Fantasy Football Today - NFL Draft Questions and Senior Bowl Recap (02/04 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: February 5, 2024

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 Let's get to know the NFL Draft prospects! Emory Hunt joins as today as he and Dave are back from the Senior Bowl to talk about who stood out, but first we talk generally about the NFL Draft. What should the Bears do with the first overall pick (5:45)? How much of an upgrade would Caleb Williams be? Do we have a stud running back in this draft class (12:30)? Let's compare Brock Bowers to Kyle Pitts (14:05). And is Marvin Harrison Jr. really that much better than the rest of the wide receivers (21:45)? ... Now focusing on the Senior Bowl, Dave and Emory tell us the QBs (22:35), RBs (27:30), WRs (35:40) and TEs (40:55) that will have the biggest Fantasy or NFL impact. We discuss Michael Penix Jr., Marshawn Lloyd, Luke McCaffrey, Roman Wilson and more ... More standouts from the Senior Bowl (44:35) plus a little Super Bowl talk and we reminisce about our earliest football memories ... 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

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Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. You're going to get a lot of NFL draft talk going forward here on Fantasy Football Today, on Fantasy Football Today in 5, on Fantasy Football Today Dynasty. This is the first draft show that we're doing, though, of the season. And it's, you know, it's after the Senior Bowl, where Dave Richard

won. We missed you, Dave. Hey, Dave. Aw, I missed you, too. I missed hearing about how you and Heath couldn't figure out what a breakout is or what a bounce back is. Thanks for bringing that up. You're getting really angry at him and creating just an absolute maelstrom of comments. Right. And then someone's already asking. Maelstrom or maelstrom?

I don't use that word, Dave, because for this reason, exactly. So I don't even venture into that. I think it's maelstrom. I think I said it wrong. I think it is, too, but I'm not interested in finding out right now because I'm never going to say it. I'm just going to stand out. It's maelstrom. Thank you. We're off and running on the show. We also have Emery Hunt here. Welcome, Emery. What's going on?

What's good, guys? Glad to be back on the show. Listen, I need to know... Have you ever been caught in a maelstrom, Emery? I don't know what that is. So I don't want to say yes or no. A powerful whirlpool in the sea or a river? Never. You won't catch me in water unless it's taking a shower.

Not a beach guy, huh? Not a beach guy. Not a beach guy. My tan already on point. There you go. There you go. What about the hot tub? Nope. Not in that Petri dish absolutely not wow okay i love it that's a hot take that's literally um so we gotta know i mean what what were the what was the buzz what were the scouts what were

the coaches saying about dave richard do we have any good dave richard stories from the week in mobile we do not but i did get to see him in person, which was a pleasant sight to see him and Ryan Wilson caught up with him. But I'm going to find some dirt on him. I'm going to talk to my source to see what they can drudge up and see what we can say for the next episode. I'm trying to think about stupid stuff I did. You don't have to do anything stupid. You may think it's normal, but they caught you in that. No, I don't think so. have to do anything stupid you may think it's normal but they caught you in that no i don't think they'll report back to me i'm pretty good about saying the stupid things that i i do i don't think i did anything really stupid i didn't i didn't say anything dumb to any of the

players uh i didn't get caught in any weird like situations with scouts or anything um No, I think I'm... Were you sitting there breathing with your mouth open? Because there's probably some pictures, some still shots, just you looking crazy. So you got to be wary of that too. I don't think anybody... There weren't a lot of people in the press box. I went upstairs to watch the practices.

There weren't a lot of people up there, so I don't think they've got photos of me with my mouth agape. All right, we'll dig something up. All right, so here's what we're going to do today. We're going to talk about the Senior Bowl, but the first portion of our show is just going to be general NFL draft talk and really talking about the best prospects that you need to know about for fantasy purposes. And then I don't want to say that the Senior Bowl doesn't matter, Dave, because as you wrote, a lot of really good players. The Senior Bowl matters. In the past, we've had a lot of very good NFL players, right?

So just give us a few examples of some of the recent players who were in the Senior Bowl and ended up being NFL and fantasy studs. Have you heard of the name Puka Nakua, who was at the Senior Bowl for all of one practice last year, dominated the practice, had a minor injury. He was done. He was all set. Tank Dell was at the Senior Bowl last year dominated the practice had a minor injury he was done he was all set tank dell was at the senior bowl last year debo samuel once upon a time was at the senior bowl uh remandre stevenson's been there i'm trying to think of running backs i just talked about i'm sorry

rashad white james cook naji harris walter payton tyler lockett russell wilson uh does carson wentz count i don't know how about Lane Johnson, the offensive lineman? He was there. Baker Mayfield was there. Emery, jump in any time with other players who have been there. Oh, listen, Dak Prescott, Russell Wilson, Tim Tebow was there. Also, how about this story? I remember the first – now, keep in mind, I cover a lot of the FCS small school football.

The first day of practice in individual drills, this receiver was dropping a few passes, and all I saw was tweets about, oh, this guy definitely can't hold up to this top-level competition. All it is, folding underneath the pressure, it was Cooper Cup. And we know how that worked out for everybody. I was sitting there like, wow, I watched a ton of Easton Washington, and I watched them break all Jerry Rice, Mississippi Valley State records,

which stood since 84. There's no way on LeBron James' internet that this dude can't catch. Like, come on now and look at what we have now. Matter of fact, the Rams got both of those guys, him and Puka, out there catching pass. It's crazy. There you go. Keep that story in mind when we talk about Tez Walker later on today on this show. Before we get into the NFL draft questions and the prospect questions i just want to give a big

thank you to everyone in our audience for voting for us at the sports podcast awards we won we won the uh the award for best fantasy uh betting and gaming category i'm so excited about it i want to thank you all so much best fantasy Fantasy Betting and Gaming Podcast, Fantasy Football Today, the gold winner of 2024 in the Sports Podcast Awards. And it was all you. It was fan voting. So appreciate you getting it. I know we tell you all,

vote for this, vote for that, and you do it. And you do it every time. It's amazing. Your dedication is really incredible. Blows us away. So thank you so much. Alright. So first question here, again, not Senior Bowl stuff yet. We'll get into that. But what should the Bears do

with the first overall pick? Emery, you're on the clock. You're the Chicago Bears. They've invited you into the room and you get to make the pick. You get to make the decision for them. What should they do? Listen, if they've been watching

CBS Sports HQ since October, they know where I stand. I've been laying this out. I gave them three scenarios. You want to keep Justin Fields in all three, right? So the first one, I'm trying to get better around Justin Fields. I'm trying to see how many points the scoreboard holds. So I will take Marvin Harrison Jr. first.

I will then double back and take Malik Nabors out. Either you take that as scenario one or you want to go offensive defense because you have two first round picks. You take whoever you think is the top receiver, Harrison or neighbors. And then you take what I think is the top defensive end, a lot to out of UCLA. Right. So now you've got an offensive guy and a defensive back player to go along with Montez Sweat. Or you double back on two offensive players in scenario three. You go whichever wide receiver you think is the best, and you take an offensive lineman, Joe Ault, O'Shino,

whoever you think is the best offensive lineman. You can go that route. Or if you want to go receiver and Brock Bowers, you can do that as well. I'm all about building around Justin Fields. We know this offense can be explosive. You already have D.J. Moore in place. You have Cole Komet in place. You have a very solid be explosive. You already have DJ Moore in place. You have Cole Komet in place. You have a very solid offensive line. You can get better there.

You can handle a running back maybe in round two or three. There's some guys that's probably fit in that mold, but I'm all about keeping Justin Fields, getting a haul for that first overall pick, and keeping the Bears with two first-round picks for the next two consecutive drafts. So this was a hot topic for obvious reasons in Mobile. And I was talking about it with people. I heard other people talking about it. I think the drumbeat is getting louder for Chicago taking Caleb Williams. So not doing what Emery was thinking of. And that means that they would probably trade Justin Fields.

I'm starting to get the feeling that they're going to be able to get something decent in exchange for him. Keep in mind that whoever trades for him would have to probably give him a new contract. So it's not going to necessarily be a first round pick, but it could be a conditional pick where, okay, it's going to be a second round pick. And if the team that Justin Fields goes to makes the playoffs, then it becomes a first round pick it could be something like that but i was hearing a lot of caleb williams to chicago that's fine hearing it but what would you do hey listen if someone's going to give you a first or a second for your quarterback damn i might not want to trade them right like that just seems like this common sense right but also the common theme everybody keeps talking about

dave and adam is resetting the quarterback market because you could restart the contract. Forget all that. When you're watching a game in week six and your favorite player is scoring touchdowns, you're not saying, yeah, that's great, but probably could have got him around later or probably could have reset that market. You don't care about none of that stuff. You just want to know if the player is good, if he can play.

And Chicago making moves to move off of Luke Getze seems like a telltale that they are still up in the air. If you can get a second-round pick for Justin Fields, imagine what you can get for Caleb Williams. And that's where I still stand on. Now, yeah, they could go and trade and get Caleb Williams. He's a great player. There's no downside.

But, I mean, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, in my opinion. And they got Dancer the W, you know. He's 6'3", 230, tough. He can run, all that good stuff like that. And we know Justin Fields wasn't the problem with Chicago's offense. So, we'll see. It'll be fun. But I think in this particular – now, if they draft Drake May,

then they've made a dumb move. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So, Williams is a great player and a great prospect but i think you continue to stockpile weapons on that offense all right last question on this subject here in your opinion emory how how much better if at all how much better is caleb williams than justin fields as a as a pro prospector i know it's kind of hard to compare right but not really because if I'm thinking of my grade on fields when he came out was like an 84 he was my QB2 right behind he was 84 85 he was QB2 right behind Trevor Lawrence who was a 90 it was number one right now and I tell you this. I have graded quarterbacks.

Williams is a 90. So he still is. That's where it is. So you're talking about someone that could be a perennial all pro versus someone that's a high level, consistent pro bowl type player. That's a franchise quarterback. So it's like, you know know is is really right there in terms of um the quarterback position so he's still he's still very high but i still have a high higher grade on caleb williams here's here's one area that makes me nervous about fields and i'm i'm just looking for your reaction to this Emory three years as the bears quarterback. He started 38 games. He has three game winning drives to fourth quarter comebacks. That's according to pro football reference. Has he been given enough time to,

to, to, you know, show Chicago that he can be, is he showing, has he already shown them who he is or is there more to him that Chicago really hasn't been able to get out of him yet? And maybe changing coordinators is a way to do that. I think there's more to him.

Think about this. Everyone talks about, you know, it's funny because when he was coming out as a prospect, everyone talked about his deep ball and ability. He's only good because he's throwing to NFL wide receivers. Well, yeah, you look at the receivers that he had at Ohio State. How about we recreate that and give him more talent at receiver? What we didn't talk about was his ability

to run because he didn't do that at Ohio State. They're asking him to do that now. It's almost like what we've talked about, what people talked about with Lamar Jackson. Well, you got to create a whole offense around him. Well, really, they were running the same offense the Patriots were running at Louisville, just added quarterback power to it. So when he had to learn the NFL in the morning wig under Greg Roman and now under Todd Munkin

was completely different than what he was doing already at Louisville, Bobby Petrino. Justin Fields is a vertical passer, a deep ball passer who also can run. He runs 4-3. So I think them trying to incorporate the run game with Justin Fields is doing him a disservice. He's more, hey, let's go deep. Let's work touchdown to check down. So I feel like whoever they bring in or wherever he goes is going to give him the opportunity to utilize what we saw from him at Ohio State. He had to run his stuff.

It's cool. He's great at that. He's an added element. But I feel like Chicago is kind of leaning in on that, and that's not really his game more so than it is dropping back and just airing that thing out deep down the field. Okay. All right, let me move on to a running back question here.

Do we have a stud running back in this draft class? That's tough, man. Last year, you know, I was all over Jameer Gibbs and B. John Robinson as stud guys, right? Guys you take in round one. This year, I'm a little bit more, hey, day two, get you a guy that could be a good complement. And I feel like we're starting to see,

and this has probably been the case for the last decade, right? Where we're seeing what we've seen so far in high school where guys are working in tandems, so now they're working in tandems in college. It's tough to find a guy that you can truly say, that's a feature back, that's a lead-off back. But there's a couple of guys that have that potential, in my opinion.

But right now, I would say this, the one guy to keep an eye on that has really caught my attention that just I feel like plays the game in a feature-backed way is Isaac Garindo out of Louisville. You know, 5'11", 220, solid week at the East-West Shrine Bowl. No one is talking about him. He's transferred from Wisconsin, was second-team All-Big Ten as a kick returner there. Got to be the guy here at Louisville

and was excellent this year. I think he has, he reminds me a lot of Michael Turner. Kind of same trajectory coming from Northern Illinois. Kickoff returner, ended up being a feature back in the league. I think Garindo has that capability. That's someone that I really was impressed with his take.

Alright, I'll give you a tight end question here. Brock Bowers, compare him to Kyle Pitts. Let's see, Kyle Pitts was the fifth overall pick? Fourth overall pick. He was the fourth overall pick in the draft in 2021. Will Brock Bowers

tie that? I don't think he's going to beat it. What do you think, Brock Bowers? He's going to be a top four, five, six, seven. What do you think? Yeah. He's someone, if I had, in the mock draft I did recently

was Tennessee. He was on the clock with Tennessee. I was like, all right, I'm just taking him. I did that mock draft with Ryan Wilson on the With the First to Pick podcast. So I went, yeah, you know, I can't, I did that with my draft for Ryan Wilson on the, with the person to pick podcast. So I went, I went, yeah,

you would take him top 10. It's like comparing to me. Brock Bowers is Travis Kelsey and Kyle Pitts is Jimmy Graham. They both play tight end, but they both played it a different way. And we'll probably get to see the real Kyle Pitts this year. But, you know,

when you look at Brock Bowers, he's someone that can, you could have him detached. You could have him on a line of scrimmage. You could flex him out as a slot guy. So he can do it all. And if you need someone to kind of be that versatile piece of your offense, why not take him? Because, again, if we're watching games in week nine

and Brock Bowers has six catches for 125 yards and a touchdown, you're not going to be like, yeah, but if we would have taken him in between picks 20 to 25, I would feel a lot better than taking him in the top 10. You do not care. You just want to see the production. And then, Dave, you think Brock Bowers, we were talking about this when you did your tight end rankings, but do you see him as a top 10 fantasy tight end this year i think he could get there i i wouldn't surprise me in the least if we drafted him that way just because there are so

many tight ends that you can look at toward the back end of a top 12 list and say well i'd rather just take the chance on bowers then maybe even one of those late tight ends can be there for me and i draft two of them so he's going to be fun to target i don't think he's going to go anywhere near as high i don't think he'll go anywhere near as high as where kyle pitts was going when he was a rookie maybe two rounds after that though and that's still in that round eight ish type range and he's got great potential man i haven't studied him but i remember watching him play live on tv when when has their games, and he looks different. He doesn't look like your typical tight end. He looks nothing like Travis Kelsey looks right now. He's much faster, not quite as big as Kyle Pitts, but he might move a little bit better than Kyle Pitts did when Pitts was coming out of Florida. If he goes to the Chargers at five, that would be pretty interesting for his fantasy value. I'd be sad. I'd be sad.

I'd be sad. You'd be sad. I'd be sad because I think Harbaugh is going to try and make that team at minimum balance. I don't think they're going to lean into Justin Herbert the same way that other offensive coordinators did. Yeah, I think Harbaugh. I think his I think the word is just out on Harbaugh that he just he wants to run the ball. He's going to make sure that that's a huge part of their game. He loves being physical.

And it kind of it's going to hurt Justin Herbert a little bit for sure. Yeah. Bowers could be his his Vernon Davis. OK, and then how many years did Vernon have is like a monster fantasy tight end. Well, that that question, I don't know. That's for you guys. You guys are the experts. I have no clue. I, I don't know. That's for you guys. You guys are the experts. I have no clue.

There's not a team in the top 10 that I'd rather see him on, unless obviously there could be trades. But do I want to see him on Chicago? They have Cole Komet. Washington, I don't want to see him on Washington. I mean, that could be okay. But I'd rather see him on the Chargers. New England, I don't want to see him on New England.

Arizona, they've got McBride. The Giants, no, I don't want to see him go to the Giants. Tennessee, okay, that's interesting. I'd still rather see him go to the Chargers. Atlanta, they're not taking him. The Bears, again, we already talked about that. The Jets, all right, maybe for a year with Aaron Rodgers. That's kind of interesting. They're 10th. But I think the Chargers would be my favorite destination for Brock Bauer, Emery. Listen, with Harbaugh and Greg Roman, that's a tight end's dream you know that that's to me that's where you want to go um but it would be you know a good situation for him to either end up there you look at maybe a place like Oakland Oakland Vegas New Orleans could be a good spot

they need more weapons there too um he he's a fantastic player he's someone that can definitely change or enhance your offense so yeah it will be fascinating to see where uh someone like borrows goes because as with most of these tight ends especially in fantasy it depends legitimately on where they go sure absolutely vernon davis had a 13 touchdown season with Harbaugh in San Francisco. 52 catches, 850 yards, 13 touchdowns. It is by far his best season with Harbaugh when Harbaugh was with the Niners. All right. We are going to take a break. I have one more non-Senior Bowl question about wide receivers,

and then we'll get into the Senior Bowl, the best at each position for fantasy purposes and what we're thinking there. We'll be right back on Fantasy Football today. penalties and keep you safe. Don't let avoidable damage cost you time and money. Click before you dig. Ensure your next project is safe. Visit OntarioOneCall.ca. It's free. It's easy. It's the law.

Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report. Yeah, it's Super Bowl week, baby. I'm so excited for this game. I think it could be a really great game. I fear that the Chiefs are just going to kind of sort of like the Ravens game, just kind of win, not easily, but control the game. 49ers are going to be in comeback mode,

but I don't know how it's going to play out. I'm really looking forward to it and hope you all... We have five episodes for you this week, so there'll be some Super Bowl talk. There'll be a big preview on Friday. We're going to do a mock draft this week. We're going to do a mock draft this week. We're going to do a mailbag this week. We're going to do beyond the box score this week as well.

So we have a lot planned for you. I'm having a Super Bowl party, Dave. I'm excited for it. I'd like to know what the menu is. I would also like to know what the menu is because I'm kind of thinking sandwiches. Oh, well. You're not allowed to order them. Like a five-foot sub.

I don't know. You kind of snickered at that, Emery. You wouldn't agree with that. Because I'm thinking of like at first you said sandwiches, then I'm like sandwiches. But then I'm thinking of you probably meant hoagies, like the Bill Cosby hoagies he used to have on the Cosby show where that would pile up with chips and everything like that.

That could work. Yeah, that could work. But, you know, wings are just so traditional. So I don't know. Well, I've got some time to figure it out. Last question here for Emery. How much of a difference is there between Marvin Harrison Jr. and the rest of the wide receivers in this class to you?

Not much, man. To be completely honest, I feel like we have uh you know when you have one guy that kind of gets elevated to be the number one guy everyone kind of sticks on that forever but malik neighbors you know when you think about especially that's why i grade guys the way i do um marvin harrison to me can be your straight bonafide split in your X receiver. But someone like neighbors can play all three spots X flanker, which is the slot receiver. And he's great after the catch. So it depends on what you want. Do you want, you know, the Larry Fitzgerald or do you want, you know, the Jamar Chase? Right. So it's splitting hairs. So it's not as wide of a gap as people may make it out to be. So if you need a receiver,

this is probably the draft to really nail one within the first two rounds. All right, let's move on to the Senior Bowl. So I'm going to ask you who you guys think from the Senior Bowl, does not have to be a player who actually played in the game, obviously. Thank you. Which player do you think is going to have either the biggest NFL impact or the biggest fantasy impact? Probably the same, but maybe not.

And we're going to start with quarterback. Dave, I'll let you go first. Which quarterback from the Senior Bowl is going to have the biggest fantasy or NFL impact? There are two quarterbacks that I thought were head and shoulders above everybody else that was there. I'm going to go with the one that I just listed as my number one quarterback from the week.

And this is a guy who I have studied. It's Michael Penix Jr. He showed off a very strong arm in Mobile, mostly good accuracy. I thought his mechanics were actually better for the Senior Bowl than what we had seen in his games for Washington. I did see him struggle to connect with receivers

when he was pressured. And that was one thing that I consistently saw from him on film last year with Washington. I didn't watch every game with him, but certainly some from the beginning of the year. Obviously, the games against Michigan and Texas. Anytime he was under pressure, he wouldn't hide and get sacked. He was great at avoiding sacks, but he wouldn't always make huge plays. He didn't do that consistently enough when he was under pressure. And even in practices, when he's under pressure,

he wasn't making huge plays then either. It's almost like he knew it's practice. It doesn't really matter. I don't need to try and be Superman here. So maybe you can excuse him for that in a practice. I don't know if I can necessarily excuse him from that in a game. And then there were some interesting rumors

that came out about Penix during the week. I talked to a bunch of different people about him. And there is a growing consensus that he will not be a first-round pick. And there is a thought that he might not even be a day-two pick. I'm thinking that's because of all the injury issues that he has. Remember, four seasons of his college career. He played six years in college. He's an older prospect.

Four of those six seasons finished early because of injuries. Twice for an ACL, twice for shoulder injuries one to each shoulder i think that you can look past that a little bit because it's been two years since he's suffered a season-ending injury but it's going to come down to the medical and this is something i did ask a lot of teams i asked if you're met if you're if your doctors clear a guy do the coaches even think about what happens? Do they consider that he's still injury prone? And they all said no. Once the doctors clear him, they view a guy like he's 100%

and they don't worry about injury with him any further. I thought that was interesting to hear and maybe a little refreshing to hear about Penix because he's had all these injuries, but they are in the rear view by over 700 days. All right, Penix. And then, Emery, same question to you. Could be the same answer. because he's had all these injuries, but they are in the rear view by over 700 days. All right, Penix. And then, Emery, same question to you.

Could be the same answer. Which quarterback will make the biggest impact in the NFL? Well, he's my QB3, and he ended up taking the MVP of the game in Spencer Rattler. I feel like people forgot all about Spencer Rattler. He had a great start to his career at Oklahoma. Then he kind of went through a lull. And, yeah, he got beat out by a potential number one overall pick, Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams.

So there's nothing to sneeze at there. But then when you go back and watch the South Carolina's film from the last two seasons, he got better. The last six games of last year. In this past season, he was strong. Regardless of the offensive line issues they had this year. He's still really good. So he was able to build on what he did in 2022. So for me, if I'm a team like the Raiders,

if I'm a team like Pittsburgh, I am keeping a watchful eye on Mr. Rattler because he's good off script. He has a deep ball accuracy. He's not afraid to let it fly. I am keeping a watchful eye on Mr. Rattler because he's good off script. He has a deep ball accuracy. He's not afraid to let it fly. He's making some tight window throws there at Mobile that we've seen him make all throughout the season the last two years in South Carolina. All right, so I got to ask.

You said Rattler's your number three quarterback. Caleb's number one. Who's number two? Mr. Jaden Daniels. You know, listen, I don't care. He's number two? Mr. Jaden Daniels. You know, listen, I don't care. He's built like Knox Court. This is someone that can really play. He can fly.

He reminds me a lot of, and I said this before, people thought I was nuts. Then I started to see the comparisons go out there as well. I said this back in, I think, October, that he runs like Lamar Jackson with the football in terms of elusiveness and how great of control he has run the ball. Now Lamar is an explosive, more explosive athlete, but in terms of elusiveness and how he runs under control, Jay Daniels is right there. And if you go back and watch his freshman film against Oregon and you know,

him out there as a true freshman at Arizona state, when you had Brandon Aiyu, you had Ricky Pearsall out there, wide receiver, you had some dudes. He was playing really well. 17 touchdowns, one interception. So this is a really good player. What we saw last year was just having those pieces around him. So for me, Jaden Daniels is, hey, he is someone that if you're looking at how the NFL is played, you want someone that could be a plus one, that can get out of a jam, that could be that guy that can play above the X's and O's.

He does that in spades. All right. All right. Let's get to the running backs here from the Senior Bowl. Dave, which running back from the Senior Bowl will have the biggest NFL or fantasy impact? I don't know if there's going to be one from the Senior Bowl that's going to have a huge fantasy impact. What we've seen from Senior Bowl running backs is that the first year in the NFL, occasionally there's one that comes along that's really good,

but usually it takes two, three years for one of those running backs to step up. The one that stood out to me the most was Marshawn Lloyd from USC. Thick running back, powerful, low center of gravity. I thought he had good vision. I thought he was decisive, good physicality. I think he's got some explosiveness. There was a play on the third day of practice. I don't know if Emery remembers where he's going to his right. He sees that there's no lane there for him to run and he just explodes the other way. And it wasn't for a huge gain, but seeing that explosion got me excited about him. And then the other thing that I saw

from Marshawn Lloyd was his receiving skills. He was running routes very nicely. I think he's got room to get even better there. But he showed off good hands as well. And that's the one thing that we saw consistently in practice from the running backs. A lot of the running backs that were in Mobile did a good job catching the ball. Marshawn Lloyd was one of the guys that did the best. I think the one thing that I'm a little worried about with him is his speed. I don't think he's got that blazing speed that's going to run

away from second level defenders. I think he'll get caught from behind a decent amount from what I've seen. This is in basic highlights. It's not like I've studied him outside of the senior bowl. He does get caught from behind a little bit, but there have been plenty of running backs in the history of the NFL that have power, have strength, can catch the football, and can still pick up nice chunks of yardage without necessarily being a sub-4-4 runner. All right. By the way, Marshawn Lloyd advanced metrics out of 160 running backs with 100 or more carries. He was fifth in yards before contact per carry, 20th in yards after contact per carry, second in avoided tackle rate.

That's out of 160 running backs last year with 100 more carries. Terrific metrics there for Marshawn Lloyd. All right, same question to you, Emery. Which senior bowl running back will have the biggest NFL impact? It's a loaded question, but I like the way Isaiah Davis out of South Dakota State state runs i knew you'd say him i knew it reminds me so much of uh what we used to see from um uh his his name slips him i was saying it all week you're playing for the vikings with the ranch robert smith robert so

yeah just smooth you know under control six feet 220 can catch the ball well and what i like about him the most is that he's a finisher. And he has played in some big games at South Dakota State. You talk about the games against Iowa. You talk about the playoff games. And he has a great sense of timing. So, hey, they need a big drive here. They need to close out this game.

Guess who just rips off this 70-plus-yard run? Guess who just rips off this 50-yard run and finishes by throwing his shoulder into a defensive back or or a safety that's to me the essence of playing pro ball um and what he does as a receiver what he does in pass pro i feel like he's played a lot to where you can look past the south dakota state park um and he held his own at the senior bowl you know i think that's a guy that that measures up looks the part plays the part That's the South Dakota State Park. And he held his own at the Senior Bowl. You know, I think that's a guy that measures up, looks the part, plays the part. I think he's going to find himself in a good situation in the pros. Adam, he's six feet tall, 220 pounds.

So one of the bigger running backs that was in Mobile. Hands, 10 and what is it? 10 and one quarter inches wide. So big old hands, long arms, and tall, heavy. Heavy meaning like strong, muscular. He's going to have a place in the NFL for sure. I'm looking at my hands. I'm thinking about 4 inches.

Your hands are not 4 inches. What? Smaller than that? No, no, no. Big bigger than four inches like one hand and yeah yeah one hand from you know you stretch your hand out it's from your pinky to your thumb you can ask any picket about it okay four and a half i bet yours is at least eight and eight and one eighths inches long i was divided by two um and emory i knew you'd love isaiah davis one because he's a he's a stronger running back but two the small school factor the fcs factor no no no you got a soft spot

for that i could i can kind of poke holes into other guys like uh i love lloyd lloyd to me i thought i was shocked this is a good thing i was shocked that he measured in at 5 9 to 17 because he plays like he's 5 11 22 25 yes he does um and you know i love ray davis but ray davis is probably my age you know and you know so but ray davis is a really good running back too um and the georgia running back was really good as well like he had a really solid week but as i've graded these running backs this year, there's a, I guess they call them tiers, but there's a tier of backs that have a lot of the same grade. It's insane to see a lot of these guys that I think are really just RB2s. So it's kind of hard to say who's going to have the biggest impact.

So that's why I went with the guy that measured up, that looked the part, and his skill set. And it's hard for running backs to stand out in an all-star game setting, but when you put the film on, Dave is tremendous. Dave also wrote an article about comparing senior bowl prospects to current NFL prospects. He wrote about Dylan Lobby out of New Hampshire. I don't know if he's going to be a big ball carrier, but he is one hell of a pass catcher as a running back.

And he had 68 catches for 699 yards and seven touchdowns last year for New Hampshire. And I just wonder if he's going to have, you know, really nice NFL career and a fantasy number three running back in fantasy, just catching a lot of passes. Jill Bernard type of player or something like that. So I'm curious to see what what ends up happening with him. Yeah. Yeah. Let me just go. Yeah, good. Good ahead good yeah i was gonna say i i was i did the broadcast for their game against mama and you know you had jayden shirt on one side and dylan lobby on the other side i'm not gonna say they spam targets to him but he was the focal point of you know their office like they just you here, pass here, pass here.

I mean, for fantasy, I guess that's racking up receptions, but there's some peeling back of the onion there as well. Gotcha. Sure, and he's got the same problem that Ray Davis has in terms of age. Yeah, Davis is going to be 25 years old, by the way, in November, I believe. So, yeah, older than I expect. Let's take a break and let's come back and talk about Senior Bowl wide receivers and tight ends and anything else that you fantasy managers need to know from the Senior Bowl.

We'll be right back. Emory, I'm going to have time to ask Dave this, but Emory, I'm not going to have time to ask you this before the game. What's your Super Bowl pick? Man, I'm on HQ all throughout this week and on pregame so i got a lot of time to give my pick so i'm not gonna give you this early in the week absolutely not but i will say this i like the over i do feel like we can get points of plenty in this game all right i. I hope you're right. That'd be fun. Wide receiver. Which wide receiver from the Senior Bowl will have the biggest impact or fantasy impact in the NFL? Dave Richard.

Well, you know it always comes down to fit and who's catching or who they're catching passes from. Great wide receivers end up on teams with mediocre quarterbacks and their numbers aren't so great. But the guy who had the best week of any player, in opinion is roman wilson from michigan beyond a rookie level as far as route running technique goes he adjusts and goes all out for off target throws he knows

how to exploit gaps in zone coverage good speed with better explosiveness played through contact he was really a very impressive wide receiver. Made great plays each of two days of practice that he had. He was good to go by the Wednesday practice. When he was done with that, he didn't need to show up anymore. I think he left town before Thursday's practice. Clearly didn't play in the game. If there's negatives to Roman Wilson, here's a big one.

He's undersized. He's like 5'10 and something and like 180 pounds. He's got size that looks like Tyler Lockett. So a little bit undersized compared to what you look for from an NFL wide receiver. And kind of the same complaint that I had with Marshawn Lloyd. I'm not sure he's got that breakaway top end speed. He's got the speed in his routes to get open. It's just about just how many yards can he get after that once he does make the grab. Some defensive backs during practice did run step for step with him. That's where I got the idea that maybe he wasn't going to have. No one's Tyreek Hill, but he might not even be the next tier down from Tyreek Hill as far as speed goes. But his

hands, his routes, absolutely outstanding. Could very easily see him become a big-time contributor as soon as the 2024 season, if everything breaks right for him, including where he goes on draft night. All right, Roman Wilson for Dave. How about you, Emery? Which wide receiver will make the biggest NFL impact from the Senior Bowl?

I've watched the NFL. I was born in 81, so I've watched the NFL. I was born in 81, so I've watched the NFL since 86. And I know how the NFL operates. I'm going Luke McCaffrey. And here's why. One, it's family

lineage. He's going to get drafted. And two, unbeknownst to a lot of people out there, he is a very fantastic athlete. I don't know if you know about the McCaffrey family, but they are all terrific athletes and luke is someone that can play multiple positions he's someone that can carry the ball he's someone that can run good routes from the outside also on the inside i see him having a very productive rookie season because of his versatility and when you add in the family name and the McCaffrey playing the Super Bowl

and now they're going to try to get him to get his brother. The NFL is the best soap opera out there. I'm going to look at McCaffrey out of rice. He's a former quarterback as well. So not only can he run the ball and catch the ball, he had arguably the best catch of the Senior Bowl game. It was a one-handed snag. But he can throw the ball too

so i want to ask you about a guy who a lot of people thought had nfl lineage but he's not related to phil mcconkie but lad mcconkie is you know i when you said mccaffrey i was like what about luke mccaffrey lad mockie? They're like the same name. But, man, this is a guy that – it is Georgia, right? And they are just killing everyone. But you can't watch a Georgia game without him making some type of an impact. And, you know, from everything I read, he had a great week at the Senior Bowl. And I want my team to end up with Ladd McCockie.

I don't know when he's going to get drafted. But what do you think about McCockie? Listen, I have the tweets. I'll probably find it and retweet it at some point. And I said this because stylistically, he reminds me of this guy. This was like two years ago. He was always open, beating somebody deep down the field. But his explosiveness in springs, as I call it, remind me so much of Lance Allward, right? Bambi. He's just so light on his feet. And we saw that down in Mobile.

And again, full disclosure, one-on-ones is the worst drill for defensive backs because you have no safety help, no linebackers, no pass rush. You have a whole field. It's like dropping you off in the middle of a parking lot and saying, get to the sideline and cover. Like it's impossible for defensive backs. So, yes, he's going to win one on ones and look crazy doing it like crazy in a good way. But McConkie can can play ball and he is someone who just knows how to leverage and knows how to get deep. And I think he's going to be a fantastic receiving the NFL as well. He's a smaller version of Roman Wilson with the same issues that I said for Roman Wilson.

I'm a little bit worried about he's springing his step. I don't know if he's going to be a burner at the next level, but a guy who could work in the slot in the national football league for the next nine years and come up with 50 to 60 catches a year. I think you can pencil that in right now. Well, if the Ramsams draft them i'll i'll put them in the hall of fame it doesn't have to be the rams now it could be any of the sean mcveigh kyle shanahan disciples they're all over the place every every single team basically

all right tight end dave which tight end is going to make the biggest nfl or fantasy impact this was a bad group of tight ends at the senior bowl the only one that stood out to me was in emory first name on this is either jaheim or jaheim yeah hi i'm not sure how to pronounce it i never got the pronunciation of bell from florida state who's probably more of an h back than a tight end he's short he's not like you know your typical tight end is six four to six seven and you know 260 pounds something like that he's a smaller and shorter type of player but i love the way that he could catch the ball away from his body and he just has those hands not quite as big as as uh as whose hands were we talking about earlier um my

hands the running back no not your hands the other running back yes not nearly as big as those cloppies but still good strong hands that could snare in passes i thought he was the best pass catcher who went to florida state who was at the senior bowl practices this week and someone who made plays uh in practice scored a bunch of touchdowns and and was able to get away a little bit from coverage the other tight ends that were there i think they all struggled as far as pass catching goes they were better in blocking and that sort of thing so bell is the best of of kind of an under exciting bunch all right dave i did eight seconds of youtube research and i've got jaheim bell jaheim bell you were making the J-O-Y, which is interesting. That's a bold move there, not just making it a J. That's okay.

Jaheim Bell. That's what I got right now. Unofficial pronunciation. How about who you got at tight end? I thought this young man was one of the best ones there at tight end. Theo Johnson out of Penn State. Canadian kid from Windsor, Ontario. He's also eligible for the CFL draft as well, but they don't use tight ends. So he's going to be in the NFL playing really well.

Route running is outstanding. Made some contested catches. It was very good in the red zone. I thought just from a pure tight end standpoint, fluid athlete, made some great catches. So I thought Theo was really strong all throughout the week there um and to me he's someone that kind of reminds me of what the dolphins had before they traded him off um now his name slips me uh like a sick position gosicki's kind of like that right but a little bit more fluid i got a little bit more sauce on his food than gosicki did i don't i'm really very i'm not anti-sauce on food but i just feel like

good food doesn't really need sauce that's just kind of you know it's my philosophy don't don't say that in new orleans because you will get exiled oh i could never live there i see the whole it's just everything's too spicy for me there i i would be at like mcdonald's every day it's the only thing i'd be able to tolerate um all right let's recap here quarterback who'll make the biggest nfl impact uh just from the senior bowl dave said michael pennix emery said spencer rattler running back dave said marshawn lloyd we could use another marshawn in the nfl right? We could just call him Marshawn. It'd be great. Emery said Isaiah Davis.

Wide receiver, Dave had Roman Wilson. Emery had Luke McCaffrey. Tight end, Jaheim Bell for Dave, Theo Johnson for Emery. I mean, as far as the rest of the show, I just want to know who stood out and who you think is going to be fantasy relevant. Who's going to be a quarterback, running back, wide receiver or tight end and if you want to throw some you know you want to throw some love to the other positions

that's perfectly fine as well i mean we're football fans here but emory you got anybody any names that uh that you're dying to talk about here from last week i'm listening is idp a thing still sure yes for sure okay gabe hall defensive lineman baylor was outstanding from start to finish you know someone that was playing inside uh there at the senior bowl but clearly he reminds me a lot of chris jones you know he was 65 298 he had him playing over the guard he was whooping the guard all week but if you just extrapolate that put him outside as a five technique or maybe as a seven he could still have a lot of success. So I just thought he had a fantastic week. And Quinnion Johnson as well, the cornerback from Toledo,

picking off passes. He was the only cornerback making one-on-ones look easy for defensive backs for how well he was covering. I mean, stop making excuses for these defensive backs. What other position are you, oh, yeah, you don't get any safety help, you don't get any linebacker help. Let these guys do it on their own. Why do you have to give them help all the time? Because wide receivers love to run these mad

bohemian routes with like 17 cuts. The dude would have been sacked six times over. It would have been delayed game because the offense was in the huddle. You're still on your fifth cut trying to run a dig route. Hurry it up. Okay, good point, good point point they need a timer in practice so the quarterback just can't sit there for four and a half seconds it's really true we got dave

well speaking of lineage let's talk about brendan rice who who isn't a perfect prospect but i thought two of the three days of practice down in Mobile, he looked great. A lot of quality route running traits of other senior bowl receivers. I like his big body. He's a bigger type of wide receiver, really long arms. He extends those arms to bring in passes that are thrown off target. I thought he had a surprising explosiveness and quickness for a larger wide receiver, not necessarily saying that he was the most explosive or the fastest wide receiver that was there. Just for his size,

I think that he could move a little bit better than your typical wide receiver. He went to the same school as Michael Pittman, went to the same school as Drake London. I think he's in between those guys in terms of explosiveness. I don't think he's as fast or as explosive as Drake London. He might be a little bit better, a little bit better than Michael Pittman in that regard. And so it's that speed that holds him back. He doesn't have big speed, did have an occasional drop in practices, but on top of being a big physical type of wide receiver that can move, he's also the son of Jerry Rice. And that's obviously something that tells me that he can he's got that lineage he knows what he's doing out there he'll be a pro from day one in the

National Football League I will say this to back up Dave's point you know he's not the fastest he's not the most explosive so and I remember it's true that one of the hardest receivers to cover is a slower wide receiver because he has great body control on how to get in and out of his cuts. We saw him use his big body to shield guys off to keep that little bit of separation that he was able to get. So you're right. He has a lot of nuance that could yield itself to him playing a very long time. I can't do a senior bowl show without asking about Bo Nix. Did we talk about him at all? I feel like we did not. We did not.

This is Oregon's quarterback. He played three seasons with Auburn and then two with Oregon. The numbers. I mean, this is where you wonder, is it just a system thing? I don't know. But completely different results with Oregon than with Auburn. What's going on there? And how do you feel about Bo Nix, quarterback?

Could be a first-round pick. We'll see. What do you think, Emery? I think he's best served being a QB, too. I think he is someone that he's a gamer, but we saw out there, you know, Dave brought up Michael Penix and how he looked during the week. And he, you know, again, same time office, essentially Bo Nix. But he had guys, he was hitting guys astride on the first day,

and it seemed like he was playing with these guys for a full season. Bo Nix never really found that continuity or consistency with the placement or the accuracy. And then when you look at his athleticism and, you know, project that to the NFL where everyone is an elite athlete, it kind of puts him in that Sam Howell bowl. So I kind of feel like Bo Nix, I don't know where the first round talk was coming from, but I feel like he is a solid QB too. Another older prospect. It doesn't really matter with quarterbacks, but he didn't have the best of weeks, so he's really going to have to wow people in these interviews and hopefully can raise his stock when no football is being played because on the football side of things,

he's probably a day-two pick. I agree 100%. I will say I thought his best day of practice was the last day of practice, and he was pretty sloppy the first two days, but it took him a little while to get there. He's a little undersized. I don't know how good he is as a downfield thrower, and that just makes me nervous. I feel the same way that Emery does.

Okay. And since we're talking about lineage, no relation to Hakeem Nix, from what I understand. Or the New York Nix. Or Stevie. Or Wendy Nix. All the Nixes out there. Right, yeah. Nix Sir, you know, all the Nixes out there. Right, yeah.

Nix, Sirianni, not related. So have you just not made your Super Bowl pick, Emory, or are you just keeping us in suspense? A little bit of both. Because, again, I'll tell you, this is what I will tell you. Everything that I said for Baltimore beating Kansas City applies to the San Francisco 49ers. Kyle Shanahan is just not dumb enough to abandon what could potentially work

against Kansas City. We'll see who gets the lemon booty in the playoffs, in the Super Bowl, in the big game, and tighten up when they shouldn't. So that's why I'm still kind of staying mum, because I thought Baltimore had everything that they should have done to win the game except Kyle Monk decided, you know what? We are not the number one rushing team in football. We are the 31st rushing team in football.

We're going to run the ball six times and see how it goes. Yeah. Again, it's just going to be turnovers for me, and the Chiefs just don't do it. But all right, looking forward to hearing everyone's Super Bowl pick later. And then finally, Emory, you said you started watching football in 86. The first game I remember watching was the Giants winning the Super Bowl in January of 1991. So I'm wondering, the first game you remember watching, the Giants winning the Super Bowl in 87? Or do you remember anything before that?

No, actually, the first game I remember watching was the first game I went to. My mom had Saints season tickets. So I remember going to the Superdome that year, Saints versus the Los Angeles Rams. Jim Everett in the Superdome, Henry Ellard. The Dome Patrol was there. I remember just being so loud there. I really couldn't understand why it was just so loud. I couldn't hear myself think.

And then I was hooked. So that was the first game I attended and watched as a kid. Oh, that is awesome. How about you, Dave? I remember going to a Super Bowl party for Super Bowl XIX, and my dad convincing me to bet a dollar with him on the Super Bowl. I had no idea what I was doing, and I bet the Dolphins, and they lost. And I remember being upset about that. But I grew up in chicago and the year after that was super bowl 20

and then the bears were just iconic that point in time and so everybody fell in love with the chicago bears then uh and and i remember going to maybe like just two bears games with my dad because like five years later there was a guy named Michael Jordan who was really becoming a big thing in Chicago. And he kind of took over where the Bears left off. And I became a big basketball fan when I was a kid. But yeah, the Bears in the mid 80s, that's when I really in earnest started loving football.

Awesome. All right. Well, I love this show. This was great information. Thank you both very much. We will talk to Emery many times throughout the pre-draft process. And Dave, yeah, I think Dave will be back. I hope so.

Big week coming up. Mock Draft with listeners. Mailbag. Beyond the Box score. And we'll talk to you on Tuesday on Fantasy Football Today.