Fantasy Football Today - Mid-Round WRs Part Two! Kirk, Cooper, Dell, Ridley and Diggs (07/08 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 8, 2024

If you support the show, please nominate Fantasy Football Today for The People's Choice Podcast Awards in the "Sports" Category: https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup/ Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts Jamey and Dan give their thoughts on WRs #25-29 in the consensus PPR rankings: Christian Kirk, Calvin RIdley, Tank Dell, Amari Cooper and Stefon Diggs. We start with one stat about each of these guys (4:00). Are Diggs or Ridley still capable of greatness? Why isn't Cooper going even higher in drafts? ... Ranking these five wide receivers (24:00), most upside in the group (30:50), highest floor (33:55) and most downside (38:10). Kirk is super safe but is there potential for more touchdowns? Can Dell or Diggs be a Top 12 WR without an injury to a teammate? ... Today is the start of the Scott Fish Bowl! We talk about the unique rules (46:00) and the kick returners and punt returners that could make a difference if your league counts those stats ... Email us at [e-mail] 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

Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM, an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League. Yard after yard, down after down, the sportsbook born in Vegas gives you the chance to take action to the end zone and celebrate every highlight reel play. And as an official sportsbook partner of the NFL, BetMGM is the best place to fuel your football fandom on every game day. With a variety of exciting features, BetMGM offers you plenty of seamless ways to jump straight onto the gridiron and to embrace peak sports action. Ready for another season of gridiron glory? What are you waiting for?

Get off the bench, into the huddle, and head for the end zone all season long. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario helpline at 1-866-531-2600.

BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. I am so dreading groceries this week. Why? You can skip it. Oh, what? Just like that? Just like that. How about dinner with my third cousin? Skip it.

Prince Fluffy's favorite treats? Skippable. Midnight snacks? Skip. My neighbor's nightly saxophone practices? Uh, nope. You're on your own there. Could've skipped it. Could have skipped it. Should have skipped it.

Skip to the good part and get groceries, meals, and more delivered right to your door on Skip. Hey, everyone. Before we get started, we would just like to send our condolences and our thoughts to the family and the friends of Vikings defensive back Kyrie Jackson. Jackson died in a car accident over the weekend. He was 24 years old. The Vikings selected him in the fourth round. Jackson played at Alabama and at Oregon. He was first team all-pack 12 in 2023.

We'd also like to extend our condolences to the families of Isaiah Hazel and Anthony Litton Jr., who also died in the crash. They were Jackson's high school teammates. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? It's a no-win game.

It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. He's just going to go the distance. Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. It's Monday morning, and we welcome you to Fantasy Football today. It is maybe the unofficial start of the fantasy season. Jamie, is that accurate? Scott Fishbowl starting right now.

Yeah, I mean, it's the world's largest fantasy football league, according to the Scott Fishbowl website, which I think is pretty accurate. 3,300 people partaking in this ginormous league. I know we're all involved in it. Heath did a live draft over the weekend. I think Jacob Gibbs met him there as well in Kansas City. So it's the live drafts I hear are fun. I haven't had the opportunity to go to one yet.

But the slow drafts are all starting today. We have a mock draft up on the site that we all did last night. Thank you guys for taking the time to do it. So you can check that out. But yeah, it's a great time. And Scott does a fantastic job. He's raised over, he's raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Fantasy Cares,

which benefits Toys for Tots and various other charities. So just a fantastic human being, as we've said time and time again. And the fact that a lot of people are able to partake in this league is fun. Oh, yeah. It's super fun. So we're all drafting right now, although I doubt we'll be making picks. Because eight hours to make a pick, basically. I have the 10th pick.

Jamie, what pick do you have? I have 10 also. I was kind enough to give you 10 in the mock draft last night because I knew you'd cry. Thank you very much. And Dan, how about you, Dan Schneier? What pick do you have? I took the 4th pick. I wanted to lock in one of the top QBs

that I like, and I wanted to make sure I get him, even though in this format, it is very interesting. With passing yards, you're only getting one point for every 50 passing yards. It's not 15. That's 50. So it really changes the game in a lot of ways. So I'm curious.

I, I, when we get to my pick, it's going to be an interesting pick because if two of the Russian quarterbacks already off the board and McCaffrey didn't go, I might have a tough dilemma. Okay. Well,

you should be taking Lamar Jackson. I'm hoping to take Lamar Jackson, but I'm not so sure he's going to be there. All right, all right. Well, listen, we're going to talk about that later. You had one of the worst picks in the mock draft last night, by the way. What was that? Brock Purdy in round two.

That was terrible. No, I like Brock Purdy. I'm good with Brock Purdy. I have him higher than all of you. Seventh fantasy points per game last year. I know this is not the best format for him, but you'll see. Brock Purdy's going to be a great fantasy quarterback this year. Yeah, it's fine.

Okay, so anyway, we'll get this. It's Superflex League, all that stuff. But actually, what we're going to be a great fantasy quarterback this year. Yeah, it's fine. Okay, so anyway, we'll get this. It's Superflex League, all that stuff. But actually what we're going to do today, if you're not one of the 3,300 people in the Scott Fish Bowl, and you might be playing in a league that gives you fantasy points for return yards, which is going to be a big deal this year as they've changed the kickoff rules. Well, Rashid Shahid, I think, was the 12th highest scoring

non-quarterback in the Scott Fish Bowl last year. Jamie, if you set up the league properly, from the mock draft, I looked at the stats from last year. Rashid Shahid was wide receiver six. So anyway, we're going to tell you which players to look at that return kicks, return punts. But also, before we do that, we are at wide receivers 25 through 29 in the consensus PPR rankings. And we also have a fantasy cops edition later today with a great idea for a fantasy league. We'll do that at the end of the show. A great idea for a fantasy league.

Okay, I'm going to give you a stat about each of the five wide receivers we're going to talk about today. And you give me your quick reaction. Christian Kirk, he played one snap in week 13. If you take away that game, he would have been wide receiver 24 per game in full PPR, wide receiver 29 per game in non-PPR. You look at what he did in 2022, he was wide receiver 20 per game, basically, in both formats.

That was before Calvin Ridley. He was top 12 overall. But we're looking at now two straight seasons for Christian Kirk, finishing between 20 and 24 per game in basically, in both formats. That was before Calvin Ridley. He was top 12 overall. But we're looking at now two straight seasons for Christian Kirk, finishing between 20 and 24 per game in PPR. Does that kind of sound right to you, Jamie? Yeah, I mean, I'm excited about Christian Kirk. I feel like I have him ranked too low. I think

he's 26th for me in my rankings, but that group, basically, from wide receiver 17, 18 through almost wide receiver 30 18 through almost like wide receiver 30 you can put them on a bag and and feels like whoever comes out of it you should be happy with because they all the opportunity to be i think top 20 caliber fantasy options but there's over 200 vacated targets without um calvin ridley and gate and calvin really and zay jones there i know gabe davis there now uh brian thomas there. So those guys are going to take a big chunk of that.

But Christian Kirk feels like he's the safety valve and the go-to option for Trevor Lawrence. I think that will continue. I think the speed that they added, you know, because they got a little younger with Thomas and Davis, you know, kind of slotting in there on the outside, will open up more things underneath for not only Kirk, but also for Evan Agram as well.

So excited about both those guys. I don't know if I said who we're talking about. Did I say who we're talking about? Kirk, Tank Dell, Calvin Ridley, Amari Cooper, Stefan Diggs. That's the second half of this group of 10. On Friday, we talked Higgins, DJ Moore, George Pickens, DK Metcalf, Devante Smith. Today, it's Kirk, Tank Dell, Calvin Ridley, Amari Cooper, and Stefan Diggs. That would be 25 through 29 in the PPR consensus rankings.

Dan, here's a Tank Dell stat. In the eight games in which he played more than 50% of the snaps, Tank Dell was on pace to be the number three wide receiver per game in non-PPR, the number six wide receiver per game in full PPR, 87 catches, 1,300 yards, 15 touchdowns, 142 targets. He showed top six upside last year when he played more than 50% of the snaps. Tank Dell. Yeah, he's a really interesting player this year for fantasy for multiple reasons. One, because he showed last season he's a true breakout from a talent standpoint. He was a dominant player at the

collegiate level, really wanted all three levels, both outside and inside. And he was projected in the draft as someone who's too small to play on the outside in the NFL or too small to win at all three levels in the NFL. And that just didn't prove to be true. What proved to be true was the tape that was, what he put on tape at college translates the NFL immediately with CJ Stroud, one of the best throwers last year to break out in fantasy football and in the NFL. So going into this year, we should be excited for him to potentially break out into the top 10 or 12 wide receivers in fantasy, but then here comes Stefan digs in a trade. So what you're really going to be betting on in my mind is will this Houston passing game take one more jump because they already took the jump. And I think they were seventh most passing yards and seventh, but they were top 10 in

pass attempts, top 10 in all the numbers you want to see, but they're going to have to take that jump to the elite level. I think to really make, to make it sure that you can have an every week starter was tanked out. And I don't mean every week starters and back end wide receiver two or three, but like in every seat, every week, borderline wide receiver one, two. So to me, it depends on that. Um, and how quickly Stefan digs assimilates himself into this role, but I'm just interested to see like where they play all these players too, because I don't know necessarily if at this

point in his career, Stefan digs, isn't better off on the inside. And I know tank Dell can win on the outside. So if that's the case, it might be a lot fewer targets for tank Dell, but more explosive opportunities on the outside, uh, in one-on-one situations. So I feel like for me, I'm a little more skeptical of him and maybe PPR leagues. And I like him a little bit more standard just because I'm not sure I can predict the volume, but he's one of the better talents in the NFL right now. We've literally proved it last year with one of the best young quarterbacks. If you get that at wide receiver 26, you've got to feel pretty confident. All right. Let's do kind of a quick overview of these guys, and then we'll break them down in more in-depth a little bit later.

Calvin Ridley, Jamie, is next. He's 29 years old. Here's a stat on Calvin Ridley, who was wide receiver 27 per game last year in PPR. Among 80 wide receivers with 50 or more targets, 80 wide receivers with 50 or more targets, He was 73rd in yak per catch. He had a pretty high ADOT, 13.2 yards, but 2.6 yak per catch.

That's terrible. Aside from his rookie season, he's never been above 3.1 yak per catch. He was kind of bad. I think disappointing last year. He wasn't very good in 2021. It was okay.

Is he just not that good anymore? That's my question about Calvin Ridley. What do you think? I hope not. I hope he's still good. I think if you're viewing him as a top 20 caliber receiver, I think you're overvaluing him. I think if you're viewing him as a good number three receiver

with the chance to be a weekly starter in two receiver leagues, then that's the type of receiver that you should be planning to get. I like the system. I think the fact that Brian Callahan is talking about using him in the Jamar Chase role is exciting. You're asking a lot, though, because did he struggle last year because of the layoff? Did he struggle last year because of the offense? Did he struggle last year because of Trevor Lawrence? Or is he now going to be back with a quarterback that's on the rise, you know, in Will Levis? Is the system going to benefit him? So for me, I just don't want to overvalue him.

And look, while he's younger than DeAndre Hopkins and hopefully more explosive than DeAndre Hopkins, Hopkins is still one of these guys that, you know, may prove to lead the team in targets and be, you know, still the guy that Will Levis leans on more often than not. And so when you're looking at those two guys, it's just hard to say that Calvin Ridley is still better than DeAndre Hopkins. I rank him higher than Hopkins with the opportunity that it feels like he's getting. But you throw Tyler Boyd in the mix, you know, they're going to use their running backs in the passing game. And then again, is Will Levis ready to take that leap? You know, as Dan talked about, you know,

we saw the Texans take that leap because CJ Stroud was awesome. A lot of people are hoping that Will Levis takes that step forward as well. And I think he's got the potential to it because the offensive line has been upgraded and, you know, the weapons around him are better. But, you know, again, for me, I don't want to say that Ridley's done. I don't think that last year was the best way to define him. I think that will happen this year. But again, for me, he's just a number three wide receiver, not somebody that I'm targeting somebody more so that I'll settle for. He's just outside that group that I mentioned before.

Like 17 through 30, I think I have him 31. Gotcha. All right, Amari Cooper, Dan, he's going to be 30 years. I think he is 30 years old now. Yeah. Here's a stat for him. Five games with Deshaun Watson. On pace for 95 catches, 1,632 yards, and seven touchdowns on 133 targets.

Amari Cooper was a stud last year when it wasn't anyone other than Dorian Thompson Robinson. Yeah. One thing with Amari Cooper I was surprised to see is that even though the Browns passing him took a big step forward with Joe Flacco, because I think he fits that system better from a skill set standpoint, somehow then Deshaun Watson, he was not a better wide receiver with Flacco. He's a better receiver, like you mentioned with Deshaun Watson, who's coming back for this year. And it's because they had a nice rapport together.

And I felt like it was starting to trend in the right direction, really toward the end before the injury to Watson and something to consider going into this year, because Watson's expected to be back, hopefully ready for training camp and full, full go. We don't know that for sure, but hopefully so you can start to get that going, hit the ground running right away. But there are different players in the mix. I mean, look, Jerry Judy hasn't been a successful NFL player, despite being an early first round pick and having really good tape at Alabama, but he was traded for and signed immediately to a pretty big contract. I don't think they're just going to put him in there and not have him involved in any way within the offense. He's somebody to consider. They've also

drafted a lot of mid round riders. He was even a guy like Cedric Tillman, who supposedly had a really good OTAs, really good tape at Tennessee came out last year as a rookie. This is second year. He could take a jump forward and he could earn some target share too. So when you start to consider all that and the idea that, you know, Kevin's fancy is often still have a, have a good run balance to them. It starts to scare me a little bit with Cooper, especially at this age. We, Jamie talks about this a lot, like not trying to invest in receivers once they get to this age and he's had an injury history in addition to that. So now you're adding a lot of risk factors going for the idea of look, if all goes well to Sean Watson,

we'll funnel targets through Cooper like he did last year. But I feel like that opportunity or that timeline or that possibility is a little less likely than it was last year, given the talent around him. And then there's Stefan Diggs, who we'll talk about after we take a break, which we'll do after we talk about the podcast awards, everybody. You need to nominate us in the podcast awards. Go to podcastawards.com. We have a link in the Podcast Awards. Go to podcastawards.com. We have a link in the episode description. There are two categories where you can nominate Fantasy Football today, and we really want to win this year, so we could really use your help. I'm going

to be more active talking about this on social media and getting everybody to do this. But please, if you have less than 60 seconds, go to podcastawards.com, where it asks you to nominate. We are in the People's Choice Award and the sports category. The sports category. If you're only going to do one, do the sports category. Nominate Fantasy Football today. Get us to the next round, and then we'll take it from there

and hopefully win it. So again, podcastawards.com. And we will be right back on Fantasy Football Today. mind to focus on what truly matters. Find their products through banks, credit unions, and associations, or visit SecurianCanada.ca. Securian Canada, insurance designed for life. Metrolinks and Crosslinks are reminding everyone to be careful as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals. Be careful along our tracks

and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. And Jamie Stephan Diggs going to turn 31 on November 29th, late this season.

First nine games of the season, he was the number four wide receiver per game. The last eight games, seven of them with Joe Brady, he was the number 45 wide receiver per game. Are we blaming Joe Brady? Are we blaming Stefan Diggs? What's your outlook on Diggs? You know, obviously you've got to tie in Tank Dell, like Dan talked about earlier, and his return to action.

Clearly, Nico Collins feels like the best bet of the Texas receivers by the way he's being drafted. I like him the best of the group. I think the thing for Diggs is how much will the quarterback change help him, the coordinator change help him, the coordinator change, help him. You know, you mentioned Joe Brady.

I don't know necessarily that the targets were that much of a drop off for what digs was getting. Josh Allen's ability to throw the ball down the field was not the same. How much of that was him being a hundred percent because we know he was battling some, some different ailments. Um, CJ Stroud seems like he could throw the ball down the field with a lot of

accuracy. So that, that should hopefully help. But like Dan said, you know, where is digs lining up? You know, is he going to be the outside guy?

Is it going to be the inside guy? We haven't seen very many times over the course of NFL history. And we've talked about this when digs went there, where there are three guys that could be top 24 fantasy options on the same offense. And so who's going to be left out and how far will that third person potentially be left out? If not two guys being left out,

but I think this feels like there, there could be two guys in the top 24. For me, Diggs is still – I have him – I go back and forth with him in tank. Right now I have him head of Dell just because I do think the motivation of the contract situation, you know, so giving him the one year out – giving him out after one year in Houston will help. I still think that he has the ability to play at a high level. And like Dan said, you know, where's the volume going? And it feels like the volume will favor Diggs

slightly over Dell, even though the target should be distributed evenly. And let's not forget, Dalton Schultz is going to be part of this, and Joe Mixon will be a part of this too. So there's just a lot of mouths to feed. So again, I don't want to overvalue Diggs. I also don't want to miss out on getting one of the Texans receivers because I do think that there's the opportunity for any of the three to be the best of the bunch and to be a top-10 caliber fantasy option as CJ Stroud showed last year. So Diggs is, you know, I have Diggs, I think, 25 and Dell's 27, so they're essentially back-to-back.

I don't mind taking a shot on either one as early as round four just based on how receivers will probably go in most of the leagues I play in. Round five is kind of the sweet spot for me on either one as early as round four just based on how receivers will probably go in most of the leagues I play in. Round five is kind of the sweet spot for me on either one. But basically the way that I approach those two guys in particular, since we're talking about both, is once I see one go, if I'm up next, I'll probably take the other one. I'm just trying to look something up here.

So I feel like since the trade has happened, it was April 3rd, when Diggs got traded to the Texans, right around there. So it was before the NFL draft, not that that changed anything.

I feel like Diggs was clearly ahead. I feel like the conversation was, ooh, do we take Diggs or Nico Collins? And now it's like, it's clearly Nico Collins won. Now do we take Diggs or Tank Dell? I don't know if that's just with us, but I'm looking at a half PPR draft

that we did right after the NFL draft. Stefan Diggs went in the middle of round four. Tank Dell went in the middle of round six. And now I don't know why. Again, this could be just me being in my little CBS world, but I feel like Diggs has fallen over the last couple of months that people were more excited about him or, or maybe they've gotten more excited about tank Dell. It could be that, that back then we didn't have as clear of a, of a health timeline for tank Dell.

And now we feel even better about him and it's pushed Diggs down. But I remember it being like Nico or Diggs. And now it's Nico for sure. And Diggs versus, versus Dell with people, maybe let me see what adp says but i think you're right i think i've noticed this too in our yeah cbs adp has digs at 25 and dell at 27 so yeah you feel you feel the same way 100 i've noticed this in all our mocks and the way people are talking about these players i think a lot of it has to do with just a and this

is not necessarily a wrong thing but a little bit of recency bias. Like the last stretch we've seen of Stefan Diggs, he hasn't really looked like a difference maker. Take outside what the quarterback situation is, the targets, what we're projecting from that standpoint, the volume standpoint. He just hasn't looked like a difference maker on the football field for whatever reason. And now he's getting older and now he has a new quarterback in a new situation, which brings uncertainty. And a lot of what fueled in my mind, his consistent wide receiver, one type finishes was that report with Josh Allen. And kind of, and more importantly to me was his role within that old offensive system with the bills, even, you know, before the move to Joe Brady. So now that's

all gone. It's all out the window. Now what we're relying on here is his talent and still being a difference making player on a football field that earns targets because in the end, targets are earned. They're not based on the system. They're mostly earned by you getting open and the quarterback having trust in you to get open within the timing of the play. So we have to bank on that, and we have to bank on C.J. Stroud.

That part I feel like we can bank on, but what makes it a little more concerning is at no point in his career with the Bills when he was a wide receiver one, did he ever have this kind of target competition or any workload? Yeah. No. Just based on ESPN's ADP, Diggs is going slightly ahead of Nico. Wow.

Wow. That is surprising. Let me just double check. Yep. I don't think any of our mocks went that way. Diggs is 3.6. According to their ADP, this is PPR. 3.10 for Niko.

Tank is at 5.12, which is lower than us, which is at 5.7. And we have Diggs. Our ADP has Diggs 5.3. So they're basically, again, almost back-to-back. We are the highest on nico at two and around two and you know what's funny adam as each day passes is on this note i do more and more regret trading for stefan digs with you in our dynasty league oh really well that makes i mean i don't hate the value i still like the value i got but like i just like less enthused

by stefan digs i'm like should I have just done this or something? Like look for a different player because I don't know. Stefan Diggs is kind of entering a weird stage. It could all be like moot. Like he could just hit the ground running with the Texans. And that offense is so good that everyone can kind of get in a little bit, but I know it just feels like he's trending downward here. Yeah.

He's up trending downward. I think the thing for you, cause you consider yourself a contender, which you should, you know, is if he gives you anywhere, you know, close to, you know,

top 20 value for this year, he did his job for you. Now, yeah. Was it straight again? It was the two, the two Oh two. I gave up the two Oh two for the two 11 and Stefan digs.

It ended up being, I got ladded conky for Stefan Diggs and, uh, AD Mitchell, Mitchell. All right. But anyway, let's not,

let's not focus on that. All right. I'm going to just say one thing here. I S I have a two date Rangers, two date ranges, uh, NFC average draft position, May 1st to June 1st and June 2nd to July 5th.

So 45 drafts in the first sample size So 45 drafts in the first sample size, 67 drafts in the second sample size. Diggs and Dell have gotten a little bit closer. Diggs was wide receiver 15 in month of May. And then basically in June, he was wide receiver 18. Dell went from wide receiver 30 to wide receiver 29. So Diggs has fallen a little bit, but it's nothing. Okay, before we get,

I have some questions about these five wide receivers i do have a comment here uh from popinski i think it was it was oh minus 120 dan slept in that shirt i think i agree i mean i yeah i'm gonna i'm that. Based on what? It looks like a very comfortable shirt. It is very comfortable material. It looks a little wrinkled. So, yeah, I think you accept it. No, the wrinkle is, first of all, it's not that wrinkle. It's just the way that I wear it.

Yeah, I wear a wrinkle. It's the angle. It's the angle. It's the angle. The bad angle. No. Okay, listen. When you get the laundry done, I'm not a professional folder. No. Okay. Listen, can you get the laundry done?

I'm not, I don't, I'm not a professional folder of clothing. Okay. I don't do the best folds. I notice my folds tend to have a little more, more wrinkles than the average fold. I'm on,

I'm on, I'm, you know, I'm higher on the wrinkle per fold scare scale. So you got to get out of the dryer fast. You can't let it wait or else it's going to wrinkle up, you know? And sometimes I,

I don't do the best job with that and my folds aren't great. So no, Mr. Bupinski, it's just a, this is a folding issue. Okay. I, I often wear the shirts that I slept in, so I wouldn't have criticized you for that at all. Uh, you want me to tell the story I told you over the weekend? I don't think so. I'll leave the name out. But then how can you leave the name out? It's not trust me. I'm, I'm a professional storyteller. Um, so, uh, I was wearing a shirt that has something relatively inappropriate on it. Um, nothing like, uh, bad language, but it just, it's not something you should wear in public. It's a shirt that I, that I often sleep in. And, uh, so I got up, took my kids to school. I figured I'm just going to drop them off and come home.

And one of my kids left something in the car. So I had to turn back around. I forgot what I was wearing and had to walk into school wearing the inappropriate shirt. So, yeah, it wasn't the best situation. Dan, I'm going to type to you what kind of shirt it was. And you can see what it says on it. Now it said. How inappropriate are we talking, Jamie? I told you. I typed to you the brand.

Oh, OK. That's walked in. I mean, it is pretty inappropriate to walk into a school with embarrassing. But yeah, I don't know. Let's get to the show here. So the the five guys, I want you to rank them. So, again, they are Kirk Dell, Ridley Cooper, Diggs, Kirk Dell, Ridley Cooper, Diggs. Jamie, how do you rank those five?

As of today, I have it Diggs, Kirk, Dell, Cooper, Ridley. That's it. Yeah. Diggs, Kirk, Dell, Cooper, Ridley. How about you, Dan? I have Kirk as the one there. Pretty high on him this year. Has that rapport with Lawrence.

I think he's going to have a lot of targets, most of this list, and be healthiest. Kirk, I'll go Kirk. Dell, Diggs, Cooper, Ridley. Not interested much in Ridley this year. I'm trying to think, why wouldn't I draft Cooper over digs? You know, I feel and Dell.

Well, I mean, for Cooper, it's like you draft them over digs because you're assuming the volume. Right. But you are scared off. They both have, they both have age issues,

but digs may, maybe showed signs of decline. Sure. I would like to give digiggs the benefit of the doubt, but he's older than Cooper, right? I mean, Cooper's 30 and Diggs is going to be 31. He's older by a year. I think the reason for me is, again,

the motivation of not only just being with a new team and being reinvigorated a little bit, because it seems like we had this story for two years about how he was a little disgruntled with the situation in buffalo for whatever it was you know we never really heard much of it but we still had you know some some underlying stories there uh the motivation of a new deal i know they're both planning for contracts at least as of now i expect cooper to probably get something done the thing for me is like yes he was good with deshaun watson that was a healthy Deshaun Watson.

And, you know, now this is now, you know, two years of Watson, either a struggling a little bit. And again, give him some of the benefit of doubt of not having training camp and

having the layoff with the suspension from a play standpoint. But is Deshaun Watson never going to get back to being that guy? And so now you're asking Watson to be that guy. You're not Watson to be that guy with additional targets. You're not. Watson sucked last year, I thought. I mean, that was the thing. He wasn't bad for Cooper, though. No, he was great for Cooper, but he wasn't.

But that's what I'm saying. He doesn't have to get back to. I think that's the appeal. That's a fair point. He doesn't have to get back to it. I'll rephrase it. You're asking Watson to still be at the level to support Amari Cooper the way he was last year, coming off of a shoulder injury with another mouth to feed in the offense.

After what Njoku showed, which I think is not going to go away. I still have my concerns about Njoku, but I think he's going to continue to be fed targets to the level that he needs to get fed. I don't think Elijah Moore is – I know he's not part of the top three receivers, but I don't think he's going away completely because he's a talented player. Uh, as Dan alluded to Cedric Tillman's, you know, a player on the rise. So it just feels as if while they're both in crowded offenses, I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to the guy who's been more explosive and yes, age is a factor. So maybe Diggs has lost a step and he's done, but also the quarterback.

And I think that matters, you know, so CJ Stroud is a difference for me. And they're not ranked so far apart, but there's enough of a separation that I would rather have the guy playing on the Texans, and this is really what it comes down to, the guy playing with C.J. Stroud as opposed to the guy playing with Sean Watson. Okay, I mean, that's fair. Dan, I just want to say,

I don't consider Cleveland to be nearly as crowded as Houston because I don't think Njoku and Jerry Judy are tank Dell and Nico Collins, you know, they're not, they're not target earners. But the problem with that is the difference between that is in the Texans offense, we can be sure of the pass volume. We can be sure of the pass yardage and the pass efficient. Maybe that second part is less sure. Maybe they'll take a step back from an efficiency standpoint, but that's a pass first team that has the ability to do it based on the quarterback. I think what Jamie's trying to say is we don't know for sure if this passing game

is going to be capable of doing anything in my mind in Cleveland. I know it was bad last year with Watson, like you talked about, but it can get worse. I don't want to sit here and think it can get worse. They've paid him. So they're going to play him, but he like Cam Newton after his shoulder surgery couldn't even throw a football. It was it for him. That is his arm was shot and that's it. Deshaun Watson did not look good throwing the football last year at all. He didn't look like the player we saw in Texas, Houston at all. From a velocity standpoint, from an arm town standpoint, it could get worse. It could get to the point where that's just a dysfunctional passing game entirely.

And that's why I'm not so sure I want to get any part of it. Okay. Well, and it's funny you mentioned that Dan, because because you look at what the Cleveland offseason has been. They brought in a lot of quarterbacks. Yeah. You know, it's not like they were just resting on, okay, I know they lose Joe Flacco, but they weren't just, you know, sitting back and saying, well, you just got Jameis.

They got Huntley. You know, they're keeping Thompson Robinson. You know, so it just feels like they're concerned about Watson, too, whether it's just the injury or is there going to be a fall off. And the whole story that we've been talking about since he signed there, the front office versus the coaching staff. A lot of stories that Stefanski never wanted Deshaun Watson and that it was forced upon him.

And so if he gets any reason of doubt of I don't want him as my starter right now because the justification being maybe he's not 100% healthy, then we could see Jameis in there. And that might be a benefit to Cooper, you know, based on how Jameis plays. You know, so it is something to keep an eye on that the quarterback situation could be tenuous there in Cleveland and it might be a problem for everybody.

Yeah, but Cooper was like a top 20 wide receiver the year before with Jacoby Brissett, and Jacoby Brissett up to that point had never gotten really anything out of any of his wide receivers, and Cooper was one of the biggest surprises, so I don't really see Cooper having league winning potential. I think, like, I gave you those stats

of what he did with five games with Deshaun Watson. It was on pace for over 1,600 yards, but it was 133 targets. So let me just put it this way. Last year, Cooper had his best, basically one of his best seasons. He was so efficient.

Not gonna happen again. Yeah, but not gonna happen again. He's not gonna be that efficient. He had, you know, among the most big plays in the NFL. Like, that's not gonna happen again. But he's going almost a wide receiver 30s, wide receiver 28 in PPR. So I just I really like the value there.

I feel a high floor there for him, even if the offense is bad. The passing game is bad. I still feel like he can produce at least wide receiver 28. I'd have a hard time seeing him not being a top 30 receiver. Correct. He should not fall off completely unless Watson is bad and everything else just falls apart. He is going 28th. Okay, so here's my next question for this range.

Who has the most upside out of Christian Kirk, Stefan Diggs, Tank Dell, Amari Cooper, and Calvin Ridley? Who has the most upside? I think you got to put it on the Texans receivers, right? Because if one guy gets hurt...

Non-injury upside. Non-injury upside. See, the thing with Kirk is I don't see him as a top 10 guy. Right. Like, top 15 maybe? Like, I could see

one of the Texans guys really going nuts. And yes, probably takes an injury for that to happen, but you know you you look at Bobby Sloak's offense and and just the success that it had last year you know the San Francisco track record and what these guys do with the ball in their hands and yards after catch all

those things there's so many opportunities for explosive plays here and the thing about CJ Stroud is you know I know again the track record doesn't suggest that there's a lot of history where three guys can be over you know three guys can be in the top 24. He's shown you one year in college where he played with an elite receiving core that he was unbelievable and all those guys put up big numbers. So, um, I guess if it, for me, it would probably be tanked up because I think if he, if he hits the level of, of what he's capable of, as we saw last year, he could be a monster. I'm going to go with digs for this one. I just think he's proven to already be that elite wide receiver, top five guy. So now you can hope maybe this new system actually helps him, right? Like it could be specific route combinations that get him open more often or give him more space or potential to really showcase his skillset, which he's already shown with Josh Allen. Jay Stroud had Marvin Harrison Jr., Jackson Smith and Jigba and Chris Olave.

They all put up massive, massive numbers there and did and he was able to spread the ball around really well there. I know Jason had the most targets, but and the most production there. But the other two guys really ate as well. So I don't think that would be an issue even without the injury. I just I'm just going to dig space on the track record. All right. Who is going to take a commercial break right now? You. That would be me. All right. I'm going to take a commercial break right now you that would be me all right i'm gonna take a commercial break and then we'll talk about the highest floor

in this group when we come back bumble knows it's hard to start conversations hey no too basic hi there still no what about hello handsome who knew you could give yourself the ick? That's why Bumble is changing how you start conversations. You can now make the first move or not. With opening moves, you simply choose a question to be automatically sent to your matches. Then sit back and let your matches start the chat. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. With Smartwater's pure crisp taste,

there's nothing to overthink. So while you may be spiraling over double texting your crush, whether your skincare routine is working because you look the same or is doing nothing because you look the same and whatever the heck red light therapy is, it's definitely not that. Don't overthink how you hydrate.

Life's full of choices smart water is a simple one welcome back so we are talking about diggs kirk dell cooper and ridley and who we said uh who is the most upside jamie said uh tank dell and dan said stefan diggs who has the highest floor in this group jamie kirk agreed kirk across the board i'm gonna go kirk as well yeah i don't think it's even a debate i mean that is just the appeal of christian kirk i just it's it's almost an easy pick to make it's like a stress-free pick. Obviously, anything could happen. Maybe he's bad. He got hurt last year, so anything could happen. Well, forget about hurt.

I don't want to do an injury scenario this year. But, you know, maybe he just has a bad year. I don't know. I have the hardest time seeing that of this group, of him just sucking. I agree completely. And things are even better for him now with Ridley out of the mix. I get so stressed out.

Unless Brian Thomas is just an absolute stud. Yeah, that would happen. I get so stressed out during fantasy drafts sometimes. I'm like, oh, no, did I make a horrible pick? I never feel that way when I pick Christian Kirk. Now, are you drafting him when you have taken him as your second receiver or your third? Oh, ideally third.

No, I know ideally, but I'm saying for you. When you're saying you're in this scenario. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I've done too many drafts with you. I don't know if I've actually drafted Christian Kirk. Because you take him a lot.

I don't really have an answer for that. It just depends on what my team looks like at that point. You know? And, you know, here's a question with Christian Kirk. He's so safe in full PPR. Is he safe in half PPR? And I don't think he's safe in non-PPR. I guess we should probably specify that. Jamie, is he safe across all formats or just full PPR?

No, I think full and half he's safe. I think you make a good point in non-PPR. He's not going to score a lot of touchdowns. You know, so you're talking about a guy that probably peaks at about 1,100 yards. Six touchdowns maybe at best. We just don't know how. First off, I'd love to get some answer about who's calling plays in Jacksonville. You know, is it Taylor? Is it Peterson? You know, last year was such a confusing situation. You know, Peterson's out there with the sheet that looks like a menu. And, you know, the story was always, no, Taylor's the one calling plays. You know, Lawrence looked completely lost once Kirk got hurt. You know, how much of that was, again, the offense processing, you know, losing, you know, your, your safety blanket really not coming through, you

know, so, you know, we know Gabe Davis and his track record, uh, and, and just being an inconsistent player. And so is he going to come in and, you know, change his game, you know, to, to help this offense, you know, completely go in a different direction, or at least, you know, replaces a Jones in my mind. But I just hope that that Kirk goes back to being the type of player that he was two years ago. You know, he was such a productive fantasy option. He justified the contract, which we all laughed at when he signed it coming from Arizona. And I think, you know, just to the point, he feels safe. You know, he feels safe.

You know, so the upside, you know, if he gets another two or three touchdowns on top of what maybe the projections suggest, if he can be, you know, a 1300 plus caliber, you know, receiver challenge for a hundred catches, you know, I don't want to overvalue him that way, but it wouldn't completely shock me if, you know, Thomas is, is a struggling rookie, which, you know, tends to happen from time to time, as we know, and Gabe Davis just gave Davis and it's just Kirk and Ingram eating all the time from Trevor Lawrence. Yeah. Here's one quick upside case for Christian Kirk. Calvin Ridley had the third most red zone, fourth most green zone,

and the most end zone targets in the NFL. In 2022, Christian Kirk had 22 red zone targets. In 2023, he had five. Now listen, he played fewer games, right? He played basically 11 games. So he played six fewer games, essentially. I think he played a full season in 2022. Yeah, he did.

But his red zone targets went from 22 to five. His green zone targets, which is inside the 10-yard line, went from 10 to two. And his end zone targets went from 11 to four. So that was all Calvin Ridley last year. So even though it's hard to really project a lot of touchdowns for Christian Kirk, because he's never done it, hey, maybe he gets, maybe he's the one who ends up being among the league leaders in red zone,

green zone, end zone targets. There's an opportunity there. There's a void to be filled that Calvin Ridley did pretty poorly with last year, by the way. All right. Let's go to my last question. Who has the most downside in this group of Dell, Diggs, Kirk, Ridley, Cooper?

I'm going to go with Ridley for this one. Obviously, we saw last year that Ridley was not the same player he was when he broke out in Atlanta. Now, some people are saying, look, now's a good time to buy because he needed a year, right? He was all from football, got his sea legs under him in some way that you can use that term to say it, but you know, and now he can be a different player, but I'm not so sure he's going to get back to that level player. And I'm not so sure how much of what he did in Atlanta was dependent on the situation he was in there and that type of

quarterback. I'm not, I don't think that will Levis is a timing and precision based quarterback by any means whatsoever. So I'm not sure he fits the Calvin Ridley skill set at all. I think Deandre Hopkins, there's some really good numbers that he wasn't as bad. Like it was a pretty good and effective receiver last year, still at his advanced stage, based on some of the advanced numbers I've looked at.

In addition to some of the other additions they've made that offense, Tony Pollard could be a part of the offense in the passing game. So I'm not even sure there's volume for Ridley, let alone if Ridley is still that player that he used to be. With an uncertain quarterback situation, that's a lot of risk factors right there. I don't foresee myself drafting him almost anywhere if he's ranked in this range. So I think there's really big bottom-out potential there, despite the big contract he signed.

So the contract is kind of hard to overlook, because typically when we see these type of things, they get force fed targets. And so if he hasn't completely fallen off, I'm with you, really is the one that scares me the most. He has the most downside. Mostly, though, it's because of Will Levis. And I actually think that Levis will be better this year just because, again, the addition of really the addition of Tyler Boyd, better offensive line. So he'll be protected. Brian Callahan coming in, Bill Callahan coming in, you know, to help the offensive line. So I think everything they've done suggests that Will Levis, if he can play and I agree

with Dan, you know, he's got a lot to show, but if he can play, they've given him the tools to, you know, make it work. But there's also, again, is Will Levis going to perform at the level of even Trevor Lawrence last year? Is he going to perform to Dan's point at the level of Matt Ryan was, and this is obviously about Calvin Ridley. And so those are concerning. And then you factor in DeAndre Hopkins still being a guy that could be the alpha and the go-to guy, despite maybe playing the T Higgins role, if that's how they're going to, you know, sort of, you know, move these guys into certain categories.

I do think that Ridley is an okay pick if you get him at the right price. It's a shame that Heath isn't on this show because he's the pro Ridley guy and so he would probably have a different take on this. I only know from one answer I read from Heath and it's in our magazine because he drafted

both Pollard and Ridley and the question I asked him was, I said, are you just a Titans fan or do you actually like these players? And he said the reason he likes these guys is he's getting them at a cheaper cost for players who he had as busts last year. But he expects them to perform at least at the level that they did a year ago. And so if you're getting that type of production from Ridley in this range, you should be thrilled about it. But if you're overvaluing Ridley and expecting him to get back to that Atlanta Falcons level or be better than what he was a year ago, I think you're going to be disappointed. So a good wide receiver three, again, you know,

you want to debate him with some of the guys that are going after him. I would take Malik neighbors over him personally. I'm sure most people would based on ADP. I know you two guys probably would as well. Oh yeah. You know, but, but the lad McConMcConkeys, the Keenan Allens, the Romo Dunzays, that's, I think, the group that's after him.

JSN, those type of players, I think Ridley still has more upside than a handful of those guys. 31, 32, 33 in that range, I think he's fine. Back-end wide receiver three, I think he's fine. But again, just don't reach for him. I think you'll be disappointed if that's the case.

Okay. I like Chris Godwin better than Calvin Ridley. Totally, 100%. Okay, we agree. There is not a single thing, in my opinion. Godwin's not in this group that we're discussing. No, he's next. He's on tomorrow's show. He's right after it.

There's not a... Yeah, okay, that's the one thing I would say about Calvin Ridley. We're pretty much done with this discussion. Ridley is in this group of consensus rankings because Heath is very high on him. Otherwise he would not be in this group, but Heath kind of pulls Ridley up. There's nothing on paper that should make anyone take Ridley over Hopkins

other than age. And Ridley's 29. It's not like he's like a young pup, but 29 is fine. Wide receivers. And the contract, as Jamie mentioned. Yeah. But I mean, obviously. And Ridley's 29. It's not like he's like a young pup, but 29 is fine. Wide receivers are great. And the contract, as Jamie mentioned. Yeah, but I mean, obviously they wanted Ridley.

They wanted Hopkins. They went out and got him, right? But, you know, fair enough. Just Hopkins was better, you know, in basically every metric last year. They had the same amount of targets. And Hopkins was slightly better in terms of yards.

Yards per route run. DeAndre Hopkins ran about 500 routes last year super low yep yards per route run he was at 2.09 i know these numbers don't mean a lot to people but tank dell was 2.22 nico collins was 3.11 which is one of the highest in the NFL. Tankdale, 2.22. Hopkins, 2.09. Calvin Ridley, 1.58. That's lower than Josh Downs. He was really bad last year. I mean, he had a ton of drops in the red zone as well that really hurt the Jaguars and Trevor Lawrence. He just was not a good receiver.

And it's just a matter of, is he going to get back to that level that we once saw him flash at Atlanta? And at this point now, it's three years removed. Right. It's weird. I can't find a reason to take him. I would love to hear from him. Well, I can find a reason to take him in the 30s. It's the money.

And look, again, we don't know how it will play out. But from what you hear from the coaching staff and what you're expecting to see is they are planning for him to be their alpha. They are planning for him to take over that role from DeAndre Hopkins. They are talking about if the offense mirrors what they did in Cincinnati, if Callahan does something similar, that he's their Jamar Chase. It's hard to overlook that. And so, again, I just don't want people to overvalue Calvin Ridley based on the comments in the chat. It doesn't feel like it.

Obviously, what we're saying doesn't feel like it. But I don't know if it's just a Heath thing or not that we're talking to that small section of fantasy drafters. But it just feels like I think Ridley is appropriately priced. And, again, I'll check what his ADP is on some other sites. So he's going behind the Texans guys. He's not being drafted until middle of round six on ESPN. He's actually later on our site, so despite the high ranking. And he's the furthest on sleeper for those drafts, for redraft,

if that matters right now. So I think he's the furthest on sleeper for those drafts, for redraft, if that matters right now. So, you know, I think he's probably a price. And based on the consensus ADP, he's behind like Marquise Brown too, which I don't necessarily hate either. And I'll say this. He had some very tough cornerback matchups last year. He was terrible against Snead in week two.

He was terrible against the Texans. I don't know if Stingley followed him there, but I remember that. Anytime he faced a good cornerback, he stunk. I mean, terrible. 40 yards or fewer in a lot of these games. His first three matchups, three

of his first four, Jalen Johnson, Suss Gardner, Jalen Ramsey, that's bad. The fact that Hopkins is on the field could mean that he's not going to get locked down by the opposing number one cornerback. I don't think those, when you play two receivers like that, most teams won't travel.

I agree. Right, exactly. So unless one of them's like in the slot and Ridley's the outside guy, I think that's going to benefit Calvin Ridley because he really struggled against good cornerbacks last year. All right.

That is going to conclude our discussion of that group of wide all right uh that is going to conclude our discussion of that group of wide receivers and that's going to move us to the scott fishbowl and this is not just advice if you're in the scott fishbowl you might want to learn about where it's super flex you know how to draft in super flex it's um i'll have some news and notes too i have a lot of stuff today wow uh andal, the guy who's in my league, number the pick 101, you should have made a pre-pick, a pre-draft pick, okay? So, you know, auto-pick. Mine was auto-pick, too, actually.

Yeah, well, mine wasn't. So we're still on the clock here for 101, which is a PartyFal. Oh, you're saying that's a good thing. Just be sensitive. There are some weather issues in the Southwest. Yeah, no, it's fine. I couldn't care less i i'm gonna be honest i don't i don't love i'm just gonna make a take right here yeah this is gonna be controversial to some yeah i'm not a big fan of the people who are like make it big everybody's kicking so you can't believe it

you gotta do better than that that voice you gotta stop with that voice you gotta do better you have to have a better impression voice than that voice that's what i hear in my head when these people are like tagging people like make your pick why are you taking so long you've been on the clock for 13 seconds how have you not made your pick yet like guys relax and i will try not to do that voice again no the second one you did was the make your pick. That's a better one. Okay, I'll do the make your pick voice. But look, guys, try to enjoy the Scott Fishbowl, okay? It's going to be over sooner than you think.

And then if you rush through this thing, the draft's over, and now we've got another month to go before we're drafting again. I know. We've got nothing going on. I don't understand what the hurry is. Enjoy your time. Take your time. Don't need to rush through every pick. And then they'll be like, oh, we're only on round four.

Look at these losers in our league. They're already on round nine. Like, so what, guys? Use that round nine data, and now you can make more informed picks. Yes, exactly. All right, so first of all, the most important thing with Scott Fishbowl is go to fantasycares.org and make a donation to Fantasy Cares. I did over the weekend.

I'm sure you guys have done it as well. Please donate to Fantasy Cares. I did over the weekend. I'm sure you guys have done it as well. Please donate to Fantasy Cares. Scott Fishbowl, they're a whole bunch. It's over 3,300 people, 12 team leagues, super flex. You start one quarterback, one running back, one wide receiver, one tight end, one super flex, which is typically going to be another quarterback. I think, what, six flexes?

Six flexes. Six flexes. And you can start kickers as well. Depends on the site you're using, because there's two sites this year. Sleeper in MyFantasyLeague? Sleeper, I believe you can only use one kicker.

MyFantasyLeague, I think you can use multiple. It's PPR. It's point per first down. And it's tight end premium. So tight ends get two points for a catch and two points for a first down. So last year, Evan Ingram was the number 12 overall non-quarterback. And Sam Laporta was number 14.

They were good, but not that good. And without this format last year, Engram was the number 31 overall non-quarterback and Laporta was number 26. But in this format, with the double the points for the first downs and the catches, they were top 14, both of them. And then there's this wacky thing that...

Well, you know. Well, you forgot the quarterback quirk, too. Put those in, too. Well, I was going to say the punt returns and the kick returns. Yeah, that's the big one. But the quarterback quirks are interesting, too. It's just one point for every 50, 5-0 passing yards. And this one I find interesting, too.

No negative points for turnovers for quarterbacks. For any position. For any position, right. And there's 0.1 for a completion and minus 0.1 for an incompletion, right? So completion percentage. No, there's no more completion. That's all gone.

What? I thought I saw that in the, well, it didn't really affect my drafting at all. It should. That's a, I mean, in a sense it does, but not really. I think it's easy with the Scott Fishbowl to try so hard to follow the scoring rules that you might. No, you have to.

No, you don't have to. You can overthink it. And then you end up taking a player that's just simply not as good because you projected him for a higher completion percentage or something like that. And like, I don't know. I'm usually. Yeah, but that's gone now. I don't win the Scott Fishbowl, but Bowl because, you know, that's pretty hard. But I usually do pretty well, honestly.

I usually do as well as anyone at CBS. And I don't get over – You're saying that based on like no data or anything. I look at how the CBS guys do, and I usually advance as far – There's no way you're like crunching the data in an Excel sheet, looking at all of our finishes and being like, yeah, I'm right up there with anyone at CBS. I do well well and I pay less attention to all the scoring quirks than anyone, honestly, because I think you can overvalue it. But this year with the kick return and punt return.

We were in round like 18 last night. Why are all these returners going? That's not what happened. But so, yeah. So let's talk about that because that's the biggest quirk. And let's talk about the kick returners and the punt returners. Well, the passing is a big quirk, too, because it really favors running quarterbacks. Like, this is one of those situations where because there's no penalties, the running quarterbacks are huge.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. But it is six points per passing touchdown to try to sort of but it but it's also one point for every 50 yards passing right so just the volume passing guys are gonna and really it really does favor the russian quarterback yeah i got caleb williams i think in the fourth round i couldn't even believe it uh maybe yeah i think it was the fourth round it was he's not not likely to be much of a rusher. Oh, come on. He'll be a rusher. Okay.

I think. I mean, he'll be certainly top 10 in rushing. I'll tell you this much. If Richardson's gone at 10 in my draft, I'm taking Jaden Daniels. You think that Caleb Williams is the lock to be a top 10 quarterback in rushing yards? Yeah. I don't know how you figure that. What's top 10? I'm not running for you figure that. What's time?

Okay, let's just do it real quick. Jalen Hurts, Jaden Daniels, for sure, from that division. Potentially Daniel Jones if he stays healthy. We'll definitely rush for more than Caleb Williams if he stays healthy. So that's potentially three. We're definitely at two. I think Jordan Love has a chance to rush for as many yards as Caleb Williams. Caleb Williams is not a big rusher.

I don't know where he's at. Are you running for more than Mahomes? Yeah. Mahomes might rush for as much or more yards than Caleb Williams. Just the same kind of rusher, basically. I think Mahomes will be top 10. I mean, this is what I'm talking about. What about all these other rushing quarterbacks?

Allen's going to run for more. Hurts is going to run for more. Lamar's going to run for more. Jaden's going to run for more. Kyler's going to run for more. Daniel's going to run for more. There's six right there. Right.

I didn't say he'd be top six. Okay, and then what? So he'll be in like the Trevor Lawrence range, you know? Potentially, yeah, that Trevor Lawrence range. Lawrence was eighth in rushing yards last year. And he was behind Justin Fields. I don't know how that makes him a lock, but maybe. He was behind Justin Fields.

He was behind Josh Dobbs. He was behind Russell Wilson. These are guys I think he'll run for more yards then. By the way, Daniel Jones isn't playing 17 games. You're right about that. It favors the Russian quarterbacks and the return yards. It does not favor running backs.

I'm sorry. I want to focus on the return yards. Go ahead. Why does it not favor running backs? Well, because of the receptions half, half PPR for receptions, full for our receivers, one and a half for tight ends.

First off, it's not only just a super flexi, it's a tight end premium league on top of that. You know, so like if you pick at the back end around one and you can come away somehow with a quarterback who runs and one of the top four tight ends, five tight ends, I think that's the best way to go. That's the thing.

It's like if you take, you know, Mark Andrews in the second round over, geez, I mean, Bijan Robinson, maybe, you know, I don't know how far you want to go because there's going to be a ton of quarterbacks being selected there. I didn't I didn't I want to go because there's going to be a ton of quarterbacks being selected there. I did take Kelsey because I love Kelsey. But you also took Brees Hall in round one, which was too soon. I don't think it was too soon. I got Dak Prescott and Caleb Williams, so I think it worked out for me.

I still have two very good quarterbacks. And yes, I took Brees Hall in round one. I took Kelsey in round two. So it gets to the point where it's like, I think Brees Hall is going to outscore Mark Andrews. I'm not taking Andrews over Hall. I don't see how it's possible if they both play full season. In this format, he's saying. Let me see who averaged more points per game, I guess, last year.

But do you want to talk about the returners at some point i mean yeah the the return yardage is huge huge you're getting one point for every five yard every five return yards that's kick and punt return so the thing that you're looking at you you started the show by talking about rashid shaheed so the thing that you really want is a return man return return specialist, who is going to be involved in their offense to some high level, you know, so we don't know exactly how these guys are going to, uh, how the, how these teams are going to use their star players in the return game. You know, the, the, the dolphin situation is widely speculated. Will they use Raheem Mostert?

Will they use Tyreek Hill? You know, will they use guys because of how the kickoff rules are, you know, just to put some of their speed on, on the field. Uh, but at least going into it, you know, you're looking at players that are involved in the return game last year. So Rashid Shaheed, I saw one rank list. He was the fifth overall player. Um, this is not based on what happened last fifth overall player for coming into this year, you know, so for, for the Scott Fishbowl. So, you know, if he plays a significant role in offense and continues to perform like he did in the return game last year, like he could be an absolute monster. And some of these return guys are going to, I think be the difference in how you perform in the Scott fishbowl.

So guys like Marvin Mims and Kalief Raymond and Braxton Berrios, you know, you know, the return guys that have had success in the previous rules, if they are stars in this year's return game, could be absolute studs. And there's even guys like potentially like Xavier Worthy, right? Like he could potentially win that job for the Chiefs. Now he's a totally different draft pick for you. He becomes this player. Khalil Shakir is another one I had my eye on as well.

Even somebody like deeper down the list, like Tyrone Tracy for the giants, there's a good chance he could be that kick returner this year. The reason why I drafted him. And now he's a totally different play there. The problem, the interesting thing, which I'm not going to say the problem, the fun thing is we're only in July and it's a lot of projection right now.

As far as who's going to win these jobs. We know Shahid has that job, which is why he's being drafted so high. And he's become this like big Scott fishbowl play for this year, but there's going to be just like 30, you know, that we have projections on the other 31 teams, not a lot of certainty on who has the job and it's going to change a lot. And I think what's going to ultimately happen is week one of a free agency of Scott Fishbowl is going to be where you can find a lot of value there with these kick return and punt return guys. i mean you know cordero

patterson for example could be sure great you know if he gets any sort of role on offense but i think anything that you know you have those guys that that have an offensive role and play in any sort of the return game punt return kick return they could be studs i said it was two points for tight end catch. It's 1.5. And then it is two points for a tight end first down, though. The thing that I think about, I was looking up something, so I hope you didn't say this. So was Andrews better than Breesaw? I know.

Not per game. Hall was about two points better. But remember, Andrews did leave that one game early, so I don't know. You know, I don't know if they would have been pretty close to tied. But looking at points per game, if you set up the rules exactly as they were meant to be, Jamie, Christian McCaffrey, this is non-quarterbacks, McCaffrey, Kyron, Lamb, Hill, Keenan Allen, St. Brown,

Justin Jefferson, Raheem Mostert, Saquon Barkley, and bam, Rashid Shahid. Jonathan Taylor, Travis Kelsey, TJ Hawkinson, James Connor. You know, it looks to me more other than the Shahid thing. More like

normal... I don't know. Not as gimmicky. I don't know what I'm trying to say here. Like, Brees Hall averaged 20 points per game. Mark Andrews averaged 18.5. Again, if you remove the game where Andrews got hurt, I don't know what that would have been. I think Brees Hall has the potential to average 28 points per game like Kyron Williams did last year. Uh, so the first, the first downs are big for running backs, you know? So, you know, the, the, the 0.25 that you get for first downs is huge. It also benefits, like you said, it's almost two points for tight ends for that scoring.

So I don't know. I think running back value gets depressed a little bit. You want guys that are going to have a lot of volume still at the wide receiver spot. But the quarterbacks and tight ends, the run that you'll see in the first couple of rounds is going to really set how you probably make your picks. Keith, I think, did one live draft. He didn't take a quarterback until the end of the draft. I think he took Russell Wilson and Daniel Jones.

Do you want to have that as your quarterback situation? That's a little tough. No, I do not. The thing I was going to say about the returners, though, is I feel like they're going to emerge, especially after week one. Right. Where I don't know that you have. Rashid Shahid is like a different story, but you could just see how it plays out in week one

and then bid heavily on these guys. So I think, yeah. They're not going to get points for receptions. They're not going to get points for first downs. I did some math. No, but that's why Shahid is extremely valuable because he's going to play on offense. But Keyshawn Nixon for the Packers,

he's a defensive back, so he's not going to get you. But Keyshawn Nixon for the Packers, he's a defensive back, so he's not going to get you any offensive stats. He led all kick returners last year with 782 yards, no touchdowns. 782 yards, if you get it one point for every five yards, that is 9.2 fantasy points per game, which would have made him about, in this format, he's not getting the points for the first down or anything, would have made him about in this format is not getting the points for

the first down or anything would have made him about wide receiver 80. And that was the guy who led the NFL by a wide margin. I know, but I think that we can throw that out because the kickoff return last year, the kickoff yards last year, irrelevant to this year because the rules are so different. I was going to say that. I'm just saying that,

you know, you need someone who's going to score, probably score a few touchdowns. I don't know about that. that i don't know i think we could be looking at a weird we don't know yet we'll see in the preseason that's when i think we'll finally get a real feel for what it's gonna look like but if we double his yards if we double his yards and we give him almost 1600 kick return yards i don't know if that's gonna happen for anyone this year right no probably not not double then he's like maybe wide receiver 40? I don't know.

Right. Because he's not getting all the other things that the receivers get. But you also are talking about you got to start six flexes. You know, it's not like – Yeah, it's true. It's fantasy relevant. It's just not somebody I want to reach for. But at the same time –

No. At the same time, this is a guy who doesn't play any offense. You get a guy who plays on offense and returns kicks or punts, then we're talking. Right. So, you know, like Tyrone Tracy is a great example because he may have the kick return job right away and be a factor on offense from the get-go, right,

as a third down back or just a backup to Devin Singletary. Does he keep the role if Singletary gets hurt? Probably not. True. Good point. So, like, you're not getting the maximum potential of what Tyrone Tracy – clearly he could be great as the starting running back, so it's relevant. But, you know, I think it's like those type of things. Like, you know, you're talking about guys that will be flexory.

So, like, the way I drafted last night was I took Marvin Mims, I think, like, round 13 – or, I'm think, round 11. I took Braxton Berrios round 13. These are guys that I'm hopeful... Forget about Marvin Mims. I'm hopeful we'll have a role in offense. Not to Shahid's level, because I don't think that's realistic, but if he's the second receiver

in Denver, which wouldn't be a huge surprise, that's valuable if he's still the return guy. I got to finish up this show. I don't have time to do the full fantasy cops thing but i want to bring up this league that our guy our listener tommy from tulsa is in he is in a basically like european soccer style of leagues where it's a bunch of leagues and two teams get relegated to lower divisions every year.

And that is so cool. And the teams that move up, one of them gets, there are two orphan teams, right? As the managers get kicked down to the lower level. One of the teams that moves up, one of the managers that moves up to the better league gets to choose.

The choice is you either get pick 101 or you get to pick the orphan team that you like. You get the choice of the two orphan teams. And the other manager gets the team that wasn't picked and I think pick 102 in the draft. So it's kind of a fun decision. Do you take 101? Do you take 102 and the better team?

Which, in your mind, is the better team? Obviously, both teams aren't very good. Yeah. I thought it was very cool. Are you taking the entire team? Yeah, you're taking over for a team. Because it's like, I guess they're doing it like, they do a keeper league.

So I guess you're not taking over the entire team. You pick your keepers. So you're just taking a few players from the team. That's interesting. It's going to probably depend on each team, right? It'll be different each time. So it's the 101 and nothing, or the 102 and the team? No, no, no.

It's the 101 and you don't get the choice of team. You get 101, two, and choice of team, or 101 and you get the other team. Yeah, but I guess it's only two. I think it's two keepers. So it's the best two players from that team. So anyway, I think that's so cool if you had enough people

where you could do a relegation system. That's really fun. And they're out for a year? No, I think they're out until they finish top two in the previous league, and then they have to try to get back into the Premier League or whatever the hell the highest league is. Champions League, is that the highest league in the?

Champions. Yeah. No, no, no, Premier League. The Champions is a tournament. The Champions is not a relegation. Is there something above the Premier League or no? No. All right, Premier League.

So, yeah, that's the thing. That's going to keep everybody interested. You don't want to get relegated. You don't want to finish in last place or second to last place. So, very fun. And if you could pull it off, make it happen. That's it for today's show. Thanks a lot for watching and listening.

Tomorrow, we'll take a look at the next group of wide receivers, the Chris Goblins, Terry McLaurin, and others. Like Zay Flowers is going to be in this group because he's ranked that way for us in the consensus rankings. Nowhere near that in ADP, but that's obviously a good topic for discussion. For Dan and for Jamie and Thomas, I'm Adam. Have a great day, everybody. We'll talk to you tomorrow.