Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Week 1 Hype + TNF Breakdown, Starts/Sits - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/4

Episode Date: September 4, 2024

Week 1 questions and advice on today’s fantasy football podcast! Andy, Mike, and Jason discuss the Chase holdout situation and latest NFL injury updates. Plus, start/sit confidence levels and a breakdown for Thursday Night Football between the Ravens and Chiefs! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for September 4th, 2024. (00:00) - Intro (06:00) - Hungry For More (06:25) - Brandon Aiyuk (09:50) - Luke McCaffrey (13:30) - Tee Higgins (17:30) - NFL News (33:30) - Ravens at Chiefs (49:25) - Jerome Ford Start/Sit Questions Connect with the show: Subscribe on YouTube Visit us on the Web Support the Show Follow on X Follow on Instagram Join our Discord Check out today's sponsors: Hungry For More presented by Uber Eats News & Notes presented by USAA. Visit https://USAA.com/Insurance Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

including a new chance to win cash every minute in the app. Get into the game with Monopoly Double Play at McDonald's. While supplies last, one in five chances to win game piece prizes at outset, chances to win Double Play prizes based on time of code entry, and draw prizes based on number of entries in each draw. See rules in the app. Get a credit card annual fee waiver and earn C-plus points faster with the Scotiabank Ultimate Package and bank more entertainment. Learn more at scotiabank.com slash banking packages. Conditions apply. Scotiabank. You're richer than you think. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.

Welcome in. The Fantasy Footballers back once more. Jason Moore, Mike Wright, Andy Holloway. Happy to be with you. Wednesday episode of the show. We've got full deuces. Full deuces in the house. Al Borland, Papa Josh, the Falcon

feeling alright today in the building. In the building, yeah. It is ironic that the one day you said we have full deuces. No Kyle today on the microphone. Thank goodness. Yeah, I mean, is he really a deucer? Not really. You need to be in deuces alley.

Yeah. He's a deucer of another sort. He's on a plane. He's on his way here. We've got League of Record draft tomorrow. We've got so much tomorrow. I want to hear from the listeners because I have i've heard some you know a sprinkling of tweets and things like that about wanting more league of record content in general so i want i want to hear

about that because last year the show the show gosh the show moment the show moment of the year was the papa josh in my situation And I'm not forgetting you, Al. You're awful. But then, like, we were able to put up on the website, like, the matchup. And so I want to know if people want some more League of Record content. I mean, things like that are always going to be split. You're going to be 50-50. Half the people out there are going to be like, that's awesome.

And half are like, I don't care about your league, man. That's my guess. So we'll share some pictures from our League of Record draft on Thursday. And it's going to be fun. Going to break down the Thursday night game today. We're talking real football. We're going to talk about real football on the show. We've got news to talk about.

We'll see if Mike and Will won more contracts into existence. I gave it my best shot yesterday, everyone. You have been tweeting relentlessly trying to get this done. I think I'm out of ammo. No, you're out of days, too. I mean, you're running out of— Not on the Joe Burrow schedule. We'll see what happens.

Yeah. Jamar Chase is a big topic, especially if you haven't drafted yet or even if you have and you added him to your roster, you don't know if you're going to be able to play him. So stupid. It's so stupid. Here's some League of Record talk. Mike, you have the second pick in our draft.

Thanks to the lottery. I have the pick just behind you. Our keeper system, most of the great players are kept. There's a handful, a few yeah monster great players that fall back into the draft there's two of them in particular aj brown jamar chase with the jamar chase holdout he might fall to you mike and guess who i play week one you baby go ahead get that jamar chase and sit him on your bench and play me i think he he will. I think he would do that. It's not a one-week game.

All I care about is our matchup. We have week one rankings up on the website, thefantasyfootballers.com. You can go check those out. 20,844. That was the final count for

the... That's awesome. That is the all-time record for the Megalobowl, and I had my Megalobowl draft last night. I let my son handle some of the duties, who's my co-manager in League of Records. He is acclimating to the advanced fantasy football world. He's got more and more into it. He did all right.

He made one kind of interesting decision. We had Jameer Gibbs in the first round, and then he went a couple wideouts. We got Marvin Harrison, and then he took a tight end. So when he was coming back in the fifth round or fourth round for another running back, and pretty much the only other running back we got on the roster was David Montgomery.

Oh man, all in. So we're going big, big Lions. Someone on Twitter told me the Lions were winning the Super Bowl. Yeah, that is a fact. Yeah. You read that too? Yeah, somebody tweeted that out. So yes, thank everybody uh for joining the

megaloball it's going to be fun this year and then the community for in-season tools and resources including the brand new ultimate dashboard is at jointhefoot.com uh initial feedback has been very positive and we're going to keep adding more and more to the ultimate dashboard if you want to know what that is it is an in-season lineup optimizer. It'll help you find spot starts. It'll help you find waiver pickups, a custom team news feed, and it's all synced to your league if you're on ESPN Public Leagues, if you're on Yahoo, or if you're on Sleeper. Those are the three supported right now.

You can also manually add your team, and that optimizer is going to keep getting better and better, and that's brand new for 2024 gives you a pretty handy news feed of what's going on with your your specific players as well absolutely like if you have kyle pitts oh my gosh welcome to hungry for more presented by uber aids i'm hungry for more news you beat me to the joke jason i had to i had to get jumped on that grenade i gave i gave you such a great segue to the wrong segment you pulled the pin and you just rolled the grenade on the ground. But at the end, I kicked it away a little bit.

So just scar. Only blew your leg off. Yeah. Yeah. We are, we've got hungry for more. We're heading into week one. And I chose an interesting player for this week's segment. I'm hungry for more.

Oh, you and me both, brother. Brandon Ayuk of the San Francisco 49ers. Why? Why do I want more? Because you've had none. Because I want a wide receiver one if he's going to be treated like a wide receiver one with the purse strings and the trade offers. I mean, we didn't talk about it on the show, but it came out that the Browns offered Amari

Cooper and a two and a three for the opportunity to vastly maybe not overpay but just to write a big contract for brandon iuk and iuk didn't want to go to cleveland and he didn't want to go to new england who also wrote a big check and you know the the steelers weren't willing to give up pickens on the way back so san francisco that deal didn't come to fruition iuk even came out and said over the last month he kind of made it hard on the team because i think he didn't know what to do i genuinely think it was a little bit of like contract posturing and then you get to the standstill and it was like well i guess i'm going to just keep holding and then eventually you just

sign the contract you have that pot odds thing where you're like no i said i said i was going to do this it's like like, ah, shoot. Let's be honest. Players get the chance to miss camp. Who doesn't want to miss some camp? I've heard they like to miss it. So when I say I'm hungry for more Brandon Ayuk, it's the level up. I want to see him have his first wide receiver one season of all time.

He's never done it. He may have played like a wide receiver one and gets paid like a wide receiver one, but in fantasy, he has not accomplished that goal. He was so efficient last year. It was one of the things we brought up in the offseason about maybe a little bit of a, whoa, be careful with Brandon Ayoub because you can't have that many big plays happen year after year. And we let all wide receivers in fantasy points per target and so that level of efficiency led to wide receiver 14 missed the game he was right on the edge of wide receiver one points per game i'm trying to look it up real quick but he was at 13.2 is that right 13.2 points per game and he missed a game i mean that's right on the cusp but i want top 10 mike that's we'll

upgrade it i'll let you know if that would have been top 10. But what do you think the chances are? I mean, we can want anything, but do you believe that Brandon Ayuk will be a – you know, look, he's been a top 15 wide receiver the last two seasons. Yes. How confident are you that he is a top 15 wide receiver this season? Pretty confident, and I do think that there's a chance that – like, we look at that offense, and we look at it with the chart of targets, and you say, okay, some go to Iyuk, some go to Debo, Kittle gets some, McCaffrey gets some, and that's how you look at the offense.

I do think the dial could be turned. I think this team could support Brandon Iyuk taking a step forward, and Kittle and Debo may be taking a step back. If this team is planning for Debo to leave next year, it could be time for Brandon Iyuk to be super alpha on this roster. Hungry for more Brandon Ayuk. I've been resistant to get on that train where I believe he could be a top 10 wide receiver, but the market says he has the capability.

Top 10 will be rough if the 49ers keep throwing at the pace that they do. They're incredibly efficient. Yeah. They're incredibly efficient when they do. And looking at it, 13.2. I think it puts him like 11th or 12th in points per game. But that's.1 behind Jamar Chase from last year. Yeah.

All right. I'm going to go with my hungry for more. A very different same position, but very different situation. It is a rookie who has gotten not a lot of love. Luke McCaffrey, rookie wide receiver for the Washington Commanders. It's a player I liked the college film of. I like the production. 13 receiving touchdowns, a 37% dominator rating.

And then they traded away Jahan Dotson. And when that happened, I thought, look, this must mean Luke McCaffrey's having a good camp. He's doing what they wanted him to do. He was a third round pick. This is not like, you know, I know he wasn't the Christian McCaffrey brother top 10 NFL selection, but he also wasn't, you know, Mr. Irrelevant day three, seventh round pick either. This was an investment the team made into him. And then they trade away last year's first Jahan Dotson. And I'm thinking, okay, he's showed enough. And then a report comes out right after that. That's like, I don't know if he's going to get run. And so I was, I was a little scared off of it because I'm always looking for those guys like Malik Washington and Luke McCaffrey those those rookie wide receivers that might

just sneak into that starting lineup but then the official Washington commanders depth chart comes out and lo and behold Luke McCaffrey is listed ahead of Diami Brown on that chart at least I mean TBD until the games are played but he he's listed as the starter, which he should be. He's the next best. You know, Terry is the one. And they've been saying all offseason they're looking for their two. I think they have it. So I would love to see Luke McCaffrey succeed.

I would love to see him start. And we got an early offseason breakfast narrative, boys. Uh-oh. Is he having breakfast with Jane Daniels? Well, listen to this early report about Jane Daniels from an ESPN article. It says Daniels clocks in around 5.45 a.m. It is what he did at LSU, too. Rookie receiver Luke McCaffrey has been joining Daniels in Washington.

The two players watch film and then head to the practice bubble and walk through plays. Rookie-rookie connection at breakfast. Did we get confirmation that they're eating together? No. Because I think you were trying to – I'm trying to push it in breakfast. I mean, they've got to eat. They've got a whole day of practice.

At least like a breakfast bar. They split one or something. I think they're sharing a breakfast bar. Or just like a protein shake maybe. Yeah, well, their protein quota's got to be very high. Least a gram per pound. LMC is the pick. I like it. He's a fascinating player

of J. Just some more context in there. He started as a quarterback in college and before making the transition to being a wide receiver. Really only two years as a wide receiver, but really strong production. It's real narrative street but i like the

fact like that he played quarterback i think it gives you a different advantage out there if you know how a quarterback is seeing the field it's the julian edelman narrative a little bit the travis kelsey narrative the muhammad sanu narrative a little bit a little bit just the more knowledge you can get about the entirety of the football team, I think it's better. Josh Jacobs' narrative? Did you know that? Really?

He was a high school quarterback. Jacobs was? Yeah, he was a high school quarterback. I did not know that one. Are you thinking Montgomery was, too? Oh, that is who I was thinking. Yeah, okay. All right, yeah, yeah.

That's why I didn't know that. David Montgomery was on an interview the other day. Wasn't he talking to Amon Ra? He was talking to Amon Ra. Was that it? Yes, that show's hilarious because Amon Ra and his brother are on it and I would say about half the show is them just

mocking each other's teams and how they think their teams suck. Montgomery was like, what'd you throw for? And it was like, oh, like 200 yards. He threw for like 200 yards. They were dunking on him. Alright, so Mike, you got a wide receiver for us as well.

Hungry for more? I have been pushed into this corner, so I will accept it with hunger in my belly. It is T. Higgins, current wide receiver. This is kind of a hungry for what's left. Lots of opportunity. Lots of leftovers here. Yeah, that's a leftover situation. Tee Higgins has, if you've been with the show over the last few years,

Tee Higgins has destroyed my soul in the League of Record for multiple years. And with these injuries not being as productive as I think that he should be, because I do believe that he is a great player. But since his counterpart, Jamar Chase, has come into the league, we've seen T without him five times. And in those five games, it is pure domination. It's from 10 points a game up to nearly 17. A climb of two receptions per game uh yardage jumps up almost oh no over 40 yards per game so it the fact that he that's a small sample of course but it's we're we're backed into this situation you are thumbs upping something what do we got josh jacobs oh jacobs was uh high school dual threat

quarterback all right wow okay well sorry sorry we figured it out i love it uh i had moved on but High school dual threat quarterback. All right. Wow. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. We figured it out. I love it. I had moved on, but Al found it. So credit to Al still trying to make up for last year. I love player who has become professional running back was a dual threat at the quarterback position. Weird.

Weird how that happened. Yeah. Just pocket passer passer David Montgomery. But T. Higgins, to me, had already been shaping up to be a good pick at ADP. You're saying with Chase there. Yeah, absolutely. Regardless of everything that was – like Jamar Chase was still a top three pick. T. Higgins was looking like a great value where he was going. You didn't have to overpay where it was. The last couple years – last year, Jalen Waddell and Tee Higgins

both being drafted really, really high, expectations through the ceiling, and now they aren't there. And now we have all this weird, ambiguous stuff. Maybe you get a freebie week one. I think no matter what, you probably do, because the reports I saw were now it's Jamar Chase could be trending to not playing. I'm going to hold out if I don't get a contract.

But even if he gets the contract, what do you do if you're the Bengals? I'll put him right in that starting lineup. I don't know if you do. Oh, yeah, you do. But, I mean – As a full-time player, I don't know that he'll get his full allotment of snaps. That could be true. There could be some consequences from that.

But I'm sitting here just like there was a time this offseason was dominated by not paying T. Higgins, and here we are with Jamar Chase. Yeah. Like this is not the first wide receiver that's been unhappy with this team. He just – Higgins had to sign his deal, and he's going to be moving on after the year. But the Bengals said, you know, Joe Burrow, we got you locked up, and we're just going to play around with the wide receiver position

and it's a mess there there is a chart that if you mess around you find out yeah and i think that they're about they're they're hitting the uh the apex of the find out part it's unfortunate the bangles organization has they've referred to that chart many times yeah the bangles organization well the bangles team as a whole, their ADP-wise, I think they're one of my favorite, most undervalued. I think T is undervalued, which I still feel weird just calling them T.

I don't know why. I think Burrow is undervalued. I personally think Zach Moss is undervalued. I wanted to talk about it before, but I was so scared by this situation, the situation, the vibes, and the fact that why aren't you paying your players? But to each their own.

All right. That was Hungry for More presented by Uber Eats. Get almost almost anything for game day, like tomorrow, delivered with Uber Eats, official on-demand food delivery partner of the NFL. Order now. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. So we talked about Chase.

That is the latest news, that it's trending towards the possibility, and again, this is media negotiation tactic 101. But it's getting, I mean, we got limited time, and the news today is chase might not play like he might not play this weekend or he's willing to not play like he's not willing to come back and and take snaps without a deal and so you know i i'm with i'm not going to not draft jamar chase if it's a heads up in a full redraft between

Amon Ra, I'm taking Amon Ra. If you go further, if it's Jefferson or Chase, I'm taking Jefferson. In our league of record, for what it's worth, the top two names on the board are A.J. Brown and Jamar

Chase. I think it's appropriate to take Brown over Chase regardless of the contract situation. Yeah, I think that's fair. We cannot be living in this world where everything's been perfect for Jamar Chase every single game of every single season. This is a player who, I mean, what's his highest fantasy finish at the position? I think it was his rookie year. Five?

He was five as a rookie, 12, and then 13. He's missed games two straight years. So, you know, we know what he's capable of, but there's really no reason you can't make a decision and say, I like A.J. Brown more. No, I think when you're talking about those tier one guys, the A.J. Brown, the Amon Ra, for me, I'm a little hesitant with the Josh Jefferson, but I get it.

What about Garrett Wilson? Because I feel like that's in the same category that's the tier the Garrett Wilson Olave Drake London those guys I'm not willing to do that I'm not because I I can't imagine I would squint a little bit at Wilson the rest of them on the field I just feel like you you know if you miss one week whatever you're going to have players miss a couple of games through the season it sucks that it's week one but whatever okay all right we have uh news uh guess what guys kyle pitts kyle pitts is dealing with a hamstring injury it was reported just now but apparently it's been going on for a couple of weeks and hasn't affected him too much i don't know how i'm not a doctor, but if my hamstring, it's either bugging me or it's not.

It's not like, yeah, it's like 50%. I'm out here practicing with 50% hamstring level. I don't know how this works, but you don't want to hear this, especially for a player whose major excuse since his rookie, you know, quote-unquote breakout 1,000 yards but didn't get touchdowns. Did you just quote-unquote 1,000 yards? Yeah. Yeah, because it wasn't a good season for fantasy.

It's a fair quote. I'm going to approve. He had 1,000 yards as a rookie. I'm approving it. And two touchdowns. And two touchdowns. I'm just saying, no one was happy. The people that drafted Kyle Pitts as a rookie, they had a bust pick.

If you finish at seven, add tight end, it's not a breakout. No. Anyways, my point here is, since that time, all the excuses have been injury related. Oh, it was the PCL. Head, shoulders, knees, and toes. Yeah, and then it's like, oh, he couldn't

turn left or whichever direction because he was coming back from that knee injury. Oh, yeah, the Zoolander. Yeah, and then now the hamstring. So it's not what you want to hear. Yoo-hoo. I was finally, despite all of those comments, Mike, I was finally ready to pull that trigger in some of these drafts

because he does represent this tremendous upside with Kirk Cousins. But now I have pause again because if you're dealing with a hamstring, what are you going to do? Two tight ends? You're ready to go double tight end to start the year? I don't want that game. I get it. I'm just over here still blown away that 1,000 yards as a rookie tight end is not a breakout for you guys.

It's not a breakout fantasy football season. That's what I meant. So it is for you? You think that was a breakout season? For the second. Has Kyle Pitts broken out in fantasy football? No, in football. Don't doubt.

We're a fantasy football show. I feel like also. He is the second tight end ever as a rookie to hit 1,000 yards. How many games did he play? Very, very good rookie season. Okay. He got an extra game. We don't care about that for the all time?

As soon as we add a 17th game, everybody can do it? Woo! You guys are just blowtorching him. What if it's 18 games? Is he going to give the next guy the same credit? Yeah, if he hits 1,000. Oh my gosh. 50 games. It's been a long time since those

days. A long time. Three seasons. Let's do it on the field, days. A long time. Three seasons. Let's do it on the field, Mr. Pitts. I don't know. Does it change your opinion of this hamstring injury, Mike? You want to pull the trigger? It makes me more concerned. Okay.

Marshawn Lloyd didn't practice after practicing a couple days. They're giving him a day off. We don't know how. They said it was part of the plan and that it was on time. It was scheduled to miss. It was not a – it's good to hear that it wasn't like he went out, practiced, hurt himself worse. It was this was the plan of bringing him back when he's going to practice when he's not.

I don't know that he plays week one. I don't think he does. I think he might miss a couple weeks. And then the compounded news here is the other backup running back for Green Bay, Emmanuel Wilson, was limited Tuesday with a hip injury. And now their dual-threat quarterback is going to go ham. I believe Josh Jacobs has the most total touches at running back over the last three years.

He has been the most workhorse capable. And the team has come out and said, yeah that's what he does he's fine if we have to do that we'll just do it they have to do it over the first over the first few weeks josh jacobs will be very good i don't know how he's not a workhorse all of the running backs on this roster are injured except for him and if you tell me that the biggest threat to josh jacobs on a competitive playoff team is a currently injured rookie that has to acclimate and become a part of the offense, I think that's going to last a lot

longer than a few weeks, personally. It was a late surge. Incredible surge for Josh Jacobs. My worry is the second half of the year. Ty Chandler has been announced as the kick returner for the Vikings. That's not the fun one. The Bengals has been announced as the kick returner for the Vikings.

That's not the fun one. The Bengals announced Chase Brown as the kick returner for the Bengals. That's not the fun one. Blake Corum was listed as the primary kick returner. Oh, my God. His value is over. You can't draft Blake Corum. We're all going to die.

He's returning kicks? Oh, man. Why even be on the team? You know what? I'd be a lot happier if it was flipped. If it was Kyron returning kicks and Corwin returning punts. Because the kickoff is safe now. The kickoff is completely changed.

So the punts, you're going to get knocked out. Well, you fair catch. Yeah. If it's a fair catch, have anybody else do it. Short hands. You trust his hands. Yeah. No, that's not wrong.

This is not even news. I mean, a rookie returning kicks is called NFL football. It's news in the fact that people wanted to react to Kyron. They should have reacted to Kyron. Then you should react to this. No, not at all. He's a rookie. He's a backup. They should have reacted to Kyron. Then you should react to this. No, not at all. He's a rookie. He's a backup.

He should return kicks. You're starting running back. Okay, let me ask you this. Okay. Name all the other starting workhorse running backs that returned punts in the NFL. Go. I'll wait.

I could do some research, but it's going to be very low. Go ahead. What now? Saquon returning punts? Just to be clear. Jameer Gibbs returning punts? Just to be clear. You can't just returning punts? Just to be clear. You can't just say player.

You have to say running back because of Antonio Brown or those guys. Totally different. Starting running back. Starting. Yes, it is different. How is it different? Because the workload on a workhorse running back, you're not giving your wide receiver 22 carries a game.

It's a big difference. That's why you've never seen it. This is a story because no one's ever done it. I can't think of, other than you telling me Kyron, who wasn't their starter when he did it, did it last year, I can't think of another running back. In fact, if you went through the top

five rounds of running backs, I don't think you're going to find one. We will see. Kyron returning kicks tells me it's a committee that's what it is it's going to be a committee and okay and I I'm not just saying this to be like hot take you on the show I traded Kyron away for Gibbs in our league of record after the news and there are those out there that think that some people reacting to that news is absolutely crazy and that's fine

Kyron may go out and by the way he plays Gibbs Sunday night football week one we're going to put it to the test he may go out and just light the league on fire again or it could be a committee with Corum and Ronnie Rivers so where have you moved Kyron rankings wise like in your head where what tier is he in now now that he is guaranteed in the committee what do you see as his i'd put gibbs above him i mean well gibbs was already above him yeah gibbs was already above him for all three of our rankings i have kyron one spot yeah i was gonna say i had kyron ahead before so i was just telling you where i adjusted let me take a look

let me get some number i'll give you some names yeah go, go ahead. Travis Etienne. Etienne's above him, for sure. Let's go Derek Henry. I will in a standard go Henry. The others, I'll still go Kyron. Okay. Devon Aitian. I'd probably take the shot on Aitian. I have him one spot behind Aitian. I have Kyron at 10, so

that's where I moved him. Okay. He's at 10. He's behind Barkley. He's behind Cook. He's behind Aitian. Rashad White. One spot behind Kyron. Wow, so that's where I moved him. He's at 10. He's behind Barkley. He's behind Cook. He's behind A-Chan. Rashad White. One spot behind Kyron. Wow, behind Cook. One spot behind Kyron. Okay, okay.

Yeah, he's behind Cook for me. Okay. For me. Again, I'm not really happy this whole conversation came up. I'm really not because it's just too much air time for the story that I didn't mean it to be. This sounds like I think Kyron is the worst player in the league. He's incredible. That's what I heard.

He's number 10 on my rankings, but it did move him. It did change him. Because my problem with Gibbs, right, is, ah, committee with Montgomery. Right? The hope of Kyron was you were going to get everything. Yes, yes, yes. What you got last year. And, again, he didn't have Cooper cut for summer last year, too.

Like, this is a competitive red zone situation. So, we'll find out very, very soon how stupid or smart or in between we all are on that decision. It's tough. You're looking for one little tweak as to who you're going to draft. But Ty Chandler returning kicks, we knew he's behind Aaron Jones. Chase Brown returning kicks, we knew he was behind Zach Moss. So those are kind of – they don't – it actually makes me interested.

In Zach Moss? Just in – like Chase Brown and Ty Chandler with the new kick returns and those players being committee backs where you were drafting them already, it's kind of cool when your guy's going to get an opportunity. It might be one, one touchdown extra a year, but if you are starting a committee back and they get one, that's cool. Yeah, I'm fascinated to see because a lot of the coaches early this offseason, they were talking about putting more important, more talented players in that role

because it's going to be a field position change. Yeah, we'll see. Have heard rumors, of course, all these things. But some teams are just saying, screw it. We're going to boot it in the end zone, and we're going to give the team the good touchback because I think it's the 35. Yeah.

I've heard teams say that we're going to let all the other teams, we're going to see what happens over the first few weeks, but we'll just start people at the 35. The data that I've seen from preseason is that basically the shorter they kick it, the better it is for the kicking team on field position. I don't know why. Maybe it's not going to the right guy. I was playing.

They just get there. The rules are, it's a the and the the rules are it's it's a pretty complex play now because if you you know you have the the area of the field where the ball has to hit and I was playing Madden with the boy and I didn't remember exactly how it works and so do you get a penalty no no you don't get a penalty but like I'm on the the the one or the two right returning the kick and i'm like we're gonna let this thing roll right into the end zone but because it hit in the zone and then goes in the end zone then you're on the 20 yeah yeah because you're you're forced to return it yeah it's gonna be it's gonna be weird it will and that's almost uh kind of been forgotten that

that's what we're gonna see debuted debuted as well on Sunday in every game. Thursday. Tomorrow. Yep, tomorrow. Okay, is there other news you guys have? Anything else breaking? Does Jamar Chase be able to buy dinner tonight? Does he have what it takes?

Still able to purchase dinner. Just no new contract. That was today's News & Notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Going to take a quick break and jump right into our matchup. Also, with the news, the IU contract, all the contract stuff, the stuff that happened last year, I am taking the formal approach from this point on that anything goes.

Oh, I love it. If it's within the NFLPA, the CBA, for the players, and if the team can do it, the ownership, whatever, if it's permissible, I'm not going to look down upon it from either side. Everything is fair game, and I completely agree with you. I don't judge the team for wanting to not pay guys, and I don't judge the players

for wanting to get paid. The one place, though, is that I still think stupid decisions are stupid decisions. And so, for instance, let's say after week one, they give Jamar Chase everything he wanted. It's just dumb.

You lost your player. You're a very valuable player that could have helped you. Maybe you lose that game. Maybe you miss the playoffs because of one loss. If you're going to pay him, maybe do it so he can play. And that is stupid, but also maybe Jamar Chase exercising those options that he has is the only way he got paid. I mean, that's the give and take of the situation that kind of, you know,

I think players make mistakes. Lev Bell took a gamble, didn't work out, ruined his career. Yeah. But then teams have made mistakes too. And the Bengals in particular, like when you think of the Bengals organization, I know things have gotten a lot better. They made a Super Bowl run, and they have great players now, but they historically have done –

They've pooped the bed on contracts for players. They have ruined player relationships. And then a completely different circumstance, I get it, and we didn't talk about it, but Patrick Sertan of the Denver Broncos, same draft class as Jamar Chase, same contract situation sitting behind him. They just made him the highest paid DB in history. It is.

Yeah, I don't know. I think some of it has been teams with small windows to win with the players they got. Don't negotiate the way that teams building a new foundation do. The Broncos foundation, DJ more foundation in Chicago. Yeah, it could be. It's weird.

It's interesting to me. Brandon Ayuk was super transparent about it. He came out and he's like, you know, not just said he made it more difficult than it needed to be at the end, but he said a squeaky wheel has to be silent sometime. Then you have to know when to squeak. I was just trying to find the balance. Like that's gotta be strange.

It's gotta be weird because you're putting your trust in your agent, right? You're not just making every decision yourself, but you're sitting at home wanting to be with your team going, is this the right thing? Is this not the right thing? Is this the right thing? Um,

and we'll get to talk about it every year forever. So there you go. Thursday night. Breakdown. I think Kyron's going to be good. I just want to, you know. Okay. He's going to be a good player. I mean, that's not what I heard.

No, I know it's not. He's a backup. The Baltimore Raiders. Oh, my gosh. I'm going to dunk so hard if it pans out that way and ignore it if it doesn't baltimore at kansas city jay gonna alley oop yeah yeah one of you throw it up for the other uh the draft king sportsbook line for the thursday night football kickoff game kansas city at home minus three the over under is-under is 46-and-a-half.

Okay. And we saw these teams face off and score far fewer points in the AFC title game. Kansas City won 17-10. And they had the ball for the majority of that game. It was a ball control situation. It was that running game. Baltimore turned it over three times. Kansas City defense, we know how good it was last year.

It's not the same, but it should be very good. I'm happy to report that both teams have lost important defensive assets because that was part of the problem with these two teams, especially Kansas City last year with Snead there just locking down opposing ones. So happy he's gone because I want Patrick Mahomes to have to throw the ball a lot more. And even though I love Pacheco, just do it in the passing game. I got bad news, though.

The Ravens don't have any wide receiver ones, so he wouldn't have been needed. No, we get to see Derrick Henry in Ravens purple. Very exciting. And we get to see what Zay Flowers has for a sophomore season. Mark Andrews should be back out there yeah he was practicing and um you know so it's going to be very very exciting very good defenses last year like jason said we're hoping that you know traditionally when you come out of the gate sometimes the offense takes a little while to get it going.

We'll see what happens in this one. You're not going to have Hollywood Brown making his debut on the other side in terms of the injuries. But let's start at the quarterback position. In week one, Mahomes has finished as the quarterback 4, 5, 14, 2, 1, and 7 and averages 3.3 passing touchdowns in season openers. Yeah, I mean, this is one of those where if you drafted Mahomes, if you drafted Lamar, obviously you're playing them. There is no one you're going to start over them.

They were drafted to be started. It's just a matter of expectation, and I do think that both of these quarterbacks have a good week one despite last year's number one and number two in points per game defenses yeah i mean lamar it's uh it was a lot to ask of him last year it was a tough game are we gonna see the same i mean this question gets brought up like to be fair it's been brought up with josh allen a million times about hitting a wall of, of the rushing totals being where you want them to be. Um,

Josh Allen is how old? 28. Uh, Lamar is 27.6. Do you think at some point we're going to see, is 28. Yeah. See the transition for Lamar to,

uh, protecting himself, or is that just going to be too integral to his game forever? I think it's probably going to be, he's a different type. Yes. He's a different type. Yes. He's a different type of runner. He doesn't seem to take the damage that like Cam Newton and Josh Allen.

These are guys that go, you know, it's like around the goal line. They're smashing into defenders and running over them. You don't see, you know, Lamar's rushing touchdowns usually come from much further away and he's avoiding players. So I think he'll run a little later than some of those big-body guys, but certainly this year I'm not worried about it at all. I do think it might be a pretty difficult debut for Isaiah Pacheco if he's not involved in the passing game, which he could be,

but we'll also see Samaj AP right out there. This is a very tough matchup. Last year the Ravens were number one against the run, and in that divisional game and in the uh in that divisional game or sorry in that uh title game he was 24 for 68 not efficient scored a touchdown you're obviously drafting him to start him I'm not saying don't do anything differently we're not we're not spot starting Isaiah Pacheco's anytime yeah it's just like Kyron like Kyron's week one matchup against the Lions the Lions have been shutting down running back.

He might have a bad week one. Don't overreact from one matchup. I will. This game, it's fantastic because it's an easy game of you're starting everybody. It's just what are the storylines that I am watching for? I think Xavier Worthy is the big start-sit question. Oh, okay. I mean, that's fair.

Here's why you start Xavier Worthy. You want to call your shot, and you want to see it on the first chance you have to watch football. If that is not the reason you're starting him, I would just draft him probably as one of your top three wide receivers in which case you know let let the game much play out much different player but I can tell you from personal experience last year of Travis Kelsey missing week one and Sky Moore been looking like a really good play and and he wasn't. He was very detrimental to your team whenever you started him.

So I wouldn't be trying. I'm not forcing Worthy into the lineup, but the storylines I'm looking for, does Rasheed Rice keep that target share up? How involved is Pacheco in the passing game? It's so huge. Especially if week one, like Samaje Pirine, who just got onto this team, is all of a sudden taking a bunch of third-down snaps, somehow when they're on a passing attack drive,

Pirine's getting a bunch of snaps. That would be pretty devastating. And then on the other side, what's going to go on here with Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely? I don't think it's been a blaring siren from what we're hearing from the Ravens, but there's some murmurs of Isaiah Likely might actually be the third weapon for this team of Andrews and

Flowers their roles are secured Bateman every single time they talked about Bateman having a great day he got injured then he got hurt like oh Bateman's finally back oh what a what a day of practice and Rashad Bateman is hurt maybe that's their fault at this point it's like it's a curse like stop talking nice about Bateman. Say some mean stuff about him. Get him out on the field. Break his spirit. Pull your best Dennis Allen. I think Likely is a very, very good player.

I do too. I think he should be their third primary target in this offense. I don't think that comes at the expense of Mark Andrews' injury. This is a team that will play with a lot of two tight end sets, and he should be more involved. Tight ends generally have a little bit longer peak.

I'm trying to think of how Andrews' athletic peak, how long that's going to last. But he's got some time. He's almost 29. He's fine. But at tight end, you know, I think you're going to be okay. His next-gen stats of yards per separation, I believe he was number one last year.

He was really good. The injury makes us forget and makes us frustrated because it seems like it's every year. But please do not forget when Andrews is on the field, he is as good a fantasy tight end as there is. He's been the tight end two the first six weeks for three straight years? Correct. So that's true, Mike.

The storyline's there, how much they use Xavier Worthy, how much the tight ends get on the field together. And then, you know, Zay Flowers is a good start in this game. If you had Zay Flowers and Rushie Rice, I could see a situation where those are literally your flex options or your last wide receiver option. If you had to start one of them in this game, I'd go Rice. Yeah, I would as well.

Home favored. Derek Henry, how much work is he going to get? What is it going to look like for the Ravens in terms of what Henry was used to in Tennessee and what it looks like around the goal line is also going to look like for the uh the ravens in terms of what henry was used to in tennessee and and what it looks like around the goal line is also going to be interesting to watch but from a starship standpoint you're starting the running backs the quarterbacks rice and flowers andrews and kelsey and then you're just thinking about that flex option for xavier worthy and uh they gave us a they gave us a treat here. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Uh, I see possible chance of thunderstorms. Please don't have delays. Okay. I'm going to be waiting all day for this. Don't, don't delay this game. This is the first time we've done our league of record draft and then gone

straight into week one. Yeah. We're drafting tomorrow altogether and then watching the game. That just means, and I'm going to just put this out there, that means you might want to watch tomorrow's show on YouTube. I'm just going to let you know because we're going straight from recording this show into our draft, and I'm not going to change clothes in between.

Oh, okay. That's all I'm saying. I didn't know where you were going. So YouTube.com. You got like a king robe outfit coming? All right. I don't know. I don't know what I got coming.

Anything else you want to talk about in the Thursday night night preview nope we'll take a quick break answer some questions all right let's jump into the mailbag mailbag oh yeah all right well um we will we have a voicemail question now Mailbag. Mailbag. Oh, yeah. All right. Well, we have a voicemail question now? We do. All right. Let's jump in. Hey, ballers.

This is Rhodey in Arkansas. So I took B. John in the first, and then Drake London falls to me in the middle of the fourth. Do I try to trade one of those, or do I go all in on a Falcons offense with Kirk Cousins going off the Achilles? Appreciate it. Love the fourth. Do I try to trade one of those or do I go all in on a Falcons offense with Kirk Cousins going off the Achilles? Appreciate it. Love the show. Later. So the question is, Bijan was drafted in the first. Drake Lennon fell to the fourth, which is unbelievable value.

That's not going all in on Drake. No. If he falls to you. No. And normally in this studio, if you talk about a double Falcon, that's a clogged toilet problem. Right. Like that is a situation. A double Falcon would be maybe you're calling a doctor.

It's too much to wipe. It's at least a two roller. Two rolls. Yeah. But yes, Falcon, how does that make you feel knowing that you and your name on this show is basically a term? It's like a synonym. I wear it as a badge of honor.

Oh, man. That's good. He probably has to go. But that's fine. No, I'd let that play out. If Kyle Pitts, this hamstring injury is – if it is a factor, at least over the first portion of the season, Drake London,

Drake London should be so good. He should be so good. I have a question. I'm going to submit my own mailbag question because I think I need to hear your perspective on it. Okay. How long, how many games does it take for a player that has not been

given the whatever the expression crown like Drake London, Garrett Wilson these players that we want we want and expect them to take a step forward we need them to be in the upper echelon

and we want to give them that. The reason you hesitate about drafting Drake London a little bit is because you haven't seen that. How many games does it take for you to believe that you've got the thing that you're hoping for? I wrote down my answer. Wait, to believe in it in a positive way? Correct.

How many games of Drake London's success? Until I fully believe him. Until you say he is what we thought he was versus I just had like, I mean, I looked at the what was it in our last matchup? Like you talked about Skymore having a big first game like you might have believed after one game Skymore was a good player. I believe talk about him not. Yeah. Oh, you said he didn't. Yeah, he did not. Oh, gotcha. That was the, like, don't play worthy week one. The point is that there's lots of players that have big week one. Yes, Sammy Watkins. Sammy Watkins would come out and annihilate in week one,

and you're like, I got that dude, and then he's like, gotcha. You guys remember what Sky Moore's line was? Sky Moore's line from last year? Yeah, week one. With no Travis Kelsey. is it a zero burger no okay it is a zero reception burger okay and one carry for four yards all right so you guys wrote down how many games it takes I wrote down my answer for both directions for me to conclude that he is yeah he is oh I just went positive I just and then how many it would take for me to go

I'm out and I'm going to take the L and I'm not going to keep trying. What are your answers? For yes, my answer is one. Now is that because of priors though? I'm talking about neutral. I went NBA GM.

You're saying one good Drake London game and you've confirmed that he's good because he had those last year. I'm saying that if he comes out in week one, I mean, this really is the question for Drake-London specifically. If he comes out week one and has 12 targets, has one of the big games he's had before, I will be an early actor or believer. I will believe right off the bat. Now, that is ironically, it's on the heels of saying, don't always do that. And I wouldn't always do that, but this is a situation where we are waiting to see the target market share of Kirk Cousins, the health of Kirk Cousins. And so if he comes out and has a big week one, I'm going to believe that

that doesn't mean he's going to be consistent every week. It's going to be great, but at the end of the year, he's going to be a top 10 wide receiver. So last year, the one that would have been the um pulled the rug out name was calvin ridley because he came out and he was the wide receiver six in week one and had a an incredible market share and eight catches 11 targets that one didn't end up where you want if you remember it wasn't even week one it was like first quarter maybe it was first half but he just started on nuclear fire the first couple drives were all calvin ridley and it was like oh my gosh yeah we're you know if you were wrong you were wrong and and he certainly disappeared from that point

for a while you know who was the the running back three and the running back five in week one last year if you want to blast from the past? I won't remember. You will after I say it. Austin Eckler was number three. Yeah. Oh! The body shots. It's too early to give up.

Tony Pollard was the running back five after week one last year. What? A lot of priors. 14 for 70 and two in week one last year. What? A lot of priors confirmed. 14 for 70 and two in week one. I remember watching his utilization week one going, holy crap, wheels are up. Mike, what was your answer? Three games.

If I see three games that are productive, then I will be in. I'm with you. Three sounds good. And then to actually be out, it would take a good amount. Because if it doesn't happen week one, don't freak out. This is a brand-new situation for – it's a new coach. It's a new offense. It's a new quarterback.

It might take a little bit. I had four games to be out. Okay. Give them a month. All right. We're looking at the number one most searched player on the website for our Start-Sit tool, which is back up there.

You can plug in a couple players, see where we would have them ranked, who you should start and sit, and it shows you a matchup breakdown. The number one searched player is Jerome Ford right now for week one. It makes sense. Because where he's going in drafts is normally behind the auto-start area. I'm going to give you three Jerome Ford week one Start It makes sense. Because where he's going in drafts is normally behind the auto start area. So I'm going to give you three

Jerome Ford week one start sit. Okay. Jerome Ford's playing Dallas. Yep. They are at home, I believe, right? I'm pretty sure Dallas is on the road in Cleveland. That is correct. Ford or Ramondre

at Cincinnati? Ford or Ramondre? I will go Ramondre. I will play Ford. I'll go Ramondre at Cincinnati? Ford or Ramondre. I will go Ramondre. I will play Ford. I'll go Ramondre there. Ford or Javante Williams at Seattle? I'll go Ford there. I will go.

I'll take Ford. I think I'll go Javante. Ford or David Montgomery, Sunday Night Football against the Rams? I want that game. Give me David Montgomery Sunday night football against the Rams. I want that game. Give me David Montgomery. Okay. Got a little bit of a, Oh,

that one is really hard. See the big news on Jimmy or Gibbs. He's 98 to a hundred percent bet better. So probably like just 99%. Yeah. He said 98 or a hundred. I'm just going to take, I just thought that was the most interesting answer.

Also, you have David Montgomery. I'm totally 100%. Well, I'm not 100, but like so close, man, but I'm not there yet. I could be there. I might be there, but I'm not. So he's like one good sleep away from fully recovering. You have David Montgomery in League of Record, Jason. I'm sure you're hoping for that game.

Mike, what was your answer on that one? My answer was that one is really hard. Ah. I think I'm playing Ford. And then one flex question. Jerome Ford against Dallas or JSN against Denver?

JSN against... In a full PPR. It's funny because you've got Sertan who's probably going to be more focused towards dk metcalf yeah i think i go jsn there uh i would be on the watch for the tyler lockett news just make sure that like like if tyler lockett if there's there's still some questions about is he fully healthy as of right, it seems like he's fully ready to go. Yeah, but I'm saying things could happen throughout the week that might change that. Make it easy?

Now, if it's a difficult question, what's your answer? As in there's nothing there? It's just everyone's full goal? As in like the question, yeah. Well, the questions always have context. But they also have answers. What was your answer oh that's a great point Mike

that's the best way to answer on this show yes what was your answer that you haven't given because I didn't hear it Ford country I think of Ford there too okay this is a good reminder a PSA if you will

we all have had times in our lives where our parents told us to do something and we just didn't do it. And so, you know, teenagers, I talk to my teenager all the time. He doesn't listen. No. I try. I have advice for him. I've lived life. You know what I mean? I've done all the years he's done. And I was as dumb as he can sometimes be. Not always. But sometimes it goes in one ear and out the other.

And that's what probably this advice right here is going to be. But I'm going to try it anyway. Okay. From the dad of the show. All right. Please. Foot Clan. Fancy football players of the show. All right. Please, Foot Clan, fantasy football players of the world, do your best not to lose your mind on week one.

Do your best not to react to such a great degree that you lose your mind. I don't know. If DK Metcalf gets shut down by Sertan on week one, his season's not over and he wasn't the worst pick you've ever made. Okay? Huh? And if Kyron struggles

against the defensive front, despite my priors, he's not the worst player that's ever played. What I know is that we will know exactly who the best player this season will be after week one. Whatever happens week one, just copy paste the rest of the season. This is and who, and whatever happens week one,

just copy paste the rest of the season. This is year 10 and I've yet to see anybody follow this advice, but I'm going to try it again. You know what I mean? The heart wants, just try to calm down. Maybe what you need to do. I lost,

I lost week one last year, by the way, I lost week one. I'm the champion of the league. Jason still. did you remember that last part i still can't hear you um must be a microphone problem or something um i i had a point i forgot it uh yeah be honest okay yeah Yeah, no. That's okay. We'll wrap it up today.

We've got more matchup previews Thursday and Friday because we've got football this week, boys. And then join thefoot.com. Come check out our community, all the in-season tools. Head over there. All right. I'm excited. Tomorrow, YouTube. That's all I'm saying.

Just come hang out see you tomorrow everybody goodbye thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy footballers podcast join our fantasy football community on join the foot dot com and follow us on twitter at the FF ballers