Fantasy Football Today - Rankings Risers and Fallers! (08/01 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 1, 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.  Let's find out who Dave and Jamey have moved in their rankings. We start with a couple of their biggest rankings risers (2:15) as James Cook and Sam LaPorta are on the rise! We also have news and notes (12:05) on the Broncos wide receivers, the Cowboys backfield and more ... Jamey's rankings risers include James Conner (22:15), Michael Thomas (29:10) and the Chiefs WRs (31:00). Is Conner getting a little bit too hyped up? Then Dave tells us why Brian Robinson (35:35), JSN (39:15) and Elijah Moore (41:00) are risers ... We finish with rankings fallers including D'Andre Swift (43:10), De'Von Achane (48:00), Michael Pittman (50:30), a George Pickens debate (57:10) and a couple more fallers ... Email us at [e-mail] SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. All right, we're talking rankings movers. Who's going up? Who's going down in the rankings? I want to talk about James Conner today. Michael Pittman, he's falling a little bit in Jamie's rankings. Dave has some rankings risers and fallers, too, like Jackson Smith and Jigba on his way up.

I'm Adam Azer with Dave Richard and Jamie Eisenberg. It is Tuesday. It is August 1st. It is the MLB trade deadline. And U.S. Women's national team advance to the next round. All right, we got a lot of great stuff going on in sports, unless you're a Yankees fan. But we're all about fantasy football right now,

and we actually have football coming up in just a couple of days. Before we get to that. You want a good soccer story? Sure, sure. So I was up writing. So I'm doing the third of a billion versions of Sleepers, Breakouts, and Busts. Sleepers just came out yesterday. Breakouts will come out tomorrow.

So I was getting a head start on Breakouts. So it was like 2.30 in the morning, and I was wrapping up. And I'm like, oh, soccer starts at 3 o'clock. So let me stay up. I'll watch soccer. So I watched the first half, engaged, 0-0. I was trying to figure out how the hell we advanced. I didn't realize that both teams from the pool advanced

because Netherlands was killing Vietnam. And so first half engaged, watched an episode of Seinfeld on TV Land at halftime. Nice. It was the kiss hello episode. Do you remember that one? No. It's when he he gets annoyed everybody kissing in the lobby he's like i can't i can't do the kiss i can't do the kiss um so then second half

starts i'm watching the start second and i doze off and just until i sat down right now we started 9 40 ish a.m i have no idea how it ended zero zero i know i'm'm watching. Yeah. Right. You saw all the action. All right. Well, let's talk about rankings risers here. How about you, Dave? You want to start? Who's your biggest rankings riser? I think the biggest rankings riser I have is James Cook in Buffalo. And the fact that there's all this talk that he's going to be a three down back. I don't know if I believe that he's going to play like 70% of the snaps, but I went back and I looked. He averaged 0.95 fantasy points per touch last year. That includes the catches that he had, getting a full point for those.

And what did Devin Singletary do as the lead back in Buffalo each of the past three years? He had anywhere from 194 to, I think it was like 230 touches. So I'm not expecting a lot in the way of touchdowns for James Cook, but as a guy that you might be able to get an early round seven, I think he's worth taking the risk in full PPR. I think he could end up being a pretty good weapon in that Bill's offense. James Cook was so good. His advanced metrics, only 89 carries, not a lot of carries, but of the 52 running backs with 80 or more carries. So how did he rank among 52 running backs? 17th in rush EPA, 15th in success

rate, second in yards per carry, first in yards before contact per carry, 23rd in yards after contact per carry, 17th in percentage of carries for five or more yards, third in explosive run rate, that's percentage of carries for 12 or more yards. Third in explosive run rate. That's percentage of carries for 12 or more yards. 18th in avoid rate. He was great. He was top 23 in every one of those categories. He was top five in several of them. And he was better than Devin Singletary in every one of them.

And Devin Singletary has always been good in those categories as well. So Cook was great. At this point, I know DeAndre Swift, we saw the report that he's working mostly in the passing game. Are you guys taking James Cook or DeAndre Swift? Cook. And I think just to sort of disagree a little bit with what Dave said, the ADP right now is he's in round seven.

And that's on NFC, which we know pushes down running backs. I think this guy is going to end up being a round five pick because there's going to be so much hype about him. Oh, goodness. Do you think he should be? I would probably settle on round six is where I would like to see him get drafted, but we're splitting hairs at this point.

I think you'll see, just again, if that's the ADP we're going to continue to go by at least for the next couple of weeks until we start to see our drafts a little bit more prominent, that ADP push is not running back so much. So you get a Kamara suspension, he leapfrogs him. You're going to hear people like us say probably a little bit better than Cam Akers, Javante

Williams if he has a setback, Ken Walker depending on how long this groin injury lasts. I'm just looking at the rankings that we have, our consensus rankings here. You may see Cook creep into, and I'll look at our rankings right now. And so this is this morning. He's 27 for me. He's 30 for Dave. He's 24 for Heath. So Heath is already on board with James Cook as a starter.

So that's, I think, we'll start to see the steady incline of his rise, which might be deserving. Okay. All right, let's go to Jamie. Your biggest rankings riser. Sam Laporta. You know, a guy that I thought might be the best rookie tight end with his landing spot in Detroit.

You know, I since have gone back in Kincaid, just because I think there's a little bit more upside there. But he's second. So he's a guy that was right around tight end 20, I think, when we started training camp, now up to 14 for me. Love the setup for him. I think it's, you know, when I said this around draft time, he's got a six-game or after Jamison Williams suspension,

whatever it was, whichever came first, six-game head start, you know, in terms of getting targets and maybe being the second guy in targets for Detroit, you know, to open the season. Marvin Jones is a little bit banged up. You know, we can see a situation. I know you're a Josh Reynolds guy, so I'm sorry, Adam, but I think we can see Laporta, you know, he's already right away, you know, leading the tight end group and now Zystra got hurt. You know, just another guy that was maybe going to steal some opportunities. So I love the setup for Laporta. Again, rookie tight end. We know how those go, but you know, if you are inclined to take a second guy, especially if you go great or late, take two of these guys.

I think they could be good for you. So like a Dulcich-Laporta pairing might be a good way to start your team if you have enough roster spots. How about Laporta as just a disposable starting tight end for the first six weeks of the season while Jamison Williams is on the shelf for betting on college football. Starts the year against Kansas City. That's going to be a high-scoring game. Should get involved there. After that, it's Seattle, Atlanta, Green Bay, Carolina, and then at Tampa Bay. I don't think that that's a terrible schedule for Laporta to get off to a decent start. And I don't know where you're taking him, Jamie. I've got him as a round 11 pick.

I think that he's absolutely worth taking the chance on as a late round flyer type player. Not as much a tight end, but someone that just has some upside at any position. Yep. Would you take Laporta? I don't want to look at it just as six weeks, like a disposable player.

I want to hope that he's going to be my starter. Of course, of course we're going to hope for that, but I mean, let's be realistic. He's a rookie tight end. So it's, it's hard to look at him and say, that's the guy who's going to go and become a superstar and,

and do what Kyle pits couldn't do or do what very few rookie tight ends can do. And that's dominate from the jump. I mean, they have a real need for someone other than Amandra St. Brown to be involved in the passing game. We don't want that, though. No, I mean, there's plenty to go around.

There's plenty to go around. You know, you'd mentioned Zylstra. We don't have a ton of news today. Broncos wide receivers we'll talk about. Zylstra, tight end for the Lions, could miss six months. So he could miss the season. You heard his name. He missed a little bit of time midseason.

When he came back, weeks 9 through 18, he actually led the Lions tight ends in routes run. It was only 13 per game. But 13 per game was the most from weeks 9 to 18 for a tight end. They really need something from the tight end. They just didn't use them last year. How many routes? Just over six targets per game.

So that's a pretty good place to be for a young tight end if he's going to get those opportunities. Hawkinson did with the Lions. Right. His first however many games this year he did. 3.7 catches per game. I wonder if Laporta just kind of wipes out everybody else they have on the tight end depth chart

and he just has a ton of routes run. That's what he does. He's a good route runner. Yeah. All right. Would you take Laporta or Komet? Laporta. Laporta.

All right. Dave, you getting fired up for Thursday? Always looking forward to some football. What do you think, man? I am excited to watch Zach Wilson play for the Florida Jets. It's the game of the week.

It's the only game of the week. Who's the hell they play? Browns Jets. Yeah, them. On Thursday. Yeah. Football's back. Yeah, that's right.

I thought it was like, it's the Browns, right? All right. Yeah. Game of the Week song is back. Probably going to retire it until the regular season starts. Yeah, sure you are. I really don't care that much about the game because it's going to be a lot of backups. But hey, it'll be cool to watch a little football. Well, we thought that last year,

and then Josh Jacobs ended up starting. And obviously that meant they hated him, and he was going to have a terrible year. McDaniels explained why he did it, and I think his rationale was pretty good after the game. But in the moment, it was like, oh, just a sign that they just do not value him. All right, listen, you know what I value?

I value St. Jude and all the opportunities that you're going to have this month to donate to St. Jude, which will culminate in our draft-a-thon late August, which will be a six-hour live stream, plus maybe some HQ, but if you're familiar with it, we do it every year.

We bring in industry guests. We talk fantasy football. We raise money, but the money is really, most of it's going to be raised between now and then. So you've got a month now to help us out. I'll tell you more. We have an eBay page.

We still have the tiny URL slash FFT donate that you can go to, tiny URL slash FFT donate. Look at this, be a guest picker on Cover 3's ACC Lockspot. That's going for over $1,000. That's great. We don't have a ton of stuff listed now, but throughout the month there will be so many things, including the Fantasy Football Today Open,

your chance to be in our really cool podcast leagues, basically. There are going to be eight leagues. Jamie's going to have a league. Dave's going to have a league. I'm going to have a league. Five other leagues. There are 88 spots available, 12-team leagues. You get 15 weeks in that first league.

If you win it, you advance to the Champions League, basically. And then over the next two weeks, we crown a champion out of, what, 96 people, including eight analysts. One of you will be, and maybe it'll be me, you never know, will be the FFT Open champion. So those are all going to be available for auction, or really not an auction, for $250 starting on Thursday. So keep that URL in mind, tinyurl.com slash fftdonate. Should be in the afternoon. I don't know if we've 100% settled on a time, but that should be settled by today. So I'll keep everybody posted.

But Thursday, it's on. Claim your spot in a league. We also have a mock draft tonight, Tuesday night, 8 p.m. Eastern. You'll see it only on YouTube, youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday. If you want to be, it's a funny comment in the chat here.

If you want to be in the mock draft and you're on YouTube right now, you can be in it. Hit the like button. We'll be giving away a spot in the mock draft tonight at 8 o on YouTube right now, you can be in it. Hit the like button. We'll be giving away a spot in the mock draft tonight at 8 o'clock Eastern. You got to be there. You got to be present. You got to be on time, ready to make your picks.

Every time we get 50 likes, we're going to give away another spot. So hit that like button, and our producer, Thomas Schaefer, will figure out a way to get one of you or four of you in the draft tonight. All right, let's go to the news and notes. Oh, man, two Denver wide receivers going to miss time. KJ Hamler, he has a mild heart irritant, and he will have to take care of that. Hopes to be back this season,

but Tim Patrick will not play this season. He tore his Achilles. He tore his ACL last year in the preseason. Now a torn Achilles, and that is just terrible., um, hope for a speedy recovery for him. But is there any Dave, any fantasy impact here for the guys that are there? Well, obviously this helps Cortland Sutton potentially see a few more targets per game over the balance of the season because they don't have a surefire number three receiver. Could open the door for Dulcich.

Same exact thing. I think Judy really isn't touched. Marvin Mims is a name to watch. He's their rookie wide receiver. He's a fast guy. He started camp. I think he had a mild injury that kept him sidelined. Still might have it.

But he's someone that you could look at in deeper leagues, obviously in rookie drafts. He's already getting taken in that round two-ish range. But I do think this opens the door for Sutton to be a little bit more appealing as a bench receiver. All right. You know what, Schaefer? Let's get Joey Wright in our mock tonight. And Joey, let's get Joey.

Joey's also a podcaster, fantasy analyst. Let's get Joey on the live stream tonight. All right, Joey, I know you're watching. You're on YouTube right now. So another reason for those fantasy football fans out there to join our live stream tonight, youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday at 8 o'clock. Joey's going to be on with us, and he's a great guy.

We haven't had him on as a guest on this podcast yet, but we should. We'll have him on tonight. More news, Jamie, Zach Moss. You've made a case for, yet, but we should. We'll have him on tonight. More news, Jamie. Zach Moss. You've made a case for, hey, take a late-round flyer on Zach Moss. Well, he broke his arm,

and he's out four to six weeks. So he's another running back on the Colts, for those of you who don't know, who took over, kind of beat out Deion Jackson late last year, got a lot of work, had a huge week 18, and now is there a point of drafting any Colts running back?

He could be ready for the start of the season. What do you make of this? Again, I think if you're in your dynasty leagues right now and there's ad drops, clearly Evan Null should have been drafted in a rookie draft, but he's somebody that I would look at as a potential even complement to Jonathan Taylor. He could be a pass-catching running back for what he showed in college. but he's somebody that I would look at as a potential even compliment to Jonathan Taylor.

He could be a pass-catching running back for what he showed in college. And then Deion Jackson is somebody that they still like as well. So they signed somebody. I don't remember his name. It's not a significant ad. I think something more for depth today or yesterday. But look, if this Jonathan Taylor situation plays out in the most disastrous way, one of these guys is going to get work. So we'll see.

Evan Hull had a bunch of catches. I say Evan Hull. Yeah, Hull and Void. 33 catches and 55 catches in his last two seasons at Northwestern. Yep. I'm going to fire through the rest of this, guys. Dallas running back Ronald Jones is suspended two games

for violating the PED policy. Dave, pick a backup running back for the Cowboys. Malik Davis. They really like Deuce Vaughn, by the way. And I saw Patrick C. Walker, who I think covers the Cowboys for their team website, used to work for us a little bit.

He said that he's actually for a guy who's very, very tiny. Doing a nice job running between tackles. And I saw somebody tweet something funny. It said, Darren Sproul's walked so Deuce Vaughn can run. for a guy who's very, very tiny, doing a nice job running between tackles. And I saw somebody funny, tweeted something funny. It said, Darren Sproles walked, so Deuce Vaughn can run.

Deuce Vaughn. He's kind of like a low-rent version of Sproles. And he wears 42. I think Sproles was 43, their numbers. Okay, he is small. He's tiny, yeah. I don't know if it makes much sense to talk about guys running between the tackles just yet.

There's a video of him running between the tackles, and it looks like he escapes like five tackles, but it's clearly not a tackle drill. So he probably would have had like a four-yard gain, but it looks like he had like a 20-yard gain because no one was actually tackling him. Well, the thing you want to see is, is he getting through the hole, you know, and not being bottled up? You know, because they're not going to hit him there. But if he's getting through it, you know, not getting wrapped up, it's what happens on the second level.

You know, that's what you're looking at. Pete Carroll says he cannot imagine Jackson Smith and Jigba not being part of the mix right from the beginning. Can you guys imagine taking Jackson Smith and Jigba ahead of Tyler Lockett? No, not yet. Mike Williams has been playing in the slot. He's been moving around the formation more than he used to. Do we like that for Mike Williams? Yeah.

Okay. That's that, you know, last year, Keenan Allen wasn't slot dominant. They moved him outside a little bit. I wonder if this is just another change that the Chargers are making to try and get everybody mix and match so that no one is pegged to being a slot guy or an outside guy. I'm curious to see how this offense really looks. All the reports from camp have been they're just crushing it on longer throws

and Quentin johnson's making highlight real catches eventually that'll trickle down to mike williams being pretty good i've never been a big mike williams guy but he's somebody else who's moved up a little bit for me in my rankings all right you're referencing the athletic story right yeah uh a lot of this is first off kellenellen Moore's influence. So whatever happened last year, I think you kind of throw it out. So Moore's influence on what they're looking at. And I think it's just going to be fun to see all these guys,

which is why Gerald Everett's a great late-round flyer. And I think dismissing Quentin Johnston with there's some thought of, oh, he needs an injury to one of the two guys, which they, you know, missed a combined 11 games last year. He's going to play a lot and it's going to be, it's going to be interesting to see how all these guys work together. You say in a fun way, you say dismiss everything from last year. Do you think that they still throw as much as they did last year? Oh, they're going to throw more.

Ooh, they could, that, that would mean that they would be the team that throws the most of anybody in the NFL. I think they were second in pass rate last year. Could they be first in pass rate this year? It would not shock me in the least. I'd love to see it. I don't know that they're going to throw more. I don't know how you can expect that.

That's like a crazy amount of throwing, but they're going to throw a lot. Maybe they'll throw more. Whether they throw more or less, they're going to throw a lot. And by'll throw more. Whether they throw more or less, they're going to throw a lot. And by the way, I'm tired of doing mock drafts because I make it such a point to get Quentin Johnston, and I feel like by the time we start doing our actual drafts,

he'll be a round or two earlier. So take him a round or two earlier if you like him. I don't blame you for liking him. He's good. It's one of the two picks you got me in our Dynasty League, which I was upset about. Yeah, baby. That's what I'm talking about. Jamie and I have back-to-back picks in the Dynasty League.

Brees Hall expected back in a couple of weeks. Is there any scenario where you think James Cook could end up going ahead of Brees Hall? Yeah. Dalvin Cook signs and Brees Hall stays on the pup. All right. Let's say Dalvin Cook signs and Brees Hall doesn't stay on the pup.

I still think I'm taking Brees Hall before James Cook. I'd still take Brees Hall. Brees, James, Dalvin, if that happens. Schaefer, you've got to make a thumbnail. We should just be prepared for the Dalvin Cook to the Jets podcast. Make three. Make Patriots, Jets, and Dolphins. Shane Zylstra, I mentioned. Lions tight end. He's out up Dolphins. Shane Zylstra I mentioned.

Lions tight end. He's out up to six months. Anthony Richardson mispracticed. He had minor nasal surgery. He should be back today. I meant to bring this up on yesterday's show. I didn't get a chance. We'll do this real quick.

We'll take a break, and then we'll talk about more risers and fallers. I was looking back at some of my notes from a year ago, from early August 2022, and just some of the preseason hype. And I just want to read, I'm not going to, I don't think I'm going to read the source, uh, cause I don't want to embarrass anyone, but some of the things I put in my notes, Elijah Moore seems to firm have a firmly established himself as the number one wide receiver. According to blank, uh, quote, he seems to make at least one big play every practice. He's in line for a big year. End quote.

That was Elijah Moore. This one I think is my favorite. The Falcons have a lot of questions this year, but Pitts is not one of them. Through a week, he's been the most dominant player Atlanta has. It might not be close. I think I saw something similar just the other day. With Pitts?

There you go. There have already been enough reports on desmond ridder not being consistently accurate to make me a little bit nervous on pits uh then there were some good ones though travis etn has been the star of camp according to jaguar report that was from last year and this is another one that's not fair to give credit to the ones that were right and not give credit to the ones why i don't want to embarrass anyone fair to give credit to the ones that were right and not give credit to the ones that were right. Why? I don't want to embarrass anyone. I'm giving credit to the ones that were right. And this was from ESPN.

All signs are pointing to Amandra St. Brown enjoying a breakout second season after setting numerous rookie records in 2021. St. Brown's production skyrocketed when Lions coach Dan Campbell gave former tight ends coach Ben Johnson a bigger role in play-calling responsibilities, blah, blah, blah. So that was a very good call from Eric Woodyard of ESPN back then.

All right, so take it, the good and the bad, take it with a grain of salt when you see some of these reports. Okay, let's take a break. When we come back, rankings risers right after this. Jamie had a list of rankings risers. Dave said he mostly agreed with them. We'll see if there are any that he disagrees with. We already got James Cook.

Let's get James Conner. Currently, over the last month on NFC, he is a round seven pick, James Conner. He's RB27 after Rashad White and after DeAndre Swift, ahead of David Montgomery and Isaiah Pacheco. So Conner's RB27 on NFC over the last month. Jamie, where is he for you?

He is just outside the top 15. I think there's a good enough reason to take him in round four. Holy cow. James Conner, just outside the top 15 in our consensus rankings. He's 16th in PPR and round four, maybe. Dave, your thoughts? I agree.

If not, even lean a little heavier into James Conner, which makes me a little uncomfortable, but I think that just tells you all about the running back position. I've got him 14th, and I think he is a round four pick. I started thinking about him comparing him to Alexander Madison, two running backs that should get a lot of work in their offenses. And in the case of Connor versus Madison, I feel like Connor is the better talent.

I took Connor over Madison. I would think. I know it feels gross. But it feels gross talking about anybody on Arizona because Arizona is going to be gross this year. But Arizona was kind of gross last year. He was pretty good. He's averaged over 15 PPR points per game each of the last two years.

He's been great. Yeah. He's been top 10 per volume touchdowns. He gives you a lot of the things that you want from a fantasy running back. So I think he's one of those settle for number two fantasy running backs before 50th overall. In four games with Colt McCoy, four games that McCoy threw 21 or more passes,

Connor scored, I'll just round up, 27, 13, 23, and 18 PPR points per game. Rounded down or up, but I didn't want to give the decimals. But he was incredible. But he scored a touchdown, at least one touchdown in every game. He also had three or more catches

in three of the four games. We did it against good opponents, but okay, let me just give you the downside of Connor, because round four, that's that would be quite a rise. Over the last two seasons, there have been 46 running backs with 200 or more carries.

He ranks 41st out of 46 in explosive run rate. 33rd in yards before contact per carry, 31st in yards after contact per carry. I think his longest run last year was 23 yards. Two years ago, he averaged 3.7 yards per carry, or 3.9 maybe.

Bounced back to 4.3 last year, but he just does not make big plays. And they were not good last year, but he only played in three games where they lost by 10 or more points. In those games, Conor had 10, 14, and 15 carries. So I don't know. I see a lot of reasons not to like him. I don't know that he's that good anymore, I think is basically what it comes down to.

He's also played, how about this? He's played behind PFF's second-worst run-blocking team three straight years. He's been on a terrible— He's been behind a terrible offensive line three straight years. I know they drafted a running back in the first round, but they still might have a terrible offensive line. You mean a running back in the first round, yeah.

What did I say? A running back? My bad. A running back. It would be bad if they drafted a running back in the first round. So that would be— My case against him, if I were making one, would be, look, we love the touches, but he's not good enough to justify going that high with him, which RB's 16. Has he ever been?

Nervous about Najee, too. Yeah, I'm saying that's the type of guys we're looking at here. We're looking at guys that are going to get volume here. I would definitely take Jameer Gibbs over him. I would take Travis Etienne over him. I think Connor, rightly so, and I would take Dobbins over him. But I think he belongs in the group of Madison and Damian Pierce and Miles Sanders, just looking at what the – and Najee Harris.

I think that's kind of where he lives. Guy's going to get a lot of work. Offense, in his case, is clearly questionable. But the guys behind him are terrible you know and that and that's the i think the selling point is like he's not coming off the field and i think when you look at obviously the the receiving options on this team they're very thin you know like we're we're gonna pump up understandably so trey mcbride because of of his situation you know again no zackerts for probably the majority of the season

uh they just lost over 200 targets. You know, with DeAndre Hopkins gone, Zach Ertz probably not playing, and A.J. Green, who was, you know, in the top five of targets, if you can even remember that. He had 47 targets last year, which is not bad if that gets attributed, you know, to the running back position. So, you know, they're missing over 200 targets that are going to go somewhere. And, you know, if Kyler is right at some point early in the season, that just makes that offense more deadly

and so more scoring chances for him. I know, like you said, Adam, he did well with Colt McCoy, but you'd rather see Kyler Murray there to make this offense more successful. So it might be a reach to say round four. I would prefer to get him round five. And if he's going in round seven, depending on where you're looking,

if you're following rank lists, you're looking at our rank lists, clearly we're going to have him higher than the average draft position. But if you're looking. If you're following rank lists, you're looking at our rank lists, clearly we're going to have him higher than the average draft position. But if you're looking at projections, which is going to drive a lot of what ADP looks like because of auto picks, then you might see him get pushed down a little bit

and you get him at a discounted price. So round five is where you'd want to draft him, but round four is the earliest I would consider taking him. I'm just going to say you're going to get a lot of him because I don't think his ADP, I'm looking at draft sharks right now. He's around six pick. He's RB25.

He's after Cam Akers. He's after Madison, DeAndre Swift. Dalvin Cook is still ahead of him. I guess the last guy, we don't have to talk the whole show about Connor, but everything you said about Connor, I feel like it applies to Miles Sanders, except Sanders is younger, has been a better running back.

Not as good as catching the ball, though, I guess. Right. But why would you take Connor over Sanders? If you buy into Sanders being much more involved in the passing game, then you should absolutely take Miles Sanders. Agreed. That's what Heath does, right? Heath has Sanders over Connor.

Yeah, Heath has Sanders. I still haven't pulled up, so I can tell you? Heath has Sanders over Conor. Yeah, Heath has Sanders. I still haven't pulled up, so I can tell you. Heath has Sanders over Christian McCaffrey. Heath has Sanders 11th, and he has Conor 19th. For me, it's Conor, Madison, Sanders, so they're three picks apart. To me, they're similar. Dave has... Oh, Sanders is way down there for me. A big difference, yeah. Heath, Sanders 24, and Conor 14. Michael Thomas is a down there for me. A big difference, yeah. He's Sanders 24 and Connor 14.

Michael Thomas is a riser for Jamie. Right now, NFC ADP has Michael Thomas as wide receiver 46 as a round nine pick. Behind Elijah Moore, behind Cortland Sutton, behind Quentin Johnston. Jamie, where do you have Michael Thomas? So I just want to say I'm not going to fold again. I'm not ranking him as a starter.

I'm not going to go overboard. But he is ranking him as a starter. I'm not going to go overboard. But he is, you know, crept up to close to being in the three-receiver range. Just outside of that, I think he's right around 36, 37. But, look, if he's healthy, you know you're going to get a steal on draft day for however many games he may play. He's only played 10 over the last three seasons. But, I mean, you think about it even last year, the three games that he played, he averaged 16 PPR points

per game, just over that. While Chris Olave should be the new leader in the clubhouse in terms of best receivers on this team, he's got to get used to a new quarterback in Derek Carr, but this guy still has the ability to be a

I don't want to say a significant difference maker, but enough of a difference maker, especially at the value that you're getting him at, you know, so he'll probably creep into the top 100. If he stays healthy, he'll probably creep maybe into the, into the top 80 picks if he stays healthy. But I think again, if he does play 10 plus games, 13 plus games, anything close to a full season, you know what the upside is. He's never going to get back to his 2019 performance where he was a 23 point per game guy, but 16 per game to get that late it's it's certainly worth your your efforts to draft him in the appropriate spot keep the name in mind if you don't take a lot of wide receivers early on

in your drafts i i already think he is a top 100 player i've got him at 91st overall but still outside of my top 36 among wide outs great upside upside, huge downside, but the value is terrific. Okay, that's Michael Thomas. You've got all of the Chiefs wide receivers, basically, that are not Kadarius Toney as risers. Sky Moore, Rasheed Rice, and Richie James. Would you take Sky Moore ahead of Michael Thomas, Jamie? They are back-to-back. I would take Thomas first, but I like

the setup for both these guys. But I mean, look, I think it depends on your build. If you're looking for, like Dave said, if you want to take a receiver who can clearly, I don't want to say win your league, but again, based on the cost, Michael Thomas, if he plays, he's going to be, again, a difference maker. Sky Moore, I think, is still more of a project. So we'll see how these targets get distributed. We'll see what happens with Kadarius Toney when he's back because he's going to play.

We can't be approaching this as if Kadarius Toney is not going to be there. But Rice, James, Justin Ross, that's another guy that you should consider a riser as well. All these guys are getting a lot of hype and a lot of publicity from the Chiefs media because they're on the field making plays at this point. So I think Marcos Valdez-Scanling is what he is. You've already seen a year of him in the system.

I don't think things are dramatically changing for him. But everybody else has an ability to step up. And to me, Sky Moore is the one you should look at. But again, Rice and Richie James. James is the most proven. So if he's going to be a guy that Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid trust, then again, worth your effort to take him with a late-round pick. How many of these guys do you draft in a 15-round draft, Dave?

Let's say kicker and DST, typical draft. One. And it's Sky Moore. What do you think Sky Moore could be a top 20 wide receiver yes i'm not going to draft him with that but i do think that that's his that's basically his upside in ppr okay um so i i mentioned this on i don't remember which show i was on with jamie but patrick mahomes throwing to slot receivers this This excludes Travis Kelsey from the conversation. He's finished in the top 10 among all NFL passers in targets to his slot receivers last

year, top five in yards gained by those receivers and touchdown scored. He was also in those exact same ranges in 2021, 2020, and 2018, as well as top five in yards and touchdowns in his injury shortened 2019. Mahomes does throw to his slot receivers quite a bit. The question is, is Sky Moore going to play enough in the slot? That's where Richie James has made a difference in his career. He's been a good slot receiver when he hasn't made mistakes. If that continues on, Sky Moore could be an outside receiver in two receiver sets.

Chiefs use a lot of multi-tight end sets, and when they go to three receivers, maybe he stays outside. Maybe he comes inside. He played a lot of snaps in the slot last year. So did Juju. He's gone. So did McColl Hardman. He's gone. I think Sky Moore leads this team in slot snaps for wide receivers, and Mahomes has a penchant for leaning on them. And he says he's more comfortable in Andy Reid's offense. It all sounds like a really good breakout year. Okay. This is a Sky Moore and a Juju Smith-Schuster stat.

So last year, Juju had nine games with at least five targets. And in those nine games, he averaged 15.8 PPR points per game. Beautiful. So if that's going to be the opportunity that Sky Moore steps into, then that's the chances. Now, again, is he going to get consistently five targets per game? It's not a huge number, but it's not

an insignificant one either. No, but you said five or more. So, like, some of their had some 9-10 target games. There were some games where Juju was five and had a good stat line. So it's not like he's going to have to get to eight. But it still shows you that Juju can play a little bit when the target's there, and obviously that's the opportunity that, you know, this,

this, this particular player, whether it's more, whether it's James, whether it's both of them, like Dave said, whether they're mixing and matching. I think the, the question becomes is how good is either Rice or Ross? Because if that player is good on the outside, Valdez Scanling is not moving. He is going to be the one that stays on the field. If the other guy can be the outside receiver, then you have the opportunity to see if they trust more, more. Or they don't trust those guys and more kicks outside. And then Richie James goes back to playing the sucks. I don't think they're playing Richie James outside.

And if that's the guy that Mahomes and Reed trusts and they want more on the field, then the other big receiver is probably not going to play. Now again, Valdez Scanlon could be the one coming off the field, but it just seems as if everything you're seeing out of training camp. And clearly he's the one that's the most comfortable in this offense. He's probably staying in his role. Okay.

Yeah. Sky Moore, Quentin Johnston, sky, um, sky more, but they're very close. Okay. Another Jamie riser was Sam Laporta. We talked about him they're very close. Okay.

Another Jamie riser was Sam Laporta. We talked about him at the top of the show. So how about the risers for Dave? Bijan Robinson is a riser for you. From where to where? Bijan Robinson? Is that not? No.

Who? Brian Robinson. Okay. I should have just copied and pasted instead of typing. Brian Robinson is a raker for you. It's a riser for you. I'm all thrown off. I ranked him too.

Yeah. Brian Robinson is a rankings riser for you. Do you, would you, okay, enough jokes. Would I take him over? Be John Robinson. Take him over. Be John Robinson John Robinson? No, he's not quite there. All right. What do you got on Brian Robinson? I was originally not drafting much of Brian Robinson, but I like that he's starting to

make an impact in the passing game. And you know, this is Eric B enemy's offense and we didn't see a specific running back breakout in Kansas city for a long period of time. I know the cream hunt was really the last one that did it. Edwards. He layered into it. Pacheco did toward the end of last season, but I wonder if Robinson in a full off season where he's not getting shot is going to end up being more than capable of being better than a typical two down running back.

And maybe he can catch some flare passes on first and second down. And he's obviously going to be their guy in short yardage goal line situations when they're not in a hurry up situation. I kind of view him as another one. He's almost like the Michael Thomas of running backs. And I'm drafting them in the same range where if I need a running back and it's round seven or eight, this is who I'm gravitating toward. And I'll say, all right, fine.

I'll start them to begin the year, and we'll see what happens. I like Antonio Gibson, too, and I like in PPR that he's got plenty of upside and all the talk that he's going to be in that passing downs role. That's not a surprise. But I do think that Brian Robinson does have potential to potentially break out and be a good number two running back this season. Yeah. So Brian Robinson or I'm sorry. I hope you didn't say AJ Dillon. I'd still lean toward Dillon.

Okay. Because he's an Aaron Jones injury away from being amazing. He's already got the goal line role for Green Bay. That's a team that I think is going to try and run a little bit more than they have in the past. Okay. I don't think you have to reach for Robinson over Dylan. I think you can take Dylan in round seven and Robinson in round eight if you wanted to. I don't want to.

Maybe I don't want to take two trap backs or, well, I, Brian Robinson is the ideal trap back. He just, it, unless they change how they're going to operate, it feels like as if he's just going to be the first,

second down guy, he'll get some, maybe moderate increases in the passing game. They're going to have to score a lot. They now have a guy that might run a little bit more at the quarterback spot with Sam Howell based on what he did at college. And so, you know, I think for Robinson, increases in the passing game, they're going to have to score a lot. They now have a guy that might run a little bit more at the quarterback spot with Sam Howell based on what he did at college. And so, you know, I think for Robinson,

I will be very curious to see what happens if Gibson gets hurt because Gibson's had an injury track record as well. You know, will it be, was it Rodriguez? Who they drafted? It's Rodriguez, the rookie. Yeah, he can catch. Who could be involved in the passing game? Or will they give Robinson more of an edge there?

If they're not, if he's not scoring touchdowns, he's, I think, going to be very disappointing. I think you're going to get a lot of 18 for 80 where the rushing average looks good, he doesn't score, one catch for four yards, those type of numbers, and could just be very frustrating for Brian Robinson. So I don't disagree

with where Dave is drafting him. I don't think there's a bad thing to put him as one of your bench running backs, but he's not somebody that I'm very excited about. Next rankings riser for Dave is Devante Smith in Jigba. Did I get that right? Jackson Smith in Jigba, currently on NFC Wide Receiver 40, a round eight pick.

Going after these young guys, Burks, Dotson, and Jordan Addison. Do you think JSN should go ahead of Traylon Burks, Jahks, Dotson and Jordan Addison. Do you think JSN should go ahead of Traylon Burks, Jahan Dotson or Jordan Addison? I don't think he should. I think that the, the hype is going to get out of control over Smith and Jigba. And I don't even have him as a round eight pick yet,

but he's, he's going to be a factor in this offense. And what I'm really learning about Seattle is they're probably going to be a lot more pass heavy than they've ever been before. And I think this is what they were building toward in the draft when they got Smith and Jigba. And then they took two running backs who could catch the ball out of the backfield.

And now they're in a spot where Kenneth Walker's hurt. He's going to miss some time. I still think he's going to be their lead back. Charbonnet's got the shoulder injury. That could sideline him a little bit longer. They might just say, screw it. We've got three amazing wide receivers. Let's use them. And Gino Smith was good last year throwing the football against everybody except San Francisco. So Smith and Juba could end up getting more targets than I initially thought. But I think the Seahawks throw more than I initially thought. And that's going to beawks throw more than I initially thought.

And that's going to be good for all the pass catchers for Seattle. Yeah, I have trouble knowing when to take him. He's in a big group of receivers that I kind of like. I mean, I like Burks. I like Dotson. I like Addison. Gabe Davis, Brandon Cooks,

they're right after Jackson, Smith, and Jigba. And so I think you always have to ask yourself when you're trying to select between five players or so, and there's only one that you're going to get, I think you always have to ask yourself about upside. It's not the only thing that comes into play. But does JSN really have big upside this year without an injury to Lockett or Metcalf? Right. That's where I get hung up on him, too. Does he? What do you think?

No. I would say no. Unless he's just amazing, but I don't know. All right. Elijah Moore is your last one. And last rankings riser here. He's going just after that group. You know, JSN, Gabe Davis, Brandon Cooks. Then it's Elijah Moore, Cortland Sutton and Qu 100 overall. So he really moved for me from like Deadsville to a top 110 pick, something like that, just because he's getting a new lease on his career in Cleveland. Good quarterback throwing to him and Deshaun Watson still very worried about how much that team's going to end up throwing. But I do think Elijah Moore can be a good bench receiver. Okay, let's take a break. When we come back, we'll talk about some of the rankings fallers here. We've told you about our risers who have been James Cook, James Conner, Michael Thomas, Chiefs wide receivers, Sam Laporta, Brian Robinson, B. John Robinson, Jackson Smith and Jigba, and Elijah Moore. When we come back, DeAndre Swift is a

faller in Jamie's rankings. We'll tell you why after this. All right, let's talk about DeAndre Swift. Right now, he's RB26, just before James Conner. I know you like Conner a lot better. David Montgomery is another guy that Swift is going ahead of in the ADP I'm looking at here, but RB26 for DeAndre Swift. Jamie, where do you have DeAndre Swift? Just in that same range. I think, again, it's just a matter of where I probably had him, which was a couple spots, I think, too high. But I still think he's the best Eagles running back to take first. You should take him first.

We talked about this yesterday. Is his work in the passing game a negative for what this offense is? You know, the fact that they were using him a lot more in passing down plays, but look, that's clearly a strength for him. And is, is that something that this Eagles offense sort of develops a little bit more, you know, as, as you noted Adam yesterday, you know, fewest running back targets in 2022. And so was that more a Miles Sanders thing or was that more an offense thing? And they did have a change in their offensive coaching staff with Shane Steichen leaving and their quarterbacks coach now being promoted offense coordinator who there's still some

question about who's going to call plays there in Philadelphia because that's something Nick Sirianni did previously before giving that to Steichen. So I think it's an interesting wrinkle that could help DeAndre Swift, but still somewhat of a negative unless they just completely alter their philosophy. But it was just more a matter of, I want to cook higher, I want to Kamara higher until there's a suspension.

And he just dropped a couple of spots. All right. Dave, do you share the concerns about DeAndre Swift? What does he do if he doesn't catch four passes a game? Does he even get six carries, seven carries a game if Rashad Penny's healthy? I think his path to being a great fantasy running back is if Penny gets hurt, which I think that's probably going to happen, and then he stays healthy, which I don't know if that's going to happen. They love him as a pass catcher. I'm sure that they're going to utilize him in that way.

I just don't know if they're going to utilize him enough. He is my 30th ranked running back in full PPR, and I would take him in round seven. But does anyone have a little FOMO here on Swift that you're talking about a great offense, and no one's going to argue that. Great offense, maybe best offensive line in football, and a running back that has kind of been a stud.

I mean, he's been great. So that combination is really exciting. Which running back are you talking about there? Well, yeah, Penny's been great. Penny has been. He has been. You know, I wonder how much all of the injuries might take a toll on him. But no, you're absolutely right.

But Penny is the one guy. I don't love to buy into injury prone. If there was one player, it's Penny. But Swift obviously has concerns too. My question though, are you concerned about missing out on an explosive player? Because that is one of his strengths. He makes explosive plays on an offense that is going to also create a lot of explosive plays i do have a little bit of deandre

swift fomo but i also see huge bus potential yes no i i i don't see huge bus potential at this spot you know so i think that's kind of where it comes into play like i think around seven if this is the spot where he's going to go it's worth taking the chance on especially if you have a heavy wide receiver build because this is the type of guy that if he does hit and your receivers and let's say tight end quarterback, whatever the combination of your first six picks are, he's, he's a potential difference maker. But again, you know, he's, he's been banged up. The thing that you, you know, sort of can compare a little bit is yes, this Eagles offensive line is on a different level. The Detroit offensive line wasn't bad last year. He was sharing clearly with Jamal Williams,

who led the NFL in rushing touchdowns, so you can't sort of give him the pass there. But if Penny does go down, does it automatically become Swift stays in the same role that they're going to use him in, and they put in, let's say, Boston Scott, or maybe Kenneth Gainwell would probably say more Boston Scott because I think that's where Maury profiles as a first and second down runner as opposed to Gainwell.

Or we've seen this general manager before be aggressive and go out and get somebody remember when when their their previous Super Bowl run they went on they got JGI you know so they they could you know still kick the tires on somebody at some point in camp or you know let's say one of Zeke, Fournette, Hunt even Donald Cook doesn't get signed you know that's somebody that they bring in early in the season if there's an injury. So I think you got to factor that in just with this team because that's how he rose him as MO.

But I think Swift is in a great spot. You know, it's a contract year. I know that's not very good for running backs anymore, but, you know, we saw what that meant for, you know, Saquon and Josh Jacobs, guys that had battled some injuries and, you know, finally put it all together. Again, different level. I don't want to compare them to those guys,

but you know what I'm getting at, a guy that finally maybe has that complete season. It's going to have to come with more production on the ground and not through the air because of how this team operates, and then you still have the Jalen Hurts factor, who you know is going to get his chances, certainly at the goal line with the push. That's still, for some reason, legal.

All right. Devon Achain is another rankings follower for Jamie. certainly at the goal line with the push. That's still, for some reason, legal. All right. Devon A-Chain is another rankings faller for Jamie. Right now he's RB42 in ADP. A-Chain, why is he a faller? So, first off, obviously, there's still the Dalvin Cook news hanging out there that the Dolphins may sign him. But I think it's just time to stop ignoring the fact that as long as they're healthy, Jeff Wilson and Raheem Oster

are going to be the guys that get the most touches in this Dolphins backfield. And so, um, you haven't really heard a lot of buzz about a chain so far in practice, which is, I don't necessarily think that's telling, but it's also telling of a player who's supposed to be as fast as he is. That isn't getting a lot of publicity. And I've just, you know, obviously we live in South Florida, so I pay attention a lot to the Dolphins, whether it's just by osmosis of, you know, turn on the radio or just, you know, obviously we live in South Florida, so I pay attention a lot to the Dolphins, whether it's just by osmosis of, you know, turning on the radio or just, you know, talking to people.

And, you know, I have a few connections still to cover the team. And I was listening to David Foronis who covers the Dolphins. And this happened to me a few, last week at some point, you know, it wasn't just this, but David Foronis covers the team for the Sun Sentinel. And he was asked, what about the backfield? You know, cause Dalvin Cook, whatever. And he was like, Jeff Wilson, Raheem Mostert, still the guys.

You know, they're excited about A-chain. That's all you hear. They're excited about A-chain. They're excited about A-chain. Is he going to get enough touches if they're healthy? And the other part of this is, Savan Ahmed is somebody that they're getting a lot of buzz about. And so is it just too crowded a backfield for a rookie to come in

and leap over, especially a small rookie to leap over Wilson and most are without those guys getting hurt. And so I don't have a problem drafting a chain. I think he's got a chance to be, uh, you use the word gadget player, Adam for them. And I don't think that's, that's a bad call, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I think we can see him, you know, get some opportunities to, to make plays, hopefully in the passing game, that isn't really Tua's MO, that isn't really this offense's MO if you go back and just marry it to Kyle Shanahan's system. But there is a chance for him to still be on the field

enough and to get enough chances. But I think it's going to A, take an injury to probably both of them, and we may not see it until later in the season. So I put him third among the Dolphins running backs. I don't think there's a strong enough argument to say there's not more upside for him because there might be. But I think Wilson and Mostert, still enough cachet on this team with this coach and what they showed last year, that they're going to be better than A-Chain for at least this season. Okay.

Michael Pittman is around six pick currently in ADP, wide receiver 32. Pittman's going behind Ayuk, behind Deontay Johnson, and Tyler Lockett, ahead of Mike Evans and Marquise Brown. Where do you find yourself ranking Michael Pittman, Jamie? Behind these guys also. You know, it's hard to trust with what the flaws anthony richardson can be a great fantasy quarterback i we we had this conversation item on the phone uh driving in for me driving to work you know we were talking about some quarterback situations and what would the colts do next year if they have the number one overall pick this was

a fun yeah what do you think i think if they end up with the number one overall pick it is caleb williams city and i'm sorry they will figure out a trade partner for Anthony Richardson. They might. You know, I mean, Jim Mercer is not crazy at all. So, you know, I think unless Richardson just falls on his face, I would probably say they go Marvin Harrison and pair him with Richardson and try to give him that weapon that most of these young quarterbacks need. But, look, if he flops, this clearly ties into Pittman. If he flops as a passer, Pittman is not going to be good.

And, you know, I think Pittman is going to need a lot of volume and I don't think he's going to get it. You know, we saw that last year. Um, so it's just, uh, as much as I, I, I hope to see Anthony Richardson and be a successful passer. I can't trust it enough to buy into Michael Pittman as anything more than a good number three receiver that you settle for in PPR and more of a number four receiver and non PPR. I, how about this? This is a little sort of counter.

It's not counterintuitive. I mean, it seems counterintuitive, but it isn't. I am so low on Anthony Richardson as a passer this year that I actually think I might, I should be higher on Michael Pittman because I am expecting some Gardner Minshew this year. And I think Minshew would be very good for, for Pittman. I think I would agree so much better than the crap that they had last year. I look at Pittman. I looked

at some of the numbers this morning, advanced metrics. It doesn't paint the picture of a great wide receiver. He's not a big play guy. He doesn't make a lot of explosive plays. He hasn't so far through three seasons. He has a high catch rate. He's been a good yards per catch, good yards per target guy. He's a solid, nice, solid receiver.

I think he could have, in the Minshew games, I think he'd be a must start as a number two guy, I'd say. In the Richardson games, I'm terrified. How many Minshew games, I think he'd be a must start as a number two guy, I'd say. In the Richardson games, I'm terrified. How many Minshew games are there going to be? Yeah, I don't know. Should I even factor that in or just assume it's going to be Richardson, and if it's Minshew, great.

But should I even factor that in at all if I'm drafting? There could be three or four games this year where Pittman benefits from Minshew playing. But I almost think in order for that to really make a difference in fantasy, Richardson's going to have to get hurt in the early portion of the season or miss games. Maybe he has to go and get another nasal surgery. And Minshew just catches fire and the Colts are winning. And that would mean that Minshew would continue to start and Pittman would continue to be great. I almost think that that's Pittman's best path.

He hasn't been a red zone dominator yet in his career. Richardson in the red zone last year threw about 60% of his targets to wide receivers, only six touchdowns in 12 games to wide receivers. I think with Pittman, he's barely a number three receiver in full PPR for me. JSN or Pittman? I currently have Pittman just he's barely a number three receiver in full PPR for me. JSN or Pittman? I currently have Pittman just based on the volume that I think he'll get,

but it's getting close. Yeah, they're three spots apart for me right now. They're farther than that for me, but it's close. They're eight spots apart among the receivers. I just want to remind everyone, Gardner Minshew's rookie season, DJ Chark was a top 20 wide receiver, 19th per game. He's been pretty good for wide receivers. I just want to remind everyone, Gardner Minshew's rookie season, DJ Chark was a top 20 wide receiver, 19th per game. He's been pretty good for wide receivers. What did he do

last year in his two games? Great. I mean, he threw for a ton of yards. He threw for like 275 yards. I'll tell you exactly. Well, I mean, I'll tell you how many fantasy points he got. 355 yards and 274 yards in two games for the Eagles last year. Okay.

AJ Brown and Devontae Smith. Devontae Smith. Yeah, those guys went bananas. I will say this, though, just in regard to Pittman, Adam. So we did our pick-by-pick draft yesterday, and it's PPR. We start three receivers. I was very torn between Pittman and Gabe Davis. I took Pittman.

You took Davis one pick later. So I was struggling with that one. Oh, yeah. I kind of get taking Davis between Pittman and Gabe Davis. I took Pittman. You took Davis one pick later. So I was struggling with that. Oh, yeah. I kind of get taking Davis over Pittman. There's more upside. But again, if if if Richardson surprises us and is a better passer than we he hasn't he hasn't surprised so far. Well, he's barely played with the first team offense.

Yeah. That's another issue. That was a PPR league we did yesterday. Yes. So no. Whatever. muffled yeah that's another issue that was a ppr league we did yesterday yes so no whatever gabe davis is so interesting because i philosophically think it's better you know if you have guys that are similar to take the number two guy on a great passing offense over the number one guy on a bad passing offense there's so many examples i mean i'm sure there are exceptions but philosophically i would say gabe davis but gabe dav I mean, I'd rather have T Higgins and Michael Pittman.

He's such a low catch guy, Gabe Davis. So as much as I like him, and we always talk about how much we like Gabe Davis, you just have to, the catches are going to be really low. Um, in PPR it's he's a, he's one of the guys that's a huge difference depending on the format. We had similar builds. Not to give away these stories that were going to be out at the end of the week, but you went with one, two receivers at that point,

and those two were A.J. Brown in round two for you and Amari Cooper in round four. This was Gabe Davis in one, two, three, four, five, six, in round seven. That was your third receiver, but you had your quarterback in tight end at that point. For me, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, in round 7. So that was your third receiver, but you had your quarterback and tight end at that point. For me, I had more running backs and a quarterback, but I also went with Amara St. Brown in round 2

and T. Higgins in round 3. So this was also my third receiver in round 7. And so again, like I was saying, I think from a floor perspective in PPR, I don't mind Pittman as a third receiver, but I think in terms of who has more upside, Gabe Davis, I think, definitely has more upside. In retrospect, sorry to get off track here, but these are such interesting decisions. I struggled so much with that A.J. Brown pick in full PPR because Garrett Wilson and Amonra St. Brown went right after him. And it was between those three for me.

You took Amonra St. Brown went right after him, and it was between those three for me. You took Amonra. But in retrospect, A.J. Brown and Gabe Davis in full PPR, you need some touchdowns. So that's maybe not something you want to do. Of course, I didn't plan it that way. It was a round two and a round seven pick, but it's something to think about. All right, how about George? Let's finish up here with George Pickens.

T.J. Hawkinson, and for Dave, Brees Hall has been a faller. George Pickens, currently wide receiver, 35 in ADP. Why is he a faller for you, Jamie? I just don't trust Kenny Pickett. I really don't. And Pickens has had some nice plays. He's certainly talking a good game

about what his expectations are for this season. But the last time a Steelers receiver talked a big game, he got traded to Chicago. It's going to be really, really interesting to see how these targets go. I don't think Deontay Johnson's targets are going anywhere. He's still going to be the go-to guy in this offense. But Pickens just makes me nervous. So it's not so much that I doubt the talent, I just doubt the system and I doubt the quarterback. So he's dropped a few spots for me. I'm too aggressive on Pickens. I love the talent. I love that he's a second year player with a franchise that's produced excellent wide receivers.

And by all accounts, it's Pickett who's taking a step forward. I hope so. I really do. I hope so as well. I know that that offensive line is going to be better this year. That'll give them a little more time and they're trying to get things going downfield. And that's where Pickens really excelled. He was dominant in contested catches last year, fifth best in success rate among all qualifying receivers caught. Almost 68% of his contested catches had 28 contested catch targets. I think there's a chance he could actually- Why did he have so many contested catches? Because his quarterback stinks. Well, right. But maybe the quarterback gets a little bit better and the offense gets a little bit better.

It would not surprise me if he ended up having more targets this year than Deontay Johnson. Oh, wow. I'll make that bet. Any bet you want to make. Any bet you want to make. I am aggressive on Pickens. I will take him as a top 75 type player in full people.

Wow. All right. That's fine. You call on your shot there on Pickens. What's the bet? Let's go. The odd day Johnson targets versus George Pickens. I feel like I think it could be really close between those two.

All right. Here's what it's a lunch. It's a lunch bet. But Jamie, I think you got to take it like this. But it's got to be a Primanti brothers. Is Primanti brothers. Come on. Primanti. Primanti. I don i think you got to take it like this but it's got to be a primanti brothers is primanti brothers come on primanti primanti i don't think you say i'm too busy eating there to name the place so listen first of all the whole like okay they put french fries in their sandwich wow that's the coleslaw too it's kind of a crazy deal but i don't go there that often just six times a year so anyway i think if Pickens has more targets than Deontay Johnson,

Jamie, you owe Dave three lunches. I'm giving Dave three to one odds on this. No, that's too much. That's too much. All right. I'll do it even up, Jamie. All right. Lunch bet.

Let it be known. I still have Deontay ranked higher than Pickens. So if I'm picking a Steelers receiver, it's going to be Deontay Johnson first. But just for the fun bet, because I like Pickens so much. Do we have an injury clause here? Primati Brothers, no injury clause. No, I mean, because Pickens can get hurt. I know.

Let's just make the bet. It's Primati Brothers. Plus, I want to see Jamie actually eat a Primati Brothers sandwich. I want to see what happens after. You need it. I think it should be. It's Primanti Brothers. Plus, I want to see Jamie actually eat a Primanti Brothers sandwich. I want to see what happens after. You need it. I think it's Primanti. You really got to. I don't think you say the T, but I could be wrong about that.

Primanti. You have two Steelers wide receivers in your top 30. Where do you have Friar? You have him 10th. Where do you have Kenny Pickett? Yeah, he's low. He should be higher. Yeah, you might have to get him up there.

Okay, sorry, I keep getting distracted. We have two more players, three more players. TJ Hawkinson, two more players. TJ Hawkinson, all right, did you drop him? He's tight end three in ADP. What did you drop him to? I only dropped him because I didn't want to give you too many risers and not enough fallers.

But I moved Darren Waller, and I think I did this about 10 days ago. I moved Darren Waller to tight end three. Waller over Hawkinson is really more a byproduct of Waller moving up and Hawkinson moving down. Someone says in the chat

that Jamie would not finish the Primanti Brothers burger. Disagree with that. Jamie's a very good eater. But you love Wallet. I'm fat. Preseason hype guy. All right, you moved him down to four. And Dave, you moved Brees Hall down. Right, I was very aggressive on Brees Hall,

and I didn't really change it until now. The fact that the Jets are even sniffing around Alvin Cook and Brees Hall is still not quite back yet. I just imagine that Brees Hall will end up being a difference maker in the second half of the season. So when you draft him, think about using him in November and December, not September and October. Fair enough.

And we'll talk more about Brees Hall when they sign Dalvin Cook. I hope they don't. I really hope they don't. Me too. That's it for today's show, but I want to thank everybody for hanging out with us. And if you're watching on YouTube, if you're not,

remember to come hang out tonight, 8 p.m. Eastern, youtube.com slash fantasyfootball. Today we'll be doing a mock draft. Format has not been determined. Dave, you can pick the format. One-fifth of a point PPR. Okay, Dave, you cannot pick the format.

There, it's done. We'll do... Maybe, Jamie, you should tell me what format to do since you have the other ones lined up. What do you think? Oh, as I told you, this is all yours. This is all me? This will not be written content.

So whatever you want to do, this is just for video consumption only. That means it's going to be half PPR. I will do a half PPR mock draft. We'll do it with two flexes. Two running backs, two receivers, two flex. And we will talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football Today.