Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Time now for Fantasy Football Weekly from iHeartRadio, your weekly
Speaker 2: source for the nation's best fantasy football advice, speculation, and
Speaker 2: whatever stupid stuff they decided to drop into the show.
Speaker 2: Now here's your host, Paul Chargion.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the second of two Drew Bennett Drills. This
Speaker 1: is where we identify Drew Bene ben I Drew Bennett
Speaker 1: drills do. This is where we identify December players who
Speaker 1: blew up, and we established whether or not that December
Speaker 1: fantasy run is sustainable. Is it a trend or is
Speaker 1: it a mirage?
Speaker 3: Dunt dun, dun, Drew Bennett, Drew Bennett drill.
Speaker 1: The Drew Bennett Drill, that's what we're calling it. Last
Speaker 1: week we did quarterbacks and running backs. I have already
Speaker 1: confessed that we're We taped this week's show right after
Speaker 1: last week's show because I'm at Whiskey Weekend right now.
Speaker 1: As you're listening to this now, you might be wondering
Speaker 1: what's Whiskey Weekend. You know all about it, Brian. Whiskey
Speaker 1: Weekend is goes like this, Twelve guys in the dead
Speaker 1: of winter go to a lodge in the middle of
Speaker 1: central Minnesota. Everybody brings a bottle of whiskey that's never
Speaker 1: been brought before. The top of every hour, you do
Speaker 1: a blind taste test between two whiskeys. You don't know
Speaker 1: what you're drinking. It's a versus B. You don't get
Speaker 1: to see the bottle, you don't know anything about it
Speaker 1: except what's in the cup, and you vote for A
Speaker 1: or B. Once a bottle has lost twice, it's knocked out.
Speaker 1: It's over. Once it's lost two times, it is out
Speaker 1: of the competition for good. So we play through the
Speaker 1: last bottle standing and we show up Thursday at a
Speaker 1: round land lunch time to like, you know, noon and two.
Speaker 1: To get to the end. It takes us about through
Speaker 1: Saturday nights, Sunday into Sunday before we've got we've got
Speaker 1: a winter established.
Speaker 3: It's a lot of whiskey drinking.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of whiskey drinking.
Speaker 3: It is. Is there anything you want to want to tell
Speaker 3: future charge right now or warn future charge about whisky weekend?
Speaker 1: You know, if I could go back and tell my
Speaker 1: younger self something, it would be the expensive whiskeyes usually
Speaker 1: don't win, you know, for our palettes, which it's a
Speaker 1: lot of casual drinkers. They like lower proof, sweeter bourbons.
Speaker 1: That's it. So I would have saved some money and
Speaker 1: gone in that forty dollars price range with easy drinking,
Speaker 1: pretty simple bourbons, because that's a lot of are who
Speaker 1: are guys like.
Speaker 3: Now, what uh? What do you use to like cleanse
Speaker 3: the palate most I'm.
Speaker 1: Glad you asked, yeah, because you have to write. We
Speaker 1: used to delivered almonds or whole almonds.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, like raw almonds. I've taken a shine to
Speaker 3: raw almonds.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's good.
Speaker 3: But I got the East Coast, I say, almonds. I
Speaker 3: can't help it, Almonds. That's that's you.
Speaker 1: You've been on the East Coast for less than a year.
Speaker 3: Almends. Well, I grew up in New Jersey, so that's
Speaker 3: the I suppose ingrained in my DNA Minnesota Bourne.
Speaker 1: Try to beat it out anyway, Almends.
Speaker 3: I can't help but I say, almends.
Speaker 1: So if you if you're a Bourbon fan and you
Speaker 1: want to follow this competition, I tweet it in real
Speaker 1: time as bottles get knocked out. So as a bottle loses,
Speaker 1: I go all right, here we go. We got twelve bottles.
Speaker 1: Here's bottle twelve, is this one and it's garbage, and
Speaker 1: then we work our way up. Now, some of my
Speaker 1: regular listeners will know that I've got a bottle that
Speaker 1: I hand selected with great yuck spirits, and that's called
Speaker 1: Old Red Reserve. Because I was talking about whether or
Speaker 1: not to put it in the competition, Brian and I
Speaker 1: decided it's to lose lose if Old Red Reserve. If
Speaker 1: I put it in the competition are blind taste test
Speaker 1: and it happens to win, everybody will think it's rigged.
Speaker 1: I'll be like, yeah, yeah, sure, and if if and
Speaker 1: if it finishes I don't know, like seventh then, which
Speaker 1: I really shouldn't because I think it's delicious. But if
Speaker 1: it finishes seventh then then that's no good either. So
Speaker 1: there's just no winning scenario for it. So I'm bringing
Speaker 1: Old Reid Reserve just as a sipper on the side.
Speaker 3: I like it. You got to save me a bottle, though,
Speaker 3: don't forget. I don't know if it's a limited run
Speaker 3: or what, but.
Speaker 1: It is a limited run, right, yes, And I've got
Speaker 1: I do have a bottle in here waiting for you
Speaker 1: to come back home.
Speaker 3: Sounds good. I I miss uh miss you, of course,
Speaker 3: but I miss dog sitting for you guys. Yes, because
Speaker 3: name of the superfluous amount of whiskey you have stashed
Speaker 3: from all your whiskey weekends, I would indulge and.
Speaker 1: That would be okay. Anybody who takes care of my
Speaker 1: dogs ask.
Speaker 3: And sell that. Yeah, whiskey.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 3: We had our own whiskey weekend. I tell him, I said, hello, deal, deal,
Speaker 3: all right.
Speaker 1: So this show, like last show, is about December trends
Speaker 1: and mirages. We already hit quarterbacks and running backs. We're
Speaker 1: gonna work through receivers and tight ends. This time. There's
Speaker 1: a couple more of those players. Let's begin with you, Brian.
Speaker 1: How about Jerry Judy, who posted some monster games down
Speaker 1: the stretch that all he needed was Deshaun Watson to
Speaker 1: get benched.
Speaker 3: Yeah, who, by the what? I don't want to get
Speaker 3: into Shaun Watson. He's need to be in the league
Speaker 3: ends upcoming season. Who knows? But ye. As soon as
Speaker 3: Jameis Winston came in, Judy's production went through the roof,
Speaker 3: starting in week eleven when he had six K his
Speaker 3: one hundred and forty two yards. I won't go through
Speaker 3: all his games, but just monster Box scores basically from
Speaker 3: week eleven through week eighteen one. People might remember most
Speaker 3: this is really like a November December run for Judy
Speaker 3: when he had his revenge game at Denver that nine catches,
Speaker 3: two hundred and thirty five yards and a touchdown in
Speaker 3: that game. But what also coincided with Judy's epic run,
Speaker 3: not outside of Jamis Winston, was Cedric Tillman got hurt
Speaker 3: in Week twelve.
Speaker 1: That was a factive play for.
Speaker 3: The remainder of the season, and Tilman was coming on strong,
Speaker 3: didn't He might have the draft pedigree that Judy had
Speaker 3: a couple of years ago, but Tilman looked great and
Speaker 3: that there really was no other true outside receiver to
Speaker 3: challenge Jerry Judy per se. After Tilman went down, it
Speaker 3: was really like Elijah More and David and Joku whose
Speaker 3: tight end he was getting a ton of targets. But
Speaker 3: it was really Judy was a one man show. And
Speaker 3: you can't expect that going into the twenty twenty five season.
Speaker 3: And what you can't expect is quality quarterbacking from whoever
Speaker 3: is the starting quarterback for Cleveland. As it's Sam Donald,
Speaker 3: I hope it's not Sam Ronald Actually know what, I
Speaker 3: wouldn't hate the Browns, oh I would either.
Speaker 1: Chemic Stefanski is a legitimately good coach.
Speaker 3: I always got to circle back to Donald, I have
Speaker 3: a disease. But anyway, but Judy for his price tag
Speaker 3: right now for early best ball drafters sixty third overall
Speaker 3: wide receiver forty people are buying into trend here. I can't.
Speaker 3: I just can't do it. If Tilman was alongside him
Speaker 3: through his whole ride and Judy was looking like the Alpha,
Speaker 3: then I would lean trend. Did I say trend? I
Speaker 3: met Mirage. I'm going mirage with armorrage yep on Josey.
Speaker 3: He was, he was the only show in town. Basically,
Speaker 3: if Tilman, if he was just out shining Tillman weekend,
Speaker 3: week out, it would be a different story. But Tilman
Speaker 3: wasn't there Tilman last played week twelve. So I gotta
Speaker 3: I gotta go mirage right now for Jerry Judy.
Speaker 1: I like Tilman as a sneaky last pick of your
Speaker 1: draft right now, and what third year?
Speaker 3: What bodes well for Judy and basically any wide receiver
Speaker 3: we talk about. Unlike the previous episode when we said
Speaker 3: the running backs that we discussed. You need to be
Speaker 3: worried about the incoming rookies.
Speaker 1: Yeah, not so much. Bad wide receiver class, yeah.
Speaker 3: Very very very bad wide receiver class outside of a
Speaker 3: one one elite player and a couple pretty good UH prospects.
Speaker 3: But I don't. I'm not worried about Judy getting beat
Speaker 3: out by a rookie or anything like that. But Cedric
Speaker 3: Tillman still might be the better receiver on that team.
Speaker 3: We shall see.
Speaker 1: I like and I'm with you on that analysis. Let's
Speaker 1: go to Jamison Williams, the Lions wide receiver. Brian he
Speaker 1: finished December is wide receiver ten, one spot ahead of
Speaker 1: I'm on ras Saint Brown. Unbelievable. He was still a
Speaker 1: big play guy. But the change that unlocked Jamison william
Speaker 1: production was antithetical to what you might think shorter passes.
Speaker 1: His December average air yards per target was eight and
Speaker 1: a half. September October November, where he was much less
Speaker 1: fantasy productive, his average air yards thirteen, almost double. They
Speaker 1: stopped doing these low you know, the deep stuff that
Speaker 1: they had been using to Jamison Williams. It's just low
Speaker 1: probability stuff. When he's from twenty yards downfield. It's hard
Speaker 1: to hit on those. The short passes meant more receptions,
Speaker 1: less boom or bust. For Jamison Williams, it gave him
Speaker 1: more opportunities to run after the catch. And also I'd
Speaker 1: like to think that in December in particular, Jamison Williams
Speaker 1: matured a little bit. You may not know this. The
Speaker 1: Lions put Teddy Bridgewater. Remember the Lions brought in Teddy
Speaker 1: Bridgewater near the end of the season. They put Bridgewater
Speaker 1: on and Jamison Williams ass late in the season because
Speaker 1: they wanted Teddy to help train Jamison Williams about how
Speaker 1: to be a pro and Teddy is the perfect guy
Speaker 1: for that.
Speaker 3: Teddy's like a player coach at this point.
Speaker 1: Basically, he basically is a player.
Speaker 3: I mean he was literally coaching high school football.
Speaker 1: Then they to the championship. They won a Florida Championship.
Speaker 1: So for Trender Mirage and Jamison Williams, I'm on trend.
Speaker 1: Not at the wide receiver ten level. That's a little excessive.
Speaker 1: That's what he did in December, but I think he'll
Speaker 1: be close now. Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson's gone. Your new
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator, john don't call me Johnny. Morton can't be
Speaker 1: oblivious to the huge uptick in Williams productivity when he's
Speaker 1: not running fly routes every play. So I'd like to
Speaker 1: think that John Morton is going to continue to give
Speaker 1: shorter looks to Jamison Williams, who can get the ball
Speaker 1: in his hands more often. But Brian, no matter which
Speaker 1: Lion you're talking about, you have to talk about the
Speaker 1: fact that they they just have so many mouths to feed.
Speaker 1: You know, all of the Lions are subject to down
Speaker 1: games when the ball just doesn't come their way. So that's,
Speaker 1: you know, to me, that's an ongoing concern for all
Speaker 1: of the Lions. I'm still going trend on. I'm still
Speaker 1: going trend on Jamison Williams, but you know, not at
Speaker 1: the wide receiver ten level.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm with you. I think Williams is on trending.
Speaker 3: You don't have to pay wide receiver ten prices right now.
Speaker 3: He's going off the board. Is a wide receiver twenty two,
Speaker 3: kind of like a mid third round pick, but a
Speaker 3: guy that I've I've reached for kind of late second,
Speaker 3: early third. I believe we are on trend with that production.
Speaker 3: And just you mentioned some God, I'm an Ross Saint Brown,
Speaker 3: who is going inside the top ten wide receivers. He's
Speaker 3: wide receiver six. Right now, I am all out on
Speaker 3: Amnros Saint Brown at that price tag, mainly because of
Speaker 3: James and Williams and then all the mouths there are
Speaker 3: Feed and Ben Johnson. It's gone. So just to throw
Speaker 3: that in there quick, I am fully fading. I'm on
Speaker 3: Ross Saint Brown in the first round right now. Give
Speaker 3: me if I'm picking between him and Jmo, gimme Jamo
Speaker 3: in the mid third. Ten out of ten times, on God,
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 1: I think I think I'm with you on that, and
Speaker 1: I love I'm on Ros Saint Brown. He is a
Speaker 1: great player. It's just all the things that you mentioned.
Speaker 1: All right, Let's go to our next player. Brian Thomas
Speaker 1: Junior drafted him on our Empire League. I was super
Speaker 1: excited about his future, and then Christian cashed out our
Speaker 1: Empire League, so I need to go back and get
Speaker 1: some more. Brian Thomas Junior loved the development that we
Speaker 1: saw this year. This is going to be a trend.
Speaker 3: Answer, Yeah, I mean, it's it's a true I mean
Speaker 3: he had starting in week thirteen through week eighteen, he
Speaker 3: saw double digit targets, totaled five touchdowns, seventy six eighty six,
Speaker 3: one hundred and five yards, one hundred and thirty two yards,
Speaker 3: ninety one yards, one hundred and three yards In his
Speaker 3: last six games all season, he was legit. Here's the
Speaker 3: list of rookie wide receivers in history with over twelve
Speaker 3: hundred receiving yards, Randy Moss and Kwan Bolden, Odell Beckham Junior,
Speaker 3: Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase, Brian Thomas Junior, and Malik Neighbors,
Speaker 3: who was a rookie last year. So yeah, fully on
Speaker 3: trend with BTJ. Who is I mean, he's going off
Speaker 3: the board as wide receiver seven right now, one pick
Speaker 3: after or one wide receiver spot after Aman Rossaint Brown. Wow,
Speaker 3: we're just talking about taking I'll take BTJ ten out
Speaker 3: of ten times over over Sun God right now. I
Speaker 3: mean there's some concerns, like there's some trade rumors with
Speaker 3: Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I don't think those are whatever lies.
Speaker 3: I don't yeah, I don't. I don't care either. BTJ
Speaker 3: looks for legit, and I mean if you were redrafting
Speaker 3: wide receivers last year, like I think Neighbors goes before Harrison, Right, yeah, sure,
Speaker 3: but then.
Speaker 1: It is, isn't it. Then it would be Brian Thomas
Speaker 1: would go before a Well.
Speaker 3: Yes, Harrison didn't show the eliteness we thought we'd see.
Speaker 3: We saw that from Brian Thomas Junior for sure. So yeah,
Speaker 3: definitely a trend. If this isn't a trend, he's going
Speaker 3: to be in the discussion for one of the biggest
Speaker 3: busts next year because he's going at the end of
Speaker 3: the first round, early second round if you're lucky, so
Speaker 3: you're paying up for BTJ, but he should be worth
Speaker 3: the price.
Speaker 1: DeVante Adams finished December is wide receiver two behind only
Speaker 1: Jamar Chase. Aaron Rodgers went berserk with him, peppering in
Speaker 1: with targets week thirteen forward. He was getting eleven targets
Speaker 1: per game from Aaron Rodgers. Unbelievable.
Speaker 3: Arret Wilson.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and DeVante Adams scored in five of the final
Speaker 1: six games, So trender mirage on DeVante Adams. Who's this
Speaker 1: is a nuance to answer, because obviously he's still a
Speaker 1: very good even at his advanced age thirty two years old,
Speaker 1: he's still very good. And nobody's suggesting that he's going
Speaker 1: to fall off a cliff, but from wide receiver too,
Speaker 1: he can only be a mirage from there. He has
Speaker 1: signed for two more years with the Jets. We don't
Speaker 1: know who the Jets quarterback is going to be, but
Speaker 1: it is likely not somebody who's going to Pepper eleven
Speaker 1: targets per game, eleven competent targets per game at DeVante Adams.
Speaker 1: There's they picked seventh in the draft the Jets do.
Speaker 1: That's not a spot that's gonna yield a surefire starting quarterback.
Speaker 1: Cam mort will be gone should or Sanders will be gone.
Speaker 1: The best free agent quarterback, Sam Darnold isn't going to
Speaker 1: go back to the Jets. I don't think that would
Speaker 1: take That would take a miracle. Justin Fields or Cooper
Speaker 1: Rush might be your starting quarterbacks for the Jets. And
Speaker 1: that is why we're on mirage for DeVante Adams. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm with you, sad, all right, let's go to WI
Speaker 1: is the option?
Speaker 2: Maybe not?
Speaker 1: Maybe? Yeah, maybe, Although honestly I'd run fields. I'd roll
Speaker 1: the dice on fields.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I like lake fields, you know me. I'm an
Speaker 3: Advanced Awards market better fields four hundred to one MVP
Speaker 3: just's given him a starting job. I'll take any quarterback
Speaker 3: at four hundred to one to win MVP.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's talk Glad McConkie, next guy up.
Speaker 3: Lots to talk about.
Speaker 1: Quite a quite a finish to the year for him
Speaker 1: and somebody that just got consistently better over the course
Speaker 1: of the season.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Really, the Chargers did not throw the ball basically
Speaker 3: for the first half of the season, and McConkie was
Speaker 3: still very much a PPR helper. But from Week eleven
Speaker 3: on he was. He was elite and that came to
Speaker 3: fruition big time in the in the wild card game
Speaker 3: against the Texans when he had nine catches, one hundred
Speaker 3: ninety seven yards and a touchdown. And by the way
Speaker 3: I saw this doesn't go all regular season, but in
Speaker 3: the playoffs, McConkie had the highest recorded speed of any
Speaker 3: player in the playoffs, wier than Barkley. Wow, Barkley, who
Speaker 3: had a you know, McConkie had like an eighty yard touchdown,
Speaker 3: so we got to get the full speed. Barkley did two,
Speaker 3: so did Jamiir Gibbs. McConkie faster than both of them
Speaker 3: in the postseason. So wow, he's a He's an athlete,
Speaker 3: and he's he is, He's great, He's gonna be, he
Speaker 3: could be. He's gonna be a Hall of Fame wide
Speaker 3: receiver if he stays healthy as a rookie. More yards
Speaker 3: than Garrett Wilson, more receptions than Tyreek Hill, more touchdowns
Speaker 3: than Ceed Lamb. Last year, his win rate versus man
Speaker 3: coverage was seventh in the NFL. Only seven wide receivers
Speaker 3: averaged two point two five yards per route run against
Speaker 3: man and zone coverage. McConkie was one of them. The
Speaker 3: other ones the week neighbors Justin Jefferson, a'man Ross, Saint Brown,
Speaker 3: Puka Nakua, Nico Collins.
Speaker 1: Some put them in that company right there.
Speaker 3: Wow, get into that's the bonus little like sneaper sleeper.
Speaker 3: Go out and get him. Marvin Mims Junior in that
Speaker 3: category too.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be one of my favorite sleepers for next year.
Speaker 3: But uh, anyway back to McConkie, not done yet. Here's
Speaker 3: the highest e p A per target by a rookie. Now.
Speaker 3: E p A stands for expected points added. It's a
Speaker 3: metric used to evaluate the performance of a wide receiver
Speaker 3: in the NFL by measuring how well a player performs
Speaker 3: compared to what was expected on a play by play basis.
Speaker 3: So all time highest e p A per target by
Speaker 3: a rookie, Eddie Royal was number one in Oha, then
Speaker 3: Lad McConkie number three, ahead of Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase.
Speaker 3: I'm on Ross Aint Brown, Phuka Nakua, and Kwon Bolden,
Speaker 3: the aforementioned Brian Thomas Junior. These are these are all
Speaker 3: elite wide receivers. In McConkie is in that group if
Speaker 3: you whether you like it or not, So trend conky.
Speaker 1: Is a top ten Fantasy wide receiver.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's going off the board as technically right now eleven.
Speaker 1: Interesting he's going before Tyreek Hill right now, I would
Speaker 1: take him before Tyreek Hill.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's right before him. Is a j Brown, Drake
Speaker 3: London Neighbors Thomas Son guy, like I would. I wouldn't
Speaker 3: take him over Almah because where he can get Aman
Speaker 3: Ross Saint Brown in the first round, you could probably
Speaker 3: get McConkie in the second round. But like, I want
Speaker 3: McConkie over Aman Ross Saint Brown at costs without a doubt. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'll go running back in round one, which I'm not
Speaker 3: loving this year. Like most years. If I know I'm
Speaker 3: getting McConkie in the second round, like he has wide
Speaker 3: receiver one ability Fantasy real life. He's got the goods trend.
Speaker 1: Friend, We'll take a break when we come back. Adam
Speaker 1: Feelin he's uh, he's thirty four years old and he
Speaker 1: was awesome down the stretch last year. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: his forthcoming season trend or mirage when we come back.
Speaker 1: Welcome back Fantasy Football Weekly. Paul Charging and Brian Johnson
Speaker 1: with you breaking down the December stars and whether or
Speaker 1: not these players will continue that the ascension we saw
Speaker 1: in December or is it just a fraud? Is it
Speaker 1: a mirage? We begin next? Can you begin next? We
Speaker 1: next go to Adam Thielen. In December, he was wide
Speaker 1: receiver fifteen. His late season serge coincided with Bryce Young's
Speaker 1: tremendous second half of the season. Some of Thelen's success
Speaker 1: was tangible and showed up in box scores, like he
Speaker 1: averaged very healthy six catches seventy five yards from Week
Speaker 1: thirteen forward. Six catches seventy five yards. Those are good numbers,
Speaker 1: but also the quality of Adam Thielen's catches Last year
Speaker 1: he made three of the ten best catches of the season.
Speaker 1: Just eye popping. Oh my god, I can't believe he
Speaker 1: came down with it. He made those kinds of catches
Speaker 1: and he looked great. Did not look like he was
Speaker 1: thirty four years old. So trend of mirage, I am
Speaker 1: going trend question mark. Yeah, So, I mean the big
Speaker 1: questionnaire is his age. Will he lose a step at
Speaker 1: age thirty four? Will he struggle to get separation?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 1: Fortunately, speed has never been Theelan's game. Really, It's always
Speaker 1: been elite footwork, route running hands. I mean, it's been
Speaker 1: just like the whole package. But the other thing is
Speaker 1: we need Adam Thlan to not suffer a six week
Speaker 1: long hamstring injury, which seems to happen to him every year.
Speaker 1: That part's been very frustrating, But everything else is positive, right.
Speaker 1: Dave Canalis is a wizard. Bryce Young has room to
Speaker 1: get even better. Well, I think you will get better.
Speaker 1: And if unless this team pours capital into the wide
Speaker 1: receiver position, you know, he's wide receiver one. Adam Feelen
Speaker 1: is wide receiver one to start the season. Xavier Legett
Speaker 1: might get better. Jalen Cocher. We mentioned last two names
Speaker 1: you mentioned last episode. Maybe they get better, but I
Speaker 1: and I don't think they're gonna throw like a first
Speaker 1: round pick at wide receiver. I don't think the Panthers will.
Speaker 1: I think they got to figure out the offensive line
Speaker 1: and if they do, that will also help Adam Feelin.
Speaker 1: So I have trend to question mark at Adam feel.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm with you. I just like as long as
Speaker 3: they don't sink too much, like significant draft capital into
Speaker 3: wide receiver. Yeah, you gotta love Feelin's outlook. If he
Speaker 3: says helping, we already said it's not a strong class. Now,
Speaker 3: if if Carolina is able to get Ted McMillan with
Speaker 3: the eighth overall pick, that that's gonna that's gonna dial
Speaker 3: down the outlooks were all the wide receivers in Carolina.
Speaker 3: But right now you'll love this if you're on trend
Speaker 3: with Feeling like you are, and I'm with you, Feelin
Speaker 3: is going third out out, you know, out of the three.
Speaker 3: Right now we get Wow Woker and THELN Lagett is
Speaker 3: a wide receiver sixty right now on underdog Coker wide
Speaker 3: receiver sixty six, and then Feeling is seventy four, wide
Speaker 3: receiver seventy four, going almost two full rounds after Coker,
Speaker 3: So major value on h on feeling right now. But
Speaker 3: yet we mentioned Bryce Young in the last episode, how
Speaker 3: he's on trend right now. Panthers great team. If you're
Speaker 3: drafting best ball, they're all coming in at discount. You can,
Speaker 3: oh yeah, stack him very easily to Davian Sanders, who's
Speaker 3: not in our tight end segment. Could have been also
Speaker 3: an intriguing option for the Panthers offense in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: We'll talk about him later in the offseason.
Speaker 1: I'm sure a few moments ago you talked about Lad McConkie,
Speaker 1: how much you love him, all the all the all
Speaker 1: the positives there, and it was all good. Clinton Johnston,
Speaker 1: it was a struggle early for him, but it started
Speaker 1: to come together in December. Stop dropping so many passes,
Speaker 1: He scored some touchdowns. Where are you landing on the
Speaker 1: trend versus mirage for Quinton Johnston?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like before I dove in, I was you know,
Speaker 3: I looked at Quinton Johnson. I'm like, yeah, he was
Speaker 3: great in December. And we always, like we warned earlier
Speaker 3: in this episode or last week, like be careful, what's
Speaker 3: fresh in your mind? You gotta take a look at
Speaker 3: the big picture. But even looking at the small picture,
Speaker 3: December for Quentin Johnson, it wasn't that great. Most what
Speaker 3: most of us are remembering, it's probably week eighteen when
Speaker 3: he had fourteen targets, thirteen catches, one hundred and eighty
Speaker 3: six yards, didn't score a touchdown somehow, but monster game there.
Speaker 3: But then he had a couple in weeks fourteen and
Speaker 3: fifteen he had forty eight yards forty five yards, and
Speaker 3: he scored in each of those games. But then weeks
Speaker 3: sixteen and seventeen three for eighteen five for forty eight scoreless,
Speaker 3: didn't He didn't catch a pass in the wildcard round
Speaker 3: either on five targets. So I don't know, it wasn't
Speaker 3: that great of December. Looking back at it, like, okay,
Speaker 3: eighteen games, so we could say trend where it's.
Speaker 1: A trend on an underwhelming December.
Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, So I don't know, but stinking it's really
Speaker 3: a mirage. I don't think he's solidical. He's definitely not
Speaker 3: the number one option, uh at wide receiver for the Chargers.
Speaker 3: That's Lad McConkie. We've gone over that, and I don't
Speaker 3: think he's secure in he probably is. I don't know
Speaker 3: what the Chargers are going to do in free agency.
Speaker 3: They're unlikely to draft someone better than QJ to steal
Speaker 3: his starting job. But uh, right now, at wide receiver
Speaker 3: sixty four, that's that's wide receiver. I don't know. There's
Speaker 3: there's no value there for me. So I'm going mirage
Speaker 3: until we see some kind of consistent you know, sixty
Speaker 3: seventy yards weekend and week out. We just have not
Speaker 3: seen that from QJ. We warned, I warned. I can't
Speaker 3: say warned people about this, but I still think the
Speaker 3: Chargers are going to run the ball more than they
Speaker 3: throw it when we were talking about Herbert last week.
Speaker 3: So I don't know. I'm on mirage for for QJ.
Speaker 3: But hope, I hope I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: Final wide receiver Jalen McMillan from Tampa Bay. You want
Speaker 1: to guess where he finished among wide receivers in December.
Speaker 3: He was in the top twenty four, had to have been.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say wide receiver fourteen five. Wow.
Speaker 1: Wide receiver five propelled by a league high seven touchdowns
Speaker 1: in the final five weeks of the season, so that
Speaker 1: helps was all the touchdowns he had. He was wide
Speaker 1: receiver twenty or better in all five of the final
Speaker 1: weeks of the season, and he finished one spot ahead
Speaker 1: of Mike Evans, who finished his wide receiver six. So
Speaker 1: trender mirage on McMillan, I'm on trend. First thirteen weeks,
Speaker 1: Jalen McMillan averaged two Fantasy points per game, total disaster.
Speaker 1: He couldn't start him. Weeks fourteen through eighteen, he'd vaulted
Speaker 1: up to fifteen Fantasy points per game in ESPN scoring system. Obviously,
Speaker 1: to go from two to fifteen is a massive golf
Speaker 1: and that's not gonna happen very often. I mean, that's,
Speaker 1: you know, something really usually has to go pretty weird
Speaker 1: before you see a jump from two fantasy points a
Speaker 1: game to fifteen fantasy points a game. And I'll note
Speaker 1: that in those final five games where he was so good,
Speaker 1: played against the defenses of the Raiders, the Cowboys, the Panthers,
Speaker 1: and the Saints. There's some soft defenses right there. Only
Speaker 1: the Chargers went to the playoffs out of the teams
Speaker 1: that they played in the final five games. But I
Speaker 1: think the biggest thing to evaluate we're looking at Jalen McMillan.
Speaker 1: It's the competition on his own team, Chris Godwin coming
Speaker 1: off in ACL and he's a free agent. I don't
Speaker 1: think I think it's it's cruel, it's mean, but I
Speaker 1: don't think he's I don't think he's gonna come back.
Speaker 1: I don't think they're gonna have him back. And if
Speaker 1: he does come back, how fully does Chris Godwin come
Speaker 1: back off that ACL and then Mike Evan another year
Speaker 1: early entering his twelfth NFL season, and how much does
Speaker 1: he have left? It should put Jalen McMillan on the
Speaker 1: field a lot and with an opportunity to do pretty
Speaker 1: you know, to do pretty well in an offense that
Speaker 1: was very pass heavy. But we got to mention that
Speaker 1: they have now turned offensive coordinator three straight times, from
Speaker 1: Dave Canalis into Liam Cohen and now Josh Grizzard, who
Speaker 1: was the passing game coordinator. He's got a pretty thin resume.
Speaker 1: He's been an NFL assistant coach since twenty seventeen, which
Speaker 1: puts it back a little ways. But with the Dolphins
Speaker 1: and a bunch of different capacities like his wide receiver here,
Speaker 1: he's like, I don't know, strength and conditioning over here.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm not I don't love that part.
Speaker 1: I would have liked to have had some continuity with
Speaker 1: Liam Cohen still there. But nevertheless, it is trend on
Speaker 1: Jalen McMillan, I'm.
Speaker 3: With you on trend. I'm has a. I'm pretty much
Speaker 3: on the fence, but all trend. One other thing that
Speaker 3: doesn't really bode well for McMillan was, if I recall correctly,
Speaker 3: this is well after Godwin went down, I mean Kate
Speaker 3: Otten who placed tight end not wide receiver. He really
Speaker 3: stepped up as the second receiving option once Godwin went down.
Speaker 3: But then Aten got hurt and that seems that also
Speaker 3: kind of seemed when McMillan kind of stepped up. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: point different position, but I'm still on trend with Yeah,
Speaker 3: I agree, I'm buying that McMillan not coming cheap right now.
Speaker 3: Wide receiver forty two, he's right in the uh.
Speaker 1: I think that is a little cheap, to be honest,
Speaker 1: for a guy who finished it in December was wide
Speaker 1: receiver five. That's well, it's reasonable.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, he could definitely out outperform that ADP,
Speaker 3: but he could also underperform it too. We shall see.
Speaker 1: But uh, all right, let's go to the tight end
Speaker 1: position and you've got some Tyler Higbee came back from
Speaker 1: that devastating ACL injury at the helmet of Kirby Joseph
Speaker 1: and they immediately put him to work in that Rams offense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he missed the whole season essentially. He came back
Speaker 3: in week sixteen. It took him a week sixteen. Week
Speaker 3: seventeen didn't get his full allotment of snaps, but in
Speaker 3: week eighteen they kind of took the training wheels off Higbee.
Speaker 3: He had, let's see, seven targets, five catches, forty six
Speaker 3: yards in a touchdown in week eighteen. Then he kept
Speaker 3: it going in the playoffs in the wildcard round against
Speaker 3: the Vikings, five catches for fifty eight yards. That was
Speaker 3: all in the first half. He got knocked out of
Speaker 3: that game, so he was well on his way to
Speaker 3: a monster game. And then against Philly in the Divisional round,
Speaker 3: ten targets, seven catches, fifty four yards in a touchdown.
Speaker 3: That was a tough matchup in the snow. So, I
Speaker 3: mean the Rams they went and usually like I was
Speaker 3: on Colby Parkinson going into last year because Higbee was
Speaker 3: going on irs like the Rams, they utilized their tight ends,
Speaker 3: but they.
Speaker 1: Didn't do that, but they didn't Higby came back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, as soon as Higby came back, I mean yeah,
Speaker 3: it was all systems go essentially, and I believe he
Speaker 3: will be a Ram this upcoming season. We're not sure
Speaker 3: if Matt Stafford is going to be their quarterback. I
Speaker 3: think he will be hopefully they bring him back. But
Speaker 3: right now, I'm gonna go with this very very late
Speaker 3: season postseason production as long as Higgbye can stay healthy.
Speaker 3: He struggled that in the past, but I'm gonna say trend,
Speaker 3: especially when we're talking about Higgby going off the board,
Speaker 3: is tight end twenty eight right now. So I'll roll
Speaker 3: the dice. I'll say trend at that at that price
Speaker 3: all day long and take my chances. So yeah, if healthy,
Speaker 3: I think we'll see high usage for Rams tight ends
Speaker 3: with Higbee back in the fold, then it will be
Speaker 3: Higbee primarily, So uh yeah, trend trend for Tyler quick
Speaker 3: tight ends.
Speaker 1: I've got zach Ertz Washington tight end six touchdowns from
Speaker 1: week eleven forward and a massive game that's in the
Speaker 1: NFC Championship game against Philadelphia. If you go, you know,
Speaker 1: fast forward a few more weeks, sixteen targets, eleven catches,
Speaker 1: one hundred and four yards, massive game in the NFC
Speaker 1: Championship game. Hard to put a trend on a guy
Speaker 1: who's thirty four years old, but I think I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do it here. Brian now Age is concerned and he's
Speaker 1: had some injuries but played every game this year. Part
Speaker 1: of my confidence is Ben Senate just didn't do anything
Speaker 1: this year. He got on the field some I looked
Speaker 1: him up. He played on three hundred and twenty two snaps,
Speaker 1: a lot of them special teams, but he only had
Speaker 1: five targets all year. That's it. Ben said it was
Speaker 1: a second round pick who barely got used. So you know,
Speaker 1: maybe Senate has a much bigger role next year in
Speaker 1: his second year, but his role was so small in
Speaker 1: year one that I don't feel very confident in thinking
Speaker 1: that Ben Senate is gonna beat out zach Ertz and
Speaker 1: obviously Jayden Daniels capable of generating big performances. So I
Speaker 1: still it's boring, but I kind of like zach Ertz
Speaker 1: to take it again.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would if I'm investing in Earth's and I
Speaker 3: think the price is right right now. I'm praying he
Speaker 3: stays in Washington because I think anywhere else it's just
Speaker 3: it would be a downgrade. Yeah for Earth, who's expressed
Speaker 3: he wants to He was like literally like crying, like
Speaker 3: I wish I was younger, I could play with Jade
Speaker 3: and Daniels. Yeah, right, we all wish we were younger, Zach,
Speaker 3: But yeah, he wants to stay in Washington. But h
Speaker 3: if they do move on from Ertz, then uh, wheels
Speaker 3: up for Sinnate, who I'm buying into. You can get
Speaker 3: Senate in the last round right now. In the event
Speaker 3: that Ertz leaves, We've all we've come to expect too
Speaker 3: much from rookie tight ends all of a sudden, right,
Speaker 3: so we got to overlook. I know we're talking to
Speaker 3: Earth's but Sinate, I got my eye on him. I
Speaker 3: think there's some potential there. But if Earth sticks around,
Speaker 3: then that's not good for Senate at least.
Speaker 1: Final player for this episode Chigakon quote the ten to
Speaker 1: see Titans tight End that did absolutely nothing until the
Speaker 1: end of the year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you most expected o'conquo to go into the season
Speaker 3: as the Titans starting tight end, which he was, but
Speaker 3: he was still splitting work mainly with Josh Wiley some
Speaker 3: Nick Vinett. So really just like o'conquo is running half
Speaker 3: the routes for the majority of the season, but that
Speaker 3: changed really in week sixteen seventeen eighteen. He got hurt
Speaker 3: in week eighteen, so we won't count that, But in
Speaker 3: week sixteen and seventeen ran more than eighty percent of
Speaker 3: the routes. Eight catches fifty nine yards, nine catches eighty
Speaker 3: one yards in those two games saw target totals of
Speaker 3: ten and eleven. As a whole, the Titans were eleventh
Speaker 3: in catches with ninety eight in the league. But again
Speaker 3: o'conquo was split in work with Wiley, but Wiley wasn't
Speaker 3: hurt in weeks sixteen and seventeen, they just gave o
Speaker 3: conquo more snaps. Who hopefully gets that work going into
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five. I think he will. We express concern
Speaker 3: about this offense. We don't know who the quarterback is
Speaker 3: gonna be. There's not a lot of not a lot
Speaker 3: to love in the Tennessee offense, but there's not a
Speaker 3: lot to love in the tight end wasteland. But I'm
Speaker 3: gonna go trend here. Why not? Okay, I mean, and
Speaker 3: o'con quo. You're getting him dirt cheap, so he's coming.
Speaker 3: He's going later than Higbee. He's tight end thirty right now,
Speaker 3: so he's free. So I'm just gonna I'm gonna just
Speaker 3: bank on the on the trend that we see the
Speaker 3: uptick in usage, because why not. I mean, Josh Wiley,
Speaker 3: ain't it. I mean, let's see what o'conquo can do.
Speaker 3: He he he is an athlete, he's he kind of
Speaker 3: reminds me of your boy John Hu, John Who a
Speaker 3: little bit. I mean, I'm gonna and if it doesn't
Speaker 3: work out, he's not in John Who's Smith's class.
Speaker 1: Let's he's not.
Speaker 3: He's not. He's nobody is he's aspiring to be?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, he's not. He's Johnna. I'm listening to that.
Speaker 3: But hey, that's that's where where John Who, you know,
Speaker 3: he got his start in Tennessee.
Speaker 1: She did, they didn't need him. And then the Patriots
Speaker 1: who identified how good John it was, paid him a
Speaker 1: billion dollars and then promptly didn't use him. And then
Speaker 1: finally he gets to Miami and they're like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: you're great.
Speaker 3: Well don't. I'm surprised you forgot about his stop in
Speaker 3: Atlanta where he.
Speaker 1: Well, he daggered Kyle Pitts' season in as much as
Speaker 1: Arthur Smith did.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yep, yeah, there wasn't a nice December for Kyle
Speaker 3: Pitts to talk about in that show.
Speaker 1: Thank you, my man. Two good shows.
Speaker 3: Whiskey.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll be uh, we'll be talking rookies after this.
Speaker 1: Next week, we'll start turning our attention to Thorne Eistrom
Speaker 1: and getting into combined storylines and start really breaking down
Speaker 1: rookies in advance of the draft. Can't wait.
Speaker 3: Cool Thor is already in mid season four when it
Speaker 3: comes to rookie evaluation.
Speaker 1: I think he is.
Speaker 3: He's on point, as he always is.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, everybody. We'll be back next next week.
Speaker 1: It's more Fantasy Football Weekly. Fantasy Football Weekly is a
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