Wow, Hey everybody, It's Tuesday, February fourth, twenty twenty five. Welcome to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. We're big DIY guys to be your rand MG Marcus grand Joy by Michael F. Florio and Lakwan Jones. Are you guys? I mean I say this. I basically put these things in there because it applies to how I'm feeling in any given moment. I don't know if either of you are actually DIY guys.
I love it, No, why not.
I'll do some stuff myself, but like once you get past a certain point, I'm like, yeah, I can't do this.
I replaced the front door handle this morning. I'm like, hoday, yeah.
I've done that a couple of times. Nice. Nice. I replaced the belt on my washer at my old house, so.
Okay, yeah see yeah see I'm like, yeah, maybe I could change a door handle a little quons Like I just take a a my dryer and putting back together, like it's like it's nothing.
As a mechanic, I know labor and how much they upcharge, and I'm like, I'm not paying this dude one hundred and fifty bucks to come to my house or something that I could just look up on YouTube and do myself. It's all nuts and bolts at the end of the day. That's one of the greatest things I learned as a mechanic in my early years. It's like it's all nuhing bolts at the end of the day. It's all ball bearings, all ball bearings.
These days. Anyway, we're still doing our exit interviews. We've got picks twenty five through twenty eight, and I mean we're actually finish about this week. No surprise there if you've been following along. But also a little bit of trade news, not necessarily NFL trade news, but a trade that certainly shook all of the sports world over the weekend.
We'll dive into that from an NFL perspective, but I want to start with some news headlines because a lot going on news wise, and I guess we have to start with the moment of silence for the Kwan in the Los Angeles Ran Cooper Cup announced on social media on Monday that the Rams have informed him that they are seeking to trade him immediately. I mean, this is a guy who took the league by storm after getting drafted in twenty seventeen out of Eastern Washington. He's a
Super Bowl MVP. He's a wide receiving triple crown winner. Lakwan, how much in your feelings are you right now? And if you can get out of your feelings? What does this mean from an actual football perspective.
I'm in the fields last night. You know, I started watching all his highlights from twenty seventeen all the way up into this season, and like, I spent a good amount of time just like embracing all the memories and stuff that you know he's done for us and everything that you know he put on the field, I mean,
his accomplishments. She went over him is just one of the things, Like I remember the dark days of being a Rams fan, Like it was one of those things that like you're living week to week on each win, like you're winning six to seven, eight and eight games, and like you're excited for that. And then when you get a guy like Cooper Cup in his first year hit the ground running. He's mcvay's guy. You remember McVeigh
and Lesnie's excitement when they got him. And I was actually at that draft in Philly when we selected him, because you know, I had to go on day two because we didn't have first round picks. But it's like one of those things like you have your favorite running back, Stephen Jackson announcing his name and it's like Cooper Cup and you're like, who is this guy? But all those years and everything he's done for the Rams and for me, you know, personally, just not being able to say Coop
anymore is gonna feel so weird. Man, It's gonna feel nasty. It hasn't hit me yet though, But you got poo, you just signed Mari Cooper. No no, no.
I remember, you know, that year and watching his tape out of Eastern Washington and really seeing him pop, right, And he had a couple of games against some power fights. I think they played Washington State, I believe, well his final year there, and he went off in that game, and I just remember like, this guy looks really really good, sort of trying to take it with a grain of salt because he was playing at Eastern Washington and you're
sort of wondering about the level of competition. I thought he could be successful, but I really thought he was, you know, a secondary receiver, right. I thought he would be you know, you'd have a good career as kind of a number two three receiver depending on the situation wherever he went. Never thought he would do what he has done so far in his career. The other part that's wild is you go back a Cooper Cup only has two one thousand yard seasons. Crim that's crazy, right.
I think Cooper Cup and Pooka Nakula are similar in the sense of you were not alone in feeling that Marcus. Like a lot of people liked Cooper Cup, a lot of people liked Pooka Nakula. But I do think as good as those two guys are, h Efford and Sean McVay also helped highly elevate their wide receivers, So like they were, it was just one of those situations that happens in sports where like it was just like the perfect fit of everything coming together at the same time.
Yeah, I will say that, like for McVeigh to come in and year one and like he turned the program around and he drafted Cuff and he was like, I got my guy, and like you bringing in a guy like Stafford, obviously that's going to elevate it to where it went now. So it's like we just were wanting the right pieces and when they all came together. We got eight amazing seasons out of him, and like, I'm just thankful that he was on my team. I was just thankful that he brung back the passion and spirit
to be a ramp. Like you guys don't understand how dark it was, like me arguing, eyes read to my face. Man, I'm a Bills fan, but it's different when all your friends are Eagles and Cowboys fans and they're somewhat good and relevant, And like I'm sitting here with four wins, like ready to fight my friends, Like, no, we beat pay we beat Payton Manning and the Broncos last week. Like I know you guys remember when we did that
and like they went to the Super Bowl loss. But I just feel like you just hold on to every win that we had and then to be on this winning streak, it kind of feels like it's not over. But like I'm still, like I would say optimistic.
I know, from a football standpoint, it would be bad business to just say, oh, we're gonna let Cooper Cup retire here, but like, if I've learned one thing over these years of working in an NFL network, any contract in the NFL can.
Be restructured, reworked at all of that, like we've seen it. Yeah, I don't know.
Maybe this is the fan in me and not like the analysts, because the analyst knows that, like, yeah, the right move is to trade him for what you could get and move on and stuff. But like, I don't know, there's something to seeing a franchise guy play only with
one team and retire with that franchise. And there's certain players that I think, like Mike Evans should never play anywhere about the Bucks Cooper Cup feels like that kind of guy for me, for the Rams, like he should retire as a Super Bowl MVP, everything that he's meant to the team.
I know it's an outdated and it's.
More for other sports, like it's more of a baseball thing nowadays, but like I don't know, to me, there's something about a guy saying, like I am, I've only played for this team and I'm gonna be a legend for this team forever.
Yeah, you know, it's just I don't even know if it's a baseball thing anymore. I don't know that it's a thing in professional sports. For it, it's really really rare when that happened. Tom Brady played for multiple teams. Yeah, you know, even Tom Brady played for a second team. Like, it's just it's a thing that's it's wonderful when it happens.
And I look, I say this to somebody who would love to see Steph Curry finish his career with the Warriors, it's increasingly unlikely that that may happen.
She's so frustrating because like he is the Warriors, you know, like like like, for another example for soccer, Messi, I thought he was gonna die in Barcelona. I thought that was it, but then he's on PSG and then here we are, now fast forward to MLS. He's he's on a Miami.
I think it's a little different if the player is like I want to go make money elsewhere or something like that.
No, like MESSI lived and breathed like this is like Derek Jeter of soccer, Like you thought he was gonna stay in Barcelona, but then you see him in different Like I have a PSG messy jersey that's number thirty. It looks disgusting. I don't wear it often because it's like my son's and messi jersey looks better with his Barcelona Argentina. Like, I don't know, it just feels weird and ugly to look at. But Floria, I get what you're saying.
Man, Dude, Cooper cupping the Patriots jersey next year is gonna be disgusting.
Also, the flaw in your argument there, Lakwan, is that MESSI unlike Jeters? Not overrated?
Yes, yes, overrated Jeters.
Moving on, Miles Garrett apparently is not gonna finish his career with the Cleveland.
Browns and that wasn't the plan.
He has requested a trade after eight seasons with the Browns, sounding citing a desire to win. This was sort of I mean coming for a while, Flory, I mean we'd heard the rumblings that Miles Garrett was starting to get frustrated with the organization and maybe wanted to get out. And I'm filibustering here as you pull the Bill's helmet off the shelve.
Here Miles Garrett's next team, Baby.
I'm gonna say, like, this is your your chance to make a pitch for why Miles Garrett should be a Buffalo Bill.
Uh.
He said his number one reason is he has a desire to win. If I know anything about great players, it's that they don't want to just go sign with the Chiefs and win, so come to the team that's been closest but cannot get over the home And the biggest reason is, like and I've said him many times, the Bill's playoffs, especially that D line tends to crumble against the Chiefs in the playoffs. You put Miles Garrett or Max Crosby. I'm cool with either one of those
two guys. You put them on that Bills D line. We're talking about the Bills beat in the super Bowl right now. I believe Josh Allen needs is Chris Jones, Stafford had Aaron Donald.
There's always that.
One elite player on both sides of the ball. The Bills haven't had that. This is their chance. All I want this offseason is for one of those two defensive players to put on the white Buffalo helmet, not the red one that I have.
I mean, look, this is obviously a game changer, certainly, and I know we don't talk a ton about individual defensive players here or defense usually just because it's a fantasy football show and it's more offensive centric. This is a game changer. I mean, Miles Garrett I always say he's like a real life Avenger when you watch him play.
He was made in a lab, not traditionally how people were made.
Really was right. And wherever he goes, he is immediately going to be an impact player. And how did he immediately take I mean we're talking fantasy right. It makes that a defense that you suddenly have a lot of fantasy interest in.
Absolutely, and like I could definitely see him making a Day one impact and like I tweeted yesterday, like I think you should go to the commanders, gave with dan Quinn, Give with that defense. They need some more spar And then I really think Super Bowl sixty it's a lot for the Commanders because, like Floria will explain, you have at an elite on one side of the ball. You need another. And there's not that guy over there on the commander's defense that's popping up and dominating week after week.
You put Miles Garrett on that defense, man, boy, we're gonna be looking at a whole different commander's team going into next season.
I make the NFC East really really interesting if that were to happen. But definitely some things will keep be an eye on.
Just not Philly please, it's not.
The line is already stuck. I mean, obviously they find room for him without a doubt, but their defensive line is already loaded in Philadelphia for sure. But anyway, Cooper, Cup Miles, Garrett, we will keep an eye on them and whatever their potential landing spots are going to be when we know more. Speaking of landing spots, and I guess speaking of the Eagles, former Eagles head coach Chip Kelly is now in Las Vegas. He's the offensive coordinator
for the Las Vegas Raiders. The AARP West continuing to live up to its name. Pete Carroll brings in a former Pac twelve rival. When the Pete was at USC, Chip was at Oregon. Chip went to the forty nine ers, where he took over for Jim Harbaugh, who's now in Los Angle. It's a whole wicked web of things going on to all these coaches. Time is a flat circle and all that sort of stuff. There you go, obviously, Florida last year, Zaveer White was a huge, huge disappointment
for everybody. Does this mean they maybe run it back with Zamir White?
Does this do.
Anything for you? With Chip Kelly there in Vegas.
I think it makes you interested in the running game there because four years Chip Kelly's been in the NFL. I got to go look at his college numbers. But in the years he's been in the NFL, he has finished top seven in rushing attempts in three of the four years and top eleven every year he's The passing numbers, though, are not great and they're not what you want to see.
So I think that's kind of and that's Pete Carroll's kind of mo as well, right Like he The biggest knock we had with Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson was like.
Let Ross cook, Like, let him throw the ball more. You're not letting him do that.
I expect a lot of running for the Raiders this season. I just don't think the running back of who the future running back is going to be is on their roster.
Yet.
I also don't believe the quarterback is because one player. And I'll say it here that I'm going to pound the table for the Raiders to bring in. Look, you could draft someone if you want as well, but let's get Justin Fields in the black and silver and see what he could do with Chip Kelly in this offense that obviously, Chip Kelly has had a running quarterback for most of his tenure in the NFL, So to me,
that just seems like a perfect fit. And you could put another quarterback there if you want to make it a battle or something like that. But if you have fields and a new running back there, I could get excited for the running system in Vegas.
You talk about Chip Kelly in his college career, and he really is a guy who has coached up great talent. And when he was at Oregon he had a lot of great talent and they were very high powered offense there with the Ducks, Ucla not so much. I mean, he came in, they scored a little bit early his last couple of years there, Offensively, they were not a very good group. Then he goes to Ohio State last year. Obviously they have a ton of talent, they score a
ton of points, they win a national championship. Now he's back in the NFL with a roster that, aside from Brock Bauers, doesn't have a ton of offensive talent. I mean, I'm sure he could do some things. With Jacobi Myers, they definitely need a quarterback. As you mentioned, justin fields, potentially a stop gap option for them. So a guy
who's very creative offensively. I think they sort of caught up to him in the NFL because you know, his Eagles offense has kind of started hot and then slowed down as people kind of figured out what he was doing a little bit. So very curious how this works with Pete Carroll. They're in Las Vegas, you know it's gonna be interesting there to watch. A couple of other offensive coordinator related items. The Ravens signed Todd Monk him to a contract extension, no surprise considering how well things
went for the Baltimore offense this year. Texans hiring Rams assistant Nick Keeley as an offensive coordinator. I don't know if you have any insights into that. LaQuan Oh, he's from the McVeigh tree. I mean, he's what them will bellot at for the two seasons he's seen success. I mean, obviously when we look at the coordinators or assistant coordinators that's with McVeigh in the building, they find success. Zach Taylor,
Kevin O'Connell. I mean, look, Liam Coleman's now a head coach of the Jaguars, Like you look at this as an opportunity that he can make his name and go out there and maybe two three years we see him as a head coach who knows. But like when you're under McVeigh tree, you're just oozing this success. So I'm like, okay, I'm all bored. Is Zach Taylor really successful?
Uh?
I would say maintaining the pieces then, I.
Mean, I know he got to the super Bowl, He's been a conference championship game. Last two years have not been great. First two years were not particularly great.
That story he is. He is a competitive.
Two out of six man, two years out of six.
I know.
I it called a hater for this, but Taylor and Burrow are the two biggest winners of lou Ana Ronald's defense being the only one that ever figured out how to slow down Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs.
All right, you know got out to them.
Zach Taylor stood next to Sean McVay for twenty minutes and got himself ahead. Coaching job. I tried to stand next to Sean McVay once too. It didn't work out.
I just want to shake his hand.
I forget what offseason it was, but it was one where like if you breathe the same era as McVeigh, you you got a head coaching gig.
Yeah, I mean it's wild.
It was why Thomas Brown he should be on his way to find success and mean, it didn't work out in Chicago, but he's the He's exactly the person that Broun cam Akers back into the fold on the back end of the season when he became more relevant, you know what I mean. And I think that's what kind of led to the transition of him following Kevin O'Connell to still be employed. So it's like, you shout out to Thomas Brown for doing that.
Yeah, so again, Nick Kayleey part of that that coaching tree. He'sc now in Houston after Bobby Slowick, who was the new hotness for a couple of years, finds himself out of a job.
Weird. Yeah, how quick he turned into the ugliest girl at the prom.
Life comes at you fast, which actually is a perfect segue to get back to our exit interviews. Picks twenty five through twenty eight, and number twenty five is the Houston Texans who went ten and seven this past year.
Went right.
Joe Mixon, who looked like he was gonna just be straight up cut by the Bengals. He ends u getting shipped over to Houston. I turned out to have a pretty good season, over one thousand rushing yards, over three hundred receiving yards. He was the RB thirteen. Did miss some time with injury, but when he was on the field, was very, very good for Houston this year. Nico Collins, who really has ascended I think to being one of the top wide receivers both in the NFL and in fantasy.
Only played twelve games, but sixty eight catches, thousand and six yards, seven receiving touchdowns, and two hundred and ten fantasy points. He was a wide receiver at twenty six. Lakwan is Nico Collins an elite fantasy receiver. Yet I wouldn't say elite because when we talk about the elites, we're talking Jamar Chase, We're talking Justin Jefferson. You know, guys would like Pokin Nako. I think he's right there.
It's just that A gotta stay healthy. B They need to build that old line to protect Straute to even be able to get time to get him the ball. So it's like he can he's looking up at that ceiling where he could be in the elite. But the talent's there, the route running, what he brings outside of the perimer. He brings everything to the table that you want in a prototype of a wide receiver one. It's just that some things around him are just out of his control to make him as send to the elite status.
Floyd, where are you drafting him? I mean, are we gonna have to spend what early second, mid second on Nico Collins next year?
I'm thinking first to be honest, but I am someone who likes wide receivers in the first round. But I, like Lakwan said, the elite of the elite, I Jamar Chase, Justin, Jefferson, Ceedee lamb Amanron Saint Brown, and we have Putpuka and I think the only other wide receiver I'd put over him after that is uh is aj Brown.
That's sixth right there.
Like, I think it'll be like Nico, maybe Malik Neighbors, depending on what the Giants do at quarterback, maybe Brian Thomas Junior.
That'll be like the late first, early second round wide receivers. And I think it'll be a preference thing.
Like there'll be some drafts where if I'm in that room, I'll take Nico Collins, say like tenth overall. But if someone likes one of those other wide receivers a little bit more and then Nico goes like second or third pick in the second round, I think he'll be in that range, like late first, early second. But I think at this time next year we are talking about Nico Collins being an absolutely elite fantasy wide receiver.
You're just you know, obviously Tank Dell in that injury are significant. We'll see what happens with Stefan Diggs this offseason, which obviously gets us the sort of what went sideways here? Tank Dell suffering just a brutal injury at the mid point of the season. He finishes this wide receiver forty nine. Stefan Diggs hurt earlier in the season, He's wide receiver fifty nine. Dalton Schultz underachieved tight end twenty. But maybe
the biggest disappointment in this Houston offense was CJ. Stroud thirty seven hundred passing yards, twenty touchdowns, twelve interceptions QB nineteen. And we went into the last season not sure which Texans receiver we wanted to draft, but all of us sort of feeling like, well, hey, if you just draft CJ. Shroud, you get all of this baked in, right, you get all the production baked into one that didn't really work out. I mean Florio which CJ. Stroud, I mean, is the
guy that we saw his rookie years. He's still there. Is it just a matter of getting that protection in front of him, or maybe did we crown him a little bit too early.
I think everything broke right for him as a rookie efficiency wise, especially, and we crowned him a little too early. I also don't think he's this guy we saw in year two. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. But to your play, everyone is gonna say all the Texans a line was was really bad, and it was. I'm not saying it wasn't. But like when you compare CJ. Stroud's numbers under pressure this past year to his rookie year, it's not all that different.
The stats are pretty similar.
Where to me, the biggest falloff was was on the deep ball.
Like CJ.
Stroud went from his rookie year being i would say the best deep ball thrower in the NFL to one of the worst like As a rookie, his passer rating on deep balls was one hundred and forty two point eight. As a sophomore it was fifty two point nine. His completion percentage was almost cut in half. The yards per tentpt was down everything, like the yards despite having more attempts. The yards were down almost four hundred yards to touch
stounds were cutting half. He threw way more inner city zero interceptions on deep balls as a rookie six last year as a sophomore, so I think I do think he could get closer to that rookie year guy. The deep ball is obviously going to be a factor, but I do think it was one of those situations where, like efficiency, just he caught everyone off guard that that
deep ball was working for him as a rookie. He could get better as a junior, but I'm not sure he's ever gonna be We're gonna be saying like he's the best deep all thrower in the NFL like we were after his rookie year.
I mean, it is wild how the gap between he and Bryce Young closed quite a bit by the end of the year, right, I mean, wow, at the end of year one, it was well CJ. Shroud obviously was was the pick, right. CJ. Shroud was the pick. Texans got this one right, and then by the end of the year two, it's like, alright, yeah, maybe let's let's let's open this case again. Let's let's let's evaluate a little bit further. So the one thing we all know,
the draft price on CJ. Stroud is going to be a lot more manageable this year than it was last year.
Yeah, is he a QB one?
You think?
No? No, no, no, sir.
He could eventually work his way back to that, but he's definitely not drafted as a QB one.
Him and Brace Young are on the same eye level right now. For me when it comes to that, is that a short joke? I was gonna say, there's a pum there. I can make sure jokes because but uh, yeah, I can't. I can't see myself take him as my QB one and feel confident about that. Yeah, no, I'm with you. Uh.
Let's move on to pick number twenty six, which belongs to the Los Angeles Rams. Kyron Williams had himself a year nearly thirteen hundred rushing yards fourteen rushing touchdowns. He was the RB seven. Pukakua continues to be great and in his first two years in the league, he only played eleven games, but seventy nine catches nine hundred and ninety yards was the wide receiver twenty one. So I
didn't ask you this. We talked about the the you know, Cooper Cup fread issue, Lakwan, but you had said this before. If Cooper Cup wasn't there, Pooka's your one dot oh one. Are you prepared to make Pooka your one dot one right now?
Yes, one hundred percent. I don't think they could bring anybody in that can match Cooper Cup's pass production. So it's like we're gonna be seeing a heavy, bunneled then hyper focused Pookin Nakoula as long as he stays healthy. There is risk in that at the one O one, but there's risk with every single player with injury. So therefore I'm just taking that out of the bag, like I'm ready to just hit submit, enter, whatever the case may be. On whatever draft platform we got, it's gonna
be Pooka Nakoua because honestly, the talent's there. Air Pooka is what they call on him. So being that he has the heart to be that alpha wide receiver one and handle that workload while pushing down a Cooper cup declining production. There's nothing else that I need to sell anybody onto. Why I believe that he could be one on one.
Is this contingent on Matthew Stafford coming back.
Matthew Stafford is coming back. I feel very confident about that because there's no answer as a backup in the draft this year or in free agency unless we get Kirk Cousins on some type of you know, restructure deal and he comes in and takes over the keys. But that's still same, same but different, but still the same.
To me, it feels like kirk Cousins maybe not a doubt, Maybe it isn't slight down grade. I mean just from where Stafford is.
Like, to me, that's a comfort move, like the previous history of McVeigh. Okay, he could be a McVeigh guy, but then is he going to get his past a hump? Is he as good as Matthew Stafford?
No?
But I just feel as though that's a slight, a slight downgrade. You know, if we go from Stafford to kirk Cousins, I.
Wouldn't do that no, Heaven's no.
Did you guys watch Kirk Cousins play football this year? Like I actually, I actually watched Kirk Cousins interview this morning and Good Morning Football. Apparently he had an ankle injury, an elbow injury and a shoulder injury and trying to keep the Achilles intact.
So Aaron Rodgers is playing the same card, like, not only was I coming back from Achilles at an advanced age I had, I was in a body cast and no one knew it until after the Like maybe it's maybe it's all factual.
I am not risking my Super Bowl.
Window on that, you know, Like I think Kirk Cousins should firmly be a backup moving forward and maybe or maybe he goes somewhere where he could battle for a camp or whatever. I think, just like we're saying with Aaron Rodgers, like where is he going to start next year?
Like like I don't know. My eyes don't lie to me. I watched Kirk Cousins play and it was brutal.
It was rough. It was for sure rough. And if I'm the Rams, like you've got a good thing with Stafford, I wouldn't. I wouldn't toss that aside to try and start over with Kirk Cousins.
No, we need him, Like, come on, I'm feeling optimistic next season, maybe this season after that. Don't don't rip my heart out, Like, no, don't do that.
I will say, look, I didn't understand the whole, like Stafford's coming back, but will it be Like if he's coming back, you guys just say okay, like welcome back for another year.
Like ten minutes after our lossing is to Eagles, they're like every single year they try to retire. I don't know why media does that, Like he's look, can you be like why are you saying this? Like, yeah, I still have football left.
Because he's thirty six years old, has taking a beating in his career.
That's why I already made my case. When you look a dog in him, it's a picture of Matthew Stafford where that was created. There's no way age is playing a factor with him in his head and he still thinks he can go out there and play into his forties. That's really what he's believing. Guys. Kirk Cousins is six months younger than Matthew Stafford, and he's comfortable for Stenson.
Bennett is two years younger than Matthew Stafford.
Like, hey, we bring up Ben in projects.
So the question is that that question should then be asked of Sean McVay and Less Snead, who still have yet to formulate a plan for life after Stafford. I don't care how much dog you got in you, father, time comes for all of us.
I think that's the one slight that I have against McVeigh and less Snead. We didn't plan properly at the quarterback position, like the d line, the secondary, you know, the running back, Like we hit on all cylinders, but we have yet to bring in a quarterback that can really take the mantle. Because honestly, it's like, all right, we're looking at the clock. You know who two years left, you know, like that's gonna be here before we know it.
Also, happy early thirty seventh birthday to Matthew Stafford. He turns thirty seven on Friday.
They I don't think you need unless you're drafting a rookie quarterback. This doesn't seem like a we're gonna have a quarterback waiting in the like it seems like when Matthew Stafford eventually retires, Sean McVay is just like, who wants to be the next one to get.
All of the benefits of leading my offense? And someone will come listen, I have PTSD being that I had to watch football being played with Sam Braffner on the sideline tearing his acl with Sean Hill, with Austin Davis went bad, Nick Fole, Like, I am so scared to go back to those dark hours that I literally probably will not watch football.
I'm going to call you out, LaQuan. You keep talking about how scarred you are as a fan. You are the only one of us who have seen a Super Bowl in the last three decades.
This is true. This is true. Hey, hey, listen, I'm actually happy. You know, the Chiefs were kind enough to us to step out and let us win one in the middle of their dynasty run in Powerhouse.
So if anyone has suffered here, I don't know if it's the Rams fan.
That's all I'm saying.
That's that's very true. That's very true. So you're violent away. Let's take a break, take a break, come back dive, and it's more of our exit interviews. We've got the Ravens and the Lions, coming up next here on the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Pick number twenty seven belongs to the Baltimore Ravens who were twelve and five this past year and the things that went right no surprise Lamar Jackson, who right now still a candidate for MVP. They have
not yet announced the award. They'll announce that on Saturday at NFL Honors. With Lamar over forty one hundred passing yards over nine hundred rushing yards, he finished as the QB one and his partner in crime in the Baltimore backfield Derek Henry, who was just shy of two thousand rushing yards for the season sixteen rushing touchdowns, He was the RB four. Zay Flowers had himself a nice season over one thousand receiving yards for receiving touchdowns, he was
the wide receiver twenty two. Mark Andrews latter half of the season went right. Mark Andrews early half of the season went wrong. And I know we've talked about whether or not the car accident that he suffered during the preseason may have had an impact on him. But remember after Week one, when Isaiah likely caught like eleveny balls, we were all like it's over. It's a wrap for Mark Andrews. The year started badly for Mark Andrews. The year ended poorly for Mark Andrews, but in between he
did find a little bit of redemption there. But I guess I beg's the question. I'll ask this of you, Flora, since your team sort of benefited from his foibles there at the end of the season. Is Mark Andrews still a he finishes the tight end six? Is he still a top five tight Are we drafting him as such next year?
I think so because the tight end position is so ugly. I like, so after there's the top two in Bowers and McBride. Obviously, I think Kittle goes in front of him. I think Sam Laporta goes in front of him. After that, though, it then becomes like a pre like I think you can make the case for Andrews. You can make the case for like maybe Kelsey or Hockinson or in Djoku.
But like, I think the fact that Andrews is who he is and has been as good as he has been for years, and even more than that, the quarterback and the offense that he is tied to, I think people will see and something you talk about a lot Marcus like muscle memory. I think people will see the name Mark Andrews after like the other four tight ends are off the board and be like, this is my last chance to get one of the top guys.
And I still think he'll he'll get drafted as one.
Lakwan Lamar Jackson. Is he your QB one? Have you have you declared a QB one for this year? I don't even know if you have.
I have not. Actually, I mean that that's actually one of the things that I probably have to get on. I mean, I feel though if you do make him your QB one, it's based on Todd Monk and you know, basically returning, you're hoping that he can basically mirror what he did this season, putting up the most Fantasy points ever you know, by a player. So I feel like, you know, he could still be that elite quarterback next season, even if you know they watch tape and try to
stop him and whatever that offense is. But he's he's up there. I wouldn't argue if somebody today was like, yeah, he's my QB one twenty twenty five. I think it's a two man race.
Yeah, I feel like, there's not there's not gonna be a cute There's gonna be a consensus, right, It's gonna sort of be a preference. Do you like Josh Allen? Do you like Lamar Jackson? I don't think there's a wrong answer.
Yeah, I think Lamar will be in consensus. I think I do agree. I think it'll be very preference space. But I just feel like Lamar is gonna go one more often than Josh.
Probably.
That being said, then how are we feel about his wide receivers Zay Flowers seventy four catches, one hundred and sixteen targets, but even then, I don't know, Floride still feels like a fourth fifth round wide receiver at best.
I'm not as high on Like I like Zay Flowers as a talent as a real life player, but for fantasy like last year, it was very up or down. Like he had numerous games where where he'd give you like really big yardage or he I mean he only scored three four touchdowns I believe receiving last year. And then like you look at his game logs, there's a lot of games where it's like fifty yards or fewer. So to me, yeah, I agree. I like him a lot more if you get him as say, like a
wide receiver three. But I'm looking at like early rankings right now, and they have him the names in the tier with him or like Mike Evans, DJ Moore, Devonte Rashi, Rice Courtland, Sutton Pickins, Metcalf. That feels right, but there's names in there I would rather have than say Flowers.
Absolutely, yeah, And I think that's it's another argument to have in the offseason, just the volatility of some guys right where it's you look and you look at, hey, why's hever twenty two? That's not bad, But then, as you mentioned, the week to week is a little bit of a different story with some of these guys where you have those spike weeks that help you win a week, and then there are the weeks where he just is no help at all.
You're not adding in the headaches of when you're gonna start him or not, like you can never guess when the matchup is in his favor. It's one of those things that it happens at random, and I'm not drafting a wide receiver where you know on a week to week basis at the wonder which week, I'm going to put him in. If I'm drafting him in the first three to four rounds, that sounds insane.
If I get that player in as my wide receiver three in like round six, I'm cool with it because there's gonna be some weeks where he just goes off and wins me the week. But if I'm paying a premium price, I need you to be like that anchor for my team.
Like he's a wide receiver one on the offense, he is a flexing fantasy Like there's no way every single week start. Like I hear people talk about Zay Flowers how electric is, Like I love watching him play, but he will never enter my fantasy rosters as a guy I will plug and play in on a week to
week basis. The tier behind him that like this is on Fantasy Pros early rankings right now, the tier behind him has like DeVonta Smith, Jordan Addison, chrys Olave, Brandon Aiyuk like Romo Dunes, And I'm like that probably feels like the tiers A.
Flowers belongs in which one of you was out on Alave. It's u lu kwan, this is your just done.
Done, done done. I had been done, he falls into that Trevor Lawrence hate bag that I have.
I've done if he goes where he's been going in drafts, but if we get a discount on him, like I could see myself buy it back.
In and and to be clear about my hate bag, like I don't want people thinking that I hate these players, but it's one of those things where the fantasy streets makes me dislike them where their ADPs end up, and then I'll overhype and you constantly hear it, and I'm just sitting there as the guy in the corner in the dark lake. Does nobody see what I see? Like one of those moments, it's like, what are we doing?
Don't hate the player, hate the ADP.
There's a twenty player wide receiver gap between Zay Flowers and Jaden Reid, and that seems crazy to me. They're very similar players in my.
Opinion, if not the exact same, in the same situations as well, Like I don't get.
It, except Jay Flowers has less competition in his offense than Jayden Reid does and has Lamar Jackson and as
Lamar Jackson. So there's that big number twenty eight, our last one for this episode is the Detroit Lions fifteen AM two A phenomenal season, which I know for Detroit fans maybe doesn't lessen the sting of the way things ended, but nonetheless Jared Goff, Jared Goof, if you will, for forty six hundred passing year, I did that exactly as Lakwan was taking a sip of cranberry juice to see if I can maybe spit.
It out because I didn't expect it right, thank you.
Following that, forty six hundred passing yards, thirty seven touchdowns, twelve picks, he was the QB six. Jamiir Gibbs was fantastic. He had over nineteen hundred scrimmage yards. Was the RB two. David Montgomery another solid season. Seven hundred and seventy five rushing yards, three hundred and forty one receiving yards. He had thirteen well twelve rushing touchdowns and a passing touchdown, so I guess thirteen total touchdowns if you will, RB seventeen.
I was despite missing some time with injury. I'm on Ross Saint Brown fantastic again. Twelve hundred yards, twelve receiving touchdowns are a wide receiver three at Jamison Williams a little bit of a breakout season. Over one thousand receiving yards. He had eight total touchdowns Wide receiver twenty three. Sam Laporta sort of like Mark Andrews, kind of fits into the what went right and what went wrong because early in the season, Sam Laporta was a ghost. I'm a ghost,
like he was just not there at all. But late in the season he started to come to life. He finished just as the tight end eight, which is probably not really making you feel any better if you drafted him as the first tight end off the board. So I guess that leads me to ask the question, Lakwan, where are you drafting Sam Laporta next year?
Are you?
Obviously you know I drafted him as the tight end one, but top three, top five tight end.
Yeah, he could be a top five tight end. I'm still a little worried about the identity of this line's offense with Ben Johnson gone, but I still still think, you know, the back end of the season, him making an impact, it still will be relevant, you know. And then I think more so that he will be a comfort pick for me, Like if I don't want to get to George Kittles, if I don't want to pay up for trade McBride, brock Bauers, Sam reporter there, why not, like I'll take him there.
So you mentioned Ben Johnson being gone, Florio, I mean, how much does that change? Maybe not the guy's at the top, right, I mean, I think we're still taking I'm on raw, We're still taking Javier Gibbs first round. But you know, Jamison Williams, Sam Laporta, how much do you factor in the lack of Ben Johnson this year?
I think it has to be factored in. And I mean Ben Johnson has been the most sought after OC for the last two three years for a while now because of how much. And it wasn't just like oh man, he's gotten the most out of the passing game, Like he elevated everything, the running game, the passing game, all
the secondary options there. So I agree with your assessment markets like Gibbs a Manra, I'm out, although I do think to me, with those top guys, it becomes a tiebreaker, like if you're debating between a Manra Saint Brown and like Lakwan's boy Pooka Nakoula. Let's say I'm gonna be like, well, Pookah has everything coming back the same, whereas it's a new play caller for a Monra. So I will use that to take Puka, but I'm not gonna knock a
Manra out of the first round. I do have concerns with Jared Goff though, because as great as Gough has played these last couple of years, I think we all would say like it's a lot of the system that he played in and the talent around him so much, not him just like going off and everything. So I think he takes a hit and the secondary pass catchers
like Jamison and Laporta take a hit. And one thing I was talking to the Kwan over the weekend, I might just punk tight end next year, Like I don't want to use a second round pick on Bowers or McBride. I'm sick of taking like someone like Laporta in round three or four thinking he could give me elite stats and then he's just solid and then I don't know. It's like I think this might be the year where I just I'm the last person in my draft to take a tight end.
I can't do it. I just I don't. I don't want that headache of trying to stream a tight end every year?
What do you mean I got you, man, Johnny Smith.
It went so well for you. I just you know, I that's one of those things. It just seems like a great thing to say in February, and then you know in October when you're like, is this the dollon Shoultz Week? And then you're like, I shouldn't have done this, like you know, like I just I can't give.
Me dal Kinkaid And like Evan Ingram in rounds like nine to ten, you.
Were ready to put dalcan k to the moon two weeks ago.
What are we agreed?
I Like, I'm like, if I could get like an eight round discount and get him at another tight end, I'll take the up.
I feel like my teams are better when I have more debt at the wide receiver running back position, where I traditionally you'll take, like in that mid round like a tight end. But if I could wait even later and get a John Newe or a Cole Comet that I've been screaming for the last month down that I think he's gonna be really good this season. So I don't know, man, it just feels different with that build that you have when you wait on Titand.
This is years of chasing those upside tight ends, like Dal Kinkaid in the fifth round, Kyle Pitts.
This goes all the way back to like Kyle Rudolph as a sixth round pick, like a decade ago. For me, like er Smith, I've constantly been chasing these upside tight ends, and I'm just I'm over it. I guess the port is better than.
All of those guys, So yes, I would take him as a top five tight end depending on costs.
Higbee falls into that in the twenty season two because of twenty nineteen him going off twenty twenty, people were pushing Higbee all the way up in the mid round. I was ain't on Higbee. I've been burned constantly by these upsides. We weren't friends then, man, and we didn't know each other. That would have stopped you.
What the sounds like, is it that your draft strategy on tight ends is changing. It's that your mentality about the tight ends you're drafting is different, because you're still talking about punting and waiting until later to get a guy, but now you're just gonna get a guy.
Where you're just like yeah, I know.
This dude's gonna be mid right as opposed to.
I don't have to pay the premium to get mid right.
Like I instead of like waiting and being like this guy, Yeah he's at mid is the floor and like the ceiling is the roof. Like now, like, you haven't changed your strategy, You just changed your mentality, is all that is.
Yeah, Yeah, like I'm going to in and out for that two ninety nine double stack rather than like.
I don't know, I was, what's a premium?
Like in and out.
That's what I'm doing right now. I'll be having the in and out tight end strategy going this year.
I knew he was gonna say that.
I'll say Habit Burger, and then in and out you decide which premium or not.
I've never had had I've never heard of Habit Burger, So Habit's fine. It's been a long time. It's been a long time since I've had one. I gotta go back again. I guess the gourmet is like Bowers McBride. Then there's like the middle burger chains or whatever, and then there's.
Look, there's in and out there for two ninety nine or three ninety nine whatever, it calls get yourself a great meal.
But no, we talked about this over the weekend too, Like Jonna Swift was on the waiver wire, zach Ertz was on the waiver wire, like all these other guys that were actually showing up and showing out were I thought the waiver war. So punting completely is not a bad idea. And just wait a couple of weeks for these guys.
I'm looking at a Fantasy pro again. It's it's February. This is gonna be very different from August. But they're they're early ADP right now. Tight End ten and on is like Evan ingram Kin, Kate Tuckercraft, Jake Ferguson, Dallas Goddard Hunter, Henry Kyle Pitts, Brian Muth, Coolekmit. I'll take two of those guys in the later rounds of my draft rather than a fifth round tight End.
Here you go, man Mark Andrews is going to be five guys where like, you got to pay up for it, and you're like, it's fine, not worth it, not worth the price I paid for it.
You don't got to put a small mortgage on your house to get there.
To get it it's like I've done it now, I don't know that I'll be back again soon. Speaking of premiums, uh, the Lakers got a premium player not really paying a premium price, and it sort of broke the internet for a couple of days. We'll come back talk about that in an NFL perspective as we wrap things up on the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. So, unless you've been living under a rock for the last couple of days, you know that things happened in the National Basketball Association over
the weekend. In fact, if you're like most of us, you probably either saw something on social media that looked like a reporter might have gotten hacked, or you got a text message about it from a friend. But the longest short of it is Luka Doncic, who by pretty much everyone's estimation is a top five player in the NBA, is just twenty five years old, is not going to
finish his career with the Dallas Mavericks. Instead, he's all the move to Los Angeles was traded for Anthony Davis in a blockbuster three team deal, which, by the way, the Utah Jazz. In that trade they were the third
team there. They were sort of like the spillover bucket, Like, hey man, we're trying to like we're trying to like bail water out of this thing, and we just need an extra bucket to help clean up to That was the Utah jazz I here just come take like this Jalen Hood Chaffino and a couple of draft picks or whatever. That's neither here nor there. I'm not here to evaluate
the the merits of the trade. But oh it was awful, nicky in here, But it was one of those moments in sports that just complete Lee circover social media to the point that Beyonce announced to her tour the same time that the trade was being announced, and everybody's like, hey, B not now, who has.
That ever happened? Like she gets stiffed on her announcement.
I mean literally everybody's like, B will deal with this in just a little bit. We got to talk about Ady and Luca. When when you see a move like this across sports, it's kind of a meme on social media. It's like, explain this to me in you know, in baseball terms, in comic book terms, in reality TV show terms, and so obviously for a lot of us is what would be the NFL equivalent of this, And I mean Lakwan the one name that kept popping up when everybody
said what's the NFL equivalent? Matthew Stafford's name kept showing up, and like every different generation as like kind of the a D version, right, like older player, like good player, but older player.
I will not accept that?
Why not?
I mean if that's not I don't think that's accurate, like good player, older player. Okay, then if that, if you don't accept that, what would be your NFL equivalent of this trade?
So how I looked at it was it was like Joe Burrow traded for Cameron Jordan for the Saints. You add in Bubb Memes and then a first round pick next year. Like That's how I looked at it as because Cam Jordan is a great defender, he's on the back end of his career with age, like he's past that peak, still a good player, but it's not Joe Burrow.
No, all right, I guess I could kind of get down with that. I just don't know that Cam Jordan is the same level of headliner like Ady is still a headliner. You know, I don't know your your your take on it. Florida.
I thought about this a lot on Sunday, and I landed on it would be like trading Jayden Daniels for Dak Prescott because Dak and Ad are about the same age.
I think they're both thirty one. Luca is like six months older than Jade and Daniels. They're both under team control for a little bit.
And yeah, like you're trading your franchise identity away, and that's what Jayden is for the Commanders.
Now.
I try to think about this a lot, and me and LaQuan we're talking about a little bit over the weekend. But like, I think this was the most shocking sports moment I can remember as a fan. Like the ones that I think compare are like Mookie getting traded to the Dodgers, your your team, Marcus a Rod to the Yankees when Andrew Luck retired, like KD to the Warriors. But I think what's different about this is it came
out of nowhere. There was no build up and it just happened randomly on a Saturday night, like and one thing I love as a Nick fan is like the Knicks have been trying for two decades to get this caliber of player on their roster. The Lakers pick up a phone on Saturday night, thinking it's a drunk.
Dial and they're like, you want to give us one of the faces of the NBA for you haven't called anyone else. You're accepting our first offer. Sure, we'll continue.
To play NBA on easy mode like that for the Lakers smash, except.
I mean, it really is like the I think the shock to that rippled through the sports world was amazing, the point that when it first dropped, the universal reaction was, oh, Sham's got hacked. Like that was that was what everyone's Sham's got hacked. This can't there's no way this is real. Sham's got hacked. Ha ha ha. This is really funny. But let's like, you know, I mean, I saw a video a clip of a live stream. These two guys were doing a Laker live stream, and they're like, oh, yeah,
this is this is fake. Sham's got hacked. Ha ha. But let's you know, let's.
Just for alive.
Let's just put this in the trade machine and see how this would work.
Blah blah blah blah blah.
And then five minutes later just like oh wait, this is real, Like this is this, this is really really real.
It was.
There's very much like a what's happening sort of thing.
I was at a bar watching Nicks Lakers and like with a couple of Laker fan friends and they're like, yeah, we're not gonna make any trades this year. If we do, it's gonna be very small. And then like I walked home, and in the walk home, like the game ended and Luca got traded to the Lakers. Have you guys ever seen a time where reporters like I have to ensure you that this is real, Like.
I have to say I have to confirm that this is actually really happening. Yeah, I mean, because at first I was like, this is sort of it sort of feels like the night Antonio Brown was a Buffalo bill for like fifteen minutes. But this is even bigger than that.
I don't think we'll ever get an NFL trade to this level.
No, I don't think so either, because the NBA is very much about salary dump trades about superstars moving. There's a lot more superstar movement, especially with trades in the
NBA than there is in the NFL. And yeah, I just I can't imagine if you're an NFL team likes you mentioned with Jade, Like, if you're in Washington and you have Jayden Daniels on this rookie contract under team control as the new face of your franchise, you're not just gonna dump him for even a good player, but an older player, right, He's just not gonna do it. The contract dynamics are so different.
Miles Garrett, Aaron Rodgers, Russell will like, we've seen really big name players move before, but it happens after two to three months of coverage of like what this train could look like, Whereas.
In the NBA, like literally no other gms didn't even know that Luca was available, Like it just happened.
I talked about the Utah Yeah, Danny Ainge and the Utah Jazz were involved. Afterwards, Age said, I didn't know it was Luca ad that he's like by the time I find out, and he's like I had it was like I found out like thirty minutes before they posted it. I was like, it was too late for me to do anything.
That's amazing. There should be a doc.
None of the players involved New Right Ad didn't know. Luca Lebron apparently was out to dinner with his family when he found out.
It's a lot like fantasy trades, when like a trade happens and you have other managers being like, we could have topped that offer, like that was legitags.
Yeah, that's exactly what that is, absolutely absolutely wild. In fact, just before we started recording this pod, the Luca introductory press conference was happening in Los Angeles. The I mean just photos of him with the the purple and gold seventy seven jersey.
He's not to seventy, by the way, there's no way you know what that is.
Though, right, like the whole Oh, he's overweight, he's to seventy.
He doesn't he's not committed.
And that's Dallas try to justify what they did.
Yep, it's Lamar can't stay healthy.
Running quarterbacks get hurt. Remember when no one wanted to pay Lamar two years ago?
Like, yeah, that's all this is. It's saving face.
It's the Mavericks trying to play cya and and explain why it is that they traded a generational talent. Of all the weird, wild things about this trade, the one thing that broke my wife was looking at a picture of Luca and learning that he was twenty five years old. She's like, she's like, what do you mean twenty five? And like he's twenty five years old? She said, no, you mean like thirty five. Like, no, he is twenty five years old.
I couldn't look at him and say that either.
I was like, that is the thing that of all the things that happened, that's the one that broke my wife.
Well, she's a Laker fan, right, she should be happy.
She's a Lebron fan. But okay, she did admit she's like, you know, she's like I kind of phone off watching the Lakers lately, like I'm back in. She's like, I'm back watching the Lakers again.
They went from having literally once Lebron walked away, they were gonna have probably the roughest decade in franchise history. And now you would trade maybe two teams future for there, like you would take two teams future over theres Like it's crazy.
That is it so uh fun times one time and it's why that the NBA stole even a little bit of shine from the NFL leading up to Super Bowl week just wild.
You know what if it was if the Bills were in there, that might be different.
I'm gonna go with No, I'm gonna go with Bill.
Everyone's fired up right now? Oh yeah, yeah, Look, me and Floria will be the front man.
Yeah, and by everyone we mean sixty seven percent of this show. We will, of course, preview Super Bowl fifty nine coming up on our show on Thursday. We'll finish our exit interviews as well, so stick around for that. Should be a whole lot of fun. But 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, Enjoy the day is everybody, and we'll talk to you again on Thursday.
Wow, I'm a ghost.
Don't help book as a whole