The volume. Hi everybody, and welcome in to our Friday morning podcast. So I'm going to introduce you, many of you already know them if you play fantasy football, to one of the newest podcasts to join the volume. It's called Fantasy Pros. And obviously people have been playing fantasy sports for a long time. I remember a story years ago.
I was on a plane. I was out of college and I was a broadcaster for the Las Vegas Stars, the Triple A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, and sitting in front of me was a young man named Sean Abner. He had been a top pick. I don't know why I thought he was a top pick in the Mets organization traded to the Padres. Maybe he wasn't. But his name was Sean Abner, outfielder, great sense of humor, fun guy, never panned out as a great player. And Bruce Bochie was our manager, and Bochie and Sean Abner
on this American West Airlines plane. I have no idea why. I remember it was an American West Airlines plane. We were in coach. We all had aisle seats, and I asked them what they were playing, and they were playing ro tisseriy baseball, and it sounded so complicated to me. I'm like, do you guys watch every game? How in God's name can you keep up? I'm like, we live in Vegas. Just go bet the games. Just go to the palace station one of the station, Casino Caesar's Palace.
Bet the games. And that was my first introduction to ro tisserie baseball. And this was years ago. It was in the early nineties, so forward to today. I tend to be a gambler. I bet on games. I don't play fantasy sports. But I also, throughout the course of my life, realized that I don't always like things the public does. And since I've created the volume, I felt we had a hole in the company. During the football season, during late July, August, September on through Christmas, we didn't
have a good fantasy show. So we listened to a lot of them, and I wanted people that knew their stuff, sense of humor, easy to listen to, and we found these guys fantasy pros, and so I'm going to give you a sample of them today. They worked their butts off, and I think it's pretty easy in my business. If you listen to somebody for five or six minutes if they sound like people you'd like to hang out with. And I think the guys at Fantasy Pros really sounded
like that. And that's a big part of what we've done at the volume. We've tried to find unique talent. Shannon Sharp just joined us. I love Shannon. I helped bring him to FS one. I think he's interesting, highly verbal, easy to laugh, He's all of things that a former great player should be. He's diligent, hard working, focused, has a wide range of knowledge on pop culture, nutrition, movies, football. Shannon Sharp's that was one of the biggest days in
the volume's history. And we've had i'd say six or seven days that were really meaningful. Some of them are days in which we sign a sponsor and we don't talk about right, you don't care about that stuff. But Shannon makes us as legitimate as we've ever been. He's a tremendous talent. We'll put him all over our YouTube page. So I'm just really excited as we go into a
football season. Now, you know we have Snaps, the SEC guys and John Middlecoff, Jason McIntyre, but Shannon Sharp and Fantasy Pros I think really take us to another level in our football coverage. And I'm totally jack. This has been the last couple of weeks. I've had this daunting head cold for two weeks. I had it, it left, I've got it back. I'm struggling with equilibrium. I can barely stand up. So if I seem a little punchy recently on the air, that explains that I can't breathe,
wobbling all over the place. If some of it's just I told my wife, I get stressed out sometimes and I get sick when I get stressed, and so we've really been working diligently. We have more huge news which I think we're going to deliver later next week. I'm excited about. But you know, I just I love going into football seasons because stories that you are not going
to believe are going to be unveiled. I mean, Grand Turismo is this movie that, by the way, I've seen billboards all over the country for it, where it doesn't sound it possible. It literally doesn't sound possible. A gamer, a race car gamer, goes into an academy, wins a contest in the academy, and then goes into a racing circuit with a very aspirational aud executive and a failed race car driver and eventually wins races. That doesn't even
sound like it's true. It is true. It's a fascinating movie. And when I watch that movie, one of the things it led me to and it's something I've always believed be very careful about thinking something is a hot take.
If I would have said to you, there'll be a kid that's going to be a gamer and he's eventually an executive is gonna say, I'm gonna take this kid and make him a race car driver against real pros, and he's gonna be wildly successful almost immediately, you'd be like, cuckoo, cuckoo, hot take guy Kevin Durant's gonna leave Oklahoma City and end up with the Warriors the arrival. They've already got seven clay they don't do they have enough basketballs? What
a hot take? When you watch Grand Turismo, my takeaway is that's crazy. That makes absolutely no sense, And I think that's what I love about football. For the last thirty plus years, four new teams minimum have made the playoffs. That's minimum. The average is six. Every time I make predictions, this time of the year. People are like, oh, give me a break, Carolina Panthers make the playoffs. Well, it can't just be the Eagles, the Niners, the Cowboys, the Seahawks,
the Packers. There's got to be a new teams, the Vikings. It can't just be the Chiefs and the Bengals and the Bills and the Jaguars. It's got to be new teams. And so that's why I've always laughed at kind of I rolled at the term hot take. Sports gives us the unexpected, the grand turismo, the crazy, the wild, the unexpected, the gamer turn race car driver. It's what I love about this season. It's what I love about sports, is what I loved about the movie. All right, let's go
to our guys. They're interesting fantasy pros, really fun twenty five minute discussion.
Here we go.
We had a discussion after last football season and I said, you know, we really don't have a fantasy group that and I said it's I've always been a better over fantasy, but I said, my friends are fantasy over betting. And I said, anytime I've done a remote and said how many people play fantasy, one hundred hands go up. And I'm like how many people bet and hands go up? But fantasy, I believe in America is still it's more popular.
And so we were looking for a group that had personality, that was accurate, that was fun, didn't take themselves too seriously, and we listened to a lot of tapes and that you guys were the obvious choice. And it's really exciting for us because, you know, as our company grows, we've got so many different shows like we have. You know, Daniel Cormier was an actual UFC fighter, he's ringside Shannon Shark can do pop culture and sports. We just didn't
your Space. We thought we did a poor job on it our first two years, like we're just not doing a good job. We had gambling talk, but not fantasy. And I didn't think you guys would be available to be honest with you.
I was like, well, to be honest, Colin if if you know, if Colin Coward calls you, you pick up the phone. That's what I always say. Let's beyond which my wife that so that's another show. We can on a time for that conversation today, that's for sure. But Daniel Cormier, by the way, came on with me on the Betting Pros podcast, and he was fantastic. We did a whole preview of UFC two ninety one. We talked wwee he and I because we're both big fans, so
it was a great time. And again I encourage everybody. I'm sure you already know about the Volume Network, but the shows they have on there phenomenally. You got all the athletes who have their own shows on there, and the myriad of different content you guys are doing is just tremendous. And I guess we're just excited, and I'm excited that you're excited. So let's talk about football because we've got questions here and we're gonna land this up
for you. The first burning question. I think these are important because this is I always say, you know, we love to talk about fantasy stuff, but real football and fantasy that intersects. Everything's coming here together. The numbers come around obviously, the same thing with some of these situations and how they impact fantasy. First question, I want to
ask you, com will the Lions crumble under expectations? It's one thing to be the plucky underdog every single year, and all of a sudden, you're building this thing but now you look at Vegas. They're telling you they believe in the Lions. You're telling the rest of the league believes in the Lions. Do you think that the Lions are ready to believe in themselves as a favorite?
I am as long as the expectations are ten to eleven wins and not twelve, thirteen or fourteen. The NFC is the weaker conference. If you look at Jared Goff's career, it's pretty clear. When he has a clean pocket and protection, he's a really good quarterback. He's not as good outdoors, he's not as good under duress. He's not as good forced to run. But the Lions have a top five
to six offensive line, more than enough weapons. Jared Goff with time to throw in Los Angeles, when he struggled against the Niners, the rams O line couldn't block the Niners D line. He struggled right and McVeigh saw that, And so there's a way. Great quarterback don't have to win a certain way. Good ones do. Goff does, but this team allows him to play the way. He's very successful time in the pocket. I think they'll have a
very good run game. Jared Goff throwing on third and two or second and five is a really good quarterback.
Yeah. I like the expectations too. Ten eleven wins, we start pushing eleven twelve and we start having a bad conversation Justin Fields. Everybody's talking about him. Well, Justin Fields take the next step forward or we fall backwards. In twenty twenty three, I know they give him DJ Moore. They've given a Rocheawn Johnson, Deonta Foreman, some upgrade offensive line pieces. Is that enough? Are we ready to finally
see Justin Fields from Ohio State? Or we're going to see Justin Fields who has been hit and miss at the quarterback position. Great in fantasy, but that's not everything.
Yeah, I think he'll be a hit because they were last in the league last year in yards after catch and so between the upgrade at wide receiver, tight end, and I think the kid they got out of Texas the running back is the steals of the draft. He's going to get much more support yards after the catch. That's what makes Kansas City in San Francisco so good. Brock Purdy gets it out to Debo McCaffrey Kittle. It's yards after contact, it's yards after catch, and so this kid.
He was asked to do way too much. Last year, he just outside of Mooney and cole Comt, he just didn't have a lot of next level players. Tanyan's a really good pickup Claypool. I'm hitting miss on. DJ Moore's good yards after catch will allow him to throw on third and short and second and five. It felt like last year he was in third and nine constantly. So yes, I think if you look at his splits last year, he was better in the last six games. In the
first six, he's getting better. It's time it'll work.
Erickson. Your thoughts on fields here. I now we've had a lot of conversations on the fantasy side. Do you see these new pieces and this renewed optimism here for fields to take a step forward?
I do you know last year he's QB six and points per game eleven games played from week's five through seventeen, Tams QB five and that was with no weapons to throw to. So it's much harder to get completions where you're throwing to Chase Claypole, who's just joined the team. But now you have Dj Moore, you have darn all Right added to the offensive line. I think that he's set for stardom in year three, specifically in fantasy football.
Yeah, well, certainly the rushing equity off the charts. We saw that last year if you added him in a single quarterback league, even he got to the playoffs. I mean that run was just spectacular. Let's go to another one too, last year feel good story, Colin. I love field good stories. The problem is sometimes they don't always last. Can Gino Smith replicate his twenty twenty two season, which was really good from fantasy perspective, and let's be honest,
from a Seattle Seahawks perspective, they were very pleased. So do you think that this is just the new version of Geno Smith or is this a one off?
You know, I'm split on it. The old line, young O line, I thought deteriorated a little at the end of last year. The running back got hurt, so they drafted Zach Charberne of UCLA, which I thought was a really smart move. So Walker's a really hard running kid from Michigan State, but he gets banged up. So they went and said, you know what, Gino needs a running back, a top running back. So when Walker left, the O
line deteriorates. It's more on Gino. So I think Seattle saw that and said, you know what, We're going to go get a running back one A so we're always going to have a top running back. They also went and drafted a slot receiver with Lockett and DK Metcalf and so I think they know what Gino is. It's a little like Dak Prescott or Kirk Cousins. With a run game, with support, they can manage you to a lot of wins. They can't carry you with no run game.
They can't carry you with a deteriorating O line. So my guess is he dips a little bit. There's there, you regress to the mean a little bit. But I do think Seattle is smart enough. I think the O line will be better this year. Just it's year two in the league for those tackles, so I think he's going to look pretty similar to last years rating last year was near the top of the league. I imagine that pulls back a little, but he won't embarrass Seattle.
He falls into the camp of quarterbacks nine through fourteen in the league. You know they can win. They can't carry he can win. It's Kirk Cousins is very much in that, but they can't carry you. And I think that's what Gino is well.
And you got to have that offensive line ready to go in that division two because you've got guys like Aaron Donald in the front and obviously what you saw last year from that San Francisco pass rush. We'll see how Nick Moosa wants society. He wants to come back and play. We'll see how that works out Ericson, I want to ask you this one here. This is a is a fun Jet question. You know, we keep talking about all we need for the New York Jets is what a quarterback? That's it, That's all we need. Well
they got one. They got a Hall of Fame quarterback. He's not quite the same guy he was a few years ago, but obviously a huge upgrader over what they had. Is Aaron Rodgers really the only thing that Jets need to make a run the Super Bowl. And I know that sounds lofty, Andrew, but in your opinion, do you think that you could take this offense? It was right
twenty ninth the points last year. Put Aaron Rodgers there with the pieces they have with these now two running backs, with Breeze Hall and Dalvin Cook and actually run through the AFC.
I think in theory it makes sense. You know why the Jets made the move. They wanted to get the veteran quarterback in the build into upgrade, pairing him with his elite defense. But the other issues at hand, the brutal schedule over the start for six weeks. No one has a tougher schedule than the New York Jets. Offensive line issues on the New York Jets is specifically at the tackle position, Like that's scary. You have a you know, Aaron Rodgers is no spring chicken, Like he's going to
be entering his age forty season. You know, they got to make sure he is protected. We saw him get banged up a little bit last year with a finger injury, thumb in Like if that influenced his play, which was not great last year, then there's potential issues here. So they need good Aaron Rodgers to make the Super Bowl run. And I'm not so sure of him at this age. He hasn't passed for three hundred yards since Week fourteen
of the twenty twenty one season. So for me, I'm on the side of really fading the New York Jets hype an ultra competitive AFC East and I bet the under on their projective Wintell. So I'm not in on the Jets, interested to see what Collins take is.
Yeah, Colin, I want to ask you about the Jets because with hard knocks on top of it, you're talking about I mean, as much press you could possibly get in a situation, and it had enough press in the off season. Now you're adding hard knocks in the fire. Is it going to get to a point here where the Jets that people are going to start believing too much in the Jets? And should people pump the brakes?
Well?
Yeah, I mean there's a lot of blinking red lights here. Corey Davis now retires. So you have Garrett Wilson, a twenty three year old, your number one receiver, Alan Lizard's a three. They want to make him a two. Andy Reid bailed on Micole Hardman. The tight end position isn't highly productive. It's like, and we don't like the tackles. Does that sound like an AFC championship team? Like there's just you know, everybody bangs on the Giants, but we
love their tackles. Waller and Saquon Barkley are veteran weapons, offensive coach, quarterback in their prime, good defensive front. The Jets are flash here. You can argue the Giants have really key pieces left tackle, quarterback, prime offensive coach. You know, giants planning the same MetLife stadium are getting dragged by everybody.
And I'm like, I'm not so sure that the offensive coach with a quarterback in his prime who had a higher passer rating than Aaron Rodgers last year may not be the play in New York and not the Jets.
Yeah, the defense certainly on the Jets size, working in their favorsus whether or not the offense can meet the expectations. And just like the Lions now, they've got expectations.
This baseball season continues to heat up. You could watch it on TV, but what's better than going to the park on a beautiful summer day with friends For last minute amazing deals on tickets. Check out game Time, the fastest growing ticket app in the United States, and it doesn't stop at just sports, summer concerts, comedy tours all
across the country. Game Time has your tickets. Download the game Time app and the redeem code is Colin that's me Cli N twenty dollars off your first purchase twenty bucks no matter where you live, go out in the summer in style, comedy, baseball concerts, it's the game. Time app last minute deals, lowest prices, guaranteed twenty dollars off your first purchase twenty bucks. Terms apply.
Let's get to another burning question here for the NFL season. This is a fun one here, Colin. Is Jordan Love the next great Packer quarterback? And this historic run that they've had of going from far to the aforementioned Aaron Rodgers and now Jordan Loves starting the show some flashes here. It's only preseason, but I'm sure people all over Cago and people all over Minnesota are starting to say, oh no,
not again. Do you think we're getting to that point with Jordan Love where people are buying in on the hype?
Well, Farvan Rodgers are arguably top twelve quarterbacks. Ever, I feel pretty confident Jordan Love will not enter that space.
Agreed.
The question is there's a lot of boxes. He checks. You know, he's big enough, he's mobile, his arm's fine. I think we have to be honest that outside of an occasional Trevor Lawrence or Andrew Lucker, John Elway. Where you land is about eighty percent of your success as a quarterback. Mahomes landing in Houston is not going to be hoisting trophies. He gets Andy Reid, the Hunt family, Brett Veach. It's a whole different reality. Matt Stafford Detroit,
Matt Stafford, Sean McVay trophy, struggling for the playoffs. So my takeaway is the Packers on line, excellent run game, excellent offensive coach, Wonky division. He's probably going to be successful. But what is success? What if he's Kirk Cousins with better mobility. I think Green Bay would sign up for that today. And that's what I think. You're going to have kind of a Dack Cousins with an athletic kid who can move. They can move the pocket. By the way,
Matt Lafleuor likes to move the pocket. Couldn't much with Aaron as he declined in mobility. So I think they're going to move the pocket a lot. The offense is going to look different, it's going to look more youthful, and I think they'll be successful as long as we keep expectations more toward Kirk Cousins and less toward Farvron, Aaron Rodgers Andrew.
When we're talking about the athleticism of Jordan Love too and this ability maybe to get out and do some other things Aaron Rodgers wasn't capable of doing. What does that mean from a fancy perspective, because I know we have expectations they're going to rely heavily on that run game that Colin was talking about with aj Dillon and of course Aaron Jones. But Christian Watson's a piece that is coming relatively cheap still in drafts, and that guy
is a huge playmaker. I know there's still some questions about the consistency, but we saw the playmaking ability, we saw the speed, we saw you could change a game. Is he somebody in fantasy you're investing in in twenty three?
Yeah? I love Christian Watson and the fact that Christian Watson can also He's a dual threat in terms of he can win after the catch, so he can take a screen or a slant to the house, and he can also win downfield, which takes advantage of Jordan Love's big arm. So Jordan Love's moving around the pocket making offscript plays. I think Christian Watson is going to be that guy that delivers splash plays.
Down all right, Now here's a fun one. Andrew. I'm going to give you a shot at this one first, because we had this conversation on betting pros. I've had it with a bunch of people. I've already made an investment and it seems to be the one where everybody's got a different answer. Who's going to win the NFC South, Andrew, go ahead, I'm.
Going with the Atlanta Falcons. You know, Arthur Smith has handpicked top ten overall offensive players at running back, wide receiver, tight end of our last three seasons, got Pits London Bijon defense has added key players through free agency and the NFL Draft with their site set on winning now, like people are joining this defense because they're not rebuild. Like Kalays Campbell bringing him in. He wanted to come to the Falcons because I think this team can win.
And when you look at the division they play in, it's the worst division in all football. So I think that the Falcons can run the table here. I'm not afraid of Derek Carr. Like if it's Derek Carr and the Saints. That is the biggest thing standing between the Falcons and at NFC South title. I'll take that all day.
So for me, all I see the question mark comes around Desmond Ridder and during year two, But I think in a similar way to a Jordan Love where all he needs to do is facilitate an offense with all these skilled players around him, similar to a Ryan Tannehill that Arthur Smith had so much success with in Tennessee. So Ridder wasn't a perfect prospect coming out of Cincinnati, but the one thing that he did do was win games.
Third most wins by quarterback in college football history including NFL and college Ridder is twenty eight And oh at home the Atlanta Falcons open the season at home Panthers and Packers. They're starting to and oh so I'm back in the Falcons.
What a fun meetingless trend that you throw out there, as if that somehow means anything for anything. Look, I'm already invested in the Falcons, but it's mostly a b. John Robinson reason. Like that's that's the whole point that I keep making, Like this is a head coach that knows how to run the football, want to run a football needs to run the football in an offensive line. They got Tyler Alger over a thousand yards last year. Yeah, Colin,
there's some questions here about this division. So when you look at it from your perspective, who do you think is really the front runner in the NFC South, Because once again last year it was disappointing.
Yeah, I mean, Derek Carr is the best proven quarterback. The Saints, I think have the best roster. That's probably where i'd lean their schedules week. A lot of betters like Atlanta Arthur Smith, good old, underrated O line, a lot of first round, you know, tight end running back players. So I think I think in a league that has pivoted in the last eight to nine years to offense, they've got really high end offensive players with a very
nice offensive line. I don't know anything about Desmond Ritter. I watched them in college too, So I mean, if I would probably go Car in the Saints roster. But there is no proof that the head coach of the Saints is more than a defensive coordinator. He bombed with the Raiders, and I mean Sean Payton to him was an ugly first year and Sean Payton won with Bridgewater,
Jamis Winston, Drew Brees, Taysom Hill. So it's like I'm putting stock that the Saints coach finds his he finds himself, he pivots, he somehow finds this magic, but there's no proof it's true. Atlanta is so hot with all the betters. Sometimes you have to acknowledge I didn't see it, so I still have a week or two to make my picks Atlanta. I really thought Carolina would be interesting, but they have been so overwhelmed up front offensively in two games. I mean, it's not even It's like, oh my god,
this is potentially Bryce Young small a disaster. So I think Atlanta is with the smart money. That's where the smart money's going. But I'm not smart money. I'd go Saint.
Well, now I feel even smarter money because now you're talking about everybody else in it, and I'm in it, and Andrew's it. That's good, so we feel good. Let's leave on that high note. And I'm glad you brought up the offensive line issue there in Carolina because that's
another thing too that really starts to concern me. That size of Bryce Young concern me anyway, And if you can't not protect this guy, you have to protect him more than you would your normal quarterback if you were going to keep this kid upright and playing seventeen games in the NFL. Let's get to another one here. Normally, after you lose the Super Bowl, especially in a tight fashion, especially in a disappointing fashion, we've seen teams the next year,
things don't go their way. Now, the Eagles last year, we're very close to winning that game. You can make that argument they're just another one of this line of teams Colin, where you have this team go to the Super Bowl, have a great year, everything works out, they fall short. The next year, they have high expectations, but again doesn't work out. Now I am completely invested in the Eagles because I think they can absolutely regain that stature,
more because the NFC is weak than anything else. Do you see the Eagles being able to get away from that recent trend of those Super Bowl teams that lose and then disappoint the next year. Can the Eagles be the exception to the rule.
I think they're going to pull back. Shane Stiken's a significant loss. I think he's brilliant. I was told years ago by the Chargers GM Tom Telesco. I went to lunch with him and he said, boy, we have a young offensive coach that is really good. So Shane Steiken took herbert rookie year, huge numbers. Jalen Hurts turned him around. I think that's a loss. Siiani struggled coaching this team before he handed over the play calling. Dude, he's to Shane Stikin. And then everything took off. They lost a
couple of their best defenders. You know, they let some linebackers go. Their schedules much tougher. Remember last year they faced a collection of kind of backup quarterbacks and second tier quarterbacks who are fell behind in games. So Jalen Hurts played with a lead, and often a significant lead in many games. Well, as you guys know, Baker Mayfield looks good with a lead. That's not the league, right.
What makes Mahomes great is he can trail seventeen to nothing third quarter or second quarter, and it just he plays the same way. So I don't think they'll have these gigantic twenty four to three leads at half. They'll play from behind, the games will be closer. They'll miss Nick Sirianni they'll be a good team to a very good team. But at times last year they looked like Alabama and Nick Saban's early dynasty, like they were just the games were over at half. That's not the NFL.
That is just not Dallas could be better. I think the Giants are fine. I've watched Sam Howe in the preseason. I talked to Greg co South today. You can win games with Sam Howe. I think Chicago's better. There's a lot of teams. Detroit could be better. The NFC is going to be a little better than we think, and I think Philadelphia pulls back. I still think they win the division, but I think they have to go to weeks fifteen, sixteen seventeen to win it. Those two giant games late will decide it.
Well, that's an interesting thing from the fantasy standpoint because Andrew, we're talking about having to push the ball a little bit more. That could be a good thing from fantasy perspective, right.
No, I love it for the receivers Aj Brown, DeVante Smith, Dallas Goddard. People are trying to figure out is there are too many miles to feed in this offense. But if this team has to now play a full four quarters, which wasn't the case last year where they would just run the ball in the second half of games because
they were just blowing teams out. So I think it's great for fantasy football that the Egos are going to be playing in more contested contests where they're going to be going back and forth more with some of these other teams.
I'm jeous because Collins out there having lunches with these important NFL people. I had lunch with ericson last week. We went to a taco place in New York. I don't know if the same kind of conversations happened. I didn't get that same kind of buzz. All right, let's get to another question here on the board, Andrew, This one's for you. Will brock Perdy pick up where he left off or is everything going to fall apart in year two, because let's be honest, it was another Cinderella
story of epic proportions. Trey Lance looks like he's on the outs. I know Darnold's kicking around, So are you believing in Brock.
I'm not gonna believe in rock Perty's seven point six touchdown rate, which is basically be throwing at least two touchdowns in every single game for seven straight games. Because that's better than Patrick Mahomes' career touchdown rate, which just happens to rank fifth all time in NFL history. So anyone that thinks that Brock Perry's just gonna step in and throw two touchdowns every single week, you're gonna be wrong. Like,
that's not gonna happen with Brock Purdy. Can he be Kyle Shanahan's puppet as a guy that facilitates the offense, probably, Like we've seen him do this with Jimmy Garoppola, with Nick Mullins, with CJ. Bether, Like we've already seen this play out with a Shanahan quarterback. Rock Purty works in this system and they're going to have some success. But for him to have such a big edge and be as hot as he was last year, I don't think that's gonna be the case.
Whatsoever.
He's gonna show more of the reasons why he was a seventh round draft pick, why he was picked last, Like, I don't think that he necessarily has all of the intangibles in that upside. And ultimately, the reason they drafted Trey Lance was because they wanted to get over the hump, and I don't think with brock Purdy and his limitations as an athlete coming off this elbow injury that they are going to mention it over the hump. So they'll be in the playoff contention like they are every year.
Still have a strong defense, but I would be betting against brock Purty in the forty nine ers.
Colin, you want to chime in here on brock Perty.
Yeah, he'll regress, no question. I have Seattle winning the division. It's been a very distracting off season. Trey Lance, Sam Donald. I think Donald's a better too than Trey Lance, but I think he pulls back.
They're very good.
Seattle is younger, healthier, gets better. Young players tend to not get hurt as much, and when they do, they heal faster. San Francisco is getting old, a lot of collisions, kids window free, Trent Williams. So Seattle will get injured like everybody else, the players will heal faster, and I think the Niners will pull back. They'll be really good, but they'll pull back, all right.
Answer this question with the name, who's the first NFL head coach to go in twenty twenty three, who will be relieved of his duties? Colin Coward, what do you have?
I think Ron Rivera their schedules tough early, they have a new ownership. New owners always get their own GM and their coach right right. They're not gonna blame Sam Howell.
He is what he is.
They're going to let him go. I also think at some point they may move off players at the trade deadline if they you know, they may want to get in to the Caleb Drake may sweepstakes. What if they start two and four? They may move off players. Ron Rivera his fate is then sealed, right, you know? I don't I think if Ron won seven games eight, we'd go what a year? They'd still move off him. So I think Ron Rivera's a choice.
All right. Before Colin gets to his five favorite surprise players of twenty twenty three, I got one more question for you, and this is a big one. You mentioned him earlier in the show, Sean Payton. Can he turn around the Broncos in one year? I know, we just got news today about Jerry Judy's injury. Now we don't have updates exactly what that is yet, so it's kind
of a loaded question, but I'll ask it anyway. Is that co upgrade enough where the Broncos can get on the right track or do they continue to struggle in this very competitive AFC West.
I think they'll get on the right track, but that doesn't mean they'll make the playoffs. They were twenty ninth than getting plays in on offense and defense. They were a mess. They had to hire somebody to run the clock. That's not going to be a problem. You will watch the Broncos and you will feel most Sundays they are well coached and can win the game. But I don't think they're going to win more than nine to ten games. They're not going to win eleven, twelve, thirteen. So you
will see a well run, lubricated organization. You will think that's a good team. Like the Chargers last year. I don't think you'll think they're a super Bowl team. I think there's too many injuries. I think you're asking Sean to fix the culture, fix, the quarterback fix, the O line, that fix. There's just too many fixes. So and there's too many teams in the AFC who have maybe one ask or one fix. They have three to four. So they'll be a really good team, but.
Not great all right? Who could be great this year? I know you put together all a list for us, which is great. If you watch the Herd, you know Colin's not above a good list once in a while. I know I do. And look, you've got five names here, maybe some honorable mentions to some guys you think you could have really surprisingly good twenty twenty three. So who is on that list for you going into this season?
I think Luke Muskgrave is a rookie tight end for Green Bay. I watched him because I'm from the Pacific Northwest. I heard about him a couple of years ago at Oregon State. He got hurt before the USC game. It didn't play, or the country would have seen him. Incredible speed for a tight end. Young quarterbacks, Jordan Love love tight ends. They drafted two. I think we're going to see some young skill players in this league. Pop Luke Musgraves one of them. Chris o'lave I think is going
to have a really interesting year. So first of all, Ohio State's become an insane wide receiver school. My entire life, Ohio State was known for linebackers, Russians. You know, it's like, when did they become wide receiver?
You five six years?
Yeah, that's what you go from Andy Dalton, Taysom Hill to Derek Carr. That's a real upgrade.
And Derek.
Olave gets open sometimes Derek doesn't have the confidence to throw people open, but Olave has the speed and twitchiness to get open. I think he's going to have a big year. Another player that they've been talking about in San Francisco, Brandon I Yuk. So Deebo gets hurt, Kittle gets hurt, McCaffrey gets hurt. A Yuk is going to have a lot of catches and so much of this offense. And Deebo can be a little It's not a negative.
He's a little emotional. Like if he gets dinged, he may not want to play hurt, he may not want the running back touches. Ayuk wants the bag. He wants the touches, give me the ball. George Kittle is not getting the bag in a Week five against the Rams, right like Ayuk wants touches. And I think brought pretty a young quarterback right, Garoppolo and Kittle were close. I think pretty his guy is going to become Brandon Ayuk and I think Brandon's a really good player Arizona State guy.
I think he's going to have some numbers. I wrote this one down, although it's probably already baked in to your business. I think Calvin Ridley is probably, you know, recency biased. Nobody's seen him play. Kelvin Ridley's great like route runner, speed, twitchy, the entire route tree, Doug Peterson's second year. If you go back to Jacksonville last year,
you know they kind of sputtered around. They had to clean up the urban Meyer mess, and it was about week seven, week eight, week nine from like, I think it was like week nine on Trevor Lawrence was better than Patrick Mahomes and multiple numbers. Right, it's like, oh whoa, whoa. Now they weren't as good as Kansas City, but Trevor was carrying the load. So now Christian Kirk moves to it too, which is already what he is. Evan Ingram
doesn't have to be as dominant in that space. Travis atn to me, has always been good at catching the football a good duel back can do.
He doesn't.
He's not just a downhill guy. Calvin Ridley is one hundred and twenty catch guy, and I think in a Wonky division Doug Peterson system. I mean, people really liked Doug. I thought, if you look, if you went to the last seven to eight games last year, the Steelers defense, the Jags offense, it was like whoa, whoa whoa young quarterback, different looking team than eight weeks ago. I think Calvin Ridley's gonna have a big year.
Yeah. Really interesting though, because Calvin Ridley's guy started out as a value and he's been climbing up the boards here in our industry almost to the point where now his ADP is going to a certain degree where he has to return that value. Almost not quite there, but just about on that tilt. I got one more player because I know you had him down to Olave is
one of my favorite guys too. I want to get your take on Kenny Pickett because this is one too that has a lot of fantasy assets around him now, whether it be Deontae Johnson, George Pickens, and obviously you know Naji Harris, who was very good year one disappointing last year. We can chalk that up to the O line to inconsistent quarterback play. Do you think Pickett is ready to make a jump.
Well, I think Pickett's more mobile than people may understand. He's not Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson. But if you go to last year's games, Kenny and the Steeters O line has been really average. They just it's like Buffalo. They have talent, they can't figure it out. And he had to move last year. He's mobile, and so Kenny's gonna run for some touchdowns.
And I.
Love their roster, I really do. I don't know if I love their offensive coordinator or their play calling, but I love their roster. And I think, you know it's funny at Burrow and Lamar and Deshaun Watson are getting all the pub Pickett now moves into his prime. He's comfortable in the stadium. He played college football. They won seven of their last nine games. I don't see special,
But again, like Jordan, love the culture, the coach. You know, with the Steelers defense, he's throwing when he wants to throw, not when he has to throw. I mean, Pittsburgh's defense is you're not getting in the mid twenties on that He's not going to have to be in shootouts. He's going to throw either leading or in situations where he's not desperate. I think he's going to end up having a nice year. He's going to get overshadowed in that quarterback division and in the But Kirk Cousins has been
overshadowered for years. And I don't know how he plays in fantasy, but puts up nice numbers year.
Over year QB nine last year in fantasy, and nobody cares. And you know what he's going is right now. You know he's going QB twelve. So he's the free quarterback in your single quarterback league that you can draft basically whenever, real quick too, because I know you got to get out of here. I know you had one more name on your list, Jordan Addison. Speaking of Kirk Cousins, your ability to project a little bit of what Addison can do taking the skill set from USC over here to Minnesota. Yeah.
So he's a good route runner. He's feisty for a guy that's not considered a burner. At USC was always wide open. It's like the Cooper Cup thing. It's like, why is he so Jordan Nelson? Why is he so wide open? Jordan got doubled at USC was always open. Good hands, he's slight, he's not big. This may be a guy that plays fourteen to fifteen games a year. He'll never get doubled because of Justin Jefferson. He'll never get doubled. So he'll beat single coverage. He's slippery, he
kind of explodes out of his routes. He's sneaky fast again, routes, hands, deceptive speed. Really a quiet kid. Really, he came into USC was a complete grown up. Just not distracted by LA at all. Just may have been the quietest guy in the team. So he's an adult. He'll come in to that organization and he'll match Kirk Cousins because Justin's got some flair, right, Like, this kid's a grinder. He'll
come in, he'll work hard. He'll make sixty four catches, six touchdowns because you know Jefferson's going to take so much of the coverage gets rolled over. So he's an interesting one. I worry about his health because he's not big, Like he is slightly slight, like devont Day Smith, like really slight.
Yeah, agreed to one hundred percent
The volume