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To the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore. And Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Thursday, July 6th.
Happy to be with you at the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Mike Wright, Jason Moore. I'm Andy Holloway. Ducers alley.
It's full. It's all happening, man. Al is here. The judge is here.
And the rap's scallion. Back again. And somewhere, there's a borgouken. Just in the mist.
In the darkness. Where are the people alone? Floating around. I think he's on the microphone.
Say hi, Kyle. Hi, Kyle. Oh, come on. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Buss it. Oh, man. No, he hit.
Half the audience dropped. Yeah. It's gone. I don't blame him.
You're free to leave now. You're alert. You're OK. You can take off.
Nothing to see here. Oh, boy. I made the joke in my head before you did it. Yeah.
But that's where it stayed. Sometimes there's thoughts and it's OK to have them. We have a truce of bad thoughts, but you leave them with thoughts. Throw the mute on him.
There, Al. And we're good to go. Don't have to take action. We have a great show for you today.
AMC North Breakdown. This is how you know that football is around the corner. When the Divisional Series hits on the Fantasy Footballers, you're going to get good, hard-hitting, deep analysis of these divisions and all these teams. And it means that training camp is mere moments away, which is so exciting and wild that we're already there.
AMC North today got such good feedback. If you didn't get a chance to listen to the Saturday episode last night, thank you, Mike. Thank you. I've got your little PTSD.
Yeah, a little bit. Madison Flash before my eyes. But the mock draft, Mayhem episode on Saturday, check that out. It was a lot of fun.
Mike threw Jason and I for a loop throughout the draft. We had to react to it. And it was a lot of fun. And we're going to do some more of those down the line.
We'll probably do quite a few mock drafts over the next month as we get things going. This week on the Dynasty Podcast, which released yesterday, the top 10 wide receiver rankings, and Mike made a big Dynasty trade. He talked about it on the Dynasty Podcast. So big name player, regressive.
Go check it out. I walk you through the entire process of how the trade went down. Which honestly, a lot of people ask about details on our leagues. And so we didn't have a show that released on the 4th of July.
Hopefully everybody out there had a very fun, relaxing, exciting, whatever. Safe. Safe, yeah. 4th of July.
I mean, it was loud. And hot. Hot and loud. Happy fourth, everyone.
But no episode on Tuesday. Why are you relaxing? So we had the Dynasty show yesterday. And then today we've got the AFC North breakdown.
Lots to talk about there. The Ultimate Draft Kit, you heard it at the top. It is available now, including with the UDK Plus. We have the draft analyzer available.
So what's the Ultimate Draft Kit? It is the singular resource that you can use to prepare for your drafts. It has our tier based rankings inside of them, premium snap projections, player profile videos. Something we haven't talked a lot about.
It has custom cheat sheet, custom cheat creator that lets you import your scoring settings. All of our sleepers, breakouts, buzz values. Really neat tools to mark players, right? Players that you want to stay away from in the draft, players that you want to target.
We added the upside meters to the rankings this year. You've got the consistency charts, which lets you look at players' performances week over week trying to determine how you build that roster, the nuance of drafting reliable players, high upside players. And yeah, you have to check it out Ultimate Draft Kit.com. A lot of effort from the entire team is put into that product and it updates all off season long.
So it is not like the magazines arriving in stores these days where it's printed. And then if something changes, you're kind of stuck there. We update it all the time. So Ultimate Draft Kit.com for that.
Let's talk news. News and notes from around the league. Let's start with some great news. Yeah.
Saints tight end, Foster Merrell, formerly of the Raiders, signed a contract this offseason. He has announced that he is in full remission from Hodgkin's lymphoma. This was a, I mean, the fact that he had Hodgkin's lymphoma was a news, breaking news story just months ago. And we didn't know if he'd signed with the team if he'd be back in a year or two.
So I mean, he's a good tight end. He really is. So along with Johnson and Johnson. And now, you know, another bit of news that tastes Hill hopes his role of all into more receptions.
We hope for things. It's not going to. Yeah. I mean, but some, I mean, some is going to hurt Johnson and Foster Merrell.
Like that sounds like a tight end room that you're not going to know where the receptions go week to week. Yeah. But coming in, I thought, I thought, Johnson was one of those late round tight ends that I wanted to target. He showed flashes was great around the goal line.
But Foster Merrell is no slouch. You know, he's, he's a really competent tight end that this team went out and signed for a decent chunk of money. Share that workload. And unfortunately, that means for fantasy, I think both will be mostly irrelevant.
Don't forget the connection, right? Because their car, Foster Merrell, that's, that's obviously one of the reasons they pursued him is the familiarity and, you know, 30 plus receptions last couple of years, probably not fantasy relevant. Like you said, he's going to hurt the other players. I guess we have a little bit of type season type season, but it's not like a train or the Kevin O'Connell talking about KJ Osborne.
I bring it up because all the discussion around the Vikings has been either Dalvin Cook leaving or Jordan Addison arriving or Justin Jefferson just being himself. KJ Osborne had some very, very big games last year. Head coach saying he's a real standout during off season practices. Also as a leader on the field, you had games where he had 10 for 157 last year, seven for 59 and a touchdown.
Three of the last four weeks, he was in the top 13. I wonder if there's some sleeper relevance here for Osborn. Yeah, I personally doubt it a little bit. Not that he won't have decent games or is irrelevant for like, if you're doing an underdog best ball league that's going 18 rounds.
He's been a standout at Camp, it's worth noting that Jordan Addison has not been to camp. So everything that's being run right now, KJ Osborne is the two. He's getting the opportunity to run that role. So it's good to hear that he's doing well.
It's just rare for a year four wide receiver to really beat. It can happen to Monty Parker, but it's not common for a player who hasn't really broken out through three years in his career to take a leap forward in his fourth year. I would imagine it's more likely that Jordan Addison, their first round rookie pick, is the two and KJ Osborne plays the same role he played last year. He's just doing well in Addison's absence right now.
Yeah, I think it's a big question mark until Addison's on the field improves something to us. Undisclosed injury. We don't know what Addison's injury is right now. And let's not forget Justin Jefferson didn't get playing time at the very beginning of his rookie season and you know who he is.
So what I'm saying is like maybe the first three or four weeks of the year, you've got a player you could play in KJ Osborne. It's unlikely to mean that Addison comes out week one with more targets than KJ Osborne personally. But we'll see what camp looks like. Yeah.
Tara Smarshall Jr. I don't know why I bring him up. Because Kyle put it in here. I mean, do I read the quotes?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me hear it. Frank Reich saying he's been shown. He shows the capacity to kind of be a big play guy.
Yeah, that's some glowing. This is the Panthers. Thank you, Brooks. Who is this?
Bruxy Panthers 30 or wide receiver in case you've never heard of Tara Smarshall. If you listen to this show, I mean he locked John. It's so funny because I brought up Adam Thelin. You guys won't have no interest.
We bring up Jonathan Mingo. You pretty much have no interest because of the rookie quarterback. And here we are with Tara Smarshall. Year three.
Oh, I have a negative interest. Yeah, to be fair. Yeah. I also have no interest in Tara Smarshall who last year when it looked like there was a path forward for him to be the one because they traded.
Yeah, exactly. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. They did that in the office. Yeah.
But I traded a second rounder for Tara Smarshall. I was just going to call him a shot. Maybe he'll take that step forward. And then this offseason, they're like, Tara Smarshall's our one.
We got a draft. So we got to sign it Adam Thelin. We can't just stay here. And yeah, he's going into year three.
He's still a baby boy. Twenty three years old. Just turned 23. So he's a very young wide receiver, but it's not going to happen for him.
KJ, I was born in Tara Smarshall Jr. I'll take Tara Smarshall. I'm just not because I think he's better. That's a great question.
I would guess he had 750 yards in five or six touchdowns. Okay. You actually gave him more than what he had. Okay.
Well, six, 50, and five had seven touchdowns a year before. 60 receptions. I was I had a lot of 70 receptions for KJ Osmell. Under.
Really? Yeah. Okay. You don't like it.
That's okay. You don't have to like it. Full disclosure. I think that there is always, you know, the personal experience.
You know, we play fantasy. We love fantasy football. It's not just our job. And I had a lot of shares of KJ Osmell.
I saw a path for Adam feeling step in the way and KJ Osmell is born in year three. To take that step forward, I've watched him a lot in those games and rooted for it to happen. And while he had a few big games, it just felt like he didn't have what it takes to step forward. So it might just be my scars of disappointment from last year that is kind of influencing my negativity towards.
It happens. I mean, certainly no guarantee for him to take a step forward. I don't know what that offense is going to look like exactly without. I mean, Adam, they've been there so long and Calvin cooks been there so long.
And we still don't have an answer on the aged Zeke and Hopkins and Dalvin and they are waiting to skip training. Yeah, they are waiting to take it slow. Any other news, Bruxy? Any other third, fourth, fifth string, wide receiver?
We can talk about Romeo Dobbs if you want. There's so hype around him taking the next step. It keeps happening. That's off season from Romeo Dobbs.
Last off season too. He's getting the leap for one year. Well, I just mean like this is the time of year that he has predominantly been talked about. He had some really good games last year.
As far as how he started, he started pretty strong. Yeah, I thought I mean, four for 37 and two for 27 is strong. Eight for 73 after that, five for 47. That was his best game.
That was his best game. I mean, he was a rookie, but he is getting the hype right now. Being rumored that he's established the number one target connection. I previous to that had him as the target leader here.
I still don't think he's the best fantasy asset. Christian Watson is far more explosive. But I think Dobbs is a decent player. The question is just in the quarterback's port.
On another piece of news with a quarterback that can support someone. Have you guys seen the Skymore hype? Oh, no. Now he's getting a little bit of love from Andy Reid who is coming out saying that he was very good.
He might have been the target leader through what they've done so far. And so he could see him taking a big step forward. Again, this is just hype fluff piece from your head coach. I mean, what do you want him to say?
It's good. But it's part of the narrative of the offseason. Like it's hearing it now. You're just okay.
I'm going to tune my ear in. Do I hear more in a couple of weeks about Skymore or Romeo Dobbs? Like it's the steady drum beat of the offseason. And if it keeps going, then that reaches a volume that you should not ignore and that these players are worth your time.
Worth a late round draft pick. Yeah, I think that's cool to hear. Skymore is a player that has tons of potential and just didn't have tons of opportunity and then didn't do a lot with the opportunity he had. But I do like him more than the first year Rice situation.
I agree. Not tight. This doesn't change. No, no.
No, I don't think we already bet on this. I think we did. I think we did. We have it on hearts.
I suppose we have. All right. Moving on. Let's get divisional.
Well, Mike said it. Here we go. The divisional breakdown shows. We're ready for an NFL season.
We go through every division. It's kind of a general overview of the teams. We look at offseason changes from 2022 to this year, 2023. Maybe we discuss the ways that the offense could function and eventually we will weigh in on who we think will take this division down last year.
The Bengals won the division at 12 and four. 12 and four because they didn't play. They had one fewer game than everybody else. Baltimore, 10 and seven, Pittsburgh, 9 and 8, the Browns at 7 and 10.
Fun fact of the division, all four teams went three and three in the division last year. So when playing one another, they all have the same record. Interesting. And they are the only division in this upcoming year where all four teams are projected for over eight and a half wins.
It makes sense. This is probably the best division in the NFL. I mean, I think there's like three divisions you could argue for. But to me, if Baltimore can step up and we'll get to the Browns here in a minute, then it's just for really, really well-run teams.
It's why, and I'm sure Tomlin will spend the year proving me wrong, but it's why I'm really not enthusiastic about the Steelers taking a big step forward is because they have a monumental quarterback gap compared to the other three teams in the division. Lamar, Burrow, Watson, proven, established elite quarterback play, a step up for Kenny Pickett, even to the point where we're like, yeah, not so bad. It would still be so far below it that, but Tomlin proves it's wrong every year. So we'll see what happens.
I'm curious where you guys will have the division in terms of top to bottom. We might all have the same winner. I don't know. But let's start with Cincinnati.
Last year had a preseason win total of 10 this year. It is 11 and a half into the year on a game winning streak. It was another great year. And they have such consistency on that offense.
You know what to expect when you talk about fantasy football and projecting things. I really like when I have to talk about Joe Burrow and T Higgins and Jamar Chase and the expectations there. They added Irv Smith at tight end. They lost Hayden Hurst at tight end.
They lost some on J.P. Run. And so a couple of the question marks on this team are going to be, could you find fantasy value at the tight end position this year? It was intermittent two years ago with C.J.
Usama. It was intermittent last year with Hayden Hurst. I imagine that's where we're headed with Irv Smith. Yeah, I agree.
I'm not, you know, I won't go crazy with it. Let Irv swerve when the we'll see if that gets going there on Twitter. Again, this year, but it will, there's just, I don't know that there's enough to go around because you have such a high concentration of the targets to Higgins and Chase. Last year, we're talking, they vacated 86 targets to the tight end position for the possibility of Irv Smith and Tyler Boyd is still there.
And then the running backs. I mean, I think they're just, they can, they play clean up duty for the tight end position over there. So should you find yourself in a really juicy matchup, then you could be willing to go in. But it's, it's hard to see a world where Irv Smith is like a weekly plug and play type of a sleeper at the tight end position.
No, I would agree with you. I don't think he's going to be a locked and loaded guy. Anyone outside of the top three or four tight ends aren't really locked and loaded where you just ignore the position. But I do think that there will be weeks, I mean, you know, Andy, you just mentioned C.D.
Zama, he won people a lot of money on the right weeks when you play the DFS lineup and you get that double touchdown game, you want a quarterback like Joe Burroughs, someone that, you know, 34 touchdowns two years ago, 35 touchdowns this last year. And the narrative that we were talking about with Joe Burrough last year was will they allow him to truly take the team over and because it feels almost silly now to remember those questions because they did he went from 400 pass attempts as rookie year to 520 to 606 pass attempts this last year. It's his team is a pass first team and with their weapons, they're going to be outstanding. I know we have kind of grouped him together with Justin Herbert a little bit for fantasy purposes, those mostly pocket quarterbacks that are going to throw, you know, 5,000 yards and can throw 40 touchdowns.
And but also you have to throw 35 plus touchdowns to really pay off on the on the fantasy value. You know, he's done it the last two years. Yeah, I mean, it reminds me of Stafford in Detroit with Calvin Johnson. When you have kind of a top five wide receiver physical force touchdown maker in Jamar Chase and then a very good wide receiver and he Higgins, it assures a pretty good baseline.
I mean, we trusted before last year, obviously the age caught up to him, but we trusted Tom Brady in Tampa, pocket passer, elite weapons and Godwin and Evans feel similar to me. Zach Taylor's 50 years gone from two wins to 10 wins to 12 wins. 14 wins and could have easily been fired after a two or four win season stuck with him. And like you said, he got out of the way.
He let Joe Baro take this team over second and pass rate of over expectation second and expected points per play. Burrow last year. He was great second and passing touchdowns fourth and fancy points per game, shift and passing yards is the third round to rich for him in terms of fantasy decision making. Yep.
Yeah, I've you dropped them anywhere. Um, I don't think so. I don't think I have. I mean, I'd love to have Joe Burrow on my team, but the investment of a third rounder, that's that's too much for me.
How are you guys handling the backup running situation or running back situation? So why do you P run gone? We don't know exactly who it will be. They did take Chase Brown in the fifth round, I believe this year and Trevion Williams just keeps keeps getting NFL career going.
He has done very, very, very little in his career. We're talking. We're heading into year five here and he has seen 57 opportunities in his career, but he's he is back yet again. And there is there's there's room on the bangles for a backup for the backup running back to do something for sure.
I mean, you saw some on a P Ryan be very relevant last year. Um, and Samaje is gone. So someone here matters and they've talked up Trevion Williams quite quite a bit, but I am personally ignoring that. They've had all the opportunity in the world to allow him to do something.
They had games where Joe Nixon missed last year and Trevion was on the roster and healthy and active. He had six total carries. Like, I don't think that he is the, I don't think they really actually like him. I would put my money more on the incoming rookie.
That's assuming that Joe Nixon is in tow. And that's why I don't agree with the contention that someone's going to matter. I don't think somebody has to matter here out of that group because so much of he reminds influence was trust. I mean, third down high value situations.
I don't know what their trust level is with a rookie on third down and I certainly have seen Trevion Williams for a couple of years. This is a prime destination for a late training camp preseason. Uh, trust worthy back to come in. And right now, you know, there was some news over the past weekend, both sides, mixing in the Bengals when a resolution to his situation soon.
All signs point to him being coming back at this point and being there running back. They made no effort to secure somebody else for that situation. So if you took a shot on him and best ball this offseason, I think your odds of it hitting is going to be very high. And look, if he can catch the football, there's nothing wrong with Joe mixed and catching the football.
So if they don't trust those other two guys to pass block the way, I mean, P. Ryan has always scored very high in that in that area. So I was a little surprised I didn't bring him back. But I think it's possible Joe mixed and just like Nick Chub this year, where they had tremendous trust in Kareem Hunt, Hunt's gone and you don't know who the next guy is and whether you trust them on third down.
So Chub might get more targets. I think mixing could surprise. Yeah. I mean, what you want for fantasy is you want depth charts that look like this.
You want a dude and then just complete unknowns that have done nothing in the NFL and have no draft capital or investment there. That that's two of the teams in this division. So yeah, you know, it's still a volatile pick to look at mixing right now because, you know, the quote is they want a resolution soon. Well, the other side of that is that means it's unresolved currently.
So I'm still a little bit of risk, but this isn't like an injury risk where you know a player is incapable in this moment and you're buying a dip. This is a situation where you're taking an educated gamble that the resolution will come, I believe it will. And then it should play off because he's just his opportunity for scoring on this offense with this depth chart is outstanding. Yeah, there are a lot of backup running back situations that don't play out like Smudge of P-Rine and they play out like, you know, Arizona last year where it's James Connor and then it's just, okay, here, Corey Clemente gets some carries, count to Ingram gets some carries.
Oh, you know, Benjamin, we're going to give you 70 and then cut you and then, you know, it's just kind of a mess. And if Travion didn't have so much time in the league, I guess it'd be easier to get behind it. Did you mark Jason T Higgins? Yes.
That's just your analysis is yes. Yeah, I don't think we need to dive too deep into that. Tyler Boyd contract year. Charlie Jones added to the roster.
I don't think I think Tyler Boyd is exactly the same category as you would have with like Irv Smith, which is the matchups right and injury to the players ahead of him and maybe you roll him in there and hope you get one of those deep throws. Yeah. Fair. Yeah.
And their first four matchups, Cleveland, Baltimore. So two divisional matchups start the year, including on the road in Cleveland. That'll probably be a pretty interesting game there where Cleveland has Watson coming into really his first year with an off-season program. All right, quick break and back with the Ravens.
Well, let's talk about Baltimore. This team had so much unknown to begin the off-season. Last year, the preseason wind total was 9.5. They went 10 and 7.
And they finished the ever Tyler Huntley and Anthony Brown starting games at quarterback has been kind of how they choose to end the year the last couple of years. You were talking about Tyler Huntley, a pro baller too much at the end of these years this year. The wind totals the same nine and a half. But when we began this off season, we didn't know if Lamar would be back.
We also didn't have really any wide receiver core to speak up. And, you know, most of our discussion was, what are they going to do? And is JK two leg dubins going to be important. Lamar's back five year, 190 guaranteed.
Mike, you have the highest in our rankings right now at three. He's ranked at five when you look at our consensus ranking. He's being drafted at five. I don't have any problem taking the shot at him at three.
I do think it is very risky with the last couple of years. And even though the right wide receiver room looks better with names, I'm not sure exactly what they have right now because, you know, I know we've we've talked about, Hey, we're kind of excited about Z flower. So that's a rookie. Yeah, Rashad Bateman has had many flashes, but many MA and Y injuries.
And then you have Odell Beckham with a big contract. And then there's been video. I don't know if you've seen that of Beckham and looking like vintage Beckham. It's got some good Alan Robinson video.
Actually, it was the wide receiver coach watching him do a couple one-handed catches and then saying, Oh man, I like that. I like that. And then all the other receivers saying, no, you don't. You always tell us not to do that.
I was going to be shocked. And then he goes, but him for him, I do. Yeah, coaches. I mean, I mean, they cannot like that at all.
I guess I look at that story with Peyton Manning. No, if one of his wide receivers caught a one-handed catch, he had him benched. That's funny. But he hits Odell Beckham.
Unless it's Odell Beckham. Earned, I guess, he earned like 10 years with one catch. But it's like, look, sometimes your only attempt at a ball is a one-handed catch. But catch with you.
You got two hands using both. I'm very excited for this team with the switch of the offensive coordinator. We have Todd Monkin, who's coming in. He's been in college the last couple of years.
You know, Georgia may have heard them having some success. Successful championships. But we're going to have a pass heavy approach. Well, at least so here's what's happened.
Todd Monkin, in his time in the NFL has been very pass heavy, very high on the pass over expectation. So like, if it's a neutral situation, Todd Monkin likes to pass. You know, he likes to air it out. That's what we, the information we had coming into it.
Now we already have confirmation from the small amounts of practicing that the Ravens have been doing from the Mars saying, Oh, yeah, we're going to be throwing the ball a whole lot more than we were with Greg Roman as our offensive coordinator. That's huge because we want more points coming through the air for the Mar Jackson on top of that, Todd Monkin's office is going to move faster. You had you had the snail pace of Greg Roman where we're not throwing enough. And on top of that, we're intentionally trying to slow the game down.
Let's get more plays in there. More passing attempts will turn into like that won't take away from rushing attempts from Lamar Jackson. You're going to have Lamar still do his things of the first read, second reason out there. I'm going to go like Lamar Jackson is still part of who he is as a quarterback.
I think he's going to run a ton that I like his wide receivers. Very, we're at the point. Yes. We don't know who it's going to be.
We aren't sure that these guys aren't fully proven in the NFL, but we've seen enough from I've seen I should say enough from Rashad Bateman to know this guy can play. He can make some things happen. Odell Beckham. I'm less bullish on.
I think that that time has come and gone. But with Rashad Bateman, Mark Andrews, and then Zay Flower is getting some time to acclimate and be a super stud route running wide receiver. I am very, very excited for all fantasy possibilities for not just Lamar Jackson, but the Ravens as a team. The possibilities were it is important.
And I think I'm the least excited of the three of us. I see the path. There's no doubt. I mean, he had a 36 touchdown year in 2019.
However, the performance on the field hasn't been, I mean, you can blame an offensive coordinator all you want. He's still made mistakes. He's fumbled the football 16 touchdowns, 17 touchdowns. He's a DNR consistency.
35% of his games are in a place where fantasy players are excited about him in his last 17. Sure. But so there's a lot of things that you can blame, but this is not one year. This is three years where people have been disappointed.
They've been disappointed in the pick three consecutive years in Lamar Jackson. So I can see the path, but I don't want that to be ignored. Like I feel like we have been wanting good for Lamar in personnel and coaching for so long that we're imbuing only a good scenario. And I guess I'm saying like, what's the, I mean, how do we get the same that we've gotten from this team?
Cause he's been 10, 15 and 14 the last three years. Well, he's missed games. And obviously if he misses games, he's not going to be a top 12 quarterback on a perot a huge risk. I'm a massive risk for him.
Sure. I mean, it's a massive risk for a lot of mobile quarterbacks, but the mobile quarterbacks ones were taking the risk on. You want a guy who can finish as the number one quarterback and Lamar Jackson absolutely can't on a per touch basis. He scores a ton of fantasy points.
He doesn't touch the ball enough because they run so slow. Mike brought it up. But it's worth, you know, repeating the pace of play to me is the most important thing on the offense and pace of play last year. Exactly.
I mean, this is a, this has been a team that has run one of the slowest sluggish offices. And when you listen to the players talk, yeah, I know that some of the quotes were, Oh, we're going to throw more, run less. But most of the quotes, if you really are listening, they're all about playing faster about pace of play, about speed, speeding the game up. That's what I am so excited about.
And yeah, we don't know if Bateman is great. We don't know if I'll back him still got it. We don't know if Zay Flowers is going to be good enough to be worthy of that first round pick. But what we do know is that those options are way better than what he has dealt with recently, especially last year.
When he had Mark Andrews and Hollywood Brown, he was the number one quarterback in fantasy. We know he doesn't need a ton. He's got Mark Andrews. So now this trifecta of options at wide receiver, like I am fully in on the Marjax and I completely understand what Andy's saying, that there's risk with injury and that he's disappointed for a couple of years in a row.
But when I'm trying to play fantasy, he's going to play this entire season, age 26. He is a young prime athlete who can run the ball is going to play faster. And I think he'll turn the ball a little bit more in this new offense. But we've seen that before with this coordinator, where it works out pretty well for fantasy, maybe not as well for winning football games.
But I'm completely in on. I'm not spending a third round pick on the mark. I'm not doing that. Yeah, I mean, would you do it?
Would you take any quarterback in the third? Who's going there? I should say, like, are you, are you willing to take Maro in the third? I think I think that I take burrows going like a 3-11.
So my, if you had asked me that on Burro, I would have said, if he slips into the fourth, I'm thinking about Burro. The target is like Herbert later. Yeah, I'm not saying that. I'm looking at teams that ran the most plays last year.
And it's not like a laundry list of fantasy quarterback champions in terms of total plays. I mean, you have to have both efficiency and pace of play. You need both. But that's where I'm excited because Lamar Jackson is efficient on his fantasy value.
But you know, just because you play fast doesn't mean you're a good team. Yeah. I mean, like the Chargers, they were like number two. Tampa is number one.
We struggled with both of those quarterbacks. Arizona was number three. Obviously, Kyler eventually went out. Washington was four and total plays per game.
Washington didn't have a big performance. You're right. It has to be efficiency. And, but I guess the area of excitement with Baltimore that confuses me is that everybody's going to be great.
Mark Anderson is going to be great. Job is supposed to be great. Lamar's supposed to be great. Bateman's supposed to be great.
Zay's supposed to be great. That's not going to happen. No, it's not. This division is brutal.
We just talked about that. That's where to me I'm in on Lamar Jackson because I don't know if it's a flowers. I don't know if it's Bateman. If he's healthy, I don't know if I'm still back.
I'm still got it. They sure are paying him like he still got it. I'm not sure, but I know that all their fans, sports goes back to Lamar Jackson. If any one of them is great and Mark Andrews is good.
So I'm on the Ravens in general, but that doesn't mean I'm in on every single player. It to me, it's Mark Andrews and Lamar Jackson are the two that I want pieces of. Do you think there is a chance at all that it's not Bateman? It's not flowers.
It's not Beckham. It's Isaiah likely. Yeah, I mean, I love Isaiah likely. It's my case against Mark Andrews being guaranteed elite because he's a talented player that will demand some targets because he's coming into his second year.
Isaiah likely he's the other tight end in Baltimore. He the other guy. He had, you know, just very athletic. I think he had a few games.
You know, you had week eight, six for 77 with a score. You had the final week. It was the Andrews missing. Yeah, yeah, the final week of the season.
But that's the point of if if in your first year as a rookie, when you are thrust into being the main guy for that team and you then you come through, it's he is he's interesting to me. And I'm curious if we'll be talking about him like in the middle of the season. We have not talked about Nelson Aguilar, but he has been. Yes.
He has been talking about by the coaching staff as well. So to Jason's point about liking Lamar distribution of targets. Maybe more difficult to predict. You're just trusting the mar to put up numbers with whomever he's given.
Last year, it was like the Marcus Robinson was the player he was starting because that was the last man up. Um, so they get to open against the Houston Texans. They do at home part of like part of fantasy. If you want to play the just the mind game of he will not have a bad game in week one.
Yeah, he will not. That was my point of sometimes it's tough when you have these guys. You love them long term, but you know that drafting them. Oh my gosh, look at these first two games.
This is going to have to suffer through this. I'm going to have to deal with the mental attack of going through those two weeks of. Wait, did I screw this up? Was this was this a bad pick?
Because the schedule was so tough. I believe last year, the last year, Lamar had a monster week one. He's always the number one. I think week one and week two is starting.
Very, I guess I am just I am fatigued because that you could after an MVP year. You can always look at the next season and say he's going to be an MVP again. It's just been a long, long time since we've been happy with it. It has been.
I think it'll come through, but it's worth at least bringing up because we're talking about the Houston Texans schedule. Last year, the Houston Texans were one of the absolute worst teams to play a quarterback against because they were so bad and running backs had such an easy time. And by halftime, you were up multiple scores. I remember eventually learning the lesson of yeah, the Texans suck, but you cannot play quarterback against them.
I remember it was a never Lawrence at the end of the year had just a great point to point in not because he played bad. Yes, they didn't need him play half. All three wide receivers that we talked about. I'm going to make it brief.
Bateman flowers back on. We're just going to call them exactly tied in an MVP because they basically right lock one into your lineup today. I think I still lean Rashad Bateman. I don't like the fact that he's coming off the Liz Frank injury talking.
We talked Rashad Bateman on the Dynasty podcast and Matthew Betts, our injury guy was on there saying expect a slower start to the season for Rashad Bateman, especially with the news that he had the the cortisol shot into the foot. That's what's saying. That is not normal for the recovery of the Liz Frank. So that is something to pay attention to.
But I did like that Lamar Jackson was quite vocal of saying Rashad Bateman is my number one wide receiver. I'll take the last one drafted. That would be Odell Beckham right now by. Yeah, whatever happens in my draft, I will take the last shot.
It's ironic. I will I will take a flowers. So in truth, I'll take none of them. I don't want one of these wide receivers.
I don't believe one of them will have a phenomenal year. JK Dobbins right now, he's going to be the guy. We're talking about this team completely transforming their offensive philosophy, quarterback that can score around the goal line. You have JK Dobbins.
It doesn't catch passes. I have a much lower than most of you guys. Yeah. Um, I think you are trusting the offense to just provide opportunities throughout the year is not necessarily going to be predictable, but he'll have a big run.
All the big play, all the big touchdown. I don't I don't love drafting guys that can be touched on, vultured and don't catch the the ball. So I get it if you want to be out on JK Dobbins, why I've got him ranked hires because I believe the offense is going to be good. They've got an awesome offensive line.
And what we've seen from Dobbins has been great every time he's been on the field and now two years recovered from that injury. I think we're going to see the best version of him, but I don't mind passing on him for other guys. If you don't, if you want to pass, get your, it's offense, talent. I love Mark Andrews.
I do love Mark Andrews. I'm in on like Mark Andrews of. And Jacob Dobbins. No, I don't love JK Dobbins.
I am. You just said I love JK Dobbins. That wasn't the quote. I don't know.
I don't listen. Well, it's the time. No, I don't blame you, but I don't believe I use those words. Maybe you don't like the whiteouts.
I don't like the whiteouts. Steelers are nine and eight preseason win total last year, seven and a half. This year is eight and a half. I still think it's going to be a rough road for this team.
But I mean, look, if you need to fix a problem, bring in a guy like Alan Robinson to your Robins. Subtraction by addition. That is the big off season edition, including a third round tight end. Can you pick it is the quarterback went six and two in his eight starts and finally starts posted a 1.8 touchdown rate.
Nice. Was clutch at leading them to field goals over those last eight games. So, you know, the average for a sophomore first round quarterback is 4.6. So he's he should go up because what he did was impossible.
Defying defying all logic. I can tell you that it's going to kill CEOs because I've talked to them. They truly believe that Kenny Pickett is going to be the future. I'm not willing to say that right now.
I think you're going to need a lot more from Kenny Pickett to remotely compete in this division. Can he beat Joe Burrow in a shootout? No. Can he beat Lamar Jackson?
No, not an offensive. No, no, no, no. In a game where you need a big score, that was his biggest weakness last year. This team won on the defensive side of the football.
There were 26 points per game, 23rd in yards, 30 second and passing, touchdowns like we're talking about 24th and passing yards. I mean, you take eight and a half wins. How many other wins? That's their line.
I think they win more because Tomlin will find a way to win more than he loses, which would require nine victories. Is that true? Go nine. Yeah, exactly.
I mean, I sure nine's fine, but, you know, you just talked about the confidence you have in Lamar with the system, finding the weapons. I don't have that here. So I'm trusting the players that I know have produced in the past. I'm not going to, I'm not really excited about George Pickens because the volume of opportunities is worrisome to me and they did bring in Alan Robinson.
Remember, Alan Robinson gets targeted a lot. He may not catch it, but he's going to demand time on the field and I love Pat Fryer-Muth. So from a target perspective, Deontay Fryer-Muth and Alan Robinson, I think we'll have more targets than George Pickens. Do you guys, do you have a different view where you see Pickens as a sleeper?
I don't see Pickens as a sleeper. He obviously had amazing highlight, real performances as a rookie, but when you look at the packing order and the target volume, I do believe that he is down a little lower. I'd have him above Alan Robinson. You know, even still, there's not enough volume for me to really want to go in on him.
The way that I view this offense is a middle of the pack offense and the way that they were last year was a bottom of the pack offense. So that still provides value. It's not, this isn't a team like the Bengals where you're saying this guy can be top five and this guy can be top five. You know, just absolutely putting up 5,000 yards and 40 touchdowns from the quarterback.
That's not going to happen here, but you're not drafting them like that. You've got, I think, nerfed draft capital in the Steelers because of Deontay Johnson's bad year. You're drafting him basically at his floor because of Najee's bad year. Jalen Warren's showing people aren't wanting him.
I've grabbed Najee a lot in the fourth round where I think that's an excellent value for a guy that I believe is going to be much improved with an offensive line that made massive improvements. Huge contracts in the off season, first round draft capital, and they had the sixth offensive lineman in their rookie tight end, Darnell Washington, who's going to be added to the line. You know, I think there's a well-run team that's going to do enough and they're going to score fantasy points and they don't cost a lot. So I see them as small wins.
San Francisco to start the year for Pittsburgh, then they're Cleveland. They're both home games, luckily. And then Raiders in Houston after that. But week one will be the ultimate test.
Yeah. For Kenny Pickett, possible. So trade for Najee after week one. Got it.
Potentially. Yeah, Najee, we've talked about him and Jay in the war in the past. Najee is a volume plate. That's what he's been thus far.
Year one, it was a tremendous amount of receptions that really made that launched him into, I think, top five finish, right? Wasn't he five or six? Yeah, he was way up there. Efficiency on the ground hasn't been there.
Jason likes the offensive line. He was number four and number 14 last year. Good end to the season. Seemed healthier.
Still nervous about a team that was 26 points per game, me personally. Like that's just not part of my draft recipe. So if I have an opportunity to take a running back at a similar range that I think has a higher offensive potential. They were still 11th in rushing touchdowns.
It's balanced out by the 30 seconds in passing touchdowns. Well, this is going to say, you can't have the efficiency of Kenny Pickett improve unless the entire team gets much better in total touchdowns and still have Najee score that much. But he's going to get the ball around the goal line. Who's going in his range?
I'd be curious about whether I'm telling the truth about who I take. I will pull that up for you. Right now he's 306 in draft. That's what I'm seeing.
Yeah. So right around Najee, you've got Travis ETN, Kenneth Walker, and Jamir Gibbs going right behind him. Yeah. I mean, two of those three I'll definitely take over Najee, ETN and Gibbs.
The other one was... Kenneth Walker. ... probably.
I lean Najee over all of those guys personally, but you can make easy arguments both ways. That is... Man, I think of those four guys I'll still take Najee. I won't argue with the...
Jalen Warren looks great when he's on a football field, but Mike Tomlin, just for the entirety of his career, there is something about having a big, durable back that you can have on the field for the majority of snaps. There's something about that that Mike Tomlin likes for his offense. The Browns. They went 7 and 10 last year.
That was their preseason win total with seven wins. This year is 9 and a half, which puts them a game over the Steelers. I'll take the under. No, I'm in.
I'm in on this offense. I think... You know, just Sean Watson has a proven commodity at quarterback multiple years of success. You have an outstanding...
Maybe the best running back in football. You have a probably underrated wide receiver room right now, although there has been some talk about frustration that they didn't bring in Hopkins. We didn't really talk about Cleveland as a destination, but that would have really... I think that would change the way we look at this receiver room in general, because right now it's Marty Cooper, the potential of Elijah Moore, Donovan, people's Jones.