Fantasy Football Today - Toughest Players to Rank: WR9, Backup RBs and More (03/16 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: May 16, 2024

Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts Some trivia about big play wide receivers to start the show, and then we debate WR9 (5:25). Should it be Marvin Harrison Jr.? Chris Olave? Drake London? Davante Adams (16:05)? This will certainly be one of the most fun Fantasy conversations of the offseason ... News and notes (18:15) followed by more difficult rankings decisions: Stefon Diggs and Travis Kelce (19:50); talented young players in bad situations (31:10) ... Jamey's tough rankings decisions involve the rookie quarterbacks vs. the veterans (42:15), when to draft Tyjae Spears, Jaylen Warren and Chase Brown (49:30) and how to rank Christian Kirk (54:50) ... Your emails at [e-mail] SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 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

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No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. He's just going to go the distance. Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. The toughest players to rank in 2024. Who should be wide receiver nine? Did a Twitter poll.

We'll see what the audience thinks. See what Dave and Jamie think as well. Is Travis Kelsey old? He's too old. Or, you know, was he just kind of taking it easy last year and he's ready to come back to being the dominant tight end one again this year? How about Stefan Diggs? What's he going to do in that three receiver set in Houston? Christian Kirk versus DK Metcalf and Tank Dell. That's one that Jamie wanted to highlight. How about the rookie quarterbacks versus the veteran quarterbacks? And welcome to Dave and Jamie.

Yeah, how are you guys doing? Great. I'm fine. I'm feeling better. Thanks for asking. Absolutely nothing from you guys. Very disappointed. I expected it from Schaefer.

Welcome to Dave. I didn't expect it from you. Welcome to Dave and Jamie. Yeah, that was terrible. I expected it from Schaefer. Welcome to Dave and Jamie. Yeah, it was terrible. I have a trivia question for you. Ready? Okay. Are you feeling better? No, it doesn't

matter. Yeah, I'm feeling better. I was feeling better until you alerted me about the new Giants uniforms for this season. Those are sweet. Buzz, your girlfriend. Woof. That's the Giants uniform caption.

I'm excited to welcome the Montreal Canadiens into the National Football League. It's their 100th year. They're celebrating it in style. Why do they have the Michigan Wolverines that they've ever had together? Why do they have the Michigan Wolverines style for their helmet?

It's like from 100 years ago. It's terrible. It looks like something. They need to burn those uniforms now. Yeah. How often are they going to wear them? I mean, one time on Twitter is enough. Put them away.

Put them away for good. Here's a trivia question. Tyreek Hill. This is coming from me, an expert in style. Tyreek Hill led all wide receivers with nine catches of 40 or more yards. Who was second? Second most catches of 40 or more yards. Hint, AFC North.

Tyler Boyd. Yes. Good job. Amari Cooper. Hey! Yes, good job. Right? I was very surprised.

I was looking up. I saw Zay Flowers had four catches of 40 or more yards. I said, I wonder how that ranks. It was something like 10th, 12th, something like that. It's high. Where was Pickens on that list? I can look. I thought that was going to be your guess,

but it was Amari Cooper who set a career high with eight catches of 40 or more yards. And by the way... I mean, he had the best quarterback he's ever played with. Five of them? He averaged... Yeah, I know five of them were with Flacco. No, I'm saying he had five quarterbacks last year.

He averaged 17.7 PPR fantasy points per game in the non Dorian Thompson Robinson games, which would have made him wide receiver six in fantasy. But yeah, I thought that was interesting. He went as wide receiver 34 in last week's half PPR draft, Jamie, Hamari Cooper.

Yeah, it's a steal. I mean, you should not be going that late. You know, he's in that very large boat of, well, canoe, very large canoe of receivers that, you know, you can put between basically wide receiver 22 through wide receiver 32. My concern with him is he's entering his 30s, and they added another somewhat significant piece

with the addition of Jerry Judy. And so do you trust Deshaun Watson to spread the ball around enough or to focus on one guy enough that all these receivers will be successful? And that's my concern is that Cooper will take a slight step back and not perform at the same level he was performing at with Watson. And so for me, he's a high-end number three receiver. Like you referenced the guys that I'm struggling with in Kirk, Metcalf, and Dell. He's behind those guys for me, he's a high-end number three receiver. You referenced the guys that I'm struggling with in Kirk, Metcalf, and Dell. He's behind those guys for me. Okay. Amari Cooper's never finished higher than 15th per game in PPR.

And he's coming off arguably his best season. Yards per catch, yards per outrun. Also his highest ADOT. He is an interesting player, though. I think that's, like you said, that's a steal as wide receiver 34. But then it's kind of hard to find a lot of guys that went ahead of him. I just think

there's a few. Deontay Johnson, Deontay Johnson, Tank Dell, Jaden Reed. I mean, I think you'd probably take him over Johnson and Reed. Yes. I'm taking him over all three of those guys. Do you have him in your top 30, Amari Cooper? Yes. Yes.

Okay. All right. Let's move on to the crux of the show here. Take a look at the Twitter poll I put up today, because Dave said that one of his most difficult rankings decisions is who's going to be wide receiver nine. So I wrote on Twitter, on Twix, if the top eight wide receivers in some order are Hill,

Lamb, Chase, Jefferson, Amonra St. Brown, Puka, AJ Brown, and Garrett Wilson, who is your wide receiver nine? I'll give you four options based on Fantasy Pro's ADP. Marvin Harrison Jr., Drake London. Wow, this is so close. Holy cow. Chris Olave and Devante Adams. And I didn't put Iuke in there. Iuke was, I think, 12th. One of these guys was 13th in ADP. I don't know. I just figure he's probably not going to win this bowl. So Harrison, Drake London, Chris Olave, and Devante Adams, they all, not a lot of votes, 338 votes. They're all between 21.6 and 29.6% right now. Marvin Harrison Jr. is your clubhouse leader. Schaefer voted for Drake London,

who is in second place at 26.6%. And then Olave and Adams are basically tied right around 22%. So Dave, this was one of your most difficult rankings decisions. And who do you have as wide receiver nine? I still have Olave. And it's because I'm hoping that the change in offensive coordinator and the track record

of how he's done when he's gotten a lot of targets puts him just a nose ahead of everybody else. I think a case could be made easily for, well, I mean, I just made a case for Olave. I don't know if that's a convincing enough case. I think a case can be made easily for well i mean i just made a case for a lava i don't know if that's a convincing enough case i think a case can be made for marvin harrison i still think a case can be made for davante adams and ppr and i think a case can be made for drake london i think those are the four and if you were to tell me that i mean who who was lowest on the poll it's it's london uh no lois is adams right now very if you had told me that Adams was winning the poll,

I wouldn't have batted an eyelash at that. I think all four of these guys are in that range of wideouts who could capture at least eight targets a game. That means seven receptions a game. Certainly score a lot of touchdowns. Even Devontae with Gardner Minshew throwing him the football. But I think that it's an interesting question, and I'm not ready to say that I'm going to lock into Olave by the time we get to August, but he's in that mix for me, man. I think he's definitely

a candidate to be the ninth best receiver in fantasy. Who's nine for you, Jamie? Right now it's Harrison. I wouldn't put Devonta Adams on this list. I think he's going to take a significant step back. The other three are definitely three receivers that I struggle with. Right now, I have it ranked Harrison, Olave, London.

London clearly has the most to prove based on what he's done through the first two years of his career or lack thereof. Olave has failed to live up to breakout expectations, but he's still been a decent receiver. I don't know if he's performed to the level of we should guarantee he's at that point, but that's why we're having this discussion is because all three of these guys have something to prove. And so I think in the case of Harrison, he's going to be featured in the Cardinals offense that has shown the ability of the quarterback to feature a number one guy to a

level of a top 10 season with what Kyler has done at times with DeAndre Hopkins and Marquise Brown in a small sample size. So he's my favorite of the group, but London and Olave, I just wrote the third year breakout receiver story. Both guys entering their third season. Both guys have pretty significant, in my opinion, changes coming that should help them. For London, quarterback upgrade is obvious. For Olave, coordinator and lack of weapons around him should help. So both these guys headed in the right direction. London, I am absolutely obsessed with his yak, and I'm trying to do a whole bunch of research on it, and I've basically said, I'm done researching it. I'm emailing Jacob Gibbs because I want some historical

comparisons because it's bad. I want to know if it matters. I cannot find a lot of players who have been really good with yak that low. I mean, that's sort of true. I won't get all into it now.

There'll be a Beyond the Box score episode about it. But can it improve? Sure. I hope it does. But even if you're like, oh, well, it's Arthur Smith. Even Corey Davis had a great yak per catch under Arthur, well, it's Arthur Smith. Whatever. Even Corey Davis had a great yak per catch under Arthur Smith. But it's Arthur Smith

plus quarterback. But Kyle Pitts had a great yak per catch first two seasons. Not last year where he was playing on one leg. Well, again, I don't know you want to put

first two seasons because first season he had Matt Ryan and Matt Ryan is better than anything at that point in his career than what Pitts had in year two.

Okay, but he wasn't not your two, not the Mariota year. I mean, you're also talking about what a six game sample size of that. Uh, it may be. That was London's rookie season, you know?

So again, I, I'm not, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna fight you that he's got a lot to prove cause he does, but you know, you're, you're also talking about the,

the coordinator change for both these guys, you know, for London getting Zach Robinson, who was on the staff that just developed Puka Nakua that helped Cooper cup, you know, become the receiver that he's become, you know, and so hopefully those concepts will translate to London being better. Obviously Kirk cousins coming in and what he's done with Stefan Diggs and Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson, those things matter. There's a tie-in also with Kubiak, who's coming in from San Francisco. Kubiak was on the staff when Jefferson had his rookie season in Minnesota. So hopefully that will help Olave. And obviously what Kubiak did in San Francisco as part of that coaching staff.

And you referenced it many, many times. I think we all have. The San Francisco coaching tree has helped a lot of offenses do wonderful, many times. I think we all have. You know, the San Francisco coaching tree has helped a lot of offenses do wonderful, wonderful things. And so, you know, Heath was talking about, you know, the negatives of Olave on our breakout show earlier this week and, you know, the things that he does by comparison to what the guys in San Francisco have done and what his, you know, skill set is

and how that would translate. I'm just going to trust that these coaches will help these guys just be better football players. Oh yeah. I like, then the trickle down is how much will the quarterbacks help those guys become better football players? And you could crap all over Derek Carr all you want to. You can say that, you know, Kirk Cousins is 35 coming off an Achilles injury.

And there's a lot of negatives as well, you know, based on the lack of things that they've done and then what those quarterbacks are potentially going to look like right now. But at some point, you just have to say that the talent will win out. And I'm hoping that, you know, two guys in terms of London and Olave who were top 12 overall picks

in their respective draft classes, in their draft class, you know, will step up and play at a high level. And I think that's going to be the case. Yeah, no, I don't want to make it sound like I am low on London. I think if I were doing rankings, he'd be wide receiver 10. I'd have hair.

I have taken Harrison as wide receiver nine in mock drafts. So London would be somewhere from 10 to 12. I just, I'm trying to try to use advanced stats. If you want to consider yak per catch in advanced stats, in advanced that try to incorporate it into my analysis. And this is just something that really jumps out. I just don't see a lot of wide receivers who have yak that low with London's ADOT. So anyway, it's kind of like an experiment. Let's see what happens. If it's going to continue throughout his career, it might hold him back,

but I'm willing to put it aside. And you mentioned Stefan Diggs. That's actually a good comparison. Stefan Diggs, of all the elite wide receivers, has been pretty much by far the worst in yak per catch in his Buffalo years. And he's still been an elite receiver. So what's more important, obviously, are targets. And London should get a ton of those.

But yeah, I'm just kind of. If you're into those metrics, I just can't really find a great receiver who's as bad as what Drake London has been. Can you give us the number? What's the number? His rookie year, he averaged 2.7

yards after catch per reception. Last year, it was 3.1. Most of the top 12 receivers in fantasy are over four yards. Over the last three years, I have found seven examples, seven examples, no, eight examples

of wide receivers who finished top 12 with a yak per catch under four yards. Three of them were Stefan Diggs. He did it every single year. And he had a ton of targets to help push him up. They all did, basically. I mean, so Diggs, Keenan Allen.

Didn't Stefan Diggs have like north of 100 and either 140 or 150 targets? Yeah. Like a crazy high number. But every single, yeah, yeah. But Diggs, okay, so Diggs three times,

Keenan Allen twice, Mike Evans once, Amari Cooper once, Devontae Adams once. I might be missing one. Most of those guys are mega volume target. Yeah, they are. They finished top 12. You pretty much have to be. Not have to be, but that's what we're banking on for London.

We're banking on a lot of targets. All right. Okay, sorry. Got off on a tangent there, but that'll be a beyond the box score thing, hopefully. All right,, got off on a tangent there, but, uh, that'll be a beyond the box score thing. Hopefully. Um, all right, let's, uh, I gotta take a break. I've got lost in, uh, lost in my yak talk. Did we kind of wrap up this whole conversation about like, did we make a case for each of

these receivers? I know we did for London. I know I did for a lot of it. Yeah. Harrison. I think we did for London. I know I did for Olave. Yeah, Harrison, I think we did. I'd probably not Adams. And you're the high guy on Adams, Dave. And you can give me the case for him after this break on Fantasy Football today. We'll be right back. 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 same or is doing nothing because you look the same

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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. One minute on the clock for Dave Richard. Tell me why Devontae Adams could be wide receiver nine for you. I'm looking for any wide receiver that I feel confident can get close to or over 16

PPR points per game. In the nine games after Josh McDaniels got fired last year, Devonta Adams averaged 16.3 PPR points per game. It helped that he averaged 10.8 targets per game. And now you're thinking, well, that's going to change because the quarterbacks are changing. Not so fast, my friend. Gardner Minshew threw to Michael Pittman last year 10.1 times per game. So I think that even with Brock Bowers going to Las Vegas, the edict will be clear. If it's Minshew or even if it's Aiden O'Connell, get the ball to Devontae Adams. And I know he's older, and I know that he's not going to be 20 PPR points per game,

but I think he can still get you in that 15 to 16 PPR point range. Am I ready to say that Harrison can blow that away? I mean, I've got Harrison ranked higher, so I've actually got Adams higher, but maybe Harrison should be higher. They're going to be close. I think a lobby could be a little bit better than that. I think Drake London could be a little bit worse than that, but that's the case for Devontae. It's not about explosive plays, yak after the catch. It's about targets, targets, targets. He should get double digits every game. My fear with him is another year older, potential quarterback issues,

a run first team, and another mouth to feed that was fairly prominent in the NFL draft. Okay. He was a wide receiver 17 last season per game. Overall in PPR, he was wide receiver 10. He had 103 catches, 175 targets in 17 games. Okay. Last four games of the year, just for what it's worth with Devante,

because those are the games where Zamir White got going. 12 targets, six targets, a game with 8 targets, a game with 21 targets. That's going to be a little crazy. I don't think we're going to see that. But still, we're going to see a lot of double-digit target games from this guy. Yeah, he's a very good number two receiver, but I don't think he has the same upside as these other three. News and notes, and really just one thing we saw from the wire.

Chargers GM Joe Hortiz said that Quentin Johnston is going to really launch this season. And looking at where Johnston went in our draft last week, he went in round 10 just after Jamison Williams and Khalil Shakir just before Jahan Dotson. Seems like the right range for Quentin Johnston. Yeah, good late round flyer at this point. You know, he'll hopefully do some things in camp and maybe the preseason

that will get us excited about him because, you know, taking a step forward in year two, it's hard for him to take a step backward. But there's a huge opportunity there. You know, when you look at this receiving core and what it is, he could easily be one of, if not the best options for Justin Herbert, and hopefully that's the case. Okay, moving on. Oh, we had that NFL draft contest, guys, remember?

We had our audience guess the top ten. We had a four-way tie, and we haven't announced how we're going to break that tie. I think we should get all four of them on the show and make them compete in a trivia contest. I love it. Some sort. Yeah, Schaefer likes it.

I see Schaefer's been into it. Okay, so we'll figure out a time to make that happen. And who winners in the podcast league? Toughest players to rank, Dave gave me sort of three situations. One was wide receiver nine, which we already talked about. Number two, Kelsey

and Diggs. Were their second halves a warning sign? And if Kelsey's wasn't, why isn't he tight end one? I'm just reading verbatim from Dave's email. So Kelsey and Diggs. Thank you. Older guys who struggled last year, but Kelsey

was so good in the playoffs. And then the third one that Dave wants to focus on, Jonathan Brooks, Zay Flowers, and Malik Neighbors. You love the talents. You're worried about the situation. Let's start, though, with Kelsey and Diggs. Who do you think should be drafted first? Let me take a look at our half PPR mock.

Kelsey went with the eighth pick of round three. Diggs went seventh pick of round four. What do you think? I think Kelsey should be drafted first. It's the position scarcity thing. It's the fact that he could be just as productive as Stefan Diggs. Remember Stefan Diggs situation has changed considerably, changed teams,

changed quarterbacks. Now he's in a deeper receiving group. There's no guarantee he's going to be anywhere close. In fact, I can almost guarantee that he won't be anywhere close to the type of target volume that he was getting during his heydays in Buffalo. And so Travis Kelsey's situation, how has that changed? I mean, Marquise Brown's there. Xavier Worthy's there. Rasheed Rice will show up at some point. I still think he's going to be the main cog in that offense. The four playoff games that he was in last season, his worst game was that ice-cold weather game against Miami,

and he had 14 PPR points. He had at least 18 PPR points in every other game. He was OG Kelsey for that stretch run. He was the guy that was taken with a first-round pick. If he can get back to that and not have to deal with nagging injuries like he had to last year, maybe he should be tight end one. And maybe he should be not even questioned as a second-round pick and somebody who could be an absolute stellar stud as usual for fantasy teams.

And we're kind of being silly by a, not ranking him as tight end one and B not even considering him just because he's 34. I think that he's got that little bit of risk, but I still think he's going to be a huge target in Kansas city. So he's the one that I'm worried about being too low on. And digs is the one that I continue to go back and forth about being too low on. And Diggs is the one that I continue to go back and forth about being too high on. I think his role in Houston is going to be chain mover, third down guy, money down guy,

you know, games on the line. He's getting the ball. He can work the middle of the field. It's an area that, that I remember researching that CJ Stroud struggled with. And I think he's the solution for it, but he's not going to get, he's not going to dominate targets with Nico there and tank Dell there. And they're going to have a better running game than they did last year. Dalton Schultz is still going to take some targets away.

They'll have some big weeks, but I think he's like a borderline wide receiver too. And a year ago this time we were looking at him as a wide receiver one. So I'm worried that I'm too high on digs too low on kelsey jamie you've been trying to avoid old wide receivers in the first few rounds specifically the first two rounds uh and not counting tyreek hill is going to be 30 this year but let's see davante adams i think stefan digs was one of them maybe keenan allen He's dropped considerably. But how does Kelsey factor in here? He's going to be 35 years old this season. 36, right? I'm sorry, 35.

He'll be 35 this season. Kelsey makes me nervous from the standpoint of what they said following the Super Bowl, which was they were trying to manage his snaps until the playoffs. And then you saw this big spike in the playoffs. And so we know what they're chasing right now. They're chasing history. They're trying to be the first team to three-peat and win another Super Bowl and add to all of their legacies. And so what is the upside to trying to

make him play more or do more or be as, if not more productive in the regular season? Now, clearly, I'm sure as they've alluded to you know the injuries were a factor in some of that and it's i think just by nature of him being on the field there's chances for him to be fantastic so how much of his last season his last year's regular season was a byproduct of get to the playoffs and then just beat Travis Kelsey again and flip the switch, which is what happened. And so if it worked once, why not do it again?

So I think if you're looking at him, it's not so much necessarily where he should rank among tight ends. It's when are you willing to pull a trigger on him. And we've gone through a handful of drafts already where I know Dan Schneier, for example, still values him as tight end one. Chris Towers is really more focused on baseball, but he was part of our initial first rankings list following the end of last year's regular season. He had Kelsey as his tight end one, you know, so there are going to be people, I think in every league that still value him as the,

as the best player at that position by comparison to Sam Laporta. Can he do it again? Trey McBride, does he make that leap? Mark Andrews, does he still have the ability to get there? You know? So when you start to, you know, compare him to other players in the position, it's easy to say he could still be the number one guy because even in a crappy year last year, 14.1 PBR points was in consideration to be the best among his, uh, among the position. So, um, I think I think the middle to the end of round two is where you'll start to see Kelsey's name come up. Most likely, I think you'll see the ADP settle somewhere around 26 or 27, Laporta in that same range. So I have them rank Laporta one, Kelsey two. In terms of Diggs, I don't necessarily think anybody is going is going to reach for Stefan digs, uh, this season.

I really think it's a matter of how do you value digs by comparison to his teammates? Because you can make a case that he's better than Nico Collins and better than tank though. You can make a case that he's worse than those guys based on some things that CJ Stroud has showed you. And as he was talking about with tank, that was a breakout talked about that, you know, he built his ultimate roster and tank Dell was the receiver that he named, you know, not, not Nico Collins and not Stefan Diggs, you know, plus the fact that he's also, you know, becoming an aging wide receiver himself. So, uh, I think Diggs will sort of be, uh, maybe around three pick at the earliest, but,

but mostly around four. And I think Dave hit it on the head. He's, he's a borderline number two receiver. I think if you're, if you're reaching for him right around 15th, makes sense. If, if you really still believe he's going to be that guy, uh, anything higher than that, I think is, is a huge mistake for me. He's closer to wide receiver 24. So Kelsey tight end two digs low end number two receiver. And I think if you're drafting them appropriately early round three for Kelsey and, you know, round four for dig somewhere in that range.

So the, uh, the trio I've probably asked you this before, but these young receivers who were disappointing last year, Jalen Waddell, T. Higgins, Devontae Smith, are you taking all of them ahead of Stephon Diggs? As of now, yes. Higgins is going to make me a little nervous depending on his camp status if he holds out. Waddell, yes, and Smith, yes.

I currently have Diggs ahead of both Higgins and Smith. I actually like the way the schedule shook out early for Cincinnati, and that might be enough for me to put the number two receiver for Cincinnati ahead of the number two receiver for Houston. Yeah, if you missed it, we did a schedule reaction episode last night. Also, if you missed it, Jamie said that Chris Towers is focusing on baseball. Personally, I think Jamie should be focusing more on baseball because our fantasy baseball team is awful.

Oh, I'm sorry. Who did you bench this week? Yeah. You know, I'm sure every fantasy manager can relate to this, but we drafted Alex Bregman and the guy has been awful. I mean, terrible. And I was like, I'm benching Alex Bregman and He had two home runs on Monday.

Three so far this week. Three this week. Okay. This is why I let Jamie just handle everything with our fantasy baseball team. So that way, when we stink, it's his fault. And when we win, I'll give him credit and we split the money.

And that's nice. A couple things here. We don't argue over it. He just takes the money. And that's nice. I want a couple things here. We don't argue over it. He just takes the wheel. Tell me how much this matters to you. You can't really find a lot of history of 35-year-old tight ends. But Tony Gonzalez averaged more fantasy points at age 35 per game than he did at age 33 or 34.

And then he averaged even more than that. He averaged 14.6 PPR fantasy points per game at age 36. That's basically what Kelsey did last year. When you're a unicorn, you're a unicorn. I know, right? It's crazy. At age 35, Tony Gonzalez was tight end four overall, tight end five per game. But he had been done being super elite at that point. At age 35, Tony Gonzalez was tight end four overall, tight end five per game.

But he had been done being like super elite at that point. It's like that at every position, by the way. Like all the greats still produced even when they were past the age when they were supposed to be bad. Yeah. They eventually got to a point where they stunk, but it wasn't like running backs after when they were 30, the great ones that stayed and didn't retire early. They passed 30 or 31 quarterbacks. How many quarterbacks have we seen lately that are playing great?

Yeah, 30, 45 years of age. Like it happens eventually. But man, when you've got it, you'll you'll last a little bit longer in this league, even if you get older. And then the other thing I was going to bring up, Dave, I need your opinion on this. Sorry for the detour here. Back to fantasy baseball. Our pathetic commissioner. I am just getting so tired of this garbage. Week two, week two, Jamie and I faced a team

that had an illegal lineup. And I'm giving this to our commissioner. You know, I won't use his... I'll just call him Jack C. No, that's too obvious. Let's call him Jay Capitordo. That's a Simpsons reference. I have no idea who this person is. Okay, so he was such a pain in the ass

when I was commissioner of this league. So I've given it to him. So we played a team that had an illegal lineup, started an extra second baseman and an extra starting pitcher. We texted him in week two. He said, I'm going to give that team the loss. We said, no, no, don't give him the loss. Here's what we should do. On Sunday, you look at his score, you take out his highest scoring second baseman and his highest scoring starting pitcher, and then minus those fantasy points, award the victory to whoever has more fantasy points. So, okay, fine.

Jamie and I, we lost because he had extra players. If you take those guys out, Jamie and I should have won. He still, we are in week seven. He still has not corrected it. We have sent four or five text messages. He does not even reply to them. I am now going to email the entire league

and tell them what... No! What am I supposed to do at this point? I am going to... I cannot take it anymore. This is ridiculous. I'm in a text chain with him with other people and I said something and he replied yesterday

and I said... I made sure he replied a yesterday and I said, I, I, I made sure like he replied a couple of times like, Oh, it's nice to see your phones working. Yeah. Um,

now can you fix our, our, uh, our fantasy baseball league? And he sent me back, uh, an error message. That's kind of funny.

I think, I think I can find out where this young man works and I can stand over his shoulder while he fixes it. And if he still refuses to do it, then I'll just fix it myself because I've got the software at my disposal to fix things and CBS fantasy baseball products. You will get your win, guys. Thank you. All right. Last one that you want to talk about. Get stuff done.

Thank you. Thank you. Do you remember that? Do you remember that Simpsons reference, by the way? Which one? Let's call her Lisa S. No, that's too obvious. We'll call her Elle Simpson.

Anyway, Jonathan Brooks, Zay Flowers, and Malik Neighbors. You love the talents. You don't love the situations. So you're having trouble with your rankings on Jonathan Brooks, Zay Flowers, and Malik Neighbors. And with Brooks, it's mostly about just how quickly is he going to heal from the ACL? And then how quickly will the coaching staff just give him all the work that we want him to have in Carolina?

I think that when he's healthy, he should be good. But is that breakout where he's going to get 20 touches a game and get the Rashad White treatment? Is that going to happen later this season than we want it to be? Or is it going to be next year? The Panthers have no reason to rush him. So I worry, and I've got them ranked relatively high. I'm worried that I've got them ranked a little too high, but I'm going to keep them where I have them for now. Let's see what happens when we get to training camp. Cause I'd rather, I'd rather pick him a little bit too high now, since there's a chance that he could be starting training camp on time. And by week four, he's the stud in that backfield. And there's just no question about it. Zay Flowers is an interesting case for me because I, I, like I, like I wrote and same

thing with neighbors, love the talent for both of these wide receivers. They both can make huge splash plays. You want to talk about yards after catch per reception. I don't know what Zay Flowers was last year, but I imagine he can beat it in his second season. I think Malik Nabors can eventually get a bunch of slants from Daniel Jones in good uniforms or bad and turn them into huge plays. We saw him do that at LSU.

He can definitely do that in the NFL. He's got instant acceleration. I just don't know what to make of it. Well, it's different for each one. Zay Flowers in Baltimore last year when the run game was good for the Ravens, his numbers weren't good for fantasy most of the time. And now they've got Derrick Henry. That makes me nervous.

In New York, are the Giants going to completely revamp their offensive philosophy now that they've got neighbors, now that Saquon's gone, now that maybe their offensive line's better, and just pepper neighbors with targets? I think that's what you're counting on, Adam. That's why you're going after neighbors in every league. If I get the sense that that's what they're going to do, then yeah, I've got neighbors ranked too low. But I'm not certain that that's what they're going to do because they did a really nice job of getting everybody involved in each of Dable's first two years in the league. And I don't know if that's going to change just because Saquon's not there.

Yeah. I think, Oh no, I was going to say about neighbors is that the luxury I think with neighbors and by the way, you wanted to know about Flowers, he averaged over five yards after catch per reception. He had a much lower ADOT than a guy like Drake London. But the thing I like about neighbors is by the time he's selected in our drafts,

almost all of the really exciting players are gone at wide receiver anyway. You know, that's not the case with Flowers. You have to make a pretty significant investment in Flowers. He went Brandon Ayuk, Jalen Waddell, Zay Flowers. I bring this stat up a lot.

I think it's the same manager drafting them, and that manager has an affinity for the Ravens. All right, but I don't think he's going to go much later. Yeah, you're right. That was 35th overall. He's probably going to go around later. Yeah, you're right. I mean, that was 35th overall. He's probably going to go around later. You know, maybe late round four, I think.

Let me see what the fantasy is. No. I don't know if two rounds later is high enough. Like, that's probably where his ADP is going to be, is around round five, I would think. I don't know if I would take him there at this point. Round five is a fair guess for three receiver leagues. I think round six and two receiver leagues. Oh my God. Let me tell

you what ADP on Fantasy Pros is right now. It looks pretty normal. McCaffrey, Lamb, Hill, Chase, Jefferson, Bijon, St. Brown, etc. Zay Flowers is wide receiver 26th. He's going 42nd overall after Tank Dell,

but right around Keenan Allen, T. Higgins. Malik Neighbors, this blows up everything I just said. On fantasy, I don't know what this ADP is right now. There's nothing reliable at this point. He's wide receiver 19. That's got to be rookie-only drafts. I don't know. I mean, because they've got a rookie's tab.

I'm on overall. It's also, it could be startup dynasty leagues too. It could be. But what I was going to say is like, look at the guys who are on the board when Malik Neighbors gets selected, and it's guys like Deontay Johnson. He went ahead of George Pickens in our latest draft.

I wouldn't do that. But I, you know, Amari Cooper, Chris Godwin, I think I'd probably, that's pretty close. But if the draft capital is just, hasn't been in our drafts that high for neighbors, which is why I've been pretty interested there. Well, I think two points on neighbors. I think first off, your roster build might determine how early you want to take him. Because if you have two established, you know, if you go receiver receiver or two receivers in your first three picks and you're looking for a home run,

as opposed to what could be a good season for Chris Godwin or Deontay Johnson, but we know their situations aren't necessarily the most ideal. And like, you know, to use your phrase, you know, the exciting receivers are off the board. They're kind of not very exciting at this point, you know, it could be, but just don't feel that way. Then neighbors has the chance to, you know, hopefully do well, you know, the exciting receivers are off the board. They're kind of not very exciting at this point, you know, it could be, but just don't feel that way. Um, then neighbors has the chance to, you know, hopefully do well, you know, and, and Dave, you, you keep referencing the giants receivers or how they operated with their pass catchers last year. Brian Dable was on the staff when they

brought in Stefan Diggs and that changed Josh Allen. It completely changed how he was as a, as a statistical producer from a, from a passing standpoint. And so hopefully that's what he's looking at is this is his Stefan Dix. He's bringing in an alpha receiver, which they did not have, you know, so maybe they thought Darren Waller would be that guy, but we know that didn't happen. Um, they haven't had a guy like this, you know, so this is the type of difference maker that should hope, hopefully, um, make them throw away the uniforms, change what they do as a team and just become a better passing offense across the board. And that's, I think what neighbors has the ability to do now asking a rookie to do that is tough, especially early in the season. So you might have to be a little

bit patient for it, but if this guy doesn't, if this guy stays healthy and doesn't have a 900 plus yard season, I'd be very surprised, you know? So there there's, there's the potential here for him to be in the top 30. I don't know without the touchdowns if he's going to be a top 20 caliber type of player, but he'll be in that type of range. I think that's what you're looking for is draft him as a number three receiver, take the chance on him when you are at that stagnant point in receiver drafts or three receiver leagues. I just think you're banking on upside and he has plenty of it I think I was making a point about

Flowers and then I got distracted by my own by looking at ADP yeah not a lot of I think there's like 7 wide receivers bottom 12 bottom 5 in pass attempts

it's very hard to finish top 12 in PPR when you're bottom 5 in pass attempts. It's very hard to finish top 12 in PPR when you're bottom five in pass attempts. Over the last 11 seasons, there have been five wide receivers who have finished top 12 in PPR or half PPR on an offense that was bottom five in pass attempts. Baltimore has been bottom five in pass attempts in four of the last five seasons.

Two wide receivers did it last year though. DJ Moore and Brandon Iuke. Iuke was barely there. So it can happen, but you just don't get a lot of catches. It's just, it's just math. Does that mean you're not drafting flowers to be top 12,

but it kind of tells you about his upside. Well, I think also for, from his standpoint, you know, if their run game is as successful as it can be, because last year was very hit or miss. I know there was some great moments for Gus Edwards,

and he scored a lot of touchdowns, and obviously the threat of Lamar Jackson. But now you're asking this guy in year two to take a step forward, and I think he will. A lot of his production clearly came at the end of the season when Mark Andrews was out with the ankle injury. But there's not going to be a lot of double teams. There's not going to be a lot of coverage rolled his direction. They're going to see a lot of double teams. There's not going to be a lot of coverage rolled his direction.

They're going to see a lot of eight, nine-man boxes because of Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson. So, you know, this is the evolution of this offense, you know, from year one to year two under Dirk Kutter. And you hope to see, you know, that sort of maturation process for everybody. And I think that'll be the case. Okay, we're going to take a break,

come back and talk about the toughest rankings decisions for Jamie. We also have that'll be the case. Okay. We're going to take a break, come back and talk about the toughest rankings decisions for Jamie. We also have some emails to get to. And I'm not sure, Dave, did you ever mention where you have Jonathan Brooks ranked?

Did you say that? He's a number two running back. I think he's a 24th for you. He's 22nd for Jamie, 24th for Dave, 26 for Heath. So consensus. Just to go back to Brooks

because it's kind of similar to what you were saying about the receivers. You know, it gets to that point in the running backs where it's like, okay, where's the upside line here? You know, so DeAndre Swift in a crowded backfield and James Connor with now with competition, Najee Harris, we know what that's kind of been, you know? So, you know, for me, it gets to the point of, can I draft him and be patient? And so I feel like the times when I'm going to draft Jonathan Brooks, I'm probably going to look for another running back very close to it.

You know, so Ramondre Stevenson, Swift, Connor, you know, these type of guys. You know, maybe a little bit sooner on, you know, some guys that we'll talk about, you know, with Tajay Spears and Jalen Warren, you know, those type of guys that are second running backs on their respective rosters but can still get a lot of work, you know, just to get me through the beginning part of the season. And then when this guy is back to hopefully what he can be, if he's not there already, you know, but I don't want to put those types of expectations on him, but there's just a lot of guys you can sort of, you know, backfill that RB two with, you know, Aaron Jones, Javante

Williams, you know, those types of guys that, you know, if they're still on the board, they'll get you through the first few weeks of the season. and then hopefully Brooks becomes what he can be. We'll take a break. We've got rookie quarterbacks versus veterans and more. Oh, yeah, I like the, when's the right time for Tajay Spears, Jalen Warren, and Chase Brown. I like that one a lot.

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You got to watch on YouTube, folks. YouTube.com slash fantasy football today, Caleb Williams and Jaden Daniels versus Brock Purdy and to a tongue of Iloa. Jamie tough call for you. You know, every time I look at my rankings, I go back to the, what did we learn episode following the 2023,

following the 2022 campaign going into 2023. And I keep thinking about Trey Lance and what, how the excitement I had over Lance and what I thought he was going to do. And, you know, rookie quarterback coming into, or maybe it was second year at that point, but, um, in any event, his, his upside in this offense and what he had in front of him and he flopped. And then I think about CJ Stroud and what he was able to accomplish last year and can another rookie or two do that. And we know that's just hard to accomplish. And so I'm still falling for the shiny new toy again, but I think the thing that, and I said this prior to the NFL or following

the NFL draft, you know, when I did my, my initial rankings on this, that there's so many safe quarterbacks that you can fall back to once you draft one of these guys, you know? And so you had that one draft Adam, where you took Caleb Williams early and I said, Oh, it would be fun if you took Jaden Daniels also. And you didn't, you took Brock Purdy. And that's the perfect combination because if Williams fails, you know what you're getting in Purdy. He should get you around 20 fantasy points per game. Again, is he going to have a lot of games where it's, you know, 26, 27, 28, he'll have a few. Um, and I think it was either Dan or RJ in our chat, in our super flex draft yesterday that said,

I think it was Dan that he's pretty as underrated with the, despite the fact that he kept his receivers and added a first round rookie, you know? So it's like, he's done nothing to take a step backward. And then you look at two, who's coming off a season where he just led the NFL and passing yards and also got another weapon in Odell Beckham. So those two guys are very safe, but I just feel like if Williams with the weapons that he has, he hits, he could be special. He

could have a CJ Stroud type rookie season, Jayden Daniels with what he should be able to do as a rusher. You know, um, again, you could say the, the, the pitfall could be Anthony Richardson of when he's on the field, he'll be great, but there's the risk of him getting injured because of how he plays his style of play. And he might be behind a terrible offensive line, but I like the setup for both of those guys. And so I'm going to be aggressive with how I rank them. I'm going to be aggressive with how I draft them, but I'm also going to be aggressive with how quickly I take a number two quarterback. And I think depending on how most drafts will go, we saw it in the super flex draft yesterday. I'm sure if you look at the half PPR and full PPR, it's probably relatively similar that a combination of one of

those two rookies in Purdy or Tua or Herbert or Lawrence or Stafford or Goff, there's just a very solid group of number two quarterbacks that should be there for you that if you want to take a chance on the upside, you'll still have a safe floor at that position as well. And you should be okay. Your thoughts, Dave? I agree for the most part. The difference being that I feel like Brock Purdy is pretty close to a sure thing to count on at least 20 to 23 fantasy points per game, almost regardless of who the 49ers play. He's consistently done something similar to that since he's come into the league. And when things are right around Tua, his receivers are healthy,

offensive line's protecting him, he puts up numbers that could be even better than Purdy. First eight games last year, it was almost 24 fantasy points per game for Tua Tungavailoa because of the receivers he's throwing to, because of the offense that he's in. I wonder if Kirk Cousins makes his way into that group of the older receivers that can consistently hit that 20 to 22 fantasy point per game mark. And I almost feel better going with the veterans versus the

unknowns in the case of Caleb and Jane Daniels. And I do have Daniels ranked ahead of Caleb at this point. If you, if you want to go after one of the younger quarterbacks, you do have to get them first because they're going to be more popular, but I don't, a, I don't hate the idea of waiting for one of these older quarterbacks and

just putting them on your team with a late pick. And I don't hate the idea of getting two of them in case one of them stinks. You've got the other one who's good to go. And then you don't have to worry about, well, can the rookie acclimate into the league? Will the offense be good enough or let the quarterback throw enough or run enough in the case of both these guys, actually, but more so Daniels to put up 22 plus fantasy points per game. I think I'm going to lean toward the veterans a little bit more than these

rookies. And I don't think really there's a wrong answer here. You know, it's just a matter of, you just got to make sure you're covered. That's the biggest thing is you got to make sure if you take one of these young quarterbacks, you're very quickly going to come back around and take a second one.

By the way, can, can we give Thomas a round of applause? They're having a fun conversation in the chat about top five mafia movies. And he pretty much nailed it. The Departed, Casino, Goodfellas, Scarface, Donnie Brasco, and Honorable Mention of Broxdale.

Like that's- But wait, he doesn't even have The Godfather on there. It's like, not only is it the best mob movie, it might be the best movie of all time. You're telling me he nailed it? God, are you lowering the floor here? Yeah, those five are pretty good, though. Okay, The Godfather needs to be

in the top five mafia movies. Come on. Sure. It's my top five, not yours. It sounded like you were doing a mafia voice. No, I had a frog in my throat. Look, it's a good list, but that could be two through six.

You know, the fact that Tua led, I was just looking because you said Tua led the NFL in passing last year. And I was like, God, and he finishes QB 17 per game. Did you know, I didn't know this until five minutes ago, or I don't know, two minutes ago, when he threw for last year, when Tua threw for last year, would not have even been top three, 4,624 yards, would not have even been top three in any of the previous five seasons. And three of those seasons were 16-game seasons. So it was a pathetic year for passing yards, basically.

But he did lead the NFL in passing. Yeah, and that's, you know, like Dave said, he got off to such a great start. It feels like that's kind of be the, until they overcome that, you know, when the weather changes and they have to go on the road

and play in some tough environments, that's what we see them, we saw them struggle a little bit last year. He doesn't run. And I think that kills him. And the red zone production is kind of tough too. Yep. Well,

and I just feel like a lot of the league is going to start playing cover two exclusively and just dare teams to throw 11 plus yards downfield. And that means a lot of dink and dunk means a lot of lower yards after catch per reception numbers unless a receiver can break free of coverage. But that's what it helps to have, though. I think that that's kind of the thing that's been going on, along with more running

that comes with the territory of defenses dictating, all right, we're taking away the pass. What are you going to do? They're going to run the ball. Miami has no problem doing that. I think I said Tua was 17th per game. He was 17th in four-point. He was 15th in six-point.

All right, next up is those running backs that I mentioned, Tajay Spears, Jalen Warren, and Chase Brown, when to rank them, how to rank them. And my first question was, does Chase Brown, Jamie, belong in that group with Spears and Warren? He does for me. And it's really the setup is, is the number two guy the better option? Is he the better player, better fantasy option?

By the time the season's over, maybe midpoint of the season. I mean, look, we saw the beginning of the year in Pittsburgh, Jalen Warren was outscoring Najee Harris. The Titans running back coach came out this week and said that they have two guys that they can mix and match and do everything in Pollard and Spears. And the situation in Cincinnati, look, Zach Moss was great in a four to five game sample size last year for the Colts. We know he struggled to be a lead guy in Buffalo and had a hard time staying healthy.

And so could chase Brown be the better option in Cincinnati? And so I tend to, um, in a lot of cases with all three of these, all three of these teams sort of look more for the second guy, as opposed to the first guy. And that's kind of been the way that I've been drafting mostly because I tend to take a hero RB approach. I'll take the first running back on my fantasy team in the first two rounds, first three rounds, and then I'll wait on the position and then try and backfill RB2 or my bench with two of these guys, two of these caliber players in this range. And so you can throw Trey Benson in this if you want to, based on his situation. You can throw Jerome Ford, Rico Dowdle. There, you know, ways you can go with this sort of

topic. But these three guys feel like they've either shown something so far in the NFL or playing behind someone who's not necessarily entrenched or fully entrenched as the starter in their respective team. And so this is what I struggle with is how soon to draft them and how high to rank them by comparison to guys like Devin Singletary or Gus Edwards or guys that are looking like starters on their team, but maybe not have, again, strong enough foothold to hold on to that role or be successful enough to produce those guys if they get the opportunity to be the starter.

Okay. I'm going to give you guys the, these three situations. You tell me what's better ADP. Now this is not ADP. This is one draft, but last week Pollard went in round seven. Spears went in round eight. Spears.

Um, in this case, I probably would take Pollard. It's close enough. I think, I still think Pollard has more upside. Najee Harris, round seven. Jalen Warren, round nine.

Warren. Harris. Zach Moss, round eight. Chase Brown, round nine. See, same thing, Moss. I agree, Moss. What's the best value of these six running backs? Pollard, round seven.

Najee, round seven. Spears, round eight. Moss, round eight. Warren and Brown, Chase Brown, round nine. Warren. It's either Moss or Spears. I'll take Moss, but it's close. Okay.

I'm sorry. We're running a little long here, but it's close. Okay. I'm sorry. We're running a little long here, but let me ask you this. There really hasn't been an indication that I've seen, maybe I'm wrong, that Pollard is actually ahead of Spears on the Tennessee depth chart. Everything is like, well, they can do the same things. They're even. Do you guys feel that? Why are we treating Pollard as if he's ahead?

I'll tell you why I've got Pollard ahead ahead it's because he's a little bit more experienced and he's done more work on rushing downs over his career than tige steveers did in his one season so just a little bit more of a proven known commodity but it's starting to sound like the titans view them and honestly we started to feel this way as soon as Pollard went there. Interchangeable could be an ambiguous duo where you don't, they could rotate series. Who knows who's going to work near the goal line? Who knows if Spears is going to completely retain the third down roll that he had last year? It's a new coaching staff. It's a, it's a new day.

Yes, it is for these Tennessee Titans running backs. And so if you're able, if they're going to work 50-50 and they're both going to play close to an equal amount of rushing downs, passing downs, whoever's in the game, etc., then you want the one that you're going to be able to get later on draft day. And I think that's going to end up being Spears, but it's probably a lot closer. It's probably what it went in our last draft,

where Pollard is a round ahead of Spears. And by the time we get to the season, I wouldn't be draft where Pollard is around ahead of Spears. And by the time we get to the season, I wouldn't be surprised if Spears is going ahead of Pollard because a lot of fantasy managers have been burned by Pollard. They don't want to draft them again. They'll take their chances with Spears. So if the, if the drumbeat is, is good for both of them and it's been equal. And every time a coach speaks about one, he talks about the other. Yeah. You're going to want to have the guy that's getting drafted later and maybe has a little bit more upside and a little bit more excitement about them. Fairly big contract. Three years, 20, somewhere between $21.5 and $24 million for contract for, for contract for Pollard, about a 10 or 11 million guaranteed. I think I'm seeing some conflicting details.

I think he's going to get the first opportunity to prove he can be the lead guy. Not that Spears isn't going to play. But I think Pollard will get the first chance. And if he does well, he'll play 60% of the snaps, like 65%. I mean, he'll be the lead guy. All right, last one, Jamie, is Christian Kirk versus DK Metcalf and Tank Dell. What's the tough decision here for you? Well, I love the setup for Christian Kirk.

And you look at what he did two years ago when he was essentially the go-to option for Trevor Lawrence in the receiving core. And I feel like that's going to be the case again. While Brian Thomas has an opportunity to come in and play in a very prominent role and gabe davis was brought in you know there's there's over 200 targets vacated with uh calvin ridley and zay jones gone it's still christian kirk i think you get back to what he did in his first year with with jacksonville and so by comparison you know you look at medcalf who as we spent time talking about yesterday, has kind of underwhelmed. And do you trust his quarterback in Geno Smith based on what we saw from him last year? More of a role coming or hopefully a bigger role coming for Jackson Smith and the Jigba.

And Tyler Locke is still there. And Tankdale obviously getting a lot of competition, but there's still a lot of upside there as well in Houston. For me, Kirk is ranked ahead of those guys, but I can certainly see the, the, the downside. If Trevor Lawrence struggles once again, and Thomas comes in and plays at a high level, Evan Ingram continues to be a hundred catch guy run game gets going a little bit more, you know? So, you know, it was that, you know, kind of a one season fluke for Kirk, but the setup just, you know, the runway is wide open for him. And I just, for me, he's going to be somebody that I target in, in almost every draft. Um. If I can get him as a third receiver, I love it.

I'll take him as a number two guy. But he's my favorite of this trio, but I still struggle with the upside of the other two guys, especially from a touchdown standpoint. You know, that's where Metcalf and Tank Dell can be better than. Okay. In 2022, before Calvin Ridley, Christian Kirk was the number 12 wide receiver overall in fantasy.

He was number 20 per game in full ppr very similar in non-ppr as well with 1100 yards and eight touchdowns in 17 games 133 targets i might go over what do you think 133 targets in 17 games for kirk i'll go under slightly, but he'll be somewhere between 120 and 135. As long as he stays healthy, he'll be the top target getter in Jacksonville. Let's read a few emails. I don't know if he's got like a lot of explosive plays and Jamie talked about the touchdowns. Like he's, he's way behind DK in that type of element. What did he score two years ago?

Per game? On per game or touchdowns? Oh, shoot. Give me one moment. Christian Kirk scored eight touchdowns. Yeah, it's pretty good. That's better than DK, actually. But that was one year.

DK's a bit over in the same type of red zone, and they still have options there beyond Christian Kirk for passing touchdowns. He's just going to be the primary receiver in the middle of the field, and I don't know how often he'll work downfield. That's what Tank Dell's going to do. Dell's going to be way more boom or bust from week to week.

Kirk will be consistent. I've started to research Seattle's offense. I'm writing up the outlooks for our magazine. I think they're going to throw a decent amount, and I think that DK Metcalf could see as many, if not more targets than he's seen in the past. I think Metcalf might be a little bit of an overrated touchdown score. He's had two really good years,

but at least he's not going to give you like five. That's not going to happen with him. He's got the potential for 10. For all those ends of targets. I'm a little surprised that Kirk had eight that year. Yeah. Okay. Let's read some emails. A couple here. Fantasyfootball at CBSI.com. I usually read

the non-keeper ones. Just so you know. Doug from a city north of Chicago. Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Oh, this may be a lengthy but important email. I'm going to try to shave it down here. He basically goes on to talk about his quarterback strategies, and then he says, In my 30-year fantasy football career, when I've won championships,

I've had an elite quarterback. I had Steve Young when he was a thing brett farve dante cole pepper peyton manning drew breeze and most recently tom brady when he was with tampa bay and i drafted him later um so with that in mind last year i drafted mahomes he had a down year but still got me to the championship game um i didn't have to draft another quarterback and my team had more depth you guys could say well you could have drafted prescott and probably won the championship championship game. I didn't have to draft another quarterback and my team had more depth. You guys could say, well, you could have drafted Prescott and probably won the championship, but I also might've drafted Justin Herbert or Trevor Lawrence. Is there a statistic that shows which quarterbacks are the most consistent using 20 points as a barometer? I think that should matter. And also

he's basically just saying like, don't wait on quarterback. Get a stud quarterback. Dave, you talk a lot about consistency. Do you have any thoughts on that? I've got the consistency. It's not for 20 points. It's for 22 points per game. Patrick Mahomes was 19th among quarterbacks last year as far as getting 22 or more fantasy points per game.

You're taking the total number of games that he had it, divide it by the number of games that he had it divided by the number of games that he played. And he got off to a great start. Everybody remembers that. And then he kind of fell apart as, as the season went on. And then he resurged as the playoffs happened and,

you know, you could kind of correlate Kelsey's, you know, tumble from grace and then resurges in the playoffs to Patrick Mahomes. I don't mind it. The, the, the sweet spot is to get the quarterback who can be consistent without

spending a priority pick. And obviously everybody wants to do that with every player. Everybody wants to get the player that they're drafting at their floor and then they hit their ceiling. Everybody wants Dak Prescott from last year. It's easier said than done. Trying to figure out who those guys are is part of what we do from season to season. And a lot of the times the quarterbacks fizzle out, but a lot of the times the quarterback ends up being

very good and very helpful. I'm glad he said, take the quarterback early because I think the one thing that matters here, and he's got 30 years of experience doing this, you know, I don't think we're that far off. Unfortunately, we're that old. Um, that when you have a strategy that works for you, you stick with it, you know? So if, if taking a quarterback early has worked for him, he knows how to build his rosters. You know, he knows that, okay, if I take quarterback here, I know what I have to do, you know? And, and that's a big part of this, you know, it's, I would assume, there's a lot of playing in the same league

year over year with the same people year over year, so you know how they're going to draft. That's part of it also. That is. I'm curious as well, with Steve Young and Brett Favre and those guys, was he drafting those guys early also? Was there value there? Was it their first year?

Like when we got Mahomes' first big season, we got Lamar Jackson's first big season. You know, that's part of it also. So there's lots of different ways to go about this. But for me, the big takeaway from the email would be if you have something that works for you, stick with it. You know, and you just have to understand, like, this is how I'm going to play.

And if it works out, it's worked out in the past, I'll take my chances to do it again. I like that too. As far as picking a quarterback, could it be as simple as getting what feels like a value of an established quarterback? Because you ran down the list of names of quarterbacks that this emailer has won with. A lot of the times, it's established guys, guys that, you know, okay, I might be getting them a little bit late and he might be a little bit older, but the dude's a proven winner. You know, if you go and you bet on horses to use a cultural term,

that's very popular these days, you'll, you'd, you'd bet on a proven winner being the jockey or the horse one or the other, but it's to put your money down on someone who hasn't gotten it done before. So maybe you'll gravitate toward... Purdy maybe is good enough now that he's had a season and a half, but Aaron Rodgers could be somebody who's gotten it done before. And then you'll take him. Stafford has gotten it done before. Well, I think more so, I don't think he's taking those guys

based on how he's drafting, but I think based on, again, playing in the leagues, the same league or leagues year after year, he probably also knows, I'm taking Mahomes, Allen's coming right after that, Hurts is coming right, you know, you may start the run.

And so then it pushes up the value or the talent pool a little bit different or changes the talent pool a little bit. But is it the right thing to do? It might be the right thing to do for him because he's won that way, but I don't know if everybody can say that they've won that way. Sure. I mean, look again, you stick with what works for you.

That's something I think that matters. I do like his point about when you draft Mahomes, you have an extra roster spot to spend on running back or receiver or whatever it is. Because you're not getting a second quarterback. All right. I was going to talk about that earlier. How many quarterbacks,

but you could do that with draft without having to worry about picking up a J. Daniels or a Stroud at this point, you could do that with, uh, there might only be like six or seven, right? Like of the guys that are early,

like I love Anthony Richardson. I'm going to want a second quarterback. Right. But even Burrow, you need to take a second quarterback with him. You think so? Based on his track record, yes. All right, this is from Sean.

Who would you rather have in a dynasty league, startup dynasty, Romo Dunze or Puka Nakua? It's a good question. I'm going to lean Nakua. Yeah, he's basically saying Stafford's about to retire right rome's got caleb williams you know it's an interesting take there but you got a drop low now you got yeah well you gotta take the guy who just had the best rookie season ever right for a receiver i i was actually thinking about this i'll bring it up because I know not everybody listens to an hour and five minutes of the show.

I'll bring it up, you know, next time or at some point when we talk about Puka. If you draft Puka Nakua in the first round, you more or less, I think, have to buy into the premise that Puka Nakua is one of the greatest NFL draft picks of all time. Right?

I mean... Can we not crown him yet? He's played one season. NFL draft picks of all time. Right? I mean. It has the potential to be. Can we not crown him yet? He's played one season. But what I'm saying is if you're drafting him in the first round, you're kind of crowning him. You're expecting him to back it up. And for him to do this as a day three pick is unbelievable.

You know, who's the next Puka Nakoa? There probably isn't one. That's the answer. What he did was exceptional. That's all I'm saying. He could go down as one of the best wide receiver draft picks of all time. Yes, he could.

What was Jerry Rice? We just had a roast of the best. I think Rice was round three. Rashi Rice? Jerry. had a roast of the best. I think Rice was round three. Rashi Rice? Jerry. Oh, he was the first round pick. Was he? What the hell do I know?

Why did I think he was kind of a later pick? Yeah, I thought so too. I was one. Well, I mean, Brady was 199. 16th overall. Terrell Davis? When was Terrell Davis? Terrell Davis was a six-round pick.

Wow. Okay, that's definitely one of the best ever. I just know because when I covered the Dolphins, Zach Thomas. Terrell Davis' six-round pick had 1,117 yards and seven touchdowns as a rookie. Oh, man. That might be, I don't know, that might be the best wide receiver draft pick ever. Okay. Thanks.

Every one was Antonio Brown. You said Terrell Owens. I said Terrell Davis. Oh, yep. Okay. I was, I,

I put Terrell Davis in and for some reason I was thinking Terrell Owens because we were talking about receivers. Terrell Owens is certainly in that conversation. Well, Davis was a six round pick. Yeah. Terrell Owens, Antonio Brown.

Terrell Owens was a third-round pick, 89th overall. Antonio Brown. Round five, I believe. Central Michigan. Sixth round. There it is. But he only had 167 yards. He sucks.

All right, we'll talk to you all later. On Monday. Have a great weekend, everybody. See you later. Hope you feel better, buddy. You do not.