Mailbag! Plus Fantasy Cops! (02/06 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Summary

Fantasy Football Today: Mailbag! Plus Fantasy Cops! (02/06 Fantasy Football Podcast) Summary

Released on February 6, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of Fantasy Football Today, host Adam Aizer is joined by analysts Dave Richard, Jamey Eisenberg, Heath Cummings, and guest Dan Schaefer. The show delves into listener mailbag questions, bold predictions, player analyses, and league management tips, all aimed at helping fantasy football enthusiasts dominate their leagues.

Mailbag Segment

Warm Welcome and Setup (01:21 - 02:00)
Adam kicks off the mailbag segment by welcoming Dave Richard and Dan Schaefer to the discussion. He mentions the presence of Hardy questions, including topics like the top running back picks, potential busts in the first round, and quarterback analysis.

Bold Predictions Review (02:03 - 08:28)
The team revisits bold predictions from their previous Fantasy Football magazine, highlighting who made the most accurate or inaccurate forecasts.

• Dave's Success:
  Jamie: "Dave was by far the most correct. No one was remotely close."
  Timestamp: 05:57

• Adam’s Bold Predictions:
  Adam: "Chris Godwin outscores Mike Evans in PPR."
  Jamey challenges: "Evan outscored Godwin by the end of the season."
  The group humorously debates the validity of Adam's prediction, especially after Cooper Kupp’s injury influenced statistics.

• Rashid Rice’s Performance:
  Jamie: "Rashid Rice was amazing until he got injured."
  Adam: "He made a great call, and unfortunately got injured."
  They discuss the potential of Rice replacing Kupp if available.

Notable Statistic Discussion (02:45 - 11:22)
Adam presents an intriguing stat about Derrick Henry leading NFL carries inside the five-yard line (94.7%), compared to Lamar Jackson’s career low of one. This leads to a deeper analysis of running backs' usage in high-yardage scenarios.

Adam: "Derrick Henry led the NFL last year with 94.7% of his team's carries inside the five-yard line. That is insane."
Timestamp: 04:07

Jamie adds context by noting that despite high carries in confined areas, Henry remains top in PPR scoring alongside Jameer Gibbs and Saquon Barkley.

Player Analysis and Rankings

Running Backs Focus (11:22 - 32:54)
The discussion shifts to evaluating running backs like Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry, analyzing their performance trends, injury histories, and fantasy value.

• Saquon Barkley vs. Bijan Robinson:
  Jamie: "For me, it's Barkley."
  Heath: "I don't think he'll be RB1 for me. The question is, will he still be in the top five?"
  They debate Barkley's potential decline due to age and workload versus rising stars like Bijan Robinson.

• Derrick Henry’s Usage:
  Heath: "The Ravens are changing their offensive line, which affects Henry's production."
  Adam: "Top four RBs have varied carry distributions over the past five years, making their rankings unpredictable."
  The panel considers Henry’s dependency on offensive line performance and its impact on his fantasy reliability.

Super Bowl Predictions (12:04 - 14:34)
Jamie shares his Super Bowl pick, suggesting a high-scoring game between the Chiefs (31) and Eagles (28).

Jamie: "Chiefs turn on their offense in the postseason... Eagles will generate big plays in the passing game."
Timestamp: 12:04

Adam counters by referencing past high-scoring Super Bowls between these teams, questioning the reasoning behind predicting another high-scoring matchup.

League Management and Strategy

Listener Questions on League Rules (44:04 - 47:56)
Heath and Schaefer provide insights on dynasty leagues and draft strategies, advising whether to trade future picks for immediate RB gains, especially with a running back-heavy rookie class.

Heath: "If you're a win-now scenario, you might want to package picks to acquire a stud RB now rather than stockpiling."
Timestamp: 44:04

Tattoo Punishment Debate (46:29 - 59:51)
A heated discussion arises from an email about enforcing a tattoo-based punishment for league losers. The group humorously deliberates whether to uphold the tradition or reconsider its strictness.

• Adam’s Reluctance:
  Adam: "I just have to tell Kyle who sent the email. Yes."
  Timestamp: 58:41

• Heath’s Suggestion:
  Heath: "Alter one of his tattoos slightly to mark the loss without a full new tattoo."
  Timestamp: 57:24

• Group Consensus:
  The team leans towards maintaining the tradition, emphasizing the importance of upholding league rules to preserve fairness and accountability.

News & Updates

Trade and Injury Reports (16:04 - 35:22)
The analysts cover recent NFL news, including potential trades like Cooper Kupp’s projected trade and the Jaguars hiring Grant Vedinski as their new offensive coordinator. They also discuss player injuries affecting fantasy prospects, such as Devonte Smith’s limited playtime due to offensive line issues.

Adam: "With the projected trade of Cooper Kupp, what are your thoughts on Jordan Whittington in redraft and dynasty?"
Timestamp: 16:04

NFL Playoff and Season Predictions (18:00 - 32:54)
The group examines the implications of recent playoff performances and how they influence fantasy strategies moving forward, including quarterback performances and offensive schemes.

Adam: "NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. said no one wants to play an 18th game."
Timestamp: 19:06

Fantasy Cops Segment

League Disputes and Rules Enforcement (53:31 - 59:51)
The Fantasy Cops segment addresses complex league management questions, such as draft order determination based on playoff finishes and handling persistent league rule violations.

• Consolation Bracket Draft Order:
  Listener Inquiry: "Should the draft order for playoff teams go by playoff finish or regular season finish?"
  Adam: "It's believed NFL uses playoff finish for draft order."
  Heath: "NBA uses regular season finish outside of the lottery."
  Timestamp: 56:49

Entertainment and Listener Interaction

Movie and TV Show Recommendations (45:34 - 63:22)
The analysts engage in a light-hearted discussion about recent movies and TV shows, offering recommendations and sharing personal preferences, adding a fun twist to the podcast.

Heath: "I recommend 'A Real Pain.' It's a fantastic movie centered around family ties and emotional performances."
Timestamp: 46:15

Jamie: "I prefer 'Severance,' though it's a bit of a barrier to get into."
Timestamp: 61:03

Conclusion

As the episode wraps up, Adam reminds listeners about the upcoming Super Bowl preview and recaps the key takeaways from the mailbag and Fantasy Cops segments. The team emphasizes the importance of strategic drafting, understanding player performance trends, and maintaining league integrity through fair rule enforcement.

Adam: "Join us tomorrow for our Super Bowl preview where we'll break down the game and provide DFS advice."
Timestamp: 15:22

The episode concludes with a brief promotional segment encouraging listeners to engage with the podcast's social media channels and participate in future mailbag questions.

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Notable Quotes

• Adam on Derrick Henry's Carries:
  "Derrick Henry led the NFL last year with 94.7% of his team's carries inside the five-yard line. That is insane."
  Timestamp: 04:07

• Jamie on Bold Predictions:
  "Dave was by far the most correct. No one was remotely close."
  Timestamp: 05:57

• Heath on Fantasy Casting:
  "Dynasty should be a little bit more [flexible on IR spots]."
  Timestamp: 47:32

• Dan on Kirk Cousins Potential Move:
  "Cousins is going to be an affordable option for a team because the Falcons are going to his salary for this coming season."
  Timestamp: 42:09

Key Takeaways

• Player Rankings and Trends: Understanding player usage, injury history, and team dynamics is crucial for effective fantasy drafting and management.

• League Rules and Traditions: Upholding agreed-upon league rules, such as punishment for losing, maintains fairness and accountability among participants.

• Bold Predictions: While bold predictions can offer strategic insights, they should be critically evaluated against actual performance and unforeseen variables like injuries.

• Strategic Drafting: Balancing current needs with future potential, especially in dynasty leagues, can significantly impact long-term success.

This episode provides comprehensive insights into managing fantasy teams, predicting player performances, and maintaining league integrity, making it an invaluable resource for both seasoned and new fantasy football managers.

Transcript

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[Adam]

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[Jamie]

Visit roberthalf.com today this is Fantasy Football.

[Dan]

Today from CBS Sports.

[Adam]

What a play. Can you believe this?

[Heath]

No, I can't.

[Dave]

It's time to dominate your fantasy league.

[Adam]

Off to the races and he stays at his feet.

[Jamie]

This is gonna go the distance.

[Dave]

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

[Adam]

Oh, it's always a good time for a mailbag. What could be better? We welcome you to fantasy football Today presented by BetMGM, the sportsbook born in Vegas. So you know the mailbag, it's on Friday with me and Jamie and Dan. Well, today it's on Thursday, a day earlier. And we've got bonus Dave, Richard. Hello, Dave. You feel like you're going to be able to keep up with the mailbag crew? We've got this. Yeah, yeah, go ahead.

[Schaefer]

I'm just excited that you guys let me jump on the mailbag for a change. It's cool to be here and happy to help people with their fantasy issues in February.

[Adam]

Yeah, yeah. We got some good questions. Good like kind of general topic questions.

[Heath]

How many emails did you steal from Heath?

[Adam]

Two, I think. No, just one. I sent. If you sent me a Dynasty question, I forwarded it to Heath and I replied to those people and said I just forwarded this to Heath. But one of them I think I'm going to read on the show today. But mostly it's like who should be the number one running back? Which first round pick are you most worried about being a bust? A question about the jets quarterback. If it's not Aaron Rodgers. An NFL draft question. Dan, how we Doing.

[Jamie]

Doing well before the show. I just want everyone to know this. I complimented Adam. This is not something you get often. I complimented Adam on his haircut. And his reply was, obviously, it's undeniably good. He referred to his haircut as undeniably good.

[Adam]

It is a really good haircut. And I knew you were gonna. You always comment on my hair, so I knew it was gonna happen. Especially this one is. This one's terrific. I want to get Dan's super bowl pick because tomorrow is our super bowl preview. But before we do that, I just have the random stat because we did have a question about, you know, which first round pick. Are you worried about living up to their adp? I already teased that one. So I started looking into Derrick Henry. That was gonna be my answer. I don't know if it will be, but it's possible. But led me down this whole rabbit hole of percentage of team carries inside the five yard line, which you can see on pro football references red zone page. You can see the percentage of how much, how many, what percentage of the team's carries that this guy get inside the five. Derrick Henry led the NFL last year with 94.7% of his team's carries inside the five yard line. That is insane. Number two was Kyron Williams. He was around 82 or 83%. But Lamar Jackson had one carry inside the five yard line this year. Isn't that crazy?

[Schaefer]

No, it's.

[Adam]

That's his career low. I know he's not usually that. I know he's not like Jalen Hurts, but.

[Schaefer]

Right. That's why it's not crazy. He doesn't get a lot to begin with. So the fact that he only had one in a year where his teammate was Derek freaking Henry.

[Adam]

I know, but that's totally expected. He had five the year before. He had five last year and he got hurt. He had four the year before that. He was hurt. He had. He had seven in 2021. He had one this year. That's wild. So they just let Derrick Henry get everything he wanted. Derrick Henry, actually. Wait, let me stick. I'll tell you more about that. Let me stick on that stat because I looked at the last five years, the top four running backs. We had a kind of a big four at running back this year. We had in. This is how they finished in ppr. Gibbs, Barkley, not per game, just overall, because Gibbs had The huge. Week 18. Gibbs, Barkley, Henry, Bijan. That was our big four. Jameer Gibbs had 42.9 of his team's carries inside the five yard line. Derrick Henry had 94.7%. Saquon Barkley had 37.1% of his team's carries inside the 5. They were number one and two in in fantasy points scored in PPR over the last five years. Those two guys have the lowest percentage of carries inside the five yard line of any running back has finished top five or top four in PPR. Not wild. And they were numbers one and two. I thought that was.

[Jamie]

I have a fun fact, a fun little add on to the Derek Henry call which by the way, want to give Dave the credit most for because in our bold predictions, Dave said Derek Henry bounces back to RB1 top five status. And I was actually hanging out in New York City at the New York City office yesterday or Tuesday and I found the Beckett, our rip, our old fantasy football magazine, the FFT magazine. So I shuffled through and I found bold predictions, our F crew from last season. Now I would like you both, all of you to guess who out of our crew and that includes us four. On the show, Heath and Jacob made bold predictions. Jacob Gibbs got their bold predictions the most correct and who got them the most incorrect.

[Schaefer]

I'm cheating. I have the magazine right here because you got correct.

[Heath]

I'm gonna guess.

[Jamie]

No, I think Jamie. No, it's not me. I'm not in either category.

[Adam]

I think don't cheat.

[Schaefer]

I'm cheating.

[Jamie]

I don't care.

[Adam]

I got two out of three.

[Jamie]

No, you didn't.

[Adam]

What were they? Yes, I did.

[Schaefer]

So were your full predictions?

[Jamie]

Dave was by far the most correct. No one was remotely close.

[Adam]

I had Malik neighbors. Malik, neighbors were all wrong.

[Jamie]

No, I'm not incorrect. Adam blew every single one.

[Adam]

Dave read my bold predictions.

[Schaefer]

He did not blow every single one.

[Adam]

Read my bowl prediction.

[Jamie]

Adams. Can you read Adams again?

[Schaefer]

Well, one of them was Chris Godwin outscores Mike Evans in ppr.

[Adam]

No, I'm giving. I'm giving myself a win. He was crushing him in first six games. I just said it yesterday. I said it on the show. He was wide receiver 3 in the first six games per game and Evans was what? What did I say? Like 23.

[Jamie]

This was no way lapping the fact that you had Godwin outscoring Edwin Evans when Evans outscored Godwin. Go on, Dave.

[Adam]

No, no, I need an independent arbitrator. Jamie, do I get a win for that or a loss? Thank you, Jamie.

[Jamie]

Qualification. You're giving him a win for that? Yeah.

[Adam]

It wasn't even close.

[Jamie]

Move on. What were the other two?

[Schaefer]

The next one Was Malik Neighbors will be a top 12 wide receiver.

[Jamie]

That was the one he got right.

[Adam]

You know that's a ding.

[Schaefer]

All right, last one. This is close.

[Adam]

Yeah, no, no, I know.

[Schaefer]

Derrick Henry will be one of the biggest busts in fantasy.

[Jamie]

That was the one I remembered. That was the one I remembered.

[Heath]

You got two or three?

[Adam]

Yeah, I did.

[Jamie]

Well get the God when one right.

[Adam]

You know. Hey, wait shaver.

[Jamie]

I said Rasheed Rice was going to be amazing. Do I get a win for that? Because he was amazing until he got injured.

[Adam]

Yes, you get a win.

[Jamie]

No, that's not a win.

[Adam]

You were right. You were right.

[Jamie]

Oh, you can't project. You don't know if things would have changed.

[Adam]

Hold on. Independent Schaefer. Do I get credit for the Chris Godwin bull prediction? You're saying no. Why not?

[Jamie]

Things could have changed. Adam, I'm asking. Doesn't play out exactly the same as it did the first few weeks.

[Adam]

I'm asking Schaefer, not you.

[Schaefer]

I don't.

[Adam]

I don't think. Oh God.

[Jamie]

By far so were Rashid Rice's than anyone.

[Adam]

Did you say per game? Well, no, I didn't say per game but obviously it was implied.

[Heath]

You know.

[Jamie]

That was not implied. That was not implied.

[Adam]

Shaffer, what's your final decision here? I'd say no. Come back, come back, come back. Happy birthday.

[Jamie]

Oh, happy birthday. Wow.

[Adam]

What you say 33.

[Jamie]

Wow. Young happy birthday dude. Happy birthday Thomas. And for those who don't know, before the show Thomas revealed He dropped a 77 in golf the other day. So that's a birthday surprise and special.

[Schaefer]

Is it normal to go eight minutes on a mailbag show without answering a question?

[Adam]

Yeah. Was it? There was a question.

[Heath]

Actually yes.

[Jamie]

Yes, actually it is.

[Adam]

Who did the best in the bold predictions? What was the answer?

[Jamie]

Dave was the answer.

[Adam]

And who did the work?

[Schaefer]

Wait a minute. I had Joe Burrow as the fantasy mvp.

[Jamie]

Yeah. I consider that more of a win Dave than the God win over admins to be completely honest because Burrow was ranked like around 6, 7, 8, 9 range of QB and he took a huge jump. That to me is more of a win than Godwin over Evans.

[Adam]

You're insane.

[Schaefer]

You know.

[Jamie]

No, I'm not. You can't project rest of season just because Godwin for the first few weeks was better than Evans for his injury.

[Heath]

It wasn't.

[Adam]

Doesn't matter.

[Jamie]

Would have continued the same crushing.

[Adam]

He was killing him.

[Jamie]

I know but that doesn't mean it would have stayed the same.

[Adam]

No, I know but that's all I can Go on. I could. I can only go on the six games they played together. I don't know.

[Jamie]

Okay. Rashid Rice. That was a great call.

[Adam]

It was a great call. It was a great call. If, if you. If I had. If I had been someone who was listening to the show and I drafted Rasheed Rice based on your advice or Heath was extremely high and Rashee Rice. A lot, probably a lot of you were. I was not that high. I wasn't high enough. I would have been like, wow, they made a great call. It sucks that he got injured, but I'm going to listen to that guy again, you know, next year because he made a great call and unfortunately one of the guys who said it has construction in his house and sometimes I can't hear him. But if I can hear him, I will listen to his advice.

[Schaefer]

So I think we should play the bold predictions game later on in the show.

[Heath]

Okay.

[Schaefer]

But I, I do want to point out that the. The byline of 2024.

[Jamie]

Yeah. I don't know who did this. I know.

[Schaefer]

And Schneier and Port staff.

[Jamie]

I wasn't happy with that either.

[Schaefer]

And Schneier and the CBS sports.

[Jamie]

My assumption is Becca was like who is this guy writing in this year? I've never seen him. Let's throw that name on there.

[Adam]

Also by the way, Jameer Gibbs and Saquon Barkley. So they had the lowest percentage of carries inside their five yard line for their team of the LA of any top four running back over the last five years. Also seven of those running backs out of 20 had fewer than 60% of their team's carries inside the five yard line. And Gibbs and Barkley of those seven had the fewest catches. Barkley like so what Barkley did, having 37 of his team's carries inside the five and only 33 catches and finishing his RB2 overall. RB1 per game is unbelievable. It's like a statistical anomaly. Okay.

[Jamie]

With that said, you run that back, Adam makes me think it's going to be a bad idea to draft him next year at the price it's going to cost. Just running those numbers back doesn't catch the ball. Didn't you know. Ran hot in the red zone.

[Heath]

And the history of 2,000 yard runners.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Adam]

And 400 touch running backs. Right. We. Yeah, it's.

[Jamie]

And yet he'll still probably be ranked 1.

[Adam]

I don't think he won't be ranked 1 by CBS. I'll tell you that.

[Jamie]

You don't think so?

[Adam]

No. It'll be Bijan.

[Jamie]

No, you Think. Wow.

[Adam]

Well, Jamie, you had the, you did the ranking story. I had Bijan one. You had him one, right, Dave?

[Jamie]

It's early now, Dave.

[Adam]

You had him one. You had Bijan one. Yeah. Yeah. All right, Dan, real quick here. Give me your super bowl pick.

[Jamie]

All right, my super bowl pick here is Chiefs 31, Eagles 28.

[Adam]

Oh, that's very high scoring.

[Jamie]

Very high scoring. There was high scoring last time. These two teams matched up different teams. Yeah, Eagles defense is much better. But Chiefs, as usual, turn on their offense in the, in the, in the postseason. I think they've been pretty efficient in the passing game. I think we'll see a lot of big plays played in a side of dome. I think that helps offense in general. I think the Eagles will be able to generate some stuff in the passing game as well.

[Adam]

It was 38, 35 last time they played in the Super Bowl. I guess they also. I'm just looking at. I don't know if this is true or not, but this website has their history. Why don't we go back to 1998, Dan? It was only 24, 21. That seems just as relevant as two years ago.

[Jamie]

I mean, in what way?

[Adam]

It was high scoring two years ago. That's your reason for giving me a high scoring game? It's a terrible reason.

[Jamie]

That's not a terrible reason. They just played against each other. Listen, it's not the only reason. The other reason they played last year.

[Heath]

Was a 2117 game.

[Adam]

Yeah. Where was they did Kansas City.

[Jamie]

Right in cold ass Kansas City. Oops.

[Adam]

It was November 20th. I don't know how cold it was.

[Jamie]

Pretty cold in Kansas City. November 20th.

[Schaefer]

Is it 12 minutes into the show?

[Adam]

Okay. All right, we're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, we'll get our emails going here.

[Schaefer]

Doing a commercial before we answer a question.

[Adam]

This is your first mailbag. Welcome to the show. We'll be right back on Fantasy football today.

[Dave]

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[Robert Half]

Where'd you get those shoes?

[Adam]

Easy.

[Robert Half]

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[Adam]

Just want to remind everybody that we have a Super bowl preview tomorrow with me, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and we'll give you DFS advice. We'll break down the game, tell you who we think is going to win, and then on Sunday night, we'll recap it. Just me and Jamie. Sometime, hopefully roughly a half hour after the game, we'll do our best to get on the air as quickly as possible and we'll just chat about it. Spin it forward to 2025 with some fantasy talk. Here's our email of the day. It is from Ethan. And where's he from, Dave?

[Schaefer]

Boston, Massachusetts.

[Adam]

With the trade of Cooper cup, what are your thoughts on. Well, the says Cooper cup up in the air. So with the projected trade of Cooper cup, what are your thoughts on Jordan Whittington in Redraft and Dynasty?

[Schaefer]

He'll have a shot to replace him. I mean, he, he did to a degree earlier this year when cup was not on the field for the Rams. His route rate was almost 50% and he played in the slot almost 40% of the time. So could be the guy that replaces them, but they could just as easily go and draft somebody else and give them some. Give Whittington some competition for the gig.

[Adam]

Yeah, there were four games, weeks three through seven with a buy in there that Cooper cup missed. But also Pukinakua was out during this time. So you got to keep that in mind. Whittington had two games where he played 38% of the snaps and 16% of the snaps and he didn't do much. But he had two games where he played over 90% of the snaps and he had 18 targets in those two games. He scored 12.2 fantasy points at Chicago, which for a while was number one against receivers. He scored 15.9 PPR fantasy points against the packers, so that was encouraging. He caught 22 of 28 targets. He had a very low A dot. He was wide open a lot. I watched all 28 of his targets this morning. They schemed him open. It's kind of gimmicky stuff, but I'm a solid player.

[Heath]

Anybody for a Rams offense? They don't scheme anybody.

[Adam]

Yeah, no, but. Right. So like there were a lot of plays where, where you know, three guys would go out somewhat deep and he would just kind of run underneath all of them and be wide open. They ran some wide receiver screens to him. Again, most of this was, almost all of it was really without both Puka and Cooper cup because he also had a decent game in Week 18 when those guys sat.

[Jamie]

They're.

[Heath]

They're almost certainly revamping their entire receiving core because cup clearly on the trade block. Tutu out. Well, probably not coming back. Who knows what they're doing with the 31 year old Robinson and it just. There's, there's potential for a whole new group of guys coming in.

[Adam]

Okay. All right. He's definitely a good name to know and I regret not bringing him up on our.

[Heath]

He should, he should 100 be added if you can still make ad drops in your dynasty leagues.

[Schaefer]

Yep. But he's probably added most of those. Robinson's a free agent so Jamie's right. Total revamping happening in LA and he might not be, he might not be the heir apparent to the slot and still get on the field as the number three receiver. He could play outside too.

[Adam]

There was a report from Sarah Bish, Sarah Barp on ESPN that 22 Atwell is unlikely to return to the Rams. Jamie just sort of mentioned that. So with that said, I'm just going to run through the news and notes real quick. The Jaguars hired an offensive coordinator, Grant Udinsky. He is a former Minnesota assistant offensive coordinator. He's not going to call plays so they have L in there.

[Schaefer]

But he's, he's an interesting dude. 10 seconds on him. Former defensive player in college, 29 years old and like apparently like one of the great thinkers of the Vikings offense the past couple of years and he definitely right. He'll be a head coach someday.

[Adam]

And he lived in his car, apparently. Saw that, too.

[Schaefer]

He's a unique dude.

[Adam]

Yeah. NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. Said no one wants to play an 18th game. Speaking on behalf of the players.

[Heath]

You know when else they said that?

[Adam]

When? The 17th game. Yeah.

[Jamie]

Want to hear an even bigger conspiracy theory? You have dates already for Super Bowl 2020 in 2027, and it's President's Day weekend, so.

[Adam]

Yeah, yeah, it's very late.

[Schaefer]

I can think of 32 people who want to play 18 games, and those are the people who matter.

[Adam]

Some Eagles and Chiefs notes. Devonte Smith was limited looks. Looks right now like both interior offensive linemen. Cam Jurgens, well, he said he's going to play. And guard Landon Dickerson, optimistic about playing. So. And the Chiefs are basically completely healthy. So I think these teams are pretty healthy, which is big difference from two years ago when both quarterbacks were hobbling into the game. The Rams are going to play the.

[Heath]

Years ago matters, though. Two years ago matter.

[Adam]

It does matter. The Rams are going to play the first ever game in Australia. That will be in 2026. And then if you're a Simpsons fan, they're going to play Knifey Spoony after the game. All right. Nick Cosmetor of the Athletic thinks Cortland Sutton will not want to play on the final year of his contract as it is currently constructed. So we might have a holdout there. Who knows? According to Greg Bedard of the Boston Sports Journal, the Patriots are considering trading quarterback Joel Milton, who had, you know, pretty nice performance in week 18. And shout out to Darius Slayton, who won the Allen Page Award. This goes to one NFL player who did, who basically is awarded for community service. Slayton has a foundation that provided gifts and household essentials to 24 New York families in 2024, according to Pro Football Talk. So that's great.

[Jamie]

Very nice. Very nice for Slayton. You know, we are in the doldrums of the off season. When we were talking about the Alan.

[Adam]

Page Awards, I just thought it was. I wasn't going to mention. I was like, you know what? People deserve to be recognized for that.

[Heath]

So you saw the Kelsey News this morning, right?

[Adam]

No. Is it about homemade?

[Jamie]

He also in the Allen Page Award?

[Heath]

No, he says he's coming back next year.

[Adam]

Oh, he said that? Wow.

[Jamie]

I did not see that.

[Schaefer]

I think he said that he. He could see himself playing three more years.

[Jamie]

Wow.

[Adam]

Yeah, I did see that. Yeah.

[Jamie]

Is it just going to be a situation like we've had the last two though where he's not really playing until the playoffs.

[Heath]

I mean if you can make it work, it's working for them.

[Jamie]

It's going to kill us for Fantasy.

[Schaefer]

But sure he should just retire until October.

[Jamie]

What show up? He's definitely coming back, but that's what.

[Heath]

He said he loves about still playing is coming to work with the guys.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Adam]

All right, listen, if you haven't signed up yet for the BetMGM app, you can do that and you can use the bonus code Fantasy and you're gonna get up to a fifteen hundred dollar first bet offer on your first wager with BetMGM. Download the BetMGM app, sign up, use the bonus code Fantasy, deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game and you'll receive up to 1500 dollars in bonus bets if your bet loses. Just make sure that you use the bonus code Fantasy when you sign up. I was gonna do some Fantasy Cops now, but I don't want Dave to yell at me for not reading any questions. So I will save Fantasy Cops for later and we'll get to the news and notes, Emails. Sorry, we'll get to the emails. Emails and tweets. Our email address is fantasy football cbsi.com I also want to thank you guys for reaching out on Twitter. This is from our boy Pete Farmer, longtime listener, frequent tweeter. Thank you Pete. Who will be the first drafted running back next year? Will it be Saquon Barkley? All right, so I already said that for me, Jamie and David, it's Bijan. What do you think Dan?

[Jamie]

My early lean would be Saquon Barkley.

[Adam]

Actually.

[Jamie]

I'm always more injury agnostic than most. I had this debate with Adi actually in the office as well. He's really down on Taekwond for next year based on his injury history. I think there are those red flags out there, but I'm not so sure I want to apply the same broad stroke red flags to every single running back based on running back history. For a player like Saquon Barkley, it's similar to how I felt about Derrick Henry last off season, why I was so high on him. And the situation's not changing there in Philadelphia. Lane Johnson has already said he's returning for next season. The rest of that offensive line is intact. Jeff Stoutland's there. I think there's even another level this offense can get to. I think this was probably hopefully the I mean for the Eagles fans, not for Giants fans, but hopefully the worst we'll see of that passing game personally, like with those weapons. They're both under contract, A.J. brown and Devonte Smith and maybe Dallas Goddard will stay healthy. So there's no real reason for me to believe that there's going to be a step back with Barkley. I don't see it in his game either. He's only healthier and getting better. He had more explosive runs this year than his rookie year with the Giants. So for me it would be Barkley.

[Adam]

There's just no way he can do it again. It's just.

[Jamie]

Why?

[Adam]

Because no one's gone 2,000 yards consecutively.

[Jamie]

He doesn't need to go 2,000 yards overall.

[Heath]

But the touchdowns are the biggest thing. It's like, you know, he, he did this scoring 13 touchdowns. We already talked about his role in the passing game. Like there, there are just metrics that don't help him if he's not going to be this prolific as a rusher. And so if you just look at the history of guys that have gone for 2,000 yards, six of the eight have been 500 yards or less the previous season. You know, so it's a huge step back for where his totals will get to if he's not going to be a 20 touchdown guy. And so can he be a 20 touchdown guy? Sure. Like you said, maybe the offense changed a little bit. Maybe they don't want to have the touch push over and over and over again. It'd be surprising. You know, again they're going to have a new offense coordinator. It looks like Helen Moore is going to the Saints. So we'll see, you know, whoever comes in and maybe changes something a little bit. But let's not forget if they lose the super bowl, the super bowl hangover for the losing team has been awful. Look at McCaffrey. You know, for a guy entering age 27, 28, 29 range, you know, I mean, this is where Barkley is. Similar situation coming off a, you know, pretty significant season and couldn't stay healthy the following year. Granted different players, I don't want to compare the two, but just something to keep in mind. In any event, I'm getting more and more nervous from Barkley. So he's going to be a first round pick. He's probably going to be somebody though. I avoid, I guess there's already been.

[Schaefer]

Two years of him getting over 350 touches and his numbers going down the following year.

[Jamie]

Both with the Giants though, without really a team around him.

[Schaefer]

Listen, I mostly agree with how you feel. It's just can he be the best running back in fantasy again, that's the question they're asking. And then betting on that with 101, it's just not something that I really want to do. And once, once the Falcons actually started to use Bijan Robinson the way we all wanted to do it or wanted them to do it, he averaged more PPR points per game than Saquon.

[Heath]

I think the, the concern for Barkley is just how far does he fall from where he is? You know, Dan is making the case, and it's a good one, that he's not going to fall very far at all if he doesn't, you know, make it better. Just for me, it's.

[Jamie]

He's.

[Heath]

I think he's going to slip a little bit. And so does he go from 2000 to 1700? Does he go from 13 touchdowns to 11 or does he go to 15? You know, does he stay in the 33 catch range? So I don't think he's going to be awful barring injury. But now you're starting to add different layers to it. You know, again, one year older, a lot of mileage on his body, a lot of mileage on the offensive line. You know, again, look, they got two guys that are limping into the super bowl here that, you know, that's a big strength of this team is, is clearly what's. What's around him. The environment was so fantastic, which is why we liked him going to, to Philadelphia as opposed to staying with the Giants. So it's just, I don't think I'll be drafting him. I probably will rank him a couple spots lower than consensus. He certainly will not be RB1 for me. So will he still be in the top five? Is the question.

[Jamie]

I think also for me, it's like the little bit of a concern with the Falcons offense. Yes, it looked okay in a very small sample size with Michael Penck. I don't think that's anything we can project moving forward, personally. Like, I think there is a decent chance that offense is not very good in 2025. And I just think if you look at RB1s through the years, they've pretty much all been on a lead offense. It's BARKLEY this year, McCaffrey the year before. And you can go back and find that you need to be in scoring position a lot and you need to have a lot of scoring opportunities and you need to be one of the best offenses to produce an RB one. I'm not sold that way is going to.

[Adam]

Or you need to Catch a lot of passes if you're not in a great office.

[Jamie]

That. Who was that?

[Adam]

Well, Barkley in his Rookie year and McCaffrey with the Panthers.

[Jamie]

Barkley number one overall on his rookie.

[Schaefer]

How many catches last year? Wasn't it over 50, 60?

[Heath]

I think 90 is rookie.

[Jamie]

He did have.

[Adam]

Yeah, exactly. 60 last year. Yeah, I, I agree with you on the offense thing. I mean, nobody would disagree with you with that. Like the Eagles.

[Jamie]

The Falcons could be a great offense. I'm not saying they're not. It's just probably not a little bit of uncertainty.

[Adam]

And then think like, for Barkley, look what happened in the NFC Championship game. You had an injured center. You had an injured replacement center. Right. And Barkley ran for 100, 118 yards on 15 carries with three touchdowns. So their line is. I'm not concerned at all. I mean, Laden Johnson's obviously old, but.

[Jamie]

Even if they'll be fine if they.

[Adam]

Have some injuries, they're still, like, so deep. They're so good on their line. Yeah, it's just like, I. I know the yards per carry is coming down.

[Jamie]

Right.

[Adam]

I feel very confident in that. 5.8 yards per carry.

[Jamie]

By Jamie's point about the long touchdowns, I think is the best point against Barkley.

[Adam]

Yeah, absolutely. Now, maybe if he doesn't have as many long touchdowns, maybe he gets more short touchdowns. I. 13, like, honestly, 13 rushing touchdowns, kind of low.

[Jamie]

Yes.

[Adam]

The year he had. But it's hard to. It's hard to get more than that with Jalen hurts on your team. So. All right, let's go to our next question here. And that is from OJ why is Christian McCaffrey not the third running back off the board?

[Jamie]

Well, I. I was going to say I. When, when push comes to shove, I might have a marbi one overall next year. Just going to be honest about the situation. If he's healthy going into camp healthy, nothing wrong with him. I can make that case because when, like, if that 49ers offense gets back Iuk, they're healthier on the O line and McCaffrey's healthy. The only thing I think that will actually stop him from RB1 overall is an injury. And I'm just not that into predicting injuries and like, saying, oh, it's definitely he's going to get hurt.

[Heath]

I just wonder if, did they develop a guy or two that they can use to supplant McCaffrey a little bit more to make sure he's healthy in the back end of the season? Because they're going to Con, they're going to be contenders. I mean, you know, unless something dramatically changes, you know, Brock Purdy holds out contract situation there. IU's not back. You know, they cut Debo. The receiving core looks awful. There's some things you could see. You know, Trent Williams side is going to hold out because he wants to get paid again because he's old or whatever. I'd be very surprised if it's back to McCaffrey in the same workload as he was in 2023. You know, I, I would think that we get a little bit more Garando, maybe a little bit more Mason, maybe both, and we just start to see a little bit of picking their spots with McCaffrey in terms of the snapshare up, the touches up to the level of what would warrant him, being that he's going to clearly be successful no matter what he does because he's so efficient and in this offense, so successful. It's just a matter of can he get back to that elite, elite, elite level production like we're used to seeing from him? He certainly can. But I would guess that after Achilles injuries and a knee injury and just knowing his history and now his age, do they say, okay, we're going to sort of manage this a little bit better to get through the season, you know, so fourth quarter, maybe you see a little bit more of him because then you get a win or, you know, games in hand, we don't see him in the fourth quarter. You know, those type of scenarios where they're just being a little smarter with, with what he, what they do with him, as opposed to maybe he's more of a pass catcher than, than between the tackles type of guy, you know, I don't know. It's just that that's something that bothers me a little bit about the upside for McCaffrey just because after the year that they just had, he's so important to them, why run him into the ground like they potentially may have in, in 2023?

[Schaefer]

They could give him the, the Kelsey.

[Heath]

Treatment, but I don't think to that level. But, but yes, you know, just sort of, you know, massaging his, his, his snap care, snapshot, snap count a little bit Snapchat.

[Jamie]

The problem with that though, is like with the Kelsey situation, you have the Chiefs who come out with a dominant defense and Andy Reid just like, all right, I can win regular season games running the ball and playing conservatively. The 49ers offense, though, from a schematic standpoint is just a completely different offense. With McCaffrey vs. Mason and Garendo because of what McCaffrey can do in the passing game. I'm not talking about catching the football. I'm talking about the routes he runs and I'm talking about the stress he puts on the defense as a route runner. None of those guys can do that. So you're just a worse offense without him on the field.

[Heath]

I, I don't, I don't, I don't disagree with that at all. But I think it's a matter of, you know, you have one of the best play callers in the league. They obviously had success pre McCaffrey in, in getting production from their running backs and the running game and running backs in the passing game, you know. So yes, he takes them to a totally different level. But I think that's kind of my point as well is like when do you use him? You know, do you use him in, you know, 1st and 10? Do you know, it's, it's an obvious run call, no matter who's back there and do we need him in that regard or it's, you know, third and five in, in, in a two minute situation and we want to have him on the field for that because of the stress he puts on these, you know, it's just, you know, play, play calling, play design matters. And I think just when you use him is probably more important than necessarily how you use him.

[Jamie]

Okay.

[Adam]

All right, guys. There was actually, there was a stat I wanted to look up there about yards before contact per carry, which is something that's always good in the San Francis. They've been top eight three years in a row. But I really need to filter it to just running back carries. And I bring that up because the top three and yards before contact per carry this past season were Saquon Barkley, Derek Henry and Jameer Gibbs. It's really, it's really interesting, but it's pretty.

[Schaefer]

Three good offensive lines.

[Heath]

Yeah.

[Adam]

But it's really hard to find players who repeat. I use like 2.3 yards before contact per carry because Derek Henry, you go look at his, his page, which on true media, which nobody has access to. So I'll just tell you about it. The one stat that really jumps out this year as being much better than any previous year. Yards before contact per carry, two line stat. I mean. Yeah, but also that's one of those things. It's one of those numbers where it's hard to do it again, you know, no matter how good your offensive line is. The last guy I saw that did it again was Matt Breida. His. The first three seasons of his career was. Was like 2.3 yards before contact or better, which is elite. Super elite. Three straight years with 100 more carries. I only looked at running backs with 100 more carries. So the 49ers produced that. It's really Barclays numbers.

[Jamie]

I'm just curious what his numbers were with the Giants versus the Eagles in.

[Adam]

Terms of that stat.

[Jamie]

In yards before carry.

[Adam]

Yeah, yards before.

[Jamie]

I mean for contact. Correct.

[Adam]

Yep. So Saquon Barkley, yards before contact, 1.7, 1.4. Negative point four. But that was the year he had 19 carries. One 1.71 yard, 2.64.

[Jamie]

Wow. With the Eagles was 2.6 or. That's a massive jump.

[Adam]

It's insane. He basically doubled his career average before that. I mean, just.

[Jamie]

Just incredible.

[Adam]

But it won't happen again. That will not be that high. It may be higher than any other Giants.

[Jamie]

It's going to be higher than any other Giant, but it won't be too.

[Heath]

What was it for for Swift last year?

[Adam]

Swift with the Eagles or Swift?

[Jamie]

Yeah, good point. Swift, the Eagles. To Swift the Bears. That must have been a massive drop off.

[Heath]

I'm not worried about. So I just wanted the Eagles.

[Adam]

Yeah. So yeah, that's a great point. 2 point. So Swift 2.16 with the Eagles in 2023, 1.33 with the Bears.

[Jamie]

Yep. So I mean, Barkley's back with the Eagles and that whole line's returning. And Jeff Stoutland, the best offensive line coach in football.

[Adam]

And since you read my Derek Henry bowl prediction, one of the things I didn't love about Derek Henry was that the Ravens were going into the year with three new offensive linemen.

[Jamie]

Yep.

[Adam]

So just credit Lamar effect.

[Jamie]

Can't have a battle line with Lamar as a quarterback.

[Adam]

All right, let's take a break here. And we will. We've got a lot. We're have to go a little faster. That was. We'll get going here. We got a lot more questions to answer after this. On fantasy football today, looking to buy.

[Dan]

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[Adam]

Yeah, sure thing. Hey, you sold that car yet?

[Jamie]

Yeah, sold it to Carvana.

[Robert Half]

Oh, I thought you were selling to that guy.

[Adam]

The guy who wanted to pay me in foreign currency. No interest over 36 months.

[Jamie]

Yeah. No. Carvana gave me an offer in minutes.

[Dan]

Picked it up and paid me on the spot.

[Adam]

It was so convenient. Just like that.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Robert Half]

No hassle?

[Adam]

None.

[Robert Half]

That is super convenient. Sell your car to Carvana and swap hassle. For convenience, pick up these mail classes.

[Adam]

All right. Welcome back. Let's go to the Henry's question. Who is the consensus or as close we can have to it during the off season Round one pick next year that you're most worried about at their projected adp.

[Heath]

I think I gave my answer already.

[Jamie]

Yeah, I was gonna say Jamie already know this.

[Adam]

Barkley for Jamie.

[Schaefer]

It's probably going to be Barkley. I don't know how many other players will have the workload and age risk. I mean, McCaffrey might end up being in there too, just because he'll get pushed into round one. So probably one of those two guys. Henry maybe is a third option.

[Adam]

Yeah, I was going to say Henry. I. I don't know if he will. He'll be top 15. I think I've seen some early rankings. Some people still have him as a top four running back, but I. What about neighbors? I'll just bring him up by, you know, he's obviously great. And Dan. I've been reading Dan's tweets, which honestly, you should follow Dan Schneier at. Dan Schneier. S C H N E I E R N F L He's a. I'm not joking. A great follow. Breaks down tape very well. Puts video out there that's really clear and fun to watch. He's been talking a lot about Cam Ward, which is exciting, my boy right now. Been talking a lot about Malik Neighbors and how freaking open league neighbors always is. But what if they don't upgrade their quarterback position?

[Jamie]

I mean, how could they not, right? I mean, they had Drew Lock, Daniel Jones and. And Tim Boyle this year.

[Adam]

I just wonder. I'm just thinking. I'm not even thinking, but I don't know the answer. But of all recent first round ADP wide receivers, who's going to have a worse quarterback than Malik Neighbors next year if they don't draft Ken Ward? If they have like Russell Wilson or something like that?

[Jamie]

What if it's Jameis Winston?

[Adam]

I don't think it will be because like Brian Dable hates turnovers.

[Jamie]

I was laughing at that. Cedric Tillman and Jerry Judy became amazing with James Winston.

[Adam]

I just don't think he's a fit for dable like a DeVito because he didn't. Because he doesn't want turnovers.

[Jamie]

I don't think he played DeVito because he doesn't want turnovers over Lock. I think he played DeVito because they thought maybe this guy could be a backup long term and they didn't care about the season at that point.

[Adam]

All right. But yeah, I'm just bringing up Neighbors because I. He'll probably have the worst quarterback situation by far going into the year of any first round wide receiver. Right. Of Lamb Thomas will have a better situation.

[Jamie]

Yeah. Everyone.

[Adam]

Brian Thomas, Nico.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Heath]

Does any player want off of his team more than Malik Neighbors right now?

[Jamie]

That's not true anymore. He's been, he's been talking nicely about the Giants this offseason.

[Heath]

Did you see what he said yesterday? No. I thought it was all nice things he's been saying. Good. He said his. Who's his dream quarterback to play with? He said Jane Daniels. He's already plotting his way to Washington.

[Jamie]

No, he loves it.

[Adam]

All right, let's move on to our next question. It's from Shaq. If the jets move on from Aaron Rodgers, what quarterback do you think is a good fit to help them win games and of course help them produce good fantasy numbers for their offense?

[Heath]

Patrick Mahomes.

[Jamie]

No, I mean like that's the joke Jamie saying. But like the free agent market is as barren as it always is. So for me, the answer for all these is going to be Jameis Winston. I don't see how this isn't the most obvious answer of them all.

[Dan]

Literally.

[Jamie]

Cedric Tillman from the dead. Nobody was talking about him. Potential draft bus, even though he was great on film in Tennessee, became fantasy relevant, was really good. Cherry Judy was nothing. Then he became one of the best fantasy players. Najoku started producing. Even Eli Moore had like 4 for 62. Jameis Winston creates fantasy success for these wide receivers. He is easily the best bet for any team from a fantasy standpoint. And I don't think it's even close.

[Adam]

You only read half the question though. Because he's not gonna win games because he's, he's gonna get benched.

[Jamie]

Oh, oh, oh, no. You can't win games on these free agent quarterbacks. Justin Fields. That's your best bet to win games.

[Adam]

All right, Dave, what's your thought? Dave?

[Schaefer]

Yeah, it's, it's really terrible out there to win games where the best free agent is Sam Darnold. And what a mess it would be if, if the jets brought Sam Darnold back. I can't imagine that that'll make the fan base fired up. I don't have a great answer for this one.

[Heath]

There's, there's an easy way to connect the dots right now. Our former current, whatever he is, colleague Rick Spielman just apparently, according to our own Ryan Wilson on the First Pick podcast, said that Rick Spielman is going to be a senior advisor to the New York Jets. Well, who did Rick Spillman give a lot of money to at the Minnesota Vikings? Kirk Cousins. So there's probably a chance that he's going to be advising the new general manager, new head coach that maybe Kirk Cousins is the bridge quarterback for the jets if he is let go from the Falcons as expected, or maybe traded. So they didn't have a lot of success with an older quarterback coming off an Achilles injury. Cousin said this week he feels like, you know, he still has a lot of football left to play. So we'll see what, you know, happens for a guy at 36 that looked a little lost at times last season, but we'll be two years removed from that Achilles injury. So it won't be surprising if Kirk Cousins is the new quarterback for the death that they move on from Rogers and then they draft somebody and hopefully develop. But look, do they, do they try and go Joe Milton, you know, you mentioned that, Adam, you know, do the Patriots consider trading within the division to a guy that has maybe some upside? Do they go with the Jameis Winston, you know, Aaron Glenn, you know, you know, may have some inkling of, okay, I want to have an explosive offense and, and deal with the turnover just because, you know, what Jameis can bring to the table. You know, there's a lot of things that play here with this team because, you know, new coach, new general manager, you know, everything is, you know, hopefully a fresh start. But Cousins just makes some sense here for, you know, Rick staying in the. He was helping, by the way, to, he was working for what to bring in the general manager and the coach of their search. So staying on as a senior advisor, you Know that might be a player that he pushes.

[Schaefer]

Yeah. Their assistance too. And Cousins is going to be an affordable option for a team because the Falcons are going to his salary for this coming season and the jets need somebody like that because they're on the hook for a lot of money for Aaron Rodgers.

[Jamie]

Right.

[Schaefer]

And if they, if they keep Aaron Rodgers for next, this coming year, they're on the hook for even more money the following year after.

[Jamie]

So a really interesting, that's an interesting wrinkle.

[Schaefer]

The point is, is that like Cousins is a cheap option who can run the west coast offense. That's certainly what they're going to run in New York.

[Adam]

All right, bring it back, let's go. So, yeah, I don't know if I mentioned this about Kirk Cousins. If I did, it was two days ago or yesterday. But he got hurt. He said he got hurt in Week 10 against New Orleans. He hurt his arm and his shoulder, his elbow and his shoulder. He was awful after that. Just absolutely awful. The two games before that he threw seven touchdown passes on 53 pass attempts. One again was, one of them was at Tampa Bay, the other was against Dallas. He was coming off his two of his three best games of the season and, and then got hurt at New Orleans and was so bad after that. So maybe he can be serviceable. You know, maybe we didn't, maybe we didn't take that into account. But we didn't take that into account. We didn't really know about it. All right, next is from Dave and Flint. I hear this incoming class of rookies is, is more running backloaded. Is it time to start thinking about trading 2025 picks to 2026 picks 10 team dynasty league? I have picks 1.4, 1.5 and 1.8. I could use running back help but with the class being so loaded, would it be smarter to draft the three first, this one or try to trade a first and a second? I don't know. What do you think? What would you do if you had three picks, four, five and eight in a 10 team dynasty league, would you keep them or would you try to maybe package one for like a 2026 first or something like that?

[Heath]

If you're, if you're a win now and you can get a, a potential stud that has obviously some long term appeal too. So let's say Genti goes to a great spot and you want to see if you can move up. I'm gonna assume it's a 1 QB league as opposed to super flex because super flex, you might want to stay at 4. You know, just depending on how things go. But in any event, this is one of those scenarios where, yes, if you want to try and maybe package 20, 26 picks to get some more options at, or get a stud at running back, if you don't feel like you're going to get one at any of these draft selections, then that's the type of move that you want to make. You know, again, if you're. When. If you're a win now scenario, you know, so I'm going to guess with a lot of draft picks, you're probably not, you know, so stockpile some of these players. You know, as we saw this past season, just because they're good prospects doesn't mean they're going to necessarily be, you know, great players in the league right away. You know, Trey Benson was a good prospect, not a great prospect. He probably wouldn't be in the top five of this class. Blake Corum probably wouldn't be in the top five of this class. But they didn't get opportunities, you know, so just because they're. They're going to be somewhat touted. They may end up in some crappy situations, though.

[Adam]

All right, our next question is from Paulie Pull. And the subject is Real Pain, which I was expecting this to be a kind of a bad email. And then I read it. Great show. Since this is relatively the off season, I feel cool about sending this email to Jamie. I just watched the Real Pain and his cousin Jesse killed it. Culkin received the nomination, but I feel an over the top performance like that is easier than the emotional, subtle performance that Jesse did. Plus he wrote and directed it. I hope he wins for screenplay. Bravo.

[Jamie]

Where can I watch that? I haven't seen it yet.

[Heath]

I appreciate that. Thank you. It's great movie. He did a great job. He was nominated for best screenplay for the Oscars. He was nominated for best director, I think, or best screenplay for the Golden Globes. Colton Culkin won for best supporting actor for the Golden Globes and was very praiseworthy of Jesse. It's. It's a sort of a passion project for him. It's about our great aunt and the movie is centered around two cousins. Not really about me, but it's. It's about our great aunt who was born in Poland and, and he went back. They shot a bunch of scenes where she grew up in. In Poland. So, yeah, it's a, you know, fantastic movie. I recommend it to anybody wants to watch.

[Adam]

It's called a real pain. Oh, 96 on rotten tomatoes. Wow. Certified fresh. You can watch it on Hulu or Disney plus if you have a description.

[Jamie]

I have them both. Let's go.

[Adam]

All right. Excellent. Yeah, you would. And you haven't watched the Simpsons.

[Jamie]

Just kidding. I've only had Hulu.

[Adam]

All right. This is from Rose. My league wants to add a second IR spot, but I'm afraid it will be used to hoard and stash. My idea was that free agents on IR can only be added to your active roster to avoid hoarding and abuse the rule. Thoughts?

[Schaefer]

Well, you can set what the rules are for, who goes on ir, and it usually should be a player who is actually on the IR list or the PUP list.

[Adam]

Yeah, as long as she's.

[Schaefer]

That.

[Adam]

I think she knows that, but she's worried about people hoarding those players, which I don't care about, but I guess, yeah, that's fine.

[Schaefer]

Who are you? Who are you afraid of? That's a free agent, by the way. Free agents can't be on the IR list or the PUP list if they're not on a team.

[Adam]

No, I think she means fantasy free agents. Like, she doesn't want you to pick up a fantasy free agent.

[Schaefer]

Like picking up Marquis Brown.

[Adam]

Yeah, yeah.

[Schaefer]

Six when he's months away. Yeah, that's part of the strategy of the game. Rose.

[Adam]

I don't have a problem with it. Rose.

[Schaefer]

I don't either. Two IR spots is fine. Three are fine.

[Adam]

I have five in my leagues.

[Heath]

Dynasty should be a little bit more.

[Adam]

All right, this is from franchise trading. Do we just need to draft rookie wide receivers from lsu Neighbors? Thomas, Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, Malik Odell Beckham, Keishan Booty.

[Jamie]

Just kidding.

[Heath]

Yeah, I. I actually. This cost me not. Not. I'm trying to remember who I took him over, but. But Terrace Marshall was somebody that I liked. I like. Oh, I like Terrorist coming out. And especially because he went with Joe Brady. You know, Brady was lsu, then they went to Carolina together. And I was like, oh, this is gonna be a good fit. He's got an opportunity. And I'm trying to remember, like, who I. Who I drafted more, but that was a, you know, failure.

[Jamie]

I traded. I traded for him, for you.

[Heath]

Don't forget DJ Shark. Also lsu.

[Schaefer]

Oh, Jarvis Lankery. Once upon a time.

[Adam]

Well, that was a good one. Yeah, I. Look, obviously they produce good receivers, but you know what's so interesting is the Big 12 has produced, like, horrible receivers. You never get good receivers out of the Big 12. But now some of those Big 12 schools are in the SEC, so does that change Everything like Texas and Oklahoma.

[Jamie]

And A and M. Yeah, A and M. Right.

[Adam]

Because like think about Quentin Johnson.

[Schaefer]

I remember terrible receiver, but.

[Adam]

But he's a rarity. They have a lot of. A lot of busts. The Big 12 receivers. Time it was USC receivers.

[Jamie]

I like this kid. Golden a lot coming out of Texas.

[Adam]

Oh, yeah.

[Heath]

What about Adam would not draft Wisconsin running backs. That was the thing for a while. Yeah.

[Adam]

They're like.

[Jamie]

They were. Well, he was right for a while.

[Adam]

Yeah, I was.

[Jamie]

But then he was very, very wrong because Melvin Gordon had some good fantasies.

[Adam]

No, I don't think it was Melvin Gordon. It was like ronde.

[Heath]

Yeah, but that was your. Like that was your. Your preface for. It was all the guys before Melvin Gordon.

[Adam]

I don't think I was opposed to drafting Melvin Gordon. It doesn't sound like me.

[Heath]

We had a few people that didn't like Melvin Gordon on their site.

[Adam]

I don't remember that at all. I mean, it could have been me. I have no idea.

[Heath]

You remember when Heath and Chris were like so anti Melvin Gordon when he didn't score touchdown his rookie season. Then he came back. His second year was just amazing.

[Adam]

I do not remember that. No. That is a wild rookie season though. All right, so wait. Talk. Just talk amongst yourselves. I have to queue up some music.

[Schaefer]

You want to hear some bold predictions from the magazine? And guess who made them?

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Schaefer]

Christian Watson leads the NFL in receiving touchdowns. Jamie, who wrote that one?

[Heath]

Was that me?

[Adam]

No, it was not you. Jacob Gibbs.

[Schaefer]

That was a Jacob Gibbs Special. Three quarterbacks will rush for at least 800 yards.

[Jamie]

That's a Jamie.

[Adam]

Jamie.

[Jamie]

He nailed that one.

[Schaefer]

That's James.

[Jamie]

I thought it was Jaden Lamar. And no one else did it.

[Heath]

No, it was supposed to be. Richardson was the third.

[Adam]

Yeah. Dave, this, this. You may not know this about the mailbag, but Dan is the biggest Brown dozer to Jamie and he just gave Jamie credit for one that he got wrong. He's like, oh, you nailed that one.

[Jamie]

And that one is so much more correct. Then Godwin is going to outscore Evans. But because we don't know, we just have to project that he would have done it.

[Adam]

He was crushing him, Dan, in six games.

[Jamie]

He was crushing a football season. People take receivers.

[Adam]

But how can you say I was wrong about that? I was right before the injury.

[Jamie]

I'm not saying you were wrong about it, by the way, just to be clear. I'm just saying that does not. You don't get to count that as a correct one.

[Schaefer]

Three more. Three more. Three more. Kyle Pitts. Just doesn't have it.

[Jamie]

That's you, Dave.

[Schaefer]

Thank you very much. Caleb Williams will break multiple records as a rookie.

[Jamie]

That was me. And that was wrong.

[Adam]

Oh, that could have been me too.

[Schaefer]

But I, I. Jamie, who do you think that was?

[Heath]

Dan.

[Adam]

It was Dan.

[Jamie]

I was too high on Caleb.

[Schaefer]

Last one. Patrick Mahomes will break Peyton Manning single season record of 5,477 passing yards. And by the way, Dan Schneier, since your name is on this story, it reads in here, patrick Mahomes will break Peyton Manning single season record record 5,477 passing yards. Nice, nice editing, Dan.

[Adam]

That was Dan. That was the. That didn't get all these right because he, he wrote the story as we see.

[Schaefer]

So who, who do you think? What kind of a person would have such a lofty prediction for a Chiefs?

[Jamie]

There's only one man.

[Adam]

Oh, I thought that was Dan because I know Dan was super high on.

[Jamie]

I was high on my homes, but not quite as high as he's.

[Adam]

Huh. Wow.

[Schaefer]

Homer pick by Heath Cummings.

[Jamie]

Very homer.

[Adam]

You may have missed this Dan, but we did bounce back players last week and I asked for three from everyone and two of Heaths were Patrick Mahomes, Isaiah Pacheco, and I don't remember the third one.

[Heath]

Third was not a chief though.

[Adam]

No, it wasn't. It wasn't.

[Schaefer]

Was it a former chief?

[Adam]

I'm so lucky.

[Jamie]

The Giants are a horrible team because I would be so biased. I, I worry I'd be so biased in my picks if they weren't.

[Heath]

We used to have a listener that hated Adam for years because it felt like he talked about the Giants a lot, which he really didn't. But you remember that guy, the Seattle fan?

[Adam]

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, the sea. His. Oh, what was his Twitter handle? It had like Seahawks in it or he hate.

[Heath]

He like hate, hate. Oh, the Giants again. Here the Giants go. Because we didn't have like comments at the time like yeah, on a different platform. And he's like the emails were just constant.

[Adam]

Remember this music? The regulators. Fake regulators. Well, God, that is gone. And here we go with the fantasy cops. We're gonna finish the mailbag with the fantasy cops. All right. This is from Willy mcilly. I've been part of a keeper league for a couple years. Before the 2024 season, we decided that we would have the winner of the consolation bracket getting the first pick of the first round and picks two through six would then go by regular season record. What we never discussed is the draft Order for the playoff teams. Should that go by playoff finish or regular season finish? Since we didn't discuss it, we are wanting the fantasy cops to decide for us.

[Jamie]

I haven't really called this playoff. It's playoff finish. But Adam, do a better job filtering. This is not for fantasy cops. This is for fantasy commit a whole new segment we haven't explored yet. It's not a cops question. This is a fantasy commission question.

[Adam]

Okay, sorry.

[Schaefer]

Is for commish questions, not these kinds.

[Jamie]

It's for people doing nefarious things that we have to decide if they're.

[Schaefer]

Nah, I'm good with this. This is a fantasy.

[Adam]

Yeah, you're insane. The next one is definitely fantasy cops, but I think NFL obviously does playoff finish, but I believe the NBA does regular season finish. Right? For their NBA. Yeah.

[Heath]

Not sure. Does anybody care about the NBA draft outside the lottery?

[Adam]

Yeah, man. Mitchell Robinson's coming back soon. He was a second round pick. Let's go. All right, next up, this is Kyle from a city west of Detroit, but east of Lansing.

[Jamie]

Oh, Sheboygan is it?

[Heath]

On the east coast, next to Green Bay?

[Jamie]

Sheboygan, Michigan.

[Adam]

All right. He says, I never thought I'd ever have.

[Schaefer]

Hold on, wait a minute, wait a minute. If it's west of Detroit but east of Lansing, then east Lansing would qualify.

[Adam]

Okay, I like that. Never thought I'd have to something to write in about. But here we go. Context. We have an eight man super flex league. It is total points, not head to head. We've been doing it for the past 15 years. We started in high school, now we're all in our early 30s. Last year we celebrated our 10th year of having the loser get a tattoo. Each year we have a vote at the draft to see if we would like to continue with the tattoo punishment. Only those who have received a tattoo are the ones who vote to continue with league punishment. This year. Per usual, it was agreed to continue on with it. It has gotten dicey recently because the same guy has now just lost for the fourth time in a row and fifth time total, meaning he will have received five of 11 tattoos. He lost by 10 points for the entire season. As it all came down to the Lions Vikings game on Sunday night. He had Jordan Addison. Reason we play through week 18 is because it's a total points league and week 18 always makes for a chaotic finish to the season. Anyway, the loser, his name is Adam, is refusing to get the tattoo this year. It's not for a lack of effort. The league is extremely active. Some bad luck and poor Decisions are why he's found himself in this position. He stated that he is a hard no to getting the tattoo. He says he has honored the agreement four times now and just can't anymore. A few of us in the league are dumbfounded. Did we think the league punishment might end after him losing his fifth time? Sure. But never did we think he or anyone would have refused to get the tattoo. A few of us are steadfast in making him get the tattoo while others are wishy washy. My opinion is that it is a must because the guy he beat by 10 points absolutely would have gotten the tattoo. And Adam, by the way, spelled with 2Ds, most certainly would have been laughing along with us while we picked which tattoo he would have to receive. If he does not get the tattoo, we cannot make someone get it next year while he remains in the league, nor can we force anyone to do any punishment for that matter. Any ideas on how to handle this would be appreciated. Do we excommunicate him after 15 years if he, if he continues to refuse?

[Jamie]

I mean, the first thing and most important thing is you never trust an Adam with two D's in his name. Let's get that out of the way first.

[Heath]

I think if it's. If the tradition is they picked a tattoo, then he's screwed if he just has to get tattooed. Like he could just do like a little something on top of something that's.

[Jamie]

Already there, but he doesn't want another tattoo.

[Heath]

He's got like, like if another line or something, you know, on whatever's already there. You know what I mean? Like just a little touch up so that he's actually getting the physical act of being tattooed but not doing the entire thing, like, to me.

[Schaefer]

But that sets a precedent for future tattoos, I think.

[Heath]

Well, okay, so the new process would be if you've lost four times in league, the fifth time you have a little bit of a leeway.

[Adam]

I just want to add.

[Schaefer]

Maybe so, but maybe this guy should think, rethink some of his life choices if he keeps finishing last in this fantasy league. Here's. I, I would suggest.

[Adam]

Give me one detail. One detail. One detail. Sorry, one detail.

[Schaefer]

Oh, oh, now there's a detail. It's going to change everything.

[Adam]

The person who lost picks where the tattoo goes, but the league decides what it will be.

[Schaefer]

Right.

[Adam]

Okay. So you can't.

[Jamie]

You.

[Schaefer]

You shouldn't change that. I would say that if he wants to pay triple the buy in next year and have the draft catered and pay for all the catering Then they'll overlook the tattoo.

[Jamie]

At least they can bribe his way out again. Right?

[Schaefer]

He can bribe his way out, but that's it.

[Heath]

He should. He should get the FFT logo tattooed somewhere on him so he knows to always listen to our show.

[Jamie]

No way. We don't want that loser with our brand on him. Jamie, what are you crazy?

[Adam]

I am gonna get a picture. Schaefer says this guy should have gotten a picture. So to give. I want to see the tattoos, but yeah, I'm going to tell Kyle who sent the email. Yes. Yeah, you know what? And pics.

[Schaefer]

I think we should help Adam not finish in the basement next year.

[Adam]

This is so funny. I feel really bad. Five times.

[Heath]

I really think just. Just alter one of his tattoos slightly covers it.

[Schaefer]

No, I like.

[Adam]

You got four. What's the big deal? Just get another tattoo. Like, who cares, you know? Yeah.

[Schaefer]

Would you ever join a league where that's the punishment? Adam with one D?

[Adam]

No. But he won't say three lines in.

[Heath]

His head for charity.

[Adam]

I did it, as I said many times.

[Jamie]

No, he did not do.

[Adam]

I've never finished last before, so I would join this league because I will not finish, not do it.

[Jamie]

Let me make that clear.

[Schaefer]

Oh, man. Now we gotta figure out.

[Adam]

I did do it. You saw me.

[Jamie]

I did like one line did a year later. A year later. It was a lot of if and butts to you.

[Heath]

So based on the. The league rules here, you'd be kicked out. And then a year later you go get a tattoo. Hey, guys, I'm back. No, I got another D in my name too.

[Adam]

We know what.

[Schaefer]

And he's got to pay triple the buy in.

[Adam]

We know what the circumstances were, why I didn't shave the lie to my head.

[Heath]

Yeah, you lied about something your wife was doing.

[Adam]

Schneider even asked my wife. It's the truth.

[Jamie]

Unfortunately, it was true, though.

[Heath]

On your own, without your wife doing it.

[Jamie]

When I asked her that question, it almost felt like a hostage type situation where she kind of looked nervously at Adam like, I know I'm supposed to lie here. What's the lie supposed to be?

[Adam]

Yeah, no, we're very honest people. We don't lie. All right, Dan, it was great having you on the show. Dave, how'd you enjoy the mailbag?

[Schaefer]

It was great. It was fun.

[Adam]

Okay.

[Schaefer]

I wish every show was like, Adam.

[Jamie]

Give me an off season movie. I gotta watch him and add a movie suggestion.

[Schaefer]

I actually could use a TV series recommendation.

[Jamie]

I got those for you.

[Adam]

All right, so I'm really enjoying the hell out of Dexter. Original Sin. It's.

[Schaefer]

Do I have to have watched all of Dexter?

[Adam]

No, it's a prequel. It's a prequel.

[Jamie]

Dave, give me some other of your favorite shows. I'll give you a better show than that.

[Schaefer]

I'm thinking about shows that I could watch with my wife. She loves only Murders in the Building.

[Adam]

Oh, damn, it's shrinking.

[Jamie]

Oh, yeah. You haven't seen shrinking yet. Do shrinking. Best show. Best show in the last year.

[Adam]

Don't watch that. Dave.

[Jamie]

Dave, Shrinking show. What a terrible take. Thomas, you don't like shrinking. You're the only one I've ever heard who doesn't like shrinking. Thomas, if you're talking to only people that watch shrinking.

[Adam]

No, it's just the two terrible.

[Jamie]

One of the worst I've ever heard, to be honest by you.

[Schaefer]

I mean, here, there's like music and music.

[Jamie]

Severance. That's the best show on tv. But that's a big. You know, that's a. A barrier to get into it.

[Adam]

I haven't seen the Sopranos.

[Heath]

Oh, yeah. You're the idiot.

[Jamie]

Adam. Give me a movie, Adam.

[Adam]

A movie.

[Heath]

Real Pain.

[Adam]

Yeah, I would watch a Real Pain. That's what I would. Actually.

[Jamie]

That's the one.

[Adam]

Oh, you know what I watched the other day? A real uplifter. I'll tell you. The Whale. You guys seen the whale?

[Jamie]

I don't know if I want to see that. Looks very different.

[Adam]

It is. It's depressing and uplifting. It's. I was just kidding about calling it uplifting. It's like a typical Aronofsky film, but it. I thought it was phenomenal. Like, phenomenal.

[Jamie]

I might give it a shot.

[Adam]

Incredible acting. Brendan Fraser is just unbelievable that you.

[Schaefer]

Should watch Saturday Night Live. Fan. I watched the Saturday Night Movie. I wish I had watched Real Pain instead.

[Adam]

What's Saturday Night Movie, Dave? Just log into Paramount plus and literally.

[Jamie]

Watch anyone drown out. Drown out Thomas Taylor Sheridan shows. Oh, well, yeah, Landman was fun, but to suggest that that was. I'm not even gonna talk about. Wait, what's the one that I was so bad drinking?

[Adam]

Season one was okay, but. Oh, Mayor of Kingstown. Mayor of Kingstown.

[Jamie]

Oh, somebody said Detroiters. Detroiters is great.

[Adam]

Now the whale is not uplifting.

[Heath]

I was not the Sopranos.

[Adam]

The Whale is. Is a great movie, but it's not uplifting at all. I was joking about that. But yeah, imagine watching the whale, but not the Sopranos. Here's the thing. If the Sopranos was 90 minutes long, I'd watch it right now. The Sopranos is 90. It's like going to take me three months to watch the Sopranos, so, you know, be great.

[Jamie]

Three months?

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

Maybe I'll rewatch the Sopranos instead of doing anything.

[Heath]

That's what I just did. It was fantastic.

[Adam]

Well, here's the thing. I'm. I'm. I want to. But I have to choose between the Sopranos and the Wire.

[Jamie]

But, you see, I want you to watch the Wire.

[Adam]

But I've only seen five episodes of the most boring show that people love ever. But I'd like to give it another shot.

[Jamie]

This is so. I can't even.

[Schaefer]

Adam, you're a decade late.

[Jamie]

Luckily for you, I'm still just so disgusted by Thomas's terrible take that. I can't get in on the wire take that.

[Heath]

You just have. You're insulting the man on his birthday.

[Jamie]

I have to even. He forced this on.

[Heath]

He lets you out during construction in your house and you're insulting him.

[Jamie]

He forced this on me, that terrible take. I love you, Thomas. Crowd 77, buddy. All right, we're out of here, everybody.

[Adam]

Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow with our super bowl preview on fantasy football today, Paramount podcasts Paramount celebrates black voices. From climbing to success in Bob Marley. One love music can lead the way to stories of love and community in the shy.

[Jamie]

It's a place for our community. Explore the black voices collection on Paramount plus stream now.