Fantasy Football Today - Rankings Disputes! (03/21 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: March 21, 2022

Is Marquise Brown a stud with Lamar Jackson at QB, or just an inconsistent WR3? Dave and Heath debate Brown to start the show. Then we're on to the news and notes (11:15) as we react to the Robert Woods trade, TE signings and offensive line upgrades ... Dave has Jalen Hurts (20:33) 14th, Heath has him 8th. Dave has Nick Chubb (26:00) 9th in PPR, Heath has him 18th. Let's see who can make the better case for their guys ... We finish our rankings disputes with Cordarrelle Patterson (35:00), the Bucs WRs (40:40) and DeAndre Hopkins (43:10). What does Hopkins have left in the tank at this point? ... Your emails at [e-mail] 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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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Beck. Monday morning, time for some rankings disputes. And we're going to stray, I think, away from the hot names of free agency and the trades and all that and talk about some players that we have not discussed in a while. Are you high or are you low on DeAndre Hopkins? How about Marquise Brown? How about Cordero Patterson? He's in the news. He's back with the Atlanta Falcons. We will talk about it

right now on Fantasy Football Today. I'm Adam Azer with Dave Richard and Heath Cummings, and Heath is going to kick it off with an Azer stat, which I think he likes more than I do these days. What do you got for us, Heath? Yes, if you take out week 14, because obviously Lamar Jackson only played 10 snaps. So why would we count that? We shouldn't. In Marquise Brown's last 17 games with Lamar Jackson, he has produced 91 catches, 1163 yards, 12 touchdowns on 140 targets. Super duper star. He was wide receiver 11 per game on the year when Jackson got hurt. When did Jackson

get hurt? Week 14. After week 13, Marquise Brown was wide receiver 11 on the year. Where was he after week 10? Because that's when he got hurt, and when he came back after that, he wasn't nearly as effective in two games with Lamar Jackson.

Yeah, I'm looking at the game log now. His struggles started in that week 10 game where he had six catches for 37 yards on 13 targets. Basically, week 10, 12, and 13. He missed week 11. 10, 12, 13. He had about 140 yards on 30 targets. He really struggled.

And then Jackson got hurt, and the struggles were even worse. Despite getting good target volume. Yes. But it wasn't going downfield, as I recall. ADOT is kind of a thing for him. Yes. We learned that last year. Didn't we learn it in different ways?

It went down in 2020 2020 and he started playing better and then it went down in 2021 and he started playing worse. So I don't know what to make of that, Dave. Well, wait, I don't think we should say he started playing worse last year. He was like Lamar Jackson got hurt. Yeah, but still, I mean, you're looking at 45 yards on. He was terrible. Eight targets, 28 yards, yards 14 targets 43 yards nine targets 44 yards regardless of who was there and like I said the last three games that he played with Lamar Jackson I don't have the numbers right

in front of me it's about 140 yards on 30 targets no touchdowns but very bad production in his last eight games, three of those with Lamar Jackson. His ADOT through week 10 was 13.4, so sky high. That is a huge number, and he was doing really well with it. Do I have the fantasy points per game? We just talked about it was a huge thing. He was wide receiver points through week 10. Yeah, so he's flying high. He's playing downfield.

He's getting a ton of targets. He's a number one fantasy receiver. And then he gets hurt in week 10. And after that, his ADOT shriveled from weeks 12 and 13. Remember, that's still with Lamar Jackson. His ADOT was under eight, 7.9. That's not great. And his fantasy production was brutal after that.

Yeah. He's interesting because he's given us uh i guess half seasons of being great uh can i can i give you the set that really means something to me yeah and this this is going to cover a lot of the ravens this isn't just about marquise brown last year they threw the 10th most of any team in the national football league 63 63.1% pass. That is crazy high for them, considering that they were dead last in pass rate in 2020 and 2019, under 50% each of those years.

And that just tells me that this is a team, now that they're going to get their running backs healthy, Lamar Jackson's going to come back. They're not, I don't think they're going to try and become what other teams in the NFL are becoming. I think they want to stick to what's been tried and true for the Ravens for the last decade plus, which is running the football, playing tough defense, taking advantage of Lamar Jackson's rushing skills, and not forcing Lamar to throw downfield by choice.

They'll be balanced, I guess, until they have to throw downfield. And that makes me worry about that target volume staying high for Marquise Brown. And I also wonder, and I talked about this during last season, I wonder if the coaching staff has kind of had it with Marquise Brown constantly getting banged up. And maybe there's going to be something to that where maybe they lower just how much that Lamar Jackson throws to him. And they try and bring out more in what Mark Andrews has been able to do. And Andrews has always had that connection with Lamar Jackson. And Rashad Bateman is going to take a step in his second year, at least theoretically. And the draft hasn't happened yet. Are they going to add another wide receiver? So I'm a little nervous about Marquise Brown jumping back into that.

Forget about top 12, top 20 type of fray at wide receiver. Yeah. Heath has him 23rd. Dave has him 33rd. That was in full PPR. That was one of our, one of our rankings disputes,

which we more or less covered Heath than anything else. It just seems like you're, you're buying into Marquise Brown plus Lamar Jackson equals good. Well, and it's not just that, like if you just factor in those, that terrible second half of the season, he finished the year at wide receiver 21 per game last year. I don't think they will throw as much as they did after Lamar got hurt,

but they talked all offseason last year about how they wanted to throw the ball more, that they wanted to be more aggressive offensively. So I don't think we should also expect them to go back to what they were before last year in terms of run-pass split. I think they'll throw more than they did before 2021, and they will run more than they did last year because they'll have good running backs. But I don't really, like I didn't see anything that suggests that Rashad Bateman is a legitimate threat to Marquise Brown.

And they were in first place when Lamar Jackson got hurt, so I don't think you can make the argument, hey, they missed the playoffs, they have to get back to the run. They probably can be successful with a more balanced offense. It would be so interesting to see how this whole universe looks

if Lamar Jackson didn't get hurt last year. Do the Bengals even go to the Super Bowl? Do they even go to the playoffs? I don't even know. Steelers wouldn't have made the playoffs. Ravens would have finished ahead of them. The Bengals probably would have been playing

opening week on the road, I assume. Instead of at home. Maybe. Maybe. And then where do Jackson, Brown, and Andrews all finish if Jackson finishes out the year? It's really a great fantasy what-if right now. Yeah.

Yeah, it really would be. Okay, so that was our first rankings debate. Let's give a big hooray and a congratulations. Well, a premature congratulations to Daniel Grindstaff, who is in first place in our bracket challenge. But Schrager probably should have told me this before he gave me that note. He's not going to win. He has Kentucky as his national champion.

Oh, you're just taunting him. Yeah, sorry. So, Glenn. Looks like Glenn Albano. Albano. Albano. Captain Glenn Albano. Yeah, sure.

You have Houston. Are they still in it? They are still in it. Thanks for watching. I forgot. Did they beat Illinois? They beat Illinois by 15. Right.

Okay, so he has the best chance of winning right now. Can you name any other teams that are in the Sweet 16, Adam? You know what? We are one game. We are two outcomes away from Miami and Kansas playing in the Elite Eight. All right. They're in the Sweet 16, both playing on Friday. We could have a very confrontational Sunday here amongst the podcasters on this show today.

Very excited. Oh, my gosh. We beat the piss out of Auburn. It was awesome. I'm happy for you. We can't turn this into a college basketball podcast or even worse, a Miami Hurricanes podcast, but it's really the first game in a long while

where they played a complete game buzzer to buzzer. Yeah. Every game they play is like a one to three point game. Every game. It's true. It's true. And then they play Auburn. They've had games this year where they're down 20 at halftime, and it ends up being like a one to three point game. Every game. It's true. It's true. And then they play Auburn and smash them. They've had games this year where they're down 20 at halftime.

And it ends up being like a one point game. Oh. And you know what? We can't turn this into a college basketball podcast. But we do have one of those in the CBS Sports Network. We got 16 teams left. So if you want the latest previews, picks, and bracket breakdowns, listen to Gary Parish and Matt Norlander on the Ion College Basketball Podcast.

Gary and Matt will also be recording after each night of the tournament action, recapping games instantly. For the best March Madness analysis, listen and follow the Ion College Basketball Podcast anywhere you're listening to this one. And they're great. I mean, they really do.

This is an amazing podcast and one of our oldest. So check it out. And I listen to it every year around this time. It helps me fill out my brackets for sure. Where are you guys in the full disclosure? I did not use their advice for the, for the bracket challenge and I'm in the 950th place or something, but in my per and my family league, I am in second place and I'm kind of crushing it. And that was all thanks to them. Where are you guys in our bracket challenge? I am currently in 95th. Bit of a struggle for me this year.

But you're usually the best of a bunch of us. Oh, man, that's really good. 95th. I'm in 1039th. And I'm about 950th. I don't remember. I'm actually in first place in my family league. And the greatest thing is happening. My wife is also tied for first place.

And she is so into this tournament. She is watching nonstop. Does she call it a tournament? I can't say the word. No, she says it right. She is watching nonstop. She was cursing at the TV last night. It has been, I've just never been more in love.

It's amazing. The same thing is happening at my house with my wife, who's never been crazy into basketball. And she's just, I think it's because there are so many upsets and no one's really any good in college basketball. And so I think casuals definitely like the fact that there are so many upsets and you know the underdog story is always an appreciated story no matter what it's been a great tournament so far i'm looking forward to the conclusion it's the only word you could say that makes you sound tough. Thank you. Thank you, Dave.

All right, here are your news and notes. Yeah. The Rams gave Matthew Stafford a big contract extension, $135 million guaranteed, up to $160 million over four years. And he does not have Robert Woods on his team anymore. Robert Woods is on the Tennessee Titans. They got him for a 2023 sixth round pick. They also added Austin Hooper. Let's talk about Robert Woods here. Robert Woods

or Alan Robinson? Robinson. Robinson for me. Okay. Robert Woods. Oh boy. Is he a top 40 wide receiver? No. I think I had him 48th or 49th. He's in the Chase Claypool, Rashad Bateman range. I'm 57th. Wow. Coming off a knee injury, going to a team that is definitely going to be run heavy as the number two receiver. And the coaches love him for his blocking the other technique that he brings to the field i think his ceiling is what

corey davis gave you a few years back and i don't even know if he can get that much so i'm going to let you draft him let's talk about this knee injury thing because i feel like i don't really care that much about torn acls i do for be Beckham. That happened mid-February. But maybe does age matter? Because Woods is 30. How much are we penalizing Godwin, for example? Are you factoring in Godwin as much as you're factoring in the ACL for Robert Woods?

Is it selective? I think it's more than just the ACL. It's where they're playing. Well, yeah, sure. But I'm just specifically asking about torn ACLs. We do have a number of relevant fantasy receivers coming back from a torn ACL. Sure. Gallup had an ACL or an Achilles?

ACL. Yeah, right. So Gallup, Godwin, Woods, Beckham. And we have to decide what it means for us. So what does it mean? Age matters to me um i think it's harder the older you get i mean we all know that when things hurt they hurt longer and we don't recover quite as well um but also for the most part i'm with you adam i just don't i didn't penalize woods that much okay how do you

say we're old without saying we're old um i i think it's got to be on a case-by-case basis guys we we just don't know yet we can be optimistic because the acl injury isn't as bad as it was 15 years ago but are you factoring it into any players ranking currently yes beckham because it happened so late in the year and And maybe it's had in the past. It doesn't have anything to do with his ACL. What happened? Woods. No, it's part of the reason for me shipping Woods to the bottom of my rankings.

It's more about being the number two receiver in Tennessee. I'm trying to think who tore an ACL in 2020, and the only one I can think of is Cortland Sutton. Seemed to have somewhat of a slow recovery, as we recall, right? I don't remember a slow recovery. I remember him playing well when Judy was out, and then when Judy came back, his numbers evaporated. That is true, but I do remember...

Oh, well, Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow tore his ACL and he... It's different for quarterbacks. It's always been different for quarterbacks. Okay, but he did... Like I said, they kind of protected him for more than half the season. Okay. All right, let's move on.

So what about Ryan Tannehill and A.J. Brown, by the way? Any impact on their rankings? Nope. I moved Tannehill up over Tonga Vailoa. That's it. Austin Hooper to the Titans, as mentioned. Robert Tunyon. How are you going to say his last name like that?

Hooper. Hey, Hooper. To the Titans. And then Robert Tunyon back to the Packers. Knee injury. And Gerald Everett to the Chargers. Two years, 12 million. Who's your favorite there? Hooper? Tunyon back to the Packers. Knee injury. And Gerald Everett to the Chargers. Two years, 12 million. Who's your favorite there?

Hooper, Tunyon, or Everett on the Chargers? I'm going to take Hayden Hurst of the Cincinnati Bears. He tight ends. Yeah, he tight ends. That's who I'm going with. But they're all stream worthy. Who do they play in the first couple weeks of the season? Who are you comfortable with? If you completely whiff on tight end,

and if we're including other tight ends that have changed teams or have had, not necessarily changed teams, but have had situations change, Albert, Okwu, Abunam would be ahead of all of them. Yeah, I don't think any of these three will be in my top 20 tight ends. That would be... They're barely in mine. Hooper, Tunyon, and Everett.

All right, two running back notes. Rashad Penny to the Seahawks. Back to the Seahawks one year, $5.75 million. And Cordaro Patterson back to the Falcons two years, $10.5 million. I don't know if I'm going to get to this note when we talk about Cordaro Patterson. And I got to look up the exact numbers, but I want to tell you how many plays the Atlanta Falcons ran in the last three games of the season when Patterson was so bad.

I couldn't believe this. They ran in the last four games of the season 58, which is low, and then 45, 50, and 48 plays. In their last three games, they ran 50 or fewer plays and had the ball for fewer than 24 minutes in all three of those games. I don't know that that's necessarily relevant to today's discussion, but Patterson was really bad.

They barely had the ball in those games. Anyway, Penny, back to the Seahawks. Patterson, back to the Falcons. Who are you drafting first? I will draft Rashad Penny first. I will definitely draft Penny first if Chris Carson's unable to

make a recovery, but if Chris Carson's there to start a training camp, I'm not. I'll probably go Patterson. Okay. We're going to get more into him a little bit later. We got some offensive line news. The Bengals signed Lyle Collins. They've now got, that's a former right tackle for the Cowboys.

Three years, 30 million. That's three upgrades on the offensive line for the Bengals. So we love it. Patriots were able to re-sign right tackle Trent Brown. And that's pretty much

all I got on the offensive line. Yeah. The Falcons still taking trade calls for Matt Ryan, according to Ian Rappaport. The Panthers brought back cornerback Dante Jackson. The Eagles signed Boston Scott. So they did end up bringing him and Fletcher Cox back.

Fletcher Cox starting defensive tackle. Boston Scott gets a one-year deal for $1.75 million. Does it matter? Yeah, when they play the Giants, it'll matter. He puts up numbers against the Giants.'ll matter he just he puts up numbers against the Giants everybody else no it's so frustrating

because doing projections and just like looking at what these guys have done I think initially I actually had Boston Scott projected for more touchdowns than Miles Sanders because he's scored more touchdowns than Miles Sanders I think two of the past three seasons. I don't know.

This is probably the best outcome for Miles Sanders. I'm still not sure how excited I'm going to be to draft him as a number two running back. Would you take him in round five? No. I wouldn't feel good about round five. Round six, I'd be okay. For Sanders?

Yeah. Remember, the offense, though, was kind of a two-back offense. And for the last, I want to say, ten games of the year, and they were averaging about 30 running back carries. I don't have, I didn't do the, I just remember this from doing previews late in the year. But you could have a situation where Boston Scott's getting eight to ten carries, something like that, if they go back i would expect we see more from gainwell

this year but same we'll see yeah give him give him a chance all right uh that's about it i guess the only other interesting note was jacob johnson the new fullback for the raiders was on the patriots last year now he's one of the paths going over to the raiders, was on the Patriots last year. Now he's one of the paths going over to the Raiders. He said that the Patriots no longer have his position on the roster. So perhaps they will open it up a little bit more. They have someone visiting today. Fournette. Leonard Fournette.

Okay. I think Bill Belichick's always been a big Fournette guy, right? I think I'd read that in the past, but why would they have him there? Yeah, that sounds messy. Wouldn't be good for fantasy. No. Well, we've got a new podcast

that we are welcoming to the CBS Sports family. In Soccer We Trust covers the beautiful game, or soccer, as we like to call it, from a U.s perspective join our hosts and former usmnt teammates jimmy conrad charlie davies and heath pierce as they bring you a mix of expertise and passion on all things soccer in the united states download and follow in soccer we trust on apple podcast spotify or wherever else you listen to this podcast. How about two Heaths on the CBS family of podcasts now? Yeah.

I don't really know what to do because I don't think we have. I don't know how many Adams we have. I think we have one Adam. We have two Daves. Yep. We got Samson and Richard. Well, he's a David. Yeah.

Sometimes you are too. Only when my parents call me or when my wife is mad at me. Well, he's a David. Yeah. Sometimes you are, too. Only when my parents call me or when my wife is mad at me. Really? Sometimes Jamie calls me David. What does Nando call you? All right, anyway, rankings disputes. Here we go.

Dave has Jalen Hurts. David. Back to the Eagles here. Jalen Hurts, you have him 14th, Dave. Heath has him 8th. Dave, first word. Jalen Hurts, 14th for you, 8th for Heath. When the Eagles went run heavy in the second half of the year, literally an 8-game spread, he had 6 passing touchdowns, 5 rushing touchdowns. That's good. 18.1 fantasy points per

game. I like a lot of quarterbacks better. Hurts, for me, is in that group of quarterbacks that. Hurts for me is in that group of quarterbacks that I'm willing to wait for on draft day. And that group is expanded to maybe five names with Rogers in there. Now that he doesn't have Devonta Adams, Derek Carr is now in there. Now that he does have Devonta Adams, I think Burrow makes that list. Stafford is in that group. And so I'm looking to draft other positions early on. And then by the time I get to maybe round eight, I'm going to start looking for a quarterback.

This is in one quarterback leagues, obviously. Completely changes in two quarterbacks. But I think he'll be good. I just don't know if he's got game-breaker ceiling like we saw in the first half of 2021 when the Eagles were losing games but throwing more. I think the fact that he's shown you game-breaker ceiling, as Dave just alluded to, insinuates that he has it.

He was QB 11 last year, I think, on a per-game basis. And yes, there was a split when he threw a bunch and when he didn't throw. And there's also that weird Lions game in the middle where he played three-fourths of the game because they beat him 44 to six but i dropped rogers below him because no adams i've dropped dac below him because no cooper and we've talked about what i expect in terms of regression from burrow now there's a couple more guys that are right in that same range i just think hertz has thrown 580 passes in the NFL, 7.2, 7.3 yards per attempt. There's still some upside for him to improve as a passer.

There's some upside in terms of passing touchdowns, and he's going to give you that floor as a rusher of 800 yards and eight touchdowns. I think we are probably split on this because of, well, correct me if I'm wrong, I mean, maybe David's expecting more of a run-heavy approach than Heath is? Yeah. I think the Eagles proved it that, how did

they make the playoffs last year? By running the football a lot. Hertz does that too. Look, the reason why Miles Sanders didn't score any touchdowns last year was in part because Jalen Hurts was stealing them at the goal line. He's like the new age Cam Newton. One of these years, he's going to have a blow-up year and be the league MVP, assuming he continues to start for Philadelphia.

But if he's going to cost them games, weren't the Eagles kind of involved in trying to get Russell Wilson and kind of involved trying to get Deshaun Watson? Are they completely sold on Jalen Hurts? I think they have to be at this point because there's nobody else that they can acquire to take him off the field. But I am a little concerned that if he gets off to a rough start, do they turn to Minshew, who's technically still on the team, or whoever the backup quarterback is?

And if he's not playing, he's not getting you fantasy points. And again, didn't even average 20 fantasy points per game when they were doing well running the football and not putting so much on Jalen Hurts' plate as a passer. Makes me a little bit nervous. Yeah, any team that is that extreme in terms of their run-pass split, in my projections, always gets progressed back a little bit towards the mean towards the the average and so i do have him with i think i've got him at 30 attempts per game he was at 28 for the year last year um but i i don't think it's going to be a drastic change i just think the odds are he's going to be better than 3.7 touchdown rate and he's probably going to improve a little bit as a passer we know how many attempts per game he had in his

last eight? If you don't have it in front of you, I'll look it up. Yes, 23.8 pass attempts per game. If you remove the first two games from that stretch where he threw 14 times and 17 times, it was 26.5 pass attempts per game in the last six games. One of those was the Detroit game I was

talking about. No, no. I removed that. No, Detroit was when this whole run... Yeah. I was saying one of the games you're removing was the Detroit game I was talking about. Oh, yeah, yeah. I removed that one. There was 14 pass attempts,

and then he had 17 pass attempts the following week. Now, you may have heard, if you were listening carefully, I said, when we're talking about Boston Scott, Philadelphia's run-heavy approach, I said 10 games. Dave said eight. They're both right,

because it was eight. It was 10 games total, but it was eight, I said 10 games. Dave said eight. They're both right because it was eight. It was 10 games total, but it was eight Jalen Hurts games. Two of those games were started by Gardner. So just wanted to clarify that. And I'll give you the numbers. First seven games of the year, he averaged 34.6 pass attempts per game. That was nuts. He was the number two quarterback.

Well, I'll give you per game. He was number three in four-point, number six in six-point in the first seven games of the year before they changed their offense. After that, he was 10th. He was actually 10th per game in four-point and ninth in six-point. He wasn't that bad.

And then the last thing in Hurst's favor, I'd say, he got this high ankle sprain against the Giants, and then he missed the game, and then the running totals went way down. His last three games of the year, he rushed for 38 yards, seven yards, and 44 yards. And before that, you were talking about routinely around 60 yards rushing when they changed their offense.

Then he had the high ankle sprain, and then the rushing numbers plummeted. So there's really a lot to consider here, and I think it's an interesting range because you have him eighth, Heath 14th, and Jamie has him 11th, right in the middle. So all right, those are just some numbers to crunch on there for Jalen Hurts. Let's go to our next guy, Nick Chubb. Heath, you can have the first word on Chubb. You have him 18th, and this is in full PPR. And Dave has him ninth. And I know the receiving totals are always a concern.

But would you like to know, Heath? Full PPR? If you just want to look at the last two seasons or you can look at the last three. He only played half of 2019 with Kareem Hunt. He's actually been top 12 per game all three seasons in full PPR. You have him 18th.

It's a math problem for me. They had 485 rush attempts last year. I don't think they traded for Deshaun Watson to run the ball as often as they pass it. So I've, I've cut them down about two rush attempts per game. I also have Watson with three more rush attempts per game than the Browns quarterbacks had last year and Kareem hunt missed half of last year. So you're talking about a running back who doesn't do much in the passing game. He's always thrived because he's wildly efficient, and he gets 16, 17 carries per game.

Now we've seen stretches. I believe the second half three years ago when he was playing with Hunt, he didn't score hardly any touchdowns. And I don't think he was quite that good. I can tell you what he was playing with hunt, he didn't score hardly any touchdowns. And I don't think he was quite that good. Um, I can tell you, we saw a stretch last year where he wasn't really scoring touchdowns. Kareem hunt was getting the carries inside the five yard line.

If he has another great touchdown year, like he did in 2020, then I think he could still be a top 12 running back. But I do think that he's got a little bit of a volume crunch. If the Browns go a little bit more past heavy Watson, takes some of the rush attempts and Kareem Hunt's there for a full year. Yeah. I'll tell you what he was real quick in that stretch. You alluded to the last eight games of 2019. That was when Kareem Hunt returned from suspension. He only scored two touchdowns. He did have the second most carries in the NFL in that stretch

behind Mixon, but he was 12th. I don't have per game, but he was 12th in non PPR and he was 16th in full PPR with 11 catches and two touchdowns. So that terrible touchdown luck there, but he still was 12th and non PPR 16th in full PPR in that stretch. All right, Dave, you're you have him ninth.

Nick Chubb. I'm ninth. It's absolutely in pencil. And the reason why I have him ninth is because I feel like he's safe there. Ahead of DeAndre Swift, who does catch a lot of passes, but I'm worried about him staying healthy. We could say the same thing about any running back that we talk about. But it's a factor with Swift.

It was last year. I haven't come around on him still, and it's been over a year. Javante is currently behind him. We're a week plus into free agency, and Javante is still the only man standing in Denver. If that keeps up, then he's easy to put ahead of Nick Chubb. Gibson, Montgomery, Jacobs, the Packers guys, Saquon, James Conner, they're all behind Nick Chubb for now.

I like the fact that he's finished, like you said, Adam, top 12 in PPR points per game each of the last two seasons. I believe he was eighth in 2020 and has a lot to do with touchdowns. And yes, they got Deshaun Watson and I don't think that they're going to try and stay run pass equal with Deshaun Watson there. They're going to pass a little bit more, but I think his efficiency has room to grow with Deshaun Watson as his quarterback and Amari Cooper joining the passing game there. And I think about the November and the December games when it gets cold there and the wind is blowing off of the lake, and those are going to be Nick Chubb games.

And I think Chubb will step up then. And if Deshaun is suspended to begin the 2021 season, Those are going to be Nick Chubb games too because they're going to not have Deshaun Watson on the field. So for now, it's just a sense that this guy has produced PPR, non-PPR. He's been fine. And a second-round pick in a full PPR league, I don't have a problem with you taking Nick Chubb. By the time we get to August,

I don't know if I'm going to take him where I have him ranked right now, which is 17th overall. Could be closer to 24th overall. But that's based on what other teams do at the running back position. I looked at the first five games of the year when both Hunt and Chubb were healthy. And it was pretty interesting. Kareem Hunt scored more touchdowns.

I think, Heath, you just kind of mentioned this, but there was... Sorry, I just want to get the numbers. Okay. So Chubb was 5th in non-PPR. Hunt was 7th. And Chubb was 12th in full PPR. Hunt was 6th.

Per game, Chubb was 14th in full PPR. But this is only five games. But he was on pace. He still had so many carries. He was on pace for 306 carries. Kareem Hunt was on pace for 187 carries. But inside the five-yard line, I looked at goal-to-go situations

inside the five-yard line in those first five games. Nick Chubb had 10 touches, and Kareem Hunt had three. What are you laughing at? Nothing. Just a little too statty? I wasn't paying attention to a word you just said.

Okay. Well, Nick Chubb had 10 touches inside the five-yard line in goal-to-go situations, and Kareem Hunt had three, is what I said, in the first five games of the season when they both played. Hunt did a lot with those. Scored a touchdown, I think, on all three of those touches.

At least two. Anyway, I don't know. You know, if the touches go down, it'll be a concern. Also, is this a concern for you? Does this matter? Deshaun Watson, three seasons, three full seasons as a starter in Houston.

The Houston running back scored seven, eight, and seven rushing touchdowns. The full season they combined for seven, eight, and seven. What is this? Stop talking. You talk too much. What is this? And Des. You talk too much. What is this?

And Deshaun Watson. Bye. So that's 22. All right, I'm all thrown off. Three full seasons in Houston. The Texans running back scored 22 rushing touchdowns. Deshaun Watson scored 15. Does that matter?

I mean, it's part of what I said with Deshaun Watson running twice as often as the Browns quarterbacks, and I think did last year. I think Deshaun Watson probably, if over a full season, would project for more than twice as many rushing touchdowns as they had. So, yeah, if they're going to run for fewer touchdowns and Watson's going to have more touchdowns than the quarterbacks prior did, I would think that would negatively impact Chubb. Heath, why did you have J.K. Dobbins ahead of Chubb? I'm more optimistic about Dobbins catching passes than I am Chubb. But I mean, part of the Ravens' change in offensive philosophy last year was throwing to their running backs

more than they had in the two prior years with Lamar Jackson at quarterback. And that was when they were throwing to Devontae Freeman. They spent, I don't know if you remember early in camp and in the offseason, we were getting highlight reels of J.K. Dobbins making one-handed catches. They were talking about how they wanted to get him involved in the passing game. I'm optimistic that he'll be more involved in the passing game than Chubb. Do you have a number on that?

How many targets per game Lamar was throwing to his running backs? I've got a percentage in terms of the percentage of passes that Baltimore threw to their running backs. And it was... Okay. I'm sorry. Can I make a guess on what it was? It was about 15%.

I was going to guess 17%, and I would have said that seems even high for Baltimore, and that's low. You want right around 20% when it comes to running back. They were below 10% the two prior seasons. So it's a step up. I don't know if that necessarily would equate to 50 catches for... Oh, nowhere close,

but 30 catches would give him an edge on Chubb. Yeah. But why wouldn't you let Dave? I don't know if I believe that. That was, you know, he just said, not fun.

Dave says, let me guess. And just tell him, that's just, that's like see results. That's just not fun. All right, let's take a break here on fantasy football today.

When we come back, we'll talk with Harold Patterson, the Bucks wide receivers and Deandre Hopkins after this on fantasy football today. What does possible sound like for your business? the Bucks wide receivers and DeAndre Hopkins after this on Fantasy Football Today. and the ability to reach further with access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash business platinum.

Cordaro Patterson is back with the Atlanta Falcons. And we don't know exactly what his eligibility will be, but last year he was a top really so dependent on the format, but he was a top 12 running back in both formats. Not per game, but full season. And he was 8th in non-PPR at

wide receiver, but 19th in PPR at wide receiver. And he's just a very unusual player. Okay, let's see where we're at in the rankings with Cordero Patterson. Dave has him 35th. Heath has him 24th. He's a starter for you right now. Low-end starter, Heath? I don't want this to be true, but

it is. And it's mostly because the Falcons just aren't doing anything. Like, they went and signed Damian Williams and brought back Cordero Patterson. I think right now he is the most likely guy to lead the team in rush attempts and probably the most likely guy to be second to Kyle Pitts in terms of targets. And the one thing he's been pretty consistently for a running back

is very efficient on his targets. That's because he's lining up out wide and playing receivers sometimes. So yeah, he might only rush for 600 yards like he did last year, but if you catch 50 passes for 500 yards, it's pretty hard in PPR to not be a top 24 running back. Not for Dave.

I hate it. I'm sorry. No, no, yeah, I was setting you up. Go ahead. I hated the last seven games of his season. He was money for the first chunk of the year, but his last seven games, on not even 10 PPR points per game,

he had one really good game in there and then just flopped in the fantasy playoffs. I wonder if that was because he wasn't used to taking on as much work as he had, and he's a 30-year-old. And Arthur Smith definitely seems to be a zero-RB truther at the helm of the Falcons' offense. I still don't believe that they're done addressing the running back position.

I don't know how you put Damian Williams, Cordero Patterson, and I guess Mike Davids is still there. And you put all three of them back there and you say, okay, we'll just make do with those guys. Putting him in a position in my rankings where I would draft him as a top 70 player just doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel right. I would wait until the pick is meaningless for me to go and get Cordero

Patterson. And for me, that would be after round eight. Not saying that picks round eight and beyond are meaningless, but there's less risk involved, less draft capital involved. If you miss with Cordero Patterson, you're drafting him based on his one great year. It's not going to hurt you too bad. And you don't have to use him as a, you don't have to draft them as a starter for your fantasy team. So again, Dave has him 35th. Heath has Patterson 24th. How would you rank Cordaro Patterson

with Raheem Mostert and Chase Edmonds? Edmonds, Patterson, Mostert. I have that the same way, but Edmonds is 34th, Patterson's 35th, and Mostert's 37th. You can put all three of those guys in the zero RB bin.

I need to hear some of Dave's's top 30 wide running backs i think i need to go to the rankings page and see who he has in the top 30 well number one is jonathan taylor number two is derrick henry no i'm not gonna you want me to go through all 30 we can make this a two-hour podcast no no uh aj dylan's in my top 30. Chris Carson is 30th. I've got my top 30. Okay. Where do you have

Miles Sanders? I think, I looked at some of the difference. I think Damian Harris is a difference. You have him 29th, Heath. Travis Etienne, you have him 31st.

Dave has him 20th. You have pretty similar top 30s, honestly. Just Patterson. It's like, and Edmonds. Well, and Edmonds, too. And Edmonds, yeah. Where do pretty similar top 30s, honestly. Just Patterson. And Edmonds. Well, and Edmonds, too. And Edmonds, yeah. Where do you have Edmonds, Heath?

Like 25, 24, 25? Keep going. I feel like I've seen enough of him to know that he's just not going to be... I wouldn't draft him to be anything more than a mild flex. What I'm looking at here... Or a zero RB to begin the year. I think it's fair to say with Patterson, too. You have Edmonds 23 and Patterson 24

from what I'm seeing. There we go. And Dave has Edmonds 34 and Patterson 35. Oh, okay. Don't forget, so Dave said, I don't know what happened in those last seven games. It's two things. The last three games were really bad,

but I already talked about this. They ran 50 or fewer plays in those three games. They had the ball for 24 or fewer minutes, fewer than 24 minutes in those three games. And just like Jalen Hurts, high ankle sprain. Remember, he got hurt against Dallas. Then he missed a week. And I don't know what to make of it

because the first two games back, he was actually good. But after that, he was terrible. And his receiving totals are really what dropped. Okay, it was it wasn't so much the rushing, it was part of it. But in the first eight games, he had he had 38 catches. In the last eight games, he had 14. And in the first day, and the routes weren't that different. He ran 20 more routes in the first eight games that he did in the last eight games. 138 compared to 108, but just was not getting targeted.

I think three targets per game after that ankle sprain. Again, I don't know if that was it or if it's just the guy coming back down to earth, but that did happen. All right, let's go to the Tampa Bay wide receivers. Godwin and Evans. Dave likes Evans better. He has him 10th.

Heath likes Godwin better. So right now, Dave, both of you guys like both of them quite a bit. Dave has Godwin 14th and Evans 10th. And Heath has Godwin 9th and Evans 17th. Dave, in full PPR, why do you like Mike Evans more than Chris Godwin? The touchdowns from Tom Brady certainly stand out.

I think that can help make up some of the catch differential between those two. And the fact that Evans is healthy compared to Godwin, and we're just not sure that Godwin will be cleared and ready to go for week one. I think he could be, but I almost think that the addition of Russ Gage is to help protect them in case Godwin is not ready to go week one. This is the simplest one of all for me to explain. I don't project any wide receivers over a 7% touchdown rate because a 7% touchdown rate is pretty insane for receivers. And it's also Mike Evans' career rate, despite the fact he's scored on about 14%

of his targets the past two years i just i don't believe that he's going to continue to score the highest rate ever for a wide receiver over the past two years 17 game pace godwin about 20 more targets 31 more catches 200 more receiving yards it's just been that mike evans has scored an insane amount of touchdowns okay i'm just going to tell you this then. If Chris Godwin is in training camp, ready to go, preseason, he's good, maybe he doesn't play, but whatever. Ready for week one.

Full PPR. I think he could be wide receiver. I think he will be wide receiver six for me. I don't have any problems with that at all. What do you have, ninth? I think I have a ninth, and I think maybe in the projections it's even higher than that, but I lowered him a couple spots

because of concern about the first week or two. He finished seventh in PPR points per game last year. So I'm sure that's got a lot to do with why you've ranked him where you've ranked him, and it makes perfect sense. Yeah, in the last three years, he's been second, second 15th and i had him sixth in points per game so sixth or seventh in ppr yeah for me it's i don't know if christian wilkerson is in is in your points per game dave but that's what it was i i remember that okay yeah so and then in some

depending how far down you go cyril grayson also shows up and i always remove him in the points per game discussion but okay the then i'll go to our last one here deandre hopkins i think he took antonio brown out of there and that's why no i didn't no no then he should be seventh and whatever sixth or seventh deandre hopkins 16th for dave 24th for heath dave you and i, I think, are Team Hopkins. You know, we can't sit here and say Rondell Moore is a winner without Christian Kirk and A.J. Green, a free agent. Rondell Moore is a winner.

DeAndre Hopkins is a winner, too. Okay? And you've got him 16th, Dave. I am on Team Dave here, as Heath has him 23rd or 4th. Go ahead on DeAndre Hopkins, Dave. I am on team Dave here as Heath has him 23rd or 4th. Go ahead on DeAndre Hopkins, Dave. He's just like Mike Evans. Should get plenty of touchdowns. I think Kyler Murray

is also going to be on team DeAndre Hopkins and at the rate that free agency is going, did the Cardinals do anything to impress you as far as replacing Kirk or replacing A.J. Green? I know Rondell's going to get a role. They're going to add somebody else.

It might be a rookie this year. But I think you're going to see Kyler veer back to leaning on Hopkins in the red zone like we saw two seasons ago. And like we saw for chunks of the 2021 season before DeAndre Hopkins got hurt. And he just seems like the poster child for fantasy managers to look at and go, he's old and he's not what he used to be. And he's coming off a year where he got hurt. And so his value has diminished a little bit. I think Arizona will throw the ball plenty. I think Hopkins is going to be on the other end of a lot of those targets. And I don't mind drafting him as a number two fantasy receiver, knowing that his upside is a top 12 fantasy receiver.

Yeah, he has that upside. I don't like the fact that they threw to him so little last year. He did not even have 90 yards in a game. It was just that he scored touchdowns. And we can say he's just like Mike Evans and that he's just going to get a bunch of touchdowns. But the year before, he had, what, six touchdowns on 160 targets and kyler murray's been mostly bad in the red zone in his career they didn't bring back kirk or green but they did bring back zach hertz who had a huge role in that offense last year now hertz and hopkins didn't play very much together that's right i'm just not very convinced especially with hopkins himself coming off of a knee injury and going to be 30 at the start of the season.

I'm not as convinced that he's the same guy. You know, I do bring this up a lot, and I don't know how much I should, but it's a fairly new stat in the fantasy world, fairly new. But ADOT, and you look at the difference in the seasons that he just had. In 2020, his first year in Arizona, I think Heath just said it, he had 160 targets. He had 115 catches. He was a PPR stud, and he was number four in PPR. Last year, targets went way down. He only had 42 catches in 10 games.

But his ADOT went way up. And he went from an 8.9 average depth of target, which is really low for Hopkins, in 2020, to 12.3, which is the highest in at least four years. Pro Football Reference only has four years of data on that. And, you know, different profile leads to fewer catches when you're going downfield more. So I don't know how much that matters to you,

but it seems very easy for me to see him going back to a different type of role, catching more passes, getting more targets. I don't know if that will happen, but I see an easy path for him to recover and gain more of that PPR value. I agree. He averaged 6.4 targets per game last year.

That couples nicely with what Heath said about the target volume that he had. And the Cardinals, I think, tried to spread it around a little bit more with the other receivers that they had. I think they revert back to leaning on Hopkins. I think Kyler reverts back to leaning on Hopkins because he worked for them. I'm willing to buy into him for one more season as a number two fantasy receiver. I think maybe in the next two months we'll get more of an indication of what they're going to do with hopkins by who they add

but so far they let go a couple of guys and christian kirk and aj green who did more stuff down the field and brought back a couple guys and james connor and zach earths who do stuff close to the line of scrimmage maybe who the the last, and we know Rondell Moore is probably going to be a closer to the line of scrimmage guy. Who is the deep threat if it's not DeAndre Hopkins? I think Moore could be that guy. I think he could stress defenses. He's got speed. You know that. And I think that they could add somebody else that has speed. That might be a draft pick. I don't think there's anybody left in free agency that can

fill that role for Arizona at this point. Buffed up. That's a problem for them. If they don't have somebody that can stretch defenses vertically, that'll make things harder, but Hopkins is a great route runner, man. He can get open with his footwork and with nuance and all that stuff.

He's a 10 when it comes to that. Buffed up has a question in the chat on YouTube. By the way, if you're listening, you can always watch youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday. Is DeAndre Hopkins on a fall-off like Julio Jones? No, because he doesn't have the track record of injuries that Julio has. Not yet.

It could very easily happen where he gets hurt in the first four weeks of the season and then you can just point to him and say, all right, it's over. He's old.

He's fallen off. But I'm not willing to go there yet. What happens if training camp comes around and he misses the first two weeks of training camp with something?

Maybe he's still struggling with the knee. At that point, I think I'd be pretty nervous to take him with a 50-pick. When you look at it, Julio had some serious injury concerns early in the year, early in his career, but he missed three games from 2015 through 2019. And then he had the nine-game season, and then he had the 10-game season.

And now, I think we don't know. But you should at least factor that risk in at his age. He had two pretty significant injuries last year, both leg injuries. And so, yeah, I think Dave's right. If he has a hamstring issue in camp, the siren should be going off for sure. Yeah, he's at the age where you can't rule it out. You also can't rule out that Julio Jones is still really good. And DeAndre Hopkins too, right?

When he plays, yeah. Yeah, you can't rule out Jones is still a great player. I think Julio Jones averaged more yards per target than Hopkins last year. Probably did. But Hopkins was actually really good. I mean, his yards per catch, his yards per target, both really good. Okay, let's read some emails. FantasyFootball at CBSi.com. This is from

Jake in a city between Seattle and Tacoma. I don't think Bellevue's on the way. Puyallup. Let's go with Renton. That's where the Seahawks train i believe okay what up

zach screech and ac oh that's dave loves saved by the bell he just i i couldn't leave the house this morning he was running a saved by the bell the college years marathon oh and my wife put it on my wife's a fan of it too not the college the college years. They're awful. I couldn't look away. I can look away. You know, I went to... Are you going to Chicago, Dave, this weekend? I haven't decided yet. Okay.

That's where the Jayhawks and Hurricanes and Fryers... Are you going at them? No, I'm not going. But the last time I went to Chicago, they had a restaurant that was... The Max. Yeah, they had the Max. It was limited, right? It wasn't a... Right. It was a limited engagement. time i went to chicago they had a restaurant that was yeah they had the max it was it was like

limited it was limited right it wasn't a right yeah it was a limited engagement where you could go and eat at the max we were gonna go and i think the waits were well over an hour so we did not go to the max well good job you didn't pay 25 for a lame cheeseburger just to say you sat at a booth that looked like what ac slater sat Slater sat in. Yeah, exactly. Ten teams... Does Screech have a question here or what? Yeah, yeah. Ten team PPR Superflex Dynasty League.

Which Saved by the Bell themed restaurant do you recommend in Chicago? Also, we have 20 players on our rosters and they need to be cut down to 14 by April 1st. We can still add or drop free agents and do trades but we have to stay at a 14 roster size until the rookie free agent draft so who should i cut between these three players just one of these three okay brandon iukisca, Chenault, or Raheem Mostert? Oh, that's easy.

I'm saying goodbye to LaVisca because I think the Jaguars are going to do the same. Hasta LaVisca, baby, you have to say. Yeah, I can't hold Raheem Mostert in a dynasty league over those young receivers. He gave you his running backs, too. Najee, Etienne,

Edwards, Hilaire. That's a good trio. His receivers are Debo digs, AJ Brown, Deontay Johnson. That's great. He's never going to start Chenault.

You might be able to flip most or to a running back needy team. If you're not that running back needy team at the start of the year, I'm keeping most or over Chanel. I'm drafting most or out of Chanel in redraft. I know that Chanel's got potential long-term still, but I kind of feel like it's not going to happen. I mean, I get that, and I'm not as excited about Chanel. I mean, this is the worst I've ever felt about him.

But we're still talking about a 30-year-old running back whose career high is 137 carries. I would keep Chennault just on the hope that Trevor Lawrence becomes awesome and Chennault becomes usable. Prediction, you're going to cut both by the time that August rolls around. Maybe. But I am a little concerned that actually Raheem Mostert has a better yards per carry than LaVisca Chenault. I thought that would be in favor of Chenault.

Doesn't Mostert have a better yards per carry than like 70% of the league? I thought a wide receiver maybe would have him beat. Yeah, if you put the qualifier low enough, he might be like top five all time yeah all right this is from jack where's he from bully up washington hey greg wayne colin and ryan oh this is good greg wayne colin and ryan you're gonna oh, yeah. Not Heath because Heath doesn't know anything, but whose line is it anyway? Oh.

Right? I love that show. It's a good one. All right. Actually, Heath, you would have liked that show. I've watched it a few times. It wasn't my favorite, but it was fine. You watched the Drew Carey version? I told you my Wayne Brady story. Wait, did Drew Carey host that? Yeah, he did. Yes.

I used to watch it on Comedy Central with the British guy. I didn't even know his name. Oh, yeah, that was great. Yeah. Your Wayne Brady story? No. Okay. Remind me sometime.

Okay. 12 team, half PPR, one QB Dynasty League. I have two second place finishes in four seasons, and I am the Kirk Cousins of fantasy. Great on paper with no rings. I have picks 1.2, 3.1, and 3.3. I expect 1.1 to be Brees Hall or different RB. I have just been offered picks 110, 111, and 112

for pick 102. Wow. Should I do that, get picks 10, 11, and 12 in the first round for the second pick in the rookie draft? Or should I flip 102 for an elite tight end? He has Rodgers, Derrick Henry, J.K. Dobbins, Tyree Kill, DeAndre Hopkins,

Mike Williams, Mike Gasicki, and Javante Williams, and a pretty decent bench too. I would be trying to, like, I'm not, I think that 10, 11, 12, in the long-term value of things,

might be the math choice that's correct in this year's draft. But you finish second twice in this league, and you have a roster that has Aaron Rodgers, Derrick Henry, DeAndre Hopkins on it. Go win the league. Go get an elite tight end. With 102.

Or go find, I mean, I think he had Burrow as well, so he doesn't need to find another, but I'd be trying to get rid of Derrick Henry and DeAndre Hopkins if you're going to trade down for draft picks. His receivers don't seem so hot long-term. Tyreek, DeAndre Hopkins, Mike Williams, and Brandon Cooks. What does he have three years from now? They'll have Tyreek and Mike Williams if Williams is...

I don't know what Mike Williams will be three years from now. I don't know what Cooks will be three years from now. I'm kind of leaning toward the 10-11-12 to just take shots at two wide receivers, and there should be some decent ones left, and then a running back at 10-11-12. That's a tough call. Okay, well, I hope that helped, Jack, from Polyup. What is it? Polyup?

I said Polyup, but I could be wrong. Whatever. Thanks for watching and listening everybody we'll be back tomorrow with winners and losers from the last few weeks plus some buy or sell which I'll crowdsource on Twitter so I don't have to do any work for Dave and Heath I am Adam have a great day

go cats