Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - NFC West Breakdown + Angry RBs - Fantasy Football Podcast for 7/27

Episode Date: July 27, 2023

Final divisional preview on today’s fantasy football podcast! Fantasy breakdown for the 49ers, Seahawks, Rams, and Cardinals! Plus, lots of NFL News and 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 27th, 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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There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to fantasy football losers. A dimension where championships flow freely and celebrations are commonplace. It is the middle ground between light and shadow. Science and superstition. Analytics and film. The easiest road to this place is the ultimate draft kit. Imagine stealing a breakout player. While your opponent falls for another siren of catastrophe.

Your preparation from over 100 player profile videos will be the difference between the pit of man's fears and the summit of knowledge. This is the dimension of Foot Clan titles. Commit this website to memory and dominate your draft. UltimateDraftKit.com Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. The Fantasy Footballers Podcast, Thursday, July 27th. Andy, Mike, and Jason, back with you.

Tick-tock on the clock. We got football on the way. Training camps are happening. Yep, and if we can base any, we've adjusted all of our rankings based on the first play for each team. Who touched it first? Yep. Yep. Yep.

Yep. That's what we said. Which running back received the first carry? Yeah. Other way to say it. With first team. Hot start. Hot start. Hot start, Jay.

You were doing the headbang as the show started, which has become kind of a signature move for you. I just, look, the music moves me. Yeah. And we've got the final divisional breakdown. You can see I'm wearing this beautiful hat. Wait, this is it? It's the final divisional breakdown show.

Wow. The NFC West today. Okay. These hats are for sale the by the team the team is selling them on a discount no the nfc they're just handing them out um please wear this we'll get to talk about them today we've already beat them up all off season so let's i'm not done uh so nfc west breakdown today quite a bit of news we need to talk about as well Jason and I on the last show we were just saying we came out of the the lull where there wasn't a lot of NFL

news and we just get on here and just say well Delvin Cook hasn't signed and DeAndre Hopkins hasn't signed and now we actually have things happening contracts information news all sorts of stuff here at the top couple reminders ultimate draft.com. If you need a draft guide to help you through draft day, which is coming up very soon and you can import your scoring settings. We have all of our player projections and profile videos and lots of information in there. Ultimate draft kit.com. If you want to learn more about that and then the dynasty podcast. Oh baby. What's going on there, Mike? That's a, I didn't do this week, baby. What's going on there, Mike?

I didn't do this week. That's releasing yesterday morning. What's going on there, Jason? Do you remember? Oh, yeah. We had a great show talking about running backs after the top 10, like the rest of the running backs, whose value we see going up, going down, veterans to target.

A lot of great discussion. All right. The community in case you're interested in getting on the discord and joining a league, a bunch of premium perks, a bonus weekly show that's joined the foot.com. And we're not too far away where the, the mega level will be on the way as well.

So our big tournament coming up soon. We'll tell you more about that in a bit. News and notes from around the league. All right. Justin Herbert, five-year, $262.5 million contract extension through 2029. Congratulations. The first shoe to drop. Joe Burrow will be getting a check very soon. And I believe once both of them have signed,

that puts Patrick Mahomes at an annual value of ninth in the league. Yeah, he had just the strangest deal, though, of his guaranteed money was much lower than these guys. It was only like 11 percent of the 450 million i also i think mahomes is like he's but he's signed forever like like he will be at kansas city chiefs until he's no longer on the earth that's essentially what it'll be well and and they will give him a raise i mean they will they will do things to uh further compensate patrick mahomes but it isn an interesting precedent to have a long-term deal

and then be able to just layer in raises and re. Yeah. I'd rather be, if I have my franchise quarterback, I'd rather be like renegotiating stuff than just having to freshly negotiate stuff. But Justin Herbert gets the bag. Saquon Barkley. We just missed this news on the last episode of the show.

We were talking about him and Josh Jacobs. He agreed to a one-year deal with the Giants. It is worth up to $11 million. Yeah. So the way that I saw the contract broken down is essentially he gets a little bit more money. He does get a signing bonus as well. So he gets some of that money up front and then there are there's incentives built into it should he put up the yardage that we would

expect a healthy saquon barkley and the catches and the catches yeah and the receptions just like and then he'll he'll make a little bit more money so he he did not get what he had hoped for or he wanted but he is gonna he should make more money than he was going to make on the franchise tag. And it also, it changes now, the whole formula, should he be franchised next year? Because this isn't done. This is part of what the NFL can do. So he's not on the franchise

tag anymore he's on a he's on a one-year deal and should the giants choose to be just big big b-holes they could franchise tag him um yeah i mean they could just i'm not it's hard for me to condemn them as as you know b-holes for using the system in place to manage their team i get that but i'm saying the whole situation of was they can't agree on a long-term deal and so essentially barks barkley's like fine i'll do one year with you guys then let me go to market and then but theants can be like, well, what about one more year? Right now, we still have angry running backs. J.K. Dobbins not practicing. John Harbaugh's latest comment said, I wish there was a simple answer.

That's a J.K. question when asked about the status of J.K. Dobbins. Also, Harbaugh, it sounds like you're saying that's a just kidding question. We can't be doing this. That's a Dobbins question. is and we I mean right now it seems like it's a money thing Josh Jacobs left Las Vegas we reported that he is not going to be with them for a while um I had I had tried to do some digging on what the situation was there in Las Vegas with Jacobs where the mindset was, went back. We probably reported it on this show. I don't know if you remember this, but Josh Jacobs came out in February

and said he'd be happy to play on the franchise deck. And what he said, though, is he conditioned it upon the team. I think in his mind it's probably investing in pieces around him. He said, I'm happy to play as long as we invest money on making this team better. Obviously, he got to the point where he either felt like he wasn't being compensated fairly or they didn't invest properly, and it became a bit of a fallout situation. I talked to some people around Las Vegas that cover this team full time,

and I got a percentage breakdown of what they think is going to happen 85 chance according to who i talked to that he would be back and playing in week one 10 chance and this is what i thought was more interesting was that he would be traded and so there was a higher chance that he'd be traded and then and then it would be five percent five percent chance that a holdout goes into the season so just putting the trade thing on the table there is very interesting he had come out he wants to be a raider but he wants to be paid and and so it'll be interesting to see what happens with with that hopefully you know there were people out there with jacobs and barkley as they're like two dynasty running backs at least one of your problems have sort of been solved. I don't know if it changes your outlook with Saquon and Dynasty, though.

No, I mean, I expected Saquon to play this season. It's just nice to have the confirmation now. And I still expect Josh Jacobs to play this season as a Raider, but we won't have that confirmation as quickly with him. Unless it's like last episode when we said that, and then all of a sudden there'll be news that we didn't cover um so yeah jk dobbins i mean that's not great well he's his team is going to be moving forward with other running backs and plans and then hopefully you know harbaugh said

no timeline to return he's on the pop yeah he's currently hurt in the in the wallet he's got an his horn yeah his wallet is injured. Torn leather. It's not full enough. Cole Komet signed a four-year $50 million extension with $32 million guaranteed. What? Cole Komet scored seven touchdowns in the final 10 weeks last year. His third season.

This is when tight ends tend to ascend and become household names? I think it's a shocking amount of money for what Cole Komet has done for his NFL career. But the Bears have the money. Cole Komet is still young. And it could be a little bit of a bet here. They feel like Komet is about to emerge as one of their go-to players. Do you think they looked at his total receptions from last season

and said you get $1 million per reception in this deal? Impossible. Because he had $50 last year. And he got $50 million. That's how we went into the negotiation. I don't know if you are aware of this, Mr i got 50 passes and i like millions i would like 50 million more pup news player starting camp on pup there's some concerning names in here jonathan taylor head coach shane steichen said we want to make sure he's 100 healthy and when he is he is, he'll be back out there. Okay. I don't love it.

I don't love it because the timeline when we left last season certainly felt like he wouldn't be missing any of training camp. And they want to make sure he's 100% healthy. That means that he is not 100% healthy, and we've still got a little bit of time, but you don't love to see that. These ones, less surprising. Kyla Murray, Zach Ertz, both on the PUP. Talking about the Cardinals on today's show.

We'll talk about them. Wandale Robinson and Sterling Shepard, both recovering from ACL starting on the PUP. You know, Jason mentioned it. It's almost bigger news for a player coming off an injury to not be put on it, like Javante, than it is a player coming off of injury, not be put on it, like Javante, than it is a player coming off of injury, spending some temporary time there.

Yeah, certainly. Like Kendrick Miller's already off. Oh, was he? Yeah. Oh, I missed that. I mean, he went on it, and then he said hi to everybody, and then they're like, get out of here. And this is a reminder because transactions are being made in the NFL,

so these guys are actually on the PUP list. That means make sure you're going and looking in your dynasty rosters because you can now move those players to the IR spot should you have players like me. I've been sitting here on sleep and my roster was a little bit over. I couldn't make any moves. Now I have multiple people I can move on to my IR and move some

things around uh quick mention here jameson williams suffered a leg injury something going on with the leg according to dan campbell already has a six game suspension so this is not he said i don't think it's significant but he's not going to practice but uh he'll have to be recovering from injury during that suspension here's another big piece of news. Kyle Pitts did participate in the first training camp practice, was wearing a brace on the knee. Arthur Smith says he expects Pitts to be ready for the season opener. However, you know, Matthew Betts, our injury expert,

who also hosts the Dynasty Show, he pointed out to us, you know, this surgery was November 29th to repair an MCL. It's not typical for players to wear a brace eight months out from an isolated MCL repair. So it suggests that there might have been more damage to the knee than we knew about or were talking about. And it might take time for him to ramp up. Jason, what was your reaction to that news? It was negative. I've been pro-Kyle Pitts this offseason. He's someone that, you know, near the 6-7 turn,

I've been grabbing a lot of Kyle Pitts. I would really like him to be healthy because he's got quite a roster percentage for me. Oh, okay. He's purely selfish. He's a late fifth-round pick right now, but Goddard, Waller, Ingram, Friermuth, all back behind him right now in drafts.

Something to keep in mind. Monitor is a lot of time before the season. Kadarius Toney, surgery to clean up cartilage in his knee. Good grief, man. Third knee scope in two years. I went through the injury list the other day it's not been good for cadareous tony and our best ball breakdown today we'll talk about some players that have risen in adp and best ball and uh to no one's surprise non-cadareous tony chiefs wide

receivers are on that list and incredibly this is i, do we have the applause button? Let me read this. These Saints have signed Jimmy Graham to a one-year deal. Jimmy Grandpa is out of retirement. Jimmy Great Grandpa. Jimmy Great Grandpa skipped last year, said, I'm not done with football. I kid you not. They posted the picture of him signing the contract with the Saints,

and I was 100% sure it was signing to retire a Saint. It was the 10-day deal or whatever. Yeah, like Frank Gore did with the 49ers to retire a 49er. No, it was to play tight end for the Taysom Hill, Juwan Johnson, Foster Moreau, and now Jimmy Grandpa in the end zone. It's unbelievable. He's 36.7 years young.

When I saw the alert, it wasn't even a question. Of course this was just signing to retire. A fantastic career. A great career career that was way long ago don't do don't do this jimmy oh he's back he's back baby you're just mad because last time we saw him he was costing you yeah what was hundreds of dollars was it disley versus jimmy graham yeah you want to do it again yeah is this still around i I think he's still around. I'll still take it. He's as around as Jimmy Graham. Yeah.

The watch is on, baby. All right. Any other news, Brooks? Any chance Josh Jacobs has signed anything? Nothing yet. Okay. Here we go. Let's get divisional.

Well, with the NFC West breakdown being our final divisional breakdown show, as we look at these offseason changes and offenses and how rookies and coaching staffs are going to make a difference in 2023, I realize the very last team we'll talk about is our own Arizona Cardinals. Let's just hope that's the way the season ends and we got that number one pick. I thought you were going to say, let's hope we never have to

speak of them again. We just trail off after the Rams. All right, let's start with the 49ers last year. Projected win total of 10. They ended up 13-4. This year, they're at 10. They ended up 13 and four this year. They're at 10 and a half. It opened at 11 and a half. It's been a bet down.

Interesting. So if you can't really talk about the 49ers without talking about, you know, great fantasy football options and the kind of slew of injuries that they seem to suffer and deal with every single year. Last year, Elijah Mitchell was barely present. He was a player highly drafted, sought after. Trey Lance went on IR in week two.

Jimmy G went on IR in week 13. Kittle, weeks one and two. Debo missed a bunch of time as well. Here we are. 2023. Big win total. Favorites in the division, certainly. But this is going to be Brock Purdy's team with some Trey Lance on the side. It is worth noting Brock Purdy did not go on the PUP to start training.

I think that's pretty big news. Yeah. Yeah. And last year they were sixth in points per game. They ran the football a ton, and they made the midseason trade for Christian McCaffrey, which was monumental for them. So, you know, their offense,

I think we all have a great deal of trust in their offense. And Warren Sharp put this out there. I think it's really interesting when you look at the weapons that they have. But their quarterbacks, how they rank in yards after the catch per attempt since 2017, the way the offense is designed. Garoppolo was number one four straight years. C.J. Beathard was number one. I mean, they've been top five every single season,

no matter who's out there. They get the ball into playmakers' hands, which they've got McCaffrey in the passing game, Kittle in the passing game, Debo. Who's better than Debo? And then Brandon Ait can do it too. And so that's part of their game plan is putting their quarterback. That's why the quarterbacks all succeed there in large part

because they're not always asked to do stuff down the field or when they are they pick their spots and they've softened a defense up but um they also have one of the best defenses in foot in football and so that always comes into focus here when we look at you know whether brock purdy himself would be a relevant fantasy asset for players you know normally a team that's going to win 10, 11, 12 games that has weapons in the passing game like Kittle and Debo and McCaffrey, normally you'd be like, well, I want that quarterback. Is that the case with Brock Purdy?

I don't think it really is. You can get by, you know, if you're in a super flex league and you want to have Brock Purdy as your quarterback too, that's great. But, you know, you go back and you look at how he performed last as your quarterback too, that's great. But you go back and you look at how he performed last year and he was very, very good. There's a reason that he has overcome the number three pick from this team and he's been handed the keys to the kingdom because he won a lot of games and played very well. But even still, you look at the fantasy output when he was successful throwing touchdowns and and you're talking 21 points.

That's okay. 16 points, 16 points, 17 points, 19 points. He wasn't doing anything special for fantasy football. As a quarterback, too, sure, but I don't think you're targeting him. I think he's a, at least currently, it could change now that we know that he didn't start on the pup, but he's an undervalued quarterback too. I agree. He's not a top 12 guy for me,

but him finishing in that 13 to 16 range, I don't think it would be surprising at all. That would put him in competition with players more heralded like Jared Goff. Would you put Goff ahead of Purdy, obviously? I think I would, but my point is being... Like a streamer? He's being drafted extremely low right now. It's almost like he's still being drafted as if you're not...

The confidence of the crowd is not there yet. It's the health, right? Yeah, and I totally get that, but that's totally worth the shot for me. It was caused by the health. Mike is correct that he is undervalued ADP-wise if you're in a dynasty startup or if you're in an underdog draft where you're going very, very deep. And I don't think the ADP will ever catch up to where he should be simply because it started with the injury where nobody was drafting him.

So he was really, really late. And now when you're really, really late, it's hard to climb up when you're not a special fantasy asset. And he's not. So yeah, the guys that climb up are ones that you already have seen their production in the past. And you're just like, oh, I'm going to pencil them in and they'll be back in that spot. And he just he does not run the ball.

So, I mean, you're talking about his... No, he throws it. Yeah. He's a thrower. His career high in rushing yardage in a game was seven yards. Ooh. So he is back behind the line. That's almost a full point, Jay.

Phillip Rivers is like... Yeah. He's like, how'd you do that? Yeah. Christian McCaffrey, do you guys like him? Yep. Overall, RB1. I mean, I don't mind if people want the wide receivers over him,

but if I'm taking a running back there, for me, it's locked in. It's Christian McCaffrey. He'll be a centerpiece of the offense every week. Once he was in San Francisco, he was averaging 21 opportunities a game. Now that did, it fluctuated a little bit with Elijah Mitchell reappearing and then disappearing. But there's also, you could question that of like McCaffrey missed week nine here. Or was that the bye week?

Am I looking at that wrong I don't know but it would like his snap percentages went kind of down um with Elijah Mitchell then they skyrocketed when Mitchell wasn't there but I don't look at that as in as any sort of hindrance of why I would take McCaffrey at number one what's crazy is he scored a lot more when Elijah Mitchell was not on the field than he did when Elijah Mitchell was healthy. But what he scored, the lower number of what he was scoring with Elijah Mitchell, still good enough to be the running back number one overall. He's just too involved in the passing game. And if you look at Brock Purdy when everybody was healthy Christian McCaffrey was targeted over and over and over in the passing game I mean they utilize his receiving skill the way that fantasy managers dream of yes just keep throwing

him the ball think about how highly Alvin Kamara was drafted year after year after year with a very competent Mark Ingram that was sharing the occasional touch on the field like I don't think we like Elijah Mitchell that's the worst that could happen what he would be the Ingram to the Camara let's get into the wide receivers because I am extremely bullish on both of them Debo Samuel and Brandon Ayuk I have back-to-back in my rankings. I think they're both as wide receiver twos right now with extreme upside. I'm the highest on both of them in our group. And Debo's the one we haven't talked a lot about. I've talked about Brandon Ayuk and his emergence last season.

If you go and you listen to Debo Samuel talk about last year, he was distracted by the contract coming into the season, said he was not in the shape he should have been in once the flush that season down the toilet. The season prior, he was number two overall at the position. What I brought up, Mike, when you asked me why am I not maybe more on the Debo side now than the Brandon Ayuk side, part of that came from this

insight and a shout out to John Daigle talking about target shares in the six games that McCaffrey Debo Kittle Iuke were on the field together with Brock Purdy who's their presumptive quarterback Debo had 25.5 percent target share in those games CMC was at 21.6 percent Iuke at 16 percent and Kittle at 11 percent and that's the number i brought up to you on that other show when we were talking about it um part of that is a trust that a healthy debo samuel is better than almost every football player in the game and so i do believe that if he's out there and he's healthy and i'm going to presume that health going into the season um he has put a lot of effort into this offseason He's a player I'm willing to go out on a ledge.

Would you say that he's been trying to show off his effort, Andy? Why don't you read the quote that we may have come upon? You want me to go for it? Yeah, you're the Debo guy over here, so why don't you share this? Kyle Shanahan said this on Debo's Current Fitness. This is the kind of stuff that we share here. And I quote, Never had a grown man send me so many pictures with his shirt off,

but it looks good. Now you're a man. A man, man, man. So I don't think you see a number two overall season where his efficiency, he scored a touchdown every nine touches, but you also don't see last year where he scored every 19 touches. You find something in the middle, I think that's going to put him 10 to 12. touchdown every nine touches, but you also don't see last year where he scored every 19 touches. You find something in the middle, I think that's going to put him 10 to 12.

And I know that's the bull case for Debo. The bear case is hurt again, a lot of target distribution everywhere else, but I really think he's one of the best players in football. I mean, you've got a talented player who's done it before on the field with a great offense and a great offensive mind in Kyle Shanahan. I don't blame anyone for taking the shot. I have a very, very difficult time investing in any San Francisco 49ers option because if they are all healthy, then outside of Christian McCaffrey, they're all going to suck.

Now, when I stat this out for the UDK, I'm presuming the health of this team. In reality, there will be injuries. That's a really strong phrase, though, to say all going to suck. Yeah, I think. You probably want to reword that. I don't want to reword it. Or maybe not. I will not retract.

Because I think the way in which it comes will not be good for your fantasy team. That doesn't mean Debo Samuel finishes as the wide receiver 40. He could finish as the wide receiver 15 where you've got him ranked, and you might have a very bad experience along the way because sometimes it's a Kittle game. Sometimes it's an Iuke game. Sometimes it's a Debo game. And I just don't like the inconsistency of not knowing

who it's going to be and and if there is one player who would be consistent throughout it would be debo debo has far more manufactured touches man you fact what what's crazy is and to that, Jason, when you look at consistency, and I think one thing that fantasy players could hold on to the way that they would in Cincinnati is that they score a ton of points. They're going to be in the top five, six in points per game. Debo, I looked this up the other day because I was breaking this down. Games played in his career

okay when he has not been injured or left right or games played when he's not left injured his averages historically for his entire career 6.7 catches 89 yards 0.6 touchdowns three rushing attempts for 33 yards and 0.8 rushing touchdowns yes he's so when he's played in any game ever that's his whole career even from day one when he's not injured or leaves injured he's been kind of insane and so you know it's going to be and Brandon Ayuk should not be buried in all of that like he was a very very good player last year and he's going to have his games like Jason said there's going to be I think I lean on the side there's going to be the Kittle and Iute game and then there'll be the Debo and CMC game and then there'll be the Kittle and Debo game I think it'll

be a couple of really good options each week I think it'll be a couple really good options each week but I see CMC as one of those good options every week. I think it's going to be CMC and Debo, and then CMC and Kittle, or CMC and the Music Factory. CMC and the Music Factory. So, Mike, where does that leave George? That's on fire over there. He doesn't jump in for five minutes. I apologize. For nothing.

Yes. Where does that leave Kittle? Kittle has this malaise in drafts right now that, I don't know if it feels the same as Hawkinson for some reason where um the you know we haven't been super excited about Hawkinson but I've heard nobody say go after Kittle I know where Jason stands Mike are you willing to take Kittle in the middle of the fifth oh I don't I don't think so uh I think I'd be willing to take Kittle if he dropped maybe a round. If he dropped like a biddle?

Yes, thank you. Rare form today, fellas. Football is on the way, and we are ready. Yeah, the fifth round I think is just a little too rich for me because it will be inconsistent. A nice thing that you can look at is George Kittle was just on an absolute touchdown tear over the final four weeks, which were Brock Purdy weeks. So we do at least have that.

And George Kittle is incredible at football he just is it's unfortunate that a lot of the time he's not asked to go out there and catch passes they will start the season on the road against Pittsburgh on the road against the Rams and then the Giants in Arizona at home

so that's how they'll begin the year slight favorites on the road in week one right now against Pittsburgh. Let's take a quick break and come back with Geno Smith. Whether in the game or in life, the right coverage can make all the difference. Securian Canada gives you that coverage. For more than 65 years, Securian Canada has been helping Canadians build secure tomorrows.

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Insurance designed for life. All right, we're back. We're talking about the Seahawks. And no, I didn't mean like Geno was going to be on the show. That's what it sounds like. But we're going to come back and talk about Geno Smith and the 9-8 Seahawks who, you know, were one of the biggest surprises last year. Six win total. That's what they went into the season with. This year, it's at 9-1⁄2. surprises last year six win total that's what they went into the season with with this year

it's at nine and a half so when you look at that compared to uh what's san francisco at ten and a half i mean that's tight and they were only four and six and one score games they could have you know closed a few games better than they did last year and this would have been a better football team finished the the year 3-6. Geno Smith burst onto the scene as a competent quarterback. As a good quarterback. He was good last year. As a good quarterback. Yes.

Yeah, and the team should be far better than it was last year, in part to all the assets they are still receiving from getting rid of Russell Wilson. They added Charbonnet. They added JSN. They've added some pieces to their defense I mean that they opened at eight and a half wins and now they've been bet up to nine and a half wins this should be a really solid team the big question that you have to ask and answer to know whether that's true is just is geno smith for real is is he you know was that a a one-year wonder just a career year where everything landed well when no one had expectations

on him and you know and he just outperformed or or you know or is he really good one of the ways to tip the scales towards actually good would be to spend your first round draft pick on the number one rated wide receiver yep jackson smith and jigba joined the squad then spend your second round pick on a capable bruising pass catching uh compliment to kenneth wilson uh kenneth walker and they drafted zach charnet, somebody that we've talked about a lot. They also gave him money. That should not be lost. Geno Smith, you can't give.

Of course, the contract wasn't like what Herbert, Lamar, what these guys have gotten. 40 million guaranteed. Yeah, a three-year, $75 million extension with 40 guaranteed. That's not nothing. That's Geno Smith. Are we on the Ryan Tannehill path? For Geno?

Is that what Geno's doing? Tannehill was a full flame out in Miami. Right. And new team, new opportunity. Yeah, actually is surrounded by a good organization with a good coaching staff, and then good things happen for Ryan Tannehill, it really feels like it for me, for Geno Smith,

who he's the quarterback 16 currently in ADP. We have him as our consensus QB 11. I don't think that my admiration and my excitement for Geno Smith is not saying Geno Smith is going to finish as a top six, a top eight quarterback, but it's you can get him at the end of drafts and he can be a top 12 quarterback and he can help carry you through some times. His first four matchups,ams detroit uh and the carolina i mean like these are these are juicy matchups to start with for uh for geno smith to

try and get this the the seahawks rolling heavy home favorites that first week i think that he i think he's a great target in in drafts because he's just the we aren't overpaying for Geno. What he did last year. Where did he finish? Did he finish like the five or something? He was the quarterback five and six point. I don't think that's going to happen again, but top 12 is in the range of outcomes.

He's being drafted at 16. We have him at 11 by consensus. And so, you know, you can get him where you can stream him you don't have to be committed to a season of Geno Smith if things go the wrong way no and and when you are grabbing a quarterback to stream or that you believe that's the the possibility you look at what we just looked at what's the opening schedule that's it's awesome and I know we've brought this up earlier in the offseason but I have actually started to implement it in my personal strategies and drafts where, you know, I, I do want one of the great

quarterbacks and I want them to slip to me at a good value. Lamar Jackson, Herbert, those are the guys that I think are, uh, you know, the better values right now. But if, if it gets to a point where, okay, now Trevor Lawrence and Fields is gone I'm I'm like punting the position and what I have found myself doing is drafting Anthony Richardson first who is going to start the season as my backup and grabbing Geno Smith with the last pick in the draft start the season there and you've got competence you've got uh you know a quality quarterback in geno and then you've still got the huge upside hope in a mobile konami code uh your quarterback and this was a big play team they had 30 touchdowns of 10 plus yards that was the most in the nfl and that's probably only going

to improve with the explosive players they've added i mean metcalf uh i haven't ranked the highest right now but he's going to be a red zone threat throughout the entire year. Tyler Lockett, Jackson Smith, and Jigba. Tyler Lockett, it's illegal for him to be drafted in the top 30 or something. You always have a different reason not to take him. Presented by the fantasy community every year. This year, Jackson Smith and Jigba is the reason. And then all future years will be age.

But he might not be the best player on your team, but he's going to be better than where you draft him. And he's been top 15 for five years. So do I think he's going to be better this year than last year? I do not. But I think he'll be significantly better than his ADP. And that's all that matters. Wide receiver 17 to 20 maybe.

Yeah, I mean, that makes sense. And he's in a role on the outside that is not threatened by Jackson Smith and Jake Butler. He's just the burner on the outside that's going to catch deep touchdowns and keep doing what he's done. Nobody looks better when a play breaks down. Tyler Lockett just finds a way to help the quarterback. Yeah, and you don't really worry about injury with Tyler Lockett.

I was going to say it. You know, I think he missed one game this last year. I know. I shouldn't say it out loud. But 16 games, 16 games, 16 games, 16 games. Because when he touches the ball, he just goes down. Yeah. He's a smart man.

This isn't the old school. Like, you could have had an extra yard if you just tried to concuss yourself. Well, he actually did miss a game last year. Yeah, he did. Because you said 16. Yeah, I know. One game in the last, what is that, five years? He had a boo-boo on his hand or something.

It's still a great resume for Tyler Lockett. He protects himself. He's a smart player. He's still incredibly fast, has great hands. Geno Smith was an excellent deep ball passer last year, and I think that would continue. Yeah, Kyle reminds us that's the Marvin Harrison method of catching the ball and going down.

It's funny to think that that's also the Peyton Manning method of taking a sack so they were together, just not getting hurt together. Yeah, protect yourself. I wonder if they had a meeting about that. Just like, whatever we do, this team's screwed if either one of us is hurt. So just go down. All right, Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet, the last conversation we need to have in Seattle.

Kenneth Walker was the RB5 from weeks 5 through 12. All you had to do was use your eyeballs when you watched him to see how electric, dynamic he is. But he did struggle at times. If he didn't have the big play, maybe he was being stuffed behind the line of scrimmage. Zach Charbonnet, this team has dealt

with injuries at running back for years and years and years. They go out and they invest again. We saw this before. They drafted Penny when they had Chris Carson. Now they draft Charbonnet when they had Kenneth Walker.

And Kenneth Walker gets punted down dynasty draft boards because of this addition. Yeah, Kenneth Walker, we know he's good. He proved it last year. He's young. He's a stud running back. If you want to take a shot on him with the loyalty that Pete Carroll usually shows his existing players,

I don't hate that uh I have him ranked behind his ADP I have worries because I I am a big believer in Charbonnet and more specifically for fantasy he's I believe going to be the more commonly used guy inside the five yard line the goal line Charbonnet will be and he is the clear uh better pass catcher I think that um Kenneth Walker can catch passes but that's never been his wheelhouse whereas Charbonnet is just such an excellent confident capable pass catcher out of the backfield that you lose two of the most important things for fantasy football, the running back position here. So I'm fine drafting both players

and just believing in the offense and the team and the running game. If I had to pick one, though, I would take the ninth-round Charbonnet, hope that he outproduces the running back 34 where he's being drafted. Yeah, I was going to point out for Ken Walker here, he had 10 carries inside the five and that turned into two touchdowns so that can jump around from year to year but that's that that's not a great inefficiency that you want to see when the team has just spent a second round pick on a guy who's bigger than you and can also catch passes i don't yeah and for me this backfield is not one that i want to like you know go and and

lock it down get both in well no i just mean like i don't want to make conclusive decisions on july 27th about my thoughts on these guys because i have what i think might happen but i want to pay attention to what headline charbonnet is making throughout training camp. What's the utilization in preseason? And will we get, you know, is this going to be a midseason sharing of the load? Is Walker going to be one of those players that we look back and we say, wow, they play, you know, the Rams in Detroit and Carolina to start the year. And Walker's the, you know, he's the RB1 through the first three weeks. That's a real possibility with the desire that they have to run the football

and his ability to break off a big play. So it'll be something we need to pay attention to in camp, what kind of reps these guys are getting. Let's talk about the Rams. 5-12 last year. It fell apart. They had a win total of 10.5. And they were coming off the Super bowl victory this year it's at six

and a half they partied a little too hard yeah and they had the second most games lost due to injury so stafford cup alan robinson addition by subtraction there and uh you know 30th in pace of play 27 the points per game 30 second and total yards McVay was 30 second and total yards it was a brutal brutal season I mean Shanahan loses his quarterback all the time and they're no 30 second and total yards I mean there have been some bad years uh for the 49ers uh under under Shanahan. And you have one here with the Rams having a bad season, but Shanahan is great and he figures it out. And Sean McVay is great and I believe he's going to figure it out. They brought the people back, the most important pieces to this team. And I'm

refusing to just believe that they're a trash panda i i think they're i think they're gonna be good um i don't know if i stand on an island there but when you've got a healthy stafford and cooper cup and um cameron there in the backfield yes yeah uh nickname nickname i didn't know who you were talking about i had no no idea. Cameron Akers. I was like, James Cameron, or what is this, a Titanic joke? No. Look, I- It's not a joke. It's very serious.

This team is not going to be a great defense. There is that. This team is going to be more in the archetype, I think, of what Detroit did last year. But is that- And that could be very good for Stafford and Cup and Jefferson and Cam Akers. Yes, I agree with that. Cam Akers? Cameron.

Thank you. See, now I was lost. I think you can be both. I think you can be a bad team. Cam and Cameron. That's all I thought. That's all I thought he was saying. I thought he was just saying,

you can be both. Why do I do this job? I'm glad you were there because it was so obvious to me. James Cameron Akers. Yes. Running back. Oh, man. Yada, yada. Bad defense. Possibly an offense

that has to keep up. That can mean bad things too. Matthew Stafford has had problems with turning the football over. So we'll see. It could be the beginning of the end as well for this head coach, Stafford, Aaron Donald and company. No more Jalen Ramsey. It wasn't good last year.

Daryl Henderson, Allen Robinson are gone. No big additions on offense to speak of other than the return of Cooper Cup, the return of Van Jefferson, and then you'll have a mix of Ben Skoranek, Pukunikau, Tutu Atwell. Very impressive kind of group of names. Law firm back behind cup and Jefferson. Very good names. And then Tyler Higbee,

who just kind of ho hum I'm hanging out and just, I'm there. If you need me, I'm Mr. Necessary, but I also will disappoint you if you were to depend on me. I think the, the Rams,

it, it feels like their entire, it much like the, uh like the Green Bay Packers because there's so much unknown of Jordan Love, but the unknown of the Rams has created a real value opportunity here because Stafford, as the quarterback 23, it was just essentially two years ago now, but over 40 passing touchdowns that year. If Stafford's healthy, he's not the quarterback 23.

Cameron Akers is an incredibly interesting running back taking in the fifth round. It is that dead zone running back area, but he really seemed to have a resurgence that put the team on his back at the end of last season. So I'm perfectly fine with his ADP. Cooper Cupp can be the number one guy. And Van Jefferson is being priced in the average draft position.

He's just not even going to be on a football field. It's ridiculous. Wide receiver 70. And he was just off of a really big season before he got hurt uh multiple times kind of missing training camp and then missing the beginning of the season i just there's a lot of a lot of guys here that i like it's kind it's going to be kind of gross but i i think that there's fantasy value here in almost every ram i i just think that this will be you know what the you know what the basement could be if it doesn't go right. Sure. And the basement is to produce the least amount of offense possible.

So if Stafford, behind one of the worst offensive lines in football, he has a history of kind of chronic injury, neck and back. If he goes out, your investments will be, and there is a decent odds of that happening. So that would be the one thing to keep in the back of your mind in terms of diversification maybe not loading up, but shoot your shot with some of these undervalues because that's why they're undervalued.

It's only Cooper Cup that you have to draft highly. Correct. I don't think that. Although Cam Akers is not. It's back of the fifth round. Yeah, but he's in the top 24. He's higher than I thought he would be at this point. Let's put it that way.

But even you're just kind of making the case here for if things go wrong. That's not stopping you from drafting Cooper Cup at the top, right? Andy? No, it's not stopping me from that. But it's going to be a downgrade for cooper cup if he loses oh yes matthew stafford obviously yes stafford's health is the biggest fear of this office because if stafford's out there then every single one of these pieces is undervalued right now including cooper cup who's a first round pick if stafford is healthy all season Cooper Cup is being under drafted in the

first round just to remind you how dominant he was the year before last he was the wide receiver one he was the highest scoring player in all of fantasy at every position he had 367 fantasy points the second place wide receiver did not have 300 fantasy points in half PPR. And then last year he was the number, he was just doing the same exact thing. He was unstoppable, was never, didn't have a single week where he wasn't a top 20 wide receiver. He was the number one wide receiver on a points per game basis, uh, by a pretty wide margin. Uh, you know, you, You look at him versus Justin Jefferson at that point, 18 versus 20.3 fantasy points. Cooper Cupp's just been a dominator. So if Stafford's healthy, he's worth the risk to me.

I do want to bring up they could start pretty bad. I mean, they face Seattle on the road, very tough place to play. Then they get to play San Francisco. Then they go to Cincinnati. So the first three weeks of the season are rough for the Rams. What we got here, guys? The end of the show. No, the Cardinals

at 4-13. Last year, they opened with a 9.5 win total. Back when Kyler Murray still had an intact ACL. Cliff Kingsbury was still the coach. This year, the win total is at four and a half.

They're currently favored in zero games for the entire season. They were two and six in one score games. They had the fourth most games lost due to injury. DeAndre Hopkins is gone, as is A.J. Green and Rob, Robbie, Robert, Chosen, Anderson.

But don't worry, guys. David Blau and Zach Pascal and Jeff Driscoll have arrived. David Blau? Yeah, and you can even make jokes with Driscoll. I mean, we got them all. Here's what I will say. And right now we found out Kyler Murray, Zachary's starting on the pup. This team does not have a lot of talent,

especially on the defensive side of the football. On the offensive side, I think that there is, you know, we've had some bad Cardinal teams. If you go back to 2018, that Arizona Cardinals team was an absolute train wreck. That would be the Steve Wilks season season where I believe they were, what, one in – or two in – They were one.

They were the first overall pick. Yeah, so I do want to point out this team probably won't do what that team did under the simple reason that if Kyler Murray's playing quarterback, it gives them an opportunity on offense every week. And you know in this league, if you have a quarterback, you can have two turnovers by the opposing quarterback, and Kyler's competent, and you might win a couple ball games.

That 2018 team had no quarterbacks. Josh Rosen. As I said. Yeah. So I'm not projecting victories for this team, a lot of them, but I will say I think they're going to have all of their ADPs driven down due to the fact that they're kind of known as being the worst team in football. That's the way Vegas has it projected,

but Kyler Murray has always produced as a quarterback in fantasy. James Conner, since he's come to Arizona, has always produced. Hollywood Brown, when he's been healthy, has always produced. And you know, I know Zach Ertz is coming off the ACL, but someone in the tight end position will have opportunities here too. So where are the diamonds

in this dirty, dirty sewer of the Arizona Cardinals? You know, I know we are hometown fans and sometimes we get called homers, but I think there's actually quite a bit of value to be had for fantasy from the Arizona Cardinals because it appears so putrid that people want to be hands-off. The truth here is that their defense, it has one good player.

Buda? Yeah, who's hopefully going to play for us. He's going to play. It's just one of those things where Kyler is not missing this season. You watch videos of him right now on the Cardinals flight plan. He is on his way to playing football. He wants to be there week one. It's still a possibility.

It is absolutely a possibility. He's running right now, obviously not cutting and doing all of those things, but he's clocking on GPS like great miles per hour on his runs. I run great miles per hour. He could certainly be their week one, but it's a guarantee unless some new injury happens that he's playing for at least half the season or, or if not, you know, the majority of the season, he's not missing the whole season. So if you've got Kyler with a terrible defense, there will be fantasy points to be scored here.

One from Kyler, two from James Conner because he is the only running back in town, and he catches passes, and he's great around the goal line. So James Conner, I think, is a great value. And Hollywood, with the departure of Hopkins, he becomes the one again. If Kyler plays week one, Hollywood Brown is the singular best steal at wide receiver in the draft right now, in my opinion. You saw it last year. Last year when Hopkins was suspended for those first few games, he had three top 10 wide receiver performances last year in that stretch.

Is he in that category, Jason, where, like you said, an injury or a situation, eventually the ADP gets driven up, but it doesn't get driven up enough. Hollywood's at wide receiver 30 right now. That is not in his range of outcomes with a healthy Kyler Murray at all. The targets will be two. There'll just be too many targets with too bad of a defense. Hollywood Brown will be a top 15 receiver, I think, if Kyler was healthy.

And the best part is that even if Kyler is not healthy, he's still the wide receiver one for the NFL team that will be throwing the ball. He's going to catch eight passes a game. From Clayton Toon? Sure, from whoever. Colt McCoy, Clayton tune, he will catch passes. They won't be as valuable. He won't be a superstar, but it won't be a wasted pick when you're drafting them as the wide receiver 30. Yeah, I agree. Mike, is there other, are there other opportunities? Trey McBride, Rondell Moore, Michael Wilson, the rookie Greg

Dorch, the PPR machine. Yeah, I think it will be interesting. Rondell Moore, Michael Wilson, the rookie, Greg Dortch, the PPR machine. Yeah, I think it will be interesting. Rondell Moore is still interesting to me. I have him ranked above his current ADP. If it works out that you have Hollywood and then Michael Wilson on the outside so that Rondell can go play in the slot where he needs to be, where he has – when he's thrived, that's where it has happened. So I think that he's interesting as a really late pick, and it's hard to know what to make of Trey McBride.

He was a second-round pick. I mean, that's really high draft capital for a tight end. Zach Ertz is on the PUP right now. I mean, he really hurt his knee this past season. He looks so happy in the team pictures, though, man. He looks like a guy with just rejuvenated. He seems like a jovial fella. But it's going to be some time before Zachary is ready to play football,

and he's also older and not the player that he used to be, and Trey McBride is the future of this team. And, you know, just for a particularly hot stat, Trey McBride is one of six rookie tight ends over the last decade to have a game of at least seven for 75 and a score. That's a big boy fantasy game at the tight end position, and those guys were Jordan Reed, Pitts, Evan Ingram, George Kittle, Trey McBride, and Tim Wright.

Is that with Colt? I don't – I think so. I don't think it was with Kyler. Yeah, it was at the end. But Colt got hurt too. It was towards the end of the year. So I think that Trey McBride is not somebody I'm really targeting in my drafts, but he's someone that if he pops week one, I'll go.

I'll push some fab in on McBride. And if you're in a deeper league then and you want to stash him at the end of the bench, I think it's a worthy bet to take. All right, we're not going to talk about the Cardinals anymore. Time to move on. Best Ball Breakdown, presented by Underdog Fantasy. Yeah, it was David Blau.

It was David Blau. Blau, Blau, Blau. This show's a special one. All right, Best Ball Breakdown. Talking best ball and underdog fantasy today. We're looking at ADP risers, and we tracked underdog ADP in early May. We compared it to this past week and just wanted to share what we discovered. Some of these players, very appropriate moves in average draft position.

Some of them may be too reactionary. You guys can tell me what you think. But at the wide receiver position, here are the wide outs that moved more than 25 spots in average draft position. Van Jefferson moved the most, 53 spots. Rondell Moore moved 44 spots after the DeAndre Hopkins departure, I'm sure. Tim Patrick with the good news on his health, 35 spots. Nico Collins, 35 spots. I did bring him up a couple weeks ago, maybe in that brief Houston part of the show, but I do think he has opportunities there without Brandon Cooks.

Paris Campbell, 30 spots. Sky Moore, 27 spots. And Devontae Parker, 27 spots. so the guys here that i really like we've we've talked about van jefferson for a little while mike the maybe you're the reason he moved up probably 53 almost certainly spots but um he he's he's a great option and tim patrick to me is someone that i think you know he got a lot of money. He produced very well. You still in at ADP 167?

Yeah, I am. I'm still in it. I mean, that's still very, very late. You know, some of these players I'm not in on. I know a lot of people love Nico Collins, and they see the opportunity to have an upgraded quarterback, and he showed flashes last year I just don't want the rookie quarterback situation you want Russ yeah I would I would

prefer Russ yeah I mean and you know I'm not uh not a Russ apologist by any means I don't think he's very good but rookie quarterback supporting wide receiver ones is just so rare. The crazy thing about Tim Patrick is I know we all like him, but his career high is 53 receptions, and he's going to be 30 this year, which is just a weird place to be. I don't know if we love him as much as we don't like anything we saw last year from Denver. It's a little concerning because Corlin Sutton doesn't disappear.

Jerry Judy's pretty good. And Mims, they added Mims. Yeah, Mims is dealing with some injury or something. But yeah, Mike, do you have anything to add on the wideouts there? No, I guess I'll add that Devontae Parker here, even bumping up to 188 still feels like an automatic. Take him everywhere. If you need a wide receiver at the end of the draft,

why not Devontae Parker who could be – I mean, he really should be the number one wide receiver for the Patriots. They gave him another year. They've already rewarded him with more money. And let's see. It is the Patriots moving. Man, the stink of last year for the Patriots is just, it is a heavy, heavy fog that Matt Patricia and company created over there.

And that's not what it is. I got to remind myself, that's not what they will be putting on the field. It will be someone who actually understands an NFL offense, and hopefully we get some output here from Parker. Devontae Parker's career is ridiculous. 71st, 49th, 54th, 107th, then 7th overall, then 42nd, 69th, and 65th. This is somehow his ninth season.

All right, running backs who rose more than 25 spots in average draft position. The biggest move, Alexander Madison, after the departure of Delvin Cook. Jerome Ford, who looks locked into the backup role in Cleveland, if you don't know that name, behind Nick Chubb. They've talked up his pass-catching chops. We all hope it's Nick Chubb. We're all really hoping it is and we might be disappointed tank bigsby running back for jacksonville 37 spots a rookie and then antonio gibson and jaylen

warren a couple more um backups i guess you would call them i mean really ford bigsby gibson and warren are all not going to be the highest percentage of work in those backfields, all of them moving up quite a bit. People taking shots on injuries to the starters or emerging talents behind them. Yeah, I think when it comes to Jerome Ford, Tank Bigsby, and Jalen Warren, you've got drafters on underdog being wise and trying to find guys that have a little bit more than just the insurance option while still having a huge insurance payout should the de facto running back one go down. Jerome Ford is, you know, we don't know if Chubb's going to get everything, but Kareem Hunt had an important role and he's gone. So he could actually end up scoring even if chubb is healthy dearness johnson had games here

and there yeah and and so that's the same situation with tank bigsby and jaylen warren where you're starting to realize these guys are going to be involved they're going to catch some passes uh you know that they they could have some standalone value but then they skyrocket should the you know the incumbent running back one go down. All right. That was Best Ball Breakdown presented by Underdog Fantasy. You can get your first deposit matched up to $100 using the code BALLERS. BALLERS.

A couple reminders here at the end of the show. We have our final Saturday episode. On Saturday? What? Yeah. And then next week, we're into five shows a week starting Tuesday. Starting on Saturday. What? Yeah. And then next week, we're into five shows a week starting Tuesday. Starting on Tuesday,

first day of August. And then we're here. Hold on to your butts. I feel like I really want to do like our final Saturday show on a Friday. Just to be different? Yeah, just to be like,

this is a set. That makes no sense. That will just fit with all the weird stuff that happened on today's show anyways. Any parting words for James Cameron Akers? Just call him Cameron. Oh, okay.

By his birth name. Thank you very much. See everybody later. Goodbye. Whatever. 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.

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