Everything You Need to Know About the AFC North

but we're finally at summer. The depressing part, especially for those of us in the northern parts of North America, the days are gonna start getting shorter. Come on already, that's not cool. And for those who don't know, Minnesota in the summertime is the absolute best. At its peak, it's the suns up at nine thirty at night. Still. Yes, yeah, yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, it's an art. It is great. In January it's dark at four. Uh so you know, we

pay the price for it. Other times, I'll take Minnesota winters over living in Florida or Arizona in the summer all day. I can't take Florida, I know, I can't take the humidity. I used to live in Northern Virginia, d C. And those summers were intolerable. Yeah, I can do Arizona, even though I I just you know, I know it's literally hundred and twenty degrees some days in the summer. But to me, that whole the whole dry heat thing, it works way better than humidity. It is.

We're gonna dive into the a f C North and a little bit like we did with the a f C East last week. The goal here is to tell you not what this each team did last year. She already know that, but it's really forward looking, Brian, as to what each team is going to do this year. Which players we've identified that we like, how we think this offense is gonna work, Coaching changes, personnel changes, all the stuff you need to know for the four teams of the a f C North. And before we get

to that, let's mention guilloteen Leagues dot Com. Okay, we are not open for business for the season. If you've always wanted to try a guillotine league, this is your chance. You We support private leagues. If you've got seventeen other people, well actually or less, you can have a private league

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It starts out as a regular guillotine league, but less teams, twelve twelve team league, twelve team league, twelve teams twelve leagues with twelve teams in each league. UH start week one, of course, and just like standard UH guillotine um execution, UH team eliminated every week. But come when you're the last man standing, you join the other west men or women standing for a brand new draft, sort of brand new league. After week eleven, when you win your league playoffs, yes,

all the league's. All the league winners get together for a fresh draft of players, and then you play out the playoffs. Last team standing wins the whole thing. Up to fifteen thousand dollars. You do this kind of format so you can have the big bucks at the end. It's very exact, up to fifteen thousand dollars with the super chop at guillotea leagues dot com. Brian, Let's begin the a f C North with the Cincinnati Bengals. Now, for regular listeners, they may know that this is your

new adopted favorite team. You were previously on the Giants, you gave up on them, and they still pay dave yentleman, so I refuse to give them. Let's let's go to a team you're following very closely and has I think maybe if you know you'd if you asked me to pick the team in the a f C that's going to improve the most by wins, I might just pick the Bengals were not for the fact that there's two other really good teams in that division. But I think

the Bengals get so much better this year. I do as well, and reality football aside, they're gonna be one of the most full and fantasy football teams in that in that division. UM real quick to recap last year. UM Zach Taylor is returning as the head coach. He also acts as the offensive coordinator for the Bengals. I believe this will be his second year, maybe his third year, still a still very young coach. Last year, Bengals finished

thirty in yards per game twenty nine points per game. Obviously, things went way south when Joe Burrow went down in Week eleven with the knee injury. He was posting pretty good numbers. The Bengals weren't really necessarily winning games, but Burrows also just getting murdered behind that offensive line, which will which we'll get into. But the Bengals passed the ball a lot. They passed the ball over six at the time last year, that was thirteen most in the league.

They only ran the ball thirty nine point five for and that was bottom twelve in the NFL. So they were much more of a past friendly team. That's because they were behind a lot and don't expect that to change a whole lot. Not a ton of draftable players for the Bengals. Uh, it's really starting with the highest drafted guy, Joe Mixing, Jamaar, Chase te Higgins, Tyler Boyd, and then Joe Burrow. Um, we won't even really talk about the tight ends and help to to follow the

script from last week. We'll start with the the riskiest guy based on a DP and I think most people with lean Joe Mixon off the top of their head, just based on last year. Only played six games, totally lost season. But he's not the riskiest guy for me. It's it's Jamaar Chase, who one of the three elite Bengals wide receivers. Amazing talent coming out of l s U. As we all know, first wide receiver drafted in the NFL Draft. Did not play last year though, but uh, right now for L s U. That is so I'm

a little concerned there. Um, you can have a slower ramp, but it's possible. Certainly Kenvia right now, he's going off the board wide receiver overall. That's that's so high and the highest of the Bengals wide receivers. But Tee Higgins has proven himself to be a very good player like we thought he was going to be. And I don't think there's suddenly going to get I don't think there's suddenly going to change the whole scheme just to fit

a rookie receiver. No, and don't forget Tyler Boyd who is going wide receiver thirty three, not far behind these guys. Strictly talking wide receivers, I'm going with the cheapest guy in Boyd who is a proven contributor with very high upside on the in most weeks, at least when Joe Burrow is healthy. So for me, Jamaar Chase, I'm out

in redraft. Of course I like his long term prospects a lot more than this year, but wide receiver twenty six, when I can take a more proven guy like Chase Claypool, Juju Smith, Schuster even and Odell Beckham a little sketchy, I'd rather take my chances on those somewhat proven commodities over Jamar Chase, who, again a rookie, sat out last year. Maybe Joe Burrow isn't after last year, Well, the line keep him alive again. It is a fair question because

the line continues to be ranked. I think Pro Football Focus ranked the Bengals coming into this year, so the you know, current the current offensive line, I think they ranked them thirtieth. The Bengals did draft Jackson Carmen, offensive tackle lot of Clemson in the second round, so they bolstered that line a little bit. But yeah, I'm just out on Jamaar Chase and and Redraft this year. Um, again two very good wide receivers in the room with them.

And also the guy with the most upside is there who could soak up significant targets and touchdowns, and that is Joe Mixon who I am going with as the player with the most upside. UM. He's going, uh mid second most leagues like RB twelve, which feels just about

right for me for for mixing. UM. People just remember last year he played six games, didn't do much when he played just a total total loss season, But the years before mixing was seeing Bell cow usage two two opportunities in and that's cards and targets, uh, than in three twenty three opportunities. Uh, it wasn't really racking up the touchdowns then, but that was John Kittena and I don't know what other MESSI or not. John I didn't do that on purpose and Dton they're essentially the same

person at this point. Um. One had no hair and one had red hair. That's a key distinguishing feature right there. My bad anyway, Yeah, basically the same player. Geo Bernard's gone, and so there's a lot of people think mixing could be sitting on a bigger PPR season than he's had in recent years, and that might be another factor in the case of Mixing. I'm surprised he's going where he's going. I really thought after last year and the fact that

Mixings never been a gigantic fantasy producer. You know, he's never been like a top five fantasy producer. He's always been like RB ten, RB twelve, RB eight. I thought that coming off this this last season, that he would fall farther than RB twelve, that he'd be more like fifteen sixteen seventeen. You get him in the middle of the third round. I don't think you know, the middle of the second round. To me, for Mixing, feels like you said, it feels about right. But again, he stays healthy.

Burrows stays healthy, that receiving group fully clicks that line level. If the line is not awful, there's there's top five upside saying he'll get there. But the upside exists. Burrows fascinating. Just so many ways for him to win. Right now with the three receivers, Mixing catching the ball, I just

feel like and Burrow looks so good. He was clearly a candidate for highest upside to quarterback is this is like the deepest class of quarterbacks I can remember said at quarterback, it's there is certainly upside for Joe Burrow as well. Let's let's move over to the Cleveland Browns. Uh. And this is an offense that took a massive step forward under who would ultimately become NFL Coach of the Year,

Kevin Stefanski. In many ways, Stefanski emulates his former employer Minnesota with a run heavy attack that ads its quarterbacks to execute a handful of key plays rather than asking their quarterback to go, like, win every game with your arm um, which I think is very smart. And it it turned and Baker Mayfield turned in a very good season last year. Cleveland was top five in rushing attempts

and bottom five in passing attempts last year. And that's because they've got Nick Chubb, who's awesome, Kareem Hunt who's very good, and um and again, and I just think philosophically, this is what Kevin Stefanski was raised in. And look what it got them to last year through the playoffs. There's a good team. There was a quote from Travis Kelsey about two weeks ago in which he said, the biggest threat to the Chiefs, I'm paraphrasing, the biggest stretch

to the Chiefs is the Cleveland Browns. And He's right. Defense massively improved in the in the off season. What was the There was a crucial play when the Browns and the Chiefs played in the a f C Championship, Right, I remember there was a Cleveland got jobbed on something. Um Rochard Higgins. Remember it was like the phone lot of bounds and that was yes. And that's definitely the end zone deal. So the stuff is tough. Baker Mayfield is um it doesn't like I said, doesn't have to

throw off him. That doesn't mean that he was conservative in what they asked Baker Mayfield to do. So don't confuse a lot of volume with Mayfield into thinking that they didn't take shots sound Field with Mayfield, because they really did. They've got that powerful, effective running game that pinches the defense is up close to the line of

scrimmage and then here comes Baker Mayfield over the top. Now, Nick Chubb Kareem Hunt were both in the top ten in seeing eight men in the box, which again I'm telling you, you know, defense has really stacked the line of scrimmage for Chubb and Hunt, so that Baker Mayfield's nine intended air yards was the NFL's fourth deepest last year. So he's throwing over the box and so he was

throwing downfield. So even though he wasn't throwing for volume, he was executing the big plays that fantasy owners do want to have. And I love that about Makefield Mayfield and also blessed with the league's longest time to throw Baker Mayfield at three point zero five seconds. That's a full second law younger then Ben Roethlisberg, who will talk about in a minute his white outs. Odell Beckham returns from his Week seven a c L injury and is on track to be available in training camp and the

start of the season. I saw someone tweet and it's probably true. I didn't I didn't verify it. But the last time Odell Beckham was a wide receiver on the top twelve wide receiver. So is Jordie Nielsen? Are you serious? That feels like a long time ago, doesn't it? Wow? Odell's first the six full games that he played last year in his first year with Kevin Stefanski. We're very inconsistent. He had two very good games, he had two very

bad games, and two just right in the middle. Um Stefanski has been adamant that oh b J is part of the team's future, that they planned to use him significantly, and really, when you look at the rest of the Browns wide receivers, yeah, Odell Beckham is gonna be a big part of this because the only guys really aren't at all that promising. I don't think Jervis Landry, no love well, we'll get him. I did say all of them. Um troubling last or, Odell Beckham had the league's lowest

yards after catch one point eight yards. You played six games. I mean that's not like a two game sample size. That's a six game sample size. One point eight yards after catch for Odell Beckham, and that should worry you. You can fall forward for forward for one point eight yards. Uh. Jarvis Landry is a known quantity who has been incredibly consistent throughout his career. You know the deal here, Short targets, short catches, a few touchdowns. You want like four or

five six touchdowns in the season. Jeffers Slander is your guy. Um Donovan people Jones saw his snap count skyrocket in the second half of the season, and then later into the playoffs. He put together three really strong games in December, which gives you a suggestion that he will continue to get more use this year and in this his second season.

Donovan People Jones, there there's a scenario here if you believe Odell is kind of hooked between the injuries and you know how long it's been you mentioned Jordy Nelson era, how long it's been since he was a really good wide receiver. There's a scenario where Donovan People's Jones gets a lot more time, and then that doesn't all have to come out of Odell Beckham. You know, you're outside receivers to start the season are gonna be Odell Beckham,

Landry in the slot and and Donovan People's Jones. Chard Higgins is out of this thing. I think that they did draft and I'm not too concerned this year, but Anthony Schwartz in the third round as a speed guy, speed guy, I don't think he I don't think he will be a reliable factor this year. I like that they added a speed guy because, as I mentioned earlier,

Baker mayfield these deep passes that he throws. They don't have speed at the receiver position until he came along, And so I think he's he's gonna be at all. He will splash with some big plays over the course of the season, but I don't expect him to be a sizeable factor throughout the year. Uh, Fantasy owners are gonna be frustrated again by the Oounds tight ends. This is a mess. Sophomore Harrison Bryant only posted one fantasy relevant game as a rookie last year, but on this show,

that was very impressive. He had a two touchdown game last year and you called that um And I don't know if it was Hooper out that game. I don't. I don't think you know he wasn't. It was just a great matchup and it was And I remember rolling him hard on d K because he was like too grand yeah, and Beckham probably just got hurt and stuff

like that. So anyway, so Bryant averaged about forty snaps per game, which is more than you want if you own Austin Hooper, but not enough if as you want if you own Harrison Bryants, So that parts a little bit troubling. Austin Hooper averaged fifty one snaps a game. That's only an eleventh snap difference. If you think Harrison Brian gets better this year his snaps, you go to fifty, Austin Hooper could regress down to closer to forty, and

maybe those two swap for each other. And basically the long short of it is, neither one is all that fantasy viable. There's there's just too much competition at the tight end position, not in redraft. I like Bryant. Uh So Hooper's contract by the way, so let since you're talking about I looked it up. Um Hooper is getting cut at the end of this year. Two is his There's a there's a big jump in Hooper's salary. They're

not going to pay him that. So Hooper will get restructured or cut at the end of this year, and then it's Harrison Bryant's job in two. All right, let's talk about the running backs. It's a contract here for Nick Chubb and he is going to get paid, and I think it'll probably be by Cleveland because this is a run first team and they know Jubb is great. Last year, as I mentioned earlier, you saw eight men in the box more than any other player with his

number of carries. He had a d ninety carries and he saw more eight men in the box than anybody else. Yet he's somehow finished first in yards per carry over expectation at one point seven five yards per carry over x expectation according to next Gen Stats, and his five point six yards per carry was second only to J. K. Dobbins. We will talk about later. If Kareem Hunt wasn't in the picture, by the way, probably the two best running

backs ever played together in NFL history. Possibly um Hunt's got his stains on his career, of course, But if Hunt was out of the picture, Chubby is right in one oh one oh yeah right, you know if you yeah, if you told me that caree months gonna go down in a freak dirigible accident in week one, Chubb could be the first player taken. For sure. As it stands,

Hunts sipens off work. But I wonder if ultimately, in some ways it doesn't serve to keep Chubb healthy and efficient so that Chub doesn't hit the three touch mark, which we kind of love his fantasy guys. But on the other side of it, Chubb's always is always because the relatively modest volume that he gets. He's always fresh, and he runs so hard. Hunt did sign a contract extension last year. UM, but averages almost as many total touches as Chubb does, in part because he catches more passes.

But Hunts receiving is weirdly underutilized in this offense and only throw to him three times a game. So I'm you know Hunt to me is Uh is a prototypical flex player. I don't think I want him as an RB one or two if I can avoid it. Uh. He feels like a flex style running back. So who's the riskiest player at his current ADP? I think it is Cream Hunt. He's going off the board running back twenty two, which is kind of a lot when you know that the best work goes to Chubb and Chub

is so good. UM the player with the most upside compared to a DP. I really struggled with this, really struggled with this. UM. I ultimately settled on Odell Beckham, who's currently wide receiver twenty six going in the sixth round. UM, after Jamar Chase, give me Beckham Beckham over him all day? Right, Baker through twenty six touchdowns like last year, let's say Baker gets a little bit better this year, another year in this in the system, and Odell Beckham is healthy

all season. You know what if he gets to thirty touchdowns, how many of those thirty go to Odell Beckham? Jarvislanders not a touchdown? Guy um Kareem Hunt might catch four, Chubb might catch two, tight Ends might catch eight. I mean, you know, ten could go to Odell Beckham. So I think he's the player with the most upside. Let's take

a break. When we come back, we'll break down Baltimore and Pittsburgh are favorite players for versus ADP are riskiest players a DP will break down the offenses when we come back. Welcome back Fantasy Football Weekly. Paul Jarchie and Brian Johnson with you. We're breaking down the a f C North and the Baltimore Ravens. Brian, Yeah, we just talked about a very run heavy team in the Browns, but no team was more run heavy than the Ravens last year, who ran the ball fifty percent. At the time,

it was the highest clip in the league. Now, of course, they run their quarterback more than any team in the league, and that adds to the overall run total and it definitely does. And if you're the you have the highest run play percentage, that means you have the lowest pass play percentage in the league. Baltimore dead last there, of course, UM nine in points per game. Last year, the offense was very effective, but only nineteenth in yards In essencely it took a major step back from when it was

most in the NFL. UM same coaches in play though from last year. In twenty nineteen, John harbaughd head coach Greg Roman and an offensive coordinators who know, big change there, Roman says, and he says, it's like every offseason we're gonna pass more. But you know what, do some degree. Greg Roman just is Greg Roman, and you know he is the guy who who you know, we've learned that Greg Roman is. He's he's uh, he is a run

first offensive coordinator. Yeah, and uh, they've got some good running backs into with J. K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards who they like a lot, and even Justice Hill. Justice hillisn't Chopped Liver by any meating well, he's played like chopped Liver in in the smattering of work he's gotten in his career. Chopped Liver is the saying, though, right I don't know what it means other than who wants to eat chopped liver? Have you ever even eaten? I have, and I did not like it. I didn't like it either.

I grew up in a household w my mom loved liver, cow tong Nope, thank god. Um. And when my dad would go out of town, which he did all too often for work, she would then use that as the opportunity to cook the liver because she didn't have to hear any flag from my dad. And that meant me and my brother got stuck with the plate that shows up for dinner with liver and lima beans. You're like, oh, man, I don't know why I'm thinking of this, but have you ever had octopus? Yeah? So like some of the

best meat I've ever had. I would that. Really, it's so chilly. You didn't get the robbery. Maybe I didn't. I meant bad. Well he was in Minnesota. We don't get done anyway. Part of it? What were we talking about? Well,

Greg Roman for a while. Um, well, we'll stick with the running backs and I'll call out my riskiest player for the Ravens, and that's J. K. Dobbins, who was the highest raven drafted among all positions right now, He's going off the board at running back sixteen, right after DeAndre Swift, Antonio Gibson, before guys like Clyde Edwards, A Lair, Miles Sanders, Josh Jacobs. We don't really like him here on this show. Guys, we do like Chris Carson right

after there. So looking at Dobbins, just worried about the volume. Again, we saw it last year. Didn't get a ton Baltimore didn't an though, you know at the end of the year when he was getting just like twelve touches, touches he was cashing on in those opportunities. He was. Yeah, he scored in seven straight games from Week eleventh to to the wild card game. He totaled eight touchdowns during

that span. But and that was when they started to phase out mark Ingram at the you know, on the second half of the season, and they they started ratcheting up his workload, not to like, you know, workhorse caliber, but it was still just like an even split with with like you said, during that hot stretch, Uh, he'd never topped fifteen carries, never had more than two catches. And again, the thing is he didn't need him mo.

He was still effective, but I don't. Yeah, he was effective, but I don't care looking at his a DP where he's getting drafted. It's expensive for a guy who touches the ball. I need more guaranteed touches. And I think he has two hundred, two hundred and fifty opportunities carries and targets this year, not the three D three that I'd like to see from guys going right in his range. Again, um,

I think c h gets that kind of volume. Antonio give Gibson hopefully, and guys going after Chris Carson you like a lot and way down the not way down the list, but rby Miles Gascon. I would rather wait around my gass and then take J. K. Dobbins. I just think there's he he could live up to that ADP. I don't see him going higher than RB fourteen, but I certainly can see him going lower, just based on

the volume. And of course Lamar Jackson steals touches at the goal line and all everywhere everywhere else, so that there's that. Uh, let's talk about Lamar Jackson really quick two years ago led the NFL in passing touchdowns. Unbelievable right passing touchdowns last year. Only six didn't have any wide receivers last year, though his wide receivers were betting

better than um. Mark Andrews took a step back. Um. Long story short, I think there's room for Lamar Jackson to get better as a passer people who are writing him off as of right now. They added a first round pick to the wide receiver group, which I'm sure you're gonna talk about in a minute. And that's promising. Uh yeah, and and Jackson was a candidate for my highest upside player. He could easily revert back to form

that whole team good. And if he does that, then he's you know, he's the bell of the all over again. But he's not your highest upside player because I know who it's gonna be. I think, and I think you and I are in lockstep on this lay the rouser, the University of Minnesota rouser. Oh, you were thinking Mark Andrews, Gus Edwards. God, nobody wants Gus Edwards and he gets half the carrier run that must run heavy offense in the NFL. That is. I do like the angle there,

but I love that angle. I would rather pay Gus Edwards a DP. We look with ADP, I don't have in front of me, um Gus Edwards a DP than J K. Dobbins ADP to me, it's and it's it's not even all that close. Oh no, it won't be close. Is gonna be RB thirty five. He's like round eight. I'm still going with Rashod Bateman, whose wide receiver sixty seven right now, and he is the best wide receiver on the roster. He probably is the best receives the

best wide wide receiver on roster. Yes, he is a rookie, of course, um but polished route runner, great hands, not a freak athlete, but he is a lion athlete, uh, without a doubt. And when you look at the range of guys going before Rashad Bateman, I want to barf Henry Ruggs, t Y Hilton, Jalen reagor Nicole Hardman, Corey Davis. Bateman is the number one wide receiver on the team. Not the number one receiver. That's Mark Andrews, who was also Canada downside downside from me, that tight end four.

He sees under a hundred targets going after you. Guys like Hockinson and Pitts who are gonna see a hundred plus targets in my mind, but I still think Uh Andrews can live up to that. That ADP a tight end for But anyway, it's Rashad Bateman for me. I think he leads the team at least the wide receivers and targets catches yards. He's gonna be a safe seven to eight targets per game guy. I feel four to five catches UH with a significant upside a wide receiver

sixty two. There's plenty of room. There's plenty of room there. Gus Edwards a d P. I'm gonna I as I recall, it's round eight, But I I could be wrong about that, and I think he's going off the board like running back forty something in that ballpark. And to me, that's just it's such a good value for a guy who know is gonna get almost half of the work, and they love to use him near the stripe. They you know, they'll run Gus Edwards near the end zone. So RB,

there we go. Pith, Yeah, that's right, I thought I said eight earlier. It's like that it's right rounded left. He's right in the right, like the kind of the backup range. You expect the Tony Pollard, Naheem Himes, Jamal Williams. But the difference is, I can I know Gus Edwards is going to get a bunch of carries in every game, and that I can't say that about those guys. Okay, R B forty RB forty one, RB forty three. Which one you pick in you got Zack Moss, Tony Pollard,

Gus Edwards. I like all three. I like all three guys, but I would take Gus Edwards in most formats because of this certainty of his role. You know, Tony Pollard may he only had like two Fantasy relevant games last year and he he probably does. Or Zeke has to just get even worse than he was last year, which is possible. Um and Zack Moss is you know, well, I think there's a good opportunity by low on Zack Moss.

We still still plenty of questions about him. We'd we'd be discussed him in detail in the last podcast last week, right, so we got we had a co upside players of the Ravens. I like it. Let's pivot to the Pittsburgh Steelers. First, understand my predilection on the Steelers overall this year. I see massive risk with this team, and I'm gonna outline it for you over the course of our conversation here.

This is a team that in almost every scenario I will not take a Steeler at his average draft position, and I see a very possible significant real life regression and fantasy regression for this Steelers. They have a great defense and that's going to keep them I think at around the five mark for total wins that defense. But I'm very nervous about the rest of the team. So let's talk about beginning with the quarterback. In his eighteenth season,

Ben roethlis Burger is teetering on cooked cooked. He played badly for stretches last year, and his arm was clearly degraded from previous seasons. I felt, now remember the season before last, he missed the whole year. Then last year he came in through a lot of passes because the running game was terrible and um and at the end of the day he ultimately got two decent stat lines. But just the eye test, if you watched two Steelers games,

you know he didn't look the same. It was painful. Um, he didn't throw deep and that was the biggest change from last year. He used to be, you know, this big statue figure in the pocket and slinging deep balls around. He threw the fifth shortest average intended yards and in part because he had the fewest time in pocket, barely two seconds to throw the ball. No starter had less

time in the pocket than Ben Roethlisberger. Um. Also with Ben, you know, he offered the team an offseason pay cut, which has this underlying suggestion that Ben believed that he might get replaced or cut or whatever. And he early in the season went to the team and said, I'll take a pay cut to play one more year. That worries me a little syndrome. That's a great question. I mean it feels that way, doesn't it. Um. You know, I think just last year, I feel like he succeeded

from a fantasy standpoint more. It's just like grit and volume than actual ability anymore. Um. He did score in every game last year, and that part was great, But I'm nervous about the volume coming back and some other things. Last year through six eight passes, which was second most of any of his seasons. And in addition to the six eight passes, remember he threw sixty eight times in the playoff loss one game, sixty eight passes. Um that I I worry about all of that volume on his

arm in this his eighteenth season. Um. The good news is he's surrounded by weapons and weren't talk about them in a second. The bad news for Ben Um is the offensive line is ranked twenty nine by Pro Football Focus for this coming season, and the team barely addressed it in the off season. They've got three news starters, none of whom look promising. They have one returning starter, Chuck woma Okah four, and he's flipping from right to

left tackle. You know, I don't want a new left tackle for Ben Roethlisberger and the fact that last year's was terrible, but I don't want a guy who's not familiar with the position going to left tackle. They only drafted one lineman in in the draft, and that was in the fourth round. Um, Dan More, Dan More, That's it, Um, I just don't know how. You know, how does Ben get better with a makeshift line that's being reconstructed on

the fly without obvious talent improvements. Remember they lost Markue's Pouncey retired in the off season. This is is a bad line, maybe the worst line in football. So let's talk about receivers for a minute. Deante Johnson managed to get himself benched from drop for drops last year, as you probably remember, um, but he's a high volume guy. He ranked sixth last year among all wide receivers and targets even with the benching, and that allowed him to

leave the Steelers and targets and yards. He's now in his third season. He could get even better and he could pull away from the rest of the pack of the Steelers wide outs, especially we can convert more of those passes into touchdowns, which he was just a also touchdown producer. Last year, Jujus miss Schuster resigned with the team.

And remember he went into free agency as a as an unrestricted free agent and he had like no takers and eventually, after I don't know, like ten days of free agency, Juju just resigned with the team on a very team friendly deal. I think the Patriots could have gotten to Juju's for what they paid, like I know, such a bad deal. Um. The issue for Juju and what you need to know about him, the lack of depth of target and yards after they catch Juju catch

his short passes and then gets tackled quickly. That's bad for fantasy. He had the second shortest average depth of target, just five point eight yards according to Next Gen Stats, second shortest average depth of target and he turned one targets which is plenty and only eighty one yards. That's it. This is a major reversal from the big plays that Juju was making in his first couple of seasons in the league, and it's been this way for two years

with j Do silver lining. He did finish strong though last year. He had touchdowns in seven of his last ten games. After the touchdown totals were good for him in the second half, but that was the only thing that saved him and kept him fantasy relevant were the touchdowns. Didn't didn't have over a hundred yards until that that playoff game when he had nineteen targets, sixty passes past attempts. Ben jujus one eight targets and I said only turned

into eight hundred thirty one yards. Justin Jefferson turned one hundred twenty targets into almost double the yards fourteen hundred. So then let's go to Chase Claypool, who became the Steelers downfield. Thready average thirteen point two yards per target, which was among the deepest in the NFL. He's now in his second year and he's got room to get a lot better, which is a scary proposition for a guy with his build and ability to win contested catches.

But behind this terrible offensive line, does Ben have the time to target it? Chase Claypool downfield? Chase Claypool. Give you a little bit of a Kelvin Benjamin vibe. No, no, no, no, he is I I do not see Kelvin Benjamin. Yeah. I got burned so bad on that hot start that Kelvin Benjamin had six years ago, and I'm Kelvin Benjamin is going to be awesome. I did not pan out at all. Um behind you know again, I worry about setting up Claypool downfield. Mind a bad offensive line and

that provides the downside for Claypool only. Other receivers of note here, Eric Ebron will be the focal point of the tight ends until Pat friar Muth is ready to take over next season. Abron's on the last year of his deal. Friar Muth will be the starter next year. For those of you in Dynasty, and Empire leagues. Um, you know the deal on Ebron medium to low volume and you're hoping for you get one of his four

or five touchdowns this season. And this division is so each team is so muddled at almost every Asian you know what I mean, like a lot of a lot of wide receivers ends. It's an issue. You know. Where the Steelers aren't muddled. Running back Nag Harris. It will be the Week one starter and likely a workhorse back. He is a true three down back, particularly if if his past blocking improves. And it's not bad, but it's

got plenty of him to get better. Harris has no threat on roster to take meaningful carries away from him whatsoever. He has built for goal line use. He will get carries inside the five and that is a huge ticket to fantasy success. But there are dangers here. First, um, they need a far more balanced attack than last year when the Steelers through the ball the most times in

the NFL and they ran the third fewest times. So they need to have more of a commitment to the run clear lead and I'm sure they'd like to get back to being more of a balanced attack, but they have to for Nagi Harris to be as effective as he could be. And then again, and I hate to keep pounding on this, the offensive line is horrible. Harris is going to have to make his own yards a lot and he's not going to get a lot of help.

Harris can catch, but will they throw to him. Pittsburgh targeted its runners just eighty one times last year and James Conner was twenty seven among runners last season in targets. So how much will they throw to Harris is an open question. You don't want to get too excited about the offseason O t a practice videos, but some of the Harris footwork it looks good. He looks different than most. For sure, he is a good player, and if he

had landed someplace else, we'd be talking about. Harris is potentially a first rounder had he picked you like a perfect landing spot, um, But as it stands, I'm not sure that this is it riskiest player at his current ADP to me is Juju Smith Schuster. He's wide receiver thirty two in the seventh round, and as I mentioned earlier, hard to be a reliable fantasy producer and you're catching the ball at or near the line of scrimmage and

doing nothing with it afterwards. And the player with the most upside compared to a DP probably Chase Claypool at wide receiver twenty nine in the sixth round. And he's got special traits, he's got a big body, contested catches. And if Benn has still got a thirty touchdown season left in that arm, or even like a twenty six touchdown season left in that arm, Chase Claypool to me is the odds on favor to catch the most touchdowns on the team. I dig it. Thank you for listening.

We've broken down the a f C North next week. A f C what do you want to do? West South? Did you say, AMC? No, you hear what you want to hear? AMC, AMC to the moon. Not financial advice out there, unless you A f C South sounds good because traditionally it goes east north, alf I think west whatever. Uh So we'll do a f C South next week. We appreciate everybody who listened. Remember to go to Guillotine leagues dot com. We encourage you to check that out

as well. We'll talk to you next week, everybody, Bye bye. Fantasy Football Weekly is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from My heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.