Fantasy Football Today - 🚨 Tom Brady to the Bucs! Who Wins? Who Loses? (03/17 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: March 17, 2020

Which player is impacted the most by Tom Brady's move to Tampa Bay? Is Brady done or is he being underestimated? Does O.J. Howard have a chance to be great now? And do the Bucs WRs lose any value? We also talk a little bit about Philip Rivers and the Colts, with a big episode coming tomorrow morning to cover all of Tuesday's news. 'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @YardsPerGretch, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bonus pod on Tuesday night. Welcome to Fantasy Football Today. We'll do a big show tomorrow talking about everything that went down on day two of free agency. But right now, let's react to Tom Brady and a little bit of Phillip Rivers. Tom Brady, according to multiple reports, going to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Going to make about $30 million a year. Bruce Arians gets his quarterback. I'm Adam Azer. I got Jamie Isenberg and Ben Gretsch here. Jamie, what's the biggest

fantasy impact? Which player is impacted the most by Tom Brady going to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Bill Belichick? Patriots Nation? Yeah, I mean, look, once the news came out

on Tuesday morning that he was leaving New England, this was the most likely destination. This is what Vegas has been telling you that was going to happen in terms of the odds of where he was going to go. It's the place with the best weapons for him. the situations once Philip Rivers went to Indianapolis, the Chargers versus the Colts. I'm sorry, the Chargers versus the Bucs. State income tax, that factors in in terms of maximizing the deal. So everything pointed to football-wise and money-wise, Tampa Bay making the most sense.

So I like the fit. I think it's a good fantasy landing spot for him. Okay, but who's most impacted? A wide receiver? Julian Edelman. That's what I was thinking too. Edelman's sneaky biggest impact here. I just want to say something

about Brady here. You look at his last four seasons. Four years ago, you take his fantasy points. You put him in 2019. He's the number two quarterback. Two years ago, you take his fantasy points, you put him in 2019, he's the number two quarterback. Two years ago, you take his fantasy points, you put him in 2019, he's the number six quarterback. One year ago, meaning 2018, not 19. He's the number six quarterback if you put those fantasy points in 2019.

And then the one year I skipped, that's the year he played 12 games. He had the suspension. That was his best year. He was amazing that year. So at first half of the season, Tom Brady was performing at his career averages in terms of completion percentage in yards per attempt. He was on pace for 4,500 yards. We are talking about eight games to the end of the season and then the ninth in the playoffs of him playing poorly, Ben. And it sort of seems like many people think he is done. And I would argue that he was just fine before the second half of the season.

What do you think? Yeah, I'm kind of like, now that he's actually signed with the Bucs, I'm kind of like now that he's actually signed with the bucks i'm kind of really like curious if what they've been doing in new england and all the underneath throwing and i think that's a big reason why people think he's done is he's thrown to his backs and and edelman and all these short throws so heavily over the last couple of years if that was more scheme related and if maybe part of this is he wants to get out from being a game manager to a to a degree which he's you know maybe feels like he's been asked to be

over the last couple of years you know definitely a team player we know that about him so he would do what he is told uh but maybe he wants to go to a scheme like arians where he's going to be asked to push the ball down the field a little bit more like i i don't know i think it's uh i think it's interesting the last for the past five seasons bit more. Like, I don't know. I think it's interesting. The last four of the past five seasons, he's had an average throw depth under eight yards, which is pretty low. That's when you start to get to the lower end. If you're under seven yards,

it's like the very low end of the scale. Jameis Winston, his career low is 9.9. Anything over 10 is like the really high end of the scale. He was second in the league last year at 10.4 among qualifying quarterbacks. Brady was down at the lower end at 7.2 or 7.3 or something like that will brady's average throw depth rise to three yards maybe and i think it's possible now that i'm sitting here thinking about it jamie where are you ranking tom brady

so i you know after the announcement today that he posted uh excuse me the uh wednesday tuesday morning um i put him at 14 just to kind of move him up a little bit he'll probably be closer to 12 i think it's i agree with what ben said you know and what you guys are talking about i think it's a good spot for him i think it's a good situation for him i think he's going to prove to be good in bruce arian's offense i think he's going to work well with the receivers that they have there i hope he whispers in bruce's ear and say you know i have a pretty good history with tight ends. Maybe we can, you know, get get O.J. Howard out in the open a little bit and let him run around. There was some talk, you know, some rumors circulating that it may be

a package deal of Tom Brady and Melvin Gordon going to Tampa Bay. That'd be fun. I know somebody likes Ronald Jones, but that might be an upgrade. A little bit. So, you know, this is going to be an interesting marriage because Bruce Arians is very much a, you know, Wild West type of coach when it comes to allowing what his quarterbacks to do. There is always an adjustment period in the first season or the initial part of it you look at carson palmer when he first got bruce arians um you know jamis winston had some struggles early on and then sort of pick things up in the middle of the season you know brady obviously has

a wealth of knowledge but he's been in the same system for so long um you know i was having a conversation with brady qu CBS Sports HQ today, and, you know, Brady said that the Chargers may have allowed Tom Brady to walk in, and that's a little confusing, Tom Brady to walk in to their team and say, here's what I want to do. I don't know if Tampa Bay allows him to do that, but I still think he'll make this work because, you know, this seems to me to be mostly about

wanting to play with great players and not to discount the guys in New England, especially Julian Edelman. This is the best receiving core he's had since 2007. This is a really good receiving core. Speaking of that, you've got Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, who on a per-game basis were both top four wide receivers. Godwin was number two in both formats. Evans was number three in non-PPR, number four in PPR. I'll start with you, Jamie. What is the impact on Evans and Godwin? I don't think anything for Godwin.

The routes that he runs, the places that he up um i i think he'll be maybe not number two but you know top 10 still uh maybe evans takes a little bit of a hit but i'm not going to move those guys at all i think you know that this is bruce arians this is great receivers this is a great quarterback you know uh i i think you just take your chances on everything being as close to status quo as it can be you know is there going to be the same downfield success no but you know uh one thing about and and i don't know if it's a fair comparison but when peyton manning went to denver and he had the two great receivers you know you know you think about eric decker and demarius thomas at the time and as things started to you

know fall apart for peyton toward the end of, I'm not talking about the 55 touchdown year, but when things started to fall apart, he helped them. I know the defense was the big catalyst, but he helped them win the Super Bowl with his mind. And when great quarterbacks, the physical skills start to deteriorate, what they do in moving safeties with their eyes and seeing things at the line of scrimmage and, you know, understanding play concepts before they unfold. He's going to know all those things at a different level than Jameis, at a different level than most quarterbacks, because he's seen everything. And so I think he's going to, okay, yeah, Evans isn't single coverage here. Safety's on the left. I got, you know, this linebacker, you know, he tends to drop in these formations. You know, he's going to know all those things. So he'll get, you know, Evans in space and he'll put Godwin in space.

So I think those guys are still going to put up big numbers. The question becomes is, does OJ Howard factor more into the mix or the tight ends in general factor more in the mix? Does, you know, whoever the third receiver becomes because Rashad Perryman is not coming back, does that factor more in the mix? I think you just kind of take your chances with Evans and Godwin being great with a great player. I love the Carson Palmer point, and I love the point you just made about Brady's mind because when you brought him up and how some of these quarterbacks have had a little bit of a slow start with Arians,

that was the first thing I was thinking. And I think that as soon as you started saying that, I just started thinking, man, what if he does just hit with this much talent? Cause Palmer didn't have this talent when he went to Arizona, but he is an example of someone that Arians helped resurrect from a period when he was with Oakland, which is not too dissimilar for what we're thinking about Tom Brady right now, which is maybe he's washed up, maybe he's done. But then Palmer, once John Brown got there, and then especially when David Johnson got

there and Palmer was still the quarterback when quarterback when David Johnson had his huge season in 2016, once he got a second option other than Larry Fitzgerald in the passing game, he was good in the Arian system. And Brady's going there now, and he's going to have some great weapons, like we're saying. What if he can make this team really good? And what if we see Tom Brady facing Bill Belichick at the Super Bowl? That's the thing that was just hitting me. Bill Belichick is not getting to a Super Bowl, Ben.

I hate to tell you. With what's left on the market, you know, there's some rumors. You know, obviously I talk to Pete Prisco a lot, and he's very connected to the league. What he's hearing is that Belichick is, you know, the plan B, brady wasn't coming back was most likely going to be they're going to make a move for andy dalton um you know teddy bridgewater was obviously part of the the possibilities we know that's not in the in

the equation right now because he's going to carolina um you know you wonder now with cam on the market jamis winston on the market i don't know if those two guys mesh with what the Patriots want to do. It would be a surprise. But Dalton makes some sense. But I don't think Andy Dalton is getting the Patriots to the Super Bowl. So, hey, listen, man. They did pretty well with Matt Castle, right? And they can turn trash into treasure.

But they obviously need some help. Matt Castle had Randy Moss and Wes Walker. Well, they're not done. I mean, look, they could, yeah. Actually, it doesn't look great offensively for them. It really doesn't. I'm going to, Jamie's got to do some HQ. We're going to wrap things up here.

Make sure you're watching CBS Sports HQ tonight for the breakdown of everything. And we've got a big, fun show tomorrow with all the reaction. I'm going to give you three questions, rankings questions, this team or that team or this player or that player, related to the news that we saw today. Phillip Rivers or Tom Brady? Brady. Yeah, I'll take Brady.

DJ Moore or T.Y. Hilton? Moore. Moore. Keenan Allen or DJ Moore? Moore. Keenan Allen or T.Y. Hilton? Allen. Keenan Allen or T.Y. Hilton Allen I might go Hilton Okay and Tampa Bay or New England

Who wins more games Tampa Bay I'll say New England They're a little dangerous man They're a little scary those Buccaneers That's going to be a fun division It is going to be a fun division. I think right now, with what Atlanta's had to

lose salary cap-wise, they're, in my opinion, a distant third, but they're ahead of Carolina. The top two teams, you have the two greatest quarterbacks of our era, essentially. Brady and Breeze going head-to-head.

Awesome, man. Twice a year? That is awesome. Is there anything else left to cover here? And the Bucs, I think they either play in New England or New England comes to them. But I think they go to Foxborough. I think that was something I saw. Tremendous. Tremendous. Anything else we need to cover here, OJ? OJ Howard or Blake Jarwin?

If you're drafting today, who would you take a shot on? Probably Jarwin, but you can get Howard so late. We'll see where his price winds up. I'm going to be optimistic about him again. He's done a lot in the short term. I've heard some things about Arians not liking Howard, but again, I hope this is Brady saying, buddy, he's a physical specimen.

Look what I've done with tight ends in my career, man. Come on, give me that guy. Give me something. Give me something. If Melvin Gordon ends up there, I mean, Melvin Gordon on the box. They need a pass catching back. Ronald Jones is not great at pass blocking. They're going to need someone to protect.

It would make a lot of sense. Melvin Gordon on the box. If Melvin Gordon goes to Tampa Bay on paper, it's the best offensive football. Last question then. Melvin Gordon on the Bucs or Kenyon Drake? Oh, they're even. I'll take Drake. Oh, man.

Please, Melvin Gordon, go to the Bucs. This could be so much fun. Guys, thanks for hopping on this emergency podcast. Much appreciated. We're going to do it all again tomorrow morning with a lot more news from around the NFL, like Jordan Howard going to the Dolphins and we'll talk all about Rivers to the Colts and anything else that breaks tonight. That's what you tease with?

Jordan Howard to the Dolphins? Hey, you know what? We had two pretty extensive shows on Monday night and Tuesday morning, but you know... Ben just crushed it with some of the best analysis you will find. I thought, I hope I did a little bit to help you as well. And you,

you tease the next show with Jordan Howard to the dolphins. What should I have teased it with? I said the Colts. I mean, something a little bit more exciting. Find out what the next move is next here on fantasy football today. The jets have signed two offensive linemen. We'll talk about that tomorrow on Fantasy Football Today.

All right, see you later, everybody. Talk to you on Wednesday morning.