NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 38th ANNUAL FANTASY EXTRAVAGANZA

Episode Date: August 25, 2021

Welcome to the most anticipated show of the year - the 38th annual FANTASY EXTRAVAGANZA! Dan Hanzus and Gregg Rosenthal entertain a lineup as never seen before! We hit sleepers and busts with the Big Fish, Evan Silva, himself (5:16), receivers and tight ends with Marcas Grant (26:48), quarterbacks with RotoPat (43:16), and running backs with Liz Loza (1:06:57).  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL fantasy football podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet,

we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL fantasy football. football podcast on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and

NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sundays. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the 38.000.

annual around the NFL podcast fantasy extravaganza with special guests marcus grant liz loza that's l as in look it's liz loza oh as in oh my god is that liz loza zee as in zesty liz loza and a as in aw yeah liz loza rotopat pat patrick doher The Big Fish, Evan Silva, and introduced last in accordance with his ironclad contract writer, Brick by Brick, Greg Rosenthal. And now, your host and two-time League of Record Champion in 18 tries, Dan Hanzus. Thank you, Matt Money-Smith, and that is defending League of Record Champion, Dan Hansus. It is.

Not my league of record. Well, we all have our own leagues of record. And, yes, the fantasy extravaganza is here, Greg. And the theme of this year's episode is perfect. How do you be perfect on draft day? How do you have the perfect fantasy season? That's what we're here to deliver. And Greg, you did indeed, as you tell us all the time.

help build roto world into a giant in the fantasy sector. I didn't say anything. I didn't say anything. And I know you're not involved with fantasy as much anymore

or at all, I should say. But I know this episode holds a special place in your heart. It does. I mean, I don't like it when Silva makes little comments

on Twitter, establish the run. I've done his pot a couple of things where he's like, oh, you're an old man, you're out of the game. He doesn't even respect my opinions anymore.

I get, you know, I think Roto Pap probably feels the same, another, you know, former co-worker of mine. I hope Liz Loza respects me. I know we respect her. I mean, she got a lot more pop than Marcus on the intro. And, you know, we've done this show for eight plus years. I didn't think you could surprise me anymore with how it opens. But that was incredible. What a talent, Matt Money Smith is as a host. But I have a feeling you wrote those words. I did not write the Liz Loza a bit. That was improv by money. Yeah. That one took me by

surprised it's a little if you're a fan of family guy a rather famous Robert Logia a bit from that show but yes this is and Liz does not respect you by the way just to answer the question no probably no I get it I get it you got to be in the why is it what is it about you're either in or you're out but here's what I'm I would say to defend myself when you're out I think you get a different perspective that when all those fantasy guys in the bunker and maybe Marcus will come on soon we'll talk about that. There's a little bit of a high of mine. And even though they try to get out of it, it's like, oh, this guy is average ADP, 53,

but I have him 39. And it's like, ooh, that's a strong take. Well, how about, like, you know, I have them 15. Like, because that's what reality could be. Like, reality is going to be way bigger in terms of surprises and anomalies than any of these rankings are ever going to be. So get some stones fantasy analysts. That's what I think.

Wow. I like that. Greg hitting out against. biting the hand that once fed him and built his career, really. I mean, he built his career off the back of fantasy sports. But that's just Greg. That's just Greg. But do you think that's...

I would have done it forever if I didn't get some other opportunity that felt like, oh, let's do something different. Let's not be in 17 leagues and be totally stressed out. Me and Wes, we both had that experience where we got a little burnt out that fantasy didn't feel as fun anymore. just, you know, when it's your job, when football's fun, but fantasy became a little bit of a job. Now, you love, you love ball and you closely follow every team. Do you really think, you know, I know you're not active in fantasy leagues anymore,

but do you think you would, the Greg of 2010 or whatever it was, would kick the Greg of 2021's ass? I mean, is it really that different in terms of football knowledge versus fantasy football knowledge? No, I don't think so. I mean, luck is easily the most important factor in a fantasy league. And everyone that comes on, today I'll admit it. And plus, you know, I still got those, like, I still got the experience. If I jump back in, I'd jump in back all the way, and that would be to win some money. Luck is very important.

And as I said, I did win my League of Record last year, even though I had Carson Wentz and Ben Rathlisberger as my two quarterbacks. Because you know what else I had? Alvin Kamara, the greatest championship performance of all time. Week 16, those six touchdowns against the Vikings. I still smile when I think back to that, I believe it was Christmas Day? Oh, yeah. Unbelievable. Anyway, enough of that.

Did you hear that, Craig? What is that? I think we got something on the line. I think, oh, I think it's a big one. That's the big fish. The biggest. The ball fish. Evan Silva.

is our first guest on the fantasy extravaganza. How fitting Evan from Establishtherrun.com. Dude, how are you? Thank you for joining us again. This is officially a tradition on the ATN podcast. Yeah, I think we've done this almost five years at this point. And keeping the tradition alive, the season is inching closer. I spent my entire morning adjusting rankings for the Sony Michelle trade.

and things are starting to get real. So I'm excited. It's a tough month. August is sneaky the worst month for a fantasy guru like Evan Silva because of just the constant draft kit updates and all that stuff. But he is literally the biggest of fish, as I've probably said on this show before when I first met him after already being his boss for three years and found out he's actually six, seven, and three hundred and twenty-five pounds.

I had to start changing my tone on instant message, had to start changing. Evan, seriously, like a draft or fantasy season doesn't start until we have to reconsider where Darrell Henderson fits in in the pro football landscape. But, you know, we're going to get into sleepers and bus. And again, establish the run. Evan and Adam Leventon run that together. And Silva has a column up this week's sleepers and undervalued. and I highly recommend you check that out and check that website out ahead of your big drafts.

And I guess before we get into some sleepers and busts for 2021, I had like an overarching question for you because I don't think there are many people in this sphere that are more respected than the big fish. How much to you when it comes to succeeding and the whole theme of today's episode, having the perfect fantasy draft? How much goes back to preparation?

and how much goes to reacting in the moment on draft day, as Mike Tyson once said, you know, everybody has a plan until you get punched in the mouth. Is preparation overrated, or do you need that component? How does it break down to you? Well, I think that from an overall fantasy success standpoint, I think that the draft itself is actually overrated. Now, it's the most fun part of the. entire process, okay, except for maybe winning in your championship game. But so much leads up

into it that it feels like it's a lot more important than it is. I would say it's about 35% of the battle. Wow. I think that the waiver wire, working the waiver wire and getting guys off and being diligent every single week, you know, most waiver wire runs occur on Tuesday or Wednesday night, making sure that you are on top of that waiver wire every single. week, I think is the true key to success because, you know, you can actually build a team going wide receiver heavy and then making critical running back pickups during the year and building like a super team. This is how these notions of zero running back and, you know, anchor running back, these new

strategies have come about because people have figured out that especially, you know, with so many leagues moving toward full PPR and stressing more flex spots and starting more receivers. You know, traditionally, leagues would just start like two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end, you know, ship it, you know, a kicker and a defense. Now teams are, or leagues are using three wide receivers, two flexes, full PPR, you know, so building around wide wide receiver early builds, and then using the waiver wire to pick up running backs during the season, that's the way to really build a super team. So in other words, a good draft strategy is focus on building super positional groups,

and then you could really focus in your waiver wire quest on the position group that you maybe didn't overlook, but you purposely went away from on draft. Yes, but it's also, and you also have to consider that it's really hard to find like a wide receiver one off the way. waiver wire. You know, that that really doesn't happen. I mean, generally speaking, like, big time wide receivers, we know who they are. They're going to be a starting line up. That was the last time it happened. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's really, really rare. And teams are also running more three and four receiver sets. So they're just getting a bunch of more wide receivers

out there on the field. It's much easier to find a productive running back all the waiver wire than it is a wide receiver. And I think that connects to the sleepers and bust we're going to get to now because to me the value is never is not at running back at all like so all the sleepers and the value to me feels like they're at the receivers and in some at the quarterback position but i'm going to answer your question too dan because i thought it was such a good one i think the preparation is important but it's like it's like Aaron rogers or patrick mahomes's preparation no one prepares more than them but then once they get to the game it's like you got to just do it by feel and you got to do it by like all that study and like you know it still has like a little in other words

improvisational magic that you need. You need that subscription to establisherun.com, obviously, but that's not the whole battle. Okay. Sleepers and bus. Evan Silva. Who's the guy? Like, who's the guy?

And I even, you know, I, in my league of record, I have people that listen to this show, and I actually don't like that, and I don't think it's fair. But I feel like, as the host of the show, I need to kind of give myself that competitive disadvantage for the listeners because I would love to know Evan Silva's, favorite sleepers this year, the guys that I should be targeting later this month.

Like, who are the guys that really jump out to you, right? Well, I'm going to go, like, with some deeper sleepers here. And I'm going to start off with a guy who's, you know, has been near and dear to your heart, Dan. Maybe no longer. But he's a guy by the name of Sam Donald. Oh, yes. Okay. So we know that the post, well, that's what most people are going to say.

He doesn't even get drafted in most drafts. And I think that he's going to be a quarterback that people. may pick up off the waiver wire early in the season because I think he's going to start fast because first of all, he's got a really soft schedule coming out of the gate. Week one against the Jets, who have one of the worst cornerback units in the league, just lost Carl Lawson, their best pass rusher. Week two against the Saints, you know, Dennis Allen's defense on a regular basis starts off slow, winds up becoming the strength of the team.

But if that happens again, I think that that's going to be a favorable matchup for Sam in week two at Houston in week three playing indoors in all likelihood against one of the worst defense in the league at Dallas. We know that that is another potential game indoors where Dallas is not an imposing defense whatsoever and then against Philadelphia in week five. We know that the post Adam Gase effect has had a tangible impact on several players over the past couple seasons. Just getting away from Adam Gase has had a positive impact on their production. I believe in Joe Brady last year with less talent than Joe Brady will be working with this year. The Panthers finished top 10 in yards per drive.

Christian McCaffrey's back. DJ Moore is a budding superstar. Terris Marshall looks like he should have been a top 10 pick and Robbie Anderson who just got the big contract reunited with Sam Darnold. So I think that if you are in a position where you want to take like let's say Justin Fields or Trey Lance. And you think that they're eventually, you know, once they get in there, they're going to be top five, top ten fantasy quarterbacks, but you need somebody to sort of build a bridge to those guys that you can get for cheap and will be productive early in the season.

I think that Sam Darnel is a very cost-effective option. I like that, but like Dan's league, you start two quarterback, so that's a great, great sleeper. Okay, excellent, yes. Your league structure changes. But are you really going to start? If you're in a one quarterback week, you're really going to start Sam Darnold in those four weeks?

Probably not. I mean, what good does it do for you? I'd rather, because I don't see them, and I think you disagree, Silva, as a guy who could potentially be in the top five. You know, that's who I would want to take as a sleeper or potentially top eight. And you mentioned the rookies. And at this point, it seems like people are drafting Lance and fields high enough where it, you know, it costs a lot.

Like, you're going to have to take them as your legit QB2. I don't care. Like, I kind of hope Trey Lance doesn't win the starting job. and that pushes his value even lower and you take them and that's fine and you just stash him because he could be a top five guy. Fields could be a top five guy and the other one that got circled a little bit that isn't too high is Matt Ryan. I think he could be a top five guy because that defense is so bad and I think the offensive coaching is going to be so good that defense in the NFC South those secondaries other than Tampa are terrible and you can just see

Matt Ryan putting up 4,500, 5,000 yards in like a 7 and 10 season that the Falcons aren't particularly good, but you can see them finishing QB5, QB6. Usually you don't have a former MVP in this type of conversation, but I get that. Matt Ryan is a little bit under the radar right now, a little breaking news that just went down as a recording this. Evan, Teddy Bridgewater named the starting quarterback of the Broncos. Good for him here. Do you think because, all right, listen, Teddy reports.

placed by Sam Darnold. Do you think Teddy is a potential sleeper in that offense? There are a lot of good pieces in Denver. Is he a guy that you can go get very deep in the draft and end up getting nice return on it? Well, I think that one of the reasons that the Broncos named Teddy Bridgewater, their starting quarterback, and it's something that I anticipated happening because, first of all, George Patton, you know, the new GM brought him over. He knows Pat Schumer from Minnesota.

But I think that one of the reasons, they believe that he is a better option to manage games than is Drew Locke. And Drew Locke is, you know, a turnover machine. I mean, this guy led the NFL in interceptions. Didn't even, you know, where he started, like, 75% of the games last year. He's been fumble prone. And I think that Teddy Bridgewater is just a better option

and not give the ball the other team. The Broncos are going to have a great defense. They're getting back Von Miller, Bradley Chubbs, healthy. They've got four-stop starting caliber cornerbacks. They've got an excellent safety duo. You know, that's how they're going to play. He's going to be a game man. manager, whereas I think that Sam Darnold is going to be more aggressive in Carolina.

I prefer Sam Darn. I also think that Sam Darnel is going to have the job all year, whereas if Bridgewater starts to flounder a little bit, like they'll be quick on the trigger to go to Drew Locke. I think he could help, though, KJ. Hamler and Giovante Williams, who would be two of my sleepers. Well, I think he's a really good fit with Jerry Judy, because I think that Teddy Bridgewater will pull the trigger, whereas I think that Drew Locke, he's kind of, he's a little more of a chucker and he would have been more positive for Cortland Sutton with Teddy

Bridgewater when he sees it come open and Jerry Judy can get open like Bridgewater's going to go to that when he sees the guy come open I think Jerry Judy could have 100 catches this people should pay attention to these preseason reports because that's where you find out that Cortland Sutton is not all the way back from his that too or an ACL and you see KJ Hamler who I think could end up having you know in Silva's you know establish the run type terms, spike weeks, you know, a best ball guy that has, you know, maybe he's not the best guy all season, but he'll rip off 330-yard games where he has like a 70-yard touchdown. I could see that.

And I love the way Giovante Williams runs. And you mentioned Judy, I don't know if he fits on sleepers and bust, but like, that's where you look at the running back versus receiver value. And oh, my God, I love Jerry Judy. And the fact that he's in the sixth round, I mean, everyone knows Jerry Judy, but I'd rather have him than the running backs taken in the third or the fourth round. So I'm with you to stack up those receivers. I love me.

That was also the late Chris Wessling was big on that too. Don't go get the wide receiver. I don't know. I'll throw a James and Crowder or most new a couple of years ago. Kind of a wide receiver three type guy. I go for a Jerry Judy type that has more of a ceiling. Now, Evan, let's talk about some bus, okay? Because let's start on the higher end of things.

Like the guys that are projected to go in the top 20, Is anybody in that group to you that stands out as someone with some big red flags right now? Yeah, and, you know, over the past couple of years at established a run, we've established a lot of things. And one of them was the Ten Commandments, the Ten Commandments of Fantasy. And for a while there, the number one commandment was, thou shalt not fade the Big Dog. And the Big Dog is Derek Henry. But things change year to year. And now the big dog is entering his sixth season.

He's led the league in carries in back-to-back gears, a ton of wear and tear on his tires. He's entering a transitioning offense that added Julio Jones and swapped out Arthur Smith, who I thought was brilliant for Todd Downing, who ran the Raiders in 2017. The Raiders ranked 30th in the NFL in rushing attempts. And now he's incentivized to call more pass plays because he's got Julio Jones and A.J. Brown. The defense is terrible. This is a team that's going to be trailing. a lot more often than last year when they outkick their Pythagorean win expectation by almost

three games. The big fish fading the final record. Never thought I'd see it. The big fist fading the big dog. And over the course of his career, Derek Henry has averaged 106 total one yard, 106 total yards and over one touchdown per game in wins, only 50 yards and 0.3 TDs in losses. You're not going to get, he hasn't had a. a 20 catch season in college or the pros.

That's almost a decade worth of sample size. So I think that this is going to be the year that we see the big dog fall. Anybody else in that kind of group of stars? How about Aaron Jones is a top 10 pick with the talent that he has behind him? I'd be a little, and a little bit of offensive line questions. But it's really more about, you know, you're counting on touchdowns. And then you're also counting on A.J. Dillon not to be effective. A.J. Dillon looks good.

Colin Hill is a great, is a great looking third running back. Why not to save Aaron Jones as much as you can if you're the Packers for the playoffs, which is basically what they do. You're counting on a lot of touchdowns, a lot of explosive plays out of him. Like that's another spot where so many of these running backs towards the top, I'd rather have a receiver there. Zeke, Zeke and Saquan would be another two. I mean, you make a fair argument.

I think that Aaron Jones at the end of the day, like he's going to be really, really good in a really good offense. He's excellent in the passing game. A.J. Dillon doesn't do what Jamal Williams did in the passing game. So I think we're going to see. He's a better player, though. You can just tell he's a better player. I really think he could be.

We'll see. One bust I have toward the middle rounds is Kenny Goliday. And, you know, the history of wide receivers changing teams in the offseason has not been great. Now it went really well for DeAndre Hopkins and Stefan Diggs last year. So it's not, you know, it's not a foolproof process. to just completely write off wide receivers that are changing teams. You were big on that last year, fish. Yes, we were not high in Hopkins.

I mean, I was a fish, you know, last year. So, but this year, not going to be a fish. And Kenny Goliday is, I mean, not only is he changing team, but he hasn't gotten any practice time in with his new quarterback, who took a step back last year. It's a Jason Garrett offense. You know, we haven't seen Kenny Gowley play football really in a long time. He played in four games.

It's like a bust of a contract that you ever heard a guy less, like in terms of fantasy value or the money got from the Giants. Like, Kenny Gallaudet didn't do anything for you last year, for anyone. Yeah, exactly. And the downgrade, I think from Matthew Stafford to Daniel Jones is going to be significant. So I think that Gallaudet might have, you might mix in a few spiked weeks, but he's really going to struggle for inconsistency. The guy that no one wants to draft in the Giants pass catch record, and I think still has a stable

role is Sterling Shepard. I think that he ends up, I mean, he goes undrafted quite a bit, and I think he's going to end up with 85 catches. Man, I'm with you. I've been wrong on Sterling Shepard every year, and I'm going to just keep being wrong until I'm finally right. It's going to be right one of these years. All right.

And before we say goodbye to the Big Fish, is there any other players you could throw out sleeper or bus category that you're really- You know some rapid fire. Just throw out a lot of names either way. All right. was on Marquez Calloway before, you know, he started burning up the preseason. And I think that he is an excellent sleeper. And he's a guy that in home leagues where maybe some of your competitors have not been paying as much attention to the preseason, he might end up

going late. Now, if you look at in the high stakes leagues, he's, he started to go like in the ninth round. But you might, you probably can get him a little bit later in your leagues at home. I think that Devante Parker, his ADP is wide receiver 55. I have him as the wide receiver 40. He's a good value. Cole Commet, I think, is an excellent number two tight end. I think he's rarely going to come off the field. This season, if you want to go a little bit deeper for a sleeper tight end, Donald Parham, who the beatwriter say is cutting into Jared Cook's role already. Jared Cook is old, falling off the cliff 34 years old. Donald Parham only caught 10 balls last year, but three of them worked for touchdowns. This guy, six foot nine. He was the best player in the XFL. Dan, I'm sure

you caught a bunch of those XFL games. I know how you love the AAS. Yeah, I was the AAAF guy personally. But I, but I, but in this offense, if Donald Parham can, can carve out a role where he's playing like 60% of the snaps, which I think that he can do. I mean, the Chargers offense has won to bet on this year. I'm amazed Noah fans tight end nine or ten. I know he's had a, I guess, a little banged up, uh, camp, but keep, take guys that can

be the number one player at the position. Yeah. There is a, there is a scenario where Noah fan is tight end one or tight end three. or whatever it is. So just take them because that's going to be 11th, 12th round. I love me. Last thing for me is thank you, Evan Silva, for joining us. It is the first day of school for so many parents across the country,

including Evan and myself, and you have a wonderful daughter to go pick up. So thank you for making the time, buddy, and best of luck. And everybody, go to the establish the run.com. I'll get in the car. All right, later, buddy. Thanks for having me. All right. Thank you, Selva.

What's up everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Sticks, we take you inside the game from scouting reports and player development to team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. Every week, we study the tape, talk to decision makers, and share the insights you won't find anywhere else. It's the kind of conversation that connects the dots, from college football prospects to

the NFL stars of tomorrow. We break down the draft, analyze matchups, and evaluate how teams put it all. All together on game day. Plus, we dig in the coaching strategies, roster construction, and the trends that shape the league year after year. Whether you're a diehard fan or just love understanding the game on a deeper level, we give you the full picture. If you want insight that goes beyond the box score, this podcast is for you.

Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Six podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Matt Jones. Franklin. And this is NFL Cover Zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts Pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Oh my. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining. And twice a week, that is exactly what you're going to get. Listen to NFL Cover

Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL, visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet.

We've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL fantasy football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. There he goes, Gregie, the big fish, the largest of all fish. And by the way, if you want to take this moment here to do your little victory celebration about your boy, Teddy Bridgewater, a little TED talk for Greg Rosenthal because he's got a shot here to lead a very prominent. and Broncos team.

I got to admit, that was bad podcasting by me during that segment because I'm scrambling. We're trying to get Evan Silva out on time. I'm looking for sleepers and bust. And I don't think the enormity of Teddy Bridgewater taking that job quite hit me yet. So let's just celebrate it right now.

Let's go. Like, I'm a Patriots fan. If the Patriots and the Broncos are playing, I'm going to root for the Patriots. But this year, I'm a Broncos fan. Artie was getting there. And now with this news, I don't need any more. They were once the team of West T.L.

But now, I don't need to wait until the season starts to see how they look. They are the team of T.H.A.L. Rosenthal. Oh, wow. I'm all in on the Broncos. They're going to the playoffs. I think they'll win a playoff game. Everything I wanted from Teddy last year in Carolina, it's going to happen with this great roster in Denver.

Love it. You know, you often mock me for going third person. But this, you know, if I went to a patent office right now, and I find out that team of T. is already registered, I'll know that you're Machiavellian. I think I broke it out once now, but now, yeah, it's sticking. I don't know if I can get you guys on board. I mean, I just was trying to make a rhyme with West TL or ATL.

There's really no way. But I believe it. I mean, I do, I have fun with Teddy. I think it's okay to root for players. Not everyone that you root for has to be the best player in the league. But I really do think this roster is Super Bowl ready if they had Aaron Rogers and playoff ready with a little Teddy ball. And don't get a twisted.

And I know we've been at crossover, Teddy Bridgewater, but I've never had anything against Teddy. In fact, he's a great story and a great comeback story. And by all accounts, a really good dude. So I'm really torn because I'd like to see your analysis go up in flames and him struggle. And that would bring me a lot of joy personally. But also, if Teddy thrives, that's a nice thing, too, because he's a good dude who deserves it. I appreciate the honesty. I think after eight years, we're just now more honest with each other.

Speaking of good dudes, our next guest is a mainstay on NFL network, NFL.com, the fantasy podcast. You see him all over the dial this time of year. And now we welcome him back to the around the NFL podcast. He is the great Marcus Grant. Stuff like that never happens to me. Stuff like that never happens to anybody except for Marcus. Yeah. How about Marcus Grant?

in a boomerang reboot, you in the Eddie roll. How about that? That was sort of my life in junior high and high school after that movie came out, especially because his name was Marcus Graham,

so it was really close to my name. So you don't know how many people would just walk up to me in high school and just go, Macca. That was my life as a teenager. Well, you could have worse role models, for sure.

I know this reference is too old for Erica. I love movies. Boomerang so much. It was like my favorite 1992 movie to watch when it was on HBO. There are just so many great lines in it and a great cast. And I just want, I want Marcus in the Marcus gram roll. And I don't think that's asking too much in 2021. I'm fine with it. Let's do it. All right, Marcus, welcome back. You're as rock salt as it gets in the industry. There's only, but even though Evan Silva is the big fish, we only have big fish on this show. And you're a big one. Indeed. And I just want to say, Marcus, we are breaking it down kind of by tears here,

or I'm not saying to you, Marcus, but the audience. So Evan, we focused on the sleepers and bus and some overall fantasy philosophy with Mr. Grant, wide receivers, and tight ends. What do you feel about this positional group? Overarching thoughts as we get into the conversation. Well, you can't pick two more different positional groups in terms of depth. wide receiver is by far the deepest and tight end is easily the thinnest so it's sort of I've taken two different approaches with it where I tend to go very early on tight ends I've drafted Travis Kelsey in the first round in countless drafts this offseason you know if I don't get him that I'm fine with a Darren Waller or George Kittle somewhere in the first couple

three rounds tight air or wide receiver rather you can sort of wait on because there is such a lot of times I might not go until the fourth round before I get my my first wide receiver just because there are still plenty of quality players there and I can feel okay about it. I want four or five wide receivers though. Like, I mean, that are good. Like top 40 wide receivers. I want four or five because injuries are going to happen. Hopefully you got a flex spot, especially if you got a flex and three receiver starters. I was really surprised as a fantasy outsider, Marcus, to see when I checked in on the ADP. Wow, Travis Kelsey is going 12th. Because to To me, it's like, I don't know, he's always been Travis Kelsey.

He's never gone 12th before, so I don't want him the year that he is going 12th. Because to me, nothing's different about him. He's still the same guy. He's great. You're locking in a tough position. I get it. But, you know, I mentioned Noah Fant. There's other guys, Mark Andrews.

There's plenty of breakout type guys that I feel like you could get later when you can just stack up those, like, superstar receivers at the top if you can get him. Yeah, I don't think anything has changed with Travis Kelsey. think things have changed with us. It's that every year, we kept trying to tell ourselves that, you know what, Titan's going to be deeper this year. It's going to be deeper this year. And it never was. We would always come into August thinking that, hey, you know what, there's going to be these mid-round tight ends, and at least a couple of them are going to pop. And then we get to October, we're like, this is a morass. And this is awful. And why did we think this? So I think instead of

just foregoing all that, you like that, yeah. Instead we decided to forego that. And we're like, you know what? There are three guys that we know we can count on. At this point, just make the leap and reach for them. So it's not that, it's not that I think Travis Kelsey has gotten better or Darren Waller, George Kittle. They're all really good. It's just that I think a lot of us are sick of sort of, you know, throwing darts at the Mike Gassikis of the world and hoping that something great comes to that. It's a strong argument because if you think about it, it's kind of mirrors the Marcus Grant career trajectory. Nothing's changed with Marcus Grant. Like he's always been a fantasy analyst won, but it just took a while for the NFL to realize it and start pushing

them up that draft board, put them to the top of the jet chart, put them on TV more. I'm seeing you in the pre-season. It's great. So you are Mr. Kelsey. Marcus and I are grinders in the NFL media sphere. We just rose up just through pure effort. Hey, speaking of tight ends, so yeah, we all know the big three. And I'm looking at an ADP site to trust, a fantasy. football calculator and I see Kyle Pitts and I see him going according to their rankings average draft position top

50 that is fourth round pick yeah Kyle Pitts now where does he where for you is that a guy that you want to invest a still that's a premium draft pick those first five picks in a rookie

now a rookie that people say can transform the position but are you willing to get in on the ground floor with Kyle Pitts that early in a draft? I'm not. I, look, I completely understand the arguments of people who do. I'm just not one of them. I've got him kind of as my sixth tied in, right? You've got your big three and then whatever order you want to put Mark Andrews and T.J. Hawkinson, that's fine with me. And then I've got Kyle Pitts there. Everybody, you know, we, we a lot of times, you know, set these

expectations for players. Last year, you know, Clyde Edward DeLayer, I think was a victim of our expectations where people over drafted him because of what we thought he could be. And I sort of worry that about Kyle Pitts because we have set his standard arbitrarily somewhere just south of like Saturn. And for him to kind of hit that, if you're drafting him as the fourth tight end off the board, you were expecting him to hit his absolute ceiling. And history just kind of shows us that that doesn't happen with tight ends. And because we have set that ceiling so high, it just feels really difficult for him to get there. I think even if he is very good, which I expect,

I just don't think it's going to be where people are anticipating him being. I think next year, I think we can talk about that. But I think this year, I would have him as my sixth tight end, maybe draft him somewhere a few rounds later, which basically boils down to I'm not going to draft him because he's going to be gone before that opportunity comes. Yeah, that's fascinating. You're saying that Hawkinson was in that next three.

It's another one as a fantasy outsider. I'm like, what? Wait, that, he's in that three. Because I just do think about, like, which guys do you want on your real team? I do think people get a little caught up in the situations more. Noah Fant is a better football player than T.J. Hawkinson. It's not even close in terms of fantasy skills, in terms of a receiver. So it's like, so is Mark Andrews.

I don't even think they're in the same ballpark. Maybe Hawkinson changes. He develops and he's in a great situation. But I don't get that. I'm going to throw a question by you, Marcus, because I want to get this take out there. It's my number one fantasy take of the of the year. So it's not really a question. It's just a platform for great to play a long mark.

It's ball. The question is like the guy that you can't draft at wide receiver too early, that there is no too early for this guy that if Marcus has 20 teams, you're happy that he's on 17 of them. But usually a pretty good guy. For me, without any doubt, it's Terry McLaurin. I don't think you can take Terry McLaurin too high. I think if you're at the top.

of the second round. I don't care. That's not too early for him. You want to take them in the first round? I don't even care. Like, I would put, I would put Devante Adams ahead of him, maybe Stefan Diggs, and that's it. And sometimes I think you get caught up in like, let's beat the I ADP by four or five spots or whatever. I personally just think he is going to have a monster season with Fitzpatrick. I think 1500 yards is like absolutely within reach. And so to me, I couldn't take them too early. If I was drafting, I'm just going to take them in every draft. That's the guy I'm staking my claim to. Do you have a guy like, that at wide receiver i do well first of i you know i don't think you're crazy with the mccloren take there he

you know when when the the the football team went out and got ryan fitzpatrick everybody who's already high on terry mccloren just went to the moon about him just because we know what ryan fitzpatrick can be and what that's what i thought and then i looked and he's still like the eighth or ninth receiver in the end of the third round and that surprised me because to me the moon is like wide receiver one i think that's possible you think it's like a football team tax here that just because i'm I'm guilty of this. Like when I think about it, and I look at the top five or six receivers that are going, Adams, Hill, Diggs, Hopkins, Ridley, Metcalf, Jefferson,

Scary Terry's not there. Is it because he's got a bad nickname? Is it because Washington's offense has just been so uninspiring for decades now that is turning off basics like me? I think it's some of that. I also just think it's, you know, a lot of times it's muscle memory, right? When you see that, you know, Devante Adams, Stefan Diggs, Tyreek Hills, those guys. it's just we have become accustomed to drafting those guys as the first handful of players off the board.

And it's hard to do that. It's hard to sort of break away from that. So maybe that has something to do with it. But, I mean, to answer your question, for me, it's C.D. Lamb. I mean, same division on a team that I think is going to throw the football a ton on a team that has become certainly more DAC-centered over the years. And on a team that defensively, I don't expect them to be, you know, a ton better than they were last year. So I think the Cowboys are going to be in a lot of track meets, which means, uh you're going to have dack throwing the ball a lot and this talk that they want to move lamb

all over the formation you know get him just outside of just being in the slot and get him outside a little bit um you know i i also think he's definitely getting a hard knocks bump um you know with some of those highlights and stuff we're seeing there but but cd lamb is a guy that i have been trying to draft in his many plays and it's been you know a lot of virtual fist fights because everybody's kind of feeling this way about cd land well hear me out on that devil's advocate on this um because this is out there as a thought as well Amari Cooper. I mean, he's going to get his targets.

He's got to eat. You have Michael Gallup also in that mix. You have Zeke Elliott. He's getting to me a hard knocks bump as well, where it looks like it's going to be a good Zeke season potentially. And, you know, that's going to lead to a lot of touches for him. Is there not enough footballs to go around to make C.D. Lamb, the breakout player that many people think he will be this year, myself included.

I mean, I think there's a concern about that. But I think we're sort of brushing that off just based on. what he did in those, what, four or five games that he had with Dak last year before the injury. I mean, it looked like he was going to really take off. And I go back to last year and you look at that rookie wide receiver class. And my take at the time, and I still believe this, is that last year, Justin Jefferson was the guy you wanted as a rookie. But if you're talking a longer ceiling for those folks who played dynasty football, I thought CD Lamb was the guy with the higher ceiling. So I still believe there's an opportunity for him.

You mentioned Michael Gallup. I keep thinking that he is, he's kind of the Jan Brady of that Dallas Cowboys offense, right? It's like he's a good player. And in a situation where he can get opportunity, yeah, he's probably not going to get the same kind of targets as Cooper or Lamb. But I think, you know, for folks who are drafting and you're looking for a wide receiver late, Michael Gallop's a really nice option because I think if you're looking for kind of a depth ad at the wide receiver spot, I think he's going to get plenty of opportunities. I'm amazed by the talent of the receivers.

You said you might wait at receiver a little bit. that's not my game um but there are such good guys available in the sixth fifth sixth round i'm kind of stunned i would i would start taking them a little early but of these guys who i all love and think like wow why it's crazy how talented the receivers are getting taking in the sixth round or so uh give me an order who you like who you don't i yuk and again i love all these picks i yuk judy dante johnson and obj to me those are all like potentially fantastic values to get that way um i would probably go iuk first i'm just i'm i'm hashtag team iuk all day so i go iuk i would go dante johnson uh judy and i'm putting obj fourth and that's a hard call for me

the only reason i'm doing that is because i feel like there's such a wide range of outcomes with him i think i think the guy that we saw for the giants all those years that player is still in there um but i don't know that that the brown's offense is going to feature him the same way that the Giants did once upon a time. They've got two very good running backs. They've got a defense that is going to keep them in every game, so they're not necessarily going to have to sling the ball around a lot. I do think that, you know, another year with Mayfield and Kevin Stefansky and that offense is going to help, but I just feel like there are going to be weeks. They're going to be weeks when Odell looks like the Beckham of old, and he has those

spike weeks and he helps you win. There will also be weeks where they just don't need him, and he's just not going to get a large target share. So it could be sort of a roller coaster year for him. He's the flip side of Kelsey, though, to me, where it's like, there's a chance he's the, you know, wide receiver four. Like, when a guy used to get taken in the first and second round, and he's getting taken in the sixth round, and he's healthy, it's like, I like taking that guy. In general, that's how you do things. I'm a little wary of OBJ being more named than game at this point, as Chris Wessling was known to say. Last thing, real quick, Marcus, which rookie will be this year's Justin Jefferson a wide receiver, and why is it Elijah Moore?

You know what? I do love Elijah Moore. I do. And especially for where he's going in drafts, he seems like a really great value. But for me, the answer is going to be Devante Smith. From the moment he was drafted, he was the best wide receiver on the Eagles roster. And maybe this is their way to take him. He's going kind of like seventh, eighth round in a lot of spots. You know, maybe this is the Eagles way to sort of make up for whiffing on Jefferson last year. But I think he's the best receiver on that roster. You know, the one word that keeps coming up when you talk about his route running is just he's a technician. And I do think the Eagles are going to throw the football a lot more than people are anticipating.

It's also why I kind of like Jaylen Hertz if I'm waiting on a quarterback. I think there's something there's something there with this passing game in Philadelphia. You have any deep sleepers? I know he said last question, but just like sprinkle a couple of names. Not deep sleepers, but maybe at the bottom of it. Greg, we're on the schedule here. So my favorite deep sleeper at wide receiver is Amon Ross St. Brown. And people are calling me a USC Homer, and that's fine.

I'll take that. That's whatever. But because whenever you talk about him, he might be their number one receiver. He really might not make that team, it sounds like. But people also keep saying, people also keep saying that he is sort of going to be the Detroit version of Cooper Cup for Jared Gough. And if that's the case, that's not bad. Love that. That's a great one.

Not bad at all. Marcus Grant, follow him on Twitter. Watch the fantasy show on NFL Network and, of course, the NFL Fantasy Podcast. Thank you, my man. And listen, I'm with Martin Lawrence. I ask the same question. That never happens to me. Stuff like that never happens to anybody except for Marcus. There he goes.

The reboot. It's coming. 2023. Good. Well, we're on the schedule, Greg. One of the good guys. You know, we've been here for. You've been here longer than eight years or nine years. I've been here 4,000 years, a wizard, actually.

One of the glue guys inside the company, so it's great to see him. Yes, we love Marcus. And, no, you got in that extra question. You kind of try to usurp my power as the host. It's because we're on a schedule, and we've got to stay on schedule. Now we're three minutes behind schedule. We just got like 12,000 people to draft them on St. Brown in the 14th round. And I think that was an amazing deep sleeper pick.

It's going to help people out. We'll see how that plays out, and we'll circle back to that next year with Marcus. But coming up next on the show, the train keeps rolling. Unfortunately, I do not have a boomerang ref for our next guest, but we're very excited to have him. He is. One of the great fantasy writers out there, I have to thank this man for taking me to my league title last year because I just studied his writings and acted accordingly. And it all worked out in the end.

Roto Pat, Pat Dardy, welcome. back or welcome to is this second time first time i think it's two i think yeah well anyway hey welcome to the around the NFL podcast from rhodo world rhodo pat what's up buddy uh not much you said i'm one of the greats but i was heard the end of marcus's talk i'm like marcus sounds way more prepared than me marcus sounds really smart and in the zone well there is a reason you've only been on once over the years um pat like an amazing person, writer, fantasy analysts. And we talk about brick by brick, you know, a lot.

Dan does on the show. Yeah. You know, our listeners might not know. Goaline stand. That's the rankings column over at Roto World. Matthew Poliath started it way back in the day. And then he gave it to me. I gave it to Wes.

And then Wes gave it to Roto Pat here. That's the lineage. And he crushes those rankings with a lot of mirth, not even a little bit of mirth, a lot of we go we go all in on the mirth and uh yeah no pressure following in that group and i'm glad you shouted out mr poliot where you can probably give people like a hundred guesses who began the football rankings at rhoda world now mbc sports edge and our baseball guru matthew polyiot probably wouldn't be one of them but yeah poliot is he's truly the bricklayer there's nothing he did the entire site by himself for five years so yeah he's like he's pretty i was let's say he's

one of the most unheralded, like, uh, secret weapons. And he's, he's pretty heralded, actually. Like, he is heralded, but he's decently heralded. He needs to be even more heralded than he is Matthew Pollyaud. He is a true fantasy sports legend. We are going to talk quarterbacks now, uh, with rotopat, but on the subject of branding, and we've talked about this on the show as well, the change in the name of that website. Do you have to rebrand and pivot to NBC Sports EdgePat?

Yeah, the edge pat, like at least EdgePat, it says many characters. So I have such a love-hate relationship with the name Roto Pat. Like, I like the fact that it's memorable and that it's stuck. And vintage. Yeah, kind of like I'm like, yeah, it's vintage now. You know, everyone wants vintage. You know, I was nostalgic before it was like even a thing. But you've got children now.

You're like a grown man. And so, yeah. And I like the fact that it's like my name are or whatever. Like, I'm a one-namer. But I still would have preferred at Patrick Dardy on Twitter. It's just my Irish name, way too many characters. And so back in the day, too, you wanted few. They counted like characters against the, like, your name characters counted against your character count.

So if people wanted to tweet at you, you can't have them wasting like so many characters in the super long name. And that's how, that's how rotopat was born. Well, we love it. I love the, I love it as a hook for your whole career. But now we need to change our focus and talk quarterbacks. And let's start here. Let's start here. Let's talk about some MVP's past and present and maybe future, okay?

Pat Mahomes, obviously the number one quarterback here. The only question becomes, when is it too early to take a Pat Mahomes? I think that factors in how your league is structured. Josh Allen, I imagine we still feel very good about Josh Allen coming off last year's incredible season. How about Lamar Jackson, the 2019 MVP? Why not just start there? How do you feel about his prospects as a fantasy?

goldmine this season. I think he's still clear top five. And, you know, like, what I think, see if the only 2,000, I think the 3,000 yard rushing seasons in NFL history, he has two of them. Michael Vick has the third, as you probably know by now, like, the way you just like bank points and, like, the dual threat quarterbacks are such a life hack. And no one banks those like Lamar, but, you know, he was like a little volatile and inconsistent last year we're like like it was nice to have he'd have like that stratospheric upside

with the rushing but like the floor was like a little lower than it probably should have been was like the passing inconsistency and like what we really wanted for like the next level for Lamar to be like kind of like someone you could almost like safely project as like the QB2 QB1 was like that next level in the passing game and was so excited to see Rashad Bateman in this offense like someone who had success, like both inside and outside in college, really felt like, you know, like the missing, like, no offense to Willie Sneed, but I'm like, I'm excited to see this guy in the offense over Willie Sneed. No, take.

Willie's listed, by the way. I'm, you know, shouts to Willie. Willie, you've had an amazing career, you know, no expectation. I mean, he's on the Raiders roster. He's not, you know, don't bury him. He's going to be the number one receiver probably for the Raiders, Greg. And like this was so excited to see. another first-round receiver that maybe someone would take pressure off Marquise Hollywood Brown.

And, like, this is like, the Ravens really needed this. Like, maybe even if it's just someone they targeted, like, over the middle of the field again, even if they never got the outside cooking, you know, like, Lamar has trouble getting cooking on the outside. Like, another guy who can do, like, major damage over the middle of the field down, if that's the way they want to use them. And it's the fact that he's hurt, like, kind of, like, haywire the whole thing to me. And, you know, Lamar missing time with COVID. I guess I'm not actually worried about that.

but I want to I felt like it was the narrative made sensibly so like there's an easy next step for Lamar to take this year he's got like another first round weapon and now it's just like how do you project like that next passing game who you drafted who you taking that quarterback like a lot whether it's early or late early and late I've got my homes is the clear cut number one but you know I'm still who's ending up on your teams you've done a million drafts so that is then that is the ultimate test of the fantasy analyst. I know some people, it's like they put these rankings out there, and it's like, who's on your team?

That's what really matters. If I actually go for like an early quarterback, I've been ending up with Russell Wilson a lot. Like, I feel like, you know, one of the most, maybe the most sensible MVP bet there is to me. Among people that's like not getting like a ton of MVP hype. I mean,

not that he doesn't get MVPI. Russell always gets MVPI, but a lot of Russell Wilson, a lot of Matthew Stafford. He's still like going barely in the top. 12. I'm surprised by that. I thought the hype would be crazy. And I see he's going after Herbert, who I love, but there's a lot of questions there in Tannahill. That doesn't make sense to me. Yeah, there's so much narrative hype with Matthew Stafford. I'm shocked. He hasn't crashed the top

10 with McVeigh, the best weapons he's had in several years, obviously the best coaching he's had. But he's still kind of stubbornly that QB12, QB 13. That's a great. But an interesting point by Justin Herbert, by the way, where, you know, very good. He set six rookie records. But doesn't he kind of feel like an obvious statistical regression candidate? Maybe not like a real life play. But like they didn't really do anything. They're changing systems.

They didn't really do anything to the supporting cast. Like it's a fine supporting cast. Like as long as like Mike Williams isn't like. Better line. But I'm with you. But like yeah, they didn't like goose the skill supporting cast at all. That kind of feels like some obvious statistical regression to me there. I was getting a lot of Jalen hurts early in the summer.

but I have allowed the Eagles they have successfully spooked me just with the way they talk about or they talk about him like he's just some guy who happens to be on the roster they talk about him like he's just someone guy who like stumbled in like the team facility I guess we'll get this guy a chance

I mean I don't know I am stunned looking at the ADP that that Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence are like the 12th and 13 quarterbacks what in what world would you want Joe Burrow coming off at torn ACL after everything like I wasn't that excited about him last year relatively for fantasy or Trevor Lawrence uh with that surrounding and that coaching staff compared to like a Matt Ryan or Baker

Mayfield I think sometimes people get a little too cute uh like a bake like Matt Ryan's gonna put up numbers you just know he is so if you want to 26 touchdowns and 12 interceptions yeah right and if you want if you want some upside take tray Lance like I take tray Lance or take Justin Fields and don't even worry about your backup quarterback spot in the first month. you can totally wait like the everyone like drafts for week one when they should be drafting for the whole season and lance especially seems like he has you know top five type upside if if everything went right i will say with burrow the people are getting finally spooked with joe burrow like you like i like philosophical quotes from my quarterback if they're like over the age of 35 like joe burrow i thought

was like talking like way too philosophically like the summer for like a guy who's like 24 what do you mean what what quotes he was like maybe the one he said about like i don't maybe i won't trust my legs again he was saying basically that he will get there is that philosophical or is he just yeah he was kind of like i'm getting like uh he's like maybe this is who i am now it's kind of what he was saying he was like maybe he wouldn't have like not that he's a dual threat some doubt is creeping in maybe doubt that seemed to have creeped in understandably so coming off the torn ACL but yeah Greg the the jailer or not the uh the uh tray lance movement that I think people were like this might have been like tray lance week if he had just like exploded over the

weekend he didn't like dud but you know all the better all the better i like that he struggled in the preseason because that's going to get people off him but shanahan's not off him he's going to be playing him in a juggernaut of an offense potentially sooner than later whether it's week one or week six like that's so many times quarterback more than other positions you get guys that carry you that don't necessarily matter that much in September. I will say with Trey Lance, I actually would respect the decision to not start him to begin the year, which I almost never say about a rookie quarterback.

But like I have gotten like a little too fixated probably on the fact that he's an FCS prospect who's played one game in two years and it was an exhibition, I believe, against Central Arkansas. It's like, you know, just give the young man some time. Let him like sponge stuff up from Kyle Shanahan. just give the young man a little time. Like you said, throw them out there like week six or seven. I actually feel like I don't have a read on what they're going to do with Trayland.

I kind of actually, I really do believe it probably will be Jimmy Garoppolo week one. But like I kind of believe the rookie is going to start until I see it. Like I just don't pay attention to any coach. I'd rather have Zach Wilson than Trevor Lawrence and Burrow and some of those guys up there too. Well, Trevor, I feel like people have been over projecting the legs for Trevor Lawrence. Like he is like a big physical guy and he had the rushing touch. I'm like, I don't know, man, if the Jacksonville Jaguars are really going to be like letting Trevor Lawrence, like, run in like near the goal line. Are they really going to be exposing him? It's like these huge linebacker hits. And I think that's the Trevor Lawrence, like fantasy narrative has come from. People like pull up a sports reference. Like, oh, yeah, eight rushing touchdowns every year. This guy is going to have like a sneaky dual threat. But I'm having trouble believing that. You wonder if the Travis AetN injury now out for the year with that dreaded harlot, Liz Frank, strikes again if maybe that will make people think,

oh, maybe you'll have more of a goal line threat. We shall see, you know, you really captured my imagination there, Roto Pat, or NBC Sports Edgepat, with the idea of the life hack QBs. I like that. I like that. And to me, is the ultimate, the guy lying in the weeds as an MVP and as the best life hack quarterback, is it to you, the man in Arizona, the man in the desert, Kyler Murray, another former number one overall pick?

Or are there enough red flag? whether it's the personnel around him or his head coach and the scheme and even his own issues with staying healthy and all that last season. Where do you come down on Kyler Murd? You think he's a guy that can deliver you a superstar, take me into the Promise Land season? I do. I'm not sure about, I guess I'm including us in the media. We all love Kyler Murray.

So I could definitely see like an MVP narrative developing there. In terms of like winning fantasy leagues, to me, so Greg asked me who I was drafting and I somehow I didn't mention Kyler Murray, because they kind of always just draft Kyleor Murray, no matter what year it is, no matter of its dynasty or redraft. Or he is like the perfect modern fantasy quarterback because the only guy who has more explosive dynamic legs is probably Lamar Jackson. And then amongst like the dual threat types, he's like, I think kind of by far the best passer.

Like he's a pure passer, even though he, even though he's a running quarterback too. Like he just pure in terms of like the way he likes the person. pass, like his mechanics. I love his ball placement, even though he's been like, kind of, he's still, like, progressing as a passer, like, amongst, like, the guys who really like to run, I feel like he's the best passer. It's a lot of attempts, too, a lot of volume. Yeah, yeah, so much volume.

And I just feel like he's, like, at that perfect crossroads, uh, of like the passing and the running where he, he is beyond Pat Mahomes, who is the best, uh, American athlete on the planet. I, I do. Kyler Murray, I just get over and over again in fantasy. And like, I'd be like he is like the embodiment of what you want in a modern fantasy quarter. Have you seen Yankees' first base with Anthony Rizzo? I thought you were to say Luke Voigt, who I'm trying to think currently, if you're right, you're right, I think you're right now, not like historically, but I'm just saying at this, at this moment.

Kevin Durant's having a pretty strong, strong year. But, yeah, I don't, I don't get, though, the difference between Mahomes and like Aaron Rogers being one round and fifth round. Aaron Rogers feels like if you feel like going safe at quarterback, there's no scenario that I foresee that Aaron Rogers doesn't absolutely deliver you great numbers this year. And it's the flip side to like, yeah, take the Justin Fields that has a top five upside. But it also isn't bad to just hit doubles. And there's no way Aaron Rogers is missing this year. There's just no, there's no way. I don't see a huge difference between him and the top guys at all.

I think with Rogers, it's as simple as people open up this. pro football reference they see his 9.1 touchdown percentage from last year bolded because it led the league and people just like, well, there's no way like his touchdown percentage would be that high against. It's fine. He'll throw 32 instead of whatever. I mean, it'll be fine. It'll be great. It'll be fine. Well, Greg, old quarterbacks don't ever have success in this. What about Dak? Do you have any concerns with him coming off the ankle coming off this training camp that's been marred by the shoulder issue that's led to the reps and all that stuff. Do you, are you full speed ahead when it comes to Dak Prescott or do you have some reservations

and you're like, well, if I could choose between Dak and say Aaron Rogers, let me just go with the guaranteed double or the home run. Or you say, I'll ride with Dak. He's ready to rule. I think I have allowed myself to become hashtag concerned where it's kind of like a weird situation where I wish I could just worry about the catastrophic ankle injury has come back. I wish I could just focus on that. And, like, you can't even just focus your injury, like anxiety from Jack on his ankle

anymore. Like, the shoulder, I'm sure it's fine. But, yeah, it went from the classic, he's probably going to practice, you know, like tomorrow or Thursday to, well, we're calling the Texas Rangers just to see what's going on with this shoulder. I know. I like when they were like, eh, it's nothing. But we're calling the Rangers because we have no idea what this is.

So that definitely raised my eyebrow. They were literally called the Texas Rangers. Rangers to consult about his injury. They've got it covered. They've got a cover there. I hope you don't hold it against me, by the way, that, like, we call Silva the big fish. Because, you know, you, you know, it's sharp elbows in the fantasy industry. We're friends, you know, obviously, Pat, you know, we work together a long time.

But I know there's like a lot of resentment potentially to. I just, I call him the big dog, not the big fish. is the only disagreement there where Evan's the leader of the industry no one at NBC would ever say a bad worried about Evan he's the god he's having so much success out on his own he's like the leader of a movement

basically Evan I worship at the altar of Evan still he's like a big brother to me see it's almost like he's Evan is again this position of power within the industry that you have to watch what you say because he's got sparrows around him and if you

say something to Evan he might physically come down upon right i mean he'll just stand over you menacingly yeah he'll he he's a rather rather large man yeah he'll just menace me and make me take like eight goldschlager shots uh which something that happened one time by the way he's uh he's he's a he's a he's a tough one to drink with uh so yeah it's hard to keep up and finally uh my last my last question for you rhoda pat rich which rookie will be this year is justin herbert and why is it Zach Wilson? So I've noticed the Zach Wilson train has left the station. I've noticed this theme.

It has. This week it really did. But people aren't taking him in fantasy drafts. He's probably going undrafted sometimes in one QB leagues. No, I'm not taking him for the very scientific reason of like when I watched Zach Wilson's cost, so I'm a Missou alum, when I watched Zach Wilson, he reminded me so much of Drew Locke, minus the interceptions thrown to linebackers, constant. instantly. He was like Drew Locke without the turnovers. So I think that's good. The way his

college physical resemblance reminded me so much of Drew Locke. The preseason's wiped that away for me. Lock at no point was as like, I'm glad though that Rotopat has mentioned this because I did need someone to bring things down a little bit for me after the second preseason game. And the Drew Locke comparison, I'm a little bit closer now to the ground. Thank you. Yeah, just when I watched his film, you know, I'm a big film watcher. I'm a noted film guru. Yeah, noted tape dog. And like I said, it was good. It was like Drew Locke without the interceptions to linebackers. So, I mean, that could be really good as a player profile. Just, well, I'm just taking a day by day with Zach Wilson. I would say I am in on Trey Lance. When Kyle Shan, I was supposed to say,

when Kyle Shanahan, I was supposed to say when Kyle Shanahan handpicked someone, he has had not, he's got a mixed track record lately with handpicking people, I'll say. Maybe beginning with like Tevin Coleman but when he handpicks the quarterback Ayuk was a home run that's true but i thought daniel was a home run i'm like they traded up for dante pettis i'm going to draft him in every dynasty league in existence and then that didn't work out are you going to let sorry last last question um whether it's a two qb league or you're just looking for um a backup uh are you going near a patriot quarterback in this draft uh i mean the only one i would go near is yeah uh mr cameron newton although he's missing some pretty critical days of camp.

I think that job felt close to locked up to me for Cam and things are just set up so beautifully for that power rushing attack. And like, there's some crazy fantasy stat. I wish I could remember. I think maybe the Lord or Rich Rebar tweeted it. Well, I think he had like his many top eight fantasy weeks last year. He had like more top eight fantasy weeks than like only four or five quarterbacks. You know, the other weeks he was like, you know, then like below 30.

but the rushing is just so important in fantasy and they're set up so well to run but yeah now he's giving Mack Jones a runway to take the job where you know Mac has the really Cam had a successful preseason appearance as we Mac had the really successful appearance he's looking good in practice Tom Curran NBC Sports Boston thinks he could

back door the job and now Cam despite being perfectly healthy because of his coronavirus goof not knowing the protocol wherever it's not practicing for like the most critical week of practice of training camp. And I'm afraid he may have, has maybe left the door jar for Mr. Mac. All right. Excellent work.

Follow him at Roto Pat, NBC Sports. Still, an amazing site to go to, even though Greg left, even though Evan Silver left, and West left, when you have guys like Roto Pat anchoring the operation, they're almost like, I don't know why I'm using a baseball reference, the Tampa Bay race. Like you think, oh, they can't survive this. They can't survive that guy leaving no. They keep thriving and building a championship contender. So check out that site. And of course, read Rotopat. And I sincerely do thank you. I read you every week during the season and it makes me a smarter fantasy head. So thank you, good sir. It's truly my pleasure. And you just made me

sound like, I think I'm the most important NBC employee since Jay Leno. You are. And you've got a podcast too, which I joined like a month ago. and I was honking hard about Marquez Calloway. And all the little fantasy experts on the show were like, whatever. And now it's come around where everyone's in on Calloway. I have 100% Marcus Calloway exposure, as we say in the industry. Now he's going to be a lot more expensive after what happened Monday night.

But you were right. You've been beating that. That wasn't a necessary comment. I don't know why you can. I only remembered it because his buddy Denny reminded me on Twitter. He's been fired. He's been, he'd be fired. He's been let go.

All right, there he goes. Roderty. Thank you, buddy. What's up, everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Sticks, we take you inside the game from scouting reports and player development to team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning

rosters. Every week, we study the tape, talk to decision makers, and share the insights you won't find anywhere else. It's the kind of conversation that connects the dots. from college football prospects to the NFL stars of tomorrow. We break down the draft, analyze matchups, and evaluate how teams put it all together on game day. Plus, we dig in the coaching strategies,

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Listen to the Move the Six podcast on the IHeart Radio app, podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Matt Jones. I'm Drew Franklin. And this is NFL Cover Zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts Pretzel?

That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining. And twice a week, that is exactly what you're going to get. Listen NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones. and Drew Franklin on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL, visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more.

I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet, we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. There he goes, Rodo Pat. Is it just me, Gregor? It is Pat Dardt already have like a Connor or vibe that just matches well with this show.

Absolutely. He is legitimately one of the funniest people I know. And West would always talk about that, too. Like a lot of sports writers think they're funny. You know, that's legit funny. But someone on Twitter pointed out something that blew my mind, speaking to Connor. And I'm wondering for your take on it.

You might have to listen to the tapes. Someone noticed that a re-fassan. Actually, it was my friend Adam, who has a great Saints Twitter podcast. Our guest on Monday show. Yeah, that Arefahan and Connor Orr sound a lot alike. Their voices are very similar. And then I thought about it and I was like, okay, I see that.

Is it possible that we are all Connor Orr in some ways? Just like the tone of it and the way they talk, I can feel it. What if this is all just a simulation and Connor's running it like algae rhythm from Space Jam 2? I'm in trouble then. I don't feel confident about what's going to happen to me. Like Don Sheedle, you don't have to say yes to everything. If a script lands in your lap and, hey, space jam sequel, LeBron's involved, that's pretty cool. You're going to be the bad guy.

Just a heads up, the character's name is Algae Rhythm and you're a bad guy inside a computer hard drive or something. And you're going to be speaking for 78% of the movie, I would say, Algae Rhythm. It's like all algae rhythm. That's his movie. Maybe pass. There are some red flags sometimes just simply through a name. I'm with you. I'm just delighted that we're having a breakout algae rhythm conversation on both of my podcast

because we spent the solid 15 minutes on the Jessel Nick and Rosenthal Vanity Project. Talking about algae rhythm a few weeks ago. Man, this development when your kids start to get old enough to go to the movies and stuff, and you start seeing some of this stuff. It's like, whoa, what is going on over there in Holly Weird, am I right? Speaking of Holly Weird, our next guest I just learned was on one of my favorite TV shows. It's like head nurse number seven of the show 24. Wait, really?

Yeah, this is true story. This is research, and this is what pays off, just like in fantasy, research pays off. She is now really the boss over at Yahoo Fantasy. Liz Loza, welcome back to the Around the NFL podcast. What was it like working with the great Keeper Sutherland? That is a whole evening we'll have to discuss. But actually, I only was supposed to have like three lines in the episode, but I am very good.

And this will shock you in no way, given my now profession. I'm very good at managing men with short tempers. And Keeper Sutherland, in fact, fired another actor and gave me another episode. a promotion because he had a temper tantrum. And, you know, thank you to my mother's dating history. I'm really good at managing grown toddlers. Wait, you had to comment. To reveal magnificent for you.

How about that? That's amazing. I have a great, before we get into running back stock with Liz, a really quick, great Kiefer story. A friend, this is back when I was living in New York, Kiefer likes to go out and get loose and have fun and he's my buddy's coming out of a bar and who's kind of stumbling out of the bar but it's kefer sutherland himself and this at the height of 24 fame and the guy my buddy he was feeling no pain himself he went up to keeper and says keifer you're my hero man and then keeper looks at him

dead in the eyes and goes i'm no hero i'm a disaster i would say that's pretty um pretty on point for what I experienced. But again, he was very, very kind to me. And I got myself another episode, which is a whole, I still get residuals from that show. So please keep watching. Wow. That's great.

It's self-awareness by him, at least. And a sign of self-confidence by you, too, that you've got a small part on this show and that you had the confidence in who Liz Loza is to be able to talk to the superstar and calm the situation down. And just realize he's another person. He's a disaster. Thanks, Greg. Let's get into it.

I don't know how we transition out of it, but we will. Running backs. Oh, well, the running back landscape is also a disaster. Oh, love it. Kind of agree. Why, Liz Loza? Why is the running back landscape a disaster in the year 2021? Well, we have a lot of, this is no surprise in the year 2021, but a lot of shared backfield.

We had a bunch of injuries just over the last couple of days. We have a bunch of, like, electric rookies with vets that have durability concerns. And so, like, this running back dead zone, as fantasy fans like to call it, is a complete cadre of question marks, if you will. Like running back 15 to 25, I tweeted my rankings and just wrote, bless this mess. Because it could go either way. I think you could even extend that after, you know, the top five or six, that there was, this, I feel like awareness among fantasy heads. It's like, oh, running back's very volatile. It's very risky. You know, wide receivers have as much upside sometimes and are such sure

bets. And yet, when I look at the average draft position, I'm the fantasy outsider now. It feels like it's swung all the way back around because I'm looking at all these picks and it's back to so running back heavy early. You know, guys, I mentioned Aaron Jones and Barkley getting, you know, first round, but Mixing and Edwards and Lair and Jacobs and Carson and Montgomery and like they're all going in rounds two or three against the best wide receivers in the league. And just as a philosophy, I don't, I don't, I don't, I'm not doing it. I'm not touching any of those guys because to me the receivers are all better bets almost. Well, you're making a good point because in this like running back dead zone, in this glut of like, you know, running back, like I said, running back 15 to 30 maybe.

that is where last year we found Stefan Diggs, for example, right? Like that's where you're going to find some of those receivers, but it is just really hard to look at your roster and not, but also that's where you found David Montgomery last year. So it is hard to look at your roster and not think about all of the facts and the construction and the balance that you're trying to achieve. And also, I mean, I'm not one who likes to say, like I am zero RB or zero wide receiver. I think, and this is something our friend, Chris Quest,

wrestling would say all the time like just take the best player you get so frustrated like I don't what are you trying to do just take the guy who's the best at the spot that's what NFL teams do um so I think there's a lot of like a lot of credence to that and it makes a lot of sense but I also think when you're actually in a draft like I'm no if if Chris if Chris Carson is the RB 15 and he's available I am not going to talk myself out of that talent because I know he won't stay on the field for now 17 weeks in a season, right? But that is something that other people will do. So we mentioned Clyde Edwards-Ellair, and I was one of those people who got sucked in last year. I think I took him in the top 15 and it all made sense on paper. And everyone was telling me

how special he was going to be. And coming out of LSU, he was such a stud. We're hearing now, the hype machine around him is building up again, that he's more comfortable in the offense, that he's been more involved in the passing game, a training camp. Are you buying in on that breakout season that never happened last year happening in year two, or is that somebody to stay away from for you? Well, I'm not staying away from him. He's my RB-14 in my ranking, so just above that zone that I was talking about. He's on the bubble heading into the dead zone. But I think you've got the draft pedigree. You have what looked to be a special talent at LSU. You also have a lit offense and the approval slash enjoyment from Patrick Mahomes. All of these things line up.

I would say that he is not the workhorse and is probably not going to be the workhorse to be anticipated. But that offense lifts enough that if he can start getting the passing down reps that you're mentioning, then I don't understand why he can't be a low end RB1, high end RB2. Yeah. And I like the way that their running game looks in terms of their offensive line. They're starting three rookies. Orlando Brown's a better run blocker. Like they really got the tape heads excited during training camp. because I mean during the precinct because they're showing a lot more like a lot more power running and like different schemes. Andy Reid's using the preseason I think to tell people that like we are going

to run the ball more. I though like I'm with you. You should always just take every draft as it comes and West would say that. I always said like always be flexible. Just don't don't have set rules. But just kind of looking overall, I have a feeling I'm going to think those receivers are better and that you're going to have to take some running backs late and work the waiver wire. I'm going to give you a handful of names. would love at running back. You tell me which ones I'm wrong or right about. Mike Davis, wow, I can't believe he's as late as he is for the Falcons. I could see him being a top five to 10 running back in that situation. Giovante Williams, love him. Damien Harris, just love the talent. Trace Sermon. I'll even throw in A.J. Dylan. Like any one of those guys, if you're not taking

running backs early, I feel like you get one later. Who's your favorite or least favorite out of that group? All right. So first of all, I agree with you on Mike Davis. I am guilty of, I think my Davis suffers from the Tim Patrick syndrome because his name is Mike Davis, right? Like you're just not expecting this baller and all of the attention, frankly, is on Kyle Pitts and Arthur Smith, the former tight ends coach working in this like wide receiver in actuality. So I think he is getting buried a little bit. But of the names you pick, I love Damien Harris.

I've always, I've loved Damien Harris since he came out. People like to forget that Damien Harris was the RB1 at Alabama ahead of Josh Jacobs, even though Jacobs had all these like flash plays, the knock against him. was that he couldn't be a workhorse and, oh, what are we seeing, like efficiency issues probably linked to durability issues. And so the Raiders bring in Kenyon Drake to kind of solve that problem. We'll see if they can. Regardless, Damien Harris is like a jack of all trades, but a master of none.

But he is reliable. We're seeing Sony. I mean, the Sony Michelle news now going to Los Angeles. We had the clues. The team didn't pick up his option. Bill Belichick gushed as much as Belichick will gush about Harris. and I just think this is a guy who can do everything. They have a rookie who's flashed in some places

who early on was comped by the Arby's coach fears to be similar to LaGarrett Blunt. So now I feel like Damien Harris is just forgotten because there is a narrative and we all get stuck in this recency bias nonsense. The narrative surrounding the Patriots is that you never trust the Patriots running back. Well, things change.

We saw that, in fact, particularly with the Patriots last year, Dan, that's a nod to you. And now you have Damien Harris as the RB1. I have him as my RB 20. You've had some big time Patriots running back years over the years. They pop. It doesn't usually go one year after another. But Corey Dillon certainly, I love that with Harris.

Their offensive line should, on paper, is a top three run balking offensive line. And especially if Cam starts, they're going to be just running the ball time. Who would you rather have, Liz? Jonathan Taylor, who really obviously busted out down. for the cults last season, or Saquan Barkley? I have them back to back. It's interesting going to say that. I have them back, six and seven in my rankings.

I think when you look, so the conundrum about Berkeley to me is not coming back from the knee injury. That's one thing. I think he's going to be explosive. I think he's elite enough of an athlete to regain what he was before. The question is, is he going to get the volume that he had before? And when you notice the fact that he was the high draft capital, the second overall pick, and, like, the urgency on behalf of Gettleman in the front office to protect this investment,

he's just not going to see the number of touches and particularly not the number of targets through the air, especially with all of these new pass catchers added to the offense. So I think the issue with Barclay is like he's not, he'll have the talent, he's not going to get the volume that we're used to. Taylor, to me, is a lesser proved talent. There's no Quentin Nelson. I'm not sure about Carson Wentz. I think we probably overreacted to the injury, but I'm still not feeling great about that offense.

And Reich loves Neheme Hines and Marlon Mack is healthy. So I don't think we're going to get volume there either. So overall, when I judge those two situations, I'm going in the direction of Berkeley because talent always break tiebreakers. I worry about Bradley. I would, I would, I don't know. He wasn't that consistent runner before he got hurt. A lot of, you know, a lot of like losses.

Jason Garrett's the, you know, a lot of, you know, tackles for loss. Jason Garrett's the play caller. You mentioned Wes earlier. That reminds me. And our listeners should know Liz is on this show because, you know, she's such a, we got to know Liz through, through West, great, great friend, long-time friend of West. He, he, I remember when he called Jonathan Taylor,

one of the top five or six running backs in the league around like week 14 last year. I was like, whoa. Like, and I think he was right, just in terms of pure talent, You're right about the situation is not perfect there for him. But if I'm betting on just talent, I actually would go on Jonathan Taylor's talent at this point over Barclay coming off an injury, just because the injury has. There's too much,

even if there's like a 15% chance that Barclay's like hurt and never the same, like I'm just going to take a guy that's not hurt right now. I think that it depends on the evaluation then, right? My issue with not saying that Taylor is as talented right now is that, He had the benefit of running behind Wisconsin's offensive line in college, right? So that's helpful. San Juan's never had a good offensive line. That still remains the case.

And now without Quentin, Nelson, I'm worried that, like, one or two more injuries, what does Taylor's efficiency actually look like? We don't know what it looks like behind a thin offensive line. And my last question for you, Ms. Flosa, which is, listen, Mark Sessler is recovering right now. He's going to be back. Hopefully, either end of this week or next week. So on his behalf, as I did on Monday, I must bring up Jake Funk, the number 233rd overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft. What does the Sony Michelle acquisition mean for Jake Funk?

I'm not, I didn't know that Mark was sick, though, please give him my best. I adore him, and I'm bummed he's not here to join. I, you know you work in fantasy when you have nugs on all of these players, and I am drafting an all rookie squad article that's going to next week. And Jake Funk was prior to this morning's news on that list. Our Charles Robinson, who's our NFL insider at Yahoo Sports, went to training camp, and the staff was super high on Funk. They were like, nope, we're not going to bring in a vet. It's Funk. It's Funk. And then like Xavier Rhodes, I believe his name is was like running in the preseason. I was like, but then Funk had a really good week two preseason game. I do think when you see Sony Michelle coming in, though, although like, man,

to like a fifth and sixth round conditional 22 pick is like not a lot of anything but I do think we have to then imagine that Sony Michelle is the backup to Daryl Henderson but I also don't think that they did anything about that until Henderson hurt his thumb I think that everybody was like they think Henderson's the guy they're worried about his durability now his thumb's an issue you see the trade for Sony Michelle but Sony Michelle's not been the picture of hell I think that funk is going to get like here's my bold prediction from Mark Sessler. I think Funk is going to have two top 20 fantasy outings in 22 and 21 in 2021. That would be a big win. A big win. At this point, yeah. I mean, this is a guy, you know,

when he's drafted, hoping that he makes the team. So that's, that's a big time number. It's not out of the realm of possibility, right? Nice little waiver wire. I like it. Yeah. They can both get hurt. Do you have any other guys sort of late in the draft that you like? Maybe not that late, but, you know, mid to late whenever, that is on a lot of lows of teams that you look. Well, I am drafting, well, first of all, I'm drafting Robbie Anderson. He's not late, but he's too late everywhere. I think he needs to get some respect put on his name, the amount of the, like, complete rebrand that he was able to handle last year is very impressive.

But super late, my guy is Gerald Everett, tight end. Former Ram now reuniting with his former position coach, Shane Waldron, in Seattle. And I think even if, like, Russ doesn't cook, like, Even at a simmer, Gerald Everett has a chance to be number three in targets in that offense. And for a tight end, he's going in the like 16th rounds of 12 team exercises, I think he's a great dart throw. He is their, you're right.

He's their third receiver. They don't have a third receiver. And Russ Sneaky likes feeding tight ends. He just never has a good one. Everett's always hurt too. They always have like seven of them. But if you add up all their numbers, it always adds up pretty good. You're right that Everett could be a little.

Well, there's no Greg Olson, there's no Hollister, and there's no David Moore. So that's like 150 vacated books. There she is. Liz. She keeps poorly behaved men in line and just delivers fantasy knowledge, like a faucet running on high. And also, she gets residuals. What do they call that in the industry? They call that mailbox money.

You get that mailbox money from the Fox Corporation every month or so. So everything's cooking for Lizloza. I guess that's what I'm saying. I guess everything is cooking. Yeah. And we've got F1. But I can't see you guys, you guys have got to have started to watch Survive to Drive, right?

Drive to Survive. I have watched a couple episodes and I meant to finish it off. I've watched some F1 in my time, a little bit. It was recommended to me highly of that program. I have not dove in yet. It is fun. I would love actually a Mark Sessler driven pod about F1 on the inspirational heels of having

drive to survive he doesn't enjoy driving cars you know he's kind of anti food and anti cars in general but that would be that would make it I think it's even more fun pod there's the hook that's the whole hook of it Liz I will give Mark that I'll give me your regards and I'll give him that little career tip but thank you for joining us and best of luck this season and hope to see you at a league tent pole event in the not so distant future. Thanks so much, guys. I hope to see you soon.

Thanks, Liz. There she goes. Liz Loza. You know, Liz was awesome. All the guests, awesome. This was a really good, strong edition of the fantasy extravaganza as we seek to give you the listener the perfect fantasy draft and have the perfect season. And it is perfect to me that even after last year's struggles and how he bungled

and you'll never convince me otherwise the end of the Tom Brady era that I could still see a headline like I'm reading right now from CBSSports.com Sony Michelle trade grades colon Bill Belichick works his magic again while Rams

gain viable running back. You mean the same Bill Belichick that took Sony Michelle 31st overall in 2018? Tell me how these draft picks that he's gained in this trade is a indication of his magic. Please. Somebody pay attention.

That's stupid. I mean, here's a thing. It's not a bad trade for either side either, but you don't need to make it into something into it's not. It's two late round conditional picks, which might turn into very little. At most, it's like one, you know, at least it's like one late round pick. It's nothing. It's just getting to pick an undrafted player essentially in front of anything.

It just is a sign they have a bunch of running backs on their roster that they like, and that's fine. Yeah, and he has a bunch of yesmen still in the media carrying his water. Right. I agree with you. This is not an example to make any take one way or another. It's fine. It's fine for both sides. And Sony Michelle was taken over Lamar Jackson.

All reports indicate that they were thinking hard about taking Lamar Jackson. I'll never forget it. And by the way, he was also taken over another Georgia running back, taken very soon in that same draft after them named Nick Chubb. So yes, I saw your tweets, people who are like, Sony Michelle won them a Super Bowl. It's like, yeah, I'll never forget that playoff run by Sony. Michelle they did get one more Super Bowl and he played very well in that stretch but you don't think

they could have filled in that production with someone else with antoine smith or le garret blunt or whoever it is that they found to you know hand the ball off it's like they would have found someone it was a bad there's the patriots fan in him it was a bad see it does pop out every once in a while good stuff really good stuff I feel more prepared for my draft do you have a draft Greg are you completely out or do you have to admit I'm out yeah that's fine you know you don't have to admit it it's fine I think it's a way for you to like... Sometimes you'll do that thing. I'm different.

Like, I'm not going to get a Peloton. I'm going to get a Nordic track because I'm off the beaten path. I'm not going to do a fantasy league because that's what you do as a basic. I think that's kind of the angle you're playing here. But that's, I respect you for what I mean. That says more about you. That's how you interpreted it. Because, of course, I did keep a fantasy league going one or two for a while after leaving Roto World.

But I found I got nothing out of it. I really got a little bit of it. got a little bit of stress and no enjoyment. It's funny. We even have this one less thing to worry about. We have this stupid fun league that we do just like Connie, Gonzo, Mark, Erica, myself, just like a fun little NFL media hive group. And you didn't even do that with us.

And it was just everybody was just like, you know, we were on this private text change. It's like burying you. Like we were all just like, what's wrong with Greg? Why can't he just have fun with us? But he needs to make this stance about how he's above fantasy life. not above it. Let's speak to that a little bit. It's, it's, um, in the immortal words of Don Draper, like, fantasy football to me, like, that's what the money's for. Like, that's not really the context that's for at all. But it's like, like I got into it. I loved playing in those high

stakes leagues. I love the high stakes leagues. I loved like playing for my rent or like, you know, paying for a trip to Japan. I loved playing for the money. I didn't, I wasn't. I wasn't. I It wasn't playing for like the, the enjoyment. So it goes back to the scratching that certain desert itch. You're not allowed to at the NFL play for, for money. Nope. And or over it, like, it's a very small amount of the league. And it's like, what's the point?

Like, I have enough distractions. Gotcha. All right. Fair enough. But for the millions of other listeners and fans of our league, this is a big next couple of weeks. So best of luck to all of you. With your drafts, and remember my bit of advice I give every year, friends, do let friends drink and draft, but just make sure it's not you.

Just hold back on the drinking until you get out of that, you know, 90-minute window of your draft, then cut loose with your buddies. Just, that's all I got for you. Do you have any advice for the fans of the sport, fantasy sport? Greg, before we say goodbye. Great advice. Well, it's kind of dovetailing off. Yeah, that West advice, which I really believe in. Don't worry about the rank.

You know, draft the team you want and draft the better players. Like, who's better at football matters a lot more than the situation. Like, don't worry about being bold. Like, I would much rather have Terry McLaurin than Saquan Barclay. Like, I don't care that it's 30, you know, the ADP versus six or seven. Just take who you want, you know. Right. If you're in love, if you're in love with the chiefs and watching Patrick Mahomes

and you have a chance to take Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, and Travis Kelsey, do it. And just root for the cheese. It's mostly luck anyways. Old, you know, old Clyde in the corner making fun of you for your pick. He doesn't know anything either. Clyde. Is it Clyde Edwards-Ailer?

I do, I do remember some very... Making fun of you for picking Clyde Edwards-Salair. I do remember some very aggressive NFL analyst bragging about taking Clyde Edwards-Hillair like first overall. It's like, people are going to see. People are going to see. All right. Never again.

All right, good stuff. We'll be back. We'll do a bunker cast on Friday, just get you, or Thursday, getting you caught up on the news that's transpired since the last Monday episode. So keep an eye out for that. But until then, enjoy this podcast. Maybe bookmark it. Listen to it again right before your draft. We guarantee you we'll win you some gloop.

All right. The perfect draft. That's what you're going for. Till Thursday. He'd the call. take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters.

We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sundays. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael F.

Floreo, and together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL fantasy football podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet. We've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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