Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly, a production of iHeartRadio.
Time now for Fantasy Football Weekly from iHeartRadio, your weekly source for the nation's best fantasy speculation and advice. Now along with the guys from Guillotine Leagues dot com. Here's your host, Paul jarge Yet.
Welcome to the thirtieth anversary edition of Fantasy Football Weekly. Yes, way back nineteen ninety five, we started doing Fantasy Football Weekly.
I was fifteen, Yeah you did we.
That is the voice of Matt Harrison. My other co host is Brian Johnson step Charts.
Congratulations on thirty years, but the show is now losing dynasty value very quickly at thirty years old. Justin warn you.
Yeah, the cliff is here. Everybody's the cliff is coming off, don't you know when it's gonna come. But this show's gonna fall off soon.
It's it, and if it does, it'll be entirely my fault. Thank you for the congratulations, but really, this the thirty year run has been built on the co hosts, because lord knows, I'm not keeping this thing going by myself, and it's been all the dedication and all the time and effort from you guys and all the previous co hosts that we've had over the years, many of them for many many years, going all the way back to
the beginning, John the Commissioner, Habermeyer and many others. And it's been a it's been really an honor to have done this for thirty years and so much fun. And you'd never never would I have believed in nineteen ninety five if you'd ask me, you know, are you gonna do? Are you gonna do every show for thirty years? And this thing is still going to be around in twenty twenty four, I'm like, no way.
Twenty twenty four wasn't a real year back there.
It really wasn't, ye know. It was like that's it. I thought we'd be in jet packs. Yeah, we'd be doing this thing from a satellite somewhere.
Brian, you gotta be on like ten years now, right.
This is my tenth year. You might be the longest tenured host of all time.
I think I am. I'm only a year behind thirteen. Yeh, I think you are. We Apparently we need to raise the standards. Obviously you haven't kicked me off years.
Yes, yes, And a special call out to Chad Abbott the now program director at in station manager at Cafe and here in Minneapolis at our at our main station that we broadcast out of we're in the studios now. Originally he was our our on site engineer when we're doing live shows in nineteen ninety five. Yeah, and he has he's you know, he has been promoted so many times now that he's been running the station for now, I don't know, like fifteen twenty years.
But so you're saying there's still hope for Robbie.
They're still up right, Robbie might be the succession plan that is, that's absolutely possible. Who knows in charge, You've done a fantastic job.
And just from the bottom of my heart from a listener, an actual listener to a producer, I just want to say congratulations.
Thank you very much. I appreciate that so much. Coming up over the course of the show, the one thing you need to know about each team's offseason. If you've been sleeping through the offseason a little bit or otherwise having a life, we're gonna get you up to speed on the key thing you need to know from each team. We're gonna go through our peacock offs something we've done every preseason now for many years, where we give bold predictions that we hope to peacock with. Later, you're gonna
get tired of hearing tired of hearing that. Yeah, I think over the course of the peacock off, we'll talk about some of the players that we love but hate the ADP love the player, but don't like the draft position. Identify those we've got sleepers, We've got our black list, players that we are not drafting. Three tough questions and so much more to get to over this are Now we're back to our long extended editions of Fantasy Football Weekly. All right, let's jump in the one thing you need
to know about each team's offseason, Matt. We begin with the Buffalo Bills.
Yeah, they have a completely new wide receiver room. Stefan Diggs and Abe Davis, they're gone right now. The top of their wide receiver depth chart is Khalil Shakir, Rookie Keon Coleman, and Curtis Samuel. Then there's also Mac Hollins and Marquez Veldez, Scantling and kJ Hamler and Chase Claypool and actually a bunch of other dudes. They have twelve wide receivers in camp right now, which means the search is not over for the right wide receiver in Buffalo.
No, and a bunch of those all play slot as well, and so I think it's going to be tricky to find fantasy value there. I know we're going to talk about one of those guys in detail later in this show, Brian, Let's go to the Miami Dolphins. The one thing we need to know about their offseason.
Will was once the most famous Smith to go to Miami, but that is now John U.
Yeah, baby, John new Smith.
I had to pick John Smith for the one thing to talk about the Dolphins. We don't want to talk about Tua and Tyree Hill and Wadley's Johnny John, Yes, Johnny John Hu. The Dolphins haven't approved of this. I knew you would. Pants are already off. You're dry humping like.
A okay, let's not let's not go quite that far, all right, Well, he scores in week one, you will be right then you say it or when when? So guarantee when he scores in with week one, I'll remember to bet that the pants will be in orbit.
Bet that any time touchdown, I gotta remember that but Dolphins haven't utilized tight ends much in recent years, much to the chagrin of my Durham smite sleeper call last year. But uh, John, who is a freak in a good way and at tight end twenty three? Why not right? Charge tight end twenty three?
Johnny, you know what you're getting in John Nosmith because I've talked about him for three years now. Incredible athlete, fast is periodically back in this Tennessee days they would give him handoffs out of the backfield. I mean, he is just, you know, the athleticism off the charts, just waiting for some team to put him in a spot to utilize him a little better than he's been used to this point. Let's go to the New York Jets. You know Aaron Rodgers is back, but you may not
remember that they quietly signed former Charger receiver Williams. And you know he's off the radar because he blew out his ACL last year and then the team cut him, and then he quietly signed with the With with the Jets.
He's on the pup list right now. He just came off the pup list like Yester.
Okay, they go just off the pup list. Now he might be available Week one or the ACL way back in September. So wouldn't be surprised if Mike Williams, maybe maybe not doing all the reps in Week one, is the starting wide receiver for the Jets. But I wouldn't be surprised to be the starter for the Jets. And somebody are going to be able to get Uber cheap if you're so inclined, if you want one of Aaron
Rodgers off starting wideouts basically for free. Sup All right, let's go to the new England Patriots.
Man Bill Belichick and Mac Jones are gone, Alex van Pelt is the new offensive coordinator, and Jacoby Burssett is slated to start a quarterback with Drake May waiting his turn. But in my mind, outside of Ramandre Stevenson, there probably won't be any other Patriots on standard fantasy rosters this draft season.
We'll be talking more about Alex van Pelt later. You probably didn't think we were going to deep dive Alex van Pelt, but it's coming. Let's go to the Baltimore Ravens.
Brian, you got to talk about King Henry now when we're talking the Ravens still twenty touchdown potential in this offense in my mind, even at his age, and maybe three down back potential. Here's a quote from Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Don't call me Art Monkin when talking about Derek Henry. To me, he's a really versatile player, not only running the ball, but getting the ball in space and throwing him the ball and getting him out on the perimeter and see if some of your defensive backs
can tackle him. So if he deploys Henry in that way, that is a first round draft capital. He's going in the third right now. So I think in the third he's going too late. I think he's a slam dunk pick in the second round.
He's starting to trend into the second round a lot of drafts, and we'll be monitoring that closely. And I know you're a little later in the show, you're going to talk about another Baltimore running a little bit later, let's go to the Land. Brown's the one thing you need to know about this team's offseason. And obviously we're tracking Nick Chubb's rehab process. But you may not remember their draft day acquisition of Jerry Judy. I think it
was draft day. It could be wrong. The Browns acquired him for a couple of Day three picks and subsequently signed him to a three year extension. So they obviously like Jerry Judy and he's probably going to start. This is not a team that was deep at the receiver position, and based on the contract, it would suggest that he's going to be a starter. He found himself in Sean Payton's voluminous mansion like doghouse, and Judy couldn't get out of that. Now he gets a fresh start and he's
starting opposite Amari Cooper. Another starter you can get almost for free.
I like the idea of a really big doghouse. That's a mansion that's fun to me.
Yeah, in Denver. In Denver, maybe it's the size of Russell Wilson's old house with the fourteen toilets.
Hey, let's talk about Russell Wilson. Yeah, good call, nice, let's do it. He's the starting quarterback in Pittsburgh. Now Justin Fields is the backup at this point. They said so as much over the weekend where they were talking about yeh, Russell's the number one and Fields is the number two. They also moved on from Deontay Johnson leaving, really just George Pickens as the clear wide receiver one in the steel City and then a bunch of other guys.
This is gonna be a fascinating one to watch. I think the Steelers are a sneaky, really good team. They already had one of the best defenses in the league. They've been way down by awful quarterbacking ever since been retired. I just I get the feeling that offense and that whole team is just sitting on a much better season. They can just get competing quarterback in which for us can bring.
They are picked to finish last in the AFC March, I'm.
Taking the over. Yeah, Cincinnati Bengals while we're staying in the NFC North Bryan. One thing to know about their offseason.
Joe Burrow will be good to go after rists surgery that ended his season prematurely last year. T Higgins's back the franchise tag. But I want to know who will be the third receiving option for the Bengals. People are excited about rookie Jermaine Burton, second year receiver Andre Iosa.
Bus that's my guy.
I was about saying, I wish Scott was here. To correct me.
But you guys people call him Yoshi.
I believe I like that. I'm gonna go with that from now.
We probably need a Yoshi button. Now.
I know likes Yoshi too. I'm pretty sure that.
Yeah, I don't remember that robe he lays an egg a perfect well, let's hope he doesn't play an egg.
We don't want Yoshi laying eggs. He spit eggs too, right, Oh, he could spit him out.
Eggs just pouring out of Yoshi some egxcellent performance.
Yoshi's kind of gross.
I'm just thinking of that. I think you should leave eggs all right. Back to what were we talking about? Oh yeah, the Bengals.
That sales receiver tight end, Mike Kasiki.
I'm a little intrigued by Mike Siki. Uh In sinci now, so I bet turns into a He's more of a wide receiver anyway than a tight ends A little bit little. I'm intrigued by him. He's he's virtually free as well.
He's going to be a take a chance on me guy. That'll pop up a couple of times this year in the in Houston. Everybody knows about Stefan Diggs showing up there and complicating that receiver room. But maybe you didn't notice. Joe Mixon is now the presumptive starting running back. To my eyes, Mixon looked cooked last year. Let me put some numbers to that. Oh, do you want to put numbers to that? Because we're gonna talk a lot about Joe Mixon later. We'll hold on and the cooked portion
then you can chime in. All right, Well, rest ashured. We'll talk more about Joe Mixon in a minute. Yeah, Jacksonville Jaguars, Matt.
Calvin Ridley, he's gone and he's being replaced by Gabe Davis and rookie first rounder Brian Thomas Junior. Thomas is six four to two oh five and it's pretty good speed. He was second on the depth chart at LSU, behind Malik Neighbors, but he could be the primary option for Trevor Lawrence in short order, and Lawrence had a pretty good average depth of target last year. Brian Thomas Junior is a pretty interesting rookie player.
I'm interested. Bigger, bigger body, and a lot of opportunity potentially like it.
I've never done that before. I always Yeah, people are.
Calling him fish of you right there.
People are calling him a BTJ now, So I just need him to work an X in there and then I can sell my Twitter handle to him when he signs his second contract. That got it all figured out.
He plays the X receiver.
Oh perfect, btx J. You can follow Brian on Twitter at BTXJ.
Well at least for now, and then it'll be a Brian Thomas Juniors. He sells it.
I think next up is the Tennessee Titans. Calvin Ridley come back to me real quick on the court.
Sorry, no worries. Josh Downs Wide receiver Josh Downs recently went down with a high ankle spring He's out at least six weeks. That's a big bump for a Donnie Mitchell and Alec Pierce. People might have forgotten about Alec Pierce, who I think ran the most miles on the field last year. Yeah remember that it was the most cardio
of ascular fit player in the NFL. But yeah, Josh Downs is going to miss some time and coming back from a high ankle that takes some time, and the Colts are still going to want to run the ball a lot. So I'm kind of just out on Downs and even I'm not buying the dip put it that way.
Now, the Titans, Yeah, afore mentioned Calvin Ridley signed up what I considered be a stunning ninety two million dollar deal. I agree, I do not that despite the incredibly inconsistent season that he had in Jacksonville last year, new head coach Brian Callahan says that he'll use Ridley in much the same fashion that he used Jamar Chase. So we
like that because Callahan was the offensive coordinator there. It's worth noting that DeAndre Hopkins is going to miss a much much of the preseason with injury, and he's also thirty two years old, so Ridley could roll into the season as the undisputed number one receiver for Tennessee. Let's go to the Kansas City Chiefs. So what's the one thing we need to know?
The Super Bowl champs added a few new weapons to the offense. Marquise Brown comes over on one year deal from the Cardinals, and first round rookie Xavier Worthy, who's one of the fastest wide receivers in the league. The problem is is he's super small, and I just don't foresee Worthy or Marquise Brownie clipsing Rashi Rice is the preferred target unless Rice ends up facing suspension or in jail for driving cars poorly.
Rishie Earnhardt Rice as we like to call him, poorly and fast. Let's go to the Las Vegas Raiders, Brian.
I want to know who the quarterback is going to be in Vegas? Is this gonna be? Is it gonna be Aiden O'Connell or Gardner Minshew because they have weapons now in Las Vegas, starting with Devonte Adams. I've always liked Jacobe Myers. He is legit, and now they got phenom tight end Brock Powers, who's not going to play much tight end in my opinion. He's more of a wide receiver. So is it gonna be Minshew or Aiden O'Connell.
This is the one quarterback battle I am truly watching because I think there's some serious late round value whoever wins this job.
For the rooting for Minshew from a fantasy standpoint, for sure.
I'm room for AOC the rookie. I mean, I think he's We've seen what minch you can offer. He can give you a sweet mullet and jorts, and we've seen his ceiling.
Almost a playoff berth for the cold third game away from making the playoffs. Minshu's at least capable, and maybe I'm being tainted by eight and O'Connell getting shut out by the Vikings, and I just don't see any upside with him.
Antonio Pierce started one quarterback as a coach, that was eight, and O'Connell he started all nine of Antonio Pierce's head coaching games last year and they went five and four in that time.
So all right, we got two more to get to before we take a break. Denver Broncos. After jettisoning Russell Wilson, the Broncos starting quarterback situation is unsettled. We've got rookie bow Knicks battling journeyman Jared Stidham, and I don't think Zach Wilson's really in this battle at all, but I'll know he's on roster. Most assumed that bow Nick's draft equity alone will make him the starter before long, maybe even as early as Week one. We'll watch that as
it as it goes. Zach Wilson getting third team reps and the final AFC team we'll talk about before we take a break. The Los Angeles.
Chargers, everyone but justin Airbear is gone Austin Eckler, Keenan Allen, Mike Williams all gone, new coach Jim Harbaugh, new running backs Gus Edwards, JK. Dobbins and Kamani Vidal, new wide receivers and rookie Lad McConkie and DJ Shark. Even the tight ends are new, Will Disley and Hayden Hurst. The question will be how all these new pieces gel in Los Angeles with the Airbear.
We'll talk more about at least one of those players extensively later on in this show as well. It seems to be the reoccurring theme here. If you're anywhere near the Twin Cities, Fantasy Football Weekly will be recorded live next week, August sixteenth at Treasure Island Casino will be doing a live version of Fantasy Football Weekly. You could see this whole show in person, plus some deep dive data after the show. Fantasy Football Weekly at Treasure Island
in near the Twin Cities. When we come back the NFC teams the one thing you need to know about their off seasons when we return to Fantasy Football Weekly. Welcome back Fantasy Football Weekly. Paul Charchy and Matt Harrison, Brian Johnson with you thirtieth anniversary edition. This week, we're talking through all the things you need to know about each team's offseason. Before I get there, let me mention Guillotine Leagues dot Com now open for the twenty twenty
four season, and two very important things to mention. Number one, totally revamped app and desktop experience much much better, smoother, better looking, easier to run. You're gonna love those. And private leagues totally free first time ever. Yes, very exciting. So maybe you know if the cost has ever held you back, now's the time to jump in and go get a sample Guillotine League.
Now, I'm gonna say this lovingly. If you were one of the idiots who was playing Guillotine Leagues, I'm like, Yahoo.
Yeah right, why do that stop?
Right? I mean you never stood up in the first place, didn't You couldn't pay me a million dollars to play a guetegan Yahoo? It's like, oh, let me do eight hours of work every week.
Right, Brian's fired up. I love it.
Yeah, I'm allowed to bash y'ah.
Right, you can do whatever it's yeah, yeah, you can.
You can make generic sites kind of work for this format. But we're the site that all we do is Guillotine Leagues. That's it's perfectly manicured for your guillotine league. No work and tons of bells and whistles that are unique to the Guillotine League format Gullotine leagues dot Com. Back to the teams and the one thing you know about their off seasons. We left off with the NFC. Let's go to the Dallas Cowboys.
All right, Well, Jerry Jones doesn't seem to care that Ceede Lamb is holding out, unsigned and angry great GM Jerry Jones is, So we'll see what happens there. Hopefully they signed him. But I'm really looking at the running back room in Little D. I call it Little D because the Cowboys are not good. Ezekiel Elliott is back. Rico Dowdell is the presumed favorite. Royce Freeman has been turning head favorite.
I don't know.
I guess he's looked the best in camp, and he was there last year. I think people are leaning his way as a starter at but it's really going to be a split between Zeke and Dowdell most likely maybe Royce Freeman mixed in. Long story short, I'm out entirely on this backfield all about the passing game. It's CD holt up.
It's go to the Philadelphia Eagles. Their new starting running back is Saquad Barkley, who crossed enemy lines for a bigger pay day and the opportunity to move up about thirty one spots in offensive line quality. Can't blame him for that. Barkley should get plenty of use, hopefully as a receiver as well, and the Eagles depth chart at running back isn't nearly as cluttered as it has been
in previous years. Right, so there's Kenneth Gain Well, then there's the rookie will Shipley, who does not really look to be much of a factor here. Barkley could be looking at a workhorse season, but you know, inside the three four yard line, what's gonna happen? All tush pushes baby m That's a limiting factor for his upside. Let's go to the Giants, Matt.
The Giants actually made a lot of offseason move The biggest one was getting edge rusher Brian Burns. But let's talk about the offense. Saquon out, Devin Singletary in, Drew Locke is in as the backup quarterback, and if Daniel Jones and all the videos from this preseason or any indication Drew Locke might get some play this year. John Runyon was brought into bolster the O line, and Malik Neighbors is the best wide receiver the Giants have had since Odell Beckham.
Yeah, he looks extremely promising. I've got a fantasy league. I'm gonna have to choose between Malik Neighbors and Marvin Harrison, and I don't in a dynasty league, and I don't know for sure what I'm gonna do yet.
It's just preseason, but they didn't target Neighbors in the Giants for his preseason game. It's like, come on.
Maybe they're trying to keep him hidden.
Maybe he hasn't been playing.
No one's gonna figure it out.
Let's go to the Washington Commanders Brian all Right.
Washington took quarterback Jaden Daniels with the second overall pick. He is listed as the starter. They're not messing around like they are in New England, and I'm buying Daniels for Offensive Rookie of the Year at plus five point fifty uh failed for former Cardinals head coach Cliff Kingsbury is now the OC in Washington. He is very past friendly.
Daniel Daniels is also very mobile. He has the limit the hits he's going to take, though, because he got knocked around in college quite a bit and they hit a lot harder in the pros. But Daniels currently going off the board is QB eleven. That's ahead of rock Perty, Caleb Williams, who's the favorite to win Offensive Rookie of the Year. Yeah, Trevor Lawrence.
So we're going to talk more about it, sure, and a little later in this show as well. Let's go to the Detroit Lions. Almost no changes to the Lions offense, aside from letting go a receiver Josh Reynolds. Khaliff Raymond is an intriguing deep sleeper. He's been splitting time with Reynolds and you won't have to do that anymore. The uptick and playing time could mean Khalif Raymond is like
a spot fantasy starter. I can see scenarios where he's going to be to take a chance on me, guy Khalif Raymond this year, and if Jamison Williams can't stay healthy, which has been a problem, then Raymond to get even more of a bigger role and he could be the team's kick returner, which could add some fantasy value as well. So a little kerlif Raymond deep steam for you. Let's go to our next team, Green Bay Packers. One thing to know about their offseason.
Mat biggest change was the Packers sent Aaron Jones packing and in a rare move, they signed a free agent to a somewhat big money deal at the running back position. That would be former Raider Josh Jacobs. I'm not sure Jacobs is an improvement though, as all of his metrics suffered in twenty twenty three. Bad miss tackle rate, bad yards after contact, super high stuff rate. I'm not so sure that rookie Marshawn Lloyd won't be stealing touches by the end of the year.
There, and Lloyd is built for fantasy value. You know. He is a big, thick, goal line style back and he could he could be a workhorse down the road.
Let's hope he's a little bit better than a big, huge aj Dillon.
Exactly. Yeah, he's I think he's a cut candidate.
He is.
Let's go to the Minnesota Vikings.
Brian, I'm a shocked I'm talking about the Vikings house. Well, if I want to talk one thing about the Minnesota Vikings.
What would that be from off season moves? What was what's a notable off season move? Right?
Your starting quarterback and a lot of you Viking fans out there have to deal with it is Sam Donald who is going to be a screaming value with the last pick in your draft. This is his first real football team he gets to play for, and he has the best wide receiver in the world. And I am full on believing in Sam Donald. And there are so many Vikings fans who want him to fail, which makes no sense. I'm excited. You want to see Ja McCarthy, I am too. Rising tide lifts all boats, right Church, Yeah,
you want Donald to succeed. I'm buying he's gonna. I don't care about the tough schedule. I don't care as these ghosts. I love Sam Donald. I hope you hear this. Sam, I believe in you, and lots of others do on to you.
Chuch, Sam going off the board as quarterback thirty four? Right now? How many NFL teams are there?
I believe thirty two?
Thirty two? All right, so there's at least one backup being taken before starter Sam Donald. All Right, most people nationally do not understand that Sam Donald is going to be the starter and has a long runway. They're gonna ease in JJ McCarthy as long and take as long as they need before they feel comfortable getting JJ out there.
Love it.
Let's go to our next team, the Chicago Bears. A really just massive upgrades everywhere around this offense for Chicago, really, but you know, this whole assignment, this whole this is it's all about one move. So I'm just gonna constrain on one thing. It's got to be Caleb Williams. No rookie in recent memory has been dropped into a better
spot to succeed than Caleb Williams has. I mean, you get DJ Moore, you get a future Hall of Famer in Keenan Allen, you get lottery pick Roma Dunza, you bit, you get Williams's big arm, you get the all the you know, and the mobility. People aren't talking enough about Caleb Williams. Of mobility. He's got like five rushing touchdowns in him. Maybe this year wouldn't surprise me at all.
He's he's going to be the first Bear, assuming he doesn't get hurt, he'll be the first Bear to throw for four thousand years, and he's gonna years yards and he's gonna do it.
In four thousand years.
Yes, that'd be a bad average. Yeah, I took your four thousand years too.
Could you argue that JJ McCarthy was dropped into as good, if not a better spot.
But not the starter? So yes, but that is when he's dropped. It's a it is a pretty good spot for JJ as well. Let's go to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Man, they really just re signed everyone on the team, Mike Evans, Baker Mayfield, Levante David Tristan Wurf's, Chase McLaughlin, Antoine Winfield. They're basically just running it back from last season. So maybe the most interesting fantasy nugget, Chris Godwin is actually healthy this year and it sounds like they're going to send him back to run most of his routes from the slots.
Yes, I'm a big fan of that.
Where he wasn't running last year, and I think it's going to be a pretty big uptick for Chris Godwin.
This totally agree he's going to be a He's going to return to being uber safe catching all those passes, intermediate passes over the middle of the field. He's going to be a guillotine darling and you're gonna get him.
He's super boring and you can get him just on the cheap.
Let's go to the New Orleans Saints.
Brian, this was a tough one to find something to talk about with this team, so I went with, well, it's more of a question I'm going to post to you, guys. Do you remember Jamal Williams the NFL's leading touchdowns.
Score just too one year removed from being the NFL's leading touchdown score.
Of course, that was with Detroit. So people were expecting some success last year for Williams. He saw none. But uh, maybe this year will be a rebound here for Williams. There's some trouble in the running back room for the Saints. Alvin Kamara is clearly on the downcline. Kendre Miller cannot stay healthy, he's dealing with a hamstring issue. Coach calling him out. So Jamal Williams dart throw? Where's that Darrows down there? God, that's a big dart.
That's a big dart right there. That hurt Falcons. Obviously, the one thing to know, Kirk Cousins is your starting quarterback. Some people doubted his ability to return from his torn achilles, but all the reports from camp indicate you wouldn't know if you didn't know. He looks to be planting perfectly well on it. His throwing motion seems to be completely unchanged. And remember, Cousins was the NFL passing leader when he tore his achilles at the halfway point of last season.
He was on pace for a five thousand yard passing season and forty touchdowns. That would have put him as the league MVP or certainly in that conversation last year. New offensive coordinator is Zach Robinson a wild card here, but there's optim that Cousins will unlock the draft equity that this team had poured into Drake London and Kyle Pitts as lottery picks of their drafts. I think that's going to be the case here. Let's go to the Caroline Panthers s Matt.
Dave Kanalis is the new coach. He's credited as reviving the Bucks offense last season, and he's really trying to put weapons around Bryce Young. They're trying to see if they have something here with Bryce Young. They got Deontay Johnson as the top wide receiver. They drafted wide receiver Xavier or Lagette with the last pick of the first round, and running back Jonathan Brooks in the mid second. So they're really trying to put some weapons around Bryce Young to see what they have.
There's some signs that Brooks may come back sooner than we thought. You know, he had the November ACL so I was like, yeah, man, I don't it might not be till Halloween or something. But there's talk that we might see him on the field sooner than later, and that would be that'd be great for Jonathan Brooks. Let's go to the San Francisco forty nine ers, Brian and to watch.
Ooh, well, I mean Brandon, Watch well, Brandon Ayuk get traded. That's what we're watching in San fran right now or San Jose, wherever they play. If Ayuk does get moved, that improves the stock of Ricky Parsol, who is a rookie. But I'm more excited about Juwan Jennings, who is always on the field. He's a great blocker and he actually is a pretty good wide receiver. As well. So we'll see what happens with Ayuk. But if he moves, that's
gonna there's gonna be some butterfly effects across the league. Well, guess across two teams.
My worry is any team that can afford to sign Brandon Ayuk at this stage of the season is a bad team, and they because they have the cap, They've got caproom. Bad teams have caprooms and good players every big contracts.
Do you want to know who has the most cap room in the NFL.
This year, it's it's the forty nine ers.
It's San Francisco forty.
Yes, I think it is the forty nine ers, but I think they're also stash and cash for brock perties eventual resigning. We'll see.
You know who else has a lot of cap room? Peyton Manning.
Oh, Hayton man.
He's head, got you sorry.
The Rams muddied up the fantasy prospects of Kyrone Williams by drafting Michigan runner Blake Koram in the third round. Korm is a do everything, jack of all trades back who could really eat into williams playing time much more significantly than last year's guys. Is like Royce Freeman and Zach Evans, who are just total non factors. Korm has earned strong praise in the preseason from Sean McVay, and his past catching and past blocking abilities have been on
display in training camp. So what's going to be fascinating here is, you know, Williams got so much work last year because nobody was any good to give the ball to. Blake. Korm looks like a massive upgrade. So the question is, is Kyron Williams gonna still get the big workload that helped him be one of the big fantasy success stories of last year.
Would you like to hear my take on this.
Is it's gonna be a little jaded.
I think I'm no longer cold at least tho it's been freezing up here in Minnesota.
But oh yeah, Seattle Seahawks matt lots of the same players, but a completely new coaching staff. New head coach Mike McDonald brings his funky yamob their style to the defensive side of the ball, while Ryan Grubb moves from the OC at the University of Washington down the road to the pros to take the same position with the Seahawks. Grubs offense led Division one last year with three hundred and sixty nine passing yards per game and.
Six hundred and thirty nine.
No, three hundred and sixty nine.
Okay, thank your.
Number dyslexic over there, maybe I guess I am, yes, all right. And they also featured one belcow running back in Washington who had two hundred more rushing attempts than the next guy. So I think that bodes well for everybody in the Seahawks offense except Zach Sharboney.
I can't. I'm with you on that. Yeah, although sharbon Ey, you know in your two has the right to get better, but I still can't muster a lot of enthusiasm. Yeah, all right. By the way, what is why mobiya?
Where was that?
Oh?
It's a it was a Michael McDonald, oldest singer of.
I Got You, Thank thank you?
All right.
Last team Arizona Cardinals.
Well, this time last year we were virtually drafting no Cardinals in fantasy. Kyler Murray was hurt, but now we're looking at Marvin Harrison junior wide receiver nine going late first early second round, Trey McBride tight end three, Kyler Murray quarterback seven, high expectations for this Cardinals offense. I'm just excited to watch it.
And a reminder is we brought up a lot of times in the offseason podcast. In December of last year Cardinals were averaging twenty five points per game on offense. Massive uptick that you know, you know, across the full season that would have ranked them like, I don't know, team six or something. We saw real improvement at the end of last season for the Cardinals. And now you get the talent influx of a guy like Marvin Harrison Junior and maybe down the road Trey Benson, and that's
it becomes an exciting offense in Arizzona. When we come back, get ready for a lot of this. Yes, the peak cock Off. Yeah, we're gonna give you six bold predictions. See if you can follow along with these and if you agree, you're gonna find some great values here. When we return to Fantasy Football League, it is time for the peacock off. We're gonna give you two, four, six, six, Yes, six different bold predictions that hope at this time next year we will look back and peacock off about our
great predictions. Now, we went back over the break and we looked up our predictions in this segment. Last year, let's just say we could they could do a little better. We have room, we have room to improve.
We went six or we went five and one.
I didn't technically, I did not hit with Sam Howell finished as a top ten fantasy quarterback. Yeah, I love the Sam howelake.
Matt said, that's a draw.
That's enough if it depends a lot on whether or not your league subtracts points for sacks absorbed and interceptions thrown, in which case Sam Howell is a disaster. But just on sheer yardage.
I think he led the league in hospital balls too.
I think you might have. You might have man Eric the Enemy put him in a bad spot. Eric Enemy is not even in the league. All right, let's move on, Matt. You want to start, give us your first of two peacock off.
Well, last year my peacock off was Garrett Wilson was going to finish the year as the top wide receiver in the league, and then Aaron Rodgers tour his achilles four snaps into the season. You can put an asterisk on that, So I'm recycling that take without Rogers. Last year, Wilson was fourth in the league in targets, but his targets were so putrid from Zach Wilson, Tim Boyle, and Trevor Simeon that he could only manage ninety five catches,
just over one thousand yards and only three scores. So you'd think that his targets remain the same and the quality of those passes are going to be better. I think he'll be in a good spot. The average wide receiver who's had at least one hundred and fifty targets over the last two years, Hennis has finished with one hundred and twelve receptions, almost fifteen hundred yards and scored nine times.
You don't say nine times times.
If you make it one hundred and sixty targets, it's close to sixteen hundred yards and almost ten scores. Rogers top wide receivers have had great touchdown totals. In twenty twenty two, Christian Watson had seven receiving scores, all came week ten or later. DeVante Adams had five years of double digit touchdowns in six years of being a full starter in Green Bay. So sixteen hundred yards and double digit touchdowns are almost a lock for Garrett Wilson and
He's going off at wide receiver seven right now. He's such a good receiver, He's such a good receiver good He's got as good of a chance to be wide receiver one as anybody else.
I wouldn't say as anybody else, but I would by talent, he could absolutely be wide receiver one. Let's go to Brian, your first of two peacock offs.
Speaking of really good wide receivers who have been dealing with putrid targets, I don't think anyone can top what Terry McLaurin has dealt with. Terry, poor Terry McLaurin, but I got him finishing as a top ten wide receiver this year. Currently going off the board is wide receiver thirty one.
Yeah.
Over the last four seasons, McLaurin is one of only six wide receivers to top one thousand yards in each of those seasons, and also in each of those Terry was in the bottom third of catchable target rate. Now that will change this year with Jaden Daniels and hopefully past friendly offensive coordinator Cliff Kingsbury who I brought up earlier. Daniels was the only FBS quarterback last year with ten plus air yards per attempt and a catchable throw rate
of at least eighty percent. In Kingsbury's offense ranked first the neutral pace and no huddle rate over his four years in Arizona as head coach. So I'm very excited about this offense and Terry McLaurin is clearly the top receiver top ten season in coming.
My first of two Peacock offs. Ramandre Stevenson, Guys, you know, if you've listened to the show for three years, you know how I feel about him. I love him. He's going to finish as a top ten fantasy runner currently going off the board at RB twenty, so I think he's going to effectively double his ADP. His new offensive coordinator is Alex van Pelt. Matt alluded to this earlier. Here's what we know about his about Van Pelt from
his time in Cleveland. Now, granted, Stefanski's got his fingerprints all over the Cleveland offense, but Vampell it's been side by side with him, so we can draw some comparisons. Hopefully. The Browns have ranked in run play percentage in the four years with Alex van Pelt there, fourth, sixth, and eighth in run play percentage, and then last year Nick Chubb got hurt and they dropped to seventeenth. Zeke's gone. He gets replaced by Antonio Gibson, who brings basically nothing
to the table except pass catching. And while Stevenson did fall off last year in productivity and a lot of other things, look at the passing offense that they had in New England. Defenses didn't have to play to stop Bailey, Zappi and Mac Jones. They played just a bottle Uppermandree Stevenson and go win your game and go home. Plus
they were falling behind by these big deficits. Presumably now with competent quarterbacking Jacoby Brissett to start the season, maybe into Drake may later, the offense will be better, Stevenson will get better, and no Ezekiel Elliott to take touchdown runs away from Stevenson. I believe he is sitting on a top ten fantasy season. All right, Matt, let's go to your second of two peacock off charge.
I tried to acquire Zamir White from you this week before I did the peacock off. It didn't work. In the four games after Josh Jacobs got hurt last year, and Zamir White started, he averaged twenty one rushing attempts per game. By the way, in the five games where Josh Jacobs started with Antonio Pierce as the head coach, he averaged twenty rushing attempts per game.
Yep, we love volume matt Well.
So my peacock off is Zamir White finishes with the most rushing attempts and rushing yards in the league this year.
That's bold. I like it.
Twenty rushing attempts per game. Seems in play that would be three hundred and forty rushing attempts. But let's be reasonable and says he only gets three hundred carries. Okay. Since twenty twenty, there have been seven players with three hundred plus carries. All but one of them have had more than fifteen hundred rushing yards. The player who had the most rushing attempts in the league last year, that was Derrick Henry, and he only had two eighty or
about sixteen per game. The player who had the most rushing yards last year was Christian McCaffrey at fourteen fifty nine, and he's already gonna miss like half the preseason with a calf injury. There's one player who has a shot to have three hundred carries this year, and I think it's a mere White.
You know how I feel about do the opposite, right, So I'm taking non running backs for several rounds if I could, just if I can pick my perfect draft, it's round five, Romandre Stevenson, who I just talked about, Round six, Zamir White. That's to me, they are I love these bell cow backs.
So it's not gonna happen at all for you this year. Because you said it on that.
I've said it on the air, so it probably won't go that way. Brian, you're second of two peacock COFs.
This peacock off is probably the cousin of your pea cock peacock off from last year. I got Will Levis finishing as a top ten quarterback with the Titans, who hired Brian Callahan as head coach. Callahan was the Bengals offensive coordinator over the last five years, where the Bengals ranked top five and pass rate during his tenure. The Titans also brought in Calvin Ridley, who you talked about earlier.
Church.
They also brought in Tyler Boyd. They have DeAndre Hopkins, who is hurt and a little old, but he's not a dead cat yet in my opinion. And Levis is a freak athlete, got a cannon arm, very mobile dealing. Dealt with a toe injury last year that's fully healed. I'm essentially all in on Will Levis as QB twenty four in drafts right now. I'm buying in.
My final peacock off Austin Eckler bounce back coming to RB one form in PPR League, specifically currently going off the board at RB thirty two. Had the high ankle spring last year. He was never right. Now he goes to Washington, doesn't have to be a workhorse, but he is going to catch a ton, catch a ton of passes, you know, the dump off stuff from the rookie he was looking for the safety valve elite receiver, one of the best receiving backs of the last decade. And Brian
Robinson's zero threat to catch any passes there. And Cliff Kingsbury loves to throw to runners. He didn't have any runners two throw two in Arizona, and he did it anyway, averaging right around one hundred running back targets per year.
Now he's got Austin Eckler. Big PPR season coming for Austin Eckler this season when we come back, our number two of Fantasy Football Weekly in its thirtieth anniversary episode, it is our number two Fantasy Football Weekly, the thirtieth anniversary episode thirty years going only back to nineteen ninety five, been a podcast for decade. No, no, I think more than probably more something like that.
That was the first year I played fantasy football. Nineteen ninety five. Eighth missus O'Hearn, social studies teacher.
She she had you playing fantasy fit whoever wanted to play, and she was, you know, she was good looking.
We were shout out to missus O'Har, miss hearn here out there. She had different colored eyes. My wife is not gonna like hearing it.
But I was in eighth grade.
Like Max Schuser, your wife is a thousand miles away from.
You right now and she doesn't listen to the show.
But anyway, Miss so Hearn, Yeah, years like the green eye and the blue eyes.
Green eye and the blue eye.
Oh oh boy.
That way.
We all got bad grades, I bet, but we wanted how to play fantasy football. Look at me now, missus O'Hearn.
One of my favorite one of my favorite bands is called The Bird and the Bee and they did a whole cover album of Van Halen's songs that are very very different in style than the originals and they're hot for teacher by Bird and the Bee is awesome. They have a female singer and she's singing it to the teacher. It's I'm telling you, it is sensational. Highly recommend to take a look for that Bird and the Bee Hot for teacher.
Nice.
Trust me on this.
I haven't learned about the Bird and the Bees yet.
You will you hear this song. This current segment is players who we who we like? We like the player, Yeah, so these are guys that you know. We don't have a problem with the player, we have a problem with where they're being drafted. So we have we have love in our hearts, but we have hate in our drafts. Love the player, hate the ADP. I want to begin at the quarterback position. Give me a player you like, but you're not going to draft because of where he's going.
I got Josh Allen here. He's the first quarterback off the board in most drafts. But how can you be the first quarterback off the board when he has no weapons. He topped four thousand passing yards and every year he had Stephan Diggs, but he doesn't have digs. Are they going to ask him to run more? Maybe he had fifteen rushing touchdowns last year, more than his previous two years combined, but his rushing attempts were down, his rushing
yards were down. And I think people believe that James Cook is good and we'll score more than two touchdowns on the ground this year. Yes, I do so. The ADP for Josh Allen is completely reliant on him not losing a step in the passing game and keeping up four thousand yards. Yeah, and also scoring ten to fifteen rushing touchdowns. Again, I just don't see it happening, and I'll pass on Josh Allen at that ADP.
I've got Hurts is my number one for all the reasons you just said. I think that's a great take. Brian, love the player, hate the ADP. Who's your quarterback?
Gotta love CJ. Stroud, but I hate the ADP of QB six going off the board. Near the end of the sixth round, Stroud smashed his rookie year. We all saw it. Texans brought in Stefan Diggs to team up with Nico Collins in a healthy tank Dell, those are some serious weapons, but Stroud just doesn't offer much rushing upside. The Texans have a pretty good defense, borderline very good.
Don't see a lot of shootouts there, and they're gonna want to establish the The price just too high on Stroud and quarterback is so deep, like it has been most years, I'm not taking Stroud in the sixth round.
Well, I have much of the same story to tell with Joe Burrow. You know who doesn't like Joe Burrow super Bowl quarterback? He's great, but you know he is coming off a hand injury that we don't know for sure if this is going to affect the velocity of his throws or anything else. Probably won't, but even if it doesn't, just a bigger story. And it's much the same thing with Stroud. All the quarterbacks going ahead of Burrow and Stroud have got rushing upside that Burrow has
none of. And if I just want an immobile, competent passer, I can get Kirk Cousins like eight rounds later or Jared Goff eight rounds later, so I just I can't sink pick ADP pick sixty two into Joe Burrow. Let's go to the running back position. Give me a player you love but hate the ADP.
I've got Bijon Robinson here. Last year, the Falcons led the league in running back touches with get this, five hundred and thirty eight running back touches. Last year, Wow touched totals were two seventy two for Bijon, two oh four for Tyler Aljier. But that was Arthur Smith, and that was Desmond Ritter, and this year we have Zach Robinson and Kirk Cousins. No one wants to hear it when Falcon Zo c Zach Robinson said that Algier's gonna have a big role in this offense and they're gonna
lean on him. Robinson comes from the Rams and the McVeigh camp, and while Kyron had Belcow usage last year, he was the only healthy body in town. Other than that, the Rams really haven't employed a Bellcow runner since they murdered Todd Gurley's career. More passing, less running a quality second running back. How does this equate to Bijon going off the board at number seven overall, and I've seen him go as high as number two in some drafts. I'd rather have Brysse holl or Jonathan Taylor, who I
think get all the work in their respective offenses. So I'm not going to take Bijon there.
Timp of the hat to you for taking some highly drafted players for this second.
I mean, these are guys we love, but we don't plan to draft them there.
Right, You've hit the assignment perfect, Okay, Brian, love the player, hate the adpre running back.
Another highly drafter or of going very early running back, drafted very early running back Jamior Gibbs RB four going at the one two turn. I just can't pay that price for a guy who's in a timeshare where he'll need to score from between the twenties. David Montgomery is the goal line back in his Troy problem. That is
not going to change. I mean, I am drafting Jamiir Gibbs and best Ball for the Spike Week potential, but in he's gonna be a headache in standard leagues and he scares me to death in Guillotine League.
I'm not touching there.
Like, I don't know if I want to bid on Jamior Gibbs unless something happens with David Montgomery. So I love you, Jamiro Gibbs. You're very talented, but not until you are a bellcow will I be drafting you that soon.
Earlier in the show, Brian you said Derek Henry is twenty touchdown upside. Maybe he does, but he's the epitome of a touchdown dependent player currently going off the board in the second round RB ten. Over the past two seasons, Henry's played thirty three games and he scored a nineteen of them, which is great, but that leaves fourteen other games, which is a lot of other games, almost half. And in those games, he averages fifty five rushing yards, sixteen
receiving yards, endo touchdowns. That's nine Fantasy PPR points per Game's that'll get you cut in guillotine. That's gonna hurt you in a regular format. And while he gets a massive upgrade and offensive line that will help him, there's still reason for concern that all those two thousand carries that Derreck Henry has will catch up to him, and maybe it all comes together this year. Love the player.
He's fringe Hall of Famer right now, fringe. This season could catapult him over the top and into into Canton. We'll find out. But harb ten in the second rounds just too early for me on a touchdown dependent player. Let's go to the wide receiver position, Matt, give me a player you love but hate the ADP.
I got Chris o'lave. And this is mostly because of Derek Carr.
Here.
Olave is going in the mid second round wide receiver thirteen. The last two years his two years as a pro, he's finished as wide receiver seventeen in PPR. That was last year, wide receiver twenty four and twenty twenty two. What has substance substantially changed for the better in New Orleans to rank him up to thirteen or think that he's got any ceiling higher than this. Yes, he's a Pro Football Focus Darling. All the underlying numbers, they're superb.
There's not a lot of competition for targets. But Derek Carr averaged five point seven air yards on completions last year. That's in the neighborhood of Justin Fields Gardner, Minshew, Josh Dobbs's who's throwing that deep? And Chris Olave's A dot was fourteen point three these numbers just don't jive, so it seems easy to crack the code on the Saints offense. Just double a lave, especially when he gets deeper than ten yards and Carr's going to check down the ball.
Brian, give me a player you love but hate the ADP.
I'm going to bend the rules a little bit and give you a two for in DJ Moore and Keenan Allen of the Chicago Bears. More going in the third round. That's way too rich for my blood. You can get Keenan a little later in the fifth. But those who are obviously going to eat into each other's target share now enter Romodunza into the mix. Also a rookie quarterback in kal of Williams. I'm taking the cheapest wide receiver
the three of these, and that's Rome. So I'm out on more and I'm out on more and Keenan Allen. And I don't know how useful this stat is for Romo Dunsay, but it's so insane I'm gonna read it real quick. Romo Dunesay ran nine hundred and ninety nine routes at Washington over the past two years in college. Jeez, Jamison Williams has run nine hundred and fifty three routes across his time at Alabama and the Lions over the
last five years. So if dounsay's in great shape, it's check and he knows all the routes.
There you go, he's outstanding. I'm gonna go with Jalen Waddle, love the player. Don't like the ADP is wide receiver nineteen off the board that's picked thirty six. So we're at the what the very end of the third route. Very good player, he's stuck by the Hall of Famer who demands tons of looks Tyreek Hill the last two years one hundred and seventy one and one hundred and seventy targets and that just is not enough volume for Wattle.
And because of that, not only does he have low output games with low floors, but also caps a ceiling. You know, we think of Wattle is a big play guy, but he only last year he only had really two spike weeks all season, and then adding this and you know, maybe it doesn't hold up. Miami's end of season stretch. Final three Fantasy games Jets, Niners, Browns defenses all top five defenses. I can't take Jalen Wattle at the end of the third round.
Okay, all right, let's wrap.
It up with the tight end position. Give me a tight end you love but hate the ADP.
I got the tight end who led the league in with one hundred and forty three targets and one hundred and fourteen receptions last year. That's Evan Angram by far and away the best tight end the league in both categories. However, four touchdowns last year, that was al Bundy style. That was tied with Jimmy Graham, who I forgot was in the league last year. Kate Otton, Donald Parhum, Logan Thomas. One of Ingram's touchdowns was in Week eighteen, so it
didn't count for your fantasy team anyway. He's a notorious slow starter in his last four years. The earliest date on the calendar in which he scored a touchdown October thirtieth. Okay, he's going out.
I'd like to think that he can break that.
He does not know how to score in September or October.
He's not.
It's crazy. He's going off in the sixth round. There's just a lot of guys I like better in that range, and those guys also score touchdowns.
You and I are different on this one. Seeh I just think with all that usage, the touchdowns are going to come for Evan Ingram. We'll find Mabe Brian give me a tight end you love, but hate the ADP.
I gotta go back to Detroit. And you gotta love Sam Laporter, how could you not? But I hate the ADP of tight end one going at the end of the third. He's legit, he's great. But the Lions they're just so loaded. So there's so much competition for targets. So I mean tight End one, I mean I can get. I can get Travis kelz Mark Andrews Trade McBride a little later than Sam Laporter. There's not that much of a falloff I would predict. So I'm fading Sammy ballgame big time, unfortunately.
Travis Kelcey ADP twenty nine tight End two. Look, everybody wants to be on the Taylor train, I guess except me. I'd just I'd rather get out a year too early than a year too late on a thirty four year old tight end. And we saw the signs of the slowdown last year from Week eleven forward to the end of the regular season, do you guys remember how many touchdowns Travis Kelcey scored.
It was pretty low. He was saving himself for the offseason or the postseason.
Zero yeah, zero, And he did score in the postseason. And look, by the way, all last year, you know how many times he topped one hundred yards two. I just you know, I think there were signs last year, just the eye test, there were signs last year of Travis Kelcey slowing down. It's a year later, and the pitch position's got so much depth, and brid just alluded to this. You know, you've got all that big rookie
class from last year at tight end. You've got Brock Bauers this year, who's going to be who could be great in his rookie year. You've got the expected bounce back of Kyle Pitts. So you know, we've got a lot of opportunities to get other players. I don't necessarily feel like we need to go hope that Travis Kelsey has got one more year left in him, not at tight end two, not at ADP twenty nine.
Overall, we mentioned I mentioned him in an offseason show just for you Dynasty leaguers. Empire leaguers out there. Jared Wiley, rookie tight end for the Chiefs. They say he's Kelsey Lake. So all right, there you go, Jared Wiley.
If you're looking for a different way to play, like an Empire League, different way to play, how about the anti leagues. We are now open for the twenty twenty four season and private leagues first time ever. Totally free, totally free.
Awesome.
You've got your regular league. Go take the same team owners to shadow Guillotine League, playing both simultaneously. They play totally differently because Guillotine is such a unique experience. As you already know, every week the low scoring team gets chopped, all the players go to the waiver wire. There is waiver wire pandemonium as people are trying to pick up Christian McCaffrey and other great players. It is such a fun way to play. You're gonna love it. Guillotine Leagues
dot Com. We'll be back in moments Fantasy Football Welcome back Fantasy Football Weekly, thirtieth anniversary edition. Thank you for those of you that have been listening from the beginning. There's got to be a few people out there that have been listening from the beginning, right so how many episodes is that. Well, it's a little complicated because we weren't year round until what about five years ago.
Well, just like it's about it's about twentyish episodes a year.
Oh, it's like twenty four or something right at four or we got like five preseasons. The preseason shows were longer than I don't know, five plus, so I think it was.
Like in like sixteen sixteen weeks the regular season, so like twenty twenty one. Yeah, time, so we're about six hundred shows.
In probably probably this is the best of the six hundred.
Yeah, this one easily.
Yes. This next segment blacklist players. Yeah, so unlike the last segment where it was players who we like, but we're just not drafting them because of their their they're draft positions just too high. These are players we don't even care where they're drafted. Basically, you'd have they'd have to fall really really hard before we'd even consider these players.
So it's like hate the player, hate the ADP, hate the player.
Hate the ADP. Let's do a couple of them each, Matt. Let's start with you.
I got Saquon Barkley here. I think the Giants knew what they were getting out of of qualified backs. Last year, Barkley ranked thirty four in elusiveness. In two hundred forty seven rushing attempts, he only forced thirty one miss tackles. To put that into perspective, James Connor had two hundred eight rushing attempts, so forty fewer, and he forced sixty miss tackles thirty more.
And Saquon remember Saquon is rookie. Yeah, he was the closest thing to Barry Sanders We've seen since Barry Sanders. He was shattering defender's ankles. That's all gone from Barkley's game now sapped away by the high ankle sprains in the ACL. It's sad that that was that was taken from him.
He averaged three point nine yards per carry last year. That was twenty sixth best amongst qualified runners, tied with the highly sought after Alexander Madison. And oh, by the way, he's going to an Eagles team whose lead back last year, DeAndre Swift, averaged zero point eight rushing attempts per game inside the five and had only five rushing scores because of the toush push.
Yeah, the tush push is a huge factor.
I'm not I'm not drafted.
It's fifteen touchdowns.
I'm not drafting Barkley at all.
Well and certainly not his ADP, which is now he's snuck into the first round. Yeah for Sae Kwon Barkley. Brian, give me your first of two blacklist players.
I did it again. It is the preseason. Hey, I flew in from Charlotte. Give me a rat shausted. Yes, I am all out on James Cook in the fifth round. The Bills had twenty two rushing touchdowns last year. Who wants to guess how many James Cook had got too? Is not paying attention? All right, Well I used that.
I used that.
Those are old notes from on the Old Show. So oh well, thanks Matt.
Anyway, are you recycling content right now?
No, I this was an offseason second that I'm just reusing. This is a very you are. This is a very rough segment for me. We might we might want to start over. But anyway, Josh Allen and Robbie's boy rookie Ray Davis are going to run for more touchdowns than James Cook, who I am not drafting. Number one on my black list of players.
Thor does not like Ray Davis I do. This is one of the few times though I disagree with Thor's assessment. I like Ray Davis Monster Kansas City rookie receivers. Xavier Worthy is on my black list going off the board at wide receiver thirty eight. Track stars almost never convert to reliable NFL wide receivers. I give you John Ross, I give you Marquise Goodwin, JJ Nelson, Darius Hayward, bust all guys that were track stars turned wide receivers who could not make it in the NFL. Now will Xavier
Worthies crazy speed net him some big games? Yes, he'll have some giant receptions. Although we should note Patrick Mahomes' depth of throw has gone down every single season of his career. He's not throwing bombs like you used to. Worthy is a raw rookie version of Hollywood Brown. And who's already on roster Hollywood Brown, who's you know?
Now?
Three four years into his career? Five this will be his fifth year into his career. He's already worked out the cakes. Hollywood Brown's with just a better version of Xavier Worthy. Now Brown is only on a one year deal. He'll be gone in a year. And maybe next year I'll be a lot more interested in Xavier Worthy. But you're not gonna know when the when he's going to be on the field enough and against which defenses? And will he corral a deep ball either? Too many variables.
He's fourth in the pecking order at best.
At best, I'm out on Xavier Worthy wide receiver thirty eight. That's wrong, All right, man, Let's go to your second of two blacklist players.
Christian Watson is going off in the sixth round right now. It picks sixty eight and now. Mostly, I just wanted to use this as a platform to say I don't want Packer wide receivers, even though in every draft I've completed so far this year, I've walked away with Jordan Love.
But drafting Watson in the sixth when you could get like Romeo Dubs in the ninth, they're Dantavian and the tenth, it's just ludicrous, especially when you consider he averaged five point eight targets, three catches, and forty seven yards per game last year. The Packers have four wide receivers who are pretty close in skill. If you need to take one, take one of the later two and not the guy in the sixth round.
M hmm, all right, I'm listening to that. I'm listening to that. Brian, your blacklist player. And by the way, we have three each, right, not too we have three. We'll get to We'll get to all three. Brian.
Hey, Siri, turn on Mike. I'm going back to Buffalo. We're picking on the Bills. I am. I am not drafting Keon Coleman, who, it is absurd is getting drafted ahead of Curtis Samuel and Khalila Shakirir Coleman extremely raw rookie the Bills. When they switched to Joe Brady as their offensive coordinator last year, their passing play percentage plummeted. Just don't draft Keon Coleman. This is I can't believe that he's getting the highest drafted. He's going first among
Bills wide receivers. I'm like speechless right now.
Well, just because there's no other wide receiver you would want to take for fantasy purpose.
I like Samuel and shake care at cost I do personally.
Sometimes a player just isn't good and even if there's some opportunity I talked earlier, I like Austin Eckler, and I think he's gonna have an RB one season as a PPR back. The guy who I don't like is his running mate, Brian Robinson. We've seen two years of Brian Robinson. He's just not that good PFF rankings as RB thirty one last year and RB twenty four the year before that. He actually got worse last year for
a bigger back. Brian Robinson doesn't break tackles. He ranked fifty first and twenty second in yards after contact per carry the last two years. And then, of course you know he's not gonna catch Austin Eckler's gonna siphon off all the receptions there. Washington's offensive line isn't terrible, but it's not good enough to open up the big lanes that Brian Robinson needs because he does He's not shifty, he doesn't it moves. He's just a straight ahead guy.
He doesn't bring in anything of the table. I'm not taking Brian Robinson.
He love Eckler and you hate Robinson. I think those two things worked together.
All right, Let's go to your third and final Blacklist player, Matt.
I've got Joe Mixon because when I was looking up the stats for Saquon Barkley, Joe Mixon was right by him in almost every category. Similarly to Barkley, Mixon had a few more rushing attempts last year on a better offense than Barkley, by the way, but turned in pretty similarly terrible numbers ranked thirty first, and elusiveness on PFF just behind those elusive fellows like AJ Dillon and Javonte Williams. Thirty one misstackles force tied for twenty sixth in the league.
Forced a mistackle only twelve percent of his runs. Compare that to the guy who just replaced him in Cincy, Zach Moss. He forced a misstackle on twenty percent of his carries last year. He arrives in a pass first Houston team that threw fifty seven percent of the time last year and just added Stefan Diggs the eight running backs going after Mixon and adp I mean you can look him up on your own. IM not going to list him here. I'd rather have all of them.
All of them. Look I'm I'm I am so with you on this. The catch with mixing is I can't say this because I've lost all credibility on anything. Damian Pierce related, but Damian Pierce would be the only other guy to get a carry there. That's on roster right now.
I just signed Cam Akers, right, Cam on his second achilles and his second achilles.
Nobody comes back from one achilles. He did well? Bear did he? I don't know in the league, but I don't know all right, Brian, you're third of three blacklist players.
This is more of a love the player, hate the ADP. But I'm not drafting TJ. Hockinson at all this year. It's just because of the knee injury shredded it late last year.
Who is that?
Who is the Lions player that did it?
I forget hay Harry's whoever was he blew up someone else's knee last year and he's the one who got in a fight with neighbors in the guys a d bag again.
Anyway, I'm just out on Hokinson. I know there's encouraging reports that's gonna be h Kirby Joseph, that this is Kirby Joseph. Clean up your plate, Kirby. It's despicable. Anyway, I'm out on Howkinson. They're saying you might come back in the first half. I'm just not buying it. And if he does come back, he's not gonna be the Hawkinson you want. There's tight ends going after him that I'm very high on, Noah Fant, Kate Otten, I like Tyler Konklin this year, the afore mentioned John who Smith.
I'm just even if he comes back, I'm not going Hawkinson at tight end sixteen. I don't think he's gonna be ready.
All right. Our final blacklist player Miami running back devon Ah Chan running back ten right now, running back ten, obviously highlight machine, and when he has those big, big gains, I'm gonna be sitting there going, man. I wish I had Devon a Chan on my team. And the issue isn't that he's not good. The issue is that he's in the most confounding committee backfield in the league. So you've got the health issues, right, he's five foot nine,
he's only one hundred and eighty eight pounds. His durability is a huge question mark. And then when you're just when you're in a committee as deep as the Miami's committee is, it's just some games are gonna be a moistered game. Some games it's gonna be rookie Jalen Wright, and some days it's gonna be Devon a Chan and they're never gonna give a Chan a heavy workload. They
never will because they know we can't take it. So he's gonna be sitting in like this seven eight, nine touch, maybe ten to eleven touch gets on a range.
Obviously, a guy you want to draft is the tenth running back off the board, tenth right.
Exactly, It's not even an ADP thing. I just don't think I'm gonna come out of any of my drafts with Devon a Chan because he's got you'd have to drop so much farther than he would have to. Yes, I'll regret at some plays when he has explosive runs, but I just think it'll talent totality. Too many dud games coming for him. When we come back, it's our final segment. Three Tough Questions, plus will unveil our favorite sleepers. Final
segment Fantasy Football Weekly. Coming up next Final segment Fantasy Football Weekly. Paul Charchie and Matt Harrison, Brian Johnson with you. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Paul Charchian, Matt is at Explosive Output, and Brian is at bt x J. This is a segment that we like to call three tough Questions. We oftentimes begin.
With us question number one, what is the one rule change every league should institute at this time of year?
Right, So, if you're gonna make rule changes, you need to do it now in advance of the season. You can't just be like, hey, week six, let's change our scoring system. Whatever. Give me the one rule change every league should be considering adopting right now. Let's begin with Matt.
I think we do this question every year the first show.
Yes we do.
We always talk about super flex or getting ready to tide, vetos are converting to an auction. I'll I think people have heard those before. Here's my suggestion. Come up with a really clever way to determine your draft order in your league. The internet is littered with people like running a forty or doing an obstacle course. I saw one where everyone drinks a shot glass full of beer every minute on the minute, and the last guy standing gets gets the first pick.
Yeah, that's a power hour.
We called it the Century Club. In college, we were for one hundred minutes. But that's a.
Dumb college like a mad idea.
It is one shots of beer.
It's it's really hard.
But do you go to the bathroom in the middle of that?
But you got you got like fifty nine seconds every like seventeen year old in history.
That's easy.
Absolutely.
So we don't condone underage drinking.
We don't. But but if you're going to do that at your draft party, the guy who gets the first pick is the guy who's the most drunk, obviously right away. So uh but anyway, my point is, make your draft party a big thing. Make it memorable. If it's the one time of year you see these people in your league. Blow it out of the water. Make it fun. Rent some stuff like, make a big barbecue out it, make it the whole day, have a good time with it.
Our co host Scott Fish rents a mobile bar yeah, wheels, you know, wheels it into his driveway.
Yeah, here's his address.
Whoever, just swing by everybody, Yeah, no problem. Okay, So yours is Draft day. Make your Draft day memory.
Make your draft day huge?
All right, Brian, what is the one rule change every league should institute at this time of year?
Ditch the kicker and team defense and throw in some IDPs. I know, now, I know, there are some people that love kickers, and I'm not talking to that small group of whack jobs. I'm talking to the people who go through the motions. They set up their league and they have kickers and defense because it's like the default settings on sites right except enleagues dot com. It's the best site. But people think IDP is daunting. It is not. Just
do one defensive lineman, one linebacker, one defensive back. For the linebackers and defensive backs look for tackles, defensive linemen look for sacks. It's just I promise you it's fun. You're watching defense more, you have more skin in the game. Just give it a shot. Three IDP. It'll change your life.
And what is a absolute baffler to me, More than half of league's are still not using blind bidding for their free agent. It's absurd. They're doing reverse order of standings, they're doing waiver priority.
That's also another one that's just the default setting in most systems.
The only fair way to distribute, to distribute free agents, and by far the most interesting by a mile, is blind bidding. This is the only way to play. This is the one rule change your every single league should have. There is no scenario where leage should do anything else, Like, we love auctioning, and we think auctions are are really really fun, and we highly encourage people to do auctions. Probably should talk auctions more on the show. But some
leagues are just too casual for that. Some need to be online, some need to do it over the course of three weeks whatever. So now everybody can do it. Everybody, every single league can do free agent blind bidding.
Can you imagine a guillotine league with reverse order of standing? It would be so dumb, so.
Dumb, absolutely terrible. Okay, I'm gonna wedge in Tough question one point five.
Tough question number one.
Point five, What is the rule change to remove from your league?
What's a rule change doing we're making you're taking out, taking out.
If you're doing this, you're doing it wrong.
I mean we kind of talked about them. League veto, the trade veto trade veto is so dumb. Get rid of it.
You have to get rid of it.
That's the one oh one dumb rules.
It's it is. That's I will never play in a league that has trade beveto. Yeah, can't do it, makes sense. All right, let's move on.
Tough Question number two.
With all the uncertainty around Brandon Ayuk's status in San Francisco, are you buying the dip now? He's currently wide receiver fifteen? Right now, Brian, we start with you. You're buying the dip on Brandon Ayuk.
I'm a degenerate best ball player. I've been drafting since January. My eyes bleed on the regular and I've seen au go from the early second Now he's dropped all the way to the end of the third round in some draft. So you just have to buy that dip. I don't care where he ends up and if he stays with the forty nine ers yacht see great right, Oh yes, I don't care where he goes. We've seen the talent. It's their Vikings do it.
Vikings have the seventh most cap next year, but they got Jordan Addison on a rookie.
Now I'd rather I don't think paid a lot of money for their other wider right they're already deep in with Justin Jefferson.
Yeah, I don't think that's gonna happen.
Matt.
With all the insuranty around brandon i status in San Francisco, are you buying the dip.
The Rumors are that the Patriots offered him thirty two million per year, but he didn't like Drake May and so the vibe wasn't right there. So now the Patriots are out on him. The other teams somewhat involved are Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Washington could be involved. To are any of those situations better than his role in San fran Not a chance. Do you know what team has the most available cap space,
It's the Niners. They offered him twenty six million. I heard he wants twenty eight to stay in San Francisco. I think they're gonna figure out a way. I think he's gonna end up playing in San Francisco this year. So if you're an Ayuk fan, definitely by the dip. The correct answer is buy the dip, baby.
The probability is he stays in San Francisco either on a new contract or he just plays out this year because he doesn't have leverage. He's got no leverage. So I'm with you, I'm buying the dip. This is a player who finished his wide receiver nine last year. I can get him at wide receiver fifteen right now. On the probability that you know this uncertainty is a perfect It's like the stock market. You buy an uncertain times to you got to buy low sell high. To buy low,
you have to buy an uncertainty. We're doing that with Brandon Ayuk and you just raise a great point when you talked about the places he could go. They're mostly bad teams with cap space. But I don't think he's going to end up on those teams.
It's this questionable quarterbacking all around on the other spots too.
So by the way, these are reports that he didn't go to to the Patriots because Brandon and I didn't like the quarterback. He wants to get paid him thirty two million reportedly here. It's his first big contract. That's second contract is where you make all the guaranteed money and everything right. He wants to get paid. This is
the contract to which you get paid. It's your third or fourth contract where you start getting choosy about who you're playing with and what your your legacy is going to be and everything else.
Not This one a tough question. Number three.
In a bizarre coincidence, the first two players taken in this year's NFL draft, Caleb Williams Daydan Daniels are situated exactly next to each other in ADP. They're going off the board to pick one oh five and one oh six, which one will score more Fantasy Points this year? Matt, we are back to you gonna be Caleb Williams or Jayden Daniels.
There are two very different quarterbacks in very different situations. Caleb definitely has the better weapons around him. Jury's out on whether the coaching staff in Chicago is the right one to lead his development, though. Jaden much more of a runner, kind of like Kyler Murray, and he's got Kyler's old coach running the offense there in Cliff Kingsbury. So I like the coaching matchup better, But the weapons are a full couple of steps down from what Chicago has.
So if Jaden's gonna score more points, I think he has to do it with the running game, and I'm not sure his tall, lanky frame could hold up to that kind of punishment over a seventeen game season. I'll take the weapons and the presumed safer pick and Caleb.
Okay, Brian, we've mentioned Caleb Williams, Jaden mcdan, not McDaniels, Jade and Daniels going off the board exactly next to each other, and ADP picks one of five and one oh six. Who's going to score more Fantasy points.
I've kind of banged the drums for Jaden Daniels a couple times already during the show, so that's going to be my answer. And it's all about the rushing upside really, but you know, people say he's a great rusher, which is true, and they think his passing is so much or you know, behind his rushing, it's really not. He's a really good passer too, so he is a complete quarterback.
I'm just worried that he can get killed out there because he is kind of fearless when he's running the ball or he was in college, and he has a highly highlight reel of taking hits that would end lives for most people. So yes, get down, Jaden, slide. Learn to slide, Please learn to slide.
The correct answer is Caleb Williams, and really Matt took all of my talking points, unfortunately, And it's not that I'm I don't like Jade and Daniels. I do, but the injury, the difference in weapons is just so high, and Caleb Williams as I alluded to earlier in the show way better runner than people ever seem to talk about. He's not on that tier of Jackson. He's not on that tier of runner, but he's in the next.
Tier, like the Sam Donald tier, right, Brian, just.
About Arnold's got better wheels than people know he does.
Sam Donald could have played college basketball.
You could have well, I could have two. There is that.
No, this is true. Wikipedia said it, and it's got it, then it absolutely has to be. See what you're a Wikipedia p.
Let's let's go to our sleepers, Matt. Let's begin with you. These are that we do this one every preseason show. We talk about one sleeper, will never repeat a sleeper twice. Yeah, these are all guys that we believe will dramatically outperform the round in which they are being selected. Now, so you know, it could be a guy who's going off
in the fourteenth round. Do you think is going to be like an eighth rounder, or could even be somebody who's going off in the fifth round you think is gonna be a first round?
Sure, give me your sleep I've got Joshua Palmer of the Los Angeles Chargers going off the board at pick ninety nine right now, that's in the ninth round. That's a full three rounds after his teammate, rookie Lad McConkey. The Chargers unsurprisingly lead the league in vacated targets three hundred and ninety five vacated targets. Dang, that's sixty four percent of the Chargers targets from last year. Keenan Allen,
Mike Williams, Austin Eckler, Jalen Geiton all gone. There's only one guy left in Los Angeles that has caught more than forty passes out from Justin air Bear in his career. That's Josh Palmer. Last year, Palmer dealt with an injury on and off for almost the entire year, But in twenty twenty two, Palmer was targeted one hundred and seven times by the air Bear. He caught seventy two passes for seven hundred and sixty nine yards and three scores. And let's say he gets in the range of one
ten to one thirty. Yeah, players who finished with that many targets last year averaged seventy five catches, one thousand and forty two yards and five touchdowns. That's almost exactly what Amari Cooper did last year.
Wow.
And Amari Cooper is going off in the fourth round right now, So you could get a ninth round player who's very probable to return fourth round value. He's not an exciting guy, but he might return some pretty good value for you as your wide receiver.
You're gonna score more Fantasy points this year. Josh Palmer or Lad McConkie.
It's probably Josh Palmer.
It might be. We get so infatuated with the rookies. We want them to be good instantly, and in some cases they.
Are Coaches trust veterans.
Well, true, although it's a whole new coaching stat Yeah. Right, And I think that's a pretty big variable on this shear makes it a lot more uncertain, Brian, let's go to your sleeper real quick.
I think it's fair to throw DJ Shark into that and make it a three way match.
M charks.
He's not the favorite, but he could very well, we're.
Gonna be he's gonna he could. He could mess things up a little bit.
All right, Well, my sleeper shouldn't have any problem out performing his ADP, hopefully because he's really not getting drafted by many people. But it's running back Rasheen Ali, who most probably haven't heard of, but he's a rookie. Fabulous, he fabulous he Aladdin good movie under let's get that on the Yeah. But have you played Aladdin? The Genesis game?
Oh yeah?
The underrated video games really good for the sake of Genesis.
Well, you know, the problem for it was not that it wasn't a good game, but everybody got so used to all the t all the movies and TV shows turned video games were almost universally awful, and so people just went a Laddin. Whatever, it's for kids, it's a you know, it's a conversion from a movie. I'm out.
It was great.
Good game, probably still is. But anyway, back to Rashine Ali selected in the fifth round out of Marshall by the Ravens. He likely would have been selected sooner if not for tearing his bicyp at the Senior Bowl, so he missed that game. He didn't test at the Combine, so we slid in thet as a result. But the bicep is healed. He is full on, full go in training camp right now, still behind Justice Hill, but I think he has a chance to beat him out for
the backup job. Behind Dereck Henry Rasheen a Lee led FBS last year with seven plays of fifty plus yards. He has three down pretent, three down potential, great initial speed with the second burst, good power in the gaps. He can catch, he can pass protect, and if something happens to Dereck Henry rasheen Alie sleeper will come alive for you.
I like it. There's a real chance that something does happen to Derrick Henry at age thirty, and yeah, that would be really interesting.
And they want to keep Henry fresh too for the playoffs. They have Super Bowl aspirations of course in Baltimore, So I don't think Henry's not going to play all the snaps, that's for sure.
My sleeper is the great nephew of Hank Aaron. How about that.
That's cool and.
Most listeners should not have any reason to know who I'm talking about yet. Chargers rookie running back Kamani Videll. I like this kid a lot, and he is a thor nicetroom favorite. He's he started the whole ball rolling for me on him. He at college, he went to Troy, destroyed the record book at Troy, which you know Granted it's not a thick record book at Troy, but Kamani Videl killed it there.
You were the record holder at Troy. I have actually you were until that's shattering my records.
Chargers have got a running backs dream coaching tandem of Jim Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman. It's all running all the time ahead of Vidal. Of course, are Gus Edwards and JK Dobbins.
A dream scenario of injury? It really is.
And I've loved both players pre acls, since their acls and their extended recoveries, they just don't look like the same guys. And it's sad, but that's just a fact.
Now.
Normally, what keeps rookie running backs from getting time playing time? Guys? What stops rookie running backs from getting on the fields? Pro pass protection? Bang, you nailed it. Guess who's the best rookie runner in this draft class in pass protecting? Yes, Kamani Videll and by the way, Gus Edwards and JK. Dobbins in pass blocking ranked thirty second and forty ninth by Pro Football Focus. The best pass blocking running back on the Chargers could very well turn out to be
Kimani Videll. He's compact, he's stout. He is a workhorse runner with shifty moves and amazing balance, a little bit of burst. He's not like high end speed guy. He's shorter, he's thicker.
He's a little teapot, short and stout.
Ye yes, yes, As a matter of fact, Kimani Videll my sleeper. All right, let me throw this topic out to you. We've got a couple of spare minutes at the end of the show. A few weeks ago and for much of the offseason, Matt and I did an offseason show not too long ago, maybe a month ago, we talked about undo the opposite because we're sloughing running backs so much.
Yep.
But what's happened in the recent weeks running backs moving way way up. Three weeks ago, the first round only had three running backs in it by average ADP. Today six running backs in the first round by average draft position six. So and by the way through two rounds, it's almost dead even between wide receivers and running backs. So running backs have moved back. People can't stop themselves. They're moving back to the running back position.
More casuals are drafting now, and they tend to go running back because they have for years.
Yeah, are you running to consider.
This tough, tough question number four.
Are you riding the running back wave and taking running backs early or are you continuing to do the opposite like you know I.
Would Brian, you want to take that one first?
It all depends, But in the first round it's really just Greese Hall for me. If I don't have a numb one pick, I'll take McCaffrey still, even though he's got the angle thing.
But so I don't know.
Yes, you're taking running back, all right, you're taking running backs early.
Running back.
I think in the first round it's McCaffrey Hall or Jonathan Taylor for me, and I would not take any other ones in the first round, mostly because I think those guys are bell cows in their offense, and there's just so few bell cows anymore that I think it is worth it to have one or two of them.
The running back failure zone is end of first round.
Mm hm.
Those guys that are at the very front are usually proven workhorse guys. The guys at the back of the first round early second round have generally got question marks and the that's the key failure zone right there. Obviously, I'm gonna keep doing the opposite. Thank you for listening to the thirtieth anniversary edition of Fantasy Football Weekly. Guillantine Leagues dot Com available right now for the twenty twenty fourth season and private leagues totally free. See you next week, everybody,
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