Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Fantasy Focus: New England Patriots 2020 Fantasy Football Outlook - 7/20/2020

Episode Date: July 20, 2020

With NFL Training Camps set to begin next week, it is just about time for some football, as well as fantasy football. Pro Football Focus recently published its 2020 Fantasy Football Draft Guide, and some New England Patriots feature prominently. Joining host Mike D’Abate to give you the rundown on everything that you need from a ‘Foxboro Fantasy Standpoint’ is Pro Football Focus’ analyst-extraordinaire Andrew Erickson. The pair discuss Cam Newton, Julian Edelman, James White and other potential fantasy studs for the Pats in the upcoming season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Patriots fans, you are now locked in to the Locked On Patriots Podcast. I'm going to show you how to make a beautiful and beautiful flower. I'm going to use a small flower pot. I'm going to use a small pot Hello to all of you, Foxborough faithful, and welcome to a ship called Fantasi Monday here on the Lockdown Patriots podcast, your daily home for news notes and analysis infused with the occasional opinion on your six-time Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots.

Today's episode is brought to you by rockauto.com. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. Visit rockauto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Welcome back to the pod universe, Patriots Nation. My name is Mike DeBate, your host of the Locked On Patriots podcast, which, of course, is a proud part of the Locked On Podcast Network, our team every day. And, folks, because it's your team every day,

that means your questions, comments, and feedback are always welcomed and greatly appreciated. Feel free to share that feedback anytime by reaching out to me and following me on Twitter at MDABATEFPC.-A-T-E-F-P-C. And of course, while you're out there roaming around through the Twitterverse, please be sure to follow the Locked On Patriots account as well at L-O underscore Patriots. I know, folks, a ship called Fantasi Monday isn't exactly alliterative, is it? But it is very appropriate because our guest today here on the pod

is something of a fantasy football expert. And as we inch closer to the start of the 2020 season, all you would-be fantasy football GMs out there are clamoring to begin the fantasy football slate. And recently, our friends over at Pro Football Focus have published their 2020 Fantasy Football Draft Guide. And there are some members of the 2020 Patriots roster that figure prominently in those projections. And as a special treat to kick off your week here on Lock the 2020 Patriots roster that figure prominently in those projections. And as a special treat to kick off your week here on Locked On Patriots, fantasy football analyst Andrew Erickson from PFF will join me here today and we'll discuss the potential fantasy prowess of players like Cam Newton,

Jarrett Stidham, Julian Edelman, James White, Mohamed Sanu. And of course, Andrew will give you insight as only he can on the fantasy studs, duds, and who he considers to be the stone-cold lock on this Patriots roster. Andrew is truly an analyst that I greatly admire. I had the great fortune of working with Andrew back in the early Advent days of full press coverage, and I continue to follow his work at PFF very closely. Especially because, as you all know, I'm a fantasy football novice, so I will have my sharp eye out and so should you when andrew lends us all a little fantasy wisdom and counsel in just

a moment and folks for those of you that caught the ship called fantasy reference major props to you earth wind and fire would be very proud but before andrew joins me here on the pod today i just wanted to take a moment to address the memo that was sent out from the NFL to all 32 NFL teams yesterday. And with the start of NFL training camp looming on the horizon, it looks like the NFL is plowing ahead with the 2020 season, folks. And this does have an impact on your New England Patriots, folks. I'll get to that in just a moment. But we all heard players' voice concerns over the weekend with a very coordinated social media campaign which featured the hashtag WeWannaPlay. Now, it featured a lot of the league's most prominent stars such as jj watt richard sherman your very own james white and

these players voiced concerns about the league's failure to address certain safety issues related to the covet 19 pandemic and this effort was definitely coordinated in response to the nfl's memo which basically reiterated that all players must report to training camp by July 28th, quarterbacks and injured players reporting by July 23rd, and rookies reporting by tomorrow, July 21st. And it appears that the New England Patriots rookies are complying, or at least some of the more high profile. According to Mike Giardi of the NFL Network, safety Kyle Duggar and edge rusher Josh Uche are already in Boston. As a matter of fact, Mike tweeted out a couple of pictures, one apparently of Duggar's arrival at Logan Airport, and the other of Josh Uche eating what looked like, and this is Mike's words, not mine, a brontosaurus at a North End restaurant in Boston. So the rookies are starting to report here, folks, but one thing that bothers me that's

a little unclear at the moment, and this includes both Duggar and Uche or any of the Patriots rookies, whether or not they were required to take COVID-19 tests before traveling to Massachusetts. The NFL still hasn't implemented, at least according to some, satisfactory safety protocols as players crisscross around the country to rejoin their teams. And that in conjunction with the NFLPA and a lot of the players coordinating the social media efforts that were around last night. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported on Monday morning that the NFL and the owners will now be conducting a league meeting today on Monday as they try to finalize health and safety measures, financial arrangements, and reducing or eliminating preseason games.

And this is according to league sources. Look, bottom line, folks, fans and media alike all want to see football back on the field. There's a lot to look forward to in this season in the NFL, and we want to make sure we see as many games, whether it be preseason or regular season or postseason, as possible. But the one thing to remember is that each player in the NFL is a human being. They all have concerns, they all have questions, and they all want to make sure that they're maximizing their health and protecting those around them that they love. The players have a lot of questions that the NFL simply needs to answer. And this meeting on Monday is, in my opinion, a long overdue step,

but it is a step in the right direction. Now, at the time this podcast was recorded, a lot of the details on this meeting weren't readily available. But it should be noted that the following topics were at least expected to be on the agenda. And again, they include financial concerns about players that may want to opt out of the season, how the NFL will proceed with coronavirus testing, and how all of this will translate to on-field action. What will the NFL do to ensure that the players on the field are protected?

And could this mean a reduction in games, not just in the preseason, but maybe even in the regular season? Again, it's a little too early to tell on a lot of this, folks, but we'll continue to monitor the situation here on Locked On Patriots, and as soon as we have more information, you know we'll share it with you as soon as it's available. But assuming that it's all systems go, your New England Patriots are set as a complete team to report to training camp next Tuesday on July 28th. And which players on those practice fields will not only be making you cheer each and every Sunday because they're New England Patriots, but because they're on your fantasy team as well?

Well, to answer that question and much more, Andrew Erickson of Pro Football Focus will join me here in just a moment as we take that ship called Fantaside directly to Foxborough and prognosticate the fantasy football prowess of your New England Patriots. But first, we are headed toward late July, folks, and that means one thing. The heat is on and the dog days of summer have arrived. And even though it might be hot outside, the best way to look cool this summer is to make sure that your vehicle, your ride, is looking and running its absolute best. And you know the best way to do that. Visit my good friends at rockauto.com. Folks, if you're a do-it-yourselfer like me, or even a professional mechanic, you probably know that those chain stores have different price tiers for professionals and do-it-yourselfers. Well, rockauto.com's prices are the same for everybody, and they're reliably low.

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rockauto.com Patriots fans, with training camp set to begin next week, it's about time for some football. And that means it's about time for some football. And that means it's fantasy football time as well. And earlier this month, Pro Football Focus published its 2020 Fantasy Football Draft Guide. And some of your New England Patriots feature prominently in this guide. Here today to give you the rundown on anything and everything that you need from a Foxborough fantasy standpoint is pro football focus analyst extraordinaire

and my proud former colleague at Full Press Coverage, the great Andrew Erickson joins me today. Andrew, thank you so much for coming on and welcome to the Lockdown Patriots podcast. I'm extremely excited to be here. It's a dream come true, honestly, being on the Lockdown Patriots podcast. I've been an avid follower of this podcast and a chance to talk about fantasy football talk about my favorite team is the New England Patriots so I have a lot to offer

when it comes to the fantasy angles for these guys Absolutely and Andrew again we followed your work from afar as Patriots fans we all know the great work that you do for PFF again folks I had the distinct privilege of calling Andrew a colleague when

we both worked for Cover 32 and for full press coverage. And I could I for one cannot be happier for his success. And it's well deserved because he definitely puts in quality. And that's the reason why you're here today, my friend, to enlighten Patriots Nation on some of the more prolific Patriots when it comes from a fantasy standpoint. And, Andrew, we know that players are set to begin reporting for training camp this week. At least we hope so. That's the plan. But right now they're scheduled to start reporting, as a matter of fact, rookies as early as tomorrow. And that means that the season is rapidly approaching. Fantasy football is beginning to come into some sharp focus now,

and the work that you do at PFF, again, my friend, is second to none. From a fantasy standpoint, the Patriots are not typically fantasy football darlings. We typically don't see Pats players put up these gaudy numbers. But that could change a little bit this year. As you very well know, as well as the rest of the football world knows, Cam Newton is now in the Foxborough fold. And I guess we'll start there today. You recently wrote that concerns about Newton's health are suppressing his draft stock, but that

at his price, he's well worth the risk. When Newton's played a full 16-game season, according to your insight, he overall finishes at quarterback are third, fourth, third, first, and second. And the seasons where Newton finished first and second overall actually came after seasons in which he sustained injuries both in 2014 and in 2016. So based on that, do you believe that fantasy GMs, particularly those that are Patriots fans, should be bullish on Cam Newton? And if you put stock into some of the recent reports out there, should they actually be taking a hard look at Jarrett Stidham as well? Yeah, I think that with Cam Newton,

you are just going for all the upside that he offers, that he's shown us through all of his career with the Carolina Panthers. And I have to imagine that Josh Daniels and Bill Belichick know how they want to design the offense around a guy like Cam Newton. And I think that they were originally going to design, you know, more RPOs, more quarterback run plays with Jared Stidham anyway. So I don't think that the team is building out these two different offenses where you have, oh, this is a Cam Newton offense,

and then if that doesn't work out or Cam gets hurt, then this is a Jared Stidham offense. I think that, you know, Stidham has shown enough, like, athleticism that he can probably run a very similar type of offense cam newton you know maybe he's not taking as many carries into the goal line as cam newton but i think that they don't need to necessarily do too many different things obviously if lawyer gets in there then it's a whole different story but with with those two guys i don't think that they are just too different from each other in terms of you know what they can offer with some athleticism so the office the offense is going to be stratified building around the quarterback,

and I think that has a lot to do with why Newton is someone that you want to target because, like you mentioned before, the Patriots have always been kind of, you know, it's like maybe one or two guys you can get for fantasy because they're always out building up that game plan. You know, this week it's going to be James White. This week it's going to be Sonny Michel. This week we're going to, you know, focus on getting the ball at Edelman so that's why it's hard for fantasy owners to like figure out okay who's he going to go through but when you

build an offense around a quarterback like Cam Newton who's mobile I don't see a scenario where he's not involved every single week somehow either he's throwing the touchdowns or he's rushing the touchdowns like that's why I think that his upside is just is just great for where he's going he's rushing the touchdowns. Like, that's why I think that his upside is just great for where he's going. He's being drafted into, like, you know, a lot of different quarterbacks. And, you know, I have him ranked as 10, and, you know, his average draft position is 16. So I'm extremely bullish on Newton,

and I think that if you take Newton and you have a last pick, you know, maybe you do take him just in case, you know, if for some reason it happens to Newton or something like that. that but again i'm much higher on cam newton being the quarterback in new england i wouldn't be ranking them nearly as high because i just think newton really offers a little bit more with his ability as a rusher great points and again i completely agree with you especially when you mentioned the rpos and their incorporation into the patriots offense this year a lot of people had started to had started to hear a lot from those that are close and connected to the team that Stidham's presence as the primary quarterback was going to mean that the Patriots would

in fact utilize more RPOs to take advantage of his mobility. They'd be able to have Jarrett roll out, alleviate the pressure in the pocket, make his reads, make the throws easier. And then all of a sudden he'd be able to take off and run if there was nothing there. I think now with Cam in the fold, they can definitely continue to do that and probably build on that, which makes him a much bigger and much more prolific producer in a fantasy football scheme. But it's nice to know that Jarrett has the ability to work out pretty well in that department

also. So folks, definitely keep a sharp eye. But I think your ranking of Cam at number 10 is very good. I think it allows people to pick him up. I think he has the potential to be a higher producer than that. So right now, he's probably exactly where fantasy GMs want him, especially Patriots fans, because they'd love to be able to not only cheer him on every week,

but also have him pay dividends to their fantasy football boards as well. And folks, we'll get back to that point in just a minute. But Andrew, staying on the offense for a second, but transitioning over to the wide receiver position for just a moment. You mentioned the Patriots weapons and how they're diversified or the use of them is diversified from guys like Julian Edelman, Jacoby Myers, Nikhil Harry, a lot of different options, even James White receiving out of the backfield. But one name that keeps coming up amongst a lot of Patriots fans, even from a fantasy standpoint, is Mohamed Sanu. Now, reports surfaced over the weekend that Sanu will

be hiring a full-time wide receivers coach to live with him. And that happens to be none other than Drew Lieberman. He has Rutgers connections. We all know Bill Belichick loves his Rutgers connections. Sanu himself was a former Scarlet Knight, and Lieberman coached at Rutgers early in his career. And we've seen Muhammad look pretty impressive in workouts, both solo and alongside Cam Newton. And even over the weekend, we saw him work out a little bit with Jared Stidham.

Now this looks promising from a football standpoint, but in your opinion, do you think Muhammad Sanu can be a fantasy sleeper this year? Seeing that he seems to have found some newfound motivation. Yeah, I do think that Muhammad Sanu is kind of flying under the radar a little bit. I know that most rankings,

including our rankings, we have no element ahead of him. We have Nikhil Harry ahead of him. Just looking at those guys, kind of what they've done. Harry obviously comes with the first round draft capital from last year. Edelman's obviously been that tried and true player, you know, last couple of seasons. But again, you know, if it weren't for that ankle injury last year with Sanu, you know,

we saw him really with one game against the Raven play healthy and he was really good in that game. You know, the Patriots were throwing the ball a ton in that game, but he still put up decent numbers. And then he obviously got hurt and he really wasn't himself for the rest of the season. And the Patriots offense kind of, you know, floundered a little bit, you know, towards down, down the stretch. So I think that, you know, when a new quarterback coming in,

it's really anybody's guess where we're projecting, you know, how targets are going to be distributed, but, you know, we don't necessarily know who Cam or Jared Stidham will necessarily favor as their favorite target and you know muhammad tanu has been a player that you know he was productive at atlanta with you know two other you know stud receivers you know he's been productive kind of everywhere he's gone with his production as a receiver and you know he can offer some things you know as a wildcat player you know we've seen him throw passes. I'm very much looking forward to seeing Belichick and McDaniels

draw something up where you have a double reverse pass with Edelman involved, Sanu, and a Cam Newton player. So I think that Sanu, after week one, we could see him come out of the first game against the Dolphins, leave the team in target to be one of those guys that everyone is flocking to the waiver wire to pick up after week one, so again, you know, Sanu would be potentially someone you could take probably with your last draft pick, but you don't really need to draft, you don't need to spend a lot of draft capital on him, because he's basically, you know, off the radar, and people will trend towards more unknown players, you know, like a rookie player, or like

a Nikhil Harry, who we know has this kind of upside, just we didn't get to see. And he was, you know, hurt last year as well. So again, I'm going to lean towards Harry and Edelman a little bit there, but you know, don't be surprised if Sanu kind of comes out, you know, week one, it's like, Oh my God, this guy's healthy now. Like this is kind of what we expected because again, you know, Belichick traded a second round pick for him. And that's why they didn't draft any receivers because it's like, no, we drafted one last year with the first round pick.

And essentially they use their second round pick on another receiver. So he's going to get opportunities. And, you know, I think that he's going to be at least a starter in three receiver sets. Yeah. And I think especially in this year, when we're dealing with so much uncertainty, whether it be from the COVID-19 pandemic or the lack of OTAs or lack of mini camps and maybe even training camps and preseasons being abbreviated, veteran leadership and veteran savvy on a football field is going to be so important.

So I think that's why Sanu is going to be a little bit more utilized. I'm glad you lended at least a little some, how shall I say, insight and wisdom and counsel, as I like to say here when it comes to him and when it comes to his abilities. But I do agree with you on Edelman and Harry. I think they're probably the safer bet. But it sounds like Sanu is an awful lot like what the Patriots are in real life, life imitating art, low risk, high reward with the potential to do great things. So keep a sharp eye on him, folks, when it comes to your fantasy boards

and it comes to the 2020 production out of them. Patriots fans, we are talking fantasy football with Andrew Erickson of Pro Football Focus. Andrew, we've talked about the excitement that is Cam Newton and a little bit about Jarrett Stidham and where the receiver position could lead from a fantasy standpoint. But who is the most prolific Patriot when it comes to 2020 fantasy rankings? We discuss this and more with Andrew Erickson when the Locked On Patriots podcast continues. Pats fans, Andrew Erickson joins me here on the pod today to talk all things fantasy football when it's related to your New England Patriots.

And we've talked about Cam Newton and even a bit about Muhammad Sanu in the previous segment. But fantasy GMs want to know the studs and the duds. Let's face it, my friend. And before we close the pod by hearing your thoughts on the Patriots' most prolific fantasy producer, say that six times fast, folks, I want you to enlighten our listeners, including fantasy novices like me. I'll be the first to admit I'm not really as up on fantasy rankings as I should be. And we defer to the Masters, which is why you're here today, bud. If you can take a look at your rankings, who among the Patriots roster are the good bets for this year for fantasy? And who might you be smart to avoid?

Right. So when it comes to we'll start with the we'll always start positive. I think that's always a good way to start segments, but the most player, the player that I probably have the most confidence is outside of Cam Newton, who obviously we already talked about, you know, extremely bullish on him would probably be James White. And the reason being is James White, you know, through thick and thin, I think he's one of the more underrated players in NFL, in the NFL and in fantasy football.

You know, he is a player that has just continuously put up, you know, massive receiving numbers every single season, regardless of, you know, whatever the offense has been doing in certain games. And he's been especially great. And we obviously, you know, saw him in the Super Bowl and the playoffs. He's been a tried and true player. And, you know, I even saw a, you know, a blurb somewhere on TV about, you know, free agents entering next year running back and James White was nowhere to be

found and he's a free agent after next year. So that's something that he's just super underrated. And I think that most people will look at his outlook now with a potential running quarterback and think, okay, well, he's probably going to see less as a target, you know, because Cam Newton's probably less likely to check the ball down. He's probably going to run with the ball, which is true. So I did a whole study about how, you know, running back or quarterbacks

that are mobile kind of limit the upside of the running back position from a pass catching standpoint. So, but when I talk about that, that's really more like talking about some of the more elite running backs, looking at like, hey, these are guys running back going in the first or second round of drafts. It's like, hey, I'm not so sure they're going to be as heavily involved in the passing game as we'd like. You know, James White is a one-dimensional player. You know, he's always just been a pass-catching back. I don't envision him being a guy that's going to run through the tackles or, you know, a boatload of rushing touchdowns.

But he's a player that's going to be involved in games where if Patriots are losing, then he's going to be involved coming out of the back. We saw that in the Texans game, I believe, last year. He was really heavily involved. He had a great day for fantasy because the Patriots were playing catch the whole time. We've seen success with Cam Newton with Christian McCafferty. In the past two seasons with McCafferty, Cam Newton in 2017 and 2018, his percentage of targets to the running back position almost doubled from his three years prior. You know, from 2014 to 2016, he was right around a 12% mark. From 2017 to 2018, he was right around 25% of his targets going to the running back position. So, again, that was with Christian McCafferty.

But when you look at the number of McCafferty and James White, they're really not that dissimilar. James White has put up a lot of receptions in basically his entire career as a New England Patriot. So I think that they have a chance to build a connection, especially if Cam doesn't say, hey, I want to take care of my body a little bit more. I want to last, so I'm going to check the ball down a little bit more. Because we've seen him, he can throw the ball to the running back. And especially where they use James White the most has been in the red zone so james white since 2018 has the second most red zone reception and the second highest pff receiving grade among all positions not even running back no among receivers and tight ends in the red zone since 2018 so that's where the patriots like to use him you as a red zone weapon coming out of the backfield running routes running you know anything like that so there's a chance they can build a special

connection in the red zone Cam Newton and James White so I think that James White is a guy you're not drafting him because he's going to become you know a league winner for you I don't know any of those players outside of Cam on the Patriots really offer that type of upside but I think that you draft James White you know you know, what his price is, you know, is going as a, you know, outside the top 30 running back, you get him, you know, as your RB4 or something like that, I think that he's really going to pay dividends for you. Excellent point. And I really do appreciate the insight on White because to me, I think he seems to be

one of the more prolific Patriots in terms of bringing him to the forefront not only when it comes to a fantasy standpoint but obviously selfishly we look at it from a logistical standpoint I think the presence of a quarterback like Cam Newton or even the presence of a quarterback like Jarrett Stidham where there are options for the quarterback to run still makes him valuable especially when you know he's able to catch the ball out of the backfield, one of the best backs in pro football right now at being able to do that. We did keep it positive, but if there is someone on the Patriots roster that might be getting undue hype, and I don't want to put you on the spot because I don't want to ask you to

badmouth anybody, but is there someone on the roster that you're eyeing right now? Or could it be either the defense or the special teams, which is hard for people to really imagine? Are there any areas on this football team where you would look and say, this is probably not going to be the producer that you think it is? You might want to allocate your resources differently if you're a fantasy GM and you want to pick up some Patriots. So who amongst the roster right now do you believe is someone that you'd shy away from?

It pains me to say this, but it's going to be Julian Edelman. And it sucks because he's definitely one of my favorite Patriots players. But just looking at the holistic, you know, what this Patriots offense is kind of projecting to be, you know, they're going to throw the ball left. It's almost guaranteed there's no way they're going to throw nearly as much as they did with Brady. And looking at Edelman, you know, he's really – I mean,

no one has had better chemistry with Brady than Edelman. So, for me to say that, oh, well, he's just going to, you know, pick up wherever, you know, with a new quarterback and bada-bing, like they're going to have the same type of connection. I mean, they had a special connection. And I think that I'm not alone in thinking that. And I'm sure Edelman thinks it himself too. You know, he was really special with Brady and what they were able to do during, you know, both their time with New England, so,

and the thing with Edelman is, I mean, the guy, he's getting up there in age, you know, he's up there, he's now at age 34, and his receiving grade, looking at PFF as we do grades every single year, you know, he posted a career-high PFF grade in 2015, and every single year it's fallen a little bit. It was 84.7 in 2015, and it has now fallen to 72 in 2019, which, you know, last year ranked 29th out of 37 qualifying receivers with at least 90 targets. So I'm not so sure that Edelman would have been the same guy even if Brady had come back to the Patriots but just the fact that he is getting older I'm seeing kind of this decline of him a little bit and that he's a new quarterback it's just hard to have the confidence that he's going to be the same type of player

and looking at just his yards after the catch so his yards after the catch per reception was 3.3 which ranked 31st out of you know those same receivers. So he's not making as many plays after the catch, like we've seen him before. And the biggest thing was his red zone uses last year was insane. He had 22 targets and 15 receptions, which was in the inside of the top five among all the receivers in 2019. And I just don't know, you know, I obviously just talked about James White a little bit in the red zone.

I don't know if Cam Newton or if it's Jared Stidham will be peppering targets in the red zone to Edelman like Brady was doing. Because obviously Edelman was Brady's guy. So I'm hesitant to just kind of copy and paste, you know, the target share, you know, everything that Edelman did last year and years prior with Brady. Because I think that he's probably impacted the most negatively from a Brady departure. Yeah, I think the synergy with Tom Brady is definitely a big part of Julian's game. And look, I still expect him to be utilized. Cam or even Jared Stidham are not averse to using receivers in the slot, especially Cam. That's one of the narratives that I heard when they first picked up Cam Newton. And I was a little bit surprised because I looked at the way he utilized a guy

like Steve Smith Sr. in the slot and said, oh, he's still going to be able to utilize him. But the other factor in there, and I'm glad that you brought up, is age and injury. And look, I think Julian plays with an abandon beyond his years. I think he's definitely someone that still looks at himself as being very physically productive. And for the most part, I believe he is. His attitude and his preparation are definitely not in line probably with his age, but this is a guy that fought at one point three major injuries last year, and at some point he was fighting them simultaneously.

I'm not saying that he's going to feel the effects of those at any point this year, folks, because it looks like he's healed from all of them, but the rigors of a 16-game season can be difficult, and if Julian's called upon to be that type of reliable receiver that he's been for the better part of his career, it could have an impact. And if he's not, it simply means that the ball is being spread around a little bit and his productivity may go down as well. So, Andrew, I definitely appreciate all of the information that you've given us

on fantasy studs, fantasy duds. But before I let you go, my friend, i am going to put you on the hot seat and this could be a player that you've mentioned already or it might be a player that you haven't but is there a stone cold fantasy football lock on this patriots roster that all patriots fans should be clamoring to add if they're also a fantasy gm yeah i think it goes back to the guy we talked to at the top, Superman himself, Cam Newton. I mean, we have just seen him be a superstar before, and this is what you need when you're drafting quarterbacks late in your draft.

You need guys that have that upside. You've seen it from Cam. We looked at the quarterback finishes that he has, finishing as a top-five quarterback essentially every single year that he's healthy. I mean, that's the name of the game. He's healthy, you're, finishing as a top five quarterback, essentially every single year that he's healthy. So that's, I mean, that's the name of the game. He's healthy, you're locked into a top five quarterback and you're not paying for it.

So that's my stone cold block. And again, I think all Patriots fans agree. And I think all Patriots fans are certainly hoping that you're right on the money. From the information and from the visuals that we've seen so far from Cam Newton, it looks like it could be a fun season up here in foxborough but we live in hope we hope he remains healthy we hope that it all remains well and we hope that most of the nfl rosters remain healthy right now uh obviously the biggest wild card being the uh the covet 19 pandemic but fantasy football

is about to begin folks and bottom line as we speak right now folks pff's 2020 fantasy football draft guide is live all of pff's edge and elite subscribers can download over 200 pages of rich fantasy football analysis rankings stats projections and more to best prepare to their redraft leagues ahead of the 2020 nfl season And as I said to open the pod today, the content provided by our guest, Andrew Erickson, is second to none. Andrew, it's been a pleasure speaking with you today. Thank you so much for joining me here today on Locked On Patriots. Before I let you go, please let our listeners know where they can find you on social media

and where they can always follow your top-notch work. Yeah, so everything that I do is over at pff.com. All my articles, podcasts, appearances, everything's over there on the website. And my Twitter handle is at AndrewErickson underscore. My DMs are open, so if you're looking to talk football, I'm always available. Absolutely. And again, Andrew, I could not be happier for your success, but I also can't recommend his work highly enough, folks.

Definitely check out PFF. It is well worth the investment, the time and the energy that all of the great analysts put in to not only rankings when it comes to a fantasy football standpoint, but also when it comes to an NFL standpoint is second to none. Andrew, I thank you for taking time out to join us today. We look forward to having you back on here on Locked On Patriots throughout the season to lend a little wisdom and counsel when it comes to the Patriots and their fantasy football prowess.

This time in a long while is going to be a lot more productive. Thanks, Mike. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of numbers the Patriots can put up week one against the Dolphins. Absolutely, Andrew. We look forward to it as well. Stay safe, stay well, and we'll talk to you soon. And so ends our trip through fantasy, folks,

and now it's back to reality. That reality for your New England Patriots is that Pat's rookies will have reported to Foxborough by tomorrow. And of course, right here on the pod, we'll continue to bring you the very latest in training camp reporting dates, preseason games, and any updates on the start of the regular season. So be sure to keep it right here on the Locked On Patriots podcast. And to ensure that you do not miss a single episode of Locked On Patriots, follow us on Spotify, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, download us wherever you get your podcasts.

And don't forget, you can always listen to Locked On Patriots right on your very own smart device. How do you do so? Very simple. Just ask it to play the latest episode of Locked On Patriots. Once again, I'm Mike DeBate. I thank Andrew Erickson of Pro Football Focus for his time, his insight, and his appearance today. But most of all, I thank you so much for listening and for staying locked into Locked On Patriots. Stay safe. Stay well. Be the change you wish to see in the world. Have a great day, everyone. Most of all, I thank you so much for listening and for staying locked into Locked On Patriots. Stay safe. Stay well. Be the change you wish to see in the world.

Have a great day, everyone.