Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Wildcard Players! Breakout or Bust? - Fantasy Football Podcast for 5/28

Episode Date: May 28, 2024

Wildcard players for 2024! On today’s fantasy football podcast, Andy, Mike, and Jason pick players with a wide range of outcomes for the upcoming season. Will George Pickens take a big step forward? Will Josh Jacobs be a bust pick in fantasy football drafts? Plus, the latest NFL News, and other tough to rank players for 2024! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for May 28th, 2024. Get the lowest price on the 2024 UDK before June 1st at UltimateDraftKit.com Connect with the show: Subscribe on YouTube Visit us on the Web Support the Show Follow on X Follow on Instagram Join our Discord Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

Welcome in. The Fantasy Footballers Podcast, Tuesday, May 28. Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway. Good morning, afternoon, good evening, everyone. Hope you had a tremendous Memorial Day. Yeah, that's a fun holiday. Yeah. Jason, how are you doing? Welcome back.

It's good to be back. The boys are back in town, and we're all together. I'm excited. Are you burgers or dogs on Memorial Day? What's the... Nice try. Not today, Satanan i'm both okay okay i was gonna say you can't say both well pick one pick one if i have to pick yeah oh man burgers this is the hardest decision you've ever made it brings me joy like how much jason loves hot dogs why do you love them i'm

good they're so good now a good hot dog a good hot dog is is real i mean you can get crappy you know circle k dogs i'm not talking about that i'm talking about like a nice you know big jumbo dog with a good crust on it are Are you a ballpark man? What are we talking about here? Probably go Hebrew national. Okay, all right. I mean, you know, I don't want to exclude any of the brands here, okay? All are welcome to sponsor. I'm a hot dog man.

Glad to have you back. We are talking fantasy wild cards today. NFL news. It's a mailbag if we have time and um yeah long weekend glad to be with you four days four days until the ultimate draft kit is here four days and counting that was your contribution yeah Yeah, it was. Letting us know that time moves. Yeah, did you not know that?

No, I'm now. But you got to count it. Yeah, that's his point. Yeah, no. So the ultimate draft kit on Saturday this year. So make your plans, you know. Take care of those things you got to do on friday yes and then spend the weekend uh with the udk that's what i would do ultimate draft kit.com four days left to get the pre-order

pricing over there you can follow us over on x at the ff ballers at andy holloway at jason ffl at ff hitman and And no quick question today. We're going to jump right into the news. News and notes from around the league. Took care of all the quick question material with the hot dog debate. Sure did. It wasn't a debate. Okay.

I have a weird relationship with hot dogs a lot of people do that's okay let's let's let's let's unfold here man there's a lot to dig into i mean there's really not that much i just feel like the percentage of times that i have for whatever reason and i don't know what's i don't know what's in a hot dog. I'll be honest. No one does. No one does. For some reason, the handful of times in my life that I have had to give my food back to the world. Ah. Where I've had to vomit. Oh, we're talking up the top.

Okay. Yeah. I mean, my food returns to the earth every time. I know you give your food back the other direction, Jay, but listen. I'm just saying, like, of the percentage of times I've vomited in my life, there's a high percentage of them that have been hot dogs for some reason. For some reason? We can't figure out why.

Look, there's a reason they say you don't want to know how the sausage is made. We're all trying to figure out who did this. Wait, this is not a surprise. No, it's not. no it's not a surprise have you thrown up some hot dogs i'm sure i have i've had a lot of hot dogs you know but sometimes it's no pain no gain it's funny because it colors my perception of what i would choose like i actually love hot dogs i just don't eat them anymore because i don't want to throw up it's fair that's fair and and i think part of it is like they do the movie theater hot dogs that was one of them yeah that's not you don't want to do that move i had a disneyland hot dog situation once oh they have hot dogs i don't

know man of course yeah well they have the giant corn dogs oh yeah yeah yeah but don't don't take an issue he's like i know everywhere hot dogs are, and I will never. The Disneyland corn dogs are. They're fantastic, but that's not a hot dog. Anyways. I was a small child. I don't know if they sold Disney dogs back then or something. I must not have. You've got a bad memory.

Doug Peterson said during OTAs, by the way, this is the random news part of the year where we can talk about whether you even care about some of these things. But he said, once again, Doug Peterson did his offseason OTA discussion about leaning on Travis Etienne less during the 2024 campaign in order to keep him healthy. They want to make sure Tank Bigsby gets opportunities to go out there and take some of the pounding off of Travis, which last year, 340 opportunities for Travis Etienne, third most among all running backs. Bigsby had 50.

50 total carries had the lowest rush success rate among all running backs. And what's crazy is his reception success rate was, that's not something that's measured, but it's worse because his targets turned into just – what do you call it when you're in volleyball? You bump, then you set. Bump set spike. Yeah, he did the setting on all of his targets. And the spikes were interceptions.

That's correct. Yes. No, it was a really disappointing year for tank Bigsby. So my first reaction to this is most teams want this for their offense. Most teams want that, you know, the, the Rams, they don't want, um, Kyron to have the workload he had last year. Um, if you're not Christian McCaffrey, every other team wants balance so that you're, uh, you're running back as fresh and they, they are more efficient and they don't get hurt. But Tank Bigsby was the worst running back in football last year.

He sucked. By that measure. And when push comes to shove, I just don't have a lot of fear of ETN being, you know, underutilized to the point of not being a top-tier guy. This is just things that get said, and they get said every year, and you're 100% right. And you're a hundred percent right. Of course they want to give him fewer carries. It's wise to do that.

Push comes to shove eventually, and you got to have your best players on the field. So it's, it's really a matter of can tank Bigsby take a step forward and develop as a player because he was a good college prospect. I liked his tape. And then yeah, day two pick has Has the capital.

And I'm sure they want him to spell ET and more. But also, don't be afraid of those things. Because we've seen it so many times. So many times. Where high volume can just turn into less efficiency. Lower volume. You know, you see the very efficient lower volume players and you think oh if they get the chance to be high volume they'll just crush and then they get the chance

Tony Pollard and it's like you you know Lamar Miller that it doesn't always work that way so if they if they take some away from ETN next year that doesn't mean that his fantasy production is going away. Yeah, I am on the side of, it's all up to Tank. Can he be good enough to get on the field? We had Doug Peterson up in Philadelphia, and there was not workhorse usage. I'm trying to quickly go back through everything here. It looks like – so Miles Sanders' year, he had 179 carries. That seems to be the highest I can find. I remember having debates back then. Of?

Of the Doug Peterson backfield. Yes. And whether we felt like there were players that were even capable of being the workhorse. You know, it's a chicken or egg thing to a degree. Sure, but it is like five years in Philadelphia didn't have an ETN type of output from the running back position.

And I don't know. 267 carries last year, 340 opportunities was what. I do believe, You mean ETN? I'm sorry, yes. I do believe that this isn't just talking about, like they really want to do this. They really will try to do it. Can they?

That's the question, but I think they will try to do it. I think if they wanted to do it, they would have signed a running back. That's my opinion of that situation. Yeah, I agree. No, they are hoping that tank bigsby develops and is better this year if that doesn't happen yeah then it's same old same old testing on christian watson's hamstrings revealed an asymmetrical stride never want that that was the cause of his persistent hamstring injury you want it symmetrical. Yeah. Okay.

Been hurt a lot. A lot of soft tissue issues. Went to a specialist. Well, that's the hope here. The hope is they were trying to figure out why do you outrun your hamstrings? Why do you do that all the time? And then they found the asymmetrical. There's a pebble in one of the shoes.

This happened to, was it Alvin Kamara? Someone a couple years ago had this going on and they were able to did it work fix the process yeah yeah i think it's basically learn to run it's basically it's not it's not you're you're changing your stride it's a muscle imbalance between your right and your left leg that are that's the the discrepancy is too large so i think it's a matter of working out you know you don't want to be jk one leg you want to be jk two legs and so hopefully this is i don't know maybe it's nonsense but i mean this is scientific you know doctoring towards wait wait what yeah doctor what you know when a doctor does stuff sounds like you're doctoring the whole message.

Doctoring is usually fraudulent. Yeah. Okay, that's fair. You want to start it over? This is actionable work being taken towards hopefully a healthy season because Christian Watson's biggest knock has obviously been his ability to stay on the field. Matthew Betts came out and he just reminds us that the number one predictor of future hamstring injury is past hamstring injury.

And he's a fan of him working on this, but he's still a greater risk compared to other players. Yeah, greater risk. But Jason's overall point thing is something is being done. It's not a, well, we hope that it won't happen again. Give him a little rest. No, they're doctoring this thing up, you know? Did you find an old quote there, Al?

Yeah, about Kamara having some muscle asymmetry in his legs that he worked with a new trainer to get fixed. Yeah, but you were correct, Jay. Well, sort of. You're saying it didn't work? Well, I'm just saying, yeah, I mean, that's the part where it's like the tweet from Nick Underhill last offseason was that it didn't work? Well, I'm just saying. Yeah, I mean, that's the part where it's like the tweet from Nick Underhill last offseason was that he didn't have all of his bursts the year before.

Got with a new trainer, fixed the asymmetry. Oh, wait, this was last year? Yeah. Oh, it didn't work. No, it didn't. It slowed him down. The reason he was so fast is because one of his legs was lighter. All they did is they didn't beef up the other leg. They just brought

the one muscle so much easier to just go. They atrophied one of the legs down. Lowest common denominator. Well, this was August 6th last year Nick Underhill. He looks more explosive and the Saints have the data to prove it. Well, you know. Okay.

So there you go. D'Amico Ryans. I there you go. D'Amico Ryans. I want your reaction. Texans head coach D'Amico Ryans says he thinks of Joe Mixon and Damian Pierce as a one-two punch. He has praised Pierce's work ethic this offseason, changed his body, has everything it takes to be a really good back. He's 24 years old. Mixon is 27 going on 28.

This one's harder to believe in. Well, we've seen Pierce be great. We didn't see that with Bigsby before. You know what I mean? When you talk about the desire to have a one-two punch, Pierce was visibly incredible for his entire rookie season. That is fair.

And last year was atrocious. Don't watch. But he was hurt. He missed time in the beginning of the year. So maybe things got away from him. Maybe he went a little, what was Josh Jacobs again? Fat Thor? Maybe, yeah. And they said he changed his body.

I'm not predicting anything special for Damian Pierce, but Joe Mixon is an older running back. Older running backs deal with injuries. And Damian Pierce is a younger running back. So to hear, I always thought D'Amico Ryan's really liked Damian Pierce, and I think it really hurt to have him take him off the field last year. This one, though, if this one happens where – let me back up. If Travis Etienne's workload does go down,

he will still be great for fantasy football. If Joe Mixon finds himself in a full-time share, he will be bad for fantasy football. Yeah, I agree completely. The hard part is this one seems a harder pill for me to swallow because last year was the first year with D'Amico Ryans with Damian Pierce, and they tried to use him in the beginning, and then they're like, you're not fitting the system.

It doesn't work well. That's not true. that's not what happened well what happened was they started to try to use him he got hurt he missed a bunch of time Singletary proved himself and you're right at that point they had made the choice but it wasn't like it was a performance only situation but he sucked up until I know I mean, I know, but he was at three yards. Four singletary onto the bench is all I'm saying. So seven games and your average over that time is three yards an attempt. Yeah, he was an abomination on the field. He was really, really, really bad. And that's averaging 15 carries a game.

And then once he came back and was healthy, he was basically not used. I think he was trash. He was trash. I agree with that. I mean, and like you said, it was basically not used. He was trash. He was trash. I agree with that. I mean, and like you said, it was the first time we've seen what he's doing there. And yet they didn't bring Singletary back, obviously. And they went out and they traded for Mixon. They signed him to a new extension.

The actions of the team are what make me think of this as more coach speak. Like, you're going to talk up your players. Oh, he's a great one-two punch. Damien's in the best shape of his life. Nonsense. I mean, maybe it's true, but it's not. It's weird. Damien Pierce is weird because year one was different than year two

in a very, very big way. New system, though. I mean, we talked about the line, right? The line was terrible, but Singletary succeeded over the back half of the year. It's just weird. Last year, I mean, he was one of the biggest misses. Yeah. He was a 4.3 at carry as a rookie on 220 attempts.

Yeah, that's crazy. And then last year was like, I mean, he's like Tank Bigsby for the roster. Lamar Jackson dropped weight in an effort to become more agile. Oh, okay. As did Tua.

Yeah. Oh. Hmm. What? I don't know. I feel like Tua is. You want him to bulk up? Yeah.

I mean, you know, when I. You want him to be doing neck exercises. Yeah, oh, for sure. For sure neck exercises. I mean, Tua still. Neck You want to be doing neck exercises. Yeah, for sure. For sure neck exercises. I mean, Tua still scares me from a neck exercise. I didn't want to say it, and you took it. You took the bait. Busted.

Hey, bro, you think I didn't think of that immediately? I bet if you check the tape, you can hear like a hitch in my giddy up as I'm saying neck exercises. Yeah. Like, oh, that'd be too dumb to put those together. I tried to say quietly while you were talking. Exercises. 40 now. Yeah.

I mean, I don't know. I still worry a little bit about the big injury risk of Tua. Is it an injury risk for Lamar to lose weight? Yeah, I'm just saying we've seen the scare on the field of Tua from the concussions of the head injuries where it's like, I don't know. I want him to bulk up, be strong, be big. I mean, we've seen it with Lamar Jackson.

We've seen injuries. So it's like, is there any concern with like are you excited or not excited about the news he played 12 games in 2021 12 games in 2022 16 last year i'm you don't care i don't care all right that's part of the offseason figuring out what you don't care about. Source, okay. Just one note for Lamar. He needs 851 rushing yards to break the career QB rushing record. That's not the note I'm looking at. You see the little –

No. You see the source for the final bit of news here? Somebody put something in. Oh, yes. Reports from camp are that the fantasy footballers could also drop weight this summer. Oh, man. It's a big.

It's in the range of outcomes. The word could is doing some real heavy lifting in that sentence. It's like a wild card. This is the wild card episode. And listen, the opportunity is there. I mean, we've got great opportunity. We have weight to lose. Yes.

There's always opportunity to lose it. But most likely, you know, we've got great opportunity we have weight to lose yes there's always opportunity to lose it but most likely you know we've got to speak we've got a we've got a decade of history to fall back on here and make our bets so are you a better podcaster if you cut weight in the offseason more agile with your words i don't think so man you get that big boy voice you know what i mean bulk up get that you've got neck we've talked about the fact jason that your voice has changed over the years yeah i've changed so do you want me to wait a minute for audio or wait a minute which which one just tell me what you want video or audio this is you don't want me to say video no i don't i want you to say audio that is not a joke at all we just heard one of the like

the early episodes of the show and jason's voice jason's voice was noticeably higher yes yeah and then i started bulk season yeah for a decade and listen and you got a man voice yeah yeah i did yeah i do you can't lose weight. No, no chance, man. I had Chipotle for lunch. Don't you worry about it. Oh, my gosh. I hadn't connected those. I know.

Just wait to see how low I can get my voice, guys. I'm going to be Barry White by the time we retire. All right, we're going to take a break. Come back with some wild card players. All right, let's jump in. No, I'm saying, no, the brakes. Guys, why aren't the brakes working? Because I cut the brakes. Wildcard. Yeah! Yeah!

We have selected two players each that are tough to rank, wide range of outcomes, players that we could see making a really big impact positively or negatively in fantasy football, depending on how things go. So I'm going to begin with George Pickens of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I like it. I love it. Okay. I want some more of it. Just saying, I'm very in on Pickens right now. George Pickens is, well, it's very interesting because there's hype around several of the other year three players, right? Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson.

Yeah. And, well, let's do this. Oh, my. I want to play the game. Because I want the world to awaken a little bit to George Pickens. And so we'll do the- Wait, so you're thinking, are you more bullish? We're going to find out, man.

Okay, we're going to find out. Because I am more bearish, but this is a perfect wild card. Because I could see both, but convince me here. Play a game. Well, look, through two years, let's look at George Pickens and Chris Olave. And those other guys? Chris Olave, specifically. years, let's look at George Pickens and Chris Olave. And those other guys? Chris Olave, specifically. Oh, man.

So this game is Pickens versus Olave. Yeah. This brought Kyle so much pain. You know, I think that Kyle and Betsy are pretty in on George Pickens. Okay. All right, let's go. All right, let's go receptions. Who has more?

Yeah. Who's got more? Olave. Yeah. Yeah. By Olave. Chris Olave. 159 to 115. Yards per reception. Oh, we're going per numbers. I'm going to switch over. No, we're going all over the place. Okay. I'll go Pickens. Per. I'll go Pickens. Pickens is at 16.9. Olave's at

13.6. Yeah. Totalens is at 16.9. Olave's at 13.6. Yeah. Total receiving yards. 16.9 times 115. Oh, yeah. You could do that, couldn't you? I'm going to say Olave. It's very close. Olave hasn't beat.

21-65 to 19-41. Receiving touchdowns over two years. Oh, man. That might be. Yeah, I'm going to go Pickens. Pickens. They're tied at nine. Oh. Top, man. That might be. Yeah, I'm going to go Pickens. Pickens. They're tied at nine. Oh. Top 12 weeks.

Pickens. Pickens. Pickens, seven. Olave, five. 20-plus yard receptions at the NFL level. Pickens. Yeah. 27 for Pickens, 15 for Olave.

So those numbers are. That game was easy. They're fairly close. Did you get 100? I got 100. They're fairly close. Did you get 100? I got 100. They're fairly close. Here's the biggest change that you saw in George Pickens' game. In 2022, his rookie season, you were like, this is a deep play guy.

You were kind of right. 35% of his routes were deep routes. He was making big plays down the field uh and that's kind of what you thought of him as a jump ball type of player last year it was a big difference he had 39 percent of his routes were intermediate routes and another 36 percent were short routes so you're talking about 80 percent of his routes were shorter intermediate. He had 21% deep routes. So this was not the same player that you saw as a rookie. In fact, he had one more intermediate route. This is crazy to me in 2023 than Garrett Wilson had. And you think about what

Garrett Wilson was running in that offense. Yeah, sorry. Intermediate reception. Yes. So he had improved across the board in terms of the types of routes he can run. You lose Deontay Johnson, he's a go-to. And the team, you know, it says something to me that the team was willing to go in with what we view as a thin wide receiver room. I mean, you pick up Roman Wilson, a rookie, you don't bring him in to depend on him on day one. And then Pat Frymuth has dealt with injuries. He's going to be a part of the – Roman Wilson a rookie, you don't bring him in to depend on him on day one.

And then Pat Frymuth has dealt with injuries. He's going to be a part of the – this is Pickens' wide receiver room. Yeah, we got Van Jefferson, currently the other projected starter. This is Pickens' wide receiver room. Like I said, yeah, and to put up numbers that you look at what Olave – there's a lot of expectation last year and then this year for Olave to break out. Do you guys love Derek Carr? No. No.

Okay. So it's not like the quarterback is the fundamental reason we're in love with Chris Olave. It's the talent. And we don't love Russell Wilson. But he's an upgrade on what they had last year. And George Pickens had his moments and ran a lot more rounds. And so I think it's very interesting when you look at this season.

I mean, he's the wide receiver 26. He was very inconsistent with no quarterback play. But I think he could take a step forward this year, and the value you're going to get on Pickens, it's a lot better than what you would get on Olave. He had 1,140 yards, which I think would surprise a lot of people. The issue here is you still kind of expect inconsistency if for no other reason than Russell Wilson.

This is not a quarterback solution. This is hopefully an upgrade, but we're certainly not even sure about that we had success with Cortland Sutton last year with Russell Wilson not really I mean I know what you're saying he had 10 touchdowns which is I mean that's a massive number but Sutton where did he finish with 10 touchdowns was even a top 24 I 24? I don't think so. 35. He was wide receiver 35. Yeah, we'll see what it's like without Deontay Johnson. My point isn't to necessarily argue for George Pickens, but bring up both sides of the equation.

I mean, obviously the Wilson coming in, dependency on Pickens is going to be interesting. How run heavy will they be with Arthur Smith? They should be in two wide receiver sets more often, which is something that Pickens has been good at. But we've only seen him play, I think, four games without Deontay Johnson. He was great, but we'll find out this year. I think Pickens is a huge gamble with really high upside for fantasy players. No, and I like it. Where he's going in drafts right now is,

I think you're in a sweet spot for risk-reward. Where's he going right now? Do you have it up? Sixth round? Yeah, it looks like. Let me see if I can pull it up here. On sleeper, going about the middle of the fifth, and underdog towards the back of the ninth.

No, back of the fourth. Or fourth, yeah, 409. Which speaks to his perception. And it's like. Big play. He's right around, you know, Zay Flowers, T. Higgins, Omari Cooper, Keenan Allen, like Christian Kirk. You just named.

There's some safer players there, but they're not going to. I don't think they have the same ceiling as Pickens this year. Cooper's the only one that you named that's the primary target, right, of those other names? Well, yeah. Like, Pickens should be the one. Flowers is the wide receiver one, but may not be the number one target. Right.

You would look at Andrews. Andrews, yeah. All right. I'm going to hop in here with a player that it terrifies me. Wild card. Wild card! Wild card! Terrifies me to be wrong because I'm pretty out, but I can easily see the clear-cut path for the most glorious fantasy season. So I'm going to talk about both sides of the coin of Josh Jacobs.

New running back for the Green Bay Packers. He has to be great because you're taking him as an RB1 right now. He can't just be good. He needs to be great. Here's the pros. The Green Bay offense is the biggest pro overall. They're sixth in yards per play, eighth in points per game, second in red zone plays per game, and that's really, really, really where Josh Jacobs could thrive. Because last year, the Packers, they had four total rushing touchdowns on 368 total attempts. Dylan and Jones had two apiece. That is so bad. With backfields with more than 350 attempts, that's the fewest rushing touchdowns since 2016. So they let Aaron Jones walk. They

bring in Josh Jacobs, a guy who just the year before last led the entire league in rushing. So it's like this is he's coming into a situation where they have opportunity to score touchdowns. They're on a great offense. We've seen Aaron Jones for years be successful here. This could easily be a top five running back this season in fantasy football and I've seen some people who are drafting him like that that are drafting him essentially very confident that he is going to be great I'm on the other side I'm a little scurred because you know know, efficiency-wise, he might have either had a bad season or be trending to the new normal. Last year was terrible.

His yards per carry were 56th out of 69 running backs. His forced missed tackle rate was 51st out of 69. His explosive rush rate was 54th out of 69. His explosive rush rate was 54th out of 69. Also, he's coming into year, years six and seven are the largest percentage of fantasy point declines for running backs. So he's already, he's at that point, he's not at the age cliff, but he's at the season where you see a huge decline coming off super inefficient running where he didn't look good. And then you go, well, he was in a bad situation. You know, he's playing for the Raiders, bad team, bad offensive line. Well, the last four weeks you had Zemir Wright

running 4.7 a carry looked just fine. So they gave him a contract, but it's a one-year contract to go out and they sign or they draft Marshawn Lloyd with a day two draft capital and so if he is ineffective inefficient he'll be in a timeshare I don't think he's just going to get you know thrown to the curb but he'll be in potentially a three-way timeshare now point of clarity I know what you meant but for those listening it was a four-year deal that he signed with the Green Bay Packers. It's not a one-year deal. You said he signed a one-year contract. I said that with my words? He did. Yes. Incredible. Yes. He signed a four-year contract where it's all front-loaded, the guaranteed money, the dead cap. Essentially, if he stinks this

season, they'll cut him and move on. And so they have their out. It's a brilliant. He's a pretty big cap hit next year. It's still movable. It's where you're able to get out. So I'm just worried that Josh Jacobs is going to be in a timeshare. You've seen LaFleur talk about, like, when he drafted Marshall Lloyd, he was talking about how he uses multiple backs. He's always used multiple backs. He believes in a multiple back system. And so we've seen Aaron Jones with success in it,

but we've also seen Aaron Jones not get a lot of volume. If Josh Jacobs does not get a lot of volume and is not, I mean, Aaron Jones is as efficient as any running back we've seen in the last decade. That's not really been josh jacobs game is pure efficiency certainly not this last year what makes him a wild card to me is the fact that you have this year of taking over the league that predated it like josh jacobs was the best running back 1653 yards the year before the struggle year, which is crazy. Like if you just took that year out of his career, Art, you'd say, well, he really wasn't that different than what he had been.

Four a carry, 3.9 a carry the previous two years. But you had this one year where he jumped up to, you know, he had the big plays, right, like the Seattle game and these huge long runs, 86-yard touchdowns, and he's 4.9 a carry. Yeah. And was that year the outlier I mean it seems like it right now yeah it does so um if you draft him I hope that was the outlier I mean we called we Mike called him fat Thor going in because you know holding out deep in the camp

maybe that was the issue well sorry go ahead I'm just saying if that was the issue. Sorry, go ahead. I'm just saying, if that was the cause of the inefficiency and he wasn't in the shape he was used to being in, I don't necessarily buy that. I don't think he was sitting at home doing nothing. I think he was still working out, trying to stay in shape. Yeah, a lot of tumult that year. Right now where he's going in

drafts, he's going to be an option for people that draft one of the top wide receivers. Because if you end up Lamb, Hill, Chase, Jefferson, Brown, who are, by the way, ADP two through six right now, five wide outs. When your turn comes back around at that, was it two, three turn? That's about where Jacobs is going. So either you took McCaffrey and he's your RB2 there, or you took a wide out potentially,

and you're coming back around and deciding if you want to go with Jacobs as your RB1, which would make him, it's a wild card RB1, because there's potential great upside, and there's also that stink from last year that is emanating it's massive risk for his adp all right the first guy i want to talk about could we be back i do not know yet but it is mr antonio gibson new running back for the new englandots, who currently is a complete afterthought in drafts. I am seeing right now an ADP of RB50 on Sleeper and RB51 on Underdog. So this player

is not being sought after at all, but here's kind of both sides of the case. He turns 26, entering year five, kind of similar stuff with Josh Jacobs. So he hasn't aged out just yet. He is actually younger than the incumbent under Ramondre Stevenson. So the age between the two of them, you can't really argue it. And it was a three-year deal, $5 million guaranteed for Antonio Gibson. That's not a ton of cash,

but it was also one of those, if you're trying to read the tea leaves of the actions, it was immediate. The Patriots went and signed him or got an agreement from him right off of the, in the tampering period. And the pros are the offensive system we are told that's going to be launched in New England,

the Alex Van Pelt Cleveland system. So it's a lot of outside zone runs where Antonio Gibson has far more experience with that as the rushing scheme than Ramondre Stevenson, and that stuff does matter. There's some running backs that they excel in power schemes and man, and then there's some guys who are just they're great in zone. So Gibson, he might have an upper hand there between the competition of, oh, I already know how to do this.

And then on top of that, while Antonio Gibson for fantasy football last year, it was really just a couple spot weeks here or there when he's filling in. But in terms of efficiency, second in yards created per touch, fourth in yards per touch, sixth in fantasy points per opportunity, ninth in PFF's elusive rating. Like he still had juice on the field. He had lost his spot as the starter. And where I've started to be thinking more and more lately is,

like, could Antonio Gibson actually just take the job? Take the job from Ramondre Stevenson. And I think there is a world that exists he's antonio gibson is a far more electric pass catcher uh for his career you know he's at 7.2 yards per catch and over the past couple of years remandre is just barely over six so antonio is better there last year was atrocious on the ground for remondre Stevenson. Let me ask the question. Please do. Do you think that Mike is the only one that thinks that in this game?

I think that Mike is the only one. If you're including Kyle's on the line, Brooks is here, the Ducers are here, I would hope that Mike is the only one. I am definitely not going to be the only one. Because of Kyle? Yeah. Yeah. Kyle is in on this?

Yeah. Dude, when you said back, I was trying to... When you said he might be back, I was like, what do you mean? Back to what? I mean rookie year. No, no, no. I'm not saying... It is crazy to think he had 257 rush attempts as a sophomore. I'm not saying top 12

running back, but I'm saying a guy who's being drafted in the 50s, who, in my opinion, this is an ambiguous backfield. That's where he's being drafted? Yeah. RB50. Oh, okay. You said the 50s. I thought you meant the 50s. Yeah, in my opinion, this is an ambiguous backfield. That's where he's being drafted? Yeah, RB50. Oh, okay. You said the 50s. I thought you meant like pick 50. Yeah, of his position.

Like this is a guy who's not even really being drafted. And so that's the positive case for him. Of course, the negative is right now the New England Patriots are the favorite to be the worst, and over the last six years, the team with the worst record their running back fantasy points are 30th 31st 31st i guess this feels like a another way of insulting remandre though like you don't like what remandre brings to the tape i i thought remandre was was terrible last year and the the fact that they immediately went out and got antonio Gibson, the fact that he is a better pass catcher, more dynamic,

can make things happen should – sometimes your offense works, sometimes you need a player, and you say, please go do something for me, and Antonio Gibson can do that where Romandre can't. So I'm saying over the course of the year – There are a bunch of running backs that are being drafted that probably Gibson should go ahead of as flyers, like Chase Brown and Gibson.

Brown's going to go in the 11th round. Gibson's probably undrafted, right? Which one are you saying you would rather have? I'd rather have Gibson. No, I'm just saying that Gibson is equal in my mind in terms of upside to Chase Brown. Chase Brown does nothing. He can't pass protect.

He's barely involved in the offense. To me, that's a mispriced. Yeah, that's a huge part of the argument is the ADP because, Jay, you're over here. Your vibes and your words are, you are O-U-T on Antonio Gibson. That is correct. And yet, compared to his ADP, you are soups in. Well, yes and no.

I mean, it's kind of like what Andy's saying. When you're drafting someone at running back 50, I'm looking for something that can really explode and become a high-end, you know, some rookie backup that just needs an injury ahead of him and he can go. I presume that the New England Patriots offense is going to be bad. I also think that Antonio Gibson was immediately gone after in free agency because this is replacing Zeke, not Ramondre. Daron Mayo is part of this team. Ramondre was the guy.

This isn't a new – I mean, it's a new coaching staff, but it's not like an entirely new regime that was not part of the human beings there. I'm shocked that you want to have this conversation, Mike. I really am. Why? I feel like just it might have been better for your emotional health to just set him out to sea. You know what I mean?

He's been there. He's been on a life raft just chilling out in the ocean push him back out maybe we will you know what i mean like if you're on the boat and you're like you have a choice you'll be like come on i'll save you or next next man gets him i would pull him in so that my arrow that is on fire could could hit the oh you're going Viking. But I'm shooting straight down. I'm not aiming this thing out into the water. I think Gibson is a low odds, waiver wire guy that if Romandre gets hurt.

Yeah, that's how I see it. But that's the thing. We're talking about wild cards here we're talking about we're not talking about players who have a clear and obvious past path to success or are obviously going to suck these are guys where it's like there is a very large range of outcomes but I think for him to hit his higher end range of outcomes it has to either be an injury I see it as an injury to remandre or he has to completely overtake him become the guy and make Ramondre pretty irrelevant, and I don't see that one happening. That's where it's like.

That's where I'm leaving the door open for that. Yeah. All right, quick break. Back with three more. All right, I feel really guilty taking this second wild card option because, yeah, he's Jason's dude. He's always been Jason's dude. Thank you.

He's loved him from, what, high school, college, through the NFL. Grade school. Zach Moss. I mean, Jason's. My dude. Jason's guy, Zach Moss, instantly replaces Joe Mixon in the Cincinnati offense, was a usage monster when Jonathan Taylor wasn't available.

It was really fun on the show because we'd come here every week, and Zach Moss had done more stuff. Yeah. And it was like, how is this happening? 22 opportunities a game. Did you say steroids? They did steroids i would never have for your allegations they did they never caught him so maybe he's just really good at that it was impressive what he he was able to do and you talk about you know you have to imagine he was tested too

because of course he was they all get tested yeah but some guys you go wait a minute wait we gotta test that dude well you would have tested oh i would have tested him every day i mean i would have watched look at the offseason for cincinnati and the wild card that zach moss is i don't have him ranked super high but i do see a range of outcomes for him that is pretty good i mean joe mixon while looking bad produced great fantasy numbers in cinc in Cincinnati for the last two years. By great, do you mean like he was the running back five last year? I do mean that. Yeah, because that's absurd, but it's true.

And so Zach Moss is a direct one-to-one replacement for Joe Mixon. I just brought up Chase Brown. He's never used in passing situations. He was asked to pass block eight times. Zach Moss can do that. He can catch the football. They basically identified a cheaper Joe Mixon that they could bring in that doesn't have the pedigree and the attention, but produced. I mean, he was a good producer in Indianapolis when he had an opportunity to do it. And they run out of the shotgun a ton. This is one of the things Kyle was looking up.

But when you look at the running back leaders in rushing yardage in shotgun, Zach Moss was number three last year. So they obviously saw a fit. That is one thing that we identified in the offseason. They basically said, all right, we're done with Joe Mixon. He's vacating 257 carries. So much opportunity. 64 targets.

And we're going to draft nobody. We're not going to draft anybody. We're just going to bring in Zach Moss, pay him not a lot, have him one-to-one replace Joe Mixon, run a bunch of shotgun, let Joe Burrow be our offense, and Zach Moss will be out there all the time. And so, you know,

I think it's going to be one of those things that comes down to how often he gets into the end zone and how much he's used in the passing game, but I think he's a huge wild card, just like Zemir White is. He's not on our— Yeah, he could be on this show. He could easily be on this show, but those two guys are the— they're a match made in heaven. I hate how in I am on Zach Moss right now.

Like it bothers you? Yeah. Welcome aboard, brother. Because – You have him just outside your RB1 territory. Yeah, and that ranking I'm sure will fluctuate over the offseason. We have him RB20 as a group. But it's just my overall thoughts on the Bengals' backfield,

like the previous one, of I don't think that Joe Mixon is a great running back. I think he's fine. I think he is just an average running back. And so you put the argument of talent that Zach Moss has to replicate, to me, the barrier of entries, just be an average running back and you will be good for fantasy football on the Bengals. And they like those because they used Samaj P. Ryan all those years. They sure did.

And I know Chase Brown has his hive. I don't think he's anything more than a role player who will get a couple receptions a game and impact things. But looking at the workload, I don't see how it's not what Joe Mixon had. Cut a couple percentage points off of that and just give it to Zach Moss. Among all running backs with 60-plus pass blocks, Zach Moss was the number one in efficiency.

Dude, you think they want to keep Joe Burrow upright? Why even put Brown on the field in third down? Just keep Zach Moss out there. No, Travion Williams played ahead of Brown on third down last year. So this is Zach Moss' backfield. So, look, it could all collapse. Like the Zach Moss prophecies that Jason held so dear to his heart before last year could all return to form.

Most carries inside the 10 last year amongst running backs joe mixon yeah usually when you bet on those mid-round running backs yes who are getting a lot of opportunity handed to them but they have not been successful they have not been the guy they've been average to below average running backs for their career those are bad bets that's that that's that's chock full of the running back dead zone. Like when Peyton Barber was that? Yeah. Yeah, or Alexander Madison last year.

So this is a scary pick, the range of outcomes. You can see how it doesn't work. But at the same time, those players are often not on great offenses. And this is an offense that you would expect with Joe Burrow. Theirs should be very good. I'm just so happy to stay in on Zach Moss. As you always have been. Yeah.

All right. Who's next? Jason. All right. My final wild card pick is a man who has barely done anything in his two years in the NFL, but his opportunity, his talent, his pedigree should be excellent. It is Jamison Williams, wide receiver for the Detroit Lions. Jamison Williams was my number two wide receiver in his draft class pre-NFL draft. His talent that he showed in Alabama was unbelievable. There's a reason why he was

drafted as a first round pick. His speed is world-class. It's, you know, one of the top fastest wide receivers currently in the NFL. He's playing on a high powered offense. They lost Josh Reynolds, the de facto wide receiver two from last year, they did not replace him. They did not draft anybody to replace him. The verbiage on Jamison Williams has been better and better. The coach speak over Jamison Williams' career. Kyle's been tweeting this out four years. It's so funny. They have bad-mouthed him. They have said positive quotes that are like laughably negative yeah backhanded compliments um however the recent quotes and this is what's nice the trajectory of you know that this coaching staff will talk crap about jameson williams we've seen him do it we've seen him say well some guys just take longer you know he's you know he's got to prove himself he's got to be

reliable blah blah blah blah blah well now they're saying that he is a man on a mission. And so that's what you want to hear. You want to hear that he's just completely motivated, working his tail off, and he's got the opportunity ahead of him. He should be pretty much a full-time wide receiver for the Detroit Lions. We have had seasons of Kalief Raymond relevance, of Josh Reynolds relevance. With the talent that we saw coming into the league,

this should be Jameson Williams' year. Absolutely. It really should. Not could, it should. Yes, this should be something that later on, when people didn't draft him, we're all looking at and we say, yeah, that was obvious.

Yeah, it was obvious. But nobody did it. The first round wide receiver with exceptional speed for a team that needs a deep threat who's now on the field all the time should rock. He made big plays behind the line of scrimmage too. Yeah. But, but, yeah. Here's the other side of the coin.

It's not pretty. Through two years, he's done virtually nothing. Here is a list of first-round wide receivers who have never had a 14-point fantasy game through two years. Uh-oh. Okay? Buckle up. Buckle up. Here's a list.

There's six of them. Uh-oh. Jameson Williams is one. TBD. We'll say TBD. John Ross. Laquan Treadwell. Phillip Dorsett.

Nelson Aguilar. And Kevin White. Barf. That is a list of busts of wide receivers who never became a first round payoff. So it's like, I don't blame anyone for bypassing Jamison Williams and saying, look, I've seen him not get it done on the NFL field for two years. The list is so bad. And Nelson Aguilar is the highlight. Oh, yeah.

I mean, he still plays. He shows that chart to other people as like, look what I accomplished. Look what I overcame. The biggest problem that I have is that we say, okay, the opportunity is here for Jameson Williams. The problem is the opportunity has been here for Jameson Williams. We just talked about it. Josh Reynolds left.

The opportunity was just beat Josh Reynolds. Just be better than Josh Reynolds. He couldn't do it. Also, he was on the field. When he played, he was on the field for more than 50% of the snaps already. He did jack squat. So it's like, okay, it can't just be opportunity. You can't just say, well, now if he plays 77% or 85% of the snaps,

he's going to be great for fantasy no he's got to take a step forward as well because he hasn't been good enough that's that's a little of the like quentin johnston had opportunity and snaps exactly like to the 70 and 80 to 90 percent and did nothing for fantasy so yeah that is um and jameson williams risky business is let's say he accomplishes the goal here. I want to make sure I get the quote right because right before the NFL Combine, Coach Campbell talking about Jameson Williams,

he's going to push to be a full-time starter. So that's where we were before the draft. If you're Jared Goff, who do you want to throw to? You want to throw to Almon Ross, St. Brown, or Jameson Williams? That was going to be the point of this guy who's going to push to be a starter. Should he accomplish that lofty goal of a first-round wide receiver just being a starter, you have Jameer Gibbs, Amon Ross, and Sam Laporta. Yeah, and that's the truth.

Now, luckily, Jameson Williams can score from 80 yards out. But no, that's what makes now luckily jameson williams can score from 80 yeah he can't 80 yards out but but no that is um that's what makes him so wild talking through this i think i'm out like i thought i was i thought i was pro the highest ranker right now well that's what i'm saying i thought i i really thought it could happen but those realities though about being a starter they were true for you know j for Josh Reynolds, and he had games. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. It's not that those other – there's a lot to go around in Detroit.

That's all I'm saying. I've been out on Jamison Williams for the last two years. So nice being in, though. The last two years. So that's felt nice, warm, and comfy. But where he's... Wide receiver 49 on sleeper, 48 on underdog. What round is that?

Do you know? 10th round. Man, double-digit. What could go wrong? I will say this. I'm Beckett. Because here's the thing. When you're in the double-digit rounds,

you're looking for upside. You're looking for someone who can become elite. And there's not a lot of people that should be a full-time starter with crazy speed on a great offense in the 10th round. Mike, you've got to finish this up. Another wild card. Speaking of players going late in the draft and having no idea what to do with them,

Gus Edwards of the Los Angeles Chargers, the Gus bus. I'm looking. There it is. Thank you. I was speaking in a cadence. No, I know you were. I don't know where it is, man. The drop.

I got no idea. To happen. Are you hitting it again or are you still looking? I'm still looking. Oh, yeah. So here's the – The booty scooping cam. What just happened?

I just saw the booty scooping cam. Okay, and you wanted to – I wanted to bring it back for a second. So on the positive side for Gus Edwards are right now, he's the starting running back for the Los Angeles Chargers it's a good starting point yeah he has he has a starting job he is playing for an offensive coordinator who he has played many years for in the past was productive in those years he was not the starter he was the backup uh we're talking about Greg Roman, a.k.a. Giro, who has –

Such a bad nickname. It's not ours. It just – No, I know. Remember, everyone, that we didn't do that. J-Har did it. No, that's Hardog. We did that one.

I know. We did do Hardog. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, that's a great one. Hardog's good. So the pass for Giro and his offenses, they run the ball so, so much, and their pass attempts are frequently dead last or second to last in the league. Like volume should be there.

And then talk about success. The rushing touchdown output for Greg Roman's running back rooms, we're talking a 10-year sample size, an average of nearly 14 rushing touchdowns per year. That's a lot of opportunity for scoring for Gus Edwards. Now, the bad side, you may have heard us talk about Gus Edwards on this podcast for a long time because he's 29 years old entering year seven his deal is it's a two-year basically three million dollar uh guaranteed so this is a

salary of nothing bro yeah I remember you want to jump in just for a second because I remember you mentioning his age reminded me that I remember trading James Robinson in our Dynasty League. Oh, yeah. For Gus Edwards. So excited for the opportunity, and then Gus tore his ACL in camp. Yeah, that was – But that was three years ago now.

He's been in the league a long time. Last year, he's still with rushing touchdowns from week 7 through 11. He was the overall running back one in fantasy football. He's trying to be most. When he went on an absolute tear, and he had eight rushing touchdowns in that span. But he's 29. All data says this should not work because Gus Edwards isn't an Adrian Peterson, a prolific first ballot Hall of fame superstar where you're,

where you can accept that at the age of 20, like Christian McCaffrey at 29, we'll say, yeah, that's fine. And yet these two guys who want to run the football, they didn't go out and sign Zach Moss. Correct.

They didn't go out and sign Josh Jacobs. They didn't make a trade for a young guy. Even worse, their backup plan was they brought in JK Two Legs, who's back down to JK One Leg, and then they drafted a rookie in the sixth round of Kamani Vidal Sassoon. I'm not going to leave you out, Jay.

And it... So the running back room says, who's overtaking Gus Edwards here for especially goal line work, but third downs, it'll be a nothing for Gus Edwards. So the wild card nature of Gus is he's being, people aren't hot and bothered for Gus Edwards. And yet he's a starting running back for a team that has an offensive system that has shown year after year after year that they have success running the ball but i don't even know if i want him yeah no that's the definition of a wild card

right there man are you in on the gus bus jason uh it's gonna be a ticket it's gonna be a draft a value and whether he fits my team i don't feel like i will be able to bank on consistency enough for him i think he'll be primarily a goal line guy he's never been a guy that catches the ball a ton and he was someone that was known for his hyper efficiency you know when you look at yeah once you've had several hundred carries in your career he was up near the league leaders he was always over five a carry this last year you know 4.1 granted when you, when half your carries give you one yard to the goal line. It's not that bad.

They must have seen something in him. Well, I mean, he was with this system, right? He was with Giro in Baltimore. But he's not going to catch passes. No, he's not going to catch passes. So it's going to be a touchdown. I think he has 10 touchdowns which is awesome you tell me a fantasy running back it's i would be yeah i'm in you should be in but i also think he does so

little outside of that that in the games where you don't get a touchdown you're going to be unhappy so it's going to be inconsistent he should be a flex option to me but he's like i mean if his avp holds he's a zero running back target. And it just is like, should he be that? Should he be more? All right, Kyle sharing this stat. His finish last year at RB20 is the fourth worst among 80 running backs that have ever hit 13-plus rushing touchdowns. Yeah, that makes sense.

So, to your point, Jason. Yeah, more of the same. All right, I think we did it. The wild cards episode is over thank you Jason we'll let Jason go have a hot dog deepen his voice a little bit

and you can head over to ultimatedraftkit.com can you write those off as like a tax expense for your job oh yeah now I can you just wait to see how many hot dogs I can your tax guy is like 30 cases of hot dogs? No, it was voice lessons. It's the same difference.

UltimateDriveKid.com right now. Four days left. Comes out on Saturday. Go get it. Until next time, Andy, Mike, and Jason, the fantasy footballers, saying goodbye. Goodbye. Bye-bye. thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy footballers podcast join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on twitter at the ff ballers