Fantasy Football Today - Schedule Reaction! Winners, Losers, Tough CB Matchups and More (05/08 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: May 8, 2020

What matters to our analysts when they get their first look at the schedule (1:40)? Is it just the first few games? Is it the Fantasy playoffs? We'll tell you what we look for and then we'll tell you about the big winners (7:44). The Chargers have a favorable schedule, Kyler Murray is looking good right now and Ben Roethlisberger could be a great draft pick based on his early schedule ... Let's talk about D.K. Metcalf and Amari Cooper as they have brutal cornerback matchups, but it might not matter (16:00)! Then we'll tell you about some RBs with difficult early season matchups (24:28) ... Final thoughts (32:05) including a draft strategy Heath wants to implement, a QB ranking change Jamey might make, a QB note from Dave and a Drew Brees note from Adam. Also, why the heck are the Patriots getting five primetime games!? ... Email us at [e-mail] and tweet us with #AskFFT 'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow the new FFT Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/FFToday Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @YardsPerGretch, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. Here we go! Email us at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Here we go! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Let's go! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. The NFL schedule is out.

The Jets and the Dolphins play in consecutive weeks. Consecutive games, anyway, with a bye in between. Of all the things, of all the things, that is the one that's most amazing to me. Jets-Dolphins, week 10, week 12, with a bye in the middle. I'm amazed, guys. That's all I want to talk about today. What do you think? What's the fantasy impact of that?

A hell of a way to open the show. Jets-Dolphins. I'm surprised they didn of that? A hell of a way to open the show. Jets, Dolphins. I'm surprised they didn't have them back-to-back to start the season. Made it a hell of a way to start the year. But I don't think we've ever seen that before. There's an article about it right now on CBSSports.com. I'm going to read and see if it's

ever happened before. But I was like, what? What? Well, anyway, that's Dave and Jamie. Heath's here as well. I'm going to ask you guys about the schedule, the best schedules, the worst schedules, what you make of it right now, early starts, streamers, things like that, and something that I'm looking at,

tough matchups for wide receivers. Oh, my gosh, two of my favorites. DK Metcalf gets every difficult cornerback in football, and Amari Cooper gets almost all of them. I'll ask you if that means anything. On Facebook ask the facebook group a little split on it mostly not paying too much attention to it but uh we'll see it could be worth looking at especially for cooper so uh heath why don't you start what do you look for what do you care about right now honestly if you say nothing that's fine but as the schedule is released what matters to you um i did not change my projections at all that doesn't mean that i don't care about

anything but we already knew who everyone was going to play that the playoff schedule thing is kind of interesting except that like half the teams that we think are going to be good or bad are not going to be that by week 14. Who the borderline players play in the first couple weeks of the season is probably the most important thing. If somebody was going to be drafted, especially quarterbacks, like in the back half of the top 12 or just outside the

top 12 and they've got a terrible week one matchup we're probably right that their week one matchup is terrible and you probably don't need to draft them anyone come to mind i heard you guys talk about daniel jones on hq today yeah i. Yeah, I think Daniel Jones is real tough. One other thing that stood out to me, and I'll pull it up now, but I was looking, because I've been, this is not an A.J. Brown thing. And I want to clarify, as much as I go back and forth with Ben about A.J. Brown, he's a top 15 wide receiver for me. I think he's awesome.

I was looking at the Titans' schedule, though, and I was like, I don't think they're going to be as good as they were, but I don't see very many high-scoring games. Even the games they play against teams that are better than them, they start with the Broncos, and then Jacksonville,

and then the Vikings, and then the Steelers, and then the Bills. They're probably not going to throw more than 25 passes in any of those games. It's funny, though, because I think we looked at the Titans, specifically their schedule last year is having a bunch of high-scoring games, playing really high-scoring teams, and how that was going to be really bad for Derrick Henry.

I don't know if you remember that. I don't remember that, but I know Dave said the same thing. Now, the Titans, when they get to the fantasy playoffs, they've got Jacksonville, Detroit, and Green Bay. Whoever the running back is then at that point is probably going to be really good. If Derek Henry holds up, he's probably going to be awesome in the fantasy playoffs. The Browns right before that. So I don't know.

I did notice that the Titans schedule looks like it has a lot of low-scoring games on it. The Giants start with the Steelers at the Bears, home against the Niners at the Rams at the Cowboys. So yeah, I mean, that's a good point. Maybe not the best opportunity for Daniel Jones. What does that mean for Saquon? To me, nothing. But what do you think? I just think you need to know about it before you draft Saquon, is that he could have a tough start to the year. And it could be, I think they've got the toughest schedule of anybody

in football. I think they've got it really bad. But Saquon, no, I'm not moving him down in my rankings. It's just something you should know when you take him. So Dave, what are you looking for when the schedule comes out? So I try and put a grade on every part of each team's defense before the schedule comes out. So it's after free agency in the draft. And try to get an idea of where each team is,

where their strengths are based on pass rush, run defense, pass coverage. I take in data from Pro Football Focus. I take in data from Sports Info Solutions. And I do my best to try and determine which defenses could be tough and which defenses could be really, really easy. Assign a grade to each of those portions of the defense and then plug it into the schedule to see which teams have what could be favorable schedules

early going, all season long, or just later on in the year. And then also vice versa, which ones will have tough schedules. And that's how I came to the conclusion that the giant, listen, you could have just looked at the giant schedule and you would have seen for yourself. Holy crap, that's bad. But I think that this is just a better way to do it. Certainly a little time consuming, but it gets me to a point where I think I understand what each defense is going to look like at the beginning of the year, provided that there aren't major injuries throughout training camp in the preseason. Now, once the season starts, things happen, depth is tested, defenses fall apart. And a team like Jacksonville that I think we all thought would be a really tough defense last year just had no shot to carry over this year once you saw it early in the year.

So of course these things can go wrong but it does give you what i think it really gives you are tie breakers between two players like i'd been wrestling earlier this year who do i like better between deontay johnson and darius slate well now i've got a tie breaker between the two of them could both of them break out or one of them break out yeah but i'll take my chances with the one that doesn't have an impossibly tough schedule to begin the year okay and jamie finally what do you look for and then let's get into like the big winners big takeaways big losers that kind of stuff uh they fit on the only thing i look for is the beginning of the season that's the only thing that matters because so much changes so many things are going to happen throughout the course of the

season for your players with the injuries that they'll deal with and obviously what the defense will look like by the time you get to the end of the season i i totally get why people who play fantasy football want to look at weeks 14 15 and 16 to see what their guys could be looking at in the fancy playoffs but if your team's going to get there and you have star players most likely you're not benching those studs when you get there anyway so You're kind of wasting your time. Just look at the first four weeks. Look at the bye weeks when you're doing your draft and make sure that they align and you're not having so many

issues. It's really just the beginning of the season. I could care less about anything after the first four weeks. Fair enough. Jamie, did you have any big fantasy takeaways? Any winners? Losers? I love the Charger schedule. It opens up very nice. I think anytime... The first thing that I

looked for, because I had to do this kind of quickly last night for CBS Sports HQ for Thursday night, and give them the matchups that I liked and the ones that I don't like. The Giants stood out. Their first four were horrible. The Jets were bad. I didn't love the Titans' schedule to start out. Houston's really bad

in the first four weeks. And then the favorable ones, the first thing that I looked for was, you know, who's playing Cincinnati, who's playing Carolina, who's playing Detroit, who's playing Atlanta, you know, some of the defenses that are going to struggle. And the Chargers get the Bengals and the Panthers in the first four weeks. So, you know, that opportunity right there was just, okay, that's eye-opening. Arizona, once you get past San Francisco, their schedule is very favorable. And I think San Francisco's schedule is favorable as well.

So those three teams were my favorite, San Francisco, Arizona, and the Chargers. I think they all have a chance to help you if you're going to sort of lean that way. And I teased, and Heath's response was funny. I teased that I had to give an early start of the week. They wanted me to do a week one start of the week. And so Heath, I think that was your response, Heath, to that one, was just Raheem Mostert spiking a football against the Cardinals in week one. So the one that I chose was actually Jonathan Taylor

just because they're playing the Jaguars, and just to get ahead of it if he is, in fact, the starter. So I think you mean Marlon Mack. Marlon Mack. Well, I said to Eric Casillas, the host, I said, I said, since no one's holding me to this, I'm just going to go with with with Jonathan Taylor right now. And then we can revisit this, you know, what I said in May when we get to September and

see how it goes. Yeah, I've got back on my list of winners, Adam. Overall. Well, no, just for the my list of winners, Adam. Overall? Well, no, just as a streaming option to begin the season. But that's interesting, because I wonder if that's bad for Taylor. It could be, right? They're both going to get work if they're playing.

But you might need Mack to lose the job. I go back to two years ago, one schedule that stood out that we all kind of saw. We all saw it coming, right? Aaron Jones was suspended for the first two games and Jamal Williams had a great opportunity, but a really bad schedule to start. I think it was Minnesota

and Chicago. I feel like two years in a row, I think they've started with Minnesota and Chicago, the Packers, and he stunk. And I just think that made it easier for Aaron Jones to come in and basically take that job uh and I would feel better if I drafted Jonathan Taylor if Marlon Mack had a had a tough early schedule I don't want to make too much of it but but if they're both playing and one guy has a better performance in the easy matchup I don't think that's going to matter

maybe no but the whole point is I don't think that's going to matter. Maybe. No, but the whole point is... I don't think Marlon Mack is playing and Jonathan Taylor's not touching the field. No, no, but I just, I would rather have a situation where Mack might play poorly. Yeah, but it could also be a situation where Mack plays the majority of the first two quarters and does

well, and then Taylor, you know, like what we started to see with David Johnson in his rookie season when he just started playing later in games and you like I mean it's very clear he's better than Chris Johnson and whoever the hell they had on the roster that year Ellington and Ellington right you know and so this is all of a sudden Bruce Arians like okay I got to play more and they play more and by the end of the year he's clearly their best guy I mean that could happen in week one against Jacksonville they're up by three touchdowns John Taylor's the one in the game and you're just watching and the eyeball test tells you he's better than Marlon Mack because the eyeball test

will tell you he's better than Marlon Mack. So Mack can still be useful, but it doesn't mean that John Taylor is not useful. Wouldn't you rather the Colts start the year with the Ravens and 49ers and Marlon Mack gets the first crack at it and he stinks. And then after that, oh, here's, you know, the bed. But if they both, if they both stink and Frank Reich is like, I can't fully judge it because they both were playing a tough opponent, I don't think it matters who they're playing.

Talent is going to win out. Dave is right. Marlon Mack can get you off to a good start if you need to get a guy in round seven or later. He's not a streamer, so I hate using that word with a guy that we're going to draft. But he is somebody that you can use as a potential guy that you are still drafting. Right. An early season starter.

Let's get more names. More names, winners, losers. I got a bunch. All right, go for it. Go. So I think the – I wish I could put some Chargers names to the list because they have far and away the best schedule. I've never graded a team that finished with the best outlook against the run and the pass out of all 32 teams. Maybe that's a good

thing for Eckler, but I just can't trust the offense with Tyrod Taylor or Justin Herbert there. It worries me a little bit. Pittsburgh, Roethlisberger, if he's right, he could be just the absolute steal of the draft. You could get him free. Last pick if you want to right now. Their schedule is great to begin the year. That's good for James Conner. 49ers guys, great schedule for them to begin the year.

Mostert could be the start of the week. Coleman could be in the same. Mostert and Coleman could potentially be in the same boat as Mack and Taylor, where both of them can get off to a really good start. They've got Arizona week one. I don't think the Cardinals defense is going to be great. But speaking of the Cardinals, after week one, weeks two through nine, their schedule is outstanding. I think that helps solidify Kyler as a top five quarterback. It makes me more interested in Christian Kirk, whereas I wasn't drafting him before. Now I might. I think the

schedule is really easy to start the year. I think Singletary and Moss could have some good games working together. I think David Montgomery could get off to a good start with the bears. It comes down to their offensive line, but weeks one through three, I think their schedule is pretty good. I think Aaron Rogers scheduled to begin the year is pretty good. I think the Jaguars could throw and maybe win some games early on in the year. I think Gardner Cummings could end up being a good streaming quarterback for you this

year. And one more name, if I may, Sonny Michel, who nobody on this planet is excited to draft. Mr. and Mrs. Michel aren't excited to draft Sonny Michel in their fantasy leagues, but they're scheduled to begin the year, the Patriots' first couple of games. I think he's got a chance to pop off some decent numbers. Yeah. Miami, Seattle, Vegas, Chiefs, first four games for New England.

Pittsburgh's schedule is great, although... They have a weird work in their schedule, too, that we can talk about later if you want. On L.A. Okay. And then Arizona does start with San Francisco. Kyler Murray had two huge games against San Francisco last year, but we'll still call it a tough matchup.

But then Washington, Detroit, Carolina, Jets. That's awesome. Add Dallas after that. Heath, go ahead. Well, I just was going to kind of add to the Jacksonville thing because we all love Gardner Minshew. The Colts and the Titans in week one and two, I,

I think the Colts are probably going to be a bad matchup this year, but I'm not totally sure about that. I don't know anything that I believe about the Titans defense right now, but the next four games, dolphins, Bengals, Texans, lions.

I'm not sure it gets any better than that as far as a stretch of four games. But could that also be the low scoring affairs because of what the offenses that they're facing as well? Well, I mean, the Texans don't have a bad offense. I don't think the Lions are. No, no, I mean like the Dolphins could be bad. The Dolphins

and Bengals, I don't know. I mean, those two games are either going to be spectacularly bad defense or spectacularly bad offense. I'm not sure. We'll know. Look, the Dolphins had a bad offense last year.

They still gave up the third most fantasy points to quarterbacks. You didn't have to. But they did spend a ton of money on a corner in Byron Jones. They need a lot more than that. They need a lot more than that. By the way, you mentioned James Conner getting off to a good start. They got the Giants in week one. The Giants are probably going to only do one thing well this year,

and that's stop the run. So I actually think that's kind of tough for him week one. That's the strength of their defense. I'm not certain that that's going to be a successful part of their defense. I think that they are going to have the best defensive tackles in football. Maybe people don't know who Dalvin Tomlinson is, but he's really good. Leonard Williams. And they drafted Dexter Lawrence in the first round last year.

So they're actually kind of loaded there. Yeah, but what about behind them? After that, well, that's three tackles. They have B.J. they have bj i'm talking about the linebacker oh yeah no not so good right so the teams will just run to the edge on them so after that though for pittsburgh even if week one is tough uh you know it's pretty it's pretty good after that um i want to ask you guys about the the two wide receivers i mentioned and like this is my fault for because we did know the matchups,

even if we didn't know the, the order of the matchups before last night, this is my fault for not paying attention to this. So I apologize, but like DK Metcalf, he gets new England in week two, Miami in week four. And like I said,

like Byron Jones is good. And Dallas, they have three, they have three now They have three now. Who, Miami? Yeah, because Igbenogany is going to be a really good rookie. I don't really like rookie cornerbacks. No, but as their third guy,

they play Jones in safety, so it could change some things. We don't know how exactly they're going to use Byron Jones. He played safety in the past. And I bet it changes every week. But Howard and Jones, if they are the corners, and Igbenogany is the third guy. And they had a kid, if they are the corners and Nick Monaghan, he's the third guy. And, they had a kid East Easton was the last thing last year.

Um, that was a, a nice find for them. So their secondary is going to be good, but their pass rush is, is probably going to be non-existent. All right. So, so for Metcalf,

New England week two, Miami week four, Arizona week seven, San Francisco week eight. And he actually did pretty well against them. Buffalo week nine Rams week 10, Arizona week 11, Philadelphia with Darius Sl Francisco week eight, and he actually did pretty well against them. Buffalo week nine, Rams week 10, Arizona week 11, Philadelphia with Darius Slay week 12, the Giants in week 13 with James Bradbury. So that is like weeks nine, 10, 11, 12, 13 is Tredavious White, Jalen Ramsey, Patrick Peterson, who held DK Metcalf to zero catches last year, Darius Slay and James Bradbury,

and then Ramsey again in week 16. He, to me, it looks like, I think, the worst cornerback matches, but they said they were going to move Metcalf around. So does that mean anything to you? And then Cooper, like every time Cooper had a tough matchup last year, he failed, and he basically failed miserably. Well, he gets Ramsey in week one. The Browns, they've got good corners. I don't know what that means, but they didn't really play. They actually were decent against wide receivers last year. Ford was in and out of the lineup. Seventh fewest fantasy points to wide receivers last year. Didn't face a lot of tough ones.

The Giants in week five, like I said, with Bradbury. Arizona week six. Philadelphia week eight. He was bad against Detroit last year, who had Darius Slay. Pittsburgh in week nine. Baltimore week 13. San Francisco week 15. Philadelphia again in week 16.

So Metcalf and Cooper really jumped out at me as having the worst. I think DJ Moore's got some tough ones too, but should we care about that? What do you guys think? Yes, but it's the same thing you said about Metcalf moving around. With CeeDee Lamb now, they can move all those guys around. Or they'll move the

other two. Gallup will stay on the outside, but they'll move Lamb and Cooper both inside and outside outside the one thing about metcalf though if he kicks inside their receiving course kind of thin it probably means lock is going to play some more on the outside so it could hurt him a little bit you know so if they are moving these guys around it's not like they have the ability to play all these guys in the slot or play them inside um i think you just you know you draft talent and so it's it it's gonna ding them a little bit on a week-to-week basis but i think over the course of the season like we see have seen with cooper we talked about this with mike right the other day uh like you see with a lot of receivers you're

gonna get probably by the end of the year a strong performance and they may finish in the top 15 but it could be six great weeks and 10 bad ones or it could be 10 great weeks and six bad ones you know just depending how it all works out so you just have to understand that these that's why they're not in the first two rounds and maybe in some cases not the first three rounds yeah for example omari cooper had seven of those good games last year and he had a couple that were decent you know if you count 15 points as a good game then we could say eight good games and a lot of players that you're going to draft that's that's what you're looking for when you get to round four round five you want a player that can be give you

good fantasy points half the time that's that's not a bad that's what brandon cooks used to do before he he's had that bad year last year with the Rams. I also assume that receivers line up all over the place most of the time anyway. There will be receivers that specifically line up outside 80% of the time. What I care about when I'm studying these cornerback matchups is where do the corners line up? Because some teams, they just line their guys up on one side of the field, the other side of the field, and they let them play. That's more or less what Buffalo does, just as an example. You will always find Richard Sherman on the same side of the field 85% of the time. There were a couple plays early on in their playoff game against Green Bay.

He followed Adams, and then they gave that up real quick. And then there are some corners that want the challenge of going up against the best receiver, and they will play man, and their coaches let them do it. You kind of have to know which players travel and which players stay to their side. That's how you can judge. Patrick Peterson never goes into the slot.

He just does something he doesn't do. Jalen Ramsey does not go in the slot. It's something he does not do. Those guys just stay. Sherman doesn't go in the slot. Those guys typically in their careers have stayed to the outside. Now, I mean, obviously there's times where they've lined up over a slot receiver because that's the guy that they've either been trailing or just by the nature of the formation, but they will not typically play a slot receiver. Whereas Chris Harris, for example, if you want to talk about another great corner,

we'll play inside and outside. He's done both. We'll continue probably to do both, even with the chargers now. So I think you just look at it as, again. Doesn't limit their upside, Jamie. That's my question. Yes. And that's what I'm saying. Like you look over the course of the season, what do you expect to get? Do you expect to get a consistent 15 points per game PPR from, from the receiver you're

drafting? Or is it going to be a 20 point, a 10 point, an 8 point, a 25 point? You know, that's the kind of guy you're looking for in those rounds three through five range. And you just have to understand, like, I don't think DK Metcalf is going to be a complete bust because of his schedule and the matchups he faces, but he may not reach his upside that we're talking about.

So Adam, would you now take Tyler Lockett over to AK Metcalf? It's kind of interesting. I think the schedule makes Lockett a little bit more matchup proof. You know what I think? I'm not ready to answer that question, Heath. I think any defense that tries to play man coverage against the Seahawks this year is going to regret it quickly. I bet they see a ton of zone because there's just too much speed on the Seahawks.

Yeah, but you could play still man because their receiving core is so thin. So you play man with a guy over the top on each side, and you can get away with that. I know we don't value— Don't teams usually play zone against Seattle anyway because of Russell Wilson? Yeah, I mean, I think you have to do that because you don't want him to run, right?

Because when you play man coverage, your cornerback's back is turned toward the quarterback, and then he can take off. So yes, you're probably right about that, Heath, but I know we don't love Philip Dorsett. We're not talking about him as a great fantasy player. He gives that offense more speed. Defenses are going to have to do something about him.

So I bet they play a ton of zone against Seattle this year, just as an example. And when teams do that, that usually means the wide receiver-cornerback matchups don't matter. I think when you look at the best corners, you've got good ones in the AFC East on new England, Buffalo and Miami. You've got good ones in the NFC West in Ramsey and Peterson. And then obviously the 49ers have a, just a solid defense. Um,

well that's bad news for like the jets. Cause they get all those teams. Uh, if I'm not mistaken, right? You know what's bad news for the Jets? What? Adam Gase. Yeah, they do get all those teams.

They also get Kansas City on the road and wide receivers basically never did well in Arrowhead last year. I don't know if that makes it like for a guy for a late round pick like Bajon Mary Perriman or Denzel Mims or whatever. I don't care. Right. You know, whatever., I don't care. Whatever. But I just thought that was interesting. It's bad news for maybe like Stefan Diggs.

Stefan Diggs has to face Dolphins, Rams, Patriots, Cardinals, Chargers, Niners, Steelers, Patriots. That's not great. But if you guys don't want to get into that, that's fine. It's a lot. So we could probably get bogged down in that. Let's talk about maybe tough running back matchups. I came up with a few to begin this season. I don't know if you guys have any running backs that you think might get off to a tough start.

Yeah, I got a few. Okay, go for it. How about David Johnson? We talk about how that schedule is bad for Deshaun Watson, but we kind of give Watson the benefit of the doubt because he's just such a great playmaker. But the schedule's bad for David Johnson, too. And what happens if he gets off to a slow start in Houston?

Is Bill O'Brien going to keep feeding him when he's got 300 total yards through the first four or five games of the year? Yeah, that one definitely a little nervous for him. Definitely stood out. I mean, yeah, I just like he's had Lamar Miller and Carlos Hyde. So if he's got 300 yards through the first four or five yards games of the year, he's going to be on a fantastic pace for a Houston Texans running back. Maybe if he can stay healthy.

Sure. And I don't know i i kind of think that with david johnson and kind of like levy on bell like a lot i expect a lot of their production to come in the passing game and to come via receptions and so i don't know how like i don't think the chiefs are a bad matchup for david johnson at. They're pretty happy letting teams run on them. Well, but no, if you recall, Derek Henry had a big game against them. And then in their last seven games, Henry in the playoffs had 69 yards. He was the only running back with more than 58 rushing yards.

And he was the only running back with more than 14 carries, which I think is the concern you have playing the Chiefs. Their run defense actually got pretty good and their score so many points they take you out of your game script. And it's not the Texans' MO typically to throw their backs. We talk about that all the time. David Johnson may be

the outlier because he's different than Carlos Hyde for sure. But they didn't use Duke Johnson the right way at all last year. And so are they going to completely change their philosophy with what they do, whether it's Watson running or just O'Brien's offense, and all of a sudden start throwing to their backs 50-plus times? And Heath, is that the type of running back that you'd be more concerned about if he had a tough set?

It's like, whatever, Saquon Barkley. Even if he doesn't run well, he'll have production in the passing game. But Marlon Mack, if he had a tough schedule, or those trap backs, I guess. Are those the ones that you'd be more concerned about in tough matchups if they had a few of them at the beginning of their season? I would be more concerned about backs that I think could legitimately lose their role because of performance. And I think it would take more than three or four games for that to happen to David Johnson,

just based on how much everyone's been dunking on them for trading DeAndre Hopkins for David Johnson and the fact that they didn't seem to want to give Duke Johnson a bigger role last year. I don't think... David Johnson might get hurt or something, but I don't think he's losing his job because of three or four bad games.

I'm looking at Raheem Mostert and Tevin Coleman. After Arizona in week one, at the Jets, they were really good against the run. At the Giants, they gave up 3.6 yards per carry to running backs after acquiring Leonard Williams. And then the Eagles, they gave up 3.6 yards per carry to running backs. That's three bad games, three bad matchups in a row, at least based on last

year for the Niners. I actually had the Colts on the bad list. Am I crazy? Jacksonville week one is amazing, but Minnesota Jets bears after that. Not great. I don't know if I see the Vikings and the Jets

as tough defenses against the run as you might. I think Minnesota especially won't be bad. Teams aren't just going to go and steamroll them. And probably not the Jets either, but I don't think they're necessarily dangerous matchups. Jets are interesting because I'd like to see, with Williams and Mosley healthy for the whole season, how that run defense can actually look. They got some really good play from some really average players last year

on that D-line. Yeah, and they didn't even skip a beat when Leonard Williams left, so it was kind of weird. I guess they did probably play better than what you would expect from their personnel. I had the Falcons as having good matchups to begin the season on the ground. Seattle, Dallas, Chicago.

Well, Chicago might be tough, but Green Bay and Carolina after that if you want to go out five weeks. Seattle, Dallas, Chicago, Green Bay, Carolina. And honestly, Dallas might not be all that easy. I don't know. But I see Seattle, Green Bay, and Carolina in three of their first five games. Dave, that one jumped out at you? Which team is this, Adam?

Atlanta. Yeah, well, what stood out to me about Atlanta was definitely the easier matchups early on. And I could see Todd Gurley getting off to a good start. And then after their bye in Week 10, I think it's mostly bad news for Gurley. But the bottom line is that I don't think anybody on the pod thinks that the Falcons defense is going to be particularly good. Their pass rush really didn't go improved, I don't think. They're trying like heck to get their secondary going in the right direction. I'm thinking that they're just going to be in a bunch of high scoring games which helps Gurley and obviously it does wonders

for the upside of Calvin Ridley, Julio Jones, Matt Ryan Hayden Hurst I'm expecting just a lot of high scoring games with the Falcons, 12 dome games too this year for them we've got just a couple things I want to promote and then I'll get

some last words from you guys we'll wrap things up fantasy football today becomes fantasy football we've got just a couple things I want to promote and then I'll get some last words from you guys. We'll wrap things up. Fantasy football today becomes fantasy football yesterday, next week. We are going to look back at the last 20 plus years, a little bit more than two decades of fantasy football. The Mount Rushmores, the best seasons by individual players, the biggest busts, The biggest breakouts.

Really fun stuff. We had a lot of fun doing the draft last week of the best seasons. Actually, it was just a few days ago of the best seasons. The Mount Rushmore is going to be a really awesome conversation. So that's all next week. We'll obviously cover anything relevant

in fantasy football, but that's a little treat for you. Five episodes there. Fantasy football yesterday. And we'll have another Twitch stream on Tuesday night. You can get the link to that in the episode descriptions or just go to twitch.tv. I feel like twitch.com takes you there as well,

but twitch.tv slash FF today. Shraggy B, did I get that right? Yeah, you can do them both. .com is so much easier, though. Okay, okay, good. Twitch.com slash FF today. And we're live Tuesday night, 7 p.m. Eastern. All right, we're going to take a real quick break here on Fantasy Football today.

When we come back, some final thoughts on schedules from Jamie, Heath, and Dave. Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM, an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League. Yard after yard, down after down, the sportsbook born in Vegas gives you the chance to take action to the end zone and celebrate every highlight reel play. And as an official sportsbook partner of the NFL, BetMGM is the best place to fuel your football fandom on every game day. With a variety of exciting features, BetMGM offers you plenty of seamless ways to jump straight onto the gridiron and

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Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware. And stay safe. All right, Heath, I'm going to ask you to finish up. Give us some of your closing thoughts on the schedules. I want to have at least one team this year where I start off a draft with Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelsey, and Patrick Mahomes in the first three rounds because in week 14 through 16, they faced the Dolphins, the Saints, and the Falcons. They might score 100 points in those three games. So I'd like to have at least one team that has

those three and makes the playoffs and it's just like, later guys. And that's funny because I want to have one team that starts off with Saquon Barkley darius slayton and daniel jones with my first three my team's going to be better probably jb your final thoughts i think i might move kyler murray up to three at quarterback yeah um schedule's so good uh you know for me three through six was was so bunched up anyway in in quarterback ranking so uh i'm i'm excited about what he's potentially able to do in that offense with those uh with those matches it's a no-brainer now over to sean watson right like the schedule is just the icing on the cake yeah schedule is a very easy deciding factor so um i still don't think it's going to change hopkins very much just because i don't think he's gonna get the targets that he typically needs so he'll still be outside of my

top five and still second round pick but um you know when you look at kyler versus dac and that schedule that dallas has and russell wilson's schedule and watson's obviously schedule so i certainly understand anybody taking those other quarterbacks out of kyler but i think kyler's in in a very favorable spot to take a leap in his sophomore campaign. Week one, Kyler's against San Francisco and he was very good against them last year. Are we just, we expect you

just going to be very good about them and don't worry about San Francisco being good? I'm sorry, go ahead. I would say I would think he would definitely be behind all those guys for week one for sure. He could be. It's a fair comparison with Watson. The other two guys are probably better than in week one.

But I don't want to pass on a guy just because he's got a bad week one matchup. No, but we're just talking weeks two through nine. Good. Right. Yeah. I think week one, Dak versus the Rams could be fantastic. Yep. But it's the rest of the season that...

Again, it's just nitpicking. This is what the schedule does for you. It just changes a couple things here or there. I haven't changed my rankings yet, but that's just the thing that came to mind was that Kyler might bump up from six to three for me. Tiebreakers, baby. Dave, do you have a final thought?

Yes. I think the early schedules for Roethlisberger, who we talked about, and then we mentioned a lot of these other names on Fantasy Football today, Teddy Bridgewater, Phillip Rivers, Gardner Minshew, Jimmy Garoppolo. Those are five quarterback streamers that if you

just really want to wait on quarterback you don't want to invest in that position or maybe you do and someone beats you to the punch on you know the first five quarterbacks on draft day i you can just grab one of those guys and start your season off with them and if that's the case then i think it just further dilutes the talent pool on draft day a quarterback which is great and my my final thought two thoughts i get to have two one the patriots have five prime time games they are going to be the most boring team in the nfl even if they're good they're gonna be boring that's pathetic i don't want to watch the page i think they were boring unless unless there's a guy out there okay all right fine and maybe they know something we don't know cam dude i've got a nugget on jared stid if you're interested. Go for it. He leaned heavily on his slot receiver at Auburn the last two years.

A guy named Ryan Davis. So you mean he's going to lean on Julian Edelman? Well, you know what my theory is on quarterbacks when they come out from college. When they're pressured and they're in the heat of battle, they rely on what they know. And this might be what Jared Stidham knows. So maybe it's a silver lining for Julian Edelman. Maybe. They're going to be boring.

I don't want to watch them five times in primetime. You'll watch them and you'll love it. I'll watch them. We'll see if I love it. My second final thought is Drew Brees has two primetime home games this year, which is typically amazing. In his last six seasons, Drew Brees has had 10 primetime home games this year, which is typically amazing. In his last six seasons, Drew Brees has had 10 primetime home games.

That'd be Thursday, Sunday night, or Monday night. Ten of them. In eight of them, he scored 26 or more fantasy points. And in six of them, he scored 30 or more fantasy points in six points for passing touchdown leagues. It is a layup for Drew Brees, I do wonder if there are no fans,

if it will be quite the same. It was all the fans. Well, let's give Adam some credit. Let's give Adam some credit. Jeff Duncan of The Athletic, who covers the Saints, he tweeted this on May 7th. So what was that? On Thursday, before the schedule was released.

This was his tweet. One possible drawback for the Saints playing in both Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers at home early in the schedule. The possibility of not having fans at the games. Brady and Rodgers

both rely heavily on pre-snap reads and audibles in the line of scrimmage. So Adam was correct. Well, I was saying on Twitch that the thought occurred to me that the Saints offense

won't be as good without their fans because I just feel like they feed off that energy. This is more about their defense. Right. If their defense is bad at home, then Drew Brees is going to be even better. Yeah. The Saints have such a home field advantage.

They just obliterate people. They have amazing fans and extremely loud building. I think things will be different. If you're ranking home field, are you giving them one over the Chiefs and the Packers? Yeah, yes. I'd say so. But I wouldn't overrate it. I don't think it's a huge factor.

Yeah, I think there's been studies done on which home field is the best. I don't remember who it was, though. It was the Saints. Those are the top three though, right? I thought the Steelers might be in there too. Well, Steelers on the road.

That's true. Chargers is the worst. Well, the Patriots never lose at Foxborough. So I... Yeah, the Patriots. They will, yeah. So Tom Brady is going to be a regular season underdog for the first time in 75 games when they open up with the Saints.

And that is my third final thought. Also, past interference will not be reviewable this season. That is my fourth final thought. Have a great weekend, everybody. We'll talk to you. Chiefs, Ravens, let's go. Just start the season right there. We'll talk to you on Monday.

Fantasy Football Yesterday.