Oh boy, this laundry's piling up. What? Did you say something? Yeah, it's messy in here.
Okay. At least tell me fold. Yeah, I don't think so. I need less of you.
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That's CAMH.ca slash double. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Hello! Welcome in!
The Fantasy Footballers back once more. Jason Moore, Mike Wright, Andy Holloway. Happy to be with you. New Wednesday episode of the show.
We've got full ducers. Full ducers in the house. Al Borland, Papa Josh, the Falcon. Feeling all right today.
In the building. In the building, yeah. It is ironic that the one day you said we have full ducers. No Kyle today on the microphone.
Thank goodness. Yeah, I mean, is he really a ducer? Not really. You need to be in ducers, Al.
Yeah, yeah. He's a ducer of another sort. He's on a plane. He's on his way here.
We've got League of Record draft tomorrow. We've got so much tomorrow! I want to hear from the listeners because I've heard some sprinkling of tweets and things like that about wanting more League of Record content in general. So I want to hear about that because last year, the show moment of the year was the Papa Josh and my situation.
And I'm not forgetting you, Al. You're awful. But then we were able to put up on the website the matchup. And so I want to know if people want some more League of Record content.
I mean, things like that are always going to be split. You're going to be 50-50. Half people out there are going to be like, that's awesome. And half you're like, I don't care about your league, man.
That's my guess. So we'll share some pictures from our League of Record draft on Thursday. And it's going to be fun. Going to break down the Thursday night game today.
We're talking real football. We're going to talk about real football on the show. We've got news to talk about. We'll see if Mike can wail one more contract into existence.
I gave him my best shot yesterday, everyone. You have been tweeting relentlessly trying to get this done. I think I'm out of ammo. No, you're out of days, too.
I mean, you're running out of... Not on the Joe Burrow schedule. We'll see what happens. Jamar Chase is a big topic.
Especially if you haven't drafted yet. Or even if you haven't, you add it into your roster, you don't know if you're going to be able to play it. So stupid. It's so stupid.
Here's some League of Record talk. Mike, you have the second pick in our draft. Thanks to the lottery. I have the pick just behind you.
Our keeper system, most of the great players are kept. There's a handful, just a few, monster great players that fall back into the draft. There's two of them in particular. AJ Brown, Jamar Chase.
With the Jamar Chase holdout, he might follow you, Mike. And guess who I play week one? You, baby! Go ahead.
Get that Jamar Chase and sit on your bench and play me. I think he will. I think he will do that. It's not a one-week game.
All I care about is our matchup. Okay. We have week one rankings up on the website, thefantasyfootballers.com. You can go check those out.
20,844. That was the final count for the... That's awesome. That is the all-time record for the Megalobowl.
And I had my Megalobowl draft last night. Advanced Fantasy Football World. He's got more and more into it. He did all right.
He made one kind of interesting decision. We were very... We had Jameer Gibbs in the first round. And then we went some...
You know, he went like a couple whiteouts. We got Marvin Harrison. And then he took a tight end. So when he was coming back in the fifth round or fourth round for another running back, and pretty much the only other running back we got on the roster was David Montgomery.
Oh, man. All in. So we're going big, big lines. Someone on Twitter told me the Lions were winning the Super Bowl.
Yeah, that is a fact. You read that too? Yeah. Somebody tweeted that out.
So, yes. Thank you, everybody, for joining the Megalobowl. It's going to be fun this year. And then the community for in-season tools and resources, including the brand new Ultimate Dashboard, is at jointhefoot.com.
Initial feedback has been very positive. We're going to keep adding more and more to the Ultimate Dashboard. If you want to know what that is, it is an in-season lineup optimizer. It'll help you find spot starts.
It'll help you find waiver pickups, a custom team news feed. And it's all synced to your league if you're on ESPN Public Leagues, if you're on Yahoo, or if you're on Sleeper. Those are the three supported right now. You can also manually add your team.
And that optimizer is going to keep getting better and better. And that's brand new for 2024. That's a pretty handy news feed of what's going on with your specific players as well. Absolutely.
Like if you have Kyle Pitts. Oh, my gosh. Welcome to Hungry for More, presented by Uber Eats. I'm hungry for more news.
You beat me to the joke, Jason. I had to. I had to get jumped on that grenade. I gave you such a great segue to the wrong segment.
You pulled the pin, and you just rolled the grenade on the ground. But at the end, I kicked it away a little bit. So just sorry. We've got Hungry for More.
We're heading into week one. And I chose an interesting player for this week's segment. I'm Hungry for More. Oh, you and me both, brother.
Brandon Iyuk of the San Francisco 49ers. Why? Why do I want more? None.
Because I want a wide receiver one if he's going to be treated like a wide receiver one with the purse strings and the trade offers. I mean, we didn't talk about it on the show. But it came out that the Browns offered Amari Cooper in a two and a three for the opportunity to vastly, maybe not overpay, but just to write a big contract for Brandon Iyuk. And Iyuk didn't want to go to Cleveland.
And he didn't want to go to New England, who also wrote a big check. And, you know, the Steelers weren't willing to give up pickings on the way back. So San Francisco, that deal didn't come to fruition. Iyuk even came out and said over the last month he kind of made it hard on the team because I think he didn't know what to do.
I genuinely think it was a little bit of, like, contract posturing and then you get to the sandstone. It was like, well, I guess I'm going to just keep holding and then eventually just sign the contract. You have that pot odds thing where you're like, no, I said I was going to do this. It's like, ah, shoot.
Let's be honest. Players get the chance to miss camp. Who doesn't want to miss a camp? I've heard.
They like to miss it. So I want, when I say I'm hungry for more Brandon Iyuk, it's the level up. I want to see him have his first wide receiver one season of all time. He's never done it.
He may have played like a wide receiver one and gets paid like a wide receiver one, but in fantasy he has not accomplished that goal. He was so efficient last year. It was one of the things we brought up in the offseason about maybe a little bit of a, whoa, be careful with Brandon Iyuk because, you know, you can't have that many big plays happen year after year. And, you know, we let all wide receivers in fantasy points per target.
And so that level of efficiency led to wide receiver 14. Missed the game. He was right on the edge of wide receiver one points per game. I'm trying to look it up real quick, but he was at 13.2.
Is that right? 13.2 points per game. And he missed the game. I mean, that's right.
I'll let the cuss, but I want top 10, Mike. We'll upgrade it. I'll let you know if that would have been top 10. But what do you think the chances are?
I mean, we can want anything, but do you believe that Brandon Iyuk will be a, you know, look, he's been a top 15 wide receiver last two seasons. Yes, yes. How confident are you that he is a top 15 wide receiver this season? Pretty confident.
And I do think that there's a chance that, like, we look at that offense and we look at it with the chart of targets and you say, okay, some go to Iyuk, some go to Debo. Kittle gets some. McCaffrey gets some. And that's how you look at the offense.
I do think the dial could be turned. I think this team could support Brandon Iyuk taking a step forward and Kittle and Debo maybe taking a step back. If this team is planning for Debo to lead next year, it could be time for Brandon Iyuk to be super alpha, right, on this roster. So, hungry for Brandon Iyuk.
I have, I've been resistant to get on that train where I believe he could be a top 10 wide receiver, but the market says he has the capability. Top 10 will be rough if the 49ers keep throwing at the pace that they do. They're incredibly fast. Yeah.
They're incredibly efficient when they do. And looking at it, 13.2, I think it puts him like 11th or 12th in points per game. But that's, that's .1 behind Jamar Chase from last year. Yeah.
All right. I'm going to go with My Hungry for more, a very different, same position, but very different situation. It is a rookie who has gotten not a lot of love. Luke McCaffrey, rookie wide receiver for the Washington Commanders.
This is a player I liked the college film. I liked the production. 13 receiving touchdowns, a 37% dominator rating. And then they traded away Jahan Dotson.
And when that happened, I thought, look, this must mean Luke McCaffrey's had a good camp. He's doing what they wanted him to do. He was a third round pick. This is not like, you know, I know he wasn't the Christian McCaffrey brother, top 10 NFL selection, but he also wasn't, you know, Mr.
Irrelevant Day 3, 7th round pick either. This was an investment that he made into him. And then they traded away last year's first Jahan Dotson. And I'm thinking, okay, he's showed enough.
And then a report comes out right after that that's like, I don't know if he's going to get run. And so I was a little scared off of it because I'm always looking for those guys like Malik Washington and Luke McCaffrey, those, those rookie wide receivers that might just sneak into that starting lineup. But then the official Washington Commanders depth chart comes out and lo and behold, Luke McCaffrey is listed ahead of Miami Brown on that chart, at least in TBD until the games are played. But he's listed as the starter, which he should be.
He's the next best, you know, Terry is the one. Does he have a breakfast with Jane Daniels? Well, listen to this. A report about Jane Daniels from an ESPN article says Daniels clocks in around 5.45 a.m.
It is what he did at LSU too. Rookie receiver Luke McCaffrey has been joining Daniels in Washington. The two players watch film and then head to the practice bubble and walk through plays. Rookie connection at breakfast.
Did we get confirmation on that they're eating together? I think you were trying to. I'm trying to push it in breakfast. I think, I mean, they got to eat.
They got a whole day at breakfast. At least like a breakfast bar. They split one. I think they're sharing a breakfast bar.
Or just like a protein shake maybe. Yeah, well, their protein quote has got to be very high. At least a gram for a pound. LMC is the pick.
I like it. He's a fascinating player of Jane's. Some more context. He started as a quarterback in college and before making the transition to being a wide receiver.
So really only two years as a wide receiver, but really strong production. And it's a real narrative street. But I like the fact that he played quarterback. I think it gives you a different advantage out there if you know how a quarterback is seen the field.
Is this the Julian Edelman narrative? A little bit. The Travis Kelsey narrative. The Muhammad Sanu narrative?
A little bit. A little bit. Just the more knowledge you can get about the entirety of the football team. Josh Jacobs narrative?
Did you know that? Really? He was a high school quarterback. Yeah, he was a high school quarterback.
I did not know. Tee Higgins has, if you've been with the show over the last few years, Tee Higgins has destroyed my soul in the league of record for multiple years. And with these injuries not being as productive as I think that he should be, because I do believe that he's a great player. But since his counterpart, Tee Higgins, has come into the league, we've seen Tee without him five times.
And in those five games, it is pure domination. It's from 10 points a game up to nearly 17. A climb of two receptions per game. Yardage jumps up almost, oh no, over 40 yards per game.
So the fact that he, that's a small sample, of course, but it's, we're back into this situation. You are thumbs upping something. Oh man. Josh Jacobs.
Also. Josh Jacobs was? High school dual threat quarterback. All right.
Wow. Okay. Sorry. Sorry.
We figured it out. I love it. I had moved on, but Al found it. So credit to Al.
Still trying to make up last year. I love. Tee Higgins, to me, had already been shaping up to be a good pick at ADP. Regardless of everything that was like, Jamar Chase was still a top three pick.
Tee Higgins was looking like a great value where he was going. He didn't have to overpay where it was in the last couple of years. Last year, you had Jalen Waddle and Tee Higgins both being drafted really, really high expectations through the ceiling. And now they aren't there.
And now we have all this weird and big of stuff. Maybe you get a freebie week one. I mean, I think no matter what you probably do, because the reports I saw were, now it's Jamar Chase could be trending to not playing. I'm going to hold out if I don't get a contract.
But even if he gets the contract, what do you do if you're the Bengals? I'll get him right in that starting lineup. I don't know if you do. Oh, yeah, you do.
But I mean... As a full-time player, I don't know that he'll get his full allotment of snaps. That could be true. There could be some consequences from that.
But I'm sitting here just like, there was a time this offseason was dominated by not paying Tee Higgins. And here we are with Jamar Chase. Yeah. Like, this is not the first wide receiver that's been unhappy with his team.
He just, Higgins had to sign his B-O, and he's going to be moving on after the year. But the Bengals said, you know, Joe Burrow, we got you locked up, and we're just going to play around with the wide receiver position. And it's a mess. There is a chart that if you mess around, you find out.
Yeah. And I think that they're about... They're in the apex of the find out part. It's unfortunate.
The Bengals organization has... They've referred to that chart many times. The Bengals organization... Well, the Bengals team as a whole, their ADP was...
I think they're... Like, they were one of my favorite, most undervalued... I think Tee is undervalued, which I still feel weird just calling him Tee. I don't know why.
I think Burrow is undervalued. I personally think Zach Moss is undervalued. And so I wanted to talk about it before, but I was so scared by the situation, the vibes, and the fact that, why aren't you paying your players? But to eat their own.
All right. That was 100% more presented by Uber Eats. Get almost anything for game day, like tomorrow. Delivered with Uber Eats, official on-demand food delivery partner of the NFL.
Order now. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. So we talked about Chase.
That is the latest news, that it's trending towards the possibility. And again, this is media negotiation tactic 101. But it's getting... I mean, we've got limited time, and the news today is Chase might not play.
Like, he might not play this weekend. Or he's willing to not play. Like, he's not willing to come back and take snaps without a deal. And so, you know, I'm with...
I'm not going to not draft Jamar Chase. If it's a heads-up and a full redraft between... How far? Amun-Ra, I'm taking Amun-Ra.
You know, if it's... If you go further, if it's Jefferson or Chase, I'm taking Jefferson. And in our league record, for what it's worth, the top two names on the board are A.J. Brown and Jamar Chase.
I do not... I think it's appropriate to take Brown over Chase, regardless of the contract situation. Yeah, I think that's fair. This is...
We cannot be living in this world where, like, everything's been perfect for Jamar Chase every single game of every single season. This is a player who... I mean, what's his highest fantasy finish at the position? I think it was a rookie year.
He was five as a rookie, 12 and then 13. He's missed games two straight years. So, you know, we know what he's capable of. But there's really no reason you can't make a decision and say, I like A.J.
Brown more. No, I think when you're talking about those tier one guys, the A.J. Brown, the Amon Ra, for me, I'm a little hesitant with the Justin Jefferson, but I get it. What about Garrett Wilson?
Because I feel like that's in the same category. That's the tier, the Garrett Wilson, the Lave, London, those guys, I'm not willing to do that. Because I can't imagine they're not getting it. I would squint a little bit at Wilson.
I just feel like, you know, if you miss one week, whatever, you're going to have players miss a couple of games for the season. It sucks that it's week one, but whatever. Okay. All right, we have news.
Guess what, guys? Kyle Pitts. Kyle Pitts is dealing with a hamstring injury. It was reported just now, but apparently it's been going on for a couple of weeks level.
I don't know how this works, but you don't want to hear this, especially for a player whose major excuse, since his rookie, you know, quote unquote, break a thousand yards, but didn't get touchdowns. Did you just quote unquote a thousand yards? Yeah. Yeah, because it wasn't a good season for fantasy.
It's a fair quote. I'm going to approve it. He had a thousand yards as a rookie. I'm approving it.
And two touchdowns. I'm just saying, no one was happy. The people that drafted Kyle Pitts as a rookie. I'm with you.
If you finish at seven, at tight end, it's not a breakout. No. Anyways, my point here is, since that time, all the excuses have been injury related. Oh, it was the PCL.
Head, shoulders, knees, and toes. Yeah. And then it's like, oh, he couldn't turn left or whichever direction because he was coming back from that knee. Oh, yeah, the Zoolander.
Yeah. And then, and now the hamstring. So it's not what you want to hear. Yoo-hoo.
I was finally, despite all of those comments, Mike, I was finally ready to pull that trigger in some of these drafts because he does represent this tremendous upside with Kirk Cousins. But now I have pause game. Because if you're dealing with a hamstring, what are you going to do? Two tight ends?
You ready to go double tight end to start the year? I don't want that game. I get it. I'm just over here still blown away that a thousand yards as a rookie tight end is not a breakout for you He is the second tight end ever as a rookie to hit a thousand yards.
It's been a very, very good rookie. Okay. He got an extra game. We don't care about that for the all time.
As soon as we add a 17th game, everybody can do it. Woo! You guys are just blowtorching me. What if it's 18 games?
Is he going to give the next guy the same credit? Yeah, if he hits a thousand. Oh, my gosh. 50 games.
It's been a long time since those days. A long time. Three seasons. Let's do it on the field, Mr.
Pitts. I don't know. Does it change your opinion of this hamstring injury, Mike? Do you want to pull the trigger?
It makes me more concerned. Okay. Marshawn Lloyd didn't practice after practicing a couple days. They're giving him a day off.
We don't know how... They said it was part of the plan, and it was on time. It was scheduled to miss. It was not a...
It's good to hear that it wasn't like he went out practice, hurt himself worse. It was, this was the plan of bringing him back when he's going to practice when he's not. I don't know that he plays week one. I don't think he does.
I think he might miss a couple weeks. And then the compounded news here is the other backup running back for Green Bay. Oh, my gosh. Emmanuel Wilson was limited Tuesday with a hip injury.
And now their dual threat quarterback is going to go ham. I believe Josh Jacobs has the most total touches at running back over the last three years. He has been the most workhorse capable. And the team has come out and said, literally, yeah, that's what he does.
He's fine. If we have to do that, we'll just do it. They have to do it. Over the first few weeks, Josh Jacobs will be very good.
I don't know how he's not a workhorse. All of the running backs on this roster are injured except for him. And if you tell me that the biggest threat to Josh Jacobs on a competitive playoff team is a currently injured rookie that has to acclimate and become a part of the offense, I think that's going to last a lot longer than a few weeks, personally. Yeah.
It was a late... Late surge. I don't like a surge. Incredible surge for Josh Jacobs.
But I'm in. My worry is the second half of the year. Ty Chandler has been announced as the kick returner for the Vikings. That's not the fun one.
The Bengals announced Chase Brown as the kick returner for the Bengals. That's not the fun one. Late Coram was listed as the primary kick returner. Ah!
Oh my God! This value is over! You get Ripley Coram! We're all going to die!
He's returning kicks? Oh man. Why even be on the team? You know what?
I'd be a lot happier if it was flipped. If it was Kyron returning kicks and Coram returning punts. Because the kickoff is safe now. The kickoff is completely changed.
So, the punts, you're going to get knocked out. Oh, you're a fair catch. Yeah. If it's a fair catch, have anybody else do it.
They do react to Kyron. They should have reacted to Kyron. Then you should react to this. No.
Not at all. He's a rookie. He's a backup. He should return kicks.
You're starting running back. Okay. Let me ask you this. Name all the other starting workhorse running backs that return punts in the NFL.
Go. I'll wait. I could do some research, but this is going to be very low. Go ahead.
What now? Take one returning punts. Just to be clear. You can't just say player, you have to say running back because Antonio Brown or those guys.
Oh, totally different. Starting running back. Yes, it is different. How is it different?
Because the workload on a workhorse running back, you're not giving your wide receiver, you know, 22 carries a game. It's a big difference. That's why you've never seen it. This is a story because no one's ever done it.
I can't think of, other than you telling me Kyron, who wasn't their starter when he did it, did it last year. I can't think of another running back. In fact, if you went through the top five rounds of running backs, I don't think you're going to find one. We will see.
We will see. Kyron returning kicks tells me it's a committee. That's what it is. It's going to be a committee.
Okay. And I'm not just saying this to be like hot takey on the show. I traded Kyron away for Gibbs in our league of record after the news. And there are those out there that think that some people react to that news is absolutely crazy.
And that's fine. Kyron may go out. And by the way, he plays Gibbs Sunday night football week one. We're going to put it to the test.
He may go out and just light the league on fire again. Or it could be a committee with Coram and Rivers. So where have you moved Kyron rankings wise? Like in your head, what tier is he in now?
Now that he is guaranteed in a committee, what do you see as his album? I put Gibbs above him. I mean, Gibbs was already above him. Gibbs was already above him for all three of our rankings.
I had Kyron ahead before, so I was just telling you where I adjusted. Let me take a look. Let me give some names. Travis Etienne.
Etienne's above him, for sure. Let's go Derek Henry. I will, in a standard, go Henry. The others also go Kyron.
Okay. Devon Hian. I probably take the shot on Hian. I have him one spot behind Hian.
I have Kyron at 10, so that's where I moved him. Okay. He's at 10. He's behind Barkley.
He's behind Cook. He's behind Hian. One spot behind Kyron. One spot behind Kyron.
Okay, okay. He's behind Cook. For me. For me.
So again, I'm not really happy this whole conversation came out. I'm really not, because it's just too much air time for the story that I didn't mean it to be. Like, this sounds like I think Kyron's the worst player in the league. He's incredible.
That's what I heard. He's number 10 on my rankings, but it did move him. It did change him. Because my problem with Gibbs, right, is, ah, committee with Montgomery.
Right? The hope of Kyron was you were going to get everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes.
What you got last year. And again, he didn't have Cooper Cup for someone last year, too. Like, this is a competitive red zone situation. So we'll find out very, very soon how stupid or smart or in between we all are on that decision.
It's tough. You're looking for one little tweak as to who you're going to draft. But Ty Chandler returning kicks, we knew he's behind Aaron Jones. Chase Brown returning kicks, we knew he was behind Zach Moss.
So those are kind of, they don't, they don't. It actually makes me interested. In Zach Moss? Just in, like, Chase Brown and Ty Chandler with the new kick returns.
And those players being committee backs where you were drafting them already. It's kind of cool when you guys are going to get an opportunity. It might be one, one touchdown extra a year. But if you are starting a committee back and they get one, that's cool.
Yeah, I'm fascinated to see. Because a lot of the coaches, earlier this offseason, they were talking about putting more important, more talented players in that role. Because it's going to be a, you know, a field position. Yeah, we're going to see.
I've heard rumors, of course, all these things. But, like, some teams are just saying, screw it, we're going to boot it in the end zone. And we're going to give the team the good touchback. Because I think it's the 35.
Yeah. I've heard teams say that we're just going to, we're going to let all the other teams see what happens over the first few weeks. But we'll just start people at the 35. The data that I've seen from preseason is that basically the shorter they kick it, the better it is for the kicking team on field position.
I don't know why. Maybe it's not going to the right guy. I was playing, uh. They just get there.
The rules are, it's a pretty complex play now. Because if you, you know, you have the area of the field where the ball has to hit. And I was playing Madden with the boy. And I didn't remember exactly how it works.
And so, what, did you get a penalty? No, no, you don't get a penalty. But, like, I'm on the one or the two, right, returning the kick. And I'm like, pfft, we're going to let this thing roll right into the end zone.
Well, because it hit in the zone, and then goes in the end zone, then you're on the 20. Yeah. Yeah, because you're forced to return it. Yeah, it's going to be weird.
It will. And that's almost kind of been forgotten. But that's what we're going to see debut as well on Sunday in every game. Perfect.
Tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow. Okay, is there other news you guys have? Anything else breaking?
Does DeMar Chase be able to buy dinner tonight? Does he have what it takes? Still able to purchase dinner. There's no new contract.
Now is today's news and notes presented by USA Insurance. Learn more at USA.com slash insurance. And take a quick break and jump right into our matchup. Also, with the news, you contract, all the contract stuff, the stuff that happened last year, I am taking the formal approach from this point on that anything goes.
Oh, I love it. If it's within the NFLPA, the CBA, for the players, and if the team can do it, the ownership, whatever, if it's permissible, I'm not going to look down upon it from either side. Everything is fair game, and I completely agree with you. I don't judge the team for wanting to not pay guys, and I don't judge the players for wanting to get paid.
The one place, though, is that I still think stupid decisions are stupid decisions. And so, for instance, let's say, after week one, they give DeMar Chase everything he wanted. It's just dumb. You lost your player.
You're a very valuable player that could have helped you. Maybe you lose that game. Maybe you missed the playoffs because of one loss. Like, if you're going to pay him, maybe do it so you can play.
Well, and that is stupid, but also maybe DeMar Chase exercising those options that he has is the only way he got paid. I mean, that's the give and take of the situation that kind of, you know, I think players make mistakes. Lev Bell took a gamble. Didn't work out.
Ruined his career. But then teams that made mistakes, too. And the Bengals, in particular, when you think of the Bengals organization, I don't think they've gotten a lot better. They made a Super Bowl run, and they have great players now, but they historically have done it.
They pooped the bet on contracts for players. They have ruined player relationships. And then, like, completely different circumstance. I get it.
Well, we didn't talk about it, but Patrick Sturtan of the Denver Broncos, same draft class as DeMar Chase, same contract situation, sitting behind him. They just made him the highest paid DB in history. It is. Yeah, I don't know.
I think some of it has been teams with small windows to win with the players they got. Don't negotiate the way the teams building a new foundation do. The Broncos foundation, DJ Moore Foundation in Chicago. Yeah, could be.
It's weird. It's interesting to me. Brandon Ayuk was super transparent about it. He came out, and he's like, you know, not just that he made it more difficult than it needed to be at the end, but he said, a squeaky wheel has to be silent sometimes.
Then you have to know when to squeak. I was just trying to find the balance. Like, that's got to be strange. It's got to be weird, because you're putting your trust in your agent, right?
You're not just making every decision yourself. It's just sitting at home wanting to be with your team going, is this the right thing? Is this not the right thing? Is this the right thing?
And we'll get to talk about it every year forever. So there you go. Thursday night breakdown. I think Kyron's going to be good.
I just want to, you know. Okay. I'm happy to report that both teams have lost important defensive assets, because, you know, that was part of the problem with these two teams, especially Kansas City last year. With Snead, they're just walking down opposing ones.
So happy he's gone. Because I want Patrick Mahomes to have to throw the ball a lot more. Even though I love Pacheco, we'll just do the passing game. I've got bad news, though.
The Ravens don't have any wide receiver ones, so he wouldn't have been needed. No, we've got to see Derek Henry in Ravens purple. Very exciting. And we've got to see what Dave Flowers has for a sophomore season.
Mark Andrews should be back out there. Yeah, he was practicing. And, you know, it's going to be very, very exciting. Very good defenses.
Last year, like Jason said, we're hoping that, you know, traditionally, when you come out of the gate, sometimes the offense takes a little while to get it going. We'll see what happens in this one. You're not going to have Hollywood Brown making his debut on the other side in terms of the injuries. But let's start at the quarterback position.
In Week 1, Mahomes has finished as the quarterback 4, 5, 14, 2, 1, and 7, and averages 3.3 passing touchdowns in season openers. Yeah, I mean, this is one of those where if you drafted Mahomes, if you drafted Lamar, obviously you're playing them. There's no one you're going to start over them. They were drafted to be started.
It's just a matter of expectation. And I do think that both of these quarterbacks have a good Week 1, despite the, you know, last year's number 1 and number 2 in points-per-game defenses. Yeah, I mean, Lamar, it was a lot to ask of him last year. It was a tough game.
Are we going to see the same? I mean, this question gets brought up, like, to be fair, it's been brought up with Josh Allen a million times, about hitting a wall of the rushing totals being where you want them to be. Josh Allen is how old? 28?
Lamar is 27.6. Do you think at some point we're going to see the transition for Lamar to protecting himself, or is that just going to be too integral to his game forever? I think it's probably going to be. He's a different type.
Yes. He's a different type of runner. Really trying to take the damage. He tries to protect the ball.
These are guys that go, you know, it's like around the goal line. They're smashing into defenders and running over them. You don't see, you know, Lamar's rushing touchdowns usually come from much further away, and he's a voiding player. So I think he'll run a little later than some of those big body guys, but certainly this year I'm not worried about it at all.
I do think it might be a pretty difficult debut for Isaiah Pacheco if he's not involved in the passing game, which he could be, but we'll also see some on JP right out there. This is a very tough matchup. Last year the Ravens were number one against the run, and in that divisional game, or sorry, in that title game, he was 24 for 68, not efficient, scored a touchdown. You're obviously drafting him to start him.
I'm not saying to do anything differently. We're not spot starting Isaiah Pacheco's anytime soon. Yeah, it's just like Kyron. Like Kyron's week one matchup against the Lions.
The Lions have been shutting down Ryan. He might have a bad week one. Don't overreact from one matchup. I will.
This game, it's fantastic because it's an easy game of your starting everybody. It's just one of the storylines that I'm watching for. I think Xavier Worthy is the big start to the question. Oh, okay.
I mean, Xavier Worthy, here's why you start Xavier Worthy. You want to call your shot, and you want to see it on the first chance you have to watch football. If that is not the reason you're starting him, I would just, you know, you could draft him probably as one of your top three wide receivers, in which case, you know, let the game play out. Much different player, but I can tell you from personal experience, last year of Travis Kelsey missing week one, and Sky Moore been looking like a really good play, and he wasn't, he was actually, he was very detrimental to your team whenever you started.
So it's, if I, I wouldn't be trying. I'm not forcing Worthy into the lineup, but the storylines I'm looking for, does Rasheed Rice keep that target share up? Like, how involved is Pacheco in the passing game? It's so huge.
And especially if week one, like Samanje P. Ryan, who just got onto this team, is all of a sudden taking a bunch of third down snaps, you know, somehow in the, when they're on a passing attack drive, P. Ryan's getting a bunch of snaps, that would be pretty devastating. And then on the other side, what's going to go on here with Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely?
I don't think it's been a blaring siren from what we're hearing from the Ravens, but there's some murmurs of, Isaiah Likely might actually be the third weapon for this team. of Andrews and Flowers, their roles are secured. Bateman, every single time they talked about Bateman having a great day, he got injured. Then he got hurt.
Like, oh, Bateman's finally back. Oh, what a day of practice. And Richard Bateman is hurt. Maybe that's their fault at this point.
It's like, it's a curse. Like, stop talking nice about Bateman. Say some mean stuff about him. Get him out on the field.
Break his spirit. Pull your best, Dennis Allen. I think Likely is a very, very good player. I do too.
I think he should be their third primary target in this offense. And I don't think that comes at the expense of a Mark Andrews injury. They can play. This is a team that will play with a lot of two tight end stats.
And he should be more involved. Tight ends generally have a little bit longer peak. I'm trying to think of how Andrews at leg peak, how long that's going to last. But he's got some time.
He's almost 29. He's fine. But at tight end, you know, I think you're going to be okay. His next gen stats of yards per separation.
I believe he was number one last year. He was really good. The injury makes us forget and makes us frustrated because it seems like it's every year. But please do not forget when Andrews is on the field, he has as good a fantasy tight end as there is.