Fantasy Football Today - Players We Keep Drafting; Fantasy Combos (08/29 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 29, 2023

Donate to St. Jude as part of our Draft-A-Thon! Bid on guest spots on our show, Zoom calls with our analysts and more! https://tinyurl.com/fftdonate Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts A little trivia to start the show and then an upside discussion (3:10). Do the top running backs have more upside than the top wide receivers this season? After that, we tell you the players we keep drafting (9:45)! Heath is drafting a lot of Miles Sanders, Patrick Mahomes and more. Dave keeps drafting George Pickens and Dameon Pierce among others. And Adam is big on a trio of talented RBs with playing time concerns ... News and notes (23:45) with updates on Kyler Murray and how to rank the rest of the Cardinals. We also discuss JSN, Treylon Burks and how to evaluate Jonathan Taylor in dynasty leagues ... Fantasy combos (39:40)! We give you some potential combos if you already have drafted Ja'Marr Chase or Travis Kelce ... Your emails at [e-mail] SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Players that we just keep on drafting. Who is showing up on a lot of our fantasy rosters? Welcome, everybody. What's up it is monday night there's no football game tonight but that's going to change in a couple of weeks you might be listening to this on tuesday happy tuesday happy monday whatever it is for you i'm adam azer with dave richard and heath cummings and if you're watching on youtube heath is always reminding you via his little screen name to subscribe to fft dynasty a very important time now in dynasty especially with some players getting cut

and what it means not just for Redraft, but for Dynasty. Check out Fantasy Football Today Dynasty. All right, I know you guys are going to love this. How about some quick trivia that nobody will get? Is it factual trivia, or is it like 16-game stats for a guy who actually played 15 games?

Did I do that? I just saw where it came from. No. You're thinking of a different website, by the way. I am, totally. It is an ADP. It's factual. It's factual.

Here we go. Factual ADP. All right, so I'm using Fantasy Football Calculator, average draft position, where I can go back in time and see previous seasons ADP. This year, ADP on that website. The top two picks are Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase. When was the last time that the top two players in ADP were both wide receivers?

Never. Within the last 10 years, and actually the top three players were all wide receivers. Oh, they had that one year. Gosh. 2017. 16 or 17? Yeah, 16. I'm not giving you credit for that. 2016.

It was right after I started. Who was it? It was Antonio Brown, started. Who was it? It was Antonio Brown, Julio Jones, and Odell Beckham. They all were great. They were all top five per game, top six overall. Antonio Brown was wide receiver one in ADP and overall. Here's another one that you're not going to get.

Actually, I think I said it to you earlier today, so maybe you will get it. According to just about every ADP source, there are three quarterbacks being drafted in the top 24 this year. When was the last time that happened? Three quarterbacks in the first two rounds. Oh, I don't know the year,

but I bet I can name the quarterbacks. Manning, Breeze, Brady. Very close. I would guess that it was the year after Brady threw 50 touchdowns. You're wrong, but you're very close.

You got two of the three. Was Cam the third? No. Okay. Manning and Breeze and the guy who's still playing today. Aaron Rodgers.

Aaron Rodgers. 2014. 2014. QB5 that year in ADP was Andrew Luck and he finished as the number one quarterback. He was good.

Interesting trends. It got me thinking with Jefferson and Chase being the top two, McCaffrey being in that mix too, but Jefferson seems to be number one at least. Man, the best, best, best wide receiver seasons just don't really compare to the best, best,

best running back seasons. Nope. Does that matter to you guys when you make the pick if you have 101 or 102? It matters a little bit at 102 for me because I think that there's just a little bit more upside. The reason why Jefferson's my 101 is

because not only is there a huge upside, I just think he's super safe. Everything that you could want in a fantasy football wide receiver. Why am I speaking in a French tone? No idea. This is Trevian. The escargot is still moving. He's just double-digit targets per game.

Young, healthy, going to get plenty of yards after catch. Might even be more efficient this year. Quarterback knows to get him the football. Team might struggle to run the ball. Team figures to be top three in pass rate over the course of the season. Everything lines up for Jefferson to be the 101. After that, I feel like there's that 20 to 25 PPR point potential that's still live for for McCaffrey and Eckler because they catch so much because they score a lot of touchdowns because they're good at running with a

football tucked into their arm. Yeah. Heath, your thoughts. Who's so, whoa, sorry, Dave,

who do you take at one Oh two McCaffrey? Heath. Yeah. It's Jefferson chase Tyreek for me. I, I know that historically that has been the case. I don't know how plausible those insane running back seasons still are. years for the running backs and it's not just been because i mean part of it's been because certain guys got hurt but also it's just been we've just seen a major shift and that was my argument for josh jacobs was that he's one of the few guys who's not old and as as long as things go okay he's gonna touch the ball 20 plus times a game there's just so few of those guys anymore

i don't know that mcafree if with elrey with Elijah Mitchell is even that guy. The one thing is that Mitchell doesn't get a lot of the value touches, high value touches. He might have 12 carries in a game to McCaffrey's 18 touches, but McCaffrey's 18 touches are mostly great. I don't think he prevents McCaffrey from being RB1 at all. I think he prevents McCaffrey from being 28 fantasy points per game

or whatever the insane running back seasons have been. Dave hated that so much that he just literally walked off. I bailed. I'm outie. Now I'm coming back. It's not if you agree or disagree with this. I think just the presence of Debo, Kittle, Ayuk eliminates the possibility of McCaffrey having 120 targets or something like that, or 1,000 receiving yards like he's had in the past. I think he could very well lead the position in catches, but I don't think it's going to be the vintage McCaffrey when he was averaging 29, almost 30 PPR fantasy points per game.

I don't, I don't think he's catching. I don't think he's catching as many passes as he did with Carolina. Okay. But if I told you he was going to catch 50 passes, you'd probably be disappointed. If I told you he was going to catch 60 passes, you'd say,

okay, that sounds, no, you'd still be a little disappointed. Yeah. 70 catches. I mean, a 17 game season.

I could see 80. I just, I just can't see 100 from McCaffrey. How many running backs can you say that about? Look, this is not about, again, this is like what he said. This is not about McCaffrey being RB1 or anything. This is, can McCaffrey reach the heights he did in Carolina? I don't think he's catching as many passes as he used to.

Do you guys? No. I think it's absolutely within his profile that he can. Okay. I don't even know the number, but it was what? I mean, I don't think it's absolutely within his profile that he can. Okay. I don't even know the number, but it was what? I mean, I don't think it's going to be like 80. 107 in 2018, 116 in 2019. That would be crazy.

All right, we can move on. So I have a lot of things to promote, and we will do that in a second. We'll do that right now. Why not? Draft-a-thon is Wednesday, 4 to 10 p.m. Eastern time. We can't wait. Please join us.

Ben Gretsch is kicking off the show with us. Old friend Ben Gretsch. Man, we have Robert Turbin scheduled to come on. We have Bryant McFadden scheduled to come on. We've got Pete Prisco and Will Brinson and Nick Costo spending a full hour with us. Do you know what McCaffrey's 17-game pace was last year

from his 11 games with the 49ers? No. 100 targets, 80 catches, 717 receiving yards, 6 touchdowns. And that feels realistic. Perfectly reasonable, but to the original point like a long ways away from having a lot more upside than justin jefferson or jamar chase

right yeah i i i don't want i i hate when i bring up a topic and it sounds like i'm i'm saying something that i'm just asking really i hope it didn't come off as me saying that they do this year have more upside. I mean, they probably do, but, you know. Definitely do. It's just not as, it's not as likely.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Anyway, Draftathon Wednesday, 4 to 10 p.m. YouTube.com slash fantasy football today.

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We're almost there. Let's hit $100,000 to raise for St. Jude. Hit the donate button and check out the draft-a-thon. We are on CBS Sports Network. We did our first show today. We did some fun segments that you wouldn't see here. We'll do another couple of those tomorrow. That's on CBS Sports Network tomorrow. Well, sorry, Tuesday, Tuesday, 11 a.m. to noon Eastern

and Friday, 1030 to 1130 a.m. Eastern CBS Sports Network. Now let's get to today's topic. And later we'll talk about the news and notes with the Cardinals quarterback situation. Kyler Murray's going to miss at least four games and Colt McCoy was released. An update on JSN, an update on Traylon Burks, Matthew Stafford feeling like an old man. Very interesting story there. And a really cool

stat on Jonathan Taylor that I saw on CBSSports.com I'd like to share with you. Players, we keep on drafting. Heath, who's on your list? Well, my quarterback is Patrick Mahomes. That's going to shock everyone. I just, can I talk about, it's already on the site, isn't it? I just drafted him again today at the two, three turn and a draft with a bunch of industry experts that are not buying into this drafting any of the quarterbacks in the first two rounds. So I took Patrick Mahomes at three Oh one.

I think I have, I'm on about 40% of my team so far. The running backs will surprise no one. Josh Jacobs and Miles Sanders. Wide receivers, Jahan Dotson. Excuse me, where is David Montgomery? David Montgomery has not made the list. I think what has happened, and you've talked about this, is that if you draft Josh Jacobs and Miles Sanders, even if David Montgomery's there in round six,

it's not quite as appealing because you might already have three running backs. And so that has happened, but I still, I like Sanders and Jacobs a lot more than Montgomery, so I'm okay with that. And then, yeah, Dotson. And I thought the interesting thing was I've got more than a dozen drafts.

No tight end that I have on more than two teams. Wow. There's no tight end. I'm drafting a lot. I've got to say, I have got to start drafting more Jahan Dotson. You can't. It's too late. You missed it.

He went at pick 49, I think, today, or 52, something like that, right after the 4-5 turn. Is that too early? Is that too early? Feels early. Not that early, but early. Clamoring for a commander's wide receiver

with Sam Howell under center in a division with loaded teams, doesn't feel like the safest play. But I have to admit he has upside. I just wouldn't clamor for him. Wouldn't go out of my way to draft him. I think he probably needs Terry McLaurin to miss a large portion of the season for that to pay off. But I do think that Dotson has, like, I don't know of anything that he's not possessing as a potential elite wide receiver.

That's a talent you mean? He's blazing fast. He runs extremely good routes. And I think Matt Harmon graded him out coming into the NFL as having the best hands in that class. So you run really fast and run good routes and catch really well. That's good. My other two receivers

I forgot about, but Gabe Davis and Christian Kirk, of course. I got him at, I think, 7.01 today. That felt good. Why do you think you don't have any tight end

in more than two of your 12 leagues? Because you're not drafting Andrews as much. That's where it starts. The Kelsey one, you don't really get a choice on. It just depends on where you draft. And it kind of feels the same way with Mark Andrews as well. I think Jamie got

Andrews at 310 today or something, which is much later than normal. But often what I find is I either have a pick at the beginning of round three, and I'm not going to take Andrews over that trio of Waddle, Devontae Smith, and Higgins, and one of those guys is always there. Or I'm drafting at the back, and Andrews is already gone. And then everybody else, you're just kind of at the mercy of,

is this a draft where the guy likes Darren Waller in round five? Or is this a draft where somebody likes likes darren waller in round five or is this a draft for the guy like somebody likes dallas goddard in round six i don't really want to draft any of them until round seven and so if one of them falls to round seven that's who i take okay dave let's hear your list players you keep drafting first of all i haven't had a lot of uh drafts for leagues that were actually playing out. So take that with a grain of salt, the list that you're about to hear. But these are guys I like targeting, certainly in our mocks. Starts with Christian Watson in Green Bay. Just love that he's got the type of athletic profile to be an amazing stat producer. And I think Jordan Love is pretty close

to being a competent quarterback. Damian Pierce in Houston. Love that he's been getting every down work. I think it's like pretty much each of the series or first two series. Singletary might get a series of his own, but I think Damian Pearson is going to end up getting a lot of work and he looks really good. You saw him against the Saints. I liked it. I'm getting a lot of either Chris Godwin or Mike Evans. And this goes back to something that I talked about. Maybe it was

like two weeks ago. Maybe it was less than that. I don't know. Adam, you'll tell me. I feel like that those two are this year's version of DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. And I get why Baker Mayfield's the quarterback. And we just watched Baker Mayfield play poorly on two different teams last year. But now he's got these guys, and I think they're going to have lower A-dots and higher volume, if you can actually believe higher volume. Higher volume. Yeah. Well, I think they're just going to get a ton of targets in Tampa.

I imagine that they're going to suck up at least 40% to 50% of all available targets there. They're just going to get a lot of work. And I like where you can draft them. It's not like where Mike Evans used to be like a second round pick, a third round pick. Godwin was a second or third round pick, maybe a fourth round or fifth rounder a year ago.

Now you're getting them in like round seven. So I'm taking value with those guys. I've talked enough about George Pickens. You guys don't want to hear how amazing of an athlete he is, a contested catch machine and an offense that should be more pass friendly this year. Oops, I said it. Dalton Kincaid in Buffalo. He'll see a lot of single coverage, rookie tight end. That's usually the tight end I gravitate toward when I go late, since I don't often take a tight end. Great. And then Dak Prescott. Drafted him in our draft-a-thon league today as my second QB. I like how he finished last year,

almost 24 points per game in his last nine. He gets Brandon Cooks. He loses Ezekiel Elliott. Maybe he gets a couple more short yardage touchdowns this year. I think he's good value late in drafts. Okay, so Heath said, Mahomes, Jacobs, Miles Sanders, Dotson, Gabe Davis, Christian Kirk, and did not have a tight end that he drafts a lot.

Dave, Christian Watson, Damian Pierce, Bucs receivers, one of them, not both in the same team. Yes, do not draft both. George Pickens, Dalton Kincaid, and Dak Prescott. Would you rather have Chris Goblin or Jahan Dotson? Oh, I think there's more upside with Dotson at this point. Yeah. Would you rather have Damian Pierce or miles Sanders?

Pierce. Sanders by, by a pretty considerable margin. All right. Give me a 15 second. Each debate. Go Heath. Uh,

miles standards was basically a borderline. Number one, running back last year. He was on a 70 target pace. His two years with do Staley as a running backs coach. He's back with Deuce Daly. We have video of him talking to the general manager and the head coach about catching 50 passes this year.

And he's their clear three down back on an offensive line that led Deontay Foreman and Chuba Hubbard to efficient rushing in the second half of last year. Dave, 15 seconds. Pierce looks like he's the better running back and the one that will see more work in Houston. That's a running back that will be asked to help shoulder the load for their rookie quarterback. I think he can score plenty of touchdowns. I think he'll surprise us as a pass catcher.

Miles Sanders is already hurt. I'm not convinced that he will actually be a catch machine this year. He scored 11 touchdowns last year and barely averaged more than 12 PPR points per game. Okay. Damian Pierce probably needs to avoid contact a little bit if he wants to not just run people over all the time, although that was fun to see. But, you know, you can stay healthy, man. He's really a fantastic runner.

The four players that I feel like I'm drafting the most, three running backs on a tight end. And the three running backs have a theme, guys. I want your thoughts on this. It's Travis Etn in round three uh mid to late preferably ken walker in mid to late round five and deandre swift i don't even know it's such a theme what's the theme to you well it's the um it's the explosive run rate theme and it's the guys that coaches don't like as much as we do. Well, no. First of all, I think, okay, it's definitely the explosive run rate thing.

The theme is I think that they are great running backs that will rise above the workload concerns. I don't think Doug Peterson feels that Travis Etienne is, you know, I don't think Etienne falls in that second category that you were saying. I understand what you're saying about Ken Walker. And DeAndre Swift. Swift, yeah. I don't know what it is with Swift.

I think that with Swift, it's the can he stay healthy. I don't know if the coaches don't like him so much, but can he stay healthy? You know, he's been just so brittle. But I think he's so much better than Kenneth Gainwell. And I certainly don't expect him to play a full season, but I think he's so much better than Kenneth Gainwell. And I certainly don't expect him to play a full season, but I could just see dynamite from him. So yeah, I mean, these are just guys that I've tried to sort of, I've tried to, as a fantasy manager, just

when I feel very confident that we're talking about a really good player to believe in that player. The problem is, you know, I look back at last year, right? Some similar situations. Aaron Jones was clearly a better player than A.J. Dillon last year, and he never really ran away with the job. Javante Williams, did he run away from Melvin Gordon? No. There was one more example.

Tony Pollard, even when Zeke came back from the injury and Tony Pollard just was amazing, Zeke still had more carries than him. So I can't sit here and confidently say that ETN and Walker and Swift are going to be so good that the other guys just aren't going to matter. But I can say that even with those guys I mentioned last year, even with them not getting full workloads, they were still good for fantasy. So I just think these guys are terrific players, and I'm banking on them.

The only thing I would debate with of that characterization is the Aaron Jones inclusion. Why? Because I think you're identifying guys who are really good at a thing that is really fun and produces fantasy points in a hurry. But I think there might be things within the game of those other guys, ETN. I think Aaron Jones is just a complete running back and very, very, very good running back. I don't know yet with Swift,

ETN Walker, whether they're, they are elite runners, but I think they have maybe flaws in the rest of their game that are causing them to not get as much playing time as we would like. So would you take ETN in round three? Yep. Yeah. Late round three. Yeah So would you take Etienne in round three? Yep. Yeah, late round three, yeah.

Would you take Ken Walker in round five? No. That would be the absolute earliest I would consider him, and it would have to be right toward the 5-6 turn. And I basically take Swift just before the A.J. Dillon, Commanders, Running Backs, Samaje Pirine, Jalen Warren group, I'd say. What's your sweet spot for that? Did you say? I would love for it to be round eight.

I can't quite remember where I took them, but I think I'd go as early as round seven in a 12-team league for Swift. Let me take a look at the leagues. I guess I can tell you where I took them. But what about you? I wouldn't take them until at least round eight. I get where you're coming from. look at the leagues. I guess I can tell you where I took him, but what about you? I wouldn't take him until at least round eight. I get where you're coming from. I understand the excitement.

He averaged 13 PPR points per game in Detroit, multiple seasons. I don't think Philadelphia has to use him to the same volume, obviously the same way. I took him in round eight in one of the draft-a-thon leagues fine andre swift this is and i in the fft open i took him in round load damn you round eight i think i think round eight's good yeah and dave i'd like to tell you my team name in uh in the fFT Open. Business Ethics. What do you think about Connect to the Dot

Son? That's not bad. Somebody put that on Twitter. I'm not going to give him credit. Did you see my team name? Grab Daybull by the horns? You can do better. Okay. Here's one from a viewer, a listener, from henry it's been right in

front of us the whole time mr bj b-i-j-a-n-g-l-e-s mr b jangles b you know like bojangles no because it's bajon i know but it's the spelling uh wouldn't dable be better if you're doing something like under the Dable? It's not Dable. Yeah, I know. You never know. Dables. You get the under the Dable and dreaming. Playing under the Dable and dreaming. I love it. Alright.

Dable tennis? Anyway, let's take a break. When we come back, Kyler Murray update and more, and fantasy combos and some emails. Fantasyfootball at cbsi.com. Also, in a half hour, we have our podcast league draft. Cool. I will be right back on Fantasy Football today. That sounded like Screech.

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Those four games are three against the NFC East, Washington, the giants, the Cowboys, and then at San Francisco, me thinks we're looking at a, Oh, and four or one in three team.

It's either going to be Josh Dobbs or Clayton tune for the Cardinals as they have released Colt McCoy, Dave. Should I, we just not draft Marquise Brown? What does this mean for James Conner? Give me your thoughts. I've moved him.

I've moved both of them down. And in the case of Brown, down and down recently in a bunch of my rankings. And I got an eyeful of Clayton Toon. For some reason, I decided to spend part of my Monday watching Clayton Toon. Well, you know, I want to make sure that I am well-rounded and I've got something

to say about everybody. No, Dave, not that. This team name here. Jameer I Go Again by Whitesnake. Oh, that's brilliant. That's great. Okay, go ahead, Dave. Clayton tune. I thought he stunk. What did you think? That's a great tune. Clayton tune, not a great tune. He did stink. Slow release, low velocity. I get why

they acquired Josh Dobbs. This is a team that's probably very easy to avoid in fantasy. I talked to my friend Chris Towers on FFT Dynasty like 45 minutes ago. And he did

bring up a point. It's really hard for me to believe that 25 or 26 year old kyler is just going to be okay with yeah i'll just sit out you guys don't want me to play and that the coach is gonna be like yeah we don't want you to play because we want to lose all the games like i and i don't also believe that them cutting colt mccoy is somehow a negative for anyone okay that's at all uh i saw that tweet i I knew this would come up. I get it. It's not like Cole McCoy was so good, but I look at the absence of Ben Roethlisberger

when he was just pretty bad. And I think Pickett and Trubisky, or Pickett was definitely, I would say, worse, especially with the touchdowns. And I just think there's probably a little bit of value in having a veteran who's going to make the right checks, get you in there. This is just a theory, obviously, but I mean, two and look terrible. I hope they go to Dobbs because he actually looked good in the last couple.

He looked fine in the last couple of games last year with Tennessee, but he, you know, Josh Dobbs, I don't know. Like what? Okay. So when are we drafting Marquise Brown? If we're drafting Marquise Brown. Eight. marquise brown if we're drafting marquise brown eight deandre swift or marquise brown who's going to be higher i've got brown higher in full ppr yeah i think i do too but it doesn't mean i like

it i don't know if i like either of these guys certainly if i can wait a little longer for swift and let somebody else take Marquise Brown, it's probably a good move. But listen, right? And back to the Kyler thing, Kyler still gets paid his whole salary if he sits out the year, rehabs his knee, gets himself ready to go for next year. I don't think he'd be that upset over it. Is there a precedent for this that I'm not remembering

for just a young player in the middle of his career who's just not going to play half the year so the team can lose more games? No, but we're also entering a time where teams are embracing the suck more. And they're willing to tank and do things. I don't know that I see evidence of that. The Giants just fought their butts off to go 9-7-1 instead of tanking. That's a completely different thing. A lot of people would have said they should have tanked going into last year. Right.

Well, saying that you're going to tank and then actually trading away and cutting players that might potentially help you win games like a fast pass rusher or a good backup tackle. The Giants did that. The Giants did the same thing. The Giants did that last year with good backup tackle. The Giants did the same thing. The Giants did that last year with James Bradbury. James Bradbury? They traded him or he left as a free agent?

They cut him. That's totally different. That's not different. All right, look, this is a tangent here, but here's the thing with Brown, right? It's not like Kyler Murray's out for the year, right? We have to remember that. Is he more in the Michael Thomas, Cortland Sutton range now?

Yes. No, he's behind that. He's behind that. Yes. Kyler Murray? No, no, no. Mark G. Brown. Brown's in that range.

I thought you were talking about Kyler. Kyler's a double-digit round pick if you've got IR spots or deep benches kyler being on ir is not a bad thing for fantasy managers because if you have ir spots now he doesn't have to take exactly a spot on your bench which is and then if you need the ir spot during the season you just cut kyler okay so how about rashad white cam acres james connor i have white ranked the highest. I'm pretty sure Connor.

The only reason Connor is even close to those guys is because of his age. If you told me all three of them are playing 17 games, I think Connor lapsed them. They were the worst team in football toward the end of last year, and he was still really good, even without Kyler Murray. I can't say that. The last seven games, he was still really good, even without Kyler Murray. I can't say that.

The last seven games, he was the number five running back in fantasy. You want to quantify it? Because I've got it if you don't. No, I'm telling you. I just told you. He was the number five running back in fantasy. No, but there were games that he's played

over the last two seasons without Kyler, and he's been great. Yeah, he's been terrific. Like 13 PPR points as a floor. Yeah, right. So this is James Conner we're talking about here. So then why is he at the back of that list behind Rashad White and the Akers? Because he's on a crummy team.

No, he's not at the back of the list. He's at the top of the list for me. Yeah, he's not at the bottom of the list for me. Oh, okay. Sorry. Nine games without Kyler last year. 13 plus Ppr points in each of them include six in 2022 that includes one game kyler did leave early kyler started he got hurt

and average 21.6 ppr points per game in those nine i don't think compared to rashad white or cam acres he should be dinged at all for being on a terrible team because it might be the three worst teams in the NFC. How about this? In six games without Kyler and when the Cardinals scored fewer than 20 points, he had at least 13 PPR points in each. Yeah. Problem with Connor. He's going to need a lot of touches, which looks like he's going to get over the last two seasons. There've been 46 running backs with 200 or more carries he ranks 41st explosive run rate so yeah he has one carry in his career that's gone for longer than 35 yards 917 career carries for connor even zeke's laughing at that he's the anti adam azer running back i do like him but i i'm i don't know i mean he going to need a ton of work. He's the ultimate settle for RB2. Okay.

So, all right, let's move on to our next news item then, and that is JSN expected to be on the active roster, which just means he won't be on short-term IR. It doesn't mean he's going to be ready for week one, but it's a good thing for JSN if he's on the active roster. Traylon Burks returned to practice. Who do you guys take first, Burks or JSN? JSN.

Yeah, but very interested in taking both later in the draft. Took Burks, I think, in round 10 or 11 today. Sky Moore or Traylon Burks? Moore. Sky Moore, but that feels like one that I could regret so jsn over sky more yes no okay all right what did you make of this matthew stafford story that his wife said he's matthew stafford is having trouble connecting with a the young roster relatable bull 400 targets for cooper cup can i can i show that i was upset that van jefferson got picked in front of me in our draft today we're talking way double digit rounds but he's probably the likely

number two target getter for the rams yeah i do He's a good route runner. I mean, he's not like, well, no, let me know. He's a bad route runner. The no,

the number two target getters, Tyler Higby. I don't know if that's locked in. By the way, just going back to the James Connor discussion. If you have the heebie jeebies on James Connor, if you have the heebie jejeebies on James Conner, if you have the heebie-jeebies on Rashad White, Cam Akers,

because you don't want these bad offenses. I mean, these are running backs. They're around 24, 25 in ADP. Cam Akers is 22 on Fantasy Pros. So what are we supposed to do? What are we supposed to do at RB2? Are we just supposed to take our RB2 earlier than this? That's an option.

Or are there other guys like James Cook goes later, DeAndre Swift, Pacheco, much better than James Cook. What about Pacheco? What about Gervonta? Montgomery. Montgomery is one of those guys that you could settle in for as your RB2. Strongly prefer Gervonta. Strongly prefer Cook, I mean, Montgomery. Montgomery is one of those guys that you could settle in for as your RB2.

Strongly prefer Javante. Strongly prefer Cook. Strongly prefer Montgomery. Swift? No. What about a Camara-Jamal-Williams combo platter where you start Williams for the first three weeks? Or one week, and then you get sick of them,

and then you find somebody else. Yeah, I think that's fine. All right, moving on. Matthew Stafford, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, Houston named CJ Stroud their starting quarterback. They also released cornerback Desmond King, who I thought had a very good year last year. PFF always rated him highly.

Seemed like he did well, slot corner. So that was interesting. Carolina released a linebacker named Bumper Poole. Yep. rated him highly. Seemed like he did well. Slot corner. So that was interesting. Carolina released a linebacker named Bumper Pool. Yep. Yeah, Bumper Pool. Yep. You guys have played Bumper Pool, right? I haven't seen a Bumper Pool table in decades. I used to play it a lot when I was a kid.

To be fair, you don't go out much. I don't know any pool halls, but Bumper Pool was super fun. The Jets wave Bam Knight. Cardinal center Pat Effline is out for the season. Here's a stat I saw about Jonathan Taylor from CBS Sports. Okay.

At 29 years old, entering year eight in the NFL, Derrick Henry obviously has taken a bigger role, a bigger toll over the life of his own career. But dating back to Taylor's freshman year at Wisconsin in 2017, Jonathan Taylor has racked up 1,828 touches between college and the NFL. That eclipses Derrick Henry's 1,754 touches

in that span. It doesn't count what happened before that with Henry, like this article was saying. Henry has had more workload, but since 2017, when Taylor was at Wisconsin, he has more touches in that span than Derrick Henry. Heath, Mr. Dynasty, what do you think about that? I don't think Dave and I agree on this,

but I generally am of the belief that when guys handle huge amounts of touches, guys have proven they can handle huge amounts of touches. I am far more concerned about a guy where some people would say, like, Tony Pollard doesn't have that much tread on the tires. He's not near as old as Josh Jacobs, even though he's a year older, because Josh Jacobs had 390 touches last year. That's the comparison. I'm less concerned about Jacobs wearing down after a bunch of touches than I am someone like

Pollard who's never shown the ability to do that. Okay. Was that Jonathan Taylor calling you? It was. Alright, let's do some fantasy combos here. Hold on a second.

Does it matter to you that Jonathan Taylor didn't have his normal allotment of touches last year because he missed so much time? 220 touches in 11 games. I try not to think about it. I just thought it was interesting from a dynasty perspective that over since 2017, he's had more touches than Derrick Henry. I don't like that he got hurt last year.

No one does. So, yeah. And that he's still dealing with it. I don't know. I wouldn't ever accuse anybody of, again, I just kind of, was it Kevin Nash takes the blanket off the leg? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Stands up on the cast, everything's okay? Yeah, yeah, I just kind of was it Kevin Nash? Takes the blanket off the leg. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Stands up on the cast. Everything's okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There was no cast. There was a cast, but it wasn't around his leg. I have a thing here in this chat that I'm not really appreciating from Island Eric. Dave is the pizza expert of the three. I'd really like to know. Let me tell you a story.

I just... Oh, your New York City story? That does not count, sir. is the pizza expert of the three. I'd really like to know. Let me tell you a story. That does not count, sir. I'd really like to know. What the fact that Dave just professes his love for pizza and weighs more than me, that he's the pizza expert? Give me a break. I just had pizza.

Each of the last two days, I had pizza. I did, too. Step off. No, you didn't. I swear to God. Really of the last two days, I had pizza. I did, too. Step off. No, you didn't. I swear to God. Really? Okay, then you win. All right, Heath, Dave is a pizza expert. Buy or sell? Well, I've not seen a lot of evidence of that.

The first time I ever went to New York, Dave was very enthusiastic about taking me out to have New York pizza. I walked with him in the rain for a long time to presumably get to a place that was really good

New York pizza. I'm not sure. I didn't see the name. It might not have been Sbarro. It's called Mama's. I made sure to leave a proper review. It was not that. I've had better New York pizza in Boca.

They have better pizza in prisons. Yeah. He's embellishing the story a little bit. We were in New York to do a live show. I said we walked a long way in the rain. You made it sound like I'm trying to take you on a tour to one of Times Square's best pizza parlors. I've been there a hundred times before. We saw a place with a really long line, but Dave thought the line was too long, so he took me to a different place.

We needed to be back in like 30 minutes. And the place with the long line apparently was good because jamie and prisco were there we should have crashed them oh no the place that i that we ended up at a i did not i'd never been to before in my life b uh was horrible yeah so word of advice to anyone visiting new york city go to Times Square. It's super fun. Do not eat in Times Square. It's the worst food in the city, I would say. Let's take a break.

We'll have fantasy combos when we come back and a few of your emails at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. We're back here, Adam, Dave, and Heath. Wednesday is Draftathon. Wednesday is also kind of a cheat sheet. We're going to update our position previews, basically give you some tips at each position, maybe some breakouts at each position, something like that. And then Thursday

is a final edition of sleepers, breakouts and busts. We'll have a mailbag. Also, we'll have two episodes for Friday. Fantasy combos.

You drafted Justin Jefferson at. Sorry, I'm looking at some of the comments here. You drafted Justin Jefferson or Jamar Chase. Would you rather have, in rounds two and three, Jalen Waddell and Chris Olave,

Jalen Waddell and Joe Mixon, Josh Allen and Chris Olave, Josh Allen and Joe Mixon, to go along with your elite wide receiver. Allen on Olave was where I was probably going to lean. If Waddle were healthy, I'd say Waddle on Olave. Allen and Mixon. It feels like everybody's backing off this. We all moved the quarterbacks up into the end of round two, and then we do our drafts, and I'm the only one who actually prefers to take thebacks up into the end of round two.

And then we do our drafts and I'm the only one who actually prefers to take the quarterbacks at the end of round two. See, it depends on the draft for me. For example, are you referencing today's draft because you got Mahomes so late? Our last couple. The IDP draft as well.

I know that in today's draft, it's literally a fantasy nerd fest it's a bunch of guys from different sites right all competing against each other and so i'm under the assumption that no one's going to reach for quarterbacks and that i'd get a good value later on and i i don't even know if i got that great of a value. I got Burrow in mid to late round four. Mid four. I had a tough draft today. Getting Burrow in round four was probably actually one of my more decent picks. So to me, that was more about who I was drafting with

and why I didn't want to take a quarterback in round three, for example. I had the choice of Jonathan Taylor or Patrick Mahomes. At 20 overall, I took Taylor. Who's your favorite running back that you think would be available at the four or five turn? Miles Sanders. Pierce doesn't usually make it that far. No.

Madison. Sometimes Dobbins. Sometimes not in that order. Dobbins over Madison. Here we go. Dobbins, Madison, Rashad White. Najee's usually gone by then. That's a good thing.

That's about it. Brees Hall, maybe. Maybe. So what's better value? Josh Allen and Miles Sanders or whichever running back you're taking at the four or five turn. Okay. So Dobbins. Josh Allen and Dobbins, Josh Allen and Miles Sanders,

or Joe Mixon and Joe Burrow? Allen. Yeah. I think that's what I found, is that I have a bigger gap between Allen, Hurts, and Mahomes and Burrow than everybody else does. And that wouldn't surprise me if I had

the same. What if it were Fields who fell there to the end of round four, to the 4-5 turn? I have Burrow right to out of Fields. But Heath doesn't. I still think I'd prefer to have Allen. Okay. All right, you drafted Travis Kelsey. Would you rather have with picks two and three?

Patrick Mahomes? Oh, wow. I cannot believe I did this. I cannot believe I put Patrick Mahomes and Mark Andrews. I don't think you're going to take both Kelsey and Andrews. Well, hold on. Do you start two tight ends? All right, you have Travis Kelsey.

Would you rather have Patrick Mahomes and Travis Etienne, Patrick Mahomes and Calvin Ridley, or Garrett Wilson and one of those Jaguars to go with Kelsey? Wilson and a Jaguar. I would take my homes. I think I, I really,

especially stacking up my homes and Kelsey. Like I just figure you've probably won eight games now. I know it's so tempting to, if you take Kelsey, but it is riskier because if my homes gets hurt or if Kelsey gets hurt, it might screw the other one. But if you have those two guys in the last five years are the evidence that we have, they're going to win you five or six games by themselves probably.

All right, which combo do you like better, Stephon Diggs and Derek Henry, or Saquon Barkley and Amonra St. Brown? Saquon. Is this half PPR? You can give me answers in both. Full PPR, I think it's closer. Diggs and who, Henry?

Diggs and Henry or Barkley and St. Brown? They're very close for me. I'll take Diggs and Henry. That's a pretty realistic scenario if you're picking 10th or so. Yep. And do you like Christian McCaffrey and Josh Jacobs?

Christian McCaffrey and Jalen Waddell? Or Christian McCaffrey and a top three quarterback? If I can get Jacobs in late round two, I'm happy. Yeah, I don't understand why we're not taking him in late round one. So, yeah, it's definitely Jacobs for me. Do you have any concerns just about any of the unpredictable things that could happen from him missing so much time and not practicing slow start injury,

something like that. I would, I would hold back on that because he's got a couple of weeks to get ready. So I said it last week and I think I was talking to Dave when we were talking about it. Like this today was the day where I felt like if he has two weeks he's fine i was gonna move him down today if he didn't show up yep okay and he's already shown up before today so it's even better matt smith and brandon mississippi has our first email for today he says can you please

um tell me if you've had a podcast on salary cap drafts or auction drafts or have an article on the website i have one coming up on wednesday it's my first salary cap drafts or auction drafts or have an article on the website. I have one coming up on Wednesday. It's my first salary cap draft. And I know I've heard Jamie talk about his strategy before. Any help would be appreciated. And before you answer, Dave, you guys are doing one tomorrow. Each of the last two mailbags, I've read a question very similar to this. And I've had myself, Dan Schneier and Jamie Eisenberg, you know, on the two shows, mailbag episodes, give salary cap draft advice. Mine's always the same. Save money for the middle. Don't wait too long to spend your money and don't spend it all too early. That doesn't

mean don't get anyone too early. But my one piece of advice is try to make a lot of, you know, transactions in the middle when guys like, when guys like DeAndre Hopkins and Damian Pierce, these round four, five, six guys are going to go in that range, and you're going to clean up because you're going to have the most money. Dave, is there any written content right now? There is. Okay. I publish a strategy piece every single summer,

and something like that is in there. I have a rule called the 2050 rule where you save 20% of your budget for the last half of the nominations in a salary cap draft. And sometimes I even have more than 20%. And yes, this is a great opportunity to pick up bargains. They're just not going to be the primo players. The way that auctions go, everybody nominates players. The majority of those nominations, especially if Jamie's not in them, are big name guys. So people like Nick Chubb and Garrett Wilson, I don't have to name them.

You know them. They're going to be the first ones that are nominated. And people get excited to spend their dough in salary cap drafts, and they will overspend. And then when you get to that midpoint, that point that you love, Adam, there's going to be three or four managers who just, they're handcuffed. They can't do anything about it. They can't go after players because then they'll be left with dollar bids to round out their bench. And that's not a great place to be so definitely save at least 20 of your budget so if you start with 100 save 20 if you start 240 congratulations i know

how to use a calculator i am the guy last half i'm the guy who will be picking up five one dollar players at the end of the draft um i would it's the only chance that i get all year long to have three first round players let's see if year long to have three first round players. Let's see if I can go get three first round players. I do think, and I was stealing this from John Bosch, who does a lot of auction stuff himself. I, I don't think you're very likely to get great players bidding them up by

$1 at a time. Guy B, John Robinson comes on tomorrow during our auction. If I have him at $36, I'm probably going to change it from one to 33 immediately and hope that it shocks somebody into letting him go through. And I'll do that on player after player after player. And that does, like I remember five years ago getting made fun of for being $12 Travis Kelsey because nobody wanted to spend. Like I bumped him up to 12 immediately and he was supposed to go for nine or something.

But you might overpay $1 or $2, but I think that's the way to get great players without overpaying. You just boom. As soon as they come out, when I nominate a player, if I nominate Bijan, I'm going to nominate him for 90% of what I think he should go for. I won't nominate him for a dollar. The problem is that all it takes is one other fantasy manager who's got the money to spend to just bid a dollar more than your big nomination. Right. And now you're still in the same situation where you're going to go dollar for dollar for dollar.

No, I'm done. Of course, it's a lot better than going, all right, Bijan for one. Do I have one? Do I have two? Yeah, two. And you do that for an hour and you turn into a skeleton. It's not going to work on every player, but if it works on two or three, it worked.

I think if there are mid-round guys like Miles Sanders for you, Heath, George Pickens for me, I think if we do that with those guys, people will clam up and maybe you get them for 90% of what you think they should go for. The downside is you might've been maybe you get them for 90% of what you think they should go for. The downside is you might've been able to get them for 80% if you hadn't have done that big jump in bid. Yeah, I'm not as likely to do that for guys that I know that I like more than everybody else. I see. How about this piece of advice? And I gave this to CBS Sports HQ host Jeremy St. Louis, allow yourself to bid the extra dollar. Because at some point in an auction, you're going to be one-on-one with somebody else spending that extra dollar to go get the player that you want.

And you'll be sitting there and the platform will say, going once, going twice. And just let yourself spend the extra dollar. It's okay if you spend an extra dollar on a player you really want. Don yourself spend the extra dollar. It's okay. If you spend an extra dollar on a player, you really want, don't spend an extra seven. That's unnecessary. By the way, when you hear some of the values we're giving,

we do a, we do a hundred dollar budgets. A lot of people do 200. So keep that in mind. You're not getting Bijan Robinson for 35 bucks and a $200 budget. And the shallower the league, the better the studs and duds approach is. We all agree on that.

Shallower league, you go out and you... Then you definitely want to try to get three first rounders. Okay. Next question is from Omar. 12 team, half PPR, three receivers. I've been so focused on fantasy baseball, I'm behind on fantasy football prep. I have the option to choose my draft spot

and one, two, three, and 11 are taken. Should I take the four spot? Where should this guy pick? You can't pick one, two, three, or 11. Where should he pick? Four. Agreed. Okay.

This is TC from behind the Redwood Curtain. Grade the trade. 10-team PPR. I would give up Devante Adams, J.K. Dobbins, and Javante Williams. Devante, Javante, and Dobbins.

I'm sorry, Devante Adams. Javante Williams, Dobbins. For Nick Chubb, T. Higgins, Damian Pierce. The Chubb side wins. Yeah, man. That's an A-. Devontae, Javonte, and who?

And Dobbins. JK? Yeah. For Chubb, Higgins, and Pierce. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. I don't even like Chubb. You don't like Chubb.

Yes, you do. You like Chubb. You're just not taking him. I would take Devontae Adams in PPR before I take Nick Chubb. Yes, you do. You like Chubb. You're just not taking him. I would take Devontae Adams in PPR before I take Nick Chubb. Okay. You don't want to say I don't like Chubb because you do like him. You just don't like him as much as everyone else. You don't like him as a top 12 player in PPR.

I have not drafted Nick Chubb this offseason. I can't imagine that I will. Do you feel like there's one person in every PPR draft that'll go after Chubb in round one? That there's just so much steam building? But I think the first three picks of round two. Okay, top 15? Yeah, I think so, yeah. I think so, too.

I think it's too soon. Maybe by a little. Yeah. I love the talent. He's an awesome running back. 15th overall or Jameer Gibbs 34th overall?

Nope. Neither? I think I'd take Chubb. I don't think I'm taking either one of them. I think I would take Chubb if I had to pick between the two. That's it for today's show. We have three minutes before our podcast lead draft. Good luck, guys. Okay. All right, that's it for today's show. Woo, we got three minutes before our podcast lead draft.

Good luck, guys. Not. All right. See, I did like a joke there where I said something that I thought maybe would be true and then I said not. I think it's going to catch on.

All right, we'll talk to you tomorrow. We'll talk to you on Wednesday. We'll sit in with Matthew Saffron. Wednesday on Fantasy Football Today. See ya.