The Ringer NFL Show - Fantasy TE Rankings, Tiers, and Fears

Episode Date: August 5, 2024

LIVE SHOW in Seattle on August 21: Click below for tickets! The guys run through a few preseason winners and losers, including J.K. Dobbins, who's looking healthy again; a stockpile of Chargers injuries; the Rams’ wide receiver stock; and much more (3:15). Next, they walk through their tight end rankings, place the tight ends in tiers, and address their most pressing fears from The Ringer’s 2024 Fantasy Football Rankings (20:23). “You guys want to do some emails?” (54:39). Tickets: https://www.ticketweb.com/event/the-ringer-fantasy-football-show-the-crocodile-tickets/13718233 Tier 1: Travis Kelce, Sam LaPorta, and Mark Andrews (27:17) Tier 2: Trey McBride, Dalton Kincaid, and George Kittle (31:04) Tier 3: Kyle Pitts (36:08) Tier 4: Evan Engram, David Njoku, and Jake Ferguson (36:42) Tier 5: Brock Bowers, Dallas Goedert, and Pat Freiermuth (43:30) Tier 6: Cole Kmet, T.J. Hockenson, Dalton Schultz, Hunter Henry, Jonnu Smith, Noah Fant, Tyler Conklin, Luke Musgrave, and Taysom Hill (48:48) Check out our 2024 Ringer Fantasy Football Rankings here! Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Social: Kiera Givens and Jack Sanders Producer: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Tara Palmeri. I'm Puck Senior Political Correspondent and host of Somebody's Got to win. Brought to you by The Ringer and Spotify. The 2024 election has been upended with Joe Biden off the ticket and Donald Trump facing a new challenger, Kamala Harris. If you want to hear what the insiders are really saying about the race, join me Tuesdays and Thursdays as I break it all down with lawmakers, journalists, and political strategists.

We'll go deeper than the headlines to the anxieties at the highest levels of power. And of course, we'll chew over all. the hot political gossip as we head into this historic election. Be sure to follow. Somebody's got to win at Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Fantasy football show. My name is Danny Hyphids. I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Horleck.

And today we are going over our tight ends, fears and tears. The tears and fears, I already missed it up. We're going to break all in tight end rankings into groups of tight ends that we're going to argue about into which order we'd actually draft them. And also, deep as dark as fears. Also, training camp news, emails about pasta, There's so much going on. But yeah, rankings of fantasy football.3.com.

I don't know. Craig. Oh, Greg, you're 30 years old. That's the most important thing about it. Congrats. Yeah. That's right. I turned 30 on Friday. Thank you to everybody who sang to me at our live show last week. That was lovely and wonderful.

I've never had that happen before. So that was great. I feel old. No, I think. I actually was like underplaying it this entire time. And then actually I turned 30 and then I went to bed last night. And I was like, damn, I have a three in front of my age now. That is, that actually is weird.

It's been a decade of me saying, oh, I'm 20. And now it's like, man, I don't know how long it's going to take me to get comfortable with 30. This is like me getting used to wearing the wedding ring, which I've been married for one year. That took, it's like, I have a wedding ring and now I'm 30. I'm basically 50. Yeah, we're going to get you across. All right.

We have a ton to get to. And Craig has, you know, we have 10 more years for you to figure this thing out. So, we got time for this. But anyway, among the other things. So we have live show in Seattle, August 21st at the crocodile. We sold it out. Thank you to everyone who got tickets. We decided we're going to have some standing room only.

Brand Spankanoe, if you listen to this, I would go do it right now. But at thecocodial.com, you can get standing room tickets for a live show on August 21st. So go to the crocodile. com. Come rock out with your crock out with us. That was not approved in the ad copy. No, that wasn't approved. They're cool with that.

Thec crocodile.com. Standing room tickets. Head there right now. We recorded this Monday, August 5th. A ton of training camp news. And we had our first real football game. The Bears and the Texans played last week. Football is back, baby.

Football is officially back. Yeah. Officially back. It is actually back, kind of. Cam Acres scored a touchdown. That's how you know it's preseason and not the regular season. Camer Makers had a sick ass spin move too. Oh, I'm back in.

I'll literally never forget when Sean McVeigh told me to my face. He was like, Camerakers is the truth. This guy's amazing. Hell yeah, I'm all in. And he didn't play him the rest of the year. Well, no, he tore his Achilles. Oh, okay. later. Yeah, so because football's literally back every Monday, we're going to be doing

winners and losers for the preseason training camp, everything that happens into the season. And we are psyched because Yahoo Fantasy Football sponsoring the segment each week, baby. Yeah, baby. Preseason winners and losers. Shout out Yahoo Fantasy Football, which is actually our favorite platform, like for real. Right. It's always been there for me. It was my first platform and it's going to be my last. And your last is coming up because you're almost, you're approaching the end of your life. So is that right?

It's all downhill from here. Do I have to stop playing when I reached 35? Well, no, look at DK. Look at Bill Simmons. Bill Simmons has been playing fantasy football for, he invented it practically. He was mailing his teammates' stats via carrier pigeon in the 90s. And then Yahoo came along and was like, look, we're going to make a way easier for you. And it is incredibly easy on Yahoo!

Today, it's the best platform around, in my opinion. So Yahoo Fantasy Football, you can win in your league. Someone will win $1 million this year with Yahoo Fantasy Football. all you have to do is play in a private Yahoo Fantasy League and enter the sweepstakes by September 5th. Enter now at Yahoo Sports.com slash fantasy. We really do actually love Yahoo. That's where we've done the Ring of League forever. Like Yahoo is the best platform.

And again, they're giving away a million dollars for just playing. Winners and losers for the preseason. Preseason for everybody, Craig. Can you imagine if I won the million dollars? That'd be pretty cool. I know. I was going to say, can we sign up for this. Yes.

Absolutely. We can. Anyone can play DK. that's what's so great about you. One million dollars. Imagine if I just won and then quit my job. How funny would that be? I was so good at fantasy football.

I no longer needed to talk about it for my career. That'd be funny. 30 years old. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I was at training camp this weekend.

Rams, Chargers, which was convenient because I feel like all the news that happened this week was from the Rams and Chargers. Do we want to consider you just bad luck? Just anytime Craig and I interact with the LA football teams, like catastrophe strikes. I start a podcast with Sean McVeigh and his starting running back tears as Achilles. But then they won the Super Bowl that year. So there you go. Went some.

Let's sacrifice. So we're starting with losers. There's a lot of injuries in L.A. unfortunately. Yeah, honestly, the loser. I mean, I think just starting with like the Chargers. Like I know D. You can't hit this a little bit on Friday, but Justin Herbert. So I was wrong.

I called it planter fasciitis. Sorry. It's an injury to the planter fascia. It's a tear. It's a, yeah. So basically. Assistant to the general manager. Assistant to the planter fascia, exactly.

So I was wrong, except also whatever, because it's still the planar fascia, still potentially worse, extremely painful, will have to be managed for like the entire season. Like, it's still like on his plant foot. So Justin Herbert with the tremendous arm strength, he's still going to be able to like play. I feel bad for Herbert, man. Tremendous pain three years in a row for Herbert. Has he played just without having tremendous pain at any given. point in any like in the last three years he like had broken ribs he's trying to make

throws it's almost like the guy whose career began because the starting quarterback got stabbed pregame by the medical you know it's almost like deal with the devil it's in the best dance you know it's like the shining hotel it's like whoever is the starting quarterback for their chargers is does you guys ever see in pain bedazzled you know how all of his wishes turned out to have like a huge caveat oh man pedazel great movie for one of the this up bits was fairly odd parents. Timmy gets three wishes from a GD and he wishes for a lawyer. And then he gets two more wishes. That's good.

That's what, yeah, Herbert should have thought of. But I am worried about the charges because after being there, I don't know if you guys know this, East and Stick doesn't have the best chemistry with these receivers. Like, seeing Easton Stick throw and then turn into the other field and seeing Matt Stafford throw at this joint practice. And I was like, these guys, I see why one guy spent $50 million. But basically, like. Good thing you went to training camp for that.

I know. I know, right? It's crazy. You know, that's what you learn up close. I think you go and you have like a lot of hope for the charges with Jim Harbaugh. There's a huge new facility. It's funny because the Rams have three different locations they're practicing at in 30 days because their building isn't ready yet. And the Chargers were nomads for like five years.

And now the charges have this brand spanking new facility and Harbaugh and everything. How was it? It's really sick. They spent $100 million in this thing. It looks incredible. It's so California. They have their weight room. It's inside, obviously.

But they have the outdoor section of the weight room. Their extra gym equipment's just sitting outside. Like, like, it's like all these benches and all these like plates and everything are just sitting outside of the sun, which I think is, you know, just very SoCal. But it's like, what's the what's the muscle beach or whatever? Yeah, it's honestly like that. But for you. Jim, right? Yeah.

But basically, I feel like you leave inspired for the charges like midterm future. But like, dude, Ladd McConkey is a sick one-eight at catch. Immediately like leaves with an injury. Trey Pipkins, their guard is hurt. And then Josh Palmer, Craig, you would have been proud caught a pass right in my grill. Yeah, good. But basically, I'm not really excited about Justin Herbert having, at best, a very painful foot injury on his plant leg the entire season. Yeah, I mean, I know I was kind of like really touting that the charges were going to throw more than we thought and that all these receivers were undervalued right now.

I still somewhat believe that, but that thought definitely took a bit of a hit here with Herbert's injury and then Ladd was banged up. I think Lad's going to be fine. but yeah it's not great maybe they are going to run the ball 40 times the game I think I underrated your point about how Josh Palmer really is the only guy he's going to have any chemistry with Herbert's even stronger now because Herbert's not going to practice with the two top other top receivers the two top tight ends two top running backs till like yeah at this point three weeks from now so you're right palm is gonna be the guy for there for Herbert I will say the other thing is so in the sleepers episode last week I touted

Kamani videl who's rookie six rounder the Chargers took who's kind of like Blake quorum cosplay for Jim Harbaugh yeah forget all that it just Jay K Dobbins is the best value, I think, in all fantasy right now. That's a winner for me is after going to Chargers camp. Depending on the platform you look at, like, if you look at Yahoo, Jake Godmins is pretty low, which he's played nine games in three years. Dude, Jake Dobbins, Gus are the starters together for the charges. Like, Jake Dobbins.

Hmm. Dobbins. He will probably shoot up the next three weeks and obviously he's an injury concern. Who cares? It's all baked in. Probably, like, he's the most one-for-one, Rahim Mostert of 2024, you could possibly imagine in terms of who is the single best imaginable value on the board? and it's jk. Dobbins with like your second to last pick before like a defense. And Jake Dobbins could just be the starting running back 1A option on a team that is trying to lead league and carry. So I think Dobbins is out of control value.

And like, you know, if he plays the whole season cool and if he doesn't, all right, you didn't pay anything for him. Are you, so are you judging this just based on the fact that he was the one getting the first team reps or did he like look explosive to your eye or both? Both. I think he's getting the reps. I think they love him. I mean, this is Greg Robben. he was the Ravens OC.

Like, dude, I mean, we're going back to Dobbins dropped 200 yards and four touchdowns and Jim Harbaugh like six years ago when he was in Ohio State. So like the Harbaughes are separately have been obsessed with Jacob Dobbins forever. And he looks fine. And again, he just have to like 100% of what he was with the Achilles injury. Right. I think he's 90% of the way back. Like he looks like a starting ass running back on this run heavy team.

And he's basically an afterthought because he's exactly what I think you need in a true sleeper, which is people who've touted him in the past are kind of like, I don't want to get back on that ride, but that's what you need. So he's 25 years old. He's five years younger than Craig. Well, probably four and a half or something like that.

Yeah, probably, yeah. That's good news. So yeah, I would say, Jacob, forget what I said about Camani Vidal. Jacob Dobbins is the guy. Losers, look at the Rams. So I think the Rams, if they're fully healthy, are like a legit Super Bowl contender.

They're kind of already a little bit of a mess on offense because going in when I was there, three of their five linemen are out. So Jonah Jackson, who they paid a lot of money and free agents, C4 to play guard, and both tackles. Allerick Jackson at left tackle, Rob Havenstein, a right tackle. They're all out. They're all week to week.

And watching the Chargers defense with Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa, literally the Rams was Zoolander. They could not run left. Like the left side of their line was two backup guys. And they, like, Sean McVeigh just stopped calling runs to the left because they were worthless. And then and then Pukukukukua got hurt.

And then now he's weak to week to week too. So that's kind of brutal all around. Week to week sounds terrible. It's funny though, it's week to week but not considered serious, which is an oxymoron. Right. Yeah, I know. How can you be week to week, but it's not serious? Serious would imply he's out the whole year, Craig.

I guess. So it's either torn ACL or it's not serious, I guess. This is terrible, though. This makes me very worried. I think the Herbert thing, you know, obviously really, really dampens my spirits for the charges. But the Pooka thing is, you know, just another indication that injuries could be like a long-term problem for this guy. This is something that, you know, kind of like trailed him in college.

He was hurt quite a few times in college last year. And I said this in our last show. Like he was just beat to shit. Yeah, Pukonakua. He was just beat to shit every single week last year. It felt like he was getting, you know, there was those plays where he was really slow to get up. I think in almost every single game. And now he's already got like a knee injury.

I think this is just, it really does remind me of like the cup thing last year where I wanted to believe. and I wanted to be really positive about Cup and I ended up really, really regretting that. And now I'm thinking to myself, like, am I just going to be out on Puka? Like, at cost, he's just so expensive right now. At cost, I might just be out. It's weird that with all the data we have,

there's not really great data for taking hits. And Puka just plays like, you know, what we'd make fun of Josh Allen for playing or Richardson. Right. Yeah, no sense of self-preservation. But Pooka is all first team. I'm going to take every hit I possibly can on every play to get an extra yard, which, whoops.

Yeah, he's a, I mean, he's a borderline first rounder for us right now. Our rankings, we have him 11th overall. We have him as the seventh wide receiver off the board. I think we would, well, we have to drop him at least a little bit because should we flip him in Cooper Cup straight up? I think and that's, hyphids, that's what I'm going to say is like all the indications, everything I've read from camp and you can tell me if this is what you saw too is like the number one, clear cut number one. And then Puka is kind of like falling into the number two spot. Yeah, I would say this exactly how it looked. And obviously, no, I especially.

Pooka being banged up. I look, we've seen Matt, Matt Stafford to the, I'll funnel it to the guy, I believe in my guy. Matt Stafford got Calvin Johnson. Yeah. 1,900 yards of like 700 routes like Matt Staford got Cooper Cup and Triple Crown. Like, I, he like, he looks fine. Like Golden Tate when he was with Stafford was like a teen guy or whatever.

And again, like, Porcena no Los Dose. Like, I really think they can both be just fine. I think this is going to be a passage to the Italians. It's going to be just Cup and Nakuwa in this offense. Right. Last year, if you look at the last six games of the season when Cup was healthy and kind of fully back, both of them were top 10 guys.

It is possible. Waddle and Tyreek have done it. Mike Evans and Godwin have pretty much done it. I think even if Puka is healthy and back week one, I don't think that means you should back off Cooper Cup. I have them right next to one another in my rankings. I think Cup should be a top. I think they should both be drafted around 10th overall at their position.

I really do feel like they both have a realistic shot at being top 10. And let's see, and I'll probably get a move Pook. I'm not quite as high in Pook as you are because I feel like, I basically, I think that the comment. combo of Cooper Cup looking great and Puka getting hurt. Oh, we should certainly drop. Yeah, I was saying prior to the injury, but now this is the hardest thing in fantasy is when somebody gets hurt in early August and it's like they might be back for week one.

Like, how do you handle that in a draft when it's August 27th? And you're just staring at Pooka Nukui. He's got the little logo next to his name, a little injury symbol. And you're just like, he'll probably go for 30% less than he should have than he should. That happens all the time. And there's always like the one guy in your league who doesn't care about injuries and just drafts like four guys who are all questionable. And two of them end up being perfectly fine and healthy. And they become huge value.

So that could certainly happen with Puka where he just like comes back week one, looks fine. And then he was, you got him at a huge discount. I think the short answer is if it's a new injury that's different to me than like recovery from a previous injury if someone's on pace and on schedule from an old one versus I don't know. How many times do you be like, man, I really wish I'd taken that guy who was hurt in August. he was a great value. I'm like, I just feel like that doesn't happen very often,

frankly. It's just like, I don't know. Like, I'm out. Dick is just like, oh, Hyfitt's just like injured people.

I'm like, no, I don't. No, and I think part of it, it truly is, Hyphitz just I'm an optimist generally at heart and.

Are you? Yeah. You're the nihilist. I'm optimistic. Yeah, that isn't interesting. I don't know actually where I like, hmm,

you might have a point there. Okay. I think I, I think I'm a nihilist as a bit. And actually, actually, an optimist in real life. So, like, at the beginning of the year, I want everyone to have a great year.

Like, Puka, he's going to be fine. He'll be fine. This is just a, he's going to be out like a couple of weeks, icing up that knee. He'll be fine. But in reality, like, you're that little guy on the shoulder who's like, by the way, this is not good. This is a really, really bad sign. You know why?

Every time someone wants to draft an injured person in August who got hurt two weeks ago, I just feel like it's just the rest of the development. I mean, this never works for anybody. But it would work for me. All right. While we're here, other losers, Jonathan Brooks, the Panthers running back is likely, likely going to start the season on the physically unable to perform list. This is the same conversation to me. Jonathan Brooks is an awesome running back, but he's a rookie.

He's coming off a torn ACL from last season at Texas. I just, how are you going to both recover from your ACL and also adjust to the NFL while trying to get reps for what was the worst offense of the NFL last year? If he recovers and if he gets up to speed and could play three downs and they decided smart to play. three downs and the offense is way better. And I'm like, that's a lot of ants. I just, I don't know. You're going to have to hold him for a month till he plays, maybe two months till he plays a lot.

And then in that time, you're going to be staring out. I'm hoping that the Panthers running back is like worthwhile. And I'm just like, I feel like you could probably just trade for him after five weeks for someone who drafted him and regrets it. Yeah. I agree. The,

I think this, the big thing for me that this news came out is so basically the head coach was talking about this. They don't see him playing. They're hoping to see him play like week three or four. which if it's four, they might as well put them on the PUP list and have I missed the first four games. But to me, this indicates that they are cognizant of how important it is to just, like, not push him too fast. Yeah, this is smart.

To me, it indicates that, like, Dave Canales is making the right call here and he's not forcing something that they don't need right now. Yeah. So that to me is, like, even more indication, like, if it's like you were saying, that they'll bring him along slowly. Even when he comes back, he might be playing a backup role for a while for, like, you know, a few games, maybe a month. maybe a month, maybe two months, just to ease them in and make sure they're not like putting too much on his plate right away because he, they're not going to be, you know, they're not going to be a playoff contender this year. They might as well, this is like a long term plan for them. And so yeah, he's another guy that I feel like needs to be moved down quite a bit. Yeah, we have him 95th right now at the risk of Josh Jacobsig myself. I'm still okay off with him if he falls based on this news. But if a rookie running back recovers from a torn ACL to be a league winner in December, like I can live with myself. you see that Canales said that Bryce Young might not play a snap in preseason

yeah that's interesting what do we feel about that I don't want to get him any approach preseason I will say that surprised me because you think that you'd want to get them reps but I don't know I mean McVay didn't play anyone in the preseason

and they like made the Super Bowl Yeah but they're contenders with Matt Stafford tons of veteran players Not what he took over He didn't take them over his contenders I don't remember I guess I'm saying that Stafford was a proven talent And Bryce Young is far from that. That is fair.

But golf wasn't when it... I don't know. Honestly, it's funny because on one hand, when people get hurt in the preseason where like, why do you play guys in the preseason? And when they don't,

we're like, why don't you play them in the preseason? So honestly, they kind of yell at them no matter what. It seems like most coaches hate that, like, you're not supposed

to play players in preseason anymore. It feels like, that's why they say the season actually starts in week four now because nobody can play in the preseason. Yeah, well,

they used to do two days with pads, and now they do one of days with like kind of not really hitting at all. I was just looking at this. This is just to reinforce Craig's point. Stafford, but by the time we joined the Rams had thrown for like 40 something thousand yards

in his career. Like we got to get every snap and rep to Bryce Young. That is... Indeed. Indeed. That's my turn. With a new system also.

Like maybe throw them out there for a couple quarters. Just a couple drives. Yeah. Meanwhile, he also has like a like two new wide receivers. He's got Deonté Johns and Xavier Legat who's also hurt, but he's got a new running back. It's like maybe get these guys out there so they can play a little bit. Create or join a Yahoo Fantasy Football League today at Yahoo!Sports.com slash fantasy.

And remember, someone will win one million dollars. All you have to do is play in a private Yahoo Fantasy League. And enter the sweepstakes by September 5th. Enter now. It's Yahoo Sports.com slash fantasy. No purchase necessary open in all 50 U.S. States or D.C. for H's 18 plus. ends September 5th, 2024. See official rules at YahooSports.com slash fantasy. Okay, let's get into our tight end tears and fears. And basically what we're going to do, first of the reason we do this is because when you're doing your draft, rankings exist and they're cool and you want to do it.

But the actual way to beat your friends in your draft is that when you're on the clock and it's like tick, tick, tick, everybody makes worse decisions under like time pressure. Like that's like across all people. And so if you actually have a list where you're like, oh, wait, there's two tight, ends left in this tier I like, but there's like eight running back. So if I get a tight end now, I'll still get a running back I like when I come back around. Boom. All right, seven seconds left go instead of just panicking.

And it's like really doing all this work ahead of time so that you're not panicking on the clock. And all we're doing is we're grouping tight ends by the bucket of, all right, would we more or less take these guys in any order? Realistically, like this group of people, like, could you take them in whatever order and we wouldn't get mad about it? So we're going to negotiate this out right now. And we're going to put the tiers up at fantasyf football. Dotterrin.com. We're going to have the tears if you click on the tight end. in button.

Are you guys going to listen to me on this one? You didn't listen to me at all in the quarterback rankings. We had a quorum. Yeah, we really outvoted your ass. Turns out that happened the entire podcast. Yeah, just like with mac and cheese, we outvoted you with quarterbacks.

Yeah, honestly, it was it was literally just a voting block. You guys decided to just like gag up on me that pod. It was Craig's last bit of 20s solidarity with me. Yeah. Now I'm on D.K.'s team. Now Craig's an old. It's crazy that we're each in a different decade. You got any advice for me in my 20s?

Yeah, I'll send you a list in a week. So before we even get into the tight-in tears, I wanted to ask you guys, I feel like, you know, I've said this before the summer, but I feel like tight ends the deepest it's ever been. We might not have the elite top-end talent at the number one or two, but we still have the old guard. We have Travis Kelsey, of Mark Andrews, we have George Kittle.

We have the new guys, who's Sam LaPorter for Detroit. We have Dalton Kincaid and the Bills. We have Trey McBride and the Cardinals. I mean, Kyle Pitts, I think he's new guard. He's younger than Dalton Kincaid. And then like, that's top seven. And you have David and Joker for the Browns and Evan Angram for the Jaguars. Those were top three tight ends in the second half of the season.

They go on eighth and ninth. And then you have, and so I wonder when you see all this depth, does it make you guys, I'll start with you. Does it make you want to get a top tight end or does it make you more confident in waiting because there's so many? I think the,

not offensive, but it just makes me more comfortable with either. Like I don't have to get a top tight end and feel like I'm desperate to do that. I do think the guys at the top, clearly have much higher ceilings. That's why you're taking them so much earlier. But there are enough guys who are going to be legitimate

week in week in week out producers for their teams later in the draft. And I'm talking about guys that are going to be either the number, probably the number two option on their team if you're getting them late in the draft. Usually I think in that part of the draft, you're just hoping a guy will emerge as like the number three option. But there are a few guys, I think, here, who are going to end up being the number two. And we'll talk about them down the way. But I think generally speaking, I'm just less desperate, less, less, you know,

know, I'm more open to whatever in terms of like how you're doing your build in a draft. So I would say there's just less pressure to get the early guys. I think that's right. I think, you know, it used to be, I either want one of the top three or I'm going to wait and get one of the bottom three kind of thing. And now I'm just like, oh, there's probably eight to nine guys. I'd be perfectly comfortable being my starting tight end this year. It's crazy.

I was looking back at like the last four or five years of the position in fantasy. And it's so wild. Honestly, just how much sexier the tight ends are now. how much deeper the pool of sexy options are. Because tight end has never really been the most electric position. It had the glasses in the ponytail. You're trying to tell me Jason Witten's not sexy? Dalton Schultz.

But it's like now, it's almost like in the NBA now. It's like, man, all these big guys can shoot and dribble now. Like, this is cool. Yeah. I mean, you can go eight guys deep. We're looking at dudes like Trey McBride and David and Joku was awesome. Dalton, Kincaid, Kyle Pitts. We have like generational talents.

that are like the seventh guy off the board at the position. So to me, yeah, there's really like eight to nine guys now that I think would be, I would be totally fine getting. They're athletic. They're super, super talented. It is not like, say, four or five years ago, Noah Fant and Logan Thomas were like top 10 guys of the position. But that felt like by default.

This year, it feels like the guys in the top 10 are actually very, very skilled all the way through. Yeah, you know what, that's a good way to put it to is it's like the men's 100. race was really close. And I saw the guy who came in last in the men's 100 race would have beaten Carl Lewis in 1988. Like he would have just won gold and he came in last this year. That's weird.

And it's like the guys like there are years where David and Joku being the number one tight end for the second of the season, he would have been like top five tight end like four years ago. He would have like top three guy. And now he's like eighth or ninth. Dude, that photo of the men's 100 right at the finish is so crazy. There's like one meme where it's like shows like Noah Liles and the guy from Jamaica and and the other American

Kearney, Curley. They're all right there. And then there's one guy in fourth who is literally an inch behind the other three of them and it shows no allows and it's like fastest man in the world.

And then it shows that guy in fourth and it's like didn't metal. Yeah. Two inches behind him. Yeah. Jerry Seinfeld has this bit that I just came circling back but he had it like in the 80s

and he's like yeah, fastest guy in the world and then it's like a quarter inch behind him. He's like never heard of him. Failure. Just like literally spend the rest of his life on that moment. Oh, dude.

Olympics are kind of brutal, man. I keep thinking of when you guys are talking about, I keep thinking about the meme. I'm sure you guys have seen it where they're doing the, I don't remember what the events actually called where they jump up. I think it's just springboard. They jump off the springboard, hit the pommel horse and do like a quadruplep backflip and land perfectly without moving.

And it's like the springboard or whatever in the 1930s. It's a guy literally just jumps on the spring, hits the pommel horse, and then lands. And he like doesn't do anything. And so people are like, a house in the 1950s. It's like versus buying a house in the 2020s.

And it's like now I'm watching somebody do four triple spin flip land and I'm like eating pizza on the couch. I'm like 6.8. Simone Biles can literally get 12 feet off the ground.

She's four foot eight. It's wild. Like she could do a triple jump. I'm like, yeah, he wobbled a bit. Seven. He bounced a little on the landing. I also, I have an Olympic tangent

later if we get to it. Yeah. But I thought I hurt all the sports, but we can... It's a great point, D.K. I love all the jokes about, like, all of us losers at home on our couch is, like, judging these incredible athletes. Yeah, she did dust in my chest.

There's an old Nick Swarton joke that stand up about how we're way too critical of movies now, like how people will go see Transformers and, like, walk out being like, eh, sucked. And he's like, if you showed that to somebody in 1955, their fucking head would explain that. They would have, like, an aneurism, yeah. So it sucked. Let's go through the tier one tight ends. Well, let's figure out what the tier one tight ends are.

Okay. So our, and you can follow on our rankers at fancyfool.3.com. And if you, once we update this, if you click on the position tab, our tiers will pop up. And you'll be able to see them. So we're going to do this for the tight ends. We're going to figure it out right now. I'm going to put it on. All right.

Our top tight ends, we have Travis Kelsey First, which is mostly my propaganda. And I'm open to being changed. But Sam Leporta, Mark Andrews for the Ravens, Trade McBride for the Cardinals, Dalton Kincaid, George Kittle, Kyle Pitts for the Falcons. I feel like There's gonna be a tear break in there, right? There's a tear break, but I want to discuss it because there's a wide belief

there's like a top seven tight ends. I frankly, I kind of feel like Kyle Pitts deserves his own tier. But basically, I feel like number one tight end for me, I could be convinced that Kelsey Leporta, Mark Andrews. I think you could argue it stops there. You could argue it stops there.

So do we want like a three-person tier of Kelsey Leporta Andrews? And then we have McBride, Kincade Kittle, Kyle Pitts is his own tier? Is that like just kind of easy way to do it? But like, should Trey McBride really be in a different tier than Mark Andrews, D.K.? I don't think so. Especially if you're looking at our actual rankings, the tier, it's the first four guys are clumped together in the 40s, late 30s and 40s in terms of our rankings.

And then Kincade doesn't show up until 58. And so he's like quite literally a tier below the other guys. And so I, and personally, I think Trey McBride is still has like tight end one ceiling. has that potential. What he showed last year down the stretch, final eight games was incredible. He was like number one in basically every stat in that stretch. I understand that they got Marvin Harrison and he's going to have to battle Harrison for target rate. But there's also this world in which Harrison helps elevate like rising tides rises all ships. And that's going to help Kyler. That's going to help McBride in terms of like one-on-one opportunities in the middle of the field.

He can run up the scene when defense is, you know, trying to take Marvin Harrison away. And so I still think McBride should be in the top tier personally. But I'm open to being, you know, like, if you guys don't believe that, then I'm open to the discussion. I think he's, I think he's fringe. I don't really have a problem with that either. The only reason why I was thinking it should be Leporta, Andrews, and Kelsey is Leporta and Andrews are the only players who have finished as the tight end one since 2016 other than Travis Kelsey. They have proven it. They have done it.

And those three guys are just the three tied-in ones of the last eight years. That's neat and tidy. Yeah. That is neat. That is quite nice, actually, when you lay that out. Tier 1 did it before. Yeah. McBride is like one step lower.

Like literally one tiny step lower. Here's where I don't mind the McBride thing. I agree. I don't mind you. No, here's right. No, I'm where I'm agreeing with you. Here where I don't mind McBride being two. Okay, never mind.

Kai, cut that out where I said I agree with D.K. What the fuck. Wait, hold on. This is an elder abuse. Cut that. God damn it. We recorded. two versions of the great positive date, one where I sided with DK and one with

When we saw the poll numbers, I was like, okay, cut the me and DK side. Yeah. It's like a focus group. Craig's like, I'm out. I went back in on the other side. It's Mac from it. So I'm playing both sides. No matter what, I come out on top. But the Trey McBride, he crushed it all when it was just him at receiver. Yeah. And now there's Marvin Harrison Jr. going as like a top 20 pick. And I'm like, okay, like, you know what I mean? Like, I think it's not crazy to think McBride. basically Mark Andrews can be the number one option of the Ravens even though we say flowers

and people. Kelsey obviously Sam Leporter with Ammonra. It's actually kind of like 1A1B in the red zone. Amon Ra is like very clearly the number one. All right, fine. Yeah, fair. I fine. Well, so are we saying it would be Kelsey LaPolla Andrews and then tier one and two would be McBride, Kincaid, Kiddell? And then tier of three would just be Pitts. I think so. No one could be in a tier of pits. That's just no one's like him. Correct. I still think McBride should be in one, but I'm not going to argue that strongly against it. I think McBride and Kincaid fit together pretty closely because they're both like up and

comers. They haven't quite proven it yet, but there's really huge potential. Both of these guys would not be surprising if they were the tie-on-one one ultimately, but they just haven't shown it yet. So I like that. To me, that phrasing and that that bucketing is pretty neat and tidy and I'm fine with that. What about Kettle being there with them? Yeah. Kittle doesn't fit that exact. Obviously, he's very different from those two guys. But in terms of like where you're taking him, I think he does fit into

tier. Kittle is like the floor for that for that group and then McBride and Kincaid or the ceiling place for those players for that for that tier. Kittle has been top five at the position I think every year of his career. So I think it'd be weird not to have him in at least the top two tiers. Kittle is Mr. Consistency, which is weird because I think for a long time he didn't have that reputation because he got hurt like that one season he missed a bunch of games. He's kind of been banged up a lot and he's not super super consistent game in game out. But every season he's a top five tight end. Every season he's like. like top four in yak and yak per reception.

Like he's just really, really consistent and efficient. But his target rate is probably going to be quite a bit lower than these other guys in this tier because he is, you know, the third option, maybe the fourth option in some games in the San Francisco offense. They're a run heavy team.

So his target rate is really low, but he just makes up for it because he's so good at yards after the catch. And, you know, he's been better at scoring touchdowns over the years. Yeah, last year was actually his technically his lowest year of the last five years. He was the tight-in five last year. That was the lowest he's finished. He was the only guy.

Only tied in with a thousand yards was George Kittle last year. And look, Brandon Ayuk might be on the Steelers next week, so maybe he'll rise up. The Brandon Ayuk, like, journey this off season has been. Can I just say I called it that that handshake between him and Shanahan was not a congratulatory handshake? What was it? It was a way. Hey, what's up? Good to see you. It's like they're actually just friends.

Yeah. Yeah. So we're locking this in. Tier 1 is going to be Kelsey Leporter, Mark Andrews, which is the, I've been the number one tight end before tier. Tier 2 is Trey McBride, Dalton for the Cardinals, Dalton Kincaid for the Bills, George Kittal for the 49ers, because could definitely be the number one tight end

and no one would be surprised here. What do you guys think of Kincade? I like those. I like him more than you guys and also Scott Barrett at Fantasy Points or Buddy. I talked to Kincade a lot last month, and I basically was like, he's Sam LaPorter with worst touchdown luck. and Scott Barrett was like, yeah, yeah, cut out. And I was like, I don't know, because part of me wants to, I think that like league wide,

there's going to be way more two tight-end sets this year. This is another reason it's kind of interesting year for tight ends. Basically, like, as a response to a lot of the stuff going on with like NFL and scheme stuff, basically, I just think there's going to be like, I hate the phrase 11 personnel. It's such a dumb name in a league where there's 11 people on the field for every play. It's like, why would we call it that? But 11 personnel is three receivers, one tight-in. I think we're going to see a lot more two receivers, two tight ends, basically from locking versatility because they want to force teams to bring an extra light, like heavier people out either another line and another lineback or whatever.

And then like they'd rather do the mashups that way. And so I look at the Rams, I think Cooper and a lot of Cooper Cup, Cooper Cup, a lot of Pacua. Does this a Cooper Pacua? No. Cooper Cup, Pooka Nakua. A lot of Pacua. A lot of Pacua is a lot. A lot of vagina.

A lot of Pacua. A lot of Pacua. I was like, what are you? you're talking about? A lot of a vagina. Oh my God. Anyway, a lot of two tight end sets, and I feel like Kincaid and Dawson Knox are there in Buffalo.

But I don't care. I feel like Kincaid's going to play. I like Dalton Kincaid quite a bit. I think Kincaid, yeah. I like, I love Kincade. Going back to the draft, when I was scouting him for the draft, I was absolutely in love with this guy. I think he's got a ton of talent. I think in this group, he's the one you have to make the biggest leap with, like from

just a projection point of view because, you know, especially last year when Knox was healthy, there was, you know, they were sharing target rate, like, Kincaid's target rate and just overall route rate was much, much lower, like concerningly low when Knox was healthy. And so you have to make this logic leap where Kincaid is the defector number one in this offense and therefore he's going to be running all the routes. He's going to be on the field, even, like, regardless of what Knox is doing. So I think you have to make a leap. But we see, we see tight ends do that. We see

really good players make leaps and, you know, so I think you just have to, there is a little bit of more projection here with Kincaid than any of the other guys on this list. I mean, I would argue that that is baked into his price. I mean, the guy was a, he was like the 14th best tied end last year. He had two touchdowns and 600 yards. And now we're putting him at fifth overall. I would say we are making that, that projected leap based on our rankings. Right.

But it's scary is what I'm saying. But I'm scared. Fear's the mind killer. Okay. Tier one's Kelsey Laporta, Andrews, tier two is McBride, and Kittal. Tier three is just CalPitz. We're going to do that at all. We're going to give one player just,

their own tier. Remember when you made fun of me for wanting to do that? And then you immediately didn't make fun of you. We made fun of you for want to do with Kyler Murray, who doesn't deserve his own tier? He absolutely does. We get it for Kyler. Who do we do it? Oh, Jayden Daniels is his own tier. We just said Kyler should be his own tier. Jane Daniels is his own tier. And then I didn't we come up with a receiver? We're going to do A-chan. Devon A-H-N right. Oh, A-chan, right. Yeah. No one's like him. No one's like they're either don't play or have two-intred yards. Yeah, we just need to find a receiver, but we'll, we have time. Okay. So the next up, here's the question. First of all,

we have Evan Engram and then David and Joku. I think we should flip that. I keep thinking, I'm like, David and Joku was dominant. And for years, like, I always make fun of DK because DK is like, this tight end's athletic. And I'm like, well, they're all athletic. Let me know when someone's athletic by athletic standards. David and Joku's like that kind of tight end

where even by tight end standards, he's like actually like 95th percentile and everything. That's what I've literally been doing this whole time. Not. I know, but I'm like just telling them. They are athletic, even by NFL standards. I think it's because you just call them, you don't really say that.

You just say they're really athletic. And then DeK. Hyvitz is like, okay, everyone's really athletic. Yeah, this is the NFL. Everyone in the NFL is that funny. So we're not allowed to say someone's fast. Everyone is fast. That's good to know.

Hypatts, the only wrinkle is yes. Last year, David and Joku went crazy. He had 300 yards and four touchdowns in the final four games of the season. He was one of the biggest league winners of the year in fantasy football. However, he did all that with Joe Flacko. He was not good with Deshawn Watson. And I think that's why he's going like 80th. Yeah.

Like we have Injoku 83rd and Engram 75th. I'm not saying Injoku needs to be up there with the 50s with Kincaid. I'm just saying if I told you one of these guys actually beat out the entirety of tier two and was a time. If I told you one of these guys are top two, everyone's healthy. Everyone's healthy the whole season. And I told you someone was a top two tight end. Is it Evan Engram or David and Jokku? Yeah.

Is it crazy that I'm actually not, that argument doesn't really sway me that much? not. Because I'm like, Deshawn Watson's maybe the worst quarterback in the league. They just brought in Jerry Judy. I don't know. Deshawn Watson never threw to David and Joku. And Evan Ingram led tight ends and targets. He had 114 targets. And meanwhile

And also was like, 114catches. Sorry, 1143 targets. And was also still kind of like the most unlucky tied end in the league. So and they just lost Calvin Ridley. I just think we hate Evan Ingram and he like leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth, which I think is totally fair.

And I think David Adjoku's by far a better player and a better prospect. But a lot of times in tight end, you know, guys like Dalton Schultz put in a top seven year, even if they're not a top seven talent. So I actually think they are properly right next to one another, in my opinion. I think the thing that I really like about Evan Engroom,

I've said this for a long time, but tight ends are also just very much a product of the system and product of the quarterback. Like if a quarterback likes throwing a tight end, then the tight end is going to have a much, much better chance of being really good. And I think the fact that he had 140, Evan Ingram had 143 targets last year is like proof of concept.

Trevor Lawrence likes starting to the tight end. This offense, late in the year, especially was just running him on these little drag routes. Trevor was just hitting him and then they were picking up yards over the catch. Like to me, that is something that is repeatable. It's not fluky, especially for a guy who ran a 4-4 coming into a league.

He's probably not that fast anymore, but he's very athletic, very fast, relative to the rest of the tight ends at the NFL. He's basically a receiver. And he is the number two. two guy de facto wins offense behind Krisha Kirk. There's a chance he might end up with more targets in fact. I don't think that'll happen,

but it's possible. Yeah, you guys are right. And the other thing I want to add is there's like increasing doubts about whether Trevor Lawrence is good. And people are like, well, what does Trevor Lawrence done? And it's like, how many years do we get to excuse Trevor Lawrence or Mervynmeyer? And I would like to take this moment to emphatically plant my flag on the fact that Trevor Lawrence

is incredible. And like, the two most disingenuous things I've seen in football, I feel like NBA media, there's a ton of disingenuous stuff. stats. The two most disingenuous NFL things I've seen are the people comparing Derek Carr's stats to Mahomes last year. Because Derek Carr averaged like 300 yards a game and they're like, how many do Mahomes have? Yeah. And then the other one is if you look at Trevor Lawrence's career stats with Daniel Jones, it's like identical. And so people are like, oh, why are you bad about paying Daniel Jones? But Lawrence is fine. And I'm like, no one, no one is picking Daniel Jones over Lawrence.

You just were starting a franchise. I saw that from Ian Hartett, who does a great job for fantasy. life. He does the sheesh report every week. The sheesh report, which is like drop passes, things that should have been almost touchdown, stuff like that. Yeah. He wrote that last year, nobody lost more EPA to dropped passes than Trevor Lawrence last season. And if you account for that, he was

a top three quarterback in EPA per play last year. He put together a video Ian Hartitz did of all the really close to being touchdowns or should have been touchdowns. Basically, it was like a drop in the end zone or they barely didn't get the foot down. The video was like seven minutes. long. It was ridiculous. There was like

50 plays. Like, if Trevor Lawrence had just had a little more luck on half of those, he would have been like a top five quarterback in fans. Can I give you a correct prediction? Yeah. Trevor Lawrence will win an MVP and a Super Bowl. Whoa. When he cuts his hair.

Like Trevor Lawrence is going to have a really like normal haircut and he's going to immediately win a Super Bowl. Oh, so Joe Burrow does it and you hate that. Yeah. He bleached his hair. Yeah. Herbert or Trevor Lawrence doesn't even need to. He's already there. Exactly.

Anyway, okay, so here's the thing. Fine, I agree with you guys. So Engram B, Djoku. Is Jake Ferguson for the Cowboys in this tier? I believe so, yes. Yeah, I think so, too. Led the league and Red Zone targets last year at Tide-end. 23 Redsone targets, by far the most of any Tide-end in the league.

Dallas just doesn't have anyone else. It's literally like three dudes named Jalen and Brandon Cooks. Like, there's no one else. Schoonmaker, the shipbuilder. That's it. Schoonmaker, the shipbuilder. Shipbuilder. Jake Shipbuilder.

I love those last names. I was listening to Mike Tomlin, talk about training camp yesterday. He was interviewed. And I just, they were like, oh, who played well today? And he was like,

he's like, you know, Ogun Jobi was out. So there was a couple guys who stepped up, Louder Milk. And I was like, man, what a name. Louder milk,

Schoonmaker. I love all those names. Wait, sound like old-timey names. Speaking of Skewnaker, did you know, so there was a name, oh my God,

I have to pull it up. Someone had this video I saw that that all the names around the world that were derived from one name. And it's the origin of the name Evan, which means like window into heaven or something. But it's like Evan, Ewan, John, Jack, Ian.

It was like 25 different names that you know and like are not uncommon. Ivan. All of them descend from one Greek word. But there's like 30 names. I couldn't believe it. Anyway, John is in the same family as Evan? That's interesting. Yeah.

Now that you're saying it, this isn't actually what you're, talking about at all. But it's interesting. It's like the Shannan coaching tree of names. Yes. It's unbelievable. I got to find the list. It's incredible. Anyway, all right. Next, the next tier here. So we're doing. We're not quite done.

Evan Angrem and Joku Ferguson. Is Brock Bowers for the Raiders in this tier? No way for me. Probably not. Okay. So then the next, so then we're locking this tier down tier four. So tier five would be so overall that is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. That's

ten. That's ten. So then I would title this next tier basically as weirdly reliable last tight end like starter. That's a terrible name, but like basically if you're the last person to take a tight end. You're a marketing genius over here. Yeah, I know. That's how advertising works. But if you're the last person to grab a starter,

like kind of weirdly, weirdly good options for your 12th pick. Totally. Brock Bowers for the Raiders. Dallas Goddard for the Eagles. Pat Fryermuth for the Steelers. Cole commit for the Bears. And then I don't know what we want to do if we'll stop there. But then you have T.J. Hawkins

for the Vikings, Dalton Shultz for the Texans. Hawkinson, obviously incredible, coming off for Torn ACL late in the season. Might be ready by week one, people are thinking. Yeah, I think he's probably a classic, like he'll be back, but not himself, but he was so good that you might want to take him. He's one of those where if you have an IR spot,

I actually feel differently. Right. This is a great example of that because down the stretch, he could be a top three tight end, but you just have to wait. Yeah, you have to wait. Whereas like Jonathan Brooks, I'm not willing to wait because he hasn't played in the NFL yet, but. You can get Hawkinson so late, though, that I think he's actually a great pick.

And I look at it with an IR spot. Yeah. If you pair two of these guys together, do you feel good about your tight end spot? And it's like, if you pair any of these two dudes together, Bowers, Goddard, Fryman with Colquemitt, Hawkinson, Schultz. You guys like that? I do. I think all these make a lot of sense.

I thought you guys were out on, on Commet. I'm surprised you have that we even talk about Comet in this group. I actually have Cole Commet blindness. You know how like Brad Pitt has face blindness? I actually like don't see or acknowledge. I have trouble even remembering that Cole Commet is like a person you can draft in fantasy football. Commets a lot like Schultz where I think that you have a young quarterback that you really believe in,

but they're surrounded by so many other options that you're like, oh, it's like, you know, Bears. You have Dijie Moore, Keenan Allen, Roma Dudenzei and Cole Commet plus DeAndre Swift. And then you look at the Texans, you're like, Stefan Diggs, Nico Collins, Tank Dell, and then Dalton Schultz. But you're like, you're kind of just being like, when in doubt, I'll take a pretty solid tight end with an awesome quarterback and just hope. That's why we're having,

but overall, they're like our 15th tight end. Like, you know, it's, yeah, I suppose you don't have to spend a lot of time on it since that is exactly right.

Like he's that far down. But it is interesting to me. Like last year he was, he tied for ninth in targets. He had 90 targets. Cole Cabet tied for ninth in targets last year. 90. But now this year,

now they've got obviously more, more weapons in the offense. Plus they brought in Shane Waldron, who, you know, with the Seahawks last year, he rotated tight ends and, like, you're getting like a 40% snap rate for these. Yeah, but that's an example of a stat that I don't think applies because it's,

the Seahawks very much had a rotation in Seattle. And the Bears literally gave Cole commit a contract extension. Should we, should commend Schultz be dropped to a lower tier? I think so. I wouldn't be, I mean, I don't mind. I think, I think, I think that's fair because Goddard's like, it's like AJ Brown, Devonty Smith, Goddard. Friamuth, it's like

Frickin's, like, Frickin's and I actually like Friamuth a lot. He's the guy I would like to pair with Bowers. Because I feel like Bauer's... Russell Wilson thing worries me with Friamuth, though. Yeah, but he's so cheap that I think that it's underrated the upside. What's it? So, incredible stat. I saw this from Dwayne McFarland

at Fantasy Life, who along with Ian Hart, does great stuff. And I couldn't believe the stat. Dwayne, uh, Dwayne McFarland had this incredible stat that a route run by a tight end, Not a target, but a route run, is 80% more valuable in fantasy if there's play action. So like a play action makes it 80% more valuable. You know who's dead last?

8. Isn't that crazy? Just for a lot. Yeah. You know who dead last in play action last year? The Pittsburgh Steelers. You know who's top five? The Atlanta Falcons. The guy who ran the Falcons offense now runs the Steelers' offense.

Artie. There's going to be a hundred more play action snaps for the Steelers this year than last year. And so not only is there going to be more probably engaged. because Arthur Smith also throws the tight ends a lot. And I know that just because Arthur Smith does, Russell Wilson will never change, et cetera. But there will be more play action. And I do think that that's the part

that it might not be accounted for enough. Yeah. Is that the rotational Seahawks tight ends are all just going to be like mostly Friermuth. And that's, so that, that to me is the argument for Pat where I'm like, okay, this can be big. But also, you're not paying it ton. He's like the 13th guy off the board at tight end.

Yeah. Also, we've been like, you know, oh, we're worried about how Russell Wilson and his offense is going to work with Pat Fryermouth, he doesn't throw over the middle. I mean, meanwhile, two years ago, Pat Firemuth was a top 12 guy with Kenny Pickett and Mitch Chubisky. Yeah, exactly.

I can't feel worse now about the quarterback situation than two years ago. So then we'll do Bowers, Goddard, and Fryermouth is as just weirdly reliable starters. And then also, I think the next one is just basically educated dart throws. Yeah, Bowers, Goddard and Firemuth are like the last round of starters. That's incredible. Yeah, there's 13 guys. That's incredible, right? I can count.

Kelsey Leporter, Andrews is Tier 1. McBride, Kincaid, Kiddell. is tier two, that's six. Pits is tier three it's seven. Tier four, we have Evan Angram, David, and Joku, Ferguson. That's 10. And then Brock Bauer's Dallas Godd at Friamuth is 13. So I mean, that right there, one of those guys is a backup

tight end. That's amazing. And the next up, which are basically the way I think of this is these guys, there are guys that I would be okay having on my bench to start the season versus after this, I'd rather let him be on waivers. So the next group is, educated dart throws, backup ten ends. Cole

Komet for the Bears, T.J. Hawkinson's, for the Vikings, Dalton Shultz for the Texans. I will throw in Hunter Henry for the Patriots because chances he's just the number one option on that team. Yeah. Yep. Now, in our rankings are a little different, but I think it should be Hunter Henry,

Jono Smith for the Dolphins, just because you want to, I'd rather, like Mike McDaniel coming out and like John Smith being part of the big three, I don't want to, I don't want that to be a waivers thing. I want that happened on my bench if that happens. And no offense for the Seahawks. I think that's up there.

and if you want to throw Luke Musgrave for the Packers because, but I would, I would do those guys in that tier and I think we should move down guys like, like Tyler Conklin, Shiggo Conquo. You don't like Conklin? I feel like Conklin is a really good sleeper. No one's talking about Conklin. I like Conklin a lot. I haven't been actually in our dynasty league with your home buddies.

I like Tyler Conklin a lot. I'm fine with him in this tier. I'm out on Shiggo Conkwo. I'd rather have one of these other guys. I think I am too. Yeah. But I basically, those to me are like, those are guys that are like sharp guys to have in your bed.

where I'm like, oh, and also the other guy, I think we have to add into this is Taysam Hill for the Saints. Because unfortunately, as much as we want him to go away, the Saints are transitioning out of Sean Payton land. And like, even though Sean Payton left, they still had his guys running the team. So that's why Taysam is still a thing. And now the Sean Payton guys are gone. It's like a 49ers, Clint Kubiak taking over the Saints. So we're like, oh, that's over.

Dude, what if he's just Kyle Eusecheck, but he's on the field more and he gets the ball more? Like, I kind of wonder if Tase him Hill actually, what if he, what if he gets the ball more? we just I just feel like this bit is never going to end but Kendrae Miller's already hurt we're already hearing about how they don't like like what are they going to give the balls in Camara I'm like dude what if he's just a goal line running back again for the I know I know I think Taysan Hill has to be in here

I just can't believe Taston Hill is like the show like criminal minds where I'm like how long is this show been running 36 season yeah there's been 19 seasons of criminal minds and people are still watching SVU yeah Yeah, I'm with you, though. I mean, he's definitely on the radar.

Don't, I wouldn't probably draft him, but, you know, maybe. I'd rather take him than Shigoko. Yeah. Anyway, you guys. How you like it? You mentioned Johnny Smith needs to be moved up. What do you think about Johnny Smith? I feel like that one is really hit or miss, but.

It's really simple. The dolphins didn't throw to tight ends. Mike McDaniel literally was like, so you don't do tight ends. He was like corrected them. He's like, just because something happened last year doesn't mean, that's how it's going to be. And my interpretation of his answer basically was they had Durham Smyth at tight end, the guy who sounds like a blacksmith. Derm Smyth.

And we're like, they wanted to involve Tide-end. They threw to Tid N. They just had Durham Smyth. John O'Smith had the best year of his career at 28 years old last year. Tidens take a little bit. And Joku,

the best year of his career at 28. John Ngu Smith took forever, but like, tight-in's hard to learn. He's, like, he's athletic. Like, he got paid a lot of money by the page years ago.

He's a yak guy in a Mike McDaniel offense. And Mike McDaniel coming into the season, I wouldn't be surprised at all. If John M. Smith really actually opens up the offense a lot. And they get him the ball early to get different coverages for Tyree Kill and Jalen Waddle.

I wouldn't be surprised whatsoever if John Smith's involved and he's the example of a guy where you only need to, like I think the way I look at these upside bench guys as who if I saw it once? Like I saw it in week one, I would immediately believe that actually I wish I had updated my rankings. Because some guys like, if I see Chigar Conquo catch a touchdown in week one, I'm going to like, all right, that happens.

If I see John Smith have 100 yards in week one and two touchdowns, like, oh shit, Mike McDaniel knew what he was doing. You know what I mean? And like, that's the thing. If I saw it with John Smith, I would believe it. That's a really great way to think about it, is what will feel like a fluke and what won't. What will you believe? Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Fant. I would believe it if Fant is good. I would believe it if Musgrave is good. Are you in on Fant D.K. were you? I was Fent. I think, you know, when you get down this low on the list, obviously,

Fant is not going to be the number one or number two for the Seahawks. He's probably going to be the number four in terms of like the passing game hierarchy behind D. D.K. Metcalfe. Tyler Lockett. J.S. But if one of those guys gets hurt or if maybe just Tyler Lockett completely falls off or whatever, Fant could definitely move up. I think he's going to be, he's a classic veteran best ball type of player where he'll have some explosion weeks this season. But I'm still bullish on him overall as a player.

Like he's 26 years old. He's extremely athletic. Like one of the best athletes at the position, bar none based on what he would did at the combine. And so I still think there's a lot of value there in terms of he could have a David and Joku type of breakout. later career breakout type of player. Yeah, similar profile where we gave up on a really young guy. Yeah, and it's not, he, he doesn't strike me as like a knucklehead or guy who's constantly in the wrong position or guy who's making mistakes or dropping the football or whatever.

He's just truly with the Seahawks, they just rotated three guys. And it was like really hard for him to get any consistency because of that. But now they signed him to a relatively big contract. The other two guys, Parkinson and Disley left. They don't really have, you know, a, second tight end that's going to be catching passes. And so it's the, it's Fants, he's probably going to play 80%

of snaps, which is great. Okay. So those are our tight end tiers. Everyone else basically, I think it's just the priority waiver, like keep an eye out. But that's how I like it. Go to fancyfewport.com and we'll update this soon. If you hit the tight end button, we'll actually have these big bold lines appear between

and you'll actually see our tiers. And again, we have the draft tracker so that when you do your draft, again, everyone's just staring at the same freaking rankings. And the best thing you can do is actually just use different rankings. So you can pullers up and draft track and you can get you mark guys as draft. You can mark guys to your team.

So you can use our rankings during your draft. And it's really fun. So fancy football dotterraecom. All right. Before we get out of here, we've got to do some emails. Emails. First of all,

massive outcries from our last episode where we had Danny Kelly out here arguing pasta salad. It's not pasta. And mac and cheese is not pasta. He knows it's literally pasta, but it's like, it's the,

anyway, We're serving pasta We're not doing Mac and cheese. Anyway, it was funny because Craig and I had a pretty heated

argument with DK. It was two of us first DK. So we did a poll on Spotify and we just, we made the poll is mac and cheese pasta.

Somehow, some way, 66% said yes. 33% said no. It's a facto. Believe it or not, our dumbass argument where two of us

were like yes, and Dek said no, was exactly representative of a larger audience. That's great. We are the perfect representation of America. It's unbelievable.

Like two-thirds of us, like we merit everyone. And so the best part is getting all these emails to wringerfancy football at gmail.com and people being like, Craig and Hyphitz are such morons. Of course, it's not pasta salad, directly underneath an email being like, what's wrong with Danny Kelly? There's truly no middle ground. I was called an insane person and a genius, like all the way. So. Pork and a listos.

My favorite response was somebody being like pasta is an ingredient. No one in the world would say, hey, come over to my house tonight. I'll make you pasta. All right, so here's the go. I did that three weeks ago. We had someone over, and Jackie makes a couple different great pasta dishes. They're easy. They don't take that long.

And I just told them, hey, we didn't know what we were going to make because I had to go shopping still. I was like, hey, we're going to have pasta. Is that cool? And I literally said that three weeks ago. I actually think that's fine. I feel like there are only a few pasta dishes where you need to specify. I think it's fine if you say, I'm going to make pasta for dinner. Maybe you'd have to specify like red sauce versus white sauce.

something like that, but like, you don't have to say the exact dish. Well, so here's the thing that didn't come up that I think is important to the argument, which is, D.K., do you like pasta salad? No. Also, this is probably coloring, like, my adamant to just like my die-on-a-hillness of it is, like, I don't really like pasta salad. I think it's kind of boring. Craig, do you like pasta salad?

I do. I like it, too. No wonder. Fucking loyalties. Yeah. You think it's kind of, you think it's boring? How dare you?

Yeah. I just would pick so many other sides over that. I feel like that was what we were really talking about. The true nature of the argument is I don't like pasta salad. Okay. So yeah, thank you to everyone he emails. Oh my God.

I don't believe it. So yeah, Ring your Fantasy Football at Gmail.com. You got more pasta salad related thoughts. I'm going to make DK the most kick-ass pasta salad on tray. The next time we're going to. convert me to pasta. I will say,

Tavis emailed in to say, if you go to the beach, Tavis, if you go to the beach or the lake of the river, do you say I'm going to the water? No, you call it beach,

Lake River, so you can't just call mac and cheese pasta, which nice try, but you're wrong. Tavis. Tavis is, he's very much using my logic. So I'll say that.

I liked it. I like, yeah. Also, I have to say, so Ben Solac weighed in on this on the same day. So Ben Solac,

unfortunately, is going to ESPN. And so I know a lot of people either listen to our show and then got to know Solac through this podcast or people who do Solac started listening to this show because he was here and then now you're stuck here with us. And so Solac is actually, he's leaving the ringer,

he's going to ESPN. Our boys all grows up. Our boys all grows up. We're going to miss the hell out of Solac. I love Solac. Very, very happy for him. Yeah. The show's average IQ just dropped about 10 points.

I know. he was like really holding us up. But yeah, he obviously great guy. We're very, very happy for him. We're going to miss the hell out of him on the draft show. I'm sure we'll have him back. Oh, yeah. He's already said he agreed to come back for the take purge.

So we'll force him to come back as much as much as possible. I learned a ton from Ben in the two to three, three draft shows with him now or was it just two seasons? Three, Kenny Pickett. Yeah. All the way that Caleb Williams. We started at the bottom. Damn. He'll be deeply missed.

Super talented guy. I have no doubt. he will do big things at ESPN, so happy for him. Yeah. I mean, I'm David, I mean, he's dead to me. I mean, don't speak for it. Haifitz hates it. I was like, I really hope this is one of the lies and the two truths, one lie, Ben.

You're not actually leaving, right? Yeah. No, no, I mean, I love Solac. I hope he's listening right now. But Solac is the absolute man. And, yeah, he taught me to say words. I taught him who was in the Beatles. It was a good, you know, we had a good symbionic.

I went back and watched the original maestro. thing and he was like, who raised you? He's like asking you. My mom texted me. He was like, don't put that on me. That's on you, son. That's on you, son. Yeah, exactly.

So yeah, best of Solac and we're, yeah, he'll be back. We're going to have one. Wait, so what did he say? He weighed in about the pasta debate. Someone asked him, hey, Solek, is pasta salad pasta? And he says, no, don't be preposterous, which, God, I love that guy. But don't you have, there's some friends. There are some friends you have.

when they join your side of the argument, you feel more wrong. Like when I side with Craig, Craig's like, pauses. I'm like, oh. That's not good. I look with you on food. I actually feel more confident. The man actually wishes he didn't have to eat. He's unbiased.

He's unfettered by the biases of food. He finds it to be a waste of time. The guy who thinks eating is literally a waste of time is on your side. I'm going to shout out another former ringer. He wishes hunger could be quelled with a pill. I'll shout out another former ringer buddy of ours in front of of ours. Mays texted me after listening and he was 100% on my

side. He was like, don't be absurd. Of course. Mays said pasta that pasta. Yes. Yes. So I felt better about that. Maze and Solaq, it's the full spectrum of foodie. Solek is not care about food at all. Mays who plans European vacations

around restaurants. So felt good about that. All right. Now I have to yell at Mays. I hope he's not mad at me for telling that story. But yeah, he was definitely on my site. What we really need to do is we need to reach out to our colleague, David Chang. Oh, yeah.

We just have Dave Chang way out of this? Yep. All right. This could go either way for me. Dave, if you're listening, let us know. Yeah. Okay. One other, also, someone emailed in to say is scrambled eggs actually fried chicken?

Wow. That, like, took me way too long. Yeah, I know. Don't think about it. Interesting one. All right. Last one here, I want to read you guys. So this one's from Austin.

Austin. Gale? No. The ringers, Austin Gale? The ringer's own, Austin Gale? Honestly, I could see Austin Gale writing a 40,000 word piece about every animal in the world and if he could beat it up in a fight. He watched 500 movies about fighting animals. All right.

This one's from Austin, not Gale. Austin. And again, we've been talking a lot about animals fighting. Austin says, when I was 11 years old, my mom was a librarian. and they had an awesome event where this animal specialist brought in all kinds of wild animals that were being rehabbed. So I got to pet a hedgehog.

There was a fairly large alligator and a young ostrich. He pet an alligator? Yeah. He said actually the thing you watch out for the guy said was the tail because the tail can break your legs and then you're... Wow. I know, right?

Also the face and the mouth. It breaks your legs and then it eats you. It goes into a death roll. Maybe just avoid the entire body of an alligator. Skip alligator day, maybe. A large alligator. Also young ostrich.

So because his mom worked there at the library, he's 11 years old, he volunteered to help put the chairs away afterward. And while he's doing this, while I'm going back to first person, I'm reading the email. He says, I was doing my duty when I could feel I was being watched.

You know that kind of silence when it's too silent, like a horror movie? I turn around, and the only other being in the room with me was the ostrich. No. And because it was young, we were about the same height,

but the ostrich definitely had a couple inches on me. And what I learned that day is ostriches love shiny objects. So if you're like me and you wear glasses, watch out. Oh, God.

The ostrich and I stared at each other for what felt like 10 full seconds. And then the ostrich pecked me real hard, right in between my eyes. No way. And I was stunned and the ostrac checked me again in the face and I crumpled to the ground like an NFL player during an Applebee's commercial. Stabby up.

Sturby up. Anytizers. I think that's incredible. Dude, somebody emailed or tweeted us. I can't remember. And it was basically saying if you get kicked by it, they can like disembowel like animals with their kick. an ostrich?

Yeah, they have like a little horn on their foot or whatever. They're like a- They also can run like 40 miles an hour. They're basically like a raptor. In an open field with that thing and it's upset with you, you have nowhere to go. Dude, we were like, of course we could beat a goose and someone who lost to a goose was like, dude, they could fly. It's super hot. They can fly.

Dude, have you seen the fucking fang on an ostrich? I don't want that thing to hit me. A fang or anything? I mean, it's like a, it's like a, yeah, it's like a claw. Sorry, not fang. Is it like that weird claw on a dog's leg that you're like, what's this thing for? Oh, no, that's a claw. Wow.

Oh, my God. Wow. This will fuck you up. Like dinosaurs. Dude, sometimes you've got dinosaurs are just birds. They are like descended from dinosaurs, quite literally. That's crazy. Look at their feet.

If I'm in true fight or flight, I can take that thing out. Get out of here. Is ostrich like the line? That's like basically the line we're creating here. Craig, the whole point of the story was you could not. It would disembowel you. Wait, also. If you're on Spotify right now,

we're going to put a photo up of what ostrich feet look like. And then put up a photo of my feet. Not for free, Craig. If it was like, if my mother's life was on the line and I had to take down an ostrich, I think I could do it.

See, I say this about a wolf and everyone makes fun of me. Wolves are like actual hunting machines. Yeah, but they're hunting packs. Yeah, but they're still huge and strong and they have a jaw with teeth in it. big, big wolves are fucking big. What are you talking about?

I don't want to fight like a fire wolf. Do you want to fight the smallest wolf on the earth? Maybe, okay. Yeah, exactly. I would like to, I could beat a below average sized wolf. A below average sized wolf. A below average sized wolf. Yeah, I'll take the run.

Greg wants to fight an adult ostrich. Ostriches are like seven, eight feet tall. I'm not fucking with an ostrich at all. I go after their legs. There are a lot of limbs, a lot of neck. Just saying. they're top heavy yeah I'll tie that thing or not

dude they're like the things in Star Wars the little two two footed add at things or whatever oh yeah just tie up the legs those were horribly designed yeah what's with the military industrial complex in Star Wars I don't know some weird

weird designs yeah that Boeing yeah they're not up to snuff in Star Wars Boeing don't get me started I betts you're really testing your luck with this yeah yeah you're right yeah no I love Boeing everyone at Boeing is listening to this. I love Boeing.

The safety record is doing a great job. I think they're doing great. Don't kill me. If I die in the next six months. This is anti-wistle blowing. You know what, Boeing? I'm good. I'm scared, man. I'm still in Los Angeles.

You got to get home, pal. 10 minutes from here, yeah. All right. We should have the show. All right. Goodbye, everyone. No, no. shit. I got to do the thank you. Thank you, TK. Thank you, Greg. Thank you, Guy, for

producing this episode. Thank you for help behind the scenes. Thank you to everyone who's emailing us at ringing fantasy football at gmail.com. Going to the Seattle live show at the crocodile.com, although we don't miss with alligators and more ways than one. And already said the fancyfutble.com. Emails at ringer fantasy football at gmail.com and also shout out yahoo. Thank you, Lorne. Lord. Thank you, Vanilla Ice. No thoughts. No thoughts. Was he a big deal like for you? Like, were you a fan of his growing up? I would not say I was like a fan, but he was a big deal in, what it was it, the 90s? Early night, late 80s.

Ice-sized baby. I think that was 90s, right? There was an incredibly excellent feature at the ringer on Villanella ice. Just Google the ringer Vindal Ice and it's a fantastic article about his meteor work rise and what it had changed. It's really good. 1990, Craig. Yeah, he was big. He was, you know, I think people kind of looked at him as a little bit of a joke or a lot bit of a joke, but he was everywhere, and his song was extremely popular. I always think about people like him, like right now.

I'm like, what is he doing? Dude, he's like a big time real estate mogul now. Really? Yeah. Go look up, uh, here, what's his name? His name is Robert Van Winkle. Which, I don't know why it's so funny. One of the all-time best times to change

your name. Could have played in place box. Kind of one of the savviest name changes in music history. That's a good one. He is 56 years old. He's a property flipper. He's involved in motocross racing and real estate. He went to design school.

He talked a career for this guy. He was a podcast. Steveo's wild ride. God. What timer? What, what? Jackass era are we living in. Yeah, he's, he renovates and sells houses. Okay. All right. Sure. Is he still touring? He's a Renaissance man. He's the modern milk plum.

Yeah, you go. Just the modern Cloyce box. Yeah, modern Clay's What is it called? Nice, Nice Baby? What would you call it if you're Vanilla Isis housing renovation company? Nice, nice, or no. Ooh.

What are his other songs? Is he another song that's big or is it just an ice ice baby? He had a couple. Nothing nearly as big as Ice Ice Baby, which by the way, he got sued for that. I don't know. Did he even make any money? It's just the big answer. It's a good question.

It's the Bowie song. When I was a kid, I was just like, that's so weird that they're same. What are the odds? That's so cool. They both thought of the same. His legal, his legal defense was it's, no, it's done, done, dun dun da-dun-dun-dug-a-dun-dun-dun. Bebobo-bo-bbo-bib. He added a da-da-da-dun-dun-dun-dug-dun-dun.

I love like mass. I have a obsession with massive lawsuits over dumb shit like that. Oh, yeah. It was like parsing it. Apple, Apple patented slide to unlock for smartphones. So Samsung did a tap. And then Apple sued Samsung for like $3 billion, claiming that a tap was a swipe of zero length.

Oh my God. It's a really quick short slide. Their massive $3 billion court case because like Apple, like the best law firms on earth are just like doing basically the court version of the dumb shit we do. Like, is pasta salad pasta? Is it tap really just a swipe? But it's like for like a billion dollars.

Did they lose? I'm assuming Apple lost. Apple lost, right? Oh, let me. Oh, now I'm going to do that. Oh, God. Because that's bullshit. Taps are not swipes.

It's so, it's so ridiculous. Tap. It's also swipe. I'm like, come on, man. You have enough money, Apple. When it's enough enough. That's so crazy. Oh, that's good.

Apple 1,500. million dollars are you kidding me they settled they settled okay yeah yeah that's nothing to say I'm saying settle out they were scared though they didn't want to take that to court it's got there was a whole

oh my god they don't want to open Pandora's box Craig yeah who knows what you'll find all right goodbye everyone must be 21 plus 18 plus in DC and present in select states Fandul is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino

LLC gambling problem call 1-800 gambler visit fandul.com RG in Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. Call 1-800-Next00 next step or text next step to 533342 in Arizona, 1-88-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-9-9-7-9-7-7-1.com. In Arizona, visit MD-Gamly-Halt.org in Maryland, or visit 1-800-Gambler.net in West Virginia, or call 1-800-2-2-7-700 or Wyoming, Hope is here, visit gambling helpline, ma.org, or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support Massachusetts, or call 18778-8-Hope-N-Y or text Hope N.Y in New York.