Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - NFL Coaching Changes & Fantasy Impact, Dog vs Pill - Fantasy Football Podcast for 2/27

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

Find out which NFL coaching changes could have a big impact on the 2024 fantasy football season! Get a full breakdown of the new head coaches and offensive coordinators on today's fantasy football podcast. Plus, NFL News including Tee Higgins getting the franchise tag! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for February 27th, 2024. Get the lowest price on the 2024 UDK at UltimateDraftKit.com - Order before March 1st for an entry to win a Listener League Spot! Connect with the show: Subscribe on YouTube Visit us on the Web Support the Show Follow on Twitter Follow on Instagram Join our Discord Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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Welcome in. The Fantasy Footballers Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway And the world famous Coaching Changes episode on the way Mucho importante I've heard from people that this is one of their favorite episodes. That's great.

And I believe that people. I believe you don't you do not enjoy doing this episode. All the coaching research all the boring sludge to go through.

Sometimes it feels like a lot. I mean, I guess the truth is I feel like there are some major storylines in the coaching hiring process. It's not like I undervalue the changes that happen. But then, like, I don't know, there's some teams that did some dumb stuff. Yeah. And it just ruins the season for their players. I think there are some very uninspiring hires. Now, I will caution us all that one of the most uninspiring hires,

to me personally, this is called a swing and a miss, was when I just couldn't really comprehend the hiring of Sean McVay. Sure. Back in the day, 32-minute-year-old Sean McVay. And it was okay. I think they won that one. Calling that one uninspiring, that's not the right word. I think just it felt baffling and egregious at the time.

So hopefully some of today's uninspiring hires for those fan bases, they turn out to be the next McVay. I mean, we are coming off a season in which we overt, I mean multiple seasons actually. You go back to Nagy and then Arthur Smith, where we've seen the polarization of impact, right? When you bring somebody in and they make a tremendous difference to the weapons on the team, translates to fantasy football or vice versa. We're going to talk about a team that made a very splashy head coaching hire and yet leaves the fantasy community in a place of

wondering what to do. So we'll be talking through all of the big coaching changes on today's show. And a reminder, three days left, 72 hours. Three days left. Thanks, Mike. That sounded like you were telling everyone to get on the train before it left. It's pretty much the same thing. UltimateDraftKid.com, your last chance for pre-order bonuses

you gotta order it by March 1st to get a chance to win a Listener League spot a chance to come and play with us in the Listener League in 2024 it's also the lowest possible price on the UDK, UDK Plus right now UDK Plus gets you instant access to the Dynasty Pass

we have been knee deep in rookie rankings and draft prep. And so I'm belly button level now. You were. What did I say, though? Yeah. Yeah. We're almost fully submerged. We're past the point of no return.

I'm hoping to drown soon. Be all the way underwater. We're hoping that, thanks bud you could just submerge without without drowning i'll try to hold my breath but you can't breathe underwater snort give me a snorkel that's the thing um so that's ultimate draft kit.com welcome in i can't breathe underwater also on that note, if you are someone that has already bought the ultimate draft kit, you got the UDK Plus, and you've taken a look, you are still entered into that, even if it was before now. Anyone who gets it by March 1st, you'll be entered in that.

But maybe you bought it the day it came out, Super Bowl Sunday, and you went and you looked at the rookie rankings and the dynasty startup rankings. Those have really been evolving. The last week, I know mine have personally changed quite a bit. So if you're doing a startup or you took a look already, take another look at the rankings, and we will continue to make sure we polish those as we get closer and closer to the draft. That is true. Let's talk some news. News and notes from around the league.

Really, the headlines right now are around the franchise tag. There are a number of running backs that, at least of this recording time, have been – it's been said that they're not going to be franchise tag Derek Henry, Josh Jacobs, Tony Pollard, Saquon Barkley, Austin Eckler. All of those players, at least as of this recording, pretty strong words being put out that they will test free agency. So that's big. I mean, those are big names. And that they will test free agency. So that's big. I mean, those are big names. And be allowed to test free agency.

Yeah, be allowed. And, you know, we have a couple of players, though, that it seems like, one that we have confirmed, T. Higgins, wide receiver for the Bengals, the franchise tag has been placed on T. Higgins. That is what we're hearing. That is official. Um, and so he will not be going anywhere.

The other one I think you're alluding to is Michael Pittman jr. Who it seems that one is not official, has not been done. It's just been said that they either will or the workout a deal. Right. And they have until March 5th. The deadline to, uh,

place these tags on players is coming up here, uh, next week on the 5th. Yeah, that's always fun. It's fun to see what happens. I mean, the cap is going up in the NFL in terms of the salary cap significantly, more than people even expected. It's somewhat of a rebound from the COVID-era reductions due to the fact that

fans weren't attending games and they had to cut things back at that time. But it does mean that, you know, every year we talk about cap space, but the cap changes. And teams have the ability to kick the can down the road, to become more flexible with restructures. And it allows teams that seem like they weren't going to be in contention for certain players to be in contention or to extend players that we didn't see them keeping.

And at least right now, T. Higgins, Michael Pittman, two of what would have been the biggest fish in the wide receiver pool, they don't seem like they're going anywhere. So that's a pretty big deal. Yeah, which would make Mike Evans the most? Mike Evans, Calvin Ridley. Elvins? I heard Elvin.

Yeah, I definitely put an L in somewhere. Not sure where, but I was thinking Calvin Ridley. Elvins? I heard Elvin. Yeah, I definitely put an L in somewhere. Not sure where, but I was thinking Calvin Ridley. So it kind of merged. So Higgins, Pittman, were you surprised? I mean, for me, the Higgins, it's going to be what, $21 million? For a year? I don't recall the number. Kyle, can you confirm that number?

I think it's $21 million. He says it's correct. You got a microphone, right, Kyle? It is correct, $21 million. Gross. Gross. Don't talk, Kyle. Gross.

I don't think it's all that surprising. That's a lot of money. They have money. All right. They have some cap space, and maybe you don't want to – this is the perfect thing for the Bengals. If you don't lock yourself in long-term with T. Higgins,

but give this group a – Another shot. Last year got deleted with just unfortunate injuries. They felt like they had a chance to make a Super Bowl run with the wide receivers. So what will be very interesting then to watch for the Bengals is do we get a day two draft capital of a wide receiver because that would be the action that says that T. Higgins

is going to get his money, he'll play one year, and then he'll be somewhere else. Tyler Boyd is a free agent not expected back with the team. Which, just quick dynasty, check your waiver wire, see if Charlie Jones is on the waiver wire. He could, not that Tyler Boyd was super valuable when the big two were on the field, but he's just a name that could be out there on your waiver wire as well.

Yeah. I'm just going to peel it back. There is another receiver beyond Charlie Jones that I think. I've got him on my dynasty roster stashed. Is it Yoshi Voss? Yoshi Voss? Andre Yoshi Voss. I think so.

But none of us wanted to be the first to try it. I brought up Charlie Jones. Yeah, thanks, Mike. A real hero. Do we have a pronunciation guide on Charlie Jones? Yeah, I-O-S-I-V-A-S. Which says, obviously, Yoshi Voss. Yoshi Voss. Charlie Jones. Yeah. I-O-S-I-V-A-S. Which says, obviously, Yoshi Voss. Yoshi Voss.

Yeah. Yeah. Either way, both of those guys. Also known as Yoshi from now on. Okay. Oh, much easier. Yeah. What else?

Demarcus Robinson coming back to the Rams. He really made a lot of plays late in the season for them. One-year deal. Yeah. For about a quarter of that Tee Higgins money. I've seen him as a pretty good draft deal right now in basketball. I could see that for sure. I mean, the odds of Cooper Cup getting hurt at some point during the season seem to be very high anyways.

Yeah, fair. So, yeah. And we got some news that Tyler Higbee looks like he'll start the season on Pup. I mean, he got hurt so late. Was it the playoff game? I think it was. It was that late? I'm pretty sure it was the playoff game.

But, you know, you're talking middle of next season. I don't know if that makes, what, the Davis Allen chatter interesting? Yeah, Davis Allen, it's another great name to look on your dynasty. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're, you're upset because I picked them up in our main dynasty league.

Is that, I know he was rostered in that league. I don't know when he became on rostered, but you, you put them back on your team and then I just, and then you were sad to see that. But yeah, Davis Allen,

uh, is a worth worthy dynasty pickup at tight end. It's, this is the season of go-find-contract situations, especially at the tight end position, because starters, I'm not saying elite players, but tight ends who will get a starting job and then in a pinch you can put them in,

this is the time that they're just available on the way. Last year at this time, or a little bit earlier than this, it was Ferguson. Yep. You know, we were telling people, go pick up Ferguson of the Cowboys because Schultz is moving on and he could step in. And then he was a very, very relevant fantasy option this last year. All right. Any other news, Brooksy?

Do you have anything for us? There's two pieces of little news. It has been reported that uh marvin harrison jr and malik neighbors will not be doing all the fun stuff at the combine yeah they'll be there and do like interviews but and i don't blame them but i'm mad at them yeah you'd like to see the numbers but like he can gain nothing from it yeah if i were him, no chance I'd test or catch or anything. But I'm still mad that you're not because I want to see it. Yeah, I mean, Kyle is saying we got news that Roma Dunze will run.

Okay. That'll be fun. At least we get one of them. Yeah. Does that make him feel like a loser? No. I feel like it's the opposite. You got to test.

Yeah, with neighbors and Harrison not there. He's the star now. He's the BMOC. Okay. You know what that means, right? Big man on campus. That's right. Top 10 pick maybe.

We've been going through the wide receivers like crazy, but it's like you could see 10 to 12 really good names off the board by the end of the second. But what's crazy is you could see 10 wide receivers off the board before you see a running back off the board. Yeah, it really is true. It's a deep class. It's really ironic because right now you've got four guys

that are clearly on most people's big boards at the top, the consensus four. And after that, when it goes from five to like 12, any one of those players could be the next one drafted. And I don't remember it being that wide a range. Our Dynasty show, Mike just had a great episode this last week going through the incoming rookies. And then tomorrow our Dynasty show will go through the second half of those rookie wide receiver prospects.

What's crazy in the way it's setting up right now is you have maybe 10, 11, 12 wide receivers that could go off the board before a running back. The running back class seems very inferior to previous years. The top running back off the board on a lot of people's lists is Jonathan Brooks, who is coming off of an ACL injury and teams that might be looking at the classic, Hey,

I'm just going to draft the running back and make him my starter. Now have Henry Jacobs, Saquon Eckler Pollard on the free agent pool to decide which of those options you want to, to, to use. Do you have the confidence in a Braylon Allen or a Jonathan Brooks or whomever, Trey Benson, you guys love?

Blake Corum. Blake Corum, yeah. Or do you just rent a guy for a year? Because I could see out of those five free agent running backs, you're seeing multi-year deals out of these guys? Yeah. Saquon and Josh Jacobs I think will get multi-year deals. Derrick Henry will probably get a one-year. I think Pollard could get a one-year? Yeah. I mean, Saquon and Josh Jacobs, I think we'll get multi-year deals. Derek Henry will probably get a one year.

I think Pollard could get a one year as well. I agree. Like a reprove it or something like, um, it might be structured as like a two year, but where they can cut them after one, you could go pay Pollard for a year and then come back to next year's draft. That might be stronger at running back.

I don't know. Um, all right, that'll do it for news and notes. We're going to jump right into the coaching changes. Coaching Carousel. This year we have eight new head coaches, 15 new offensive coordinators. Last offseason was just five head coaching changes

so uh it's up last year's five changes i mean it's it's you're not wrong to say last year was only five but imagine a world where there are 32 jobs right and five became available. There's only 32 in the world, and five opened up. Imagine my luck that I can try and get a job as a coach. You better love football because this cannot be good for your health. Give me a reaction to it. I'm going to read the coaching changes from last year. Just react to them for me briefly. A sound, a word, whatever you want to do.

Okay, all right. Let's start with the Panthers' Frank Reich. Goodbye? He's already gone. The Broncos' Sean Payton. Okay. I think it's okay.

The Cardinals' Jonathan Gannett. TBD. They tore it down to the nubs. You can't tell. It's just like a lost year. Not an eval year. No eval. You're like, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, boom. That's fine. Oh, yeah, yeah. D'Amico Ryan.

Sensational. Yeah. And then Shane Steichen. I think that was a great hire. I like it a lot so far. What's interesting is before we jump into the new hires, this is worth mentioning because the list is kind of insane. But when you're not hiring an offensive-minded head coach, and you look back

historically all the way back to 2018, which I don't know how many coaches this is. It looks like about 20. If you're not hiring an offensive-minded head coach, it has not been good. No. And you're going back to like Patricia and Wilks and Fangio and Flores and Matt Rule and, yeah, sorry, Matt Ja Rule, Joe Judge and Ron Rivera and Brandon Staley and Lovie Smith. I mean, I almost forgot Lovie Smith was the coach for a year. I guess that was, was it the whole year or was he interim? He didn't stick around. I think if you are a

defensive head coach, you really need someone like C.J. Stroud. Because D'Amico Rines is the one name. Yeah, he's doing great. Great head coaching that quarterback. So just to throw it out there, the two head coaching hires this past

year that we're going to talk about today, Gerard Mayo, Mike McDonald. Those are the two defensive-minded head coaches with a shot. Yep, and part of it, I mean, just me trying to figure out what's going on because offensive, like if you're not the offense, your OC position, it turns over. Because if you're a good team and your offense was capable, your OC is getting a head coaching job. Bobby Slowik, the offensive coordinator for the Texans, next year will probably be a head coach.

That's my guess. He could have taken a job this year, and so Ben Johnson could have taken a job. Yeah, and they said no. They wanted to wait for better opportunities. But your point, Mike, is then all of a sudden this defensive head coach now has to go out and find, they've got to replace and find a way to make the offense work. They have to hit again. And it doesn't quite happen the same with defensive coordinators constantly getting hired away. Alright, let's begin with the Atlanta Falcons' new head coach, new offensive coordinator. I think they maybe surprised some of the public with

their hire of Raheem Morris only because Bill Belichick's name had been circling in Atlanta, but they certainly didn't surprise anybody that has been around the NFL. Raheem Morris is one of the more respected names in football. And he's been a head coach before and is going to be the head coach taking over for Arthur Smith. Immediately hires Zach Robinson at offensive coordinator. Reactions to this? Obviously, we had a lot of narrative discussion on Arthur Smith and the impact to pits and Bijan and

London and the entire offense. I would react positively of it. Like the hiring of Raheem Morris was fantasy wise going, okay, here we go. But they went into the, uh, the department store.

They got that. They got that cologne day. McVay. Zach Robinson, who was an LA Rams assistant for the past four years or so. A passing game coordinator for them as well. You have to make the presumption

that they're going to bring that offensive philosophy over. When you have the right players in that offensive philosophy, I think good things happen. So I will be excited to see this team get away from what the 30, 31st and passing percentage fourth and rushing like balance that out, which led to 25th and points per game, by the way.

Yeah, it was. Well, yeah, because despite the fourth highest rushing rate, they ranked 28th and expected points per rush attempt. So when you're really bad at that, you you know you just want to keep doing it um you you have to establish it Zach Robinson coming in I think is going to be hopefully long-term good for fantasy this was a PFF senior analyst a handful of years ago so he is not one of these anti-metric type of guys, go with the gut, and he's really focused on quarterbacks. I love the gut, man.

I watched his press conferences and read what he's written on quarterbacks, and I think that is their focus right now. Their focus is find their quarterback. So they're sitting at what, like pick eight, I think? Yes, every year they pick. Yeah, eight overall. Every year they pick. The Falcons are locked at eight. So I feel like, I mean, I placed the wager today that they're taking a specific quarterback

at eight, but I think they will just one. You keeping it a secret? I think they'll take JJ McCarthy, but it's so early. I'm not telling. My point is- It did come with that. But it's very specific. I'm just saying- You can can't bet it i did well i didn't want

i didn't want to make people have to you know follow suit but um yeah i think they are certainly um focused on the quarterback i i think that's a good point to bring up though because you know there's excitement in the fact that arthur smith out the door. But there's still a lot of question marks with regards to who's behind center. You know, a lot of the efficiency, it was that way not because the running game just was unsuccessful, but they ran so much in some ways because they couldn't efficiently pass the ball. Like, it's a bit of a chicken or egg scenario there. You know, the confidence level in Heineke to Ritter to Heineke to Ritter, I mean, it was obvious that there was no confidence, right? I mean, Arthur

Smith even got up in a press conference and you're my guy. And then, you know, five minutes later, he changes it because they didn't feel confident throwing the football down the field. We got nothing out of pits. London was inconsistent. And then Bijan, we know how talented he is in the passing game. It's going to come down to the quarterback more than it will Arthur Smith just leaving town, in my opinion, for the passing game to succeed. I agree completely. And obviously if they were to make a push, go out and get Kirk Cousins, whoo baby, I would be so excited.

If they draft a quarterback, even if you like the quarterback they're drafting at eight, you're going to bet against the weapons for fantasy, the receiving weapons with a rookie quarterback. So, but it's some change in an offense that has a lot of exciting, enticing weapons. So we can hope for the best there and see what that offseason quarterback ends up being. We'll take a quick break and come back and talk about our next team. Well, 32nd in points per game, 32nd in total yards, 32nd in passing yards.

That was where Carolina ranked last year. And, well, since 2000, Carolina's 4.7 yards per pass attempt ranked 763rd out of 766. Oh, man. So what you witnessed as you peeled your eyes open and forced yourself to watch was an all-time terrible offense. Not the worst. No.

There were three worst teams in the last 23 years. And only 762 better teams. But Carolina, new head coach, new offensive coordinator, Dave Canales comes over from Tampa, from Seattle. The TLDR, the headline on Dave Canales is that he turned two quarterbacks that had very low expectations for their futures in Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield into like playoff caliber quarterbacks. And so in terms of a strategic hire, you just invested your entire future on Bryce Young. We got to like this hire of Dave Canales. Yeah, I don't blame them for taking the shot at this.

I mean, if you say, oh, two years ago he was with Geno, people didn't expect much. He looked like a wasted career. And then he had a fantastic season. And then last year, once Baker seemed, he was with Geno. People didn't expect much. He looked like a wasted career. And then he had a fantastic season. And then last year, once Baker seemed like he was done and he was a backup to Kyle Trask, he goes in and resurrects him. And we've got all this investment in Bryce Young. We need someone that can come in and hopefully get the most out.

I don't mind taking the shot. I do think that it is a much lower odds of it working. Like we just talked about, 763rd of 766. It wasn't like, hey, it wasn't that good. You know, we saw Baker before Dave Canales be great. He had one of the best rookie quarterback seasons ever when he was a Brown. And obviously it got bad. But we have not seen Bryce Young do anything good

or show flashes yet of brilliance in the NFL. So I believe this is a tall task, and more than likely, it's going to be one of those situations where two years from now we're going to be talking about who the Carolina Panthers are hiring as their head coach. Well, because you don't believe in Bryce Young. Correct. So that's an important thing to bring up here and now

because there will be additions to this Carolina Panthers offense, and they're all going to be dependent on Bryce Young's success. So let me just ask the question to quantify it momentarily here. What is the percentage chance that you think Dave Canales turns Bryce Young into a, I guess I'll say, franchise quarterback for the team? Somebody that's going to be their quarterback for the next five years. What is your percentage chance? 11%.

Okay. I will go 35%. That's pretty high. I'd be about 20, 25. So, I mean, that's going to say a lot. Because if they have to reset both the head coach and the quarterback in two years, I mean, this franchise is – David Tepper, he's not going to be happy. No.

He'll throw drinks all over the place. He will make moves immediately. The big glaring difference here for Dave's team compared to the other ones. The CLC Hawks had two Pro Bowl caliber wide receivers. The Buccaneers, maybe if we, I don't know if we call God one that, but you have Mike Evans

who, despite all the jokes on this show, Mike Evans will go into the Hall of Fame. Yes. You got Adam Thielen and... Who? Jason will be picketing though, right? Isn't that what we said? into the Hall of Fame. Yes. It's so, you got Adam Thielen and- Who? Jason will be picketing though, right?

Isn't that what we said? Well, if there's the first ballot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want, Mike Evans is a Hall of Famer. You'll picket the first ballot. Yes. He's just not going to get in the first ballot. So you have Thielen and then-

Yeah. And you have no first round pick. So they're going to have to be round pick so they're gonna have to be very creative uh if they're or find a find a puka find a diamond in the rough if they're able to really fix this thing yeah i mean if you can find a puka that'd be yeah look they're not just everywhere no now you got to dig uh brad idzik is the new offensive coordinator okay Brad good luck buddy this is the big one

in my opinion Brad? no it's the biggest name it's probably the biggest fantasy his family had gathered around do we need to say more about Idzik? no

we need to be done talking the No. Yeah. We need to be done. All right. Brad the Los Angeles Chargers. They got their man Jim Harbaugh coming from Michigan and a national title. New head coach. Great hire in my opinion.

You see these nicknames. So pro football reference incredible site. They often have nicknames. I don't know where they get theirs. No, I think these are their official. All right, well, let me try these on for you, Jay. Don't read them.

Don't read them. I had already seen them. Oh, okay. Well, Jim Harbaugh, apparently also known as Captain Comeback or Dog. I saw that. I was like, wait, his nickname is Dog? Dog. Just Dog. I saw that. I was like, wait, his nickname is Dog? Dog. Just Dog.

Now, did someone just hear over here someone walking up and say, what's up, Dog? Oh, people call him Dog. People call Harbaugh Dog? The bounty hunter? Yeah. I mean, that is the same guy. Jim Harbaugh was the prize. Dog.

Dog. Sorry. Dog was the... No, I can't do it. Look, Harbaugh has had nothing but success at every level. He was the prize. Dog. Dog, sorry. Dog was the... No, I can't do it. Look, Harbaugh has had nothing but success at every level. He was the prize. I like that.

Jeremy just chimed in with Jim Hardog. I like it a lot. Thanks. Thanks, Al. You got it. It's honestly pretty good. Dog. Jim, Al. You got it. It's honestly pretty good. Dog. Jim Hardog.

All right, Andy, what were you saying? Well, Jim. Yeah, he's had success at all levels. Is replacing Brandon Staley. The clock ran out. There was optimism around Brandon Staley. It was an offense that we were excited about in the beginning. He was going for it on fourth down.

Justin Herbert had a lot of success fantasy-wise. Austin Eckler, Keenan Allen. But time rolls on, right? We're not winning enough ballgames last year. Injuries, struggles. Eckler's going to be a free agent testing the water he probably won't be back um final year for mike williams keenan allen is he he's there but it's his final year and he's getting older and he's the number one cap hit for all wide receivers so why why do

we make a big deal about jim harba? The reason being, he brought in Greg Roman. I'd say, are you? I don't disagree with that. This was the high-profile hire. As a fantasy player and a fantasy analyst, are you excited for this? No, not at all. No. And let's explain that in the context of Greg Roman,

the offensive coordinator. Greg Roman, the offensive coordinator. Greg Roman, we've seen Greg Roman with Jim Hardog in the past. We saw them for four years together. And the passing attempts of those four years, they were the 31st, 31st, 32nd, and 29th in passing attempts. And we have far more experience with Greg Roman past that. And we're not talking about, hey, he usually is in the bottom half of passing attempts on his offenses.

It's not like he's in the bottom 10 usually of his passing attempts. It's he's in the bottom three or the bottom or the bottom. It's like he checks it after the week and is like, I need to get this lower to keep my position. In all of his years, I'm just going to read the passing attempt rank. 31, 31, 32, 29, 31, 32, 32, 32, nine. Whoops. Whoops.

28. I mean, so we already know what they want to do. They want to run the ball. They want to win ball games with that style. And it probably will work. I think this is a great hire for Chargers fans and for winning ballgames and making playoff appearances. But it doesn't feel like what we want with fast pace of play,

a lot of passing, getting the most out of Herbert. I'm on the clock right now, and I'm staring down. Herbert is out of value, and I'm like, I don't know if I want to take him. So I'm going to ask you two guys right now on, you know, whatever today is February 27th. Um, would you take Herbert or Kyler? Kyler. Kyler. Okay. And that's not a blacklisting of Herbert. That would be the dumb thing to do. We just spent an offseason with McCarthy taking over for Kellen Moore and ascribing to him a run-first defensive offense that turned into

Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb winning you a title. But. These are not just words. These are, like, Jim Harbaugh in Michigan barely threw the football. Greg Roma wasn't even over his shoulder saying, less throwing, less. This is a combination that wants to be hard-nosed, and they don't have a lot of cap space.

I mean, they are right now the odds-on favorite for the destination where Blake Corum running back would go. It would make sense, yeah. Because it was Jim Harbaugh's running back at Michigan, and I think he's got the chops to take it 20 times a game. But what does it mean for the passing game? It means that they're not going to put the ball into Justin Herbert's hands unless they have to.

That's how it feels to me. Look, if your defense struggles and you can't play defense, then you're going to end up throwing the football a ton. But if they are in neutral game scripts, I would not be shocked if they were one of the highest running offenses this year. And unless it's Justin Herbert running it, it's going to hurt. It's going to hurt Keenan.

It's going to hurt Mike Williams. It can't hurt Quentin Johnson. He can't go. He can't hurt us anymore. Honestly, less targets for him, he's happy. The days of Keenan Allen being just a PPR warrior, it feels like it may be over. So, yeah, I think there's going to be a lot of fear,

which means that maybe those players, maybe the Chargers, will be dropped, non-running backs, will be dropping down the board a little bit. And so you're going to be stuck in the Jason situation where you're staring down Kyler or Herbert, or you're going to be staring down just Keenan Allen and some maybe, I don't know, Zay Flowers? Yeah.

What are you going to do? Keenan's ADP, I think, will still be rather high. I mean, he was phenomenal this year. He was like the wide receiver four in points per game. Great player, and I think still could continue to do that at a high level. I don't think we'll see the 10-plus catch games that we're used to. So that's the lay of the land. By the way, he's going at wide receiver 25, an underdog.

Okay, that's – But that's – Yeah, I'll take that. That's interesting. That makes sense to me too. I mean, he's not a ceiling week-to-week guy. We also don't know what the Chargers are going to do with their cap situation yet. I mentioned that number one cap hit in all of the NFL is Keenan Allen.

Number two cap hit in all of the NFL is Mike Williams. So they're going to have to... At the wide receiver position. At the wide receiver position. So maybe they restructure. Maybe they cut. So the two highest cap hits are your wide outs on a team that knows to run. Correct. The Las Vegas Raiders.

They avoided mutiny and revolt and they brought back Antonio Pierce whom the team loved. they avoided mutiny and revolt, and they brought back Antonio Pierce, whom the team loved, which, look, they went 5-4 with Antonio Pierce. And so it's a bit of a surprise to me that they are going to at least come out

and say that Josh Jacobs can go test free agency. I still think there's a chance he comes back here. It seemed like Antonio Pierce had a fondness for what he could do in the offense. Especially combine that Luke Getze is now the offensive coordinator for the Raiders, and his calling card over the last two seasons has been overseeing an offense, number one and number two, in rushing. Yeah, this is going to be a team that is paying close attention to the quarterbacks in the draft.

They've already come out and said that. They're a team that could trade up. They could pick up one of the rookies because they don't really have a quarterback. I mean, Jimmy Garoppolo is gone, and that's a position they need to address. And then running back would be Zamir White plus something in free agency. But the recipe here for Antonio Pierce is going to be to run the football, to play great

defense, which I do think they have a good defense. I think they'll continue to be a good defense with Antonio Pierce. Crosby's got to be one of the most fun players to watch in the NFL. He's a maniac out there. I love a lot of the talent on the roster. I don't like these coaching hires. I thought Luke Getze was already a terrible

offensive coordinator last year, and I'm not sure that I think Antonio Pierce is a good head coach. He certainly motivated them, and the team, the players loved him. They basically demanded that he stay on as head coach and that's all great and fun and fine and dandy unless unless he's not actually a great head coach there was just motivation unless you lose and i i you know i'm i'm very very very uninspired by antonio pierce luke getzey combo interesting yeah i like i like pierce i don't like getzey and i am concerned with how they'll compete in the division. That is going to be a problem. Also, Getze was not their number one choice.

I mean, their number one choice was Cliff Kingsbury. Like, if you go watch Antonio Pierce talk about it, like, he expected Cliff Kingsbury to be the offensive coordinator. It was reported that he was going to do a deal there. Yeah, like, Pierce thought that was happening, and then it wasn't. And, you know, he made a joke about Magic And then, yeah, like it, Pierce thought that was happening and then it wasn't. And, um, you know,

he, he made a joke about magic Johnson, you know, stealing him because, you know, magic Johnson owns the command, owns the commander. Oh,

okay. And so, you know, that's right. Took Cliff Kingsbury away. You were trying to find the connection. Yeah. Like a real hip modern day reference.

No, no, just the real reference. No, no. Just a real magic. No, it was good. It makes sense. Let's move on to the 4-3 New England Patriots, who finished fourth in the division. 4-13. What did I say?

4-3. They played very few games. I'm so sure I said 13, and I didn't, huh? Maybe. Everyone's saying no. 4-3. That's really weird when your brain does that. Everyone's saying no. Four and three. That's really weird when your brain does that. Yeah.

It does it all the time. Yeah, Jason's a master. Jason's like, that's normal. What did I say? Gerard Mayo, the new head coach of the New England Patriots. And that is weird. I mean, it's just weird to go into a season and not have Uncle Bill at the helm. We have a season where we're not going to get Bill Belichick press conferences.

That's sad. I don't watch those anyways. Oh, the highlights. Alex Van Pelt taking over for Bill O'Brien as the offensive coordinator. Some of you know him as Gregory Alexander Van Pelt. Right, and that would be his mama. He's bringing over the system from the browns similarities to what the browns ran under kevin stefanski so you expect a good running game i

think here uh they've got a they've got a really nice system in place for the ground attack and the offensive line system so i feel like we're saying the same thing for several teams i mean we've already had the conversation, just the running attack and what they're going to put into place. We had the conversation, was it on this show or the footcast where we said if neighbors goes to Arizona and Harrison went to New England, who

are you taking? Right. And I would take neighbors. I choose Harrison to Arizona. Well, that is my choice as well. Hold on. What if I tell you that new offensive coordinator, Alex Van Pelt, his nickname is Pill. Like take a chill? Like take a chill, Pill?

Yeah. No, like the Pillsbury Doughboy. Or like that too. I mean, there's. Wait, is that. Kyle, were you telling me that's actually why he's called no he's not actually oh that was a joke no it's correct because that is true i was looking it up as well wait the pills bear dope boy but pill for short okay but okay his his

nickname chubby so they call him bill oh man is he is ghastly white and a little soft? Well, yeah. I mean. Oh, man. That's good. This show is amazing. When certain teams don't inspire you for fantasy, we are inspired by their nicknames. Right? We're just here to bring the information.

It's going to be good defense. It's going to be good things for Ramondre. The big networks out there, they're too scared to talk about dog and pill. That's why you tune into this broadcast. That's right. Dog and pill. That'd be a good show. They both want to run the ball.

Dog v. pill. Can I just get a little bit mad at social media and Pillsbury for a second? Sure. Okay. Yeah, go ahead. What and Pillsbury for a second. Sure. Yeah, go ahead. What did Pillsbury do? Did he get something off your chest? Yeah, my son, my youngest son, he demanded, just beat me down to do this like one of those, you know, you see the little short video of, oh, check out this new way to make a cookie

bowl. Okay. Yeah. Oh, okay. You take the muffin pan. And you turn it upside down? You turn it upside down. You turn it upside down. You smush the cookie dough over the cupcake mold, and then once you bring it out, it's

like a little bowl. You put the ice cream in the cookie bowl. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, it looked so easy. Oh, no. My oven is ruined. It just dripped. I don't know.

I put too much of this cookie dough and it just I was like, I went to check on it when the timer was over. And actually my son went to check on it first. He said, where'd the cookies go? He goes over there. He goes, uh-oh. That's the Pillsbury. It's not ooh-hoo. It's uh-oh.

And yeah, so I got it. No bowl. No, I still got to clean the bottom of my uh the bottom of my oven now did you get with them tiktok recipes i know they look so actually like not just parts whole did whole things yeah just i think i put way too much it just it just apparently it expands when it cooks or something i don't know i was like wait for your mom to be home i'm not the baker and then. And then you ruined the oven. And then I ruined the oven.

So lessons taught. All right. Let's take a quick break here, and we'll come back with some more breakdowns. All right. This week on the Dog and Pill Show, let's move on to Seattle. Mike McDonald, Ryan Grubb, new head coach, new offensive coordinator. And so Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick, two of the oldest, I think they were the two oldest coaches in the league, are now gone.

And now he's being replaced by the youngest coach in the league who is exactly half of his age. Wow. 36 years old. Pete Carroll leaves at 72. And their offensive coordinator needs no nickname. It's Ryan Grubb. Grubb.

Grubba Dub. What is it? Grubba Dub. Grubba Dub Dub. Three men in a tub. There it is. Thank you. So expectations for Seattle who they've restructured the contract of Geno Smith, right?

And last year they were 22nd in points per game. Geno fell back from his Dave Canalez year. 21st in yards per game. Do we expect good things from Mike McDonald? So Mike McDonald is, he's one of these defensive hires. So he will be hopefully leaning on Ryan Grubb. How far will Ryan Grubb take this offense? I mean, his claim to fame is, you know, at the, from the University of Washington, which things went okay for them last year. So can we bring an exciting, high-flying offense to Seattle? I mean, at least the pieces are still there.

I think that the ADP of the Seattle players, I think will be very interesting. Kyle, can you pull up where DK and Lockett are going? And JSN. Yeah, and yes, and JSN. Just to see, because it feels like there's going to be a lot of risk here. So, yeah, DK Metcalf going at wide receiver 20. JSN at 36, Lockett at 54. Yeah.

So, I mean, there's a lot of the risk is already kind of baked into that ADP there. They were 7th in passing percentage and 28th in rushing percentage. And their strength is definitely what Kenneth Walker and Charbonnet can bring. So, you know, hiring a defensive-minded head coach that has an opportunity to, I don't know, bring in the Baltimore style of defense, maybe that's what this team is looking forward to. That should help the, we'll see though, the other offense of college guys bringing their work to the NFL. I think it's been mostly missed.

At least that's what my memory is telling me. I can't think of great examples, and I could think of a ton of failures. I mean, like the recent ones were like, you know, Ja Rule was a colossal failure. Chip Kelly. Yeah, and then Cliff Kingsbury. Got another job. Cliff is back.

Star. He was walked out of the NFL. How will Eric Biennemi do in the opposite transition? Probably poorly. Yeah, it'll be interesting. Tennessee, Mike Vrabel, another longtime head coach, gone. Brian Hallican. Hallican?

Hmm. That's the name. Brian Callahan taking over. Nick Holtz, offensive coordinator. This was a team that was, you know, they had one identity last year. Hand the ball off. 31st in pace of play. 9th in rush percentage.

And new Don. And he hired his papa to be the offensive line coach, which was originally Bill Callahan's first job. He's always been good at that. So they were 32nd last year, so nowhere to go but up. I mean, I don't know what there is to say about this Tennessee offense because you're losing Derrick Henry to free agency. And what else do you have?

I mean, we don't know what Will Levis will be long term. DeAndre Hopkins was the leading receiver. He is old. And he could be gone. Yeah, I mean, Will Levis is... Is this the worst offense in the NFL? I don't think so because the Panthers are worse. But I do believe that this...

Will Levis, to showed flashes and and if you want to say will Brian Callahan be seen as a good head coach I call him Hallican Hallican um will he be seen as a good head coach it's just it it's a synonymous question with what is Will Levis good like that's the truth if he can get the most out of Will Levis and he can get him to be a competent quarterback that'll be good otherwise you know this is another didn't you say that you kind of thought Tennessee was the team in the top 10 picks that you thought could because their division is not as strong and well when you're and didn't you say you love Brian Callahan when you're picking for I do like I will say this the whole nepotism argument of like oh these guys get their

jobs because daddy had them you know open the door you can make that as a negative argument i i actually see it as the opposite like this kid grew up in the nfl the reason mcveigh was hired so young is because he grew up what was his like his grandfather was a GM or something the Shanahan tree you know these guys know ball and and they grew up and they've usurped their fathers now I mean he's hiring daddy as the offensive line coach so I I do like Brian Callahan um but he's going to be a failure if Will Levis doesn't step up I mean that's the sad reality of coaching. Maybe. I think that Callahan will be given the freedom of, if you can see this year that it's not Will Levis, that

they'll probably keep him around to try and rebuild who's next. The odds are just bad for this whole situation to me. Yes. Like, Will Levis, you can say the word step up, but if you have the worst offensive line in the league, and you don't have a running game, and you don't have pass catchers, you're not going to succeed. He's not going to be able to overcome that.

I don't know that there's a worse quarterback in the league to be behind a bad offensive line because Will Levis cannot see pressure. I mean, he just gets smoked when guys come through. Washington has made the two most uninspiring hires for me of the entire offseason. I feel like in previous years we have been deluded enough to believe Washington's offensive weapons could be useful. Now we are having our hopes squashed instantly in the offseason. Like I have no hope for Washington. Isn't this a kindness though? It's a kindness to us, I guess,

but it is also a dashing of any dreams that we might have. Look, I'm sorry, Washington fans out there, but Dan Quinn, let's give it another go at head coach, replacing Ron Rivera. I feel like you're basically replacing Ron Rivera with Ron Rivera. Another one. And then Cliff Kingsbury, how? How'd you get back?

Who do you know, man? I would like to read you a quote of how it happened. All right. Quote, so, well, did it work for those people? No, it never does. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but it might work for us. That's a Tobias quote.

Yes, sir. That is how the meetings went. Tobias Funk was inside the commander's headquarters, and he said, it might work for us. I mean, and Cliff had competition for his services. So well done, Cliff. You've got an agent that works for you. We've been around the Cliff Kingsbury offense long enough. Good luck. Good luck.

I mean, Dan Quinn, he ran a great defense in Dallas. I'll give him credit for that. I do think that he obviously led a team to the Super Bowl. This is why I say it reminds me of Ron Rivera. One Super Bowl appearance in Atlanta. Ron Rivera had his one Super Bowl appearance with Cam Newton. Both quarterbacks were the MVPs of those seasons where they went

to the Super Bowl. And both men are usually very well respected and loved. Like the people around Dan Quinn and the people around Ron Rivera absolutely love these men. A year. A year and a half to a year to a year and a half you are beloved I think where you're at and then it just runs out.

For fantasy purposes, this is Cliff Kingsbury. Dan Quinn's irrelevant. He's the defensive head coach or the CEO here. So they brought in Cliff Kingsbury, and now we just go, okay, well, he had Hopkins, right? And he had Hopkins run a route bush, if you remember that, where he just was on the left running the same little two-yard out for a billion times.

Two of them all behind the line of scrimmage. Yeah, that's Terry McCoy. So, yeah, I'm pretty much out on this offense. Like many struggling, middling, head coach replacing teams, it's about the quarterback. We've got to see who they – we don't know who the quarterback's going to be here. It will – I mean – It will be the number two pick. Yeah, it'll probably be Drake. I'm going to read you the teams.

The Bears, Bengals, Browns, Saints, Eagles, Steelers, and Bucs all made changes to the offensive coordinator, not the head coach. Shane Waldron arrives in Chicago, comes from Seattle, where the offense struggled last year after a resurgent 2022. Cincinnati. They did not want a belly itcher. Nice. Dan Pitcher, the new offensive coordinator. He was their quarterback's coach. Just moving familiarity with... That's normally a good

situation when you have a quarterback that is established and then you just next man up situation can run a similar offense. Ken Dorsey, who we saw fired midseason in Buffalo, takes over in Cleveland. The NFL is funny, man. Come on, man. Clint Kubiak takes over in New Orleans. I think this one's at least noteworthy i mean speaking of the cubes the nepotism train there is another kubiak uh in town and the kubiak offense it has been very successful so i mean we'll great great running scheme usually

so for alva camara, finding more space. It did make me feel a little bit of hope for one more nice year from Kamara, which I have him on a couple teams, and I've been very negative on his prospects. But the more I look at Kubiak, I say, okay, maybe. Maybe we get one more year out of Kamara. Kellen Moore arrives in Philadelphia replacing Brian Johnson. I could not love what Philadelphia did more than what they did with both of their offensive and defensive coordinator hires.

I just think they needed – they tried the next man up. You know, they lost their OC in D.C. last year, and they're like, well, the guy's behind. This is your chance. Well, those guys behind failed. And so he's like, well, let's go out and get guys who have succeeded for a long time and proven that they're at least good at offense for an offensive coordinator and they're good at defense

for a defensive coordinator and come in and run with a talented lineup. So I really, really, really like it. We'll remind people on Kellen Moore because it wasn't the best for the Los Angeles Chargers. Angeles. What is going on today? We're all struggling here. We've got an enunciation filter?

They were 18th in offense this past year. But the four years prior for Dallas, Kellen Moore helped oversee the number one offense in yards, 14th, first, 11th. So he has a resume of success, despite last year being pretty bad. We got Pittsburgh. Number two. Arthur.

I've got a plan. Arthur Smith replacing Matt Canada. He's back, baby. Glad I can go ahead and filter the Steelers out of my plans I mean this is a 28th 28th in points per game 25th in pace of play 25th in yards 30th in pass percentage

cool great let's bring in Arthur Smith look it means good things for Najee Harris it means good things for Jalen Warren it really does the only glass half full way I can come about this or look at it is

in Tennessee, which was Derrick Henry, but at least for two years in Tennessee when Arthur was only the offensive coordinator, 12th in yards, second in yards. It was all predicated on the run game and Derrick Henry, of course.

But maybe Arthur Smith could be one of those guys who just can't run the team. He has to only be focused on the offense. That's my hope. There are examples of that. Yeah, I agree with that, but we know what his preference is with the offense. And to me this feels like the hiring feels like the Steelers saying we don't have a quarterback and we're going to admit that like we don't have a like you you could bring in a uh a quarterback whisperer

that offensive coordinator if you thought that there was a big gap to what you got from Kenny Pickett or Mason Rudolph to like like, I don't know, middle of the pack, quality passer. And it feels like they just said, you know what, we don't got one. We don't have one. So we're just going to lean into what we do have and try to scrape our way through. So in that regard, I mean, it doesn't mean good things for the pass catchers.

I mean, where are you going to be talking about Pat Fryermuth next year? You don't even know if Mason Rudolph's the quarterback. Well, the number one targets to the tight end position were from Arthur Smith. Is the Muth playing? Yeah, but can he get Luth? Is he going to play the Kyle Pitts role, or is he going to play the Jonu Smith role? He is made for the Jonu Smith role for Arthur Smith.

Then we're all right. Yeah, baby. Yeah, right. I'm out. I'm in. I'm in on the Muth. Yeah, go. Yeah, right. I'm out. I'm in. I'm in on the mute. Yeah, go for it. Tampa Bay, they added Liam Cohen replacing Dave Canales.

This will be, I think the big thing will be the loss of Canales and whether or not that impacts Baker, but you did have a year there. It wasn't good for Geno when Canales left. There you go. And if these trends continue, Liam will be the Kentucky offensive coordinator. Next year? Next year. Oh, because he went Rams assistant, Kentucky OC, Rams OC, Kentucky OC.

Yeah. And now. He's got a fallback. Bucks OC. Wow. And then, hey, Kentucky. How does Kentucky do that? They, they love Liam. They're just like, please don't go. And then he's just got a job if they want it.

Maybe he goes, I'm only going for a year. I'll be back. Weird. I'm gonna go get this check real quick. Need that NFL insurance. I'll split the check with you. Let me go for a year. Alright, three days left. One final reminder as we close it down. Your chance to get entered to win a Listener League spot. If you pick up the 2024 UDK Plus, you can go to UltimateDraftKit.com Get a chance to

play with us in the Listener League and jump right into the UDK UltimateltimateDraftKit.com Thursday! I feel like I said that kind of loud. It was too loud. I didn't back off the mic. Sorry, guys. Thursday. Thursday. We have

a Top 10 Things to Remember episode, one of our funnest episodes of the year. As we reflect on last season, things that we picked up, that we learned. Jason's got his little black book he writes his little notes uh did any of the notes say like be better in league of record and don't let andy win is that one of your tips for this upcoming no no last year it was remember that i'm the champ okay last year yeah no did you make a note be better in the dynasty league oh Oh, boy. No.

We got two of your three tips, Jay. I hate you guys. All right. Our free agent predictions episode is coming soon as well. Thanks to the Ducers, Al Borland, Judge Giamatti, Rev Scallion for holding it down today. We'll be back on Thursday. Goodbye. Bye-bye.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy footballers podcast join our fantasy football community on join the foot.com and follow us on twitter at the ff ballers