Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Free Agent Predictions + Combine Reactions! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 3/5

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

Where will Kirk Cousins, Josh Jacobs, and Austin Ekeler be playing football in 2024? On today's fantasy football podcast, a full preview of 2024 Free Agency with landing spot predictions! Plus, reactions and biggest fantasy takeaways from the NFL Combine. Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for March 5th, 2024. Get the lowest price on the 2024 UDK at UltimateDraftKit.com - Dynasty Pass content available NOW with the UDK+ 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. Get a credit card annual fee waiver and earn C-plus points faster with the Scotiabank Ultimate Package and bank more entertainment. Learn more at scotiabank.com slash banking packages. Conditions apply. Scotiabank. You're richer than you think. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.

Welcome in. Tuesday, March 5th. The Fantasy Footballers back with you. Mike Wright, Jason Moore. I'm Andy Holloway. Hope you enjoyed a bonus episode of this show. We dropped a draft episode on Saturday morning. Sure did. Had a nice time.

Jason did a live best ball draft, and we commentated the draft itself and talked about the picks he made and the picks that were being made throughout the draft, and there were some surprises. It was a good time. But, you know. Talked about how the Tush push was not going to be

changed and about how Jason Kelsey had not yet officially retired. Right. Until now. Now he did today. We'll see how well that tush gets pushed now. Yeah. No, that's actually a good point.

We get to find out. That's a good point. He might have been the secret sauce in all of that. But hopefully you enjoyed that show. Make sure you're subscribed over on YouTube. That way you get the notifications if we drop something secret like that. Go to YouTube.com slash TheFantasyFootballer. Subscribe. Click the bell make

sure you are notified and uh we do have a winner can i get like oh i need like a an announcement sound right perfect that's that's what we we want the trumpeters book there we go we got that that was almost in stereo. That was like the trumpeter combine. They were working. And then was that Jared Goff? Yeah, that's the Goff horn. Well, I thought we'd.

We probably have a horn without Jared Goff. I hit it. Yeah, that's the one I hit. The one without Goff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Congratulations to the winner of the Listener League spot. Anybody that preordered the UDK before March 1st, actually up through the end of the day March 1st,

you were entered to win. And Jordan Kaye. Jordan. Jordan Kaye. Congratulations. You have won a Listener League spot to come play with us. And this is the first official, I guess the second official member, right? Has Jordan Kaye been messaged?

Nope. All right. Well, let's message Jordan Kaye. He will be by the time this show hits the airwaves. Okay. That's all I meant was like people, look, there's Jordans out there. Yeah. There's probably some Jordan Kays out there.

Yeah. And they're real excited. And one of Jordans out there. Yeah. There's probably some Jordan Ks out there. Yeah. And they're real excited. And one of them's a winner. Yeah. So we'll send that message to you, but thank you to everybody that participated. Hopefully you're enjoying the Ultimate Draft Kit, the UDK Plus with the Dynasty Pass.

We have a post-Combine update coming very soon. We had the NFL Combine this weekend, and that leads us into our quick question, which was like, what was the big takeaway for you about a specific player or a reaction you had to the NFL players that did participate in the Combine? Sure. Yeah, I'll start us off because I think it is the headliner.

It's not necessarily the most impactful but it's always the most fun and the most watched of it is the 40 and when the all-time NFL record for the 40-yard dash is beat uh that is the the the most fun story but uh we're talking about uh Xavier Worthy he ran a 4-2-1. We knew he was fast. He ran a 4-2-5, and people were saying, hey, dude, you're good. Take the shoes off. Don't have a chance of having a worse one. He's like, no, I want the record. Went back out there, beat the record, ran a 4-2-1, but his teammate, Adonai Mitchell, both the Texas wide receivers, was he 4-3-5? I mean, and he's a big boy, so the weight training program for Texas, they're doing some good work.

It was a very DK Metcalf comparable run. Am I remembering that right? Yes, you are. From a size perspective, that was one of the fastest runs. They're very similar in size. I think Metcalf was 4.35 and Mitchell was 4.34 or something like that. So both Texas wideouts blazing. Really, the entire wide receiver class, I believe this is the fastest average.

You know, we've talked them up quite a while now about what a good wide receiver class this is. There is, you know, last year and for a couple of years, it's been a bunch of itty bitty baby boys. And we haven't really had the classic X six foot to six to 200 pound receiver archetype. And there's a handful of them this year. Yeah. I mean, for me, it was,

uh, lad McConkie. He has been a, a darling, a favorite in terms of, you know, he's been pretty high on my rookie board, uh,

even before the combine. But then he came out and, uh, ran a four, three, four. Was it four? Was that, it was, I think it was a four, three, came out and ran a 4.34. Was that? I think it was a 4.34.

He ran a, I thought he was 0.1 faster than Garrett Wilson was. Let's see. I'll just double check. Double check that for me. It could be 4.35. I don't remember. But great combine from McConkie. Looked great in the gauntlet.

4.39. Oh, 4.39. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Okay, I apologize. I apologize. He was in the 4'3". I was happy to see that. But size, speed-wise, very similar to, you know, you can look up the metrics of what he did at the combine

versus what Garrett Wilson did at the combine. And the physical stature is identical. And you watch... 6'1", 86. You watch the gauntlet drill and it's just you know that you want to see how guys catch the gauntlet drill i think is probably far more important than the 40 yard dash because they're actually doing a little bit of football and it's just like thoughtless easy grab and release this ball as he's running full speed. He just looks so fluid

as an athlete. I give Andy full credit on being first to the Ladd-McConkie party, but I am a believer. Yeah, I welcomed you in the door a long time ago. Garrett Wilson was a 4.38. McConkie was a 4.39. It's neat

to see, I think, if he goes to the right situation. That's worth saying before we get to Mike's takeaway. Yeah, of course. This is an exciting time to watch these players on display, all the hype around the draft. But these players don't have teams yet. And I just want to stress how significant the landing spots and draft capital are going to be

and how significant our changes will be in terms of the rookie rankings and in terms of where we think these players are going to contribute for fantasy, it's going to change so much based on, you know, we've been talking about the running back room. There's five to six running backs right now where legitimately at least four or five that could go first running back overall uh the destination is going to matter tremendously whether these guys are third round or later picks or do they did somebody sneak into the second round you know those are going to make big

differences and we'll be reacting and modifying so you can do the same mike what your takeaway was for me it's selfishly is Trey Benson-related running back that we've shared on this show that we like this guy, and he was kind of the – I had watched Corum and Jonathan Brooks. They're fine prospects, and I know there's out in mock drafts. Jonathan Brooks, it seemed he unfortunately tore his ACL, so he's recovering from that from last season. But Jonathan Brooks is like this, a lot of people's number one running back,

and people love Blake Corham out of Michigan. And I watched them both. I'm like, you know, they're good players. I think they'll make an impact. And then Trey Benson's tape immediately to me was this is – now this is a player I can get behind of falling in love with. The guy's speed is great. He looks like he's a good-sized running back as well

and has a good production profile. And then he weighed in at 6'2", 16, and he ran a 4'3", 9. Yeah, baby. So, I mean, for that size, that is incredibly fast. So it was exciting to see a player you were already falling in love with. And it's kind of like Ladd-McConkie. Deliver on the combine. Their stock went up after the combine. We still got to see what happens with the draft,

but they are now on the ascension. So it's always fun to see that happen with these players. Well, speaking of Benson and Corum and all the running backs, we've got a free agency prediction show today, which really is a running back free agent prediction show in a lot of ways because I've got news I'm going to talk about in a minute, closing the door on another free agent wide receiver and their opportunity to hit the market.

But it'll be interesting whether the teams that were predicting to land these free agent running backs go with the rookie, or they go with one of these available free agents. Uh, you know, we, we, we can talk about Blake Corum and Jim Harbaugh and whether that comes together and whether, you know, a team like the Ravens decides to go with a free agent running back, or they finally, you know, go back to the draft after losing JK Dobbins and, and going through retreads like, do they, do they finally go in on a guy like whatever Trey Benson or somebody? So that is coming up momentarily, but quickly some news for you.

News and notes from around the league well somebody got paid uh mike evans and the tampa bay buccaneers finally reached an agreement two years 52 million dollars 35 million guaranteed locks mike evans for year 31 year 32 in Tampa it's a lot of money it should be encouraging to those of you that have Mike Evans in yeah a dynasty league you're going to get at least another I think high highly productive year you know 35 million dollars guaranteed in this deal and then he'll probably have a decent year the following season so quarterback not situated in tampa right now but mike evans is coming off one of his statistically best seasons ever and um i think tampa might have lost some money not paying him last year yeah i

mean he just needed to get rid of that tom br Brady guy so he could go out there and score some touchdowns. Am I right? It is funny because it's like, obviously, there were meetings last year, and Mike Evans and the Buccaneers didn't come together. And Mike Evans is like, no, I'm going to go play. And then they're like, you know you don't have Brady, right? Yeah. And he's like, no, I'm going to go play. And then he's just that good.

Is he so good that he cost them money on Baker too? Yes. Like did Mike Evans make Baker look great again? And then it's like, okay, now you've got to pay him too. I don't think Mike Evans signs this deal with Tampa Bay without the assurances that Baker's back. I genuinely believe that. I think Baker will be back.

That is just an assumption. Mike Evans got the PR team out this weekend and was like, I'm not playing for anybody but an elite quarterback, and then comes back to Tampa Bay 15 minutes later. It certainly would help Baker to come back. Imagine being Baker where you're like, I have resurrected my career from the ashes, and the Bucs are like, well, come on back.

We're not going to have Mike Evans, but you should come back here. I'd be like, meh. No, thank you. They got Trey Palmer, and Trey Palmer had one of the more productive rookie seasons that's kind of under the radar for fantasy players. And, you know, pretty good situation there. Another piece of news, we were just talking about this tight end on the Saturday live draft.

Darren Waller is, quote, still undecided on whether or not he will continue to play or will opt to retire. Hmm. Well, I hope you play, Darren Waller, because I drafted you.

32 years old, I believe. Is that where we are? It's just good to know if you are doing drafts right now that he is TBD. Still under contract for three more years. He is not yet 32. He's 31.5. Have you transitioned to your own age now being in the point in the

month I haven't because I'm not a superstar athlete because I'm sitting at 39 point 11 it's better for you to just be like 39 it's just a mystery

when are you 40 well it's actually real soon and you'd be like 39 that's right it's just a mystery when when are you 40 and you're like well it's actually real soon and you'd be like where are you at now 41 okay just making sure point zero point zero because your birthday would rather be yesterday two days ago 39.9 brooksie do we have any other news papa josh you got anything for us there Well, there was. It's not necessarily the most fantasy-related news. I mean, it could be with the tush-push, but Jason Kelsey of the Philadelphia Eagles did officially announce his retirement, a beloved character among the NFL.

I mean, just watching what he's going to do now will be very fun because I think the job opportunities for Jason Kelsey are going to be just flying in the door. Yeah. Yeah, this weekend was the first time I had heard a rumor of him going to Kansas City to play with his brother. I don't think it's happening. And he's now retired.

But that idea really did spark the imagination. But they've taken over the world already. Yeah. He's going to keep that legacy in Philadelphia. Okay. We'll take a quick break. We'll come back with our free agency predictions. Should be a lot of fun watching where some big names land this offseason.

All right, before we jump in, it's 31.5, right? Like that is the age for Mike Evans. Okay. So translate that. 31 and a half. That's six months. That's six months. Yeah, correct.

There's no.11. Yeah, it it's percentage exactly correct just making sure now we can move on free agent frenzy all right uh by the way apparently i was the uh the champion of the free agent predictions last year you did it which equated to i i did look this up it equated to three correct free agent predictions it's pretty hard to to nail these i think if we if we're wanting to go for just um the highest score we should just predict them to go back to their yeah yeah but um i'm going for glory i want really really happy for running backs this year because the universe is lined up very nicely we're we're gonna go through these positions and there are a lot of running back

free agents of note and there are no wide receiver virtually very few notable wide receiver free agents but the draft class this year is chock full of non-stop high-end highly rated wide receiver prospects and not a ton of people excited about running back so it's like the first time in as long as I can remember that I feel like maybe running backs actually have a market in free agency from NFL teams and they're not just going to go, I'm just going to draft a rookie and be cheap. Some of these guys might actually get paid this year. I can preview our mock draft that we're going through post-combine

and nine of the 12 picks are wide receivers in the first round. So to your point, either of you guys want to talk briefly about some of the lingo and the language around the cap? Sure. I'll jump in. Just a couple of vocab words if you're not familiar. Things like cap hit, which a player's cap hit is not necessarily how much they're being paid that year,

but how much they will being paid that year, but how much they will count against the salary cap. And that's more of a complicated thing of your bonus structure, how much you're paid per game. And so there's a formula to figure all that out. Dead money is when a team has moved on from a player, but they had some guaranteed money that's left on the contract. So it hurts. It's still against the cap.

Yeah. Because of that formula I talked about with the cap hit of, you can't just give a player a gigantic signing bonus and they'll be like, no, you don't get to count against the cap next year. Just the way that all the deals are structured. And then some important dates of note. Today is the franchise tag deadline, so there could be some news

that we unfortunately miss with that. Next Monday is the legal tampering, the worst-named thing of all time. Its teams are permitted to enter contract negotiations with free agents. Whenever I hear that, it reminds me of the movie The Purge. You just get a certain amount of time to do something. There are no rules. They do something illegal.

Because tampering, by definition, is like a wrong thing to do. Yeah, just contract negotiations open. They're able to talk to players. Oftentimes they get announcements, but the pen isn't to the paper. Negotiating window. Yes.

That's what it should be called. It's just a free agency negotiating window. Legal tampering. And then Wednesday the 13th, so next Wednesday, that is when the league year opens for 2024. Free agency begins. People will start signing contracts all these dudes will be making tons of cash we will be recording next tuesday's episode that

morning so that we have all the information possible from the negotiating window right and and so we'll jump in we'll talk about some of the deals that have already been reached we'll start hearing about them on Monday. And just another thing before we jump into our predictions, which are mostly running backs, the cap space situation right now, I just wanted to read the teams with the most cap space in the NFL. The Commanders are number one, 96 million. The Patriots at 91 million. Titans at 80 million.

Bears at 79. Colts at 73. Texans at 70. Then the Lions with 54 million in cap space. That's kind of impressive. Yeah, I mean, when you think about these are not playoff teams. Houston was, Detroit was. Cincinnati at 52 million, Cardinals at 51, and the Raiders at 47. So those are the only two playoff teams, right?

Did the Colts? I51 million, and the Raiders at $47 million. So those are the only two playoff teams, right? Did the Colts? The Colts, I think they had like the— They missed out. Yeah, it was them versus the Texans for the final week for the playoffs. So, yeah, but three competitive teams last year with lots of space. We will go to the quarterback position. It may be for but a minute but the two

names now that will make predictions for Kirk Cousins are any of us detouring from him returning to Minnesota I went through the league to look at like who would go after in my opinion all these teams

should be trying to sign Kirk Cousins. I think a lot of people are going to. But it just seems like the teams that are clear and obviously in need of a quarterback, they're at the top of the draft and able to acquire one. So at that point, you go, okay, what teams are left? And I do think he returns to the Vikings. The Vikings don't want to lose him. They don't have another good option if he goes elsewhere.

He has roots there now, likes the franchise, has great weapons. Jefferson about to sign a $30 million per season type of deal. Yeah, so for me, if I was the Falcons, I would go so hard after Kirk Cousins. That's what I would do, but they keep talking about they want youth. They want someone young. They have just hammered that. Inferior. Right.

How is younger better if the player's worse? Washington came up this weekend, which obviously Kirk Cousins was in Washington before, but we all have Minnesota down as the destination. Is that the summary? Yeah, but it's going to be wild. And then Baker Mayfield, the resurgent season, gets Mike Evans back in Tampa.

Jason and I both have Tampa as the as the destination Mike are you trying to be spicy here it's a little bit I'm just I more wanted to bring up because I put down the Falcons for Baker Mayfield um the Mike Evans signing I probably points to that Baker will be back but just wanted to briefly talk about, so Caleb Williams, the presumed overall number one pick by the Chicago Bears or whoever has the number one pick, did not, he didn't do anything at the combine. And in that was he didn't do medical testing for anyone at the combine, and he will do that on an individual basis of teams

as they can make their certain allotment of individual visits. And I thought that was interesting of, well, now at this point with free agency opening up next week, the Falcons were, there was a pretty hot tweet that came out that said, it's basically done. Justin Fields traded to the Atlanta Falcons. Can the Bears really do that right now if you haven't done a full medical testing on Caleb Williams? You can't trade away the guy who right now is your franchise QB for a player that, just what if? What if some crazy red flag popped up in Caleb's medicals

and you had already traded away your quarterback? So just trying to do all those puzzle pieces. That does make sense, Mike. I hadn't thought about that at all with the medical. And the pieces of that being, well, Atlanta then can't trade for him. But if you're going to go get someone like Baker, you have to do it. You have to do it next week. So it was more just to bring up the scenario of the stuff with Kirk Cousins

and Baker is wild. And now I think it is kind of getting some ripple effect of teams don't know for sure that Caleb Williams is 100% good to go. One of the reasons the free agent predictions and the draft predictions are so difficult is because there is that cascading effect of getting one wrong. You get one person in one place wrong, and it trickles down to all the others so often. So let's turn to the priority predictions here, which is the running back position, because we have significant big names. Saquon, Jacobs, Henry, Eckler, Pollard, Swift.

Those are the six that we're going to predict here. There's so many more, too. There really are. I mean, you have Dobbins coming off the ACL, who's a free agent. Antonio Gibson finding a new home. Singletary, who was effective. Zach Moss, who had a great start to the year. Yeah, there are some names out there.

Alexander Madison's out there, guys. Zeke? I mean, Madison hitting the waiver wire, do you know what he's thinking when he sees this list? It's time to get paid. He's like, can I switch positions? The teams with the highest vacated opportunities going into the upcoming year at running back,

the number one is dallas 76 percent of the running back carries available um the giants at 66 percent i mean these are basically the same team it's the teams that have these free agents leaving all these big names um you know they're not under contract right now jacob's in the in the the raiders the titans and then interesting one is the texans just because Singletary is a free agent. And I don't know if they have a lot of cap space, and they should be circling for a great running back. So I think that they may find one.

And the Eagles. So the Eagles have nobody under contract pretty much. I think Gainwell is there for one more year. Is he? I think so. I'll double check that. Yeah, one more for Gainwell, and then one more year. Is he? I think so. I'll double-check that. Yeah, one more for Gainwell, and then they did the Ty Davis price or whatever. Yeah.

So let's start with Saquon Barkley. Spent his entire career in New York. They're not franchise tagging him. He came back on their franchise tag last year. He was productive. The team struggled. Quarterback injuries, rotating quarterback situation. Still ended up with three games missed as the number 12 fantasy running back.

You know, I don't know. You know, he's 3.9 to carry, six touchdowns, caught 41 passes. He was solid with occasional spectacular games, but is older. I mean, he's getting up there. He's probably going to get paid this offseason. So where's he going? I want him to leave so bad. I want to see him on a good offense.

I want to see him with a good quarterback, with an offensive line. I want to see him be able to succeed because what he did last year was masterful, given what he had to do it behind. You're saying the sliding scale here, when you look at all the things opposing him in New York, he still was productive. Yes, exactly. And so I might just be trying to wish this into existence, but I think it would be a perfect fit for the Dallas Cowboys to upgrade from Pollard, upgrade, I think, even from

late-career Zeke, and allow a pass catcher who can be a goal-line guy, who can be a bell cow back. I want him to go to Dallas, have a quarterback. That would be so wonderful. It would be very exciting.

If that happened, he would be an easy first-round pick. Mike and I, we took the boring route. Well, I – Or are you pivoting? No, no, no. I put in the Giants. Now, you put New York.

Oh. I didn't know – And he's got the Jets. I don't know if he was just trying to hedge and get two teams just in case. Now I see how he won last year. Brees Hall, get out of here. He's going to California. He's going to Los Angeles.

Western United States. No, I'm taking the Giants. You and I both think he'll come to an agreement. I think this is very, very much like the Mike Evans situation, just that running back. Saquon is a team identity type of player. I don't think he really wants to leave. So I think they can figure something out. Yep. I have him coming back. We have three teams predicted for this next player, all different. So let's turn to it. One of the younger options on the free agent market, second youngest of the names I mentioned, Josh Jacobs, 26,.1 years old,

and I am going to go with the Chicago Bears. It makes sense. The Chicago Bears, I think, will do everything they can this offseason. You'll see it in the rest of the predictions to equip Caleb Williams for the most success he could possibly have. They're a competitive team with a good defense. They need a running game to take the pressure off. They have the fourth most cap space.

And I think Josh Jacobs is, I think in a lot of GM's minds, he's going to be the cream of the crop of this entire group. When you have the age combination with his ability to be effective in the passing game, between the tackles, what he did two years ago leading the league in rushing, I'm going to go with the Chicago Bears. It's almost a twofer of should you trade Justin Fields, reset your rookie contract at the quarterback position, and you have all that cast space, okay, we can pay a

premier running back for three to four years because it balances off with the quarterback so it does it makes logical sense to me yeah and i would i would love to see it too i think that would be um a really fun destination much better than where i've got him going but another team with a ton of cap space I have seen this rumored that needs offensive weapons and has a new head coach that wants to run the ball wants to establish it and so I've got him going to the New England Patriots uh at 26 years old yeah all the remandre managers just dying on the inside that would that would be brutal for remandre he would clearly usurp him in the packing order, and it would be kind of brutal for Josh Jacobs because Ramondre would not go away.

It would probably be a 45-55 split. 55! I think that would be brutal for Jacobs. Most landing spots for running backs. Someone's party is getting ruined. All right, so what party are you ruining? Going to the Buffalo Bills. Oh, you're ruining James Cook's party.

I don't think I've seen this rumored anywhere. To me, it's just the Buffalo Bills for so long now keep getting linked to high-profile running backs. And as good as James Cook was, they still wanted other guys involved. Like they wanted, you know, a bigger body guy. Uh,

we want, uh, uh, Latavious Murray's getting goal line carries. They brought in Leonard Fournette to not really use them, but they still brought him in because they were, they were hopeful. And I don't know what the cap space is.

I don't know if they have the least cap room in the league hopeful. And I don't know what the cap space is. I don't know if they can. They have the least cap room in the league. Yeah. Teams can figure things out. And just saying, one of these guys would not shock me at all if he ends up up there in Buffalo as they want. They seem to want this. Derek Henry, the Yeti.

Why don't you guys go first? You have the same destination. Well, this one's selfish, guys. I had to make the trade for Derek Henry last year in the Dynasty League to make my run. It worked out. Knowing that trade for Derek Henry is truly playing with fire for any future purposes as he is over 30 years old, he's a free agent.

So I am sending him to Baltimore. I am wheeling it into existence for touchdown upside. I think it makes sense for both sides. I believe it's also the favorite. It's been rumored there was you know trade rumors um at the in towards the trade deadline last year i think it makes sense for all parties and our champ champ champ team that's that's he could also use it yeah it makes too much sense for you guys i'm not going to baltimore i love where you i don't think henry's going to baltimore i think

he's going to a different team that also had trade deadline rumors around the running back. A perfect bell cow for the change of pace Kenneth Gainwell. It is Derek Henry to Philadelphia. It is the most Philadelphia type of move I think that they could make. Going to need the tush push to slow down. You know, Henry to Philly will bring some question marks around the goal line, I think. Could you imagine Henry helping to push?

No, he would. He would help push. He's done it. First and ten, tush push, first down. Got a question here. If Jalen Hurts is lifted into the air and never actually comes down inbounds. Yeah. Is it still a touchdown?

Absolutely it is. Cross the plane. It's just never been done. From the front out the back of the end. That's what I'm talking about. Oh, I hear you. The full end zone. You're saying he crosses the goal line in the air and flies through the back of the end zone.

Yeah, perhaps through the uprights. Perhaps. So I'll go Philly. I'm not going to rule it out. I'm going to go Philadelphia a little different than you guys on that one. Okay. I'm not sure about the upright thing, but otherwise, that's my prediction. This one. All right.

Austin Eckler, not yet 29 years old. Difficult injured year. No quarterback. not yet 29 years old difficult uh injured year no quarterback not the kind of display he wanted to put out on film for free agency so uh we have three destinations mike let's start with you i'm going boring uh i'm going with him back to the los angeles char. And they have a cap problem. But I think that this is a – Eckler's – where he's played his entire career, give me a one-year prove-it deal, and then I'll go get my money – I'll try to go get my money afterwards.

I just – it's hard to see the market being really hot for Eckler, unfortunately. I'm going to – I'm going to go with it this is the one that i have the most kind of like secret confidence about oh really wow um it's not a secret anymore i think austin eckler ends up maybe a similar scenario like you just said where he he doesn't find a big market i think he becomes the new Samaj P. Ryan in Denver. We know that Peyton wants to run the football, and I think Austin Eckler is a perfect fit there to be part of a run-centric offense in Denver. So I think they find a way.

A running back-centric one for sure. I think they find a way to get Austin Eckler in my high city. That would be very interesting. I agree with Mike's assertion that the market will not be there for him. There's only going to be a couple of teams that are willing to go out and spend a big bag on a free agent running back, and Eckler's just not at the top of the list. But I think he is still really valuable to a quarterback to to being able to dump off the passes pass protect I think he is a quarterback's best friend at running back and that's the type of player that I could see the Houston Texans going after and finding someone for CJ Stroud to just help take the offense to the next level uh

Devin Singletary is a free agent. I think, you know, look, Devin Singletary played very well. But, you know, Eckler is an upgrade from Devin Singletary, and I think that'll help the offense. They got the money to do it. Yeah, and I'll kick off the next one just because I have that destination for this next gentleman. Tony Pollard, a little bit younger, going to be probably more expensive. Could be a

one-year deal. I have him going to Houston where you just had Austin Eckler going. They've got so much cap space. I think they're going to be able to pay up for Tony Pollard. And so that is my destination for him. Where do you got Pollard going? Makes complete sense. I see what you did, Jason. You see what I did? Having him go to the Giants. He has already replaced Ezekiel Elliott once. Now I have him replacing Saquon Barkley. Now, does Pollard get on the plane right after Barkley arrives, or is it the other way around? I think it will be after.

Or do they high-five in midair? No, it'll be after. All right, I'm going Eagles. We've kind of laid out their situation, but they're going to need some help at running back. Tony Pollard, if he is actually healthy and can get back to really explosive Tony Pollard, he would fit the scheme.

All right, last one. We'll predict at running back before our next break. DeAndre Swift, just 25 years old. He looked really good at times in Philadelphia. His season's weird. He was set up in the most opposite of Saquon kind of way. Where he took advantage of

a great offensive line, great situation with the quarterback and the read option. 47% of DeAndre Swift's yardage came before contact. Highest among all running backs. Which is why I'm putting him in Washington to become the next Antonio Gibson in Washington. It seems too perfect to me.

Washington has cap space, and I think they'll add a body after losing Gibson. You guys have had the Eagles signing a running back because they will need one. The Eagles just don't spend up at the position. I don't think DeAndre Swift's going to cost a lot, so I've got him returning to the Eagles. Yeah, I have Swift probably not costing a lot too,

and I'm going to send him to the Kansas City Chiefs where Clyde Edwards-Alaire will be gone. I don't know McKinnon's contract status. I think he was just a one-year. And it was like they waited a really long time. They waited until after the draft. They're like, oh, can we get our guy? I felt so bad for him at the Super Bowl

because it seemed like he was working so hard to get back. Yeah, and it wouldn't work out. But Swift as that second option behind Pacheco, not costing him very much. It will be helpful. The Chiefs are an interesting destination because they do right now that Both those guys are gone. It's just Pacheco on the roster?

Yeah. Who's been banged up many times. All right. Quick break. Back with some more. And just to recap the other running backs that will be available, no predictions here, but Dobbins, Gus Buss is gone, Gibson, Singletary, Zeke out there, Moss, A.J. Dillon finding a new home.

Clyde. Clyde finding a home. And Kareem Hunt's out there. Cam Akers off of, what, a second Achilles? Oh, gosh. Yeah, but man, Antonio Gibson, just be a fun location. Just be a fun place. Well, the Chiefs would be perfect for that because as a pass catcher

in doing the McKinnon role, if Gibson goes to the Chiefs, I will be so happy. Snip, snap, snip, snap, snip. All right, the wide receivers, look, we've got franchise tags and contracts now. T. Higgins, franchise tag. Back to Cincinnati was going to be one of the jewels of the wide receiver free agent pool. Mike Evans.

Contract. Contract. So, Michael Pittman, we... He's going to have a contract or a franchise tag. This is not really a prediction. We all have the Colts. Well, I imagine by the time you're hearing this show he will have been franchise tag or extended so um I might throw another name or two out there for you to just improv okay a destination for fun but the two that we'll focus on to begin Hollywood Brown who is

still not yet 27 years old pretty much non-existent last year. The scheme in Arizona did not work. They did not have Kyler Murray for part of the year, and he was just not a part of the offense under the new offensive regime. Where do you have Hollywood Brown landing this offseason? He's going to need to go to a team that has a scheme that he likes. He wanted out of Baltimore because they didn't throw it enough. The Steichen speed and the cap space that the Colts have I think equipping uh the young quarterback with another

wide receiver I've got him going to Indy all right and I have him going to the Atlanta Falcons to join Drake London put some serious speed over there and their depth chart uh I mean is as long as what I'm looking at is accurate, I'm looking at our lads. We have under contract, we have Drake London, we have Josh Ali, Chris Blair, and Austin Mack. I believe that's – So they have Drake London under contract, huh? So they're going to have to make a splash here.

And we'll see. Does Hollywood still have it it i don't know he was he was hurt it was very hurt it was hurt the whole year um i think he takes the biggest bag and i think it comes from carolina i think hollywood hollywood just finds the biggest bag and i think carolina is the one that's gonna to have to write that check to kind of promise somebody to, you know, come and give Bryce Young a try. So that's where I'm going. Calvin Ridley as well. I mean, the rumors to me, I think Calvin Ridley gets paid pretty handsomely. I'm going to say that.

I don't think there are doubts in the general manager universe about Calvin Ridley the way that there might be in the fantasy community with how up and down he was. I think he goes to the team with the fourth most cap space that already had making a splash. I think they make another one. Oh, my goodness. And they equip Caleb Williams.

I've got Calvin Ridley to the Bears. Opposite of DJ Moore. And probably Rome. Probably. Well, possibly. Yeah. Unless they go, I don't know, offensive line or something. I mean, if a team could actually do that,

have gotten DJ Moore, who is a wide receiver one, in my opinion, Calvin Ridley could be Have gotten DJ Moore, who is a wide receiver one, in my opinion. Calvin Ridley could be. And then someone you're drafting who you're drafting that this person could be a wide receiver one. To start a rookie with those three weapons would be a really special situation to watch unlock. Yeah, and similar to you, Andy, you paired your running back destination with Calvin Ridley, have them both go to the Bears.

I'm pairing Calvin Ridley with my Josh Jacobs destination for the Patriots. Didn't I put Jacobs to the Bears? Yeah. Yeah, so we both did the same thing. Yep, we just got different teams. Yeah, and you went Patriots. Yeah. So Ridley to the Patriots with insert quarterback here, right?

Yep. I'm putting them on the Titans. Yeah. They just shoot. They need help. They got tons of money, right? They do. Okay, good.

Because Calvin Ridley. Third most. The way you were talking about Hollywood Brown. Yeah, take the bag. I think he's going to go get a bag of money. I think Calvin Ridley is going to go get himself a bag of money. I agree. And the other name I wanted to throw out there in case you want to just top of head.

How about this? Gabe Davis. Because age-wise could be an attractive name now that some of these other big names have been picked up, I'm not really worried about projecting the Beckham, Curtis Samuel, Noah Brown destinations. But Gabe Davis, I don't know. It's fun to think about. Yeah, so obviously both of these won't come true. But I'm going to go with the Colts here because they've got a quarterback. You're putting everyone on the Colts?

I think the Colts. I could see. I think the Colts are going to go after a wide receiver for Anthony Richardson, and whether that's paying up top of the market for Marquise Brown or whether that's going and getting a guy that they see was helpful for Josh Allen, the similar archetype of quarterback. So obviously they're not going to sign both guys, but I think either one of them could go to the Colts. That would be my top of the head i'll go houston for gabe davis oh that'd be nice

deep threat yeah not scare off too many fantasy managers from tank dell and nico i wonder if you wouldn't be freaked out would you if he went there to houston no no yeah see because what would you think of him? Not much. Yeah. No, it would be. He would help Stroud. I think good things of Stroud. But like Noah Brown.

Exactly. Had some monstrous performances. Yeah, just he didn't know when. Best ball. Yeah. Best ball, Gabe Davis. What's going on with the Dallas Cowboys wide receiver situation? They've got C.D. Lamb. They're okay.

I'm aware they have C.D. Lamb, but like they... Is Brandon Cooks under contract? Brandon Cooks is under contract. He will be a... 100 years old. Oh, sorry. He would be a $10 million cap hit, should they

keep him, and $6 million dead cap if they were to cut him. I saw a lot of rumors floating around of Michael Gallup maybe getting cut after that contract extension that they had just given him a couple years back. That looks like a huge flop right now. Yeah. Kyle, do you know what the dead cap would be for that? It would be $13 million. It's not happening this year.

Okay. So maybe not Dallas. Cool. So your prediction is not Dallas. Is that where you think? No, I'll still go with it. You could go Kansas City. I think that one's interesting.

Can I go AFC? For no credit, yes. All right. no credit yes all right i'll take it i'll take it all right and then dalton schultz we he's the only tight end that we're predicting here but we all have him going back to the texans yeah boring yeah i hope he does i mean he was he was good there and if he doesn't then they need to go sign hunter henry or you know i i want them to have a a good pass catching tight end there dalton should go back to dallas get out of here um ferguson all right well next monday the legal tampering period the purge begins and And then Wednesday, the new league year. And it's time. It'll be time to find out

whether that dynasty player you're rostering, if it's one of these running backs, lands in a great place. I feel good about the Mike Evans deal. Maybe you'll end up with a situation like that. Or maybe you'll end up with the Romandre getting squashed by another running back or something like that.

How do you feel about a guy like DJ Moore if Calvin Ridley landed in Chicago? Does that concern you at all with a rookie quarterback coming in? If they legitimately drafted Roman Dunza and signed Calvin Ridley, your DJ Moore enthusiasm might be stifled. It would be. It would be. So it'll be a very interesting offseason. I can't believe we're already near the free agent period. It's crazy.

Absolutely crazy. All right, what do we got coming up on Thursday, gentlemen? We got a fun game time episode. Game time episode. I like games. Wait, so we got multiple games for playing on Thursday. Yeah, we're so many games. Got some Who Am I, some Gut Feelings, and some Liar Liar.

We got a Liar Liar. Now, are you wearing kind of like a game show host type of outfit for Thursday? I would never. Oh, man. I wanted to see him in his wedding suit. I thought maybe we could. I mean, you got a fitted suit, right? I do. see him in his wedding suit. I thought maybe we could. I mean, you've got a fitted suit, right? I do.

Yeah, I'm just saying. I mean, chance to use it. Permission granted. Mm-hmm. Encouraged. Yeah, encouraged. Is it required, though? Permission required.

Wait, wait. Permission required. I like it. All right. That'll do it for today's episode of the show. Make sure you like and subscribe. And we'll be back very soon for that game time episode. Yeah, it's required now.

Full suit. Goodbye. 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.