see the Falcons. How about the previous one, you know, team that could be bad offensively. It really never happens in the Dak Prescott era. But do you think the Cowboys could just be bad offensively? Not if that's healthy. Probably not. Just like Dak's getting a little older. Offensive line isn't what it once was. I love that they brought in Pickens, but they just like, they don't have a, they have to, yeah. I mean, they have talent at receiver. They don't, I don't know if they have a lot of talent at running back and I'm just, I don't love the coaching situation there. I don't love the

direction of the franchise. Is the, is the running back situation that much worse than it was a year ago? No, no. Could be, could be a lot better if Javante's sharp. Or the rookies. I mean, like we, we may, we may be spending a lot of time early in the season talking about Jaden blue and Phil Moffat's wayward guy.

Yeah, for sure. Hello, Matthew, Aaron and Stetson. No idea. Stetson, wasn't there a quarterback? College football, yes, Stetson. Georgia quarterbacks. Oh yeah, yeah, Matthew Stafford, Aaron, oh gosh. Georgia quarterback, Aaron.

Who the hell was it? I'm blanking. Aaron Murray? No idea. Yeah, Aaron Murray. Okay. I'm in an eight man PPR league with no kicker, no DST, and three flex spots.

Should I keep St. Brown or London? I'm leaning London because I think he has more upside than St. Brown. Um, in a one-year keeper league, I would keep St. Brown, but you know, as I will always say, if you have a gut feeling on somebody, they're close enough. So keep one. Okay. And that was from Matt Wheeler. Thank you Matt for the question. I wonder he basically says St. Brown's not a league winner he's going to be very good but not a league winner. Do you kind of feel that way about St. Brown? I think we might be selling him short. He's capable of doing a lot. He's been so good for three years in a row. Yeah mean, I would say that like he's wide receiver seven per game,

average 18.5 PPR fantasy points. That's a league winner. Maybe he didn't average 20, but that's a terrific player. So where is he for you? Like for me, he's behind the top three, is five, Nico six, and St. Brown is seven. I remember I did my rankings. He's at least six. Chase, Puka, Nico, Lam, Jefferson are my top five. The only ones that I know for sure, the only one that I am set in stone is Chase at one. After that, Pooka, Nico, Lam, Jefferson

could go anywhere, two through five. I think I would go neighbors. I might take Thomas ahead of St. Brown. St. Brown's gonna be- If you have Nico over St. Brown, right? Oh, for sure. Nico's gonna be two or three for me. St. Brown's going to be seven or eight for me. And I'm sorry, I know I should have clear cut, you know, this is where they are in one

through eight, but I change my mind all the time and they all have really good cases. So it's tough. It's tough for me. I don't know if you feel the same way, but look, I might do three drafts, I might take three different wide receivers at the same spot, and I'm fine with that. Diversify. Some Apple Podcast questions. This one is from Lewis from the fireworks capital

of America and also the home of Warner Brothers. Is that not Los Angeles? I don't know. Warner Brothers home. I don't know. Smallville? Do they do that? Hey, Rob, Glenn, Danny and Charlie.

No clue. Keep one in, ooh, Rob, Glenn, Danny and Charlie. Keep one in PPR, Nico Collins in the fourth or JSN in the sixth? Collins in the fourth. Yeah. Oh, it's always Sonny in Philadelphia. I was gonna say that because of Charlie and Danny.

There you go. This is from Sean in West Palm Beach. Hey, Nick, Monroe, Rosalie and Hank. Some real stumpers today. What the hell is Grim? Grim is a thing, apparently. Around Reynolds movie? Maybe.

Okay, this, I gotta look into this. Debo, maybe you can help. Sean says, congratulations on podcast number 2000. I don't even know how he would know that, but I feel like we've probably blown past 2000, but. I'd love to know. Ever? Yeah. How many do we do?

We've been doing this for 16 years. So 2000, this is year 16, I think. Let's say 15 years. 2000 divided by 15 is 133 a year. We definitely do that. Oh, our producer, Deebo, is saying, Apple stops at 2000. We're way past that.

Okay, we're way past that. But thank you for congratulating us. Can you discuss all 32 offensive lines? So he wants us to do a segment past that. But thank you for congratulating us. Can you discuss all 32 offensive lines? So he wants us to do a segment on that. We can't do that now, obviously, but yeah. Who are some offensive lines? So the Broncos had arguably the best offensive line in football last year.

Eagles. Eagles, yeah. I mean, Eagles, I feel like people know that. I didn't even realize how good the Broncos offensive line was. An offensive line that could get a lot better this year, hopefully Titans. They brought in two in free agency, Dan Moore and Kevin Zeitler. They are moving J.C. Latham to right tackle. I don't think he was so good at left tackle.

They've got so two early round picks in the last two years, two players in free agency that the Titans could be a lot better. Seattle can get better. Miami can get better. Oh, I feel like Miami is going to be horrible. Well, they were horrible. I mean, they can get better. Obviously the bears got better with the additions that they made.

Um, chiefs are hoping to have their left tackle now as they struggle. True. Yep. We, yeah, we'll dedicate more time to it. The Panthers are criminally underrated always. Yup. They had it solid line and believe it or not, I think the Giants if they stay healthy could have an above average. Oh, for sure. Yeah. All right, let's get to our YouTube comments.

Patriots on the Patriots lines really interesting. Michael, thank you for for asking on YouTube. I think people are projecting a big leap from them. They spent the fourth overall pick on a left tackle, Will Campbell. David Andrews loss could be big. Who did they bring in? Morgan Moses was it? And I think they brought in a center. I'm still skeptical because you're talking about going from arguably the worst offensive line in football last year to being good. I don't really see it, especially because a lot of rookie left tackles really struggle.

And I think the Patriots offensive line is still going to be bad. But again, similar to what I said about Miami, like they were bad last year. So there's only one way to go. Yeah. You can have a good offense with a bad offensive line, by the way. Zed Bout wants to know, do we take concussion history in account when drafting? So having this conversation today about Chris Olave and, you know, when to draft him, because we mentioned this on the mid round receiver show, like he's going to end up being, if

he stays healthy, one of the best value picks because he can clearly be the best receiver on that team. And if the quarterback plays just even competent where you're getting him basically round six or later is fantastic. But yes, the concussions are problematic, you know, so these concussions, soft tissue injuries, like these are things that you should worry about more so than if a player is going to tear a ligament

because you can't control that. But if there's a history of these types of things, like it should worry you. I feel like I used to have this concern about Devante Adams. I think he had a concussion history. Yeah, 2016 and 17, I think he had three concussions. So I stopped caring about that.

I think two years ago, two has stayed healthy. Obviously two has got this horrible concussion injury and history and you know, if he gets another one, I mean, honestly it could be the end of his career. So that'd be the one guy that I'd highlight. Um, for concussion. How much time did Adam miss? Because it's, it's still one of these things where back then, Jamie, they, they didn't have the protocol, you know? So I think he caught a concoct. I think he got a concussion and played on a Thursday if I'm not mistaken, but I, there's been a long time. It's almost 10 years now.

Any hope for Travis ETN, SZN? Absolutely, especially at his cost. You know, you're talking about a player that was over 16 PPR points per game in 2023. Basically got cut in half last year. Is this the type of player that he is or is he still a first round talent that can have a potential big bounce back season

with a new coach. So, I know we're all looking at Tooten and saying, okay, this could be the guy for the Jaguars because of what Bucky Irving did for Liam Cohen and this is the guy that he drafted with his first draft class. But I wouldn't shock me at all if ETN is back to being a number two running back as opposed to being top 10 guy. I don't think he has that in his, in his resume with Tank Bigsby and Tooten there, but there's still amazing potential for where you're drafting. Yeah, I do. He's brought this up. I think Tooten

could have almost no role this year. Very small, but I thought I think he could, I think he could earn a big role. It's possible. But I think it's also possible that he has very little role. Bigsby is going to have a role. There's, there's a few back it's also possible that he has very little role. Bigsby is going to have a role. There's, there's a few backfields right now that I'm very curious to see what happens in training camp giants with scadaboo and Tracy Jaguars with the three guys there, the, uh, Browns, you know, you mentioned, you know, um, throwing forward and what his role could be. We had the report that he could still be the starter, you know, to,

comparatively to the two rookies. So there, there's a few that you got to really see what his role could be. We had the report that he could still be the starter, you know, to compare it to the two rookies. So there's a few that you gotta really see what's gonna happen. Cowboys for me. And I drafted Javante Williams over Travis ETN and when did we do that draft? Wednesday? Wednesday's draft.

It was a very tough call for me, but I'm very interested in Javante and his ability to maybe just be the guy. All right, let me just get one or two more questions here. Do you feel more comfortable taking Bucky or Hampton in dynasty? Hampton for me. It's a great question.

It is a great question, but I'm gonna go Hampton. I might still go Bucky just because Rashad White's probably gone after this year. And we saw what that looked like at the end of last season when he was getting phased up. It was close. It did look good. It still didn't change his third down roll, but the third down roll was Rashad White's. So what would that change if Rashad White were gone? All right.

I'm looking for one more question. Not really getting a lot here. Mike is saying, uh, he likes printing strange. Well, this isn't really a question. It's just about Travis ETN and Michael, this is other Michael here saying I'm going Roshan Johnson over Swift. I would based on the cost you can, you know, if you'd want to get a piece of the bears backfield, but I'd be very surprised that both are healthy and Swift is not getting more touches. All right we're out of here folks have a wonderful weekend we will talk to you on Monday with a new episode of fantasy football today get excited

for the FFT open you've got 10 days until the spots are available for the FFT open help us raise $66,000 for St. Jude. Jamie, have a great weekend. I want to thank everybody who produced this week. Devo's producing today. We had Harry. Who else did we have? We had Striker producing.

A lot of people really helping out with Thomas out for the week. Thomas will be back, I believe, on Monday. And so will we. Talk to you then. See you later everybody. Paramount Podcasts