Everything you wanted to know about the AFC West

Uh New York invited. You can. I can have a day off Scott twice. I like Scott too. Scott's a little busy this time here. He's very busy this time a year, and we're excited, excited to have him as part of the show. We're going to break down the a f C West today with everything we believe is going to happen in season this year. We're not recapping what happened a lot offseason. We're not recapping what happened

last year. This is a forward facing projections for this coming year for the teams in the a f C West. Before we jump into the most exciting team in football, the Kansas City chiefs Brian Let's mention. Gallanteam leagues dot com available now whether you want a private league with friends anywhere between eight and eighteen teams you and your friends want to play, or if you don't have friends you want to join into a an existing contest. We've

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All right, Brian, let's jump into the Kansas City Chiefs, probably the offense that is most familiar too listeners already, because everybody wants to have a piece of the Chiefs on their team. There aren't really many pieces of the Chiefs to have though, for such an you think of like the Rams and the Kurt Warner days, there was Kurt and then Isaac Bruce, Tory hold Ozzihirakiim uh Marshall. You wanted, there was players that you wanted a piece of.

Really for the Chiefs there's four, maybe even three and a half, three and a half guys. But uh, Kansas City solidation of power though that totally Kansas City coming off arguably one of the worst Super Bowl performances of all time last year. UH no changes at head coach uh Andy Reid or uh O c Eric the enemy of course. Uh first in yards per game last year four and fourteen per game, twenty one more yards than the next team. That's the significant tilta which was Green Bay,

by the way, six in points per game. They passed the ball the fifth most among all NFL teams, nearly sixty three percent of the time. That means they did not run a lot. Uh in run play percentage was Kansas City. But let's just basically have to get to the big three and it starts with Travis Kelsey, who ADP of six. Now, yeah, six, deservedly been the number one Fantasy producing tight end in three straight years, clearly tight end one off the board. Last year he finished

as a top three wide receiver. So there's not much nothing new I can really tell you about Travis Kelsey other than he's awesome. Um, there's we'll get to the riskiest player, and of course it's got to be one of the big three guysically, but we'll see if it's Travis Kelsey or not. But Kelsey, you're paying a premium right now. This is like buying doge coin at cents. It's right, You're you're, you're, you're paying for the upside we saw. He's got to live up to it. So

I'm not saying it's a good pick or a bad pick. Uh, I'm on the fence there, but uh ADP six tighted one. Travis keill syats insane uh Tyreek Hill since June one, and you know, the more Aaron Rodgers rumblings we're getting out of Green Bay. Has you served Davante Adams and Stefon Diggs wide receiver one a DP of nine. Yeah, So I mean those are the two guys that Patrick Mahomes is thrown to it. And again I have Try Hills, my number one wide receiver, and a lot of people do.

Now maybe he has the most risk among the Chiefs, but we'll find out soon. Um, I should mention at the end of each one of these we identify the player with the most risk versus ADP and the player with the most upside versus ADP. So that's coming at the end of each team. And uh, as for the other wide receivers, do you really want any piece of it? Uh? Sammy Watkins gone, of course, not like he was ever there except week one. He's a one superstar. Uh. DeMarcus

Robinson his dust. It's really me Coole Hardman and Byron Pringle, and they're both almost free. Pringles certainly free. Mikole Hardman. Um going off the board and pick one sixty three, that's well past the twelve round. I'm I'm interested in both of those guys at what it costs to acquire them. Um. Pringle is a young guy with upside who could win the Sammy Watkins roll outright if they want to keep me Coole Hardman doing what he has been doing as

the sort of gadget guy that he is. Yeah, well we'll h we'll touch on one of these towards the end of the chief. But no, no, no, no, I mean, clearly there's got to be some upside. It can't be the big three. Uh. And last, and certainly not least when it comes to the passing game. Patrick Mahomes h QB one off the board to no surprise overall ADP of thirty, So he's going mid third round right now. There's nothing I can tell you that you don't already

know about Patrick Mahomes. Uh. We might see him run a little less this year, just to keep him healthier. He certainly has the ability to run. A better runner than I expected him to be coming into the league. Very mobile, he likes to hit the circle button. I like his spin maneuvers. But uh, the only question with Mahomes is are you going to take a quarterback that early in a ridiculously loaded quarterback class? And again depends

how horror how far he falls. But I don't know if I'm reaching for mahomes this year, if I can get a top tier quarterback around or two later, or even four or five six rounds later. But uh, those are clearly the big three of the offense. Is gonna funnel through all them. If something were to happen do any of them, it drastically changes the landscape of the

whole team. Um. But the last guy we got to talk about that, the half a player, hopefully he's more of a whole player this year is Clyde Edwards Layer c H. Right now going off the board at RB sixteen. It feels just about right to me. It's kind of like the last Uh, he's the last of the third tier of running backs outside of the elite guys. Right right after him, you get into like Josh Jacobs, Miles Sanders Territory. C H. Though arguably one of the biggest

healthiest bus we saw his ADP soar into. I took him in a league at like pick seven overall last year once Damien Williams opted out and he was the lead back. Uh, he certainly did not live up to that a DP. He came out of the gates hot though. Yeah, you had a very exciting Week one game I remember, but uh just never gotta go and he was a little dinged up. But um, at RB sixteen, I'm buying at that price, He's not a dead cat. Runs behind a great old line ranks seventh by Pro Football Focus

going into this season. And let's touch on that for just a second. You know, we we all A lot of people are going to remember the terrible Chief's offensive line from the Super Bowl, but this is a They did a great job of restocking this offensive line and making sure that Patrick Mahomes isn't going to suffer that indignity again. And Orlando Brown there now they get um, they get their doctor, Uh, Laurence Duvey tard if back

and so he comes back. Joe Thuney's there. Um, Mike Rembers should not see the field, which is a critical distinction here, Uh, Kyle Long, I mean, I just this is a far far better offensive line than the one we saw in the Super Bowl, definitely, and UH would like to see Kansas City throw to their running backs more Chiefs backs total, the only seventies six catches last year. That was well in the bottom half of the league. And I will throw this out lastly, I do like

Jerick McKinnon is a is a deep sleeper. He's not good. He's goods No, he isn't he's better than Darryl Williams, who's going well. I don't even know if that's true. I I disagree there. I don't mind Jerick McKinnon with the last pick a draft, especially if you're if you got on board he could. Vikings kicked him to the curb. Niners kicked him to the curb. He's you know, through injury and whatever else. He's just never lived up to the collegiate hike hype for Jerrick McKinnon. We will see

about yet. Okay, the riskiest player I got, of course, it's got to be from one of the big three, and I'm going with Tyree Hill now going off the board as wide receiver. One. Yes, he was second in receiving touchdowns last year with fifteen, but seven it's pretty good. Seventh in yards though, and outside the top ten in receptions. In fact, Hill only had three yard games in the

regular season last year. For reference, Calvin Ridley had eight, justin Jefferson, Stephon Digs, DeAndre Hopkins, Davante Adams seven, Travis Kelsey had six. Yeah, and going down the line, Cole Beasley had five, Corey Davis had five yard games. I mean some of these names, they are not very Tyreek Killing. So yes, he can still live up to the wide receiver one eight, but I I would be a little more tempted to go running back, or if Travis Kelsey happened to still be on board, I could live with

getting Davante Adams Stefan digs in the second round. And because it's either a Kelsey or a Tyree Kill game, yes, they both kind of go off. So let's say you're you're sitting at like pick five or six in the first round. Hill is there, Kelsey's there. I mean, you take the tight end differentiator. Kelsey finished as a better wide receiver Stetistically tree Kill last year. So that's that's my riskiest player. I'm certainly not saying don't draft side

the upside. I'm going with it's one of the non Tyreek Kill wide receivers. And I'm going with Byron Pringle, who right now is getting drafted pick two thirty five. My Coole Hardman's going off the board at one sixty three, so Pringle essentially free. I'm just I'm just out on Hardman of gave him, given him chances. Everybody's been burned on the last two years. So yeah, maybe this is the year he finally pops off. But I'm just gonna take the free player in Pringle, who only played in

Week five, six, eight, eleven, and seventeen. Last week only five games, was not much of a factor in the playoffs either, but when he when he was given playing time, he showed he could play. And a guy, if he gets eighty hundred targets, did you extrapolate the production his limited production, He's a six D seven hundred yard guy, six seven touchdowns as a floor, and if something were to happen to Tyree Hill, of course Hardman stock goes up to But with Pringles, I'm just gonna I'm just

gonna take the cheapest guy. I'm I'm kinda with you on that. And uh, I was. I was the guy putting bets on Pringle in the playoffs, um including he was. There was a bet about there was a bet who would be the first Chief to catch a pass in the Super Bowl, and Pringle was like thirty to one and we nailed it. He was the first. He was the first chief That is his only catch of the game. By the way, what's the first was the first catch of the game? Um, all right, let's let's move over

to the Los Angeles Chargers. I feel like this Charger's offense is ready to explode and could easily see a massive uptick from last year's eighteenth ranking in points and tenth ranking in yards per game. The front office has wisely positioned the entire organization to maximize Justin Herbert, and I love it the air bear. New head coach Brandon Staley is a defensive guy, and new offensive coordinator Joe

Lombardi will guide the offense. In addition to being Vince Lombardi's grandson, he was the Saints quarterback coach for the last five years. Brian, what's not to like about being the Saints having the Saints quarterback coach come in and work with Justin Herbert. You've just been working with Drew Breese, who's it was effectively coaching Joe Lombardi on what it's like to be a great quarterback and how to prepare

like a great quarterback. I think Lombardi is a is well positioned to help make sure that Justin Herbert air Bear does everything possible to be great. YEA. Furthering Justin Herbert's cause was an offensive line that has been retooled and upgraded in so many ways. Four fifths of the line is new and all four are upgrades from the players who were there last year. The Charges spent a

first round pick on athletic left tackle Rashaan Slater. At right tackle, Brian Bulaga returns after missing much of last year from injury, massive upgrade at center, where they signed Corey Lindsley from the Packers, and free agency. According to Pro Football Focus, he gave up seven pressures all of last year. That's it, and both guards are new and free agency. Matt Filer Feeler formerly of the Texans, is

mostly just a guy, but he's not a liability. And oh day A Bushi formerly of the Jets, is coming off his best NFL season. He only allowed one sack last year. And those are your two new guards. This is a massively upgraded offensive line. Again. Chargers spent this offseason making sure Justin Herbert is in position to succeed, and I'm very excited for him after a record setting

rookie season. I thought he demonstrated remarkable poise, arm strength, good accuracy, not a lead accuracy, but I think that'll come yet. And I'm not carving a bust In Canton from yet, but his rookie season suggests that kind of trajectory for him. Well, yeah, what was it like week three when Trod Taylor got two impaled by the team doctor And yeah, I remember, no one everyone saw a Herbert warming up and we're like, this kid's gonna get

thrown to the wolves. He was against the Chiefs and they almost won, but he did not get the thrown to the Wolves. And he had no prepose the starter because you know, the injury went down ten minutes before kickoff, so you know, you find out ten minutes for kickoff, you need to go face Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs and I I'm almost certain they went to overtime in that game. Game. Um, there's no reason to believe that Herbert will regress this year, and especially with all these

other things that are happening. He's going off the board his quarterback six. I think that is an appropriate ranking for him. Let's talk about his wide outs. We're gonna get We're gonna spend more time on Keenan Allen in a few minutes, let's go over to Mike Williams. Unlike Keenan Allen, who blossomed under Justin Herbert, Williams remained on the same trajectory he had always been on, which is bad game, bad game, bad game, good game, bad game, bad game, good game, bad game, bad game, bad game,

bad game, good game. He's really he makes some incredibly game last year. He makes some amazing catches though. I mean, the guy can play once a month. He's great once a month. He's in his meager four games with a touchdown last year. In those four games, he averaged a d twenty five touched sorry one point to five touchdowns and yards. Very good games. To talk about his other games, how about the other twelve games without a touchdown when

he averaged thirty seven yards and no touchdown. He smoked your team in twelve games last year. That's Mike Williams. I think the way to go here the last pick of your draft. Emerging young wide receiver Tyron Johnson, now in his third year. He saw as U said, spike in December last year, when he averaged four catches, forty four yards and half a touchdown per game in December. That's almost exactly what Mike Williams put up in December.

Johnson could beat out Williams outright and forced Williams into more of a passing down only rule. I think Johnson is a fascinating last pick of the draft. Jalen Guyton is the other receiver. He runs from the slot that puts him behind Keenan Allen, so he's dead to us until Alan gets hurt, which sometimes he does. Please don't you're starting tight end? Is Jared Cook taking over Hunter Henry. You know the drill on Cook by this point. He's a veteran journeyman on his sixth NFL team. That tells

you plenty. I think Cook is startable only in tight end positive matchups. You pick him up off the waiver wire and you give him a go when you see a positive matchup. Otherwise you don't mess with them in deeper uh mostly dynasty leagues, especially tight end premium leagues, keep yourn on Donald Parham. People do like sleeper, long term sleeper. Let's go to the running back position. Austin Ekeler is going to be one of the most divisive fantasy players this year. Show. I love his all purpose

skill set. Um, I think he's got a leap PPR upside. You know, last year we were we spent much of the summer pounding the table for Austin Nickler, and then he suffered that devastating hamstring injury where he lost eight games. But let's talk about what we did learn from uh the average day whopping six receptions per game last year. It's hard for a runner to flop when he's giving you six PPR points just on his receptions every game.

And if he's averaging even like six yards per reception, okay, great, there's you know, there's ten points right there just on his receptions. In Eckler's nine healthy games last year, he scored or topped eighty seven total yards in seven of the nine games. So it wasn't like hyper splashy games. But he was very consistent producer in his nine healthy games last season. The only running backs I'm taking over as of right now, and in no particular order, McCaffrey, Cook, Henry.

That's it for me. You know, I ze I got him at nine, so you've got him at like five. It sounds like, yeah, I'm very I'm very bullish on that. Uh, but let's mention this, Austin Nickler has never rushed for more than three touchdowns in a season, which is shocking, and some people reasonably want to see more carries than he gives you from a second round, late first round, early second round running back, you know that's a legit worry Eckler's backup in training camp is gonna be It's

gonna be, uh something to watch. It'll be either Josh Kelly or Justin Jackson. And we don't know for sure yet. That's gonna be something to get sorted out in the preseason. Um, I don't either way. I'm not particularly interested yet. Those those rushing touchdown numbers aren't great. Of course, he hasn't really been given the chance to accumulate. No, he's not like he's a concern at the goal line either, because the dude is a beast. Yeah, he's built, So I'm

not spilled. So let's go back to new offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi. He just got done seeing how Alvin Camaro was used. I've don't see you know, I think Eckler will be his Alvin Kimea. Yeah, he stays healthy, he's he's in line for a monster year. Of course, Herbert's gonna stay healthy and down the line with the offensive line. You may have forgotten this by the way Week one of last year Josh Kelly went berserk and then he

did nothing the rest of the year. Um So, just you know, he's the second year back and he might he might be in line to be the backup. But either way, I think you'd probably just avoid both of those guys. All right, Let's talk about the riskiest Chargers player at his current ADP, and that's Mike Williams. Even

though he's not his ADP is not very high. It's wide receiver fifty three in the round in round twelve, but I think he's in He's in danger to lose his job, as I mentioned earlier, and he's proven year over year to be one of the least predictable fantasy producers in the entire league. The player with the most upside compared to his ADP Keenan Allen. I told you we talked about him later here he is. He's going off the board his wide receiver nine in the third round.

It feels like Keenan Allen's a hundred years old, but he's twenty nine, he's still right in the prime of his career. Obviously, he's an elite possession receiver. He's surged in the second half of the season as Herbert got better. Keenan Allen was just powering teams. In his last full seven games last year, he averaged eight catches, seventy one

yards and a touchdown per game. If you put those seven games where Herbert was, you know, getting you know it was getting these first handful of games out of the way. So Herbert starting to click at the quarterback position. Alan's putting up those eight catches, seventy one yards and a touchdown per game. It translates into an eleven hundred yards sixteen touchdown season, which would have made Keenan Allen wide receiver three across a full season. Yeah, he's just

got a He's had his injuries in the past. Certainly hasn't had Justin Herbert as his quarterback in the past. The time is now him is now for I mean, he's been putting up numbers for when he's on and he's healthy. He's got a quarterback like Herbert. Yeah, there is no style. The healthy is a concern, right, and

some people are still bitter. Do you remember last year Keenan Allen tweeted to fantasy owners like, you know, go ahead and start me like that was bad, That was not cool, And he got the kick out of it too. I think that, you know, but fantasy owners can be assholes, and they've probably been jerks him on Twitter and other places and he probably exacted a little revenge. But still, NFL players, your salaries get paid by us. You can thank us for that. They're not nearly as high without

the fantasy football community. We'll take a break and we come back. We're going to break down the Las Vegas Raiders and Denver Broncos as we go through the a f C West and identify our favorite and the least favorite players versus a DP and what we expect to happen over the course of this coming season. Welcome back Fantasy Football Weekly. Paul Charchi and Brian Johnson with you. Well, you've got the Raiders, Brian, and that means the whole

thing is gonna be about Darren Waller. Pretty much. The Raiders have two players inside the top of course, it's Waller and then Josh Jacobs, a d V of eight and then Kenyan Drake had on one. So let's just get the running game out of the way for the Raiders, who ran the ball the tenth highest amount last year of the time, top ten in rush play percentage. Uh, the O line is pretty much almost yeah, and I don't know that that's a good thing. No, it's it's

it's Uh. It looks like a downgrade. Uh, pretty much across the board for the three starters they lost from last year. Pro Football Focus as in ranks their offensive line going into the season. They did draft left tackle Alex Leatherwood out of Alabama with the seventeenth overall pick, but he was viewed as a a reaching third Yeah, reached by most so. And then they bring it in Richie in Netto to share up that left side well, and in fairness, Incognito has been good, although injured when

he plays, he's been good. Um. So yeah, but the line uh probably not going to be as good and it was pretty much mediocre at best last year, So nothing to get excited about there. The Raiders obviously brought in Kenyan Drake uh to form a pretty much a platoon at running back. It seems like the uninspiring Josh Jacobs shockingly last year UH Drake with the Cardinals. Of course, Uh Drake and Jacobs were tied with the most rush attempts inside the ten yard line with thirty five, and

both recorded nine touchdowns. Somewhat effective, So good book. Trying to figure out that John Gruden coin flip on a weekend week out basis, I'm basically off of this running game, uh entirely. So either one needs to miss significant time to really clear up an opening for either Jacobs or Drake, and we'll probably talk about John Jacobs a little bit. Okay, all right, then I'm not going to drill down too much I tell Jacobs right now, but I'll say this.

I mean, the fantasy community is down, not Jacobs so much so that I think he's starting to sound like value where he's getting drafted. But we're you know, he's he's starting to appear in the twenties in some people's rankings and it's clinging to the teens right now. Yeah, but we'll talk more about that man. Yeah, and then we won't talk too much about it either. As for the passing game, Uh, like you said, basically one guy, basically one guy in the whole team. And that's Darren

Waller got red hot in Week eleven. Finished on a tear last year, averaging more than seven and a half catches and one hundred nine yards in his final seven games with five touchdowns. Extrapolate that over a full seven team game season. Now, yeah, that is catches eighteen hundred fifty three yards and twelve touchdowns. Or Darren Waller even the seventeen game extrapolite or I'm sorry, a sixteen game extrapolation.

He's a top ten wide receiver going in the mid second is tight end to one of the guys who could user Travis Kelsey as the top tight end. He certainly has that potential. The passing game is gonna run through him. It's certainly not gonna run through Henry Ruggs or John Brown or Brian Edwards. Uh. The the quote unquote big three for the Raiders wide receivers has changed

last year from last year. Nelson aguilargon we won't see a ton of a Jones, but uh, Las Vegas did not pass the ball lot and mentioned how they ran the tenth most times. Uh. The wide receivers finished as a unit thirty feet and catches twenty second yards and eighteenth and touchdowns with fourteen and of course that one Henry Rugs bomb against the Jets should not count count Greg Williams blunders. All that is so Yeah, nothing to

get too excited about. With the wide receivers. I'm certainly not targeting Rugs even at tick one seventy gets like wide receiver fifty ish. Uh. There's one wide receiver I might draft, and we'll talk about him after we talk about Josh Jacobs again. Who's the riskiest raider based on a DP There's really only two guys that following. I love Darren Waller too much. I'm not going Darren Waller. Uh RB nineteen right now for Jacob's way too expensive for me. Even if no Kenyan Drake that might be

a little too pricey for me. Uh. Jacob's very uninspiring. Uh watching him play ran frounder four yards per carry last year, only average more than four yards per carrying six games. Yeah, that's bad, and this offensive line's worse. I don't think the line's gonna give him more opportunity. It might be less. And despite being pretty effective in the red zone, Drake was equally as effective, and he's a better pass Catcher as well. So I am all out on Josh like he's on my you know, my

my kill list. If if I can take a guy out of my draft pool, he's gone. He's like one of the first ones. And then for upside, Actually, I was gonna go Brian Edwards. He's there's some steam around around Edwards, a rookie last year, didn't get a ton of playing time. Um, but it's Derek Carr. Uh QB twenty six right now, that's ridiculous. He finished last year.

It's like QB twelve in fantasy scoring. He's going after Trey Lance, Ben Roethlisberger, Ryan Fitzpatrick, which I don't hate the Fitzpatrick going before him, But Derek Carr eighth most passing touchdowns last year with seven, despite finishing outside the top twelve in attempts. He also added three rushing touchdowns. The Raiders throw the ball more, they're gonna have to. Yeah, Like I said, we don't love the running game cars as basically, the last pick in your draft is a

backup quarterback. He could return top twelve, top fifteen numbers quarterback position. So I'm going to differ with you on only one guy. Materially differ with you, Okay, and it's not even materially Henry Ruggs at wide receiver fifty whatever, there's so much upside. I mean, Darren Waller can't catch every touchdown. If you think Derek Carr is gonna find his way to just a middle of the road twenty five passing touchdowns, if half of them go to Waller,

that still leaves twelve touchdowns to go someplace. Where are they gonna go? I mean Ruggs has gotta finish with like five six of those. One would think, I don't know. I mean, there's just nobody else to catch a pass. So I feel like I feel like there's a chance there. And then you know, maybe it's John Brown is a seasoned veteran who maybe this year he stays healthy sixteen, he might be a good value there. Here's John Brown's the epitome of the best ball guy. Yeah, John Brown

is a in like the Sean Jackson. He's in that ILK. But uh, the thing on Brown does I think we know what Brown is and the Bills knew what Brown was and they cut him, and I just think we know, we know he has Ruggs still has freaky upside athletically if he can pull the rest of it together, which obviously he was not close to doing last year. But they're all man. The NFL is littered with receivers who did nothing in year one, and we're way better in

year two. I'm still I'm still in Brian Edwards. Fifty sixty picks later, only two or more targets in five games for Edwards, he looks like an alpha for it looks like an alpha, but only eleven catches in those on the season, but he did average a very impressive seven seventeen and a half yards were catch. Okay, it's not a sample size that works, though he had a

lot of long catches. Let's move on to Denver offensive coordinator Pat Shermer's greatest success throughout his entire career probably as Minnesota's offensive coordinator, which he parlayed into then getting

the Giant's head coaching job. And he's now teamed up with Minnesota's assistant general manager now his general manager in Denver, George Payton, and considering Minnesota's rent run heavy orientation, I don't think it was surprising that George Payton spent that second round pick on running back Javonte Williams, who's gonna be featured a lot, and which should be a run heavy attack that minimizes the quarterback position, whether it's Drew

Lock or Teddy Bridgewater. And let's talk about that for a minute, because this might be the NFL's only true open competition in training camp is between these two. You know, there's like Trey Lance and Justin Fields, but you know their coaches are all saying those guys are on the slow boat, right, that there's no plans to start them early, and they might be honest about that. This is like the only openly acknowledged quarterback competition is the one in Denver.

So what's interesting, though, is Teddy Bridgewater and Drew Lock are stylistically totally opposite guys. Teddy, as you already know, is a checkdown specialist who tries to minimize mistakes and can't make big plays. He's averaging almost exactly one touchdown past per game throughout his entire career with now several different teams. This is fourth team. One touchdown per game is embarrassing at the NFL level. That's Teddy Bridgewater. Then

there's Drew Lock. Only Tom Brady average deeper passes last year than Drew Lock at nine point one intended air yards, and he was fifth in aggressiveness, a next gen stat that notes a willingness to throw into tight coverage. He is your yolo downfield. Don't care if you're covered, don't care the consequences, quarterback. This postgame comment from Locked from

last season will forever live in my brain. When asked, uh, just in general about his bad plays, uh, he responded, quote half the time, right as the ball leaves my hands, I'm like, oh, no, love. At least he's that's great. Um, So I think we're rooting for Lock to win this job. Um. He did throw a league worst fifteen interceptions, which is highlighted by the quote you just gave us. Um, But you know what, I'll take it. I I we need

somebody who can press downfield, and that's Drew Locked. Teddy Bridgewater throttles this whole offense, and that's why three teams have given up on Teddy Bridgewater. Now I will give Teddy this. I was shocked to see last year. You know he was with Carolina of course at Robbie Anderson, uh D J. Moore and Curtis Samuel, we're all like top twenty four wide receivers which you would not touchdowns

last year. So yes, that is it is hard to believe. Um, let's go to the white outse Courtland Sutton returns after his last season with the a c L and mc L. And if you recall he got hurt in week one. He was going off. He was he had like catches already. Was it was, it was, it was a good game. We were, Um, we were awfully optimistic at this time last year. At this time last year, was going off the board as wide receiver sixteen. Right now he's wide

receiver thirty two. We'll talk more about him later in the show. Uh. After being the fifteenth player taken in the draft, Jerry Judy disappointed us last year just three touchdowns and only three games with more than sixty eight yards. But all all signs point up he'll be better in your to the return of Courtland Sutton will help take coverage off of him. Um, and between Bridgewater Locked, there

should be some kind of competent quarterbacking. Let's you know, either Lock gets better or at least you have Bridgewater for basic competency at the position. So I think Judy is probably pretty safe and they expect him to be better in year two. Your slop position guys kJ Hamler. And in the second half of last year he started getting twenty forty snaps a game, and so I think

he walks into the starting role here. But he's squarely behind Judy and Sutton and Noah Fan in the pecking order for balls, and he feels like just a spot starter. And I wouldn't be surprised if they I don't know if Tim Patrick can run out of the slot, but if they, he does not run out of the slot. Patrick he was was Sutton out. You know, we did see some we saw some flashes, but he will need Judy or Sutton go down before we can count on

Tim Patrick. So let's talk to a fan who might be the most divisive of player on this team for fantasy owners to figure out. He's a former first rounder who could be sitting on a breakout season. You might recall last year, the first three games of the year, Noah Fant was healthy. He scored twice in the three games, and he posted forty six yards, fifty seven yards and eighty three yards Noah Fan. Then he suffered an ankle injury,

and he was never the same guy. They he missed a game, they played their bye week, and then he played hobbled the rest of the year and he just he was you seem limping with one you're dragging a leg behind him, and he scored one time the rest of the way. History is littered with first round tight ends who explode in year three. Tony Gonzalez, Jeremy Shocky, greg Olsen, Tyler Eifford, all did nothing, did very little until year three, and they blow up. This is year

three for Noah Fan. He was on pace through those three healthy games. I year to be a monster. This could be the big breakout year for him. The questions are going to be quarterbacking and ball distribution. You know, if Sutton and Judy are both very good and they can be very good players, is there enough ball to go around to feed Noah fanse as well. Let's go

to the running back position. One of the biggest storylines in all fantasy football is going to be the ball distribution and the contest between Javonte Williams and Melvin Gordon. That's what we all want, and in fact, I want to talk about that. I mean Fantasy owners always want the rookie to get immedia playing time, but more often than not, it does not work out that way. To the desire of fantasy owners, were all, you know, we

want to make the change immediately. Coaches are like, I want the guy in the backfield who can block a blitz and not get my quarterback killed. Now, you may recall Pat Shermer when he is head coach of the Giants, guided sa Kwon Barkley due to the one of the best rookie seasons of any running back ever. Barkley got twenty touches in year and sorry in week one of his rookie season. Then the next week he got twenty five touches, and the week after that he got twenty

two touches. So you know, Shermer identified greatness in se Kwon Barkley and fed him the ball right away. Maybe he does that with Javonte Williams. Williams is powerful, he's elusive, a tackle breaker, a goal line back with nineteen touchdowns last year, and Brian the Broncos traded up to get Javonte Williams. They got their guy guy. I always feel like that's an intangible indicator of how much a team

likes a guy. Definitely, I think Williams is going to get enough immediate work to be a flexworthy runner in September with a chance to rise up to like a seventy workload over Melvin Gordon over the course of the season. Probably won't happen as fast as we want, but Williams is pretty special now. Melvin Gordon wasn't bad last year,

but he also wasn't good. He averaged four and a half yards per carry, but only point two yards over expectation per next Gen Stats, which puts him behind plotting runners like James Conner and DeVante Booker and Damien Harris and Wayne Goldman, and one would expect more from One would expect more. He scored nine touchdowns on the ground Gordon did, and so people I think might be they might feel like those nine touchdowns, you know, helped them

last year. I just don't think Gordon is that good, and I don't think teams trade up to get to the top of the second round to take a running back if they don't really like him planned to use him. So who's the riskiest player at his current ADP? It's Melvin Gordon, Who's going after board his running back twenty seven. In the fifth round, He's going five spots ahead of Javonte Williams. I don't like it, um and then the air with the most upside compared to his current ADP,

Courtland Sutton. He is going off the board as wide receiver thirty two after going off the board last year at this time as wide receiver sixteen, So literally a doubling of his a DP his sophomore year. You forget he hit eleven hundred yards as a sophomore with six touchdowns and then lost last year. Now in his fourth season, you figure he gets back to the eleven hundred yards and maybe do bet and could easily do better than

the six touchdowns. Obviously, has reconstructed me as a concern, but he's been running on that knee since March, and coach Vic Fangio says he does not expect him to start the season on the pup list, inferring he's gonna be ready by week one. He's gonna participat in training camp, so a year removed from injury by then, I'll be good to go. Absolutely. Thank you for listening to Fantasy Football Weekly. We encourage you to check out all of

my play rankings available at Gillotine leagues dot com. And how about it playing in a guillotine league while you're there. It's the funnest for just way to play fantasy football. We should, Uh, maybe I have like a listeners league where we can invite some people compete against us. You want to coordinate that. Maybe I'll ask Matt to do it. Maybe I will if we get a little interest in it. Let's see a little feedback on Twitter about it. Yeah, alright,

so use uh, let's use a hashtag. Um, let's get my hashtag for this. How about hashtag m M guacamole, hashtag guacamole. If we get eighteen people who hashtag guacamole, well, other people are gonna just hashtag walk. You gotta say

like f f W guacamole or something like that. Well, you don't you think it's gonna be a lot of Well they'll at one of us when they do it at b T X J or at Paul Chargi and with a hashtag guacamole or f W guacamole if you feel so inclined, And then we'll if we get eighteen people, let's do it, right, Thank you for listening, everybody. We'll be back next week. I uh, first, you know what,

I don't know what division we're doing next week, get it? Yeah, we wrapped the a f C. Yeah, wrapped the a f C. We'll talk through one of the NFC that the sun rises in the east. I'm I feel pretty good about that happening. Thanks everybody, talk to you in a week. 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.