Fantasy Football Today - Questions for Each Losing Team; 2022 Rankings Debates (01/18 Fantasy Football Podcast)
Episode Date: January 18, 2022Vote for Fantasy Football Today for Best Social Media Content: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8JGJJY8 As we review Wild Card weekend, we give you a Fantasy winner (3:30) and a Fantasy loser (6:15). Ca...m Akers is back! Could he be back in the first round of drafts? And Kyler Murray limps to the finish line for the second straight season ... News and notes (10:30) and one question for each losing team: Raiders (14:00), Patriots (21:00), Eagles (23:50), Cowboys (27:15), Steelers (34:30) and Cardinals (38:30). Should Josh Jacobs be ranked in the Top 12 at RB? Can any Patriots player or DeVonta Smith become a true standout in 2022? What the heck happened to CeeDee Lamb? Is Najee Harris an easy first round pick in 2022? And what is the potential for Chase Edmonds? ... We do some 2022 rankings disputes: Aaron Rodgers vs. Lamar Jackson (42:00) and Tee Higgins vs. Lamb (51:00) ... Email us at fantasyfootball@cbsi.com Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday 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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with iGaming Ontario. This is touchdown. Oh, he's done it again. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Beck.
What's up, everybody? Welcome to the show today on Fantasy Football Today.
Can Devontae Smith be great in this Eagles offense?
Do you remember CeeDee Lamb? We're going to see if we can remember anything that he did in 2021.
It's been a while. And Aaron Rodgers or Lamar Jackson in 2022?
We've got some rankings
disputes and one question
for each losing team.
Before we get to that,
Jamie, on a scale of 0 to 10,
how would you rate wildcard weekend?
And why is it a 2?
It was crappy. It was bad.
Do we really need another playoff
team? I mean, could we go back to 6 and make
two buys so we get a little bit more of the better teams rested
and ready to go at the end?
You know, it was unfortunate.
There was too many lopsided scores,
and even some of the closer scores,
the games were not exactly competitive throughout.
So, yeah, I would say two is fair.
And you know me, I'm usually optimistic about these things.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, bad.
We all, I think, need to have a conversation
about how much the Raiders screwed us over in that regard.
Just kick the field goal so we don't have to watch the Steelers in the playoffs.
It's a good point.
It's a good point.
How much more fun would it have been to watch Justin Herbert and Patrick Mahomes
on Saturday than Ben Roethlisberger?
Let's talk about the four seven seeds
that we have had so far in the expanded playoffs.
This year, the Eagles and the Steelers got blown out.
Last year, I just looked this up.
Jamie said, do we really need to expand the playoffs?
Do you remember who the seven seeds were last year?
I would not.
Seven seeds last year.
One of them played the Bills, and one of them played the Saints.
One of them played the Bills.
Oh.
No, I don't remember.
Gave the Bills a game.
It was the Colts.
They lost 27-24.
Oh, yeah, the Colts were a good one last year.
Yeah, it was solid.
The other one was the Bears, yeah.
And they stunk.
They lost 21-9 in a very boring game.
So, yeah, I think there's maybe
something to that. We don't need
seven teams. Well, I mean, those markets
obviously were happy to get their teams in the playoffs.
Sure. And I'm sure
the NFL was as well. Alright, so
we're going to talk fantasy here, and
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Let's do some fantasy talk from the six games this weekend.
Jamie, who is the biggest fantasy winner in your mind?
You know, I hope this is twofold.
One in regards to the guy who's a winner,
and one in regards to the guy who I hope
has the same path, and that's Cam Akers. And the second part of that would be James Robinson. But
just watching Cam Akers run, my God, what Achilles tear. I mean, he just looks so explosive.
So forget about the stats. Just watching the way that he looked, and I'm cheating,
obviously, because it wasn't the weekend. But in any event, just the eyeball test.
He's back.
He's going to be fun next year.
They'll move on from Sonny Michel as a free agent.
If they bring him back, that'll be a little bit of a frustrating situation.
But he'll be the lead back for the Rams next season.
At least that's, again, the expectation.
And just can't wait to see a full season of K-Makers
like we thought we were going to get this year
before that unfortunate injury in late July. And I don't agree to see a full season of Canmakers like we thought we were going to get this year before that unfortunate injury in late July.
And I don't agree with you, Jamie.
And Robinson suffered the same injury, obviously.
Yeah, I don't agree with you because it was a weekend.
It was a three-day weekend, so I think you're fine there with that.
Chris and I were talking about this on FFTN5.
Chris, I took Canmakers 28th overall,
fourth pick of round three in a full PPR draft last week.
That's the lowest he's going to go in any draft.
I was doing cartwheels.
Well, I can't do cartwheels.
I was happy.
Where do you think he should go
if we're drafting today?
Where do I think he should go?
Yeah.
I think he's probably a second rounder.
I think anywhere between 18 and 24
probably makes sense.
I think i'd
still rather have you know like i don't know if he'll be a top 12 running back for me for sure
he'll be in that range and then there's probably you know five or six wide receivers maybe two or
three tight ends who i'd rather have at least two tight ends so i think he'll be right in that late
second round range yeah he's going probably before.
I would guess Kelsey and Andrews go before him,
but I think he'll go before every other tight end.
I think he's going to end up in the first round.
Just the way everybody's talking about him right now. Maybe it's just recency bias and the overreaction,
but as a talent, I think people really like him.
It's a great situation.
Well, he was a borderline first-rounder this year,
so I can't imagine the people that were on the fence
were going to take him in the first round.
Depending on what Pittsburgh does with his quarterback situation,
the receivers that are now going to be in the first round,
I think he's a second-round pick.
But just for the basis of our draft that you referenced, Adam,
I took Antonio Gibson at the end of round two.
There's no chance I would take Gibson over Akers now.
Well, could have told you that.
All right, biggest loser.
Biggest loser, Chris, who was it from a fantasy standpoint?
I think it's got to be CeeDee Lamb.
Okay, now, if you wouldn't mind,
since CeeDee Lamb was the one guy I was going to ask you about
when we talked about Dallas, do you have a backup loser?
Or would you like to talk about Lamb?
I can come up with it.
You know what?
I'll come up with a backup Dallas question.
You talk about CeeDee Lamb. Go ahead go ahead yeah i don't know if there was another uh
if there was another one that that seemed as obvious i mean i guess we could talk about
kyler murray let's do that then kyler murray um this is two years in a row that he's faded in the
second half of the season last year he had the shoulder injury this year there was that ankle
injury but he came back and rushed pretty well so i don't know how much that was a factor but he just he was awful yesterday this offense has fallen apart
two years in a row in the second half no DeAndre Hopkins plays a role but even then like he should
be better than 137 yards on 34 attempts one of the worst pick sixes you'll ever see in this game and he just he hasn't looked
right for a while i i think i ended up with him at six in my quarterback rankings and he'll probably
stay there just because the rushing potential is so great but i don't know he hasn't quite
quite made the leap that i hoped for as a real quarterback.
And even in fantasy, outside of the first eight games last season,
he hasn't been quite as good as we hoped either.
So just not a great showing for him.
Jamie, you have him seventh.
I was the high guy.
Chris, currently I'm fifth with Brady, sixth.
I was the high guy with Murray at three.
That is a tough one to justify right
now after that performance. But it
was really all about Hopkins to me. I do think
he needs a receiver upgrade,
whether it's just Hopkins coming back or whatever they do.
But what do you think, Jamie? No, that receiving
court is going to get somewhat overhauled, I would
assume. I can't imagine Christian Kirk is
taking a cheap deal after the year that he
just put up in a market that is going to be begging for wide receivers um aj green who knows what
happens there but obviously he is a year older and and clearly on the decline in his career
uh zach urch is a free agent we got to see what happens there you know so those are three key
parts of what this team is now obviously you hope rondo more takes a step forward uh that would be
nice to see and and i'm sure they'll be aggressive they've been aggressive in the last two off seasons
getting hopkins bringing in green you know drafting rondo more so they know they're
they're they're and and bringing irks so they're they're definitely aggressive steve kimes a very
aggressive general manager so they need to have uh you know some other options there but is deandre
hopkins going to be deandre hopkins again you know is it going to be the the version that we saw
which i know is what you're banking on adam that he was good for Murray, not necessarily great for himself. So that's a big part of it, clearly. But, you know, at some point, and Chris,
you referenced this, you know, when does the injury become a big one? You know, when does it become
more serious? Because he's small, he runs, you know, and so those are two things that are working
against him. And he, I don't want to say he struggles as a pocket passer, but you see the
flaws for him as a pocket passer.
He backs out of clean pockets because he can't see he moves in the pocket,
which helps to a certain extent,
but hurts him to a certain extent as well, because again, of his size.
And so if his receivers are not winning and his coaching staff is not putting
those guys in places to have, you know, better routes,
which I think also is part of it as well, then he's going to struggle,
you know? So when the rushing starts to fade,
which is just the nature of what these guys do, you know,
you look over time of, of, of running quarterbacks and Russell Wilson,
you know, is, is a great example of it, you know, as, as they get better,
which I think he's going to get better. But as the running declines,
where does his fantasy ceiling decline, you know?
And so that's the thing you have to worry about with somebody like Kyler.
So he's going to be a number one quarterback.
He's going to be somebody that can help you win a championship.
If you play 16 games like we see in the first, you know, eight to 10 over the last few seasons,
you'll be thrilled.
But I think you also have to worry about, you know, maybe the potential pitfalls that
could come, especially if the offseason is bad as well.
And he threw the shortest pick six in postseason history
to a player whose last name is Long.
So great irony there.
And over the last eight games of the season,
the final eight games of the season,
he had seven touchdowns, seven interceptions.
So that's pretty bad.
But almost all of those were without Hopkins.
Yes.
And then, yeah, unless you're counting the postseason game.
And then, yeah, I think all but one game,
maybe two games were without Hopkins.
Okay.
All right, some news and notes.
Jerry Jones could replace Mike McCarthy,
according to Jason Locke and Fora.
Kellen Moore could be an option there.
We'll see what the Cowboys do after that disappointing loss.
Ezekiel Elliott played through a partially torn PCL.
We knew he had a bad injury.
It was obvious.
I just, all the coaching decisions that you could talk about,
obviously, with the QB sneak and whatever,
they did themselves a real disservice by playing Zeke over Pollard.
What are you doing?
You know,
he's not a good running back in this state, in this state with a 20 PCL.
He's not a good runner.
He was a great pass blocker.
Did that all season long,
despite the knee injury.
He was very good catching pass out of the backfield.
They should have made him a third down back.
You know,
it was,
it was not going to happen because you're not going to take somebody who's
making that money.
That's on the field and say,
you're the third down guy in Pollard's the,
the, the first and second
down guy. Those are the tough decisions you have to make
if you want to win. That's what they should have done.
That's 100% what they should have done.
I'd say it's pretty low on the list of things that went
wrong for the Cowboys though. I'm not talking about
just that game. I'm talking about
the last 10 games.
The passing game fading in the second half of the season is a much
bigger deal and a much bigger question mark moving forward.
I think if you could run the ball a little bit better,
it would help your passing game.
Who's respecting Zeke?
Well, they also had offensive line concerns.
Tyron Smith was in and out of the lineup.
Lyle Collins struggled a little bit down the stretch.
So they had definite flaws that need to be fixed.
I don't know if they can be fixed,
especially with some of the money that's being spent on that team.
I'd be surprised if they moved on from Mike McCarthy.
Obviously, JLC knows more than I do.
It's one of those decisions, I think, that
you're going to see probably some teams
may struggle with this. You have the
assistant who's clearly going to get a lot of
attention. In their case, they have two.
Do they want to lose both of them, Kellen Moore
and Dan Quinn? I'm going to guess Dan
Quinn's getting a job. Kellen Moore might as well.
By the way, Tyron Smith, their fantastic left tackle,
he has now missed at least three games in six straight seasons.
It is something that you have to evaluate with the Cowboys.
Their line is getting older.
Dak especially.
Yeah.
Derek Henry's status for this weekend is still uncertain.
We're hoping he plays, but they haven't committed to that.
Tampa Bay right tackle Tristan Wirfs has an injury that,
what was that, an ankle injury?
He's in a walking boot.
And their center, Ryan Jensen, also hurt his ankle, I believe.
So two offensive line injuries for them,
as they will face the 49ers this week.
No, the Rams.
Nick Bosa for the 49ers.
Nick Bosa's in the concussion protocol.
Fred Warner has an ankle injury. They're a linebacker. He says he for the 49ers. Nick Bosa's in the concussion protocol. Fred Warner has an ankle injury.
Their linebacker, he says he's going to play.
Cincinnati defensive end Trey Hendrickson is in the concussion protocol,
and their defensive tackle, Larry Ogunjobi,
is out with a foot injury.
He's out for the rest of the season.
The Associated Press, they do a recap of every game,
and they have an injury section, and they'll write the team,
and then they'll say the injuries.
And for the Steelers, they just wrote,
Steelers, their ego was severely bruised.
I thought that was kind of funny.
And then Mark Cabali of The Athletic says,
all signs point to Mason Rudolph as Pittsburgh's starting quarterback in 2022.
Please no.
We will talk about that when we talk about Najee Harris in just a little bit.
And Seattle Fire defensive coordinator Ken Norton.
One question for each losing team
from the weekend we'll sort of recap their season by talking about one player perfect
Josh Jacobs let's talk about him for the Raiders he has been a top 12 running back
two straight seasons although this year he was 18th per game in non-PPR 14th per game in full PPR
did anybody have Josh Jacobs as a top 12 running back in their rankings, Jamie?
Do you remember?
Nobody did, I don't think.
I'll check while we're talking, but I don't believe so.
But he's going to be, just like he was this year, I think, just a great value pick.
Whether you get him in the third round or the fourth round,
this year he was a fourth round pick based on ADP and clearly outperformed that.
There are clearly a lot of question marks here. Who's the quarterback obviously who's the coach um because car can move on so we'll we'll find out you know what the raiders
look like but he's i i think still in a very good spot you know i i the the panic which may have
played out of you know kenyan drake playing the full season, is certainly something you could debate.
But he just seems to deliver.
He might not end up being a superstar,
but he's still a very good fantasy option and a very good running back in the league.
Okay, let's check in where he went in the draft we did last week.
And it is 46th overall to Dave,
who said that Dave said he has Jacobs 13th in his rankings.
His role in the passing game, Chris, was unexpected,
unexpectedly huge.
And some of it was Kenyon Drake's injury,
but it really started before that, actually.
He just started taking over that role.
That would obviously be a game changer.
But he's also a guy who very rarely pops a big play.
It's two years in a row without a 30-yard carry.
I think a lot of that's the offensive line.
Playoffs, he had a 35-yard run.
It was his longest carry in two seasons.
So, Chris, as you evaluate Josh Jacobs,
he was pretty dynamic his rookie year.
It hasn't been the same the last two years.
He gets a lot of volume.
But what do you think?
Round three pick?
Yeah, I think three or four sounds about right. The passing game rule, I think, is going to be crucial two years it gets a lot of volume you know but what do you think round three pick yeah i think
three or four sounds about right the passing game role i think is going to be crucial because
unless things really change for that offensive line and get back to where it was his rookie season
i think he's probably going to be you know a middling volume dependent rusher but if he can be
a you know four to five targets per game guy instead of the two to
three targets per game guy he was for most of the first couple of years of his career then yeah I
think he can absolutely be a high to mid-end RB2 I don't I don't know how much upside there is
beyond that but you know it's worth pointing out after John Gruden resigned, he had nine games out of 11, including the playoffs,
with at least four targets.
He only had eight in his first two seasons combined.
So that was a pretty significant change,
and maybe the coaching change played a part in that.
That would be, I think, a good sign.
And in wins, the splits are so crazy.
In wins, he averaged 17.25 carries per game.
In losses, 11.2 carries per game.
And that includes two wins that he left early with injuries.
And in 2020, he averaged 22.3 carries per game
and wins 14.6 in losses.
So the game script and the role in the passing game is huge.
Do you have anything to put that in context?
Because I think most people would assume teams that are winning running backs have more carries.
Then in that regard, no, I don't.
Well, let me look at Najee Harris, who was on another nine wins.
Also huge, and that's why he's going to be worth discussing for sure.
His splits were very different.
Because it's rare you get a Derrick Henry
where they still feed him when they're losing.
You know what I mean?
Right, but if you have no big playability
and you average four yards per carry,
if you're on a bad team,
that's a recipe for disaster.
The Raiders are better than I think they're going to be every year.
But, you know, if Derrick Carr's not back,
I think, you know, it would would be so here's an interesting one
Austin Eckler averaged 14 carries per game in wins and 11 in losses now he's not the kind of
guy you ride for 25 carries anyway but you know he also had a split that was you know at least
yeah I I would think you're probably looking at three to five fewer carries and
wins versus losses.
But last year it was eight.
And this year it was only, what did I say?
It was six.
And that was with him leaving
two of his wins early with injuries
when he had ten carries in one game
and six carries in the other. So it was probably
an even bigger gap.
And that was something that Schneier pointed out.
That's why Dan Schneier didn't like Jacobs.
He said he was the most game script or one of the most game script dependent
running backs.
Of course,
if you start catching four or five passes a game,
it doesn't really matter,
I guess.
Right.
So if his,
you know,
game expands and we know that he has that ability,
you know,
we've seen it.
And,
and like Chris said,
you know,
the,
the new coach, or if it's risk like Chris said, you know, the new coach
or if it's Riz Passaccia again,
you know, that's something
you could probably
hang your hat on a little bit
that he's going to be
more involved in the passing.
All right.
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All right. Let's go to our next team, New England.
Chris, are there any potential standouts on this offense?
And I will tell you that, and this is Dave helped me out this morning,
Jacoby Myers, restricted free agent.
James White, unrestricted free agent.
Brandon Bolden, unrestricted free agent.
So the question is, are there any potential stars on this New England offense?
So we're not referring to Damian Harris as a star or a standout, right?
Based on what he did this season,
you wouldn't say he was a star or a standout.
He had a couple of good stretches.
No, I would.
He scored in 10 of 11 games.
Right, but he still finished his RB19 in points per game.
In PPR. Yeah. right but he still finished his rb19 in points per game in ppr yeah i mean if he could replicate
that i'd be happy if we're saying saying damian harris this season was a standout then yes there
is room for someone in this russian game to be a standout the problem is i don't expect we're
going to see you know 25 carries per game or 20 carries per game for
Damian Harris especially with Ramondre Stevenson there if they decide to trade Damian Harris which
doesn't seem like it's totally unrealistic given the way they've handled their running
max in the past then Ramondre Stevenson can be that but unless Mac Jones makes an unexpected
leap as a passer and I it's possible, but I'm not expecting it,
I think that's probably it.
I think this is going to be a pretty mediocre offense for fantasy.
Maybe they add a big-time playmaker in the receiving game
and that changes the way it looks.
But as things stand now, no, I think there's a crowded running game,
a crowded backfield with RB2 upside.
How about you, Jamie?
By the way, Damian Harris, you said he was RB19 in full PPR.
He was per game RB14 in half PPR.
Jamie, is there any potential standouts, any stars on this offense?
Not barring injury to one of the running backs.
I think Chris nailed it.
They're going to lean on both guys, which they should.
It was successful for them.
You'd like to see maybe a step forward for Hunter Henry because it was clear he was the better of the two
from a pass-catching standpoint.
I don't know what happened with Jonathan Smith
and why they didn't use him more in that regard.
But maybe you get a step forward for him as Mac Jones develops
and it's not just a touchdown and bust type of scenario
that he is, you know, kind of what he wasn't with the chargers.
I do think that they'll probably address the receiver position to some extent,
you know, whether it's an upgrade over Jacoby Myers, you know,
just in terms of more dynamic playmaker or adding somebody through the draft.
That being said, they struggle when they draft receivers.
So you don't want to go that route if, if,
if you're looking at it unless this is the year that it changes and Mac Jones
maybe develops that guy.
So I think, you know, they like their formula.
You know, they want to play, you know, great defense, which they have.
They want to run the ball and they want to, you know, put their quarterback in positions and not necessarily make mistakes.
This isn't Tom Brady, you know, so he may develop into a very good quarterback next
year, you know, maybe, you know, a couple of years, but I think they're going to stick to what's
worked for them, and they may have a coordinator change
too, so who knows? Josh McDaniels may leave, and that
could change some things also.
Let's go to Philadelphia. Kind of a similar question,
but just for Devontae Smith.
This offense
was
25th in passing.
They were last in pass attempts. I knew they were last
in something. I couldn't remember if it was attempts or yards.
They threw fewer than any other team in football.
So the question is, can Devontae Smith be a star
in this Philadelphia offense?
Jamie.
Yes, but it comes with an asterisk.
Who's the quarterback?
Because I'm going to guess being the Deshaun Watson sweepstakes.
So if he's cleared, ready to go,
they have the draft capital to make that type of a move
if they feel they need an upgrade.
And depending on how you feel about how that game went
over the weekend against the Bucs,
you may feel that they need an upgrade.
So if Jalen Hurts is the quarterback,
I don't expect a huge leap, but I expect a leap
because I think Hurts will be better.
I think Smith will be better.
They'll have an offseason to work together.
But if there's a quarterback upgrade,
then Smith's stock could be just through the roof.
I think if you're in the Devontae Smith camp,
you'd like to see maybe the version of Deshaun Watson
on and off the field, or at least on the field,
and what we thought off the field prior to the 2021 season.
What do you think, Chris?
Devontae Smith was not even a top 40 wide receiver on a
per game basis. Jalen Hurts, if you just look at the games he started, you take away the Minshew
games. He averaged 210 passing yards per game. That ranked 26th in the NFL. But then in his last
eight games, when they went really run heavy, he averaged 178.5 passing yards per game
and not even one touchdown pass per game so can Devante Smith be a star
yeah I mean it's interesting they had the fewest pass attempts in the NFL at 494 and I thought that
was a really high number for the lowest and in the previous four seasons that's all I could get to
before you came back to me uh they there were at least
three teams and as many as five every season who had fewer pass attempts so i thought that
was interesting did you do per game because we had a 17 game season oh that's a good point
but even then 494 we had 406 last season we had uh every year i think there was one at least
around 420 so it was still a
a high number of pass attempts per game um relative to what we've seen i don't know what
to make of that but yeah i think there's room for him to be a star i mean you just look at the per
target numbers and nine you know 8.8 yards per target that's really good 62 catch rate that's
not great but you could see that coming up you know he probably needs to get more like the 120 target range to really be a difference maker
but if he gets there it's not out of the question to see a you know 1100 yard eight touchdown season
so yeah I think there's room for him to be a must-star fantasy player and a star remember
this was his first NFL season but it's going to be hard it's going to be a very narrow thread to uh to thread needle to thread
but yeah i think it's it's possible and then if they do get you know deshaun watson especially
i think that would you know then it would be a rocket ship and i think davante smith probably
ends up getting drafted as a top 24 wide receiver so yeah i think there's there's there's a couple of paths there but
they're not the most likely outcome all right let's go to dallas here we go here's the fun one
what the heck happened to cd lamb and where do you rank him going into next season uh jamie you
can kick it off what happened to lamb and where do you rank him going into next season?
I don't know what happened to Lamb.
I mean, I think Kellen Moore and Mike McCarthy and Dak Prescott probably happened to see Lamb.
You know, the usage against the 49ers defense was, you know, strange.
You know, running said Wilson more on the slot than Lamb,
given the way that the 49ers play defense was, you know, a little weird.
I just don't understand, you know, why they didn't give him more opportunities
and more, you know, chances to be a significant playmaker.
He had some drops, you know, not necessarily an alarming amount of drops,
but he had some key ones.
I don't know if that factors into it.
It's a crowded receiving core, you know, that also, you know,
has to play into it as well.
You know, when you share a field with Amari
Cooper, Michael Gallup, when he
was there, and Dalton Schultz, what he became.
But the way
that the targets went away, the lack
of production, I hope he's going
to end up being a great value pick
next season because people will
pass on him based on some of those
failures. But there's still so much to love.
So hopefully next year is a big bounce-back season in year three.
So did you rank him?
Where did you rank him?
He's not in the top 12.
I haven't gone past that yet.
So he'll be probably in the neighborhood of 20 to 30.
Again, we'll see what they do.
You don't think he'll be a top 20 guy?
No, I don't.
Wow. guy? No. I don't.
Because this was the number one offense in the NFL.
Now that includes
highest scoring team. That includes
pick sixes and they had a bunch of those.
So I don't know if they scored more points
offensively than the Bucs, but either
way, they're one of the highest scoring teams.
Chris, what about you?
Is he going to crack?
I know he's not in your top 12.
Is he going to crack your top 20?
Yeah, I think top 20 probably makes sense.
I'm not exactly sure where in that top 20, probably in the lower half.
I think part of the problem is the Cowboys just spread the ball around a ton.
It's not necessarily, like even when Michael Gallup went
down we saw Cedric Wilson step up this is a team that has three wide receivers on the field pretty
much every play they've got at least one pass catching tight end they've got a pass catching
running back on the field at all times and so they the only stretch we've seen with a number
one wide receiver they're really having a high target share was the nine games
that Amari Cooper played after his trade in 2018. And even that was only a 23.5% target share. So
you're not talking about what DeAndre Hopkins, you know, put up last season in Arizona. That's
not something that ever really happens. You're not talking about Devante Adams. So that's the
thing that's really tough is they just spread the ball around so much.
And I don't know if that's going to change, even if Michael Gallup leaves. And, you know,
even if Kellen Moore is a different, in a different place, I think that's the nature
of the offense that they run. And unless things dramatically change, I don't think we're really
likely to see, you know, CeeDee Lamb get into that 25% target share range that you really need to be in to be a number one wide receiver.
So, look, he's still young.
He's still really talented.
But we may have gotten a little over our skis on, you know,
the extent to which his talent would make him stand out
and the extent to which his situation would make him stand out.
Maybe neither is quite as good as we thought it was. him stand out um and the extent to which his situation would make him stand out maybe maybe
neither is quite as good as we thought it was it's also they could have a change you know
kellen moore leaves who knows what that means for this offense i just and to be clear he averaged
9.2 yards per target he had a 66 catch rate on you know a 10.38 odd.
He's a very good player.
They just
haven't used a wide receiver
in the way he would need
to be used to be a...
He could end up as a number one guy if he gets
nine touchdowns on 130 targets next
season or something, but it's not going to
be one of those 160 target type
of things unless something dramatically changes in Dallas.
But they throw so much.
I understand the target share is going to be great,
but sixth and pass attempts this year,
third in yards, third in touchdowns.
And he still only ended up with 120 yards.
I know.
It's 16 in his last four games.
Somewhere in the back end of round three,
there's a big receiver rush.
Definitely in round four.
He's not escaping round four. All right. Let's see where he went in this draft we did see some of the
wide receivers he went around oh man why is this so sorry lamb went 41st right behind terry mclaurin
i would rather have cd lamb than terry mclaurin he went just behind DK Metcalf. He went three spots behind T Higgins.
I would definitely rather have T Higgins and CD lamb at this point.
And he went just ahead of Tyler lock and DJ more and Deandre Hopkins.
I think that all makes sense.
You know,
whichever one you prefer,
like I'd rather have lamb than McLaurin.
I'd rather have Metcalf and Higgins than lamb,
but that range generally makes sense.
Yeah, I mean, if you tell me Russell Wilson's back,
I'll take Lockwood over Lamb.
I'll take Metcalf over Lamb.
I'll take McCorn over Lamb.
If the quarterback is better in Washington,
if the quarterback is the same or worse,
then I would take Lamb.
I think I would take DeAndre Hopkins over CeeDee Lamb.
Yeah, see, I would take Lamb over Hopkins.
And Lamb, you know,
there was such a difference in his yards per target
when Gallup played and when Gallup didn't play.
And that was, you know, I guess I'm probably going to talk about this a lot,
but he averaged 10.35 yards per carry without, or yards per target, pardon me.
I love YPC.
Without Gallup for seven games when Gallup got hurt.
And then Gallup came back and he played seven games and Lamb played seven games with Gallup for seven games when Gallup got hurt. And then Gallup came back and he played seven games
and Lamb played seven games with Gallup
and he averaged 8.2 yards per target.
And what does that matter?
Because he played the slot when Gallup played
and he didn't play the slot when Gallup was out.
He played out wide.
So that's why I thought as soon as Gallup got hurt,
I thought Lamb was going to have a huge finish
because he was going to play out wide.
And he did play out wide, but he didn't have a huge finish.
So, you know, I could forgive the overall numbers if he had gotten back on track after
the Gallup injury.
But I don't know, man.
16 targets in his last four games.
That is nuts.
And he actually averaged more targets per game in the games that Gallup missed.
8.88 versus 8 in the games that Gallup missed. 8.88 versus 8 in the games that Gallup played.
It was just that he was much more efficient in the games that Gallup missed.
The thing that's surprising with him really is that he just hasn't scored many touchdowns.
And you would think in this offense that might change,
but they throw to their running backs near the goal line.
They throw to their tight ends near the goal line.
It's actually a surprisingly tough offense for a guy.
It's an easy offense to be a wide receiver two,
and it's a tough offense to be a wide receiver one.
CeeDee Lamb had just 10 red zone targets and four green zone targets.
Man, that is really low.
Oh, man.
All right.
Let's go to Pittsburgh here.
Is Najee Harris an easy first-round pick?
Chris.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's how I have it ranked right now.
But I am also starting to get in my head a little bit about Pittsburgh's offense.
And I don't know.
Mason Rudolph has shown nothing. starting to get in my head a little bit about Pittsburgh's offense and I don't know Mason
Rudolph has shown nothing maybe he's shown something in practice that has made the Steelers
not try to upgrade their position their QB backup position for three years in a row but
when we've seen him he's averaged 6.2 yards per attempt he's been pretty disastrous
and the one game he started this season like it seemed like they barely wanted him to throw the
ball at all so uh i'm worried but the volume i think is just going to be so ridiculous for
naji harris that you know historically low efficiency high volume rookie running max are
a very good bet for fantasy moving forward so i'll stick with that i'll stick with the volume and
you know if he does like it probably won't be
that much worse than it was this year right what the his season his production the steelers offense
however you want to interpret that question steelers were 21st in scoring 28th in yards
per play they did run the ninth most plays with mx one game they play with mason rudolph
went to overtime against the lions and they were just so bad.
You know,
Jamie, what about you? Do you think Najee Harris is an easy
first round pick? He's not an
easy first round pick because if the
quarterback is Mason Rudolph, I doubt you're going to see him
drafted in the first round because there'll be so many concerns
about what this team will
look like. And there's so many great players.
I mean, you know, I know
just looking at, you know, I know just looking at,
you know,
you two guys,
for example,
have Kelsey in your top 12.
The other four of us don't.
That's an easy thing for me to look at and say,
okay,
I'll draft Andrews over Najee Harris,
potentially if Mason Rudolph is the quarterback.
It's like Andrews has a number one tight end,
potentially both those guys.
So I think Harris is not an easy call.
I hope that
pittsburgh and especially knowing this is uh kevin colbert's last offseason their general manager he
also is stepping down after the draft that they'll be in the if these guys are available which it
sounds like they will be the derrick carr and jimmy garoppolo sweepstakes i think that would
be a significant upgrade even over rothlisberger right now. You've heard some
Mitchell Trubisky rumors. I think that's an upgrade
over Mason Rudolph, even though it's not a huge one.
I don't know if it's
an upgrade over bad.
Well, it might be
to some extent, but I would agree with you. Probably not.
But
it also could be a transition year
of a Teddy Bridgewater type
of guy. Mason Rudolph might be that guy.
And they draft somebody, and you're hearing a lot of staying in the state
and taking picket from Pitt and building toward the future.
Maybe he ends up like Mack Jones and starts right away.
So if the quarterback position is on par or better,
it's an easy decision for Najee Harris to go in the first round.
If the quarterback situation is Mason Rudolph or worse, then he easy decision for Najee Harris to go in the first round if the
quarterback situation is Mason Rudolph or worse then he probably is not getting drafted in the
round and I I would think that placeholder guy like a Teddy Bridgewater that would be an upgrade
over Mason Rudolph as well yeah yeah I think that would be an upgrade on Ben too so I think
that would be fine um yeah it's I don't. I think like after the first six or seven picks,
I think there is a pretty big,
it's like a glob of players that you can go almost all the way to the end of
the second round.
And there's not that big of a difference between them.
Um,
you know,
one guy you didn't mention,
what if there's a,
an RB slash wide receiver eligible Debo Samuel?
He won't be on our site.
I can tell you that.
Should be.
Boy, I don't know how you can...
He's the hardest player to evaluate.
His receiving totals have been garbage lately.
He runs for a touchdown every game.
He's incredible.
But can you bank on that next year?
I don't know.
I hope they lose soon
so we can have him as one of the questions.
All right. Alright, anyway.
Arizona, our last loser.
And then we'll do some ranking disputes to end the show.
Do you think James Conner or
Chase Edmonds will be a must-start
running back next season? And that obviously
has a lot to do with
where they're going to be. But, Jamie, do you think
James Conner or Chase Edmonds will be a must-start
running back next season?
Yes, if Conner leaves Arizona and Edmonds is the starter.
Do you think that Arizona will actually commit to Edmonds
as a guy that they're going to give a big enough role to
to be a must-start fantasy running back?
I'm not going to say he's going to be an every-down back,
but talk is cheap with them
because they go all offseason talking about
how much they love Edmonds and he can do this
and he can do that,
and then they don't follow through on that.
Well, I mean, he was great in the two games
that Conor missed with his ankle injury.
Yes, but do they view him as that kind of runner?
I don't think they view him as
we want him to be a 20-touch guy week in, week out because I don't think he can handle it from their perspective. I don't think they view him as, we want him to be a 20-touch guy week in, week out, because I don't think he can
handle it from their perspective.
I don't know if he can personally, so I
don't know.
If he is in that role with
an Eno Benjamin type of guy,
another rookie, that's
a third-day draft pick,
then yes, I think you should feel comfortable about
Chase Edmonds. If it's Edmonds and
another veteran that comes in, or they bring back James Connery,
they could do something similar and go get Melvin Gordon for a one-year deal.
They can start just recycling some of these guys.
There's a lot of interesting names in the free agent market this season.
So you could see, hey, let's get a bigger back
and let's go get Deontay Foreman and pair him with Chase Edmonds.
There's so many different ways that they can go.
But if it's not that route, then yes, I like Chase Edmonds a lot. But otherwise, no. If
it's one of these scenarios, again, like we saw this year, Edmonds and a veteran or both guys
back, then I think you're talking about two flex options with Connor, a borderline starter and
non-PPR and Edmonds, a borderline starter and PPR. Yeah, Edmonds' first seven games before the
injury, he was on a 1200 yard pace he just only
had one touchdown so he wasn't that great for fantasy but like if you think that like Miles
Gaskin in 2020 was a must start running back and I think he pretty much was I think Chase Edmonds
can be that type of like solid number two I think that's probably close to the ceiling. And I do worry that he can't, you know, handle
like a 20 touch per game role or even an 18 touch per game role. But I think he can be like an
efficient pass catcher who does enough overall, you know, rushes for 900 yards and catches,
you know, 60 passes that he can be a, a viable starting fantasy running back. Seems less like
with James Connor, but I think he looked really good this season too.
I was shocked at how good he looked.
So maybe he ends up a starter somewhere.
Well, we're going to take a break.
When we come back, Aaron Rodgers or Lamar Jackson.
And you already heard Chris say
that he'd take Tee Higgins ahead of CeeDee Lamb.
We'll find out where Jamie and Chris have Tee Higgins ranked.
Did he make the top 12?
He did for Chris.
All right, we'll be right back on Fantasy Football today.
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Time for some 2022 rankings disputes.
Aaron Rodgers, per game, number six this year in four-point-per-passing touchdown leagues
and number four in six-point-per-passing touchdown leagues.
And he had a 7% touchdown rate, which is pretty damn high,
but not as high as 9.1% in 2020.
Anyway, if you look at him and Lamar Jackson, touchdowns are the big story there.
And Jamie has Rodgers fourth, and he has Jackson sixth.
And this is in six-point for passing touchdown league rankings.
Chris, on the other hand, has Rodgers ninth, and Lamar Jackson third.
Chris, I'll give you the first word.
You've got Jackson third, and you've got him way ahead of Rodgers.
Give me your breakdown of why you, starting with Lamar Jackson,
why you're the highest on him at third overall.
To be clear, I don't have him way ahead of Aaron Rodgers.
This is the problem with an ordinal ranking system is
three versus nine sounds like a big deal.
I think all those guys are in the same range.
I don't think there's much of a difference between them.
But there's questions about Aaron Rodgers,
where he's going to be playing, who he's going to be playing with. But mostly I just think that Lamar Jackson's
realistic ceiling is just a lot higher than, than Aaron Rodgers, you know, the best case scenario
for him. He was on pace for over a thousand yards and a career high in passing yards by over,
by over 500 this season. That's really significant.
Now, I don't think he's going to average 334 pass attempts per game next season,
but I do think they can be more pass heavy than they've been.
He's still the best rusher at the position by far,
and this was just a weird season, especially with regards to the touchdowns.
He had 18 touchdowns in 16 in 12 games
16 through the air two on the ground the two on the ground is just nuts for a guy who rushed 133
times so I think you look at it and the path for Lamar Jackson being the number one overall
quarterback and that's a that's a big deal for me in rankings you know I want to if I if I have
two players who I think are similar,
but one has a clearer path to being the number one overall player,
number one overall player at their position,
I'm going to rank that guy higher.
And that's Lamar Jackson for me.
Jamie, the case for Rodgers over Jackson?
Well, first, in terms of Jackson,
I agree with everything Chris said about his ceiling.
I think we've also seen the last two years of, you know,
some of what the floor is like for him.
The one thing I'll disagree with, though,
is I wonder if they go back a little bit more to what their roots are,
which is to be a little bit more run heavy.
And you think about what they lost.
You know, they lost their top two running backs.
And so, you know, they put a little bit more on Lamar Jackson jackson's plate now that's not to say that they weren't heading that
direction anyway which they could have been because of bringing in rashad bateman and bringing in
sammy watkins and trying to be a more balanced offense so it really could go either way with
how their future looks but you know i think based on their win-loss record you know you wonder if
they may be okay let's pare it down a little bit go back to dobbins go back to edwards you know
keep lamar in his you know sort of you know quote-unquote bubble of of him as a player and
not necessarily ask him to do too much and that maybe is more uh better for their team success
that doesn't mean that he can't still be the number one quarterback because we saw that in 20
um 2019 when he was you know superstar so all those things yeah i think can still work together
i would point out there's a lot of room between this year and last year
in terms of pass attempts.
He was at 25 per game in 2020, 34 this season.
So if I'm projecting him, he's probably closer to 30, maybe 29 or 30.
But that's still a little bit of an upgrade over where we've seen him as a passer.
Yeah, no, no.
I don't think he's going to throw significantly less,
but I think, again, you just look at where their team was
and factoring in, obviously, a lot of injuries,
not just the running back position,
but coaches just get weird like that.
Okay, why were we so good the last two seasons
versus why were we this way?
Was it all injuries or was it philosophy?
But they were, what?
I feel like they were the two-seater or something like that
before he got hurt.
They were playing great.
Yeah, they were 7-4 before his injury.
They probably weren't the two-seater at 7-4,
but they were leading the division.
Sure, and they lost, I think, more one or however many points,
close games, maybe to anybody.
I think they had one-point losses across the you know, across the board, but you know,
that losing streak was terrible for them. I'm just, again,
I'm stepping into the mind of what John Harbaugh could be thinking,
which is probably a mistake, but in any event, you know,
just never know how coaches get, because you know, what,
what was good versus what was, you know,
what was working versus what isn't working in terms of Rogers. You know,
I I'm just tired of doubting him at this point. You know what I mean?
It's just every year he's going to continue to get, okay, he's older.
He he's not here now. Now Chris said it best best obviously if he's not in green bay and davante
adams leaves this is an easy uh easy fade you know you're not you're not necessarily trusting
roger to the same degree if he goes to denver maybe it's a different conversation because of
all those weapons if he goes to new orleans and he's with sean payton who knows uh there are a
lot of different ways this can go i I'm going to guess at this point,
depending on how this season finishes,
it sounds as if everything is hunky-dory in Green Bay
based on the lack of things that you've heard.
He also could retire.
But I think what's, you know, we said, okay,
it was Jordan Love motivated Aaron Rodgers.
It was the front office and everything motivated Aaron Rodgers.
You know what's changed for Aaron Rodgers the last couple seasons?
Matt LaFleur.
Matt LaFleur, I think, has been really good for Aaron Rodgers.
This offense has been really good for Aaron Rodgers.
It's maximizing everything he does great,
and he's a Hall of Famer to begin with before Matt LaFleur even got to him.
So Devontae Adams, no disrespect to Cooper Cup or Jamar Chase
or Justin Jefferson, Devontae Adams is disrespect to Cooper Cup or Jamar Chase or Justin Jefferson they're gonna put
their Devontae Adams the best receiver in football um the complementary pieces have been good if not
you know great at times you know we don't know what Marquez Valdez Gantling may have
gotten to as he was building towards something with the with the target chairs
Alan Lazard's a very good complementary piece we know they use their running backs in the backfield
uh Robert Tunyon who knows where he may have finished if he had finished out the season.
Probably not as good as he was a year ago.
But Rodgers makes those things work.
So I just think you look at him, he's safe.
He's productive.
He was the number one quarterback two years ago.
Like you said, he was fourth this year.
There's just so much to love about what Aaron Rodgers gives you.
He's consistent.
And so, again, will he be the number one guy?
Probably not. Lamar Jackson certainly has a better opportunity to do that.
Not going to fight anybody if they want to take Lamar Jackson over Aaron
Rogers, like Chris said, it's all close, you know? So it's, uh,
it's just a matter of, you know, at this point, you know,
floor versus ceiling and, and, and some of coming off of what we just saw.
Although if you want to take a little trip down narrative street you know you could also see a
tom brady 2020 situation where he goes to a different team and just destroys things just as a
uh oh yeah i can still you know yeah i can still be the best player in football kind of thing right
you can throw a lot more oh yeah one other to keep in mind, Lamar Jackson's free agency.
He's going to get franchise tag if this plays out,
but he's his own agent.
You wonder if there might be a holdout coming.
Well, Rodgers played 16 games for the fourth straight season.
And that's right, he missed one game with COVID.
And Jackson played...
How many games did he play?
I'm sorry.
What did he play, 13?
12, but he left one with injury.
12.
So if you take his 11 healthy games,
he only played 14% of the snaps in the game.
You give him a 16-game pace compared to Rodgers,
if you just look at yards,
he scored 100 more points than Aaron Rodgers just on yards when you look at his 16 game pace
compared to the 16 games that rogers played so rogers has to crush him in touchdowns which he did
also turnovers that's one thing that kind of gets overlooked aaron rogers has 15 or 16 interceptions in his last four seasons combined.
And Jackson threw 13 of them this year in 12 games, really 11 games.
So that factors in.
The fumbles, too.
It's worth noting, in four-point-per-pass touchdown leagues,
I think Lamar Jackson was just better on a per-game basis this season.
Well, there's no way you're taking rogers over lamar jackson in four
points yeah uh no he was not no not what i see i see 20.8 for rogers 19.7 for jackson
but right you would no matter what you're taking jackson over him in four point okay so let's go
tell me if i'm right about that by the way chris Chris. I'm looking at FF today, and they've got Rodgers at 23.9,
Jackson at 24.7.
So I'm not sure what the difference is.
No, 23.9 was 2020 for him.
No.
What?
I don't know.
I'll see what I did wrong there then.
All right, let's talk about T. Higgins.
This is interesting.
Chris has got him in the top 12.
He's got him 10th.
And Jamie, you didn't have him in your top 12.
I don't know if roughly you know where you would have T. Higgins.
Top 15.
Okay.
So, yeah, you said you take him over C.D. Lamb.
Chris, obviously some other big-name players.
But make your case.
Top 10, 10th overall for T. Higgins.
I just think he's a really good player i think this is an an offense that's going to become more pass heavy than they were this
season i think that's something we've seen down the stretch and hopefully you know we'll you know
be able to really believe in it after the playoffs but it just it just seems like when you've got the
weapons that they have in the passing game, being more aggressive is the right call.
He was 14th in points per game, but that was with only six touchdowns and 110 targets.
I don't think that rate's going to be that low.
He's been really good on a per-target basis in his career, 9.2 per target.
He's a big play guy.
He can be a red zone target.
They looked for him in the red zone a lot this season.
I just think there's so much going right for him.
And he averaged 78 yards per game.
You know, that's typically top 12 wide receiver kind of production,
assuming, you know, a pretty good touchdown rate.
So I just think this is an offense you want to buy.
And T. Higgins is only – he just, oh, happy birthday, T. Higgins.
He just turned 23 years old.
But how, like, how do you rank him over C.D. Lamb, for example,
and say this is an offense you want to buy, which is true,
but he's the number two guy on that offense,
whereas Dallas is also an offense that you want to buy, right?
I mean, Dallas was the highest scoring team in
football. Under Kellen Moore, they
throw the ball a ton year after
year. And Lamb has a chance
to be the number one guy. I think he is the number one
guy. I mean, I suspect he will be. I know he
finished like crap, but so did
T. Higgins, by the way. Higgins
played 89% of the snaps in
the playoff game against
the Raiders. He had four targets. He played 83% of the snaps in the playoff game against the Raiders. He had four targets.
He played 83% of the snaps in Week 17 against the Chiefs,
and he had five targets.
You're taking two games, though,
because four of his last six in the regular season,
he was over 100 yards.
Yeah, but three of his last four,
he was 23, 62, and 10 with a combined 12 targets in those three games.
It's arbitrary end points.
It is, whatever it is, but it's also Jamar Chase appears to...
Look, I was shocked. I thought T. Higgins would have a big game.
He was one of my favorite DFS plays. He was horrible.
If there's one more game of Jamar Chase just completely alpha-ing him,
then I don't know how I could rank T. Higgins ahead of C.D. Lamb
when they're both in great offenses that are probably going to throw a lot,
and I think Lamb has a much better chance to be the number one guy.
Yeah, they'll be close for me.
I'll amend what I said earlier.
CeeDee Lamb will probably be somewhere between 15 and 20
as opposed to closer to 20, what I said earlier,
so I apologize about that.
They'll be close.
I think you just look at the way this offense operates
and just what Tee Higgins brings to the table.
Tee Higgins would be number one on any other team.
You know,
he'd probably be number one on Dallas,
you know,
and I think that speaks volumes.
That's interesting.
Huh?
That's interesting.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I mean,
look,
the Lamb is a great player.
They both are.
They both are.
They both are,
right?
If,
if,
if Lamb hadn't been taken,
what,
25 picks earlier or whatever it was,
would there be any,
like, it wouldn't be controversial at least. No, it's not, it's not been taken, what, 25 picks earlier or whatever it was, would there be any...
It wouldn't be controversial, at least.
No, it's not controversial now.
But he was taken earlier,
and he had a, I would say, better rookie season,
although Burrow got hurt.
They have had very, very good careers.
Oh, Dak got hurt, too.
Yeah, that's right.
They've both been...
But I think the the you know the the
dac numbers when you look at them and it was a 14
1400 yard pace and all that stuff he only had like a 19 percent target share
with dac healthy you know so i what it comes down
to for me is t higgins whether he's the number two in
his offense i think it's this season it was more accurate to say
he was a 1b uh he he and jamar
chase both had a 24 target share this season um seagull am was at 21 so i i just a lot of it comes
down to that is that you know the the denominator may be bigger for dallas but if the share is
smaller it's it's going to come out to pretty close to the same thing Higgins was on I don't know that better per target per game target rate right but if Chase we have Chase as a first round pick
basically we're not doing that because we think he's going to have a 24 percent target share
we're probably expecting more like a 28 percent target share for Jamar Chase it's hard because
he's such a downfield guy and it's really hard for downfield guys except for like Devante Adams
to have huge target share but isn't Higgins's downfield guy too yeah not to the same extent that chase you're
gonna see both these guys their route trees is gonna continue yeah chase is gonna be much more
than a downfield guy i i think they're both on the playoffs yes i think they're both potentially
elite play like i think they both might be top 12 well i have them ranked both as top 10 wide
receivers for fantasy and that's also like i said earlier a bet on cincinnati throwing more and leaning more into the run into the pass
and not being quite so run first like they have been for you know uh you know most of this season
at least right i actually was just reading about that i don't know if if we had mentioned i know i
never mentioned it i didn't even see it until now.
But after the 49ers game, which was a close loss for them, I believe.
Yeah, 23-26.
Yeah, so after that game, Zach Taylor just said,
screw it, we're turning them loose.
They had been protecting Burrow.
They had been running the ball more at the start of the season
and for much of the season because Burrow was They had been running the ball more at the start of the season and for much of the season because
Burrow's coming off the injury and
at that point they just said forget it.
We're turning him loose and it
wasn't just a fluke that he started throwing more.
It was a concerted effort to be much more
aggressive. They thought he was moving better
in the pocket and I do think
you can safely assume that's going to continue
into next year. Jamie, I've hogged
the spotlight here. Do you want to
weigh in on Higgins?
Are we done?
No, I think you guys said it
accurately.
You could probably end up with a
pretty good fantasy team, assuming
both guys take a step
forward. If you go running back, running back,
Higgins, Lamb, or Lamb-Higgins in some capacity.
And if you are in the Higgins camp,
you're enjoying these struggles
at the end of the season when it doesn't matter, because it's only going to drive
the price down.
Okay, Chris. I'm looking
on FF today.
Quarterback scoring.
Fantasy points per game. I'm using
ESPN scoring, which is four
point for passing touchdown, two point for
interception.
Aaron Rodgers, 20.8.
Lamar Jackson, 19.7.
Yeah, but then there was that game that Lamar Jackson left.
Oh, okay.
That's fair.
That's fair.
But 20.8 for Rodgers.
But no, we all agree that Lamar Jackson's the better player
in four point for passing touchdown leagues anyway
because that was with Lamar Jackson having the lowest touchdown rate
of his
career since his rookie season his highest interception rate his lowest rushing touchdown
rate by far like nothing really went right for lamar jackson this season and he was still number
eight and four point per passing touchdown leagues per game and what number 11 in uh six point per game. That sounds about right.
By the way,
he's got to be the third quarterback
off the board in four point, right?
Would anybody,
what would be your top three?
He'd be number three in both for me.
Jamie, four point for passing touchdown.
Yes, he should be third.
Okay.
Lamar Jackson was 12th per game
in six point.
But yeah, if you remove the game that he missed,
then he's probably close to 10 or something like that.
Am I allowed to, when we talk about Aaron Rodgers throughout the year,
am I allowed to take away week one?
Am I allowed to Azar stat that?
This is the worst game of his career.
It still happened.
Yeah, but it didn't really happen.
Yeah, it really happened.
It was so long ago.
I don't know that it really happened.
You might have missed the playoffs because of that game.
Oh, you mean as a fantasy game?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Put you 0-1?
Sure.
Okay.
Because without that game, he was on pace for 39 touchdowns,
two interceptions in 16 games.
All right.
Thanks, everybody.
That was awesome.
Thanks for listening.
Is that the biggest surprise of the season, that game?
I know everybody's going to look at the Bills and the Jaguars
and then maybe the Cardinals and the Lions. We kind of forget that game? I know everybody's going to look at the Bills and the Jaguars.
And then maybe the Cardinals and the Lions.
We kind of forget that game.
The Saints did that to a couple of teams.
But they did it to that team, though. And the Bucs.
How many losses did the Packers have?
Three?
Four?
They lost the last game of the year or no?
The Packers lost to the Lions in Week 18.
They lost three games all year.
And only one with Rodgers.
Yeah.
Basically.
Right, one with Rodgers.
And they limited...
The Bucs 9-0 win was probably up there,
limiting Tom Brady to 151 passing yards.
They were just taking out everybody on the team.
Godwin, Evans, Fournette.
That season opening game, that's the most surprising.
38-3.
That's the most surprising game of the season.
I was saying Bill's Jags all season.
Was it five touchdowns on 18 passes for Jameis in that game?
Yeah, something like that.
It's not that.
I mean, like, that could happen.
Like, that should have been a shootout.
What that defense did to Aaron Rodgers is nuts.
Yeah.
I said they lost.
Okay, no, they lost four games because the game.
I'm sorry.
They lost to Minnesota with Rodgers playing a full game.
They lost to the Saints.
They lost to the Chiefs without Rodgers,
and they lost to the Lions in Week 18 with Rodgers playing half the game,
basically.
Right. Well, that is it for today. Rodgers and they lost to the Lions in week 18 with Rodgers playing half the game, basically. Yeah.
Well,
that is it for today.
Got one and a half of those losses.
Yes,
absolutely.
I would like to look up the score at halftime because if the Packers were
winning,
then I'm just going to assign all of the losses,
both of the losses fully to Jordan Love.
Yeah.
The,
the,
the Lions came back,
right?
Yeah.
They were losing at halftime.
Okay. Jordan Love gets two losses, not one and a half. It is official. Oh, wait, no, no, right yeah they were losing at halftime okay jordan love
gets two losses not one and a half it is official oh wait no i'm sorry lions were up at halftime oh
come on chris i'm a liar you can't trust anything i say all right we're out of here thanks for
watching and listening everybody we'll talk to you tomorrow with some quarterback reflections
from the 2021 season get losing track of my ears and make sure you subscribe to fantasy football
today in five make sure you vote for us in that link that i'm putting in the episode description for Jamie and Chris. I'm Adam.