If you do it, it's not weird.

It's been two weeks. Brian was here last week before. I thought Scott was two weeks ago, but he was three weeks ago. Scott's been on a tropical island for three weeks right now. He's not even done yet. I've never I've never had a three week vacation for my entire I think he's I think he's gone for sixteen days in Hawaii. Unbelievable. Who lives like that? Scott Fish. Yeah, and it's good to be Scott Fish. Jeez, unbelievable. It's

just I'm very jealous. Today's show, we're going to continue our division by division look through all the salient players. This week's division is the a f C North and again we we spotlight all the relevant players, We tell you the thing you should most important takeaway from last year or something sailing for next year about each of the guys in the divisions, and we we we were all through them and at the end of this one we don't get chocolate chip cookies that this is a

bunch of crap. Yeah, yeah, you probably should be. You probably should be. UM. As a reminder, we have a fresh hot off the press is Guillotine League Chop podcast. We encourage people to check that out Chopped the Guillotine League Podcast. We talked to our Scott Fish Bowl winner and it wasn't me you got. You got deep into the playoffs. I got the ring out a hundred forty four. You probably got to like his London forty four players that started you were the last Yeah, something like yeah,

something else very impressive. UM. I can't I can't wait to get back in a Guillotine League this year. I'm excited. Yeah A, well, I mean, how many do you want me to be in? I see, I feel like the right number because your season can end, Yeah, any time it's gone. I mean I feel like you have to have minimum to just in case one goes belly. I had to last year. So yeah, so I feel like two is kind of the functional minimum, but that's just me.

Maybe maybe we can have a beat Explosive Output league or something like we had a listener league last year, so I'm abe we'll do that again this year. But we have a little time to figure that out. In the meantime, I should mention while we're doing a little self promotion here at shock Fantasy, anything cool and anything cool happening at chock Fantasy. Did the huge, huge update on the Dynasty trade value chart and added all the rookies and add all the all the all the guys

changing teams and everything like that. So yeah, that's that's a big update. It takes quite a while to get all the contracts and all that stuff. I'll load it up. So yeah, released that last week and we're gonna keep going and get ready for the NFL Draft here fantastic. Let's turn our attention to the a f C North and let's start with the Super Bowl runner up super Bowl runner up team, that's a better way to phrase it,

Cincinnati Bengals. Yeah, and what was the week spot of the Cincinnati and they did such a great job in the offseason, absolutely completely rebuilt the right side of their line. Law L Collins comes over from the Cowboys to play right tackle. He was the fifteen ranked tackle by PFF last year and the number three overall run blocker. I don't understand why Dallas did this. Dallas isn't very bright. I don't know. Um. Alex Kappa is the new right guard. He comes from Tampa. He came in as the number

eighteen ranked guard last year. And Ted Carriss, who's Alex Harris's great nephew. Alright, Uh, he comes to play center from New England. Now. He played mostly guard last year, but he was the seventh best hass blocking guard in the league according to Pro Football Focused. So smart of the Bengal So they rebuilt an entire side of their offensive line new it's gonna be a lot better. Uh. The other new addition to the team is Hayden Hurst,

replacing c j Uzoma at tight end. Hurst found the back seat to Kyle Pitts last year in Atlanta, which just about every tight end in the league would have done had Kyle pitt has been drafted on their team, but the year before he was tight end ten to fifteen based on your scoring system. So he was, you know, startable in some leagues, and I think he's kind of an old, boring name and people are really going to

overlook him coming into draft season. This year, he's on the best offense he's ever been on, and there's there's a lot of weapons around him. I think Hayden Hurst is sitting on like a sneaky nice year, and I think when we get into July and August, we're gonna start talking about sleepers. Hayden Hurst is going to be one of those guys that either Brian or I mentioned Brian probably will because I think he still has a

soft spot for the bank Ols. But uh yeah, um, the other guys, you know, Jamar Chase and t Higgins lining up outside of Hurst in PPR points per game, Chase finished as the fifth best wide receiver last year and Higgins finished as the twelfth best wide receiver last year. That's two wide receiver ones on the same team. Yeah. You know, for Chase, as we know, it was more ups and downs, you know, the explosive game and the quiet game, but averaged out to fifth overall. Yeah, it's

pretty great. Uh. Tyler Boyd even finished in the thirties amongst wide receivers and targets receptions in yards, So he'll probably still remain to be flexworthy UH in most leagues. And I know the Super Bowl losers get the hangover most years, which which it's been totally legit. It's been totally legit, but it doesn't feel like that for Joe Burrow. It feels like he's on the doorstep of something special historical, maybe uh full year away from the a c L now.

UH started last season with eight straight multi I touchdown pass games, and he's got a vastly improved offensive line. The wide receiver talent, you could argue he's got a better tight end than use Elma. I think sky's the limit for Joe Burrow. And where do you think you have Burrow ranked among your quarterbacks when we start next year? Five? He's definitely a top five guy, and I think the upside is QB one. Yeah, I mean that's not out of reach if he if he scrambled more. He doesn't,

but it would be easier. But he's got forty touchdown upside in that arm. Yeah, and and definitely five thousand yards in there. So Joe Mixon gets that upgraded line as well, he faded badly down the stretch from Week fourteen through the Super Bowl, which was eight games for the Bengals. He only scored three times and he topped sixty five rushing yards only twice in that span. Compare that to fourteen touchdowns in the prior twelve weeks. Uh So it was a little bit of a fade. Mixing

was very young when he entered the league. He only turned twenty six this summer. But he's already played five season and has and has had multiple injuries on the resume. So would it be surprising if the Bengals took a running back on Day two? They have pick sixty three and nine. They addressed the offensive line, their defense was in pretty decent shape last year to get to a

Super Bowl. Maybe they look at what the Rams did with all the depth at the running back position and they go, we need something better than Chris Evans and Soma j. P. Ryan and and maybe it's somebody like Breece Hall, Isaiah Spiller, James Cook, those of the ideal scenarios. All of those guys are sitting late second to early third in draft predictions right now. So so Cincinnati picking bottom of the second round, bottom of the second bottom of my life. You know what, I like that angle.

I hadn't thought about them as a running back destination, but it really does make some sense that they need the depth there and mix and might not be able to shoulder the full load anymore. So I I think it would be interesting seeing as how he broke down at the tail end of the end. Now, they signed him to a pretty sizeable new deal one or two years ago, so we still got still got some room

to go there. But boy, you know, the Bengals are a team that have some to your point, they've they've they have the luxury of making sort of a best player available selection, so they don't have an area of massive need anymore. So yeah, maybe maybe that's gonna make a cheap running back for three or four years to kind of be the Joe mixing air apparent as well.

Yeah like it. That's that's the Bengals for you. Okay, let's go over to the Baltimore Ravens, and you can't first thing you always think about the Ravens is Lamar Jackson and last year's disappointing season. Maybe not the disaster that some people remember last year being but it seemed like that much of a disaster, but it wasn't where people were drafting it, certainly not. He missed six and a half games with injury, which was a you know,

that's a huge factor. And he did not score rushing to touch down after week two and that was the killer, uh massive blow too was normally gigantic upside. But Lamar Jackson still averaged twelve carries for seventy three yards, and those are running back numbers, rushing numbers. Yeah. And of course, famously, the Ravens had every running back on their roster get hurt in consecutive weeks in the preseason, so that might have, you know, factored into Lamar Jackson's inability to really run.

Um and well maybe he had to run more because they know they couldn't rely on the old farts that they had what they brought in. Um. Now, Jackson never has and never willingess offense get goal line carries, and so that does give you some we saw the downside of his rushing touchdowns. For a guy who doesn't get goal line carries, he's got to score from distance, and everybody who has to score from distance has touchdown downside. Yeah, there's a lot of risk there for sure. For sure, um.

But the other side of it is, if I were to tell you next year, Lamar Jackson's going to average twelve carries for seventy three yards, wouldn't you think he's sitting on six, seven, eight, nine rushing touchdowns in a typical average year. I mean you'd think, But then you'd look back at what he did this year ago. Maybe it's four, maybe it's five. That's certain. I just think we at the bottom of what he can do from a touchdown stamp. That's that's that's probably it. Speaking of which,

his passing was similarly frustrating. Um. Although no game's out any passing touchdowns, lots of one touchdown games, and that was a real frustration for Lamar Jackson's owners, and it's it's part of why the the he didn't end up having the massive, gigantic games that we had seen two years prior from Lamar Jackson. In his eleven full games, his average finish was QB eleven, all right, and QB

eleven is not bad. That's not you drafted him. So the interesting one of the interesting aspects of Lamar Jackson too is his contract situation. He's in the fifth year of his rookie deal. He's looking for, you know, the mega quarterback deal right now? Are the Ravens going to give him that, because it seems like they're slightly hesitant to do so. And if so, could this be a contract, dear for Lamar Jackson where he goes out and just

becomes the highest paid free agent quarterback ever? And could the Ravens just go yeah, yolo, Lamar, go for it. We don't care. I agree, that's the full range of a possible outcomes here. And Jackson, who represents himself, which I think is noble and you know, if you've got the cojones to do it, great, Um, But he has so much leverage right now and in next by next

March when he come up as a free agent. How much leverage does Lamar Jackson have if he doesn't win a playoff game, if he misses some time knee injury. What if Tyler Honley comes back in again in like he did last year and performs at a similar level, not as good, but at close to level. You know, Lamar Jackson maybe eating into may have you know, may have overplayed his hand here by going into the fifth year of his rookie deal. Let's go to the running backs.

So J K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards suffered season ending a c L injuries within a matter of a couple of days of each other, and they both come back. They both moved right to the back of the top of the depth chart because the dust farting running backs that they had are all gone, I'm happy to say. And it's it's still too early to know where Dobbins

isn't his recovery, where Edwards is in his recovery. But I think there's some sneaky draft value to be had on my favorite sleeper from last year at this time, which was which was Gus Edwards. Here's why currently his ADP is the fourteenth round for Edwards. Who's to say right now that Gus Edwards his knee isn't you know, there's a decent chance Gus edwards knee recoveries just gonna be faster than than dobbins knee recovery could be, and that Edwards is ready to hit the ground running opening

day in a way that Dobbins isn't. Dobbin's ADP, by the way, fourth round, Yeah, um, definite upside for both guys. Here absolutely um as a guy who holds a lot of Dobbins stock in Dynasty and really cheering for j K. But uh, you know you could see it. But the nice part about this is for both of these guys, those knee injuries happened back in July or August. It was August, so late August we had probably the full

year of recovery for both of these guys. So I think both should be able to hit the ground running pun intended there and and I don't foresee you know, Dobbins or Edwards being limited in any fashion. Interesting. On Friday, reports surfacing that the Ravens were interested in Melvin Gordon, Well why do they? You know they got Dobbins and Edwards. We don't need this, We don't need this messing everything up? Is Melvin Gordon just like the guy who messes everything up?

Now he did, That's all he does is screw up Fantasy Owners and Boston Eckler for a while, messed up Javonte Williams last year. Wherever he goes, he's going to mess it up. Yeah, he's just the He's the value shredder for all the running backs around you. So is Baltimore interested in Melvin Gordon in some part some part because either Dobbins or Edwards isn't where they should be in their rehab And we don't know, but that's one

possible explanation. It's a possibility. And maybe it's just Baltimore really hasn't been a bell cow destination for runners for quite a while. Jamal Lewis. That's a long time, and it was the years ago. They don't have bell cows really, so it just could be a thing where they're like, you know, we want eight to ten carries for all of our ning backs, and we want to run the ball thirty times a game, so we need a third guy. It's possible. I mean, you know, clearly a run first

offense and always will be. And that's uh, you know, that's let's just help Melvin Gordon land somewhere else already want me. How about Miami. They've got so many guys, they're fine. He just water it all down, Just just let let one backfield just be completely cannibalized by al Right, all right, let's go to the receivers. Marcus Brown, even though he'll likely get his fifth year option exercise. He's probably in a contract year this year effectively in a

contract year. Um. You may remember his tour and start to last season when he was fantastic six touchdowns in the first seven games, I remember, and then he never scored again. That's amazing, that's terrible. In fairness, Lamar Jackson missed a lot of the games in the second half of the season, so that was part of why. But Tyler Huntly was able to feed other people like Mark Andrews just fine. So that that part of it is

always frustrating. And I think it's really continued what has now been a full career trend for Marquis Brown as a all or nothing fantasy guy. Yeah. Absolutely, We've seen a lot of those come and go in the past, and he just seems like if he's scoring touchdowns, they come in bunches. He seems like a new DeShawn Jackson to me. In the night last nine games of the season, Brown never scored and his high water mark for yards,

that's a that's a fantasy team killer. It was. There were people that were powering themselves through October with Markis Brown heading thinking they're heading to the playoffs, and the wheels came off. So I think the moral of the story is when markis Brown is hot and he's on your roster, that's when you trade him. If he if he strings together some good games, just get out, get out while you can. Rischade Bateman was last year's first rounder.

He missed those first five games of the season, started the season pretty quietly, and we're like, okay, fine, he's got to get a few games to you know, get his you know, get acclimated in the NFL. No problem, earned a starting role, but then it never really came together for him. And again maybe because Lamar Jackson missed some of those games, but even like the box scores weren't that great, and then you just you just look at the player the eye the eye test, Matt Rashan,

Bateman never really jumped off the screen. There's plenty of first round wide receivers that become just a guy, if not worse in the NFL. I mean Jalen Reagor from a few years. Uh, it just happens over and over again. He's already better than Reagor, let's hope. So for Bateman, just one touchdown on the season, just one one yard game, Baltimore is always gonna be a run heavy team, and how many you know if they're gonna feed Mark Andrews. We'll talk about a second here, and Marcus Brown is

going to get some of the deep stuff. I just don't I get the feeling Bateman is just gonna get squeezed out of box scores a lot here between all the running and Andrews and Brown. I just don't think there's enough pigskin to go around for him. Outside of Andrews. Is there a guy you really really want on your fantasy team next year at their ad? I'm interested in both Dobbins and Edwards for me, yes, yeah, I want I want to have I want to have Ravens running backs.

I mean, Gus Edwards is a perfect do the opposite style running back. What if the Dobbins is going in the fourth round, that's a great start. What do you think of Lamar Jackson before we get to Mark Andrews Here? Lamar Jackson where we have him ranked for a quarterback? Use going into next year coming off of two really disappointing seasons. I think with all the contract stuff that's there, and I believe he'll be very motivated. I think he's probably going to be around the sixth seven. They'll be

below Burrow in my my quarterback rankings next year. But the upside is so massive with Lamar Jackson, just with the running ability. Well, the floor is so high because if he's gonna chip, even when he has the bad passing game, when he's chipping in sixty eight rushing yards, if you get seventy rushing yards and you have two passing yards, you're already like at a good spot. Then the touchdowns are just gravy. Right. Mark Andrews finished his tight end one in every scoring system. I don't know

how you worked it out. Okay, was the best tight end last year to have remote if I was in a league that had no Ravens in it. It's not like a league in Cleveland or something Pittsburgh. We don't do any Ravens um for remarkable for a tight end. He led the team in targets, target percentage, and percentage of air yards, all going to the tight end position. Andrew's currently going off the board is tight end to

in the third round behind Travis Kelsey. I think you can make a pretty strong case for him to remain tight end one this year. If you think Kelsey, who's now he's getting he'll be his thirty four. We're going to be thirty four this year. If you think that Kelsey's at the beginning of the end, and we saw that long stretch from November to the middle of December where Kelsey didn't do much. If I think, I think you can. I think you could almost say Mark Andrews

is the more bankable tight end one. I think that will be a big, a big hot take going into fantasy draft season next year. And then I can hear Brian coming in Kyle Pitts. Kyle Pitts and we talked about the last show and they really go back and listen. He talked about the most I possible Number one, and he could be. But um, the danger of fantasy is always replaying the year before Mark Andrews finished Number one. Is he gonna do it again? I mean, flip a

coin between Kelsey and Andrews. Really, yeah, you know what. I haven't fully decided yet, um, but right now I think I'm still going to take the guy attached to Patrick Mahomes. It seems like a smart plan, It seems like it seems like the safer play what else is The safe play is stay tuned because when we come back, we're going to talk through the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns. Hold on tight. Welcome back Fantasy Football Weekly,

Paul Charchie and Matt Harrison with you. Segment number two, we'll tackle the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns. Shout out to Brian Johnson who lost a family member. Yeah, no kid, Brandon's nummy kids. They're his dog. Stella was very, very close with Brian. Oh my gosh, she was close with all of us because Stella was at the office with us almost every day. Yeah, and so big loss for for the dog world. And yeah, so yeah, shout out to Stella stell Bell. We will miss you for sure.

Let's talk Pittsburgh Steelers as they head into the season with Mitch true Bisky. Do you have that sad trombone? Ski? This one? This is the ultimate, This is the one. We can keep it rolling. Um, Mitch Trubisky is your new quarterback unless the Steelers grab one at twenty or trade and many people think that will happen. Um, If University of Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett or Malik willis where to fall to twenty. I think that's a no brainer for the Steelers and then they can get rid of

this song. You turn it up, you get that's the end of the Hey, I got another button for you to push. How about this? In Bisky started a game nine times Fantasy No nin Oh, Duck Hodges is still on that. We got sand Trombone and the Duck Hodges together. Um. His intended area arts per pass in was seven point eight, which I was like, is that low? Is at high? So I looked it up compared it That's what Dak

Prescott and Aaron Rodgers through. So um, but it's a full yard more than Ben Roethlisberger and a yard of air yards is a lot of air yards right there, So um, that's pretty significant. Much stronger arm than a four year old Ben. The problem is his accuracy, which is why he had a fifty eight point to passing grade from Pro Football Focus. Comparison would be somewhere between what Davis Mills and Sam Donald were last year. So yeah, the vision he that guy misses. He does not read

the field. Well, it's true Whisky doesn't and Scott Fish said that he can't throw to the left side of the field. So that's what you know that. That is one of the common complaints about him, and there was near the end of his run in Chicago. There were some people that work. I'll never forget seeing some of the tweets of images of true whisky. There's there's a player, he said about the twenty yard line of the opposition.

There's a there's a receiver in the end zone. Yeah, that doesn't anybody within like fifteen yards him and the pictures right behind Robinsky and he doesn't see him. No, it's just it's there's so many, so many mental miscues for Drabinsky, who may have gotten almost certainly got better coaching with Buffalo. Maybe some of that's been knocked out of him. We'll find out. He's the best weapons he's

ever had in his career around him. I think he is a good runner um by the way, I think he had a grade of seventy seven on Pro Football Focus, which is right in line with Russell Wilson's running grade. So he's a good runner. Um. I think what Pittsburgh does this year is they keep him running, and they keep Nagi running, and that's how it goes. Um A couple of other key additions to the Steelers. James Daniels is the new right guard. He came from the Bears.

He's actually that a pretty decent upgrade Pro Football focuses number nineteen guard. And Mason Cole is the new center. He's not good well. He served as the backup and sometimes starter in Minnesota last year. He was the thirteenth ranked center by Pro foot All focused last year, but only four or seventy one snaps, so he must have raised a lot better than Garrett brad Berry. But yeah, that's about it. If he were particularly good, the Vikings

would have kept him. Um. He is a great run blocker though he graded very high as a run blocker, but terrible, terrible as a pass blocker. So I think this sets up for Naji Harris to just get a UH one touches last time. That's the most in the league average twenty four opportunities per game. That's rushing attempts plus targets. Uh Bringing in the two run blocking interior alignment and a quarterback who's inaccurate leads me to believe

that that workload continues this season. Um, he's going to be in the conversation it for the top three players off your board in fantasy drafts in in August. So I just think because the touchload is gonna be so high, he's gonna be facing eight, nine, ten in the box a lot. But he's I think he's good enough to do it. Stealers haven't done enough for their offensive line yet and they have to hit it in the draft. If it doesn't have to be a twenty, but if I feel like two out of the first three picks

it could be to be lineman. Now, Deonte Johnson had a hundred and sixty nine targets last year in sixteen games. That's the exact same amount that Davante Adams had last year in the exact same amount of games. Uh second most in the league behind Cooper Cup. In true Bisky's twenty nineteen season, which is the last time he started basically a whole year, Mitch targeted Allen Robinson one fifty

four times, third most in the league that year. True Bisky can support the top twelve fantasy wide receiver, and I believe he will do that if he's the starter for Deonte Johnson. Now, Chase Claypool is now the certain number two. Now that Juju Smith Schuster is gone. He's one of my favorite sleepers right now. It's it's April, but I'm really interested coming off the bad season. The

better downfield passer this is. I think there's a lot of upside here after you know, we saw we saw, we saw the touchdown upside two years ago in his rookie year. Yea for Chase, but I'll let you continue. You can, you can finish her to your side of this story. But I'm interested in buying a low right now. Okay, um in for true bisky. Anthony Miller was the second highest targeted Bear at just over five targets per game. Okay, but he was a slot receiver who wasn't very good

in his out of the league. Now he's in Pittsburgh, oh is he's the number three wide receiver. Okay, scratch that sake. He took over for Juju Smith Schuster. So Claypool saw around seven targets per game last year. I think he's looking at a similar opportunity amount six seven targets per game, which could be enough for him to really get going. But I mean with Anthony Miller there and likely manning the slot that Juji Miller is no thought. My god, he might not be a threat, but he's

true Whisky's boy. I don't think so. I don't think so. I'm a Laypool so much better. So I'm a little worried on the true Whisky side that he can support Deonte Johnson as a number one. But you look at Claypool and then you look at Pat Fryar muth who a lot of people like, I'm a little nervous that he can't from a passing standpoint, just support that many weapons.

And let's talk about Friar muth up. He scored six touchdowns in a seven week period in the middle of the season, but never topped fifty eight yards on the season. When he doesn't score, he's getting you a lot of like seven point ish PPR games, like four catches thirty yards. That's kind of his like m O right there. Um, So he's either going to be the last guy in the tier of tight ends that you want or the first guy in the tier of tight ends that you

don't want. And you're mixing and matching with guys like Hayden Hurst. You know, from a dynasty standpoint, I'm fascinated by Friar muth because if Drubhisky doesn't work out, there's another quarterback coming. If Trubisky doesn't work out, pit Sburgs selecting high in the draft next year, and it will be although the defense, I think it's always going to keep you know, alone, you could get him to seven

wins every years. Um yeah, I just think I just think Friarmouth's got some I think he's got some real talent. He does have some some huge upside for sure. He does. Um yeah, I'd go acquire him if a couple of soft games come through for him and he's not like looking all that well. Uh at the beginning of this this next coming year, if he gets a few of those four catch thirty yard games and somebody's like, I've

had enough of Friarmouth, Trubisky sucks. That's where you go hop in and maybe you're making a good investment for the following year. That makes sense. Let's go over to the Cleveland Browns, the ever changing Cleveland Browns. It's there's no dull moments at all. I mean, it's always something there. From the time Kevin Stefanski has shown up, it's been nothing but turmoil, you know. Uh, and a wide variety of fronts. Yeah, oh, b j out Deshaun Watson. The

you know what we went through with Baker Mayfield. Keep in mind, people forget Baker Mayfield three years ago posted he tied the all time rookie record for touchdowns in a rookie season. You know, they went to the playoffs to mean you know, and now that yeah, right now, they can't give the guy away. And suddenly I'm supposed to believe he stinks. I don't. I don't believe he's terrible, but he will. He's unlikely to start any games, at

least any games in which Deshaun Watson's available. We have no idea what's kind of suspension is looming for Watson, but most people believe he will not roll into this season unsuspended. Don't you believe that Mayfield won't play another down for the Browns? Again, not necessarily. Let's talk it through for a minute. So let's assume that the Browns aren't gonna Let's assume the Browns are gonna give him away,

and they're not any reason to give him away. He's under his rookie deal, he's cheap, they've got, they've all the leverage. They need, you don't, and some team is going to have a catastrophic quarterback injury, at which point they can probably get much more for Baker may They can try to do a Sam Bradford trade. Yeah, exactly. It might not be the week before the season starts like Sam Bradford, but at some point the other way of the quarterback that's on roster's Jacoby Brissette percent is

at is just barely back, barely back up grade. He's he's the guy you bring in to start for a few games later your other quarterbacks on suspension. So when clearly Baker may feel better than Jacoby Brissette now time heals all the wounds, Baker Mayfield wants to play well. You know, it's only in his best interest to play well no matter where he is, including Cleveland. If he's on the field, he should try. He also lives in that stadium, so it's kind of hard. Yeah, a little awkward, right.

So I still think I believe there is a scenario here if Watson MRS whatever six games, that Baker ends up starting those those six games. I still think that's a scenario that plays out. And I think by the time you get to training camp. I think the hostilities, the bad blood, it's not gonna be forever forgotten. But I think people, you know, Baker is gonna show up for work, He's gonna want to get paid, He's gonna you know. I I think I think there's still a

scenario where plays out that way. I think I think it'd be tough to stomach that one, having them trade giant amounts from the franchise from draft capital just to get a replacement for you. I am the two thirty million. The Baker Mayfield probably thought, Hey, I'm you know, I'm gonna be a high paid quarterback. Yeah. So I man, if if they don't get a draft day trade going, um, it could be interesting to see like kind of what

happens in June and July. Um. This has been a little bit of a strange off season in the NFL, where some high priced players have forced their way off of really good teams with really good quarterbacks. Players have unprecedented leverage right now, but Baker doesn't have much. Baker probably doesn't have that leverage. But what he does have is he's got a favorable contract. As you said, he's he's got a little bit of a track record of being a better than average rookie uh and and a

startable quarterback in the NFL. He's not one of the worst. He's not beyond thirty three in ranks of starting quarterbacks in the NFL. He's he's in the twenties somewhere, and he could start for somebody for sure this year. So let's go back to Watson for a minute. Who's gonna be fascinated to see where he goes in drafts. He's currently going off the board, by the way, a quarterback,

which people are clearly baking in suspension interest. As a reminder, were one season removed from him being quarterback too in fantasy scoring. So you know, clearly there's you know, there's some worry about whether or not how much time he might miss, But talk about a year off, Well, that's the other thing. So even if he plays the opener, Matt, if Deshaun Watson's the opening day quarterback, he will not have played a game in six hundred sixteen days, six

two years, sixteen days, almost almost two years. So it's um, it's there's probably gonna be some rust to knock off for Deshaun Watson one way or another when he finally does start. But even when he does start, we know that Kevin Stefanski is not gonna suddenly morph into air core Yell. It is not going to be It's still gonna be a run first Browns team. So let's let's talk about Nick Chubb. Let's talk about Chubb, um. And by the way, the way the draft format I love

for Watson is my second quarterback. So you know, if you sloft quarterback to round, your first quarterback in round six or seven, so you take somebody relatively safe, and then you just take all the upside you don't like. One round later, two rounds later, you take all the upside of Watson gives at early quarterbacks for your chart. Taking two quarterbacks in the first seven rounds maybe, but if you don't have any through through five, I could

see it. But you're right. Usually I don't take quarterbacks h Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt. Um, we've got two seasons the data that proved that Kevin stuff Anski is going to retain the sixty forty split between Chubb and Hunt no matter what, including one of the other being hurt. When Hunt goes down, Chubb doesn't suddenly get more work and exactly um they you know it is you can bank on the work that those guys are going to get,

even when they missed time. Stefanski does not want to put a major grind onto either of his running backs. I think he clearly feels and they both guys have been dinged up on and off. You know, for the last two years, they've both been in all the lineups, they've been dinged up. I think Stefanski is very, very methodical in making sure that his running backs don't get too much work. I think it's been proven to be

the right way to go. There's so many teams now that just deploy more than one running back quite often. And Chubb is still fantasy relevant. I mean, he's still very top five, top ten running back right now, even if if he's a getting the workload. Chubb turned in a four hundred yards season despite missing three games. He averaged five and a half yards per carry, and his rushing yards over expectation was third best in the league by next Gen stads because he's so fresh hunt effective.

When he played, he averaged five yards per carry and was on pace for a good receiving year. He had five touchdowns in the first six games, all of them on the ground, which is a little bit unusual because he doesn't get a lot of goal lines stuff. Although Chubb missed some of those some of that time, but then mostly Hunt missed like basically the whole second half of the season. He made quick a couple of short appearances and then that was it for him. Um but

comes back. I think I think Hun remains that to me, that prototypical flex guy that you could start in your flex spot. An ideal guy to start in a bye week scenario. Yeah, good PPR back and a and a guy who's got a you know, coin flips chance that a touchdown every week. I don't know if it's quite that high. I wish it was the wide receiver situation for Cleveland's fascinating Jarvis. Landry is off the team, but he's he's still a free agent. He's an unsigned free agent.

I think Landry thought he was gonna get a lot of money. He's not going to get a lot of money. And that means that they've got Donovan. People's jones don't care. He had a chance to shine last year. You know, we tried. It didn't work. Anthony Schwartz don't care. Jachim Grant comes in, but he's just a special teams you know, role player, waterbug guy. Amari Cooper, Yeah, this becomes really fascinating.

He comes into Cleveland as the alpha receiver the Browns have not had since I mean it was supposed to be O'Dell wasn't though. Josh Gordon t was the last time this the Browns. That was for like five games more than that actually, but yes, but he had the monster season that's a decade ago. Um. Not only is Cooper by far the most talented with the Browns receivers, but the team also as one hundred seventy vacated wide receiver targets hundred seventy. If Cooper plays the full season,

he will be among the league leaders and targets. Yeah, he should be. And if some of those targets are coming from the arm of Deshaun Watson and that arm is even eighty percent of what it was in Houston, I'm very interested in Annamari Cooper. Yeah he should. He should see the little green arrow going up on his rainout the off season. So let me ask you this. Cooper is known for the disappearing game. The Giant game, disappearing game, Giant game, and it's been this way for

most of his career. It was that way last year as well. Hurt a lot last year as well, and nobly played through a lot of it. Do you believe that this change of scenery, the combination with Watson for as many games he gives, knowing there's no there's so few other help among the receivers, does this become the year that Amari Cooper evens out his production? Yeah, it could be. I mean, the target loads should be there, if he's if he's getting eight to ten gets a game,

which I think isn't crazy. I think that that would even him out, and his low water mark would be like six catches sixty five yards and and that's not terrible. That's twelve and a half PPR points right there. Correct, Correct, I'm very interested. Let's go to the tight end position. Austin Hooper has gone. David and Joco got the franchise tag, which shocked me. Eleven million dollars for David Joku. David

and Joku, he's really a run blocking tight end. He's gonna be out there to block for Hunt and Chub. I think the Ninjoku tag was a vote of no confidence in Harrison Bryant. Remember Harrison Bryant finished that rookie year two years ago and he looked very promising. There were these these splashy spot moments for him. Last year, Harrison Bryant had fewer catches and fewer yards. Yeah, I mean Austin Hooper is out of the way though, uh and In Joku is on the franchise tag, which, as

everyone knows, as a one year deal. It's kind of a hey, let's what you got, prove it. We're gonna give you a lot of money this year. Let's see what happens. I don't know. Harrison Bryant should have every opportunity to be the past catching tight end there. He's a guy that in Best Ball I'd want to take, like with one of my last picks in the draft, is my second or third tight end, just on the upside of maybe two or three games where he kind of blows up, which you can never predict, you know.

The to this point, Stefanski's offenses have fed tight ends Matt but you could never know which tight end. You know, it's just a Hooper game and a Joco game or a Bryant game, and it very very hard for fantasy owners to to correctly guess. Even back when he was in Minnesota, it was Rudolph and IRV Smith and and and there were several different guys. But yeah, so um I and Joe Wu currently going in the round. It might it feels about right, maybe a little high, Brian.

I'm just I need I feel like I need to see more from Briant. I honestly, I don't think I'm gonna take in Joku at that price. I think that that price is even a little high for for David and Joku there, but the targets are going to be there, and it probably makes me more interested in Kareem Hunt and Nick Chubb from a past receiving standpoint, just because I think that they have to be more involved with this weird slate of wide receivers and tight ends who

really haven't totally proved it. That's how the Browns go get one of the You know, there's about nine pretty promising wide receivers in this draft. Browns need one. They don't. They don't have any draft packs, so they just it's deep enough. Do they have a second this year? I don't know. That they even have a second Looking it up right now, you do have a second pick at and that would be that's a perfect spot to get

one of those wide receivers that will fall. There will be there will be a there will be a wide receiver in this draft at at pick forty four, um, middle of the second round that would normally in a different year wheres that's not step at receiver would be going end of first round. Sure, how do you feel about this this We haven't gotten into the rookies yet, but how do you feel about this wide receiver class?

Because I've heard everybody saying it's a really good wide receiver class, but overall the rookie class is seen as kind of down and I've heard, I've heard a few pretty good draft outs say this wide receiver class might not be as good as everybody thinks it is. They might just kind of be willing it to be good because the rest of this draft from a rookie perspective

in the fantasy angle, is a little boring. I don't think this is the the year of from Now three drafts ago with Jefferson and Um Well Reagor went in that draft as a mistake. We had the Dallas guy a Ceedee Lamb. But you know that year. I don't think we're gonna I don't think this year is that year. But there is h It is a It is a deep year of really good talent. And if I had to put a guy that you could get in that second round just where we are right now, I'm interested

in sky More. Who's a who who play can play the slot, can play outside Western Michigan. I thought I thought he just looking at his tape. He is a fearless guy who could get free down field and projects as a borderline explosive slot receiver, and he could fill right into the Javar Jarvis Landry spot. Yeah. I think it's gonna be very interesting how the tail end of the first round goes with the Packers needing a wide receiver and having too late picks, the Chiefs having needing

a wide receiver and having too late picks. There's there's guys in the top of the second round that need another wide receiver. Did you say Kansas City? Yeah? Yeah, Kansas City? Yea, um so, I I think Detroit end of the first round, beginning of the second round of both yeah, end of the first the beginning of the

second both of them for sure. So there's a there's a lot of teams out there that are wide receiver needy, and we could see six seven wide receivers off the board before it gets to the Browns at forty four. They might have to trade up if they think that they need to see cure wide receiver. Browns Mite, great job breaking down the Bengals and the Steelers. Thank you, appreciate that great job with the Browns. I thank you very much. I mean, we don't give you enough credit charge.

I'm just my life's filled with credit, don't It's filled with credit and big boar barbecue and big boar barbecue and coffee in the shower. Tried to go to big coffee in the shower. It's I don't see what's so weird about this. I've had shower beers before. I didn't even know shower beers are the It was a thing until two days ago when I posted about taking your yetti you're covered yetti coffee mug into the shower. Why not, You're it's morning. I've got my shop, my got my

coffee with me. I enjoy coffee. Why do I have to go seven eight minutes without coffee while I'm in the shower. You can't go seven or eight minutes. I can. I have my whole life. But why why do I have to? Why can't I just bring my mug into the shower. I think you should build some sort of like Rube Goldberg contraption in your shower or where like you can take a little sip from a straw of like hot perfectly mixed coffee. For you, one of the streams coming out of the shower head is coffee. You

got the second shower hand, Just turn it on. I like that idea open mouth hot coffee. Just shower with it. It's probably good for you. It probably exfoliates your skin for your hair burn you. I mean, if it's the same temperature as the hot water in your shower. I mean people think people think it's weird just because they're not doing it. If you do what, it's not weird,

I'm telling you. And this is the whatever stupid stuff they decided to throw into the show portion of the show doubt that's trying to go to Big Boar uh last weekend. I'm like, okay, we planned it all out because Big Boar is so good, and so many people go that we big boar barbecue, that we we'll go at three three o'clock. This should be you know, we should got to get there early. Got to get there early. If you go at lunch time, if you go at

dinner time, you're looking at an hour. Wait. So we show up at three o'clock our Wait, it sounds about right. I I went there yesterday for lunch. Met the one and only UH Carl Rottman from UH Power Trip fame of guessing the initials when they're in Vegas and when the thirty grand and then went to vegam Yeah, I went and met him there. So he bought, is what you're trying to He didn't. Why didn't he buy? He doesn't need to. I can buy my own barbecue. Thank

you very much. All Right, thank you for making it all the way to the end of this podcast. We'll be back next week. I'm not sure who's in next week. Won't be Scott who was still still be big Big will I don't know, so I'm assuming it's Brian next week. Brian or me or whoever. Maybe we'll find somebody new deal. Maybe maybe it'll be one of our listeners. All right, okay. Thanks. Fantasy Football Weekly is a production of I heart Radio.

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