Fantasy Football Today - PICK SIX NFL PODCAST TAKEOVER!!!

Episode Date: August 21, 2019

Will Brinson and Sean Wagner-McGough from the Pick Six NFL podcast share their strongest Fantasy takes with Jamey Eisenberg in this bonus episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast. You'll get a different perspective on important players and some NFL talk as well. The Pick Six pod is your daily source for NFL news and analysis with a focus on gambling and fantasy. Download and subscribe to Pick Six here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pick-six-nfl-podcast/id1263289980 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

The dulcet tone you hear is not Adam Azer, not the squeaky Azer. It is, uh, I'm Will Brinson. And I'm the host of the Pick 6 NFL podcast, occasional guest on FFT. And this is the Pick 6 NFL podcast takeover, basically a bonus episode of FFT. For those who have never heard the Pick 6 podcast, I would encourage you to go to iTunes or Apple Podcasts and subscribe. It is a daily NFL podcast packed with news, notes, information, occasional tangents, and a splash of mirth. Also joining me from the Pick 6 podcast, my good friend Sean

Wagner-McGuff. It's weird to be here sitting across from you. It is. And you're wearing like an actual shirt instead of a tank top. Exactly. And of course, the star of CBS Sports HQ, Fantasy Football Today.

And I was told by a higher up earlier today that the best Twitter guy on our team, Jamie Eisenberg. All those were lies. What the hell is happening? I'm just lying.

Were you offended, Brinson? Nobody actually said that. I'm just making that up. I'm just lying. Were you offended, Brinson? Nobody actually said that. I'm just making that up. I'm just – well, first off, Sean, thank you for coming on the Fantasy Football Today podcast. I'm just impressed that Will is not on vacation because he takes more vacation time, especially during football season, than anybody I've ever met. But it did result – my vacation did result in the opportunity for – so I did Jim Rome's show earlier. Oh, there we go. Shameless plug. He asked me, he goes, he's ready to show.

He's like, explain to me this, there's no law when you're drinking the claw story. And so I got to tell that on radio. So that was exciting. This is what you get on the Pick 6 podcast. Exactly. The tangents that he described. This is a short one.

For real. I know, I'm like holding it in. I'm like fighting it off. Don't worry, this will not replace any normal Fantasy Football Today scheduling. Well, you can replace Acer, that. Schedule. You can replace Acer. That's fine. Yeah.

I love Acer. You know, do you, so let's find out if he listens to this podcast. So do you know about the guy? Hey, we'll listen. Do you know about the gag I've been doing on my podcast on the pick six

podcast? No. Every day I plug fantasy football today, but I will not use Acer's name. So I'm like, I'm like, like, like I'll be like,

it's like, oh, Heath, like Chris towers, like Ben Gretsch, Dave Richard. Nando. Nando. Yes. Everybody. And then like, I think that's like Heath, Chris Towers, Ben Gredge, Dave Richard. Nando. Nando.

It's everybody. I think that's everybody. And then keep moving on. Fitting. I think Azar would appreciate it. This is, again, just a bonus episode. It'll also be up on the Pick 6 podcast feed. You should check that out.

We're doing a fantasy week right now. Jamie, Dave, and Heath are joining us throughout the week. And then next week, we'll be doing gambling week as we bring in people to help you win money throughout the season. There's lots of fantasy chatter and gambling chatter throughout the year. So it's your wheelhouse if you like football. Anyway, this is our – Did you just spit on your microphone? No, there's a hair on my microphone.

The hair on your microphone. It's the loose implants. It's probably one of Azar's cats, cat hairs. Azar doesn't do his shows from here, buddy. He's going to be here tomorrow. He will be here tomorrow. I don't think he's bringing his cats. I wouldn't be surprised if you told me Adam Azor had a

what's the thing when you take him on the airplane? Do you take your dog? Support animal. If you told me that Adam Azor had a registered support cat, I would believe it. He probably does. He probably does. Zoe, I think, is registered. Good for Zoe.

Anyway, we're going to give our fantasy takes. Sean and I are going to give our fantasy takes. I hope it's just Sean. You don't want mine? Eh. That's not fair. And then Jamie's going to tell us if they're good or bad. Mine is just me talking about how I steal Curtis Samuel from you in every draft,

except the one that matters. So annoying. I'll start in Carolina. It's the only reason you know about him. It's not entirely true. I'll start. Marlon Mack will be a top 10 running back in both standard and PPR formats. I like it.

I hope the guy handing off to him is there. Yeah. And, and not by, oh, by the way, that the Sean, Sean sister played like a college soccer and prefer.

I think we're talking about a different sister. If I know where you're going with this. Oh, it's a different sister. We do have the same injuries. Andrew luck. Oh, she had an extra bone in her foot and she was actually really good. She probably could have gone on

and played in college, but she had to stop playing by her freshman year of high school because she had multiple surgeries. She had it in both feet, which is incredibly rare, and she had surgery to take him out, and it still didn't alleviate the pain. It's kind of terrifying for Luck's long-term prognosis.

If Luck doesn't play, do you think how much would you downgrade Marlon mack i would downgrade him but i think that they would morph into more of a run based team and so if that offensive line is as good as i think it is which you know last year we got a chance to see them play at a very high level then i think he's still a number two running back but not to the level of what you think you get to with andrew luck i would not be surprised if he gets there certainly a non-ppr you to the level of what you think he'd get to. With Andrew Luck, I would not be surprised if he gets there. Certainly a non-PPR. The problem with him is your favorite player of all time, Naheem Hines,

comes in and takes away. Good friend of mine. I'm sure. Goes to the Oyster... Princeton family Oyster restaurant. That's right. We were at Aunt Molly's Pumpkin Farm. Welcome to the Princeton compound. This is Naheem Hines. I think it'll be tough for him clearly to get to those heights in in in

ppr with or without luck but i'm still optimistic that luck is going to be there for week one what do you think about marlin mack sean i mean i think the the good thing the colts have going for them is that i don't want to touch a colts player right now because of the andrew luck situation but it's not like they have you know an unproven backup there and we saw what they did with jacoby brissett i think the drop off is big but to jamie's point for a running back it's almost not as important because they're going to just feed him the ball and try to take the ball out of the backup's hand so i i love the idea of going wide receiver wide receiver with my first two picks and then coming back and getting like leonard fernet or marlon mack as my as my rb1 you sort of supplement you know would you rather have Fournette or Mack?

I would rather have Fournette. I just think there's a higher ceiling in the offense that he plays in. And especially I do think that he's underrated as a pass catcher. For those of you that are listening to us on the Fantasy Football Today podcast feed, if you follow all of our mock drafts, Will is kind enough, and I joke with him all the time, but he is kind enough to donate his time, which he has a lot of to, to do our mock drafts.

I like doing mock drafts. It helps me. It helps me learn strategy for my actual draft. All right, Sean, give us a fantasy hot take. I don't know if this is a hot take, but I feel like the discourse on Twitter makes it kind of a hot take.

I think Patrick Holmes is going to repeat as the number one fantasy quarterback, which I know hasn't been done in a number of years. And I don't think it's going to be particularly close. I think your additional statement that you had down here is more important, though. You don't think he's being overdrafted. Yeah. And just to give an example of this, I'm in a keeper league with four keepers. And I was deciding between Nick Chubb and Patrick Mahomes. And I was talking to Brinson, and everyone was recommending Nick Chubb. And this will feed into a question I have later about Nick Chubb, but I kept Mahomes

and I felt a lot more secure about that in the long term, it being a keeper league. And I mean, I understand the regression argument. I get it. I think he will regress. It's just that he can still regress and still be the number one fantasy quarterback by a wide margin. Agreed. And I think that's accurate.

If you are so inclined to take him over Chubb, that's where I think the keeper versus redraft is interesting because we talk all the time, mostly Dynasty Leagues, about how the long-term impact of wide receivers is there because of the injuries and how those guys tend to perform and the lifespan of their careers it's the same thing when you factor in what my home should be i mean you're going to have my homes hopefully for 20 years you know i mean tom brady's playing this 20 season you know it'd be nice to say that you have my homes for that nick chubb could be eight games of superstar and then nothing and then who knows what happens next year or he could be

the start of you know something great so i it's it's an easier decision to make in a keeper league. But I think Nick Chubb is headed for a big season. I think for the first eight games, he could be the best running back in football. What happens after this? That's the wild card. This is bleeding into my second. It's such a wild card. And it could be 50% of the carries go away.

Touches go away. It could be 10%. It could be 100%. I mean, you know, we don't know what Kareem Hunt's going to do and how well Nick Chubb is doing at that point. Will they pull him back? Because, you know, I think you have the Browns as a potential Super Bowl contender, right? Or a playoff contender for sure. Yeah, for sure.

So if, in fact, they're at that point, you know, I don't think undefeated, but let's say, you know say you know seven and one six and two everything points to them wild card at worst do they start to maybe take some work off of nick chubb's plate just to make sure he gets to january at 100 it's a total gamble but i do think that if your approach to fantasy is i want to be as good as i can from the get-go and then i'll deal with the playoffs later he's the perfect running back for you. If you're looking at it as I need to figure out what's happening come week 14, 15, 16 for the playoffs, he's probably not somebody you're going to say I have to have him, especially at that fifth spot.

The thing with Hunt and Chubb, it's like I can't imagine the Browns sign Hunt with that off-the-field baggage and taking that kind of PR hit not to use him. I feel like they were throwing him a bone. See, you said that to me, and I don't agree. I don't think that's just the way the NFL works. I don't think they throw a guy a bone like that. I think they're 100% going to use him, but it's to what capacity.

And that's, again, I'll say the wild card. Trading Duke Johnson indicates that they're planning to use him when he comes back because as much as they may like Hilliard or they may have some other plans down the road to seeing, you know, okay, these are the guys that are going to get cut in the NFL, you know,

the Kenneth Dixon's of the world, you know, maybe, uh, LaShawn McCoy is somebody that they explore, you know, who knows what, whatever they look at as a,

as a secondary option that they made the move to get rid of Duke Johnson one because they feel comfortable and Nick Chubb could be a three-down back, two, because they know coming in the second half of the season, they have the 2017 leading rusher sitting on their bench. So they're going to use him. But that's the gamble that you're taking, you know, is Nick Chubb's eight-game head start going to help your fantasy team enough that the second half of your fantasy season could potentially be ruined?

Would you go Nick Chubb or Joe Mixon? I have Nick Chubb after the big four. So for me, he's fine. I just look at it again. I'm going to go. I have written down here. Nick Chubb will finish as a top five running back in both PPR and state.

Yeah. We know we've been doing a lot of bold prediction stuff on CBS sports HQ. And that's one for me is that for the first eight weeks of the season, he's the best fantasy run. Would you go? And this is because I think this is a big conundrum for a lot of people at the beginning of the second round, Nick Chubb or julio jones that's format specific okay so if you're talking ppr i basically go four running backs and then every receiver in the nfl and then the next

running back you know so it's just a matter of what you're getting from for me it's davante adams but you know hopkins adams julio i think those three guys are almost untouchable and then it's that next group of guys which I think are also pretty good. Well, Nick Chubb or Odell Beckham then? Again, it's format. PPR, I'm taking Odell Beckham. Circling back real quick to Mahomes, if there is – I'm wondering your thoughts on – Did we just tangent, Max?

Yeah, but Chubb was my second. Well, that was a decision. We married it together. But with Mahomes, I mean, do you think – So I didn't tangent. You tangent.omes, I mean, do you think – So I didn't tangent. You tangent. Yeah, I tangented. Wow.

Well, no, I was being more effective because I combined my two questions into one. Whatever makes you sleepy. But he did what every good person that plays fantasy does. They made it about themselves. Absolutely. Exactly. So anyway, on this league I drafted this week – Sorry.

No, but I mean, I think – I wouldn't be surprised at all if Mahomes was the top overall quarterback. I don't think it would be shocking. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Mahomes is the top of all quarterback. I don't think it would be shocking. I wouldn't be surprised if he went 4,500 yards and 40 touchdowns. To Sean's point, which is the way a lot of people draft is, if he's the number one quarterback, he's the number one player. And so if he's the number one quarterback by the distance that he was last year, then it's worth taking him in the first round. You said he's going to regress.

That's the question is, does he regress to the point of where he's going to regress that's the question is does he regress to the point of where he's 50 points better than the second guy or is he five points better than the second guy and then is the second guy who we all think it's going to be the second guy because it's either aaron rogers or deshaun watson i was just going to ask you who do you think the second guy is for me it's rogers uh and and this is another one where format changes if it's four points for passing touchdowns i think watson gets a bump because i think his rushing will sort of give him

a little bit of an edge. But, you know, I, and I'll probably do this until he retires. I always think that Aaron Rogers is going to come off of a bad season with a big year. Um,

I was a little bit swayed, I think, you know, and we all get this, um, talking to Devante Adams at the pro bowl. And he said, you know,

basically the, the description in my mind is if you remember Brian Cox walking into Buffalo, I was a member of the Miamiins with his middle fingers raised in the air. That's how Devonta Adams kind of described Aaron Rodgers to the NFL. He's coming out with guns blazing, saying, don't forget about me. You can pump up my homes all you want to. Baker's a new hot toy. I'm still the best quarterback in football.

And now I have a new head coach, a new system. I'm reinvigorated. And he may have one of the best weapons around him that he's ever had before. If these two young kids in terms of MBS and Geronimo Allison step up to the level I think a lot of people are expecting. Yeah. Well, just looking really quickly, and this is kind of hard to do because he's no longer in the player pool, but if I go back and look at stats.

Brian Cox? No, he's no longer in the player pool. No, no, no. Well, but Peyton Manning, right? One of, I think, what, three guys? One of three to throw for 50 touchdowns. One of three to throw for 50 for 5,050. Did it in 2013.

And then came back in 2014. He was the number four quarterback after. He was number four. In 2014, he was number four? Yeah. And a big key difference, obviously, is Peyton Manning started to age at that point. 100%. And the next year, he was terrible and was getting better.

He definitely threw for 4,700 yards and 39 touchdowns. So that's kind of the conversation. I think the yards for Mahomes will be in that range. 4,700 I think is fair. Can he be 45-plus touchdowns? And that's the key. Does he go from 52 total to 45 total, or is it more of a decline? Brady had the huge drop-off if he skipped the year, skipped the ACL year. Does he go from 52 total to 45 total, or is it more of a decline?

Brady had the huge drop-off if you skipped the year, skipped the ACL year. But again, it's hard to say. It's a fair comparison. And the other thing where Gresham could work is his interceptions. I think if you look at Football Outsiders' adjusted interception, which makes sense because he was throwing deep and throwing into some tight windows. And you're going to get the turnover-worthy plays,'re also going to get you know the 50 possible touchdowns but if his interception rate goes up then you know to your point that could also there there are a number of things you know i mean we still don't know if uh you're going to get 16 games out of sammy watkins which would help him are they going to be a little bit more run based you know it's hard to say because they had cream hunt at the

start of last season are they going to use carlos hyde who's a little bit more of a plotter if he makes the team you know does the additional speed help you know miko hardman and darwin thompson are just you know it's crazy lightning bugs you know so there's by the way just for the record i mean the tyreek hill thing is he's not suspended but i mean like it's still out on the table i mean the nfl said new evidence right i mean like that's at least it'd be a surprise it would be surprised and they had you know the luxury of uh you know everybody offensively staying healthy for the most part last year you know so so we'll see it it's just i think if you're if you're banking on mahomes being 4540 then he's in the first round conversation you know most fantasy analysts are going to tell

you wait on quarterback because the position is deep. But there's a reason why his average position is ninth. You know, I mean, it's just because people get overly excited about him and they should. He's a great player. And it does help. Again, he's paired with Andy Reid, which to me is easy. It's like we're talking about Rogers potentially being the two. We still don't know what Matt LaFleur is going to be. Right.

Yeah. Speaking of unknowns in the quarterback position and a guy i would rather draft the patrick mahomes at their average draft position and a guy i think is my bold prediction will be a top five fantasy quarterback this year lamar jackson i love lamar jackson uh you know and i think this is another one where scoring matters you know because in four points for passing touchdowns i would take him in the top five in six points it's going to be a matter of where the passing yards get to uh i like our projections from his passing totals sports science projections on on our website over 3 000 yards i think that's big you know and it's funny because we're talking about a guy just

through 5 000 yards but 2 000 yards difference but the question becomes is where's the ceiling on his rushing numbers so if he gets to right around where he was last year which is you know a little shy of 700, in only seven starts, now granted he played more than just the seven starts, but if he can be 3,000 and 1,000, he's going to break quarterback scoring. And if his passing gets even better. If he plays 16 games,

he's going to outscore Patrick Mahomes. I don't know if I can say that confidently. No. If he plays 16 games and runs. If he runs, if he runs for a thousand yards and he can get close to 4,000 passing yards, then he's going to be Patrick. Well,

it's easy. Yeah. Easy. Um, Lamar, would you rather have Aaron Rogers in the fifth round or Lamar Jackson in the 10th round? I'm always going to take the lesser of the two.

If I like the, the second guy, you mean the, the, the lower of the two, the cheaper, second guy. You mean the lower of the two? The cheaper of the two, yes. This weekend I drafted Rodgers in the fifth round, and I went zero RB, so it's fine. I got a bunch of Miles Sanders, Rashad Penny, Daryl Henderson, David Montgomery, a bunch of guys.

Talking about your own team again. Yeah, right, right, right. Well, I hope we'll pop, but I mean like Rodgers in the fifth round felt like a good value to me, but I think this is the importance, and you guys have been preaching this for years, but it's like, even Rodgers in the fifth round, I mean, I was looking at it later, it's like, I could have gotten Lamar in the 10th round.

I'd just rather have that. I'd rather wait and pile up running backs and wide receivers. Every league is different. You know, there are plenty of leagues where people have to take two quarterbacks, and especially if you have 16 roster spots, 17 roster spots, you know, it people have to take two quarterbacks. And especially if you have 16 roster spots, 17 roster spots, you know,

it's easier to take two guys. But if that's the case and you like Lamar Jackson, you like Kyler Murray, you like Jameis Winston, you know, some of these, I'll say unproven guys, you know,

whether it's, you know, Winston just not doing it for 16 games or the two younger quarterbacks, you can still come back and take, they should be available. Guys like Phillip Rivers, Mitchell Trubisky. I think Sam Donald's going to have a good season. You know, he's a, you can still come back and take they should be available guys like philip rivers mitchell trubisky i think sam donald's gonna have a good season you know he's a he's a good number two quarterback her cousins matthew stafford they're not sexy they're not going to be

difference makers for you but if to your point will if you've built this amazing roster your quarterback should be a complementary piece and not necessarily the difference making piece while you're competing against somebody like sean who's got patrick mahomes and hopefully a stacked roster as well but you may have had to sacrifice some things by taking the homes early it's funny because i've always been on that train where like i will get stafford and stream them against you know a team and then drop them and this was i just happened to stumble across my homes last year sure and now but i've always been anti that take Take the quarterback. I'm I've always been, you take the court.

That's like you talk about the draft position. It's like, it's weird. If you, if you own my homes last year or you, I mean, spend any time watching my homes, it is hard not to fall in love with.

Right. And that's the other aspect. The balance of fantasy is sometimes you do want to pick players that you have fun watching and you want to root for, and he's the most fun player to watch, but to tie it all in my homes was not necessarily a late pick, but he was a late pick, and he's the most fun player to watch. But to tie it all in, Mahomes was not necessarily a late pick, but he was a late pick. Yeah, he was.

He was ranked anywhere from, I think, you know, I'm trying to think where our guys had him. I think I had him at one point as high as eight. I think I probably settled around ten. He was going seventh, eighth round, seventh, eighth, ninth round. But by definition of quarterbacks in most regular drafts, that's late. Absolutely.

That's when you want to try and target your quarterback. I mentioned that I drafted this weekend David Montgomery, my first running back taken. Sean, do you have a take on David Montgomery as our resident Bears honk? I do. I don't think he's going to be fantasy startable this year. And I like him as a player, and I think in real life he's going to help the Bears a lot. I just don't see any way this Bears offense gives him enough touches,

especially with Tariq Cohen there. They signed Mike Davis, who I think is going to be an important piece of that offense. So I love him in real life. I think he's going to make them better. I just can't see any way I'm drafting him and starting him ever. It's funny because he's one of those very polarizing guys at this point. And my two colleagues, Dave loves David Montgomery, and Heath is a little bit hesitant, similar to you.

The industry is all over the place. Brad Evans of Yahoo. Loves him. We'll take him in the third round. It's just wild to see these variations. I think the thing with Montgomery is what his role in the passing game will sort of solidify if you're right or if you're wrong. Because if he's going to take Tariq Cohen off the field

in significant situations, then he's going to be successful because i think mike davis will take away some touches but if you're looking at the 250 carries that jordan howard left 200 should go to dave montgomery and in those 200 carries he should be successful if the team's successful will i think has them you know missing the playoffs and total regression just because so uh but in in the case of what his role in the passing game, I think this is where people got really encouraged by the first preseason game when he had the three catches and he looked good in space.

If Tariq Cohen loses the five receiving touchdowns and he had 170 total touches last year, if that is where you're able to get some wins from David Montgomery, then I think his fantasy value will make him a startable option. So it's always about value at this point in the year. We know where you're drafting to get some wins from David Montgomery, then I think his fantasy value will make him a startable option. So it's always about value at this point in the year. We know where you're drafting these guys, and Heath, like Brad, for example, is very gung-ho about him, and it's easy to see why.

But for me, if I can get him in that round five range, that's the spot I'm excited about him. If I have to go early to middle of round four, it feels a little bit like a reach i guess my my concern is i don't know why the bears would want to have david montgomery replace his touches his reception replace cohen's receptions because i don't know can he even upgrade to recone in that area i think as you're right he's going to get you know 200 carries i think that's fine but i don't know why the bears would be incentivized to take Tariq Cohen off the field in passing situations.

Why is it just 200? I mean, like, Jordan Howard had 250. Well, that's what I'm saying. They didn't have a Mike Davis last year. So Davis comes in and takes 50. Davis, I feel like, Davis I feel like is more. There are a lot of people that think if you want the best value of the Bears running back, it's Davis. Just because in case Montgomery struggles as a rookie or something happens to Cohen, he can do it both. The one thing I think that's different for Montgomery is,

and to your question about Cohen, they don't get predictable when he's on the field if he has a role as a pass caster. When Cohen's on the field, you kind of know that they're going to be throwing more times than not. When Howard was on the field last year, they're running more times than not. So if Montgomery can be closer to a three down back, then they're in great shape. Rank these four guys.

David Montgomery, Derrick Henry, Tevin Coleman, Austin Eckler. PPR? Half. Half. I will take Coleman first. Wow, okay. Montgomery second. Henry third and Eckler fourth.

I'm not in on Derrick Henry this year. I'm so concerned about just chasing the four games from a year ago. He was so amazing in those four games, but everybody forgets the first 12. It's just not going to be like that over 16 games. It's impossible. He would be like Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton had a baby. Right. I mean, it's just not going to happen.

You're talking about a guy that's nonexistent in the passing game, and so in any format that rewards receptions he loses already before you get 60 fantasy points in week 14 60 right like the top running back is coming out with 300 and it's all of a sudden like it woke him up like you know yeah you know like when somebody dies and they give you the paddles like that's what happens to him at that point um i remember our our former colleague nick costas was debating derrick henry or i forget who the other running back was and i remember telling him like henry's you know short week always good for running backs former colleague Nick Costas was debating Derrick Henry or I forget who the other running back was. And I remember telling him like Henry's,

you know, short week, always good for running backs. You know, who knows what the Jaguars are, but it's just so hard to trust them. And I don't think I, you know,

gave him a definitive answer. I may have even told him to go. He blames you. He blames you. No, no, he won. He ended up winning that week, but it was one of those things where like his start percentage that week was

like under 20 because nobody could trust him in the first somebody won the millie maker on or somebody won a million dollars on daily fantasy by using derrick henry that week almost you wouldn't you wouldn't have gotten them because that was a thursday night game so it would have been oh you're right somebody won a bunch of money on the thursday yeah that's right that's right um i another running back that is uh near and dear I think, well, I'm sorry. Tevin Coleman is very underrated. I think he's going to be really good in San Francisco.

I just drafted him in our NFL league with Preston. Did we make fun of you for that? No. RJ actually got mad at me. Okay. Were we doing it on the rap or something? Yeah. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Man, I was hoping you would make it back to me.

Oh, well. Here's a hot take for you. This is a scorching hot take. Jalen Samuels and Vance McDonald will each have more touchdown receptions than Antonio Brown. Each? Each. I thought about doing combined. I was like, that's not hot enough.

I need flaming hot. It could happen if he doesn't play. Exactly. McDonald wouldn't shock me. Now, he's got a career high of four. So it would have to be doesn't play. Exactly. McDonald wouldn't shock me. Now, he's got a career high of four, so it would have to be a big leap to come down from Brown's 15 from a year ago. But there are so many targets and points available in the Steelers' offense that I'm really curious to see what they do. Because James Washington has just been phenomenal through the first two preseason games. Are you buying James Washington?

No, not yet but I do think that if I'm looking at it from I want the most talent on the field I was always a big Dante Moncrief guy and he's only 25 years old 26 actually he's really young but he just he never puts it together and so you know it's it's not fair to say Moncrief stinks just because Washington has done well with the third and fourth team guys but but you know, he just looks electric right now. And so will that carry over to the regular season? But I think McDonald's in a great spot.

You know, um, he's, uh, he's one of two tight ends that I was really excited about that. We've yet to see anything. And so it's kind of cooled off a little bit. The other one would be Mark Andrews.

Oh yeah, for sure. For sure. And you know, both those guys really have, uh, cooled off a little bit after strong preseason hype. Now is a good time to buy them.

A hundred percent. And I think there's still a lot to like about McDonald. I mean, last year, career-high targets, catches, and yards, just the touchdowns were a little bit capped. But no Brown, no Jesse James. I don't think Jalen Samuels and Vance McDonald can both have success. I think they will. I think I legitimately believe they will combine to outscore to have more touch to perception, receiving touchdowns.

And then I think that would have to take a James Connor injury for that to happen for James. Maybe I think they can put him out on the field. I think they'll use them a lot in the red zone, but we'll see. Let's take a quick break. And when we come back, Sean will unleash more blowtorch scorching hot takes.

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as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals. Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. All right, this is the Pick 6 Podcast takeover on fantasy football today. And by the way, I am thrilled, Jamie, thrilled to tell you, not you, you already know about it, but I'm thrilled to tell our listeners, your listeners, everyone's listeners,

about the Fantasy Football Telethon 2.0 that is airing this week. What is it, you might ask? A great question. It's six hours on Thursday starting at noon Eastern time of Jamie, me, Sean, Roddy White, Ryan Wilson, Eddie Lacey, just a bunch of old friends hanging out together, answering fantasy questions

and getting you ready for your draft. Danny Cannell will be there, Brian McFadden, Dwayne Bowe will also be there. The fantasy footballers are going to join in, friends from the industry. Jake Seeley is going to be there, right?

A bunch of guys. Our colleague Nathan Zagura. Yeah, Nathan Zagura is Nando? Nando DeFino. Nando DeFino, the great, friends from the industry like Jake Seeley is going to be there right a bunch of guys and my old colleague Nathan Zagora yeah Nathan Zagora is Nando Nando DeFino Nando DeFino the great

the legend so make sure and tune in and even better it's for a great cause St. Jude we will raise a bunch of money last year we raised

like 10,000 bucks more how much was it 12 12 yeah I'm under the impression I'm going to be dressed up as a famous 80s

character okay what are you going to dress dressed up as a famous 80s character What are you going to dress as? A not famous fantasy analyst You're famous Sean, what do you think would be better? We have a professional wrestler, Eric Young From the WWE joining us To A, put Will in a sleeper hold

B, I believe his signature finishing move I've never seen Sean this excited Is to come off the top rope with a flying elbow. Or C, when we're done with the telethon, right before we go off the air, we clear off the table on the phone bank and Will gets body slammed through the table. Is there an all of the above? Sure. You can see all of this happen.

This wrestler is going to destroy me once per hour, apparently. And you can watch it on CBSSports.com or through the CBS Sports app on your phone, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, or Apple TV. It's going to be a blast. And Dave Richard and Adam Azar will compete in a pizza eating contest. They will? Mm-hmm. Dave's going to smoke him. I don't know.

No way. Azar's like Joey Chestnut. He's like small. But does it eat pizza fast or eat the most pizza? Eat pizza fast. Oh, yeah. Azar could get in there. I can's like small. But is it eat pizza fast or eat the most pizza? Eat pizza fast. Oh, yeah. Azar could get in there. I can see Dave like choking on a pepperoni or something.

Sean. Leave that one alone. Sausage. Sean, you're up on the clock for a fantasy hot take. We're going to rip through a few more, and then Jamie and I are going to go compete in an industry mock draft that I'm not supposed to talk about. I think David Johnson has number one running back potential. I hope you're right.

I really do. I'm so concerned after watching the Cardinals the first two weeks. And I know it's hard to look at two weeks of preseason and say this is what their offense is, but that offensive line scares me. It really does and you know like i was i was all in on the cliff kingsbury kyler murray hype um i i feel bad backtracking off of it after seeing what happened against the raiders and you know a little bit what happened in the first game against the chargers but i'm just concerned and you know david johnson's a star you know i mean there's no doubt about it but playing out of the, I don't think suits him best.

I think he's one of those guys that you just have to get the ball in the passing game as much as possible. And I don't know if they're going to do that to the level that we saw once upon a time with Bruce Arians. So he's still worth taking a chance on, late first round, early second round. There's that group of running backs. We kind of talked about a few of them. But Chubb and James Conner, Joe Mixon, Le'Veon Bell, he's in the mix with all those guys. For me right now, he's at the back end of it,

but I think if you believe in David Johnson, which everybody should still, this isn't a don't draft David Johnson statement by any stretch, you might want to either trade down in the first round, or if you are picking at the back end, he's a great target for you with the late first round pick. Heath and I talked about this on the pick six podcast because we do fantasy on there too on uh earlier i guess it would be the tuesday episode we're recording this on tuesday so maybe same day whatever the point being is that i'm with heath i think i'm out on david johnson just out completely and one of the things that concerns me is that even as like even though this defense

could be terrible for the Cardinals and it could lead to them being down and having to throw the ball and plenty of dump-offs to David Johnson, I get it. And Kingsbury's offense at Texas Tech had tons of running back targets. I get all that. The offensive line is a problem. And also, they're not playing in the Big 12 anymore. So if you're – the opponent you're playing –

let's say they're playing the Rams, and the Rams are up 21-0 in the Big 12 anymore. So if you're, like if you're, the opponent you're playing, let's say they're playing the Rams and the Rams are up 21 to nothing in the first quarter. The Rams aren't going to keep bombing touchdowns knowing they have to just outscore somebody. The Rams are going to shift down

and they're going to melt clock and they're going to pound the ball and they're going to do that for the rest of the game and it's going to shorten it. I just, I think we could see, like the Chip Kelly teams that ran a bunch of plays in philadelphia had good run games

like good straight up run games and i just don't know if we're going to see that from arizona this year and it worries me it's it's also uh you know i think a matter of the nfl got the chance to see it with chip kelly you know so there's an adjustment that's already happened that it's not going to be like, what is this? Well, also, this isn't like the RG3 scenario where they're playing possum and doing the preseason and not showing anything and then they whip out the read option.

Cliff Kingsbury can't... I mean, he can do stuff that's different, but he's not going to break anybody's brain with something they've never seen before. I mean, the track record suggests he's not successful. Dude, he lost to Iowa State with Patrick Mahomes. He went 35-40 at Texas. He had Mahomes, and he went 35-40 and lost to Iowa State.

Right. I mean, the fact that Mahomes wasn't in contention for the top pick, you know, you would think that with a good coach, with that talent, that he should have been in discussion for the number one pick where the Bears should have been trading up for him and not Trubisky. The thing about David Johnson that I feel like we kind of forget because it's been 2017, the first half or third quarter, he gets hurt. Last year, I think we can kind of just wipe that away. And by the way, he was still, I think, the 10th ranked running back last year.

For a terrible year, he was still decent or startable. The thing that I feel like we forget is— It wasn't very fun to start him. No, he doesn't need to catch swing passes the way most running backs get receptions. I really still think he's the best route-running wide receiver. And if you go back to 2016, he was running the kind of routes that receivers usually run. So I feel like, despite cliff kingsbury's shortcomings i feel like he's going to find a way to be able to use him more than just you know running it up the middle which

you know the cardinals don't have a good offensive line that's a concern they can spread them out out wide and he can take on defensive backs you know and slants and all that so that's where i like his value and i feel like because it's been now two three years since we've seen it that we kind of forget that this guy isn't like – he's not even like Le'Veon Bell because Le'Veon Bell is catching a lot of swing passes and stuff like that. He's actually running wide receiver routes that other running backs simply can't do. So that's why I feel like he's healthy. Le'Veon Bell lines up out wide.

He did. Here's my concern. It's like, all right, let's go back and – I mean like is he going to get 100 targets? No. I mean what's his max on targets in Cliff Kingsbury's offense? Because he got 120 with Bruce Arians when he was the breakout star. If he gets 80, I mean, he had 76 targets last year and averaged 8.9 yards per catch. So, like, even if you say, all right, we're going to give him 80 targets and let's say 60 catches and he averages 10 yards a catch, I mean, that gets you to 600.

But is his touchdown percentage going to spike? Is he definitely going to average four and a half yards a carry? I don't think so behind that line. It's hard to say. I still think there's a lot to like about him. This isn't a write-off David Johnson scenario by any stretch. Bury him. I like David Johnson.

But there are people that still believe like Sean does, and understandably so, that he could be the best guy in fantasy. I hope to see it. I really do. All right. Here's my hot take. Dalvin Cook is going to lead the NFL in rushing. He's got to stay healthy.

Sure. By the way, David Johnson, we didn't even mention that. It hadn't always been healthy. He said he broke a bone one year. I don't think that's an injury-prone label. He played in 16 games last year 2015 wasn't his he played in all 16 games it wasn't his fault he wasn't being used his rookie year why do you like dom cook so much well so the vikings drafted this guy i haven't heard

no i'm glad you picked up i i know i knew what you're doing um i i just i think that when you look at what the vikings did going out and signing Gary Kubiak, bringing him in to operate this zone-blocking scheme, and they have Garrett Bradbury who ran – at center, it moves Pat Alfond to guard. It strengthens the offensive line as a whole. All those guys, Garrett Bradbury at NC State ran 90% of his snaps last year in the run-blocking, run-zone-blocking schemes.

Dalvin Cook at Florida State ran a zone blocking scheme. Kirk cousins came up into the NFL running that Kubiak Shanahan offense. You have, I like just the idea of Mike, Mike Zimmer wanting to run the ball and then using play action to keep the defenses honest and having Thielen Rudolph, Irv Smith and Stefan digs flooding the field as Kirk cousins bootlegs. I think it's gonna be tough for teams to defend. I think it's going to be tough for teams to defend.

I think it's going to set Devin Cook up. Look, he's got to play 16 games. I get it. But he came out of the gates firing his rookie year. Oh, those first four games. Even the game he tore his ACL. And then he tore his ACL. People just forget that it's not easy to come back from an ACL. Right. We get

spoiled by Adrian Peterson. I think there's clearly a lot to love, you know, a defense that's going to keep them in close games so they can lean on their run game. You know, despite what Pete Prisco says about Kirk cousins, you know,

curling up in the fetal position, you know, he's still capable quarterback in the regular season to, you know, keep this offense. I bet on, I bet on to win the MVP. It's 47 to one.

It's good odds. Yeah. But yeah, I think the offensive line is huge, but you know, he's played 30, he's been in the NFL for 32 games. He's missed 17 of them in terms of Cook. The other part of it is, it's funny,

this is where NFL and fantasy sort of differ. Alexander Madison is worth investing in with a late-round pick because he's most likely the backup. I wish it would be Mike Boone, but he was a bad draft pick. I mean, he's just not a very good, not a very talented running back. And, you know, you would think that they'd have a little bit more want for somebody with a higher ceiling than I think Madison. So he could be a good fantasy option because of the carries that he may get

if Cook goes down. But if they had a better, more talented running back behind Cook, I'd be a little bit more concerned if him coming off the field. I think Dalvin Cook, if he plays 16 games i'd be a little bit more concerned if i'm coming off the field i think donald cook if he plays 16 games could be a star wow uh sean got one more you want to lob out there uh let's go with emmanuel sanders top 20 wide receiver i mean after monday night's game he may be number one that's an amazing story you know if he could stay healthy you know there are two guys in the news that have dealt with achilles injuries of late and i'm not talking about kevin durant yeah deontay foreman who tore his achilles in the 2017 season could not play at all in 2018 and just got you know placed on

in or was released right by the coles they didn't put him on the reserve they cut him um with a bicep injury but you know just talking about a career that got derailed by an injury and then here here's Emmanuel Sanders in December, Torres Achilles. And he comes back that age 31, that end around for 19 yards was impressive. He had a 45 yard catch called back against the 49ers. I mean,

my eyes were popping out of my head, just thinking about how good he could be. And he was really good last year. You know, the, he was, he was like one of the biggest fantasy steals of the year. Amazing.

You know, and, and I, I've always, you know always kind of been a little down on Emmanuel Sanders just because of some of the guys that he's played with. And he always seems to have big games when you don't expect it and struggles when you want him to play well. But he played 13 games last year or 12 games last year. Seven of them he had 13 or more PPR points.

He was really good. And it's such a young receiving core. Sutton and Hamilton in their second season, Fance a rookie. if you're joe flacko who you're gonna lean on you know so makes makes a lot of sense to first off if you were anybody who's drafted right now pat yourself on the back for taking a man i was in a draft this weekend speaking of uh talking about my own drafts um uh it's guys i play softball with and one of the one of my buddies says well this is a guy jam Jamie doesn't like very much. He took him out of Sanders.

I was like, you know, the spot you took him, it was a great pick. And he's got to be thrilled right now with what he's seeing from Sanders and what I think we'll see from Sanders if he doesn't have a setback. That's the only concern I have right now is can he get through 16 games without suffering some sort of relapse.

It only buoys my Joe Flacco who's going to burn the world down. I mean, it feels like Sanders has been underrated for four or five years now. But if you look at his stats since he got to Denver in 2014, even though he's missed games, he averages almost exactly 1,000 yards per season and five touchdowns. And so he, to me, has always been, like, the most consistent. Like, he reminds me a little bit in terms of running backs,

like a Lamar Miller, a guy that's not sexy, but, like, you put him out there every week, he's going to get you points pretty consistently. I don't know, Will, if you were around when we were in Nashville for the draft. We were at a table for dinner. You might have been another under the table when Brian McFadden was talking about... Oh, this is a scooter joke or something.

No, no, no. The competition between Sanders and Antonio Brown to try and get him. Yes, yeah, I was there. It was the day after. Great story about those two guys competing to get on the active roster each week and how that all unfolded. And they were like best friends. Yeah.

And they were basically competing for one spot. And so, yeah, it seems like Sanders has been around forever. I don't know if I can say top 20, but he's got certainly a shot. And he went from, I think, in the 50s in my rankings just because I was skeptical of him playing at this level, into the low 30s. So if he has another strong preseason and some other guys, Falter, we had a conversation on our podcast with Adam that he's a little bit concerned about D.D. Westbrook,

one of Heath Cummings' favorite players. Did you know that D.D. Westbrook, in my Madden simulation, led the NFL in receiving yards? Well, I'm sure Heath would love to hear that. On the Pick 6 podcast, which people can listen to. Adam said he would take Sanders over D.D. Westbrook right now, which would be a surprise. Wow. Last one.

A very important one. Curtis Samuel outscores Chris Godwin. I mean, it's like making me choose between two of my children. I love these two guys. You know, I just

think Godwin set up a little bit better. Being the slot guy in a Bruce Arians offense. They're going kind of the same range now. I guess Godwin's going a little bit earlier. No, no, no. Godwin's early round four. You know, we're taking Godwin's early round four? Yeah. You think so? Yeah. Especially now. It's going to be interesting because you have Mike Evans banged up so that may increase the love for Godwin's early round four? Yeah. You think so? Yeah, especially now. It's going to be interesting because you have Mike Evans banged up,

so that may increase the love for Godwin. But think about that group of receivers that he's around. Keenan Allen's banged up. Not that he was in the same range, but banged up. T.Y. Hilton may lose Andrew Luck. Amari Cooper's banged up. Who knows where Antonio Brown's average draft position is going to settle. Some people are either in or out on the Vikings guys,

depending on which Rams receivers you like. That's where Godwin's going and so um i don't think curtis samuel gets there yet had he done anything in the preseason and may happen in the third preseason he hadn't done he had done anything in the preseason in training camp he's been a monster sure but we haven't seen it on the field and it's just hilarious yeah i haven't seen hype like that guy has gotten in a long long time you know uh some people tried to or one of our listeners tried to say that this was Marquise Goodwin last year getting this type of hype. I wonder if that person listens to it. Somebody asked me that too. It may well be.

Might be a crossover listener. But there's obviously been guys that have gotten a lot of hype before. But it's just like anything you see from the Panthers' Twitter feed, from the beat writers in Carolina, another big day for Curtis Samuel. Here's a highlight real catch. When he had the joint scrimmage or joint practices with Buffalo. Here's him making plays over. They're like, this guy's going for 1,000 yards. Let me ask you this.

How often does preseason success in terms of fantasy translate to with these unknown up-and-coming guys? Is there a correlation, or is it oftentimes over? You get the rare Victor Cruz, you know, guy that has big preseason performance, then it ends up being, you know,

a successful season for him. But I think it's more like, I wouldn't put him in an unknown character. Like, I think the guys you're probably talking about, Preston Williams and Jacoby Myers and guys like that, that all of a sudden, you know,

that they're, you know, end of roster type guys that come out of nowhere and get good opportunities. Um, like Adam Thielen, once upon a time. All right. So would you go to read Cohen,

Austin Eckler, Rashad Penny, or Curtis Samuel? Depends what I need. Probably Eckler though. So just given the, the thing about Eckler and the whole Gordon situation is that he's startable. Even if 100%,

if Gordon comes back, you can still use Austin Eckler. You wouldn't draft him in the same spot if Gordon is there. But, um, yeah, Eckler still higher's startable even if Gordon comes back. If Gordon comes back, you can still use Austin Eckler. You wouldn't draft him in the same spot if Gordon is there, but yeah, Eckler's still the higher stuff. All right. So you would take Goblin over Samuel? Which one is which of your children?

I would take both. Do you love all your children? Do you love all your children? Of course. You'd take four and six. That's right. Running back, running back, you're four and six.

All right. For Jamie Eisenberg, Sean Wagner-McGuff, I'm Will Renson. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Football Today podcast. As we take over, we'll return tomorrow with your regularly scheduled programming. Yeah, the thing that you want to make sure is that this was a great show, but you don't want to be too successful because then you'd have to show up at 830 in the morning

and actually do some work. Well, you know, like Adam actually spends a lot of time prepping. He doesn't just write like, you know, a whole little sheet of here oh we don't we don't normally get this sheet this is this is oh no i've done plenty of video show with will you be like we're in we're in uh was it no it's atlanta right with those the ferris wheel and they would show these these shots like scenery shots he's like oh yeah we're here in atlanta there's the ferris wheel it's going in a circle. Jamie's laughing at me right now.

I don't know if you're aware, but I actually have to show up tomorrow at 8.30 a.m. to be a guest on Fantasy Football Today. So the podcast is starting late, then. It means it's going to be either... No. No, X-Factor is supposed to be at 8.05. Azor squeezed me for about 15 or 20 minutes.

Avoid the cigar bar so your voice is not shot. That was a mistake. That was a mistake. No. Again, you can check out the Pick 6 podcast on Apple Podcasts. We do daily NFL content. Big old chunk of mirth. Plenty of analysis.

Lots of fantasy gambling and whatnot. We'll be doing Fantasy Week all week long. Dave Richard, Adam A analysis, lots of fantasy gambling and whatnot. We'll be doing a fantasy week all week long. Dave Richard, Adam Ager are coming in the next few days. The Telethon on Thursday. Make sure to check that out and enjoy the rest of your week with Adam Ager.