Fantasy Football Today - Owners Meetings Takeaways! Pitts, Pierce, Purdy and More (03/29 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

VOTE FOR US HERE (Fantasy Sports & Betting Category): https://www.sportspodcastgroup.com/sports_category/fantasy-and-sports-betting/ Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Jamey is back from the Owners Meetings with great notes and quotes from the head coaches. First, he tells us what it was like to be there when Lamar Jackson made his trade request public (2:00)! Then we get into what Arthur Smith said about Kyle Pitts (6:55) and what Matt LaFleur said about Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs (13:10) ... We've got a caption contest on a very funny photo of Jamey and Doug Pederson (19:40), and more Owners Meetings notes on the backfields for the Texans (24:00), Bills (28:15) and Seahawks (35:00). Find out why we're a little more excited about Damien Harris now and if Ken Walker's role in the passing game will increase ... Finishing up with some notes on the Broncos and Cowboys backfields (44:40), Brock Purdy and more random items from the Owners Meetings (50:45). We talk about which teams might draft Bijan Robinson! ... Email us at [e-mail] 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. A lot of Jamie today. A lot of Jamie Eisenberg today. He was at the owner's meetings in Phoenix, and he's got a lot to talk about. We have a lot to ask him about. Dave is here as well, and I am Adam. We welcome you to the Wednesday edition of Fantasy Football Today. Special week here.

We got a bonus podcast tonight with Samantha Praviti. We'll publish that on Thursday. We've got a mailbag that we're recording on Thursday. We'll publish that on Friday. So a busy week for us here on FFT. Jamie took center stage right next to Doug Peterson. I hope you've seen the picture. If you haven't, we will show you.

Oh, here it is. It's amazing. Okay. So if you can't see, I look like I'm a PR guy. YouTube.com slash You look like his son. Yeah, you do.

Well, I probably would take that at this point. I mean, we're probably closer in age than we are to being father and son. Anyway, yeah, you look so young. But we'll talk about that a little bit later. But if you can't see it, you can see it on Jamie's Twitter account at Jamie Eisenberg, J-A-M-E-Y.

And always make sure you watch our show. How did they not crop me out of that picture? I don't understand it. Here's Doug Pearson and some schmuck sitting next to him. So, Jamie, I asked Jamie for some of the big topics, the big takeaways from the questions he was able to ask the head coaches at the owner's meeting. And we're going to talk about Kyle Pitts.

We're going to talk about the Packers wide receivers, the run games for the Texans, for the Cowboys, for the Broncos, and a lot more. But you were. But yeah, but the Texans too, right? Yeah, both. Yeah, yeah. I said a lot more. I mean, anyway, you were there when Lamar Jackson tweeted his trade request. What happened in those in that ballroom or wherever you were? So I typically and Dave's been to a bunch of these and the way that it works is last year was the first time that they went to like a podium format.

They got away from that this year. They went back to what the traditional format was, and they split it into AFC and NFC. So you've probably seen some pictures circulating, obviously the one of me sitting next to Doug Peterson. So you kind of get to a place like this. And for me, I try to be respectful, especially being a former beat guy, be respectful of the beat writers, the guys that cover the team. So I kind of just float around and go to different tables, different coaches, and, you know, I'll wait until there's a pause. I'll ask a question, then I'll move away.

I tend to stay away from the big scrums, especially the teams that have a lot of media coverage for a couple reasons. One, because I'm typically going to get the things I need asked in some way, shape, or form by one of those guys. So I'll just take what the coach says from a transcript or some social media post. There was a huge contingent before this happened already set up around John Harbaugh because of the Lamar Jackson situation. So he was going to get asked a lot by the national guys, by the local guys. And I believe it was, if I saw the timing right three minutes into his sit down with

the media lamar jackson posted a tweet so there was clearly some someone told him what was happening and he decided to do this from a timing standpoint and it was like all hell broke loose like you just see people going from one table to john harbaugh's area i don't know why because you weren't getting close to him and so it was it was just kind of funny. And somebody pointed this out. The Super Bowl champion coach typically gets mobbed because there's a lot of hype, a lot of attention, and how they're going to follow up there. Andy Reid, I didn't even see Andy Reid. That's how much it was of where I was going and all this happened. And apparently he had one of the smallest amount of people that maybe

he's ever had. Now, granted there's not a huge contingent of media that covers the chiefs by comparison to like a New York team. And, and Baltimore obviously sent a lot of people there. So it was, it was definitely interesting in the buzz and it carried over,

you know, for, for two days, every coach that does not have a quarter, every coach that does not have a quarter, every team that does not have a quarterback, their coach was asked about it. So Arthur Smith, Frank Reich, Shane Steichen, you know, you name it, you know, it was a lot of, Hey, you know, Ron Rivera, are you interested in Lamar Jackson? You're interested in Lamar Jackson.

What would it take to get Lamar Jackson? Were you talking to Lamar? You know, it was just a lot of that. And it was, the three big stories were Lamar Jackson? Were you talking to Lamar? You know, it was just a lot of that. The three big stories were Lamar Jackson, Aaron Rodgers, and then by the end, Odell Beckham, just because he showed up in Arizona because he trains there. He showed up at the meetings. Well, Andy Reid, by the way, had the funniest moment that I saw. It was very funny.

He was asked about Jordan Love, and he had no idea who Jordan Love was. Jordan Love started against the Chiefs two seasons ago, the one game that Aaron Rodgers missed that year. Just to give some people some insight about NFL people, and I heard a very – Dave actually just asked any stories I can't tell off there. I'll tell this one on there. About how little most NFL personnel – it's changed a little bit with social media,

how little they know about the league. So a coach, for the most part, is so ingrained in his own team and personnel. They know big stories. Obviously, you're not going to get away from Mar Jackson. Andy Reid, I legitimately think he was being honest. He probably knows that he's the quarterback of the Packers, but probably could not tell you 10 players on the Packers aside from the big name.

Like that's how much it is. So a guy who I know I won't say his name, but said that he used to cover used to cover the Colts. And this was pre social media said that Peyton Manning called him in the offseason and said, hey, would you mind if I check in with you from time to time to find out what's going on around the league? Yeah. Like this, these are the type of things, you know, now he was, he's on, he's on a different level, but like we, we, we spend time with NFL people in, in our, in our building. And when you talk to them, you find out just really how little they know about, about the league. They know draft picks coming in.

I'm talking to general managers, coaches. They don't really spend a lot of time focusing on other things. You probably can take an NFL coach, an old school NFL coach, and somebody watching our show right now, and they probably know more offensive players around the league than the NFL coach. And that's not a lie. Interesting. All right, well, let's talk a little fantasy football here. Let's get into the big topics that Jamie wanted to discuss from his time at the owners' meetings

and the questions that he was able to ask some of these coaches that you may not see in other places. So you talked to Arthur Smith, the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. What did he tell you about Kyle Pitts and the offense? And they are basically just naming Desmond Ritter the starting quarterback right now. They seem high on him, at least publicly. They brought in Taylor Heineke as a backup. But we want to know about Kyle Pitts and I guess Drake London. So what do you got for us there?

Did not hear anything about Drake London. This was one of those. I sat through a lot of questions for Arthur Smith. And then when I got my Kyle Pitts question, then the next question was about Lamar Jackson. And I just had enough. So I left. So I did hear some good things though, from some Atlanta people about how high they are in Tyler Algier, just to not, nothing directly from Arthur Smith. But so I asked him about Kyle Pitts, you know, just what his thoughts were. And I'll see if, I already told you this Adam, but I'll read you the quote and I'll see if Dave has the same

takeaway that I did. So here's Arthur Smith. Kyle came into this league with an enormous amount of hype. Kyle had a very productive rookie year. We were playing with Matt, Matt Ryan, and threw the ball, give or take, almost 200 times more. That's not Kyle's fault, meaning the next year. It's just kind of the way it was. We missed some opportunities with him this year.

He played a little banged up and didn't finish the year. I thought he improved as an overall player. I know a lot of people because of the way the league is covered with fantasy football and stats, stats, stats, and his impact and wanting his involvement to improve. We'll continue to enhance that. The thing that gives you a lot of encouragement is that he's actually done it. He's not selling you some hypotheticals in two years of trying to blow smoke. We're expecting the next step for him and we couldn't be more excited about Kyle in his future. I don't know.ave what do you think you like that quote i don't know i don't love it you know i would like it better if they did more quarterback than just say all right desmond ritter's our guy for for 2023 if they had made a much bigger

um commitment to another quarterback i'd like it better but he's right like the one thing that I've learned about Arthur Smith and you guys will remember once upon a time, I feel bad for seeing this, but I poo pooed him pretty badly on the pod and man, I I've eaten my humble pie on that. I've learned my lesson. He's a creative guy, but most importantly, he's one of those play callers that will absolutely adhere to the strengths of his team. He's not going to fit a square peg in a round hole. And so when he sees that he's got Marcus Mariota as his quarterback, and he's, he's got some decent guys that can run, he's going to run the football as best as he can. And I don't think that that's

necessarily a tendency of what he loves to do, even though it's what he did a lot in Tennessee. If he's got a quarterback that he's got supreme confidence in, I'm certain he would throw the ball 30 plus times a game. No problem. So that so that that was that was the biggest thing for me was that you know we we talk a lot about oh here's what they should do or here's the what one one year to the next or how we study things and the fact that he put words to it uh that they threw the ball 200 more times and then as you said dave you know you know leaning toward what his personnel was um he's very high on, on Desmond Ritter. I was listening to his interview that he did with the NFL network also, which, uh, they,

they sat down together the day before. And he had, he said in that interview that they felt confident enough that if Desmond Ritter was ready, he would have been the starter from week one. So they're, they're sold on him. Uh, and so, you know, I think sometimes, and I agree with you, you know, clearly there, there was, there was, they are a team that should probably be in the Lamar Jackson mix just based on what their roster is. I think they're building a nice team and that would, you know, put them in a situation to maybe get to be a playoff contender. But they're confident in Desmond Ritter. And so, you know, it could be a situation like, you know, we, it's probably not a fair comparison, but like how we – oh, it's Jared Goff. The Lions aren't going to be very good.

Jared Goff was washed up at this point. And then Jared Goff got into a comfort zone and started to look really good at the end of the first year there, and then that carried over to next year. So maybe Desmond Ritter is going to show us some things, not necessarily from a win-loss standpoint, even an individual standpoint, but maybe enough that they do throw the ball maybe 25 times, maybe 28 times. How about 28.8 times, Jamie? That's what it was last year?

Is that what they did last year? That's what he did in his four starts last year. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. More than Justin Fields last year. We start to see a little bit more confidence, and that transcends to what Kyle Pitts can do and what Drake London can do. Because that's clearly what I think, at least for now, that's what matters most to us.

Okay. And you expect Drake London to go ahead of Kyle Pitts in drafts, right? I expect... I would say yes, unless we get some more hype on Kyle Pitts. Because typically we could see a situation where he could get into... I mean, we're talking about Drake London's probably going to be around four pick. I wouldn't be surprised if Kyle Pitts gets that one. They actually both went in round five

last week in the draft that we did. Who went first? London went to Jamie, and then five picks later, Kyle Pitts went to Jacob. So, I wonder, I don't think that's going to be a cinch in every draft. I bet you'll see Pitts go ahead of one. I actually have them back to back in mind with pits ahead of London.

All right. Well, that is our first news item. I am going to read a promo now, and I am a little bit too excited to read this promo. Dave, would you like to give me some March Madness music? Not that. Not that one. Not the fight song, no. All right. The CBS fight song. Saturday on CBS, the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship road to the Final Four reaches its final destination in Houston. Coverage of the semifinal games begins at 3 Eastern with At the Final Four and the Final Four Show, all leading up to tip-off at 6.

When Florida Atlantic faces San Diego State, followed by Miami clashing with UConn. The NCAA men's Final Four National Semifinals, Saturday on CBS. Never thought I'd be reading that sentence or that promo with Miami in there. All right, let's talk about the Packers' wide receivers. Jamie, you got a chance to ask head coach Matt LaFleur

what he thinks about his young duo of Christian Watson and Romeo Dobbs. Watson in his last eight games was the number, on a per-game basis, number five wide receiver in half PPR, number nine in full PPR. Christian Watson only played, sorry, Romeo Dobbs only played in four of those games and didn't really play a full snap share in any of them. So what did he say about Dobbs and Watson? Yeah, I actually did not ask this question, but I was standing there when he was asked this question. So he said it was definitely experience and there were some highs and lows with both of those guys throughout the course of the season.

Once we hit that Dallas game after those two drops, Christian really took off and it was awesome to see. Obviously, you can see the explosive playmaker that he is and what he's capable of doing. I'm just excited. I'm just excited to watch him grow and just his understanding of the offense. He is a guy that can handle a lot. I haven't been around too many rookies where you can move their position

in game. And he didn't even flinch. He's an except he is exceptionally intelligent, bright and knows the plan inside and out. But I think there's a level of detail that will get better with him. We're going to ask him to run more routes than he did a year ago. I thought Rome started off great and then he got injured. I don't know if he ever quite got back to what we had seen early in the year. I expect to see that when he comes back. He's got a unique skill set. I want to temper this

comparison here, but he has some Devante Adams type movement skills. He has to learn when to use it and how to harness that, but he has that Twitch that you're looking for. I don't think there's a route that he won't be able to run. We're just going to give him enough. We're just going to have to give him enough reps where he can continue his progression. I'm excited about both those guys as a one, two combo.

Dave, are you excited about, you know, I talk so much about Watson cause I think there's so much to get excited about, but Romeo Dobbs, we don't talk enough about, and he did some nice things as well.

Keep him really, when you look at his stats, you look at the last four games, he was coming back from injury and he just didn't play that much. You got to kind of look at the games before that. But what do you think about the Dobbs Watson duo? I think Watson's got crazy upside. Think of the touchdown that he had with Jordan love last year.

It was in garbage time and it was just a short throw from Love to Watson, and Watson took it to the house. He's one of those rare wide receivers that's got length to him, and he's got unbelievable speed. If he's going to get better and run more routes and adjusting in-game to playing somewhere else, if that's true, what Matt LaFleur said, I love that stuff. We knew that Christian Watson was, was like a raw talent, but a hella good athlete. And now if he's going to be able to take that next step, he could evolve into a must-start fantasy wide receiver.

Even with Jordan love, love's got potential to be pretty good. So I I'm excited about Christian Watson. I think I'm going to end up taking him ahead of, of those Falcons guys that we talked about. It's going to be really close between them, but I could see myself taking Watson out of them. I do have him right out of them. Dobbs I'm most excited about because I think his chances of being like the

runaway number two target getter in green Bay. I think it's, it's, it's a fair chance, not necessarily a great chance. I'd be looking at him closer to the double digit rounds. Yeah. Christian Watson went in round four to Dan Schneier. So the wide receivers in round four last week were really interesting. Calvin Ridley, Christian Watson, and Schneier really likes Watson. He was probably not going to get him with his next pick late in round five. So he took him there, but he took him ahead of Amari Cooper, Keenan Allen,

Jerry, Judy, and Debo Samuel. So that, I mean, I like Watson a lot, but guys, what do you think about him going ahead of some more established players like

Cooper, Keenan Allen, and Debo Samuel, and also Jerry, Judy, who went in that round? I like him better than Judy. And I like him better than,

uh, Debo, but I like the other two guys better. The two veterans better. I just think that you're going to see, to me, Cooper's going to have a big season with Sean Watson and how this offense,

I think is going to shape up. And then I think for Keenan Allen, you know, he's going to be one of those guys like, do I really want to draft Keenan Allen? And then you're going to look at another hundred catch season and say, why didn't I draft Keenan Allen? So PPR versus non PPR.

I think there's a, there's a big split there, but, um, I think that those two guys are in a better spot than Judy and Samuel personally. I think they're all better than Watson, to be honest with you. I feel better about all those guys, including Keenan Allen. Allen I'm worried about just because he's older, but I get where you're coming from because he does have 100 catch,

1,200 yards, seven touchdown potential. And I think Watson can beat like his ceiling is higher than that. There's no question, but his floor is lower than that. And so you kind of have to weigh those two factors. Wouldn't surprise me if by the time we got to August, the hype is out of control on Christian Watson and he ends up going in late round three.

I think the hype on Christian Watson will be very much tied to how people are feeling about Jordan Love, which we, you know, he's a guy who might actually play a lot in the preseason. We might be able to get some thought on that, but who do you think throws more in 2023, the Falcons or the Packers?

Packers. Agreed. All right. We're going to take a break. Before we take a break, Schaefer, should we do the caption contest here? See what some of the best captions were for Jamie's photo bomb on Tug Peterson? Or we could do it after the break. Take a second. And, you know, these breaks last so long on our side. Take a second and see what you got.

And we'll be right back with a little bit of fun on Twitter. And then what new Houston head coach D'Amico Ryan said about the backfield after signing Devin Singletary, plus what the Bills' backfield might look like. And Ken Walker, will he have an expanded role in the passing game? We'll be right back on Fantasy Football today. Did you know that across Ontario, utility damage happens 19 times a day? That's over 4,222 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 OntarioOneCall.ca and avoid unnecessary damages to get the job done right. Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report. All right, Jamie sits next to Doug Peterson and he gets famous and he looks very jet lagged. So you look miserable in this picture here. We'll do our best to set everything up for those of you just on audio, not watching on video, let's throw that picture up there, Schaefer. Why do you look so bored? It is so funny.

Why do you look like that? I was definitely jet lagged. It was a rough trip getting out to Phoenix. There was a lot of delays, so I didn't arrive until, I didn't get to my hotel until 4 AM Eastern. Uh, so it was, it was a long day of traveling and then you're up early the next day for the, uh, they call it the coach's breakfast, but, um, it's just really, it's a, it's a seven 45 start, uh, Phoenix time. So I was definitely tired and this was toward the end of the session.

Um, he was asked if I'm not mistaken, uh, just in the direction that he was looking, he was asked, which I thought it was a, you know, I, I like when, when teams get it and when coaches are honest and Doug Peterson has come across to me more, more times than not as being honest. So he was asked about, you know, their window because Trevor Lawrence still has rookie deal. And I think this was the question that he was asking. He was answering about just how their roster construction is right now. And they, they feel like they're in a good spot to be a contender, certainly to be the best team in the division. And a side note, if you look at their schedule, it's one of the more favorable schedules that any team will have because they get their division, which is going to be

pretty crappy and they get the NFC South. So not a bad idea to invest in the Jaguars. Um, in any event, he was talking about that. And so I was listening to his answer. Um, and, and I think at this point I was probably, you know, looking at the guy who asked the question, um, as well, but, uh, yeah, just poor timing. And again, if you just cut the picture off at the microphone, there's Doug Peterson. So this's Doug Peterson. So this was one of the Jags beat writers who tweeted it. I don't understand. Just crop me out. Like, it doesn't make any sense. I love the way you're taking it.

Like, you tweeted it. I would have been so, I don't know, not embarrassed, but I don't know, a little sheepish about it. It's definitely not a flattering picture of me, but, you know, it's funny. The better thing to do is just to, you know, you know, like have fun with it. So good job, Dave, what would your caption be for this? I don't, I need some more time to think about a really good caption. Uh, I'm just impressed that Doug Peterson has the self-confidence to wear old style granny connect at the nose glasses around. Yeah.

I mean, that's like old school, but not the cool kind of old school. That's he's got like this weird gold watch. I don't know if that's like blingy or not. He looks good. He looks humongous. He makes Jamie look like. Yeah. And Jamie's not like a teeny person.

Adam is a teeny person. Jamie's face. Shaver, we need to take that face and put that on the YouTube thumbnails. Like when we're talking about busts or something like that. God. Or like when you make a goofy comment or something.

Oh, man. By the way... You can just drop that Jamie head. Whenever I hear something like a coach's breakfast or some type of breakfast, I just want a Danish so bad. They did have. I didn't have any, but they look good. This is the important stuff. Let's get to it.

The food spread was good. I'm always a big fan of the oatmeal, the steel oatmeal, steel cut oatmeal. Really? Interesting. Oatmeal guy. Yeah, the steel oatmeal, still cut. Oh, really? Um, interesting oatmeal guy. Uh, yeah, I had oatmeal both days.

Uh, what else they have? Uh, they had, um, chocolate, banana, French toast,

Nutella, Nutella, banana, French toast. Here's a, we got a caption. JB listening to Heath hype up DJ more for the fourth season in a row. Nutella, Nutellaella French toast sounds ridiculous.

That sounds outstanding. Yeah, now I wish I was there. Yeah, now I don't need my Danish anymore. All right, let's go on. Talk more about... So these backfields, I don't know if you want to combine them or not, but no, let's not do that. So Houston head coach D'Amico

Ryans talked about what the backfield might look like after they've signed Devin Singletary, and he was pretty excited about Damian Pierce. Yeah, so I'll give you the first question I asked him was just what his thoughts are on adding Devin Singletary to the mix and what are the expectations. So his first answer was we're excited to have both of those guys. Damian has shown a lot from his rookie season. adding Devin Singletary to the mix and what are the expectations? So, uh, first answer was, we're excited to have both of those guys. Damien has shown a lot from his rookie season. He's shown that he's a really good player to be able to add Devin there

with him, to have that one, two punch, to balance each other out. I think it will be a great addition for us. I'm excited for what Devin can bring. He's hungry to show that he can do more. I'm excited to add him to Houston.

Then I asked him just about, you know, did he add Devin Singletary to take some work off of Damian Pierce? Or is he still envisioning Pierce as the workhorse? And he said, this is about Damian Pierce. He did what he had to do last year. He showed some toughness. He showed some competitive fight in him.

I love the way that he runs. Love his style. It's a style that I really want to continue to feed him. That style of running excites the entire team. He runs with an attitude that I really like. I want to continue to see him build his game off of that. I'm excited to see his growth from year one to year him. That style of running excites the entire team. He runs with an attitude that I really like. I want to continue to see him build his game off of that. I'm excited to see his growth from year one to year two. I think it will be really good. So I got the impression, you know, again, you know, you take these things with a grain of salt just from what the coaches say,

because coach speak is coach speak. He's still going to be the one A and I don't think we've, you know, steered anybody away from that. It's just a matter of how much work will they give Devin Singletary because they didn't have a player like devon singletary last season so um the 49ers offense carries over they'll use multiple backs so it's just a matter of a will the volume be there for pierce to the fact that to the level that it was last year and can he take advantage of and stay healthy and then b how much will singletary work in so i think at least you know i'll just give you my take, is that Pierce is still somebody that you look at, I would say round four is where I'd be comfortable with him.

Singletary somewhere closer to, you know, round eight at the earliest. But I do think that we're going to see both these guys get not significant work. I still think it's probably a 70-30 split, 60-40 at best for Singletary. Pierce still being the lead guy, it doesn't matter, again, if the volume's there. And a lot's going to depend on who the quarterback is. Clearly, they're going to wait to see what Carolina does and then probably take one of Stroud or Bryce Young. I don't think we get a surprise and they take Richardson or Levis. And so if that quarterback comes in and makes some plays right away, this could be

a pretty productive offense. I think you got a little bit of a buzz from Houston, buzz from the meetings that Houston's going to be the second best team in that division if the quarterback comes in and plays well right away. Better than Tennessee, potentially. Dave, what's your take on this? You know, one thing we don't talk about with this, or haven't talked about, we haven't talked about it much,

who, if any, of these running backs catches passes, because Damian Pierce was not terrible. He was, you know, if you remove week one, when he split with Singletary, he was on pace for 41 catches, which is.

Sorry. Yeah. Burkhead. If you remove that week one, he was on pace for 41 catches, which is not terrible, but what do you feel? You know,

Singletary kind of always flopped in that role in Buffalo. Is there another guy that factors in there? what do you feel? You know, Singletary kind of always flopped in that role in Buffalo. Is there another guy that factors in there? What do you think? I'd be surprised if Mike Boone ends up playing in that kind of role. We've seen him play that role before, but I don't know if that's what they're going to do. I was when Jamie was talking about what D'Amico Ryan said about Damian Pierce, I was waiting for the butt. Like, but we like Devin Singletary just as much. And there wasn't a but. There was no but.

And so I'm kind of encouraged by what he said. Pierce can catch the football. Pierce can do everything. He just didn't do a great job at all those things as a rookie. And that's normal. It's tough to pass protect when you're a rookie running back in the NFL. He did a great job of it in college.

He did a great job of it at the senior bowl. I would expect him to get better at that. And that would put them on the field and more third down situations. I also think he can catch the ball out of the backfield. I think he can get to 40 receptions if he stays healthy all season long. It's just a matter of, does his quarterback look for him? If it's, if it's going to be the West coast style that Kyle Shanahan runs, I don't know how many receptions are going to be the West coast style that Kyle Shanahan runs, I don't know how many receptions are going to be there.

So does he have 40 catch potential over the course of 17 games? I would say yes. 50 to 60 catches. I would say no. I landed on Pierce's an early fourth round pick. Singletary to me is around nine type of guy. You took Pierce with the first pick of round five. You had back-to-back picks.

I was so thrilled. I was so excited. I round five. You had back-to-back picks. I was so thrilled. I was so excited. I remember that. You had 48 and 49. You took David Montgomery and Damian Pierce. Jamie, talking about the Bills, talking to Sean McDermott, did you come away from that discussion

feeling any differently about Damian Harris and or James Cook? I did, but this is one I don't want to fall for feeling any differently about Damian Harris and or James Cook? I did, but this is one I don't want to fall for because Damian Harris has had a hard time staying healthy and Sean McDermott sort of addressed that, which I'll, when you hear the quote. But it just kind of felt like this was the guy that they, this was the type of guy that they were targeting.

And it feels as if he's going to get the Devin Singletary touches as opposed to maybe necessarily James Cook getting those touches if he can stay healthy. So here's what he said. It's a two-part answer. So this is Sean McDermott. First and foremost, I really enjoyed our time when he met with Damian Harris. I never met Damian. For years, watched him on the field. I just loved the combination of size, some power, and speed.

Now, listen, he's got to stay healthy because it's great to have all of that. But if you're not healthy, you're not helping us. So we're going to have to do our part to help him with that and help manage those areas. And he's going to have to do his part in that as well. But I think that was a good pickup for us. Obviously, sad to see Devin move on and what a great young man he is. Super happy for his family. We'll see how it goes. I feel good about Naheem and James as well. Then he was asked if, if Harris was, uh, the type of guy that he targeted said the biggest thing is the speed element. We felt like we needed a slightly bigger back, but not a 250 pound cloud of dust type of guy. So to find a player with some size, with some power, but also has the speed element to go along with it. I think that's hard to defend. Not only can you run inside, but you can get to the edge from time to time.

An eight yard run can go to 18 or 80. that element is dangerous and put a little bit of fear into defensive coordinators so uh i i think the takeaway for me was they really like damien harris um and and i i told you this adam and dave i don't know how much you paid attention to anything mcdermott said but um there was a big conversation and it kind of was you know along with along with the theme of the meetings with Lamar Jackson, why maybe some teams are afraid of him. McDermott is a little concerned about Josh Allen and his long-term health. You know, they want to make sure this is a 20-year guy as opposed to, you know, a 10-year guy.

And he said, he's like, we can just put these questions on a loop about Josh Allen running less because he would like him to run less. And he sort of, you know, I'll, I'll give you his, his, the short version of it. In this league,

it is very hard to stay healthy unless you play a certain way. We're going to continue to work on that mobile quarterbacks that I've been around. That's an ongoing conversation for their entire career. So I think, you know, big picture. We may see Josh Allen run less.

We may see Damian Harris run more. As part of that, though, part of the answer that McDermott said, he's like, we can't take away who Josh Allen is. So he's going to run. Some of the people that cover the league and cover the Bills would like to see the design runs maybe disappear a little bit and let it just happen naturally, which I think is what you see with some of these running quarterbacks. So it wouldn't be surprised

if they put a little bit more emphasis on the run. I know we said this probably the last couple of years, like, oh yeah, Buffalo's going to try and run more, run the ball more. And we probably said it at the end of last or going into last year after Devin Singletary finished the way that he did. But it sounds like they found a type of player that they like in Damian Harris. If he can stay healthy, we may see a little bit more emphasis on the run game and we may see him be better than James Cook. I'm not going to rank him ahead of James Cook yet, but I'm going to definitely move Damian Harris up a couple of spots in my rankings is based on what Sean McDermott said.

I'm with it. I've liked Damian Harris as a talent as far as like rushing downs goes. Ever since he was at Alabama, I think he's absolutely capable of, of being a grinder. We've seen his speed at times when he can break away for long runs. And I looked before the podcast, 15 career carries inside the three, 10 touchdowns on those 15 carries. That's good. I think that that could be an area where he really hurts Josh Allen.

And that's been something that's been missing from the Buffalo offense. It feels like since forever where they've had a short yardage running back that can find some touchdowns. Maybe we're looking at a running back here who you draft as a number three and you plug in as a number two, when there's a good matchup, maybe when you run out of other running backs. So he's good depth. I think you're looking for him in that round. I don't want to say round seven. Maybe it gets to that point.

For now, it's round eight on Damian Harris, especially in PPR leagues. Yeah, some quarterbacks, they don't get a ton of short yardage touchdowns. The ones that run for a lot, like Lamar Jackson doesn't get a ton of short yardage touchdowns. Josh Allen kind of does. Last year he had five from five yards or closer.

So that's just something. Last year he led the team in carries inside the five-yard line. He had 11. Devin Singletary had seven. Yeah, that could be it. I mean, are you guys going to downgrade Josh Allen based on any of this? I did. To what? To two? To three.

Jamie? He's still two for me. You can certainly make a case for Jalen Hurts. James Cook went in round seven in our draft. Damian Harris went in round nine. Quick thoughts there? I think that's fine. You know, again, I think you're talking about the upside play is definitely James Cook, you know, and so the hope would be is that this is again, just coach speak. This is, you know, talking highly

about a guy that they just brought in and probably wanting to make James Cook earn the job and earn the touches that he hopefully will get. But it's going to be a split either way. You know, if Damian Harris is the guy on first down, you know, you go back to what their first backfield was with Sean McDermott. I think it was when he was the start of the coach. It was Zach Moss and Singletary, and they wanted this physical guy with speed. And that's kind of what Zach Moss was, but he just couldn't stay healthy. And Devin Singletary proved to be the better of the two. And so I wouldn't be surprised if James Cook is the better of the two just based on

a knowing the system being there already be you know the pedigree hopefully standing out a little bit not that as Dave alluded to Damian Harris doesn't have a good enough pedigree but there's a reason why he was sort of displaced last year couldn't stay healthy and then Ramondre Stevenson proved to be the better of the two and then I think hopefully James Cook will prove to be the better of the two but I think just in terms of for fantasy managers, as Dave alluded to, getting a guy like Damian Harris on your bench is not a bad move to make at all. You don't want to overspend for him. You don't want to have too many high expectations for him.

But it would not be a huge surprise if for four or five games, you hear me say this a lot, the pocket that Damian Harris is, the guy there, he could be a starting fantasy option for you. All right. We got one more kind of bigger topic to talk about, and that is Ken Walker. Ken Walker had 27 catches in 15 games. After Rashad Penny's injury, Ken Walker was the number six running back in half PPR, number nine in full PPR, and on a per game basis, he was right around nine or 10 in both formats.

So he had a great year, but in order to be a true stud, do you have to catch a lot of passes? I don't know. Not necessarily. You could go the Derrick Henry route, but it helps. What did Pete Carroll say about Ken Walker's role in the passing game, Jamie? I'll save you the Pete Carroll, he's the greatest person, player ever scenario. Great in practice, but it was a typical Pete Carroll

answer when I asked him just his thoughts on Ken Walker in general. But I said, what does he have to do? What is he going to show you in year two? And he said, he'll get a lot better. He'll be more accurate with the opportunities and knowing the situations, maximizing his shots when he gets them. We'll get the ball more, throwing it to him. I think he's going to make a really

big step from his rookie year. He'll definitely make it. He's got a great mentality about it. And so the thing that stood out to me, and he talked about this in the other part of the answer was his, his ability to catch the ball. And I think, you know, just that's the next thing for him is can he be more involved in the passing game? And we've talked a lot about this with Seattle running backs and certainly now with two quarterbacks during the Pete Carroll tenure. Russell Wilson didn't throw to his backs a lot, whether it was Marshawn Lynch or Chris Carson. Gino Smith did not throw to his running backs a lot, maybe a little bit more than Russ did. And so we'll see if that's the next step for Walker. But you look at what he showed, you alluded to Adam and what he hopefully will show. I think he's, you know, certainly in that conversation of once you get

past to me, the top four guys of McCaffrey Eckler, assuming he's with the chargers and, um, Taylor and Taylor and Saquon Barkley, then Walker's in that next group of guys, whether you want to put Pollard there, whether you want to put, um, whether you want to put um josh jacobs there derrick henry there uh breese hall healthy there you know i think all those guys are in that conversation there's probably a guy or two that i'm missing uh but you know ken walker should be in that in that group so uh for me he's at the swing the one two swing um he'll probably end up settling based on adp as a mid-second round pick would be my guess but i think there's certainly plenty of upside especially once we come out of this draft. If they do not take a quarterback in the first round

and they hopefully take an offensive lineman, which is what I would prefer, then I think we could see a big step forward coming for Ken Walker just as a player overall. I am reminded of the owners' meetings a year ago when Pete Carroll insisted on talking about Rashad Penny and just going on and on about how Rashad Penny reminded him of Gale Sayers and Rashad Penny's metrics were off the charts.

And I think he tried to make it happen for Rashad Penny. I don't think he was lying about this stuff. And I'm hoping that that's the case again this time, is that they make Kenneth Walker just the absolute centerpiece of their run game. They don't bother going to spend meaningful draft capital on another running back. They let Kenneth Walker develop in his second year and they do try and work him into the passing game a little bit more. That would be smart.

That's actually like something that would evolve in Seattle's offense, which is something that they've been slow to do. They don't evolve as quickly as some other NFL teams. So I'm with you on this one. I think he's going to end up being a second round pick, but I bet he ends up going closer to like 15th overall rather than the middle of round two. We're talking about like three spots difference here, but he's going to end up being one of those second round picks, very trendy and one that could end up being well worth the

price. The thing that you, you know, you love for me, you know, that's why I would take him ahead of Jacobs and ahead of Henry, age. And I think that's a big part of it. Year two, still in the rise for this position. It unfortunately crashes quickly, but I think this is going to be one of the next wave of first round picks for a couple of years if he stays healthy. So I'm excited about Ken Walker. He's a top five guy for me. Yeah, after the Penny injury, his 17 game pace in week six through 18, and now I removed one game where he had three carries and left with an injury,

343 carries. That's almost Derrick Henry-esque. So Ken Walker was an absolute workhorse. And, you know, for me, I was just about to say, like, I don't know why people are so much higher on him than Travis Etienne, and I also don't know if that's true for everyone. It seems to be true in our little group. Etienne went a round and a half later.

But I think that's the number right there. It's like Travis Etienne was nowhere near a 343-carry pace, and Etienne wasn't even catching more passes than Ken Walker really. You know, that was at least after the James Robinson injury. I do think that Etienne is getting overlooked a little bit and like you just hear a lot of people just raving about his ability to run inside and how underrated that is. And there's a lot of talk potentially about where they're drafting that they could be taking an interior offensive lineman. And the fact that the news came out about Brandon Scherf,

that he was playing, that he had surgery. He was playing with, you know, an abdomen injury. Even with the loss of Jawan Taylor, they have, you know, the rookie from last year step into his place, that this could be one of the better groups. And again, the schedule, you know, this isn't off. Somebody said to me that they could legitimately score five more points a game. And if that happens, he's going to be huge.

You know, so I initially, when I first did my second version of rankings, put ETN behind Henry and behind Jacobs just because I think I was a little bit too down on those two guys in particular. Jacobs is a little hard for me to figure right now just because of the – still the motivation of the contract here. But I think at this point, you know, for the way that I feel about the position and just the youth, that I would probably

feel more comfortable with Etienne and those guys. Yeah. It's interesting because I'm sitting here going, how did Travis Etienne make it to the third round, the middle of the third round?

I thought it was one of the biggest steals of the draft. And I did it, and Dave and I both passed on him twice. Well, all three of us did. You know, like,

because we had picks 9, 10, and 12 in round two, because we had picks uh nine ten and twelve in round two and we had picks one three and four in round three and we all passed on him i like remandre better so that wasn't a tough one for me but that was the so when when i i'm trying to think of the i knew i was going receiver receiver and uh i started with cup and waddle if i remember correctly yes And then it was the way that I saw the board falling. I thought there was a chance for me to get one of Stevenson or ETN. And so that just happened to work out that way. And then my excuse was I took

Kelsey one. I took Derek Henry in round two and in a three receiver PPR league, I didn't want to go three rounds without a receiver. So I took T Higgins. So I went Kelsey, Henry Higgins, Dave, you had the first pick and you took Jefferson and then you took, uh, Devante Smith and Deandre Hopkins. Yeah. That's interesting. You went three receivers and you left. It's a three receiver league. So I was trying to, to cater to that. Uh, would I do that again? Knowing what I know now about how deep receiver is this year, I think I'd probably rather have ETN than DeAndre Hopkins. Especially since we don't know where Hopkins is going to end up playing.

I thought Hopkins, even if he's in an ideal situation, still went too soon. I'll tell you what, there were two picks here in round two that right now are not likely to happen again. And you guys talked about it on the show last week when I was out. Javante Williams and Joe Mixon, they went in round two. If those guys had not gone in round two,

there's no way I would not have taken Travis Etienne with one of my picks. If Javante had been Derek Henry instead, I would have taken probably Etienne with the 10th pick of round two. But Henry fell to me. All right. Let's take a break here.

When we come back, we've got some more stuff to recap from the owners' meetings and just some more news items to get to as well. Remember, we have a mailbag that's going to publish on Friday. We're going to record it on Thursday if you want to watch on YouTube.com slash FantasyFootball today. And tonight, Jamie and I, I believe, will be talking toviti, get her, some of her favorite players going into 2023. We're going to try to get more guests on during the month of April and afterwards and all that. So we will be right back on FFT. All right,

Jamie. So just some rapid fire stuff here, Denver and Dallas backfields. What were your big takeaways from those? Let's try to do, you know, a minute on each. I got the impression. And, you know, you look at some of the offseason moves for the Broncos,

I don't think it's a surprise that the rumors about them trying to trade Jerry Judy and Cortland Sutton, I wouldn't be surprised if that was also floated by them. Even though Sean Payton sort of squashed that, I think if some team comes calling with a first-round pick, they may be willing to part with Judy and maybe a second-round pick or in the third or fourth-round range, depending on what the compensation is as well for Sutton. He's not going to draw as much.

But in any event, I think, you know, you look at the addition of Mike McGlinchey. He is forever going to, you know, the nice thing about Sean Payton, not so much for fantasy managers, but he's a loyal guy, and he was loyal to Taysom Hill. He seems to be very loyal to Latavius Murray. So between Murray and Samaje Pirine, knowing that Javante Williams is probably going to miss the start of the season in some capacity, or at least not be up to speed, we could see that being the backfield there for Denver.

So Pirine's going to be one of my favorite sleepers. I think he's got the higher ceiling as strange as that sounds to Latavius Murray, but I think P Ryan's got an opportunity maybe to even be the third down back to open the season. So don't be surprised if we see a little bit more heavy rush approach, running approach from Denver for Dallas. The only thing that really concerned me,

it wasn't so much what Mike McCarthy said because McCarthy was asked. And I think he, he sort of alluded to this privately that his words were a little twisted from the combine when he said he wants to be a more run heavy team. Um, he was asked about the, the loss of Ezekiel Elliott and how he plans to, you know, uh, replace him. And he said, he's always been about ball distribution to his stars. And he said, you know, power will obviously get some more. The other backs will get some more.

But for him, he wants to make sure of the 70-some-odd plays. I think that's what he said. 75% of those are going to his top playmakers. And so he said it's going to be more to the tight ends, more to the receivers. And you look at their offseason, and it sort of doesn't mesh with what McCarthy's words were from the combine. You know, you bring in Brandon Cooks. You're talking about Dak, you know, and making him a little bit more of a playmaker.

And now not necessarily saying, OK, we lose Zeke and it's just all going to the backfield to Pollard. So I think we can still see maybe a more balanced approach. Maybe not the, as McCarthy did say you know a light up the scoreboard type of situation with Kellen Moore as the offense coordinator so I wouldn't necessarily be so down on Dak and so down on maybe CeeDee Lamb or Brandon Cooks if you are I I don't feel that way but you know there might be some people that look at that the concerning thing for me about what came out of it from Dallas was Stephen Jones actually which I didn't speak to him but I saw the the media for Dallas did.

And he said they're excited about Pollard. They actually haven't ruled out maybe bringing Zeke back if he decides to come back, maybe at a lesser price. But he did say that they do want to add a bigger back to complement Tony Pollard. And so that scared me because I think as we saw in this draft and we talked about this, you know, Pollard is in the round one discussion. Whether you think he belongs there or not, he does if he's the lead back for Dallas without significant competition. But if they bring in a high profile rookie and we know who the high profile rookie is

going to be, um, it's not a big stretch to see them stay in their backyard and take B. John Robinson. Um, but if it is still a day two running back and remember, they're not committed to Pollard long-term, even though he signed his franchise tag, that's a one-year deal, you know? So they may decide that what they did with the Marco Murray, run him to the ground, send him out the door, did the same thing with Ezekiel Elliott, that Pollard is not necessarily the next guy for the next four or five years.

He may just be a one-year bandaid, which we would love if that's the only person there, but I think we could see it's not just going to be Ronald Jones and Malik Davis. They may still be in the market for another back. So it doesn't sound like it's out of the woods yet with Tony Pollard being, I think, a slam dunk first round pick. Anything to add, Dave Richard? No.

Okay. All right. Good stuff. And then I don't know. What did you guys think about the Brock Purdy news, I guess, that he's the starter when healthy, essentially. Doesn't it make sense? He played very well last year when he was starting. And as long as his arm's okay, I would expect him to be efficient again for San Francisco.

And that's the quarterback I think we want if we're drafting Debo Samuel and George Kittle and Brandon Ayuk if Ayuk is still there, and I think he will be. That's the guy you want under center. You don't want Trey Lance. I don't think we really want Sam Darnold. I thought it was interesting that there's serious talk about Sam Darnold

being the starter week one for San Francisco. So let's cross our fingers that Purdy heals up during the offseason and gets into some sort of throwing routine to get ready for the season, and he's back on the field by October. Very important, everybody. We've got about a week left to vote. So, you know,

I think we gave you a lot of great content all throughout the offseason. Jamie out there at the owners' meetings getting great stuff and hopefully giving you information that you didn't hear anywhere else. So we'd appreciate if you voted for us. Just go to sportspodcastgroup.com. There's an awards tab. Then click on Vote on the drop-down there.

And we are in the Fantasy and Sports Betting category. So please vote for us in the fantasy and sports betting category, Fantasy Football Today. And you do have to create an account. I did it. It took me less than a minute. But again, in the fantasy and sports betting category, please vote for Fantasy Football Today.

That is on SportsPod. I'll definitely tweet it out again. Yeah, I'll definitely tweet it. SportsPodcastGroup.com. The link is also in the episode description wherever you're watching or listening. We would appreciate it. In fact, you didn't know this, but

the picture, Jamie and Doug Peterson, Jamie is getting mad because people are not voting enough. That's what that face was about. I was actually listening to Doug tell the media contingent around him that they should vote for him. That's right. That's right.

We appreciate all your help. Some more news items that came out of the owners' meetings. It's quarterback. Ron Rivera said that Sam Howell will begin spring workouts as the starter, but he will compete with Jacoby Brissett. We talked about Atlanta. They named Desmond Ritter their starter. Arizona head coach Jonathan Gannon

did not put a timetable on Kyler Murray's return. And Matthew Stafford will have no limitations in 2023, according to Sean McVay. Stafford suffered a spinal cord contusion in 2022. The Rams offense, great, good, average, bad, terrible. Dave, what would your guess be for 2023? Somewhere between average and good.

With Cooper Cup being the good, Cam Akers hopefully leaning toward good, and the rest of it leaning toward average. Jamie, your thoughts? I think if Stafford is healthy, good. If Stafford gets hurt again, it's terrible. So we're asking a guy in his mid-30s to come off a back injury

and be above average. But look, they're in this weird spot of probably still competitive but not competitive enough to be a Super Bowl contender unless a lot of things break their way. But they have the coach and arguably still one of the best defensive players in the league on their side. And again, if Stafford is right, then everything, I think, will fall into place. Okay, let's talk about running backs now. Some of the news I thought was really interesting.

Nick Sirianni talking about Trey Sermon. Yeah, I wouldn't read too much into that. Zach Taylor gave me the same sort of answer on their backfield with Travion Williams. These guys, they love players like this that practice hard and do the right things. We'd love to get them more opportunities. Nick Sirianni said that about Trey Sermon.

Zach Taylor said the same thing about Travion Williams. There's probably a number of quotes that we didn't hear about these, these type of players. They're just depth guys, you know, and for Trey Sermon, it's unfortunate because, you know,

I thought last year for him going into the season that he was going to get a chance to compete because Elijah Mitchell, we weren't sure about his health coming into the season in San Francisco. And then they quickly moved on from him as we saw, you know, so I spoke to Trey Sermon last off season around this time, you know, he was,

he was very excited about his chance to compete for the, for the job there. But Philadelphia is not done. This is, this, this is just the ideal landing spot for B. John Robinson. If he could find his way to Philadelphia, it would be just the perfect, perfect situation.

And I know we'll sit here and say, well, Jalen Hurts takes all these rushing touchdown opportunities and he doesn't throw to his running back. I don't care. I don't care. Do you think that changes? Because, I mean, something's got to give. A lot of Jalen Hurts' production was those rushing touchdowns.

And no, he did not throw to his running back. Is that really the best? I get it. There's a lot to like about being on Philadelphia, but for as great of an offense as it was, it wasn't a good one for fantasy running backs. Kind of like what we've seen from Buffalo the last few years in a different style.

I do think, again, you're talking about Miles Sanders on steroids if Bijan goes there. He scored 11 touchdowns last year. Sanders did, Miles Sanders on steroids if Bijan goes there. You know, so he scored 11 touchdowns last year. Sanders did. I would say if Bijan's healthy, that's probably two or three more, you know, so a chance to maybe get to 15 touchdowns. I think he could be a guy that's going to keep Kenneth Gamewell and Boston Scott off the field if he stays healthy.

I think he could rush for 1,500 yards behind that offensive line. And I still think Jalen Hurts could be pretty special too. For me, that's the ideal landing spot for Bijan. It's one of them because Adam's right. You want an offense where you can catch the ball a little bit more than you would in Philadelphia. Where are those offenses that there's openings? As we saw last year, teams just didn't throw to their backs to the same level. No, it's true.

And I don't have a great answer for openings right now. But a team could just say that if they fall in love with B. John Robinson, they can clear house, clean house on the running backs that they have on staff and just let B. John be there. But not necessarily. Like I said, I could see Dallas making that type of move with the idea of. Yeah, that would not be a good i'll give you one well it would not be a good landing spot for 23 but for 24 and 25 and 26 yeah right washington with the 16th pick if they do that with the 16th pick they should

not just sell the team they should fire everybody why i mean they they talked about they want to be more of a running team yes but, but that would kill their franchise. They have so many other needs that they need to fill. Well, I mean, that's probably true for a lot of teams. But yeah, so once you get to the back end of the draft, I mean, I guess the Bengals could draft them. That's my second favorite spot. That would be number one for me.

That's an example of what I'm talking about. That's a team that's got an established veteran that they would move on from. So the teams that would make sense. That's why I think it's hard to say, oh, there's a great opening right now. Philadelphia makes sense because who's their starting running back right now? It's Rashad. Tampa Bay at 19.

That would be another. I think that would be a solid one. I don't think that's as good as Philadelphia. Again, another not smart decision that that's throughout the game. How about New Orleans at 29? I think with New Orleans and Cincinnati, you just have to... And maybe you want to throw Minnesota in the mix, too.

These teams that you can see moving on from their established guy, but that's the pitfall. For this year, it'd be frustrating. I'm sure I could. I'm sorry.

I, you know, just thinking out loud here, I should have researched this. I've been thinking about this. Joe Mixon and Dalvin Cook. I mean, they're still on the team. Barring a, say a trade right around the NFL draft. Do you think that these guys could actually get cut at this point or is it too late? No, because June 1st is the, the, the, the number or the day yeah where you know you you get the salary reduction uh mixin is the one to me because i actually asked zach taylor about mixin and he you know he was so he he gave the answer about about their um he was

asked the question about adding zeke and he said they're happy by the room this is where the travion williamson Williams answer came in. Right. And isn't that what happened in Philadelphia too? Like that's like Trey Sermon was brought up by exactly. Right. Right. He wasn't asked,

Hey Nick, what do you think about Trey Sermon? That, that, that story that, that circulated last week about Zeke and the teams that he's targeting. That's Zeke's wishlist. It's not those teams looking at the jets are not adding Ezekiel Elliottiott the bangles don't seem interested in ezekiel elliott

and the eagles don't seem interested in ezekiel you know he just looked at i think three teams that have either potential opening because hall may not be ready or you know future openings um or in philly's case you know not an established starter uh for so i asked you know where i said where are things at with joe mixon he's like he's on our team, you know, I said to Zach Taylor, where are things at with Joe Mixon? He's like, he's on our team. And, you know, I could see him get defensive immediately. You know, so I said to him, for a story I'm working on down the road, is he concerned about his age and workload, you know,

getting to that point in his career? And he said, you know, Joe's still our workhorse and, you know, said, you know, a lot of that point in his career. And he said, you know, Joe's still a, a, a, a, our workhorse. Um, and, you know, said, you know, a lot of glowing things about mixing. It didn't mesh with what Duke Tobin, their director of player personnel said at the combine when he was asked that he's still gonna be on the roster. And he said, I don't know, you know, and so I wouldn't be surprised that the Bengals, um, you know, were the team that, that drafted Robinson because they may look at it again. Okay, is Mixon still our guy? Do we want to pay him and keep him on the roster? Or B, do we move on next season and then Robinson is the guy?

So again, I think wherever Bijan lands, and he's not just the only running back in this class, clearly wherever some of these running backs end up, you could see a situation where Dalvin Cook's replacement is drafted this year. Joe Mixon's replacement is drafted this year. Joe Mixon's replacement is drafted this year. Tony Pollard's replacement is drafted this year. It doesn't necessarily mean that these guys are going to be great as rookies,

but you know, 2024 and beyond, they could be, you know, pretty good options for, for three, four years. The Bengals can save over 10 million on the cap.

If they cut Joe Mixon after June 1st, I think it was a lot. You're probably right. But the story I saw coming out of the combat, I think it was like $8 million. It's $10 million in cap savings. But what is the difference?

You can cut him now and designate him a post-June 1st cut. Unless they've already done that to somebody else. I don't know if they've done that to another player. And if they've already done that, I think you get Is it one player or two, Jamie, that you can designate as

a post-June 1st cut? I think the other difference is if you just designate someone a post-June cut, I don't know that you actually get that money freed up until June 1st. No, it's split over two years. That's the whole idea. But that's the dead

money. That's the dead money. But that's the dead money. That's the dead money. The cap savings you get right away. Are you sure? Because I thought you only get the cap saving maybe. I think that's why the term designate for a June 1st cut. So you do get the cap savings now. Right.

And you get the dead money spread out, which is important to how their cap is. I think you guys are both right. I think you might only get two players or one player to designate. And as a result, you get to use that money now because you know it's coming off your books, Jennifer. And do you know what B. John Robinson's cap number might be? I'm looking at Brees Hall's number for the entirety of his four-year deal. And remember, he's a second-round pick.

B. John will probably be a first-round pick. It's $9 million over four years. Whereas Mixon is 10 million of cap savings this year. So which running back would you rather have if you're Cincinnati and which back would you rather have as far as your cap? But I think, I think no brainer. I read that Lamar Jackson has made $27 million so far,

and he was a late first round pick. So I think there's probably a pretty, well, but that's an extra year, right? It is an extra year. Yeah, so the only benefit to drafting anybody in the first round is you get the fifth year option. The fifth year option, yes. Right. As I'm sure you'd like

the Giants to have used on Daniel Jones. I'm telling you, as soon as Herbert, Hertz, and Burrow sign their contracts, nobody's going to say a damn thing about David Jones. No, they will. It's still too much. I mean, is it too much?

Yes, but it's the market value for the position. It's a three-year deal, essentially. Three years, it's about $37.5 million per year. Right. That's what Derek Carr's making. Yeah, it's not the four years 160. I think that was published. It's not really that. All right. Oh, it's not the four years 160. I think that was published. It's not really that.

So, all right. Oh, wait. When we still have more news. I was about to wrap up. Just figured like, oh, we're talking about Daniel Jones. Jamie, we're on deck, by the way, in the baseball league. So, yeah. More running back news.

Chargers GM Tom Telesco says he wants Austin Eckler back, but he won't predict what will happen. Giants owner John Mara said he wants Saquon Barkley to be a Giant for his entire career. And Denver GM George Payton said Samajai Pirine can be a starter while Javante Williams recovers from his torn ACL. Awesome, awesome sleeper pick, like Jamie said.

Yeah, I don't think he'll be much of a sleeper. What round, Jamie? I'm going to say seven as of right now. I took him, I think, round eight in this draft that we did. It's just a matter of now versus August. We get to August and Javante's not practicing. It'll probably be a round up by a week. I still might take Piran

with happiness. It's a great pick regardless of Javante being ready or not. It's just a matter of, you know, can't. What we said with J.K. Dobbins last year. You know, he came back and then couldn't stay healthy. Yeah, exactly, exactly. It's like if you said, well, Javante will be back by week. Ooh, we're on the clock.

Javante will be back by week two, if that is the case. We all just have to remember it's not necessarily like he's going to be full go week two. Okay. What else we got here? Wide receivers. Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon said he's under the assumption that DeAndre Hopkins will be on the

Cardinals. We will see. The Panthers want to make DJ Chark a more complete wide receiver. Would you guys rather draft Chark or Thielen? I have to pick one of these guys. Chark, but I want to see who the quarterback is. Okay. Yeah, they said they don't want him to just be a deep threat.

Michael Thomas is not 100% recovered yet from his 2022 toe injury. According to ESPN's Nick Wagoner, San Francisco has received interest in Brandon Ayuk. That's been kind of thrown out there for a while now. He also said in the same report, though, that the 49ers have no interest in trading him and that they're probably going to pick up his fifth-year option. Okay.

Right. And Rashad Bateman is coming along nicely. He will be running in three weeks. The Bengals signed... That's not the only thing that John Harbaugh said, I think, besides Lamar Jackson. Yeah, you know, why didn't you ask him about Isaiah Likely? Because he likely would have said nothing.

The Bengals signed tight end Irv Smith to a one-year deal. Does that matter? I like the move. I think it's a good situation to take a flyer on a guy. I don't think that takes them out of drafting a tight end as well because it's such a deep class. But look, they took a flyer on Hayden Hurst and he had some good moments last year when the guys

were banged up. There could be a two, three week stretch where Irv Smith is an injury replacement or bi-week replacement. If they're taking on a slow defense in the middle in week one, I might stream Irv and take him with one of my last three picks.

NFL players can wear jersey number zero I might stream Irv and take him with one of my last three picks. Okay. And NFL players can wear jersey number zero. That's cool. I'm kind of into that. Calvin Ridley's already done it. Calvin Ridley's already done it. I wonder how the rest of his team felt about that. Jamie? I'd say it's either Mookie Betts,

Ronald Acuna, or Jordan Alvarez. Alvarez scares me because he'll be awesome when he's playing, but I think there'll be some DL stints. He will not be awesome. He will be basically the best hitter in baseball when he's playing. He's incredible.

Yeah. You think we get him round two or no? No. He's outfield eligible. Oh, man. Dave, what do you think? Oh, come on. This is exciting stuff. Should we let our audience decide?

Head-to-head points, Lee. What do you guys think? Dave is literally asleep. Or pretending, anyway. Betts, Acuna, or Alvarez. You know, I kind of like the stolen base guys. I think they're going to steal more this year. You got the bigger bags.

You got the pitch clock. So, Betts? Well, Acuna would be, but either one. Let's see. Betts stole only 12 bases last year. Who cares who you take? What'd you say? Is Acuna going to stay healthy?

I think so. He tore his ACL. So he had 29 steals in 119 games last year. That was pre-injury though. No, that was after the injury. This doesn't help anyone.

Dave, it's been an hour. We've helped people for an hour. Stop. I'm muting, it's been an hour. We've helped people for an hour. Stop. I'm muting, Dave. You can go. I'm removing Dave from the stream. Okay. Let's take... What do you think, Betts? I mean, Betts is the safest. He's Mookie Betts. He's great.

You know? He hit 35 home runs last year. He's awesome. All right. We're drafting Mookie Betts. All right. All right, everybody.

Thanks for watching and listening. We will talk to you tomorrow, uh, or tonight. If you want to hang out tonight, we don't know the exact time yet, but you know, if you're subscribed on YouTube,

you'll find out about it. Uh, two more episodes this week, uh, for Dave. Uh, no, not for Dave,

for Jamie and for Thomas. I've Adam. I'll talk to you later.