Fantasy Football Today - Players We're Worried About Being Wrong About (07/02 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

If you support the show, please nominate Fantasy Football Today for The People's Choice Podcast Awards in the "Sports" Category: https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup/ 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 Are we too high or too low on specific players? That's what we're chatting about today after a brief round of Breece Hall trivia (2:15). We'll start with Kyren Williams (3:10) as Dave is worried he is too high on Williams and Dan is worried he's too low on him! Plus, is Dave too high on CeeDee Lamb (14:00)? ... Dave talks about Jordan Love (18:30) and Tank Dell (26:55) and why he is worried he might be wrong on them. We also address the Texans wide receivers as a whole before talking about the enticing but risky Rashee Rice (36:50). Then we'll update you on the news and notes (42:55) ... We get to Dan's list of players he's worried about being wrong about which includes Travis Etienne (49:10), Sam LaPorta (56:10) and Jonathan Brooks (1:00:00) ... Email us at [e-mail] Email us 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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It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. He's just going to go the distance. Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Oh, baby, it is July, and you know what that means. July 14th, Best Deal Day. July 16th, Rural Transit Day. July 28th, National Parents Day. It's a big month, Dave. And we are here to get you ready for Rural Transit Day. I can't even say it. Sorry. Imitation is the sincerest form of flatter yes yes this was

dave's intro yesterday talking about all the cool dates in july that are actually you know relevant like july 4th and uh training i forgot about july 24th which is what not nothing oh is that your oh all, welcome to FanSport. Jamie knows what it is. With Dave Richard and Dan Schneier. I missed you guys. Great show yesterday. At least the first 15 minutes, which I listened to in the car this morning. I'm sure the rest

of it was good as well. Dan, I sent the notes pretty late for today's show. You knew what we were talking about, but if you look at the injuries news and notes section, why don't you go ahead and read the last item in the injury news and notes section. Just our last. You literally

sent this according to my inbox two minutes ago. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead and just read that. I know a Dan Schneier story. How do you have a story? We haven't even talked in like a week or two. Where's this story coming from? Coming from the bar after softball last night. Oh, no. Oh, no.

Okay. Okay. So, guys, today's topic is players we are worried about being wrong about. We might have a strong conviction, strong feeling about a certain player, but what if we're wrong, and who are we worried about being wrong about? But before that, I have a trivia question for you. One of the players that Dan is worried about being wrong about is Jonathan Brooks. I just wanted to kind of take question for you. One of the players that Dan is worried about being wrong about is Jonathan Brooks.

I just wanted to kind of take a look at how some of the players who were coming off torn ACLs did. So obviously, Brees Hall comes to mind. Trivia question. How many carries did Brees Hall have in week 18 against the New England Patriots? 26. 7. 37 carries. Oh, my God.

That's what I said. 37. Yeah, yeah. 178 yards and a touchdown. My mic went out. What was the point of that if you're the Jets? And they won 17-3. What was the point of that?

They're out of the playoffs. It can only hurt their draft vision, but nobody tries to play for that. But at the very least, protect your franchise players. Just grinding them into the line for 37 carries. What was the score of that game? 13-10, Adam?

17-3. 17-3, yeah. Disgusting. Big Week 18 win. He played 89% of the snaps, which was a season high for Brees Hall. All right. So let's talk about players that you're

worried about being wrong about. And there's a mutual one that showed up on both of your lists. And the funny fun part about this, I don't know if this is the case. It's Kyron Williams, right? Who's just going to use a different ADP today. We use DraftSharks ADP. He's 16th overall on DraftSharks ADP. Kyron Williams, you both said you were worried about being wrong about Kyron Williams, but that could be Dave's worry that he's too high on Kyron Williams. Dan's worry that he's too low. I have no idea. So Dave, what is your concern? How do you feel about Kyron and what is your concern? How do I feel about him? I feel like he's an early round two running back who offers potential to be a top five guy based on what he did last year, based on the offense that he's in. But I'm worried that I might be too high on him knowing that this is a day three running back who

really just took advantage of an opportunity and did get better as the season went along. If you watched him week one and week two, and then compared it to the end of the year, he got better. He was a better running back and certainly got more efficient as the season went on, but he's got a, he's got a litany of injuries already in his young NFL career. This is a team that will love to throw the ball if their quarterback is healthy, and it looks like he is. And they drafted Blake Corum, who at bare minimum could take 8 to 10 touches off of Kyron Williams' plate week in and week out. And that kind of hurts the upside a little bit. There's also the chance that Blake Corum could overtake Kyron Williams at some point if Corum proves that he's the better rusher there.

I, I, I worry a little bit that we just, we saw Kyron Williams have this amazing year and that it could all fall apart very easily in 2024. And Dan, what is your concern as it relates to being wrong about Kyron Williams? Yeah, it's flip side for me, Adam. I'm worried I'm too low on Kyron Williams. As it stands right now, don't plan to draft any Kyron Williams this year. I can't imagine any scenario where he'll be on my roster, auction league, no shot. And then snake drafts very unlikely, depending on it would have to be a big fall into round two. But my is that look all the points that Dave just made could easily play themselves out again first of all we're all expecting Blake Corham just because he's a cookie cutter fit on paper to play a role this

year that's not necessarily true rookies don't always play roles they have to first prove they can do what Kyron Williams does best and probably top five at this point in the NFL and that's pass reduction and understanding the pass game and understanding with a quarterback like Matt Stafford, who not every quarterback does. I'd say at this point, a handful of quarterbacks do this. And it's why Tom Brady the other day discussed why quarterback plays so bad

around the NFL. And that's take authority pre-snap of the plays, understand how to get your offense into the right checks into the right, get your offensive line into the right slides and protections. That's something that the running back plays a big role in, and Kyron Williams is one of the best in the NFL. It keeps him on the field. It kept him on the field. He also did a better job, people realize, of running between the tackles using his mental processing. He does an excellent job of setting up blocks and processing that space. These are all things that could lead to

another high target, high snap share targets, a lot of carries type of season. And then hopefully a lot of touchdowns because that's really what made his fantasies. And if we look at it right now, he had 15 total touchdowns last year. Fantasy is a game of touchdowns, targets, and yards. And he had a lot of touchdowns, but on the flip side of this, the reason I'm not going to be drafting any Kyron is I see touchdown regression coming. I'm worried a little bit about Blake corn being a much better competition. And I'm worried in some ways about, you know,

with a healthy Cooper cup, more of that touchdown and more of that, I guess, production of the offense coming through the passing game. Yeah. And it was 12 touchdowns, rushing three, receiving and only 12 games.

He was on pace for 21 total touchdowns, but he was also on pace for 21.4, not on base. He averaged 21.4 PPR fantasy points per game, which is incredibly elite. He was the number two running back per game. So that is interesting that you both are worried about being wrong about Kyron Williams, but for different reasons.

Dave, that he's too high on Kyron, and Dan, that he's too low, which goes to show you that this guy is going to be somewhat of a polarizing player. Let's talk about the right time to draft Kyron Williams okay gotta be in round round two at the earliest so I think this is I think this is a simple thing to figure out Dan where do you have Kyron Williams ranked in your overall rankings so again just most of the leagues I play in are PPR half PPR sure let's go full PPR full PPR I'd probably have him a range that doesn't seem on

paper to make much sense of probably in the 17 to 20 range okay can you give me a number between 17 17 to 20 that's so the only thing is i don't is in i typically end up doing rankings but i typically end up doing them a little bit later in the off season obviously as as an editor behind the scenes i'm not tasked with doing rankings i don't have my my full rankings up yet jay okay so i'm just kind of let's just take 20 okay because you're the pessimistic one compared to me sure i've got them at 15 okay so if if you're if you get kyron williams it's 17 or 18 on draft day is it really egregious no and that's the thing like i i will ultimately end up taking him in that range especially in well that's the thing it's like if you don't really like karen williams i would

expect you to have him ranked like 28th that's what i thought like you're not getting him okay if i really loved karen williams i would put him 12 let me rephrase this i may have him ranked lower when it finally comes to push us off when it push comes to job with the pbr rankings because are you i can't see myself taking him over a host of wide receivers. Right. That's where I was going with this. Are you taking any one of Chris Olave, Drake, London, Devontae Adams? All of them I'm taking over him in PPR.

Okay, so you're definitely going to push him closer to 20, if not more. Yeah, maybe I've underrated, overrated, because in some of our drafts, he's gone really early. Like early round two, I've seen him come off the board. So maybe I just have a different opinion. I need to fix my ADP a little bit. Right, and I've got him as an early round two running back, but I definitely want to get Blake Corum if I get Kyron Williams. Yeah, I don't know what happened here, but I mean,

when I looked up this morning, Kyron Williams was 16th in ADP on DraftSharks, which is what I cited. Now I'm looking, now he's 21st. So either I read it wrong or maybe I had non-PPR up. I don't think so. So I don't think it's even in the 20s. That's what happened. I had non-PPR.

Don't beat yourself up over off-season ADP, Adam. It's really out of whack. He's 21st in full PPR. But no, I think I've seen him in one site, I forget what it was, had him in the third round in ADP. So I actually think Kyron Williams is someone that you could be getting a lot in the 20 range, Dan, if you should chose.

No, I take it back. If I really looked at this thing, I doubt I'd be pulling the trigger on him over a host of wide receivers in full PPR. He's 15.2 in our offseason. Yeah. Hashtag ask FFT, fans only, mock draft. Okay. Yep. Hashtag AskFFT. Fans only. Mock draft.

Adam, I used your term. I hope you're happy. Mock drafts. There's been a bunch of them. You said fans only, right? I said your fans only line. No, that's not my line. My line is only fans. Oh, well, it should be fans only. I think Dave's right. It would be funnier if it was fans only.

No, it's Adam's way. It's funnier, but dirtier. Adam showing off his naughty side. Our podcast might be NC-17. I'm showing off his naughty side. You have to have your mom or dad with you while you listen. I'm bringing that back at least multiple times on the rest of this. Naughty Adam. We need help here.

We need help, everybody. We need help here. We need help, everybody. We need your help. Yeah, we do. We are a nominee for Best Sports Podcast in the People's Choice Podcast Awards. Once again, we are going to win it this year. Let's do it. We appreciate all that all of you do for us, and we hope that you enjoy our show enough to nominate us to advance to the final round. So to nominate Fantasy Football today, go to podcastawards.com slash app slash sign

up. And honestly, if you just go to podcastawards.com, you can probably figure it out from there. Toggle down to the sports category and nominate Fantasy Football today. The whole process is going to take less than 60 seconds. We have included the link at the top of the episode description as well. So again, this is podcastawards.com, the sports category. Nominate Fantasy Football today. That'll get us through to the next round, and then we're probably going to have to – actually,

no, I don't think you vote. I think they have a panel. But at least get us to the next round so we can win in podcast awards. Appreciate it. Adam, can I ask you a question, actually? Because I heard this promo yesterday when I was on the show and you were um taking another vacation day uh are were you not nominated again for best male male host of a show i don't know i haven't seen the nominees okay okay because i thought you were like a four-time winner of best male

host of a show okay that category doesn't exist that's the one you said it was, I thought. No, we were talking about... Okay. We're talking... Wait, let me see. You were best male host, you told us. No, there was a category that was best male hosted podcast. They were separating male hosted podcasts from female hosted podcasts. And we, our show, was nominated.

Now, you are referring to... Because you're male. You are referring to... Now, I am what? But it wasn't about me. It was about the show. Oh referring to... Because you're male. You are referring to... Now I am what? But it wasn't about me. It was about the show. Oh, it was about you. You are referring to when I won...

Oh, what'd you win? ...Podcast Influencer of the Year on Podcast Awards a couple of years ago. Wow. I have a trophy in the closet if you don't believe me. We're going to take a break. You know, when they think of Adam Azer,

they think of male social media influencer these days. I mean, he gets millions of likes on the ground. He's a transgender, that Adam Azer. Gets invited to fancy parties. Stay tuned for more players that were worried about being wrong about Anna Dan Schneier's story after this break on Fantasy Football Today. Whether in the game or in life, the right coverage can make all the difference. Securian Canada gives you that coverage. For more than 65 years, Securian Canada has been helping Canadians build secure tomorrows.

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Still no. What about hello, handsome? Who knew you could give yourself the ick? That's why Bumble is changing how you start conversations conversations you can now make the first move or not with opening moves you simply choose a question to be automatically sent to your matches then sit back and let your matches start the chat download bumble and try it for yourself about this time i usually do the news and notes but i think we're gonna do players worried about being wrong about Let's get into the crux of the show here. We'll do Dave's list, and then we'll get to the notes,

and then we'll do Dan's list. So, Dave, you are worried about being wrong about CeeDee Lamb, who is the number one wide receiver off the board in ADP, number two overall player. Are you worried you're too high on CeeDee Lamb? I am worried that we're expecting Cee expecting CD lamb to replicate what he did at the end of last year. And what was that after the buy?

This isn't like the last three games of the year after the buy Dallas decided, you know, we're going all in on Dak Prescott and CD lamb. Those two are going to lead us into the playoffs. And they were right. He did. It was to the tune of 12.6 targets per game, 28 and a half PPR points

per game, 19.3 non PPR points per game, ridiculous numbers, numbers that we really don't see. As an example, in the past 10 seasons, only three wide receivers have averaged 12 or more targets per game. It's Julio Jones, Antonio Brown, Deandre Hopkins, and they all did it in the same year, 2015. That was weird. What was in the water in 2015? I think CeeDee Lamb, even if he's down to 10.5 targets a game, 11 targets per game, can still be really good, still get you over 20 PPR points per game. That's what you're expecting. But what if the number goes back to what it was before the bye? It was seven targets per game.

It was 14.9 PR points. No chance though, right? There's no chance. I think there's a small chance that Dallas realizes, okay, we can't have it all for 17 games rest on Dak and CD lamb. They're going to have to figure out a run game somehow. They're going to have to find somebody else to get involved in the passing game somehow.

Really? So, yeah. How are they going to, they don't have a good game somehow. They're going to have to find somebody else to get involved in the passing game somehow. Really? Yeah. How are they going to get it? They don't have a good running game. They don't have one yet, and I don't know if they ever will, but I think they're going to have to try with whatever they have. And I think they're going to have to try with Jalen Tolbert, Brandon Cooks, etc.

Look, I think they'd be... I think Mike McCarthy will be on a moving walkway to Firedville if he targets CeeDee Lamb seven targets. If he targets him seven times a game, if he dials that up, it's got to be more than that. I think he'll be good. Will he be far and away good like he was last year?

Might he be wide receiver five? I think that's in the realm of possibility, and no one wants to take the first receiver off the board and have that guy be worse than wide receiver five. So I'm a little bit worried that I've got the wrong receiver at the top of my rankings, but I've kind of been riding CD lamb all along and I'm, I don't have enough evidence to put Tyreek ahead of him. Uh, certainly can't put Justin Jefferson out of them with Sam Darnold as his quarterback to begin the year. Amon Rock can't go ahead of him. Jamar Chase can't go ahead of him.

I don't think I'm missing anybody else. You know what it sounds like to me, Dan? It sounds like Dave is talking him. It sounds like he's talking himself out of it, but for no real good reason. No, the reason is he won't be close to 30 PPR points. No, but nobody's asking him to be because that would be the best season. And if you're taking him as the first wide receiver off the board, you're hoping for north of 20.

Oh, yeah. And I hope he gets there and I'm not moving him down. I'm just a little bit worried that maybe he won't get to 20. Well, hold on. I'll get Dan in one second. But we're talking about PPR fantasy points per game, right? So forget about what he did, 28 and a half points per game. I had it at 27.7. After the buy, you had a 28.5, whatever it is.

I think we had a slightly different date range. Forget about that. Let's just take what he did for the full season. It was 23.8 fantasy points per game. So I would not recommend anyone draft CeeDee Lamb expecting him to score 28 fantasy points per game. It would would not recommend anyone draft C.D. Lamb expecting him to score 28 fantasy points per game. It would be the best season ever. So but 23.8 fantasy points per game or thereabouts. You feel like that's going to happen?

No, I think that's within the range of possibilities. Yeah, but it's toward the high side. Like I almost feel like that's the ceiling. Can you can you replicate 23? Maybe. How many times has that happened in fantasy? I'd have to go back and look it up. Back-to-back seasons with 23-plus PPR points?

That's a great question. I do not know if that's – I don't know if that's ever happened. Yes. For receivers. I want to say Cup did it, but only because – no. 25.7 and then 22.6 the year after wow okay but even 22.6 is amazing we would take that right now from anybody hopkins never did it it's a great point dave yeah it's asking a lot okay um dan what do you uh yeah actually we're good let's go to jordan love

let's talk about jordan love um dave what's your... No, I don't want to beat a dead horse there. What's your fear about being... What's your concern about being wrong about Jordan Love? What's that all about? I think I'm a little too high on Jordan Love. I really thought that he finished the year really strong. I thought he began the year strong, even though he was making some mistakes,

a little slow to fire, but he got better. I guess I'm just concerned that Josh Jacobs getting there plus regression could make Jordan love a low end QB one. Maybe he gets around 2021 fantasy points per game, a couple of games with 30 and a couple of games with 16. But when the offseason started, I had him in that 23 to 25 point per game bucket. And I kind of still do. But what if there's... I guess I can make this argument for all the quarterbacks that broke out last year, including Stroud, that there could be regression.

The difference being that Stroud, I don't believe Stroud averages as many fantasy points as Love did. So I wonder if Love's can come down and Stroud, if it goes up, maybe it doesn't go up as much. But we're talking about Love, and I'm worried that he will be in that 20 to 22 point per game range rather than 23 to 25 and not be a demerits maker but be okay.

Okay, Dan, I will allow you to talk on this one. Well, first of all, I want to call into question every Acer stat I've ever heard prior to this, after that mishap with the stat from the last time when Dave was right and you were wrong about the date range, the stats, and everything like that. I think this seriously calls into question every Acer stat we've ever heard on the show and in throughout the show's history. Secondly, I was just told I was going to get to talk a little bit. I had a good ZD land point. You're like, ah, never mind.

We don't want to hear anything. Okay, we'll move past that. It was a talk a little bit. I had a good ZD land point. You're like, ah, nevermind. We don't want to hear anything. Okay. Move past. It was a good decision by me. It was a good decision. Third movie. And I'll stop wasting time after this. Was that a, uh, Jiminy Glick, Martin short reference you had before, before that?

Not on purpose with it. I thought like, wow, maybe if I did a few of these segments as Jiminy Glick, maybe that would be, I love Jiminy Glick. He's literally like my favorite skit on the internet by far. Do yourselves a favor. He just did a great one with Bill Hader, but do yourself a favor and watch the one he did with Larry David. It's belly-busting funny.

The Julia Louis-Dreyfus one is actually my favorite. Oh, I gotta see that one. I haven't seen that one. Jiminy Glick, Julia. Okay, I'll find that out. Oh, you guys have so much in common with my parents. It's amazing. I know. Who doesn't. Jiminy Glick, Julia. Okay, I'll find that out. Oh, you guys have so much in common with my parents. It's amazing. I know. Who doesn't like Jiminy Glick? How do you feel about Jordan Love, Dan Schneier?

It's not bad, by the way. It's not bad. I can do better. For Jordan Love, the way I look at Love, I'm torn on Love because I watched so much of him last year on tape, especially from that range of I watched the Lions game and the Giants game on tape. And he really looked good. He looked like he was moving through his regressions incredibly fast for somebody just really starting for the first year, getting the ball on time. All the things you need to do to have success at the NFL level.

But there's just some part of me that feels like a reservation because the sample size is still so small with Jordan Love. And because of everything I've ever heard since I started studying football seriously, which is give defensive coordinators eight games of tape on a quarterback within the same system and things change and they can adjust to it. Will that happen against Jordan Love? I'm not sure. And he has all the weapons to prevent that from happening. And especially if what you say, Adam, which I know you're really high on Christian Watson this year. So am I. So am I. The talent is there. If he can be healthy for, Adam, which I know you're really high on Christian Watson this year. So am I. So am I.

The talent is there. If he can be healthy for this year, which he wasn't for Jordan Love last year, just another weapon in the arsenal. I feel the same about Luke Musgrave, who flashed but got hurt. And then Josh Jacobs could make that a more balanced offense.

Everything is working in his favor around him, but I find myself finding it really hard to pull the trigger. For example, we're looking at the QB ranks right now. I wouldn't take him over Brock Purdy. I wouldn't take them over Brock party. It would never take them over Brock party. I don't think I would take him over to it.

And I feel like there's more inherent risk with him because he hasn't had a, it's in such a shorter stretch of him running that offense and running it successfully, despite the weapons that are around him. And if that offense at all takes it, I'm sorry, if that defense at all, which has been terrible, takes a step forward, it could change the whole feel of that team. They could become a little bit more run first with Josh Jacobs in the mix. I don't think they signed Josh Jacobs for nothing.

I think they gave him a pretty hefty contract to potentially be a workhorse back there. So I don't know. I think it's just a little bit more reservation for me when it comes to Jordan Love. So I'm with Dave on this. I worry a little bit that this is an episode where we're just going to kind of make up things and create ghosts for these players. Well, that's what I meant for the lamb thing.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I did that for the lamb thing. By the way, Justin Jefferson passed two seasons over 20 PPR points per game in each. Over 23? Over 20. Oh, that's good.

He won a big seven in 2022, 20.2 last year. But like, that's what you're looking for now from a wide receiver in round one, as close to 20, if not over 20, if you can get it, I think Jacobs will be used like Aaron Jones was. I don't think that it's going to fundamentally change the philosophy of the Packers offense just because Jacobs is there. And I think that that's actually a good thing for Jordan Love. I think with Love, we can't ignore that he had 247 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns. I think the rushing touchdowns probably come down. The yards, though, we compare him to Purdy and Tua.

If he really is a 250 rushing yard guy, he's going to crush Tua. He's going to beat Purdy in that regard. But I have some doubts about that. I don't really know what to expect there. I could see him being more like a 150 to 200 yard rushing guy. Didn't run a lot in college. He had a lot of games last year where he had one or two rushing yards. It's not really a big part of his game. And also, as much as I like Christian Watson, I do like him a lot, but I don't really think they have a true alpha number one great receiver on their team. Maybe Watson, but I don't really think they have a true alpha number one, like great receiver on their team.

Maybe Watson, but I don't think so. And when you look at every elite quarterback in fantasy, they either are really good running or they have a stud wide receiver. Right. Right. I don't. Yeah.

I don't know that he, I don't think he has that. Yeah. I could say that. I don't think he has a stud either of those two yet. That's why I'm wondering if what Josh Jacobs was brought in to do is going to change the offense in any way. But I think that's dependent on the defense.

Cause he's been really bad there. All right. I like that. See that one. Yeah, that's a good, that's a tough one. You do have to decide Jordan love who's QB 10 and draft sharks versus some

really good players. Dak Prescott, you know, certainly he's going to go ahead of Caleb Williams and Jaden Daniels, but it's not hard to see those guys having better seasons. Purdy, Tua, as was mentioned. What about Kyler? Oh, yeah.

He goes like back-to-back with Kyler. It's an easy, easy Kyler for me. Like not even close. Yeah. Yeah, and it's love for me. Oh. Well, Dave, I appreciate that. You know, it's one of those things,

you know it when you feel it. That's how you know when it's love. That's the tagline for the Acer stats. You know it when you feel it. It's a feel-based thing. Tank Dell is wide receiver 30 on DraftSharks PPR. Fifth round pick, although now I'm starting

to think that everything I was looking at was half PPR before. It was non-PPR before so would you like a link to our offseason ADP he's I looked at it honestly our offseason ADP is not good enough yet I'm sorry to say it CJ Stroud is the number two

player in our offseason ADP no he's not yes he is don't say that there's been problems within now I question there's been super flex that. There's been problems within the – Now I question – Guys, there's been super flex drafts. There's been things going on. Don't worry about it. The ADP will be fixed.

This happens every year. We have issues with ADP. Eventually, we get more drafts in. The ADP corrects it. Adam, I will send you a link. All right. He is not second. Adam made that part up.

No, I did not. That's what I was looking at. I believe I tried to do it. We're just not there yet. We haven't had quite enough draft. I'm looking at it right now. Dude, no. No. He's in round five where he belongs. In non-PPR, CJ Stroud is the

number two player. You're looking at something wrong, Adam. Now you're just trying to prove your point by faking things. I'm looking at non-PPR. I'm looking at it. There haven't in enough non-PPR drafts. Okay. So, all right, fine. I'll just look at PPR.

Yeah, I don't know what that is. Don't downgrade our ADP. Our ADP will correct itself. All right, TankTel is going 60. Well, the PPR is fine. No, no, Adam, you don't know that we've been under fire for ADP before? Do you not know that? No.

That's the whole reason why we're doing it. Last offseason, we were under fire for ADP. Now you're feeding into the fire. Yeah. Feeding into. Last offseason, we were under fire for ADP. Now you're feeding into the fire. Feeding into the flames. Company, man. Alright, shut up. I'll just use the PPR ADP, which is fine. Tank Dell is 60th overall. 59th overall in CBS PPR

ADP. And CJ Stroud is not. Okay, anyway. Yeah. What are you worried about being wrong about in terms of tank Della Dave that I'm too low on him and that he could end up being maybe even the best wide receiver in Houston this year for fantasy purposes. I think back to the games where he helped bring Houston back. They're trailing in the fourth quarter and he's just in perfect

sync with CJ Stroud on downfield throws. And I'm not talking about like go routes. I'm talking about deep out routes and corner routes and things that you don't necessarily see from rookie to rookie. In fact, I believe he's the only rookie receiver in the last decade to average 15 PPR points per game from a rookie quarterback. And it's either him alone or yeah, I think it is just him. Cause I, I, I had to do the research on this for the story in the magazine on rookie quarterbacks and what to expect from them. Just absolutely rare for a rookie receiver to do that with a rookie quarterback and rare for a rookie receiver, just to even average 15 PPR

points per game. It's not as rare obviously, but it's impressive. And I just, I can't help but think that when it comes to explosiveness, he's, he's the one in Houston for that. Nico's good. He can get open with his footwork. Diggs can too, but not like Tank Dell and Dell won't see bracket coverage very often with those other two guys on the field. All it'll take is more targets than we expect. And tank Dell could run away as the best receiver in Houston. I love going after him, especially when he's the third Houston receiver coming off the board. Dan,

don't you find CJ Stroud to be one of the more interesting and revealing quotes in football now? And the way he talks about Nico Collins, he basically says like Nico Collins is an absolute superstar. He's probably said it may have said that about to be fair. He, to be fair on Dell, I don't know if you saw this, Adam, but on Dell, he was asked on a few podcasts ago, like pick your, pick your all-star team. You could build a team. And at wide receiver,

he picked a couple of guys that aren't on his team. He picked Dell over any of the other guys. He didn't pick Nico. No. All right. So he's just kind of a talker then. So he's just kind of a talker. He is really he is a really good quote, though.

Very insightful guy. Are you worried about being too low or too high on Tank Dell? Yeah, I'm with Dave. I'm very worried about being too low on Tank Dell. And I'm very worried about not having a good grip and feel on how to draft the Texans receivers this year. Cause that's where I'm at right now. As we work through draft season, all the mocks we've done, the rankings,

everything I've put into for the magazine. I have, do not have a good feel for this because like Dave said, tank Dell was really fricking good on tape last year. And it was just like what he did. And everyone who watched him on film on college and said, and when they told you, Oh, he's five foot eight, all he's going to be able to do is play the slot in the NFL. And you're like, wait a second. I literally watched play after play game after game of him winning at all three levels, vertical intermediate and short on the outside. Why can't he do it in the NFL? Because the corners are bigger. Well, he did do it in the NFL last

year. And I'm curious to see if he now plays more slot with digs there, but I don't know. I think digs at this stage of his career might be the slot guy, to be honest. I think he might be quite frankly, the least explosive of those three, but I don't feel any more comfortable just even talking it through about where I'm going to get these guys, how to draft them. Do I want, which ones do I want? How many do I want? Do I want them at their current adp because it's very hard to predict how this is going to go sure the report was great with dell last year the report was pretty damn good with collins too it's blank slate with digs but digs is obviously a player who carries a big name brand and he signed like they're not bringing him in to not be targeted

at all i almost think we're going to see a lot of short area targets for digs just to get him involved and get in the ball make him more of a ppr type of guy and i think maybe dell will be what dave was saying that explosive playmaker for the offense so i am worried about being too low on on dell but to be honest i'm worried about being too low on all three of these guys i'm worried about being too low on dell for sure but he goes he goes last of them i'm not super worried about being too low on nico collins as i think he's being drafted. You know, some people are taking him in the second round.

I mean, that's right. I'd be worried about being too high on him there. I think he's a third. I think Nico's a third round guy. I think digs is like a mid to late fourth round guy. And Dell's a fifth round guy. Hopefully you get late fifth.

Uh, but yeah, I'm not worried about being too, too low on Nico Collins because I don't really see how he gives you mid-second round value. I think he's going too high, Dave, Nico, if he's going in the mid-second round, which he is on Fantasy Pros. Sure, but I think it's with the assumption that he'll be the target leader in Houston.

By how much, though? I mean, does he get to 150 targets? I don't know. I do not know. I did research on this months ago. I probably should publish this, but I've got all kinds of ideas on why Houston went after Diggs, what role Diggs will have, what it means for the other wide receiver.

And I think I really made it hit Dell more than Collins, and maybe that's the one thing that I'm especially worried about being wrong on, is that maybe it does take targets away from Nico, because Dell, like I talked about and like Dan mentioned, is much more explosive, and that Stephon Diggs just has this great pedigree and is in a different role where he's not the de facto number one guy. And theoretically, that would mean that the coverage would be different. I think the Texans are going to see a lot of zone coverage anyway. I think

everybody's going to see a lot of zone coverage this year, and that'll just make things easier for those underneath throws, throws inside of 15 yards in the middle of the field that I think are going to go to Stephon Diggs, not so much to both Collins nor Dell. So I, I'm just, I guess I'm just most unsure about how those perimeter receivers, uh, will play in Houston.

And if it'll be to the same level as it was last year. And if I had to pick one receiver where I think it's a little safer to say it'll be closer to the same, it would be Collins than Dell. But I might be wrong on that. Okay, last question. I got to wrap this discussion up. Is anybody worried about being too high on Tank Dell if he's going, let's say,

around the round 5-6 turn, top 60 overall, with Christian Kirk, Terry McLaurin, Jaden Reed, Chris Godwin, those types of receivers on the board? Is anybody worried that they're going to be too high on Tank Dell? I've got Dell over, I think, all those names already. So maybe that means I'm too high on him. No, it doesn't mean that. I mean, there is upside here for him to be just outstanding. Yeah, he's an insane talent.

He had an amazing rookie season. Like you said, it was historical in a lot of ways, especially from a report standpoint. But to answer your question, Adam, no, because I have a lot of faith in this Texans passing game, but more attempts of any team last year? Sure, the defense could take a little bit of a step forward. Maybe there'll be more game script that leads to less pass heavy. But I don't know about that. I think that's how they want to win. That's how they believe their offense is set up. It's not exactly like the Shanahan.

She's a Shanahan disciple, but it's not the Shanahan system. It's not born through the run game. It's born through C.J. Shroud and the play-action-passing game. And now Diggs is in the mix. So I think that will just continue forward. So just from an overall volume standpoint i think it'll be there to support these players okay well just in case you missed that dan did say that uh tank dell had a historic rookie season from a rapport standpoint which i guess is something we can measure now uh that's something dave said dave was, I don't know if you were listening, because you were probably thinking about being nominated

for the best male podcast host again. But Dave said. He's thinking about OnlyFans. Dave said. Cock drafts. He said that Tanktown and CJ Stratton, I forgot the stat, but it was, now you're confusing me, Adam, but it was something about.

I heard that. 15 PBR points per game. Rookie receiver with a rookie quarterback. Did you hear that, Adam? Can we measure rapport? That's measuring rapport. Rookie receiver, rookie quarterback. Okay, Adam?

You know what? We got to go to break here, but why don't you read this comment we got from Scott? If Adam added a cream hair product, faded the sides, and clean shaved, he would be on CBS proper and leave the others on the internet. But we'd miss him. I'll give it a shot. You know what he will be doing this year?

Shaving three lines into his head. I'm not joking. All right. All right. All right. Well, we're going to take a break and when we come back, we'll have,

we got to get, we got to pick it up a little bit here. We haven't talked about enough players. Rasheed Rice. When we come back on fantasy football today. Mama, look at me. I'm going really fast. I just got my license. a little bit here. We haven't talked about enough players. Rasheed Rice, want to go to Jack's place today. I'll just take the car. Don't wait up, okay? Kids go from zero to 18 in no time, don't they? At Intact Insurance, we insure your car so you can enjoy the ride. Visit intact.ca or talk to your broker. Conditions apply. Miller Lite. The light beer brewed for people who love the taste of beer and the perfect pairing for your game time.

When Miller Lite set out to brew a light beer, they had to choose great taste or 90 calories per can. They chose both because they knew the best part of beer is the beer. Your game time tastes like Miller time. Learn more at MillerLite.ca. Must be legal drinking age. All right, we are talking about Rasheed Rice, who had a, I would say, borderline historic rapport with Patrick Mahomes last year. When you look at all those receptions, he is wide receiver 39 on draft sharks.

Let's see where he's going in CBS ADP. 86th overall just just after Rome, a dunes, a Rishi rice, Dave, are you worried that you're going to be too low on Rishi rice? That's it. I wonder if we're,

and this is something that will be adjusted in our rankings as we get closer to the regular season. What if there is a minimal suspension for his off season transgressions? What if there's no suspension and it doesn't come until 2025 and Rasheed Rice falls right back in as a primary target for Patrick Mahomes in the Chiefs offense? It's not going to be like last year for Rasheed Rice because they've got Marquise Brown, Xavier Worthy, not to mention that Kelsey guy that we know a lot about. But it could still be that Mahomes feels most comfortable

with Rasheed Rice as that short and intermediate target. Although toward the end of last year, it was just a short and short target. His ADOT was really, really low, but volume was in his favor. Maybe the volume will be a little bit less, but he still has that nose for the end zone. Could still come through five catches, 50 yards and a touchdown eight times, nine times a year. And we're taking something like that in the round seven range with upside for him to have some monster games mixed in that that's a guy who should be going higher. And he might be going higher by the time we get to late August, early September. I just can't rank it that way because I am expecting a suspension of at least four games. That makes me a little bit less excited to draft him,

knowing that I can't use him until week five at the absolute earliest. And then the Chiefs have a bye in week six. That could be something that really does make him more of a mid-season booster to a fantasy lineup, and it might not be what it was last year. That's why he's going in round seven, round eight in my rankings. What about this? Just a thought on Rasheed Rice. He had 79 catches, 938

yards, seven touchdowns on 102 targets in 16 games. Rasheed Rice was per game, wide receiver 32 in non-PPR, wide receiver 27 in full PPR per game. I think, Dan, this could be,

and I am also worried that I'm too low on Rasheed Rice, because anyone, any wide receiver as a rookie who reaches 900 yards, it is a somewhat exclusive club and it's a really good club. It is usually a very good player, and he did it. A 900 club. Yeah, exactly.

You know, never mind. I was working on another naughty joke. Anyway, I think there's a chance that his rookie season will be the best season of Rasheed Rice's career. Like a pretty decent chance. Wow. Yeah, and it's based on... I don't know if I hate that.

I don't know if I hate... I think I kind of like that call. They don't want to be this kind of offense. It's obvious. They don't want to be this offense that's throwing the ball seven yards downfield on average, like one of the lowest ADOTs in the NFL, the Chiefs. They keep talking about getting the downfield passing game going. They signed Marquise Brown.

They drafted Xavier Worthy. I could see his rookie year being his best ever. It's definitely possible. I mean, they've added those two receivers downfield. That's going to open up space in the middle of the field. But the thing with Rice, it's like, it's interesting. I want to see the evolution of how they use him within the offense. I remember we did a beyond the box or last year, Adam, I don't remember the exact week. It was somewhere in the mid to late season. The chiefs were playing in a dome. I think it was the Falcons that they play the south last year. I don't remember.

It was one of those dome teams that they faced. And it was the first time all season. We broke down receipt. She writes his tape that he was utilized in a bit of a different role. He ran an out and up with my homes. They threw him a bet. He threw him a back shoulder about 20 yards down the field showing off just like a great, you know, trust and receiver to throw that type of route out and up back shoulder. He was running the intermediate routes, the vertical routes.

And I was like, okay, this is what it's going to evolve to. Cause he was that kind of receiver college. You could see him do everything in that offense. He was in, in a college level, but that didn't really surface the rest of the season. It was odd. If it was like a breakout and then it was like, okay, now he's back to this role where he's just catching these like quick hitters around the line scrimmage. And like you said role is probably not going to go away but it's definitely going to be diminished in the coming season and seasons with the new talent they've added out receiver we know that they're not like you said they're not gonna they don't want to run this offense but at the same time adam we do have to take into consideration that teams are not likely to at any point for the

rest of patrick mahomes's career do anything but play two high looks, three high looks, cover three, cover two against him with a lot of depth from the safeties. It just is not, you know, they've added talent receiver. That doesn't mean the teams are going to start pressing up on the Chiefs and like giving him those vertical shots. It's going to look like the space for this,

the way this offense is going to win is still going to be with quick hitters around the line of scrimmage. That's all the defense is giving them. Yeah, I'm worried about it. I'm worried about being too low on him for sure. And this is a guy where she writes his ADP is going to change. As Dave said, when we, when we learned about the suspension, but yeah,

if there is no suspension, how high does he go? Zero games, which I highly doubt there would be, but then he'll probably be like a third-ish round pick, third, fourth. Are you taking him over Mike Evans? No. Are you taking him over DK Metcalf? I don't think I am. Maybe in full PPR.

Are you taking him over Tank Dell? Yeah, I think I might take him over Dell. But even in saying that right now this is with no suspension yeah no suspension I'd take him over Dell with no suspension yeah would you take Rice over Pasta over who? Pasta

Rice over Pasta oh it's one of these these are terrible jokes I like Pasta better than Rice everybody likes Pasta better let's look at some news and notes some wide receivers who want new contracts joke. I like pasta better than rice. Everybody likes pasta better. Okay. Let's look at some news and notes. Some wide receivers who want new contracts. Tyreek Hill wants a new contract. Brandon Ayuk,

we know that. He says he wants to stay in San Francisco. He says he wants to be there. CeeDee Lamb expected to miss the start of training camp. He wants a new contract. Cortland Sutton. That could be another reason to be against CeeDee Lamb. Yeah. If he misses training camp, that's usually problematic. Oh, jeez.

Look at this terrible take from Jimmy. Rice over pasta. Oh, Jimmy, what are you doing? Hey, that's Jimmy's opinion. Leave him alone. It's a bad one. It's Jimmy's opinion. It's a bad one, yeah.

Christian McCaffrey could see fewer carries. They said they got to save Christian McCaffrey from himself. They don't want him to have too much of a workload. So Dan's talked about that. Some people might be concerned about that. Some people might see it as a good thing, keep him healthy. Personal goal, put in Jordan Mason to save Christian McCaffrey. Let me keep drafting Elijah Mitchell late.

Brees Hall says he feels like himself again. There was an article on ESPN.com about Brees Hall, and he had that mid season slump and he, you know, he acknowledged that his knee was not right, not fully right. Robert Sala had said something like it wasn't until about midway through the year. I forget what he said, where he was himself again. So I bring this up and I don't even know that he was himself again. Like now he says that he feels, I don't think he was. Yeah. Yeah. But we're going to talk about Jonathan Brooks in a little bit. Carolina head coach Dave Canales, speaking of Jonathan Brooks,

he says, Dave Canales says, it all starts with the run game, and he feels confident the team will be able to have a successful run game, which will set up a lot of other things for them. Got an ESPN report that said KJ Osborne, Demario Douglas, and Jalen Polk could be New England's top three targets if everyone's healthy. Osborne has been

kind of like the number one guy, it seems, in terms of drills and things like that. Demario Douglas and Jalen Polk, that could be the top three trio

for the Patriots. J.J. McCarthy... Exciting. I know. J.J. McCarthy will not start week one according to the Athletics' Alec Lewis.

We'll see. But we, I guess, expect that at this point. That sucks. If you're playing in leagues that reward punt return yards, Roma Doonsday could return punts. He was doing it at minicamp. Yep. Kickoffs, too, or just punts?

No, he was not there on kickoffs. It was punts only. And Dan Schneier's story. Oh, God. This is even bad. Another unsuccessful day on the softball diamond last night. Another loss. Okay.

7-2 the final. Some might say that you're dragging that team down. The record before you joined the team was a lot better. That's all I know. I thought we would do better last night because Marty wasn't there. Marty's awful. He's definitely our worst player. Decides you?

No, he's much worse than me. They're going to put me at third because Marty's been so bad there. I thought you'd always be a right field kind of guy. No, I play second. By the way, I'm just kidding about Marty. Marty is someone who's become an everyday listener. I know he's listening to the podcast right now. I just talk a little trash about him, but he's very good. We

missed him last night, but I'm at the bar after the game where all the teams go. Okay. And I'm talking to Doug who listens to our show also. And he says to me, he's like, so are you going to, are you going to beat Dan in tennis? And I'm like, you know, I'm playing really well. He said, he's not going to pick up a racket which by the way is a lie well I'm picking up one for the first time this weekend with my dad I'm not going to turn down my father he wants to play tennis and we're going to play but Dan is so oddly confident that it is scaring me a little bit like it is you have no shot but then again keep in mind you don't know people probably didn't see this on FFT and five dan i played him in a game and i beat him

2-0 and that was rock paper scissor oh i beat him in rock paper scissor and afterwards dad goes you know i consider myself a pretty good rock paper scissor player i do i do i do it was a devastating to lose to adam in a sweep to rock there's other i do consider myself how do you quantify that well yeah by just games played i've I've had definitely like a 70%. You have a winning record in rock, paper, scissors? Easily. I've beaten my brother in that. I've won a lot of big series against my brother in rock, paper, scissors.

Can I play you right now, Dan, in rock, paper, scissors? It's always best two of three, sure. Fine. Ready? No says. It's just rock, paper, scissors, shoot. Yeah, fine. Rocks, paper, scissors, shoot.

Okay, 1-0 me. 1-0 me. Now we go again. First paper. Okay. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. Got it again. That's a 2-0.

That's a sweep. He is good, Adam. I take it all back. That's a sweep. I'm typically a good player, but Adam, I don't want to talk about that rock, paper series. I don't understand how you quantify that other than, so it's just got to think about the player you're playing against. I had a feeling,

Dave, you'd be a guy who goes back to the well with the same one you threw the first time. So I just fire back with another works on my kids all the time. Yeah. And you're assuming the first time that I'm going to go rock. So you throw paper. A lot of people assume the opponent's going to go rock on their first.

There's a lot of sky. I don't want to give away all my strategy here. Okay. I'm trying to beat out of the next time I play at. Yeah. All right. So anyway, to end this story here, he asked me if I'm going to be Dan and he had never seen the show. He had only listened. So I was like, you know what? Take a look, take a look at the show. I showed him yesterday's episode. He looked at Dan and we were both like, this guy is not going to beat me. You are so physically unimpressive. He just didn't buy it.

Are you kidding me, Adam? Are you kidding me? I'm just telling you what he said. You're 133 pounds soaking wet, Adam. You're lucky this isn't physical sports for the most part. Because if we were playing basketball, you'd be just getting back down every single play. But in tennis, I assume you'll have no power. You'll have no power on your serve.

You'll have no power on your forehand. I'm skeptical of even know how to volley, to be completely honest. I'm very skeptical. This is unbelievable. People think you have any chance against me in this sport. The guy saw you and he just didn't buy it. He just didn't buy it. All right.

Let's go to Dan's players. You know what? I might start playing before our match. I might start picking up a racket at this point. You are scared and you won't admit it. You right. Let's go to Dan's play. You know what? I might start playing before our match. I might start picking up a racket. You are scared and you won't admit it. You're breaking all of your rules. You are scared. And by the way, I have a private lesson on Friday. So let's go. No, it's got

a private lesson. It's amazing. I love it. I do love that you're getting addicted to tennis. I love it. It's amazing. Before I found golf, it was the greatest sport. All right. You are worried that you're too low on Travis Etienne, I'm guessing? Yes, yes. It's a problem with me with Etienne.

I had this last year. Now, with Etienne last year, it was a similar situation as it will be going into this year. There are things I like about Travis Etienne's game. His four-smiths tackle rate has carried over from the collegiate level where he was dominant, and that is one of the stickiest stats from an advanced stat standpoint year after year, and it's carried over. He's been an efficient and explosive runner at the NFL level. But what does that get me from a fantasy standpoint?

It got me a lot in the beginning of last season, the first 11 weeks of the season through weeks, 12 through, I talked about this on one of the other podcasts weeks, the rest of the season, the second half of the season, I think it was weeks 10. He was RB two for almost every week,

except for three RB 22. He just fell off the face of the earth. Why did he do it? He stopped scoring touchdowns. They weren't running him in the red zone. What else happened? They start to throw the ball more. They become more past first offense. They're falling behind in games. This year, they've added more talent at receiver. You could say they've gotten worse losing Calvin Ridley. I will take Brian Thomas and Gabe Davis as the combination at least equal. I think personally, they fit Trevor Lawrence's skillset much better than Calvin Ridley. I'm sure you guys have seen the clips going around of the seven to nine horrific drops. Calvin Ridley had last season on three or four of them. Touchdowns.

Most of those from my, from my memory were just a little bit over his outstretched hands or not even over it, hit his outstretched hands and drop. Now he's throwing to guys who are four or five inches taller than Calvin Ridley with longer reach. Those are going to be passes. This is what Trevor Lawrence is and has always been. He's a tall-statured quarterback who throws a tall ball, they call it, and that means the ball is going to come out hot and high,

and that's going to be better for guys like Gabe Davis and Brian Thomas within that offense. So I think the passing game will get better. I think Thanksgiving Bigsby get better. I think thanks. Big Bixby is going to take a step forward from a mental processing standpoint. They're going to feel like they can bring them in the field. I know that's the talk early days. I know you guys are skeptical of it.

I get it. I was too high on him last year. I liked his college tape. We'll see. It's year two. I'm not sold that he's just written off because they like him already in camp. And now he can maybe hopefully get down the processing side of this. They can trust him now on the field.

Regardless, though, there are still reasons for me to be excited about a player like Travis Etienne, a very efficient runner who hopefully can fall into more touchdowns, have more long touchdowns. So I am nervous that I'm going to get this wrong. I guess I got it wrong last year, but again, was it really wrong when he didn't really help you at all through the fantasy playoffs and fell off the face of the earth for half of a season? I guess if you're going by the final rankings, he was probably still a top 12 running back last year, right? Yeah.

Cause he was like one or two through the first eight weeks, but I kind of wish I got the guy who is helping me in the fantasy playoffs. It was 20.5 in his first eight games before the buy. And then Adam basically declared that it's all downhill from there. And he was at 13.2 PPR points per game in nine games. Full PPR. That is terrible. It reminds me of 2022 from week five on.

He started to get more of an opportunity last year. He averaged 13.4. So I wonder if that's, is that the floor 13 PPR points per game, or is that just what we should expect? And if that's what we should expect, then we are drafting this dude way, way, way too soon. It's something that we need to really think about and really be sure. And I think it's going to be tied to what we hear about tank Bigsby and what other runner running backs that they have in Jacksonville and how much are they still going to use ETN in the passing game?

Right. Those factors will probably determine just what the upside is for ETN. He is so by far their best running back. Oh, there's no question. It's not even close. And, you know, Bigsby, if Bigsby scares me at all,

it would have to be he was taking goal line carries away from him, which I thought could be a possibility last year. That would be the only thing. If he gets some carries throughout the game, it's not a huge deal. Etienne had over 70% of his team's carry, 74.6 of the running back carries on the team.

That's a lot. So that could come down. I think they want that to come down. But he also had 58 catches in 17 games. He's pretty reliable for three to four catches basically every single week. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Look, if he doesn't play well, I can live with it.

But he really represents to me one of the last every down backs that you can get. You know? Possibly. The only thing would be if he loses the goal line work. But he's going to catch passes, and he's going to dominate. Even if he loses the goal line work, but he's going to catch passes and he's going to, even if he is like every down back though, how many cat patch catches is going to pat,

uh, sorry. Catches. Is he going to 58? He had 58 catches last night. He had that last year with a different offense. And look, maybe you don't believe because I think that I don't know if it's a

different, it will fit this skillset of this quarterback better. And I don't think they want think that I don't know if it's a different will fit, will fit this skillset of this quarterback better. And I don't think they want it. That doesn't, that shouldn't affect the scheme in which they run the ball. I don't think they're really throwing him design passes though. I think it was more a product of the offensive line was at its all time low under Trevor Lawrence last year.

That should be a lot better. That's not going to benefit Travis ETN. It shouldn't benefit him in the passing game no i don't think so at his peak trevor lawrence is somebody who works through his progressions and reads high to low he doesn't read low to high like he doesn't want to get the ball out to travis etn on these short passes in my mind at least he didn't do it that often though that's the thing it's it's not like he had 80 catches he just like he had three to four catches a game this is not like one of those offenses that goes that funnels through the running back in the passing game at all it's not but that's the thing as long as he's still getting the snaps

look you know what why don't i look up where they ranked in running back target percentage because i i'm thinking that they didn't rank all that high we'll see and it's just that he was the only one getting it it's kind kind of like Joe Mixon. We've had years where Burrow has thrown to the running backs a lot and years where he hasn't thrown to the running backs that much, but still Mixon's the only guy who catches any passes for them and still gets over 50 catches. And these are all reasons why I'm scared I'm too low on Travis Etienne.

You're laying out the case for sure. But that case, by the way, Adam, we've made for Joe Mixon a lot, and there's been a lot of disappointment within that case. He's a top 12 running back every single year per game. Five of the last six years. That's the thing. But there's a lot of random three touchdown games. He's not a

player you really want in your lineup. The Jaguars through the running backs, the sixth lowest rate in the NFL last year. Only 14.7% of their targets. And I think that comes down. That comes down? They were the sixth lowest last year.

It comes down? I want to make that go like this. You know what? You have made me feel better about Travis Etienne. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. I want to make that go like this. I don't know that.

I want to turn that. Did Larry David see some guy? It's a Curb Your Enthusiasm restaurant. He sees some guy when he's in visiting New York that he knows that he quote unquote knows from LA. The guy knows him and he's like, Larry, you know, uh, why, why don't we go out to lunch? I haven't, he's like, we don't go out to lunch when we're in LA. We're not friends there. Why would we hang out here when we're in New York? He's like, Larry, your world is so small. Your is like this he's like you see that i want to make that world like this i remember that episode yeah good all right you're worried about uh sam laporta we're about being wrong about sam laporta yes tight end one in adp and third round pick so he's not my tight end one

so i'll start by saying i worry about being wrong because everybody uh you know consensus has some tight end one he's not my tight end one. Two, I don't foresee myself drafting him in any format auction. There's almost no, there's literally no chance. And then snake, it would have to be, I guess, just like nobody's drafting tight ends and he just keeps falling. I don't want to invest the, what you currently have to invest to get a player like this. And I'm, you know, the opportunity cost means I'm giving up wide receiver. I really like potentially a running back who falls that i don't love going running backs in that range but if one

really good one falls that has a chance to be a workhorse and a league winner i'll take that over the tight end who to be quite frank could lose a little bit of his role if jameson williams takes a big step forward we saw a little bit more involvement from jameson williams in the playoffs this year and we saw some coach speak to suggest that they want to get jison Williams more involved. Again, they traded up to get Jamison Williams two years ago. It's not like we're just poo-pooing it because he had a bad rookie season, but they traded up. They gave up assets to move up to get this type of player. And he was a difference maker at Alabama. Now even further removed from the injury, very explosive playmaker, not saying he's going to take over Laporta's role or anything like that. Laporta still has his role

within this offense, but it's a volume. It was in a lot of ways, a volume dependent role. So this is just not a player that I'm currently buying, but why am I worried? Because he was amazing last year and he was that volume player last year. He scored touchdowns. He was a focal point of the offense through the play action passing game. The tight end is always going to be a big part of any play action passing game. So there's still a world i can see where laporta averages just like a consistent six seven catches a game falls into enough touchdowns where he does end up being the tight end one and in a lot of ways worth the high investment that we're forced to make to take him this year but i won't be drafting him so i'm definitely worried that i'll be on the wrong side of that d Dave, I think it's worth noting that he had seven games with 15 or more

PPR points. That's what we're looking for from a stud tight end. And he had seven games with nine or fewer PPR points last year. And so there, there could be some inconsistency with Laporta, especially when you think about the other options in that offense. And it's, it's not just St. Brown, but what if Jamesison Williams does get this opportunity that Dan Campbell's talking about? What if there is an increase in targets per game for Jameer Gibbs? And could that all kind of take work away from Laporta? The one thing that I just keep going back to is I love the way

that he was utilized, and I don't think that's changing at all. And he was utilized like a wide receiver and he was running routes downfield and, and certainly making splash plays. And, uh, that's something that I think can continue to happen. And I would want to bank on that from a second year player.

The fact that the whole offense is coming back from offensive coordinator to quarterback to basically the offensive line. There's one change there. It just makes me feel encouraged about this whole offense, and Laporta's a big part of it. I'm taking him over Kelsey. And who do you think gets the rank the top four tight ends in terms of just targets? Oh, I love that. Kelsey, Laporta, McBride, Andrews. Rank them in targets. We can't throw anybody else into the mix?

No, because I'm just going to look at this tier of tight ends, how they're being drafted. So is Kelsey, Laporta, you're giving us Kelsey, Laporta, McBride, and who is left? And Andrews? And Andrews. I think Andrews is going to be last. Yeah, Andrews is last for me.

Yeah, me too. Kelsey, McBride, Laporta, Andrews. It could be, but it could be really close between those three. I'm fine with that. I would go Kelsey Laporta, McBride, then Andrews. But I think Dave's right. I don't think it's going to be, especially if the Chiefs do what some are suggesting and try to keep Kelsey healthy for the postseason.

All right. Jonathan Brooks is the last guy we'll talk about. I wanted to talk about Mixon, but I'm going to cut him and go to Jonathan Brooks here. And he's RB puts in the time to like players. He drafted him really early in a draft we had maybe two weeks ago with him, one or two weeks ago, a mock we did. Really stuck his foot in the ground on Jonathan Brooks. And Jamie's talked a lot about Jonathan Brooks, and I understand the upside case for Brooks.

And it's what I'm worried about missing out on. The upside case is we just saw a running back in a Dave Canales offense, Rashad White, who, quite frankly, was among the bottom of the league in every rushing metric that we look at, every advanced rushing metric we look at, every success rushing metric we look at, all the raw stats from a rushing standpoint, one of the worst runners in the NFL, and yet was one of the 12 best running backs for fantasy football in PPR leagues, maybe even higher in full PPR.

I don't know where he finished at him, but I'm sure. What was it? Fourth overall, 10th per game. Fourth overall. Why was that? He fell into a lot of touchdowns in the red zone, and he caught a lot of passes. So now the case for Brooks is, if he can take over that role,

he's going to catch a lot of passes. Touchdowns, that's where I'm a little, I don't know if he's going to be as Rashad Whitey with the touchdowns. Rashad Whitey, maybe I'm wrong, but I think he only scored six rushing, six rushing, three receiving. No, but a lot of receiving. Three receiving.

Nine overall. Nine overall. Nine's a good amount. If Brooks scores nine, I'm going to be way wrong on him. 17 games, nine touchdowns is really... If Brooks scores nine touchdowns, I'm going to be wrong on him. We all are where we're drafting him right now.

Nine is more than you think. You're underestimating how much nine is. No, it is, but it's, I mean, for the fourth best running back overall in fantasy, nine touchdowns. Oh, yeah, well, that's the point. The passing game is what propelled it, for sure. And that's my worry with Brooks.

Now, the reason I'm not drafting him is plentiful. One, I'm not sold that offense is going to be as effective as the Bucs offense was last season. Two, the offensive line, I still have major concerns. Three, the injury concern. Rashad white was fully healthy. Brooks is coming off the ACL. We don't even know when it'll start.

If we'll have similar things we've had from other guys coming off ACL, where they're not fully themselves until a full year removed. They have soreness in year. We heard that from Wando Robinson, giants fans are the from Wando Robinson. The other day, he felt like he had mid mid season soreness had to take a week off where he basically didn't play any snaps.

This can happen from a torn ACL recovery three, which didn't happen to Rashad White. I don't necessarily think Chuba Hubbard is that bad of a runner when I've watched him on tape. He's looked pretty damn good. And I don't know necessarily if even Miles Sanders is going to get fully phased out of the offense. He might get some carries who knows what these guys are going to get in the reds too. So there's so much concern for me with Brooks, but on the flip side of it, if he gets the role that Rashad White had, I mean, we're talking about a league winning pick in the middle rounds and that's very, there's very few backs I can take in that range who have his kind of upside. So that's why I'm scared of missing out. I've moved him down in my rankings because I worry

about that path to him being great for fantasy. And we can talk about the second half of the year, the schedule in the second half, really from week 12 on after their bye. I don't think it's really conducive to a running back having huge numbers. I don't think this offense is yet at a point where it's conducive to a running back having huge numbers. So a lot of the points that you made, Dan, I'm really with you on. And my biggest fear is that the Panthers don't have to rush him.

The Panthers are still rebuilding. I think they'd have to be very lucky to compete for a playoff berth in 2024. I don't think they've got the defense for it. I don't think they've got the offense for it. I don't think they've got the offense for it. So what's the rush with Brooks? Even when they clear him and he's back and active on game day, do you really think he's going to take all the touches and beat 15 plus touches a game right away? No, I don't think so. Brees wasn't right. Javante might've been, I don't remember. I'd have to go back and look, but I

agree with you on Chuba Hubbard. And I think Dave can else has options with the running backs. He can use multiple guys. He didn't have that type of depth that running back in Tampa. Okay. He had chase Edmonds. He had Sean Tucker. That was someone that I was excited about it. That didn't come to pass. There really wasn't anybody there to push Rashad White. Right. And so he just leaned on Rashad White and it worked out. I don't think he has to do that with Jonathan Brooks. So my foot's off the gas pedal with Brooks round six at the absolute earliest for me. And the other thing that Adam is we're, we're not even sure that, you know, Brooks will benefit from the same thing Rashad White benefited from, which was, you know,

big kick in the butt from Dan Schneier in week three, putting out his tape on Beyond the Box score and then getting the, you know, leading to the Rashad White DM, the famous Rashad White DM. Very famous. He was awesome. He's like, you know what, dude, you're right. You had a good call on this and I got to be better. And he was better. So who knows if that'll happen for Jonathan Brooks as well. How are you doing with House of the Dragon? I just watched last night's episode, and that was finally, it felt like a Thrones episode to me. I'm not there yet. I just wanted to be more like Thrones, and it finally was last night. It was a long episode, tons to unpack, like deep, like a lot of different storylines finally working together. Do people call it Thrones, or is that just a you thing?

Because I've never heard anyone call it Thrones. It's the same theme song. No, no, no. Everyone calls it Game of Thrones. I don't hear people shorten it to Thrones. What? Everyone calls it Thrones. I don't think so. What are you talking about? No one does the full Game of Thrones. Everyone calls it Thrones.

Let's get a poll. I've never seen an episode of Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones. I saw the first episode. You would be that kind of guy, Thomas, who've never seen an episode of Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones. You would be that kind of guy, Thomas, who doesn't watch an episode of Game of Thrones. How cool are you? That's like the only show that I've never watched. I watched The Wire.

Oh, that's true. Nobody calls it Thrones, Johnny Eppert. Everyone calls it Thrones. Who doesn't call it Thrones? No, but honestly, I've never heard a single person other than you call it Thrones. What? Dave? Anyone said Thrones? What? I'm with Thomas, I've never heard a single person other than you call it. What? Dave? Anyone said Thrones? What? I'm with Thomas. I've never watched a full episode of Game of Thrones, but I've seen some of the highlights.

But have you ever heard anyone call it Thrones? Yeah, like the Red Wedding. Like, that was cool. Wow, just randomly out of context. Watch the Red Wedding? Just watch some of the biggest spoilers of the show. I know, that's crazy. Yeah, so now I don't have to go have to go back and watch the whole series.

Yeah, another one here. Nobody Calls It Thrones. I can't believe nobody but me calls it Thrones. I thought everybody called it Thrones. Who doesn't like a good abbreviation shortcut? I just call it Of. It's finally an episode

that was like Of. Alright, we're out of here, everybody. Wait, wait, wait wait wait Dan one more time oh we want to we want to rematch yeah I need time to consider my play okay just go okay okay ready

rocks paper scissor shoot yeah that was a delay felt a little late there felt a little late there I'm was a delay. Adam felt a little late there. Felt a little late there. I'm going to give that to you, and we're going to walk it off. But I won the series, and Matt Fawn felt a little late,

for those who are watching on the YouTube. I was about to put you on the phone. I trust David. David's the most honest person I feel like I've ever met through any of these work things. So I do trust that he didn't do – that it wasn't as late as it looked. Here's a quote. Here's Joe Lynn on our chat.

This is something that Dan's the reference. He's not going to get. He's never seen. Yes, I am. New Mean Girls. Adam thinks I don't get references. I get references. Quit trying to make Thrones happen.

You know what references? I won't get Frazier references. What are you on? Season 23 now? No, I stopped at season. Has anything happened? He's still just walking around New York, going to coffee shops and talking to people. He lives in Seattle.

Seattle. Whatever. Yeah. Who cares? Okay. Johnson Isles. Good old Frej, we call it. We just call it Jer.

We're out of here for today. To all the people who said I'd read your emails, sorry we went long today. Try to do that on tomorrow's show. We have two more episodes this week, and we're recording both of them on Wednesday. For Dave and Dan and Thomas, I'm Adam. We'll talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football Today.