The Ringer NFL Show - Narratives We Are Buying or Selling, As Told by 'Anchorman'

Episode Date: August 11, 2021

We determine if we are buying or selling the most popular training camp narratives through quotes from the movie ‘Anchorman.’ Texans (2:38) Bengals (3:58) Colts (10:33) QB Tua Tagovailoa, Dolphins (14:51) Cowboys (20:10) Jaguars (23:03) 49ers (27:57) QB Jalen Hurts, Eagles (35:33) HC Dan Campbell, Lions (40:06) Saquon Barkley, Giants (42:45) Falcons (48:55) Rams (55:46) Saints (65:22) Patriots (67:32) Broncos (69:23) Check out The Ringer's 2021 Fantasy Football Draft Guide here! Email us at [e-mail]. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. I wanted to tell you about a new podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. It's going to be on the Ringer Reality Podcast. What's it called, Johnny Bananas? Death, Taxes and Bananas. We're going to be breaking down this season of the challenge, Hall of Fame episodes, and I'm going to be taking you behind the curtain of America's fifth major sport.

Are we getting special guests? We're going to have special guests. We're going to have special effects. The show is just going to be special. I can't wait. Check it out. Death, Taxes, and Bananas on the Ringer Podcast Network. Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy.

football show. I'm Danny Hyfitz. And I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Horlebeck. And today we were doing the media narratives. We are buying and selling, as told by Anchorman. News team assemble.

News team. Asimble. You clean up good. I like to think that you are just reading off of a teleprompter of the entire podcast, Hyphids. Dick, I'm going to tell you this ahead of time. Since you're the real Ron Burgundy, you will read anything we put in this Google Doc.

I have slipped something into some of your notes. Just Easter egg? Really? That's really funny. Yeah, I've slipped something and I want to see if you end up reading it. So I'm just letting you right now. All right. So there's always narratives like this time of year. Sometimes they're helpful.

Like last year it was, oh, Aaron Rogers, super motivated ahead of the season. Turns out that was correct. And then sometimes the narrative is last year, oh, well, the Ravens are going to pass way more. and sometimes they're less correct. So it's hard to, you don't know what to give credence to some things you want to ignore, but we're going to go through,

see what narratives we're buying, see what narratives were selling, and Angerman's going to help us out. First up, though, again, fantasyf football. Dot the ringer.com, it's our whole draft guide. Look at our rankings.

We're going to have a huge update really soon. One note, though, some people were having a glitch where it said it showed the 2020 draft guide instead of this year's draft guide. That's been fixed. So if you're having that problem, fantasyfutthor.

The ringer.com, you can check out this year's guide, hundreds of rankings and profiles, all the stuff. Please check it out. It's beautiful on your phone. Works on any tablet carrier pigeon. However you access the internet. It's there.

Fantasyfobball. The ringerer.com. The 2020 thing that you saw was just an optical illusion. It was the pleats. The pleats. We're taking it back to the pants store. Okay. First up, the milk was a bad choice award.

I think it's the funniest line in the whole movie. It's so damn hot. It's so damn hot. milk was a bad choice Can you imagine walking down the street Just drinking milk It's just like a low angle Dripping down his beard

For me this is the narrative I mean look The narrative is like the Texans Are just gonna be absolutely awful But there's also like a fantasy narrative It's like you know You should draft the Texans Because you know someone has to catch passes for them

No! You do not like do not draft the Texans David Johnson's a bad choice We're giving you permission to not draft any Texans. That's such a fantasy thing. There's always somebody going like, hey, someone's got to catch passes on that team could be a sneaky

value. It's like, you know what? The Texans are whole milk. Nobody drinks whole milk anymore. My two-year-old then. Also the heat. I think the heat was, I don't think the milk, I think it's the milk in the context of the heat. I understand that. I just made it joke. I just want to make sure you get the joke. I do get it. Yeah, thank you. I get that milk

isn't great in hot weather. Well, you mentioned it me the other day with the lions. It's like, Bresad Perriman and Tyroa. Someone's got to get... No, don't... Don't take... Yeah, I'm not doing it. Okay.

D.K., next one. Next narrative. Okay, so the first big narrative that we're hearing over the past week or so is that the Bengals offense is in trouble. There's been multiple reports, um, especially from the athletics Paul Danaer saying that Joe Burrow has looked really bad.

He's really nervous about his knee. Umar... Understandable. Jamar Chase isn't separating as much as you'd like to see. see, people are starting to freak out a little bit. My reaction to all these reports, and the thing that I thought of when reading basically everything on the Bengals is what Chris Parnell, his character in Anchorman is named Garth Holiday, which, by the way, is a fucking hilarious name. Garth Holliday slash Chris Parnell, he's one of the producers on the show, and he responds to Ron Burgundy saying, go fuck yourself San Diego. He's like, you're my hero, Ron.

Garth. You come out with stink like that. Poop. You can poop mouth. And me, that is me reacting to these Bengals reports. I'm just distraught. I can't handle it. It's just poop coming out of these people's mouth.

I don't want to hear it. And even if they were to offer money out of their wallet, I still would be very disappointed in hearing this. I can't do it. Don't do this to me, Paul. You're in a glass case of emotion. This quote was devised. When I first saw Anchorman, for some reason, Chris Parnell made me laugh harder than any of the one.

There's a poop in and going, he said it like poop words wrong. Poop. I thought that was so damn funny. And it still does to this day. It still holds up. But this narrative, unfortunately, I think I'm buying the narrative that the Bengals are in trouble. Yeah. I'm worried about the Bengals.

I really am. Like, set aside like Joe Burroughs knee, I mean, listen, a lot of people, a lot of, like, fantasy analysts don't love. NFL analysts don't love that they took Jamar Chase over Penae Sewell. And, you know, I was reading through the football outsider's almanac, and man, did they just shred the Cincinnati Bengals? They eviscerated the front office in what they've been doing. And, you know, it leaves a sour taste in your mouth, and it's hard to feel optimistic about them. They essentially have been a dumpster fire for the last 10 years, and they didn't do anything really to shore up their offensive line after Joe Burrow tore his knee in 17 different directions. So, yeah, Jamar Chase is replacing A.J. Green, but essentially the plan is to just run it back, do the same shit they did last year. And it scares me a little bit. They lost a lot of talent on defense. And they have some young guys who they're hopeful about. But they're still going to get sacked a lot. They're still going to have like a bottom five offensive line in the league. And I'm not sure Jamar Chase is going to have enough time to get open for him to really be a good value for.

you're drafting him. I'm nervous about the Bengals. I mean, I'll be honest. I moved Chase down. Jamar Chase in our latest like rankings re-up, re-rankings or whatever. And I actually, I think I moved Burrow down too. I think, so the Bengals are in

trouble is sort of the narrative. I think you could maybe like get a little bit more specific and say, especially at the beginning of the year. I think this could be a team that later in the season gets things together and it starts to click a little bit, but like especially early on, it could get kind of ugly.

I think that Burrow, you know, he's definitely going to be favoring his knee early on in the season. He's nine months out from like, like he said, completely shredding his knee. It wasn't just as ACL. It was his MCL also. Plus, like there was damage to other ligaments in his knee. It was like a really bad situation for him. I think it was his ubulous muscle and then it connects to the upper dorsumous.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. So that's definitely worrisome. But here's the deal. Since these narratives have come out, I've seen reports out of training camp that things are looking up. Like, the offense has played its best practices

the last two days. You know, maybe Burroughs starting to get a little more comfortable. Chase had a better day on Tuesday or Monday. I can't remember which one. It just feels like they're not, they didn't learn anything. Yeah. Like, did you know that the Bengals are like one of the,

they run the most snaps with a zero RB set in the league? And their quarterback's the guy who, and they have the worst offensive line. They're essentially just leaving them back there like a deer in traffic to get murdered, and they're not going to change anything. They're just going to do it again. I'm just nervous that they haven't learned anything, and history is set to repeat itself. Here's the thing with the Bengals.

The Bengals are a tantalizing fantasy team because they're really talented. You have Joe Burrow, you have Jamar Chase, you have T. Higgins, Tyler Boyd, maybe the best receiving group in the NFL in a year or two. But the talent is on paper, but they're like not a team yet, and that's kind of easy to forget. But, like, there's no evidence that we should be confident in this coaching staff from Zach Taylor or really the roster construction to be honest with you

so I until like if the Bengals have a really good offense this year all right fine I was I missed it but like I have I do not want to be significantly invested in the Cincinnati Bengals and be like oh yeah

this team sucks question if Jamar Chase and T. Higgins are sitting there on the board who are you taking right now? T. Higgins. T. Higgins no question. I think Higgins too

and yeah we have who do we have higher right now? I have Higgins. I move T. Higgins actually up a little bit, and I move Jemar Chase down a decent bit. I still think Jemar Chase is upside, but like I just, if the guy emerges,

I think it's T. Higgins. He's just a better player with more experience. Jamar Chase didn't play college football last year. It's easy to forget. Like, no wonder he's rusty. He hadn't played since the championship game when LSU won. So I'm looking at our updated ranks, which will come out soon.

T. Higgins is above Jamar Chase now. in our rankings. So it just makes sense, I think. And honestly, let's shout out Tyler Boyd really quickly. Maybe we should come out with the rankings of the least sexy draft picks that are good draft picks. Tyler Boyd's top five along with Marvin Jones and a few others. But the picks that won't turn heads, but will win you money, Tyler Boyd is on that list. Poop mouth. Poop mouth, Ron. Craig, Craig, you're pretty good at that.

The other one from that I thought of with that conversation was like Aaron Rogers being mad at the Packers and the Packers are like, Aaron, if I gave you some money right now out of my wallet, would that ease the pain? It's like, I hate you, Green Bay Packers. I'll dare you. Oh my God. Oh, my God. All right, Craig, next narrative. The next narrative that we're buying or selling that the Colts are just going to suck now. And my quote for that is after they have, you know, all the news teams come together for their battle royale and immediately cuts to Ron in the office drinking a Miller high life, but the labels turned away. And he goes, boy, that escalated quickly.

I mean, that really got out of hand fast. Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand fast. It jumped up a notch. It did, didn't it? It jumped up a notch. Carson Wentz went down with a foot injury. Quentin Nelson somehow had the same injury.

It seems like he went down. Things got dark pretty quick there for Indianapolis, and now Jacob Eason is projected to be their quarterback. So, well, no, Sam Ellinger is overtaking for the job. And then their, like, top pick, quitty pay, the defensive end also got hurt today. It's really rough out there. But I did read that perhaps Nelson and Wentz now, it's looking better that they may come back sooner than expected. This was Chris Mortensen.

He reported it this morning. I think Enschifter are saying the Colts are optimistic that both Wentz and Nelson, after all that are going to play in week one. Oh, but let's be real here. We were just talking the last episode about. how just because an injury a player returns doesn't mean they're fully healthy. You're still talking about like serious foot injuries to their best

or the most important two players in offense. Right. I think we should liken Chris Ballard, the Colts GM to the Luke Wilson character where you know his first arm gets cut off at the battle and that's Carson Wentz's foot and he goes, damn, I did not see that coming. And then Quentin Nelson's foot gets hurt. That's the bear ripping his

other arm off. He's like, God, he did not see that one coming either. Oh my God. That is exactly it. So, yeah, how we feel about the skill players here? I'm still pretty bullish, honestly, on Pittman. I feel less excited about T.Y. Hilton

and Paris Campbell. Those guys look to me more like sort of like flyers later on in drafts. Pitman's still relatively optimistic. How are you guys feeling about the receiver core? I think the other receivers should find a safe house lay low for a while before someone else gets hurt. Seriously.

I kind of have a take here about I'm thinking about Indianapolis's offense. I kind of think Naim Hines is just going to be the best value on this roster. So this assumes I think that they're going to be down a lot, right? That they're going to be playing from behind.

Like he's game script. Like if they're behind, like that's a good game script for him because he's going to be catching passes. He's going to be running a lot of routes. Yeah, and it's also the easiest pass to make if you're Jacob Easton or Ellinger's just dump off. Play Alex Smithball.

Like when in doubt, throw a little hitch route to Naheem Heinz, who was really good last year. He came out of the cannon fired up and was like a top 10, top 15 option, like High Fitz predicted for like the first four or five weeks of the season. And we know that Frank Reich doesn't stick

to just one running back. I think Naim Hines, where you can get him is probably, honestly, somebody I'd be more comfortable having on my roster than somebody like Ty Wight Hilton, who we have no idea how they're going to use him this year or how healthy he'll be. The reason I like Nahim Hines last year

and he had such an amazing week one and then he dipped after that, obviously. It's basically it's really simple. Frank Reich was the coordinator for the Chargers earlier this decade, which is why Philip Rivers came to the Colts. And when Reich was with the Chargers, Danny Woodhead was like a top five running back in PPRs,

like top three. And basically they had Naheem Hines watching film of Danny Woodhead. And they're like, this is what your job is. And so it's entirely possible that he can carve out an extremely valuable season. He's a good flyer now, because again, I don't know how, Sam Ellinger helps that he'll checking down.

Also, Sam Eliger is going to suck, so that's tough. But, I mean, if it's a full PPR league, I love Nehemines. But I'm buying the Colts and escalating, though. This team's going to be bad. Yeah, I'm buying it, too, D.K. Yeah, I'm buying it. So I think I was actually, even before all these entries, I was like, are we sure that the Colts are going to be good in typical ring or parlance?

Listen, Hyphen says it all the time. If Carson Wince comes back week three and lights it up the entire season, and Michael Pittman's like a top 15 guy. I'm okay with missing out on that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and I think we liked Pittman before, but now it's just really tough. Okay.

DK, next narrative. The narrative that I think is very interesting in this last couple of weeks that we've seen, and we've talked about this a little bit, but Tua is just freaking lighten up training camp right now. And I think the idea is he's ready to make a big leap in year two. He's healthy. The hip is feeling good. And the quote, obviously, that I thought of this for this one,

was Ron Burgundy after he gets his making. He's like, hmm, I look good. I mean, really good. Hey, everybody. Come see how good I look. He's just like, I don't know. That's Tula in training camp. Like, just putting on a show for all the beat reporters there.

Everybody seems to be pretty much in lockstep that he's looked really good, like a different guy. And I'm all about it. We know that editor, Ringer editor, Ben Glickman, you know, he was hitting me up about it yesterday, of course. And he's the biggest Tua fan in the world. and he's super excited about it. I'm excited about it. Everybody's excited about it. I liked when a team has like a story

that actually aligns with stats. Like Warren Sharp has a lot of numbers that makes sense for why Tua is probably going to break out this year. But also it just makes sense. It's like he was like the Dolphins last year they signed Fitzpatrick and they hired an offensive coordinator

that was like Fitzpatrick's guy and they built an offense that they had worked together. Then they draft Tua. So Tua comes into the system recovering from a hip injury for a system built for Fitzpatrick. and then the combo of the injury, and then he's not just that kind of aggressive passer,

doesn't look good, gets swapped out, everyone's down on him, and now it's like, oh, look, they're building an offense around him now instead of Fitzpatrick. It's just all of it,

it's not rocket science. He's healthier, and the system's for him instead of the other guy. Yeah, I think the hardest part about the dolphins is going to be figuring out who's the one who's going to be

the biggest beneficiary of Tua's leap. I'm getting excited about Waddle. We were talking about Will Fuller. I believe Will Fuller's still not practicing. Shout out to whoever made the Will Fuller Twitter account. That guy's amazing. Or girl. Shouts out to you.

I was thinking Will Fuller is like Sex Panther. 60% of the time, it works every time. That doesn't make sense. Will Fuller plays 60% of the games and he's really good. But like the other 40,

it's a hamstring injury. And I'm just like, I can't, again, we loved him last year and he set a career year in every category, but he's just never been able to play like more than like 60 or 70% of games.

I just can't, if he falls really far in drafts as a point where the upside's worth it, but it's so hard to rely on him for anything. That quote doesn't Ron Burgundy go. That doesn't make sense. That quote actually does make sense for Will Fuller somehow. I feel like it 100% makes sense. 60% of the time it works every time. Made with bits of real panther.

Bits, bits of real panther. DK, by the end of the season, who do you think is going to be the best dolphins value? Waddle. I actually, I'm looking at a ranking. Right now, we still have Fuller ranked above Waddle. I am the lone Waddle. Like, I'm super bullish on Waddle. I'm like 30 spots ahead of him.

I'm 60 spots ahead of him compared to Craig. And like 30 ahead of him by Danny. I actually think Waddle is going to be a really good rookie. I think they're going to use him a lot on like those slant routes, screens. He's shown a propensity to get behind the defense so far in training camp. Like they keep talking about him going deep, going up and getting. passes, things like that, sounds like he's healthy. So I'm, I'm like way above, uh, consensus on Waddle and a little bit lower on Fuller. Like again, he hasn't practiced since June. When was last time?

First day. First day of training camp. Yeah. So that's definitely concerning. And I think that Waddle's just going to be who we thought he was, you know, so I'm super bullish on him. Hi, Fitz, what do you think? Miami's really interesting. There's so many past catchers. There's Devante Parker who just nobody talks about. And there's Mike Gassiki who also just nobody talks about. So I think that the problem with Gassikis, he's not a tight end. Like he's eligible tight end, but he's a receiver. He does 99.99 million percent of his routes out of the slot, which is, you know, where Jalen Waddle or Will Fuller should play. So Goseki kind of needs an injury to get playing. I feel like he's going to get squeezed, to be honest. I don't really know how he gets on the field. So I don't

love Giskekeke. I think Devante Parker, everyone just hates. And to be honest, I kind of don't totally understand why everyone's just decided Devante Parker's a terrible fit for the offense. It seems to be like a unanimous feeling among people close to the team, but I don't really understand it, to be honest. But if Fuller is hurt and Waddle's a rookie and the team's going to be more passing, like you think Devante Parker could crack the top 40 receivers for a lot of people, but seems not. I know, right.

I totally agree. Like, why can't, like, if we're going to draft T. Higgins, Jamar Chase, and Tyler Boyd, shouldn't we draft Tevante Parker, Will Fuller, and Jaylon Waddle? Like, should we feel somewhat the same if we're, expecting a Tua breakout? We'll see. I'm more interested. I'm starting to get a little interested in two and maybe as a high and backup quarterback, but realistically, I think it's more like if two, it has like a huge week one or two, pick them up to stream. And then, yeah, I don't,

I think Waddle's smart because Waddle, at the end of the day, you want upside at the end of your bench. Jalen Waddle has as much upside as anyone. So I get it. All right. I'm, I'll typically buy the Dolphins breakout. I'm buying it. I'm investing a little capital in it. Little, little. Okay. The other one, I just think of, the next one is like the narrative that Dallas's offense is elite. Like, you know, you've heard this 100 times this offseason. Like the Cowboys offense was amazing last year when Dak and all those records there on pace to break the first four weeks of the year. Now Dak is back. He's healthy.

Just draft everyone from Dallas this year. And I feel like it's like we're looking at the Cowboys skill players like Brick. And he's like, I love carpet. I love Desk. Brick, are you just looking at things in the office and saying that you love them? I love lamp Do you really love the lamp Or are you just saying it because you saw it

I love lamp I love lamp I'm just look at the Cowboys Rush I'm like I love Blake Jarwin Do you actually love Blake Jarwin Are you just saying that? Do you see him at camp? I love Dalton Schultz

I love Tony Polly I love Lamp I love CD Lamb I love LAM I love LAM There is not a team with more beloved players than Dallas fantasy perspectives. Like, everybody loves all three receivers.

I think people like Blake Charwin. People like Zeke and they love Tony Pollard. They love Dak. So I gave this a lot of thought because it occurred to me that I think Zeke has a huge bounce back year. I think Zeke's three for me. It's Christian McCaffrey, Dalvin Cook, and then I have Zeke at three.

Me as well. But we also like CD Lamb for a breakout. We also think Gallup's underrated. And occurred to me like, how is this really going to go? I moved to Mori Cooper down because we can't just be high on carpet and desk and lamp. I've decided to move Cooper down because the ankle thing, I don't like that.

I don't like the ankles not healthy now. I don't like they're just going to have to manage this all season. Realistically speaking, I think that caps the upside a lot. High Fitz likes ankles that are healthy. He's like going full Trump. Big fan. He loves ankles that are healthy. Love ankle.

Angles that didn't get captured. Jesus. So yeah. So you straight up would take C.D. Lamb over Amari Cooper now? Yeah, I'm there now. I've given this thought. I am too. I am too.

I'm sticking with Cooper, you training camp. What? Victims of the moment. Yeah. I just, no, he's saying, I really like to Mara Cooper.

I just don't like that he's still not practicing. I just, I, that matters to me. It does. Well, he did come off the PUP list. And he is kind of practicing.

I mean, like he's like running routes with DAC and like, you know, he's like on the field doing stuff. He's like, yeah, he's like on the side. I,

and look, I'm willing to move it. I just, this, it feels like a repeat of last year when, I mean, again, he was very good to begin the year, but I just hate when you're going into the season with a lower body injury as a receiver. And, you know, this isn't quite the same as like a hamstring or something.

Like, you know, two different surgeries on the ankle. So are you buying that the Dallas offense is elite? Yes, I just, I'm moving up CD and Gallup and I'm moving down Cooper a little bit. I'm not moving him dropping him outside the top 50 or anything. Just, you know, lay 30s for me. Next one, Craig. The narrative of the Jaguars are going to win the AFC South? Listen, worse to first.

There's usually one of those every year And stars are aligning for it to be Jacksonville Trevor Lawrence is the second coming According to Training Camp even today Reports again, you had another stellar day Hell yes Hell yes And we just

We're just talking ourselves in more and more To the skill players Ooh you got shark the deep threat You got Chanel the gadget Marvin Jones the vet Ooh Travis ETN is a little Camara type Even James Robinson James Robinson has been making a lot of waves lately

You know the defense might not be that good So a lot of shootout potential. The offensive lines are turning all five starters. And, you know, the Texans are going to suck. We just talked about the cult sucking. Titans have a shitty defense. A lot of things coming together in the blender here to make a little jagged smoothie. What do you guys think?

The one quote that does remind me of the Jaguars this year is, you know, when they're about to have a fight, they're all, they go to the anchor man like battle royal. And they're all standing there. And then all of a sudden, Brick Tamlins at the end with a grenade. And Ron Burgundy's like, Brick. where did you get a hand grenade? He's like, I don't know. That's the Jaguars getting Trevor Lawrence. How did they get a hand grenade?

But they fucking got a hand grenade. Yeah. And I think this is like something that people are somehow underrating what Trevor Lawrence is going to bring. Despite the fact that for the last three years, he's been the undisputed number one pick or whatever and the second coming of John Elway or whatever, people are still somehow sort of underrating how good

the Jags could be, I think, because of him. And I'm just starting to get really, really excited. I don't know if their defenses can be good. I do think they have some talent, but I think their offense could be actually pretty good. It's not out of nowhere, though. I mean, are you got confident in Urban Meyer being able to win a division in the NFL

in his first season as head coach? The Urban Meyer thing is holding it back. I think that's the big variable that people are looking at and they're not buying into this Jaguar's team. But, I mean, I don't know what to think about Urban Meyer. I do have some confidence in Darrell Bevel in terms of his ability

to scheme up an offense that helped Trevor Lawrence play with efficiency, play with explosiveness. He's done it with Russell Wilson. When he came in, he completely revamped the lion's offense for Matt Stafford and went in and they went from being like a dink and dunk offense with Billy Bob Cooter. Is that his name? Not

Billy Bob Cooter. Jim Bob. Jim Bob and Billy Bob Thornton. God damn it. I mean, I was close. Sounds like a backyard baseball character. Jim Bob Cooter. Yeah, it does. They went from being from being like a literal dink and dunk offense that ran through like golden tate to pass ball deep you know explosive stafford's numbers took off um and i mean honestly like if you look at their offense i think

you could make the argument that dj charke is sort of a discount version of kenny golladay like a deep threat who wins at the catch point you know good on the outside um Marvin jones is a discount Marvin jones and so he's like he's literally the same guy that plays in the Lions offense last year. Chanel, I don't know what his comp is, but he's good. Discount Ayuk. Sure. Well, I'm talking about, like, comparing them to the Lions' offense from last year.

Basically, what I'm saying is I think that they're going to be a vertical offense that can push the ball downfield and create explosive plays, create big plays, and score touchdowns. And I think that Trevor Lawrence is going to be good. So, anyway, that's kind of where I'm going with that. Yeah, and it's not like, I mean, would you rather have Doug Marone than Urban Myers? Like, I don't really care as much. I know that college coaches don't have a great track. record, but, you know, Urban's probably the most successful college coach to ever come to

the NFL. It probably has the best track record. So, you know, even if they're not, I don't know, but ever. I mean, Pete Carroll was, by the way, this kind of does remind me, I'm not saying that he and Pete Carroll, Urban Iron Pete Carroll are similar in a lot of ways. However, when the Sonic, or, it's all Sonics, when the Seahawks hired Pete Carroll, I very vividly remember people were like, this is weird. He's bringing his hokey bullshit to the NFL. He was already a failure in the NFL before. Like his USC recruiting isn't going to pay off when he gets to the NFL. You can't recruit in the NFL, blah, blah, blah.

Like all this shit. This is like talk radio when Pete Carroll got hired by the Seahawks. And, you know, I mean, the rest of this history, like Pete Carroll has proven to be a very good NFL coach. So I'm not saying that that's what Urban Meyer is going to do. But I do think that the narratives were somewhat similar with Urban Meyer and Pete Carroll when they started in the NFL. Yeah. And also, I mean, Jimmy Johnson came from the U to the U to the United. the Cowboys and that went well. But still, I don't, I just don't, I just don't think Herba Meyer's

going to be a good coach, to be honest. I mean, he might not, he might not be. But I kind of just don't think it matters in terms of like fantasy for this year. Yeah, that's fair. We shall see. Okay, Craig, next narrative. Trey Lance coming for Jimmy G's job. This one's great. I love this one. I like him this to the scene when Veronica Corningstone and Ron Burgundy Howard co-anchors and they finish the show and then the credits start rolling and the audio was turned off, but they still have to be on camera. And this is what I imagine Lance and Jimmy G are like off the field. I'm going to punch you in the ovary.

That's what I'm going to do. Straight shot. Oh, ow. Right to the baby maker. I don't know. You know, I have trouble thinking that all these quarterback competitions are all hunky-dory. And I kind of feel like behind closed doors, Jimmy G's like, I'm going to punch you right in the ovaries, Trey Lance.

I'm going to slap you in public. Well, the other one, though, is it's not just Jimmy G. and Trey Lance. It's also the running back battle. Like, we've talked so much about Lance Agrippel. It's also Rahim Moster and Trey Sermon. And I feel like we haven't talked about this enough, but there are crazy differences. So Yahoo has Trey Langer, sorry, Rahim Moster 10 spots higher than ESPN. But Yahoo has Trey Sermon 60 spots higher than ESPN does.

60 spots. We are way closer to Yahoo. We have, we have Trey Sermin and Rahimster both in the 70s, and I think we're going to update that. but sorry in the 60s but I'm curious what you think happens with the 49ers backfield DK because the Niners seem to want to give 500 carries this year to the running backs. It seems really important to figure out what's going to happen with the Niners backfield. What do you think is going to happen with Moister and Sermon? Yeah, that's really tough to know.

It's like you said, because they're very different running backs too. Like Moster is a slasher, explosive, you know, like a 4-3 runner, like a type of guy that can hit a home run on any run literally. And then, you know, Trace Sermon is more like a grinder, a sustainer, a guy who can, you can give him like 20-something carries in a game and he'll get better as the game goes on and get stronger. It's harder for him to tackle. You know, it's harder for the defense to tackle this guy, blah, blah, blah.

So I don't know, like, how they're going to rotate it. I know that Sermon has gotten a lot of run with the first team in the preseason because Moster's been hurt. And everything that we've heard about him is that he's done really, really well with it. Like, he's picking up the offense. He's really smart. He's showing that he can be used in the passing game, all this stuff. Like, there's nothing but positivity coming out with Sermon.

So that's why I'm personally higher on Sermon. They traded up for this guy. You know, I think he is the more prototypical heavy carry guy. And honestly, like, Mostert has never really proven that he can stay healthy over an long extended period of time with, like, a lot of hits and all that stuff. So I still think Mostert is an interesting late round dart throw type. guy, like a, you know, like a RB3 that you can have big weeks from. But I'm getting to the point where I'm more confident in Sermon because of his attributes, because of the style that he brings.

And I think that ultimately, like, they're going to lean on him a little bit harder as the season goes on. That being said, like, there's going to be some games where Moster is, like, leading the team and carries, and he just does better, I think. I mean, they're going to be a top five rushing team in the league, probably. So I would say both these guys are probably good. values at where you're drafting them right now. There's a strong chance one of them ends up finishing the season as like a top 15 back. It's just figuring out which one. But it's kind of a young versus old situation.

Are you guys buying, would you guys rather draft Lance and Trey or Jimmy and Moster? Lance and Trey, 100%. I mean, I think, so for me, I think Moester is also a Sex Panther where 60% of the time works every time. Like when he plays, he's really good. But the reality is he's 29 and he's had a lot of knee issues. and it's hard to, I don't think he's ever had 200 carries in his season. It's hard to think that that's going to happen now magically 29

after he's had a lot of injuries. I do in the back of my brain, I'm always like, but he is still the lead running back for a team that wants to lead the league in rushing. And he's not a good pass catcher though, but I think the thing that for me is just like, again, look, they traded up for Trey Sermon. The Niners running backs coach, I'm sorry, I forget his name, but he's the guy who determines the pecking order. Like, he's actually the guy subbing in the running backs.

It's not Colchianian. Apparently, Trey Sermans are, won the running backs coaching over, which is kind of huge. There's a lot of ways for rookie running backs to not get in the rotation early. Apparently, Tray Serman has checked all those boxes as someone that's going to play for them. The Niners have the easiest schedule in the NFL this season per Warren Sharp. Like that's not based on win total, but based on like, you know, projecting for the season. The Niners have the easiest schedule.

So they're going to be winning a lot of games. They're going to have a lot of leads at halftime. A lot of running in the second half. I think, to Craig's point, both these guys will be pretty good values. But Sermon, I think, will get better as the season goes on, and Moster will probably not. Yeah, I think that's the big difference. Is Sermon, Mostert is going to play probably equal or more snaps and rushes in the beginning of the year. And it's going to look like Sermon is like a bust.

Kind of like last year with like John Taylor, you know, where earlier on he was like third or fourth in the pecking order and everyone was like, oh my God. Like we've completely misread this. Clearly, injuries happened in the Indianapolis backfield. So that was like a factor. But I do think like Hyvitz, like he said, as the year goes on, sermon's going to take over. Have you guys ever looked at,

I guess I didn't really realize I'm looking at Rahim Mosterts' pro football reference. It looked like there was an error. I totally forgot that he essentially didn't start getting a single carry until he was 26 with the Niners in which he got 34 rushes. 34 rushes is the third most carries

he's ever had in a season, 34. Yeah. Then the next year he had 100, 37 and 104. That's it. He's only at over 500 yards once. In Mosterts first, I want to say in the first six years in the league, or five years, he was on six teams and had six carries.

He was on Cleveland, Miami, Baltimore, Chicago, and the Niners. In his first five years. His first three years. Sorry. Okay. So seven carries across five teams. And then he had 220 yards and four touchdowns in the NFC championship game. Yeah. One of the weird stories. But that's the Shanahan system. That's the whole point is that Mike Shanahan and then Kyle Shanahan, like the list of

fantasy running backs who were incredible late round picks or nobody's who were incredible in this system. It's because it's the Shannon system is less about like a Sequin style, incredible athlete and more like, can you do exactly what the system needs to do? Like can you just do

exactly what they need you to do every single time exactly as you're coached so that everyone's on the same page? You need to be on the same page with the other 10 players in the field. And if you are, you get the job. Like, there's no improvising or very little of it. And so there's a lot of opportunity for guys who are lesser. So the fact that they trade it up for Trace Sermann to be in this system, I think, is really huge. That reminds me of a quote in Anchorman, because just you talking about how like kind of the Niners running back like anybody can kind of fit the

system, and that's the whole point. It kind of reminds me of diversity. And that's when Ron tries to tell the office what he thinks diversity is. And he's like, well, I could be wrong. I love how he starts with that. I could be wrong. What in the hell's diversity? Well, I, I I could be wrong, but I believe diversity is an old, old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War era. Ron, I would be surprised if the affiliates were concerned about the lack of an old, old wooden ship. But nice try. Rod, I'd be very surprised if diversity is an old ship. Like, what's that actor's name?

RIP, by the way. Fred Willard. Yes, Fred Willard. Man, he was the best. Yeah, he was good. The best. RIP, Fred Willard. DKKha next narrative

So this is a narrative that's near and dear to my heart Because I was maybe one of the first people to sort of like Put it out there that I think Jalen Hertz is going to be awesome He's gonna have he's gonna blow it up He's gonna take a big jump as a passer And I desperately want to believe this narrative And I think it's still possible That it comes true

However based on all these camp reports we've been hearing lately I'm starting to like sour on this a little bit And the, and then quote that definitely reminded me of this is when Brian Fantana is putting on Sex Panther. And Burgundy is like, it's a formidable scent, stings the nostrils in a good way. And then like a few seconds later, he's like, Brian, I'm going to be honest with you. That smells like pure gasoline. And then like Fantana goes out into the newsroom and everyone just starts freaking out. And they do that, that comedy thing where it's like all these just one liners,

where they, you know, Craig, we were talking about this before the show. It's like, in old comedies, they used to do, like, they'd film, like, 30 one-off, one-liners. It's just improv. Throw in all the best ones. And it was like, it smells like a used diaper filled with Indian food. Smells like Bigfoot's dick. And then, you know, the guy who goes, smells like a turd covered in burnt hair. That's Judd Apatel.

A turd covered in burnt hair. It's just so good. But that's how this is with the Eagles, though. because we thought we were so smart putting on the Black Panther Cologne, geez, the Sex Panther Cologne. Yeah. And with Jalen Hertz and we're like, oh, this would be great. And now we're here.

And it's like, you know, this whole Nick Siriani coaching the Eagles thing might not smell like we thought. And again, I still like Jailen Hertz, but I'll be honest. And again, I was right there with you, D.K. Like I wanted to be like the biggest Jailen Hertz guy entering the season. I felt like it was basically a steal. but I moved him down a little bit. I had him like eighth. But now I actually have him below Tannahill,

and I'm waffling between him and Brady. I don't know if you could pick to more different quarterbacks with different profiles than Jalen Hertz and Tom Brady. Right. But I am wavering a little bit just because, again, trusting Yixiriani

make this good is freaking me out a little bit. But I still love the upside and I love the idea of you pair Jalen Hertz with another really high upside Russian quarterback like Trey Lance or Fields or someone, and you're hoping to just hit on the lottery ticket of this is a top four, top five weekly quarterback because of the rushing upside.

It's just, I don't know. Like, do we think the Eagles have a competent coaching staff? I don't know, man. The other thing is so like, Devante Smith is hurt. Yep. What is it? A pulled MCL, which puts him back a couple of weeks. It doesn't sound like Jalen Rager has impressed in training camp thus far,

which is kind of another thing that I had been assuming would happen. I thought that he would come back and like really flashed and it hasn't really seemed to happen yet. the chorus of beat reports from camp is that the offense just looks like shit. It smells like a, you know, Bigfoot's dick or something. And like, it's just harder for me to buy into this narrative anymore, even though I desperately want to because I do think Hertz is a talented player and he has the ability to take a huge jump. I'm just worried about this offense in general.

Like, it doesn't feel like it's coming together like I had imagined it had or it would. And so, yeah, it's starting to make me worried. And also the other thing that like to keep in mind is all the smoke around the Eagles wanting to replace Jalen Hertz. Like they're reportedly into the Deshaun Watson trade trade still. And it just feels like they're not committed to them. They haven't committed to them as the starter yet, even. Yeah, I thought that was for show. But again, to be clear, I don't think any of us think Deshaun Watson plays this year for any team.

But the point being the fact that they're so actively pursuing means they don't have a ton of faith in Jalen Hertz, which, it's usually not the kind of thing you hear. Like, you know, if the Broncos had a ton of faith in Drew Locke, I don't know how much you'd be hearing about the Rogers thing. But you know what I mean? At some point where there's smoke, there's fire. Yeah. So I think, I'm not selling the narrative, not buying.

It's more like, do you buy on rumor and sell on fact? We're going to wait some facts. But I, I wish they were more competent. Although, as a Giants fan, I'm very happy about it. Jalen Hertz is one of those weird guys where he's a young starting quarterback, but he's a better redraft pick than a dynasty pick. Like, he's kind of a terrible dynasty pick. He's a super risky dynasty pick

because, like, legitimately could lose his starting job midway through the season, and it wouldn't be that surprising. All right, Craig. Next narrative. That Dan Campbell might be a good coach for Detroit. And the quote I have here is when Ron Burgundy, it's the start of the movie, it's like a little montage of, like, getting to know Ron,

and it's him drinking his Scotts before he goes on air, like literally 10 seconds before he goes on air. He's like, I love Scotch, Scotchie Scott, Scotch, Here it goes down into my belly. That's Dan Campbell with coffee, baby. I love coffee. Coffee, coffee, coffee. I love scotch.

I love scotch. Scotch is got scotch. Here it goes down. Down into my belly. Our former colleagues, Zach Schwartz, did the Dan Campbell routine. He did the two gentsies with the black eye in each. Sorry, red eye black eye.

Should we do that? It's a black guy. It's a lot before this pot and just see what goes. I think I would die. I don't even drink coffee, so I think my heart would explain. Yeah. We don't want to kill.

Craig. It would sound like we're at one and a half speed. But listen, I got convinced. I read Albert Breers. What is it, Monday morning quarterback? Is that his thing?

And he covered kind of Campbell and Brad Holmes, who's the new GM of the Lions who came from L.A., the Rams. And I'm like kind of in on it. I know it's all hokey, like, you know,

bring it together, brotherhood stuff. But it does sound like it's working a little bit. I can't speak to the scheme or what the offense will look like in terms of how efficient they will be.

But I do like what Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes are trying to build in Detroit. And it sounds like at least right now, the players are buying in and the honeymoon face is still alive. And I respect it. I do kind of like it. Here's like,

it's really easy to make fun of the coaches who come in and are talking about, we're going to play hard and we're going to have an identity. But Joe Judge. You know, Joe Judge did that. Everyone made fun of him because, like, who's Joe Judge? And guess what?

The Giants played app. The Giants punched so above their weight last year. Like the Giants just. defensively, hustling. And the Panthers kind of did too. Like the Panthers, the only game, like Matt Ruhl comes in to coach the Panthers, like similar in that Matt Ruhl's talking about culture more than he has any scheme. He's like scheme agnostic.

And then the only game the Panthers lost by more than a possession was to the Buccaneers, who won the Super Bowl. Who's leading the NFL in preseason or slash training camp retires, retirees? Joe Judge. Oh, the Giants so much. Joe Judge has just wind sprinted three guys into the afterlife. And that's like Brick when he goes, look over here.

Dude, Joe Looney, this guard for the Giants literally like gave an interview and was like, you know, I love the wind, like, I love that he's making his run after practice. Like he's holding us accountable.

And they're retired like four hours later. He's like, fuck this. Amazing. All right. So actually, speaking of the Giants, the other narrative,

which I've been pushing a lot, again, narrative, Sequin may not play in week one. Who knows if he's ready? It's like he could, he could not. You know, who knows? I was thinking like,

Week 1's going to roll around. Sequin's going to pull out the jazz flute from his team. Like, this is so embarrassing. I'm totally unprepared. And he's going to run for 170 yards and two touchdowns. This is a surprise. This is a surprise. Guys, East Harlem Shakedown, E flat.

Keep the simple splashy. And Jerry, let's take the baseline for a walk. Reggie, E flat. Symbols flashy. Take the baseline for a walk. His first quarter. he'll do the classic Seekoin thing where he has seven carries for one yard, and that's like when Ron first tries to play and it's terrible.

I'm not hearing it right. Hold on. And in the second quarter, he'll just pick it right back up. Jazz flute. And then he pours the martini and the flute, makes it like a flamethrower. I dabble. Is this a movie where I can't actually remember the scene now?

Is he walking along on the tables and just smashing everybody's things? Stepping on every martini glass? And then he rolls. under the bathroom still. And also, his mouth's not even playing the thing. It's like so far from his mouth in the whole scene. Love it. Let's get specific here with Sequin because I do think it matters.

Where do you guys exactly have him ranked in your rankings? Wow. Putting us on the spot, Craig. Let me pull it up. I have him 11th overall. So we had this discussion in last episode. Would you take Sequin in the first round? I stuck to my guns.

I'm taking him in the first round. 11th overall, but a little bit later in the first round, because I'm still a little bit unsure. Okay, so you have 11th. What number running back is here? He's the RB 10. I have him 14th. And this is half PPR. Yes. I have him 14th overall, RB 9. Okay. Oh, interesting. Got it. Got it. I have him as the, I'll be honest, I'm waffling. I have him as the 14th running back right now. And I'm waffling about whether I would take Jonathan Taylor over him and Clyde even. I think I'm probably going to move him back head of Clyde, but I think I'm between him and Jonathan Taylor because now the cult's being a dumpster fire has made me be the value Taylor. But that's basically the range is he's a late

second round pick to me. And again, I think this is actually really late second round. Late second. Wow. Actually, ESPN had this good article that was like a confidence index. They had all these smart people write blurbs about, you know, fantasy analysts, giants reporters, smart people be like, how confident are you in Sequin this season? And everyone is really high on him. Except Stefania Bell, who's the ESPN injury expert. Like she's literally her job title's like, injury expert. And she just put moderate,

but trending up. And I'm like, well, Stefania Bill's the licensed physical therapist who works at ESPN to cover fantasy football. And she's just worried about like a compensatory soft tissue injury. And she keeps pointing with the Sequin stuff.

She keeps pointing to Dalvin Cook. So in 2017, Dalvin Cook, really good four games, tore his ACL, roughly the same timeline as Seekwon did, like early in the season.

And then 2018 he comes back. He misses six games with hamster. injuries. And that's not unrelated to have soft tissue injuries after something like an ACL. So her point was basically, if Sequin is ready for week one, the odds he gets a full workload early, even if he comes back, are very slim. And here's the thing. Sequin could get the full workload later in the season. Like absolutely. Like October comes around. Seekone could be back to the top 25 touch guy that he is. That could happen. But it also, he could have a setback at any point during the season that convinces the Giants to, if not shut him down, then, well, he's going to,

going to just have to split time with these other guys. And then not an adjacent Garrett offense that I think his ceiling is frankly being overrated. Not to mention if the Giants, you don't believe the Giants are a playoff team. If the Giants are not in the playoff hunt, why are the Giants going to force feed Sequin 20 or 25 touches a game in December when they want to sign him to a massive contract extension next to off season? Like I don't understand the incentives here for anyone involved to force feed him. I think the prospect of him missing games,

even if he returns is high, the prospect of splitting time is high. And I'm just worried that, quite frankly, even if he's fully healthy, his ceiling's kind of being overstated. Didn't Jason Garrett do the exact same thing with Zika Elliott, though? Yeah, but like, well, I wouldn't say it's the same thing.

Zique never came off a torn ACL. Yeah, I mean, that's true. But he definitely, like, didn't the Cowboys have just been fully committed to giving Zique a full workload, had showed no fear, even when he was nearing an extent, all that stuff, right?

Quite frankly, that's not up to, I don't think that's up to Jason Garrett. I don't think when Jason Garrett had the Cowboys job. I don't think Jason Garrett could have played Zika Elliott not on third downs and not have heard from Jerry or Stephen Jones. Like, I just don't think that's his decision, to be honest. There's a reason you keep that job for 10 years. You do what they say.

Whereas the Giants, I also think the Giants, like, I don't, like, I think Joe Judge is making the decision directly in tandem with ownership, actually. Maybe. Maybe. I think late second is too late for me. I think his upside is too tantalizing. But I do think he's an early second rounder.

That's where I think he should go. What is the difference between like Sequin and Antonio Gibson to you? I mean, Sequan's done it is the thing. And we don't really know like if Washington is willing to like give Antonio Gibson like that heavy of a workload in the passing game where Sequin's already done it. I would say that's one thing. But again, like I think your points are all. you know, they're all valid in the fact that, like, he hasn't done it with this quarterback.

Sequin hasn't caught 90 balls with Daniel Jones at quarterback. He hasn't done that with the coaching staff in town or whatever. So, like, there's a lot of variables here that maybe Sequan's just never going to get back to, like, what we saw as a rookie. Yeah. Again, I'm a Giants fan. This brings me like zero joy. I just kind of look at him in the first or second round. Like, that seems like the ceiling.

And we can move on because this is making me upset. Craig, next narrative? next narrative is that Arthur Smith and Kyle Pitts are greater than Julio Jones and Dan Quinn. So, Julio left and they drafted Kyle Pitts, but I couldn't help think of a quote from the movie. So this is what I imagined Julio Jones said to Arthur Smith immediately after the Falcons drafted Kyle Pitts while Julio was still on the Falcons. Mr. Bergen, do you have a massive erection? Mr. Smith, you have a massive erection. Oh, man.

I'm talking about when Ron's talking about Veronica, it's the pleats. It's a pleats. It's the pleats. It's an illusion based with the, I'm taking them back to the pad store. Don't act like you're not impressed. But listen, I'm talking myself in,

just like I am with the Jaguars, to the Falcons being decent this year. They were four and 12 last year. They were four and 12, but they were very unlucky. They were 0 and 7 in 6-point games. Football Outsiders has a metric that lets you know how many games they should have won.

They had it around 7 and a half, but they went 4 and 12. I just think they're going to be a much more balanced team. I think we can't underestimate the difference between Dan Quinn and Arthur Smith, you know. And they have Kyle Pitts. They have a new defensive coordinator, Dean Pease, who's going to come in,

who has worked with Arthur Smith. before. I just think they're going to be a more solid balance team, run the ball more. They just were very simple last year. And they had the hardest schedule per football outsiders in DVOA last year as well. There was a lot of things working against them. And Matt Ryan's still like a really capable quarterback and they have a really good offensive roster still. And like I think seven, eight wins, maybe a wild card birth for them is doable. I don't know why we're so low on the Falcons. I don't think we should look at their four and 12 year as what they're going to be this year. So you think Falcons better offense

going to run more so you like Mr. Mike Funk Davis. Yeah, I mean, I'm down with Mike Davis. I mean, Derek Henry was not Derek Henry until Arthur Smith got there. Not saying he's going to do that with. Oh, wow. Love this logic. Love this logic. I mean, I'm not saying he's going to do that for our man, Funk, but they're going to be,

they're going to run more, more diverse personnel sets. Last year, they didn't have a lot of 12 and 13 personnel sets. So, you know, funk. When I say Mike Davis, D.K. is like, well, he's just a guy. And Craig says Mike Davis, and he's like, oh, keep going. It's because he hasn't been hammering this into my head all offseason. I think the Falcons are an 8-and-8 team, not a 4-12 team, that's all. Well, my relationship with Mike Davis just reminds me when Veronica's like,

oh, Ron, there are literally thousands of other men that I should be with this thing, but I'm 72% sure that I love you. That is. That's perfect. Yeah. Why is it that you love Mike Davis so much? That's kind of like what I'm getting at. why? Because I think that he's

the profile of his role on the falcons is not that different to me than like Josh Jacobs for the Raiders. It's just he's going in some places 30 spots lower. But like if you just remove the logos and the jerseys and you just think about how often are they going to play, what's the role in the team?

I don't, it's like the same thing. I guess you're just, you just love the value is what you're saying. he's the lead back for a team who just got this guy whose last running back ran for 3,500 yards in the last two years and leads to league and touchdowns. It's not like Mike Davis is Derek Henry. If he's literally 50% of Derek Henry,

50% he's underdrafted. I mean, it's everything about, I genuine, like, sometimes it seems like a bit. I genuinely believe the combo of Mike Davis being a boring person with a boring. name on a boring team has people forgetting that. It's not a huge difference between him and Miles Sanders, Josh Jacobs, and all those other guys. Yeah, but except you're selling it short.

Derek Henry doesn't catch passes. Josh Jacobs doesn't catch passes, and there's a Kenyon Drake there. That doesn't exist for Atlanta. When he was, he was 75% of Christian McCaffrey on the Panthers last year. He caught like 60 balls. Like, he's probably going to be playing on third down. They have quadri Allison and Cordrell Patterson, I guess. But Mike Davis, they say volume is king in fantasy football.

Mike Davis is the cheapest bet on that theory to work out. I love Mike Davis, man. And they have a really easy schedule this year. Football Outsiders said they were the third least lucky team since the 1970 merger last year. Jesus. A lot of positive aggression coming for them. Again, I'm 72% sure that I love him,

even though there's probably thousands of other matches. Oh, my God. All right. So, D.K., you sound lukewarm on this. Are you buying this narrative that the Falcons are going to be decent? Mike Davis will be good? You sound like you want to shred me

and you're just being too polite. Like you just vehemently disagree but you're going to keep it to yourself. That's not true. It's more just a bit that you are obsessed with Mike Davis and it's just like you won't give it up.

I still think that the Mike Davis, the counter argument to Mike Davis is are the receivers going around Mike Davis. And so it goes back to the RB Dead Zone idea where would you rather have Mike Davis or T. Higgins? Would you rather have Mike Davis or Chase Claypool, you know, or O'Dell Beckham or Brandon Ayyuk, someone in that range, Cooper Cup?

This is a very fair point. And I think that this is actually, I mean, this is to talk about nerdiness, my favorite topic, which is it actually just depends what platform you're looking on. Like, we talked about with the Tray Sermon thing that, like, ESPN is 60 spots lower on Tray Sermon. And the reality is that for all the research you do, everyone drafting in your league is very affected by the actual rankings you're looking at in the draft room. like you have the little window open and the guys are right there

and it doesn't matter what you think when you see that there's six guys left those six guys seem like the best guys and it's hard for you pick someone 20 spots lower. It just seems like a terrible value. Yahoo has Mike Davis as like the 60th best player.

So, you know, I think in the range where DK's talking about, ESPN is Mike Davis at 77. And that's kind of what I'm talking about. I mean, that's like a rounder, that's a huge difference. So I guess my point with Mike Davis is that in ESPN leagues, and you can do mock drafts and see this, you can go running back, running back, running back. If you're like a 10 team league, you can go running back, receiver, receiver, receiver.

You get like four, you basically get four, and then still maybe get Mike Davis as your third back. And that could be how you start your draft. I think that's incredible. But I understand what you're saying if there's a difference between him being like a fourth or fifth rounder and like a sixth or seventh. All that's fair. All right, what we got next? All right, next narrative here that we're buying or selling, that Matt Stafford will unlock the Rams. And the quote I have here is, this is Sean McVeigh to Matt Stafford in Cabo. I hope I'm not disturbing you, but I saw you from across the party. I don't usually do this, but I felt compelled to tell you something. You have an absolutely breathtaking. Hiney. I mean, that thing is good.

I want to be friends with it. I mean, that thing is good. I could definitely see, like, McVeigh's like, that arm of yours, that thing is good. I want to be friends with it. And Matt Stafford's like,

you really know how to talk to a quarterback. And he's like, let me read to this. I'm going to put it out there, and if you don't like it, send it right back. I want to be on you. I want to be on you.

You got to tell a quick, quick recap of the Cabo story for people that aren't aware of what happened. Okay, so Matt Stafford and Sean McVeigh during the off season, after the Rams are eliminated from the playoffs and obviously the lines that make the playoffs,

They both happen to be in Cabo together. And some people are like, wow. At the same hotel, right? At the same hotel. People were like, oh, a likely story. However, it's true. Stafford was, I mean, McVeigh was there with Andrew Whitworth first, booked their tickets long in advance and went.

And apparently Whitworth knows a player who knows Stafford and told Sean, while they were in Cabo, hey, dude, Matt Stafford's also coming to Cabo right now. Sean McVey was like, wow, that's crazy. And like three days before that, Matt Stafford had requested a trade. and they met, you know, they chatted, and then very quickly Matt Stafford became a ram. All coincidence, but, you know, what a wild story. Also, it turns out Kyle Shanhan was also in Cabo

at the same time, just said it different. Yeah. But anyway, I want to get more specific. And then you produce Sean McVeigh's podcast, and then now you just love the Rams in every fantasy conversation. I do. I went to Rams training camp on Monday. It was fun.

How was it? It was great. Takeaways? Do you want me to do takeaways now? because I have some thoughts about training camp in general. You just go to the Rams, you're just like,

wow, I just, you know, I don't usually do this. But here's what I'll say. Incredible, heiny. It's really easy, I think, like, man,

you could just say anyone look good. Like, Deshawn Jackson caught a couple deep balls. And like, if I was a real beat reporter, I could have just been like, Deshawn Jackson looks electric out there, the best he's looked in years,

making a lot of deep catches, Stafford hit him on a dime. Like, I can really see how you can drum up a lot of hoop for a lot of guys. I mean, they all looked good. I don't know.

Cup and Woods look solid. Xavier Jones and Jake Funk were the backup. Darrell Henderson kind of looked whatever. But, like, it was really hard for me to differentiate if somebody actually looked good or if I was just watching a team practice. I don't know. It was hard.

Yeah, yeah. I get that. So I used to go to Seahawks. I used to go to Seahawks training camp all the time, and I had the same reaction. It's like, number one, there's like a million things going on at once. I can just make up whatever I want, really.

Yeah. If you see one guy have really good play. Also, they're working on specific things. They were going to speak, like the day the two had six picks or whatever in practice, they were working on an aggressive downfield passing drill for the first time. Like, they're installing a downfield attacking offense. Do you think that the 30 or 40 yard throws are just on point, like immediately? Like, they're working specific things.

Like, the reports without context are like meaningless, to be honest. Not to mention that how much of stuff comes out when they're not on pads or stuff. Like, it's, it's, I think it's, so, a lot of, a lot of it's silly. To push back a little bit, like, I don't think it's meaningless. However, I think overreacting to one report or one off the cuff remark from a beat reporter, you know, this is me being upset at the, the Bengals beat reporters for talking poop about how bad the Bengals offense is. Poop mouth, Ron.

Poop mouth. It's important not to overreact to just one-off reports. However, I do think that you can pay attention to the drumbeat, steady drumbeat. Which I think is a quote. For multiple reporters. It's a term that Sigmund Bloom coined, I believe. It's like basically just, yeah, like, this narrative is building. It's not just one guy.

It's not just one practice. It's the entire training camp. This guy has been bawling out. That's why I like the Elijah Moore stuff. I actually believe the Elijah Moore stuff because everybody's saying it and it's happening the entire training camp. He's making a big play every single day. So that's the difference in my mind is like, don't overreact to one report or one practice.

But like if guys are playing really well, every, every camp. I think that does matter. But yeah, it was a good time. I got to say hey to Sean. It was cool. Nice. Back to the Rams. I feel like this year we are ranking every ram as if Jared Gough is still the quarterback.

So we're too low, is what you're saying. Can someone explain to me why Robert Woods and Cooper Cup are not higher in the rankings? So if you look at the 2021 rankings across the sites, ESPN has Woods as the wide receiver 13 and Cup as the 22. Evan Silva on Establish the Run has Woods as the 17. Cup is the 18. Us at the ringer, we have Woods as the 18, Cup is the wide receiver 21.

Last year with Jared Goff on a below average offense, Robert Woods was the wide receiver 12 and Cooper Cup was the wide receiver 24. Why are they not higher now? That's fair, but who do you want to move that? Because you got to move someone down. So who are you putting them ahead of?

Well, I mean, that's the case every year. But like, I don't know why, it feels like we are just saying like, oh man, Stavard's going to be really good. We're ranking him as our QB10. But we're not. reflecting that in the rankings of the rest of the players on the Rams. I have Higbee higher than the most. I think that, first of all, you're not wrong, and I agree.

But two, it's kind of like when players are like, man, I can't believe this guy didn't make the Pro Bowl. Like, that's such disrespect. And then it's like, well, okay, well, who do you want to take out of the Pro Bowl? And so the problem is, so, like, I'm just looking at our rankings right now. You want to move Robert Woods up. It's like, okay, well, there's Julio, there's the Bucks receivers. Yeah, I would put him above Julio. I would put him above Adam Thielen.

I would put him above maybe Tyler Lockett. If you look at, so I was actually curious about your comment, a below average offense. You know, I know that was off the cuff, and then I was thinking, oh, were they? And they were 17th in offensive DVOA, which is one way of looking at it, which is technically below average, I believe. You know, right at average. So I'm actually, I was actually surprised to learn that and to see that. Their passing game was actually well below average at 19th. And guess who was actually a better offense by DVOA last year than the Rams?

The Lions. The Lions. So I think people. are definitely, so there are camps of people who believe that Stafford is highly, highly overrated and we'll find out maybe if that's true or not this year. I am not one of those people. I believe that Stafford is a high-level quarterback and could like absolutely just go bananas in this offense that's led by that Sean McVeigh. I don't think Goff is very good. And they still were able to manufacture points, manufacture a passing game, all this stuff. They went like

absolutely nuclear on the league for a few years there. and I think that the truth has kind of come out like golf isn't that good. Now, obviously, the league has adapted and figured out the McVeigh offense a little bit to the point where it's not just completely blowing up teams every single game, but I still think McVeigh is an elite play caller,

an elite play sequencer. He's going to just pick people apart. And with a quarterback that can actually run his offense, like it could be crazy good this year. So I think this is all very, very valid. To your point, though, about why are they not higher?

I think it's because there's always this question of how did teams distribute their passing offense and how many fantasy players can be supported. The Vikings don't pass a ton, but they really concentrate it to two people, Justin Jefferson and Theelan and then before Jefferson was dig. So even though it wasn't a huge volume offense, they could support

two guys. The Chiefs, huge passing offense, in the passing game, they really support two guys, Tyree Kill and Kelsey, enough that they can both be the number one overall because those guys are getting so much of it. Then there are other teams that spread it out more. I think the answer is that I don't think Cup or Woods have enough juice to be like, they don't have the upside to be top five players. But I do think where you're right is that Woods Cup and Tyler Higby can all be sustained, that it might not be a passing game that supports two guys.

It might be supporting three and that Tyler Higby might end up as a top six tight end in addition to Woods and Cup, both being top 20 guys. And I think that's why, for me, it's really difficult to move Cup and Woods into, like, the top 15, because the guys you're asking to pass them there are, again, Lockett, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and then you get into, like, Terry McLaurin. C.D. Like, it's hard to move them a ton higher than that. I can't move them above Terry McLaurin or Alan Robinson. Yeah, I just think they should both live in, like, the wide receiver 14, 15, 16 range,

and everybody has them, like, seven spots lower. I mean, they each had over 90 catches last year and 125 targets each. And that's what Jared Goff throwing them the ball. And they lost Josh Reynolds and Gerald Everett and Cam Acres for that matter. I think the real, my takeaway from your point is that this is why it's important to get running backs early. Because if you, the drop off at running back is so much bigger that there were so many good receivers now that if you can stock together, if you can get a running back or too early and

then you can get, you know, Cooper Cup is like your, or maybe even your second or your third receiver, depending how deep your league is. That's incredible. I want to be on you. I'm actually buying this. I'm buying it. I agree. All right, D.K.

I'm buying it too. DK. Next narrative. All right. So, again, and I might be a part of this narrative that the Saints QB situation will be fine with either Taysam Hill

or James Winston at quarterback. I've kind of been like more optimistic on, honestly, either guy, but I'm more optimistic on Taysam Hill than I think most people. I'm starting to lose a little momentum in that front. But the Saints QBie's situation,

reminded me of the quote where, you know, it's just like an offhand thing. Like, Brick Tamlin, the weatherman, played by Steve Carell, is giving his, his weather report. And then Ron goes, Brick, before I let you go, are you still having your celebrity golf tournament? He goes, no, no. Too many people died last year, so we're not going to. That's just for some reason that reminded me of the Sates, just deciding to roll out with the same QB combination, Taysam Hill, Javs, Winston again, despite like basically all evidence. that it's not a good idea,

that too many people are going to die again. So, I don't know. I'm just like, where are we at with the Saints' quarterback situation? Because, like, I was much more confident probably two weeks ago that it was going to be that Taysom Hill was ultimately going to win the competition. I'm starting to lean. I think it's looking more like James Winston is going to win this thing. Is either scenario good in fantasy,

especially now with Michael Thomas out for potentially like half the year or more? no is the answer you're looking for too many people died yeah i still think tason mill is going to be a situational quarterback it's going to be the first time ever if this works out is this not the first time that a quarter that a coach has successfully utilized two quarterbacks in a scheme i can't i mean for like an entire season they used to kind of in the older days they had like closers like baseball they had kind of guys to close the games shout out why titill but the I just don't think that this offense will support. I like Adam Troutman, the tight end is a sleeper, basically, because he's free,

and you can get him as your last pick, basically, and he can, like, maybe start for you and be really good. And I think Marcus Callowate receiver is like a sleeper. But at the end of the day, we're talking about absolute flyers, and the only guy you want this offense really is Camera. Yeah, I'm selling this narrative. I agree. DK., next one. This one is, I don't know if this is super, like, fantasy heavy, but the Patriots

becoming the Patriots of old. Like, the Patriots are back. This is a narrative. I'm sort of buying into. to. The only quote that I thought of when I was thinking about the Patriots watching this movie was Vince Vaughn. I can't remember what his character's name is. To Ron, he's just like from deep down on my stomach. I feel it in my plums. Every inch of me, I pure, straight, hate you. God damn it. But God damn it, do I respect you? I wrote the in my plums in your thing and you read it.

See, this is hilarious. Reads anything on the teleprompter. Hi Fitz, this is funny because I actually knew that wasn't a line and I was I'm Googling it as Craig is talking about like he's bound and down the plums it's found it down I knew that wasn't the line you motherfucker god damn it I didn't think of the telepromp His name is something mantooth

Frank Mantooth West West Mantooth Hi Fitz got me what does he say from deep down on my stomach I peer straight hate you? Yeah you fucker I actually I'm not even kidding I was Googling it

as Craig was talking in that last segment because I was like, I don't remember that. Anyway, you got me. But yeah, God damn it, do I respect the Patriots? I hate them, but damn it, do I respect them? I really want to see Mack Jones start. I've seen the Cam thing. You know, all the respect in the world for Cam.

I just want to see what the Mac Jones offense looks like in New England. Yeah, yeah. I just think Damien Harris can get fed the rock. If it's not Mike Davis, it's Damien Harris for you, Hyphitz, I think. Those are your guys. Mac Jones to be Brady, but like 2002 Brady, where he's just a game manager and hands the ball off like 30 times a game. I just think about Damon Harris can get fed. I'm in.

I'd love that. D.K. This one is actually my favorite of the whole bunch. And the narrative is, I guess, like, the Broncos will be fine or made the right decision going with Drew Locke or Teddy Bridgewater. Like, they have the foundation for a pro-off team. They're going to lean on defense, blah, blah, blah. It made sense to draft a course. corner instead of

freaking Justin Fields, who's been lighting up training camp via Zach Stevens, Denver GM, George Patton told Peter King the other day that quarterbacks are available more than franchise corners every year, or at least the last couple of years, when he was explaining why they didn't take

Justin Fields and said they took a corner. Because quarterbacks are available more than cornerbacks. Quarterbacks are available more than franchise corners, which, okay, the quote that it reminded me of was, when Ron Burgundy's just fucking making up shit about how San Diego was named, he's like, discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale's vagina.

And then Veronica's just like, no, there's no way that's correct. Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale's vagina. No, there's no way that's correct. my reaction to this George Payton quote is just no there's no way that's correct there's no fucking way that's correct George what a fucking balzy alpha quote from George Patton that corners come around less more less often than quarterback give me a fucking break dude who cares quarterbacks are so much fucking more important dude I love that that's such an elite stance

that's like when you lost an argument and you just still stick with it anyway First, Payton now, guess what, in January when they trade for Aaron Rogers, and they have Aaron Rogers and then also the franchise corner, or March, whatever, I don't know. They got to do it now is my point. Like, you're wasting a fucking season. No, I don't think the Packers will trade him there now. No, I know. It's the other way around.

It's why would the Packers trade him to the Broncos right now? There's no reason. Because, like, there's no reason. You got Rogers to come back. You want, first of all, if you trade Rogers, you, the Packers cannot make a Super Bowl run. Then the Broncos can. So not only do you miss the chance to win the Super Bowl, but the Broncos, instead of having a top 15 pick are going to give you like the 29th pick this year.

Who gives a shit about the 29th pick? You want the Broncos to be bad, give you like the 11th pick, trade for that and then give him Rogers and then you could see if you can win a Super Bowl in the process. So it's not the Broncos fault. I don't think that they could get them. Charles Payton's like scholars maintain that corners are actually just as important as quarterbacks. Franchise corners especially.

I love that. He says that San Diego was discovered in 1904. By the Germans. The Germans. Doesn't it mean St. Diego? Doesn't it mean St. Diego? I agree to disagree. All right.

Well, we can agree to disagree. I think that, gentlemen, that was a great podcast. Compelling and rich. That's going to do it for us today. Thank you, D.K., thank you, Craig. You stay classy, Lauren. Thank you. Sly and the Family Stone.

I don't know. That's cool. It's going with, like, old school vibes. By the way, I love that scene. It's Brian Fantana yelling at the panda. And then Burgundy's like, hmm, great story. Compelling and rich. Impelling and rich.

He's just yelling at the panda. Go fuck yourself, fantasy football.