Speaker 1: Wow, Wow, everybody, It's Tuesday, February twenty fifth, twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. We're hoping not
Speaker 1: to be cap casualties to me and your man MG
Speaker 1: Marcus Grand joined by Michael Florio and Lakwan Jones. Uh, Lakwan,
Speaker 1: you have successfully made another trip to and from New Orleans.
Speaker 1: What was the best thing you ate in your trips there?
Speaker 2: Best thing I ate? I think I've said it before.
Speaker 2: It was at the Vessel Nola, But I did have
Speaker 2: a Beigne at the hotel at the Marriotte in the
Speaker 2: morning and I saw other people eating them. I didn't
Speaker 2: know you can have it for breakfast and it was
Speaker 2: really good. It was one of the best ones I had.
Speaker 1: That's the only time I've ever had them. Do people
Speaker 1: eat them at other times of day.
Speaker 2: I've had some for dinner, I have some for lunch.
Speaker 2: Like I was just eating Beigne's, like I was just
Speaker 2: rating them in my hotel at the marriot've had the
Speaker 2: best one.
Speaker 1: I guess it's because every Beigne experience I've had has
Speaker 1: been slightly hungover at Cafe b One with the dark
Speaker 1: extra strong coffee and a whole bunch of powdered sugar
Speaker 1: on my shirt. It's always gone down for me.
Speaker 2: I do appreciate the one spot that was on Bourbon
Speaker 2: I mean a dollar fifty beers, man, I mean that
Speaker 2: that was an amazing spot there and had some bignets
Speaker 2: on the side.
Speaker 1: So shout out to them. I forget their name, but
Speaker 1: shout out to them. That is both great and terrible
Speaker 1: all at the same time. Yeah, and I'll say this,
Speaker 1: man like, I mean, here's a thing, whether it's a bignet,
Speaker 1: whether it's funnel kick, whether it's a truro fried dough
Speaker 1: with sugar on it is never bad. So simple to
Speaker 1: make too, so simple fried dough and puts some sugar
Speaker 1: on it, and you gotta winner. We got a lot
Speaker 1: to talk about. What we're going to talk to matt Ocata.
Speaker 1: He wrote an article on NFL dot com about some
Speaker 1: cut candidates have some interesting names in there, so we
Speaker 1: will get his thoughts on that. We'll also dive into
Speaker 1: the combine, which starts a little bit later on this week.
Speaker 1: Just some overall overarching thoughts on what we expect to see,
Speaker 1: who we might be interested in watching that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: But we do have some news you want to jump into.
Speaker 1: This didn't make the rundown, But Floria, I'm want to
Speaker 1: ask you this because the Bills have signed Khalil Shakiro
Speaker 1: to an extension year.
Speaker 3: Let's go.
Speaker 1: The applause tells me what I need to know. But
Speaker 1: your thoughts generally on Khalil Shakier sticking around in Western
Speaker 1: New York.
Speaker 4: As someone who loved I was into Shakira even before,
Speaker 4: like the year he got drafted. I remember being like,
Speaker 4: I think this guy is just kind of going under
Speaker 4: the radar right now, a really good slot guy. But
Speaker 4: then watching his progressions year to year and having him
Speaker 4: on a bunch of fantasy teams last year, it was
Speaker 4: really awesome to see him become the go to guy
Speaker 4: for Josh Allen. I think he is one of the
Speaker 4: better slot receivers arguably has the best hands in the NFL,
Speaker 4: and everything that I'm seeing is like the expectation was
Speaker 4: that he was going to cost even more so if
Speaker 4: the Bills got him on a team friendly deal. James
Speaker 4: Cook posted that like a picture of them two would
Speaker 4: just the hourglass, which tells me that, like that's probably
Speaker 4: coming soon, and this is what I wanted. I wanted
Speaker 4: the Bills to sign a bunch of their players resign
Speaker 4: Josh Allen, give him an extension, because you could save
Speaker 4: a bunch of cap now this year and really load
Speaker 4: up and make a run because you were so close
Speaker 4: last year, and you did it in a retooling year.
Speaker 4: Just get some more pieces, and they're so close. Eventually,
Speaker 4: one of these years they're going to kick the door down,
Speaker 4: and they just got to keep taking their shots.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But anyway, they're trying to keep the band back together,
Speaker 1: which is certainly a good thing.
Speaker 2: That's super good man. Shout out Kalusha Heir. He was
Speaker 2: one of my favorite three slat wide receivers. It was
Speaker 2: Cooper Cup, Christian Kirk and then Kalusha Heir throughout the year.
Speaker 2: So happy he got paid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And apparently what we learned a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: ago on the show that I was apparently low man
Speaker 1: on Klusha here. I was like, oh yeah, I thought
Speaker 1: he'd be okay, and the youuys were both like, no, man,
Speaker 1: I thought you would crush. I was like, okay, Well,
Speaker 1: I guess I'm the idiot. So I'm so there peak
Speaker 1: behind the curtain here, I'll yeah, right before we're about
Speaker 1: to start the show. I'm sitting here my little works,
Speaker 1: I just chilling, haven't quite logged in the stream yard yet.
Speaker 1: I'm just doing my daily duo lingle, Spanish lessons and
Speaker 1: everything nice. And I get a text in the text
Speaker 1: chain from Michael Floria and it says, blow up the rundown.
Speaker 1: Gronk's coming back, And my response was coming back to
Speaker 1: do what? So I you know, I quickly went to
Speaker 1: the Google machine and checked, and there are reports that
Speaker 1: Rob Gronkowski is apparently eyeing an NFL return with the
Speaker 1: Denver Broncos. In the mix, we're all shaking our heads,
Speaker 1: I sold Aquium. I'll ask you that is this a
Speaker 1: real thing? Is this a serious thing? Or is this
Speaker 1: just idle chatter in February.
Speaker 2: Listen, I feel like the things that Gronk wants to
Speaker 2: do he's going to do. He's been very serious and
Speaker 2: adamant of doing wrestling, and then he appeared on a
Speaker 2: Monday night raw thing and I'm just like, Okay, that's
Speaker 2: a thing. And I remember him saying that he didn't
Speaker 2: want to play for a team without Tom Brady being
Speaker 2: his quarterback. But this just seems weird, like it's so random,
Speaker 2: So maybe he's dead series about coming back. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know. This just feels like a thing where
Speaker 1: it's like it's somebody overheard a conversation that may have happened,
Speaker 1: and then it's sort of kind of taken on a
Speaker 1: life of its own. I mean, part of the logic
Speaker 1: was that, at least for Denver, was that Gronk and
Speaker 1: Sean Payton worked together at Fox and they got along well,
Speaker 1: and Gronk said he'd like to play for him. And
Speaker 1: I'm just like, is he really saying I'd like to
Speaker 1: play for Sean Pater or is it like I would
Speaker 1: have loved to play for Sean Payton? Like we got
Speaker 1: along so great it it would have been fun. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm not buying it. But Florida, let's
Speaker 1: just say for the sake of argument, that this is
Speaker 1: a thing that actually happens. One. Rob Gronkowski has not
Speaker 1: played professional football since twenty twenty one. Yeah, even then,
Speaker 1: they sort of had to Brady sort of had to
Speaker 1: coax him out of retirement the first time to come
Speaker 1: down to Tampa Bay. And as Lakwan mentioned, Gronk has
Speaker 1: never played without tom Brady. Can he succeed without tom Brady?
Speaker 1: And is Denver the place for him to do that?
Speaker 4: Could he have succeeded with tom Brady in his prime?
Speaker 4: He could have succeeded anywhere, because he is arguably the
Speaker 4: most physical, dominating tight end that at least that I've
Speaker 4: ever seen. Like you could argue Travis Kelsey's the goat,
Speaker 4: but like physically, like, okay, good luck stopping this dude.
Speaker 4: When Gronk was at his peak, I don't think anyone
Speaker 4: was higher in that regard than he was. But he's
Speaker 4: not that player anymore. Like you said, he hasn't played
Speaker 4: since twenty twenty one, He's going to be thirty six
Speaker 4: years old.
Speaker 1: He has so.
Speaker 4: Many injuries and wear and tear on those tires. Denver
Speaker 4: could be the place where he has success coming back
Speaker 4: in this sense of like, hey, he played the full year,
Speaker 4: we had some design packages for him, something along those lines,
Speaker 4: I don't think he could be anything more than like
Speaker 4: a contributor who who plays here and there? To me,
Speaker 4: this feels like, uh, like Gronk wants to keep his
Speaker 4: name in the news cycle right now, he generate some hype.
Speaker 4: Maybe that USAA money is starting to run out.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but like, no, I don't know.
Speaker 4: If Gronk comes back, it's it's more of a spectacle
Speaker 4: I would feel like than something to get excited football wise.
Speaker 2: Maybe they overheard him say tight end coach, maybe some
Speaker 2: type of like mentorship of the tight ends. Like I
Speaker 2: can't physically see I don't know if I want him
Speaker 2: coaching what it's just a title. At that point, you
Speaker 2: just be in a building kicking with Sean Payon, just
Speaker 2: talking about his times and playing with Tom Braid to
Speaker 2: the tight ends and like, hey, you should do this
Speaker 2: because we haven't really seen a successful tight end in
Speaker 2: Denver in a while. I mean, Albert oh was a
Speaker 2: guy I can't pronounce his last name, and the other guy.
Speaker 1: Uh Akoya Bunham. No, Like trust me, I spent all
Speaker 1: off season learning to say the name Akoya Bunham because
Speaker 1: I thought it was going to happen and it it didn't.
Speaker 2: See, they need help at that position, so maybe he
Speaker 2: can come in drop some seeds, I listen.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I just don't physically see him playing football anymore.
Speaker 4: Like is he is he better than Greg Doulchic At
Speaker 4: this point, I would say.
Speaker 2: No, he's still on the team. I mean, geez, I mean,
Speaker 2: what's the Fisherman guy that I'm a trout guy, Like, guy,
Speaker 2: don't troutman Troutman.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you go. I'm trying to be like, I don't
Speaker 1: have the have the Broncos had a quality tight end
Speaker 1: since Shannon Sharp.
Speaker 4: I mean Julius Thomas.
Speaker 1: Julius Thomas. All right, that's fair, but that was like
Speaker 1: one year. Yeah, I don't know. I just I'm not
Speaker 1: I'm not buying into this. And even if for whatever
Speaker 1: reason it happens, I'm not drafting Gronk if somebody else
Speaker 1: wants to do that, you know, just feels like it
Speaker 1: feels a little bit well, no, it's not the same.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, like Josh Gordon, but there's not
Speaker 1: this Like I think people were kind of like, I
Speaker 1: don't think anybody's buying into this. Like every time Josh
Speaker 1: Gordon's name came up, like people got excited. I'm like,
Speaker 1: we don't have to do this to ourselves.
Speaker 4: If Josh Gordon or Martevius Brian suned a contract this somewhere,
Speaker 4: I would Brian, don't do the series those two every year.
Speaker 1: You deserve better than this, Michael Florida, you deserve better.
Speaker 4: I went all in on my Tavi's Bryant one year,
Speaker 4: and he didn't even make it past camp because like
Speaker 4: he got in trouble off the fielder, and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 4: that's when I'm done.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know, I don't know. This feels like
Speaker 1: a weird February story that's not really gonna have legs. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: a February story that very much seems to have legs
Speaker 1: is in Los Angeles, where the Rams have granted Matthew
Speaker 1: Stafford permission to talk to other teams. Uh. This is
Speaker 1: after allowing Cooper Cup to seek a trade as well.
Speaker 1: So while the Bills are keeping the band back together,
Speaker 1: the Rams might be off doing little solo projects off
Speaker 1: on other sides. When you saw this on the rundown, Lakwan,
Speaker 1: you said you were triggering. Second, I will ask Florio
Speaker 1: this question, and instead, besides Los Angeles and playing for
Speaker 1: Sean McVay, do you see another place that be a
Speaker 1: great fit for Matthew Stafford. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I think the Vikings would be a really good fit
Speaker 4: for him because it's a koc similar offense is what
Speaker 4: Sean McVay runs. You get Justin Jefferson there, who I
Speaker 4: think would win the triple crown. With Matthew Stafford, you
Speaker 4: have TJ. Howkinson and Jordan Addison, and we just saw
Speaker 4: that offense elevate Sam Darnold to be what he was
Speaker 4: this past year, so I can only imagine what it
Speaker 4: would elevate Matthew Stafford to be at this point of
Speaker 4: his career. But as a Met fan, this really reminds
Speaker 4: me of Pete Alonso this offseason in the sense of
Speaker 4: like the Mets were like, you go out and you
Speaker 4: figure out what your market is and what the rest
Speaker 4: of the league values you at, and then come back
Speaker 4: to us and we'll discuss, and the whole process felt
Speaker 4: like these two are going to find a way to
Speaker 4: work it out. They just the Rams want to or
Speaker 4: the Mets in that instance, want to get it for
Speaker 4: the best price possible. The player wants to make as
Speaker 4: much money as possible, so you you give time for
Speaker 4: them to explore the market and see what they could
Speaker 4: get out there, and then the team ultimately has to
Speaker 4: decide if they want to pay that or not. But
Speaker 4: I don't think Matthew Stafford's going to get like sixty
Speaker 4: million dollars and I think he's worth more than he's
Speaker 4: getting now. So this just feels like a finding a
Speaker 4: happy medium that both sides are pleased with. And just
Speaker 4: like with Pete, until Stafford is playing somewhere else, I'm
Speaker 4: going to continue to think that he ends up back
Speaker 4: in La.
Speaker 1: Let's go basically just a hey, look, I know, like
Speaker 1: the relationships at a weird spot. Why don't you go
Speaker 1: out and see some other people and you know, we'll
Speaker 1: see see your value, see what it's like out there. Right,
Speaker 1: you don't want to be out there. Out here is
Speaker 1: different than the last time you were out here. Just
Speaker 1: and go through that whole. You know, these are children
Speaker 1: of Rihanna, born in the fires of chaos.
Speaker 2: Because he wants like upward of fifty, Like don't I
Speaker 2: don't see that happening, Like how could that possibly happen?
Speaker 2: Then if you want fifty elsewhere or sixty and you're
Speaker 2: thirty seven years.
Speaker 1: Old, yeah, I mean, look, it's one it's good to
Speaker 1: want things, But two, I think he looks at it
Speaker 1: as look for what I bring to this organization and
Speaker 1: where this team is at and what their goals are
Speaker 1: right now in the short term, I think He says,
Speaker 1: I'm worth fifty million dollars for what you were trying to.
Speaker 3: Accomplish, which I agree.
Speaker 1: Because as we talked about, what are you gonna do
Speaker 1: let Jimmy g play quarterback? No, rightly, that's that's the thing,
Speaker 1: because you're not in position to draft one of the
Speaker 1: top guys this year. You're not gonna let Jimmy Garoppolo,
Speaker 1: you know, handle the rains. But you are in a
Speaker 1: window where you were still very competitive, right I mean
Speaker 1: we saw that last year in the playoffs. This team
Speaker 1: is very competitive. They're not far away from an NFC
Speaker 1: championship game. They're not far away from you know, they're look,
Speaker 1: say what you want about Bill Plaski of the La Times,
Speaker 1: you know, can be a little bit over the top.
Speaker 1: He wrote a column the other day about Matthew Stafford,
Speaker 1: and he started by saying the Rams were thirteen yards
Speaker 1: away from winning a Super Bowl. His argument being, you know,
Speaker 1: if they get the win over the Eagles, they beat
Speaker 1: the they beat the Commanders, and he thinks they beat
Speaker 1: the Chiefs. Like, okay, that's let's pull it back a
Speaker 1: little bit. But I see where you're going with this.
Speaker 1: I did that one, all right, well, hopefully you and
Speaker 1: Plashkia can figure out some sort of profit sharing for that.
Speaker 1: So we'll see, We'll see what happens with this. We'll
Speaker 1: see whether or not, you know, Stafford finds a trade
Speaker 1: that is suitable, whether or not the Rams figure out
Speaker 1: how much they want to pay him, with the two
Speaker 1: sides come to an agreement. But I think Florio your
Speaker 1: approach is best. We consider him a Ram until further notice,
Speaker 1: skip this dynamic. Do you guys care about the dynamic?
Speaker 1: Kickoff and these tweaks coming great?
Speaker 3: What more can they do?
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know. I mean I put it
Speaker 1: in here because I know, Lakwan, you spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time last offseason sort of studying this and trying
Speaker 1: to figure out and it ended up, you know, not
Speaker 1: that it was your fault. It ended up not making
Speaker 1: a difference in fantasy because we just didn't see a
Speaker 1: lot of kickoff for terms.
Speaker 2: Like I literally think teams stopped Karen after like week
Speaker 2: two or like it was the preseason, like it was
Speaker 2: like all exciting, and then after week two we're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: we don't care about this, We're not trying to get cute.
Speaker 2: Just kick the ball let's let's get on the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five and let's go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm trying to think like that, did we have
Speaker 1: We had one, two, three, four, five, six seven kickoff
Speaker 1: return touchdowns all season long, so not enough, you know, Yeah? Right,
Speaker 1: So anyway, they're they're tweaking it. Okay, anyway, let's move
Speaker 1: on the Packers. Apparently I've had enough of the tush push.
Speaker 1: They've had enough. It started as Judy Batista originally reporting
Speaker 1: that an unnamed team proposed banning the tush push. And
Speaker 1: because the Internet works quickly and you cannot hide from
Speaker 1: the Internet, we found out in short order that that
Speaker 1: unnamed team was the Green Bay Packers. We can go
Speaker 1: round and round on the merits of the tush push
Speaker 1: and if it should be banned, and blah blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah, and chances are this is just again idle chatter.
Speaker 1: This just a proposal in February that's probably not going
Speaker 1: to go anywhere. But lakwan, let's let's game this thing
Speaker 1: out right. Let's say the Packers get the entire state
Speaker 1: of Wisconsin to rises one behind them, and they start
Speaker 1: a popular movement across the lower forty eight states. That
Speaker 1: suggest the Toush push is evil and is destroying the
Speaker 1: National Football League. How much this has hurt Jalen hurts
Speaker 1: this fantasy value. If it goes away, I think it hurts.
Speaker 2: It will be very noticeable impact if they take away
Speaker 2: the Toush push. But I see why people want to
Speaker 2: take away to Toush push. Like, I don't think it's
Speaker 2: a Jalen Hurts thing, because we've obviously seen you know,
Speaker 2: Josh Allendo with the snowplow. We've seen the Ravens do it,
Speaker 2: you know, when Mark Andrews and you know, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 2: Like it's just that it's too good and they can't
Speaker 2: stop it. So I see why they complaining. But there's
Speaker 2: also the dark side of it. If where in the
Speaker 2: Super Bowl we saw Chris Jones get hurt, you know,
Speaker 2: he put his body sideways towards it and he ended
Speaker 2: up hurting his neck, tweaking his neck. But there's both
Speaker 2: sides of it that, you know, you could see why
Speaker 2: they're mad at it. But then it's like, all right,
Speaker 2: if players are starting to get hurt from it and
Speaker 2: then take it away, it's no no.
Speaker 4: My attitude then is like, okay, well then there there's
Speaker 4: only one Jalen hurts, right, and it's unstopped because like
Speaker 4: other teams do it and have success with it, but
Speaker 4: not to this level.
Speaker 1: So like ask the Bills. Ask the Bills who got stuffed?
Speaker 1: Done it a couple of times?
Speaker 4: That'd be like if the NBA was like, well, there's
Speaker 4: only one Wemby, so seven footers can't shoot threes, and
Speaker 4: there's only one Otani, so no one who hits could
Speaker 4: also pitch, like like stop, I don't know. My thing
Speaker 4: is like stop trying whenever there's something can't. I can't
Speaker 4: stop this, so let's make it illegal. Like it's it's
Speaker 4: soft and I hate it. I I can't tell you
Speaker 4: how annoying I find this. Like it's just being it's
Speaker 4: being babies. That's what you're being right now, Green Bay.
Speaker 4: You don't even have a quarterback who could run it.
Speaker 4: You didn't lose to the Eagles. You're just being babies.
Speaker 1: It does feel very much like it feels like this
Speaker 1: tush push is a moment in time right like the Eagles.
Speaker 1: The Eagles have unlocked a magic code for now, and
Speaker 1: it's an unstoppable play for now. But Jalen Hurts is
Speaker 1: not always going to be the quarterback. He's not always
Speaker 1: going to be the guy that he currently is, and
Speaker 1: at some point we're gonna go back to regular quarterback
Speaker 1: sneaks that are a little bit more stoppable. It's just
Speaker 1: that for the time being, the Eagles have found something
Speaker 1: that is damn near unstoppable. And so it does feel
Speaker 1: like a little bit of an overreaction to say, we
Speaker 1: can't you know, we can't have this play in anymore
Speaker 1: because we had how many years of the NFL before
Speaker 1: the Swish push, we hopefully will have how many years
Speaker 1: of the NFL after the Toush push.
Speaker 4: How Brady was unstoppable on QB sneaks? Like never once
Speaker 4: was anyone like should we outlaw that?
Speaker 1: Nobody banned that, though. I think after a while fans
Speaker 1: just wanted to ban Tom Brady because we were just
Speaker 1: t Yeah, look, that's a different story altogether for sure. Uh. Look,
Speaker 1: I don't think this is gonna happen. I think this
Speaker 1: is a proposal that I put out there. The Internet
Speaker 1: got a hold of it, so and everybody gets the
Speaker 1: point and laugh at the packers for a couple of months.
Speaker 1: Right in the end, we'll still have the tush push
Speaker 1: next season, but for whatever reason, it did go away.
Speaker 1: I do think Jalen Hurts takes a really really big hit.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, he's had double digit.
Speaker 4: He probably slides out of the elite.
Speaker 1: Double digit rushing touchdowns in four straight years. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm sure someone out there has done the research in
Speaker 1: the charity to let us know how many of these
Speaker 1: touchdowns have come on the tush push. I would say
Speaker 1: the vast majority of them probably, so yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I think I think he takes a huge hit if
Speaker 1: this were to happen. I don't think it's going to happen,
Speaker 1: So I don't think you have to worry about it.
Speaker 2: Don'tkno, get till you try it. I don't think the
Speaker 2: Packers tried it yet. I mean I wouldn't mind Jordan
Speaker 2: Love getting some tush push.
Speaker 1: The love shove, the love shove.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I think we just think of push names
Speaker 1: for every every single team. Yeah yeah, you know the Niners,
Speaker 1: can you know, get dirty Purty or something like that.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Like, I don't know.
Speaker 4: So I pulled up Hurts his rushing touchdowns real quick.
Speaker 4: He has how many is a fifty five I think
Speaker 4: thirty two of them are from one yard, and that's absurd,
Speaker 4: that's right.
Speaker 1: So that's that's more than half. And presumably those thirty
Speaker 1: two I would guess.
Speaker 4: All but fifteen our three yards are closer.
Speaker 1: Right, and so like I of those from two or
Speaker 1: two yards or ere one yard and in I would
Speaker 1: guess probably about ninety five percent of the probably pushes.
Speaker 1: That's just I mean, that's just me guessing, without without
Speaker 1: every having to research anything. I don't know. So all right,
Speaker 1: take a quick break, way to come back. We'll be
Speaker 1: joined by Matt o'catta. We'll talk about some cut candidates.
Speaker 1: Could the Chiefs say goodbye to Travis kelcey without him retiring.
Speaker 1: We'll find that out and much more. Stick around for
Speaker 1: more the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. So free agency is
Speaker 1: right around the corner. We will actually start talking about
Speaker 1: free agency in earnest in maybe aout a week or so,
Speaker 1: maybe litle bit less. I don't know. I don't have
Speaker 1: my content calendar in front of me, don't for ask me. Anyway,
Speaker 1: we are going to start talking about positions and salary
Speaker 1: caps and all the moves that we think should happen
Speaker 1: for our own selfish fantasy football purposes. But in the meantime,
Speaker 1: we are at a point where teams are starting to
Speaker 1: look at making cuts. Maybe they're not happening yet, but
Speaker 1: there are some candidates who are starting to emerge as
Speaker 1: potential sort of cap casualties way to open up some salary.
Speaker 1: And along those lines, there was an article at NFL
Speaker 1: dot com that you can find written by our pal
Speaker 1: Matt o'cotta about some potential cap casualties we could see
Speaker 1: coming up this spring and probably more likely for some
Speaker 1: guys after June first. I know that is a prominent
Speaker 1: time to let guys go for salary cap reason, so
Speaker 1: we figured, hey, why not bring our pal Matt on
Speaker 1: to come and talk about it a little bit. Matt Ocada,
Speaker 1: appreciate you stopping by, man, been a while. How you doing.
Speaker 3: I'm doing great, Happy to be here. Always am good
Speaker 3: to see you all. I hope you're all doing well.
Speaker 1: Likewise, Yeah, we're good. You know, Lakwan's we.
Speaker 3: Did everybody survive a Chiefs Eagle Super Bowl?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: You know, it went as well as it could have
Speaker 4: for me as someone who thought my team would be
Speaker 4: in that game, and went as well as it could have.
Speaker 1: And you know, for me, whose team has been victimized
Speaker 1: by the Chiefs twice over the last couple of years.
Speaker 4: Do you have a.
Speaker 3: Team the Patriot?
Speaker 4: You must, that's right, yes, you know what so because
Speaker 4: you are a Patriot fan. But for some reason, you
Speaker 4: love Kyler so much that my brain associates you with
Speaker 4: the car.
Speaker 3: I thought he was also Hill more than Kyler Murray.
Speaker 3: That's a good point.
Speaker 1: You know. It's funny because every time Taysom Hill had
Speaker 1: have a big game, I mean, matt o'cott is the
Speaker 1: first name that pops into my hand. I'm like, he
Speaker 1: is somewhere enjoying this right.
Speaker 4: That six week or it was like three week stretch
Speaker 4: or whatever it was in the middle of the season.
Speaker 4: I'm certain no one was enjoying that more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, for sure. Anyway, you did right about a
Speaker 1: bunch of cut candidates. You actually included some defensive guys,
Speaker 1: which I thought were interesting. But this is a fantasy
Speaker 1: football podcast, so we want to focus obviously on the
Speaker 1: offensive guys.
Speaker 4: You mentioned two.
Speaker 1: Players, and you look to your credit in your defense,
Speaker 1: you said that both of these guys are long shots,
Speaker 1: that being Travis Kelcey and Mark Andrews. Obviously, with Kelsey,
Speaker 1: the thing hanging over this whole thing is whether or
Speaker 1: not he just retires all together and decides to be
Speaker 1: a full time podcaster, commercial pitch man and kept a
Speaker 1: man to a billionaire pop star. But of those two
Speaker 1: understanding they're both long shots. Is there one that seems
Speaker 1: possibly more likely than the other for.
Speaker 3: You, Yeah, I mean, to your credit, thank you for
Speaker 3: giving me my credit on stating very clearly these are
Speaker 3: both long shots. The fans in the Twitter sphere do
Speaker 3: not seem to understand that. They just think I'm predicting
Speaker 3: it and they freak out. But what's worth and there
Speaker 3: was some verbiage from Breadveach today about Travis Kelsey in
Speaker 3: the fact they expect him to come back and all
Speaker 3: this stuff, so that lends into the camp of he'll
Speaker 3: be back, which is what the expectation is. But remember,
Speaker 3: and I remember very clearly, because everybody did this in
Speaker 3: the Twitter sphere last year. Aaron Jones last year, I
Speaker 3: put in this exact column and the front office was
Speaker 3: talking about wanting to bring him back, and everybody freaked
Speaker 3: out that I put him in there, and then he
Speaker 3: was later cut and it sounds crazy because these people
Speaker 3: are like face of the franchise is great players. I
Speaker 3: don't think either Travis Kelcey or Mark Andrews gets cut.
Speaker 3: But if Travis Kelcey does not retire, I think he
Speaker 3: would be the more likely guy to get cut. The
Speaker 3: one thing he saves much more against the cap. He
Speaker 3: saved seventeen point three million dollars against the cap for
Speaker 3: the Chiefs, who aren't in the best of places cap wise,
Speaker 3: are not in horrible spot necessarily, But then the other
Speaker 3: thing is and I feel like sometimes we overlook this
Speaker 3: because his name is Travis Kelcey and he's going to
Speaker 3: be a Hall of Famer first ballot. He has not
Speaker 3: been that good for two straight years now. Up until
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three, he had seven straight years of one
Speaker 3: thousand yards. We all remember that he had eight touchdowns
Speaker 3: and five of those six years leading up to twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three, and then these last two years less than
Speaker 3: a thousand years in both seasons eight total touchdowns combined
Speaker 3: between those two seasons fewer than twelve yards per reception
Speaker 3: each of the last two years when he had twelve
Speaker 3: yards per reception nine straight years, So he was the
Speaker 3: best tight end or one of two maybe when Gronk
Speaker 3: was around for like seven to nine years in the
Speaker 3: entire NFL. He's not that anymore, which means he may
Speaker 3: not be worth this price tag anymore.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: Will the Chiefs cut him just because of that? Maybe not,
Speaker 3: because he's such an integral part of their franchise. He's
Speaker 3: still a better than average tight end all of that stuff.
Speaker 3: But if one of these two guys is going to
Speaker 3: get cut, I think it would be Kelsey. Andrews didn't
Speaker 3: have a great year either, but he at least did
Speaker 3: really ratchet up at touchdowns towards the end of the year.
Speaker 3: And he's also six years younger, saves less against the cap,
Speaker 3: and isn't maybe distracted by dating the most popular woman
Speaker 3: on the planet and also sing up podcast with his brother.
Speaker 3: I don't know if that's really part of the problem,
Speaker 3: But Kelsey's on the climb.
Speaker 4: To your point on that, Like, like you say, two
Speaker 4: years but two years ago in twenty twenty four playoffs,
Speaker 4: he still kind of looked like Travis Kelcey and it
Speaker 4: was like, all right, yeah, he's doing this thing where
Speaker 4: he's he's saving his body for the playoffs. So but
Speaker 4: he wasn't even able to dial it up in the
Speaker 4: playoffs really this year, outside of that one game against
Speaker 4: the Texans. So the only thing with these two, and
Speaker 4: it's so funny to me that of the two, the
Speaker 4: fan base that wants the one cut is the Ravens fans.
Speaker 4: I see all the time on Twitter saying to cut
Speaker 4: Mark Andrews. But like Mark Andrews clearly still has more
Speaker 4: football left in him. If the Chiefs cut Kelsey, I
Speaker 4: can't see him wearing any other uniform.
Speaker 1: No. I think if Travis Kelsey's not back in Kansas City,
Speaker 1: he's retired. Like I just don't. I don't see it.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned, Matt, you mentioned the Chiefs do have
Speaker 1: a history of cutting Hall of Fame tight ends and
Speaker 1: maybe still have a little bit left in the tank.
Speaker 1: I mean, they moved on from Tony Gonzalez at one point,
Speaker 1: and he went on to Atlanta and had success there
Speaker 1: for a number of years. I'm gonna ask you this, Florio,
Speaker 1: because you gary a grudge against the Chiefs like no
Speaker 1: one else. They do have just under eight million dollars
Speaker 1: in salary cap space at the moment. They can obviously
Speaker 1: do some things to clear some room out, but after
Speaker 1: the loss in the Super Bowl, the fact that they
Speaker 1: just sort of squeaked by so many games they weren't great.
Speaker 1: Do you think they could blow everything up? And I
Speaker 1: would say rebuild, but maybe it's just kind of retool
Speaker 1: a little bit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think they could retool for sure. I think
Speaker 4: the Chiefs sort of the Bills, the Cowboys are certainly
Speaker 4: in this window. We see this when quarterback because quarterbacks
Speaker 4: last so much longer than every other position that like Okatta,
Speaker 4: being a Patriot fan, could speak on this, like there's
Speaker 4: two iterations of Tom Brady's career right, Like they're like
Speaker 4: the quarterbacks play so much longer that the roster around
Speaker 4: them naturally everything changes, and the Chiefs are I think slow,
Speaker 4: like trying to slow walk that process like Chris Jones,
Speaker 4: I don't think is going anywhere. But that's the other
Speaker 4: thing with the Chiefs is they've paid outside of like
Speaker 4: Tyreek and Snead, who they let who they traded or
Speaker 4: let walk, They've kept a lot of their big name players.
Speaker 4: So when you are paying all of these high end talent,
Speaker 4: the rest of your roster has to suffer. There's only
Speaker 4: so much money to go around. So the Chiefs are
Speaker 4: entering this weird stage where they have a lot of
Speaker 4: high end talent. They still have arguably the best coaching
Speaker 4: duo in the NFL, but the team around Mahomes is
Speaker 4: getting weaker and weaker. So I think if you're the Chiefs,
Speaker 4: so you look at it like we were in the
Speaker 4: super Bowl this year, We've been in the AFC Championship
Speaker 4: Game seven times in a row. We're going to continue
Speaker 4: to try to ride this out, but you need to
Speaker 4: try to get younger, and you need to try to
Speaker 4: find cheaper pieces to add around because you can't just
Speaker 4: keep paying everyone. Eventually the bill comes due.
Speaker 1: I will say Kansas City was very smart in locking
Speaker 1: up Mahomes to a long term deal when they did,
Speaker 1: which at the time it was a huge deal. But
Speaker 1: as we're seeing more and more quarterbacks sign it's looking
Speaker 1: more and more like a bargain for Kansas City. So
Speaker 1: that does give them, I guess, a little bit of flexibility,
Speaker 1: but I think to your point, Mike, they do have
Speaker 1: to kind of, you know, figure out how to retool.
Speaker 1: The Patriots did that great for twenty years. Just you know,
Speaker 1: there are so many different versions of Patriots super Bowl
Speaker 1: teams that one didn't quite look like the other LaQuan.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you though about on the Ravens side,
Speaker 1: if for whatever reason, they decide that they want to
Speaker 1: part ways with Mark Andrews, and that does seem sort
Speaker 1: of hard to imagine right now. Is Isaiah likely enough
Speaker 1: at least for the tied end position? Is he enough
Speaker 1: to sort of keep this train rolling there?
Speaker 2: Man, it's one of those things that you hope they
Speaker 2: don't cut Mark Andrews because he didn't really end the
Speaker 2: season very well.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's been going.
Speaker 2: I mean like, I mean, boy, if they cut him, boy,
Speaker 2: he's gonna be having probably the worst years and well
Speaker 2: probably not the worst year in Baltimore.
Speaker 1: There's another player there.
Speaker 2: But uh, anyway, I would just say more so looking
Speaker 2: at it, like Isaiah likely is one of those stuff,
Speaker 2: you know, tight ends that we've seen flash multiple times,
Speaker 2: and we kind of want him to get the keys
Speaker 2: to take the full on mantle, and I honestly believe that,
Speaker 2: you know, Isaiah likely can step up to the plate.
Speaker 2: But you just love Mark Andrews comfortability with Lamar Jackson,
Speaker 2: and Lamar Jackson comfortability with Mark Andrews. That's a connection
Speaker 2: that you know, I can't see breaking up anytime soon,
Speaker 2: just based on all the stuff that they've given us.
Speaker 2: And I definitely think, you know, Isaiah likely is still
Speaker 2: a young player. You know, he could still learn so
Speaker 2: much from Mark Andrews. So cutting Mark Andrews now, it's
Speaker 2: one of those things with you know, with Travis Kelcey,
Speaker 2: it's one of those front facing guys, like it'll feel
Speaker 2: weird without him in the locker room, I think more so,
Speaker 2: and I fool weird for fantasy seeing him play anywhere else.
Speaker 2: But as a rams frain, we could use him any
Speaker 2: of these guys.
Speaker 1: I mean, we could put a spot for him.
Speaker 2: But it's definitely one of those things, you know, these
Speaker 2: young guys that they had behind him, like even Thoah Gray,
Speaker 2: we didn't mention him. I'm really, you know, surprised they
Speaker 2: didn't really get him going as much this season as well,
Speaker 2: you know in the back end with Travis Kelcey declining,
Speaker 2: like we've seen flashes and moments from him as well.
Speaker 2: So these young guys, they have the right mentors in
Speaker 2: front of them. So it's one of those things like
Speaker 2: it's too soon to let either one of these guys go.
Speaker 1: It's funny because you mentioned Noa Gray too, because like
Speaker 1: Noah Gray and Isaiah Likely were sort of in the
Speaker 1: same boat, I think, fantasy wise, where they would do
Speaker 1: just enough to irritate the rest of us who drafted
Speaker 1: the guy ahead of them, right, like Noah Great would
Speaker 1: catch a touchdown and everybody who had Travis Kelce would
Speaker 1: throw their hands up in disgust. And look, I'm old
Speaker 1: enough to remember Week one when Isaiah Likely went berserk
Speaker 1: and we were all wondering did we make on mistakes
Speaker 1: drafting Mark Andrews. That was about the last I think
Speaker 1: we heard of Isaiah Likely. For the most part, I just.
Speaker 4: Want to see Likely get a chance. Man. I truly
Speaker 4: believe he's the best number two tight end in football
Speaker 4: outside of maybe like Michael Mayor.
Speaker 1: But like, yeah, I don't, I don't. I don't disagree
Speaker 1: with that at all. Matt, you wrote about the Jets
Speaker 1: Adams Allen Lazard both candidates to potentially be cut. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the team has said they are moving on from Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers at this point, so I mean it, that really
Speaker 1: makes it. Like, Look, if I'm at a party and
Speaker 1: the only person I know is the host, and the
Speaker 1: host like dips out for a while. I'm not really
Speaker 1: hanging around anymore, you know, so, right if you are
Speaker 1: the Jets, Matt, either neither or both. When it comes
Speaker 1: to moving on from Adams and Lazard.
Speaker 3: It's gotta be both. In my opinion that this is
Speaker 3: not just you only knew the host, it's also the
Speaker 3: host of the only person that likes you there and
Speaker 3: the only person you like there. And there's really no
Speaker 3: reason for either of you to be there except for
Speaker 3: Aaron Rodgers. That is the vast majority to entirety of
Speaker 3: the reason that both these guys ended up in New York,
Speaker 3: and with him gone, I don't see a good reason
Speaker 3: for them to keep either. Obviously, Adams is still very,
Speaker 3: very good and productive. He had a solid year. He
Speaker 3: carries if cut a thirty million dollar cap savings for
Speaker 3: the Jets, that is absurd. You do not save that
Speaker 3: much money cutting players in the NFL very often. And
Speaker 3: this team needs to make big moves. They need to
Speaker 3: make significant moves to shore up a bunch of stuff
Speaker 3: that went very wrong this past year. Obviously, the fact
Speaker 3: that Rogers banged up didn't play well. All that stuff
Speaker 3: got got a little better towards the end made what
Speaker 3: was a big part of the issue. But DeVante Adams
Speaker 3: carrying that much of the money is not going to work.
Speaker 3: And it's not gonna work, particularly when you don't have
Speaker 3: Aaron Rodgers as your quarterback, because that's so much of
Speaker 3: the connection there. Also, you have Garrett Wilson, and I
Speaker 3: think that bringing in Adams kind of created some friction
Speaker 3: and some awkwardness and some issues with Wilson, which kind
Speaker 3: of brought him down a little bit. So you have
Speaker 3: a true wide receiver one, or at least a very
Speaker 3: good one A. You can bring in someone who's more
Speaker 3: of a two or you know, a lower end one
Speaker 3: B to work alongside Wilson, who costs a third of
Speaker 3: this maybe less, and use that money elsewhere much more effectively.
Speaker 3: And then Alan Lazard is just not good, sorry Czar.
Speaker 3: He's an oak. He's a spottily useful wide receiver three,
Speaker 3: specifically for Aaron Rodgers and nothing else. So he brings
Speaker 3: six point six millions in savings. He has a thirteen
Speaker 3: million dollar cap hit. That is not worth a kind
Speaker 3: of okay, sometimes wide receiver three for a quarterback that's gone.
Speaker 3: Now they need to find somebody else to play. Alongside Wilson.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, like, the other good news is
Speaker 1: that Alan Lazard last year had maybe the second best
Speaker 1: season he's ever had in the NFL. The bad news
Speaker 1: is that's thirty seven catches in five hundred and thirty yards.
Speaker 1: Like that's what that is.
Speaker 3: And most of it happened in like the first six weeks.
Speaker 3: He was kind of good for that stretch and then
Speaker 3: he disappeared.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I do remember that.
Speaker 4: If Aaron Rodgers is let's say he retires, right and
Speaker 4: he's not a starting quarterback next year, just for hypothetical,
Speaker 4: does Alan Lazard have a future in the NFL? Like,
Speaker 4: I don't see any other team really being like we
Speaker 4: need this guy, Patriots, the Patriots receivers, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I'd rather have Javon Baker.
Speaker 3: We have seventy four wide receiver threes.
Speaker 1: We don't need another, right like they got they've got
Speaker 1: multiple Alan Lazard's on the roster already. Why would you
Speaker 1: bring in another one? Like that's very much the Hey,
Speaker 1: I want Alan Lazard, and they're like, we have Alan
Speaker 1: Lazard at home. It's fine. It's like we don't have
Speaker 1: to worry about that at all. Christian Kirk another name
Speaker 1: that is on that list. Obviously, Brian Thomas Junior had
Speaker 1: a very good rookie season. But Matt, I mean, look,
Speaker 1: you mentioned this. We all sort of laughed. We all
Speaker 1: pointed and laughed at the Jaguars. When they sign Christian
Speaker 1: Kirk to that big deal and that first year he
Speaker 1: was really good, it's like, oh, you've sort of earned
Speaker 1: your money. Since then, he's been injured a whole lot.
Speaker 1: So if they decide to move on from him, is
Speaker 1: there still enough help for BTJ on the roster? Would
Speaker 1: they have to go get somebody.
Speaker 3: There's not enough? So this is a two sided coin here.
Speaker 3: I think Kirk needs to be cut. I think they
Speaker 3: probably will cut Kirk because of the money and the
Speaker 3: health and production the last couple of years. After that
Speaker 3: one really good year, he's I think he's a good
Speaker 3: wide receiver two, one of the better wide receiver two
Speaker 3: is probably in the NFL, particularly when healthy. Obviously when
Speaker 3: you're not, that brings that down quite a bit. But
Speaker 3: at this price point, I don't think it's right. But
Speaker 3: if he's gone, there's not enough else there. Besides Brian Thomas,
Speaker 3: you got Gabe Davis who will have probably two good games.
Speaker 3: Maybe I don't think he even had two good games
Speaker 3: last year, and then after that you got a bunch
Speaker 3: of like wide receiver four nobody's I think that this
Speaker 3: would be a good team to go out and work
Speaker 3: hard to get one of the higher end, possession type
Speaker 3: wide receiver veterans that are kind of the top end
Speaker 3: of free agency this year. Because Brian Thomas Junior is
Speaker 3: such an unbelievable explosive downfield threat, I think it would
Speaker 3: be really nice to pair him with, honestly, someone kind
Speaker 3: of like Christian Kirk, but with maybe a little bit
Speaker 3: more upside, maybe a little bit more reliability, and maybe
Speaker 3: at a lower price points. Maybe that's someone likes Stefon Diggs.
Speaker 3: Even maybe it's Amari Cooper, depending on what kind of
Speaker 3: money that draws, or and this is kind of my favorite,
Speaker 3: maybe it's Keenan Allen. You can probably get Keenan Allen cheaper.
Speaker 3: I still think he's got a lot left in the
Speaker 3: tank in terms of just being a good possession receiver.
Speaker 3: I think he'd be a great compliment to Brian Thomas
Speaker 3: Junior and helped Trevor Lawrence out a lot.
Speaker 1: I love what they're doing down at least, I think
Speaker 1: I love what they're doing down there. I don't know
Speaker 1: they have a new GM who everybody is, you know,
Speaker 1: sort of pointing out the fact that he looks like he,
Speaker 1: you know, just graduated from college and should be an
Speaker 1: intern somewhere. So we'll see what they what they decide
Speaker 1: to do with that.
Speaker 2: As he used it, matting that at ratings.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's using Madden ratings. I think, at
Speaker 1: least at least at least not publicly. At least not publicly. Right, Look,
Speaker 1: when your head coach goes to his opening press conference
Speaker 1: and says duoh like the weirdest, creepiest way possible, like
Speaker 1: any weirdness that you have bubbling under the surface, you
Speaker 1: should probably keep that quiet, at least for the time being.
Speaker 4: A little bit o condor, you asked if Gabe Davis
Speaker 4: had a good game, he played ten this year. How
Speaker 4: many yards do you guys think Gabe Davis had this
Speaker 4: year total total ten games.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say two. I'm gonna say two fifteen.
Speaker 3: I was gonna say two thirty two, three thirty two.
Speaker 4: Thirty nine, two thirty nine and touchdowns they came in
Speaker 4: the same game.
Speaker 1: Oh, I feel like, you know, on on Fantasy Live
Speaker 1: we do the Cardio King of the Week. I feel
Speaker 1: like he won that a few times. Just he's mostly
Speaker 1: just getting his.
Speaker 3: Steps and Nobel Prize of the Cardio King.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think at this point like we
Speaker 1: might just have to rename it the Gabe Davis Award.
Speaker 4: Remember this time last year when people were like, well,
Speaker 4: Josh Allen doesn't have Gabe Davis anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm number two summers ago when he was a lightning
Speaker 1: rod for Fantasy Twitter conversation like if you if you
Speaker 1: were just bored one day and you wanted to start
Speaker 1: a fight, just say Gave Davis is good and then
Speaker 1: just walk away and then just watch your mentions go
Speaker 1: berserk for you know, twenty four hours or so. So yeah, well,
Speaker 1: last thing I want to ask you you this wasn't
Speaker 1: in your piece, but I know you. You obviously spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time for folks who don't know you,
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time scouting and looking at wide receivers,
Speaker 1: evaluating wide receivers. Travis Hunter, one of the premier names
Speaker 1: in this draft, and there's so much conversation about what
Speaker 1: his NFL future can be, was a stud in college
Speaker 1: at both Jackson State and Colorado playing both ways for you?
Speaker 1: I mean obviously, Yeah, Travis Hunter is not sitting here
Speaker 1: taking advice from any of the four of us. But
Speaker 1: if you were to give him advice, can he play
Speaker 1: both ways in the NFL? Or should he stick to
Speaker 1: one side or the other?
Speaker 3: Ooh okay, So that way of warding it makes it
Speaker 3: especially tough because if Travis Hunter is coming to my
Speaker 3: front door and asking, I'm probably telling him, bro, do
Speaker 3: whatever you possibly can. Have the best cardio in the
Speaker 3: NFL and play every snap on both sides and be
Speaker 3: an unbelievable generational show. Hey, O, Tani level player with
Speaker 3: if the gms for the thirty two franchises in the
Speaker 3: NFL ask me the same question. I think the answer
Speaker 3: might be different, and some of it does still kind
Speaker 3: of apply in terms of what Travis maybe should do
Speaker 3: for himself. And it's simply this. The risk of injury
Speaker 3: is very high in the NFL. I think it gets
Speaker 3: higher exponentially the more snaps you play, because your cardio
Speaker 3: goes down, the hits, pile up all that stuff. When
Speaker 3: you're doubling the snaps you're playing, you're more or less,
Speaker 3: at least doubling the risk of injury, and that's obviously
Speaker 3: very tough for an elite, high level, high drafted player
Speaker 3: on either side of the ball. It's tough for anybody,
Speaker 3: of course, to be injured, but to add that risk
Speaker 3: to the equation makes it especially complicated. So I don't
Speaker 3: think it's probably best for an NFL team that he
Speaker 3: plays every snap on both sides of the ball. Long term,
Speaker 3: I think it's probably not best for him that he does.
Speaker 3: Although if he did it on his rookie contract, good gracious,
Speaker 3: would his second contract be nice? So maybe that's the strike,
Speaker 3: is do it on his rookie contract and then specialize later.
Speaker 3: I really like what Daniel Jeremiah said in his Top
Speaker 3: fifty article. This is kind of the way I think
Speaker 3: about it, and I think he said it very well,
Speaker 3: which is basically that he can have an impact on
Speaker 3: both sides of the ball and probably will, but it
Speaker 3: will require likely that he majors in defense and minors
Speaker 3: in offense. And that's the way I think he should
Speaker 3: go about it, because I think it's easier to have
Speaker 3: a big impact playing half two thirds of the snaps
Speaker 3: at wide receiver than it is to play half the
Speaker 3: snaps at cornerback. So that's the way I would go
Speaker 3: if I was Travis Hunter, and that's the way I
Speaker 3: would go if that was a team looking to draft.
Speaker 4: Coincidentally, as you were talking, I just saw this Cam
Speaker 4: Wolf tweet. As we're recording this. He said, the Titans,
Speaker 4: who have the number one pick, view Hunter primarily as
Speaker 4: a cornerback, and the Browns, who have the number two pick,
Speaker 4: Viewing primarily as a wide receiver.
Speaker 3: That's so interesting.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: What I'll tell you what this is gonna be is
Speaker 3: absolute horror for fantasy managers if they go somewhere where
Speaker 3: it's not for sure.
Speaker 4: I don't think I'm drafting Travis Hunter. I think there's
Speaker 4: too much that can go wrong.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so much unknown.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, I'm with you. It's funny too, because
Speaker 1: I think what DJ said about majoring and defense, minoring
Speaker 1: and offense, that seems to be the consensus right now. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I know there are some people who think he should,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe go the other way. But if that
Speaker 1: that opinion seems to be at this point the minority opinion.
Speaker 1: But very curious how these teams view him and whoever
Speaker 1: drafts him. What side they want him to primarily focus on,
Speaker 1: because you're right, Matt, I don't. I don't think what
Speaker 1: he did at Colorado is sustainable in the NFL. One
Speaker 1: of the things I've heard Daniel Jeremia say too about
Speaker 1: it is, you know, in college, it's easier to kind
Speaker 1: of spread out, spread the field a little bit and
Speaker 1: as your corner maybe not be so involved in the
Speaker 1: run stopping part of defense. It's a little bit harder
Speaker 1: to do in the NFL, you know. And look, I
Speaker 1: mean you know, say he ends up, say with the Giants,
Speaker 1: and then suddenly you got to be tasked with, say,
Speaker 1: try to stop say Kwon Barkley a couple times a year, right, Like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's how business decisions get made, for sure. So you know,
Speaker 1: we will see the one thing we know he's very
Speaker 1: much going to be the talk of the combine, which
Speaker 1: good place for us tickets, quick break will come back,
Speaker 1: We will talk about what is going on in Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: So when or not we should be spending our weekends
Speaker 1: obsessing over this and all that sort of thing and
Speaker 1: what we should be paying attention to. Maybe when we
Speaker 1: talk about the combine, let's come it up next here
Speaker 1: on the NFL Fantasy Football podcast Matt Oconna hanging out
Speaker 1: with us. You see his article over at NFL dot com.
Speaker 1: You're talking about his potential cut candidates for this off season, Matt.
Speaker 1: For folks who maybe are uninitiated, where can they find you? Where?
Speaker 1: What are you doing? Where can they find your stuff?
Speaker 3: Well, you can find me on Twitter or x or
Speaker 3: whatever you still want to call it at Mettalcotta. I'm
Speaker 3: also technically on Blue Sky, but I don't know if
Speaker 3: anyone's using that still. I am okay, I'm over there somewhere.
Speaker 3: If you search my name, you'll probably fuck me and
Speaker 3: then I'm also I'll be doing throughout the off season
Speaker 3: and into the next season as well, and I did
Speaker 3: this past season some freelance work with a color, a
Speaker 3: couple other fantasy places four for four. I'll be doing
Speaker 3: some stuff at FTN this offseason, so if you want
Speaker 3: to find some more content, you can always do that.
Speaker 3: There's other free agency articles of mine, both already out
Speaker 3: and coming out shortly sneak peakspoiler alert at NFL dot
Speaker 3: com too, so very cool.
Speaker 1: I can vouch for the four for four pot I
Speaker 1: know you said you may or may not be doing
Speaker 1: it regularly this offseason. But you and John Bosh, you know,
Speaker 1: I've listened to it. I was a guest on it once.
Speaker 1: So maybe my own personal selfish self interest here here,
Speaker 1: but a good show over there whenever you can find it. Combine,
Speaker 1: we'll be hitting this week in Indianapolis already seeing the
Speaker 1: tweets and the press conferences, and I'm sure we'll see
Speaker 1: plenty of word about Saint Elmo's and shrimp cocktails and
Speaker 1: all those sorts of things steak and shake and the
Speaker 1: like coming up by the next few days. This is
Speaker 1: the thing, guys, that I sort of struggle with because
Speaker 1: it's obviously a tent pole on the actual NFL calendar,
Speaker 1: and I feel like for fantasy, we have tried to
Speaker 1: make it into a thing. And look, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of people who do a lot of good evaluations
Speaker 1: and scouting and that's sort of thing. But I feel
Speaker 1: like in the end, it always comes down to, yeah,
Speaker 1: this guy ran well, or he tested well or he
Speaker 1: didn't test well, and we always say the same thing.
Speaker 1: But depending on the landing spot, this could work out.
Speaker 1: So it's just sort of like, well, what have we
Speaker 1: done here? So I mean, I'll start with you, Lakwan,
Speaker 1: what are you looking for? What's important and what's not
Speaker 1: important for you when it comes to the combine.
Speaker 2: I'm not really like focused on the combine and whatsoever
Speaker 2: other than players that I'm really excited about to go
Speaker 2: out there and like just show up and like just
Speaker 2: do regular football things and shorts and T shirts. Like
Speaker 2: I'm not taking that into fantasy into the summer because
Speaker 2: I don't know where these guys are going. And like
Speaker 2: if we did this all the time when we were
Speaker 2: trying to like, oh well, the draft analyst said this,
Speaker 2: and combine numbers say that.
Speaker 1: But he just went to the Browns.
Speaker 3: His future is over.
Speaker 2: Like he's not perform at the high level that we
Speaker 2: were talking him up for the last three months. It's
Speaker 2: just it just doesn't happen. And then you have guys
Speaker 2: that go under the radar, Like I used Cooper Cup
Speaker 2: an example. You didn't have like the greatest fort he's
Speaker 2: not the fastest guy, but a lot of the stuff
Speaker 2: that he was doing, like it was translating to maybe
Speaker 2: he could be a guy and a certain you know,
Speaker 2: Panthers Ravens wide receiver said, you know that's my number
Speaker 2: one guy, Like and and I looked to that, I'm
Speaker 2: like why And then you watched the video Sean McVay
Speaker 2: lesneid their excitement of drafting Cooper Cup, and it's like, oh, so.
Speaker 1: It matters where the landing spot go. Who can utilize
Speaker 1: this guy.
Speaker 2: Imagine Cooper Cup went to the Patriots, the Saints or
Speaker 2: somewhere else, like, he would not be the Triple Crown king.
Speaker 2: He would be because you need the right coach, the
Speaker 2: right personnel to actually get the guy to be able
Speaker 2: to perform at the numbers at the combine. That you
Speaker 2: know you saw that you were excited about Matt Correct
Speaker 2: if I get any of this wrong. Now, I know
Speaker 2: you have been certified as a wide receiver scout.
Speaker 1: Is that correct?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 1: So I mean for you, like, do you spend a
Speaker 1: lot of time watching the combin watching the receivers at
Speaker 1: the combine or is there something you're looking for? Do
Speaker 1: you just sort of kind of let it wash over
Speaker 1: you and check up later.
Speaker 3: Honestly, of all the fantasy positions, wide receiver is the
Speaker 3: one that I probably care the least about. The combine
Speaker 3: to me, tape is so much more valuable with wide receivers.
Speaker 3: And then production is also pretty valuable. Analytical stuff is
Speaker 3: pretty valuable. Where the combine can have a little bit
Speaker 3: more to say. I think is tight ends running backs,
Speaker 3: and then it's nice to see the quarterbacks throw and
Speaker 3: like go through those motions. But those are against no
Speaker 3: defenders and not in pads and not in game situations
Speaker 3: with a d line rushing down your throat. So you
Speaker 3: don't learn too much in my opinion about them either.
Speaker 3: And for the most part, I don't care about their
Speaker 3: measurables unless I think they're going to be a big
Speaker 3: running quarterback and they're fast, that's nice. But for wide
Speaker 3: receiver in particular, yeah, it doesn't matter that much. What
Speaker 3: I will say is like certain drills can matter relative
Speaker 3: to other things about that wide receiver. So for example,
Speaker 3: if you're really really small, like Xavier Worthy and you
Speaker 3: don't run a four to two, it's probably gonna be
Speaker 3: a little bit problematic. If you run a four to
Speaker 3: four and you're that small, I don't know what you're
Speaker 3: gonna do in the NFL. But if you're that small
Speaker 3: and you run a four to two, okay, well now
Speaker 3: I know I mean, and you can know this without
Speaker 3: running at the combine. You can see how fast a
Speaker 3: player is on tapes for the for the most part.
Speaker 3: But when that guy runs a four to two, now
Speaker 3: you know, Okay, this guy is going to be one
Speaker 3: of the fastest players in the NFL. There are a
Speaker 3: lot of things I can do with him in space
Speaker 3: that minimize his size limitations and low and behold. That's
Speaker 3: largely what the Chiefs did and it worked out pretty
Speaker 3: well for them. So there are some instances like that
Speaker 3: that matter. When you run a fast forty and you're
Speaker 3: much bigger, I think that can matter because it can
Speaker 3: tell you like, Okay, well it's a four to four,
Speaker 3: but that guy's two hundred and forty pounds. That tells
Speaker 3: me something that's pretty interesting and valuable.
Speaker 1: I mean, Floria, what I mean? I know you're not
Speaker 1: as a huge combined guy, but is there something that
Speaker 1: that sort of catches your attention when it comes to
Speaker 1: this weekend?
Speaker 4: I agree with Okata. I think for me the biggest
Speaker 4: thing is running backs because they are the position that
Speaker 4: is most like tied to their athleticism and their capabilities physically.
Speaker 4: Like you can be a you don't have to be
Speaker 4: the fastest wide receiver in the world to be really
Speaker 4: productive at the NFL level. Laquan's example of Cooper cup
Speaker 4: is a is a good example of that. I always
Speaker 4: go back to one of the first combines. I was
Speaker 4: working for NFL Network and Elijah Holyfield had I believe
Speaker 4: that was his name, Holyfield Son, had a lot of
Speaker 4: hype and then he ran like a four to eight
Speaker 4: forty and we never saw him again. Yeah, like when
Speaker 4: a player is really slow, or like last year Isaac
Speaker 4: Grendel leading running backs in forty and the ten yard split.
Speaker 4: I was like, Okay, I'm going to go in and
Speaker 4: watch a lot more Isaac Grendel now because this is
Speaker 4: a player that I believe can contribute at the NFL level.
Speaker 4: So I really don't. Obviously, there's the high end running backs,
Speaker 4: like I've already watched a bunch of gent and stuff,
Speaker 4: But like the more fringy guys, I wait until after
Speaker 4: the combine because there's some guys that are just not
Speaker 4: going They're going to perform very poorly and teams are
Speaker 4: gonna be like their late round pick if anything. So
Speaker 4: I kind of wait for that for running backs, but
Speaker 4: receivers I don't. I mean, yeah, Xavier Worthy boosted his
Speaker 4: stock last year. But like Keton Coleman, everyone was like,
Speaker 4: he's so slow, but then he runs the fastest gauntlet
Speaker 4: time and it's like, oh well, none of that matters.
Speaker 4: So these are very particular with what they care about
Speaker 4: with wide receivers, whereas running backs, I think athleticism testing
Speaker 4: matters a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I mean I think to your point about
Speaker 1: wide receivers too. I remember being in in the the
Speaker 1: year DK Metcalf ran and his forty time was amazing.
Speaker 1: I remember hearing gasps in the crowd when we all
Speaker 1: saw the time, but then the three cone was really bad,
Speaker 1: and everybody's like, oh no, like we gotta get Dk
Speaker 1: some pilates classes or something like what are we gonna do?
Speaker 1: Like it's worked out, you know, like it's been Dk
Speaker 1: metcalf has been just fine so far in the NFL.
Speaker 1: So I think there's something to that point. I think
Speaker 1: for me, it's more about sort of looking looking backwards
Speaker 1: at it and when it's over, maybe the guys who
Speaker 1: overperformed and the guys who really underperformed, and then using
Speaker 1: that as sort of a baseline to like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: now let's evaluate like is it that they really underperformed
Speaker 1: and let's go look at the tape and let's see
Speaker 1: what the tape says, or we're like, hey, is there
Speaker 1: something there? Like even the guy like, look, Andy Isabella
Speaker 1: had an amazing forty time, right, and the Cardinals kept
Speaker 1: trying to, you know, put that square peg in a
Speaker 1: round hole for a long time and that never quite
Speaker 1: worked out. So I just I do think that sometimes
Speaker 1: we get, at least for fantasy, a little bit carried away,
Speaker 1: because it is very heavily about fit versus you know,
Speaker 1: necessarily and kind of of testing, especially testing where you know,
Speaker 1: guys spend time, like extra time preparing just for these
Speaker 1: specific drills. You know, it's like it's like taking an
Speaker 1: SAT crash course or whatever. Like it doesn't say to
Speaker 1: me you're smart. It just means you prepared for this
Speaker 1: one event that you were gonna have to do for
Speaker 1: a couple of days.
Speaker 4: All the big names are not really doing it anymore.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's another big problem. Yeah, unfortunately. Well, and the
Speaker 3: other thing is to what you just said, Marcus, those
Speaker 3: things that they're doing that they're practicing for typically aren't
Speaker 3: things they're doing on an NFL field. Like, I still
Speaker 3: don't understand why we don't put a press corner at
Speaker 3: the start of the forty yard dash for all the
Speaker 3: wide receivers and then see how fast they get down
Speaker 3: the line, because that's why.
Speaker 4: Would have rented in six seconds.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's funny. I'm trying to It might
Speaker 1: have been any school or somebody. It was like an
Speaker 1: offensive lineman and the forty time wasn't necessarily great. And
Speaker 1: I think somebody asked, like an offensive line coach about that,
Speaker 1: like does it concern you? And the response was, well,
Speaker 1: I guess I just won't have him running you know,
Speaker 1: forty yard verts anymore.
Speaker 4: You know, he's forty yards downfield. Something's gone terribly wrong.
Speaker 2: So something has happened, like some if it's a screen,
Speaker 2: like he has to get a field. I mean, I
Speaker 2: guess that's why they still do it.
Speaker 1: I guess, But like you're you're you know, but at
Speaker 1: some point, even on a screen, like if you've got
Speaker 1: a good running back, he's just gonna give blowing by him.
Speaker 1: You're not expecting Suel to be holding hands with jimor
Speaker 1: Gibbs forty yards down the field. Like that's just not
Speaker 1: how it works. Same thing with like a d tackle, right,
Speaker 1: like if a d tackle is running forty yards. Any
Speaker 1: one way or another, something really bad has probably happened
Speaker 1: for the defense. So yeah, I think there's you know,
Speaker 1: take a lot of these things with the grain of salt.
Speaker 1: That being said, is there anybody in particular, La Kwan,
Speaker 1: that you're keeping an eye on it that you just
Speaker 1: want to see Maybe maybe it doesn't change how you
Speaker 1: feel about it, but you just want to see this
Speaker 1: guy perform at the combine.
Speaker 2: I got two guys, Damian Martinez running back out of
Speaker 2: Miami U and then Jaden Higgins Hiowa State. Those are
Speaker 2: the two guys that I will have circle just I
Speaker 2: just want to see what they do. Like, I want
Speaker 2: to see if their draft stock gets pushed up. I
Speaker 2: think they're both Day two guys the second round at
Speaker 2: least for Jayden Higgins. Like, I just want to see
Speaker 2: what the draft streets and then the fantasy streets overlapping
Speaker 2: do for these guys.
Speaker 1: Okay, to anybody you want to keep an eye on
Speaker 1: this week.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna keep an eye on the tight ends. This
Speaker 3: seems like a really interesting tight end class. There's a
Speaker 3: couple at the top that look like they're probably gonna
Speaker 3: go top fifteen. Tyler, Warren Coulson Loveland will probably go
Speaker 3: top fifteen to twenty at the most for leveland and
Speaker 3: then there's a bunch of other names that could be
Speaker 3: Day two Harold Fan and Junior Mason Taylor, Elijah Royo.
Speaker 3: There are a bunch of guys so and it feels
Speaker 3: like every year we need a big tight end influx,
Speaker 3: and sometimes we think it's gonna happen and then mostly
Speaker 3: it doesn't. So maybe that's gonna be the same thing
Speaker 3: again this year. But I'm hoping that we get a
Speaker 3: nice deep class, especially if Travis Kelcey is going to
Speaker 3: be on his way out and then Mark Andrews will
Speaker 3: be on his way out at some point, so that
Speaker 3: we can get the next group of elites. We've already
Speaker 3: got a couple of them, and guys like Terry McBride.
Speaker 3: But I'm going to be watching for those the top
Speaker 3: end Day one and two tight ends and seeing and
Speaker 3: for what it's worth, tight ends are one area where
Speaker 3: I do think measurables can tell you a lot because
Speaker 3: athletic tight ends are becoming the way of the NFL largely,
Speaker 3: and so seeing those good numbers helps me with my
Speaker 3: confidence in them. To some degree.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Tyler Warne's an interesting one because I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: he had an amazing season. Also me though, as a
Speaker 1: frustrated bitter USC fan, he destroyed us much of the
Speaker 1: way Dalton Kincaid did a couple of years ago. So like,
Speaker 1: I want to see if he sort of is is
Speaker 1: Kincaid or if he's maybe something else.
Speaker 4: So he's gonna drop a long catch in the AFC Championship.
Speaker 1: This was all This was all along, set up for
Speaker 1: Florio to just vent. That's all that was. That's all
Speaker 1: that was. I'm glad you took the bait, Floria. Anybody
Speaker 1: else that you might be keeping an eye on.
Speaker 4: Pretty much the running backs, like you hear so much
Speaker 4: about how deep and how high end, like the high
Speaker 4: end talent is in this class. So I'm very curious
Speaker 4: to see if anyone separates themselves. Obviously Gent's already be
Speaker 4: one on this class, but after that, I really want
Speaker 4: to see how these guys separate themselves. But selfishly, I
Speaker 4: saw this morning that cam Ward is still considering participating,
Speaker 4: and he is my QB one. We've already spoke about
Speaker 4: this on the show. Like, I think all the physical
Speaker 4: attributes are there. I love his tools all of that.
Speaker 4: I kind of want him to put on a show
Speaker 4: and just cement himself as the number one pick this
Speaker 4: week like that, because we're not getting Sanders, we're not
Speaker 4: getting a lot of these big names like him. Coming
Speaker 4: out and putting on a show I think would be
Speaker 4: the big takeaway from the weekend for me.
Speaker 1: A couple guys, I'm kind of curious about that. I watched,
Speaker 1: you know, I watched them actually play in games. Kind
Speaker 1: of want to see how they test a little bit.
Speaker 1: One Cam Scataboo at Arizona State, who was a little
Speaker 1: bit of a do everything and like in at least
Speaker 1: at ASU, he gave me as as they would say,
Speaker 1: it's giving Austin Eckler a little bit and I'm just
Speaker 1: sort of I'm sort of curious what his testing is
Speaker 1: going to be like because he did a little bit
Speaker 1: of everything for the Sun Devils in those couple of years,
Speaker 1: conluding that playoff, that insane playoff game where he was
Speaker 1: just gassed and like could not really have done anymore
Speaker 1: maybe accept the play linebacker or something for them, but
Speaker 1: did everything the other one and I don't know, he's
Speaker 1: not getting necessary a lot of buzz. But Nick Nash,
Speaker 1: wide receiver from San Jose State, who I thought just
Speaker 1: proclaim end game. Was this a dude who just he
Speaker 1: was just making plays regardless. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: necessarily that's going to to translate well into testing or not,
Speaker 1: but I think he's a guy who at the next
Speaker 1: level could really turn himself into a nice piece in
Speaker 1: the right offense. Was a guy who was a quarterback
Speaker 1: coming in kind of a dual threat running quarterback, he
Speaker 1: trans transitioned into wide receiver and ended up having a
Speaker 1: really good career at San Jose State. So I'm very
Speaker 1: very curious about.
Speaker 4: I'm with you on scattered with it. I hope he
Speaker 4: balls out because in any other year we're talking about
Speaker 4: this guy being like an absolute mistackle force monster, but
Speaker 4: it just so happens that he is the guy who
Speaker 4: set the PFF misstackle force record.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I look, I think the running back class is
Speaker 1: gonna be interesting, right because we know, as you mentioned
Speaker 1: John C's up top, Travon Henderson, Omari and Hampton, quitch
Speaker 1: On Judkins, Caleb Johnson, mean, we can just go deep,
Speaker 1: deep deep on names. R J.
Speaker 2: Harvey, Brashad Smith, there's so this this class. Like I'm
Speaker 2: really excited, honestly to see all of them perform, Like
Speaker 2: really gonna.
Speaker 4: Run a four to seven and we'll never see him again.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna hey boy, I'm gonna say this. I'm looking around,
Speaker 1: make sure nobody pops out. Do running backs matter again? Oh?
Speaker 4: Boy?
Speaker 1: Do they do?
Speaker 3: Just won a Super Bowl?
Speaker 1: Yes, just go out there and get them.
Speaker 4: This is a good timing for class like this though,
Speaker 4: because a lot of the faces that the position are
Speaker 4: starting to age out, like Henry Mixing's kind of in
Speaker 4: that on his last legs type thing. Eckler you mentioned
Speaker 4: even twenty eight, like they're all closer to the cliff
Speaker 4: than further.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know that now that I said that, somebody
Speaker 1: from PFF is going to be standing outside my front
Speaker 1: door when imagine can you imagine anyway anyway to combine though?
Speaker 1: Things get going on Thursday in Indianapolis being a good
Speaker 1: company man. You can check it all out of course
Speaker 1: on NFL network. So tune in all weekend long Thursday
Speaker 1: through Monday for all the athletic testing. I'm sure there
Speaker 1: will be press conferences. Yeah, a lot of folks doing
Speaker 1: a lot of good work. Out there in Indy, so
Speaker 1: be sure to check that out. Matt, appreciate you hanging
Speaker 1: out with us. Man appreciate you coming by. Hopefully we'll
Speaker 1: catch up again soon. I know that, I know the
Speaker 1: company is sending you out into the wilderness, but you know,
Speaker 1: don't be a stranger. We would definitely love to have back on.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, we'll do. Keep me posting will do indeed.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, for the rest of us, that will do it
Speaker 1: for this edition of the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Stay happy,
Speaker 1: safe and healthy, do good and live well. Enjoy Todays everybody.
Speaker 1: We will talk to you again on Thursday. Bob, don't help.
Speaker 4: Bob, don't help.