Wow, Why everybody, It's Thursday, February sixth, twenty twenty five. Welcome to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. We just want to kick this thing off already. It's me and your man, MG Marcus Grant, joined by Michael F. Florio and Lakwan Jones LQ. You are going to New Orleans looking forward to.
I'm looking forward to the food, to be honest, soon as I touchdown, I am getting the food in my body.
Are you a seafood person.
No, I'm alertic to some seafood. I think it's solsh shellfish.
Okay, I did not know this about you. I am anti seafood all the way.
Oh, let's go. But you also don't like turkey either, So no, I like turkey.
I just think it's overrated.
You don't like turkey?
Turkey is Derek Jeter.
There you go. Kareean Falcone is very upset with you right now.
Yeah, I know, I know. I Look. I love Kareem. She's awesome. She does amazing work for us. She's just a really cool person. My Derek Jeter take sort of rankled her the other day. So sorry, Look, I'll just on Jeter. The diving catch into the stands. He catches it in fair territory. That's all I'm going to say. I'm still better about him making that flip and getting jokes slide Jeremy Giombi slide anyway, I'm just going to
pretend I know what that means. We got our last rounds of exit interviews coming up on today's show, Picks twenty nine through thirty two.
Pain.
Hey man, we did my team like two weeks ago, so I don't really want to hear it. We will have a Super Bowl preview as well as we wrap up the show and gets you ready for super Bowl fifty nine coming up this weekend. I have really a lot of headlines. I don't know how much interest you guys have. The Josh Jacobs saying that he would love to reunite with Davante Adams in Green Bay. We talked about the Pack and whether or not they need a number one receiver, I mean, Florio Devonte Adams in Green Bay?
Is he would that make him back to being I don't want to say a first round pick, but what could he be a mid second round pick in Green Bay? Possibly?
I think other people could convince themselves to draft him there I will not be that person. I was fading him last year as a second round pick, and it was partly because of who his quarterbacks were, but it's also because he was thirty one going on thirty two. By the end of the next season, he'll be thirty three years old, and we already saw some decline in his metrics. So my rule of thumb is, when you have an agent player and you start to see slow,
like little signs of decline, to just avoid it. Because we talk about it a lot like decline comes very very slowly and then all at once. So like, I don't want to draft someone this early if part of their range of outcome could be just not living up anywhere close to expectations and bottoming out. But it would
be hilarious, Like the NFL is a reality show. The writers are just being like, let's get Adams back to Green Bay where he said he didn't have an elite quarterback, and now he chooses Jordan Love over Aaron Rodgers, Like that would that would just be hilarious?
Actually want amazing? That would be pretty good of that happened. Yeah, I mean, look, everything is is you know, times of Flat Circle. Everything's reboots and sequels and that sort of thing, So you.
Know, why not does Green Bay even want him back?
Though?
You know, like that's kind of weird that he would say that. That is a good point because he kind of left and just was like all right, I'm out to better things. That's kind of how it felt, and like I wouldn't want him back either, you know, like to be honest, like you got guys like Dadan Reed, you got Christian Watson you're hoping comes back from recovery.
Like these young guys are developing well, and like if I can comparison to break the parallel on soccer, like when Christiano Ronaldo returned back to Manchester United, it might have delayed or kind of messed up. You know, Marcus Rastus's development being that he was a young player and now look where he's at now. Is that Ashton Villa
right now? So you bring in the guy that gave the pop and gave the excitement, then it's like you're hurting the development of the young guys that you're actually getting some flow with.
That's that's exactly what I was going to say. That's that's one hundred percent and it's not I was going to say, that's not at all what I was going to say. Soccer turns in analysis. I enjoy the sport, and I know, like I knew all the names involved and everything I was not did, but I also know you do this to to try and tweak me. Well that's why you say that too. So long as you know, dude, I peep your game. Contrary to the shack meme, I'm very familiar with your games. So that's what that is.
All right, that's anyway, that's enough of that we'll see. I mean, right now, this is just this kind of idle chatter. It's Josh Jacobs sort of hining out loud to reunite with a former teammates maybe help his current team. I think that's about as far as that may go when it comes to Devonte Adams reuniting with the Green Bay Packers. All right, into our exit interviews our final four teams. Now, I will preface this by saying picks thirty one and thirty two are not officially set yet.
So we did these sort of buy records in the regular season, and that's how we came up with what they are. So we'll start with the Washington Commanders at pick number twenty nine. They had a phenomenal twelve and five season, got all the way to the NFC Championship games, certainly ahead of everyone's expectations. I would probably guess even ahead of the expectations of people within that building there
in Washington. And when you talk about what went right, easy, easy, easy, easy answer is Jaden Daniels over thirty five hundred passing yards, twenty five passing touchdowns, nine interceptions, nearly nine hundred rushing yards, six rushing touchdowns. He was the QB six. Terry McLaurin another great season as well, over one thousand yards, thirteen receiving touchdowns. I don't think I realized he had thirteen touchdowns this year. He finished as receiver seven this season,
so Florio as the number one. Jade and Daniels stand on this show. Any fears and you you tweeted about this and I sort of responded any fears that he pulls a CJ. Stroud in year two.
I'm trying to remember what the tweet was that I sent. I tweet a lot, so.
It was it was basically something to the effective of how like Jayden Daniels looks like, you know, a mid career vet or something to that effect, and I responded with, we said the same thing about C.
Stroud last year, So I one hundred percent agree the difference, there's two differences. For me is one, I just think Jade and Daniels played better even than CJ. Stroud did last year, even if CJ. Stroud had these superior passing stats. But for me, I think what happened, what really made me feel good about Jaden Daniels is there was that stretch in the middle of the year where you could
pull into a number of different things. He was dealing with the rib injury, which I think was the number one factor, but you started to hear rumblings of like, oh, our defense is kind of figuring out how to make Jaden Daniels uncomfortable and take away what he does best. And you started to hear stuff like has he hit the rookie wall and has he taken Cliff Kingsbury offense
as far as it could go? And then he got healthy and looked even better and played even better and in the playoffs, like not just what he was doing with his legs and all the stats and everything that he has. I think it's arguably the greatest rookie season of all time. But the way he was able to go through his progressions and like just read a defense
and not feel like the moment was too big. And this is going up against top defenses in the playoffs, like he he just looked even better and better and better. He looked unstoppable against the Lions. So I have no concerns. I've gone as far as saying that, not only for fantasy do I think Jayden is a top five quarterback. I think for real life, like clearly there's the Big four, but after him that I'm taking jad and Daniels right
now over anyone. So no, I don't have those concerns because the Commanders have a bunch of cat they have their draft picks, like their supporting cast should be even better in year two for Jaden than it was in year one. And I know we could say that for CJ. Stroud, but like we talked about on the last episode, I think Stroud was more like efficiency luck. I don't think that was the case for Jade and Daniels.
I mean, where are you with this, Laku? I mean, is is Jayden Daniels a top five quarterback for you next year? In fantasy.
Uh yeah, And I think what makes the difference between him and CJ Stroud When I was on this same podcast in the same room saying that CJ shrowd via top five lock this year, clearly that was wrong. But the difference here is that this dude almost had a thousand yards rushing, So the rushing upside is going to
stay there. They're turnovers. I'm not worried about him getting that sophomore slump because coming out of college, his tendency is his meant like, his whole type of ordeal was that he's accurate and doesn't turn the ball over, and I think that's one of the things that he will carry throughout his career. So mostly looking at, you know, the his mechanics and everything that he brings to the table,
He's obviously going to be a top five quarterback. And you know, this season with everything staying the same around him, with many with many people speculating that they do bring in a wide receiver too, that can possibly help Terry McLaurin, because I think that's one of the things that you know, that will elevate his game to an even higher ceiling.
I mean, we're not We're not in on Diommy Brown necessarily. I mean, you had a couple of good postseason games, but I like.
The Brown twins, like the Noah Brown and Diami Brown. Like I like them guys. But it's like if I can go out there and get a T. Higgins, like come on, let's let's let's go wild and balled out, Like let's get Miles Garrett on the defense, and let's get T Higgins.
Let's go to the super Bowl.
Like I'm a huge Jayden of Dans fan now, but just basically just being wild every single game. You know that he's been doing, I mean for him to get to the playoffs as far as he did as a rookie. Like it's the freaking Commanders guys like Kingsbury he usually falls off at the end of the season, which you know if I've seen that closely being in Ranstrand with him as the Cardinals head coach. But it's just like the former is there, Like you don't have that, you know,
animosity between the quarterback and coach anymore. Like it's like JD's locked in, he's ready to go. He's there early in the morning working out and looking at that film like He's doing all the things that Kyler wasn't doing. Not to make the comparison, but that's a big deal.
He's what we wanted Kyler Murray to be all those exactly Arizona.
Yeah, yeah, Kyler's in a ceiling right, Like we've seen the best of Kyler at this point.
Yeah, I would say that.
I would say that, and I think Jayden Daniel still has room to grow, which is going to be really interesting, really curious to watch life really interesting in the NFC East for the foreseeable future. With the Eagles, the Eagles are still going to be good regardless of whatever happens this weekend. The Cowboys are who knows the new commanders?
Maybe let's go.
Well, who knows well? Who knows what the Cowboys are doing? And the Giants are wandering in the wilderness for a little while too, So you know, this looks like a two team division at least for the next couple of years. Over in the NFC East, I'm I was looking at what went wrong. It was hard to pinpoint anything that went actually wrong. Look, the range of outcomes for Austin Eckler included him not being particularly great. He was at best this year.
We could say that went wrong.
Yeah, I guess.
I mean I was big on Austin Eckler, but I also knew that there was a distinct possibility that it wouldn't hit right, Like I was aware of that.
Brian fifty Robinson had something to say about that.
I was going to ask you, because you, I know, are a big Brian Robinson gue, I mean, did he live up to your expectations this year? How do you look at him for twenty twenty five?
No, man, I gotta be honest, and like, you do love that his usage in the red zones there, like you love the touchdowns that he was able to get there. But his you know, his usage in the passing game just dropped because of Austin Eckler. And it wasn't like Austin Eckler was completely better in that department. It's just that he just wasn't running the routes, getting the targets, getting the reception. So it's like that capped his fantasy potential.
So it's like with them two eating off each other's plates. It's like one of those things where he just tossed up like, eh, I guess you know, because you had the outside of dicking that he was going to be an RB two, and then most weeks you were looking at like this guy has the shoulder injury, ankle injury, god, hamstring ankle, Like, dude, put him in a body bag, Like what is going on?
Like Brian Robinson eleven point four fantasy points per game, Austin Eckler eleven points per game, so like it's less than half a point apart. And the annoying thing was it was like Lakwan said on the ground, all right, that work is going to Brian Robinson. In the air, that work is going to Austin Eckler. And I think that is one area where they can improve, is like being a little less predictable with your backfield usage.
Yeah, well, I'm curting confuse. So Eckler's contract actually runs through the end of next season. They could get out of it for I think a fairly minimal dead cap hit. You know, So do they do they bring him back, they run it back with the same backfield, do they try and do something else? I think that's going to be something to kind of watch with this team in the offseason. I think when they look at the draft.
You mentioned Lakwana getting some help for Terry McLaurin. I think another wide receiver is going to be really important for them. So we'll see if they decide to make that move as well, or if they do it in free agency. You mentioned t Higgins. I mean maybe they go out and chase somebody like that, or if they do it in the draft. But either way they need
something more consistent as their wide receiver too. Then you know, to go along, I should say with with Terry McLaurin there in Washington, you pick number thirty goes to the Buffalo Bills thirteen and for this season, another trip to the AFC Championship Game. Another heavy side there for Michael f Florio when he thinks about it.
Please don't trade to pick Man, don't don't do that.
Don't don't help the chief shout again.
To trade it. Don't trade it to the team in Cleveland.
Man again, I see which I see where you're going with this.
Crea talent, that's what this team needs.
I see where you're going with this. What went right? Certainly, Josh Allen, he had again he's very much in the conversation for the MVP award. Over thirty seven hundred passing yards over five hundred rushing yards. He had twenty eight passing touchdowns. He had twelve rushing touchdowns. He also had a receiving touchdown. This year, I finished as the QB two James Cook over one thousand rushing yards, sixteen rushing touchdowns.
That was another number that jumped out at me. I don't think I realized he had that many touchdowns this year, a couple of receiving touchdowns. He was the RB eight and the Khalil Shakir very much a pleasant surprise this season. I know when you look at you say, well he was wide receiver thirty seven, Well yeah, but nobody expected anything out of Khalil Shakir and seventy six catches, eight hundred and twenty one yards, four touchdowns. The fact that he was a viable flex option for a lot of
rosters pretty consistently during the year. Again, we all thought maybe this was going to be, you know, it's gonna be Dalton kin Kid's year. Who are they gonna use it wide receiver now without Stefan Thigs. I mean, there were so many questions. I don't know that anybody thought Khalil Shakiir was going to be the answer.
Hello, I really love Shakir in the off season.
Yeah, what were we talking about?
You got two of the biggest Shakir fans right here?
All right, So Shakiir right, not Shakira, right, We're talking about Khaleil Sir.
Right.
That's that hips don't lie man, or that's what we're talking about. All right, So I sit corrected. I maybe I just didn't. I thought he'd be a nice piece.
I didn't think he would be as good as he was, but I thought he would be He would easily out live his adp all right.
I do want to ask you though, because obviously you watched the Bills closer than anybody here. James Cook had a very very good season. Is this the ceiling or is there more we can expect from James Cook?
I think, touchdown wise, this is the ceiling, and this might be a career year. He scored sixteen rushing like you said, he tied the franchise record, I believe for rushing touchdowns like I'm not banking on that again, but yes, I certainly think there's more room for growth for James Cook. Because he had to play in Week eighteen when all of the starters were out for him to get a thousand rushing yards, but then you see the long burst runs that he has and stuff, so I certainly think
there's more big plays there. Ty Johnson is what they do with him is a big indicator for James Cook because two years ago Cook got a lot of passing down opportunities, but he had a lot of drops. And then this year they were just like, we're going all Ty Johnson in two minute drills, third downs like obvious passing situations. And Josh Allen on record multiple times has been like Ty Johnson is the best third down back in the NFL. So they really love him and that's
why he took so much opportunity away. But he's a free agent, and if they let him walk and they say Cook took the next stride and earns more work, especially because I believe they are going to extend James Cook this off season. If that's the case and he starts getting more targets, then yeah, then he could reach top five, like elite level Fantasy.
I believe, Wow, were you comfortable taking him next year? A Lukwan?
James Cook?
He's one of those guys I would love to have in my RB two. I don't think I would be drafting him as my RB one, but like Florio said, if the touchdown department, if he could find the middle between ten and sixteen, I'm good with him as my RB two. I was off of him this season because I wasn't too sure what to expect from him, because honestly, I haven't been watching James Cook as much as I've
been watching the other guys that are behind him. Like I already know about Ty Johnson being the thorn in somebody's back because he did it when he was with the Jets with Michael Carter, Like that's just kind of his role. So that might have been you know, my PTSD kicking in of like, oh no, Ty Johnson's in the building, bro, Like what's going on? Like he had a freaking receiving touchdown, which was amazing, by the way, in the back of that end zone from Josh Allen.
I don't know I always saw him, but that's what he brings to the table, the unpredictableness in the receiving game.
So that was just, you know, my price.
But going into next season, I would love to get him as my RB too, you know, if I could lock that up.
I think he might go as in the first round.
Really, wow, this is a no first round running back podcast. Will I don't know if you understood I.
I would not take him.
Well, no, no, no, no, no, no no, don't put this on the whole pot like that's a you thing.
We're in the first Are we taking Skon in the first?
I mean, I'm not taking Sequon in.
The first that's one. Also Bijon, he looks Jon. I'll say I'll take Bijon in the first. No, Ben Jonson's show Jamier give sits at that one ten through to one to twelve spot, which I'm okay with but still not comfortable with.
But there's that. I mean, I could make a case late first for maybe Devon ah chan O.
Yeah, I keep forgetting about him for some reason.
Make a late first round case maybe for Kyron Williams. You know what I'm saying, your boy Kyra at the end of the first.
No, I have my own personal beasts about Kiren. But no, I couldn't do that. I don't see that production continuing.
You wouldn't take Bjon or Gibbs.
Gibbs at the one ten, two to one twelve. I don't feel comfortable with. I like their wide receivers that are going there, Like I like a Drake London right there. I like a Brian Thomas over there. Like I like those guys more than I like Gids without Ben Jonson. It's about the usage, like whoever comes in, are they gonna use? Are they gonna use? You know, the sonic and knuckles like who knows? Like that looks like a question mark to me.
You know, I don't plan on taking James Cook in the first round, but like when we did our mock at the end of the year Marcus on Fantasy Live, like Patrick took him in the first round, and I've seen other people since then, especially after the playoffs, and he played so well, start to be like, hey, maybe this Cook guy is worthy of it. Again, I like it much more as like a second rounder.
Yeah, I don't. I'm think I make the leaping of the first round. But there are there are running backs I would take in the first round, not as many as in years past, but I can definitely pull the trigger on a couple real quick. What went wrong, Dalton can? Are you still ready to fire him out of a circus cannon to the moon? Floria?
Yes, I mean, he catches that ball right now, is the best week of my life? Like, instead, like, I don't know if you guys feel this way. I think the worst case Like, obviously there's worst case scenarios, but as a fan, the most painful scenario is your team losing in the championship game, because then there's a two week build up, especially if it's like if you're the Commanders and you just got dog walked, you're like, all right, yeah, this was a good year for us. We're young, we
didn't deserve to be here. You lose, like the Bills lose, and yeah, you get two weeks of just being like this, this could have been us, like, but it's not. So Yeah, I'm still upset with Dalton Kincaid. I still do think there's potential here and he's gonna be cheaper than ever. What I thought was very interesting was both the GM and the head coach called him out after the year and was like, he needs to put on more weight so that he and more muscle so he is more
available to us. And you have found out after the year that he was playing through a number of injuries. They said the same thing about key On Coleman like he wasn't the same after he got hurt. He was a very different player. Amari Cooper kind of never really, So I don't know. As good as things went for the Bills this year, there was a number of players that you came away feeling like they should have been a lot better than they were in this offense.
I will push back and tell you that as somebody who's a fan of a team who has lost three times in the Super Bowl since I've worked at NFL network, that's a pretty miserable That's a pretty miserable experience because working at the network, you have to come to work and they are showing the game on every television in the building for a whole week, and they are showing the parade of the team that Like, it's just a pretty miserable experience to work in NFL media when your
team loses the Super Bowl, because you can't you can't duck it, you can't dodge it.
Yeah, at least after the Super Bowl you could kind of be like, all right, see.
Over now, everybody right down to your point, though, Marcus, after the thirteen second game, when I walked in the next day and that was on every single TV I just was like, please just end it now, like I don't want to relive this.
Just want to burn Just want to burn the plays down, that's all. I just want to burn it down. Right.
We will all my man's name from the office.
Face Milton, Milton, Oh yeah, bring them. I mean to burn it down to bring the please them, bring it down. We still got two more teams in our interviews. They are the two teams that are playing in the Super Bowl. We will also have a Super Bowl preview for you that's coming up next here on the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Final two teams. As I mentioned at the top of
the show, the draft order not officially set. It will be after Sunday and we know who the champion is that person or that team, I should say, well, I have picked number thirty two and the Super Bowl loser will have pick number thirty one. But for now, just going based off of regular season records, we are putting the Philadelphia Eagles at pick number thirty one. They were
fourteen and three. Saquon Berkley is what went right for the Eagles and very much what went wrong for the Giants two thousand and five rushing yards, thirteen rushing touchdowns, two hundred and seventy eight receiving yards to receiving touchdowns. He was the RB two. Now, mind you, this is going through Week eighteen. When you know Saquon or rather Jamier Gibbs needed very much to play for the Lions. I guess tek he didn't really have to. I guess
he did. Either way, he finishes the RB one. Saquon What I noticed. I went back and looked two hundred and seventy eight receiving yards for a full season. That's the lowest number of his career, and nobody noticed because
of what he was doing on the ground. I mean the fact that he ran for two thousand yards and had a legitimate shot to break Eric Dickerson's single season record had the Eagles held him back from that was easy to gloss over the fact that he just didn't do nearly the same amount of damage in the passing game this year, but still was absolutely phenomenal. Jalen Hurts the QB eight twenty nine hundred passing yards, six hundred and thirty rushing yards, fourteen rushing touchdowns. AJ Brown Devens
to Smith both good, not necessarily spectacular. Brown the wide receiver sixteen, Smith the wide receiver twenty four. But I want to ask about Jalen Hurts Lakwan because the passing yards down significantly this year. Didn't get to three thousand yards just the eighteen passing touchdowns, but the fourteen rushing touchdowns. How much longer can we rely on the tush push because that that's doing a lot of keeping him afloat
fantasy wise. At some point it goes away, I mean, but it's also it feels hard to bet on it going away, if that makes sense.
Yeah, the league's not going to band it. I mean, I'm gonna keep on open on the opportunity to get Jalen Hurts. I mean, I'm not drafting him for the passing. I'm drafting him for the Toush push. Like we can't even call it rushing touchdowns. It's Toush push touchdowns. Like it's not even like him going off and like running around like Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson. Like I'm going for the scoring opportunities. I'm going for him setting this team up for success to find the end zone and
get the Toush push going. They're gonna They're gonna deploy that move every single time. It's like the special move on the one button on the video game that you cannot stop and you're just annoying your cousin. Like that's one of those things where it's like you want to rage quick. But I'm gonna take advantage of that in every single draft if I can do that. You know, this was my first year that I actually didn't draft jayla Hertz. I don't know why. I thought Saquon Barkley
would play into, you know, taking away the toushbush. But here we are, the toushbush is still alive and low, and we'll probably see it done a couple times in the big games. So it's like, if the league ain't gonna a band it, I'm not gonna go against it.
I mean, yeah, I don't. I don't see any moves to stop this thing from being a legal play. It just is what it is.
It could be stopped though, you know, like we've seen teams stop it before. It's just you can't consistently.
The Chief stopped at numerous times against Josh Allen.
Well, that's the snowplow bro It's a different formula.
Other versions of it have been consistently stopped. But like, I feel like when the Eagles get stopped, it's because the Eagles messed it up, right, Like it's because they did something wrong.
Isn't that just because Jalen Hurts is unstoppable on that play?
He can squat six hundred pounds, as yeah told repeatedly.
We heard in this offseason like oh well with Jason Kelcey gone, this play isn't going to be effective, and then halfway through the year it's like Saquon's not going to win MVP because Jalen Hurts getting over.
I mean, yeah, look, as I feel like Jay, Jalen Hurts is sort of the He's the keystone to this whole thing, right, Like he's the one that makes this whole thing go.
This is a completely different conversation, but like it drives me crazy when people just like discount display and say, like he all he is is a touch point, Like that is a play that is is unstoppable right now in the toughest yard to gain on the field, So like, why is that a negative? Like to me, that's a huge positive.
And again, as long as it's a legal play, if I'm the Eagles, I keep running it keep run into the wheels, fall off. Does I figure out how to stop it? Or you can't run it anymore? I'm you know, it would be dumb to take it out of your playbook just because other teams are mad about it. Like that just doesn't make any sense.
Like other teams are copying it, Like we even got the Ravens doing and we're Mark Andrews, which there's no real name for it, but they were stopping multiple times, like a team cannot copy what they do, and it's a copycat league. So we're gonna probably see more teams next season try to do it too.
Yeah, the Ravens we call it like the Poe push or something like the you know oh.
Doing it went over my head.
Everybody's having a QT name for it. Can't just be a quarterback sneak anymore. Now they all have to have QT names. So whatever, Florie, I want to talk to you about the receivers there right because Aj Brown, DeVonta Smith, they were good, not great. Both finished outside the top fifteen as fantasy receivers this year. Is Saquan being there? Does that mean we have to sort of downgrade them right now?
Maybe a little? I think more than even that, Like there was just something off with Hurts as a passer this year, and I was super in on aj Brown this year. I thought like Kellen Moore coming over. I was pushing him over Justin Jefferson in drafts. And he gets hurt after Week one, misses the three games. But you look at his first like seven games that he played,
and I was feeling like a genius. I was like, this guy is way better than Justin Jefferson on a per game basis, Like he might be the wide receiver one on a per game basis. He was that good. And then the results just kind of came crashing down and we're very up or down, and you had Nick Sirianni at one point being like, we need to be better as a passer, so as a passing attack. So
I don't know if it's all on Saquon. I think a big part of it is when you have a rushing attack that effective and with that many big plays, you take away a lot of plays, Like if you're scoring a one chunk play, that's six seven plays that you could be losing on a drive something like that. So that does hurt. But more than anything, I think
it was just something was off there. And if you're gonna give me a discount on AJ Brown next year, which looking at early rankings, it seems like we're gonna get that because he's the wide receiver nine right now in early rankings. Yeah, I'll just continue to draft him
because I believe he is an amazing talent. DeVonta Smith is the one that I'm a little bit more weary of because not only does he have all those same concerns with the passing game and with Saquon, but he also has a target hog and AJ Brown on the opposite side.
Yeah, I mean, I think that's sort of the hard part, right is that with with DeVonta Smith. I mean he did miss some time. Both guys actually missed some games with injury, but also the volatility week to week was a lot more noticeable with DeVonta Smith. So that's going to be something to kind of keep in mind. And really, as you mentioned, like what Jalen Hurts is as a passer is going to have a lot of impact on
what his past catchers do. And you know, look, as long as Saquan is there and continues to be as effective, again, I don't think he's going to be two thousand yards worth of great next year. That's just me. But he's going to be good enough that he's going to get a lot of those opportunities. And you know, that's just fewer chances for Brown and Smith to get targets coming up next season. All Right, finally against City Chiefs. If you were not a Chiefs fan, maybe the most fit
frustrating fifteen and two you ever saw. This was it's weird. So we you know, I did thirty one other teams, Well I didn't do all of these. Shout out to to Kyrie Douglas, who helped put together a lot of these for us, but that man, But I was like putting these together and looking at these, the Chiefs were the one that was the most frustrating to put together because I was like, what went right? And I was kind of like, I mean, for fantasy, like not really much.
I mean, Travis Kelce had a good season, but it wasn't your vintage Travis Kelce season. Ninety seven catches, eight hundred and twenty three yards, just three receiving touchdowns. He was the tied end five and then like what went wrong was just like Patrick Mahomes wasn't great, you know, like he was. He went a long time without you know, hitting a two hundred you know, a two hundred yard passing game or throwing a bunch of touchdowns. That was a big talk for much of the year, like hey man,
like Patrick Mahomes is just a guy in fantasy. Xavier Worthy I really didn't pop the way people thought that he would bring sort of showed up. It was a nice piece, but it wasn't really great. Remember that day that everybody was on the Carson Steel bandwagon like that was a good That was a good thirty six hours. That was fun.
I wrongly went on some much Ryan side of history, I.
Mean, but that was sort of the point, right, Like Florid are are the twenty twenty four Chiefs the greatest bad Fantasy team ever?
Probably, I mean probably even what went right. Travis Kelce was a disappointment because he was drafted higher than tight end five and you look at his game logs like very much. So like all right, he had four big games and the rest of the year like he was, he was disappointing. Mahomes was. I think in late in the year he got a little bit better, but I think you could make a case that Mahomes was when you factor in like draft calls and stuff, maybe the
biggest letdown in fantasy this year. Isaiah Pacheco. I loved, I had him as a top five running back, but that injury he suffered early in the year, like has zapped him of everything. We have not seen him with the saint bursts or explosiveness or anything. Kreemont was solid. The one big positive from this team in my opinion,
is Rashid Rice. And I know he got hurt and his season ended prematurely, but like you're gonna allow me to draft him as a wide receiver to next year, I'm gonna do that all day long because I think in what he's shown us, Like I remember tweeting in like before he got hurt, like Malik Neighbors and Rashi Rice are like top five wide receivers the rest of the year, and then they both got hurt like shortly after that tweet. But yeah, I firmly believe in everything I saw at Rashi Rice.
I also I was I was wrong. I granted it was a small sample for this year, but I was staying away from Rashi Rice just because I didn't know if they'd be able to manufacture the same level of touches and the same kind of production that they did in his rookie year, and again in a small sample size, the answer was unequivocally yes, yes they can. So you know, I guess I get a do over sort of on on Rashi Rice now. So I'm looking forward to that, absolutely,
looking forward to it coming up this season. I'm looking at the free agents, Lakwan, I mean DeAndre Hopkins, Markuise Brown, Justin Watson, some JP Ron, Juju Smith, Schuster, Kareem Hunt, Mikole Hardman. Is this team pointing to look vastly different next year? And what are we? I mean, are we gonna be in another situation where we're just not really drafting chiefs next year. It's just it's such a weird thing to think, but it just it doesn't I don't know, it doesn't feel right.
No, I mean, honestly, we're gonna be looking at the scraps next year. I mean they might be getting Amari Cooper or Chris gott Or and a Deontay Johnson, you know, Mike Williams, Like this is kind of what this team has turned into. It's like they get the scraps, they utilize them at moments of the time in the game, and then you know, they go out there and win fifteen games. I don't know how they did it this season,
but that's how they did it. I remember going into this offseason thinking like, Wow, this is a crowded room. You got Rashid Rice, you got Marquise Brown, Xavier Worthy, Travis Kelsey, geez, like how much more people can you get? And like you didn't know how it's gonna work, but it all works out. So you might not see a DeAndre Hopkins at Juju or any of those guys you just named off next year. You might just see a whole wave of guys that are ring chasing at this
point and they're gonna make it work. As long as Andy Reids there, as long as Patrick Mahomes is there, there's gonna be some type of success. So for fantasy, you want to stay away. I mean, you don't want to go out there and drafted Patrick Mahomes after what we just saw this year, with Travis Kelcey possibly flying off to the Sunset with Taylor Swift after this season, so who knows where his chemistry is gonna really lie.
And you got Rashid Rice coming off of an injury, which we still don't know his off season, you know issues and how he's going to be disciplined this following year. Either like this is this is something that we have to really think about going into this offseason, like what do we do with our chiefs pieces? Like I honestly think, like I'm back in on Isaiah Pacheco. He's going to be cheaper than he was with you know Florio saying he's a top five, So I'm back in on him.
The talents there, He's a hard runner. And there's no way that I believe Kaream Hunt is going to come back next year and lead that backfield. There's no way that's happening. Like this is Isaiah Pacheco's backfield in twenty twenty five.
Now, Kareem Hutt was a necessity this year. It was because they you know, they were scrambling. They had to replace Pachecko. I think they looked around and they realized Carson Steele wasn't it. They knew that some I. J. P Ruyn was not equipped to handle it over the long haul, and Andy Reid went out and called the guy that he was familiar with. He knew was familiar with the offense, and they brought him back in. So no that Kareem Hutt was he was a He wasn't
mister Wright. He was mister right Now. He was the guy that they needed in the situation. Well, I know, I feel like he blew up in his first game back.
He played pretty well, but he is no burst at all. Yeah, but if you remember back in the summer, the reason we were all excited about this offense was like all the speed pieces they had and Markis Brown got hurt before it started. Uh, Xavier Worthy was slow out the gate, Rashie Rice Gott. We never saw them with all of those guys on the field at the same time. I look, a lot could change, but I'm of the mindset that
like Marki's Brown is probably going to come back. And if we're talking about Mahomes having Rice Worthy and Marky's Brown at his disposal, we might get the Mahomes that was so good for Fantasy for so long.
Talk about all the speed pieces, all the speed pieces there, and the guys that they leaned on were DeAndre Hopkins and Andrew Smiths. Smith Schuster and Kareem Hunt and Justin Watson like, Noah Gray like. These were all the names that that Patrick Mahomes leaned on during the season. Whos man who knows? All right, take a break, we'll come back. We will preview Super Bowl fifty nine as we are to wrap this episode up here on the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast.
Of course, super.
Bowl fifty nine going down in New Orleans, coming up on Sunday between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. Before we dive into that, though, a piece of news that came out on Wednesday. I guess it's more official because we sort of knew this was coming, but the league has announced that the Rams are going to play in Australia in twenty twenty six. Let's go. It's a designated home game for the Rams, so that means what it'll be eight home games, eight away games, and in
the one home game in Australia this year. I was doing the math the other day and from Los Angeles to Melbourne is a nineteen hour time difference. Not sure when exactly the game is going to kick off, but Lakwan, would you be in the Rams fan here? Would you wake up at say like three o'clock in the morning if you had to to watch the Rams play.
I wake up at two am every day most of the week for Good Morning Football, so I don't see why I would not three m. I don't know the average person who doesn't have that type of schedule would, but.
I'm there, baby, forget waking up. Can we get you to go to Australia for the oh? Listen?
I would love that.
I would love that because I know something.
Why just him? Why can't we all go?
I would love to as well, But if they're not sending us, I'm not gonna drop the money. But no, that would be awesome, man.
I honestly have never been out the country like that, so I know we got some fans over there in Australia. I would love to go over there and taste their food, you know, box a kangaroo or something. I don't know. You know, I'll be something to go and that's the last we see of Laclawn.
Listen.
I can get one yard on a fourth and one and I could probably box a kangaroo.
I'm not gonna win. I'm not gonna win.
Have you ever watched a kangaroo video before.
Uh, yes, I've seen a couple of kangaroo like the wild safari stuff.
Their claws would rip you.
To kangaroo will sleep you in a second.
Like, what are we talking about boxing gloves on them? Man, we gotta be tradition. I just want to come right.
I got those back feet though. Man, I know.
This is making my head hurt. This is not where the segment was supposed to go.
LaQuan you were you are that guy, Like there's always tweets that are like the average man thinks they can beat like a lion in a fight.
The average man like you are. Yes, yes, put me on man versus animal. Bro, that's gonna show it at I'm down boxing gloves for safety.
We're not going to harm the animals.
They may harm me, but.
The animal's gonna harm you. Like, yeah, that's fine, they might harm me. I'll be fine. I got inshortans. I think you know my wife does at least Bro, you have children, Like, you can't be out here boxing kangaroos. What are we doing?
Fun fact, kangaroos cannot hop backward and their primary left handed. So therefore I think I have a chance if I plan and strategize his boxing match, and they're left handed.
Okay, I Twitter okay saying LaQuan win. Eighty two percent of the people say no right now.
The only thing I fear is that they have the same biting force as a grizzy bear, which is nine hundred and seventy five psi.
They look like they bench a house, Like I'm looking at you see these swoll these swollen ass kangaroos.
Man, Like what listen, stay on the right, stay on the right, and go around the back and just.
They can't hop backwards.
Come on no, which means which the advantage, which means they just keep advancing like that's all. They just keep coming at you like keep side staff.
Do you know how tall they are alone? Like they're like six feet.
I'm glad I don't have this actually lined up that this is gonna happen.
Don't you remember all those silver Looney suit cartoons with syvested the cat was just getting his stuff punched in by a kangaroo like.
Like yeah, like, no, lie, a fight against the case like that might be the worst animal you can fight because they're they're like us. They're just huge and athletic and they have claws and they are like us, but they are not like us. So yeah, I love that.
I didn't think we'd have kangaroo boxing on this show. Doug Fire content only man, go only be a family man, Stop trying to fight wild animals. All right, that's enough of that. Super Bowl fifty nine. I got a few questions. Let's start with a Super Bowl sleeper, Lakwan, Who is your sleeper in this game?
The guy that I think that you think is gonna pop off that maybe we're not talking a lot about no AGray.
I think he's you know, he's on the contract year. I think more so of like he's the future if Travis Kelsey is going to be walking away from the game. So I think, you know, he might pop up in this big game, might be the headline, you know, for next week as well, being like, oh wow, you might have the future of the Chiefs tight end. You know already you know, circled and played out. So I don't know, I think I feel like he's going to have a big game.
All right. Who's your sleeper, Flora?
I like Noah Gray a lot. It's not nearly as sleepery. It's hard to find a sleeper in one game. But I think Xavier Worthy is going to to do his thing this week. The Eagles are elite at stopping the deep ball. They're also the best in the league at preventing yak after the catch, which is the two ways that Xavier Worth they can win. But I think that Andy Reid is going to generate a lot of plays for him. We saw that against the Bills. We've seen
that in the second half of the year. I'd argue he's their wide receiver one and he has the capability. We're talking about how slow and old the Chiefs are. He is there one guy that could break out a long, big play.
Yeah, I'm worthy that He was my pick as well as Avier Worthy, just because look early in the season, I think he was asked to do a lot because they needed him to do a lot. I mean, losing Marquise Brown early, I mean, especially when they lose for she Rice. I think they were asking him to do a lot of things and it wasn't necessarily working out right.
Everybody looked at them like, oh my god, it's the fastest guy in the history of the Combine goes to the Chiefs and they had him running like go routes and it just wasn't really happening. But as the season progressed, you figured that they were finding new ways to integrate him into the offense, finding new ways to sort of make it work with him. And I think now, I mean, we know Andy Reid after a bye generally is pretty deadly. Giving him a couple of weeks to sort of work
some things out. I think they're going to have some tricks up their sleeve and somehow. I think Xavier Worthy's going to be the guy, whether it's in the running game, whether it is as kind of a downfield thread or maybe a more fully formed wide receiver. I think he's the guy to keep an eye on Lakwan Which player is most critical to their team's success coming up this week.
I'm going to go on the eagle side. I think Aj Brown. I think he needs to have another game where he's not the focal point, but where he's showing up in chunk yards and he's showing up in the end zone. I think it will be very crucial because they shut him down. I'm not too sure who's going to be able to step up other than Saquon on the ground, but I think Spac's got a huge game plan just around Saquon Barkley, being that this is this
first time experiencing the Saquon Barkley experience. So I think aj Brown needs to step up in a huge way. He needs to get in back in that book to enter excellence and you know, get his mind rate and sho show up in the end zone.
All right, Who you got, Floria?
Travis Kelce, which has been the answer for a while for the Chiefs, but not so much this season. But he leads the Chiefs and yards this year and targets, catches all of that against zone coverage and when teams are not blitzing. And I think that's very important because the Eagles use zone at a very high rate. They also blitz at the fourth lowest rate in the NFL. And the other thing is they use Cover six as their defense and hires three in the NFL. The Chiefs
really haven't seen that a whole bunch this year. So I think it's going to come down to the chemistry that Mahomes and Kelsey has and just his ability to find this soft spot in zones. I think that is something that could be like a third and long. Oh backbreaking catch from Travis Kelcey. Stuff like that, I think is how he's going to put his fingerprints on the game.
I'm gonna I'm gonna go with Jalen Hurts because I think if you are Steve Spagnolo, job number one is making sure Saquon doesn't beat you. And the Chiefs have been pretty good against the run all year long. They have the fourth fewest explosive plays allowed on the ground during the regular season. They just weren't giving up a
ton of chunk plays in the running game. So I think you're gonna really see a focus on making sure Saquon doesn't have one of those big, huge Saquon games, which means I think Jalen Hurts is gonna have to step up. And look, the last time these two teams played, Jalen Hurts had himself a great game. Obviously, the Eagles came up short, but I don't think you could put
any of that on Hurts. So I think he's gonna have to kind of, you know, bottle up and refined whatever it was that worked a couple of seasons ago. Because I think they're gonna need him. And when I say he has to have a good game. I don't think he's got to go for three hundred. I don't think he needs to have like four touchdown passes or anything like that. But he's got to be efficient. He's got to be willing to take shots down the field
when he has them. He's going to have to be willing to get out of the pocket and run when he has those opportunities as well. But because I think the Chiefs are going to try their hardest to take Saquan away, then that means Jalen Hurts is going to have to be the guy to step up and make plays when they need him to. I mean, look, these are two good defensive teams. The Eagles, at least statistically this year, I think were the better offensive team. If you were going to give a team the edge, we're
gonna pick the winners in just a second. Look on, I mean, like, which team do you think is the more well rounded of the two teams? Here?
Chiefs, you got to go to experience. Man, they've been there before. They know how to win big games, and they know how to be clutch. And we've talked about Mahomes magic. You can't stop that. Once he gets to a star Barer, So I got to give the edge to them, man with coaching with Mahomes and just overall experiences just being there.
Can you get out of your feelings enough Florida to give us an objective take on this?
Yes, I think once you factor in Andy Reid and Steve Spagnola, which I think is the biggest edge these teams have is the coaching department. I think they are the greatest head coach coordinator combination that I've ever seen. I think that pushes it to the chief side. But just talent wise, and like comparing the roster, I think
the Eagles are the best roster in football. So if we took away all of the like the Chiefs magic and stuff and just broke it down roster wise, I think the edge goes to Philly.
I think they are a deeper team. I think the Eagles are a deeper team. But coaching matters, especially in the Super Bowl, especially when you've had a couple of weeks to prepare, and so I think that that is where Kansas City I think has a bit of an advantage. And look, Patrick Mahomes. Patrick Mahomes is a legitimate advantage right what he does and what he's able to do,
especially in clutch moments, I just can't be discounted. And I think that goes a long way too, even if the offense, like I think, I think down for pound, the Eagles offensively are a better team than Kansas City, but Patrick Mahomes sort of counts double because of what he's able to do with the football in his hands.
Andy Reid as well.
Yeah, I mean, if you're if we're putting Amy Reid versus Nick Sirianni, I don't think it's a contest.
And you got to add in spags to like. Andy Reid also has maybe the greatest decordinator in his bag too, Like I mean.
Yeah, agree, although look, let's not knock Vic Fangio because also know who's outstanding with what he does as well. So all right, it's time to see who will deliver. Presented by Uber Eats. Simple question, gentlemen, Lakwan, you first pick your winner and your Super Bowl MVP.
Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes and the chiefs man. He's going to be catching up the Brady with them super Bowl MVPs.
So that's a clear cut man, all right, Uh, Lareel, you're you're a super Bowl winner in your MVP.
I feel very so like if the Eagles are gonna win, they're gonna have to kick the door down and take it and not put the ball in Mahomes' hands late. Unfortunately, I don't think that is the case. I think Patrick Mahomes has the ball late. And this was my preseason Super Bowl prediction was Chiefs over Eagles, so I'm sticking with that. I'm thinking it'll be close, like a field goal game or something like that. And obviously if they win, Patrick Mahomes is winning the MVP.
Yeah, I guess we make it unanimous, which we did that for the championship games and you see how that turned out for us.
Yeah.
But yeah, I think I think the Chiefs figure out a way to get through and win this thing. I think I have a thirty one twenty eight if I if I have it right, and I think Mahomes, I think Mahomes pulls your MVP award yet again. I will give you my hot take for the Super Bowl. I don't know if I said it on this show. I know I've told some other people, but my hot take is that the Chiefs win the Super Bowl and on the podium Travis kelce and now to his retirement and
proposes to Taylor Swift and the internet melts. The Internet melts down, and she's pregnant and she announces she's final.
Just blow it out in place up.
And we get a whole off season of oh, this is why the Bills got cheated.
Yeah.
No, I actually agree with Margus. I think this is Travis Kelsey's last game.
I mean, I just I think at some point he looks around and you know, look, what else is there for him? Right? What else is there for him to accomplish? Really on the field. He's thirty five, He would be thirty six sometime of early next season, And at some point, like do you want to go through the stress and strain of another training camp? It's two days and one hundred degree heat. Meanwhile, he's watching his brother make super commercials on bear skin rugs. They're getting paid one hundred
million dollars to do a podcast. He's got a billionaire girlfriend.
Travis Kelcey loses money playing football, Like that is true.
That's at some point you're just like, do I really still need this?
I believe that he wanted the Kelsey brothers wanted to go out together. But then when they won the second one, he was like, I can't turn down the chance to win three.
I can't. I can't do that. I can't walk away from it right now. So yeah, that's my that is my hot take. Chiefs. With the Super Bowl, Travis Kelcey announces his retirement proposes by the way, 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 the exit interviews are done, the Super Bowl will be done, the NFL season will officially be over as
of Sunday night, but the podcast rolls on. We're back with you next week and we'll be talking about I don't know something, I don't have the I don't have our little information sheet in front of me right now.
Pros versus Joe's Lakwan versus the Kangaroo, sports signs.
Or whatever it's like, and man versus animal, Lakwan v. Kangaroo. That's what we'll talk about next week. But the meantime, that'll do it for this edition of the NFL Fantasy Football pot Castay, Happy, safe, and healthy, Do good, and live well. Enjoy Super Bowl fifty nine everybody, and we will talk to you again next week. Wow.
That could probably box a kangaroo.