Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - AFC West Breakdown + Hopkins, Jacobs, and Saquon - Fantasy Football Podcast for 7/18

Episode Date: July 18, 2023

DeAndre Hopkins to the Titans! Plus, an AFC West preview on today’s fantasy football podcast! Lots of fantasy football studs among the Chiefs, Chargers, Raiders, and Broncos! How long will Josh Jacobs and Saquon Barkley holdout? Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for July 18th, 2023. Dive into the 2023 Ultimate Draft Kit + Draft Analyzer! UltimateDraftKit.com Connect with the show: Subscribe on YouTube Visit us on the Web Support the Show Follow on Twitter Follow on Instagram Join our Discord Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by McDonald's. Monopoly is back at McDonald's, everybody. This is an alert. It's time to get back to Mickey D's. Monopoly Double Play is back at McDonald's, and it's easy to get into the win. First, you peel on pack, and then again in the app. There are millions of prizes to be won,

including a new chance to win cash every minute in the app. Get into the game with Monopoly Double Play at McDonald's. While supplies last, one in five chances to win game piece prizes at outset, chances to win Double Play prizes based on time of code entry, and draw prizes based on number of entries in each draw. See rules in the app. Hey, this is DeAndre Hopkins, and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore,

and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. That was a different frequency. Different pitch. You excited? I mean, yeah, no, we're good. It's higher than normal. I didn't notice. I thought I was farther away from the microphone.

We're getting pretty close here, boys, to football being real. Does that mean that my pitch will continue to increase? Yes, so as we get closer and closer. It's like puberty or something? It's just going to go higher and higher. Reverse puberty. Right, this will be a helium situation. Welcome into the show. Oh, Tuesday, July 18th. The Fantasy Footballers. Excited to be back with you.

And we are diving back into the divisional breakdowns. A very exciting AFC West edition today. We also have big news to talk about. We are recording this episode almost in conjunction with the Monday franchise player deadline. And so if breaking news happens. I've got my ear to the ground. His ears on the literal ground. Yes. And if Saquon or Jacobs were to reach an agreement. If I get any vibrations.

You'll let us know. I will. I'll jump in here. I'm going to let you know right now that you're not going to get any vibrations, you'll let us know. I will. I'll jump in here. I'm going to let you know right now that you're not going to get any vibrations, Mike. No vibrations. No, no. No good vibrations?

No good vibrations. This will only be sad news for running backs. The running backs will be playing on franchise tags. Evan Ingram. Yeah, we'll get there. Sorry. A little early here. We do have some big news. We'll get there. Sorry. Yeah. Come on. A little early here. We do have some big news.

We'd like to invite everybody out there to the one and only live event for the fantasy footballers this year. I think we need mouth trumpets. Thank you. Well done. The Megalus show. you well done uh the megala show it's just disturbing at this point i don't know what it is but i don't think of a shark um we are live in los angeles august 26th you can learn more about how you can come join us. Ballerslive.com. Get tickets. Presented by Underdog Fantasy.

But this is, you know, we've been doing live events since 19, 2019? I think maybe 18. 18, 19. I don't know. When was the big tour, Brooksy? One of those. Oh, thank you. Thank you.

It blends together. But this is the first time we've been at a venue this large. It'll be a thousand seats at the Palace in LA. It will be right before the season begins. We have a lot planned. So we

would love to have you join us. It is always a great time in person with the Foot Clan. Our one and only ballerslive.com. So hopefully you can make it out. You can Always a great time in person with the Foot Clan, our one and only, ballerslive.com. So hopefully you can make it out. You can find us and more information about the Megalith Show and everything we're doing here on Twitter at the FFBallers.

The communities that join thefoot.com, the websites, thefantasyfootballers.com. Let's get into that news. News and notes from around the league. Well, DeAndre Hopkins has signed a two-year, $26 million contract with Ryan Tannehill and the Tennessee Titans. He turned 31 years old in June and

we've got him ranked. He's on the website in our rankings and he's on the ultimate draft kit. I think there was simultaneous like, okay, we got some news on Hopkins. He can still play. I mean, great player. But, a lot of excitement for Traylon Burks and Chigakonkwo.

And both of those balloons, a little bit of air was let out of each of them. Certainly. Yeah, I mean, the excitement was twofold, right? Primarily, the excitement was they get the whole pie to themselves. Traylon Burks and Chig Okonkwo were the two most talented receiving options for the Titans, and that's gone now. They are not the best. Like, Traylon Burks and Chig, they aren't as good as DeAndre Hopkins. So Hopkins comes in and will be the number one.

He will demand the most targets. He will get the most targets. And that really caps the upside case for trail on burks but there is the talent aspect as well where you know both of those players showed flashes and we've seen plenty of players be good for fantasy as a wide receiver too this is just unfortunate because it's a running offense that you don't expect to throw a ton. I would feel better about that situation if several bullet points were fulfilled. One, they threw the ball more. They threw the ball the third least of any team in football last year.

They threw the ball literally 20 times less per game than Tampa did, who was number one. That's a concern. Number two, if he'd done it before. If we had seen a big touchdown season from Traylon Burks or a longer sample size, that would give me more confidence. It would be looking at it more like a, well, maybe he can be a T. Higgins or he can be one of those complimentary guys.

But it concerns me in an offense where you know it's Derrick Henry, you know it's play-action pass, and you know that Hopkins is vastly superior to Traylon Burks. So when I look at both of those guys, and I'm the biggest Chigakonko fan in the world, I love the talent and the athleticism. I think I'm now the lowest in our rankings on it because both of those players, in my opinion,

Traylon Burke, Chigakonko, if they do not score a touchdown, it is a bad week for fantasy for both of them. That's what I think the outcome is going to be. Whereas Hopkins, his volume will be more assured, but we don't have him super high. Jason's got him the highest at 21 right now. Yeah. I mean, a wide receiver too. I have Trell and Burke's also the highest, and that's only wide receiver 37. So obviously this isn't a huge upside case for really either of them with this offense. I think this is obviously very helpful for Ryan Tannehill and for the Titans. I mean, you guys, we already did that division,

and you guys both picked the Titans to win the division. This has to be a massive help because there's questions. Can Trey Lomberts be a wide receiver one for an NFL team? We haven't seen it yet. We think maybe he can. Well, he can be a wide receiver too. It's one of those things when you bring a guy like Hopkins in the rest of your depth chart it looks really good now yeah I mean one injury was the problem too like if Burks went down what do you have right if Hopkins goes

down now you have Burks so uh there's upside in that respect because he's 31 years old Hopkins is he's been hurt like every season so right so there is I'm not saying don't draft Burks. It's just far from an assured outcome at this point. He was somebody that we were focusing on as a sleeper in the ultimate draft kit. And, you know, it is what it is. The team needed it. And it is good for Tannehill.

You talk about two quarterback super flex leagues. Ryan Tannehill in a productive offense in a division that's winnable, don't forget to look his way at the end of those drafts. Totally agree. And ironically, adding this wide receiver to a team, which is usually great for future dynasty quarterback prospects, I could see this being pretty bad for Bananarama,

just because if the Titans win and Ryan Tannehill has a good season... Go ahead. Will Levis, by the way. Yeah, well, sure. I mean, we could call him by his given name. He's being beat out by Malik Willis. I was going to say, I read that. I don't know where the blurb came from,

so I was going to ask if you guys had heard any of that. I saw the same thing. That in camp right now, Malik willis was outperforming i guess there was a usa today blurb on july 9th that said malik willis is currently outplaying will levis which and holy crap if that's true malik willis could not outperform joshua dobbs yeah last year so look there's a chance that Willis has improved drastically as well, but this is yikes. I think I'm the only person in the world that actually thinks

Ryan Tannehill is a good quarterback. No, not at all. He's good. The efficiency and the numbers have gone down. He keeps winning football games. He's very Joe Flacco at his best. I think if you put Ryan Tannehill on the 49ers, he would be awesome. Yeah, but Nick Mullins was pretty awesome on the 49ers too.

Yeah, I'm just saying he would be better than the other guys they've had. Completely agree. Are you a big Jimmy G fan? Nope. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I agree with you. Tannehill can get the job done if the offense has the pieces. Last year they didn't, but Hopkins is going to help make them a winner.

It will be interesting. For Hopkins, like, he looked like he still had it last year. So that's the upside for Hopkins. As soon as he came back. Yeah, give me the numbers because it was nine games last season for Hopkins and he had almost 1,000 yards. Yeah, I mean, his target share was out of control after what seemed like a down year before that.

J.J. Zacharyson, this stat is credit to him. He said, since 2011, the only wideouts past their 10th year in the league to post a wide receiver two or better season. Larry Fitzgerald, Julian Edelman, Andre Johnson, Reggie Wayne, and Anquan Bolden. So, like, historically, Hopkins was already going to be up against it, staying with the Arizona Cardinals as, you know, in a more pass-friendly offense, at least it was with Cliff, and getting the huge target share. Now he goes to a lower pie, but the question will be,

does he get back to the DeAndre Hopkins 30% target share? Because if he is there, he's fine. He'll show up. He'll be a wide receiver too. If that comes down to like 26%, then that's where I kind of have him. I don't have him skyrocketing back up to being the only show in town. So he's an interesting pick and I think a high risk with a decent amount of ceiling built in there, but a risky pick.

A 30% target share on that offense would be 7.8 targets a game. From the numbers last year? From the numbers last year. But that's been kind of their situation. And that's not too exciting. And I have him at 28, Mike at 29. Definitely some better situations you could have gone to. Now, if you spent the offseason drafting Traylon Burks early in best ball,

you're bummed out. But if you spent the offseason drafting Joe Mixon in best ball, you're excited because he agreed to a restructure. He's going to stay in Cincinnati. This is what is what we i mean it was trending this direction um we didn't see a path for this not to happen because they didn't have the requisite pieces that they would have needed to make it happen for him to depart so but they still you they took a peg he took a unique like when you're telling a guy hey we we don't want to pay you this much money, they still have to come back and agree that they will

play for less than you already told them you were going to play for. It's a big deal, the restructure because he'll be there probably. Oh, yeah. I'm sure he was. He took a pretty substantial pay cut. About $4.6 million

for two pay cut in 2024 as part of the new deal as well. Yeah, that's what I was going to bring up. It's not just like now we know he's playing this season. You can draft him confidently. I love this. You've had a great value on him. And honestly, he will be a good value come draft season because the ADP has been so well established as a low ADP for him that it will when when we're when we're at draft season it's just going to be behind the times a

little bit and it'll be rising from now until then but he'll be a good value oh I love him but next year uh so in dynasty leagues it seems like he will be playing for the Bengals for two years now with the with what he did financially and I know it was a down year for him from a yards per carry standpoint last season, didn't score a ton of touchdowns. But the first 10 weeks, before he got hurt last year, Joe Mixon was still on pace for 70 receptions. Samajit E. Ryan is gone. We've talked about the trust that we – I mean, you've got Chase Brown, right?

And then you've got Travion Williams. So Joe Mixon is a guarantee for volume yes he is um another interesting piece of news evan ingram right before the deadline three-year 45 uh 42.5 million dollar contract we did it everybody um congratulations mike thank you pretty big for you i I feel great about it. It was your fourth-round pick for you in that last draft. Yeah, it was. It's funny. I took Mixon in that draft. I took Ingram for you in that draft. Both got good news.

But Ingram under contract. Mike's got him the highest at tight end six. So there you go. He's been drafted at tight end eight. Plenty of upside. He had stretches last year that were weak winning performances and then we don't know but we do know josh jacobs saquon barkley unlikely to get any sort of deal before the tag uh deadline hits at 1 p.m today which as of this moment it's about 30

minutes away so by the end of the show we'll note definitively josh jacobs is likely to hold out at training camp. We've heard Saquon potentially have availability in week one against Dallas in question. At this point, hearing that from ESPN, is Saquon going to get a downgrade in your rankings? He'll certainly get an upgrade in the risk rating because you need to know that there's a chance he could miss that game.

Obviously, when you're at the place where Saquon's going and maybe you're looking at two great options, you're saying, okay, do I want Saquon or do I want Bijan or do I want Nick Chubb? Well, if you think there's a good legitimate chance at that point when you're making a draft that Saquon's threatened to miss the opening week of the season, yeah, I would rather have the other guy. So it would move the needle.

Let me throw some more names out there to both of you. And you guys just let me know where the line is. Joe Mixon, aforementioned. No, I would stick with Saquon. I'd still go Barkley. Jonathan Taylor. I would stick with Saquon. Oh, does Taylor or Barkley?

I'll go Barkley, yeah. Brees Hall. Saquon. Yeah. Najee. Saquon. Oh, does Taylor or Barkley? I'll go Barkley, yeah. Brees Hall. Saquon. Yeah. Najee. Saquon. Barkley, yeah. Pollard.

I have Pollard ranked higher anyways. And Pollard has already, he signed his franchise. So, like, he's good to go. We would prefer for the man to get a long-term extension. Seems unlikely at this point, but he's already going to be playing. One more for Jason because he has Saquon very highly ranked and you're the lowest on Derrick Henry.

Would this news change your Derrick Henry? Flip that. I don't think so. I think I would keep Saquon there. I think on a per-game basis, I would still take the one-game absence and like Saquon a ton. The only guys, it's Bijan and Nick Chubb, Josh Jacobs.

Those three guys, I think it might flip the needle. And obviously we've got to wait and see what Jacobs does because maybe this is infectious and he's like, well, I'm going to miss week one if I'm not on a franchise. Are these two guys going to go? Oh, maybe they'll go for Oyo. Yeah, like just go bro down, do some kind of running backs who are on the franchise tag vacation.

Yeah, they're going surfing. Oh, surfing? For sure. They're both huge surf dudes. Are gigantic quads kind of a thing for surfing? Oh, yeah. They can't hurt. They squat down there, and you can't get them off that board.

Josh Jacobs is 25. Saquon's 26. Both of them won't have a birthday until after this season. And so you've got two really young players, very talented, still in their prime windows. And the franchise tags $10.1 million for running backs. That's what Tony Pollard is going to play on. He's not missing camp.

He's going to be there. But when you think about the investment that you have to make to lock up like it probably costs you 12 million dollars like josh jacobs would cost you 12 million a year for like two or three years to avoid this situation and they're still as of this moment not doing it um but that's the perfect off-season script for josh jacobs last Last year he was playing in the Hall of Fame game. So if you're playing in the Hall of Fame game, you could probably miss some camp and still be good. We'll find out.

Maybe we'll get some breaking news. Maybe. Al Brooks, let us know. And then we had some minor injury news. Tyquan Thornton dealing with a soft tissue issue. I want it to be said, Devontae Parker is a sleeper to me because you don't have Jacoby Myers, who was the tried and true option there. Parker has always been impressive on the big catches, the touchdowns. Thornton dealing with a soft tissue issue, and Hopkins didn't sign there,

which is one of the things depressing his value. So I just don't want his name to be forgotten. I think that there's a decent chance, it's not guaranteed, that he's their best receiver this year, and that's got to be worth something in a draft sure i don't hate it i don't mind being out on there by myself no no you're like the taekwon thornton was already up against it he was you know he was a pretty highly drafted player kyle was he was thornton the second rounder okay he was a second rounder but he But historically, you can look at players who have hit just a threshold of like a yards per route run or target per route run

that you have a pretty strong correlation or hit rate that these players have to hit this threshold, and then you see their career kind of blossom. Thornton did not. His utilization was all gadgetry. It was all like a big play here or utilization in a screen. So I never saw him get out there and be like an alpha type of. But that's part of the issue is if you come out here as a rookie and you're used that way, the team might be just telling the public,

this is how we see this player. He can help us on the football field, but for fantasy football, the odds are really stacked against him. All right, quick break, and we'll get into the divisional breakdown. Did you have anything to add there with Taekwon, Jason? I know you've talked about him a little bit. Juju is in New England as well. I had some hopes for Thornton. I've got him a decent exposure rate on my best ball teams.

I'm really sad to see the soft tissue issue for a guy that's a speedster because those things can linger. Remember, he was a 4-2-8 player, and I think that the gadgetry that was, you know, the way he was used last year, you got Matt Patricia trying to run an offense. It's just not going into a year with Bill O'Brien. I was kind of hopeful that some of the athleticism and features that he has, you know, they could show up this year. But – Yeah, he's a slender man.

Yes. 185. 6'2", but very fast. Let's get divisional. Well, I'm excited to talk about the AFC West today with you fine gentlemen. The Kansas City Chiefs defending champions. Can't wait to shock you guys with my divisional pick at the end. Oh, boy.

Stay tuned, everybody. Yeah. Nice tease. Stay tuned. Looking at offseason changes between 2022 and 2023, how these offenses could function, and then we will. We'll predict who's going to win. Stay tuned.

Kansas City last year was 14-3. The Chargers were 10-7. Raiders were 6-11. Broncos 5-12. And, you know, this division is very, very interesting. It is littered with fantasy football options throughout, starting with, obviously, the Chiefs. They have an 11.5 win total this year.

It was 11 last year. So, I mean, they are on the top of the mountain. Mahomes, Kelsey. You could stop after Mahomes. Really? Oh, really. Why do I have to stop after Mahomes? That's really disrespectful.

No, no, no. I'm saying they're on top of the world. Oh. They have Mahomes. That's good enough. You can do anything else on that roster, and they will be one of the best teams in the NFL. He's just a freak of nature.

Yeah, I mean, it was funny because you had made that comment about Aaron Rodgers and losing Devontae, and look what Mah what my homes did but we do forget or maybe didn't mention like kelsey is the linchpin of of that offense in a lot of ways so um does help it does help him to have travis kelsey uh but those are your two absolute fantasy stalwarts heading into the season. Andy Reid is the magic that unlocks the creativity, the goal line passing, which you love to see. I mean, if you are the running back room in that situation in Kansas City, it's very unpredictable. There's not going to be maybe as much of a, I guess,

excitement around one specific guy in that backfield. But everybody's going to have Mahomes on those rosters and Kelsey. And the fact they throw the ball around the end zone so much that they're the highest scoring team in all of football, it just brings a lot of excitement. They got rid of Juju. I don't think any of us say, look at that and go, Mah is in trouble and then they brought in richie james who's very very productive in new york last year um and they drafted rashi rice so let's break it down a little bit my homes set a record last year 15 weeks as the quarterback one yeah as a quarterback one not the he it's very tough because he's being drafted essentially at the beginning of the second round.

I think that's too rich for me for an ADP of I think I can make up some ground at the quarterback position and bypass him there. Are you in on the early second round or? It doesn't hurt you. Okay, so you're okay with it? I don't, I'm not going to do it because I, like you said, you know, like if you're choosing Allen and Hurts, like if you like those three in the same category

and Mahomes is going ahead of them, I'm not going to do it. But I genuinely think you aren't going to get burned by it. Like I don't think your potential of being burned by drafting any of those three early is there. I really don't. I don't think that there's an opportunity to be. Like last year, Herbert burned you, right? Is there a world where Burrow could burn you?

Maybe. I just don't think that Mahomes can burn you. But the burn comes in the fact that those, the big three of last year were so far ahead. The rest of the quarterback scoring was down so far. And you saw it. I think we highlighted some Warren Sharp stats about just offense in general was down.

If that has a positive regression and more quarterbacks are and more offenses are healthy and functional, and those three guys aren't points and points and points ahead of the QB4, that's how you get burned. It's not that those three guys are going to be fantastic, but are they that much better? I think it's kind of the Jason Stravitz-Kelsey argument too. Right. No, it is actually very, very similar to that.

And I think if I could meet you guys in the middle of what you're both saying, because I think you're both right, that getting Mahomes in the second round is not going to burn you. It's not going to crush your team and cripple it. Lamar Jackson, Justin Fields, or even worse, all three of them leap up into elite production this year. And now all of a sudden, well, there's rosters that they drafted one of those guys, and they got a second round running back or a second round wide receiver. So Patrick Mahomes, you can still win with him, obviously. He's Patrick freaking Mahomes. But your lineup wasn't built as optimally as someone who got someone in the fifth round that leveled up. You're playing a different game, though. When you do that strategy, you're playing a scratchers because just because there's a gap, there was a gap last year between them and the other ones. And maybe that goes away. Well, who is it? You just named three names. What

if it's one of the three? You've got to identify it. So that is the game that you're having to play later. Could you thread the needle and be perfectly right yeah but with mahomes you will not have a bust in fact he threw 41 touchdowns last year he could throw 50 because he's done it before so like he can actually have an ascending year not just um you know a regression year 50 had the uh the 26 uh missed three games, then 38, 37, 41. I just want to make the bull case for him and the fact that you don't have to do the gamble. Like you put us through that mock draft the other day,

and we didn't have to think about quarterback the rest of the draft. So that is an advantage sometimes, being able to focus on, you know, there's a lot of inputs in your draft. And if trying to figure out when you're going to get the one guy you might be taking the shot on, the scratchers on, it can be an advantage is my point. Because what if you're wrong? I mean, I waited on Herbert last year.

That cost me. If I had spent it on Mahomes, I would have been better off. Right, but Mahomes wasn't in the second round last year. Well, Allen. If I had taken Allen in the second round that would have worked out sure right yeah um or if you like you identify Jalen Hurts late then you you did both you got the double whammy which is great but you'd have to be able to get it right yeah and I guess that's that's the point though in the game we're playing is I identified

Jalen Hurts I won a championship with him in our league of record. Only one team gets to win the championship. So you really want to be the team that plays the scratch. That's the way I see it. I feel like you're, you're spending so much on the homes and if he has a ceiling, you're going to be all right. You're, you're definitely not going to be out of the running. You're going to be competitive, but it would be nicer to me to try to build like I'm playing the scratcher. I'm going to try to grab Lamar two rounds later or grab Herbert three rounds later this year and add the second round running back or wide receiver. At the running back position, Isaiah Pacheco, Jarek McKinnon, Clyde Edwards-Alaire.

I've been taking McKinnon myself late in drafts. He was the running back two in a five-week stretch at the end of the season he went crazy um he has he's a wide receiver for them losing juju i think that we we can't we have to look at mckinnon as a weapon they're going to utilize in the offense and you can just look to his production i mean andy reed's going to use a guy that scored nine touchdowns in the receiving game yeah and it's 11th round i have have, I have no problem with it. We've laid out the case of McKinnon's ascension. It lined up perfectly with Clyde Edwards, a layer, uh, missing games, not saying that they look at Clyde's production over his career as a

chief and say, we got to for sure, get him back in there. They, it could just end up being Pacheco and McKinnon, but for an 11th roundround pick for McKinnon, that's nothing. That's worth the risk. I will point out that when both players were healthy, McKinnon had higher snap counts than Clyde O'Dridge-Alaird did. So he was still on the field around the beginning of the season, the whole beginning of the season. So he was on the field as much, if not more,

than Clyde was when they were both healthy. But Pacheco emerged over the second half of the year. I'd say for the beginning of the year, that's part of the issue. What could happen to McKinnon, though, is the – I'm watching the Netflix show, the quarterback show. How is that, by the way? I really like it. I love football.

So, I mean, it's a lot of – I'm seeing more positive than negative. It's a lot of recapping of last year. But you're getting, you know, like more information. So, I'm really, really enjoying it. But you were – there was a play week one or two or something, and Mahomes misses a wide-open McKinnon who's on a wheel route. Free touchdown.

And he misses it. And they highlight it because Mahomes is just beating himself up for missing it. And then it's like the next play is a Clyde Edwards-Alaire receiving touchdown. So that's the issue where Jarek McKinnon went on that tear over those final four weeks. You don't have that roulette option of, okay, the play didn't happen with McKinnon, and now Clyde's in on the play, so he doesn't get a chance to do it. Let me put it this way.

Are either of you drafting Pacheco at RB28? Not me. Mike? It's not really an inspiring pick, but I'm okay with it. RB28 is... Are you drafting Clyde in any league, way, shape, or form? 18th round of best balls. Yeah, super, super deep.

Grabbed him. Are you drafting McKinnon in the 11th. Yeah, I'm fine with it. I have not, man. Okay. Kadarius Toney, Marquez Valdez-Scantling, Sky Moore, Rashi Rice, Richie James, Justin Watson. Oh, man.

It's crowded. It's very crowded. It's probably going to be at the end of the year where, hey, all these guys had a good game two of these guys had two good games one of these guys had four good games and it's probably not going to work out for fantasy as far as having someone emerge as a superstar but this is one of those nebulous wide receiver rooms you have Mahomes so we've got to try to at least identify who could emerge who could be special.

You know, when I statted everything out for the ultimate draft kit, my initial rankings were very high on Kadarius Tony. We've seen him be special. I've pulled back a little bit from that, but I remember seeing a quote just the other day from Mahomes talking up Kadarius Tony. And obviously you're going to talk up your own players, but he said, quote, he can be one of the best receivers in this league. Like he, he really is loving Cadareous Tony. Now they've got an actual off season with him. Remember they brought Cadareous Tony in mid season. He was injured when they brought him over. So he couldn't even work him in and they really never did work him in.

They use them as a gadget player on a handful of plays every game. But there is a narrative to be built, at the very least, where with an off-season program, with Juju leaving, with Kadarius Toney having the opportunity to emerge as the wide receiver one for the team, he's got the talent to do it. And so if I wanted to put a bet on one of these players, that's where I would place my bet.

It's tough. MBS, would you say he was an important part of the offense last year in Kansas City? Yes or no? Important to the offense? Important to the NFL offense. Yes. See, I would say that too.

And you can be important to Kansas City and end up outside the top 50 a wide receiver like he did. That's the challenge. But Kadarius Toney, I mean, it's amazing that Mahomes' top wide receiver option is being drafted as the wide receiver 40. So it's the challenge. But Kadarius Toney, I mean, it's amazing that Mahomes' top wide receiver option is being drafted as the wide receiver 40. So it's Travis Kelsey. Travis Kelsey is the one and the two in the offense, and then they have 16 wide receiver threes right now.

Led NFL in red zone targets. That includes wide receivers and touchdowns. That's what's so beautiful about Kelsey is that it's like you're around the goal line and you expect him to be the one that scores they just as does the defense there and it makes no difference Andy Reid is too creative I really want like the NFL to split up like it's still a passing touchdown that's fine but I want to see how many shovel passes and tap passes. What percentage of most touchdowns are just these manufactured basic handoffs that just go forward to open up a lane for a touchdown? In the show, again, you're reminded of there's multiple Travis Kelsey highlights of him.

Yeah, he's getting the ball in space. And then he's just stiff-arming defenders into oblivion. It's so fun when you have him on your team. So it comes down to Travis Kelsey is simply an ADP discussion. Right now he's slotted for the middle of the first, which is very, very expensive for a tight end or a onesie position. I don't think any of us have taken him in any mocks. I don't know that I've had the ability to.

I'm more on the side of if I'm in the later half of the first round, I am 100% fine taking him. Like 7-8-9? Yeah. In that range, I am okay taking him because to me,

Travis Kelsey will still be the difference maker. If your strategy is Mark Andrews, then I'm okay with that because he's going multiple rounds later. But it's unlike where Mahomes and the discussion about the big three quarterbacks, I think some other quarterbacks can catch them and catch up and close that gap. I still have Mahomes and those guys on top, but some other quarterbacks are going to put up a fight. It's hard to see what other tight end in this current landscape could actually challenge Kelsey or Mark Andrews. 152 targets.

And watching Kelsey play last year I mean he was outrageously good you know 12 touchdowns compared to 9 the year before more yards this past year than 2021 so it's not like we didn't see a weird dip in Travis Kelsey's production and go uh oh is

Travis Kelsey at the end I don't think so I think we have for sure at least another season of Travis Kelsey at the end? I don't think so. I think we have, for sure, at least another season of Travis Kelsey being dominant, and you can't catch up with those points where I can try to catch up with wide receivers and quarterbacks or wide receivers and running backs. It puts your team at a weird position if you start with him, but I'm okay with it in the second half of the first round.

Let me ask Jason if his philosophy is identical around the tight end threading of the needle because it's obviously a lot easier to identify a late Jalen Hurts, a late Josh Allen from years ago, a late Lamar from years ago, Kyler. Finding a quarterback seems like a lot of, it's much more of an exact science than it is, you know, it's David Njoku this year. That's going to be a top two tight end. Yeah, no, I don't do the threading of the needle at the tight end position because there aren't options.

You just do the drafting of the Andrews instead of Kelsey. There's one needle threader that I grab around the 6-7 turn. So I get Mark Andrews in the third, and if I can't get Mark Andrews, I am trying to thread the needle with a 6-7 turn Kyle So I get Mark Andrews in the third, and if I can't get Mark Andrews, I am trying to thread the needle with a 6-7 turn Kyle Pitts. I'm taking that chance. And then after that, I just don't care. I'm going to grab...

Give me Higby. I don't care. So you're just punting. Yes, I'm punting the position at that point. Okay. Yeah, that's good to know. All right, looking at the Los Angeles Chargers. Last year, they were projected for 10 wins.

That's where they ended, 10-7. This year is 9-1. They went 1-5 against teams with winning records last year. I feel like every bit of excitement that we had going into the season was metaphorically and maybe literally hit by a Mack truck in the sense that injuries plagued this team. You had a quarterback in Justin Herbert that was playing injured throughout the season.

You had long, long stints of Keenan Allen and Mike Williams missing time. Jalen Guyton went out before the season. Joshua Palmer didn't. You know, there's a lot on his shoulders to expect him to come out and carry the load and didn't quite deliver. Still a team that played very fast. Still a team that had a ton of passing attempts.

But overall, last year, if you drafted any of those guys, it was a bust. Herbert, Keenan, Mike Williams. I mean, other than maybe Gerald Everett, I think it's a full bus. Maybe. I would say if you were able to tread water and hold on to Keenan Allen,

because the second half was not just like, oh, Keenan Allen, it was pretty good. No, Keenan Allen was great. He was the wide receiver four from week 11 on. Thank you. So it's a busted draft pick. It probably feels like it for most people because I imagine they moved on. If you don't have your guy until week 11, that's a busted draft pick

because you don't get them in 18. That's really tough. I feel like most leagues that I was in, the person that drafted Keenan Allen did not get Keenan Allen's greatness. So they draft Quentin Johnston to add another wide receiver to the room. It's exciting for Justin Herbert, even if you don't necessarily believe in Quentin Johnston as a potential sleeper this year.

I don't know if you guys stand in that camp. I do take some shots on Quentin Johnston. He's got the talent. He's got the yards after catch ability, and he's in an offense with an offensive coordinator and a quarterback that can get the job done. He's an unknown rookie with high draft capital. There's a lot of reasons to take the shot on him, and he doesn't cost much.

You know, he's the wide receiver 42 off the board. So when I'm in that range, I'm looking for someone that could come out and kind of surprise us. My pre-NFL draft outlook on him wasn't the best. I didn't see him as a dominator. I feel like all three of us are like, what are you doing with Quentin Johnson? I'm like, I don't know.

What are you doing with Quentin? We're all like, you don't know why. I guess he's too pre-draft. The reason why is that, one, we haven't even mentioned his name this offseason, but Joshua Palmer plays for the Chargers. He's a very competent wide receiver three. So we don't even mentioned his name this offseason, but Joshua Palmer plays for the Chargers. He's a very competent wide receiver three. So we don't even mention it.

So the room is getting more, you know, it's busier than it used to be. Quentin Johnston is a bet on an injury, and we don't like doing it. And that's why we're like, what are you doing with him? Because are you betting on Mike Williams or Keenan Allen to get hurt? Because if they don't get hurt, Quentin Johnston is probably not having some huge breakout season, is he? Probably not. Yeah, probably not.

Because if that's the case, then you're saying either, A, he's outperforming those other two, which I assume, is that a possibility to you? That's a possibility. Mike Williams and Keenan? Yeah, I mean, he projects more to be the Mike Williams type of role. Mike Williams is obviously older, and I don't necessarily think he's going to outproduce them.

I don't have them statted that way if they're all healthy. Obviously, Mike Williams is never always healthy. He misses a handful of games all the time. But it's just one of those things where you go, okay, this division. He goes like Julio to the Roddy of days of old. With Herbert, Herbert can throw 45 touchdowns. That is one of the range of outcomes with Kellen Moore and with health.

Last year, Herbert was a major disappointment for fantasy drafters. But he lost Mike Williams a bunch. He lost Keenan Allen for half the year. He broke his ribs and played through it when he could barely move for several of those weeks. There were a lot of things that went very poorly for Justin Herbert, and they won 10 games. So, you know, if Justin Herbert has his weapons weapons has a more creative offensive mind to open things up and make them easier adds a first round rookie weapon this is an offense that I think if if you end up the year with like 45 touchdowns then they all three had good seasons Kellen Moore's teams Dallas obviously number one and number four in points scored the last two years.

Too many. Too many. It's too many for old McCarthy. How dare you? Number one and number four and you get canned, huh? I think it was a mutual, I don't know, was it a firing? It just seemed like, yeah, he wants to move on because he heard he could get Herbert. Yeah, I don't, I mean

it's, there's a lot to be excited about, but they're in a division that you see them as not the best team in the division. Well, we don't know yet. Stay tuned. Hey, whoa, whoa. Gotta keep the listeners the whole show. They have a good O-line. They lost

Rashawn Slater for 14 games last year. That hurt. I remember when that happened and Herbert was beat up, and it was like there's no hope any of these weeks, throwing the ball to Josh Palmer and no one else. So Herbert has a tremendous upside case. I have him at QB5 right now. I guess that's the highest.

I don't know where you guys have him. We're all in on herbert this year ackler was rb2 last year he has 36 red zone touchdowns the last two years he's been targeted on 27 of his routes he has a tried and true weapon um and he's playing for a contract on a contract year you know he's out there and he's he's feeling pretty spicy yeah i mean he is like the he the quote was him saying you know when i look out there and there's backup wide receivers making more money than me like he is that's not fair he's oh i yeah i totally agree but he's he is rightfully upset yeah i the running back salary situation is not i don't think it's not fair you you didn't bring

this i just think uh no deal by the way for josh jacobs yeah you didn't bring it up uh earlier but if you look at the franchise tag values from 2015 the cost of the franchise tag to put it on a quarterback has gone through the roof it It's just, you know, obviously salaries always go up. Everything has gone up. Wide receivers through the roof. It's cheaper today to franchise a running back than it was in 2015 because the franchise tag is based on the top five paid players in the position. Something like that.

And they've gone down. And nobody pays running backs. Yeah, because it's a bad bet. Yeah, it is. It's not good for the team. It's like none of us want our teams to go pay the running backs. Yeah, because it's a bad bet. Yeah, it is. It's not good for the team. It's like none of us want our teams to go pay the running backs. Right. Right?

We say that we want our fantasy players to have contracts. I got a quote here, guys. Oh, boy. I want to play. Hold on. Hold on. Can we play a game? Breaking news.

All right. I want you to tell me if this seems like positive sentiment or negative. Okay? Okay. I'm listening. This is direct from the source. You haven't seen this yet, Jay? I haven't seen.

Oh, perfect. Okay. This is direct from the source. You're playing with Jason. Okay? Okay. This is from Saquon Barkley, superstar running back of New York Giants. He has recently tweeted, it is what it is.

Okay. All right. Now, you tell me, is this positive or is this negative? This is negative. This is not a happy man. This is throwing my hands up. Has anyone ever said, I love- In a good way?

I love phrases like this. Everything is everything or it is what it is. But has anyone ever used that because things were going great? Oh, right. Just everything's going well. it is what it is but has anyone ever used that because like things were going great oh right like just everything's going well it is what it is how how did you win those millions of dollars i don't know man it is what it is no no saquon and jacobs will both be if they play which i assume they will play at some point it's going to be contract year story for them just like it is for eckler at the running back position jacobs did that last year he was playing for a contract last year right then he gets franchised because he played so well um also this is incredible kyle just dug this up according to the new york times the phrase it is what it is appeared as early as a 1949 article by j.e

lawrence in the Nebraska State Journal. Lawrence used the phrase when describing the difficulty faced during frontier era life in Nebraska. Oh, man. Frontier life in Nebraska. It is what it is. No, that's what it's like being a running back. Yeah, it is what it is. It's like being on the frontier in Nebraska.

Oh, man. But for what it's worth, they will both make $10 million this year. Yeah. I don't get caught up in that. No, I don't. It's comparing it to your peers and what you bring. It's not easy being a running back. No.

It's not. They should make a new rule. If you want to fix this, I got your fix. You're not allowed to draft running backs except for every other year. Something like that. Because you can't replace them with cheap labor. Yeah, the market's just, you know. Neither player has signed their tender, so we'll keep you up to date with that.

Eckler. Well, they're not going to sign until they want to show up. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's the point is we'll figure out whether they participate in some of camp or not if you know they just decide hey let's show up and start collecting checks and let's move on towards getting a contract next year um that's where we're at yeah maybe though the hold in all right so yeah let's what is this more more news brooks what's going on they're just not just confirmation

all right neither player reached the deal all right so eckler he's been dominant for the last two years playing on a contract year unless you want to sit here and and make the same argument that's been made against him for three years about him scoring too much compared to averages you know he's going to be a dominant force I mean he's ranked at the RB2 for a reason he'll be a great fantasy option I don't think he finishes like I've got him as running back too I don't think he finishes there I would still draft him as the second one because I think you're on a great offense you're the depth chart is is disgusting around you and you're the main show you catch a ton of passes but there are it's not just touchdown regression when when he was on the field with both Mike Williams and Keenan

Allen his target market share was it was like almost 45 minutes last year it was it yeah it wasn't it wasn't much but it was almost like half of what it was in the games where it was just one of them and now they add Quinton Johnson so yeah sorry sorry so target coming down a little bit touchdowns may be regressing but you're still the dude on a great offense it's just so easy if you catch 107 passes it's very easy to be top five yeah it's hard to not be top five yeah and he got 107 passes so touchdowns thrown out the window if you catch 100 plus balls you're going to end up top five. I have him ranked a bit lower than you guys do, and for me it's a combination of being overly efficient forever, but also he's 28 now, and it's the age cliff for running backs.

It's right around 27, 28, so I see him coming down just a bit let's talk raiders they're 6 and 11 or they were 6 and 11 they went into last year with a eight and a half win total they said it wasn't mcdaniel's fault it was derrick carr's fault let's get rid of him uh this year they're projected for fewer wins seven and a5. They led by double digits at halftime in five games. They went 1-4 in those games. They went 1-6 when they had Waller and Renfro, so you can't blame injuries. And Josh McDaniels looked terrible as a head coach again.

Let's just be honest. The best decision he made as a head coach was to take the Hall of fame game running back josh jacobs and give him the ball 10 million times i mean jacobs if he is the starter which he should be if he's playing in week one you know he had the fifth most rushing yards over the last decade he caught a ton of passes it is very similar to what you just talked about with the depth chart in Los Angeles like this was a player eight seven one three eight a stretch during the middle of the year where he was I mean he had three number one overall finishes last year

for a guy that only Brooks believed it so um if he plays what's's his ceiling? Probably where he was last year, right? Yeah, I don't think he is going to possibly be able to repeat the ceiling he hit last year from a production standpoint because the offense will be worse this year, I think, with the change at quarterback. I don't project this team to be better. Obviously, they lost Darren Waller. It's a tough division but the depth chart around him is such that you project an absolute massive workload he's on the franchise

not worried about Brandon Bolden no I'm not worried about any of them express so you're you're talking about just the best he will touch the ball 350 times and if you if you touch the ball 350 times you're gonna be great your your floor is so extremely high now whether or not he's able to get the the touchdowns and the big plays that he had last year that's probably not going to happen at the same clip so I see him as a really really safe option uh that's probably going to finish the year as lower in RB1. Yeah, I mean, I look at him the same as Nick Chubb. You know, he's going in the back of the first round.

You know, to be that efficient on that many touches shows a level of skill that you saw in the field. But, yeah, I mean, repeating it every year is going to be difficult. Those two players have a hard time. Like right now I have at Chubb, Jacobs, 3-4. I want both of them very badly on my team. Devontae Adams, ho-hum,

did it again. Is he undervalued at wide receiver 8? Should he be in these discussions the way or are you just so afraid of the quarterback situation? It's funny because this was, it's like the same situation as last year. he's a little older he's switching quarterbacks major downgrade at quarterback and then i didn't bet on davante

adams i was like yeah i'm gonna let other people do that and then it was i should have bet on davante adams you're so good and now it's like well he's a year older and he's getting a bad quarterback again that's been the lesson the last few years oh tyree kills got to it doesn't matter you know davante adams is his derrick car doesn't matter. You know, Devontae Adams is Derek Carr. It doesn't matter. We still haven't ranked very high, but I would say the cautionary flags for him are going from – so you got Derek Carr to Jimmy Garoppolo.

Derek Carr is – he doesn't do it a lot, but he's actually like a pretty capable deep ball passer. We saw an A-dot in a yards per completion here from Devontae Adams that he hasn't seen. Let me double-check this. Ever, he averaged 15.2 yards per completion. His second highest in that category would have been year three in the league at 13.3.

They used Adams a completely different way. And now what does that look like for Jimmy Garoppolo, who is nearly allergic to throwing the ball down the field? He's very scared to do it. So if we take that back, do we still get that level of production where Devontae Adams is the wide receiver three on the season? And on top of that, you had games where Devontae Adams just basically vanished from production, including a three-week stretch from weeks 14 through 16 that was pretty devastating so it's i've the devonta adams is still fantastic but he's not in that that group up there for me that had that with with hill jefferson cup

and jamar i don't know if i'll have success but i know he'll be vocal enough to get the targets yeah probably i mean that part is is guaranteed and if you're being drafted in the middle of the second round oh yeah that could be it round, it could work out for you. He's getting older. They added Jacoby Myers this offseason. They added DeAndre Carter. They added Austin Hooper and O.J. Howard. Yeah, so they drafted what?

Darren Waller not sucking up targets the way that he used to, so maybe Jacoby Myers and Hunter Renfro can both. This is a Devontae Adams, Josh Jacobs checkout situation for me. It's not against Jacoby Myers. He's a good football player. But Hunter Renfro is still there, and all the targets are going to be going to Devontae Adams first. And then you're just taking a middling to bad offense

and saying let's split up the leftovers between Hunter Renfro and Jacoby Myers and Austin Hooper. It's like, I don't want any of that. Just move on. It is weird. I think we all remember the very nice end of season to 2021 for Hunter Renfro. But man, last year was 100% a shot year. If you talk about you're with McDaniels and then you come out and you're just meaningless for the first nine weeks of the year,

I wonder if they're kind of done with him. What's his contract situation? Let's see. Because I know he missed time with injury. I don't want to say. Drafted in 2019, so this. This is the final year. I would think so, yeah.

I wonder if that's part of the thought process here with the Myers signing is if Renfro is just on the way out. I don't know. I mean, you need another player. Has to go to Denver and Buffalo in the first two weeks. So if you want to check out after those two guys, because you've got to go play in Denver and Buffalo and then Pittsburgh and the Chargers, tough start to the year for this team.

Two years. Oh, did he sign an extension? Oh, he did. He did sign an extension. Yeah, good for him. extension? Oh, he did. He did sign an extension. Yeah, good for him. Let me just check real quick. Throw out everything I said. Michael, I always forget, Meyer or Mayer?

Which one? Meyer? I think it's Meyer. I think it's Meyer. I think it is too, but now it's that weird thing where you're second guessing yourself. Michael Mayer? Is it Mayer?

Yeah, it's Mayer. Oh, I see. I think it's Mayer. Hold on. Hold on. Michael Mayer? Yeah, it's Mayer. Oh, my gosh. See? I think it's Mayer. Hold on. Michael Mayer? No, it's Mayer. Okay. That's why I was asking.

You guys kept making Michael Myers jokes. That's what did it. Yeah. We screwed ourselves up. Yeah, this is on you. That's not on us. There's a character named Michael Myers. So Michael Mayer, the tight end that they drafted, pretty high.

Do you guys have any interest? Because I see people on Twitter talking about him frequently, and I'm like, I don't get it at all. They brought Austin Hooper in on a one year. You brought O.J. Howard in. And Josh McDaniel is one of the lowest rates of two tight end sets in the league. Blah. I get it.

Blah. Michael Mayer is awesome. end sets in the league. Blah. So I get it. Blah. Michael Mayer is awesome. I know that a lot of people disagree with that. I don't even understand how you would think he's not great. He was a five-star recruit. He dominated every year. He's a baby boy. Oh, I think if there were certain teams on the clock,

he would have gone ahead of Dalton Kincaid. Absolutely. I mean, to me, he's great. I'm completely out for fantasy and redraft. Like, there's no freaking chance I'm drafting a rookie tight end in this situation. Not happening. When I get mayhem, you're getting a rookie tight end. No. Dalton Kincaid. Don't you give me Dalton Kincaid. Just locked Dalton Kincaid in there. All right, so we're going to move on. Let's talk about the Denver Broncos. Last year was a disaster. Russell Wilson was the most bet player preseason for the MVP award.

Did you look at that? They won four games. No, there were four and nine in one score games. They won five games. In their 2022 Vegas projected win total was 10 adding russell wilson made them score the least amount of points of any football team in the game 30 second and points per game how i am not going to bet on sean payton fixing the calamity that we witnessed last year. I just don't.

I mean, maybe he does. I hope he does. It's good for football. It's good for fantasy. But my personal bet is against a rebound for Russell Wilson. And so I find a lot of people are really into Jerry Judy this year. He's going to separate and be the one. If it's any kind of draft capital, I'm just out.

Wide receiver 25, back of the fifth. Yeah, I'm not doing that personally. Unlimited. I believe that we watched a bad quarterback play poorly, and I don't think he's just going to snap out of it. It's a tough bet and if they succeed as a team you may see that 16th ranked pass attempts go to titans range and you start using giovante and p ryan in this defense which is very good um that's their pathway so bad for their defense their defense

was so dominant last year the first half of of the year, they just shut everyone down and they still lost games. Yeah, so through 10 weeks, to your point, Jason, the defense held every opponent under their implied team total, allowing 16.6 points per game, which is number one in the NFL, and they went 3-6. So I don't know how that doesn't, like walking in that locker room, I know Russell Wilson, he may be immune to the feeling in the air, but that –

The other players aren't. I mean, they knew where the turd was. It was in front of Russell Wilson's locker. Look, I don't feel bad for him at all. When you're paid that kind of money, you force your way out of a situation, you have a responsibility under that amount to lead and to succeed and to be held accountable if you don't and to get all the praise if you win. That's what a quarterback does.

They get all the praise. Most bet MVP candidate. Why? Because if he goes in there and they win a bunch of games, it's his fault. So if you lose a bunch of games, it's your fault too. I do see a pathway to some relevance. It was a better end of the year. Jerry Judy is a very good player. Tim Patrick coming back, drafting Marvin Mims. Greg Dulcich is an emerging wide receiver talent. If you are taking a shot outside of, do we all have Judy the highest at the wide receiver position?

I do. Okay. So I'm going to say we got him a wide receiver, 25. We're all ahead of ADP on that, believe it or not. No, no, no. We have a 19 by consensus. 25 is ADP. Outside of Judy, cast your lot with a Bronco pass catcher.

There's two that I'm willing to draft, and it's Tim Patrick and Greg Dulcich, and the reason is because they cost nothing. I'm taking a super late shot that it gets fixed, and I don't have to invest anything. That's fair. Made $129 million over the last three years, more than any other player in football.

Russell Wilson. Super. They added Callaway to the offense as well. P. Ryan. They lost Mike Boone. But that's not making headlines. So, Cortland Sutton. Man.

It's weird to have a guy that you know is going to be lining up as a starter every play that you still don't really want to even glance in their direction well what's insane is because it's been courtland nutton last year courtland sutton was drafted ahead of jerry judy and it wasn't like last year went great for either player but now this year situations haven't really changed and judy showed something at the end of the year and sutton is four rounds behind judy and i i think pretty much everyone's just saying no i'm done with sutton no i'm not not playing yeah it's the the last five weeks helped judy a lot yeah it's pretty good run during that stretch he was on pace for 112 catches 1557 yards and 10 touchdowns yep that and that

would be why jud Judy's in front. And, you know, I know you want good things for Jerry Judy, Jason. I loved Jerry Judy coming out of college. He used to watch so many highlight videos that he'd be late to lunch. And I am never late to eat. Only for Jerry. Greg Dulcich, is he one of those guys in that category of when you punt, you go? Yep.

Do you have him ahead of a guy like Chigga Konkwa after the Hopkins news? Yeah, I've got Greg Dulcich a little bit ahead. You know, it's Evan or Gerald Everett is one of my late round kind of last round tight end picks. I'm kind of moved off of him. We didn't talk about tight end in los angeles but just because of parham's health and the discussions around him i'm afraid sure but gerald everett's always been doubted yeah gerald ever kind of accidentally productive gerald everett will be on the field ahead of parham so that's why i bet that way give me the uh give me your

thoughts on giovante p ryan right. Javante is being drafted significantly higher. All the talk, talk, talk, talk, talk is he'll be back and ready. Yeah, it was a catastrophic knee injury. It was not a simple ACL injury. And I know the team is saying all the right things, but you can book that. That's what they do. Guys get injured, and then over the right things, but you can book that. That's what they do. Guys get injured, and then over the offseason,

they're ahead of schedule, they look great, they're doing all this, doing all that, and then it comes time to play football, and shocker, the person with the devastating knee injury is not ready to play in the NFL. So I'm hopeful for the man that he's ready, but as of right now, I would project that Javante Williams is going to miss at least a handful of games and then not be ready to be the full-time starter,

which has me drafting Pirine as a band-aid for my running back position over the first month. Jason? Yeah, I'm pretty similar. I'm mostly right now just out. I recognize that there could be gold in them hills for either player, but it's one of those situations where I don't know the health of the knee, and whatever fluff pieces are coming out is something I will not be listening to.

I'm going to watch what is actually happening on the field to make my decisions closer to the game. So right now, like in best ball, I'm pretty much just avoiding the situation, not trying to pretend that I have secret inside information because it's just health. If Javante is actually healthy, well, man, he's a steal. I don't think he's going to be actually healthy, in which case, if he misses time, Samajay's a steal. Or does he just get there week one and he's not that good yet and he doesn't produce and Samajay's not on the field? I'm taking a wait-and-see approach. Yeah, I think the one thing you could probably bet on more safely of whether he shows up or not is just there's a reality

where both guys get a lot of work all year long. Sure. I mean, they paid Pirine to come in and play. I mean, this is a hand-picked by Sean Payton, and he's a capable third-down guy. They could alternate drives the whole year long. Payton's running back room has always been very, very valuable for fantasy. So if you want to take your shots, it's logical.

And this isn't just Alvin Kamara. This is before Kamara. This is Deuce McAllister. Timmy Hightower, Jason. Anybody and everybody. When they're back there, he knows how to set them up for success. Well, this might, the suspense is over. Let's order this division.

All right. I'm going to go Chiefs. What? I know. Shocker. Chargers. Okay. Broncos.

Raiders. Okay. Raiders are on the two-year goodbye to McDaniels, get themselves a rookie quarterback plan. Does he make it through the year? Probably not because that's scheduled to start the year he'll be a nice oh and four to kick it off and then uh desperation jimmy geo caused some drama no this is raiders are the biggest they could hurt our cardinals number one and two picks

um i'm going it's so tough at the top i'm gonna go to go Kansas City, though. Whoa. Okay. Yeah. Then I'm going the Chargers. Okay. Broncos. Oh, all right. Raiders. So we are in sync. All right.

I really hope everyone stayed tuned. Because I'm going to win this division. The Chiefs of Kansas City. What? All three of us? Yes. Second place, I will give it to the Chargers of kansas city what all three of us yes second place i will give it to the chargers of los angeles i'm gonna go with the denver broncos and third oh why aren't they the broncos of denver you're really letting me down based on the first two thank you andrew because it's denver it's different okay okay and then i will go with the Raiders of Las Vegas in fourth place.

What in the world is wrong? All right, that is the end of the show. I told people to stay around. I had to give them something special. Go to ballerslive.com and come see us. The Megalith Show, live in L.A., end of August. Get your tickets now at ballerslive.com. Talk to you soon.

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