Fantasy Football Today - More Cooks Talk; RB Prospect Debate; Phone Calls! (04/09 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: April 10, 2020

After Jamey gave his thoughts on the Brandin Cooks trade on yesterday's show, now it's time for Ben, Heath and Dave to weigh in on the winners and losers (2:40). Why can't Cooks go back to being a steady Top 15 Fantasy WR? And of course we get into a Will Fuller discussion ... It's our first edition of Phone Call Friday (17:45)! We get to hear from our listeners and take their questions ... Let's talk about this year's RB prospects for the NFL Draft (28:40). How predictive are 40 times at this position? How does Jonathan Taylor compare to Josh Jacobs? Who are the pass catchers? Who is too slow for stardom? And we finish the show with news and notes from around the NFL (48:04) including notes on Ronald Jones, Justin Jackson, David Johnson and more ... Email us at [e-mail] and tweet us with #AskFFT 'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @YardsPerGretch, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter 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

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. Here we go! Email us at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Here we go! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Let's go! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Welcome to your Friday show. Happy Friday, everybody.

It is April 10th. Adam Azer with Dave Richard, Heath Cummings, Ben Gretsch. We're going to talk about the running back prospects in the drafts. Happy Friday, everybody. The first one of the year. Looking forward to hearing from some of our listeners, interacting with them. How's everybody doing today? Ben Gretsch out in Washington. What's up? Not much, man. It's the week of my oldest ninth birthday. So we had a fun time with that. That was a good quarantine birthday for her.

Was she okay with it? Did she understand why she couldn't have was she okay with it did she understand why she couldn't she was she's yeah she's a happy girl so she she did great we the big i guess the big thing we did was we did a scavenger hunt that she woke up to my wife had this idea that we'll do nine clues for her ninth birthday and i wrote these little you know a b a b rhyming pattern poems like little nursery rhyme poems and hit them all over the house. You know, like her sister's favorite hide and seek hiding spot and stuff,

which went off pretty good. I felt like out of the year for like, you know, a little bit. That's great. That's pretty cool. Good for you, man.

Heath, what are you, you, uh, you're mad about my fictional football player draft team. Sorry about that. I wasn't mad about it. It was just another example.

I mean, there have been countless examples over the years and this week of questionable decisions. The last 24 hours? Yeah, yeah. Totally. It's a microcosm of his whole life, Heath. Yep.

Sarcasm on Twitter doesn't work. Let's talk about Brandon Cooks. First, I just want to give a stat of the day just to kind of tease what we're going to talk about later. This is from CBSSports.com. Over the past five years, 14 running backs have been awarded All-Pro honors by at least one media outlet.

All-Pro. None of them ran 4.6 seconds or slower during their 40-yard dash time at the NFL Combine. So obviously you don't have to be an All-Pro to be good in fantasy, but I think that says something about your ceiling if you run a 4.6 or slower. Clyde Edwards Healer from LSU, 4.6.

Zach Moss from Utah, 4.65. Javon Leak from Maryland, 4.65. Something to keep in mind. I'll get your thoughts on that later. Here's a segment called What's Cookin'? Or come up with a better segment name for the Brandon Cooks trade. cooking or come up with a better segment name for the Brandon cooks trade. They've come up with a better name.

If you can actually Heath, this is usually what you do, but, uh, when he cooks on the Texans, I think it was going to go with too many cooks. I guess receiver gets a Brandon. That's not bad.

Instead of abandoned, right? Because this is his fourth team in five years now. Yeah, and he has been, Brandon Cooks has been on a top five passing offense five straight seasons. Won't be the case this year. In those five seasons,

the Texans have not been higher than 15th in passing yards per game. Maybe he will. Maybe he's the reason that these offenses have been top five the past five seasons. He was the reason for four of those five seasons. That's why they keep trading them. It's interesting.

So I asked Jamie, we did a bonus pod last night, who's the player most affected by this trade? I came away with it thinking it's actually Cooks. But what do you guys think? Who is most affected, winners, losers, on either the Rams or the Texans? I'll say Deshaun Watson's a winner. I think Tyler Higbee's a winner too.

Who's the one? And to be fair, I am a little more interested in drafting Brandon Cooks now than I was before. But not a lot. Cooks definitely moved the most in the projections because I buried him behind not only Robert Woods and Cooper Cup, but I was really starting to think it

was Higby over Cooks as well. And so he was like the fourth option for me in the Rams pass offense. I think he is quite clearly win healthy. And he's like, I know there are serious concussion concerns, but he's missed two games in five seasons. Win healthy. I think he's quite clearly the number one option in the Texans' pass offense. Gretch?

Yeah, I mean, I agree with all that. It is interesting to say whether Cooks has improved these offenses, because the first thing that popped in my head is, we talked a lot about what Brady has left in the tank when he went to the Bucs, and the one year where he pushed the ball down the field a little bit more and was good, really good, in the last year where he pushed the ball down the field a little bit more and was good really good uh in the last five years i think he led the league in passing yardage was the one year he had brandon cooks i mean he does add an element to an offense it's just kind of odd because will

fuller kind of already adds that element and is a very good downfield player as well so i don't know what this offense is going to look like i mean kenny stills is that player too they have three vertical threats and and randall cobb who's well past his prime in my opinion so it's uh it's odd but yeah i think watson gets a boost and cooks obviously is in a better situation now than um la i i don't know that we have this data i'm sure we do somewhere and ben you might be able to find it in the next couple of minutes. I couldn't. I'm curious before New England, because Cooks had a lot of success in New Orleans with a quarterback in Drew Brees

who hasn't been a big-time downfield thrower for several years. I would be curious if Brees went downfield more those years or if Cooks had more success on intermediate routes those years. If I recall, there was a year where, and I just looked this up, where the Saints had three receivers with over 100 targets in the same season. Let me see if I can find it real quick. Yeah, so this is before Kamara came there. Cooks and Snead were second and third in targets with 117 and 104.

And the year before that, uh, there were two receivers with over a hundred targets. So I, I, and I remember, I think breeze through a lot. Cause there was that one year where breezes past attempts went way down and

cooks was gone by then. Right. I was, I guess what I'm, what I'm not remembering more is how he was used on the saints. And like he, we kind of view him right now as a downfield guy i don't know that necessarily like that's yeah i know i think he can be used culture to the line

of scrimmage as well yes absolutely right he's probably the most versatile of the three receivers four receivers if we're going to include cob on houston right now and if i had to take a guess on what this offense would look like now i think they're going to try and do even more spread RPO concept type stuff than they ever have before, and they did a lot before. And that's just good business sense. At least they have a plan now. At least there's something that they're doing that makes some good sense where they can line up all four of those receivers on pretty much every play.

Their offensive line is better than it's been before. David Johnson, say what you will about him versus Carlos Hyde. I would think that he's a slight upgrade over Carlos Hyde. And Deshaun Watson is going to have the whole offense on his shoulders to make plays. That's why I'm now back on board with Deshaun Watson. I'm not ready to say he's a top five fantasy quarterback again, but I got him sixth. He's ahead of Breeze, and he's ahead of Josh Allen for me again because I think he could do, to the point Adam made,

I think he's going to have to throw a lot. So this could be a year where the Texans do finish in the top ten in passing. And this trade just tells me the design of what they want to do offensively. Okay. Yeah, I say Cooks has been on a top five passing offense. Right. I'd be surprised if it's that. I bet the Texans could be top ten.

What do you mean by that? Passing yards per game. I can't see them. They've never been any – under Bill O'Brien, they haven't been anywhere close to top five. So I can't – that would be a huge jump. They were 15th last year. Right.

Deshaun Watson has been one of the top five quarterbacks per attempt. Yeah, they just don't throw that much. In theory, if they threw more, it's not like they need to make a big leap in terms of their quarterback play. They just need to choose to throw the ball more often. Yeah, I hope they do. Well, they might have to because their defense is falling apart. Yeah, I mean, look, their defense...

Okay, so anyway, here's an interesting thought, right? I mentioned this with Jamie that Brandon Cooks, in his previous four seasons, he had been 11th, 8th, 8th, and 14th in non-PPR, 12th, 10th, 15th, and 13th in PPR. So it's a top 15, as high as number eight wide receiver in four straight seasons, an extremely consistent player. Just a perfectly good low-end number one,

high-end number two fantasy wide receiver. If 2019 never happened and he had just gone from the Rams to the Texans and Hopkins were gone, I imagine you'd be ranking him in that same range as a top 15 guy. And I don't even know what to say about last year. It's not like he was playing with knee injuries or anything like that. I mean, concussions are obviously serious, but they don't hamper your physical ability the way an ankle or a knee

or something like that would. My point is, you know, he's only 27, or I think he'll be 27. 26. He'll be 27 in September. So what's to stop, what's to prevent Brandon Cooks, who, by the way, has never had a target share of even 21%, whereas DeAndre Hopkins is usually on 30% with the Texans. What's to stop him from getting back to being that same guy, 1,100 yards, seven touchdowns, 80 catches, that kind of guy.

We would expect that from him if not for last year, which was just kind of funky. He was actually off to a good start last year. He was. If you go back and you look at his games in September, he did fine. And then in October, something happened, and then he got hurt. He had the two concussions. That's probably what happened

is he had twin concussions within a four-week span. And then he came back he was he wasn't even like i think he had one game with eight targets and everything else was like super minimal the stats were terrible and uh my my guess is that the rams were concerned about him following the two concussions and obviously they they don't they don't love him because they just traded him away they don't think that he's going to be helpful to him and they're eating a huge piece of his contract on top of that their offense is also struggling and that's when it shifted to more short passes to tyler higby they weren't i think they were concerned about being able to protect jared goff and and for cooks to actually get into his routes down the field.

You know, that wasn't something that happened. But this is also a guy who in 14 games had two games that he left early. You know, we talk about, you know, when we talk about per game numbers, he had two games under 40% snap shares. He had one game that he only played three snaps because he left so quick in that uh in the cincinnati game last year so there there's some things in his i agree with adam i mean this is a guy one of the one of the receivers i talk about youth he came in super young he came in um actually was playing his first games at age 20 so he's been around for a long time but he's still pretty pretty darn young

he could very easily be described as being in his prime, except we just don't know about the concussions. We don't necessarily know now about his fit in the new offense, but he has been consistent as he's gone to different teams throughout his career up until last season. Yeah. So who's going to be the highest on him? It might be Ben, based on what I just heard, but who's going to really want highest on him? You know, it might be Ben based on what I just heard. But who's going to really want Brandon Cooks? Anyone here? It depends on the round. Yeah, I ran a Twitter poll this morning with Cooks, Marvin Jones, and Devo Samuel because I have them all ranked in similar spots.

And I'm pretty sure Cooks was in last. And so if that's the case, then yeah, I'm probably going to want him. That's going to mean that he's going to be available definitely in round seven. Would you take him in round seven, Heath? I think seven or eight, yeah. That's a really interesting spot. I was going to say the same thing. I agree with both of you. I'm going to be very cost-sensitive on him because I am concerned about seven or eight. Yeah. Okay. That's, that's a really interesting spot. I was going to say the same thing. I agree with both of you.

I'm going to be very cost sensitive on him because I am concerned about the concussions. I was going to say that I wouldn't take him in rounds five or six where you can still get some of these young upside receivers. And Samuel's kind of the end of that group. Uh, seven's where it's going to get interesting. I'd love to get him in like round nine.

Yeah. That's what I was going to say. Yeah. That's where he was. It will be like interesting to see how people perceive it. Right now, I mean, Debo Samuel crushed that poll. It's very difficult for me to see how Debo Samuel has more upside

than Brandon Cooks or Marvin Jones. We've seen absolutely monster season and a monster half season from Jones, and we've seen Cooks four straight years being a top 14 wide receiver. We also saw Debo Samuel have a monster half season from Jones, and we've seen Cooks four straight years being a top 14 wide receiver. We also saw Debo Samuel have a monster half season to end last year, and that was on limited targets and rushing work.

So if his role expands this year, and he's the top target getter, and right, Sanders is gone too. We're hoping that he could maybe do what Marvin Jones and Brandon Cooks have done in the past. Right, but there's also a decent chance that the 49ers add a receiver. They've got two first round picks, so they could use either one of those picks

to go and get anyone from anyone. Honestly, they're in range for any receiver that's available in this draft. And if they do that, that will obviously hurt. Right. It would hurt Debo immensely. Okay. Let me ask you guys some rapid fire questions and we'll move on.

Do you value Jared Goff, Cooper Cupp, Robert Woods, or Tyler Higbee any differently here? And Jamie didn't seem to care about this report, but Sean McVay said that he needs to do a better job of utilizing Jared Everett's skills because Everett is a difference maker. So, well, before you get into that question, does Cook's leaving change your perception of golf, of any of the other Rams? Let's say that. I did research on the Rams two days ago, and I ended up spending an hour and a half watching Tyler Higby film.

And I love the way that they used him. And he was my top five tight end before the trade. I had moved him up ahead of Austin Hooper. Remember, because I told you that Hooper was my fifth tight end by default. I didn't find anybody else that I really even liked. I'm talking as fast as I can, Heath. This is pretty rapid. Higby is the one that's moved up the most.

Higby moved up the most for you? Okay. Ben, any take on the Rams? Yeah, Cup and Woods moved up. Higby I have the most for you? Okay. Ben, any take on the Rams? Yeah, Cup and Woods moved up. Higby I have not drafted anywhere yet and probably still won't. Heath? Small bump for Higby. Josh Reynolds is now draftable as a deep sleeper.

How about Will Fuller or Brandon Cooks? Who are you guys ranking higher? Cooks by a lot. Fuller by a little. But I'd rather have Cooks in nine than Fuller or Brandon Cooks? Who are you guys ranking higher? Cooks by a lot. Fuller by a little. But I'd rather have Cooks in nine than Fuller in seven. Fuller. Yeah, I don't think Cooks in nine is realistic because I had been taking a decent amount of him in our mock drafts

and he had been going in about the ninth round. And that was before this trade. It's an obvious value boost for him. Why do we want Fuller over Cooks? I don't know if I want either of them, to be honest. We're in rapid fire mode. We don't need to do this again. Okay, can we mark this to come back to at some point, Adam?

Yeah, of course. Why Will Fuller over Brandon Cooks? Of course. Because he's very good. Because receivers have changed teams. Brandon Cooks has been a top 14 wide receiver four years in a row. I didn't say Cooks was bad. I didn't say Cooks was bad.

But he does have concussion issues. And that's the other reason I said I'd love to get him in round nine. I don't think people are going to jump to draft a guy in the fourth or fifth round that has five career concussions. Yeah, he's only missed two games. But he's had a ton of concussions. Not to mention he's super inconsistent. Not round four or five. One week he's great. one week he's terrible.

Yeah, but I think round seven in a 12-team league, it feels like to me that's where Cooks would go. Sure. But I don't think he'll make it to round nine. All right, you can listen to us at home with Alexa or your Google Home to play. Just ask them to play fantasy football today. Yeah, you have to use the word today there. Say, hey, Alexa, play fantasy football today. Yeah, you have to use the word today there. Say, hey, Alexa, play fantasy football today.

Ask Alexa or your Google Home. Start and stop FFT episodes with your voice. And join our Facebook group. I had a nice conversation with the Facebook group about Joe Mixon. We are going to have someone on next week, hopefully, from the good old Facebook group. Search Fantasy Football Today on Facebook or click the link in the description

to chat with the FFT team and other fantasy fans. We got keeper questions, dynasty talk right now. Any topic, basically, is fair game. Well, I wouldn't say that, but many topics are fair game. Golf. Golf, yeah. Can we talk golf? No, I don't want to talk about that anymore.

I did want to get to a segment called I Won the Fictional Player Draft and Heath Can't Stand It. I won the draft to talk about that anymore. I did want to get to a segment called, I won the fictional player draft and Heath can't stand it. I won the draft by vote on Twitter poll. It was me by a nose over Jamie, which was a mistake because Jamie had the best team. But I'm proud of myself, Heath. I won the baseball fictional draft. Is that segment before or after the best ball segment

that I wrote an article for yesterday? So best ball got bumped for Brandon Cooks. Best ball is going to be next week. I understand. That's typically what happens. I could spend 30 seconds on the fictional draft. I can't do that with Best Ball. You can blame Brandon Cooks.

Blame Bill O'Brien. All right. Well, I just wanted to brag. Let's get to phone call Friday. We are going to hear from some of our listeners. It's going to be awesome. Here we go. Our first caller today is Jordan our listeners. It's going to be awesome. Here we go. Our first caller today is Jordan.

Jordan, what's going on? Where are you from, Jordan? Hey, what's up, guys? San Antonio, Texas. All right. How are you doing, man? How's quarantine life? It's okay.

I'm actually a teacher. So we've been working from home and still trying to get adjusted, get all the kids working online. So it's been pretty busy. Well, we appreciate what you do and we appreciate you listening and calling in. And what is your fantasy question today? Well, I have a 12-team PPR dynasty that we put together, uh, last year. And, um, it's a little different. We're doing seven rounds for our, our, uh, our rookie draft,

but we're including free agents because we're looking to expand the league a little bit or expand our rosters. And so there's a few guys on the, uh, the free agency pool that I wanted to see how y'all thought stacked up against the, uh, the rookies. Sure. Love it. So, uh, one of the guys i'm a little uh running back media and raheem mostert's on the uh on the free agency wire and he's uh eligible to get drafted i wanted to see where y'all would put him with the uh the rookie running backs i would take at least six or seven rookie running backs before him.

And that's not really because I hate Mostert, but in dynasty, I, I value youth a ton and he's 28. So he could be the starter for the Niners all season this year, but the way they shifted multiple starters last year, I'm concerned that he's not going to be the guy for 16 games. And I'd much rather take shots on guys that I think

have the potential to be impact players for multiple seasons. I agree. Go ahead. I think that fits mid-second round, probably, in a rookie draft. Okay. Yeah, because I'm drafted in the back of the round because I won my league last year, so I'm going to be drafted last.

Just trying to gauge, see where the guys are going to fall. Look at that. 100% of our callers have won their league so far. That's good. Anything else that we can help you with, Jordan? Other players? Oh, so yeah. One thing I wanted to add. So we're not playing with team defenses. We drafted our defensive players too last year, so we're actually rolling out. We're starting three defensive linemen, three linebackers, and three defensive backs next year. Another thing I wanted to ask, what about guys like Chase Young and Isaiah Simmons? Where would y'all put him in a rookie draft? Simmons you might consider taking with that late first round pick. It depends on what the scoring is like, and it really depends on just how

needy you are for IDP players versus the types of receivers and third tier running backs that'll be there. It depends on how you are at IDP, how tough the league is as far as identifying IDP players and them getting snapped up. But I think Isaiah Simmons has a chance to be an absolute stat machine because he can play all over the field and he's going to be a three-down player. Yeah, he looked like a monster in college. Now the other side note too is that there are going to be plenty of IDPs that you can find later on in your draft. So if you're not inclined to take an IDP with your 12th overall pick, and I can certainly understand that,

then you could certainly wait and you can find other linebackers later on that could potentially help you out. Middle linebacker types, you know what I'm saying. Yeah. He's interesting because he could be eligible at different positions. The guy could play so many places. We'll see what happens with him in IDP. Jordan, thanks so much for calling in. Thanks for teaching

our kids. Thanks for being a listener and for being part of the show. Yeah, for sure. Thanks, guys. Jordan, maybe you can get Patrick Queen with that second round pick. You could punt on Simmons unless you trade out of round one. And Patrick Queen could be your guy with your pick in round two. Okay, cool. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks.

Our second caller is former NFL wide receiver Rob Moore, or just a guy who happens to share the same name, probably the latter. Rob, welcome to the show. Welcome to Fantasy Football Today. What's up, man? What's going on, Adam? Great to hear from you. You don't think I played for the Jets Welcome to Fantasy Football Today. What's up, man? What's going on, Adam? Great to hear from you. You don't think I played for the Jets? I don't know.

Come on, I live in New Jersey. My brother had your jersey. I remember. Big Jets fan. He had that Moore jersey. So this is an honor for everyone in my household to be talking to you right now. Adam wants autographs, Mr. Moore. So how are you doing, Rob?

What's going on? Not too much. Not too much. Not too much. Just living the dream like everybody else on a coronacation. You've been watching Tiger King? I have not actually watched Tiger King. I watched all of Ozark. Oh, yeah, yeah.

That's next. Big Ozark fan. Ozark's great. Yeah. He's the captain of Big Ozark fan Ozark's great Yeah He's the captain Of the Ozark fan club So what's I just finished

Episode 9 And I'm in complete shock And I'm not gonna go back For a couple of days Okay great Thanks for Thanks for spoiling Nothing

Great way to end The season End the year Great way to end That season By the way Spoiler alert Spoiler alert

Oh I know it's going to be a great week I'm not going to say anything else What's your fantasy question Rob? Fantasy question is this For next year I've got to keep two out of three And it's These are the rounds that would cost me draft picks

I've got George Kittle He'd cost me a third rounder Miles Sanders, sixth rounder. Miles Sanders, sixth rounder. Lamar Jackson, ninth rounder. Who should I keep? I've got to keep two out of three. How long can you keep them for? Again?

If I keep Kittle, he's done after this next season, 2020 season. The other two I'll be able to keep for another year after that. Bye-bye Kittle. I was already going to say bye-bye Kittle. I mean, obviously he's great, but you have three great options there.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I figured Kittle was going to be gone because I can probably pick him back up around the third round again if I need to or want to. Yep. Cool, man. Rob, thank you so much for your contributions to the Jets and to the show.

Absolutely. Appreciate it, man. I appreciate that. Thank you very much, guys. Our next caller is from somewhere I've never been, the Grand Canyon. Brad is on the phone. Brad, all right, where do you live, Brad? So I live maybe 500

to 1,000 yards away from what's called the rim of the canyon. My wife's a teacher here. Holy moly. That's really cool. You've never been to the Grand Canyon, Adam? No, I've never been there. It is fantastic. Keith, you've been there, right? Oh yeah, for sure. And probably going

back in the next couple years, my kids really want to go back. We do the National Park thing quite often. So that's on our short list. So I once took a helicopter ride from Vegas into the Grand Canyon, like the helicopter lands inside the Grand Canyon, and it is so quiet and so peaceful there. Brad, you must love it. I bet whenever you need to get a moment of zen or whatever, you just go on a hike and it's just the most amazing experience every time. Yeah. It's pretty amazing. So what's going on, Brad? What's on your fantasy mind today? So I'm looking for a good sleeper later in the round. And so I was looking at all the different moves this year and i was thinking

two things one tom brady is known for throwing to his running backs and bruce arians is known for having running backs who are great receivers so that's why i'm looking at uh dory as probably winning my sleepers this year i was running the numbers numbers, and if you take Tom Brady's for the past 10 years and Bruce Arians for the past six years that he's been a head coach, the running backs average 43.8 receptions for the season for about 450 yards and four touchdowns. If you give Darre some of the carries that Barber had last year, he could get up to that 180 points in that PPR range,

and he would be a flex with the possibility to be a low-end RB2. And I was wondering what y'all guys thought about that. I'm going to love what you're saying until the Bucs draft Clyde Edwards-Hilaire with a second round pick. Meaning that I'm glad that you didn't go to Ronald Jones because I'm not sure if Ronald Jones can handle that role. I don't know if the coaching staff is comfortable with him doing that yet because pass protection has been an issue for him and receiving has been an issue for him. And Ogumbawale was given that role for much of last year, if not the entire year. But I'm wondering if the Bucs think that they can upgrade on that.

And so the draft will probably bring them another running back who can do that. And I think they've talked about that. And that's right. So I'm nervous that Ogumbawale is going to get bumped off of that spot by the time we get to training camp. And if he does, then I can just slide in. Hopefully, people don't jump on too much on the bandwagon for the Bucs running back. If they do get that, let's say, a high second-round draft pick or a third-round running back.

Does anybody think Ronald Jones becomes an every-down guy? Because, I mean, Jason Light's talking him up, saying they're still very confident in Ronald Jones. Ben, Heath, do you guys feel like Ronald Jones could be the sleeper right now? Yeah, it depends on what they do in the draft. But I agree with Dave. I think there's a very high probability they take a back that in particular can catch passes and can pass protect they really had an issue

with ronald jones pass protection last year and that's why he wasn't an everdown back last year and i i think from a an efficiency standpoint he should have been but they just didn't want him on the field on on pass down so i think we're probably headed towards Ronald Jones on early downs and a rookie on passing downs who's shown a lot more upside in pass protection. And I guess I shouldn't say that Ronald Jones is terrible in passing situations. He did catch 30 balls last year, but I don't know if he's exactly what the Bucs want in that role. Brad, thank you so much for coming on. It was great speaking to you. All right, so there actually are a lot of news and notes. We had a couple more callers that we were queuing up,

but one of them was unavailable. One of them did not answer. So we'll move on. Thank you for partaking in Phone Call Friday. See if we can do it again sometime soon. There were some news and notes, but let's talk about the running back prospects first, okay? So overall, good class the running back prospects first.

Overall, good class of running backs, medium, bad. How would we describe the running backs? Good. Better than 2019, for sure. For sure. I think there could be as many as five contributors

for three plus seasons. Some of the guys I think there could be as many as five contributors for three-plus seasons. And some of the guys I think we're looking at being contributors for as many as seven or eight seasons. What's your top five? My top five as of now is Taylor, Swift, Akers, Dobbins. I've got Zach Moss ahead if it's just seasonal, but Edwards-Hilaire is really ahead of Zach Moss overall. So let's call edwards hilaire five and moss six heath where you at i would say taylor like if i was tearing it to be taylor and a tier of his own and then dobbins and swift um and then there's a big tier that i i agree that

moss and edwards hilaire in where. Where do you have Cam Akers? I'd put him in that same one. Okay. Like in the third tier. I don't think he's as good as the top three. Remember, Edwards-Hilaire and Moss, 4.60, 4.65, 40-yard dash time. So that is certainly on the slow side.

Jonathan Taylor, so I think he's going to be number one for most people. We'll see what happens in the NFL draft. But as of right now, he's going to be number one for most people we'll see what happens in the NFL draft but as of right now he's number one before we know his destination how does Jonathan Taylor Ben compare to the elite you just don't care about my rankings at all

who's your number one it's the same as that I mean I think Moss should be a lot lower and you're probably getting there but yeah I go Taylor Swift, Dobbinsurn's acres edwards hillary hey you can go back to your question yes he's devin singletary ran a four six six he's not gonna be an all pro freeman ran a four five eight there's definitely outliers but no no it's not it's it's it's all pro it's not that they can't do it wasn't all pro and ran a four five eight so that cutoff is very arbitrary how about the 40 time is an overrated

number and it shouldn't be something used to help determine if a player is good or not well um there's more to every single player than their 40 times ancon bolden ran like a 4-8 or something like well it has a lot more predictive power for running back than it does for wide receiver i think it's very overrated for a wide receiver. It does matter for running backs. Yeah, Heath, you mentioned Devin Singletary. Clyde Edwards-Solaire reminds me

so much of Devin Singletary. Their measurements are almost exactly the same. 5'7", about 207 pounds. It's hard to know what people actually weigh, but that's what they're listed at. It's very identical. He's really good, Devin Singlet weigh, but that's what they're listed at, and it's very identical. He's really good, Devin Singletary, but I don't think he has a lead upside or anything like that.

Yeah, and I think it's interesting to look at these guys, like if we want to know how we really feel about them, where would you rank Josh Jacobs, Miles Sanders, and Devin Singletary in this class? It's maybe the better way to discuss it. I'd probably put Jacobs in that second tier. He's not as good. And I might put Sanders in the second tier as well, and I'd have Singletary in the third tier with those other guys.

That's a good point. How do you guys feel about that? Is Jonathan Taylor better than Josh Jacobs, Miles Sanders? I don't think so, no. He's better than Singletary, for sure. Ben? Who are we comparing to Jacobs and Sanders? Jonathan Taylor.

Yes, he's much better. He's a much better prospect than Sanders and Jacobs. Why do you say that? I mean, four-year starter, handled the rigors of that. There's people that are concerned about the touches. I think it's a really good sign that he was capable of handling that and being as productive as he was for four years. And then ran a 4.39 at 2.26 is a phenomenal speed score,

has the requisite size. Josh Jacobs, as a prospect, we had workload concerns, obviously split time at Alabama. Um, miles standards, I thought was a really good prospect.

Um, but also just not on Taylor's, um, level in terms of just the combination of production and tested athleticism. It's just really, really strong for Taylor. Taylor, I,

the last guy, I'm sure I'm forgetting someone, but one guy I can remember who they were serious workload concerns with, as in he had too much, was Ray Rice. And in three college seasons, Ray Rice had 910 carries. And the last three seasons, Jonathan Taylor had 926 carries. It's a lot. I mean, it's 299 or more carries three straight years for Taylor. And Rice, look, he didn't do much his rookie year.

He had a four-year stretch where he was really good. In his next season, he was pretty bad. And then he was out of the league. But he didn't have a long prime. So, yeah, I don't want to completely discount 926 carries in three seasons for Jonathan Taylor. Christian McCaffrey had maybe more. I don't know.

I mean, Christian McCaffrey, this was a knock on him. He had too many touches at Stanford. Touches or carries? There's a big difference because he returned punts. He had a ton of carries. He had a ton of carries. I'll look it up. Who looks like the best pass-catching running back?

I think we've got a lot of running backs in this group who can do well in that role. We didn't see a ton of it from Jonathan Taylor, but I think he can be a good pass catcher. I think J.K. Dobbins has very good hands. I think Edwards Hilabins has very good hands. I think Edwards Hilaire has very good hands. Edwards Hilaire had 55 catches

last year. Yeah, I think Akers, I think his hands are underrated. And I think DeAndre Swift has good natural ability. I would say all five of these guys are going to be capable pass catchers. You'd have to go and look at the stats to see which ones have actually done it a lot

in college. McCaffrey only had 632 carries. Most of them were in his last two years at Stanford. He had a lot of touches, but not nearly as many as Jonathan Taylor. It's a lot of touches. It's a big workload.

He looks great. Most good running backs end up with, like, what, 2,000? What do you mean? 2,500? 3,000? You're talking about touches when they're all said and done? In their NFL career, not counting what they did in college. I don't think that, like, it's not like he's worn all the tread off his tires at age 22.

I think 2,500 is a good number for that. And I agree. I think he's got plenty of – to me, the workload doesn't really matter. And it also doesn't matter to me going the other way because Josh Jacobs barely had any work when he came out of Alabama last year. To me, that number might be a small factor in the grand scheme. Maybe it means Josh Jacobs has an extra year of quality play, whereas Jonathan Taylor might not have that year because he was used up a lot in college.

I'm not discounting Taylor for that at all. We still haven't seen if Josh Jacobs can handle the type of workload that Jonathan Taylor has proven that he can. I agree with Dave. How many touches did he have last year? He had like 200 and some odd touches and he didn't even play a full season. Jacob. Exactly.

He got hurt. He got hurt. Yeah. I mean, I agree with Dave. I don't think it matters either way. And I think when you look at Taylor, there's two ways you can look at it. You can look at it the way I think Adam's kind of looking at it. It's a lot of work.

You can also look at it like he has shown us something that Josh Jacobs josh jacobs hadn't and to his point jacobs also got hurt last year i i have you know any running back i have concerns about injuries but i have less concern that taylor can handle the rigors of an nfl workload as a number one back because he did it three years in a row right stayed healthy and i do think there are players who are just physically different types of, you know, I don't know what the right word is, but they're just different. Right. And I think he is kind of shows that in both his workload and also in his athleticism. When you're talking about a 99th percentile speed score,

and for the record, Christian McCaffrey yeah he was uh fewer carries but his one biggest season was more carries than Taylor ever had in one season I mean it's just three seasons of being a lead back versus two uh but it's I mean it really is it's a lot of carries so I have no concerns from a seasonal standpoint for Jonathan Taylor I'm just bringing it up in dynasty yeah we don't really know what it's going to look like, but it makes sense. The guy could wear out a little earlier than other running backs based on the fact that he's such a workload. Yes, I think if you think

if your mindset in Dynasty is more than three or four years down the road, which personally I don't necessarily think it should be or it shouldn't factor in very much, all of these running backs, we should just judge them on what they might give us on their first contract sure yeah that's the first four years i don't think it's likely to catch up to him in the next four years agreed is jonathan

taylor the number one pick in dynasty leagues for you guys as of now yes unless something really weird like we had one of our cbs sports mock drafts had Swift going at the end of the first round of the Chiefs and Jonathan Taylor falling to the third round of the Lions. In that case, he's probably not. Yeah. So I like Dobbins. I'm going to say that that's not going to happen. I like Dobbins a lot, but I want to get – I've talked about him,

so I want to know what you guys think about DeAndre Swift. I just want to say about Dobbins. I wish he had ran the 40, but he was injured. He's pretty fast. I don't think you need a 40 time to determine just how fast J.K. Dobbins is. Well, he's also, I think, pretty physical. In his last four games of the season,

he ran for at least 157 yards against Penn State, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Clemson. Four good run defenses. Two of them were top six run defenses. And Dobbins, 157 or more yards against Penn State, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Clemson. He also had more than 20 catches in all three seasons, so I like him. But Heath, talk to me about DeAndre Swift and how he compares to Jonathan Taylor. And Dobbins, for that matter.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think there's quite... I think Jonathan Taylor's upside is he's the best running back in football. Best running back in fantasy football. I don't know that that same type of upside exists in Swift, but he's got top 10 upside, I believe. I mean, remarkably efficient. It's not like he's slow. He's averaged better than six yards per carry every year at Georgia. He didn't prove that he could handle a big workload.

I don't think he ever had more than 220 touches. It was definitely a shared situation because they always have so many talented backs. I wouldn't necessarily hold that against him. I think he's maybe the best of the second tier is how I would view him. Quick thought on Cam Akers, Ben? I don't really have a strong opinion on him. I like Dobbins over him. I know some people have Akers over Dobbins.

I think he's pretty clearly, if you have Dobbins over him, he's pretty clearly the fourth running back. And I don't think the other guys even really necessarily come close to him in terms of where you're going to tear it um but yeah he's he's good his 40 was a little a little disappointing but um or no excuse me we're talking about four four yeah we're talking about acres i i was looking at uh hella notes yeah of notes. Yeah, no, no. Akers was tested well and was productive at Florida State. Yeah. He was.

He's like a tweener. I think he could be as good as Josh Jacobs, for instance. I think the top three in this class are better than any of the backs last year, and Akers is maybe on par with Jacobs. All right. What else do you guys have to say about these guys, Dave? Who do you want to know about? Whatever.

These top five or six. I think landing spot's going to matter huge for them because I don't look at Jonathan Taylor as the guy who could be the best running back in fantasy football. I think he's good. I think he's the best running back in the class, but I think there's a real chance none of these guys get taken in round one. The guys who are usually great for fantasy football, where are they drafted? They're drafted really early.

I would hesitate to say that about Jonathan Taylor. I'm worried about the fumbles. What if he goes to a team that's got a real jerk as a coach and they bench him because he fumbles? What if he can't solve it? We saw that with Sonny Michel a little bit. We've seen it with a bunch of running backs in the past where they lose opportunities because they fumble so much in college. I also don't know. Taylor's got the size that I love for a running back because he's 5'10", 220. There are a lot of running backs in this class that don't have that same kind of size.

And I don't know if that really should bother me as much as it does, but it does make me wonder if these teams see these running backs and they say, okay, great talent, great potential, but they're going to be in a timeshare situation. And it wouldn't surprise me if we get out of the draft and maybe Taylor's the only one that's got a clear cut job. That's really good for fantasy. Like Edwards, he layers absolutely going to share he won't be a lead back to start his career dobbins acres probably won't share either dobbins and swift have a chance to be the lead guy but i bet they end up sharing so i'm wondering if we get a lot of running backs here that we end up drafting in round five round six that's probably going to

be the range for a lot of these running backs that we're talking about but that's not where they where they're sharing and they're not necessarily you can't look at them after the draft and go oh yeah gotta have him he's going to be a must start running back for my fantasy team from day one sure but that's not really uncommon i think it's it's pretty rare to have a rookie be the clear lead back um you know like nick chubb popped into my mind they were they were sharing with him early on in his career um and then obviously was very good in that part-time role in his rookie season um alvin camara came to mind we he was going to be the third back they also signed adrian peterson the offseason they drafted him and he shined through because he caught passes and was very efficient at the n level. And also to your point about like really high draft picks being the stars, like, yes, that's true of Christian McCaffrey and Saquon Barkley and Ezekiel Elliott.

But Kamara is an example of a guy who went a little later. Dalvin Cook was a second round pick. If memory serves, like, I don't think you have to be a top pick as long as the team is willing to give decent enough draft capital and decent enough role to that player. And I don't know. I think talent does shine through with this position. One more guy that I think we kind of glossed over and Adam, you talked about at the beginning and we've jumped around a little bit. But Zach Moss, like I'm really low on him. And he's like the most interesting one to me because pff has him

ranked as their number one prospect they have him ahead of taylor uh deandre swift and dobbins all acres all of them um but the the testing was really poor he's 5 9 but 223 he's really small but thick um but i i just don't and he has some durability issues i just don't see it with him he's also older he's 22 years old compared to most of these pretty much everybody everybody we talked about is going to be 21 by the time the season starts and zach is going to be 22 but i i like watching his film like i had the most fun watching zach moss than any other player at running back in this draft class.

The other, the other running backs were good of course. And I'm not putting Moss at the top of the list, but just, he's, he's a feisty player. He gets yards after contact all the time. He can create without top end speed.

And so he, it's funny that you brought up Devin Singletary with Zach Moss, uh, or just in general, because he reminds me a little bit. Clyde Edwards-Ziller is... Right. So I think Singletary might be

a better all-around running back than Edwards-Ziller, but it's close. And I think Zach Moss is the same type of running back as Devin Singletary, but I don't necessarily view him as a guy who can be...

I think because of the injury issues and the age, Zach Moss might be good for three of his first four seasons and then he flames out. And when I say good, I mean, he's serviceable for a team and doesn't necessarily have a long career, become a stud running back. I think the idea of ranking him ahead of Taylor, Swift, Dobbins, Akers, I think that's kind of preposterous. And now I'm bored with Hilaire over him as well for over the long haul, not for this year because I think Zach Moss could potentially be a guy that can help a team out this year, a short-term solution, just because of his grinding physical style.

That appeals to me. Well, first of all, I said it wrong. It's Edwards Hilaire. There's an H in there. I said it wrong. It's Edwards-Hilaire. There's an H in there. I don't want to perpetuate a mispronunciation. Yeah, I wasn't very impressed with Moss. I try not to put my opinion in there too much because, you know, I obviously am not a professional at that.

But he just seems slow. I mean, he's similar in size and, you know, in height and weight to Jonathan Taylor, and he's so much slower. And he also, even though he was a pretty good pass catcher, I mean, 28, 29 catches in two seasons at Utah, doesn't look like the kind of guy that's going to be very involved in the passing game at the NFL level. Just kind of my guess.

Well, he could. It's just a matter of, and we can say that about almost all these guys. We just don't know. But Devin Singletary isn't, and Derrick Henry isn't, and not that Moss is derrick henry but he's you know he's not one of these quick in space burners so i think i don't like his fantasy appeal right now we'll see where we don't know where he's gonna end up it's got to be a great fit yeah and one last name just real quick to touch on aj dylan i think is getting forgotten about and he might not go very high people are comparing him to brandon jacobs and other big backs derrick henry is a name that you know is

like a really big upside comp but he's a 247 pound back from boston college another guy who had a long track record of showing um you know the ability to handle big workloads he ran a 453 at 247 i actually have him ahead of moss Weighs almost I think about 25 pounds heavier and ran a quicker 40 time. Caught some passes in college. There's concern about his ability to be a three-down back, but I think a lot of pass catching for running backs is situational, too.

We have seen bigger backs that can catch passes. Leonard Fournette comes to mind. I think Dylan is a guy that could be a little bit of a sleeper in this class, and I actually like him more than Moss. And his role is going to be pretty well-defined, too. I don't think anybody's going to look at A.J. Dylan and say, okay, that's going to be our third down guy. They're going to use him as a hammer.

Yeah, he could have a Jordan Howard-type impact like he did early in his career with Chicago. Cool. Heath, anything you want to say goodbye? A.J. Dylan might go ruin Devin Singletary. I'd love it. So I'm going to let Dave and Heath hop off here. They got to go on CBS Sports HQ, which you need to be watching right now.

You want some good sports coverage, some fantasy coverage, CBS Sports HQ, download the CBS Sports HQ app. Ben and I will stick around and finish up the news and notes. Bye, Dave and Heath. Have a great weekend. So Ben, Bill O'Brien called David Johnson a three-down back, and they have Duke Johnson there.

What do you think about that? Could he be a three-down back? Could he be maybe a better version of Lamar Miller, who was usually like a top-20 running back, solid, not spectacular? But can he be a better version of that and actually catch a decent amount of passes? Yeah, I mean, I think a healthy David Johnson is a three-down back. That's what we've seen from him. That's the appeal of him.

He has the size to be even a goal line back, and he's been very good at that. And then also the ability to get out in the pass game and catch passes. I mean, yeah, it's not really crazy to call him a three-down back, but I don't understand after trading a third-round pick for Duke Johnson, I wish he just would have called Duke Johnson a three-down back. I don't really understand the game plan there. I think of all the deals that he's made or not made, whether it was bungling the Clowney situation,

overpaying for Laramie Tunsil, I feel like the Duke Johnson trade might be the worst. I mean, especially now. Yeah. You barely used him last year, and now you went and added a very redundant version of him. Okay, so we have a lot of running back news. I want you to tell me what stands out.

Sean McVay said the Rams offense wants to use multiple running backs. The Chargers say they're still very high on Justin Jackson, according to The Athletic. Tampa Bay very confident in Ronald Jones, according to their GM. Buffalo GM Brandon Bean said Devin Singletary could be, quote, the workload guy, end quote. In fact, in his last six games, he had the fourth most carries in the NFL, but not a lot of catches.

And we'll start with that, and then I'll have two more for you here. But Rams backs, Chargers backs, Bucs, and Bills. Yeah, I think we talked about Jones probably early down the roll. We talked a lot this offseason about Singletary. Probably won't get the receptions or the goal line work that other backs will get. But I would expect both of those teams to feel that way about those backs. Justin Jackson's an interesting one. He was good a couple of years ago in short run,

didn't get a lot of time this past season. I don't know that they're going to necessarily target a back, and if they don't, you have Eckler and Jackson as a pretty good one-two punch, and Jackson should play more than some number two backs. It's not like Eckler's going to be in every down 20 carry type back um and then the the rams thing i i think makes a lot of sense as well i'm kind of counting in in dynasty counting on the rams not drafting a back they now i have added uh an additional pick but they only had five before now they have six picks and they have a lot of needs so i don't know that they really have the

the luxury of going after it back in this draft uh especially after they used one of those picks to trade up last year to draft daryl henderson last year um they've already used a 2020 draft pick on a running back it was just in a trade in the 2019 draft so i think henderson and brown they could use both. I think they're pretty complimentary as well, and both could be productive for fantasy. The one that I kind of don't buy is the Justin Jackson one.

If they were so high on him, I don't know why they didn't use him more in the first three games of the season when he was healthy and Melvin Gordon wasn't playing. He had six carries, seven carries, and five carries in those three games. He's had one game in his career with more than eight carries, and that was the game when both Austin Eckler and Melvin Gordon were hurt

back in 2018. And he was really very underwhelming in that game. 16 carries, 58 yards and a touchdown, three catches for 27 yards. He ended up being good for fantasy. But I don't know. He was a seventh round pick in the NFL draft. So I really have been sort of rolling my eyes at the people who are drafting justin jackson and being like hey great pick and it's been said on this podcast and maybe they're right but i think he will be replaced by someone that they draft this year personally we'll see we'll know in a few weeks uh and the we got a couple of sort of number two or, I don't know, maybe number three running backs. But DeAndre Washington, the Chiefs signed him.

And Naeem Hines, according to Zach Kiefer of The Athletic, he expects Hines to get a lot more work this season. And we talked to Stephen Holder, the beat writer for the Colts for The Athletic, and he also talked up Naeem Hines. First question, who's your handcuff in Kansas City for for damian williams i think that's a tough question um i don't think we're really gonna know and and it'll be interesting to see if they add even more uh to this stable that they have they've built out during the draft and i i kind of expected them to now this Washington signing makes it seem maybe a little bit less likely. But I think Washington is interesting.

Good season last year. I think he caught 36 passes. Almost 700 total yards. You know, he got three starts because Jacobs missed some time. He played with Patrick Mahomes at Texas tech. There's some familiarity there. Mahomes tweeted out his excitement about Washington joining the Chiefs.

I think he should be someone who should be going in drafts as a handcuff. We didn't see a ton from Darwin Thompson. I was going to be Darryl Williams over Darwin Thompson just because the Chiefs seemed to be Darryl Williams over Darwin Thompson throughout the year last year when they got those... They got in position to make those choices when Damian Williams was hurt. But yeah, I think Washington could be the number two. It's either him or Darryl for me. Finally, we'll have to keep an eye on Naeem Hines and see what happens there,

but he could be a trendy sleeper. The Bucs and the Falcons released new uniforms. Which do you like better? The Bucs. I think the Bucs are in the running for the best jerseys in football now. Yeah, they're great.

Huge upgrade. The Falcons and the Bucs kind of look alike, but the Bucs just did it so much better. Yeah, I mean, it's funny because the Bucs used to have... I didn't like their old jerseys where they had a different color on the shoulders.

I mean, it's just kind of weird. It's kind of that CFL look that was popular for a few years. They went back to a little bit of a cleaner look. I like their alternates that are the pewter. Those look pretty fresh. Sports is great because I would never know

what pewter looks like if not for sports you know the hell yeah i wouldn't either okay i was like oh that's what that color is there's a name for that yeah look it up all right that's ben gretch thanks big thanks to ben schrager by the way for putting the show together and getting our our callers lined up much appreciated thank you so much for participating to all of you out there. For Dave, for Heath, for Ben, I'm Adam. Hope you all have a great weekend. Na-na-na-na-na-na-na.