Free Agency Madness

I've missed your beard. Yeah, I know, it's as long as I've seen it on you. Let's getting long now it is. I decided I'm not gonna shave it until the Vikings win a Super Bowl months from crazy top months from now? Do they win a Super Bowl? Yeah, just eleven months from now, hundred four hundred, yeah, some some number of months. The focus of this, oh is all the offseason macinnations that we've had and Scout there's

so many that we've decided to limit our scope. Here two players who move teams, so we're not doing Kirk Cousins extension. We're not even doing Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady staying with their teams somewhat unexpectedly. Um, we're gonna focus on new players and new places, and we might hit some of the other, you know, some of those things later on, but you know, in those cases, it's more like you know, you already know about Tom Brady

in Tampa. It doesn't have all of the talk ability and all the if you're listening to a fantasy football podcast on March in March, right, yeah, you know Tom Brady's yes, and you know most of what that already means. Probably by the time people hear this, Deshaun Watson probably has a new home. But in this moment, Friday afternoon, on the of March, we don't know where he's going to end up quite yet, So will be keeping keeping that might be the a the A topic of next

week's podcast. I guess I'm very good chance for that. So let's begin here, speaking of quarterbacks in new places.

I'd like to start with some of the quarterbacks. Russell Wilson going to the Broncos adds a fourth talented quarterback to a stacked a f C West and I want to get your initial thoughts on this, and let's start with Russell Wilson in my estimation, his fantasy value is relatively unchanged as he goes from an offense that had two good receivers in it to an offense with two, maybe three good receivers in it too, maybe three good ones.

Their defense is better, so he may not have to put up as many points, might not be fighting back comebacks like he used to. Better running back, better running back. They'll have a better running game if he keeps that efficiency though, with an uptick and volume, that would be pretty nice. But yeah, I it didn't move move him a ton for me, except it maybe made me feel a little more cure with him, like I used to

feel like. Russell can have these stretches, especially at the end of the season, where you're not confident starting him, And I think it puts him in that category where I'm like, he could be an every week starter. I'll draft him lay, but he could go almost every week. Yeah, I think that's probably the case. Courtland Sutton gets a bump up, Jerry Judy gets a bump up for sure, and one of your favorite guys, Albert, Oh, what do

you think? Yep, Albert, I I love it. I I think that they traded away fant knowing that Aqui buon um um um could uh could really fill in that role. He's really the only tight end pass catcher they have. Now, Yeah, he'll get some. Look, I believe in this offense, and I think for especially for anybody who can wait maybe even another year. Is he this will be a third year. This will be his third year, So I don't know if this is the breakout year. But you know, if

he's my second tight end, fill pretty good. Well, you know, after the first six or seven tight ends, it's kind of a cluster anyway, So he's a high upside play. You can draft him late after this top six or seven tight ends. Everybody thinks they're gonna find a guy man. More often than not, Robert Tonyan does not produce, you know, and whoever touch yeah, whatever, whoever, whatever that guy is that you were looking for to help you, a tight end man doesn't come along very often. Okay, where does

this sleep see out? I mean, now this totally daggers. Totally daggers. Uh. The dk DK metcalf Tyler Lockett, right, and that's gonna be a problem until they solve it. Although Matt Ryan could end up there. I think there's something to be said. That true. Luck if he is the quarterback, he does throw a decent amount of yolo balls deep though, so those guys, Yeah, it works for both those guys, but I think it's still just gonna be a lot of running and we're gonna miss the efficiency.

You'll have startable weeks from them. But you can't like him as much you like DK Metcalf tweeting, U, I just want to lay off d Drew Lock. I wouldn't. I wouldn't be shocked if Matt probably not metcap, but I wouldn't be shocked if lock It gets traded. They feel like they're in a rebuild and it feels like there's some teams. But do they mean there were some some media reports in the last twenty four hours saying that they were interested in Matt Ryan, and that's the

right that Matt Ryan for sure is not a rebuild cornerback. Okay, they are in a rebuild, but they may not realize Yeah you think you think they would because of the older players they've let go Bob Wagner, right and of course Russell Wilson, but maybe maybe not, maybe not. You know, it's a team that's traded away so many early round picks in the past, fans value doesn't change for me. He goes to it, you know, low volume offense that

with the same quarterback. I think that's probably about right. Okay, let's go over to Carson Wentz is your new quarterback of the Commander. I don't hate Wentz as much as everybody else. I don't love him, but like I was in on him last year, I thought he'd be a good value behind that awesome offensive line. But it wasn't. Well, the total numbers for him were not that bad, not

to get a seven interception season. Everybody thinks he's he makes all of these horribly detrimental plays, and some of his plays are super ugly, But I don't think he's a bad quarterback compared to say Drew Lock, who we were just talking about. You have an NFL team that right now would have to go to with Drew Lock or Sam Ellinger. And you know, I believe that he was better than Lawrence was last year. Everybody was better than Trevor Lawrence last year. What do you think this

does for Terry McLaurin. Uh, it's got to improve it. It's got to improve it. You got you got. It's clearly a quarterback upgrade. No matter how much you love Taylor Heineke, it's clearly an upgrade. So you gotta love it from McLaren. I don't know that he can support more than that, though. I don't know that they'll have more than that. Yeah. Last pick of the of your draft, Curtis Samuel. Yeah, lost the whole last year on injury.

Had looked good the year before, and let's be honest, a few years ago he was kind of running that Deebo Samuel role. And it's a copycat league. Maybe Ron River is like I did this with you in Carolina. That was the hope last year just wasn't He was just never healthy. Unfortunately. Then there's this guy, oh, the Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback. Yeah, the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to war with Sad Trombone Ski. Almost everything I've heard Scott

has been positive. You feel about Sad Trombone Ski is the trigger man for the Pittsburgh Steelers in comparison to uh, in comparison to Mason Rhodel. Maybe it's a upgrade. Um, I do want to dig into the out on which side of the field Deontae Johnson lines up on So I know because because Trabisky can't throw left, but don't forget middle a problem and he's not great at right either, But uh no, I'm fine with it. I better sper

has not been good the last two years. I don't think it's the big, big of a downgrade for these past catchers as we think it is. Who says it's a down grade even maybe not compared to what Ben was giving you? Right. The only wonder is if he's gonna check down like he like he was never Trabinsky has never been a checkdown artist to running backs, and that was a huge thing for Naji Harris. So I wonder if that's gonna be an issue. But can I mean, I don't think he's gonna have a problem throwing a

swing past to Naji Harris, But I don't think. I just worry that he likes to go fifteen yard player. I was I was gonna say big play, but he doesn't really big play kind of doesn't, does he? Um Deonta Johnson, Chase clay Pool and too and Pat Fryarmouth. What do you think about them now that Mitch Dubinsky is there. I have them all about the same place I had them. Honestly, I haven't. I haven't moved him

a whole lot. I worry that Deontae Johnson's volume is not going to be there because Ben just just hyper targeted him, and and Rabinsky has never really been a hyper target or either, So I guess if I had to move someone down and be Deonte Johnson. Chase Claypool I think was overvalued last year. I think it's come back down to a reasonable value because he's a good contested catch guy. He's a big guy that can catch dot downs. It might even be but he did it

last year, which was really frustrating. Yeah, but maybe they had like two bombs back this year. You can get nine receiving the year before as a rookie who didn't even do much in the first like third of his rookie year, and then Chase Claypool came alive. Juju Smith Schuster I believe is he's still free agentist? Yeah, I don't think. I don't think he's anywhere yet, so would be interesting to find out. Now. He lingered a long time last year's free agency and deal probably got hurt.

So have not not a good year for the one year proved deal. No, it really was not. I think that's the key quarterbacks that we know have moved. Let's go to some of the other key key elements, including Allen Robinson going to the Rams forty six and a half million dollars. He's coming off a dreadful season last year. That I but he's He's literally never had good quarterbacking until now. Yeah, and not only that, his whole career he has been the number one receiver with terrible number two.

Is like he has always had to face either the best coverage or bracket coverage, and now he's going to a place where there's Cooper cover right there and he gets to be the second man with his his talent. Granted, he's older and he hasn't showcased it quite as Munch in recent years, but I kind of love this position for him. The money is a little shocking. I am a little surprised he got as much as he did,

although happy for him. Yeah. Absolutely, What do you think this means for Robert Woods coming off the A c L. You're hearing these a trade candidate, and I don't doubt that, damn man, um. I think I think it's a bigger sign that they probably won't bring O b J back, even though they've they've expressed that they want to. I think O b J might just rehab all year and then mid season be like, who's the super Bowl? Cadat,

I'm gonna go there, go there. But you're right, I don't think O b J is going to be on a team for a while. Yeah. I do think that they want Robert Woods back, but you've heard the rumors. Yeah, it's it'll be fascinating to watch how that ends up playing itself out. Davante Adams goes to the Raiders, costing them a first and second round pick. Obviously a huge, huge signing for the Raiders. Who now Derek Carr's got three really good targets right now, Hunter renfro who was

so good in the last half of last season. Um, and then obviously Davante Adams and Darren Waller. What are your thoughts on that offense? Now, Adams turned out more money from the Packers to go to Las Vegas, his dream scenario, his dream play go home, to play there and to play with his college quarterback. Um, I really like it. Like I I think that offense is gonna it was already decent. Like car is not as bad as people think he is. But he's the fourth best

quarterback in his division. So it looks weird a lot. But that offense should be so much, it should be absolutely good. I hope they work on the offensive line. It was bad, lady. You know, they blew it all up last year. I think it's better this year if they had some pieces to it, and that would certainly help Adams. Does Adams stay in the first in the first round in your mind? I think I moved him around while receiver seven or eight, um, So I don't know.

I mean he's on that edge, like I think he's gone by he's gone in the first two rounds. Still he might be gone on the corner. But it's it's he's really pushing that I think he moves out of them to me the middle of the first round, because he was the sole focus of a passing game led by Aaron Rodgers to now being one of three very good viable targets in a Derek Carr. That's just enough

to push him in the second. There's there's enough guys that are just clear ones or clear Belk House or you know a tight end in the first Marie Cooper goes to the Browns, where he becomes the go to receiver. The leading Brown's receiver last year had five hundred seventy three yards. That's it. That's it. I'm taking the over that you certainly hope so much. Do you see his picture with his jersey, He did not look happy to

be your brown It wasn't up to him. I'm sure he doesn't want Baker Mayfield as his quarterback or who it's third quarterback here? We don't know. I don't think Baker's coming back. I think Baker's Baker's get here's what I think Baker's. He was so like, Baker lives there. That's the stadium's house, right, Yeah, they're being the stadium correct. So he kind of has to stay. Baker is in the last year as rookie deal. He's making really good money this year, and he just he needs to perform

well here and get his big next contract. And I know he wouldn't rather do it in Cleveland, but really, where else could he go that is a viable opportunity for him. I mean, there's a few places he could go to the Saints or loses out in the Deshaun Watson thing. Maybe Carolina. I mean, they're all other places, but people I wouldn't ah Carolina there. That's it's a It's just they're kind of stuck right now. They don't get Deshaun Watson, and he's gonna end up in the division.

It's getting end up with the falcons of the Saints. It's a tough spot. I don't know. I think I think Baker Mayfield. I'm not as down on may I think Mayfield, with a chip on his shoulder through all of this, might be better. And it might be a bit of a wake up call that his immaturity is being called out um and some of the locker room stuff is being called out on him. I can see that it might be good for him. Maybe I'm I'm more optimistic than most. Chase Edmonds goes to Miami two years,

twelve and a half million dollars. This has become a crowded backfeal of mediocrity. Yeah, that's I was gonna I was gonna say that's that's a nice way to put it, because it's he Mostard signed there. Duke Johnson finished the season with a couple of good games Miles Gaskin. You never knew when to start him. Um. I think Philip

Lindsay ended the season there, but he's an unrestricted free agent. Um, Mike McDaniel brought in his old fullback to so yeah from a couple of stops ago so alec Ingole something like that, and so yeah, And he brought in Mostard from right. Most are got a pretty good deal for a guy who's it feels like he's gonna run that same scheme the four Niners ran, and he's going to use a bunch of different backs. Probably bad for fantasy. I think you're right about that. Okay, let's go to

well how about this, let's take a break. Um, give our sponsors a chance to sell you a bunch of stuff, and we'll come back and talk through some of the other things, including a what feels like totally new Jaguars team and maybe some fantasy angles that we did not expect with the Jacksonville Jaguars when we come back. Welcome back Fantasy Football Weekly. Paul Charching, Scott Fish with you. You are at Scott Fish on Twitter and I am at Paul Charching on Twitter. We encourage you to follow

us because we are very very fun to follow. So it's so much fun. So many stories about my son. I got one all the time you mentioned uh busted his first ever busted bracket. It was so cute. So do you remember where you were when you when your kid busted his first bracket? Imagine imagine picking Iowa as the champion, but also picking Kentucky to lose. You have the Kentucky loss, but then picked Iowa. Were Mom and

dad grew up in St. Peter, Minnesota, So St. Peter's um. Anyway, on the Jacksonville situation, we're gonna talk about jackson first. Let's go with the Christian Kirk signing for an insane seventy two million with and it could be more with incentives. What yeah, So this is where I was going with my son is He asked me, why did the Jags get a bunch of not so good receivers when they

could have gotten a really good receiver? Fair question. It's it's tough to tell the nine year old why bad teams stay bad, Like, I don't know how to have that conversation with him. It died, So maybe you could help me with that. Judge, you can't always get what you want, and if you're the Jaguars, you might want to have the best receiver available, but they could be

that person doesn't want to play for your team. So now you have to buy mid tier talent and make them make a monetary decision and commit to your team that way. So Trevor Lawrence gains all of this, most importantly Brandon Sheriff. So they have a new starting right guard that was one of the best guards in one of the best guards in the league, and they needed that because Trevor Lawrence was under siege all the time. They they went back to the franchise tag on Cam

Robinson again. It will be a second straight year with the franchise tag. Then they added Za Jones, who flashed some signs of competency with the Raiders last year. And then also uh they added as we mentioned, Christian Kirk. How do you this, Evan Ingram may I w should mentioned that three steving options? Good God, it reminds me of the Patriots last year with all the bad money they spend up receivers and tight ends last year. Okay, so your thoughts on this whole offense and how much

better it may get next year? And we still don't know who the running back is going to be. The running backs a total mystery at this point. James Robinson and a t M does come back, but James Robinson probably won't. And most people felt felt going into last year a team would not be a full time back. So what are your thoughts on this? On this Jaguars offense, it's it's got to improve. Uh, Trevor Lawrence through twelve touchdowns passes last year, Like that's that has that has

to improve. And I think that this is this is their mid tier way of being like we're going to surround you with you know players, um, players that are better options than were last year. They still have Dan Arnold too. They can run a lot of twelve personnel and have to. But then you got two tight end pass catchers out there. Jamal Agnew should be back and healthy. He was a little a little scatterbug out there like he he made some plays. Um, it's got to be

a little bit better. But it's not going to be like oh the Chiefs or the or the Chargers of the Raiders. It's gonna be better. But we're talking maybe touchdown pass better, not twelve, right, which would help a lot actually, you know, we'll take the twenty three if we can get to that point. Um. For those in dynasty leagues and especially in Super Flex that drafted Trevor Lawrence early last year, this this is it's it feels like we're all ready to make or break year they've done.

All of these are all of their off season machinations for the Jaguars were all designed around putting Trevor Lawrence in a position to better what it was. And if he an if he isn't, that's really he's you know, JaMarcus, you know we drank if you're going purple drank Lawrence. But if it doesn't work, if he throws twelve touchdown passes in his set a year with more weapons than a year to have, he'll have the full off season,

which he didn't have last year. You know, he's instead of a COVID shortened gets drafted off season, he gets a full off season. This year. It's a second year. Things are slowed down. If he can't perform, he might just not be it. He might not be it. And I thought even when given a clean pocket and an open receiver, he was misfiring over the field. We talked about this I watched a lot of the Jags games in my rewatches, and I'm like, this is the most

off target quarterback in the NFL. Yes, he's off target all the time, all the time, and not all of that was because his offensive line wasn't good enough, his receivers weren't good enough. He just missed, God, just missed. So you know, I love that the Jaguars are doing so much to answer to the question of what they've got in Trevor Laurence. To me, that's still not of those point of Evan Ingram's interview. Could you be okay with the quarterback's off target? That's all I know. He's like,

this is this is good for me. D J Charko left Jaguars and went to Detroit. That Detroit offense is kind of good. I mean, so let's let's talk through Detroit for just a minute. They added DJ shark I'm on Ross st. Brown, I tweeted about this. His final six games of last year, he was averaging eight catches a game. On top of my head, eight catches a game. I think it was sixty nine yards almost a touchdown per game. He was Jamaar Chase's full season. He was

in those final six games. Now, I mean we always have the caveat Hackinson. Swift missed all of it or most of it, like injured or missed all of it all of those games, and so that offense almost had to go through I'm on Ross Brown, but he was a rookie who performed very well. You know me, I love this on God. I think that was just his natural way of growing throughout the season. And then they realized, yes, this kid's good. We're gonna but we're coming to this year.

There's going to be more options. You know, it's but the offensive sneaky good. Swift can do it through the air and on the ground. Hockinson is one of the better tight ends in the league. Chark has had decent flashes with you know, pretty bad quarterbacks, but he'll unlock a deeper passing game than we've seen Detroit since Kenny Golladay was good. And aman Ras there and I think, you know, like Desmond Ritter is going to be the

quarterback probably like a thirty two. It's not it's not impossible. Um, this is let's remember the offensive line for the Lions as well. Three first round picks. I mean, this is they can protect whoever their quarterback is and find ways to get the ball to the handful playmakers they've got.

I'm I'm bullish on the Lions. They have some really they have an interesting setup and that they have a lot of near the line of scrimmage playmakers that can get the ball short and then make plays like Swift and Cliff Raymond resigned there and am all those guys can do shorts, take short stuff and make something happen. Right, I've got a couple more for you. Hayden Hurst went to the Bengals, and I think this is I think

this is a quiet, sneaky move. We're always looking for our tight end sleepers, and you know that second tight end you can throw a dart at. He goes right to the top of the depth chart. He's gonna beat out Drew Sample. And granted it's Jamaar Chase and Tee Higgins and and Tyler Boyd and those guys are always

going to be one, two and three. But we've seen, we've seen, you know, flashes of use for that tight end position spread out across different guys, and there could be there could be a little something here for Hayden Hurst. I think he's You're going to be your classic take a chance on me, matchup play guy seven times, five to seven times next year. That's that's where I view him. Cedric Wilson left the Cedric will disappointed me frankly by leaving the Cowboys because I liked him to step into

the Marii Cooper role. That's not going to happen now. It looks like they wanted to go with Gallop off the A c L and for more money then Cedric Wilson. It seemed like every time he was they asked him to fill in. Cedric Wilson did really well. I don't understand the move. So anyway, he's now in in Miami, which puts him in kind of a crowded spot, although you know he's been in crowded spots before. DeVante Parker, UM, Cedric Wilson, Preston Williams is there, and of course Jalen

Waddle coming off a very good season. Yeah, Preston Industry signed um. At least they got rid of will Fall will Fuller. UM. I believe that this is DeVante Parker's last year too, and Cedric Wilson was three years so maybe maybe it's a long term thing. Um, but yeah, it's it's a little bit crowded right now. And Mike McDowell seems to think everything's gonna run through Waddle. I like I am. Teddy Bridgewater is a very limited quarterback, but I love I love him as a backpack up right.

I mean, you know, this gives me confidence that if anything happens to to a including you know, the prospect that his play just doesn't get any better, Um, that there's a guy behind him that is not a disaster. And that's you know, their only a handful of teams in the NFL that can say that the final guy.

I want to talk you about a Scott fish favorite, Okay Russell gauge Tampa Bay three years and if there's one thing that we learned last year, when you know, if there's one key reason why Tampa got knocked out of the playoffs early, it was all the injuries at wide receiver and also because Tom Brady hates everyone wide receiver except for God, he really does. I mean Tyler Johnson, you know, had I don't know fourteen opportunities to be like step up and beat a man, and and Brady

won't even throw to him. You know how big of a difference this is. Do you heard the story of how Russell Age got got to Tampa. Tom Brady personally called him up and told him to come to I didn't know that. Yeah, personal phoc on and people are like, if you're Russell Gauge, you're like, yeah, okay, you kind of go. And it's especially if they're gonna throw thirty million at you. What I I don't think we're sitting in a situation where Tom Brady is gonna hate Russell Gauge.

I don't think so. These are Gauge is the guy that I consistently saw make really good leaping splash plays, but not consistently and a lot of times he needed

a lot of targets. Um, we'll see. We'll see Chris Godwin of course coming off of so you know, it could be the Russell Gauge and Mike Evans in a late season like four, like a late season, I mean, there's it could be Halloween before Godwin's getting you know, regular full time reps probably won't be the A c LS are so much faster now the US, but um, and I think Rob Gronkowski probably comes back now they probably get four net back, they get the gang back

together one more try. It feels like it's going to go down that way. Excited for it. I am excited for it. Those are the key big tea players who changed teams. And again we're not doing, at least not this episode, players who stayed. Next week, it's gonna be more of the same, Scott, it'll be players who you know, players have moved or maybe in that case because these are now we're next week seconds more second tier players. We might do some of the players who stayed as well.

But such an exciting time of year. Oh gosh, it's so much fun. It's it's amazing how even with much badness going on, the NFL is like, no, we're going to handle the news cycle. It's okay. They're never out of it. No selection Sunday was ruined by Tom Brady went down at the exact same time. Man. Yeah, it's just it's the NFL. It's younger, not unlike anybody. Thank you, Scott, thank you yea. Hopefully we'll have you back on soon. Yeah, Matt and Brian need to stop hogging all the all

the all the spots exactly. We've already already got Matt lined up for next week, but maybe the week after that we'll have you back. Sounds good, all right, Thanks for listening. If you haven't already subscribed, rated reviewed the podcast, please do, and we encourage you to again. Follow Scott on Twitter at Scott Fish twenty yes at Paul Charchi, and we'll talk to you a week everybody, but bye. M Fantasy Football Weekly is a production of I heart Radio.

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