Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Early QB Rankings: Top 10 Countdown, Grandpa Vibes - Fantasy Football Podcast for 4/23

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

Top 10 quarterbacks on today’s fantasy football podcast! How high is C.J. Stroud ranked for 2024? Find out where the best QBs landed in our pre-draft fantasy football rankings. Plus, which QBs look to be the best and worst values in this year's drafts. Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for April 23rd, 2024. Dynasty Pass content available now in the UDK+ at 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

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Hey, this is Patrick Mahomes, quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, and you're listening to the Fantasy footballers podcast with your hosts andy holloway jason moore and mike right oh welcome in. It's a brand new week. It's a big one. I don't think Jason's excitement can be contained. it's not every day when we you know we record in the morning that jason moore is like screaming at the top of his lungs as we leave the office heading to the studio and he's just like hyped for the show to the degree that he was today sometimes you're metabolizing right mcdonald's i've eaten and so i'm unresponsive. But today

I did come in with a lot of energy. I'm super excited for not just this episode but this entire week. This is a huge week for the NFL. Huge week for fantasy football. Huge week for the fantasy footballers. So fantastic. It's going to be a blast. Mike Wright is here. I certainly am. You are equally excited?

I am. Or just expressing it in a different... I was giving Jason his little platform there. We have some huge stuff to talk about. And, I mean, I don't want to overshadow that, but I'm really excited in the news section to talk about a new nickname that we have received from the NFL. I don't know what you're talking about.

I don't either. You'll remember once we get there. It is Ultimate Draft Week, which means we have an Ultimate Draft Week giveaway. This is a special week every single year. Why? Because you have a chance to win a Listener League spot.

Come and play with us. We're also giving away a signed jersey up-and-comer Justin Jefferson. I've heard of him. A signed Justin Jefferson jersey. A signed Travis Etienne jersey. And to enter, all you've got to do is pre-order

the 2024 UDK by Sunday. So you go to ultimatedraftkit.com, pick that up, you get the pre-order price, you're going to get it anyways, and this will enter you to win a Listener League spot along with a couple of signed jerseys. And we remind you, if you've already pre-ordered, you are entered to win already. Good to go.

And the best part about this, not only do you have a chance to be in the Listener League, but the best part is you're getting the ultimate draft kit, which is actually going to help you tremendously this year to have a great draft to bring home the championship this year. And then, as Jason said, it's a big week for the NFL. The draft kind of takes over everything. We've got a couple of shows this week.

And then we have a draft special live on NFL Plus near the end of round one on draft night. So you can tune into that, get our live reactions. It's going to be a lot of fun. We expect you to be there with us. Okay.

Or you're grounded. I fully expect it. All right. Let's talk about that news. News and notes from around the league. Well, I feel like we could talk about the Chargers for a while after the video we got of Greg Roman and Jim Harbaugh just hanging out. I'm sorry.

That's not his name anymore. Ah, that's the name. G-Row. That's Greg Roman? Oh, I thought you were talking about Hard Dog. No, no, no, no. That was us. Hard Dog and G-Row.

G-Row. Jim Harbaugh, a.k.a. Hard Dog. Be careful. Let us know that a video, is it was a tremendous video the video like so the dad vibes were off the charts but in a very funny and endearing way and he just keeps calling greg roman jiro which is absolutely ridiculous but it was i love it it was troubling on some levels like the the level of uh like dad best friends that was going on in that video they were at a an rv park they had each of their own separate rvs they're sitting there on like the lawn chairs they're they're

tapping drinks they're like full it's like g-ro g-bro yeah i mean this is if the g stands for grandpa this was not dad vibes guys this is this is we're dads we would never be out there like when we retire you know maybe then someday we'll have the vibes they have they were hardcore in it with their trailers i just I just feel like there's something there about the commitment level between these two gentlemen. Like Jim Harbaugh loves everything Greg Roman has ever done. Yeah. And the only reason this is all coming up, bearing the lead here,

is that the Chargers signed J.K. Dobbins. The Baltimore Chargers. The Baltimore Chargers. It's a one-year deal. He's 25 years old. He's coming off a torn Achilles. This was a flyer coming from the offensive coordinator formerly of Baltimore that gives him an opportunity to come and play with another running back

from Baltimore in Gus Edwards. Yeah, so Greg Roman was there with Gus Buss and J.K. Dobbins, said, I like those guys. Let's bring them over. We're going to run our scheme, which is my scheme. So, I mean, we've talked about this the entire offseason. They want to run the ball. And originally when we were talking about what a good coach and what a winning coach Hardog is, which he is, he's going to use his personnel and he's going to do what his personnel fits, not just, you know, look, I've run the ball in the past.

But what he has decided to do is make his personnel fit running it in the future. Timmy, go ahead, Mike. It's just one – it's another checkmark for Gus Edwards, in my opinion. I agree completely. That J.K. Dobbins will be recovering from his Achilles really really hope that Dobbins can get back to any kind of form of the player he was which was electric and special but he's been hurt basically his whole career his whole career this doesn't stop the Chargers of course from spending a day to pick on the NFL draft. However, this is just like it's another part of the drumbeat growing

that if the Chargers don't do that, Gus Edwards will be shaping up to be a very interesting value running back. See, I'm curious because you both agree with that right off the bat that Gus is the winner here. Dobbins should be ready for training camp, and this is a one-two punch that when they were – He won't be. You don't think he'll be ready for training camp and this is a one-two punch that but he won't when they were he won't be I'm saying you don't think he'll be ready for training I think oh I think he'll be ready to be on an NFL not not meaningful snaps for this team yeah I don't

think that he can unseat Gus Edwards while he's in this recovery year it's just so it's so interesting because he's always been the the the leader ahead of Gus with this group of people together. So obviously if he's not capable, if he's not able to perform, then clearly he would not be the starter. There was one team willing to take a chance on J.K. Dobbins like this, and it was his former offensive coordinator. The demand for J.K. Dobbins wasn't there. Yeah, it's a bet.

And I'm almost certain they're going to be drafting a running back. The question is just going to be, you know, does it go well beyond that? Because they have a top pick in each round. So is it like instead of third round, is it fifth round? You know, is that the way that they view this backfield? That will tell me, where they take this pick will tell me what they think of Dobbins' health. I also think that this does significantly impact, like let's say they get a day two running back.

I still think that this significantly impacts that running back because this is not going to be, it seemed like, okay, you have Austin Eckler, workhorse role available for future running back. But now it seems like this is going to be a timeshare between, yeah, a committee between several backs. And I don't know that there's anyone that's going to be just a fantasy star in this backfield. No, I believe it'll be a committee.

But until I see several running backs return from an Achilles successfully, I will just keep going on the probability that he won't be close to what he was. Yeah, there's one thing to get snaps. There's another thing to be nearly as explosive as you were before. Yeah. You know, I think it was Ray G. Ray G went out and talked about the fact that, like, because he was showing a picture of Aaron Rodgers

and the fact that you could see muscle atrophy in the recovered leg. And then he showed a picture. Shout out. Great follow. But he showed a picture uh shout out great great follow um but he showed a picture of himself recovering and how atrophied the leg was like you're you're a running back i mean it's it's ironic he's back to jk1 i was gonna say this was this was oh yeah this was jk he's got a strong leg though we've seen it we've seen him with one strong leg and he dominates he just can't all the way pull out pull away because you know that one strong leg and he dominates. He just can't all the way pull out,

pull away because you know, that one strong leg isn't enough. Yeah. At Ray G Q U E on Twitter. If you want to follow that and see that picture I'm talking about, but look, I could talk about the chargers all day. I really could, because I think the actual most meaningful fantasy thing to happen to the

chargers that will impact more people in this entire draft will not be whether or not they run the football. It will be how much you undervalue the passing game and how appropriate that will be, whether they're going to probably draft somebody to compliment the passing game. Everyone's going to be all out on that, even though Lamar Jackson had MVP seasons and threw the ball prolifically with Greg Roman. And I think it's going to be a matter of do we appropriate the risk properly as fantasy managers when it comes to Palmer and huge and whoever else they do well today is our top 10 early quarterback ranking show and I can tell you who's not being discussed today he's not in there nope not for me yeah I think I'm probably the most still okay with but he's not i didn't clearly have him high

enough to push our consensus royce freeman one year deal with the cowboys so um let's go royce rashi rice expected to receive at least a multi-game suspension this was from an article that came out on espn today adam schefter uh that was it was kind of a throwaway line but drew davenport also came out and confirmed if Schefter thinks that that's going to happen, it's meaningful information. Multi-game means, I started thinking about this. It means two or more. Yeah.

Well, okay. Technically speaking, you're correct. I started thinking about this, though, in the respect of like, we can say in Dynasty, okay, it doesn't really affect Rashi that much because it's a few games. Except it puts the team in a position where they have to potentially address the position, which does affect Rashi long-term. If he was there from week one, maybe they don't feel the need to spend

as early of a draft pick. And if they go first-round pick, I'm going to be concerned about the long-term outlook of Rashi Rice. I think that's fair. Say Flowers will not face league discipline. Insufficient evidence to support his involvement in anything that violated the conduct policy. There were some issues with Zay Flowers that came up earlier, but he's going to be fine. Always nice when the NFL just comes out and confirms it says,

nothing to see here, move on. Joe Douglas, no news to report regarding a trade of Zach Wilson. This is the funniest piece of news. Why did we put this in here? What are we doing? That must have been Kyle. Just to have fun. But any minute now, guys, any minute, I'm sure we're going to have that hot trade for Zach Wilson.

They must ask him about this at every press conference, and he just has to keep saying nothing to say. I think he preempts it. He probably starts his press conference, hey, everybody, no news to report on the Zach Wilson. I didn't see this one, so I don't know the tone, but I love that the quote is, just no news to report. The throw-in of the word just,

there's just no news to report right now. There's literally nothing to say please leave me alone and uh i want to get your thoughts uh because i enjoy when they happen but uh the broncos released new jerseys they put some new jerseys out i saw their car commercial announcing that. It's pretty cool. Not a big fan? It was meh. It was just... Vanilla? Nothing impressive. I'm happy that the fans have new jerseys. I hope that

you convince yourselves to like them. What jersey of what player do you buy for that team? Javante? I mean, this team is going to be 100%. Yes, that's the term. You've got to buy a throwback right now. Go classic?

Yeah. Okay. All right. Any other news over there in Deucer's alley? I'd like to go Peyton Manning. You go classic Broncos quarterback and you go Peyton. Nothing over there, Papa Josh? No, I'm good.

All right. Were you big fans of. Nothing over there, Papa Josh? No, I'm good. All right. Were you big fans of the jerseys, guys? Meh. Yeah, that's how I am. I want to be impressed, by the way. I am a jersey nerd. I'm a logo nerd. And so I start from the place of benefit of the doubt on most of these.

And so what was your final takeaway? It just could have been made on a create a team on madden that's how it felt they they always they always brag about the fact that we took input from 10 000 people that contributed to this and that and the other that's the problem that's the problem you just need one good designer to make something hot. Art and design is not supposed to be this crowdsourced. That's how you end up with vanilla. You know, give me a special flavor, for goodness sake. Just hire the best designer.

Yeah, we want cookies and cream over here. Yeah. At least a cookie dough. All right. Something chunky. Enough Jersey talk. Let's talk quarterbacks. Quarterbacks.

All right. We have been doing our early rankings episodes. We just took care of wide receivers, took care of running backs. It's not a deep dive. It's an overview looking at where we have players stacked up right ahead of the draft so things will change you if you equip some of these players with better weapons from the draft which is you know littered with a bunch of wide receiver options that could go very high you know things will change but um you want to dive in sure over the last decade this is the stat we've been

given out for each of the positions, an average of 4.2 quarterbacks repeated as top 10 options from the previous years. So that sounds like it needs a caveat because you had, what was it, 2.7 wide receivers? Or sorry, 3.7 wide receivers, 2.9 running backs. About three running backs and four wide receivers each year. So this is a little bit higher. This is a little bit higher, but it is less important in the sense that you're only starting 10 to 12 in your league.

A single quarterback, yeah. Yeah, so I'm just saying, am I getting that wrong? Because if you repeat 4.2, so you got some turnover at the quarterback position but like finishing like the goal to me is not finishing top 12. Right. That's all I'm saying. It's like I'm not if I get top 12 at running back or top 12

wide receiver I love it. It's amazing. It's great. Repeating there is very powerful. Yeah you win the league. But being at 10 or 11 or 12 is worthless. That's Phillip Rivers. Phillip Rivers year after year after year after year was around the quarterback 10, 11, 12. And on a week-by-week basis, he just accumulated those stats over the course of a season. Most of the weeks, he didn't help you win your fantasy league. Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, certain years Patrick Mahomes, those guys help you win.

So I see your point. It doesn't really matter if you have the quarterback 10 or 11 or 12. It just doesn't help. There's two ways that you can help me as a quarterback in fantasy. Number one, be a difference maker near the top half, like top five. The other way you can help me is be a value that I take late in my draft, allowing me to pick up other players. I've got one more way for you.

Hot streak. Oh, baby. Wait, uh-huh hot streak oh baby what a hot streak when you get a quarterback hot streak like uh deck is that going back a couple years i guess that's actually not been on the show that was from foosball around the office been mentioned have we been yeah i feel like maybe hot streak yeah yeah okay But a good hot streak can really help you out. Thank you, Jason. Yeah, no problem. Incredible analysis. Let's jump in.

This is our consensus. The guys do it for multiple weeks. Really helps my team. Are we in four or six point for our consensus? Our consensus is six. We usually play in six point scoring. That's our standard leagues. That's our league of record. There is not as big a change as you think between a four-point passing touchdown league and a six-point passing league. You've got obviously a little bit more change for your Jalen Hurts who's going to rush or Josh Allen who's going to have so many rushing touchdowns, but for the most part, it's less drastic than you think. And as far as the quarterback position overall, we get questions every year.

Every year. Well, I play in a six-point per passing touchdown league, so should quarterbacks be more important? No, not at all. All right. At number 10 in our consensus, early rankings, 25 years old, finished as the quarterback five in his debut year as a starter, is Jordan Love.

I've got him at 10, Jason at 10, Mike at 8. Ooh. I think this is one of the offenses that you could see the most consistency and improvement from over the course of the year, so I don't mind someone jumping all in quarterback nine in basketball Mike talk about why you have them the highest and some of the bullish uh arguments for Jordan Love so he is fascinating because I mean I'll go ahead I'll bring the name up of C.J. Stroud that the fantasy football community, rightly so, is super excited for C.J. Stroud.

Like, oh, that was his rookie year. You know, he's got all these weapons around him. And it's like you can copy-paste almost every argument for C.J. Stroud over to Jordan Love. That was basically his rookie year, except he was way better than C.J. Stroud for to Jordan Love. That was basically his rookie year, except he was way better than C.J. Stroud for fantasy purposes. 4,000 yards, 32 passing touchdowns. Gave you four rushing touchdowns as well. 11 finishes inside the top 12, the second most passing touchdowns. And the wide receiver names for Jordan Love are not as awe-inspiring,

at least on the surface, as C.J. Stroud. Like, Stephon Diggs still carries a ton of name value, and Tank Dell is kind of like this breakout rookie that everyone fell in love with. Meanwhile, Jordan Love is just surrounded by really, really good players. He has a good pass-catching running back and they let him throw. They let him go

after it. Going into year two, yes, I know, not his real year two, but essentially his second starting season, I don't know ADP and cost and range of outcomes. Jordan Love and C.J. Stroud to me are like... You're going to pay a lot more?

I'm just going to go for Jordan Love. You're going to pay a lot more for Stroud. It's a compelling argument. If you look at the last nine games played over the season, you talk about a hot streak. Hot streak! Jordan Love, 68% completion, on pace for 4,600 yards, 38 touchdowns, and five interceptions.

A 108 quarterback rating in that stretch. Running for another 143-4. That is insane. Those numbers are kind of outrageous. Yeah, I mean, those are definitely league-winning numbers if you could do it over the course of an entire season. But we see that we're going to – He was the quarterback five.

Yeah, he had a great season. I think the real question when you're talking about Jordan Love, I love the comp to CJ Stroud because this is mostly a pocket passer. He's going to add 150 rushing yards or something, but he's not moving the needle there. He's mostly a pocket passer and young with a great receiving course so a lot of good comps my worry is it comes down to like what do you really believe do you believe he's a superstar because Stroud in his rookie year did seem like he is going to be a superstar Love came in a little less touted uh had time to develop.

And so now I think it's like, did he just come in at kind of what his ceiling is? Because that would make a little bit more sense. We've seen seasons like this. I just want to caution us. Like, he had 4,000 yards, 32 touchdowns. Awesome. Here's a season in his second season in the league. This player had 3,987 passing yards and 32 touchdowns, almost identical numbers.

It was Derek Carr, who's a good quarterback. He's had a good career, but he's not a superstar. He's not a fantasy sensation. Should we just call him a good quarterback? Derek Carr's a – yeah, he's good at playing quarterback. I feel like that flies in the face of everything we've ever said about Derek Carr. Not ever. Certainly this last year.

Watching Derek Carr was brutal. If you look at the tier of quarterback, good is not good. Not for fantasy. There's like Hall of Famer, and then there's like superstar, and then there's great. Before great is franchise. Yeah, and then you've got good is like one of the lowest tiers. Okay. All right. I just want to make sure we're all on the same page. Yeah, and then you've got good is like one of the lowest tiers. Okay. All right.

I just want to make sure we're all on the same page. Yeah, and then Zach Wilson is the bottom part of it. There's just no news. My point. God, I wish there was news. There's just still nothing to report. My point is, do we believe he is more superstar or more tenure vet? Like Derek Carr is a tenure vet.

And I struggle with this because of how we viewed Jordan Love coming in as a rookie and having to sit for so long. And even when he got the few chances, showed a lot of weakness. But he looked great. He's on an awesome team. So, I mean, if you have to pick superstar or 10-year vet, I lean the 10-year vet. Yeah.

I'm starting to be moved with Jordan Love. Emotionally? He's like a sunset over the ocean. I'm being moved by Mike's words, as eloquent as he displayed them. The Stroud, I'm so much by Mike's words, as eloquent as he displayed them. The Stroud, I'm so much more confident in the offensive scheme and success that they have in Green Bay long-term and what has been proven there. And then I'm staring down. If I stare down both of these in a draft and they're multiple rounds apart,

I think Mike is moving me. That's all I'm saying. And that was my larger point. I have him at eight. You guys have him at ten. I'm not calling for – I'm moving him. Yeah, there we go.

I'm moving him. This show is supposed to be a little bit of that, a little bit of flexibility. I'm not calling for Jordan Love, the QB of the draft, top three. No. But in this range of guys we're talking about, ADP is so important to what is the cost and what does it truly cost in terms of not just where I draft the quarterback,

but what player did I skip to go all in on a particular quarterback. All right. Let's take a quick break and come back with another interesting situation. All right. I'm sure we will talk a lot more about Jordan Love over the course of the offseason. We got to get on to a player that finishes the

quarterback for won me a championship he's a beautiful man and his number he's not under a new contract but comes in at nine Dak Prescott I have him at six Mike at 11 Jason at nine um so you two can fight I'm in the middle yeah look I just still believe in the fundamentals of this entire offense and the stretch run for dac i brought this up before it wasn't just like a handful of games it was actually you know the majority of the season it was 12 of the 18 games if you take his final 12 games that's where his stretch run was that is nearly a 5,000 touchdown pace, a 44 touchdown. Sorry, 5,000

yard, 44 touchdown pace. Those are outrageous numbers, and the fundamentals of this offense are consistent and the same. You didn't get running production last year. You probably aren't going to get prolific production this year, no matter who they draft. It's going to run through Dak

and Seedy. These are two players that are playing for contracts couldn't be a better situation and I I love the the draft value of Dak I think he's going further than he should I have I have him lower clearly but I don't have a problem with with Dak he can go on an absolute heater his hot streak yeah there it is he uh by the way we just went on a trip to los angeles for about four days we had some meetings we got to do um and and somehow during this trip it was determined by jason that every time he landed a joke he would say swift he would say swish and validate his own joke yeah whether or not he we thought it was funny no but once i say swish i know that it was a it was he would confirm the joke it would be like he'd

say something and me and mike wish we had like a crickets button and then a couple seconds later he just from the back seat he'd be going swish that's right i mean when it hits the bottom of the net yeah i can't take it back points scored it's a it's a real power move yeah it was try it try it at home. Next time you have a good joke, maybe you don't get the response you want. Swish. It feels good, man. And then walk away, right?

And then you go to the other end of the court. Oh, absolutely. Smoke bomb that. But it was – my slight concerns with Dak are he beat the crap out of bad teams and he beat the crap out of teams when he was at home. Of course, he has all of his home games, but the splits are pretty wide, 19 points a game versus tough defenses, 26 against bottom half defenses. So that's where my concern comes is can the hot streak really keep rolling uh there's certainly a chance that it can but they were like they finished in first they will have a first place

difficulty schedule what i like about dac is that when he is on its nuclear yes he finished one three two one three three seven three so he had a tremendous amount of finishes that were weak winning. But we've also seen a lot of Dak over time. You're going to have variability in the touchdown. Which is why he's the QB 8 in basketball. Yeah. If the general public were all in, it's a little surprising that he's only at 8 after what he did.

I think it's so many years of being kind of not at that league winning level. Sure. Yeah. When you're a mid-level guy, people want to look elsewhere. They just keep searching for, yes, keep searching for a league winner. But this is his third time in his career where he's been a top six fantasy quarterback in the course of the season. That being said, he's had a long career, so we are used to him not finishing there I I obviously am in the middle on the rankings between you guys he is an okay pick but I doubt that he continues that nuclear pace he was on I mean there was a reason in the middle of the season you know Mike was saying this is the guy who you could pick up off of waivers at that point to to have that to have that success at the end.

You want to make the bear case. It's the Big Ben had that monster 40-touchdown season, and then people categorize Big Ben as a later round pick every year. Joe Burrow comes in at eight. Oh, man. What do you do with Joe Burrow? You throw last year away. You have to.

You have to throw it away. Well, and then you've got to throw his rookie year away, too. Well, it was. So you only get one year. And the Super Bowl is a special year. It's like Matt Ryan. Like, if you want to make a sad case for it, Matt Ryan had one year, run into the Super Bowl, MVP.

Yeah, I mean, the truth is I prefer to have, in fantasy football, I will continue harping on this for eternity. I think the scoring is broken. I think it is stupid. I think that rushing yards and passing yards should equal the same for quarterbacks, but they don't. And so I prefer always to have a mobile rushing quarterback. If you want one of these pocket guys, which is pretty much all the guys we've been talking about, Jordan Love, Dak is mostly a pocket guy at this point in his career. You know, your Herberts, your Burrows, you can absolutely have an awesome season.

Burrows finished top four. But you have to have around 35 passing touchdowns, 4,000-plus yards. It has to be a perfect season from the pocket. So let's have a broader discussion there because that gets brought up a lot. In the middle of the year, Mike identified Dak Prescott as somebody to pick up. He was so convicted about it that he let me take him off the waivers instead of him. Made a mistake. It tells me a little bit about maybe a methodology that should be approached

with some of these pocket passers that are dependent on 35 to 40 touchdowns because it's going to happen there's going to be five or six of these guys that or maybe maybe that's too many yeah that's too many but jordan love two or three 32 last year and was number two yeah yeah but i mean in totality yes but dac you know dac had 36 but his pace over the last 12 games would have been you know know, whatever, 48. 5,000, I believe. 5,000. So all I'm saying is, like, do you take an approach, if you're not investing high on a pocket passer, if you've decided to wait, to stay water, to look for that schedule lining up when we're five or six,

seven weeks into the season, and we know who these – because it came down to conviction about the pass defense. It was schedule. You knew the schedule was going to be good, and then they're lined up to knock them down. These guys, because they have shown a capability to throw 40, when the schedule is conducive, they can go on a heater. So there could be something to be said if there's a handful of them, and you're not going to be able to know what the turnover is on defense in the passing game until you're a few weeks into the year.

That's all I'm saying is it's like – because in some regard, do you feel like you could just – okay, is it Dak? Is it Love? Is it Stroud? Is it Burrow? Like any of these pocket passers, are you just hoping you get the right one? And in that case, you should drop the lowest one and then give it. I agree completely. From a gameplay theory, you want to take the lowest one here and give yourself the freedom to move, to stream through the season.

Those things usually work out better. However, when I'm looking at these guys, like for instance, right now it's obviously early, but the ADP has Dak and Joe Burrow right next to each other. And so you've got to make a decision. You're probably going to be on the clock, and you can take either one and decide who do you want to bet has that big 35 touchdown season. Dak just did it with 36, but Burrow to me, he's had north of 32 twice already. And he's had four total seasons. Last year was a

throwaway injured. First year was only 10 games as a rookie. So in his two healthy seasons, he was throwing that amount of touchdowns. So I lean more on that side. He's still got the great weapons with Chase and as of now, T. Higgins. Could add someone in the draft. That's my argument for Joe Burrow. That's my argument for Dak. That's my argument for Stroud. That's why all three of those guys are above love for me.

You were right about everything said about love. It's weapons. Can you rely on Seedy, Chase, and then the weapons that Stroud has? There's a level of baseline confidence you have with those. I have Higgins. Higgins is not Jamar Chase, but I have Higgins as an excellent wide

receiver. Of the crew, T. Higgins probably is the best wide receiver, too, to me. Of what crew? Like, going through, thinking about the Texans, I'd rather have T. Higgins as my wide receiver, too, over Tank or Nico. And for the Packers, the same thing.

I'd rather have Jamar, the combo of those two guys. So that's where I'll go. If I'm going pocket passer, I'm probably going Burrow. So here's what's interesting. We're about to talk about the kind of final one of these pocket passer guys in the same group in C.J. Stroud. But Stroud's going two rounds earlier. He's a fifth rounder versus a seventh rounder.

C.J. Stroud is seventh in our rankings, but he's going as the quarterback four, which means he probably won't be on any of our teams if that kind of ambition is there. Unfortunately, yeah. And the risk is tremendous, but also the reward could be very, very high. This is a player that you're adding

Stephon Diggs to and Joe Mixon to an offense where he showed just unparalleled command for, as a rookie, uh, a trust from the coaching staff to, to chuck it downfield as often as he needs to and still survived past the

tank Dell injury. Nico is banged up all year. Noah Brown was banged up all year. Offensive line was banged up all year. We talked about it tremendously with the running game. And yet, you know, it was like ignored in the passing game where the runners couldn't run, but yet CJ Stroud could get out of the pocket and make things happen. Like

the reason he's being drafted there is because the ceiling for him is, is Mahomes level, which is why he, Mahomes is the only pocket passer drafted in the top five or six of running quarterbacks because his ceiling is so tremendous. And some people want to appropriate that to Stroud, and I do think it's in his range of outcomes. So that's what I wanted to bring up. I want to bring up, because I think most people listening, they know Stroud, they know his weapons, they like him.

We group these guys we've been talking about so far pretty much together. Like, maybe we've got Stroud number one of these players. We see his ceiling as the highest, but for the most part, we think that the most probable range of outcomes for all of these pocket passers is near each other. Therefore, we'll take the later one in ADP, you know, save a couple rounds, grab another running back wide receiver, bypass C.J. Stroud, and grab, you know, Love a couple rounds later. But of these guys, the only one that you really think, because we've, you know, we've seen enough from everyone else to know that they're not Patrick Mahomes. They're not the future GOAT. But C.J. Stroud still has that in his range of outcomes. Is it worth really taking that shot in the fifth round

on the chance that you actually have the true difference maker? Like, not a difference maker, but the difference maker. Do we believe that as a high enough possibility in his range of outcomes that it's worth pulling the trigger a couple rounds earlier? Not in redraft, no.

I do believe that in Dynasty. I believe that C.J. Stroud will be one of the faces of the NFL for 15 years. But I don't believe it enough this season where he still had an up-and-down year. We were impressed by plays. We were impressed by a game here or there. This is a player that had the same problems that you mentioned about Dak. Struggled against top 16 defenses, significantly fewer points against them. One year deal with Diggs and we don't know what he's got left in the tank.

I think that there's enough bear cases to be made to where you could, if you spend such a high pick, you're locking him in as your starter. Yes. Which is what happens. And so if I can get those other four guys we just talked about later and they all have the capability of throwing 40, I don't see myself in on CJ Stroud as much unless I just want to have fun I mean there is there's an aspect of like how much fun it would be I love CJ Stroud I think I think rooting for him on my team would be a blast watching him play is really really fun and when I when I looked and I'm like oh he only had 23 passing touchdowns which is not a bad number for a rookie.

Don't hear that and be like, whoa, he can't level up. That's every, like, from rookie year to sophomore year in the NFL, if you're a good quarterback, passing touchdowns is what really changes when you get near the goal line. So I expect that to go better,

but it's still surprising to me because I feel like I saw 60 passing touchdowns like I remember every single one of them last year with Stroud he was so much fun to watch yeah yeah and he and he turned an offense that no one expected into something meaningful in fantasy for two wide receivers nobody expected to be meaningful so he he was tremendous and you add Diggs and you remember Josh Allen's first year with digs and you've got that trifecta of weapons i think you brought up andy that he had he shares a lot of the problems with dac in the sense that he struggled against the better defenses which he did um mike you brought up with dac yeah they finished first they're gonna get a harder schedule this year

they they have to play the you know the first place schedule and same with texans yeah and then just an interesting like historical look you know over the the last decade rookies that have hit the four plus percent in terms of a touchdown rate which is the attempt of the the percentage of their attempts that turn into a touchdown they they mostly hold steady like these guys so So Jameis actually went up, and so did Marcus Mariota, which is pretty wild just based on attempts. But no one went – no one like skyrockets, you know what I mean? So that's my only – that's the concern is C.J. Stroud, electric player, but can we get 35 touchdowns? He just seems like he's going to be the victim of

his own hype in fantasy cost so he is a full-on this is just you're you're taking your flag and you are putting this thing in the ground saying this is the player who's going to be the difference in fantasy football which is on a quarterback in a single quarterback league at that ADP is, it's a very scary proposition. We have completely and utterly talked to me 100% out of CJ. Oh, I'm sorry. No, no. And I love CJ Stroud. I think he is a very good quarterback. Like we said, we love watching them reality versus fantasy. Yeah. Yes. I would for fantasy purposes where he's drafted, how he plays, what my expectations are for him,

and what his very small probability outcome would have to be to warrant where he's going. You're like, CJ, no way. Yep, CJ, no way. Kyler Murray comes in at 6, 26 years old. Being drafted as the quarterback 10, we all have him higher than that. Last year was a lost season in a lot of respects just with um coming back from the injury he came back in the process came back in week 10 got zero production and availability oftentimes from hollywood brown he didn't have the weapons. And this year we expect – I expect Marvin Harrison to be the wide receiver one

in a few days. We know for sure, for sure, for sure, that there will be a big-name rookie wide receiver added. Still the highest odds are for it to be Marvin Harrison, but it could be Odunze, it could be neighbors. The Cardinals have built their entire offense around a hole to be filled with wide receiver one in the draft. They just don't have one. Michael Wilson is the wide receiver one, and he basically was the wide receiver one last year with Hollywood Brown disappearing.

I wish Kyler was not an Arizona Cardinal because we're Cardinals fans, and it seems very Homer. But the truth is, with his dual threat ability, his low price in ADP, he is the target of targets right now. When he came back last year with terrible weapons, off an ACL, he was still the quarterback nine in points per game from week 10 on with no options. He would have added, on a 17 game pace 518 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns yeah off the ACL first year back so like now he adds some great wide receiver in the draft has a year recovered from the ACL every game he's been on the

field for fantasy purposes has been sensational he's been a top fantasy quarterback pretty much every game. It might not be like the one, two, or three, but he scores a lot of fantasy points. His floor is very high. So to me, he is probably the best value in the draft because when I look at who could blow up, who could end up with that top three season, it's usually someone with that dual threat ability. You know, you're Lamar, you're Hertz. And Kyler has that, and he doesn't cost much. So if it doesn't work out, you can move on. It lines up to me to be a very valuable fantasy asset. All right, quick break, and we'll hit our top five.

All right. At five, Anthony Richardson. Now, this is not my fault. I've got him at eight. That is your fault that he's not four. Well, you both have him at four. You are all in on Anthony Richardson, a 22-year-old return to action after an injury-plagued season that saw him and Jonathan Taylor never play together.

Look, the hands are a little shaky thinking about him at QB4. Yeah, this is an interesting one. He's being – this is about best ball ADP, so you guys are even more bullish than those taking the shot on him in best ball right now. And I feel like my words on Anthony Richardson, I've said them many times. Extremely small sample. You don't like two full games?

I don't love it. You don't love four injuries through four games this is a different way to go about an argument you are taking the words out of my mouth that's right we know what we're doing here we have disarmed you having said all those really terrible things

three total passing touchdowns in his career and so and then you know a little bit of the Jonathan Taylor and him goal line situation do they want to put that shoulder into harm's way to start the season will be a question I know you don't want to take the Anthony Richardson out of Anthony Richardson but you also would like to not take Anthony Richardson out of the game yep so to me there is risk and there's I'm I'm probably not spinning that QB six capital. There is tremendous risk.

Everything we said is 100% true. He's an injury risk. We have no large enough sample size to be confident. No one can be confident. Mike and I, I think, are gambling men, you know, where we want high return on the odds. We don't want to make a draft pick where it can be slightly better than ADP. I don't want to take a draft pick where I'm trying to pretty much make sure it's just what I drafted.

I'm looking to win the league, be the one out of the 12, and you have to take risks on people who have otherworldly upside. And there is some evidence. It's a small sample. it's impossible you know two full games you don't know but in those two full games is the quarterback four and he was the quarterback two so he was I mean if those trends continue you've got a true outlier alpha human being you know on the on the cam newton level if you talk about who what kind of um like i love kyler i love kyler's rushing ability but kyler's not going out there and getting 10 11 12 rushing touchdowns right um he's not built for that whereas jalen hertz can't uh you know josh allen

can't anthony richardson can and so we have seen enough glimpses and so this is a this is a player where it's just game theory like if he comes out and crushes it this year, everyone will be in on him next year, obviously. He's someone you've got to pay up for, like Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts. This is the only chance you have to take any kind of a discount. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. You move on, you cut him, you stream him. But I'm willing to take the shot because I don't think there's anyone else in this year's class that could end up as the quarterback one

in an otherworldly fashion. You said otherworldly again. That's so many worlds away. I'm just letting you know. Do you know how many worlds away he could be? We're talking next two. Is this like Space Jam? Yeah, all right.

Matt LaFleur, Shane Steichen. Those are the two head coaches I have a tremendous amount of confidence in what they put together on offense. That gives Richardson and Love a lot of upside. I don't know where Richardson is going to end up in redraft. You talk about

getting any kind of a discount. I do feel like you have the same problem with Stroud as you have with Richardson, as in where you draft him, you are committed to him as your starter. Maybe that'll be fine. I think you're not in this sense. He'll be out, so you'll have to pick somebody else. Right.

No, it's that his floor, if you're wrong, is bad enough where you can move on. Like C.J. Stroud, he's going to be good enough every game where if you invested in him, you're going to keep playing him. Whereas Anthony Richardson could come out and fall on his face. He could come out and just dud two weeks in a row, and you're like, okay, I cut my losses. I took my shot and take the L. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah, I do my shot and take the L. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, I do. I like that. It's like taking the draft pick. We always talk about your last draft pick. It's someone you want to be able to cut after a week. Yeah, I just want to be able to cut my fifth round pick. See, that's why he's not in the conversation for me, but I

get it. I get the upside. At four is Patrick Mahomes. He'll be on his way to attempt a third title in a row. 4,100 yards, 27 touchdowns, 14 picks. This was the quarterback 18 from week 10 on. This was a storyline last year in fantasy mike and it was brutal you know you're not going to have at a minimum rushy rice for a couple of weeks maybe more

to start the year travis kelsey is older it's it's almost impossible i think to trust any sort of rookie walking into a situation that didn't work with hardman it didn't work with sky more didn't work with rice in the very, very beginning of the year. So if they draft Troy Franklin or somebody at the end of the first round, I don't think that player makes a huge impact in the first few weeks. So do you think it's bumpy road to start the year for him? And if so, does that change the way you look at him for fantasy draft assessment?

Yeah, I mean, no one is going to be on this show saying like you shouldn't draft patrick mahomes he can't be the quarterback one any of that he he's i think as he's on superman i think he's on a schedule to do it isn't he he is he's always like the back and forth you're talking about yeah he was number one last year uh in 2022 and then he was number one last year in 2022. And then he was number, well, okay. Four in 2020, but he played 15 games. And he was, over the first half, weeks one through nine, in points per game, he was the quarterback three.

Yeah, so the truth is, you know, finishes the quarterback eight. I think that that's probably near around where he finished. Probably finishes around quarterback six, seven, eight. You've got his number one wide receiving option being Travis Kelsey in a situation where much to our chagrin much to I believe what could happen like if if they use Travis Kelsey as the dude he was out there 100% of snaps you know like he used to be and they just said we're gonna run you into the ground. I think that'd be really helpful for fantasy points for Patrick Mahomes. I think Kelsey could do it.

They're not going to do that. You saw it last year. You saw them pull back a little bit of Kelsey, give him more breathers, allow him to be awesome and rested and ready for the playoffs. They care about winning Super Bowls. It works. It worked. They did it.

So it's one of those situations where I don't know that they need Mahomes with this defense to go out there and be Superman again this year. Yeah, only five games hitting the over for Kansas City, and their defense second in points per game allowed. Like that's just – that's not conducive to what we need for fantasy football. And the way that just the NFL has changed, the way that they play against Patrick Mahomes, this stat is absurd because I didn't even realize how bad it was.

One passing touchdown of 20 or more air yards. His yards per attempt have gone down. Like Patrick Mahomes. That's what he does. Yeah, those bomb touchdowns. And the personnel combined with the way that the cover two shell plays against Patrick Mahomes, it took those away. They won the Super Bowl.

I know. So impressive that they can do it. They're like, we'll just beat you however you let us beat you. They're so smart. It's really unfair. Yeah, but we want big touchdowns. I know. Number three is Lamar Jackson.

Lamar Jackson in the Todd Munkin system last year, 3,600 passing yards, 24 touchdowns, added another five on the ground with 821 rushing yards, had the most starts of his career, so he stayed healthy, had the highest completion percentage of his career, so he stayed healthy, had the highest completion percentage of his career, so he was accurate, had a new offensive coordinator, helped him to eight yards per attempt. That's the highest of his career. He also scrambled more than he's ever scrambled in his career.

Number one in fantasy points per dropback, fourth in yards per attempt. You know, the passing, like the accumulation, you know, in total yardage, it wasn't, you know, extreme touchdowns in terms of total yardage, just 3,600 yards. But at the same time, that was a career high for him. That was something that they put into place. There's been some talk this offseason bringing in Derrick Henry that they may dial that back a career high for him. That was something that they put into place. There's been some talk this offseason bringing in Derrick Henry that they may dial that back a little bit,

but we missed Mark Andrews for a big part of the year. I think Lamar Jackson's very – I think three's right. I mean, three or four. Yeah, I like it. Knowing that there's variability, knowing that there's these weird games that Lamar just disappears for, they don't need him. Those are going to happen.

They've always happened. But comfortable, cozy, every week starter Lamar Jackson. Yeah, I wish he was. It's weird because you usually have these really mobile guys who are very consistent. You know, you look at Jalen Hurts. It's like you don't really have a lot of down games or Josh Allen, but somehow Lamar is able to be very inconsistent. He's boom bust, he's been...

Five rushing touchdowns versus 15. Right, yeah. 47.1% of the time exceeded 20 points, so that is a C in our consistency. Yeah, exactly. So I don't love him nearly as much as those big, bullish quarterbacks that can be a little bit more relied upon around the goal line for rushing touchdowns, especially now with Derrick Henry. You're going to have Derrick Henry just scoring these touchdowns.

Not that you didn't already have that with Gus Buss. So you just got to factor that in. When you talked about you've got an every week starter, yes. But you don't have an every week helper in Lamar Jackson. Yeah, he can win you a week for sure, but it's funny. You said those bullish quarterbacks. I mean, you're talking about two quarterbacks. Three.

Anthony Richardson. I put Anthony Richardson. I mean, Jonathan Taylor's getting the ball around the goal line. I'm telling you that. That's going to happen. Anthony Richardson, when given the opportunity to be one of those was injured two separate times trying to go into the end zone when they didn't have Jonathan Taylor I I'm not I'm not willing to hand him that Jalen Hurds Josh Allen proven over time but Tanya that's

totally fair I'm saying physically I'm saying as a as a as a human specimen the bullish giant man it's bull like bull so not bullish as in you are- Making a bull case. An optimistic man. No. Bullish as in- Like Minotaur. Put the horns down, run.

I mean, he's bigger than Jalen Hurts, isn't he? I mean, Jalen Hurts is not- Lamar? We're not saying it because he's- Yeah. I mean, we're not putting- Not in the rumpus. Look, it's a tush push.

It's not put the shoulder down. I don't know if you've watched an NFL broadcast of Jalen Hurts, but I've heard that he can squat over 600 pounds every single week. What? This is the first I'm hearing about that. Well, Hurts is at two. He had 15 rushing touchdowns. I don't think he's going to have 15 again.

Probably not. With Saquon there and the lack of Kelsey at center. Yeah, he threw 23 passing touchdowns. So his numbers are very similar, actually, across the board to Lamar, except for he threw twice as many interceptions. He ran for fewer yards to Lamar, except for he threw twice as many interceptions. He ran for fewer yards than Lamar, and he just saved it by tush pushing 15 in. So if that changes, that would be a couple of quarterbacks that could flip in fantasy finish.

That's all I'm saying. I think it's fair to bring it up, but we're at this point, like what Jalen Hurts here and Josh Allen won is just, is there a true, a real, real rock-solid argument to not have those guys up there? No, not yet. The consistency of 76.5% of his games crossing that threshold,

we look for an A consistency. He's done this over years. And while his passing was down a little bit, I do think the offensive coordinator change could be helpful. And if you look at the weapons, you know, A.J. Brown and Devontae Smith, that's a really good receiving core. I mean, as good as it is for any team in the league. Last season, so Josh allen comes in at one last season josh allen was his average draft position was about 12 really yeah and so somehow

worth it um you know mahomes was in the 20s last season jalen hertz was in the 20s last season so um josh allen we know the resume right this is what we get to the top of these rankings we last season. Jalen Hurts was in the 20s last season. Josh Allen, we know the resume. We get to the top of these rankings, we don't have to tell you that they're good at football. Loses Stephon Diggs, though. Loses Gabe Davis. Worth mentioning. Transformation of the offense to a degree. A little more run heavy in the

second half. Any concerns with Josh being worth... Would you take him at 12? At 12? Probably not. I don't think he's is he going at 12 this year I feel like he's dropping to more the back of the second but at 12 this year without Stefan Diggs there are question marks he's still going to be the first quarterback draft it's just a matter of what other running backs and wide receivers are there that I'm confident in. Josh Allen has been worth it the last two years. And we don't usually draft quarterbacks high because you can replace them,

you can stream them. But over the last couple years, Josh Allen's been really a difference maker that's not replaceable. All right, so the top ten, Jordan Love, Dak Prescott, Joe Burrow, C.J. Stroud, Kyler Murray, Anthony Richardson, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, and Josh Allen. Didn't talk about Justin Herbert. No conversations there.

None needed. And, you know, despite thinking he has the ability to surprise compared to expectations with Greg Roman, I don't think I would take him over any of the 10 we mentioned. It makes sense. We will have a draft predictions episode of this show on Thursday ahead of the NFL draft that night. I love

that show. Don't miss it. We always get 100% of them right. Don't vet that or anything and check. Don't go back. Just trust us. But we do. We never mess up. But very, very exciting. And a reminder, it is Ultimate Draft

Week, so head over to UltimateDraftKit.com. If you order by Sunday, the pre-order price for the product that you're going to love, you get a chance to win a Listener League spot to come and play with us in the Listener League, a chance to win a signed Justin Jefferson jersey and a signed Travis ETN jersey. So do not miss that

opportunity. Head to UltimateDraftKit.com. You guys have anything else to add? There's just no news on Sam. I almost said Sam Darnold. Oh, same difference. It's the same picture. We'll catch you on Thursday for a big time

show. Goodbye, everybody. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at the FFBallers.