Speaker 1: Wow, Hey everybody, It's Tuesday, March nineteenth, twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. We're happy to
Speaker 1: help in past protection.
Speaker 2: It's me and Ran MG.
Speaker 1: Marcus Grant, joined by Michael Florio and Lakwan Jones.
Speaker 2: Happy start of the tournament. Guys.
Speaker 1: I know it's not fantasy football, but have you march
Speaker 1: madness to those who who observe I do not.
Speaker 2: I enjoy it.
Speaker 3: I won't act like I've watched a lot of college
Speaker 3: basketball this year. I used to be huge into college basketball,
Speaker 3: but it doesn't matter right, Like I don't need to
Speaker 3: know any of the players on the TV for me
Speaker 3: to enjoy today and tomorrow, Like, do not care.
Speaker 4: It'd be a great time.
Speaker 1: I would say the next two weekends this weekend and
Speaker 1: next weekend are even too, of the greatest weekends in sports,
Speaker 1: just because there's wall to wall basketball on from like
Speaker 1: nine am Pacific time until you know, late in the evening.
Speaker 2: And you know, I feel bad for the poor folks
Speaker 2: who get.
Speaker 1: Their prices right preempted or like you know, I don't
Speaker 1: like you know, my grandmother didn't take a care for
Speaker 1: it because her soap operas got pushed because of basketball,
Speaker 1: but for the rest of us, for the rest of us,
Speaker 1: it is a great time, an absolutely great time.
Speaker 3: So we are supposed to watch together this weekend. I
Speaker 3: don't know if you guys are still coming through, but
Speaker 3: we're supposed to.
Speaker 5: Oh, I'm pulling up.
Speaker 2: I'm pulling on it for sure. Yeah or sure, that'll
Speaker 2: be fun.
Speaker 1: That'll be fun. It's gonna be a good time, be
Speaker 1: a good time. So today on the show, gonna have
Speaker 1: a kind of a different time. Should be a good time. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk to James Reeber, who does research for
Speaker 1: the Next Gen Stats team here at the NFL, wrote
Speaker 1: a couple of articles that maybe on the surface you
Speaker 1: wouldn't think about as fantasy related articles, but we are
Speaker 1: trying to find a fantasy spin. He talked about the
Speaker 1: increase in chip blocks across NFL offenses, also talked about
Speaker 1: the rise of split safety too high coverages across the NFL,
Speaker 1: and so we're gonna kind of pick his brand a
Speaker 1: little bit on how those things could help you when
Speaker 1: you are sort of picking between players and putting together
Speaker 1: your fantasy draft lists and what have you. But do
Speaker 1: you want to start with a little bit of news,
Speaker 1: and I emphasize a little bit because there's not a
Speaker 1: lot happening in the NFL, but a story that popped
Speaker 1: up that Lakwah you texted us about yesterday. Four time
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl wide receiver t Y Hilton has announced his retirement,
Speaker 1: though which I'm sure comes as news to a lot
Speaker 1: of people because we haven't seen t Y Hilton in
Speaker 1: the NFL in a few years.
Speaker 2: The last time he played was back.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty two, when he appeared in three games with.
Speaker 2: The Dallas Cowboys. Wow.
Speaker 1: Either way, Eugene Marquis Hilton is officially wrapping it up,
Speaker 1: calling it a career. Yo.
Speaker 5: Well, you put my main government out there like that.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I don't know what his mom
Speaker 2: calls it. If she calls him Eugene or TV she
Speaker 2: calls me Eugene, probably when he's in trouble time.
Speaker 1: So I will I will ask the question that I
Speaker 1: always ask in these situations, Florida.
Speaker 2: I will start with you in Lakwana. You can follow.
Speaker 2: Is t Y Hilton a fantasy Hall of Famer?
Speaker 3: I'm more so wondering where he got this ty name
Speaker 3: from because the only T in his entire government name
Speaker 3: is in Hilton and there's no why, so, like, where
Speaker 3: did this come from? I have no idea, I have questions. No,
Speaker 3: he's not a Fantasy Hall of Famer, he's a he's
Speaker 3: a Hall of very good. I would say, like I
Speaker 3: think when we talk about the twenty tens and like
Speaker 3: the top wide receivers, he's not gonna be the first
Speaker 3: name or one of the first names that get thrown out,
Speaker 3: but he'll he will get thrown out there right like
Speaker 3: he was really good for a big stretch. And in fact,
Speaker 3: and you outside of his rookie year where he put
Speaker 3: up eight hundred and sixty one yards, every other season
Speaker 3: that he got to play with Andrew Luck, he topped
Speaker 3: a thousand yards. Most of them he topped twelve hundred.
Speaker 3: Because there's the one year in twenty seventeen where he
Speaker 3: failed to get a thousand, but Andrew Luck didn't play
Speaker 3: that year. So I think you could point for two
Speaker 3: reasons why he's not a Fantasy Hall of Famer. Want
Speaker 3: was it the age cliff because he happened to be
Speaker 3: turning thirty when Andrew Luck just surprised everyone and retired.
Speaker 3: But once Luck retired, it was kind of a rap
Speaker 3: for Hilton and it's not his fault, but like it
Speaker 3: was early career Jacoby Brissett and Philip Rivers and Carson
Speaker 3: went like right, like the quarterbacks they were throwing out
Speaker 3: there were they left a lot to be desired. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I think that really does hamper his career numbers a bit. Also,
Speaker 3: he was a player that once that cliff came, it
Speaker 3: came very fast. But there was a six to seven
Speaker 3: year stretch where he was a top two round pick
Speaker 3: in fantasy and was just electric. So haula very good
Speaker 3: in my opinion.
Speaker 2: All right, Lakwan, you agree with that.
Speaker 5: I second that the Hall of very Good is filled
Speaker 5: right now with a bunch of players. But like I
Speaker 5: feel like if Andrew Luck didn't retire, like he could
Speaker 5: have been in that Hall of Fame fantasy you know room.
Speaker 5: But because at the end of the day, those two
Speaker 5: seasons he had that were magnificent fourteen hundred yards, I mean,
Speaker 5: he didn't really find the end so much, but the
Speaker 5: ceiling was going to keep rising if Andrew Luck stayed
Speaker 5: in Honestly, the surprise, you know, retirement, I think that's
Speaker 5: what kind of knocked him off his track. To have
Speaker 5: that ceiling to keep you know, rising. So the hall
Speaker 5: of very good is filled right now, and that's not
Speaker 5: a bad thing. But we got some Hall of famers
Speaker 5: in there that I can't honestly see t Y Hillton
Speaker 5: sitting next to him, any.
Speaker 2: Of those guys really for real, for real? Yeah, no,
Speaker 2: I think I think you guys are right, because it is.
Speaker 1: You remember the highs. But and so you go back
Speaker 1: and look, you realize that those that peak was a
Speaker 1: really short period of time for him.
Speaker 5: He was a top five Fantasy wide receiver that year.
Speaker 5: He put up fourteen hundred yards and that's with little touchdown,
Speaker 5: so all that production was three yards and catches stuff.
Speaker 5: But again, the cliff, it came very fast. It was
Speaker 5: like why he just standing in.
Speaker 4: Falls down.
Speaker 2: By the way.
Speaker 1: To answer your question, Florio, uh, he says that even
Speaker 1: though his name is Eugene, his my daddy's name is Tyrone.
Speaker 1: So ever since I was little, everyone has just used
Speaker 1: the first two letters of that, and.
Speaker 2: That is how he became t Y Hilton. So there
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 3: So then instead of being tied, he made it t
Speaker 3: why why okay, okay?
Speaker 2: But he does he does have a son. He does
Speaker 2: have a son. Named Tai, so you know, I guess it's.
Speaker 4: Coming, that's why.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he has two sons, Eugene Hilton Junior and Tie Hilton,
Speaker 1: so he sort of combined all of those things.
Speaker 3: Uh so, But again he named him Tai, not like, yes,
Speaker 3: it's a well, I don't know. But one fun fact
Speaker 3: about him, real quick is every year for his first
Speaker 3: seven seasons, he had a catch of sixty plus yard
Speaker 3: over sixty yards every year, and to me, that is
Speaker 3: always what I'll remember with t Y Hilton. He was
Speaker 3: one of the very best field stretchers of his era.
Speaker 3: He had deficiencies, like we said the red zone, not
Speaker 3: really a high touchdown guy.
Speaker 4: But one of the just the very best field stretchers.
Speaker 1: Well, that and that he used to absolutely torture the
Speaker 1: Houston Texans.
Speaker 2: That was just the thing.
Speaker 1: He did eleven touchdown catches against the Texans in his career.
Speaker 1: He didn't have more than six against any other team.
Speaker 1: So he just absolutely just destroyed the Texans.
Speaker 5: I remember him too throwing seth rollins over to barricade
Speaker 5: at a Bears game also, so that was pretty awesome
Speaker 5: to see as well.
Speaker 2: That's pretty random. That's super random.
Speaker 1: Other piece of news Carson Wentz is returning to the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings on a one year deal. So lakwan, does
Speaker 1: that mean that nine has officially been eighty six from
Speaker 1: the Vikings offense?
Speaker 5: Stop calling this man nine. Stop there's only one nine. Yes,
Speaker 5: it's eighty six. Get he doesn't call himself nine. Matthew
Speaker 5: Stafford doesn't call himself nine.
Speaker 2: Yes we do.
Speaker 5: Mat I can't say what we I can't say here
Speaker 5: what we call him. But the RAMS community have a
Speaker 5: name for nine, and it's not JJ McCarthy. And honestly,
Speaker 5: it's obviously not nine either.
Speaker 1: If you can't say it here, it is, you can't
Speaker 1: say it here, it's not nine.
Speaker 3: If you pulled football fans who is nine, you're gonna
Speaker 3: get more JJ McCarthy votes than than Matthew Stafford.
Speaker 1: You just are like, it's just, it's just what's out
Speaker 1: there in the zeitgeist.
Speaker 2: Now, man, just live with it.
Speaker 5: Didn't we have this conversation here that these guys need
Speaker 5: to earn the cool nickname, Like how I stopped calling
Speaker 5: Trevor mit Lawnes.
Speaker 2: Now he is t law.
Speaker 1: People don't call JJ McCarthy nine gets cool. They call
Speaker 1: him nine to sort of mock him a.
Speaker 2: Little bit, like it's just like the needle him.
Speaker 5: Because he thinks he's nine. Yeah, don't use it as
Speaker 5: a troll. When I think of nine, it is Matthew Stafford.
Speaker 2: Any question done?
Speaker 5: Anyway he is, It is cooked, well done in the
Speaker 5: crock pot. This has been a slow cooking. But he
Speaker 5: is done. Looking at Carson Wentz back in there, backing
Speaker 5: up Kyler Murray. He now falls to QB three. I
Speaker 5: could sense probably a trade is coming, or maybe he
Speaker 5: just sits behind two veteran quarterbacks and learn and absorb
Speaker 5: as much as he can. But at the end of
Speaker 5: the day, I don't think we see JJ McCarthy hit
Speaker 5: the field unless both of these guys get injured. But again,
Speaker 5: I feel like we need to stop giving cool nicknames
Speaker 5: to guys, even though you're trolling. Stop giving nicknames to
Speaker 5: people who haven't earned these things. Man, Please, we didn't.
Speaker 2: Give it to them. He gave it to himself.
Speaker 1: That's why he's getting trolled by like he gave it
Speaker 1: to himself and now.
Speaker 2: We're using it and you're going to throwing your back
Speaker 2: at him. Stop you're doing.
Speaker 1: Pro football is an attack on the rams man or attack.
Speaker 5: It's just doing this.
Speaker 3: No, if you go to Pro Football Reference, which legitimately
Speaker 3: if someone on the street one time called a person
Speaker 3: a nickname, it appears on their page. U. J. J.
Speaker 3: McCarthy's nickname is nine. Matthew Stafford does not have a nickname.
Speaker 1: Well, does that mean that somebody on the street wants
Speaker 1: called Tom Brady the Pharaoh?
Speaker 4: Because it's on there, right, like the Prince who was Promised?
Speaker 5: Trevor Lawrence who said that, Yeah, I don't know, that's
Speaker 5: a that's a certain Fox Sports analyst who actually knows
Speaker 5: that nickname. Kyle Brandt said that he's actually the one
Speaker 5: who created that.
Speaker 4: Actually, I'm texting her about it. Yeah, the Prince.
Speaker 3: I've heard another analyst call him that for a while
Speaker 3: now as well.
Speaker 2: Sure, who doesn't want in our building?
Speaker 1: Well, again, that's the thing that you know, instead of
Speaker 1: calling him, Trevor Midle warns, you can call him the
Speaker 1: Prince who was promised if he starts playing back, can.
Speaker 2: Just use that. So there it is, all right, a
Speaker 2: break come back.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk with James Reeber of the Next Gen
Speaker 1: Stats Research team, get us thoughts on chip blocks, two
Speaker 1: high safeties, a whole lot more things that you can
Speaker 1: keep in your back pocket when it comes to draft
Speaker 1: time in fantasy football.
Speaker 2: That's next. You're on the NFL Fantasy Football Show. Back
Speaker 2: here on the.
Speaker 1: NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, and very happy to be joined
Speaker 1: by a special guest doing something that you know, we
Speaker 1: don't necessarily get too much into, sort of the off
Speaker 1: the beaten path version of the next gen stats, and
Speaker 1: to help us with that, James Reeber a researcher for
Speaker 1: NGS here at the NFL, and wrote an article recently
Speaker 1: about chip blocks. Not that they're a new thing across
Speaker 1: the NFL, but they're starting to be deployed more often
Speaker 1: and in a more strategic way to sort of help offenses
Speaker 1: passing games.
Speaker 2: So we're glad to get James in here sort of
Speaker 2: talk about the article he wrote.
Speaker 1: I try to put a fantasy context to it, because
Speaker 1: we're all looking for whatever edge we can find.
Speaker 2: So James, appreciate you taking the time. Man. How you
Speaker 2: feeling today?
Speaker 6: I am doing well, man, Thank you so much for
Speaker 6: having me on. Really excited to be here. I'm glad
Speaker 6: that you've all, you know, looked through my work and
Speaker 6: you had, you know, the good sense to figure out
Speaker 6: that this.
Speaker 4: Was relevant and we could get something out of it.
Speaker 6: I didn't even really expect that tight ends would be
Speaker 6: doing so much extra work off of their blocks. And
Speaker 6: that's something that I found just you know, working through
Speaker 6: the research for this and then even working with Krie
Speaker 6: the last few weeks, that this is a massive trend,
Speaker 6: something that is going under the radar, but can really
Speaker 6: help us out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and like you said, we had we didn't have
Speaker 2: the good sense.
Speaker 1: Kyrie had the good sense to find the article, to
Speaker 1: bring it to our attention and help organize this whole thing.
Speaker 1: So we're just the dopes who get to sit on
Speaker 1: cameon on the microphone and talk about it. But just
Speaker 1: for the base level, right for the entry level folks.
Speaker 1: Explain what chip blocks are and how they benefit an offense.
Speaker 4: No doubt, let's do it.
Speaker 6: So chip blocks are a trend that has come about,
Speaker 6: like you were saying, Marcus, it's something that has been
Speaker 6: going on throughout the entire history of the league, just
Speaker 6: happening a lot more recently. Where a skill position player,
Speaker 6: usually a tight end, occasionally a running back or a
Speaker 6: wide receiver will give a little bit of extra blocking
Speaker 6: help will engage at pass rusher quickly and then kind
Speaker 6: of roll off that and go out into a route,
Speaker 6: and so it kind of lets the offense have their
Speaker 6: cake and eat it too, where you're getting an extra
Speaker 6: guy in your pass protection. You know a lot of
Speaker 6: teams like spread offenses at this point in time, and
Speaker 6: so if you have a five men protection, you can
Speaker 6: turn that into kind of five and a half. And
Speaker 6: so that has given quarterback extra time to throw. We've
Speaker 6: actually seen that since Next Gen started tracking chiplocks, which
Speaker 6: was seven seasons ago, the time to pressure is about
Speaker 6: six tenths of a second longer three point four seconds
Speaker 6: versus two point eight when a chiplock is used.
Speaker 4: And I mean six tenths.
Speaker 6: Is not a huge amount of time in the grid
Speaker 6: scheme of things, but for a quarterback it can mean
Speaker 6: absolutely everything. It allows them to go through their progressions,
Speaker 6: get their deep ball off, avoid the sack. So, you know,
Speaker 6: the best offensive innovators out there. You know, we talk
Speaker 6: about the Rams and Niners a lot on the show,
Speaker 6: and they heavily feature chiplocks in their offense. And it's
Speaker 6: kind of picking up league wide as well.
Speaker 3: So in the article, you talk about how these quarterbacks,
Speaker 3: like you just said, they get extra time. We've seen
Speaker 3: their air yards go up, more opportunity to take the
Speaker 3: deep ball, the deep shot, stuff like that. But what
Speaker 3: surprised me will is the teams that ship at a
Speaker 3: higher rate don't always put up better offensive numbers. In fact,
Speaker 3: in some cases you point out, it's the opposite and
Speaker 3: they struggle. So what did you find when you were
Speaker 3: looking at that? Because that was surprising to me.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So I'm not going to go out and tell
Speaker 6: you that, you know, chip blocks are exclusively an advantage creator.
Speaker 6: Sometimes it's more the case that a team is forced
Speaker 6: to do it because their pass protection isn't really holding up.
Speaker 6: The Vikings and Browns were two teams that come to
Speaker 6: mind that had a little bit of a weaker offensive
Speaker 6: line this season. They had a lot of you know,
Speaker 6: injuries and turnover on their fronts. They also had you know,
Speaker 6: young quarterbacks who weren't quite as good as evading pressure
Speaker 6: on their own, and so they had to get extra
Speaker 6: guys in the protection just in order to kind of
Speaker 6: stay above water.
Speaker 4: So you will see that sometimes, and.
Speaker 6: I'm not going to tell you, you know, we get
Speaker 6: these offenses that are shipping more, you want to draft
Speaker 6: everyone from those offenses. That's not really the case, but
Speaker 6: we're going to, you know, go into how we can
Speaker 6: make it helpful for fantasy on a case by case basis.
Speaker 5: So you talk about how this has been something that's
Speaker 5: been tracked for several years now, but it seems to
Speaker 5: be trending upward from twenty one percent in twenty twenty
Speaker 5: three to nearly twenty seven percent this past season. I mean,
Speaker 5: what's driving this usage upward? And is there a ceiling
Speaker 5: or do you think this keeps climbing.
Speaker 6: So there's actually a lot of different contributors to this.
Speaker 6: I do think there is eventually a ceiling, but I
Speaker 6: don't think we're at it or even super close to
Speaker 6: it yet. As so, we discussed that the Sean McVay,
Speaker 6: Kyle Kyle Shanahan and their proteges, the Kevin O'Connell's, the
Speaker 6: Liam Cohens, the Klint Kubiaks.
Speaker 4: These are the guys who are leading this charge.
Speaker 6: And what happens with guys like that is when they
Speaker 6: started doing something, the rest of the league kind of
Speaker 6: takes it over over time. What we saw five or
Speaker 6: ten years ago was everyone started using motion, and you know,
Speaker 6: everyone had always used motion, but started doing it much
Speaker 6: more often, especially starting with that coaching tree, and now
Speaker 6: that's kind of reached an equilibrium. Everyone's doing it all
Speaker 6: over the league, whether you're a part of that tree
Speaker 6: or not, and so as those other coaches pick the
Speaker 6: chip block up, it'll keep increasing. And I think, you know,
Speaker 6: it's going to be really interesting to monitor where it
Speaker 6: goes the next few years.
Speaker 1: And some of the data showed kind of a split
Speaker 1: amongst tight ends. You kind of talked about it a
Speaker 1: little bit, but guys like Trey McBride, Kyle Pitts, they
Speaker 1: sort of thrived when working with chip blocks. Guys like
Speaker 1: Travis Kelcey, George Kittle, Mark Andrews saw their numbers dip.
Speaker 2: I mean, the first thing.
Speaker 1: That comes to mind is maybe I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's age is the offense. Have you been able to
Speaker 1: pinpoint kind of why that is or is it still
Speaker 1: a mystery?
Speaker 4: I think think both of those are contributors.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think in the case of I mean, there
Speaker 6: were three guys I found who were not really like
Speaker 6: thriving on it using it as much of an advantage
Speaker 6: as some of the other tight ends, and those were
Speaker 6: Travis kelce George Kittle, Mark Andrews. In the case of
Speaker 6: those guys, you know, they've been in the league for
Speaker 6: a long time and they probably didn't come up with
Speaker 6: the concept in mind that this was going to be
Speaker 6: part of their repertoire.
Speaker 4: So Kittle is a little bit of a special case.
Speaker 6: And I think it's just because Kittle loves blocking compared
Speaker 6: to most other pass catching tight ends in the league,
Speaker 6: so he's going to set a really good block and
Speaker 6: then not you know, go as smoothly necessarily into the route.
Speaker 6: In Kittle's case, he just didn't get quite as many
Speaker 6: targets as the other guys. As what it was Kelsey
Speaker 6: was not running quite as sharp of a route in
Speaker 6: those cases and wasn't catching as many passes is when
Speaker 6: he did get targeted, and then with some of the
Speaker 6: younger guys. So the interesting I want I guess is
Speaker 6: is Hunter Henry. Because Hunter Henry, if you saw in
Speaker 6: that graphic, he actually had one hundred percent catch rate
Speaker 6: off of his chips. He caught every single one of
Speaker 6: his twenty one targets after a hip block. And he's
Speaker 6: a veteran guy too, So I think that's a schematic thing.
Speaker 6: I think he was just given a Blueprint by Josh McDaniels.
Speaker 6: You know, new offensive coordinator this past year, and he
Speaker 6: was able to adjust to that really quickly and you know,
Speaker 6: improve his performance in those situations. Only a fifty nine
Speaker 6: point one percent catch rate when he's not chipping, one
Speaker 6: hundred when he is. That's something that I think you're
Speaker 6: going to see a lot in their offense next year
Speaker 6: with you know, if they're recognizing that his success is
Speaker 6: coming from that, which I'm sure they are.
Speaker 3: And to take this and spin it kind of specifically
Speaker 3: into like a specific player for fantasy the aspects on
Speaker 3: that graphic there we saw AJ Barner chipped at the
Speaker 3: highest rate last year and he had the second highest
Speaker 3: target rate when chipping.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, now Clint Kubiak, who designed that offense and was
Speaker 3: using Aj Barner in that way, he gets to design
Speaker 3: an offense with brock Bowers. Yeah, So do you think
Speaker 3: we see brock Bawers chipping at a high rate? And
Speaker 3: if so, do you think there is still another level
Speaker 3: that brock Bowers Because we know he's elite, he's a
Speaker 3: second tight end in adp all of that, but do
Speaker 3: you think there's even more there that we haven't seen yet?
Speaker 4: With brock Bowers.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I love that you went there, and I honestly
Speaker 6: really do think that he could reach a new level. So,
Speaker 6: first off, unrelated to ship blocks, we saw Kubiak focus
Speaker 6: a lot on one guy in the passing game, and
Speaker 6: if anyone is gonna get you anywhere near JSN type
Speaker 6: of volume, it would be Brock Powers in that offense.
Speaker 6: So that's pretty cool in itself. Brock Bawers set twenty
Speaker 6: four chip blocks all of last season, which among like
Speaker 6: arding tight ends, that was probably the single lowest mark
Speaker 6: in the league. Six point two percent rate. That's just tiny.
Speaker 6: He caught every single one of his passes off of
Speaker 6: a chip, seven of seven for seventy three yards, and
Speaker 6: so I think a lot of the reason for that
Speaker 6: is that Chip Kelly was mostly using him as an.
Speaker 4: Outside receiver, a slot receiver.
Speaker 6: Glen Kubiak loves to put his guys in line with
Speaker 6: the line of scrimmage, and so that's going to give
Speaker 6: him an easy opportunity to chip a lot more. And
Speaker 6: then you know, he can run a flat route, a
Speaker 6: fade route and be you know, the first read for
Speaker 6: if we're going to guess, probably for Nana Mendoza. I
Speaker 6: think it should go great for him as in terms
Speaker 6: of his fantasy contact.
Speaker 5: Go ahead, So I want to talk about an underrated
Speaker 5: Rams tight end. I want to take you to La Colby.
Speaker 5: Parkinson had seven targets on fourteen red zone chips, which
Speaker 5: is really interesting being that the Rams have the best
Speaker 5: wide receiver room in the NFL. But how much of
Speaker 5: the red zone chip uses translates to touchdown opportunity? And
Speaker 5: is Parkinson somebody fantasy managers should be watching out for.
Speaker 6: Uh yeah, I think there's a really good possibility of that.
Speaker 6: The one way that we would throw that out is
Speaker 6: if Kenyan City gets drafted by the Rams, but right
Speaker 6: now they now we.
Speaker 5: Don't want that.
Speaker 6: It would well, I mean, Citik is gonna be great
Speaker 6: wherever he goes. But I do think you know, the
Speaker 6: room that the Rams have right now as far as
Speaker 6: tight ends is one of the strongest in the league.
Speaker 6: They would often put three of them out on the
Speaker 6: field at the same time. That's something again that not
Speaker 6: a lot of people are doing. And so you know,
Speaker 6: Parkinson had these certain specific weeks where he was really
Speaker 6: popping off in the fantasy sense, and it's because he
Speaker 6: was really trustworthy as a red zone guy.
Speaker 4: And that was kind of their plan to get him loose.
Speaker 6: We see it with Parkinson, and the other guy we
Speaker 6: really see it with is Jake Ferguson.
Speaker 4: Where they would set the chip in.
Speaker 6: The red zone, they would kind of lose their coverage
Speaker 6: defender as a result of that, and they you know,
Speaker 6: these are big body targets who are great outlet for
Speaker 6: their quarterbacks to hit in that spot. So yeah, I
Speaker 6: think Parkinson and then the other guy worth considering, you
Speaker 6: know for a year two breakout would be Terrence Ferguson,
Speaker 6: but he's not really the chip block type and he's
Speaker 6: not really the same caliber or red zone weapon. So
Speaker 6: we really could be in a spot to watch out
Speaker 6: for Parkinson, you know, kind of taking over some of
Speaker 6: the Tyler Higbee workload and keeping these good vibes going.
Speaker 1: You mentioned that a lot of times the coaches that'd
Speaker 1: used that we're teams that didn't have maybe great upfront
Speaker 1: protection for their quarterbacks, or teams with younger quarterbacks or
Speaker 1: guys who just needed extra time to get the ball out.
Speaker 1: It brings me to Kevin Stefanski coming to Atlanta, which
Speaker 1: is sort of a mixed bag of things because you know,
Speaker 1: in terms of their rating, the offensive line was a
Speaker 1: pretty good pass blocking.
Speaker 2: Unit for the Falcon.
Speaker 1: But now you're dealing with a quarterback most likely into
Speaker 1: a tongue of iyaaloa who is sort of has been
Speaker 1: kind of a get the ball out of his hands quickly.
Speaker 1: Maybe try to give him some extra time, especially to
Speaker 1: give you know, to protect him maybe from himself in
Speaker 1: some cases. I where where do you anticipate the Falcons
Speaker 1: sort of landing here? To Stefansky go more with the chip?
Speaker 1: Does he does he do less with it? Because we
Speaker 1: already know Kyle Pitts sort of thrived in that situation,
Speaker 1: and every year we keep pretzeling our logic to try
Speaker 1: and make Kyle Pits a thing.
Speaker 2: I guess I guess I'm asking you to give.
Speaker 1: Me one more reason to to not give up on
Speaker 1: Kyle Pitts.
Speaker 6: So I if you want me to, you know, kind
Speaker 6: of gass up Kyle Pitts, I think I would not
Speaker 6: to do that. You know, Kyle Pitts is is a
Speaker 6: total like move tight end. He's he's gonna be in
Speaker 6: the slot a lot of the time. And uh so
Speaker 6: with Tua, you know, throwing the ball quick I think
Speaker 6: it's very possible that Stefanski changes up his strategy, especially
Speaker 6: you know he's handing off play calling. He's given it
Speaker 6: to I don't remember the guy's name. I think it's
Speaker 6: Tommy Reese or something like that, but yeah, nice. So
Speaker 6: it's the guy who was his OC last year, but
Speaker 6: it's actually not going to be the play caller in Atlanta.
Speaker 6: And so so for Pitts, I mean, I think we
Speaker 6: could see those guys use him the same way that
Speaker 6: they used Harold fannin, which was really exciting, but that's
Speaker 6: going to be in a move situation. It's going to
Speaker 6: be kind of more outside. And then if they also
Speaker 6: have a blocking tight down the field, that guy could
Speaker 6: potentially be the chip or probably wouldn't get the targets.
Speaker 6: But it also means, you know, there'll be not as
Speaker 6: many guys taking the target shair in that case, it'll
Speaker 6: be you know, basically London Pits Bijon and they're getting
Speaker 6: the entire bulk of the workload. So I mean, if
Speaker 6: you need if you need faith in Pits, it would
Speaker 6: be more of a target share. And also just the
Speaker 6: fact that they love heavy personnel in that former Cleveland
Speaker 6: coaching room.
Speaker 2: Got it all right, good enough for me.
Speaker 1: Because like a break, come back and we'll talk about
Speaker 1: the chip use of the chip block and what this
Speaker 1: means potentially for fantasy defenses.
Speaker 2: They're still in the game despite.
Speaker 1: People trying to maybe move on from talking with James
Speaker 1: Reeber in GS Researcher. That's coming up more next on
Speaker 1: the NFL Fantasy Football podcast, Talking with the Next Gen
Speaker 1: Status Researcher. James Reeber wrote an article about the increased
Speaker 1: use of the chip block across the NFL, and want
Speaker 1: to kind of pivot to talking about defenses because you know,
Speaker 1: you wrote that defenses that got chipped more in a
Speaker 1: lot of cases, gotten more sacks, forced more turnovers. You
Speaker 1: and I were talking before the show that somehow Miles
Speaker 1: Garrett actually got better when he was chipped. Have you
Speaker 1: been able to figure out the logic for that so far?
Speaker 6: Yeah, So I was confused by that at first. It
Speaker 6: seems counterintuitive, but you know what's really happening is when
Speaker 6: you have an incredible pass rusher like Miles Garrett, like
Speaker 6: you know Houston has with Daniel Hunter and Will Anderson
Speaker 6: on both sides, like Pittsburgh has with t J.
Speaker 4: Watt, all five.
Speaker 6: Of these teams that you're going to see in the
Speaker 6: top five of chiplock rate are going to have incredible
Speaker 6: pass rushers, and those guys are going to get theirs.
Speaker 6: Offenses are kind of, you know, scrambling to really help
Speaker 6: out on these guys a little bit extra just so
Speaker 6: they don't get completely game broken, and so they're going
Speaker 6: to end up getting a lot of sacks as it is.
Speaker 4: Miles Garrett.
Speaker 6: Really do want to focus on him for a second, because,
Speaker 6: as everyone knows, he's a freaking nature but somehow he
Speaker 6: is even better against chip blocks that one don't know
Speaker 6: if I found a specific explanation.
Speaker 4: He just you know, plays like he's possessed.
Speaker 6: He goes full god mode when you know someone disrespects
Speaker 6: him by throwing extra help or I guess respects him
Speaker 6: really but yeah, so he he got twenty nine pressures
Speaker 6: against ship blocks this season. That's ten more than anyone
Speaker 6: ever had in another season that we've tracked, and he's
Speaker 6: in second place too.
Speaker 4: He had nineteen in a different season.
Speaker 6: So yeah, definitely just an incredible thing that we're seeing
Speaker 6: out of him. Specifically, Browns were a solid fantasy defense
Speaker 6: this year. I figure they're going to continue to be
Speaker 6: a very.
Speaker 3: Solid option and try to take this information and spin
Speaker 3: it into a fantasy since, in your opinion that you've
Speaker 3: done more studying on this than any.
Speaker 4: Of us have.
Speaker 3: Do you like, if you were targeting a defense for
Speaker 3: fantasy purposes, are you thinking that having an elite pass
Speaker 3: rusher is top? Is it a team that creates a
Speaker 3: lot of pressure as a whole? Are you targeting a
Speaker 3: weak offensive line? Like, I'm sure it's probably a combination
Speaker 3: of the three. But what do you think the most
Speaker 3: important ingredients is when looking to stream a defense.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I can go into all of that a little bit,
Speaker 6: And I mean, you guys are the authorities when it
Speaker 6: comes to do you pick one or early or do
Speaker 6: you decide to stream? So that's you know, up to
Speaker 6: the player themselves as everyone's choice. But if you do
Speaker 6: decide to pick early, I love a defense with a
Speaker 6: good pass rusher or ideally with two. I would love
Speaker 6: to pick the Texans as my fantasy defense because you know,
Speaker 6: you're going to be lining up those two guys on
Speaker 6: the edge pretty much every play, and that is going
Speaker 6: to make life really hard on everybody on the other
Speaker 6: side of the ball. Like, you know, that's what creates
Speaker 6: sacks obviously, but it's also what creates interceptions. Like you know,
Speaker 6: when you when you get pressure, that's where a lot
Speaker 6: of the turnovers are coming from. And so yeah, I
Speaker 6: think you definitely definitely want to look for an elite
Speaker 6: pass rusher from a fantasy perspective a little more than
Speaker 6: you would like an elite linebacker or elite corner or
Speaker 6: something like that. And then you know, as far as streaming, yeah,
Speaker 6: if you have let's say, Hutchinson against the Vikings, that's
Speaker 6: a great time to stream. The Lions they were a
Speaker 6: little bit more streaming tier last year. I think they
Speaker 6: could bounce back because there is a lot of talent
Speaker 6: just across that entire room. If they stay healthy, Like
Speaker 6: the Lions are a great defensive option, but if they're facing.
Speaker 4: An offense that is going to be.
Speaker 6: Forced to chip or forced to provide extra help, then
Speaker 6: that offense.
Speaker 4: Could have a really rough day.
Speaker 5: So James, even though I'm trying to vote out defenses
Speaker 5: out of my fantasy leagues amongst my friends that just
Speaker 5: keep voting for it, but is there a defense that
Speaker 5: might be poised for a breakdown twenty twenty six based
Speaker 5: on how often their edge rushers are being chipped in
Speaker 5: twenty twenty five.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, I did find a few different options for that.
Speaker 6: The one that kind of stood out, this was a
Speaker 6: little bit surprising, is not one that a lot of
Speaker 6: people would think about, was the Indianapolis Colts. So they
Speaker 6: have young edge rushers led by Layatsu Latsu.
Speaker 4: He faced almost as many trips.
Speaker 6: As Jared Verse and that was, you know, the second
Speaker 6: most by any player that was a.
Speaker 4: First or second year player. So he's getting tripped a lot.
Speaker 6: People respect him, and we see you know, year three
Speaker 6: breakouts for a lot of these guys as they get
Speaker 6: accustomed to how to pass rush. And then another thing
Speaker 6: is the Colts have a defensive coordinator that first of
Speaker 6: all is regarded as a really you know, special coach,
Speaker 6: Louayn Rumo. And then also in his second year implementing
Speaker 6: the system, could really get a little more like creative
Speaker 6: with his pass rush and you know, start stunning guys
Speaker 6: a little bit more, or start dropping guys into coverage,
Speaker 6: you know, disguising his blitzes. So yeah, between all of
Speaker 6: that and the fact that lotso could be in line
Speaker 6: for a breakout based on his hip rate, that's what
Speaker 6: I would look at like a little more than we
Speaker 6: have in previous years.
Speaker 1: So sort of along with that, right with the you know,
Speaker 1: chip blocks and pressure and all that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: one of the big changes we've seen in recent years
Speaker 1: and defenses has been the increased use of too high safeties.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 1: This was supposedly the thing that helped everybody figure out
Speaker 1: the Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 2: We can debate that at another.
Speaker 1: Time, but you know, for people who maybe you are uninitiated,
Speaker 1: explain sort of what that is, and you know how
Speaker 1: we've seen this change into teams doing that a little
Speaker 1: more defensively.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the concept of too high coverage, it's it's three
Speaker 6: different types of coverage.
Speaker 4: It's covered two, cover four, cover six.
Speaker 6: And it basically just means that both of your safeties
Speaker 6: are starting a little closer to the rest of your
Speaker 6: defense and then they are both dropping back in opposite
Speaker 6: directions into coverage. And so this is very, very truly
Speaker 6: a league wide trend. It's happening everywhere. We see on
Speaker 6: this image right here that everyone in the NFL, every
Speaker 6: single defense played split safety coverage at least thirty percent
Speaker 6: of the time this season. Too high and split safety
Speaker 6: mean the same thing. By the way, exact same and
Speaker 6: so that is pretty cool because it had not been
Speaker 6: happening before we had you know, twenty eighteen to twenty twenty,
Speaker 6: there were eight or so defense is a season who
Speaker 6: would be under that thirty percent mark. And then it
Speaker 6: just started moving up and up and up. And now
Speaker 6: everyone has caught onto this thing. Offenses are seeing it
Speaker 6: all the time, and some of the best defenses out
Speaker 6: there are really you know, making this an efficient strategy.
Speaker 6: The Seahawks were a team that did it very frequently
Speaker 6: this year. They used a lot of cover six, which
Speaker 6: didn't used to be a popular thing in the past,
Speaker 6: but it drove them to a Super Bowl. Chiefs were
Speaker 6: the pioneers, like you said, and you know, that worked
Speaker 6: really well for them for a little while, and then
Speaker 6: you know, people did catch on. You start seeing it more,
Speaker 6: you develop a little bit of a counter.
Speaker 3: And again, just trying to put a fantasy spin on
Speaker 3: all you were touching on the Colts and lou Anramo
Speaker 3: and I kind of credit him with being the mastermind
Speaker 3: behind this. He did it two years in a row
Speaker 3: to Josh Mahomes in the playoffs. Shut those guys down.
Speaker 3: And then I feel like the rest of.
Speaker 4: The league copied him. But how does this apply?
Speaker 3: How can we apply.
Speaker 4: This into a fantasy since.
Speaker 3: Right, like, is it less big plays more like slot
Speaker 3: and possession receivers. Now we're going to get targets, Like,
Speaker 3: how can we take this and kind of apply it
Speaker 3: to what we do?
Speaker 6: Yeah, So, I mean what I would do is I
Speaker 6: would look at the specific offensive players who have already
Speaker 6: performed the best against this, and we found some really
Speaker 6: cool stuff off of that. So, first off, JSN was
Speaker 6: just way above everybody else in terms of the production
Speaker 6: against Too High. He ended up with eight hundred and
Speaker 6: forty one receiving yards against Too High last season, and
Speaker 6: nobody else had seven hundred, So he was nearly two
Speaker 6: hundred yards out in front of the rest of the field.
Speaker 6: So people are like, Okay, JSN had this enormous year.
Speaker 6: Is it really sustainable, especially with no Kubiak there? We
Speaker 6: don't know, But like he is doing something that you know,
Speaker 6: the rest of the NFL needs to start doing, which
Speaker 6: is figuring out how to beat this kind of coverage
Speaker 6: both underneath and deep. Like you know, Too High is
Speaker 6: designed as a thing that will take away that deep
Speaker 6: portion of the field, but if you go to the
Speaker 6: middle against Cover two, if you get a one on
Speaker 6: one outside go route against Cover four, Like, there is
Speaker 6: a possibility if you're a really talented receiver that you
Speaker 6: can make that work and produce off of that. Some
Speaker 6: other guys that we saw doing really well against this
Speaker 6: who could be in line for breakouts or you know,
Speaker 6: continued progression after solid rookie years would be Amika Igbuka
Speaker 6: and Tetero McMillan. Both of them were in the top
Speaker 6: fifteen in receiving yards against this coverage. And we're also
Speaker 6: taugh or near the top of the list in targets.
Speaker 6: So like they clearly have a lot of trust and
Speaker 6: you know they those two teams are going to be
Speaker 6: trying to make those guys number ones. I think that's
Speaker 6: pretty clear from their you know, team building strategy. So
Speaker 6: I'm really excited to see how it progresses. With the
Speaker 6: entire league playing a lot of too High every game
Speaker 6: it gets more valuable.
Speaker 5: So let's go to Pittsburgh. Man, you talk about number ones.
Speaker 5: Now we have two number ones in Pittsburgh with DK
Speaker 5: Metcalf and Michael Pittman. In your article you spoke about
Speaker 5: how too high data suggests both of these guys could
Speaker 5: really be effective in PPR leagues. What is it about
Speaker 5: their profile that makes them a fit for what McCarthy
Speaker 5: wants to run And is there a case that one
Speaker 5: or maybe both of them ends up being undervalued heading
Speaker 5: into twenty twenty six drafts.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, potentially.
Speaker 6: I mean I think especially Pittman could end up undervalued,
Speaker 6: Like he has been a strong PPR guy for a while,
Speaker 6: and you know, doesn't necessarily get the shine that he deserves.
Speaker 6: He was more the kind of underneath outlet option I
Speaker 6: would say against too high, like if he if he
Speaker 6: would get a one on one underneath, or like find
Speaker 6: a softer zone underneath, I guess would be more of
Speaker 6: the idea he was getting. You know, these these easy
Speaker 6: you know, slant routes, just over and over fade routes,
Speaker 6: whatever you wanted to do. And so you know, he
Speaker 6: caught forty balls against that coverage. Last year, d K
Speaker 6: did not have quite the same volume, but he was
Speaker 6: actually highly efficient when he was targeted. He caught just
Speaker 6: over eighty percent of his targets when facing too high,
Speaker 6: So like he could be more the intermediate.
Speaker 4: Option on the other side of the field.
Speaker 6: If it is Aaron Rodgers back, like that's going to
Speaker 6: be read one and read two in some order when
Speaker 6: he gets this coverage, and so, you know, I think
Speaker 6: both of them could be really really productive.
Speaker 4: Just off of that.
Speaker 6: Another guy we saw be really efficient was Pat Farremouth.
Speaker 6: You know, Rogers is a veteran. He knows how to
Speaker 6: how to use his guys and you know, break down
Speaker 6: whatever he is seeing with the defense opposite him. And
Speaker 6: you know he's been he has worked with McCarthy for
Speaker 6: a long long time. So if that's the quarterback they
Speaker 6: elect to go with, then it could produce, you know,
Speaker 6: really impressive fantasy results.
Speaker 1: It warms my heart to hear you say that Michael
Speaker 1: Pittman may be a little bit undervalued, because I've been
Speaker 1: I've been trying to tell my esteemed co hosts this
Speaker 1: for weeks and it's like getting them to eat broccoli
Speaker 1: to get them to admit to this. So I appreciate that,
Speaker 1: but I guess it does sort of lend to the
Speaker 1: fact that the Colts felt like Michael Pittman was expendable
Speaker 1: because they went out and re signed Alec Peerce to
Speaker 1: a pretty sizable deal.
Speaker 2: So do we see you know, maybe greater use.
Speaker 1: Obviously we'll see greater usage for for Alec Pearce, But
Speaker 1: is there a way that he can be a guy
Speaker 1: who helps beat some of these split safety coverages. Can
Speaker 1: they find a way to kind of make him that
Speaker 1: lightning rod in the offense?
Speaker 4: Yes? Absolutely?
Speaker 6: Uh so so with Pittman, you know, he talked about
Speaker 6: him as broccoli like he Uh.
Speaker 4: I did think that was funny. Uh.
Speaker 6: You know, he's not gonna get you the deep balls,
Speaker 6: He's not going to get you the touchdowns. Alec Pierce
Speaker 6: has that splash play capability, and then he is also
Speaker 6: like a big body, quick twitch you know, I think
Speaker 6: he's six y three and runs a four to four
Speaker 6: sub four four or something like that, and so you know,
Speaker 6: he is really a do it all receiver and he
Speaker 6: has some of the same capabilities as a Jackson Smith
Speaker 6: and Jigba. Alec Pierce was the number one receiver in
Speaker 6: yards per target against too high coverage last season. So
Speaker 6: the Colts were like, Okay, we have this guy in
Speaker 6: the building and like, sure, we've been doing a good
Speaker 6: job executing the shorter routes to Pittman, but like Alec
Speaker 6: Pearce's is dynamic.
Speaker 4: He's tearing it up.
Speaker 6: Like if we give him more of that work, I
Speaker 6: don't see why.
Speaker 4: He shouldn't thrive.
Speaker 6: He showed a really complete type of game last year
Speaker 6: compared to like the deep ball, lonely thing he had
Speaker 6: been doing in previous seasons. So I see no reason
Speaker 6: why that couldn't continue to expand and he could become
Speaker 6: like a really tough, light type of guy.
Speaker 3: And I know in your article you are excited about
Speaker 3: the Arizona Cardinals pass catchers, so I want you to
Speaker 3: talk on that. But I'm gonna throw to a two
Speaker 3: part at you, right, who do you like more between
Speaker 3: Michael Wilson and Marvin Harrison Junior? And you touched on
Speaker 3: Brock Bowers earlier. Is Trey McBride your tight end one?
Speaker 3: Can Brock give him a run for his money this year?
Speaker 4: Oh man? That is a tough question.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm gonna think about that for a second while
Speaker 6: I talk about the receivers. So I really liked what
Speaker 6: we saw out of Wilson late in the year last year.
Speaker 6: And one of the craziest things really that I came
Speaker 6: across when I was going through this research was Jacoby
Speaker 6: Brissette was tied for the NFL lead in touchdowns against
Speaker 6: split safety coverage last year, Like, who.
Speaker 4: Would have thought that?
Speaker 6: Not me personally. He threw ten tuddies and five of
Speaker 6: them were to Wilson. Wilson was the only guy with
Speaker 6: five touchdowns against split safety, which is really really interesting
Speaker 6: because this is usually a thing that's played kind of
Speaker 6: in the field between the twenties rather than in the
Speaker 6: red zone where you're gonna play man. So like the
Speaker 6: fact that he was able to get five touchdowns on
Speaker 6: mostly like deeper throws, that's really promising, especially.
Speaker 4: With a guy in.
Speaker 6: Mike Lafleur who has been working with Sean McVay, who
Speaker 6: is well known to shred this coverage to pieces. Just
Speaker 6: with whoever he has on his offense. You know, it's
Speaker 6: been Stafford Nikkouah recently, even with the golf and top
Speaker 6: you know back in him years ago.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there you go, MVP, absolutely right.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So I think, you know, you could take kind
Speaker 6: of that blueprint and these are not guys who are
Speaker 6: going to go super high up in the draft, but
Speaker 6: maybe at the very end, if you're playing two quarterbacks
Speaker 6: and you want to go for Brissett, he's probably going
Speaker 6: to get numbers even if that team doesn't get wins,
Speaker 6: and that also means he's going to be throwing more
Speaker 6: so a guy who is near the top of the
Speaker 6: board in McBride. Personally, I think I would lean McBride
Speaker 6: because he was so far out in front of the
Speaker 6: field this year for over bowers. But you know, don't
Speaker 6: hold me to that. We could we could change up
Speaker 6: on that. They're they're they're a perfect number.
Speaker 4: March nineteenth. That take is written in ink.
Speaker 6: Now, stright, I guess, I guess I'm in every league.
Speaker 6: I gotta, you know, put a put money in my office.
Speaker 6: Uh okay now, but no, I am really excited about
Speaker 6: train McBride.
Speaker 2: UH.
Speaker 6: If you go back to the chiplocks. This is not
Speaker 6: going to surprise anyone. But he'd had the most targets,
Speaker 6: receptions in yards against or when UH thrown a chiplock,
Speaker 6: and then you know it was the same idea against
Speaker 6: UH too high coverage. He was the only tight end
Speaker 6: in the top ten for UH. Which stat is this,
Speaker 6: oh yard's over expected, which is a cool one. That's
Speaker 6: a that's a next gen stat that all of you
Speaker 6: should check out. It's UH indicative of a lot of
Speaker 6: things about a Guesst talent. But uh but you know
Speaker 6: also led again in targets, receptions and yards, and you
Speaker 6: know when you when you have a guy like that,
Speaker 6: you just kind of send it like it's it's really
Speaker 6: showing that he's doing it better than everyone else.
Speaker 5: We didn't get, is it Michael Wilson mar person, Yes,
Speaker 5: I did.
Speaker 2: Say, well, we gotta know, no for sure.
Speaker 6: I I'm definitely on Wilson pretty strong this year. You know,
Speaker 6: Harrison's been super up and down. I was really in
Speaker 6: on him last year. I thought he was going to
Speaker 6: figure it out and that's not what we saw, so
Speaker 6: especially with this too High data in mind, but also
Speaker 6: just with how the second half of last year went like, yeah,
Speaker 6: I would I would say Wilson has kind of taken
Speaker 6: it over there.
Speaker 5: Nice, Well, let's pivot to the Patriots. I mean, who
Speaker 5: will be taken over to production against Too High? I mean,
Speaker 5: could it be Booty, could it be Dobbs? I mean
Speaker 5: both were highly efficient on the volume in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4: Mm hm, that's that's a really good question.
Speaker 6: So I think the idea is kind of that we
Speaker 6: need to think about who is taking over for the
Speaker 6: workload of Stephan.
Speaker 4: Dicks, and that could be both of them.
Speaker 6: But I think the reason they went out and gave
Speaker 6: a really big chunk of money to Romeo Dobbs is
Speaker 6: because they kind of see him that way. So I
Speaker 6: could easily foresee this being a career year for him.
Speaker 6: You know, we saw Drake may being super super accurate
Speaker 6: last year, just you know, high completion percentage guy, and
Speaker 6: Dobbs has generally been really really good at getting himself
Speaker 6: open in zone. So you know, that lends itself to
Speaker 6: an accurate quarterback who can just hit him in stride
Speaker 6: and get him going. And so you know, Stefan Diggs,
Speaker 6: older guy who had a little bit of a fantasy
Speaker 6: renaissance in the early part of last year. Dobbs seems
Speaker 6: to fit right into that space.
Speaker 4: I do love Booty as well.
Speaker 6: Like, if you're gonna, you know, be looking at either
Speaker 6: one of them in.
Speaker 4: A draft, maybe you just go for both.
Speaker 6: Because if you're talking about what I was saying earlier
Speaker 6: with who is going to run that outside go and
Speaker 6: be cover four or something like that.
Speaker 4: That is k Shan Boody to a tea.
Speaker 6: We saw it as far as the touchdown production more
Speaker 6: than just about anyone else last season, and you know
Speaker 6: so with more volume and more opportunities, that should only
Speaker 6: continue to rise.
Speaker 1: Hey well, James, we appreciate the time you had a
Speaker 1: lot of great work. For everybody who's out there looking
Speaker 1: for you can go find it at NFL dot com.
Speaker 1: Look for stuff by the Next Gen Stats team, James,
Speaker 1: with a few articles up there about the chip blocks.
Speaker 1: It's called the secret weapon NFL offenses are using to
Speaker 1: buy qbs an extra half second. Also some of the
Speaker 1: two high safety work, the coverage that turned the Seahawks
Speaker 1: into Super Bowl winners and is taking the NFL by storm. James,
Speaker 1: we appreciate any anything you got working on anything in
Speaker 1: the pipeline.
Speaker 2: Maybe folks should keep an eye out.
Speaker 4: For Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 6: So within the last week or so, we did get
Speaker 6: another one up on the site. So if you are
Speaker 6: looking for what next Gen Status believes are the best
Speaker 6: free agency fits of this recent crop of signings, someone
Speaker 6: that's going to go really well with the new coachra
Speaker 6: coordinator that they're working with, or fill a gap that
Speaker 6: existed for that team, then yeah, definitely check that article out.
Speaker 4: It is live.
Speaker 6: These are all on NFL dot com. You can find
Speaker 6: them under my name or under the Next Gen Stats
Speaker 6: Analytics team. We're also going to be putting one out
Speaker 6: on the kind of a draft primer, what we think
Speaker 6: are ideal fits from a next perspective as we get
Speaker 6: close to the draft, what could work out.
Speaker 4: In the first round.
Speaker 6: I'm not going to say it's like a hardline mock,
Speaker 6: it's just like some speculation on the subject. And then
Speaker 6: I would definitely say to follow our Twitter at Next
Speaker 6: Gen Stats. We have new stuff coming out on there
Speaker 6: all the time, some really good insights that you know
Speaker 6: you can't get elsewhere.
Speaker 2: So awesome. Sounds great. Sure to check that out.
Speaker 1: NFL dot com slash nngs one of the easy ways
Speaker 1: to find that, And as you mentioned, I'll follow the
Speaker 1: Next Gen Stats Twitter account as well.
Speaker 2: But that'll do.
Speaker 1: It for this edition of the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast.
Speaker 1: Stay happy, safe and healthy, do good and live well
Speaker 1: if you want to tournament everybody, It's that time of
Speaker 1: year and we will talk to you all again on Tuesday. Wow.