The Ringer NFL Show - The Top 10 Players of the 2022 Fantasy Season

Episode Date: May 11, 2022

We unveil our top-200 rankings on The Ringer’s 2022 Fantasy Football Draft Guide and debate the order of the top 10, including the most underrated, overrated, and controversial players from the list. Check out The Ringer’s 2022 Fantasy Football Draft Guide Email us! [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 Sean Fennessee. We've got something special cooking on the Prestige TV podcast. I'll be recapping one of my favorite shows, HBO's Barry, every Sunday night with the writer-director star of the show, The Great Bill Hater. We'll talk about the show's wild twist and turns, its special brand of dark comedy, and how it all came together. So on Sunday nights, immediately after a new episode airs, you can hear Bill and I break it all down on the Prestige TV pod. Subscribe on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. For the ringer fantasy football show, my name is Danny Hyfitts, and I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Coralbeck. We are back and we have our 22, 2022 fantasy football rankings are live. You can go to fantasyfooltotterringer.com and check out our rankings right now.

Perhaps you're listening to this pod right now on fantasyfurtle. Dot the ringer.com. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Whoa. Yeah, baby. Whoa. Click that play button.

Wow. We have ranked the top 200 players for fantasy this season. And luckily, even though we're recruiting. recording this episode on May 9th, the top 200's perfect. We figured it all out. Nailed it. We're not doing any summer shows. This is it.

No updates. No notes. So we ranked the top 200. Today we're going to focus on the top 10 players. And if we're being honest, it's May. The draft just happened. We don't have to go math, data, science, logic. Un-American things.

No, it's not. It's almost summer. The weather's getting nicer in these coasts. We want to give it a light. We're doing the top 10 and we're going on gut feels. This is like the gut top 10 of like, you want that guy? Really? Vibes.

Exactly. So these are our gut vibes as red blooded Americans. I'm so excited to talk about this. This episode, we're just going to debate and battle and spar about our top tens and who has the best one and who has the worst one. It's going to be great. So we're just going to go into it. We all reserve the right. Normally we would reserve the right to change our minds about all this later because it's May.

but we actually all got everything perfectly. So we don't. We're not going to change any of these opinions over the next four months. So, yeah, I'm not changing. That's very lucky. So again, you can see the full top 10 and the full 200

at fantasy football dot the ringer.com. But here's our gut top 10, and this is going to be a gut-based conversation. So the composite rankings of Craig D.K. and I, here is our top 10 in the ringer rankings. We have Jonathan Taylor number one. And this is, we're going to read the half-PPR rankings today. Jonathan Taylor's number one.

Cooper Cup is number two. Receiver at number two. Austin Echler for the Chargers is at three. Derek Henry for the Titans is at four. We have Christian McCaffrey for the Panthers at five. I'm going to need to talk to you guys about that because I have mixed feelings. Jamar Chase is at six, our number two receiver. Justin Jefferson's at seven, our number three receiver.

And then we've got Najee Harris is at eight for the Steelers. Joe Mixon is at nine for the Bengals. and then 10, our guy, Leonard Fornett. Lenny season. So that's the top 10. Jonathan Taylor, Cooper Cup, Austin Eccler, Derek Henry, Christian McCaffrey, Jamarford, Jamarth, Justin Jefferson, Najee Harris, Joe Mix and Leonard Farnett. Okay, lot to talk about this top 10.

I want to run through everything. Let's just spend a little bit. Jonathan Taylor, unanimous number one. I think this is the only thing we're not going to argue about. I don't think any, I don't think there's any argument this year. I don't know who's going to put him not number one. Yeah, who would just display? assume. I think already

we're kind of weirded out by the fact that Cooper Cup is number two, which we'll get into, but there's no one else, I think, in the stratosphere of Jonathan Taylor right now, right? No, I was actually going to bring that up. I was like, is this the most surefire number one we've had in a while? It always does feel like there is a consensus number one most of the time. Like, it's been

McCaffrey for the last three years. Just like going backwards, like, you know, there was times when it was like clearly Adrian Peterson, it was clearly Aryan Foster. There always seems to be a consensus number one. Yeah, I think that Jonathan Taylor has it because, I mean, well, 1,800 yards and 18 touchdowns last year. That's the extent of the math I'll do. But really, there was just three running backs that people actually felt like trusted by the end of the year. And then Derek Henry is one of them. He broke his foot. And it really,

I felt like it was Jonathan Taylor. And honestly, I feel like Austin Echler was the only guy when you factor in health and production that you felt like the people who had them on their teams were like, this is money in the bank. And then coming in, you're like, who's going to do that again? It's Jonathan Taylor way more likely to me. And this is Taylor's third quarterback in three years, right? Like he had Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz, and now he has Matt Ryan. And he just, this is a, he's going to be 23 this year. And there's, all of the stars have aligned for him to just go nuts again.

Yeah. So we, yeah, I think Taylor, I think anywhere you look, it's going to be Taylor number one. I actually almost want to find some fantasy analyst who's going to have the hot take that Taylor's not number one, but he's number one. Okay. Much more interesting question. I think this is the single biggest question entering fantasy football this season. So what the hell do we do with Christian McCaffrey?

You almost said what the fuck? You can't, I almost, I'm getting better. I'm getting better. Yeah, Haifitz has him at number two. D.K. has him at number six, and I have him at number nine. So that should show you where we're at. And it was not a consensus how we figured out where he was ranked. I think the key point, though, I have him to, Craig has him at nine.

I bet we don't disagree on a single fact. I think you're right. That's the point, right? It's more about, like, philosophy of the guy, Christian McCaffrey, because we always say to people, every year, you know, you can't win your first round, win your league in the first round, but you can lose it, right? That's the Matthew Barryism. And McCaffrey's like this real test, because in theory, he's played 10 games in the last two years. And it seems like if you take him

and it gets hurt, you lose. But yet passing up on Christian McCaffrey when he's like 25 points per game in the bank, I kind of feel like a moron if he's, I don't know, if he's healthy for 16 games, you're going to lose sleep overnight, not taking him. Yeah. Yeah, it's risky, right? there's some risk involved. Hi Fitz, I'm surprised you have him at two. I feel like we have talked in the past few months about how, has there ever been a guy who's missed this many games, this into his career,

in return to the status where he once was, which was the number one overall player in fantasy. Has that ever happened before? And you're kind of saying like, yeah, I think it might. So I did a deep dive in this, and I'm very torn, because on one hand, it's exactly what Craig's saying, where I do feel like I'm talking about both sides of my mouth here, because I did.

I was very pessimistic. Because again, he's missed a lot of time. Like, he's played 10 games in two seasons. Like, think about that. Since the pandemic happened, Christian McCaffrey's played 10 football games. Since 2019, he's played 10 football games. I wanted to go through,

and I just tried searching, if there is any comparison for a running back that has been that good. Like, and I mean like a top two, top three fantasy football running back, and then gotten back to like close to that level, like top five again after missing a year. So here, this is not like a whole exhaustive list,

but this is the best I could do. I found five names for our total stretches. And I'm not counting. A couple guys did it and then like with a suspect. First of all, for someone who missed two seasons, mostly due to injury, zero. Like I couldn't find anybody. So even just going to one injury or one season

where you miss mostly due to injury, not counting Levy on Bell getting suspended for pot or Agent Peterson suspended for year, not counting suspensions. There's really only five guys that have anything close to McCaffrey. And they are, I mean, stretching, Edger and James missed some time in like 2001

after leading the league in Russia a couple years in a row. But like that was 10 games in one season. That one doesn't really count. Ricky Williams was really good and then had an injury. But like the season he came back was the Wildcat season for the Dolphins. Like, that doesn't really count.

And so the other random one, Doug Martin for the Bucks. Oh, yeah. Who was good as a rookie injury played stuff year two and three and then randomly had like 1,400 yards in year four. But even Doug Martin, like he wasn't, it was like a shoulder injury. He still played way more games than McAfri did. DeMarco Murray, who again, not a perfect comp. He was a little disappointing.

Had this crazy season with the Cowboys. It was really good. Went to the Eagles, huge disappointment. And it was fine on the Titans. But even then, like, it wasn't like DeMarco Murray was ever the best. running back in the NFL. He was like a fantasy guy getting a lot of yards. And then Aryan Foster, 2013, he got hurt and came back at one more year. And that was it. The only person that's actually, like, none of those are perfect cops, though. There's one name, though, that actually made me

hopeful for Christian McCaffrey. Are you ready? First of all, can anyone guess? I've been waiting. No, I don't know. It's Jamal Charles. Jamal Charles is the only guy. Well, he tore his ACL like week one, right? Yeah. I think week one at 2011. And, he, I think he was top three in the year in 2010, and he came back the next year and he was number eight, and then the year after that he was number one in all fantasy in 2013. But that's still only one year, but I'll say this. One, it's nice because Jamal Charles actually has like a Christian McCaffrey's skill set. And again, everybody's different. That was 10 years ago. Obviously every injury is different. McCaffrey has a lot of freak injuries or just things that, you know,

don't seem big, but it's more additive. But I have to say, the flip side is you also have Todd Gurley was the number one fantasy running back two years in a row and dropped off the face of the earth. David Johnson was the number of running back dropped off the face of the earth. Levion Bell was great, sat out a year, like not taking punishment, came back, was on the Jets for one year, and then like can't even get a job. It's, I don't know if I've ever in my life seen a boom bus player like McCaffrey coming into 2022.

Yeah, I'm with Craig on this one. I'm surprised that you put him at number two because you're typically like, it's too risky move him. Like last year with Saquine Barkley, which ended up being really right by the way. You were just like, there's no way. He's coming off of multiple injuries, blah, blah, blah. Bad offense, bad quarterback. Same situation with the Panthers, by the way.

And I don't know, it just surprises me. It's like, are you turning over a new leaf? Did you go base jumping or something and get like an adrenaline junkie thing going on here? What's happening here? So I'm also torn. And again, being transparent, part of this might just be because it's May. And again, we're doing gut feeling.

I did really want, no, and I did want I did want to stick to that because I didn't want to make, you know, our initial round based on theory or too much. It really was like, are you, am I actually going to make this pick right now? And maybe when there's actual consequences and I'm in like a league with my friends and I have to roll with this, maybe I'll be too afraid. But right now, I thought what was going to happen was I was going to be too afraid to click the select button on Christian McCaffrey. What actually happened to me as I prep for this was I was way too afraid to pass on him. The foam was too high. In reality, maybe putting him above Echler

and Henry's a little ridiculous, but not taking Christian McCaffrey was eating me up inside and I'm kind of curious to see if I still feel the way over the next few months. Yeah, I'm definitely going to I think this year I will be contrarian and I'll be like the injuries are random.

You know, draft the guy who you think can put up the best numbers because anybody can get hurt. While I do believe in that with probably 99% of players, McCaffrey has scarred me. It's shocking that he's only 25 years old. He turns 26 next month. Feels like he's been in the league for 10 years and that we've been talking about him as the number

one overall pick for 10 years. But to me, there's like so many good running backs now. Like guys like Henry Mixin, Naji Harris, I just see them all as, I don't know, the risk feels lower for them and the production feels similar. And the Panthers suck. This is going to be like the worst Panthers year of McCaffrey's career where he, if he plays a full 16 games, like this team is going to be awful. I know that hasn't really stopped him in the past,

but I don't know. To that point, though, like, I think the question mark here is, there's also, there's many, many question marks, but with him being injured

for the better part of two seasons now, like, is this actually the reason for the Panthers to, like, take their foot off the break a little bit, or sorry, take their foot off the gas a little bit in terms of how they utilize him?

Because in the past, it's been just like, mash it to the floor. We're going to use him until he completely, falls apart, which has happened both seasons, right? And people have been complaining about it. People have been like, I don't know if this is the best use of, you know, this asset to

their team essentially because they paid a whole lot of money for this, for this guy now, too. And like, it's just not good for him. It's not good for the team. Maybe now they finally start to like kind of mix in some other guys. They did sign Deonté Foreman in the offseason. Not that that's like going to move the needle, you know what I mean? But like, I don't know. like in addition to everything else about like him getting re-injured, like maybe the usage is

finally not going to be there like that used to be because that was like the one thing you could bank on Gaffrey is like he's going to get elite elite like magnitudes of like orders of magnitude more usage than everybody else because that was just how the Panthers rolled. But like does this issue, the injury history of the last two seasons finally like make them start to step and be like, okay, look, we can't run them into the ground, so to speak again this year. So that's another reason I'm just a little bit, like, hesitant to put it at number two. By the way, I kind of feel like I'm not confident in like any running back anymore. Like I'm kind of the opposite of Craig.

Well, I want to ask you about that because I there's, look, there's our positional rankings. And then there's how we've put them together. And it's like, okay, here's the first route. I was stunned by your top 10. So Dika, your top 10. Stunned. You have Jonathan Taylor. That's not in a bad way.

I just like, chutzpah. Like you have Jonathan Taylor number one. you got Cooper Cup number two Jamar Chase 3 of Justin Jefferson 4. So three of your top 4 players are wide receivers. I don't know if I've ever seen that before. I love it. I'm done. Why? Thank you, Craig.

Screw running back. You never know. Go full 0 R.B. receivers just receivers produce. You know what I mean? Justin Jefferson's going to have 1,400 yards. He's just going to. That's what I'm saying. Cooper Cup was the league winner. I'm not going to say he's going to do the exact same thing this year again.

Receiving Triple Crown. But Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, all these guys, I feel like if they can stay healthy, and that's always, who knows, but I think receivers have a better chance of staying healthy than running backs, then you're sitting on that guys, like you're the cornerstone of your team, the cornerstone of your championship team. I understand in the past, it's been much more, like, useful to have an anchor running back early on. But take that elite running back and then, like, you can do whatever the rest of the rounds. but I've gotten to the point where I don't really trust Chris McCaffrey, which is what we talked about. I don't really trust Austin Eccler to put together the same kind of workload in 2022 as he did in 2021.

That's why they picked Isaiah Spiller, I think. They've been trying to find a guy that kind of like take the load off for him. And I think he's even said to himself, he'd rather not have that heavy of a workload. He said that in a fantasy context too, because he's like the running back who plays fantasy football. And he said, he said he should be the first overall pick and drafts. And they asked him why. I said, because I'm going to make sure I play all 16 games, even I have to tell coaches like, hey, don't give me too many touches per game. I need to be ready for all 16 games.

Yeah. I don't particularly trust Derek Henry. I mean, this is, we have this conversation every season, but the Henry thing is a question mark. I definitely don't trust guys like Leonard Fernette and James Connor, even though I do have them ranked in my top 10. I just, I find, I'm having trust issues. I don't trust these running backs at all. I don't trust the teams. I don't trust the running backs. I don't know. That's just where I am. I try, I went, this is like, again, you guys talk about this.

This is a gut feel draft. This is the gut feel top 10. If I'm taking one player in the first round, which is how drafts work, typically. I want a guy I can absolutely lean on and trust. And that's why my rankings came out, Cupp Chase Jefferson right there at 2, 3, 4. You want to know the real answer to could anybody usurp Jonathan Taylor?

It's Cooper Cup. If honestly, if somebody was like, you can have one player in the first round. I might just be like, I'll just take Cooper Cup. Yeah. This is the don't lose in the first round, like, method. Like, he's just going to get you 100 yards every game. And like, you know what?

They eat breakfast together. Him and Stafford. The breakfast club. Here's my bone to pick with the receiving thing. I had Cooper Cup as my number one receiver, and I had Justin Jefferson as my number two. Both of you had Jamar Chase over Justin Jefferson, which actually really surprised me.

Mm-hmm. I didn't think I'd be in the minority of having Justin Jefferson over Jamar Chase. why i mean i love jemar chase and i believe me i like love jimar chase i have him three i just kind of thought jason jesus kind of earned being the second guy like the realities i think there's like less competition in minnesota like cincinnati like they still have t higgins who's really good they have tyler boyd also i'm like not completely convinced the bengals do want to be throwing for 500 yards every game now that they have a better offensive line i'm not convinced that they won't want to run Joe Mixon more. That's why I think I've mixed in higher than Greg does. I don't know. I love

Jamar Chase, but I just kind of feel like gun to my head. I do think Justin Jefferson will have a better year. Chase outscored Jefferson last year. Chase did outscore Jefferson last year. And for what it is worth. I have mixed in higher than you, I fits, you bozo. You have mixed it. Oh, well, you see, we're just getting going here at the rank. Yeah. Jamar Chase outscored Justin Jefferson by four points and they both played 16 games. To me, I'm like, the sky's the limit. Now they have a better offensive line, so now Burrow is not going to get hammered after two seconds. You're two. You're two jump too. They were terrified

to even put Burrow back there at the beginning of the last season because they were afraid he's going to get hurt. This is an interesting philosophical question. Do you guys think that the Bengals become this like is this just Joe Burroughs team now and Joe Burroughs just going to get to like rain fire like Calisi and just throwing for 450 yards against Baltimore because he's just straight up mad at their defensive coordinator?

Or do you think that they do want to be more balanced? Because I don't know how much of the I feel like the Bengals do want to run and like they're more capable of it now. I don't think they have to pass like a ton more for Jamar Chase to still have an elite season. Yeah, also like

they were pretty reserved last year. I had him in fantasy and like the first I mean, Burrow was doing great with touchdowns and that's what was keeping him alive but he wasn't I think the first three games of the season he like didn't even eclipse 300 yards. Like they were really keeping him at bay. I think it's going to be like a rising tide lifts all boats. Like I think

that's why I'm high on Mixin, I'm high on all the bangos rod receivers and I'm high on Burrow. I just think the offense is going to be humming and really good mainly because of this offensive line improvement. So that's why I think the sky's the limit for everybody on Cincinnati. I'm just wary of just the Super Bowl team. The Bengals make the Super Bowl, and I feel like they're the hot team.

Everyone loves Jamar Chase. Everyone loves Joe Burrow. And those guys just generally get overdrafted. To be clear, it is fun to have those dudes. But sometimes I'm just wary of just the guys that are too much fun to have and kind of paying the premium. I don't know. I just feel in my gut that Jamar Chase is a first round player

is more likely to disappoint me. We should do a draft, because I do think you're right, it's like players, a lot of times you draft based on how players did the year before, right? Like that's why Cooper Cup is so high, even though I think you all would acknowledge, what they're going to do, not with the deal.

We all acknowledge that Cooper Cup probably isn't going to do the Triple Crown again. This was an outlier season for him. This is an outlier season for the history of the NFL, blah, blah. So we're all acknowledging that he might, he's probably not going to be what he was last year. However, I still have... None of us have the courage to put him not first. This is what I'm getting to is, like, we should do, like, the out of, like, the sack up, like, rankings of, like, the players that you actually think are going to break out because it's never...

Like, hardly ever in fantasy is, like, at the top 10 at the beginning of year, or in May, even, even remotely close to, like, how the top 10 ends up in real fantasy, right? CUP could have had 30 less yards a game, and he still would have been the number one artist here in fantasy. Right. I think it... So, but my point. is like we should do just maybe we do an episode where we're like, okay, if it's not going to be the favorite, like, basically it's like the sleeper top 10 of like the players that are actually going to be the top 10 players. You know what we should do is we should do the 2023 top 10 rankings

in 2020. Oh my God. Something like that. We're going to do that now. We're just pretend that it's 2023 and we just talk about how they did last year. But I think I think we got to acknowledge though that you're correct type. It's like you sort of just have to, you have to not be like a coward. and you have to like go way out of like the fucking like range of ADP and stuff. So if I'm not being a coward, and this is so weird to say because I love Jamar Chase and I love watching Jimar Chase play. I just kind of feel like in this year he's just not going to be a top three receiver. I think he'll merely be comfortably, comfortably in the top eight, which is like me, like that's a lukewarm take. I'm just saying I wouldn't take him three.

And I'm not convinced I want him in the first round. Like, you know what I mean? Like I don't know. I kind of feel like there's a chance he's just like the. number one receiver like by a mile. Also possible. You know what I mean? Like he has like 180 and three touchdowns in week one and we're like, man. Also possible I'm a moron. We can play this in a year and be like, wow, Jimar Chase is the

first 2,000 yard receiver in Heiface is a 488. Can we linger on Cincinnati? Because I want to talk about mixing for a second. The more I think about mixing, I don't know why he's not in contention for the number one overall running back. Like I have him as my fifth player in the draft as my fourth running back. And I already am like, this guy's 25 years old. Like, what is the downside to Joe Mixon's fantasy season? They didn't do anything on the running back field. They have Samaji, P. Ryan, and Chris Evans still is the backup. Mixon had 1,500 yards, 16 touchdowns last year. He played 16 games. He's like in the Najee Harris zone-ish in terms of workload. And they upgraded their own line. They brought in Ted Karris, Alex Kappa, and Lale

Collins. Like, I don't know. The only reason why he's not with Jonathan Taylor and Naji, I guess, is like he's not really that much of a receiver yet. We've kind of been hearing it. Like he doesn't, he was in like the 60 catch range. I think he's like wide receiver two or three. I mean, running back two or three.

But what is there? Somebody dissuade me from picking Joe mixing him in the top five. Yeah, I'm the one who had him lowest here. And I'm already sort of like waffling on that because you're right. You make good points. Like he's attached to like an ascending superstar quarterback. Like this is going to be a really good offense.

I think they upgraded their offensive line. I don't know. I think maybe it's just like. Like, my bias against Mixon in terms of, like, him not exceeding expectations the last few years, I think is holding me back or whatever. Like, falling short of expectations or whatever. Last year, he's really good. But, yeah, I'll tell you the truth. It has nothing to do with, like, stats or a case.

It's just Joe Mixon is not actually an exciting player to watch because Joe Mixon reacts at all his numbers. If you, like, he gets, he'll have 160 yards in a game, but it's because he had 28 carries. I don't think Joe Mixon has a lot of highlights. Like, when you watch Todd Gurley, when you watch Christian McAfee, these other players, they're like electric, they're really fun. The reality is Joe Mixon is stylistically a really talented plotter for what was until very recently one of the absolute most boring offenses to watch in the entire NFL in one of the smallest markets in the country.

And I don't think, you know, he was really even a particularly useful fantasy asset until like the last year and a half. So it's just kind of weird to think about him even in contention for number one. But if you just think about how much times he's going to touch the ball for what is now an elite offense? Yeah, you're probably right. Like, this is just one of those things where, like, it's week five. And we're like, yeah, why didn't we?

I mean, what was there to dislike in this situation of his? Yeah. Yeah. Probably should be ranked tire. Another thing I wanted to ask you guys about, while we're talking about this guys in the AFC North, we're going to get a lot of touches. Najee Harris for the Steelers, who I also went the other way in McCaffrey,

and I went the other way in Najee Harris. entering this year, I was convinced of myself that Najee Harris was going to be like top three for me. I backed out because I just kind of don't know what to make of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Where are they going to maybe they'll have Trubisky week one, maybe they'll have Kenny Pickett. But I just couldn't separate how much of Noggi's value was like dump off passes from Ben Rothesburg or in PPR. And I kind of am just wondering what the Steelers offensive is going to be good.

The flip side is he's going to play like 95% of the snap. So maybe I'm overthinking it. Greg, you have them at two. I don't know. Are you a Steelers Homer? Or am I a coward? I'm hurt by that claim. because it's not like I've been like, I guess I like Claypool,

but it's not like I've been like hyping up Steelers players in the past. It's not like last year. I was like, Deontay should be a top 10 guy. Najee Harris was the RB4. He was the fourth best running back in fantasy last year. I'm just projecting him to be two spots higher than that. And he was the RB4 with no offensive line, kind of like no offensive game plan.

With Ben Roversberger, who was a mess, he was the only running back in the top. 13 running backs in terms of yards. So of the guys who had the most yards in the league, the 13 running backs with the most yards rushing in the league, he was the only one with less than four yards per carry. And I know that sounds bad, but I see that as a good thing because the only way to go is up.

He led all running backs and catches as a rookie. He was second in the league in carries. No one's going to push Najee Harris. And I think the offense is going to be better. I think the offensive line's going to be better. They brought in two guys, Mason Cole and James Daniels. I think the QB play will be better. I think the offense is just going to be like more dynamic

can make more sense because now Matt Canada is going to be able to do what he wants. I just don't really see why, once again, kind of in the mixing range, and the reason he's higher than mixing is because he's a better receiver. So it's like, I don't know, once again, what is there dislike? I think the Steelers are going to be better. I think that's totally fair. It was the efficiency thing. That's kind of worrisome.

But like, maybe they do get more. But he was the running back four with no efficiency. What are we worried about? Yeah, but that leaves very little room for wiggle room for him playing less. you know what I mean? Like if he, but it leaves way more wiggle room in terms of,

you know, him not being horribly inefficient. I think D.K.'s point is that there's a lot we don't know about the Steelers because Ben Rothensberger's been there forever and there's just a lot of things we don't know. For example, the Steelers are one of the last teams

that play their running backs like more than 90% of snaps. Is that something that the coaching staff and Tomlin always wanted or is that something Rathesberger always wanted? You know what I mean? Like, is that an example of, as DK is saying,

if Naji Harris doesn't play 95% of the snaps, he really should be going in like the 40s. Or the other flip side I say is that Steelers fans have been so upset with their inability to run the ball. But I also think the Steelers have not been able to run because Ben Rothensberger was so freaking old. He was always in shotgun. And then the running back's just standing there flat foot

at getting the ball in his belly instead of running forward. And so I do think now that they're actually going to have Trubisky or picket either way, they're going to have probably way more efficiency. and I'm kind of wondering if Naji's going to be way more efficient per carry and then maybe still have the volume. So I really not also for being honest, Noges Harris is one of the single most fun players in the entire league.

I'm talking about vibes and gut. Noggi Harris is as fun as any NFL player right now to just follow, to follow on Instagram, like to follow on YouTube, just to like see the post game interviews and be like that guy's on my team. He's like possibly a number one pick. And he had 74. Dude, he had 94 targets. That's crazy.

Yeah. It's 74 catches last year as a routine. But that's because Rothusberger was old, and that's the two things with Rothesberger. Rothsberger leaves. He's not going to have 94 targets again. But Rathsberger leaves he'll probably be able to run more because he's not old. I'm excited to see, yeah, I'm excited to see what this offense looks like with Ben Rothesberger out of it because like you hear all this stuff about Matt Canada wanting to run all motion

and make things so much more difficult on the defense. Maybe that'll open things up for Harris and like make gaps a little bit wider and all that stuff. Yeah, it's definitely interesting. You make a compelling point. I mean, I have him at seven, so it's not like I'm super low on him or anything. But I mean, yeah, if he gets more efficient, his offense that improves,

which honestly, like, Kenny Piggin might just be flat out better than Rathesberger. Can we zoom out, though, on our rankings? Because I think that there's overall, I think there's a good point to make here, what our rankings actually are for half PPR right now. We have the consensus number one running back.

Jonathan Taylor is one. We have the consensus number one receiver Cooper Cup is number two, but he's the number one receiver. And then what we have is a C of seven running backs that we just don't really know what to do with. And then we have the two receivers, Jamar, Jason Jefferson. So we have the Taylor number one cup. And then we have the three legacy guys that have been really good.

And we kind of are afraid to bet on again. So we have Austin Echler, Derek Kenyon, and Christian McCaffrey. They're all different. They're all the exact freaking same. They've been really good. You know who they are. You've watched them play. And if they are healthy, they're going to be great.

and with McCaffrey's been hurt forever. With Derek Henry, we're worried he's going to get hurt right as soon as we buy in. And then with Echler, he's like the little engine we could. Then we're worried that as soon as we buy it and he's going to like, you know, the lights will go out and we can't do this, keep going. And then we have a little interlude with Jamar Chas and Justin Jefferson, the cool, shiny new toy receivers. And then are just these other running backs that we're afraid to buy in all the way.

So as we just said, Joe Mixen's there. Naji Harris is there. And the other two dudes are Leonard Fournette, who is just like the forgotten man. like he was, I mean, sixth or seventh and points per game last year, still in Tampa Bay. And then there's Dalvin Cook, who new coaching staff, and he's also got this legal situation. We even know how many freaking games he's Dalvin Cook will play this year. So we kind of just had, and then there's Devontes on the Raiders, we don't know. And then also kind of James Connor, who's in Arizona.

And then I think all those dudes are in contention to be in the top 10. But I think that as we sit here in May, I think that the gut check we're talking about is this mix of like, in a weird way, these young guys like, in and Najee Harris, we're tap it about endorsing them. And then we're also kind of tap it about the older veterans and kind of buying in. But there's not as much excitement in the first round as there's been in previous years. You know what I mean? Like, there's not hype. Well, that's because there's, that's, I think it really does come back again to why I said

earlier. It's like, I don't trust any of these guys. If Giovante, if the, if the Broncos hadn't freaking signed Melvin Gordon, Javante Williams would be like a fresh, fresh air in this area. But they did. Well, Antonio Gibson, the Washington brought back J.D. McKissick and then draft Brian Robinson. So instead of Antonio Gibson ascending, he's going down.

You're so right about Chavonte Williams. Doesn't seem like he'll get the full workload for the Broncos. And then you got guys like DeAndre Swift, who relies heavily on pass catching. We don't know if the volume is going to be there for him in that area. He wasn't very good on the ground. You got Nick Chub, who's the opposite, like a zero as a pass catcher, but he's awesome on the ground. Saquorn Barkley is just this wild card.

Who the hell knows what's going to go with that. Zekyll Elliott's getting old. Aaron Jones getting a little bit older there and he's going to be split time. I also think someone we were robbed of is Debo, Samuel could have been really fun but the whole trade situation and then even the whisper

that he doesn't want to do the running back thing just makes him like way less of an exciting player to like bet on even in the second round. So I don't know. I think the weird part is I look at like Leonard, fournet, James Connor. If I really wanted a hot take thing,

I'm like, I look at the actual situations and I'm like, I have James Connor. I have him 11th because I'm a coward. I should have had him. top 10. But we're talking about the coward top, the, the, what's actually going to happen. If I look at these situations, I could see James Connor and Leonard Furnett without much competition as backfields like totally beating out the Austin necklace of the world. So maybe you're right. We take the receivers in the first round. I don't know. I like that for net and Connor. It's like

the old uncles of the fantasy football world. Just going to come in and dominate. Like, this is like pick up basketball where the guys with knee pads and like elbow pads come in. Doggles. He's balding. just like dominate. I know that I'm like, I may get a joke because they're like 26 years old but like, you know, it's just,

it's funny because it seems like we gave up on these guys. You know, I know I did. And then now they're like fully back top 10 guys. I mean, Hyvitz,

to touch on your point there, like, can I just, if somebody would have said last year or two years ago that hey, in 2022, your first round pick

is going to be James Connor. Like, yeah. Exactly. That's what's weird. But the steel, but the Cardinals running back coach is the old Steelers

running backs coach. And they, they don't, they didn't really draft a running back super high. They got, they, Chase Edmonds left Arizona. And they have, Eno Benjamin. D.K., where was Eno Benjamin, DeK, where was Eno, Benjamin, six, sixth, yes, sixth rounder? You know Benjamin and Keonté Ingram, another six rounder. So there's like, very little competition. It's just going to be hard mentally to be like, I have the 10th pick in the draft. I'm going to draft James Connor. I completely agree. Got, gut, James Connor is not a first rounder. Absolutely. Leonard Forenette, I kind of think is. Like Ronald Jones. left Tampa Bay. And my gut is actually, this is an insanely talented guy who played for the Jaguars,

and the Jaguars are the Jaguars, and then he went with Tom Brady, and he's been great. And then Ronald Jones left, and now he's got this backfield. So Lenny I'm more comfortable with. Also, we irrationally love Lenny. Well, they did draft a guy the third round, shot white, but that's a huge question. Honestly, I'll be concerned about a rookie running back stealing Brady's work when I see it. Totally agree. I had Lenny just outside my top 10. And yeah, you know, can you you guys think of another player who like, I don't know, he's almost like if Trent Richardson worked, like, and came back. I can't believe he had this, like, he was okay in Jacksonville. They kind of just pounded him into the ground. Then his career kind of felt like it was going

by the wayside. And then he has this resurgence. And now he's like a fringe first rounder. Like, it's a really odd career. But it makes me feel better because the talent was always there. Yeah. Right. And then you actually see it. And then you win the Super Bowl and you kind of see like, okay, well, he's earned Tom Brady's trust. That's kind of enough for me. And then Brady comes back. Brady's asking Leonard Furnett to come back. They're getting rid of Ronald Jones. The fact that they have the confidence to bring Lenny back. Also, he was sixth in points per game last year.

You know what I mean? He's great. When Ronald Jones was there. So I think Lenny is the vibe check, but I think that's kind of my overall. We're talking about gut top 10. I think my gut with this was, man, there's, I'm not trying to be some like stock prognosticator right now, but it's kind of like, it's not clear what the safe money is. I don't know what a safe investment in the first round is anymore.

If you have Jonathan Taylor at Cooper Cup, you're like, yeah, I love it. Depending how you feel about Austin Echler, but he did have 20 touchdowns last year, you know what, depending how you feel about whether that can happen again, but is Derek Henry safe? Is Christian McCaffrey safe? I kind of don't know if Jamar Chase is safe if you're betting on him to be top two. I guess realistically, Jason Jefferson are. But after that, Najee, Mixen, Fournette, you know, Dalvin, Devante, James Connor,

the safety drops pretty precipitously. Well, we think of the first round almost in a, I don't know, like you said, Haif, it's like, and this is what everybody says, you can't win your first round, but you can lose it, so you want to be safe.

But I think the first round is not actually always 12 safe players. It doesn't just mean there's 12 safe players because you're in the first round, right? Like, the first round is actually, in my opinion, if you go by that mantra, like you don't want to win it, but you just don't want,

or you want to win it, you just don't want to lose it. To me, it's like Jonathan Taylor, Cooper Cup, maybe one or two other guys. And then you get into this new category where it's like, there's no longer any safe.

guys, you might as well now just go for the crazy upside, which is why I think Jamar Chase makes sense. Because like, there's no one else that is safe anyway. Yeah. But to come back to that, you're probably right. That's where I see Derek Henry and McCaffrey. And it's like, we talked, to be joked about the memento tattoos. Chase the ceiling. ...theirself last season because we don't want to forget them. And Derek Henry, it's like, remember Derek Henry was like still a top three running back like four weeks after he was out for the season? He was like still in the top five, like six weeks later. I mean, I don't know. I will say. We have like months to decide all this. But vibes right now was, I think there's a

tremendous transition period at the running back position, but without the normal, like, you know, obviously the, Craig, you talked a year ago about how we were kind of like fading out of the cycle, like the Sequins, the Cameras, the McAfreys. But I think that the next group has not quite ascended maybe as obviously as we thought they would. And that's why how Deke has three receivers in his top four. Right. But there's a chance that next, season is the year where it's Jonathan Taylor, Najee Harris, Javante Williams, and Dandre Swift. That's what I was going to ask you next. Who are the guys, if we wanted to pretend the top five running back to 2023, that's exactly what's guess. Harris, Mixon, Dekin, Deky, do you agree,

Javante? Who else would you fill that out with? Brees. Brees. Hall for the Jets? I mean, you could do, I don't know, man. You could do Camakers if he comes back. You could do Antonio Gibson. I think, dude, I don't know about that one. I'm just saying like I mean there's a world in which that's true but that makes me worried JK Dobbins maybe I don't know

I won't talk about Austin Echler for a second Hyphitz has him at three DK has him at five and I have him at seven why are you guys so high on Echler Explosiveness big plays touchdowns pass catching definitely not like volume you know what I mean

My only concern with Echler is whether his body can hold up to the whole season and like the bigger workload but the reality is Echler's like kind of insane person with working out and like taking care of his body. I would say that, I mean, the charges all talk about with reverence, you know, he's like this seventh round running back who's made it this far.

Have you seen his shoulders? Have you seen his traps? You know, if you follow his Instagram, he does the one arm pull-ups and he can do like 11 of them. He has some nickname about how good he is it working out. Pound for pound, do they call him? Yeah, yeah, they call on the pound for pound.

Yeah, they say it's the pound for pound strongest player in the NFL, which actually might be true. I just don't know, like he had 20 touchdowns last year. He had 12 rushing touchdowns last year on 12 goal line carries. Yeah, so I think all 20 of the touchdowns came in the red zone. And on the surface that's concerning, in reality, Herbert. And that means he was getting all the goal line touchdown. You know what I mean?

Like it means he was the guy always in the red zone. Yeah, but even for like elite players, that's screaming regression. It is, but it happened the year before too. Didn't in 2020? You also have like eight receiving touchdowns? Yeah, receiving. But that to me is a little bit different. He had 12 rushing touchdowns last year.

And before that, the most he had. was three. Yeah. I think the goal line stuff is there's some very, it's like variation there. It's a lot of like, you know, just like luck for lack of a better word. The other thing I think that's interesting is like we had these discussions with Alvin Camara forever about where he's not, he can't keep up this insane efficiency. He can't keep up this insane touchdown efficiency, blah, blah, blah. And then he just did it for like four straight years. And so I think I see Echler in the same manner in terms of like yards over expected, you know, broken tackles, explosiveness, all that stuff.

He's just a special player in the same vein as like an Alvin Camara, whereas I guess like the alternative would be like a John Dr. Rie Swift where you, I think you're really wholly reliant on him getting the volume, whereas I think Ackler can, you know, turn a few fewer touches into still like really elite production. So that's kind of like where I am on that. Camara is kind of a good comp because you're like, well, he can't keep scoring touchdowns like this, but it's the Drew Brees often. the scoring touch.

It's the Drew Brees, Sean Payton. With the charges, like, it's Herbert. Herbert is, you're betting on the scoring efficiency of a transcendent quarterback to offense that's on the rise. But I agree, Craig. At the end of the day, like, you could even, I have no problem

with Echler at 7 because it's not even just the efficient. The reality is he's a small dude. And betting on a small running back when he gets older is a little scary. And the charges seem like they always want a sidekick for him. Like, they had Melvin Gordon. They like tried the Josh Kelly thing. They just drafted Isaiah Spiller.

Like, it seems like they don't want to give him the ball that much because of his size. want to keep him healthy and fresh. Yeah. But he's still getting the high value. We said earlier, Echler himself is the guy who said that. But also, I do think Echler is kind of limiting his touches in certain parts of the field

so that he gets 100% of the goal. You know, it's not as simple as like just, oh, well, it's not likely happening. I do think Echler might be pulling himself off in certain parts of the field to always be in certain situations. You want to know my post-type sleeper, my favorite player in this top 10? Yes. It's Alvin Camara. Yeah. I'm ringing the bell for Alvin Camer.

type sleeper. I was completely off him last year. Giant disclaimer that Alvin Camara, there's a chance he gets suspended for stuff that happened in Las Vegas. True, right. He got in a physical altercation. Alvin Camara, I was off last year. And like now it looks like I was correct, but I really wasn't. He was the third best running back in fantasy when James was healthy for those first seven games. Interesting. And then it all fell off a cliff. And now, New Orleans, Michael Thomas, back, Chris, Alave. James maybe like this this offense might be way better than last year and Camarra is like I still think one of the best like three running backs in the league let me hear they why do you think this

offense might be way better than last year well they have actual receivers playing for them and their quarterback will be healthy Michael Thomas is back they just trade up for a lave that's fair uh yeah the quarterback being healthy is a big one too um and they also have an they have a new play caller which is going to be a wrinkle that's the thing it's that's what I'm curious about is you're obviously you're right about jay I'm just getting hurt, but it's, I, it's so weird to think about Sean Payton not running the Saints that I'm curious how similar it'll be. Think about how important it's going to be that Taysom Hill is going to be playing

tight end. I mean, think about what he'll unlock at that spot, yes. Also, we don't have to deal with that bullshit with him playing quarterback. Thank God. Thank Christ. Yeah, we'll see if Camara gets suspended. I have him way lower, but I think, I kind of think he is going to miss time, but we'll see.

By the way, Mark Ingram is still on the Saints. Good for him. Which I just realized. You know how, you know how Liberia. James always has James Jones on his teams, and everyone's like, did James Jones witness LeBron murder somebody? I kind of feel like Mark Ingram, man. That guy's not, I was going to be in the league until he's 40. Dude, he's 32. Was it James Jones running the Phoenix Suns and just like sent LeBron a player as a favor?

Because he's like, that's my guy. Who didn't trade to the Lakers because they just were like, LeBron call him? I was like, you know, that's my guy. I'm like, dude, you're in charge of the team. I know. It's not how this works. Wait, who was that correct? Now I want to know.

I don't remember, but I do know what you're talking about. If you want to look that up. That's funny that marketing him still in the same. Yeah, I don't know why I just really like Camara. Like, I feel like we're all done with him now. It's like he's 26 and like maybe the best running back in the league. Yeah. Well, I think the thing is with Camara, and I'm hoping this will change this year.

Oh, Tyson Chandler. Sorry, that was the guy. Just traded Tyson Chandler to LeBron to just to make LeBron happy. What I was going to say about Camara though is like basically last year, they sort of tried to turn it. It felt like they tried to turn them into like a prototypical regular running back where they're like, letting him carry the ball 30 times a game or whatever, something ridiculous. He had a career high 240 carries,

which was 46 more than any other season. And he missed four games. Yeah. And it's like, don't try and turn him into that. Like, let him keep catching passes, man. But this is also where the context matters at the season because,

like, remember the whole weird thing with Michael Thomas and his recovery and whether he was going to play or not? And, like, I don't know if the Saints were 100% prepared to not have Michael Thomas and then they obviously didn't have a ton of receiving options behind him. So like I think Camara was the offense. But I don't know.

I'm not kind of down on Camara this year. I kind of feel like Camara is going to be taken right around where the top of where I feel he's going to be able to perform. But I'd rather just kind of not have any Camara this year. I kind of make going to be happy to let other people take him in the top 15. And I'd rather as Craig likes to cosplays Bill Belichick, like rather be out a year early on Camara than a year too late, and I don't think there's two years left. I'll put it that way.

He says that after choosing Christian McCaffrey at number two. Yeah. Well, the difference... How fun ride that one out? That's fair. But the difference is that when McAfrethes, he's still getting... I mean, when Caffrey plays, he's still incredible, and you're, like, he's still, like, he's still, like, getting 27 points per game when he's playing.

I know. Even with terrible quarterbacking. Camero... My point, I think my point, though, and I think that's, that's well, well taken or whatever. But like my point with Camara is like we didn't really see the real Camara last year. Like they were trying to turn him into something he's not. And I think the value in Camara brings is he's such a dynamic pass catcher.

Look at the receptions in his career. He's been in the season. He's been in the NFL for five seasons. 81, 81, 83 and then 47 last year. But that, but I get that. But I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. What changed, D.K.? Drew Breeze, the fucking checkdown king is getting exactly 84.

They went from Drew Breeze to. James Winston. Taseham Hill. Yeah. No, I'm saying if James is in, though, they will use him as a receiver. I just think last year was a fucking disaster in New Orleans. It was. It was not going to be this year.

I don't know. I mean, knock on wood, but like, I just, if he's playing, I can't see him not being like a top eight running back. And again, he might get suspended for a significant chunk of the season. How many games did Tassam end up starting? I have, like, blocked out the Saints entire season. Do you remember that Cowboys game where Taysom Hill through so many interceptions against the Dallas defense?

that he actually won people games because he would throw a pick and they would pick six it and then they got the ball back and he would like run for 30 yards and he actually netted points even though he kept turning the ball over. Tastin actually started.

He started four games. That's it. Five games last year. Nightmare. Five games to quarterback went four and one and that's why Sean Payton's going to get a lot of money from wherever he wants to coach next. Okay.

Go to fantasy football. Dot the ringer.com. Check out our whole top 200. Our whole draft guide's going to be there all summer. It's going to be fantastic. Well, it is fantastic. It's live right now. We're going to add a lot more bells and whistles as the summer gets going.

But fantasyfobled. Theringer.com. Please check it out. Let's get to some emails. Yeah. Emails at ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. If you have thoughts on this, thoughts on our top 10, thoughts on our top 200, thoughts on the draft guide, we want to hear from you.

Thoughts on random musings, fun facts about the cosmos, fantasy court, whatever you want. About the cosmos. Okay. Email from Rick. Rick. Yeah, you guys are going to practice. Was the Rick. Thank you.

All right. Hey, guys, I noticed a whiff while listening to the episode last week when you guys were talking about the chief receiver, Sky Moore, and the Seahawks running back, Kenneth Walker, and you're talking about how they'd be drafted differently if their names were different.

Oh, wow. But you missed the ultimate name combination, which is you should combine their name into Skywalker. Wow. Maybe I'll start calling Kenneth Walker Skywalker. We should have called. That'd be super cool. Kenneth, if you're listening,

we have a name for your first child. By the way, speaking of Kenny Walker, Kenneth Walker, during the pre-draft process, I've spent the last four months studying these guys plus, four months plus. He was either referred to as Kenneth Walker the third, Kenny Walker, or I think those are the only ways I saw it.

But then he came out after in Seac's first OTAs or whatever, their first little, like, minicamp. He wants to go by Ken. I didn't see anybody say Ken Walker in the pre-Jraft process. I've never once heard that. That's encouraging. He goes by Ken. Ken. That's encouraging because I feel like of all the names where it's like,

actually I prefer you say my phone. I'm Danny and it's like, I prefer Daniel. My father was Ken. I want to be Kenneth. Daniel's my father. I feel like of all the names where you'd be like, really, you want to go by that. It's like Kenneth is to me the most unnatural name to like call someone colloquially. Like, oh yeah, my friend Kenneth. You know what I mean? Right, right. Yeah. Ken Walker, June, uh, uh, the third. Yeah. So I'm I'm going to call him that. Ken walk.

Ken run. Is there a running back named Ken? Is there any of the running back in the history of football named Ken? Well, probably a lot of Kenys. I was thinking about that.

There is a guy famous in Seattle area called Ken Griffey Jr. That's right. But there aren't a lot of Kenns out there that I've seen in sports. Maybe they are. I don't know. Maybe I'm just misremembering.

Ken Lee Jansen? I don't know. Okay, we got an email from Zach. Zach says, I'm in a 14-team PPR League with my dad and his buddies. The only connection have to this league is my dad. I don't know anyone else. It's a bunch of retirees in their 60s.

Very old school league. They adopted decimal scoring this year. Jesus. That's my favorite. I like whole numbers. He says it's been going on for about two decades. I ended up winning the league this year, maybe because he uses the internet. And I was actually pretty excited for the payout because it's a significant amount of money. The entry fee is $180. Wow. There's $180 buy it and they don't use decibles? Those league is intriguing. Those are for the libs.

I was thinking I was sitting pretty hit. Sorry, I can't read. I was thinking I was sitting pretty for a huge cash payout. Well, not so much. When we received the payout email, I almost lost my damn mind. Every single league I'd been in in my life

has more or less the same payout. The top three teams get paid. The third place team basically gets their money back. And then first and second split it. gets a lot, third gets their money back, second gets something in between. Right. This league is nothing of the sort. $180 entry fee.

There's 14 teams. That's more than $2,500 in the pool. Holy schnikes. The commissioner took $100 off the top himself for quote, Abbin fees. That's a bit much. Wow, I got to incorporate that into my league. I know, right?

Advin fees. $130 comes out for high score. He says, that's fine to me. Basically, the high score every week gets $10. I'm in a league that does that. It's fun. $50 for the consolation bracket winner. And he writes, no offense, but if you couldn't make the top seven teams of the league,

why am I giving you $50 to beat a bunch of losers in a consolation bracket? That's fair. That's fair. And then Zach says, that brings us to the most egregious part of all of this. And my main gripe, I came to find our league pays out all seven playoff teams. Technically eight when you count the consolation winner. Every team that makes the playoff gets paid. is the breakout.

Essentially, here's how it goes. So winner just gets a third of the pot. But if you actually look at the math, first and second combined get 55%. And then third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh, like split the other 45%. It's not perfectly even, but it kind of is. So like fifth, sixth, seventh, they're each getting 7%.

Third and fourth are getting 12% each. What is the NBA lottery? This is ridiculous. Yeah, it looks like the, reading is it looks like the lottery. But yeah, first and second, 55% of the money. And then the other 45s, it's like five people. I find this very ironic that a bunch of boomers are giving out essentially participation trophies.

This is why I want to talk about it. This is... Don't the boomers hate participation trophies? No handouts. A younger person is out here being like, what's with all the boomer socialism? Seriously. This is bizarre. So Zach writes, is it me or is this completely insane?

I'm not trying to be a sore winner here, but pay. paying every single playoff team, makes zero sense to me, eight teams make the playoffs. And then he says, thanks for your time and consideration. He wants to know if he should suggest an alternate model.

But I kind of just think it's funny to pitch winner to take all capitalism to like boomers and the young guys like less socialism, please. Did Zach just figure this out now has he never finished in the top seven before? He just joined. Oh.

This is his first year in the league and he won. I'm still hugged on with the fact the commission takes a hundred bucks off the top just for admin. What a racket. I think that, no, I'll tell you what that is. I think that's a pre-internet thing where he says now I think they use ESPN.

Before the internet, I think that's totally fair because he was like writing up the draft board with Sharpie. Yeah, you have to add the box scores. Yeah, absolutely I'd pay my conditioner 10 bucks to do that every single week for 17 weeks. But now that you're just setting up like a league on ESPN and sending emails,

I don't know. Yeah, This is whack. Get rid of it. Top three, top three only and or throw a few high score. Winners. Are you,

is, is he really going to push for this after he won and the next year he doesn't win and now he doesn't get to partake? It's like, like all these older people are going to use all the social security. What is, he's going to age out and he's not going to have anything left? Let's do the math here.

What's 7% of the pot here? 0.07 times 2,500. It's going to be like 200 bucks. That's $175. So basically, why are they paying out these are ridiculous payouts? Oh my God. You literally get your buy-in

if you get seventh. Well, now that you say, yeah, fifth, six, seventh all get the buy-in. I guess the only people, and then third and fourth, what's 12% of the, yeah, whatever,

$300 bucks? So yeah, I guess, wow, third and fourth are doubling their money. I think this should be a high-stakes league. The first-place winner, it gets all. $180-buyan in a 14-team league.

And seventh place? I can see how he's curious. Can imagine $25 a pot and you win $700 and change, but then like fourth place is getting $300? How do they come up with these percentages? Like how are they like, fifth place gets 7%. I think it's buy-in.

I think that it's fifth, sixth, seventh is basically the buy-in back, which is crazy. And then, but why does fourth get 12%? Like, how do they do that? We should bring these people on the pod. We should bring the people who like came up. Zach, if you want to try to, bringing the commissioner on the pod who explained himself and explained, you know, all this boomer

socialism, we'd like to hear about it. Okay. Yeah, if you get him on the pod, we'll just freaking excoriate him. Is it, I think if you exorcate, excoriate? I think it's excoriate. I've gotten that wrong before. I think Craig was right, but I could be. Yeah, it's like when you said, what did you say, half hazard. Half hazard. He still says it, by the way, half hazard. Well, that one I get why I'm pH. That one is the only one I'll defend. The other ones I'm all wrong. Yeah, but you say half hazard. It would be half-azard if you're like reading it correctly he's not wrong you say half hazard if as if there was several h's in there yeah phonetically it's half azard as well so it's half-azard mistakes yeah so you had a five-minute your brain is playing tricks on you hyphids

yeah yeah it is wow we should just do a pod where we try and pronounce words that are weird like pounty did you see someone oh that if you listen on spotify listen to our pod on Spotify, they transcribed the episodes and someone screenshot of the transcription of it trying to spell how I say penalty, penalty, penalty. Oh, God. And then let's just say they had trouble with it. Yeah, Spotify couldn't figure it out. Fantasy court time.

Court is in session. Oh, rise. Fantasy court's from Nelson. Nelson. Nelson, Nelly. As you may remember, last year saw the meteoric rise of a viral fantasy football challenge. the 24-hour waffle house punishment, which anyone who's listening to a trailer on the ringer podcast network,

sorry if you heard that a trillion dives. You probably aren't listening now because you hate us. No. So Nelson writes, so to refresh, the loser of our league's punishment was spending 24 hours in a waffle house with an hour removed per waffle eat.

We are a league of mostly broke college students on different campuses around the country and a non-monetarily taxing and whimsical punishment such as the Waffle House challenge was something we all thought would be a fun challenge for the loser league. A whimsical, yeah.

However, when the proverbial bill came due, the last place guy decided he did not have the time to complete the punishment. That's a quote, did not have the time. The league group chat erupted as the punished individualized until the beginning of the next NFL season

to complete the Waffle House challenge, which in our opinion is plenty of time. Agree. The league has convened and has come to the tentative agreement that the punishment for not completing the Waffle House challenge will be that his first run selection,

did my voice just crack? Woof. His first round selection will be vacated for the next five seasons until he completes, said Waffle, it's a lot. Five seasons.

I've expressed concern that this punishment creates a feedback loop where the punished party will continually lose the league, flake on the punishment, and then quit the league eventually. We all like playing

with this guy outside of the incident, but there must be some retribution with such a heinous fantasy breach of honor. With that in mind, I have three questions with the court. Is the draft capital based punishment too harsh. Five first round picks for not doing the Waffles

Challenge. Two, if this is the route the league chooses, how do we enforce the first round the vacant in the picks? And three, how should the league enforce punishments against people who refuse to complete them? Well, my first question is, was this unanimously agreed upon before the season? Was the Waffle House thing

agreed upon? Did this guy say, I'm for it? Let's say yes. And he's just saying, if he's generally speaking, That would be an easy, like, dismissal. If you try to inflict, like, a harsh punishment and everyone doesn't, like, all agree on it before, that's tough. But let's just say for these purposes, everyone agreed to it.

Five, five, five picks is pretty harsh. I don't know if I would do that. Yeah, I don't like, also the idea that it creates, he's just going to be in, like, he's going to be in last place every year because he doesn't have our first round pitch. But there's the punishment, which, again, the sentencing, we can, like, take that off the back. Like, you can lower five to one.

I think this is kind of egregious. You know what kind of really rubbed me the wrong way? There's a key sentence here that they're all broke college students and this kid said he doesn't have the time to spend 12 hours in a waffle house. Eat 12 waffles and go there on 24 hours.

What does this guy have going on? It's 24 hours, but eat 12 waffles and you're there for 12 hours. Also, like, come on, you're telling me you don't have one day in the entire summer where you got nothing to do. He's a college student. What is he doing with his time?

That's my problem. If he was a man and he was just like, I'm not doing it. Maybe he's working a job and going to school. I agree, though, Hyphen's when I read that, I was like, are you kidding? This is a cop out. That's such an excuse. Like, if any of his friends hang out with him one day over summer

and they just smoke weed and watch family guy all day, he could have done it that day. I completely agree. Like, also, your college student, but you can do your homework at the Waffle House. He does confirm that he says they all agreed on it, too. In the email, it says we all agreed upon it at the league's start. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, I miss that. I do agree about the feedback loop thing,

though, or this guy's just going to not do this challenge. Lose five first round picks, continue to get last, and continue to not do the last place challenges. I agree. And like, but, well,

to D.K.'s point, I do want to be sensitive, like, look, if he's really, you know, broke for time and stuff and, like,

has, you know, work a job, go to college. I get that. But also, there's probably a lot of work you can get done at the Waffle house.

There you know. It's just a library that serves waffles. It's exactly. Someone says probably a much better place to get work done than the library. No one's bothering you. But their library is terrible waffles. Counterpoint. Win the league without a first-round pick.

That'd be sick. No, but I do think, but I get them wanting to enforce it. Yeah, I know. This is kind of a good, like, callback to what we were talking about earlier in the pod where all these first-round picks are risky. It'd be maybe an interesting experiment.

Maybe this guy wins because he doesn't have a first-round pick because he didn't waste it on, you know, whoever. No, BS. Five years sounds harsh, but I do think there needs to be a punishment because they're like, well, we like and we... No, you can't. can't let people off the look. Everyone agreed to this. Someone else would have done this.

If he loses again, maybe he'll go to the Waffle House. Go the damn Waffle house. What about this? Double league fee. Double the entry fee if you don't do it. Well, I was going to say, yeah, pay for the winner and the second place person or something. You pay their

buy-ins. I think everyone can come to their own things. These are broke college kids, apparently. Ideally, you want people to do the Waffle House thing because it's more fun. And if he's really going to be a wimp about it. It just sounds like he doesn't want to do this, which is the reason that it's a punishment. Well, there's peer pressure, I think, that that goes with the last plate punishment thing, we're like, if there's like a group of 12 guys and like four of them and one of them is the

conditioner, a commissioner, are like edgy, crazy, daring guys, like, you know, you got to go streaking through downtown. And then like, if 10 of the 12 people are like, ha ha, waffle house, that sounds awesome. And you're the one guy who's like, damn, I don't want to. do that. Like, I can see you just being like, all right, I got a one in 12 shot at finishing last. Like, screw it. I'll say yes. And then it happens. Then you're like, shit. I don't know what to do now. Um, but you got to speak up then. I don't know what to say. If you don't want to do the Waffle House thing, speak up and say you don't want to do the Waffle House thing. You got to do it. But the problem is if you let this guy go just by paying the money,

then whatever punishment you come up in the future, then the last person is going to owe more money. That's not fun. Like, oh, they got to pay their entry for next year. Like, who cares? Like the whole point of, like, fantasy football is a giant mechanism to waste their time and stay close with your friends. And like half the fun is one of your friends has to just completely and utterly embarrass themselves every year in a punishment. That's fun. And then you break that code, you're breaking the trust, and now no one's going to want to embarrass themselves. And then at that point, you just have a group text. Yeah.

I know, this is a, I don't know. I don't know what to say. This is a tough beat for this guy. Punish him. Maybe not five year first round picks, but punish him. Maybe one year? I think five is too specific. He should just be punished.

Five is a lot. Get clipped every year till he does it. Yeah. Like at this point, he has another year to do it. He doesn't have a Saturday? D.K., you have a child. I'm surprised you're not a little more in

on like a random college student not having one Saturday. Or how do we know he doesn't have a kid? True. It's possible. Well, then I feel like they should have mentioned that of the email. We don't know the details of this.

man's life, but you know what, whatever. We don't have to play that game, but we're like, technically, we have no idea. You can spend a day at a Woffel House. This is a non-binding edict. I feel like that would have came up. If he's like, I have a child to watch. He's not going to take us to court, so that's fine. To actual court, sorry.

Okay. I think that they should... This is a non-binding resolution hereby. My proposal is that he should just have first-round pick clipped every year till he does the Waffle House thing. There we are. Or he makes up some other future perhaps a different kind of punishment can be agreed on that is equally embarrassing but more palatable to the

holding the first round picks hostage is kind of a fun idea. Yeah, it should just be indefinite. Okay. Court decided. I like it. All right. Bring in the dancing lobsters. What?

Fantasy football dot the ringer.com. Check out our draft guide. We're going to go on a little hiatus. We're going to be coming back to everyone in mid-June, late June? Mid-ish. June 21st. Mid-to-late June. And we'll be back, and we're going to be just doing everything, fantasy.

We're going full-bore. We're really excited for this year. And thank you so much to everyone for listening. And again, our draft guides there are going to be updating it all the time. We don't really need to because all the rankings are correct. So we're going to do it anyway, though. We're going to make it prettier. And again, thank you everyone for listening.

Email us at ringer Fantasy Football. At e-mail.com. If you have fantasy courts, if you have people in your league who don't want to do their punishments, will shame them for you, possibly. And again, publicly. Also, you can send us fantasy football questions. That's also allowed. Ringer Fantasy Football at Gmail.com.

Thank you, D.K. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, Lorne. Lauren. Thank you, Led Zeppelin. Ooh, nice. Thank you, Dr. Evil, who I learned on the old rewatchables this week, was based on Lauren Michaels, which I did that.

Not only was he based on Lord Michaels. It was Dana Carvey's impression that Mike Myers practically stole. Oh. That part, I actually, I didn't know any of that. Yeah, Mike Myers is notoriously difficult to work with in Hollywood. Look it up. That's how I feel like Craig. Craig's just notoriously difficult to work with.

Just a prima donna. Yeah, I'm going to have my own Austin Powers as a pod where I'm all three characters. It's just me doing D.K. and Hafeiths. That sounds like an awful lot of work. I did get that part where it's like, it's not just that he stole the impression, but that he did it himself in a movie where he already had the main role. and he could have just asked Dana to do the thing in the movie. Dana did the pinky thing backstage at S&L for years, impersonating Lauren.

And then Jim Carrey was supposed to play Dr. Eval. He had to back out for scheduling reasons. And then he still didn't go ask Dana Carvey and instead say, I'll just play him myself. So why do you think that was? Do you think it was because they did the Wayne's World stuff and he didn't want it to be like another Michael Myers-Dana Carvey thing? It was like, this is my thing and I don't want him there.

Yeah, I think that. Mike Myers was kind of an insecure figure in Hollywood at the time and really didn't want to be outshined by Dana Carvey. He didn't even want Dana Carver to really be in Waynesworld when he wrote it. He wrote a really small part for him and said, I don't want to be in it. And the studio was like, Dana Carvey's going to be fucking in Wayne's World, the movie. Yeah. What did the studio say? Dana Carvey's going to be fucking in Wayne's World. Literally. That is quite literally what they said. That's how I made my rankings. I almost had McCaffrey outside the top 10. I was like,

I think Christian McCaffrey's going to be in the top five. He's going to be there. So that's how it went. Can we do like a little subset? Craig, pitch your Hollywood podcast, by the way, while we're here. The town was Matt Bellamy. Yeah, check it out.

Inside Scoop on Hollywood three times a week. Short little digestible 15, 20 minute episodes. We just did the 2022 streaming service draft. So check it out. Nice. Where'd quibby coming? Not even on the list, baby. Suck it, Kastenberg.