A (2:54)

Not yet.

C (2:55)

So Kyle Shanahan will be speaking later on today. And then of course, the 49ers will practice. So Christian McCaffrey will be there or not be there and a game status will follow.

A (3:04)

It's hard not to panic a little bit. Yeah. I mean, last year, if this. Well, this did happen and we were like a minor concern if you ask me, like how much he was missing training camp, right? Yeah. Yeah. But still, if something like this popped up in the past, I might be like him, maybe minor panic. But now, after what we saw last year, now it's like moderate panic. There's. I'm definitely, put it this way, if I have Christian McCaffrey on some teams, I'm leaving him in the lineup. I'm assuming I'm playing him this week. For now, however, I went through all my, all my leagues and searched for Brian Robinson Jr. First, added him wherever he was available, and then I went and looked for Isaac Arundo as well as a fallback option. You know, the expectation would be both of those guys would play and just scooped them up just as a backup plan because if he can't play this week, those guys are going to. They're going to be fully rostered in every single league.

C (3:49)

They sure will be. That there's their week two waiver claim before week one has even really kicked off. Right. Daniel is one of those two acts, if not both of them.

B (3:57)

Did you. Did you get him in our focus league? Is that where you picked him up at?

A (3:59)

Yeah. We were talking in the group chat and I said, I'm going to do something that's going to anger you guys. And I picked up Garendo immediately.

B (4:05)

How dare you. How dare you. We're here doing friendship and then doing conversation and you're like, I'm going to someone from my fantasy squad.

A (4:12)

So, yeah.

C (4:13)

So based off what we know right now, but let's just. Just quickly to play things out. If Christian McCaffrey plays later on. Excuse me. Practices later on today or if he just plays on Sunday. If we wake up Sunday morning and Adam Schefter says despite not practicing on Friday and being limited on, Christian McCaffrey is expected to start today for the 49ers. We are treating him how we were treating him, playing him 24 hours ago.

A (4:35)

We're playing him right, 100%.

C (4:36)

Christian McCaffrey is out. I asked the two of you, how far up does presumably Brian Robinson climb into your rankings? Must start flex option.

A (4:45)

Well, yeah, we've talked about how similar the playstyle of Brian Robinson is to Jordan Mason, and he was the guy that filled in last season. And Kyle Shanahan has been very clear that Brian Robinson Jr. Is the number two running back in San Francisco. So he will jump into the RB2 area for sure. However, back end of RB2.

B (5:02)

Correct.

A (5:03)

Low end, because he's not going to be super involved as a. As a pass catcher. Of course, Mason wasn't either. So it's a possibility that in this game against Seattle, Robinson will have 22 carries and two targets. And if so, he's going to deliver you RB2 numbers in, which would be a good offense. So, yeah, I would say mid to back end RB2 and then Garendo, probably not going to start him, but he would be a guy that I would keep on my bench for sure.

B (5:23)

Can I give you guys a couple names and you can tell me. Obviously, this is just right off the cuff.

C (5:27)

Yeah.

B (5:28)

But if I said, would you rather play because you were able to get him as your third running back? Isaiah Pacheco or Brian Robinson?

C (5:33)

I will play Pacheco tonight because McCaffrey, unless we have definitive.

B (5:37)

That's a fair point. You're right. You got a game tonight.

C (5:38)

But I'm probably playing Pacheco either way.

B (5:40)

Tony Pollard against Denver or Brian Robinson.

A (5:43)

Again, I'm going Robinson.

C (5:44)

I would go Robinson myself.

A (5:46)

Yeah.

B (5:46)

Okay.

C (5:46)

I'm worried about like a 12 for 34 effort from Pollard on Sunday. Even if he has targets.

A (5:51)

Yeah. Yeah.

C (5:52)

Really good defense.

B (5:52)

What about Jerome Ford taking on Cincinnati?

A (5:54)

Yeah, I think that's my cut off. Just looking at it. I think that's my range, right?

C (5:58)

Yeah, he's in the same territory, same range.

A (6:00)

Okay.

C (6:00)

Yeah.

B (6:00)

So you're talking low end RB2 or a potential high End flex play. If you needed someone, if you had another running back on your squad, it's.

A (6:07)

A good chance to push for 20 carries. Just again, look at what Mason did last year. It should be pretty similar usage, kind of.

C (6:12)

Lord, I really, really, really hope, I hope.

A (6:15)

Yeah, I hope we just wasted.

C (6:16)

I'm just not built for this. Like, I am not strong enough to handle this.

B (6:20)

Once again, can't do it. I can't do it. We already did it once.

A (6:22)

This.

B (6:23)

I feel like I've already got ptsd. I was so okay with drafting CMC and being like, guys, it's not going to happen again this year. I'm in on this guy. So for it to happen before week one even starts doesn't give me good feelings.

A (6:35)

Let's hope we just wasted the last three minutes.

B (6:37)

Yes, exactly.

C (6:38)

But it's good to be prepared just in case you're right.

B (6:40)

I mean, you got to be able to win some championships and CMC is going to be a huge part of that. That is a big thing. So.

C (6:45)

And he still has league winning upside if he actually plays 17 games.

B (6:49)

That's right.

C (6:49)

He just might play, you know, just.

A (6:51)

Give us, give us a decent chunk.

B (6:53)

Well, listen, the good news is for that CMC manager head on over to trophysmac.com because they're either going to win a championship potentially or be a part of the losers bracket in which you get something like a toilet seat for that person. Promo code is focus10.trophysmac.com Get 10% off your order over at Trophy Smack. Like I said in the past, they've got belts, they got trophies, they got chains, they got toilet seats, they got rings, a little bit, everything. So go ahead and check them out. We love those guys over at Trophy Smack. But without further ado, let's dive into our first recap of the season. Thursday Night Football. Cowboys and Eagles.

A (7:26)

First place Eagles.

B (7:27)

Yeah. I'll tell you what a tale of.

C (7:29)

Two halves if I've ever seen one.

A (7:31)

I know a tale of two before and after lightning storm in Philadelphia. Yeah, yeah, really was.

B (7:37)

A couple things stood out to me, but I want to hear from you guys as well. The one thing that I felt like I noticed is that we were saying this Dallas Cowboys defense might not be very good and the Cowboys offense might have to pick up a lot of the slack this year. That felt like that narrative played out.

A (7:51)

In the first half.

B (7:52)

First half.

C (7:52)

At least the Cowboys defense. I mean, both defenses bucked up. Neither team punted in the first half.

A (7:57)

Love that.

C (7:58)

Awesome. In the first half. It was 24:20 at the end of the first half. Jake Elliott booted the 58 yarder. Yeah, it was a lot in the first long one. Basically as time expired as right before time expired. So 24 to 20 touchdowns, field goals everywhere. Felt like one of those vintage. You love these kind of fantasy nights games going. And then the second half, neither team scored.

B (8:19)

It was less fun.

A (8:20)

So in that scenario, like AJ Brown, devontae Smith, they must have just crushed in the first half. Second, but they must have put up some huge numbers, right, Daniel, Spoiler, Al Mike.

B (8:29)

They did not.

C (8:30)

So let's do takeaways here and we're going to kind of try to keep it to the stuff that I think people were really talking about.

A (8:34)

I think there's two huge takeaways.

C (8:36)

Let's just do it. I'll take that one, Mike, because Mike is going to be sensible and logical in just a moment. I'm here to tell you that you are authorized to be pissed this morning, especially if you drafted AJ Brown. Devontae Smith was not a guy that we were drafting in. Like there is no scenario in which you aren't starting Devontae Smith. Like he could have been your fourth receiver. He could have been your third receiver. And you drafted three running backs and are not flexing Devonte in the 10 team league. If you drafted A.J. brown, you probably did so in the second round. And you're pissed this morning. And, and Mike will give you the, the, the, the take that is far more fundamentally sound and make you feel better. But I'm here to tell you that I'm disappointed this morning when he gets one freaking catch for eight yards.

B (9:15)

And it didn't happen until the very.

C (9:17)

End of the game when they were.

A (9:19)

Running the clock out. Lucky you got one catch. He had zero. He's never had a zero target game and almost did again. Yeah, very lucky to get.

C (9:25)

Yeah, he had. Now I will say this. This has happened a little bit in A.J. brown's game.

B (9:29)

It has?

C (9:29)

Yeah. Relative to other players that we are describing as ultra superstar wide receivers, he's a bit more prone to this for two reasons. For one reason mostly the Eagles play offense a certain way. The Titans kind of played offense like the Eagles play offense when he was there. But this is now the sixth game in A.J. brown's career with one or fewer catches in under 10 receiving yards. Go back to the playoffs last year, I'd forgotten about this. But I was going back and finding out like, how often does this happen?

A (9:55)

A.J.

C (9:56)

Brown in the first two playoff games. The Eagles, did they win those?

A (9:59)

They did win those.

C (10:00)

They didn't win the Super Bowl. You need to win to advance three catches. So A.J. brown is a. He's just a touch more vulnerable than like a puka Nakua or a guy Drake London who is being drafted right around him to a total dud of this magnitude. The problem is it feels a little easier to stomach when it's week eight and your team is already six and one and not the very first game of the season, when all of a sudden it feels like my team may never win a game.

A (10:24)

Yeah. You want me to tell you what happened here? Because I looked a little bit at the defensive game plan here for Dallas. I think the Eagles are surprised by what Dallas did. Dallas was in zone on 86% of their past plays here.

C (10:36)

They'd be surprised by that with Matt Eber flu.

A (10:37)

Hold on, hold on. They were in too high 59% of the time. Too high plus cover 3, 89% of the time. Last year, the Eagles faced too high 35% of the time. That was the lowest rate in the NFL. This was the complete opposite of what of how defenses faced Philly all last year. I know Matty Berflus is there, but it was still nothing that they had seen pretty much all last season. So maybe they weren't. Maybe it was not stunned to see more zone, but to this extent was a huge change for the Eagles and maybe surprises in the wrong way to put it. Maybe I should say we should have maybe seen this coming to an extent, because one thing the Eagles do, and they did this all last year is they're not afraid to say, you're going to have a big game today. Dallas Goddard or Saguan Barkley, you are not wide receivers. And they'll just have bad games because they're focused. They'll take what the defense is giving them. We saw it all last season. That's why they were able to run the ball so successfully. And then they'd have a game where, you know, A.J. brown would make a comment or something. It was in the media and they'd be like, all right, this week we're going to come out and we have a good matchup and we're just going to pepper those two receivers and they're going to have huge games and they just toy with defenses. They can do that. So that's a long way of me saying that. I think this was just a scheme thing and I would not panic at all.

C (11:49)

Okay.

A (11:50)

Relative to where we drafted these guys, they will Bounce back. They will have big games. If you can trade for A.J. brown because the other guy's panicking, you go for it.

C (11:58)

Okay, so let's draw the very fine line then. You don't have to panic, but you can be pissed.

A (12:03)

I agree. I have AJ Brown in a couple teams and yeah, I'm not thrilled about what I saw about how he did last night. I was hoping for at least like just give me a random touchdown.

C (12:13)

I mean three different 42. I would take it. Yes. For the way the first half went.

B (12:17)

And that's. That was my thought is coming out of halftime. They're like, you know what? We got to find A.J. brown's inner excellence because we cannot do this. Thank you, guys.

C (12:25)

Lightning break.

A (12:26)

Yeah.

B (12:26)

Yeah. Like, it's like we've got to get him more involved.

A (12:29)

They did try. It was very clear that I was watching this. Jalen hurts first read was AJ Brown a lot. And he would turn to him and try to get and then he would scramble or look for dump it off to Saquon. First read. There were a lot of those in the second half. AJ Brown, he's going to be fine. They will get him the ball. It's just a big part of this game.

C (12:46)

Well, something else happened that was very important last night. Daniel and the Cowboys backfield.

B (12:50)

Cowboys backfield was unbelievable. I texted you guys after the first quarter and I was like, can you believe that Javante Williams is going to score more fantasy points than Saquon Barkley? And then it actually still happened. Yeah, I thought we were going to get some more Saquon down the stretch, but no Jaquan St. Williams. Saquon was fine.

A (13:05)

He was great. Yeah.

B (13:06)

But Javante Williams 15 for 54 and two touchdowns and he gets three targets. Little bit of work in the passing game. Mike Clay a little bit.

A (13:15)

Yeah. He played 80% of the snaps. He out snapped Miles Sanders 45 to 8. J was. Was. He was inactive call field that yesterday. So good call there. It was the Javante Williams show. You mentioned it. Two touchdowns but 3.6 yards per carry. There were only four total targets for the Dallas running back. So I wouldn't. I don't think that's a huge needle mover, but I think there's two kind of ways to look at this. First of all is Javante Williams did not play very well. I felt watching it, I was like, I don't think especially in the second half, especially when you look at Saquon or other.

C (13:46)

13 for 48 in the first half.

A (13:48)

He didn't run the ball very well. He would add if he had scored the 21 yard touchdowns. He has 8 fantasy points in this game. Okay, and he's not. This is a guy that's career high. His career high is five touchdowns so that's not going to keep happening. He scored both of their touchdowns. CD is going to score, Ferguson's going to score Pickens, so forth and so on.

B (14:05)

Quick break. Let's talk about some pizza. You want to bring restaurant quality pizza home this football season? Get Frigidaire's stone baked Pizza Oven Fresh pizzas go from dough to done in just two minutes right from your kitchen and ready before halftime. Perfect for watch parties or just upgrading pizza night without the delivery delay only from Frigidaire Game Ready Pizza. Get it today at the Home Depot how doers get more done from kickoff.

C (14:32)

To cash out ESPN Bet has the.

B (14:34)

Tools you need to score more on game days.

C (14:36)

Bet smarter with stats at your fingertips. Get personalized parlays built just for you.

B (14:41)

And with your fantasy team synced right.

C (14:43)

In the app, you can back your squad right now. New customers get 100 bucks in bonus.

B (14:48)

Bets when you bet $10.

C (14:49)

Sign up with promo code USL to get started. Must be 21 plus gambling problem.

B (14:54)

Call 1-800-Gambler terms and conditions apply.

C (14:57)

See app for details. Offer not available in new Nothing makes.

B (15:01)

You feel more like a champ than a DIY home project done right. But if your playbook includes stuff like using a fake sign for your DIY home security, that's safe ish, not safe DIY with ADT to actually help protect your home. It's easy to set up and gives you virtual assistance from ADT's support team. You can still tell everyone you did it yourself. So don't settle for safe ish DIY with ADT. Visit ADT.com or call 1-800-ADT ASAP. Don't settle for Safish get ADT.

A (15:36)

So yes, he's the lead back now so he got the volume. We're going to have to treat him as an RB2 for now. However, our off season thought process on this backfield was he's not going to be effective enough to hold this job all season. They're going to give another guy a look. Shade and blue will be active at some point and that still stands as far as I'm concerned. So short term. And by the way, this is what we said yesterday. We said Javante is probably going to be the clearly back in this game. That's how it went. It was maybe not 80%. Maybe we didn't think 80%, but it.

C (16:02)

Was 71% of the snaps last night.

A (16:04)

Yeah, I, I had him at 80. I had him at 80, 45. But anyway, I, you know, regardless, it was a lot. So he, yes, he's going to be an RB2 in our rankings for now. However, he's still in jeopardy, I think, of losing this job at some point. If he's not more effective, he might.

C (16:18)

He might be more of a flex for me.

A (16:19)

You think? All right, fair enough.

C (16:21)

I mean the efficiency was pretty poor last night and like the eye test was fine.

A (16:24)

It's just my point is just like it's hard to play 70, 80% of the snaps as a running back and not be an RB2. Like you're just going to volume a.

C (16:30)

Couple guys who are maybe Travion Henderson ends up playing 45% of the snaps on Sunday and he moves down from RB2 to flex territory, et cetera.

A (16:38)

But startable nonetheless.

B (16:40)

Yeah, Miles Sanders didn't do anyone any favors either with unfortunately continuing the fumbling issues that the Philadelphia one big run.

C (16:46)

Yeah, 49 yards.

B (16:47)

He had one beautiful run and then like four other carries for three yards. Other than that one big run, he was also quite inefficient.

C (16:53)

He's going to be the change of pace guy.

B (16:54)

Javante Williams second half just to put numbers on it, six carries for 16 yards.

C (16:59)

Yeah, it was much better.

A (16:59)

The second half was much easier. Eagles were vulnerable and a lot of ways up front due to something we won't talk about that happened at the beginning of the game.

C (17:06)

No, we can say their best defensive players. He spit on Dak Prescott before the first offensive snap. So I'm not saying that the not saying that if Jalen Carter plays, Javante Williams rushes for, you know, 34 yards as opposed to 54 yards. But it certainly made things a bit easier on that Cowboys running game.

B (17:21)

I'll give one thing real quickly and then we'll move on to the rest of our preview. But one of the things that I was wanting to watch for, I said this on Thursday, is how is Geor Pickens going to get utilized in this offense? Numbers didn't really turn out the way that you wanted. Three catches for 30 yards on four targets. However, he did have a couple of big plays that were pass interference and.

C (17:38)

Then one that should have been called a pass interference in the end zone that was not. But he's out there all the time.

B (17:42)

He was 100%. I want to not panic about it because I still think he's going to be heavily utilized. This is just one of those situations where he didn't quite materialize the production. I was hoping.

A (17:51)

Yeah. By the way, the Eagles shadowed in this game and they put Mitchell on Pickens. Surprisingly, it was a Dory Jackson and then they kind of made some adjustments there. But for the most part, part of Dory Jackson shadowed CD Lamb, which is why we're seeing a lot of Lamb targets and almost, you know, very little for George Pickens. A little bit of a surprise. But sometimes the New England was famous for doing that in the slide. Lean a little extra. Well, that too. But you would put a little extra coverage on. On. On Lambs to help.

C (18:16)

Didn't work last night for Philippines. It definitely did not work on CD Lamb was CD Lamb himself.

A (18:20)

Yeah.

C (18:21)

I mean, he had a big night last night.

A (18:23)

It could have won that game if he.

C (18:24)

It could have been a gargantuan, gargantuan night last night.

B (18:27)

Yeah, I was excited to be able to see. Last thing for me is Jake Ferguson, if you like, used him as a low end, tight end. I mean, five catches. He had two end zone targets and got lit up in the end zone. Only 23 yards. Yeah.

C (18:37)

He's going to be a boring like volume. We find he'll be tight end 14 this year.

A (18:41)

Jack threw it well. He threw it really well. He has a history of success in filling zero career interceptions. Shout out Adam Schefter pointing that on Social. Thought he threw it well, but still four rushing yards. What?

C (18:53)

Adam Schefter. Who?

A (18:54)

Adam Schefter. He's new around.

B (18:55)

You don't know who Adam Schefter is.

A (18:56)

In Insider, whatever that means.

C (18:58)

Does he do much work on Social or no?

A (18:59)

He.

B (19:00)

A little bit.

A (19:00)

Yeah, he's working. I find a handful of followers at a darn Shefter.

B (19:04)

That's it. That's it.

A (19:05)

Yeah. I thought Dak threw well, but I still have four rushing yards that it's going to be a detriment to his fantasy outlook. Also.

C (19:10)

Yeah, a darn schefter. Odell Beckham Jr. Has signed a four year, $200 million deal with the Cardinals. I like this guy.

B (19:17)

I don't like that. Not for our Marvin Harrison stock. I do not like that one.

C (19:21)

Oh, man. All right, let's make it move in here.

B (19:22)

All right, let's dive into our week one preview. Part two brought a couple of storylines to the table field. I'm going to go with you first.

C (19:30)

All right. So again, reminder, these are not ordered in like these are the Most important things, they're just things we are watching throughout the weekend. To me the Dolphins offense is very fascinating to me this upcoming season and of course it starts on Sunday in Indianapolis. A few years ago, what was it? It was bombs away, Tyree Kill and jalen waddle catching 20 yard passes seemingly every single drive. Last year it was. And Devon H.N. two seasons ago, explosive runs averaging seven plus yards per carry. The guy fel every time he touched the football, he gets into the end zone. Last year it was the only thing that they could do was death by a thousand paper cuts. Devon HN had like 95 targets last year and he would rush for like 4 1/2 yards per carry as opposed to 7 plus yards per carry. Right now the way the Dolphins are talking is we expect to see them try to establish a line of scrimmage a little bit more, run the football more effectively. And that might include, might include Ali Gordon who's one of the players that might have zero role this weekend. Or he might have a just influential enough role this weekend that we have a pinch, a touch of tremor over Devon HN. Right. If Ali Gordon gets 12 carries this weekend and consequential carries including like goal line opportunities if he plays the Tyler Algier to Bajan Robinson during Bajan's rookie season. Right. It matters for Devon Hin it does. So it would matter going forward. So I am just keeping my eyes on how the offense looks, how the running game looks and the trickle down impact. Because one of the reasons why an explosive passing game can work is you have an effective running game. It forces teams to account for you a little bit differently. You mentioned that too high. Look Mike, of course the biggest benefit to too high safeties is that you can protect against explosive plays down the field. The area you are most vulnerable is against the run because you have one fewer defender in the box. If the Dolphins run the ball well, drags an extra cold safety up, next thing you know, more opportunities for Jalen Waddle and Tyreek Hill.

A (21:28)

Yeah. And we saw. If you're wondering what that looks like, just rewatch last night's game because Jalen Hurts had actually outrun rushing attempts. Yeah, he actually outrushed Saquon in that game because he would drop back and they're in too high trying to stop Brown and and Devonte and then Hertz would just run for the first down like every time. The Eagles just couldn't be stopped in the first half.

C (21:46)

Yeah, his passing chart, if you go back and look at it via next Gen stat. It was pretty much all except for the Johan Dotson moonshot. A lot of it was very much.

B (21:53)

A lot of namesake, which is fine, by the way.

C (21:56)

I hate this crap. Or it's Jalen Hurts doesn't have it. We've completely lost the plot here. Like, you want to win? How about you win?

A (22:04)

How about you win the game?

C (22:05)

Win the Super Bowl?

A (22:06)

Won the Super Bowl. Yeah. Just by playing that way. Yeah. Do you give what the defense takes?

B (22:10)

I would love it actually if Ali Gordon got a little bit of run here and I'm just a little biased. But as a, as a fan of a team that utilizes two running backs, especially a smaller running back in Jameer Gibbs, we're talking Devon Hn. I mean, he's not a big dude. I'd rather have him be healthy and be fresh and be able to utilize.

A (22:25)

That's fine. I think there's room for Gordon. Abby. I totally agree. You know, we have a Camara Echoler sort of role for Achan.

C (22:32)

I like it.

B (22:32)

I think that'd be great.

A (22:33)

Yeah.

B (22:33)

Mike Clay, you go next.

A (22:34)

Next up for me, I would like to see which rookie rookie wide receivers will emerge as clear lineup blocks here in week number one. We have a short list here. Tetaroa McMillan goes up against Jacksonville. We're going to lock him into our lineups this week. Ameca Ebuka against Atlanta is going to be a fascinating one. Of course, at least in the short term should be a lineup block. Travis Hunter and against Carolina, will he be. Will he play enough on offense, see enough of a role to be an every week lineup block. And the other one is Matthew Golden. To me, one of my most drafted players in the offseason. I think he was just just painfully undervalued throughout the draft process. Going up against your Detroit Lions group perimeter corners is going to make that tricky, but they should have to throw the football lot. Terrific quarterback. So, so definitely fascinating to see those four guys. And then I'm wondering if we get a sleeper this week. So how about Deontay Thornton? Amari Cooper retired.

C (23:25)

Oh, no.

B (23:26)

That was on my list.

A (23:26)

Yeah. Like him a lot. Trey Harris and for the Chargers, maybe second round pick your boy Al Manner in Tennessee. Pat Bryant in Denver who drew Marcus Coulson comps from his own head coach during the off season. So there's a couple guys I'm just keeping an eye on to see how these guys look here in week one.

C (23:43)

I cannot wait to not to spend like too much time on Dante Thornton, Raiders wide receiver, but it's good to mention this name. I can't wait to see what he looks like because so he goes to Oregon and then he ends up at Tennessee and he's like 6 foot 3, 210 pounds, runs like a 43540. All these things seem on paper like built in a lab wide receiver prototype and that you go back and look at his college production, it's like 80 catches in four seasons and you're like how on earth could this guy with all this talent not produce at two good schools by the way like two schools with high functioning offenses. So I can't wait to see. I don't, I don't know how many guys like throughout college are always the traits players and then never and then put it together at the NFL as opposed to during the college level. Maybe he is one of those because the Raiders I think are carrying four.

A (24:26)

Wide receivers totally for right now because Cooper retired. They'll call someone up probably but he might be their top perimeter guy right out of the gate and he is. He generated a lot of hype right away, somewhat quietly. Not a lot of people paying attention to the Raiders, but he very clearly ahead of Jack Besh. And Trey Tucker might start in two wide sets with Jacoby Myers, but Thornton is one of them guys that you're like who's going to be that breakout player in week one we don't see coming? And he's. It's just been a steady drum beat all off season and I feel like he might surprise and play a ton and make some impact plays like it.

C (24:57)

Who you got, Daniel?

B (24:58)

I'm actually going to piggyback off of Mike because one of the players I want to talk about is a rookie wide receiver. I want to know what Matthew golden can look like for the Green Bay Packers. They've been searching for a wide receiver one basically since Devonte Adams left last couple of years. Their top wide receiver, Alan Lazard. Nothing wrong with that. In 2022 he was wide receiver 34 and then Jaden Reed in 2023 and 2024 was just under a top 25 wide receiver.

C (25:21)

Not quite wide receiver 34 is their wide receiver one.

A (25:24)

That's a.

B (25:24)

That's not great. Right.

C (25:26)

Good team by the way.

A (25:26)

That was like his, his career year.

C (25:28)

Yeah, right there.

B (25:28)

It was. It was packers wide receivers though heading into week one they're banged up a little bit. Jaden Reeds was on the injury report. Same with Don Tavian Wicks, Savion Williams. So like there's not a lot of depth Right now behind them. I know you mentioned the cornerbacks. I like Terry and Arnold. DJ Reed was really good last year for the jets, like coming over like it's going to be a nice secondary. But can this be one of those situations where unlike what we saw with the Eagles and their past catchers, can Jordan Love just lock on to one guy and be able to find Matthew golden with the speed that he has? He's clearly the most talented wide receiver in that passing game in at least Green Bay. So I've got him as a wide receiver, you know, low end wide receiver three or a flex option. He's my wide receiver 35. That was before Thursday night full had been played. Now that you know, some guys have come out, he's a little higher than that. But I'm interested to see what Matthew golden can look like because there's a lot of expectations, especially with how you have talked about him so far this year.

C (26:17)

First first round pick drafted wide receiver by the packers in like 22 years.

B (26:21)

In a really long time.

A (26:22)

Yeah, I'm just happy someone else teed up Matthew golden because I've been talking about him more than any other player season. Also Jaden Reed. I'm feeling a little pessimistic. He's going to go in this game. Hasn't been practicing. We'll make, I'll make a call on that projections and rankings wise later today when we get a little bit more information. But not looking good for Jada.

C (26:38)

Excited to see that.

B (26:39)

All right.

C (26:40)

All right. My week, this probably could have been like one of the first topics that we discussed, but we're looking for prodigy rookie and Ashton Genti has the chance to be this year's prodigy rookie. Now it's obviously possible that it could be somebody not drafted 6 overall. Puka Nukua has been the prodigy rookie. He was taken in the fifth round. But to me, the rookie who has the clearest path to becoming a fantasy megastar is Ashton Genti. Right. Let's talk about the talent here. This is a guy who I remember at one point during the pre draft process telling people like I think you need to brace for the possibility of Ashton Genti being discussed in terms of caliber of prospect a la Bijan Robinson two years ago. Like no way, you know, whatever Bajan, he was so great. Which he was so great and he is still great. Genti rose to sixth overall.

B (27:24)

Right.

C (27:24)

Which is actually two slots higher than where Bijan ended up getting drafted by the Atlanta Falcons. So the Raiders have told us and the Raiders had a Litany of other needs that they could have addressed in this year's classic. Number six. Like, we need this player. Right. It's also the thinnest depth chart amongst running back.

A (27:39)

Oh, my God.

C (27:39)

I think in the league. I think it was the thinnest depth chart prior to that pick. And I would argue that behind him there's nobody that I. If I'm the Raiders, I'm saying to myself, like, all right, so, you know, like, obviously we drafted Genty really high, but like, you know, Raheem Mosterts like a big part of what we do. Like, no, like, Mostert is fine. He had some great years. He was awesome that one season where he scored a million touchdowns. But, like, you are not weaning the workload of Ashton Genty because you want to get whatever Raheem Mosert and Sincere McCormick involved, right?

A (28:06)

No, McCormick, they cut too. So he's not even.

C (28:09)

I think he's. Yeah, there you go. Congratulations. I actually didn't. I didn't know that. So I'm a dummy. But yes, I agree with you.

A (28:14)

To your point though, he was like, he might have been the RB2, and they're just like, nope, they're not even on the team. Like, just nobody's a threat.

C (28:21)

So we are looking for Ashton Genti to have, honestly, a Javonte Williams type role, not to have the same level of production.

A (28:28)

I didn't think we'd be saying that.

C (28:30)

75 to 80% of the. Of the snaps for Ashton Genti. We want a healthy dose of carries. I mean healthy, like 15 to 20, 15 minimum. 20 would, to me be beautiful. That's plenty. And then we want a handful of targets. He is a real factor in the passing game again. We get to retire these stats soon enough because the season has begun. Most receiving yards of any FBS running back two years ago. Ashton Genti. He's a weapon in the passing game. If they can't protect. And we'll see how this Patriots defense looks on Sunday. Dump the ball off to Ashton.

A (29:02)

Here's. Here's a stat I've used all off season. This is my last chance to do it. So the last eight running backs picked in the top 12 were top 10 fantasy running backs as a rookie. He can make it nine in a row and he probably will.

C (29:13)

Yep.

A (29:13)

All right, next one for me. So look, if you think about the most successful tight ends of the last five, six, seven years in the NFL.

C (29:21)

Sam Brock Wright, Shane Zylstra, Eric Ebron, that time when he was Detroit.

B (29:28)

No, we didn't want that. All right.

A (29:30)

Why is he here?

B (29:31)

Keep going, keep going.

A (29:32)

Travis Kelsey, Matt, Mark Andrews, arguably 1 2, right? They've been fantastic over the last five years. Over the last five years or so. We're not drafting them as such this year where we did not draft them. We could say it in the past terms. Now I'm wondering if they either or both will bounce back and have a big fantasy season this year. It's really fascinating. Mark Andrews, one of the biggest head scratchers all of last year for sure. Obviously volume was way down. The target share dropped. He really bailed you out with touchdowns. The 11 and scores as you see on your screen. That was sustainable, man. It's very unsustainable. But, you know, I do expect him to get off to a hot start. No Isaiah likely and his highest snapshot of the season last year was that game that Isaiah likely was out. So hot start. But then what happens when likely returns? Is it more of a timeshare? It's going to be really interesting to see if he can rebound. And then of course, Travis Kelsey, age 35, season. Could it be his last season now engaged, you know, hashtag best shape of his life. This is a guy that's been a powerhouse in fantasy for a decade and we'll see if he has one more good year in him and what should be. He's more competition now.

C (30:33)

Did you guys see his impersonation of Patrick Mahomes yesterday?

A (30:36)

I did not see that.

C (30:37)

It was so good. They were doing a Q and A down in Brazil and someone asked Patrick a question and you couldn't really hear the subsequent question that was directed to Travis, but he entered it into Patrick voice and it was just incredible. Listen, I'm the only person who actually likes Travis Kelsey in this room. I had him as tight end four coming into the season. So I think Kelsey will be more than fine this year. And again, where you were drafting him now compared to where we have been drafting him for the past eight years was such like the risk was basically mitigated. There is no risk. Right. If he ends up as tight end 12. Okay, fine. You use your eighth round pick on a tight end 12.

A (31:14)

Yeah.

C (31:14)

So I'm good.

A (31:15)

That's why it's fascinating because either one of those guys could finish top two or lead the position fantasy points this year and we'd be like, yeah, okay, that checks out. They've done that for a while.

C (31:23)

I'd be surprised.

B (31:24)

I would be surprised if either one of them led in fantasy points. However, I just maybe it's just, I like. I like drafting good tight ends.

C (31:30)

So 97 catches last year. 97.

B (31:33)

I know. And that was his worst fantasy season in almost a terrific efficiency. It was not. Not.

C (31:38)

We play points per reception. Robinson is a beast in our game. You know why? Because he catches a gajillion passes.

B (31:45)

Gajillion balls for about.

A (31:46)

He was not good in fantasy. Come on.

B (31:48)

That was one in a deep league.

C (31:51)

You totally.

A (31:52)

He had like, what, two good games the whole season? You were never starting.

B (31:55)

His best game was the 1179 yard performance that he had in week three or whatever.

A (32:00)

Yes.

B (32:01)

One of my next big storylines is what is this Bucks team going to look like in 2025? Last year, the Bucs were third in passing yards, fourth in rushing yards, and fourth in point scored per game. Now, just to start the season here in week one, obviously, no Liam Cohen. He's gone from Tampa Bay. He is in Jacksonville. There's also no Chris Godwin, there's no Jalen McMillan, and there's no Tristan Worse, who's still recovering from knee surger right now in that offensive line. And he's one of the best offensive linemen in the NFL.

C (32:26)

Line talk.

B (32:26)

So I. I love Bucky Irving.

C (32:28)

Yep.

B (32:29)

And I'm just like. When you go through it, like, honestly, like, even though I have some questions because they've had a lot of changes within their offense, still feels kind of like a chalky offense here in week one. Bucky Irving is still going to be a top ten running back for us, right? Mike Evans, I have him as like a mid tier wide receiver, too. You guys are more of like a high end wide receiver to potentially low end wide receiver. One on Mike Evans, Ameca Buka. As a rookie, though, we think right out the gate this guy's going to come in and be a starter for your fantasy squad. I have him as a top 20 wide receiver this week. I started him over George Pickens last night. Very grateful that I did that. As of right now, we'll see how it plays out.

C (33:01)

But cue the two for 18.

B (33:03)

I don't. Yeah, I don't need it.

A (33:04)

I don't want to put on Shepherd. Nine targets. Yeah.

B (33:06)

And even Baker Mayfield. Even with losing both Chris Godwin and Jalen McMillan, we still have him as a top seven quarterback. We think this offensive.

C (33:14)

I'm bullish. Yeah.

B (33:14)

It just feels like a chalky week in Tampa. Just week one right out the gate. But there have been a lot of changes to this offense, and that's one of the things that I Want to see is how it looks different without Liam Cohen and all those pass catchers from last year to this year.

C (33:26)

I'm not convinced it'll look a lot different in terms of like, like the personnel, like the groupings and the scheme and the play calling. I just think you know it just we have some new faces there. Look, I also do you think if the Bucks wore exclusively their creamsicle uniform that they would all be the top ranked player at their position?

B (33:44)

I would have them all. Top five.

A (33:46)

Those are all.

C (33:46)

Those might be my favorite NFL unit.

B (33:49)

I'm with you.

C (33:49)

I like the Dolphins. Aqua ones are amazing. Like they're some great, great throwbacks. Seahawks throwbacks, Broncos throwbacks, Patriots throwbacks are all legit. But Bucks might be top of the list with the Creams.

A (33:59)

That's a good call.

B (33:59)

I know that you. I think you had Mike in the shadow report. AJ Terrell is going to shadow Mike Evans. Yeah.

A (34:03)

But he hasn't been terrible yet. I'm not worried about it.

C (34:07)

Only last note for me, I was doing the prediction season show or season prediction show. Yesterday Peter Schrager picked a Mecca abuka as his offensive rookie of the year and part of his description was talking about how how he's got sources in Tampa who have just been texting him non stop about how great this kid looks.

B (34:22)

I mean sign me up because I drafted him in quite a few places. We'll see how things continue to work out. It's not just even a week one thing. It's once a Mecca abuka. We see what he is on the field. What happens when Chris Godwin gets back?

A (34:33)

Yeah.

B (34:33)

Now how does that wide receiving course shake out exactly?

A (34:35)

I don't know how they're going to support all three guys. So who loses? Is Mike Evans fall off like he did the first month last season?

C (34:40)

I don't know. I don't know.

A (34:42)

It's going to be a tricky one.

B (34:44)

If that happens I just want to say it is you but if that happens, I just want to say that I have been in on a Mecca abuka over Mike Evans for the entirety of the off season. So I just.

A (34:51)

We'll see if that happens.

C (34:52)

Yeah, I mean I again listen, I was the guy that was in on Javonte Williams over Saquon.

A (34:56)

You were right.

C (34:57)

If we're going to pat ourselves back.

A (34:59)

You know, might as well right.

C (35:00)

Do it while we can. Last one for me again. We had did a whole bunch yesterday and we have more to come in just a little bit on tonight's game and our starts of the week. But. But this was submitted before we got the news Yesterday. Is this 49ers offense run just almost exclusively through George Kittle and Christian McCaffrey? If McCaffrey plays. So you know, that's a pretty significant caveat. But like if he plays and maybe the fact that I think it's unlikely that he's going to be 100% whether he plays or not, maybe that tapers his workload a little bit. But still, I expect a monster a year from him. And to me it's really more of a George Kittle question. Is George Kittle gonna say all you guys spent all off season putting me in a baby tier by myself behind Brock Bowers and Trey McBride? I very much belong in that tier because Kittle, who I have said many times over, has sacrificed as a receiver because he is such a selfless, willing blocker and a total totally dominated boxer, totally dominant blocker as well. Maybe this is one of those years where he gets his and he sees 150 targets. That would be awesome if that happened.

B (36:06)

Yeah, I'd be in, I'd be in on that. But also I want to see how the wide receivers are going to pan out.

C (36:11)

Of course. And by the way, Juan Jennings, he's going to play contract. I'm very convinced that was largely contractitis for the past month.

A (36:19)

It sure seems like it because it sounds like he's good to go for this game. So yeah, it's going to be going to be interesting.

C (36:24)

Ricky Pearsall and dejuan Jennings of course should see a ton of snaps. They are paper thin at wide receivers.

A (36:30)

Yeah, they can, we've seen from this offense it will be high scoring, high efficiency and they will feature, they can feature four guys to make them fantasy relevant. And we have four guys on the list. Yeah.

C (36:40)

The other thing is that like we spent a lot of time this off season debating like should you be more in on Juwan Jennings or Ricky Piersome? It's possible both of them are really good. It's possible that like both of them proved to be totally worth it and then some.

B (36:51)

Honestly, with where they were drafted, I mean they were drafted so close to each other that it's kind of like if you have one that you like, go ahead and make that case. But it's not like you're getting exponentially better value on one over the other based on where they were coming off.

A (37:03)

Yeah, they've supported four fantasy relevant players the past and there's little reason to think they can again. Yep.

B (37:09)

All right.

A (37:09)

Next one for me. Okay. So I think this is kind of a good way to cap it off is, you know, every year I feel like, right the, like in August, there's guys who pop into my head like I wish I drafted them more, you know, and I feel like there's kind of a guy at each position for that. Drake May, a quarterback. I've talked about him. I did. And you know, I ended up drafting him a little bit, but he's a guy. I feel like I might regret it not having him. A lot of him, a little more. Tedro McMillan. Yeah. Certainly the Thielen trade helped a little bit there. I'd say Tyler Warren, now that Daniel Jones got that job, I wish I had a little more there. But the biggest one for me is the guy that, you know, yesterday we did our fantasy football now draft and it was like, I'm going to get. I got to get this guy. It's my guy, it's my guy. It's my guy. And you guys had no idea where I was going. And it was Jalen Warren in Pittsburgh. You know, he just got paid. Caleb Johnson's struggles are a factor here. Warren is a guy I think we were a little hesitant on because he's never had a big workload. You know, he's had more than half of Pittsburgh scaries in one game in his career. Has mostly been a pass catching guy. But Mike Tomlin said he's going to run the football. And something else to consider here is there's one fantasy relevant, we'll say running back that has not missed a game the last four seasons.

C (38:11)

Najee.

A (38:11)

Najee Harris. And that's part of why Warren never really got that opportunity. So maybe now he gets 12 carries and five, maybe six targets a game and is a every week. RB2. I think he is a really good shot at that in this offense.

C (38:23)

I think you're describing him is this year's Tony Paul.

A (38:26)

Maybe more passing work, Right? I know, I know. He's like ninth.

C (38:29)

And I'm not talking like exactly what it looks like. I'm just saying like a guy that we spent all off season saying. Yeah, which of those two backs do you want? Tony Pardata Spears, Jalen Warren or Caleb Johnson? Maybe? It's like it was clearly one over the other.

A (38:43)

Yeah.

C (38:43)

And that clearly guy doesn't have top 10 upside. Pollard was not that, but he saw enough work and especially was efficient enough as a pass catcher that he's getting you 12 and a half fantasy points a week.

A (38:54)

Yeah. What if he's like Chase Brown, like what if he's a fringe top guy? I'm just gonna say it to you. If this offense, it might not be as good as Cincinnati, but they also don't have any as many mouse to feed in this offense. So, you know, some concerns about their offensive line. But Warren, you know, he's not. He's not like he's 190 pounds. He's like. But 215, 5 8, 215. Yeah, he has some size to him. So I think he's a guy that maybe we slept on a little too much. So I'm feeling optimistic about him going into week one.

B (39:19)

I was wondering if the Chase Brown comp would eventually come into play here because of the fact he's, you know, as a really good pass catcher, someone that would be trusted by his quarterback. I know that's a big part of this too. You know, Chase Brown doesn't have a whole lot behind him. I think Caleb Johnson offers, offers more potential vulture volume than whoever's behind Chase in Cincinnati. But that's going to come on towards like the middle or end of the season.

A (39:42)

Yeah. And if this goes wrong, it's because Caleb does come out and run. It's not like he ran terribly in the preseason. He didn't get a lot of work. But the. I think it's mostly the passing game that's a concern for him, which we don't expect much of anyway. But if, yeah, if Caleb doesn't come out and play or only gets a handful of touches, it's going to be all Jalen Warren because Kenny Gainwell will. He can get some touches, but it's not going to be a ton.

B (40:02)

So and we say this often on Fantasy focus, this is, I think, a thing that all three of us believe. But anytime you can hit your wagon to Arthur Smith in any way, shape or form, you got to do it. You know what I'm saying?

C (40:11)

We actually haven't really talked about that that much this preseason. So it's like, why not bring it back?

B (40:16)

Why not?

A (40:16)

Guys, this is the perfect time right before the first game.

B (40:19)

It all right. My last storyline and mine is a little bit. I mean I kind of took a page out of what Mike said when you were talking about guys that maybe you wish you drafted more or someone that's not quite as as big of a name. One of the ones that I have been thinking about this entire off season was does a change of scenery elevate Debo above where we have been drafting him? He came off the board as like wide receiver 45. He was not anyone that we. We didn't talk about him a lot. There's not like a lot of excitement around Deebo Samuel, but we've seen him be a mess to defenses in his career. He was wide receiver 3 a couple years ago. Wide receiver 15, two years ago. I think in this situation, I am expecting, and I think we all are, a little bit of regression from Terry McLaurin. I think that touchdown rate is unsustainable. Obviously they got rid of Brian Robinson. They've got four running backs that we talked about on yesterday's show. Right. Austin Eckler, Chris Rodriguez, jcm. I'm gonna just. I'm gonna go with jcm.

C (41:10)

JCM works.

A (41:10)

Yeah.

B (41:11)

And then Jeremy Ox Marshall. Jcm.

C (41:16)

Jcm. Ox. No Bass. No. What was it called that you were talking about? He just a woofer.

B (41:21)

He's a good. Is a guitar amp. Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

C (41:25)

Sorry.

B (41:26)

That's close, Ox. We were. Yeah, we were close to it. That's all right.

C (41:29)

You know, I'm an ox cord guy myself.

B (41:31)

I know they got four running backs there, but like, do they utilize Debo out of the backfield the way that the San Francisco's 49ers did? I don't know the answer to that. But with where he was being drafted right now, I have him listed as wide receiver 43. Not a starter in 10 team leagues. Not even really a starter in 12 team leagues in week one. But there are not many wide receivers that were drafted in that range that I think could work their way up into the like, hey, we've seen him be a top 20 guy before. I'm just curious what Debo Samuel and the rest of this Commander's offense is going to look like as well. Because it's the second year of Jaden Daniels. What's the sophomore season going to look like for this guy? We've talked about rookie quarterbacks before. We've had really high expectations coming out of really big seasons. C.J. stroud is very different than Jaden Daniels because he didn't use his legs. But I'm just curious how this entire Commander's offense is going to look like in year two under Jaden Daniels. And one of those big things is going to be Debo Samuel from Totally.

A (42:21)

Yeah, yeah.

C (42:22)

Commander need a wide receiver too. That much is for sure.

B (42:25)

If you're running a business, you know that every time you miss a call, you're leaving money on the table. When every customer conversation matters, you need a phone system that keeps up and helps you stay connected 247 that's why you need OpenPhone. OpenPhone is the number one business phone system that streamlines and scales your customer communications. It works through an app on your phone or computer, so no more carrying two phones or having to use a landline. With OpenPhone your team can share one number and collaborate on customer calls and texts like a shared inbox. That way any teammate can pick up right where the last person left off, keeping response times faster than ever. Plus say goodbye to voicemail. Their AI agent can help set up in minutes to handle calls after hours, answer questions and capture leads so you never miss a customer. So whether you're a one person operation drowning in calls and texts, or you have a large team that needs better collaboration tools, OpenPhone is a no brainer. See why over 60,000 businesses trust OpenPhone? OpenPhone is offering listeners 20% off your first six months at openphone.com fantasy that's O P E N P-O-N-E.com fantasy and if you have an existing number with another service, OpenPhone will port them over at no extra charge. Open Phone no missed call, no missed.

C (43:48)

Customers GNC knows that you're not always feeling it at the gym, but don't get down, get lit and get more out of every workout. Beyond Raw lit is a clinically dosed pre workout that flips the switch and gives you more energy, focus, intensity and pumps the perfect combo for a killer workout. Plus it's got incredible flavors and thousands of five star reviews so you know it's good. Pick it up at gnc store or gnc.com.

B (44:20)

When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans, send.

C (44:31)

Event invites and pin messages so no.

B (44:33)

One forgets mom 60th and never miss.

A (44:36)

A meme or milestone.

B (44:38)

All protected with end to end encryption.

C (44:39)

Description it's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Learn more@WhatsApp.com and they like I know this is stating the obvious, but like they traded for him. Yeah right. Like this wasn't like they didn't trade for him, but the 49ers paid down 75% of his contract so they're in but not really in. They didn't sign him on the open market to some, you know, incentive laden contract. Like they took on what I thought was a big number for Deebo Samuel. To me an indicator that they have Expectations going into the season that Deebo has some real gas left in the tank.

B (45:13)

Yeah, we're going to see. We'll wait and see on that one. All right, those are part two of our storyline previews here for week one. Obviously. Go back and listen to yesterday's show. If you did not get a chance to be able to listen to the rest of our previews for the week, however, we got another football game I want to talk about my friends. Where is it at? Brazil.

C (45:31)

Brazil.

B (45:32)

At Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We're talking about the Chief of and the Chargers. Mike, based on what the playbook says, what lineup blocks do we have in this game?

A (45:44)

Let's see, lineup locks. Where? Well, where you drafted Patrick Mahomes, you're locking him in. Xavier Worthy is a lineup lock for sure with Noah, Rashid Rice there and Travis Kelsey, of course. We drafted him as what, tight end six. So we're locking him in as well. The other guys are, you know, Isaiah Pacheco, Hollywood Brown. Those are more, you know, borderline line starters. Not necessarily line of blocks, but guys you could potentially start depending on the size of your league.

C (46:07)

Likey. It's good call by Mike. My storyline to watch for this game tonight is probably what a lot of people are wondering as well. We all have really high hopes for Marion Hampton for sure. But how much is Naji Harris playing?

A (46:21)

Right.

C (46:21)

It's not like what I don't expect is this. I don't expect Najee Harris to play a role that is fantasy relevant by himself and Omarion Hampton is not. Right. You don't draft the player 21st overall and not feature him extensively. The question is, I believe Omar Omarion Hampton's value, the ceiling and the floor are impacted by the Najee Harris role. Right. If Najee Harris plays Miles Sanders type snaps, which was like basically every like fourth series or something, Amar Hand is going to be an absolute smasher this year. If Maji Harris plays 42% of the snaps and Amar Hanta plays 58% of the snaps, then Hampton might have a ceiling of RB15.

A (47:05)

Yeah.

C (47:05)

Which there are certainly people that have hopes and desires that Hampton can be a top 10 running back and really establish himself as part of that elite tier. So to me, just how much Najee Harris plays he is expected to play. Jim Harbaugh did tell Rich Eisen, by the way. Rich Eisen show now on ESPN Radio is great to have Rich back in the ESPN family. One of the people that really helped build ESPN into what it is right now. Love Rich and he told Rich did Jim Harbaugh that Omar and Hampton will start. Yeah.

A (47:36)

When we had conflicting info a few days ago that Harris would start, it felt like maybe we were like we're not worried about that. That's okay.

B (47:43)

Yeah, really.

C (47:44)

It's the ceiling floor for.

B (47:45)

I was going to say keeping an eye on. It's nice to know someone's going to get the start because it feels like the coaching staff is giving them like a little bit of like a vote of confidence. But over the course of an entire football game, I don't care if you start as long as you are getting opportunities throughout the game.

A (47:58)

Honestly, if Harris is like 5050 in snaps or getting most of the carries the first few weeks, I will be hammering trade offers for Hampton absolutely aggressively because there's a Cream rises Michael. Yeah, exactly. At some point he's going to take that job. Yep.

B (48:11)

All right.

A (48:12)

Watching me next, I will go the Chiefs offense in general, I want to know if they're going to bounce back because it was very underwhelming offensive production from them last season and I there's been chatter during the off season that they're going to change things up a little bit, open up the offense, get a little bit more vertical this year. I don't know to the extent of that that we'll see early on in the year without Rasheed Rice here, but I think they'll make an attempt to do that. So guys like Mahomes, remember we drafted him assuming he'll be better but we don't know like he wasn't really a great QB one last year.

B (48:42)

You guys drafted him assuming he'd be better. I got zero shares of pass.

A (48:45)

Where'd you have him ranked?

B (48:46)

Yeah, I had him ranked as I think qb.

A (48:48)

Okay. Well I have six. I mean either way we expect him to be a starting caliber fantasy quarterback again which he wasn't for until late last season. Isaiah Pacheco, one of the again another mystery from last year. I know he had the injury but when he came back was a non factor. What if we come out and cream hunt out snaps him again or something? You know that that's a possibility and of course I talked about it earlier. Travis Kelce, will he rebound from what we saw last season? So a lot to figure out with this Chiefs offense and I can't wait to see what it looks like close this.

C (49:14)

Oh sorry. Go ahead.

B (49:15)

I'm starting Xavier Worthy as my wide receiver one in our fantasy focus show league so I as you should. Yeah, I'm Thinking big things here for.

C (49:22)

Six weeks at least he's going to have some major volume and maybe for 17 weeks.

A (49:25)

Yeah, he was a first round pick in the last eight games last year. He was seeing massive target shares. Very productive at the two. I know it's garbage time, but two super bowl touchdowns like the guy there, he should be able to sustain that. He is. He was a first round pick for a reason.

C (49:38)

I want to close a circle on Mahomes here for a second because when you talk about quarterbacks that are awesome and you don't say anything other than like they're perfect and they're actually God, people get really mad and offended. Especially the people that root for that team. Right. So this is almost like a message to all the Mahomes supporters, which I am as well, Chiefs fans out there. I used to work for the Chiefs. Like I have a ton of love for this franchise, the city, the people there is. I think Mahomes will be a fantasy starter this year. I think he's bound for. He is bound for a bounce back year. The reason why I had fewer shares of Patrick Mahomes, I think I have three out of my 16 teams. So I guess that's actually, actually a pretty decent chunk if you think about it, is less so because of my feeling about Patrick Mahomes this season. More so because he was being drafted as quarterback six after those first five by a comfortable margin.

A (50:28)

Yes.

C (50:28)

Like you could wait and get Bo Nix or Baker Mayfield three or even four rounds later, which those guys might finish worse than Patrick Mahomes this year. But the running back or wide receiver, yeah, they also, they might be better than him. Flat better than him. And the running back that you're getting in round six or five, where Patrick Mahomes is going is so much better than the options around 7, 8 or 9 that it's, you know, Mahomes. Plus this player is inferior to Baker Slash Bow. Plus this great running back Bo Nix.

B (50:59)

Is I think my most rostered quarterback in fantasy football. And there's a reason, I think because where I was in that range where rather than be able to get the first quarterback after those first or second because either Patrick Mahomes or Baker Mayfield, it was one of those two who felt like I was totally fine waiting and getting either Bo Nix or Kyler Murray or even waiting a little bit longer with how deep quarterback is and grabbing a Brock Purdy or one of the other young guys that we expect to be able to take a second year leap here. And so I don't want to say that I don't think Patrick Mahomes going to be good. I talked to a lot of bad things about Mahomes. I actually I just stated facts about why Mahomes was not good in fantasy the last couple of years. But I am hopeful for all of us because I have shares of the Chiefs offense. Even though I don't roster Patrick Mahomes, that he is going to return to that kind of same value that we have seen in the so what you're.

C (51:45)

Watching for tonight is whether Patrick Mahomes.

B (51:46)

Throws for four or five, five touchdowns. One of those two. What I'm watching is honestly is just we already talked about it a little bit but it's going to be Isaiah Pacheco. Is he the clear RB1 in this offense? Are they going to go back to Kareem Hunt who was unbelievably, awfully inefficient last year? He just. There is no juice left in that tank. He was a volume guy. It felt like by the way, third fewest yards per carry in the NFL. That's where Kareem Hunt was last.

C (52:09)

Who was behind him? Do you know offhand?

B (52:11)

I don't know offhand.

C (52:12)

No, no, don't. Don't look it up. I just. If you had it handy.

B (52:14)

I do not have it right off.

C (52:15)

Interesting.

B (52:15)

Right off hand. Yeah, I think Alexander Madison was one of them.

C (52:18)

That sounds correct.

B (52:19)

Actually there was one more that I cannot remember. But the only other running backs that are there, Elijah Mitchell and seventh round rookie wide receiver running back Rashard Smith. So it feels like this should be the spot where Isaiah Pacheco comes back and reestablishes the dominance that we thought we were going to see down the stretch last year. I'm hoping that he starts the season with that this year. So that's one of the things I'm watching for tonight's game. All right, starts of the week. We're doing starts of the week a little differently.

A (52:42)

This really quick. 26, 23 Chiefs.

C (52:45)

I got Chiefs as well. I'm going 2419 and let's get a.

A (52:49)

Passing touchdown in this game. Zero.

B (52:51)

Last night we had zero touchdowns. I'll take the Chargers in this one.

A (52:54)

All right.

C (52:55)

I'm 10 in my game picks this year. Oh yeah, Nailed it.

A (52:59)

All right.

B (53:00)

Starts of the week are going to be a little different this year, my friends because we're going to make it a game. We're going to make starts of the week in game. We're each going to bring to the table A quarterback, a running back, a wide receiver and a tight end. And we have some caveats around how we can choose these players. I'll share that in a little bit. But we're going to add up their fantasy points at the end of the week. Whoever loses and has the lowest number of fantasy points amongst their starters from the starts of the week, we'll have to spin this beautiful wheel behind Mike Clay. We don't have anything written on it yet, but it will be full of punishments. And whoever comes in last place has to spin the punishment wheel and do a punishment either on the show or on social media, depending on what the punishment is going be to.

C (53:35)

To be.

A (53:35)

Speaking of social media, how do we come up with some of those punishments?

B (53:38)

I think we're going to need to ask both our YouTube chat.

A (53:40)

Exactly.

B (53:41)

And a little bit of Twitter. How do you think we should have some punishments? Send us a few things in the YouTube chat that you think we should have on this punishment wheel for Mike Field. And I'd have to play out if.

A (53:50)

We come in last reasonable things because we have to do them like, you.

C (53:54)

Know, a beer mile was funny, but I can't do that right here.

A (53:56)

So, you know, or even if we have to do them at home and, you know, you do a selfie or something, but something recent, we can't put like Fly to LA on a Wednesday.

B (54:03)

Speaking of being reasonable, just to be able to put some parameters around the way we're choosing these players so that the people at home listening know you cannot pick a top seven quarterback, you cannot pick a top 15 running back, you cannot pick a top 20 wide receiver, and you cannot pick a top five tight end from our ranks, from.

C (54:20)

Our rankings, consensus ranks, not your ranks, because obviously these are players you're bullish on relative to.

A (54:25)

Yeah, I actually have. I actually have Bijan ranked 34th this week. So he's my startup.

C (54:31)

I knocked him down just for this exercise.

B (54:33)

All right, well, then, Mike, why don't you go first then, if you're so excited about.

C (54:36)

By the way, we did not reveal our picks, so it's possible we have the exact.

B (54:39)

Yeah, we may have some overlaps. Just like dfs.

A (54:41)

Yeah. Actually, I kind of foreshadowed this before because it's all guys. I talked about quarterback Drake May going up against the Raiders.

B (54:48)

That's not how you say it. How do you say that?

A (54:50)

What? Appreciate that Greg May like him this week as a streamer running back. I'm kind of mad, mad at myself for not going Jaylen Warren here But I'll stick with my pick. Jerome Ford against Cincinnati. I think he's going to have a solid week. Bill should be busy as a rusher and a receiver. Wide receiver Tet McMillan going up against Jacksonville. Really excited to see him this week against a team that gave up a ton to wide receivers last season. And tight end again, I mentioned it. Tyler Warren.

B (55:19)

Shut your mouth.

A (55:20)

No way.

B (55:22)

My. Just for what it's worth, my starts of the week are Kyler Murray at quarterback.

A (55:25)

Okay. All right.

B (55:26)

At running back, I have Jerome Ford. At wide receiver, I have Tedro McMillan. At tight end, I have Tyler.

A (55:31)

You do not. Yes, I do.

C (55:32)

You guys sharing a break?

A (55:34)

High five.

B (55:34)

All right, same thing.

C (55:36)

High five.

A (55:36)

I'm gonna come down to quarterback. Exactly. He'll beats us. It'll come down to quarterback.

C (55:40)

Oh, man. All right, well, I'm gonna beat you guys. My quarterback, my start of the week is Daniel Jones. I talked about him a little bit earlier on in the week. Potential streaming option for those that are nervous about like a Brock Purdy, for example, against Seattle. And speaking of Seattle, my running back is Kenneth Walker III, who's outside our top 15 of running back. Not by much. I felt like that was kind of cheating because he's like RB18.

A (56:00)

Yeah, but I think we need like a protest role at some point.

B (56:03)

Like a veto.

A (56:03)

Yeah, like we could both veto one wide receiver.

C (56:06)

You know, I actually, I. I had Jerry Judy in my brain all week and then I ended up with Tedo McMillan.

B (56:10)

No, you did not. Show me your sheet. It does not say. It says you're right. Okay, it does. All right.

C (56:15)

And then my favorite pick out of these. Touchdown scoring, Mark Andrews revenge game. Where do they play on Sunday night? Outside our top five in Buffalo.

B (56:24)

Yeah, Buffalo.

A (56:25)

Yeah.

B (56:25)

That's going to be. That Sunday night football game is going to be a blast.

C (56:28)

Of course, that's where Mark.

A (56:30)

I don't want to change real quick. I feel like Mark Andrews is without the spirit with. Is outside the spirit of the. Of the competition. Don't you think, like, top five. Like Andrews, he's. You think he's top five? All right, all right. I mean, likely he feels like I. I have him higher than that.

C (56:45)

Where do I know what you're saying? Consensus ranks are different than all right.

B (56:48)

I felt that way when I chose Kyler Murray. I just saw that Saints defense and I was like, all right, he's outside the top seven.

C (56:54)

I'm happy that, like, this is week one. We can certainly fine tune things going into next week. But like, I don't know. If it's five, he's number eight. Then I'm going to go with it.

A (57:02)

Right.

B (57:02)

All right, well, for those watching at home on our YouTube stream, we're going to throw all three of the starts of the week up on the board. Man, Mike, I cannot believe. I'll tell you what, we're all Tel McMillan fans. Like, that's what I get from this. We're all pumped to see what this rookie wide receiver can do in week one.

A (57:18)

Maybe I should go back to Gary.

C (57:19)

Judy just to diversify the portfolio here.

B (57:22)

You know what? It's not, not a bad idea. I like, though, that we're all on the same person.

C (57:27)

We submitted it, you know.

A (57:28)

Yeah. This is our week one. I thought about switching to Warren, but I, I look at this.

B (57:32)

Mike, your avatar is so gray.

A (57:36)

Yeah, it is. I don't know what's going on with.

C (57:38)

That's Mike Clay after hearing the news about Christian McCaffrey last night.

A (57:41)

That's exactly right.

B (57:42)

That's what happened.

A (57:42)

Or Michael after turning 40 in May, apparently my emojis beer just changes.

C (57:47)

Wow.

A (57:47)

To a lighter color. I mean, it's not that we have field.

B (57:50)

We need to get your, your emoji to have a little bit more lettuce on top at this point.

C (57:53)

Yeah, I know.

A (57:54)

I'm thinking about growing my hair up.

C (57:55)

I already did.

B (57:56)

Oh, wait a second.

C (57:56)

Emoji. Yeah.

B (57:57)

Well, I think we got a couple of punishment ideas already from our YouTube chat, because these people are dedicated to the show. I love that you guys hang out.

A (58:04)

There, by the way we were talking, like, ideas could be, for example, if I finish last, like, the next week, we all could say, like, you guys get to pick my running back or something like that for the week. You know, stuff like that. Yeah, stuff like that.

B (58:15)

I watched you do that during our Bahamas weekend. Yeah, when Arta Ocal was like, hey, well, all of you make a pick for me. And field. He gave Fields drafted Dorian Thompson Robinson as a quarterback.

C (58:27)

He's very versatile.

A (58:29)

He is.

C (58:30)

He can play scout team quarterback, play an active quarterback.

A (58:33)

We gotta help feel that. Feel like this. Other side. Other. There you go. You had one. You had one.

C (58:39)

One straggler, one rogue.

B (58:40)

Yeah, that happens. They're called flyaways, Mike.

A (58:42)

That's why you go like this all the time. That's.

B (58:43)

That's what it is.

C (58:44)

Still learning this new hair lifestyle. Okay, do we have quick suggestions?

B (58:46)

Ye throw up some of the suggestions that we have from our YouTube chat. First one comes from Nick. Nick says, loser must run a Shirtless gauntlet.

C (58:53)

Okay.

B (58:53)

We're starting at the top.

C (58:54)

Crazy. Like, we're like a shot of hot sauce first.

A (58:57)

You know, we have busy week.

B (58:58)

I honestly though, I will go out and buy a paintball gun if I can shoot one of you guys shirtless with it. If that's an option.

A (59:03)

Yeah.

B (59:04)

For what it's worth, I think that would be a. Maybe that's an end of the season one. Whoever has, like, the most losses has to run a shirtless paintball gauntlet that.

C (59:11)

Like, I could get behind. Like, you know, I don't know. Are we going to. Are we going to do this, like, weekly, like head to head standings, or is it like, like aggregate points scored over the course?

B (59:20)

You. Every week. Every week that you lose? Yeah. You have to do a punishment and then maybe. I'm just saying this right now live on the fly. Whoever has the most number of losses at the end of the season has like a bad punishment.

A (59:31)

Okay. So maybe we can review all the punishment ideas and come up with one that fits.

C (59:34)

Go, two, zero and. Oh, one, one. I mean, there are a lot of ways that you. 1 and 1 or 0 and 2. Yes. Here we go.

B (59:40)

Correct. All right, let's throw another one up that we have here from our YouTube chat. This one comes from GT12. Mike has to intentionally mispronounce words on air. Is that a punishment or do you already do that? Do you do that already?

A (59:52)

That's what I'm wondering. Is that inspired because I talk wrong or something, or is that just something that I have to just say wrong?

B (59:59)

That's a good question.

C (60:00)

You know, it was the best at mispronouncing words and not really knowing it. And I loved, like, love watching this. Jon Gruden used to this all the time. He'd be like, you know, I love watching. I love watching this. Titans quarter back, Ryan, Tanny Hill.

A (60:13)

Oh, yeah.

C (60:14)

Like. Like he'd emphasize these things so hilariously.

B (60:18)

All right, all right.

C (60:19)

Yeah, we got a couple more.

B (60:20)

Yeah, that might have been a subtle shot at you. I don't think you say anything wrong.

C (60:25)

You don't say wooder.

A (60:26)

No, there's probably a couple weird ones, but one of them.

C (60:29)

Guys. One of them things. One of your lines.

A (60:31)

Yeah, like you.

B (60:32)

If you guys will just calm down, we have like eight more to get to, so. Hold on just one second. All right, next one we have another one comes from G. Has to shave just the mustache. Wait, so it's like the reverse. I get to keep the beard, but I lose the mustache.

C (60:44)

Please don't that would feel odd for a while.

B (60:47)

I don't. I'm not sure Rosie would be on board with that either. Do these punishments need to be, like, partner approved, by the way? Like, do our wives, girlfriends need to be okay with the things that we're going to do?

C (60:57)

If it involves a look, yeah.

A (60:59)

Do they have to approve the reels? They have to. Or they have to approve the wheel?

B (61:02)

Yeah, yeah, we. Yeah, we'll have the judges approve the wheel. All right, let's keep going because I hear. I think we got some good ones. I love. I love this. Micock says last place has to take first place person and their parents out to dinner. Okay, well, who said that? Not sure if I said it properly. That's what it kind of looks like. We'll figure that one out. In the past. Is there a chance that I mispronounced words live on the show with our next one?

A (61:28)

That was me.

B (61:29)

That was it. All right. I would take your guys parents out to dinner. For what it's worth, I got no problem being able to pay for Mr. And Mrs. Yates and Mr. And Mrs.

C (61:37)

West Harford Center, Salisbury thinking.

B (61:42)

All right, next one. Next one from our YouTube chat. This one comes from Scott A.

A (61:46)

Okay, now this is like we're talking.

B (61:48)

Someone has to wear a field shoulder sling for an entire show.

A (61:52)

That's what we're going for.

B (61:53)

That's a good one. Yes.

C (61:54)

A good idea.

B (61:55)

Repeatable. Repeatable. Easy enough to be able to pull off these. Yes. Eight. Yes. We have 18 punishments. We got to keep that in mind. All right, let's. We got more. YouTube chat was very active with this hot wing punishment. This one comes from Casey Bo Beard. I think we can.

A (62:08)

I love wings.

B (62:08)

I'm. I'm very down for a hot wing punishment. Maybe we only do, like, one dab.

A (62:12)

Yeah.

B (62:13)

And we do that at, like, the beginning of a show for one person or something.

A (62:15)

By the way, I'm just gonna ask this right on the air. Are we doing the touchdown thing before we go today?

B (62:18)

Oh, it's a great question.

C (62:20)

I think it's.

B (62:20)

It's coming out next week.

C (62:21)

We have something cool that we're going to introduce.

B (62:22)

Another game for next week.

C (62:23)

We can describe. I don't know. Can we describe it?

A (62:25)

I thought we were doing week one. Yeah.

C (62:27)

Okay, here we go. This is this new concept that we have. It's going to involve monopoly money, but we are going to each pick a player on Friday that is rostered in under 1% of leagues and picking that player to score a touchdown. If One of us guesses a player correctly, which is extremely unlikely. At some point during the course of the season, they collect all the monopoly money in the puck.

B (62:49)

And we're going to do this on Thursday. That'll be our Thursday game. This is. Starts the week. It'll be our Friday game. Yeah. So we can use all the games.

A (62:56)

I thought we were doing it today. I had one. This was your idea a long time ago. Ago. So my.

C (62:59)

My pick just. Yeah.

A (63:01)

So is this preseason for us this week? We're doing it for fun. Yeah. I want. Because I'm going Taekwond Thornton. So I was ready for the.

B (63:07)

You are going Taekwond Thornton. Oh, my goodness.

A (63:09)

Juju.

C (63:09)

Smith Schuster.

A (63:10)

I've got. Yeah, he's right there.

B (63:12)

I gotta look in. I'm not sure who. Under 1%.

C (63:14)

Yeah, he's at like 0.8 or something.

A (63:15)

Okay.

B (63:16)

Really?

A (63:16)

When? Dante Thornton. Yeah.

C (63:19)

Is he under one?

A (63:20)

Yeah.

B (63:20)

All right, then I'm gonna go.

A (63:21)

Dante Thornton. Yeah.

B (63:22)

I'm gonna go.

A (63:23)

Okay. This will be a preseason for it. I was fully ready.

C (63:25)

No, no Monopoly money yet. We're getting that ordered and all that.

A (63:28)

Okay. Yeah.

B (63:28)

All right. We got one more. One final one. One of our punishments. This one comes from Logan T. Says you have to wear Heelys for a day.

C (63:34)

I like that.

A (63:35)

That's cool. That's funny.

B (63:36)

Mike, do you know what heelys are?

A (63:37)

I have to embarrass myself because I think.

C (63:39)

Because I don't know, the things that you.

B (63:41)

The shoes that have the.

A (63:42)

Oh, sorry.

C (63:43)

No, no, that's okay.

B (63:44)

The shoes that have the wheels on the bottom.

A (63:46)

Okay.

B (63:46)

That's awesome.

C (63:47)

Yeah, but awesome.

A (63:48)

That doesn't feel like a punishment, it seems.

B (63:50)

Well, you got to buy the heelys, and they're $340. I don't know.

C (63:54)

I wouldn't be surprised by anything, honestly.

B (63:56)

You should have to buy Heelys for all three of us and then we all wear them for the show. I think I.

A (64:01)

Punishment should have to give us the materials.

C (64:03)

Right idea, though. Like, it could be like, you know, tuxedo for an entire show. Like, stuff like that is, you know.

A (64:08)

Yeah.

C (64:08)

I think in the right vein.

B (64:09)

Do you have a tuxedo?

C (64:10)

I do.

B (64:10)

I only have suits. Do you have a tuxedo?

C (64:12)

I don't. I'm impressed. You have a suit.

B (64:14)

I have one suit. I bought it to be able to officiate our buddy Damien's wedding this summer in Poland, so.

A (64:19)

Okay.

B (64:19)

All right.

C (64:20)

We got a rock and roll, sir.

B (64:21)

It's a fun show. Can't wait for Friday Night Football, for what it's worth, super excited to watch it in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Going to be a ton of fun. Chiefs and Chargers. Don't forget to change your lineup. Make sure that you know what you're doing because you want to watch everything that's going on on Sunday morning as well. Fantasy Football Now 10am to 11am first hours on ESPN News. The next two hours are going to be on ESPN2 from 11am to 1pm so go check us out there. We'll have the Latest on Christian McCaffrey and all of the other injury updates that you need to know about heading into Week one. And that's going to do it for us.

A (64:52)

We love you guys.

B (64:53)

Don't forget to love each other. Have a good time in Week one and we'll see you guys on Sunday morning. Talk about stepping up. It's time to level up your game. Introducing the all new ESPN app. All of ESPN all in one place. Your home for the most live sports and the best championship moments. The electricity is palpable. Step up your game with no annual contract required. It's the ultimate fan experience.

A (65:21)

Level up.

B (65:21)

For more on the ESPN app or at stream espn.com Sign up now.