Fantasy Football Today - The Summer of Football! | What we saw in OTAs & what to watch for in training camp with Matt Olson (07/09 Dynasty Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 10, 2024

Heath Cummings is joined by Matt Olson to discuss how to use what they learned in OTAs for drafting and what they're looking for in training camp that can give them the edge. Intro (0:00) How to Parse coachspeak (1:40) Non-Negotiable Dynasty league, rule or setting (3:42) What matters most over the next 6 weeks? (5:49) Commanders running back reports (7:26) Cardinals running back reports (11:07) Bills wide receiver reports (14:17) Patriots wide receiver reports (19:18) Does Rashee Rice get suspended this year? (24:22) Rookie QBs battling for jobs (27:56) Injury updates (30:46) Bo Nix (35:22) Listener questions (36:52) 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

Take back your free time with PC Express Online grocery delivery and pickup. Get in-store promos, PC Optimum points, and more free time. And still get groceries. Shop now at pcexpress.ca. Fall is almost gone, but have you sipped enough Starbucks Fall Faves? Enough of the Pumpkin Spice Latte, the cinnamony pumpkin-flavored legend, or the new iced apple crisp non-dairy chai. So silky, so smooth.

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Sure. So, first of all, thanks for having, you know, myself and that extension of the 32 Beat Writers team on. It's been a heck of an off-season already. You know, it's – I was just having the conversation of, you know, this is our time of year. You know, I know you guys really ramp up, you know, right before week one. That's when we go on vacation.

So we're really excited to be working through coming kind of out of the backside of OTAs and starting to see a lot of, I don't want to say what could happens or what ifs, but this is what happened in rookie camp. This is what we saw in OTAs. And now, you know, we're getting to the, to the meat of, and getting into training camp. And I think this is where we start to, you know, really get to see what rookies are coming into their form, what veterans are starting to emerge that might be on a new team or so on and so forth. So, you know, we want to start to get to the meat and excited to do so. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what we're going to do today. You know, we were, we're a couple of

weeks away for some teams getting training camp started. We've got all the information that we're going to get from OTAs. And so we're going to kind of go over those things, prepare you for training camp, tell you what we're looking for, tell you what we've learned in the last couple of months. I'm looking forward to doing it. We always start each show with three questions for our guests and leaf green goblin in the YouTube chat basically asks one of the questions I was going to ask. How do I know who's lying to me? He says, and one of the questions I had here is like, you guys see a lot of coach speak, you know, coming through the beat writers. Some of it's just like projections from beat writers.

Do you have any suggestions for fantasy managers as to how to parse that information out and separate the actionable stuff from the stuff that we're all going to be joking about in December. Sure. So, you know, this is something that we do as a team daily because it, it truly does kind of separate the fact from the fiction. And one of the ways we love to do it and kind of how we've been successful with it is you obviously take coach speak everyone no one will tell you that it's 100 accurate and if they do then you know just go with that and tell them sure you want to leave that go die on that hill um but we like to say if a coach says x

and the beat writer says x and then we see it collectively either in the future or we saw it previously. Then we know there's some, where there's smoke, there's fire. Right. Right. We're never going to be a hundred percent. I hate to say that, you know, I think anyone in the fantasy community, if someone was a hundred percent, you'd probably be a rich man. They certainly wouldn't be telling you their advice.

They would just be using it for themselves. So yeah, that idea of like, you just, I think it does help to look at like, what has he said in the past and what happened then? And like, is there any connection at all between those two things? And there are certain things that a coach says and even the beat writer's kind of like, yeah, I don't know if he actually meant that.

And so you just kind of have to, that combination of coach and beat writer and then past history. A great way to, of course, this is a Dynasty Fantasy Football show. So one of the things I always ask people who are first time on the show, you're starting a new Dynasty Fantasy Football League tomorrow.

What is your one non-negotiable rule or setting? And you can't say super flex because everybody says that. No, sure. You know, it's funny. I found a new hill to die on oh good for this question this year and i i i thought about it for a bit and i my biggest one that if i was going to do it all over which i probably don't have the opportunity to do but i would do points per first down. I just, I love the mentality around it. I like rewarding good play. You know, someone, we were having this conversation, and someone's like, if, you know, you're third and 10,

and the running back gets a dump off, and he gets four yards, and you're playing half PPA, well, you basically just got a full point. You're doing nothing of value on the football field but if it's that same scenario and he picks up the first down well that's a hell of a play so we should reward that thus good football so kind of looking at it that way and maybe that's not so much a hundred percent of dynasty scenario i think it'd be awesome across a lot of them. No, I love that. My favorite is probably half PPR and half point per first down. You can go full PPR and full point per first down, but then you run into a messy situation with the quarterbacks.

And we're seeing that in Scott Fishbowl. I was this past weekend in Kansas City for my live Scott Fishbowl draft. And when I was going through my projections, I know you're drafting this week in Nashville. So I'll tell you what I found was the way that scott set up the scoring he did such a good job of like you can make a case for almost anybody because we've got the tight end premium we've got the super flex we've got the quarter point per rush attempt like all these things the one guy who got left out in the cold this year, according to my projections, are those pocket passers.

Because when you reward rushing first downs and the quarterback scoring is not that high, then you do see those rushing quarterbacks are really getting an extra edge. But that's kind of the way the NFL is moving right now. Anyway, so I'm okay with that. Question number three. What's the one thing that matters more than anything else over the next six weeks position battles um i that's probably like the cheesiest segue ever but it's 100 what it comes down to i mean we've seen so many scenarios of guys who we think had

a great ota a lot of people can do a lot of things wearing shorts hell i could probably look like a somewhat competent football player um you know if someone wasn't about to deck me when i caught the ball um you know you see more especially agile guys you know those calvin austin kind of players think the prime example, and one of the footballers tweeted about this last week, is Julio McLaughlin. Has been, by all reports, the best running back in shorts this summer. Sure. And he had tweeted out all of the video of Julio McLaughlin's touches in pads last year.

And it was a lot of him getting tackled right at the line of scrimmage or behind the line of scrimmage. Because football is a lot harderage because football is a lot harder it turns out when people are allowed to hit you yeah it's funny how that works huh well that's awesome awesome stuff we're going to jump into the stuff we learned in otas right after this first break the score bet app here with trusted stats and real-time sports news yeah hey who should i take in the Boston game? Well, statistically speaking. Nah, no more statistically speaking.

I want hot takes. I want knee-jerk reactions. That's not really what I do. Is that because you don't have any knees? Or? The Scorebet. Trusted sports content. Seamless sports betting.

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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. We are back. And I want to, you know, I was looking at some of the stuff that you guys have put out over the last month or so. And there were a couple of things that I thought, man, I wonder if I should change my projections on that. And so I want to start with the commanders running back reports, looking at some of the stuff that you guys had on your site and out on Twitter. It really sounds like people might be underestimating Brian Robinson right now. Yeah. I mean, it's – I honestly feel bad for Brian Robinson.

Like there's no one worse that could have come in to be – unfortunately, we have to call it a 1B as of now. I don't know how you can just fully discount Eckler. I know he had really awful yards per carry last year. But, you know, Brian Robinson from his rookie year he averaged 0.8 receptions a game he worked his ass off that offseason and now averages 2.4 receptions this past year that's a significant increase you know he wanted to get more involved in the passing game he wanted to keep that as part of his you know arsenal and be that

guy so what does Washington do they go out and they get the one guy maybe not the one guy but but a player that can catch a pass in every given scenario out of the backfield and you know we we recently saw Ben Standig and I'm gonna go through a couple beat writers that you know we love and follow and you all should too because they do do incredible work um but you know ben recently projected and this is as of now right that eckler could see you know eight to twelve touches a game and that's semi-petrifying for a brian robinson owner but i think that like that that and you might be burying the lead here a little bit i think there's a lot of people that are listening right now who came into the idea that brian robinson was austin eckler's 1b and what what you what you guys are hearing is like eckler's

main role is going to be in the passing game most of the rushing work and certainly i would think the work inside the five yard line is going to be brian robinson i mean you have to imagine that's a case i you know i even put in the notes here that 8 to 12 touches, a touch could be a target, essentially, in this case. From what we've seen, from what we know, I don't know to 12 true touches is a realistic scenario. But, I mean, Jaden Daniels is a rookie QB. We know that checkdowns are a very real thing.

We know that just any play to pick up some positive yards heck i'd love to swing it to a guy that i've seen do it time after time and pick up that first down so we can continue this drive so yeah i think you hit the nail on the head there with uh so i would say like the thing that makes me think is because we haven't seen cliff kingsbury's running back target rate generally be that high we don't usually see rookie quarterbacks and particularly rookie quarterbacks that are going to run like jayden daniels throw their running backs that much i look at adp and this makes me say i want zero percent of austin eckler and brian robinson who's going to the double digit rams right now seems like a

great value because there's that contingent upside. And we saw it with Robinson last year. I think he had nine targets in a game that Antonio Gibson missed. Austin Eckler is an older back who was really ineffective last year. If Eckler has something that goes wrong, we could absolutely see Brian Robinson go from, man, he's really better in non-and-half PPR because he never catches the ball,

to all of a sudden, oh yeah, we've got a workhorse running back. That would be pretty fantastic. And more in line really with what we've seen from Kingsbury, not a lot of two back approaches for him. He came into the league. We thought, man, he's going to be so great for the wide receivers. And he's had some really elite stretches for running back touchdowns and production, pretty run heavy in the red zone. So good, good stuff there on the commander's running back reports. I want to go to another team and it's, it's King bear Kingsbury's old team, the Arizona Cardinals, you know, James Connor,

like Austin Eckler getting up there in age. We don't think he probably has too much longer left. Unlike Austin Eckler when James Connor was healthy last year, he was awesome. Now they go and draft Trey Benson. They've got both of those guys in the backfield. What are you guys expecting, and what are you hearing out of that Arizona backfield? So let's get the elephant out of the room first

in that James Conner never plays a full football season. He's averaging about 12.8 games a year. So you're going to see Trey Benson featured at some point this year. I don't want to speak in absolutes, but the track record shows that he's going to be the primary back on the field at some point this year. That being said, and this actually, you know, very recently came out from Johnny Venerable over at PHX Cardinals.

He said that he doesn't expect a great return on investment for dynasty owners for year one of Trey Benson. This is going to be James Connors' backfield until it's not. Now, James Connors in the last year of his contract, he's getting $7 million a year. He's probably not going to resign for 7 million a year anywhere. But to your point earlier, when he's on the field, he's produced. There's no reason to expect anything less than what we saw based off of the line upgrades, based off of the offense, not really changing too, too much in what they're trying to do. We saw a lot of passing scenarios that Connor was involved in.

So, you know, when you kind of put all those things together, I still think James Connor is a great pick. And I think he's getting discredited and probably discounted because of the drafting of Trey Benson. I think that's what, well, I think what people are worried about is what we just talked about with Washington. Like Connor and Dynasty, his value is pretty much only for somebody who's contending this year has no expectations for him beyond next year. Well, when you're going as a

contender going to buy one of those older running backs, you want him to be someone who's really going to dominate touches like Connor has throughout his career. And I think people saw the Benson pick and they thought, Oh, no, this is going to turn into a 50-50 split. And then Trey Benson's going to take the job from him. And I think more of what we're hearing is it's probably going to be James Connor as the lead running back. And then if something happens to James Connor, when something happens to James Connor, we'll

see Trey Benson as the lead running back. And Benson might be one of those guys, if you didn't draft him in rookie drafts, that in October, November, you would acquire him for less because they're still very optimistic about Benson once Conner is no longer around, right? Absolutely. I mean, you don't draft someone like that when you have that veteran in the last year of their contract.

The writing is on the wall in this scenario. I don't think it gets any more clear. So, yeah, we'll see what happens with that but i expect a good year from james connor i want to move over to the wide receiver rooms because um like being attached to josh allen as a wide receiver when they just dealt away the guy that got 170 targets a year sounds pretty awesome like we would really like to find a bills wide receiverwide receiver to roster. I think a lot of people, when they saw Keon Coleman go early in round two of the NFL draft, that made him a round one pick in some rookie drafts. Definitely no later than early in round two of rookie drafts.

And I think they're hoping that he can be one of those rare rookies that comes in and is just a fantasy starter from year one. What are we hearing about how the bills view that receiver room now that they've got Khalil Shakir a holdover from last year they drafted Keon Coleman they added Curtis Samuel who by the way was with the offensive coordinator in Carolina a few years ago and then they also added Marquez Valdez-Scantling I guess I should say but no like how are they looking at that wide receiver room right now so i think the keon coleman pick was awesome because and i i was a believer in when

he was in college i got a little nervous during the combine some of that um he was projected a lot to dallas which could have been intriguing as well. But the one thing that I love about Coleman and that I think sticks out is that he is a true down-the-field threat. And an offense at FSU that didn't feature that regularly, you know, Billswire just actually put out the numbers on that, and he caught eight out of 24 targets for an offense that only threw or down the field targets deep targets and an offense that only threw that ball one or two one or two times a game so you have this guy and you know if anyone if anyone has forgotten josh allen likes to sling it down

the field right so you have this guy who has this ability to go up and get the ball you know i'm not going to say he's just going to be out there running streaks he's capable of other stuff from what we've seen um but man do we love a deep that do we love josh allen throwing that deep threat the ball yeah absolutely there's no one else in this offense currently that's going to take on that role right so we have that you know scenario in play there with Keon Coleman and then you alluded to it with Curtis Samuel you know I I said I put it here you know my most intriguing wide receiver on this roster is Curtis Samuel you know he obviously shared Joe Brady in 2020 for those who don't remember that wonderful experience um he produced 851 yards and three touchdowns and also 40 carries,

which is, you know, we saw in training camp last year, and I'm looking forward to it this year if we see it again, we saw Dalton Kincaid lining up in the backfield. So if you see Curtis Samuel lining up in the backfield and see that reported, you should get excited because it means that we're possibly seeing that recreation, which should lead to good things. Do you think we've seen like, cause generally speaking that deep threat, like Keon Coleman,

sure they can score 15 points on one play, but they're also not usually the target leader and rookies are often not the target leader on their team. You think it's probably a better bet that curtis samuel leads this team in targets this year than keon coleman or is that just going to be dalton um you know after dalton kinkade season last year i that's where i was leaning but this is this is an ugly scenario in that regard it you know i was just not trying to segue too quickly you know it's like the patriot set up this year it's like the packers set up last year no packer was reliable at all because you have no idea who was getting the ball on a week-to-week basis right you know and i think it's going to

take outside of dalton kincaid it's going to take a couple weeks to see what the offense you know what their pattern is and how they they attack different teams um to your point yeah Coleman's probably going to be there's going to be a lot of bust weeks most likely right um he is still a rookie he does obviously have a big body to go up and get the ball which I think is what the bills are banking on but you know if the bills are having a tough time moving it they're not going to be slinging it down the field as much as they were last year when they had digs and Gabe Davis to go get it well and I think that Gabe Davis is probably a good name to bring up

because before everybody turned on Gabe Davis last year and before everybody overhyped Gabe Davis the year before the guy that Gabe Davis was where he could have those monster games and then he could disappear for a few weeks. But it was often in that five to seven target per game range. I think that's probably the upside for Keon Coleman this year, as you hope he can be that Gabe Davis from two or three years ago that turns into wide receiver 30. But it's through a collection of top 12 weeks and wide receiver 100 weeks. Maybe somebody that you enjoy a little bit more in best ball another guy though like trey benson who might be a good buy when we get to october november

december if he gets off to a slow start you kind of referenced it we've got another afc east receiving core that we want to talk about unfortunately not tied to josh allen in fact this rookie season may be tied to jacoby brissett for a while and then drake may but who has been the best patriots wide receiver this offseason and who do they really seem to be favoring right now so one of the great things about the patriots in general is that they do not close the door to anyone so you you do get a lot of patriot coverage which has helped kind of dissect this that being said you've probably seen things like oh kijan bute is having a great practice and it's like oh my goodness he's he's gonna do something this year right we always you know

and there's they clearly brought in two guys this year i i don't think if they had that big of question marks, they would have done so. You have Juju Smith-Schuster still there falling out of favor. We do have these QBs linked to quarterbacks that might not be the best for them. That being said, everything we've seen so far

is Pop Douglas leading the pack potentially. I think a big part of that is kendrick born hasn't been participating so anytime and that's not to go too far off topic here but anytime you see players who have expected roles not participating in otas whether it be early on training camp whatever you're just opening up opportunity for someone to step up and kind of not capture the job per se, but cut into it a bit. So that's where I think Polk is probably your next guy.

I think, you know, Baker, I love, I think the guy has got some swagger about him. He's if, if no one can figure it out because I can't say they, and I,

I am from the Boston area originally, but i do love the kids work ethic but if i'm banking on someone and i'm investing it's pop douglas and jalen polk as of now i i think that that that reference you made to kendrick bourne not being present is a big one because the first half of last year kendrick bourne was by far the best wide receiver on the Patriots. He got hurt, and Pop Douglas to Mario Douglas moved right into that role and averaged seven targets a game

and was pretty much the best wide receiver the rest of the way. I know people, especially dynasty fantasy football managers, don't want to hear anything about 30-year-old Kendrick Bourne or Juju Smith-Schuster or K.J. Osborne. They want to hear about Jalen Pol polk they want to hear about baker they want to hear about demario douglas it does sound like from everything we're hearing so far though douglas is still ahead of the rookies right 100 i mean he's he's still pretty young you know and all these guys are working with new quarterbacks. So that's another issue with the Bourne scenario. You're also seeing tons of reports about May, Baker, and Polk all being the first ones at practice and the last ones to leave.

There's several, several tweets, footage, whatever you want to allude to out there. But they're just working together nonstop. So when that May time does come, those guys could be pretty intriguing. I didn't mention this before the show, but I think you probably have the answer pretty readily available. We're not expecting Drake May to be the starter for the first game of the season and probably not for the first month of the season, right? You know, it's funny. You keep seeing, like, we keep seeing it teased. Like, oh, if he, you know, lights it up in training camp.

I don't see Gerard Mayo doing that. Everything I've seen about Mayo is that he is, I don't want to say ultra conservative, but, you know, he does come from a 20-year history of conservative coaching, gameplay, all of that. So, you know, I can see him letting Brissette do his thing. Now, if Brissette stumbles out of the gate, gameplay, all of that. So, you know, I can see him letting Brissette do his thing. Now, if Brissette stumbles out of the gate, yeah, the fans are going to come for it.

Everyone's going to come for it. Fantasy owners probably will be sad if they have Brissette, but, you know, he's not. There's a chance it doesn't happen this year, but there's, you know. You'd say more likely Jacoby Brissett starts all year than drake may starts week one a hundred percent yeah that's that's that's kind of the way i've been leaning as well and i guess listen we're expecting a pretty run heavy approach um we're gonna see a lot of handoffs to romandre stevenson we're gonna need if one of those wide receivers is going to be and

the other thing we're gonna see is we're gonna see more tight end screens more more shots to the tight end with alex van peldo's offensive coordinator oh yeah it could be good for hunter henry all of that comes down to say like we just mentioned maybe seven new england patriots wide receivers one of those guys has to dominate targets for them to matter even a little bit um and so the guys that we want to invest in are the guys who could matter later in the year or in the future when Drake May takes over. And those three names, DeMario Douglas, Jalen Polk, Javon Baker, those are the three guys that you want to roster on that team. But you probably don't want to invest too much. Let's kind of shift gears from what we've seen

so far to what we're going to see over the next six to seven weeks. And I think the first question that's probably on everybody's mind, it's not going to be something that we see on the field, but have we gotten any indication or heard anything on the Rashi Rice situation? Still unsure if he's going to be dealing with a suspension this year or if that's going to get pushed to next year. Really unsure about where that's going in terms of the criminal case yeah and you know it's it's interesting that this came up because matt derrick um actually just put out an article about this this morning and kind of all the possibilities that we could be seeing and i think the key words that are there is this year because right now it's an open case and i'm sure

rishi rice wants to keep it that way now if you're the kansas city chiefs you want to know what's going to happen worst case absolute worst case scenario is a mid-season suspension um you know i i think there's a strong possibility it does get pushed to next season. However, a big part of this too, and I don't want to say they're overly related, but Cameron Sutton just did get suspended eight games for a misdemeanor. We have to remember that Rasheed Rice is being charged with a felony. Now, I know Roger Goodell has such a clear and concise way of suspending people that I'm sure all those things, you know, come into play. But there's something is going to happen to Richie Rice.

If I if I had to bet, I'm going to say his team tries to drag it out if we get to training camp because we don't want to see anything happen this year i would guess it's coming next year but that's a hundred percent of guests and i i you know just based off of what we know as of today i i think that's the the main takeaway from all this is that we don't have the news yet right now i've seen some speculation that rashi rice is going to make more money next year than he is going to make more money next year than he's going to make this year so he might rather have the suspension done this year but there's been there's been precedent in the past for roger goodell putting a player who has an open case that's a felony case on the exempt list until that's resolved we've not heard anything

about that yet we're all pretty much still drafting blind we've talked on this show in the past from a dynasty perspective if you're looking at the long term rice probably a buy right now i think marquise brown definitely a buy right now and i don't really the rice thing is not going to impact my feeling of patrick mahomes at all is It's not like last year where the wide receiver options besides Rashi Rice were just inadequate. That's a nice way to say it. Yeah, that was good. Marquise Brown is there now. Xavier Worthy is there now.

Travis Kelsey should be healthy. I wouldn't worry too much about this from the Mahomes perspective. From a dynasty manager specifically, it might be, like we've talked about rice as a buy. And I think he is, if you're a true contender, it might be, you might be on the other side of that.

It might be better to just go get some production that you can absolutely count on this year, because I mean, we're sitting here in that. What is now I would guess mid July. And we have no indication and no new information that's come in yet. What I would really love for all these dynasty managers, that that changed by the time this podcast comes out. That'd be fantastic for everybody.

Let's talk about something that we might actually know about. The rookie quarterbacks battling for jobs. We pretty much covered Drake May. I think we can cover the next two guys pretty quickly and pretty easily. Any chance at all that Caleb Williams or Jaden Daniels, either one, don't start week one? Those two, no. You know, you got to roll them out there. You surrounded them with at least something to be productive, especially in Chicago.

My goodness. I don't know. I don't think we've seen a rookie QB come into a situation like we have in Chicago in quite some time. I know the guys that over at 32 beat writers, you know, I've been banging on since before the draft that whoever goes to Minnesota and I wanted them to get a QB is going also into a great scenario. Yes.

And I, you know, that McCarthy situation. Yes. Sam Donald's looked great in quite a few scenario. Yes. And that McCarthy situation, yes. Sam Donald's looked great in quite a few off seasons recently. It hasn't led to a ton of on-the-field production, but he most likely is going to start in Minnesota, if not 100%. But that'll be probably a shorter leash, depending on what McCarthy does here in training camp. But how can you not love getting the chance to throw to justin jefferson t.j hawkinson jordan addison i mean that's

pretty powerful lineup right there and i i think that that is a kind of a good transition point there because like we've got on one end of the spectrum caleb and jayden daniels that we know they're we're 95 sure they're starting week one. And we've got another situation, Drake may who neither one of us really think there's much of a chance. He's going to start early in the season. And there's a real risk that he doesn't start all season. If, if Jacoby Brissett can just be average or if may doesn't quite pick things

up as quick as they're hoping McCarthy is a younger prospect. They do have Darnold who probably fits in that Jacoby Brissett model, maybe a little bit more mistake prone. But besides that, would you like I asked you on May, is it more likely that he sits all year or starts week one? And you were really quick to say it's more likely he sits all year. Are you the same place on McCarthy or is that more of a coin flip or you think it's more likely he starts week one than sits all year? No, I think I think it's more likely he starts week one than sits all year no i think i think it's more likely he sits all year i hate to say that but yeah i i now i will throw the slight disclaimer

is that and i expect to see jj mccarthy starting a football game right here a hundred percent i just i don't i don't know what that exact point is as of right now and that that is why we're having these conversations right about training camp and what we're going to see that is a huge question that should get some kind of answer as we get into the next few weeks i want i want to kind of look at some injury situations and you and i talked about this before the show and kind of like the rushy rice situation like we just don't really know um we've not gotten a lot of information on jonathan brooks tj hawkinson mike williams aaron rogers like how they're doing in their recoveries from their injuries so i guess are there any types of warning signals or just maybe positive signals that you're looking for on these

injured players as we start training camp as we get to the pre-season that type of thing um you know the first thing you want to see like being very realistic we're probably not going to see these guys in a ton of drills right let's just put that out there. But we want to see them. We want to be ready to be like, hey, Mike Williams is working off to the side. You know, he's there. He's in the meetings. He's not so hampered that he can't be present.

So I think that's kind of the biggest tell on what's going on. If the guy is present, he's not a DNP. Right. You know, he's, he's, he's out there.

He's heck if he's jogging, I'm happy. Right. Right. You know, especially for a lot of these guys, we're coming off some kind of leg injury or whatnot. You know,

you want to see them out there with their team, not necessarily in pads and whatnot. You know, we, we did allude to it before the show. Aaron Rodgers and Kirk Cousins, we might never see the weak one. Now, if it's light practice, seven-on-sevens, yeah, you might see them get mixed in there.

We've seen that through OTAs. But full pads, man, if I'm the Jets, I'm not taking the chance again. Right. but full pads, man, if I'm the jets, I'm not taking the chance to get right. You know? Well, and I think that's like, I think you, you got it right. Like at the first day of camp, it'd be great if they're just there and doing something off to the side. The second thing I would say is I'd like to see progress. If we go,

we get to week three of camp and Mike Williams is still jogging on the side. I'm, I'm not going to like that very much. The red flag I would look for is when they go backwards. Or we had it with Kevin Stefanski last year where he almost seemed a little bit irritated or grumpy about the fact that Sean Watson was not participating or not going to be playing that week. And so if, if, if it seems like a coach is trying to send a message to a player that gets me in a little bit of concern, one of my takeaways from Gavin, I wonder if you've like noticed this is true or think I'm just blowing smoke, which I often am. Um, I, I take negative coach speak more seriously than I take positive coach speak.

There's a lot more passion and negativity. I hate to say that, but you know, I always alluded to, if you go out to a restaurant, you have a bad experience. You probably tell someone pretty quickly. If you have a great experience, you're just like, that was a good experience. You might come out in passing. I like to think it's the same thing to your point with any concerns or you know something that's not settling right so you you do tend to hear and see the fire more than you see the love right now um and to your point that is concerning when that happens you know it means that they're not on the same page. Now, a player is always going to protect their health, their longevity, so on and so forth.

But when a medical staff says, hey, you're clear, and that guy's like, eh, I need another minute. In certain scenarios, especially players with new teams, it's not always a great sign. So I think you're spot on with that take and it's it's

a very good one to keep in mind as we go through these next few weeks we need to take one more break but i did forget about a rookie quarterback i want to ask you about uh beau nix and that running back or that quarterback room in denver if anybody in the in the youtube chat has any questions about anything that's going on breaking news hopefully breaking news training camp battles that you want to ask Matt about. We should have a little bit of time for that also. We'll be right back after this break. With Smartwater's pure crisp taste, there's nothing to overthink. So while you may be spiraling over double texting your crush, whether your skincare routine is working because you look the

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Find their products through banks, credit unions, and associations. Or visit SecurianCanada.ca. Securian Canada, insurance designed for life. So we do have another rookie quarterback. My apologies to Bo Nix. I actually think he was obviously a lower-end prospect than the guys that we've talked about so far. And for fantasy purposes, we're not quite as excited about him as we are the other guys.

The lowest ranked guy, but maybe one of the more likely to start week one. Is that kind of what we're hearing out of Denver, that Bo Nix is looking pretty good? I mean, Sean Payton seems to love him. And it's funny. I actually have put them in an order of, I thought Nix would be the most likely to start out of those back three.

You know, part of that is, you know, former Patriot Jared Stidham sitting in front of him doesn't exactly inspire hope. So, you know, I do expect him to struggle early, struggle often. And when that happens, you know, you almost have to take the chance. And if Payton's telling telling the truth which he actually decently does um you know he he loves this kid he said he's one of the smartest qbs he's been around um i mean granted he spent 90 of his time with true breeze right but you know i don't know if that's a slight true breeze or whatever but um you know, you need the intelligence.

You need to be able to understand the playbook, understand those, you know, calls those formations, everything as a rookie. So if, if that's all true, I think the leash is even shorter for Stidham. So I do, I do see Bo Nick starting sooner than later. I like that. I like that. We do have a couple of questions here in the chat and I'm putting you on the spot here because I know I didn't ask you about these guys specifically but like joe's question i'm actually going to answer but i'm going to ask you a question about the situation

first so the question is what's the dynasty outlook on iuk if he stays versus goes to pittsburgh or washington i don't think i would like him going to p or Washington as much as I like him in San Francisco. So it would be worse for me. But it just seems to me like is Brandon Ayuk just trolling the 49ers or trolling fans? Or do you think there's actually a decent chance that he's playing for the Steelers or Commanders or somebody else this year as opposed to the 49ers? You know, I feel like more times than not you run in these scenarios that if the guy does leave it's to neither team that anyone has linked him to and it's almost to your point you know the 49ers are like we don't want to play these games you're

under contract with us we're we're going to do what we need to do that's best for the football team now i do 100 agree that if he stays in San Francisco, it is probably for the best. You know, Kittle's getting older. A-Uke's got a bright future in front of him. It's, you know, I'm not worried about, you know, any rookie coming in. I'm not worried about Jennings. But could he be super productive in certain scenarios in the NFL on QB needy teams? Yeah, absolutely.

And there's probably teams that would pay for him um and would have no problem doing so but if it's those three teams i'm all in on the 49ers as well yeah yeah so we've got uh we kind of talked about this earlier in the show angus says any any news on the denver running backs and how that will shape up and the answer, but from what I've seen, and you can tell me if you've seen something that you believe more, more than other things is yes, all of the news. And basically everyone is going to be the number one running back for the Broncos and nobody is going to the number one running back for the Broncos. Um, oh yeah, I would say that's a very fair statement. Now I I will say, and I'm putting this out into the space, so I might have to die on this hill, but I do believe that there is something going on with Javante Williams in terms of maybe him not seeing that RB1 or usage that we want. I do think, you know, and I can't remember who said it, but we were talking about it earlier, the whole McLaughlin thing looking at running back and shorts.

You know, he still had a lot of explosive plays last year. But you don't go out and then go get Audrick Estime if you're not going to do something with him. Like, it's almost like he's the insurance policy to Javante Williams because McLaughlin's not sliding into an RB1 role if Williams comes off. He's just not built for that. Heck, I even like Blake Watson, which I can't even believe the name's coming up currently,

but that's a fun taxi name if you get a spot. But yeah, I do believe there there's some whether smoke there's fire with javante williams and um i i wouldn't be shocked if that backfield was just an absolute disaster this year yeah throw throw a dart pick your favorite denver running back and then you'll probably wish you hadn't um just just take a cheap one we had a gino smith question in the chat and i've seen a couple of rumblings, but they weren't from beat writers, that there may actually be an actual quarterback competition in Seattle. Do you expect Geno to be the clear starting quarterback,

or could there be a battle there between him and Sam Hill? Listen, Sam Hill clearly has some grit to him, right? The guy gets – he's done it when he's needed to do it to a degree. But I think Geno Smith's your starter. I don't know how you can go away from what we've seen. Now, I think Seattle, after this season, things are going to start to change up there significantly. I could see right you know

obviously all that this we're talking on a one year basis here i know again we're on a dynasty show but geno smith this year and then who knows after that i think geno fits even though he's not quite as old fits into that rogers probably cousins group of like if you were a contender and playing this year then you can value him as a qb2 but you probably shouldn't expect anything beyond the 2024 season at least with him as a starter or maybe even a starter anywhere i i'm gonna have to let you go because somebody else in the chat tells us that we had breaking cordial patterson um news that he's going to be more involved than people would like and of course he is because he's with Arthur Smith,

which is exactly what we want. No, we've got one more. One more. Any talk you've heard at all about the Chargers wide receiver? Somebody asking who will be the wide receivers in two wide receiver sets. I know they said they were going to use Quentin Johnston in a different way. That's a good idea. But how are they feeling about their wide receivers in Los Angeles?

I mean, I married into a U2T family, so I've watched Josh Palmer for a long time. I actually really like the kid. Do I think that they have a true wide receiver one on this roster? No. Quentin Johnston is not a true wide receiver one. There's all this talk probably from about a month ago about how Vlad McConkie is going to be the wide receiver one.

He runs – the guy runs amazing routes. He's not built necessarily to be a wide receiver one. A double team on Vlad McConkie would be – would probably not be his best day in the office. But is he going to get open? Is he going to have opportunity? Yeah. I think we're also going to see a tight end emerge that actually turns into someone serviceable from this team this year.

And right now it's kind of gross. It's Will Disley, Hayden Hurst, Donald Parham. Somebody's about to type STONESMART in all caps in the chat because every time we mention the Chargers, that happens. So, yeah, he's probably on the team still. But, yes, are we going to have a guy that just absolutely takes over? No. Are we going to have some pretty good wide receiver output

because we know they're tied to Justin Herbert? Absolutely. We're going to see more ground game than we probably ever have seen coming out of San Diego. And, you know, I think, you know, I don't want to say famously, but Austin Eckler said he couldn't stay there because it was just too much running for him. You know, he had to get out of Dodge. So, you know, if that's the route that we're expecting, yeah, see a decrease in the passing game there's some there's definitely intriguing scenarios on the running back i know that wasn't a running back room i know that wasn't a question but if i had to pick a guy who leads the chargers this year in receiving the eyes i'm going josh palmer josh palmer i think i

think that's the right bet well we will let you go so you can go right about cordero patterson but i do want i thank you for coming on matt again it's matt olson 32 beat writers just tell everybody else like what you've got working where they can find you yeah so um our our biggest spot is on twitter x whatever we want to call it nowadays um at 32 beat writers um we also have our website that's relatively new to us 32beatwriters.com where you, you know, I alluded to it earlier. The off-seasons are bread and butter. We actually just went live this morning, a feature on there, where you can pick your players and actually track their exact off-season news.

So if there's people you want to specifically watch, we're going to categorize that all for you and kind of show you those patterns and timelines to actually make you or help you make that good decision so i uh heath i appreciate you having me on and uh thank you very much thank you matt thank you harry thank you everybody who was active in the chat gave us some questions there appreciate everybody listening to the podcast we will talk to you next Tuesday.