Fantasy Football Today - NFL Free Agency Reaction! Signings, Trades & Other Impacts (Fantasy Football Today DFS podcast)

Episode Date: March 22, 2023

Download and follow Fantasy Football Today DFS! You can find FFT DFS on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else podcasts are found. Sia Nejad talks 2023 Free Agency, looks ahead to the NFL Draft, and gets you caught up on everything you may have missed! (12:40) - Free Agency Winners and Losers: QBs (19:20) - Free Agency Winners and Losers: RBs (33:40) - Free Agency Winners and Losers: WRs 'Fantasy Football Today DFS' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow our FFT DFS team on Twitter: @FFToday, @Mike5754 @SiaNejad Watch FFT DFS on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday 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 DFS 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

What does possible sound like for your business? It's having the spend to power your scale with no preset spending limit. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. Well, welcome, everybody. This is Fantasy Football Today, DFS. My name is Sian Ajad. I'm alongside our special guest, Andrew Erickson from Fantasy Pros. And I got to tell you, before I introduce Andrew, I miss you all.

I see there's already people in the chat, and we haven't been on really since the Super Bowl. So I appreciate you being in the chat. I appreciate you hitting the like button and doing all those fun things. But honestly, I appreciate the most just kind of being back, being back. We're going to be doing our offseason series just like we did last year. And if you recall, Andrew Erickson was one of our guests, not just once, but multiple times on that show. We have some really, really cool guests lined up, but we're going to be talking so many things. Strategy, of course, DFS strategy, regular fantasy strategy, best ball strategy. But we're also going to be talking about free agency, NFL draft, you name it.

OTAs, like we're just going to be talking about all of that stuff, but particularly with a twist, right? With a DFS twist, a DFS impact twist. Without further ado, this is one of my favorite guests, if not my favorite guests that I've had onto this show. He really is so incredibly bright. He is somebody that if you're trying to get into this industry, I highly suggest you follow him and you pick his brain because he's very much accessible because he is already a superstar in my eyes. And he's got so many years to continue on an amazing upward trajectory. And I know it sounds like I'm just blowing smoke for my guests, but I absolutely believe it. Andrew Erickson, how are you? Thank you for coming on to the show. Thank you for that amazing introduction.

That's getting me hyped up even more to go over the show. We already have breaking news to talk about. So I'm really excited to be here. And thank you enough for giving me this opportunity to talk fantasy football, DFS, everything that you would want in the middle of March. You know, there is a big basketball tournament going on, but you know, whatever, we're gonna talk about fantasy football. Well, so that's the cool thing is because there's also like, I do, you might know this, Andrew, I do a ton of golf content and we have WGC match play going on right now, which it's funny you brought up the NCAA tournament because match play kind of lends itself to a bracket.

Like people are filling out a bracket for like, there's only one time per year where that happens in golf and it happens to be this week. So there is other stuff going on. And we know the NBA, of course, the NHL, if you're into that and so many other things, but I think we can all agree there's always an appetite for football. And there's always that podcast that pops up. And maybe it's this one for everybody where it's like, hey, let me catch up a little bit. Let me catch up on all the moves. And what's really cool, and you mentioned it, is we have breaking news with respect to free agency. Like, you know, we've had it for a week now, but just in the last hour. So let's talk about it real quick, Andrew.

A couple of names, but only one that I think is certainly big and significant when it comes to fantasy or daily fantasy. And that's Elijah Moore. Tell us about what happened. Yeah. So the Jets finally traded away Elijah Moore after it seemed like they were going to trade him last year. They didn't trade him. They said they weren't going to trade him. Clearly, he was on the trade block the entire time.

It was all, uh, it was all fake. So he's been traded to the Cleveland Browns. The Browns sent the jets, a second round pick the jet sent Elijah Moore and a third round pick. So look, I think it's great for Elijah Morris fantasy value.

You know, he's getting an upgraded quarterback regardless of, you know, whether it was going to be Rogers or Deshaun Watson, like they're both better than Zach Wilson. So he's getting the upgraded quarterback. More importantly, he's going somewhere for a team that wants to use him. Like that's obviously a plus when your offensive coordinator is actually designed plays for you to actually get the football. And I would argue that, I mean, look, he was never going to unseat Garrett Wilson

as the number one guy. Like Garrett Wilson is in the Justin Jefferson, Jamar chase. Like that's where he's headed. So Elijah Moore was never going to get there, but in Cleveland, okay. Amari Cooper has been very good. He's been consistent, but like, he's never really been like, Oh my God, this guy cannot, this guy can't be unseated as the number one receiver on his offense. Like even in Dallas, like we saw CD lamb really like start to like eat into him. Not to say that Cooper became totally irrelevant, but you know, he's not this alpha presence where no other receiver can dominate. I mean, even last year, you know, to start the year, him and Donovan people's Jones,

like they were putting up, they were like mirroring their production. So I think it's a great spot for Elijah Moore. I think that at worst, he's going to slide in as the number two pass catcher on the Cleveland Browns offense. You could see him operate out of the slot in a full-time capacity. We've obviously seen Deshaun Watson work with these explosive slot receivers like a Will Fuller in the past before. And Deshaun Watson really hasn't had a lot of time with a lot of these receivers. So to go into the year and think,

Oh, well, you know, Cooper is his guy. It's like, well, is he his guy? Because when Watson came back to play,

they were all horrible up and down the board. They were all pretty bad as receivers catching the ball from Deshaun Watson. So I think it's a, it's a great move for Elijah Moore. Um, I think maybe the market has soured on him enough where he'll still kind of be an BA value because of how bad he was last year. But I can't forget the last six games of his rookie year where he was the wide receiver to overall as a rookie. Yeah. Like I don't forget that. And he's still a young player, you know,

decorated college profile coming out. It was just a bad situation all around last year. Now he's gone. The situation is different now. So I'm definitely going to be aggressive drafting Elijah more. Cause I think that he could really definitely, he can be one of those players that really beats his ADP, which is kind of what I'm always looking for with some of these later round wide receivers where,

yeah, maybe he's not as safe as like an Adam Thielen, where, oh, he's going to be the leader in targets, like he'll be fine. But is Adam Thielen ever going to crack the top 15? Like probably not. But there's a scenario where Elijah Moore could make that massive leap because you've already seen him before do it. And it's a new situation with a better quarterback.

So definitely on board the Moore train. Yeah, I like the Elijah Moore play just all around. And for the record, the Jets also picked up, and this was earlier today, McCole Hardman. So that's interesting. I will say this, but from a DFS standpoint, I understand how ridiculous it is to talk in March about DFS of all things. But this Elijah Moore situation, whether it's you're talking about ADP, we can talk about best ball all we want. But from a DFS standpoint, you know, this Elijah Moore situation, you know, whether it's, you know, you're talking about ADP, we can talk about best ball all we want.

But from a DFS standpoint, I imagine, you know, I don't know what their first few weeks are going to look like, but that his price is going to be depressed. And we know what Elijah Moore can do with the football in his hands, especially if we can get him in space. And, you know, Deshaun Watson, we might see kind of the old Deshaun Watson now that he's had some games under his belt and a full offseason. So I think from a DFS standpoint, Elijah Moore could be one of those sneaky guys that really kind of gets you above the pay line, if you will, early in the season. I'll note that Austin Hooper also went to the Raiders. Can I just ask you what you think about the Raiders moves in general? We're going to talk, by the way, for those of you that don't know, we are going to talk about the free agency moves at quarterback, running back, wide receiver, and some of the moves that weren't necessarily free agents, but moves that affected existing players, whether that's positively or negatively.

And we're just going to go down the line real quick. This is going to be super freewheeling. So if you're in the chat, which some of you are, definitely ask any questions you have. But the Raiders moves have been kind of mysterious to me. I'm not really a Jimmy G guy. I understand you want to stabilize the quarterback position. I kind of get it. Correct me if I'm wrong. They picked up Jacoby Myers. They paid him. I don't really have a problem with how much they paid him. Now they're getting Austin Hooper. I'm just not sure the Raiders are doing the things that would inspire confidence in a Raiders fan. What say you? I think that the Raiders are doing what's less likely to get Josh McDaniels fired. Like that's kind of what they're not going. They're not shooting for the moon, which would have been going up to trade for the number one

overall pick to get the rookie quarterback. Instead, taking the hey jimmy garoppolo will get us to the playoffs maybe and make this not a dumpster fire and that way i'll keep my job like that's kind of the way i view it with josh mcdaniels in that pairing there he obviously knows the system but like you said like if jimmy garoppolo couldn't get it done the 49ers i know he was close a couple times but it's not going to be better here and what i'm really interested in something i actually have to look up, is how often has Jimmy Garoppolo actually played from behind in games? Because it seems like whenever he was in the 49ers, it was always like in cruise control.

Like, you know, Kyle Shanahan's got him in cruise control. He's good to go. And then whenever Jimmy was like, okay, we need you to make plays, that's when bad things would start to happen. So playing on the Raidersiders who have a horrible defense, like how many opportunities for cruise control are there going to be? So that's something I need to go back and look at some of the numbers about when Jimmy Garoppolo and how often that's even happened.

Like how often have we actually seen Jimmy Garoppolo down 10? We're like, right, we got to throw the ball. Like what's going to happen? So that's something I need to go back and dive into. But I can't imagine that it's good. Just kind of off of a hunch and basically what my eyes would tell me. The first thing that comes to mind, Andrew, is the Super Bowl against the Chiefs when we know the Niners had a big lead.

But then there came a point in the last couple minutes where Jimmy needed to do something. And he misses Kittle, who appears to be kind of wide open on like a seven-yard out that would have gotten them a first down. I think that was right before Kansas City took the lead, but then I believe after Kansas City took the lead, he had a deep shot to I can't remember the receiver that was downfield. It was one of those older veteran receivers. I think it might have been the former Bronco or Steeler.

I can't remember his name right now, but the point is he missed them by like five or six yards. So those pressure moments, there haven't been many of them to your point with the Niners, but yeah, he hasn't exactly shined. So exactly. Interesting though, because I did say this was going to be a little freewheeling. We do have a question in the chat, which I think is interesting because there's some news related to it. Gregory Johnson asks, Chubb stocked down. And I assume he's asking because, well, maybe the receiver core is built up. I assume that's where that question is stemming from.

I certainly don't think so. And I'll note that Dearness Johnson is no longer there. He signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars, I believe, earlier today. And Kareem Hunt is still a free agent, which actually is kind of a surprise to me. But I think Chubb's stock is very much up in this moment. Is it not?

I think so. I think that his offense is going to be better overall, which means you're going to see more touchdown opportunities for Nick Chubb. And there's an untapped potential with his receiving. We haven't really seen him have a decent receiving role because of Kareem Hunt. And yes, they have Jerome Ford there, who they drafted in the fifth round last year. He's kind of penciled in as like their number two rushing running back. But just look at the last game that show played last year.

He had a career high and like all his receiving metrics. And it was a game that we could like potentially project life after cream hunt. So I think Chubb, I think he's a top five running back. Like Chubb comes with this super high floor that's unmatched by honestly any other running back in football,

like five yards per carry every single year. Yeah. Ten touchdowns. And the one thing that's kind of been, oh, well, he's not going to catch any passes. Like, okay, that means he can't be like a top three guy. Like, okay, fair.

But yeah, I can guarantee you that you're not going to draft Nick Chubb in fantasy and be like, well, that was really dumb. Like looking back, like, oh, that's a totally destroyed by season. There are plenty of running backs like that, but Nick Chubb will not be one of those running backs. So I have no problem taking him in the first, like wherever he ends up being like, it's going to be a good pick. No matter what, it will be the best pick necessarily. Maybe not, but Nick Chubb is never going to be the wrong option for you to. Will it be the best pick necessarily? Maybe not, but Nick Chubb is never going to be the wrong option for you to choose.

And I think when you add guys like Elijah Moore, and I think they still have Donovan Peoples-Jones, you got Amari Cooper, you have to respect him. And Joku is still there as far as I know. You're going to have to respect this passing game, this receiving attack even more, especially if Deshaun Watson makes a leap that I think most of us expect him to make relative to last year. If you have to respect that passing game, this receiving attack even more, especially if Deshaun Watson makes a leap that I think most of us expect him to make relative to last year. If you have to respect

that passing game and you can't even come close to stacking the box, listen, Nick Chubb, he had so many house calls last year. I mean, if you recall, his over-unders from a total yardage standpoint, especially mid to late season, I mean, we were talking like it would be like 89 yards, 93 yards, 97 yards. It was, it was crazy. It was in that like upper 80, low 90 range a lot. And that is a huge amount week to week for any running back. Let's go to quarterbacks real quick. And we'll touch on running backs in a second, but there were two, I really wanted to talk about with you because things happened for these quarterbacks. And I think we'll be able to talk about some

receivers in this conversation, but Justin Fields in particular with DJ Moore being added to the roster. How do you see this playing out for Justin Fields? I mean, you know, first of all, are you a fan of Justin Fields going into next season? I mean, it's hard not to be, but does the DJ Moore addition really make Justin Fields like, Hey, this is, this is a pretty, this is a pretty prime pick. I think so. Look, I mean, this is a pretty prime pick? I think so. Look, I mean, he was a top five fantasy quarterback last year and he had no one to throw the ball to.

And now he does. I really don't think it needs to be more complicated than that. And the fact that he has question marks about, well, how is he as a passer? How good is he actually? And I mean, at Ohio State, he had no problem throwing the football so i i don't really understand if anything i just like the hesitance from from

drafters and from the market because it gives you an opportunity to buy because next time this year when we're talking about justin fields he's probably going to be talked about right next to alan right next to jaylen hurts right next to Mahomes but now he's not because of the oh well he hasn't done it yet well part of our job here is to project and exactly if you're projecting how he's going to do it a full season with an actual wide receiver not named Byron Pringle I think it's going to be pretty good yeah and do you expect some like because I would imagine DJ Moore will be a focal point but at the time, we can't just automatically assume the bears are going to be this ferocious passing attack, obviously from a passing attempt standpoint that they weren't that team in any way, shape or form. But I would imagine we'd see some increase

here and we'd see a lot of that allocation go to DJ Moore. Is he somebody you have your eye on, or are you kind of afraid because you don't think the volume is going to be there for him? I think that I could kind of go either way with DJ Moore. I don't think that he's going to be someone that, Oh, gun ho I'm, I'm, you know, signing up for DJ Moore. I'm going to be aggressively drafting. I think that he's a player that look, he's finished as a wide receiver to basically every single season of his career. Like that's what he is. He's a wide receiver too. And if he starts the season out bad, he's probably going to finish as a wide receiver too. He starts season out good. He's probably gonna finish the season as wide receiver too.

So it doesn't really move the needle for me and the way I kind of view it. And this is something that I've kind of used a lot in my drafting strategy is how do you get exposure to DJ more without actually drafting DJ more? And that's called just draft Justin Fields. Yeah. Like that's the way you do it. So you are still benefiting benefiting but not necessarily investing in dj more specifically his profile and his cost you're just drafting the quarterback that's

attached to him it's very similar to yes with last year aj brown was really expensive and it ended up working out for him but you didn't necessarily need to draft aj brown in round two you could have just drafted jalen hurts around six and so you were still able to benefit from aj brown being a monster after the catch because you had Jalen Hurts as your quarterback. Yeah. And that's, that's a classic thing in fantasy football and in DFS best ball too, where some teams have two or three great receivers and you're like, Oh, which one of these who's, who's really the guy and who's kind of the one B well take the quarterback and let it, let it figure itself out

there. So, um, something to be considered there. Speaking of quarterbacks, let's talk about one more before we get to running backs, Daniel Jones. I think he's super interesting. Uh, as far as, you know, you can comment if you want on his, his contract. I don't think it's a big deal. I think he got probably paid commensurate with what they think he can do or what I think he can do. I think his touchdown production last year is a little misleading in the sense that he really had no receivers whatsoever. But he does get Sterling Shepard back. Let's hope he's healthy. He does get Darren Waller. He gets Paris Campbell.

Isaiah Hodgins is going to be back. Darius Slayton. What do you think of Daniel Jones? I mean, obviously, he has the rushing equity. But do you think we're going to see a more prolific passer, more prolific touchdown potential with Daniel Jones? Because to me, he is like the ultimate DFS darling in the first few weeks. Of course, it's all matchup dependent, but this guy can run and he has some fun new weapons. Yeah. I like Daniel Jones a lot. He's a top 12 quarterback for me heading into 2023. And I relate a lot back to,

this isn't the first time we've seen him be good in fantasy. Like he was good in fantasy as a rookie. Like it's, it's when we start to look back at their entire career and it's like, yeah, he's had a lot of ups and downs, but the fact of the matter is he's had ups. Like he has had peak performances before.

And you know what happened in a lot of those games? He has weapons on the field. Like there are actual playmakers around him in the games where he's been good. And then when the offensive line has been horrible, when the receivers have been horrible, he has not been good. So yes, is he, he's not at the level of a job, Patrick, my homes, those types of quarterbacks where he's going to elevate those around him. But when you're putting around at least like an average, cause that's what he's been having most of his career is like below average, below average around him when it's just average, which is now what we're starting to see from this giants offense. You're starting to see him be an above average fantasy producer. So I think it's still going to continue. I think

that he's a great player, obviously in DFS because of the spike week potential because of the rushing. And I don't think they're going to stop getting weapons here. Like look a lot of mock drafts. They got a first round pick. A lot of them first round wide receivers are going to the giants. So it's not stopping at Darren Waller and shepherd and Slayton and Campbell, you know, they're adding more guys to this pass catching core. And that's going to be great for Daniel Jones. And I didn't even mention Saquon Barkley, who was certainly a pass catcher as well. And again, let me, cause I see comments about, about Danny dimes and swaggy piece as Danny pennies is not him. You know, it's here's the thing. Like I get it. If that's your opinion,

and I'm not going to say it's valid or it's invalid, but what I will say is to swaggy P and all the sort of the, the Danny dimes haters is what's, what's the alternative because I can tell you as a Washington commanders fan, when you don't have your quarterback, then what you do is you go through a carousel of quarterbacks for approximately 30 years plus. And you're just trying to, you know, figure out if Taylor Heineke is the guy or if Sam Howell is the guy. And I have a laundry list of names I could offer you here. None of them are good. So I think Daniel Jones is at least fits

the mold of a quarterback that if things are built around him, that can get you there. And if you don't have that guy that you might have the bottom of the barrel, and that's not where you want to be. I'll tell you what, we're going to talk about running backs next. But before we do that, we're going to hear a message from our partners did you know that across ontario utility damage happens 19 times a day that's over 4222 incidents a year don't let your next dig be one that causes costly delays or safety risks before you break ground make it a point to request a locate it's not just the law it's a step to keep your team and community safe visit ont OntarioOneCall.ca and avoid unnecessary damages to get the job done right.

Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report. We are back. I'm with Andrew Erickson from Fantasy Pros. We talked about a couple quarterbacks. Let's talk about some running backs because, Andrew, there's been some big shifts here. Some names that, honestly, I think some teams got some bargains. Rashad Penny is one of them. I, you know, listen,

I understand Rashad Penny has the injury history, but Miles Sanders no longer with the Eagles. Now Rashad Penny is there. How do you feel like he fits in here? Because we know Miles Sanders, when he was there, we weren't really sure, you know, if, and when he was going to get sort of the lion's share of the carries, but he had a nice season. I would imagine a healthy Rashad Penny is something that we can all look forward to. I think so. I think that you want to start playing week one because we don't know how many weeks you're

going to get of Rashad Penny. So I would rather be bullish on him to start the year, and then when things start to fizzle out, then obviously you get off the Rashad Penny bandwagon, especially when they play the giants. Cause when they play the giants, it's the Boston Scott show, which I thought was interesting. Just looking at the contracts, Boston, Scott got more money than we're shot pending it. Like that's amazing. Not a lot of people talk about, I mean, it's not by a lot. And I mean, they both didn't get a lot of money in totality because how he Roseman doesn't pay running backs, just to say like they could still draft running back and like the sixth round if he just is better then that could be a guy that also has

a big role so i i think that yeah these eagles running backs if they're cheap that you definitely want to play them because it's a great offensive line and there's a lot of upside and especially in the daily format where if rishad penny healthy that week, oh boy, like wheels up. Whereas in season long, it's definitely a little bit more concerning pushing the draft button on him because you don't know how long it's going to last. Yeah, and it's the plight. And this is my soapbox. For anybody that's listening, you know I talk about this maybe a little bit too much,

but I feel so bad for the plight of the NFL running back because it's one of those positions where it's just so undervalued when these guys are in the draft. And then it's so undervalued really at any time in their career. And it's the one position where you can suffer an injury and you're never heard from again. I mean, truly, like we kind of forget or we don't really remember the guys who got injured and just kind of floated away. But listen, that can happen at any position, but it happens at running back a lot. And especially when they don't get paid on the front end and they don't necessarily get that second contract because of the nature of the position.

Boy, is it an unfair. And listen, I hope Javante Williams ends up being healthy. He tore multiple ligaments. We're going to talk about guys like Samadji Piran in a second, but he's one of those guys that could float away. And then we'll be reminded of a Javante Williams 10 years from now. We'll be like, oh yeah, what happened to him? Listen, I don't think that's going to happen with him, but it happens with running backs

all the time. Let's talk about Miles Sanders real quick with the Panthers. I'm not exactly sure what the Panthers plan is at the receiver position. I don't know how much room Miles Sanders is going to have to run necessarily this upcoming season. I don't know what the Panthers are doing at quarterback. Is he on your radar at all? Yes.

I like Miles Sanders a lot. I think the Carolina Panthers offensive doing at quarterback. Is he on your radar at all? Yes. I like Miles Sanders a lot. I think the Carolina Panthers offensive line is underrated. You know, we saw them have basically no quarterbacks last year, and that didn't stop Deontay Foreman from basically being a top five running back in rushing production over the last second half of the season after the team trade away McCaffrey. So I think Miles Sanders at worst is going to get that type of workload

as the number one running back on early downs, put up RB to production with that alone. And then you could factor in, okay, well, what if he does catch more passes? Like it's one thing to look at. I mean, so much of running backs in the passing game is really not about ability. And it's about, okay, what's the offense? Who's the quarterback. What are other options to throw the ball to?

Like that has like, why would I, if I have a quarterback, why would I throw it to my own set? Miles Sanders, where I can throw it to AJ Brown, Devante Smith, Dallas Goddard.

So it's like, it's like, you're no one's surprise, but when you're, you know, the Patriots or the chargers. Yeah. Well, all my receivers are hurt.

All my receivers suck. Yeah. I'm going to throw it to Ramondre Stevens and Austin Eckler a hundred times. So, so much of it. And so the fact that it's, he's has this, like the scarlet letter on him that,

and don't get me wrong. He hasn't helped by like dropping the ball a ton and not necessarily being efficient with his receiving opportunities, but it's a small sample size. A lot of it's noisy because you just go back to his rookie year. He got 50 passes as a rookie. So clearly he can do it. So I think Miles Sanders has that early down production locked in.

And then any other receiving production he gets, especially with a team that could be playing a negative game script, again, talking about game flow, especially from a DFS perspective, the Eagles were never trailing last year. So why would they ever need to throw the ball to the running back, which is usually when you see a lot of running backs get targets.

So that's why, again, he didn't get a lot of involvement. So I think it's a great for him. It's great for him. Even if you're looking at the office situation, maybe not as good, he's going to get more volume in my opinion,

and especially get more of that receiving volume. Cause I don't think that Chuba Hubbard or some of these other guys on the team have shown, Oh yeah, no, we have to give them touches. It's like, well, do you? I don't necessarily believe that. Yeah. And we saw what the, the, the backup, the, the Christian McCaffrey backup running backs ended up doing just splitting time. There were really three, it was, it was a three headed monster ultimately. Cause Black

shoe got in there a little bit too. And those guys, you're right about the offensive line. I'll change my tune on that. I mean, those guys ate up yards. And so if Miles Sanders is getting even more than 50% of the carries, which is modest, yeah, you're right. He could absolutely do some damage. Let's talk about a few more running backs. I'm just going to bring up Samadji Piran because he's on the Broncos, and I did mention Javante Williams' injury. I don't expect Javante Williams to be ready for week one,

but we're many months out from that. Do you think Samadji Pirine has some value? I'm just not sure about this Broncos offense, but it does seem like the new regime is trying to, you know, they got McGlinchey, they're trying to run the ball a little bit. So if it's the Samadji Pirine show, I would imagine he'd have some early value, but it's Samadji Pirine at the same time. How do we feel about that? Well, I mean, Samaj P Ryan was good enough to carve out a role last year with the Bengals. And I mean, when Mixon was out last year, the dude smashed, like he had three games where he was hitting him over 20 fantasy points per game. So come week one, we're not surprised. You know,

Samaj P Ryan comes in. Oh, what do you know? Our 35% own running back, the mega chalk, whoever they're playing, because Jamond Williams is not not ready for week one and he's mispriced because the prices come out in like july or whatever so that's how i kind of envision p right i think that he's going to be someone that you want to have in early drafts because he's shown that he got a decent contract too like i was surprised that he got a deal from a different team i thought he was just going to resign with the bengals on like a cheap deal but bengals couldn't keep him and he's obviously interested in getting signed by denver they look like they want to run the football i mean teams don't talk about like oh we want to trade off our wide receivers because we want to throw the ball

a ton i mean like you said the ad mclinchy a tackle known for more run blocking than pass blocking so yeah it seems like to me like they want to run the football and Samajip Hiran looks slated up to be their starting running back if Jermont is not ready. By the way, you're just reminding me because I read up on McClinchy and their run blocking tight end that they received, but I read that on your article. So let's talk about it real quick. They can find an article on all of these free agents and all these acquisitions and the implications of them on Fantasy Pros, correct? Yes, all over on Fantasy Pros. And I know there's paywall stuff there, but this article, is it free?

I believe so, yeah. There's only a couple things that are premium, but most of the off-season content is not behind a paywall. So yeah, make sure you go check it out. Definitely go check it out, because honestly, this is a super thorough article and, uh, I think everybody will, will be fully caught up, uh, once they read it. And of course you can follow Andrew, Andrew Erickson at, and correct me if I'm wrong, Andrew, but it's Andrew. It's at Andrew Erickson underscore. Correct. Correct.

Love that. Okay. Few more running backs. I want to talk about really interesting situations, uh, in this next one, actually the next two, I think the David Montgomery signing with the Lions is super interesting. It was unexpected for me. I will say, I think the Lions are doing a good job filling out their defense. I think they're going to be formidable in the NFC. And I think the NFC is wide open once you get past the first two teams. So we'll do a different episode where

we're talking about futures and division winners. The Lions will firmly be on my radar. But what do you think about David Montgomery and the implications of that with DeAndre Swift? Is this a situation to largely avoid or are you liking this? Well, I mean, it's an offense you definitely want parts of. So that's why I'm not, I don't know, look at and be like, oh, I don't want any parts of this. It's like you want parts of this Lions offense, especially because looking at the way that things have kind of shaken out here, they didn't, they haven't really replaced DJ chart. I mean, it's really been, okay, James Williams is going to take a step forward. He's going to be the number two, they didn't they haven't really replaced dj char i mean it's really been okay james williams is going to take a step forward he's going to be the number two st brown's gonna be the number one

and then where else like who else is eating up production here it's the running backs because they don't have hawkins anymore they don't have another tight end really of consequence they don't have a lot of receivers of consequence so when you get these really concentrated offenses between a couple different players that's really kind of the fantasy gold mine. And the line showed us last year, they're a fun team. You know, as their defense starts to figure things out,

they play in a lot of shootouts, they play in a dome and Jared Goff is good enough behind a good offensive line to distribute the ball to his playmakers. So I don't envision David Montgomery scoring. He's made touchdowns. Jamal Williams did because God, every time we turn on red zone, I'm on our same Brown down at the one yard line.

Like the receivers just falling down at the one every single time. So Montgomery is not going to have as many touchdowns, but will they get double digit touchdowns? Like I think that's firmly in his range of outcomes. That's for Swift. I, it's really hard to envision like what his role is going to be. It is really tough as a fantasy analyst and just as a drafter to be like,

look at Swift and be like, oh, I feel good about this, but it's buying the talent because we know that he's a very talented player, but we also know that he gets banged up when he touches the ball too many times. So they're going to probably try to monitor his touches as they always do. And but at this time, he's not going to cost as

much like he's going to be cheaper. And he's one of these guys where in particular game flows, if the lines are trailing in a shootout, like he's going to benefit in those games. Whereas when the lines are blowing out a team, it's going to be the Dave Montgomery show. Yeah. Yeah. I, yeah, that's super interesting. What's more interesting to me is Damien Harris going to the bills and what were the implications of that for Romandre Stevenson real quick, your thoughts on Damien Harris with the bills. I mean, this is one of those situations where it's really tough, in my opinion, because obviously you got James Cook there. But obviously, at the same time, I think Damian Harris is going to be the number one where James Cook is going to be the compliment. At least that's how I see it. But then when you're looking at it from a DFS or a fantasy standpoint, you also know that Josh Allen steals a lot of that touchdown equity. So I just wonder if like, initially I was like, oh man, I really liked

this for Damian Harris. And then I kind of pulled back a little bit. How do you feel about Damian Harris? I guess for me, it's asking the question of is Josh out, was Josh on the goal line back because he was the best option or is because they want him to be the option. Because when you look at some of those other running backs that they've had, mean zach moss devin singletary like were these really good goal line backs like david harris is better than both those guys so for them to invest in harris this could be an indication that hey we're sick of running our franchise quarterback into a wall at the goal line we're going to get a guy who has double digit touchdowns on his resume and that we've seen literally destroy our defense on multiple occasions. It's always fun. Whenever teams sign players that destroy them every single time they

play them. I always think that's really funny. And that's the exact story with Damien Harris. He's had monster games against the Buffalo bills. So they know what he can do. And the guy has a nose for the end zone. So I think he's going to have a big roles receiver. Probably not. But Damien Harris, he's got double digit touchdown upside. And that's just when those guys fall in drafts, I just want to scoop them up because when the bills are blowing out teams, like he's going to be the guy getting a lot of, we're not surprised me at all. Like we're not going to see Josh Allen run more at the goal line as he gets older.

That doesn't make any sense. And traditionally it was even like going back to a guy like Cam Newton, who's kind of really the only comp you can really use to try to project Josh Allen. He runs less at the goal line. Now, is it going to totally evaporate? Not necessarily,

but it's going to mean Damien Harris is that goal line back and on a high powered offense. I don't think you need to overthink it. I think Damien Harris is the perfect DFS play because what happens is Damian Harris is like 6,300 and let's say James Cook is like 5,200 and people just generally are like, I kind of want to avoid this situation because Damian Harris doesn't catch enough passes or something to that effect. And there's a lot of guys in that same range that do catch a lot of passes.

And then you see Damian Harris go off for three touchdowns because of the bills just absolutely put the smack down on a team. And you know that they've got it inside the five on multiple occasions or even outside. Cause we know Damian Harris can get to the end zone either way. Funny. You brought up a monster or Ross St. Brown getting tackled near the goal line.

He had to have been last year, the receiver tackled inside the two more than any like that. That is an actual fact without me even looking at it. I know that is an actual, it was either him or Deontay Johnson. Cause we know Deontay never found the end zone. Yeah, well, that's true. But I just feel like Amon Ross St. Brown got so many more chances in that lines offense. It was absolutely crazy. Of course he cashed in a decent amount of times too too. But one more running back to talk about Romandre. It seems like he is like the guy. I know the Patriots signed James Robinson, but I mean, not much competition for Romandre,

right? Yeah, I don't think there's a lot. I mean, James Robinson kind of acts as a, you know, what we call it on the Twitter sphere is a meat shield, basically. So it's kind of preventing the Patriots from investing in any other type of running backs, even though I know some mock drafts have them drafting Bijan Robinson. Obviously that happens. It's, you know, a big shakeup, but Ramond has been proven and he showed that he could follow the three down workload. He's a pass catcher. He's big. He's got the size. So yeah, I mean, as a Patriots fan, like I love Ramond Ray. I think that he's,

I think he's the best player on offense. So why would they not want to feature him? I don't know. I think James Robinson, you could even tell by the deal they gave him very incentive based that he's got to still beat out the guys they drafted last year, Pierre Strong, Kevin Harris, before he even has a legitimate role as the backup. Absolutely. All right. We're going to talk about before we get out of here, Andrew, we're going to talk about

some, you mentioned the word, the term pass catchers. That's exactly where we're going. So professional transition from you and from know, their stock has increased as a result of, you know, other stuff that's gone on around them. But I do want to bring something up because it was really confusing to me at first. We know Deontay Harris from the New Orleans Saints. We've watched him. He was, you know, he was out a little bit last year. But for those of you that know that the bill signed Deontay Harris, well, it's not Deontay Harris anymore. It's Deontay Hardy because he officially changed his name in 2021 to actually honor his stepfather. So he changed it from Deontay Harris to Deontay Hardy. I just think there's going to be so many thousands of people that are confused by that when they want to go back and look up like Deontay Harris

stats and things of that nature. And then you're going to see Deontay Hardy pop up. So I'm just kind of putting that PSA out there. I don't think he's like the biggest guy to talk about from a pass catching standpoint, but I know people are going to be confused. I want to throw that out there. Do you think Deontay Hardy going to the bills is big impact? I mean, there's a lot of other targets there. I think it is honestly. I think that he, the fact that they signed him to more money than they gave Isaiah McKenzie last year and then proceeded to cut isaiah mckenzie i think that they like what they saw from him in 2021 you know with some of these receivers that come from these small schools and shout out to uh deontay hardy who is from assumption college right near where my hometown is in worcester, Massachusetts. So that's why I know much about him.

I had never heard of that college until I heard about Deontay Harris, Deontay Hardy. Yeah, so he is an elite. I mean, he's a pro bowler from a kick return standpoint, punt returner. So that's how you get noticed by NFL teams is when, okay, you're not the receiver on our offense, but every time we get you the ball on special teams, you make plays. And he's right now, he's the second highest paid receiver on the bills. Like he's making more money than Gabe Davis.

Obviously he was on a rookie deal, but there are opportunities in his offense. Like Gabe Davis disappointed last year versus expectation. They're like, who's going to give us juice on offense and just turn on some deontay hardy tape from 2021 your your your computer your phone's gonna be wet because of all the juice like the guy can bring it and i i know i tweeted out some stats from him you know he's elite against getting open yards per route run is top notch so yeah i mean i've been kind

of a truther for deontay har i was sued disappointed when he got hurt last year. He's like, Oh man, like all those best ball drafts of Deontay Hart are just going to waste, but I'm right back in for it. And especially with these on the bills, explosive upside, I think it was a really under the radar move. And I think that you're right. I think people would be like, who is this guy? Like, I don't remember ever hearing anything about him. It's like, Oh, he did change his name. So I think that was a really good point to bring that up. I think he's another guy that could really make your DFS lineups, a guy that could get loose almost like I don't think John Brown is still on the roster. If he is, I don't expect him to be super long.

I think he sort of takes that role away from John Brown as maybe they'll use him in the short area, too, of course, because he's so shifty. But I think he is a guy that can I saw him with the Saints highlights. I mean, he's a guy that could just get himself wide open down the field. And that's the type of guy you want to look at who's by the way, going to be like 3,500 or something in draft Kings pricing. And you get them on the cheap and he gets two touchdowns on basically three targets and has, you know, 80 yards on it. So definitely somebody to think about, let's talk about Alan Lazard real quick. Obviously Elijah Moore is no longer on the jets, but we have

Alan Lazard. We have Garrett Wilson, Braxton Berrios, no longer there. Corey Davis. We'll see if he gets cut, um, so that the jets can save a little bit of money there, but is it, how are you feeling about Alan Lazard? He was never a receiver that I had fully bought into. Um, but obviously if Aaron Rogers is there and because Elijah Moore is gone, I think Lazard is interesting as kind of a guy being in the shadow slightly of Garrett Wilson, but how are you feeling about Alan Lazard? Yeah, I think that he's going to be someone that you're probably going to try to have to figure out in DFS when the matchups call for him. Like that's kind of the play with him. I think he's going to be up and down inconsistent,

but you can't ignore the facts that Rodgers is on our center. Rodgers knows Alan Lazard. He doesn't know Garrett Wilson yet. He still has to learn Garrett Wilson's tendencies, and obviously I think Garrett Wilson can be a top five receiver with Aaron Rodgers, but Lazard is his trusted guy. So especially to start the year, without surprising at all, Lazard is really heavily involved, catching a bunch of touchdowns,

because that's his role. And Nathaniel Hackett, as the Jets' office coordinator nathaniel hackett was with was with alan lazard when he was undrafted to free agent from the jaguars and then to the packers so lazard is in a really good spot i think to start the season off strong or garrett wilson gets kind of acclimated and i think people may be hesitant to buy into those guys lazard he's like he's fine but it's like yeah well he's fine to like catch multiple touchdowns and and be rogers go-to player as he starts to develop a little more chemistry with those other guys it reminds me when i bring up alan lazard of jordan love so i'm going to ask you a kind of a yes or no type question and it's a very unfair question in or out on jordan love i'm in interesting I'm I'm sticking with out I was out the moment

they drafted him because I didn't even like him at Utah State I mean his last year I thought he looked like a shell of himself relative to the the year prior but um I'm gonna be out I'm just curious the implications of Christian Watson you know I mean I mean not not the Jordan Love implications but he's clearly I guess to me going to be the alpha there I mean, not the Jordan Love implications, but he's clearly, I guess to me, going to be the alpha there. I mean, I guess you could make that argument that he was last year too. But, you know, without Alan Lazard, they don't have a lot of targets there, right? No, they don't have a lot of really anything there. I think that they're mostly going to add a pass catcher in some capacity.

It'd be really funny if they drafted a receiver in the first round now that Rodgers is gone. I'm like, all right, now we'll get you weapons. And if not, they'll probably draft the pass catching tight end because they don't really they have jizoa deguara on the team who's like more like a tight end fullback but they didn't resign tanyan and mercedes lewis is just going to go wherever aaron rogers goes so um they need a pass catching tight end but yeah i mean christian watson was super efficient last year, despite Aaron Rodgers kind of not, kind of up and down play overall. So, I mean, I think Watson,

I want to buy the dip on him, the hesitance, you know, with Jordan Love, because look, it's one thing to say that, you know, Jordan Love has been bad versus he just hasn't had a chance to play. Like, I think there's a difference in that. And you can say you're in or out on Jordan Love, but it's based on his tape from three years ago.

Yeah, that's true. And when we saw him, at least last year, against the Eagles, I was like, wow, they look pretty good. And obviously that's a very small sample size, but I think the fact of the matter that should be not overlooked is, look, it took Aaron Rodgers winning MVP back-to-back years to keep Jordan Love on the bench. And then once Rodgers didn't win MVP,

the team is ready to go to Jordan Love. I'm just saying that matters. Yeah, that's fair. One other receiver that was subject to free agent recently is Brandon Cooks. I don't think we need to talk about him too much. He's on the Cowboys now. We know who the Cowboys have at the receiver position. Dalton Schultz is gone, by the way. He's on the Texans now, but they've got CeeDee Lamb, obviously. They still have Michael Gallup, who's another year removed from his injury. So I think there's something to be said for that. Are you expecting, let's put it this way, are you expecting similar production from Cooks like we've seen the last six or seven years,

which is a pretty good 1,000-yard receiver? Or do you think there's spike potential here? I think there's spike potential with Cooks. I mean, I think that a lot of these receivers kind of ending up a new teams. They're not moving the needle for me a lot. It's like if cooks is, you know, going in the 10th round,

like sure. And if he's value, I'll take them. But it's like, I don't need to go out of my way to get Brandon cooks because my concern isn't even about him necessarily. It's about Mike McCarthy and this offense being like, Hey,

we've been so pass heavy over the last couple of years. Like let's just run the ball all the time. So that's my concern where again, it's going back to, and this is just kind of an overarching DFS thought with a lot of these ancillary receivers. Like if you're not like one of these alpha guys that produce basically every single week that are priced, you know, above $9,000 every single week, your game flow dependent, like unless your team is, has to be pushed to throw the ball more than the receivers that are the betas on their offenses are just not going to do anything. They're not going to produce.

So when Dallas has to go up tempo and they're playing a tough opponent. Yeah. I love Brandon cooks at home in the dome against the Texans and a revenge game. I mean, half of his game is going to be revenge games. Cause he's been on like every single team. It seems like so far in his career, he actually tied the record for most being traded the most times, which is just a, I don't know how I feel about that type of accolade if I was Brandon Cooks, but I mean, at least he's squeezing out value wherever he goes,

but that's kind of my view on Cooks and a lot of these receivers. So, okay. And I'm glad you put it that way because there are a lot of receivers that didn't necessarily get traded or weren't the subject of free agency but you know they're younger guys with another year under their belt and so instead of giving analysis on each of these players i'm going to have you say wheels up or wheels down and i'm just going to give you a list of players here cadarious tony wheels down Darius Tony. Wheels down. Sky Moore. Wheels up. Jamison Williams. Wheels up.

Traylon Burks. Wheels up. And Nico Collins. We're going to say wheels down. Yeah, you know what? I'm so glad you said that because I don't think Nico is a number one receiver. I think Houston's probably drafting a receiver. But I agree with, just so everybody knows, I agree with all of the wheels up, wheels downs

that Andrew Erickson just gave. And I'll give you one more question before we get out of here. There's still some running back free agents out there that I think are interesting because they're big names. Ezekiel Elliott, Leonard Fournette, Kareem Hunt, McKinnon, Odell Beckham, he's a receiver, but I'm not really concerned about him.

Of those running backs, I'm just curious, in your opinion, Zeke, Lenny, Kareem Hunt, McKinnon, who do Beckham, he's a receiver, but I'm not really concerned about him. Of those running backs, I'm just curious, in your opinion, Zeke, Lenny, Kareem Hunt, McKinnon, who do you think offers the most value? I understand it's system dependent, but who do you think offers the most value? I think Kareem Hunt's probably the best out of the, like, I think he has the most juice left. I think he's probably the best running back of the group. It just, I'm, I, the way that he's been a free agent and the way that he was talked

about in trades last year. I don't know how much of this stems from his talent versus his off the field issues. I know that's happened a while ago, but like that stuff doesn't leave you, you know, it really does it. And he's a running back. So it's kind of like a,

a bad mix. So I really wonder like that's influencing his market because I think that if he had a starting role, he would blow out all these other guys. Like, I don't think it would have been close. I think four net and Zeke have shown us that they don't have a lot of juice left in the tank for now,

at least offers a three down skillset. So I could see him being kind of like a grinder back on a team that could give him a bunch of volume. And then with Zeke, like I'm absolutely terrified that Zeke goes to the chargers. It reunites with Kellen Moore and just runs the ball into the end zone 15 times. That's all he does.

So that's kind of my synopsis of those three types of running backs, but I think hunt, if he had landed somewhere, I think he'd be the one I would be most excited for. And with Zeke Elliott, I mean, if he goes somewhere with a goal line role and people don't want to draft him because he's dust,

I'm like, Hey, dust can make it one yard. That's all we need. That's right. No, I agree with all of that analysis. And I agree with that. Kareem hunt is certainly the most talented, has the most juice left in some of that previous stuff is probably haunting him a bit in terms of getting resigned to a new team. Andrew, everybody can find you at Aaron, Andrew Erickson underscore. They can find you at fantasy pros, of course, anything you're working on now, or you're working on in the coming weeks or months that people should be dialed into.

Yeah. So I'm just kind of going through the draft process now, releasing mock drafts, NFL big boards, rookie rankings, rookie dynasty ranking. So really kind of as the draft kind of gets closer and closer, that's kind of what my main focus is, but also looking into the betting markets as well. So again, NFL futures, seeing how things have changed. Now that free agency is done. And I do a big team needs piece that I've just updated and released on the site. Basically go through every single roster, looking at all the transactions they've made, updating what they're going to do in the draft, because that also helps when it comes to draft

props, which for the first time I'll be able to participate in because Massachusetts finally, finally legalized sports mobile betting. So I've been having a blast NHL March madness. It's been a great time for me these last couple of days. So enjoying it. I'm looking forward to the draft. This is a, this has been a big Massachusetts podcast.

We got Andrew Erickson here. We got legalized gambling here. We got assumption. Is it college or assumption university? Maybe? Maybe it's a university now. It was a college when I was like in the area. So I'm going to assume it's Assumption University at this point. We'll go and look that up. And by the way, we'll probably have Andrew Erickson back after the draft. For the record, the draft is April 27th to 29th and the NFL schedule likely comes out on my birthday. Thank you, Roger Goodell. That was really nice of you. My birthday is May 27th to 29th. And the NFL schedule likely comes out on my birthday. Thank you, Roger Goodell.

That was really nice of you. My birthday is May 11th. So everybody keep that in mind because I think that's a really big day. We could probably dial into DFS even more. But for now, my name is Sian Ajad. That's Andrew Erickson. This is Fantasy Football Today DFS. We will be continuing our offseason series.

We've got an awesome guest lined up in just a couple of weeks. So definitely stay tuned for that. And then we're going to be increasing that offseason series and having maybe a couple of shows at least, if not three or four, throughout each month as we lead up to June and July. And, of course, in August, we'll be going back to weekly shows twice a week. This is Fantasy Football Today DFS, and we will see you next time. Fantasy Football Today DFS