Consensus PPR #19-24: Drake London or Tee Higgins? Josh Jacobs or Jonathan Taylor? (06/26 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Summary

Fantasy Football Today: Consensus PPR #19-24 – Drake London or Tee Higgins? Josh Jacobs or Jonathan Taylor? (06/26 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Release Date: June 26, 2025

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Overview

In this episode of Fantasy Football Today, host Adam Azer engages in a spirited discussion with analysts Dan Schneier and Heath Cummings. The focus centers on the consensus PPR (Points Per Reception) rankings for positions 19 through 24, specifically debating the merits of Drake London vs. Tee Higgins (Wide Receivers) and Josh Jacobs vs. Jonathan Taylor vs. Chase Brown (Running Backs). Additionally, the panel introduces a new segment, "Heath Has a Question," where Heath delves into concerns regarding rookie tight end Brock Bowers.

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Introduction and Rankings Overview (01:00 - 05:46)

Adam Azer opens the episode by outlining the players under consideration for the 19th to 24th spots in the PPR consensus rankings:

• Wide Receivers: Drake London (19), Tee Higgins (23)
• Running Backs: Chase Brown, Josh Jacobs, Jonathan Taylor
• Tight End: Brock Bowers
• Additional: Trey McBride

Heath Cummings introduces his segment, expressing his support for Brock Bowers and questioning his placement in the rankings, especially in light of quarterback improvements and target consistency.

Notable Quote:

Heath Cummings (02:04): "I don't know why we don't love Brock Bowers."

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Heath’s Concerns on Brock Bowers (02:04 - 04:19)

Heath delves into the reasons why he believes Brock Bowers deserves a higher ranking. He critiques Chip Kelly’s offensive strategies, citing historical pass attempt data and the potential for a tight end-centric offense in Oakland. Heath argues that with a quarterback upgrade and no significant target competition, Bowers should be a top-tier fantasy asset.

Notable Quote:

Heath Cummings (03:00): "Every one of those years in Chip Kelly's system that they averaged 595 passes, he had running backs with well over 300 rush attempts."

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Panel Discussion on Player Rankings (05:46 - 19:42)

The hosts compare their rankings for Brock Bowers and Trey McBride. Adam Azer prefers McBride over Bowers but acknowledges the strong case Heath makes for pushing Bowers into earlier rounds. Dan Schneier aligns more closely with Heath, emphasizing Bowers' generational talent and potential offensive centerpiece.

Key Points:

• Brock Bowers: Debate over his consensus ranking vs. individual analysts' higher valuations.
• Trey McBride: Considers his target volume and potential in the Arizona Cardinals' offense.
• Heath's Preference: Jonathan Taylor as the top running back among the trio, citing his consistent performance and talent.

Notable Quote:

Dan Schneier (07:43): "If they've got Marvin Harrison Jr. more involved, is McBride's role the same and is that gonna impact his fantasy status?"

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Wide Receiver Showdown: Drake London vs. Tee Higgins (19:43 - 27:37)

The panel examines the strengths and weaknesses of Drake London and Tee Higgins. They analyze last season's performances, target volumes, offensive schemes, and quarterback efficiencies. Drake London is praised for his upside and target potential, while Tee Higgins is lauded for his consistency within Joe Burrow’s prolific passing offense.

Key Points:

• Drake London: Demonstrated high target volume in critical games, potential for top-tier fantasy production if offensive pace remains high.
• Tee Higgins: Reliable in a stable and high-performing offense, slight concerns over target competition and injury risks.

Notable Quotes:

Adam Azer (22:48): "He's a good borderline number one wide receiver."

Dan Schneier (26:25): "He's a top five overall fantasy receiver and that's why I think you can take him here over Higgins."

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Running Back Rankings: Josh Jacobs vs. Jonathan Taylor vs. Chase Brown (27:38 - 40:02)

The discussion shifts to the running back position, weighing the merits of Josh Jacobs, Jonathan Taylor, and Chase Brown. The analysts debate factors such as offensive line strength, rushing opportunities, receiving roles, and injury histories.

Key Points:

• Josh Jacobs: Viewed as a "safe" but "boring" option with consistent touchdown potential in a strong offense.
• Jonathan Taylor: Recognized for his elite talent and touchdown upside despite concerns about team performance and offensive line.
• Chase Brown: Considered high-risk/high-reward due to his breakout performance last season and potential for sustained production.

Notable Quotes:

Dan Schneier (36:07): "He's a boring fantasy option. I like that though. I want boring."

Heath Cummings (30:05): "Too good to be called boring."

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Trey McBride’s Evaluation (44:07 - 51:07)

Trey McBride's role in the Arizona Cardinals' offense is scrutinized. The panel debates his target volume, quarterback play with Kyler Murray, and his touchdown-scoring capabilities. While some express optimism based on his receiving numbers, others remain cautious about his touchdown potential and offensive scheme compatibility.

Key Points:

• Target Volume: High number of receptions but low touchdown rate raises concerns.
• Offensive Scheme: Dependence on Kyler Murray’s ability to facilitate tight end-centric routes.
• Touchdown Potential: Skepticism due to historical performance and limited touchdown opportunities.

Notable Quotes:

Heath Cummings (46:00): "I just think there’s a little bit more risk that happens to Jacobs than DJ Giddens cuts into Jonathan Taylor's work."

Dan Schneier (48:13): "He doesn't score touchdowns, didn't score touchdowns in college, hasn't scored touchdowns in the NFL."

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Audience Interaction and Additional Polls (53:37 - 58:47)

The hosts engage with listener emails and polls, discussing undervalued receivers and addressing questions about unique league formats, such as the 2025 Scott Fishbowl scoring system. They provide insights and opinions based on the diversified scoring rules, emphasizing flexibility in drafting strategies.

Key Points:

• Undervalued Receivers: Debate over players like Josh Palmer and Chris Godwin.
• Unique Scoring Formats: Considerations for drafting strategies when quarterbacks are optional starters.

Notable Quotes:

Dan Schneier (55:14): "Josh Palmer as a top 24 receiver. I think that's a mistake."

Heath Cummings (60:53): "If you got Josh Allen, what you really want to do is just see if we can run the ball 35 times a game and run as few plays as possible."

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Conclusion and Final Thoughts (58:47 - 66:08)

In the closing segments, the panel wraps up their discussions, reiterating the key takeaways from their debates. They emphasize the importance of balancing upside and safety in player selections and adapting to unique league formats. The episode concludes with light-hearted banter and farewell messages.

Notable Quotes:

Adam Azer (65:55): "It's time to level up."

Dan Schneier (65:54): "Eggs are bad for you."

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Insights and Conclusions

• Drake London vs. Tee Higgins: London offers higher upside with significant target potential, especially if the Atlanta Falcons maintain a high-paced offense. Higgins remains a reliable choice within a robust Cincinnati Bengals offense but carries slight risks related to target competition and health.

• Josh Jacobs vs. Jonathan Taylor vs. Chase Brown: Jacobs is deemed a safe, consistent pick with steady touchdown opportunities. Taylor is celebrated for his elite talent and high touchdown ceiling, albeit with some team-related concerns. Brown presents a high-risk, high-reward scenario based on his breakout performance and potential for sustained production.

• Trey McBride: While showing promise in target volume, concerns about his touchdown rate and offensive scheme integration temper enthusiasm, making him a more speculative pick in the tight end rankings.

• Heath’s Emphasis on Brock Bowers: Advocates for higher valuation based on rookie performance and offensive centralization, challenging the consensus rankings and encouraging listeners to consider his long-term fantasy impact.

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This episode provides a comprehensive analysis of mid-tier PPR rankings, offering valuable insights for fantasy football enthusiasts aiming to optimize their draft strategies. By weighing player potential against risks and team dynamics, the panel equips listeners with the knowledge to make informed decisions in their leagues.

Transcript

[Adam Azer]

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[Dan Schneier]

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[Heath Cummings]

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[Heath Cummings]

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[Adam Azer]

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[Heath Cummings]

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[Adam Azer]

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[Dan Schneier]

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[Adam Azer]

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[Dan Schneier]

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[Heath Cummings]

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports.

[Dan Schneier]

What a play.

[Adam Azer]

Can you believe this?

[Dan Schneier]

No, I can't.

[Heath Cummings]

It's time to dominate your fantasy league.

[Dan Schneier]

Off to the races and he stays on his feet.

[Adam Azer]

This is gonna go the distance.

[Heath Cummings]

Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath.

[Adam Azer]

Happy Thursday everyone. I don't yet get to wish you a happy Friday. We will be moving to five days a week, guessing in the month of July, so not too far away from that. Welcome to the show. It is Fantasy Football Today on Thursday, June 26th. Adam Azer, Dan Schneier and Heath Cummings. So We've got players 19 through 24 in the PPR consensus rankings. They are Drake, London, Chase Brown, Josh Jacobs, Jonathan Taylor, T. Higgins and Trey McBride. Drake, London, Chase Brown, Josh Jacobs, Jonathan, Taylor, t. Higgins, Trey McBride. We have a few Twitter polls to look at here to see who our my Twitter followers, I guess prefer. But first we have a new segment called Heath has a question. Hello, Heath.

[Heath Cummings]

Hey, what's going on guys? Good to see you. Good to talk to you. Super great mood that I'm in this morning after staying up until 11:30 to watch the Celtics draft a player I'd never heard of. Really in a good mood. No, I. I just have a question about the Brock Bowers concerns because I'm the high guy on Brock Bowers. I think if wasn't for me, Brock Bowers would be on today's show in the 19 to 24 range and Dave even has him lower than that.

[Dan Schneier]

Wow.

[Heath Cummings]

And I just don't really get it. I know Adam, you've expressed some concerns about Chip Kelly and his run heavy tendencies but if you look back at the history of Chip Kelly, The Raiders threw 635 passes last year. Chip Kelly his first year as a coach had Michael Vick as his starter to open the season and then went to Nick Foles and they threw 508 passes the next two years, 621 with Mark Sanchez and Nick Foles, 623 with Sam Bradford and then the final year of his career he had Colin Kaepernick and guess what? They didn't throw very many passes. But also all those numbers were 16 game seasons. So his 17 game pace as a head coach, 595 pass attempts for his teams. 40 passes fewer than what the Raiders threw last year and almost maybe always but at least three of those years I would say a worst quarterback than Geno Smith or a worst passer. Yeah, Rock Bowers is a rookie tight end who we all thought was a generational prospect coming into the NFL who just had 153 targets gets an enormous, I would say maybe it's just a small but a certainly a quarterback upgrade in year two. No significant target competition added. And oh yeah, every one of those years in Chip Kelly's system that they averaged 595 passes he had running backs with well over 300 rush attempts. So yeah, Ashton Genti is going to have over 300 rush attempts. I have that in my projections. I don't know why we don't love Brock Bowers.

[Adam Azer]

Well I think they're a little too low on Brock Bowers especially Dave. He's got him 26. Jamie has him 19. I don't think, I don't think Jamie's too low on, on Bowers. You've got Bowers 12th, he Dave, Dave has him 26 and McBride 25th. Jamie has McBride 18th and Bowers 19th. So basically you've got Bowers at the one two turn. Jamie's got him in the middle of round two. Dave has him early round three. I'm where Jamie is. I think that for me it's like I want AJ Brown just before Brock Bowers probably and then once that picks off the board which would be about 16th for me. I think the next 12ish picks could go in any direction for me and that is the two tight ends, the running backs we're going to talk about today. Chase Brown, Jonathan Taylor, Kyron Williams we talked about yesterday, Bucky Irving, James Cook, guys like T. Higgins, Drake, London lad McConkey, JSN. I don't really have a super strong preference for anyone in the middle of round two to the middle of round three. I think it's a huge tier. So I have no, I mean. And if you think that Brock Bowers deserves to go with the 1, 2 turn, I think you've made very, very compelling case. I prefer McBride personally, but I think it's a good case.

[Dan Schneier]

Heath, I think Heath might argue potentially both. I don't know, but possibly I'll say this. When it comes to Bowers, it could be I'm definitely closer to Heath on this one and I haven't had a chance to weigh in on any of these PPR rankings till today. But it could just be as simple as generational talent. Proving himself to be generational right away is something that you need to chase in fantasy football because over time, when we've seen that happen, Justin Jefferson, players like that, they've maintained the status of being wide receiver one or tight end one. And there is still the upside when it comes to drafting Bowers over even a guy you mentioned like A.J. brown, who's been tried and true Adam, because he gives you such a positional advantage if he does continue to play at the level he's played at. Having Bowers on a couple teams last year I noticed this. Those teams were all my most successful teams because of the weekly advantage I got. Now that's what we're chasing always. That's why in the past, Heath, I've seen you have Mark Andrews ranked really high, higher than I wanted him in certain spots. And it's paid off at times in certain seasons and not in others. And that goes for tight end. That's how it goes. But if they can keep those targets, to me it just depends on like one thing. Do the Are the Raiders smart enough to understand this guy is so good at football that our entire offense needs to evolve, revolve around him? Or is it going to be Chip Kelly's offense with these pieces that he has to work with? Because. And I think Chip Kelly is smart enough to understand it, but because last year it was so obvious from start of training camp, from the start of OTAs, that they were designing an offense around Bowers that was the entire offense. You could watch it when you watch the film. Everything was to get him the football. And it worked. And he had a million targets. Like you said, what was it, 150 plus targets for a Rookie tight end is insane. It's unheard of. But will that happen again? Because there are all the other factors you mentioned. I think Gino's an upgrade and hopefully he's the level of talent we, we believe him to be. But to me it just kind of comes down to that because if the volume comes down, it's the same thing for Trey McBride. Like if they get Marvin Harrison Jr. More involved, is McBride's role the same and is that gonna, you know, impact his fantasy status?

[Heath Cummings]

And I think there's more, both more upside for Bowers because he got a quarterback upgrade this year. McBride's playing with the same guy. And more risk for McBride because Marvin Harrison Jr. Is much more likely to take a bigger piece of the pie in my mind than Jacoby Myers and Trey Tucker and Jack Besh. But the other thing is like we talk rightly a lot about touchdown regression for Trey McBride. Brock Bowers had a touchdown rate below 3% last year. He has enormous touchdown regression likely coming too. And it shouldn't surprise anybody if he scores 10 touchdowns this year.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, I just. You keep mentioning Chip Kelly, but you haven't mentioned Pete Carroll. Pete Carroll is a guy who likes to run the ball. I think a little bit, as I said yesterday, that's a little bit overrated. But you know, I don't think they're going to be one of the most run heavy teams. But it's really, you know, you talk about they design the whole offense around Bowers. Well, are they going to design most of the offense around Genty this year? He's obviously a good pass catcher. I don't know. I mean, I see everything you're saying. I think I just want a little bit more provenness from first round pick.

[Dan Schneier]

But can I make one point?

[Adam Azer]

I'm taking the neighbors or Thomas in the first round. Yeah, go ahead.

[Dan Schneier]

Sorry about that. Adam. Can I make one point on the touchdown regression point? I'm not always on board with you on this, Keith. I think it is player dependent. I think it's much more likely we see the touchdown regression for a player like Brock Bowers who scored 31 touchdowns in his college career, than McBride who only scored 10 touchdowns his whole college career. He's never been a touchdown touchdown scorer. I personally don't believe in his game in the red zone. His specific skill set being app adept to scoring a lot of touchdowns. Bowers, on the other hand, I do. If he's an open space, he can score touchdowns. He can get open, in my opinion more easily in the red Zone as well.

[Adam Azer]

Okay. And Heath, it's really criminal that you were not on either of the last two shows because your rankings affected the PPR consensus ranking so much with A Chan and Genti and Bowers in particular.

[Heath Cummings]

You're welcome. Yeah, that's my job.

[Adam Azer]

Let's take a look at some Twitter polls here to look at the players that we are discussing today. Players 19 to 24 in the consensus PPR rankings. So the first one's about the two wide receivers. Who do you prefer in PPR? Drake London or T. Higgins? London is ahead of Higgins in this consensus rankings. He's 19th. Higgins is 23rd. They are back to back for Heath at 19 and 20 with Higgins one spot ahead. I am stunned by this. You know, Dan, you were the first one that on this show I think definitively said, you know, I. You definitely like T. Higgins more than Drake London. Well, I don't know if you're the first, but you were the one who really stuck in my mind because you had a. You were very strong on this. I have totally come around to your side and to Heath side as well. He have one London one spot ahead. This is actually becoming an easy call for me. I am T. Higgins as well, the audience or my Twitter followers. So far, 404 votes. 70% are going with Drake London. This is a landslide victory here. All right, real quick on this. I like Higgins because when Higgins, Burrow and Chase are healthy, Joe Burrow is almost a 5,000 yard passer in three of the last four years. I'm attaching myself to that offense. And Higgins at his worst when he has been healthy, is basically wide receiver, 12 or 13 per game in the Joe Burrow era. So that's why I'm going Higgins. Why are you going Higgins over London.

[Dan Schneier]

Heath or me?

[Adam Azer]

Oh, you, Dan.

[Dan Schneier]

So for me it comes down to. And I can't believe you just boiled down what you described to us on the thread as 1 hour and 45 minutes of research into like 13 seconds. That was some of the best Azer work we've seen. But Azer did put together a lot of good research on this. It really just comes down to the main point. You said I play fantasy a little bit differently than others. But when it comes to London versus Higgins, London has higher upside. I don't think there's any way to deny that he has a better chance at more targets and a better chance of being a focal point than Higgins does with Jamar Chase in the mix. But I buy into offenses in fantasy football. I buy into the belief of what you said, the stats, the research that back up that with both on the field Higgins and Chase Burrow is very likely to be a 5,000 yard passer or somewhere close. That's a lot of production and a lot of opportunities in the red zone. In fantasy I think we fall into a lot of traps chasing players who are really good talents with a potential really good role like London. But maybe, just maybe the passing offense isn't what we expect it to be and isn't what we're projecting it to be. Based on a very small sample size of Michael Pennock. Starts mostly against the Giants. Crap defense without Dexter Lawrence and one other really bad defense.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, Washington and Carolina. I think it was Carolina's bad.

[Dan Schneier]

It was bad defenses last year and Washington was like an okay to bad defense that looked really bad in the playoffs against Philly. It was at best mediocre. So like Michael Pennington easily, easily struggled this year. He was a player who was drafted at 8 overall. Not everyone thought he should go at 8 overall. I haven't seen him under pressure. That was an issue for him at the college level when Michigan's defense got a chance to scheme against him. So we'll see, we'll see what happens there. But I'm going to take the surefire thing. The offense, if Higgin stays healthy, he's going to produce. That's what I want in my fantasy team. More of a safe bet.

[Heath Cummings]

I. I don't. I got. I know, Adam, you said quicker. I'm gonna be somewhat quicker. But I. I have a confession. When I was in middle school, I had an addiction to those hostess like mini pies.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah.

[Heath Cummings]

Absolutely loved those.

[Adam Azer]

Which ones? Like the black and white ones?

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah. Which one?

[Heath Cummings]

Like the, the cherry and the apple.

[Adam Azer]

Oh.

[Heath Cummings]

Yes, the fruit pies. Just deep fried with nothing but fruit and the syrup and all the stu of it. I'd probably still eat one now. But anyway, the whole point being like I very easy to eat a whole one of those.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah.

[Heath Cummings]

But if you gave me the choice between a whole one of those or 40% of my grandma's big apple pie, I'd much rather have 40 of my grandma's big apple pie. And that's the T. Higgins versus Drake London debate. Yes. Drake London is going to dominate wide receiver targets for the Falcons. He gets all of the pie.

[Dan Schneier]

Okay.

[Heath Cummings]

But it's this. It's this little pie that's kind of cheap. Cheap and a little bit flimsy and probably bad for you. And grandma's apple pie. Is real apples, robust, handmade. Joe Burrow, 5,000 yards.

[Dan Schneier]

It took us a while to get around to that, but I like that.

[Heath Cummings]

That'S what you want. And, and I, I see in the chat, like, no way T. Higgins is getting Drake London numbers. T. Higgins outscored Drake London by two fantasy points per game last year, right?

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, it was his best year. He was fifth per game. I think it was Drake London's best year. It was Drake London's best year. But, but one of the, you know, we'll get into that later. We're going to talk about all these guys in depth. I want to give you. There's two things that really changed for Higgins last year. In my mind, two things that stand out. One of them stands out in, in a major, major way. And I don't know if it's repeatable, but. All right, we're going to take a break. I will say that I went to a different diner last night, Dan, not the Mount Kisco Diner. And did not. Did not know. Did not know. This is where I go when I want to save 30 bucks. Did not know that they have a promotion where every Wednesday you get a free piece of cake for everyone at the table. Like a big piece of cake for dessert.

[Dan Schneier]

Pretty cool.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, it was. Was a nice little, Nice little surprise.

[Dan Schneier]

You eat it, though. You're like, you're a big health guy.

[Adam Azer]

We got two for four. Four people. And I picked it up at both of them.

[Dan Schneier]

Okay, good.

[Adam Azer]

All right, good. I will be right back after this with the other Twitter poll and then we'll break down the players a little bit more in depth and we have a couple of news items to talk about. We'll be right back on FFT.

[Dan Schneier]

Have you ever spotted McDonald's hot crispy.

[Adam Azer]

Fries right as they're being scooped into the carton?

[Dan Schneier]

And time just stands still.

[Adam Azer]

Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now I was looking for fun ways.

[Heath Cummings]

To tell you that Mint's offer of.

[Adam Azer]

Unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal.

[Heath Cummings]

So there goes my big idea for the commercial.

[Adam Azer]

Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment of $45 for a three month plan equivalent to $15 per month. Required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow after 35. Gigabytes of networks busy. Taxes and fees extra. See mintmobile.com We've got three running backs in this range in range 19 through 24 back half of the second round in a 12 team PPR league. Let' the the Twitter followers like is it going to be Jonathan Taylor, Josh Jacobs or Chase Brown? It's pretty close. 381 votes. Jonathan Taylor 42% Josh Jacobs 33% and Chase Brown 26. I know that doesn't add up. I rounded up for all three of them but Jonathan Taylor is the is the leader right now. Chase Brown in third, Josh Jacobs in second. In the consensus rankings we have it Brown, Jacobs, Taylor the the exact opposite of this. In Heath's rankings it's Taylor, Brown, Jacobs, Taylor 18th for Heath, Brown 22nd and Jacobs 24. Dan, who do you like best? I think I like Chase Brown the best, but he is the riskiest. I'd say by far, not even close the riskiest. Who do you like best Dan?

[Dan Schneier]

It's funny because I saw this and saw a rundown. I looked back through my teams last year that I drafted. Chase Brown was my most rostered player like I drafted him the most. And I think he'll probably be someone I don't draft almost at all this year at his price. And I think that just is kind of the difference of buying him before the breakout and buying him after the breakout. Can he sustain the breakout? There's nothing about his profile that tells me he can't sustain the breakout other than the fact that with the exception of one year at Illinois, he was never really a true workhorse back. I also just don't think that was the plan for the Bengals to make him that and I don't think that they are going in a direction where they will where that's how it's going to start this year. I think Taj Brooks is a really good player who had really good tape and has already looked really good at OTAs. And the Bengals have a history of kind of speeding these guys up. So I think he'll play a role. I think they might sign someone. I really honestly do. Before camp. There's a few veterans that I have an eye on there, so he's probably lowest on my list. To me, the clear cut number one here is Josh Jacobs. I'm a little bit like confused as to why people aren't higher on Jacobs this year considering Green. I mean the idea I guess was in the past. Matt LaFleur, he never has one workhorse back, blah blah blah. That was the case last year. You could say there were injuries that impacted why he was able to get that role. I don't know if it Was that. I think it was Josh Jacobs was signed to a big contract because he can play all three downs and he can do everything that are that they're asking out of a running back position. And so there's no real reason to take him off the field. I'm not sure he ever felt that way about Aaron Jones or A.J. dillon in the past, but I'm sure he feels that way about Jacobs. I think he has really good chance to score a lot of touchdowns this year. That was proven over the stretch run. He was effective in the red zone. There's a chance that you could see his entire production go up if Jordan Love takes the step forward we expected him to take last year in a healthier year with Matthew golden and some weapons at wide receiver and then, you know, a solid fine offensive line there. To me, Jacobs is on the best offense of the second best offense, but second best offense. A very good offense with a very clear role and a lot of red zone opportunity here. And to me, the likeliest to keep his workhorse role, but also not being an offense with Daniel Jones.

[Adam Azer]

All right, Heath, I'm going to let you talk more about these guys later. I want to ask you, I want to ask you this question though. If you had a pick between 19 and 24, second half of the second round, do you find yourself assuming Brock Bowers is off the board? Because I know that would be your pick and he'd be available. You know, in some, some cases you find yourself going running back, wide receiver or McBride here more frequently. Like, you know, what position do you like? Is there one particular player that you're just infatuated with if he falls you in this range, what do you think?

[Heath Cummings]

What's happened more recently is that I draft Kyron Williams, who I think must have been on yesterday's show.

[Adam Azer]

I think he's 18.

[Heath Cummings]

Yeah, he's falling a lot. But generally speaking, I'm, I'm looking at Jonathan Taylor here. I just think he's the best player and I think he's going to have 20 plus rush attempts per game and average close to four and a half yards a game and probably score 15 touchdowns.

[Adam Azer]

I think, you know, one thing with that context is missing here is also looking at average draft position and who you can even get in the third round. So Chase Brown, for example, I'm looking at CBS ADP, he's 28th. I'm looking at fantasy pros ADP, he's 28th, 29th. So that's really important that we have Chase Brown in our top 20. I think he's 20th.

[Heath Cummings]

Yeah. I have him 22nd either way.

[Adam Azer]

Right. I mean, so consensus. He's 20th. This is a guy who's going in the third round, so I hope that stays. That would be a terrific third round pick in our opinion. Chase Brown. Okay, just a couple of news items. Oh, first of all, should be watching CBS Sports hq. It's awesome. You see some podcasts on there, but CBS Sports hq, we see some podcast content on there in terms of, you know, all, all of us will be on that show, will be on that network. But you've got NBA draft coverage. You've got a lot of NFL coverage. When training camp starts, this is the place that you want to be. You can watch it on any smart tv you can watch on the CBS Sports app. Check out CBS Sports hq. It is great, comprehensive sports coverage of basically every sport. Okay. News and notes. Dallas Goddard talked about the new offensive coordinator for Philadelphia, Kevin Patullo, and how he might get Goddard more targets. And it just seems so obvious that they are going to throw the ball more. Is that fair to say?

[Heath Cummings]

I mean, unless things go wrong the first four weeks and then they'll just go back to what they've done.

[Adam Azer]

That's true. And Cameron Wolf of ESPN says Joe is the favorite to be the Cleveland starting quarterback, but that Kenny Pickett will have an opportunity in training camp yesterday.

[Heath Cummings]

You know what?

[Adam Azer]

Yeah.

[Heath Cummings]

Give Kenny Pickett all the opportunities you want to. If that's, if that's the competition, then I'm feeling better about Joe Flacco.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah. Yesterday, Deontay Johnson was talking about how Kenny Pickett might be the leader there, but we'll see how it plays out. And that's all the news and notes I have for you. So let's go to these players here. Number 19 in the consensus rankings is Drake London. Is there anything you'd like to add about Drake London? You know, obviously, if 70% of the people who responded to the Twitter poll have him ahead of Higgins, he's 15th in fantasy pros ADP. Higgins is 23rd. Higgins is 31st in CBS ADP and London is 19th. Heath, what are we missing here with, with Drake London?

[Heath Cummings]

Well, I got accused a little of a little inconsistency in the chat because I talk about how important targets are and that's right, Drake London's going to have more targets than T. Higgins. I, I think what they. Maybe there's a little inconsistency in the industry because I often hear, why do we care about week 18? It doesn't even count for fantasy football. Teams aren't playing half their starters. And Drake London I don't think would be fifth top 15 in anybody's ADP if he hadn't caught 10 passes for 187 yards and two touchdowns in Week 18 against the Panthers. Oh, yeah, by the way, that was also an overtime game. I, I just, I think that's the big point of contention is how much do you want to put on those last two games, which were both overtime games against the Commanders and the Panthers when Drake London was maybe the best wide receiver in fantasy football. I think he's, he's a good borderline number one wide receiver. I'm one spot behind where we have him ranked.

[Adam Azer]

We have him ranked 19th and he also, I think the, the other knock on that game against Carolina is that Darnell Mooney didn't play. Now is that really a huge reason.

[Heath Cummings]

Why Darnell Mooney had a huge impact last year?

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah, I like Mooney a lot for fantasy.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, it might be. I mean, look, he had 18 targets in that game. So Drake London with no Darnell Mooney. So I would just caution people because when I was doing this Joe Burrow research, there was a year for Joe Burrow where He scored about 70 fantasy points in the last two games of the season. And it really boosted his stats and he's just shown that he's just that good. You know, it's. Right. So I'm not really in the week 18, doesn't matter camp unless a guy did it against backups.

[Heath Cummings]

Well, how many of the Panthers starting defenders in week 18 last year are going to be backups this year or free agents?

[Adam Azer]

But. Well, no, but, you know, I mean they didn't do against second stringers. But you know, it counts, right? I mean, he did it. We, we like Drake London. We're not. Yeah, yeah, we like Drake London.

[Dan Schneier]

One thing I want to add to the, the pro case for London, because I do see it and I do see the upside of drafting him here is if you look at the pace of play that Atlanta had specifically after turning the offense over to Michael Penix, that's a big plus. Like they played with good pace. They. And that's what I always look for when I'm, when I'm kind of targeting which offense has a chance to break out. It just kind of depends on. To me, at least it kind of depends on if you believe in Pennix or not. I am a little bit more skeptical than others when it comes to Pennix. Over the course of a full season and if we get that regression from him as a quarterback, the whole offense is going to take a hit and I don't want to be investing this type of capital if that's the case.

[Heath Cummings]

I, I also want to take back my snide comment about the overtime games because the Falcons never got the ball in overtime of either one of those games.

[Adam Azer]

There you go. By the way, I was, I was off on the Joe Burrow number. I said 70 fantasy points in the last two games of the season was actually 87 fantasy points in the last two games of the 2021 season for Joe Burrow. He lit up Baltimore and Kansas City and that was. Yeah, that was. Jeez man. 525 yards, four touchdowns, 446 yards, four touchdowns. So okay, anywho, that's Drake London. Solid player. What's his upside? Does anybody. He was the number, he was the number 4 wide receiver overall last year but he was actually 14th per game in half PPR in non PPR and no 16th per game in non PPR. 14th per game in full PPR. Does anyone think he has top like 8 upside?

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah, I do actually. Again like if the pace of the offense keeps up, if Pennix is as good as he looked in that small sample size against bad defenses and he could be, I mean he's, I always liked his arm talent. I thought he ripped the ball. I thought he put it, you know into deep intermediate areas of the field. I just felt like it was a little bit college offensey and I want to see if it works. The NFL it worked a little bit last year in a small sample. But if he is as good as he could be panicks it could be a situation where like you I see in your notes Adam he was on 160 target pace. London if he's on 160, 170 target pace with all those red zone targets that he was getting with a high paced offense and Pennix is freaking awesome. That is the chance to be a top five overall fantasy receiver and that's why I think you can take him here over a guy like Higgins or anyone else you're considering in this range because he has that upside that maybe others don't have. It just comes down to the argument Heath made about Grandma's pie. If it's not as good as grandma's homemade piece and it's that you know, store bought hostess though, you know some people would say that is good too then what are we getting out of this? We're getting A guy whose offense is kind of churning out 200 passing yards a game. And that's my concern. Like, will this be that type of offense?

[Heath Cummings]

Top five upside. Yes, I agree.

[Adam Azer]

Top five upside. Okay. Yeah, Yeah. I mean it's, it's probably gonna have to be in catches because he hasn't really necessarily shown it with yards because I mentioned this all the time, but at London, he's not. Does nothing after the catch.

[Dan Schneier]

PPR we're talking about.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, but still, like yards. Yards matter. All right, that's, that's enough on London. I'm trying to look up this one stat to compare him to T. Higgins, but one of the biggest differences between the two of them was the Falcons versus the Bengals tendencies in the green zone inside the 10 yard line where the. The Bengals were the most or the second most pass heavy team in that range and the Falcons were pretty low there. All right, so then we have Chase Brown and Josh Jacobs and Jonathan Taylor, so we can talk about these three running backs here. And again, we're hopeful that Chase Brown stays with a round three adp. So you can maybe get two of these guys. Heath's favorite guy is Taylor. Dan's favorite guy is Jacobs. And I think my favorite guy is Brown. But I recognize that Taylor and Jacobs are safer. I mean, there were courses. They're not, they're not being replaced by anyone. They're really good. And Chase Brown, I don't, I don't know how great he is as a rusher. I think he's really good as a receiver. As a rusher, I think he's okay, but I don't really know. But my argument for Chase Brown is that Joe Mixon was kind of a average rusher every year for the Bengals, and every year he was top 12 guy per game. And last year Chase Brown, who I think is a better receiver than Mixon. After the Zach Moss injury, Chase Brown was the number three running back per game in PPR, number five and half PPR. He was on pace for almost 2000 total yards, 1976 total yards. He barely came off the field. I think their backfield stinks. I don't really care about Taj Boyd. I know you do. I think Zach Moss had his chance and he's still there. I don't think he did anything. You know, he may not be the third down back this this year, but he'll still catch passes. So again, it's attaching myself to a great offense that's going to throw the ball a lot, which means should mean 50 to 60 catches at least for Chase Brown. But I do think it's interesting that all three of us have a different number one Heath and that the the Twitter poll was certainly more even than the London vs Higgins one. So there's certainly room for debate in this one.

[Heath Cummings]

Yeah, it seems to me that like the concerns about Brown are just that we didn't think he was that type of workhorse in the past and we are not sure that he will be again this year. The concerns with Jacobs would be maybe the packers don't run the ball 60% of the time for three quarters of the season and they want to use Jordan love a little bit more in the passing game. And then the concern with Taylor is maybe it's just an awful team but like you look at last year and I don't think the Colts were a very good team last year and Taylor averaged the same number of fantasy points per game as Josh Jacobs in Josh Jacobs breakout year. 17.6 and Taylor came into the NFL. We all. I don't remember much argument about the fact that Jonathan Taylor was a generational back coming into the league and I don't think he's done very much in his time in the in the league to disprove that. And he's still 26 years old and so it's not like Joe Flacco was the reason that Jonathan Taylor had a better year last year. I think Taylor scored more touchdowns or the same number of touchdowns playing with Anthony Richardson and didn't catch passes really from either one of them.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, but more fantasy points with Flacco.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah, that's what that was.

[Heath Cummings]

What was the difference?

[Dan Schneier]

You know, you and I are definitely believers that flat. The Flacco vs. Jones offense has a.

[Heath Cummings]

Lot more scoring upside like Flacco saved Josh Downs and made anybody else relevant. I, I agree with that.

[Adam Azer]

I just like yeah, I got the numbers for you. Well actually yes I do.

[Dan Schneier]

I do have the numbers for you really bad.

[Adam Azer]

If you just want full ppr, it was. This is kind of funny. You don't see splits like this very often with Anthony Richardson. Jonathan Taylor's points per game were 16 non ppr, 16.3 half ppr and 16.8 full ppr. You just never see them that close between non PBR and half peop and full PBR. But he was on pace for 13 catches with Anthony Richardson. So if we're looking at just full PPR and those are the rankings we're talking about, it's 16.8 points per game with Richardson and 19.2 points per game with Flacco. Now a couple things that's, that's obviously a huge gap. That's the difference between being RB10 per game last year and RB5 per game.

[Heath Cummings]

Which is being drafted below both of those.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah. Is he not RB10?

[Heath Cummings]

Is he RB10?

[Adam Azer]

He's around there.

[Dan Schneier]

Right.

[Heath Cummings]

Okay.

[Adam Azer]

With Flaco, he, he played the. Jonathan Taylor was actually RB like 17 per game, something like that before the last three games of the season. And in those three games he averaged 32 carries per game and 31 PPR fantasy points per game. So two of those three games were with Flacco and those were two of the five that he played with Flacco. So my concerns with Richardson are less than one catch per game last year and 50% Jonathan Taylor had 50% of the carries from the three yard line are closer. That scares me a little bit. If you told me Daniel Jones were going to be the quarterback for the entire year, I think I would take Taylor first. And Jones stinks.

[Dan Schneier]

But I don't think that helps him.

[Adam Azer]

I think it does help him because it will give him more catches, it will definitely give more cash. It will give him less of a goal line threat. Jones is like somewhat of a goal line threat, but not like Anthony Richardson. And Richardson might just be sort of. Yeah, forget. I won't go there. But like Jones stinks, but I think he'll be good enough to throw the ball enough to Jonathan Taylor and not steal touchdowns. Richardson scares me a little bit. From a, from a Taylor perspective, I.

[Heath Cummings]

Would have lost a lot of money on the effect that Jonathan Taylor averaged more yards, more yards per game than Josh Jacobs last year.

[Dan Schneier]

Same.

[Heath Cummings]

Not. Didn't recognize that. Yeah, I would have, but it shouldn't be surprising. Jonathan Taylor's amazing.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah.

[Adam Azer]

Wow.

[Dan Schneier]

Amazing player. It does have a bit of an injury history and I'm not thrilled with the Colts offensive line. There are factors there that scare me for sure. But ultimately I think you're right, Heath. We're getting a top tier talent if healthy at a pretty, you know, decreased price from what we should be getting this type of talent at.

[Heath Cummings]

And I think there is at least a little more risk probably that Marshawn Lloyd.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah.

[Heath Cummings]

Makes a small impact on Josh Jacobs. Touches. Not. He's not going to make him like he's not taking his job. He's not going to make him bad. Anything like that. But I think there's a bigger risk that that happens to Jacobs than that DJ Giddens cuts into Jonathan Taylor's work too. Much.

[Dan Schneier]

It's probably fair.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, a hundred percent.

[Dan Schneier]

Was not a big Lloyd fan out of college, but that is probably fair.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, I think actually. Who was the other, who was the other running back they had last year? He's on my stupid Dynasty.

[Dan Schneier]

Dylan?

[Adam Azer]

No.

[Heath Cummings]

Trey Sermon.

[Dan Schneier]

Oh, he's talking about.

[Adam Azer]

No, the guy, he's still there.

[Dan Schneier]

Colts.

[Adam Azer]

No. And on the Packers.

[Dan Schneier]

The Packers.

[Heath Cummings]

Oh, they had two of them.

[Dan Schneier]

Oh yeah, they had a couple.

[Heath Cummings]

Chris Brooks.

[Dan Schneier]

Who?

[Heath Cummings]

Chris Brooks.

[Adam Azer]

The other guy had like 100 carries last year.

[Dan Schneier]

Why am I forgetting the name?

[Adam Azer]

All right, I'm gonna tell you right now. I'm just going to their stat. Emmanuel. Emmanuel Wilson had 103 last year.

[Dan Schneier]

Emmanuel Wilson.

[Adam Azer]

So I don't expect the packers to be anywhere near as run heavy as they were last season. However, I do expect Josh Jonathan or Josh Jacobs to catch more passes. He had 36 catches in 17 games. I expect fewer carries. He only had 301 carries in 17 games. But he won game week 18. He left after 31% of the snaps he played. So 313 carry pace, if you don't count week 18, 37 catch pace, I would expect maybe fewer carries, more catches for Jacobs. But you, you trust the packers offense. They're going to set him up in position to score touchdowns. He'll score almost every running back rushing touchdown on that team. He's kind, he's. Is Jonathan Taylor a little boring, but safe?

[Heath Cummings]

I don't think there's.

[Dan Schneier]

That's a problem. I feel like if I felt he was safer, I'd be more willing to draft him. I don't see the safety that others do because I think of the injury history and I think of the office. No, I'm talking about Taylor.

[Adam Azer]

No, I said Jacobs. Yeah.

[Dan Schneier]

Oh, you said Jacob. No. Yeah, I think Jacob is safe.

[Adam Azer]

Is he boring and safe?

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah, he's a boring. A boring fantasy option. I like that though. I want boring. I mean like he's in a good offense, he's gonna score a lot of touchdowns.

[Adam Azer]

You are boring. Heath, you agree with this assessment? Boring versus boring and safe on Josh Jacobs.

[Heath Cummings]

I think Josh Jacobs is too good to be called boring.

[Dan Schneier]

What were his explosive run rate last year? Adam? Because I look at Taylor and Brown, I feel like these guys can break explosive runs or catches.

[Adam Azer]

So explosive run rate as defined by true Media is a 12 yard run or longer. He was 28th out of.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah.

[Adam Azer]

Oh, there's usually about 55ish running backs who get 100 or more carries. He was 28. He had seven carries of 20 or more yards, which is fine. Chase Brown had more.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah. No, I thought I would expect him.

[Adam Azer]

To add more carries of 20 or more yards.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah, for sure. And Taylor, I would imagine.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah. I mean Jacobs is kind of a bruiser. He's not a highlight reel guy.

[Dan Schneier]

But I want that though.

[Adam Azer]

It's fine.

[Dan Schneier]

Feel safe with him.

[Adam Azer]

I don't know if we did. We shortchanged Chase Brown. Let's give a few thoughts on Chase Brown after this commercial break on fantasy football Today.

[Dan Schneier]

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[Adam Azer]

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[Heath Cummings]

The sunniest season only gets better with.

[Adam Azer]

A handcrafted ice beverage in your hand. Available for a limited time. Your summer favorites are ready at Starbucks. Yeah. My argument for Chase Brown is just as long as he's the main guy in a major way, in a Joe Mixon esque way or even Mixon was not the third down back or anything like that. I think Chase Brown's gonna be awesome.

[Heath Cummings]

Is he the closest thing we have to Mike Davis?

[Dan Schneier]

No, no, no. We can't make Davis.

[Adam Azer]

We don't have that guy. Really. I, I think the closest thing we have to Mike Davis is Chuba Hubbard.

[Dan Schneier]

I don't want to put you in.

[Heath Cummings]

That, but I think for longer than Chase Brown.

[Adam Azer]

But he's also been bad for longer than Chase Brown.

[Heath Cummings]

The only thing like I think I've got Chase Brown right at the end of round two, the 23 turn. So I'm not, I'm not super anti Chase Brown. He would be higher in these rankings if it wasn't for me. But not super low on him. But he was entirely volume based last year. His 4.3 yards per carry is pretty mid. 5.5 yards per target is flat out bad. Like he, he wasn't good because he was good. He was good because he got up. He played 85% of the snaps on one of the best offenses in football.

[Dan Schneier]

Which is a recipe for success. But like you said, it's also how we felt. Walked into a lot of Failures.

[Heath Cummings]

We've walked into a lot of traps based on. Well, there's nobody else there to do it.

[Adam Azer]

It's true. Yep. It's a. That's why there's no question. Right. I mean, agree or disagree, there's no question of these three running backs, Brown, Jacobs, Taylor, that he has the lowest floor.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah. No question.

[Heath Cummings]

And I would say people might push back on this. I think there's no question that he's the least talented.

[Dan Schneier]

I would agree with that.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah.

[Dan Schneier]

I think it would be crazy not to say otherwise.

[Adam Azer]

I think he's.

[Dan Schneier]

Look at where these players were drafted.

[Adam Azer]

I think he's more explosive than Josh Jacobs, but that's not necessarily.

[Dan Schneier]

I don't know if I even agree with that.

[Adam Azer]

I would. I think if someone's going to rip off a 50 yard run, it's probably going to be Brown. But I also think a lot of.

[Dan Schneier]

Doing it in Vegas, a lot of.

[Adam Azer]

Brown's best plays come in the passing game. So I do think he's more dynamic receiver than the other two guys. But it's also not that much of a sample size with Chase Brown. I went back and watched some of his, some of his work today. I mean, he's, I think he's fine.

[Heath Cummings]

Very well said.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, but that's the thing. Like Mixon was never that good efficient with the Bengals and he was always so good for fantasy.

[Dan Schneier]

I do want to say real quick, my Mike Davis Award of the year ago actually does. I do have a Mike Davis of the year. My Mike Davis is DeAndre Swift.

[Heath Cummings]

That's, that's a fine. I mean, I think it's more of a stretch than Chase Brown because we've got four straight years of DeAndre Swift being a top 24 running back.

[Dan Schneier]

I guess you're right. I see what you're saying. You're. You're saying it's based on like this guy produced on a small sample, a smaller sample size. There's not a lot of history of it and we're still pumping him up versus a guy that has been consistent in his own way, whatever you want to call it with Swift, I think that's fair.

[Heath Cummings]

He's got two, two or three top 18 seasons and a couple of top 24 seasons. Like he's had good draft pedigree. He could, he could still qualify under those parameters because maybe Roshan.

[Adam Azer]

All right, let's go to T. Higgins here. And I mentioned two things that really stood out to me. That changed for T. Higgins because he's been a solid borderline number one, number two wide receiver, like a really good third round pick. And then last year, fifth per game in PPR, third per game and non PPR, 10 touchdowns on 109 targets in 12 games. And really what changed was the touchdowns. But specifically like under the hood target per route run rate went way up for T. Higgins. And then you've got this, this red zone, green zone end zone thing. First of all, Joe Burrow had 23 more red zone pass attempts, 22 more green zone pass attempts, and 12 more end zone pass attempts than any other quarterback. T. Higgins had 24 red zone targets in 12 games. His previous career high was 11 red zone targets. He had 14 green zone targets in 12 games. His Previous career high was 7 green zone targets. And he set a career high with 14 end zone targets in 12 games. When the Bengals got near the end zone, they threw and threw and threw. If I have their green zone pass rate handy, yeah, their green zone pass rate was 63.3% the year before. It was 46.6% the year before that, 43.8%, 48.6%. Before that, 63.3% green zone pass rate. Green zone is the 1 to 10 yard line. They ranked second last year in green zone pass rate. The three years before that they ranked 18th or lower.

[Dan Schneier]

Right.

[Adam Azer]

So it changed everything and it was huge for Higgins Heath, what do you make of that? Does that scare you at all?

[Heath Cummings]

The only thing that scares me is T. Higgins health. And that's probably something I didn't talk enough about in the Higgins versus London thing is that I think there's a legit like I try not to factor injury risk into my rankings too much, but Higgins has probably shown us enough that he is a bigger injury concern than Drake, London or other wide receivers that we would rank in this range. And that probably plays into Chase Brown's upside. Brown's biggest target game last year was without T. Higgins. Two of his seven rushing touchdowns came without T. Higgins. Maybe there's a little bit of a if T. Higgins misses time, then Chase Brown has more upside than what I just talked about and T. Higgins has generally missed time. So I, I, that's. But that's really the only thing that scares me. If, if Joe Burrow and T. Higgins are both healthy, I think this is a great pick at the end of round two.

[Adam Azer]

And if Joe Burrow and T. Higgins are healthy and Jamar Chase is not healthy, then you've got a guy who has scored 23 or more PPR fantasy points in three of five games that he has played with Burrow and without Jamar. Actually I don't even know if it's with Burrow. It's without Jamar Chase. One of those, maybe two of them were. I think they were all with Burrow. But I think we all, you get the point. Huge, huge upside if he plays without Jamar Chase. Okay, let's talk to, let's talk about Trey McBride here. Heath, why the where do you have McBride? I'm sorry? He's 24th in the consensus 23rd. What's the biggest difference? It's a nine, it's an 11 spot difference between him and Bowers. For you, why the difference there?

[Heath Cummings]

Trey McBride was a very good prospect. There's not much comparing. I don't think the prospect status of Brock Bowers and Dre McBride. We all thought Brock Bowers was much better than Trey McBride coming out into the NFL. Brock Bowers as a rookie was as good as Trey McBow. Trey McBride in year three McBride didn't get any sort of upgrade to the quarterback like Bowers did and I've got just a little bit. I still believe in Marvin Harrison Jr. And if he's going to take the next step and be better than he was last year, he's going to see more targets and maybe work more than five yards away from the out of end slime. And if that happens, that's not going to be good for Trey McBride either. So I I think he's like I've got a tight end here ranked 23rd overall. I like him a lot. I love him. He was my most drafted tight end last year and one of my most rostered in Dynasty. But I just don't think his pedigree is as good as Bowers and Bowers situation improved more than McBride's did going into this year.

[Dan Schneier]

Dan yeah, it's interesting. This is he's an interesting case. I wasn't as high on McBride last year because I wasn't as high on him as a prospect and I think I've been proven wrong. He's been a good great player at the NFL level, especially from a fantasy standpoint, especially from a target volume standpoint which I think is what we're looking for in PPR leagues and that's we're breaking down. To me it kind of depends on can this Arizona Cardinals offense evolve because I went back watched a bunch of tape on them for beyond the Boxer. We have some stuff coming up and there were you know it was Petsing's offense is very shades of 2022 Brian Dable, Mike Kafka with Daniel Jones. A lot of boot action, a lot of using the run action to set up the passing game with the tight end. Why are they doing that? I don't know. Could it be because they don't trust Kyler Murray to run a drop back rhythmic passing game? Maybe that's why we don't see Marvin Harrison running in breaking routes when he was great at running them at Ohio State. But the ball doesn't seem to snap off Murray's hands and hit that timing and those in breakers that team you need. Can Murray see the middle of the field? I don't know. But to me it's like will this Arizona Cardinals offense evolve? I think for. I think it kind of stays this way because it's working to an extent. The run game is super strong and they can get passing game off the run action, but it's a lot of bootleg to the tight end. It's a lot of tight end flag. It's a lot of routes designed to kind of draw the defense in with the run action and then have the tight end in a one on one matchup. And that should also lead to one on one matchups for Harrison. But it's the more difficult throws for Kyler to get Marvin the ball. So I want to believe that this will still be that offense with McBride and he's getting this insane target volume which has basically been the only reason he's been a success in fantasy. He doesn't score touchdowns, didn't score touchdowns in college, hasn't scored touchdowns the NFL and doesn't really break off a lot of run after the catch. So it kind of does come down to this volume and I want to believe that it will stay that way because I don't know if I trust Kyler Murray. And ultimately if you're a coach, you have to kind of go with the skill set of your quarterback and scheme around him. So I'm high on McBride this year after not being high on him last year. Mostly because I don't really truly believe in Kyler. But it goes to what Heath was saying before. I probably won't have that much. Marvin Harrison Jr. Despite belief in the talent.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, I, I not sure that I just want to say that Trey McBride can't score touchdowns really just kind of takes catching the ball in the end zone sometimes, you know, getting the end zone targets.

[Heath Cummings]

You got those last year and he.

[Dan Schneier]

Still didn't score touchdowns.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, I don't know man.

[Dan Schneier]

I10 at Colorado State is a really Rough number at a school like that where you're facing really lower level competition.

[Adam Azer]

Just seems kind of fluky to me.

[Dan Schneier]

It.

[Heath Cummings]

It seems kind of fluky and I think because he wasn't a starter in his first year, my. I, I'm the touchdown regression guy and Dan said it like a lot of times he thinks maybe I take it too far and maybe I do. My general rule is if you give me three years of a low touchdown rate, I'm just going to start believing it. I'm not sure it's fair to McBride to say that we've had three years, but he's had 292 targets, which is pretty close to three years worth of targets for a tight end and he has six touchdowns. So I, I do, I do think if you're projecting touchdown rate based on pedigree and the fact that McBride's had a low touchdown rate for a longer period of time that you should predict, project a higher touchdown rate for Brock bowers than Trey McBride.

[Adam Azer]

It's just we. I mean, yes, one, he had nine end zone targets and he caught one of them. That's just. That's in inexplicable, basically.

[Heath Cummings]

But on the other side of that is, if I remember correctly, he had both a rushing touchdown and a fumble recovery touchdown last year.

[Dan Schneier]

Yep.

[Adam Azer]

Definitely had a rushing touchdown.

[Heath Cummings]

I think he. I think, yeah, it might have been his first touchdown of the year was a fumble recovery.

[Dan Schneier]

I think it was. I remember that stat. Yeah, I remember circulating around.

[Adam Azer]

So here's why I like McBride a little bit more, I guess, in PPR. In full PPR. Yeah. It's because he. Look what he did the year before when Zach Ertz. After Zach Ertz, the last. Sorry, I got the wrong. So it was this stretch from weeks 10 through 16.

[Heath Cummings]

I think week eight was when he. Week eight was when he had.

[Dan Schneier]

That was patting as well. Right.

[Adam Azer]

I'm looking at his rookie season. He actually had a really good stretch his rookie season. Weeks eight through. Through 16 where he was on pace for over a thousand yards. But. Yeah, no, it was. It was the second season after. When was it, Heath? What week?

[Heath Cummings]

Yeah, it was definitely not his rookie season. It was 2023. He only had 265 yards his rookie season. It was 2023. It was from week 10 was his first start.

[Adam Azer]

I'm not even going to tell you what I just did there.

[Heath Cummings]

I'm sorry. Week eight, it was his first start and he. He was on pace for 145 targets.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah. And 11, 14 yards and 112 catches.

[Dan Schneier]

I think we just live watch an example of Azer stats going wrong.

[Adam Azer]

No, I, I had T. Higgins game log pulled up and I was giving.

[Heath Cummings]

His stats instead of razor stating is not for everybody.

[Adam Azer]

You gotta be on the right tab.

[Heath Cummings]

While you're podcasting is almost as difficult as mock drafting while you're podcasting.

[Dan Schneier]

You have to lock your razor stats in pre pod.

[Adam Azer]

No, I was. That's my bad. He didn't have a good rookie. So that was T. That was T. Higgins I was looking at. Okay, so it's just, it's. It's a year and a half of McBride being this 100 + catch guy and I feel really good about him. I, I think as of now I'm not really that into Marvin Harrison Jr. At the moment, but I also would make the point. This is a similar point that I would make when we're talking about neighbors versus Brian Thomas Jr. Because a lot of people say, well, Neighbors is getting this big quarterback upgrade. I also think Brian Thomas Jr. Is going to get a quarterback upgrade. I just think that the Jaguars are going to have a much more successful passing game. They threw for 3,700 yards and 19 touchdowns last year. I don't necessarily feel that way about the Cardinals because they're not going to throw as much as Kyler used to under Kingsbury. But I do think it's possible that the Cardinals just have a better passing game, especially touchdown rate. The touchdown rate was really low for Kyler.

[Dan Schneier]

I think again, it has to be design based though. Like we always talk about quarterback upgrade. What about scheme design upgrade. If you go back and watch every single route run by, Marvin Harrison Jr. And Malik neighbors last year, you're just going to see such a different variety of routes and usage for Neighbors. They're designing every clear outs with four guys going this way and Neighbors the only one running the mash route like the crosser this way. Like there's so much design to get him the football. With Harrison, it's a lot of just ISO one on one on the outside relying on the quarterback timing that is harder to do. Like there were a lot of easy layups for Daniel Jones to throw to Malik Neighbors last year, Drew Locke as well and whoever else played quarterback, Tim Boyle. But like that's what I'm get. Like is that gonna happen with Drew Petzing? It hasn't happened yet. Will he do that this off season?

[Heath Cummings]

There will be no Tommy DeVito erasure on this show. Dan.

[Dan Schneier]

I forgot he played some snaps last year.

[Adam Azer]

All right, that's that's 19 through 24 in the PPR rankings. Three running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end, two Cincinnati Bengals. And you know, I. Dan, you gave a music take yesterday on X on Twitter. And would you like to. Would you like to go ahead and tell the audience what you said?

[Heath Cummings]

Is this the thing that I got tagged in saying I needed to add it to your razor sets, your azer takes? Because I haven't done that for a long time. But I don't know enough about guitar.

[Adam Azer]

It's not. It's not worth somebody. This is Chad Johnson said, name five better solos than Freebird. Five better guitar solos and Freebird. And I said two that come to mind that I prefer are Jessica by the Allman Brothers. And I'm not talking about the. I'm not talking about. That's like the verse. So I'm about the solo. And the Hotel California solo is amazing. I like those better than Freebird. Freebird has got to be a top five solo. But then, Dan, go ahead. What'd you get into there, Dan?

[Dan Schneier]

Well, I just said to me, jessica's not Even a top 10 Allman Brothers song of all time, and it's probably not a top five Allman Brothers solo of all time. And I did say as my hot take, Duane Allman is the best slide guitarist of all time by far.

[Adam Azer]

I'm not trying to sell you this to put you down. I just. There was a moment I had last month. I saw a video came up, I think, on my Facebook feed, and it says, why this is Red Hot Chili Peppers hardest riff. And it's this guy, I guess his name is Paul Davids, appears to be a true expert talking about this riff. I've been playing guitar since I'm 14 years old.

[Dan Schneier]

Huh.

[Adam Azer]

He was saying things that I never even knew existed. For you and me to start talking about the best guitar solos of all time and all that. We know nothing. Absolutely nothing. I encourage you to watch.

[Dan Schneier]

I agree.

[Adam Azer]

This breakdown of why can't technical standpoint.

[Dan Schneier]

We don't know anything. It's like the film versus but we can. We have an eye test. We can work.

[Adam Azer]

Oh, but the thing is, we're allowed.

[Dan Schneier]

To work with an ear test.

[Adam Azer]

We know so much about an ear test. We know so much.

[Heath Cummings]

Oh, this used to make me so mad with you and Scott White talking about films and whether a movie is like. As if there isn't some objective way to say that this is good. And just because you like this other thing doesn't make it good. Music doesn't make it good.

[Adam Azer]

No, I just. I just. When you hear this guy break down the guitar part of of Can't Stop by the Chili Peppers, you want to take a nap? No, no. You realize how. How intricate music is and how little we know about it. It is actually really incredible.

[Dan Schneier]

Vishante is also an amazing to hear music.

[Heath Cummings]

Stairway to Heaven to finish this off.

[Adam Azer]

To hear music. Yeah. Stairway Heaven is an incredible solo. To hear music explained on this. This level is really cool.

[Dan Schneier]

Speaking of guitar, can any of you name the album cover that's in the background?

[Adam Azer]

Oh, what is your background?

[Dan Schneier]

Neither of you can get it?

[Heath Cummings]

Somebody in the chat should be able to. They were all speculate. It's beautiful.

[Adam Azer]

It looks like Beetlejuice. Something out of a Tim Burton movie.

[Dan Schneier]

The album Z by My Morning Jacket.

[Adam Azer]

Oh, gosh. Will you get over it with My Morning Jacket?

[Dan Schneier]

No, they're one of my favorite. They're my favorite living. Get over it. They're so good.

[Adam Azer]

It's just like. Yeah, they're great. Whatever. Just get over it. I mean, come on.

[Dan Schneier]

I can't. I can't stop. Won't stop.

[Adam Azer]

Can't stop. That's what I'm telling you. This guy breaks down, can't stop it.

[Dan Schneier]

It's such a good thing.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah. Why the guitar riff is. It's amazing. All right, anyway, you know what? Let me, let me throw an email in here. Fantasy Football.com. here's one that says undervalued receivers. Haven't read it yet. This is Ted from a town one hour west of the Norfolk Naval Station. And yeah, that is how you pronounce it. I've been told. He says, hey, Aaron, Cody and Trent. I know them.

[Dan Schneier]

Aaron, Cody and Trent.

[Adam Azer]

Those are Yankees outfielders.

[Dan Schneier]

Oh, Trent Grisham, Cody Bellinger, who stinks on my fantasy team, and Aaron Judge.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, funny that you went in that order. I've done a few drafts and I don't understand some of the receivers I'm getting in the later rounds. Is it me or there are these receivers very undervalued. Matthew Golden, Josh Palmer.

[Dan Schneier]

No, no.

[Adam Azer]

Chris Godwin.

[Dan Schneier]

Not for me, but for most. Yes.

[Heath Cummings]

Maybe.

[Dan Schneier]

I'm not.

[Heath Cummings]

I think there's a yes, there's a no, and there's a maybe.

[Adam Azer]

There.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah.

[Adam Azer]

Ted, you're making the case for Josh Palmer as a top 24 receiver. I think that's. That's a mistake.

[Dan Schneier]

I want Eli Moore out of that pack of Bills receivers.

[Heath Cummings]

I've got them in YOLO if you'd like to make an offer.

[Adam Azer]

I definitely want Keon Coleman.

[Dan Schneier]

I like Coleman a lot too actually let me be clear.

[Adam Azer]

I don't really know if I like Keon Coleman a lot but 129th overall in in ADP or roughly what my.

[Dan Schneier]

One concern is just watching that freaking Bills offense last year and having Concade it's the volume gonna be there because it wasn't there last year and that was not a pass first offense last year and I don't know if Brady's gonna change that. I was so frustrated owning rostering some of those Bills receivers last year run.

[Adam Azer]

Heavy team and slow and slow like me.

[Heath Cummings]

If you got Josh Allen, what you really want to do is just see if we can run the ball 35 times a game and run as few plays as possible.

[Adam Azer]

Heath, I have a question.

[Dan Schneier]

It works. So I mean I can't blame them.

[Adam Azer]

How familiar are you with the, with the 2025 Scott Fishbowl scoring and format?

[Dan Schneier]

Oh.

[Heath Cummings]

Relatively.

[Adam Azer]

Okay then I'm going to read this question. So Brian wants to know basically what to do because looking at the rules you don't have to start any quarterbacks. Is that right?

[Heath Cummings]

I, I believe Scott set it up to where you don't have to. I'm not sure you have to start any position.

[Dan Schneier]

Whoa. I did not know that was in play for this year. Wow.

[Adam Azer]

So do you know if it makes sense to if quarterbacks are going to be the best value looking.

[Heath Cummings]

I was really surprised because I'm in a, a deal that shows what the scoring was last year.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah.

[Heath Cummings]

Based on not just, just what happened last year. And it didn't look to me like quarterback was going to be quite as valuable as in past years.

[Adam Azer]

So you're talking about if using this year's scoring what last year?

[Heath Cummings]

Right.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, because he's selling because Brian is showing me a, a chart of Mike Clay, another ESPN fantasy analyst. His projections that say the top 10 picks, the, the non quarterbacks look like much better options.

[Heath Cummings]

Yeah, I think with his outlandish performance last year, Lamar Jackson was not the top scorer. But the other side of it is you can still start two quarterbacks. So looking at it, there's no specific you're, you're not required to start a wide receiver, a running back or a tight end or a quarterback, but you can start two quarterbacks. I have the first overall pick and I'm doing the live Kansas City draft in I believe three weeks and I, I, I don't think I'm gonna take a quarterback first overall. I'm probably leaning towards taking Bichon.

[Dan Schneier]

Interesting.

[Adam Azer]

You get half a point, you get half a point per carry. And then I mentioned this last time, you get one point per reception and then tight ends get an extra point per reception. But on if you're playing on my fantasy, you get one point per reception. If you're playing on sleeper, you get two and a half points per reception. So tight ends on my fantasy league, I think, I think Bowers or McBride, you can make the case, should be the number one pick. So they get double the points for receptions. On my fantasy league, they shouldn't be the number one pick.

[Heath Cummings]

On sleeper, you also get points, a full point for a rushing first down or a receiving first down.

[Adam Azer]

Yes.

[Dan Schneier]

I think if you take away. Just back to the original question. I think if you take away the need to have quarterbacks and the scarcity of the position, it does take away a lot of the fervor for me to draft them early and to get them on my team. Like, I don't. I'm gonna have to really look into.

[Heath Cummings]

This and I believe it's two and a half points per reception on sleeper.

[Adam Azer]

But it's only one one on. On my fantasy league. That's what it says.

[Dan Schneier]

You really stack your team up. Can I address something that was said earlier? I said Adam was a big health guy. It's been brought to my attention via Thomas. Adam is not actually a big health guy at all. He's just someone who is afraid of sugar and red meat. Now, I'll say this. He's correct to be afraid of sugar. Sugar is top.

[Adam Azer]

And red meat for you.

[Dan Schneier]

Red meat is not bad for you as it is. It's terrible propaganda that you've been like convinced of 100 years. No, no good grass fed red red meat is probably better for you than anything you're eating, especially your chicken that you did.

[Heath Cummings]

Certainly better than the lunch meat that you eat seven times.

[Dan Schneier]

Definitely better than.

[Adam Azer]

I don't eat that stuff. No, I processed meat I, I once a week at the most for. Well, I might like. I don't eat deli meat hardly ever. But you know, I might get like.

[Dan Schneier]

Also you've complained in the past that sugar fruit has too much sugar. No, that's natural sugar. That's not.

[Adam Azer]

No, that's not true. I don't complain about. Okay if I. Fruit is fine. Fruit is fine. I, I think there's like the big four or five that I try to avoid.

[Dan Schneier]

The fact that you think red meat is bad for you just shows you probably think eggs are bad for you too.

[Adam Azer]

They. Well, look, red meat has good things in it.

[Dan Schneier]

A lot of good things.

[Adam Azer]

Yes, but also it's not good for your heart and only if you have.

[Dan Schneier]

The same amount of it.

[Adam Azer]

No, I don't think that's true.

[Heath Cummings]

No, I think you could eat. You should eat eggs for breakfast every day.

[Adam Azer]

No.

[Dan Schneier]

Yes, I agree with that.

[Heath Cummings]

100 healthier than whatever.

[Dan Schneier]

100 healthier than whatever.

[Adam Azer]

I don't even know. Okay? I eat the hell. I eat the straight up healthiest breakfast in the entire world.

[Dan Schneier]

Straight up healthiest breakfast.

[Adam Azer]

Let me tell you. Let me tell you my breakfast.

[Heath Cummings]

That's three eggs.

[Adam Azer]

I don't usually. That's it. I don't usually eat breakfast.

[Dan Schneier]

I have two eggs every morning.

[Adam Azer]

This is my breakfast. You're. You are so wrong about this. This is my.

[Dan Schneier]

You're so wrong about eggs, Adam. Cholesterol comes from genetics. It has nothing to chill yours. Just do some research.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, no, dinosaur chicken nuggets are not good. Okay, I get that. They're not even real dinosaur, from what.

[Dan Schneier]

I understand, is great.

[Adam Azer]

Listen, this is my breakfast, Dan. Okay? It is oatmeal, but not terrible. Not. Oh, get the hell.

[Dan Schneier]

Yep, look it up. It is not terrible for you, but not good for you. Listen, eggs are way better for you than oatmeal.

[Adam Azer]

It is oatmeal, but not the processed ones. These steel cut oats. Non processed. Yeah, Everybody with all organic fruit, strawberry, blueberry, banana.

[Dan Schneier]

Okay, that's fine.

[Adam Azer]

Organic plain, Greek yogurt, non fat chia seed, flaxseed and peanut butter. That is my breakfast. You think eggs are healthier than that? Are you kidding me?

[Dan Schneier]

Eggs are definitely healthier than that. I would like. You're so wrong on this.

[Adam Azer]

Listen, I read an article.

[Dan Schneier]

Good for you.

[Adam Azer]

I read an article that interviewed like four oncologists and asked them what they eat for breakfast. And basically they ate what I just described. Or at least one of them did probably. Yeah. Without the peanut butter.

[Heath Cummings]

Without the peanut butter.

[Adam Azer]

It's all organic, though.

[Dan Schneier]

Random anecdote.

[Adam Azer]

There were four oncologists.

[Dan Schneier]

My exact diet is at the best one possible.

[Adam Azer]

All right, I gotta go.

[Dan Schneier]

We'll.

[Adam Azer]

We'll talk to you all on Monday. Have a great weekend.

[Dan Schneier]

Eggs are bad for you.

[Adam Azer]

I didn't say eggs are bad for you. They're not as good for you as.

[Dan Schneier]

As they're the best oatmeal thing you can eat. They're bad. Way better for you than oatmeal. Dude, why do you say that in it?

[Adam Azer]

Oatmeal. I have it with all this fruits.

[Dan Schneier]

Of nutrients and things that are good for you.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, I don't need the nutrient I.

[Heath Cummings]

I think some eggs might help your tennis game a couple miles on your serve.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah I it's not like I eat oatmeal every meal just my breakfast.

[Dan Schneier]

Sometimes oatmeal has nothing in it.

[Heath Cummings]

It just blows your head for breakfast.

[Adam Azer]

I'm so mad at you right now. New Adam is so sick of you. We are leaving Have a great weekend for dinner.

[Dan Schneier]

Paramount podcasts summer on the south side of Chicago is heating up you planning revenge onto the shy's back on Paramount plus it's the season of the women women this is our chance.

[Adam Azer]

It'S time to get to work.

[Dan Schneier]

But the men aren't giving up without a fight street's always gonna have no one is backing down in the Showtime original series from emmy award winner Lena Waithe why do black women always have.

[Adam Azer]

To save the day if we don't do it who else will don't miss.

[Dan Schneier]

The shy new season now streaming on the paramount premium plan.