Early Coaching Changes + Fantasy Exit Interviews, Part 1

Wow, everybody, It's Tuesday, January fourteenth, twenty twenty five. Welcome to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, where we are definitely thinking about all the folks in Los Angeles. Be your man named g. Marcus Grant, joined by Michael f. Florio and Laqwan Jones.

I was gonna sa.

Happy New Year, but we have we have, We have spoken since the New Year, right, we've done a show since the two weeks. Yeah, I mean, look, I mean you say that, but on the other hand, it's been a whirlwind two weeks.

It's been it's been crazy. So you know, I just wanted to make sure right that we had actually had done a show on New Year's Day together. Oh that's a good point. Yeah, we did do a show.

We did do an NFL Fantasy Live show on New Year's Day.

Uh.

Look, I'm the.

Regular season ends, in the fantasy season ends, and I sort of go into a brain FuG for a couple of weeks, and like, I'm still a little bit away from coming out of it.

I'm right there with you, man. Incredible year, incredible season, man, And like I feel like with the season being so great, it's a new year and it's a new me. Guys like, I know, but my hair is blonde. Guys like you know, oh my god.

Okay, so obviously for the for the folks who aren't seeing the audio, and trust me, this will end up on socials. When we started the show, you know, we're on stream Yard and Lakwan's camera wasn't on and he's like, oh, this is weird, this is new.

And in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, all right, is he doing something weird? Is he doing a bit? But I didn't really, I didn't. I didn't really push it.

And then all of a sudden he opens up the camera and here he is looking like Cisco.

Oh my god, demolition man, you gotta show it.

Oh my god. Oh wow, lady, I'm not gonna lie to you. It's not a bad look. Hey, I like it.

I want I still want us to be in studio one day for a grand reveal like live on YouTube or something.

I will I will take it. The folks that are listening, like, this is really for my Australia people to all see you guys DM and me like, when you're gonna do it, when you're gonna do it. This is just a teaser. You're listening now, you got it to next week.

I didn't know the folks down under had such a vested interest in your hairing God, it.

Was like, oh, you got to be a man of your word, ladies and gentlemen. I am a man of my word. He is a man of his word. Absolutely so.

John news Smith finished out a career year for himself. He ends the year as the tied end for and true to his word, Lakwan Jones now has blonde hair. Yeah, so what what did the wife and kids say about it?

So? Uh well, they have not seen this yet. So we're lady on the reveal at home.

Thought magnifico and wowno.

Sabrino went to work and you were normal, and she's gonna come home and and this.

Wow, you gotta we'll be married after this. I don't know.

You gotta videotape the reaction and put that on socials as well, because that was wow. All right, all right, but shout out to you man. You know, I know you were dreading this for a while, but.

Have your kids seen it? No, nobody have seen this. You guys are in the first.

You're gonna pick them up from school or something.

Later and they're just gonna like.

Layla's gonna side on. I mean, like, what is.

Wow? All right, boom there it is. We don't even know the rest of the show. I'm happy now, you.

Know we can we can just like say so thanks everybody for listening. Uh, and we'll see you. We'll see you next week. Now we have later to talk about. We obviously, the the Fantasy season itself is done. I'm we're still doing a couple of shows a week for the next few weeks, so figure out this is a good time to start our exit interview portion where we talk about the teams in terms of what happened this past year and what we hope for for next year

That Bill's Rams Super Bowl, That Bill's Rams Super Bowl. You know that.

I'll say this.

I mean, while on the one hand, I guess I'm sort of sad that the forty nine ers aren't in it. On the other hand, watching stress free football this weekend.

Was kind of nice. Nice, you know, it was really good.

I Well, first off, I guess I'd probably take this opportunity to say, because we are obviously the three of us living in Los Angeles, there are still a lot of folks who are very much dealing with the fires going on there. You know, we have had coworkers who have had to evacuate their homes, a lot of folks who are dealing with incredible trauma having lost everything, and

Floria.

I know you were the closest to some of the fires. You guys were sort of on watch there for a while, weren't you.

We never got close to having to evacuate, per se, but the warning got like I don't want to give exact streets away, but you guys would know better, Like, yeah, it got not that far away from us, and like our highway exits got shut down for a night or whatever.

But that was the worst part of it for us, and the worst part of it.

I feel like for you guys could probably relate to this as well, Like when you're kind of far enough, it's rough not only seeing every like people lose stuff, but like seeing establishments that you like to go to and stuff that.

Are no longer around anymore.

That was for me the hardest part. But yeah, I just echo everything Marcus said. Any way that you can, you can help. It is very needed right now.

For sure, Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Yeah, We my family and I we weren't near any evacuation zones, but the air quality was horrible. We decided to just sort of leave the area for a couple of days just to kind of get some try to get some clean air, some fresh air, you know, but very much on the mind and you know, friends, family, having to evacuate, and just kind of keeping in touch with people the whole time. But as a long way of saying, I did get to enjoy stress free football as a fan this week, and for the first time in a while.

He was kind of nice to just like, I can.

Check in if I wanted to, I can sit down and have some food and a drink and not really freak out. You gentlemen, did not have that, although I guess you kind of did, because, like neither one of your games, LaQuan, your game was over before halftime, Florio, Yours kind of got out of hand somewhere midway through the third quarter and the Bills just got to cruise along from there.

The first half was stressful, the second half was a lot of fun. I'll say this though, like even when your team is in Laqwan. I'm sure you felt this way too, Like even when your team's up two scores in the playoffs, You're like this, this isn't over yet. Like yeah, after stressing every single play for three hours, the Eagles Packers game felt.

Like a preseason game to me because I was like, my team one, I don't have to stress it all.

I don't care more.

I think I had the most anxiety because my game was on Monday, But overall, when I look at it, I was like, I'm not really stressed. Man, I'm not scared to say im Darnold. I was gonna say. We texted in a group text yesterday. Kaul was like, I have no worries at all about this game. No, I already figured out how this was going to go. We're going to get a ton of pressure, which we did nine sacks, which tied the playoff record. We were supposed to break it, but we tied the playoff record in

So already calling a commander's upset over the Lions. We will get to that a little bit later in the week. We will have some picks for the divisional round games and that sort of thing here, but we do have we will do some more all.

I just think we'll do some some takeaways.

I guess we can do some more takeaways from the wild card weekend later at the show. The show that was that was kind of how we had it on the rundown, whatever things happened organically here, you guys, we.

Love the rundown sometimes, you know how it works.

Come. Like I said, we will get through the exit interviews.

We want to start with a little bit of news because obviously it's the off season. Even for the teams that aren't any playoffs, there are things happening. There are coaching changes afoot. The Patriots introduced their new head coach, Mike Vrabel, who obviously played for the Patriots for a long time, was the head coach of the Tennessee Titans for years, was out of the coaching game for a little bit.

Now he is back.

We'll talk about the Patriots because they are right now are sitting in the number four slot overall.

But I mean Lakwan.

For all the excitement about about Mike Rabel, if this roster doesn't get any better, does it matter a whole lot.

No, There's some key moves that need to be made, some like configurating of obviously the wide receiver room. I mean, I love the Maryo Douglas, but he's not as effective as an alpha wide receiver in that offense. And Mike Rable's gonna want to run the rock as well at some point, you know. Rashid, I mean raroand j Stevenson, I feel like, you know, he's a great running back for a guy that could play both sides, the dual thread passing out, catching passes out of the backfield, but

Yeah, I mean Florida, you as a fan of a team in that division. Uh, it still doesn't feel like the Patriots are close to being competitive yet. I mean, I know, look and we're just starting the offseason, but it still feels like they're ways away.

Maybe I'm foolish. I think they're a year away, but I think long term they are the biggest threat to the Bills in the AC East. Because I've been on record for a while I'm a big, big supporter of Drake May, and like just happened organically.

I don't go into the year being like I want.

To support the Patriots quarterback, but watching him play, he quickly won me over and I was like, this guy is awesome. And then the roster's going to look extremely different next year. They have the most cap, they have their picks. I mean, the Bills kind of messed them up by losing that game in Week eighteen, or they'd be selling off the number one pick right now and

This year might be the reason they made the change.

Because if he didn't look good, I think maybe you say, all right, we run this back with another year. But I think you're looking at it now like, hey, we got four more years on this rookie deal. We have the most cap this year, we got our picks. The time to strike is now. So I think the Patriots. I'm not saying they're going to be like a Super Bowl contender or anything next year, but in the next year or two, I think they could.

They could make noise in surprise people.

So I was at home yesterday and I turned on on our network and caught the beginning of the introductory press conference, and after a few minutes of it, I turned it off because I got It's just made me a little bit wheezy, and I wanted to enjoy the Chariso on eggs I.

Had in front of me.

This is not the first cynical and disingenuous NFL head coaching hiring search that we've ever seen.

It sures hell won't be the last.

This one, though, felt, at least of any of them in recent memory, the most egregious because it felt like a slow motion train wreck we saw coming for like half the season. Because it felt like midway through the year, they were already Fans are fickle.

I know that there are fans.

There were sort of media reports asking questions about whether or not Gerard Mayo was the guy, and it just seemed like, what what were the expectations for him and for this team?

Because coming into the season.

There were no expectations on this roster, right, Nobody looked at it from top to bottom and said, there's just not a lot of talent here. And you know, the Bills we knew were going to be good. The expectation was the Dolphins were going to be good. Two were getting hurt, obviously torpedoed a lot of that. A lot of us believe the Jets would be at least competitive, right, I mean, we didn't think they were going to bottom out.

The way they did.

So where were the expectations for the Patriots? Yet midway through the season, there's already sort of these rumblings that maybe Gerrodmeyo wasn't the guy after the organization spent all this time grooming him as the coach in waiting after

And you know, then you have Rod Mayo who's.

Let go, and it just sort of it sort of rubbed me really wrong, even at the time that Robert Kraft stands there with sort of these this hang dog's sad face talking about how I failed him. You know, we put him in this position and he didn't succeed and it's on me and I failed him, to which

Of the time.

I mean, he was well known for that, right, So like, don't hit me with unprofessionalism in press conferences because.

You loued this thing that happened for years and years and years.

I just found it just incredibly distasteful. It just felt like it made a mockery of the whole thing. But Robert Kraft has certainly favored nation status among ownership and in the NFL front office, So chances are those all things are gonna skate. We're all gonna celebrate Mike Vrabel. I think he's a good coach. Jets aren't gonna have sess. I just felt wrong about it.

The end.

Simply amazing, simply amazing. That take right there.

Speaking of barcacle organizations, the Dallas Cowboys looking for a head coach right now they let go of Mike McCarthy.

The other look, I don't really know.

The rumor now at Florio is that Dion Sanders might be interested and the Cowboys might be interested in in Dion. I mean, you want to talk about Spectacle bringing coach prime to Dallas and pairing him up with Jerry Jones in what is already just a circus on wheels down there in Dallas. Please please Floyle like I'm five years old explaining the Dallas Cowboys to me.

Uh, look, I actually think that Dion, if that's the route they go, I think it makes a lot of sense because he's a big enough personality one he'll have all everyone in the country's eyeballs will be on the Cowboys games, which is what Jerry Jones wants and what the NFL wants. I'm going to talk about it. What I think we're gonna get to the Titans in a couple of minutes. I think if the Cowboys hire Dion,

I get it. The results kind of speak for themselves on the field, but the way these teams have handled these things are, in my opinion, not great.

Like Marcus, you spoke about the Patriots, the Cowboys coming out and saying like Mike McCarthy's going to be back where we're blocking him from other places, and then firing him a week after every other team moved on from their head coach. The Raiders allowed Antonio Peers to do a press conference on Black Monday, and he was like, yeah, as far as I know, I'm coming back, and then two days later him and the GM are fired. Like I get it.

It's a business.

You want to make the best moves for on the field, and what you believe is best for your team, and like I do think Mike Vrabel's a better coach than Geron Mayo at this point in their career. Stuff like that.

So, like from a football landscape, I can understand why teams make these moves, but from a human standpoint, you could go about it a whole lot better.

And not make people do press conferences, not drag it out a week like you have to make the decision, but don't I don't know. Don't make it a spectacle, and don't.

Embarrass the people that you're getting rid of.

Side note, as you were as you were speaking on that, I saw a skeet on Blue Sky come through from Tom Pro. Tom Pelsero is saying, Mike McCarthy's to you with the Bears, it's gonna be on Wednesday. It's gonna be on Wednesday at hallis Hall, right. So they held him off for like two days or whatever it was from not being able to talk to the Bears, and now he's gonna talk.

To them, Like you gotta give it to Jerry Jones.

Man.

He is going full WWE. He is going full storyline entertainment to keep the eyeballs on that star when it's on TV. If they get Dion. That is all we're gonna be talking about for the next twenty two weeks. It's gonna just straight deon to the Cowboys and what this can do to the draft, what shifts, and what are his sons going to be, what teams are going to be on, Like he obviously wants to coach one

I was gonna say I almost quit college football because I got tired of hearing about coach product.

I really did, And I think there's gonna be a different end.

Look, if this happens, we're gonna talk about it plenty, because you're right, it's going to be a story. I think it's going to be a different world coaching in the pros versus coaching it.

Like, can I get it? Can I get an interview next year? With the Cowboys or if it doesn't work.

Out, I say two candidates for the Cowboys Belichick and Dion like anyone else, I don't know I as a not a Cowboy fan, but as someone who knows everything.

That goes with that organization.

I think hiring a first time head coach is a risk there because you always hear about all the added responsibilities that a head coach has. Now you add on the fact that you're gonna have more eyeballs on you than any other team in the league.

So like to me, I think Jones.

I think McCarthy would have been back if Jones didn't think he could go out and make a huge splash.

You you named two coaches who could not be more opposite sit in temperament, then Dion Sanders and Bill Belichick. Just I mean again, one dresses like a hobo, One wears gold chains and sunglasses and cowboy hats all the time.

They could not be or different. This is just beginning.

The whole thing is just starting. It's gonna be planning. Want to talk about as we go through the off season, We're gonna take a break, we'll come back, we will dive into our exit interviews starting the Tennessee Titans, who are currently on the clock. That's next on the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. All right, so let's get into some

Wide receiver twenty eight.

I mean anything else. I don't know theo quit that jumped out at you. And on the good side with the Titans.

Their defense, I mean they have a solid defense where if you go into this draft, you you already know in your head you have a solid defense. And honestly, I'm thinking about something crazy, like hear me out real quick. Now, what if they move out of that first spot right and he switched with the Raiders. Let's just say at six they can go out there and get a veteran quarterback.

No.

Well, I mean, I'm glad you said this because this sord gets me to what went wrong, which Florida was pretty much Will Levis. Yeah, yeah, you know, look, the male commercials were fun and cute and whatever. He was very smart to catch and shout out the best foods, who kept run best foods. They believed and best believe that Will Levis way longer than the Tennessee Titans did just over two thousand passing yards, thirteen touchdowns, twelve picks.

He was the QB thirty.

If you were running the Titans right now, Florida, would you try to draft a quarterback or would you go Lakwan's route of maybe trading getting some extra assets and trying to find a free agent guy.

I want no parts of Kirk Cousins, but I think if you find a different veteran quarterback, like if the Steelers move.

On from Russ or something like that.

I think you go the way of like we're going to get a bridge one one year stop gap quarterback and we're going to draft a quarterback of the future, because that that is the most important position. You don't get chances like this with the one pick every year. But I said, when we were talking about Dion, my big uh.

I'm not the first one to think of this, but I saw it on social media, and I think it makes all the sense in the world. If Dion Sanders becomes the next head coach of the Dallas cowb you trade Dak Prescott, you get Shador Sanders.

And and that's your team for You're going all in on the Sanders guys.

But uh so, yeah, Dak Prescott leading the way for the Tennessee Titans, and they would be a playoff team with Dak.

I think they're definitely a playoff team with Dak, especially in the AFC South, which is you know, Look, I know the Titan or the Texans have won it the last couple of years, but certainly what we saw out of Houston this year doesn't give you any confidence that they're loaded up and ready to stay. Look what how much is I feel like Sam Donald has just really hurt himself the last two Oh yeah right, I mean he.

Spent fifteen sixteen weeks.

As like man like, he's gonna he's gonna make some bank. Either the Vikings are gonna have to pay up or franchise tag him, or somebody else is gonna swoop in. It feels like those last two weeks, that season finale against the Lions and then what we saw on Monday Night as a friend Texapy, you could just see the dollar is falling out of his pockets as that game went on.

These last two weeks were rough for him, Like it was like a really good show that you know you watched every season and then the season finale and it's terrible.

However, you're.

I'm not watching any of those shows. But that's how bad it is that you hear it and you don't want to watch it. And I honestly think like Sam Donald, man is, it was a tough task for him to finish up this season like this with these defenses Detroit, they got at them with pressure. The Rams obviously man handled that old line and got to him was just making them see ghosts again. So you honestly, you do put you know, put in consideration that, you know, maybe

To franchise him and he will lose his job at some point next year to JJ McCarthy.

Or they are going to let him walk. He is going to go to a not great team.

He is not going to put up numbers like he did this year because he doesn't have the weapons in the system and all of that, and he will, you will get paid for like two years, it'll fizzle out, and he will finish his career as a backup like the Tyron Taylor route. That's what he's on right now.

Ye look, I mean, I think he's done enough that we will see him hang around the league for a little while longer. I I was of the opinion that even if the Vikings brought him back, we were going to see a legitimate competition between Donald and McCarthy. I mean, look that there was a strong sentiment that JJ McCarthy was going to be the starters this year had he not gotten hurt, and we didn't see him for the year. So I think we see at least a legitimate competition

The Vikings O line.

Right now, they're Alex Gonzales. They're Alex Gonzales with the Chicago Cubs. Where before the whole Steve Bartman thing happened and the Marlins come back to win. You remember there was an easy two hot ground ball right to Alex Gonzales which would have been in any ending double play. He boots it, the Cubs collapse and Steve Bartman catches hell for it. Alex Gonzalez skates. That's the Vikings offensive line.

I get it.

I also think Koc deserves some blame too, Like I think he's a phenomenal coach.

I think he should be Coach of the Year because fourteen.

Wins with Sam Donald, everyone wrote them off all.

Of that, But like this is two years, not two years in a row, but two times in a row.

The Vikings have made the playoffs with a huge like a bunch of regular season wins, and then last night they got their doors blown off, and the last time they lost to the Daniel Jones New York Giants.

Like, at some point the whole everyone deserves.

Part of the blame, not just damn Laio the Actually they're actually one in five since two thousand and eight in the wildcore rounds. That is really disgusting when it comes to the Vikings, like they are known to disappoint.

My timeline was filled with ai pictures of Aaron Rodgers and a Viking jersey.

Really, we're cooking the earth for this, We're cooking the earth to put Aaron Rodgers in a Vikings Jersey, like, come on, let's just work. Come on, let's just go the old round. Just photoshop it, y'all, Like we can do this. We don't need to, we don't.

I saw someone photoshop Jesse Plemmings on Sam Darnold's body like people are AI is just wild right now.

I never really put the two him in the other that they do. They do bury resemblance to one another.

I'm the same person.

Wow, there it is all right.

So yeah, the Titans, by the way, some of the free agents too worth mentioning Tyler Boyd, Nick Westbrook A Kine are set to hit free agency, so that was already sort of shorthanded a wide receiver. I would think they're going to pursue that pretty heavily in the draft or free agency or maybe both.

Oh yeah, that goes back to my scenario though, with trading with the Raiders at six. I mean, Milan from Arizona might be there, but you gotta ship off Max Crosby to Tennessee, which builds on a great foundation of defense that they have already. That scenario works for me, Get Max.

I don't know if it works why did you care about Max Crossey being out of Vegas like.

You guys, I don't know.

I mean, look, he's looking for a change, and he's the one who went out there publicly for the job for Antonio Pears and I think you know, Brady, you know he's kind of running the show there. He wants a new uh, a new regime, let's say that new dynasty to be built under him.

Yeah, well, if you if you believe the interwebs, which is always a dubious thing, Josh Jacobs trying to recruit Max Crosby to come to Green Bay the number two pick in the upcoming draft, alongs to the Cleveland Browns. They also were three and fourteen this season, and things that went right. Floydell, this is always going to be a sore spot for me. But Jerry Judy had a good year this year.

He was receive receiver fifty before Jameis Winston took over.

Yeah, ninety catches over twelve hundred yards, four touchdowns, and yeah, you as you mentioned a good chunk of that happening with Jameis Winston. This is the Jerry Judy that I think people that the Broncos thought they were drafting several years ago.

It finally showed up in Cleveland.

But are we still in him if there's another quarterback name not named Jamis there James going.

I don't even think it was just Jamis because we found out after that when they made the move to Jamis, they let Ken Dorsey start calling plays. And trust me, as someone who was a victim of Ken Dorsey play calling for a year and.

A half, I could tell you what his like. I literally wrote about it before the year. What he does is he throws the ball a bunch, He has his quarterback lock in on the wide receiver won a bunch, and just air it out. It's why Josh Allen let almost led the league in interceptions last year. It's why Jameis Winston was like, and then dtr and whoever the Browns quarterback was was throwing so many interceptions because.

It's just a It leads to a lot of stats for your wide receiver one, which is great for fantasy, but it also leads to a lot of turnovers.

And he's gone now, so.

I'm going to be very skeptical of Jerry Judy next year.

Yeah, I just you know, I don't know it feels like the Browns are in for another rebuild. Jerry Judy had a great season. I probably I could have stood to put David and Joku in here as well. I know he was beat up at times. The yards before, Yeah, has Rockbland here before? Five hundred and five yards nothing super exciting. Sixty four catches, did have five touchdowns. He finished the year as the tight end eleven. When he was healthy and on the field, generally was pretty productive.

Smith, just like looking at quarterback, like what what are you doing?

Smith? With Jada right?

You know, Like I mean Lakwan they suck with Deshaun Watson forever. Like I felt like Kevin Stefanski was in a hostage situation every week when he took the mic and they would ask him about the quarterback position and he would basically give you some It was like he was reading off a telepri about how they would have to have Deshaun Watson back at quarterback and finally, finally, finally he gets hurt and not force them to have

Yeah, it's over. It's a doub we could pack it up. You know, shut the lights off, close up. You know, Deshaun Watson is done, and honestly, I think that's better for him, for his mental health and try to just you know, find a way to get through this recovery. I mean, having a setback so early, you know, I would say after the injury. It is what it is, like the writings on the wall, my guy, like you got to write it. You got to just shut it down.

I will slightly correct you on one thing in that we will always be talking about Deshaun Watson in some form because we will always ask the question, what is the worst trade in sports history?

Contract ever?

Contract, trade, all of it, like it's gonna be there, like they're not out, Like they still have to pay for their sins, because even if they move on from

I mean yeah, some of some of the notables Fantasy relevant free agents, Jamis Winston, Nick Chubb, Elijah Moore, Deonta Foreman all set to be free agents. I would think, like for a guy like Chubb, I don't imagine the Browns bring him back. He's gonna be a guy that I would think sort of hangs out there in free agency for a while, you know, one because running back, but also a guy who's sort of getting up there in AH has had some major injuries over the last couple of years.

You know.

I think when he's right, I would love to see him have a JK. Dobbins like resurgence somewhere else. I don't think it happens in Cleveland, and I don't think he's gonna get big money. He's probably gonna end up taking I think a kind of a minimal contract go wherever it is that he goes this offseason.

Speaking of the Browns, little breaking news, Tom Peli Sero just tweeted that they are promoting Tommy Reese to be their offensive coordinator. And speaking of breaking news, the Texans wave Deontay Johnson.

What in the middle of.

Like, we've had enough, We've seen this is the third time being waived in one year. I mean, he's a good player, might be the worst dude in the world.

Like, I mean, like, what does it say that about him as a teammate and in the locker room that he's gone through three teams in one season and getting progressively less run with each successive team that he's been on.

And the crazy thing is, of the eight teams left, there is a twenty five percent chance that he gets a ring.

All right, here's a I don't I feel like neither the Ravens nor Texans would vote for him getting a share a playoff share if they win, and.

He probably wouldn't want it either, Like, I mean, what this is gonna be one of those things. Ten years from now, You're gonna see Deontay Johnson in the Ravens or Texans jersey and.

Be like what, like when did that happen?

It's like total bolt Jax Jersey, Like.

What it'll it'll be.

It'll be one of those things where if he ever Lands a media gig or whatever, and they put the the font up that you know identifies him.

It'll be like super Bowl Winner. You'd be like, when did that happen?

You're like, oh, oh, when he was like when he was on the Ravens for four games or whatever, it was like that, Yeah, no.

No.

Way, that doesn't care.

Uh So yeah, So the Browns they are, you know, certainly in a tough spot. Quarterback I think a very very high priority for them being the two spot memes a good shot for them to grab either sduor Sanders or cam Ward. I mean, I know, we haven't officially started our draft season stuff. We'll get into that probably very very soon. But quarter I think he's got to be high on the list. Wide receiver, running back also things that I think the Browns are going to chase

That it looks a little bit better.

I still got a couple more teams to dive into We're gonna take a pause, come back, get into the Giants and the Patriots.

That's next on the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. The New York Football Giants, which I don't know if you have either of you ever called their offices or anything.

I've never called a team's office. I haven't called recently.

But for a while they were answering the phone New York Football Giants, you know, ignoring the fact that the Baseball Giants have been gone for like sixty years. It's been a long long time since the Baseball Giants were in New York. But I think they still answer the phone New York Football Giants. So good on them in New Jersey.

I had no idea. It's a good question.

But you know, like I'm guessing, if I call the Saint Louis Cardinals baseball club, they don't think they say Saint Louis Baseball Cardinals.

The Saint Louis Football Cardinals.

They left more recently than the Baseball Giants left New York.

Yeah.

With the Cardinals, you know, they just stand on business. They know that everybody knows who they are. Uh. Anyway, the New York Football Giants, they were three to fourteen this season, they are in the number three spot.

A lot of Giants fans were.

Salty because they won late in the season and kicked themselves out of the.

Number one spot. But what went right?

I mean, Flooryda, your boy, elite neighbors, I know you were on the train all year long. One hundred and nine catches, which is a franchise rookie record, twelve hundred and four yards, seven touchdowns, he was the wide receiver six Also time Roun Tracy had been a good season for him as well, over eleven hundred scrimmage yards six total touchdowns.

He was the RB twenty six.

They Sakwan Obviously, I don't think anybody had expectations of the Giants going anywhere but Florida. It does seem like they at least have a couple pieces in place to get excited about.

Yeah, Like, I mean one of the what is it like six times or something that's happened where they've teams had a rookie receiver and running back top one thousand yards.

I feel good about those guys. I still trust Brian Dable, like we've seen him get the most out of offenses before. But yeah, this is a huge draft, huge year, all of that for the Giants.

But Lak Neighbors doing what he did, like that would that is a rookie wide receiver record. The only reason it's not the rookie record is because Brock Bowers had more this year.

Rights, By the way, that record keeps dropping like every couple of years or last year, like.

Elik Neighbors did all of that despite missing two and a half games with the concussion, Like, yeah.

The future is very bad.

And he did it with maybe the worst quarterback room in the NFL this year, So yeah, the future is very bright for a few players on the Giants.

I mean when we go to what went wrong, much like I did with the Cleveland Browns, Lakwan I am waving generally at the quarterback position there in New York. This season began with Daniel Jones in the seat. Eventually, not only did he get benched, uh, he just asked to leave and they're like, all right, well bye. You know, we had a we had a week or two of the passing paison with Tommy the Veto coming back. We had Drew Lockey of the you know, gift wrapping on

Absolutely no, we we got absolutely not.

I mean, have you seen this O line?

I mean, look, they are the worst. Like honestly, I just look at this old line like it just seems to be getting worse and worse every year. I don't know what's happening. Like whatever quarterback they put back there needs to be mobile. He needs to be able to run for his life and get out of it. I mean, the most QB hits, the fourthmost pressures, the eighth most sacks. Like, we need to address the old line there. And then

I mean, I go back to him being drafted, you know, the the Daniel Doones thing, and just generally looking disgusted and frustrated by being you know, by being draft. Have to buy the giants, you know, and like he obviously he went out there, he put up numbers, right, he played hard, one hundred and seventy targets, one hundred and nine catches. It was actually the was actually the team's leader in scrimmage yards, which you don't generally see that

Oh my, Wandell Robinson makes Danny A. Mondola and Julian Edelman look like Jerry Rice.

I mean, legitimately ninety three catches for six hundred and ninety nine yards, Like what are we doing here? But because it's a PPR world we live in, I mean, don't get it twisted. I kept throwing him in the Sleepers column, and I kept popping him up on Fantasy Live because I mean, if a loophole's gonna if it's there, I'm gonna dive right through it and keep wand keep Wondelle Robinson top of mind.

Nothing about that satisfying. Nothing satisfying.

It's like an old Honda Civic, Like, how's this thing still working? Like, okay, I'm running till.

The wheels fall off, right.

I mean, I got my old Tribe call Quest tape in the deck and it still sort of plays, even though it sounds a little warbly at times, but you know what, it gets me from point A to point B. There you go, Wandale Robinson, an old Honda Civic.

That's what we've come up with.

Since we're talking about free agents, though, Darius Slayton, Drew Locke Tommy, the Veto all set to hit free agency. I don't know how much. It's way. Darius Slayton is the guy that the Giants keep trying to move on from. It's just like they just blatantly don't seem to like the guy. But like every few weeks he pops up and has a pretty good game and you're like, why

Like that's the whole thing with him.

So at some point they either need to just fully break up or just accept that, you know, he's actually halfway productive for them. Yeah, last one that we're gonna get to here today, the New England Patriots are the number four pick. They were four and thirteen. I don't know if you've heard they hired Mike Rabel as a head coach. Somebody should make a commentary about that. I don't know it should be, but we'll die.

We'll move on past that.

What right, we talked about Drake May a little bit, Florio, you already professed your your love for him. Look, I know where do you fall on Drake May, your thoughts on him after having watched him a little bit this season.

I'm a big fan man, and I really think that you know, the Patriots, they have something to build off of. And I think the next decisions in this coaching cycle, you know, you have to bring in an offensive coordinator. My idea, you bring in a familiar face. You already did that Josh McDaniels. Like we already know that he's a candidate. He's been rolling around on the internets, and like you have to because when you look at it, when you look at it, you want somebody familiar. It's

We don't have Tom.

Brady, but Drake May is good at football. And you look at what Josh mcdams was able to do. He bring the best season out of Mac Jones, Like, we can't discount that rookie season Mac Jones. That was his best season ever, even had Cam Newton come in, adapt the offense to Cam Newton to look somewhat functionable. So I think you get Drake May who holds some similar qualities as a Cam Newton, being mobile and et cetera.

I had more Treiza and eggs saying Josh mcdanne would have maybe turned this podcast off. I mean, I look, I get he's a he's a good he's an awful head coach who's been a good coordinator, But just like, how many times can we recycle this?

Dude? It's just one team, that's what it is.

But it's Drake May and and players who aren't on the roster yet because I pots to.

Go out and sign they're the most cap Like sign a T.

Higgins or a Chris Godwin and shout out to Chris Godwin who just had a child.

Him.

Then, yeah, like.

They're gonna they're gonna do something to get Drake Mayson help.

On the things that went wrong. I mean, you talk about bringing in talents. They drafted a couple of wide receivers. Look, I didn't think Jalen Polk or Javon Baker were going to be like breakout superstars this year. Like we weren't talking about them the way we talked about Neighbors or Marvin Harrison or Brian Thomas. I did not think they would combine for thirteen catches and ninety nine.

Yards as a sleeper. Wasn't this Vroon Baker that said I make people people in wheelchairs stand up when they watch me. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's just I mean it's awful.

Which honestly, look, if we're if we're comparing Gerrodmeo to Bill Belichick, they seem to have equal success in drafting wide receivers. The Patriots were bad at that for a long long time, and it seems like they're still bad at drafting wide receivers. That's gonna have to be a top priority for them coming up this offseason.

Is he still there is there still a thing. Yeah, I mean we done.

I mean, look, I mean the Mario Davis ended up having a pretty good season for them late in the year, Kayshawn Boody ended up playing well for them. I mean, like I will forever lab I remember turning on one of the games halfway through and hearing hearing Spirit Deity show Booty he made a catch and it just was I was just jarring. That was the first thing I heard when I turned onto television.

You know, he was not wrong. The timing was just bad. That's all that's on my part. Mike Rabel.

The jury is still out because like he was there when they drafted AJ Brown, but he was also there when they drafted Traylon Burks as the AJ Brown replacement.

So and traded AJ Brown to get Traylon Burks. Yeah.

Yeah, So we'll have to see how he how he handles that. Some of the free agents upcoming for the Patriots. I don't know there's anybody that's earth shaking here. Jacoby Brissett, Austin Hooper, Jamichael Hasty, which by the way, is how I learned that Jamichael Hasty was in New England.

Patriot I don't know how they're going to replace him.

I mean, you laugh at that.

I remember a few years ago, before I even really knew who Jamichael Hasty was, I got a DM from somebody that said he played in like a twenty team dynasty league and asked if we could add Jamichael Hasty to our game.

And I'm like, that's not a real person.

Wow.

So look, so there are people out there who were who were early on the Jamichael Hasty train. I will say that I was not one of them, but hey, good on you man. If that's if that's how deep.

You go in your leagues.

It was one of the twenty running backs that forty nine ers had a rostered.

Yeah, and like they all play because at some point they all get hurt. It's it's it's it's like youth football, like everybody plays if you're a Niner running back.

At some point. By the way, it gets to who will deliver? Presented by Uber Eats.

Since we were talking about the Patriots and we all seem to have formed a mutual Drake May admiration society, I will ask either of you, first of Florio and Drake May be a let's let's put it at a top twelve quarterback. Could you could he be a top twelve fantasy quarterback next Yes?

Yeah, Like then I went on Fantasy Live at the end of the year. I think he's gonna finish higher than twelve if the Patriots get the right pieces, Like if the Patriots don't go out and add a bunch of wide receivers and stuff this year, I'm gonna change my answer. But they have the most cap, they have all their draft picks, Like you know that you have something in Drake May go out there and do what

They build up that offensive line.

And Drake May did what he did this year with maybe the worst combination of offensive line in pass catchers in the NFL. And he also did it while his team was telling him actively not to run as much because they had nothing to play for. So yeah, I think I think the sky is very high for Drake may And I'm you know, I've been on record saying it before, but his rookie year reminds me of Josh Allen's rookie year in the sense of it wasn't great statistically.

Drake May's rookie year was a you had to be there for a moment. You guys had to be there and see it happen. I mean, lakwan your thoughts. I mean, can you see him being a top twelve guy at the end of next year?

I could see that, And like Florio was saying, if you know, if he pulls it together or as a matter of fact, if the Patriots pull it together for him, Because I didn't see anything wrong from Drake Mayo. It was like it was one of those things that you're watching this guy trying to learn on the job with

Yeah, I mean I think it's there too.

I get where you're going with the Josh Allen comparison to Floria, and I know you said this many times over the course of the year. I will say it was a little less chaotic then early Josh Allen.

I mean, which is a good thing.

Yeah, No, it is a good thing. Like Josh Allen was super chaotic. I mean you remember those that first playoff game was against Houston. What I think it was when he just he made some throws that you were like, what the hell are you doing?

Man? Like there were some moments where it's just like, what what is happening here? The lateral on the run.

I don't know to this day, I have no idea what he was thinking, Like what had that in his game in UNC where there was a lot of players that you were like, oh, this guy is gonna if he just list in the NFL, it's not gonna work at all.

And then he didn't really do that in the NFL.

Yeah, And I don't know if it's because, you know, if somebody rained him in or he just sort of matured overnight.

I'm not really sure.

I will say that, you know, since we just had the conversation about the Patriots and their struggles at drafting wide receivers, I feel like they might be better off, at least in the short term, hitting the free agent market to try and find somebody there. The problem is a lot of the high level wide receivers that are free agents are a little bit older.

Now.

You've got t Higgins, who I think is maybe the prize of this group right now, and he's coming up on being twenty six years old. But you look at the rest of them. Stefan Diggs is thirty one, Keenan Allen will be thirty three. I think by the time next season starts, Amari Cooper is north of thirty, Brandon Cooks north of thirty one. You know, you got Deontay Johnson and Chris Godwin who are both twenty eight headed toward twenty nine. You know, I would be shocked if

Not great.

I mean you look at the guys that they've brought in who've been successful at wide receiver. I mean, Wes Welker was not drafted by the Patriots, Randy Moss was not drafted by the Patriots.

You know, it just it just has not worked out in that regard.

You know what, though, let's get crazy. I don't want to take too long on this, but let's ship Cooper Cup to the Patriots. Well, I say that with confidence, because you need a lot that knows the game and that knows the game that can actually be accessible for a young quarterback like Drake May And I really feel though there's some clutch to Drake Bay. I think there's still some Clutchess to Cooper Cup. We saw it last night. I just think that Cooper Cup's time in l A

Yeah, I know, but it seems like it's been trending that way. It seems like the Rams, for their part, have sort of been that.

Hurts me to say. By the way, I'm emotional.

I don't think l Q you'd be on that.

I thought you'd be like, yo, let him retire, because sometimes I think like the fans should be allowed to be fans and and should want to see Cooper Cup retire as a RAM.

I'm one of the realistic fans, and I think he still has something to offer though, But I don't you come back and sign the one day contract.

There you go.

That's we were talking about Josh Allen and Drake May like coaches coaching them out of doing their crazy things. We got to get both of those coaching stats together. And then to bring this full circle, let's let's have them spend the off season with Will Levis and see if they can coach all of that craziness out of here. That that should be their challenge.

Yeah, the the make Will Levis challenge, make him not a weekly meme challenge level impossible.

There it is.

That was Who Will Deliver, presented by Uber Eats, where you can get the best deals on game day food all season long, the official on demand delivery partner of the NFL Order.

Now, we're gonna.

Talk a little bit about the Wildcard weekend playoffs as the start of the show, but kind of want to wrap up which is your your general overall thoughts Obviously for you guys, I know a lot of excitement, a lot of anticipation, both with big games, uh Lakwan, the Rams going on the road. They got to take on Philadelphia, which should be a really entertaining game on Sunday, and then Florio, you guys have the nightcap, the weekend ender with the Ravens, the one that is literally the marquee

Man, Ravens, you do not want to see them in the playoffs. Man, I mean Lamar Jackson, Derek Carr, I mean, Derek Henry are literally the Shaq and Kobe. I mean you're looking at dynamic duos of Lebron James and d Wade, I mean Michael and Pittman, maybe not Scottie Pippen, Marcus Jordan and like that combination duo is a powerhouse. Is like, this is going to be a problem in the playoffs. I honestly see the Ravens taking it all the way to the dance.

I look, Derek Henry adds a dimension that they haven't had for.

No dangerous man. I think whoever wins Sunday wins it all.

Yeah, I think that's I think that's a legitimate I mean that Ravens Bills could be for the AFC Championship.

I mean, it really could be.

It's going to be awkward this week though, because one of them are going to win the MVP and lose.

So these fan bases legitimately hate each other. They've been at war for six weeks now on which sort of wild.

I mean, they don't play that often. It's just mostly because of the quarterbacks. They only play.

Once in the playoffs. Like I think Lamarin is only lost to the Bills once, and they're only one these want to know against in the playoffs. To build the Ravens destroyed the Bills in Week four coming.

It's the m v P race. That's that's it. That's what.

I do think that the Ravens are and I've said it all year, They're the hardest matchup in the NFL for the Bills.

But Lamar has to look. Lamar proved he could play in the playoffs, but can he play on the road. We have not seen him play on the road in years in the playoffs.

So I I will talk to you guys about this offline. But I'm strongly considering flying to Buffalo. Oh we need that content, bro, nice man. I don't know, because my fear is that if I go and they lose, like, I'm gonna hate my life.

It's gonna be flight back, miserable trip back if that doesn't work out, for sure.

But look, I support it.

I support the idea for sure. My big takeaway from this is that for everybody who complained about the first round or first couple of rounds of the college football and how those games were pretty one sided, I present to you wild Card weekend.

We had one competitive game out of six. That's it, I mean.

And some of them surprised me, to be honest with Like, I figured the Ravens would handle the Steelers pretty easily. I thought the Packers would be more competitive, but then again, they they were just so shorthanded that maybe that shouldn't have been a surprise. Really, the Chargers, they I mean they were they were the kind of chargers like, you know, the freight phone cord chargers, right, like the I'm gonna try to plug this in and might set my house on fire sort of chargers.

That's kind of what they look like. You know. The Broncos just ran out of gas.

Really, Commander's Bucks was the only game that was really competitive to the end. Everything else ended up being really really one.

So, you know, for.

Everybody in college football who was moaning about the selection committee, the pro game has the same issues in the first round. And it's been this way in the last few years.

This is not a new thing.

The last couple of years we have seen the first round games be generally kind of lopsided, with one or.

Two maybe competitive. I'm looking at last year. Texans blew out the Browns, Chiefs ran over the Dolphins, Packers and went to Dallas embarrassed the Cowboys.

Yeah, Lions Rams was a really good game. Bills blew out the Steelers. Bucks stamped the Eagles like five out of six games last year in the wildcard round. We're pretty one sided. League's never gonna take away playoff teams, so we're just gonna have to live with this all it is my for I know.

We're gonna talk wildcard round next, sorry, Division round.

But my big takeaway is, like we look at the quarterbacks left right, The only two active quarterbacks to win Super Bowl are in Mahomes and Stafford. Then you got the top two MVP candidates Jalen Hurts, who was an MVP candidate a couple of years ago, and the future of the NFL Jaden Daniels. I think people learned about Jaden this year, but I think this past weekend was his, like his moment to be like I'm here and like, you guys are all gonna have to deal with me now?

Yeah?

Yeah, ark man, he is a land shark, dangerous Yeah.

And it was very much his introduction, I think to a national audience too, where like everybody was focused on that for sure, because it was the playoff game. It was in prime time too, so I think a lot of people who didn't know about Jaden and Daniels now you know baby boaby boo.

So uh there it is. Yeah, we will dive in later in the week. We will get to the divisional rounds.

We'll kind of preview some of those games and will continue our exit interviews as well with picks five through eight, So look forward.

To that coming to you in the very near future.

In the meantime, that'll do it for this edition of the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. They happy, safe and healthy, do good and live well during the days. Everybody will talk to you again real soon.

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