Fantasy Football Today - Winners and Losers! Rashee Rice is Moving Up, The Steelers are Moving Down (08/19 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 19, 2024

Want to be in our next mock draft and have a shot at being on air? Check out our St. Jude Draft-a-Thon Store here: https://tiltify.com/@fftfundraising/fantasy-football-today-draftathon-2024 Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts We're recapping Preseason Week 2 with our biggest winners (3:00) including Jayden Daniels who had another great outing. But we also have to talk about the Steelers offense (6:00) as Jaylen Warren is hurt and the entire offense looked bad in Week 2. Thoughts on Najee Harris (13:00) and also Davante Adams now that Gardner Minshew has been named the starter ... Biggest Week 2 losers (19:50) with Keenan Allen moving down in Dave's rankings. Then we discuss the Dolphins backfield (25:10), a new stat to show how great Anthony Richardson was last season (26:00) and Taysom Hill's role in the Saints offense ... News and notes (31:00), more rankings risers (32:45) including the Chiefs wide receivers (40:15) and Ken Walker plus some deep league WRs. Then we talk about more losers (52:10) and wonder if the Texans WRs can ever be consistent. We finish with a bunch of preseason takeaways ... Your emails at [e-mail] Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. 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. Welcome to Fantasy Football Today, presented by BetMGM, the sportsbook born in Vegas. Home of Gardner Minshew, starting quarterback for Las Vegas. We'll talk about that. Jalen Warren's got an injury that might keep him out in week one. Maybe a little bit longer than that. Hopefully he can get back, though. Adam Azer with Dave Richard and Heath Cummings, and it is a Monday morning episode, August 19th. It is draft season.

I know everybody's getting their FFT Open draft started pretty soon. A lot of you out there have your home leagues coming up, and we're going to help you looking at everything that you may have missed. Hopefully you did miss it. Hopefully you went out and had an amazing weekend and didn't watch the backups in preseason, but we did, so we'll tell you what you need to know. Good morning, Heath. How was your breakfast that you just finished? Well, I didn't watch the backups in preseason, but we did. So we'll tell you what you need to know. Good morning, Heath.

How was your breakfast that you just finished? Well, I didn't quite finish it. I've got a little bit of sausage and eggs sitting over here in a bowl. I wanted to welcome, we've got a new listener, it looks like, in the chat. So welcome to Josh QB4 Allen. It's good to have you. Good to have you. Peyton Manning ranked his top five quarterbacks.

I don't know if they were in order, but the way it was listed had Josh Allen fifth. It was Mahomes, Burrow, Herbert, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen. That was his top five. Again, I don't know if it was in order. I saw the story on our website. Dave, if you were going to guess Heath's breakfast, 100% would have been sausage and cheese, right?

No, I think he would have been with something a little more foofy. Heath doesn't strike me. Like Heath strikes me absolutely as, you know, meat man. But I don't know if I'd necessarily say that he would have that at breakfast. He strikes me as someone that might have like a little bit of yogurt, some other type of grain. At Heath's Meat. Not a big grain guy. Did smoke 10 pounds of pulled pork yesterday.

That's Heath's Cuttings. Big, big meat night last night. But yeah, sausage and eggs, pretty standard. Adam said sausage and cheese. I like cheese. There's no cheese in this bowl today. But sausage and eggs, pretty standard breakfast fare. Although I enjoy a Greek yogurt here and there.

Good for you. All right, let's get to the show. We got winners and losers, risers and fallers. I'm assuming some of these guys may have been winners without actually moving up in the rankings. Maybe it just solidified what you thought. Same thing with fallers and losers. I have a lot to promote and a lot of great things that you can purchase right now to benefit St. Jude on our tiltify page. So I'll get to that in a moment, including six spots in the podcast league.

But Dave, why don't you start with your biggest riser or biggest winner? My biggest winner. Isn't somebody that I think fantasy managers are going to go. Well, maybe they will go crazy for Jaden Daniels because to me, it's more than just what we saw in the preseason game against Miami. I thought he looked good in that game. It's the practice that I saw two days before the game. He's accurate and he

can move and he's got speed. And we know that it's, it's tough for a rookie quarterback to come in and be great right off the bat. He, he looks the part, he looks the part of a quarterback who can come in, put up good numbers right away. I moved him into my top 10. I know that Jamie was ahead of me on that. Good on him. But I do believe that he's worth taking as one of the first 10 quarterbacks on draft day. And you do need to draft another quarterback with him, but I've seen enough through the preseason in practice through reports. It looks like he's going to be a very, very good fantasy quarterback this year. Okay, yeah.

So he did play against some Dolphins starters, and Jaden Daniels went 10 of 12 for 78 yards, which is something that we would probably criticize like Russell Wilson or Bo Nix for. He also had two carries for 13 yards in about a quarter. They could not finish their drives. He led them to two field goals against the dolphins. So that's Jaden Daniels.

The second week in a row, we're highlighting him and he just looks good. He's having a good preseason meal. He hasn't really been named the starter yet. We certainly expected. So are you kidding? They're not going to go with Jeff Driscoll or who at Marcus Mariota. I just saying it hasn't officially,

it's just funny that it hasn't officially been named, but yeah, you know, it's, it's just like't officially been named, but yeah, you know, it's, it's just like bone X in Denver. Like, you know, it's going to happen.

So, um, and the best part about Daniels is you don't have to reach for him. Okay. I have, I have more things here. I have a segment called the likely O meter. So I'm just going to sprinkle it in.

As we talk about these guys, likely O meter zero to 10. How likely is it? Zero. Not likely at all. 10 going to 10. How likely is it? Zero? Not likely at all. 10 going to happen. Jaden Daniels is just straight up better than Anthony Richardson this season.

Zero to 10 on the likely o-meter. Four. Yeah, it's going to be right around there. I think the only way that he's truly better is if Richardson misses time. Okay. So I,

I don't agree with that at all. I said four meaning cause 10 was it's a lock, right? And zero was no chance. Yes. Right. So five would be coin at all. I said four, meaning because 10 was it's a lock, right? And zero was no chance. Yes. Right. So five would be coin flip. Yeah.

So four, five would be a coin flip. Like it's in the middle of a lock and no chance. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, so is it, Adam. I think it's not that unlikely. Yeah. We see similar profiles here. So looking at NFc average draft position

over the last four days 50 drafts jayden daniels is qb 11 anthony richardson is qb6 but they're 32 picks apart so that's maybe a way to get some value heath who's your biggest riser or winner i'm trying to decide i think i'm just going to go ahead and really throw this off the rails adam and put my biggest riser and my biggest loser in the same answer my biggest riser in no no okay no chance that you can guess i know guess a million times you're moving rishi rice well i saw you tweet about rishi rice is it not not involve him he is a riser and we will talk about him later but my biggest rankings riser of the weekend was the atlanta falcons defense they added matthew judon they added justin simmons they get to play the pittsburgh steelers in week one and if there is a team that has scared me to death this preseason it's the steelers. Their offensive line is,

they've got multiple injuries on the offensive line. They're not blocking anyone. Jalen Warren now, their most explosive running back, has a hamstring injury. Week one is in serious doubt. And he goes out of the game, and the first team offense is still in. And you know what we need to do?

Let's run a toss to Cordero Patterson. Arthur Smith is doing arthur smith things darnell washington's playing just as many snaps as pat fryer mooth and that's not because they're in two tight end sets all the time fryer moves playing like 55 of the snaps with the starters the quarterbacks neither one of them really look very good the only thing that looks good about this offense right now is when justin fields takes off running. I don't think Justin Fields is going to start. Okay, likely-ometer. Ready?

0-10. George Pickens is a bust because the Steelers' offense is bad. Feels like a 5. I did drop George Pickens outside of my top 20 wide receivers, but I'm still ahead of his ADP. His ADP, I think, has fallen to around six now. I'm going to say that it is a three because I don't think he's going to be a bust for like around six pick as a boom bust wide receiver three.

I think it's exactly what he looks like. You you know, the one thing that we do not want to have happen now, based on what we've seen through two Steelers preseason games is the Steelers making a trade for Brandon. Iuke. Cause that'll probably be very bad for not just Iuke, but for Pickens as well. Okay. Yeah.

I look, obviously he's not. Pickens is like, he's kind of like Malik Neighbors now, only I probably have more faith in the Steelers offense than Daniel Jones. Oh, yeah. And he's going later than Neighbor, a lot later. Like, looking at these NFC drafts,

Malik Neighbors over the last four days, granted, there's, I don't know if people are going to react strongly to what they saw on Saturday. Maybe they were encouraged by Neighbors, but Neighbors is wide receiver 19 and Pickens is wide receiver 28. So that's still phenomenal value on Pickens. And I will say that I'm writing my sleepers, breakouts, and busts this week. I've already just put in Slack my mega breakouts article with 21 league-winning breakouts.

That will be out later today. Busts coming later in the week. But Malik Neighbors is not going to be on my bust list because in CBS ADP, he has an ADP of 63rd overall, round six. I think that's exactly where he should be going. Okay, more on that in a minute. Here are some things that we need to promote. Okay, a lot of stuff.

I got a live mock draft tomorrow night, Tuesday night, Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern, and that is on youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday. I've done a terrible job promoting it, so we haven't sold a single spot. It's $50 to get in. It all goes to St. Jude. Go to tinyurl.com slash draftathon2024. Everything I'm about to say is on that website,

tinyurl.com slash draftathon2024. So there's 11 spots available to be in my mock draft Tuesday night at 8 p.m. There are 11 spots available to be in Jamie's mock draft Thursday. The time is on there. It's probably at noon Eastern, but it's Thursday afternoon. So we've got a bunch of mock draft spots to fill. Remember, you're going to be in it, and it's going to help us create content, and you get to donate to St. Jude at the same time. Then if you go to the auction page, so if you scroll down on that page,

on tinyurl.com slash draftathon2024, Schaefer, maybe you can go back there and scroll down, and click on the auction house portion of that, you're going to see where you can bid on being on Team Adam or Team Dan for our tennis match. And if the highest bid for Team Adam gets to co-manage a team with me in the FFT League, not the FFT Open, different league, and the highest bid on Team Schneier gets to co-manage a team with Dan. There's also an appearance on this podcast that you can earn. And we only have about four days left here for you to bid on this.

So you've got to go to the auction house portion of this website and you can bid to be on the show or be a co-manager on my team or Dan's team in our fantasy football today league. When is the match? The match we haven't determined yet. I mean, I'm ready to go to today. Dan is obviously getting a little bit scared. So he wants to get some games under his belt because he realizes I'm better than he thought that I was. So I don't know when the match is, but it's happening. It will happen. Like it's been approved by the bosses. It's up on the website.

It's going to happen. Do did you like cuss at Jamie in text when he leaked the footage of you practicing? No, that was very funny stuff, though. And additionally, if you go to that auction section later today, you will see six spots available to be in our podcast league, which is a week from today, Monday night, August 26th at 9 p.m. Eastern. If you can't make that time, do not bid to be in the league, but you can bid on six spots and we're doing it by pick. So you can bid to be the number one pick, the number 14 pick. I think I'm doing one, four, eight, nine, 12, and 14.

Those picks are going to be available for you to purchase. All of it goes to St. Jude. Let's raise thousands of dollars here. And please go to tinyurl.com slash draftathon2024. You'll see some entries there. Scroll down, click on the auction house. You'll see some other entries there. And I'm sorry for taking so much time to promote things,

but that's what's happening we'll be right worth it's for a good cause we'll be right back on fantasy football today did you know 66 of utility damage is caused by not requesting a locate don't let your project become part of this statistic a quick locate request can save you from unexpected downtime financial penalties and keep you safe don't let avoidable damage cost you time and money. Click before you dig. Ensure your next project is safe. Visit OntarioOneCall.ca.

It's free. It's easy. It's the law. Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report. Before we get into the risers and fallers here go to the fallers and we have we talk about keenan allen we have to talk about the jaguars receivers we have to talk about uh the steel wars running backs that's what i want to do right now i don't want to bury the lead a little bit any longer um what are you guys doing with naji harris jaylen warren as warren has a hamstring injury and

he could miss some time early in the season and then we'll talk about the raiders passing game with gardner minhew under center. Heath, your thoughts on the Steelers running backs as they get ready, apparently, for Atlanta in week one. I just found we just found that out. I dropped Jalen Warren more than I moved Najee up because I don't think that. I mean, I think Cordero Patterson might just take the Jalen Warren touches. Um, and I got more discouraged by the offense. So I probably would have dropped both of them if Jalen Warren had stayed healthy.

I think Warren is just outside of my top 30 running backs. Now, nausea is just outside of my top 20 running backs now. I would take Najee at the end of round six. I'm very close to you on this stuff. Najee is 21st for me among running backs. He's around six pick. I did move Warren down more so than moved up Najee. I'm nervous about the Steelers offense as well. So Warren's one of my guys. I love him, but in PPR, I think he's at best a late round eight pick that being said, like the fact that he's hurt, there's an injury tag next to his name. I wonder if he falls a little bit in drafts and if I'm getting him in round 10, something like that, I'm loving it because the injury is bad right now. He might miss week one. It doesn't

mean he's going to miss the whole season. and there's always still the chance that he ends up being the best running back in full ppr in pittsburgh like he was last year absolutely and you know last year he okay i i kind of get a little bothered by we say that a lot he was the best running back in full ppr it was by like a tenth of a yeah i know they were basically tied in full ppr last year and that that was with Jalen Warren having 61 catches and Najee Harris having 29. But here's something to know. On first and second down, Najee Harris had 245 carries. Jalen Warren had 134 carries of his 149. So this is not—I'm sure most of you know this. This is not a third down back situation. These guys rotate in on both downs. Warren kind of owns third down, but they certainly rotate in on first and second down. So that actually could really help Najee Harris if Cordell or Patterson only gets a chunk of that. There's a lot of first and second down

carries there that Warren was going to take. But I want to look at DeAndre Hopkins and where he's been going, right? DeAndre Hopkins has been falling so far. Well, now we just got a report. He's probably going to play in week one. So this is an opportunity maybe for you to take advantage of Jalen Warren really falling. And the way you were drafting him, you probably weren't even starting him in week one anyway. He may not miss a lot of time. We don't love soft tissue injuries, but there's an overreaction sometimes when guys get hurt. I think it may have happened with DeAndre Hopkins. I was getting him in like round 10. So just keep that in mind. Gardner Minshew is the starting quarterback for the Raiders.

Dave, is this good or bad for Devontae Adams? I don't think it's great for Devontae Adams. Not that I moved him down. We figured long ago that the quarterback situation was not going to be great for Devontae Adams, but I was hoping that Aiden O'Connell, A, would show enough in practice in the preseason to earn the job, and B, that he did actually show enough. I'm a little surprised. I thought O'Connell was going to be the starting quarterback, and I wore the dunce cap on Sunday when they named Minshew the starter. They're paying him to be the starter. I guess it makes sense. They like his experience. They like his mobility as a fantasy manager. You look back to what Adams did at the end of last year when O'Connell was playing well, he averaged almost 20 PPR points per game in his last four games.

And then you look at what Pittman did with Minshew in 12 games last year, that was just over 16 PPR points per game on, I think it was over 10 targets per game. It was a lot. And I still expect Adams to get a lot of targets. I don't think Adams is slowing down. I do buy into Devonta Adams still as a low end wide receiver, one high end wide receiver, two who will get good volume from a quarterback who knows better, but to throw to his top target. And that's Adams. Heath, any thoughts on Minshew? I should probably bring this up. In three seasons where he's been a starter for most, if not all, he has finished 18th per game in 2019, 15th per game in 2020. And then last year was bad.

But that's two out of three seasons i actually was was like a streamable fantasy starter yeah i i think the nice thing is that you can feel more confident drafting him in a two quarterback league that's the only place that you're drafting gardner um i he was a riser for me i moved him up two or three spots just on the certainty that he's going to be starting at least week one and um i like this is what i didn't know for sure that menchu was going to start week one but i thought with the contract they gave him unless they just wanted to give the deference to aiden o'connell and i think what happened dave was that you must aid no connell like you just wanted the job and then he threw a pick six not too long

after that and the one later said was like we want the guy that's not going to turn the ball over and Aiden O'Connell throws a pick six yeah meanwhile Minshew almost had to pick six of his own earlier in the game he was so bad he was so bad yes but he also didn't have Devontae Adams you're right

they didn't have Devontae Adams who I guess is dealing with some minor injury of his own. Yeah, that's never fun. Devontae Adams, a round blank pick for you. Three. Four. Dave, can I put up the

fantasy receipts tweet? Go, please. It's hilarious. I'm a big fan of fantasy receipts. So I can't be a fan of theirs and then get upset when they get me. It's hilarious. I'm a big fan of fantasy fantasy receipts. I can't be a fan of theirs and then get upset when they get me. It's not even week one yet. And we already got receipts. A quote tweet, Dave Richard,

Aiden O'Connell. Welcome to the starting lineup. That's very funny. I, I, I sent that out after Minshew was done on, on his pre on in the second preseason game. So before O'Connell even hit the field,

I sent that out. That's how confident I was that O'Connell even hit the field, I sent that out. That's how confident I was that O'Connell would get the job. Hashtag oops. That's the fantasy football version of never say that it can't get worse. Hey, listen, it can get better because if you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use the bonus code FANTASY

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Just make sure you use bonus code FANTASY when you sign up. All right, it's time now for our biggest faller or loser and heath who do you got i thought i already said mine the the pittsburgh let's talk about the steelers a third time i yeah george pickens outside of my top 20 pat fryermuth outside of my top 12 jaylen warren outside of my top 30, Jalen Warren outside of my top 30. I even dropped Russell Wilson a couple of spots. So yeah, I'm really not pleased with what I've seen from the Steelers. And in fairness, several of these guys I'm dropping and just like still have them ranked where their ADP is or where Dave and Jamie do.

I was higher on them, but they were big losers for me because I was a big loser for thinking any of them might be good. That includes Friar Muth because this was a fallback option for all of you, I think, at tight end. I'd rather draft Dalton Schultz.

Oh, dear God. Who is also a fallback option, except he's on a team that might throw 35 touchdowns and he might catch seven of them. Okay. Dave, who's your biggest loser? My biggest faller is Keenan Allen, who I thought looked slow

and couldn't separate from backup cornerbacks for Cincinnati. He did better versus zone, just not as explosive. And this should be expected for a guy who's as old as Keenan Allen. But on top of that, you just see how Romo Dunze seems to always be on the same page as Caleb Williams. And we saw it in the second preseason game. We saw it in the first preseason game. I saw it in mini camp practice. You read about it in training camp practice. I moved a Dunze over Keenan Allen, more so because I just don't want Keenan Allen on my fantasy team. I think he's going to be, I don't think there's a chance he sees anywhere even near 60% of the target volume that he saw last year.

I am nervous that he's not going to be a big touchdown threat. I love the Chicago offense now. I think they're going to be good, but I think Odunze could be more explosive, even if he had the same amount of targets as Keenan Allen from week to week. So I made that move. Keenan Allen is very low in my rankings, including full PPR. And I just, I don't see a spot for him where I think he can even be a reliable wide receiver three from week to week. I think it's going to fall apart for him this year because he's sharing the field with Odunze, with DJ Moore, with all the other factors in Chicago, too. I think somebody made a good point in the chat, and I'm not necessarily – I forgot that I needed to move Rom Odunze up a little bit.

I still have Keenan Allen over Rome. Not necessarily disagreeing with anything Dave said, but someone in the chat, Donovan, said Keenan Allen has always been slow, and that's 100% true. I think he ran like a 4'6 or a 4'7. He's a slow, slow, great wide receiver. But what did we love about Keenan Allen for all those years in L.A.? Guys, have we mentioned his weight, though? I don't know if that part's true or not. Albert Breer went to camp

and reported that he was at 220 pounds. This is at least being talked about, that he looks heavy. You're right. I don't know if it's true. But if he looks slow, I thought it was worth bringing up. Some people, I think, like Jacob

Gibbs I saw was tweeting about it. He seems to be concerned, at least about the reports. And I don't really know what to make of it. I'll tell you what I, what I make of it honestly is like, I feel like I'm being, I'm way too low on DJ more. I,

you know, it's like, I haven't, I haven't drafted DJ more once. And he like, oh, do you want to say, do you want to say doesn't play that much?

Like, oh, do you think he's doing all these things when Keenan Allen and DJ more are out of the game? You know, they say that he's two 20. 220 yeah because pro football reference last year had him listed at 211 i'm looking at his combine because i was looking for the the the 40 time and it was 47 um and he was 10 years ago and he was 206 10 years ago so if he's only gained 14 pounds in 10 years he's doing a lot better than we are. Yeah.

Well, we're also not professional wide receivers. What I was getting at with Keenan Allen is that, yes, he wasn't a streaker down the field, but he was able to separate with his route running. He had enough burst and quickness when he planted that that's what helped him get open. He had precise route running. He wasn't getting that against man coverage. Let me see who was covering him for Cincinnati. You want names?

These are guys you've never heard. It was 230, I think, by the way. Fifth round cornerback Josh Newton was shutting down Keenan Allen. Backup cornerback Jalen Davis was shutting down Keenan Allen. All right, you're fading Keenan Allen. I don't want to speculate. I'm fading Keenan Allen. Give me Romo Dunze.

I'm still fine getting DJ more. Where do I have him ranked? I think I have him as a round four pick. Okay. Well, that's probably why I haven't been getting him because he does go in round three a lot. But if we're fading Keenan Allen,

then probably good news for, for DJ more, not just for Romo dunes. Okay. And I would add that if, if Keenan Allen isn't getting open and Keenan Allen, isn't able to make big plays and he's basically a de facto tight end, you'll see Romo Dunze eventually take over the number two receiver role in Chicago.

All right. Likelyometer. One other thing. Unrelated to what we've been talking about, but related to preseason football. Likelyometer, 0-10. I think I was calling it a likely-o-meter earlier. Raheem Mostert averages more fantasy points per game than Devon Achan.

Five? He was the starter. And the short yardage. You want to talk about roles in Saturday's game? Mostert had a much better role than Devon Achan. Devon Achan was playing into the second quarter with the backups. Just like he played in garbage time last

year. He also played with the starters. He also played on the opening drive. After Mostert had like five plays in a row. I think it's a 50-50. It's a coin flip. The reason that we have Achan so much higher is,

and maybe this is wrong, I am more, well, I'm worried about both of them getting hurt. I'm more worried about Mostert. Sure. Okay. Hey, hit the like button. We got 1,100 people watching. Please hit that like button.

We'd appreciate it. If you're new to the show, please hit the subscribe button and join our fun because we have podcasts every day. We also have live streams tomorrow night you can join us for a mock draft youtube.com slash fantasy football today but if you're here hit that like button and hit subscribe i wanted to play some podcast league entries we'll do that in a little bit uh that's for the for the that's for the leftovers league

next tuesday night but i want to tell you i made up a new stat you ready to hear about a new brand new stat yes the last time you made up a stat you hated it after what was it fantasy point per percentage started or something started start yeah started fantasy points he never did make the list i had some i had last year uh johnny lazar made that list for us i believe um But then Adam disputed the actual list. So like Acer stats, there's not a hard, and I assume this stat as well, like you can't actually plug in a formula to calculate this because there have to be exceptions made

for the guys that Adam wants to make exceptions for. No, this was easy. I was trying to quantify how good Anthony Richardson was last year. So how about this? Fantasy point per attempt, which is just fantasy point per pass attempt plus rush attempt.

There is a stat called fantasy point per drop back. That includes sacks and all that. Sacks, yeah. This is that minus sacks, I guess. He averaged point six, nine fantasy points per pass attempt plus rush attempt. Anthony Richardson, point six, nine fantasy points every time he threw or ran.

Josh Allen averaged point six, four. I would be willing to bet Anthony Richardson was clearly number one in this metric last year. Well, you didn't check it for everybody. I mean, I checked it for Jalen Hurts, and Allen was ahead of Hurts, and Richardson was ahead of both of them. So I did not feel like it was necessary to check it for everyone, because those were the two best quarterbacks of fantasy.

So I just wanted to bring that up. Anthony Richardson was that good. That's actually pretty significant. .69 versus.64. Richardson better than Allen last year. Yeah, when you consider that probably 35 to 40 rush attempts per game, rush attempts plus pass attempts per game, like, yeah, you're looking at a big, that's a big deal.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's going to happen again this year, but that's how good he was last year. I have a favorite player who kind of became my favorite player last year, but he's certainly my favorite player now. It's Taysom Hill. Like, how great is Taysom Hill? This guy does everything. He was laying blocks as a fullback.

He scored a short yardage touchdown. He played tailback yesterday. There is no handcuff for Alvin Kamara because Kamara gets hurt. Taysom Hill is going to kill any value for Jamal Williams. But over the last three seasons, he has 16 rushing touchdowns and Kamara has 11. But like just appreciating Taysom Hill for being the football player that he is. Congratulations, Taysom Hill. You're my favorite player. This is so on brand for you to take the guy that tortures fantasy managers the most and make him your favorite player. Does I mean, as he as he uh, your round four Camara strategy at all?

No, because like I said, he he's out touchdown to Camara by five over the last three years. And even with that, Camara has had two elite seasons in half and full and full PPR. Um, so yeah, like I know he's going to take touchdowns away from Camara. That's what is great about Camara. He doesn't even need touchdowns to be around for a pick just needs the catches and they have nobody to throw to us. So I've heard all the way since, uh, I think I want to say February that Taysom Hill was going to be a bigger part of the offense. The problem is, is where do you use him in fantasy? Because he's not RB eligible unless your commissioner says, okay, he's RB eligible. And so if he's QB eligible and that's it hard to use them as your starting quarterback,

maybe as a bi-week replacement in a super flex league, if he's tight end eligible, now we're talking because then I think that he could end up being decent. I know that Heath just recently joined a dynasty league that's tight end premium and you got Taysom Hill with a late pick. Yeah. And that's the thing is like, he just, you really have to check your league settings and see where he's eligible. Maybe,

maybe he'll be eligible at running back in some leagues. Somebody should put, make him eligible at all four positions. That's where he plays. He plays them all. Make them OW offensive weapon. You can start anywhere. That would be fun.

All right. Let's see more fun. I'm all for That would be fun. All right, let's see some news and notes. If you can see more fun, I'm all for it. That would definitely work. But yes, I've heard that Hill's going to be a contributor this year. It's just a matter of how can you fit him into your lineup. News and notes. Pittsburgh center

Nate Herbig is going to miss maybe this season. Rookie Zach Frazier is likely to start at center. I think Frazier's better anyway. He played a lot. They played a number of their starters for a lot of their preseason week two game, and it didn't go well.

But, you know, we thought, I don't know. I don't want to judge anyone too harshly on one game. Like, the tackles were abysmal. Like, true turnstile. And so that's why I almost almost it's hard to judge fields and wilson but they didn't look good either deandre hopkins as i mentioned expected to play in week one kyle shannon hopes that ricky pierce all rookie wide receiver ricky pierce all for the niners he'll be ready for week one uh by the way people are telling me to say team names more so

uh i will try to do that because i know not all of you are diehard football fans. So I get that Patriots head coach Gerard Mayo did not rule out Drake May as the week one starter. Seattle receiver Tyler Lockett should be ready for week one. He's recovering from a leg injury. Buffalo wide receiver Marquez Valdez Scantling has a neck injury. Hopefully not too serious. Cleveland has major issues at offensive tackle. Both of their starters are currently on the pup list, hopefully coming off soon, recovering from off-season surgery. These are Cleveland Browns starting offensive tackles.

Three offensive tackles for the Browns left with injuries on Saturday. So that is a trouble spot for the Browns. Tennessee linebacker Arden Key has his six-game suspension overturned. Good news for them. The Vikings signed cornerback Stephon Gilmore to a one-year deal, and the Giants had one pretty significant injury. Linebacker Micah McFadden, hopefully he's okay.

Didn't see an update there, and also defensive lineman Ryder Anderson. Was not a good day for the Giants offense or defense against Houston on Saturday. It was once they played the backups. Yeah, got much better. Winners. Let's see. Let's do a few minutes here.

Jamie gave a list. He was supposed to come on. He wasn't able to come on today. But if we look at his list, Najee Harris is a winner. We agree with that. Sort of. Brian Thomas. Yes.

This one I don't really get. Why is, and I actually have some good, some encouraging metrics there that I can share on Brian Thomas, but why did, why do you agree that Brian Thomas is a winner? Well, because we were barely drafting him, and now it looks like he's going to be a key component for the Jaguars. Over the last week, the reports have been really, really positive on what he can do

to contribute to this offense. And I don't think he's going to be the number one target getter there, but he's got that upside that we look for. And if you, if you saw it from Xavier worthy and you liked it, if you saw it from Keon Coleman and you liked it, although Keon's a different type of receiver, then you've got to look at what Brian Thomas can do and expect him to be a possible number three receiver by the time the season ends. because Kelsey and Evan Ingram, Rashi Rice and Christian Kirk, I think the Chiefs' competition for targets is a little bit more difficult than Jags to overcome, but Patrick Mahomes versus Trevor Lawrence,

they're in very, very similar situations. I hope your metrics, Adam, are on how good Trevor Lawrence was throwing the deep ball last year. Oh, no. My metric was that Brian Thomas in preseason week two, his average route depth was something like 10.8 yards. And that would have been the fifth highest

among receivers with 50 targets. What was it in preseason week one? Yeah, I'm getting there. It was a lot lower with Gabe Davis on the field, but that was only five routes. But his average route depth was 6.7 yards. You don't want Brian Thomas to have an average route depth of 10.8 yards.

That's my fear that he's just a deep ball guy. He's not going to be a consistent fantasy contributor. But if we see that he's running shorter routes, more fantasy relevant or fantasy better for fantasy routes with Gabe Davis on the field

because Gabe Davis didn't play this past week. I think that's really encouraging. I just think for Keon Coleman and Brian Thomas, it's not like they're doing that much this preseason. Keon Coleman is playing a ton and that's great, but he's doing almost nothing with it. Well, he's getting, yeah, the thing for Thomas was more about practice reports and vibes than it was what he did in a preseason game. The switch seemed to have flipped for him last week or the week before, and they are very happy with what they're getting out of him.

I currently still have him ahead of Worthy, but they're just back-to-back kind of holding hands, marching up my rankings together. That sounds about right. I saw Thomas beat press coverage multiple times in the first week of preseason. That was encouraging. I saw the crossing routes. We saw some of that at LSU from Thomas. That's something that he can add the over routes.

So he's not just, you know, go ball post route type of receiver. He can, he's added to his route tree. That's what you want. You want that versatility. The best receivers always have versatility in the routes. It makes them harder to defend. And then they're great. And they're explosive on top of that.

It's exactly what you want in fantasy. The problem is, is that if you're drafting Brian Thomas, you can't start them right away. And his ceiling might be wide receiver three, might be a boom bus. So I think at best round eight is the time to go after Brian Thomas. And you might even be able to find them in the round eight seems early. Yeah. But I don't necessarily agree that the ceilings round three,

I think he could have Calvin Ridley's opportunity from last year, and Calvin Ridley should... Expected fantasy points were a lot higher than what he actually produced. That would be sick. That sounds like...

They lost a ton of production to drops standing out of bounds in the end zone and pass interference penalties. Pass interference for sure. All right, listen, I think one of the questions is, because Jamie also has

Christian Kirk as a follower. I don't want to speak for him. I'll let him talk about it on tomorrow's show. But who's going to play on in two receiver sets? I don't buy the premise that Christian Kirk is not playing on two receiver sets. I think that's what we've seen so far in the preseason. And Kirk's got a minor injury and didn't play in this game. But like that's what they tried in week one last year. Christian Kirkuk barely played, and Zay Jones played ahead of him, and that was the last time they did that, basically. I don't know that Brian Thomas is playing in two receiver sets. Probably not in week one. Not that much, maybe. He probably has to work his way up. I'm sorry.

I'm going on a little bit of a tangent there. Did they run a lot of two tight end sets last year? They did not run a lot of three receiver sets. They were not a big three receiver set team percentage-wise. They ran a lot of plays. I think they were something like 18th in three receiver sets, but they were like 11th or 12th in plays. So that would be a surprise if they stuck with that this year

after they made the moves that they made, taking Thomas in round one, paying Gabe Davis. They're still paying christian kirk i think it's kind of a different situation this year i i would imagine they'll be in three receiver sets more often maybe not all the time they won't be dominant with it but certainly more than they did last year all right here we go let's uh take another break come back talk about more risers and followers we got to talk about rashid rice who's a third round pick now for heath i believe ken walker is a riser for dave uh zach earth's um yeah pat friarmeath is a follower we talked about that oh the texans receivers we'll be back and i think we should talk about neighbors

why not we'll be right back on fantasy football today of course so jamie's other risers were tank bigsby he certainly carved out a role for himself for jacksonville seems like it greg dulcich although i i thought troutman was playing ahead of him yeah they like to use both those guys i think troutman will be on the field on rushing downs and you'll see dulcich more in passing situations we actually i think those winners were sent before the broncos game okay yep you're right that was more of a vibes and practice riser, I think, and it was for me as well. But, I mean, Sean Payton does Arthur Smith things as well. Yeah, and I'll tell you, it's not worth,

I mean, it is worth taking a shot on Dulcich late. It's the worst that can happen. But I wouldn't call him a streaming tight end. I wouldn't draft him and then use him in week one. Heath's risers, Rasheed Rice, Xavier Worthy, Falcons DST, and Gardner Minshew. Let's focus on the Chiefs receivers here.

Well, obviously, it's got to be a wrap. I think what Worthy did and the Chiefs' obvious intention of getting him involved and having some success, you you got to bump him up a little bit. It wasn't a big move. He went up a spot or two. I just didn't want to leave him out.

Dwayne McFarland had a good tweet from last night. Rasheed Rice on three drives with Patrick Mahomes this preseason. 94% route participation, 38% target share. He was a top 12 wide receiver for me in March when I first did my projections. I tweeted about this earlier. If you get him basically to a 22% target share, he's a top 12 wide receiver. He last year, the last six games of the year, when he finally started playing, even 67% of the snaps on a per-game basis had a 25% target share. Marquise Brown and Xavier Worthy are going to impact that.

But I think the other thing we saw is when Worthy is taking the top off the defense like that, defenses are going to have no choice, but just to go back to shell. They they're not going to be able to play one high at all. And so I think that we're going to see like where she writes is going to have another Debo type year in terms of yak. I expect more yak than a dot. And I think he probably, if he stays healthy and doesn't get again, the other elephant in the room is the suspension that everything i i'm searching and searching and everything i can find is everybody saying i we have no indication

anything's coming has he been charged yet he's not been charged so that's the first step once he's charged then a suspension might come but but generally speaking unless it's domestic violence the league has waited until not a player is charged, but until the case is settled. We had this issue with Alvin Kamara a couple years ago. I think he's getting suspended in 2025. If he plays 17 games, I think he's a top 12 wide receiver. I've got him at 15 right now, only because there's still that tiny risk that he might get suspended. I'm a little more hesitant on Rice, and I get what you're saying.

I would take everything from last year and throw it out the window because the Chiefs were desperate for wide receiver help last year, and they didn't have Brown, they didn't have Worthy. Kelsey was a mess until they got into the playoffs, and they needed Rasheed Rice in a major way this year. They, they added guys to take pressure off of both Kelsey and Rice. And as for the preseason targets, I think Kansas City, I wouldn't take, I wouldn't look too much into the targets in the preseason. I would look into the snap share. Like you talked about, he played on almost every single snap with

Mahomes. I would expect that to be the case. But at one point in the preseason game against Detroit, he had four targets in a row. I don expect that to be the case. But at one point in the preseason game against Detroit, he had four targets in a row. I don't think you're going to see that very often from the Chiefs where they're just going to go after a guy. I think they were just trying to get him work and see what he could do getting a touch after touch after touch. Worthy had three touches in a row or target slash touches

in a row in the game. His ADOT was low. That's something that concerns me a little bit. And I went back and looked. The number of routes that Rice ran this preseason that went six or more yards, the answer's three. And he's ran a total of 17 routes, so three out of 17. Last year, he ran 538 routes.

Just 123 of them went for six or more yards. That's 23%. So if you view Rice as short to mid range guy, absolutely somebody that could benefit from the top taking off from, from what worthy does or what Marquise Brown does for sure. He can, he can get to that point. Can he get to eight catches for, for 90 yards without even thinking about a touchdown from week to week? I'm nervous about that for rice. So I can't put them as a top 15 receiver, too many mouths to feed.

Um, no guarantee that he's going to get huge volume like he did in a preseason game against Detroit with my homes. And he's, I think he's just a much, if you're talking about 15 among wide receivers. Okay. Would you guys rather ever she rice or Rice or Malik Neighbors?

Rice. I'll take Neighbors. I know it's going to be Rice for Heath over everyone, but Dave. Hold on. This is simple. Heath, give me the four receivers you have under Rice in your rankings right now. The four receivers I have under Rice. So this is directly under him. Okay. So that would be Drake London,

Cooper Cup, T Higgins, Nego Collins. I might see it with Higgins. The other three, I just think have so much more upside that i i couldn't i couldn't bring myself to take rice ahead of them and that's the that's the thing is like that's why i get frustrated sometimes with upside talk is it's hard for me to imagine how somebody could have who's never really done anything could have so much more upside than somebody who's the number could be the number one target for Patrick Mahomes. Well, but you're saying Nico Collins and Cooper? No, Drake London.

Oh, I thought you were talking about neighbors. But I guess that makes sense for London, too. No, neighbors I wouldn't say that because he's never played in the NFL. Right. But in the case of London, I think you have to acknowledge that his situation is far better than it was in his first couple of years. Yeah, of course. Is it better than the game in fantasy is projecting forward? Question here.

Where would you have Rasheed Rice in half PPR? Is that the Mario? That was the Mario, yeah. He'd still be about 15th. He does drop in non, but in half, he's still about 15. All right. Pew, pew, pew. He's down in my non-PPR.

Behind Higgins, behind Terry McLaurin, I've got him 28th in non-PPR. So he'd probably be right in that same range in half. All right. Dave's Risers, Jaden Daniels, Roma Dunze, he talked about them. How about Ken Walker? What do you have to say about Ken Walker? I think he's going to end up being a better value than we give him credit for. It looks like Zach Charbonnet. This is practice report talk. Just isn't getting it done. And now he might be sore on top of it. I've heard that Walker is going to be a consistent factor in this offense. They want to run the ball a lot. They want to get them involved in the passing game. We've heard offensive coordinator, Ryan grub say that I'm buying in. I, this is a young running back. Who's got huge potential. We saw it last year. There were games almost every game when he had at least 15 touches, it was boom or bust, but he had a good average in those games. I think he can be more consistent and still carry the same type of upside.

That's better than running backs like Camara, Mixon, Connor. So I've got him ahead of those guys. I can't, as much as I'm a little nervous about James Cook, I can't put him ahead of James Cook in full PPR because I know that Cook can catch the ball. We haven't seen that from Walker yet. And we know that Walker does have some injury concerns, but I'm willing to take the risk on him in round three. If, if I'm really in need of a running running back because I know how sus it gets once you get to the Camara mix and group from Walker.

And I think he's very good in non-PPR as well. Walker or HN? I've got Walker ahead of HN. I'm not an HN guy. Walker over HN. Okay, how about you, Heath? You know, I agree with Dave, and I hadn't moved Walker. I just moved Walker ahead of Kamara

because I basically have them projected for the same thing, and Kamara's age is reason enough for that. I'm going Walker over HN as well. He's my RB13. Okay, all right. Cortland Sutton, Greg Dortch. These are risers for you in different areas of the draft, Dave. Yeah, Dortch is just late-round P you, if you want to go and get him,

you can probably find him literally with your last pick. I don't think he's like a breakout candidate or anything like that, but could be good for around 10 PPR points per game. Sutton stood out to me as the clear number one receiver in Denver and Bo Nix has stood out to me as, as a capable starting quarterback for Denver. And so I'm, when you, when you draft Sutton, you're doing it in round eight plus, I don't know what his ADP is. You can look it up for me, but I'm sure it's very low. He's somebody who should be a wide receiver three for fantasy managers he could even fill in as a flex and full ppr 10 11 turn wide receiver 44 sutton's wide receiver 44 over the last four days on nfc yeah he's he's not doing much by the way i mean like seems like they're spreading the ball around but i i understand you know he's yeah i think son's gonna lead this team in targets he has for like four of the last five seasons i don't think they have a choice like you look at their other receivers it's mims it's reynolds it's it's tim patrick i was gonna say patrick's back yeah patrick's back and he looked good in the preseason game i still top 200 uh

take it away marvin mims i is, is just a gadget player. Um, I like, there were a couple of guys Dave mentioned, like I didn't put them on my list because they are very late round guys, but Tim Patrick and Van Jefferson looks like you're stealing my notes. I mean, I didn't put it in the notes,

but I was about to say, yeah, like Tim Patrick and Van Jefferson. Thank you. These are, these are deeply guys that are the number two receivers. Yeah. And I think we, I got to talk about Jaleel McLaughlin too. Jaleel McLaughlin, it looks like Javante Williams and Jaleel McLaughlin are the top two running backs for the Bears.

It's shocking. Yeah. But I mean, it's like P Ryan, I don't know if he's going to make the team. That's somewhat valuable. I mean, I think McLaughlin goes too late. You know, it's like McLaughlin. So does Gervonta. Gervonta, I know you like him a lot.

Would you guys take Gervonta Williams or Jonathan Brooks? I've got Williams over Brooks. Williams. Heath's already had him in his top 24. Williams has made my top 24 over the last few days. Javante or Aaron Jones? Javante. I have Jones a couple spots higher.

I'm not going to fight you on it. They're three spots apart in my overall rankings. How about... Javante over DeAndre Swift? Anybody? Anybody? Well, I wanted to talk about that because Swift. Anybody? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Anybody? Well, I want to talk about that.

I guess Swift is barely playing, which is probably a good sign, but yes, Khalil Herbert is another guy that's going too late. Even if they're just auditioning him for a potential trade or something like that. Swift didn't play. Roshan Johnson didn't play in week one. Swift played two or three snaps,

but Khalil Herbert is getting a lot of run. He's always a good player. If he's just the handcuff to Swift, then he is just like an afterthought in drafts. Yeah. I moved him up. Okay. How about the idea of drafting him with your last pick before any news breaks? And then if week one comes and he's still on the Bears, you're probably cutting him before the games begin.

You have to. I think if I was going to draft somebody's backup running back, DeAndre Swift's a fine guy who's backup to draft. I know, but there's still a chance that even if Herbert's the starter, he's going to lose reps to Rochon. If Rochon didn't play in that preseason game, that might mean that he's already locked in to that passing downs role that the coaching staff really liked him in last year. And that's the role that he was working in,

in minicamp too. Right. And Herbert's never been a good pass blocker. So his, his upsides capped. I'll say that, but he could be the short yardage guy for the Chicago bears. I think I'd love to see how that's going to play out.

We're not going to know until week one, but it's, it is possible that he plays more than people thought. All right. Losers Heath's fallers or Friar Muth and Zach Charbonnet. I don't know if we have to expand on that. but it is possible that he plays more than people thought. All right, losers. Heath's Fallers are Friar Muth and Zach Charbonnet. I don't know if we have to expand on that. No.

I had Charbonnet in that Trey Benson group of they don't project that high, but I'm pretty excited about them, and I've actually dropped him below that group. Dave's Fallers are Stefan Diggs, Tank Dell, Keenan Allen, and Jackson Smith and Jigba. All right, we do have to talk about these guys here, except for Keenan Allen. We already covered him.

My question for you, if Diggs and Dell are Fallers, why isn't Nico Collins a Faller? Let me give you, I don't care so much about these stats, but with CJ Stroud on the field during the preseason, like Nico Collins has two targets. Tank Dell has two targets. Diggs has one. Dalton Schultz has five. Brevin Collins has two targets. Tank Dell has two targets. Diggs has one. Dalton Schultz has five.

Brevin Jordan has two. Nico's run the most routes, but everybody I mentioned except for Brevin Jordan has been between nine and 13 routes. I just, like, should Nico Collins really be going two rounds ahead of Diggs and Dell? It's questionable, but I do think he is going to be their best receiver i think he's going to end

up being their number one and their go-to guy and i think that there will be weeks where digs and dell disappoint and so i maybe it's just more about me being too excited about digs and dell and having them both as round five options and even in full ppr i've moved them down a little bit i just think that there'd be there could be too much cannibalizing between those two guys. It's super easy to take Rasheed Rice over Diggs and Dell now. I think Godwin belongs over both Diggs and Dell. Terry McLaurin ahead of both Diggs and Dell. And I like Diggs better than Dell.

As much as Dell is fun to watch, I think he will have more spike weeks than Diggs. But I think Diggs will be a little bit more consistent, maybe a little bit more boring for fantasy managers in full PPR. But I agree exactly with the last two sentences Dave said, and it's why I have Dell over Diggs. I have Dell over Diggs in non-PPR. But in full PPR, I still think Diggs could match Dell in terms of touchdowns.

I think I'll have more catches. It's the yardage that Dell should have. Here's the problem I have with all these arguments. They make total sense. I don't want to talk myself out of the Texans' offense. You know what I mean? I don't want to pass on the Texans' offense so I can take Chris Godwin or Terry McLaurin

when I feel like C.J. Stroud could compete for the MVP this year. I know it might be frustrating and inconsistent. That's why you should draft Stroud, not his C.J. Stroud could compete for the MVP this year. I know it might be frustrating and inconsistent. That's why you should draft Stroud, not his receivers. Yeah, but there's better quarterback value laid in the draft than wide receiver value. You can get a starting quarterback in round 10. You can get your wide receiver four in round 10. But I don't know.

It's like I see all the concerns. I don't want to miss out on all three of those. I don't want to have no shares of Texans receivers. So it's a tough balance of trying to find consistency versus upside. I guess there's not really much to take away there. But that's just what's on my mind. I get it. Every time I see one of those Texans guys, I'm like, oh, it's going to be annoying.

But, man, you see the potential. Two weeks ago with Tank Dell, caught one pass. It was like a 20-something yard touchdown, you see the potential in two weeks ago with tank Dell caught one pass. It was like a 20 something yard touchdown, whatever it was. It was great. He was in sync with Stroud and it's the kind of stuff that we've seen before from those two, but I don't know if we're going to see it enough from week to week. Uh, JSN, why is he a follower for you? If I'm liking Kenneth Walker, then JSN might be someone who falls and lock it has already fallen.

And I think I was just, this is just like digs and Dell. I might've been too excited about him. And now I'm, I'm getting nervous that he won't have the massive breakout season as the Seahawks offense is currently constructed. Dave, would you like to hear what you and I would sound like if we were on painkillers?

Sure. Okay, like heavy painkillers, because this was a Podcast League submission. Take a listen. Dave, I always say that the difference between sleepers and breakouts is sleepers when you weeks, and breakouts when you leagues tm you agree with that it needs to be on a shirt it does yeah yeah we we should make you that shirt size extra small.

All right, Dave, there we go. A trip to the dark side. I don't know if that's painkillers or like. That's what I sound like when I'm in Vegas. Yeah, mushrooms. I'm not sure. I have very little experience in this area, but it's something. All right, Jamie had some followers.

I'll let him talk about those on tomorrow's show. There's another podcast league entry. I'll play it for you on tomorrow's show. Cause I want to make sure we cover everything here. I think we should talk about what we saw from Daniel Jones and how it relates to Malik neighbors. I could see people coming out of that game encouraged by Malik neighbors. He had four catches for 54 yards on six targets.

He did do almost all of that against the backups, but he also like dropped the pass on the first possession where he went right by Derek Stingley, who might be one of the best cornerbacks in football this year. Daniel Jones can't play quarterback any worse than what he did, I think, in the first half of that game. But did you see enough from neighbors? We might get some different answers here. Dave, what are your thoughts on neighbors? I think that he is going to end up making some huge plays and make his quarterbacks look better than they actually are.

I'm not sure which play you were talking about with the drop. Third down on the opening possession. He beat Stingley right off the line of scrimmage. Actually, a good throw from Daniel Jones, and he just dropped it. He only got one hand on the ball, right? Yeah, I think that was a high throw no it was a good throw i'm like i'm not gonna he didn't make betty but that i mean greeting on the daniel jones curve it was neighbors neighbors almost still caught it with one hand either way

um you know did did you move neighbors at all based on okay heath did but i already have neighbors ranked insanely high because i'm i'm excited by the prospect of a receiver who can instantly accelerate and pick up a ton of targets from game to game uh posting good numbers for fantasy i won't that's somebody i'd like to have a piece of okay i i i tweeted this uh i think i quote tweeted you and I said it like it was Malik neighbors game was an ultimate confirm my priors game, no matter what side you were on, because you could absolutely watch that game and say,

Daniel Jones is so bad. There's no way you can draft one in one of his wide receivers and round three. Especially I, I think what they did against the backups is maybe getting a little bit more credit than I would give because they played a quarter against the starters and it was so disastrously bad. Um, but I didn't move him. I might, in fact, he might've gone up a couple of spots cause a couple of guys fell behind him. Um, he's around six wide receiver for me.

He's awesome, and he showed that. The situation's awful, and it showed that. It's definitely safer to just pass on neighbors, which is basically what you're doing, Heath, because you know you're never going to get them in round six. There's going to be somebody in every league that reaches for neighbors but if i'm in a like i would guess i'm gonna be in several home league drafts where he's gonna fall around four or five i'll probably draft him in one or two of those so i have some because normal people are not going to draft malik neighbors in round three no i don't know normal what do you mean

normal people like the average fantasy player when do you think they'll draft Malik Nates? Well, his current ADP on CBS is round six. And that's including our drafts where he goes in round three. So that's what I mean. But he's such a riser. You know, like I feel like... He went backwards last week in ADP.

On our side. Yeah. All right. We'll see. I'm curious to know. Well, when did he go in the draft that we'll see. I I'm curious to know, uh, well, when did he go in the draft that we did on Tuesday night? He went in the third round, didn't he? Well,

on the draft we did on Friday, he went in the fourth round. That was with listeners Tuesday night. I feel like he went in the third round and that's me. That was like two of us and 10 or 11 listeners. It looks like fantasy pros consensus. He's picked 44 draft sharks. He's four 11. So,

so for let's say fourth round for neighbors. Okay. I took him at the three, four turn in a recent draft mock draft. Can I get your thoughts on Bo Nix? I think he runs the Broncos offense flawlessly. He's accurate in the short range. He's got good mobility. He's accurate in the short range.

His receivers can get open. He's using his tight ends and his running backs. I don't think he's any better than, I think he's better than Gardner Minshew. I'd rather have him than Minshew in a super flex league because I think he could be the starter all year. And I think he's good enough to put decent numbers on Cortland Sutton from a week to week basis.

Okay. Some running backs to mention Bucky Irving. Todd Bowles spoke very highly of him. Bucky Irving basically got the feature role in week two with Rashad White not playing. In week one as well. Yeah. And if you're going to gamble on a backup running back, you could do worse than the guy that's running behind a guy who has averaged like 3.7 yards per carry in his career.

Jod white, much better to me in the passing game than the running game. Ray Davis, would you say he's the clear number two guy? You think Ty Johnson's still a factor? It is Ray Davis, the clear guy behind James cook. You'll see some of Davis and Johnson,

but probably more Davis. And he's the more physical running back of the two. Good bounce back week for Trey Benson, nine carries for 43 yards. But keep in mind, Amari DiMarcato is going to play. If Connor gets hurt, Benson's not going to be a three down back. And I think DiMarcato probably third down, maybe the third down back even with Connor. Right. Someone's going to be in that role, whether it's DiMarcato or Michael Carter. And that'll be the case. Connor healthy, Connor not healthy.

That's what it was last year. I don't talk about that enough. But weeks 12 through 18, Connor I think came off an injury. Kyler Murray was playing at this point. So Connor's healthy. Weeks 12 to 18 last year. Third down snaps. Amari DiMarcato 47, Michael Carter 19,

James Conner 22. It's not the James Conner role that we used to see when he was so involved in the passing game. Wide receiver notes. Kansas City receivers with Patrick Mahomes in the preseason. Oh no, this was

just yesterday, just Saturday, not the whole preseason. Rasheed Rice, five targets, 3.4-yard ADOT. Xavier Worthy, four targets, one catch for 39 yards. Travis Kelsey, one target. Is anyone getting, and it was behind the back pass, by the way, anyone getting nervous about Kelsey in a way that you haven't before? Not performance, but target share.

I mean, I've called him a bust repeatedly, and he ranks as my tight end four, so nothing's changed other than that. Go ahead, Dave. I was going to say I'm a little bit more bullish on Kelsey, but he's not my tight end one. I still think he's going to have plenty of good weeks in this offense. This is Mahomes' favorite target to throw to.

I don't think that's changing. I think the key, and this could be completely dumb, the key for Travis Kelsey in fantasy is what happens in week one and week two. The Chiefs play the Ravens and the Bengals the first two weeks of the season. If they win both of those games, I bet we get a Travis Kelsey downshift midseason again. Okay. I think we got a downshift last year because he was playing hurt.

Chicago tight ends. Don't draft Cole commit. Doesn't look like that's a great idea, right? Seems like he, it may not even be the starter. He and Everett are rotating a lot. Isaiah Pacheco was in on third and long twice on the opening drive. That's great. Clyde Edwards, he layer did not play, but if Pacheco is going to be in on third and long twice on the opening drive. That's great. Clyde Edwards,

he layer did not play, but if Pacheco is going to be in on third and long, that is, that is great news. I do think Jamie had Clyde as a loser. Dineric Prince looked a lot better than Carson steel in that game, but the, on the broadcast and this,

these were chiefs guys on the broadcast, they said like the top two running backs are set with Pacheco and Clyde Edwards-Lair. These guys are battling for RB3. So Clyde hasn't played, hasn't been healthy, but they seem to think Clyde was a clear RB2. Okay. Emails, fantasyfootball at cbsi.com.

And actually, here's one from our draft-a-thon from Mark McRoberts in Canada. Half PPR, four point per passing touchdown league. We're keeping one player, and the player moves up three rounds from last season. So who's the best value? Jerome Ford in the 10th, Jordan Love in the 10th, Tajay Spears in the 10th, or Jalen Warren in the 7th?

I think I like Love. i would go spears it's down to those two from nick in chicago if you here's the thing okay if you think that tigey spears is going to break out then you keep him and then next year you can keep him for a seventh i don't know if you're going to want to keep love for a seventh next year here's nick Nick in Chicago. Which of the rankings would you recommend if we're playing in half PPR? Standard ranks or PPR? PPR. And does the top 20

or top 10 players in their rankings change much if you're drafting from half PPR? More running backs. Yep. Are you taking Pacheco over Marvin Harrison? I wouldn't go that far in half PPR. It should be halfway in between the PPR and the non-PPR. Are you taking Jonathan Taylor over A.J. Brown in half PPR?

I don't know if I'm going to go that far. So I, I might, I might take Jonathan Taylor like over most of the wide receivers. Oh, wow. All right. Yeah.

Those half points per catch is enough for me to still put Brown ahead of Taylor. And this is from Garrett in a small town. Oh, wait, this is from Jim. Where's Jim from? Jim is from, where was I recently? Massillon, Ohio. Any hesitation drafting Christian McCaffrey and Debo Samuel

since they're on the same team? Try to avoid that if you can. I wouldn't want to take Debo samuel at the two three turn so yeah i think i'm out on that combo unless iu gets traded right he's not getting traded i don't think i had heard that he was going to get traded now it looks like he's not going to get traded so who the hell knows if debo makes it to you to late round four you shouldn't pass up that value exactly agreed garrett in a small town in Iowa. Dave?

Dubuque. I knew you were going to say that. I didn't know I was going to say Dubuque. You always say Dubuque, Iowa. I think I've gone Cedar Rapids before. Wants to know why there isn't more talk about Trey McBride being tight end one, Heath. I guess because Adam doesn't let me talk enough on the podcast is the main reason he's on 140 target pace.

When he was the starter last year, Marvin Harrison can take 10 targets a game and he can still see more than 120 targets. He set a stated goal for eight of a hundred catches this year. I think he's got a chance to reach it. And like Rashi rice, having a wide receiver one to take the top off of the defense is only going to help Trey McBride's efficiency. Have you, have you shook yourself a little bit by what you've heard about Michael Wilson and Greg Dorch? No, I feel like we're hearing more about them and not enough about McBride. I,

yeah, I, I have not, I was playing devil's advocate. I think he's locked into seven targets a game. I'm worried about the touchdown volume for him, but I think he's going to be a pretty good tight end this year. All right, everybody.

Love you all. We'll talk to you tomorrow with a format show. We'll tell you how to draft in different formats, auctions, super flex, non PPR, happy bar, et cetera, 10 team, 14 team. Check out that tinyurl.com slash draftathon2024. Click the auction house section. You'll see all the things that we have up for you to purchase and benefit. Talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football Today.