NFC Least

It was It was great. It was very busy. It was just like the old combines and in many ways even busier than the previous ones. And I thought maybe COVID and everything, and I knew a bunch of people who weren't going. A lot of my industry friends weren't there, so it's really weird. There wouldn't be a lot of people there, but they were there. There was There was great overall from a just speaking about, you know, fantasy

relevant rookies. How excited are you for this class, because like I feel like six months ago it was No, it's not a great class. I'm a little more excited than I was a few months ago. There are some good receivers, and we're gonna break these down really into into April. We've already got all planned out April. We're gonna be breaking down with the positions. Some really good receivers,

I think tight ends, pretty bad quarterbacks, pretty bad running backs. Okay, and we'll we'll have plenty of guys that we can talk about, you know, in those about those positions when the time comes. But yeah, I got some good dirt and you know, some insight into a few things, and it's yeah, it's it's always fun. But the focus of this show, like the focus of the last show, is we go back through one of the divisions and we highlight key elements for every player in that division. And

this week NFC East. Now, the goal here is not to recap the season you already know, because you already know about that, but hopefully to shed some insight that maybe you know when you're deep in the weeds playing it every week, there's some stuff that you just maybe don't realize uh is happening in how you have you chance to reflect on a full season with all these players and speculate a little bit into what's going on next season. Let's do it let's begin in the end.

We're doing the NFC East this week, the NFC least. Yeah, it really is. There's some bumber teams in here. That's the reality football. There's plenty of good fantasy stuff. Yeah, exactly. Let's start with the Philadelphia Eagles. Yeah, start when the Eagles will start with their quarterback as of right now, Jalen Hurts. Rumors always seem to be swirling like he's gonna get traded or they don't trust him as their starter. But they shouldn't trust him yet he has not earned

trust yet. I don't know. I'm with you there. Um, one player has amassed four thousand passing yards and one thousand rushing yards through their first twenty career starts. I want to guess that is Apparently it's it's Jalen Hurts. And guess what, He's only started nineteen games too. So I finished his QB ten last year with basically just one wide receiver. It was a rookie, Devanta Smith. We'll

talk about him in the second. Uh. You also have the fifth most rushing touchdowns with ten, and that's among running backs. Uh. So Philly Shirley will pad the receiver position through free agency, the draft, or both. So I'm buying Jalen Hurts. I think he can get better. I don't think he's peaked. I don't know. I know you're as as my worry is as a passer, I don't know how much better he can get, and hopefully he

can um. But if he doesn't, man, I'm just I'm nervous about his his long term prospects of just even retaining the job if his passing doesn't get better. True, but I mean in fantasy football though, that rushing floor it was so safe and give him such a high ceiling. So I'm still in on Jalen Hurts. It is not

a guy who I'll be fading. Uh. Speaking of that one wide receiver we mentioned, Davante Smith led all rookie wide receivers in airy yards per reception last year over twenty three His a dot average depth of target was a massive fifteen point two yards, nearly one and a half yards more than Jamaar Chase. So big play potential, sir there for Smith. On the downside, he didn't give you the big play. Yeah, he had some very bad weeks,

which makes him more appealing in best ball formats. But I think we do see some more consistency this season, especially if Philly or when Philly brings in fresh blood at wide receiver. I don't think that's gonna hurt Devanta Smith. I think it's only gonna help him more. And of course it all depends on the arm of Jalen Hurts. But uh again, I for one think he can improve

as a pass or so Davante Smith. Another guy I'm gonna be targeting in draft this year, but not as much as I'll be targeting tight end Dallas Goddard, who didn't post eye popping numbers last year, but he had Zach Hurts for six seven weeks in there as well, and he was He was hurt a little bit, missed a couple of games, but the underlying metrics very impressive. For Goddard average two point two yards per target in PPR leagues. He was second in yards per per reception

at fifteen, first in yards per route run. He led all tight ends and completed area yards per target. The only problem was he only saw seventies targets. That's why the numbers weren't there. But again, there was the Earth's effect um and even and what but what if this team gets better at wide receiver in the off season, which I think there's a good chance they do, I think that can really only help Godard maybe because I mean he was probably the primary focus for defenses, either

him or Vante Smith. So and you know when and when zach Ertz got traded, Yeah, that cleared up targets for Goddard. But it kind of it's a shock to that offensive system, I would think, because they were really like a two tight end offense and all of a

sudden they were one tight end offense. So now they got all offseason too kind of build their offense around Goddard hopefully, who again only at seventy six targets when you're talking about guys like Mark Andrews and Travis Kelsey, they saw twice that, if not more, and all those metrics I just mentioned, he was well ahead of Travis Kelsey and Mark Andrews and all those crazy at tight end seven. Right now, I'm where he's roughly getting drafted

right now. I'm big on Goddard, who has the top three tight end potential this year if he sees the volume. So I'm liking Goddard, but not like in the running game too much in Philly. Miles Sanders, Kenneth Gainwell. We'll talk about these two really quick disaster season for Sanders last year less than one thousand combo yards, zero touchdowns UM, but he only played twelve games. He was dinged up Jordan Howard and Boston Scott altered lots of opportunities, especially

line um. So I don't know Miles Sanders, he's fallen into in these very early drafts, like the ninth tenth round range. So he's kind of a nice some value there, yeah, in both redraft and dynasty formats. But don't sleep on Kenneth Gainwell, who certainly flashed at times last year. Not you did score five rushing touchdowns on just sixty eight attempts, average four point three yards per carry. He's kind of the go to receiving back as well, and that offense.

So runners, runners have an opportunity to get better in year two. And we've seen it a lot where you know, there are rookies that come out at running back and they don't they don't do much, and you're two. You's usually you know, that's where you see for most backs, that's that's sort of your your last chance to really show in the NFL, although there are exceptions, and it's

an offensive line. Philly, they got a good old line, so uh yeah, that's the Eagles, and people are asking what about Jalen reagor, don't ask about he is dead, although it'll be his third year, right, and sometimes receivers come to come to life in the third year, but usually usually not when they're as dead as he's dead. The Washington Commander's first time I've talked about the Commanders the Commander. Yeah, it still feels weird, and it's such a bad name. Man so uninspired. Look at what the

Seattle Kraken did by going an offbeat, unique name. People are like, you can't. They've they've selling the most merchandise in the NHL because they have a cool logo and name. I gotta go on a real quick mini rant. Not not the Commander's logo, but like their crest that will be on they put for the Super Bowls they won. They put the year where the game was played Sea, which is not how anybody acknowledges there are Super Bowl wins, and the fans are upset. I mean, it was such

a massive oversight that that is weird. Isn't it. I'm not even a fan and it bothers me, But yeah, people are pissed in U in the belt Way about that. Let's start at the quarterback position. Taylor Heinik had zero or one touchdown pass in eleven games, and he was particularly ineffective after Week four. Once defensive coordinators got some good tape on him. He had a pretty nice little run in like weeks one, two, three, four, and then just the wheels came off and he was a very

ineffective quarterback. After week four he was Fantasy quarterback twenty one, which meant that, you know, most weeks you were by a mile better off not starting him than somebody else. His scrambling, he's he's got, he's got pretty good wheels, but he scrambling was very anemic. The average just seventy yards and zero rushing touchdowns after week four. Um, he's gonna be a free agent. Ran Fitzpatrick won't be retained and Washington is clearly in the market for a new

quarterback next year. Russell Wilson DeShawn Watson in play draft in a rookie, We're gonna go one of those. The problems gonna be Washington might be the least compelling destination for any free agent quarterback who can control his own destiny because of all the turmoil with that team right now, Well, Wilson's willing to go there like well, that's the word. It's not defendive. I don't know about that. I don't think I don't think anybody wants to go to Washington

right now. All right, let's talk about Terry McLaren, who suffered under Heineke. He slumped all the way to wide receiver thirty seven after week five. From week five forward wide receiver thirty seven, he scored just two times the rest of the way, and that put him behind guys like Kendrick Bourne and Devanta Smith and Marquez Callaway. Come on, you're Terry McLaurin. His stats from last year weren't that

different than the year before in total stats. But we all expected him to do far better and really improve on year two into year three, and it just didn't come together without Stuberd there and Taylor Heineke throwing him wobblers, and it just never it never really came together. Still, McLaren's obviously got loads of talent, and if the commanders can find themselves a quarterback, then there's some real upside

to be had in McLaren. Next year, mclauren's in that like cursed group of like Andre Johnson and Alan Robinson, still amazing great receiverscking right, uh, And there's no other good receivers on this team. Diamie Brown was a total washout in his rookie season, just twelve catches. Maybe he sparks next year, but we got nothing from him this year. Kurt and they didn't even put him on the Brown he was on the field. He was inactive most many games.

Curtis Samuel injured throughout the entire season, starting in training camp and lasting all year or long. It was this last year. It was his first year into his thirty four million dollar deal. Oh, he caught just six passes. Six passes for Curtis Samuel. He was hurt a ton though, he was hurt a ton. So I mean to me, you know, like last pick of your draft, you could

throw a dart at him and see what happens. I've got I've got interested in the later rounds if they upgraded quarterback, if he stays healthy, I think he could there. But there's there's still I gotta believe there's still some of the talent that we saw in his last year in Carolina. Alright, Logan Thomas tight end injured all season.

Just a reminder if you forgot, he tore his A c L and m c L in December, So we don't even know if Logan Thomas is gonna be ready for Week one or what point during the season he would come back and be effective there. Um Ricky Seals Jones is a free agent, but they like their other their rookie from last year, John Bates, who flashed a little bit when Seals Jones was hurt and Logan Thomas was hurt and they had to go to Bates give

him more time. He flashed a little something. I think they'll let Seals Jones walk and assume Bates can can fill in and be the backup if it turns out Logan Thomas isn't ready to go. But I liked about Logan Thomas when he was healthy. Was he was playing literally the snaps with a tight end. Yes, the healthy one. So if if he can stay healthy, he's another guy who's got undervalued. Right now, let's go to the running backs. Intonio Gibson. He had a hundred yard ten touchdown season.

When I say d yards and ten touchdowns, you're like, hey, that's that's a pretty good year. But why didn't it feel like Antonio Gibson had a better season. It's because he was an erratic performer and unpredictable, and it was very hard to know when you were safe putting him in your lineup and when not to. He succeeded against some very hard run defenses when some people reasonably would have benched him, and he flopped against some really bad

run defenses. And the past catching really never developed like we thought it would in the off season. We had spent much of the offseason talking hawking ourselves into a reduced role for j D. Mckissa, for a guy who knew increase a wide receiver basically in college too. We thought we we thought he'd come together more. He hit one hundred rushing yards just once, and one of them, I'm sorry, just two times, and one of them was

in Week eighteen when nobody was playing fantasy football. That's Gibson, and four of his ten touchdowns were scored in December, and at that point you may not even been in the playoffs. He did have a shin injury. He played most of the season on that shin injury, and he never really this season looked his dynamic and elusive as he had in twenty the year before. Brian so Gibson, I think, um is, I believe he will fall out of the top two rounds in many drafts next year

based on what we saw last year. Yeah, he's going from what I've seen, it's literally, of course late second release, he's going. He's more of a mid mid three. I think that sounds right. JD. McKissick was a spot starter, and then you know he was a spot fantasy starter, not starter for their team. He may not remember he finished with a concussion of Week twelve and that was the end of his season. And I you know, I you never knew what to do with mckissa He was

just like a dark throw by week guy. And um, it'll be interesting to see whether or not they decided to retain his services. Let's go over to the Cowboy Cowboys, Dallas Cowboys. It looks like we're gonna have a little shake up at the wide receiver position. Yeah we will. I'll get there in a minute. Let me just get

let's make it a dack out of the way. We don't have to dive too deep into dak Uh somewhat of it down here for him statistically, but he was fourth h fourth most passing touchdowns with thirty seven, the same amount as Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers. Uh. He did go under underwent shoulder surgery this pass offseason, but

it's not his non throwing arm should be fine. They're roughly going around QB six and drafts right now, but still has that quarterback one potential even if the Cowboys offense undergoes a bit of a makeover, which it likely will. We'll talk about that and then in just a minute. But uh, let's talk about a guy who will definitely be a Cowboy this year. Mass Ceedee Lamb. Even though there was some Arizona rumors swirling a week or two ago. You didn't buy into that either. Uh speak down years,

oh Lamb. People were expecting a top five of top ten. I was, and I think I think I had him ranked right around ten going into the season. Yeah, wide receiver twenty in PPR. So he he under exceeded everyone's expectations. Now, can you under exceed when like, am I making this word? But it makes sense, it does um. But you know, I think Ceedee Lamb could be this year's version of Cooper Cup. Now he's not getting drafted as late as Cup was getting drafted last year, but he's still falling

into the late second, early third round right now. But that's still good value for a guy with overall wide receiver one potential. But here's the key for him to do it. They gotta use him in the slot more. Um. He checks all the boxes outside that He's got the size, to speed, the talent, a good quarterback got off a

good offensive line. Lamb only took a third of his snaps from the slot last year, and I'm saying we at least double uh those snaps from the slot of him this year because his biggest games came when he saw at least sixteen snaps from the slot. Uh nine catches a hundred forty nine yards, two touchdowns against New England, two touchdowns against Atlanta, seven for one oh four and a touchdown against Tampa Bay. This is are in games where he was seeing significant snaps from the slot, and

that a lot of that tied to win. Gallup was healthy or not. You know, Gallops much is was traditionally more of an outside guy, and they would move Lamb more into the slot when Gallup was on the field. But Gallup missed most of the season or half the season, so that was that ended up pushing Lamb outside more. And I'm with you, I just think he's a natural slot received. Yeah, I'd like to see him using the slot a lot more because hey, that's where Cooper cup plays,

right for the most part. Um, speaking of Michael Gallup, Uh, and Mark, let's talk about tomorrow. Cooper, right, so he's basically gone. It's not even a rumor. It's just there's a fact they can't afford. And I caught him. They mismanaged that this all goes to Zeke's contract. That's like ruined everything. Like but now they're just gonna let Cooper walk when they could have at least tried to trade him. To be clear, they tried to trade him. They were

no takers. I'm sure they were. Their offers are They're asking price was way too high? Remember what they gave up? Was it not two first rounders to get him, Marie Cooper? I think it was two first rounders? Yeah. Jones is not very good in the front office, So we're gonna assume, not even assume Cooper is gone. But that's gonna clear. And Michael Gallup is an unrestricted free agent as well, so Cedric Wilson, Uh yeah, I think Wilson is going to be there. Um Gallup kind of on the fence.

The weird thing with Gallup is he he blew out his knee late in the season. He waited like a month to have the surgery. He just had the surgery a couple of weeks ago, so I don't know if he's gonna be ready for the start of the season. It wasn't an a c L, was it. There was mcl okay, a c L is worse, right, But either way, he waited like six weeks, which was kind of bizarre. It's like, just get it over with. But really, I'm most excited about Cedric Wilson knowing that Cooper is pretty

much gone. I don't know if Gallops could be ready to start the season. And Wilson look great when given the opportunity. Forty five catches, six hundred and two yards, six touchdowns on just sixty one targets. Yeah, that's those are hundred twenty, which is viable or feasible for a wider season starting We're talking a thousand yards and potentially double digit touchdown. So Wilson is a guy going very late right now. I think he's gonna be climbing round

by round as we go up. Months like that comes through the seasons, especially if Gallop is not going to be a factor next year either or not on the team or because of because of the knee, and now because of the cap crisis in Dallas. Another guy who might not be Cowboy next year's tighten Tighten or this year tight end Dalton Schultz. But I think now that with the the Cooper news, I think they retain Dalton Showed Schultz and hopefully they do because he thrived in

a full time role in Dallas. Was one of three tight ends with at least eight hundred yards and eight touchdowns, the other two Travis Kelsey, Mark Andrews. Schultz was one of six tight ends the top a hundred targets, finished third and catches at the position with seventy eight, so he looked great. He's comfortable in that offense. And as for Blake Jarwin, not a concern when it comes to

Shultz is playing time. He's the guy now. The Cowboys actually are saying they have concerns about Jarwin the hip surgery. Had he's the first pro football player to ever have it. They're saying only hockey and basketball players who knows how he reacts to hip surgery. So don't be concerned with the Blake Jarwin. If you're rolling up wanting to roll into two with Dalton Shultz as you're tight end one, he's another guy I'm liking. If you have, you fade

the big name tight ends in your draft. All right, let's get to the running backs because we have it's gonna be frustrating a lot of talking Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard. Will this be the year that Tony Pollard finally usurps? I'm done thinking that the Cowboys will do the right thing here because we've been asking for it for two years and it hasn't happened here. And we all know Zeke is on the climb. But here's a

very very alarming stat. Elliott had fifteen carries of twenty plus yards into fifteen carries of twenty or more yards in what year? So all the way back to rookie year. Yeah, okay, and that's three carries in that that year. But since he's had seven four carries, he's only had ten carries. Of yards is gone, totally gone. On the other hand, hell yeah, average five point five yards for carry per

Pro Football Focus. He graded better than Elliott as a rusher, receiver, and pass blocker man and pass blocking was always one of the big catches for him, for he was not a good pass block The only reason they keep giving Zeke more run is because they're paying him so much. It's all about the money. So when Pollard saw ten plus opportunities last year that's carries and targets, the Cowboys were nine in one. When his opportunities were in the

single digits. Dallas was one in five. I mean, he's there in front of you is to start Tony Pollard, so hopefully they do. That's it for Dallas. We'll take a break. When you came back, we'll talk through the New York Giants with a new head coach, find out back end. Oh yeah, and general manager and they both have Bill's roots. Well, we'll talk through that team in just a moment. Welcome back Fantasy Football Weekly. Paul Chargie

and Brian Johnson with you New York Giants. Knett coaches Brian Dable, who teams up with the Bill's former assistant general manager Joe Sheen, who now runs the Giants as their general manager. First order of business is Daniel Jones, and it sounds like they're gonna give Jones yet another in a series of final opportunities to prove himself as an NFL quarterback. But here's why I'm kind of intrigued. What if they us What if Brian Dable just runs

him like he ran Josh Allen? Brian, doesn't that get interesting? Now? Daniel Jones is not nearly as good of a runner, but he's not bad. He's not bad. He's not a bad runner. What if they give him, well, unless he runs like more right, he goes boom. What if they give Daniel Jones six seven eight design runs a game? Yeah, I mean that could be good for fantasy purposes, but like, you don't have to respect his arms as much as

you have to respect Josh Allen's. Well, so I don't know, you might see that coming a little more, even though everyone knows Josh Allen's we run the ball. But I don't know I'm still soft on Jones. I'm not. I'm not. I'm given where you'll have to where you'll take him, and he will go undrafted in many leagues. Um, he will go, you know, round thirteen fifteen as my third quarterback.

I'm really interested in Daniel Jones from just that angle, and then if the rushing doesn't materialize, I'm just gonna cut him and I don't care, I'll move. We won't spend too much time on this, but I have heard the Giants in the DeShawn Watson conversation, and they could maybe Daniel Jones would certainly be part of that trade package, So that would be interesting to see. All right, let's

go over to the too. Kenny Golladay, his absurd seventy million dollar contract, just pounding the final nail in Dave Gettleman's career as general manager. So many nails pounded into so many cuts, and he's the guy who set up every one of those nails and pounded him in. Um, he wasn't. I remembered his season with him being hurt all the time. Dude played a lot. He only missed three games. He was on the field for fourteen games. This year, and he was so bad. He did not

score in the fourteen games. His average game two and a half catches for forty five yards. That's not even an average game. And in the other sense of the word, no, it's not start of receiver. He finished his wide receiver hold one next to Josh Reynolds and DeAndre Carter. I don't even know what team DeAndre Carter is on, Washington, Washington, think about that for Kennedy seventy million dollars, so Holiday, obviously they he will. He will almost certainly be back

on the team. They don't have a choice. They can't even work around the contract right now. He'll be back with the Giants. He'll have to be a dramatically better and more improved version. But I gotta believe that there's gonna be a ton of wariness since it's been two seasons or two full seasons removed from him having a meaningful fantasy. We could do a draft of bad contracts in the NFC East. I think Holiday would be your first.

Then there's this guy who would be in the conversation, Sterling Shepherd, who has reportedly been asked to take a pay cut, which tells you plenty about the season that he's coming off of. He's slated to make twelve and a half million this year. They can cut him and I, as memory serves, that will not get that'll it'll his cap impact will be about half if they caught him. I think he will take the I think he will end up having to renegotiate his deal. He missed half

the season. Shepherd hasn't played a full season since. He was questionable constantly. He and every Sunday you didn't know if Sterling Shepherd was actually gonna play or not. And every Sunday morning you're like, Oh, he's in, but I don't trust a lot of times he was out though, kind of feel like you would play exactly. So get this on Sterling Shepherd Week one, seven catches, hundred thirteen

yards and a touchdown. Oh yeah, you looked like the steel of your draft that point, You're like game on. After that, his average game forty two scoreless yards. Sterling Shepherd didn't score again and didn't have another one hundred yard game the rest of the year. Ka Darius Tony is the better talking point out of the wide receivers,

but even he was frustrating. He erupted in weeks four and five, and if you combine those two weeks together, Brian sixteen catch is for two hundred sixty seven yards. He looked slippery, almost unguardable after the catch, and somehow the Giants never went back to him again. In the rest of his games other than Week four and five, he averaged three catches for Tony and he never scored a touchdown all season. Darius Tony, Yeah, he he did

look special though when he was playing his hand. Now he suffered a hamstring injury, a thumb injury, a shoulder injury, quad injury, oblique injury, and an ankle injury. He got COVID twice. So if you take all that o ay, you figure, if he can go through next season healthy, if Daniel Jones and Brian Dable can stoke up something resembling an NFL passing game, Tony's got some real upside

to him. And maybe last season with all those maladies, the bad play, a coaching staff that was about to get fired, you know it's gonna suppress his draft value. You and now, if you want to go roll the dice on kid Darius Tony as your wide receiver four in the eleventh round. You could do it. You don't like having COVID prone players. We have, we've had injury prone, but he's like the most COVID prone player in NFL history. Blue won't have any of those. Evan Ingram's headed a

free agency and he will be gone. He's gone. Former first round pick don Sa Kwon Barkley is the last guy I want to talk and Kyle Rudolph they let him go, so they got a wide open uh, which which is intriguing. I would see who lands there. Uh. You know, Table did good stuff with Dawson Knox eventually, eventually, eventually. Yeah, all right, so let's talk s Kwon Barkley. UM general manager Joe Shan says he's willing to trade Barkley after

an unproductive season last year. In the last season before that, Barkley slated to make seven point two million this year because it's that fifth year of your rookie deal where if they lock you in, which gentleman did it this time last year he locked in the fifth year on st Kwon Barkley. Now they're obligated to pay him seven point two million dollars. And now the new GM wants out on that. Barkley, needless to say, had a bad season, Uh, in part because the offensive line's had good there right

twenty first and run blocking by Pro Football Focus. But even so, the explosiveness, the elusiveness. Man, I was watching some of the se Kwon Barkley highlights his front while I was at the combine, his combine runs his rookie year. Dude was insane. He was so good. I will say this blew out his a c l in like in week two. So historically they say, you know, running backs, even young running backs, takes like two years to like

fully come back. So and when he got hurt last year, it was like a fluke ankle roll like he rolled, he like stepped on his teammates, you know, something dealt with for a lot of the year. People are pegging him his injury prone, not COVID prone, but injury prone. So I don't I think that's unfair. So I am buying low Barkley's falling into like, oh, I'm sure second,

late second, early mid third round, and it's that high. Yeah, and taking him in the second round by that, But I mean, if he stays healthy and they improve that line, which they can only improve. I think you still got that top. I mean he was RB one in his rookie season. I think you can still get back there. Thank you for listening Fantasy Football Weekly. Next week, free agency is getting here soon, by the way, where you

have two weeks removed from free agency. Uh So, next week we'll run through the a f C South the notable players there. Week after that free agencies game on, we'll be talking about that so plenty more to get to. Thank you for continuing to listen, subscribe, rate, and review Fantasy Football Weekly. Talk to you in a week, everybody. Fantasy Football Weekly is a production of I Heart Radio.

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