Fantasy Football Today - Rankings Disputes! Lockett, Akers, Walker and More (04/17 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: April 17, 2023

Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Jamey and Heath are ready to defend their rankings! We start off with a wacky stat about the Seahawks wide receivers and some news and notes (3:45) on Dalvin Cook, Jalen Hurts and a few more. Then it's time for the rankings disputes to begin as we discuss Matthew Stafford (10:25) for the first time in a long time ... On to the running backs, the guys debate Cam Akers (16:45), Ken Walker (18:30), Miles Sanders (21:50) and James Conner (26:55) ... At wide receiver, the rankings are very different on Chris Godwin (32:30), Drake London (36:15), Calvin Ridley (38:50) and Tyler Lockett (43:35). And we finish up with David Njoku at tight end (48:40) ... Email us at [e-mail] Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. He's just going to go the distance.

Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Fight, fight, fight. We've got some rankings disputes today between Jamie and Heath. This is a great way to start the week. Very contentious here on Fantasy Football today. I already spoke to Jamie last night, so I know he had a very good weekend, a very successful winning weekend. Jamie, 6-0.

6-0, Jamie. 6-0 weekend for my kids. So make sure you put that in perspective. Yes. Five baseball victories, one basketball victory. So it was fun. But Heath might have topped that, though. Did he?

And happy birthday, Heath. It was Heath's birthday. Shut up. When was his birthday? Oh, you didn't wish him a happy birthday? Wow. That's par for the course. Contentious.

Has literally never. Well, we're not Facebook friends. I'm not going to be the one to reach out. Yeah. Happy birthday. No, I got a text. I got a text early on Saturday morning from Dave. I got a tweet from Jamie wishing me happy birthday.

And so then all the people replied to his tweet. And that was fantastic. I had 400 Facebook messages of people telling me happy birthday and nothing from Adam. I think actually, I think I might have saw one. I'm going to look now that Adam might have been tagged in one of those replies.

I haven't been on Twitter in a while except the poll I put up about Dunkaroos and people got so wrong. What would you got? Vanilla or chocolate Dunkaroos? Are you too old for Dunkaroos?

I don't know. I don't think I've ever had Dunkaroos. Okay you too old for Dunkaroos? I don't know. Yeah, I don't know what Dunkaroos is. I don't think I've ever had Dunkaroos. Okay, everyone said vanilla. 70% said vanilla. They're all wrong. Okay, let's get to the show here. We're going to do some rankings disputes

and see some of the players we're talking about. Matthew Stafford, we haven't really talked about him at all. Cam Akers, his teammate. Ken Walker, Miles Sanders, Chris Godwin, Tyler Lockett, Traylon Burks, Drake London, and more. Here's a crazy stat. DK Metcalf had six touchdown catches last year. Tyler Lockett had nine.

DK Metcalf had 27 red zone targets. Tyler Lockett had eight. DK Metcalf led the NFL with 23 end zone targets. Tyler Lockett had nine. So interesting just looking at the Lockett stats. Unbelievable that he caught so many touchdowns and Metcalf did not. If they get the same type of targets, that will probably change. So I tweeted Heath on his birthday at 6.20 p.m.

And later that day, at Bob Baffert, what did you guys get him for his gift? No podcast today with Adam Azer. What is the second part? My gift was that I didn't have to talk to you. No podcast today with Adam Azer. Well, that was my gift, Heath. It was a happy birthday.

I didn't communicate with you. In all seriousness, because you didn't ask about my sports weekend, my son gave me a great gift. He went 4-0 in his tournament and won. He had played the best basketball of his life. My other team went 2-2. Six wins, but two losses.

Very good. Also, you said tournament wrong. You can watch us on YouTube. YouTube.com slash Fantasy Football Today. You can watch us live. We record our shows at 11 a.m. Eastern on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Then Heath has We record our shows at 11 a.m. Eastern on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. And then Heath has his Dynasty show Tuesday at 11 a.m. Eastern. So you can watch us live or on demand.

Just go to youtube.com slash fantasy football today. Hit the live tab and you will see all of our live shows that have been archived. And please hit that like button right now. Hit that like button. Let's get that going. Some news and notes before we get into the disputes. Dalvin Cook apparently could be released. Do you guys think he's going to be on the Vikings by the start of the season?

I don't know. I would say 60-40, yes. Very possible, though, that Dalvin Cook is not on the Vikings. So, you know, what does that mean if you have Alexander Madison in a dynasty league? Because you figure they're going to do something at running back, right, if they don't have Dalvin Cook. So, Heath, what's your dynasty? Mr. Dynasty, what's your take on that? I think I've been a little bit lower on Madison. I actually, in preparation for this rankings debate show, was looking at how I needed to move Madison up in redraft.

But he's still not like a top 30 back or anything. And he's not particularly young. I think even if he got the feature role, it might be a one-year, maybe two-year deal. So he's not a top 25. He's not like a, the, the first or second year back who maybe they let the starter go and he's going to have a long run. Um, he's around 30 or 40. Okay. The Eagles and Jalen hurts.

I'll move over Daniel Jones. There's a new quarterback contract in town. Uh, the Eagles and Jalen hurts have agreed a five-year deal worth $255 million with $179.3 million guaranteed, and that will be the highest average annual salary for a quarterback in the NFL. Brock

Purdy has avoided Tommy John surgery. He talked about his recovery. He's taking it one day at a time. Arizona safety Buda Baker has requested a trade. Things are great in Arizona. Apparently, according to the Dallas Morning News, Michael Gallup was told by Mike McCarthy that he would have a bigger role,

that he'll be featured more. He only had 74 targets in 14 games. Jamie, is Michael Gallup on your radar? I mean, not in the sense of I have to have Michael Gallup on my team, but I do think that there is still enough of an opportunity given the tight end situation in Dallas that adding Brandon Cooks can still be good enough for Michael Gallup. What I mean is, you know, the no tight end being there of significance, at least as far as we see it. There still should be enough targets to go around where Michael Gallup can be somewhat relevant. The Dolphins signed Chosen Anderson,

formerly Robbie Anderson. According to ESPN's John Kime, the commanders have made it clear that they believe in Sam Howell to be their starter. And not only that, they may have sold their franchise. They have an agreement in place right now. Can be topped, but they may have a new owner pretty soon espn why don't we come up with six billion together

i'm surprised that it went for so much more than the broncos i mean the broncos were just recently sold to you know one of the wealthiest families the walmart family um and uh that's not their last name um and uh that went for something like $4.5 billion and the Commanders have a deal for just over $6 billion. That's a really big difference. I'd rather own the Broncos. I don't know. Media market?

I don't know. I mean, each franchise probably goes for more than the next. The market matters. Stadium maybe matters. The stadium, they need a new one. I mean, they're dying to get a new stadium. This does include this current stadium, but they're trying so hard to get a new one.

I don't know. I was in until it got over $4.5 billion, and then I said, no, you can have the Commanders. I mean, the A's are family fortune. Yeah, we're building it. ESPN's Jordan Reed thinks the Chargers will be intent on drafting a pass catcher with an early round pick. And what did you guys make of the recent stuff about Greg Dulcich? And basically, it seems like Sean Payton and the Broncos not enamored with their tight end room.

He didn't give a glowing response when asked about Dulcich, I guess. Am I interpreting that right? I couldn't tell if it was that or if he was making a comment about how injuries really prevented him from seeing as much Greg Dulcich as he would like to. So he wasn't sure his opinion yet. Or if it was a shot at Hackett and that the offense was so bad it made it hard to evaluate players. Okay. I would lean more toward that.

Okay. I couldn't tell which is open to interpretation. All right. Well, listen, on Wednesday, we're going to have Ryan Wilson back on, I think. So, yes, we're getting a thumbs up from Shafi T. Yes. Ryan Wilson's coming back on. He was awesome last week we're getting a thumbs up from Shafi T. Yes, Ryan Wilson's coming back on. He was awesome last

week talking about quarterbacks and running backs. This week it'll be wide receivers and tight ends, and hopefully a great tight end class. That's the buzz. Maybe we'll get a couple that go in the first round, and the wide receivers are always fun as well, although not quite as good this year, it

looks like, but we'll get Ryan's take on that. And if you want to hear more from him, you can listen to the With the First Pick podcast. That is Ryan Wilson and former general manager Rick Spielman, who drafted Justin Jefferson and Adrian Peterson and Dalvin Cook, among others. Ryan and Rick have this podcast. It's weekly, and now's the time to listen. It's all about the NFL draft.

It's called With the First Pick. Mock drafts, prospect profiles, stock watch, and now's the time to listen. It's all about the NFL draft. It's called With the First Pick. Mock drafts, prospect profiles, stock watch, and more. Check it out. All right, how about a quick break here? When we come back, we'll talk about Matthew Stafford and then some running backs. Rankings disputes begin right after this. For a limited time, switch to Shopify point of sale, and you could save up to 20% and improve your bottom line. We're so serious about savings, we've made this ad

20% shorter. That means you get six seconds back. Just enough time to visit shopify.com slash POS20. Now that's an efficient ad. Eligibility requirements apply. See shopify.com slash POS20 for details. So I was looking at your quarterback rankings, and I didn't want to talk about the same guys that we talk about all the time. You guys are pretty far apart, I'd say, on Aaron Rodgers, for example. But how much Aaron Rodgers can we discuss? So let's talk about Matthew Stafford, because in 2021, he was the number eight quarterback per game, number five overall in six-point-per-passing touchdown leagues, and 2022 was just a disaster. He was number 33 per game in 2022. That does include one partial game, but whatever. It was so much worse.

So, Jamie, you have Stafford 19th, and while that doesn't sound super high, and it isn't, it's right behind a group of players that, you know, we would be considering. I'll just, sorry, I didn't have the QB rankings up. It's right behind players such as Russell Wilson, Jared Goff, Geno Smith. So that's a fun group. I mean, that's an interesting group. Then it's Stafford. For you, Heath, Stafford's down to 24. He's behind Tannehill, Garoppolo, Derek Carr, Sam Howell.

So I think in that respect, it's a pretty big difference in how you guys are looking at Stafford. So, Jamie, make the case for him being a borderline draftable guy, I guess, if he's right behind Goff and Smith and Wilson. I mean, think about the names you said that are after him. They're all terrible. You know, I, for me, it's, it's, it's, he has still arguably a top three receiver in the league in Cooper cup. And he has arguably a top play caller in the league in his coach and Sean McVay. And so in those two things I trust. And so I'll take my chances with

that as opposed to maybe Derek Carr being better than him. Sure, that could easily happen. Maybe Jimmy Garoppolo being better than him. Sure, that could easily happen. They have better weapons than what Stafford has right now. But I'm going to trust the coach. I'm going to trust the weapon. And I'm going to trust Stafford hopefully being back to some semblance of what he was in 2021

with a healthier back and maybe a better offensive line. So I think one of the other guys I may be low on is Cam Akers, and I think I'm probably just low on the Rams offense after that disaster of last year and the fact that they're trading parts. It's a weird combination because we know Stafford's towards the very end and they're not trading him away. So I would assume he's not just sticking around to stink, but they're also clearly kind of trying to rebuild on the fly. I'm a little bit worried this could be a disaster. I'm a little bit worried if they're bad and he suffers any sort of injury,

he's just not going to play for a while. And there's still – I'm not 100% sure that I know who's going to be on the Rams in the 2023 season. They don't have a first-round pick either. No way. Yeah, I know. Shocker, right? And it's a shame because they would have had the sixth pick instead of belongs to the Lions. And then the last thing is just like that 2021 season that you referenced, his touchdown rate was two points higher than his career average. His yards per attempt were 10% better than his career average. And last year, he was worse than his career averages. Much worse.

So I'm just concerned, I think probably similarly to why I'm low on Rodgers, projecting a big bounce back from an older player. Yeah, but even if he just has a normal year, you could still see him in the QB 13, 14, 15 range or something like that. I don't know that I see that because the Rams stink. I mean, they look like they don't have a ton of talent. And how about this stat? It just based, you know, I always say this. I don't,

I don't take PFF as gospel, but Hey, they're evaluating offensive lines. I'm not, they had the Rams as the number one pass blocking team in the NFL in 2021. And they graded them 24th in 2022. So he's not the kind of guy that can, that can be behind a bad offensive line.

And it went from the best to one of the worst. Well, it did get better as the season went on. You know, once they finally got a group in place that was healthy, I believe it was around the time that can't make her started to take off. Stafford was not playing at that point. And so, I mean, look, Baker Mayfield went from an absolute poop show to much better in Los Angeles, you know, for whatever that's worth. And that was without Cooper cup. So, you know, I don't know how much of that is just McVay, how much that is just Baker escaping Carolina. But Stafford, I still think has some ability to challenge for

4,200 yards, you know, 30 touchdowns. You know, I don't think he's going to set the world on fire, but if things go right, and a lot of things have to go right, I don't want to draft Stafford. Look, this is, when we get to this point, and hopefully the rookies end up in good spots with, you know, good weapons around them. But, you know, I'd much rather have, you tell me, Bryce Young starting for the Panthers, I'll take Bryce Young. You tell me C.J. Stroud starting for the Texans,

I'll probably take C.J. Stroud. Anthony Richardson gets a chance to start, I'd rather have him. You told me Trey Lance or Brock Purdy was guaranteed to be the starter from week one, I'd rather F him. You told me Trey Lance or Brock Purdy was guaranteed to be the starter from week one, I'd probably take that guy as well. There'll be some adjustments following the NFL draft, but that group, Carr, Garoppolo,

Stafford, Tannehill, I'm surprised you like Sam Howell that much, but that group is a little gross. He's closer to that group than he is to the Geno Smith, Russell Wilson. Yes, that's where the divide starts. Okay, okay.

All right, so why don't we go, I'll go a little different order than what I had planned at running back. Why don't we just go right to Cam Akers here? And let's see, Cam Akers is, for Jamie, 21st at running back in PPR, and for Heath, 31st. So Heath, I'll give you the first word.

Cam Akers in his last six games, he was the number four running back in fantasy. He was top six per game in both half and full PPR. All of that came without Matthew Stafford, by the way. So he finished strong, but you have him 31st. Jamie has him 21st. Go ahead on Cam Akers. Yeah, and I think this one, he will definitely move up. We get through the draft and this is their running back room. I have a hard time with, if you project him for the volume he had in those final six games over a full season, then I'd probably have him even higher than Jamie does, or at least in the same range that Jamie does. year four of his NFL career and his career high is 188 carries and his career high is 13 catches.

It's like how big of a roll over that, how big of a leap do you want to project on a team again that I think is going to be bad? Right now, I've got him projected for 225 carries and 18 catches. Again, if they don't draft

anybody, I'll bump him up a little bit because I don't think he's going to lose his job to anyone who's currently on the roster. And go ahead, Jamie. 21st on Cam Akers. So that would be just ahead of Rashad White, Tyler Algier, Alvin Kamara, DeAndre Swift, and PPR. Yeah, and that might be an adjustment as well to lean toward the younger guys.

But I do think he's going to get that volume. I can't see them spending any significant draft capital. They don't have it on a running back. So, you know, if it's another Kieran Williams type of player, sure. Maybe that that's the thing that makes you a little bit concerned, especially if it's a bigger back that can take some of those first and second down carries, but he finally looked the part, you know, he finally looked healthy. It was, you know, after the whole preseason discussion of, okay, is he back? Can he handle this?

How bad the offense looked? He struggled. We thought he was going to get traded or cut. And then all of a sudden he has this miraculous second half finish that this was the guy that we thought before the Achilles tear was going to be this breakout running back. And, again, behind a suspect offensive line that may or may not get better, but hopefully can at least have some semblance of, have some semblance of success that we saw toward the end of last season. So I think the volume will be there. Sure, he's not going to be a 50-catch guy. Could he be a 30-catch guy?

Maybe, if you're talking about Cooper Cup and Allen Robinson and Tutu Atwell and this receiving core being what it is and needing something of a second option to help him there. So I don't think he's going to be a league winner, but I do think he could be a decent number two running back if things continue to break right for him, and then maybe more if he stays healthy. All right, that is Cam Akers.

Next up on the disputes list is Ken Walker, second-year running back. Jamie Esom is RB5. Jamie goes McCaffrey, Eckler, Barkley, Taylor, Ken Walker. Heath goes McCaffrey, Jacobs, Barkley, Taylor, Eckler, then Henry, then Chubb, then Pollard, then Ken Walker. Ninth for Heath, fifth for Jamie. Jamie, you're the high guy here on,

and Dave, by the way, is right in the middle at seven. You're the high guy on Ken Walker. Go for it. I just think he's going to build off what we saw last year as the featured guy in a Pete Carroll offense that hopefully is going to get some help on the offensive line. And not necessarily that they need it to save him, but I certainly think it could help this offense in general. And so we'll see what they do with two picks in the top,

I think it's 15, top 18 in the NFL draft. Could come away with two offensive linemen, which would be just fantastic. But I don't think he's going to have significant competition for touches. in the NFL draft. Could come away with two offensive linemen, which would be just fantastic, but I don't think he's going to have significant competition for touches. I love the fact, whether it's just Pete Carroll being Pete Carroll or actually coming to fruition, what he said at the owner's meeting when I asked him about him, he said, we've got to throw in the ball a little bit more.

And so if that happens, that'll be even better. But, I mean, he's got all the opportunities to be in the conversation to lead the NFL in rushing. I think he's going to have a tremendous sophomore season. And for me, at this position, at this point, I'm leaning toward youth whenever possible. And he's at the start of his career as opposed to some of those guys that are either reaching the end of their prime or even at the end of their run as an elite level guy. Yeah, I told you I was going to try to be an ageist this year. And so I've tried to figure out how, how far I can lower Derek Henry, um, Henry and Chubb. I'd

like to put below him. I don't have anything bad to say about him. I've got him ranked ninth. I love him. I think he's going to be awesome. I agree with most of what Jamie said. It's just whether you're going to PR in projecting him to go do something that these guys have been doing. Um, I, the one I don't think I could rank over him over is josh jacobs just because jacobs is still just 25 years old and already had that role and already led the nfl in the arch from scrimmage and i think he stays in the same situation all right that's a good then good counterpoint there why over josh jacobs who was i think he was number two per game in i think three well depends on yeah yeah, close enough.

Two or three, depending on scoring. Okay, Jamie, so why Walker over Jacobs? Again, it's just leaning toward the player, I think, who's going to ascend as opposed to one who may take a little bit of a step back. And so, you know, as Heath has some concerns about the Rams, I have some concerns about the Raiders. Again, quarterback change.

We'll see how that impacts Josh Jacobs in the run game. And maybe, as we saw over the last two years, when everybody's healthy in the receiving core, the receiving numbers for Josh Jacobs tend to dip a little bit. So I think Jacobs takes a little step back. I don't have a problem. You want to take Jacobs over Walker. It's, you know, guy that just led the NFL in Russian, like he said, you know, he's done it already. He's still searching for a new contract. We'll see what they do in the draft. You know, if they're, I saw, I don't know if it was somebody on fantasy Twitter or NFL Twitter, suggest that maybe the Raiders are in the B. John Robinson conversation

because they don't want to pay Jacobs, and then they have an heir apparent when Jacobs moves on, and that keeps their run game afloat. And so that would be an interesting move, but it wouldn't be too surprising if you are just looking ahead for a team that is trying to get ahead of paying somebody that they don't necessarily want to pay. So we'll see what happens there, But I think Jacobs is perfectly fine. Obviously, it's hard to argue against him from an age standpoint,

because like you said, he's still in the prime of his career and coming off a tremendous season. Well, this is the moment we've all been waiting for. I've been waiting for this for, I think, four years now. This is Heath being the Miles Sanders guy. Not me being the Miles Sanders guy. It's a shock. Heath has Miles Sanders and PPR in his top 12, 11th at running back.

And that would be ahead of such players as, oh, I see he's 10th. Did you move him up today? He moved up. Well, I had not moved Damian Pierce down enough. I still had Damian Pierce ahead of him. So he is 10th. Okay. So he's 10th.

Woo. Travis Etienne, 11th. Damian Pierce, Ramondre Stevenson, Aaron Jones, all of them behind Miles Sanders. For Jamie, Sanders is 17th. Still pretty high, but not that high. Not ahead of Stevenson, Etienne, Aaron Jones, etc. All right, Heath, you've always loved Miles Sanders or something like that. I've always been a big Miles Sanders guy. No, I think I just look at that contract that Carolina gave him, and it all but guarantees he's a starting running back for him for two years. And it's going to cost him some money to get away from him in the third year. I think they went out and paid him like they think he's the guy.

And they could have had Deontay Foreman or Rashad Penny or other guys who are super efficient like Sanders, but just aren't quite as reliable. I think you'll see a little uptick in the passing game working with Deuce Daly again. Wouldn't be surprised if he catches 30 or 40 passes, but mostly I think this is a really good situation for high efficiency running. He's a very high efficient runner and he's not going to have Jalen Hurts stealing touchdowns from him. Okay. Jamie, you still have him high, but not top 12.

I'm Miles Sanders. No. The passing game work is really going to be what's fascinating because that's something that has escaped him. Since I believe it was, was it Chip Kelly? His rookie season was his coach? It could have been. No, no, I'm sorry. It was Doug Peterson because that was –

It was Doug Peterson. So we'll see what Frank Reich decides to do there, what Deuce Daly decides to do there. Obviously, like the head coach just came off of a season with Jonathan Taylor, full season with Jonathan Taylor two years ago in Indianapolis. And, yes, I don't think that they're going to add any competition of significance, whether they come out of the draft with a late guy to add just to the room or still bring somebody in.

So it's probably Sanders and Chuba Hubbard. But I'm always concerned when running backs change teams. I mean, just the track record of these guys, there's instant success in some cases, and then there's some situations where he's leaving the best offensive line. I can't get past that. He's leaving the best running situation. Forget about Hurts taking away touchdown. And yes, the Panthers last year, McCaffrey was great,

and then Deontay Foreman was great. Will Sanders have similar success? I hope so. I hope he's better than what Deontay Foreman was when Foreman was good, which is a great situation. Just wasn't involved in the passing game. But again, different coaching staff completely. So I think he's a very good number two running back.

I still have my reservations whenever guys change teams. I don't think he's got top 10 upside, even in this situation. And I'm still a little bit concerned about his role in the passing game because even, I believe, when Deuce Daly was still there is when he was dropping passes from his second season on and had an issue with catching the ball. So we'll see how that goes. And if they put Chuba Hubbard in that role more so than they do miles.

Okay. And you know, he generally speaking, are you comfortable having a running back on a team quarterbacked by a rookie doesn't really have a lot of talent around it. You know, they're probably not going to have a very good offense. And I've outlined it doesn't really matter so much for running backs, but are you comfortable with that?

Yeah, I'm not convinced that they're not going to have – I don't think they're going to have a good offense. I'm not convinced they're going to have a bad offense, though. I think they could be semi-average. But I do think a running young quarterback on a bad offense though um i think they could be semi-average but i do think a running young quarterback on a bad offense would be a terrible spot for him i'm just not sure it's going to be that yeah i don't think it's probably it's probably not richardson at quarterback it's probably strata or young and so those guys won't run as much all right let's talk about james

connor this is a fascinating running back. He's going to be 28 years old next month. But on a per game basis, he was the number nine running back in PPR, number 12 in non-PPR. And in 2021, I think he was number nine per game. Yeah, he was number five per game in non-PPR, number nine per game in PPR. So that's two straight seasons with Arizona, where he's been a top 10 running back per game.

And when he didn't have Chase Edmonds in 2021, he was the second best running back in the NFL. And then down the stretch last year when he got all the touches, he was absolutely unstoppable. The last seven games, he was on pace for, let's see, 1,736 yards, 17 touchdowns, 66 catches. He was the number five running back in fantasy. So, all right, here's the James Conner breakdown.

Jamie's got him 28th. Heath has him 18th. However, that 18th was accompanied by a, like a minute ago. So what's that all about? Heath 18th on James Conner, ahead of Mixon rashad white naji harris david montgomery i don't want to be high on james connor um but you've said it like the role and the production has been a top 12 running back and he was number nine per game last year and had two games where he played 35 of the snaps or less because he got hurt. And that's just something you have to factor in.

I don't think you should expect 16 or 17 games from James Conner this year. But if you get eight or nine games of top 12 running back production, well, what's that worth? So I'll probably lower him a little bit from this. I don't think I can get him – unless something happens in the draft, I don't think he'll be outside my top 24. I think there's a lot more risk with someone like Mixon that he gets cut by the Bengals and just doesn't get a job at the start of the year or a feature job than Connor.

Connor's going to be on an offense, you just go. His role has been good. And it's, it's funny. Like the, um, the, uh,

early NFC ADP has him as the 22nd running back off the board. So he's in a similar range for you. I just, I know this cause I just put him as a bus based on his, his ADP. He was awesome. Um, every time he's been in this role,

you said it, but this team could be an absolute disaster. I mean, this could be the worst team in the NFL, you know, and, and you look at it, if Kyler's not ready to go at the start of the season, who knows when he comes back. DeAndre Hopkins is not there. So now you're talking about this receiving core, which is okay. I mean, you know, it's not

bad with Marquise Brown and whether it's what am I blanking on? Rondell Moore or Greg Dush? Rondell Moore. And Trey McBride. You know, it's not horrible. There's some nice pieces there, but you know, nothing that's going to really scare defenses to the point of you don't stop James Conner. And 28 years old, he missed some time

last year with injuries. We know he's had some injury history problems in the past. He's just somebody that I'm probably going to be out on unless DeAndre Hopkins somehow stays in Arizona and Kyler's ready for week one. Then I'll move him up because I like the situation a lot better but um there's another team you know you wonder if they're going to add a running back at some point you know Keontae Ingram and uh Corey Clement as the two guys behind him don't exactly inspire a lot of confidence so we can see a situation where this backfield gets some some pieces added to it but yeah I mean the mixing conversation is easy you know mixing gets cut you know there's there's you're going to take Connor over him no matter where mixing ends up

because he'll be in a timeshare. But I think Conor is more of a flex than he is a number two running back this year. I think just to do a counterpoint to what Jamie said, they were awful down the stretch, and he was still doing this. In those last seven games, Kyler Murray only played one game. Hopkins played six of them. But I guess that would be my counter to that is that I think they tried early in the year to get the other guys involved. And they and you just said, I mean, the other running backs in the backfield, they just weren't cutting it.

So in the last seven games that Connor played, he played almost every snap. I don't know if we can expect that, but yeah, they have nothing else. So he didn't need Kyler Murray to be great. He was better when Kyler was out. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe he's better when Kyler was out because he was such a focal point of the offense. Marcus Brown was out too. You could say that.

It's also a defensive coach coming in replacing an offensive coach. So we'll see how that mindset works too. I want to take a look at some YouTube comments real quick here. First of all, someone said, look at this, happy birthday Heath. Look at the emojis here. We got beers and two tacos. How did that line up with your actual birthday? Well, there were more beers than tacos but there there were tacos on friday night so it worked out well uh dunkaroos are a baker mayfield tiered snack i i haven't had them since i was a kid, but back then they were like a Dan Marino tiered snack.

And then there was one other thing that I wanted to. Is that the thing that came with like two different pouches and one of them was the thing that you dunked in the other thing? Yeah, yeah. You had the cracker and then you had the frosting. Those were awful. Those were awful? Yeah, those were really bad. This is the one.

Is Jamie wearing a hat because he didn't shower today? I did not shower this morning. I showered last night after a long day of baseball. But I typically wear hats on these days. Yeah, he's a hat guy now. All right, I'm a commercial guy now. Let's take a break. When we come back, we'll talk about some wide receivers

and a tight end if we have time. We'll be right back. And welcome back to Fantasy Football Today. Continuing our rankings disputes. Remember, by the way, Dynasty Show tomorrow. YouTube exclusive. YouTube.com slash Fantasy Football Today. Check it out.

You can watch it live at 11 a.m. Eastern or catch it on demand anytime. YouTube.com slash Fantasy Football Today. You're going to have to wait until after it's over, which will be about noon Eastern. You can't watch it before it airs. Wide receiver. Jamie has Chris Godwin 20th in PPR. Heath has him 36th. And once again,

I'm going to give Heath the first word here. Anti-Chris Godwin. That's wild, man. 36th. He caught three touchdowns last year and he was 18th per game. What do you got for me?

This is also me going completely against. I've always been the Chris Godwin guy. I'm not particularly comfortable with this one, but I am worried how much different this Tampa Bay offense is going to look. They've thrown 1,482 passes the last two seasons. They've got a defensive head coach. They're going to have a worse quarterback. Tom Brady's not going to get to choose what they do anymore. I'm afraid the pass volume, with both Evans and Godwin still there,

could crater to like 550, 575 attempts. And the pass type is probably going to be worse because it's going to be Baker Mayfield or Kyle Trask. So I'm pretty concerned about the Buccaneers offense as well there's a lot of teams that we're concerned about pause real quick here i you know before we go to jamie give me a little context on where 550 pass attempts would rank below average league median last year, so that'd be like the 15th and the 16th teams in pass attempts, 571 last year. Okay.

All right, Jamie, you still have faith in Chris Godwin and PPR. By the way, he has him 34th, not 36th. Jamie, you have him 20th. I still think this is going to be the guy that leads the team in targets and receptions. If you look at Baker's history, however you want to view it, his time in Cleveland, that was his best option option was a slot receiver with Jarvis Landry. And so that's still where I think Chris Godwin will play. I don't think it's going to be Kyle Trask. If it's Trask, then I will definitely be closer to where Heath is on Godwin. I think

Evans is the one that loses the most. I think Baker's downfield throws are clearly going to be a problem by comparison to Tom Brady. Obviously, volume is going to be a concern because they're not going to allow this passing game to be as prolific as it was when you're talking about the greatest of all time to Baker Mason. So Godwin loses, but Godwin was a guy that we were valuing when he was healthy as a top 10 wide receiver. So, um, you know, you take the downgrade into, in, into action and, you know, just understand what you're getting. A year removed from the ACL, so hopefully he's back to being closer to where he was and he wasn't exactly horrible last year. So I think he's still good enough to be a number two receiver in PPR.

Non-PPR, half PPR, I think he's the number three receiver at best. I still like him better than Evans in every format. But I think in PPR, even with Baker, he could be a number two PPR receiver. Yeah. And you want to follow up there, Heath? No, I think I probably also just, like, I have some Baker Mayfield reflux. I also want to say, you know, Heath is in general, I think, a little higher on the year two. We'll talk about a couple of year two guys.

Yeah. general, I think a little higher on the year two. We'll talk about a couple of year two guys. But Jamie has only Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave ahead of Chris Godwin in terms of the second year guys. Heath has basically all of the relevant ones, like not Romeo Dobbs. Most of them. Right. Yeah, most of them. All of the ones who were drafted in the first round last year. Chris Godwin.

I do have Chris Godlin ahead of Alex Pierce, Alex Pierce. Yeah. All right. So let's talk about Drake London. Jamie, you're pretty high on Drake London. You got him 22nd.

Heath says, hold my taco and beer. I've got a 14th. Jamie, this time you get the first word 22nd on Drake London, not 14th. Actually, I think I'm sorry.

I think it's more interesting if Heath goes first on this because, you know, 22nd is a good ranking. That's a lot of faith in him. My argument is pretty easy. Heath just said he's got concerns about the quarterback and volume. I mean, that's Atlanta to a T. Okay. There you go. Yeah. No, I'm definitely projecting some improvement for the second year wide receivers, and it probably won't happen for all of them. But the guys that it does happen for, as Adam has so astutely pointed out, are the guys who win you leagues. And so I think I just want to take as many shots at these second year wide

receivers as I can. And the ones that hit, I'm going to have league winners. I think London absolutely, like things were terrible for him with Marcus Mariota. They were not a lot better with Ritter, but they were a little better. And I would expect both Ritter and London to make some improvement. I think that he has no problem at all getting a 25% to 30% target share, even with Kyle Pitts on the field. And I'm not – I guess I have similar feelings. I'm trying to figure out why those projects projections are so much different for London and Godwin other than I am just projecting some improvement for London this year. Um, and he was pretty good other than the fact that he didn't score any touchdowns in

the last five weeks of last year. A lot of times we see rookie wide receivers like a Monroe St. Brown, a hot finish, and then it carries over into the next year. A lot of times we see rookie wide receivers like a Monroe St. Brown, a hot finish, and then it carries over into the next year. Why do you have London ahead of Olave five spots ahead of Olave? Because I'm projecting Michael Thomas to play right now. But you're also, you have to project Kyle Pitts to play and everything London did at the end of the year, he did without Pitts. That's true. I think, um, I think London is, or Pitts is not going to be a problem for London. I think they will both earn a 25% to 30% target share. I don't know that that will happen for Thomas and Olave,

because I think Alvin Kamara or whoever is playing running back is going to get a lot more targets. But tell me that right now you think Derek Carr is better than Desmond Ritter. He probably is. I mean, we haven't seen very much of Ritter. That's true. That's true. All right, Jamie, anything you want to add,

or should we go to the next one? No. Okay, cool. Good stuff. I think London's a very good receiver, but I think Godwin will have more catches, more targets, and maybe as many touchdowns.

Let's talk about Calvin Ridley. 19th for Jamie, 30th for Heath. Okay, Jamie, your turn. It's actually now 29th for Heath. Things have changed a lot. All right, 19th for Jamie, 29th for Heath. This is Calvin Ridley. Go for it, Jamie. This was post going to Arizona and the owners meetings. I think I was leaning Christian Kirk over Ridley. Then you come out of that and you're just hearing from what people in Jacksonville are saying that he's probably going to have the opportunity for a big season. I still think that Kirk will have more catches and more targets. But Kirk, Ridley will have more yards, maybe similar or close enough in catches. But the touchdowns, I think, are going to be in his favor.

And so this is just really buying into Trevor Lawrence. He's going to be probably my most rostered quarterback this year based on where he's getting drafted. I just want pieces of this Jacksonville offense. I think they're ready to take the next step. They're going to have a very easy schedule. Offense is going to be much better. I think Ridley, if he's anything close to what he was,

this is probably too low. 19th. Oh, yeah. If he's what he was, I definitely think it is. I don't know if I think that Trevor Lawrence will be better this year than Matt Ryan was when Ridley was at his best, but he could be as good. I have a hard time projecting the targets for Kirk, Ridley, Zay Jones,

Evan Ingram, those four, and what the spread's going to be. And so I could be convinced when we get into training camp, Calvin Ridley, all reports are he looks like Calvin Ridley. Everything's a full go that I would put Ridley at number one in terms of the number of targets. But that's not the way that I have it right now. I got him tied with Kirk. Yeah. I mean, I also obviously have no idea, but I'm sort of approaching it from a fantasy drafting standpoint as Ridley's going to be the top guy.

Kirk won't be too far behind. And then I don't really care about Ingram and Jones so much. Like I'm sure Ingram will have good weeks and he'll be worth drafting. But Zay Jones, like Zay Jones is not to me, not going to have a big role. And Ingram is a tight end. He's going to be like what we've always seen from Evan Ingram. You know, they'll tease us. That's just I have no idea if that's true. That's just how I'm approaching it.

I don't think that Doug Peterson probably knows exactly how the targets are going to shake out at this point. It's definitely a guessing game. There's some rust to knock off. Yeah. So I think my point is a lot of people are just going to take different views on that situation, at least until we get to the preseason. Just get pieces of it. I mean, I agree with you. Ingram takes a step back.

We talked about that in F15-5. Zay Jones clearly takes a step back. But they're still going to have some weeks where they're very good, those two guys in particular. I just think Trevor Lawrence is headed for a huge year. But when you say get pieces of it, which pieces do you want? Oh, the two you mentioned, for sure. And Lawrence.

Those are the ones you target. But I think when you start to go through the tight end landscape and you say, okay, I missed on the top guys. And the top guys for me, I think there's six or seven of them, depending on how you want to view Kittle and Waller and, you know, those two in particular, or maybe Pitts, if you want to throw them in that conversation. But to me, there's seven. It's who's got a good quarterback. Same conversation we usually have.

Who's got a chance to be one or two in targets with, you know, hopefully a growing situation. So like Dalton Schultz, for example, if the quarterback is right in Houston, although I read in Peter King's column today that they may pass on CJ Stroud and go defense, which would be very interesting what happens there. But yeah, you get an injury to Kirk or to Ridley, or Ridley's not right. Zay Jones still has a ton of value. He was very good last year, especially how late he's going to go this year. All right. Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Heath. Sorry.

No, I'm not particularly excited about Ingram. It's just that I think that that tight end role in Doug Peterson's offense is going to, like, there's going to be a hundred plus targets thrown to the tight end. And so that makes it harder if all three wide receivers are involved.

The pie is just not big enough. Did you have cake or pie for your birthday ice cream cake the best oh yeah it's tier one okay this will be the last wide receiver we talk about here we'll save some of the the younger guys for another show george pickens trailing burks were the other two that i wanted to discuss but just going through some of the numbers i gave some at the top of the show. Tyler Lockett is, I mean, this guy had six touchdown catches of 30 or more yards last year. And he did that with a pretty low ADOT for him. It was like 10.4 yards or something,

which is on the low side for Lockett. Yet he caught all these deep touchdown passes. And five of those six were deep balls. One of them had a decent amount of yak. So I don't know. I would say he got pretty lucky with his touchdowns considering how few end zone and red zone and green zone targets he had.

But this guy does it every year. He's a number two receiver every single year. Heath, you have him. Sorry, where do you have him? 21st. 21st. And Jamie has Tyler Locke at 31st. Heath, you're up.

Yeah, I think you could say that he was a little lucky on the touchdowns last year, but it's the fifth straight year he scored eight, nine, or ten touchdowns. It's just kind of what he does. He does get used in wildly different ways. I don't know how many wide receivers you can look at the last four years ADOT, and it goes 12, 4, 9, 7, 14, 6, 10, 6. But the thing is, he can do all of those things, and that's a really great attribute.

It doesn't really matter how this Seattle uses him. He's going to be successful. I'm a little bit worried about the age. I do think that DK should score more touchdowns this year. Maybe he scores eight this year instead of nine, Lock, but I'm just, it's, it's hard for me to doubt him. Yeah. Jamie, you have him ranked as at his age 31. That's a part of it. You know, I, I, at some point there's going to be a little bit of a slow down. I, I, I'm just, I was just looking at my rankings while you were talking. So like I have them behind pitman and mclaurin and evans and

i i i've said this a lot you know going back the last couple years that you know we we say top 24 because you know 12 and two receiver leagues but there's 40 receivers that are starting caliber receivers and fantasy at this point you know and so um if if you like him better you'll probably get him at a better cost he's now become i, the new Brandon Cooks of just continuing to be just best draft value at that position. And so I think there's a lot to love about Tyler Lockett. I just don't want to overdraft him. But yeah, he's probably going to end up being better than McCorn. He'll probably end up being better than Mike Evans.

That's probably an adjustment I should make in all formats because he's got at this point at least a better quarterback than those guys do you know and so give dino smith some respect which is probably something that i didn't do when i first put him in that spot but i i think he's he could finish anywhere from from 15 to 30 and be off by 15. By a point or two. Because that's just how good the position is. So I have no problem with Tyler Lockett. I just think at some point. He's going to catch up to a guy.

That needs his speed to get downfield. Okay. And here's. Tell me if this matters to you. If you include the playoffs. And to be fair. You have to include one game. Where he played 32% of the snaps.

He had more than 68 yards. in one of his last 12 games. He was great before that. The first five games, he averaged over 85 yards a game, I think. Something like that. No, 81.2 yards per game. But Tyler Lockett, last 12 games, one game with more than 68 yards. Does that matter to you guys? Isn't that kind of been the case

in Seattle for the last few years that their passing game starts off well and doesn't end up well because their defense gets better and their run game gets better? I don't think that was the case this time because they actually started throwing more. I mean, you're right that it wasn't as good

because Geno Smith just didn't play quite as well, especially down the stretch through some interceptions. Even if that is the case, I doubt Lockett's ever had a stretch like that. In his last 11 games, I don't have his pace. Sorry. That could be an indication of age catching up with a guy.

That's what I was asking. I find these stats a lot. then they a lot of times they make no difference they're just completely random make no difference for the next year this one's interesting because he's 31 so uh heath you're muted you know what my response is going to be right well i know i't. You said he had one game with more than 68 receiving yards. Yeah. In his last 12. That's 100% true. But, of course, the first thing I go look at, he had five games between 60 and 68 receiving yards.

Yeah. But that's not so great. I mean, overall— It's not so great, but no. But if in a 17-game season, if you average 65 yards a game, that's a 1,000-yard season, isn't it? 1,105 yards. But he didn't average that. He didn't even come close.

I mean, you know. Well, I think he came pretty close to averaging that if you take out the 15-yard game when he had 32% of the snaps. I think he was very, very close to that. And I think he was a lot worse after he came back from the ankle injury the last three games, two regular season games, one of which he barely played and then the playoffs.

But okay. All right. Let's talk about one tight end here, David Njoku. So, all right, let me check Heath's updated rankings. I did not move David Njoku. Seventh.

Seventh for Njoku, whereas Jamie has him 13th. That's a surprise, Heath. Seventh for Njoku whereas Jamie has him 13th that's a surprise Heath 7th for Njoku yeah is that I guess it's a little bit of a surprise he was right about what 8 or 9 per game last year

I do think they're going to throw more in a full season with Deshaun Watson and I think that there's a pretty good chance that he's still getting the same target share that he did last year. So I expect his targets to go up. He was seventh per game last year. So I basically got him ranked where he was last year. And I think this year is probably actually going to be better for him than last year was on a per game basis. I hope his targets remain the same, but I just fear the Elijah Moore addition changes things for this offense.

You know, now you have a very, very, very solid three receiver core. If Elijah Moore escaping the Jets doghouse looks like anything close to what he was in his rookie campaign. So you have Cooper, Moore, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Najoku. Would not surprise me if he's fourth in terms of targets. I would probably peg him for third because I don't think that Peoples-Jones is second in targets or probably even third just based on the role that Njoku could play. And hopefully he's getting a lot more end zone and red zone opportunities at the tight end position because he's such a natural athlete and so much potential there. But had a hard time staying healthy.

Deshaun Watson's history doesn't necessarily lean toward leaning on tight ends or favor leaning on tight ends. And so the two that I struggle with, I guess the three that I struggle with, are the younger tight ends. Is Njoku better than Friar Muth? Is he better than Dolchich? Is he better than Okonkwo? And right now I'd rather take the younger guys over him at this point.

I think people would be surprised to know that he averaged the same amount of points as Evan Ingram last year. 10.3 PPR fantasy points per game. And that makes you tight end. I missed tight end eight, but you missed tight end seven. Seven or eight.

Yeah. One of them was seven, the other was eight. Well, I think that I have him tied for eighth behind Kelsey Kittle Andrews Hawkinson Goddard Ertz and Waller

so I have more points behind them how many games you have for Waller uh this might be one of those situations where he played nine and didn't have yep I bet I knew it you stupid website just keep using it though i i mean it's it's it's so much easier all right fine they

both tied for seven okay um let's that's it for today's show uh how did you how do you feel about the nba playoff so far anything about yannis let those heat. I mean, Giannis, Morant, and Hero all getting hurt. That was not what you want to see if you want to see the stars playing. I don't know if you want to put Hero in that category. No, I don't want to put

Hero in there. Breaking his hand, though. He broke his hand and hit a three-pointer. That was pretty impressive. Big win, though. Jaws injury looks bad. Giannis leaving the game,

not good, unless you're a Heat fan. Knicks look great i thank you you know i was gonna bring that i was gonna bring them up you know it was a good good weekend for us now i'm just trying to figure out a way to get to a game i actually missed the celtics game because we were playing um the largest largest largest halftime lead in a playoff game. Is that right? I think so, yeah. Man, I really wish. I don't know that the Knicks are going to beat the Cavs, but I really wish they could play the Celtics in the second round because I know they'll beat the Celtics.

And I also know that. They might win a game. I'd never have to back that up because they're never going to play the Celtics because they're going to lose to the Bucs. Well, no. The Heat beat the Bucs without Giannis. Then the Knicks beat the Heat, and you could be a Knicks-Celtics Eastern Conference final. I feel like Giannis is going to lose to the Bucs. Well, no. The Heat beat the Bucs without Giannis. Then the Knicks beat the Heat. And it could be a Knicks-Celtics Eastern Conference final.

I feel like Giannis is going to be back. Am I wrong? He bruises back or something? I don't know. You know what? The important thing is Florida Panthers tonight against the – you think the Celtics are good. You should be a Bruins fan.

They're like the greatest team in hockey history. I think they scored the most points ever. But we're going to upset them. For those of you who don't know, I'm the biggest bandwagon Florida Panthers fan. They're like the greatest team in hockey history. I think they scored the most points ever. But we're going to upset them. For those of you who don't know, I'm the biggest bandwagon Florida Panthers fan and I am in starting now. So thank you all for watching and listening to Fantasy Football today. Check out the Dynasty show

tomorrow for Heath and Jamie. Happy birthday, Heath. And talk to you all tomorrow with Dynasty and then Wednesday with Brian Wilson. See ya.