Fantasy Football Today - The Crazy Eight! Eight Toughest Players to Rank (07/23 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 23, 2020

Nominate us on PodcastAwards for the Sports category https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup/ Man, RBs are tough to rank! Six of our 8 "toughest to rank" players are RBs. Before we get into that, Ben weighs in on how the altered training camp and lack of preseason games will impact rookies (2:00). Will he be moving Jonathan Taylor down in his rankings? And while we're on the subject, Heath says that D'Andre Swift and Cam Akers are very difficult to rank (8:25) ... Let's move on to Jamey's players (19:40) as he says Raheem Mostert and A.J. Green are tough to rank. Does Mostert have a lot of upside? Will Joe Burrow hold Green back? ... Ben discusses Tylger Higbee (29:30) and Aaron Jones (35:25). We have a long discussion about Jones and why he's so tricky. And finally, we read Dave's players (48:15) even though he's not on the show! ... Your emails at [e-mail] '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

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. On his way to the end zone. I'll tell you what, that was a spectacular play. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. What a play. Off to the races.

Touchdown. Oh, he's done it again. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Ben. Well, it's really tough to rank running backs. That's for sure. I asked all four of our analysts, give me the two players that you have the toughest time ranking. So that's eight total players.

We're calling them the crazy eight today. Six of them are running backs. And we welcome you to Fantasy Football today. Two of them are rookie running backs. And that, of course, is a big topic. We talked about it on yesterday's show on the mock draft. How do you approach the rookies now? That training camp is going to look a lot different

and the preseason has been wiped away. We are recording on Wednesday afternoon, but a happy Thursday to you as you listen. Please tell your friends about our show. Spread the word. Help us grow. And follow us on YouTube at youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday.

And you can listen to us, by the way, on Spotify as well. So check that out. All right, I'm Adam. We got Jamie here here we got heath here we got ben here uh ben how are you man let's start with you i'm good all right we got a draft guide like a shorter draft guide we just finished our magazine work we got our draft guide coming up that i've been working on that we've all been working on obviously jamie and heath have been doing a ton of work on uh but i've been editing today and i'm really excited about it. It's a cool, downloadable draft guide.

A little different than anything I've seen out there. Yeah, and I haven't really done anything for it. Yeah, no. And I've enjoyed that. Yeah, it's been great. Typical for you. We do all the work and carry you. I get to throw a bold prediction in here or there,

and that's about all I need to do to contribute. I will say, your bold prediction, one of your bold predictions for the magazine made the cover. Nuh-uh. Really? Yes. Which one? Miles Sanders.

Ah, yes. Miles Sanders, huge bust, RB30. That was my bold prediction. LOL, just kidding. All right, so, Ben, I want to get your take on the rookies, since you are probably the most aggressive, certainly with Jonathan Taylor. But what was your reaction to the news yesterday?

And then let's follow this up with Heath. The two players that you said were the players toughest to rank were Cam Akers and DeAndre Swift. But Ben, give me your overall thoughts on no preseason games, not going to be in pads for a while. And what this means, uh, are you going to pull back on Jonathan Taylor and all of them really? Yeah. I mean, I'm concerned. Certainly. I think you, you have to take seriously the fact that the rookies aren't getting any work and, you know, we see with rookies that get hurt and miss training camp that they tend to start slowly in their rookie seasons. At the same time, I don't think it's going to mean that none of the rookies are going to be good in their rookie year.

I mean, we've seen too much early production from players that can play at the NFL level in the last few seasons. I think it's become more and more common that teams have been willing to just let guys get out there and play that can play at that level. And we saw some of those breakthroughs in week one last year. So I'm not sure how much the preseason really, you know, obviously training camp, I think is probably more important than the preseason. But how much that really meant that, you know, Terry McLaurin was Washington's best receiver or Marquise Brown was Baltimore's right away. I think guys that can play are going to be able to play. They're going to show it. I mean, they're going to practice at some point.

They're not going to just line up on week one without practicing. So I'm worried about it. I'm concerned. There are situations that I'm more concerned about than others. And Taylor's one that I'm less concerned about. And I've talked about their really easy early part of the schedule, their great offensive line. I think they're going to have tons of running back opportunity

early in the year, and so I think Taylor's going to get double-digit carries because some teams that lose, they're only going to get 15 running back carries in a game, and I think the Colts in a lot of games are going to have 25, and Taylor will get 10 of those maybe early in the season, and he'll have an opportunity to show he can play, and that's kind of all you're asking for when you think he's as good as he is like I do. So he's one I'm less concerned about.

I will probably pull back on him a little bit. A lot of the other rookies, I think there's reason to be concerned. But I'm also not panicking too much. I don't think, you know, even if they aren't great in September, like they will still produce at some point if they can. I think, you know, two things that you said there are really important. One is don't be afraid of these guys, you know, to, to a certain extent, like, because you know, you saying you're gonna pull back on Taylor. So you've been taking round three. So maybe taking late round three, early round four, you know,

depending on where you pick, right. I'm going to guess that's what you're alluding to. Like I said, I dropped Edward Solaire from early round three to late round three. I dropped Taylor from round four to round five. I think the one thing about the running backs that is a little bit different than the other rookies is, and we've all talked about this, and we've seen this in our drafts,

there's such a push for running backs in the early rounds, and that's going to drive the price tag up of those two guys in particular. And then it's going to also, you know, the, the current is going to pull, uh, acres and Swift, um, and maybe, you know, Moss and those other, you know, Vaughn and those other guys behind them, Dobbins as well, a little bit up too. But the, the, the thing I think that's more important with all of this, it's not necessarily the rookies because, you know, Ben referenced the draft guide. We were asked to give five rules, each that we sort of do. And one thing that I wrote in there, and I'll always say this, if there's somebody you have conviction on, take them around before you

miss out on them. You know, so if you think you're going to get a guy in round four and he may go, take him in round three. So if you have such a strong conviction about like, Dave's really still bullish, sounds like on Clyde Edwards, a layer based on our conversation yesterday, Ben is probably still gonna be bullish on John, the Taylor don't miss out on the guy because you know, oh, he,

he maybe is a little bit too going too soon for me. This is really more about the veteran guys that are still in those spots. Damien Williams, I think benefits as a result of this more so than Clyde Edwards-Hillard maybe loses. Marlon Mack benefits. Kerryon Johnson benefits. You know, those guys, I think, they're going to have an opportunity early in the season to prove themselves. And if the team is winning, like Ben said, you know, if the Colts are winning and Marlon Mack's doing a great job, why would they turn to Jonathan Taylor as much as maybe we think that they could or maybe should?

Why would the Chiefs turn to Edwards-Hillard if Damian Williams is doing a great job? Same thing with the Lions and so forth. And so I think that kind of is the bigger takeaway for me, at least from this lack of work, is not necessarily like completely run away from the rookies, downgrade them a little bit, but maybe get a little bit more excited about the veteran guys that are still there. And if you do miss on some running backs early, you can still get good value from Williams, from carry on, from Marlon Mack, from some of these guys, because they may be in a little better spot than we thought before. I guess I just, you know,

you're saying if you have conviction about somebody draft them, but that's a lot easier said than done in the fifth round, then the third, you know, you know, so it's tough. Yeah, no, he made that point. It perked my ears up too. And part of the reason I wind up taking Taylor in the third round and, you know, it's kind of format dependent. The only time I've really gone into the upper part of the reason I wind up taking Taylor in the third round and, you know, it's kind of format dependent. The only time I've really gone into the upper part of the third round has been in non non PPR or 0.5 PPR, which he's going to be much better.

And he's, we're not projecting a huge receiving workload for him. But in PPR, I'm typically trying to wait till we're towards later in the third round or already was a big reason I'm doing that. Is there like, I think there's a pretty significant drop off at running back i want to get some guys that i think have really strong upside and after that point you get into that running back dead zone and a lot of those older backs that we all know i don't like but more importantly in the fourth round i'm almost like it's not like i like waiting for the fourth round for jonathan taylor doesn't make a lot of

sense for the way that i draft my teams because in the fourth round, there is so many receivers that I want to draft there, right? AJ Brown is one of them. Sometimes Calvin really gets there. Probably not, but Odo Beckham, I've wanted to take, I don't know if I've taken him a ton in those rounds in our draft. Juju is not there, but he is, does have a fourth round ADP in some, some places. There's a lot of guys in that range DJ Moore is going in the late third in some places so there's like for part of it for me is

also like sometimes when I'm reaching up around and I know I do this a lot it's because I'm thinking about the next round and I can't take two players at the next round right like you can't do that so you and in this case it's take the last running back that I really like and know that I'm going to get a receiver. I like it the next round. Cause there are a plethora of options. I don't think Heath has spoken yet. Have you?

Hey guys. Hey, so why, why those two rookies in particular cam acres and Deandre Swift, did you choose as the toughest to rank? Well, and I've, I'm actually like in a weird spot

because I've updated projections this morning with the somewhat new information that we have. I haven't fully updated my rankings yet, but I've been thinking about this a lot. And particularly with Akers and Swift, I don't know for sure what the upside is. I mean, you've got a Lions team that just has not had a

good running back in seven years in terms of fantasy production and a Rams team that is doing everything they can to signal to the world that they want three running backs touching the ball every game. And so I struggle with those guys because I think there's a pretty significant, especially early season, floor, and I don't know how high the ceiling is if things go well for them. I think that if you're hoping for the Lions, right? It's kind of funny. You'd be like, well, look what happened to Kerryon Johnson in his rookie season. His first two games, he had 13 carries.

Really wasn't doing anything. But then after that, these are his non-PPR fantasy points. 10, 11, 8, 17, 8, 3, 18, and 15. Eight or more non-PPR fantasy points for carry on Johnson in, what is that, six, seven of his last eight games that season. Well, he's still there, unfortunately. But I guess that's what you were kind of hoping for.

That's pretty solid. Tell me where you have them ranked and who's around them. I just want to say real quick about Swift. He feels to me not to the same level of what the upside is because the offense is different and the personnel is different. But because of Carrion's injury scenario and what we've seen the last two years, he could be like mile Sanders,

whereas carry on is, is good in the early part of the season serviceable enough. And then Swift could take off to, again, not the same heights because the Sanders was awesome, but it's just the injury scenario sort of plays well with how, what happened to Howard, where he got hurt around week 11.

And then Sanders just closed this, close the season playing really well. Swift can sort of manage through that. You'll be happy, Jackson. Yeah, and I think with Edwards-Elair and Jonathan Taylor, you can make the argument that they might suck in September, but they can win you the league in November and December. I kind of feel like if Swift hits in the second half of the season,

he probably hits as a mid-range number two running back on a weekly basis. I don't know what the value of a second half number two running back on a weekly basis. I don't know what the value of a second half number two running back is. If the first half he was mostly useless. Totally agree with that. So, so where do you, who's ahead of Swift and who's after him right now? I have them right next to each other acres and Swift.

There's one spot ahead of Swift. I have them directly behind a group that includes Raheem Mostert and Darius Geis. I have them just in front of Jordan Howard and Matt Breida. Jamie, what do you think about that? Mostert, Geis,

Akers, Swift, Dolphins guys? I like Akers the most because I do think if he hits as the guy for the rams you're going to be thrilled to have him but they're they're all guys you have their struggle i mean i have most you know as one of my guys for for this exercise and he's right in the same group you know because uh he's very format dependent i think you know he's clearly better in in non PPR and half PPR than he is the full PPR. It's kind of like what Ben was saying about Jonathan Taylor.

We don't expect most of his receptions to dramatically improve after the way that he performed last year. But I mean, if most of it is the lead rusher for the 49ers, he can lead the NFL in touchdowns. I wouldn't be shocked if that happened either. But I would, you know, if I'm, this is, I think comes down to, uh, your roster build. If you like your two running backs and you have a good group of receivers and you get to this point around five, around six, around seven, depending on how these guys fall, you shoot for

the upside of maybe one of the rookies. If you don't, and you need a little bit more of a floor play, um, then that's where a guy like most dirt or the, you know, Jordan Howard, maybe if that's where a guy like Mostert or the you know Jordan Howard maybe if that's your preference of the Dolphins guys or just somebody who's maybe a little bit safer I think most people are going to probably lean toward the rookies though Heath I do think that especially when it comes to rookie running backs I do feel like coaches often say they are going to use more running backs than they end up using um in maybe out of respect to the veterans. So that's obviously irrelevant for the Rams situation. Yeah, it would be.

They've just been so insistent this offseason. And McVay talking about the 49ers and really liking the way that they did things and how they committed to doing it and then being okay with going. One of the things he talked about was something we talked about with the 49ers last year, how they were going to go into every week with a committee approach, and then they would ride the hot hand. And it was so frustrating with the 49ers because one week we'd have a running back that would just have phenomenal production.

Matt Brito would have a 110-yard game, and then the next week he'd get like four carries. And then Tevin Coleman would have a monster game, and then the next week he'd play like 30% of the snaps. Like they were really making their decisions, but based on how the guys were playing that particular day. And if the Rams do that, it's a disaster unless cam acres is just a lot better than the other two every week.

The athletic just did a breakdown. The Jordan Rodrigue, I think is how you pronounce your last name. Broke down the down the Rams team going into training camp. And she listed Cam Akers as the breakout player for camp. I think it was for camp. I don't think it was for the season, but breakout player on offense. And if he hits, he should be better than the other two. But Daryl Henderson is such an unknown because he didn't get a chance to play last year because of the ankle injury.

And Gurley is still being there. There's no Gurley. There's no guy they have to give the ball to. Henderson, you know, you guys talked about this yesterday. You're 100% right. You wish you wouldn't be playing out the leagues where you drafted Henderson already. He's got the chance to be better than Akers. And it's just, again, we just don't know

how it's all going to work out. And then there's this guy who we consider a little bit of a slug in Malcolm Brown, but he's the veteran of the group and was the number two guy last year for a reason. So I'm with Heath. It's, you know, if there was camp and off-season work and Akers got a chance to show us something, you know, a lot of us, and this is something we should probably address. They're not putting on pads until 20. You know, a lot of us, and this is something we should probably address, they're not putting on pads until 20 days into camp. A lot of people are doing fantasy drafts before that was 20 days.

You know, August 1st is going to hit. We're going to do a lot of fantasy drafts in those first 20 days. You know, so, you know, you may get to a situation where, wow, I'm really thrilled I drafted that guy or, oh my God, I drafted that guy. All right, we're going to talk more about the 49ers situation.

As Jamie said, Raheem Mostert is one of the guys that he has trouble ranking. Just the last thing I want to say about the Rams, this is what they've done in three years under McVay. They've been first, second, and 11th in scoring. They've been 19th, fourth, and eighth in plays.

The last two seasons, they've been top eight in plays. The worst they've been in three years under McVay is 11th in scoring. That was last year. But they didn't run the ball that much last year. They've been 9th, 8th, and 18th in rush attempts in three seasons. And last year, they were actually 3rd in pass attempts. But they didn't run the ball very well.

54 touchdowns in the three years with Sean McVay. Right. 54. And how many rushing? 46 or something? No, no. 42. And how many rushing? 46 or something? No, no. 42, I think, rushing. Yeah. Crazy. Crazy amount of production there. And the one other thing is, and we've talked about it with the tight end targets and how they exploded last

year kind of out of nowhere. The running back targets mostly disappeared last year. There just weren't that many available. And it sounds like it's really unlikely, I think, that Cam Akers is going to be in that role early in the year. There may not be that many to chop up. If he's getting a fourth of the running back targets, that might be 15 targets for the season.

And Ben says, Tyler Higby is one of the toughest to rank, but yeah, and then it's all part of it because like, why did the running back targets dry up? Is it because Todd Gurley was, was terrible in that role last year? I mean,

maybe they, they dare. I say they had a bad running back last year. They might have an upgrade this year. Just, I'm sorry to say a Gurley was one of the best, but he didn't seem like himself last season. Maybe it was the line.

I don't know. All right. We've got, uh, we need your help. All right. We need help on podcast awards. We want a 20 finalists for the sports category,

the People's Choice Podcast Awards, and we need to get into the final round. We need you to help us out. Please go to podcastawards.com slash app slash sign up and then toggle down to the sports category. The link to that is at the top of the episode description. So if you can't memorize podcastawards.com slash app slash sign up, just click the top of the episode description. So if you can't memorize, I can't memorize podcast awards.com slash app slash sign up. Just click the link in the episode description and please nominate fantasy

football today and join our Facebook group. Um, I asked for your feedback from our, uh, upside versus downside episode. I appreciate all of that. I do that kind of stuff in the Facebook group. We approve a lot of your comments in the Facebook group.

It's just a bunch of fantasy football fans talking on Facebook and, it's a lot of fun. So please join the group. We approve a lot of your comments in the Facebook group. It's just a bunch of fantasy football fans talking on Facebook, and it's a lot of fun. So please join the group. Just search Fantasy Football Today on Facebook. And again, the episode description has a link to that. Devontae Freeman hired Drew Rosenhaus. They want him to sign soon. We'll keep an eye on that. And we're going to talk about more players to rank, the players that are difficult to rank, like Raheem Mostert and A.J. Green for Jamie. And yeah, A.J. Green is, for me, very difficult to draft. So I definitely want to see what Jamie has to say about that. Now, you know, summer's a little bit different right now, guys. You got your social distancing

and everything's just kind of difficult. I understand that. But summer's not gone. You can still go out. You can still have fun. You can still relax. And of course you can have a Coors light when you do so. And I know Ben Gretsch, whether he's out relaxing on a boat, whether he's just hanging out at home after a long day of work, I know you crack open a nice cold Coors light. Yes, I do. Coors light wants to make it easier for you to chill this summer and give you a break from the stress and pressures of daily life.

And I have been letting them. If you've been watching our Twitch channel, I've been drinking plenty of Coors Lights during our poker nights. I got to go out on a boat this last weekend, which is a fairly socially distanced summer thing that I think you can still do. Drink a few, several Coors Lights out there. But getting some golf in in another good one. I think that you can kind of socially distance as much as possible.

And Coors light is always my, my golf beer of choice. So definitely recommend whether you're at home, whether you're getting out a little bit, getting a little sun, the Coors light, and they have this new limited edition summer can that has both mountains and sunglasses that turn blue when it's chilled to perfection, which is just awesome. So that's why I choose Coors Light when I need a moment to chill. Yep. So when you want to reset this summer, reach for the beer that's made to chill. And you can have Coors Light delivered, by the way,

if you go to get.coorslight.com, get.coorslight.com and Get, G-E-T.coorslight.com and find the local delivery options near you. Celebrate responsibly. Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado. All right, let's see who's tough to rank. Jamie, Raheem Mostert, who is RB27 right now in ADP since July 1st on NFC,

54th overall, and AJ Green. Let's start with Mostert. Who's ahead and who's behind Mostert right now for you? Ahead of Mostert is I will tell you in a second. Ahead of Mostert is Damian Williams. For me, this is

PPR, and behind him is Canmakers. Alright. It's a fun range. Would anybody take Mostert ahead of Damian Williams at this point? Nope. I don't think Heath actually spoke nope. I think he just mouthed it. I

spoke it. I didn't hear it. I'm sorry. I will speak louder for you next time. Good. Well, it took eight minutes to speak at the top of the show, so you saved a lot of energy. I do think that Mostert ADP that you gave, I really, really, really want to compliment you

and say you've done a fabulous job of using NFC and adjusting the dates. I think we can even adjust the Mostert one a little bit more because over the last... Now he's down to 29 over the last eight days. So he's continuing to fall. I don't know that he'll be a top 30 running back by the time we get to August. You know, it's funny because we have sort of,

and this is factored in for me is the potential trade scenario that we were dealing with for about two weeks that as we discussed earlier this week, that he is, I guess, realizing the trade market's not available to him and not trying to mend the fences with the 49ers or maybe just trying to mend the fences with the 49ers or maybe just trying to mend the fences with the 49ers anyway. But if he's traded, clearly that changes everything. But that rumor, I think, is factored into how probably people were drafting.

Right. Okay, well, why is he so tough for you, Jamie? And let's talk it out. Well, trade. Well, why is he so tough for you, Jamie? And let's talk it out. Well, trade rumor aside, the fact that, you know, we've said this many a time over the last several months since the Dolphins, could have a healthy Jerick McKinnon, who is most likely going to play on passing downs. Tevin Coleman is still there now, factoring in everything that's going on with COVID-19. Coleman does have the sickle cell trait, so maybe that helps Mostert's scenario if Coleman or the 49ers are being cautious about his health. In any event, if Coleman is still there, that's a problem as well. So he doesn't factor into the passing game,

no matter how successful he was last year. Tevin Coleman still was in the starting role, as we saw coming off the NFC Championship game and then going into the Super Bowl. So it doesn't appear as if they're fully vested in Mostert being this featured guy. And I'll go back to what I said. It wouldn't shock me also if he was the featured rusher for him, for them and getting consistently for what happened. 15 carries a game based on his usage near the goal line could lead the NFL in touchdowns because this is a run first team with a great offensive line and he was successful in that

role. But, you know, there's just too many other factors at play here, which is why it's tough for me to sort of say okay you have to draft this guy as a starter uh more non-ppr than ppr but is he even a high-end flex or you know number three running back i honestly struggle with it and you know as i was reading that like could i really justify myself taking raheem mostard Akers. I don't know if I would do that. Well, you know, sticks in people's minds. The last five games, Mostert was eighth and non PPR 10th and PPR. But even in those games, I mean, he was only on pace for 205 carries.

He was getting about 13 carries a game on average. That's just not enough considering he had six catches in those five games. One of them was, I think one of them was a long touchdown pass on a trick play in the Saints game. He had six catches, 69 yards, and a touchdown. And then in the postseason, he took advantage. He had one enormous game, but I think he had 12 carries and like, well, I had it somewhere, but yeah, 12, 29, and 12 carries in three games.

So for the most part, 13 carries a game, something like that, when he was featured. That's not great. It's troublesome. But more than Mark Ingram averaged. Actually, Mark Ingram had 202 carries. That was in 15 games. It's around what Mark Ingram averaged.

Okay. Anything else to say? Ben, you want to weigh in here on Mostert? Nope. Okay. Yeah, there's a lot of upside, certainly. And the? Ben, you want to weigh in here on Mostert? Nope. Okay. Yeah, there's a lot of upside, certainly. And the thing is, Jamie... Really? Wait, does he have a lot of upside? I think so. Because I think anyone who gets the job

has a lot of upside in San Francisco. But you just said that... There is upside based on what you said. If he gets the job, it's such a huge if. Well, that was last year, but I think he's... I think he's just better than Tevin Coleman. The only time he really got the 29 carries in the NFC Championship, Coleman got hurt in that game.

Yeah, I know, I know. Every other time you're talking about 13 to 15 carries and no receptions? It would have to be they committed to him. That's what I mean. If they commit to him, 15 carries instead of 13, that'd be a big difference. And I think one other thing to take into account, same thing like uh i i know i've mentioned this i'm sure we have uh collectively as well like when you look at fournette you don't want to necessarily run away from leonard fournette

because of an injury prone chris thompson i don't want to run away from raheem mostert because of an injury prone jerek mckinnon factoring into this because he hasn't stayed healthy for two years. They like, I think it's to Michael hasty to maybe take some touches as well. Jeff Wilson, I think will be there and he could take some goal line chances. The, the, the quote, I've said this time and time again from the combine with, with Kyle Shanahan about, he doesn't use, doesn't view having four running backs as a luxury. He views it as a necessity. So I think they're going to use multiple guys, clearly.

So it's such a big if to say he has upside. I feel like it's almost he has more downside than upside. Okay. A.J. Green. The last time we saw A.J. Green, 2018, he played eight healthy games and he had one target in his ninth game and that was it. In those eight games, he was on pace for 90 catches, 1,374 yards,

and 12 touchdowns on 152 targets. Those numbers would have made him a top seven wide receiver. He had a bad 2017, I guess, but really, Green was awesome in 2018. So don't forget about that. Jamie, where do you have Green? Who's ahead of him? Who's behind him? So he was awesome.

But we're two years, different quarterback and different coach removed from that season. I have him right now behind DK Metcalf and ahead of Stefan Diggs. And I don't necessarily feel comfortable with that. I'm sure Ben hates me for having digs as low as I do in any event. I think if he's right, he will be better than his average draft position around six, but he is again, two years removed from that season.

He hasn't played more than 10 games. He's played more than 10 games once since 2015. He is never played with Joe 10 games. He's played more than 10 games once since 2015. He has never played with Joe Burrow. He has never played in a game with Zach Taylor as his coach and play caller. He is going to have a lack of rapport with a rookie quarterback. And if we're concerned about the rookie running backs and rookie wide receivers, hello, the rookie quarterbacks are in a much worse shape. So he's also stepping on the field. If everybody's healthy with a guy in Tyler board is two years better than what he was in that 2018 season. If John Ross is there, he's also stepping on the field if everybody's healthy with a guy in Tyler Board is two years better than what he was in that 2018 season.

If John Ross is there, he's going to take some targets. As we saw last year, he was very good in the early part of the season when he's healthy. Again, don't bank on John Ross being healthy, but for now he is. And if the Bengals say do what they say they're going to do and play T. Higgins, who they drafted in the second round, then there's now three other receivers plus whatever they do with Uzama plus whatever they do with their backs at the backfield. And as we saw at the end of last season, Joe Mixon was a workhorse in the true sense of the word. So if they're running the ball to that level

and all these guys are going to chop up targets, it's just hard to justify A.J. Green as a starting fantasy wide receiver. I'll take him in round six as a third guy, but I will not draft him to be a number two wide receiver this year. Heath, do you have trouble ranking A.J. Green? Oh, yeah, I think you have to for all the reasons that Jamie said and I struggle with this Bengals offense because I do think there's obviously a lot of upside

I think their coach is pretty smart I think their play calling will be pretty good Joe Burrow is eventually probably going to be a very good NFL quarterback they've got Mixon and Green and Boyd but this is one of the offenses that I downgraded a little bit today in terms of my overall team projection, because I don't really like the fact that Joe Burrow is not going to see any preseason action and going to see fewer padded

practices than he normally would have. And I think what Jamie said about like all the competition for targets is important because I expect this to be an offense when it's working well, that does spread the ball around a lot and they have the weapons to do that. So I don't really know without injury, if AJ green has much upside in terms of targets beyond like 125 or 130. And he needs more than that to be a top 15 wide receiver, most likely. So I've got him. I think I actually have him ahead of Metcalf and behind Diggs,

but in a similar range, just right around wide receiver 24, 25. Much rather have him as your number three. I think he was my number two in our draft yesterday, but you'd much rather have him as your number three than number two. Ben, let's take a look at the two players that you find toughest to rank. Tyler Higbee, who right now is the sixth tight end off the board since July 1st, and Aaron Jones, who

is RB10, but he's going 12th overall, which we all think is too early for Aaron Jones. So let's start with Tyler Higbee. What's so difficult about Tyler Higbee? Well, he did nothing in his whole career dating back to college until five games at the end of last season. And then in those

five games, he did something that no tight end in NFL history has ever done before. What's hard about that? I mean, I don't even understand. For me, I'm down on him. Certainly, but I like Gerald Everett and I don't know that I can just trust a small of a sample,

especially we talked about the defenses they played. They played the Cardinals twice. They were the single worst team against tight ends in that five-game stretch. They also played, I believe it was the Seahawks and Cowboys. Seahawks, Cowboys, and Niners, yep. And Cowboys and Seahawks were second and third in points against the tight ends. So four of those five games were against top three worst teams against tight ends last year for fantasy.

So there's a lot of reasons I think he could be down on him, but I still don't know where to rank him. I mean, I have to at least recognize that the last five games that we saw him play were something that no Titans ever done before. There's an obvious upside here if he continues to stay in that type of a role and get anything close to that type of usage.

So it's like I keep wanting, like i don't really draft him and keep wanting wanting to move him down my tight end ranks but i still have a 10 and 10 and i don't really think i can go any lower we should probably do a show on that at some point guys that we have ranked as starters that we just don't draft i was thinking about this after the leonard fournette conversation because i haven't ranked you know as a low-end starter and i typically don't draft him. But I took him in that

mock draft yesterday because it was 20 spots after his ADP. It was hard to pass on him in round five. But I'm with Ben. I have Higby ranked in my top 10, but I don't tend to draft him just because he's in that range of, okay, I'm not taking a tight end here, so I'll just wait.

But there's probably a lot of guys we have like that, especially you two guys with projecting those players. Yeah, AJ Green, same thing I was thinking when you brought him up. Who are the tight ends around him in your rankings? I have Gasicki one spot ahead of him, and I have Gronk one spot behind him. Heath, reaction?

I agree that I think Higby and Gronk are like the perfect pairing at that stage of the rankings. I think I have Gronk one spot ahead of, but no one could have any sort of educated debate about whether you should have Tyler Higby or Rob Gronkowski ranked higher because it's just, there's so many unknowns with both of them. So I think they fit very well at the end of the top 12 tight ends. I think my whoo spoke for itself.

Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it did. So, you know, just taking a step back and looking at this discussion on a more general scale, a more general view,

do you typically struggle to rank players that you think have big upside? In other words, if you don't think Mostert has a lot of upside, which doesn't seem like Ben does, and I get that, then it probably shouldn't be that hard to rank him. Just don't rank him that high. But if you do think he has big upside, as Jamie said, he could lead the team in carries and lead the league in touchdowns or whatever,

then he would be tough. And Higby, like if you don't think Higby could be that good, then I don't see why it'd be that hard to rank him. But if you think that he... Take into account the range of outcomes. It's like I said, I'm obviously sounding like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth when I say that Mostert wouldn't be surprising

if he led the NFL in touchdowns, but I'm saying he doesn sides of my mouth when I say that Mostert can lead, you know, wouldn't be surprising if he led the NFL touchdowns, but I'm saying he doesn't have any upside because I can see the downside to, to what Mostert could be and, and, and the flaws. And so I think that's kind of how you have to approach it is when you're drafting as well. It's like, okay. Comparing Gusecki and Higby and Gronk. Okay. So what's the plus, what's the minus. And that's the debate. We saw the plus for Higby. I don't think he's getting better than what he did in those five games,

but it was amazing. It was the best stretch for five games for any tight end ever. And so, you know, I was thinking about this when Ben was talking. Give Les Neen and the Rams credit. They gave Higby a four-year contract extension before he did that. Imagine if they had to pay him now after coming off that stretch, his contract would be through the roof. So, you know, maybe they saw it coming.

Maybe, you know, return of interest is great on the way that he performed. And now it's almost like, okay, let's build off that. But Gerald Everett didn't play in a lot of that. The running backs weren't involved in the passing game. Cooper Cupps' numbers declined. And now he's entering a contract situation. So now is it his turn to get the potential reward? And maybe he steps up and they got to change some of the things that they do. You know, Sean McVay is,

as Heath was alluding to with, uh, with cam makers and what he said, he's a smart enough guy to say, okay, the 49ers had a ton of success with how they ran the ball. So let's change. We had a lot of success with using Higby. So let's change, you know, he's hopefully adapting as he's seeing things working for his team or maybe not working for his team. And so will they stay in more too tight end sets? Will that, you know, hurt cup because he's not as good outside as he is inside. Is Robert Woods just going to really blow up because he's, you know, kind of stuck in the same role and Jared Goff knows. I said this on a previous show,

if Higby hits and cup hits and Robert Woods hit, we have Jared Goff way too low as an industry, because there's no chance that all these guys perform to the level of, I think, where they're being ranked, that Goff should not be drafted as the number one quarterback. Yeah.

Cooper Cupp played 61% or fewer of the snaps in three of his last four games. That's such a big... How could they justify that? He's just too good going into this year for him to not play more than 60% of the snaps or 61%. It's just all formational. Because when you go to two

tight ends, you don't use your slot. And they've always been so formational. I don't think that will carry over. I just think that was the thing that was like, we're calling these packages and Cup's not on the field in these packages. And so it was a weird thing. Okay. Let's go to your second player, Ben. Aaron Jones.

Oh, yeah. Aaron Jones. All right. So where do you, who's ahead of him and who's behind him? I have him, I guess I have him one spot behind Jonathan Taylor and one spot ahead of Clyde Edwards-Hilaire.

So right in the middle of them. Still? Yep. Really? Yep. Really? Yes. Final answer. Today? Okay.

Does Jonathan Taylor have more upside than Aaron Jones? Yes. Still? Yeah. This year. I mean, not what Aaron Jones did last year. I mean, I think, I don't know that Jonathan Taylor has the what aaron jones did last year i mean i think i don't know that jonathan taylor has the upside for what aaron jones did last year but i also don't think aaron

jones has anywhere close to the upside for what aaron jones did last year such a funny conversation to have yeah when you talk about a player's upside and and you just like ignore something that he actually did because you don't think he could ever do it again, which happens all the time. Well, I'm not ignoring it. No, and I agree with like, there's no way he's going to finish. I'd be shocked if he finishes the top two or three running back again. I mean, one of the reasons I put him on this list is a great point that Heath made a while back when we were talking about him. I guess maybe around projections time that it wasn't just last year that Aaron Jones was really efficient.

He was a really good touchdown scorer, even on smaller workloads earlier in his career before last season. Aaron Jones is really good. I expect him to continue to be really good, but I also want like almost no part of him in, in this situation and knowing all the things we know about how his, his production just spiked every time somebody else was hurt. I mean,

even last year wasn't sustainable because you know, he played his biggest snapshots only every time somebody else was hurt. I mean, even last year wasn't sustainable because he played his biggest snapchairs only when Jamal Williams was hurt or missed time. He caught all of his passes when Devonta Adams was out, which Jamie always notes. I mean, now they added A.J. Dillon in the second round. So why is it even difficult for you? Because you don't really say a lot of positive things about Jones.

Because he's very good. He's very good. I wish the Packers would use him differently is why it's difficult. And, you know, maybe their hand will be forced. Maybe both Dylan and Jamal Williams will get hurt. And then, yeah, then he has that upside. But well, and this is, I think, where we discuss I've got him

like I'm like 14. We're not. I don't think we're probably that far. I haven't 14 actually. Yeah. Okay. Like the difference is I only have Taylor 13. What? Uh, yeah. Um, maybe we should just talk about that, but no, I do think that he has 1500 total yard, 45 catch upside. Like he's probably not going to score 19 touchdowns again, but I think he'll probably score 12 if he plays 16 games. And so that's

why I asked. I still think Aaron Jones upside is a top six running back. He's going to share, sure, but I don't expect that he's going to share as much as Taylor and he'll be a lot more involved in the passing game. And so that was like, I really do think that he has more upside than Taylor and a higher floor we need a nickname case we need a nickname for him I think everything you

just said no fair I'm not gonna like argue with with the specifics at all the the reason I would answer Taylor to the upside thing is the scenario for like it's more of like a this is like a broader philosophical thing i've been thinking about with um all sorts of stuff i wrote about i wrote an article about it recently about how bad our projections are and really like a lot of my strategy with upside boils down to trying to give realistic weight to these one percent potential outcomes and i know that's crazy but like i just i just responded to uh our fancy football today post that i'm sure schrager sent our tweet about who could be the dark horse number one wide receiver and i added aj brown and i'm sure like people were like how does that happen well wolf derrick

henry misses a lot of time and aj brown basically becomes young Randy Moss and gets the Randy ratio and they start building their offense through him that can happen and that's crazy to think about but I see that as a scenario that could happen um that's what you needed to see with Lamar Jackson last year we talked about in projections week last year where it was so hard to project him for more than 800 yards he ended up running for over 1200 uh you had to see that with Christianian mccaffrey early in his career that his workload could be that monster before it happened and i know people who did and had him in every single league i didn't necessarily have him as much as i could have but uh michael thomas you know his efficiency immediately we didn't think he could sustain but he kept sustaining it right he's continued to do it. There's this... I don't know.

It's like you have to build a... But why does that apply to Jonathan Taylor more so than Aaron Jones? Because Jonathan Taylor is the best prospect since Ezekiel Elliott at the running back position. Like in the second half of the season, there's a possibility he's pacing for 1,500 rushing yards in the final eight games and 16 touchdowns.

Don't tell that to the Chiefs. I mean... Yeah, well... Clyde Edwards-Solaire does not match up athletically. I think that's the thing, though. Part of the evaluation of these rookies is how the NFL viewed them. And he wasn't drafted like the best prospect since Ezekiel Elliott. There have been lots of running backs since. He went like 10 picks behind Clyde Edwards-Solaire.

He is not a better prospect than Saquon Barkley. No, okay, maybe that was a little unfair. Yeah. Barkley was a phenomenal prospect. I skipped him. No, but I was going to tease you and say, sure, Taylor has more upside. He has to beat out,

all he has to do is beat out Marlon Mack. Aaron Jones has to beat out A.J. Dillon. You know, like, I was just going to tease you and say that. I'd rather have to beat out A.J. Dillon than You know? Like, I was just going to tease you and say that. It's like, I'd rather have to beat out A.J. Dillon than bar the back. What are we talking about? Continuity and, you know, comfort factor with players.

Do the Colts, at what point do they have a comfort factor with Donovan Taylor? You know the Packers have a comfort factor with Aaron Jones. Yep. Aaron Jones is awesome. I will readily admit

I might be wrong on this. I mean, I might need to change it right now. That's why he's in the discussion today, right? He's tough to rank. And he's tough to draft. For me, he'd probably be easy to rank because he's in... We talk about this like every show.

Aaron Jones is in a tier by himself for, I think... I feel like me and Heath, we had that discussion. You took DJ Moore. I took Chris Goblin. Aaron Jones was the running back next up for me. Because after that, it's like Melvin Gordon or Jonathan Taylor. This is another player I think collectively we are down on compared to the industry.

I think we are probably pushing down his draft value on our site more so than if somebody's coming to us from someplace else, looking at other content and drafting on our site. I just, you know, you want touches and I feel like every running back drafted ahead of him seems likely to have more touches than Aaron Jones. That's what it seems like. The only one,

if somebody's taking Clyde Everett's E-layer in front of him, then no. Well, not Eckler and not Cam. Well, not Eckler. And not Kamara. Why not Eckler? What do you have, 260, 270 last year? Well, but last year doesn't really count.

And why not Kamara? No, I'm saying didn't Aaron Jones have like 280? He had 285 touches last year. Right, but okay, it depends how you look at it. Because I think if you told Ben that Aaron Jones is getting 285 touches, year. Right, but okay, it depends how you look at it because I think if you told Ben that Aaron Jones is getting 285 touches, he'd be much higher. 100% would have him ranked way higher. Don't think that's in his range of outcome.

But everybody would say, yeah, but Devontae Adams got hurt. He got all the catches. Jamal Williams got hurt. He got all the carries. He didn't have that kind of touch pace when those guys were healthy. So that's why it's difficult.

This is kind of an Azar stat, right? No, it's not at all. Otherwise, it'd be easy to... No, that's why it's difficult. This is kind of an Acer stat, right? No, it's not. Not at all. Otherwise, it'd be easy to... No, I mean, it's really simple. Otherwise, they'd draft him in the first round. He played 65% of snaps four times. That's the two games Jamal Williams missed

and the two games Jamal Williams left early. Every other time, he played less than 65% of the snaps. That correlates really heavily with his touches. It's not really an Acer stat. They didn't use him when their other running back was healthy.

And now they drafted another. Plus, it's accurate. an A's or stat. They didn't use him when their other running back was healthy and now they drafted another. Plus it's accurate. Even the 65% Even the 65%, it's like he played 58, 59, 60, 63 in a bunch of games. Yeah, but those are not workhorse

round one pick numbers. 60% snap shares, really. I do not think Aaronaron jones should be taken in the first round i want to be very clear i'm not arguing he's my number four adp on our site so we're getting average opposition data now um his adp on our site is as the 21st player off the board uh he's going as the 14th running back i think that's kind of in the same range we all have him ranked you know somewhere between probably 12 and 15. So again, I do think that we're slightly down on him. And I don't think it's fair.

I'll speak for myself to say that Edward Solaire and the other rookies lose a little bit because lack of off season and not say AJ Dillon loses and Aaron Jones gains a little bit, you know, so the expected decline in touches that Aaron Jones may be getting, which could happen at some point, you know, again, it's certainly natural to expect that. But it may not happen early in the season, so he could get off to a hot start, given the fact that they seem like

they're going to be very committed to running the ball. All right, so here's the stat, right? That he played 12 games without Jamal Williams either leaving or not playing. In those 12 games, twice, Aaron Jones had more than 13 carries. Twice. So I think if you're telling me that,

and he didn't even get, he got 49 catches, and half of them came in five games without Devontae Adams. So if you're telling me that, it's hard to see him getting more touches than anyone being drafted ahead of him, in my opinion. Totally agree. Which is why he's tough. So we're doing, I guess we're doing his touch pace

in the seven games he played with both Devontae Adams and Jamal Williams. You know what? If you just want to look at the games without Jamal Williams, William's getting hurt. But then Heath also had that, what's so difficult is like, okay, obviously it worked

when they gave him more work. And then in the playoffs, Jamal Williams was back and they still gave him more work. So that's why I, like when they drafted A.J. Dillon, I felt like I had to defend Aaron Jones to the core here

because I think that he's their best running back and they're smart enough to realize that. And I think he could get more touches than he got last year in those 12 games with Jamal Williams. But if he doesn't, it's going to be hard for him to be a top 20 player. But this is another player that gets pushed up because of the running back value and how people are drafting. I think if you're just looking at what his role is going to be,

forget about the position that he plays, just his role in his offense, it's hard to take him in the first two rounds because of all the receivers that are going to go after him. But I think if you're drafting and not necessarily saying, oh, I got to get two running backs because the receiver depth pool, the receiver talent pool is so good in round three and round four. Like if you take a running back early in round one, which you should, and I think most people will in those first,

you know, five or six picks that when you get to the backend around two and, and now you're, you're staring at John Taylor and, uh, Edward Solaire and the older running backs. And, and I hate throwing Chris Carson in that group,

but you know, he's, he, he sort of falls in that group just, you know, I think based on perception, but you know, Carson and bell and Gordon and...

Connor. Sorry? James Connor. Connor, and he's not an older guy either. But again, perception is girly. And those guys, for me, I'll take my chances with Aaron Jones over those guys based on talent, but I can understand shying away from him because of opportunity.

Yeah, so just tell me if what I said made sense. The last thing I said, it's like, I think that he's got the potential to get more touches than he did last year when Jamal Williams was healthy, because when they finally, when they ever, they did give Aaron Jones more touches,

it paid off. He was awesome. All those times basically. But it's, why did they draft a second round running back who was a workhorse runner possibly because they don't want to spend money to re-sign aaron jones he's in the last year of his contract and so is jamal williams i don't know the answer to that but i tend to lean towards what the team is telling us as opposed to you know that to me is like a it's like occam's

razor like what is the the the fewest questions you have to ask to get to a solution or whatever? That is a second-order solution we have to try to figure out. The simplest answer is they drafted him because they want to keep doing what they did every time they had everyone healthy last year. That's the simple answer. Final thing on Jones.

Heath, how many touches do you have him projected for? 251? Okay. That's a lot. If he gets that, I'll be happy. Let's talk about Dave's real quick. Dave had Mark Ingram, who's RB29, going right around Raheem Mostert.

And he had David Montgomery, who's RB23. And Dave gave his reasoning for those, which I will find at some point. I agree 100% with Montgomery. I've really struggled with how to rank him and think that there's some hidden upside that doesn't get discussed enough. I don't have a lot of trouble ranking Mark Ingram.

I just put him right after all the running backs that I want to draft to start on my team. What's the difference between him and Mostert? Who do you have, Mostert or Ingram? I have Ingram higher. Ingram. And the difference between him and most or who do you have most or to ring them i have ingram higher um ingram and the difference between him and mostard is that mark ingram was a like a very good running back for half a decade before raheem mostard ever did anything in the nfl yeah i have ingram higher too jk dobbins is an interesting rookie that i want to mention too when we were talking earlier not to completely get sidetracked but he uh i don't

i'm not changing my outlook for him at all the whole outlook for him was that maybe mark ingram gets hurt he could have monster upside and i still think that is like pretty much the case right he he was the rookie running back that i did not downgrade um in the last 48 hours right he's like the start of the lottery ticket range. Because if he ever gets the chance to be the featured guy in that offense, my God, is he going to be awesome. Unfortunately, I think that some of the lottery tickets are going in the third round.

Clyde Edwards' second round for Edwards-Elair, third round for Taylor, Akers. I mean, they are. I feel like they're lottery tickets, right? Those are the $20 scratchers. JK Dobbins is more of like a $5 scratcher. Gotcha.

Gotcha. I have a much broader, uh, point on, on running backs in general too, that we'll have to get into some point that I've started to, to distill with, with all these off season concerns and all,

all the concerns about COVID going into the season. But there's going to be a lot of turnover at that position this year. Yes. It's going to be a crazy year. We'll see. I mean, so far it hasn't been as bad as I expected it would be for baseball.

And it hasn't spread, really. I don't know what's going on with the Royals. The Royals, yeah, they've had a lot. Like 20% of their team has got it or something. I think seven players since they reported to camp. It just hasn't been a lot of high-profile players until today. Well, they had Salvador Perez at one point too, I think, right? But Hunter Dozier today.

So they seem to have the worst case. And there will probably be one team like that at least inzier today. So they seem to have the worst case. And there will probably be one team like that at least in the NFL. Okay. So thank you guys for those. The Crazy Eight, eighth toughest players to rank. Time for emails.

FantasyFootball at CBSi.com. From Hunter in Oklahoma City. Hey, Blake, Vince, Toby, and Garth. Country music singers. Pop country music singers. No, this is like old school totally legit country music singers.

I got friends. I had a good discussion with one of my league mates last night and it got me thinking. By the way, that's the only time I've ever said I've got friends. If you could choose, what is the one position out of your starting lineup that you would want to be weakest at, excluding kicker

and DST in a PPR league? Quarterback. This is a really good question for the point I was just going to jump into. You're going to say RB2. I think this year it should be running back because it's the position that's most opportunity dependent. So it means that the

late round running backs are the ones that can gain so much value just because their circumstances change, right? Like a late round receiver can't immediately be an elite receiver for a variety of reasons. One is that every team has like three receivers. So Julio goes down, Calvin Ridley steps up and then the next guy steps up and then the next guy steps up. And then the next guy steps up running back. It opens the door for one guy to just, you know, James Connor, the year that Le'Veon Bell held out, he's immediately a first rounder. We talked about that with Alexander Madison and all these guys.

As soon as somebody misses that it's such an opportunity based position where there's really only one running back on each team that can be the workhorse. Like I don't mind being weak there this year and taking a lot of these lotto tickets like jk domins we just talked about that if he gets a chance to start he's going to be really good that week it seems like the year to do that the zero rb kind of philosophy because you think covid is gonna just force more players to the sideline. It probably will force a lot of players at a lot of positions, but running back's the one where the later round picks can gain so much more value so quickly. That's an interesting point.

All right. And so he's going to say running back, Jamie, what would you say if one position in a PPR league to be weak as that quarterback? Hell. And part of the reason I thought of that, I want to give Heath credit for it.

He was asked, we were talking about this like a week or two ago and he was asking like, should we be paying more attention to handcuffs? I yes. Like Heath, you're right. Right. Like I've been thinking about it a ton,

but like Darrington Evans, like, uh, you know, those types of guys that we think could be really good if they ever get a chance to start, like what are the odds that all these running backs make it through the season? And none of, like, you know, those types of guys that we think could be really good if they ever get a chance to start. Like, what are the odds that all these running backs make it through the season and none of them gets, you know, has to sit out two or three games? And we're talking handcuffs on tomorrow's episode.

Boom. You guys like lemon in your water? No. Yeah, I just had a really bad moment. It appears I took my wife's glass of water and it has lemon in it. It was disgusting. It was awkward. So if you're watching on YouTube, that's what happened to me.

This is from Ralph's Cloud. How would you approach a 10-team draft when ADP is normally for 12-team drafts? More likely to take an elite tight end and quarterback. Yeah. Yeah.

But is there anything specifically with ADP that changes for you or do you just assume it's the same? Assume it's the same. Okay. Heath, have you noticed that? I don't know what it's like where you're from and what you call the real part of the country.

I think, you know, Missouri, that area, but in Florida, they always, they almost always bring you lemon with your water without asking. I always have to say no lemon when I'm in Florida. Um, that's kind of a thing with beer too. There are certain styles of beer where they like bring you a lime without asking. And really i really hate that i love that you were talking about water and he just associates water with beer like it's the same thing for me when i order drinks at a restaurant yeah it's just yeah it's the same thing um all right last

question here is this the last one or do i have more? Some Jeremy. I was wondering, any chance you could do some chat about last year's draft similarities and differences this year? Like rookie running backs were a bit of a letdown last year. Why did the players you liked last year not pan out and how does that relate to this year's crop? Of the bad injuries, were they somewhat predictable? What about those round four to seven gems? The general question is, any lessons learned from last year's draft to apply to this year's crop of the bad injuries? Were they somewhat predictable? What about those round four to seven gems?

Like the general question is any lessons learned from last year's draft to apply to this year? Don't draft receivers in the first round. If their quarterback is going to miss the year. I, my, my lesson would be don't ever apply one year's results to, uh,

and try and do this exact thing. Sorry, Jeremy, but just don't ever do this exact thing because like last year, you would look at the last two years. You would want to try to find this year's Lamar Jackson or Pat Mahomes, but we're not going to find that in the late rounds this year for one reason, because those guys only had to be out,

you know, like an aging Tom Brady and an aging Aaron, Aaron Rogers. Now the next guy would have to beat out Pat Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. Like these things are cyclical. We're not going to have another Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes soon. I remember like way back when Devonta Freeman was the number one running back. It's like a round eight guy.

Then it, you know, we all overcorrected to that for sure. And since then, it's been mostly all high picks that have been the elite running backs. Right. And you got to look at multiple years. That's my point. And on that note, I've definitely taken to drafting tight ends in the late rounds,

a second tight end because two years ago it was Kittle and he really, it wasn't a, an expected breakout. And he also got hurt right before the season started. Um, and then last year, it was Mark Andrews. Yeah, and Waller.

Yeah, yeah. So it just sort of happens with tight ends lately. And that's why I think Noah Fant's a great late round pick as a second tight end. Well, you say it happens

with tight ends lately. You just gave three examples out of 64. It doesn't have to be, I mean, Darren Waller, Tyler Higbee. I'm saying tight ends kind of break out out of nowhere, and I think they're worth taking with late picks. But it's almost like what Ben's saying with the quarterbacks.

Like, you know, you're banking on such a small sample size of things to happen. So it's not a bad idea to take dart throws at those guys, yes. Right. You can't use Higbee because nobody was drafting Higbee. Okay, but I think, I guess what I'm trying to say, I never used to draft two tight ends. More or less.

Hardly ever. I thought it was a waste of a pick. But now that I'm seeing that these guys have breakout potential and then kind of come out of nowhere, I think it makes sense to take Flyers. There's a little bit of a longer trend on that too. Like Delaney Walker and Jordan Reed's biggest year, he was like a 15th round pick or something.

There's been some other good examples of that, I think. Thank you. Jamie, anything you want to add? No, I think, you know, just I go probably the other side of it a little bit that, you know, if a player hurt you in some regard, you know, burned you in some capacity. Don't run away from them. Like Heath scenario is is I know he's joking but you know people are like oh juju smith schuster god he was terrible obviously you know there's going to be situations where you know things were out of their you know players that players control um you know and and clearly there's different extremes you know uh like we'll find out if somebody like curtis samuel is decent or is just completely terrible, you know,

based on how bad the quarterback play was for him last year. All right, we're done for the day. Handcuffs tomorrow. What's the other topic, Ben? And Jacob Gibbs from Sportsline is coming on. Yeah, Jacob Gibbs, another Kansas City guy. He's coming on. He was an extremely accurate fantasy football prognosticator last year,

so we're going to get some of his favorite players. Really good fantasy mind in a lot of different sports. We'll talk to Jacob tomorrow, and we'll talk to all of you tomorrow. Have a great Thursday. Wow, you're hearing this on Thursday, which means it's baseball time. Real sports are back, ladies and gentlemen. Training camp will be open pretty soon as well. We'll talk to you then.