Fantasy Football Today - Twelve Weird Stats from 2022! (02/23 Fantasy Football Podcast)
Episode Date: February 22, 2023Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts. It's a weird Wednesday episode ...of Fantasy Football Today as we look at some odd stats that could be helpful going into 2023. First, a look at the news and notes (2:15) on Ezekiel Elliott, Brock Purdy, Alvin Kamara and a few others ... We've got potentially revealing stats (7:35) on Justin Fields, Ja'Marr Chase and Jamaal Williams. How much did Williams hold back D'Andre Swift and Jared Goff? Then we'll discuss (22:15) DK Metcalf's end zone targets, a great finish by Cam Akers and why it might be hard to buy into a running back on the Bills or Chiefs ... Weird stats (36:50) on the Broncos wide receivers, Diontae Johnson and Amari Cooper. Do we have major bounce back potential? Then we finish with more weirdness (46:00) as we discuss D.J. Moore, Javonte Williams and the Cowboys backfield ... Email us at fantasyfootball@cbsi.com 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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This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports.
What a play!
Can you believe this?
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.
Let's get crazy today on Fantasy Football today. What's up, everybody? Welcome
to a Wednesday edition of FFT. It's Adam, Dave, and Heath, and we've got 12 crazy stats from 2022.
Stats on Justin Fields, Jamar Chase, Jamal Williams, DK Metcalf, Cam Akers, the Chiefs
and Bills running backs, Deontay Johnson, Amari Cooper. Amari Cooper was like a million times better with Jacoby Brissett
than he was with Deshaun Watson.
That's pretty crazy.
Are you guys feeling crazy today?
Are these crazy stats or are they weird stats?
And is there a difference between the two?
I guess that's what we're going to have to answer
throughout the next few minutes.
That's a good question.
I think they are weird.
All right. the next few minutes. That's a good question. I think they are weird.
All right.
Hey, are you guys ready for a weird Wednesday episode
of Fantasy Football today, weirdos?
Let's make it weird.
All right.
There we go.
Heath, you have a personal situation
that might pull you from the podcast today.
Nothing serious.
My washing machine that they emailed me
and told me would catch fire if I used it again.
I fixed that part, and now it doesn't turn on.
So I think that was the fix to it not catching fire was if it doesn't turn on, it can't catch fire.
So now I'm waiting for someone to come help me turn it on.
All right, so Heath has to leave.
You guys are your appliances.
I know, I know.
I just went through this washer-dryer saga, too, and now I have a terrible one.
So if Heath has to leave at any point during the show, you know why.
All right, let's get right to the stats after some quick news and notes.
We'll spend almost all the show on our 12 stats, and we'll sing them like the 12 days of Christmas.
But we also have other podcasts for you to listen to.
With the first pick is our brand-new NFL Draft podcast.
We've got MMA.
We've got soccer podcasts.
We've got college basketball.
You should be listening to Ion College Basketball right now.
You're welcome for the betting advice last night
if you follow me on Twitter.
And yeah, check them out at cbssports.com slash podcasts.
News and notes, Evan Ingram wants to return to the Jaguars.
He says that he thinks it's mutual.
Brock Purdy's elbow surgery is being delayed.
He still has swelling in his elbow,
so they haven't been able to do it yet,
hopefully in March.
Dave, if you had to guess right now,
who's quarterback week one for the 49ers?
Trey Lance.
Oh, yeah.
That seems almost certain,
unless Lance can't get healthy.
Okay.
This is, I don't know if anybody's seen it yet.
I just saw it before we went on the show.
Videos of,
a video of Alvin Kamara,
you know,
hitting a man
and then his very brave friends
stomping on the man after that.
You got a real big guy
to kick someone,
stomp on them
when they're down on the ground.
It's pretty disgusting.
Anyway,
the video has been released
or, you know,
leaked or whatever,
but the video's out there. You can see what been released there you know leaked or whatever but the video is out there
you can see what happens um and you know we'll be awaiting a ruling there from the nfl from roger
goodell on any type of suspension uh bob stern of the athletic wrote about the cowboys and he said
it's pretty clear based on who he has spoken to that the general consensus is that Ezekiel Elliott doesn't really have much left.
And he writes that his best chance, maybe his only chance, I'm just paraphrasing here, of having a non-minimum contract is with the Cowboys.
So he also talks about Tony Pollard and bringing up the possibility that Tony Pollard's not healthy until midseason, which we haven't really been approaching it that way.
He broke his leg.
But anyway, Heath, oh, you weren't on the show yesterday.
Dave, you weren't.
Give me your thoughts.
I wasn't on the show yesterday.
What's that?
I was on the show yesterday.
Yeah, you were.
Dave wasn't.
You already talked about Zeke.
I just want to get Dave's perspective.
Dave, give me your thoughts on the Cowboys' backfield.
I'm hoping that Tony Pollard's the lead back,
and he had a fracture,
so that should take eight weeks to heal,
not six months.
So that's a concerning report.
Let's see what happens there.
And if I'm Dallas, I got to tell you,
I see all the other running backs that are going to be in free agency.
And then I see all the running backs that are going to be available in the
draft. And I think to myself,
why would I even want Ezekiel back at the minimum?
If they, if they really wanted to go with a two man approach,
why not just find a younger,
healthier running back and feed Zig to the wolves? If you can, and feed Zeke to the wolves.
If he can, I don't know what the cap situation's like.
Yeah, that's the whole thing that's so confusing to me about this discussion
of the only chance he has of making more than the minimum.
Like, he's guaranteed a ton of money.
He is going to make, I believe, seven figures this year,
whether he plays football or not.
I think that would be the reason that the Cowboys would keep him.
I show his dead cap number at his $11.8 million.
That's right.
That's if he's cut before June 1st.
If they cut him after June 1st, it's half that because they can spread that
out over two years instead of one.
I appreciate you making that last distinction because people often say,
well, yeah, they'd have to wait until after June 1st,
and then it's only half that. Well, no, no it's not you're just mortgaging the future
like you're going to have to pay the money um so right now the cowboys are paying zeke
basically 4.9 million dollars to be their running back or like so i don't think they'll probably pay him that much right okay um all right so that's the
cowboys backfield and we will you know follow that one uh derrick carr's free agency process
could be a long one according to his brother david carr i hope not i would like for him to
just get it out of the way it'd be nice but we'll get a nice little bonus pot up there but take your
time derrick carr let's get into the stats.
Yeah, I think you're right.
I think these are weird stats.
12 weird stats.
You ever read the book Wacky Wednesday to your kids?
No.
It's a good one.
It's a Dr. Seuss.
It's a fun one.
It's kind of like a Where's Waldo for little kids, but littler kids.
Anyway, what's the weird stat you're most
excited about talking about today?
Weird stat
are you looking forward to discussing the most?
For me, it's DK Metcalf
and the one that we've got on DK Metcalf
and his
end zone targets.
I don't like weird or crazy
because neither of those things are helpful.
These are illuminating stats.
Okay.
These are maybe surprising stats that you may have overlooked from last year that will help you in 2023.
These are stats that help you to understand what happened last year.
We're not just throwing them out there because they're wacky and crazy and fun.
We're getting better at fantasy football today by going through these stats.
I'll do the intro again.
Ready?
Surprise!
It's 12 surprising stats for fantasy football.
I believe Heath used the term illuminating.
I don't think I can do illuminating.
I don't think anybody...
It's not going to be good for SEO.
No, exactly.
Who says illuminating these days?
I think there's a lot of people
searching for the Illuminati these days,
so maybe they'll just leave the NG off and we'll get all those people.
Perfect. All right, let's start with number one.
This is a stat from Heath.
Justin Fields averaged more yards per pass attempt than Trevor Lawrence, Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers, Daniel Jones, Justin Herbert, Tom Brady, Kyler Murray, and more.
Justin Fields averaged more yards per pass attempt than those guys.
He was 15th in yards per attempt at 7.1.
Yeah, it might be a little surprising to people.
It might be a little weird or illuminating.
What do you make of that stat, Heath?
Well, I think it's important to put these stats in context.
Like, people are not—yards per attempt stats for quarterbacks, running backs,
wide receivers are not just created in stats for quarterbacks, running backs, wide
receivers are not just created in a vacuum for that specific player. So you've got to give some
of the credit for that surprisingly good yards per attempt to his spectacular set of wide receivers
that he was throwing to last year. No, I think there is a narrative from some people around
Justin Fields that he can't throw. He's awesome as a rusher.
And that's not true.
Now, he was not a good passer last year,
or definitely not a great passer last year,
but to average basically league average, league median, in terms of yards per attempt, with the weapons that he had,
like there were two players on his team who had more than 40 catches.
The rest of the guys, and then those were Mooney and Kmet.
Then you had Dante Pettis, Equinemius St. Brown,
the shell of Chase Claypool, Byron Pringle,
Valus Jones, Nikhil Harry.
Like, it's really impressive.
He could absolutely, if he gets a number one wide receiver make the type of jump that we've seen from all of these other star quarterbacks who
are inefficient or average efficiency in their first couple of years the same thing we saw from
Lamar Jackson the same thing we saw from Josh Allen the same thing we saw last year from Jalen Hurts. Are we sure that yards per attempt is a good stat?
Nope.
It's a very simple stat.
It is the number of yards you average per attempt.
Okay.
And Justin Fields was at 7.1.
Marcus Mariota was at 7.4.
Andy Dalton was at 7.6.
Mahomes and Hurts were second and third, respectively, 8.1 and 8.0.
Can anybody guess who was number one in yards per attempt?
The most efficient quarterback in the NFL last year, too.
Correct.
There's a lot that goes into it.
It is a simple stat, but it's also not just a,
this is how good of a passer you are stat, which you're not saying, Heath.
No, team context and the people you're throwing to greatly impacts it.
Right.
So the other thing that I would bring up is that Justin Fields was 17th,
or tied for 15th, rather, in yards per attempt.
And he had the lowest completion rate of anybody in the top 15.
And he did not have the lowest amount of pass attempts.
Taylor Heineke, who was at 7.2 yards per attempt, had fewer pass attempts than Justin Fields.
He did have the second, third worst, my bad, EPA per drop back. I think context is really
important here. He didn't throw as much as a lot of other quarterbacks. Yes, he could take a step
forward if his receiving court does get better.
I'm a little nervous about how much better it'll be.
I'm not sure the Bears should keep Justin Fields as their quarterback,
given Bryce Young's availability in the draft.
But that's a conversation that Heath and I will probably fight over.
How could you Heath-sign about that one? How could you Heath-sign about that one?
How could you Heath-sign about that one?
No, we should just go.
It's just the exact same thing that we've said like five years in a row
about these quarterbacks.
And I don't – there's no – we can rewind to my response
when this was said about Jalen Hurts.
Yeah, look, and you know what?
Jalen – so Justin Fields was 15th in yards per attempt in 2022.
Jalen Hurts was 14th in yards per attempt in 2021.
So, yeah.
And both of those were much better than what Josh Allen was in his first two years.
Sure, sure, sure.
And there's been that comparison made that Fields could take a similar type of jump as Jalen Hurts did.
And I was one of those guys that was nervous about Jalen Hurts as a passer until like August.
And I got an up close view of him and I was like,
holy cow,
this guy's gotten better.
And it's entirely possible that Justin Fields can get better.
And one of the things that helped Jalen Hurts get better,
you've brought this up so many times,
Heath,
was AJ Brown being there.
So if the Bears make that move for DeAndre Hopkins,
maybe you'd even feel that way about Mike Evans being that guy for them.
If they do something like that, yeah, maybe.
Not maybe.
Definitely it'll help Justin Fields' numbers in Chicago.
And you're still going to get him as a rusher, too.
There's no argument out of me about Justin Fields as a fantasy running back.
I just don't want to push him up to, like, number one or number two just yet.
Let's keep him in that top six for now. No, I him up to like number one or number two just yet.
Let's keep him in that top six for now.
No, I won't make him number one or number two unless he gets the number one wide receiver.
But as four yards per attempt, it's not, there's no perfect stat.
But I also, it's not a bad stat. The top eight in career yards per attempt are all Hall of Famers, Deshaun Watson, Patrick Mahomes, and Jimmy Garoppolo.
And we know why Garoppolo, because Kyle Shanahan gets eight yards per attempt no matter Hall of Famers Deshaun Watson, Patrick Mahomes, and Jimmy Garoppolo. And we know why Garoppolo because Kyle Shanahan gets eight yards per attempt
no matter who's playing quarterback.
But it's not
a bad stat. No, no, it's
not a bad stat. And it's
a good reminder that
Justin Fields did do some good things as a passer.
And you know,
and you can definitely compare
him with nobody. And you can definitely compare him with nobody.
And you could definitely compare him to other quarterbacks who took a year or so to develop like Hurts and Allen.
And yeah, and there we go.
All right.
Stat number two.
Jamar Chase went from five touchdown catches of 50 or more yards in 21 in 2021 to only one touchdown catch of 50 or more yards in 2022.
Yet he averaged three more PPR fantasy points per game this year than he did last year.
So,
um,
you know,
if I had told you,
Hey,
had all those big plays,
it's going from five to one,
those 50 yard touchdowns from five to one,
which you've expected three more PPR fantasy points per game from Jamar
chase.
I think that's a little bit weird.
Uh,
Dave,
your reaction to that?
That is weird. But what isn't weird is that his targets per game went up by four.
And that was the one stat that I expected to go up from his rookie season.
I figured he'd get even more involved in the offense.
It would be his second season, and that's exactly what happened.
So that's why his PPR numbers went up.
I'm curious if you know what
his non-ppr numbers did because catches aren't impacted obviously if it's non-ppr i wonder if
that went up if at all well let me tell you dave please do it went from it went up half a point
how illuminating so which is not which is not insignificant by the way in non-PPR by the way
half a fantasy point is kind of a big deal
it's a trajectory that everybody expected from Jamar Chase
and I'm pretty sure everybody is going to expect him to stay at that elite tier
that's why you're taking him in round one
I think it will be really interesting to see
what that target share looks like
if T. Higgins doesn't have three games
where he plays as little.
We've talked about it from T. Higgins' perspective.
Week one, he played 26% of the snaps.
Week five, he played 16% of the snaps.
Week 13, he played 1% of the snaps.
I have the numbers.
In those three games,
Jamar Chase had 16, 15, and 12 targets.
I do have numbers.
I don't have a target share, but I can tell you
the eight games that he played with T. Higgins
that weren't those three games, without Higgins leaving early,
he was on pace for 170 targets, so 10 per game,
as opposed to his overall pace of of 190 targets so still 10 targets per
game not as not as many as you know without t higgins but that's a pretty big difference
it is i mean i can i'm looking it up right now if you want to know what his target share was when
there was no t higgins no we we know when there was no we were when there was t higgins let's
move on guys because we have 12 stats to get to here,
so I wanted to kind of drive by some of these here.
Let's go to stat number three.
I mean, I think the bottom line is with Jamar Chase.
He's awesome, and even when you have a guy who was that good as a rookie,
even if you had lost some of the, I don't know,
if you want to call it luck or fortune, whatever, the big plays,
he's still going to put up his numbers.
Okay.
Stat number three.
Jamal Williams had 28 carries from inside the five-yard line last year.
Jamal Williams, 28 carries from inside the five-yard line.
That is the most since at least 2000.
I went back all the way to 2000.
Jamal Williams, the most carries from inside the five-yard line.
And he scored 17 rushing touchdowns.
And I just think, think gosh what if those
touchdowns and they won't score the exact same amount but Heath what if those get distributed
to the Andre Swift or to Jared Goff with some really bad luck in that regard a lot eight
completions to the one yard line only one of them was followed up by a Goff touchdown pass so
I look at all those opportunities for Williams can we just give them to someone else, please? Well, it's interesting because I would not say that either Swift or Goff had a low touchdown
rate. In fact, I know Goff was well above league average in terms of touchdown rate last year.
So they just had a lot of touchdowns. Whether they repeat that or not this year, I'm not really sure. 52 combined passing
and rushing touchdowns. I expect there's going to be someone who takes Jamal Williams' role,
or maybe they just bring Jamal Williams back in that same role. They won't have as many. If
there's somebody who you would say should have scored more touchdowns last year, it would be a man by St. Brown who only had six on 146 targets, but it's kind of look, he could also just be a low touchdown guy.
It would be Kalief Raymond who had 64 targets and did not reach the end zone.
Um, or maybe the, the other running backs who had 75 carries and did not reach the end zone.
But Swift and Goff's numbers were pretty either at what you'd expect
or higher than expected.
Which is great news.
Are we driving by this one, or do you want to hear some stuff?
Yeah, Dave, so let me just tell you and put it in this context.
Here are the top five teams in scoring last year.
Chiefs, Eagles, Cowboys, Bills, who played one fewer game.
Lions, fifth highest scoring team in football.
So, yeah, go ahead.
Well, that's a beautiful thing.
And I'm hoping that that continues.
I think this offense is on the right track.
They've built it the right way.
And they're getting better than expected play from Jared Goff.
And what they're doing at the goal line is kind of fun.
Heath mentioned it. Jamal Williams is a free agent. There is the chance that they don't bring him
back, but he seems to be one of those glue guys for them. He's always got this energy and the
coaches tend to love him and they've got this role for him. Maybe he takes a discount to stay there
and to hog up touchdowns. 28 carries from inside the five last year for Jamal Williams. That was more than 75% of other NFL teams.
Seattle had the fewest carries inside the five.
They only had 10.
New Orleans was next lowest with 12.
I checked on what those two teams did in 2021.
New Orleans was at 17.
Seattle had 20.
So they had their touchdowns cut in half inside the five as far as carries go.
And Detroit had the second fewest amount of carries in 2021 inside the five as far as carries go and detroit had the second fewest
amount of carries in 2021 inside the five with 14 so i think it's part of their secret sauce
if they bring back jamal williams i think you look at him as someone who could end up getting
eight nine touchdowns again just without many yards catches other things that might matter
to fantasy managers a little bit and that's why no one's going to be that excited to take Jamal Williams
as anything more than a bench running back.
Yeah, I just looked.
Swift had five touchdowns on 99 carries last year,
five touchdowns on 151 carries the year before.
Do we know how many of those touchdowns came inside the five?
Yes, I do.
His touchdowns were from seven yards, nine yards, four yards,
one yard, and 17 yards out.
So two of them came him inside the five.
I'm just saying the number five offense in football last year,
I would love for – and Jamal Williams was a bit of a fantasy killer.
Yeah, he was.
He was a fantasy killer.
Jamal Williams.
Not if you drafted him.
Yeah, what if you started Jamal Williams?
No, he was great for him, but he was bad for Swift and Goff is what I'm saying.
He was a dust buster at the goal line.
You know what?
Jamar Chase was a fantasy killer last year.
Nobody else in the Bengals could get targets because he was getting too many targets.
How many running backs are really not a big part of the offense?
He had 274 touches last year.
He had more touches than anybody else on the team.
He was not just a goal line back.
He ran for over 1,000 yards.
I'm sorry.
How many running backs...
This is not Jerome Bettis.
How many running backs are only worth starting
because of their rushing touchdowns?
Look at what he did.
He had a three-game stretch.
Jamal Williams had a three-game stretch.
I think it was weeks 15, 16, 17.
14, 15, 16.
He scored fewer than four points in all three games
because he did not score a touchdown.
He was a very, very unique running back.
The only reason we liked him more than DeAndre Swift
was because he was the goal linebacker.
He was on a per-game basis with 17 freaking touchdowns.
He was the number 19 running back per game in PPR.
Let's not make Jamal Williams out to be something
that he wasn't here. He was a fantasy
killer. No, but he was not someone who just came in at the goal line.
He had almost three times
as many carries as DeAndre Swift. He's
a big part of their offense.
Unfortunately. And it wasn't week 17 when he
scored four fantasy points because that was the fantasy
championship and he turned up
with 22 fantasy points in that
game. 144 rushing yards on 22
attempts so is the three before that three games before that yeah um all right so i don't know i
just thought like there's so much potential for deandre swift if he could just have the role
that we want him to have i mean he's so. And, you know, so many touchdown options, so many
opportunities for touchdowns that he just did not get.
Imagine DeAndre Swift with a goal line
roll.
That was what I was going for. I mean, imagine
DeAndre Swift with 15
touches a game. Yeah, that'd be nice
too. Oh, but he did that.
Didn't he?
15 touches a game? Last year?
Not last year. He only game? Not last year.
He only had 99 carries last year.
He may have had that many catches.
I don't think so.
No, he had 147 touches in 14 games.
So around 10 a game.
Yeah.
All right.
How about stat number four?
Dave, this was the one you were looking forward to talking about. DK Metcalf led the NFL with 23 end zone targets.
That was five more than Devontae Adams. And he has been, DK Metcalf has been top four 23 end zone targets. That was five more than Devontae Adams.
And he has been, DK Metcalf has been
top four in end zone targets
three straight seasons.
And in those three seasons,
he has the most end zone targets in the NFL.
You know, it's a great stat.
I do wonder what if it's not there?
You know, is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Is he too dependent on it?
What'd you make of this stat?
DK Metcalf, basically the king of end zone targets.
Well, it's better than the opposite.
You don't want to be Deontay Johnson or somebody like that
who just never gets opportunities to score.
And you struggle along and you're good for around 11 PPR points per game.
So I like that he's getting them.
I checked his targets per game over the last three seasons. They've been real close. They've been right around eight targets per game so i like that he's getting them i checked his targets per game over the last three
seasons they've been real close they've been right around eight targets per game sometimes i you know
you think back to what he did in the playoff game against san francisco and you know what his upside
is and you think to yourself if he were on a team that actually valued the forward pass would he be
a first round pick in fantasy i think the answer would be yeah,
especially if you had a good quarterback.
He doesn't have that right now.
I have to disagree with your assessment of the Seahawks
not valuing the forward pass in 2022.
They became a pass-first team,
and they threw the ball downfield pretty much as much as anyone.
Where did they rank as far as pass run?
I believe they were
league median in the total number of passes
they threw. They threw 573
attempts.
No, 593. So they were still slightly
fewer pass attempts, but also
fewer total plays. They play so slow.
Right.
I'm looking it up. They were 15th in pass attempts.
So right in the middle.
Yeah, but where were they in pass-run ratio?
Because maybe I'm off on this one.
They were 22nd in rush attempts.
They changed.
No, you're right about them before this year.
But remember we were talking about this is a pass-first team now.
This is Geno Smith's team.
He was really airing it out and throwing downfield a lot.
But I think that's the question, though, Dave.
I mean, he's had one,
and we're going to talk about DJ more later, too,
and it's kind of the same thing.
They both have had one real standout season,
Metcalf's, for fantasy purposes.
Metcalf's was better than Moore's.
It was a top-10 season.
But you look at his other three seasons,
where has he finished per game in PPR?
Ninth as a sophomore, 23rd, 22nd per game
the last two years.
So we see these flashes
and we get these reliable end zone targets that only turned into six touchdown catches last year
by the way so that's another way to spin it maybe he had bad touchdown luck for sure but you know
who is DK Mech if I just don't know if it's clear at this point
I think he's and he's been a little bit short a couple years,
so he won't have the great streak that he did.
But I think he's mostly Mike Evans.
That's an interesting comparison.
But it might be right on.
Big guy, perimeter receiver, good speed, can catch downfield passes,
and can certainly dominate in the red zone or end zone.
They were 11th in pass-run ratio last year.
59.3% of the time they threw it.
It's higher than I thought it would be.
And you thought he would have had a better season.
But, I mean, 141 targets and not even 1,100 yards?
We think it every year with him.
And there are people that continue to go into their draft saying,
all right, I'm not leaving unless I've got DK Metcalf.
And I feel like you've got to temper expectations a little bit still
just because they don't have one of the best quarterbacks in the game.
Their coach certainly does value running the football a lot,
certainly more than coaches in Buffalo or Kansas City, as an example.
And so that just, it makes me a little bit nervous
about DK ever hitting that upside in terms of catches and yards.
Ten touchdowns, I mean, I feel like he can do that
just because of the opportunities he gets.
Let me ask you this to wrap this up with DK Metcalf.
So over the last three seasons, leads the NFL in end zone targets,
been top four each of those years.
Do you expect that again?
Do you project him to be,
even though he only had six this past year,
do you project him to be a positive,
a plus in touchdowns,
something that will boost his value?
I haven't projected for eight.
I think that's safe.
So that's kind of a medium, right in the middle.
I think the question is, the first two years of his career,
and this was with prime Russell Wilson,
he was 9.5 yards per target.
The last two years, he's been 7.5 and 7.4.
Just like DJ Moore?
That's almost Deontay Johnson bad.
It's not quite that bad.
But the touchdowns are only going to make him a number two wide receiver
if he's going to be at 7 yards per target.
And that's why I don't know what to make of yards per target.
It's not like DK Metcalf is a different football player.
You know?
And he's had...
Well, it's been a different offense the last two years,
and it's been a different quarterback.
I got to check the ADOTs, too.
And, you know, Wilson wasn't very good for...
was out and was not very good for a big portion of 2021.
His ADOT went from 13 and 13.7 the first two years
to 12.7 and 11.2
yeah and that could explain it well part of it but it doesn't explain going from nine and a half
to seven and a half yeah i don't know man all right let's take a break when we come back we'll
talk about cam acres did something uh that he rarely does he did it three times in a row to
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Getting weird. Wacky Wednesday here.
Cam Akers, how about this weird stat?
Cam Akers finished the season with three straight 100-yard rushing games.
He has four of those in his career.
Five if you include the postseason.
But before those three games, he had one 100-yard game, rushing game,
and he had three in a row to end the season.
In his last six games of the year, he was a top six running back per game
in both half PPR and full PPR, and that was with barely any role
in the passing game, really.
I shouldn't say that, but not a big role in the passing game.
Heath, your thoughts on three straight 100-yard games for Cam Akers?
Well, it was the first time in his career
other than week 14 of his rookie season
where he got to play 70% of the snaps.
He had a 79% snap share in week 14 of his rookie year,
ran 29 times for 171 yards.
Most of the early part of the year,
he was in the 30% to 40% range, if that.
Played 72% in week 13.
Then in week 15, 16, 17, 18, it was 76%, 75%, 78%, and 100% of the snaps in the season finale.
You just hope that they add no one of significance
and treat him like their feature back like they did in those last month and a half of the season.
And he could absolutely be a top 12 running back.
Is it realistic to think that way?
I mean, they did it for six weeks.
It will be realistic to think that way if they don't make a significant addition.
I just, I remember how weird his 2022 was.
Remember there was a point where we thought he was going to get traded?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So he went from being in the doghouse to being in the penthouse.
Does he keep that going all offseason long?
The other thing to remember is that he had these big games against Denver,
the Chargers, and the Seahawks,
all three of which were not great against the run.
The last two definitely were terrible against the run.
Yeah.
So how is he going to do against the 49ers?
Just that's two games.
Does Arizona make a comeback?
Does that make it a little bit harder?
For now, sure.
I've come around on Cam Akers because he's looked good.
It took him a year to get there
but he looks good he looks like the guy that they drafted he was cutting back like crazy he can do
that type of thing they've got to stick with him for the entire offseason and give him 70 of the
snaps consistently i don't know if that's going to happen. That's the easiest explanation. It's just that like he suffered an injury that we've seen maybe one running
back come back from and be his old self again.
And it took a year and a half for him to get back to that.
Yeah.
Whereas other guys has been three or four years and they never did,
but Deontay Foreman finally did.
So I,
uh,
I, uh, would also wanted to point out out that you know dave a year ago or before
draft season last year you were pointing out that cam acres advanced metrics even in his rookie year
before his injury terrible they were bad uh they were pretty good in the last eight games of the
season you know so he had uh in the last eight games of the season, well, weeks 11 through 18, which was eight games for him,
he had the fifth most carries.
He had the 10th best yards per carry
out of 43 running backs with at least 50 carries.
He was ninth in yards before contact per carry.
He was ninth in avoid rate.
He was 10th in rush EPA.
He was ninth in percentage of carries for five or more yards.
So his advanced metrics were good.
All right, let's go to our next topic here.
Another running back one.
Tell me why I should think about James Cook or Isaiah Pacheco as good mid-round picks.
This is the stat.
The Bills and the Chiefs have both finished 25th or lower in running back carries in three straight seasons.
Bills and Chiefs, 25th or lower in running back carries,
three straight seasons.
The Bills are even worse than the Chiefs, by the way.
And in rushing touchdowns,
the Chiefs have been 28th, 13th, and 17th running back rushing touchdowns.
The Bills have been 25th, 15th, and 27th.
So two of our favorite offenses,
they just don't give the ball to their running backs
and they don't score a ton of rushing touchdowns
with their running backs.
So yeah, I mean, Dave, you had a good stat about James Cook
and how well he finished, but the overall picture is not good
for either of those teams for running backs.
No, and it makes sense in the case of Buffalo for sure,
just because they've got a quarterback who runs as much as he does,
and the offense just tends to lean heavily on him and his arm.
It would take James Cook having just a monstrous offseason
and really proving to the coaching staff that he can take advantage
of when teams play with too high safeties,
that he should be the one who gets the ball instead of Josh Allen.
I think that that's a tall order.
It's the exact same thing in Kansas City,
except Mahomes doesn't run as much or as effectively as Josh Allen does.
And if Andy Reid and company settle on, all right, Pachaco's just our, he's going to be
our running downs back.
And maybe even he starts to get some work on some third downs because he can catch the
ball and break through some tackles.
That's what you're kind of hoping for.
You're hoping that he could end up taking over a sizable portion of that run game.
We haven't seen it long-term in Kansas City
since Kareem Hunt was there.
But we've seen spurts of it.
We've seen spurts of it with Damian Williams
when he was there.
We've seen it with Darrell Williams
when Clyde Edwards-Hilaire was hurt.
That's what I think you have to hope for with Pacheco.
And it's just all the more reason why he's a fade
from the top 50 picks in your drafts next year
because there's a pretty decent chance
and a huge track record, which you're pointing out,
that he could end up floundering
and not being worth a pick at 55 overall.
Yeah, he's...
I will say the difference in the two
is that the Chiefs have 21 passing touchdowns
to their running backs over the last three years.
They throw, especially in the red zone, to their running backs a lot.
And Pacheco seemed to be earning some of that role.
So I think that could help.
I would hope at some point the Bills plan on not using Josh Allen as much as a battering ram in the red zone if they'd like to
keep him around in his 30s so that could open up more opportunities for running back rushing
touchdowns in the future one thing I was just looking back at some of my old notes from last
year and just trends are made to be broken you know you shouldn't get too caught up in it uh
you know so I think you take away from it. Look, James Cook, maybe James Cook is just going to be flat out better
than Devin Singletary and Zach Moss, and he'll have a bigger role.
As you guys have said earlier this month,
maybe Isaiah Pacheco is just the most talented running back
they've had since Kareem Hunt.
And these things can change.
You know, no player had more than six touchdown catches
for the Cleveland Browns since 2015.
I remember saying that a lot about Amari Cooper, and he had nine last year.
No player had more than five or six touchdown catches for the 49ers since even before that,
I think 2013 or something like that, Vernon Davis.
And we had two players do that last year.
So don't get too caught up in these trends, but maybe just keep it in perspective
that these have not been great spots for running backs.
All right, number seven.
Well, we've reached the Bon Jovi point, guys.
We are halfway there.
Let's go to number seven.
This one I thought was very interesting.
I have to give credit to ESPN for this.
Broncos receivers were first in the NFL
in average separation on targeted passes.
They were getting wide open.
And they were number one in the NFL in open receivers,
which is an open target is when the separation
between the receiver and the nearest defender is three plus yards.
Some of this is from...
That's it?
Yeah, all of this I saw on ESPN.
Well, that's wide open... That's it? Yeah, all of this I saw on ESPN.
Well, that's wide open.
That's crazy open.
I'm surprised it's not like one yard.
Anyway, all of this I saw on ESPN.
Some of it's from NFL Next Gen Stats.
But the bottom line is the article was about Nathaniel Hackett going to the Jets and how he showed he's good at getting receivers open.
I don't know if that's a leap or not, but Broncos receivers were open.
So you could look at it from a Hackett perspective,
or you could look at it from,
what the hell is wrong with Russell Wilson
if he had the most open receivers in the NFL last year?
Heath, how do you look at that?
I think it's more of a Jerry Judy stat.
I think he was very,
even when he couldn't catch his rookie year,
he was very, very good at getting open.
He is one of the best route runners,
but I'll say one of the best route runners,
but I'll say one of the best young route runners in the NFL.
And so I would be hesitant to give that credit to Hackett.
I think you could say a little what was wrong with Russ, sure.
But I think it's mostly a Jerry Judy stat.
He's awesome.
Could it also be a KJ Hamler stat?
Because that dude can fly. so pretty much any time he's
running downfield, he's
got three plus yards on
a defender.
I don't know. I don't have it broken down by receiver.
Technically, he's open. It can't all be Jerry Judy.
He only had 14 targets, so I don't know how much he would
have impacted. How many routes did he run?
He played seven games, so I don't know.
Probably in the neighborhood
of like a hundred all right so you guys aren't putting much on on this stat i guess uh at least
no but if if nathaniel hackett does prove to be a whiz at getting guys open what what he said about
jerry judy can certainly apply to garrett wilson that dude can get open as well all right let's go
to stat number eight and and this is from Heath,
and it's his Deontay Johnson stat,
which is, Heath?
Yeah, Deontay Johnson.
I texted this one to you, didn't I?
Yeah, you want me to read it?
There were only five wide receivers.
No, I'm going to remember it.
Five wide receivers who had more targets
than Deontay Johnson last year.
There were only 12 wide receivers
who had more catches than Deontay Johnson, but. There were only 12 wide receivers who had more catches than Deontay Johnson,
but he finished 30th in fantasy points
and like 46th in fantasy points per game.
Partially because the efficiency
was even worse than it's been past years,
partially because he did not get into the end zone,
but he was still dominating
in terms of targets and catches.
And I do have hopes for a bounce back.
To what degree?
When would you take
dionte johnson uh to top 20 to 24-ish degree so i mean i don't think there's any reason probably
to take dionte johnson before round six because i don't think he's going to get drafted before
then in our drafts yeah I think in a full PPR
league, he could be a top 25 guy
pretty easy this year.
How many end zone targets did he have last year?
This is trivia. I've got the answer in front
of me. Two.
Adam?
Four.
I would have given an answer like you guys gave.
True Media says he had 14
end zone targets.
That's awesome. That's awesome awesome that's six the best among all wide receivers it's just rotten luck that he
had zero touchdowns he did have nine drops that led the nfl but that that comes part and parcel
with deontay johnson at this point and he did have like his first um three years in the league there
was no touchdown problem there.
He was right around a 5% touchdown rate
with eight of them in 2021.
He had seven on 144 targets in 2020.
He had five on 92 targets in 2019.
So scoring is not like he's been
a DJ Moore-type scoring problem.
He had one year where he didn't score touchdowns.
He also didn't seem to do well with yards after catch on the yards after catch per reception stat he had 2.62 which ranked
143rd among receivers 143 for all the south fans out there uh yards per out run 1.44 that was 66
his adot was 10.2 that might be right in line with where he's been the past
couple of years was the highest of his career 10.2 was the highest of his career yes which would
explain some of the drop in yards per catch per reception because he was right around five in that
category for three years in a row again i'll say the same thing I said about yards per attempt. None of these stats occur in a vacuum. It's much easier to get yards after the catch if you catch the ball
in stride. Hopefully, Kenny Pickett gets better.
So last question, and hopefully one of you have Deontay Johnson's stats before 2021,
before 2022 open.
I do.
His catch rate last year, 58.5. What does that rank compared to prior years?
It was about five points lower
than where he'd been for most of his career.
Okay.
So this is a terrific bounce back candidate.
But not really.
It's a positive progression.
Why?
Because catch...
Well, no.
Specifically because catch rate and ADOT are...
I'm not surprised his catch rate went down
when his ADOT went way up.
You know? And his catch rate, by the way, pretty... I wouldn't when his ADOT went way up. And his catch rate, by the way,
I wouldn't say his ADOT went way up.
Almost two yards?
9.2, 7.9, 8.5, 10.2.
That's up.
A yard.
You can say a yard.
A yard, 1.7 from last year,
2.3 from 2020.
It's a significant increase.
It certainly suggests that he ran more downfield routes.
It's not like they say, okay, for the entire season,
you're going to run 11 yards and then turn Deontay Johnson.
So that suggests that he ran a little bit further.
Keith, you mentioned he dealt with a rookie quarterback.
And he had 14 end zone opportunities
there is no statistical
argument to think
Deontay Johnson is a great player
I mean there's just
no one's saying that
the argument is that he's going to be a bounce back
candidate
it's a separate discussion
if you're looking for upside
unless he gets a ton of targets
I think the stats that he does really well in,
I think he's one of those separation guys.
The fact that he has earned almost 10 targets per game
for the last three years is a sign of his skill.
Earning targets is a skill.
And I believe he's graded out in the past – he didn't this year –
very well at broken tackles.
Now, that was not something that he did well this year.
I've always been the anti-Deontay Johnson guy,
but if the cost is wide receiver 35 now, I'm all in.
Okay.
All right, this is a little wacky Wednesday,
because this is usually not what we hear from me.
Do you have to run?
Not yet.
Okay.
All right, let's go.
We got four more. These are hear from me. Do you have to run? Not yet. Okay. All right, let's go. We got four more.
These are all from Dave.
Amari Cooper averaged 11.6 PPR points per game
with Deshaun Watson.
11.6 with Watson.
That was what Gabe Davis averaged for the season,
which was 38th best per game.
Amari Cooper averaged 16 points per game
with Jacoby Brissett.
That's basically what T. Higgins averaged, wide receiver 13.
So pretty interesting.
On a per-game basis, he—oh, I don't have what he—
I think he was somewhere around 19th or something per game.
But yeah, Dave, what do you make of that?
He was so much better with Jacoby Brissett.
Who was so much better than Deshaun Watson in 2022?
I'm hoping it's a Deshaun Watson thing because he just came back
and he didn't look like himself
not till toward the end of the season.
I think his last two games
with Deshaun Watson looked okay.
So hopefully Watson is laser focused on football,
comes to training camp,
knows his stuff, knows the offense,
and that Amari Cooper is still
the number one receiver in Cleveland.
And if that's the case,
then Cooper's another wide receiver that people probably will overlook a
little bit on draft day.
They'll say,
he's older and he's in Cleveland and the stats will be there.
He should be the number one receiver.
That means the targets will be there and he could still make things happen.
If he could do that with Jacoby Brissett,
then with a,
with a full year of work preparing for Deshaun
Watson where he's in the building and with the coaching staff and all that stuff all off season
long it should lead to better results yeah I think this is entirely the crazy thing is how bad
Deshaun Watson was last year he was one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL first four years of
his career he was one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL the first four years of his career.
He was one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL last year, and that's not hyperbole.
How much he bounces back, if Cooper has that same role that he had last year
and Deshaun Watson is the guy he was from 2018 through 2020,
then Cooper should be a top 10 wide receiver.
Pretty reasonable explanation for the struggles for deshaun watson i think so uh yeah
cooper a good i wouldn't call him a bounce back candidate but based on the numbers with
watson a heck of a bounce back candidate all right before heath goes i'm gonna get the one i was
gonna save for last let's talk about dj moore this is another another one from dave in the six games
that sam darnold started weeks 12 through 17, DJ
Moore had...
Was it 12 through 18? There was a buy-in there,
I think. DJ Moore had
18 or more PPR fantasy points
in four of those six games.
So he had six games with Sam Darnold
at the end of the year, and DJ Moore
tore it up in four of those games.
In the other two games, he had a combined one catch
for 10 yards on seven targets.
But Dave, what do you make of that DJ Moore finish with Sam Darnold?
It's almost the exact same thing as what we talked about with Amari Cooper.
The quarterback that you play with matters a hell of a lot
for any wide receiver, obviously.
And so if Baker Mayfield isn't good and P.J. Walker isn't good,
then it's going to impact all the wide receivers.
Throw in a game where the Panthers did nothing but, you know,
showcase Christian McCaffrey, that was the game against the Rams,
and he had a terrible year until Sam Darnold,
who, say what you will about him,
he knows the basics of preparing for an NFL game,
going out there and throwing with a
semblance of accuracy and knowing to lean on one wide receiver as the main guy.
He did that most of the time with DJ Moore and it worked out.
DJ Moore had some great numbers.
I do have to go now.
So I'm just going to cut in real quick and say that I think the Frank Reich thing could
be absolutely awesome for DJ Moore.
History of having the number one wide receiver just get absolutely peppered with targets.
If they could get a good quarterback,
I'd probably be all the way back in on him.
For now, I've got him projected at wide receiver 15.
Yeah, and that's a good range to have him in.
I think we'll agree on DJ Moore a lot more this year than we will.
Unless they go get Derek Carr,
then I'll probably just jump all the way back in.
Okay.
One year where he's been a top 20 wide receiver per game,
saying that.
So we do make a lot of excuses for him.
First it was he has to get away from Sam Darnold.
Sam Darnold's the problem.
Then it was, oh, he's only good with Sam Darnold.
So I just wonder, I mean, look at DJ Moore's career.
I went through the last, forget about his rookie year.
I went through the last four years.
In three of the last,
in three of the last four years,
I can say extremely streaky.
And then I would say all of them,
like in 2020, for example,
that was his least streaky year
in terms of, you know,
a great four game stretch,
a bad six game stretch,
that kind of thing.
But he had eight games
with 93 or more yards.
He had seven games
with 65 or fewer yards and he had nothing in between. He had seven games with 65 or fewer yards,
and he had nothing in between.
He's been such an all-or-nothing player, DJ Moore.
And I just think that because he has had bad quarterback play
his entire career,
it is hard to know what type of player he really is.
People swear by DJ Moore.
But at some point, where has he finished in PPR points per game?
Last four seasons,
14th,
26th,
26th,
36th.
Is that a guy that deserves to be ranked as the 15th best wide receiver?
I,
I don't think so.
No,
but that's what's going to end up happening.
Not for you.
Maybe not for a lot of people,
but like his ADP was way lower than what we had him at last year.
So believe me, he'll be even lower in the general consensus.
The rankings, maybe.
But the ADP will definitely not be a top 15 guy for DJ Moore.
There will be a lot of people that had DJ Moore in 2022
that will never, ever...
It could be round nine.
They won't take DJ Moore in 2023
because they were so unhappy with how he did.
But let them live that life.
Because I think if the Panthers do a good job of obtaining a quarterback,
I think Heath's right.
Frank Reich is going to scheme it up where he's getting a lot of work.
The only thing I think that could take away from that
is if there is a young receiver there,
whether it's Terrace Marshall or Shai Smith, that ends up getting just a huge opportunity because they've earned it along the
way. And then things get spread out a little bit, but we've long been arguing for DJ Moore to have
a bigger role in the red zone. I think that happened a little bit more last year, certainly
toward the end of the year. Don't quote me on it, but as long as that happens and there's growth
there, targets are going to be there.
Accurate quarterback hopefully comes along.
He can finish as a top 15 wide receiver again.
All right.
Last thing on DJ Moore is in those last six games with Sam Darnold,
DJ Moore had the second highest ADOT in the NFL of all wide receivers
with 15 or more targets.
If you want to make it 16 or more targets,
he had the highest ADOT of all wide receivers.
He completely changed.
He became this downfield big play guy, and he happened to be catching them.
And that's why, you know, perhaps why he had two games where he had a combined one catch for 10 yards.
So he has been a different player throughout his career, through different seasons, different parts of the seasons.
He's a weird guy, which is perfect for today's show. Two more stats.
Number 11,
Javante Williams. Dave, you have this one.
He only played four games. He was
third in targets per game among
all running backs, regardless of games
played. So Javante Williams was third
in targets per game. I will say, though, Dave,
heavily weighted by 12 targets
in week one at Seattle. Of course.
But he still had some games with like five targets or four targets.
Yeah, he had 12, four, and five in his first three games of the year.
And then he tore his ACL the following week.
So yeah, it's impressive.
What do you think?
Does that carry over?
I think it carries over.
Number one, if he's healthy.
Number two, if the Broncos don't add another running back on their own.
And the reason why I think it carries over is because of Sean Payton
and what his tendency is.
And we've talked about this on the show, where his teams in New Orleans,
they had a running back get at least 20% of its receptions
pretty much every single year.
They averaged 31.1% of the receptions in Sean Payton's time there. So it seems like
that's a staple in what Sean Payton's going to ask of this offense. And if he insists on it,
Russell Wilson will do it. I know that Russ isn't known for being a thrower to his running backs,
but there's your evidence. Russ was the quarterback when he was throwing to Javante Williams
in the first few weeks of the season. So fingers crossed that he gets healthy and that he's
ready to contribute and maybe at worst he's the one b running back in that offense they go out
and they add somebody in the draft for example and they they use that rookie to handle running
downs and giovante handles passing downs and pass protection and all that stuff. That could still end up being good for Javante,
but really what we're hoping for is Javante comes back and he just becomes a
three down stud that Sean Payton trusts.
Last stat.
I don't know how much we have to spend on this because we've talked so much
about them,
but the Dallas running backs,
you had a stat about the Dallas running backs before Ezekiel Elliott's injury.
The first seven games of the season,
Zeke averaged 11.1 points per game. Tony Pollard averaged 10.1. running backs before Ezekiel Elliott's injury, the first seven games of the season.
Zeke averaged 11.1 points per game.
Tony Pollard averaged 10.1.
That's in PPR.
After the injury, weeks 11 through 17,
so that's when Zeke came back.
We're not counting the two games that Zeke missed.
Zeke averaged 15.3 PPR points per game.
He was scoring every week.
Pollard averaged 17.8 PPR points per game, including was scoring every week. Pollard averaged 17.8 PPR points
per game, including a
zero in week 17.
So, amazing, Dave, that
those two guys were averaging
34
PPR fantasy points per game combined,
which is why I just think
even if they bring Zeke back, God,
Tony Pollard could be incredible for fantasy
this year. As long as they bring Tony Pollard back.
Yeah,
of course.
Remember he's a free agent too,
but it looks like that's going to happen.
So we don't need to talk about this anymore.
The whole world,
the whole fantasy world anyway,
is rooting for Tony Pollard to be the main guy in Dallas and for Ezekiel
Elliott to be the water boy.
Yeah.
Just,
um,
the sky's the limit.
I mean,
it's going to take a lot.
If he's healthy for training camp and he doesn't have
major competition,
he's,
Pollard's a second round pick
for me.
I don't know how you feel.
Yeah.
You do have to worry
about the workload.
I'm thinking kind of like
mid to early second round.
Yeah,
you have to wonder
about the workload
because they just, they might hesitate to really give him a full lion's share,
but a lot going in his favor.
They would display that belief through their actions this offseason.
If they don't bring back Ezekiel Elliott
and they don't add much to the position,
that's a team telling you, in Tony Pollard, we trust.
Yeah.
All right, Dave, tomorrow we'll talk about
sophomore running backs
with Dave and Jamie.
And we did have a request
to answer some questions
in the chat,
so I'll do that for two minutes here.
If anybody wants to ask a question,
please do.
I do have some emails.
I'll try to read them tomorrow.
Fantasyfootball
at cbsi.com.
That's the letter I.
Fantasyfootball
at cbsi.com.
And while we wait
for some questions
to filter in,
made some chocolate chip cookies last night dave they were they were really good awesome good for you what's the secret to
making a good chocolate chip cookie the brand that you buy because i just buy the break and
bakes i don't make them myself or anything so you know it's not like i have my secret recipe
it's just put it you know follow the instructions put them on a sheet, put them in the oven.
I'll tell you what the secret is.
You have to be patient.
You have to really let them sit,
I'd say, for at least 10 minutes.
They will come out a little bit too mushy.
As the night progresses, they get even crispier.
It's much better.
Have a glass of milk.
There you go.
I'm with you on the milk.
First question, what's on Dave's T-shirt?
Cool shirt. I've with you on the milk. First question. What's on Dave's T-shirt? Cool shirt.
Oh, this is my...
I've worn this shirt before.
It's my Brody Lee Forever shirt.
Can you see it?
Here, I'll stand up.
Brody Lee Forever.
Right.
So Brody Lee was a wrestler.
He went by Luke Harper in WWE.
Passed away during COVID.
He was awesome.
Just one of those nimble big men in the wrestling ring.
Cool.
So I saw Biggie wearing this shirt,
and I was like, I got to get that shirt.
And so I got that shirt.
This looks better on Biggie, though.
From Dwander, first round quarterback in redrafts
or too early for that trend?
I still think it's too early.
Like I get why people want to take it.
And we've talked about this.
I think we talked about it last week.
We did like a whole segment or show on that point differential being such a
huge difference maker from Holmes or Allen.
But I know that I need multiple running backs and multiple wide receivers in
my draft.
I only need one quarterback if it's a one QB league.
So I'm willing to wait a little bit to try and get one of those great quarterbacks at a fair price.
For Matt Weber, is Bijan Robinson a wasted pick by the Bills at 27? You're settling an
argument between Bills fans. Yeah, I would be sad if he went to Buffalo. I get why Buffalo
would want him. I get why every team wants him. He's outstanding, but would he get
the same type of usage there compared to other
places? I don't know if he would.
That would make me a little bit unhappy if
he went to Buffalo. From a fantasy standpoint, yeah.
Would it be a wasted pick for the Bills? He
might be the missing ingredient
to them becoming a championship team. I
don't know. It would give them a more diverse offense.
But from a fantasy
standpoint, I believe it or not, I don't think think we'd like that what if he ends up being really good we're talking
him up to be the next saquon barkley basically what if he ends up taking work off of josh allen's
plate and he ruins digs and allen and others in buffalo this is what i would normally say
gabe davis but we we're not really excited about Gabe Davis anymore.
What if he ruins those guys a little bit
and Buffalo does revert back
to being a little bit more balanced pass run?
Then you'd be happy to have Bijan on your team.
The next, Jamal Williams.
Would you trade, from Jacob,
would you trade Jamar Chase
and a third-round pick for McCaffrey
in a two-player keeper standard scoring league.
I have two firsts, a second, and two thirds, and I have Justin Jefferson.
So the third is not all that valuable for him, I guess.
Would you trade Chase and a third for McCaffrey in a standard scoring two-player keeper league?
The only way I would even consider making that move is if I couldn't keep Jamar Chase
either now
or after the 2023 season.
That's it. Otherwise,
what are you doing? Why are
you getting rid of Jamar Chase? No.
No. Don't do that. You'd have
Chase and Jefferson theoretically for your entire
life. Yeah. It's tempting.
Pretty great. Thanks everybody for
watching and listening. We'll talk to you tomorrow as we
look at the sophomore running backs. Very and listening. We'll talk to you tomorrow as we look at the sophomore running backs.
Very exciting group.
We'll talk about that with Dave and Jamie on Thursday's episode.
Hope you enjoyed our weird Wednesday.
See you later.