Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - NFL cut candidaites the Vikings could target (Part 2)

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

Matthew Coller made a list from 3 different outlets of "cut candidates" ...plus he grades the Vikings' offseason moves post-camp and the fantasy round table with Mike Schopp and Ian Hartitz. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

Aaron, how worried are you about Van Ginkle and Harrison Smith's injuries? I'm not sure with Van Ginkle, I think probably not a lot. He was out there every day, but Harrison Smith, it's not an injury. It's an illness, at least from our understanding. That is one where it gets the one eyebrow, gets the one eyebrow raise. Maybe you can, can I do it there? Yeah, it gets the one eyebrow. I mean, it's a long time to be out with an illness.

And that is concerning about ramping back up to 100% for week one after if, I mean, if it's a serious illness. And it also, and look, I don't, you know, I, I don't want to say like, I'm suspicious of this, but it's the, it's the Vikings. So because I've been here for now, this is season number 10, my, my brain just goes there to like, is he just going to retire? or something is it going to be a total surprise retirement and we're going to go oh uh what there's a press

conference and harrison smiths hanging it up before the season i mean it's happened before with terence newman so i'm not i'm not throwing that out there but just when you cover this team for long enough like that's the stuff that you think of when somebody's out for this long with an illness but yeah i mean there's there's questions there with that but i think that uh van ginkle should probably be fine. It also gave Dallas Turner a ton of reps. That was another thing as well, is that Dallas Turner got a lot of work in this offseason. And when you talk about things that went right for them, Dallas Turner went right for them. Matt, why were the Steelers playing their first round pick in the third preseason game? Do not ask me, man. Do not ask me. But let me tell you,

tomorrow night, when you're watching, you know, Miles Price versus Silas Bolden battle and thinking, doesn't mean a whole lot, does it? Remember that, that KOC has had the right approach. I remember when they started badly in 03, it was a question. Like, shouldn't have O'Connell had played the starters? No, no, no, we should not. The joint practices, I think Nailor got hurt on a freak thing in the joint practices, but, you know, it happens.

It's football. Sometimes you fall funny. But, you know, in these preseason games, I feel like I see every single game somebody gets carded off. There are guys out there who are trying to win. jobs and you know all the time it feels like there are pretty serious injuries uh rob says wonder whether quacy might look for a young developing wide receiver two or three and not an older bridge well that's the thing uh rob about this type of situation is that it's hard to find that type

i mean we're talking about trey palmer okay like i'm i'm interested in tray palmer a little bit as you know that kind of underneath guy i'll probably call him david paulmer or a bunch of times if he gets traded here. But how many teams are letting go anybody who could be a wide receiver two or three at this point in the game? The reason you look for washed up guys is because if you're under 25 and you have any potential whatsoever, you stay on the team. The Vikings have kept, and this is no disrespect, because I like this guy and I'm actually

kind of interested if he gets into some games of what he could do. I like Thayer Thomas as a player, but this team is kept, this is an undrafted former baseball player from North Carolina State, and they've kept them on the team as so just in case, because there's not that many receivers in the world that were great. There's not that many receivers who are Addison or Jefferson, and the reason they keep drafting them is because you can't get a hold of them. Once you get somebody good, everyone holds on to them because they're worth their weight in gold. and until they need a big contract, then they might trade them or until they're problematic and then they might trade them, but not until then. That was a major argument for me of drafting a receiver.

And getting someone like Felton is because your number three wide receivers get paid $10, $15 million. It's just hard to find him. Aaron says if the Aussie punter makes the team, you can have some small talk about Greyhound racing. Yeah, I guess we can. The punting battle seems real. It does seem real for the first time.

And Matt Daniels did drop the other day. A little tiny hint when he said that Will Reichard was comfortable with Oscar Chapman. I would not be shocked. Yeah, maybe Rob, the Panthers are not trading Coker. That's the reason that Phelan is on the block. But, you know, Kisham Booty, he had a great catch against the Vikings. You know, I don't know. For me, for me, I'd just much rather have the veterans.

Just keep drafting them in the future. Let's try to get them through that way. You're probably not getting young guys who are going to make any sort of impact. Let's see. For the win, 2021 says could make the case that any Packer wide receiver would fit. No, that's, that is true. They have about eight number three wide receivers. McColl Hardman was one that I mentioned.

It's probably getting cut. Romeo Dobbs is more likely a trade and they're not trading him here. trade for yeah dan chasena unfortunately got hurt uh jag he got hurt so i was keeping track of where hot sauce was the punter from down under well look i mean when you watch him punt and you see those guys trying to catch it and they're freaking out because they don't know where it's going so it's pretty good you know, but I will say that there have been times in the past where I thought they overthought it a little bit. Would having Ryan Wright lose this punting battle be a little bit overthinking it?

And the only case I have for that is the Vikings were sixth than the NFL last year in the percentage of punts inside the 20. I mean, it's not like it was horrendous last year with Ryan Wright. I think that we kind of lost patience with him in 2023, where he was legitimately bad and they stayed with him and didn't bring in a real punter to compete with him. It was a former wide receiver or something. So now this is a real punt competition with Oscar Chapman, but you can keep him anyway. So if Wright struggles, you could just go to Chapman.

I think that's still the right move to make. But I did wonder about if that was a hint from Mad Daniels where he said, yeah, you know, Will Reichert's really comfortable with him holding. Oh, because that was my biggest question. James says since you've been covering the teams, does it feel like the depth along the O line and D-line is the strongest you've ever seen it? I don't think there's any question about that.

When you talk about the depth, no question. I mean, even so clearly the best team that I've covered here is 2017, obviously, NFC championship team. They did not have depth in the offensive line. I wouldn't say this team has mind-blowing depth, but at very least, I would trust Blake Brandel if he had to start for a season, as long as he gets Dar esau next to him and not Cam,

Robinson. I think that Walter Rouse has come along. I actually think, you know, this happens sometimes. When somebody's struggling, we talk about him nonstop. Oh, man, Michael Juergens, he's struggling and, you know, that sort of thing. But I think that he's come along. I think that he has come along over this camp. And he had a fine second preseason game. We're going to see a lot of them in the next preseason game. But I felt like Jurgens got better as camp went along. And they should be okay with him. And I thought that Walter Rouse had a tough start, but then got quite a bit better as he went along. No team has great offensive line depth, but that's not terrible. As far as D-line, though, definitely. I mean, 2017 did have B-Rob

as a backup, and technically speaking, Tom Johnson was a backup, but he played more snaps than Shemar Stefan. I was never a big Shemar Stefan guy, so I like Shemar as a person to interview, but I just thought he was kind of a non-impact type of player. like a Jonathan Bullard, where it's great that you can hold the blocks, but you know, you need pressures and all that sort of stuff. They didn't have anybody behind those guys that I can recall for defensive tackle that would have you'd feel good about. And this group has four guys that I feel good about coming out of training camps.

I'm going to say yes, that on both and really the 17 offensive line, Nick Easton, we didn't know he could play at all. Pat Elfline was a rookie. Mike Remmers was just the guy that they brought in. so this line should be better than that line, uh, both of them. And it's a, it's an offense of a D-line world, man. Uh, let's see. Like, uh, you for the win 2020.

Like the school pick up this year. The hard thing to figure out about Justin's school is he's been going against Jonathan Grenard and it's just been killing him. That's the hard. That's the hard part. Grinard has been so good. But Grinard had the, was in the top five in pressures last year. He's not, he's going to get out for.

week one and be like, oh, this is okay if he is out there for week one. It's trending a little bit more toward Derisov. J.A.G with Harrison Phillips leaving, do you think we'll see more for three, four, two, five, than three four. Yeah. No, I think that that's one of the reasons. I do think that they will be a four three or, you know, four to five is more right, but it actually might end up being well, no, that's, yeah, that's right, because among the five is three, three safeties. I still think that they're mostly going to play three safeties, that the Jeff Okuda thing we've talked about a lot, but he's not going to be out there for a ton of snaps. They want to play three safeties. And they, they want Mattelis, they want Theo Jackson, they want Harrison Smith on the

field for 90% of the time. This is interesting. Micah Parsons scrubs all of his social media of Dallas Cowboys stuff. I think that could really happen, by the way. I think Jerry's crazy enough. throw it out there. I'm going to call this right now. So we got a fantasy roundtable I want to get to a really great conversation with Ian Hartitz and Mike Shope and just just fun projecting players stuff. Not a lot of hardcore fantasy theory. I want to get to that. But I do want to put that down in writing that I think Michael Parsons could legitimately get traded. I've seen some people say, no way, no way, can't happen. Jerry Jones is just flat out freaking nuts right now. He won't talk to Micah Parsons agent? What the hell? Like, what world are we living in here? Like, that's how you

negotiate with every single player. What are we doing? Uh, let's see. Dances, Matt, now that you have made it through training camp, any predictions on where the season ends up based on camp vibes, 11 wins. I'm going to say that's good for second in the NFC North to the Detroit Lions still. I still think that the Detroit Lions, despite some of the changes, uh, at offensive and defensive offensive coordinator. Some of the issues with their offensive line, I still think that they are ever so slightly better than this team with a more proven quarterback. And I think the Packers will finish third and it will still be Chicago in fourth place, but Chicago will look better doing it than they did before. And I'll say that they get a playoff win, but I can't go farther

than that. Like, I can't look farther than that into the crystal ball. But I think this team is built for at least one playoff win for this year, that they are more steady on the offensive and that by that point, J.J. McCarthy should be ascending. They should go into the playoffs with one of stronger rosters in the league. But there is so far to go. But if I'm making my predictions now, that's where it's where it is. That's as far as I want to go into the future. But I think that KOC will get off the schnide. And I don't even know what a schnide is, but he will get off one of them and win a playoff game for this year. Steve Young said, get the monkey off my back when he won the Super Bowl.

Well, that's what's on Kevin O'Connell right now is the, you don't have any playoff wins, your coach of the year, but you don't any playoff wins. I think that they'll get that this year. Will they go farther than that? Then we're going to see. Clark says, are the Vikings playing anyone on the too deep tomorrow night? No, no, they're not.

you might see though you might see uh ingram dawkins i think no there will be there will be some guys i mean no as in anybody who's going to make an impact in the year 2025 for the vikings probably not um but you know mcky blackman is looks like he's going to play you might see some offensive linemen that might have to get in the game at some point jurgens you're going to see a lot of zavier scott i think you're going to see and and maybe he's got a chance there well actually you know here's where so my initial reaction is no, but your receivers. Actually, the answer is yes. I shouldn't have said no right away because I was thinking about, well, KOC is just not

going to play starters ever, but these receivers are going to play. And if somebody doesn't, if like Lucky Jackson doesn't play, that must mean they feel okay with Lucky Jackson. Oh, you know what, Brian, great call. Was there a one to 10 grade on Ryan Kelly? Shoot, I forgot Ryan Kelly. I would give that one a nine so far. I think Ryan Kelly's been huge.

Good call, Brian. My bad. I would give Ryan Kelly a nine and moving on from Bradbury. They've gotten beat as an offensive line versus the interior. The interior is sick. And they're going to beat a lot of people. But that leadership of his, very real. That command.

And here's where we saw it. Day two against the Patriots. Once they saw kind of how the Patriots were going to play, Ryan Kelly picked them apart. It wasn't just J.J. McCarthy. The reason J.J. McArthur was so good. Brian, I wish you had reminded me like 30 minutes ago because this is something I wanted to talk about. But when they were able to see them on tape just for a day and understand how they were going to rush J.J. McCarthy in the joint practices, they came back

and the offensive line was phenomenal. And I think that started with Ryan Kelly because they were sending a lot of blitzes and stuff. And once McCarthy had time to throw, that's where he picked apart their defense. So thank you for reminding me. That one I would give a nine. it's just been really good he's been healthy all that uh rob says school was beaten by hutchinson last year susceptible to speed oh yeah yeah that i mean that's that's a backup guy with limited athleticism yep he's going to be well they hope that he doesn't have to be susceptible to anything that he's going to be just watching christian derisaw play but he can get in in case of emergency uh mr mayor as we're talking about possible signings which of our own people we

comfortable pushing off the 53 how much many can we find worth putting on the 53. Yeah, I mean, that comes down to the like Max Brosmer discussion. I think Max Brosmer is a guy who could break the tendency and actually get picked up by somebody. I think Elijah Williams, I mean, he's been highlighted a lot. And these other teams, you might not think so, but if you read my book, you do, these teams, they keep an eye on, like, they don't watch every GM isn't watching every film. of every fourth stringer, but they'll notice if somebody's leading their team in PFF grade and then they'll go back and look. Like, I'm sure that there have been some people in the league who

have looked at Elijah Williams and been like, oh, guy got a baldy breakdown. That's interesting. They do what you do. They're not aliens. They do what you do. They're like, oh, he got a baldy breakdown? Wow. He must be doing good. And he is. So maybe they want to get Elijah Williams on to the roster. I did my 53 the other day. And, We'll see what happens with some of that. But I don't think there's going to be a ton of surprises. And most of your favorite players will end up just getting on the practice squad. They'll get through.

And there's every practice squad place in the entire world right now. So I mean, there's what, well, you could, there's so many positions on the practice squad. Anybody who's been anything will get through. And they'll, and maybe they'll, you know, get somebody. I don't know. But as, you know, it's a good point that they don't have a very high claim, waiver claim. waiver claim. War Eagle says he did talk to his agent,

agent told him to stick the contract up his butt. Well, I guess I'm seeing different stories then, because Micah Parsons claims that he did not talk to his agent, wanted to negotiate one-on-one. J.A.G. Would you send Dallas Turner and a first for Micah Parsons? I probably wouldn't, but I'm curious. Yeah, I probably would.

Yeah. probably would yeah i don't know how you're supposed to afford that though i mean there's you they have pushed it to the point where there's not much more you can do into the future i don't even know how they would do that like right now it's brought up sometimes well they're over the cap for next year that well they okay that they've structured the contracts to figure that out they haven't structured one that would be 45 million that would be like having kirk but there's just no way you could turn he's like a top five player in the entire league when he's at his best he is so down dominant. So yes, I probably would do that, but I also like where Dallas Turner is at. I do like

where he's at. DeHen, I don't understand why we can't seem to get drafted wide receivers and dbs as far as depth correct. It's been a long time. Like defensive back, other than Byron Murphy's a great signing for them in 23, they didn't even give him a lot of money in 23. That turned out to be a great signing for them. But, you know, depth, depth is hard everywhere with the defensive back position. I don't think there's too. many teams that have like eight defensive backs that are good. But it has felt like since Xavier Rhodes and Trey Wayans that they've been taping this thing together, doesn't it? It does feel that way. Yeah. And last year, I mean, well, that's where the 2022 draft actually did really hurt

them. I've kind of talked about how, hey, you know, the 2022 draft didn't hurt them in this area, that area. But it does hurt to draft two corners and get nothing out of it, like zero out of Caleb Evans and Andrew Booth, Jr. To get nothing, that really hurt them. So that's one part. I mean, depth-wide receivers, they've got three. They've got two stars. They've got another guy who's a very solid number three.

You know, usually you go into a season feeling pretty good about that. There's not four or five receivers on any team. That's why this is so hard. But then you get, you know, one of them suspended and the other one heard. And then all of a sudden, like, that conversation changes. So I don't know if they have. ever had like crazy depth that wide receiver or any team ever has really outside of, you know, you go back to three deep.

It was pretty darn good. And maybe they had even a couple of other guys on those teams that could play as well. But that's pretty rare. War Eagle says no one's taking. Brosmer fans always think that their camp players will get taken. So I mostly agree with you on the second point. You're absolutely right. But in this case, there was a lot of interest in Max Bro,

Rosemur from other teams as an undrafted free agent. So I think that that's more possible. And there are also teams around the league who just are in a miserable spot with their backup quarterback situations who might consider trying to pick somebody up like that. I think if you're doing odds on it, though, you're probably, you probably have better odds of being right on that. But it's not just fans who think that their players are going to get picked up. It's also teams that think that as well.

but if they did it I mean if they cut him they'll probably get him to the practice squad it's probably like 60 40 70 30 that they will I just think they might be a little concerned about that and they might also just want to reward the guy because he's played really well Clark are you excited about college football this weekend so started a thing with the wife for this year she over the last few years for a year my wife if you guys don't know is a broadcaster. In fact, she was just calling the links game. Did the links win?

They were, oh, they lost 75, 73. Yikes. Uh, so anyway, she did college football for a year and fell in love with it. Just loves college football. So we got a competition going on this year where we're each picking one team from all the conferences, including the Mac. Of course, we got to have something on Macction. And we're going to going to put some stakes on it. We haven't figured out what the stakes are going to be, but we're just each going to pick one team from every conference, and we're going to see who ends up with the better final record at the end. And then, I don't know, we'll figure out some sort of something that we're going to do there. But yes, the short answer is, yes, real football that means something,

week zero is stupid, but, you know, I'm glad it's back. And the first game there, is that, is it K-state, Iowa State? It's a good game, right? uh andrews pick up a corner who gets cut yeah corners i think are the best position to be able to pick up when you're talking about those late cuts those are the guys who usually can can come in and do it the easiest carter what big swing wide receiver would you like to trade for i mean big swing like what's a big swing do you got a name because i just when it's big swings how are these even like available they're just not like big swings are not available unless the guy is really really angry at his own team you know so are you flipping a coin for who's the

picking the team in each conference first uh she gave me her list earlier let me see I haven't picked yet I just let her pick first uh let's see she gave me her list she had I think she had Nebraska. She's like all in on Nebraska. Yeah, so she's got Nebraska, K-State, Florida, and she's deciding between NIU and Ohio, and I don't think she has an ACC team yet. So she's going Nebraska. Maybe I should go gofers. Maybe I should go Michigan. I don't know. Oh, Tyree Kill. Yeah, okay. Tyree Kill. I don't know. I'm going to pass on that. As far as the big swing, I'm going to pass on that. You're right, Stephen, the Kendrick Bourne has been injured. all off season. But if you were talking like a seventh round pick swap, and is he really injured or

are they just waiting to trade him? You always wonder about that. Oh, Alave. Okay. All right. Olave makes sense. Yeah. Are they trading, are they trading Olave? I mean, they should if they're not going to pay him. Olave is interesting. The only issue there is the injuries. Tyler Boyd's a free agent, so he would, you know, D-Hen. He's a free agent. But, oh, okay, Olave is the big name. Yeah. I just, he's just got, those injuries are, are terrible. I would be very, very hesitant to trade for somebody like that, especially they drafted him so high. If they're moving on from him and they know his medical history, that concerns you,

doesn't it? If it's Chris Olavé, yeah, I'm not, I'm not so sold on that idea. Anyway, so, uh, the other day, uh, Brandon Cooks, I don't know what his deal is. You have a, you have a background on Brandon Cooks? Is he still playing somewhere? Vikings don't care about injuries is absolutely true, it seems, Alex. That is a good point. That is a good point.

But, you know, a guy with that deep of a concussion issue, I would not really be interested in that. Romeo Dobbs is another one who's had that problem. That is definitely true. So yesterday I had a chance to sit down, if you will, virtually with Ian Hartitz from Fantasy Life, along with my friend Mike Schope, to do a fantasy roundtable. And as I like to say about the show,

the fantasy show, some of you will tell me, I'm not interested in fantasy. I'm interested in the punt return competition. But, yeah, Alec Pierce is another one that came up on the show last night. I would do that. I don't think they're going to do that, but I would do that.

I would make a trade for Alec Pierce today, for sure. But, I mean, deep receiver, tons of speed, like a rich man's Jalen Naylor, I think. I do agree that Trey Palmer could be interesting. I'm, I'm, I'm into some of those ideas. I'm into some of those ideas. I think, you know, Carolina says no,

on Theelin that they'll look into some of these guys and we'll see. I don't think they're going to leave this untouched, though. No matter what happens tomorrow night, I don't think they're leaving this untouched. Oh, speaking of tomorrow night, so I'm like promoting multiple things at once. I have the fantasy roundtable coming up here. It's just a really good conversation about projecting Vikings players versus other people in the league, stuff like that.

That's going to be fun. with Ian Hartett's. And also tomorrow, I'm not going to Tennessee. Purple Insider Budget does not take me on preseason trips unless something really cool was happening. And a punting competition was almost worth it, but didn't quite get me there. I need trips this year to, you know, Chicago, Green Bay, Dallas, maybe Seattle, Detroit. Got a lot of trips coming.

So tomorrow's not one of them, which means as soon as the game is over and quite possibly in the fourth quarter, I will be here giving you the post-game reaction and I will have my 10 players that stood out to go through. So I hope you have a chance to join tomorrow after the game. But until then, Mr. Mayor, I appreciate that. Listen to you talk about fantasy, but can't imagine doing it myself. Well, let me just throw it out there. And also if you guys didn't do the Fandle question of the day, which is if the Vikings traded for Thielen, how many catches is he going to get this year. And I went with like 32. I went with 32. Conrad just saw Thielan on the sidelines. Didn't have any luggage. Okay. So they have that seems like a Friday news dump thing to do

is to make that trade. But, Mr. Mayor, talking about fantasy is just to me just trying to figure out what's going to happen in the NFL is what it really is. I will say for my, our friends at Fandul, I am playing in an 11 team league that is worth $2 because I don't. don't trust myself and my fantasy abilities. So I get into leagues for two dollars. That's what I like to do. And the most fun part is usually the draft. But anyway, so it's a really good conversation, I promise. Projecting McCarthy, projecting Jordan Mason, Justin Jefferson is where we start the conversation. So it's myself, Mike Shelp, and Ian Hartitz. And here is that conversation. And if by the way, if you see Adam Thielen on the sideline, suddenly packing up

his stuff running for the airport to fly to Minnesota, we'll break into this conversation. But until then, I'm going to let the dog out. And here's the fantasy roundtable. Thanks, guys. Hey, everybody. Welcome into a very special roundtable in our Fandul Fantasy Shope with myself and Mike Shope from WGR 550 and ADP chasing. We will. welcome in a return guest, but never in this round table format. Ian Hartett's from Fantasy Life. Ian, this is a very special time. This right here is when everybody who hasn't been freaks like you guys

and has not been drafting since March says, you know what? I got to get into a fantasy league here. I got to get going on this and get my drafts in. They've got all the preseason information. You got your preseason favorites. You got your coach quotes. of maybe Aaron Glenn saying that you don't need to pass the football today

or whatever else it might be. So this is an exciting time in our lives, Ian. Home league draft season. This is when I get texts from old high school friends who I talk to once a year. They say, hey man, hope all as well. You got some sleepers you can not hit me with. So always happy to help.

And yeah, man, let's get it. All right. Well, I wanted to begin with you, Ian, and then we can just bounce back and forth and see where the fantasy conversation takes us. Just with, I mean, the very, very top of the draft. I think you know that Jamar Chase is going to get some footballs, and it's a pretty certain thing.

I think you have a pretty good sense for certain running backs like Jamir Gibbs are going to get a lot of the ball. But Justin Jefferson has at least this little amount of intrigue. I don't, I don't think anybody's, you know, turning to Lucky Jackson as opposed to Justin Jefferson with the football. But at least it does offer something different than a lot of the top draft. pick. So when your friends are texting you, hey, what do I do at the top of my draft? Where are you placing Justin Jefferson in the discussion?

I have them right between that kind of pick six, pick seven. Again, it was a situation before where I don't think anyone's really had them outside their top six until this small little hamstring issue. Personally, I did have C.D. Lamb just ahead of them even before this happened. Of course, Jamar Chase as well, more so do that continuity. We don't have a new quarterback. We don't have an offense, perhaps embracing a little bit more of a running. first attitude. I know they're still going to air the ball out under KOC, but again, every little thing that matters when we are trying to rank the wide receiver two versus wide receiver three. The question I'm curious on Mike's thoughts here too is like, you know, once I get to that

pick six, pick seven, Christian McCaffrey versus Justin Jefferson, like that is the one that keeps me up a little bit at night because right now it does seem like CMC is just harnessing all the, you know, power, witchcraft, whatever he's using to basically hurt everyone else in that 49ers offense except themselves. So that really is the one that, you know, hangs me up. But, man, anything lower than 107 couldn't be me. I think it's a question of a couple of things. How you want to build your team and then what, I guess, in kind, the value looks like in the ensuing rounds.

So how do you want to start your draft? Do you want to start with wide receiver, say, at 1-6? Jefferson or Lamb are both great picks at that value, in my opinion. And then it can be Chase Brown. It can be Bucky Irving. And then it can be Travion Henderson. Go Bucks, round three. like you could do that.

Somebody just did that in a main event at 303, and they're getting absolutely chastised for it. So it's really about how you want to build it. And I think if you're drafting a lot, which is not what we're here for today, necessarily, then you're just trying to make sure you have enough of each guy. Like I have lamb over Jefferson too, but I don't, that doesn't have to work.

It's really more of a function of what, as we've talked about, Matthew, the Vikings passing volume might be, which could ease it. It's not going to spike, but it doesn't have to go down. So I think, you know, that's just a question of how you want to sort of build your team. And I feel like in most high stakes drafts, the receivers from rounds four through eight are super rich and the running backs are just fraught with questions. So I, we've started running back, you know, two out of the first three picks a number of times, which goes against my nature a little bit, but I can live with it. Yeah.

I mean, so, Ian, can we just compare some of these wide receivers with Justin Jefferson? I mean, because you mentioned, Mike, how thick the top of the drafts are. Jamar Chase, Amonrae St. Brown, Pooka, Niko Collins, Malika neighbors, Brian Thompson. I mean, these are all some really great names that I think could end up with reasonably close production to Jefferson. But then I look at last year, and it really was kind of Chase Jefferson. and then there was a gap after that. So how do you weigh those receivers that I named against Justin Jefferson? I mean, I think when we talk about any wide receiver,

we're kind of breaking down the four same factors. Like how talented is this guy in real life? What's his age or just kind of injury concerns going on? What sort of volume can we expect him to receive? And then how good is the quarterback in the scoring environment? So Jefferson, again, like obviously he, if you guys want to say he's a single best wide receiver in the NFL. Well, I don't think anyone, you know, listening here, particularly Vikings fans, are going to be disagreeing with that.

Firmly in his prime and firmly expected to, again, breeze past 150 targets like he's done every year in this system. It's just a JJ McCarthy factor. I would like to think this dude's going to be awesome, but we just don't know. And for me, that's enough of a tiebreaker when comparing similar high-end talents with these gaudy target ceilings like CD, like Jamar Chase. And honestly, it could be like Nico Collins, where, again, is enough of a tiebreaker for me to go that route. So Nico this year is someone that I have drafted all over the plays. I am willing to reach a little bit into the back part of round one. When you can get them in the early parts of round two,

I mean, thank the freaking fancy gods when that happens. Because again, I think you're just getting a guy that really does have every making of a top five wide receiver. But just echoing what kind of Mike was saying, I couldn't agree more about trying to get two running backs inside. The first three are at a minimum of the first four rounds because I think, again, high stakes street, sure we are seeing that. But man, some of the wide receiver value of Yahoo, ESPN sleeper, I wrote some strategy-specific articles for those sites over at fanciedlife.com. It's wild, man. It honestly makes me want to do more auction drafts because we have guys like

pick-ins, Calvin Ridley, Jalen Waddle, Travis Hunter. They're all going in this round six, round seven range. I just want them all, man, but obviously only get one. There are, Mike, there are a lot of different factors with these receivers. And you have the, like is Matthew Stafford going to be healthy? Because if Jimmy Garoppel is throwing to Pook and Nakua, I think Devante Adams, showed us how number one wide receivers that go down the field feel about Jimmy Garoppolo these days. But you also have the Amina Ross St. Brown factor of a new offensive coordinator.

That's a little bit different. Is there any chance that Travis Hunter takes targets away from Brian Thomas? And I would say even the same thing with does George Pickens take targets away from CD Lambs? I feel like every one of these guys kind of has something that we're talking about with them. Sure. It's still a guessing game in mid-August, but I think in both of those examples, you can believe the targets will still hold up. In Dallas's case, there is just so little happening at running back. And that could change on a dime if they trade for somebody, if they trade for Travis ETN, this could all go sideways. But Lamb Pickens, it's Dallas. It's a little bit counterintuitive with Schottenheimer as the name of the coach.

Like, it's just, it's the Cowboys, Jerry Jones, 80-year-old general manager. But I think we've had in the McCarthy years, we've sort of learned a lesson, I think, that they were not necessarily going to be their stereotype. So I think Lamb is a great pick. Prescott is proven. He was second in the MVP vote two years ago. Got hurt last year. I mean, I think he's a fun MVP vote this year, if you can believe, with Pickens added.

So it's a pretty narrow route. Lamb Pickens, Ferguson. I think that's kind of it. And so, Lamb. And then in, you know, Brian Thomas's case, we found out last year, that's an amazing rookie season for a guy who was picked, what, as the fourth receiver off the board, to a team that had lots of problems, lots of structural problems, coaching, and the quarterback is, you know, he's polarizing. So I think, you know, Hunter, I like the upside on Hunter, but I don't think that it has to

injure Brian Thomas. I still think, you know, drafting-wise, there's so many different options at that 8 to 16 range with St. Brown and Collins. I mean, look at Ian here. He's the biggest Buckeye fan. I know. He's like, this is fantasy in a nutshell.

Michigan guy, right there. Bam, this is my number one guy talking about McCarthy too. That's how you play the game. But, you know, Brian Thomas and neighbors and just London. I love getting London at like 2.5. So I'm fine with Thomas and. lamb i don't think i really need to worry about either sort of team dynamic so ian tell me about a receiver you're concerned about like of the top guys what what is the biggest concern

i think right after that drake london a j b amon ross st brown and now that he is healthy and doing this thing and lad mcconkey i do consider to be in that clear cut we feel good about him tier if you want to put t higgins in there that's fine i do hate the stat that i've uncovered though where he has had a hamstrung injury of some shape or size every single year going back to 2019. So again, difference between being allegedly injury prone and already injured. I'm not just fading Teagans because of that. But honestly, after that, man, we start getting into all these old guys

and then all these Ohio statewide receivers who just don't exactly have a quarterback we can fully trust. Whether it's Jackson Smith and Jigua with Sam Darl. Marvin Harrison Jr., with Kyler Murray, God forbid Garrett Wilson trying to catch whatever Justin Fields is calling a forward pass these days. Again, it's those issues. And then we have Mike Evans, and we obviously have DeVante Adams and the whole Jimmy G thing that you just brought up. It's a situation where, again, the wide receiver death starts to fall off so much, I believe, in round three. Tyree kills another guy where we just have question marks there that, yeah, I am willing to actually, if the wide receivers aren't right, that's kind of when I do start looking to go, elite quarterback, or maybe mixing a George Kittle in round four, because I know rounds five through nine, even rounds five through 10, that's when I'm trying to get back in those wide receiver streets.

So the more that I can, again, pick off one, maybe two of those top 12. of top 13 wide receivers we feel really good about that's good enough for me i'll go ahead and turn my attention to running back again at that point maybe get an elite onesie And then rounds five through 10, more than happy to leave that with hopefully five to six wide receivers. Because as much as I want to spend the middle rounds getting wide receivers guys, like once we get into double digit rounds, that's when we start seeing some of the late round quarterback and tight end values. And more importantly, that's when we get the handcuffs of the world, you know, the Bill, Bill McCrosky merits of the world who all of a sudden, you know, are nothing. But then you turn around the next day and they're shooting up the ranks. Sorry for that, by the way. Mike, I would like you to direct your T.J. Hawkinson take to Ian, because you and I are very, I think, on a different page when it comes to T.J. Hawkinson from what we've talked about before. I, having seen enough of practice, feel like J.J. McCarthy is going to love himself some T.J. Hawkinson, but maybe you're a little more high on some other guys.

well I'm not sure we're that different I mean I there's an injury history that I will in a vacuum always try to bet against you know if I can get younger and this year your top two tight ends are much younger in Bowers and McBride and again that becomes a structural decision in terms of your draft how early do you want your tight end if you draft Bowers or McBride you're done at that position once you get past like tight end 15 if not a earlier. Everybody's kind of the same, I think, and you can wait until waivers and play matchups if you have a problem with your top guy and injury. I think Hawkinson's okay. I mean, you have to like that Addison will miss time early on. And if you're betting on the Vikings to keep the same pass rate over expected, you know, existence going, then Hawkinson's in a great position. But just in terms of my drafting, I have my top three, two of my top three own tight ends are Bowers and McBride, I'll do that, and then I want to wait. And that leaves out, necessarily, leaves out Hawkinson and Engram and, you know, a lot of those other guys. Once I get to Ferguson

and Kraft, I'm good again. I'm fine with that. If you miss out on that, then it's really, you know, at the, at the bottom, you're diving into the, into the basement. So I'm not per se down on Hawkinson, but I don't feel like he's a draft priority. Where do you stand on that, and with Hawkinson. Same page. Again, it's really the same thing for me, a quarterback and tight end. If I am going to be using this top six round pick on it, I want it to be for the elite aliens of the world.

Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Brock Bowers, Chairman McBride, and I wouldn't include George Kittle. After that, it's just a situation where I don't disagree with San Leporto being tight end four and T.J. Hoggson being tight end five. It's the fact they're going three or four entire rounds ahead of guys like Mark Andrews, David Noghue, Evan Ingram. So Andrews goes a little bit higher. But yeah, even Tucker Kraft, Taylor Warren, Colston Loveland, even Don Quincade.

Have I said, Kyle Pitts yet in the year 2025, guys. So again, I understand why Hawkinson is ranked ahead of all those guys. But man, if you want to use Pick 60 on this, dude, like you are going to be leaving some really good looking wide receivers and perhaps even a few straggling RBs on the board. So it's more so been the opportunity cost for taking Hawkinson in the middle rounds. That's been scaring me off because as much as he is solid, I'm not convinced that Hawkinson is this guy with legit fantasy league breaking upside. You do go back in the 2023 season, which was, let's face, it is only like truly

big year in fantasy. And just so much of that was due to Justin Jefferson missing eight games. I mean, in that season, 12.8 PPR points for game with Justin Jefferson, which is fine, 16.4 without. Again, I wouldn't be surprised if he does start out hot because we have that Jordan Addison suspension. And for whatever strength of schedule, look ahead, numbers are worth, the Vikings do have the best tight-end schedule in September.

But it is a situation where, again, over the time. Of course, the entire season, I'm more willing to use some of those late round darts at tight end versus, you know, getting back into the middle rounds. And honestly, I would, again, just advise people to be willing to do that because I know sometimes we have this desire where it's like, oh, man, everyone's taking their quarterbacks right now. Like, I need to kind of get that spot filled. Same thing at tight end. Just wait, guys, because man, do a mock draft, do, you know, maybe a low number of best ball. Like, you're going to be surprised at the sort of quarterback and tight end names that are still going to be available in the double digit rounds. because guess what?

That's when everyone else that already drafted the quarterback or tight down and trying to then catch up at the other positions. Right. If I may, to add to that,

in home leagues, people are sort of anti-rookies. They want to know what they know already. And Warren, I mean, Ian, Warren is tight end six in high stakes right now.

And he's got Daniel Jones for the entire season. I mean, that's not, that's a plus for him in terms of ADP. So I think Tyler Warren scratches up against

that Leporta range here in drafts, which would, you know, it's an alternative to Hawkinson. And if you're willing to draft rookies, which you should be, if you're good at this, you want to sort of push off decisions that other people are scared to be making now. And that could be just, you know, you're going to stream quarterback sometimes. You're going to stream tight end, sometimes kickers and defense always. You're going to outwork the guys around you. And so I feel like Warren is very exciting. And so is Loveland. Yeah. One of the issues that I end up having sometimes when talking, from a fantasy perspective about the Vikings is maybe a little bit too much of watching practice

or listening to the talk or whatever, and not maybe contextualizing that with, hey, the Raiders are talking about how they're going to throw it to Brock Bowers as well, right? But with, I guess part of my logic is that Addison is missing early in the season and that if you're a young quarterback, the best thing you could possibly have is a tight end who's going to bail you out whenever anything goes wrong. And it feels like he's really rested on Hawkinson. But when you look at a lot of the other tight ends, they should be in similar places.

But with, with Bowers specifically, I went back forth a little bit. I've been kind of down on tight ends in the NFL with some of the way that we talk about them versus the reality, which is the way they talk about him is, oh, this guy, he could do this and he can, he could be a blocker and he could be a slot receiver. And he could, and a lot of times they're averaging 10 and a half yards.

per reception and just sort of not making a bigger difference than the next guy, unless it's George Kittle, was Brock Bowers last year his explosion onto the scene? Because Aiden O'Connell didn't know what else to do with the football and he just kept throwing it short to Brock Bowers. And are we going to see? Because last year, this happened. I think Gino Smith and Sam Darnel are very, very similar quarterbacks. Sam Darnel just looked past T.J. Hawkinson. He was looking for Addison. He was looking for Jefferson. He was going down. field. That's kind of Gino Smith, too, where I think he's going to be

looking a little bit more past the tight end. Is it a guarantee to you that Brock Bowers just continues to do this? I mean, I think it's really tough to rank him outside the top three, but if you wanted to go ahead and put McBride and George Kittle in front of him,

I don't think it's sacrilegious or anything crazy like that. But I will say, guys, I mean, the fact that Bowers is getting that mid-round two price tag, I had not been willing to really pony up and pay that. Because, again, similar thing at quarterback here. When we're talking about the Josh Jacobs, Bucky Irving, Lab McConkey's on the board, I'm just going to be leaning more into that because I do think you can get arbitraud versions of Brock Bowers a little bit later.

So round two to three turn, all of a sudden you're looking more so at the Marvin Harrison Jrs, maybe to Kenneth Walker's of the world. Yeah, sure, go ahead and give me the elite tight end in that case. And obviously things change if we are in these tight end premium leagues where you get 1.5 points per reception. But it is just a thing where, I mean, trying to find that consistency. And that's, again, another situation. we talked about with Justin Jefferson. Like Tram McBride was able to outscore Brock Bowers last year. Tram McBride has no OC change.

Tram McBride has no quarterback change and everything. Gino Smith might actually be better than Kyler. I don't even think that's too much of a hot take here. And that would be the case there for Bowers. But, man, I'm not going to go into the whole preseason first team snap rates. I think that's just silly discourse at this point. We did it a couple years ago with Travis Kelsey. But Michael Mayer is good in his own right.

And again, it is a situation where I think you are on to something, Matthew, where you do look at some of the number. for Bowers last year. I think he scored over like 33 extra points to the next closest tight end in the fourth quarter and okay, as much as I would love to say, look how clutch this guy is. I think we watched the Raiders last year.

Let's face it, a lot of that was garbage time. So again, the talent is there. I am lucky enough to have Bowers on two of my five dynasty teams. So fully believing in the guy in the long term, again, tight end one, by all means, go ahead and rank him as that. But it's not just about where he stands at Tident. And Mike, like this is what kind of annoys me

with the people that are for Brock Bowers where they're like, oh, it's Brock Bowers. how can you not believe in that talent? Yeah, I believe in the talent, but he's going next to A.J. Brown. He's going next to Chase Brown, Lab McConkey, all these other fantastic players. Like, I need more than that

when I'm using a mid-second round pick on the guy. It's a great name, though. Great, good name, good face. Rock and roll fantasy name? Brock Bowers. I mean, if you're... I don't... I'm sorry, I just want to say it.

I don't, as a Bowers drafter, like, heavily. I don't disagree with any of that logic. Of course, it's Ian. It's great. He was third in the league in receptions at a position, quote, tight end. You know, it's sort of, it's tight end adjacent counts in fantasy. That's what we care about. After years, I mean, Kyle Pitts, it's Ian's voice literally that rings into my head.

Kyle Pitts had one touchdown and his rookie season despite a thousand yards, and it was against a defensive lineman in England. Yeah, it wasn't even in America. It wasn't even in America. So we've just sort of been so conditioned to think tight ends as rookies. can't get there. The last two years, tight-ed one were both rookies, Laporta and Bowers. And so, you know, a lot of guys were trying to figure out if regression is nigh. And with Bowers, it'll be hard for him to spike off of last year. But third of the league and catches is third of the league and catches with a quarterback upgrade and Chip Kelly. I'm in. So when I'm looking over at, because the show here presented by Fanduel, Ian, when I'm looking over on doing my Fanduel draft. here. I'm looking at running backs and I'm noticing that all of them at the top seem to play against the Vikings. So let's go. Let's go through. Let's go through these because when you

mentioned Kyle Pitts, Bejohn Robinson, the Vikings get right to him in week two national TV. The last two years going into the season has been everybody talking about how Bejohn Robinson is a generational talent. He's the best running back to come out, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And I I think he's been okay. I mean, it's been good. It has certainly not been the second coming of Bo Jackson on Tecmo Bowl. And then I'm looking over at Fandul on the sports book side and seeing that he's one of the running backs that you can buy for going over 2,000 yards this year.

I'm like, what, what am I missing on Bejohn Robinson or is this the year where he has this breakout that he's expected to have? He did have a pretty special season. last year. Now, it was coming with Sequin and Derek Henry and Jemir Gibbs and some of these guys going even more nuclear. So, you know, I'm not necessarily besmirching Bejohn, not getting enough love. Also, kind of like, really, man, those last four or five games, he was putting up some big time in numbers. Jonathan Taylor was in a similar boat as well. But again, nearly 1,900 yards and 15 touchdowns for the dude. And just when you are comparing him against

these top backs, again, because we have to be picky there at the top, Jemir Gibbs, Dave Montgomery is not going anywhere as much as people would love to try to wishcast that. Saquan Barkley, again, it's more of a situation where I'm not as concerned about some of these skewed studies where it's the 400 touches. Like, you would think that if Sequin had gotten hurt against the Rams and finished with under 400 touches, then people will be more willing to draft the guy. So I don't exactly bind to all that. Derek Henry, Christian McCaffrey, you can talk about their age and everything.

So it just seems like Bijan has the most pure profile in terms of still being a really good talent, being in an offense that honestly, I think the Falcons and the Cowboys could kind of be the NFC's version of the Bengals. the Cowboys, especially if Michael Parsons isn't going to be signed here. So I can see, again, those what we saw in the last two weeks of the season. Falcons, commanders, Falcons, Panthers, fantasy-friendly shootouts. And hey, Bejohn has actually caught 119 passes over these past two years. So in full PPR, that goes a long way. And that's more so my concern with Seekwan because the hilarious thing is as great as

Sequan's year was last year, you know, smash mouth. I put an L on my forehead wrong for overthinking that guy and everything. But look, like he didn't, he had a career low in receiving like, points for game. And he got stopped at the one yard line and did not score a touchdown because of Jalen Hurst, a league high nine times. So again, wild that Sequin did all that and actually left some meat on the bone. But again, it's enough of a tiebreaker for me to be laying to Bijan as the RB one. How good is Ian? How good is Ian as a professional here to know to go with his right hand with the L? Like I would just naturally do this. It's not even that good of a

getting too used to it. Too many L's on the forehead these days. That's why. I think the right point, the best point is the first point Ian made, which is like, people don't maybe understand how awesome a season he had. We had a couple of years of, oh, well, he's, you know, you got to have Tyler Al Jir, if you want Bijon Rape, sort of the handcuff point was the discourse around him because of not just even necessarily Barclay and Henry, but the other veterans, the veterans who passed the test, Flying Colors, Jacobs and Mixon and Camara and Connor, et cetera,

those guys became the story. And here's Bejohn Robinson in year three, quote, generational prospect, who was outstanding. And people like their offense, I think as much as ever, far more than when Arthur Smith was there, but even more than last year, I think if you're in on the Falcons, he's, even without that,

I mean, he's justifiable, at least, at 102, 103 in drafts. I'd also rather have him, then the other running backs who go there, Barclay's age, Gibbs and Montgomery, the points he had made. Christian McCaffrey is kind of exciting in that same conversation. But Robinson was outstanding,

has never done anything to suggest that he's not an elite player. And, you know, it's NFC South. There are many reasons to bet on him. So I am in an 11-team league here on the band-dool. Yeah, no. I know. there's you could get it to a hundred, but I was like, uh, that seems intimidating. So let me just

go where I know I can get all really good players. Uh, how about I mean, you guys are drafting the fifth wide receiver from the Cincinnati Bengals who has had a good preseason. And I, I don't know if I'm quite intense. I got to work my way up to that in only our second year of doing the , uh, fan dual fantasy show here. But in, in a league that's that size, which I think is for the normal's like not the nuts. Uh, is Jordan Mason worth it in the back end of that because you talk about putting things on your face. I think people are going to suggest I should tattoo Jordan Mason's name like across both eyes like post Malone or something. Only it just says Jordan Mason. He's been really, really good in training camp. He's looked like a guy who averages five yards

to carry that nobody's going to want to tackle and they revamp the offensive line. Aaron Jones is still the starter, but it feels to me like as this goes along, it's going to be one one A or even could lean toward Jordan Mason as the season goes along. You are speaking my language right now, Matthew. This is one of my three my guys for the year, Mr. Jordan Mason, because you can get them next to a lot of just pure handcoast that don't even have this potential flex standalone value. Even if Aaron Jones was being slaughtered for a three-down workhorse role, which he's not, and I understand that. You can still just make the case that again, Jordan Mason going next to the Tyler Outer's years and Trey Benson's up to the world like he is in some of these

home league formats would still be worthy of that, let alone, again, this flex value. I honestly think he basically profiles as David Montgomery, but 50 picks cheaper and a lot of these drafts. Okay, again, I know it's a little weird where we're like, okay, it's now the goal line roll and you look at some of the inside the five numbers last year, Mason wasn't all that good in his own right. But sometimes, you know, like the Jalen Wright game from two weeks ago, you look at those carries sometimes.

And again, it's such a small sample to begin with. I'm not exactly going to, you know, hate on the guy too much for that. Jonesy has had a bit more struggles, you know, over the years. But yeah, man, again, it's a situation where just everything we saw from Mason last year was awesome. First eight weeks of the year, only Sequin and Derek Henry Hatmore total rushing yards. Those are also the only two guys ahead of them in terms of rushing yards over-expected. Like, I just believe Jordan Mason is a really good running back. The Vikings traded for him immediately extended them.

And then when you combine that, again, with everything we've been hearing about the potential to be at worst a 1B, I mean, again, I say 50 picks later than, you know, being a similar version of David Montgomery, almost as respect to David Montgomery. Montgomery is not taking Jamir Gibbs's job. I think there is a chance like you're saying, Matthew, where we could look up in week nine and go, oh, man, Jordan Mason is now the most fantasy friendly back in Minnesota. So 100% with you. And man, ESPN right now. Pick 139 guys, going behind Scatabo, Austin Eckler, right there next to Tank Bigs being Zach Charvenet. Like Jordan Mason, one of my most jats of running backs this off season. I'm trying to get them every chance I can. going behind Scatabo. Yeah. Well, Echler, that's a shocker.

I mean, is he going behind Bill at this point even? Like is it going? ESPN doesn't move quite that fast. Yeah, I mean, Matt, we've talked about Mason a bunch of times.

I'm into 1A, 1B, all that stuff. Where he goes in a lot of the best ball drafts is around a couple of tandums where, so the Giants. I mean, Scataboo, just back on the field,

rookie upside. Okay. I don't have to. I'm not trying to avoid him, but I'd rather have Mason than Tyrone Tracy, I think, because of Scatibu. And you have, I mean, Pittsburgh, I like Jalen Warren a lot, but that's also in that same range. Otherwise, you're talking about mostly backups or handcuffs. Charbonnet is a little bit later. And that's kind of trending up.

I mean, with questions about Kenneth Walker's foot. I think Mason is a fine pick, bottom line. Okay, I'm going to play a game with you guys now. Just are you buying? I'm going to throw out some things. you both can tell me are you buying i'm going to start out with this uh j j mccarthy on fan duel 3,575 yards is the over under are you buying in the over for j j mccarthy 3,575.5 uh is the uh the over under there i'll buy the over now i say that as someone

who uh these days guys i just like betting one dollar on stuff you know 10 years of just not making significant money it's like you know what i'm not so sure i have this uh figured out as well as some other people so i know all the overs look good in august but with that said you know it's a situation where not just the sam darno but man even before that goose getting the most out of k cousins the freaking mullins games you know even the pastor not joshua dawes was a thing for a good month there so just out of respect to this offensive environment and coc you know even just removing the possibility for mccarthy to be really good in the zone right i'll take the over I'll go $2 on the under.

I'm an under better. And I think there's enough reason to think and enough people saying to just watch out for Minnesota's pass rate to continue as before. Plus we have a player in McCarthy, nothing against them, who did not demonstrate in college, you know, circumstances may be 100% of this, that he was, you know, going to be a high volume passer. 3575 is 2.10 a game playing every game. So he's got to play every game. And that's not a really low number. I mean, Josh Allen barely had more than that. And he won the MVP last year. Their defense is great. The roster is great. That's sort of all pushing toward the under. So I'll I'll go there. I think Fandul's good at their job because I have it right around there. And I think that if he throws for that many yards, that means they probably were ahead in some games and got to run.

maybe, I mean, they do have a really good defense, but if some guys get banged up on this defense and then you're facing the Eagles, the lions, the chargers, you know, you might end up having to pass the ball a little bit more because they have a really tough run in the middle of the season there. How about this? Are you buying right now in Fandul, the favorite to lead the NFL in passing yards is Joe Burrow. Are you buying in Joe Burrow as the league's leading passer for 2000? 25 should definitely be the favorite. I mean, my God, like the we want to start guys on the Bengals, number one priority. And then number two priority is probably starting guys playing the Bengals. I mean, my God, this defense just, it's, I didn't know that they could get worse than last year, but based on what we're seeing, this handful of preseason drives guys, it certainly looks that way. So also just, I mean, Chase Brown, you know, he's going to get his touches on

the ground, but it's also just a situation where he's not going to exactly be forcing them to run the ball more. So between Chase, Higgins, my guy, Mike Tusicki, hopefully. you know, ready to have that seven or eighth year break out, however long he's been around now. Yeah, I think Burrow could be up there. I will say, I mean, if you had to try to pick more of a dark horse for it, I'm sure Mahomes is up there too, but we are probably due for the sort of FU. You almost have forgot season from my homes. And as great as Burroughs been, the NFL leader in passing yards per game these last two years

when you just look at their starts, Joe Flacco, guys. I'm not betting him, but I would be curious what those odds are. I mean, a thousand to one Joe Flacco, that's something I'll put a dollar on. Wow, that's so good. That's Kevin from the office where he says, if anything is ever like 10,000 to one, he's going to bet on it. If he's going to bet a dollar on everything, you've got to bet that. I mean, like you said right away, he deserves to be the favorite.

I never want to bet anybody who won the year before in this environment. And I don't know the price, but I think Prescott is a fun bet here with everything we've already said about Dallas. I mean, he's done that or come close to it. By the way, someone else, if you look at the last, I don't have it in front of me, Matthew, but the last eight or nine years, this statistic, it's seven or eight different guys. I mean, Tua, Tunga, Tunga,

led the league in passing yards two years ago, maybe three years ago. So it's a little bit random in that sense, but Prescott makes sense to me. Penn X. What are those odds? That's a, like, that's a serious one. The flack on one's not going to happen. Pennix, actually, I legitimately do like that.

Bryce Young. I mean, Pennix is a plus 1,800, which is not, he's got almost the same odds as Caleb Williams, who is not going to lead the league in passing. Like, there's no chance of that. Bryce Young is nuts. I mean, I'm just thinking about this for the first time, but the coach, maybe they get scored on a lot, and he's not coming out. I could see, I can't really see a Mike Vrable team having Drake May in this conversation.

can't see, I mean, Tua, can he stay healthy the whole year? What about Gino? Gino could do this. Are they going to run Gentie too much? They just running Genty too much? Yeah. Pete Carroll. Too much Genty.

What about Trevor Lawrence? Like it. That's a dark horse one. Similar to Dallas, honestly, we're like, you just look at that backfield and it's like, well, what if the answer is just they throw the ball to their awesome wide receivers a lot more often? Man, if that coach can sort of click into Lawrence and we sort of remember the player he was at Clemson, then sky's the limit. I mean, the issue I think with Lawrence for me is that he just doesn't seem to want to push

the ball downfield. I mean, he's always ending up with 6.7 yards per attempt. And that might keep him from racking up huge, huge numbers. How about this one? That's Herbert too, right? That's Herbert. Yes. Yeah. Well, and Herbert is the, they're just going to run the ball a ton. I mean, you draft the first round running back Omerian Hampton. You sign another one. Yeah, they're probably going to run the ball a lot. How about this for season leader in rushing touchdowns. The favorite is Derek Henry here. But intriguingly, Kyron Williams is in this conversation. Josh Allen is in this conversation. Jonathan Taylor, who who would you say are you buying for leading the NFL in touchdowns and touchdowns?

And touchdown runs. I'm sorry. Henry definitely deserves to be the favorite. I mean, we haven't had one of these 30 touchdowns sort of season. in a while. I mean, I remember like Thomas and Priest Holmes and these guys were going back and forth in the early 2000, so it's been a minute. But yeah, I mean, over these last two years, it's Henry and First with 28,

tied for seconds, Jumeir Gibbs, and Kairn Williams, David Montgomery, and fourth, hilarious. The Lions have two guys in that big group. But yeah, I think a real dark horse would be Jordan Mason, again, just kind of going off of Dave Montgomery kind of thing there. I will say Josh Jacobs is someone

where I think he is a legitimate, you know, darker horse who maybe shouldn't exactly be there. I've dropped a lot of him as you're getting into redraft season because again you get to this point later round two preferably early round three where I just feel like people are almost bored of Josh Jacobs and everything but if there is one consistent factor in that Packers offense it is Jacobs particularly with Mark oh god I would love to see Marshawn Lloyd just play you know more than a quarter of football how beautiful was it seeing them out there for about 10 minutes catching that wheel and everything already

heard again though so I would say Josh it's like when you're having a great it's like when you're having a great dream and you're sort of on the cusp of waking up and you know it and it's like oh this is not going to last and it's over just and you know what's you know what's going to end and it ends okay uh i've never thought of marshawn lloyd that way in those terms that's probably the first time i've heard that uh yeah i mean this is a this is a hard one to figure out and this is where i did want to tie that to jordan mason and i i know like kevin o'connell's going to throw touchdowns but But it would not totally shock me.

I'm not saying he's going to lead the league in touchdowns, but it would not totally shock me if he somehow got into this discussion because every time they got within the five yard line, they were going to run Jordan Mason. I think they were so frustrated last year with having to have their quarterback throw it into the end zone every time that that is a big reason that they went to get Jordan Mason. That was a hard one to figure because, you know,

Jalen Hertz is always going to be, you know, doing tush pushes at the goal line as well. but can he get as many as he did last year? You mentioned all those times that Saquan got stopped at the one. That's pretty unlikely to happen, right? You think so, man, but it is just ridiculous with Philly. And it's funny because they're running backs over the past three, four years, like I think heard Scott in 2021.

So during that stretch, Eagles running backs, I think are second only behind the lions and rush attempts between the two and the five yard line. So they get that first crack and everything, but it's once they get to the one yard line that they again, nose dive to 31st or 32nd. in the league so again like if we didn't have the touchpost that would have been outlawed i mean the saquan barclay touched out ceiling would have been out of this world so only other name i will throw out there he had 15 a few years ago and that was before he was even the feature back

james connor guys it's one of these situations where honestly like a middle class man's version of derrick henry because not all dual threats are created equal we have josh allen and jane hurts with these absolutely ridiculous goal line roles they don't use lamar jackson and kail murray the same way obviously not they are much smaller human beings they shouldn't be used the same way, you know, when the field is condensed like that. But James Connor would be a guy where we look up in December and, man, he already has 13, 14 touchdowns on the ground. Wouldn't shock me. If Lamar Jackson wanted to have 20 touchdowns, he would.

He just, he hands the ball off. He's, you know, trying to, he led the league in touchdown passes in 2019. And for six years, I've been hearing about how much better a passer he is. Is that saying? Zero, Mike, zero rush attempts for Lamar inside the five yard line last year. It's unreal. I mean, if he wanted to, he just would. Hampton is, you can't bet the top five to ten favorites in this award.

Who led the league in rushing touchdowns two years ago? Rahim Moster, and then he was cut. I mean, just it can, you got, you want to go pretty a little bit wild. Gentie, if they're good at all, Gentie's a fun bet there. Hampton works. If my Carolina fever dream to use an interim comes to, fruition chuba hubbard is not nuts like get crazy at running at rushing touchdowns i mean james cook had two in 2023 tied for the league lead last year at so well maybe my yeah so maybe

throwing out jordan mason isn't the crazy uh craziest thing of all time uh all right one more question for you guys the buffalo bills are super bowl favorites on fan duel along with the baltimore ravens both are plus 700 because Mike resides in Buffalo because I grew up in Buffalo Ian are you buying the Buffalo bills to win this year's Super Bowl I am I've been on this since the summer I think I was actually talking to that about it with Mike on his radio show always a good time over there but yeah man it's just a situation where I think it was Ben Solica ESPN always loved reading his stuff he pulled up a stat where the two best five years stretches from teams who did not even make a Super Bowl, I think ever in terms of this DVOA have been to 2020 to 2024, Bills and Raven.

So it really is just sad what Mahomes has been able to do to those two fan bases. But again, just a situation where the bills have been so freaking close. I don't need to tell you guys that. And at the end of the day, I do think Josh Allen is playing as the best quarterback in the NFL. And these conversations are always tough because, yeah, of course, Mahomes should get a lot of credit for everything he has done in his career. And like that needs to be considered in these goat or best quarterback debates. But again, if we were playing just backyard football tomorrow on the playground and I had to pick one guy to leave my team for one game, it would be Josh Allen at this point.

So defense continues to be good. Again, I just feel like they have enough weapons all around the offense, even despite the lack of a true number one. Hopefully, Keon Coleman for my bank account there, a situation where, yeah, give me the bills. Mike? It makes sense. How do those things manifest? They're in the weakest division in the league. They're the biggest division favorite in the league.

They're four marquee games and what happens to be their last year at their stadium. There you go. Ravens, Bengals, Chiefs, Eagles are all home games. So if the division, if nobody, if New England isn't really good or if nobody spikes there, then they should breeze to 11 or 12 wins.

And then it's a matter of, can you get to 13 or 14 in for once in their recent history, get that one seed, such an advantage. So that's why I don't think the, the market sees the bills as exactly better than the Ravens or necessarily even the chiefs, but the division quality shapes that. And I don't know, like living here most of my life, you can't even really sit with a storybook season. But if you were to have that happen in the last year of a stadium, you know, they've lived in for more than 50 years, that's pretty good.

I mean, that's a little bit like the tuck rule game where New England, sends out their stadium and they get these you know huge advantages the snow and the call and then they just go on and they have a quarterback who was drafted the sixth round and they go on to dominate the league for 20 years so maybe maybe i should be open to that kind of thing but it's just not how we were raised up here so you know uh week one is baltimore at buffalo on sunday night and what is that now maybe 18 days away can't wait can't wait uh i've yeah i was buying it last year because i thought there was a lot of the discussions discussion was about last year being a little bit of a reset year for the bills. And so when they

were rolling, it was like, oh, yeah, okay, it would have to be the year we didn't expect, not the year where we thought that they were going to be the strongest. And then, you know, maybe a guy catches a ball and things are different, but that is. That's what happened with Manning's Colts. I mean, Manning's Colts were in Belichick and Brady's shadow for those years. It was of the six or seven year Colt run with Manning. It was their worst team by point differential that won the Super Bowl. You never know. If I was

going deep dark horse, I would probably go with Jim Harbaugh's chargers. Their defense is great. Someday Justin Herbert's going to have a great season and break through and have a great playoff game so we can stop doing that whole thing with Justin Herbert all the time.

But past that, kind of hard to find some deep cut Super Bowl favorites here. I mean, maybe if you're an Aaron Rogers fan. You're thinking that they might be in that conversation. I don't know. There is a very clear, I think, drop off after about the first best 10 teams maybe in the league, wouldn't you say? I think Houston, Houston could be interesting. Just because Will Anderson and Neil Hunter, I mean, that pass rush is nasty. I was actually, I was joking around on Twitter. I was like, is this just a slaughter every day in team period? Because you have arguably the worst

offensive line versus maybe the best pass rush. One of the Texans beat reporters responded and said the offense has their moments. So always appreciate when I get that insight there as I'm being a dickhead on Twitter. But, you know, it's just one of these things where, again, I'm trying to look for teams, especially on defense, like, do you have just enough blue chip elite players to potentially have one of these boom years? And just the way the Mech Orion has that team, man, like, you can just tell they play hard. And they are real SOVs to deal with on Sunday. So I don't love the fact that, again, so many PFF and throwing a lot of the O-line masterminds, like, they are not very high on this group. But, hey, Nick Cayley, new O.C., maybe they get back to the offense,

just looking a little bit more like 20, 23, and that defense is enough for them to win some close games. I think you've got to look to the NFC for these Super Bowl bets. Any of these other AFC tier two teams, are they going to beat two or even three of those other teams, those beasts in the AFC, probably without home field advantage. I feel like that'd be close to miraculous. But in the NFC, there are maybe a half dozen teams you could talk yourself into.

San Francisco has the easiest. schedule i've ever seen just and they were in the super bowl two years ago with most of their same players so not crazy at all to think that they could sort of cruise to 12 or 13 wins if stafford misses if murray's murray what is seattle like that could easily happen and then they're at home and with the buy in the nfc playoffs Philadelphia just probably doesn't get the same sunrun as before and they have to throw more and just a couple of injuries i don't know there are some, it's polar opposites for me. In the NFC, I could talk myself into Super Bowl bets on Atlanta. I mean, several teams, the Rams. How close were the Rams last year to making

it? Did we ever think they were good? Tampa Bay is not crazy either. I mean, they were one playaway. What was Washington's over under last year? Six and a half, maybe, and they went 12 and five and went to the NFC championship. So everybody would say the same thing, but the NFC has a much more wide open sort of outlook, I think. Mike Shope, ADP, chasing, the main event. If you miss that on Monday night for you fantasy nuts out there, then go back and make sure you check that out. Fantasy life, Ian Hartett's always great to have you on.

This was wonderful, a little roundtable action. Hopefully we could do it again. When we finally have these answers, we're talking about projecting and projecting and projecting, and then after week one, it'll all be thrown out the window. So thank you so much for your time, as always, Ian. you're the best man thank you man always a pleasure chopping up with both of you it is funny though guys like we reached august where everything just makes sense in our mind and then about

15 minutes in the week one we're going to be like oh yeah we know absolutely nothing and the ball is not even round but fun time he's best of luck to everyone their fantasy dress what why is tray tucker at scoring the first touchdown of the NFL season a 75 year passed if anybody ever drafted once in raiders patriots that's how it's going to go all right guys thank you for your time and thank you all for listening to another episode of the Fandul Fantasy Show. We'll catch you later. Football.