Fantasy Football Today - 🚨Thoughts on Davis, Agholor, Jonnu, Gronk and More (03/15 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: March 16, 2021

We'll go over the biggest news from Day One of NFL free agency. Is Jonnu Smith a winner or a loser? What about Nelson Agholor and Corey Davis? Subscribe to the FFT in 5 podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to FFT. Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @CTowersCBS, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter 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/ Want winning picks each morning in under 10 minutes? Subscribe to 'The Early Edge: A Daily SportsLine Betting Podcast' on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever else you listen to 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

Ryan Tannehill has lost a lot during this first day of free agency. Cam Newton has gained a lot. We'll give you our thoughts on all the big news right now on Fantasy Football Today in 10. Welcome to the show. It's definitely going to be an extended version of Fantasy Football Today in 5. I'm Adam Azer with Jamie Isenberg. We're getting you caught up fast on the fantasy news and advice you need to know. Make sure you're following us and streaming us on Spotify.

And tell your friends and help us grow. And we're, of course, dropping this in the regular FFT feed. But Jamie, we're not going to go super in-depth because we've got to save some content for tomorrow morning when Dave joins us. But right now, who's the biggest winner from day one? The biggest winner from day one. I already told you who it was. It was in my intro. Are you listening? Great question. Jonu Smith. Oh, it's not. It's Cam Newton. Well,

that depends if Cam Newton's a starter for 16 games. That's right. That's true. Yeah, okay. Potentially. Fine. Jonu Smith. Jonu Smith, big contract with the Patriots. They invest heavily in him. You like this for him? I do. I think, you know,

obviously the quarterback is the concern, but this is the scenario, especially with the moves that they made that we look for in fantasy as the tight end could be the leader of the pack in terms of targets and opportunities. And so, look, Cam was not good in 2020. If Cam does start 16 games in 2021, Greg Olson during a five-year stretch was pretty awesome. You know, he wasn't of the top tier tight ends, you know, of the guys that we typically talk about, but he was in that next group, you know, and so from 2012 to 2016, Greg Olson averaged basically 118

targets a season, 77 catches, just shy of a thousand yards and five touchdowns. If John could do that in one season, that's going to put him right around a top five tight end. Oh, yeah. Greg Olson was great. And not only was he great, but we also saw from Cam Newton in that stretch that he could give you Greg Olson, who could finish as a top eight tight end, five straight seasons,

and give you a number two wide receiver in four of those five seasons, three or four of those five seasons, whether it was Steve Smith or Kelvin Benjamin, and even Ted Ginn one year. So that's interesting. I look forward to talking about that on the show tomorrow or on the Tuesday morning show.

And then of course we'll have a whole bunch of more news items to react to. Hopefully we'll get some Kenny Galladay news at some point on Tuesday, or maybe it'll happen later on Monday night as we record this at about nine 15 Eastern. Who's the biggest loser from day one? The biggest loser from day one. I wish you had asked me these questions before.

I told you that we were starting with these. You should have told me before the show. The biggest loser, I guess you gotta say Ryan Tannehill. You lose John O'Smith and Corey Davis, they're gonna have to struggle to replace those guys. you gotta say ryan tannell you know i mean you lose john smith and um you lose john smith and cory davis uh they're gonna have to you know struggle to replace those guys um davis probably more so than john just from the standpoint of what he was last year with uh his production as the number two receiver 65 catches 900 plus yards and five touchdowns um so we'll see what they do in that regard. But I think Tannehill, I had him as the number 11 quarterback. I dropped him to 13 after today, just because I think it was close between,

in my mind, Joe Burrow and Tom Brady. So I put him behind both those guys. Okay. How about Jameis Winston or Ryan Tannehill right now? Let's assume Jameis Winston is the starter. I still would go Tannehill. I? Let's assume Jameis Winston is the starter. I still would go Tannehill. I think it's going to be messy. I can't see a situation where Taysom Hill's not playing. So I was hoping Jameis would go someplace else and Taysom Hill would still be the guy with maybe a rookie or somebody young that they could groom.

Because I think you're just going to get too much of the Taysom Hill package if Jameis is the starter. And if Taysom Hill's the starter, Jameis is going to play very much. So it just feels like it could be a messy situation in New Orleans. Who do you like better? Corey Davis with the Jets or Nelson Aguilar with the Patriots? I think Aguilar is going to be bad. I just don't trust the situation.

He had so many big plays for the Raiders last year. And he was so good for Derek Carr. But he did that on 82 targets. I don't think if he gets 82 targets with the Patriots, he's going to do the same thing. So with what Cam does running the ball, with what John DeSmith brings to the table, with what the rest of the receiving core will look like

if Julian Edelman's still on the team and if he's healthy, I think Nelson Aguilar is going to be a guy that's not on many fantasy rosters come middle of the season, whereas Corey Davis could be the best receiver for the Jets. I don't know if that's going to be the case, but I would take Corey Davis by far over Nelson Aguilar. So you're more excited about Jonu Smith than Nelson Aguilar?

Leaps and bounds. Is that just because of the position? Because, I mean, do we really know that Jonu Smith is good? Do we know that Nelson Aguilar can do anything close to what he did last year again? Well, I mean, that wasn't his first good season. He had one really good, you know, solid year with the Eagles. Touchdown heavy, but solid year.

He's a former first-round pick. He was maybe a little unlucky. He had seven targets inside the 10 and only caught one touchdown. There was only one other player that had more than six targets inside the 10 and only one touchdown. That was Justin Jefferson. So I thought that was interesting. He's getting targeted.

I don't know. I think I am more confident in his abilities than John Smith's, honestly. But that's fair. I just don't think that Cam Newton's going to enhance Nelson Aguilar. I think Cam Newton is much better suited for a player like John Smith. What about Rob Gronkowski back with the Bucs or John Smith? Yeah, that's not close. John has got top five potential tight end position for me.

Gronk's not going to be ranked as a number one tight end. Okay, but Gronkowski, the Patriots, I think they were the second fewest past attempts in the NFL last year. They were behind Baltimore. Yeah, and the Bucs were like the sixth most, I think they were the second fewest pass attempts in the NFL last year. They were behind Baltimore. Yeah, and the Bucs were like the sixth most, fourth most, something like that. So you do have that dynamic there, right? You do. Patriots will throw more, Jamie.

Obviously, the Patriots are going to throw more now, for sure. You would hope. But they're not going to throw as much as the Bucs. No, but Gronk was battling O.J. Howard for production and targets and everything in the first few games while Howard was healthy. And then he was battling Cameron Braid at the end of the season. Gronk is a role player at this point. He had good games last year.

He had a lot of bad games too. And I think people are going to obviously fall in love still with the name and remember the two touchdowns in the Super Bowl. I think you're chasing numbers if you're chasing Rob Gronkkowski okay how about carlos hyde going to jacksonville what's your reaction there yeah actually i was going to say as a winner uh james robinson because if this is all they do it's fantastic for robinson if they add still somebody else then that's going to make it a messy situation you know the the thing that makes you concerned about robinson is that there's a history here with the gm coach, obviously urban Meyer from his days at Ohio state. And Trent Balky was the GM in San Francisco with

Hyde when he was there. So I, I hope this is all it is for James Robinson, but again, I still fear that there's something else coming in terms of a pass catching type of back. Somebody adds a little bit more speed to the backfield. So I think this is one of those things where Carlos Hyde is insurance. Devontae Booker is insurance. These type of players that are assigned to these teams are backup options for a reason. They're veterans who you can

trust if they have to get extended workloads. And so just in terms of the two backup running backs who signed today, I'd much rather take a chance on Devontae Booker than I would Carlos Hyde. James, this is a pretty boring day. As of 9.15 Eastern, pretty boring.

It's boring from what we talk about. It's a great NFL day, though. There are a lot of fun signings. I think the Joe Tooney signing is big for the Chiefs. They have to revamp their offensive line for sure. The Linsley signing, too. The Linsley signing for the Chargers, absolutely. The Patriots

are so interesting. I kind of feel like they hit the B-list with their two offensive signings. Judon on the other hand could be great. maybe they're not done, but I'm not just giving them the benefit of the doubt because they're the Patriots.

I mean, I'd rather throw a lot more money at Kenny Galladay than get Nelson Aguilar and Johnnie Smith. Well, I think if they had spent the money on Aguilar and Kendrick Bourne on one guy, that would have been a better signing. Johnnie, I think, is a great signing. I think he's got so much potential and you know, Belichick raved about him in the 2019 playoff run when the Titans beat the Patriots and Tom Brady's last game in new England. The the Patriots defense still got a lot better. The Anderson signing and the Godchild signing are big, you know, for that run defense, you know, they got bigger in the middle, their offensive line got better. So the two lines got better, but you know what Bill Belichick is. Bill Belichick they got bigger in the middle. Their offensive line got better. So the two lines got better.

But you know what Bill Belichick is? Bill Belichick is the guy in the salary cap league that goes all in on the top two running backs with the first biggest bids and then has to sit it out and see what else happens. Now, they got a lot of, you know, I think players that fill roles for them. But I think the two that stand out are obviously Aguilar and Bourne

because, you know, what those guys are, they paid Aguilar $13 million a season. Corey Davis got $12.5 million a season with the Jets. And if you look at those two guys, I think you'd much rather have the investment in Davis than you would in Aguilar just from what their pedigrees should be. Maybe not what their production has been, from what their pedigrees should be.

Maybe not what their production has. I don't know what their pedigree should be, but they're both first round picks. Yeah. The one guy was a top 10 pick. Yeah. But he was a bad pop 10 pick. Like John Ross was a top 10 pick, right?

I'm not saying he was a good top 10 pick. I'm not saying Aguilar was a good first round pick. No, I'm obviously they've been NFL draft busts. Yeah. Yeah. You know what? Look,

a lot of guys on both sides of the ball. You look at Leonard Floyd, you look at Leonard Williams, Corey Davis, Nelson Aguilar. They had big years. They had their best seasons in contract years. And that's a little bit scary.

It's a little bit scary. So we shall see what happens. And we will talk about it more in depth on the fantasy football today. Podcast, follow it and stream it on Spotify. Thanks for listening to an extended version of FFT in five. And we'll talk to you on Tuesday. Football Today podcast. Follow it and stream it on Spotify. Thanks for listening to an extended version of FFT in 5, and we'll talk to you on Tuesday. See you later.