The Preseason Begins!

I like the way. I like the way you're headed with that. It is time for Fantasy Football Weekly. I'm your host, Paul Giarchion from fanball dot Com. My co host today are Brian Johnson and Matt Harrison, A tenor and soprano. No, hey, what were you guys? I think soprano because I grew up. Who wants to be the falsetto in this I can definitely do falsetto. I like it. Make the darkness is I believe in a thing called love.

That's my jam at karaoke. I love it. Uh. It is a preseason edition of Fantasy Football Weekly, So everything we're doing in this show is built around helping you crush your draft or auction. We have a whole different format when we get to the regular season or breaking down all the games. Really, I think my goal here, guys is I want the listeners to just even if just make crushed two picks in their draft or auction that they wouldn't have hit otherwise. And that's all you need.

If you have a two player differential in your raspensive huge difference. That's the goal for this shows the right land mine. So we got that. That's almost the same thing that counts is to missing up. You know, avoiding bad picks would be one of the two and improving you pick would be another two that works. That absolutely works. Uh,

let's let's get those two picks onto your team. Over the course of today, we're going to talk through the highlights from the preseason action, answer some tough Westion's, provide some bold predictions, look at how the high stakes players are shaping their drafts, and we'll look ahead three years out for today's rookies to help some of you in Dynasty and Empire leagues. And we'll wrap up the show like we always do with some of our favorite sleepers

for this year. All that Comic Fantasy Football Weekly let's let's begin here with a recap of some of the notable things that have come out of the first preseason games. And guys, there's not always a lot to talk about in the first preseason, you know, but then again, sometimes good things do happen, and we do have some storylines from week number one. Let's begin, Matt with the Colts and Bills game. Sometimes you can glean some good information and sometimes you just look at the running backs in

Buffalo and you get nothing. T J. Yeldon fumbled the ball while running right up the gut. Not a good uh, introduction to him in Buffalo. So he was replaced by Sonora's Perry who a second quarter goal line touchdown. Oh now it's a five way time share. Frank Gore had two carries. McCoy didn't play. Devin Singletary got most of the work. Church. Do you know how many times he ran in this game? Um wait, I'm just gonna make

a bold, Guests, you got it right nine times? Um on the was to me that was principal uh Rooney. Uh So that was the most important thing on the Buffalo side. On the Colt side, there was not much to talk about at all. Look Marlon mack uh t, Y Hilton, Paris Campbell all set out. But do you remember Chad Kelly, former Broncos Kelly, I thought, wait a minute, I thought he was playing for for the sing sing team. He's on the Colts now. He had a really nice

QB keeper for a touchdown. He had fifty three yards on the ground, also looked good in the air thirteen of nineteen one one. He's behind Jacoby Brisette in the packing order. But Chad Kelly, it was like, well, that guy was good and the Broncos are really helpful. It was never that Chad Kelly is not good enough. The problem was he's not sane enough. That's true. That's what's been the issue. Briant Jets take took on the Giants, and we've got a brewing controversy in New York. Yeah,

we'll get to that in a second. Um despite standing on the sideline and just shorts and T shirt, though Sae Kwon Barkley didn't play, but was targeted by Eli Manning a couple time for negative are yards a distressed Eli Manning. But the controversy 're alluding to charge was Daniel Jones looked really good. Uh perfect five for five through touchdown. It was kind of odd that he didn't play more though. It's almost like the Giants are trying

to avoid a quarterback controversy. It's like the paper Mayfield treatment. Well, they're gonna try to stash him on their practice squad. Let's be real, they don't want anybody to find out about Well, he looked good. It's only a matter of time before Daniel Jones is a starter in New York. Um Cody Lattimer real quick looks to be the starting

wide receiver obviously, golden tap Sorry upset Sterling Shepherd. Uh oh man if Sterling Shepherd actually does start to see he's gonna be ready, you think, so that's that's the word. He'll be ready. So um, but that's all to talk about. In the New York side, the Jets first team offense looked really sharp. Um Jameson Crowder capted with a touchdown, Sam Donald the Great Chris Hernon had a nice grab. Don't forget though he's suspended the first four games, so

that will have a negative impact on offense. But um, the offense looked good as a whole. Levy On Bell did not play either, and Um that's all for that game in deeper leagues, because Chris Herndon, I think is gonna be very good when he does come back. He's gonna be starter caliber tight end. If you ultra sloft that position, you'll take any of the top ten tight ends. Last two picks of your draft. You go tight end Chris Herndon, and you just muddle by for four weeks

and then start Chris Herndon. I saw Evan Silva tweet this where he said, you get Tyler Eiffert for the first four weeks while he's healthy, perfect, and then and then just go to Chris Herndon and you could Yeah, that's more like the first four minutes of the first quarter of the season, Washington took on Cleveland. The aforementioned Browns and Freddie Kitchens ran the two human at offense, with Baker Mayfield starting deep in their own territory, and

it was an evisceration of the Redskins defense. Baker Mayfield blasted through them with a series of easy first downs and then a laser touchdown to Richard Higgins, who's turning into a nice sleeper candidate. Nick Chubb touched the ball two times when was a fourteen yard game. One was a fifteen yard game. Both the first downs the new Duke Johnson. And this is a great sleeper for your late in your draft. The new Duke Johnson is Dontrelle Hilliard.

Dontrelle Hilliard, who's going to be a PPR helper. He's a pass catching specialist. And Nick Chubb's not gonna be you know, they're gonna run nient of the plays. It's because he's the new Duke Johnson. I don't think they would have traded away Duke Johnson if they didn't think, Uh, Dalton Hilliard. Don Trell Hilliard's gonna be able to do it. You did this show years ago. Dalton Hilliard was still

when it was still relevant. On the redskin side disaster for the first the first team case, Kingdom started no get Darius guys in this game. The offensive line looked awful, and then even worse, Dwayne Haskins came in and looked brutal with two interceptions, including a pick six. It's all bad in Washington. This might be the NFL's least functional offense. Let's go. Let's go to our next Speaking in functional offense,

let's go to Jacksonville. Let's talk about them. The Jags scored zero point, zero points, no for net, no folds in this game. They did have eight punts, two interceptions, and two turnovers on downs. Uh. That was it. The Jaguars were terrible. Um On the other side, Baltimore, Lamar Jackson was passing really well on his drive four for six for fifty nine yards plus a touchdown to Willie Snead. Keep an eye on Chris Moore, the wide receiver there. He ran with the first team and he seemed to

have some pretty good chemistry with Jackson. Made a really good, tough, contested catch. And then finally Justice Hill. He looks really quick and I think he's the backup to mark Ingram in the past catching back. Caught a nice pass out of the backfield, cut up the field really well. Mark Graham doesn't have that kind of juice in his tank, but I really like mark Ingram still. Uh And and Ingram didn't play in this game, So Justice Hills the guy I want to keep my eye on, not just

the backup. He's going to eat into Ingram's work might maybe the biggest upset, one of the two or three biggest upsets from last year was Detroit handling the Patriots.

They met up again on Thursday night for a preseason version. Yes, sort of a revenge game from that Patricia who's already getting his head called for in Detroit, though after they scored three points and did absolutely nothing in this game, There's virtually nothing to talk about about the lines from a fantasy football perspective, and really the only player worth mentioning in this game, uh that Pertains of the show was and kill Harry looked pretty good for the amount

of time he's on the field. That two nice grabs, but no one played in this game. Virtually no want nothing to talk about in this game. So I'm gonna save some time and kick it back to you. Charge. Tennessee took on Philadelphia and Marcus Mariota was inaccurate. He misfired on several of his passes. Ryan Tannehill looked far better, and he threw two touchdowns in the game. That's switch is gonna happens sooner than people so too. I think

Mariota is the NFL's most vulnerable starter. I don't think in any size league you should be drafting Marcus Mariota at this point. He might not be the most vulnerable, but he's in the same realm as case Keenum and Ryan Fitzpatrick and those kind of guys who are expected to be battling opening openly battling for their jobs. Yeah, you're probably right about that. Adam Humphrey has had three targets on the first drive alone, and I think he's going to be a target sponge in this one in PPR.

You want to move up Adam Humphreys. Let's go to the Philadelphia side. Carson Wentz didn't play, and then the backup Nick Sudfeld unfortunately ended up breaking his uh, either his wrist or his his lower arm, and uh, he's gonna he's gonna end up missing the better part of a couple of months on this And so suddenly, after

losing Nick Foles, the quarterback situation is really bad. After Carson Wentz, Jordan Howard started, although Miles Sanders got in a lot of work, but neither of him did anything. Tons of targets to sophomore tight end Dallas Goddard. And this is a guy that I, well, I don't know, you want to draft him. This is why I've moved down. Zach Ertz and my cheat sheet. He's you know, most people have him as a as the big three tight ends, and he's one of the big three. It's not my

top three. And this is why you have a big two tight ends. I have a big I do have a big two tight ends. I've got Hunter Henry I had of ahead of him. Zach Ertz. Uh, he's a beast. By the way, so big Dallas Goddard cheez man. I loved how they real life snipe to the Cowboys in the draft because Dallas and they moved up and they just took him right out under him. A rookie wide receiver. J j Arthega, that is the correct pronunciation I learned from the podcast. He's gonna call him j Jaw all year.

Jay Jaws. Jaws is something I'm Jaws. I like Jaws. That works too. Both of his parents pro basketball players in Spain. By the way, I learned, he's an athlete. He made one diving play on an overthrown ball and got one hand on it, didn't almost pulled it in, but dimmed. Next time, let's go to Atlanta taking on Miami, and oh, we've got some storylines here. If you Stu Beard,

Ryan Fitzpatrick and Kenyan Drake were the starters. We've heard all offseason that klin Blage was going to uh usurped that job from Kenyan Drake, but Drake was the starter. He took the first play of the game eight yards, basically did nothing else the rest of his time in the game. Josh Rosen came in later in the game. He was beat up badly by the second team offensive line, but he still managed a decent thirteen for twenty for a hundred and nine one yards, and klin Blage he

ran with the second team. He looked really good, was running downhill. He had six carries for twenty three yards and a score. Um On the Falcon side, there really wasn't that much to talk about. No Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, DeVante Freeman, or Calvin Ridley. Edo Smith ran with the Ones and he scored on a goal line dive. But that was really it for the Falcons. You were missing.

I think the biggest story that was Miami game. Preston Williams, the wide receiver with the four insane catches in this game. That's he is a He's a regular receiver. Victor Cruz. Remember the Victor Cruz preseason Great, that was huge. Uh the bid on him was troubled player who was off of most draft boards because character concerns. Otherwise would have probably been a second round ish wide receiver, one of the first receivers taken, but most teams wouldn't touch him.

But you're the Dolphins, so why not? You have nothing to lose anybody? Well, yeah, in Miami there's a lot of inappropriate touching. So he looked fantastic. And somebody I'm definitely keeping an eye on is somebody that might emerge out of the crud that is the wide receiver group in Miami. Insert Albert Wilson going come on, hey, what about me? Us the year of DeVante Parker. It's gonna happen. I'm just kidding. Houston taking on the Packers, Brian another

lame game. No Duke Johnson for Houston. No surprise there, though. Kicky Cutie did suffer a pretty gruesome looking ankle injury. His availability for Week one certainly in question, something to keep an eye on. I'm not too interested in his replacement, but it certainly bumps up the value of Will Fuller and uh DeAndre Hopkins who can't go up much higher. Um, But again, nothing to really glean from this. The only thing that the Green Bay side no one really played.

Dexter Williams set a lot of a lot of work rookie running back. I bet he takes over the backup role over Jamal Williams at some point, but that's about it. Yeah, and Jones and Trenched the starter, he didn't play. Nobody played. Lame game Carolina took on Chicago Carolina side, none of the starters played, and there's nothing to see here other than I'll mention the Carolina's rebuild offensive line look bad. So other than that, nothing talking about the Carolina side.

On the Chicago side though, probably the biggest story coming out of at least the Thursday night games for sure, David Montgomery, oh man, did he look good? To put your pants back on? He he played in several like Davis, got the start for one series and then he was out. So let me mention that first, it was Mike Davis at first, and he didn't do much. Den Montgomery comes out and looks every bit as good at the NFL

level as he did at Iowa State. The balance, the vision, the shiftiness talking about the worthy hoping start for Mike Davis. That really was Come on, Um Davis is not bad, but still, you know, that's that's a whole different story altogether. Um Montgomery. That's I'm telling you, guys, he's gonna catch a bunch of passes. He looked awfully nice in this one. We'll take a momentary pause and coming up next the Peacock Off in the final group of our of our

preseason recaps. It's Fantasy Football Weekly. This is Fantasy Football a weekly Fantasy Football Weekly returns and if you want to fall along with my rankings, it's available for free at fanball dot com. Go to famball dot com slash charch ranks, c H A R c H ranks. I am Paul Charchy and that's where my play rankings are famball dot com slash charts ranks. You can follow along, guys.

I want to get to the final two preseason games that we're gonna talk about on the show, and then I want to get to the Peacock Off, which is where we make our boldest peacock worthy predictions for the year. We begin Denver taking on Seattle Thursday night. Matt what did you see Philip Lindsay was the focal point of the first three plays for the Broncos. A one yard run, a ten yard run in a nine yard reception. Not bad for the first three plays. Then Royce Freeman came in. Yeah,

ran for no gain. And on it's the third and one snap, he took it fifth the yards untouched and got caught from behind, untouched, caught from behind, wide open hole. I was surprised that he got caught. I was too. He's not fast. Oh he's not. Philip Lindsay that he's a way better running back than than Royce. So yeah, I'm just gonna kind of back off of Royce for this year. Uh the yeah, that's really really about it.

There's a time share there, but I hope it's I know there was a time share at this time last year too. On the Seahawks side, Gino Smith drew the start. Uh. There was a late first quarter play where Gino threw it to dk Metcalf right at the sticks for a first down. Backup corner Davante boss By out muscled the giant Metcalf and swatted down the ball. Metcalf looked every bit a rookie and it scares me seeing that right there. I I have a feeling that he's going to just

not have a good first year in the NFL. Chris Carson didn't play for the Seahawks, needed Russell Wilson, Rashad Penny had a meager six for fifteen rushing. So not much else to see here on the Seattle side. Chargers took on the Cardinals and the Kyler Murray debut. We only got one series from him, A buddy look. He did look good. He also looked very small out there.

Someone just someone took you know, video from their phone of the team running out and of course he comes out after the lineman and someone tweeted like he looked like a make a Wish kid coming out, and he really did. But yeah, you look good. But on the ball, didn't run the ball at all, but um forty four yards. Uh it wasn't electrifying by any means. But hopefully we see more next time. Uh. No, No other big names

played for Arizona. No David Johnson, no Larry Fitzgerald. A lot more to talk about on the San Diego side. Not in the passing game, Mike Williams didn't make an amazing over the shoulder, and he'll do that a lot this year. But um, it was it was the running backs that is worth talking about here. Austin Ekeler got the start, he looked pretty good. He did bumble from the two yard line, though that's not a good start.

And then to compound matters for or Ekera leivers, Justin Jackson had a really nice touchdown on from the five, ran right over a cornerback on his way, and he looked powerful. So I'm like in Jackson a little more than Echolor, just based on Deckler. It's kind of the almost, you know, the scat back of the two, but neither it built like Melvin. They're both good. So the Chargers have no interest in making this a high priced addition

to their team. Not only that, if I'm the Chargers, who by the way they offered, they offered ten millions or they ten to twelve million here, which is the absolute high end of what any starting running back makes in today's mark, And I think I would rescind it, and I would be just happy to move on and not have committed ten million of my precious salary cap dollars to the running back position. When I got two guys who were perfectly functional. See what you can trade

them for? Like, just open the phone lines and go best offer. Let's go. Ye, some team is you know, breaking news running backs to get hurt at some point, there's going to be an opportunity to trade away Melvin Gordon to a team that's got you know, playoff aspirations and just lost their starting running back called Dallas. Wouldn't that be funny they signed? They signed Melvin Gordon over Zeke man Um. That's it for that. That's it. Yeah, alright,

nothing more on Kyler Murray. I thought he looked good. He's short, he was mostly short. What is he like? Six of seven mostly start, It was very conservative. He took a sack, he got sacked. But you won't wait to see. But kirk me if I'm wrong. They started at their own two yard line. They went the entire which is gonna be all Christian Kirk really really interested in Christian Kirk. And I've had him ranked in the

low thirties for most most of the season. If you know I've got I've got Kyler Murray at quarterback seven. If we think I think he's that good, his receivers have to catch some passes in here too, So we're gonna talk about all the rookie receivers. They have to they are deep and deep and rookie receivers. All right, this is a segment we do uh e season. We like to call the peacock Off. Now let's explain how it works after this. That's the peaks That is the

bas scott of the peacock off. Right there, you can peacock. You peacocked one Patrick Mahomes last year in this segment. Last year, in this segment, I said Patrick Mahomes would be a top ten quarterback. Now what makes it sound like not a big deal? Now, well, you need to understand it. This time last year, Patrick Mahomes is a d P was quarterback eighteen. So I was giving you know, you know, saying that Patrickmomes would be top ten, was going out on a limit. This time last year. It

sounds obvious. Now I had Eric Ebron as a top five tight end and you laughed at me, My dad, you can peacock that. By the way, I was not a believer in Eric Ebron because he had They needed him so desperately for the friend Detroit for so many years. They could never produced. Come on, well, it's not automatic. We're tight ends go to die. Don't tell that to t J. Hockinson. It might be all right. Let's let's begin with I want I want to bold predictions from each of you one a time, UM, and I will

work myself into this as well. Let's start with Brian, what is your first peacock off bold predictions? I'm going with Jared Goff, who will finish as a top five quarterback this year and right now his ADP is twelve thirteen range. Um. Really, this is more about the system than the quarterback and the surrounding talent in that system. Um, you know goss ADP and the ADP of his top three wide receivers, who are the only team the Rams have receivers that are going in the first five rounds

for any of them. And they bring in um Henderson, Henderson who's gonna have this Chris Thompson type role. So we saw the first half of the year last year Gough was a top five quarterback easily. Cooper Cup gets hurt in Week ten and the wheels just kind of come off for that offense. They they piece it together and make it to the Super Bowl whatever. But uh, and he was a disaster that he was a disaster, but disaster is a little strong. He kind of hit

the wall. I think he rebounds a big time. Sean McVeigh is a very sophisticated offensive mind and he probably has one of the most complicated schemes in all of football. So GoF coming back, all those receivers are brand new essentially to the team to Brandon Cooks Robert Woods last year, so they've all been the other cup coming off injury whatever. But he's healthier and it's real quick. According to Pro Football Focuses, Jeff Ratcliffe GOP has the most favorable strength

of schedule among all quarterbacks. There's only been three quarterbacks in NFL history that have had a pass rating of a hundred or higher with the minimum before in past attempts in consecutive years before the twenty seventh birthday. Those pretty guys are Aaron Rodgers, Carson Wentz, and Jared Gofft. The weak talent on a great team. And for what it's worth, his m VP odds I've moved from sixty to one to thirty to one recently. That's a big shift.

That's a shift, so I'm targeting Goff heavily. He's going very late in drafts, and you know I'm the same top five quarterback. We'll see, um, Matt, what is your first of two peacock off prediction? I have Antonio Brown finishing the season outside the top thirty wide receivers. Uh and and there's a lot of there's a lot of tentacles here. First off, the reports over the last few days, Chase Williams on Twitter noted that the Raiders don't know

where Antonio Brown is. Later they say he's expected to join the Raiders in the near future. That was from Michael Gelkin of the Las Vegas Review Journal. You've seen his feet. His feet looked like he needs to peel somebody else's feet off of his feet. Well, they don't know the status of his frost bitten feet either, because he hasn't been there, So it's it's all weird. He's also filed a grievance against the NFL appealing the league's

decision to ban his preferred helmet. And that's weird stuff. You don't want all that weird stuff involved distraction. He's refusing to play as a results now because of his helmet thing. It's insane. Second, there's a pretty big downgrade from the Pittsburgh offense with a very good offensive line in Ben Roethlisberger to a Raiders offense with Derek Carr. That's a huge drop off. I don't care what that

player is. It's tangible. Brown will face double teams or bracket coverage all year long because the other viable wide out is Tyrrell Williams and they've got nothing else to throw to. Third, the Raiders offensive line is an absolute disaster, and now left guard Denzel Good is out with a back injury. Richie Incognito is suspended. The other right guard, Gabe Jackson, just injured his m c L and will

miss half the season. Fourth, there's no hope for it to get better because Tom Cable is the guy supposed to fix it and arguably the worst running back or offensive line coach in the nf So get this. According to Warren Sharp, as an NFL coach, Tom Cable has seven bottom ten rated offensive lines in past protection in his coaching career. That's over thirteen years. Never once he's had a line rank better than twenty in the league. He's bottom half all the time. So brown. He's got

everything working against him. And by the way, frost bite reoccurs they play in Denver in week seventeen. He's been a half cold. Tutsie's Lamar Jackson is currently the fifteen selected quarterback over all ADP for quarterbacks fifteen. He will be twice as good, finishing seventh or better. This is not dissimilar to my Patrick Mahomes of last year who was eighteen, and I put him in the top top ten this year fifteen. For Lamar Jackson, he will be twice as good. Last year in the games he started,

Lamar Jackson was quarterback four four. So in a sense, I'm I'm bluffering by three spots here. It's almost it's not even that bold of prediction. I suppose by all accounts, his passing has improved in year to including your account of moments ago, Matt uh Your he's look he looks like a better passer, typical of most sophomore quarterbacks. Looks like a better passer. In that Chargers playoff game too, that not many people seem to remember he passed well

in that game. I agree. Most of the time he's going to score you points like an RB two. He's gonna chip in fifty yards and a coin flips chance at a rushing touchdown just on the ground. He's going to be an RB two. Then many games he will throw one or two touched ounts. That's just like gravy. That's just a bonus on top of this. When those two things come together in the same game, he's going to have these giant games that it's going to almost

single handedly win for you. Lamar Jackson will finish at QB seven or better. All right, let's go to our next peacock off bold prediction, Brian, Who you got? Well, I'm sort of doubling down on my peacock off from last year, and I didn't get the sounder because it didn't work out basically due where's the sad trombone sounder? That's the vulture. Wait a minute, hold on there, there you go. Well, that vulture noises awful. Let's not hear

that until least speak three. Alright, I gotta make it finish. I think, okay, they're all right now it's done. Well, charge out. Earlier you said zach Ertz was at your big three tight ends in Favorite Hunter, Henry, I'm going Evan Engram will finish as the top three tight end this year. I'm doubling down on e UM to say the Giants within the wide wide receiver being understatement. Evan Ingram is clearly the top receiving option on that team.

He will be their their wide receiver one. And you know, overall, his numbers weren't great last year. He was hurt earlier in the year. It ruined the first half of the season. But in the second half of last year, from weeks ten to seventeen, Evan and Gram recorded the highest overall tight end grade by Pro Football Focus UM. And in his first two seasons he's been an absolute beast and

the red zone. He has picked up a first down or scored a touchdown on seventy percent of his targets in the red zone and UM just overall, UH, he's an elite talent. He's up there with George Kittle, Gronk, Jimmy Graham, and Aaron Hernandez as UH one of only five tight ends over the last decade to have logged more receiving yards in their first two seasons. And he has missed missed time, missed six games you injury, So if he stays healthy, he will be in that top

three tight ends this year. Alright, Matt, what is your next peacock off bold prediction? Amari Cooper finishes the season as the number one top wide receiver in fantasy You gotta be bold, right, Uh. Cooper finished and standard PPR leagues as the number eighteen fantasy wide receiver last year. However, when he joined the Cowboys, he was much better and everybody knows that. Let's take out the first three weeks

where he was learning a whole new offense. Mid season from week twelve through two Dallas Is two playoff games, he played eight games. He averaged six and a half catches, ninety one yards and three quarters of a touchdown. Season full season, it's one oh four catches, fourteen fifty four yards and twelve tds. And that's how you get to be the number one wide receiver in fantasy football. That would rank in PPR sixth last year. And who's above

him from last year? Antonio Brown obviously moving way down. Davante Adams, who has a completely new offense in Green Bay and Rodgers is already mad about it. Tyreek Hill, who's thirteen touchdowns seems somewhat on statin unsustainable plus I don't think he can keep his nose clean. Julio Jones is going to miss the entire preseason with an injury. He's always dinged up. And DeAndre Hopkins, who is really good, but that offense has maybe the worst offensive line in

the entire league. So give him a new year in a revamped offense with Kellen Moore, who looks like a quality offensive coordinator, with Cooper and Deck and contract years. They're gonna throw it all year to Cooper. Our final Peacock Off bold prediction. Guys, do you like touchdowns? Yes? All kinds? All kinds, there's real how many kinds are there? Point? So you can pass it to yourself touchdowns. Mike Williams likes touchdowns, Yeah he does. Yeah, he did like touchdowns

that now that you mentioned it. Last year he led all wide receivers in touchdowns per target. Every sixth pass that went his way was a touchdown last year for Mike Williams. Oh no, are you gonna extrapolate that to a hundred targets and all of a sudden he has touchdowns? I'm not, but I should have. I wish I had now uh. He was one of only seven wide receivers had double digit touchdowns last year. He did it while sharing time with Travis Benjamin as the team's fourth receiver.

And now Mike Williams is the presumptive starter, which brings me to the actual prediction part of this. Mike Williams will outscore Keenan Alan in fantasy. Yes, it's going to happen. That is That is an absolute quasi lock right there, guys. Coming up next, we will look at what the high stakes players are doing differently than the rank and file drafters out there. These are the guys that have big bucks on the line, highly incentivized to make sure they

do that. They're a little more savvy and they're drafting. You've heard us talking about Guillotine Leagues, by the way in past shows the hottest new format and fantasy sports seventeen teams and each week the low scoring team gets cut from the league and their entire roster goes the waiver wire. The Guillotine League makes for insane waiver wire runs and you can learn more and even join a

Guillotine League by going to Guillotine League dot com. We'll be back with more of the Shark Attack, What are the Sharp's doing and high stakes fantasy play find out next. This is Fantasy Football Weekly. We're back. It's Fantasy Football Weekly. I am Paul Charchy and your host. I am on Twitter at Paul Charchy and my co host Matt Harrison. Your Twitter handle is explosive output, Yes, fun to say, fun to play. And Brian Johnson. Your hand Twitter handle is b t x J very short, not too clever.

I assumed T is your middle initial and you also have a xavier in there somewhere initial. We don't need to go into it, but it was just kind of like my sounds like, no, no, it's Brian text Johnson text, Yeah, alright, better than tax Johnson dex. He's from Cleveland. You can hear us over the are on many stations around the country.

Might be listening over there right now. But also I want you to know this show is also a podcast, available every Friday on all major podcasting platforms, including the number one destination for podcasts, the I Heart Radio app. Guys, it is time for a Sharp Attack. These We want to find out what the high stakes sharps are doing in their drafts. That Joe six pack isn't I feel like we should have played Jaws music for this? What are we doing now? Where? Why didn't I? Why didn't

I think of them? How would you like a culture? Yeah, that's totally the same thing. I know. I see Brand's already. She's scrambling over there to try to get his jaws. All right. I would like to dot on true story. When I was teaching my daughter at age two and three, all the cow, the cow goes move, you know, the dog says wolf? You know that stuff. I taught her what the shark says? Dune dune, dune, dune, dune, dune, dune. Nice job. Yeah, that's good parenting right there, really is.

That's good parenting. Uh. We get our high stakes data from the National Fantasy Football Championships a DP. It's their sixteenth the year. This is sort of the granddaddy of the high stakes fantasy championships, with entry fees that range up to twenty thousand dollars. If you've got twenty thousand dollars on the line, you're paying attention to what you're doing. I was out at their baseball drafts last year, UH, their live drafts in Vegas, and it was just fascinating.

It's absolutely wild to watch these guys whole different level. They do have I know they have online drafts, they have lives drafts that you mentioned Las Vegas in New York City as well National Fantasy Football Championships. You can find the ADP yourself at play n f f C

dot com. Um, I've got a handful of guys that I want to talk about that are that are materially different from an average draft position standpoint for the high stakes players as compared to the rest of the world, which includes free guys that are just you know, people who play for free, mock drafters, people who are expare menting everything else. Let's start here. Baker Mayfield going two

rounds earlier in n f FC drafts. Your thoughts, well, you know, in general, this is a one quarterback format, and in one quarterback formats, most people like to wait because there's just in the you know, QB seven to like fifteen range. I mean we're talking we love Gothic quarterback twelve and Lamar Jackson the quarterback fifteen. To see

Baker and Mayfield going two rounds earlier. That just means these sharps are truly believed he is on a whole another level than the Cam Newton's and even that means he's going before Aaron Rodgers. I would believe if he's going two rounds earlier, that's well before Aaron. So they're just truly believing in that video game offense that appears

to be on paper. So if you want to win one of the main events in these NFC championships where you can win up to like two grand you gotta kind of shoot for the moon, and you gotta get the guys who are going to be the absolute studs. You have to hit on Patrick Mahomes from last year. And if you believe Baker may Field can be the guy who's going to be the number one overall quarterback and fantasy, you take him two rounds earlier than his ADP.

He's got forty touchdown potential, absolutely arm and if Baker Mayfield's also got some running ability, you know, I'm not saying he's Lamar Jackson or that he's Kyle Kyler Murray, but he's he's got he's he's a foot us yeah, I would say real quick. And you in a one quarterback league, you don't want to be deciding on a weekly basis. Between QB eight and ten, you get Mayfield, you're drafting him. You're like, I'm gonna planting Gueld. So, speaking of Kyler Murray going one round earlier in high

stakes NFFC drafts, he's already going pretty high. I mean, I think I think a largely the public is sort of onto him and backing him. But he is going one round earlier. I think it's the running potential. I think people are looking at both Baker and Kyler. And we can even include Lamar Jackson in this conversation because he's next on the list two round Well, he's actually lower in NFFC ADP, but that's that's because Baker and Kyler have that passing and running ability and it can

gain you so much in fantasy. If you have a guy who can do both, you want it. You want to just shoot for the moon and hit that hit that bingo right there. That's what Baker and Kyler can do. And I think the concern you mentioned Lamar Jackson, he's two rounds lower for the SHARPS and NFFC, and I think that the concern is what you're just mentioned. There's

gonna be dug games. Or he doesn't run and doesn't pass. Yeah, if they can bottle him up on the running part of it and make him throw like Sandy or San Diego Los Angeles Chargers did in that playoff game. Force him to throw and see what you can do and and and make him beat you through the air. I think that's what most defenses are going to plan to do with Lamar Jackson this year. Who's missing from this

combo is Cam Newton too. He's kind of in between Kyler Murray and Lamar Jackson and a DP and Cam Newton. I don't understand why he's going so much later than Kyler Murray when he has more proven receivers into some more proven track records. So that's defensive lines kind of un And so there's that Tampa Bay wide receiver Chris

Godwin already. I think, you know, everybody gets the upside right now, and I think he's I think almost all savvy listeners know that Chris Godwin is going to become a big part of what Bruce arians does in Tampa Bay. But he's still going one round earlier in these high stakes drafts. Well, they lost de Sean Jackson and they lost Adam Humphreez and that's a lot of vacated targets from that offense right there. So he's obviously opposite Mike Evans.

They have O J. Howard, they have Cameron Braid, but Bruce arians likes to air the ball out and they don't really have much of a running game to speak of, so that's pretty exciting. Mike Evans can't catch everything. O J. Howard can't catch everything. Chris Godwin is gonna catch a lot. David Montgomery, rookie for the Bears, with the dynamic first game in the preseason, look terrific going one round earlier from the Sharps, I think now, especially after the Thursday

night game, it's gonna catch up. It's gonna I I think if you want David Montgomery now, you're gonna have to even outdule the Sharps and take him probably end of round two. You know I'm projecting, because you know, we still don't have you know, it's so fresh that we still don't have great data on this yet. But I think if you want Montgomery, if you try to wait for the third round, you're more than likely not going to get him. Restball Ten's drafts. He's going fifty

fifth overall, which puts him in the fifth round. Yeah, that's changing. That's not gonna hold it. No way that holds. I had him as running back eighteen, bumped him up to running back thirteen. Running back thirteen goes in the middle of the second round. But I think I'm a little higher on David Montgomery than some others. But part of the reason I like him so much, and they're already using him to catch a bunch of passes he's gonna he could easily end up catching in this offense.

Next player Calin Balaje going two rounds earlier, and NFFC drafts. You don't have to pay a lot for him either way. But there apparently is a a feeling that Calen Balagh from Miami is going to end up being the starting running back. Yeah. I think it's a bit of an overreaction to some earlier reports. Though when he was running with the ones when training camp opened, it sounds like it's more going to be tune split. So, in my opinions, a little bit in a overreaction to the you know,

the early first team work for Belage. I think Kenyan Drake is still going to factor enough that will keep Blage out of the RB two territory more of a flex play. But maybe the shop Sharp's around is something I'm not I like to kind of consider myself one as well. I'm kind of scratching my head here in a very bad offense where I don't see a lot of positive game script for the running backs. But well, that game script is a big part of Miami's running

back problem. That is a that should be a bad defense, a bottom five ish defense that's gonna put them in a whole lot. That's part of why I like Ryan Fitzpatrick. It's just gonna part his beard and I love the stew in his beard. Oh man, there's gonna he is going to be a fun dart throw on a weekend and week out basis Ryan Fitzpatrick. Four picks or four touchdowns, it's one or the other. And that's what I love. And you know what, he doesn't care, God just it

it does. It's just he's unflappable after fifteen years Ryan Fitzpatrick. Let's go to our next Sharp analysis, and that is New England's rookie running back Damian Harris. Going two rounds later in NFFC drafts apparently don't believe in him now. Interestingly, Patriots didn't play him at all in the first preseason game. It could be because they already know that he's good, or maybe they didn't think they wanted to look at

him here and he wasn't ready. Maybe so one of the prevailing methods of drafting, especially when you approach Patriots running backs, is just get the last one you can. So you wait, you wait, you wait, wait, you don't draft Sony Michelle in the sixth round or the fifth round or the fourth round. You don't draft James White.

You wait and you get Rex Burkhead, or you get Damien Harris really late in your draft, and you just see which one of them pops off, and maybe maybe they have a three or four games stretch similar to like Jonas Gray or something like that. That's how you play the Patriots running game, and you do it right.

You just avoid them all. That's how I played some season, And I like to dabble in the Patriots running backs and and stake acclaim to a guy because so many people won't philosophically like they're never drafting a Patriot running back, and there's their value there. There's probably a lot of Sharps who are like that, and that's why that's depressed, and the ADP for Damian Harris is depressed that way. This is not that year. This is suddenly turned into

the biggest cluster point in the NFL backfield. Right. We have five guys that could end up doing something in any given game, and just because somebody did something last week doesn't mean he's gonna do anything the next week. Have you ever used cluster boink before? I've got it on the air many times because I can't say any other variation of that. I understand. Yeah, like that, you

got to be careful about that. Justin Jackson going three rounds earlier and NFFC drafts, this is the San Diego running back who looks like in a missile San Diego, just like he's a Clipper. Yeah, I quote unquote covered this game earlier. Yeah, Jackson looks like the more complete back over Eckler was great. He's kind of more of a pass catcher than a full Sockler would maintain his role and Jackson might take the Gordon role. I'm not if you hadn't seen if you didn't see the touchdown.

The Jackson scored and Euer didn't look the same running near the goal line. Jackson looked just different and he ran more more powerful. So I'm full on board with the with the sharps on this one. I would take Jackson if I have to pick one, hands down PPR and take Eckler is a good running back who can run inside. He's not so small, He's not Darren Sprowls. He's not so small that he can't run between the tackles, and he has a career yard per carry a five.

Austin Echoes are good running back, and I I understand why Justin Jackson's going early. It's a lot of people just think Melvin Gordon's in deep trouble. Actually, we're gonna talk a little bit more about Melvin Gordon a few minutes. Next, let's go to Buffalo running back Devin Singletary going one round earlier in NFF seed high stakes drafts. Like I mentioned,

that is to a cluster boink of epic proportions. In Buffalo, there's just way too many guys two miles to feed their Frank Gore, Lashawn McCoy, Devin Singletary, T J. Yelden is a pass catching back. I don't like any of them. I don't want to have any part of this. The sharp seemed to think Singletary is going to come out of this as the winner. I just don't want any part of it. I am leaning Singletary. If I gotta pick one, I'm gonna choose him because I don't trust

any of the other guy. I don't trust anybody to make that decision correctly. There uh last guy briefly vikings rookie running back Alexander Madison going two rounds earlier. I think those are people ensuring or handcuffing Dalvin Cook because I'm a big Cook believer this year after you, But I think people are that's all or nothing, so they're really ensuring that pick. So I think that's why that might be he's not going to take that. It's not

gonna be Latavias Murray here. Um. I really think that this is the Dalvin Cook Show and they are gonna work that Kim hard this year. So we'll we'll see how that ends up turning out. But I'm not I'm not as optimistic that Madison's a guy you're gonna be able to start like you could with with Dalvin cook Um. You can get all the ADP for these players at play NFFC dot com if you want to see what the heart of the high stakes players are doing. People

twenty dollars on the line. Coming up next, let's answer three tough questions. You can play along and you go three and oh on Fantasy Football Weekly. This is Fantasy Football Weekly. Fan, it is Fantasy Football Weekly. I'm your host, my co host Brian Johnson, Matt Harrison. Boys, It's time to get into the grinder with three tough questions. Listeners, you get to play along, see if you can go three and oh as well. We like to begin with tough question number one with the last pick of year draft.

Will you take Josh Gordon, Rob Gronkowski or neither? Brian last pick, I think it's worthy of taking a flyer on one of these guys. And despite uh, that's probably being the wrong answer, I'm going with Josh Gordon because he really wants to play football display his extra curricular activities. Uh, but his nose has been clean so far. But he's in an amazing shape. I've read reports of other receivers working out with him and they're basically saying he's ten

times better than all of us. Probably is if he's working out with a bunch of bodies. I mean he's an elite physical condition. He can step on the field and play football right now. Last I saw Gronk, he cannot. He looks pretty frail in my mind, and he has other interests that include real Yes, he looked did you see the pictures of him a couple of weeks ago. Now I'm not challenging him to a fight or anything, but he looked frail by Rob Gronkowski standards. He didn't

look like Gronk. He looked like Robert, Okay, Robert. So I don't know. I know he can get you know, supplemented up and get back in game shape probably, But you say supplemented up for Rob gronow up and I I mean, I mean the stuff you buy a g n C. I'm not calling him a cheat or either. I'm not trying to start this beef with Gronk like I'm sure he cares what I say. But anyway, I'm going Josh Gordon. If he can get in to the

league again, he's reinstated. By the way, he will be an absolute force, and I just don't think Gronk has that in him anymore. But Gordon has the desire to play, so I would go Gordon, Brian's not going on the Gronk cruise anytime soon. No, apparently not. No, I would go on that. I'm going on the ground Glass Pick cruise. I don't think you're invited to the ground was anymore as what I'm saying I have said Josh Gordon as well. He's already applied for reinstatement. He'd signed another deal with

the Pets in the offseason. He's just waiting for the league to let him back in. Gronk might return, but it might not be until November or December or whenever he decides to come back. And while he's a huge different maker, we don't know if he wants to return, and Gordon does want to return, we don't know when either we'll get back. But Gordon has the inside track on getting back sooner. You you started to hit on the main point of this entire Russian map, but you

missed it. You're so close, though. It is really all about the timing on this last pick, because we're really asking which guy could start the season with the team, because in reality, with this last pick of the draft, you're not going to hold that spot if it doesn't work out either guy, You're gonna churn that spot in week one if neither guy plays in Week one. So now what we're really asking is which guy is more

likely to play week one. Gronk has the strong advantage because he only needs to decide I'd like to play, and then he's on the team and he's playing, whereas Josh Gordon has to wait for Roger Goodell to decide he can play. And the wheels of justice turned very, very slowly and arbitrarily with the league. Anybody you draft in the last round is a total crap chute. But how many of them have the upside of Rob Gronkowski?

What tough question? Number two? Zeke in the late first round, Todd Gurley in the early second round, and then Melvin Gordon in the late third round. Is that draft strategy so crazy it just might work? Matt, You know, Church, this question was pretty tough. That is pretty tough. My thalamus has been injured. Yeah, it's caused my consciousness, sleep in memory to be severely damaged. Here I can tell from the last question really, it made me think that

there's way too much risk here. Even if Zeke and Gordon do return, they're running backs, and running backs are always the biggest injury risk. Plus Girley isn't healthy. Don't let anyone tell you different. Darryl Henderson was drafted to be his replacement, not a complimentary piece. And these are your top three picks that you might never get to play.

I think it's too crazy. I would rather go with a guy like Davante Adams or Michael Thomas in the late first, you could get Cook Mixing or Chubb in the second. You could get Tyreek Hilled, Digs or Aaron Jones in the third. And on't you feel better about Thomas, Chubb and Tyreek Hill over Zeke Gurley and Gordon Brian.

You're not guaranteed to do well in your league if you draft three perfectly healthy running backs or three running backs not throwing to hold out and uh, you know, and these guys are risks to holdouts in one for or you know, bad knee. So I don't have much to add on top of mats out other than it is kind of too crazy to work. I would never do it. Uh. The cars have to fall too right for the to work. So I'm out. Yeah, you guys

cracked the code on this one. It is just crazy as appealing as it sounds to get three of what would have been you know, going into the season. You know, a month ago, that felt like three of the top five or six running backs. But where we are now with all three of those guys. Even though you can only spend a late third rounder in Melvin Gordon and get Todd Gurley in the second round, you can't take all that risk onto one team. You are asking for

suicide for your fantasy squad. To bring that much a risk upon it tough question number three. It's almost impossible to predict injury, so you know, let's just start there. But just for the sake of this exercise, let's assume Devanta Freeman will stay healthy all year. If he does, if he plays the six team games, will he finish as an RB one, an r B two, or a flex level running back? Brian? That is one hell of an assumption to stay healthy all year. But if he does,

I gotta go Freeman as an RB one. UM Last year, Freeman did not play at all. Maybe you played the first week, but essentially did not play at all, but officially logged two starts. Atlanta running backs as a whole finished bottom five from a fantasy perspective. The year is prior uh in seventeen, they were top ten, they were

first overall. Granted, they had Kyle Shanahan as r O c's now the head coach of the forty niners, but you know, some of those schematics are still in place, and Atlanta invested a lot of draft capital in their offensive line for the second round pick. And so if Freeman stays healthy, Tevin Coleman gone that he will get spelled by either Edo Smith, Brian Hill, or Quadri Allison, but not of those guys are very threatening to actually eat into his actual workloads. So stays healthy RB one okay,

will devote Freeman. Matt Finish as an RB one RB two reflects. I looked at the offense from last year and their philosophy completely changed on the Atlanta side when Freeman went down, and then the team got better um and basically the same amount of passing attempts last year sixty three versus six forty two, the Falcons through for nine hundred more yards and had eleven more total touchdowns. On offense, they got better when they stopped running the ball.

They started being a passing team. They passed on sixty of their plays. Last year, they had the third fewest rushing plays in the league. They went from two three shotgun snaps in to five hundred twenty five last season, almost doubled it. They're going to be a passing team from now on. So I don't think DeVante Freeman is any better than a low end RB two. They finished seven and nine. How are they getting so much better?

Their offense improved, their defense might have been these. Uh. First of all, let's dispel the notion that DeVonta Freeman is injury prone. It's not as bad as you probably think out there. We we tend to remember last year much more clearly than the previous. You don't have to dispel that notion. You said he's gonna be healthy all year. Well, okay, true. He played at least fourteen games in every season until last year, So there's that at least fourteen games by

running back standards, that's pretty darn good. He's one of the leagu's highest paid running backs. DeVonta Freeman is, and the Falcons only got the two games out of him last year. They they're gonna want some return on that investment um and they also don't want to put their their most important player, Matt Ryan, at risk with all of those dropbacks. Remember Atlanta's is an excellent overall offense. They scored the six of the eighth most points last year.

Ask yourself, this can a a proven successful workhorse. Back to Brian's point, who has no real, no real competition on the depth chart on a team that scored the eighth most point last year being RB one, Heck yeah, absolutely, RB one, DeVonta freeman. They're gonna pass all day. Well, they might pass all day. Uh. Maybe. We love keeper dynasty and Empire leagues, and we're here to help make sure that you draft guides who are viable helpers, not

just this year but in years to come. If you're in a keeper in a Dynasts and Empire league, we'll explain what an Empire league even is, and if you want to join an Empire league, if you want to try to get into an Empire league or a dynasty league, we've got them at lee at the end, with all the prizes held by league safe at Safe leagues dot com and Scott Fish is your commission got Fish third party commissioner on that league. Prize money stored by League Safe.

Go to Safe leagues dot com. We'll talk about Empire leagues, Dynasty league's, keeper leagues, and the players you can trust in T one when we come back Fantasy Football Weekly. This is Fantasy Football Weekly dot com. It is a preseason edition to Fantasy Football Weekly on Paul Charchi and my co host or Brian Johnson and Matt Harrison, and we're ready to help those of you in keeper dynasty and Empire league. Matt, you're in your commissioner of an

Empire league. Tell listeners what an Empire league is. Well, I can tell you a few things. It's like a dynasty league. And you know what a dynasty league is. A dynasty everybody. You carry everybody over the next year. Don't say you're in a dynasty league. By the way, if you have three keepers, yeah that's not That's exactly right. Okay, So dynasty league, you hold over everybody. The caveats with

the Empire League number one. Every year, half of the money that you guys pay into your league pot gets saved in a rolling Empire Pot. That pot continues to grow and grow a year after year until somebody wins that pot twice or the wins the wins the league twice in a row. Then they get the Empire Pot. In in our Empire League that we started se seven years ago, it has I think seventy entry fee, so

that's kind of fun. And of course the other half goes to the yearly winner the other the other half goes to for a second third, that kind of thing. The second part of this, when somebody wins that Empire League and they win the Empire Pot, the league is done. It's over. Disband the league, you can start a new one. It's it's done. Though. I love that part because in fantasy football, normally you only have the most recent champion or the most recent winner is Brian Johnson. You don't

have the winner. There's never the winner the league. You can never say I won the league, except in an Empire league. When you go back to back and you cash that check for that year's pot, the ruling Empire Pot, and the league disbands, you won that league absolutely. Now. One of the rules that we put in that's that's pretty big rule. The winner from the previous year, the the guy going for the second win in a row, we don't allow that team to trade. And that's what

makes it much more difficult. Does It's a collusion measure that we want to make sure. Hey, now this pot is getting pretty big, we're not gonna have We're gonna have Brian trade and all of his good players to charge so he can win in the second year. So yeah, it's it's an anti collusion measure, and it makes it much more difficult and interesting. One Nlike other dynasty leagues, every other dynast dynasty league ends at some point. An Empire League will never end unless someone wins. Because of

the Empire Pot. One manager owner wanted to leave the league. You guys was talking about the original Empire. You're walking away from your part of im in immediately bought that organ. Yeah, so I'm all yeah, So that Empire pot insures the league goes on until it comes to a people don't leave your league either. Now. The other thing that's great about the Empire League when you are the reigning champion and there are eleven other teams whose sole purpose is

to stop you, man, is that fun? You are wearing the black hat all season long, everybody gunning to stop you. I am one of those right now in in in our second Empire League that we do in our office, and man, it's not looking good with Zeke on my roster and Kill and A J. Green on my roster so far. That's why it makes it difficult to repeat as a champion. I can't trade right now. If you want to join an Empire league with the prizes secured by league Safe, go to safe leagues dot com. Safe

leagues dot com. We encourage you to check that out. We've got Empire leagues, dynasty leagues starting right there. Guys, are you ready to polish your crystal balls? Are any other balls? I suppose let's look ahead twenty twenty one one three years from now, and I'm gonna give you a series of rookies. I want you to tell me whether or not you think they're going to be meaningful fantasy producers three years from now. For these rookies, are

you going all or nothing? Thumbs up, thumbs down? Meaningful? Not meaningful? Because life hasn't worked out. You know you could be quarterback fifteen. That's that's a perfectly fine answer. Yes, we begin and by the way I'm throwing out obvious guys. Daph mcgoverery is great and he's gonna be great, and nobody even needs to hear that. I'm giving you bubble guys that I think could go either way. Correct. Dwayne Haskins the quarterback for the Washington Redskins. What are your thoughts?

Is he a meaningful fantasy contributor? In is there a meaningful contributor on the entire Washington Redskins team? In one is the question. I don't know. It'll be a new coaching staff, I can tell you that much. Yeah, nothing seems to work out in Washington. They certainly don't have a ton of exciting weapons right now. He needs more talent around him, first and foremost. No matter how good of a quarterback he is, I need to round him some talent. But speaking to his talent, you don't hear

anything too exciting about Dwayne Haskins. He's not a runner. He's not very mobile, No, he's not. He's very average there, and he's he's got a good arm, but he's not. They don't have a scream accuracy, and I don't know, so to me, he's not someone I'm gonna target for a long term success. So I'm just gonna quickly say, no, he's probably a backup quarterback in the NFL in three years.

And you said it, Charch. They're probably looking at an organizational shift there, a new coaching staff, maybe a new GM. If that happens, what do they do They bring in their new quarterback. They bring in their new guy. Washington might be a top five pick in the draft this year. Yes, they're going to draft a quarterback. That's exactly what I was going to say. They're going to go Cardinals on this. They're gonna go first round quarterback this year, first round

quarterback next year. And remember coaching staff that has no allegiance to Dwayne Haskin. It wasn't long ago when Dan Snyder's team picked Robert Griffin the third and then Kirk Cousins later in that draft. Good point. Daniel Jones quarterback for the Giants. Is he a meaningful fantasy contributor? Well, Eli will be long gone, so it will be his team. And uh, he'll still have se Kwon for one more year on the rookie deal. So I think Daniel Jones will be like a quarterback t Ish in the drafts

to three years from now. So I guess in a super flex league he's meaningful. Let's go to our former Giants desk, Brian Johnson no longer the Giants. You've thrown away your Giants allegiance in this offseason after the Odell Beckham trade. But I still don't get very plugged into that organization. What do you think it was really after the Jones pick? And it's not because I always be good, be good in three years? I think, well, I was on the ropes after the Beckham trade. This is all

about gentleman, so we don't know. Didn't even get into that. But yet they reached way too much on Jones in real life anyway. Uh, Jones did look good last night, only through five passes, completed them all. Um, No, he'll have no competition unlike Washington. I don't think the Giants can afford the pr nightmare of taking another quarterback early in the first round anytime soon. So Evan Ingram is an elite tight end talent. Sterling Shepherd Golden Tape probably

still be milling around. They do need to add an elite receiver along the Odell Beckham like that guy they had traded away. But I think as long as Geelman gets fired too, because that whole team has doomed as

long as heason charge. But as long as Geedelman's gone, they get a received right I think, Yes, Okay, I don't get Daniel Jones a beat that down and say he's gonna be a good quarterback do to Actually, I'm you know, I think there's there's a lot of reasons to think that he He certainly has the opportunity there. Let's let's hope that he can put it together and be a meaningful fantasy provider. Next, let's go to the running back position. Where do you know some of the

guys that are walking into great spots? These are more of the bubble running backs that aren't as obvious. Let's start with Darryl Henderson, the running back for the Rams. Do you believe he will be a meaningful contributor in one You would have to think so, because none of us believe that Todd really right. You know what, He'll still be getting paid, though girly might be it'll be dead cap space, but he'll still be getting paid. That

that could be the case. I don't think. I think Gurley isn't gonna make it through this year without being on I R. I think he's gonna finish the season on I are we They're already gonna use him in a Chris Thompson type type role. Um Sean Payton said, not Sean Payton, Um, I might blanking, but Sean McVeigh, McVey, thank you, And uh so he'll have a roll right

off the bat. He'll be on the field, and you know, they say he has three down potential, and you know Gurley's health very questionable, Girly goes down, All signs point to Montgomery stepping in, so we'll say, yeah. So the only thing I'll add to this is when Sean McVeigh showed up in Los Angeles, he had Todd Gurley, he

had a bell cow running back. That might not be Sean mcveigh's forte of the offense he wants to run, and he might want to run more of the Philly or New England style offense with a running back by committee, which by the way, he did in Washington. So Chris Thompson and the rotation of backs they were using there now, granted, none of them are gonna go it. That's the thing.

That kind of that was the rug match Kelly Years just a little bit here, and man, I just think that Henderson great talent, but he might be looking at a time share as early as next year with somebody not named Todd Gurley. I think there's a chance Darrell Henderson's the top five running back running back in one because of the offense that he's in and Todd Gurley is gonna be gone. That's it. I don't think it's any more complicated than that elite offense. Excellent talent at Memphis.

I like Darrell Henderson. Let's go to Devin Singletary, the rookie running back now on the Bills. Let's project forward to one. We don't have to worry about Frank Gore m Irie. Come on, we don't have to worry about the Shawan McCoy and Tony twenty one. In theory gonfl Frank Or won't be on the Bills, He'll be on the card or something, right, It'll be somewhere else that will be an expansion team that he'll be, all right, Matt, Devin Singletary meaningful contributor in one for your dynasty or

empire team. My problem, miss I don't know if I can trust Josh Allen, and if I can't trust the quarterback in the offense, then the coach gets fired, and then the GM gets fired, and then everybody gets fired. So I'm just worried about Singletary in that vein where I don't trust anything that's happening in Buffalo. So I'm not going to trust Singletary to be a meaningful contributor. Yeah, I I worry that he's not a workhorse, that he isn't built for a workhorses load, that he's he's not

necessarily scat back. But I don't I don't see him have some bruising runs on Thursday night. But that's a small sample size, of course, sat back not Yeah, yeah, not a bell cow. He's not a bell cown. Sorry, Devin Singletary. I think he will be a meaningful contributor, but he will not be an elite, high end contributor like Darryl Henderson might be. Let's go to Damien Harris. He's the He's the third round rookie that the Patriots took so a surprise people after they took Sony Michelle

in the first round the previous year. What are your thoughts, and Damien Harris is a meaningful contributor in one. I don't like looking three weeks down the line and right, so looking three years down the line, I don't know. I'm just out. I don't know, I'm just well, how about Tom Brady? Right? Definitely know theory. No, Tom Brady and we do. They don't have a succession plan. Belichick's gotta retire as soon as Brady's gone to right right.

I hope he doesn't, just so we can finally get an answer to whether or not Belichick goes at all to Brady or Brady's at all to Belichick. I want to say, I want to see Belichick do it without Brady. How about this for a bold prediction. Tom Brady a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in just to see if he can win one without Belichick. He already put his home up on the market this last week. He's he's not guaranteed any money past this year. He's a

basic free agent next year. That be weird. Belichick wants to probably win one without Brady. Brady probably wins. Wants to win one without Belichick to prove their legacies. What about Tom Brady? In a different spot. Next year, it'd be it'd be weird, but not impossible. We've learned it, you know how. In fact, I'll the most Hall of Famers. It feels like end up Hall of Famers end up finishing their career somewhere in Minnesota, Farvin, Minnesota, Montana, in

Kansas City. You know, it's just at the bitter end, there's usually some other team that's ready to Peyton Manning, Jerry Rice in Seattle and then Denver exactly ended it like four times. Deebo Samuel is the wide receiver for the San Francisco forty Niners, already expected to start this year. I think this is a pretty clear case of yes, yeah, I love Deebo. Uh. He's very fast, not tall, only five eleven, but he's built like a brick house. He's

like he was. I think he's very Percy Harvin. Like I was gonna say, an Kin Bolden with an extra gear, how Bolden was. I don't think Bolden was big. He was tall. That he was Bolden was. He was super thick. He was super thick. Balden, please six one tops on. Bolden wasn't that tall. Debo is gonna have an impact of this year and down the line, Deebo Samuel is gonna be a monster called six one nicely dumb. That's

two one, just taller than five. And I think that j j Arthagajaja white Side Jaws calling him Jos Jaws wide receiver for Phili Delphia taken in the second round. Look good so far. A couple of years from now to Sean Jackson probably not playing at that point. He's already very long into his career and there's not there's not a lot standing between him and starting by then, and with with Carson Wentz only you know, presumably even better then. I think this is almost a lock that

j j Arthaga white Side is a contributor. So your problem with Philly is they add three wide receivers to their offense every year. We still have al Shan, we still have Nelson Agilar. Mac Hollins was a guy they're excited about. They just keep adding random dudes. I'm not saying I'm not saying mac Hollins is going to take not no, but they add so many guys and there's

so many mouths to feed in this offense. I think Jaws is going to be fighting for fifty catches seven hundred yards every year of his career just because Philly spreads the ball around. That's their motto is spread the ball around. Nobody's bigger than this team. We're just gonna keep moving it around. He looks different, he looks different, he looks good and Alshon Jeffrey will be a free agent if he stays. If they keep him, they can come. I'm starting next year to save a cap space, So

I don't know. Jaws six three, he's gonna present plenty of mismatches. And uh, I love that both his parents played pro basketball. That's pretty speaking of parents that played bro IRV Smith junior, last guy. I want to talk about the tight end for the Vikings currently behind Kyle Rudolph. Is he a contributor in one? So Rudolph will have moved on Kirk Cousins contract. You may have moved on who knows. Um it might be the end of the Vikings window of opportunities, so they might have moved on

from guys like Dig Steal and Cook Cousins. If Smith might be the best guy on that offense and sitting around at that point, So I think IRV Smith is probably a guy that three years from now we're looking at as a top tennis fantasy tight end. Sounds very good. I think, uh, I think you're looking at a very probable top ten fantasy tight end for er Smith at that point. Our final topics are ahead when we reveal our strategies for crushing a best ball draft, and as always,

we end our show by revealing our favorite sleepers. All of that coming out Fantasy Football Weekly. This is Fantasy Football Weekly. It's Fantasy Football Weekly final segment. I am Paul Charchy and you can follow me on Twitter at Paul Charchy in good luck spelling that hopefully you can find me at. Brian Johnson is my co host, but

you're not a Brian Johnson. You're at B T x J. Whoever has got the at Brian Johnson, he got an early maybe a C D C guy the oh yeah that yeah, they maybe he got a or the virgin in the breakfast Club was the same name, Brian Johnson. You're probably appraise of all of the Brian Johnson's that are out there. If you have to give the version at least so you CLAIMB. You have to give the most like generic name to some role in a book

or a movie or whatever. Brian Johnson. I mean it's just like right down the middle of the fairway, right, John Smith, but almost almost b t x J. But John Smith sounds like you're trying to be anonymous, Brian john It's just that's just like the most anonymous I heard. Kevin Bacon has played like seventeen characters named Jack. I think Jack is the most most middle of the fairway names. Maybe uh at. That is the voice of Matt Harrison

at Explosive Output. Best Ball drafts have become big business because people love to draft, but they don't always want all the in season management. Matt explain how Best Ball drafts were. Yeah, you can't expect to run like a hundred Fantasy leagues if you want to draft that many. But you can run a hundred Best Ball leagues pretty easily because it's draft and hold that. That means you draft players at the beginning of the year and you hold those guys all year long. I mean there's no

trade season managements, no waivers. Yes, there's no i R. Your team is your team the whole season, and the computer compiles your best starting lineup every week based on production after the fact. After the fact based on the production of that week. So if you have in week one Andrew Luck who scores twenty Fantasy points, and you have Andy Dalton as your backup who scores twenty one Fantasy points, you don't need to worry about it. Andy Dalton and he's your starter for that week, so he's

thrust into your starting lineup. No lineup headaches there uh in best ball games and we prefer Best Ball tens and Best Ball Tens dot com um. You play for total points over the whole season. There's no head to head matchups. You're starting lineup consists of one quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, a tight end aflex and a and a defense special teams. You have twenty players on your rosters. Now generally you want to kind of

target players who are more boom or bust players. Safety is not much of a concern seeing as how the computer sets your lineup based on the results. Yeah, so if I've got a bunch of let's you say, wide receivers that are boom er bust guys, tyrk Kill up until last year was a classic boom er bust guy. Marky's goodwin, Sean Jackson, I always perfect example of Tyler Lockett for years. You know, if you could find the five good games for Tyler Lockett, Will Wolf Fuller, Yeah,

although really one healthy Will Fuller's almost every week. But you can have all the or many of those wide receivers not have to sweat. Is this the week that Deshan Jackson's got you? Just you know, the computer put

them in if you did go off. So if you normally you end up with six, seven, maybe eight wide receivers on a best ball roster and a best ball tends, now you look at the last like four or five wide receivers on your roster and you go, I want three good weeks or maybe four good weeks out of these guys. If you can get three or four good weeks where they score fifteen to twenty points, you're golden.

That's all you need the whole time. You just don't want them to just give you goose eggs the whole season. You just need a couple of spike weeks. We call them spikes. Are are you know? The big spikes in production? My my favorite best ball strategy is two and preferably three rushing quarterbacks. Rushing quarterbacks give me a Lamar Jackson I can get, as you know, probably roughly quarterback fifteen. Give me a another quasi or decent rushing quarterback in

maybe Josh Allen, third guy, Josh Allen perfect. In our current Best Ball ten's draft that we're doing in the office right now, we're in about the tenth round. I have Kyler Murray. Yeah. I have Carson Wentz, who's not a bad runner. Yeah. Those those three three quarterbacks right there, and I'm just rolling with those three guys for the whole season. I'm feeling really good about my quarterback play for now. I like it. Best Ball strategies right there. Uh,

there's a lot of things you consider. There's I want to get to our sleepers, our favorite sleepers. Every every week we release one sleeper each last week, Jalen Samuel's, Curtis Samuel, and Donte Moncrief. We were the three that we gave you. Let's find out the three that we've got here, and then we're gonna go through some of our bottom of the barrel starters and just find out how much you're willing, If you're willing two roster some of these bottom tier starters around the NFL. We begin

with Brian Johnson, your sleeper this week. Alright, I'm gonna go for a guy in the tight end waste land that really isn't getting drafted in a lot of leagues, and that is Darren Waller of the Oakland Raiders. Wow, that's Waller. I don't have a lot of stats to reel off experience, but he's drafted by Baltimore as a wide receiver in UM he went over to Oakland a couple of years ago, spent last year, is Jared Cook's primary backup. And we all saw how involved Jared Cook

was in that Oakland offense. And right now Oakland is even more than a wide receiver, having acquired Antonio Brown somehow, so they are very short on pass catchers and as a converted converted wide receiver, Waller's route tree is far more advanced than a lot of tight ends. And there's nothing but good reports coming out of camp about this kid. And like his workout metrics are off the charts, like six six to fifty runs a sub four five forty

and uh it's his job to lose. And uh, he's a last round dart that I'm throwing all day long. Darren Wall or tight end Oakland Raiders. All Right, Matt, who is your sleeper this week? He's Mine's not as deep minds Littavius Murray of the New Orleans Saints. People are drafting Murray as a significant downgrade to what mark Ingram was in seventeen. Ingram's ADP last year was in the fourth or fifth round. Lottavius Murray's going in like

the eighth right now, um the Saints have. The Saints running backs have combined to score twenty seven touchdowns in twenty seven touchdowns in seen twenty four touchdowns in sixteen. And that was mark Ingram and Tim high Tower. That was pre Alvin Kamara. The Saints have been a top three running back Fantasy points producer in each of the last five years. They're not thought of as a a running team, but they are a running team, a legit

running team. So if you factor in that Kamara could equal his touchdown production for last year and get eighteen again, that leaves you nine touchdowns to go around to other running backs in that group. And Murray's approven downhill runner. He's a goal line threat. He's a team that utilizes running backs more efficiently than anyone. Only thirteen running backs at eight or more touchdowns last year, and I think

Murray gets at least eight this year. Um. That puts him in the conversation with guys who scored eight last year, like Aaron Jones, Philip Lindsay, David Johnson. Did you know Zeke had seven total touchdowns last year? Lottavius Murray might be outscoring Zeke in touchdowns this year. And he's going in the seventh daighth round in the neighborhood of Royce Freeman and Jordan Howard. I would much rather have Latavius Murray than either Royce Freeman or Jordan Howard. You know

what he is, what vulture? A possible vulture, Latavius Murray. Um. I The part I don't like about Latavius Mury his game, and this is where I'm going to disagree with you, is zero lateral movement whatsoever when he's on the field. You all you gotta do is stack between between the hash marks and Lottavius Murray's dead. I did say downhill running. He is a down He is very much a downhill runner, and I don't think he's nearly as good as Mark Ingram, and I think Alvin Camara is gonna see an uptick

in total usage by ten or and the stretch. I've got Camara number one overall because primarily I don't believe in Lottavius Murray. That said opportunity counts for a lot, and he is gonna get a little bit of the gold line work as the vulture, and there's a he's gonna be one of those guys you can just start in the dart throw as as a bye week guy. Absolutely,

that's might that might be it. I don't think he's an RB two, but I think he's a He's a decent flex play and right, that's Latavius Murray my sleeper this week. Another running back Detroit's running back see J Anderson. Let's talk about yeah. But the difference is c J Anderson has a thirteen round a DP. That's the difference here. Um let me give you this quote from Lions offensive

coordinator Darryl Bevil quote. I'm not gonna do the voice, all right, I'm Darryl Bevil exactly know, even though I've talked to him, will always be about running the football. We want to be a tough, hard nosed physical football team. We want to be able to exert our will on our opponents. That's what Darryl Bevil said. Coaches never lie to the media. You know, I don't think this one's a lie, and I've got data to back it up here. Ready, the Lions are going to run the ball a lot,

a lot. First, Matt Patricia grew up in the Patriots system. Of course, he was the defensive longtime defensive coordinator. Um that was from twenty twelve to twenty seventeen. He was defensive coordinator. Matt Patricia was. During his tenure, the Patriots ran the ball the sixth most times, despite having Tom Brady at quarterback six most times. Now, I ask you, were the Patriots successful between twelve and twenties seventeen. Yes, yes,

he saw the blueprint. Matt Patricia saw what worked running the ball, though I don't think that necessarily factors in here theoretic. Oh my god. Well, well that's another good reason. We'll even We'll get to that in a second. Now. In so, let's let's rewind the clock two seasons for Detroit. The year before Matt Patricia arrived, the Lions ran the second fewest times in the NFL second fewest. Then last year Matt Patricia shows up and he starts the new blueprint.

They go from ranking thirty one in rushes to eighteen in rushing attempts. That's not a coincidence. Now they bring a new offensive coordinator, Darryl Bubble. They afore mentioned Darryl Bubble as offensive coordinator in Minnesota and Seattle, Bevil's teams ran the ball the second most times in the NFL. Now, let's note that he had Adrian Peterson and Marshawn Lynch as his two running backs runners. Yeah, kind of Hall

of fame guys. So he's not looking at Hall of Fame caliber boys here, And hold on what I'm not saying. C J. Anderson's a Hall of famer, not even close. Carrie On Johnson's a damn good back, and we don't know how good he could be in his second year. And this isn't even a ballt carry On Johnson, who, by the way, I love for all the same reasons. And I've got Carrie On Johnson safely inside my top ten.

Can you name other than theoretic one of those running backs from that played for Detroit though sack center one that actually played now, Amir Abdullah, Yeah, that's probably one. Darryl of those teams as offensive coordinator have averaged thirty rushes per game. Thirty. Now, Carrie Johnson's a mortal. He is not going to carry the ball thirty times a game. At most, he will be like twenty where the other ten gonna go. Well, not theoretic, he's gone. You didn't

carry the ball anyway. It's not probably Zack Center all of a sudden as a work horse. It's going to go to c. J. Anderson, the guy that they brought in. C. J. Anderson is going to get a lot of work and a run heavy offense is current ADP is thirteen. No nervousness about game script. Failing Detroit this year. Um, that defense got a lot better at the moment they brought in snacks Harrison. The whole defense got so much better. Snacks, Um. And by the way, the Giants are so dumb, And

why would you give up snacks Harrison? All then all teams that was run right through the Giants. Never give up your snacks. Never give up your snacks. Lesson learned Um, most like to say, uh, snacks Harrison, never mind? Okay, look we'll continue on. Thank you. Carry on, Johnson. I'm going to give you some of the bottom of the barrel starters. These are the bottom two starters at their positions, and I want you to tell me if you're willing

to pay their ADP price. Let's assume you have effectively an unlimited number of roster spots, and you running out of roster spots, but there's somebody else in the same round that you could draft. Ryan Fitzpatrick going off the board in round twenty three, you're in a round draft. Oh goodness, Well, look I can't help, but that's what

that's where his ADP is right now. Well, he has to be your backup quarterback in that scenario, and you have to be draft drafting a backup quarterback and must be super flex because otherwise you're not gonna roster backup quarterback. You're gonna, you know, roster running back. That's what we're gonna pop off in camp or something like that. You're not gonna go with a scrubby quarterback. But if you have to, like you said, if it's Patrick is intriguing magic.

So if I'm gonna take a dumpster dumpster dive at quarterback, it's fitz Patrick. Why not in a super flex league, Yes, in a one quarterback league, No, Stu Bird is gonna behind constantly. Miami is gonna be losing in almost every game, and he's just gonna be hauling deep passes. When are they going to give Josh Rose in the ball? That's the question. Do you ever have to give Josh Rose in the ball? Because they got to figure out what

they got there in the top five. Again, next year, the Arizona figure out what they had in Josh Rosen, they got out. Well, Miami gets a whole year of it though, right, Eli Manning going in the twenty fourth round. No, no, now, we're all right, nobody nobody interested. Okay, let's go to our bottom of the barrel starters at running back, your

bottom two guys, Jordan Howard going uh in round number eight. Uh. That's where I'd rather take guys like Latavious or guys like Darryl Henderson, maybe guys even like Kareem Hunt who are going a little bit later, uh and Miles Sanders from the same team. I generally want a little bit more. So. No, I'm not taking Jordan Howard. Yeah, I've seen him going earlier than that in some drafts, which is criminal. Um,

you know might think of that early either. I would, I would wait for longer for even higher upside guys like a Tony Pollard. For Dallas, I'd rather wait five rounds and grab him over Jordan. It was so tough for Eagles running backs to get to the fifteen carry mark over the almost never happened. Almost never. Peterson's Doug Peterson. This is what he's going to do. It's gonna be a rotation. We saw it in the Thursday night preseason game. They're already sharing work and if someone steps up, it's

gonna be Miles Sanders. There's basically no questioning that Peyton Barber round eleven, I mean, as the last starter, and Ronald Jones doesn't scare me at all. Yeah, I'll take Peyton Barber in the eleventh. How much better is that offense going to be under Bruce Arians on a regular basis? Seven seven is the answer. Yes, all of the above.

Peyton Barber. They did not. They watched the tape. Arians shows up, watches the tape of the whole season and decides, I don't need to make any change at the running back position. Why because Peyton Barber is pretty good. He did grab his boy, Andre Ellington, though I'm not a real uh, Marquis Brown is your number, your top drafted Baltimore receiver at round sixteen. I think CP mentioned it on the show last week that Myles Boykin has kind of been the guy who's been popping off in camp. There.

They seem to be a wide receiver by committee kind of a thing. And so I'm probably going to be the guy who takes the last of the Baltimore wide receivers, just kind of like you take the Patriots running backs. You mentioned Chris Moore, and there's Chris Moore steam right now. Yeah,

so I'm out on boy You know, Marquis. We knew that it was gonna be a long set up for Brown because of the foot injury that was gonna take time, and you know he's already you know, not participating fully in camp, and it's it looks like it's gonna be a long slow burn for Marquise Brown for him to get up to speed, get on the get on the field and everything else. I think I'm avoiding that. Kenny Stills is the other bottom of the barrel, lowest ranks

starter round fourteen. Another great best ball is Ken Stills. If you if you like stew Beard, you gotta like a deep threat like Kenny Stills because Stu Beard is gonna chuck the ball and Kenny Stills might be the guy who gets a yards and two touchdowns in a game. The ultimate headache, though, is Ken good luck figuring that out started. I think last year had a good like Week one or a couple of weeks of the season and then just evaporated after that injury, bad play. Thanks

for listening to Fantasy Football Weekly. We're here every weekend for you, both on air and via podcast. We LUs you recommend that you listen on the I Heart app. It's number one for podcasts for good reason. Fantasy Football Weekly Paul Charching, Matt Harrison, Brian Johnson talking to you next week. Everybody, Bye bye. Do do Do Do Do Do Do Do. This is Fantasy Football Weekly.