Fantasy Football Today - Winners and Losers! Preseason Week 2 Recap and Rankings Movers (08/22 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 22, 2022

Check out our Ebay store to benefit St. Jude! Bid on spots in Podcast Leagues, pre-draft calls with our analysts and more https://ebay.to/3p4Dc3Z Christian Kirk broke out, Dameon Pierce sat out (which was a good thing) and Chase Edmonds boosted his value. We talk about the winners and losers starting with the biggest winners (3:00) of preseason Week 2. We tell you when you should draft Dameon Pierce and Dave talks about Brian Robinson (10:10) and if he is ahead of Antonio Gibson now ... Week 2 losers (15:35) include Gibson of course but also Mike Gesicki. We also disagree on whether or not rookie WRs Treylon Burks, George Pickens and Skyy Moore were losers. After that discussion, we talk about Diontae Johnson's value (20:30) and we're on to the big news (28:50) as Tom Brady is back but his offensive line keeps getting thinner. Plus notes on Michael Thomas and Miles Sanders ... "Best of the Best" (41:50) as we give you the best values in the Bills backfield, Patriots backfield, Packers receiving corps and more. Then we talk James Conner (53:00), Chase Edmonds (56:40) and finish with more preseason takeaways (59:30) like Ty Montgomery being a potential steal in PPR leagues ... Email us at [e-mail] 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

Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM, an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League. Yard after yard, down after down, the sportsbook born in Vegas gives you the chance to take action to the end zone and celebrate every highlight reel play. And as an official sportsbook partner of the NFL, BetMGM is the best place to fuel your football fandom on every game day. With a variety of exciting features, BetMGM offers you plenty of seamless ways to jump straight onto the gridiron and to embrace peak sports action. Ready for another season of gridiron glory? What are you waiting for?

Get off the bench, into the huddle, and head for the end zone all season long. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario helpline

at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. What does possible sound like for your business? It's having the spend to power your scale with no preset spending limit. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply.

Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. 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. Winners and losers from preseason week two. Who is the commanders starting running back? Go ahead, Jamie. Who's the commander starting running back? I think it's going to be Brian Robinson. I don't know how you can go against that right now, right? Oh, man.

I don't know. I don't know. I could tell you that even over the last day, just since Sunday on NFC, there have been 20 drafts. I like to use NFC because you get this date range. And Gibson is still going ahead of Robinson. Gibson somewhere in the 80s. Robinson 20, 30 picks later or something like that. Well, that's since Sunday, you said?

Yeah. Yeah. The game is on Saturday, right? Yeah. Did Christian Kirk just move up a round or two in drafts? I went back and looked at one of our drafts. And I was like, oh, where did Christian Kirk just move up a round or two in drafts? I went back and looked at one of our drafts, and I was like, oh, where did Christian Kirk go? And I was like, oh, I took somebody I don't like now ahead of him.

I used to draft a lot of him. Did I take him? I don't think you did. But yeah, that looked great. Eight targets, five catches in half. Yeah, and Jamie told me to sing a song about Tom Brady coming back. So he suggested Eminem. But instead, I'm going to go, we're bringing Brady back.

I'm going to go JT. Tom Brady is back. Will he be wearing a mask? We do not know. A lot of masked singer buzz for him. Can our YouTube chat room guess what song I told you to sing? Oh, yeah. Tom Brady's back. what song I told you to sing? Oh, yeah. Tom Brady's back. What song did Jamie suggest I sing?

And then I went all JT on him. And, yeah. And that's just how I roll. So, yeah, we'll see. I'll tell you what. If somebody gets it right. No, they're not in the podcast league. No, but I'll give them an entry into the HQ league, which we're going to start to give away spots for.

Okay, okay. All right, so biggest winners and losers. We're going to have some rankings disputes. Dave is joining us shortly. He's actually doing some Tom Brady stuff on CBS Sports HQ right now. He'll be on in about five minutes, I suspect. We got a lot of big news because in addition to Brady coming back, this Tampa Bay offensive line just lost another starter for the season. And, yeah, what does that mean for Leonard Fournette?

What does it mean for Brady and everybody else? Talk about that. Updates on Miles Sanders, Ken Walker, Jameis Winston, Michael Thomas. Jamie drafted Michael Thomas in a guillotine league, so it might be one and done. Probably not, but just kidding. Oh, Dave is here already. That's great.

So we'll bring him on in just a moment, but I'll bring him on right now. Hey, Dave. Oh, good morning. What's up, man? What's up? great so we'll bring him on in just a moment but i'll bring him on right now hey dave oh good morning what's up man what's up tom brady's back from his mysterious trip yeah they're doing who knows what who knows what okay so let's start with the biggest winners jamie give me one or two of the biggest winners from preseason week two the biggest winner didn't play uh damian pierce um you know exciting that the uh the texans have already given him the treatment of being the starter and uh look after what he did on uh i think

it was five four or five carries uh average nearly 10 yards per carry in the uh preseason game against the saints against the backups they i guess they've seen enough and it's it's probably the right call i mean you know we'll see what marlon mack and rex burkhead do in tandem with pierce but uh he is somebody that is being drafted in the round seven range and may creep into round six depending on how things continue to go based on other running backs so he was the biggest winner uh you mentioned brian robinson obviously another big winner and there's just a ton of receivers that looked very very good or had some good moments uh over the weekend okay who's taking damian pierce over i think we're gonna see a lot of receivers that looked very, very good or had some good moments over the weekend. Okay.

Who's taking Damian Pierce over? I think we're going to see a lot of hands here. Damian Pierce over every Washington running back. Yes. Yeah. But I was doing that before this weekend already. So. Okay.

So Damian Pierce, I think I have his ADP. He's 83 on CBS. Yeah. Oh, I have it as 80th. I don't know when you checked. This morning it was 80th, so he might be climbing even farther. Moving up.

91st overall on NFC over the past week, and that is RB32. So with the Ken Walker injury, he may not be ready for week one. Who are you guys taking, Damian Pierce or Ramondre? He's in that range too, sorry. Or Rashad taking? Damian Pierce or Ramondre? He's in that range too. Sorry. Or Rashad Penny? Please don't trade Ramondre to the Seahawks.

I would take Pierce. Are you okay with Pierce as your RB too if you do a wide receiver heavy build? Let's say you have three wide receivers. You have a stud tight end. You have a quarterback. You have a hero RB. Damian Pierce in round is at six or seven? That's six.

I want to see what you think of this team. This is how I start. I'm in round six. I'm not telling you the format. Round six. Why aren't you telling us the format? Because, well, Adam knows. I want to see what you think of this team. I'm in round six. This is my team so far. Aaron Jones, Michael Pittman, Michael Thomas. This is before the news, by the way. Aaron Jones, Michael Pittman, Michael Thomas. This is before the news, by the way, Aaron Jones, Michael Pittman,

Michael Thomas, Marquise Brown, Dallas Goddard, and Damian Pierce. What do you think? I think it's good. I think it's just good. It's not blowing me away,

but it's, what if I tell you it's an 18 team league? It's an 18 team league. league? It's an 18-team league? That is correct. I love it. That's my guillotine start. Okay. No, that's a good way to go about it.

Do you want me to be a Debbie Downer on Damian Pierce? Sure. I mean, somebody's got to – I don't know if you have to be a Debbie Downer, but put us in a little perspective here because he might end up going too high, but we'll see. What's your Debbie Downer? I get why we're all excited, and I'm excited too. The talent showed it in the first preseason game. I know that he was crushing it in practice.

Hopefully, this isn't a case of him nursing an injury and the Texans don't want to say anything. Hopefully, this is what we think it is and that the coaches have already decided. Yep. Pierce is the one, even if they haven't decided that Pierce will eventually be the guy he's, he's just looked too good to not be. I do worry a little bit that we've pushed him up too much.

I'm looking at my PPR rankings right now. I've got them 72nd overall. It's high. Okay. So give me some players in that range. Who's he going ahead of i have him ahead of chase edmonds i have him ahead of miles sanders i have him ahead of damian harris i have him i mentioned the seahawks running backs the seahawks and the commanders

running backs um james robinson he's ahead of he's behind in full ppr chase edmonds no he's ahead of edmonds my bad he's behind sing behind Singletary. We can talk about him. And a lot of the other dead zone RB candidates I have ahead of him for now. Jacobs, CEH, Kareem Hunt, Cam Akers, even Elijah Mitchell. Taking a chance with those guys ahead of Pierce too.

But we've seen a lot of Texans run. Not that this has any bearing on 2022, but we've seen a lot of Texans running backs in the this has any bearing on 2022 but we've seen a lot of Texans running backs in the past mediocre names the best of which are Lamar Miller they still get anywhere between a thousand and twelve hundred total yards and six plus touchdowns Jamie might disagree with me I think that that's pretty decent floor for Pierce this year it's just a matter of to me the only thing that concerns me because I don't think marlon mack is going to be a significant factor he'll be somewhat of a factor it's just what they do on passing downs because we saw that in even the the situation the backups with the saints

and you know i i think you see the situation that um when he put when he played you know he wasn't really used on passing downs um i'll go back to his numbers of florida we know he wasn't a full-time guy there but he had 19 catches in his limited role or in a shared role in his final season. And so had he played more, we're probably talking in the 30-plus range of receptions. And Adam, you referenced this a lot. Typically, 35 is a great number for a college running back

in terms of reception total. Did I say that? I don't remember saying that. Huh? I don't remember saying that. You said that in the past. If not, I apologize. It was a different Adam Acer. He has the ability to do it.

It's just a matter of, will they let him do it? And so the only one I would disagree with you is Chase Edmonds. I think in PPR, he's a much better fit. But for everything else, I would take Pierce over all those guys also. But I would take him over Mitchell, and I would take him over a couple other guys. Singletary for sure. And Chase Edmonds, by the way, should probably be in the winner's circle because he played the first 10 snaps of the game

with not all of the Dolphins starters. No Tyreek Hill, no Jalen Waddell, no left tackle to Ron Armstead. But Chase Edmonds did play clearly ahead of Sonny Michel, who came in on the first play of the second quarter. And basically, by the way, the same exact thing happened with the Bills running backs. Devin Singletary played the entire first quarter,

and then Zach Moss and James Cook took over, and all three running backs had a good game. We'll get into that a little bit later. So Damian Pierce is one winner. Christian Kirk, we already talked about. Real quick, Christian Kirk or Alan Lazard? Lazard, but they're back-to-back for me. Christian Kirk or DeAndre Hopkins?

Kirk. I've got Hopkins ahead of Kirk. And we've got a winner here in the... I think we might just have had an entry into the HQ League, Jamie. Brady's back. Back again. IBZTube 91. All right, Thomas, if you can get

his information or her information, please. I would appreciate it. Yeah, so I think the best thing to do if you're on Twitter, IBZTube, is to reach out to Thomas Schaefer. How do we do that, Thomas? What's your... You can reach out to me. It's fine. Yeah, whatever. Tweet someone.

He can just DM the Fantasy Football Today Twitter account. Beautiful. DM the Fantasy Football Today Twitter account. You're in the HQ League. Okay, Dave, give me a winner. Did you talk enough about Brian Robinson? No. Let's talk about this situation here.

Are you taking him ahead of Antonio Gibson? Oh, yeah. It's over. It's over. He's the better running downs back for Washington. He doesn't dance in the backfield. He's physical. He's, um, he's got good, good enough vision. Um, and I think he's got good enough speed. He Gibson's faster than him, but he makes up for that with a lot of other things that he does. And he's not a bad pass catcher either. We saw that earlier this offseason and certainly in college.

I think he's going to be the guy. I really do. I think he's a good fit for the zone running that they do. I think he can handle power running as well. So where do we draft him? Okay, so Ryan Robinson started. And this was one of the... Played four straight snaps.

Gibson then came in. There was no McKissick. No McKissick. I felt like Gibson took McKissick's role. Yes. And this was a good game because we had starters from both teams. This was one of two games where we had starters from both teams playing extended times.

This was Chiefs, Commanders, and the other one was Steelers, Jaguars. But, yeah, when do we draft Brian Robinson now? I guess ahead of Antonio Gibson. But what about Ramondre Stevenson and Rashad Penny? If McKissick is out of the way, let's say this groin injury is a problem, then Gibson is a better fantasy running back than robinson if mckissick is there then gibson's in real trouble and there's no there's no reason to think this is going to be an extend a very extended absence

for mckissick no but i mean mckissick missed time last year he tends to get hurt a lot and you know if if gibson can somehow prove to the coaching staff that I'm the better pass catching back and Rivera, you know, that's the one thing he praised about him this weekend was he said that, you know, he was receiver in college. And so he wants to get him in space. If they can, if they can sort of make that conscious decision of, okay, Robinson's the one Gibson's now the pass catching back and McKissick's kind of in more of a Swiss Army knife role,

then Gibson's fantasy value will be salvaged a little bit. But if it's Robinson's the first and second down and goal line guy, and McKissick's the passing down guy, and Gibson's going to be the guy worked in, I don't know how you can justify drafting Gibson in the first 10 rounds. Do you draft

Brian Robinson in the top 100? Is Brian Robinson arian robinson the first do you draft him in the top 100 is brian robinson a top yeah better not ppr and half ppr than full um you know you got to trust that he's going to significantly distance himself in terms of touches from gibson which that looks like it could be the case but well you know we don't know if he struggles at any point will they make a move back so i wouldn't get too crazy about brian robinson um but he's certainly somebody that's going to probably cut his adp in half i think it was like 144 on our site um you know he's probably going to be in the in the 80s i would say by the time we get to the end of the week robinson yeah yep that's where i take him do you know how many fumbles he lost at alabama. I'm going to go zero.

Zero. All right. Let me give you his ADP on NFC just since yesterday. 20 drafts. Brian Robinson is going 114th overall. And Antonio Gibson is going 84th overall. So obviously we think that should be switched. But I'm going to tell you the players that are going ahead of him.

Would you take Brian Robinson or Miles Sanders? I have Sanders ahead of him as of now. As long as this hamstring injury for Sanders gets cleared up soon, Sanders should go ahead of him. Sanders is going to free fall if this hamstring injury becomes a problem. Brian Robinson or Patriots running back? Harris. Still Harris, but they're all basically bunched up for me Harris Robinson

Stevenson right now Brian Robinson or Cordero Patterson back to back I have Robinson Brian Robinson or Naeem Hines PPR Robinson half PPR Robinson still Robinson okay moving on we got a lot to talk

about today, but I think we have poker tonight. We were supposed to have poker tonight. So stay tuned for that. I think it would be at 8 p.m. Eastern at youtube.com slash fantasy football today. One thing I can definitely tell you is we're going to have a live stream tomorrow night,

a live mock draft. What's our format for that, Jamie? Tomorrow night will be half PPR. Half PPR, mock draft, youtube.com slash fantasy football today. Even if you're night will be half PPR. Half PPR, mock draft, youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday. Even if you're not in a half PPR league,

there's still going to be a lot of takeaways that will be very helpful for you. So you need to just subscribe to the channel, youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday because we have YouTube-exclusive content and all of the podcasts that you listen to, you can watch them on YouTube as well. You can see what we look like.

You'll be surprised. And I'm like six foot four ripped. So go to youtube.com slash fantasy football today. Tonight, I believe we're going to be on at eight o'clock to play some poker and raise money for St. Jude. Tomorrow night, eight o'clock, always to raise money for St. Jude and to go through a live,

and go through a mock draft half PPR. New segment. Hey, real quick before we get into the losers, just give me a number on a scale of one to 10. How good was the series premiere of House of the Dragon? Eight. That's what I said, eight.

Dave, did you watch? Watch what? House of the Dragon. No. Oh, don't be like that, Mr. Football. You can make time. It was very good. I'm very excited for it.

Let's get to the biggest losers. You know, pilots are always tough. And it was pretty good. I thought very excited for it. Let's get to the biggest losers. You know, pilots are always tough, and it was pretty good. I thought it was terrific. Very into it. Biggest losers from preseason week two. Dave, who you got? Biggest loser from week two?

Well, I mean, I think Antonio Gibson definitely qualifies as being somebody that lost. I would say that Mike Kosicki's a huge loser. He's one of a handful of tight ends. He could throw Albert Oku with a Boonam in there too. Tight ends that ended up getting a lot more work than first team stud. Tight ends are typically supposed to do played. I think he played into the second half.

He definitely played all the first half for the dolphins. And after the game, he was like, I've been playing receiver for the past couple of years. Now I'm playing tight end. Undraftable. Not taking. Don't care if he scores a touchdown in week one.

Easy guy to fade. There are other tight ends that you can take late. Even Evan Engram, better than Mike Gesicki. I just want to piggyback on this. Gesicki and the coaching staff, they said he needs the reps because this is a very difficult position to play in this 49ers-type offense here. Right.

But all of the reports have basically been saying he's blocking more. Like you said, Dave, he's not playing receiver anymore. He's learning a new position. Right. He's learning a new way to play tight end. The previous Dolphins coaches were happy to use him as a wide out, and it made sense. He's good at that. And so maybe this coaching staff says, okay, we know you're good at catching the ball. You'll be asked to do that some of the time, but you got to get better at blocking too.

All right. That's Mike Kosicki. Jamie, how about a loser from you? Two receivers, one who continues to lose is Traylon Burks, and another one would be Sky Moore, two rookies who I had expectations for, and I hope still have the chance to be significant playmakers. But Burks got hurt. Seems like it's a minor injury with his left leg, but again, played in the fourth quarter, three targets, one catch. I know Mike Vrabel was praising him. So hopefully that's a sign that he's going to get out of whatever doghouse he's in.

But it's just feeling difficult to trust him at this point as anything more than just a late-round dart throw. And then Sky Moore, you know, without Juju there, without Meikle Hardman there, the fact that he played behind MVS and behind Justin Watson doesn't make it encouraging to say he could be somebody that you can look at early in the season as a potential starter. So these could be guys, hopefully, that, you know,

someone drafts and then drops for Peyton Barber. But, you know, the hope would be is that they become significant contributors in their offense you see an easier path for for Burks uh but for Sky Moore right now it just feels a little frustrating I drafted Jahan Dotson over Traylon Burks a few days ago I have Dotson ranked ahead of him I don't blame you yeah Dotson deserves a little credit here. He's been good all throughout camp. He makes plays in the preseason. Curtis Samuel also exists, just so everyone knows. That might be something we should talk about

in terms of how it affects Terry McLaurin. And Sky Moore was off the board when I made that pick, but Sky Moore went around before. I'm just looking at an industry draft I'm doing right now. It is a best ball league. But Sky Moore went one round before. He went about eight picks before Marquez Valdez-Scantling. Who would you rather have, MVS or Sky Moore?

MVS. I thought he looked good. Yeah, I'll tell you, man, there have been now two plays that would have been huge plays for MVS and Mahomes, and they just couldn't connect. Mahomes missed them. He was running upfield. It was kind of a broken play. And Mahomes missed them. And then last upfield. It was kind of a broken play.

And Mahomes missed him. And then last week, preseason week one, he almost had a touchdown. And then the play just, they just weren't quite in sync. But he could be having a huge preseason MVS. So we'll talk about who the best value at KC wide receiver is a little bit later. Did anybody feel like Saturday, I guess it was, was a reality check for George Pickens. Because we saw him on the field with Deontay Johnson and Chase Clayton. Dave's saying no.

Alright, I guess I'll make the case. Just that he's got somewhat of a meteoric rise. The draft we did on Friday with the listeners, he went, I think, in round 7, Jamie? Round 8? It was either 6 and 7. The same manager took Pierce and Pickens. So it was either 6 and 7 or 7 and 8. I think it was Pierce then and seven. The same manager took Pierce and Pickens.

So it was either six and seven or seven and eight. I think it was Pierce, then Pickens. And right, so let's say he went around seven. I don't expect that to be the case, but he was overshadowed by Deontay Johnson and Chase Claypool. And the week before, those guys didn't play. And that's when Pickens broke out. Oh, sorry. David Wishing.

I don't want to say he's not going to be a significant contributor. He should still be going ahead of Chase Claypool. But you saw, I think, what they have in mind for Chase Claypool. And Pro Football Focus brought this up, that he played, his best season, obviously, was 2020. He played over 20% of the snaps from the slot. And in this game against the Jaguars, 16 of the snaps, 14 of them were in the slot. And you saw the one play where he had the crossing route to go outside with, I think it was Deontay Johnson, I might have picked him.

And he made the catch down the field. Big slot receivers that can move like him are going to be fun. So I wouldn't forget about Chase Claypool. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't be drafting Pickens first, but Deontay Johnson was a winner. If Kenny Pickens starts, that's going to be fun. Should have had a touchdown. A callback on a holding penalty was actually double penalties.

Yep, offside. There was an offside by Jacksonville. But he had the 17-yard catch on the same drive. And, you know, it's like to overlook deontay johnson at this point silly agreed well well what does that mean overlooking him because and dave specifically i mean you have him as a bus or you had him anyway yeah he's not anymore well the reasons why i was worried about him was target volume which is still a worry i i still i i don't believe he's going to dominate targets like he did in the preseason game. But I was worried about efficiency. I was

worried about the quarterback play. I'm significantly less worried about both after what I saw in Pittsburgh two weekends ago and in the game against Jacksonville on whenever it was Friday, Saturday. He looks good. He looks fresh. I think his efficiency could actually get boosted. And it, it, it almost feels like, yeah, Ben Roethlisberger was a big problem in a way for Deontay Johnson.

Like Deontay got his numbers, but he wasn't very efficient because Roethlisberger wasn't necessarily efficient. Now he's got two quarterbacks there when I'm not putting Kenny Pickett in the hall of fame and Mitchell Trubisky, he seems a little better than he was in Chicago, but I'm not ready to say that he's going to be, you know,

a huge difference maker, but they're, they're adept at getting the ball to their targets in the offense. And I think Deontay is going to get open a lot. I think the Steelers have a lot of talent on the field. It's going to help them. And if those guys can deliver to Deontay Johnson, to get open a lot. I think the Steelers have a lot of talent on the field. It's going to help them. And if those guys can deliver to Deontay Johnson and he stops slipping all over the field

and not dropping passes, he had a ball that went off his hands in the game against Shaxsville. I think he could be good. I moved him into the round four range. I'm hoping that's not too late to get him. Whereas in the last seven months, I wasn't drafting Deontay Johnson at all.

Now I've seen enough to go, okay, he's got a shot to be not, I don't know, about 90 catches, but he might get 12, 13 yards a catch on 75 catches and do really well for people. You know, I think a skeptic would say that you're making too much of the preseason. Well, this was a game against Jacksonville where their offensive line was under siege, and Trubisky and Pickett were both making good plays. He had two catches for 33. Okay, he did have that play called back.

He had a touchdown called back. But they have... And he would have had another big catch if he hadn't have slipped on a wrap. All right, but if Pickens is a riser and Claypool is going to be good out of the slot, and I think you like... Fryermuth would be good I think, you know, you like Fryermuth. Right, right.

We like Fryermuth. It was Pickens that made Fryermuth look good. Isn't that a case against Deontay Johnson? A little bit, but I still, I never said that he wasn't going to lead the team in targets. I just said he wouldn't get as many as he had in the past. Yeah. All right.

There'll be some games where maybe it's Claypool or Pickens that, you know, have one more target than Deontay Johnson. Yeah. All right. There will be some games where maybe it's Claypool or Pickens that, you know, have one more target than Deontay Johnson. Yeah. OK. I think, you know, you look in the range of where Deontay Johnson is probably going to go. He should have always been around for pick and PPR. You know, you can say around five and nine PPR. It's, you know, you just made it made a case. Adam, why McLaurin is going to have more competition, right?

John Dotson and Curtis Samuel. Yes, yes. Guy going in a similar range, right? Mm-hmm. You have Allen Robinson, I think, should be in that same range. You know, we know he's going to be second fiddle to Cooper Cup. Michael Thomas with the hamstring injury. You know, you can make a case Deontay Johnson's in a better spot right now, both, you know, essentially with new quarterbacks, competition for targets. Jalen Waddell, we know competition for targets, you know.

So if he's still the one in Pittsburgh, which I don't think that's going to change, I don't think he's going to be top five in targets again, but I think he'll still be top 15, if not top 10. He's still a guy. Their commitment to him, because they don't usually pay guys, their commitment to him is pretty telling.

They gave him the contract extension. As much as they like Pickens, which they should, and as much as they're still going to use Claypool, which they are in Friarmouth as well, this is still going to be the go-to guy. Okay, Deontay Johnson or Brandon Cooks? I still have Cooks higher. I'm back-to-back.

Cooks, one spot ahead. Deontay Johnson or... FPR, Cooks better than none. Jerry Judy? Deontay. Sutton. Sutton. Sutton. Allton. Sutton.

All right. Well, the biggest winner, of course, over the weekend is Jamie because he's getting in shape on his Peloton. Everybody should get in shape and we want to keep it fun. And you're more likely to stick to a fitness routine if it's something that you enjoy, which is why Peloton instructors make every workout feel like hanging out with your friends. Jamie enjoys Peloton. Preach, Jamie. Go for it. So I told Adam this story before the show started that my wife was doing a Peloton ride when I came home after taking the kids to school.

And I don't sleep very much during football season, so I was trying to close my eyes for like 20 minutes. And she was obviously having a a very very good workout because she was blaring alana's morissette uh you know i think that was just the the music of choice for today uh but it was all throughout the house i walked upstairs because the peloton's right over there in my office and uh she was like that was just a unbelievable quick half hour ride so she got her workout in before she had to go to work. Uh, it's just a great way to get a quick workout in and, and, you know, burn some calories. Uh, I said this before, uh, we have a desk for our Peloton. So I do a lot of work while I'm trying to, you know, ride. Uh, it's great at night watching preseason games to, uh, you know,

get a quick workout in while you're just enjoying some football. Um, it's, it's just awesome. It's, uh, the instructors are great. The music's fantastic. I like to do the scenic rides when I, when I have the games on, because I can just kind of zone out on the workout while still doing it and focus on, you know, whatever else I need to do for my job. So it's great. The classes aside from on the bike are fantastic. You can do band workouts. We use the meditation a lot. I said this before for my kids. We use it to put them to sleep.

It's just really a lot of fun said this before for my kids. We all use it to put them to sleep. It's just really a lot of fun. So I highly recommend Peloton. It's just a great way to get your workout in in a short amount of time. Yeah, just try to time your naps when your husband, wife, whoever is not working out. Motivation that moves you anytime, anywhere. Try the Peloton bike or tread risk-free for 30 days.

Learn more at onepeloton.com. New members only. Terms apply. Well, you got a chance to be in the podcast league if you send your entries right now to fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. You have to put podcast league in the subject line. I'm going to be announcing the winners. It's Monday night, by the way. It's a week from today at 8 p.m. Eastern, the 29th. So if you can't make that time, please don't enter. But if you can, Fantasy Football at CBSI, put podcastleagueinthe, cbsi.com, put podcastleagueinthesubjectline. And we'd love to see some creative entries as well. So feel free to be creative. But there is another

thing that you can do to be in a league with us. And that is the FFT Invitational Best Ball Tournament. This is open to the public. We want as many people as want in, okay? We're going to set up this best ball tournament. And what you do is there's an eBay link that's in the episode description on our eBay page. It's $10 to enter. It goes right to St. Jude. And then you'll be put in the tournament. I know people have asked me, hey, I just entered.

What happens now? Either we'll reach out to you or you'll get a link, but you'll be in the tournament. You're going to donate 10 bucks to St. Jude, which is great. And then you're going to be in. And so far we have about a hundred people and we want to get it to a thousand people. Then we could raise 10 grand for St. Jude, but whatever we get to would be amazing. And you get to be a part of it. I'm going to, I am already in it. I donated. I'm in everybody. Everyone on the show is going to be in it. So, um, the FFT Invitational Best Ball Tournament. Best Ball, by the way, is no management. You draft a team and your lineup gets set by

whoever scores the most points. So if it's a two running back, three receiver league, it'll take your two highest running backs, two highest scoring running backs, three highest scoring receivers, highest scoring tight end, highest scoring flex. Put them in your lineup that week. You never have to make a waiver move, a roster move, a trade. You're done after the draft. So it's low maintenance, and it's fun. It's going to be untimed draft. You don't have to put any time into this.

You're putting donation into this. That's what this is all about, and it'll be fun, and you'll be in a league with like 500, hopefully more, FFT listeners. So check it out on the youtube on the ebay page okay tom brady's coming back today but they lost guard aaron stinney for the season with a torn acl and mcl he was a candidate to be the starting left guard he wasn't necessarily going to be the starting left guard he was a candidate meanwhile he was on his way right tackle tristan wirfs has an oblique, but he's expected to be ready for week one. So are we downgrading any bucks based on all of

their offensive line injuries, retirements, free agency losses? The interior of the line is much, much different than it was last year. Dave. No. And let me expound on that. Hell no. Because I expect this team to figure it out. I expect Brady to figure it out. Brady's played behind inadequate offensive lines before. I think that they will be just fine. Let's see what they do in the next week to 10 days. Okay, there's optimism that Miles Sanders will be ready for week one. He has a hamstring injury.

He's hurt a lot. But as you guys have been championing Kenneth Gainwell, what did you make of the fact that Boston Scott started, played ahead of him, and played very, very well, Boston Scott? I mean, it wasn't just the numbers. He looked terrific. What did you make of that, Jamie, in terms of how the Eagles' backfield looks? It didn't really surprise me because I think you have to go with the understanding of, if Miles Sanders is not there, they're going to use both guys. And it makes more sense to use Boston Scott on first and second down if you're not going to change Kenneth Gainwell's role dramatically.

Now, obviously, if there's no Sanders, Gainwell will get more first and second down opportunities. But Scott or Jordan Howard, whoever it's been the last couple of seasons, has kind of been that plug-and-play guy in case Sanders has missed time. So you should not overlook Boston Scott. If you're talking about some of these late-round, deep-league guys, he's a great last pick because Sanders has missed nine games over two seasons, the last two seasons, four in each year. And so if he's not ready to go week one, Boston Scott will probably get the first carry.

But Kenneth Gamble is going to be in on passing downs. He's going to get some of those opportunities as well. He has more upside if they do give him the opportunity to do it. But Scott is somebody you should not forget about. I don't think I'm drafting Scott in a 12-team 15-round draft. Now, you're in an 18-team

league, Jamie. I'm in a league with... We're both going to be in a league with 22 teams. Yes, he's going to get drafted in those. But that has small benches, though, so who knows if he gets drafted there. But yes, sir, sure. And you can say that Gainwell is only going to play on passing downs. He scored a short yardage touchdown against Cleveland.

In fact, he had the carry before. Both carries were inside the five. He squared up against the linebacker and plowed him into the end zone well he was their goal linebacker to open last exactly yes so i think he's more than just a passing downs guy i think he runs with you know great shiftiness i think he's got good speed his offensive line did a great job blocking for him against cleveland and that was the backup offensive line the starting offensive line for philadelphia is going to be monstrous i like gainwell around pick 100 in those 12-team, 15-round drafts.

And I think it's going to be a mess in the run game for Philadelphia, no matter who's there. But I like the value of getting Gainwell when we're talking around 9-plus. Pick 100 feels a little early, especially based on his ADP which is 123 over the last week on NFC if you took him at pick 100 you'd take him ahead of James Cook Cordaro Patterson Melvin Gordon Naeem Hines Isaiah Pacheco maybe ahead of Ken yeah the only one I've ranked ahead of him from those names is Patterson all right all right more news items here.

Ken Walker, he's not guaranteed to be ready for week one. I think I mentioned that a little bit earlier. This situation stresses me out. I'm not going to lie. The Seahawks backfield. Just avoid it. Well, I don't want to avoid it necessarily. Look, Rashad Penny was so good last season,

and he's been pretty good whenever he's gotten work. And Ken Walker's a second round pick who was a heisman trophy candidate i'm not saying that everyone should avoid it just you avoid it no i don't want to avoid that's why it stresses me out if it was such an easy avoid for me then i'd be like yeah whatever but there's appeal there so all right when should i mean look walkers if he's there at the right spot you know we're we're getting to the double digit rounds with him at this point because how can you trust anything sooner's just, if he's there at the right spot, you know, we're, we're, we're getting to the double digit rounds with him at this point, because how can you trust

anything sooner than that? Knowing that he's already got a hernia situation that he's having surgery for. And so if Pete Carroll, Mr. Optimistic is saying we're hopeful for week one, that's probably week four. So, you know, I, I think at this point, Penny should be the guy, you know, it depends on just how you want to draft Penny, where you want to draft Penny and how much of a commitment you want to make to a guy who has a hard time staying on the field has already had two offseason injuries as well so tell me where i think penny for me pierce i'm taking

pierce i'm taking the patriots guys for the most part in that range with him you know penny's got more upside if he's right um but it depends on the format but he's you know it to me, the guys that I don't want to draft unless the build suggests I do that, Singletary, Penny, and Harris. You throw Mitchell in there as well. Those four guys to me are avoids unless they fall to the right spot. Or unless you go zero RP. Yeah, but even so, maybe one of those penny would be the one and he's the one but you know i mean i was encouraged to be honest though not not to change the backfields but the fact that they use harrison passing downs was great fact they use stevenson on passing

downs was great you know time montgomery clue is going to be a factor in that but if they're going to use both harris and stevenson in that in those roles which they did in the preseason game they're going to be much better. I mean, they split Harris out wide. I don't know if he did that at all last year. So, you know, there's some things to like there from what they did in the preseason, but just that group of running backs, to me,

is just like, why waste your time? There's so many better receivers in those ranges. You're talking about the Patriots range and the Seahawks range? There's better receivers there? Yeah, I mean, for me, I'm taking Stevenson more so than I am Harris because I think if he hits, he's going to be a monster.

See, I don't know if there are, Jamie. Let me just tell you the receivers that are going in there. We're talking about, we're getting into the 80s, 90s, 100s in overall picks. Okay, obviously, Alan Lazard's going 80th overall. We like him. Christian Kirk, we'd have to say, would be ahead of that, would be a good receiver to take there. He's in that group for me.

But the other wide receivers that are going when you could get the Patriots starter or the Seahawks starter or the Bills starter, Drake London, Kadarius Toney, Tyler Lockett, Robert Woods, a bunch of rookies, Chase Claypool, George Pickens. So are the wide receivers really better in that range? Yeah.

Dave, what do you think? No. I don't think so. Not all of them. Not the names you gave me. You gave me a lot of names of wide receivers who I would feel comfortable putting on my bench. The group after that would be Rondale Moore,

Russell Gage, George Pickens, Tyler Boyd, Garrett Wilson. I mean, I feel like you're talking about round 11. I'm into round 10, round 11, yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, I'll take shots on those running backs. I was really encouraged by them. I've heard that in those ranges.

If you're telling me that Harris is falling around 10? Of course, yeah, yeah, yeah. Harris is falling around 10? No, more like round 8, round 9 nine in a 12-team league. So we're in the— You just went around 10. Yeah, no, but not all of—but there's a big range. I mean, you asked me who was going—

No, there's not. Who are the receivers that are going in round eight? Yeah, but it's not all round eight. But, Jamie, you asked me who was going after that, so I started reading that list. But, okay, this is how I see it. But Jamie, you asked me who was going after that, so I started reading that list. But okay, this is how I see it. The group of the last receivers that we kind of view as must-start guys in a three-receiver league or flexes in a two-receiver league would probably be somewhere in the Thielen, Lazard, Christian Kirk, DeAndre Hopkins with his unique situation.

You know, we like that group. Then maybe probably the number four receivers would be more like, I don't know, how do you feel about Lockett? Number three or number four receiver? Four. Four. So London, Lockett, Woods, Olave, Chiefs, guys other than Juju, Traylon Burks, Claypool, like that group.

That's who you might be competing against when you're talking about Rashad Penny and Ramondre Stevenson and Devin Singletary. But those guys aren't going that late, though. No, they are going that late. I'm not Singletary and Harris. Maybe Penny's going to creep up now because

of the Walker news. Penny might have been going there previously. Singletary is going 87th over. Look, it depends on the ADP. That's the problem. But NFC ADP over the last week, Singletary 87, Penny 90, Damian Pierce 91, Damian Harris 91, Miles Sanders 92, Kareem Hunt 95. I like the running backs better in this range than a lot of those wide receivers. Yeah, but still depends on, again, what your build is and what you need. Yeah, but if you're talking about this group of tough running backs to rank, they're in committees, we don't know how it's going to play out. So we're looking Patriots, we're looking Seahawks, we're looking Eagles,

we're looking Bills. And you're comparing them to rookie-wide receivers like Sky Moore, Chris Olave, Drake London? No, London, I think, should be ahead of that group. But, you know, if you're saying that this is the group of receivers, then yes, you should take the running backs. Okay.

You should take the running backs ahead of them all, including London. Okay. So it depends. I mean, I'm not really using fantasy pros anymore because I think the date range is just too wide. And when you see on fantasy pros, it's no offense to fantasy pros.

We've been using them for a while and it's been very helpful. But George Pickens going 155th overall. I just know that that's unlikely to happen. CBS ADP and NFC ADP from NFC over the past week and CBS what we have, those actually match up pretty well. But you could get James Robinson 114th overall.

Bermondre Stevenson 103rd overall on CBS. Chase Edmonds 97th overall on CBS. That's just stupid. Sean Penny 93rd. There's some very good running back values in the late 80s, 90s, early 100s on CBS and on NFC. So I buy it. I buy it.

That's when you start taking chances on these guys, right? The ones that we have uncertainty about? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. Uh, uh,

let's see. Jameis Winston took part in seven on seven drills, but Michael Thomas has a hamstring issue. So right now, if you're drafting today, you take Michael Thomas. When fourth round in PPR,

fifth and none. Sounds about right. I might be a little more bullish than that. Okay. Joe Burrow is participating. This is going to be something, though, that if you are targeting, Michael Thomas will help you. Because his ADP was starting to creep up.

Yep. All right. Joe Burrow is back participating in Team Drill, so that is good to see. We're going to take a break. He was rocking it. Oh, what do we got? Logan Thomas off the pup.

Oh, good. Good. That Oh, good. Good. That's really good. That's another late round tight end. Yeah. Would you take him over Mike Kosicki, Dave? Yes.

Yes. I think I already had him right. Logan Thomas on pup over Mike Kosicki. Yeah, I'm not there yet, but we'll see. Logan Thomas had a game where he played something like two snaps, had no stats. If you were to remove that game, he was top eight in PPR last year. You would never remove that. Everybody should remove that.

That means he's been a top eight tight end two years in a row per game, Logan Thomas. Okay, let's take a quick break. When we come back, more week two winners and losers, more news items. We'll try to get to your emails. I think we have to spend more time on guys like Chase Edmonds, Romeo Dobbs. Boy, Davis Mills was awful.

Does anyone care about that? We'll be right back on Fantasy Football. Nick McCollum wasn't, though. No, he was not. But he was until the very end of the first half. Finally, Davis Mills got into the groove. All right, we'll be right back on Fantasy Football today. Here's a segment called Best of the Best.

It's very inappropriate. It's just wrong. It's just the best in these certain situations. It should be more like best of the worst. But I'm going to give you ADP based on NFC, ADP over the last week, and give me the best values in certain spots. Best Buffalo running back value.

Is it Singletary in round eight, James Cook in round nine, or Zach Moss, who's basically free? Moss is free. Okay, let's expand. Dave, you say Singletary in round eight. Jamie says Moss, who's free. Dave?

Well, we know who the starting running back is in Buffalo. I thought he looked good. This is going to be an awesome offense. I definitely want pieces of this offense, and he's going to be the lead back that's there. Moss did a great job in short yardage goal line situations. It was Singletary who played with the starters. I think he's going to continue to.

I don't think he's done anything to lose being the primary running back on this team. I don't think he's going to be a dominant player. Cook's going to play, and Moss will play when he's healthy. I think we've overlooked him, and I'm done overlooking him. I think he's an outstanding RB3. I agree with everything Dave said, but if you're telling me that one is free

and one is taking in round eight, if Singletary gets hurt, Moss could be a monster. Obviously, I think the big concern with Singletary is that he just doesn't catch the ball nearly enough. And I can deal with that, honestly. It's if he loses goal line opportunities. Yeah. That would really just be so annoying.

Then you have a guy who's 65, 70 total yards, one, two catches, and just rarely scoring. And what do you do with that guy? I don't know. Dave, you seem more optimistic. That guy you put on your bench, but I don't think that's going to be Devin Singletary. I think he scored six great games to end last year.

Yeah. So I don't know if he's done anything to lose the short yardage goal line job. It doesn't mean that he won't once the season gets going, but I think I just, I have a hard time believing that the bills are going to get near the goal line. They're going to say, okay, stop everything. Let's get Zach Moss in here. He's been standing on the sideline with his helmet over his head. Let's, let's just get them in and have them finish the job. No, but it could be the quarterback though. Oh, there's no point. Oh, I'm not projecting. I don't think Devin Singletary

scoring 17 touchdowns. The thing that you've got to worry about, though, is, and, you know, there are, usually every city has a pretty good, if not outstanding, beat writer. For me, Joe Biscaglia, who covers the Bills for the Athletic, is the guy I go to there. And he's been, from the get-go,

Zach Moss is not going away. Zach Moss is going to have a role. They're not getting rid of Zach Moss. He's going to continue to play. He's not going to be inactive on game day anymore he's had a great offseason now he gets hurt all the time so that should certainly help Singletary if that's the case if he gets hurt once again but if Cook is going to have this role in passing downs which you just haven't seen with the first team offense this preseason no they're saving right I think he's going to and if Moss works it's you know it it's easy to say moss is going to come in on goal line situation moss is going to work in on on other downs if he's healthy and

active so it's just how much is singletary coming off the field in those situations and so i think singletary looked great and and he finished last season great and yet dave is right we have been sort of downgrading him and pushing him down a little bit too much but you just have to know what you're getting you could be getting a lot of empty work. Joe Biscaglia of The Athletic is the only thing that's preventing me from drafting Devin Singletary because I do trust him.

But it's easy to say I don't buy it with Zach Moss. And Singletary has been really good. Three straight years, there's two advanced stats that I look at a lot. It's explosive run rate, which is the percentage of runs that go for 12 or more yards, and avoid rate, avoid the tackle rate. And he's been top 11 in both metrics all three seasons. He's great at them.

He's especially great at just making a dude miss. He's got this unbelievable micro agility. His start-stop is able to just stop on a dime, make a little move. Defender goes bye-bye, he moves forward. He did that in college, and he's doing that now. And he's yards per carry. The thing he's been really bad at is efficiency in the passing game, but

Devin Singletary, I would just finish by saying he's been a pretty underrated running back, but the guy who knows so much about the Bills suggests that Moss is going to be a factor. All right, how about the best Patriots running back value? Again, this is based on ADP on NFC. Over the last week, NFC is high-stakes leagues,

and over the past week is 121 drafts. The best, sorry, lost the note there. The best Patriots running back value is Mondre Stevenson at the 7-8 turn in a 12-team league, Damian Harris round eight, or Ty Montgomery late? Ty Montgomery late.

I think that's where I'm going to land, too. Okay. Best rookie wide receiver, not based on any value, just who's the best rookie wide receiver i still have trail on berks oh wow okay let's talk about that dave go ahead there was some weird stuff going on with sky more with george pickens and with trail and burst i i i get where rabel's coming from when he said that he was impressed with how Traylon Brooks looked.

I was too. I think he showed good speed. I think his route running was good. He ran a route on 19 dropbacks. That includes four quarterback runs in a sack. He had good speed. He had good cuts. He was overthrown on a fade.

A deep ball that he got was underthrown. It was an interception. He probably should have fought harder to get the interception. I wonder if it's the old school approach of you're a rookie and you've got to work to get yourself in shape. And maybe he wasn't all the way in shape. I think the Titans would be foolish to not use Traylon Burks at the start of the year. And I've got him ranked too high right now. But the only reason why I'm going to move him down is because I think you can still get him a round or two later than where I think he's okay going or what he'll be worth. So he's going to be my favorite, but he's not going to end up being ranked my favorite.

With Skymore and with Pickens, I felt like they were hiding in plain sight, Pickens especially. If you watch the film of the game, it felt like he wasn't running at full speed. It felt like he was running clear out routes. He wasn't juking. He wasn't doing anything until Deontay Johnson and Chase Claypool were out of the game. He played with more juice on two routes in the second half,

and then he was out of there. So I wonder, like, if this were George Pickens' first game, you would take him at 155th, and you might even think twice about it. And Sky Moore was close to having a touchdown. Mahomes underthrew him a little bit. There's a rhythm issue there that I think they can work out. I think he's going to be their best receiver against man coverage this year, and I think he'll be good against zone coverage.

I still love taking Sky Moore, and I will take him after Kelsey and Juju among the Chiefs receivers. Thank you for coming to my rookie talk. The thing about the Titans with Traylon Burks is you say that he has to earn his strike space. No, I think he's just got to learn, not necessarily earn. Okay, well, I mean, you said the old school approach. They're not doing that with Ryan Phillips, their other rookie wide receiver.

They're letting him play, and he's looked much better than Traylon Burks at this point. I think when you look at the rookies for me, the pecking order right now goes London by a lot, and then Pickens would be two. Alave would be three. Yeah, that's another one who's awesome. Dotson would be four. Dubs five.

Dubs. Colbert six. No, I'm sorry. Burks, Dubs 5. Dubs. Colbert 6. No, I'm sorry. Burks, Dubs. No, wait. Dots and Burks, Dubs. I'm trying to think how to rank. Dots and Burks, Dubs.

Skymore. And Alec Pierce had a good preseason game, too. He's got a lot of buzz. Jamie, we've got to get you on the Dobbs train. Dobbs. Okay? Is that okay? Josh Dobbs is a good quarterback.

Okay. That might be the best Browns quarterback that could play. Maybe. Maybe. How about best Green Bay wide receiver value? Lazard in round seven, Dobbs in round 12, or anyone else later? It's Lazard. Best value is Dobbs in round 12.

Really? The word is value. You keep saying value. I know, but I mean, Dobbs might not even be a starter. He might barely play at the start of the year. Lazard in round seven is potentially the number one guy. You know what? I'm going to change my answer.

To? Randall Cobb. Free. is potentially the number one guy. You know what? I'm going to change my answer. Two? Randall Cobb. Free. Free. Give me Randall Cobb for free. If that's the case, we're going free. I'll take Watkins. I'm still going to take Lazard.

He'll be awesome in week one. Dobbs is impressive. He did have two more drops, but they were not horrible drops. They were, you know, especially the one where he got his head turned around. It was a tough play. But the guy's making plays, and he's making them downfield too. So I don't know what to do because the report was, you know,

he's the number four receiver. And that's probably what happens in week one. But that's the deal with rookie wide receivers. It takes, a lot of times it takes a few weeks, and then they get more playing time, and then they get more production. Do we draft Romeo Dobbs and just stash him? You could.

You're not drafting him to be a starter. You could draft him. You could stash him. And if by week three he's not crushing it for Green Bay, then you move on to someone else. But I'm worried that that's going to be the case. It's one thing to play and be the third receiver, or maybe even the second receiver for the Packers. It's another thing for him to be so productive that fantasy managers want to have him on their

team. I absolutely loved the touchdown catch that he had. There was so much technique in there that a lot of rookies just don't have that he did, but he was also, he was also covered on a lot of other routes that he ran in the game against new Orleans by mediocre cornerbacks. He was covered. So I'm a little worried about the speed element, but if he's going to keep making plays and playing with high level technique, uh, he's, he's going to find the field eventually. He's just not going to... I think he finds the field when the Packers realize that Sammy Watkins doesn't have it anymore.

And they might not have realized that yet. And they might not for a month. There's also the Christian Watson factor who... Yeah, that guy might matter a little bit too. That might be the guy that I want to take late. We're forgetting about Christian Watson. Yeah. I'd love to see something from him.

All right, last one here. Best Denver wide receiver value. Sutton 37th overall or Judy 52nd? Judy. I'll say Sutton. I want to talk more about Chase Edmonds. I just do want to throw out a name before people, you know, I don't know, turn off the show.

Don't do that. Jonathan Ward is a name to know. He's an Arizona rookie running back. He left with a shoulder injury. And ESPN's Josh Weinfuss says that Ward is in contention for the backup role. And it's just hard to really be impressed with Eno Benjamin this preseason. Ward seems to have a little bit more juice. So just keep him in mind.

But also, I don't know who would be good in that secondary role. What's that? In Arizona, you know who would be great in that secondary role? Chase Edmonds. Antonio Gibson. Huh? I want to see what happens to Myles Gaskin if he gets cut where he goes. But I just keep thinking, you know, Edmonds is obviously a good player.

And when he wasn't there, I've said this a million times, James Conner was the second best running back in fantasy football. Only Jonathan Taylor scored more points per game than James Conner did when Chase Edmonds didn't play. If he stays healthy, he's going to be a monster. Who is going to take him off the field? They have, it seems to me, pretty weak competition. I know he's not going to be an every down back.

He's not going to play 80% of the snaps, but he might play the passing snaps. But he did those five games, right? Those three games, whatever. Yeah, yeah. No, it was five or six. I think it was five games that Edmonds missed and one that he left early, or it was four, very early.

Four that he missed and one that he left. It was five or six. And so Connor was a beast. I don't think they'll do that full season, but I just feel like I'm making a huge mistake by not having any James Connor. I don't know how you guys feel. And when you,

when you want to draft James Connor, it is a fair comparison to when you talk about and, and granted age matters here, but Saquon and, and, and James Connor, when you look at their injury track records and how much games they missed and even McCaffrey for that matter,

because you mentioned it, you saw what the heights were for Conner in this offense last year when he was the guy, and we know what he did in Pittsburgh when Le'Veon Bell set out the season first contract scenario. So he's shown you the ability to be an elite-level fantasy running back. Now the question becomes is will Arizona allow it like you brought up, Adam, and can he stay healthy because he's missed so much time but to to be drafting him at this point around later than barkley might be a huge mistake hey jamie can i borrow your bridge he's the bridge he's the bridge between the the really

good high-end number two running backs and the group of Montgomery, Zeke, Brees Hall. And I think people recognize the downfall with Connor and the fact that every time we've loved him going into a year, he's underwhelmed and he's gotten hurt. And every time that we said, ah, it's James Connor, who cares? He ends up being great. And I don't know if he's played back-to-back seasons of not missing much time. That's something that's easy to check on. I could do that in a second. But I think that he's the bridge running back this year.

I think he's the last of the reliable high-end number twos. So, Javante Williams or James Conner? The three I struggle with, honestly, are Nick Chubb, Javante Williams, and James Conner. Like, I have in PPR right now, I have Javante, Chubb giovante williams and and james connor like i have uh in ppr right now i have giovante chubb connor and i feel like flipping that um the the melvin gordon quote is hard to overlook yeah um but connor might be the best of that group by far i have those guys ahead of connor connor's played at least 10 games every year of his career.

Last year he played in 15. He was awesome. The year before in Pittsburgh, he played in 13, but he didn't see as much work from game to game as he did in 2020. Well, he's playing through like eight injuries. Right, right, right. And that's another thing. He might be even worse for some fantasy managers

because if he's playing hurt, he's not nearly as productive. And you don't know whether you can feel good starting him even in a favorable matchup. But I think he's worth that round three pick for sure. All right, guys. Because of the upside. So how about Chase Edmonds? Jamie, where are you on Chase Edmonds?

He played the first 10 snaps with the starters for the Dolphins. Borderline top 20 guy in PPR. Low end number two running back in non-PPR. You mentioned that the offensive line was not fully intact and the receiving core not fully intact. And to be fair, no Mostert in this game also. But clearly the usage was fantastic. The one big reception that he had where the play broke down into a hit him,

you know, as the two of them were in sync running to their left. He's going to be their lead guy. Just a question by how much, but certainly his role in the passing game is, is solidified. And so, you know,

we're, we're downgrading a Secchi understandably. So who's going to be the third guy in the passing game? Because we know the top two are, are, are locked in. Is itably so. Who's going to be the third guy in the passing game? Because we know the top two are locked in. Is it Sed Wilson? Is it going to be the rookie? I'm not going to try and pronounce his name. Eric E.

Eric E, who had a strong preseason game, but obviously getting a lot of buzz. Will they work another back in there? If Gaskin makes the team to maybe keep Edmonds fresh, and we don't see Edmonds in passing downs, but that'd be his mistake. I doubt that's the case. But I think Edmonds, based on what this offense wants to do, running the ball, how successful they'll be, we'll find out. You know, he had three carries for three yards.

But again, you know, backups, but he was also facing backups. So I just think if this is the usage and this is the type of guy you're getting with how many catches he may have based on what he showed us in Arizona I just think if this is the usage and this is the type of guy you're getting, with how many catches he may have, based on what he showed us in Arizona when he did get work, he could be top 15 running back easily. He's a breakout for sure. Definitely could have over 1,000 total yards, could have six, seven touchdowns. Okay.

Could have 60 catches. Chase Edmonds or Tony Pollard? Edmonds. Edmonds by a lot. I'm taking Edmonds or Tony Pollard? Edmonds. Edmonds by a lot. I'm taking Edmonds over Josh Jacobs. I'm taking him over Sanders. I'm taking him over Akers in PPR. I'm taking him over Pierce, over Clyde Ezelair.

Where do you have him? Dylan. What round are you recommending? Right now, around five in PPR. Okay. That's high. Six, I think. Okay. Does it bother you that T a tongue of aloha through two seasons just has not thrown to his running backs much at all

very yeah and and look to be fair the the 49ers you know aside from carlos high the first year kyle shannon was their their their primary rusher hasn't been a big receiver but that's also i think by design because of kyleuszczyk, too. I think Edmonds is going to – I don't think – we say this all the time. How much is the coordinator taking the head coach job going to do exactly what the head coach did? I think McDaniels is going to have his own spin on this thing. And so you look at this group. To me, he's their third-best pass catcher.

Or I shouldn't say that. Gusecki's their third-best pass catcher. I'm not going to use him like that. Edmonds is probably going to be their third best pass catcher. So I think what Dave said, 60 catches on the table. All right, we're going to finish up

with just a few more thoughts on the preseason games. Let's start with Carolina at New England. What did you make of the way the Patriots played their running backs? They gave Harris the first and fourth series, Stevenson the second and fifth series, Montgomery the third and sixth series.

And those guys played basically every down on those series. You know, they were on, they were on the field on passing downs. So I don't, this is not something you see in a regular season game, but Jamie, what did you think of,

uh, of the Patriots running backs coming out of that game against Carolina? Well, if there's anybody you want to trust is Matt Patricia and Joe judge. I mean, if they know how to call offense, nobody else is even close um i like that they're giving harrison stevenson opportunities to play in obvious passing down situations that's certainly something we did not see from harris last year and if he does get those opportunities then he is going to smash his adp if he stays

healthy because he will get the majority of rushing downs work but as we saw at the end of last season based on how they use both him and Stevenson it's hard to expect that and then with everything Montgomery has done this preseason based on his previous track record of being a receiver it just makes a lot of sense for him to start the year in the James White role so it's going to be messy you have to just understand what you're getting with these guys Harris should be the one that's probably drafted first I'm surprised that Stevenson's ADP has crept ahead of him which shows that obviously people are buying the hype but he needs a Harris injury to be a guaranteed starter unless he's the passing down guy but again it just doesn't seem like that but

I do like the opportunity to give these guys a chance to audition for different spots and so we'll see but what that also says is it's probably going to be messy until there's an injury because they may not take Montgomery off the field in obvious rushing down situations and they may not put Montgomery on the field in obvious passing down situations so whoever's on the field could benefit whether it's Harris or Stevens. Does it bother you that Montgomery was the one that played 10 of 16 snaps with Mac Jones? No, those drives were longer. He's the one that's got to learn the offense the most and learn his job the most.

But it's also like Adam said. Yeah, I don't think that's what it was at all. I think that they would have played as long as they went. But the first two drives were three and outs, as I recall. And that was Harris and Stevenson. And then the third drive was when New England's offense finally got going. And that was Ty Montgomery's drive. That's the way I interpreted that situation here.

And, you know, I'm pretty sure I feel good about that. It's even like with the Eagles situation, like with Gainwell and Scott. These coaches, they don't game plan for preseason games, but they do have personnel plans for preseason games. And so, you know, when things start to unfold, like, you know, there were some people freaking out about Travis Etienne's usage in the game against the Steelers. They had two unbelievably long drives on their two field goal drives. The second and third drives for them were just ridiculously long. So when Snoop Conner was coming in and in some third down situations,

I think that was just Etienne's probably exhausted, you know. So whether that would have been James Robinson coming in or Etienne coming in for Robinson, they would have brought somebody else in there anyway. You know, so Montgomery playing more snaps. I think that was that was his drive. No matter what happens, this is your. Yeah, that that's I'm pretty sure that's what it was. But I think that Montgomery is definitely going to be the two minute drill back.

I think he's locked in to start. He's so underrated in PPR leagues. And yes, he's he's got the potential drafts. I think he's absolutely in. To start. He's so underrated in PPR leagues. Yes, he's free in drafts. I think he's absolutely worth taking late in drafts. I'm kicking myself for taking Amir Abdullah over him in the Kings Classic with my last pick. I wish I could go back and do it again. Huh?

Abdullah's the same thing. Maybe, but I think I'd rather have the Patriots won than the Raiders. Yeah, but you say that, though. But who's calling plays for the Raiders? It's the Patriots guy that they did when they get close it might lead to a lot of games where he has four catches Abdullah but he's not scoring like I I don't know man I think that Montgomery's got a chance to I don't disagree that Montgomery's better but they're basically the same and and I think you know just one more guy to me Josh Jacobs feels like a loser too because you're talking

about a situation where he's dealing with some undisclosed injury, who knows what it is. And that they gave Abdul of the starters treatment and said, okay, you're not playing. Don't worry about it. You're good. You know, he's playing on passing out situations. And Zemir White just continues to look better each time.

So I'm worried about Jacobs, especially as ADP on CBS. He's a fourth round. He's the 19th running back off the board in round four. That's just too soon. That's too soon. But I'm, I'm okay about Jacobs, especially his ADP on CBS. He's a fourth round. He's the 19th running back off the board in round four. That's just too soon. That's too soon. But I'm okay with Jacobs. I feel better about him than I do a lot of other running backs that we've talked about.

Is there anything else I'm missing? We love the Gabriel Davis 28-yard touchdown catch. He looked great. When you see – okay, let me ask you this. Isaiah McKenzie, can't help with that. Well, let me ask you this question here that's a little buzzier, right? So when you look at Jahan Dotson and Curtis Samuel making some plays for Washington,

Gabriel Davis and Isaiah McKenzie for Buffalo, there was one more. I don't remember who it was, but maybe it was Romeo Davis. I don't know. Are you worried at all about Diggs living up to his value early second round or basically one-two turn? Are you worried about McLaurin maybe four or five turn to 12 team league, you know, top 50 pick.

Are you worried about these guys and their target share and their production based on the competition they have digs and McLaurin? I'm worried about digs a little. I moved him behind Devante Adams. I'm not, he's just, I think Wentz until the end of his time played pretty well. I thought he threw the ball pretty well. So I'm, I think McLaurin is going to be fine as long as he's on the field.

Diggs is still going to be a second round pick. I don't think he should be a first round pick. Yeah. I have no problem with Diggs in round one. I think this is only going to help him just, okay, now we got to worry about somebody else. There's Josh Allen. Okay. And yeah, think this is only going to help him just okay now we got to worry about somebody else there's

josh allen okay and yeah the bills did throw well over 600 times last year i can't he can't he got ahead zero targets on 21 snaps so that's amazing especially when there was you know not a lot of options to throw to i mean that's just i would i would draft him in round 23. I truly hope that they start Colin Johnson over him. I truly hope that happens. He's earned it. Davis Mills was really bad. Did that concern... Now, there was no Cooks.

There was no Damian Pierce, no Laramie Tunsell, their left tackle. But he was 10 of 17 against backups. 10 of 17 for 96 yards and a touchdown. And almost all of it came on the last drive of the first half. And, you know, I don't know. I mean, he had a solid rookie year, but he didn't have a good PFF grade.

The advanced metrics weren't good on Davis Mills, so I'm wondering if it was really a mirage, and he was so bad. I don't want to make too much of it. How much do you care about these struggles of Davis Mills? If he was struggling with Brandon cooks on the field and his full compliment of weapons offensive line as well, you know what you're getting?

I mean, look, his job is not to win you fancy leagues. His job is to get Brandon cooks to win you fancy leagues. And we saw that last year. We saw what he did with Nico Collins. So I think it's going to have a, a very good sophomore season and Brevin Jordans should be in the late round tight end range. So, yeah, I mean, he's, he's, he's going to have a very good sophomore season. And Brevin Jordan should be in the late-round tight end range.

So, yeah, I mean, he's flawed, but he's Carson Wentz flawed. You know, you kind of know what you're getting with him. He's going to have some good performances, some bad performances. Just don't ruin the receivers on the team. Will he maximize them? Probably not. But I don't think he's going to crush their value. I've moved Cooks down a little a little bit and I moved Collins up. I think Collins is another name to keep in mind with one of your last three

picks on draft day. If he makes it that far, it might have to be last four or five picks on draft day. He looked jittery. I think he was shook. I think the Rams made him nervous. I think he got rid of the ball a little too quick at times. And he was off target a lot.

He did straighten out toward the end. I think his last two completions were really good. Yes. And I think it was a good decision to throw up the jump ball to Nico Collins and to give him a contested catch opportunity. So is it a bad game? Yeah, we have a trade. Big trade.

Quarterback trade. Huge trade. Quarterback trade. Nick Mullins. Nick Mullins from the Raiders to the Vikings for his seventh round pick in 2024. That seems like a good way to end the show, although my final thought, Elijah Mitchell is so far and away

the best running back on San Francisco right now and could definitely be a steal. He could be a steal if he keeps falling. If we knew which other running back would definitely get the most work when Mitchell misses time, I'd be okay

raising Mitchell up, but we just don't know if it's going to be Wilson or Sermon. I don't think it's TDP. He's away from the team for personal, or he's been missing time for personal reasons. But would that have prohibited him from playing or he has missed time for personal reasons?

Is that why he hasn't been playing in the preseason? Who's this? Wilson? Yes. I don't know, but you're not seeing much from Trey Sermon and TDP. No. I thought Sermon looked better than him.

He got stuff, which was tough to watch. Yeah. All right, guys. That's it for today's show. Thanks, everybody. And we'll talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football Day. I think we're playing poker tonight,

so hopefully we'll see you there. But at the very least, we'll see you at 8 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday night. Did you see Brady when he came out for practice today? Was he wearing a mask? No.

I mean, he was dressed for practice. Like a Masked a mask? No. I mean, he was dressed for practice. Like a Masked Singer mask? No, but he was dancing. It looks like he was given the DX chop, but he was doing it like he was 65 years old. All right. Looking forward to seeing you guys. Bye, everybody.