Justify It! Plus Stefon Diggs Will be Released (03/05 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Summary

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Fantasy Football Today (CBS Sports) – Episode Summary

Episode: Justify It! Plus Stefon Diggs Will be Released (03/05/2026)
Hosts/Analysts: Adam Aizer, Dave Richard, Jamey Eisenberg, Heath Cummings
Date: March 5, 2026

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Overview

This episode of Fantasy Football Today centers around two main themes:

• Justifying recent controversial picks from their latest 12-team PPR mock draft: The hosts challenge one another to explain the logic behind their “questionable” draft choices.
• Reacting to major NFL news: The release of Stefon Diggs by the Patriots, the Darnell Mooney release, the Rams-Chiefs trade, and other key player movement headlines, with a keen eye on the fantasy impact.

Throughout the show, Adam, Dave, Jamey, and Heath debate dynasty and redraft ranks, risk tolerance for “bounce back” players, and how shifting NFL rosters reshape the fantasy landscape for 2026.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. NFL News Reactions: Stefon Diggs Released by Patriots

• Stefon Diggs Fantasy Outlook:
  • Production Recap: 102 targets, 85 catches, 1013 yards, 4 TDs. Finished WR25 per game in PPR.
  • Big Decline in Touchdowns: Low despite solid target volume.
• Patriots WR Room & Replacement Ideas:
  • Likely to spend big via FA/trade or draft. Names like Alec Pierce, Mike Evans, Tyreek Hill, A.J. Brown, Juwan Jennings, Darnell Mooney mentioned as possibilities.
  • Heath: “I’ll almost certainly be more excited about whoever that [replacement WR] is than Stefon Diggs, wherever he goes.” (06:53)
• Diggs' Fantasy Relevance:
  • Dave: “I don’t think he can be an NFL team’s number one guy anymore… the days of him being even like a fourth or fifth round pick, I think that’s done.” (08:00)
  • Jamey: Suggests Diggs could be a fit in barren WR rooms like 49ers, Saints, Raiders, or Titans, but, “you have to know what you’re getting. You’re getting an older receiver…not going to be the focal point.” (11:59)
  • Adam: Compares Diggs to “Cooper Kupp from two years ago” – wily, smart, but aging fast. (10:36)
  • Heath (joking): “Let’s send him to Pittsburgh and Aaron Rodgers goes back there. Aaron Rodgers and Stefon Diggs for a full season. Be fantastic.” (09:33)

Timestamps:

• News starts (05:50)
• Fantasy impact breakdown (06:37 to 12:05)

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2. Other Notable News Items

• Rams-Chiefs Trade: Rams acquire All-Pro CB Trent McDuffie from Chiefs.
• Darnell Mooney Released: After a down year (443 yards); key change in the Falcons’ WR corps.
• Rest of News Rundown: Rashid Shaheed, Will Dissly, Sean Tucker, Johnu Smith, Chris Brooks, and Giants’ linebacker Bobby Okereke all mentioned as notable moves.
  • Table-setting for free agency frenzy to come.

Timestamps:

• Full rundown (14:00 to 16:43)

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3. “Justify It!” Mock Draft Segment

The core of the episode involves the hosts defending controversial picks from a recent 12-team, 3-WR PPR mock draft.

A. Dave Takes Devon Achane Over Amon-Ra St. Brown & CeeDee Lamb (Round 1)

• Dave’s Justification:
  • “The ceiling is a little higher for Devon Achane... I was much more comfortable with the receivers available in Round 2 than the running backs.” (18:17)
  • Cites Bobby Slowik as new Miami OC and preference for RB early if tiebreaker is close.
• Heath’s Response:
  • “I have Achane right now projected to score more points than Amon-Ra St. Brown even in full PPR… but all the uncertainty around Miami’s offense is at least a little concerning.” (20:02)
• Jamie’s Take:
  • CeeDee Lamb has become less elite with George Pickens’ arrival and Dak’s volatility.
  • “He's still a borderline first round pick… but I don't think he has the potential to get to where Achan or St. Brown can get.” (22:29)

Timestamps:

• Dave’s justification (18:17)
• Heath’s and Jamie’s responses (20:02 – 22:29)

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B. Dave Takes Cam Skattebo over Tee Higgins & A.J. Brown (Round 3)

• Dave: “Chasing upside and taking a player who has a higher ceiling over two guys that feel pretty safe…” Skattebo offered rare RB upside if he wins Giants job. (24:17)
• Heath: “I think AJ Brown…has at least as much upside as Cam Skattebo…There's a lot of ifs with drafting Cam Skattebo right now.” (25:55)
• Jamie: None of these three are true “floor” picks due to uncertainty.

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C. Jamey Starts RB-RB at the Turn (James Cook & Omarion Hampton over WRs like Drake London, Malik Nabers, Justin Jefferson)

• Jamey: “These are two players that I'm very excited about… both have top-5 upside… I always like to try different strategies this early. But if this was August, I'd probably pair Cook or Hampton with Drake London." (27:35)
• Dave: Would have gone RB+WR at the turn for flexibility, preferring Cook and London. (29:37)
• Heath: RB-RB is “more acceptable than a few years ago,” but the value pool is different as others pursue the same build. (33:54)

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D. Jamey Waits on TE, Takes Christian Watson in Round 6

• Passed on Sam LaPorta, Tucker Kraft, Mark Andrews, Kyle Pitts, George Kittle.
• Jamey: "With RBs early, I want to stockpile WRs with upside… Christian Watson is the kind of high-ceiling WR3 that can win you a league.” (36:17)

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E. Heath Takes Drake London over Trey McBride (Round 2)

• Heath: Worried McBride’s stats came from garbage time & a pass-heavy situation that won’t repeat. “Trey McBride hasn't really ever been hyper efficient… I just don't think we should chase last year's Trey McBride points.” (41:14)
• Both Heath & Dave agree London offers a steadier target share; McBride’s effectiveness may dip.
• Jamie: “It comes down to do you want to commit to the tight end early.” (44:33)

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F. Heath: Quinton Judkins over Breece Hall in Round 4

• Heath: Preference for Judkins' consistent high rushing volume and Monken’s scheme with Browns; Breece Hall limited by Jets offense. (45:05)
• Hosts note both teams’ uncertainty and Hall’s injury; but Dave & Jamie both pick Hall over Judkins in a vacuum. (48:18)

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G. Adam Takes Breece Hall over Davante Adams in Round 4

• Adam questions himself: Adams playing on strong offense, but underwhelming stats. “Not even on pace for 1,000 yards… old guy maybe clearly declining, but… fooled by that before.” (50:07)
• Both Dave and Jamie say they would have picked Hall, mainly due to presumed positional upside. (48:18 – 50:05)

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H. Adam Discusses Roster with Risky “Bounce Back” Picks

• Lamar Jackson (QB), Breece Hall (RB), Tee Higgins (WR), Cortland Sutton (WR), Juwan Jennings (WR3) – all coming off down or injury-marred years.
• Heath: “I don’t really think about the number of bounce-back candidates that I have drafted but I do think that that probably happens to me more often...” (51:54)
• Jamie: “You're getting these guys at cost… Higgins you get at a discount.” (52:33)

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4. Dynasty & Player-Specific Mailbag

• Rashee Rice Dynasty Outlook: Major uncertainty, top-12-13 in dynasty, but could swing wildly. “When I just do projections and forget about all the off-field stuff, he comes out as WR4 next year.” – Heath (58:26)
• Javonte Williams As the Next Chuba Hubbard: “He will not be as inefficient as last year, but he’s not good at [big YAC numbers]. He will positively regress in that regard.” – Adam (62:15)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Stefon Diggs:

• Dave: “I don’t know if he’ll be a top-30 wide receiver no matter where he goes...the days of him being even like a fourth-round, fifth-round, sixth-round pick, I think that’s done.” (08:00)
• Adam (on Diggs' age/effectiveness): “He reminds me a lot of Cooper Kupp from two years ago with the Rams. Like, not that fast anymore, but very...but what happened to Cooper Kupp the following year? Guys get older.” (10:36)

On Draft Strategies:

• Dave (on taking Achane early): “I wanted to have Achane and the higher ceiling over St. Brown in the safety, especially knowing that I could find a good receiver in round two.” (18:17)
• Jamey (on RB-RB start): “I always like to try different strategies...these are two guys I think that are borderline first round picks.” (27:35)
• Heath (on RB-RB value): “As it gets more acceptable, more running backs get drafted earlier. So you’re taking from lower running backs to do that.” (34:07)

On WR Risk and Ceiling:

• Jamey (on Christian Watson): “This is the type of third receiver that you win fantasy leagues with...when he hits, he puts you in a potential stratosphere that can easily help you dominate your opponent.” (37:04)
• Heath (on Christian Watson): “He could make 120 [targets] is probably too high...So maybe he could maintain that pace or have a couple more maybe 110 for Christian Watson...it's so hard [in this offense].” (38:46)

On "Bounce-Back" Candidates:

• Adam (roster reflection): “That's more than half my starting lineup...so I don't have a lot of guys who really stood out last year. What are your thoughts on bounce back candidates?” (51:54)
• Jamie: “You're getting these guys at cost...I think [Cortland] Sutton in round seven is great value.” (52:33)

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Important Timestamps

• NFL News, Diggs Released: 05:50 – 12:05
• Other NFL News Rundown: 14:00 – 16:43
• “Justify It!” Draft Segment Begins: 17:14
  • Achane over St. Brown/Lamb: 18:17
  • Skattebo over Higgins/AJ Brown: 24:17
  • Jamey’s RB-RB Strategy: 27:02
  • Christian Watson over TEs: 36:17
  • London over McBride: 40:10
  • Judkins over Breece Hall: 45:05
• Dynasty Mailbag (Rashee Rice, etc): 58:26 – 62:15
• Mailbag/Show wrap banter: 62:15 – close

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Episode Tone

• Candid, analytical, and lively – the hosts blend sharp insights, self-deprecating humor, and spirited debate.
  • “Justify It!” segments feature good-natured grilling and plenty of self-reflection.
  • Banter interspersed about driving, road trips, and foodie foibles to end the show.

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Closing Thoughts

This episode is a must-listen for competitive fantasy players aiming to get an analytical edge on draft strategy and free agency’s fantasy impact. The hosts provide frank reasoning behind potentially risky picks, illuminate how real-world NFL changes ripple through the draft board, and supply actionable takeaways for listeners prepping for both redraft and dynasty formats.

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Notable Quotes Recap:

• “The ceiling is higher for Achane… but on top of all that, I was much more comfortable with the receivers that I thought would be available in round two.” – Dave (18:17)
• “If you're going to go RB-RB in the first two rounds…it forces you to stockpile WRs with high upside to balance your risk.” – Jamey (36:17)
• “[With Diggs], you've just got to know you aren't getting an offense's focal point. This isn’t the same Stefon Diggs.” – Jamey (11:59)
• “You’re getting these guys at [a discount] because of what happened last year...Higgins is an easy value if Burrow's back.” – Jamie (52:33)

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For listeners:
If you want a roadmap for tackling difficult draft decisions, understanding incoming free agency shockwaves, or simply hearing the thought process behind the industry's experts, this episode delivers accessible, actionable discussion from start to finish.

Transcript

[Host]

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[Adam]

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[Dave]

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[Dave]

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[Adam]

Off to the races and he stays at his feet. This is going to go the distance.

[Heath]

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

[Adam]

Well, the. The news is rolling in. The Patriots are going to release Stefon Diggs. Darnell Mooney's gonna get released. We had a big trade involving the Chiefs and the Rams and we're gonna talk about it right now on fantasy football today. But also looking at a mock draft from a few weeks ago. We're gonna make these guys justify it. Looking at some picks that were, I don't know, controversial Questionable, difficult decisions. Gotta justify it. Welcome, Jamie. What's up?

[Jamie]

How are you guys?

[Adam]

I. I think I'm good. Yeah, I'm good. You know, we got a big week coming up.

[Heath]

It's exciting. It's exciting.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Heath]

I feel like there's some more crazy things coming for us in the next week. It's gonna be a lot of fun reactions next week.

[Jamie]

I did a radio show last night in San Francisco, and the host asked me, what's the most exciting move we should anticipate.

[Adam]

Yeah, yeah. I was okay. I was gonna ask a similar question, but I guess he's just better than I am.

[Jamie]

Well, I mean, you seem to be following a lot of people recently about things that other people post and do.

[Adam]

You know, someone posted a very similar quarterback question about which quarterback would you want on your NFL team, but did not include who? Kyler?

[Jamie]

I think Gino, because nobody cares about Gino. I think did.

[Adam]

I think did not include Kyler.

[Jamie]

No.

[Adam]

Kyler was there, maybe not Malik Willis.

[Jamie]

Whatever it was, it was definitely Malik Mills. Malik Willis won the post.

[Adam]

I don't think Kyler was there. I don't know. Anyway, what was your answer, Jamie, to his post? No.

[Dave]

No, to the question.

[Adam]

To the question.

[Jamie]

The most exciting move. I said Kyler.

[Dave]

I don't know if exciting is the right word.

[Jamie]

I'm.

[Dave]

I'm real curious to see where Malik Willis goes and how big of a bag he gets.

[Jamie]

So that. That was my answer to who's going to, you know, be like, the big prize out there in terms of, like, getting paid maybe more than they should, because obviously if he's going to go to a team that stinks, they're going to have to overpay him like the Jets.

[Heath]

I'm really think we're going to get the same thing with Alec Pierce. Like, the reaction to Alec Pierce's contract is going to be absolutely bonkers, I think.

[Jamie]

I think if it gets bonkers if he stays because. Because, like, they're gonna have to overpay him to keep him.

[Dave]

I think he's getting overpaid no matter what.

[Jamie]

Probably the way it is.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Adam]

Isn't it strange that I. I did a poll, it said, you know, pick one of these four quarterbacks. Kyler, Malik Willis, Tua and Geno Smith. And Kyler got 54% of the vote. Malik Willis got 38% of the vote. Jamie was referring to Joe Shad, who covers the Dolphins now, and he said, if you had to take one quarterback, which QB would you choose? And he had Kyler and He had Malik Willis on there. He also had Daniel Jones and he had Tua. I didn't have Daniel Jones. I did have two. Anyway, my poll, Kyler Murray got 54. His poll, Kyler Murray got 17% and Malik Willis got 41. In my poll, he got 38. Just weird that would be that big

[Dave]

of a Fantasy guys versus Dolphins fans. I mean, the majority of our audience are people who are dialed in to fantasy football. They know Kyler from his fantasy exploits. So I would imagine that Kyler Tyler would get a big reaction on your poll, but not necessarily on a poll that's voted on by a lot of Dolphins.

[Adam]

He's a national guy previously. He's got240,000 followers.

[Dave]

I totally know who Joe Shed is. I'm very familiar.

[Adam]

But I would.

[Dave]

Was the poll on X or on his Palm beach post site?

[Adam]

X. Okay.

[Dave]

Still, you're gonna have a lot of Dolphins fans voting on that poll and fewer fantasy people voting on that poll.

[Heath]

Well, in.

[Adam]

In his. Dolphin. In his poll, Tua got 20% of the vote compared to 5% in mine. So I don't know what that says. All right, anyway, let's.

[Dave]

That's proof of what I'm talking about.

[Adam]

Maybe, but also Daniel. Daniel Jones was in his. His poll and not in mind, so that was different. All right, Anyway, news and notes. The Patriots are going to release Stefan Diggs and. Yeah, that's. That's the leading receiver for. For Drake, maybe surprisingly, you know, to play 17 games and have 102 targets, which was the most on the team, Just kind of a weird team. They didn't throw that much. But he had 85 catches, 1013 yards, four touchdowns, which is very low for 102 targets. Stefan Diggs was the number 25 wide receiver per game in PPR, 29th and half PPR, 33rd in full PPR. Heath, your reaction?

[Jamie]

Sure.

[Heath]

Seems like the Patriots are going to go spin big, either via trade or free agency on a new wide receiver. One I'll probably be more excited about. I'll almost certainly be more excited about whoever that is than Stefan Diggs, wherever he goes.

[Adam]

Okay, Jamie, your thoughts?

[Jamie]

I agree. I. I think this is one of the perfect destinations for Alec Pierce. I think we discussed that on a

[Adam]

previous,

[Jamie]

you know, talking about a wide receiver who makes plays down the field. And Drake may does a good job of finding his receivers down the field, so it's a easy, you know, match if it were to come to fruition. But they're going to be in on A.J. brown if they could, you know, somehow manage to make a trade. And I'm sure there's probably a guy or two who's out there that, you know, they have some, some fallback options for and, and the draft as well. You know, Darnell Mooney's free now. He'll be of interest to some teams. Mike Evans, Tyree Kill, you know, if they, those guys decide that New England's the place that they want to go play Juwan Jennings, you know, there's going to be a lot of probably this receiver going to New England to replace the.

[Adam]

Is there a place that you want to see Stefan Diggs go? Are you still interested in him as a top 30 wide receiver? Dave, two, two questions there. You can answer them both.

[Dave]

I don't know if he'll be a top 30 wide receiver no matter where he goes. I don't think he can be an NFL team's number one guy anymore. But a supporting player. We saw him get off to a good start sort of doing that in Houston for half a year in 2024. If he's linked up with a great quarterback and an explosive offense and he's not the number one guy, then sure I'd be, I'd be interested in Stefan Diggs in the middle of a draft, but the days of him being even like a fourth round, fifth round, sixth round pick, I think that's done.

[Jamie]

I definitely agree with the latter. I, I, I wonder if like this is the 49ers guy and I don't, I don't.

[Dave]

Do they want somebody who could be a headache?

[Jamie]

Probably not, but you know, I would imagine one of 32 teams gonna take a chance on him and you know, again similar to New England, this is a team that needs wide receivers. So does he end up in a spot where he can still command 100 plus targets? I don't know if there is a team out there that would to your point, and I agree with it, you know, that's going to view him as a number one guy, but that's a wide receiver room right now that is completely barren outside of Ricky Pearsall and he can't stay healthy. So I'm just trying to think of like spots where it makes sense that he can still be fantasy relevant. So totally agree with everything you said about who's drafted, where he should be drafted and etc, not being the number one guy. But does he have a chance to maybe end up in either a high powered offense, which would be good, you know, from a quarterback perspective or you know, chance to Be a number one guy.

[Adam]

Let Heath get in there.

[Jamie]

Go ahead.

[Heath]

We definitely, there's an obvious best answer for what we do. Let's send him to Pittsburgh and Aaron Rodgers goes back there. Aaron Rodgers and Stefan Diggs for a full season. Be fantastic.

[Adam]

Tyreek also yeah, the thing about like Diggs is gonna, is 32. He's gonna turn 33 in November 29th. He had a thousand yard season at age 31 coming off a torn ACL. I mean it's pretty good. And he was always, until the playoffs basically always limited in his routes. He, he had a 68.3 route participation rate which is really low for a guy who played 17 games and you know, led the team in receiving. But in, he played five games all year with an 80% route participation rate or higher and two of them were in the playoffs against I want to say Houston and the Chargers maybe. And he struggled in those games. The weather was bad in one of them and Drake May was struggling, whatever. But in the three, in the three regular season games, the only three regular season games in which Stefan Diggs ran 80% or more of the routes, he went over 100 yards in all three games. He was one of the most efficient wide receivers in the NFL. And I, I was pretty enticed by that. But now when I look at it, I really think it comes down to one stat for him and that was his catch rate. 83 catch rate astronomical. Not repeatable. It's not like he was, you know, burning guys but, but I want to give him, he can still get open. He, he's, he reminds me a lot of Cooper cup from two years ago with the Rams. Like not that fast anymore, but very, but what happened to Cooper cup the following year? You know, guys get older. This, this is the same age year now for Diggs Digs a year younger than Cup. Anyway, I just wanted to give him credit for having this kind of a year coming off a torn acl, not really playing that much at that age was very impressive. And maybe, maybe he'll be better because he's a year removed, another year removed from the, from the injury.

[Jamie]

I mean look, you could see New Orleans, they, they need receiver help. You could see Tennessee, they need receiver help. You could see Raiders, Raiders, they need receiver help. Like these are all teams that make a lot of sense where he could still be relatively fantasy relevant. But again, you know, you just have to know what you're getting. You're getting an older receiver, you're getting a guy that's not going to be a The focal point of the passing attack, most likely.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

And so, you know, you just have to understand that it's not the same Stefan Dicks.

[Dave]

Okay.

[Adam]

And then finally just pick one wide receiver that could potentially be available. Not George Pickens. It doesn't seem like that's going to happen. To go to the Patriots. Who would be your favorite?

[Dave]

That would be Alec Pierce.

[Adam]

Not Mike Evans or tyreek or anything.

[Heath]

A.J. brown, right?

[Adam]

Oh, yeah. A.J. brown would be the problem. Okay. Who, who after? I'll take Evans over Pierce.

[Dave]

Why?

[Adam]

Yeah, I'm not sure that Pierce is, is. Well, he's not a complete receiver. I don't know that he can be. He's the best deep ball receiver in the NFL. I think Evans is, you know, a Hall of Famer. Alec Pierce has won 1,000 yard season. Mike Evans has, you know, every year of his career except last year.

[Dave]

I get it. If you, if you're worried about paying Alec Pierce and you don't want to pay him a ton of money and you just want a one year rental, Evans would be that guy. And then you just hope that he can stay healthy for, for 17 games. I don't know if there's another like great receiver out there. We don't know how healthy Tyreek Hill is. If, if the doctors sign off on Tyreek and they think he can get back to 90 of what he was, then maybe you go down that path. But that's a, that's kind of a big maybe. And I don't know if I really want to replace Stefan Diggs with Wanda Robinson when I have to pay Wanda Robinson what he's going to end up probably getting on the open market. That's also going to be maybe not as shocking as we thought it would be.

[Jamie]

We're just talking about New England.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

Just.

[Adam]

Who do you want to be their wide receiver?

[Host]

One?

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Adam]

I mean. Oh, D.J. moore would be a good one. Okay. All right. The Rams.

[Dave]

These aren't amazing options. I almost want them. Can I, can I say that they just trade up in the draft for one of the top receiver prospects?

[Jamie]

Sure.

[Dave]

Then that's what I would want to do if I'm New England.

[Adam]

All right. The rams acquired Trent McDuffie from the Chiefs, a an all pro cornerback. They gave up a first round pick, a fifth and a sixth in this upcoming draft and a third round pick in 2027. And the Chiefs, you know, they're gonna definitely have a new look secondary this upcoming season. But big, big move here by the Rams. The Falcons released Darnell Mooney two very, very different seasons in Atlanta. 2024 he had 992 yards and five touchdowns in 16 games. 2025 Mooney had 443 yards, half of what he had the year before, per game in 15 games. Rashid Shahid Expected to test free agency the Chargers released tight end Will Disley. The Bucks are going to allow Sean Tucker to become an unrestricted free agent. That'll be fun. See where he ends up. 4.3 yards per carry on 151 carries in his career for Sean Tucker.

[Jamie]

Aaron Rodgers like a perfect guy to replace David Montgomery.

[Adam]

Yeah, Aaron Rogers Rogers hasn't decided on what he'll do this season and the Steelers are releasing John who Smith. Here's a fun stat for you. Johnny Smith and Pat Friarmuth had the same amount of targets last year. Friarmuth had three more catches, 264 more yards and two more touchdowns, 264 more yards of Johnny Smith. Johnny Smith had a really bad year. I don't know how to explain it, but basically career lows in in every statistical category for John who Smith. Not every, but close to it. See the packers resigned running backs Chris Brooks Running back Chris Brooks. He's just one person even though he has an S at the end of his last name. The Panthers place the exclusive rights tender on Jalen Coker. The Vikings will release Jonathan Allen, a defensive tackle there also. That's the second defensive tackle they're going to release. They had such a great defense they are getting rid of some players, hopefully not too impactful. And the Giants are going to release linebacker Bobby o' Carrick who could end up in a better spot and be really good in idp, which he has been in the past. If you know he he was great for the Giants. Then they changed off. Defensive coordinators didn't really fit for Okarikay. But if you're an IDP person, Okarikay could be a bounce back guy. He's been a big time tackle machine in a couple seasons. All right, we have a lot of other podcasts for you. Check them [e-mail] podcasts we're going to take a break and when we come back justify it. Dave took Devon Achan over the super safe Amon Ross St. Brown and CD Lam. Why did he do that? What a weirdo. What a weirdo. All right, we'll be right back.

[Jamie]

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[Adam]

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[Jamie]

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[Heath]

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[Jamie]

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[Heath]

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[Jamie]

See website for details.

[Adam]

Let's justify it and everybody can chime in here, but we did this 12 team PPR3 wide receiver mock draft a few weeks ago and I didn't think you guys made any really bad picks or anything like that. I just so this wasn't the easiest assignment here. But yeah, Dave, you took Devon H.N. in the first round in a three receiver league over Aman Ross St. Brown and C.D. lamb St. Brown three straight years averaging 18.5 to 20.8 PPR fantasy points. I I think what I would challenge you on is how confident are you in Devon HN's production where we don't know who his quarterback will be. Where he had it was only two games but he had about a 12 target share with Quinn Ewers compared to 24 with Tua. And the, you know, you're talking about the Lions offense which is perennially one of the best in the NFL versus the Dolphins offense which, you know. So justify it. HN over St. Brown. St. Brown more so than Lamb. But, but both right.

[Dave]

I mean let's just get Lamb out of the way. His production wasn't as high as it was. I think we talked about this earlier in the off season. We're kind of clinging to that 2023 season with CD Lamb and it we saw it, it was 16.6 PPR points per game on 9.7 targets per game in his first two games of the year. And then week seven through 17 George Pickens was on the field for a bunch of those games. That's still really good for fantasy. It's not good for like the early middle part of round one, which was where I was picking Saint Brown. You said it. He's safer. He's been right around anywhere from 18.7 to 20 PPR points per game. I feel like the ceiling is a little bit higher for Devon Achan. I went back and looked at how consistent both these guys were and they were both incredibly consistent for their positions for fantasy managers. 15 plus points per game and an overwhelming majority of their games. Achan had a little bit of an edge there. Bobby Slowik is the new play caller in Miami. We saw him target Joe Mixon a bunch in 2024 was a bad year for The Texans. It was a really good year for Joe Mixon. He had double digits and touchdowns. He had a ton of work. I would imagine that Devon Achan, after what he's shown us over the last three years, we'll continue to see a lot of work, whether it's TUA or anybody else at quarterback. But on top of all that, I was much more comfortable with the receivers that I thought would be available in round two than the running backs that would be available in round two. And that's always been a little tiebreaker for me with, with when I'm close between two players and it is close between Achan and St. Brown. And I wouldn't blame you for going with a Monroe St. Brown over Achan, but I I wanted to have a Chan and the the higher ceiling over St. Brown in the safety, especially knowing that I could find a good receiver in round two.

[Adam]

Heath, do you agree with Dave's decision to take HN over St. Brown and Lamb?

[Heath]

I think Lamb for sure St. Brown. I I have Achan right now projected to score more points than a Monroe St. Brown even in full ppr. I think I talked about it a couple weeks ago that as great as Achan was last year, he was still held down by the fact that the Dolphins ran so few plays and had so little offensive success. And so there is a ceiling above what he did last year. But I think all of the uncertainty, and we'll talk about this with just about every one of these decisions, all of this, all of the uncertainty around Miami's offense at this point is at least a little bit concerning. And if they don't make significant upgrades and it's Quinn yours playing quarterback, then I think there'd be reason to get a little less comfortable with HN and so State Browns would be the safer pick.

[Host]

Agreed.

[Adam]

Jamie, I'm going to throw a little love to CD Lamb here because I feel like he's being sort of dismissed in this discussion which, which I myself did. But let's just, I think the argument is, well, they got George Pickens this and that. So let's just look at weeks seven through 17 because Lamb played weeks one and two and he went over 100 yards, 110, 112 yards, both games. He played like one snap in week three, whatever, then he missed some time. Week seven through 17 CD Lamb was on pace for 156 targets, 99 catches, which I think is probably a fairly, yeah, 63% catch rate. You probably expect better than that. 1447 yards but only five touchdowns I still think that's really like you tell me we're getting 9 to 10 target. We're getting 9 targets a game, 9.2. We're getting almost 15, 14, 50 yard season. And I think you can do even better because you get more catches typically. I don't know. I. I still think he belongs in that discussion, I guess. But anyway. Your thoughts on this?

[Jamie]

I don't unfortunately. If Pickens is there and we've had one great second half of a season from CD Lamb where he was elite and elite being best in the NFL elite, and then we've had a pretty strong sample size of him being a very good number one fantasy receiver. I don't know if he has consistent 18 plus point per game numbers.

[Adam]

Sorry, you cut out a little bit there. Were you done?

[Jamie]

I don't think he has consistent 18 plus point per game production consistently anymore with Pickens on the roster. So you have to factor in. Dak had an amazing season last year. He has not had back to back amazing seasons I think in the last six or seven years because of either injury or just poor production. I think mostly injury. So I'm hoping it's not a scenario of Dak missing any time. But if Pickens gets a long term extension off the franchise tag or plays out without any holdout, then I'm a little concerned about CD Lamb being in this conversation. He's still a borderline first round pick. He's still obviously a top 12 fantasy wide receiver, but I don't think he has the potential to get to where HN or St. Brown can get.

[Adam]

Okay Dave, justify it. Cam Scad. Now forget about this Draft took place before the Giants were being linked to Ken Walker and Jeremiah Love and all that. You took Cam Scatterboo over T. Higgins and A.J. brown. That was in the middle of round three. I. I think. Look, A.J. brown's had two disappointing seasons in a row and he has finished as wide receiver 13 and wide receiver 12 per game in those two seasons. It is worth noting that wide receiver 12 per game last year two fantasy points fewer than when he finished his wide receiver 13 per game in 2024. So? So even though the finish was the same, the production was much worse. Higgins was wide receiver five per game two years ago and in five games with Joe Burrow last year he averaged 15.2 PPR fantasy points per game, which is really good. You chose Cam Scatterboo over that. The provenness, I guess I would say of Brown and Higgins. Justify it.

[Dave]

Let's just remember the context of where these players were two weeks ago. And you talked about with Scatter Boo, and we. We thought that there was a chance that A.J. brown would get traded. And there's still a chance that A.J. brown gets traded.

[Jamie]

We'll see.

[Dave]

This was another example of chasing upside and taking a player who has a higher ceiling over two guys that feel pretty safe, somewhere around 14 PPR points per game. I think Higgins has proven that over his career. You've got the outlier year where he was awesome. That was 20, 24. Pretty much every other year, he's been right around 14 PPR points per game. And then I. I think we view A.J. brown similarly where he's maybe even higher than 14 PPR points per game, probably in that neighborhood of 16. Can he get back there again? It depends on where he's playing, how many targets he gets, etc, But Cam, Scatter Boo, we saw it last year, played 30 or more snaps between weeks two through seven, and he had over 19 PPR points per game. If he's the lead back in New York and if he's participating in training camp, I think the doors open for him. Maybe not to get 19. That's high. But 17, 16 and a half. We know he can catch the ball. We know he's a monster at a goal line. Of course he has to stay healthy. But to me, it felt like there was a drain of running backs with that type of upside when I was up in round three. So I wanted to grab one while I could, again knowing that I could find a wide receiver. All right, maybe not AJ Brown's upside, but certainly in that neighborhood of upside that T. Higgins has in rounds four and five in our draft.

[Adam]

Heath, do you. Do you feel like Higgins and A.J. brown have maybe more upside than Dave considers?

[Heath]

I think A.J. brown. Well, if Chase gets hurt, okay, yeah, of course. I think if Chase stays healthy, then AJ Brown has at least as much upside as Cam Scatterable. And it that could come to realization by staying in Philadelphia. That could come from playing with Drake May or in another good situation. The funny thing is, I, like you, kind of presented this as floor. I'm not sure with Higgins injury history, you can really draft him as a floor guy. And I don't think with A.J. brown's current uncertainty, you can necessarily say what his floor is either. So it kind of feels like none of these three players right now are necessarily a floor pick. I think I take Brown ahead of Scatterboo and Scatterboo ahead of Higgins. But as Dave said, there's a lot of ifs with drafting Cam Scatter Boo right now. If he's the number one running back for the Giants, if he's fully healthy at the start of training camp, that probably means we should downgrade him even a little bit more this time of year.

[Adam]

Okay, Jamie, why don't we just go to your justify. It's here. Ready?

[Jamie]

Sure.

[Adam]

You're the 12th pick in the draft. We have a 12 team PPR3 wide receiver league and you went running back. Running back. Coming off a year where wide receiver was really lousy and maybe we go into this year thinking it's not, you know, you might want to get one early. You decided to go with James Cook and Omarion Hampton. You had Drake London, Malik, neighbors Justin Jefferson and Rasheed Rice on the board. So justify it. Running back. Running back with your first two picks at 12 and 13.

[Jamie]

Yeah. First off, I, I always like to try different strategies in these drafts when we're doing it this early. And these are two players that I'm very excited about. Obviously James Cook, we know what he's capable of doing. I think he'll be even better with Joe Brady as the head coach because this is a guy that's unleashed his potential. Hopefully he's a little bit more involved in the passing game, but I think, you know what he's, you know, his upside is there's top five upside there and I think there's top five upside for Amarian Hampton as well. Looking at Mike McDaniel who in his first season as the Dolphins head coach had his running back at 30 years old, lead the NFL and rushing touchdowns, retired for the lead in NFL and rushing touchdowns with Raheem Mostert scoring 18 and over 20 total touchdowns and then comes back the next two years and gets amazing production out of Devon HN. So now he's got this offense which personnel wise might be better than what he had in Miami in some cases. Certainly at the quarterback spot, I think Justin Herbert's a little bit better than Tuatanga Bailoa. If the offensive line stays healthy, I think there's huge potential for, for Hampton. So these are two guys I think that are borderline first round picks, which is why I took them at the turn. And if I was probably doing this in August and knowing it's a three receiver league and knowing that Drake London has a safe quarterback, that's probably the, the player I would have taken along with one of these running backs, depending on what their offensive look like looks like as well. But this was done by design. You Know wanted to see what it was like to go running back, running back, how the rest of the draft would shake out, how the rest of my team will shake out and you know, thrilled with the upside of what these two guys can, can do and how they should perform.

[Adam]

So Dave, if you, if you were up at the 12, 13, you know the 1, 2 turn here and James Cook, Omarion Hampton, Trey McBride, Ashton Genti, but also Drake London. Malik neighbors Justin Jefferson and Rasheed Rice were on the board. Saquon Barkley, by the way, Nico Collins, also available, Josh Jacobs. Good players at each position. Let's just say that plus Trey McBride and Brock Bowers, you can do whatever you want with these two picks. What would you have done there?

[Dave]

Knowing that it's a three receiver league and assuming that I'm also not experimenting, it would be one and one. I would take James Cook and my highest rated wide receiver. I believe that would be Drake London and that would be the duo mostly just so I don't lock myself into avoiding running back value that might be there in rounds three and four and that I can open the door I could take, I could go any way I want with my next, well, maybe even every pick I have, but just not boxing myself in by taking two running backs. When Jamie was up in round three, who was available at running back? He could have had Quinn, shot Juggins, Breeze Hall, ETN was there. Those are some decent names that I wouldn't have minded having as my RB2 on my team. And he could have had Drake London instead of let's call it Hampton because I mean I like Cook better than Hampton. I don't know how Jamie comes out on it, but bottom line is that you would have some more versatility with where you pick and what you pick with those next two selections.

[Adam]

So Jamie, you ended up with Cook, Hampton McConkey and Josh Allen at the 34 turn. Marvin Harrison Jr and Christian Watson. So your, your wide receivers are McConkey, Marvin Harrison Jr and Christian Watson. I wonder, do you regret the Josh Allen pick and maybe getting a better number two wide receiver there and waiting on quarterback because you know you at at 37th overall being the first guy to take a quarterback, do you regret that pick at all?

[Jamie]

I think you know me well enough. Anytime I take a quarterback too soon, I regret it immediately. But you know that's, that's still very good value for Josh Allen and he's not going to go this late in, in most drafts we know that based on average draft position. But analyst drafts, quarterbacks Go later even when there are six points for passing touchdowns. But look, it's, it's obviously not ideal in a three receiver league to come out of your first four picks with one. I, I do love, and I know we're going to talk about the, the third guy, but I do love the upside of Marvin Harrison in, in a year where he should be healthy and what we saw from, you know, a pocket passer, you know, featuring the receiving core there and how good it was for Trey McBride and obviously how good it was for Michael Wilson and even in the, the two full healthy games for Marvin Harrison, you know, you want to throw in that Dallas game as well or the Tampa Bay game. Excuse me, where he looked amazing. There's, there's plenty to like about what he can be entering year three of his career. So I, I'm okay with how it worked out. I know most people probably are upset about lad McConkey coming off here. He was a bust and Marvin Harrison being what he's, you know, or lack thereof of what he showed in his first two seasons. But I feel like I can make this work with two top 10 running backs, the number one quarterback or chance to be the number one quarterback, and then three receivers that I like a lot of.

[Dave]

Don't forget that you also took Alec Pierce. I don't know if we're going to be able to get Pierce where you got him in this draft moving forward. Dobbs figures to change teams. He's going to be a good bench receiver. So even if those receivers, the first three receivers don't pan out as far as like full season starters, you've got some other options that aren't bad. And I think that's what you have to kind of adopt as your game plan if you're going to go running back, running back in the first two rounds in the PPR league.

[Adam]

Yeah, running back, running back. A few teams did it. You know, just looking at our FFT league last year, Marone took Jameer Gibbs and Kyron Williams. Robert Turban, a running back, took Derek Henry and Jonathan Taylor. Wow, great value on Taylor.

[Dave]

That's pretty good.

[Adam]

And let's see Tommy Trans, Hook McCaffrey and Bucky Irving. So it's. But, but it's not to say like the guys who went after those running backs were Brock Bowers, A.J. brown, Tyreek Hill. So I think they, they made good picks. All right, let's go Heath. Just Heath. If you want to address real quick, like is now the time to, to be much. I think we actually Talked about this last year, but seems like running back, running back is a. A more acceptable start than it used to be. Even just a few years ago, it's

[Heath]

definitely a more acceptable start. Whether it's the time to do that when it's more acceptable, I think is. Is debatable because as it gets more acceptable, more running backs get drafted earlier.

[Adam]

True.

[Heath]

So you're taking from lower running backs to do that.

[Adam]

Yeah, good point. All right. Second, justify it for Jamie is drafting Christian Watson in round six and then going with a couple of tight ends late. I think you went with Kelsey and. Oh, I'm sorry, Jamie.

[Dave]

I have his team open. He's got Isaiah Likely.

[Adam]

Likely and Kelsey. Last pick of round 11, first pick of round 12. When you took Christian Watson, we did have Sam Laporta, a big run of tight ends. Basically, we had Laporta, Tucker, Kraft, Mark Andrews, Kyle Pitts, and George Kittle all off the board before your next pick. And remember, Jamie's picking at the turn, so he had a long time to wait. But, yeah, I don't know. Christian Watson over those tight ends and then basically making a decision to not take a tight end at the beginning of round six and wait on the position and take Christian Watson. So interested to hear your answer after we take a quick commercial break. Ooh. All right, we'll find out about this Christian Watson decision. Jamie's going to justify it when we come back. New year, new me. Cute.

[Heath]

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[Adam]

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[Heath]

Experian.

[Adam]

They say you should learn something new every day. Like how you should only drink Jagermeister at 0 degrees Fahrenheit, ice cold, like those frozen cavemen they find. Which makes you wonder, what would a caveman think of Jagermeister? Well, if you served it warm, he'd probably throw it in your face, say, unga bunga and storm off. And nobody wants that, so drink it cold or not at all. Jagermeister. Damn, that's cold. Drink responsibly. Jagermeister liqueur. 35% alcohol by volume, imported by Mast. Jagermeister, U.S. white Plains, New York. Jamie's going to tell us why he took Christian Watson at the beginning of round six instead of Sam Laporta, Tucker, Kraft, Mark Andrews, Kyle Pitts or George Kittle. Go ahead.

[Jamie]

So again, you know, playing out different strategies and this is part of I, I think what happens when you take running backs early in the three receiver league. You know, you start to, at least for me, you know, I want to stockpile receivers and get guys that I think have upside. And so while two of those tight ends, Laporta and Kraft, I think you said those were two on the board. Yeah, they were huge upside. Clearly Laporta's coach, offense coordinator, what's his name? Juan Petzick. You know, he, he, he does a great job with, with tight ends, as we're not as well aware. And Kraft was amazing last year and may benefit even with the just departure of Romeo Dobbs, but clearly showed that he was the breakout tight end that we were talking about. I just wanted to, you know, make sure I had my receiving core sort of built out a little bit and Dave mentioned a couple guys that I took a little bit later that that factors into that as well. So it was basically okay. Do I commit to, this was round six. So do I commit to quarterback and tight end in the first six picks or do I build out my receiving core a little bit more? So I loved what I saw from Christian Watson when he was healthy last year. You know, you talk about Stefan Diggs coming back from his ACL tear and how he performed. I thought Watson was amazing at times and he may benefit with Dobbs being gone and Kraft being a little bit slow in his recovery. So I, I think he'll probably agree with this. Like this is the type of third receiver that you win fantasy leagues with because while the week to week production may be a little bit disappointing, when he hits, he puts you in a potential stratosphere that can easily help you dominate your opponent. So I love these type of guys. I have the ability to, you know, pivot to a Pierce or to a Dobbs depending on where they, where they sign or you know, in the case of Harrison potentially struggling or McConkey as well. But I just think like there's, this is the, the range of drafts where I like to shoot for as much upside as possible. And I think Christian Watson has that.

[Adam]

Heath Christian Watson, in his last seven games he had a 23.5% target share, which is really, I don't think you would associate that with Christian Watson. But you know what? That was a pace of 105 targets. So what do you think the target upside is for Christian Watson?

[Heath]

He could make 120 is probably too high. So maybe, maybe he could maintain that pace or have a couple more maybe 110 for Christian Watson. It's just, it's so hard when we've got this extended history now of the La Flor offense and not having a wide receiver see often even 100 targets within a given season to expect that to change this year, especially in the context of Christian Watson's career where he's played four seasons and his career high end targets is 66 and 14 games. So I, I don't. I think this is solely, like I agree with Jamie about, this is the type of guy you want in your wide receiver three role, especially if you started with two running backs and then also took a quarterback early. I think for me, the, the struggle I'm going to have is I'm probably going to be significantly higher on Laporta and Pitts than a lot of people are. I think they fit perfectly in that tier with Loveland and Fannin and Warren and the hopes that we have for the upside in the end Craft. And so if some of these guys are going early in round four and some of them are available in round six, I'm gonna be a really hard time if I don't have a tight end yet passing on Laporta and Pits and Craft in round six.

[Adam]

All right, Heath, I hope you're ready to do some justifications.

[Heath]

Oh, yeah. I've been preparing for this ever since I saw your notes.

[Adam]

Hey, I emailed you early this morning.

[Heath]

I know. That's what I'm saying.

[Jamie]

Okay.

[Host]

Okay.

[Adam]

Spent the whole day justify it. You took Drake London ahead of Trey McBride in the second round. Early in the second round. Drake London, first 3G. What a weird year he had. First three games, 49 to 55 yards bust. He stinks. Next six games for Drake London. 104 or more yards in five of those six games and 18.9 or more fantasy points in five of six games. He was rolling. Then he got hurt. He came back. Last three games he was terrible. He had 109 yards and a touchdown on 18 targets in three games. Took Trey McBride over him. Again. Certainly not saying that was the wrong decision.

[Heath]

I thought I took Drake London over Trey McBride.

[Adam]

You did. You took Drake London ahead of Trey McBride is what I said.

[Heath]

I was getting ready to have to reverse all of the arguments that I had prepared.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Adam]

How could you take Drake London over a guy who just had one of the best tight end seasons we've ever seen.

[Heath]

Yeah, I think again we're back to that uncertainty with how much of Trey McBride's involvement in the offense was based on his talent, how much of it was based on Drew Petzing and who is going to be the quarterback. I think there's a significant volume drop probably for the passing game for Arizona this year, assuming they're not going to stick with Jacoby Brissette, which it doesn't sound like they are. If it's Malik Willis. What we saw in Green Bay was that when he started a quarterback, the team threw very little. He was really efficient with it, but it was a low pass volume offense. Brissette was the exact opposite last year and McBride and Michael Wilson both were amongst the league leaders and the percentage of their fantasy points that came during garbage time because Jacoby Brissette just threw the ball all over the field when they were down multiple scores. And so I think there's a real risk that Trey McBride loses multiple targets per game. And as we talked about on yesterday's show, I believe Trey McBride hasn't really ever been hyper efficient. He's very, very good, but he's not, he's not having his averages right around seven and a half yards per target and he has one season with a good touchdown rate. So I, I just, I don't think we should chase last year's Trey McBride points.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Adam]

What is. Who is Drake London though, right? That's kind of.

[Heath]

Well, it's. Well, last year was really weird. The last two years he's averaged 70 point, 74.8 and 76.6 receiving yards per game. Yeah, like, I think you're getting a guy that's going to average 75 yards per game and he has quarterback questions as of his own.

[Adam]

Yeah, I feel, I, I certainly feel like he's been better with Pennix than Cousins.

[Heath]

I don't think I, I don't really expect him to be catching passes from either one.

[Adam]

Right. Man, he's a. This is a bit of a tricky one. All right, so. So Heath took London over McBride. 3 Receiver PPR League I took McBride with the next pick. Dave, who would you have taken, London or McBride?

[Dave]

I think I would have taken London for very similar reasons to why he said, I don't even know if there's anything else I need to put on top of it. There's the obvious uncertainty at quarterback in Arizona and don't know exactly what type of offense it'll be. I don't think it's going to be the type of situation where Trey McBride's targets go from over nine per game to six per game. I think that would be preposterous. But I could see a dip in targets to eight per game for McBride, whereas London had 9.3 each of the last two years. And a thought that I kind of had while we were talking. We know that Stefanski loves utilizing tight ends and we've talked about that and it's a great reason to like Kyle Pitts. But Drake London attacks that same area of the field for the most part and I wonder if that will be even more of a focus for Stefanski, knowing that he's got this big bodied, rangy target in Drake London, who can make plays after the catch, has a humongous catch radius, doesn't quite have the same type of injury history of as Kyle Pitts, doesn't make as many mistakes as Kyle Pitts. I, I think he's going to benefit from Stefanski being the play caller as well.

[Adam]

All right, Jamie, give me 15 seconds at most for the head coach. Brighter London.

[Jamie]

I would probably go London, but I mean the same argument for both guys. Quarterback situations, uncertain coaching changes is there for both. They're both extremely productive and amazing when everything is going right. Hopefully that's the case for both of them. So that's why we're talking about them in this range. But I think it comes down to do you want to commit to the tight end early in your fantasy roster and if you do, you'll take McBride. If you don't, you'll take, you know, London in the three or Super League.

[Adam]

All right, Heath, justify. This is a tough one. I was really searching for a second justify it for Heath, but Quinton Judkins in round four, second pick of round four ahead of Breeze Hall.

[Heath]

Yeah, it is a tough one and I think that it should be said first off that things could change this off season. That changes this ranking for me. The biggest difference between them for now for me is that Last year the 15 rush attempts per game for Breece hall was a career high. He'd never been over 14. Quinch on Judkins, from week three through 15 averaged almost 18 rush attempts per game. Quinton Judkin scored seven touchdowns last year rushing touchdowns. Bruce Hall's never had more than five rushing touchdowns. I think I have a little bit more and this could prove completely wrong. But I do think I have a little bit more hope for Monken offensively positively impacting The Browns than Frank Reich, still under Aaron Glenn, positively impacting the Jets.

[Adam]

Okay. And I took Breeze hall with the next pick. I was picking after Heath, So I got McBride, I took Breeze hall and I just, I know he only. That's the thing. Like, he only had 36 catches on 48 targets in 16 games. Breeze hall, but he has, you know, he has 70 catch potential. If they want to use him that way.

[Heath]

I, I think the real hope like that I, I saw a report and it was probably like, it was just on social media, but that TUA could be going to the Jets. Yeah, that could be great for Briesol.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Adam]

I just. Judkins, they. They really did not throw to him much at all. So I was kind of. I think I would have gone if I had had. I didn't have the choice, but if I had the choice. Actually, I forgot. I also forgot about this. When Shadow Sanders took over, he did kind of start throwing at Judkins. Three, three, four, six and six targets in his last four games. And that six target game was partial.

[Jamie]

But Sampson, I believe was hurt for a portion. That too, right?

[Adam]

I don't know.

[Dave]

Yeah, it's true.

[Adam]

I don't think it changed his third down rule. I think he just started getting. Yeah, Sampson missed two of those games. I think he just started getting more targets, you know, on first and second down. But anyway, real quick, no explanation, just

[Jamie]

hall can't be as bad as he was if healthy. This was just a miserable, miserable, miserable situation. They went through three quarterbacks. They were 29th in total yards and scoring. Like, obviously didn't completely bottom out, but it is pretty close to it during his time there. And so he scored five total touchdowns. There's a chance that the touchdown total is, Is worse for Judkins.

[Adam]

Worse than five or worse than what it was last year?

[Jamie]

Worse than five.

[Heath]

I would just say that the Browns also went through three quarterbacks and were behind the jets in scoring and yards last year.

[Jamie]

But they're. They're losing more than the jets are losing at this point. From a talent standpoint like that, offensive minds, look at the offensive line.

[Adam]

Yeah, I think the last factor for me is the injury. He had a. Yeah, you know, Jenkins had a. I can't remember what it was. Broke, broken leg, knee, torn patella. I can't. I have it in my notes somewhere. But he had a serious injury and it was in week 16, so. All right, Dave, Jamie, just give me a name. Breeze hall or Quinton Judkins.

[Dave]

Bruce.

[Jamie]

Right now. Breeze. Okay.

[Adam]

Should we do my justify it. So should we just get out of here? Read some emails. I'll let you guys weigh in on my justify. It's I took Breeze hall over devonte Adams in round four and see who I had on my team at that point. I had chase Brown, Trey McBride and T. Higgins. So I guess I didn't want to go. I don't know. I don't think it was position related. But taking Breeze hall on one of the worst offenses in football over devonte Adams on one of the best offenses in football. Adams. Adams played less than 50 of the snaps in each of his last two games. Before that, the games he played as normal snap share, he was on pace for 20 touchdowns. So I do have maybe some second thoughts about that. Who would you guys have taken? Breece hall or devonte Adams?

[Jamie]

Who was on your team?

[Adam]

One running back, one tight end and one wide receiver. So no, no real positional advantage or disadvantage

[Jamie]

at the time of the draft. I would have gone hall because there was still the potential of him maybe leaving and that upside again. You know, you could do best ball drafts now. So people are, you know, falling. We're falling into this, you know, trap essentially of, I mean, imagine we're sitting here today and Breeze hall was a free agent and could end up on the Chiefs or Seattle or, you know, someplace where there would be amazing like you. You would have been like, ha, told

[Adam]

you another Dave, how about you? Hall or Adams

[Dave]

both feel like such a trap. I probably would have said hall

[Jamie]

and that.

[Dave]

That's the end of the sentence. I think I would have said all.

[Heath]

Yeah, I'd go with resolution.

[Adam]

Yeah, we'll talk about this some other time. But Adams is tough to wrap your head around because I really felt like he looked pretty good out there. You know, he looked like devonte Adams caught all those touchdowns. But the stats are really bad. I mean, he wasn't even on pace for a thousand yards and. And he was 32 right now he's third. I think he's 33 now.

[Dave]

He will turn 33 during the year. Oh, during the football season.

[Adam]

Okay. His birthday is late December. So this is going to be his age 32 season. Devonte Adams or age 30?

[Jamie]

He's old. I mean, there's no way around.

[Adam]

But it's like you could, you could easily look at his. No, he is 33, Dave. He'll turn 34 on Christmas Eve. So, you know, you could easily look at him and be like, well, he's an old guy who's clearly going down the you know, who's clearly on the wrong side of his career. But we've sort of been fooled by, by that before and he's bounced back. But anyway next one for me, I think this is a more interesting justify it is for me drafting so many bounce back candidates, you know and did I. Do you have too much risk? Lamar Jackson took in round six. I think he's coming off a bad year. Breeze hall coming off a bad year. T. Higgins coming off a bad year. Although I said over 15 fantasy points per game with with Joe burrow but only one game with more than with even reaching 70 yards in those five with Burrow. He's just very touchdown dependent. Cortland Sutton coming off kind of a bad year. That's, that's more than half my starting lineup is Lamar Jackson, Breeze Hall, T. Higgins, Corey. I would even say Juwan Jennings had a disappointing year and he's my wide receiver. 3 Cortland Sutton. So I don't have a lot of guys who really stood out last year. Heath, what are your, what are your thoughts on bounce back candidates?

[Heath]

I don't really think about the number of bounce back candidates that I have drafted but I do think that that that probably happens to me more often just because was it one. I think with several of these guys you can look at it make a very good case that they're going to be better than they were last year. I have a harder time with Sutton just because of the way that offense in Denver functions.

[Adam]

Right. I mean you got to have a good reason to take the bounce back guy. I think Lamar Jackson is a great bounce back. It's so obvious why he struggled. Don't know what the new offense will look like for him but he obviously was playing very hurt.

[Jamie]

I mean look, you're getting these guys at at cost. I'm not getting.

[Adam]

It's not like I'm getting great values on them. I mean I took Higgins in round. In round three. I took Breeze hall around again.

[Jamie]

Higgins you, you get at a discount because of his stats weren't as great because Joe Burrow missed so much time, you know, so that's an easy one. Lamar Jackson is an easy one. You know again quarterbacks in our drafts plus you know the wherever people sort of view him. I mean look Coral and Sutton is an aging wide receiver that. When'd you get around? Seven, six.

[Host]

Seven.

[Jamie]

I think like that's great.

[Adam]

I took him around five.

[Jamie]

That's not.

[Dave]

Yes sir you did.

[Adam]

That was late round five at the very least.

[Dave]

That's true. You Picked him over Terry McLaurin, Marvin Harrison, Christian Watson.

[Adam]

Yeah, not a great spot for wide receivers there, which, which I think is part of why I asked Jamie about the running back, running back strategy. But who were the running backs there?

[Dave]

Ramadre went one spot ahead, so I don't know if we can count him. You could have had Facial Tootin. Oh, this was like a running back desert.

[Adam]

Yeah, this is okay. Yeah.

[Dave]

So the only running back that was taken between your Sutton pick and then your pick of Pollard in round seven was Bacial Tootin by some handsome looking devil. And then Jalen Warren. Also Kyle Menungai got taken in round seven for reasons I can't justify.

[Adam]

I mean, if you look at this draft, we had a lot of running backs. Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow and Jaden Daniels all go in round six. So that's unusual. But I mean, it really feels like when you look back at last year, there were so few good players.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Adam]

It's just, it's a dead zone getting to pick 60 overall and you're like.

[Jamie]

So I guess knowing that they were available, would you have preferred to take a wide receiver instead of McBride and knowing that you could have had Laporta or craft here. No.

[Adam]

Yeah, but I think I would have taken McLaurin over Sutton. Well, you would have Heath. You would have.

[Heath]

You took Sutton in round six.

[Adam]

No, I took.

[Dave]

He took him in round five.

[Adam]

Late round five.

[Heath]

Who'd you take in round six?

[Adam]

Lamar. Yeah, I love that. That's. That was my best pick.

[Dave]

That was a really good one.

[Heath]

So you, you could have had your favorite of LaPorta craft pits with Drake London or Cortland Sutton and Trey McBride.

[Adam]

Yeah, I'm not, I don't feel the same way about the tight ends that you do. I don't think I want. I think I'm going late on tight ends this year or actually I think Bowers is, is probably a guy I'm going to be targeting a lot. But laporta crap like Craft Craft, I can't remember. He was on pace for something like 90 targets and he's coming off a torn ACL. So an extremely efficient season with a whole bunch of like long touchdown catches and coming off a torn acl. He's just not going to get the targets. Laporta also not going to get the targets. I don't think either of them are going to. In a PPR league. I don't think either of them are getting targets to justify a sixth round pick. Kyle Pitts has been good in his rookie season he's basically been good when Drake London has not been on the team or playing. That is the summary of Kyle Pitts's career. So I will not be taking those guys as of now in round six.

[Heath]

This is, I think, really just the whole discussion is just that you are very agnostic about offensive coordinators.

[Adam]

I, I mean, players matter.

[Heath]

There's no downgrade of Trey McBride and there's no upgrade of Laporta or Pitts.

[Adam]

I think there should be a Trey McBride downgrade. I don't think it's coordinator related though. If you're an offensive coordinator and you cannot see that Trey McBride is amazing and you need to get him the ball, then you're a failure. My, my concerns with McBride, I'm sure everybody will have this concern is they led the NFL in past attempts last year. He, we're talking about this. I mean, I'm going to repeat some of your points. But the other thing is, is Michael Wilson going to actually be a thing? Because it was a super small sample size, but when Marvin Harrison was on the field after Michael Wilson had kind of broken out, they all had about a 19 to 20% target share. Really small sample size, but, but all three of them. So if Michael Wilson is a thing, we, we never thought of Michael Wilson as anything, you know, as a target hog in any sense. But if they now have a three man receiving core and they're throwing a lot less. Yeah, we've got issues here taking Trey McBride with a top 15 to 20 pick, I think.

[Heath]

And just for reference, if they throw, if the past VPNs drop down to 560, which is still above league average, and Trey McBride has a 20 target share, like you just said, in that small sample, that's 112 targets.

[Adam]

Yeah, 20 seems pretty low, but it's, it's, it would be shocking to see about 112 targets, wouldn't it? But it wouldn't be shocking to see him have like 130, 135. What did he have last year?

[Heath]

169.

[Adam]

Yeah, so, no, I have, I have concerns. I, I, I actually think Bowers is going to be like maybe the better value, if not the best tight end.

[Heath]

Yeah, I've got Bowers projected to score more than McBride.

[Adam]

Okay, let's read a couple emails because I don't think we're going to get to him next week when we have free agency. By the way, our schedule next week's gonna be a little bit different. We're not gonna have shows in the morning. Most likely we're going to be reacting at the end of each day and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday for sure. I guess depending on the news. We'll also have bonus podcasts for any major news, but our email address is fantasy football cbsi.com that is the letter I Fantasy Football Sam. I don't know if you read this on your show, Heath, but Sam wants to know what the Dynasty outlook is for Rasheed Rice.

[Heath]

Heath I did and I still have no answer. It's been the same thing for like three, four off seasons now. I currently have Rice, I think, at wide receiver 12 or 13 in dynasty, right behind George Pickens, right behind Nico Collins. But this could go wildly in any direction. When I just do projections and forget about all the off field stuff, he comes out as wide receiver four for next year.

[Jamie]

As a Chiefs fan, do you want to see the Chiefs sign him to an extension?

[Heath]

I don't know how you could at this point. No, I don't and I don't think, I don't really think there's probably significant trade value there.

[Jamie]

We might be able to get him at a discount which if everything is cleared for him and he just can get his. Yeah, everything straightened out, like that's a steal.

[Adam]

Potentially such a unique player, Rashee Rice, I mean, you're his, his eight, his eight out in three seasons has never been higher than 5.2 yards.

[Heath]

And, and he's basically the only guy who has done what he's done with an A dot that low.

[Adam]

Right.

[Dave]

Exactly.

[Adam]

I mean this is what, not this pasture, but this is what, like Wandale Robinson, I think used to be. Khalil Shakir is like this. So he's, he's got the Khalil Shakir profile, except he's so much better. It's, it's, it's weird. It's kind of hard to project. If you were.

[Heath]

I think that what makes that harder in Dynasty is what if the Chiefs don't extend him and he goes somewhere else? How does his game translate in a different role?

[Adam]

By the way, someone a gamer.

[Jamie]

Eric.

[Adam]

Eric said and we'll have the shows at the end of each day. So if the afternoon is 11:30pm is, is 11:30am is the end of day 4:00pm and it's kind of funny because that is actually what I meant. I sort of met like the end of the work day. So we'll have shows for you. I think they'll probably publish around 5:30 or 6 this next upcoming week. But we're going to plan on doing shows around 4pm if you want to

[Dave]

watch live 5:30 or 6.

[Adam]

5:30 or 6 publishing like be available.

[Dave]

Yeah, that's like FFT. Late night.

[Adam]

FFD. Late night is super fun.

[Jamie]

Well, there'll be a few of those.

[Adam]

Yeah, probably. You know, last year we had a Friday bonus pod. We had a Sunday bonus pod. We had Geno Smith getting traded or whatever it was ending up on the Raiders. We had Devonte Adams to the Rams. So we actually got the party started before even the Monday of free agency week. This one is from Kevin. He said the quick convo that we had about Javante Williams being the most interesting, most inefficient receiving running back in at least the last 15 years made me think that he could be this year's Chuba Hubbard. Getting paid after having a poor season from a receiving efficiency perspective might lead to him being the rare dead zone running back. Do you see, Jamie, any parallels between Javante Williams this year and Chuba Hubbard last year?

[Jamie]

I mean, Chuba got paid in the middle of the the 2023 season. So. Or 2024 season. But there also was they drafted his replacement. Essentially you couldn't stay healthy. So whatever the Cowboys do the rest of this off season I think would potentially put Javante in that category. But if he's still worried about Jaden Blue and Phil Mafa, then no, I don't really worry about it too much.

[Adam]

Javante averaged 3.9 yards per catch last year. Chuba Hubbard is one of the only guys that I've seen that's been even close to that. He was at 4 yards per catch in 2024 and he bounced back to 7.4. So that's kind of what I was saying is like Javante will not be that bad yards per cat. He hasn't been that good in his career. Like 5.7. That's not so good. Right. He's 7.3 in his rookie year and he.

[Heath]

And no, it's well below average.

[Adam]

Yeah. So he's not good at that because he doesn't. He's. He's kind of slow and it doesn't make guys miss. But he will not be 3.9. It's unbelievable. He's going to regress positively in that regard. And then Dave, I'll throw this question at you. This is from the chat. Yeah. If Adam Heath, Jamie and Dave were in a car together, who would drive first? And what music do you put on?

[Heath]

Oh, I know this one.

[Dave]

I think it's either me or he's driving.

[Adam]

Has this ever happened though, that all four of us have Been in a car together.

[Dave]

We've never been in a car together. No, I think there have been multiple times. Three of the four of us have been in a car together, but I don't think all four of us in a car together.

[Heath]

I think Dave would be driving. I would annoyingly call shotgun. You guys would sit in the back, and we wouldn't listen to music. We would talk.

[Jamie]

Great.

[Dave]

Yeah, I. I would think that Heath would probably be in charge. Was this a road trip or are we just gonna go get lunch at.

[Adam]

You know, I'd say It's. It's a 45 minute drive.

[Dave]

Heath will probably be in charge of the radio then.

[Adam]

Oh, there's no way in hell. I will bring my. I. I'll. I'll bring my.

[Heath]

You're in the back seat. You literally have no choice.

[Dave]

Yeah, you're gonna have to. Then you're.

[Jamie]

You and I are definitely in the backseat because of. We're smaller than.

[Adam]

Yeah, yeah. I'm fine with that. I wouldn't. I would never consider calling shotgun.

[Jamie]

But now if you're driving the 4Runner,

[Dave]

you should be an episode. We should do an episode from the car.

[Heath]

But I'm standing by that maybe I would be in charge of the radio because it wouldn't be turned on.

[Adam]

I agree with you. I don't think we would listen to music at all. It'd be distracting. We would never agree on anything.

[Jamie]

The ride there would be Adam struggling about what he was going to eat. The ride home would be Adam bitching about what he just ate. Right?

[Heath]

Yes.

[Dave]

Yes.

[Adam]

Yeah. Because he picked the restaurant, and it was terrible. That's. That.

[Dave]

Well, usually it would be me picking the restaurant. That's terrible. Not Heath.

[Jamie]

I would make some stupid comment about Dave changing the order. Oh, yeah, both ways. Dave's gonna order a hamburger, make a chicken. I can't believe Dave ordered a hamburger made chicken.

[Adam]

That's really funny. That's a good question. Yeah, I remember me, Heath, and Dave took a couple of long drives together.

[Host]

Yes.

[Adam]

From Coral Springs, Florida, where basically we all live, or my. My parents live. To the convention center in Miami for the Super bowl in 2020. And we probably didn't listen to the radio at all.

[Heath]

I was in the passenger seat. You were in the back seat. And I don't think the radio was ever turned on.

[Adam]

And we just talked S about Jamie the whole time. I can't believe I just said S, by the way. We talked smack, which is what S stands for about.

[Dave]

Privately known as the Jeff Garcia Super Bowl.

[Adam]

Jeff Garcia. Yeah. Didn't hold the door for me. Very horrible. Horrible door holding etiquette. Unbelievable. All right, fun show guys. Thank you very much. Good job with your justifications and we will talk to you all on. You know what? I don't even know. Wherever the news and the wind takes us. Have a great weekend everybody. See you later. Paramount Podcasts Too Good and Co Coffee Creamers are made with farm fresh cream, real milk and contain 3 grams of sugar per serving. That's 40% less than the 5 grams per serving in leading traditional coffee creamers for a rich, delicious experience. Whether you enjoy your coffee hot, cold, bold or frothy, two good coffee creamers make every sip a good one one two Good coffee creamers. Real goodness in every sip. Find them at your local Kroger in the creamer aisle.