We've Got Free Agents!

It's it's a good time to be alive. It's free agency season at this time. Last week we record on Fridays, we were talking about some of the big moves we anticipated allmost all the big ease are done. Most of the main dust set. That's right, some big Henny Gala days, the big maybe the biggest prize of all of all of the off season. And he's unsigned. I suspect that this means that his representation and Kenny Golladay, I thought they were gonna be worth a lot more than what

they've actually gotten. It offers. Yeah, we we alluded to this last week where he he wants the big, big money, which he deserves if he has proven to have stayed on the field a little longer throughout the duration of his career thus far, I would say, but uh, as of the time of this taping, it's the Giants and the Bengals, But now the Ravens are in the in the Knicks for because the Ravens lost out on Juju

Smith shoes about it a few minutes. So there's so many free agent moves, and we like to keep these offseason podcasts around a half hour or less. So what I want to do, Brian is focusing on quarterbacks and wide receivers. This episode will hit running backs, tight ends, and then just some other news like offensive lines that got better, forty niners, and some other things that you know, we want to touch on next week. But for now, quarterbacks, wide receivers, I'm just gonna hit you with a bunch

of guys. Give me, you know, tell me a little bit about whether you like the move, you think the players more valuable, less valuable, what does that leave behind? Stuff like that. Let's start with Ryan Fitzpatrick signing in Washington. He gets a one year, ten million dollar deal and he is currently the starter over Tyler Heinek. Speaking of a guy we want to touch on multiple times, right, Ryan fitz Patrick. Yeah, our guys stupid last week he was retiring and we were The NFL is a better

place with Ryan Fitzpatrick in it. I love the landing spot for Fitzpatrick for for Washington football team. And we'll talk about a newly acquired wide receiver for them shortly. But the wide receiver that's been there that everyone knows is uh Matt's good buddy Terry McLaren. Uh gotta like the prospects for for Terry McLaurin a lot better. I gotta pull list that from my boy ian heart tits

from uh ff. Here's the number one wide receiver target totals for Ryan Fitzpatrick in the eight years he played target. These are again target targets, Okay, for the number one receiver for Ryan Fitzpatrick when he had ten plus starts and we're assuming Fitzpatrick is gonna start at least ten games for Washington. And again, Taylor Heineke, he looked, he looked kind of fun towards the end of last year. It's not there. Get the football team almost beat the

Bucks in the playoffs behind Taylor Honekey. But back to the number one wide receivers for Fitzpatrick, when Fitzpatricks has had ten plus starts starting with t J. Houshman Zada that was not Fitzpatrick's first team, but his first like true number one wide receiver, but a hundred thirty seven targets for him. Then Stevie Johnson three years in Buffalo a hundred forty hundred forty one hundred thirty four targets,

And these are massive amounts. Those are solid numbers. Andre Johnson for a year in Houston, a hundred and forty six targets. Then Brandon marsh had a hundred and seventy three targets, a hundred and twenty eight with Fitzpatrick's starting ten plus games, and DeVante Parker drew eight targets essentially with Fitzpatrick. So you get Terry McClure and a hundred twenty five hundred thirty five hundred forty five targets. That stock is rising time, and and you get Fitzpatrick's willingness

to drive the ball downfield, something McLaren's never had. So uh for the whole offense, but really, well I don't I don't know about the whole offense. Somewhere Logan Thomas who we were pimping a few weeks ago. If it's Patrick Real hasn't supported a tight end as much as we would have liked. He seems a little more wide receiver friendly. So I might ding a Logan Logan Thomas

a little bit here, but overall an exciting move. Yeah, one way or another, it looks like Tyrod Taylor maybe your opening day starter for Houston, no matter if Deshaun Watson's traded or not. As we are, and you have to do this up to the minute as we're recording. The official number of allegations of sexual assault against Deshaun Watson I believe is at seven right now. It's rumored

to go to nine before long. And even if he stays in Houston, there may be a real chance that he's not allowed to play for some or all of this next season, and not that he doesn't really want to play for Houston either, allegations aside. So yeah, thank you. Rod Taylor is now draftable if you're doing Best Ball drafts right now or even any kind of is he is he as a last pick? I mean, if you're gonna get a starting I mean, am I streaming in Week one already? Brian. I think we are. We are

at least when it comes to the Texans. But there we're not going to talk about the quote unquote weapons they've been adding with the Dante Moncreef's in the Yeah to Rod Taylor going away. Andy Dalton signs for ten million dollars one year deal for the Bears. Bears fans are apoplectic at this point, and rightfully so. It's such a dumb move. They already have Andy Dalton on roster in Nick Foles. And I'm not just saying that because

it's moderately talented white quarterback. It's just, you know, you've got a middling, you know, slightly above or slightly below average quarterback already there, So why are you taking ten million dollars out of your coffers for another guy other than I just you know, I feel for your Bears. If I'm looking for a silver lining here, it is really for Alan Robinson, the best quarterback he's ever played

coming into town. So that's what we got going for us. Yeah, Bears fans, you're you're likely tanking this year, so we're talking reality football. Yeah, you know, for the Bear for the Bears and Alan Robins who is probably the only receiver we care about for the Bears at this point. I think it's a slight step up from what he had last year, but really, Mitch Drabinski was it was probably a better fantasy producer at least than either Dalton or Um than Nick Foles. So it's I want to

get behind. I want to see I want to see Allen Robinson in a great offense and just see see what happens. But it's not. It's not gonna happen at this point. Let's go over to Jamis Winston, who resigns with the Saints one year, up to twelve million dollars depending on how much he plays. John Payton says it'll be a competition to start the season. They're paying both now at least this year, Winston and Taysom Hill, not necessarily starter money or backup money. They don't even know

what they're doing. So yeah, it's surely a competition going into training camp. But for fantasy purposes, we want to see Winston win this job. Taysom Hill was like the most selfish fantasy player in the history of fantasy football, almost you know, he like he benefits no one but himself. He detracts from all his other teammates value. So we're all pulling for Winston. That's all I have to say.

The worry is they're gonna platoon them all year, right right, So it'll be Winston until you get down inside the ten, and then they are frequently flipping Taysom Hill in. Who might run it in? He maybe you'll pass it, maybe hands off, and Winston is just gonna get daggered on fantasy value if the stuff up close especially is going to be Taysom Hills. Yeah, that's ah. The red flags are out there. We know that Tayson Hill is gonna muck up the water as no matter who the starting quarterback.

But I would like to think that Winston can at least be the between the twenties guy. But ugly situations. It is ugly now for Michael Thomas in particular. I I you know, obviously it's a step down from Drew Brees. But Winston will press the field, will press down field more. Now that's not Michael tom Mrs sweet spot. You know Thomas, You know we always think of her. I do. I always think of was catching the ball eight ten, twelve

yards down field and moving chains and stuff. But I like the notion that Winston's yolo downs field passing could create some bigger plays for Michael Thomas. Then Drew brees Is flagging arm had been able to do over the past couple of years. Yeah, and we touched on that that Thomas was undervalued going into diynasty and redraft formats a couple of weeks ago because he put up numbers

with Taysom Hill. He was like the one guy that actually put up numbers when he came back when he was somewhat healthy enough to play late in the season last year. So, yeah, Thomas remains undervalued regardless of Winston or Hill. I think it's kind of a it would be a lateral move if their subbing those guys as a lateral moment. Still an ugly scenario. Maybe the best signing in the last quarterback I want to touch on the best I think most sensible signing was Mitch Robisky

to the Bills. You know his mobile, he makes him a perfect fit behind Josh Allen. You can still you can still run that same offense. You don't have to change the offense because of the quarterback you've got. You've got designed rollouts which can do all that, even designed runs, he can do that. I I thought this was a really good fit. And you look at how well they got Josh Allen the year over your progression from Josh Allen staggering maybe the best ever last year any quarterback

anytime history of the game. Considering where he was at the end of last year to where he got through this year, he's second and m v P voting. I love Mitch Drobiski getting better and smarter on the bench and feel if they need him to fill in that offense doesn't necessarily take a big step back. No, and if True Whisky has to come and then hopefully our boys Zack Moss will just get a few more carries to take that. There's no better like Warrio to Mario

comparison than Trubisky to Josh Allen. He is like the hitting me of like the white version of your starting quarterback coming in but you don't know because you're not a big enough video game nerdis Warrios evil. He's the bat, He's the bad Mario. But True Whisky is evil too. At the very end of the day, there's much of his boyish, good looking grin. Yeah does for us he's

very evil, especially still in Chicago. We couldn't go the whole segment without the whole Mitch Trabisky saying discussion without a little bit of sad from bon Sky right. Definitely not oh, I think not um. When we come back the wide receivers, the notable wide receiver signings, most of them are locked up. There's are still a couple of them out there. We'll talk about whether or not these players get better or worse with their with their new spots,

and what they leave behind. And of these is the departing team in a better spot without these guys who can benefit all of that stuff coming up for segment number two a Fantasy Football Weekly. Welcome back to Fantasy fo aall weekly. Paul Charchi and Brian Johnson with you. We just broke down the free agent quarterbacks. I didn't bother with Jacobe Burst said, I don't think he counts now, even though he might be better than the incumbent in Miami.

Not always, not always, not I know he's not. I'm not god on two as much as most but and to uh, and we're gonna talk about the Dolphins in a minute here. In fact, let's save it, we'll talk about we'll talk about the Dolphins in short order, and we'll talk about two and if his value goes up, I want to I want to start with Juju Smith Schuster and probably resigning with the Steelers. It looked like

that was completely done. And if you believe the media reports, he chose the Steelers over some other viable options and who are offering him more money. So but why, I mean, you know, I don't if I got a choice between going to the Ravens and getting Lamar Jackson's arm going versus you know what we saw in Ben Roethlisberger where it just he's at the bitter end of his career, and I it just you didn't you had the sense that these you know, Juju and the Steelers new all

season that they were gonna end up separated. Yet here they are. They didn't. I am a little disappointed because I said he was gonna leave in free agency all year. You're going back to this time last year, like this is gonna be Jujus. It was a foregone conclusion when they drafted Chase Claypool, like Juju's gone. And now I was wrong, and I hate it when I'm wrong. So Juju stays, What do you think this does for Ben Roethlisberger,

Chase Claypool, you know the rest of the receivers. I mean, I was hoping to, you know, frankly, get him out so that we could have more looks for the other receivers. So I like better. Yeah, we're right back where we started essentially, and we we we talked about Juju last week. You said, expect him to be a free agent, and he did come on strong and in the second half of the year, going to the playoffs, he was or you'll be the top wide receiver from a fantasy perspective.

So people were, you know, they were anticipating their their stock prices going up on Claypool and Deonte Johnson offseason. I did, now, but they're crashing a little bit. Back to the support line. Now. It's a one year deal for Juju, if I'm correct, and so you know it just you may have to wait one more year to to get him to clear out of it. He thinks that they've got it in place. From a reality perspective, one more year of Roethlisberger, he thinks they can win.

There's we don't want to bashing of the Steelers too much. But they still have awful run blocking and they have no running backs. But for whatever reason, Juju is back. So yeah, if you sold higher high on Deonte Johnson and Chase Claypool, good for you, because I think you're gonna have to wait another year because Juju is gonna at least. Let's talk about the Bills and some comings and goings from the Bills. They decide not to bring

back John Brown and he goes to the Raiders. They bring in Emmanuel Sanders to the Bills, and you know, for Sanders, he's gonna need to find playing time around Diggs and Beasley and Gabriel Davis, and that's a crowded group. I think he'll he'll be on the field enough that he may just sort of subtract from those guys, But I don't think he's gonna be on the field and

enough so that you're ever gonna feel comfortable starting Emmanuel Sanders. Now, he's a rare kind of best ball wide receiver handcuff where if you invest in Diggs in the wait first, early second, I mean Diggs is automatically going to take a hundred and fifty two hundred targets out of that offense. Beasley, he got hurt towards the end of the year, but when he's healthy, he was shocking league. Yeah, he's a

lock for ten twelve dollars a game. Gabriel Davis was a rookie last year, got better every week it see him. So Sanders has to be fourth in the pecking order right now. So but yeah, he's just a deep league flyer, late round flyer. And that's from a fantasy perspective. You know, he will bring some veteran in a leadership to the group. But honestly, they got Diggs already for some of that. And yeah, they're just gonna run the ball even lists Buffalo.

So now the Raiders take John Brown. Dude, it's a starter right now. I mean the the rate it's you know, as they do the massive makeover of that offense, including four new offensive lineman coming this year. Uh that let Nelson Agilar go. Um Williams, he's gone, He's gone. I mean John Brown is it? John Brown is a starting receiver on this in the NFL now, and you know he does have really good speed. Um, Derek Carr is

way better. I think that most people realize John Brown to me, is a sneaky sleeper, like right now, like he's a last pick of the draft kind of guy. I think, I think he's gonna be a sneaky sleeper. I'm with you. He's he's immediately starting on the outside for the Raiders all right now, and he got off to a great start last year. He's just always been bothered by injury, and it used to be like his

his head more so than not. It wasn't, thankfully that was in the case last year where's getting knocked out with concussions. But I remember his times with the Arizona that was one of the main reasons he missed so much time. But yeah, his injury gave paved the way for Gabriel Davis ascend in Baltimore last year or so. But yeah, uh, Brown stays healthy, he's a viable wide receiver. Three In most weeks, I would say Marvin Jones signs a two year deal with the Jaguars, He's gonna catch passes,

presumably from Trevor Lawrence. I um, you know, Lawrence looks like you know, he is a very promising NFL prospect, but most rookies take a while to acclimate. Joe Burrow didn't, but most do. And if you know, I gotta believe this puts Marvin Jones to me down into like wide receiver five territory, wide receiver four territory. He's right in that territory where he's gonna have a hundred yards two touchdowns once every five games. It seems like Djhark of course,

still in Jacksonville. Lavish lt Clan Cole is gone, he's in uh with the Jets, and D D. Westbrook out on the he's a free agent now. He's not coming back to Jacksonville. Anytime Jones will start, he will start, and uh, but he's gonna be a tough guy to pay his weekly production. He's gonna be a frustrate, as he pretty much always has been the duration of his career. But yeah, a guy in best ball, though, who who

has gone and will continue to go under valued. One would think the Jaguars are still going to be chasing points mercilessly correct, Sorry, we'll be that way. John Ross goes to the Giants for one year. He'll had some speed to that group, but really looked, really looked lost for most of his time in Cincinnati. And I don't know that he's much of an impact player here. Yeah, did the Giants need more speed? I mean, Daniel Jones ran so fast last year over his own feet on

which would have been a nine of your touch. But yeah, not not the wide receiver news they're they're looking for in the East Rock. But yeah, John Ross, even in in best ball, this moves the needle. Not for me in terms of John Ross's fantasy either. Corey Davis goes to the Jets. He got a big pay to I think that Jets made a mistake here. He he gets three years, thirty seven million dollars for Corey Davis. He had the one nice season last year, and even then

it wasn't like awesome season. Off the top of my head, I think it was in the neighborhood of a thousand yards season. Um, he'll start with Mims and Crowder. Crowder on the slot, Mims on the outside, Corey Davis on the outside. You know, I don't who his quarterback is is yet to be determined. Head scratching money that they offered Davis considering will Fuller, even though it was one

year he signed for ten point six million dollars. I'd rather have will Fuller starting on the outside for a year, if from rather than Corey Hips, They're not that neediate wide receiver. Denzel Mims is one of the most intriguing up and coming wide receiver prospects in the league right now.

And they still got Jameson Crowder in the slides. So I know Davis will play on the outside, but yeah, I don't know he's that was exciting as Brashad Perriman was last year, right, just a little young group, so yeah, not I think his fantasy value takes a ding from where it was in Tennessee. So the type the Titans lose in this off season, Corey Davis, Adam Humphries, John U, Johno, A J. Brown could be looking at like a hundred

eighty targets. I mean A J. Brown. I'm serious. I think he's gonna be my wide receiver one in my rankings. I just he's sitting on potentially and insane season. Yeah, a couple of weeks ago we I extrapolated his production. Essentially he was. He was heavily under targeted last year and throughout his career. But yeah, if he gets that kind of volume, he is easily in the wide receiver one conversation. Yes, that's the overall wide receiver on of

course receptions. I mean, he's a wide receiver one top twelve right now. But yeah, I'm with you. Patriots made too bad they made. Patriots made three bad moves, at least three this off this offseason signing John U. Johnu was brilliant and that would have paid off enormously for fantasy. And that was following the Can resigning that we're very h like the Can resigning at all, were like, okay, now we're going somewhere. But then Henry and we'll talk.

We'll break down that tight end situation next week. But they then they made two bad financial moves. Kendrick Boorne with's a shocking three year, twenty two million dollar deal and Nelson Aglar granted coming off a far better season than most of us expected, but given just who he is and what we what we've seen for its full career, couple two years and sixteen million dollars for him, well, you know, they tied up the thirty eight million dollars

between Kendrick Born and Nelson angel. I know it's not essentially apples to apples, but the one year on a r eighteen million. You could have had Will Fuller and Juju and then he got to like you said, Kendrick Bourne, And who's getting paid more than John Brown? Right? Born had some flashes with right but they could have a great where to put it. They could have had Will Fuller and Juju Smith Schuster for less what I just I say this all the time and p I get

nothing but crap on Twitter for this. General manager Bill Belichick is constantly undermining head coach Bill Belichick. Just terrible personnel decisions, drafting deals. And I know he's one of billion super Bowls. It doesn't mean that he's the He doesn't mean that that he's doing himself and he favors as general manager, he's over his head. It's it's it's its own job. Never has a the one wide receiver move that went well for the Patriots, and Belichick's whole

tenure was when they signed that was it. That is it? Yeah? And I guess historically and now Kendrick Born and Nelson Aghilar so in terms of their fantasy value, they're both potentially starters. And I think Glars especially going to start here. Um, I can't. We don't know who's thronging the ball. But if it's Cam Newton coming off a season with eight touchdown passes, I can't. I can't like the fantasy value

for the one of these guys a lot. And like you said, we'll talk tight ends more next week with Hunter Henry now John new Smith. You just you feel like you just need warm bodies on the outside. And that's what Agre and Kendrick Born are. But they paid, They paid the flaming hot, supermodel bodies. More power to you, Bill,

so Nelson Aguilar leaves the Raiders. Tyrrell Williams leaves the Raiders and he goes to Detroit where he is now their number one wide receiver because they don't have anybody else. It's a bad it's it's it's ugly in Detroit right now. Is they jettison their number one, number two, and number three wide receivers? Yeah, Darrell Williams certainly pertinent in the

fantasy world. You would have to think the Lions, who have drafted plenty of receivers in this this millennium, Uh, we'll draft one of these almost have to Tyroe Williams needs to be back on your radar for sure. I just don't know why. You know, what is their situation that's so poisoned with Kenny Golladay that and there well under the cap that they can't just resigned Kenny Golladay, who they took all this time and care to mean. Kenny Golladay was something of a project receiver. It you know,

he didn't walk on the field his baby tron. He had to earn and you know, gradual steps to get up to baby tron level. Now you think you'd want to keep him. He's young, he's in entering the prime of his career and get the Lions are just letting him walk. The same with Marvin Jones that we talked about two right, they could have kept him at a much cheaper discount, but that's the only thing for a

rebuilding team. Marvin Jones entering his whatever ninth season, I don't know that he would have made as much sense. I'm with you there, but I think even the fully healthy Goliday is uh, there's too much saving that needs to be done in Detroit. There build mode, but no doubt it's gonna be a it's gonna be like the

Major League of training camps. When like to be like I don't know half these guys are that are showing up Detroit's training camp become August, but Curtis Samuel goes to Washington, where he's reunited with Scott Turner and Ron Rivera from his days as a Panther. He gets three years, thirty five million dollars. You know, he's the ultimate jack knife guy. He's um. You know, he's good for one or two runs a game. He really I think developed

it nicely as a receiver. He is a he's just he's kind of a special gadget player who isn't such a gadget guy that he can't be on the field all the time. You know, like Cordell Patterson was kind of a gadget guy. You couldn't use him every play. You'd have to just like find like a spot every third game where you could do something special with him. Curtis Samuel can do that a lot with um. I think he has a chance to have a lot of

impact on a Washington team that now has competent quarterback. Yeah, with Carolina d J. Moore and Robby Anderson, who are you know soaking up most of the targets. So Samuel had to kind of settle for this gadget role with targets mixed in. But now with Washington, he's he's the number two. He's the number two. So he still got all the gadget stuff in his bag. And what I love about him teaming with Terry McLaurin as they both went to the Ohio State universe and they used to

like daydream about playing together and so precious. It's a it's a it's a fun offense in Washington again with with our boys stop Beard at the Helm. So yeah, Curtis Samuel a very very sexy name. Right now, his his ADP has risen with the signing news, no doubt. Alright, two more names left, um one does not matter much that J J. Green trying to resurrect his career in a one yell, one year deal with the Cardinals. He needs to prove that he can still be an effective player.

And even after you, even if he does prove it here at his age, it's going to be hard to him to land another big deal after this, but I suspect he will. Man, he just sort of lost in the shuffle with a lot of good receivers there. I just I don't know how much playing time a J. Green's can have, and whether or not I trust him to have any kind of reliable fantasy value. You're not gonna be able to rely on him as a week

to week starter, but he's draftable in my mind. He's He's gonna be like a guy to keep your eye on in daily for sure, but just to see. He had some good games last year, and of course in Arizona he's a good game maybe two sixteen. I don't know he'll be rejuvenated leaving since for sure, I don't know. I'm not I'm not ready. I called him dust. He's not fully dust yet, but there's a lot of dust storms in Arizona stretching alright. Lastly, Will Fuller, this is

an exciting move um. By the way, you mentioned, I don't think getting A J. Green out of Cincinnati and John John Rosses out of Cincinnati as well as you mentioned earlier. Yeah, Tyler, boy, I mean the remaining receivers I think are all going to get a bit of an uptick in in in looks here, boyd Higgins is the my my my sleep. As long as UH mentioned, Golladay has a chance to sign with Since and then they could also draft a wide receiver. But if they don't go a big name with but Higgins is the guy.

Higgins has got upside, He's got everyone's eyes are on Higgins. But I audentate though, just keep in my narratar. Will Fuller gets a one year deal with the Dolphins. I thought he would get a longer deal coming off a good season. This PD thing might haunt him a little bit. That might have been a contributing factor to him not getting as much attention as we thought. He's gonna bring downfield speed that Miami is lacking. You know, part of what the complaint is with Tah was he just wasn't

driving the ball down field like Ryan Fitzpatrick was. Maybe will Fuller helps unlock some of the downfield passing attempts that you could get out of Tah. And we went to the turns with Fuller just in the sense that he's never really played a full season, and he was on his way to playing a full season last year and epic full season. But he got pops for the P E D s And is that why he was

playing so well and staying healthy. So I'm kind of right where we had he was in like the late twenty wide receiver range, which I don't think this move it's lateral at best from Houston DeVante Parker, I would still view as the alpha wide receiver. Uh, there's a big move down, don't you think from being the go to receivers Watson led off and it's a big to the number two receiver and a tool led off. You're right, it's I downplayed a little bit. So I'm pretty much

off of Goladay even or I'm sorry. I Will Fuller, even though I don't think he's a d P, will budge a whole lot, but high twenties seems a little high for me now that he's I think I think it is too at the helm and I'm still not convinced he can with stand a full season without some e s. Yeah, we'll find out. That's gonna be part of the concern, and I think I'm gonna be I'm gonna let somebody else relive last year with Will Fuller, it probably will not be me. Thank you for listening

to Fantasy Football Weekly. Next week we will hit on the running backs, the tight ends, John and John you, and some of the other big key elements to free agency that you need to help evaluate this ever changing landscape of the NFL and fantasy football. Your team, that's all we care about. Brian, great job today. Thanks, we'll talk to you all the week. Bye bye. Fantasy Football

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