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 decide to drop into the show. Now,
Speaker 2: here's your host, Paul Chargony.
Speaker 1: Everybody, it is Fantasy Football Weekly and off season free
Speaker 1: Agent edition of Fantasy Football Weekly. My co host today,
Speaker 1: like two weeks ago, Brian Johnson, Hey, buddy.
Speaker 3: What's going on, charg Yeah, We're we're in full on
Speaker 3: off season, full on depression, no games on Sunday mode.
Speaker 3: But our first, our first milestone we have to look
Speaker 3: forward to is free agency. There's a well, actually the
Speaker 3: combine coming.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Combine coming up is a biggie, right, So that's
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks from now, and then you know,
Speaker 1: we're only three and a half weeks away from free
Speaker 1: agency starting. It's it's all coming. Over the course of
Speaker 1: the show, we'll talk through the key free agents, not
Speaker 1: all of them, just too many, the guys that you
Speaker 1: care most about at quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about what kind of landing space they might find,
Speaker 1: you know, is it going to be a hot market.
Speaker 1: Is it going to be a cold market? You know?
Speaker 1: Where do we want them to go? And we'll break
Speaker 1: down all of those guys. Also, I'll mention this, Brian,
Speaker 1: We're recording this a couple of days before people are
Speaker 1: going to hear it because I'm going to be a
Speaker 1: whiskey weekend. I can't wait. If you're a bourbon drinker
Speaker 1: and you want to follow along with our fourth this
Speaker 1: our fifteenth year, I think of our our blind March
Speaker 1: Madness style whiskey bracket double elimination. Follow me on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Paul charci In very excited for that.
Speaker 3: I threw you a recommendation as you tweeted it out
Speaker 3: as you do every year, because we don't you don't
Speaker 3: get too into into your bit, but you got to
Speaker 3: bring a new bottle every year essentially, And yeah, I
Speaker 3: had a somewhat out of the box recommendation. I'll be
Speaker 3: curious to see if you actually took it. We can't.
Speaker 1: We can't can't because it's all it's all blind. That's
Speaker 1: part of the beauty of this format is at the
Speaker 1: top of every hour you get we have one guy
Speaker 1: who administers it, and so he knows all the secrets.
Speaker 1: He knows what bottles what we don't know when we're
Speaker 1: drinking it. All you know is you get about a
Speaker 1: half shot glass of one that's marked A and one
Speaker 1: that's marked B. So there's no marketing. You don't the bottle.
Speaker 1: You don't have. All you have to go on is taste.
Speaker 1: That's it. You don't know what you're drinking. And so
Speaker 1: a lot of the times you think you love this
Speaker 1: particular bourbon, and then when it comes up, it might
Speaker 1: turn out you like a different one better, and maybe
Speaker 1: you're even lukewarm on the one that you brought. And
Speaker 1: that's what has happened a lot. We had. One year,
Speaker 1: my good friend Brian other Brian, not You've not you
Speaker 1: friend Brian brought a two hundred dollar bottle of Middleton
Speaker 1: and he I previously described it as angels tears in
Speaker 1: a bottle, which I can understand. And then the first
Speaker 1: time it came up, he voted against it. Second time
Speaker 1: it came came up, voted against it again and knocked
Speaker 1: He knocked his own bottle out of our competition.
Speaker 3: That's like the sixteen seed knocking out the one seed
Speaker 3: in the n c DOAA tournament, which happened recently. I
Speaker 3: believe it was Virginia.
Speaker 1: Yeah, was it just last year?
Speaker 3: No, it was a a few years ago. And then
Speaker 3: they went on to win the national championship the next year, Virginia.
Speaker 3: I remember that because that was the final four in Minneapolis, Virginia.
Speaker 1: A few years ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, but they they were the first team to
Speaker 3: lose as the number one seed, and then the next
Speaker 3: year they came back and won the national championship. Pretty
Speaker 3: impressive rebound from the most embarrassing, yeah, accomplishment in college basketball.
Speaker 1: Right, So that's either going to galvanize you into a
Speaker 1: great team or it's going to go the opposite direction
Speaker 1: and it's going to spiral you down. In Virginia, obviously,
Speaker 1: you know they rebounded from it. An impressive job for them.
Speaker 3: Look at us breaking down and c doub play best.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's well barely, it's about all that.
Speaker 3: Let's talk football.
Speaker 1: Now, let's talk football. Let's begin at the quarterback position.
Speaker 1: We have two notable unrestricted free agents there more Obviously,
Speaker 1: we don't think Gardner Minshew and Ryan Tannehill deserve a
Speaker 1: lot of time and we're not going to turn this
Speaker 1: into a like hour long session here, but let's start
Speaker 1: with Baker Mayfield coming off by I think, in most regards,
Speaker 1: the best year of his career when he was just
Speaker 1: sort of an afterthought when Tampa signed him and he
Speaker 1: turned out to be fantasy relevant for much of the season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean he was. He wasn't guaranteed to start
Speaker 3: for the Bucks. Last year was basically came down to
Speaker 3: the last preseason game between Baker and Kyle Trask, and
Speaker 3: we know how that ended. Baker won the job and
Speaker 3: he never gave it back. Let's look back at his
Speaker 3: stats real quick from last year. Ninth in passing yards,
Speaker 3: Baker was. His twenty nine passing touchdowns were the sixth most.
Speaker 3: And of the six quarterbacks who threw more touchdown passes
Speaker 3: than Baker, only one of them through fewer interceptions than
Speaker 3: Baker Mayfield. Wow, and that was Dak Prescott. And back
Speaker 3: to those six quarterbacks who threw more touchdowns in Baker Mayfield,
Speaker 3: Patrick Mahomes was not one of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did not expect that going into the season that
Speaker 1: you get more touchdowns out of Baker Mayfield than Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes And they both played full seasons yep.
Speaker 3: And Baker had less picks than Mahomes he had more
Speaker 3: rushing touchdowns in Mahomes wown to zero. I was like, well,
Speaker 3: he must have had more fantasy points in Mahomes.
Speaker 1: He didn't.
Speaker 3: Mahomes beat him out on rushing yards. Essentially, he had
Speaker 3: like two hundred more rushing yards and that's how he
Speaker 3: beat out Patrick. I'm sorry how Patrick Mahomes beat out
Speaker 3: Baker Mayfield in terms of fantasy points. So he is
Speaker 3: a hot commodity, Like you said, he's a lot hotter
Speaker 3: commodity than he was last year. Basically, he was just
Speaker 3: a free you know, Tampa grabbed him off the street
Speaker 3: for free. But now we're looking at a return to
Speaker 3: Tampa Bay, which honestly isn't as appealing because Mike Evans
Speaker 3: might be gone.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So we're looking at like the Patriots, the Falcons, Raiders, Broncos, Steelers.
Speaker 3: Of all those, to me, the Falcons and the Raiders
Speaker 3: stand out most for the most appealing landing spot. So
Speaker 3: I'm hoping he ends up there. But I just feel
Speaker 3: like Tampa Bay is going to resign Baker, but without
Speaker 3: Mike Evans. I don't like his prospects as much. Assumably
Speaker 3: presumably without Mike Evans, So.
Speaker 1: Ye kind of with you on that Atlanta would be interesting,
Speaker 1: Raiders to be interesting. I don't think the Patriots are
Speaker 1: in because they're ridiculous if they don't take a quarterback
Speaker 1: at pick three. So we'll find out, but I don't
Speaker 1: think I think they'll use that pick on a quarterback.
Speaker 1: Let's talk Kirk Cousins, who was on an MVP pace
Speaker 1: when he blew out his achilles, leading the league in yards,
Speaker 1: tied for the lead league in touchdowns, and if you
Speaker 1: were to convert the Vikings, if you think Kirks was
Speaker 1: good for one extra touchdown a game over the Josh
Speaker 1: Dobbs and you know Nick Bullins, then he would have
Speaker 1: put the Vikings in a position where they would have
Speaker 1: been soundly in the playoffs. And I think Kirk Cousins
Speaker 1: would have been a very, very legit contender for MVP
Speaker 1: in a season in which Lamar Jackson won the MVP
Speaker 1: with twenty four passing touchdowns and I think five rushing touchdowns.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 3: And before Kirk quent down in what week eight nine,
Speaker 3: he was five fantasy quarterback just speaking fantasy.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, Yeah, I'm glad you brought
Speaker 1: that up, so let's talk about that. So when he
Speaker 1: went down, he was quarterback five in fantasy for a
Speaker 1: non rushing, like zero rushing quarterback. That's pretty good. He's
Speaker 1: still only playing half a season. He still finished his
Speaker 1: quarterback twenty four. Just pretty impressive year. Prior, Kirk Cousins
Speaker 1: was quarterback six before that, quarterback nine. So you know,
Speaker 1: he had been a solidly top ten quarterback for three
Speaker 1: straight seasons. Now you have to give a little bit
Speaker 1: of caution because of the Achilles, but never a mobile
Speaker 1: guy anyway, and doesn't to me. I'm not terribly worried
Speaker 1: about him coming back off that injury, especially with all
Speaker 1: the time they'll have to rehab from it. We just
Speaker 1: saw him dance three weeks ago, right, so I think
Speaker 1: he's doing okay. You already hit on some of the
Speaker 1: landing places for Cousins, Denver, Pittsburgh, Tampa if they don't go,
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield, Atlanta. But the best fit is just to
Speaker 1: stay with Minnesota. With what we know that he's got here,
Speaker 1: Kirk Kirk and Kevin O'Connell really were hitting their stride
Speaker 1: in a big way. Presumably the team resigns Justin Jefferson
Speaker 1: they've got Jordan Addison and at some point they get TJ.
Speaker 1: Hockkinson back off of his knee injury.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, isn't that a focal point to keeping Justin Jefferson? Apparently,
Speaker 3: is that they signs. I mean, Jefferson's almost given them
Speaker 3: an ultimatum at this point, like either sign Kirk, signed Kirk,
Speaker 3: or you're gonna lose us both.
Speaker 1: So what we know from Jefferson is super Bowl Week
Speaker 1: when he at Radio Row, he was pounding the table
Speaker 1: for Kirk Cousins at every stop, and he had been
Speaker 1: doing that since the latter part of the season and
Speaker 1: saying pretty much outright, you know, look at what we're
Speaker 1: struggling with with the other guys when we don't have
Speaker 1: Kirk and then Justin Jefferson. Recently, a report came media
Speaker 1: report came out and said that Jefferson says that if
Speaker 1: he's going to resign, the team has to have a
Speaker 1: solution in place at quarterback. Totally. I don't blame him,
Speaker 1: and obviously Kirk would qualify for that. Let's go to
Speaker 1: the running backs, Brian, you can go as it me
Speaker 1: or you first. I think it's I think it is
Speaker 1: you first. Let's take. Let's take a look at your
Speaker 1: first running.
Speaker 3: Back off the I'll go first because I got the King.
Speaker 3: Derek Henry. Yeah, yeah, Dereck Henry. Future Hall of Famer.
Speaker 3: He should be in the Hall of Fame already based
Speaker 3: on his career numbers. We'll sort of dive into those
Speaker 3: in a minute, but he turned thirty last month, going
Speaker 3: into his ninth season in twenty twenty four. So of course,
Speaker 3: the age old question for running backs is he have
Speaker 3: enough tread on the tires. Last year, two hundred and
Speaker 3: eighty carries. That's still like belcow usage, especially in this
Speaker 3: day and age, And despite averaging a career low four
Speaker 3: point two yards per carry, Henry finished with nearly twelve
Speaker 3: hundred rushing yards twelve rushing touchdowns that gave him six
Speaker 3: straight seasons with double digit rushing scores. Twenty eight catches
Speaker 3: last year thirty three and twenty twenty two. Now those
Speaker 3: aren't huge numbers, but those are the two highest season
Speaker 3: catch totals in his career for the last two years,
Speaker 3: so he's still he's more versatile than ever, you can
Speaker 3: put it that way. So I mean two hundred and
Speaker 3: eighty carries, he was down from about like three hundred
Speaker 3: and thirty carries last year, so he's not gonna be
Speaker 3: his three hundred plus carry seasons likely over. But I'm
Speaker 3: in on Derrick Henry. Wherever he ends up. He's already
Speaker 3: got the hype video up on Twitter. You know, he's
Speaker 3: doing bench presses with a car on his stomach and
Speaker 3: he's like chewing through metal chord.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: He's a beast. And you know, places where he could
Speaker 3: end up would be really intriguing, like Baltimore, how about Dallas, Minnesota.
Speaker 3: I think Minnesota could use a guy like Derrick Henry
Speaker 3: in the backfield. Chargers. I mean, there's a lot of
Speaker 3: teams looking at running backs Philadelphia. So wherever he ends up,
Speaker 3: I'm in on Derrick Henry. And right now I believe
Speaker 3: he's like, it's of course way too really best ball
Speaker 3: adp but he's going like fourth round, fifth round.
Speaker 1: Tyja Spears is going before him. Spears is going end
Speaker 1: of third, beginning of fourth. And on the presumption that
Speaker 1: Derrick Henry is gonna be gone.
Speaker 3: But I mean, what if he ends up on Baltimore Dallas.
Speaker 3: It's a clear lead back. We're talking it's late second
Speaker 3: round at latest. I think with Henry.
Speaker 1: So I don't be interesting to see if Henry ends
Speaker 1: up in a more of a time share a little
Speaker 1: bit like he had with Taja Spears. All the Spears
Speaker 1: was more like, you know, he was getting like six
Speaker 1: seven touches a game. But what if he what if
Speaker 1: he what if they compliment him with somebody who's more
Speaker 1: of a pure pass catching back That might be really
Speaker 1: interesting to see if you know how that backfield could
Speaker 1: work and what that would mean for Derrick Henry if
Speaker 1: he's not, you know, going to be an eighteen to
Speaker 1: twenty carry a game guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that the eighteen to twenty is gone,
Speaker 3: but I think that the fifteen carries not to twelve
Speaker 3: to fifteen per game. A couple catches and yeah, and
Speaker 3: a with the like he's the queer thunder of any
Speaker 3: kind of thunder and lightning backfield for.
Speaker 1: Sure, the ultimate thunder right there, Derrick Henry, and he'll
Speaker 1: get all the goal line work in almost any scenario
Speaker 1: where he falls. Let's talk say Kwon Barkley. You know,
Speaker 1: when we look back at his whole career, never as
Speaker 1: good as he was as a rookie. Tragically, when he
Speaker 1: was unbelievable. That season one rookie of the year put
Speaker 1: up two thousand yards, fifteen ten touchdowns in five yards
Speaker 1: per carry as a rookie and then never hit any
Speaker 1: of those metrics again in any season after that. And
Speaker 1: then last year just in a really tough position. You know,
Speaker 1: Daniel Jones goes down. The quarterbacking was somewhere between awful
Speaker 1: and subpar for most of the year, really all of
Speaker 1: the year, and teams just played to stop Saquon Barkley largely.
Speaker 1: Now kind of interesting. Saquon's not old, but he's also
Speaker 1: not young anymore. He's twenty seven years old. He's been
Speaker 1: hurt a lot. You know, he had the full ACL injury,
Speaker 1: high ankle sprains, just a lot of nagging injuries for him.
Speaker 1: Last year. He was running back thirteen year before that,
Speaker 1: running back six year before that, thirty four year before that,
Speaker 1: running back one hundred and twenty because he missed almost
Speaker 1: the entire season. So, you know, it feels like Saquon
Speaker 1: Barkley could have some bell kow left in him. But
Speaker 1: I think the best fit for him, honestly, is in
Speaker 1: more of a split bat that backfield, more of a
Speaker 1: sixty forty where he can just stay healthy. You know
Speaker 1: what happens if Saquon Barkley doesn't have to carry the
Speaker 1: ball touch the ball two hundred and twenty five times.
Speaker 1: What if he can be one hundred and eighty more
Speaker 1: effective times where he can play seventeen games and stay fresher.
Speaker 1: I'd love to see him in more of a one
Speaker 1: to two punch. What if he goes you know, we
Speaker 1: were talking about Tennessee. What if he replaces What if
Speaker 1: he's a part of a one two punch with Tad J. Spears.
Speaker 1: What if he goes to New England replacing Ezekiel Elliott
Speaker 1: and pairing with Remandre Stevenson. You know, that could be
Speaker 1: an interesting fit for him as an as a high
Speaker 1: end pass catching back.
Speaker 3: What about the Minnesota Vikings. Does that doing anything for you?
Speaker 1: It does? I have a lot of interest in that.
Speaker 1: Vikings haven't had a great receiving back in Kevin O'Connell's tenure,
Speaker 1: and it would be fascinating to see what Saquon Barkley
Speaker 1: could do. If Kevin O'Connell decides he's finally going to
Speaker 1: start throwing the running back, something he has not done
Speaker 1: in the past, that would be interesting Saquon Bark right there.
Speaker 1: Let's go to our next running back and that is
Speaker 1: I'll Pollard. Oh, Tony Pollard. What a disappointing season, Brian, Yeah.
Speaker 3: You can argue he was the biggest you bust in
Speaker 3: fantasy football last year, early second round pick, so I'm
Speaker 3: taking him in the You know, some people were pegging
Speaker 3: him as he was gonna be the RB one because
Speaker 3: we saw for years working behind Zeke Elliott pretty much
Speaker 3: out producing Zeke Elliott as the secondary back, and we're like,
Speaker 3: just give Pollard the bell cow usage and he's gonna
Speaker 3: be a top five fantasy running back, right And he
Speaker 3: pretty much got that usage last year, but he did
Speaker 3: not produce. Let's let's take a quick look back at
Speaker 3: his last two years. So in twenty twenty two, Pollard
Speaker 3: was third in yards per carry five point two. That
Speaker 3: dropped to twenty ninth in twenty twenty three. Four yards
Speaker 3: per carry twenty twenty two, Tony Pollard was first in
Speaker 3: yards after contact per carry at three point eight last
Speaker 3: year year twenty third a two point nine. In twenty
Speaker 3: twenty two, Pollard was second and explosive run rate thirty fifth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, it just because all the highlights we had
Speaker 1: two seasons ago. And if I asked you right now
Speaker 1: to conjure up in your head a Tony Pollard highlight
Speaker 1: from last year, can you do it? No?
Speaker 3: Most of them are him getting stuffed at the one
Speaker 3: yard right. There was some bad luck there for sure.
Speaker 3: And actually, I mean he did come on stronger towards
Speaker 3: the end of the year. We'll give him that. Now.
Speaker 3: Pro Football Focus grades and ratings don't necessarily translate to
Speaker 3: fantasy points, but he was the highest graded runner by
Speaker 3: PFF from from weeks eleven to eighteen. Oh okay last year.
Speaker 3: And the usage was what was kind of head scratching,
Speaker 3: because in the Zeke days, you know, they use him
Speaker 3: in a world read him out more, but they just
Speaker 3: ran him up the middle mercilessly. Last year. They kind
Speaker 3: of just mixed up the usage where they should have
Speaker 3: given Rico Dowdell, who by all means was a would
Speaker 3: have been a better draft pick as if he took
Speaker 3: Dowdell in the last round over Pollard in the second round.
Speaker 3: But long story short, I hope he gets another chance
Speaker 3: on a different team. We kind of mentioned the the
Speaker 3: sexy landing spots in Baltimore, Tennessee, not really Tennessee with spears,
Speaker 3: but Houston. Sorry to say, Damian Pierce charge might not
Speaker 3: be the bell cow you wanted, but obviously, but I.
Speaker 1: Don't think he's a Pollard's not a bell cow. I
Speaker 1: don't want him to go anywhere where he has to
Speaker 1: be a bell cow, do you.
Speaker 3: No, not really, but I want him to go somewhere
Speaker 3: where he is in more of a split. It just utilized.
Speaker 3: His strengths are not between the tackles, that they're outside
Speaker 3: of them, and he was just running the A gap
Speaker 3: B gaps over and over again by Dallas, which is
Speaker 3: not where he found success in the year's past. So
Speaker 3: I'd like to see him get a fresh start somewhere else.
Speaker 3: He was tagged franchise tagged by the Cowboys in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three, so highly unlikely they use that on an again.
Speaker 1: No chance. I don't think he's back in Dallas either.
Speaker 1: I'll mention again another pairing. I'd like Ramandre Stevenson Tony
Speaker 1: Pollard and he'd follow Ezekiel Elliott's path to New England.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't that That'd be great. Josh Jacobs last year was
Speaker 1: the highest scoring running back in fantasy football. Cratered hard
Speaker 1: this year, posting half the yards and half the touchdowns
Speaker 1: despite only missing four games, and he ran for only
Speaker 1: three and a half yards per carry, and Josh Jacobs's replacement,
Speaker 1: Samir White, ran for almost a yard more per carry
Speaker 1: in obviously the same offense, which could suggest that the
Speaker 1: Raiders are not going to use him very much. You know,
Speaker 1: Jacobs is relatively young. He's just twenty six years old,
Speaker 1: but he's kind of an old twenty six. He's got
Speaker 1: one thousand, five hundred touches in his career, and you
Speaker 1: get the feeling the last last two seasons where the
Speaker 1: Raiders have strong harmed him, strong armed him contractually. We're
Speaker 1: just all about taking taking tread off his tires and
Speaker 1: then kicking him to the curb and free agency. I
Speaker 1: don't think he's going to be a Raider next year,
Speaker 1: do you, Brian?
Speaker 3: No, I don't think they got there. They've got their
Speaker 3: their money's worth out of them, and then some like
Speaker 3: you said, they're kind of used and abused them per se,
Speaker 3: which is a kind of you know, we've seen running
Speaker 3: backs get that treatment and then they fall off hard
Speaker 3: at their new teams, like the Marco Murray is one
Speaker 3: of the classic cases, and so yeah, we'll see where
Speaker 3: he ends up.
Speaker 1: This is you know what you'll have to decide, listeners,
Speaker 1: was Josh Jacob's bad year last year? Was it just
Speaker 1: a one off dip or was it the beginning of
Speaker 1: the end for a high volume back, Because you know
Speaker 1: we've seen, you know, we've seen both of those scenarios
Speaker 1: play themselves out. At twenty six, he still could have
Speaker 1: some good years left in him, but it could also
Speaker 1: just be the end of the road because we've seen
Speaker 1: it both ways. I suspect that in a better offense,
Speaker 1: Josh Jacobs could still be a good player, and I
Speaker 1: don't think he's a change of pace guy. I want
Speaker 1: to see him in an offense where Josh Jacobs can
Speaker 1: still be the workhorse, where he can catch forty or
Speaker 1: fifty passes like he's done before. So Cincinnati, assuming Mixon
Speaker 1: moves on, which I encourage them to do, that would
Speaker 1: be a fantastic landing spot for Josh Jacobs. Houston, as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, Singletary's an unrestricted free agent. The Chargers assuming
Speaker 1: Eckler moves on, makes sense. How about Washington They could
Speaker 1: use a gritty runner who can actually break a tackle.
Speaker 1: They haven't had that in years. Maybe not an ideal
Speaker 1: landing spot in terms of the quality of overall offense
Speaker 1: in Washington, but that would make sense. Minnesota would make sense.
Speaker 1: So there's some nice landing spots for Josh Jacobs out there,
Speaker 1: But if I could pick one, Cincinnati would be my
Speaker 1: top choice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's an ideal landing spot on a landing spot
Speaker 3: for another position. We'll get to get too soon, but
Speaker 3: we should have prefaced before we go to break. To
Speaker 3: preface the running backs, I feel that it's it's a
Speaker 3: great year for free the free agent class, and that
Speaker 3: it's probably the weakest incoming rookie class of running backs
Speaker 3: that I can remember. I mean experts like thor and Eystrom.
Speaker 3: I think he would say that I think the third
Speaker 3: round might be the earliest we see a running bowl
Speaker 3: ye get drafted this year. I might be putting words
Speaker 3: in his mouth, but definitely not the first round. That
Speaker 3: that's a given. There's not gonna be any running backs
Speaker 3: drafted in the first round. And yeah, it's really thin
Speaker 3: crop of rookie running backs, so it's a good spot
Speaker 3: for a lot of these free agent backs. So I'm
Speaker 3: very intrigued to see where these guys end up landing.
Speaker 1: Thoro will be on the show next week and we're
Speaker 1: gonna start breaking down rookies beginning next week. It's it's
Speaker 1: it's time already. Oh he's ready, no doubt, he's ready,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna start with quarterbacks. I think we'll find out,
Speaker 1: we'll really get to the bottom of where he sees
Speaker 1: this first round shaking out and he's he's single handedly
Speaker 1: trying to move the needle on JJ Carthy and it
Speaker 1: might end up working. We got two more running backs
Speaker 1: before we hit our break here, DeAndre Swift, coming off
Speaker 1: a season in which he was inexplicably healthy but not
Speaker 1: always as productive as we thought he was going to
Speaker 1: be at the beginning of the season for the Eagles
Speaker 1: and him his productivity drying up was one of the
Speaker 1: reasons that we had the big fade from Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Swift had that monster game against the Vikings in
Speaker 3: like week three on Monday night, and he just looked
Speaker 3: like a Grand Slam League winner because he was getting
Speaker 3: drafted in the seventh last summer. But after that he
Speaker 3: fell off big time. Swift gained just two plus yards
Speaker 3: on forty nine percent of his carries regained two plus
Speaker 3: yards on just forty nine percent of his carries. That
Speaker 3: was the worst clip among qu qualifying running backs two
Speaker 3: plus yards after contact. I'm sorry I flubbed that stat.
Speaker 3: So he was not efficient and he wasn't efficient near
Speaker 3: the goal line because of the Toush push. We all
Speaker 3: know that, and Jason Kelcey if he retires. Of course,
Speaker 3: everyone knows Jason Kelcey more so for the partying now,
Speaker 3: but he was the starting center for the Eagles and
Speaker 3: a big part of the Tousch push. If the Toush
Speaker 3: push stays intact or if it's band, who knows. But
Speaker 3: he wasn't trusted near the goal line, So odds are
Speaker 3: he's not back in Philly again. It's the same list
Speaker 3: of running backs or landing spots that are out there.
Speaker 3: You'd be intriguing in Cincinnati, But Swift was a disappointment
Speaker 3: as a pass catcher. Thirty nine catches last year. That
Speaker 3: was not a lot he was. We expected a bigger
Speaker 3: role from him there. But I still think he's an
Speaker 3: able pass catcher, but he's better served as a one
Speaker 3: to two punch. What about like a Derek's Derrick Henry
Speaker 3: DeAndre Swift both going to the same team. Wow, just
Speaker 3: letting those two go at it or Derreck Henry Tony Pollard.
Speaker 3: That's the kind of pairing we need, I feel. But
Speaker 3: that's where Swift will thrive in a situation like that.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, not just maybe just not a work
Speaker 1: course back. Just that's the you know, that's just the
Speaker 1: reality of it for DeAndre Swift.
Speaker 3: It's a dying breed. The bellcoal back. We started saying
Speaker 3: this last year and going into last year, it was
Speaker 3: like Derek Henry, Saquon Barkley were some of the last remaining.
Speaker 3: A year later we're talking about them. How there might
Speaker 3: be watched up.
Speaker 1: Yep, speaking washed up. Let's go to Austin Eckler. You'll
Speaker 1: have to decide for yourself where he stands. But this
Speaker 1: is gonna be a tricky one to figure out, coming
Speaker 1: off two seasons, the prior two seasons before twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: so this would be twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: twenty touchdowns and eighteen touchdowns, and then last year, of course,
Speaker 1: the productivity just fell off a cliff for him, just
Speaker 1: six touchdowns despite playing fourteen games for Austin Eckler and
Speaker 1: his six hundred rushing yards for Eckler ranked thirty sixth
Speaker 1: Brian in the league. His four hundred and thirty six
Speaker 1: receiving yards was only ninth. I mean, we're used to
Speaker 1: a guy who was top ten in both. He's like
Speaker 1: number one in res yards and you'd be like number
Speaker 1: seven in rushing yards, and he had the gaudy touchdown
Speaker 1: totals and it all dried up. He's he'll be twenty
Speaker 1: nine years old at the start of the season, and
Speaker 1: you know, the other side of it is he's kind
Speaker 1: of a young twenty five in that he didn't start
Speaker 1: getting real workload until he was twenty four years old,
Speaker 1: so he's really had like five years of real work
Speaker 1: And to me, just clearly for Eckler, he needs to
Speaker 1: find himself in a role where he can be James White,
Speaker 1: where he can be like the best receiving back in
Speaker 1: the league. And I it's not like I wouldn't give
Speaker 1: him any carries, but I want to see what he
Speaker 1: could do if he were if he remained like a
Speaker 1: seventy target running back and only had you know, like
Speaker 1: eighty carries on the season. That to me is the
Speaker 1: where Austin Eckler is right, now, what do you think?
Speaker 3: Yeah, there were times last year where he almost looked
Speaker 3: like a full back running the ball out of the backfield.
Speaker 3: He's bettered off as a pass catching specialist. Like you
Speaker 3: said at this point, it's it's it sucks when this
Speaker 3: happens because he was RB one. He was the top
Speaker 3: fantasy player in twenty twenty two. And that's what happens
Speaker 3: when when you chase last year's production. I mean, really,
Speaker 3: Austin Eckler. The cautionary tales are all in this list.
Speaker 3: Austin Eckler, Tony Pollard, chasing, chasing these those stats doesn't
Speaker 3: usually work out. So but I don't think he's totally
Speaker 3: washed yet. But yeah, he needs to be in the
Speaker 3: right spot where he's gonna get you sixty seventy catches
Speaker 3: to be fantasy relevant, because if he doesn't, he's probably
Speaker 3: not gonna be relevant at all in fantasy football next year.
Speaker 3: For this year, I should say.
Speaker 1: Let me give you some some really intriguing landing spots
Speaker 1: for Austin Eckler as a pure receiving back or primary
Speaker 1: receiving back Indianapolis with Jonathan Taylor. Okay, how about Jacksonville
Speaker 1: with Travis Etn as the lead back?
Speaker 3: I like it.
Speaker 1: How about replacing Jeric McKinnon in Kansas City.
Speaker 3: That's that was the one I was going to lead
Speaker 3: off with that, that's the most.
Speaker 1: And how about this one where he wouldn't have to
Speaker 1: sell his house. You could go to the rams and
Speaker 1: be the receiving option that Kien Williams really isn't. What
Speaker 1: do you think of that option?
Speaker 3: You know, I hate that option.
Speaker 1: I know you love ky but the reality is Williams
Speaker 1: is not any lead pass catching back. Austin Eckler's still
Speaker 1: could be.
Speaker 3: Well, the thing is, I liked Karen Williams more as
Speaker 3: a pass catcher last year because like they were gonna
Speaker 3: use him as a James White, who we just the
Speaker 3: afore meentioned James White. So I think you're a little
Speaker 3: off on the pass catching for Kyra Willams. Don't.
Speaker 1: They didn't use him that way, you know, for whatever
Speaker 1: that indicates, you know, I think Williams ended up. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna look it up now, Kyn Williams. I think I
Speaker 1: want to say it, like thirty five receptions.
Speaker 3: Take don't forget he missed four games.
Speaker 1: He had thirty two receptions for two hundred yards. And
Speaker 1: yes he did miss games. He played in twelve games,
Speaker 1: so still that's yeah.
Speaker 3: Well they were throwing the ball. They were throwing it
Speaker 3: to Pookin Nakua. That's why. That's that's my story and
Speaker 3: I'm sticking to it.
Speaker 1: Sounds good. Let's take a break when we come back.
Speaker 1: Wide receivers and tight ends that are headed to free
Speaker 1: agency when we come back Fantasy Football Weekly. All right,
Speaker 1: welcome back Fantasy Football Weekly. Paul Charchi and Brian Johnson
Speaker 1: with us. You can follow us on Twitter at Paul
Speaker 1: Charcian at bt XJ, and you might want to follow
Speaker 1: Guillotine Leagues as well at gl chop. We are behind
Speaker 1: the scenes already hard at work getting all kinds of
Speaker 1: improvements in place for Guillotine Leagues twenty twenty four. Very excited.
Speaker 1: Can't talk about him yet because they're not done yet,
Speaker 1: but we're we got a lot of things in motions.
Speaker 1: Can be very exciting year.
Speaker 3: Around the corner, the blade is being sharpened.
Speaker 1: We are sharpening the blade. I like it, off season
Speaker 1: blade sharpening. Let's jump into wide receivers, Brian, I'll start
Speaker 1: with Mike Evans. Okay, likely a Hall of Fame career
Speaker 1: ten straight when thousand yard seasons is ridiculous, Brian, Now,
Speaker 1: a thousand yards isn't what it used to be, you know,
Speaker 1: because the league is so pass heavy and there's so
Speaker 1: many advantages for the passing attack now, but the durability
Speaker 1: to just make it through ten seasons unbelievable. He's thirty
Speaker 1: years old now, Bucks could move on, but you know,
Speaker 1: he's coming off a fourteen hundred yard season, which is
Speaker 1: more yards than he had in the two years with
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, and he had it with Baker Mayfield. I
Speaker 1: don't know if there's going to be a big market
Speaker 1: for Mike Evans, a thirty year old guy. Do you
Speaker 1: want to sign a thirty year old to a three
Speaker 1: year deal?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 1: The Vikings walked on ad feeling at age thirty one
Speaker 1: last year, coming off a long, very productive career. What
Speaker 1: do you think, What do you think the likelihood is
Speaker 1: of What kind of market do you think they'll be
Speaker 1: for Mike Evans, including Tampa and others? Do you think
Speaker 1: he's gonna be a coveted free agent?
Speaker 3: I think from what I've read, and it makes sense,
Speaker 3: like you said, because he's thirty the production likely to
Speaker 3: dip could be starting this year, but I don't think
Speaker 3: he's going to fall off a clip by any means.
Speaker 3: But it's kind of teams that are in win now mode.
Speaker 3: And then the two teams that I've the most steam
Speaker 3: around are the Chiefs. They need three wide receivers in
Speaker 3: Kansas City, where she Rice is the only competent wide
Speaker 3: receiver they have in my mind, and the Lions supposedly
Speaker 3: will be in the market for a wide receiver. So
Speaker 3: outside of Tampa Bay, those are the two spots I
Speaker 3: think we could see Evans land, but I think it
Speaker 3: makes the most sense just to keep him in Tampa Bay.
Speaker 3: I know they obviously love him there between the Lions
Speaker 3: on the field, but he's also integral member of the
Speaker 3: community and has been for quite some time, so they
Speaker 3: love him there and I would be shocked if they
Speaker 3: don't retain he and Baker Mayfield. And we mentioned this
Speaker 3: earlier for Baker's sake. If he stays in Tampa Bay,
Speaker 3: you sure as hell hope that they keep Mike Evans
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the teams get sentimental about Hall of Fame level players, right,
Speaker 1: and I do think they'll try to sign him But
Speaker 1: here's what's weird, really weird, Brian. Last Monday, the team
Speaker 1: chose to absorb a seven million dollar dead cap space hit,
Speaker 1: which is something they could have avoided had they gotten
Speaker 1: a new deal done with him, but they didn't, And
Speaker 1: so you know, they just threw away seven million dollars
Speaker 1: a cap space not signing him, and the franchise tag
Speaker 1: is not plausible. It's twenty eight million dollars for him,
Speaker 1: so there's no chance they're gonna franchise him for him
Speaker 1: landing spots. You mentioned Kansas City. Let me give you
Speaker 1: another one. What do you think of Buffalo? You know,
Speaker 1: Gabe Davis is gonna walk. They're not gonna keep Gabe Davis.
Speaker 1: Instead of Gabe Davis, with all of the ups and
Speaker 1: downs that he gives you, you get a sure handed
Speaker 1: end zone threat in Mike Evans. And you know here
Speaker 1: they are Imagine the Bills are the three yard line, Brian.
Speaker 1: You think they're gonna push push Josh Allen. But here's
Speaker 1: Mike Evans. Great, you know, legendarily effective from close in
Speaker 1: the stripe. He's effectively a goal line back wide receiver. Buffalo,
Speaker 1: I think would be really interesting as defenses that have
Speaker 1: to try to figure out how to defend a Josh
Speaker 1: Allen Tush push or a pass to Mike Evans. What
Speaker 1: do you think of Buffalo as a landing spot?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that makes sense too, and they certainly fit the
Speaker 3: mold of the the win Now teams right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's not going to rebuilding team, right.
Speaker 3: No, no chance, hopefully not. I hopefully learned his lesson
Speaker 3: from from Adam Thiel. And I saw someone mentioned Carolina.
Speaker 3: I'm like, no, no more potential Hall of famers going
Speaker 3: to Carolina in the twilight of their career. That's that's
Speaker 3: kills shot. Yes, Ronnie hope of winning a title.
Speaker 1: Not that I think Adam had a nice career, but
Speaker 1: not a Hall of Fame career. Jets probably need another
Speaker 1: wide receiver opposite Garrett Wilson, and he's Garrett Wilson is
Speaker 1: not the same kind of big bodied guide like Mike
Speaker 1: Evans is and Aaron Rodgers will be back Baltimore would
Speaker 1: be interesting. They re signed Nelson Agilar this week, but
Speaker 1: they still need a legit number two wide receiver and
Speaker 1: evans physical play is something that none of the wide
Speaker 1: receivers in Baltimore have, so those to me are some
Speaker 1: of the ideal landing spots for Mike Evans. Let's go
Speaker 1: to Michael Pittman, who I think it could be a
Speaker 1: franchise tag candidate here. What do you have on Pittman?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's certainly a candidate to be tagged by the Colts,
Speaker 3: And honestly, if they don't, they're they're they're moronic if
Speaker 3: they let if they let Pittman walk. Who turns twenty
Speaker 3: seven in October. Michael Pittman so pretty much entering the
Speaker 3: prime of his career right right now. And in the event,
Speaker 3: you don't know what he looks like, six ' four,
Speaker 3: two hundred and thirty pounds, absolute monster, kind of another
Speaker 3: dying breed in the NFL, but you know, this was
Speaker 3: like the prototypical alpha receiver build. You don't see a
Speaker 3: lot of him anymore, but he still pulls it off.
Speaker 3: And he's been doing a good job, especially last year
Speaker 3: fourth in catches with one hundred and nine finished just
Speaker 3: over eleven hundred and fifty receiving yards, four touchdowns. Bump
Speaker 3: those numbers up a little bit along with one hundred
Speaker 3: and nine catches, and he's right in that top tier
Speaker 3: of wide receivers. Cdum Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase, all those guys,
Speaker 3: and you know, he's Indy. Is not the best fit
Speaker 3: for him fantasy wise in my mind. You know, we
Speaker 3: only got to see Anthony Richardson for a game and
Speaker 3: a half, but he's a running quarterback. They got a
Speaker 3: strong run game with Jonathan Taylor coming back. So I
Speaker 3: would like to see him end up somewhere else a
Speaker 3: little more exciting.
Speaker 1: But I think.
Speaker 3: Minimal chance that the Colts let him walk. They really
Speaker 3: should not.
Speaker 1: You know, related to that, let's let's just go maybe
Speaker 1: a few hundred miles away in Cincinnati, Higgins, do you uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know that it's a given that they can
Speaker 1: afford to keep Higgins. You know, there's talk that they'll
Speaker 1: franchise tag him too, but they have so much money
Speaker 1: tied up in in Burrow and they've got to go,
Speaker 1: and you know, Jamar Chase, that's you know, you wonder
Speaker 1: if Higgins is going to be the odd man out
Speaker 1: or if Higgins is going to have have an opportunity
Speaker 1: to stay in Cincinnati.
Speaker 3: Yeah, initially, you know a few months ago, a couple
Speaker 3: of months ago, it seemed like Higgins was all but
Speaker 3: guaranteed to be an unrestricted free agent, especially with Jamar.
Speaker 3: Chase had a comment somewhere along the lines like, we'll
Speaker 3: see if they have enough money to pay him after
Speaker 3: they pay me. Basically right, But now now it's leaning
Speaker 3: towards they tag Higgins if not, though he certainly right
Speaker 3: up there with Pittman and Evans in terms of highlight
Speaker 3: names on the market. But I think he's more of
Speaker 3: a coin flip than Pittman in my mind at this point,
Speaker 3: I think Pittman leaning towards more getting tagged by the Colts.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you agree there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think Pittman is more likely to get tagged
Speaker 1: because the Colts just have more space to work with
Speaker 1: the Bengals. Right now, looking it up, yeah, I was
Speaker 1: I was wrong. Bengals halfs caps cap have do have
Speaker 1: cap space. Bengals and Colts are right next to each
Speaker 1: other with both effectively fifty nine million dollars in cap space.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think I think there is a much
Speaker 1: better chance than I originally thought of T Higgins staying
Speaker 1: with his team. Let's go to Calvin Ridley. I picked
Speaker 1: this up from somebody on Twitter, and I'm sorry I
Speaker 1: didn't jot down who it was. If the Jaguars sign
Speaker 1: Calvin Ridley Bryan, they the third rounder they owe the
Speaker 1: Falcons for that trade becomes a second rounder because of
Speaker 1: because he gets resigned as one of the conditions of
Speaker 1: the trade. But if they let him walk, they only
Speaker 1: have to give the third rounder to the Falcons and
Speaker 1: they likely get third round come pensatory pick compensation, so
Speaker 1: they it would probably be a push. They'd lose a
Speaker 1: third and they'd get a third and so to some
Speaker 1: you know, to some degree, it cost them a second
Speaker 1: rounder to re sign Ridley. They could put that second
Speaker 1: rounder into a twenty two year old wide receiver. So
Speaker 1: I think there's some sneaky there's some sneaky reasons here
Speaker 1: why Calvin Ridley will not be back with the Jaguars.
Speaker 1: He's a low mileage twenty nine year old because he
Speaker 1: was older as a rookie, and then he got suspended
Speaker 1: for a season, so he really hasn't played nearly as much.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's within a year of Mike Evans by age,
Speaker 1: but he's got half as many seasons played as Mike
Speaker 1: Evans does. Aside from Gabe Davis, Ridley last year was
Speaker 1: the league's biggest boom or bust receiver. Get this, he
Speaker 1: had six top ten Fantasy games last year. His other
Speaker 1: eleven games, Brian he averaged as wide receiver fifty five
Speaker 1: in those weeks, averaging three catches for thirty two yards.
Speaker 1: Awful for Calvin Ridley as a boomer bust player. There
Speaker 1: are media reports that say Jacksonville try to resign him,
Speaker 1: but I don't know here. I mean, ideally, you know,
Speaker 1: we don't if we don't care if they give up
Speaker 1: the second round or not. I mean, I'd love to
Speaker 1: see him stay Jacksonville where he remains the best outside
Speaker 1: receiver for sure, and maybe the best overall receiver on
Speaker 1: Jacksonville with a good young quarterback. But you know, maybe
Speaker 1: because he's older, he doesn't want to go to a
Speaker 1: rebuilding team, which would put him on potentially Kansas City
Speaker 1: or Buffalo or Baltimore, some of the teams we were
Speaker 1: talking about with Mike Evans.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I remember Ridley had really weird splits with Zay
Speaker 3: Jones last year because dy Jones was in and now
Speaker 3: the lineup with injury, and you'd think, oh, when Zay
Speaker 3: Jones was injured, Ridley must have had the big games.
Speaker 3: But No, it's when say Jones was playing, is when
Speaker 3: Bridley would really go off eared.
Speaker 1: He's not.
Speaker 3: He's not. He's not a guy like I would like
Speaker 3: to see him on another team, Like Michael Pittman, I'd
Speaker 3: like to see him on another team. I think Ridley
Speaker 3: can find success in Jacksonville, but like you mentioned, when
Speaker 3: it comes to the picks, I think, based on the
Speaker 3: inconsistencies we saw last year, that retaining Ridley is not
Speaker 3: worth losing out on the pick compensation side. So I
Speaker 3: think we will see him, see him hit the market
Speaker 3: and uh again, all the a lot of interesting landing
Speaker 3: spots or I think he could succeed and like at
Speaker 3: a win now mode, and you know those mainly being
Speaker 3: Kansas City, Buffalo, Yeah, somewhere along those lines, Baltimore, hopefully
Speaker 3: not New England. We just don't want anyone to end
Speaker 3: up in New England.
Speaker 1: Well, let's spend you know, we're talking mostly about veterans here,
Speaker 1: well really entirely about veterans and New England's it's a
Speaker 1: hard reboot in New England. So it just doesn't feel
Speaker 1: like that's a landing spot for very many of these guys.
Speaker 1: Some of the running backs we did like in New England,
Speaker 1: but not the receivers. Two years ago, Mark Heath Brown
Speaker 1: demanded to be let out, demanded to be traded away
Speaker 1: from Baltimore because he wanted to go to an offense
Speaker 1: that could show off his skills for exactly this moment,
Speaker 1: so we could get through his fifth year rookie deal
Speaker 1: and he could go hit free agency and be really
Speaker 1: widely paid. But he ends up in Arizona. Kyler Murray's
Speaker 1: not even his quarterback for a lot of it. He
Speaker 1: gets hurt a bunch, and now he enters free agency
Speaker 1: this year as kind of an afterthought in it with
Speaker 1: a lot of good receivers in free agency. What do
Speaker 1: you think of Markquise Brown and what level of interest
Speaker 1: he's going to have.
Speaker 3: Yeah, his stocks certainly not as high as it was
Speaker 3: a couple of years ago. You know that essentially gambling
Speaker 3: on himself. It paid off initially if he recalled to
Speaker 3: start last year, he was healthy. Kyler Murray was healthy.
Speaker 1: Brother yourself weeks uh pre ac, yeah, Todd Kyler, I
Speaker 1: mean two years.
Speaker 3: Ago, yeah, twenty twenty two. Yeah, yeah, Brown was the
Speaker 3: top ten wide receiver. Then he got hurt. He like
Speaker 3: broke his ankle, and uh, then Murray got hurt later
Speaker 3: that year. That's when Murray tore his ACL so and
Speaker 3: then going into last year, Murray didn't start the season
Speaker 3: so that he didn't get a lot of time with
Speaker 3: Kyler Murray. Essentially he did thrive when when they were
Speaker 3: playing together, primarily in twenty twenty two. So long story short,
Speaker 3: kind of a disaster these last two years.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: In Arizona. Brown turns twenty seven in June. So he's
Speaker 3: he's not old by any means, but he's not your
Speaker 3: your your alpha wide receiver, your wide receiver, one guy.
Speaker 3: I'd like to see him if he stays in Arizona, fine,
Speaker 3: but I think he would fare better where he's you know,
Speaker 3: a Robin to someone's batman, where he's alongside a Garrett
Speaker 3: Wilson on the Jets or alongside Stefan Diggs and Buffet.
Speaker 3: So I will be intrigued to where he lands. He's
Speaker 3: not a player wrong, and to love him Wherever he lands.
Speaker 3: Landing spot will be pivotal on where I'm looking to
Speaker 3: draft or if I'm even willing to draft Markue's Hollywood
Speaker 3: Brown next year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's got to be just the right spot.
Speaker 1: But I do believe there's some real, sneaky upside of
Speaker 1: Marquis Brown if he can hit the if he can
Speaker 1: hit it just right, with a strong armed quarterback who
Speaker 1: can utilize his downfield speed in an offense that is
Speaker 1: pass first, and Marquis Brown stays healthy. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you can get all that to come together, this would
Speaker 1: be pretty interesting for Marquis Brown. But I need all
Speaker 1: that to happen. But if it did, I could see
Speaker 1: where he could be just an every week wide receiver
Speaker 1: two for your fantasy team. But any of those things
Speaker 1: falter and you're back into week to week head scratch
Speaker 1: mode on Marquis Brown.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, one team I want to throw out there.
Speaker 3: They'll be intriguing for Brown and most of the wide
Speaker 3: receivers we mentioned. We didn't mention this is a landing
Speaker 3: spot as too. I mean they got Drake London, yeah,
Speaker 3: and well of course they have Kyle Pitts at wide
Speaker 3: receiver as well, but I won't go there. But Atlanta
Speaker 3: intriguing spot for a lot of these wide receivers that
Speaker 3: we failed.
Speaker 1: To mention it is they need to figure out their
Speaker 1: quarterback position first. But you know, put Kirk cousins there,
Speaker 1: and that's exactly the scenario I'm talking about. Strong armed quarterback,
Speaker 1: reliable who can get the we know, can send lasers
Speaker 1: downfield to his receivers. That would be a great spot
Speaker 1: for Marquis Brown. All right, let's go to the tight
Speaker 1: end position. We've got a couple of a couple of
Speaker 1: tight ends semi notable. I'll do Dalton Schultz. Last offseason,
Speaker 1: Schultz was another guy who bet on himself. Free agency
Speaker 1: came along, he didn't find the long term contract a
Speaker 1: lot of us thought he might, and instead took a
Speaker 1: one year deal with Houston, and productivity was basically unchanged
Speaker 1: from what he had in Dallas, and it's really not
Speaker 1: that compelling, almost identical numbers in targets, receptions, yards, and
Speaker 1: touchdowns to the previous year. And at the end of
Speaker 1: the year, troublingly for Dalton elt he started losing snaps
Speaker 1: to Brevan Jordan, which I think might have been an
Speaker 1: indicator that Houston is not going to resign Dalton Schultz.
Speaker 1: I'd be surprised if they do. But there are some
Speaker 1: decent landing spots there where Dalton Schultz could earn starters minutes.
Speaker 1: Brian Denver needs a tight end. The Jets need a
Speaker 1: tight end. Chargers need a tight end, especially with Gerald
Speaker 1: Everett heading to free agency. Seattle no offense who we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about in a minute is it may
Speaker 1: not be there. And I think Miami's really interesting. You know,
Speaker 1: Miami desperately needs some tight end help. But you've got Hill,
Speaker 1: you got Waddle, You've got several good receiving backs, and
Speaker 1: Schultz I think would be like a fourth and fifth
Speaker 1: option most weeks, and from a fantasy standpoint, would be
Speaker 1: very hard to sort of figure out what to expect
Speaker 1: for Schltz in Miami, but they certainly have tight end
Speaker 1: need there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Miami, and you're the top of my list for
Speaker 3: tight end needy teams. You feel to mention my favorite
Speaker 3: who I believe currently don't have any tight ends on
Speaker 3: roster and not the Cincinnati Bengals. If we could just
Speaker 3: get an elite pass catching option in Cincinnati for once,
Speaker 3: let's see what happens.
Speaker 1: I thought Tanner Hudson had showed some real moments and
Speaker 1: I wonder if they if Now. I don't think Tanner
Speaker 1: Hudson it's not a free agent, is he. I don't
Speaker 1: think he.
Speaker 3: Maybe not a rook I thought I read somewhere that
Speaker 3: I didn't really dig too deep, but that they basically
Speaker 3: have no one on roster.
Speaker 1: I could you know what you could be right? You know,
Speaker 1: I just pulled up.
Speaker 3: I'm saying they won't resign Hudson or anything like that.
Speaker 1: By the way, what a bust erv Smith was for
Speaker 1: both my Minnesota and then Cincinnati gave him a legit
Speaker 1: you know, gave him a legit contract. Yeah, Tanner Hudson
Speaker 1: very quiet, twenty nine years old start, he's been with
Speaker 1: UH seven teams. Now, yeah, you're right, Cincinnati is absolutely
Speaker 1: in play here. That's a great call, Brian.
Speaker 3: And back to the Schultz really quick. It didn't bode
Speaker 3: well for him that as soon as he leaves Dallas,
Speaker 3: Jake Ferguson steps in and just looks like the prime
Speaker 3: Dulphen Schultz, if not better adult Schultz. So he's a
Speaker 3: sort of a system tight end, let's put it that way.
Speaker 3: I'm honestly, if I'm any team looking for a tight end,
Speaker 3: especially the Bengals. To say Bengals, I'm more excited about
Speaker 3: Noah Fense. To be honest, I know he's he's been
Speaker 3: somewhat of a disappointment, but no, not somewhat.
Speaker 1: I think a total disappointment. He's he's the rare Iowa
Speaker 1: tight end that has underproduced at the at the NFL level.
Speaker 3: He has, but he's still wasn't an elite prospect. He's
Speaker 3: twenty six. That's kind of around the average breakout range
Speaker 3: for a tight end. Very rarely do tight ends breakout
Speaker 3: incredibly early, like Sam Laporta, per se TJ. Hockinson, who
Speaker 3: is his teammate. But you know Fans was drafted by
Speaker 3: the Broncos and either way, oh yeah, first round talent.
Speaker 3: His RAZ score Relative Athletic Scorer, which you know it's
Speaker 3: very telling of an athlete's athletic profile, especially a football player,
Speaker 3: was extremely high coming out of the draft. So he
Speaker 3: was a blue chip prospect. Drafted by Denver in the
Speaker 3: first round. He was included in the Russell Wilson trade Seattle,
Speaker 3: so you know, Seattle absolutely fleeced Denver in that deal.
Speaker 3: We don't have to get into it, so I wouldn't
Speaker 3: call him a throw and he was a great piece
Speaker 3: to add in. But Seattle just always had this platoon
Speaker 3: of tight ends and they're there. Never were a pass
Speaker 3: heavy offense. So long story short, I'm very intrigued by
Speaker 3: Noah Fan right now. If you're doing early best ball drafts,
Speaker 3: he's essentially free. But if he lands in a spot
Speaker 3: like Cincinnati or Miami or the Chargers where he can
Speaker 3: get you know, true starter reps running seventy to eighty
Speaker 3: percent of the routes. I'm not ready to give up
Speaker 3: on a guy that was a freakish ash athlete, and
Speaker 3: not like he was just an athlete. He was an
Speaker 3: all around good tight end at Iowa that produces stellar
Speaker 3: tight end. So I'm in on Fan. I'm tracking where
Speaker 3: he goes. Rather have Fan over Shultz.
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not just because I feel like we've
Speaker 1: had so many looks at Noah Fan. Right We're talking
Speaker 1: to a lot of guy who in his five year
Speaker 1: career has played eighty one games and just never showed.
Speaker 1: I just think by now, you know if a guy's
Speaker 1: got it or not. And I just think, I think,
Speaker 1: no offense, just a guy, but you never know. I mean,
Speaker 1: right landing spot is half the is half the battle,
Speaker 1: and if he does find himself in the right spot,
Speaker 1: maybe he could have You could certainly be worth the ADP.
Speaker 1: Right now I gotta imagine. You know, you mentioned Noah
Speaker 1: draft going on. You know, no a fan going undrafted,
Speaker 1: so you know, for what you'd have to pay to
Speaker 1: get him, maybe there's a dice roll to be had there.
Speaker 3: Now. I know we're running long on this podcast, but
Speaker 3: I'm having fun, and you know I love talking about
Speaker 3: tight ends. Let me just stay in this lane really quick,
Speaker 3: because I was thinking about adding the Vikings to this list,
Speaker 3: you know, to the list of landing spots or some
Speaker 3: of these tight ends, because they're not gonna have TJ.
Speaker 3: Howkinson until the midway point at best. Right there's a
Speaker 3: chance Hockinson doesn't even play next year, and the starting
Speaker 3: tight end for Minnesota is a It's an interesting spot,
Speaker 3: to say the least when it comes to fantasy football.
Speaker 3: So for those doing their early drafts right now, what
Speaker 3: I'm getting had to ask you, true insider, Josh Oliver,
Speaker 3: could he be the guy?
Speaker 1: No, Josh Oliver is not. He's just not a receiving
Speaker 1: back but a receiving tight end. But they gave him
Speaker 1: a giant contract. So the Vikings have as much money
Speaker 1: tied up in tight ends as any team in the league.
Speaker 1: I want to say so I don't if Noahfan is
Speaker 1: dirt cheap. Yeah, he could start the season as the
Speaker 1: Vikings as the Vikings starting tight end, but it would
Speaker 1: have to be that there's just no market for no
Speaker 1: Event for the Vikings to put yet more money into
Speaker 1: that spot. Otherwise, I don't. I can't believe that that
Speaker 1: would that would end up being something that the Vikings
Speaker 1: would end up would end up looking at. I'm pulling
Speaker 1: up that the the Vikings have the have the second
Speaker 1: highest paid tight end in TJ. Hockinson and the eyeballing
Speaker 1: this about the fifteenth highest paid tight end in Josh Oliver.
Speaker 1: So I just I can't. I can't see him pouring
Speaker 1: more money into that position right now.
Speaker 3: Maybe a more reasonable option for the Vikings that would
Speaker 3: be interesting to be a Gerald Everett. We're not going
Speaker 3: to get too deep into, but he could be a
Speaker 3: cheaper guy to come in and certainly make an impact
Speaker 3: Week one in that offense.
Speaker 1: So, by the way, Donald k for himself over the
Speaker 1: years he has made No Fan has made career earnings
Speaker 1: of dude, dude, dude, Looking right now, you want to
Speaker 1: guess career earnings for no Offen at age twenty seven, Well.
Speaker 3: First round pick, so he's on his Wow, so he's
Speaker 3: on his second condent. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'ld say.
Speaker 3: Twenty eight million.
Speaker 1: You're not far off. He's already made nineteen. His total
Speaker 1: guarantees though, IS puts him up at twenty five, so
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know. Career earning says nineteen
Speaker 1: total guarantees twenty five million.
Speaker 3: Jeez.
Speaker 1: Not bad for a guy who's been a middling producer
Speaker 1: so far.
Speaker 3: Not a dead cat yet, No, I don't think, so
Speaker 3: give me one more chance. Yeah, I want to. I
Speaker 3: want him to get a nice soft landing spot, and
Speaker 3: I'm I'm very intrigued by fantom.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, everybody. When we talk next, we will.
Speaker 1: I believe we'll be talking rookies next week with Thorn Eiserman.
Speaker 1: That'll be super fun. Brian, great job. Thanks for all
Speaker 1: your help today. Thanks getting all the way to the
Speaker 1: end of our longest offseason pod by a mile, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk to you next week. Everybody, Bye bye. Fantasy
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