The Bill Simmons Podcast is brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where you can find these guys.
It's our Ringer Fantasy Football Show crew.
You can find the fantasy guide is on theringer.com.
It's sort of technically on theringer.com.
Mm-hmm. Fantasyfootball.therunner.com. It's a great product.
I like it. We're doing this Yahoo fantasy draft on Monday and you're banning Are you banning laptop?
No technology. Pencils and paper. The no technology draft.
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, so... You have to print out stuff?
Yeah. I know. Like a magazine or something?
If you can find a printer somewhere in this world.
I really liked, so are phones banned? Yeah.
No phones. No. This was unilateral Craig.
This should give you an edge. I'm surprised you don't want to do this.
No, this is great. Hyphens was in on it.
Yeah. Yeah, phones for emergencies only.
I mean, I was doing fantasy when we just had like the USA Today, like just season leaders and that would all be looked at and just.
I can't wait. So we're doing a ringer draft on Monday and you can watch it live on the fantasy football channel that these guys have.
New Rewatchables is coming on Monday. We are doing...
Witness, that is movie number 399, which you can watch on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel as well.
Coming up, we're doing the annual My Guy Fantasy Draft.
30 categories that went way too long and insults were thrown around.
Can't wait. I would take a break, Pearl Jam, and then the draft.
All right, we're taping this on a Thursday afternoon.
I'm here with the Ringer Fantasy football guys, Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelley.
Craig Horlbeck, who's in my life with the rewatch was as well.
I think what is this fourth year we've done this or third?
Third? Third? At least third. At least third, maybe fourth.
It's an annual tradition, the My Guy Fantasy Football Draft.
We have all these stupid categories. We draft different things. people we try to make fun of as many people I found like I had less animosity toward fantasy football guys this year It's a really good top 30 this year.
Yeah, it's like I was going through and I'm like trying to find people I wanted to short or be against or be angry about.
I just, I don't know how to put it. I just felt kind of happy and blissful and liked everybody.
Are you just becoming more forgiving in your old age?
Yeah. I didn't have a lot of grudges then.
I saw Trevor Lawrence, that made me mad.
Yes. for the most part I wasn't angry at a lot of people Kyle Pitts obviously but that's like That's this ground that we've tread so many times.
Who are the angry guys this year that I think are triggers for people?
I think the entire Miami Dolphins team Pretty frustrating group of guys Yeah, but isn't everybody kind of lived with that and yeah i went through it and like everybody's kind of given up on on potentially not being disappointed by them?
I agree with you that there are... there's not a lot of guys to hate this year.
And I kind of think part of that is there was just a lot of good rookies and second year guys last year that broke out.
There's just so much new talent. There's so much new stuff to get excited about.
You can just scroll and be like, ooh, that guy.
Ooh, Ladd McConkie. You just kind of like... a lot of people in the top 50 this year.
So, but we'll see. There's less like old kind of semi washed up, sort of guys like those Keenan Allen types usually have a ton of those like I'm not taking that guy that guy's done A lot of the bets from last year, like Derrick Henry, is this going to work?
He's washed. That worked. Saquon Barclays, it's going to work.
That worked. So a lot of risky bets paid off.
And so now those aren't things that people are thinking anymore.
I think Christian McCaffrey is the guy that comes to my mind where you're like, what the hell do I do with this guy?
Yeah, but that's turned into a game of chicken where people now are positioning it when they talk to other people about like, I wouldn't go near it.
But meanwhile, they're like. it's a good point that you're making because I mean basically you know happiness is just expectations minus reality.
And I think to your point, if you take away McCaffrey, all these older players are like surpassing expectations.
Now what you think, yeah, they just keep going.
Derek had me at, the quietest 2000 yards from scrimmage ever.
And he's 30 years old. And like, I mean, didn't even talk about it because Saquon did what he did after like the running back narrative flipped and all these older guys performing.
McCaffrey was the only guy who didn't. But then the rookies, the same thing.
We heard all this hype. There was a lot of hype, except for Marvin Harrison Jr., All the other rookies hit the mark.
And so I think that those two guys had the animosity.
But everyone else actually really surpassed it.
So we have this word there. I feel like this is an NBA thing too. where the older guys are hanging on.
So you have younger guys who seem like more prepped I guess the NBA, they're a little younger, but you have this thing where older guys are hanging on.
So you still have Mike Evans. You still have Derrick Henry.
You still have... like guys that you, Devonte Adams, who's 33, but getting like 20 million a year. now you have like Brian Thomas and all these rookies that worked out immediately.
So the, the, the, The collection of good players is just bigger.
Yes, exactly. But do you feel like part of it is... this social media era where everybody all the players can fire back at people and players have podcasts and I don't know, 30 years ago, we would have just been like, fuck Caleb Williams.
He sucks. I was going to bring up Caleb Williams.
Yeah, but Caleb Williams, I feel like would have been way more polarizing.
Where everybody's so glass half full. on everybody now.
It's like, Caleb Williams, I don't know, 4,000 yards, but maybe it'll turn...
Maybe this will be the year there'll be a lot of disappointments.
And then next year will be that. I fucking hate that guy.
I fucking hate this guy. I think we're in a weird era now though.
Like there were literally AI videos about players that you don't know if this like, Debo Samuel, there was a video that literally made Debo Samuel look fatter than he was. just to get people against him in commander's practice?
I don't think we even know if that was AI.
Was it not? I don't know. I think it was just a camera with a different lens.
I thought he was that chunky. He was that chunky?
Should I put them back on my board? The problem is we're at a point where it's really difficult to find the answer to someone's like, this Photoshop's AI and we're like I don't even know how to check that and like yeah Brock Bauer's being bald and like someone just photoshopped There will just be like a video of JJ McCarthy making some terrible pass.
And then if you read the comments, everyone's like, that's Sam Howell. from last year.
Yeah, there's like these accounts that are like, you know.
The Pickens thing. These bots. It's trying to take people down.
It's kind of hard online now to decipher what's going on.
Yeah. One of my friends sent me this AI thing of the sad me meme when I was sad at the Celtic game.
And I'm sad, but then all of a sudden I get excited and start pumping my fist.
No way. in AI and it fucking freaked me out.
It was like happy me, but I had like big like Al Pacino teeth in it.
That was the only way you knew it was fake.
But yeah, this is going to be the next five years of us Trying to figure out what's real, what's not real.
A lot of propaganda in training camp now.
Oh, yeah. Yes. The online propaganda, it's just hard to know what's real and what's not.
Well, we have these coaches that are really good at selling.
Yeah. Everyone's savvy. now there's also bad at Sean Payton now that he's like talking up his team too much He just compares every single player.
It's like Hall of Famers. It's like this guy reminds me of Pat Bryant reminds me of Michael Thomas.
Yeah. RJ Harvey reminds me of Alvin Kamara.
Bo Nix. Patrick Bob's. Can you please come up with better comps, dude?
It makes it way harder to figure out that nobody believes in us team, which is actually...
Not just big for futures and betting and picking stuff, but also for fantasy.
Mm-hmm. Because, you know, you want to figure out like when we're going to talk about like we have all these categories. the team you definitely want all the guys from the team you don't want all the guys from Um, but the sleeper team sometimes like Tampa last year, if you went out on them, you had Baker and you'd Bucky Irving and And you had the receivers.
Like, you were loaded up. What were we going to say?
I just think that nobody believes in this team is tough because, like…
I forget which team coined that. Which team was the... The 2007 Giants, right.
And so I just think that that was like... Sorry, that was kind of dickish.
I'm not giving them credit. Dicks. But I think that it was like... It's just a different era of media.
But I think now... basically you're talking about adversity and it used to be like Tom Brady would go home from, practice or game and turn on ESPN.
And now guys just look at their phones at their locker.
So like they're in their mentions. So they're, It's never been easier for individual players or teams to find things.
You have coaches printing out tweets people send.
So it's like weird because it's... Like Patrick Mahomes, like the Chiefs just went to three Super Bowls and they had... and Patrick Mahomes is like finding stuff like even Steph Curry is like at halftime I feel like checking his mentions and He's Steph Curry.
So I feel like everyone's just finding adversity.
I think you guys should have done that with the fantasy landscape.
It's like, nobody believed in us. Second biggest fantasy pod.
People said we couldn't get here. Just start doing that constantly.
When our name was the Danacy Football Podcast, nobody believed.
No one believed because if you Googled it, it wouldn't come up.
Yeah, they thought it was a typo. Now Matthew Barry's calling us. all right let's go through this because we have a lot of stuff to hit we added categories this year The most important category, though.
We'll just go in order this way. So you go, and everybody gets to pick, and then we do the next one, and Danny...
Kelly goes, sweet. Hi Fitz. Uh, My one true love.
Who is it for you in 2025? It's a little lame.
I don't care. It's Jameer Gibbs running back for the Lions, and it's this simple.
It's because I think that the conversation we were just having There's just a lot of players you could take number one overall this year.
And so I think that, frankly, there is an unusually high caliber of people you can get fourth.
And I know that for you, that's a booger eater draft and you prefer auctions, but like, I, all my no one anymore none of my friends want to do it anymore so if you just get the fourth pick this year I've even seen the fifth pick And you end up with Jameer Gibbs.
And I feel like in most years, Jameer Gibbs would be going first in a lot of recent drafts.
And I just think he's the best running back in the league.
If you want to do Bijan Robbins, that's cool too.
But I just, I love Gibbs and that kind of guy in the Lions offense and everything.
And especially that defense is probably going to be bad against who's going to get so many touches.
And I just think it's such an unusual profile for, for a guy that's still ascending and getting better, that it's just a crazy good player to get in basically the middle of the first round.
So you had him in the Ringer Fantasy Football Guide.
A great product. $59 for him. Number three player overall.
You agree with that, Danny Kelly? Yeah. I mean, I think right in that range.
I don't think I would not look at you sideways if you pick him first.
Really? What scares me about him? It's just skating with a puck setting.
It's just next year, Bijan and Gibbs will be the top two picks.
You agree with that? Yeah. I've never had Jameer Gibbs in a fantasy season.
And every year I'm jealous of the guy who does.
He's just so explosive. I think obviously the question marks this year are, is the Lions offense going to take a huge step back with Ben Johnson gone?
And I still think they have so much talent and, I don't know, institutional knowledge, I guess, in terms of how they want to run their offense. this new guy can probably make it a pretty good like New guy.
Doesn't even know his name. Morton. John Morton.
Offensive line and no Ben Johnson. Sign me up.
Honestly, he might as well. Panay Sewell is like the new Trent Williams where his ability... they can pull Panay Sewell as a tackle on plays that usually you have to pull a guard because he's, so fast he can get there, which is just a Trent Williams thing.
So as long as Penny Sewell's there, they're able to do things in the run game that literally other teams can't. are not able to do.
They can try things no other team can do.
And that is the kind of advantage that It doesn't necessarily.
That was a pretty boring pick because your cohorts all agreed with it and we can't even debate it.
Something scares me about him from a durability standpoint.
Yeah. Well, how many has he ever gotten?
He hasn't gotten to like 350 touches. Well, he's kind of like the new Alvin Kamara a little bit in the sense of just so efficient with his touches.
Yeah, yeah. And he scores so many touchdowns, explosive player. big plays yeah but when David Montgomery went down at the end of the season Jameer Gibbs was just like the best player yeah he had like 280 touches last year okay Who do you have, DK?
I might have one that's a little controversial, I guess, here.
I got Brock Bowers for the Raiders. I think... there's a lot of people that are worried right now in fantasy land because of the way that the Raiders are using him in the preseason which I know sounds silly but this does kind of move ADPs and create a level of concern with him because he's not playing as many snaps. with the starters as I think you'd want.
They have Michael Mayer playing a bunch and maybe they're not going to use him as a blocker.
But I'm just like, I'm going to ignore all that.
Bowers is just too good. I mean, look at what he did as a rookie.
Third in receptions, behind only Jamar Chase and Amon Rossing Brown.
He has elite wide receiver numbers as a rookie tight end.
He had the most catches ever for a rookie at any position.
And this is a... The same guy who, going back to his college, is a true freshman at Georgia.
He led the Bulldogs. in receiving on a team that had Ladd McConkey, A.D.
Mitchell, George Pickens, James Cook, Darnell Washington, Jermaine Burton.
Arian Smith, all draft picks, like super talented group. and he was by far the best.
I think he's just a really good player. Craig and I kind of argued about him last year because... um there was a picture of him wearing like an auto trader t-shirt and he just looked He looked like a software engineer.
Yeah, he looked like not athletic whatsoever.
I was like, Craig, you gotta go watch. And then a photo came out of him bald, shaved.
Everybody thought he had shaved his head.
AI, not real. Be careful out there. I had him on one of my teams last year and it was glorious.
And then when you actually watch and there's less games in the late late afternoon part of the schedule.
Test-wise, he just jumps out of the TV. He would make crazy catches in traffic.
Seemed just unstoppable. Originally, I was kind of like, eh, tight end in the first round.
I don't love it. I do think I'm now starting to underrate Geno Smith. being the quarterback.
Like we did this last year with Derrick Henry on the Ravens.
We were like, oh, you know, it's a different team.
And now it looks so obvious. It's like, of course, the Ravens...
Derrick Henry on the Titans, the lowest yards before contact.
The Ravens had the highest yards after contact.
And it's like, of course it made sense. Saquon on the Eagles, we overthought that.
I'm like, Brock Bauer's going from Aiden O'Connell and Gardner Minshew and Desmond Ritter to Geno Smith.
And he did what he did last year with those three quarterbacks.
I'm kind of like, man, I don't know. Maybe this guy should just be like the sixth pick in drafts.
Well, doesn't it come down to math? If he's...
70 points higher than the next tight end or something crazy like that.
I always think that way. I've gotten to the point with fantasy where I'm just like, can I just have one of the best QBs because they all get 50 to 70 points more than every other QB.
100%. With Bowers, if he's... like a wide receiver eight at tight end.
I think that makes him first round value in a Booker team.
The easiest way to win your league with your friends if they're not paying a ton of attention is to just lock an elite quarterback, lock an elite tight end like Brock Bowers, get a running backs early and just win on receivers and running backs later in the draft.
Like that's generally the easiest way to do it.
I'm in on that. And I think the Gino thing is the underrated piece of it.
And I underrated with... I'm... Kick drove a couple standing mock things with the Raiders as a seventh seed just to see how it felt.
Just to... I'm in the store, putting on the jacket, kind of walking around, looking in the mirror, see if it feels...
You look great in that. Did you see Pete Carroll in his starter jacket?
He looks great. All the players, like Genty, Gino, Pete Carroll, everyone just looks great as a Raider.
Yeah. Well, you think like... It's cool when the Raiders are good.
Yes. And the Raiders have not been good while we've been alive.
As Craig knows, I invented the three in, three out.
For the playoffs. Right. I don't know if I'd better not.
But I wrote about it in 2010. I was like, Craig, I invented this.
I'm just going to take credit for it. You're like, sure.
I was like, well, if we're going by that classic thing where four teams stay in, three teams go out.
And then he was like, I invented that. I have no idea if I did, but I'm taking credit for it.
Anything else? Piano, key, necktie, anything else? the three and three out, the easiest thing to identify is like, did a team have a shitty quarterback and a shitty coach?
Yeah. And do they now have a competent quarterback and a competent coach?
They like fit the model for it. Yeah. And then you think like Bowers and Evgenti is good.
They're going to be a bitch to play. I mean, the Raiders didn't score any touchdowns last year.
That was the only thing holding Bowers back.
He had five touchdowns. It's like, all right.
If he is Geno Smith now, he's probably going to have 8 to 10.
I love it. What do you have for my one true love?
I'm going with Drake London. On the Falcons.
You've always liked them. I like Drake London.
I'm big on Atlanta this year. I think Pennix is good.
I think the offense is going to be one of those.
I think like the Bucs last year, this is going to be an offense that you kind of want everybody on the team.
I think Drake London's not that famous. He's a really cool name, but he's not that famous.
I think he's like the cheapest guy you can get. that could be the number one overall receiver in fantasy.
Also, you just look on like FanDuel, He's 22-1 to lead the league in receiving touchdowns.
I think he has as good a chance as anybody.
When he played with Pennix last year, 40% target share, first in the NFL, 117 yards per game, first in the NFL.
He got 60% of the team's end zone targets last year, first in the NFL.
60%. I think it's a perfect storm of like, you have the gunslinger, even if Penix, worst case scenario to me, Penix is like Jameis.
But for fantasy, that's all right. So if you have the gunslinging pennix, you have...
A year or two in a system of Zach Robinson and Raheem Morris.
I thought they did a good job year one. Zach Robinson comes from the McVeigh world.
He's like moving Drake London around. He's moving him in the slot.
They're like scheming him open. And there's not like a true other alpha competition.
There's like, Darnell Mooney's good. You have Kyle Pitts.
You have Bijan Robinson. But I just think it's all going to funnel to Drake London.
He's going to have like a Mike Evans 15 touchdown season, I think.
I guess where I pause... You think Michael Penix is definitely good.
But he doesn't have to be good. I'm not against it.
I just don't know. He just has to be a gunslinger, which I think we know he is.
Also, is he going to be healthy? How many times did he get hurt in college?
That was the big reason why he fell in the jungle.
Penix being the new quarterback. Yeah. Everyone's just penciling him in for 4,200 yards and 30 TDs.
And it's like, how about, Is he going to play 12 games?
What are you worried about? He only had four season ending injuries in college.
Right. I just, I don't know. That's fair.
Am I crazy, though, that, all right, their backup is Kirk Cousins, who maybe as a starter washed?
Kirk was injured last year, but it would not be weird to think Kirk is better this year than last year because he's a year further removed from the Achilles.
I think to your point though, I think to kind of square what you guys are saying, because I don't think you're necessarily wrong.
I just don't know. I'm wide open on Penix.
I don't know where it goes. He may not be good enough to get Atlanta to the playoffs.
But I think that one thing we know about Penix is he's going to throw deep down the field.
Like Penix, frankly... In a league where everything we keep bitching about, everything's like neutered, all the passing, it's like the bumper's up on the bowling lane, like no one pushes downfield anymore. home.
We took my home. Penix is ripping it. Penix is ripping past.
Yeah. Like, The only people last year that were throwing the ball more than 10 yards downfield on average. was Richardson, who got benched, and Penix.
And, like, that's what we liked about Jameis.
Like, he's throwing so... And, like, that was him in college.
He was just putting it up there for Roma Dunza and Jalen Polk, who sucks.
My guy Drake May is going to be like that, too.
Michael Penix got Jalen Polk drafted by you guys in the second round.
Jalen Polk, is he going to make a team? No, he's on IR now.
Yeah, he's out for the season, right? He's out with a shoulder separation thing.
And my buddy Hench texted, this is the first separation he's had since he's been a patriot.
That's good. Tough one. Tough one for Pope.
So, yeah. Also, Atlanta, fourth easiest schedule.
That's huge. I was looking... A lot of shootouts.
I was going through all my podcast notes last year to remember what happened last season because... you just get amnesia when you're going through the season and you forget 90 things.
Atlanta was terrible last year. Remember they should have been like 3-12 at one point?
Well, Kirk... They won all these dumb games.
They won that dumb... What was that? Week two game against Philly.
Shaquan dropped the ball. Yeah, but they had like five of those.
We were like, how are they? At one point they were minus 400 to win the division and they were awful.
Kirk was a mess. Kirk was like that last one with Ben Roethlisberger where he was like just Adele, Park and Bark, couldn't move.
Kirk, it's weird because Kirk has always been this way.
When you think of him as an average quarterback, he's actually incredibly streaky. extremely hot and cold.
And he was very hot in the beginning. He was executing the offense really well.
Yeah. And then he was the worst quarterback.
He was so bad. Couldn't throw. I have a lot of true loves this year.
So I wanted to target one that I couldn't figure out another category.
I'm not just doing this because DK is here.
Jackson, Smith, the Jigba. Yeah. Who I had last year on one of my teams.
And I thought for about seven weeks... He was one of the five best receivers I was watching every week.
He was open all the time. There was like no difference between him and I'm on Ross St.
Brown. Uh, he was fucking awesome. Every third down, it was third, nine, third and 10.
Danny knows, uh, And then at the end of the year, their offense died.
And I'm not sure what happened to the offense.
I remember they had that one, like they had the 6-3 game. the offensive line kind of died the running back situation got weird and the team just kind of cratered right at a point when it seemed they were going to win.
There was some Metcalf stuff. I just think this year he's by far the best receiver they have.
I like the Seahawks in general. Mm-hmm. And I just think he's going to have a massive year.
Like, I think he can be in the top six or seven for receivers.
I just think he's 90 to 100 yards a game.
Steady. Third downs, touchdowns. I'm in.
Yeah, he's as reliable as they come in terms of route running, hands, just body control.
He adds a little bit run after the catch.
He does remind me... I think I comped him to Amon Ross and St.
Brown. He's just open all the time. Just coming across the middle.
I remember watching the Ohio State I think it was versus Utah.
I was very over on January 1st. And I remember, uh, I think Jackson Smith and Jake had 350 receiving yards. in that game.
And I remember thinking that he was like the best college game I'd ever seen by a player.
And he's not quite that, but I think because he had a weird rookie year with Shane Waldron and everything, it's, His actual level of talent has been really... just straight up forgotten.
He basically took the Lockett spot halfway through the year.
Lockett was the third receiver on that team.
But we had him like in the ringer fantasy football guide right now.
We have him 15th. We have him between T. Higgins and Garrett Wilson.
Yeah, at the wide receiver position. And I just think he's going to end up like we have Puka six, we have neighbors seven, we have Thomas eight.
I just think he's going to be in that neighborhood. when the season's over.
You can kind of go both ways. That is my guy.
You can do like the It's his team now. Look what he did with DK Metcalf and Lockett last year.
He was still great. Now you have like a better play caller, all this stuff.
And then you can be like, well, you're betting on Sam Darnold.
This is a team that wants to run the ball.
The defense is going to be awesome. Maybe they won't have to score that many points.
Now there's only Jackson Smith and Jake out there for defense. to focus on.
You can kind of go both ways, but I do lean your way where I think he's going to be a good pick.
The talent. Well, plus... I hesitate to do this to DK.
What if Cup is like pretty good this year?
Wow. Yeah. I mean, it's going to hurt JSN.
I haven't thought about that. But what really happened with him on the Rams was Puka was just like a younger, better version of Cup.
Right. And was just became Cup on the team.
And then it was like watching a shooting guard on an NBA team.
There's just a better shooting guard. Yeah.
So I just wonder like how the, like, I even, I wrote them off.
I was like, that guy, I wouldn't want to draft them, but they're, I don't know.
He's in his early 30s. Is it a wrap for him?
They paid for him like he's going to contribute.
They gave him a good amount of money. I think it's a huge red flag that McVeigh was like, yeah, We don't want you anymore.
Bye-bye. It is a red flag. Well, here's what I'll say.
I think... Cooper Cup is going to be on the team to play a couple roles.
He's going to be their slot receiver and he goes out and he can still block his ass off and that really matters to them. in terms of like the schematic advantages it brings when your receivers can block.
It's like you can run so many different so many more different plays in like 11 or 12 personnel or whatever where the receivers are out there blocking too.
It just gives you an advantage, but I also think if Jason, he's actually, what I've heard is he's running around outside more. and kind of like not just stuck in the slot.
He could have bigger plays in his future and they're going to do a lot of play action.
That's like a huge part of their offense.
Think like Rashid Shaheed and Chris Olave with the Saints last year when they were on the field together.
It's like... And obviously Sam Darnold, I mean, for all his flaws, he will push the ball down the field.
He's aggressive downfield thrower, and he's accurate downfield.
Well, and then Valdez, Scantling, too, in the locket spot, just running straight linebackers.
He's just clear out routes. Did you buy Horton stock?
I'm buying Horton stock. I think he's going to be the number three.
I think the Seahawks are going to be good.
Let's take a break. We are on a terrible pace.
We're going to come back with my crazy pills guy.
All right, Danny, you're crazy pills guy.
The guy you're looking at that you don't understand why everybody else doesn't see it the way you see it.
I don't understand why T Higgins is so low everywhere.
And I'm probably part of the problem. I don't know if I have him high enough, but.
You have him 14th. I think we're too low on Tee Higgins.
Last year, he was wide receiver four in points per game. he did miss like five games because of hamstring injuries, I believe.
Um, But again, he averaged 15.5 points per game.
He's in the perfect environment in Cincinnati with a...
Pass-first team. They're very pass-first, pass-heavy.
Joe Burrow loves to pass the ball down the field.
Trusts him incredibly. in the red zone. they're just going to go out there in, in terms of fantasy, the Bengals offense is pure sex.
It's exactly what you want. They're going to play fast.
They're going to push the ball down the field are going to score a ton of points.
Joe Burrow passes to his receivers inside the five and ten yard line a lot like they they will throw a lot of passing touchdowns because He just trusts him.
It's kind of like the old Aaron Rodgers thing.
It's like, trust him to make the calls in certain areas where they're just like audibling and You got a one-on-one matchup, I'm going to throw it up to you.
And T. Higgins, that's like his game. He's just so big and tall.
It's like... you know, George Pickens, but more reliable.
You know why he had him 14th? Because like, Played 12 games the last two years.
Yeah, he gets banged up. That's the thing.
656 yards and 23 and 911 yards last year.
10 touchdowns once. he is like a little more theoretical than I think people realize because you catch him on the right there.
Like, Oh my God, this guy's amazing. It is getting hurt every year.
The thing DK keeps dropping on me that always blows my mind is in the games that Tee Higgins and Jamar Chase both played, that Tee Higgins got more targets than DK.
Jamar Chase did. They're like the best passing offense since the...
And he's... I think he's the perfect combination of... floor and ceiling at receiver for where you're getting him because he's going to give you a good floor.
There's only one season he's had where he averaged less than 10 points per game.
And that was 9.7. So he's like that floor is solid.
He's not going to kill you. And he also has the higher end upside where, you know, things go similar with the Bengals offense this year as they did last year.
He might be a top five receiver in the NFL.
I like it. Who do you got, Craig? Tyreek Hill.
Whoa. Oh my Lord. I'm willing to embrace the crazy this year with Tyreek.
Wow. I don't get it. I don't get it. Last year, Tyree Kill had 1800 yards.
Two years ago. Sorry, yeah. Now you're gaslighting us.
Not that you just watched. 2023 at 1800 yards.
He was the number one wide receiver in fantasy.
He was 29 years old. He had one bad year where he hurt his wrist in August.
Tua missed half the season. It was a down year.
He tried to quit at the end of the season.
He played 17 games. And now he started. 16 and a half.
He kind of benched himself at halftime. Now, so he was going literally second in drafts last year. overall out of every player is going number two.
Now he's going 28. And I'm like, whatever.
The Dolphins are a mess. I'm willing to like buy all that.
The vibes are bad. Tyreek's talking shit about Mike McDaniel.
I'm getting this guy I'm getting Tyree killed At the end of the third round If you just If you just believe That he's not washed Guys, best pick in drafts.
I've just been down this road too many times in fantasy football.
Four decades of experience now. Usually when it goes south, it doesn't come back with the receivers.
That's fair. However- If you really did like a Sloan Conference-
No, they did. This guy, Adam Harstad, did a study on this.
When it craters, it's never back the other way.
But it cratered half because he had a ligament injury in his wrist in August and Tua, his quarterback, missed half the year.
Well, the good thing is he's a reliable health bet this year.
It's a parlay. It's a parlay to be like Tyreek and Tua both.
Listen, this is why he's your... Crazy pills.
Yeah. I'm just like, this guy's going 28th overall.
I get Tyree killed. I think this was going to happen.
We always talk about like the week one test.
Yeah. Yeah. where it's Sunday at 11.25 a.m. and Tyreek Hill has two catches for 95 yards and a touchdown already.
They're like, ah, fuck. He's back. Because to your point, dude, Bill Barnwell had one of the craziest stats I've ever read about Tyra Kill's 2023 season, which was The Dolphins actually had almost the fewest passes in the NFL in the second half that year.
Because they're leading games, right? Yeah, because they were winning.
So they didn't throw that much in the second half, but the point was, if Tyree Kill had his 4.0 yards per route run.
If he had had as many... routes as Calvin Johnson did the year he set the single receiving mark, which was 1,900 yards.
Tyreek Hill would have had 3,000 yards at the rate he was going.
I'm kind of just like, we had one down year and the team was a mess.
I don't know if he's just physically washed.
I'm getting him at the end of the third round.
I'm not paying for him, but if he's sitting there staring at me in round seven.
I don't disagree with what, like, it's hard to refute what you're saying where you're like, he could be a good pick.
I'm like, yeah, I don't know how I can argue against that.
Mine's a little happier. My crazy pill guys. is on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
He's a rookie receiver named Emeka Ibuka.
Yeah. Um, This just happens every year and I'm tired of, I had Michael, I had Brian Thomas Jr. in the, Michael Thomas.
Thank God I didn't have him. Brian Thomas.
Last year. And it was great. And he just got better as the year along and was just clearly one of the 10 best guys by the end of the thing.
This guy checks all the boxes for me. Like he fell too far in the draft.
He's going to a team that he's perfect for.
They've already had receiver injuries. Godwin's not coming back to October.
McMillan's out for at least half the season.
I bet when I was in Boston, I bet and I never bet on player overrunners because I just feel like it's stupid.
You always want to go over. Yeah. His over-under for receiving yards was 675.
And I was like... I'm betting this. I can't believe this should be in the 900s.
I look today, it's now 825. It's 150 yards.
And I think it should go higher. Yeah. Um, you wait another week, you'd probably get at nine.
Here's the thing. I love reading the quotes going back to Danny's guy, Russell Wilson in 2012.
When the teammates and coaches, when it gets to a level of rave, you just know and it was the case with Thomas last year in Jacksonville that whole training camp preseason they were like This guy's got it.
This guy's fucking special. And that's what they're saying about Ibuka.
And I just feel like... You have him 44th in our fantasy draft guide?
He's going to be in the top 12 by the end of the year, my prediction.
Maybe I'm taking crazy pills. Bill, regarding your bet that you made, you know who had around the same yards?
What was it, 650? What was it? 675. Ray Ray McLeod had 686 yards last year.
Right. Wandel Robinson had 700 yards. 675 is like 50 yards a game.
You got it. Quentin Johnson had more than 700.
Who do you have for your crazy pill guy?
Oh, Jalen Hurts. the Eagles quarterback.
Jalen Hurts, he's ranked further back than Lamar Jackson.
Like, whatever platform you want to look at, it's generally like Josh Allen, Lamar, like 24-25.
25th. Jalen Hurts is like 37th on Yahoo 38th on Sleeper like that's next to Marvin Harrison Jr.
And Jalen Hurts is ranked like they banned the Tush Push.
And they didn't. And I actually don't understand because people are caught up in like, oh, well, is this ceiling as high as Josh Allen?
I don't care. There is a play that the NFL, the other 31 teams want to ban.
Because it's too easy for Jalen Hurts to score a touchdown.
Yeah. It is literally, like, literally without exaggeration, I think Jalen Hurts is probably in the 21st century at quarterback position. the most reliable week-to-week player there's ever been.
He doesn't have down weeks. He doesn't have down weeks.
Even Josh Allen has a few stinkers. He's been number one on this season.
Hurts misses some games, winning plays. Jalen Hurts is the best player in fantasy, and the most predictable player.
The whole problem with fantasy football is it's hard to predict.
He is the single easiest player to predict in the entire league at any position.
And you're going to get it. So if, and this is honestly, he's kind of my one true love too, in a way, maybe get slain.
Hurts, if you get Jalen Hurts in the fourth round, I think that is the single best pick you can make in fantasy football this year because you're going to get a guy who is going to have more 30-point weeks than single digits.
You're just... Absolutely. I think there will be those games where he's just 9 for 17 for 112 yards and... rushes for 50 yards in a TD and you just look at it and you're like, but then he has 27 points somehow.
And you're like, it didn't even look like he had a good game.
That's the story, yeah. 50 games that matter in the last five years, he has 50 rushing touchdowns.
Yeah. he he has i'm with you he's a great guy to have yeah what i love about him and we talked i think A couple years ago, we were talking about how he's the greatest fourth quarter player fantasy quarterback all the time.
Because if the Eagles are trailing and they're trying to come back in the fourth quarter, he's running around a ton.
He's passing it, you know, so he is game script proof too. because he's either going to be scoring rushing touchdowns early in the game and they're going to be icing the game later, or they're going to have to Last six minutes of the fourth quarter, he's going to score 15 fantasy points because he's running all around and doing everything.
So it's just, yeah, he's so consistent week in and week out.
It's great. I would still rather have a few other guys. but it's the best guy and you're not paying that much for him.
You're up with a new category. Mm-hmm. I absolutely hate myself for doing this guy.
George Pickens, but I'm in. I'm going to do it.
George Pickens. Yeah, yeah. Wow. I'm buying Dallas.
I think Dallas is the off-brand Bengals this year.
I think I need like I need some oxygen I need I think Dak and CD and Pickens are like Burrow and Chase and Higgins.
And Bob, the guy from the stands who's their starting receiver. running back?
Whatever. Chase Brown? Chase Brown. Who's for the Cowboys?
Oh, no, you're talking about Javante Williams.
He looked great last year. Who cares? That means he'll throw it more.
Or Miles Sanders. I do think he's dead on that they're the off-brand Bengals because they're the same team.
They have horrible defenses. They're offense is built around a quarterback who's doing a Peyton Manning discount Bengals yeah they're doing Peyton Manning cosplay with these two top receivers Yeah, it's like, I think Dak could lead the league in passing.
Schottenheimer, let him cook. Yeah, everyone talks about the Bengals last year.
Oh, how many points they scored, how electric they were.
The 2023 Cowboys scored more points than the 2024 Bengals.
I like it. I would never take him. I think it's more likely he's off the team in week eight in something. horrible happens.
Sounds like you don't like it. Ever since that game when it was the last play of the game against Cleveland and he got in the fight during the Hail Mary.
That's because he only cares about fantasy football.
I actually completely out-unpicked him. I came away more impressed with him.
Exactly. That was cool. My guy, I wanted to shout out Keon Coleman because I think he's going to rope me in, but I don't want to pick him.
That's a good one. He's just getting too much buzz and it feels like, ah, 33 bucks.
And then you're like, what did I do? But it's definitely Travis Hunter for me.
I was like, I'm staying away. I'm not even, I don't even, I'm not even shopping in your grocery store.
I'm not even getting a cart and pushing around.
I don't want to know. I don't want to think about it.
And then I read this one thing about how Liam Cohen is like, He's just going to be two bubble screens a game trying to bust him for 50 yards of pop.
And I was like, oh. Caught the Holy Ghost.
What do you mean? you just, just bust one at any time.
Cause, well, well, sorry. Uh, I was really worried about the defense-offense thing.
Just somebody trying to play 1,000 snaps or whatever... on both sides seems inconceivable with how fucking big football players are in the NFL.
Right. And he's not big. But I feel like he's going to be sitting there and I'm going to get excited about it and I'm going to hate myself for doing it.
We just had a massive argument about this on our podcast.
Bill, I need some therapy life advice thing.
I... I think I was the single biggest Travis Hunter fan in sports media.
My crazy pills thing on the draft was basically, I was just like, why did we talk about the ceiling of every prospect?
No one ever admits that all these guys are probably going to have an average outcome between whatever.
And the only person we won't talk about sealing is Travis Hunter, who won the award for best receiver in college football, best defensive player in college football.
And I'm like, what if he just... Does both At a great level In the NFL Everyone's acting like It won't happen Or can't happen It's impossible Yeah you're like He could be Shohei Otani I've been talking about this all year.
I was like, yeah, it's like Otani. What if he's just four catches for 80 yards a week?
Yeah. And he scores every other week. And he's just doing that on the side as he's covering the other team's best receiver.
Jim Thorpe. And I'm like, he could win offensive rookie, defensive rookie of the year.
It could do amazing. And I'm not going to lie.
I capitulated. I capitulated. I capitulated 20 minutes before he walked in the studio.
I admitted to them. I was six months on our show.
Non-stop, Travis Hunter is going to blow everyone's mind.
He's the best player since whoever. You give up?
Today, he was like, ah. I don't know. I sold low.
I saw him play in the preseason. I called him a pansy for it.
It's a weak move. You should have doubled down.
Stick with your gun. I should have. Yeah.
But I'm worried that like, I just- I need the strength to stay away.
I'm worried that like the meetings is going to fall behind and stuff and they're just going to play him at like, it's going to be really frustrating.
It's going to be cool. on the field, but for your lineup, it's going to be kind of annoying.
I'm nervous. It could be cooler in real life than in fantasy.
It's like, okay, he plays double the snaps.
You don't get double the fantasy points.
The Jags play the Bengals in week four or five and you're like, so do I bench him because he's going to have to cover Tee Higgins?
And you're like, I've never asked that question before.
So it will be a new experience, I guess.
Well, it's like you never want to have the first of anything.
Right. You never want, like, you don't have the first iPhone.
It's like, oh, it's not going to work. 19 things are going wrong.
Too many bugs. First iPad. The first, like, car that has gas and electricity and it's like a hybrid and it's like, oh, it's in the shop.
So maybe wait a year for Hunter. But I still… If he's sitting there, I still feel like… Oh, I get it.
Who do you have, Heifetz? Oh, I hate myself for doing this guy?
Yeah. Oh, this is the easiest category. It's Kyle Pitts.
Falcons. He's almost honorary. Yeah, he's so grandfathered in.
Best situation Kyle Pitts has ever been in, cheapest he's ever been.
It's that simple. Like he, I will never do it when he had more dollars.
We were not doing, he was a top, he was a fourth round player.
I'm going to break. Marcus Mariota was his quarterback.
We ranked him in the fourth round. Michael Penix, the last quarterback throwing 10 yards a throw, is his quarterback.
He's a 14th round pick on ESPN. I mean, he's going near Hunter Henry.
And I'm like, Kyle Pitts, everything we've ever said about his upside remains true.
I'm just saying. Yeah, like he's been not met expectations.
The problem is he's not that good. When you watch the Falcons, he's not like a tight end like Bowers or Kittle.
He can't really block. So he's basically a wide receiver and he's not as good as the other receivers on the Falcons.
I guess I don't know what he is. Ray McLeod.
He's a vertical receiver, and I'm not even saying he's necessarily going to be ever what we thought he'd be.
I'm just saying Michael Penix made Jalen Polk an early second round pick and Jalen Polk will probably never.
I'm sorry. Panic's made all these guys.
DK, who do you have? I have, and I do hate myself for doing this, Kyler Murray for the Cardinals.
Fantasy point of view. remember that rushing is an absolute cheat code.
Um, two years, two years moved from the ACL.
Did you fall for that one? Yeah, look, he's another guy that... The way that I talk myself into it is...
He's a high floor, high ceiling guy. And those are the types of players I want to go after. in fantasy because it's not, he's not going to fail you.
The worst average he's had in points per game last year is 17 and a half.
That was last year. So he's just going to fill the real life team, but like the fantasy team, I don't care.
I don't care. This is the Justin Fields.
It's a high ceiling, low floor, unless you're trying to win NFL games with them.
I'm fine with that. And then he's a low ceiling, low floor.
It's actually probably better if they're losing because then in the fourth quarter, they're running around.
I actually want him to be. he's to me he has shades of Ben Simmons to me Kyler Murray Okay, can I talk about fantasy, though, maybe?
Because that's what we're talking about here.
It's important. He's the quarterback eight. in the last four years, almost 19 points per game.
Going back to 2020... When he ran a bunch, he averaged almost 10 points per game as a runner only.
The last four years, it's been like five.
And there's been a lot of talk in this training camp that he's I feel like it's a lot of these dual threat quarterbacks kind of try and because they know long-term I need to stick in the pocket and just like pass and do that.
I think Kyler's kind of at a turning point now where he's like, Actually, my running really makes me a lot better and I probably should embrace it more.
And there's been talk that they're working him into the design run game a little bit more in preseason.
So I'm just... If he doesn't do it, that's great.
He's going to be a top 12 quarterback probably.
If he does run a bunch this year, he'll be top five.
Listen, He makes sense in this category as well.
We have the I'm staying away from that whole team team category.
And I guess the nominees are Cleveland, New Orleans, Miami, and Carolina.
So I vote Cleveland. Yeah. Cleveland. Cleveland.
I have Pittsburgh. What are you talking about?
You wouldn't even accept DK Metcalf on your team?
I mean, I love DK, but no. Okay. So I had Cleveland's the obvious pick.
Yeah. I do think there's a Judy. Like he was huge last year for them. right?
Jameis was playing. It's Jameis. I'm just saying, Jameis is like firewise.
Jameis had huge stats. Jameis literally Jerry Judy had yards per run yards per game whatever metric you want to use Every game with Jameis was more than double his career average.
And then when Jameis didn't play, it went right back.
I had New Orleans written down. For sure.
Wouldn't feel great about really anything involved in that team.
And I had Miami written down just because...
That feels like you'll actually spend money on some of the guys in that team.
It'll feel worse. I'm surprised you went Carolina.
Carolina is like my sneaky, truly out of nowhere team for this year.
Carolina just had a habit. Yeah. Because Schumacher was actually good last year.
I like Coker. Yeah. Who knows? I'm kind of sneaky high on Carolina this year.
The only other one I thought of was Pittsburgh. which I was glad you brought up because I don't like having DK Metcalf on my team because he's feast or famine.
You never know what's going to happen with him.
I wouldn't want any receiver. There's no way I'm running back.
No way I'm taking Rodgers. I do like Fryerman, though.
Do you like Friar Muth? I traded for Johnny Smith.
I do like Friar Muth a little bit. All right, next category.
Hi, Fitz, you're up. Oh, no, this is a group category.
It's the, our Kumail Nanjiani, why the fuck did you bulk up?
Like, this is actually ridiculous. What are you doing? guy.
And we all have Marvin Harrison. So do your random.
So Marvin Harrison Jr. obviously had a disappointing rookie year.
To say the least. I still maintain that if his name had not been Marvin Harrison Jr., if it had been like Dave Harrison, son of Marvin.
Malik Nampers would have gone over him. But it was hard for anyone to say Marvin Harrison Jr.
So he's drafted. and has this point of year and he comes in this year and he's absolutely ripped.
He's got the huge biceps. Like he's added what?
10 pounds of muscle, which when you're an NFL elite athlete, that's a lot of weight to add.
And I'm like, you're a wide receiver. Why are you having big biceps?
Why are you getting your arms? Nobody was ever like, you know what Marvin Harrison Jr. needs?
10 more pounds of muscle. That's what he was missing.
It's like, why is he not getting fast? I don't like armchair psychologists.
I don't like... that he came into year two and was like, I'm going to look better in the mirror like that.
I don't know if the muscles he's added are necessarily like the most I need to get off the line better.
I remember David Boston way back on Arizona. just got really jacked.
But he had a couple years where he was like one of the eight or nine best fantasy receivers.
And then he just got too big. Yeah. And it was like his career was over.
It's like a desperation move. It's like getting out of a breakup and you just like get ripped.
Maybe that was like, he was disappointed with his rookie year.
He just, he's just, what is that? Is that for a movie?
What is that for? Why does he look like that?
I mean, he's my age. Yeah, it's for a movie.
Have you seen what Sacha Baron Cohen is like?
No, is he like ripped now? Oh my God. He's ripped with a shaved body.
Yeah. That would have been a good fantasy punishment.
You have to wear the Borat bathing suit.
Oh my God. I have a question. I thought about this.
It's like the Mac from It's Always Sunny.
It's getting ripped. Can you think of a single time Any skill position. where a guy got bigger over the offseason, that was a good thing.
I'm sure it happened. but I really honestly can't think of one.
It's way more in the other direction of older guys losing weight and then they yeah it's like getting faster trying to keep keep your knees... Should I think of like a tight end maybe?
LeBron has lost weight throughout his career, right?
That's all... Older athletes have to cut muscle eventually for your joints.
But... you're right he's young enough like you do have to get larger like you do grow into your frame but I just feel like And frankly, maybe, I mean, here I am criticizing an NFL athlete, but I'm just like, I just kind of think.
Too ripped. Yeah, I know. Just Cheeto dust all over me.
But I'm just kind of like, you know what?
I just think he read all the comments and he was kind of embarrassed. that he had a bad year and everyone else, he was like the sixth best rookie receiver in his class and I think he was embarrassed.
So he got really ripped. Give us your shameless Homer pick.
So what is this category? Do you want me to talk about- It's just one giant that you're the most- Is it like a diamond in the rough or is it like the best player on the team?
Just a guy that is on your team, that is being discussed as a fantasy guy anyway, but you're even higher on him than you should be just because he's on your team.
Neighbors is the obvious pick. I will just reiterate that Malik Neighbors really was leaned on by the Giants more to start his career last year than any player ever. would be Jackson Dart.
Well, that's... Exactly. So Neighbors is easy.
Week six... Dart, I think you don't have to hold Dart the whole year because he's not going to play for two months.
I will say Cam Scadaboo. Kim Scabu, the running back.
I am in love with him. He just came back to practice today.
I wanted him on the I freaked out when they took him in the fourth round.
Scataboo... You were always on him. I loved Scataboo.
Yes. And I think... He was the only player to have like 1,600 rushing yards and 500 receiving a season since McCaffrey.
Mm-hmm. And I just, frankly, he's slow and whereby, I mean, it's just overlapping stuff of feels like a cult hero.
Yeah, it's like a white running back, which is just funny.
Everyone's like, well, he's slow and he's not that athletic.
I'm like, I don't care. He's going to be good.
I am so convinced that he has, and also the funny thing about him is because he's so big, He has a total three down skill set, which is hilarious because he's not fast, but he can block and he's a really good receiver.
So I am really convinced that Scadaboo, and I also think because he had this hamstring injury, zero rookie hype, he would have shot up.
Well, he basically missed all of training camp.
He missed a lot, but like Tyrone Tracy in a weird way, even though he was a receiver in college, I kind of think that's the empty calorie touches. where I actually think Skadaboo could get goal line because he's way larger and he can do passing work.
Transformative Giants draft. Yeah. Yes.
Oh, yeah. It really seemed like a special one.
Dude, Abdul Carters. Don't even get me started.
He's every Giants fan in my life is just like has to be hosed down.
When they put him over the guard like the Cowboys do with Michael Parsons against the Bills.
Unbelievable. But we knew it the whole time.
That's what the Joe Milton game is just... so devastating but then the Pats ended up I'll do my shameless homer pick ahead of everybody else the Travion Henderson like yeah Oh, yeah.
I was looking at the Jameer Gibbs rookie numbers. where he was like 900 yards rushing and...
I don't know, 600 yards receiving. And it felt like a lot.
It felt impactful. If Henderson plays 17 games, there's no way he's not doing better than Jermaine Gibbs rookie season.
They're just... He has this home run... receiving power that I don't even think Gibbs has.
Like I was looking at Gibbs's biggest receiving like explosion thing.
Henderson's gonna do it multiple times. And if you have kickoff returns in your draft that's tied to the players, which some drafts do, And they changed his kickoff rules.
And I think he's going to be one of the biggest weapons in the league.
I just think he's... It was honestly a miracle that he felt it.
The Browns had 36 and took the other Ohio State running back. be an all-timer and it was like a miracle it made up for the Abdul Carter thing no it's karma it literally did It's karma for when you guys took, the Patriots took Sonny Michel over Nick Chubb when they came out of Georgia.
Yeah, it was seesawed the other way. Yeah.
So we get Will Campbell for who he's not Abdul Carter, but he is, you know, he'll be a good left tackle for us.
And then Henderson, who if he had gone 12 to the Chargers, people would be like, should he be RB5?
Yeah. They'd be just going, what's Harbaugh?
Can he get to 2,000 all-purpose yards? And on the pats, he's kind of buried.
But he's been the story of camp. That's all people talk about covering the Pats.
I feel like it's everything. day every day he does a 100 yard touchdown return the thing with Henderson we were just talking about it we recorded our show for the fantasy show earlier today and I was saying I think the thing with Travion and about why I think he'll have a larger impact rookie year than most rookies is just, I think the passing game's harder because frankly, they don't want to trust at the end of the day, a rookie is still an intern and like, they don't want to trust the a hundred million dollar quarterback.
Yeah. Like being protected by the black, but it's 21 years old.
And I think Henderson is a function of NIL. because they paid him a lot of money to go back to Ohio State.
He wanted to win a championship. And so I think, frankly, he's just, it's a new era now where people as running back, as talent, talented as Travion Henderson would have gotten as much experience on the team.
And so I think while that might be larger, you know, it's more of tread on the tires, so to speak for like his contract in terms of a rookie or impact, uh, He's just more experienced than most people this talented are entering his season.
The fact that he can block like he does because they go nuts about how he blocks.
It's the hardest thing for rookies. So he's out there and it's like, oh, it's a passing down.
He's out there. It's like, maybe it's not, or maybe it is, or maybe they'll run and you're going to have to defend the whole field with them.
He's a godsend. Like, McDaniels is talking about like Vereen and James White all these dudes they had in this spot and he's like This guy's like all of those dudes on steroids, basically.
Yeah, he's way better than them. He's going to surpass Ramondre quickly.
And I entered the season thinking... that would not happen, but he's clearly, he's.
Yeah. I'm going to, all my friends are going to bid me up on them and it's going to, I'm just going to like, be like, what is that?
28, 28, 30. Who do you have for Seattle?
I'm shameless Homer about Kenneth Walker.
I absolutely love that guy. I think he's I stand by this.
I think he's one of the best pure runners in the league going back the last few years.
I mean, he... make guys miss, break tackles, you know, just obliterate angles in the open field.
He's actually proven to be a pretty good pass catcher.
Last year he had 46 catches, which was 12th most. among running backs.
And that was only in five straight games.
Well, that's the problem. He's too elusive.
He's a red flag guy. Well, this is why I'm shameless about it.
He's one of those guys where if it was just like, if you just watched like silhouettes of players running, you didn't know who that was.
If somebody like, he kind of looks like Saquon Barkley in moments.
Yeah, he really has. He's awesome. He was great.
Saquon with a touch of Isaiah Pacheco. Yeah, a little bit angry run to him.
He has a weird running gait. He runs like a crab.
He runs sideways. Do you have a shameless steward's pick?
To be honest, no, I don't. You got mad at me for avoiding the Steelers?
Boswells? There's nobody that I'm like, this guy's gonna crush.
I mean, I can give you a player I think is kind of under the radar.
I'm not saying at all he'll be fantasy-relevant.
But their third round pick last year, Roman Wilson, the receiver out of Michigan, I do think is good.
He played five snaps last year. He was hurt all year.
Five. Literally five. Rodgers is talking him up.
He won the Natty with Michigan. He had 12 touchdowns that year.
Like, He's like very gritty, dirty work blocking guy.
Apparently he's been great in camp. He's like that slot receiver that is exactly what the Steelers need.
Rodgers has seemed to like him. I do think there's a chance that in like a month or two, we're like, Norman Wilson.
You might get some manufactured touches.
That was sad. I don't have a shameless Homer pick.
I don't. But here's a guy who had five snaps last year that I'm mildly excited about.
Yeah. We'll take a break and then coming back with the veal chop guy.
All right, this is a special category. Danny's going to lead us off.
It's the My Veal Chop guy. The veal chop, which we argued about last year in this podcast, it's a feast or famine order.
I still have yet to have a veal chop. It's expensive.
I've never actually had one. It might be great.
It might be terrible. You just don't know.
David Chang, we did this category last year and he was so upset. that the veal chop was besmirched.
He thought it was an absolutely insane take that I continue to be the worst food tech person.
He doesn't get bad veal chops. Dave Chang walks in and they're like, better not fuck up this veal chop.
That's what I said. This is like, you know, he's snobby in general with his food.
It's not like he's rolling the dice. So he thinks all veal chops are good.
His theory is all veal chops bring something to the table.
Okay. Um, anyway, who do you, who do you have for your field?
It's like a phrase. It definitely helps.
Participation. Yeah. Field shops. Who do you have for your veal chop guy, Danny?
Jameson Williams of the Lions. Good year last year.
Yeah. He... Obviously, the first two years in the league was all over the place.
He got... He was injured at first, then he got suspended for gambling, and then he was, I think just kind of a knucklehead.
They didn't trust him right away, so he was playing off and on.
But every time he gets on the field, you're like, this is the fastest guy in the league. it never works out like there's been a lot of these guys and usually they're out of the league in like three years he was right on the cusp He literally might be out of the league.
That's what we had with Tyquan Thornton, who the Chiefs are trying to save right now.
He's like 4'2 speed. The Chiefs are just like kind of your last stop on the way out.
Yeah, totally. Tire kick. But Jamo, he had over 1,000 yards last year.
To me, he's just the perfect example of There will be one game where he has 200 yards and three touchdowns and then he'll have like a catch the next week and you're kind of, you know, whack-a-mole trying to figure out when to play him.
But... I truly believe he's one of the most talented receivers in the NFL.
It's just a matter of... He is open by five yards when he's on a deep pass.
You don't even see the defender behind him.
The first round three years ago. That's one of the better fantasy questions from last year.
Who had more receiving yards? Tee Higgins or Jamison Williams?
Yeah. And everyone would have said T. Higgins.
I liked that one. I mean, it felt like he was getting better and better as the year was going along.
Um, Who do you have for your build shop guy?
It's got to be Devon HM. Oh, we're just running it back?
It has to be. For the most part, it was pretty good experience with him last year, right?
When Tua played, he was a top two running back.
He was basically Saquon. When Tua didn't play, he was irrelevant and borderline not starting.
Alexander Madison had more points per game than HN when Tua was out.
Yeah. And so it's like, I mean, he hurt his calf right now.
He's got a hurt calf, which is like the biggest... red flag for speed guys the calf is just that's if we did a draft achilles The soft tissue injuries you want to see, calf is dead last.
Especially after this NBA season. I now treat the calf injury like it's...
It's like a heart attack. Yeah. It's a basic, it's like, I'd rather have a heart issue.
Oh my God. It's a calf injury. Jesus. So I don't know.
I don't know where I stand with HN. I honestly think I'm probably going to avoid him.
I was kind of into him until the calf injury came around.
I'm honestly Craig on that team. I'm out.
I'm kind of out on him too. The way I, Craig nailed it.
And he said, a chance of parlay. you're parlaying that Devon HN's calf is okay with Tua plays football.
Good luck. I have a great build shop guy.
I'm really excited about it. I'm excited to talk about him with the three of you.
Braylon Allen. Yeah. Wow. So I had Brees Hall on both teams last year.
Sure. Me too. He just... He just put his poop in a doggy bag and whipped it at me for four months.
Um, yeah. And every time Braylon Allen came in for him, You have that sinking feeling as a fantasy football person.
You're 100% right. the guy behind your guy comes in and you're like, fuck, that guy's better.
Yeah, he just is. I knew it in my soul. Just knowing yourself like, this guy's better he just is this guy just hits the hole far he seems stronger like god damn it I thought I just really got this wrong I just think he's going to end up being the jet starter and having a big season.
He's 19 years old? I don't even know. Is he still a teenager?
He was the youngest player. player ever, wasn't he?
Yeah, he was the only drafted player I think ever.
And then, I mean, I don't know about the 30s when there was like World War II. like you know world war one world war two gaps or whatever but like the um he had his freshman year at Wisconsin, he was 17 years old.
He had, this is the meme is people always talk about this, but like, He had like 1300 yards at Wisconsin in a very similar scheme.
But overall, to your point, the person who's going to notice this immediately. is Aaron Glenn, the coach of the Jets.
Right. He's going, I think he had a team he wants to have.
I want to run the ball. I want to pound the ball.
The case for the Jets to go nine and eight and get a seventh seed, which I will not make.
But there will be a terrible seventh seed in the AFC.
It's just where it's going to happen. But the case is, Braylon Allen is actually, like, incredible.
And their line is... And the other point, the Jets have a sneaky, really good offensive line.
I mean... Could be. Unless you watched the Membo footage last weekend.
Was he not good? Oh, no. It's good in theory.
The Membo footage was... Bad. It's footage.
They called it... Bigfoot footage. Bigfoot footage.
I was having some cruder films. I was on a Pats fan text thread as we were exalting that we have Campbell in that memo and somebody was like, Look how slow his hands are.
Slow hands. Can't get his hands up fast enough.
It's like, oh, slow hands. But anyway, Alan.
That's my guy. I am stubbornly. I'm very stubbornly staying on Brees Hall Island.
And I don't feel good. I'll sell you my car.
I don't feel good about it anymore. You can imagine.
We get mad at each other. they, one of them is mad at me.
Yeah. The only time I've seen them like actually really angry at each other was when he besmirched pretty small.
Freesaw. It's the only thing I've seen him do that good anyway.
It's a weird one because he seemed like just a slam dunk.
He's not. He is good. Two years ago, it seemed like he was a slam dunk, pay $50 for this guy in a Fannie Dre outfit.
Feel great about it. He's never had 1,000 yards in a year.
Yeah. Who's your favorite? I just can't get over the fact HN literally is on par with Gibbs, Bijan, and Saquon. when Tua plays and then literally literally he's there with Alexander Madison and post-injury Nick Chubb when Tua doesn't play.
And I can't think of a player that would be more of the, the spirit of this thing of boomer feast or famine braylon allen's in the 20s somewhere Right?
25? No, lower. A way lower. For sure. you think by the time this season what if he has a starting job way lower I mean if he had the starting job but I don't think he's going to I think he'll be low way lower If Rhys gets traded.
There's a world where if you didn't have this podcast and everyone in the league wasn't listening.
Yeah, but I haven't won since 07, so it'd probably, like, zag against me.
I'll tell you right now. $2. He's the running back 47.
You can get him for $2. That's where he's going.
Really? Yeah. You can get him for $2. I don't think he's going to pay $3.
He's not even a veal chop guy. He's like a freaking appetizer.
Yeah. He's like the scallops with the bacon.
Yeah. All right. DK, I wouldn't take him, even if he was frustrated, free guy, AKA the D and D list, the list you don't want to be on.
I have three guys on mine this year. Yeah.
Mine's kind of a team thing. I'm staying away from the Cowboys backfield. so Javante just blind stay away you don't want one person even if they're I mean, I guess I would take Jade and Blue really late for a dollar or whatever, but...
I just am avoiding that. I just don't have any faith that they're going to run the ball well or often.
And I think they're going to be a pass heavy team.
I'm just staying away from that. What do you have, Craig?
Garrett Wilson. I'm good. Yeah. I don't want anybody that's Justin Fields is throwing passes to.
Rodgers had the third most passes in the league last year.
Gary Wilson was the wide receiver 23. Now he's getting drafted as the wide receiver 15.
He's getting better with Justin Fields throwing the ball like 18 times a game.
I don't get it at all. Yeah, that's a good one.
I like that one. I have, with apologies to DK Metcalf.
And Kyle Pitts. Trevor Lawrence. Really?
Literally... He was one of my big guys last year.
He scourged you, I can tell. Yeah, he's also not good.
He's not good at football. You're not willing to wait for the Liam Cohen...
I'm not willing to wait on anything. I don't think he's accurate.
I think he throws hospital balls left and right.
If I was Brian Thomas Jr.' 's family, I'd be terrified every game.
Uh, I don't, I don't think he's a smart quarterback.
I think he does dumb shit, especially in inside the 20, like, I forgot until I went through my notes how fucking stupid the Jaguars were last year.
Where they were like, oh, and four. And we were like, how is this team on four?
I just don't think that goes away. I don't think he has it.
And I think he's a complete stay away. Not even for $0.
I think the literal recent history of the NFL would...
Suggest that I think giving up on quarterbacks who played for horrible organizations like Jacksonville is just a mistake like you talk about they had to out Liam Cohen had to oust the GM of the Jags, Trent Baalke, like he was Littlefinger or Rasputin or something. something because that's the organization but if you just look at is this a Trevor Lawrence defense because it feels like you're making one listen to our pod No, it's just Baker.
I'm just saying Baker Mayfield was salary dumped by the Carolina Panthers and he's now a $40 million a year player.
Gino Smith was a backup for eight years and then went and now is like a good above average starting quarterback.
Bryce Young was given up on... benched by the Panthers.
And then two weeks later, outplayed CJ Stroud the rest of the season.
I mean, if you just look around and around Ruiz... made the key point about Bryce Young yesterday on the Ringer NFL show.
It's like his stats are basically the same as Anthony Richardson.
Anthony Richardson is younger. And everybody's like, Bryce Young, looking good.
No, no. And Bryce Young, he played two good games.
Come on. Everyone needs to settle down on Bryce Young. the Eagles I'm just saying that like like these garbage time like everyone was not taking them seriously because they were so terrible I'm dubious.
But you're liking Jigba for the Seahawks, and it's like Sam Donald's the quarterback of the Seahawks.
It's like he's been given up on by like four or five teams.
I guess I'm just saying like 14 and three last year.
I know, but that's my point. The Jets gave up on him and the Panthers gave up.
You guys haven't followed football for long enough because you're way younger than I am.
I am. I've watched this happen too many times when these people get infected by being on bad teams for too many years.
That's it. It's like gangrene. Your leg falls off.
How did Sam Darnold win 14 games last year?
Well, seeing Darnold, well, how many teams was he on?
He bounced around. He had to go to the Niners and be rehabbed.
I think Trevor Lawrence needs to leave Jacksonville before anything good happens for him.
There's too much baggage. He needs to cut his hair.
I will bet on the Jags to win the Super Bowl when he just gets a buzz cut.
How many times do you watch Trevor Lawrence do something stupid and then cuts him in the sideline and takes his helmet off and he's like... like I just can't do it again I just think coaching Kevin O'Connell Doug Peterson won a Super Bowl And then was fired with the same quarterback because he couldn't make it happen.
Liam Cohen had one good year with Baker Mayfield and everyone's like, oh, Ben Johnson.
2.0. Are we sure he's even going to be a good coach?
And what makes us think Jacksonville is competent in any way?
They just traded their entire draft for Travis Hunter.
What exact week did Trevor Lawrence fail you last year's season that you feel this way?
How about all the weeks? Every single week.
It was 2-8 last year. There's plenty of hate in his heart right now, I feel like.
What is his career record? Oh, it's 22-38.
It's better than I thought, actually. I just don't get it.
The last two years, last two years, 32 touchdowns, 21 picks.
In a league where everybody is like 30 touchdowns, eight picks, I'm out.
He's making some good points. I'm out. I'm sorry.
I just feel really passionate about this.
I don't get it. It's just like the Justin Herbert thing where he sucked in the playoffs last year.
And now everyone just forgot nine months later.
It's like Justin Herbert, one of the eight best quarterbacks in the league.
Is he? Because we watched him stink in the playoffs.
And it doesn't matter. But the through line of those is Greg Roman, who's the coordinator of the charges, just has never designed a modern passing offense.
And like, Is this another excuse maker for Herbert?
Oh, I will defend Herbert as well. I'm just saying, like, we know Brett doing it.
Fucking Scientologist. What? I just... I'm not saying they're definitely going to be good.
I'm just saying that... We're at a quarter of the league is quarterbacked by highly drafted guys whose first organization's failed them.
And it's really clear that like, okay, some guys just needed Good, better coaching or maybe 25, 26.
Josh Allen is someone you forget. Josh Allen fucking sucked in his first two seasons and then was awesome. in year three.
No, he was terrible his rookie year though.
Terrible his rookie year. The Texans playoff game Josh Allen played his second season. was the worst game I've ever seen a quarterback.
That was when he was lateraling. It's like, you know, it must look like Justin Herbert.
Yeah. You always say Herbert hasn't won the playoffs.
Justin Herbert, the Week 18 game versus the Raiders that Brandon Staley blew because they tied the game. of the best games I've seen a quarterback play.
Maybe it's not playoffs, but if they win the game, they make the playoffs, and if they lose, their season's over.
He lit up Brandon. He lit up... Who did he light up?
The Raiders. Okay, but it was... Oh! he had fourth and two fourths and fifteens two fourths and tens they had like the janitor as their interim head coach uh I think if you can come around on Sam Darnold now, on his ninth team on Seattle, and you're like, I'm going to say,
I only came around because he did it. He went 14-3.
He hit a horrible playoff loss. Kevin O'Connell himself was the one.
And they're like, how did he do it? And people are like, oh, you did it.
He's like, no. Organizations fail quarterbacks.
Totally. More than quarterbacks fail organizations.
Well, year five, Trevor Lawrence, they have one of the five worst offensive lines in the league.
Right, Danny? Bottom five. Probably, yeah.
We've already seen that when he's pressured, it gets a little dicey.
I just want to wait one more year. If it doesn't work with Cohen.
I would like to see. Yeah, exactly. I wish you guys a lot of luck.
The Herbert one surprises me. Coaching matters.
Score 14 points against a good defense. He played the Texans are a good defense.
Sam Darnold got... in the playoffs. I'm not going to defend Sam Darnold.
He looked terrible. He fell apart. Or like, I don't know, Dak Prescott or something like that.
It's like... If you had Dak Prescott over Justin Herbert, what the fuck is Dak Prescott?
Did everybody take a D&D list, Guy? Just Joe Mixon.
His foot's messed up. I wouldn't drive Joe Mixon. yeah just don't make sense but they're not being honest about it i don't even know he's gonna play would you so you you guys would take pits Yeah, because he'll be so cheap.
He's the cheapest he's ever been. Zero dollars for me.
No, he's... I'm doing it. Oh, this is a fun, it's a group category.
Our Aaron Brooks, please don't ever watch him.
Just check the box score after the game, guys.
It's Justin Fields. Yeah. Just don't watch one snap.
Literally don't watch. Just bank the points.
Yep. Yeah. He'll be like in the 20s every game, right?
Just don't watch any of the snaps. Don't watch the footage.
As the Blake Bortles was that way, Tim Tebow had that year where he had like one point before the fourth quarter and then scored 18 every fourth.
And it's a tough existence in fantasy when you have a guy like that, but you can squeeze out 20 points.
Craig, this is one of our best categories from last year. that 2024 booty call isn't happening again guy.
The guy who kind of Late at night in the fantasy season last year, all of a sudden he was getting points for you, but you don't know if it's a real thing or not.
Well, this is funny because we just had a long conversation that he was involved in.
Sam Darnold. I booty call guy for you. Natasha Henstridge and species.
I'm like, it'll, it only works there. Nowhere else.
You know, I'm like in that movie. Great.
The Kevin O'Connell system. Awesome. But now he's in Seattle.
I'm just like, I don't know. I don't know.
I, We should change that category to the Dachshund species.
It's only working once. It only works in one scenario.
I'm like, For sure. Sam Darnold anywhere else?
Not for me. Sam Darnold on his own? Not for me.
I was split for mine between Johnnie Smith.
I still don't understand that season he had last year.
Yeah. That's a good one. How did that Chuba Hubbard thing happen?
Where all of a sudden he was one of the six best running backs in the league.
He had all of it. He had all of the... Okay, so I'm going to go Johnnie Smith.
Yeah. Hubbard was like winning people leagues.
And I just wonder if that happened. It's also because it may have been a bad move, if you want to say it, but they overpaid those guards.
So the Carolina has a weirdly competent offensive line.
Yeah. And so it's a good line. And Shuba Hubbard, you have to be good to survive three regimes.
He was drafted by Matt Rule, really Matt Rule's wife.
Right. She's like, I like this guy. Let's take him.
I looked at his game log and it's like, pretty like every three, four weeks he would have 150 yards.
Well, he would, yeah, he was getting like 85% of the snaps for that team.
It's a, It's a good line. He's good. Who do you have?
John is better than I think, unfortunately, Terry McLaurin for Washington.
It's like a buzzkill. But I mean, Terry McLaurin tied the most touchdowns in the history of the team.
But I mean, he only had like under 1100 yards.
But now Deebo's there. And also, every touchdown Terry had, other than, of course, when they played the Giants, everything looked like the hardest catch.
It was like a miracle. Yeah, it was like a miracle.
Also, he's sneaky, like 31 years old. Yes.
Get out there. Terry's a great guy. He's easy to root for, but I just think where you're drafting him, it's like his ceiling.
Should we do an ESPN segment here? Oh, yeah.
You got to pay him. You got to pay Terry McLaurin.
You got to pay him. I actually do think they need to pay him.
If they want to win 10 games, they might need to pay him!
Everybody had a booty call guy? I got one.
Who's yours? James Cook. for the Bills.
I love James Cook, actually, and I think there is a small chance that he is just in that tier of... Like Alvin Kamara, where he's just way too...
He's so efficient and he just keeps doing it every year.
It shocks you every year. But last year he had 16 touchdowns. rushing the last the two years before that two and two.
And And if you look at his other underlying metrics, he is not a normal elite quarterback.
He was... 28th in touches per game, 38th in snap rate, 24th in rush rate in terms of how many carries he was getting relative to the rest of the team, like barely just over half of the goal go opportunities were his.
I think it was just like lightning in a bottle.
He got the most... goal line carries, I think in the NFL or inside the five yard carries in the NFL last year.
I don't know if that's going to happen again.
Josh Allen's going to steal some of those.
Maybe Ray Davis steal some of them. His underlying metrics just don't match the production.
He would have to be one of the most efficient running backs in the NFL again in his second year, and I don't know if he can do that.
And also, he wasn't really used in the passing game that much.
So... I don't know. The James Cook, he just feels like that was one.
That was just a weird season. He got a new contract.
Yeah. I really liked him second half of the year.
I thought he was awesome. Yeah. So I don't know what to think on this one.
Yeah. There's some red flags, but I could also see him being one of the five best guys.
Right. He could be like Kamara. It's possible, but the metrics, the math, it's not mathing.
All right. Next category is my look. somebody's got to get points in that team guy.
For me, it's Calvin Ridley. Me too. Calvin Ridley too oh you have him too yeah he's one of my favorite players this year here's the thing Ken Ward might be pretty good.
That's another guy, when you read the quotes and stuff, I like that he got in the fight with Jeffrey Simmons.
Yeah. And they were like, what'd you learn from that fight?
And he's like, Jeff's pretty strong. Yeah.
Have you seen Jeff? Yeah. There's also like a narrative now that's not a narrative. narrative anymore, but it seems like it's become a narrative of we're not talking about Cam Ward enough. which is really borrowed from the NBA, where we don't talk about guys enough, but There's a first take right there.
The guy in every single ESPN show is like, we don't talk about Austin Reeves enough.
And it's like, no, we actually probably talk about him the right amount.
The Kim Ward thing, he's just, Looks like he's going to be a franchise quarterback.
They have a good offensive line. Yep. And I'm not ready to think they could steal the AFC South or be out of nowhere and win nine games or anything like that because they're pretty bad and the coaching was bad last year on that team.
Who fucked up more games than the Titans?
It's just hard to do anything, though, with Will Levis.
That was Levis a lot of the time, yeah. Yeah, but they had some special team stuff, too.
They were special teams for him. They were sloppy.
They brought in a new guy. But their defense was also one of the best defenses to start the season ever that barely won any games. games.
I will say that I'd love shout out to Bill Callahan, the reverse Nepo where the son gives the dad the job.
And so they have the best offensive line coach in the league.
And I do think it's underrated how much better Cam Ward will be than Will Levis.
And then the offensive line, getting Dan Moore Jr.
It's kind of like the Panthers. There's some pieces.
I kick-started it as a sleeper. I couldn't get there. overpay a mid lineman looks dumb in March, but then we actually see the team.
You're like, well, if it works, if it makes JC Latham back to right, tackle and everyone's okay.
That's actually above average offensive line.
Kim Ward with time. I mean, it's kind of like he's doing a, Matt Stafford arm angles with Ben Roethlisberger.
If he was smaller Ben Roethlisberger, I like Ken Ward a lot.
He also... All he talks about is throwing to Calvin Ridley.
Yeah. Right now, Calvin Ridley is being priced like Will Levis is still the quarterback.
It's basically they're just like assuming he's going to have the same year he had last year.
And I don't really want to have Calvin Ridley on my team, but it seems like he's going to be the beneficiary.
He's the boring player that falls like multiple rounds and no one wants to take him.
He's great. What was it? A gambling thing?
Or what was this thing? He missed an entire year for gambling, which to me, I'm like, great.
That means his legs are a year younger than his age.
That happened with A-Rod. So we all have Ridley for that.
Anybody have one other guy for that? I had Ted McMillan for the Panthers.
Oh. Just think. Good receiver. And you're not going to like to hear this, but I thought Bryce, you know, elevated that offense in the second half of the year, at least statistically.
He had some. Yeah, statistically, I think he got his confidence back because he was...
Like, no confidence at all. You know this scuttlebutt, right?
Do you know why Bryce Young was in turmoil?
Part of it. Mentally. Tyrese Maxey started dating Bryce Young's girlfriend.
Oh, really? And then the benching was like a rebirth of sorts.
Well, it was really the Andy Dalton car accident.
One of the most underrated football moments.
Who was the guy that got stabbed by the Chargers team doctor?
Yeah. Yeah. Conspiracy. Do you think that that car crash?
You never know. Who knows? Princess Diana's this week.
Daniel Jones has got to watch out. Three episode Netflix show.
Who hit Andy Dalton. Oh, we'll do this quick.
Sorry, that's a little too rich for my blood guy.
Mine's McCaffrey. I'm just, any price over $32.
Are we doing the McCaffrey thing now? I'm just, I'm just, we don't need to.
Everyone. You don't have to talk me into it.
I'm not doing it. It's just what your level of risk is.
If it works, you'll probably win. Yeah. You'll feel great week four when he has like the 230 total yards and three TDs and everyone's talking about how he looks like he did five years ago. and then the red flag pops up.
I mean, we're kind of stepping on this, but you also had a category later.
I'd be afraid to look on Tuesday and see the red flag guy.
It almost should be named after him. Yeah, honestly, it should.
He's unlike any other fantasy pick I can remember McAfee this year because... we're all afraid he's going to get hurt, but every week he doesn't hurt. we're going to rank him where each week first.
Yeah. Like he's the first, like the three best guys in the world.
That's my week one test thing with McCaffrey is he's going to probably have three touchdowns.
You know, he's just been practicing all month.
He's going to play 19 out of 20 steps. I get scared.
It's not even just a calf injury or an Achilles injury.
It has some name that I don't even know what the-
Bilateral Achilles tendonitis? Yeah, it's like, what is that?
I don't love that it's spread to the other leg.
Speaking of gangrene, it's got the rot. The one that caught the other leg.
The Warren Buffett rule is the ultimate fantasy thing to me.
It's just like, be bold when everyone else is fearful.
Be fearful when everyone's bold. everyone's not fearful he's a first rounder that's okay but he's the best fantasy football player since LaDainian Tomlinson period full stop But he's literally not somebody people are fearful about if he's going seventh.
But he's the best fantasy football player since LaDainian Thompson.
I think he'll go higher. I think when the drafts start, he's going to be in one of the three guys.
He got put up in my head. Yeah, I got him seventh. like literally yesterday.
Because he wins the league. If he's healthy in week 15, 16, 17, you win the league.
The argument is you're not trying to get seventh place.
If you're trying to avoid, you know, doing a rage baiting tweets that maybe don't take Christian McCaffrey, but.
Matthew Barry, go home. Barry has the rule of like, you can't win your draft in the first round, but maybe you can lose it. and like maybe I'm tempting the fantasy gods with hubris by being like that but you know what this is the exception like I know I sound like hyperbolic but McCaffrey literally has the most fantasy points per game of any player.
And the Niners, even last year when he came back from this injury...
They were conservative with it. He played all the snaps.
How old is he now? Is he 28? 29. I'm not doing it.
His Achilles are 38, though. Bilateral. bilateral.
I'm more scared of Achilles and calves than anything.
Yeah. It's like Cold War 1960s level fear.
You could just be standing there and your Achilles just explodes.
Yeah. I also had Garrett Wilson for this category.
But we already talked about him. Hyphens, who's your $1 quarterback guy?
$1 quarterback guy? So I'm curious where you think this begins because, like, is Dak Prescott a $1 quarterback guy?
Is Drake Mayne? No. He's probably in that four to five range, right?
I think... in that case, I will just say, I think there's more $1 quarterbacks than I can ever remember.
And I can make a case for Stroud, you heard mine in Lawrence.
J.J. McCarthy. Stroud will be more than $1.
But I'm going to have Jordan Love. I think Jordan Love is probably...
You don't think so? It's higher than $1, you think?
Okay, then I was- So you're just like- Two quarterback leagues or just one quarterback?
I mean, I have Cam Ward as my $1 guy. Oh, so in that case, then I would pick Michael.
You're going that deep? Michael Penickson.
Yeah, yeah. $1 is like your backup QB you spend a dollar on, and then he wins eight weeks for you, and you can't believe it.
I think Penix is going to throw a lot. I agree.
Bill, I'm getting like Gary Payton vibes with Cam Ward.
Just talk shit. and picks fights with everyone, has no fear whatsoever.
The Simmons fight was enthralling. I read like eight stories about it.
I was like, why did he do that? You pick a fight with the biggest guy.
Yeah. When he talks shit with Shadur. Punch the biggest guy you can find.
Yeah. Did you think about the 5 a.m. meetings?
Mm-mm. He gets in there for 5 a.m. meetings and he would bring the skill guys in.
And the coaches were like, well, this will stop once preseason starts.
And then the coach was like, every day, 5 a.m., the guy is for real.
He's dog level. Through the roof. Just crazy.
Yeah, he checks some boxes for sleepers. also makes you think about like when you're like, oh, a rookie quarterback, how much can they come in and like be a leader and immediately take over?
Reading what Kim Ward has done kind of makes you think about Caleb Williams a little bit. you don't hear any of that and again no new left tackle.
JC Latham's a first-run pick at right tackle.
You have Peter Skronsky as a first-run pick at left guard.
And then they have Kevin Zeitler from the Lions at right guard.
It's an unusually good line for a guy. Good line coach as well.
I like the Cam one. I drafted him in my league.
In a super flex, I have him as my QB, too.
And you loved him. I was stoked about him.
You loved him in the draft, right? As a franchise guy?
Yeah, I didn't. He's like not on the level of a lot of the first overall picks we've seen in the past at quarterback in terms of as a prospect. you know, older guy and half it's you talking about, he's like the ultimate American, uh,
All-American story or whatever. Ken Ward is the American dream.
He's like a zero-star guy that started at Incarnate Word, who transferred to Washington State, who transferred to Miami.
First overall. He went from one D1 offer to the number one pick in the draft. and the art, I know there's a lot of issues with NIL, but to me, that's why we did NIL and started paying players is that's the American dream is like, there are a lot of guys maybe could have been cam ward, but couldn't transfer or whatever couldn't put themselves through school but he was able to make money I can't, it's really like a, in a very corny way, a very American story.
But yeah, I like him a lot. Hefton Chisholm Jr.
Same thing. That's right. That's our new Julian Edelman right you gotta have one yeah there always has to be a white slot um DK, who do you have for your DeMar DeRozan anti-lytics guy?
New category for us. Anti-lytics. They make no sense, but he's going to put up points and you don't really understand how or why.
This one I'm going... The anti-lytics is because the numbers and vibes and overall just... feel right now for the Dolphins is not good.
I'm going with Jalen Waddle. These guys hate him.
There's kind of a long-running bit. There's a long-running bit on our podcast.
This is what I'm talking about, though, because we're all out on him. you know, here collectively.
But weirdly his stats are good. Well, last year they weren't. weren't great, but going back throughout his career, you know, he averaged 12, 13 and 11 points per game.
And if Tyreek goes off and... does this thing like he tried to quit last year at the end of the season.
Like if he does an Antonio Brown took thing and just, pieces out midway through the season, Jalen Waddell is getting 35% target rate.
That's true, and I won't dispute anything he just said.
You look at Waddle and the type of player he is, and you think he's boombusted. but he's had 20 points in a game like three times in two years.
It's not even fun to have him. No. No. I'll never know because I'll never have them.
I'm taking them. You like them? I'm doing it.
Screw you guys. Do you have a DeMar DeRozan guy?
This is your category. Yeah, I think James Cook, it's like, oh, he had 18 touchdowns last year.
No way he'll do that again. The numbers suggest that he'll regress And I'm just like, nah, he's going to do it again.
I actually had the same thing with James Cook.
He's just going to do it again. I'm just going to have 18 touchdowns again.
It'd be great. I don't care what the number is.
I had the same thing. He's going to have 16 again.
I'm like, it's just going to happen. Mine is Isaiah Pacheco.
Ooh. But you're out or in? I think he's an anti-lytics guy and he'll end up with like 13 touchdowns.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that. Because you watch him and you're like, It feels like the first four running backs on the team called in sick and they had to like grab him.
Hey, we put on this jersey. and he's like how to run yeah he just doesn't seem like he should be a starting running back or any kind of running back yeah And then he's 17 for 80 with two touchdowns.
He runs like he bites people. Because he was going pretty highly in drafts two years ago. or like last year, and then he broke his leg.
Yeah. And so he was out most of the year.
Now everybody just kind of forgot about him.
Well, people were like, oh, he broke his leg last year.
I don't want him because he was so bad when he came back.
I'm like, he came back last year. He's recovered.
Yeah, I like Pacheco. Did you have an analytics guy?
I had James Cook too, where I'm like, generally speaking, you can count on touchdowns.
I think you said James Quick never had more than two touchdowns in a year and then he had 16.
And that's the safest bet you can make is to have less than 16.
I'm like, he's going to do it again. And yet, that one, he's going to do it again.
Well, this dives into I can't resist, even though I know I'll be afraid to look on a Tuesday and see the red flag guy.
I don't know why I have him down, but I think it's because I had him in both leagues last year.
Sam Laporta. I just felt like he's always has some sort of minor injury that you're just being held hostage with.
No, he's going to play. He hurt his shoulder, but he's okay.
And he takes big hits when you watch the Lions.
It always feels like he gets racked. Yeah.
Goff will just sort of the middle and just get annihilated by a linebacker.
I didn't really enjoy the experience for $20 or whatever I paid.
It was a little tough for Sam Laporte last year. dude, McCaffrey, we got to name this the McCaffrey award.
Like if McCaffrey pops up at the red flag, like I don't, I can't imagine.
I was trying to say against McCaffrey, but this has to be McCaffrey.
Is there anybody else who's in this? Tyreek Hill has to be in here I think Malik Nabors is kind of in here This is the secret Giants fans keep to ourselves.
He's already has quite a bit of injuries.
He's like a first, second rounder right now.
He has those injuries where he's just trying to stretch out to catch the ball and gets hurt.
Yeah. He got knocked out in the Cowboys game when he made an amazing sideline catch and his face hit the ground.
I think he lost consciousness. What is he, like 170?
Yeah, well, he's the back. He's the toe.
He's a shoulder. And it's like, he's all they got.
They're going to throw him. He led the league in targets last year.
I'm like, just be careful. I'm a little worried because he's a special player they threw him 50 balls in the first month of the season unbelievable Which, I mean, that's what Cooper Cup got when he won the Triple Crowns, 50 targets in the first month of the season.
He was a rookie. But yeah, I'm also, I don't know if he knows how to protect himself in the field to some degree.
I don't know what's going on there, but he's picked up more injuries than I would like to see.
He's 200 pounds. by the way he's kind of he's thicker than you think for a fast guy 200 pounds really yeah well that's because he wears one so he looks slim Um, Smart, smart uniform stuff.
I'm going to start. I had a repeat here.
I had Kenneth Walker. Always hurt. It's gonna be great.
It's gonna be awesome watching him run and score much points in first three weeks.
And then in week four, he's like out with a oblique injury.
And I'm like, fuck. I've had him the last couple years in at least one league, and it just never seems like he's healthy for more than three weeks.
I'm going to do it again, though. He's great.
You think he's 27, right? All right. You're leading us up for my 2022 Cooper cup.
It's a year after the year guy. So we named this after Cooper Cupp because...
He had that 21 where just everything's perfect.
Yeah. He checks every box. It's clear it's his career year.
And then the next year you're getting bought at that price when it's like that's never happening again.
Right. So who's that this year for you, Craig?
I don't want to believe this, but I think it's the right call.
Is Jaden Daniels in the Commanders? Jaden, they were the best fourth down team ever.
87% conversion rate. Jaden, everybody was worried about how skinny he was.
He played all 17 games. He did hurt his ribs, but he was able to like keep playing.
I'm kind of like, man, also their schedule last year was way easier than it's going to be.
Last year they played the NFC South, they played the Titans, the Cardinals.
This year they play the NFC North and the AFC West, which I think are the two best divisions football.
Their two easiest games are Atlanta and Miami outside of the Giants who are in the division.
And I'm kind of just like, You know, there's a lot of things that could go wrong.
I feel like the roster is fantastic. We don't know about the McLaurin thing.
Yeah. Not sure about Debo. We got Fat Debo.
The seventh round running back who's like, my name's Jacob, but call me Bill.
Right, right. Whatever it was. whatever's going on.
Yeah. They're tied into Zachert. She's like 40.
That's the other thing with Washington is they're an old team.
You, It's like the Steelers, you think that they're old because of Rodgers, but they're kind of young.
The Washington, you think they're young because of Jay and Daniels.
Washington's the oldest team in the NFL.
I don't want to spoil my pod with Sal, but you won't be surprised to know I don't have Washington in the playoffs.
Yeah, you know. I also had Jaden Daniels.
Oh. Yeah. I just, I thought everything went great.
I mean, they fucking completed a Hail Mary.
Yeah. I know. They were 20 for 23 on fourth down.
Part of me is like- Missing the playoffs, to me, is a given.
Maybe that's insulting to Washington fans, but I'm like, the court...
Dude, if you look at the quarterbacks they played, they were like a trio.
Ferocious. Yeah. Fantasy. And they went from the half-dead Ron Rivera to Dan Quinn.
They went from, I don't even remember who their quarterback, Sam Howell and all the other schmucks they had the year before to Jay Daniels. easiest schedule possible.
Yeah. Like, come on. They were the classic bump team.
It's not going to happen again. The thing that I reference with Jay and Daniels is...
I feel like it's such a hater thing to say is like James Daniels is going to fall off after having an all-time rookie season, one of the most exciting and electric players in all of football.
It revitalized the entire franchise, like a whole new era. but I look at what happened with CJ Stroud too in a year or two where people start to catch up with what you're good at and take away the things that you're really good at.
I just worry a little bit that that's going to happen here.
I don't think their defense is good. They lost a lot of dudes.
True. I do think there's a little bit of off-season amnesia you get sometimes where...
You kind of start to look at the narratives and the math, and you're like, well, they were pretty good on fourth down.
Oh, actually, their schedule was hard. And so you're like, you know what?
I'm out on the commanders. Jaden Daniels is gonna have a regression second year.
When I watched him, I was like, this guy's the fucking best player.
Week one test, you're going to watch him like, oh yeah, this guy is unbelievable.
I was like, I was like week three. And I was like, I trust him over anybody.
Maybe surgery. That would be the zag against this, is if he's just in that Alan Mahoney.
Yes. category and that's it, then that means he goes at least 10 and seven every year.
Yeah. It just doesn't matter. Yeah, it doesn't matter.
I kind of lean that way more, actually, to be honest.
But I think this is like mathematically.
It's more for Washington than him. Yeah.
Like, it's just everything went right for that team last year.
I mean, if you want to do sophomore slump, it's Jaden Daniels.
But the nature of this category, like, the year after, the year after...
I think Saquon has to be the guy. Saquon just had the best running back season any running back's ever had.
Like he literally just spurned his old team, went to the Eagles, which are the two home down teams where he grew up. had the most rushing yards ever in a single season, including the playoffs, and then won the Super Bowl.
And we kind of just saw that, except he lost the Super Bowl with McCaffrey.
And then McCaffrey barely played last year.
It's like the history of, I mean, Sigmund had the second most touches of the 21st century.
Like 482 or something. Almost 500 touches.
And what was the Aaron Schatz thing? 375?
Yeah. The Curse of 370. Curse of 370. That was a great one.
I was really jealous of that one. Sick one at four.
I should have invented that one. There you go.
Maybe you did. Maybe you did. Bill invented that.
Bill invented the curse of 370. Yeah, stick with that over 470.
And so you look at that and you're like, okay, so the history guys that that is really simple.
Half of them who did it missed half the next season.
So it's a coin flip. And if he doesn't, he'll be great.
Who's the backup running back on Philly?
Will Shipley, who I laid her down. Will Shipley is the biggest... sleeper in fantasy football now that everyone knows Ja'Cory Kroski Merritt exists.
The biggest sleeper in fantasy is Bill Merritt.
Will... You invented that one too. Will Shipley is...
The Eagles signed A.J. Dillon, but he's kind of washed.
Will Shipley actually was... Kind of like A.J.
Dillon. No, I'm telling you, Will Shipley's going to be the guy.
But yeah, some moments. I think Will Shipley, if you think Saquon's going to get hurt, Will Shipley because Eagles starting running back by like week 11.
DK, you had a 22 Cooper Cup guy, right? I put Saquon.
I just think the obvious is just based on the volume.
I guess you could put Derrick Henry here if you want.
I'm personally... not fading Derek Henry until he actually falls off.
He's like, a mountain from thrones like you're gonna see him die no it's stupid though you just gotta take him over here it's like Mike Evans has said that too Yeah.
Let's all give up. They're just going to keep doing this until they stop.
I almost put Henry as my one true love. this this year but i decided to go with ours it is awesome to have them on your team oh my god You feel invincible.
It really is just great. I'm never going to die.
I don't think I feel like a mortal. Do we all have for the, I just want everyone on that offense, I don't care who team, is it all Cincinnati across the board?
I think you're going to hate me. I have the Niners.
I have the Niners too. Well, the Bengals, you have to use your first three picks to get the, you have Chase and then you have to get Chase.
So you'd want Pearsall and Jennings and wait six weeks on IU?
I would take... Kittle. Kittle... Pearsall, Jennings, McCaffrey, Purdy.
I think they're all good values. but you have in the Bengals.
I feel like you make fun of people who like spend all their money on four players, but you literally, to get Burrow, Tee against Jamar Chase and Chase Brown, you'd have to spend a lot of money.
Everyone in that offense, I don't care who team, So that means I get Burrow, Chase Brown, Higgins, or Jamar Chase.
That's a pretty good idea. Even if I get one of them, I'm happy.
Oh, okay. Yeah, no, I mean, I'd love to have Chase Brown on my team.
I wouldn't really be excited for the Gusecki.
No. You take him as a handcuff. I was Sabus, whatever his name was.
Bengals are good. I think the difference is the Niners are cheaper, because you get McCaffrey in the first round, If you want to go super-duper cheap, how about can I offer you Drake Mace, Stephon Diggs, Trey Van Henderson, and...
Efton Chisholm Jr. I'll just say this about...
While you're talking about the fucking Patriots, I will just say this.
You guys better be better under Vrabel. Because if you're not, all your shit about Herbert can't win.
Drake May currently has won one game as a starter.
He has one win. So they better win some goddamn games.
He played 10 games. And he went one and nine.
And I'm just saying, you better actually be good. this, I'll ask you, what do you think Gerard Mayo is doing this year for a job?
Great question. What is he doing professionally?
What is he doing? I'm going to look it up.
Do you realize how bad there are? Offensive line was last year.
It was like, please don't just get Jake May killed.
And yet, Jake May has it. I think they could make the playoffs.
If they don't, it will be funny. I'm going to name Tyson. come through a wall right now and start strangling.
Oh yeah. Nate Tice knows. Um, Cincy, any other?
So you would say Dallas, even like you'd roll the dice with a running back?
No, I wouldn't want the running backs. DK, who's your my year too early fuck it guy?
So there's obviously a lot. We talked to Buka.
I think he would be like my top choice. I talked to Ted McMillan.
I went a little further down the board here. and i for some reason i'm just really excited about colston loveland the tight end for the bears I just think, and I really like Tyler Warren too, actually, the Colts tight end, but,
I just feel like they drafted him with a very specific... role in mind, his ability to do things over the middle field stretch stretch the seams, run after the catch.
There's teams that were looking at him. I heard this from Dan Bruggele.
Teams were looking at him as a receiver. before the draft.
Some teams were kind of evaluating him through that lens.
He's a really big, smooth... Huge catch radius.
I just think he's going to be a huge part of this offense.
Like... And obviously, there's other weapons in that offense.
DJ Moore is still there. Roman Dunzay is still there. but I just I think like four weeks down the line if he's you know, top two on that team and receiving, it won't be a big surprise to me.
And like the way that Caleb Williams looked in this last preseason game, getting the ball out, hitting his back foot on time, in rhythm.
And I just think that's going to be Colson Loveland over the middle of the field.
Okay. Yeah. I'm going to stay with the Bears.
I think Luther Burden... Great name. That's a good one.
One of the best names ever. He might just... In my head, he's just like...
Antonio Brown waiting to happen on the field.
But... I'm not convinced anybody likes DJ Moore.
I'm not convinced Roma Dunze is good. And Ben Johnson wanted Luther Burden, drafted Luther Burden.
He's already popped a few times in preseason.
And if he plays in the slot, Ben Johnson slot receivers.
He had Jarvis Landry when he was in Miami who caught like a hundred passes a year.
And then obviously Amon Ross A. Brown. I just think eye test wise, Luther Burden, who had a weird year, his final year in college, There was like injury stuff.
He wasn't that good. The year before, he was like the best wide receiver in college football.
It would have been a tough time. like work ethic questions with him?
Yes. Well, I think our joke during the draft show was that all the team's We're looking at Luther Byrne and being like, oh man, five star, crazy talent, crazy speed, might be a headache.
Ben Johnson, who's just dealt with James Williams for three years, is like, oh, I'll be fine.
Yeah, give me that any day of the week. I just think he's awesome.
He has his number 87, though, which is tough.
Well, that's because they're too young to remember when receivers wore that, so they're bringing it back because they think it's new.
It just looks like a tight end. DK mentioned my guy.
Who? Tyler Warren. I have Tyler Warren too.
I waffled between the two of them. All right, let's do the Tyler Warren thing.
So... They picked Danny Dimes as their QB, who...
I checked around with Giants fans. I didn't need to ask Heifetz because I already knew, but I talked to a couple other Giants fans in my life.
And they were just like, because I was like, I just want to make sure the Colts as an AFC South team.
It's not going to happen. Yeah. I was like, just how bad was dimes last year?
And, It just sounded really bad. Like the chasm from 22 Dimes. which wasn't exactly Joe Montana, but he was like 15 TDs, five interceptions.
He ran for 700 yards. That guy was like miles better than last year Dimes who lost his job to Tommy DeVito.
No one said anything nice about Daniel Jones while he was alive.
Only when they cut him. And he wasn't playing every week where people were like, oh, he can play.
I'm a Giants fan. I never heard one nice thing from anybody for four years about that guy.
I mean, Richardson has to be so bad for them to be like... Yes.
They're just basically giving up on him.
I just... No screen passes. So I picture the one thing they do have is a good offensive line, right?
The Colts. It's okay. It's... Above average.
Right. A never running game. And there's going to be play action.
And throw it to Tyler Warren. Because they had this whole deep passing offense that he's not going to be able to execute because he can't throw deep.
No. You know what he can do? Tyler Warren.
It's tunnel screens to Tyler Warren. I'm in on Tyler Warren.
I think he has a… I think he's this year's kind of discount powers.
I totally agree. People think Tyler Warren can block because he has long hair.
And Jeremy Shockey and George Kittle have long hair.
And he can't block. He's a receiver. Tyler Warren had the he was the only player in the Power 5 conference last year in college football to have 100 catches like he's a receiver he had tied the most catches in a game of any tight end ever in the history of college football.
Like he's a crazy good receiver. And again, to your point, Daniel Jones, like, I mean, the shoestring and bubble gum, that giant season that made the playoffs and screwed up the whole team.
It was so much tight ends to guys that didn't have talent.
But I totally agree. I just... I also thought he should have gone first as the tight end.
I know you like Loveland, but... I mean, I like...
Isn't it crazy that he fell to 14? I remember looking at him for the pats at four.
The second when you watched him in preseason, you were like, oh.
Yeah. And the other thing, too, is that the Colts, every team has something like this, or a lot of teams do, where they haven't been able to fill tight end for 10 years.
Yeah, they've been platooning that forever.
It's kind of like, you know, maybe like didn't necessarily. sense I can see him in the uniform I can see him having big games there's also not a ton of competition like there's no other real alpha Let's speed through the rest of these because we took way too long.
We'll just go rapid fire. Missionary position.
We've all had him. This is getting boring.
It's not even exciting to see him in the lineup anymore, guy.
For me, it's Kelsey. That's a good one.
It's just like, all right. Kelsey did the thing where he had one catch for 10 yards and there's a red flag next to him and Should I start up next?
Oh, now he has seven catches for 90 again.
Is there anybody else you would have? Aaron Jones.
I mean, I think he's a good player still, but...
He was banged up pretty much all last year.
He's getting older. Let's talk about platooning him.
Yep. I have Alvin Kamara. You're going to turn him on and watch him, and then you're going to watch Spencer Rattler, a quarterback. vacuum he's gonna catch a pass on the side you know like a bubble screen or whatever and just Gain one yard.
Yeah, just be a free and out machine. You're never going to see him.
Jared Goff does nothing for me anymore. I don't want Jared Goff on my team.
Does that make you feel dead inside? He can't move.
I know he's good. I fell for the preseason hype.
That guy. I had Jenty just because... the hype is like, no, no, actually you should pay 50 plus dollars for him.
They're going to use them all the time. And, I've been I mentioned Hunter before but those two I think we didn't really talk about Gentee but it just seems like He's going to have the ball all the time.
He wants the ball. Pete Carroll's going to give him the ball.
Uh, and then the only other one I had there was my homes, just the, the Mahomes come back, uh, Better weapons.
There's not another Hall of Fame... I'm not buying it.
There's not another Hall of Fame quarterback whose hype you bought?
Maybe in the East Coast. Well, I mean, his... What do you mean?
Maybe in... Maybe up in... Pittsburgh. Somewhere around there.
Didn't buy that one. Aaron Rodgers. Any other preseason hype guys you were...
I couldn't remember exactly how to... define this category, whether it's like I fell for it I think that's part of the point.
Some of these categories are confusing intentionally.
They're all apex mountains. And so I put...
George Pickens. Because I have fallen for the preseason pick with Pickens.
And I don't know how it's going to go. I think...
Occam's razor is probably he's gonna be off the team in week seven or whatever.
But like, I think he could also have 1200 yards.
You haven't none of the Rogers quotes. The teammates.
I actually have the Roger. None of it? None of it?
I have it blocked on my Google. Okay. There's a lot of good stuff about him.
So you should do your own research. That's the problem.
I'm just saying. A lot of the young guys really like him.
Good locker room guy. Sure. Like a hostage situation.
Yeah. Him and Tomlin, they really work.
Craig walked in one day and was like, Will Howard said can't wait to learn from him and we were like what the fuck do you think Will Howard's gonna say Why?
Because he's a rookie? Yeah. You were like, yeah, they said nice things about him.
I'm like, well... What are they going to do?
This guy's a creep. They're going out of their way to be truly effusive.
You could be like, oh yeah, it's been great.
Skylar Thompson is like, this guy is completely misunderstood.
All the receivers, all the linemen, He seems like he's very well-liked right now.
That's all I'll say. These aren't my quotes.
I'm reading them. I don't know what plan B is for the conversation though.
Thank you. What do you mean? Like if we just added some new person and then somebody interviewed Danny Kelly and we're like, what do you think of the new producer, Johnny?
Well, I don't know. Johnny's been great.
Amazing. Weird thoughts on the pyramids.
Yeah. Why aren't there quotes about how awesome Sam Darnold is?
Everybody loves Sam Darnold. All the players are talking about how great he is.
Why isn't there that? Because Sam Darnold doesn't... I think there has been those quotes.
They have been talking about that. It's almost like Sam Donald's focused on winning the season instead of just talking about who built the pyramids.
He's not talking about that stuff right now.
He's famous. People are interviewing him.
Hmm. He's not. I don't really know if there has been many.
This is the first topic since we've done a show where like younger Craig would punch current Craig in the face.
Now, this is actually, honestly, a little sad.
Oh, stop. No, it really is. You know what's funny is Sean came on our pod and was like, Craig, you have to have a take.
You can't be apathetic about this. You can't say like, eh, they'll probably win eight games.
Cause your, your take for a long time was like, this is their best of.
So if I have to pick a side, I'm going to be like, yeah, fuck you.
I'll win 12 games. December Craig was like, I can't believe some team's going to talk themselves into the Rodgers.
I still maintain that this was the best thing they could have done in this situation.
I don't know what the alternative was. I like when with Sheil, anybody brings up Rogers to him and he just like, he, It's like this switch goes on.
No quarterback over 42 years old has ever played more than 10 games.
Brady. Like he's just, she was the most out of anyone at the ringer.
He's 41. I love that. Is he going to be 42 during the season?
Towards the end of it, yes. What were they going to do?
Give Sam Darnold $100 million. I'm good.
Hey, come on. What should they have done?
I don't mean to open up the Shudora can of worms, but I don't understand.
Yeah, you could have had Jackson Dart. Yeah, you could add Jackson Dart.
That actually had never occurred to him.
Actually seems really good. Yeah, you're right.
Right now that Dart looks okay. Sure. Looks okay.
Hypotensive jersey. Kenny Pickett looked really good.
I like how you went from throwing dimes to throwing darts.
Dude, and also he has two emojis you can use because you can use the dart, but also you can use cigarettes, which are all like… all-time emoji quarterback.
And the guy between DeVito with the thing, the Giants are cornering the market on like the emoji quarterback.
Schrager had the funniest Schrager monologue about Dart.
He has it. He has it. He does that. You can see it.
He has it. He kind of does. Yeah. He does.
He has a little bit of aura. He's come a long way from that Gruden video where Gruden's like, show me your snap count.
And he's like, cool. And he just claps. That's how I felt in our old studios when we had all the podcast interns and I met Craig.
I was like, I told fantasy. Got it. Craig has it.
He has it. I can see it. How do you start a podcast?
Actually, we do that. Line up the audio.
Oh, this is... I think my favorite category, my I'd never root for an injury category.
I would root for one. It's Brees Hall. I want him to get hurt.
God damn it, Craig. So Braylon Allen can get the football.
Let me live. Yeah. But he is one injury away guy.
And we already talked about Breesaw. Yeah.
Russell Wilson, wouldn't mind a pulled hammy so he can see Dart?
I know. Just saying. I had Ray Davis down here.
There could be a really fun seven week Ray Davis stretch.
We don't want to. And then we get hurt.
But if the James Cook like has a little pulled hammy or something.
And Ray Davis comes in and he's just awesome.
Yeah. I could see that one. I have to, just as a Pats fan, put Ramondre Stevenson on this thing.
I don't think he's going to get benched.
I don't think he needed more touches for that guy.
How do you feel about Ramondre? I still feel like he's a good running back.
The fumbles are just out of control. I just can't handle the running back step fumble.
Just don't fumble. Hold on the ball. Rumanja's an ex that in two years, he's not even going to remember the name.
He's going to be like, who was there before?
Like, it's going to like slip out of his memory.
Yeah. I don't know what the total number of running back fumbles is. what the number is before you just completely lose confidence forever.
But I'm there. Yeah. Yeah, it's like double digits in two years.
Any other injury, guys? Dude. Just lingering.
You mentioned the Eagles. Well, I mentioned Will Shipley, who I do think is the most...
Probably the player who is the biggest ratio of how much people are talking about him, which is zero to... the importance he could have in the season, which if Saquon, you know, again, second most touches in the 21st century, if Saquon gets hurt,
You're like, damn, Will Shipley, is he going to be the starting running back for the Philadelphia Eagles?
And then if you want to say, oh, maybe it's not him, it's A.J.
Dillon, fine. I haven't heard anyone talking about A.J.
Dillon for the Eagles, but even they split it.
That's a crazy workload. The only other thing I'll say is I think Zach Charbonnet for the Seahawks.
Yeah. I don't even have to wish an injury on anyone.
Ken Walker's just always hurt. He's the other thing.
He's the easiest person to see where if the Seahawks are good and it's what we think they'll be and they make the playoffs, playoffs defense is awesome they're gonna run ice out and then walkers hurt and you're like yeah He's coming on Seahawks Island with us, Danny.
I am coming on Seahawks Island, but I just think basically if Charbonnet is the easiest player to envision... joining that top four group of like, oh, it's McCaffrey, Saquon, Gibbs, Bichon, Zach Charbonnet was fifth in the second half of the season with, but,
If Kevin Walker's hurt, man, he's going to be so good in that system.
He has a fun running style. He will go out of his way to truck you.
He's one of those guys who will be like...
I could go there or there and be open, or I could just run right through that guy in a good way, in a bad way.
It's the trolley problem, but he chooses more.
It totally runs over all the children. I do have a random football question, though.
Everyone's talking about Clint Kubiak's like the zone blocking how good it is and grace abel's been amazing in his zone blocking scheme So why don't more people do zone blocking schemes?
Like, why didn't the Patriots do it last year?
We had no fucking idea. offensive lineman?
I can answer that. Is it super hard to figure out?
It's hard to teach detail-oriented. It's detail-oriented to teach.
It's a simple system for when you understand it, players like it because they talk about feeling like a computer.
Zero, one, zero. And so they feel like I don't have to think.
I can just execute. And so you become faster.
So one, you need an organizational commitment to it because what you end up doing is basically like- would have such a great answer for this.
I was like going with a hypothetical. You also have to have a quarterback who's willing to play under center.
So you can't have Rod. because you have to be able to do play action, turn your back to the defense.
You can't have Rodgers doing the Ben Roethlisberger impression. where everything's in shotgun.
You can't do that. So you have to be under center number one.
All right, settle down. But what I'm saying, you also need an organizational commitment to faster linemen.
The Niners lined... I think when they started doing, and now it's more gap stuff too, but the Niners line was like the lightest line in life. league.
So you need a multi-year effort to draft the right guys.
But the whole point, though, it sounds complicated.
It's just to make cornerbacks tackle. The premise of this, when they started doing this with the Broncos, Mike Shanahan, his dad.
Alex Good. Alex Gibbs. The whole point was, well, if you're going to have all these dots and Matt, make the one-on-one with the running back the worst tackler.
That's a cornerback. So the whole point of wide zone or the slot cornerback.
Yeah, those guys. well that's why those guys are the most important guys in modern defense right now are the most underrated because that's where the front yeah it's like The whole, all of modern footballs right now is about the B gap, which is a whole different conversation.
But the point to your question about why doesn't everyone just do it?
Like, why don't you build the plane of the black box?
It's hard to teach. Matt Patricia tried to teach stuff and he's like, it's not that easy.
So why can Kubiak do it? well his father fucking like invented it yeah like Gibbs Shanahan and Gary Kubiak it's like I invented the three out Exactly.
But yeah, so his dad like invented the thing.
But I like it because it seems like it fucks teams up.
And Gray Zabel just seems like he's just a wrecking ball.
Oh, my God. He looks so good. Yeah. A lot of guard talk.
He's replacing Quentin Nelson as the guard.
He might be. He's looked incredible in the preseason.
I saw some stats. This is from Ian Hart.
Yeah. The Seahawks were like 30th in yards before contact per carry last year.
And in the preseason, they're like fourth.
The run game has really been clicking. And I can't wait for a backbreaking pick six in the fourth and week one.
And everyone's like, fuck, he's Sam Darnold again.
Well, I think the other thing to add to what Heifetz said about the zone game, and Alex Gibbs said this back in the day, is like, You don't do other stuff.
We're a zone team. And I think some teams like to be more multiple than that.
And it is a way to kind of protect your quarterback and not make them have to throw a back-breaking pick six or whatever.
But yeah, they're going to run zone, bootleg, throw deep.
It's going to be fun. The next category is my rookie nitrous oxide guy.
I'm not even sure what that one was, but it was just so we could have Xavier working.
I didn't know what it was. I don't know.
Um, Thornton on Vegas, maybe. Oh yeah, Deontay Thornton.
Thompson. Alright, last category. Thornton. who seems like he's their number one receiver.
I don't really understand. He's going to be Valdez Scantling.
He's going to just stand there and run fast.
Yeah, but... I like those guys. By the way, great guy to have him mad at.
Thornton? Straight line guy. Sure. Are you playing Madden again?
Depends if my son... I... beat him and it drives him crazy and then he throws a tantrum even though he's 17 now I only play a few months to play I just, you never lose it once you have it.
The remote, I'm just, I'm just kidding. Last category.
I know this is good value right now, but I simply don't want to root for him, guys.
It was Aaron Rodgers for me last year. I don't know anyone who would draft Aaron Rodgers this year.
No, nobody's not getting drafted. I'm going to put him in again.
Aaron Rodgers? But the other person I want to put in is Brees Hall. because it helps with the Braylon Allen stock absolutely Breeze Hall really hurt my feelings last year.
Him and Trevor Lawrence just ran a tag team on me.
I'm back in on Breeze. Just the feelings hurt.
No, Breeze has no juice. I'm zagging. I'm all in on Breeze.
He's going twice like a conspiracy theory.
I feel like you don't even think he's that good.
You're just upset at how much we think he sucks.
Correct. He's your Jalen Waddle. Yeah. Yeah. even hit the right holes in preseason.
Of course he does. He's really good. He's a good player.
I'm with you on Rodgers. I don't want Rodgers.
We're talking about fantasy football. Who's drafting Aaron Rodgers in fantasy?
No, but I just wanted to put him again anyway.
But Rod, you know why? My issue with Metcalf, Caleb Johnson, all these guys, it's the Roethlisberger Steelers again.
So it's like a good value. I don't want to reaffirm.
I don't want to watch Rodgers because off the field, he's annoying.
But on the field, we saw this thing with Rodgers.
What he's doing now, it's the old Roethlisberger.
I want to get hit. So I have this shotgun and it ruins the offense.
They can't run the ball because the shotgun does everything worse.
It's selfish. Act right now. Doesn't want to get hit at all.
All right. The name of this category. It's hard to watch.
The name of this category is I know this is good value.
So you're saying, you know, the Steelers are good value.
Oh, that's a good point. I don't know. Why are we talking about this?
I just wanted to mention him anyway. I was like, I'm trying to make you back into complimenting the Steelers.
I'm like, it's technically says... I know this is good value, so.
Mine is the Saints wide receivers who, in theory, are being drafted super late.
Chris Olave is good. Rashid Shahid is good.
But I'm like, I just... I just, if it's Monday Night Football and it's like Saints Chargers and I need 20 points out of Chris Alave, I'm watching Tyler Shuck and Spencer Rattler.
I just can't do any of that. He's a D&D guy for me, Chris Alave.
He's hard to... Too many concussions. At some point, it's not... It's stupid.
If anyone's going to be throwing hospital balls...
It's Tyler Shuck and Rattler. Jesus. All right.
This is fun. Can we do 30 categories and not mention our favorite sleepers of the year?
Oh, yeah, that was our last thing. Who's your favorite sleeper?
Well, I had him for Nitrous Oxide, so I just want to mention Matthew Golden for the Packers.
And I just, I'm a huge fan of him. And I think that there's overlapping reasons why he's fallen through the cracks.
But frankly, in a nutshell, most really fast guys don't have any touch or feel.
Like they're like Taekwon Thorntons, they're track runners, but Matthew Golden to me, he, has tempo he has feel he has really good hands a lot of these fast guys can't catch for shit you gotta be like a Deshaun Jackson Like, you know, he's got the center fielder.
I just think Matthew Golden has a lot of... juice, frankly, but also feel.
But then you go to the Packers and I just think people think he's going to be a rotational player.
I'm like, hey, He's going to play for them like all the time, two receiver sets, three receiver sets.
I, I am, I, he's one of my favorite players to get.
Who's your sleeper? Brees Hall. Is he really your sleeper?
Grow up. Come up, Peter Pan. Breeze. Count Chocula.
Breeze all ranked ahead of Jalen Hurts. Anyway, Ricky Pearsall, I like.
I think that one makes a lot of sense. Is he even a sleeper?
I feel like he's awake and having coffee.
You want me to pick someone like way, way down the list here?
People think he's their number one receiver.
Yeah, but he's still not even drafted highly.
He's been shot in a year. He's got to be healthy from that, right?
That was unbelievable. He played after he got shot.
He was lucky to survive. He was lucky to survive.
I'll give you a different one. Damian Pierce running back for the Texans.
Hmm. Under the category of somebody on this team has to get 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns.
And he also has a 1,000-yard season on his resume.
I thought he was really good coming out of Florida.
He just wasn't a good fit for the wide zone scheme that they ran last year.
Basically just, was a forgotten man. And I think now they're switching to more gap stuff, a little bit better for him.
And it sounds like mixing, uh, is not back anytime soon.
So I'll throw that out there. Who's yours?
I think it's Tank Bigsby, the running back on Jacksonville.
Like him. yeah I think what Liam Cohen did for Bucky Irving in Tampa I think Liam Cohen could do for Tank in Jacksonville.
I think he's much more similar to Bucky Irving. what Liam Cohen did to the Bucs running game last year.
Was pretty incredible. And Bucky Irving, his whole thing is yards after contact.
He was the best in the league last year at it.
Number two is Tank. So I kind of think they have similar profiles.
I have from the College of Holy Cross, but that's not why I'm taking them. on the Carolina Panthers, Jalen Coker.
Coked? You're coked? He's great. So... I was really invested in him because he was a Holy Cross guy who's actually doing stuff.
It's not like we have a lot of football players.
He's good. He is good. He loves a significantly longer career than Xavier Legato they took in the first round.
He was making big plays for them. He was open.
Bryce Young trusted him. Yeah. And now I think people just think it's going to be Ted McMillan's team.
And I, I, Wouldn't be surprised if he had the most receiving yards on the Panthers.
That's a good one. I think the Panthers just kind of have like a nice cast of guys now.
Everybody does a thing. as a number two makes way more sense.
Macmillan is like your classic number one who can get a ton of targets.
Coker's like the speedy guy doing it, but I just think they kind of are...
Filling out a nice- Chuba Hubbard. Yeah, Chuba Hubbard's good.
RB4. The offensive line's not bad. Year two with Dave Canales.
Yeah, and I was too harsh on Bryce because I did think he had some good moments.
I just thought it was notable that Richardson's just out of football now.
But they're not the same. I know they're not the same.
Like, Liz Bryce's arrow is pointing up by the end of the last season.
Quite literally. Anthony Richardson's completion percentage is lower than Shaq's free throw rate.
Yeah, I think it's just like the difference is you can...
As a coach, you can trust this guy to run the offense you want to run more.
And like, that's why they want Daniel Jones is like, I just trust this guy to run the offense.
Yeah. Not, you know, whatever. What did we call it in Ed 209?
From RoboCup. RoboCup. He can't go down the stairs.
He can't get in a car. He literally can't go downstairs.
Brace had moments, but man, he seems so small in some of these games.
That's the thing. You can't like, When you're watching all the TVs and you see the different quarterbacks and then you see him and he just seems...
Well, that's why they got a McMillan. He's so tall, I can see him.
Yeah. All right. Guys, this is great. When's our big draft?
Monday. One o'clock. It's going to be on the Ringer Fantasy Football YouTube channel.
One o'clock Pacific time. Yeah. It's a lot of ringer people that people will recognize. we're all going head to head there's gonna be punishments that we talked about on your podcast um I think my favorite, what was the one I came up with?
The tweet one. Rage bait. Rage bait. Go listen to that if you want to know what that is.
Go listen to that. I had the punishment idea of one tweet each week, Tuesday at one o'clock.
Written by everyone else. Almost like the Colin Jost, Michael Che thing where you're writing the week and update Joe for somebody else.
And it's just like a tweet that will make.
The funniest thing is that it would be the worst for you, because you have like five million followers.
You have the most to lose. Yeah, I do. I probably do.
He didn't think of Curtis. He also enjoys tweeting rage bait stuff more.
I'm not going to finish last though. Because Dane Latham's in the week.
He's going to finish last. What pick do you want?
We're doing Snake. There's 10 teams. What's your ideal pick?
Because we're going to do a trivia question to determine the pick.
Oh, interesting. I usually like being near the back so you can get basically like... three four of the top like 32 33 range I think this is a good year actually to be towards the back of the draft yeah Because I wouldn't be psyched about any of those running backs.
We didn't even talk about Bijan, but like...
I don't know. I don't want to spend $60 on him in a fantasy league.
You're probably going to want to do that.
This is great. You can have it. All right.
Do you have anything else to add? Do I have to?
You don't have to do anything, but I mean, he's like, Yeah, he's going to blow your fucking mind.
Like, for how good he is, he's not that famous.
He's not that... He doesn't have that Saquon... Mm-mm. like electricity where everyone wants to play him in Madden.
He's like the biggest freak I've ever seen, even though he is.
But he doesn't really have that. I think it's a combo of the Falcons and then also, it's weird that he wants to be an actor, but I will say, Saquon himself said, like a month ago that the best player at making people miss the NFL is B. John Robinson.
Yeah. I mean, he's, I'm looking at my future, and it's going to be a future of starting running backs.
Travion Henderson. Braylon Allen and Kenneth Walker, some sort of running back platoon and everyone will have a flag next to them at some point.
And I wonder why I didn't spend more. RJ Harvey.
Are you in on him? I am. A little bit in on him.
We don't have to talk about the Broncos at all.
Yeah, that's right. unfortunately with the Broncos like a month ago it was like cool to be like I actually think the Broncos could win now everybody's I'm so... I have so much money in them too.
It's like... And now they're the sexy...
Yeah. I can't wait for him to spend 22 bucks on Braylon Allen in this draft.
And then we're going to be tweeting from his, these profiles.
This is Boogerator draft though. The Yahoo draft though, that's the Boogerator.
I'll just take him in like the eighth round.
Yeah. Well, yeah. Right after I take no punishment in the seventh round.
Yeah. If you don't know what we're talking about, you'll have to go listen.
Yeah, listen thing. All right. Thank you, guys.
Good to see you. Thank you, Bill. Thanks to Gahal and Eduardo as well.
And I'm going to be back on Sunday. with a brand new pod.
And then episode 399 of The Rewatchables, Witness.
You weren't there for that one. No, I actually haven't watched it yet, but I will watch it.
I think you really would have liked it. I can't believe I haven't seen it for how much I love Harrison Ford.
It's like an incredible Harrison Ford movie.
Anyway, Mallory, it was just the two of us.
I can't imagine. Lines were crossed. I assume.
Lines were crossed. In case you were wondering, they were.
Good to see you guys, though. Thank you.
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