Football Frenzy with Chelsa Messinger and Matt Miller

of Unleashed from bet MGM. I'm Olivia Harland Decker with my co host Jannas Papas. Janni, how are you. I'm doing pretty pretty good. I'm excited about today's show college football. I'm just here to learn. I'm just here to learn. Well, there's a lot to learn, because this is the season of change, my friend. But I've got a question for you.

Do you like cold hard cash? I love cold heartcash. Okay, we have that in common because this week we are giving away five hundred dollars in the final week of it. We're gonna announce it on next week's show. And it's really easy, you guys. This is for all of our listeners. Just go on Apple Podcasts wherever you listen to podcasts, but you have to go to Apple for this one

and leave a review. Janni and I are going to pick our favorite three and we're gonna be unbiased, right Like, even if it's bad about us, we can still pick it. Absolutely here's the deal. You guys better jump on this. You get five hundred bucks in MGM credit. And I have created about a hundred fake screen names and I am just leaving reviews because I want to win it. So I thought I saw some that were complimenting your

figure and your hair. Now that makes sense? What Yeah, the ones talking about me looking good and being very handsome, those are the suspicious ones. I love it, So just again go to Apple Podcast Unleashed by bet MGM, leave review. We're gonna pick three, so three of y'all will win. Check it out. We wanted to make sure you heard that at the beginning of the show. Later in the show, we're gonna announce some other games we have coming up this whole football season, so make sure you hear the

end because we are not done given away money. We want you to come back and listen and hang out with us, and then we're going to reward you for being our friends. I feel like I'm in a sorority again and give you cash. Were you in a sority? Well don't don't you think so? Absolutely? You got sority vibe all over you. I just never asked, Yeah, what was it? Five sick Cat, Delta, baby Cat, But Delta, we are the cat by Delta's Did you have songs? Did you learn to tell you? I was a cheerleader.

I knew that. I knew that when I read your Wikipedia. I know you are like you are totally like the female Jake Paul, you can do it all. I mean you can sing, you can cheerlead, you can field goal kick, you can sports report. I assume you can ride horses because you just look like, Yes, I know, I know you. I wish I was as rich as Jake Paul. I gotta start working on my marketing scheme because he is good. But all you gotta do is box. Rachel Nichols, I'm

gonna leave that one right where you put up my friend. Hey, look, I I was a cheerleader. I love college football because I love the pageantry. I love the band, I love the cheerleaders. I love the Alma matern ness of it. It's just so much fun. So I love Week one college football. We are going to get into the weeds there and we're going to bring in the host of the Daily Tip tells a messenger We're gonna go over betting lines with her. So she's going to give you

tons of advice. Yeah, she is good. She is so sharp you want to listen to what she says. And then we're gonna help you perfectly craft your football fantasy team. And we're going to bring in ESPN's NFL Draft analyst Matt Miller. He is fantastic. Make sure you're taking notes. We're just here to serve, right, honest. We're just helping people out. We're helping people out. We're here to give you tips. We want you to win some cold hard cash.

I like the way you said that cold hardcatch. So we got all the betting tips coming for college football. We got your fantasy help. I mean, we're giving it all away and we want to help you make some money. Yeah baby, Okay, let's get into college football because this

is the season of change. Holy cow, there's so much to go over. Let's start with conferences. So you said you don't know much about college football. Let me just give you a quick quick preview. There are five major conferences and it's called the Power five. And then there are five kind of second tier conferences in historical context called Group of five. So you got P five and G five. You with me? I'm with you. I'm with you,

cool and that's just more for abbreviations purposes. So we're mostly going to focus on Power five on this podcast as we look at betting lines. But I will tell you, if you are a true college football fan, you're gonna want to bet on some of those Group of five matchups because some crazy things happen in those games. But let me play this out for you. The SEC is King, always Ben King, and I know I'm biased because I went to U G. A. But it's just the truth.

And in July, Oklahoma and Texas, who are part of the Big Twelve, they said, yeah, we're done here. We want to go hang out with the cool kid table, and they accepted invitations to the SEC. This is supposed to happen in so much ado. Right now, they are still in the Big twelve four now, but in is the target year that oh you and Texas are going to the SEC, which now expands them to six team teams. You can only imagine, your honest, the domino effect this

app So get ready because this gets confusing. Okay, okay, okay, you're very quiet now because I'm just taking it in right now. I am I am in learning mode, which perfect. I have a d D. So make it fun and make it quick apparently. Okay, okay, So after this happens, everyone freaks out, especially the Big Twelve, because now they have lost some of their biggest properties. Oh, you in Texas are kind of it as far as our producers. A West Virginia guy, he's gonna be mad, I said that,

But that's kind of it with a Big twelve. And now there's an alliance going on between the Pack twelve out West, the Big Ten in the Midwest, in the Big Twelve. And really it's all about TV deals. I know this because I've worked for multiple networks and I know the conversations that are had moving forward. All TV rights owned by those three conferences. It's all Fox and

their offshoot networks. So in order to keep ratings up and be competitive against ESPN, who has the college football playoff rights and the National Championship rights, that's really the

big value in terms of marketing and advertising dollars. So talks of these three conferences who are kind of getting left in the dust, They've decided they could potentially combat this by playing an eight game conference schedule and then two games against each other So that means you'd have eight games, you know, in the Big twelve whatever, and then you'd have to one against Pack twelve Big tens.

So you could have Clemson playing their front schedule, which more or less is not too challenging, and then they could play Wisconsin, they could play Ohio State, then they could go play Oregon, they could go play Arizona State. So that's exciting. I think that's really good. But you can see already how messy this can get, right absolutely. That was such a great explanation. That was a little that was very behind the scenes and informative. Always follow

the money, follow the cold hard cash. Okay, Well, this also has implications because before this things were really ramping up with an expanded playoff. This is the eighth year of the four team playoffs. So college football has been around over a hundred fifty years. It took about a hundred forty years of those to even get a playoff. Things move slowly in college football, let me just put it that way. So the fact that all of this

is happening is pretty bizarre. But I think it's going to slow down the conversations of this expanded twelve team playoff, which everyone was really hot on for the last year two years or so. Um And here's why, because we found out it has to be a unanimous vote from this deciding board, you know, and whoever that is. But we do know from some interviews that have leaked and whatnot, that there are people very against it. So we know it's not going to pass because we know it won't

be unanimous. So the expanded playoff doesn't look too soon to me. Another big change in is name image likeness and I L I know you've heard of this. It's the first year it was allowed as of July one, and players like Spencer Rattler, the Oklahoma quarterback who's a Heisman favorite, Bryce Young with the Alabama quarterback, they're getting seven figures off the field. And that's just kind of speculated. It could be more. It could be it could be

a hefty, hefty cash. And we're already seeing these players in national commercials and Dr Pepper commercials, in you know, insurance commercials. It's not just signing a coupleographs at a local car dealer. This is a big deal. In fact, the Wisconsin quarterback Graham Murtz, his dad is in advertising and marketing. He more or less built a little small company around his son. And that's not even one of the biggest names in college football. So I mean, what

are you thinking when you look at that? You honest, like, as someone who's not quite following college football so closely, now you're going to see some of these players on your TV. They deserve it. They so much money for the school, the coaches get paid so much. They deserve it. The only person who I could see being upset about this is Trevor Lawrence because he was a little too early. He would have got a sweet panting shampoo commercial deal, I hear you. But it's funny in this is too,

you know for basketball as well. But like like my husband who played at Wisconsin and they went to final fours. He always says like he'd look up in the stands and he'd see a bunch of people in the stands wearing his number fifteen jersey, but not his name on the back because they couldn't do that. And do you know here he'd be on his little scholarship check, you know, trying to take a girl out on a date. She probably was a huge loser and could hardly pay no

truly tell me that I hate her. Don't act like you don't know who she is. I know you did the Facebook stalking. Oh yeah no, every good new girlfriend has to do that. So anyway, so it's they're way more extreme stories than that. But I think, like you said, this is right, This makes so much sense. The only issue it's it's it's kind of unregulated and it's the wild, wild West. So you know, sit tight because this is going to be a storyline all season long. This is

going to be good. It's a welcome change, and I'm glad to see a lot of these kids, uh reap some benefits from how much money they make for their programs. It's great. Absolutely, Well, there are going to be some names you have to know, and I'm going to drill them into your head, you honest, because you need to know at least some of the Heisman favorites. But before we get to that, there is kind of a joking

all names team, which is always very entertaining. And let me just say this right off the bat, this is not poking fun at anyone. This is this is having fun with them, and I just want to I I sent you the link, have you opened it? I have not opened it, but it's I'll just blame it on COVID. I came across someone who came across someone who was exposed to COVID. I'm still using that excuse. That's not gonna fly here. You've you've got to help me with this list because it is so good. It's and a

lot of them are nicknames. So these are people who have chosen to go by these names. And the first one I've just I've got to think is a nickname, but I have not verified that he's a juco player at Tyler Junior College. He's a quarterback in His name is General Booty b O O. T Y. General Booty, General Booty. I love General Booty. He's better than Captain Asshole. That is better that General Booty. We gotta we got to expect a lot of a lot from General Booty.

He's got a you know you can Booty could also be pirate pirates get booty. Could also be when they raided, they get a lot of booty. So maybe one day, what if he plays for Tampa Bay Buccaneers, wouldn't that be appropriate? That's who should draft him. I mean, you're we're thinking like Madison Avenue right now. And that's the way you gotta think general booty. He's getting the booty for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for sure. Okay, I've got

a good one. When you think of an offensive lineman, what are some adjectives that come to mind, like a big, scary, mean offensive lineman. Uh, white, fat and white. Well, what you wouldn't say is gentle. And that is the first name of a cal offensive lineman. Gentle Williams. Gentle Williams. Yeah, Gentle Williams, I'll just be gentle. That's that's the opposite

of what he is going to be out there. He's got But you know what a guy like gentle Williams with the name Gentle Williams, that's sort of like the Mike Tyson thing. Like Mike Tyson had that voice, you know, he's like and so to compensate, he just beat the hell out of everybody. I think Gentle Williams having that name got teas so much. He's the guy you're gonna want to pick because you know that he overcompensated for having the name gentle. You know, he's the opposite of gentle.

Here's one of my favorites he's a linebacker. And I remember hearing this on a game broadcast last year, but I'm seeing it on the list again. Bumper Pool. I like that. Yeah, bumper Pool, he got Arkansas. Saved your jokes, but he said Arkansas. He's just really glad that his mom didn't marry someone named car so he wasn't Bumper. At North Carolina, we have a defensive back named storm

Duck Storm Storm Doc. You know, as a comedian, like when you sometimes perform in in the South, there's a lot of comedians that have names like hurricane or lightning. These these are rivaling a lot of those, like Southern comedian names. I love it. Yeah, it just sounds like his parents took two nouns and threw them together. I like that. Yeah, because my favorite things on the North Carolina coast. Yeah, they might have just looked to the left, look to the right, and the first thing they saw,

they were just like, that's who we are. Better than Daffy or Donald Duck. Yeah, yeah, that would be dorm Duck. Okay, this last one sounds like one of your countrymen. He's a you mass punter in His name is George George Aopolis. He is de Yeah. Wow. The Greek names are unmistakable. They sound very much like diseases, like very rare diseases, like oh my god, did you get the Jannae pappas bad? Yeah, you got the honest pappas. That sounds untreatable. It's untreatable. So, yeah,

his name is as Greek as you. Whenever you see the s at the end and it's more than three syllables, you can pretty much rest assured that that is a Greek kid who comes from a Greek family, who celebrates a different Easter than you, and his parents at some point owned a restaurant. There are so many more names on this list, and obviously people in all walks of life all around the country have goofy names, but in college football there seems to be a really high population.

So maybe over the college football season we sprinkle in a couple. What do you think, I love it, sprinkle them? I need too. Well. Last week was Week zero, and if anyone watched the Nebraska Illinois game, which got a lot of attention because it was Week zero. By the way, that's a thing in college football. It's just ignore it. It's a stupid name. They really need to rebrand that. But there was a really really bad beat or it could have been a really great break, depending on what

you picked. And this kind of leads me to one of our contests coming up where we're going to do a bad beat of the week. But listen to this. So the Nebraska Illinois game had a lot going on. It was a new head coach at Illinois, Brett Bilma, who was a great Wisconsin coach, got fired at Arkansas. He's back in the Big Ten. People love this man.

I love this man. He's he's fantastic. Brett Belma back at Illinois, wins his first game at Nebraska's expense in the fourth year of their head coach Scott Frost, so he really could not afford that. Now, his record in four years at Nebraska is twelve and twenty one. I

think he has the hottest seat in college football. So the over under on that game was fifty two and a half and because it's college football and because there are college kickers out there, they missed two p eight s and the final total was fifty two, Which brings me to a new game we are going to be playing all season. It's called bad beat of the week. What you do is you submit a bad beat that

you had. All you do is go to bet MGMs Twitter at bet mgm and on Monday, go ahead and submit your bad beat either NFL or call it and let us know what it is. We are going to pick who had it the worst this weekend and to reward you for a plan and try to make you feel a little bit better. Really, we're gonna give you fifty dollars credit from bet MGM, and we're always going to announce it on our show and read it out loud, so it's a fun way to get a shout out

on the show as well. Make sure you play with us and follow at bet mgm on Twitter. Okay, let's get to this week one and talk betting with Chelsea Messenger. She's the host of the Daily Tip on Odyssey. Let's see what she has to say about week one and playoff picture. Well, Week one of college football is upon

us and we bring in the host of the Daily Tip. It's on Odyssey. It's also wherever you find podcasts. I definitely suggest finding that. Chelsea Messenger, thanks so much for joining us, Calsa. Hey, thanks for having me. I'm super excited to talk about college football, to talk about NFL, whatever you guys want to talk about, because it's one of those great times of year where we have baseball, we have collegue football, and the start of NFL. So

I'm really excited. Absolutely, it is such an exciting week and so much to get to. Let's start with the number one team in the country, Alabama. They went thirteen and o last year, they're the Rainy National champs, and they kick off the season at number fourteen Miami. It's gonna be a lot of fun. But this point spread right now is a whopping eighteen and a half for Obama, and I'm sure that will even climb as we get closer. Chelsea, what do you think of that point spread to start

the season off? Here's the thing. It really looks big, but if you look at Alabama over the course of the years and season openers under Nick Saban, there twelve and two against the number in season openers under Nick Saban. So nobody prepares their team better for these season openers the Nick Saban and that's including some top five H teams coming into the ranking. So it's not just pushover teams that they're beating against the number. It is good teams.

That being said, if you look over the course of history, the teams that have given Alabama fits have been teams with dual threat quarterbacks. Yerick King looking to make another good year for Miami, and you look at those teams that gave Alabama trouble, Cam Newton, Nick Marshall at Auburn and also Johnny Manzel when he was back at Texas A and M So I think they have potential to

give Alabama some issues here. But looking back at the history, twelve and two against the number, it's hard to fade Alabama, and it is a neutral site game and they've won their last ten neutral site games by an average of twenty five points. So yeah, eighteen and a half does not scare me away from playing that. But what you said with the Eric King in Miami's offense and second year under Red Lashly as offensive coordinator, I think Bama's

defense is where they win games. This year. They return eight starters and their offense, new offensive coordinator, new quarterback. I think there are a lot of question marks on that side of the ball as they return only three starters. Sticking with Alabama, as you look forward, is it a safe national champ bet right there for you. I just

don't think there's any value, because that's the thing. When you're looking at futures bets, you want some kind of value because if you play them right now, I just don't see a whole lot of value. And what are they plus two fifty plus three hundred to win it all?

I think if you're looking for some value, look at Georgia and if you like them, play them right now before they play Clemson, because if you think they're a good team, if you think they can beat Clemson, those odds are gonna go in half if they beat Clemson

in the first game of the season. So when you're playing the futures market, you're looking for number one value in number two, a way to kind of hedge your ticket as the season goes on, because even if you don't win, you can hedge it in ways and still make money. Yeah, right now, U g A and Ohio State tied at plus six hundred at bet MGM. When you look at the four playoff teams in general, what would you place in terms of value when you get

past Bama and Clemson. Let's say what two teams you mentioned Georgia, But is there anyone else you throw in that bet. I think it's mostly just Georgia. For me. When we're talking about college football, there's not a whole lot of perry because it's the college football playoff. You have to be voted in, so it's not like the NFL. It's not like these dark horse teams actually have a shot.

We've seen it over the course of years where there's teams like Coastal Carolina, like Cincinnati that are good teams, but they just don't have the schedule to get in. Maybe somebody from the Pac twelve, because I feel like we largely forgot about the Pac twelve last season. So if somebody is good enough from the Pac twelve to get in, maybe that's your answer there. But I just I don't see it right now. I want to know in your opinion, do you feel like that is because

of how confusing the bowl system is. Do you think it should be sort of like one big tournament like they have in basketball to crown a national champion. Absolutely not, Like it's not the type of sport that lends itself to that, because number one, you just can't play that many games. Even though Mike Leach actually floated this idea. I think he was trying to be funny and saying sixt or four teams should play. I think it most it should be six teams because I think eventually we

will see colleague football expansion happen. But I don't think it needs to go beyond six because usually at the end of the season, there's always maybe one or two teams that are question marks that maybe they should be in. And I do think maybe they should get a chance, teams like Cincinnati, UH and teams like Coastal Carolina. It would be a lot of fun. But beyond six, I don't think there's usually enough good teams to fill a college football playoff. Yeah, I like a group of five

team getting in there too. And it seems like right now the conversations about a twelve team playoff are stalling because of the threat of realignment and all the change that's happening in season as is. But you see certain conferences coming out banging in their chest we are in for the six game playoff and all of this, but it does have to be a unanimous decision. So that is a storyline we're going to be following closely. Now.

I've got kind of my sneaky. I don't know if it's a long shot per se, but I have a sneaky playoff pick team, and I want to see if you think I'm ludicrous here. I kind of like Notre Dame there plus seven hundred right now on bet MGM to sneak into the playoff. So I think that's a good vowe you. But there's a lot of question marks for Notre Dame. Am I absolutely crazy? And should I wait till their Week four game at Wisconsin to see

how good they are? No? I don't think you're crazy, because no one gets more media hype than Notre Dame, even if it's not warranted. We've seen it over the past couple decades where sometimes they're voted in and sometimes they have no business being in the college football playoff. But they've got that track record of you know, they're a blue blood school, they're a big public team. So I wouldn't talk you off of it just on that alone. Do you think we're gonna be calling them the fighting

Irish or is it gonna change soon? To the Notre Dame football team. I saw that where their mascot was voted offensive like to hoo to leprecauns, Like I don't know, Like I need to make sure that I'm watching when I say I don't want to say anything offensive. But it just seems like that's a bit of a stretch, and I mean hopefully not. You saw that they issued this long statement almost immediately, so the act that they're already responding to it. Maybe they have some kind of

plan in place. I don't know. I don't want to say anything else, don't go in trouble. Yeah, I think maybe just a little less offensive if they called it the Drinking Irish. Just here's what I do on the show. I just let Jana say the offensive stuff so that I stay clean. Would you be offended if there is a team called the Fighting news Os No, not at all. I think it would be fun. I think it should be the Diner Owning Greeks. There should be one called

the Diner Owning Greeks. Did you see where they're mad at Arizona State for being the Sun Devils and somebody wants them to be the Sun Angels. Yeah, it's too much. Come on, Like devils aren't offensive, Like we know you're not, you know, doing black magic? Like, well, if that's the case, then I think Demon Deacons needs a long look as well. Well, Like Duke's not changing their name like the Blue Devils have been there forever. They have such the street like

they're not changing their name Chelsea. As we hone in on the Week one matchups, we really only took a deep dive in one um because that's the number one team. Everyone's always looking at Bama. But what's another Week one matchup that you feel really confident in your play. Well, let's look at a couple of teams that have already played games this season, and I think that is a

huge advantage for teams that played in Week zero. And you're looking at U c l A playing L s U. Now there's question marks about L s U because the hurricane. I think that's already a tough situation. They had to bus ride to Houston, and I think it turned out being an eleven hour bus ride because of all of the traffic. So already tough circumstances for L s U. But I think this is a really good U c l A team under Chip Kelly, who finally has all

of his recruits. Is his fourth season at U c l A. They're coming off a huge win at Hawaii, which it's Hawaii. They look terrible, but Zack Charmona looked incredible at the running back position, piling up a hundred six yards and three touchdowns. Granted, the lineman he's going into an L s U are gonna be a lot bigger. L s U has the third biggest lineman core in the country. They're big guys. But I think L s U can cover the number here. I think it's three

three and a half. I like U c l A at home to cover this number against L s U. That's a good one. I feel like U c l A just got a lot of momentum boost though, and Chip Kelly needed that. When we look also at Nebraska, that's another year four head coach who needed a win at Scott Frost loses his Week zero meeting at Illinois against Illinois and Brett b Lema there. As you look ahead in the Big Ten, then do you see some of those win totals looking a little sneaky After that game?

I think the play was Illinois over three and a half wins now, you can't get it. I think that was the easiest one on the schedule. Obviously, you know hindsight. I haven't really dove into any of the win totals for the Big Ten though, so it would be like, I'm not going to give out a play that I'm not personally playing. I think Indiana maybe could surprise some people. They lose a lot of people from that squad, but they do have Michael Pinox Jr. Coming back, a dual

threat quarterback that gave Ohio State the business. As I say that out loud, it probably should have said it that phrasing, but you get what I'm saying. You get what I'm saying, Like he gave them all they could handle. And he's a good quarterback. So in a game where quarterback truly means a lot, when you have a guy like that can make plays with his feet and really keep defenses off balance, I think that is a big factor. I'm just offended that you didn't refer to it as

the Ohio State that's the proper Oh my goodness. People are gonna be bad about everything, So it's fine that can be mad. They can be mad and then get their next conference title in a row. It's fine. It's always smooth sailing for Ohio State. I don't like it I'm ready for that conference realignment where they have to

play good teams. I would love to see, was that the Super Conference where they play like a team from the pack well and a team from the A c C. I would love to see it just for a viewing experience, but I'm not sure if it's truly gonna happen. I'm with you, Chelsea. I think that's good for college football is having them play eight conference games and two out of conference because any matchups like Ohio State Clemson in

the regular season, how great would that be? I mean, I think I think it's good for the sport, Yeah, for sure. And you know, as a sports fan, that's what we all want. It's not about the kids, it's about us absolutely. I was just saying I would like to see Division one teams played Division three teams, just one, just a good beat down to watch, maybe like have you seen Mamma versus the Citadel? Like that is basically yeah, yeah,

I want to see them play Sunny Albany. You can catch at Chelsea Messenger on the Daily Tip on Odyssey. Make sure you check it out. I hope to join you throughout the season as well. Chelsea. It's awesome talking with you. Thanks for your good advice, thanks for having me, and hopefully none of us are canceled after this, guys,

is Week one coming up right now, everybody is doing their fantasy football draft, so we have brought in what do you want to go with? Matt, I like Maddie, Maddie Miller are fantasy football expert. I guess your friends call you Maddie, your mom calls you Matt right or Matthew. It's it's everything, you know. I get called a little bit of everything. So I answered to if I feel like people are asking a football question, I just started answering like, okay, yeah, So I appreciate you guys have

me on today though, absolutely Matt. Let me in Olivia know who are the top picks that you see this year that people need to have on their fantasy teams? Right off the bat, Let's start with the with the must the perennial All Stars, and go all the way down to the and I don't want to stay down. I don't mean down because sleepers usually are what makes the difference between winners and losers. But let's start with

the shore fire picks you have to have. Yeah, I mean I think for anyone who's been in a fantasy league before, or even people who are just getting into it, the most important thing is the running back position. And you know, when I started in this business eleven years ago, there were eighteen or nineteen running backs every year who would rush for a thousand yards. That has changed and we only saw eight running backs last year go for a thousand yards nine if you include Lamar Jackson there

at the quarterback position. So it's very valuable. Whether you're in a PPR which is points per reception league or not,

you really need to get that running back first. So I just went through my fantasy draft with my friends from high school and college that is super competitive, and running backs went off the board early and often, and my strategy was not only do I want to get to very early, I actually wanted to get three very early because this year we have to worry about an increased schedule, we have to worry about COVID, and you have to worry about, you know, just the wear and

tear of that spot. So I think getting too even three running backs early is important. So Christian McCaffrey, Dalvin Cook, Alvin Kamara are the names that are probably gonna come up the board earliest. I'm still a believer in Ezekiel Elliott. With Dak Prescott back in Dallas, it just seems like they're offense will be back clicking like we we've seen it in the past. So outside of the top three guys will most likely be the top three picks in a draft. I do think Zeke has a lot of

I guess you can call it sleeper value. It's still round one, but someone who's probably being overlooked right now. I don't play fantasy football, but if I did, your league would probably be one of the top ones I would not want to join. Why do your friends play against you? You know, I actually lost last year because I think that's why my friends play with me, because

they want the bragging rights. Like last year, my younger brother beat me, and I've heard about it for you know, eight months now, and so and I had I had drafted a Juggernaut, right, But injuries happen, And I think that's why fantasy football is fun, because you can be in a league with people who are quote unquote experts. If their quarterback gets hurt, it really doesn't matter. And

that's what happened. To me. Last year Lamar Jackson got COVID, there was like two or three weeks where I was really slowed down by that point wise, and so some people were able to overtake me. I think I finished third. I don't want to make it sound like I did terrible or anything. I still was up there, and Matt, I noticed you didn't mention Derrick Henry. He's led the NFL and rushing the last two seasons, and with a seventy game this year could even set a new rushing record.

Why not mention him? Yeah, Olivia. What scares me that the Titans right now is so many of their players are out with COVID, and you know, obviously we know that's going to be a short term scenario or situation, but it seems like they're one of the teams that doesn't really have a handle on this right now. So I also think with the addition of Julio Jones, we might see them throw the ball a little bit more. Arthur Smith, their former offensive coordinator, is now in Atlanta,

so I do think we could see some changes. Derrick Henry is still a workhorse back who should be a top six or seven pick. I think what makes him interesting is he's not going to catch the ball very often. So if you're in one of these leagues where you are getting points per reception, someone like Christian McCaffrey, who will have less rushing yards than Derrick Henry but catch

a hundred passes, is incredibly valuable. And that's why even Nick Chubb is the starting running back to the Cleveland Browns, his backup, Cream Hunt is going to catch more passes, so their value might actually be equal. So you have to look at it. Not just Derrick Henry is gonna rush for two thousand yards, it's gonna have twenty touchdowns. That is amazing. But there are backs will rush for fewer yards who are are actually more valuable when it

comes to fantasy. So if a lot of those guys are not available, who are some of the big sleepers? Is it Antonio Gibson? Who are some of the big running back sleepers that you would pick? Yeah, Antonio Gibson is a huge one. And we've seen the Washington football team even make some moves with their depth chart that indicates he's gonna just be the guy there who's gonna

get the Lions show. This carries I think Austin Ekeler with the l A Chargers is someone who fantasy football players know a lot about, but we're the casual fan is probably like who. But Austin Ekeler is incredibly valuable.

He's a top ten running back when it comes to fantasy football, So he's definitely someone that you might be able to steal from your casual fan friends in this league who are They're probably gonna focus more on the household commodities like a Joe Nixon or Josh Jacobs, you know, players who they've heard of who were earlier draft picks

in the actual NFL draft. But I do think Austin Ekeler, you mentioned Antonio Gibson, two very good examples of players who were not early picks in the actual NFL draft, and they're playing for teams that haven't had super a massive success, so they're still flying under the radar. Now, we actually had Austin Ekeler on the show if people want to go back and listen to that. It was

a great episode in the off season. But I saw on Twitter that he's giving away signed jerseys to everyone who wins with him in their fantasy draft, and that just doesn't seem fair. Are a lot of players doing that. I just saw Austin. He's the only one i've seen do that. And I didn't know that Olivia, which is good because I did draft him. Very excited about that, and hopefully I need that from my office rightly. I

love the players who do engage with that. You know, we've we've seen over the years in attitude shift in the NFL, with first open to fantasy, now more open to betting, and I think the players are wisely getting involved with that of saying, hey, I want you to draft me. Whereas before it was like I don't care about your fantasy team. Now these players, whether it's Austin Eckler or Jujuice Smith Schuster, they're really starting to embrace that.

I think it's smart, not only for their own personal brand, but it makes it so much more fun too. All right, let's go over wide receivers. Take me down the list. Yeah, a wide receiver. This is one that it's so almost situational, but I think the list starts with Davante Adams in Green Bay. Aaron Rodgers is back. He's gonna be the guy there. And I tend to favor wide receivers like this where they don't have a great running mate next

to them. I say that to say that Tyreek Hills probably next, even though he has Travis Kelsey there in Kansas City. And as far as the tight ends go, if you look at this as just pass catchers, not by position, Travis Kelsey might be the most valuable pass catcher in all of football when it comes to fantasy points. So I think DeVante Adams, Tyreek Hill, Stefon Diggs, DeAndre Hopkins, even though he's battling injury right now, and then an up and comer Calvin Ridley in Atlanta is gonna see

a ton of targets. You're gonna see a ton of catches, maybe the best route runner in all of football. Those would be my top five targeting targeting a wide receiver. But keep an eye on those tight ends because whether it's Travis Kelsey, George Kittle, Darren Waller, they have a ton of value as pure pass catchers where if you don't get an elite wide receiver, you can still get a ton of points by getting one of these elite tight ends. What about Odell Beckham Jr. I feel like

that could be a real good sleeper. Do you think this is the season he settles in and goes for big numbers. I think that's possible. I know that their plan for him is that he's the guy. He's the guy they're going to try to, you know, push the catches too. I think what you have to worry about his injuries. You know there's things that once players have, you know, an injury history, it's very hard to overcome that.

With O'Dell, as great as he's been, we've seen him injured in more seasons than we haven't, so I think you have to be cautious there. He's not a first round pick, he's not a second round pick, but in rounds three through five, the value could absolutely be there. You start to look at a player who could be a solid wide receiver number two for you, or even a wide receiver three, depending on how the rosters in

your league work. When we look at Kyle Pitts in Atlanta, who we talk about a lot in the Rookie of the Year category here on this show, it's not favor to go to a tight end, but if he has an incredible season, it obviously could. Is he in your periphery at all? When you're looking at tight ends. He's been playing well in the preseason. He had a twenty seven yard pass catch the other day. Yeah, he has to be on your radar, and he was as a

draft prospect. He definitely is as a fantasy prospect. I think a lot of people will be scared off because rookie tight ends generally don't produce that well. But let's just all agree that Kyle Pitts is not your average rookie tight end. I mean, he's we have never seen an athlete like this at the tighten position and going into an offense that you already have an established quarterback, you have a very good wide receiver in Calvin Ridley, and we know they're going to throw the ball a

lot down there. So I think that's where Kyle Pitts becomes a really intriguing Optionore. He might not have eighty targets this year, but in the red zone, where Calvin Ridley is not the biggest wide receiver, I think that's where you get really excited about Kyle's potential to have eight to twelve touchdowns because he is able to be such a mismatch player in the red zone, which is what we saw Florida and the reason why he was, you know, the highest tight end drafted in modern history.

And no Julio Jones either, Right, So somebody's gotta kept on space. Yeah, somebody has not that Julio is doing much of it lately. But Kyle pitches how about qbs? Yeah, quarterback I think you know, that's the one position where the guys who are good, Like if you were to sit around with your buddies in a bar and be like, hey,

who's the best quarterback in the NFL? That's also the best quarterback for fantasy football, it's Patrick Mahomes and is really not close when it comes to fantasy I think one thing to remember again, if you're new to this, or if you you haven't been doing well and you want to change up your strategy. My strategy with the quarterback position is I gotta find somebody who can get me some points on the ground as well as a runner. And that's really the direction we've seen the NFL goes.

So a player like Josh Allen is actually more valuable than Aaron Rodgers, player like Lamar Jackson might be more valuable than Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers because of what they're going to give you on the ground. So something to think about there is players like those two, but also Kyler Murray, even though he has had his struggles with turnovers, very productive on the ground. Dak Prescott and his return gonna give you quite a bit of production

on the ground. Russell Wilson, Justin Herbert, the players who can add something as rushers, especially in the red zone. Of the guys that you really want to be looking at when it comes to the quarterback position. My best advice though is I don't rush the quarterback. Don't be that person who takes the quarterback and around one unless

your league scoring is incredibly skewed toward that position. Great advice with the with the running all right, Maddie, I gotta ask you, do you think we've arrived where you can use bitcoin to bet in your league? Yet we might maybe? I don't know what in my league can afford it. If you can get in the league where you can do that, let's do it, right, Somebody, somebody float me a buy in. I want to. You just have to remember your password right right. Well, thank you,

Maddie Miller really appreciate all the advice. Man, If you don't listen to Maddie, You're gonna lose. That was really good advice, especially at that QB position. Last question, say Kuan you were talking about coming off injuries. Is he gonna have a big gear and put up big numbers if you draft him. I don't think so. I worry so much about that offensive line. I worry so much

about Daniel Jones and quarterback. It just feels like once again we're gonna see everyone scheme to stop say Kuan, which is what they've done in the past, and with all the trouble they've had in that offensive line. I love sake one, but I just don't know how you can really truly believe in him right now. It's a top fantasy back. That's a great little nugget for everybody. Thank you so much, Maddie Miller. We appreciate you've given us your wisdom, and I hope you win your league.

Me to thank you, guys. I appreciate you having me. Hey, can you see if your younger brother can hop on next? We'd like to pick his brain today. I'll let him know. I'll let him know that that he beat me. Y'all will be asking every week we finish off our show

with Peter Andrew from bet MGM, and he gives us our Lions lock. But we're going to change things up a little bit for this NFL season with a little game. Seems a little maniacal to me, but here are the basic rules. Every week, you're gonna pick three NFL games, and Johannis and I are going to compete against each other with our picks. I think we're gonna make it

super simple money line favorite underdog. And I'm a little nervous because at the end of the season, around the Super Bowl, we are going to tally up the winner and one of us is going to have to do something they don't want to do. Well, I can be paid off since I'm seven and o in the Priest's guy offs. If you need a little extrane sight, you know how to find do you take bitcoin? I only take bitcoin? Got it? Okay? How about janice coin? It's I said it's it's I invented my own currency. I

haven't seen it on coin coin. I'll give it a shot. Hey, before we get to college football Week one and some of the lines there. As we record this Tuesday morning, the news just broke the Patriots waived Cam Newton, so maybe by Thursday he'll have a home when this air is But what are your thoughts on that move and what do you think about Mac Jones at the starting QB. It was a bit of a surprise to me, like I think most people, but Bell Chick, I think he's

got something in this guy. I think he's looking like a Tom Brady definitely based off his college picture with the the flabby fat in the cigar in the mouth, kind of like Tom Brady's picture from what fifteen twenty years ago. Hey, we don't body shame on this podcast. We do not body shame for me, of all people to say that too. But but sorry, Mac Jones, I know you're listening here. Some great, uh I mean crazy line changes over the course of the last twelve hours.

So that was some funny ones. First NFL m v P, he was plus twenty five thousand, so two fifty one. Uh. It went to plus eight thousand, so eighty two one, So big big difference there. I don't think he's gonna get m v P. But an interesting one offensive rookie the year from plus twelve hundred plus five hundred. That one was a little bit more feasible most passing yards from plus twenty thousand plus to plus five thousand, So assuming he plays a full season, I mean there's a legit,

legitimate shot there. They're going to throw the ball most passing TVs and then most interceptions as well. So lots of different big line movements. All of them stayed pretty similar in terms of what it was and to what it is now. But he's the guy. I thought for a second this morning that maybe they had a move for to Shaun Watson coming in. Maybe that was the way that you get Matt Jones apt for maybe to get the Shawn here see what happens with all the allegations.

But seems like mass a guy. And where do you think Cam may end up? And how will that change things? Yeah, so speaking of the Texans, I can see Cam going to to Houston. Who knows what's going to happen with the Shawn. It seems like they have a decision to make by four o'clock today, which is a couple of hours from now. Do they put them on the fifty three man roster? Do they say we're gonna pay you, but we're gonna pay you to sit on the bench and then what happens from there? Did they opt to

do that? And who do they bring in a quarterback? So could see Cam going in a one year deal something, you know, two to five million dollars, a lot of performance incentives and maybe he's the guy. Okay, good stuff Again. By Thursday, the time this year is we may have an answer. Let's get to college football Week one. I am so pumped. I just filled in Honice on what even is going on in college football? So we are

all caught up. We are already. One of the best games is actually at noon on Saturday in the Big ten It's nineteen pen State at twelve Wisconsin. The Badgers are five point favorite. Over under is fifty. What would you play here? Yes, I'm called Penn State plus five. I've leaned them with the points. They're pretty unimpressive against the spread as if recent especially conference road dogs, but I think they can surpress some people, so I think they make a decent splash the Big Tennis year. I

certainly take them with the points. Maybe they don't win out right, but I think they keep it closer. Maybe it's a field goal game. We talked with Chelsea earlier about number one Alabama at fourteen Miami. That is a neutral site game, by the way, in Alabama has won their last nineteen season openers at eighteen and a half? Right now, would you take Bama? And I'm sure that's only going to get higher as we get closer to kick off. Yeah, they're gonna win again. I love Miami.

I love Derick King, but and I do like plus eighteen and a half. Alabama will win the game, but I think they keep it within two touchdowns. Just really high spread, and it's a really interesting game for the Rick King, for Bryce Young and too Hysman hopefuls. I think there's a lot at stake, not only for Week one, but certainly for them to kind of carve their way through the year and and potentially be Hysman candidates. And then Saturday night, my alma mater, number five Georgia and

number three Clemson. They kick off at Bank of America Stadium, That's where the Panthers play. That's gonna be a good one. Clemson is the three point favorite. What do you think? Yeah, I'm not just pandering to you here, but I love Georgia. I love Georgia plus three and I also sprint a little bit moneyline. I think they're plus one twenty right now.

I'm a big J T J. D. Daniel Sky. I think Clemson has lost a ton of production, predominantly on offense this year, and I think George's bringing up a lot of really really solid pieces. So I do like him plus three and like I said, I will put a little bit on the money learner as well. I wish I had an alma mater. Maybe that's why I'm not so into college football. You've got Georgia. You know, what are the chances of the American university gets a

football team. I mean, we're a mid major in basketball. We need a bad football team. Well I'm the same way. I'm a St. John's guys. So we didn't have a football team. So I just picked someone. I loved. That Miami team was just all over the place in the late nineties early two thousands. I was like, whyt ever run with them? Well, you know what, I'm picking Georgia. I am going with this year. I'm rooting for the Toronto Raptors and my co hosts alma mater, the Georgia Bulldogs.

I love it. I love it. I paid him in bitcoin to say that to Peter Andrew, thank you so much. Those are I think the three top games in my humble opinion for the weekend. There's so much more and people don't forget there's actually a game Sunday and Monday as well, because this is the last week before NFL college football is on center stage. We are so excited. Peter, thanks so much, thanks for having me. Well, what a show that was, Olivia. That looks like all the time

we have. I just want to say thank you to both Matt and do I get this right, Chelsea, you got it now? You just gotta work on Jimmy Garofalo, Yeah, Jamie Garoffalo, juh and a bunch of the names that we had some wild new names and we'll continue that throughout the season. I hope you fun. Thank you to those those guys were coming on the show next week.

Of course, it's all about NFL Week one, so it's so close, and we'll have Hall of Famer Kurt Warner to discuss who we likes this season and his story. We'll talk about the movie that's coming out, which we're all excited to see. So it was just a great show and I look forward to next week. I can't wait to talk to Kurt. Yeah, next week is gonna be awesome talking to Kurt and jannat. I want you to start thinking of who would play us in a movie for next week. I know I have some opinions,

but I wait to hear who you cast. Mind simple, I mean we know mine already, John Stamos, John Stamos, of course. Well, we're also going to ask social media too, so check it out on my Twitter. I'll put that question out there. I'm just at Olivia Decker on Twitter, and don't forget to go to bet MGM on Twitter Monday, and that's where you can place your bad beat and we'll announce the winning bad beat next week and that

person will get fifty bucks. So that's pretty sweet. And also, don't forget to leave or review on Apple podcast, we're gonna pick three winners to win five bucks for bet MGM. And this week for Week one of college football, bet MGM is doing a risk free token up to twenty dollars on any college football game and that can be applied towards any bet. So that is huge, So a lot to keep up with. If you're curious where to start Just follow bet MGM everywhere and listen to us

wherever you find your podcast. We'll see you next week.