Fantasy Football Today - Players We Keep Drafting: Players We Avoid (08/30 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 30, 2022

Check out our ebay store to benefit St. Jude! Bid on spots in Podcast Leagues, pre-draft calls with our analysts and more https://ebay.to/3p4Dc3Z We've got the "Must-Have" lists and the "Avoid" lists for your Fantasy drafts. Find out who Dave and Heath keep drafting and the players they are avoiding for one reason or another. Heath kicks it off (3:30) with D.J. Moore, Aaron Jones and Brandin Cooks while Adam discusses why he is so high on Courtland Sutton (4:10) while wondering if he is going a little too far with the Sutton love. We'll get Dave's list of favorites, and then Heath tells you why George Kittle, Kyler Murray and J.K. Dobbins are not on any of his Fantasy teams (11:55). It's not necessarily because he doesn't WANT to draft them ... A lot of news and notes (22:00) to get to. Jimmy Garoppolo signed a new deal with the 49ers. It looks like Kenyan Drake could be on the Ravens soon. Plus updates on a bunch of running backs ... Back to the players we keep drafting (36:45), Dave talks about Josh Jacobs, Treylon Burks and Russell Gage. Heath discusses some late-round handcuffs who are undervalued. Then we have more players on the AVOID list (52:30) with a big Mike Williams debate! ... Email us at [e-mail] Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. This is going to go the distance. Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.

All right. Today on the show, it's those players that we just keep on drafting. And a little DJ Moore, Cortland Sutton debate, and some immediate regrets from the guy who drafted Cortland Sutton. Welcome to Fantasy Football today. We had our podcast league draft last night, 14 teams, full PPR. So we're going to try to talk about that at the end of the episode if you need help in a 14-team league.

But if we don't, check out the live stream tonight on YouTube.com slash FantasyFootballToday. That's the draft we're going to be breaking down at 8 p.m. Eastern. All right, I am Adam Azer with Heath Cummings here. So today we're not just talking about the players that we draft a lot, but also the players that we avoid. And the more and more drafts I do, Heath, the more I find out who I really love and who I really don't want to draft. I think it's kind of easy. I don't know how from your perspective,

but in mock drafts, or if you're just doing rankings, you might have it a certain way, but then when push comes to shove and you really got to commit to someone for a full season, do you get any clarity on the players that you actually didn't, maybe didn't realize you liked as much as you do? Yeah, I think it was Dave who was actually famous for changing his rankings mid-draft. He would come to a decision point and be like, oh, I actually like that guy better. And so he would take the other guy and change his rankings. I do think it's also that your rankings

are not going to perfectly align with every draft you do. There are certain times where you get to a point where you need a certain type of running back or a certain type of wide receiver based on that build. And so then you might go reach for somebody over somebody else. But yeah, that's definitely rankings do change because of when the rubber hits the road. Have you had any situations that you can think of

where your rankings change when the rubber hit the road? Well, I should be able to think a lot but um i know that last night i took um james robinson ahead of michael carter okay and i had carter ahead of robinson i took damian harris ahead of a couple of guys i believe naheem hines and a couple other guys that in full ppr i had ranked ahead of them um now this was a team where I'd started with McCaffrey and then a bunch of wide receivers and Jalen Hurts. So I needed guys that I could conceivably see as starting running backs. Yeah, last week for me, taking A.J. Dillon over Brees Hall

made me realize I freaking love A.J. Dillon. I might regret that pick, but that was a moment for me. Well, that's something we haven't talked about because I wasn't on the show yesterday. But I had an A.J. Dillon moment over the weekend where I realized I all of a sudden had him ranked in round four in full PPR. Oh, yeah. And what's happened is the same reason that I now have Kyle Pitts in round three, and I can't make that argument anymore. It's because we've had like a dozen running backs that I used to have ranked in round three or round four that have fallen behind those guys. Like it's not really that I moved pits or Dylan up that much. It's just that so many running backs have fallen behind them. So let's talk about some players that we keep on drafting and some

players that we avoid. Now, Dave was supposed to be on the show today. Uh, we're working or see if he can hop on. If not, I still have a list of players from him that I can read, but give me three players that you are drafting a lot of. Well, this will be a shock to everyone, but DJ Moore, I think I've maybe drafted twice as much as I've drafted any other player. I'm just talking about real teams at this point. I'm'm forgetting all the mocks we've done in the past these are just the guys i've drafted on real teams so dj moore definitely my most drafted as far as the higher end guys the next two would be aaron jones and brandon cooks dj moore aaron jones brandon cooks okay and dave well actually i don't i just i'll just go ahead and give the player I was going to talk about.

I was only going to give one because I thought Dave would... It's Cortland Sutton. It's Cortland Sutton, yeah. I keep drafting Cortland Sutton. And last night, I had the first pick. Heath had the second pick in our 14-team full PPR league. You only start two receivers and a flex. And at 27 overall, you took A.J. Brown.

So I started Taylor. You went McCaffrey. Then you took A.J. Brown. So I started Taylor, you went McCaffrey. Then you took A.J. Brown. And that left me with a lot of wide receiver options at the 2-3 turn. And I was, you know, I felt good about going with two receivers there. Consider James Conner. But you and I both thought we go with our stud running back and then two receivers at the 2-3 turn.

You took A.J. Brown off the board. I took Keenan Allen because it's still full PPR and I still think he's going to get his ton of targets. You just don't feel good about drafting Keenan Allen, do you? In anything other than a PPR league, no. But a full PPR league, I feel fine with it. I know he's not going to be a top five guy, but I think he's going to be what he always is, top 12.

I took Cortland Sutton. I took Sutton over DJ Moore. And Heath, I spent some time this morning trying to make myself feel better about it. My justification is that just two years ago, the last full season for Russell Wilson,

Russell Wilson was 17th in the NFL in pass attempts, and he gave us two top eight wide receivers in Metcalf and Lockett. And Metcalf did that with 83 catches. And he was wide receiver six in PPR. And then just last year in the first four games of the season for Seattle, Russell Wilson averaged 27.3 pass attempts per game and Metcalf and Lockett were on enormous paces. That absolutely would have justified a top 25 pick.

So it's a bet on Russell Wilson. And Sutton is probably not as good of a player as DK Metcalf. And that's the issue here. But it's a bet on touchdowns, I think. Wilson's just such a supreme touchdown thrower. Sutton's going to lead that team in touchdowns. I feel good about that. And that's why I took him. So that's why I've been drafting him a ton. And then you followed

with DJ Moore, who you draft a ton. Yeah. And I was really struggling with that pick right before your turn. Cause I wasn't sure if you like, it's always easier with Dave and Jamie when they're the ones that I can just go look at their rankings and say, okay, they'll take these two guys. I'm going to take this guy. And I wasn't sure if you liked AJ Brown or DJ Moore more. And so I like, I like DJ Moore over AJ Brown, but I really didn't think you were going to take DJ Moore there. So I took AJ Brown ahead of DJ Moore. And then just like the fist pump to end all fist pumps when you took Allen and Sutton and I was able to get DJ Moore as well. Why aren't you taking Allen? I understand why you're not taking Sutton,

but why aren't you taking Allen there when Allen is kind of just this predictable PPR stud? I mean, he's basically been a top 13, I think, wide receiver in PPR per game in five straight years, something like that. And a lot of times, you know, he's been closer to top six.

So why, why not take Keenan Allen, the established guy? I think it's because I have him 13th. Um, so I still think he's going to be a top 13 guy and full PPR, but it's, it's guys who are ascending versus guys who could be descending.

And we've seen Allen's efficiency over the last two years has been about as bad as it's been. And there was a good stretch of last year where Mike Williams was right there with him. And I think there is more risk that Keenan Allen takes a step back due to Mike Williams being the number one or due to Josh Palmer getting a few more targets or just due to Keenan Allen being over 30 and having an injury.

And I like the younger guys better. All right, I'm going to give you some players that Dave says he keeps drafting. Derek Henry, who he might have second overall. I'm not sure, maybe third overall, but he loves Derek Henry. Alvin Kamara, who, yeah, is a first-rounder, I think, for Dave, and going to be a one-two turn guy for a lot in a lot of leagues, Alvin Camara and Michael Thomas. And do you still feel good about Michael Thomas?

When do you take him? Yeah. Shockingly, I don't get a lot of any of those three guys. I don't know why. Probably because Dave's drafting them. They do all kind of fit into an art archetype. Archetype.

Archetype. Yeah. Archetype though. Like they are formally elite, maybe number one overall players at their position, and they're all three at the age where you've got to have just a little bit concern, kind of like with Keenan Allen. I don't feel as good about Michael Thomas as I did.

The hamstring thing just reminded us. He has played, what, nine football games in the last two years and hasn't scored a touchdown since 2019, and he could have some injury problems again this year. And I don't know that he has, in my projection for the Saints offense, I'm not sure Michael Thomas has as much upside as A.J. Brown, Keenan Allen, D.J. Moore, those guys. Oh, no, but you don't have to take him anywhere near there. Well, but Dave has been drafting him in round three a lot.

Is he still drafting him in round three? Let me check his updated rankings here. I don't know if maybe the hamstring. Is it hamstring? It is hamstring currentlystring currently uh he's got him 33rd overall so yeah that's that's round three but yeah you can get you can get michael thomas right now in round four or five in a 12 team league oh yeah if there's no cbs people in the league he's he's not going before round five i don don't think. Okay. And let's talk about a couple things here before we get into the players that we are avoiding. It's draft-a-thon week.

It's basically almost draft-a-thon time. So that is Wednesday from 6 p.m. Eastern until midnight Eastern. And it is an avalanche of the best guests in the industry. Heath is going to be on the 6 to 8 p.m. portion, which is on HQ, and then 8 to 9 with me right here, youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday. So the first two hours,

you're going to watch CBS Sports HQ. You can watch that on the CBS Sports app. You can watch that if you're a Paramount Plus subscriber. You can go to cbssportshq.com. Obviously, there are free ways to watch it. And then we're actually starting the YouTube version at 7.30 p.m. Eastern, so you can watch that at, again, youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday. Ben Gretsch is going to join me with a couple other guests, I think,

for the 7.30 to 8 p.m. half hour. Then it's me and Heath from 8 to 9. You know who's coming on with us? Oh, I do not. I'd love to hear, though. All right. So our lineup right now from 8 to 9, subject to change. 8 to 820 is Joe Pisapia and Donkey Teeth.

Excellent. Excellent pairing. Then we've got, look at this fantasy football powerhouse here, Mike Wright and Jake Seeley from 820 to 840. And then we're going to get a little statty, we're going to get a little nerdy to send Heath off into the night. Jacob Gibbs and Rich Rebar are going to join us from 840 to 9. What a crew.

Yeah. I'm just going to sit back and listen. Yeah, man. It's going to be really fun. And you're not going to sit back. I'm going to sit back and listen. You have to actually do the heavy lifting in that hour. But we have amazing guests, including, I mean, I don't know if I'm going to sit back and listen. You have to actually do the heavy lifting in that hour. But we have amazing guests, including, I mean, I don't know if I'm allowed.

I feel like I should be allowed to say it at this point. I probably should have asked. But I'm going to say we have an NFL football player lined up who is currently going in the second round. We have an absolute mega superstar joining us in the 11 o'clock hour. But I'm so excited for tomorrow. And it's all to raise money for St. Jude. So we'll see you tomorrow. And we'll see you tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern.

YouTube.com slash Fantasy Football Today. 8 p.m. Eastern as we break down our 14-team PPR draft, the Podcast League. And Heath, let's get back to the show. Players that you keep avoiding. Give me three players you keep avoiding. Well, definitely George Kittle. It seems like also Kyler Murray. I have drafted zero of them on any real teams this year. I don't know if I would say avoiding

because I have touted this guy a lot this summer, but I was surprised when I put together my spreadsheet of all the guys I have on rosters so far this year. I have not drafted J.K. Dobbins once. Why is that? Well, I think earlier in the off season or the last earlier in the month it was more because i was drafting wide receivers in that range and i just wasn't taking running backs where dobbins seemed to get go go um over the weekend though he was one of the running backs who fell uh considerably for me i do not like the fact that they signed kenyan drake today um like i don't think kenyan drake should really matter

that much when jk dobbins is himself but it just is another indication to me that maybe jk dobbins is not himself so i i dave's now the high guy on dobbins it looks like. Yeah, I think if you... I have a lot of Dobbins, actually. I think you just have to be patient. You just... I'm not saying you can't start him in week one, but I don't know that he's going to really give you the return. I can't tell you when it's going to be. None of us can. Would you take Dillon or Dobbins?

I'd take Dillon. Yeah, I'd move Dillon ahead of Dobbins as well. I think the really interesting one is also Damian Pierce or Dobbins. I take Dobbins. How about you? I've got Pierce right now, but it doesn't feel good, so I may swap that back.

Yeah, the thing, we just can't forget how great of a player J.K. Dobbins can be. Right. Six yards per carry, we're not going to project that, but six yards per carry as a rookie in a system that's just bred for running back success and we'll talk about that kenyan drake signing and if it means that all this time we were saying that mike davis was in the breakfast club don't you forget about me maybe maybe it's going to be kenyan drake now you should be drafting ahead of mike davis but we'll talk about that in a little bit you said george kittle kyler murray were the other two uh why real quick why on kyler

and then we should spend some time on kittle because he was also on dave's list and i have not drafted kittle once so why kyler um kyler it's it's really probably as simple as i like jalen hertz and tom brady more than kyler murray and in almost draft every draft kyler murray goes before those guys um so it's just like, I think you could make a compelling argument. It hurts versus Murray and just take the one who goes later. And that's very rarely Murray and George Kittle. I'm scared. I mean,

I hate to say this, but the Jimmy Garoppolo staying should almost make me feel better about it. I think like that's the main concern is that Trey Lance is not very good as a passer or that this offense just goes extremely run heavy and he's got to compete with two, maybe a pair of guys turning into superstars. Brandon Iukes had an incredible off season. Debo Samuel was incredible last year and everything we've seen from Lance. And I don't know if this whole offense changes because like one of the things they've done and one of the things Jimmy Garoppolo is so good at is hitting those shorter area routes on time and then the guys doing incredible things after the catch we've not seen a lot from Trey Lance and we've not seen a

lot from Trey Lance period but that indicates to me that that's his game that he's going to be hitting these timing short area targets over the middle. Like everything he seems to want to do is downfield. And that's not where George Kittle obviously as a tight end works the most. He goes downfield plenty for a tight end, but it's for a tight end. So I worry about target share. I worry about the quality of the targets. And I worry about how many times they throw.

All right. Let me just take a look at overall CBS ADP, and you tell me, if you want a piece of the Niners passing game, and you want either Debo, Kittle, or Ayuk, what's the best value? Debo is currently going 21st. Kittle is going... Kittle is going 49th.

Ayuk is going 112th. It's definitely Brandon Ayuk. Let me give you different draft values just in case these guys start to become values. Let's say Debo more like 24th, 2-3 turn. Because I think he was available for us last night, right? At the 2-3 turn of the 14-team league. I think he went round three of a 14-team league.

So Debo at the 2-3 turn. Kittle closer to 60, like round five. And Ayuk more like round five. And Iuke more like 90th. Well, I mean, with that imaginary ADP, then I don't think Brandon Iuke is the best value anymore.

I wouldn't call it imaginary, though, because I've been noticing Kittle falling and Iuke rising. Iuke on Fantasy Football Calculator over the last two days, which is a lot of drafts, though, still. 87th.

So that's why I actually just looked at this after I came up with the 80 piece. But that's kind of where I feel like he's going, is closer to 90 rather than 110 in a lot of leagues. But, yeah, anyway. With those numbers, then I would like Kittle the most. The problem is I don't like Kittle more than I like Goddard. And you never have to take Goddard before Kittle.

And Debo, in this fantasy football calculator, Debo's still 19th and Kittle's still 44th. But Iyuk is, to me, a riser. I don't know that if you like Brandon Iyuk, and you should, I don't know that you should count on getting him at 110 overall you might have to go earlier than that I like him in round eight exactly yeah uh one guy that I've been avoiding and real quick on on this is Terry McLaurin I like Terry McLaurin I got nothing against Terry McLaurin but if you look at fantasy football calculator ADP he's going ahead of Sutton Mike Williams Michael Thomas Alan Robinson and Chris

Godwin I take all of those guys before McLaurin. And if you look at CBS ADP, he's going ahead of some of those guys. I think he's going after Sutton and Mike Williams, but ahead of Michael Thomas, Alan Robinson, or Chris Godwin. I might have the names confused there, but I've been avoiding McLaurin, Heath, because I always find a wide receiver I like better in round four or five. Well, yeah, I think there's two different angles to this. Why have you not drafted them? It's the George Kittle I've been avoiding, or it's the Terry McLaurin I've been ignoring.

I'm not actively avoiding Terry McLaurin. He's just never someone I'm ready to draft when it's my turn to draft. So I would take him. I've got him one spot ahead of Alan Robinson. I would take him over Michael Thomas right now, but he's behind Sutton.

He's behind, I think, all the other guys you said there. And in the back of my mind, I think he's good. I don't know that McLaurin is a star. And, you know, because I think stars can basically overcome competition. But this is more competition than he's used to having. Because Samuel... John Dotson's really good. Yeah, Dotson looks like

a really good value late. And Curtis Samuel, I'm not sure you have to draft Curtis Samuel or anything, but in the preseason, they were throwing to Curtis Samuel. And he might...

I think he's terrible. He might matter. You think he's terrible? I thought he was terrible. Remember that two or three years ago when we were having the whole Curtis Samuel versus DJ Mortivate?

Yeah, vaguely. And Curtis Samuel had one year where he was good as a running back, but he's a really bad wide receiver. That's selling him a little bit short because he had good receiving stats at the second half of that year. But he's involved. But okay. All right. Anyway, let's move on here. If you plan on writing something important at work,

maybe you're in school, whatever it is, giving a speech, listen to this. I was just talking to Chris Towers the other day before we recorded FFT in five, we were talking about sponsors. We started talking about Grammarly and he said off the air, completely truthfully, he said that he uses Grammarly when he writes and he loves it. It really helps him. And I feel the same exact way. I'm right there with Chris. Oh, good. When I have to do some writing, I use Grammarly to make my writing better and much more effective. Grammarly's all-in-one writing tool makes clear, concise communication easier than ever. And it looks like I'm going to have to write some more articles because we did our pick-by-pick series yesterday.

So I'm going to have to write. Is that right? Nobody told me this, Heath, but do I have to write for this? You have two articles that are due by Thursday morning. Oh, well, it's a good thing I don't have anything going on Wednesday night. But I'm going to have to write two articles about the teams I drafted and the way they shaped up and why I did it. And I'm going to use Grammarly. I'm going to use it for vocabulary suggestions, for grammatical suggestions, but I have Grammarly Premium. So it's going to make,

it's going to help me make my communication more effective, get rid of redundant words and things like that. And when you're writing, Grammarly is going to help you avoid mistakes on important emails and documents. The free version of Grammarly can do that for you by proofreading your document. If you get Grammarly Premium, which is what I have, like I said, Grammarly Premium's clarity-focused sentence rewrites keep your writing clear and to the point. And get an instant take on how your message comes across with Grammarly's free tone detector so you'll always make the right impression. Get more time in your day with confidence in your work with Grammarly. Go to grammarly.com slash FFT to sign up for a free

account. And when you're ready to upgrade to Grammarly Premium, get 20% off for being our listener. So grammarly.com slash FFT, get the free account, and then you can get 20% off when you upgrade at g-r-a-m-m-a-r-l-y dot com slash FFT. Let's go through your news and notes. And by the way, Dave is going to join us in a little bit. We appreciate it. He was in the office trying to set up and he could have just thrown in the towel and said, nope, I'm out.

But he actually is driving home so he can be on this show, which I very much appreciate. Thank you, Dave. All right. So San Francisco did sign Jimmy Garoppolo to a one-year deal, six and a half million dollars,

fully guaranteed. There was a no trade clause. And GM John Lynch, according to Jordan Schult deal, $6.5 million, fully guaranteed. There is a no-trade clause. And GM John Lynch, according to Jordan Schultz, who's an NFL insider, would prefer not to trade Garoppolo to the Seahawks. But now Garoppolo's got say over it anyway. Does this change how you draft Trey Lance? I struggle with this. I wrote about it this morning.

Because we're not drafting Trey Lance because of his floor. We're drafting him because of his upside. And so I've always been a little bit behind where his ADP is. I think it's the 8-9 turn. I'm not quite on board with that. But in terms of upside, he has the upside to earn that and more. You can just look at what Jalen Hurts did last year. I think he could absolutely do that.

But it definitely, in my mind, means that you have to get a second quarterback when you draft Trey Lance. I think we've had two instances that are similar to this over the last two years. One, I mean, this time of year there was all kinds of speculation that Jalen Hurts could get benched at any moment. If anything goes wrong, Jalen Hurts could get benched, and he never did. He was very good. The other, two years ago, we had Tua, who got benched like three different times for

Ryan Fitzpatrick. Mid-game. Twice in the middle of a game. Right. And so I think this 49ers roster is built to contend for a Super Bowl. And I don't believe that if Trey Lance is struggling, Kyle Shanahan will just throw the year away

because we've got to develop, or Kyle Shanahan will just throw the year away because we've got to develop Trey Lance. So I do think he has more risk. I, I tweeted yesterday that his odds of being replaced because of bad play increased infinitely because I think it's zero if there's no Jimmy Garoppolo and now it exists.

Right. So just get, get a backup, but he still has a ton of upside. Baltimore signed Kenyon Drake. That's according or will sign Kenyon Drake, according to our Josina Anderson. And this could easily be about Mike Davis.

Mike Davis is 29 years old and averaged 3.6 yards per carry on Baltimore last year. I mean, you can't do that. No. Mike Davis was not on Baltimore last year, was he? Yeah. Oh, no, I'm sorry. he was on atlanta my bad my bad yeah kenyan drake is to mike davis as devonta freeman is to latavius murray just well okay go expand i think that if like week one they need a running back, I might still bet on it being Mike Davis because he's been there longer and he knows. But if those two are in any sort of extended competition,

Kenyon Drake's eventually going to win because he might have some life left in his legs. And would you say we're not sure if this is an indictment on J.K. Dobbins and his health, basically? It makes me more nervous, but we can't be sure. I take it more as I don't know if Gus Edwards is, if they think Gus Edwards is ever getting back.

They need depth. They need depth, for sure. And maybe Tyler Beatty and Justice Hill are getting ready to get cut. Washington has no timetable for Bryan Robinson. They apparently expect him to play this year. I can't remember. Oh, it was our pick-by-pick yesterday.

I took Antonio Gibson. Man, I wish I remembered when. Maybe round eight? And then I took Brian Robinson two rounds later on the same squad. Last night in our podcast league draft, Brian Robinson went with the last pick of the ninth round, which is like 136. Okay.

Second to last pick, so 125th overall. And Antonio Gibson went in round six, in the middle of round six. What would you do here? I have not updated this situation because I didn't want to. I'm glad that Brian Robinson is out of the hospital. I'm going to do it this morning. I think probably we need to move Gibson back up into the round six range. My current uneducated expectation is that we're not going to see

Brian Robinson in the first half of the year. Yeah, and there's been so much negativity on Antonio Gibson, but it's basically exactly if ryan robinson's not not gonna play for a while there's not much difference in what it was last year and he was a number two running back last year i think we'd have to get through this week we find out how much they they hate antonio gibson like that as dave said on hq yesterday they they could go pick up a running back off the trash pile. They could.

Okay. So would you take Gibson or Cam Akers, who's back at practice? They said Akers was a full go yesterday. That's what Jordan Rodriguez said. So I'll be Akers over Gibson for sure. How about Gibson or Clyde? Clyde.

Alexander Madison might be on the trading block. That's something to keep in mind there. Does that increase his value or decrease his value if you're drafting today? Which a lot of people are. What do you think about Madison? I'm not changing his value because I do think if he got traded, it would probably be better for him. But if he doesn't get traded,

I'm no longer certain that he's getting a workhorse role if Dalvin Cook gets hurt. Miami released Sonny Michel, so Raheem Mostert is definitely a late-round pick you should consider. How late? How early for Raheem Mostert? Does this do anything for Chase Edmonds? It is one less person

who could steal touchdowns from him because what happens... I hope Raheem Mostert plays 17 games this year, but I think we've all kind of worked with the assumption he's not going to, and that it would be Edmonds and Mostert until Mostert got hurt, and then it would be Edmonds and Michel. Who on that roster is definitely taking goal line work from Chase Edmonds if Mostert gets hurt?

Yeah. That's a good point. I feel a little bit better about Edmonds. I've got him. He's a top 24 running back for me. i've got him uh he's a he's a top 24 running back for me i'm giving 21st and full ppr he he's the player that that might make or break my podcast league team i took him as my rb2 in last night's draft and and i really see a lot of potential outcomes i know jamie really likes him i took him with the last pick of round four so

what is that 56 56th overall? Yeah, and I've got him 60th, so I'm right in that same range. Yeah, and Jamie really likes it. If Moser gets hurt, I think things are going to be pretty good for Chase Edmonds. If Moser doesn't get hurt at the beginning of the year, I don't know. I just don't know what Edmonds is going to give you because Tua doesn't throw to his running backs or hasn't so far. I feel like he might be kind of flexy early in the year. All right. Let's see what else

Chad Graff of the Athletic thinks that Ramondre Stevenson could get more third down work due to Ty Montgomery's ankle injury, which we still don't know the severity of, by the way. But we did talk about that yesterday. Not only is Cam Akers full go, but Daryl Henderson is also full go. Peter King thinks this surprised me, Heath. Peter King thinks that Trey Sermon is going to be the Niners' number two running back to start the season. I don't think anybody knows at all, and you should just draft all four of them. Like, who did we think the top two running backs for the Niners were at this time last year? Not Elijah Mitchell.

No. But we did know it was Mostert. We know it's Mitchell is number one. Let's see. Peter King also says that the Bills strongly believe in Gabriel Davis. Josh Allen believes in him. They think that he's about to emerge, basically.

What do you think? Good. Come on. Has there been enough reports, momentum for you to move him? Have you moved Gabriel Davis up? He's probably gone up a little bit in the overall rankings just because running backs keep falling. But I've got him as wide receiver 28 or 29 in non-PPR

and wide receiver 33 or 34 in full PPR. Hey, Dave. Hey-o. You good, or are you getting your headset? No headset? No, this is what we're getting. All right, that's fine. Gabriel Davis.

Sorry if I sound like duty. On CBS, Gabriel Davis is going ahead of Deontay Johnson. Whoa! Yeah, back-to-back. And Michael Thomas. Wow! Johnson. Back to back. And Michael Thomas. Wow. There is a ton of excitement for him on CBS, and I think

I know why. Have you looked at our projections for him? No. Go look at what the sports line projection is. We saw him yesterday, actually. I bet Thomas has them. I think that's why. I think it's a high think it's it's a high projection and there's a combination of people who see that projection and they draft them a

little earlier than we'd like and there's also people that rely on the auto draft and when you rely on the auto draft you're at the mercy of the projections and voila gabriel davis is on your team in round four ahead of deontay johnson and michael th. It sounds weird and I don't agree with it. I'd still rather have those guys, even Deontay Johnson, but you can kind of make the case for it, especially because I think the projections are a little light when it comes to Davis's catches in yards. I can't find the projection. Where is it?

Shafi T, what do you got? You got that projection. Let's see if Thomas can get that. We'll come back to Gabriel Davis. Let me run through the rest of the notes here. We have, I want to get to the players that we keep drafting, the players that we keep avoiding. I missed out on the Garoppolo news, didn't I? Yeah. Yeah.

Bad for Trey Lance. Yeah. Draft the backup. Houston head coach. Go ahead. I just want to go back to that because I don't want to be anti-Gabriel Davis, but aren't we really just hoping that he could be Adam Thielen? No, we were hoping he could be better than Adam Thielen.

I think it's in his profile to be like Adam Thielen plus. Adam Thielen's been almost exactly Mike Evans over the last two years when he's been healthy. Yeah, that's pretty good. Well, if Adam Thielen stays healthy, if you're telling me that Adam Thielen

is only going to miss a couple games and he's as good as what he has been, then Adam Thielen should probably be a round four or early round five pick.

He's played that well because of the touchdowns. I think people are making the bet that it is more likely that Gabriel Davis doubles his targets career high than it is that Adam Thielen stays healthy. Maybe, but also Gabriel Davis, I don't even know how old he is. 25? That should not be the reason that he's being drafted in round five or six.

He's projected for 80 targets. You're talking about his projection. I was saying his age. Adam Thielen's 32. So that's, I think, what people are concerned about. I think he's almost exactly one year younger than Travis Kelsey. Adam Thielen was top 15 wide receiver per game last year. He was 15th.

So if Gabriel Davis is Adam Thielen, then he's going to make sense where he's being drafted. Right. I just would rather draft Adam Thielen. Yeah, well, they are going basically in the same range in CBS. Very close. So why is he going so much higher? He's projected as wide receiver 40 in CBS projections.

Well, first of all, I would like to tell you that Deontay Johnson is going 68th and Michael Thomas is going 69th. So, you know, they're low. Okay. But also wide receivers are just kind of low in our drafts anyway. Brandon Cooks is 69th.

Brandon Cooks is 78th. Marquise Brown. Yeah, Marquise Brown is 69th. So, I don't know. In round six, you're getting a lot of really good wide receivers in CBS drafts. is 69th. So, I don't know. In round six, you're getting a lot of really good wide receivers in CBS drafts. Some of that is because this is averaging all drafts,

non-PPR, half PPR. So, maybe that pushes the wide receivers down. That would also make more sense for Gabriel Davis because while he was 40th in CBS PPR projections with 10 touchdowns, he might be 25th in non-PPR projections. All right, the rest of the news and notes.

I'm giving you two minutes. Let's go. Houston head coach Lovie Smith did not commit to Damian Pierce being the week one starter. Dave, does that mean anything? No. He's got two eyes and a brain. He sees what we see. Pierce will be the best running back in Houston this year. The Colts released Phillip Lindsey. Does that

mean Naeem Hines is more likely to be the handcuff to Jonathan Taylor? When did that happen? This morning? Oh. I mean, sure. Okay. Jackson is clearly somebody that they like, I think. All signs point to Mitchell

Trubisky starting week one for the Steelers, according to Ian Rappaport. Josh Kendall of the Athletics. He to Ian Rappaport, uh, Josh Kendall of the athletic, he's looked good. Just so people are aware. He has looked very good. Josh Kendall of the athletic thinks that head coach,

Arthur Smith is trying to get Desmond Ritter ready for at least some action this season. Uh, Darren Waller is closing in on a contract extension. Juju's back at practice mvs is out of the concussion protocol so you're going to get them for week one it seems certainly mvs carolina acquired lavisca chanel does that matter not yet um i'm wondering so this is a jones thing might might actually prove to be true there was reports that he'd

been the best wide receiver at camp for jacksonville oh they also cut laquan treadwell so it sounds like it's marvin jones zay jones and christian kirk oh i was gonna say is marvin jones a sleeper he had 120 targets last season which was a career high he couldn't separate from mayonnaise let me try that again it would be couldn't separate from mayonnaise. Let me try that again. It would be hard to separate from mayonnaise if you were covered in it. I don't know. Sorry, I'm not in the mood to be funny, and I try to be funny.

It was funny. That died. No, that really died. Yeah, he could probably separate from me in coverage. Is that any funnier? Can I just say that? Because I'm fat and slow. Get it? There's really no reason.

Zay Jones is worth a late round pick. There's no reason not to have light mayonnaise. It tastes pretty much as good as regular mayonnaise, and it's much better for you. So just go with the light mayonnaise. The Titans acquired offensive lineman Dennis Daly. He's from Carolina. I don't know if he's going to start or anything for them.

He's got some starting experience. Buffalo released O.J. Howard, and the Chiefs released Josh Gordon. It is time for more players that we keep on drafting. Let's start with Dave. We already talked about Derek Henry, Alvin Kamara, and Michael Thomas on your behalf. So give us a few more players that you just keep on drafting.

I keep on drafting, drafting. Hold on, I've got to find the notes from earlier. Josh Jacobs, Gabriel Davis. We talked about Gabriel Davis. Josh Jacobs? You want to talk about Josh Jacobs? You want to know why I keep drafting him? Because I find him in mid to late round five and he's he's still set up to be the starting running back for the Raiders that offense

should be better this year they should score more points this year offensive line's not great but I think that there's definitely a chance where Josh Jacobs can at least match what he did last year which is a number two fantasy running back in round five. So maybe he could be a dead zone running back. I can't sit here and tell you that he's not. He takes on injuries. If he fumbles, he could end up on the bench because McDaniels could bench him. I think they like Zemir White,

but maybe they view White as more of a long-term answer. So what do they do if Jacobs stinks? Do they immediately go to white or do they give Jacobs a chance to play his way out of it? And if he doesn't stink, then he's, he's their white night. So I think that there's definitely a chance that Jacobs outperforms that type of ADP.

Are you taking Josh Jacobs or chase Edmonds? Jacobs. Heath? Even in full PPR. Chase Edmonds in full PPR. Jacobs is one of those running backs who's kind of fallen throughout camp for me, but I don't necessarily disagree with Dave. I struggle with Jacobs versus Dobbins versus Akers right now.

Dave, you've got a couple of late-round wide receivers, mid-to-late round. Sure. Traylon Burks, Russell Gage. They're unpopular. They were popular at one point and now they're unpopular. People have read the headlines and Traylon Burks. They haven't done the diligence to actually watch him play. And I thought his best preseason game just happened. He was separating no mayonnaise needed and he had good hands on top of it he played a lot this preseason uh the way to spin that positively would be to say well he's just getting experience but what i really think the reason behind that was is because they want to make sure that he can handle playing four quarters and that there is a legitimate conditioning issue with trailing burks that might scare some people that That's okay. That's baked into his ADP.

I like him better than Drake London if they're both on an even playing field and there's no conditioning issue. Since there seems to be one, I can draft Burks after Drake London. I could get them both if I wanted to. And I still think that there is a very big target share for the taking in Tennessee. I watched Robert Woods play too. He was fine. He moved well. I'm happy because I like Robert Woods, and he's coming back from the ACL. But I think Traylon Burks is going to be good. I feel like he's this year's – this is going to sound really funny. He's this year's Jamar Chase in that he had a bad preseason

in terms of headlines and bad buzz and bad vibes, and I think he's just going to go out there in the regular season and have a good year so I'm happy to take him and Gage we haven't seen for a while and we know there's a hamstring injury there but I I watched Julio play he looks he's running like a tight end we know that Mike Evans already had the hamstring issue he seems fine we know that Godwin says the ACL he's coming back from, he should be fine. Those guys should play week one. At some point during the year, the Bucs are going to need Russell Gage. I'm hoping that I have the patience to keep him on my bench for as long as possible so that he can come through when the hamstring heals and he's catching targets from Tom Brady. Are you taking Russell Gage and Traylon Burks ahead of Julio Jones?

Yes. I'm definitely taking Traylon Burks ahead of Julio Jones. What I wonder is, do you think, Dave, that they see Burks as eventually the slot that plays? Like he has to beat out Kyle Phillips? Because they don't believe

that he can beat press coverage right now, right? I don't know. Who, Burks? Yes. I don't know if they believe that or not. I'd be surprised. I think Phillips has looked so good in the slot that there's nobody taking that job.

So then he has to take it from Westbrook-Akeem. Yes, I think that that's what's going to happen. Or they rotate those three receivers a lot, but I don't think Westbrook, Akeem is going to be a huge factor in slowing down Burks, at least over the course of the year. Burks could be somebody that gets off to a slow start, and you might go, oh, God, wasted pick. I'm going to cut him.

Adam's learned that lesson before with rookie first-round receivers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got to be patient, for sure. I'm going to cut them. Adam's learned that lesson before with rookie first-round receivers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got to be patient for sure. By the way, I forgot to mention that on our eBay page, we got this awesome ring from Trophy Smack and the championship, the turnover chain championship belt. You don't have it on you, the turnover chain? It's over.

I don't feel like getting it right now. Oh, okay. But it is so cool. And you can just see a picture of me with it on our eBay page to get a glimpse. It is the most showy, in-your-face, incredible way to celebrate a fantasy football championship. We're auctioning it off on our eBay page. So please go ahead and take a look at that. And the eBay page, the link is in the episode description for you podcast listeners.

Thomas, if you wouldn't mind throwing the eBay link in the chat right now. I just forgot about that. All right, let's go a little quicker out there because we haven't talked too much about the players we're going to avoid. Dave is also drafting a lot of Tom Brady. There's a little bit of Brady disrespect. Guy was the number two quarterback in fantasy last year. So Dave is waiting to take Tom Brady. And you have Isaiah McKenzie as well.

Is he behind? Isaiah McKenzie, slot receiver for the Bills. Is he behind Russell Gage? He is not for me, but given the injuries to both receivers, it wouldn't be a surprise if you ended up getting McKenzie in 11 and

Gage in 12. Are you taking those guys ahead of like Dotson and Tolbert and the rook Garrett Wilson? See, like in the same vein as Traylon Burks, I'm just mostly drafting the rookies or second-year wide receivers in that range. I haven't drafted McKenzie or Gage, I don't think. I haven't drafted Julio Jones either.

I just find myself in those double-digit rounds. I take Traylon Burks, I take Garrett Wilson, I take Jahan Dotson, I just take a bunch of those young guys. Heath, the guys that you keep drafting, you already talked about Jalen Hurts and Aaron Jones and Brandon Cooks and DJ Moore. Am I wrong about that?

Did you not talk about Jalen hurts? Like hurts and Brady are definitely my two most commonly drafted quarterbacks. And the biggest mistake that I made in our draft last night, just still a little bit upset about that. I took Jalen hurts early in round five. No, it was a 14 team league. Cause I didn't pick again for 28 picks.

And then I came back 28 picks. And then I came back 28 picks later and Tom Brady was still there. Just wait for Tom Brady. 28 picks later. That's part of the franchise, right? The zombie franchise? No? 28 days later? No? Never saw it?

See, the thing with mayonnaise is that when it gets old, it separates. And it's weird and gross and you shouldn't eat it. Fantasy football zombies popping up 28 picks later. Tony Pollard. Tony Pollard I thought was interesting. I didn't know you were drafting a lot of Tony Pollard. So what's that all about?

This was almost as surprising to me as finding out that I had not drafted any J.K. Dobbins. I have Tony Pollard on five different teams, which is fantastic. Um, he doesn't like we, in some of our drafts, he gets pushed up a little bit higher, I feel like, but I find Tony Pollard in round seven, sometimes like I might draft a running back and a tight end in the first two rounds and then a bunch of wide receivers and a quarterback. And then we get through the dead zone and somehow Tony Pollard still sitting there. So I'm assuming you take Josh Jacobs ahead of Tony Pollard. Oh yes. What about Akers?

I've gone back and forth on that one over the last 24 hours, but right now, considering they said Akers was a full participant yesterday, I will take Akers over Pollard. What about Damian Pierce or Tony Pollard? Pierce for sure. Kareem Hunt or Tony Pollard? I've taken Pollard over Hunt

on multiple occasions. I'll take Kareem. What about Devin Singletary? Whoa. Pollard by six rounds. Singletary. Ooh. Keith is out on Devin Singletary, that's for sure. Well, I've been out, yeah.

I think it's going to be a three-headed monster there. All right, I see three late-round running backs, and they are always in my queue late. Khalil Herbert, Mark Ingram, Jamal Williams. These are not guys you feel like you can start, right? Actually, no, I'll take that back. They're kind of lottery-tickety. Herbert, Ingram, Williams, how do you feel about them?

I think that there's an underrated chance that one or more of the three could be flex-worthy without an injury. And all of the three have big-time upside if the starter gets hurt. And they go so much later than the other handcuffs. Particularly guys like Jamal Williams and Mark Ingram are often there in like round 14. And I just don't think that that reflects the reality of their situation. I think we're seeing 18 touches a game for Jamal Williams if something happens to DeAndre Swift. We saw Mark Ingram was averaging 19 PPR fantasy points a game without Alvin Kamara last year. Like these guys, Khalil Herbert was awesome without David Montgomery last year.

I think these guys have, in that 14-team league, I would not be surprised if I'm flexing those guys on bye weeks at all. I think they're probably getting 10 touches or more on a regular game. We know you take DJ Moore a lot. We know you've loved Brandon Cooks. Cooks, where's he ranked for you? Uh, 12 or 13 at wide receiver. But again, Cooks is one of those players that I, I draft him in round three and everybody says, why'd you take him in round three? And then I don't take

him in round three in one of our drafts. And somebody takes him at the three, four turn. But if you're not drafting with CBS people, you can wait until the end of round four, probably round five. Like I said, he's 60, not wide receiver 69, but pick 69 in CBS leagues. Yeah, fantasy football calculator. Always a nice value for Brandon Cooks.

Cooks is in round five there. He's going after Chris Goblin. I'm sorry, Chris Goblin, this run of wide receivers, round five, Michael Thomas, Alan Robinson, Chris Godwin, Brandon Cooks, Jerry Judy, Gabriel Davis, Adam Thielen. This is what I say every other show. Just be in that range.

Get wide receivers there. Great values. Now, would you take Brandon Cooks over Chris Godwin or Alan Robinson or Michael Thomas? Yep. All three of them? Yep. Wow. How can you take him over Godwin? Alan Robinson or Michael Thomas? Yep. All three of them? Yep. Wow. How can you take him over Godwin, just the ACL? Yeah.

I mean, if Godwin was healthy, I would take him first. Okay. Yeah, I'll go the other way on that one. I'll take those receivers out of Cooks. I like Cooks a lot, but I'm losing my love of Davis Mills after this preseason, and I'm definitely seeing what Nico Collins is all about. I wonder if those two things, along with, hello, Houston might have a running game now. I wonder if those things kind of ding Brandon Cooks a little bit.

I think that puts his upside at risk. And now I feel like he's more of that. I feel like he's more of what he's been, which is one week great, next week bad, and it's consistent throughout the year that he's a roller coaster. And I feel like there's a chance that those other receivers that you named can be a little more steady for fantasy managers over the course of the year. So, Heath, one more for you that you always draft, Mark Andrews. You are comfortable taking him in the second round.

Yes. He's currently got a third-round ADP on Fantasy Football Calculator early in the third round. And CBS, sorry, Mark Andrews is going 27th overall. So that is a third-round pick. And sorry, Mark Andrews is going 27th overall. So that is a third round pick. Do you feel confident that you'll be able to get him in the third round? Is it, you know, or should you just not even take that risk and grab him in the second round?

I never take that risk. You never. Yeah, but what would you advise others to do? I don't think when I think it depends on how much you want somebody, but if you're in round two making a selection and somebody has an ADP of pick 27, and you want that player, I do not think you should wager on them being there in the third

round, no matter who the player is. That's not enough of a cushion to say, well, he'll probably still be there. And it's also whether or not you, you prioritize the tight end. And I would imagine that if you are looking at Mark Andrews in round two, that means you really want to have a stud tight end on your team. You want to try and differentiate your roster from others in the league. And that that's not a bad thing.

That's what, that's a goal that you set before the draft. You should know what you want to do at tight end before your draft. That's not a strategy thing. That's me or you saying, look, I want to have an edge over my competition. I think I can find a good running back later on. There are good running backs later on. I think I can find a good wide receiver later on. There are good wide receivers later on. I think I can find a quarterback late. You can find a quarterback late. Tight end is riskier. It's thinner. And there's really only three that come without significant flaws.

Andrews is one of them. So I get why round two is desirable and you're willing to do it. Okay. Another horror movie that you just said, since we're on that, you just said you ever seen thin, you said thinner. You ever seen thinner? You guys ever seen you think i got anything to do with anything called thinner it's a good movie all right we're taking a break now let's get out it's it's a little camp that was good i didn't get out was fine

it's on your bad take list is the only reason i reason I brought it up. It's fine. I mean, the fact that the flash of the camera is the solution, that is so cliche. Come on. You can do better than that. Okay. Anyway, players we avoid when we come back on Fantasy Football today. Heath has got an all-star list of players he is avoiding. So he's already talked to you about Kyler Murray and J.K. Dobbins.

How about Saquon Barkley, Jamar Chase, and Stefan Diggs? What's up with that, Heath? Yeah, the Barkley one is just that I'm not as sold as everyone else that he's going to return to three years ago or four years ago, whatever he needs to do to justify this current ADP. He's not been very good the past two years. He's on one of the worst offenses in football, and he's been hurt a ton. So I can't get on board with that early in round two or definitely not in round one.

For Chase, I don't know exactly why it is, but I literally do not have him on a team and I don't have any negative feelings about him. I have him graded as a first round pick. It's just at the end of the first round. And he always goes, I think what it probably is, is that I have Travis Kelsey and Aaron Jones. That's exactly what it is. Yep. And so those two guys I take instead. With Diggs, I'm a little bit concerned that he's not guaranteed 165 targets this year. Yep.

Can we go back to the Saquon discussion? Mm-hmm. Heath, you know I love you, man, but I've got to challenge you on something. Okay. he you know i love you man but i gotta challenge you on something okay i think your rationale for taking saquon or for not taking saquon barkley is reasonable rational makes sense christian mcafree is your number one ranked player couldn't we say the same thing about mcafree as you just did about saquon barkley no because when m when McCaffrey has played, he's been good. All right, that's fair. To a degree, that's fair. But still, so good that it negates all the other risks

that you pointed out with Saquon? I think what the difference is, is that I'm willing to take the risk with McCaffrey because I think if McCaffrey plays, I've got a five-point advantage on every other player in the league. I'm not willing to take the risk on Barkley because I think there's a chance that Saquon Barkley could play 15 games and average 3.7 yards per carry and score seven touchdowns.

One thing that's gotten me more encouraged about Barkley, I don't know how much to take away from preseason, but, man, they threw the running backs a lot. Daniel Jones threw the running backs a lot. And Barkley, every report that, you know, so many reports, involved in the passing game, involved in the passing game, involved in the passing game. So I am worried about the efficiency.

I still think the offensive line is going to be a major weakness. But I think he's got a little bit of a ppr floor because he's just going to get so many touches and so many catches i still think that the like and nobody ever acknowledges this or thinks it's good but i think it's really good i think the juju saquon comparison is like how everybody else feels about Juju is how I feel about Saquon. Yes, he was great when he was 21 or 22 years old. Now they're both 25 years old. They haven't been healthy or good in quite a while.

I don't want to draft them as if they're just good again. I think that's fair. But, okay. Real quick, Keith, tell me why you're not drafting Zach Ertz. Zertz. I am not certain of his role on the team after the first six weeks. And I think Trey McBride's really good and could take a few tight end targets away from him.

Okay. I think DeAndre Hopkins and Rondale Moore are pretty good, and they're going to be the ones that take some tight end targets away from zackerts dave is avoiding mike williams he really wanted to talk about that one too juju smith schuster and ezekiel elliott so let's let's discuss mike williams dave last year first five games of the year he was outstanding everybody knows it was over 20 PPR points per game. It was a different Mike Williams than we'd ever seen before.

The breakout was happening. And then after those games, he averaged 12 PPR points per game over the rest of the season, which is still good, no complaints. But fantasy managers were probably a little irked by him not being as productive for his final 12 than his first five. And I look at those final 12 games, and I feel like that's indicative of what he was before last year, which was right around 10 PPR points per game. One year he was under 10 PPR points per game.

I'm scared that we're – I'm scared of two things. I'm scared that the general public and Heath are overrating Mike Williams a little bit based on those first five games. I'm also scared that I'm underrating him because face facts gets a lot of targets. He's in an awesome offense, pretty much the type of offense that you want any wide receiver to be in. And even though he dropped a bunch of touchdowns last year, including three on consecutive plays, I believe it was three, I think that he's still going to get opportunities to score. So I see why he likes Mike Williams and drafts Mike Williams. I see why other people take him.

Maybe it's a little bit out of, uh-oh, there's a receiver run ending, a tier is ending, Mike Williams is the last name, I better get him. Maybe it's a little bit out of, uh-oh, there's a receiver run ending, a tier is ending, Michael Williams is the last name, I better get him. But I never end up taking him. I've got a lot of receivers ranked ahead of him that I don't think the other guys have ranked ahead of him. And I'm a little nervous that he could underwhelm this year. And I need to talk with an adult on this to give me the other perspective on why Mike Williams might be great this year.

Yeah, so I think it's just a – and we've had this discussion before, but I'll say it again. I think Mike Williams, which he's gotten hurt before, but he got hurt last year and was hurt against Baltimore in week six, battled through that for the next four weeks, did not have more than six targets in a game during that stretch, did not have more than 60 yards, had two catches in three of those games. But then from week 11 on, Mike Williams was just awesome again.

Now. His pace from week 11 through week 18, 85 catches, 1,300 yards, seven touchdowns on 138 targets. 12.9 PPR points per game. Not that good. And some serious duds in there. From week 11 through week 18, I've got him at 15.3 PPR points per game not that good and some serious duds in there from week 11 through week 18 i've got him at 15.3 ppr that's much better game yeah did he miss the game in there yes that's different

then uh 103 divided by seven is that 15 yeah yes yeah but right that's that's really that's good. 14-7. But he was inconsistent in there. He had a 4 for 39. He had a 6 for 61. He had a 3 for 49. He had a 3 for 63 with a touchdown. And he actually was pretty frustrating until week 17, or week 18, pardon me, last week of the year, that furious rally against the Raiders, that overtime game.

He had 17 targets in that game. Yeah, I mean, that's great. You know who was inconsistent last year was Jamar Chase. Jamar Chase had one of the best rookie seasons ever. He's going to be more consistent this year. This was the fourth year of Mike Williams' career. Or was it his fifth year? Fifth year, I think.

Fifth year. So I'm not holding Jamar Chase's inconsistencies against him. I'm saying if you have a wide receiver who over an eight-week stretch scores 15 fantasy points per game, you should not hold it against him either, especially when over the full season he averaged 15 fantasy points per game or 14? Full season, 14.9.

By the way, 15 points per game was wide receiver 21 in 2020, and last year 15 points per game would have been wide receiver 20. I would take Christian Wilkinson out there. Well, he was wide receiver 17 at 15.3 for the year, I think. Yes. Well, yeah, 18. Yes, removing Christian Wilkinson, yes.

Wide receiver 17. Is that a guy that we should take in the third round? If he's going to average 15 points per game? Look at the other receivers that are going in round three. How many of those guys are definitely going to outperform 15 PPR points per game? I mean, CD lamb was at 14.6 and we're drafting him in round two now. Sure. Well, cause we're expecting a bump. Okay. I'm getting to my point, but you look at the receivers going in round three and you think to yourself, okay, how many of these guys can get to 15? I look at T. Higgins as someone who's a lock to average 15 PPR points per game.

I don't know if he's going to have more than two or three smash weeks all year, but he's got a very safe floor. He's a safe wide receiver. If Mike Williams plays like he did in those last seven games, he's no different than Brandon Cooks. He can be great one week and be sucky the next. And so he should go right around that time

when Brandon Cooks is going. So it comes down to how you feel about receivers like that, that have that inconsistency to them. I would imagine that, where's Cooks going now? In ADP? Round five, round six. And where's Cook's going now in ADP round five round six all right and where's Mike Williams going now CBS ADP yeah 41st so to me I'd rather have Cooks than Williams if they're the same guy even though the offense is clearly better in LA yeah I just don't

know why T because T Higgins scored two tenths of a fantasy point more than mike williams last year t higgins had games two for 23 two for 15 five for 32 three for 44. he had a bunch of bad games too i'm telling you that the first five games of the year for mike williams aren't indicative of who he is he He was the number two receiver. 22 PPR points in four of them. He was the number two receiver in fantasy. I don't think he had even fit back-to-back 15-point PPR games at any point in his career before last year. I don't think he did it in back-to-back games even once.

And then he comes out last year and he does it, and then he gets hurt. Like you said, we already ran through his story. I think he's going to be one of those inconsistent receivers. I want to take them. I've got them ranked. Like I want them just not like I want him badly. I think I'm going to tell you something. I think that when you're not drafting with us,

you're going to get Mike Williams more. Cause I want Mike Williams. I kind of have come around on him because I think Justin Herbert likes Mike Williams based on last year, and he threw to him a ton near the end zone, and Mike Williams just could not hang on to the damn ball. He had the fifth most green zone targets in the NFL, and he only caught two touchdowns in the green zone. That's inside the 10-yard line, and that is extremely low. So, you know, I do want Mike Williams.

I always take Cortland Sutton ahead of Mike Williams, so I never end up getting Mike Williams. But, you know, like I said, I don't take Terry McLaurin. Mike Williams is a guy I would take ahead of Terry McLaurin. He's in that group of, like, five wide receivers in round three to four that I do want. He's been a tough one for me, though, because I always think of

Corey Davis and Devontae Parker. Same exact thing. They got their fifth-year option picked up. They had huge seasons. They earned their second contract. And now they're not even top 100 picks. I don't think that's going to happen to Mike Williams. But I don't want to pay for the guy coming off his career year and his contract

year. But I love Justin Herbert. I coming off his career year and his contract year. But I love Justin Herbert. I could see Herbert throwing 50 touchdowns this year, and Williams would be a big part of that. Well, I think that Devontae Parker and Corey Davis the following year both kind of had the same thing, right? They were still really good on a per-game basis, but they got hurt. Corey Davis started off dominating. Yeah.

In New York. Yeah, sure. But he, right. But he did get hurt and Mike Williams does have an injury history. I don't know. Yeah. No, I was saying, I think that's, that's the L. Like if you want to just say, I'm afraid Mike Williams can't stay healthy,

then okay. Maybe, maybe he can't. All right. I'm sorry. Let's finish up quickly here, Dave. Do you want to talk about Juju Smith-Schuster? We've talked about him enough. I don't know if we necessarily need to. I actually don't feel a ton of clarity from our show on Juju Smith-Schuster.

I don't feel a ton of clarity at all. Because his status keeps changing with the injury. So let's finish with a minute on Juju Smith-Schuster, Dave. Give me 20 seconds on why you might avoid him, and Heath, give me 20 seconds on why you might not. I think the recipe for the Chiefs' offense this year will be to mix and match their receivers based on who they play. I think Juju proved already this preseason

that he can handle both, you know, little short passes from homes and also zone passes. So when he's playing against zone defenses, he can find the spots to get open. He can make plays when a defense plays man against them. I don't think Juju is going to be able to get open as easily. I see him having a very up and down season and probably with more downs than ups. He's played at least 14 games three times in his career, and he's finished the top 20 wide receiver all three years,

and we all have him ranked outside of the top 30. So that is the case for taking Juju, is that if he stays healthy, he's probably going to be better than where we rank him. Right, if he's exactly what he was when he was in Pittsburgh, getting a ton of targets every week.

Okay, that's it for today's show. Thank you all very much for watching and listening. We gots to run. Remember, tonight, 8 p.m. Eastern, we'll talk to you about the 14-team PPR Podcast League draft that we did yesterday. We'll review those results and break it down. For Heath and Dave and Thomas, I'm Adam. Talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football Today.