And now Move the Sticks with Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks.
What's up, everybody is Bucky Brooks and I am joined with Marcus Grant from the Fantasy Football Podcast and he's in place of DJ. We are going to do a different type of Move the Sticks today because instead of dealing with reality, we're going to deal with a little fantasy and Marcus is gonna help us build the ultimate fantasy team.
Marcus, what's going on?
Feeling good?
Man? You know, we got the last couple of weeks before you know, people start putting on pads and hitting a little bit. So just trying to enjoy what little bit of off season we all got left.
Yeah, a little bit of off season.
And I know you, as a devoted Trojan, you're probably celebrating rushing to get your Briannie James ordered in Jersey so you can make sure you go to the Lakers first game and full effect and represent another great Trojan. But speaking of Trojans, I mean, look, man, when you think about the USC and the Trojan position, we always think about quarterbacks. And so when we start fantasy, we got a story to quarterbacks, like who are you vibing on this?
Year at the quarterback position.
Well, I think right now, Look, the elites are still the elites, right, the guys of the Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes. Those are the guys still at the top. The problem with those guys is you got to go early. You've got to spend maybe a draft pick in the second or third round. If you're gonna get one of those guys. That isn't tend to be how I move. I don't mind these second tier guys, right, Anthony Richardson, CJ.
Stroud. You can get a couple of rounds later.
If you want to wait even later than that, there are some guys out there, Jordan Love who you can probably draft somewhere around the ninth or tenth round. That's a really good option for you. Jaden Daniels, Rock Purty. Even Joe Burrow has slipped a little bit, I think, just because of the injury concerns the last couple of years, Joe Burrow has kind of fallen where he's now in the eighth or ninth round.
Something like that.
So I still tend to be believe that if you want to wait till the middle part of your you can find yourself a quality quarterback that yeah, it's not you know, it's not gonna give you like video game numbers every week like Josh Allen would, but they will give you good enough numbers on a week to week basis that your team should compete and you have a chance to win.
Okay, So when I hear that, everyone knows the usual suspects, the guys who are normally the prolific point scorer. So we understand how Josh Allen is able to get down because he's a dual threat. We think about Lamar Jackson, two time MVP, being able to put it together.
But man, everyone are They're all on these young.
Quarterbacks, right, And so I'm just curious because right out the gate, I got to talk.
To you about Anthony Richardson.
Right.
I don't know if I've ever heard a more hyped quarterback than Richardson, who is only player he was in a couple of those games that he played in. But look, man, outsiders are all on him and what he's going to do for the innflis goals not only in look real football, but in fantasy.
He appears to have a lot of buzz around.
His absolutely, because the thing we love in fantasy are quarterbacks who can run with the football because it's it's sort of a a cheat code, right, because you know you're gonna get some decent passing yards. And even look at the even for Richardson, right, who we know is not a developed passer yet, he's still very much working
on that part of his game. The fact that he ran so effectively, he scored a bunch of rushing You know, before Jonathan Taylor came back, Anthony Richardson was basically the goal line back there in Indianapolis, and so everybody is sort of looking for that and hoping at the same time he gets better and more developed as a passer,
which gives you those extra yards. But I mean, I go back to a couple of years ago Justin Fields and we're still not sure if he's actually a good NFL quarterback, But Justin Fields has always been a very good fantasy quarterback for some of those same reasons. So yeah, the Anthony Richardson hype is strong. Throw in the fact that he came back and he said he put on some extra muscle.
He looks bigger.
That guy everybody really really hyped. So yeah, there have been, you know, just battles. I mean Anthony richards and his draft position keeps going up and up and up. Right now, he is probably in the fifth round somewhere and people are legitimately scheming to get Anthony richardson right now.
Yeah, it is is an amazing phenomenon to kind of see the buzz around his name. And so we talk about like a young quarterback being hyped up, Like I got to go right from Anthony Rigidson to maybe the most type quarterback prospect that we've talked about in some time, and that's your fellow USC Trojan, Caleb Williams.
What are the.
Expectations in the fantasy world for the number one overall pick.
So I think for Caleb Williams, people are looking at him. I think if he settles in at the end of the year somewhere around quarterback twelve or thirteen, I think that's about what expectations are for him. It's weird because for me, if you're playing, if you're playing dynasty football right where you draft the team and that is your team and you keep those players year over year. Caleb is the number one quarterback in dynasty football right now.
But if we're talking about just you know, your standard fantasy leagues where you redraft the team every single year.
I actually like Jaden Daniels a little bit more.
I think I think with Caleb, like I'm expect having a good year, I am sort of cautious because everybody's immediately saying, well, he's gonna be the first Bears quarterback to throw for four thousand yards and he's gonna set all these Bears records, and I think that could happen. I don't know that it happens necessarily in year one with Caleb, right, So I hesitate to kind of put
those expectations on him. But if you want, if you want a rookie that you can start in fantasy in year one, I think Jayden Daniels is probably more of that. The ceilings might maybe not as high, but I think he's more ready to produce right now.
Yeah, it's funny because with Jade and Daniels, you're getting what you talk about everyone wants in a fantasy quarterback, and that's the rushing yards. Jayden Daniels, you know, talk about kind of like an even slimmer version of Lamar Jackson.
Potentially when he enters the league. That's really appealing.
And when you hear Dan Quinn talk about him, they talk about how he's already got the playbook.
Down and how he's doing it. Really interesting, a really interesting player.
To discuss, another player to discuss, and he's not necessarily a dual threat, but there's a lot of buzz about the Chargers, and so everyone is wondering how Jim Harbaugh is going to impact Justin Herbert as a fantasy football quarterback.
Yeah.
It's funny because I think people have sort of so when they first hired Harbaugh and they bring in Greg Roman, and they draft Joe Alt, and they bring in you know, Gus Edwards and JK. Dobbins, everybody's like, well, it must be over for Justin Herbert. That they're going to run the ball a million times and Justin Herbert is not gonna throw it ever. But I think people have started to sort of level out a little bit. That being said, you can still get Justin Herbert way off of where
he used to go. I mean, this is a guy that used to be drafted in the sixth, seventh round. Now you're talking about the tenth round or so, maybe even the eleventh round for Justin Herbert. But I think people have started to realize that, Yeah, okay, maybe they run it more than they have in the past, but they're not going to abandon throwing the football because financially, this team still has a lot tied up in Justin Herbert.
And yeah, they did lose Keenan Allen, they lost Mike Williams, they drafted Lad McConkey, you know, so they still do have a desire to throw the football a little bit. It just may look a little bit different now. There is some some buzz that maybe because Greg Roman is there, they use Herbert in the running game a little bit more. They have a few more designed runs for him. I I, you know, I will wait to see him. The jury is out for me on that one.
I don't.
I don't think you're gonna write put your franchise quarterback in harms way that many more times. And look, he's not It's not like when Greg Roman had Lamar Jackson. It's not like when he had you know, Alex Smith or Colin Kaepernick or anybody like that. Justin Herbert's not
that dude. So that part I'm still skeptical on. But I am starting to come around to the idea that maybe, just maybe, you know, Jim Harbaugh is not gonna take this back to nineteen thirty three and run the ball, you know, sixty fifty sixty five times a game.
And then I mean, like, I think it'd be a bit of a throwback. I don't think it'd be that much. I would anticipate this team looking like those old stand through teams when he had Andrew Luck and those guys, and they look, they ran it. They would throw it some, but they're still about a physical run game and kind of being able to set up some play action passes
and those things. Now, I gotta wrap up the quarterbacks, and if I'm gonna wrap up the quarterbacks, I can leave out the four time MVP, the guy that everyone is hoping can lead the Jets back to prominence and Rogers Fantasy value.
What you think?
He's the guy that right now is going at the very end of drafts, in some cases, probably not drafted at all. And I think for a lot of people it's just a fear of well one, you know, there's always the fear that maybe he goes on another spirit quest to South America or decides to drop everything and run for an office. But I think more legitimately the concern is that he's a forty year old guy coming off and achilles injury behind an offensive line that last
year wasn't very good. I mean, I think it's just that is sort of what's baked into it. And because he you know, he's past the point of his career where he runs the football. He used to be a very effective runner. He's not that guy anymore. Age and certainly caught up to him there. So because of that,
he has to be incredibly efficient throwing the football. I mean, he had that season a couple of years ago where you know, he just did not throw interceptions, right, He had like the one year he had forty eight touchdowns, five picks.
Thirty seven touchdowns, four picks.
That's sort of the level of efficiency that he has to have in order to compete with the upper echelona fantasy quarterbacks. And I mean what he did those he was phenomenal. That's asking a lot of even you know, a Hall of Famer of the level of Aaron Rodgers especially, you know, had forty so go to be forty one years old.
Yeah. No, It's funny because they look the.
Jets playoff hopes right or died with Aaron Rodgers and his ability to stay healthy and his ability continue to play at a high level like he's played at for the majority of his career.
But it's just interesting to.
Track it and wonder where people really lean on him when it comes to finally picking him in fantasy because of the injury and those things. Any other quarterback that were missing, anybody didn't miss before we turn the page and go to another position.
I mean, no, no, no big names here. I mean I'm interested.
You know, brock perty is another guy who's kind of floating around in the late rounds, and I think it's sort of interesting, you know, Other than that, Like I'll say this, I'm kind of getting excited about Will Levis as like a second quarterback now as you're in every week starter. But I'm just kind of curious because they've remade that entire offense. Right, Derrick Henry is gone, they bring in Calvin Ridley. They seem to be building this thing around Will Levis. He's fun to watch because he's
gonna stand back there and throw yolo balls. It might not always be effective, but it'll be entertaining. I know that much.
Yeah, it certainly will be entertaining. He is some one.
They they've looked, they tried to upgrade the cast around them, Kevin Ridley, DeAndre Hopkins. They have some other pieces in place in terms of setting up the run game.
You got Tony poll joining.
We'll see, because there's been a lot of buzz particularly there with Brian Callahan going that maybe just maybe he can kind of find his way to be at upper echelon quarterback time will till.
Well, what will happen? We're gonna take a little break.
Well, I'm back and on the other side, we'll talk about running backs because you know, running.
Backs are key to being able to be successful in fantasy.
All right, Mark, so we're back. You know this is a position that is nearing git to my heart. I love running backs and look, even though they're diminished and devalued in fantasy, you still got to have one or two to be able to get it done. So when we talk about the running back position, what's your overall strategy when it comes to taking a running back?
What are you looking for? What is the perfect running back in fantasy?
So for me, I really want to get one of the top guys early if I can, right, I mean, there are It's so different now, right, I would say five ten years ago, you look the first round of fantasy drafts and it was majority running backs and maybe you get a wide receiver or two sprinkled in there. Now it's the complete opposite where it's mostly wide receivers
and you got a handful of running backs. Still, four guys, at least three guys maybe four that go in the first round, Christian McCaffrey, no doubt, Jehan Robinson, Breeze Hall. Those are your dead licke first round running backs. And you can make a case for Jimior Gibbs at the back end of the first round. So I want to try to get one of those top guys in the first round.
You know, maybe I can.
I can make a case and stretch it out for Jonathan Taylor early in the second round something like that.
After that, I tend to wait.
I think you can get to the middle rounds and there's some some guys who maybe aren't super exciting name wise, but give you solid production. I mean, you know, I like James Cook in Buffalo, especially because we live in a PPR world and they're gonna throw him the football. I still like David Montgomery. You know, he's he's not sexy, but he's solid and he continues to produce, especially when he's healthy. I think, you know, Jalen Warren in Pittsburgh,
I think has some really nice upside. I think James Connor. I know he's got an injury history, but when James Connor is healthy and on the field, he's really really productive. So I can wait and I can build up in the early rounds, you know, load up on wide receiver, maybe get a top tight end if I want to, and still come back in round you know, six, seven, eight, and find myself a quality running back.
And that's that tends to be how I operate.
You know, I am curious because when I when I look at some of the finer offenses in the league. We always talked about the just in a wide hot perimeter, but a chan from Miami Dolphins, you know, like when he was around and make him plays. You talked about he was averaging ninety scrimmag yards per game. And he is a fun like a highlight a minute player. How do we quantify what he is able to bring to the fantasy world.
So he is super exciting and people super love him. And the reason I haven't drafted him is because you got to go really early to get him. I mean he's coming off the board late second round, early third round, which.
For me, I love the fact that he's so explosive.
He averaged nearly eight yards per carry last year, which is an insane I think seven point eight yards per carry, which is an insane number.
What worries me though.
Is one he did have a little bit of an injury situation last year. But also the Dolphins are still sort of admitted to Raheem Moster. They brought him back on an extension, and he's another guy who's explosive, had eighteen rushing touchdowns last year, and I can get Raheem most or many many rounds later and I think get
similar productions. So unless they're going to somehow change everything up and give Devon ah Chan the majority of the workload, he's still going to be splitting touches and that means he needs to average almost eight yards per carry or score a bunch of touchdowns, and that's a really really
hard thing to bank on. So I love the player, I love the talent, I just don't necessarily want to make that kind of gamble draft wise on a situation where he might end up being in a two man committee now, not even to say anything about the fact that they drafted Jalen Wright out of Tennessee, who could step in there and maybe not get enough carries to be like an everyday fantasy option, but he could get enough carries to make you.
Frustrated about the guy you did draft.
And so that is sort of my concern with a chan where he's going right now.
Okay, the frustration leads me to talk about the Dallas Cowboys, and that will make me about you're Elliott. I don't know what to make of Ezekiel Elliott's fantasy value because I don't know, Like a year ago he was cut and let go.
They bring him back. You think they were bringing back as part of.
Rotation, But it seems that in Dallas they're gonna turn back to clock to twenty sixteen and Ezekiel Ellis's gonna be the feature back because there aren't any notable names around him.
Can Zeke Elliott be a surprise fantasy contributor?
If he is a surprise, it'll surprise me and you both because I'm I'm sort of with you and that, like, I don't know what to make of that backfield where look, chances are, yes, Zeke is going to be the lead in that backfield, but Rico Dowdell is still there, going to get some opportunities. They have Royce Freeman there, Deuce Vaughan may show up every now and then and get
some opportunities there. But also I think a thing to consider is that this offensive line is not the same offensive line that they had the last time Zeke was there, when they those dudes up front that were opening holes and we're just kind of road graders there. This is a different offensive line there in Dallas, and so that's sort of a concern. Throwing the fact that, you know, Zekea's not the explosive back he once was.
This is an offense that's certainly.
More geared toward Dak Prescott and Ceedee Lamb and throwing the football. So I mean, I think because of that, that's why you're seeing, you know, zek is kind of the first cowboy running back that gets drafted, but that's you know, you're looking at round ten or eleven something like that. I think generally everybody's sort of like, we don't know what to do with this backfield, and so because of that, people are just sort of like, we're all just going to.
Kind of back away from it right now. Yeah.
No, it's a hard backfield to sort out. It's hard to figure out what to do with them. And as much as I love Zeke Elliott for most of his career, I don't know, man. I know he had a little flash at the end of the season with the Patriots, but to go back to Dallas in to reprise that number one role that he lived in for so long.
I don't know.
I think it's kind of crazy because two years ago they were trying to get rid of him and we were saying Antoni Pobas needs all the carries.
Now we want to say he's ready to go back to be the one.
It is not the typical situation as you look for in running back. Who who are we sleeping on? Who's the running back sleeper? That's your guy that you have in the pocket.
I'm gonna go with Jonathan Brooks in Carolina, and I like, I like what Carolina has done. I don't want to overhype it too much, but I think Jonathan Brooks is gonna step in there and win fully healthy and ready to go. And right now the talk is that they expect him to be ready, if not for camp, certainly you know, by the early part of the season. I think when he's ready, he's the number one running back there.
They went in on Miles Sanders last year, and I think they realized midway through the season that wasn't gonna work out. They gave that job to Chewba Hubbard. Jonathan Brooks is better than Chuwba Hubbard. I think he's gonna step in and be, you know, a the number one running back early on, and if not, certainly by the midpoint of the season, he's going to be that number one running back in in Carolina by the end of the year.
And so look, here's another guy that that I really like.
And this is it's an old, familiar name, but we're all really excited about Derrick Henry in Baltimore this year. It's it's very rare when everybody in fantasy wishes for a thing to happen and that thing happens. Like we were all saying, we, you know, Derek Henry should go join the Ravens he'd be perfect for the Ravens, and
usually when we all want that, it never happens. This time it happens, So we're super excited about you know what he can be in that offense, in that backfield with with with the Lamar Jackson, so you know, throwing the fact that when they get down closed to your thing in in Philly, we know they got the tush push. In Buffalo, it's gonna be Josh Allen. The Ravens don't use Lamar Jackson near the goal line in a similar fashion, so when they get close, there's gonna turn around and
hand it to l tractor Sito. So I know it's not assary a sleeper thing, but it's definitely a running back spot that we are all.
Everybody's super fired up about it.
I will also caution you that when everybody in fantasy is fired up about something, usually it somehow goes sideways. So I'm crossing my fingers that this is not gonna be the case this year.
Yeah.
No, it's it's funny in terms of being fired up about fantasy, but the one position that gets everyone fired up. We talk about quarterbacks, and we love running backs, but there's nothing more exciting than to talk about your favorite fantasy wide receiver point bananas when you need it down the stretch, Let's talk about who are your top wide receivers. Who are the guys that you're really bank going to have big performances this year.
Well, again, this is another one where I think it's great to go get the elites and like the guys at the time. I think that the top three, you can just pull the names out of a hat in any order and nobody's gonna argue with you. So it's Ceedee Lamb, it's Tyreek Hill, it's Jamar Chase. How you rank them really is a matter of personal preference, and nobody's really gonna fight with you there. But even that, I mean, look, I'm on Ross Saint Brown has proven he is a top level wide receiver.
You know.
I feel still think Justin Jefferson in terms of talent, is a high level guy. I just worry about the quarterback situation, you know as much as I you know, I want, in my heart of hearts and my Trojan heart for.
Sam Donald to be great.
You know, at this point, we sort of seen this movie, We kind of know how it is, and so I think that that's the reason Jefferson's probably going is the fourth or fifth wide receiver as opposed to being the first wide receiver off the board. But because the position is so deep, you can go two three rounds and find yourself a quality receiver. The other problem, though, is that everybody feels that way, so receivers are.
Flying off the board.
So if you don't go out and get yourself one maybe two in the first four rounds, you're gonna look up and all of a sudden, it's going to be really, really thin because everybody is just grabbing them wherever.
Yeah, it's so difficult, And look, you don't want to operate like the Green Bay Packers where you're saying, hey man, we just have a random yeah, I become the number one receiver for the day. You want to have someone that is established. But how hard is it to pick like in these examples. So the Philadelphia Eagles, the Miami Dolphins, even to a lesser degree, the Minnesota Vikings, they have number one receivers, but that second guy is one bet.
When you're trying to make these decisions where you're saying everyone is zick zach to get one, is there a reasonable like a conversation that you could have that A AJ Brown DeVonta Smith.
Maybe I go with DeVonta Smith because it's more likely that I can get him in the pecking order.
One hundred percent.
And that's the reason I probably have drafted in some of like the early mock drafts and stuff I've done, I've probably drafted Devonte Smith more than AJ Brown just because I can wait a little bit later and get him.
I mean, you talk about A. J. Brown and DeVante Smith being that way.
I think in some respects you can have a similar argument with Poka Nakula and Cooper Cup with the Rams, where you know, Pookah's that guy that's going in the late first round. You can get Cooper Cup probably in the third round right now. So you do have those yeah, I mean, it's one thing when you have a team with like two wide receivers that's kind of easy to figure out.
The one thing that is hard.
And we're all going in circles trying to figure out what to do with the Houston Tech wide receivers because they already had Nico Collins in Tank Dell and those guys were awesome last year. Then they go out and they add Stephan Diggs, who, Okay, maybe he's not the same guy he was a couple of years ago, but he's still a really talented player. He's going to get a whole lot of targets from CJ. Stroud, and so we're all trying to figure out, you know, which one
is the best option. It's gonna be hard to figure that out because you know there will be weeks that are gonna be Collins weeks. They're gonna be Tanked Dell weeks are gonna be Stephan Diggs weeks, and we may not be able to predict which one is going to be which, but all three potentially they're gonna be really really good all year. But I think on a week to week basis, having a Texans wide receiver is going to be a really big headache for a lot of people.
Yeah.
No, It's funny in my time in like playing fancy football, like I just love having clear lines, like clear lines where you know who's the number one, who's the number two, who's the number three.
It's very similar.
I think the situation in LA when it comes to the Rams. For as much as we love Pukinnakua and they all gets muddied with Cooper Cup coming back, who does Matthew Stafford see as the number one? And if you had to decide between the two pass catches, which go Cooper Cup, which go the cool.
So early on, I was going Cooper Cup just because he was going a couple of rounds later, but I'm starting to pivot to Pooka, uh really for no rhyme or.
Reason, just because I think he's younger.
I mean, I don't think I know he's younger than than Cooper Cup is, and I think that maybe sort of factors into it. But I do think in the end, I think they're gonna have similar production. You know, at some point you look at Cooper Cup and you know he's getting a little bit older. He's over thirty, He's had some injuries the last couple of years, so maybe
you factor that in a little bit. But again, I think it's a situation where you know, those are the two guys where the ball is going to be funneled mostly, So I think either way, you're gonna be fine with either one of those two guys.
All right, So, Marcus, So when we think about like a little young wide receiver, we're gonna talk about the rookies in the next episode. But if there was a young wide receiver that you would take a dart on, maybe just like an unheralded name, but is in a really good situation where you think he can probably outplay his draft status, Give me a name.
We everybody's getting really excited about Jamison Williams because, for one, this is the first normal offseason he's had in a while, right, I mean, when he when he got drafted, he was injured, he pretty much missed pretty much all of that that first season. He's had suspensions to deal with. But everything coming out of Detroit this offseason says that he is really ready to take that next step, that he's working hard.
Dan Campbell is thrown out a lot of praise about him, which you know, Dan Campbell's not one to just necessily throw around a ton of praise. So the fact that he's had a lot of great things to say about Jamison Williams has been really exciting.
That offense has looked great the last couple of years.
I mean, it's the reason we love Aman Ross Saint Brown, It's the reason we all loved Sam Laporta last year. So if Jamison Williams really is starting to become the player we thought he he could be coming out of college. He definitely could outperform his ADP. I mean, he's getting drafted right now in the double digit rounds and look if he if he is that guy, he could definitely outperform that.
Yeah, it's it's funny because Amarra Saint Brown is the clear number one, but there's so many intriguing options that they have on that offense. You talked about Jamiir Gibbs being someone that everyone should have an interest in h when it comes to looking at what he can do. From fran perspective, you have Jerry Golf who's got the big money, who's throwing the ball all over the yard. Jamison Williams certainly can be a guy that is a
productive playmaker. Ain't that knowying that Sam Laporta is the second option on that squad?
Yeah, no, absolutely, I mean so that is the concern though, that maybe he's the third option at best. But again it's sort of a risk reward thing. Like where you're getting him, you're not risking much in terms of draft capital, with the reward being that you know, if he becomes a deep threat, or a big play guy in offense. He could be one of those players where it doesn't take a whole lot of catches for him to put
up a big fantasy number. If he can get you two or three catches and maybe get you, you know, eighty ninety yards and find his way into the end zone, ends up being a really good day.
It does end up being a really, really good day.
And so we're gonna wrap up part one of the podcasts now put on part We're gonna talk about tight ends, we can talk about rookies to watch, and we're also gonna kind of maybe build the ultimate fantasy team. So thanks for tuning in the Move to six podcast that was part
One of our fantasy podcast Mark Scranny The next time.