Speaker 1: Wow, Wow, everybody, It's Tuesday, January twenty first, twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, where there are
Speaker 1: only three games left. It's me and your man named
Speaker 1: G Marcus Grant, joined by Michael F. Florio and Laqwan Jones.
Speaker 1: I want to say, I guess it was kind of
Speaker 1: a mixed bag for you guys this weekend. I mean, Florio,
Speaker 1: you are feeling great. The LaQuan tough ending.
Speaker 2: Not great, not great at all. It's a bad feeling.
Speaker 2: And you know, like I took the loss as it is,
Speaker 2: but you know, we went through mad adversity.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: We started off one and four. We were lasting division
Speaker 2: like a hell of a journey man. So I'm just
Speaker 2: happy with the you know, the team and what we
Speaker 2: have for the future.
Speaker 1: Florio. Things are things are bright in the mafia right now. Huh. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I had to throw on the jersey of the real
Speaker 3: MVP and oh no, look, I knows to not play great,
Speaker 3: but the Bills came out and were like, yeah, our
Speaker 3: number one focal point was stopping Derrick Henry and find
Speaker 3: me a DC whoever says their number one focal point
Speaker 3: playing the Bills is stopping James.
Speaker 1: Cook and I will I will stop hammering this point.
Speaker 3: But all I'm saying is, thank god my mentions are
Speaker 3: safe and secure this week, because after two months of
Speaker 3: Ravens flock fighting Bill's mafia and me being involved in that,
Speaker 3: it would have been a rough, ugly week, especially if
Speaker 3: they lost the way.
Speaker 2: It was starting to look like.
Speaker 1: I start, I was nervous, but it ended up being
Speaker 1: a great day. Yep. So so the mafia moves on.
Speaker 1: We will get to them a little bit later, a
Speaker 1: lot to get to on this show. We're going to
Speaker 1: continue our exit interviews. We've got what picks eight through twelve,
Speaker 1: nine through twelve. That is what we've got. But the
Speaker 1: big news that has happened also sort of dovetailed into
Speaker 1: what I wanted to start the show with anybody was
Speaker 1: kind of recapping divisional weekend. So if you have not
Speaker 1: heard by now where you've been, But the Chicago Bears
Speaker 1: are hiring Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson as their new
Speaker 1: head coach, and I wanted to kind of talk about
Speaker 1: the divisional weekend in terms of the teams who lost
Speaker 1: and sort of putting their seasons to bed a little
Speaker 1: bit and we'll talk about them, you know on our
Speaker 1: exit interview is probably more fully a little bit later.
Speaker 1: But so I felt like, obviously, this is a great
Speaker 1: way to start by talking about the Commanders and the Lions.
Speaker 1: Jaden Daniels was fantastic, yet again goes into ford Field
Speaker 1: and the Lions just really had no answer for them.
Speaker 1: But Florie, I'll start with you, Ben Johnson, now out
Speaker 1: of Detroit going to Chicago. I just put simply, how
Speaker 1: much does this impact just right now, blind taste tests,
Speaker 1: not knowing who else is coming in to coach this team.
Speaker 1: What does this do immediately for you in terms of
Speaker 1: drafting Lions next year?
Speaker 3: It makes them riskier for sure, Like I still think
Speaker 3: I trust like Jamier Gibbs and aman Ras Saint Brown,
Speaker 3: but anytime you add any sort of unknown variable into it,
Speaker 3: it makes things a little bit murkier and the range
Speaker 3: of outcomes a little bit wider. And Ben Johnson has
Speaker 3: been in oc in this league three years and this
Speaker 3: blew my mind. In the last two years they have
Speaker 3: finished top two in rushing touchdowns and top four in
Speaker 3: passing touchdowns. Like they do it all. So this is
Speaker 3: a great hiring for the Bears. It's great for Caleb
Speaker 3: and everyone depends who comes in. Dan Campbell is still
Speaker 3: going to lead this team. But everything you hear is
Speaker 3: like Campbell is the leader. But the coordinators really do
Speaker 3: build the game plan for each side, so they could
Speaker 3: they could bring in a great mind, and there's so
Speaker 3: much talent there to work with that whoever comes in
Speaker 3: it should do a fine job. But top four pass touchdowns,
Speaker 3: top two and rushing touchdowns, I don't know if we're
Speaker 3: gonna get that again with the change of OC now.
Speaker 3: So definitely adds a little bit more risk.
Speaker 1: I would say to these players, so Leqwan you have
Speaker 1: I need to sit in and unpack something with you
Speaker 1: because you seem to have an irrational hatred for the
Speaker 1: Detroit Lions. I just it was coming through in our
Speaker 1: text chain that you just I don't really get it.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned to you, without the Detroit Lions, you
Speaker 1: don't get your most recent Super Bowl. I know we
Speaker 1: like to laugh about Jared Doufe, but I need you
Speaker 1: to unpack this. Where did this come from? And does
Speaker 1: this mean you're just like not punting onlines but you're
Speaker 1: just giving them a severe down. I need to I
Speaker 1: just need to understand what's going on in your blonde
Speaker 1: head right now.
Speaker 2: Yes, my hair is blonde right now. And I have
Speaker 2: been told I am the evil version of a monro
Speaker 2: Saint Brown. So I am leaning into this villain arc
Speaker 2: now because I gotta say, Dan Campbell, see you in
Speaker 2: two weeks, like I've already explained on many areas on
Speaker 2: the social webs, like that was very disrespect that I
Speaker 2: took that to the heart, because like, how are you
Speaker 2: going to look over the Rams? We're the most dangerous
Speaker 2: team in the NFL. And I feel like more so
Speaker 2: of like you know what, I'm just gonna turn the knife.
Speaker 2: I do think there's going to be a drop off
Speaker 2: for the Lions. I think Dan Campbell's going to be
Speaker 2: the culture of the Lions. Like you could definitely get
Speaker 2: a great offensive mine in there that wants to be
Speaker 2: part of that locker room, Like who doesn't want to
Speaker 2: run through a wall for Dan Campbell? But me being
Speaker 2: in the villain, I am looking forward to their downfall.
Speaker 2: So I am going to be moving back like Jamiir
Speaker 2: gives in a mom ra and s Brown because Florio
Speaker 2: hit it. We might not get this high power offense.
Speaker 2: We might not get this top five scoring offense because
Speaker 2: we look at it before Ben Johnson took over that
Speaker 2: first year Golf and the mon there, you were bottom
Speaker 2: of the table when it comes to all major categories
Speaker 2: and being this high power offense they are now. So
Speaker 2: we look at Dan Campbell like this is going to
Speaker 2: be all eyes on him. Who is he going to
Speaker 2: bring in to keep this thing afloat because you might
Speaker 2: not get the same same the porter that we've seen,
Speaker 2: you know, wishy wash you this season, but the last
Speaker 2: two seasons stand the porter. You know, I really feel
Speaker 2: as though you can still have him as a variable
Speaker 2: in there to be involved. But how is he going
Speaker 2: to be deployed? How is Sonic and Knuckles going to
Speaker 2: be deployed? Is we're going to see Jamiir Gibbs in
Speaker 2: these creative offensive schemes. We don't know like it's all
Speaker 2: going to change, so they definitely get moved back, you know,
Speaker 2: being that January. Don't marry my words right now, but
Speaker 2: myself taking a mon Ros Saint Brown as high as
Speaker 2: I would have been Johnson were there or Jamiir Gibbs.
Speaker 1: If amm Ros Saint Brown Fish, this is THEU wide
Speaker 1: receiver one would you dye your hair pink.
Speaker 2: No, we're done with that.
Speaker 1: I should have said blue. But whatever, you know, this opportunity,
Speaker 1: I'll buy his jersey.
Speaker 2: How about that?
Speaker 1: How about that?
Speaker 2: That that's something simple that we can accomplish without embarrast
Speaker 2: me or my wife tempting to leave me.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I just I'm just shooting my shot, just
Speaker 1: seeing what I can get out there, that's all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's just such a big question mark. Part of me
Speaker 1: still believes in the talent. You know that the you
Speaker 1: know Amana, Saint Brown, Jamiir Gibbs especially, it just feels
Speaker 1: like those guys are playmakers and no matter what offense,
Speaker 1: maybe I knocked them back a little bit. Laporter is
Speaker 1: a big question mark. What what exactly is the role
Speaker 1: for Jameson Williams and a new offense is another thing
Speaker 1: that I think we still have to think about because
Speaker 1: of what he did, especially late in the season. A
Speaker 1: lot of variables. But I still believe in Amana, I
Speaker 1: still believe in Jamiir Gibbs.
Speaker 2: I believe that old lawn more than anything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's that's probably that's where we go. And
Speaker 1: again they're going to hire somebody and then we can
Speaker 1: you know, scrub all of.
Speaker 2: This and redo it or not. I keep the night.
Speaker 1: This is very this is very much. Oh yeah. I
Speaker 1: mean if you're gonna be the hater, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: this is your you know, your evil Amna era, then
Speaker 1: maybe nothing changes Class two thousand.
Speaker 2: A year.
Speaker 1: I don't even know you, and I hate your guts.
Speaker 3: While on the code, Like do you guys think? I
Speaker 3: don't know what the answer is, but like, if I'm
Speaker 3: a Lions fan right now, I'm salty that both of
Speaker 3: my coordinators were spending last week doing numerous interviews and
Speaker 3: we lost, and we got throttled on defense and had
Speaker 3: more turnovers and we had like I don't know what
Speaker 3: it is, but you're at such a disadvantage if you
Speaker 3: are a playoff team and and people want to interview
Speaker 3: your coaches, because that could take a whole day.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know way around it.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. If if they go out and
Speaker 1: way now mind the Lions were super shorthanded defensively too.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, on some level that was just hard to overcome.
Speaker 1: But you know, if Jared Goff doesn't turn the ball
Speaker 1: over what four times? Why is your smile so big,
Speaker 1: Lakwan like you were smiling ear to ear. But I said,
Speaker 1: Jered Goff turned the ball over.
Speaker 2: I'm just here to turn the knife.
Speaker 1: Man. I'm taking on this villain role.
Speaker 2: They were in my mentions the entire weekend, like Florial,
Speaker 2: your mentions were safe, but minds were not. People are
Speaker 2: like ha ha, yeah, look how quickly that turned around.
Speaker 1: I don't care.
Speaker 2: We're all in cantcuon. I knew you guys were going
Speaker 2: to lose against the Commanders. Man, Jamee Dams is the future.
Speaker 2: Let's just say that. I don't want to put generational
Speaker 2: talent because everybody has gotten that and Kyle Pits.
Speaker 1: Go oh man. We will will definitely get to them.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot to unpack with the Commanders.
Speaker 1: Whenever their season ends, it's been amazing. We will predict.
Speaker 1: We will predict the championship games. We'll do that on
Speaker 1: Thursday show. But we'll get to that too. Next up, though,
Speaker 1: Chiefs Texans Kansas City, a twenty three fourteen winner. I
Speaker 1: don't know that anybody was really surprised by the outcome,
Speaker 1: But what do we make of the Texans from this season?
Speaker 1: Like there were some really good things. There was some
Speaker 1: like what the.
Speaker 2: Hell sort of things I was looking at this question.
Speaker 2: I kind of just put it as a wash man.
Speaker 2: There was a lot of inconsistency with the Texans offense,
Speaker 2: but deal with injuries that were happening around him. I mean,
Speaker 2: you start the season off the whole line. Geez, they
Speaker 2: were not protecting him and they weren't doing a good
Speaker 2: job for him to even have the time to try
Speaker 2: to get the ball to Tank Dell, the Stefon Diggs, etc.
Speaker 1: Etc.
Speaker 2: I mean, look, man, next year, I look at Nico Collins.
Speaker 2: He's a top priority if I'm going to get a
Speaker 2: piece of that Texans offense. Honestly, I mean he's earned it.
Speaker 2: I mean only him and T Higgins in twelve games
Speaker 2: are less finished as top twenty five wide receivers. I mean,
Speaker 2: look as a top ten points per game guy. I
Speaker 2: honestly feel like it's going to stay consistent between him
Speaker 2: and C. J. Stroud. So next year I feel safe
Speaker 2: with Nico, And you know, Tank Dell is such a
Speaker 2: huge loss man that's probably going to take like two
Speaker 2: years before we start to really see him back to four,
Speaker 2: which sucks, and who knows what Diggs I mean it's
Speaker 2: a short rental there. It's just a lot of question
Speaker 2: marks where the Texans going to next season.
Speaker 1: Oyl is CJ. Stroud. He's not a QB one anymore, right,
Speaker 1: Like we're not drafting him inside the top twelve quarterback.
Speaker 1: He I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't count Week eighteen because we don't play then.
Speaker 3: But it was like Week four was the last time
Speaker 3: heading into the final week of Fantasy that he had
Speaker 3: finished as a QB one And like I just pulled
Speaker 3: up his two seasons just to compare real quick. His
Speaker 3: yards went down by almost four hundred, touchdowns went down
Speaker 3: by three interceptions, more than doubled pass A rating dropped.
Speaker 1: His EPA as.
Speaker 3: A rookie was thirty five. As a sophomore it was
Speaker 3: negative forty two, Like make sure and I went to Okay,
Speaker 3: maybe he was under pressure a lot more three percent more.
Speaker 3: And that was a big concern I had with him
Speaker 3: coming out of college, was how could he handle pressure?
Speaker 3: But Stroud is one I don't know if you like,
Speaker 3: I don't have an answer yet. I'm hoping that, like
Speaker 3: in the off season, I'm gonna get to dive into
Speaker 3: their games more and the stats more a little bit
Speaker 3: and see if I could kind of think.
Speaker 1: Of what it was.
Speaker 3: But as of right now, there's there's no part of
Speaker 3: me that well I agree with with LQ. It's Nico
Speaker 3: Collins or Bus really for me when it comes to
Speaker 3: this offense. And yeah, we know Stroud could could elevate Collins,
Speaker 3: but even down the stretch, Collins wasn't living up to
Speaker 3: the massive expectations because C. J. Stroud was just so inconsistent.
Speaker 3: So there's still a lot of potential there, but I'm
Speaker 3: not drafting him. Look, maybe people could Galaxy bring their
Speaker 3: way or whatever. One I will not be drafting him
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Joe Mixon, anyone thoughts.
Speaker 2: He's safe, he's old, he's saved. It's not like he's
Speaker 2: going to have this top five season next year, but
Speaker 2: I'll take him RB two. Wow, you guys just described
Speaker 2: the Volvo that was awesome. Man still exists dog.
Speaker 1: All right, So our evaluation of Joe Mixon, he's a Volvo,
Speaker 1: all right? Next time Eagles and Rams, I don't want
Speaker 1: to make you relive this, Lakwan, but as the resident,
Speaker 1: our resident Ram expert, our resident Ram Stan we started
Speaker 1: texted about this earlier, like how much of the future,
Speaker 1: because immediately after the loss, the questions about, you know,
Speaker 1: does Matthew Stafford retire? And I know he says he
Speaker 1: still has a lot of football left in him, but
Speaker 1: how much of the rams at least in the short
Speaker 1: term future. Hayes on Stafford a playing and to being healthy.
Speaker 2: I mean, why are we asking Matthew Stafford if he
Speaker 2: said has football left in him? Like, that's a frustrating
Speaker 2: question for me to even hear about Matthew Stafford righting
Speaker 2: off to the sunset. He's not done yet, Like I
Speaker 2: honestly think us not having the answer at backup right
Speaker 2: now is showing the cards of like, no, it's Stafford
Speaker 2: next season, It's Stafford the next season. Let's reconstruct the
Speaker 2: contract again, let's extend him, because I honestly think him
Speaker 2: at thirty seven, which will be next month, doesn't indicate
Speaker 2: that he is near done football. We've seen guys go
Speaker 2: up here in the late thirties and surpass the forties
Speaker 2: and still go out there and accomplish things like it
Speaker 2: frustrates me because when we talk about Mahomes, we talked
Speaker 2: about Lamar Jack and Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, all these names.
Speaker 2: You better have Matthew Stafford in that conversation when it
Speaker 2: comes to real life football. The things that he was
Speaker 2: doing in that game, Oh my god, the no look
Speaker 2: was just incredible, Like you don't get that from some
Speaker 2: guy that's at the back end of his career, Like, no,
Speaker 2: this is still peak Hall of Famer, first ballad Matthew Stafford.
Speaker 2: He is there, set in stone. All of that sounds wonderful.
Speaker 2: All of that sounds wonderful.
Speaker 1: Said then, look, I'm this is me speaking just as
Speaker 1: an observer, not as a forty nine er fan. Matthew
Speaker 1: Stafford is amazing. And I said earlier in this year
Speaker 1: when they were one and four that he's not getting
Speaker 1: enough credit for because it could have been way worse,
Speaker 1: Like it could have looked worse.
Speaker 2: Jimmy, g imagine your.
Speaker 1: Guy, right if it was If it wasn't Matthew Stafford.
Speaker 1: I look at the the sort of the body of work,
Speaker 1: if you will, because this is a guy that has
Speaker 1: taken a lot of punishment, has taken a lot of
Speaker 1: sacks over his career, and the thing about quarterbacks is
Speaker 1: that it's.
Speaker 3: Not Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1: I mean we learned that early in his career. Is
Speaker 1: that the separated shoulder game it was in Detroit when
Speaker 1: he's like, I'm gonna go, let's go. With quarterbacks, it's
Speaker 1: not a gentle decline. It is a fall off a
Speaker 1: cliff like Peyton Manning. You saw it almost happened right
Speaker 1: in front of your eyes, where he just couldn't throw
Speaker 1: the football anymore. And I think that's where the question
Speaker 1: comes in. And it's as a thirty seven year old
Speaker 1: quarterback who's taken a lot of punishment, who has gutted
Speaker 1: out a lot, like at some point it's going to go,
Speaker 1: And what is your exit strategy? Is it? Stetson Bennett?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: What is it? What is it? The backups?
Speaker 2: Not on the roster. Yeah, I'll be on the roster,
Speaker 2: next in line if it comes down to that.
Speaker 1: Like, no, it's not all right.
Speaker 2: They do need a backup plan.
Speaker 1: They need a backup plan. That's all I say.
Speaker 2: You need an exit strategy this year. But I'm good,
Speaker 2: I'm good. I'm happy with Stafford for the next two.
Speaker 1: Ye No, absolutely, a healthy Matthew Stafford, like is lights out,
Speaker 1: no argument at all.
Speaker 3: You haven't said it yet, Lakwan, but I tweeted this
Speaker 3: prior to the Bills Ravens game, where the weather kind
Speaker 3: of help my team. But I was like, snow games
Speaker 3: are only fun if your team is not playing in one.
Speaker 3: How much of that game do you blame on the snow?
Speaker 2: Oh, I mean a lot. I say that because the
Speaker 2: one fumble Stafford had he could not grip that ball,
Speaker 2: and like that is due to a wet ball, that
Speaker 2: ball hitting the ground many many times, and he.
Speaker 1: Should have just flipped it forward instead it's a shovel. Hey, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: that was a pass. That pass.
Speaker 2: But the weather did play a huge factor. Like if
Speaker 2: it was dry, you know, I still think Saquon would
Speaker 2: have still had his two hundred yards, but I think
Speaker 2: we would have had a better momentum. You know, we
Speaker 2: wouldn't have had those fumbles. And I ripped Kyroen, you know,
Speaker 2: emotionally after the game, but more so his fumble as
Speaker 2: well too, Like we needed better ball security. He was
Speaker 2: known for a guy that you know, had fumbling issues.
Speaker 2: He leased the league among all running backs in the
Speaker 2: last two seasons, and fumbles in the weather, so it
Speaker 2: definitely played a huge factor in our loss.
Speaker 3: Puka was moving like he's never been in snow before
Speaker 3: outside of that one amazing catch.
Speaker 2: I was about to say that catch brought him back.
Speaker 2: I was standing up in front of the TV.
Speaker 1: Yeah, actually, because you know my wife, she she's a
Speaker 1: RAMS fan, but when things go bad, she's like, turns
Speaker 1: off the TV. She turns off the TV. So like
Speaker 1: I was like watching it on my phone. I think
Speaker 1: she was watching like The Traders or something. And then
Speaker 1: I was like, these Rams. I said, the Rams have
Speaker 1: a real shots score touchdown here and take the lead.
Speaker 1: She's like, she's like, I'm not going to turn it
Speaker 1: because it's not gonna happen. I'm like, that was that attitude. No,
Speaker 1: I feel that though.
Speaker 2: I feel that though, because I was just like, ah,
Speaker 2: it's over, man, but it's a good run now, like legitimately, honestly,
Speaker 2: it was a good run.
Speaker 1: Very curiously, just curiously with the future. With the future holds.
Speaker 1: So finally Bill's Ravens a thriller, likes we expected it
Speaker 1: to be. The twenty seven to twenty five Buffalo moves
Speaker 1: on Florio as the man who is the cheerleader for
Speaker 1: the driving the Josh Allen for MVP bus. Right now,
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you to say nice things about
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson because obviously the narratives for both of these
Speaker 1: guys are that, like, you know, they can't get it done,
Speaker 1: they can't win the big game. Lamar did not have
Speaker 1: his best game. But you know, your finally evaluation of
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson this season in this MVP race, I think
Speaker 1: it was a tale of two halves.
Speaker 3: I think the first half was the Lamar that we
Speaker 3: have seen in the past in the playoffs. He's doing
Speaker 3: four interceptions all year, and three of them have bounced
Speaker 3: off of receivers hands. That one that he threw in
Speaker 3: the first half, he himself said it was a BS
Speaker 3: interception because he put way too much air on it.
Speaker 3: Even if Bateman goes where he is supposed to go,
Speaker 3: the safety was there waiting for it, probably breaks it up,
Speaker 3: doesn't get an interception.
Speaker 1: But still and then.
Speaker 3: That fumble, like there was the biggest negative epa playoff
Speaker 3: the game. It's it reminded me of old Lamar. It
Speaker 3: it reminded me of old Josh too. But then in
Speaker 3: the second half, I think you saw the maturation. You
Speaker 3: saw the current version of Lamar playing in the playoffs,
Speaker 3: Like that throw he had to Wallace on that final drive.
Speaker 3: I was sitting there like, what are they supposed to do?
Speaker 3: Like there's truly nothing that a defense can do to
Speaker 3: stop that. And the one thing I'll say is it
Speaker 3: felt to me like the Bills were allowing running lanes
Speaker 3: for Lamar Jackson and he was not looking to run
Speaker 3: like There was also that play where they got down
Speaker 3: a first and two on the two yard line, first
Speaker 3: and goal, and then he took a sack on second down,
Speaker 3: like you can't there's a lot of stuff that you
Speaker 3: can't do.
Speaker 1: But in the second half.
Speaker 3: He played as as well as he possibly could have
Speaker 3: almost dragged them back. To me, the narrative after reminds
Speaker 3: me a lot of the narrative after the thirteen second
Speaker 3: loss for Josh. Even though Josh did not turn ball
Speaker 3: over in that game and stuff like that, it was
Speaker 3: like he played well enough to win. He put the
Speaker 3: ball there to get the job done. And now I
Speaker 3: pushed back with the Bills would have had a minute
Speaker 3: and a half and two timeouts against the field goal range.
Speaker 1: Who knows what would have happened.
Speaker 3: But it wasn't all on Lamar, like it was just
Speaker 3: as much on everyone else on that Ravens seem the
Speaker 3: defense struggled in the first half. To me, it just
Speaker 3: seemed like everyone on the Ravens kind of remembered who
Speaker 3: they were in the second half. I don't know if
Speaker 3: that's because Lamar struggled in the first or what it was,
Speaker 3: but it was a tale of two halves. I think
Speaker 3: that if you are a Lamar fan, you should feel
Speaker 3: good like this guy can perform in the playoffs, although
Speaker 3: there were some people out there who were like, you
Speaker 3: did nothing.
Speaker 1: Wrong eight and I'm like, that's not the case either. Man.
Speaker 2: He had two turnovers, like he had a part in this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it was not his best game by far,
Speaker 1: but he did show up and as you mentioned, had
Speaker 1: them in a position to possibly force overtime. Just didn't happen.
Speaker 1: So I don't know. I at one point, I know
Speaker 1: Ole Hio text to this, He's like, I don't know
Speaker 1: who to cheer for between Fourio's happiness and Patrick Clavan's happiness,
Speaker 1: knowing that Patrick is, uh, you know, our number one,
Speaker 1: Lamar stand uh here in the building.
Speaker 3: So as someone who's had a lot of heartbreak in
Speaker 3: the playoffs and then have to have your quarterback unfairly
Speaker 3: bashed for an entire year. I do feel for Lamar
Speaker 3: fans like it's it's not a fun it's it's the
Speaker 3: worst part about being a football fan is like.
Speaker 1: Only one team wins and everyone else gets bashed. Yep,
Speaker 1: basically rings culture, Man, what has it done to us?
Speaker 1: What has it done to it? It didn't always have to be.
Speaker 1: It wasn't always this way. No one ever looked at
Speaker 1: Dan Marino. It's just like, yeah, maybe they did. I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe that was the start of it.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm getting I've done a time, very story less. I'm
Speaker 1: getting sad. Take a break, come back with do some
Speaker 1: exit interviews. So start with the Saints. Since coming up
Speaker 1: on the NFL Fantasy Football podcast. All right, back to
Speaker 1: our exit interviews. Picks nine through twelve are up next,
Speaker 1: Starting at number nine with the New Orleans Saints. They
Speaker 1: were five and twelve. I'm when I went through the
Speaker 1: whole what went right? What went wrong? Thing? Like I
Speaker 1: look and I said, Alvin Kamara, I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: so he was the RB nine, nearly fifteen hundred scrimmageyards,
Speaker 1: sixty eight catches, eight total touchdowns.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Flora is just because the Saints offense was bad that
Speaker 1: it just didn't feel great for Alvin Kamara. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was a tale of two halves.
Speaker 3: Like the first half of the season was awesome and
Speaker 3: he was the runaway RB one. I don't know if
Speaker 3: you remember this, Marcus, me and you were joking about
Speaker 3: it months ago. It was after the Saints Thursday night
Speaker 3: game where I went on the Thursday pregame show and
Speaker 3: was like, you should start Alvin Kamara, who is the
Speaker 3: universal RB one right now?
Speaker 1: And then he.
Speaker 2: Didn't play well and people were like, I want me
Speaker 2: to start him and me and.
Speaker 1: You were like making fun of them the next day.
Speaker 3: But uh yeah, like the second half, I mean it's
Speaker 3: not on him, Like you took his starting quarterback away,
Speaker 3: you took Chris Olave away, you took Rashid Shahid away,
Speaker 3: you took Taysom Hill away. He was the last man
Speaker 3: in there, is the only one defense has had a
Speaker 3: key in on. And even his last play of this
Speaker 3: season was like an amazing one handed touchdown catch. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I think he'll get devalued a bit next year because
Speaker 3: of age concerns and the offense that he plays on
Speaker 3: and stuff. But if he's going in like the fourth
Speaker 3: round like he did this year. I think that's a
Speaker 3: perfectly safe pick to take, all.
Speaker 1: Right, I mean so then that was my next question. Look, well,
Speaker 1: I mean you mentioned Chris Olave missed nine games of
Speaker 1: the concussion, Derek Carr got hurt, wasn't playing all that great.
Speaker 1: Remember the first two weeks the Saints scored like ninety
Speaker 1: points and We're like, oh my goodness, this is a juggernaut.
Speaker 1: And then I think it took them like another five
Speaker 1: weeks to score combined ninety points after that, something really ridiculous.
Speaker 1: It was wild. So everything can be considered. Who is
Speaker 1: the first Saint draft and is it still Alan Kamara?
Speaker 1: And in what round?
Speaker 2: Kamara he's probably living without outside of the top three,
Speaker 2: it feels right like maybe early forefront, but I just
Speaker 2: feel like he's the only one I feel safe with.
Speaker 2: Chrys o'lave. Like I'm done. I'm talking personally here on
Speaker 2: the mic, like I'm not talking for everybody else. I
Speaker 2: am done with the chrysal o' lovey experience, Like I'm
Speaker 2: completely over it. Like it's not what it is. It's
Speaker 2: not the same comparison situation, like a Garret Wilson or
Speaker 2: Drake London that are a quarterback away. He's got the quarterback,
Speaker 2: but then he's missing games because of concussions and et cetera,
Speaker 2: and overall the offense is just not good. Like I
Speaker 2: have no type of like appeal to this offense for
Speaker 2: the wide receivers, Like I just don't Juwan Johnson, like
Speaker 2: I was happy for him to like show up as
Speaker 2: like I'm here too, I can produce, but then they
Speaker 2: wasn't consistent. So it's like I don't know what to
Speaker 2: do with this Saints offense. I just look at it
Speaker 2: as like I'm gonna get anybody. It's gonna be I'm Kamara,
Speaker 2: like it's the safest the thirty year old running back
Speaker 2: almost fifteen hundred scrimming yards, like I'll take that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just.
Speaker 2: You ever Seet Shahad, No, that's the best ball thing.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: If there could be something there as like you know,
Speaker 2: like he could be the flex of the week, you know,
Speaker 2: like I don't feel like there's somebody that can be
Speaker 2: consistently in your starting lineups as a start and forget.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's probably fair. I don't know any any other
Speaker 1: additions take away from that.
Speaker 3: Florio I agree, like I was out on a lave
Speaker 3: this past season, and obviously injuries played a big thing,
Speaker 3: but I just don't trust Derek Carr.
Speaker 1: I don't trust this offense.
Speaker 3: All of that that being said, the fantasy community loves
Speaker 3: Crystal Lava. I would not be surprised if he goes
Speaker 3: at the first things off the board.
Speaker 1: Asked him why. I was like, is that a rhetorical question?
Speaker 1: I thought you had an answer for that away a
Speaker 1: silent okay, Yeah, I don't. You're right. I like the
Speaker 1: idea of Chrystal Lave and the first two years he
Speaker 1: was giving you kind of wide receiver TWOI ish numbers,
Speaker 1: but we.
Speaker 2: Keep drafting him as a wide receiver one. This is
Speaker 2: what I'm talking about, Like why.
Speaker 1: Because this is supposed to be the third year leap, right,
Speaker 1: I mean remember back in the day, there used to
Speaker 1: be it used to be the third year leap. Like
Speaker 1: now guys come in as rookies at wide receivers and
Speaker 1: just ball out. But we used to believe in the
Speaker 1: third year leap and now like apparently now if you
Speaker 1: don't do it with the first two, like we're out.
Speaker 1: Is that what that's what it is?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: But it's Derek Dallas Carr to that quarterback likes no.
Speaker 3: Two years ago he led the league I think in
Speaker 3: dump offs in a clean pocket like he's.
Speaker 1: That's why Alvin Tabara eight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's just not a QB to elevate someone with
Speaker 3: a lave skill set in my opinion.
Speaker 2: And only one season over thirty touchdowns, so the touchdowns
Speaker 2: are not even there. And that was what like twenty fourteen,
Speaker 2: I want to guess, like twenty fifteen. Yeah, you're closed.
Speaker 1: Ah, that was not Refree Cooper year, I believe. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. All right, let's get to the Chicago Bears
Speaker 1: because there's a lot to unpack here. Five and twelve
Speaker 1: went right, DeAndre Swift, I think for sure we're had
Speaker 1: a very good season by his standards. Thirteen hundred and
Speaker 1: forty five scrimmage yards, forty two catches, six total touchdowns.
Speaker 1: The RB nineteen Dj Moore, as we all expected, was
Speaker 1: the wide receiver one there ninety eight for a nine
Speaker 1: to sixty six and six touchdowns. Wide receiver sixteen. Maddy
Speaker 1: Ruflus fired, Shane Waldron sacked. Yes, I got it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: your team lost. I either throw you a bone, come on.
Speaker 1: Some of the pending free agents, Keenan Allen, who signed
Speaker 1: on a one year deal. It was okay, Travis Homer,
Speaker 1: Marcedes Lewis, who I just feel like he should play
Speaker 1: forever and every year he should go to London and
Speaker 1: catch a touchdown. That's why I think that's what he should.
Speaker 1: Don be forty one in May, please come back. I
Speaker 1: say this all the time. Marcedes Lewis and Maurice Jones
Speaker 1: drew against each other in high school. They were teammates
Speaker 1: at UCLA. They were drafted the same year. I love HIMJD.
Speaker 1: He's been our co worker for a while now, and
Speaker 1: Mercedes Lewis is still playing pro football insane. So there
Speaker 1: you go. So let's start with just just what we
Speaker 1: saw from the Bears this year. Soria, your final evaluation
Speaker 1: of Caleb Williams rookie season incomplete.
Speaker 2: I think I think Caleb showed a lot of flashes.
Speaker 3: And and just like I say with Drake May, don't
Speaker 3: just look at like his stats and his box score,
Speaker 3: go watch him play football. We saw a lot of
Speaker 3: the times that the stuff that Marcus you saw for
Speaker 3: years at USC just him extending plays with his legs,
Speaker 3: him making throws that like him. Lamar Mahomes and Alan
Speaker 3: Ka make and that's it. Like he's got that skill set,
Speaker 3: that playmaking gene that we all were so excited for
Speaker 3: coming out of college. He does need to work on
Speaker 3: getting the ball out of his hands quicker. He definitely
Speaker 3: held on to it too long at times and that
Speaker 3: was a problem and even in college. But when he
Speaker 3: was in college, he could just easily outrun and out
Speaker 3: maneuver and out athletic everyone hard to do in the NFL,
Speaker 3: but he was constantly under pressure. He was leading the
Speaker 3: league all year in unblocked sacks, unblocked pressure, all of that.
Speaker 3: So needs to get the Bears priority this offseason. Like
Speaker 3: last year was putting weapons around him, this year needs
Speaker 3: to be just just get an O line in place,
Speaker 3: because we know that was so much of the success
Speaker 3: that Ben Johnson had in Detroit. But I think if
Speaker 3: you improve that offensive line, you are cooking with fire
Speaker 3: with Caleb Williams right now.
Speaker 2: Like I think you.
Speaker 1: Should feel really good, Marcus.
Speaker 3: You watched him closer than any of us in college,
Speaker 3: so I'm really curious to hear what you think of him.
Speaker 3: But I came away feeling good, more good than bad
Speaker 3: with Caleb Williams.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think I think part of the Yeah,
Speaker 1: the playmaking ability is what you love, but there were
Speaker 1: times in college, as you mentioned, it got him in trouble,
Speaker 1: and I think I think what we saw in the
Speaker 1: first half of the season was a guy that the
Speaker 1: game was still a little bit too fast forward. Every
Speaker 1: rookie will tell you that at some point it starts
Speaker 1: to slow down, and I think you saw that a
Speaker 1: little more in the second half of the season. So
Speaker 1: your point, though, he still has to get rid of
Speaker 1: the ball. There are times where you can hold it
Speaker 1: and extend to play and make something happen. There are
Speaker 1: times you just have to eat it, you know, throw
Speaker 1: it out of bounds, run for a few yards and
Speaker 1: slide whatever. The home runs not always going to be there,
Speaker 1: so I think that's sort of the thing. It's going
Speaker 1: to be interesting now that they have a new head
Speaker 1: coach who is also in offensive mind, so means it's
Speaker 1: time to see who will deliver. Presented by Uber Eats,
Speaker 1: I mean, Lukwan for you, what does Ben Johnson's hiring
Speaker 1: mean for the Bears, Because obviously I know you want
Speaker 1: to twist the knife for the Lions, So this is
Speaker 1: your chance to get in there and talk about how
Speaker 1: he's going to rise Chicago up from the depths.
Speaker 2: Well, I look at the skill players like they get
Speaker 2: a boost. I mean, look, I'm going to start the
Speaker 2: hype train now. We can start getting all aboard of
Speaker 2: the Cole commit because I think it's going to be
Speaker 2: a breakout season for him, because honestly, looking at Cole Comtt,
Speaker 2: he's one of the guys that can hang with the
Speaker 2: best of them when it comes to route runners and
Speaker 2: being you know, produced, but he just never was deployed
Speaker 2: and utilized that way for him to really show up.
Speaker 2: And I think we might be surprised at Cole Comett,
Speaker 2: you know, showing up a show now. I mean, Roman
Speaker 2: Dunde is going to be way more fun under the watch,
Speaker 2: you know, honestly with Caleb. And we talked about Caleb
Speaker 2: pulling to the ball real quick. He yelled them to
Speaker 2: the ball for two point nine to two seconds and
Speaker 2: leave average was two point eight one. So he was
Speaker 2: just holding on to the ball way too long. So
Speaker 2: hopefully Ben Johnson gets out there, gets him more creative
Speaker 2: out there, get the ball quick out you have the
Speaker 2: weapons around you, and honestly, that's what makes this job attractive.
Speaker 2: You have a veteran Keenan Allen, you have DJ Moore
Speaker 2: who's going to be crazy explosive, like he gets a
Speaker 2: boost obviously in rounds, and I definitely think, you know,
Speaker 2: Kayleb Williams is going to be able to get the
Speaker 2: ball out quick and have this offense just look similar
Speaker 2: to the Lions offense and hopefully we can get a
Speaker 2: year one impact like Ben Johnson did with Jarrek Goff
Speaker 2: in that line.
Speaker 1: All right, So side unseen Florio, you are looking at
Speaker 1: Caleb Williams in your draft ranks? Is he a top twelve?
Speaker 1: Top ten? How high you having him up? Come on?
Speaker 3: I think I could see top twelve, so like it.
Speaker 3: Obviously the top five is set. We've already said it's Lamar, Josh,
Speaker 3: h Burrow, Jaden and Herts in any order you want
Speaker 3: to put them in. After that, I think the second
Speaker 3: tier of quarterbacks is going to be very big because.
Speaker 2: Bo Nicks at the top of it.
Speaker 1: Like bow Knicks is in that group.
Speaker 3: I would put Caleb in that group, Jared Goff maybe
Speaker 3: depending on who the OC is now, Kyler Murray like
Speaker 3: Mahomes Rock Party, all of those names are kind of
Speaker 3: similar in some regard.
Speaker 1: By the Wild Wild that you got to that part
Speaker 1: before you said Mahomes. Just let's yeah, right, let's take
Speaker 1: a moment to recognize.
Speaker 3: That Mahomes is going to be in that second tier
Speaker 3: for sure. I think Caleb will as well. I think
Speaker 3: top twelve makes sense with Ben Johnson.
Speaker 1: To me, he's very.
Speaker 3: Much the more I think about it, it depends on
Speaker 3: where he goes in drafts. Like if people are pulling
Speaker 3: him up and he's going like QB eight, I'm probably
Speaker 3: not gonna take him there. But if he's going closer
Speaker 3: to QB twelve, I'll probably have a whole bunch of
Speaker 3: Caleb on my teams this year because we know he
Speaker 3: can run and stuff. I just I hope Keenan his
Speaker 3: back or that they go out and get suck because
Speaker 3: the slot receiver was such a big part of the
Speaker 3: Lions offense that you need someone you trust in.
Speaker 2: That role in Chicago. I got a question, though, would
Speaker 2: you would you do Dak or Caleb next year?
Speaker 1: See that's and we're gonna talk about the Cowboys little
Speaker 1: layer two, But who's gonna be the coach?
Speaker 2: That's doesn't matter. I mean the circus is circus, but
Speaker 2: we'll get to them later. How about Herbert.
Speaker 1: Or Kleb I think I want Caleb.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's more ups running more though he has been
Speaker 3: running more.
Speaker 1: I want to see what they do. I'd want to
Speaker 1: see what they do in the draft of free agency
Speaker 1: about adding a wide receiver. They need more than lad Yeah.
Speaker 3: And the Bears need to add to the old lines.
Speaker 3: So so, but right now, Caleb taking him over over
Speaker 3: two over? Yeah, I think like Gino him or Jordan
Speaker 3: love Stroud, like, I feel like Caleb brings more upside
Speaker 3: than those guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's what it is. I think we've
Speaker 1: seen the potential. Now let's let's actually see what it's
Speaker 1: like with a with a good offensive head coach and.
Speaker 2: Where he's going to go in rounds. It's not like
Speaker 2: you're paying premium price for it either, So not yet.
Speaker 2: How about this one, Caleb Williams or Anthony Richardson. Oh,
Speaker 2: you got to be kidding me.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know, man, I need to I
Speaker 1: need to get my mind right before I start talking
Speaker 1: about Anthony, because it's all upside, that's all it is.
Speaker 3: Because you kind of want to say aar but like
Speaker 3: I could see my taking both of them.
Speaker 1: I need to be in a safe space right now.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know if I'm in a good
Speaker 1: mental place to talk about Anthony Richardson right now enough
Speaker 1: And just tapping out that was Who Will Deliver, presented
Speaker 1: by Uber Eat, where you can get the best deals
Speaker 1: on game day food all season long, the official on
Speaker 1: demand delivery partner of the NFL. Order now still got
Speaker 1: two more teams to talk about in our exit interviews.
Speaker 1: And once upon a time this was the rivalry in
Speaker 1: the NFC, Now not so much. Take a break, come
Speaker 1: back before the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast picking in the
Speaker 1: number eleven spot this year the San Francisco forty nine
Speaker 1: ers six and eleven. What went right? Pretty much? George Kittle,
Speaker 1: he was a tight end. Three seventy eight catches, one
Speaker 1: hundred and well eleven hundred and six yards, the eight
Speaker 1: touchdowns there. What went wrong? Well, pretty much everything else.
Speaker 1: I think me and LQ should just sit back right
Speaker 1: now and give you.
Speaker 2: The floor to let you vent of ex sickly went
Speaker 2: wrong with the season.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, look, we probably all should have been
Speaker 1: a little bit hip and then look, there are some
Speaker 1: people out there. Who when when the McCaffrey calf stuff
Speaker 1: started up, people immediately like, I'm out. Some of us,
Speaker 1: you know, decided we could take the forty nine ers
Speaker 1: coaching in front office at their word that he was
Speaker 1: just a little bit away, when honestly, some of that
Speaker 1: is on me. I sit next to Cynthia Freeland at
Speaker 1: least once a week on NFL Fantasy Live, as she
Speaker 1: often refers to Kyle Shanahan as a lying liar who lies.
Speaker 1: That should have been my first clue that Christian McCaffrey
Speaker 1: was probably not going to play this year. And beyond that,
Speaker 1: you have the Brandon Nyuk stuff that he was holding
Speaker 1: out to the very last minute, gets paid and then
Speaker 1: gets hurt almost immediately. They were one running back away from,
Speaker 1: you know, emailing one of us to take some snaps
Speaker 1: in that backfield at some point declined they were just
Speaker 1: they were a team that was really really beat up.
Speaker 1: And while I like Rock Party, it sort of showed
Speaker 1: some of the limitations. And look, I think we all
Speaker 1: knew that, Yes, he's definitely a benefit of he benefits
Speaker 1: from having talent around him. I think he's a good quarterback.
Speaker 1: They you know, they've shown that he can get them
Speaker 1: to a Super Bowl. So I think that's that part
Speaker 1: was fine, whether they pay him or not. You know,
Speaker 1: I think you have to because because who else what
Speaker 1: are you gonna do? Are you? Are you guaranteed to
Speaker 1: find somebody better than Brock Party? And the answer is
Speaker 1: not right now, not at not the eleventh spot, not
Speaker 1: with who's out there in the free agent market. So
Speaker 1: Rock Purty will get paid. I don't know, just the
Speaker 1: year where everybody was beat up, even on the defensive side.
Speaker 1: Drake green Law didn't come back to halfway through the year.
Speaker 1: We found out at some point, uh Brett Warner was
Speaker 1: playing on a broken ankle, you know, like telling no,
Speaker 1: Hufanga can't seem to stay healthy. Just it just was.
Speaker 1: It was like domino effect where everybody was just injured
Speaker 1: at some point. So I kind of look at it
Speaker 1: as a speed bump. Yes, everybody will be a year older.
Speaker 1: McCaffrey will allegedly be healthy. I you will allegedly be healthy.
Speaker 1: John Lynch says they want to run it back. They
Speaker 1: want to figure out how to pay Rock Party and
Speaker 1: keep Deebo Samuel around and healthy. So they want to
Speaker 1: try to run it back. So I'm willing to kind
Speaker 1: of take this as a speed bump, but I'm going
Speaker 1: to ask the number one forty nine er hater here,
Speaker 1: are you willing at all to buy back in on
Speaker 1: this offense and fantasy next.
Speaker 2: Year at a discount? Yeah? I mean everybody but CMC,
Speaker 2: Like I know Brandon at Yuk is going to be
Speaker 2: at a discount, and he still seems to be the
Speaker 2: functionality of this offense in rock Party. I mean, I
Speaker 2: really don't have much interest in debo because I'm not
Speaker 2: sure where he is in vibe check and mood, and
Speaker 2: I don't know if he wants to be there anymore.
Speaker 2: So I don't know like George Kittle quietly a top
Speaker 2: three tight end like I honestly, you know I faded
Speaker 2: him just based on his history with injuries are coming
Speaker 2: in and now snip snap, are you healthy or not?
Speaker 2: But yeah, I'll take the shot on Ricky Bert Piers,
Speaker 2: I'll take it, no shot on Juwan Jennings knows later round,
Speaker 2: because I do want a piece of this forty nine
Speaker 2: ers offense. If you guys are all healthy, everything is
Speaker 2: back together, I think you're better than the Cardinals, to
Speaker 2: be honest, So I think you know, with you guys
Speaker 2: finishing last in the division, you guys get an easier schedule,
Speaker 2: So you guys will definitely benefit from that. You guys,
Speaker 2: you know, take a step back from high competition football
Speaker 2: within a division. You know what teams like the Rams.
Speaker 2: So yeah, you know, I definitely think you know, that
Speaker 2: discount would be nice on those guys.
Speaker 1: Wow, the little little elbow on the way out, that
Speaker 1: was you know, I gotta get you all right. I mean,
Speaker 1: so I'll ask you the McCaffrey question. Where are you
Speaker 1: comfortable taking him next year?
Speaker 2: Done?
Speaker 1: Done? Done? Uh?
Speaker 3: Definitely not the first round. I would ideally want to
Speaker 3: say the third round, but I feel like he's going
Speaker 3: to go in the second, and I don't know if
Speaker 3: I'm going to be that person taking it. I agree
Speaker 3: with what LQ said, like, I'm really excited to get
Speaker 3: some of these forty nine at a discount.
Speaker 1: Is cem cmc is gonna go one of two ways?
Speaker 3: I think like he's gonna be early second round pick
Speaker 3: or no one's gonna want to draft him to like
Speaker 3: the fifth round, And I'm guessing it's it's gonna be
Speaker 3: him going in the second round.
Speaker 2: So I generally won't like general public draft and he's gone.
Speaker 1: When when when? Yeah, later in the summer, people like
Speaker 1: Christian McCaffrey.
Speaker 3: We were talking about Bryce Hall versus a whole bunch
Speaker 3: of different running backs last week, and all of those
Speaker 3: are running backs that I think go on the second
Speaker 3: or third round. So I'd much rather take those guys
Speaker 3: who I don't have to worry about the injury concern
Speaker 3: and stuff. I get the upside with CMC, So yeah,
Speaker 3: I would be back in on some of the Niners
Speaker 3: weapons and Marcus, I agree with you. I think they're
Speaker 3: gonna pay Brock Party, but I think this is where
Speaker 3: like the NFL needs to make adjustments, Like you don't
Speaker 3: need to give Brock Purty sixty million just because like
Speaker 3: Lamar Jackson is getting that kind of money, like treat
Speaker 3: it like other sports.
Speaker 1: Dude, Like, look, Derek Cole got paid. You're not Cole.
Speaker 2: You're gonna get pit your money for what you're.
Speaker 3: Deserved, you know, Like that's what the NFL needs. He
Speaker 3: would just who pulls the trigger first, Sam Donald or
Speaker 3: Brock Party. Party's getting paid? Ptty pretty o you paid?
Speaker 1: Yees? Donald. Donald may hang around for a while after
Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: On the tag. Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1: Actually you may hang around for a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: so we'll see what how that goes. Oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: some of the free agents include Elijah Mitchell, Jordan Mason,
Speaker 1: Patrick Taylor. Are we spinning the wheel of forty nine
Speaker 1: or backups again this year?
Speaker 2: We almost have to, right, Yes, it's becoming automatic now, right,
Speaker 2: Like I mean, honestly, you just want to be safety ready,
Speaker 2: so you don't have to get ready.
Speaker 1: I guess Isaac Grindal is still going to be there,
Speaker 1: so get that.
Speaker 2: Jordan Mason. I honestly rather Jordan Mason because I am
Speaker 2: the Jordan Mason stand. But I am okay with taking
Speaker 2: them both. That's how deep I'm willing to go, Like
Speaker 2: I want forty nine ers running back. I'm not convinced
Speaker 2: that CMC is going to be back to form. I'm
Speaker 2: not even convinced he's going to come back to play
Speaker 2: a full sixteen seventeen games. Like I mean, we've seen
Speaker 2: this story play out before, Like I mentioned this before
Speaker 2: in the Pond over the summer, Like we've seen him
Speaker 2: lead the league in touches. He played ten games those
Speaker 2: following two seasons.
Speaker 1: I'm calling it now.
Speaker 3: Saturday, April twenty sixth, the forty nine ers will draft
Speaker 3: a running back and the internet will go crazy for him.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's the end of CMC. Like that's going to
Speaker 1: be there, Like that's gonna be some AI clickbaity things
Speaker 1: CMC done. Like that's exactly gonna happen. Wow. Last one,
Speaker 1: the number twelve pick, goes to the Dallas Cowboys. They
Speaker 1: were seven and ten. Well, wait right, ceede Lamb, We'll
Speaker 1: see thee Lamb again. One hundred and one catches, almost
Speaker 1: twelve hundred yards, six touchdowns, wide receiver eight, and that
Speaker 1: was because miss the final two games, was shut down
Speaker 1: with the shoulder injury. Rico Daudo eventually became a good
Speaker 1: thing when they realized that, hey man, it's not twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen and Ezekee Elliott didn't have it like that anymore.
Speaker 1: Rego down finish with thirteen hundred scrimmag yards thirty nine catches,
Speaker 1: five total touchdowns was the running back twenty three. Uh
Speaker 1: what went wrong? Well, basically, their defense was terrible for
Speaker 1: a good chunk of the season, and Dak Prescott missed
Speaker 1: nine games with a hamstring injury. But we talked a
Speaker 1: lot about quarterbacks, Siliquan, A healthy Dak Prescott is quarterback.
Speaker 2: Blank, quarterback blank. Now we could put him in that
Speaker 2: range of QB twelve through fifteen because we know we're
Speaker 2: gonna get thirty touchdowns forty five hundred passing yards from
Speaker 2: a healthy deck. Like, I don't think there would be
Speaker 2: any type of alterar, you know, with the coaching there, Like,
Speaker 2: I think the connection between him and CD Lamb remained
Speaker 2: the same. So I would be willing if I was
Speaker 2: a buyer into the circus, if I wanted to get
Speaker 2: a ticket to go there, But I personally wouldn't be
Speaker 2: drafting him this year. And I definitely feel as though
Speaker 2: if you go out there, you have to have in mind,
Speaker 2: like the expectations like, hey, guys are going to hurt. Hey,
Speaker 2: it's the circus. Hey guys are unhappy even paid, Like
Speaker 2: these are all the psychological expectations you're getting with this
Speaker 2: player on your roster, and like that's how I approach
Speaker 2: the draft. I don't want to be part of the circus.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to purchase a ticket to the circus.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so that makes a question then Florida.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, the rumor is that Jerry Jones
Speaker 1: has interest in bringing in Beyond Sanders to be the
Speaker 1: head coach. I mean, I know you don't watch a
Speaker 1: ton of college football, but even not watching college football,
Speaker 1: you could not miss the phenomenon that was coach Prime
Speaker 1: when he got to Boulder, Colorado. You know, there's a
Speaker 1: there's a dot you series that about a thing that's
Speaker 1: happening right now. Like if he does become the head
Speaker 1: coach of the Dallas Cowboys, knowing that the show is
Speaker 1: coming with him, does that impact how you feel about
Speaker 1: drafting those players, like the circus part of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, What I'm more concerned about is like what
Speaker 3: style of offense is he gonna run? Is he gonna
Speaker 3: be conservative? Is he gonna pass a lot? Is he
Speaker 3: How different is it going to look from past years?
Speaker 3: And that, to me is something that I have tried
Speaker 3: to mitigate in my draft, is as little variance as like,
Speaker 3: especially in my early round picks, Like quarterback changes is
Speaker 3: a huge red flag for me. Play calling changes is
Speaker 3: a big red flag for me. And there are times
Speaker 3: where they bring in a new play caller and it
Speaker 3: could be a positive, like I was really excited for
Speaker 3: like Kellen Moore with the Eagles this year and Dave
Speaker 3: Canalis with the Panthers and stuff like that. But at
Speaker 3: the same time, I was not excited at all about
Speaker 3: like Greg Roman with the Chargers, So.
Speaker 1: It goes both ways.
Speaker 3: I would have to dive deeper into what his offenses
Speaker 3: looked like at Colorado because, like you said, all I
Speaker 3: know is the spectacle of what Dion was. But yeah,
Speaker 3: to me, Dak is in that big tier after the
Speaker 3: top five, like he could easily finish QB six or
Speaker 3: he could finish q BE fourteen, and I wouldn't be
Speaker 3: all that surprised either way.
Speaker 1: So I will who knows if he gets hired and
Speaker 1: who he brings with him. Currently, I will tell you
Speaker 1: that his offensive coordinator is Pat Shermer at the University
Speaker 1: of Colorado, so you can go back and find some
Speaker 1: more Pat Shermer offenses.
Speaker 2: Do you think he's just the Dan Campbell just the
Speaker 2: culture of the team, Like he's just going to bring
Speaker 2: in the energy and just have the offensive coordinator run
Speaker 2: his offense like I could kind of see that happening.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no, I think that's that's exactly like I
Speaker 1: think whoever his coordinators are would would run the you know,
Speaker 1: rat that side of the ball.
Speaker 2: He would just be the mouthpiece, he'd be the master.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it just it just feels like even
Speaker 1: more of a circus. And I know the Cowboys are
Speaker 1: a circus in and of themselves, like they are a
Speaker 1: show like no other.
Speaker 2: They love the circuits.
Speaker 1: But at the same time they love it. But I mean,
Speaker 1: I sent you guys that meme. Right, the last time
Speaker 1: the Cowboys won an NFC championship game, the Baltimore Ravens
Speaker 1: didn't exist. Oh, like out look, it's bringing in revenue.
Speaker 1: Who I'm bad at capitalism, so like it's making money.
Speaker 1: So I guess nothing's really gonna change there. But man,
Speaker 1: if I'm a fan, I'm frustrated, like I don't want
Speaker 1: At some point, I don't want the circus anymore. I
Speaker 1: just I just I want to go to Super Bowl. Well.
Speaker 2: I have a buddy who's a Cowboys fan and the
Speaker 2: Knicks fan, and he he texted me his misery all
Speaker 2: the time. Sorry, I know you're a Knicks fan too.
Speaker 1: Times are better there. He's got the bills in the Mets.
Speaker 1: He's fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're good.
Speaker 1: The Knicks are top seed in the East right now.
Speaker 2: Look, he's happy somewhat, but his Cowboys have not been
Speaker 2: great since he's been like five years old.
Speaker 3: You know, Marcus, your point about the Ravens Jayden Daniels
Speaker 3: was not was negative four years old.
Speaker 2: The last time the Cowboys played in the Super Bowl
Speaker 2: negative four years yikes.
Speaker 3: Well even thought of wasn't born Anthony Rich like the
Speaker 3: numerous starting quarterbacks were not even alive. The last time
Speaker 3: was the iPod out?
Speaker 1: No? No, no, absolutely not. The I pod was like
Speaker 1: the late two thousands.
Speaker 2: Were we even on AOL Messenger? Like, were we on aim?
Speaker 1: I don't think, Yeah, I don't think. I don't think
Speaker 1: AOL was around because it really wasn't a big deal
Speaker 1: at that point. Wow, we were getting disc melt. Oh man, Oh.
Speaker 2: Wow, Cowboys fans hate the pod.
Speaker 1: By the way, speaking of the Cowboys for people who
Speaker 1: also love cowboy misery, you know, the the NFC Championship
Speaker 1: Game is a matchup of former Dallas Cowboy coordinators. Oh
Speaker 1: it's just last season, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: Wow, But I guess Kellen Moore was two years ago
Speaker 3: because last she was with the chart.
Speaker 1: But still still the point wow of recent Cowboy coordinators
Speaker 1: there it is all right.
Speaker 2: That was today was fun.
Speaker 3: You know, Cowboys fans thought like if he said NFC East,
Speaker 3: two teams from it are in the NFC Championship game,
Speaker 3: They're thinking it's them in Philly all the way, all
Speaker 3: year long.
Speaker 1: Yeah, life comes at your fast, very fast. Go ahead
Speaker 1: say the saying say it.
Speaker 4: Cowboy fans, this is right here, man, Cowboys, Lions, your
Speaker 4: mentions are gonna be rough to.
Speaker 3: I just got to deal with the Ravens fans. You got,
Speaker 3: you got the whole NFC coming for you.
Speaker 2: I don't care. Bring them, bring them Lions fans have
Speaker 2: fun in Cowbo, Dan Campbell, you learned his lesson humble
Speaker 2: pie has been served.
Speaker 3: My favorite part about it that was they made it
Speaker 3: just as far as you guys did.
Speaker 2: They lost first.
Speaker 3: You know what, when a team plays on Saturday and
Speaker 3: my team like, I'm like, all right, we made it
Speaker 3: further than you, even though technically give you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's hilarious, that's funny. All right. Obviously, we'll be
Speaker 1: back with you on Thursday. We'll have some more exit
Speaker 1: interviews and will also preview the n f C and
Speaker 1: a f C Championship game, So stick around for that.
Speaker 1: The meantime that'll do it for this edition of the
Speaker 1: NFL Fantasy Football podcast, The Happy, Safe and LV do
Speaker 1: good and Live Well. We'll talk to you in a
Speaker 1: couple of days.