The Ringer NFL Show - Our Favorite Fantasy Players of 2023

Episode Date: July 25, 2023

Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck are back to highlight their personal favorite players from The Ringer’s Fantasy Football Top 200 Rankings and discuss what makes them such exciting draft picks this season (4:40). Finally, the guys close with emails (59:33). Check out our 2023 Ringer Fantasy Football Rankings here! Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producer: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome to a golf podcast unlike any other. This is Fairway Rowland on the Ringer podcast network. I am your starter. Joe House every week on Fairway Rowland. It is myself and our PGA tour correspondent on the ground, Nathan Hubbard, talking all things, professional golf, amateur golf, amateur betting, professional betting, amateur drinking, professional drinking by Birdie Buddies.

If you want to hit them straight out there, please check out Fairway Rowland every week, available on Spotify. This is Danny Hyphitz, and I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Whirlwick, and we have two pieces of big news up top. Number one, we sold out our live show in Washington, D.C. Great job, guys. You guys snapped up those tickets in, like, less than 24 hours.

And only half of them are Hyfitz's friends and family, so not bad. It's easy to sell out when you just buy all the tickets yourself. You can keep doing it and then keep doing more shows, keep buying them. And eventually, you know, it's like a Ponzi scheme or something. Kivitz, are you, like, blocking out the first three rows, like a wedding and, like, having name tags on each chair for all of your friends? Yeah, we're going to have, like, sides and side, like, one side's the half that I bought and the other side for everyone else.

I do have a single friend who I'm debating, her name is Alexin. I'm wondering if we should have her just stand at the aisle and just swipe left or right on everyone there in real time. That's good. I like that. Just like sort. Let's make this about her. Yeah.

Thank you everyone who bought a ticket. And if you were not able to make it, which is the majority of people listening, we will consider you. And your cities in the future will let everyone know when we do another one. But thank you to everyone bought a ticket. And two, just as if not more importantly,

we have an all new fresh coat of paint on our rankings, rankings update at fantasyfutball. Dot 3R.com. This week, it is coming Tuesday-ish, Wednesday-ish. We'll let you know exactly. But fantasyfewport.

dot 3-30.com, we've ranked our top 200 players. We've got upsides, downsides, and the bottom line for all 200 of those players, we've got a draft tracker so you can draft with our rankings and like live with, along with whatever platform you're on. So no matter where you're doing your draft, you can just live, keep up with our rankings. And we also have a bunch of surprises in there for you. We'll talk about it more. Fantasyfoolportport.com. Most importantly, much like last year, these rankings are once again 100% correct. So we really recommend using these for your draft. Why go anywhere else when you can just use the correct rankings? So in the spirit of our rankings dropping today, we're going to talk today about our guys.

My guys? I don't know what we're going to call it. Our guys. Yeah. But these are not sleepers, to be clear. These are like our favorite players. Sleepers, I feel like you can't have like elite players. These are like our elite players or almost elite players that we love. Like guys that if they fall to us, if you're able to get them at cost, we are like thrilled to build our teams around these guys this year. I might even reach for them. I might even reach for my guys. Yeah, I was going to say, these are the guys you go out of your way to draft. But first,

we have some news from Adam Schaefter. Thank you to the 100 people who tagged me in this tweet on Twitter. Adam Schaefter tweet, Chiefs, apostrophe, wide receiver, Kedarius Tony, hyphen, who underwent an off-season cleanup procedure on his knee, aggravated the injury Sunday while fielding a punt, and is expected to miss some time during training camp, but be ready for the start of the race.

regular season, comma per league source. This was the beginning of training camp. It wasn't, it was not practice. It was like special teams, warm ups off to the side. They were like shagging punts.

Spin zone. Cadarius Tony is doing punts again this year. So that's good. I'd like to note that ESPN reported that actually Kadarist Tony got hurt while many of his teammates had not even yet arrived on the field. That's dedication.

True dedication. He doesn't want to wear himself down. All right? It's a long offseason. long season. We need them, you know, we don't need him practicing. He doesn't need to practice. This is beyond parody. What are we doing? This is so ridiculous. I was just beginning to wonder if I was being too harsh on this like 23-year-old wide receiver who is like obviously incredibly talented whenever he's on the field. And then he couldn't

even make it to the actual practice. Craig and I are not worried yet. We're not worried. Much like Andy Reid said, we're not worried. This is fine. It's going to be all right. It's July. Let's get to our guys. Again, these are our favorite players in the top 200. These are not sleepers. These are people that were cool to build our team around. I love that you're prefacing with that because the guy you're about to name is, I'm expecting listeners to be like, okay, who's their first guy going to be like?

T. Higgins? Well, I fight. I fight. Well, I'm starting with Justin Jefferson. The number one guy in our board. Well, I, I, right. My guy when I get the first overall pick, yeah. Wouldn't it be weird if we skipped over?

the number one player in our rankings? Like he's by definition, our guy. Like, we have to say why he's number one, don't we? Sure, yeah. Talk about why Margot Robbie's good looking. Yeah. Oh, I'm like, Matt Gates being like, Margo Robbie's a 10.

Thanks, Matt. Anyway, yeah, just, all right, fine. Yes, Justin Jefferson good at football. People probably don't need to hear this, but can I just, I'll just recap. I'd love to hear it, actually. He's the number one receiver in every format last year. Led the league of the 128 catches,

led the league with 1,800 receiving yards, offensive player of the year. fantasy-wise, seven different games with 30-plus PPR points, which is insane, like almost half a season was games of 30-plus points, which is just ridiculous. But again, just for context, because I think we can skip over this sometimes. If you just look at Justin Jefferson's first three seasons, he's the most catches and most receiving yards through three seasons of any receiver ever in their first three years, by a lot, too.

Like, he's 600 yards ahead of the next guy. So, I mean, we're talking ahead of Randy Moss, ahead of O'Dell Beckham, like, Justin Jefferson's first three years are the best first three years a receiver's had, statistically. And so him is the first receiver is obvious. But I think I just wanted to linger here because what we're saying is taking him over top running backs too. And again, it's Jefferson's the top receiver, but we're saying he's the top player period because at the end of the day, top 10 receivers last year before the season, eight of the top 10 finished as top 10 receivers. Points per game, total points like receivers are more predictable and receivers are less likely to be injured. And so when you combine all that, you look at a guy like Justin Jefferson.

we have Jefferson 1 and Jamar Chase number two. And if you want to take McCaffrey number one or Austin Eckler, number one, we're not going to like argue. But if Justin Jefferson falls to number two or number three, I don't think it ever gets a fourth. But if he falls, that's the reason number one. It's like he's this ascending super duper star talent at a position that is generally a safer bet.

He's like the best mix of everything you could want, upside, high floor. And so that's our top guy this year. Let me ask your question. If you could guarantee that Matt Stafford plays every game this year is Cooper Cup number one. Because he outscored Justin Jefferson last year in points per game. Cooper Cup played only nine games last year, but he was the number one wide receiver.

Yeah, but it was kind of marginal. And the Rams offense collapsed last year. But again, they were last in yards. So you could argue pretty easily that Cooper Cup should be there. The end of the day, Cooper Cup is still coming off an injury at like a high ankle sprain, which is a tough injury. And he still got a surgery. Yeah, so that's the thing.

It's like in a tiebreaker, I'm still, even if Stafford were healthy, I still want to take the guy who is ascending through this historic career. rear. He's at, Justin Jefferson's averaging 1,600 yards a season. Yeah, I think he just has like the, the safety much more so than Cup. And even like, I mean, Jamar Chase is a, I guess you could say Justin Jefferson has never had a ton of touchdowns. I mean, the 1800 yards last year, is he going to, is he going to outperform 800 yards? Has he already kind of reached the top of what he can do from a yards perspective? And now he kind of needs to put it together from a touchdown perspective. D. K. Does Justin Jefferson suck? As Craig just said. I'm just saying, like, 1,800 yards is, You know what they always say you don't want the guy who just had the great year? You want the guy who's going to have the great year? Did Justin Jefferson just have the best season of his career? Yeah. I mean, it's possible, certainly, especially with the fact that they drafted a receiver in the first round, Jordan Addison.

Of course, he may or may not miss some time, probably not based on this. He was driving 140 miles an hour in a 50 mile an hour zone. So we can see if that leads to any sort of suspension, probably not. But, yeah, I mean, I think that you're right to worry that maybe he's already hit his peak. But at the same time, the nice thing about Jefferson is he's always got an elite floor. He checks so many boxes. He's really good. He is a volume hog in an offense that's going to probably pass a lot.

And, you know, maybe he's never going to reach 1,800 yards again or whatever, but he has some space to move up on touchdowns. He had eight touchdowns last year. What if he has double-digit touchdowns? He could make up for, you know, a lack of yardage or having fewer yards or whatever is not necessarily going to like take him out of that elite echelon. Honestly, DK. I was super sideswaped by the 140 miles an hour from Jordan Addison.

I think I know that even if I physically could have, I never mentally could have been a pro athlete because I'm too afraid of dying. Like, I just cannot imagine driving that fast. Well, so he came out in the news this morning, this is Monday, and said that it was because his dog was having an emergency at home. That's what he told the cop. That's what he told the cop. Right.

And this was 3 a.m. What are you insinuating? So I don't know. if that's true or not. I have a feeling the dog's okay, but who else? D.K., you're out, three in the morning, you get a text. George is making some weird noises and he can't get up. How fast are you driving home?

Right. I think the correct answer is 140 miles an hour in a 50-mile-hour zone. So obviously the dog lovers are going to love this. Hold on. 50-0 or 50? 50. 50. Okay, thank God. He was on an interstate.

I mean, I don't know the stretch of interstate particularly, but, you know, it wasn't like some side street. So, yes, as a dog lover, he was doing the right thing. Is his excuse dubious at best? I've said this before. I don't understand speeding. It's simple. It's for 22-year-olds who are never going to die. When I was 22, I did not want to go 140.

It never appealed to me. Well, your crippling fear of death is why you're a podcaster and not a receiver. That's the only reason why. That's it. It's the only hurdle. anyway. Yeah, Justin Jefferson, our number one guy. Obviously my guy, but I just felt weird skipping Justin Jefferson. So, okay, Craig, since you're such a wise guy, give us someone else. Yeah, me after making fun of him for picking Justin Jefferson. One of my guys, Jalen Hertz, quarterback. The title of Lelvie Eagles. Oh, well, he going out there.

We have him number 27th overall in our half-PPR scoring ranking. I feel like Jalen Hertz figured out he's the perfect blend of real life and fantasy football. He's like an AI fantasy quarterback. He's so efficient and perfect in every way. You know, like in basketball, back at like right when Steph was getting good, the Rockets era, and it was like, oh, what you actually need to do to win is just like layups and threes. And like Jalen Hertz is kind of just the perfect combination of that. He's just like, be really good throwing the ball deep and be an incredible runner.

And that's what Jalen Hertz is. He's super athletic. He's incredibly efficient deep. He doesn't throw or give up a lot of turnovers. Only Mahomes and Tua average more yards per attempt last year than Jalen Hertz. And he's incredibly efficient in the red zone. The tush push is now his move. He's like the Terminator.

He can run any way he wants. He can go down in smart ways. He's not like Lamar Jackson, who just like seems like he's getting like pulverized out there. Jalen Hertz is smart with the way he handles his body when he's scrambling. And the year Jalen Hertz had last year was insane. He averaged 25 points a game. In the last 10 seasons, there are only three quarterbacks who had better fantasy seasons than 2022 Jalen Hertz. The three quarterbacks are 2013 Peyton Manning when he threw for 55 touchdowns and won the MVP.

The next one is 2018 Mahomes when he threw for 50 touchdowns and won the MVP. In 2019, Lamar Jackson, when he ran for 1,200 yards and won the MVP. Those are the only three quarterbacks who have had a better fantasy per game season than Jalen Hertz did last year. And the cherry on top, the man threw 60 passes in the fourth quarter last year. 60. That's for a game.

He only played 15 games last year. He threw 60 attempts in the fourth quarter. He threw four passes. Baker Mayfield threw 41 more passes than Jalen Hurts did in the fourth quarter last year. Baker Mayfield. So I expect there to be a lot more close games for the Eagles this year. Their schedule is much harder,

which means a lot more work for Jalen Hertz in the fourth quarter. So not only is he my number one quarterback in fantasy, I think it's like a lock that he's the number one quarterback in fantasy. I love Jalen Hertz. I was just looking at the number of design rushes from last year. Jalen Hertz had 30 more designed rushes than the next closest guy in the NFL, Justice Fields. 30 more.

And that's just from the number two guy. He had 120 design rushes. He scored 154 points in just as a rusher, 13 rushing touchdowns. And then, of course, like you said, Craig, bacon the fact that he's like an efficient downfield passer with two of the best receivers in the NFL. And, by the way, in an offense, that's probably going to need to go a little more balls to wall

at least in the fourth quarter because they're probably not going to be playing with so many leads. So I love this guy. And it's a good segue to my first guy. But do you have anything else to add on Hertz, high fits, before I move on? I just want to say, I had the pleasure of writing Jalen Hertz's blurbs. Again, fantasyf football.3.com.

We've upsides, downsides, bottom line. for all 200 players. And one, trying to find a downside for Hertz was funny. And all I could come up with was, well, I guess they shove him into the line on every short yardish play. So that's probably not great. But I thought that Jillen Hertz was the hardest player to edit down the essence of them into like 80 words because there were so many numbers.

And the three that made me laugh were 18 rushing touchdowns and 18 games for quarterback. If you include the playoffs, first quarterback to ever have double digit rushing touchdowns and back-to-back seasons. ever, ever, ever. Lamar Jackson, Michael Vic, Randall Cumming, whoever the hell. Cam Newton.

NFL history. Yeah, Cam Newton. First quarterback ever with double-digit Russian touchdowns back-to-back years. And then my favorite one, Jalen Hertz had more weeks with 30 points

than he had under 20. Like, he had more weeks over 30 than under 20. So it's like he's the highest floor quarterback and the highest ceiling quarterback. You know what else I like about him? I thought the best game of the season was in the Super Bowl. And that means a lot to me.

I thought that was the best game you played all year. Spiritually, it means a lot to me. This is always a little bit scary because a guy coming off is such a great season. Like we said with Justin Jefferson, like it's always a little nerve-wracking that they're just going to fall off. But you mentioned it like double-digit touchdowns in the last few seasons. Like there's no real reason to believe he's not going to be a huge part of their red zone rushing package anymore either. Like the way that he just stresses defenses and makes defenses wrong, like he's still going to be a huge. huge part of that. Even Jailen Hurts's

rookie year when he came in for once he played like four games, he still was hitting 18 points every week and I think that's the thing. It's like barring injury, the Eagles, it's actually kind of hard for the Eagles to play a game and Jalen Hurts not to get 18 fantasy points. He was 34th in passing yards

in the fourth quarter. There's only 32 teams. He was 34th in passing yards in the fourth quarter. They did all that with three quarters, but yeah, and then on that note, so if the Eagles start passing more, then you look at A.G. Brown, And what Craig said about, like, the Eagles being the perfect mix of real life and fantasy, they made the Super Bowl that James Bradbury away from maybe getting the chance to go and win the game.

But then you look at fantasy-wise, it's like the way that the Eagles have concentrated all their passing into like A.J. Brown, Devante Smith and Dallas Godder. And like the passing options are awesome too. Exactly. I'm going to get to that. One last thing I want to note about Jalen Hertz. He had 150 something, 154 points as a rusher last year and half BBR. Damien Pierce had 151.

Jalen Hertz is like having literally two players in the quarterback spot like a RB2 and a quarterback. It's insane. So like I do think that there's a chance that maybe his rushing comes down a little bit but like...

Yeah, look, he just signed the most expensive contract in NFL history and sometimes that translates to perhaps them kind of saving him and not running him as much. They want him long term now. Do you guys buy that? Yeah, a little bit.

I think it's human, it's human nature to want to protect that, you know, that commitment that that that's like why we hear the bills talking about this with Josh Allen constantly. Yeah. We've a different offensive coordinator now. Yeah. But along those lines, like it say they do start passing more and maybe that game scripts will just force them to pass more. And I think that's why Devante Smith is one of my guys this year. Like starting out, going back to my rule, like good at the game. One of the best talents at receiver, I think, in the NFL. Like he can play all three positions. He can win at the catch point.

he's very skinny obviously but he's also very very long like he has insane reach and length and really long arms and great concentration is he putting on weight is he trying to put on weight or did he just kind of give up on that i don't think he can like i really don't think he can he's he's just that's just kind of his body composition um so he is dante smith is our number 15 wide receiver this year number 33 overall player um he finished as the wide receiver 16 last year and half pvr points per game. But if you narrow it down to just the first three quarters, among all receivers, first three quarters, he was the Y receiver 12. By the way, AJ Brown was the Y receiver two over the first three quarters of games last year. Wait, are you talking about all players

in the first three quarters or his first three quarters? Oh my God. No, no, no, all players in the first three quarters. Like if you take away all fourth quarters, um, and the reason I bring that up is because like Craig said, almost nothing happened in the fourth quarter for this guy. He averaged 2.2 points per game in the fourth quarter in OT last year, which was 51st among receivers. He caught just 12 fourth quarter or overtime passes. Because Hertz only through 60.

I mean, like, it's impossible. So, you know, obviously, I think that there is an expectation and fear that you're going to face a little bit of regression in terms of like the efficiency at which the Eagles offense passes. But like you said, so much, like we've reiterated here,

the volume has a potential to go up. More passes, more points. And I'm just really excited about what Devante Smith can do. Again, I really think he's really good. but in this offense, that force feeds two to three guys every game. Devante Smith,

AJ Brown, and if Goddard's in there, Goddard is a big part of the passing game. But they don't really pass their running backs. It's a very, you know, they focus on these three guys, and that means a lot of volume,

a lot of good fantasy stuff, and this is going to be a good team. I really have a lot of faith in Jalenhurst to get him the ball. So I don't know, Devanti Smith is one of my guys. I love this dude. So if you want a little peek into a world

where the Eagles are passing more, or just what it could be. So Devante Smith, as D.K said, was like the 16th wide receiver last year. That's like fake. That's like an average. What really happened was, not that you're wrong, it's just like the stat doesn't tell the story. What really happened was the first 12 weeks of the season. Devante Smith was 36th wide receiver.

He was the 36th wide receiver in points per game. Like he was behind Josh Palmer for the Chargers for the first 12 weeks. The final six weeks of the season, he was second. like he was second behind Justin Jefferson. And you know who was first? Fricking A.J. Brown. The final six weeks of the season, AJ Brown was number one on the Eagles.

And then number two was Devante Smith also on the Eagles and then Justin Jefferson. So I'm not saying this going to happen. Obviously boom bust, it's a little scary. But a world where the Eagles are passing more. Now, it's almost weird because Devante Smith actually did really well

with Gardner Minshue too. And he's, you know, now Marcus Martin is the backup. So any world where Jalen Hertz got hurt, I think that'd be terrible for both these receivers, but yeah, the Eagles passing more would be pretty crazy. D.K. Yo. Give us another one of your guys.

All right. Tony Pollard, running back for the Dallas Cowboys, he is our number nine running back, 19th overall player. I'm not saying he's anybody, but he's not like a secret, clearly. I'm just going to go out of my way to get this guy in as many drafts as I can because I think he has potential to have a little bit more volume and turn that into a ton of more points this year. So going back to last season, he finished as the overall RB7 in half points PPR, RB9 in points per game.

And he did that on just 52% of snaps. He only played 52% of Cowboys snaps. For context, he averaged 14 and a half touches per game, so say 14, which was 26th among all running back. So he finished as the RB9 on the 26 most touches at running back. He's so efficient, so explosive, you know, making the most out of all of his touches. And if you look at some of the other guys that finished above him or that are going above him now in drafts in terms of their total touches last year. So again, remember, 20th Pollard, 14 touches per game. Austin Eccler last year, 18.

Chris McCaffrey, 19. Josh Jacobs, 23. Henry, Derek Henry, 24 almost, Barkley, 22 per game. So even if we see Tony Pollard get like three to four more touches per game to put him up at like 17, 18 per game, I think he could literally end up as a top three running back. like he's that good he's going to have a lot more opportunity this year to have you know to have more volume um and honestly there's a little bit of room for meat on and there's meat on the bone in terms of what he can do in the passing game too so who is his backup? Do you guys could you guess

who his backup is this year we don't even know yet. Malik Davis and Ronald Jones. Ronald Jones maybe, uh, Rico Dottle maybe like they could bring Zieg back which might be good thing. I don't know. And they have our beloved, uh, Deuce Fawn from Kansas State. Five-for-five guy runs between tackles and linemen like the hobbits and I did forget about him because he was hiding behind the line. Here's my thing. Tony Pollard is the first one where I'm kind of gunshy and Tony Pollard this year.

And I don't disagree with anything you said. I just, it's like, you know, I just hear that and I hear something else. Because when you're saying, well, look how many points you scored despite not having that many touches.

I'm like, isn't that usually an argument we make for why a guy will be worse? Right. You're expecting a regression, in other words. Like, he's not going to be that efficient. Yeah,

they're like, oh, he can't be that efficient on those touches. But that implies he's getting the same amount of touches again. D.K. saying he will get more. Well, that's thing. There's two arguments here I want to eliminate. There's like, oh, well, this guy can't produce on that few touches, right, unless he's like a superstar, right?

Like, Austin Echler has done that with touchdowns. Alvin Camer has done that. Like, oh, not that many touches relatively, but like scoring way beyond and all this because he's that good of a player. I'm like, okay, that's, Tony Pollitt is that good. However, he broke his leg in January and had this high ankle sprain. And I'm like, I'm still like, how are we assuming he's going to be so explosive? and all, like, this is really what we're arguing, like the burst, the explosiveness.

Like, I just feel like we're just assuming that's going to happen post-injury. And then on the other hand, you're like, oh, well, he's going to get more touches. And I have two issues that. One, assuming that we're going to get Tony Pollard's career-high workload coming off this, like, ankle sprain. And not only will he get the career-high workload, he's also going to, like, be just as explosive as before, is like a terrifying assumption to me. But also, if they were to sign Zeeke back or sign Kareem Hunt or someone else take the goal-line work away, Would that terrify you? Because I feel like Tony Pollard had like nine of his 12 touchdowns last year outside the 10 yard line.

And I'm like, I don't think you could do that again without the goal line work. So I guess that's my question. Like if they signed Kareem Hunt or let's just say they resigned Zique, what would that do to you and Tony Pollard? Presumably if he didn't get the goal line work. I mean, he did all that last year with Zique. I think it wouldn't really make. So I'm just not clearly not as worried as you are about the injury. Haven't heard anything about setbacks.

haven't heard any I don't think I've seen any research or anything that says this particular injury is like going to sap his explosiveness and going to you two. Tony Pollard says he's faster now. So anything is more explosives. Obviously a broken leg is not anything to scoff at but you know it's been a long time

since he broke his leg in theory he can get back to full health and full speed. It's not something like a ligament tear where you have to rebuild all. You know, you have to rebuild the twitch and worry about re-injuring and all that stuff like once the bone heals I think you're kind of good to go. I'm not a doctor.

I don't know, but I'm just not really worried about it. We have doctors listening. Can you email us at ring infantic football at gmail.com if you're either a doctor or someone who's broken their leg? And can you tell us your thoughts on whether you think you would have been faster after you broke your leg? I want to know about this. It's like it is like the rookie of the year movie thing. It's like they did something.

They put something in there, made it faster. Well, didn't that? Didn't Bo Jackson after he like displaced his hip, he came back faster? No, it ruined his career. No, I believe he hit a faster time after the injury. That's like a part of the lore around Bo Jackson's. He was faster after the hip injury. I thought it was the opposite.

I think the hip injury just made it so he couldn't have a long career. Correct. Anyway. He broke down. We're talking about Bo Jackson. Bottom line, I do think, number one, I'm not too worried about the injury. Number two, I do think he can handle three to four more touches a game. And as for the touchdowns thing, like, yeah, he's creating explosive plays.

is kind of like the Kenneth Walker thing. Like, this is in his DNA. He's an explosive play creator. And so I think maybe we can't rely on him having nine touchdowns from outside of 10-yard line. But he is an explosive play creator. Like, it's just who he is. Like, watch him play.

So freaking, his acceleration is insane. He breaks a ton of tackles for how big he is, honestly. And I don't know, he just has the vision to, like, find the right crease and get downfield. So I just love Tony Pollard. This has been, like, a long time coming because we wanted him to have a bigger role for literally, like, years. But I don't know, I'm just bullish on him going in. I feel really good when I get him

where he's going in drafts. All right. Craig, you got another guy for us? Yeah, I want to talk about T.J. Hawkinson, the tight end on the Vikings. Every year I find a couple tight ends that aren't Travis Kelsey that I for for, and they usually fail. This year, I like Chig and Conquo on the Titans, and I like T.J. Hawkinson here on the Vikings. T. J. Hawkinson, not exactly a secret. You know, he's a consensus top five tight end in pretty much everybody's rankings. But I, I think, actually think his season last year was actually become, it has become underrated. Everyone kind of wrote off his stats

and his fantasy numbers because of, he had two huge spike weeks. We had 34 points in week four and then he had 29 points in week 16. First of all, I hate when people do that because like he had those games. You know what I mean? Those points count. He performed like, we were just not counting

Clay Thompson's the 60 point game. Why? He made all those threes. I just, I've never understood that. And he's not a guy you're sitting anyway. It's not like he was on your bench, right? Correct. Well, it's easy. It's like if I don't like him, then I remove the game and he looks back. So it helps me look smart. He also had one with the lions and one with the Vikings.

So that doesn't, you know, you can't make the argument that it was one team specific. But he was great in all the other games with the Vikings. So he was traded to the Vikings in between week eight and nine. So from weeks nine to 17 when T.J. Hawkinson was on the Vikings. And I'm not going to count week 18 because the team only played the starters for half the game. So from week nine to 17, T.J. Hawkinson, he was first among every tight-in in the league and catches. He was tied for first in targets with Travis Kelsey. He was second in yards, first in snaps, first in routes, second in red zone targets, second

and end zone targets. And then he played one game in the playoffs where they lost in the Giants. He had 10 catches for 130 yards. He's 26 years old. He was never going to see a double team because of Justice Jefferson next to him. There's not a lot of other competition. Look, they got rid of Adam Thielen, they drafted Jordan Addison. There's KJ. Osborne there.

But the Vikings passed the ball just about as much as any team in the league. they were third in passing attempts last year. And I think this team is going to continue to throw. They just lost, they just lost Dalvin Cook. And I don't know, man. Outside of Travis Kelsey, Hock is my favorite tight end out of the rest of them.

I'm a little lower on Hockinson this year just because I love Jordan Addison so much. So it happens with 140 miles an hour. But I agree, Craig, where it's like, Hawkinson was such a highly rated tight end. He was drafted really high. Top 10.

Yeah, top 10 pick. And I always kind of thought he was a little overrated. But that, first of all, the Giants game you mentioned Craig where, you know, the Giants beat the Vikings to playoffs. But for all the shit that Kirk Cousins gets for checking the ball down, he checked it down to Hawkinson. Jefferson was triple-teamed.

T.J. Hawkinson was unstoppable in that game. You mentioned 10 catches for like almost 130 yards. But like I just based off memory, 40, maybe 50 broken tackles in that game. Like I actually thought when he checked the ball down that T.J. Hawkinson was going to get the first down in the moment. And because he just was that guy for the Vikings all year. like Adam Thielen's toast and he's their only yards after the catch guy after Jefferson.

Hawkinson's a force. I think it's just a matter of like the Vikings are going to run for your plays this year because they won like what, 10 games or nine games, whatever, by one score. So they were throwing in the fourth quarter. They're the opposite of the Eagles. They were slinging it in the fourth quarter. But Hawkinson is definitely like the mix of like really talented and in the red spot. Like he's in that tier with like Kittle and Goddart and I guess Pits,

Waller, however you feel. I just think of all those guys. he has an equally high floor and maybe the highest ceiling. I think his ceiling is higher than Dallas Goddard's. I kind of think it's higher than George Kittles. Kyle Pitts, I don't even want to get there. And I think it's higher than Darren Wallers. Well, I've got him way ahead of Kittle.

To me, the volume is the main thing here. Even not talking, because I do think he's a good player, but even like putting that aside, what you said, Craig, first and catches, second in yards, first in snaps, first in route, second in red zone targets, second and end zone targets. Like, I don't think there's,

that's not too fluky to me. Even though, like, you could make all these excuses for, um, situations and, and what he fell into, like the fact that he came in

and immediately demanded and earned volume from Kirk Cousins, like that says a lot because that means they, they already had chemistry. He already, he's like learning the offense on the fly and like trying to like fit in and all that. Like, that's not easy. And so the fact that he could come in and do that,

uh, I think says a lot. And I think, you know, maybe he's not going to hit quite those, those heights. next year because there's going to be more Jordan Addison mixed in. But like in terms of tight ends, like he feels really high floor to me with potential for really high ceiling too.

So I really like him. And I think, you know, I think he's going in around the right spot. But like I feel very comfortable picking him in that area. Yeah, he's not a secret, which sucks. But you know, the price for tight ends drops off a cliff after Kelsey and Mark Andrews. If you're in an auction draft, you know, Kelsey goes for whatever, 40, 50 bucks. Andrews usually goes for like 30. And then there's a huge cliff drop. And then it's like under 20 bucks, usually for the rest of them. And to me, it's like, if you can get Hawkins in for whatever,

15 to 20 bucks, that's a steal. Everybody else is the thing that we were saying about Terry McLaren. Like, it's a fucking miracle if these guys get a catch, you know what I mean? Like, I at least feel good that he's going to get the volume.

Yeah, you're paying so you're not praying in the middle of the same. Nice. Did you just coin that? I did. Is that his phrase? Because I just thought of that. I kind of like it.

That's good. Yeah. Pay so you don't pray? Wow. That's pretty good. I don't feel like praying. I'm just going to pay. Yeah.

That's, is it bad that I'm Jewish? I feel like that's going to come back on me in some way. No, no, it'll be fun. I don't know. It's kind of like tithing, kind of, I don't know. Tithing? Tithing. You guys don't have tithing in Judaism?

Tithing is where you like, you give, I don't know, 10, 15% or whatever of your salary to the church. A 10th, I believe. Some people do that, yeah. There we go. Maybe it is a 10th. Wow. Yeah. What is it?

Is it a 10th? Is there an official, like, number? Yeah. I think I just give a tenth to the District of Columbia city government. I don't know. So it's just a tax? It's a religious tax? A tithe?

Yeah. I don't really know, to be honest. I'm not big on tithing currently. Oh, no. I'm in tithed in years. I'd have to put a dollar in the little basket. They passed around when I was a kid, you know? But that was the extent of my tithing.

That's how Sound of Freedom made $100 million in two weeks, titing. Dude, all right, I heard so much about Barbenheimer. What is Sound of Freedom? Let's not get into it. Listen, if you're curious about Sound of Freedom, listen to today's episode of The Town with Matt Bellany on Spotify. That's a podcast I produced about Hollywood,

and the whole episode is about how Sound of Freedom outperform Mission Impossible. It reminds me of what we were talking about early in the show when High Fitz bought all the tickets for our live show. Yeah, that's right. Similar concept. It's kind of a pay-it-forward situation.

All right. You know the guy? Yeah, anyways. All right. Something, something clever segue to Nick Chubb. Okay. I'd like to co-sign this, by the way. I want to also, can we, can we, he's half of my guy as well.

He's hiding this guy. I think we're all in. I'm trying to tithe my Nick Chubb? Yes. I am. Tithing it? You wrote the name down first in the dock. I was like, wow.

I guess it's hidden. I think Nick Chub's my single favorite player this year. And from the look of it, it might just be our, like, all of our favorite player. He's the number four running back this year for us. He's our ninth player. I think Nick Chub, you know, he has the safety of a boring player because Nick Chubb is so freaking good.

But this year he also has the upside of a sexy player because he's a huge opportunity this year. And I think that like every year with Nick Chub, it's well, he's probably the best peer running back in the NFL. But who cares? Because he doesn't catch passes. Well, this year, Kareem Hunt is gone and Nick Chub might catch passes.

And I feel like Nick Chugg could like pretty easily be the best running back in fantasy football this year. But barring injury kind of can't be disappointing. Like, he just, the whole thing is too good to be true. and I'm obsessed. I kind of just want to start, though, with just a reminder of how freaking good Nick Chub is.

Has anyone ever had a quieter 1,500-yard season than Nick Chub last year? It's insane. Like, it's just crazy how good he is. So he's the only running back in Enfell history to average five yards of carry in each of his first five seasons.

He currently has the second best yards per carry mark for your career ever in NFL history. He's currently second. Who's first? Jamal Charles, I bet. Yeah, Jamal Charles. Well, Rashad Penny

Technically, Rashad Penny averages 7.2 yards of carry in games where he has 11 or more carries. Think about that. That is the best in the history of football. Love Penny. Anyway, back to Chubb. God.

The Seahx picked Penny over Chub, by the way. I know I'm not bitter about it. Continue. Well, the Patriots took Sony Michelle over both. Yeah, that makes actually a lot better. I feel totally fine about it. Anyway, Chub, really good at football. I could go over, et cetera, et cetera, statistics.

You get the idea. He's just every normal and advanced statistic he's really good at. And then you see the videos of him doing the 600 pounds squats in the earthquake bar. Does that make you feel better or worse? That actually scares me. He should stop. Well, it's one of those things. Like, Jalen Hertz does it with the 500.

And then I'm like, you know what I think he knows what he's doing? There's like diminishing returns. Like when the bar is bending over your back, maybe you don't lift that. It's okay. It's designed to bend. It's not a real bar. I know, but it's still. It freaks me out.

It's no fun, D.K. No man's ligament should be squatting 600 plus pounds. I'm trying to think of, like, what 600 pounds is in any, like, day-to-day item that I buy. You know what I mean? It's like, hard to pick up like a 50-pound bag of groceries. Imagine putting 600 pounds on your back. Even 50 pounds of groceries. It's like a lot of groceries.

You got like a couple gallons of milk in there, you know, whatever. I always say and just watching him play it looks like Nick Chubbs' feet gripped the ground differently than anyone else. Like he can just cut and accelerate different than almost anybody else in the NFL. Maybe like Tyree Kill

has that similar style, but he's just so explosive, so like such incredible acceleration and change of direction. He's just different. Built diff as awesome to say. Hashtag. He's the teach tape. He's like when when coaches tell kids

I mean, kids had to play running back. Like, that's the person they put on. He was the RB 5 last year. And now he's going to get more volume. Like, he's going to be the RB1, right? Like, he's just going to be the top running back this year, right? So the Browns have a top three offensive line. They have the best guards in the NFL.

Their offense is going to be way better this year because they have Deshawn Watson, like, actually playing the whole season. And like, the Browns will just be a better team. Never mind the fact of all the goal line work he could do and everything. He's going to have a bigger role. So this is a quote from the Browns running back coach. And I say this for, Two reasons.

The running backs coach is named Stump Mitchell. Wow. His name's Stump. That's great. Stump Mitchell says, Nick will have the opportunity to catch more passes. So I think people will see that he's more than just a running back. Given the opportunity to catch some passes,

I think it'll be successful. It's an opportunity to perhaps gain a thousand yards receiving as well. Now, he's not going to get a thousand yards. That's been talking about. But you heard it from Stump himself. Nick Chubb's going to catch passes this year. Stump is like he could go out there and play right now. This guy looks like a badass.

Google image Stump Mitchell. You know Stump Mitchell was playing with Cloist Box. Oh, my God, it does. Oh, great big white beard. Wow. He is a former player, to be clear. But he looks like he could still play. Wow, he was a former ninth round pick in 1981.

Stump. They had nine rounds back then, apparently. Anyway, it's everything you want in a player. It's like, anyway. But Nick Chubb, it's like, we always, you know, get, you know, drawn away by these sexy second round. Like last year, DeAndre Swift,

it's like, oh my God, I'm going to risk it all for DeAndi Swift. It's like, go home to your wife, Nick Chub. Every year,

Nick Chub is like the boring player. This year he's both. He's the boring safe player and he's the upside of like, well, you can just catch five, six hundred yards, doesn't need to get to a thousand.

He's the number one overall guy. And then on top of it all, Brown's running back. The legend Jim Brown died this year. He's a huge influence, Nick Chub. Nick Chub has already said he's playing for Jim Brown this year. He's playing for Jim Brown this season.

This season, Nick Chubb's going to get 2,000 yards. It's like a de facto contract year. Yeah. But not really. And with all the running back stuff and I actually think Nick Chub will win offensive player of the year. Oh, I like this.

This is great. I'm all in too. I know this is boring for content, but I love Nick Chubb. I think this is brilliant. This is the opposite of first take. We all love Nick Chub. Carry on. Silent nods.

All right. Well, who wants to go next? There's no segue from that. I'm going to go next. I'm going to talk about Jemir Gibbs, who spiritually reminds me of Tony Pollard, even though they're not quite the same size, but like explosiveness,

acceleration, just good at the game. Jemir Gibbs is the, was the 12th overall pick in the NFL draft by the Lions. He is a former Alabama running back, not very big, 199 pounds of the combine,

I believe, but he is very, very explosive and an elusive in space, good pass catcher. In fact, it seems like, and we've heard some indications that the Lions kind of view him as just like a quote-unquote playmaker.

I know that is like the biggest trope of the offseason or whatever every year we get that. But I do think he's going to be utilized all over the formation, all over the field because he is a very good pass catcher, good route runner, all that stuff. Again, 12th overall pick. And that to me is the most important thing here. He was the 12th overall pick. In an era when running backs can't for the life of them get a new contract, he was the 12th overall pick. To me, that says everything that you need to know about what kind of volume he's going to get. If he can stay healthy, I think he's going to get a ton of volume in year one,

just because they had that much conviction to pick him that early and see him as that big of a part of their offense. And by the way, Jameson Williams, who they picked last year, is going to be suspended for the first half of the season, the first six games, I should say. But to me, the best way to kind of envision what Jemir Gibbs could do, and by the way, he is our 16th running back, the RB 16, number 36 overall players.

So a little bit behind, a little bit behind Pollard. but I kind of see them as similar type players, guys that can score a lot of fantasy points with not a ton of rushing volume necessarily. They don't have to have quite as many touches in a game because they can do so much in the passing game. So if you look at him, if you look at Gibbs as sort of like DeAndre Swift

with an invincibility star, remember from Mario Brothers where they get like faster and they can like just run through everything. First bit, the coaching staff likes him, which I think is a big change from last year when like DeAndre Swift, They just were begging DeAndra Swift to do anything right. They just didn't like him.

But he was the RB21, nonetheless, DeAndre Swift was because he was really good at catching the past. Catching passes. He had a 12% target rate, which was ninth among running backs, on just 41% snaps. So I do think, based on the fact that Jared Goff likes to dump it off, likes to look to his running backs, isn't going to run around, isn't going to take off as a scramble. I think he's going to look for Jemir Gibbs a lot in the passing game. I could see, I don't know, I could see him catch like 60 plus passes, plus what he can do in the run game. So I think he's, you know,

I think he's going to get a lot more volume than people are kind of expecting based on his size just because they picked him so high and they want to use him in the passing game a lot. I kind of have the same thought that Hyphitz had about Paula that does it do about Gibbs. Are you afraid that the David Montgomery, last year, Jamal Williams on the Lions had 17 rushing touchdowns and was just vulturing everybody on the team. I think Amon Ross St. Brown had like five.

Right. passes that he got tackled at the one. Are you worried David Montgomery is kind of going to eat Jamir Gibbs' lunch in the red zone? I think he is, I think David Montgomery is also a good pick. I think Montgomery is probably, yes, going to steal a lot of the action in and around the goal line in the red zone.

But again, like, if you look back last year, D'Andre Swift still was the RB21 because of what he was able to do in the passing game. And I just think Gibbs is probably better than Dianjewan. And again, the coaching staff likes him. So therefore, they're going to use him So I think there's just, there's enough, there's enough points to go around in the Detroit Lions, like, running back room to make, to have him still be a pretty good value where he's being taken right now. And I just think he has, you know, incredible upside in case David Montgomery goes down or if they just like, like, end up not really liking Montgomery and really just leaning on Gibbs instead.

I don't know. I just think he has a ton of upside. He's a really good player. And they picked him 12. Like, really, like at the end of the day, it's like they picked him 12. I'm going to be confident playing him. D.K. has took four months. DK's talk to manager Mier Gibbs in fantasy because I have all the questions Craig has about

usage and roll and I kind of think, yeah, you got picked 12th, but I'm like, all right, but the lions don't value players like everyone else does clearly. And like I don't know, I feel like Gibbs would have fallen and should be compared with these top backs, blah, blah, blah. However, rookies are basically always a good investment in fantasy because wherever they settled. It's like those questions, the unknown kind of pushes where they get drafted back and then they almost always outperform it.

Not like every player, but in aggregate. the rookie class usually just outperforms because we let those questions overweigh the fact like the upside ironically even though you kind of think it might be the other way so i actually dk you have convinced me on jibir gibbs this year so we we have gibbs 36 would you rather have jimir gibbs or like joe mixon uh that's a great question now that mickson is resigned i think i would lead mixon for sure you have jimier gibbs are like erin jones oh that's where it gets interesting i'm going i'm going i'm going gibbs on that one just You're bullish on Gibbs.

You think he's going to have like 80 catches. I'm very high on him. Yeah. I don't know. To me, again, it's just like looking back at the history and you even have to kind of like wait it especially hard now because like teams do not give a crap about running backs anymore.

It's just the way that it is. He was the 12th overall pick. They clearly have a like massive role in mind for him. Like the way that he can like change their offense. And by the way, they also don't have like a ton of past catching help right now. You know, outside of Armand Ross St.

Brown. They got James or Jameson Williams is injured. Or sorry, he's on suspension list. And then he like they just traded for DJ Chark, I think. Or who, no, no, they just, they just, don't know. They just, they just traded for. Yeah, baby. Like, is that.

Well, they need someone to catch a guy passes in training camp during practice. They need somebody that's kind of like runs wind sprints down the sideline while they dump it off to Gibbs. I don't know. If you look at, if you look at the guys drafted like in that range. So this is narrowing it down to the top running backs in the top 10 over the last 10 years. Sequin, Fournett, Christian McCaffrey, Zeeke, Gurley,

and Trent Richardson, those guys average 244 rushes and 70 targets a year, 50 catches a year. And I don't think that he's going to get 24 rush. I don't think that Gibbs is going to get 244 carries.

But I think he's going to get a ton of targets, tons of work in the passing game. And he's going to do a lot with it because he's really explosive. My concern is those guys are 20 pounds heavier, but you convinced me already. Christian McCaffrey is not. Christian McCaffrey has a much

stronger history of like volume in college than Jemar Gibbs did, but they're essentially the same size. You already convinced me, but now you're losing me because McAfra is way better in college, but I'm going to stick with. I said that. You just used what I said against me somehow. Well, the caveat was more important. The caveat hit me more. Anyway, it's not the point. You mentioned Amon Ra's St. Brown, though. Amon Ra is one of my guys. I just love him. He came into the league. He's a fourth round pick and just was immediately fucking awesome. I love dudes in the slot. You just, you don't have to say, you're just like, oh, I have a good receiver for you. He's a slot receiver.

I'm like, say less. He's prototypical high floor, high ceiling. Last year, he played through an ankle injury. I think he injured his ankle in like week four, battled through that, only missed a couple games. He was second in the league last year behind only Tyree kill and targets per target rate per route run, which essentially means how much a quarterback throws to a player when they're running routes. And Amonra was second behind only Tyree kill.

He cut 106 passes, fifth in the league. he was the top 10 wide receiver in fantasy Hyve is his favorite stat he was fifth and first down receptions he's essentially just the perfect fit with Jared Gough on the Lions they just like immediately hit it off they have a fantastic connection the way I see

it with Amon Ross St. Brown he just feels like a grown up like he just got drafted and was just like a grownup he's just like immediately good safe reliable he's like a Heinz Ward he just like came to the league and he's like I don't need to don't worry about me I'm immediately good

and everyone's like oh great It's funny you say that because he also is like that off the field. Like he speaks German and French. Like he's like a full assiddley. Yeah. He's worldly. And his name means sun god. The Egyptian sun god is the, what I'm on.

His dad was Mr. Universe. He instilled a lot of, you know, like discipline. And he's in, on Detroit, he's kind of in the perfect fantasy environment. He's in a good offense, good enough offense, terrible defense with a safe and efficient quarterback who loves to just powder him with targets. And there's not a ton of. great options around him.

I mean, D.K. said James and Williams is suspended for six games. They drafted Jimir Gibbs at running back. They have a rookie tight end in Sam Leporta. And the rest of the receivers are Josh Reynolds, Khalif Raymond, and Denzel Mims. I mean, and Jamal Williams, the vulture is gone. So I just think he's a home run pick.

I'm going to overspend on him because he's reliable. He has big spike weeks. I love him. It feels weird to take him early only because he's surrounded by like Stefan Diggs and Devante Adams and CD Lamb and guys who are either like long established veteran elite guys or guys who are highly touted and it's weird only in name brand value to be taking him that high.

But if you just look at statistically, there's literally no reason to not take him where he's going. It's kind of silly that he's not considered on the same level of like a CD Lamb, honestly, at this level or at this point. The only thing holding him back, I think, and the only thing, there's a couple things. Number one, he's not a cowboy. Yeah, I was going to say he's a lion. he's not on the Cowboys, and he was a fourth rounder instead of a first runner.

Like if he, like if we just erase the slate or like clean slate, no memory of where these guys were taken. Like I've had said, it was a stat only thing. We would be taking him right up there in like the first round probably. And you'll get him for, for cheaper than those guys than the digs is in the CD lambs.

Like if you're doing an auction draft, he's not going to cost as much. I think it's a really good one, Greg. I just love them. Speaking guys, I just love, this is obvious. and I will just go through it quickly

because I don't want to get shamed for being obvious. But I just wanted to mention Travis Kelsey, who is just very obvious and I've talked about a lot this summer. Justin Jefferson, Kelsey or two. I just wanted to just know that Kelsey last year,

the gap, like the most valuable tight-in season ever. What team is he on? The Kansas City, it's the chiefs, fuck you. The gap between Kelsey and number two was bigger than the gap between two and 22.

Hawkinson was two, and Mike is sick he was 22. And the gap between two and 22 is not even as big as the gap Kelsey created between him and number two. Like he is, I mean, he was sixth in targets, third and catches, eighth in yards, second and touchdowns. That's not among tight ends. That's the whole NFL. And I look, it's like zero target competition. Again, Cadarist Tony can't even make it to the beginning of practice, never mind the end of practice.

Sky Moore, not even running the right routes during the Super Bowl. Like it's the same thing. Nothing's changed. This is like he's the only thing is different. He's 34 and it's weird to take a 34 year old tight end in the first round. but he hasn't missed a game due to health in 10 years. Cooper Cup, Jamar Chase, Sequin Barkley, Jonathan Taylor, AJ, all the, A.J. Brown, all these guys have missed time due to health.

Travis Kelsey has not. And I'm looking at him. And then you look at Patrick Mahomes. And I'm like, Mahomes, like one of the greatest athletes you will ever see in your entire life is Patrick Mahomes. Like, you're going to tell your grandchildren about watching Patrick Mahomes. Never mind that you probably want to give yourself an excuse to root for Patrick Mahomes every week if your team sucks in real life.

But like, I look at these two guys together. and I'm like, this is Apple stock. And that's the only thing I can compare them to where it's like every year you kind of look and you're like, why didn't I buy this? Why didn't I have this? Just keeps going up. Yeah, and you're like, oh, well, I can't buy it now.

It's at the peak. And then it keeps going up and you're like, why didn't I buy it? And it's like 30 years of that. And then Travis Kelsey and Holmes, I'm like, yeah, they're more expensive than they've ever been this year. Just freaking do it.

That's just where I'm at. Warren Buffett has had Travis Kelsey on his fantasy team for 10 straight years. Just like Warren Buffett, invested in Apple last year, a lot. There you go. Anyway, there you go. There's my monologue.

You guys can move on. Chiefs, obvious, I know, but I just wanted to say, like, still buy them at the top because they're Apple. I want to pair two guys together here for my next, for my final two, my guys. I want to pair Chris Olive, the wide receiver on the Saints, and Garrett Wilson, the wide receiver of the Jets. They're both second year guys.

We have them right next with each other. We have Garrett Wilson has our 11th wide receiver, 22nd overall, and then we have Alave's our 12th wide receiver, but seven picks later, 29th overall. These are two of my favorite guys kind of coming off huge rookie seasons

to make another leap. They had very identical stat lines a lot. They both had about thousand yards and four touchdowns each, both with pretty terrible quarterback play.

A lot of a little bit better. Andy Dalton wasn't horrific and then poor Garrett Wilson was playing with, you know, a who's who, Mike White, Zach Wilson.

You know. Chris Trevler. Strevler, sure. Stravler got a start. Oh, damn. Strevler was better. Streveverver was better.

Derek Carr is now the quarterback on these saints for those who are just getting back into the swing of things NFL-wise and Aaron Rogers is the quarterback on the Jets. Wilson's price tag is getting pricey. I feel like there's a lot of buzz Rogers being there. It's New York. It's like a whole thing. Alave, you could get a little bit later.

Like underdog ADP, basketball ADP. Garrett Wilson is going 12th overall in underdog ADP, which is kind of insane. Alava, you can get much later. You can get them in the third round. but they just they showed so much signs of promise Garrett Wilson just like straight up the eye test is like

looks like a top seven wide receiver in the league to me Garrett Wilson better or worse than George Pickens in your rankings here oh my God it's probably Garrett Wilson but Pickens is right there in my top 10 it's like Tony

Gary Wilson shoes Pickens but yeah Garrett Wilson just has that he immediately passes the eye test he's so twitchy and fast he's just one of those guys where you're like not many people move like you

without Zach Wilson last year he was awesome he averaged 11 targets a game 82 yards for game now he is Aaron Rogers now he is Aaron Rogers who's probably going to be better than Zach Wilson I'm not full I'm also not fully I know it's a joke I don't fully buy the narrative

that it's like Rogers only throws to his friends like Alan Lazzard and Randall Coburg oh no he's gonna throw to Garrett Wilson he's awesome and then Olave had one of the quietest great rookie seasons ever he played all year with James Winston and Andy Dalton on the Saints and finished with the third most yards per game

in rookie history at wide receiver. Third most ever yards per game for a rookie. And the Saints have the best schedule for receivers this season. Like of all the receivers and everything you'd want in a schedule, the Saints have it. He just had a lot of underlying really good numbers. You can read all about it. His like yards per route run, his target rate,

all this stuff was really great. And the Saints ran the ball a lot last year because they kind of had to because they couldn't really lean on Andy Dalton than James Winston. They have Derek Carr now. Derek Carr's not going to be a Hall of Famer, but he's an above-average quarterback who can hit a target when he's open.

So to me, the competition is low for Alave. There's Michael Thomas, and then that's pretty much it. And no one's talking about him. Garrett Wilson is this, like, sexy, cool guy. I'm like, Chris Alavi's the same thing. And he actually...

You know why? Alavi's got glasses on. And a ponytail. And he works at the library. Paint on his smock. He doesn't have the name recognition yet. Like even other like wide receivers going around him like T. Higgins is more famous.

Devonty Smith, more famous. No one cares or talks about Chris Olive. So I think he's going to have a huge year. It is kind of a weird thing. Like in any other situation, a guy who had a working year like that would be like the number one receiver in Dynasty. You know what I mean? And he's just not he's not even on the level

of Garrett Wilson at this point. We have we have talked about Garrett Wilson. I think on the players we're worried about the red flag. Don't worry about it. episode. Just one episode ago. I think there is that sort of fear that Rogers is just going to like ignore him or whatever, but at the end

of the day, I really do love Garrett Wilson. He was my number one receiver coming out. It's more about his price. Yeah, my fifth, Garrett Wilson is in Ray and Rogers forgets that his incredible receiver exists. My fear is that you're paying for Garrett Wilson. Right now he's going ahead of Devante Adams on some platforms. Like I said, he's going 12th an underdog ADP. 12th overall

in the whole league. That's a receiver heavy format. But even in best ball, he's Garrett Wilson is still going ahead of Devante Adams. And I'm like, why? Because the theory that him and Rogers could be, it's like a mystery box. He could be anything, even Devante Adams. And I'm like, well, you're buying him at the price of Devante Adams.

What if he's not? You know what I mean? What if he's just, the Jets are merely good? And Garrett Wilson's like great in real life and just has another 11-yard season. And you paid as if he's going to be, you know, 1,500 yards and like 11 touchdowns. I'm like, he can be great in real life, have a great career and not deliver on like a top 15 players. So I'm, but I think a lot of it,

at me, Craig, you're on the money. I think Olaave is literally like, it's Garrett Wilson with glasses on in the ponytail and no one's, you know, no one's Caesar is pretty, but it's perfect. Not another teen movie reference, by the way. Yeah, love both these guys. Love that call, Craig. I want to talk about one more receiver two before we move on. D.K. Metcalf is my Homer pick, but I actually believe this. D.K. Metcalf, I think, is in line for a massive season. So he is our wide receiver 14, 31st overall. Two spots behind Chris Olave, by the way. which to me is a little bit crazy, but I love me some DK.K.

Maccalf. So last year, granted, he was a little frustrating last year. He finished as the Y receiver 18 overall, wide receiver 27 and points per game. And part of that was because he had some absolute clunker games. He had three really bad games. Week 6, he had five points.

Week 7, he had two points. In week 17, he had one point. So obviously, that's a little frustrating. But the utilization was still really strong for him, and I think he's going to kind of like have a big, positive regression this next year. According to FantasyPoints.com, they have this new data suite,

which is really sick. You should check it out if you get the opportunity. He fell, D.K. Metcalf fell about 40 points below expected fantasy points last year. So that's based on a lot of factors, but in one of them in particular

is he had 22 end zone targets last year. End up only scoring six touchdowns last year. And so obviously, you know, there's some room there for improvement, 22 end zone targets, only had six touchdowns. I do think he's going to have a, he's going to benefit a little bit from having a full off season with Gino Smith as a starter.

Getting to, you know, really sync up with that guy and get really on the same page. If you remember last year, his role definitely kind of changed going from Russell Wilson, who's the moonball specialist down the field to Gino Smith, who's more like, you know, short and intermediate area, looking over the middle of the field, things like that. So D.K. McCask role kind of changed. But I do think, again, he has like that double digit touchdown upside in him. that's just the type of player he is. And if he reels in a few more of those end-zone targets this year,

I think he's going to have a huge, huge season. What about the fact that Jackson, Smith, and Jigba's there, and D.K. McK., had 140 targets last year. Smith and Jigba is probably going to have a few more of those, like I said, the short and intermediate type targets over the middle field that D.K. McK. McHaf was sort of like, you know, trying to, he was like thrust into that role a little bit last year,

trying to be that guy. I think this maybe could get him back to being more of like the downfield explosive play, big play type guy that he was the first couple years of his career. And I think just overall, the Seahawks offense is probably going to run a little bit better when he has more options in the offense. And so I do think, yeah, that is a little bit of a worry that, you know, there's more target competition with Jackson Smith and Jaguar coming in.

But I think he could kind of, I think D.K. Mechaf has a chance to kind of get back to, like, what he was doing earlier in his career where he was scoring these big time touchdowns down the field. So, yeah, last year, according to fantasy points, he was sixth in expected fantasy points among receivers. So I think there's some positive aggression there. I like that. Well, now that Tyler Lockett, he's always outperformed,

and part of it was like, well, Tyler Lockett was just as good as DK Metcalf last year, but you can get him 40 months later. But Tyler Lockett's married now. He was chast. He's abstinent. And now he's had sex. He'll lose all the magical powers that was guiding him. DK Metcalf will absorb the remaining targets.

Tyler Lockett, he's low T now. Yeah, he's a low T guy. He was high T before. You know what? No one talks about T over expectation. He gets low T because he's having sex. They were, they removed. one of the T's in Lockett now.

I don't know if you heard that. Oh, boy. We need T over expectation. That's the stat we need. I don't care about any stat. I just care about Tee. Tea time. That could be our segment.

Tea time. Tyler Lockett, spilling the tea. All right. You guys want to do some emails? Yeah. Just reminder, fantasy football.

dot the reiner.com. All rankings. Top 200. Everything coming out this week. Check it out. emails, one, we were talking about red flags just, just a month, like, a couple moments ago about, like, red flags with like, Garrett Wilson. I just ignore the red flags. It's fine. We did a whole episode on it last week.

We did it whole episode. Yeah. Right, you know, just things, you know, you're just ignoring all the problems. Brian emailed in to suggest like a perfect TV quote. Brian. And do you guys remember the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, one, the bit where Charlie can't read? And Dennis was like, Charlie can't read. And Frank's like, ah, he'll adapt.

When he's like, he'll adapt to reading? that's how I feel with you guys every time you mention Kedaris Tony like playing and I'm like what he'll adapt

he needs it how is yes he doesn't need that many snaps he just needs five touches or five snaps

sorry a game to score two touchdowns that's all he'll adapt to reading he'll adapt to reading he'll adapt to reading

I love that Charlie can't read he'll adapt that's like such an old man thing to say All right, we got one from Stephen on Miss Sayings. Stephen.

Again, we've been doing a lot of recently about people who got phrases wrong and then never knew till the worst possible moment. Stephen said, I thought the term reach around referred to that, you know, movie pulling a first date where you yawn and put your arm around the person you're sitting next to in the movie. Reach around. And I didn't know, sort of. Similar. He said, I casually used that term for you. years until I used it at a church gathering in conversation to give them the old reach around. Perhaps the best possible way to learn that.

Be like a Bible study. That's when the cringe the dating app. Not the dating app. The life app. Move your life. Swap lives. Move to a new town. We got similarly.

We have fantasy court. We've even done fantasy court in forever. Leagues are starting up now. Email us your fantasy courts. Fantasy court. It's back. That's a name I haven't heard in a long time. The recess is over. All right.

Email ringer fantasy football at gmail.com for your fantasy court cases. I know the group text opens up and, you know, feelings come out. By the way, we're open to taking gifts and exotic trips and boat rides and things of that nature. We can be brides. We are fine with that. Yeah. You can fly us wherever you want. Just for the record.

My mom needs a new house. just saying throwing that out there a new house that was a thing it's a whole thing the people with the tickets to the DC live show

definitely know those references yeah all right it's from Mitch Mitch for a fantasy football punishment is for fantasy football punishment is making the loser get baptized at a church

with a bunch of other families is that too far it seems it seems funny to me and a few of the guys in the league. But I wanted to get your guys' opinion. This is a high floor, high ceiling move right here. I like this.

I'm not a religious person. So can I comment? Because to me, I'm like, no, this is hilarious. But to somebody who's religious, perhaps they would think differently. Oh, yeah. I mean, if people found out, it would be very offensive to them. To me, it's hilarious. I will, there's definitely two things to consider here.

One, the other family is getting their children baptized. And then you're like, oh, yeah, we're just doing this as a joke. because he fucking drafted Derek Henry. You know, like, that's incredible. I can't even imagine how insensitive that must be. Have you seen his roster? He needs to accept Jesus in his heart. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

But also, I would say that it's like if the person, if people want to do it, sure, I'll let like whatever lines you're crossing between Jesus and the church. Like, that's between you and God, quite literally. But if someone doesn't want to do it, what are you going to do? Make him get baptized? Hyvitz, would you agree to this punishment? This is. Fuck, no, man.

I'm not getting fucking baptized because I lost. Absolutely not. No way. I think this is way too far. But if you did it, I would laugh. All right. It is hilarious, though. The concept.

In practice, probably got to find a lot of people. It was a funny email to read, but don't do that. Yes. Do it. Do it. It's funny. All right. This one's from Brandon.

Brandon. I don't remember when we got into this, but older family members telling you the wrong things on purpose. Like a cousin of the mis-sayings is just facts you have wrong. Brandon says, when I was a kid,

I was at a family party, and my older cousin convinced me that shrimp come from shark buttholes. What does that mean? Like sharks poop out shrimp, and that's what we eat. Oh, so they're not actually animals. They're just waste.

They're animals, but we collect them. I don't know the details. I don't know what he, but like he just, and he says, that he sold it by telling me. He says they told me that that's why shrimp come lined up in circles. It's because they come out the shark butthole. I don't know how. I don't know the details. Anyway, cut to Brandon in college at a red lobster and friends are asking me why I don't eat shrimp and they assume it's a seafood allergy only for me to confidently say, well, I just don't like want to eat stuff that was pooped out by a shark.

My God. I can't imagine what those. Oh my God. What the friends could do with that. for the rest of that poor guy's life. That night must have been the greatest night of their lives. Brandon literally said this was 15 years ago. They still bring him out. How do you not like come across the fact? Like how do you believe that for so long? Just can you imagine what his friends did with that?

They're all in college and one friend goes, I don't want to eat shrimp because they're pooped out of a shark's butt. They destroyed him. I just can't imagine. You cannot literally can't come from, can't come back from that. Move towns. Find a new partner. Well, speaking of the, we also got an email.

I'm sorry, I forgot you. I'm sorry, but someone emailed us to say that basically, you know, the first week of college, you start to know people and like there's a loose group formed, like a loose band of people formed in the beginning of college. And one of the, a couple in that group hooked up. And then they like didn't see the girl for like a while. And then the guy was like weird about it. And they were like what happened.

And they realized that the girl pooped the bed in her own bed. And she transferred. She actually did this protection thing. She was like, I'm not being girl who shit the bed for all. of college. I mean, it is a sensible move. I respect it. Good move. Totally fine move. I think you have to. Wow. Do you think she told her parents why she wanted to transfer or do you think she had different reasons? You know, it's a complicated decision. I don't want to speak on her behalf.

But I bet she left out the pooping in the bed. Right. I mean, I don't like the campus very much. You know, you know, honey, you've been there a week. Not the right vibe. Not the vibe. Not for me. You know, you know when I was growing up, my mom told my brother and I that we were a allergic to dark colored soda so they wouldn't drink it. And to the day, I don't really like dark colored soda. As a father, I can say lying to your children. You know the big thumbs up. The meme like lying with like greater science.

Like lying is the best. Lying rules. What's the dumbest lie you've told Calvin? Well, let's see. That's a good question. The first thing that comes to my mind, this isn't that dumb. but like Calvin was getting like militant about watching Paw Patrol. Like he would have an absolute fucking meltdown if we tried to turn off Pop Patrol.

You say it got canceled? So he just told him Pop Patrol broke. No. Then he like went cold turkey. It was fine. Maybe we never watched it again. I feel like lying to your kids is really born out of just laziness. Yeah.

100%. Yeah. Like I'd rather not have to deal with this like emotional on an emotional level. I'm just going to tell him that Pop Patrol is broken forever. Craig and I are in this pre-kid phase where you're like, you know, I wouldn't let Kate spend all this time on screens. I don't know how it's rewiring the brain. And then D.K.'s like,

well, you just sit still for one second. Just give him an iPad. The only, literally, the only time Calvin sits still is when he's strapped to a chair in a car or when he's watching a TV show. Like, there is no middle ground. There's no other times where he's just kind of like not moving. He's either running around like crazy person or he's watching TV. Have you ever just tried telling him just to chill out?

dude oh man I found myself yesterday I literally found myself be like snapping at him like to like look at me Skippy was like patting her thigh like a dog like come here

come here like he's just like yeah he's kind of all over the place I do that to my cat that I wanted to look at the phone for a picture like like a trail of snacks to where you want him to go James Woods

yeah I think that's all we got can we talk about one thing real Twitter is rebranding as X. Oh my God. Yeah. This is the stupidest thing I can imagine. It's awful. It's so dumb. Tweets are now called, I guess it's pronounced Zetes with X, E-E-E-T. Well, no one's going to call on that, right? How do you pronounce that? Zete? That sounds inappropriate. Would you tell your father-in-law I zeded something? No.

You what? Give me the old reach around. Yeah. Elon's like obsessed with the letter X. Like his original company was called X that he like merged with PayPal or something and his kids name is X. He's like, he's like, Zoolander. It's all the same. Jesus.

Am I the only one noticing? The logo's already changed. Yeah. If you're on Twitter. It comes up on, it comes up. It says X on the top left now. It's just ridiculous. Also, it's funny.

It says Twitter.com still. They tried to change. They tried to change the sign, apparently on the building in, I think it's in San Francisco. And the cops, he didn't. have a permit to do this and so the cops came and told him to stop. The top X in my timeline is actually from a listener named Dom. Shout out Dom.

X's big Accresher Stadium Energy, which is actually really accurate. This is so dumb. It's Hinesfield. We actually got a good bit of this year without talking about Elon Musk, but yeah, dude. We talk about him indirectly, almost every pod, I think. but yeah, this is really, really dumb. Anyway, let's go Z it up. That's a, instead of getting baptized someone in that league,

just do say normal, like, you know, name, like legally change your name to X for like a year. Not forever. Anyway, follow me on X. Yeah, Danny, I'm Danny underscore Hyphitz on X. God damn, he's dumb. All right, thank you, Craig. Thank you, TK.

Thank you, Kai, for producing this episode. Thank you to intern Jack for helping behind the scenes. Thank you to everyone who bought tickets to our live show in D.C. Thank you. Everyone's going to go to fancy football. Dot the Ringer.com. Check out our rankings this week. Get fresh coat of paint this week.

Up sides, down, sides, bottom lines, everything, a bunch of surprises, Easter eggs you guys can find. Thank you, Lauren. Lauren. Thank you, exhibit. Nice. When the internet was much purer, one of the, my favorite memes, Like one of my original favorite meme templates was, you remember when exhibit did Pimp My Ride?

Yeah. And it was the exhibit when it was like, you know, we put rims on your rims to put your rims. Like, that was like the best meme. I used to watch that show. It was a great show. They're bringing it back, but like for Hot Wheels and it's like chopped, but for the cars or something. Oh, really? It's like.

I've only seen the commercial. So you're now going to have someone seen a commercial of a show one time. Try to explain the show to you when you could Google it. but it's like Hot Wheels branded, kind of like the Barbie movie. It's actually Hot Wheels and people try to make cars crazy, like Pimp My Ride, but I think there's four groups

and you get chopped by like expert mechanics. And if that's not the show, it should be because I think that's better than whatever they came up with. They need to make like a Pimp My Ride for like hippies who like turn their van into a home and travel the country. Dude, that just,

my friends just did that. It's like my friends just did that too. Oh, really? Wait, what guy did they use? Was it the same guy? I don't know. How many people could be? doing that? Oh, no, they did it themselves.

They like retrofitted the van themselves. Oh, wow. It took them a while. But yeah, that's like a huge thing now. I feel like if that was a TV show, people would eat that up. Get like, I don't know. Pimp my racer van. Yeah. Get like the lead singer of the Lumineers to host it or something. Luminators is great, dude. Lumineers. Yeah, that wasn't, I wasn't besmirching them. It just felt tonally correct.

They would never agree to that. They're storytellers at heart. Well, you tell a story with your vehicle. The people driving the van life people definitely have stories. I feel like for the money that you use to like pump out your van to make it so you can drive around. Like you could just pay for a hotel for less money. That's not what it's about, D.K. That's not. Also, you don't drive around.

You don't get it at all. No, you don't. Craig is offended. It's about getting out there in nature, you know, disconnecting from the modern world. Enjoying a tent. Can you sleep at a tent? Could you drive somewhere and sleep in a van with like a fridge and a shower and a bathroom? Wouldn't you rather do that?

That's not getting close to nature. Why don't you just go to a hotel? Sorry, George. Because then you can go back. What? What? I'm actually not against race or fans. I think they're pretty rad.

Also, there aren't just hotels everywhere. Like if you want to, you could drive van to like remote locations and go to sleep. There's not like a hotel on the top of Yosemite. Oh my God. I'm taking a position that I don't even believe in here, Craig. I actually like Racervance.

I think they're kind of expensive, though. Yeah, well, they are. So we're staying in hotels for a year straight. All right, goodbye, everyone.