Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - NFC North Breakdown + Big Time Upside - Fantasy Football Podcast for 7/20

Episode Date: July 20, 2023

Fantasy outlook for the Vikings, Lions, Bears, and Packers! On today’s fantasy football podcast, find out which NFC North players to target in fantasy football drafts! Plus, a new edition of Best Ball Breakdown! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for July 20th, 2023. Dive into the 2023 Ultimate Draft Kit + Draft Analyzer! UltimateDraftKit.com Connect with the show: Subscribe on YouTube Visit us on the Web Support the Show Follow on Twitter Follow on Instagram Join our Discord Check out today's sponsors: Best Ball Breakdown presented by Underdog Fantasy. Visit https://underdogfantasy.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Conditions apply. Scotiabank. You're richer than you think. Great Scott. If my calculations are correct, you are listening to this before your fantasy football drafts have taken place. I've been to the future, and those that followed the advice from the Fantasy Footballer's Ultimate Draft Kit had a spectacular season and withstood many victories. It's almost as if Biff had given each of them a copy of Grey's Sports Almanac.

I'd highly recommend heading over to www.ultimatedraftkit.com without any further delay. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Thursday, July 20th. The Fantasy Footballers Podcast. It sounded like you were changing your mind mid-sentence. No, I know what I'm doing, Mike.

Okay. All right. Don't worry about it. I apologize. I'm doing, Mike. Okay. Alright. Don't worry about it. I apologize. I was very confident. Mike, the fantasy hitman is here. Jason Moore present, accounted for another divisional

breakdown episode for you. Yeah, but we're out of that AFC nonsense. You're an NFC guy? We're to the good teams now. Well, it's... The Cardinals are an NFC guy? We're to the good teams now. Well, it's, I mean, the Cardinals are an NFC team. So I've just, I grew up believing that the NFC was superior simply because I was just like, well, my team is in the NFC, so clearly it's better.

And that has carried through my life. When I hear NFC, it's just, oh, yeah, this is better. AFC is like, that's those other guys. Yeah, they're doing weird stuff over there. Well, it kind of sounds like AFL and AFL just joined the NFL later, right? Maybe. Kyle is with us, right? Kyle, you here?

Maybe. I am here. Okay. All right. From a train car. Kyle, your job is to tell us the amount of Super Bowl victories by AFC versus NFC. Oh, that's interesting. Because there is a better conference. Yeah.

Technically. Statistically. I'm all in on NFC. All right. I don't know. I don't know what the answer is. Don't. John Brady has won too many.

That's fair. But Joe Montana. Joe Montana's NFC. He's got some. But it's like the. But Bradshaw's NF many. That's fair. But Joe Montana. Joe Montana's NFC. He's got some, but it's like the Pats. But Bradshaw's NFC. The Pats and the Steelers, the runs. I think I know what's going to happen here. But we'll find out.

Welcome into the show. NFC North breakdown, best ball breakdown today. NFL news to talk about. Potentially very impactful NFL news on a couple of fronts. A reminder, we will be hosting a live event, our only live event of the year, Saturday, August 26th at the Palace in Los Angeles. You can get tickets at ballerslive.com.

Every single ticket in that venue is a good ticket, by the way. This is an awesome, going to be a full house, an awesome event. Over 1,000 of the Foot Clan will be there. Yeah, we picked this venue out of several places specifically because the place is awesome. Yeah, it's beautiful. Every single seat is just perfect. I will also say, even though the lower level,

the non-mezzanine is sold out, there's mezzanine seats available, there are benefits to the mezzanine that Jason has considered. So just think about that. It's where the newsies want to be. Oh, gosh. Yeah. That's a deep cut.

Is it now? Is it a deep cut? Wait, Jason, how are you possibly? I just didn't think it was that good. I'm going to be honest with you. I mean, I'm sorry. I'm a newsies guy. Just like, I don't know.

There's someone out there. There always is. There's the mic people. Yeah, he's right here. I love that. Thank you, Jeremy. Al's into the news. Yeah.

No, Jason's over here trying to figure out what the reference actually meant. Did you not remember? Maybe not. Was it part of a song or something? I don't know. Let's move on, okay? Let's have a fantasy football show. Sounds good to me.

The Ultimate Draft Kit available now, ultimatedraftkit.com. Head over there. Get primed for your draft. I mean, we're almost there. It's July 20th. So you're going to be drafting very soon, and we'll be in camp, and we'll be sharing every bit of news that comes along. Twitter at the FFBallers,

and a reminder, the Dynasty podcast. Yesterday, brand-new episode, top 10 running back up. You guys went with a top 10, huh? We did. Those are very enticing. What's the top 10? Give me them all. If you slow that down, you'll get it.

But, yeah, we talked running backs, and it's quite the time to be talking about running backs, and so we did. We kind of broke down just the state of what's happening with running backs as well. Breaking news. Yeah, that's right. it's kind of incredible nfc has won the super bowl 29 times the afc has won the super bowl 28 times i knew it we are the best i knew it

not for long so the if if the chiefs repeat because you because they're talking about the repeat, they will even it up between the two conferences. Jalen, it's up to you. Yeah, yeah. You're our only hope. Interesting. I didn't realize it was that close at all. Okay, let's get into the news. News and notes from around the league.

Well, we have some injury news. The Saints have placed rookie Kendra Miller, running back, on the non-football injury list. Third round draft pick. Somebody that we like tremendously on film, out of TCU, 6'2", 21 years old, still recovering from MCL surgery. And he didn't participate in OTAs or minicamp. And according to Nick Underhill, one of the most trusted beat writers for any team. Not a concern is what he's been told.

So, you know, he could be activated at any moment. Just something to be aware of. Yeah, this was a player we liked so much going into the like before the draft but we knew about this injury this wasn't surprising or new information I was really surprised when he was drafted you know number 71 overall as a day two pick with this injury I thought he'd plummet so I think this means the Saints are committed to him they do believe in him just the fact that they weren't worried about this injury but it's's worth remembering, you know, your draft of best ball and stuff like that. Like, he is still coming off this injury.

He's not healthy yet. Speaking of recovering from surgery, Isaiah Pacheco, Chiefs running back, still recovering, was practicing with a non-contact jersey, recovering from labrum surgery. And then this one's the bigger piece of news. The Patriots have hosted Leonard Fournette for a workout on Wednesday. We may have an addition to the running back room for New England. We should ask Mike how he feels about this news. Yeah.

It's not my favorite. What do you think about the dump truck in New England? It's not my favorite, but, I mean, with their depth chart, it feels crazy at this point that they haven't made a move. And with all the guys who are kind of whirling out there, with Zeke, Dalvin, Leonard Fournette, and Kareem Hunt is still out there as well. Leonard Fournette, at least skills wise, seems the least threatening at this point of his career.

I know that if they sign him, he will still get work and a ton of work. And he can catch the ball as well. He kind of comps to an old man version of Ramondre. I think it's worse than if they had signed Zeke, I'd be happier for Ramondre. Really? Yes. Why is that? Pass catching.

Pass catching. Zeke can catch too. Not like Fournette. Fournette is his entire career, he's been an avid pass catcher, pass protector. He's like the definition of veteran. It doesn't sound like he was like a photographer, anid photographer yeah he's also he's a hobby of his he's also a professional um but he you know he's he's excelled in that not necessarily efficiency wise but trust of uh coaching staffs yeah you know in locker room yeah and just history of doing it so i i do think he'll take away

more passing work should he sign. Obviously, this is just news that he's visiting. Yeah, we'll find out. We'll get into the implications if it happens. He may not like the offer that they make to an aging Leonard Fournette, who's now, what, 28 going on 29? Sounds right. What an old man.

Just so old. But Ramondre is very high in Mike's rankings. Yeah. And the potential is there. And we've been trying to – he's been like doing the Matrix Dodge all offseason. Yes, he has. But like you said, the depth chart is so bad, it really feels like Ramondre and no one else.

Yes. It feels like Ramondre and then some guys that will probably belong on a practice spot. You have Pierre Strong. You have Kevin Harris. You've got, I think, Ty Montgomery. Is he still around there? He's always around. I mean, yeah, you're right.

You're lurking in the shadows. He lives in those rehab rooms for certain teams. But, yeah, no other news, right, Brooksy? No, sir. Okay. You guys want to get into it? Let's go. Mm-hmm.

Let's get divisional into the nfc north our divisional breakdown looking at changes from 22 to 23 looking at how offenses could function and we'll break down our predictions for the division which may at this point be more exciting than us all sharing the same opinion of the afc west this division is wild what's what's very strange is it's been a long time since i have been i've been able to separate the words nfc north and a kind of like a picture of aaron rogers like that and i see al the packer fan over there's just kind of like a picture of Aaron Rodgers. And I see Al, the Packer fan over there, just kind of like reflecting on that reality because he just owned this division.

They didn't win it every single year, but you thought they were at the beginning of every single year. And he's gone. And it's wide open. It really is. It's very wide open. I mean, there's not a dominant team um that has it locked up and and there's at least three teams if not four here that could win the division so you know every year

there is a team that goes from worst to first in their division happens you know and you look at the Bears and you think that can't happen they not ready. But this is the type of division where you don't know what you have in the Packers. Last year you had the worst best team of all time in the Minnesota Vikings, a 13-win team with a negative point differential, and then they lost pieces. And then the Lions, who are the presumptive, I believe, the betting favorites to win the division, they're the lions

you know it's like i mean let's just call a spade a spade there's things that don't usually go right for certain franchises yeah the last time that the packers entered a season without farver aaron rogers matt lafleur was 12 their head coach was 1992 so it's So it's different. The Vikings will start there 13-4 last year. Their win total before the season was 9. Outperformed that, yet had that negative point differential. Had the 36-point comeback.

They had a negative point differential? Yes. They were 11-0 in one score games, which is the best in the history of the NFL. They won 13 games and they were outscored on the season. They won 13 games. They won 13 games

when they were only supposed to win 9. And their Vegas win total has moved down. They're like, we were too high last year. Well, that's because they lost their quarterback and star receiver. No, no no no no they didn't in fact this division is the only one in the nfl without a head coach or an offensive

coordinator change at all so all of them are coming back you got a little bit you know if you remember and i started watching that documentary the quarterback one that uh you talked about with kirk cousins in it and it reminded you of how the season started where they came out and they absolutely looked incredible on offense. They destroyed the Packers, and then the next game it fell off a cliff. And that was kind of their season, except for they just managed to win the close ball games. If games had ended in the third quarter, this was a 7-10 team.

Speaking of that, the documentary there, is Kirk Cousins the most boring person in the history? No, is Kirk cousins go for it. Yeah. The most boring person in the history. Second most boring. Okay. The most boring drew breeze. Okay. But just, and,

and I think Kirk cousins are the two most boring people in history. Like cousins, this is your time to shine, man. And, and I've, I've been defending you for years. It's like,

you're no, you're, he's a good quarterback. He's a good quarterback. He's a good quarterback. And you're just and i've been defending you for years it's like you're no you're he's a good quarterback he's a good quarterback he's a good quarterback and you're like oh man this guy is it's watching paint dry when he's talking he has one kirk he has one moment in his entire career that's in yeah you like that that's it there's the two there's there's the dancing on the plane with all the chains oh okay, okay. That was pretty cringey. Anytime he does something that is outlandish, it becomes popular because he's so boring. Oh, man, he was. But, look, is this offense going to be boring for fantasy players?

That's the question. I mean, we had a much more exciting situation last year. Kirk Cousins being drafted very, very late, yet led the NFL in total air yards, third down passing touchdowns. Thank you, Justin Jefferson. You know, we struggled at times. They go, they add Jordan Addison in the first round, a player that is very, very dynamic, a huge upgrade, if not for game one, for the majority of this season is going to be a huge upgrade for this team over Adam Thielen.

They spent a seventh rounder on Dwayne McBride, but the offense is mostly intact. I mean, Alexander Madison's going to take over. Yes. That's a big storyline. We can all agree on that part. Yeah, it's a huge storyline. I mean, Dalvin Cook is gone.

Where he will land, we still don't know. But Alexander Madison, when he's at opportunities with Dalvin Cook injured, has averaged 16.9 fantasy points per game in those games. His metrics in totality aren't as strong as his metrics when he's been given those chances. It's always hard in these situations to know what a player really has sure do they have the uh stamina to be in every down back does the team view them as that in the light of you know in light of the running back room in minnesota we've had a lot of running backs that have been very efficient with small amounts of work he's kind of been the

opposite he's had low efficiency under four carry um he's built for a workload he's kind of been the opposite he's had low efficiency under for a carry um he's built for a workload he's built for a workload i don't know how trustworthy he'll be in the passing game because i don't know how the team's gonna draw that up i mean they do have some players behind him that are unproven so that's a long way of saying we have them kind of all over the map in terms of where he's ranked and he's going in the sixth round right now. We have him at RB21. Mike's the highest at 17. I'm pulling him up.

But not unreasonably. No, not at all. I mean, RB24 is his ADP. I think I've got him too low. I think I've got him at 23 right now. I probably have him the lowest. None of us are super low. We're slightly ahead of ADP right now. ADP, him the lowest. None of us are super low. We're slightly ahead of ADP

right now. ADP, he's running back 24. The way this depth chart looks, he's going to get a lot of work. He doesn't have to be great to beat the least good RB2. He'll be a top 20 back just from volume alone, but there is the chance that he's good, that he performs in the manner that we've seen him play when he's had the opportunity to be the guy. And so there's an upside case here where he's a running back one. He's a top 12 running back. Where he's being drafted right now at RB24 is partially due to the fact that his ADP started this offseason super low. Dalvin Cook was ahead of him, and then they started to creep,

and then there were rumors. But it's such a slow transition that it's difficult to just take a guy who was the running back 40 or whatever and then grab him at running back 15. You feel like you're making a drastic mistake when you're drafting. So his ADP, I think, is nerfed in part by that. And he's a very good pick because of that. I, I believe he's being drafted at his floor and with this defense, I want pieces of the Minnesota Vikings offense. They're going to have to, they're just going to have to play fast at the end of games. I mean, if you look at what happened last year, the way that they won in the fourth quarters,

uh, in the fourth quarter, they had 169 fourth quarter points. That's the fifth most over the last 30 years per Warren Sharp. It's because it was like, man, we're down. We got to go. And if they're scoring a lot of points to keep up with a bad defense, I'm in. Yeah, I think he's a good player. I've loved him since he was a prospect. I agree with Andy that I can't say for sure that he is going to be the primary pass-catching running back. What I can say is I believe that he is very capable. I know it's been a while, but you can go back to college when he played at Boise State.

He was heavily featured as a pass-catching running back and had the skills to do it. So I think it's just now the opportunity is finally there. I don't blame the Minnesota Vikings at all for playing. Dalvin Cook was great for many, many years. He should be the one playing in front of Alexander Madison. But it's now his opportunity. I think he is by far the best running back on the roster and what Jason's saying if this is going to be a potent offense

he should be the guy who's getting you know in the 60 percentile of the opportunities maybe even more with goal line and should get receiving work so he's incredibly interesting for me I am curious how the rotation is going to be because you're not going to bring in madison and then use him more than delvin cook i don't believe um so you know ty chandler duane mcbride uh kenny nuongwu yeah um in one was the the i think the one that's the the biggest threat to him taking away receiving work oh receiving work sure he's good he's a good player yeah he's mostly been a special teams guy uh duane mcbride doesn't touch the ball in the passing game like the right i believe he had five college receptions uh because he uses he uses gloves so yeah so skin never right

that's what i meant oh man never touched oh yeah well that's good, but my newsies joke. No, it wasn't good, but it's still better than the newsies thing. Justin Jefferson's good. The wide receiver won. Draft him. Six most receiving yards of all time. You know, he did bust 29% of the time last year. We went over that in the very early part of the offseason in our consistency shows.

But, yeah, draft him. Jordan Addison, K.J. Osborne, TJ Osborne TJ Hawkinson the other pass catching weapons in this offense an offense that did use Dalvin Cook a lot in the passing game there's always the possibility that some of that is distributed amongst the trustworthy TJ Hawkinson and KJ Osborne over the final month of the year when he had an opportunity you know talk about Madison taking advantage of opportunities Osborne was the wide receiver 2 12 and 13 three of the last four weeks so was very capable in that department and jordan addison while undersized is going to be utilized all over the field um you know we haven't seen him what's the latest on the injury front we just don't know no it's an undisclosed injury the

i i don't think that their rookies have reported yet for training camp because the coaching is in place from last year but any day now they'll get back together and we'll see whether or not he is there ready for training camp the expectation was his undisclosed injury kept him out of the the rookie camps and mini camps but he'd be good to go for training camp we'll find out here in a couple days I'll start to worry if he shows up to training camp still with the undisclosed hopefully disclosed injury at that point but his talent even though he's undersized the fact that he's cross field from Justin Jefferson and won't have hard coverage the fact that he's replacing an Adam Thielen who ran the second most routes in the NFL the opportunity is there the talent is there the

bad defense. You've said that a lot. Are you assured that he's replacing him as opposed to being utilized differently? I certainly think that there's a coaching staff that's done a good job using the players they have. So I don't think they're just going to rerun last year's script and then say, okay, well, we're taking Adam Thiel and outputting Addison in. But the point is more that they run a lot of routes.

The number one player in routes run was Justin Jefferson. So this is a team that's just going to throw the ball a ton, and they have an absence, a giant hole to fill. And that's where Jordan Addison's opportunity, even if it's not the same, he's going to be on the field running so many routes. So after the last couple mock drafts, I saw some feedback talking about T.J. Hawkinson.

The opinions out there was that we are just avoiding this guy. They don't understand. He won people weeks. He's got an opportunity. He was great in Minnesota after the trade. Are you down on T.J. Hawkinson? I laid it out when we did our early bust picks that TJ Hawkinson,

we have him ranked basically where the rest of the industry has him ranked, have him ranked pretty close to his actual ADP. The problem is, yeah, he had two monster weeks, one in Detroit, one in Minnesota. But when he was with Minnesota, it was consistently okay. He wasn't destroying you, but I think it was one top five performance or something like that. I can go re-look it up.

But it was just... He's got two of those. Or no, wait, you're at one top five. With Minnesota, which it should be better because now he has an actual offseason to be integrated and be a focal point of the offense. The problem is what you are giving up when you draft TJ Hawkinson, who I think will just be okay.

Here's a different thought, though. Maybe we're missing this because touchdown variability is significant at the tight end position. He only scored in two games since he came over in the trade. But you know what his target pace was? Yeah, he was catching a ton. 102 receptions. Yeah, and that's not even really fair because he only played 46% of snaps in the final week.

If you throw the final week out, which was an outlier, one target, one catch, 46 percent of snaps his target pace was above Travis Kelsey 160 targets 111 receptions 950 yards if the touchdowns come point is if the touchdowns comes he actually does have the ability to get into the top two at the position and everything we're saying about Adam Thielen being yes you know giant vacated targets you could argue that that's better for for Hawkinson I don't part of my argument was though that was Adam Thielen was already vacating those targets right while he was on the team and those those were no I there was no one

else there wasn't a Jordan Addison trying to represent the bull case sure yeah the way that I project it is that Addison is better than Thielen, will take more targets away from Hawkinson, that Hawkinson will be the third in targets. But it's certainly worthy of saying and realizing that that isn't a guarantee and that Hawkinson could be the two, and absolutely he has a bull case. I am going to move on, but I'll be very curious to see where you have Minnesota ranked at the end of the show. Back in a minute.

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giving you the peace of mind to focus on what truly matters. Find their products through banks, credit unions, and associations. Or visit SecurianCanada.ca Securian Canada. Insurance designed for life. Alright, this is a fun team to talk about. The Detroit Lions, who went 9-8 last year

despite having a 6.5 win total from Vegas. This year, Sportsbooks have them at 9.5. I mean, that's something. Mm-hmm. You know, it's a preseason win. Preseason hype piece for the Lions this that would be back to back then if they can take care of the offseason and preseason hype that'd be two years in a row that they've won uh they went 12 and 5 against the spread nearly made the playoffs beat the packers

knocked them out finished eight and two that's where a lot of the excitement is, is the finish to the season. Right. You know, this is a team that you feel like you almost have to step on eggshells to fully endorse because of, you know, it isn't, well, it is statistical, but it's also kind of like just the feeling around this team. In 2019, the Browns became the new hotness of the offseason. That was actually the year where Jason's bold prediction was that their fantasy options wouldn't provide.

They were all being drafted very highly, and then their season was terrible. Look, I'm rooting for Guns Mahoney in this roster, but you don't want to let, as a fantasy player, a lot of hype around a team's on-field performance kind of uh betray your your wisdom when it comes to which players you're actually putting on your fantasy team because those names might differ quite a bit this team has a lot of confidence in jared goff for example and we can start there we could talk about them

fifth and points per game that's a good reason to like what jared goff did last year but we also saw 17 touchdowns from jamal williams on the ground jared goff he was great at home yeah um they were they were amazing at home but from a fantasy perspective he was nearly unplayable last year there were a couple of opportunities that i remember you know it was when when it was a a matchup that you wanted a streamer against and jared goff was at home you had it with jacksonville minnesota like that that back-to-back and he came through as the quarterback for both of those and then championship week at home against chicago you knew that he was going to come through yeah his home road splits uh last. 21.3 fantasy points per game at home. 11.5 on the road.

So, Goff this year, when you look at the kind of weapons that he has, Almonra, St. Brown, Jamison Williams, out for six games, comes back. Marvin Jones Jr., he's back in Detroit. Yeah. Jameer Gibbs, David Montgomery Sam Laporta, a tight end that we really love rookie, has an opportunity to contribute

to Goff's stat line even if he's not going to have a big year necessarily week to week is Goff being undervalued at QB17 where he's being drafted? I don't think so, I think that's about where he belongs, he's not going to be someone you draft to be a weekly starter if you're playing in best ball he's just kind of a filler guy that you hope he fits in the right puzzle piece matchup plays with the other quarterbacks

you have he isn't a prolific touchdown thrower which is part of why I think Jamal Williams had so many touchdowns they're like hey we're near the goal. Let's just push this in with our great offensive line. And that's why I like David Montgomery because he's filling that role and Jared Goff's still the quarterback. They do have a juicy start to the year because they face Kansas City in week one, which, you know. But it's on the road. Yeah, it's on the road, but they're over under 54 points already.

And then they're at home against Seattle, at home against Atlanta. I'm just pointing that out because you could make a bet on some of these guys, and if those first three weeks are terrible, it's a bad bet. So if I'm looking at it right, trying to quickly box score hunt, on the road, Jared Goff had one great game. It was on the road against the Carolina Panthers, who were not the best team. He was the quarterback two that week.

But other than that, his highest finish on a road game, looking at how we have it on our website, would have been QB 17. So he had the one explosive game on the road, and then the other ones were just

not great. Now, there is the bull case for Jared Goff is, what was the number of Jamal Williams rushing touchdowns? If that bounces, even if Montgomery, who we project to be the goal linebacker, gets 10. Right, which would be a good year. And seven or so touchdowns bounce back to Jared Goff, that's a pretty big difference.

And Jamison Williams is a home run hitter. When he gets him back midseason, that's a player they didn't have available last year. I think he had one catch, right? And it was a touchdown. Yes. That was it, right? I think that was it, yeah.

That was one catch for a touchdown. He will be a player that really elevates the offense, I think. In the beginning, they may be leaning on the pass-catching work of these two running backs, though. So let's talk about them. Jameer Gibbs, just an electric player, a wonderful pass catcher, a super, super early high draft capital selection by this team that kind of surprised everybody because they invested in David Montgomery,

who is also a much better pass catcher than Jamal Williams was. They have pass catchers in the backfield that are going to be able to step in and provide value for Goff. The GM just came out and he was talking about the changes and he mentioned that. He mentioned that David Montgomery is a much better pass catcher and it was ironic because and then he's talking up Jameer Gibbs pass catcher. They are clearly wanting to utilize the running backs in the passing game. So that is another feather in the cap of Jared Goff where you go, okay, if the running game

is going to start shifting to the air, little dump-offs to, I mean, Jameer Gibbs is going to have a 40-yard touchdown reception this year. That's going to go to Goff. And those things will happen because he's so explosive. 25 receptions of 15-plus yards over the last three seasons for Jameer Gibbs at Alabama. He's very, very explosive. And he's a weapon more in the passing game than in the running game.

This feels like a team that, and it was like this last year, but maybe even more this year with Jameer Gibbs, a team where any week you could catch lightning in a bottle. At any week you could kind of roll the dice on some of these options, even like golf in the streaming matchup. And if you catch one of those weeks where they are putting up a huge game, I mean, they were bad on defense, right? 29th against the rush, 30th against the pass, 28th in points against.

They've tried to strengthen that. That's been kind of the Guns Mah dan campbell um mo in his career but they didn't have personnel to do that what's that i just i i they they tried to fix give me a break they traded i'm sorry i know the lions fans don't want to hear anymore but you you could have fixed it you could have drafted a great edge rusher. Instead, you thought, you know what our team needs from last year? We need to just change our running backs who worked really good last year. We just need to slightly upgrade them and get a linebacker. That'll help.

We were joking about the— It is a strange decision. We were joking about the—not joking, just looking at the facts of the NFL and the franchise tag and how the value of all these positions has gone up. The only positions that aren't paid more anymore or paid less is running backs. They're pretty worthless. Linebackers, they're pretty worthless.

Let's get a running back and a linebacker with our two most valuable picks. First, second, and third round to the offensive side of the ball, including a quarterback and Hendon Hooker that won't play. So that part, maybe they're committing to their fantasy production, needing to throw the ball a lot. Montgomery, Gibbs. Gibbs has a huge ceiling. Yes, agreed.

We talked about it when we were in the AFC West. It's easy for Eckler to finish high just because of the reception totals. Throw the touchdown predictability out, but Jameer Gibbs can hit home runs, check. Catches the ball better than wide receivers sometimes, check. And then you have no Jamison Williams and an aged Marvin Jones. So the first six weeks could be the coming out party for Jameer Gibbs earlier than sometimes running back rookies even do produce. Yeah, he doesn't have to have 250 carries to be a top 10 running back.

181 carries would be fine. Receptions are worth so much more in fantasy football for running backs than carries are. I mean, it's just Jameer Gibbs comes into the NFL as a top 10 receiving back in the NFL already. And then I'm sure quickly as his career progresses, he's going to change into the top five, top three, maybe the best pass-catching running back.

Mike, is the average apposition of Amon Ross St. Brown appropriate in your mind? Wide receiver nine right now, mid-second round pick. I think so. We've talked about him a lot also over on the Dynasty podcast. All he has done is produce. The back half of the rookie year, league-winning player. Last year, he's the wide receiver eight. 146 targets.

He was the wide receiver eight, played in 16 games. The issue was you had more goodish games than really explosive games. So I think that that affects how you think about him, but he is a great player and he's reliable and he's going to be just absolutely peppered with so much work. It reminds me of Deontay two years ago. That type of – like you got good-ish games all the time. And like Keenan.

And Keenan. Yeah. Or Landry from days ago. Yeah, I was going to say old school Landry is really my comp for him. The fact that he finishes the wide receiver eight and he only had six touchdowns, you can see that this is going to be a top 15 wide receiver as kind of a guarantee.

And if touchdowns happen to come his way, because like said jamal williams isn't punching him in then he's a you know he's a top six guy 28 target share all right moving on to the packers eight and nine last year no more aaron rogers they had an 11 uh win total it's love time it's love time uh seven and a half is their win total this year. So, it's gone down. They were 4-5 in one score games. Devontae Adams was gone last year. They were 14th in points per game. 32nd in pace of

play. Oh, so slow. Come on, man. So, if you want to make the case for potential improvement in what Jordan Love brings to the table, maybe they can play faster. Maybe he's less efficient than Aaron Rodgers, but he just gets more plays, more opportunities to show us what he has. Is this a team? Let me put it this way as we walk through the weapons. there's a lot of kind of uncertainty around the Packers. Is that opportunity for fantasy players?

Is there the potential for this team to kind of come out? We've seen Matt LaFleur lead this team to division title after division title. Is there a world where this team makes a very seamless transition simply because of their kind of organizational stability? The fact that they have weapons like in Aaron Jones,ones christian watts in the high draft capital romeo dobbs yeah are they a sneaky good fantasy option uh i i think they're a sneaky i think they could be a sneaky good nfl team with you know well run by matt lafleur they you know they're in a situation where they know how to win games they They're a well-run organization.

The team construction roster-wise is very good. The obvious question mark, the hardship is, is Jordan Love any good? Because if Jordan Love sucks, then they're going to be a basement-dwelling team because they don't have a quarterback. And if Jordan Love comes out and says, yeah, I've been behind Aaron Rodgers for years. I've learned. I know this system. I was drafted high for a reason look I'm not bad if he's just not bad I think he says that though

that's a problem that is like if he actually I'm trying to tell you that I'm not bad right that's how I always really pump myself up I am not bad at looking in the mirror every time he scores it throws a touchdown looks in the mirror you're Jordan Love you are you are not bad at this. Looking in the mirror. Every time he scores and throws a touchdown. Looks in the mirror. You're Jordan Love. You are not bad. You are not bad. Don't listen to them. You are not bad.

But my point is, he doesn't have to be great for this team to do well. He just has to be what Jordan Love, I believe, is, which is not bad. Okay. And what he believes. I think this is one of those ones where he may be – I think this may be a surprisingly good year for Jordan Love. I can agree with that. I was just talking to a buddy of mine who is a Packer fan.

He's like, what do you think? Mike, the roster that they have built is so strong around Jordan Love, and all he has to do is be, I guess, not bad. At the time I was saying, he just has to be an average quarterback, and they can have success and win the division. Brooks is sending a note in our Slack channel that says, it sounds like that's something Russell Wilson would say to amp himself up after all those games last year.

I'm not bad. I'm not, I'm not bad. And then he rips a bite of the sandwich. Danger. So, yeah, they, they spent two of their first three picks on tight ends.

They added Jaden Reed in the second round, another wide receiver weapon. These are very interesting teams to analyze for fantasy because by a lot of respects, Christian Watson, I mean, this guy has wheels, you know, he, he just beats people in the secondary Romeo Dobbs. We know he's talented, but there's so much of, of kind of doubting the kind of full potential of these players and Watson and Dobbs and you know,

this tight end room that they're adding. And we don't know what Jaden Reed's role is going to be. And A.J. Dillon was a bit of a disappointment last year. He was. The most known commodity by far is Aaron Jones. And I guess my point is that if they are good, if some of these, if there's a chance that they're a good team that can win the division, then Aaron Jones is going to have a much better season than the RB16 where he's being drafted.

So he doesn't feel good to draft because you don't have this, you don't have the film in your head of Jordan Love and these other players moving the ball down the field and getting it done. But if they're middle of the pack, he will outperform RB16. Yeah, I believe that actually almost every single one of the Packers players are going to outperform their ADP. The only one that is a little scary is Christian Watson. His hotness.

But why did you say we're 25? Well, sure. You should beat that. He could definitely beat that. I have him, I believe, higher than that. So obviously I'm projected. But he, my point is, like, why did you say we're 25? That's a decent bar.

Everyone else has the lowest bar ever. Aaron Jones has been a top 12 running back for years, and he's being drafted as the running back 16. You know, A.J. Dillon's running back 32. Romeo Dobbs, wide receiver 61. Like, this team should outproduce this ADP. Yeah, and you can't really hold having a pile of touchdowns in a small set

of games against Christian Watson. It's easy to do because it's not like, okay, he's not going to score 3-2-1-1 every single week. But seeing it on display for a stretch of games when Aaron Rodgers didn't have a great season showed the potential. So whether this team lets Jordan Love,

whether Jordan Love's capable of challenging downfield, we'll learn that. But everything's been very positive on the Jordan Love front. So I just want to keep our eyes open to the point Jason made that maybe, I mean, they get to play Chicago in week one, Atlanta week two. Then they're at home against New Orleans, at home against Detroit. There's some good potential games there. Teams see their quarterbacks behind the scenes more than we do. Trey Lance has been in practice plenty for the 49ers.

The 49ers clearly are like, they're wanting to like, oh, what can we do? The Packers have moved on from Aaron Rodgers. They chose to trade him. They chose to give another single know, another, you know, single-year contract to Jordan Love and extend him a little bit. I think they believe in him. All right. Duh, Bears.

3-14 last year. Seven win total in 2022, seven and a half this year. We kept joking that they were just kind of executing the plan like we had productive fantasy games from justin fields and yet they just would lose at the end um and got themselves the number one pick and a big trade and now they add dj more they had uh deontay foreman to the backfield after losing David Montgomery. So talk about the Bears, Mike. I'll start it at the top with Justin Fields as he's going as the QB6, which that's fine.

But now we're in the wild world of quarterbacks that are being drafted very early. Justin Fields at the back of the fourth. I think that's a, I think it's fair because I do think that there is a world where Justin Fields finishes as a top three quarterback because of his ability on the ground from week six on last year,

almost 25 fantasy points a game, which is just absolutely redonkulous to be averaging that. And now you've added DJ Moore. We're not overly excited about DJ Moore for him of going from a low pass volume, maybe not the best pass in quarterback situation, to another team that's the low volume. Justin Fields needs to improve as a passer. Maybe not the best passing quarterback situation to another team. That's the low volume. Justin Fields needs to improve as a passer.

So this isn't Stephon Diggs going to the Bills. I don't think it's that type of an upgrade, but it's a massive upgrade to the wide receivers that they had last year. DJ Moore is a true number one. So to have a true number one out there, maybe you get something out of Chase Claypool, and Darnelloney is is still around who is a an excellent deep threat like justin fields can take what he did on the ground and improve in the passing game which is what i would project to happen and that turns into like that's that's when you get lamar jackson MVP year. When his run began, which was a long stretch.

You're talking week six through the end of the year. He missed a couple games due to injury. But that was a 1,600-yard rushing pace for Justin Fields. And I have wondered a little bit about blindness to DJ Moore. The song when you put the DJ Moore album on, is the same song every single year. But the Diggs comparison, it's in your head because the shot... Now, I don't like the ADP.

I'm actually surprised it's not more depressed. I think it's one of those things where the trade has propped it up. I wish it was lower because then I would be in. But I do think that there's a chance you have a breakout season. I mean, if he throws for even, what, 3,200 yards. Yeah. I mean, maybe that's 3,100.

Mid threes. You still are going to have opportunities for DJ Moore in this offense, but it's going to be a red light, green light. It's not going to be an every week production situation. He is clearly the number one. Yes. So, I mean, he's going to be the first read in so many plays. If they're running a run pass option, that target is going to go to DJ Moore.

That's how the play will be designed. So there's a chance that DJ Moore, it's an option because he's so good, but none of us are projecting it. The running back room is very interesting with David Montgomery departing. You have the addition of Deonta Foreman, who had three top 10 weeks last year in Carolina, two of them against Atlanta, one against Detroit. He averaged four and a half a carry last year.

They bring him in as a veteran to add to Khalil Herbert. Herbert missed some time in the middle of the year. He's had some big games, had 157 yards in week three against Houston. This situation, I think on one hand, you could be like, we just talked about Madison. I think some people want to just say, okay, next man's cool Herbert it's the same situation as Madison and then I think other people look at it and just don't have any confidence in Herbert and you see his ADP is nowhere near Madison's you know he's at almost RB 40 10th round pick do we really is that all

attributed to Deontay Foreman and as an addition, I don't think it's just attributed to that. I've pretty much tried to stay away from the Bears' backfield because this is... Even though Brooks doesn't like you for that. Right. Brooks, he came up to me the other day. I haven't told this story. We were in the break room. He spits right in my face.

He spit in your face? Just a loogie. I didn't know he could do such a good loogie. Okay, too far, too far. That did not happen. No. No, no. Did you feel like you had to publicly make sure our audience didn't believe you were

spitting a loogie in his face? I didn't like where that went. I didn't think it was going there. He didn't get to the end. Yeah, I didn't get to the end. What if it had just been water? No, no. No?

Brooks is the most mild man. Honestly, if you spit in my face sometimes, Brooks, I will take whatever you have to say after that. The most serious I've ever taken anything in my life. So you've got bull cases for both Khalil Herbert and Deontay Foreman. Deontay Foreman, I think, is a very good player. He lost a big chunk of his career to an Achilles injury. He's kind of back.

He showed flashes last year. They brought him in. If he's the guy, if he's the dude, and he should be an efficient high-end rusher, he's a big-bodied back that can get touchdowns. I like Deontay Foreman. I loved him before the NFL draft. Khalil Herbert, like Brooks likes, I mean

And me, how dare you? Well, sure. The other day in the break room Mike came up to me and he spit right in my face. Khalil Herbert's had a few opportunities without David Montgomery and like Alexander Madison, when those opportunities arose, he was awesome.

He's also ranked first in rushing yards over expectation last year. He's a really good running back. Yeah, like the games that Andy highlighted, the Houston game, you should. You should have a big game against Houston, but the follow-up week was against the Giants where he was 19 for 77. On the ground, he had a game against the Dallas Cowboys where he was 16 for 99 like in the the the the couple years ago when David Montgomery missed a game or two and Khalil Herbert had the opportunity had this huge game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who at the time were the best rush defense and I think that ended up was the Super Bowl year, if I'm not mistaken. Khalil Herbert is extremely good.

He is a very, very good runner. I don't mind betting on either of these guys, and I think most people bet on Herbert. The reason that I kind of shy away, though, is because of Justin Fields. Justin Fields can be a goal line vulture and take touchdowns away from the running backs already, and he's not going to check it down to running backs. of these guys are going to be huge pass catcher so if you're not a huge pass catcher and it ends up in a three-way rotation with roshan johnson the rookie they brought in and they're not yeah you know it's just like it's

like if you add another back to tampa how confident are you in rashad white at that point right yeah alexander madison third round pick killer herbert six round pick yes worthy of keeping in but how confident are you in Rashad White at that point? Right. Yeah. Alexander Madison, third-round pick. Khalil Herbert, sixth-round pick. Yes. Worthy of keeping in your head because this is a final year for Khalil Herbert, I believe. Is it not? I would have to.

I could be completely wrong, in which case. This is year three. He's got one more. Spit him. Okay. Cole, come at. Just real quick. No, I'm sorry, Mike.

Khalil Herbert, I don't agree with Jason saying I shy away. It's the running back 39 in the 10th round. This is your no RB strategy. This is a potential zero RB hero. I completely agree with, yeah, Justin Fields will take some rushing touchdowns. They're not going to catch passes. But Khalil Herbert, with the volume, can be a low-level running back, too,

that you're getting in the 10th round. So, personally, I think pick who you think it is, Khalil Herbert or Deontay Foreman. I would draft at least one of those guys for free in almost every one of my drafts. I am going to. I think I'm going to make the change. I've been kind of sticking with my early Deonta Foreman. When they signed him, I thought he was going to come in and be the guy.

But Herbert's the better back. And so I think I'm going to change. And really, if I can be honest, I think that the biggest revelation for opening my eyes was that Lukey. You know, it's like, it's good. That definitely, that definitely happened.

Contract year. Cole come at breakout season. Yes. No, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, 50, no, five 44. He, yeah. I mean, he, he had a, he had a great end of year, but it was really touchdowns.

Yeah. And now you have – the reason we love DJ – or we're okay with DJ Moore is because he's clearly the best guy on the field. And when Cole Komet was having his run at the end I mean they had this they had nothing did have a lot of red zone targets um Chase Claypool not worried about him stealing some of the DJ more nope okay no anything else on Chase Claypool they traded the number 32 they did add Robert Tunyon to the tight end room okay he's a capable pass catcher Chase Claypool what's's funny is he came over

and he was unused. It's just sadness for Chase Claypool. The capital they gave up. They gave up essentially a first round pick for Chase Claypool. But he is talented. He can get the job done and he's the wide receiver three for this team. I saw him doing some really cool slow motion pool catches the other day.

Like leaping off the side and splashing down in the pool. I saw him doing modeling in Paris, I believe. A couple weeks ago. Tunyon actually had more receptions than Cole commit last year. And some charitable work in there as well

for Mr. Claypool. I'm just saying. It's just sad. Mike, was that your way of trying to redeem Claypool? Well, I'm just like, we're dunking on him for, he's posting pool videos. No, I just said that's what I saw. He was very strong.

Oh, he is physically fit. It's just. He's also very tall. And he makes me sad, guys. He just makes me sad. We've kind of realized this may be the year of Mike's redemption. Okay. Because Antonio Gibson could have a decent year.

Yeah. Madison is getting his opportunity. Uh-huh. I like it. What was the other? One other player was jumping out from your history of standing for them all the time. I don't know. I can't remember the third.

Anybody remember back there? There's another one. Herbert's in that group, too. But Claypool. I mean, if your trend continues. All right, who wins the division? Give me the order that you see this division finishing. I'm going to take – this might surprise you.

I'm going to take the Packers to win this division. I'm taking the Packers to win. Andy, who you got at top? I said give me the whole division. Oh, we're just doing the top? It's kind of fun. I'm going with the Packers to win. Andy, who you got at top? I said give me the hold of it. Oh, we're just doing the top? It's kind of fun. I'm going with the Packers. I'm going to take the Vikings.

Because I think the Packers actually have a good defense. The Lions have made an attempt to fix things. It's very TBD to go from how bad they were last year, add a couple pieces, and try and completely turn it around. And I think everything is surrounding Jordan love to go out there with that defense. Yeah. I mean,

the, the lines are the betting favorites, Minnesota behind them, bears and Packers tied. Wow. So I'm going to take the Vikings and then I'm going to finish it out. I'm going to go Vikings, Lions,

Packers, bears. I'm going Packers, Vikings, Lions, bears bears yep me and jay have it the same all right let's do some best ball best ball breakdown presented by underdog fantasy all right what are we doing today, Jason? We're breaking it down the late quarterbacks that you may want to stack with. Yeah, we're talking about, you know, if you look at last year, the winner of the Best Ball Mania, Pat Grant,

had three quarterbacks all going later in drafts. He had Tom Brady, Tua, and Daniel Jones, and he took down millions of dollars. That is a fully legitimate strategy to have the later round guys. I know a lot of the times right now we're grabbing one of the studs and then rolling with two quarterbacks instead of the three quarterback build. You can win either way. The question is, who are the right guys to pick from the late quarterbacks that you're looking at, and who are our favorites.

Mike, why don't you start off with your guy? I don't understand the ADP of this player. It is Geno Smith of the Seattle Seahawks. Last year, I know that he finishes the quarterback five. I think that was propped up a lot by some just just down years for for other quarterbacks lamar getting hurt played every game and yeah played every game but he was the quarterback five you can't take that away from him he has the two elite wide receivers that he had last year and then they added an elite one they added another elite wide receiver the first wide

receiver taken in this draft i think by far the best jackson in this draft, I think by far the best. That would be Jackson Smith and Jukebox. Yeah, by far the best rookie wide receiver. And a great pass-catching runner. And then in the second round, they took a running back who is a good pass-catching running back. They loaded Geno up. It's wild to me that he's down here at QB 15.

He had a great year. It is, I think, a reflection on the fear that he will regress and that it was a one-time event. And so you're right, though. The argument for the Bull case, the weapons are tremendous. So, you know, adding Zach Charbonnet, having Kenneth Walker healthy, do they run the ball a little bit more than they did last year? I don't know.

I don't know. Does their defense get get better you know what he wants to do Pete Carroll but Gino performed last year Jason yeah I'm gonna go with a quarterback if you look at you know last year's best ball mania winner having Tua and Daniel Jones Tua wasn't great all season and Daniel Jones wasn't great all season but what they both were able to do is have monstrous games, real big. I mean, that's best ball. You want someone who can go out there and put on a show at one point in time. To me, Kyler Murray is being very undervalued. His draft right now, he's the quarterback 21. And it's basically saying, I don't like the Cardinals and I think he's going to miss half the year. He has come out basically saying he's still aiming to be there week one, but if he's there week three or four, you know, he will by the second half of the year be healthy and active and he can actually

put up a 30 point game. He can regularly put up 20 plus points, uh, you know, at the, at the position. I know there's questions and concerns about the, the, the knee and will he run these questions and concerns are why he's the quarterback 21. If obviously if he was healthy, I mean, there, you know, you're talking about a guy you'd be drafting up at, you know, quarterback five, six, seven range, he'd be a high end quarterback. And so we don't know how unhealthy or healthy he is but he's being drafted as if he's got no chance to me right now of having a good season I think that that is a mistake I mean the history of of Kyler is when he's been playing football he's extremely productive

regardless of the questions around the injury or pocket passer, like the, the resume so far has been very positive for fantasy production. I'll throw Aaron Rogers being drafted as the quarterback 16 out there. You talked about it to Daniel Jones. It wasn't every week, but two had a six touchdown game in week two against Baltimore. Daniel Jones had some really big weeks. There are going to be big weeks for Aaron Rogers this year with this offense,

with these weapons, with the opportunity he has there, they're building the team around him everything is all in for the Jets it might not be every week which maybe you avoid him in redraft if you believe that but I think Aaron Rodgers and then Anthony Richardson who's just barely in this yeah that's that's fair that case is obvious but I mean his potential on the ground Shane Steichen the offense what if you get a little bit better than you expect? Both high upside players like Jason was talking about. All right, that was Best Ball Breakdown presented by Underdog Fantasy.

Get your first deposit matched up to $100 by using the code BALLERS. BALLERS. Thanks, Mike. Back with another divisional breakdown on Saturday, third show of the week, NFC South. The Super Bowl winning NFC. That's right. See you then.

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 FF Ballers. Well, hey, thank you for listening to today's episode. You want more? Check out our fantasy football community at jointhefoot.com.