Fantasy Football Today - Playoff Thoughts, Lamar vs. Mahomes, LaPorta vs. Kelce and More (01/29 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: January 29, 2024

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 We have so much to react to as we start the show with our thoughts on Sunday's games. The Chiefs and 49ers will meet in the Super Bowl, but why are the 49ers favored? We also talk about Lamar Jackson's legacy, Dan Campbell's fourth down decisions (8:00) and more. And then we'll focus on Fantasy as we renew our Lamar Jackson vs. Patrick Mahomes debate (15:15) and do the same for Sam LaPorta vs. Travis Kelce (21:00) ... News and notes (26:00)! How do we feel about the Dave Canales hire? What about Kellen Moore to the Cowboys and offensive coordinator hires for the Bills and Browns? ... What kind of upside does Zay Flowers have (39:00)? Can he be a Top 12 wide receiver if the Ravens don't increase their pass attempts? And who should be drafted first in 2024: Jahmyr Gibbs or Amon-Ra St. Brown (43:30)?  SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. All right, everybody. We've got a very happy crew today. We got Thomas Schaefer coming back from vacation. He's in it. Well, are you in a good mood to come back from vacation? I don't know. I mean, he wasn't a good mood all of last week.

Jamie looks happy, smiling. I'm in a great mood. And of course, Heath is here. No Dave this week, or at least for the beginning part of this week. He's at the Senior Bowl. But hey, congratulations again, Heath Cummings. Yeah, it was a good effort. Yeah, good job.

Good effort, yeah. Yeah, the Chiefs are in the Super Bowl. Yippee! It's exciting, and they're facing the 49ers, a rematch. And let's just start the show with the insufferable tweet of the day. Let's just take, I mean, look at, you want to read your tweet out loud there, Heath? Okay, this was at 6.17 last night.

A lot of times I go back the morning after games and delete some of the tweets from during the game or after the game because, you know, you're in a different state of mind than maybe you are when the game's not in the heat of the battle. I decided to leave this one up, though, so I'm glad you were able to find it. It just says, I don't know how any AFC fan base

besides maybe the Bengals feels any hope for the next decade. It's sad. The next decade? It is really sad for guys like Lamar and Josh Allen, whose legacies are being negatively impacted by the greatness of Patrick Mahomes. It is a little bit, yeah. That's what I talked about last week.

He's Michael Jordan. He's just making everybody look bad. But anyway, Jamie, what are your thoughts from yesterday's games? I mean, obviously a lot. I was hoping for a little bit it was, it was, uh, I was hoping for a little bit more offense in the AFC side, you know, that was, you know,

a little frustrating to see that the defense has played so well, you know, just because I wanted to see the greatness of Lamar Jackson and he was, you know, contained and I think frustrated and understandably. So cheese defense has been fantastic. And I think really, um,

and I'm curious, he's take on this, you this you know uh not that he's going to be viewed negatively but i i remember who said it last week how much chris is chris jones's impact on this chief's run you know because we all look at at mahomes and and kelsey and reed and they get the the headlines understandably so chris jones is a monster an absolute monster i had a friend asked me yesterday he goes has he surpassed aaron donald as the best interior defensive lineman of this era and he may have no you know i i i don't think so from a from a personal

standpoint but he's in the conversation you know and and and certainly what he does he's a game wrecker he's an absolute game wrecker and um the NFC side, man, that was a, whew. There's a lot to get into. I know you want to talk about the Dan Campbell decision, so we will. But it was a good day of football. It was a good day of football. Yeah, I thought watching that, like you were always, as somebody cheering for the Chiefs, like, can you just put the game away?

Can we go one more drive? and they just had no offense. But it also looked like they got that two-score lead, and they just kind of felt like it was safe. They were pretty content to just, okay, that's good. And they obviously had the offensive line's concerns, and Baltimore's defense is the best in the NFL. So I kind of understand why they got so conservative, too. I don't know if they're the best in the NFL. I kind of understand why they got so conservative, too. I don't know if they're the best

in the NFL. I think your defense might be the best. Well, Jarius Sneed's incredible, too. Thank you. You have to mention that Jarius Sneed, I mean, he's made, without shadowing a wide receiver, he makes the play of the game and knocks that ball out. And Jamie brought up the Aaron Donald thing. That's the reason that

Chris Jones probably isn't going to be in Kansas city next year is because he wants to be paid like Aaron Donald and the chiefs wouldn't do it. Kind of like the Tyree kill situation. My 14 year old says to me, like they should just pay him whatever he wants. They've got to bring back Chris Jones next year. And I said,

well, that means you don't have luxurious need if they do, because they're going to have to, it's going to be one of those two guys. Well, unless a 87 decides he's done and you get some. Yeah. A lot of relief. Yeah. Well, unless 87 decides he's done and you get some relief. Yeah.

Well, 87, we're going to talk about Travis Kelsey and renew the debates. You know, Travis Kelsey and Sam Laporta, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. I got one question for each of the eliminated teams. We'll talk about Zay Flowers. That's my question for the Ravens. What is Zay Flowers upside? And for the Lions, who you draft?

And first, I think this is a fairly easy one, but I don't know about easy, but the Twitter poll had it pretty easy. But Amonra St. Brown or Jameer Gibbs, who you're drafting first. I think it's, you know, if you maybe drop down a half PPR, it becomes a little bit more interesting there. We'll get to that. I do want to talk about the Dan Campbell decisions,

but I'm a little surprised that the 49ers are favored. You know, I mean... Are they still? They are still one point. I think it started... It was two and a half last night, and it was like one and a half by the time everybody went to bed, and now it's one o'clock this morning,

or one point this morning, so... Yeah, I mean, it's basically a home game for them. Home game for them? What'd you say, Jamie? Everybody's going to bet the Chiefs. Yeah. I mean, I thought everybody was going to bet the chiefs. Uh, yeah. I mean,

I was, I thought everybody was going to bet the chiefs against the Ravens, but people were taking the Ravens and the line got up to like four and a half or something like that. Uh, so I was, I was surprised at that. You just,

I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but I think when I picked the chiefs, I think I said, Jackson's going to turn it over twice and my homes isn't going to turn it over at all. And that's why I was picking Kansas city. And that's, that's, I said, Jackson's going to turn it over twice, and Mahomes isn't going to turn it over at all, and that's why I was picking Kansas City. And that's, I mean, you can simplify football when it comes to these games so often about turnovers,

and Mahomes just doesn't make mistakes, and he doesn't take sacks. They have almost no negative plays. I just can't wait to see with two weeks what Shanahan and Spaggs come up with. That matchup between their offense and those weapons and that system against the heater that Spaggs has been on lately, that's going to be fascinating.

Man, but McCaffrey is just... Oh, yeah. He's got to be a handful. Oh, I think if I was San Francisco, it would be pitch to McCaffrey, pitch to Debo, pitch to McCaffrey, pitch to Debo. Like, just try to kill him that way. Yeah. Do you have any thoughts on Lamar Jackson and his legacy?

Because we talked about it a lot with Josh Allen last week. What does this game mean for Lamar Jackson's career, I guess? He's going to be a two-time MVP. And so he had this Twitter poll, right? It was just your odds, I think you gave on what they needed to accomplish.

Again, two-time MVP, he's clearly not done. I mean, he's got a lot of hopeful, great moments left, unless you're, of course, looking at what he said for the next decade. A lot of AMC championship games in his picture. He's going to win a lot of regular season awards and a lot of regular season football games. There's nothing wrong with that.

It's true. We'll see how health factors into all this with all the moving parts for everybody else. Look, he's in a tough division obviously it's it's been you know everybody's going to be competitive especially he's got to go head to head with joe burrow for however many years hopefully you know 10 plus um i i think his legacy is going to be fine you know i i hope he's not a a damn marino-esque type quarterback where he puts up a lot of numbers however he does it and doesn't ever get a chance to win a Super Bowl.

Obviously, Marino played in one. But I think Lamar Jackson will have some team success at some point. All right. Let me get your thoughts. I know we're talking a lot of non-fantasy stuff. We will get into fantasy. Okay, I have four Dan Campbell decisions

that I want your thoughts on. And if I'm missing any, you let me know. So decision number one for Dan Campbell, kicking a field goal from the three-yard line at the end of the first half. They were up 21-7 at the time, less than, I think, about 10 seconds left in the first half. They hit fourth and goal.

And I thought he was going to go for it. He ended up kicking the field goal to go up 24-7. Right call or wrong call? For me, it's the right call. I think you take the points to that decision right there. I think I probably would have taken the points there.

I don't know what the analytics say on that one, but it's really borderline, it seems like to me. From all the football I watched this year, fourth down and 18, up by 16 points from your own five-yard line.

I think analytics say to go for it. Analytics always say to go for it. No, that's not true. I'm exaggerating, but every time they show a graphic, it's always analytics say go for it here. But yeah, okay, so we agree. Kicking the field goal

at the end of the first half to go up by 17 points. Right decision. Okay, 7.03 to play in the third quarter. Winning 24 to 10 at this point. to go up by 17 points. Right decision. Okay, 7-0-3 to play in the third quarter, winning 24-10 at this point. Lions are up 24-10. It is fourth and two from the 28-yard line. San Francisco's 28-yard line.

He goes for it. Josh Reynolds drops it. San Francisco takes over at their own 28, scores a touchdown. Right decision or wrong decision? Fourth and two from the San Francisco 28 up by 14 in the third quarter. For me,

I'm probably kicking at that point because I think I would rather be up by three possessions. Um, yeah, I, I think again, it's defense, either side's defensible. I think probably i would go for it but

i also think that one might be close enough to to where if i had justin tucker or harrison butker i might kick it if i have michael badgley um i probably would just go for it that's i'm glad you brought that up i think that's what's, could be what's behind those decisions. All right. And then this one was more controversial. They're down 27-24 at this point. 7-32 to play in the game. Fourth quarter now. It's fourth and three from the San Francisco 30. And he goes for it. And this one didn't, like Reynolds dropped the previous one. They should have had that. This one, nobody was open. Incomplete pass. But this was 7-32 to play, fourth and three from the Niners, 30-yard line, down by three points. It's a 48-yard field goal for Badgley, who actually has pretty good numbers over the last couple of years, from 40 to 49

yards. But I don't think he had a ton of, he hasn't been their kicker all year. I mean, they've had kicker issues. So I don't know. I was fine with this decision, too. What did you guys think? This was a tougher kick, so I would have gone for it. I would have gone for it. I think that it's kind of like the Bills thing. I never really thought Tyler Bass cost the Bills the game because even if he makes the kick, the Chiefs have the ball with a minute and a half left

and only need a field goal. If you kick that field goal and now you're tied 34-34 and they have the ball left with seven minutes left, you're still a big underdog in that game. Especially considering what San Francisco offense had done on their last

four or five possessions. I'm not sure if people are talking about this last decision as much, but to me the worst decision of the game was running the ball, right? So it's- Oh, it's been talked about a lot, yeah. Okay, okay, good.

Because I know people are talking about going for it on fourth down, but this was, you're down by 10, you got third and goal at the one yard line with a minute and five seconds left, and you have all three timeouts, and he ran the ball, and they got stuffed.

David Montgomery got stuffed, and then he used the timeout and then he went forward on four. I should have thought it went there. I thought he should have just kicked the field goal. They went for it. Jamison Williams caught a touchdown. But if you, if you just kick the field goal or you pass the ball,

don't just, just pass it instead of run it, then you don't even need to recover. I mean, you can still go for the onside kick, but you still give yourself a chance to get the ball back because you'd have all three timeouts. So running the ball there with Montgomery and burning a timeout, that was terrible.

I think that was the worst one. You throw and kick is the right way to go. Yeah, right? Okay. Because you've got to score twice. Yeah, and you can't run the ball there. I can't believe they did that. So it cost themselves a timeout, and they could have gotten the ball back. Granted, it still would have had pretty low odds, but some odds.

All right. Well, anyway, I think people who are killing him for not kicking, it seems like we're all sort of in an agreement. But, you know, look, it's the way he's coached his entire time as a head coach for the Lions. And so you stay true to who you are. And so I think the thing that he's getting a little, probably more flack was the not kick the kicking at the end of the first

half. They're not going for it. Then the first half, like you're going to be this way, be this way all the way. Yeah, I could see that. But again,

but we all thought that was the right decision. It just felt right at the time to take a three score lead into halftime. Yeah. But, and again, I would have done it to go up 17 as well, you know, but right. That's, decision. It just felt right at the time to take a three score lead into halftime. Yeah. And again, I would have done it to go up 17 as well, you know, but that's what he felt was the right thing at the right time. I wonder how much of the third and goal run was him or was it Ben Johnson? But I think that falls on him anyway. I totally agree with you. Unless Goff changed the play. That's the only, like, if you're the head coach, that has to be a pass play. Right?

I mean, well, Ben Johnson's about to get hired probably by either the end of the day or tomorrow by the commanders. Well. He's about to be head coach, so he should know better also. Who did we have this situation with? Was it Drod Taylor and the Giants? Yeah, yeah.

Earlier this season? Yeah, and they said it was a run pass option play and then taylor basically decided to run it exactly yeah so you're right and and dable threw a fit uh you're absolutely right all right uh let's move on here other podcasts if you you know if you got some other stuff you want to listen to first you want to get into fantasy baseball now's the time fantasy baseball today you can check that out we also have fantasy baseball today in five fantasy football today in five got the pick six podcast if you want to get into fantasy baseball. Now's the time. Fantasy baseball today. You can check that out. We also have fantasy baseball today in five. Fantasy football today in five.

Got the Pick 6 podcast if you want some great football talk for the next couple of weeks and beyond. We've got soccer podcasts. We've got everything. We've got combat podcasts. Go to cbssports.com slash podcasts and check out our full selection. Thank you all for voting. We'll find out tomorrow if we won. Fingers crossed.

I very much appreciate – we very much appreciate all of you who voted for us in sports. The text you sent us last week was wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Adam. Come on, come on. We don't need to do this. Adam sent us a text message with the results. I'm not going to say what it was, but he said the text message was the results. And I realized he said it from the wrong year. No, I didn't say...

Well, they took the voting down, and then they had a winner's slate. So I figured, okay, these must be the winners. But they weren't the winners. They were the previous year's winners. Let's get into some rankings debates here. Lamar Jackson versus Patrick Mahomes. What did you have before the playoffs,

and did anything change, Heath, for 2024? I don't, yeah, I don't remember. I think I had Lamar just ahead of Mahomes, and I'm sure Lamar was probably better from a fantasy perspective in this game. Threw for more yards, I believe. It was better. He had a 13-yard reception, too.

That was an awesome play. That was really, really awesome by him. Yeah, I think I'd lean Lamar. Who was better in this game? I actually think Mahomes. Lamar. The turnovers? Oh, no.

16 for, yeah, no, it was Lamar. 19 points for Lamar and 19 and a half and uh i did it i did it yesterday as i as i tallied up dan's uh massive victory in our playoff challenge worst worst pick ever made with me taking jameer gibbs which caused him to take kelsey and rishi rice i should just should have just let him have his lion stick uh so sorry heath who do you have ahead now? Let's say Lamar today. Lamar. Okay. Jamie, how about you?

Lamar was three for me and Mahomes was four. I will still stick with that as well. I think there's more risk right now of Mahomes if he loses Kelsey falling back than there is Lamar falling back. Because Zay Flowers is coming into his own, as we see.

And I think you just make a – it's an easy one-to-one comparison. They both have young receivers on the rise that are going to be hopefully superstars in Flowers and Rashi Rice. And I think unless the Ravens really go aggressive at running back and they are going to change a little bit of what they do, Lamar's becoming a very good quarterback. And so now that he's getting – not that he wasn't. You get my point. He's becoming a more polished quarterback, I'll rephrase that.

He's always been a good quarterback. He's getting more polished as a quarterback. And so what we've seen from him is, you know, the emergence of flowers with not really having the full season of, of Andrews. And if they can find somebody else, by the way, Odell Beckham's dad taking shots at Lamar Jackson was crazy. Um, uh, I would like to see a better second receiver there, or maybe a younger second receiver there with some upside. The Chiefs have a lot of work to do, I think,

to make Mahomes' situation better. He's clearly amazing. And from a just quarterback perspective, he's the best in the league. But from a fantasy perspective, we saw the downside this year, and it was frustrating. And Baltimore is another place that maybe could – all the AFC playoff contenders could use Gabe Davis maybe, but like putting him with Zay Flowers,

I think would be a pretty good combination. And Mark Andrews. Yeah, deep threat. That'd be good. Yeah. So Lamar Jacks, I'm going to give you a negative stat on both of these guys. It might surprise you.

Patrick Mahomes, I think everybody would say, oh, he's playing really well right now. And he is, but he has scored more than 21 fantasy points in one of his last 12 games, including the postseason. So he's not putting up

the prolific numbers right now, even though he is playing well. Lamar Jackson. So, you know, Lamar Jackson, you look at his points per game every season, you have to take out

one game in 2021 and one game in 2022. He played 14% of the snaps in both of those games and his season was over. So if you take out those games, he actually averaged his fewest fantasy points per game of his career since his rookie season. That caught me by surprise a little bit. Was this a bad year for quarterbacks? So he still finished as a top five quarterback uh both overall and per game but yeah lamar jackson fewest fantasy points per game since his rookie season well it's going

to be really really fascinating because we've not seen anybody quite like him period um he's done things that quarterbacks have never done before but we've we've really not seen somebody who runs as much as he do does age well um so the next couple of years but i wouldn't expect that to start next year and he still just does not get a lot of rushing touchdowns career high is seven when you think about jalen hurts three straight years double digit rushing touchdowns josh allen how many have he how many did he have this year he was a monster and uh lamar jackson had five five rushing touchdowns. And Gus Edwards had that stretch where he was scoring like two touchdowns a game.

All right, I had Mahomes three and Jackson four. I'm sticking with that. If Kelsey retires, that would change. Speaking of Kelsey, Kelsey or Sam Laporta? That's our next debate. And we'll have it right after this commercial break on Fantasy Football today. Stick around.

We'll talk about Laporta versus Kelsey. We'll give you the news. We have some head coaching news, some offensive coordinator news. And I'll tell you about Dave Canales' history, spotty history with a LOL on that. We'll talk about that in a minute. We'll be right back on fantasy football today.

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and what do you have now, Sam Laporta or Travis Kelsey, Jamie? I had Laporta over Kelsey. I actually had McBride over Kelsey as well. And I'm going to stick with that even if Kelsey does return. You know, we saw a very poor regular season for him, career low and – not career low, but low for I believe since his rookie or second year in touchdowns and points per game was down. He's getting older, man.

He's 35 years old. It's hard for these guys to, you know, still produce at a high level. It's amazing that he's getting it done to the level that he's at in the playoffs, that his worst game was 7-for-71 against the Dolphins, and he had a couple drops in that game. His last two weeks have been fantastic. Heath talked about this prior to the playoffs. Will he flip the switch?

I think you were talking about the Chiefs in general. Will they flip the switch? But Kelsey in particular, he's looked like the Kelsey of old, but can he do that over the course of the season? He still finished number one in points per game, uh, finished behind Laporta and total points, you know, will he start to miss some time? You know, will we get maybe like an NBA load management type of season from Kelsey where he may take a couple of weeks off if he does return, I hope he's back. You know, he's still going to be one of the best at his

position because of the offense that he plays in the quarterback that he plays with. But I think you see what Laporta is capable of doing right now. And he was an absolute monster in the 49ers game and has done it all season long as he's continued to get better. And it was only his rookie season. So, um, you know, he said this on a, on a previous show, I think we were reviewing drafts or maybe the tight end show about not taking one of these guys until the third round at the earliest. I think we'll see a pretty big run, assuming Kelsey's back and Andrews is healthy and McBride doesn't get significant competition and Laporta's offense coordinator, I think, is not bad. But rounds three, four, and five, we may see six or seven tight ends come off the board.

And it wouldn't be – maybe that's a little too high, but five or six tight ends come off the board. It wouldn't be shocking to see that based on what the caliber of players are going to get at that position. Yeah, I agree. I was Laporta before. I'm still Laporta. I might change my mind

in like two and a half weeks. If Travis Kelsey does that again and then Travis Kelsey confirms that he's coming back and then Ben Johnson is gone, I'm probably just going to have Travis Kelsey tied in one again. But I do still think

people are probably doing some drafts right now. And if you were, I'd value Laporta over Kelsey just because there's a chance that he wins the Super Bowl and rides off into the sunset. Let me ask you this about Laporta. He had obviously a great season.

Just get the exact statistics up for Sam Laporta. But one of the reasons why it was a great season, it was great for a rookie tight end. They just rarely do what he did. But 889 yards and 10 touchdowns in 17 games, let's call it like 16 and a half games, he got hurt in week 17.

It's so hard to say, well, this guy had a great rookie tight end season, but the two that come to mind are Kyle Pitts, set the rookie receiving record for tight ends, did not follow it up well in his second or his third year. Second or his third year. Changed quarterbacks though, so keep that in mind. Yeah.

And Jeremy Shockey actually at one point had one of the best rookie seasons for a tight end ever. And it was looking at his career right now, and it was arguably his best season. Nah, I mean, it was his most yards in a season ever. And the following year, he averaged basically

the same amount of yards per game. But he averaged about 60 yards per game, Jeremy Shockey, in 2002, and he never reached 60 again. He reached 59.4 yards per game the next year in 2002 and he never reached 60 again he reached 59.4 yards per game the next year he got hurt that year maybe he was never the same yet any injury I don't know but there is a bit of a risk of a one season sample size that's that's my point here with Sam Laporta and whereas Kelsey is I just don't think that risk is as big as the risk of 35 years old yeah all right um i wonder you know obviously pitts got hurt his second season if matt ryan had stayed because

you know i mean i asked arthur smith about this um when i talked to him for the bijan robinson story that i did and he brought that up he you know, basically that they had more trust in Matt Ryan as a veteran guy, as opposed to turning to, you know, Mariota and Desmond Ritter in Pitts' second season. You know, it was a significant downturn in pass attempts across the board. And, you know, if Ryan had stayed and he had stayed healthy, you know, the career trajectory and certainly the fantasy outlook for Kyle Pitts might be dramatically different right now.

All right, last question on this. What do you think the chances of Jamison Williams having more receiving yards than Sam Laporta next year are? Slim. 20%. Okay.

Let's go to our news and notes. We have head coaching news. We have coordinator news. The Panthers hired Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Dave Canales as their head coach. They were 20th in scoring. They were 19th in yards per play. But I think we can agree they did a lot of good things, and he got a very nice season out of Baker Mayfield.

He was also the quarterback's coach for Russell Wilson and for Geno Smith in 2022. So that's a good resume. But I want to know, how do you feel about this? His first job, Dave Canales' first job, and people don't talk about this. He was the offensive coordinator for Carson High School in California. And they went 7-5 in his first year.

They went 3-8 in his second year. They went three and eight in his second year. And I just think that's a big red flag, Heath. So you don't get that analysis anywhere else. No, no. I was unaware of his time there. I see now also that he worked at a JUCO as well. I don't think that the Panthers were very likely to get a top candidate to take this job. And so it was going to be somebody a little bit under the radar.

He had a good year. And this is his only year as an offensive coordinator at any level, except for high school. Except for when he went to high school. I'm not like, I wouldn't be super optimistic that i was a panthers fan that they're going to have a winning season with this guy as head coach ever yeah this big does this move the needle for you jamie no i mean you know they they got a lot of work to do clearly um the uh the entire offense you know i mean bryce is, I hate to say, looking like a huge bust right now.

And the backfield is frustrating and probably trending toward terrible again. You know, not that Chuba Hubbard had a bad stretch, but there's not a lot of confidence, I think, if he's back as the lead guy. And obviously the Miles Sanders contract is looking worse by the day. Their best receiver is 32, 33. the lead guy and obviously the miles Sanders contract is, is looking worse by the day. Um,

their best receiver is 32, 33. Um, and Adam Thielen, you know, we didn't see really much from Mingo to say, okay, he can take that leap. And I mean,

there's just not a lot to like right now. So, you know, hopefully they can retool some things and get a little bit, you know, better talent around Bryce Young. When's their next first-round pick? I think 25. I don't think they gave up three.

Do they have next year's? I think they have 2025. Yeah, so what about on the Bucs side? If it's not great news, if it's not a needle mover for the Panthers, is it a big concern for you for the Bucks losing their offensive coordinator? Well, are we assuming that Baker is back and Mike Evans is still there? Because I think I've kind of been under the impression that they're going to try and run it back because things did work out well for them,

especially the momentum that they picked up toward the end of the season. It's still a very good defense. And so can they go back to seeing what they have, unless there's a quarterback out there that really wants to go play in Tampa and replace Baker that they feel more comfortable with as well. But if they're running it back and, you know, again, do they promote in-house? Do they go out and get somebody that's going to change the system completely? Baker's really been a decent quarterback everywhere except Carolina.

You know, I mean, he wasn't awful in Cleveland. I know, you know, sort of the end of the tenure there was bad, but he was playing through so many injuries. He looked good with the Rams. He certainly looked good with the Bucs. You know, so I don't think he's the issue. Mike Evans, obviously, at 31 now is, you know, you got to worry about, you know, the wheels

falling off, but we said that going into last year and he looked awesome. Godwin's still a very productive receiver, you know, so I think offensively they're fine. It's just a matter of, does somebody come in and completely change everything, you know, and you've talked about this, Adam, some of the, the schedule in terms of what Rashad White was facing was, was not easy to run against in terms of yards per carry allowed and how some of those things stacked up against him. But he had a fantastic sophomore season. So there's a lot to like about what the Tampa Bay offense can be. You just have to wonder if can Baker do that again? And can Mike Evans still stay afloat as he gets older? By the way, the compensation for that number one pick, the Bears gave up the number one pick for...

No, the Bears last year gave up the number one pick. Oh, I'm sorry. Right. And got the number one pick this year. Yeah, they got DJ Moore. They got last year's first round pick, this year's first round pick, which is now number one overall.

They also got last year's second round pick, 2023's second round pick, and is now number one overall. They also got last year's second round pick, 2023 second round pick, and a second round pick in 2025. So the Panthers will have a first round pick in 2025, but not a second round pick. Well, not their own. Anyway, at least they'll have pick 33. Okay, so someone's also just, okay, that's our first news item. Someone's asking about Mike Ditka in our tight end discussion.

Just letting you know, Mike Ditka, that was in 1961 when he set the original record for best rookie tight end seasons. That was pre-Super Bowl. And that was his best season ever by far. So, you know, not necessarily by far, but it was his best season ever. So keep that in mind. Okay, anyway, that's irrelevant. Let's go to our next news item. The Eagles hired Kellen Moore as offensive coordinator

and Vic Fangio as defensive coordinator, which we kind of knew last week. But that, I mean, you got to be feeling pretty good with those two guys as your coordinators after they lost their Super Bowl coordinators after the 2022 season. So Heath Kellen Moore to the Eagles. Love it?

I think that they will be better offensively. I think he is an upgrade over what they had this past season. It will be interesting because Kellen Moore is a guy who has worked with offensive-minded head coaches in the past and maybe butted head with them a little bit. So it will be interesting to see how that working relationship works and if there's a lot of structural change to the Eagles' offense. But I think it's a good thing.

People say, oh, Kellen Moore loves to throw the ball downfield. Well, not as much as Jalen Hurts does, by the way. Jalen Hurts every year among the leaders in air yards per pass attempt. So I don't know if we can look at a, Jamie, I don't know. Is there, I think going to, when he went to the Chargers, we thought, okay, philosophical shift here. They're going to be more aggressive. They're going to throw the ball downfield more.

And they did, but nothing like what the Eagles do in the Jalen Hurts, Nick Sirianni era. But do you think there's a philosophical shift somewhere? I mean, there certainly can be, you know, just, you know, going with a different voice, um, from Brian Johnson, you know, who kind of felt as if, you know, there was a lot of carryover from Shane Steichen. So I, I think, you know, more maybe enhances, you know, Jalen Hurst throwing the ball down the field, some different schemes to get guys open. Clearly, you know, the talent's going to win out here, you know, so X's

and O's versus Jimmy's and Joe's, they have the Jimmy's and Joe's and they've had them for the last couple of seasons. So Hertz, you know, stay healthy. We'll see what they do to, you know, retool that offensive line with Kelsey retiring. AJ Brown, still top six, seven wide receiver, depending on how you want to break it down. Devante Smith, still a top 15 to 20 type of guy. Goddard, borderline top 12 tight end. I think the backfield is going to be huge here. Who's going to be the running back? There was some thought maybe about Arthur Smith taking that job

and making this ground game a little bit more lethal. I think you kind of view it the same way. Whoever the running back is there will probably have a Miles Sanders slash DeAndre Swift type of season where number two type running back, tush push still involved. You lose those rushing touchdowns. Jalen Hurts still not going to throw the ball

to his running backs as much. I don't think those things change. I thought we were banning the tush push. I don't know if they ever ran the tush push. Don't do it. Don't ban it. Kellen Moore, by the way, teams have never been big in throwing to running backs.

That has not been, you know, running back target rate never higher than 19th in five seasons for Kellen Moore as offensive coordinator. If you just look, though, at the Eckler games, the games that Eckler played, they were 16th in running back targets, but that's still pretty low for the Chargers. Sounds like Kellen Moore is Jalen Hurts.

Right, yeah. They seem to agree very much on these concepts. The Falcons hired Raheem Morris, who was the Rams defensive coordinator, as their head coach, and he is hiring Rams quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator Zach Robinson as the offensive coordinator in Atlanta.

Okay, what's our reaction there, Heath? I think I feel better about it for Bijon than anybody else. Defensive head coach doesn't give me, and still no answer at quarterback yet, doesn't give me a lot of hope that things are going to get better quickly for Drake Lennon and Kyle Pitts. And the run game concepts might not be quite as good as

they were when Arthur Smith was there. But if it's a play defense and run the football mentality, then I think Bijan's probably going to be every bit as good as we expect him to be. All right. And Cleveland hired Ken Dorsey, former Bills offensive coordinator,

to fill that role in Cleveland. He won't be, I can't imagine he'll be calling the plays. Stefanski does that, and Buffalo is keeping Joe Brady as their coordinator. So, Jamie, what are your reactions here to the former Bills coordinator now going to Cleveland, Ken Dorsey, and the Bills keeping his replacement, Joe Brady, on a permanent basis? Yeah, not a lot's going to change

in how I view the Browns' fantasy options. I think Deshaun Watson, as we've talked about, not great for David Njoku. Watson will be sort of one of those settle-forward type quarterbacks that you'll take with a late-round pick. Not a top-12 guy, but has the ability to finish as a top-12 guy if he can stay healthy. Amari Cooper getting older. You know, I think you kind of view him the same way.

You know, borderline number one type wide receiver, closer to top 15. And we'll see what they do with their backfield. You know, how healthy will Nick Chubb be when he comes back? And will they lean on Jerome Ford as much as a second option? You know, maybe in that Kareem Hunt type of role, just in terms of having a second guy get touches. For Buffalo, you kind of know what to expect at this point. We'll see what they do in terms of their offensive skill players. I think we've figured out that Stephon Diggs is coming back. It was pretty good for James Cook when it comes to Joe Brady. Otherwise, I think you just kind of view them the same way.

You know, Josh Allen's going to be the number one quarterback. Dalton Kincaid's got top five upside at tight end. And you know, one of our favorite players is going to be Khalil Shakir. Yeah. All right. Sorry.

I was just sending Heath a profane text cause he sent, sent me a mean text. So I sent him one. No, it was just, I just shared a tweet with you. Sometimes things happen I notice during the show and I want to share them,

make sure that nobody misses them. Yeah, and I sent him a profane text back, but I misspelled the word you. And it really lost a lot of its oomph when I misspelled you. And you are still the only person who doesn't have the ability to edit something they send via text? Can you edit on the group text?

You can, right? If everybody has an Apple phone, yeah. If everyone has that, okay. I could have edited, but I thought it was easier to just type you in there. Write the word again. Yeah, yeah. A couple of defensive coordinator hires Chicago, hiring Eric Washington. He was on the Buffalo staff, and the Patriots are going to promote from within

with defensive line coach Demarcus Covington expected to be named their defensive coordinator. One question for each of the eliminated teams when we come back after this break on FFT. Zay Flowers scored 19.6 or more PPR fantasy points in five of his last seven games. And that included the playoffs. And that was basically right after Mark Andrews got hurt. But that's a huge finish for a rookie wide receiver who had 858 yards and five touchdowns in 16 games.

What is Zay Flowers upside? That's my question for you about the Baltimore Ravens. Heath, what is Zay Flowers upside? That's my question for you about the Baltimore Ravens. Heath, what is Zay Flowers upside in 2024? I think that's a good question. My initial thought is top 12 if he had a big touchdown season, but without some big outlier in that regard, I think it's probably more in the top 18 type range. I think a very good number two wide receiver.

You probably figure even if they throw the ball a little more, they're not going to be a pass heavy team, and it's still going to be a good share of the targets going to Mark Andrews. And he probably won't be extremely efficient. So, yeah, 12 to 18. Okay, how about you, Jamie? Let's say Flowers upside. Yeah, I was going to say top 15.

I think you look at um again the continued maturation and development of lamar jackson as a passer another year in todd monken system who do they bring in as their number two wide receiver you know or do we see a little bit more 12 personnel with using both tight ends with andrews in the development of isaiah likely who's the running back there you know how much will that change you know just because of the I think lack of trust and faith in Gus Edwards Justice Hill you know how healthy will keep how healthy will keep Keaton Mitchell be um you know coming back from his ACL tear so that could factor in as well but Flowers I think has a chance to you know lead this team in targets and we haven't seen that from a wide receiver in Lamar Jackson's tenure. It's been Mark Andrews for the entirety

of that when he's been healthy. I don't think, for example, he has as much upside as Rashi Rice, given the fact that both teams play with hopefully great tight ends. I think Rice has a higher ceiling as we've seen, but Flowers not far behind.

Again, I think just based on what he showed and has the ability to continue to show, he's going to have a chance to be a potential number one wide receiver. Round three, I think, is going to be, I think we see a lot of people start to look for him. Round four would be fantastic if he's still there. Yeah. Speaking of Rashi Rice,

I noticed something during the game yesterday and a couple of times during the playoffs. Does he take the most big hits of any? He looks like Pacheco out there just getting absolute waylaid. Well, that's because he's basically a running back. What's that? He's basically a running back. He catches short passes, and then he just tries to run through everybody.

Yeah, well, run through everybody is certainly right. I'm a little bit worried about him staying healthy. Maybe he'll change that approach going into his second year. All right. So you mentioned the pass volume for Zay Flowers, right? And it's one thing I said last week about Iyuk and Debo.

Can they be top 12 quarterbacks on a team that's bottom five in pass attempts? The 49ers actually had the fewest pass attempts in the NFL. Well, it's very hard to be a top 12 wide receiver on a team that's bottom five in pass attempts. Over the last 11 seasons, there have been five wide receivers who have done that, who have finished top 12 in either full or half PPR on a team that's bottom five in pass attempts.

But two of them did it this season. DJ Moore and Ayuk. He was wide receiver 12 in half PPR, wide receiver 13 in full PPR overall. So I'm going to give it to him. I'm going to give it to him, but it is tough to be top 12. Tremendous season for DJ Moore. Now let me ask you this. Does DJ Moore count? Because technically, the Bears were 27th in pass attempts, which is sixth fewest. But they were tied for 27th with Denver. So there were only four teams that threw fewer passes than them. I think that makes them bottom five. They had the fifth fewest pass attempts, right? It fits your narrative, so do it. Your own Acer stat. It doesn't really fit my narrative, though. My narrative would be, oh, they had the sixth fewest,

but no, they really had the fifth fewest. Why would it be the sixth fewest? Why wouldn't it be the fifth fewest? If you talk about, they had the 27th most, but actually. No, no, what about fewest? It's the fifth fewest, tied for the fifth fewest, yeah. Okay. but actually no what the what about fewest it's a fifth it was tied for the fifth yeah okay um all right next question for an eliminated team is for the lions and i'm going to say in half ppr who would you rather have who would you take first amanra saint brown or jameer gibbs what do you guys think everybody's back everybody's back except ben johnson

saint bro i was trying to find my uh top 24 that i sent to jamie and i had a monroe saint brown and jameer gibbs both in round one with saint brown Brown one pick ahead of Gibbs. One pick. Twitter poll has a thousand votes. That is PPR. Yeah, that changes things. Yeah, so half I'll go with Gibbs. Ah, okay. So half PPR. I put the Twitter poll up

about an hour ago, a few hours ago, and a thousand votes, almost 1,100 votes. 62% are Amandra St. Brown. 62% are Amon or St. Brown, 38% Jameer Gibbs. What's the argument for Gibbs? Because St.

Brown averaged more than two and a half more half PPR points per game than Gibbs this past season. Gibbs will have a larger role in a second year. Will he though? Do you believe that? I think he will, yeah. Did you know that in the playoffs, the Lions in three games, they had eight,

no, they had nine carries from inside the five-yard line, or including the five-yard line. Eight of them went to Montgomery. One of them to Craig Reynolds. Zero to Gibbs, which is weird, because at the end of the year, they were basically splitting that role pretty evenly. It's all Montgomery in the playoffs.

Kind of strange. He looked fantastic yesterday, too, Montgomery. Montgomery had, I mean, look, 360 for me on, or 180 for me on Montgomery. I get it. Hit the edit button there. Changed 360 to 180. He hadn't done anything to lose his role. He's been really good.

Good for him. He's been really good. Good for him. He had a great seat. Yeah. Unless the new coordinator comes in and says, you know, the, the Ferrari is better than the, you know, nice SUV, you know, like Montgomery is great, but gives, gives them another gear. Right. And Montgomery is approaching rapidly the age where running backs at the cliff one I don't know if you ever consider this but you know

Amandra St. Brown I don't know that he has any injury upside I don't know that there's a an injury to any player on the team that increases the role of Amandra St. Brown but if David Montgomery misses time Gibbs could easily be the best player in fantasy during that time for however long it was. So I don't think you really draft that way, but it is sort of the winning play, right? I don't know.

You gotta figure that based on where they'll probably both be ranked and ADP, they're back end of round one, beginning of round two. I don't think either player is escaping the top 15 overall. And so if you feel like, okay, if I can get Amara, St. Brown, and I'm trying to think of some of our drafts. We've seen Jonathan Taylor in round two.

That's probably not realistic. But I'm trying to think of like running back seven or eight whoever that may be um that could be that could be kyron williams if he falls could be travis etn okay so etn is a good one so if you if you feel like okay i i want to get monroe st brown travis to Gibbs and Puka. Puka? Hmm. I think I'd go Gibbs there. Gibbs and Puka. It's a great discussion.

Yeah, it is. That's going to be a fun one throughout the offseason. All right, I have one more topic here. Someone brought up Jason Kelsey because they were talking about the tush push. I want to know, Chiefs ruined the Eagles season last year, right? Beat them in the Super Bowl.

How do you feel if you're an Eagles fan, Jason Kelsey is just going crazy for the Chiefs now? Like, taking his shirt off and chugging beers every time they score. It's family. It's his brother. I know, I know, I know. I think actually Taylor Swift was an Eagles fan before she started dating Kelsey, right? Or her family was. I think actually Taylor Swift was an Eagles fan before she started dating Kelsey, right?

Or her family was. I think her father, yeah. I didn't realize that. I love Taylor Swift. I love her more now. She seems so cool. I love it. I saw somebody tweet again.

I apologize for not giving the attribution. Taylor Swift reaching the Super Bowl in her first year in the NFL is pretty elite. It's like a storybook. My friend asked, what would happen if he proposes to her? They win the Super Bowl and he proposes. Oh, I saw a few of those. He's holding the Lombardi trophy in one hand and the ring in the other and he proposes there.

You know, guys, I think this is real. I think it's real. It seems real to me. I love it. I most enjoyed the people trying to figure out the time zone difference because she's, I guess, playing in Japan the day before the Super Bowl. Oh, no. Somehow, I think she can fly back and get here earlier than she takes off. Oh, yeah.

I think Schefter tweeted it. Yeah. Take a 12-hour flight flight and it's earlier here than when she left Only 12 hour flight? No, I just threw a random number out It would be funny though if Usher included her in the halftime

I think he should, I think absolutely he should Okay, well have a wonderful day We will talk to you on Wednesday on Fantasy Football Today. And check out Fantasy Football Today in 5, which we're about to record. Peace out.