The Ringer NFL Show - Drop Your Kicker and Add These Guys Before Week 1 | The Dantasy Football Podcast (Ep. 294)

Episode Date: September 5, 2018

The Ringer’s Danny Kelly and Danny Heifetz have your last-minute roster moves with their "Thank Me Now" players in the San Francisco and Pittsburgh backfields and one particularly underrated wide receivers corp (02:30). Then they run through roster cutdowns in Dallas, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Tampa Bay (15:00) before looking at some stash “Thank Me Later” candidates (32:45). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good news, NFL fans. Actually, you know what? Great news, NFL fans. DirecTV has expanded the service. If you live in an area where DirectTV service is not available or you're a student actively enrolled in a college or university, you can now get NFL Sunday ticket without a satellite. Plus, there's an exclusive student discount.

To see if you are eligible, go online to nfl sundayticket.tv. And stream every NFL Sunday ticket game this season to follow your favorite team no matter where you live. Use promo code ringer at checkout to save 15%. Packages are also available for football fans living in areas where DirecTV service is not available. This NFL season, be your own GM. Be a winning GM.

Turn this season into a fistful of epic wins by joining a Yahoo! Fantasy Football League. Yahoo has spent the offseason making serious upgrades to enhance your experience. So when you play fantasy football on Yahoo, the wins are as epic as the season is long. We did The Ringer Fantasy Football draft on Yahoo, and it went wonderfully.

I somehow got Roy's Freeman at 47th, which was wonderful. Yahoo Fantasy is also the only app where you can manage all of your season long and daily fantasy teams in one place. Create or join a league now at yahoo.com slash the ringer fantasy football. Again, that's yahoo.com slash the ringer fantasy football. Welcome, welcome, welcome.

To the Dantasy Football Podcast, brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network. My name is Danny Haifitz, and as always, I am joined by my co-host and co-danny, Danny Kelly. What's up, D.K. What's going on, man? How you doing? I'm pumped. I cannot believe this. Football's back. I just remember in February the Super Bowl ended and then, like, it was so crazy for the Super Bowl. And I remember having a moment, like, it's going to be long, but September always comes. Like, it seems forever away. And then boom.

It's just somehow a week one already. Sneaks up on you. So I'm psyched. Later in the show, we're going to get into like, you know, injuries and last second changes with the 53-man roster cut down and all those things. And we'll get too intrigued and deterred off that news, which is by or sell without the commitment. Yep, yeah.

And we'll give out some thank-me-later players later. But first, let's get going with Thank Me Now's. You could thank me now and oh my goodness you're welcome. And we were talking about this, D.K. I was kind of thinking as Thank Me Now. is guys that are pauseworthy. Like, if you are listening to this podcast,

pause, yeah, it's not like Seinfeld with the Spongeworthy. Hello! But they're pauseworthy. If you're listening to this and they're on your, like, waivers,

it's probably worth pausing this to go and get them. That's kind of how I think of me now. Yeah, I really like that category. So let's just get right into it before, you know, so people can pause sooner or later,

sooner than later. All about the pause. Obviously, the biggest news kind of that happened over the weekend was Jerrick McKinnon having an ACL injury. Season is over. RIP.

So that creates a lot of opportunity. Only the problem with the 49ers backfield is, it's not exactly clear who is going to inherit all that opportunity. So I think we both kind of like, we land on different ends of the spectrum on this, Alfred Morris versus Matt Breda. So give me your take on kind of what is going to happen with the 49ers backfield. So I'm surprised, actually, that we disagreed here.

My take is that Morris, I didn't think this when they first picked him up. I thought it was nothing, but the more I thought about it. So Morris actually played under Shanahan a lifetime ago when Shanahan was the offensive core in the Redskins. Because he had four years, though. The first two was without Morris, but then Morris came in in 2012 and 2013. 2012, Alfred Morris rushed for like more than 1,600 yards at 4.8 yards per carry. 2013, 1275 yards, but 4.6 yards per carry in 2013.

Really successful, really did not share that. any reps, like no one else really approached him even a little bit in terms of usage. The NFL has kind of changed a little bit, and Shanahan has himself, obviously, when he was in Atlanta, Kevin Coleman and Devante Freeman split things a lot more. I don't want to say it's going to be like that, but it's kind of how I'm thinking about it. He's a lesser version of Devante Freeman, and I wouldn't be surprised if the familiarity within the system keeps braided more of a past catching role that isn't quite a third down guy, but someone who's in there on obvious passing downs,

whereas Morris is going to be getting the bulk of carries. Who do you like out of those two? I think that Morris is the much more obvious play on this. I don't really... I think Breedah's going to have an interesting... He's going to have a role in the offense. As you said, a pass catcher kind of situational guy, but number one, he's a little bit smaller.

He's already been nicked up. He got a shoulder injury in the preseason. That makes me worried. That's the thing. In a vacuum, I'd actually prefer Breita because I think that he'd have more capacity to kind of... of excel, especially in the 49er system with Shanahan. I think that the difference maker for me is

that he has not been getting the reps that he kind of would desperately need, especially with younger players. And the fact that Morris is the veteran, and he was getting all the reps in the preseason, I think it's the most undervalued part of these discussions is the guy who's been in practice all this time, like literally on Nishu Levy on Bell, who will get to in a second, when you're a young player like Breita to just step in, especially on third down work, it's not as easy as it sounds. So having said that, even if Morris starts out hot, I still think Breedom might end up being more valuable, even if it doesn't look that way in September when you're talking about fantasy playoff time? Right now, it's looking, and we're recording on Tuesday afternoon,

right now it's looking like Breedah might get the start in week one. So in the early going, he might have a little bit bigger role than Alfred Morris. And I think, I'm sticking with it, I don't think you should let that sway you too much. I think Alfred Morris over the length of the season, you know, we heard Lynch talk about how he wants a guy who's like a grinder on first and second down. They didn't really have that before they brought them in. They kind of realized they want that and they like that. So bottom line, you know, it is a really tough decision who you want to pick up in this situation. Obviously, over the weekend, I talked to a couple different people who are like, who do I pick up? Who do I pick up? I lean Morris, even, you know, if Breedah might look a

little bit better early going. And again, this might even be like a false choice because Morris has already owned 70% on ESPN and Yahoo. Brady is a 50% Yahoo, 56 in ESPN. So it's probably, Not that likely that both are available. Either one, grab, if they're somehow both available, I would grab both and see what happens in week one. Absolutely. But the one that I, this is the one I'm most interested in this week. Levy on Bell is still not here. Yeah.

I would say holdouts, I really am not worried about them, but football players should be working on Labor Day. And now that we're past that threshold, James Connor, I think, is the best value out there. He's owned 24% of ESPN, 41 on Yahoo. He's really good. He went to pit. Yeah. And then everyone about training camp is always going to rave about the backup running backs because you're never going to be wrong as a player to praise them.

But everyone's saying that he's running differently. He can kind of do everything. And we've talked about like a true handcuff used to not really, it doesn't really exist anymore. He's one of the handful of running backs that is an actual handcuff because he will also be able to do three down work in every capacity. He's not as good at Levi-on-Bell as anything, but he's better than anyone they have in every situation.

he actually will be getting a full workload that like seven or eight, nine guys in the NFL get right now. And he's own, and I would just say, no matter who your kicker is, cut them, and then add him going until Sunday morning and see what happens with Lovian. Yeah, totally figure out. I mean, what do you put the over under on,

on Lovbell's holdout? Like, how many games? So it's low. You know, I want to be clear. Like, there's probably a 20% chance he's actually going into it. But I want to be clear, like, here's why, that I think it could happen. You have about $350 million of guaranteed money go out in the last week

between Mac, Donald, O'Dell, and Aaron Rogers. And that doesn't even include Gurley who got $45 million guaranteed in July. That's almost $400 million. Levion was offered $10 million in guaranteed. You hear my New York come out on the offered. But like he was offered $10 million in guaranteed on his last deal. And he's talked a lot about how he sees himself as needing to reset the bar for the running back market overall. And even with the girly deal, it's still not close to what these other guys are getting.

If he's willing to do that on principle combined with, he's not going to come back. He wants it at the free agent market, and he doesn't want 400 touches this year. From that standpoint, I could see him saying it is in his better long-term interest if he plays fewer games, gets less touches, and then makes a stand and say, this is ridiculous how we're being treated. Even if that's just 20% though, that's still 20% chance you have a three-down running back if you get James Connor. Yeah, I mean, it's worth the waiver claim at the very least. I mean, so say he does hold out for a couple of games. I saw the staff from Scott Barrett over at Pro Football Focus. Bell's primary backup in the last couple of years when he's missed 11 games has

averaged 22.4 fantasy points per game in those games. And so you're getting top end running back, you know, on the waiver wire. It's obvious, it's not, you know, it's not obvious he can actually play. We'll find out before the games or whatever. But I mean, if you can pick him up now, you got a really high end running back option. in there for at least a couple of weeks. And so I think it's definitely worth kind of just, it's worth looking at right now.

And the Steelers have... See how it goes the rest of the week and we'll go from there. I agree. The Steelers have to surpass the Cowboys is the best offensive line in football. And that alone is if he's playing, we have to get him. Also, I hate to say this,

but there's a chance, you know, he hasn't been playing. And if Levion does pull hammy or something in week one, I mean, we already saw that happen to Martin Mack and other guys who came back and pulled a hammy kind of quickly. So he's worth in that case, too. But the last one, I love this. Who's your final thank me now?

I love this one from you. So I still think it's really strange what the Patriots are doing with their receiver corps this year. Obviously, you know, they brought in different guys. All those guys ended up being cut. Like Kenny Britt, Eric Decker, Matthews, they're all gone.

And after roster cut downs, they had three receivers on their roster. Now, it's up to four. And if you count Matthew Slater, that's five. But he's more of a special teamer. So right now, going into the season, Philip Dorset is the number two receiver in the Patriots offense. You remember who the quarterback of the Patriots is? It's Danny Etling, right?

So no matter what your opinion of Dorset is, it's looking like for at least four weeks, probably more, because I think he's probably going to have a bigger role going throughout the whole season. But through at least four weeks while Julian Nettleman is out, he's going to be a pretty big part of that offense, at least in the terms of the amount of snaps he plays. And so I think Philip Dorset right now is really undervalued. Right now he's owned on 2% of Yahoo League's 3.8 and ESPN. Again, he's the number two option in that offense. And so I think there's some potential really good value there.

Pick him up, see how it goes. Yeah. Because, you know, you could have a big year, even though the name that value is basically zero right now. And then I would say, so obviously, so Dorset's two, right now, Cordarell Patterson's three. And then even if Gronk is the, true number one option on the team and the past catching backs are great. I mean,

Corderole Patterson and Dorset are both rounding errors, basically, their ownage percentage. And to me, I guess, probably the true definition of post-hyped sleepers. Like, we throw that term around, but like Corderole Patterson was like the gadget gimmicky, amazing sleeper for two or three years, and Dorset had similar, kind of not similar, but also hyped as a rookie. And now they are playing with Tom Brady, and everyone's like, oh, yeah, who are, like, they're literally like 98% unowned. I think the broader question is, how are,

and we kind of talked about this a little bit last night, but are the Patriots going to be focusing on White and Burkhead and basically how they look at it as their past catches are Grom one,

Hogan 2, James White 3, Burkhead 4, Dorset 5. And is that how the Patriots look at their offense? Yeah, I mean, that's something that could happen. I think, you know,

obviously with only three receivers on the roster, four receivers on the roster now after waiver wires, but maybe they go into games with the game plan to use James White it's like a de facto receiver.

Is he going to be just lying up in the slot? Or Rex Burkhead, who I think is just as versatile. So that throws a wrench into kind of like Dorset's upside, potential upside. But I still think right now it's worth just taking that shot and at least holding on to him and see if he kind of emerges as like a major contributor in that offense because there's just not a lot of guys in front of him at the receiver position. So I think that he's a really interesting guy to look at right now. If Brady has chemistry with Philip Dorset, it could win your season.

And again, it's just worth looking at week one. All right, before we move on, let's take a quick break. On Thursday night, football will make its long anticipated return. Yes, it will. That means bragging rights and huge cash prizes are up for grabs at draftkings.com, the leader in one-week fantasy sports. For the season opener, Draft Kings is hosting a fantasy football contest that is $10 to enter and has a one-man.

million dollar top price. DK., what would you do with a million dollars? Oh, man, so many things. We'll see when you win. For limited time only, if you sign up with code Ringer today, draft Kings will give you a free entry with your first deposit. Again, that is code Ringer. Single game showdown is the newest way to play. All you have to do is draft six players from Thursday's game, stay under the salary cap, and see how your team stacks up against the competition. That means you could win $1 million. Should I do the Austin Pout? One million dollars

while watching the season opener. And don't worry, there are two and a half million dollars in total prizes, which means thousands of winners. So download the app or go to DraftKings.com now and use promo code Ringer to sign up and make your first deposit. When you do,

Draft Kings will give you a free shot at $1 million this Thursday. That's code ringer at Draft Kings. minimum $5 deposit, eligibility restrictions apply, see draftkings.com for details. DK, I know this is true for us,

but we want to stream NFL Sunday ticket live every Sunday. Even if we can't get DirecTV where we live. Because we want every play, even if we don't live in a house with a satellite, because a lot of us live in apartments, I just moved in a new apartment, very happy. Or we live on a college campus, but we still want to stream NFL Sunday ticket

because we need football. So to see if you are eligible, go online to nfelsundayticket.tv and stream every NFL Sunday ticket game this season to follow your favorite team no matter where you live. Use promo code ringer at checkout to save 15%. Packages are also available for football fans living in areas where direct TV service is not available. All right, DK. For our next segment, we got intrigued or deterred, which is, it's just buy or sell without the commitment. So looking at the new. news, roster cuts, some late-breaking injuries.

There was some interesting stuff, actually, with the 53-man cutdown. A lot of it is usually not preordained, but this year, actually, there was some interesting stuff. So the first thing that I, not the first thing I noticed, but something I just looked at, it was like, wow, like going against the grain was the Cowboys kept two running backs on their active roster. They technically have three, but, I mean, one of them is just a pure fullback. They just have Ezekiel Elliott and Rod Smith.

And I think they did this for parts of last year, but still something like, The NFL only kind of recently went to, we just were going to have two quarterbacks on the active game day roster, but like, having two running backs is like kind of wild. What are they going to do? I mean, yeah, I mean, obviously they have like practice squad and things like that they can mess with during the week.

But man, yeah, that's kind of their identity and they're going in with just two guys. The way I look at is it's like, damn, like, it's the first quarter and like Ezekieler gets hurt and can't return. And then you have one running back. And if he gets hurt, like, you just have a fullback. So anyway.

on Austin, baby. Oh, right. Yeah, there you go. So anyway, I guess it's more interesting to me and it's not exactly something I'd be like, oh yeah, Stash Rod Smith, but like, if you have a Zeke Elliott, I would. And then...

Yeah, it's just trying to keep an eye on. He's good, too, that's the thing. And their practice squad backs got poached by their team. So it's interesting. Just, it intrigued me. I mean, I like... Generally speaking, don't really try to do much handcuffing, you know, just because I think you can probably find guys

guys who are contributing more regularly or whatever, But for some teams, and we've talked about this, for like the Rams, if you want to get John Kelly and just stash him just in case Gurley got hurt. Like that's such a huge part of that offense. I think it makes sense. Plus, I like Rod Smith. I think if Elliott got hurt, he'd be, you know, in line for a ton of work. He's good as a receiver. Very explosive guy.

And, yeah, I mean, it just, it's one of those things where, you know, it might make sense for a few teams to do that handcuff thing. I like handcuffs. I like when my team is catastrophe proof. But you are, let's see here, you're also intrigued, shocking, you're intrigued by something that happened with the Seahawks. The whole preseason, we've talked about Rashad Penny versus Chris Carson, but I'm also really curious to see how the receiver core kind of shakes out now.

Baldwin's kind of hurt. It's got the knee injury that might limit him to 80, 85% all year. And so I'm wondering what's going to happen with that number two spot in that offense. Because, and, you know, I think the Seahawks could with the changes on defense. Their defense might not be as good this year. They could get into some shootouts

and end up passing a ton. Obviously, they want to run, but I think, you know, game script-wise, they could end up passing a lot. And there's still a good quarterback there with Russell Wilson. So I'm really intrigued by Tyler Lockett. I'm maybe more intrigued by Brandon Marshall,

which is really kind of out of nowhere because he's only on 7% of leagues right now. And so I just think, keep an eye on Marshall is kind of the thing I'm talking about. he played well in that preseason three game, preseason week three game when caught a couple of passes, like including one jump ball. I've been hearing good things about him out of practice, like he's just played really

well in practice, and he's basically getting no hype right now, and I kind of get why, obviously, but I think with so many touchdowns and so many yards going out of that Seahawks offense from last year, Paul Richardson, Jimmy Graham, I think Marshall's a guy to, you know, just keep an eye on, potentially stash him if you want, but I think he's, He's really intriguing me right now. Thanks for your insights into Stockholm Syndrome, D.K., I appreciate it. The thing that intrigued me this week was the Saints running backs, actually. So two weeks ago, they were leans to Terrence West.

He was expected to replace Ingram for the suspension, and then they cut him. And then everyone was like, okay, so Jonathan Williams is going to replace him. They cut Jonathan Williams on their 53-man cut down. People were getting psyched about Williams, too, yeah. Yeah, so that was an intriguing name, and then they cut him. They picked up Mike Gillisly off waivers when they... the Patriots released him because he got... Are we all going to fall for Gillisly again this year?

No. The thing that I love, they kept Boston Scott. Boston Scott is Mini Darren Sproles. He is 5'5 foot six, 203 pounds. Wow. And Pro Football Focus tracked him. He had 190 touches in college last year with 51 broken tackles on 99 touches. Fourth and elusive rating.

He's probably going to be their punt returner. He's basically, again, another rounding error guy in terms of owning percentage. Gillisley maybe can improve his skill set a little bit, but he can't catch. Scott is the true handcuffed to Kamara if such a thing exists, but I think there's actually a chance that Gilersley, we got to see what happens in week one, but I'm really intrigued if Boston Scott's actually the real number two in this offense instead of Kamara. Because they basically have a Darren Sproles-like guy, and obviously Sproles made his career in the Saints. So they were calling him Darren Sproles before the draft, and then they ended up in New Orleans. really are very intrigued by Boston Scott.

Yeah, I mean, and it's the other thing, you know, how much do they want to lean on Kumar early on? Do they want to like wear them into the ground early on? I don't think that's probably what they want to do. No. And so, you know, they're another team who has, you know, potentially one of the top five offensive lines. And so, I mean, number one, you're going into a system where they run a lot and they have a really good line.

And that just makes them a little bit more attractive. So yeah, I'm with you on that. I think that's really intriguing. I'm trying not to fall for it Gillisley again, which I don't think I'm going to. The difference to me is Gillisley won't have a role when Inger comes back. Almost like fairly, Boston Scott could. But sticking with the Saints and... Yeah.

With Ringer NFL show tradition, shaboy. Yeah. Ted Ginn. Teddy Ginn. I wish you want to say right now, he finished... Obviously, people made fun of me last year. No, no, no, they didn't make fun. Kevin and Robert openly laughed at you.

They mocked me. brutally and mercilessly. You were right. He actually ended up having a pretty good year. I mean, obviously he didn't go over a thousand yards like I predicted, but they ended up not passing as much as I thought they would. He finished wide receiver 34 and scoring. So that was ahead of guys like Amari Cooper, Rashad Matthews, Marquis Lee, Sammy Watkins, Amadola,

Jordi, Calvin Benjamin. This year, he's going or has gone as wide receiver 70. So all my hype didn't really pay off that much. I think people are still like sleeping on the Saints number two guy. Obviously Michael Thomas is going to get a huge amount of the, you know, focus in that passing game. But I mean, I still think Breeze could end up having to pass a little bit more this year if they can't run it quite as effectively.

You know, he's a positive regression candidate in the touchdown department. He was way down compared to like previous seasons in terms of the amount of touchdowns he threw. So I still think Ginn is an interesting guy. And if you're not into Ginn, Traycon Smith rookie has, you know, played pretty well on the preseason. I think he's kind of a sleeper. And so, there's a couple of guys. You're not buying Cameron Meredith,

because I think he's going, I think, around 120th or 130th overall or so. And obviously he's coming off the knee injury. So are you worried about him not being totally healthy, or you just think Ginn's better? I think both guys are options. I think Ginn looks like the number two right now. Cameron Meredith is sort of a wild card

because coming back from an ACL, it's just, you know, you never know if he's going to have explosiveness and stuff like that. Which dovetails with what you were saying about Dorset and even when Edelman comes back, you know, you just don't know, especially with certain injuries. Right.

So we're talking about guys that intrigue me. I still think Ginn's intriguing. And I think Meredith and this Trequan Smith guy are definitely really intriguing. I think there's some volume to be had in that number two wide receiver spot for the Saints. I think people are sleeping on that. Last thing I'm intrigued by.

Intriged is probably the wrong word here. But I saw a report by Ian Rappaport from NFL Network, and he was saying that James Winston, quote, it's, he said, quote, it's like he's vanished, and quote, he said, because he's not allowed at the team facility, they took all the banners of him around the stadium down.

And then Dirk Cutter, the coach has been asked multiple times if Winston has the job when he comes back and Dirk Cutter keeps saying, as Rappaport said, leaving the door open for Fitzpatrick to keep the job when he returns. Now, Robert Mazes said,

and I agree, that there's a real chance that the bucks are going to just, cut ties with him that they might not want his fifth year option or they're going to really cut ties from him as a franchise icon and perhaps rightfully so because of, you know, the things he's done and the pattern in history he has. But in terms of this season, everyone's so down on the bucks, but from a fantasy perspective, if Fitzpatrick starts well, if Fitzpatrick does have like some kind of chemistry with Mike Evans and obviously on one age is Ryan Fitzpatrick. On the other,

is there a less discussed player in football this year than Ryan Fitzpatrick who will be one of the 32 starting quarterbacks in September. And no one said a word about him. But he has had weird stretches of relevance before. And Mike Evans, I don't know about you, has fallen in every draft I've seen. And I'm kind of intrigued that they have a really tough schedule to start. But they'll also be down a lot. And there's actually something to say about they could be getting crushed.

And like, Ryan Fitzpatrick could have some real garbage time numbers with Mike Evans and like the guys on that offense. And it's probably bad news for the running game. But especially if he could keep the job. That's actually really interesting, especially in a two-quarterback league. There are few offensive, like, there's few offenses that kind of have the support system, I guess, in terms of the past catchers that the Bucks do with Evans, Deshawn Jackson, Chris Godwin has a ton of potential, and obviously, you know, a couple of good tight hands, O.J. Howard and Cameron Brayette. So there's like a foundation there.

They start, the Bucks start Saints, Eagle, Steelers, Bears by, Falcons. There's a lot of garbage time potential. It's kind of like how Blake Bortles was like one of the worst quarterbacks in football in 2015, but they got blown out that he picked up all these numbers and the fourth quarter. There really could be that, and especially if he keeps the job. I'm intrigued.

I'm not saying pick him up yet, but I'm intrigued. I get that. I get that. Detert. We can run through these quickly. For me, it's Carson Wentz. Look, this has been talked about ad nauseum, but basically he's not playing, obviously, week one, and this, you might be listening to this after. My whole thing with Wence is

there's an assumption that when he comes back, that he'll be fine. As long as he's 100% healthy, yeah, I'll pick up where he's left off. He's not a 10-year veteran. He's not a guy who can skip training camp like these other. Like, the incredible stuff he was doing on third down, his ability to have connections to the receivers when they go off schedule and the play breaks down. All the things he was doing, that requires practice. That's not stuff you just pick up.

Maybe you're Aaron Rogers, you can skip training camp. But he's his third year. And the assumption that, like, he doesn't, you know, he hasn't practiced since November with these guys. but like it'll be fine. I think that it's both fair to say he was an MVP form last year, but that takes hard work, and you can't just assume you can pick up MVP form.

I would say to assume that Wens can pick up from where he left off actually undermines what he accomplished last year and that there's going to be a slight adjustment period for him to get back there. I think you're just trying to make me feel bad about picking him in the Ringer League. That too. I really, well, we picked Stafford over him

because we were like, wait, what if he missed the six weeks? Anyway, you are looking at the Broncos. Yeah, so I, I tried to keep an open mind about Devante Booker in the preseason and he's still I think an option for some people but I'm just like I'm not really into him right now Royce Freeman, Royce Freeman won the starting job sounds like in Denver yeah and he really outplayed him

and he had a bunch of explosive runs looked really good looked really solid and I think he's even kind of improved in past pro and stuff like that he's won some of the trust of the coaching staff and so it wouldn't surprise me a whole lot if Freeman even eats into some of Booker's like third down snaps. And so I just think Freeman right now is looking like a much, much more solid option in that offense. And so I'm just staying away from Booker at this point.

Even if it's like kind of like, you know, people were looking at sort of a later around sleeper type guy. I just don't see it at this point. So he's kind of, I'm kind of off a Booker at this point. He's not really a big play threat. and he's not really at this point Royce Freeman looks like he's going to be

three down back and there just doesn't seem like there's that much value there and no yeah Booker I wish that based off his college career

maybe he could have had some more exciting stuff but yeah I don't think he's worth rostering at the moment right you know what I'm super deterred by DK

what's that what I read about the Browns this morning yeah so I freaked out about this you're panicking it's unbelievable so Joel Betonio

who is a really good Lyman for the grounds. And I say lineman because he doesn't know if he'll be left tackle or left guard this season. God. Here's a quote from him on Monday. Quote, I think coach is going to come back Wednesday and give us a definite answer.

I'm ready for both, though. Whatever they put me at, I'm ready to go and play some football. Finally. And then, so basically, they don't know if they're going to have an undrafted rookie at left tackle or another rookie at left guard, but Petonio doesn't know. So they asked Hugh Jackson about this after Petonio said, I

don't know what I'm doing. They asked Hugh Jackson on Monday, and he's Hugh Jackson said, I haven't really worked through it yet. We have a bet. We have a week. We don't play until Sunday. We're going to figure it out and put the best five guys out there. Two questions later, reporter follows up. Uh, quote, no, because I know what it is. Jackson said. He's saying it wasn't unusual to not know you're playing a week before. He said, I already know what it is. You just don't know what it is. That's all. I have a pretty good idea of what it's going to be. And that's courtesy of the news herald. Narrator, he doesn't know. He doesn't know. So, You're off, the Browns don't know their offensive line.

And week one, they haven't decided. It's one thing to not decide on a battle at a position, but to not actually have your starter veteran know which position he needs to be preparing for and maybe a position switch. That is wild to me. So I just read that and all I could think was all this stuff about Tarad, Tyrod, Mr. Taylor, as a sleeper, Shub and Carlos Hyde and DuChantz, I was like, there's so much more catastrophe potential than I actually ever thought on this rebuild.

God. He was indecision about everything. It's just got to drive Browns fans nuts. I mean, look at what he did last year with the quarterback spot. Like, he started and sat guys all year long. Oh, man. We'll see what happens. Maybe he's playing close to the chest. But if they actually sent out

an unprepared rookie at left tackle who didn't really have any idea he was going to be playing to replace Joe Thomas, that would be. So you're worried about Brown's offense. I'm deterred. I don't know if I'm worried. Certainly deterred. Your last one. the deep threat for the quarterback

who may or may not be able to throw very far. Right. So this is kind of something we talked about last week, but I'm just worried about T.Y. Hilton in the Colts offense this year in terms of his fantasy potential. You know, he's kind of... Obviously, he's at his best

when he can stretch the field and be that deep depth. But with everything we saw in the Colts offense during the preseason, it was very much oriented about getting the ball out fast and short. And so, you know, Andrew Lux's average depth of target

it was like really, really low. Somewhere in the fives during the preseason. Obviously, that can change in the regular season, but everything we've heard about is they're going to really, really try and protect luck and protect his shoulder and try not to like make it, you know, make, put him in the position to get hit and get hurt again. And so that means like, like I said,

a lot of fast, you know, get the ball out immediately. And so I'm just curious and I'm worried about Hilton's role in that offense. Like, is he going to be able to do everything that he did last year? because actually Brissette last year was a pretty good deep passer. And so if Luck can't, if he can't, you know, it's not necessarily even can't. If they're like not asking him to throw deep, then I think Hilton's role is highly diminished. Did you just back into Jacoby Brissette's better than Andrew Luck? This is an amazing take.

Absolutely not. Oh, okay. Danny Kelly on the record, Jacoby Brissette should start over Andrew Luck. I love it. Yeah, I'm not going there, but I do think that it is concerning for Hilton's role. That's more realistic and in play than we'd like to admit. All right, but before we move on, let's take a quick break. Simple Contacts is the most convenient way to renew your contact lens prescription

and reorder your brand of contacts from anywhere in minutes. To renew your prescription with Simple Contacts, all you need is your current contacts, an Internet connection, and 10 feet of space. The doctor's office is now wherever you are. After you take the five-minute Simple Contacts Vision Test online, It'll be reviewed by a licensed doctor and you'll receive a renewed prescription to reorder your contacts.

No more appointments, no more waiting rooms, no more overpaying. Simple contacts has all the brands and types of lenses you're familiar with, so you never have to shop around to find your lenses at the best price. The vision test is only $20, and standard shipping is free.

This is not a replacement for your periodic full eye health exam. You still need those occasionally, but it is the most convenient way to renew a prescription and reorder your contacts if your vision has not changed. To get $20 off your first order of contacts, go to simplecontacts.com slash NFL

or enter code NFL at checkout. Again, that's simplecontacts.com slash NFL or enter code NFL at checkout for $20 off your first order. All right, DK, we did thank me now's earlier in the show. Now we're going to do thank me later. So if thank me now is the pauseworthy, the sponge worthy, thank me later, thank me later is are guys that, I mean, depending on the size of your league, if it's deeper,

worth stashing, if it's more shallow, worth maybe hitting the watchless button, writing down their names, whatever, guys to keep their eye on. And I guess in a nutshell, if they have a big week one performance, we're inclined to think it might be part of a trend rather than a blip. Right. These are guys that maybe potentially show us. on like what what we can expect. Yeah. Who's your first guy?

My first guy, Lagaret Blunt in Detroit. Real quick, you know, obviously there's a long history of Detroit being horrible in the rushing game. They haven't had a 100-yard rusher

as an individual in, I think my entire lifetime, I think since Ronald Reagan's president, basically. And not really, but four years. That's crazy.

Reggie Bush. So there's a lot of talk, you know, Kerryon Johnson, you know, Amir Abdullah's plummeted down. but there's a chance Le Garrett Blunt could really be the goal line back for this team.

He played a lot in the week four of the preseason, which is weird. But if Ligarrett Blunt is the goal line back, there could be serious touchdown Volture potential. He led the league in touchdowns like two years ago. And Patricia brought him over. And if he brought him over for that reason, that could be legit. Obviously, literally last year,

Mike Gillesley had all those touchdowns at week one and then almost didn't play again. I think with Blunt, it would not be a blip. I would be very real. I really like kind of their offensive line potential, too. like they have an underrated offensive line this year. They got way better. They got way better.

Frank Ragnow is that they drafted a center named Frank Ragnar who is an absolute mauler. You know, there's all this talk about Quentin Nelson. But Frank Ragnow is the only person I think in the second tier close to Nelson. It's just like it's transformative potential on their line and blunt would actually be really cool. So 40% on Yahoo, 28% on ESPN, but be interested to see how he does. But your next guy.

going back to San Fran. Yeah. So I'm interested to see what kind of happens with Dante Pettus this season. I think, obviously the 49ers thought highly of him,

you know, to take him where they did, I think he was a mid-second rounder. And so getting him in into that offense and grained into that offense, I think could be huge. Right now he's owned,

he's owned in less than 1% of both ESPN and Yahoo League. So he's off the radar for now. But he showed up in punt return teams during the preseason. He's a really good route runner. And I think there's a world where we could see him pretty easily pass up Trent Taylor as a team slot receiver, their main slot receiver. So assuming that we all think that the Garoppolo led Shanahan offense is going to be good.

I think there's enough targets to go around that he could be fantasy relevant this year. So he's a guy that I'm putting on my watch list for sure. And, you know, like we said before, like if you have a really, really deep league, he's a stash guy. So, you know, I think he's kind of, he was a touchdown guy at Udub, and I think he has the potential to be that for the 49ers. So, you know, if you look back at last year in the Shanahan offense, the red zone targets were pretty spread out. It wasn't like one guy hogged everything.

It was Marquis Goodwin, I want to say, is the leader there. So I think, you know, he has a potential to be a bigger part of that offense this year. We've talked about liking Marquis Goodwin and Pierre Garsohn at their time for where they were going in the draft, but the undergris, at all that is believing in the Shanahanissance. And at the end of the day, whether those guys are old or not quite as good or refined it, the point is there's going to be an explosion somewhere.

And I like that, I like that value considering, as you said last week, throwing darts at what we think will be good offenses. The next guy for me, just someone just, nothing sexy about this. C.J. Anderson on the Panthers replacing Jonathan Stewart. He's owned in a third of ESPN leagues, about half

of Yahoo. But he's someone who, McAfree is either going to be getting a ton of work. And this is either one of the few guys we were talking about of high-end handcuff if McAfree to get hurt. But there is still like a very viable role if McCaffrey doesn't take the huge workload leap.

Guys get talked about workload leaps in August all the time that never materialize or incrementally materialize. We don't 100% know McCaffrey will be the goal lineback and as we discussed we think he will be. But again, it's like worth looking at week one. If C.J. Anderson gets those goal line touches and he's getting 10 or 12 touches

a game still, we'll see what happens. Things are not trending toward that happening necessarily, but he's 100% someone that could be just a massive value like RB2 flex status on a given week. It's just sitting on waivers. Very boring and very sexy.

But we'll see what happens in week one, but it depends on his role. I like the concept of kind of going against the hype grain. You know, and because right now, like you said, McCaffrey's got tons sentence of hype and I think for good reason but last year I mean we don't he never he did not prove it last year that he was kind of the three down back and so yeah I mean I think that's a that's a

definitely kind of a smart stash just in case he you know pops out and and they want to use that kind of more as like a timeshare thing than then then having McCaffrey be sort of the guy and so I mean Anderson's good I mean he's he's he's elusive he's big he's he's a bruiser he's kind of that he fits the identity of the of the panthers run game really well and so yeah could be some value there who's your next guy austin ecular chargers right now he's on 70% of yahoo leagues a 11.8% ESPN um i just think this is another one of those invest you know potentially handcuffed guys that could have enormous roles in an offense and if and even if he doesn't even if he's not a handcuff guy he could be like part of their passing game last year

he was really really efficient from a receiving point of view I got this stat from Daniel Kelly over at PFF great great name by the way Daniel Kelly yeah you know he's my favorite Daniel Kelly it's one of my favorite names in the world so he told me since 1973

Alvin Kamara is the leader in points per touch and he's second in yards per touch among everyone with 100 carries so that's 45 years Kamara's insanely efficient last year But he said that Echler would be third in both of those categories if he had qualified on touch. Now, obviously, that's a big caveat because, you know, he didn't reach the threshold of touches to get there. But it tells you how efficient he was when every time he touched the football.

So I think if he got a lot, if he got more volume this year, he could be kind of that sneaky guy to, to, you know, have sort of as like a flex option when you really need him type of thing, you know, in the passing game. And like we said, if Melvin Gordon got hurt, it'd be huge. I agree with everything you just said except the first thing, which was you said Daniel Kelly is one of your favorite names. In reality, you've talked at length about how Randy Gregory is your favorite name. So that was a bold-faced lie, sir. Randy Gregory. I just like people with two first names. This is just good.

Who do you think is the best two-first name guy in fantasy right now? I don't have to think about this. Man, yeah, that's like a good question. I got to think about it. I'll get back on the next episode. Maybe that'll be a segment next week. It's actually worth considering. My last one real quick, Jordan Wilkins,

he's on a 13% of Yahoo, like a third of ESPN as well. He might start at week one. And the Coltsback field is weird, but Robert Turvins coming back from suspension eventually. Marlon McPoll to Hamie, Haim Hines at NC State, if I'm saying that correctly. Fumboitis.

Yeah, and Wilkins just seems to have won the job de facto. By default, yeah. That's just a starting running, like straight up a starting running. back available in two-thirds of leagues. That could very well be a committee backfield that sucks anyway, and it's like you stayaway backfield

like Tampa Bay looks to be. But yeah, have him on your team in case just run behind Clinton Nelson every play. Exactly. Like that line is better like this case. It's just a starting good running back on waivers, which is wild. Let's get out of here. Week one is upon us, DK, I wish you the absolute

worst of luck in the Ringer Fantasy Football League and I'm going to crush you in our three-person draft that we will do soon. Very excited. Yeah. So thank you on behalf of the Ringer Podcast Network. Thank you guys for listening. And we'll see you next week.

This Thursday, Draft Kings is a fantasy football contest that's just $10 to enter. And has a $1 million top prize. I don't know what that ROI is because I can't do math. But it sounds like a lot. So get the app or go to draftkings.com now and sign up with the code Ringer. For a free shot at a million bucks when you make your first deposit. minimum $5 deposit, eligibility restrictions apply,

see draftkings.com for details. D.K., I'm going to go get a million dollars. All right.