Fantasy Football Today - Position Battles! What's at Stake in Training Camp? (07/28 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 28, 2020

Nominate us on PodcastAwards for the Sports category https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup/ We know about the rookie RBs, but there are so many other training camp battles worth watching. We start with some quick questions (3:00) about whose ADP will rise the most in camp and whose will fall the most. And the guys give an underrated position battle to watch (8:00) before we answer a question about handcuffing strategies in the COVID age (14:45) ... QB position battles (18:00): MIA, CHI and LAC. Which one of these battles will have the biggest impact on the WRs? Then it's on to RB position battles (25:00)! Projected splits for Melvin Gordon and Phillip Lindsay, debating whether or not the MIA RBs are worth rostering and more ... Finally, we discuss the WRs (39:00). Are we sure Diontae Johnson is the WR2 for PIT? Who do we like in KC? PHI? NYJ? And there are many more to discuss ... Your emails at [e-mail]  'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow the new FFT Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/FFToday Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @YardsPerGretch, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter 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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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. On his way to the end zone. I'll tell you what, that was a spectacular play. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. What a play. Off to the races.

Touchdown. Oh, he's done it again. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Ben. This is our Tuesday episode of Fantasy Football. Today, this is our training camp episode. Tuesday is the day where everybody's supposed to report, Dave, to get tested and then go home and then get tested again and then eventually come back and start playing a little football

in like three weeks when you're allowed to put pads on. Right, so I'm not allowed to be excited yet. I've got to wait 72 more hours to get excited. Yeah, right. Or do I have to wait two more weeks to get excited? You can get different levels of excitement. You get a little excited. Do I have to wait until September to really, really be sure to be excited?

Probably, yeah. I would probably wait until like December to be really excited once the season concludes, or I guess February. Well, I hope we get there. Welcome to the show, everybody. Today, we're going to peek ahead to training camp, our position battles to watch. Now, if you want to hear about rookie running backs, download literally any other episode from this offseason since the draft.

We're not going to talk too much about them today, a little bit, a little bit, but I want to focus on some other stuff like wide receiver battles, like the Colts' number two wide receiver, the Falcons' number three wide receiver, the Steelers' number two wide receiver, quarterback battles, specifically in Miami and Los Angeles with the Chargers, those types of things. Jamie is here.

You heard from him on Monday. You heard him on CBS Sports HQ. It's Tuesday. It's Ben Gretsch Day. Welcome back to the show, Ben. How you doing? Yeah, first day. Second show of the week.

This is your favorite intro. Yeah, second show. The Ben Show. Why does Ben look like he's in a cave? He's so dark. I think there's too much light coming through my window right now. Too much light means it's too dark. He's backlit?

I don't know. Something like that. Have a few news items and we're pretty much going to talk about the first two in the position battles where he most started

signing a new contract, new deal with San Francisco and Doug Peterson said Alshon Jeffrey is in a really good spot. So those are a couple of the position battles we'll look at.

Niners backfield, Eagles wide receivers. Is that the pop list? Yeah. It's a pretty of the position battles. We'll look at Niners backfield, Eagles wide receivers. Is that spot the pop list? Yeah. It's a pretty good spot. Sure. And the Giants cornerback, DeAndre Baker, and Seahawks cornerback, Quinton Dunbar,

they are on the commissioner's exempt list. They had the legal issues in South Florida last month, I guess it was, or several weeks ago. Still not resolved. You said Cody Latimer too, right? No. He's also on the exempt list. Oh. Okay.

Thank you. Antonio Gandy Golden time. Yeah. Cody Latimer for the Redskins Washington wide receiver last year was a Giants wide receiver. Quick questions for you. Whose ADP will rise the most in camp? What we want to do is kind of predict, you know, okay,

well, look at the Chiefs backfield now, and they're separated by three rounds, but three weeks into camp, this is going to happen. So give me a player that, start with Ben, since it's Tuesday and it's Ben's show. Give me a player whose ADP is going to rise the most throughout training camp. I'll say Cam Newton.

It's not as fun because it's a quarterback, but he's still going like QB 19. I expect as training camp wears on and he ends up, you know, I'm anticipating he'll be named the starter. And when that happens, that he'll wind up closer to like QB 12 or QB 10 even maybe.

Dave? How about Devontae Freeman, who just needs a place to play? He's changed agents. Sounds like he wants to play this year. There's still a couple teams out there that could be interested in his services. I wonder if he kind of rekindles the romance with the Falcons now that Todd Gurley's talking about, well, how's the NFL going to pull this off?

And is he for sure going to play? And he would actually be a pretty decent compliment to Todd Gurley as a passing downs guy for the Falcons. And so once he signs, his ADP is going to go right back up. Not to like where it was before. Let's not go crazy. Or is he like a top 50 pick? He's not going to be that.

But is there any scenario in which you're actually interested in drafting Devontae Freeman? Gurley decides he doesn't want to play. The Falcons are in a pinch. They give him a chunk of money. He comes back and he's the lead guy. Maybe I would take him with a top 60 or

70 overall pick. Maybe even higher. Jamie, whose ADP will rise the most during camp? Josh Kelly. Another position battle we'll be looking at. Okay. Another rookie running back, Adam. Not one that we talk too much about, I guess.

I'll allow it. I'll allow it. Jamie, whose ADP is going to fall the most during camp? Clyde Edwards-Hilaire. Yep. Yeah? What do you think? Give me a prediction. Where he's going to

end up? Yeah, let me give you his current ADP. Clyde Edwards-Hilaire since July 1st. Maybe I should change the date a little bit. Get a little more recent. He's going 22nd overall, RB14. Let's just look at the last week and we'll update it there.

Clyde Edwards-Hilaire is going 23rd overall, RB14. So still a late second round pick. What do you think after training camp or in the middle of training camp? 10 spots later. 10 spots later. All right. Dave, whose ADP will fall the most during camp? Is it wrong to bring up another rookie? No. All right. Cover, whose ADP will fall the most during camp? Is it wrong to bring up another rookie?

No. All right. Cover your ears, Ben. Jonathan Taylor, for the exact same reasons why Edwards-Alaire's numbers are going to, or his ADP is going to go down. All right. So Taylor's RB19. He's going 34th overall in the last week. What do you think he falls to? Round five. Wow. Round five. Wow, round five.

Not for Ben. Ben? Yeah, I just don't see it happening. Like, I think there's reason to be cautious of the rookies. I don't see their ADPs falling because there's enough people like me that are wild about their upside. So I actually had a hard time trying to pinpoint someone that would be a faller.

I think the rookies probably should fall some, but I just don't know that they will uh so my answer will just be whoever opts out because that's i think still this big thing that we don't necessarily talk as directly about but there's going to be some players that opt out and completely fall out you know obviously fall all the way out of the rankings but um when that happens it's going to kind of push everybody else up a little bit it's going to change some things there's going to kind of push everybody else up a little bit. It's going to change some things. There's going to be a little bit of a little bit of shuffling somewhere. I want to see where Debo Samuel's going.

He has really nothing to do except for lose value. I would think Debo in the last week is going 95th overall wide receiver, 38. Some of the guys behind him christian kirk cd lamb darius slayton jamison crowder miko hardman jerry judy emmanuel sanders jalen rager so a lot of the rookies you could certainly see some momentum for them and they could go ahead of debo samuel um thoughts there first thing i did was went to see where Brandon Iuke's ADP was, and it's past 150th overall. Kendrick Bourne is after 200th overall.

Someone's got to step up and catch passes for San Francisco besides Kittle. Just to piggyback off what Ben said, we have another player opt out. Oh, really? Ravens wide receiver, DeAnthony Thomas. Interesting. Okay. So, yeah, and there's a deadline, right, to declare. I believe it's August 1st the NFL has it.

Whether or not they stick to it, we'll see. They did say it's a soft deadline, so we don't know if that's confirmed. Right, and it has to be. It has to be. You have to be able to adjust to the situation, obviously. But by August 1st, we'll have more names for sure. What is an underrated position battle you're keeping an eye on? Underrated?

I'll say the Atlanta RB2 situation is kind of underrated, which Dave just kind of alluded to with Devonta Freeman fitting. We haven't really talked about it much, but the Atlanta offense projects to be so concentrated and we still know that girly has arthritic knees and we still know the falcons have tended to rotate backs uh long term if we look back maybe that was just a product of davante framing being their lead back i don't necessarily believe that i think they kind of like to rotate backs under um dan quinn andirk Cutter. So I expect that somebody there will have some value

and none of them are even really being drafted. The question is who it'll be. Ido Smith has probably the best receiving track record. So he's the guy that I'm prioritizing right now. All right. Jamie, give me an underrated position battle you're keeping an eye on. Patriots back up running back.

I think with Sonny Michel's foot injury, I'm sure probably most people would say you want to see Damien Harris win that job. That would be my vote because I'm just not inspired by Rex Burkett at this point anymore. But if Harris can step into that number two role, we had on CBS Sports HQ Ben Bolin of the Boston Globe, and he said, you know, when I asked him about Michelle's health, he said that even if Michelle is the quote-unquote starter, that Harris is somebody that they're looking forward to getting on the field

this year after a nondescript rookie season where he didn't play. And, you know, if he's able to sort of establish himself, he's clearly not going to play on passing downs, at least that would be the expectation because of James White. But, you know, Michelle's going to be in some sort of establish himself. He's clearly not going to play on passing downs. At least that would be the expectation because of James White. But, you know, Michelle's going to be in some sort of rotation. To what degree, we'll find out. Probably his health will determine that. But, you know, if Harris has an opportunity to, you know,

be the clear-cut number two guy, that could maybe have him in a situation to push Sonny Michelle as well for that first and second down work. All right, Dave, you're last here. The underrated position battle to keep an eye on the wide receivers behind Devante Adams and green Bay. We're drafting Allen Lazard. Like he's going to be the number two guy,

but they brought in Devin Funchess. They brought in a CFL player named Reggie Begleton. They didn't draft any other wide receivers. I'm curious to see how that plays out. Are we sure that Lazard is going to be the number two? Might he be the number three um could could fun just be actually usable as a bi-week replacement receiver because he's just a giant who could catch you know 50 50 balls in the red zone pretty easily every time they're they're in short yardage situations are you another big receiver 26 before

um he had a lot of production in the CFL. I picked him up recently in the deep dynasty league and I dropped Marcos Valdez-Scantling for him. You know, another guy that's still there. Yeah, technically he's still in the mix, Jim. Who could still be there. But I think if this was a normal off season, a guy like Begleton would have an opportunity

to prove himself. But who knows with what's happening, you know, the, the, the fifth or sixth receiver on a lot of teams, rosters are going to have a hard time establishing themselves unless the team really likes them going in. And, and that's one thing for him in particular, Matt LaFleur was very, very glowing about him in the off season is about what he was doing in the virtual program and the things that they liked about him coming in.

And that's part of the reason, at least on their end, between him and Guttenkirch, Guttenkirch is how we pronounce his last name, why they didn't necessarily address wide receiver because they like the group that they have. While it didn't necessarily make us happier and Rodgers happy, they feel confident with some of those guys. Yeah, it's a good position to keep an eye on.

All right, there's a name to know. Reggie Beg uh from lamar and then the cfl hopefully it doesn't give you a ton of bagels in your fantasy life yeah well there's so many possibilities there i had a bagel for the first time since quarantine yesterday it's been like four months five months that's because i haven't gotten a haircut in months either. Boy, that's a problem. Jamie got a haircut, I can tell. Yes. Looks good, Jamie.

Thank you, buddy. Bold man. All right. My favorite friend, Kelly. Ah, very nice. This is the first time that this has happened. Every show I promote something, upcoming programming,

other podcasts on the network, whatever it is. Ben Schrager always tells me what to promote. This is the first time that he has forgotten to tell me what to promote. So, Ben, what are we promoting today? Oh, my goodness. No Twitch stream tonight, so I didn't have a Twitch stream to send over to you. But podcast award nominations do end on Friday. We're one of 20 finalists in the sports category

people's choice podcast awards that link is in the description we've been tweeting out the link too so it should be easy to find adam i'm very sorry and maybe people won't nominate us because i forgot to send it no that's all right you're forgiven uh you're also you also when what the Kevin. This show is airing when? What? This show is airing Tuesday? Yeah. Oh, so Tuesday will be Heath Day on CBS Sports HQ. Heath Day. Heath's five guys to target and five guys to avoid. Dave is on Wednesday.

I'll be on Thursday. Okay. Looking forward to Heath Day on Tuesday. And who's on Wednesday, Dave? Dave is Wednesday. I'll give you a little sneak preview. Here are the guys that Heath is targeting. See if you can guess them.

Who are the five guys Heath is targeting in drafts? Tariq Cohen. Gardner Minshew. Tariq Cohen is one. He did not mention Gardner Minshew. Marvin Jones. Marvin Jones. Aside from Tariq Cohen, they are all drafted within the first three rounds. He's targeting? Austin Eckler. Austin Eckler. They're all, aside from Tariq Cohen, they are all drafted within the first three rounds. Oh. He's targeting?

Austin Eckler. Austin Eckler. Juju Smith-Schuster. Juju's not on the list. What? Is Derrick Henry on the list? DJ Moore is on the list. Who?

DJ Moore. DJ Moore is on the list. You have three of the five. Yeah, he's gotten real excited about DJ Moore. Travis Kelsey. One can be relatively obvious to the team that he roots for. Travis Kelsey. Travis Kelsey.

Yeah. No. You're missing one. One is a guy that Ben and I tend to fight over. John, no. Not Jonathan Taylor. Or maybe we did earlier. Aaron Jones.

Liking him. No. He's a wide receiver. He's a wide receiver. Who has initials? What's his last name? Early rounds. How is it not Juju?

He's just lying. Ridley. Is it Ridley? Yeah. Okay, there we go. Ridley's a good one. And his entire avoid list, I only asked for five. He gave me 10 rookies.

That's funny. All right, guys. Let's get into position battles oh wait we have an email email of the day from lauren from dublin california on your episode from friday about handcuffs that got me wondering this year with covet 19 wouldn't you not want two backs from the same team since if one catches covet the other is likely as well i'm wondering if you want to spread the risk around by having backs from different teams. So if a team gets hit by COVID-19, you're not out two guys.

And I'll say I felt a little uncomfortable reading this, but I do think it's actually a pretty good question and something you have to consider. I think it's a perfect application of the realities of what we're dealing with. I mean, I understand your point that we should be sensitive, but this is a really good thought process, I think. And you should probably consider similar things if you're going to play fancy football this year, because like we just saw this in baseball,

there's certain teams that aren't going to be playing that it's, that's what could possibly happen in football certain weeks. And it could be an entire backfield that is out and they have to grab someone off the practice squad to be their starter for that week. So you handcuffed your guy and then you didn't even give you his backup because his backup was you know picked it up from him so i mean the practice squad guys are going to be with the they're still going to be in the same meetings so that could still be something that that becomes an issue uh yeah i think it's not a bad idea to diversify your portfolio of your players

on different teams. The Marlins example that Ben is alluding to, you know how many players contracted it, but at the same time, you know, the national situation, if you're just going to talk baseball, seems as if Juan Soto's scenario was sort of contained.

We don't know. There's so much uncertainty to it. So I think if you're in the boat of handcuffing players on an annual basis, then probably continue to do that. If you think that spreading out, taking guys from different teams is a little better scenario, it's an unknown. It really is. We're in uncharted waters,

and we just don't know how it's going to go. I use a lot of cliches in that one. It's definitely going to mess people up, though. I mean, I was just thinking of this scenario. Let's say it's week one, the last game of the week, the second Monday night game, it's Tennessee at Denver. And let's say you've got Derrick Henry and Darrington Evans and they're both ruled out.

What do you do for a running back that week? You're going to have to cut one of them to pick up whoever. David Flewellen, I think, is their third guy. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what you do in that situation other than you just take the L or you just pick up whoever you can,

a fullback or something. Royce Freeman, maybe. Or maybe you're winning. You just take a zero on that spot, right? No, that's true, too. You could be just really good, but you probably need Derek Henry to help win most weeks in fantasy so yeah i still i still subscribe to it just because one guy gets it doesn't mean that everybody on the team is going to get it

hopefully these players are really smart and they just keep their distance it's what everybody should be doing yeah and if they go to strip clubs they should do that in football if they go to strip clubs they should just go there to pick up food, right? That's what I've learned lately from Lou Williams Corollary. Yeah. So, you know, Jamie, just I just think what you have to do this year is take things

one game at a time. Give 110%. It's better to be lucky than good and trust the process, right? Right. Trust the process is the best one of all. Position battles. Two quarterback position battles. I interviewed a Patriots beat writer today. I got a lot of cliches in my head.

Oh, okay. Fair enough. That's not fair. I'm kidding. Ben was great. He wasn't Bill Belichick by any stretch. We had Ben on our show last year. Ben's great. And he had his lawnmower guy in the background. Remember? He was getting his lawn.

He also raised the red flag for Sonny Michel last year, if you recall. Yeah. He actually was a very good interview. Kind of tipped us off. Yeah. Good stuff again today on HQ.

Now I'm ready to talk about quarterback battles. And it's the two rookies spots here. Miami and the Chargers. So, which one? What about the Bears? Okay, fine. I should have given that to me before the show, but that's fine.

Okay, fine. Of those three, maybe there's another one. Miami, Chargers, Bears. No England, but if we're already deciding that, then Newton should be going higher already. Yeah, I doubt that Cam's really fighting for a starting job. Which one's going to have

the biggest impact on the wide receivers? I think it's Miami. That's a good one. I think Chicago as well. I think Foles has the potential as a pocket passer to just throw more. Trubisky has a tendency to scramble a little

and be a lot more accurate than Trubisky has been in recent seasons. So I think that, like, I don't think Foles is great, but I think he has the potential to be very positive for the receivers. I think it's Miami. I was just thinking about saying the Chargers just because, but I'm not sure Tyrod's a great passer anymore, and I'm not sure if Justin Herbert will be a great passer if he gets the opportunity at the midpoint of this year.

The thing with Miami is the upside for those guys with Fitzpatrick could be great. We saw it last year. I mean, how Gusecki finished this season was fantastic. Obviously, what Devontae Parker did, you can correlate it with when Preston Williams went down. We'll see what Preston Williams does coming back. But as we've talked about many times, most of Preston Williams numbers came with Josh Rosen.

So we don't know how that marriage will work between Fitzpatrick and Williams on a hopefully 16 game basis. But I just think Tua is going to be much more conservative with how he challenges defenses. He's clearly going to be learning on the fly. So however many games he starts, I think is going to be very problematic for people that are buying into Parker mostly Gusecki being the second option and Williams being third. So I I'd be very nervous. Like, I think we have an understanding, like Dave said, you know, that we'll see if Tyrod, how he still is as a thrower and what Herbert does,

but we have an understanding. Like I think we've all downgraded as an industry, the chargers receivers. I don't think we've done that necessarily as an industry for Parker. Maybe we have, the four of us, five of us. But I think you still see Parker and even people drafting, drafting him in the fifth round. In some cases, I've seen the fourth round to still be a starting receiver. That makes me nervous if Tua is starting the majority of the season.

And not to mention Fitzpatrick, he just played probably better than we'd expect him to play. The last 11 games when he just got the starting job and Josh Rosen stopped playing, he was on pace for 4,500 yards. I don't think

anyone's going to anticipate he throws for 4,500 yards. And he also was on pace for 326 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns. So he was just doing some really, really good things. Now, that being said, he started off the 2018 season with three straight games of 400 passing yards and at least three touchdowns. So he's been productive in a fantasy perspective for the last couple years. But wasn't that the joke going in that if they were going to start Fitzpatrick, the tanking for Tua wasn't going to work because he would end up falling into

some wins. Yeah. He's too good. Right. To finish, to have the worst record in the NFL, but I'm not sure he's a 4,500 yard passer. That's pretty,

that's pretty good. That's really good. That's going to be like top five. Would you agree with that? You're not going to project him to throw for 4,500 yards, are you? Fitzpatrick? Yeah. Why not?

Really? They're going to be behind. He's going to be aggressive. He's going to throw down the field. Because he's never had a 4,000-yard season. I mean, he's had three seasons. That's a good point, Jim. He's had three seasons with 16 games and 500 more pass attempts

and couldn't even reach 4,000. Yeah, but you've got to look really at the last few years of his career when he's been this gunslinger coming in to replace guys as opposed to where he was starting in Buffalo. 2,300 yards in eight games and seven starts in Tampa in 2018. So he only played eight games and he only started seven. That easily paces for over 4,500. Last year he started 13 games. He threw for 3,500.

I don't know how close that paces, but. No, but he, he had games where he was splitting with Fitzpatrick. So I, with Rosen, I think you got to look at the last 11 games on pace for 4,500 yards. So then I guess the question is if both the veterans win their jobs, are you taking Ryan Fitzpatrick or Tyrod Taylor? I would take Taylor for the rushing upside, but, you know, we've talked about this a lot.

If you were to say Taylor starting X amount of games, that changes his draft stock, you know, 13 plus games. I think he's close to a top 15 quarterback. You know, he's got on his resume, you know, nearly, or two seasons of over 500 rushing yards and four touchdowns, you know, so that gives him the opportunity to, you know, produce at a different level than some of these guys. And again, you know, like we talked about on Monday show,

if you feel more comfortable guys like Roethlisberger and Goff, because you don't care about the rushing production, then that's fine. Go that route. Those guys are going to be good throwers. But Fitzpatrick falls into that category. You know, he's going to be a high volume passer with some decent weapons around him. He'll take chances.

You know, you got to understand there's going to be some turnovers there, but he does run, you know, even though he's getting older, he still puts the ball on the ground and puts his feet on the ground and runs. So there's a lot to like about those guys in two quarterback leagues and super flex leagues. You just don't want to draft them as starters

in one quarterback format. But it is interesting. If you go into a really deep draft between those guys and Minshew and Newton is still going way too late and several other late round quarterbacks, you can definitely find late round quarterbacks this year with upside. You don't know that they're going to be your starter all year.

In the case of Fitzpatrick and Taylor, but we don't really know what's going to happen all season anyway, with a lot of different things in this NFL season. So these are guys that, I mean, late round quarterback is absolutely very alive this year. It should be. And, and these are two more cases for it.

I give Taylor the nod one because of schedule schedules easier for him, at least providing games with should be high scoring. He could get points on the board, better supporting cast around him, better offensive line around him. And I think it's more likely that the Dolphins don't have a good record and two is probably a little more ready for the NFL game than Justin Herbert is.

I think there's a chance we don't see Herbert at all this year. I would like to see that both of them don't play this year. I mean, it's very possible. Yeah. Let's go to the running back battles here and the Dolphins are actually one of the backfields to watch the Broncos, the Browns.

Here's a stat on the Browns. You know, you're wondering how much they're going to run. They ran a little bit more with Kareem Hunt. So what I did was I looked at the eight games that Chubb and Hunt played together. And I took their carries. And then I added in all of Baker Mayfield's carries. And there were only 52 other carries that were not Kareem Hunt or Nick Chubb. But basically, I gave Chubb and Hunt the 16-game pace from those eight games,

and that would have been 426 carries, which is pretty high. It would have been 13th in the NFL, but still 50 fewer than what the Vikings did last year under Kevin Stefanski as coordinator. But they were a very run-heavy offense for after, not so much all season long, but after they acquired Kareem Hunt. Sorry, after he came back from suspension. So we'll look at the Browns.

We'll look at the Niners, the RB2 for the Chargers, the Falcons, which we alluded to, the Patriots, we kind of talked about those earlier. But other than the rookie battles that we talk about all the time, Dave, where should we start here? What's the running back battle, the backfield battle you want to look at? Let's start with the Dolphins just because I think that it might be a little underrated because they're going later in drafts. And so if you find yourself thin on running backs,

that's a team that you could look at and say, all right, here's Jordan Howard. He was a starter last year for Philadelphia. He'll probably begin the year as the lead guy for the Dolphins. As much as the Dolphins offensive line might not be as good as the Chargers offensive line, they have tried to improve it. And I think running the ball

is going to be an element of their game. Obviously, they want to do a better job than they did last year. They were terrible last year. And Howard's been okay. So I would imagine that Howard will be better than Brita, but I see Brita as more of an explosive big play type of running back who will probably be asked to make more plays in the passing game than Jordan Howard.

So in PPR, it's really close to me. I actually think I like Brita better than Jordan Howard there, but in non-PPR, those catches don't count. I think Howard ends up with more carries. I would go with him. We're going to have Joe Shad of the Palm Beach Post on today's show, Tuesday's show. So that's one question they'll ask him is who he thinks is going to be better.

I think what I've seen from him reporting and breaking down some of the training camp previews, he thinks Howard will lead them in touchdowns, which makes sense. I would look at it as a floor ceiling play. I think if you want the safer play, it's Howard. If you want the ceiling play, it's Brita. You know, we saw it from him in 2018 as the lead guy for San Francisco, he was electric. You know, he's a five yards per carry guy. Is that a 49ers thing? Cause what we saw from Raheem Mostert last year was a five yards per carry guy. Is that a 49ers thing? Because what we saw from Raheem Mostert last year

was a six yards per carry guy. I think we'll find that out. But this kind of ties into Fitzpatrick and the passing game as well. Like Ben was saying, you know, maybe they're going to be in some more shootout scenarios because of their defense and chasing points. I think the run game is going to be better for Miami too.

You know, what they had last year with Gaskin and Patrick Laird and Clayton Balazs after they traded Kenyon Drake, and they really weren't even great running the ball with Drake, that this scenario will be better because the offensive line will be better. These two guys are capable veterans, especially compared to what they had at the end of the season. So you said in a previous show, Adam,

that you didn't want to draft the Dolphins running backs at all. No, I didn't want to spend two back-to-back picks on them. Yeah, you amended that when you said it, but initially your first thought was to avoid them, which I'm sure a lot of people are going to do. But it's not bad if you are looking for running backs three and four, preferably running backs four and five, if you did take both of those guys to kind of see how it all shakes out.

That's not a bad strategy at all, unless, of course, you're afraid of both of them being in the same room. And you made a good point when I said that they're going to be behind and throwing a bunch that their defense has improved. They had a Byron Jones, they have Xavier Howard, they have two elite corners. And they've been not, however that works out as their third corner,

they dropped in the first round. So that could be a really good secondary, which could, and I mean, they have like some improved players all across their defensive defense. So, you know maybe there's just more rushing opportunity in that offense as well well they had the fewest rushing guards in the NFL last year the Dolphins so that's a bit of a red flag why I don't

want to put two picks into that backfield it's such a different team though but is it I mean their offensive line is still not going to be good it's very young is it because they drafted rookies it's going to be good. It's very young. Is it? Because they drafted rookies? It's going to be better for sure,

and there's a chance it could actually be like middle of the pack good in the NFL. They've got some nice young talent. They've done the best job they could. They basically addressed, I think, four-fifths of the offensive line. It's like the Jets. They might have three new starters,

but I think the majority of them. Yeah, Tunsell's great, right? Yeah, Tunsell. Ben, where did Pro Football Focus rank their line? I actually still have that open in a tab. Like, I have it all memorized, but I do have it still open. I'll tell you in a couple seconds. I'd almost be stunned if it's higher than 30th.

Yeah. Well, they're not going to be able to look back. They were terrible. Yeah. No, no, no, no. below the pack. They were terrible. Yeah. No, no, no, no. It's dead last, 32nd. There it is. Going into, that's their preview of 2020.

That's their projection for 2020. Yeah, so, wow. Oh, okay. We could see as many as four new starters, they're saying so. Yeah, I mean, we don't really know. Okay. Denver, is there enough?

This is a run-heavy team for sure. Pat Shermer's now the offensive coordinator. He has, well, it typically is a run-heavy team. We'll see. Shermer now, and they've got a young quarterback they like a lot, and they just added two receivers in the draft. Yeah, I'm sorry. It came out the wrong way.

They've been a run-heavy team. They'll still be a run-heavy team. Does Philip Lindsay matter? Absolutely. Yeah. We can't sit here and say that, you know, it's different with the rookies coming into the NFL because they have to learn the league

and then they have to learn their new team. But the free agents that are coming to new teams still have to adjust to that whole scenario. And for Melvin Gordon, as great as he's been, he's still going to have to prove that he's that much better than what Lindsay has accomplished the last two seasons with this lack of talent around him and inconsistent quarterback play. So I think,

you know, Melvin Gordon, there was one comment he made where he wants to be the guy, but he's talked a lot about how he feels these two guys can work together. He's compared it to him and Eckler and how those guys work together. I think Lindsay is going to be a little bit of a thorn in the side for Melvin Gordon. So we'll see how that all works out.

But I mean, obviously you expect Gordon to be the lead guy. What I don't think a lot of people realize with Lindsay is that last year and I just pulled up his game log. He played more than 60% of the snaps one time and he maxed out at 65%. He's mostly in the forts and 50 percent range and for the bulk of the year freeman was playing more because lindsey is not a particularly good pass blocker but lindsey was still getting targets he has a really high like targets per route run rate

but he's not in there to pass block so when he is in there you know he'll get the ball thrown it's kind of like a decent receiving floor but not a lot of receiving upside because he's not going to be out there every passing down. But he wasn't playing a ton, and he was a 1,000-yard rusher as a guy who was basically playing half the snaps. I mean, if you go and look at it, over the course of the year, nine games he was under 50% of the snaps, and Freeman was out snapping him quite frequently in those games,

I recall, from right and stealing signals last year. I don't think people realize that Gordon's going to step into this Freeman role. He'll probably take some of these carries, but Lindsey's role shouldn't change that much. I don't think you'll get nearly as many touches overall, but it shouldn't be that different than what he had last year. It wouldn't be that surprising to see him rush for 800 yards and a change of pace for each percent snap role.

Last year. Here's how it looked. Phillip Lindsay had 224 carries and 35 catches. Royce Freeman had 132 carries and 43 catches. Dave, if you were going to assign carry and catch numbers to Gordon and Lindsey, and this time they might have Royce Freeman in the mix as well for a little bit, what would you think?

Again, Lindsey had 224 carries. Freeman had 132. What do you think that number looks like, catches and carries? I'm going to ballpark Lindsey at around 150 carries over the course of the season. Maybe 160. Somewhere around 10 per game on average. And maybe on average, like one and a half catches per game max.

I don't think they're going to use him on passing downs. I don't think Royce Freeman's going to get a lot of work. And I think Melvin Gordon's going to get the rest. So if Phillip Lindsey is getting 10 carries per game in a typical game maybe where the Broncos are winning or it's competitive then Melvin Gordon should probably be on the hook for around 12 to

14 carries and 3 to 4 catches per game not thrilled well 3 to 4 catches is good right he's still going to be a 15 touch running back. I have it projected as 175 carries for Gordon, 141 for Lindsey, and then 43 catches is all for Gordon.

So more like two and a half per game and 33 for Lindsey, right about where he's been both years, two per game. I have Freeman with 22 carries and 10 catches as the third. For the most part, I've been down on Gordon, though. Yeah. Well, 175 carries is very low. Not to say that your projection is too low, but that's an alarming number.

I mean, Lindsey's a guy. Look, he rushed 224 times last year and 192 times last year, or the year before that, as the incumbent, ran for 4.5 yards per carry at least both years. He's at 5.4 as a rookie. He's been a very good runner for them for two years. So I think you could also say me projecting him for 141 carries for them to really slash his work since the last two seasons.

I mean, why wouldn't it be a little bit more of a split? Roy Freeman is not Melvin Gordon. Yeah. He's a good pass protector, though. All right, Browns and Niners. Jamie, give me a quick take there. I don't think there's really a competition for the Browns. I think their roles are going to be kind of clear-cut,

that Kareem Hunt's carries will just be slightly increased from the work that he had after coming back from his suspension. But, I mean, Nick Chubb's still going to be the catalyst there. And for the Niners, the fact that Raheem Mostert got the contract extension kind of tells you where they are with him, that they were able to work this out. He should still be their guy. And this is another player in Tevin Coleman that we have to keep an eye on because he does have, according to reports, a sickle cell trait.

So if that's an issue to keep in the back of your mind, you know, we'll see, but they're going to rotate guys. Clearly. It's not just going to be Mostert as the lead guy in terms of touches. And as we saw, we've talked about this numerous times, that Coleman was still the starter, quote-unquote, even when Mostert was rolling.

Okay. Who do you guys like better, Raheem Mostert or Kareem Hunt in a half PPR league? Mostert. Hunt. Okay. And then finally, the Chargers RB2,

the Falcons RB2, and the Patriots RB2. Are we thinking that the Chargers RB2, at least, you know, in draft day, is the one that gets drafted first? Most appealing spot of these three? Ass assuming Todd Gurley does not have a kid in touch is there yeah right like obviously if Gurley says I'm not playing

then things are different but well it's also I mean if Sonny Michelle's ruled out for any reason because of the foot injury those those two things can change it dramatically but if everybody's healthy I'll take the Chargers okay there will be a push for that Patriots guy. Damian Harris could be it. Definitely has the potential to be a good workhorse running back in the NFL. Just needs the opportunity to do it. And we've seen it before and we've talked about it before. Didn't work out last year where the running back you draft last from the Patriots is the one who ends up being the best for fantasy.

Maybe it's Harris this year. Last year, he never really got the chance. I think Sonny Michel staying healthy had a lot to do with that. And he, I think Harris is a good running back. I think he can play three downs as well. Not that he would with James White healthy, but I think he's,

I think he could end up having that job. He's interesting. I don't, I'm not ready to take him ahead of Kelly, but I do like him. I didn't like the fact that they restructured his deal for Rex Burkhead. Who restructured? Burkhead's deal got restructured like they changed the money right they wanted to keep him sure yes like that to me is a red flag for harris like i i again i think he's got a red flag for

sony uh could be red flag for sony too yeah that's a great point um but you know keeping just that extra mouth around is is not good yeah burk though, hasn't been a big carry guy with New England. He's been kind of like the James White backup almost. He's a little bit of both, I think. The Swiss Army knife for them. Yeah, certainly. But, yeah, I was just going to say, I mean, we've got to keep in mind with Harris, they took him in the third round last year.

I think the Patriots think he – all those glowing things Dave just said, I think they believe him too. Just because they didn't use him last year doesn't mean that they don't think that. We're going to take a break here when we come back. Wide receiver training camp battles. Who is the number two guy in Pittsburgh? I mean, everybody's looking at Deontay Johnson. James Washington

actually led the team in receiving last year, and he is their air yards guy. Advanced stats much? What aboutansas city's number two wide receiver will there be three relevant wide receivers for the rams wait till i tell you the azer stats for the first five games of the 2018 season we're kind of want people to come back from the break oh no i'm not going to tell you any stats then never mind we're coming back right after this on fantasy football today whether in the game or in life the right coverage can make all the difference securing

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Be careful along our tracks, and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. Wide receiver training camp battle. So, does anybody give James Washington a chance to actually be better in fantasy than Deontay Johnson? You have to. A chance? Yeah.

Not a, I, no. Not a big chance. Washington had some nice flashes last year. Johnson did too. But Washington always tends to play well in August and then fade by October. Last year was the first time he didn't quite do that, but I don't know if he's necessarily got a chance to be a dominant guy for the Steelers.

So, no, I think Deontay Johnson's got more upside. I would agree Johnson has more upside, but I think we just can't discount that Washington will play potentially a significant role. He's going into his third year here, and then there's Claypool as well. Do all these mouths to feed

do anything to your evaluation of Deontay Johnson? If Deontay plays beyond expectations, then he's going to... It's so silly for me to even say that, but I do think Deontay Johnson has really good upside. He's more than just a down the field, go route type of wide receiver. He's a quick mover. He's, I think he's got good hands. Don't

know about great hands. We'll see how much he develops in his second year, but really I'm worried about how distribution is going to go in the red zone for everybody on the steelers because not only do they add claypool who's this like it's like drafting big john stud at wide receiver they also have ebron who's a mismatch piece in the red zone that's how the colts use them i suspect that's how the steelers will use them they've got a lot of big boys we can't even forget about vance mcdonald who you know vultures a touchdown three times a year so i think it's all good for Roethlisberger, but it's one of the reasons why I'm not crazy about Juju.

And I think it's going to be a pretty decent spread of how touchdowns go around in Pittsburgh this year because of all these big guys they have. All right. So Ben, looking around the NFL, give me some wide receiver spots that you're keeping an eye on, some position battles there. New England. I mean,

whether it's Nikhil Harry or Marquise Lee or who's it going to be? Because Cam Newton's always kind of had an outside receiver that he liked, and I think Edelman's kind of like the Greg Olson, if you look at Newton's prior offenses. And I think the market is kind of just assuming too much that the Patriots recent tendencies matter because I just don't think they do at all I think the Patriots are going to be a completely

different offense with Cam Newton at quarterback and it's going to look more like Cam Newton's history than it will you know their history with Tom Brady so yeah I think there's an outside receiver role there that's going to wind up being valuable um you know kansas city number two for sure we mentioned them uh now before we get to kansas city uh ben voland did say he talked he talked very highly of nikhil harry today so um great you know that that his opportunity to step into this role as the devin funch's calvin ben Benjamin guy for Cam is something that he can take hold of. And then the same conversation, he thinks that Edelman can kind of become how Greg Olson was,

clearly just the safety blanket for Cam. Right. Short intermediate target. Yeah, that makes sense. And then, yeah, Casey makes a lot of sense. Indianapolis is a really interesting one for me. I'm starting to really warm up to Paris Campbell as the sort of not obviously Keenan Allen, but, like, he's going to play a similar role if he winds up as their starting slot guy. I think Michael Pittman is an outside receiver, and he's going to challenge

Zach Pascal for, like, this, you know, opposite role from T.Y. Hilton. But Campbell seems like the clear slot guy. You know, Naheem Hines might split out a little bit. I don't know. But without Ebron there as well, there's probably going to be fewer tight end targets overall in this offense. We know Rivers is always like the slot guy. He's obviously going to have a different distribution

and a different offense. It's not going to like he's going to target Paris Campbell 150 times like he's targeted Allen before. But it doesn't need to be 150 targets for Campbell to be worth some interest where he's going. You mentioned this on a previous show, but Zach Pascal, I always hear it pronounced differently, he's not bad. He did pretty well last year when he got the opportunities.

And I think everybody's going to be on Paris Campbell as the second Colts wide receiver drafted. But, you know, I feel like someone's going to be good there, right, other than T.Y. Hilton. So I just don't know who it's going to be. Is Campbell the one you draft? I mean, it sounds like – I'll give that to everybody. Yeah, because Pittman, the second-round pick,

kind of profiles as the competition for... It is Paschal. I always say it wrong. I don't know. I don't think it... I'm not sure. I've heard it. I would actually still take Pittman second

just because I think there's more upside with him because I do think Campbell... Last time we talked about this. To me, he feels a little bit more like a gadget player than he is going to be a significant target hog. Whereas I think pitman in the conversation that you guys just had about the tight end targets being vacated he's a bigger option for rivers in the red zone i do think his draft grade is going to be significant he had good

college production he's a he's a specimen so i i'm a little bit more excited about him but you know dark throws with late round picks I think I think Pittman replaces Ebron and he could I mean this is this is another guy that they can yeah I know I mean they've got options man they've got they've got a really flexible offense and

the one thing I will say about Campbell because I loved him coming out of Ohio State I don't know if they've got anybody quite like him because he lines up in the slot. He's quicker than fast, but he's pretty fast. And he's the type of guy that Rivers can just flick little five, six-yard passes to.

And he's got the potential to take it 20, 30 yards. I don't know how many touchdowns he's going to get, but I could see him being a PPR machine for sure. I could see him getting four or five catches per game with some games in the seven or eight range. He's a good lead. They also put Hilton in the slot too. Yeah, they could,

but that'll draw more coverage and more attention than Campbell would. They're going to strain defenses a bunch of different ways. This is going to be an interesting offense for sure. And speaking of PPR machines, tell me what you think of different ways. This is going to be an interesting offense for sure. And speaking of PPR machines, tell me what you think of this stat. Why don't you guess how many targets Russell gauge was on pace for? Oh, it's over a hundred,

117 after the new trade, 80 catches, 117 targets, only 715 yards. So not a great yards per catch. There are only two touchdowns, but he's going into his third year. He was very involved.

Now, look, Calvin Ridley missed some time. Two of his best fantasy games, Russell Gage, were without Austin Hooper. But, you know, that's, I don't know, is that a 14-team league kind of guy? Or, well, I have him in the Sky Fish Bowl, which is like 60 rounds. Great, great player for that.

Great best ball guy, too too because if any of the two guys get hurt. Hayden Hurst is somebody that we're I think excited about to whatever degree. Whether you think he's going to be a breakout, top five tight end, top 10, top 15. He's got a chance here to step into Hooper's

role. But similar to this entire offseason, he has no rapport with Matt Ryan. We're anticipating he's going to come in and take all of Austin Hooper's targets. If that connection doesn't work, and Hurst has had a hard time staying healthy, and he hasn't been productive, even though he was a former first-round

pick, he's older, you know, Gage and Ryan know each other. And so that's something that they may lean on. We like Dirk Cutter's history with tight ends, and that's fantastic. But, you know, he may have to adjust how he operates and you know, that this is a guy that could really benefit in a big way. So he's a great late round pick too. You know, I would take him over both the Colts guys personally. And, and to Cutter's history, the other big thing we know about this and the reason that it matters that, you know, cause I think for other teams, we don't care

about the fourth receiving option, but Atlanta's going to throw a lot. They threw a ton last year. They threw a ton every other time that Cutter was their offensive coordinator earlier in the decade, like 2012, 13, 14, or whatever, before he went down to Tampa. They're going to throw top 10 in attempts, and they have a very concentrated offense. Like we were talking about this with the running backs.

Basically right now, the only guys getting drafted for fantasy are Julio, Calvin, Hurst, and Gurley, and that's it. But there's going to be someone else contributing. How many more guys do you want to get drafted? That's four players. I wonder if Jaden Graham could somehow garner some attention. Remember when he got some time last year? I'm surprised to hear Jamie say that he would take

Gage over Campbell. I would too. Really? And I love Paris Campbell. Put it this way. T.Y. Hilton goes down. We saw it last year. Zach Paschal was good.

He wasn't great. I don't know if Russell Gage would be great, but I'd take that chance in that offense with the volume if something happens to Hooley or something happens to Ridley. And you just kind of alluded to Adam with the numbers he was putting up when Hooper wasn't there and the game targets he was putting up he was that's the thing he wasn't really

putting up great numbers he was a target opportunity yeah well okay fine if you want to play the injury game I could I could understand that but if you're just drafting someone that you you know Paris Campbell is the number two wide receiver or Russell Gage is the number three wide receiver, perhaps number four in targets on the team.

And you're not, and you're thinking... We expect the Colts to run the ball a ton. The Falcons, like Ben said, they were first in pass attempts last year. And that's why I'm saying you should draft more than four people in that kind of a pass offense. Because then, yeah, like Jamie said, if an injury happens or what,

like you want to target the offenses that we know are going to throw top five pass attempts or top 10 pass attempts. And we have a pretty good guess that Atlantaena's going to do that this is more of a conversation for outside of 15 rounds you know if you're in okay yeah a 16 plus round draft these are the type of guys that you're talking about no one is draft this is going to be week two of our waiver wire show when blank player goes down you should have drafted michael pitman you should have drafted paris campbell You should have drafted Paris Campbell.

You should have drafted Russell gauge. You know, that's the things we'll be saying, but you can't really expect the, the, the third or fourth receiver in, in these teams when there's better options in the same draft range, especially when you have to draft a kicker and a defense.

Yeah. But that's why I feel like. Perfect example. You like, you've been saying a lot taking two tight ends or two quarterbacks right that's something you're a proponent of this is this is the replacement for that yeah but i'm just saying i think that paris campbell has a chance to be really good without an injury and i don't think so does i would go campbell over gage i would

disagree with david jamie on that. I'm with you. Look, if that's your preference, that's the route you go. But I think that's the range you're talking about. You're talking about 13th, 14th, 15th round if you're in a 15-round draft. And certainly beyond that, then they become much more viable, especially in three receivers. Adam just really needed

someone to acknowledge that Paris Campbell could be ahead of Gage. So I had to throw him that bone. I didn't really expect people to draft. I would like to look at their ADP because I think that's different. I would be shocked if Campbell's not ahead of those guys. Right, it's just different. I'm not saying it's dumb or anything.

Paris Campbell's wide receiver, 67. Gage's wide receiver, 81. All right, Rams wide receiver. I don't know that this really matters that much. Number three wide receiver, but if they go back to throwing to their wide receivers and not their tight ends, I won't even give the stats or anything,

but they, at a point in time, had three viable players at wide receiver in Cooper Cup, Brandon Cooks, and Robert Woods. Sorry. And is that Van Jefferson? Is it Josh Reynolds? Does anybody care? i think it could be gerald everett yeah because they use him more as an outside piece than they do as a blocker

which higby is more of an inline or just off the line of scrimmage type of tight end they'll they'll line higby up wide too but i think everett is just better suited to be the Evan Ingram type of tight end that plays more wide receiver. I was a little excited about Reynolds earlier this offseason because he has kind of an interesting production profile in college, but he's just not been good at the NFL level. So, kind of over. I was going to make a joke because the Vikings,

well, I'm not going to say it. Nevermind. In any event, some news, the Vikings have placed Justin Jefferson on the reserve COVID list. Really? All right. All right. It's going to keep happening.

It's just the prepared. Hope everybody's okay. Feeling all right. All right. So let's, let's just fire through the rest of these here. Which Kansas city wide receiver are you taking? Hardman or Watkins? I have a great stat on this.

Go for it. Hardman played at least 50% of the snaps in each of his first six NFL games because Tyreek Hill went down in week one. And then he only played 50% of the snaps one more time in 13 more games through the playoffs. And that was the game that he'll also left early in week 11, the Mexico City game against the Chargers. We've talked about it several times in the past few weeks.

So he played essentially as Tyree kills direct backup. Now that doesn't mean that he's going to necessarily be Tyree kills direct backup, but he never really played over 50% of the snaps unless he'll miss time. I thought that was really interesting. That is pretty interesting. Does that change though? You know, does he earn more playing time? The walk-ins had a really strong finish, really good post season.

Cause if that doesn't change, it might change. And I, I like Hardman a ton. He's a 21 year old and very explosive last year. And he's going into his 22 year old season, but if it doesn't change, Watkins going to be a huge value. We think we thought he was going to be that guy last year when Tyreek Hill went down and then he wasn't. It just seemed like he's better suited to be the two than the one.

He might be better suited to be the two than the one, but he might be best suited to just not be on my fantasy team because every time I go to Sammy Watkins and think, all right, this time will be different. He just, he doesn't come through. So maybe it's just, maybe I've got sour grapes when it comes to Sammy Watkins. Not that I've ever been like the biggest Sammy Watkins fan on the planet and drafting him before everybody else. But I don't I think

he's a good veteran and he's a good route runner, but he just doesn't have the same type of speed that Hardman has. Not that a lot of receivers. So you're taking Hardman? I'm taking Hardman. All right. Give me give me one word answer, guys. Hardman for Dave. Jamie Hardman. Ben Hardman. All right, give me one word answer, guys. Hardman for Dave, Jamie? Hardman. Ben? Oh, Hardman, easy. It's just that Watkins is available in like the 13th round in some of our drafts. That's not one word.

Ayuk or Samuel, who are you taking right now? Samuel. Yep. Samuel. Eagles, favorite wide receiver on the Eagles. Rager. Rager, I think. Rager, but I'll probably end up passing just based on where they're going.

Jets, number two wide receiver behind Crowder. Perriman. Chris Herndon. That's not an option, Ben. It's a wide receiver question. Oh, then Perriman. Okay. Redskins, number two wide receiver. That's not their team name. Oh, Ben. It's a wide receiver question. Oh, then Paramount. Redskins' number two wide receiver. That's not their team name.

Oh, sorry. Washington football team number two wide receiver. My bad. Sims. Yeah, Sims. And who put the Jags' number two wide receiver in there? I mean, we're hoping it's Chenault, but, you know, again, rookies and how they're coming in.

Yeah. Okay, who else could it be? I will take Chenault. It could be D.D. Westbrook. D.D.? Yeah. All right. Yeah, you got to take Chenault over D.D. Let's read some emails to finish the show.

FantasyFootball at CBSi.com. Hey, Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Ben. Wow, good job, Joe. Didn't include Heath. I don't know who those guys are. You got lucky there. Keep one keeper up to three years. Player kept loses a round they were drafted in.

Who's the better keeper? Miles Sanders in the sixth round. Adam Thielen in the tenth round. This would be my last year keeping him. And Mark Andrews in the 15th round. Sanders in the sixth. Thielen in the tenth. Andrews in the 15th.

Andrews. Yeah. No. It. Andrews. Yeah. No. It's Andrews or Sanders. Obviously, it comes down to those two, but that keeper value from Mark Andrews. That's a free space for three years. That's easy.

I'm sorry. I got the COVID concerns. I don't know how to approach that with Andrews. Maybe we'll know more after August 1st. Sanders is a really good value in the 6-2. Right. So wait a minute. You're keeping Sanders sixth round, then the fifth round,

then the fourth round. So that's still a really good value if he hits. Andrews, even if he regresses a little bit, he still looks to me like a guy that could be at worst top eight tight end for the next three years. At worst. At best, he might be third best. So I think Andrews is probably the better partner.

He's third best now. Yeah. The upside is different, too. If Sanders hits, you might be talking about a top five pick next year. I don't know if there's a lot of scenarios where Andrews is a top five pick next year. Right, so what's more likely based on what you saw last year? Sanders.

What's being a consistent top three tight end, or Sanders being a top five overall pick? Andrews. Andrews being a top three tight end. You know what, guys? Just keep Adam feeling in the tent. Definitely don't do that. It's not bad, but you only get him for one season.

I'm going to vote Sanders. I'm doing it. Yeah. Okay. I think Andrews was a consensus, right? No, I'm with you, Ben. It's two to two. Team Gretsch.

Team Gretsch. God, I love what I'm aligned with. Was he like 15? What? Is Sanders back in round 1? Let's find out Jamie Jamie why don't you read the next email while I find out

That means I have to look at your notes for the first time ever It says from Daniel Hey Randall, Donovan, Michael, and Carson Syracuse quarterbacks. Eagles quarterbacks. Yeah, I know. What impact do you guys think Mahomes and Jones deal – do you guys think Mahomes and Jones deal have on the Chiefs' weapons in Dynasty?

You're really good at reading these. You know, there's a lot of typos. A lot of typos. Sometimes they're not always written well. That is a numbers guy, not a letters guy. I read it exactly as it's written. Could Hill or Kelsey be on a new team in a few years is the other part of the question.

They're perfectly fine. Huge numbers. Yeah, so the salary cap is kind of a make-believe thing, it seems. There was an article today on ESPN how the Chiefs went from having less than $200 or something like that in cap space to extending Mahomes and Jones with these massive deals.

So they'll be able to keep Tyreek Hill, I assume. I don't know about Kelsey because he's... Well, they signed Tyreek Hill last year, so he's fine. Their running back is on a rookie deal. He's fine with a fifth-year option. Kelsey's going to be 31, so his dynasty value is heading in the wrong direction. And then Hardman's still on his rookie deal.

So, I mean, all their main options should be fine, and Sammy Watkins is walking after this season. Yeah. If you want to read it, it's called How the Chiefs Went from $177 Below the Cap to Deals with Patrick Mahomes and Chris Jones. All right, this is from Nathan. Where's he from?

Chattanooga, Tennessee. By the way, Miles Sanders is 11th overall. Hi, Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. And Ben. I commissioned three dynasty leagues, all on the amazing CBS Sports app. Yeah. I've been contemplating how to handle a player

who is suddenly placed on COVID IR or misses a game last minute due to COVID. I don't feel like an owner should be penalized with a zero in these unique situations. For example,

I have two quarterbacks. One plays on Thursday, but I prefer the matchup on Sunday. It's then announced my preferred quarterback has COVID and doesn't play. It's Dynasty, so likely no starting options

are available on the wire. What ideas do you have? What ideas do you have for covering this sort of situation? And, and I brought this up as I know we've talked about this, you know, going for like the team QB sort of thing where you have the backup, but in a dynasty league,

you know, some of the backups could be rostered, right? So a number of them, Jamis Winston and the rookies and all that. So you don't have that luxury necessarily. Backup lineup spots on the bench, but there are specific two spots that are best ball backup spots.

You have to designate them just like you have to designate your starting lineup. So in this scenario, when you know one of your quarterbacks is playing Thursday night, but your preferred option is playing Sunday, you would definitely put that Thursday night football quarterback in one of your two backup spots. You'd have to play your QBs as a potential backup that week. Every other player on your benches is a bench player. You don't get full best ball options. That's that.

This is that. This is the year for this man. Okay. Sounds good to me from Jacob. So you'll watch that thursday player put up numbers and the only way you'll get access to it is if your starter has covet what if the starters ruled out on sunday and you can't confirm it's covet no the way that the way that i've pitched that idea before is that those backup slots are best ball so if he puts up numbers on thursday then he's probably going to be

in your lineup even if the starter plays Sunday. Because I don't think, for the exact reason you just said, it's hard to differentiate. So this would cover the COVID thing. It would also cover concussions in the first quarter in your starting lineup. There's a lot of guys leaving games earlier nowadays, I think. So you've got two spots on the lineup that are basically insurance policies for whoever gets hurt

in your lineup. So I don't have to put a quarterback in that spot if I don't want to. But if I do, I'm covered in case the quarterback ends up not playing. A couple times throughout the year, you'll have to play the schedule a little bit because of COVID, like this writer is talking about. You know what, Ben? I don't like it. And this isn't a COVID thing necessarily, Ben.

This is just a, uh-oh. My player gets hurt early. I don't like it, guys. I am anti-Ben here. I'm anti. Yeah, I don't know if I like it either. You like when a receiver plays like six snaps and then hurts his hand? No, of course I don't like it, but I started the guy and I got

to deal with the consequences. Yeah. Alright, from... Well, I guess we didn't really help you there. Sorry, Nathan. Thank you for using the CBS Sports app and chatting. What if you just, what if you, this is what I'm recommending to commissioners, is just give a couple of extra roster spots to everybody in the league and say, it's on you.

These are extra roster spots. You want to stash guys for the season? It just ruins the waiver wire experience, though. It does ruin the waiver wire experience, and it could ruin a week for somebody if they do that, and then a game comes, and they don't have a quarterback to start that week. Okay.

I think in this situation, you should get the backup quarterback. You don't have to roster him. That's what I've been saying the whole time. Yeah, but this is why I brought this up, because let's say he has Drew Brees and Matt Ryan. Matt Ryan plays Thursday, but he wanted to play Drew Brees on Sunday,

and then Sunday comes and Brees is inactive. I guarantee Jameis Winston is on a roster in this league because it's a dynasty league. So what do you do in that case? Well, I think that if you have one of those quarterbacks whose backup is rostered, that's a disadvantage to you. You have to prepare for that,

and you probably should have played the Thursday guy instead of Brees. You don't get that luxury. So in your league, the way I see it, quarterbacks whose backup quarterbacks are going to be on other rosters lose value. You have to prepare for that. The backup's

got to be unknown. That's the key part of all this. Right, which is not an issue in redraft leagues, but in Dynasty Leagues it is an issue. It could be in two quarterback leagues and stuff like that. Well, okay, yes, two quarterback leagues. But, yeah, fine. If the backup quarterback is owned,

you're screwed. You should have taken the precautions and played the Thursday guy. But if he's not, then you get him. That's what I would do. But feel free to go with Ben's awesome idea. You could always use team quarterbacks, too. Jamie brought up, though, team quarterback is like, you know, what if

Taysom Hill catches a touchdown from DeVries? Right, of course. Now, all of a sudden, the Saints quarterback situation is amazing for fantasy. All right, next email. You can certainly go to the TQB route for the season. That's a preference you can have, but it's going to put, you know, potentially Philadelphia at this event. From Jacob, hey, Tom, April, Andy, and Donna, that is Parks have, but it's going to put, you know, potentially Philadelphia at this event.

From Jacob. Hey, Tom, April, Andy, and Donna. That is Parks and Rec. I'm in a 10 team keeper league,

non PPR, five point bonuses for going over a hundred yards, rushing or receiving. We can keep players twice so I can have any of the players two more years. Okay. Do I keep Lamar Jackson in the sixth or miles sanders in the seventh it's a two quarterback league yes oh yeah yeah julio in the second or kyler in the fifth kyler kyler oh i love this you get lamar and kyler in the fifth and sixth and then just build out your running backs and receivers and everything else.

Not bad. This is from Lewis and Madison. You guys really love Calvin Ridley so much. I'm wondering if I should be keeping him for a fourth-round pick over Terry McLaurin for a 14th-round pick. It's a 16-team. Okay. All right, then.

All right, that's it. That's the show. It's tough. All right, then. All right, that's it. That's the show. Good stuff. Thank you, guys. We're back on Wednesday with another edition of Fantasy Football Today. With Jamie, for Dave, and Ben, I'm Adam. See you later. Drag your beat.

Get those promotions ready for Wednesday. Talk to you later, everybody.