Fantasy Football Today - The Future of Dynasty: Starting a Devy Fantasy League! Plus Favorite 2024 Rookie Prospects (Fantasy Football Today Dynasty Podcast)

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

Looking to dominate your fantasy league just like your redraft league? Look no further than Fantasy Football Today Dynasty hosted by our very own Heath Cummings! Download and follow Fantasy Football... Today Dynasty on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you find your podcasts.  Join FFT's Heath Cummings and special guest Matt Cooper from Couch Scouts (0:00) as they explore the exciting world of Devy Leagues (4:20) in Dynasty fantasy football. Devy Leagues elevate the Dynasty experience by allowing you to draft and roster college football players before they enter the NFL, adding a thrilling layer of strategy and foresight. Matt delivers an insightful breakdown (5:38) of how to navigate these leagues successfully, emphasizing scouting, drafting, and long-term team-building strategies. The episode doesn't stop there; dive into the 2024 rookie class (19:00) as Matt shares his top prospects across all key positions. Whether you're looking for the next breakout quarterback (24:00) or a sleeper pick (35:02) at tight end, get ahead of the game with expert predictions and analysis. This is your all-access pass to mastering Devy Leagues and making informed decisions for your dynasty team's future. Link to Couch Scouts Discord: https://discord.gg/djB2hTgs6e Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Gold tenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too.
Starting point is 00:00:19 Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Whether in the game or in life, the right coverage can make all the difference. Securian Canada gives you that coverage. For more than 65 years, Securian Canada has been helping Canadians build secure tomorrows. Their insurance solutions are designed to help protect you and your loved ones financially,
Starting point is 00:00:46 giving you the peace of mind to focus on what truly matters. Find their products through banks, credit unions, and associations, or visit SecurianCanada.ca. Securian Canada. Insurance designed for life. Welcome to Fantasy Football Today Dynasty. I am your host, Heath Cummings, joined by a very special guest, Matt Cooper, a.k.a. Couch Scouts Fantasy Football, Couch Scouts FF on Twitter. Now, Matt, I know I just want to start with this, because I know when you and I started talking about you coming on the show, it wasn't CouchScoutsFF on Twitter. Now, Matt, I know I do in my free time, in my daily life. I'm
Starting point is 00:01:47 a campus minister. So, you know, you and I have that faith in Christ in common. But yeah, so, you know, I launched this YouTube channel. I was about 30 years old. I'd always thought about doing it. I actually had just had a kid. And so I was at home for a month on paternity leave. And I was like, all right. So I dug in, I taught myself video editing and how to make thumbnails and the whole thing. It just went for it. And, you know, a couple of weeks ago I was talking with my co-hosts and I said, you know, I really think we need to rebrand. Debbie to Dynasty Film Room is kind of a mouthful. Every time I tell anybody in real life, like what my channel name is,
Starting point is 00:02:30 they're like immediately like, what's Debbie? Uh, how do you spell that? Uh, nobody can find it. So, um, I thought, you know, what is it exactly that we do? We scout, we get into the film, we watch prospects, we look for strengths and weaknesses, how that translates to fantasy points. And at the end of the day, we're just guys on our couch. We're fans just like everybody else. And so that's kind of how we thought of the name. Like, well, what are we? We're couch scouts. So we rebranded and hopefully, I mean, most of our content, we do cover some Debbie stuff, but most of our content is really just geared towards your typical dynasty player or even just people who love the draft, love talking football.
Starting point is 00:03:03 And so hopefully this name feels more accessible to more people. And along with the name, we launched a brand new Discord. So we're trying to make it less of like content to consume and more of kind of a community that people can join and come be a part of, join the Couch Scouts. And so I'll send you the link uh he for the discord if you want to throw it in the description uh and people can come it's totally free to anybody we've got guys in there every day talking trades talking about these rookies um
Starting point is 00:03:36 talking news as it breaks you know we were buzzing the other day with free agency we were talking about the combine so definitely would love for people to come and join the community. That's awesome stuff. And you mentioned that prior name, the Devita Dynasty. We are going to talk a little bit of Devita today. We're going to talk a lot of rookies today. And those really go hand in hand this time of year because these rookies we're talking about technically aren't in the NFL yet. They're still in college. So it works out perfectly. We do start our show with three questions for the guests. The first question is the same for every guest, though it's changed a little bit in the last couple of weeks because I was tired of people
Starting point is 00:04:14 answering Superflex. So what is your one non-negotiable rule or setting for joining a new Dynasty League and you cannot say Superflex? I would say hosted on Sleeper. It's not a rule or a setting, but for me, and it's nothing against any of the other platforms, I just have been on Sleeper ever since I started, and I've got a lot of leagues, and they're all on Sleeper. And so for me to have a whole separate app just for one league,
Starting point is 00:04:44 I just don't want to do it. I just want to keep it all consolidated. for me personally that's a must uh if it's a paid league i prefer for it to be paid two years up front so that people aren't you know trading all their picks to try to win and then bail on the league uh and then this is a big one no vetoes all right if two consenting adults are making a trade that they think is making their dynasty team better and you don't have proof of collusion, don't veto that thing. As a commissioner, you're not in there to play God and micromanage what you think is fair for everybody else and run their teams for them. So that's a big one for me. Well, absolutely love that one. Adam Azer wouldn't totally agree, but that's how we know we're right.
Starting point is 00:05:24 What exactly? Question number two. what exactly is a Devy League? in high school, some, some Debbie leagues, you can literally draft high schoolers. Uh, and so Debbie kind of stands for developmental. And so you are projecting years out, you know, saying, Hey, I think this kid eventually is going to be an NFL player. I'm going to sit him on my taxi squad and he's going to sit there until if, and when he gets drafted to the NFL. And when that happens, he moves up to your dynasty squad. So it's kind of like having a farm league. But these college guys, they're just sitting on your taxi squad. You're not getting points for how they're doing in college. It doesn't matter. Their college production doesn't matter. The end goal is that one day they're NFL players
Starting point is 00:06:16 and they're going to be on your dynasty team. So that kind of takes the place of like a rookie draft each year because those guys are already on your roster. Okay, we will definitely talk more about that in just a little bit in fact right now what what's your elevator elevator pitch because you said like a lot of people don't know what debbie is a lot of people have never tried it a lot of us who play fantasy football are of the age now where new things were like huh it's new i don't know about that what's your elevator pitch for like somebody telling somebody they should try a w league yeah so you know i think it gives you more reasons to watch college football as if you really need it anymore so um for me i was always more on the nfl
Starting point is 00:06:55 side of things like i would watch my college team uh i graduated from nc state i would watch nc state um but whenever i was turning it on and it would be like you know red river rivalry oklahoma versus oklahoma state i just didn't get that into it because i didn't care who won and and so debbie has kind of given me more reasons to watch college football it's like now when i'm watching these two get two teams that i don't care who wins now i'm watching it with the eye of a scout uh i've got specific players that i'm going into it saying hey i'm excited to see this guy play uh and so i also think it's made me a better dynasty player because i've got a better feel for the strength of these upcoming draft classes uh like you know it's really good to know i think that next year there's a ton of good running backs
Starting point is 00:07:42 coming out but if you need a quarterback don't hope that they're coming in next year's draft class because it's a pretty weak one. So I think it's good to know some of those things. Yeah, I want to just stop right there because how steady is that? Because I know if we looked at this class last year, we certainly wouldn't have been too excited about jayden daniels i don't think right um i remember like joe burrow came out of nowhere that last year like how often does that happen and how often do you find that the year before you did have a pretty good grip on who those guys were going to be yeah no that's a great question i think um there's always people that rise to the surface during their last year, at least a few.
Starting point is 00:08:27 And that's actually when you're playing Debbie. So you still have a rookie draft. It's just depleted by all the people that were already rostered. OK, so, for example, in all of my Debbie leagues right now that I'm in, Jaden Daniels is not already rostered in a single one of them. So when we get into that depleted rookie draft, Jaden Daniels is going to be the 101 everywhere. And so there are always at least a few decent rookie picks left, even after guys have been rostered on Debbie for years and years and years. But for the most part, I mean, like if you were asking me at the very end of the 2022 draft cycle,
Starting point is 00:09:03 in fact, I remember doing this for Dynasty Nerds. I was writing an article like way too early 2023 first round mock draft and it was you know bijan robinson jameer gibbs quentin johnston you know a lot of the guys that ended up being michael mayer had in it who ended up being more of a second round guy but you know it i was able to list off 12 names like easily and all those guys for the most part uh there were a few that ended up being pretty big disappointments like a zach evans um but for the most part most of those guys ended up being the names that mattered a year later the one guy that wasn't in that article was anthony richardson right so there's
Starting point is 00:09:40 always a few a few guys that kind of come out of nowhere. But for the most part, these guys that are NFL producers, they've been doing it in college for years. They've been on people's radars. Maybe they were a highly graded recruit coming into college. So I would say probably at least 75% to 80% of the guys that we're going to end up caring about are guys that have been on Debbie radars for a while. Awesome stuff we'll take our first break when we come back we'll dig a little bit more in debbie it's hockey season and you can get anything you need delivered with uber eats well almost almost anything so no you can't get a nice rank on uber eats but iced tea ice cream
Starting point is 00:10:21 or just plain old ice yes Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly.
Starting point is 00:10:40 Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Metrolinks and Crosslinks are reminding everyone to be careful as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals. Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. Okay, so we are back. We are definitely going to talk this 2024 rookie class
Starting point is 00:11:12 here in just a few minutes, but I do have a few more questions about just like if you may have just sold somebody ready to set up a Debbie League and they've got absolutely no idea how they're going to do that or what that looks like. And so like, what, what does this look like when you're initially setting it up? How, do you have a, an ideal setting for how many college players you should be able to have on that taxi squad? Yeah. So roster sizes are generally pretty much the same as,
Starting point is 00:11:41 as a regular dynasty league. Right. But, and I will say i've never actually commished a debbie league i've played in a lot of them i've not been a commish um but the taxi squad typically is like unlimited size actually so um you were you know you don't want to limit somebody on like okay i'm trying to rebuild i want to trade for all trade my nfl players for all these debbie guys but now i'm capped i can only have like five of them these are basically in place of your draft picks in a lot of ways so you don't want to limit that so so is the number of the number of devy guys you have takes away from the number of players you have on your active roster it's not in addition to the
Starting point is 00:12:19 active roster no uh it doesn't affect it'd be like you know if you're in a regular dynasty league and you're just accumulating for future firsts like that that's not going to you don't have to take away a player on your roster for every future draft pick that you trade for. So that's kind of how now there may be some devvy leagues, obviously, just like dynasty. There's a million different variations and every league kind of has its own settings and stuff. But for the most part, those taxi squads are not limited. They don't impact your active roster spots. You can acquire as many Devy players as you want to acquire. So one of the main things that I think you need to consider when you are starting up a Devy league, one is how deep do you want your Devy startup to do? So typically you'll do an NFL startup draft, just like you would in any other dynasty league.
Starting point is 00:13:06 And then you'll do a Debbie startup and it could be anywhere from three rounds all the way up to, you know, some of them are crazy and they go like 20 rounds and there's nobody left at the end. And the ones that I do are usually around six to eight rounds of Debbie guys that are getting drafted and put on your taxi squads. And, um, but, but how deep you go in that initial startup draft really determines how
Starting point is 00:13:35 depleted your future rookie drafts are. Right. So the more guys that you take in that startup, the less valuable your future picks are going to be, the less, uh, fun, your, your rookie draft is going to be the less uh fun your your rookie draft is going to be so i like kind of finding a little bit of a balance there uh so for example you know jayden daniels is available in this in this league um actually pretty much all the leagues that i'm in jayden daniels is available in this depleted draft but caleb williams is not drake may is not marvin harris jr is not like they're pretty heavily depleted. So the 101 might be Jaden Daniels.
Starting point is 00:14:07 And then the drop-off to 102, I mean, it could be pretty steep. So depending on the league, Roman Dune, they might be there. Keon Coleman is usually available in most of these leagues because he kind of came onto the scene this year. Do you think there's any more reliability with the guys like when you're looking at it as well this guy's been on a devy roster for two years versus this guy who's now a first round pick in the rookie draft are you more likely to believe in the guy who you guys have who has been worth rostering in a devy league for longer Not necessarily because I think, I mean, you,
Starting point is 00:14:46 you listed a bunch that have come out of nowhere and popped, I mean, Puka Nakua, right. You mentioned Joe Burrow. There's so many. And so we don't know everything. And these guys, we'd, a lot of times we don't leave room for players to get better. Like Jaden Daniels has been starting for five years and he just looks way better than he ever has at any other point in his college career. And when I study the tape, he looks like a great player to me. So I'm not knocking him just because he wasn't a five star recruit or he's not been sitting on my Debbie roster for three years.
Starting point is 00:15:17 Like I think Jaden Daniels is great. Right. You mentioned that there's still an annual rookie draft. I assume that means that there's also an annual rookie draft. I assume that means that there's also an annual Devy draft. Correct. And so one of the big decisions that you need to make when you are starting up a Devy league is, are we going to combine those where within the same draft, players can choose either a depleted rookie or a future Devy?
Starting point is 00:15:42 So maybe you're sitting at 102 and there's a steep drop off from Jaden Daniels to the next guy. And it's a combined and you're like, Hey, instead of taking, uh, the equivalent of what would be like a late second round rookie, I'm just going to go ahead and throw a dart on this incoming five-star freshmen. And he's going to sit on my taxi squad. So like you might see it go one Oh one Jaden Daniels, one Oh two Jeremiah Smith, the five-star coming into Ohio state. So that I think I prefer it that way. So some people will do the depleted rookie in one and then,
Starting point is 00:16:16 and then a depleted Debbie immediately after. But I just think the rookie picks are so thin at that point. The depleted rookie draft and the depleted rookie picks almost become worthless. Whereas if it's combined, even a fourth-round pick is valuable because in the fourth round, there's going to be some Debbie guy that you're interested in throwing a dart on. So that's kind of how I prefer the combined route. So that's good stuff.
Starting point is 00:16:44 So I know my first concern was the people who want to set up a league. Now, the second concern is we want to win this league. So is there any different strategy in terms of Debbie? I know ultimately it's still a dynasty league where the same types of guys are scoring the same types of points as any other dynasty league. So how does your strategy differ in a debbie league yeah my personal biggest advice to a new debbie player is don't get married to the debbie names all right so i mean these guys they come in as five stars and they produce right away as a freshman and we're so excited about them and so sure that they're going to be a thing and you you always have these guys
Starting point is 00:17:25 that it's just like oh all of a sudden sam howell's a fifth round pick um all of a sudden zach evans is a sixth round pick right braylon allen is a guy who was highly touted came in produced right away as a true freshman consensus has cooled significantly on braylon allen we'll talk about him later and so people treat these dev Debbie names as if they're a sure thing. They fall in love with them. They won't trade them. But I would say always be willing to trade them for proven NFL talent because as confident as you may be in a guy,
Starting point is 00:17:57 the value is not insulated like a draft pick would be. So if I trade for a 2025 first, a year from now, that's going to be a first round pick, no matter what. And the value is only going to go up. But if I trade for Evan Stewart at Oregon, and I love Evan Stewart, and I'm super excited about him. And for me, he'd be like a top three player in this upcoming class. But if I trade for Evan Stewart, and he has a terrible season, he could be getting talked about as a fourth round pick this time next year. The value is not insulated like it would be in a draft pick. So you can't stay married to these guys. You got to stay fluid.
Starting point is 00:18:36 I almost treat them like stocks. I'll draft a Debbie guy just to see his stock go up and then sell him with no intent of him ever actually hitting my dynasty roster okay now what about this is always a bit of a controversial topic um when it comes to dynasty fantasy football what about tanking is that how is that different in a in a debbie league yeah i mean it's it's still there um i think it's harder the more depleted that your pool is um it's not as simple as like i mean there's a's a Jaden Daniels this year, but there's not always. Right. Right.
Starting point is 00:19:09 So in some leagues, the 101 last year, if you were – I'm trying to think back to last year if there were any of these guys. I guess the 101 would have been Anthony Richardson in most cases, but he was rostered in some leagues. So if Anthony Richardson was not available, your 101 might have been like Dalton Kincaid or a Devy player, a freshman that might not hit your roster for three or four more years. So it is harder to build your team that way.
Starting point is 00:19:40 And so, like I said, I like to kind of treat these Devy players like stocks, and I'm buying and selling. You have to do a lot more trading, I think, to have an effective rebuild in the Devy League. You can't just expect that, all right, I'm going to suck for a year. I'm going to get a superstar player to add to my roster. And it's just going to be that simple. I think some people would like that. Because while I am a noted tanking enthusiast, I really enjoy the rebuild process and there's no team that I will love more
Starting point is 00:20:07 than a team that was one in 13 two years ago and now has five top 12 dynasty wide receivers so a lot of people hate that a lot of people don't have the patience to do it themselves and then it really irritates them both when they're watching the people tank on purpose and losing games on purpose. And then also when they see the end result and the person has all of these great young players. And so I do think that would be appealing to some people to like, okay, that type of strategy is not going to work quite as well in this league. Let's take one more short break and then we will get into the meat of this conversation, the Rookie Talk. I am so dreading groceries this week.
Starting point is 00:20:50 Why? You can skip it. Oh, what? Just like that? Just like that. How about dinner with my third cousin? Skip it. Prince Fluffy's favorite treats? Skippable. Midnight snacks? Skip. My neighbor's nightly saxophone practices? Nope. You're on your own there.
Starting point is 00:21:06 Could've skipped it. Should've skipped it. Skip to the good part and get groceries, meals, and more delivered right to your door on Skip. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey. No, too basic. Hi there. Still no. What about, hello, handsome? Who knew you could give yourself the ick?
Starting point is 00:21:30 That's why Bumble is changing how you start conversations. You can now make the first move or not. With opening moves, you simply choose a question to be automatically sent to your matches. Then sit back and let your matches start the chat. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Okay, so Matt, I want to start with a conversation you and I had before the show, and you were kind of talking about what your process is like for the Couch Scouts show, and how you're attacking these prospects this year. Let's start there, and then we'll get more
Starting point is 00:22:02 into like actual evaluations yeah so my process is pretty heavy on the film side of things um that i've been for over five years now probably closer to 10 have been just getting into the film i remember uh years ago watching christopher harris and brett coleman they did film don't lie university on their youtube channel and it was like i i just ate up every second of it. They were going in trait by trait showing like what to look for. You know, when you're, when you're watching the film, how do you tell if this guy's good at cutting? How do you tell if he's elusive? How do you tell if he is a good route runner? And, and so I've just, I'm mostly self-taught in this stuff,
Starting point is 00:22:40 but I really feel like there's an edge to be had still even with all the resources and adp and the content like everybody says the edge and dynasty is gone because the resources are so freely available and it's so saturated but i still like last year i had shroud qb1 through my whole process start to finish because i got into the tape and i loved what i saw on the tape and that was against. And ADP wouldn't have told you that. And, you know, people were taking Bryce Young ahead of him. People were taking Anthony Richardson, which, you know, Anthony Richardson is still a really good player, a really good fantasy asset.
Starting point is 00:23:16 But faded Quentin Johnston everywhere last year. Didn't get a single share. You know, people were still taking him in the first round. You could have dodged that landmine if you got into the film. I had HN as my RB three behind Bijan and Gibbs. So taking him ahead of guys like Charbonnet and Kendra Miller and Tajay Spears, Tank Dell and Jaden Reed were two of my favorite sleepers last year.
Starting point is 00:23:39 I took a ton of Tank Dell in the third round of rookie drafts. Yeah. And when you can do that, when you go get a third round pick and this doesn't always happen that you they hit at a pretty low rate but when you can go find a guy that you love on film believe in it draft a whole bunch of shares in the third round and then he becomes like a high-end starter that you can feel great plugging your into your lineup every week or you can trade him for a huge profit. I mean, the value that that adds to your dynasty team is just massive. So I think there's a huge edge to be had through watching film. And I do believe in the analytics and the numbers too.
Starting point is 00:24:14 I'm just not strong in that area. I kind of lean on other people and some of the great content creators that are out there doing those models and things like that. And I want to see like, does what they're seeing on the numbers match up with what I'm seeing on the tape? And if it does, and that tells a story, that's when I feel really, really great about my process. I think that is like such a key that everybody who's listening, like if you're choosing an analyst, choose one who says, I listen to other people and the things that I don't think I'm as strong at.
Starting point is 00:24:46 Like there's certain, our brains are all wired differently. We're all good at different things and you should be leaning on other people for certain types of evaluation. So I absolutely love that. I do wonder, like you were talking the the film process and sometimes it disagrees with the numbers uh do you always favor the film when that happens or are there times where you think you know maybe there's something here that like these numbers are just too good i gotta i've gotta wait that a little bit that's a great question and know, I think every prospect is different and I don't want to be arrogant. I want to stay humble. Right. So even like if I'm just going strictly off of film, there may be a couple other wide receivers that that excited me a little bit more than Romo Dunzey in terms of, you know, which anyway. So, but how arrogant would it be if he's a top 10 draft pick? The NFL tells me this is how they feel about him.
Starting point is 00:25:53 He's got all these great underlying numbers. And I'm just like, nope, he's my wide receiver seven. You know, I'm fate. Like to me, that's, I don't see any red flags on a Dunze's tape. I think he's a really good player by the way. So it's not the same as like Quentin Johnston last year. I saw some red flags. So he was a first round pick, but I was still fading him.
Starting point is 00:26:15 So it's kind of, you got to know when to stick to your guns and, and when not to. And so there were some really strong things analytically about Quentin Johnston last year, but also you look at like, okay, he's a big guy, but his contested catch percentage is less than 50%. That matches what I see on tape. So there's usually at least some things, if you dig into the underlying numbers that will back up what you see on tape, but yeah, it's more of an art than a science for sure i i agree let's talk
Starting point is 00:26:46 about some players now i asked you uh come up with one player at each position that you find yourself higher on man consensus we will start with quarterback who's a quarterback you really like in this class um i am gonna say jayden daniels which now that is consensus so um it doesn't feel like a spicy take. Well, it is, but I was talking to Theo Grimminger yesterday on his show, and he was talking about it because I gave him as the guy, the quarterback, who I feel like I might be the highest on. And he was talking about how you do see Daniels still fall to 104 or 105.
Starting point is 00:27:21 Some of these people are just taking the top three wide receivers over qb2 even if they think it's daniels and some people like dan schneier here have drake may as his qb2 so it's like it may be getting becoming consensus that daniels is the qb2 but he's not definitely the 102 yeah i mean for fantasy purposes i i think daniels obviously with his rushing upside is tremendous but the reason i say i'm higher on him than consensus is this actually comes into the Debbie thing. So earlier in the season, this was months ago. You mentioned Daniels kind of came out of nowhere.
Starting point is 00:27:53 Well, this first month or so of the season, I was seeing what he was doing. I was like, Hey guys, we need to take Jaden Daniels seriously. Like I think he could end up being a first round NFL draft pick. And at the time people kind of laughed at that. And I remember saying, in your Devy Leagues, go trade for Jaden Daniels if he's sitting on a roster. Because some people, depending on how old the Devy League is, if it was started up in the last three years,
Starting point is 00:28:18 probably Jaden Daniels is not rostered. But if it was started up five, six years ago, there was a time when Jaden Daniels was starting as a true freshman at Arizona State and everybody was really excited about it. So he's sitting on some Debbie rosters. I said, if he's there, go. You know, the manager's probably been holding him for four years. He's sick of it. He doesn't think that guy's ever going to become anything.
Starting point is 00:28:36 And I literally had listeners reach out and they said, you know, I traded Gus Edwards for Jaden Daniels. Yeah. Like straight up. This was a few months ago. And I mean, how know, I traded Gus Edwards for Jaden Daniels. Yeah. Like straight up. This was a few months ago. And I mean, how does that look now? Like that's right. You know, so I don't know if I'm higher than consensus at this point, because consensus has caught up, but I definitely would say I was early on Jaden Daniels.
Starting point is 00:28:59 You think he comes like, let's just assume he's, he's going second overall to the Washington commanders. So he's got Terry McClure and he's got Jahan Dotson. He's got the draft capital. Everything looks great. Is he a top 12 dynasty quarterback just immediately? How would you compare him to guys that are in that low-end QB1 range, the Kyler Murray, the Trevor Lawrence the brock purdy range of dynasty rankings
Starting point is 00:29:26 that's a great question um i would say he he would have the upside certainly i mean we saw what happened how how out of control the hype on anthony richardson got like two weeks into his rookie season when he was putting up 20 plus fantasy points off of the rushing upside. And if that injury had not happened, I mean, people would probably be talking about him as a top-five dynasty quarterback. For sure, 100%. So I think Jaden Daniels has that kind of upside in his game. I tend to lean, and it depends on team build. Am I rebuilding and looking for a long-term corner cornerstone or am I trying to contend right now?
Starting point is 00:30:10 I tend to lean more towards the proven guys. I'll swing for upside in some cases. But if I've already seen a guy put up like a top five quarterback season. You know, it's like the the meme from was it family guy or whatever they're like it's a it's a mystery box it could be anything it could be a party right this towers loves that yeah yeah yeah so i i think that i tend to take the approach of like man if a guy's already shown me that he can finish as a top 10 quarterback in fantasy i'm just going to take the sure thing. And, um, but I wouldn't blame anybody for, for shooting for the upside there.
Starting point is 00:30:47 Cause if Jaden Daniels hits, I mean, he could not just be in the top 12 conversation, but he could be in the top three, top five conversation, putting up fantasy points at the level of like a Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, just because of,
Starting point is 00:31:02 you know, Lamar Jackson. Right. So. Love that comparison. So let's, let because of Lamar Jackson. Right. So. Love that comparison. So let's move over to running back here. And it's been a, I would call it a maligned running back class. Everybody's kind of poo-pooing this class.
Starting point is 00:31:15 I think if Jonathan Brooks had not torn his ACL, then we would view this as a more normal running back class because we'd have our clear RB1 probably, at least consensus-wise. And then I don't hate the class as far as like the three through six range. It feels like a pretty normal running back class. It's just that it's not as top-heavy as we'd like for it to be. But who's the guy that you find yourself higher on than consensus? Yeah, and I do love Jonathan Brooks.
Starting point is 00:31:40 I would have him as my RB1. But my RB2, that one most people would probably disagree with I love Bucky Irving okay I'm a huge fan of Bucky Irving out of Oregon especially like after the combine when he totally tanked it and I'm a guy that I feel like combine testing can be a little bit overrated right a guy looked good on film for three years in college he's probably just a good football player uh and i'm not gonna drop him way down my rankings because he he tested poorly um now we'll see what kind of draft capital he gets there's rampant speculation that because of the combine that bucky irving's gonna fall in the draft we don't know that we'll see um obviously if he's a day three draft pick i'll adjust my
Starting point is 00:32:25 rankings he's not going to be my rb2 but and i don't think he would be my rb2 in a normal class that's where i think some of the weakness of the class comes in but when i when i was watching the film he is fantastic like so elusive he always makes the first guy to get to him miss for a little guy so he's 5'9 and 192 pounds i think is what he tested at the combine he's got phenomenal contact balance he plays mean like he plays the way that i wish some of these bigger backs would play because if they played with the nastiness and the physicality and and just the looking to finish every run with a pop and and doing doing damage to the defender instead of taking damage. If some of those big guys played like that, they'd be monsters.
Starting point is 00:33:13 But the one in this class that plays like that is Bucky Irving. He's got a little bit of Isaiah Pacheco to his game. He's got the best receiving profile of any back in this class. We've seen more and more of these small guys hit in recent years whether it be a chan gibbs james cook kyron williams i mean it used to be that less than 200 pounds was a death sentence i don't think that's the case anymore right and the best combination of of traits that i saw on film by far to me was bucky irving that's so interesting with because because the the face plant at the combine
Starting point is 00:33:46 is definitely going to hurt the ADP. I don't know if it's going to hurt the draft stock. We'll find that out in a month or two. But yeah, if he's a round three pick, then I think you're going to have a real opportunity to get him a lot cheaper probably than you should. We'll move over to wide receiver now. It's a class that's a little bit easier to get him a lot cheaper probably than you should we'll we'll move over to uh wide receiver now it's a class that's a little or a little bit easier to get excited about the wide receivers in this class
Starting point is 00:34:10 maybe six of them we like better than any running back but who's the one that you really find yourself uh super high on uh i'm gonna say xavier worthy okay and now this is the guy and this might make some people mad that i said like if it was just purely on film grade, I might actually take him over Rome. I don't have him ranked above Rome right now. He's my wide receiver four. Right. But I think he is a fantastic route runner.
Starting point is 00:34:40 Even as he's been on Debbie radars the last few years because he's produced since he was a true freshman, most people viewed him as just a speed guy, just a deep threat. i got into the all 22 tape i was like man this guy is running crisp routes like he looked like deontay johnson out there to me with more juice speed yeah like way more juice so i i kind of it's funny i compared him to uh the route running of deontay johnson with the juice of Jamison Williams, and both of those guys struggle with hands, and so does Xavier Worthy. So that's kind of the one knock is the ball skills and the drops.
Starting point is 00:35:14 But even that, the one season he had a really high drop rate was his sophomore year. He played with a broken hand for most of it. That was much better this season as a junior. So even that concern, I think, is a little bit overblown. But he's incredible after the catch. He's an incredible route runner. I personally believe route running is the most important trait
Starting point is 00:35:36 because if you can get open, you're going to earn targets and you're going to get volume, and we play in PPR leagues. And to me, those always open type of guys are just much better fantasy assets than the big body contested catch, not always open type of guys. So I just, I love Xavier Worthy. I think he's just got so much upside
Starting point is 00:35:56 to be that good of a route runner with that much speed. And I mean, you blink an eye and he's taking the corner. He's defeated an angle, left the defender diving in an air at the air and it's a house call so i'm a big big fan of xavier worthy and he's got the production to back it up three straight years basically uh at at texas at a at a big power five program producing from the moment he stepped on the field as a true freshman i think it's interesting comparing him because he obviously had a good combine to setting the uh setting the record but comparing him to troy franklin and franklin was my wide receiver for before the combine and i've i've not changed it yet but i'm probably going to have to definitely after the nfl draft i would say
Starting point is 00:36:35 but uh how much difference do you see between worthy and franklin i think they're in the same tier so like to me there's a there's a clear top three and it's Harrison neighbors and Odunze. And then I would say that four through seven is kind of another tier. So worthy Brian Thomas, Ladd McConkie and Troy Franklin, I would throw in that tier. So yeah, I don't think there's a, Troy Franklin's another guy that's got fantastic college production. He's got great traits.
Starting point is 00:37:11 I love his release package. I mean, so many times he just dusted a guy straight off the line, and he's incredibly fast for being a taller wide receiver. There's a lot to like about Troy Franklin. I think he's very manipulative at the stem of his route he's able to kind of put that foot in the ground and manipulate the defense and and create a bunch of separation at the stem of the route so I don't think he's just like a straight line Jalen Hyatt you know speed guy either I think he's got some route running to
Starting point is 00:37:38 his game as well um you wish that he was a little bit more physical at six foot two six foot three but that's not his game i mean he's he's just a he's one of these route running types that just happens to have a six foot two frame right yeah and like you said like you said with the running backs and the 200 pounds like that that skinny frame has become much more acceptable in the NFL over the last two or three years. It's not quite as worrisome as it used to be. We can talk about the tight ends here if you've got a take on a tight end. I mean, everybody's got a take on Brock Bowers. He's going to be a top seven or eight rookie pick. And then is there anybody else at the position that matters? I'm generally a guy who is more interested in drafting a tight end in round two or round three of a rookie draft than I am in round one. Who should I be looking for in that round two, round three range?
Starting point is 00:38:33 Yeah, I honestly do think it's a weaker class after Bowers than what we've been experiencing. I don't think there's a Sam Laporta or Dalton Kincaid in this draft class after Bowers. But I do think JT Sanders, Jatavian Sanders, is a pretty good receiving tight end who showed me a pretty solid player in college. And he's probably going to get good draft capital. And you can get him pretty late, at least right now in mock drafts. Maybe after he goes high in the real draft, his ADP will start to climb. But right now in mock drafts, I think he's getting totally overlooked.
Starting point is 00:39:09 And so I do think he could be a value just based on where I'm seeing mock draft ADP right now. And then I always, my philosophy with tight ends, I like to throw darts on athleticism. Because if you look at all the top tight ends whether it be a travis kelsey darren waller in his heyday george kittle uh hockinson all these guys are like nine plus out of ten on the ras the athlete the relative athletic score um so shout out to kentley platt for for putting that together but um yeah i mean if i'm throwing a dart in round three, round four,
Starting point is 00:39:45 give me these guys with like a nine plus on the RAS. So guys like Jaheim Bell, Ben Sinnott, I believe Daylon Holker falls into that category. Theo Johnson was almost a 10 out of 10. Like if I'm getting in these late, late rounds and there's nobody else left that I like, especially if it's a tight end premium league, I'm just going to throw a dart on one of these really athletic tight ends
Starting point is 00:40:09 and hope that he can figure it out. I'm glad you mentioned Theo. Dan Schneier had him as his tight end, too. Actually, over Sanders before the combine. He was very excited about what Johnson did at the combine. I think that's a good approach. You mentioned these round three, round four picks. That's's where we will finish here but not talking about tight ends let's talk about some some some running backs or wide receivers maybe even a quarterback that you think might
Starting point is 00:40:33 follow that range who are your favorite dart throws in those round three round four range i love to ask this question especially in the months leading up to the draft because last year we did have did have some people saying puka nakua and now we get to go back and talk about how smart they are so so give us somebody to talk about how smart you are in a year yeah the easy answer for me here is bucky i mean i already talked about bucky irving and how much i love him after the combine i did a mock draft and i don't know what adp would look like but i got him at 310 like immediately the week after the combine is doing a mock draft. I was on the board at 210 and he was my highest ranked player, but I took somebody else just to see like, will he fall to me at 310? And he did. So if, if, if his ADP is anything like that, he's probably going to be my tank Dell for this year, which I, you know, I just scooped up so
Starting point is 00:41:21 many tank Dell round three shares last year. And Bucky, I think would be, would be that guy for me. I also really like Ricky Pearsall. He's a little bit of an older prospect at 24 years old and, and consensus is kind of coming around on him a little bit. I've seen him usually going in round two these days, but if he was in the third round, I'd be really excited to draft Ricky Pearsall. I think he's a fantastic route runner.
Starting point is 00:41:45 Great, great ball skills. Does everything well. Another guy I'd throw out there, Audrick Estime. I actually liked his tape quite a bit. I thought he was what everybody wanted Braylon Allen to be in terms of being a big guy that actually finishes his runs with a boom and and plays with pretty consistent power and contact balance and i thought he had a little bit of juice now obviously the combine i mean you're kind of seeing a trend here people that get left for dead after the combine that i thought were a good player before the combine i'm just going to take the discount so estima was typically going in round
Starting point is 00:42:21 two of rookie mox before the combine then Then he goes out and runs a four, seven, two. And now he's like always round three, sometimes even round four. And so I don't mind taking that discount. I could definitely see him having a role on the NFL level being at least a flex worthy player for your fantasy team.
Starting point is 00:42:39 And then I'll throw out a quarterback and Spencer Rattler. Yeah. I think he's had – his issues have been more on the mental side of things than – I mean, he's just so physically gifted. He can make every throw. He's got good mobility. He's got every trait that an NFL team is looking for in a quarterback. I almost think he's taken like a little bit of a Baker Mayfield path
Starting point is 00:43:04 in terms of Baker needed to be humbled a little bit right um and and i think rattler had a little bit of that like gunslinger cockiness to him when he was at oklahoma and he just started throwing too many picks and his mechanics got wonky and um quietly these last couple years at south car. I think he's improved his character. He's improved his game. And I'd be surprised if he gets out of round two of the NFL draft. Some team is going to take a chance on that kind of talent. And if there was one guy that would start his career as a backup, but sometimes somebody gets hurt and then he takes the job
Starting point is 00:43:42 and never gives it back, I think it would be Spencer Rattler. So in a super flex league, you can get him third, fourth round. And I think that's great value. Great, great stuff. Once again, that's Matt Cooper at Couch Scouts FF on Twitter. You can go find the Couch Scouts show and discord. Matt told you about it earlier in the show. Please go check that out, Matt, I really appreciate you being on. Once again, just a kind of a programming note, we will not have a show on Friday. So once again, we will talk to you next Tuesday.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.