Tracy? Pacheco? Ridley? Which Veterans Have the Most to Gain or Lose from the NFL Draft? (04/16 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Fantasy Football Today Episode Title: Tracy? Pacheco? Ridley? Which Veterans Have the Most to Gain or Lose from the NFL Draft? Release Date: April 16, 2025

Hosts and Analysts:

• Adam Aizer (Host)
• Dave Richard
• Jamey Eisenberg
• Heath Cummings
• Additional Crew Members

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Introduction to the Episode

Timestamp: [02:11]

Adam Aizer welcomes listeners to the Wednesday edition of "Fantasy Football Today," highlighting the focal point of the episode: analyzing how the upcoming NFL Draft will impact current veteran players in fantasy football. The discussion centers around the potential shifts in player roles due to new draft picks, especially focusing on running backs and quarterbacks.

---

Key Veterans at Risk

Najee Harris

Timestamp: [04:39]

Jamey Eisenberg expresses concern over Najee Harris's future, stating, "He has a chance to be very good this season if he doesn't get significant competition... but if he gets any competition of significance... he's back to being a flex."

Analysis:

• One-Year Deal: Harris is signed to a single-year contract, making his position precarious.
• Committee Scenario: The influx of talented running backs from the draft could push Harris into a committee role, reducing his fantasy value.

Tyrone Tracy

Timestamp: [05:42]

Heath Cummings discusses Tyrone Tracy, asserting, "He could literally be a top 20 running back as the lead back with the Giants."

Analysis:

• Potential Upside: Tracy has shown the ability to be a lead back, positioning himself as a high-value fantasy asset.
• Impact of Draft Picks: If the Giants draft another running back between rounds two and six, Tracy's role could shift from a starter to a backup, diminishing his fantasy relevance.

Jalen Warren

Timestamp: [10:49]

Dave Richard voices concerns about Jalen Warren not securing the lead back position in Pittsburgh. He mentions, "There's concern that he won't ever be a feature back for the Steelers."

Analysis:

• Limited Opportunities: With limited draft capital, the Steelers might prioritize other needs over solidifying Warren's role.
• Fantasy Implications: Warren could remain a part-time player, limiting his upside in fantasy leagues.

---

Running Back Draft Impact

General Overview

Timestamp: [02:11 - 08:26]

The panel delves into the depth of the running back class in the upcoming draft, noting that an abundance of talented backs could disrupt the status quo. They highlight that teams might prioritize drafting running backs, potentially affecting existing veterans' roles.

Specific Scenarios:

1. Giants Drafting a Running Back:

   • Effect on Tracy: Drafting an RB in rounds two to six could significantly impact Tracy's role.
   • Team Strategy: The Giants hold multiple first to sixth-round picks, indicating a strong intention to bolster their backfield.

2. Steelers and Chiefs:

   • Steelers: Limited draft capital might not favor drafting a running back, keeping Warren's role stable.
   • Chiefs: Discussing Isaiah Pacheco, the panel debates whether he could maintain his role if the Chiefs draft another RB in the middle rounds.

Effectometer Ratings:

• Najee Harris: Rated as a 3-4 impact if a team drafts a running back, indicating moderate concern.
• Tyrone Tracy: Rated as a 6 impact due to his higher dependency on securing the lead role.
• Jalen Warren: Rated as a 5-6 impact, reflecting potential for reduced fantasy relevance.

---

Wide Receiver Considerations

Calvin Ridley

Timestamp: [43:29 - 45:26]

Dave Richard and Adam Aizer discuss Calvin Ridley's performance and potential revival with the addition of Cam Ward as the Titans' quarterback.

Key Points:

• Age and Performance: Ridley, turning 31, has had consistent but unimpressive statistics.
• Quarterback Play: Cam Ward's ability to keep plays alive could enhance Ridley's opportunities.
• Fantasy Outlook: Ridley could see increased targets, but his overall fantasy value remains moderate, projected around 30th per game.

Notable Quote:

Dave Richard: "Ridley... can still get open... takes advantage of Cam Ward’s scramble plays."

Jerry Judy and Travis Hunter

Timestamp: [43:29 - 51:00]

The discussion shifts to how new draft picks, like Travis Hunter potentially joining the Browns, could impact wide receivers like Jerry Judy.

Key Points:

• Hunter's Versatility: Hunter’s ability to play both offense and defense introduces uncertainty in his snap distribution.
• Judy’s Position: Depending on Hunter's role, Judy could see reduced targets, affecting his fantasy value.

Notable Quote:

Jamie Eisenberg: "From a fantasy standpoint... Travis Hunter is a risk worth taking."

---

Team-Specific Discussions

Jacksonville Jaguars

Timestamp: [28:31 - 29:21]

Heath Cummings and Jamey Eisenberg analyze how the Jaguars' multiple draft picks could affect their current running backs, ETN and Bigsby.

Key Points:

• Potential for Overhaul: Drafting highly-rated running backs could replace existing players, diminishing their roles.
• Effectometer Rating: Given the Jaguars' expansive draft pool, existing running backs could see significant reductions, rated around 7 impact.

Cincinnati Bengals

Timestamp: [30:34 - 35:00]

Jamie Eisenberg and Heath Cummings discuss Isaiah Pacheco's potential in the Chiefs' backfield if they draft another running back.

Key Points:

• Pacheco’s Growth: Despite his past performance, Pacheco has shown improvement and potential for increased carries.
• Fantasy Relevance: Rated as the most stable among veterans, Pacheco could secure a top-tier fantasy position unless significantly outperformed by a draft pick.

Notable Quote:

Jamey Eisenberg: "Pacheco has been on track and could fend off rookie competition."

---

Wide Receiver Analysis Continued

Impact of New Receivers

Timestamp: [43:29 - 56:00]

Dave Richard and Jamie Eisenberg explore how drafting additional wide receivers affects current players like Garrett Wilson and Jacoby Myers.

Key Points:

• Competitive Targets: New receivers could split targets, reducing the fantasy points of existing receivers.
• Tier Movement: Established receivers may drop in fantasy rankings due to increased competition.

Notable Quote:

Jamie Eisenberg: "Ridley could be treated as a number three receiver, possibly pushing him out of top-tier fantasy rankings."

---

Tight End Considerations

Timestamp: [56:32 - 60:43]

The panel evaluates how drafting additional tight ends impacts current players like George Kittle and Brock Bowers.

Key Points:

• Role Stability: Elite tight ends like Kittle and Bowers are less likely to see reduced roles despite new draft additions.
• Contract Years: Players in contract years, such as Jake Ferguson, are more susceptible to role changes if new talent is drafted.

Notable Quote:

Dave Richard: "Contracts and team needs will dictate if a tight end's role diminishes."

---

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

Timestamp: [60:43 - 62:00]

Adam Aizer wraps up the episode by summarizing the critical impacts of the NFL Draft on veteran fantasy players. He emphasizes the importance of monitoring draft trends and understanding how team strategies will reshape player roles in the upcoming season.

Closing Remarks:

• Strategic Drafting: Fantasy managers should anticipate positional shifts and prepare to adjust their rosters accordingly.
• Continuous Analysis: Staying informed on draft outcomes and their implications is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge in fantasy leagues.

---

Conclusion: This episode of "Fantasy Football Today" provides an in-depth analysis of how the NFL Draft is poised to impact current veteran players in fantasy football. The hosts dissect various scenarios across multiple teams, offering valuable insights for fantasy managers aiming to optimize their rosters and dominate their leagues.

---

Note: Advertisements and non-content segments were excluded from this summary to focus solely on the podcast's analytical discussions.

Transcript

[Adam]

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[Dave]

The mother's hiding something.

[Adam]

I know it. To find her, tell me where she is.

[Jamie]

The stolen girl. Tonight at 10 on Freeform and stream on Hulu.

[Heath]

This is fantasy Football today from CBS Sports.

[Jamie]

What a play.

[Adam]

Can you believe this?

[Jamie]

No, I can't.

[Heath]

It's time to dominate your fantasy league.

[Adam]

After 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 he.

[Adam]

We welcome you to the Wednesday edition of Fantasy football today. It is April 16, everybody. I hope you paid your taxes. And now we've got to talk about the NFL draft and the NFL veterans that could be affected when a new wide receiver joins their team, when a new running back joins their team, there's going to be really a lot of that. That was not the case last year. But a lot of day two running backs, even some day three running backs Maybe in this awesome class that are going to affect some veterans. And of course, we're going to get a new quarterback for guys like Calvin Ridley and maybe Jerry Judy and whatnot. Not necessarily in round one. Anyway, welcome. We're all here. Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath. Got some screenshots to share. We've got some fun today. We're going to talk about Tyreek Hill. We're going to talk about what Travis Hunter said, what Caleb Williams says he wants to work on this week and more. All right, first, you ready?

[Jamie]

Cam Ward said no.

[Adam]

What did Cam Ward say?

[Jamie]

Cam Ward was playing Fortnite and he was asked about his favorite running backs and he said receiver Tony Pollard and Ty J. Spears. And he listed his top four favorite wide receivers. And I don't remember who 2 and 3 were, but 1 and 4 were Calvin Ridley and trailing Burks.

[Adam]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, I think Justin Jefferson was on the list. And it was. Yeah, he's going to the Titans trailing Burks, is psyched.

[Dave]

He's still on somebody's top five list.

[Jamie]

Well, all the. All the trailing Burke's truthers were so excited yesterday.

[Adam]

All right, he's back, baby. Would you like an email of the day?

[Dave]

Hell, yeah.

[Adam]

We all do. All right.

[Jamie]

I guess I didn't get the memo to wear black, by the way.

[Adam]

I feel like he is wearing blue.

[Heath]

This is a very dark blue.

[Dave]

Yes.

[Adam]

I never get that. Our email address is fantasy footballbsi.com that's the letter I. Fantasy football. Mike says last year you guys did a draft contest. Are you running the contest again this year? And the answer will definitely be yes. So just real quick on that. You can get in the podcast league if you get the most answers right. We're going to ask you to email that email address. Don't do it yet. Wait a little bit more. Wait for the news and the rumors to come out. You have a better picture of the NFL draft. But give us your top 10. Doesn't have to be the. I don't care about the teams. I just want the players, the players in order. And you have to get them right in order. People are like, I got eight right. Like, well, you got them all out of order, so it doesn't count. You got to get them right in order. More about that. I'll tell you about it tomorrow. Let's get to the show today. Give me one player that you think could be most affected by the NFL draft in a good way or a bad way. I'll start with Jamie Eisenberg.

[Jamie]

Najee Harris in a bad way.

[Adam]

You think so? You think that's going to. You think that's realistic?

[Jamie]

I mean, it wouldn't surprise me. They signed him to a one year deal. He, he has a chance to be very good this season if he doesn't get significant competition. But if he gets any competition of significance in a very loaded running back class, then he goes from being a guy I think that we're somewhat excited about to somebody that we're back to. Okay. He's in a committee again and he's just going to be a flex.

[Adam]

Probably wouldn't be great for the running back they drafted either. Right. Because it's not like you're just going to bench Najee.

[Jamie]

Right. This is what we talked about on Express the other day, Adam, in terms of like, you know, what are these teams with older or veteran running backs in place that are going to draft someone a la what happened last year, Lesser degree of talent, but, you know, Blake Corum going to the Rams and Trey Benson going to the Cardinals, those type of situations.

[Adam]

All right, let's throw it over to Heath. Heath. One player who could be affected most by the NFL draft in a good or bad way.

[Heath]

It has to be Tyrone Tracy. Like, could literally be a top 20 running back as the lead back with the Giants.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Adam]

To you, Heath.

[Jamie]

Happy birthday to you. That's fantastic.

[Adam]

All right, thank you. A day later.

[Jamie]

Thank you.

[Heath]

I appreciate that. I received nice messages from Jamie and Dave and Thomas yesterday and so I appreciate you, you contributing.

[Adam]

I sent you a message.

[Heath]

I don't know what back. Back to the regular schedule programming.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Heath]

Like there might be a dozen running backs in this class who are better than Tracy. So whereas Naji might go from being the starting running back to being a committee, Tracy could go from the starting running back to being the clear backup.

[Adam]

Oh, man, I don't know how I feel about. I want to show you guys a couple of screenshots in my limitations as a film watch game, tape watcher. Just tell me what you think you would have done if you were Tyrone Tracy. And if you can't see this, hop on over to YouTube.com/fantasy football today. YouTube.com fantasy football today. So you see he's got the ball at the 33 yard line. Are you going straight or are you gonna try to veer to your right to that hole in between the right guard and right tackle?

[Heath]

I'm gonna fall down the fetal position and hope they don't hit me too hard.

[Adam]

He should be going. He should be going to Right. He did not. He went straight into those two defenders. Why do we know? Well, I. Because I watched it, but.

[Dave]

Yeah, but I don't see it.

[Heath]

So we're supposed to trust you?

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Dave]

How do we know you didn't Acer cut this film?

[Adam]

Give me the next screenshot, please. Thomas, where are you going here? He's at the 20.

[Heath]

I'm going to cut to the left. It looks like he's cutting to the right.

[Dave]

This is the Giants Colts game from last year. I'm going to the bathroom to throw up because I started the Colts DST.

[Jamie]

Probably scored on this play.

[Adam]

This is why the Giants lost the number one pick of the draft by beating the Colts. So, yes, he does not go to the left. He goes to the right. And I just watched. I watched a decent amount. He. In this game in particular, he basically. It seems like he just follows where the play is going. I don't see great vision.

[Jamie]

I don't.

[Adam]

I don't see him improvising. Now, there's more to watch because one thing he did a lot, he had some big breakaway runs. Not in this game. We had one in this game. But, you know, he had some really good plays. But it's. I think you look at this play, it's disappointing that Tyrone Tracy does not cut to his left. And also he had one of the worst broken tackle rates in the NFL. So I think the Giants are going to draft the running back.

[Heath]

And yes, he thought Quinch on Judkins coming in, right?

[Adam]

Oh, yeah, I think so. Yeah. And Shadow Sanders, too.

[Jamie]

Well, didn't they use all their top 30 visits on all the quarterbacks that are available?

[Heath]

They had Hampton in, too, right?

[Adam]

Honestly, I don't know. I don't know. But, yeah, they're going to draft the running back, so. All right, it's good.

[Jamie]

One thing, though, with. With those screenshots, I'm glad you brought it up. You know, so this is. This is an interesting question probably for, you know, more coaches than anything we can answer, and how much they want players to follow what the play design is versus what they want them to improvise on. Now, the last one that you showed were the plays going to the right. He obviously has a chance to get a couple yards and then he, you know, compounds it to the left. That's something I'm sure that they would love to see, you know, but the first one that you showed, where there is clearly an opening to the right, but he's already going to his left. Like, how much of that is if he does. If he does cut that back, he's. It's a negative, negative point.

[Adam]

And how much of that is just inexperience? Right?

[Jamie]

I mean that was the second thing to bring. You know, you're talking about a converted receiver, played a year running back in college. Like how much of that is just him still growing in the position now that doesn't change the fact of. Yes, they're probably going to add competition or an upgrade, clearly. I mean it's, you know, they kind of got lucky with what he was able to accomplish for them last year, especially knowing that they move on from Saquon. Devin Singleter was supposed to be the guy and then Tracy was, you know, clearly better than him. But it also wouldn't shock me if they don't, you know, just given some of the other needs that they have and kind of just roll with what was something somewhat of a success for them, you know. But again, could they get better there? I think that's the answer.

[Adam]

Heath, did you want to get in? Sorry, no. Okay, let's see. The Giants have, have a top three pick in each. In. Well, every round, basically. They also have a compensatory pick in round three. So they've got a lot of picks in the first, probably 100 or so picks. Looks like they have five. I don't know. I don't know what I think their fourth round pick is overall.

[Jamie]

Barring trading back in somewhere, that second round pick is probably quarterback.

[Heath]

It'd be weird to take a quarterback after they take Sanders at three.

[Adam]

I hate you. All right.

[Jamie]

If they don't, if they pass on Abdul Carter, that would just be.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

Amazingly disappointing.

[Adam]

Dave, One player who could be most affected by the NFL draft.

[Dave]

I'm worried that Jalen Warren won't be the lead back, that we want him to be in Pittsburgh and that the Steelers, they, they do not have a lot of top 100 picks, but they can always trade down. And this is a rich running back draft. They can find somebody who can pick up the Naji role and be the physical grinder and leave Jalen Warren to part time duty again. And we won't see him be the feature back for the Steelers. And even if they don't do it like it's. It's Arthur Smith calling the plays and using multiple backs and I think Cordell Patterson's still there. So there's, there's concern that Jalen Warren won't ever be. There's concern that he won't be a top 20 to 24 running back by the time we get to August, did.

[Jamie]

You mention, I think for, sorry, the, the three scenarios that we brought up and somebody asked us in, in the chat there, there's two pretty prominent names that are still available free agency in J.K. dobbins and Nick Chubb. And so do those two guys still post draft? If a team like the Steelers, because you said it, Dave, they don't have a lot of draft capital, you know, do they go and sign one of these two guys, you know, to be sort of that physical runner that may, may need to come in to replace what Najee Harris was offering them? So it still could be like, oh, wow, look, Jalen Warren escaped the draft without anybody. And then the next day they signed J.K. dobbins.

[Adam]

You know, so Nick Chubb coming off a broken foot, J.K. dobbins, a little bit surprising, I guess, that he's still a free agent. All right, so Najee Harris, Tyrone Tracy, Jalen Warren, that's Heath. You've been talking to so many people, you know, talking NFL draft. It's kind of the theme, right? It's. And also we need to, because I'm typically a guy who's like, well, they drafted a day three running back. I don't think he's going to be that big of a, of a threat. But we might have to change that this year, right?

[Heath]

Yes. And we did the wide receiver preview yesterday with the Couch scouts, and we'll talk about that more when we get to the Travis Hunter News. But like, I think one of the things is if you fall to RB10 in this class, it's not near as big of a condemnation as if you fall to a wide receiver 10 in this class, if you're the 10th wide receiver taken in what we view as a pretty mediocre wide receiver class, that might be a bit of a red flag if you're the 10th running back. Well, there's just, there might be nine starting running backs in the class.

[Adam]

And we're going to talk about running backs extensively tomorrow with Emory Hunt. And you can hear great stuff on FFT Dynasty, the running back previews there. All right, so speaking of programming, just to give you a heads up on what's coming up next week, we're going to have. So typically we do Monday, Wednesday, Thursday morning, we'll do Monday morning, we'll do Wednesday morning, we will do Thursday night about midnight Eastern right after the draft, right after round one. We're going to do the same thing on Friday night after rounds two and three. And at some point on Saturday we will have another show for you there where we talk about the day three picks. So after the draft wraps up on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Saturday we might get started a little bit earlier. I think sometimes we start like during round seven. But whatever it may be, we are going to have content for you to give you winners and losers fantasy analysis from each round of the NFL draft. All right. We're going to take a break, come back and talk news and notes with Tyreek Hill in the news and more after this.

[Heath]

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[Adam]

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[Jamie]

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[Adam]

All right, so the Dolphins were talking about some trades they might make. They're trying to trade cornerback Jalen Ramsey, but they don't want to trade Tyreek Hill. They said they trade him for two first round picks. They're not going to get that. So unlikely. So right now it looks like Tyreek Hill will be on the Dolphins. Left tackle Tyron Smith, an absolute legend. He is retiring. He and Zach Martin will be eligible for the hall of Fame in the same year and they both could be first ballot hall of Famers. All right, so Heath, you want to talk about Travis Hunter. He said that he, he will, he is going to play both sides of the ball or he won't play football basically. And he also said that the NFL teams he's talked to have had no problems with him playing both sides of the ball.

[Heath]

I think this is the nightmare scenario for Dynasty drafters is if a team says yeah, we're going to let him play both sides of the ball. We'll, we'll figure it out in training camp how much he's going to play on both sides. Because I, I had, like I said, the couch scouts on yesterday, they have Hunter as their clear number one wide receiver in this class. And their best comp for him, I think, was Malik neighbors. Matt Harmon's been on social media talking about Hunter and his best comp for him was Odell Beckham. Yeah, so like this is an extremely talented player no matter what position he plays. And he just has natural athletic gifts that few even NFL players have. But I don't really think it doesn't seem very likely that he's playing both positions and he's the number one wide receiver on a team. Like, it seems like you're probably a 60, 70% snapshare guy on both or you're the number two option in the passing game. And if you're going into training camp with a little bit of mystery around what position he's going to play, like they were saying Yesterday, he's the 102 if he's a full time wide receiver. And I don't necessarily disagree with that, but if it's this, he's going to play both. How do you risk the second pick on them getting to camp and deciding he's going to play 80% of the snaps on defense and 30% on offense?

[Jamie]

I think you do it if you're running back bountiful, like you don't need any running backs in this, you know, season. And your wide receiver desperate, like, you know, assuming McMillan doesn't go to like the, you know, dream scenario or whoever, you know, you think is going to end up being the, you know, golden.

[Heath]

Right.

[Jamie]

If that's your guy, you know, so if he, like, if he goes to Cleveland. Right. Which is what seems to be the case at this point. I think he walks in better than Judy right away.

[Adam]

Oh, like from a fantasy standpoint.

[Jamie]

From a talent standpoint.

[Adam]

Oh, from a talent standpoint, yeah. But from a fantasy standpoint because we.

[Jamie]

Don'T know the snapshare and so like, to me it's worth the risk.

[Heath]

It's gonna be, it's gonna be fascinating.

[Adam]

Sorry. So wait, let's clarify. If he goes to Cleveland. What, what are you talking about?

[Jamie]

It's worth taking him out with the second pick in the rookie drive.

[Adam]

Oh, yeah. So like I have the third pick in our, in our league. I don't think I could do it. I just.

[Jamie]

Well, it's also super flex. I'm talking about one qb.

[Adam]

Right. So I'm. There's only one quarterback I would even consider.

[Jamie]

Right.

[Adam]

It was there. So he's. He'll probably be gone. So. Yeah, I don't think I would do it. There's just too many possibilities of. After two years, you know, who, who knows? After two years, he might be the best cornerback in football. And he's a mostly full time corner. He plays 20% of the offensive snap. That's. That's obviously. Or it's the complete opposite, I don't know. But there's too much risk there, especially when you have such a great running back class. For him to be the second pick in Dynasty, it's kind of where I'm leaning. And I think about this all the time because I know I have the third pick. I wanted to bring up one guy, the only guy I could think of that was like, good with a limited snapshare. I'm sure there's more, but. Antonio Brown with the Bucks. Two seasons with the Bucks, he averaged a 58% snap share and his 17 game pace was 99 catches, 1165 yards, nine touchdowns. That's the only thing that came to mind as a guy who like kind of didn't. Didn't play that much and, and was awesome. That was with Evans and Gronk too, right? And Godwin. That was like crazy. All right, anyway, anything else or shall we move on? Okay, we'll move on. You guys good? You guys got me? Yeah. Okay. It's weird nobody said anything. Okay. Caleb Williams. Caleb Williams said he wants to work on processing and then taking more checkdowns and then footwork. He also says he's not too interested in becoming friends with current quarterbacks. Like, it's not for me. But he says he wants to take more checkdowns, so think about that. Mike Triplett of New Orleans Football suggests that Derek Carr might be trying to force his way out of New Orleans. And he seems to have been unhappy for a little while here. So maybe that's what this shoulder thing is about. We'll see. I saw this on CBSSports.com this is something to keep in mind for Dynasty drafts. And I would just say that if you feel like if you're a team that needs a quarterback, don't just take one because you need one. All right, so There have been six NFL drafts in the past 20 years in which only one to two quarterbacks were taken in the first round. Almost every quarterback in those drafts became a bust. They were Kenny Pickett, EJ Manual, Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota, Sam Bradford, Tim Tebow, Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, jamarcus Russell and Brady Quinn. So the point of this is that is the NFL is going to tell us this is a really bad quarterback draft. Don't take one just because you need one. You know, I don't know what the. If you guys want to give any other advice there, but this is kind of, it's going to be a bad quarterback draft, it seems based on history.

[Heath]

Unless Jalen Milroe hits his upside.

[Adam]

And Baltimore's GM Eric DaCosta said he never, he never knows what's going to happen when he asked, when he was asked about Mark Andrews being on the team. So I was at the owner's meetings, right Jamie, when they gave a vote of confidence to Mark Andrews, but not so much Harbaugh did.

[Jamie]

So I didn't hear what the Costa said at the, at the meetings. I know what Harbaugh said, which was basically they're not interested in trading away good players. Now DaCosta kind of said the same thing but also left the door open that if the right offer comes along Chargers that they would probably consider, you know, moving on from him. You know, for a guy that I believe is 30 now and entering the final year of his contract, when you have a 25 year old Isaiah likely and you know, could add or see her in this class and they signed, you know, DeAndre Hopkins who could probably run similar routes to what Andrews does, especially in the red zone at this point. Yeah, so wouldn't shock me if there's a draft day trade. But my guess is this is a front office versus coaching staff, you know, that might be a little bit split on what they want to have and you know, they're starting tight end who's been pretty special.

[Adam]

They can save at least $7 million I think if they cut Mark Andrews. But I always have trouble interpreting those, those contracts.

[Jamie]

So I'd be surprised if he's cut at this point. I, I think at this point, you know, it's either trade or on the roster. It's probably the same thing with Dallas Goddard too. Like these are two guys that if the teams that are interested in the, the top three or four tight ends, which there's, you know, pretty good class there at the top if they miss on those guys or you know, again, a team like the Chargers that's looking for, you know, maybe another veteran pass catcher that has some familiarity with the office coordinator, you could see those two guys potentially on the move. Goddard and Andrews get back to players.

[Adam]

Who could be affected by the NFL draft. Dave, you gave us a Big, long list of players. And just to run through the quarterbacks real quick, you put Justin Fields, the Cleveland quarterbacks, and the Giants quarterbacks. So these are just teams that you're thinking would draft a quarterback and then. And then we'd have situations where, hey, are these guys going to get benched? Who's going to start it? Like, what do you see there? Cleveland and Giants and Jets.

[Dave]

I mean, I think you. You summed it up pretty sufficiently. These are all teams where they could draft a quarterback. And if things go south, by the time we get to Halloween, the rookie goes in and plays. I don't think there's anything that's going to stop the Browns from benching Kenny Pickett or Joe Flacco. I think the Giants could potentially feel the same way with Russ and Jameis Winston. And maybe one of those teams trades one of those quarterbacks to be a backup somewhere else because they drafted a rookie, and maybe the rookie took some steps forward in training camp. They feel a lot more confident in them. At least the jets, they don't have to bench Justin Fields. So they could stink for, you know, three quarters of the season and Fields could still play, and then they can turn to their young quarterback of the future. But those are three teams. It would make sense for them to go and get one of the. The young quarterbacks in this draft class. I didn't put the Steelers on there. I think we're all assuming that Aaron Rodgers will be the quarterback. I would have a hard time believing that the Steelers would bench Rogers for a rookie unless they were out of playoff contention. And really, throughout Mike Tomlin's career as the coach in Pittsburgh, that team's almost never out of playoff contention.

[Adam]

So I think let's go to the running backs, right? And let's talk about the running backs that could be affected. So Dave gave us a list, a ton of names here. So I just want to know. I'll go one by one and you guys tell me how affected you think they could be. What should we say, like around two to four running back, something like that. If their NFL team drafts.

[Dave]

You want to call it like a top 100 pick?

[Adam]

Yeah, maybe. I don't know if we should go a little bit deeper this year just because running back is so good, you know, but. So, yeah, I don't know if I'm gonna be really too moved by around five pick, but maybe. Depends on the player. But top 100, top 120, something like that. Alvin Kamara.

[Jamie]

What are you looking for us to say?

[Adam]

I'M sorry, how affected? Okay. Yeah. Effect. Effectometer. Effectometer. This team drafts a running back in rounds two, three or four. How affected is this veteran going to be by the rookie Alvin Camara? He says not very affected at all. A two on the effectometer?

[Dave]

Yeah, it's not going to be high. So four max.

[Adam]

Okay. Chase Brown.

[Jamie]

If it's, if it's a not a not around one pick, then yeah, I think that's fair. Yeah.

[Adam]

No round one picks.

[Jamie]

You're hearing, you're hearing genties. Somebody on their list, which would be terrifying.

[Adam]

Yeah, well, okay, we'll cross that. They do that.

[Dave]

They've got to move Camaro to Denver. Chase Brown put Camaro back with Sean Payne. It sounds like Chase Brown's safe, probably in that same range as Alvin Camara, where he'd be like a 3, 3 or 4. If they added a physical type of running back that could come in and, and take work off of him.

[Jamie]

Five or six if they had somebody on that level.

[Adam]

Heath, you said six. Jamie sort of agrees. Dave's not as worried about Chase Brown. Go ahead.

[Heath]

Yeah, I think like we've seen Camara function as an elite fantasy producer based on his receiving volume. And so if the Saints are going to have another early down rusher, we know that. What is Chase Brown's share of the backfield? Like right now it probably looks like it's 65, 70%. Late last year it was higher than that. If they go get a running back in round two or round three, I could see that by mid season being 40 or 45%. There's, there are running backs in this class that are better than Chase Brown.

[Jamie]

So I, I agree with everything he's just said. I also think what they've started with is, is accurate too. I don't think they add anybody. I, you know, based on what Zach Taylor said when I asked him about it at the owners meetings about, you know, what Chase Brown did and he said he's one of our guys, you know, like basically in the same context of, you know, the receivers and Joe Burrow, like it would be surprising if they're going to look for a replacement. So clearly if they do that, then that's telling. But I, I think it's more of do they feel the need to upgrade over Zach Moss and a guy that they brought in, brought back and Samaj P. Ryan, you know, to add a little bit more depth there and somebody with more talent than those guys. But I think the signing of P. Ryan and the fact that Moss is still right now on the roster kind of tells you, I think, what their plan is. Like, that's not an area of need for them with that defense right now. If, if they're looking at their backfill and saying we need to fix that, like, they really need some help and.

[Dave]

They don't have a ton of like, they have one pick in round six and seven combined, but it wouldn't surprise me if they use that one pick on one of the day three running backs just to see if they can find somebody to take some of the work off of Chase Brown.

[Adam]

The Bengals have one pick 17th overall in each of the first six rounds. I do think they're going to draft a running back. Well, I put this way, I wouldn't be surprised just because it is so deep. It's arguably the best position in the draft. If you walk out of this draft without a running back, you might be doing yourself a disservice. So I Do you feel that way too, Heath?

[Heath]

Yeah, I, I expect them to draft a running back between rounds three and round six. And if it's round three, then it's a big problem for Chase Brown. If it's round six, then it probably doesn't matter at all for Chase Brown.

[Adam]

All right, next up we have the Jaguars running backs ETN and Bigsby.

[Heath]

Is the number a combination of how likely we think it is and the impact or just the impact?

[Adam]

Just the impact.

[Jamie]

Six.

[Adam]

Effectometer.

[Dave]

I think they could find a guy that wipes out BigSby and makes ETN a limited component of the offense. They've got a ton of picks, so I'm gonna go higher than that. I'll say seven.

[Jamie]

Yeah, I think that's fair. You're also hearing maybe Genti at 5 to them.

[Heath]

They should I there I, I and this is just philosophically, like, this is a not a very good football team. They have so many needs. I don't know. It's kind of like in baseball you go get a great closer when you might have 45 save opportunities. Like, it's a lot of they're not in the stage, I don't think, where you add a running back.

[Adam]

You mean in round one or overall, right?

[Heath]

No, I think that they might draft one, but they also, like, I could also see them thinking like, we have a lot bigger needs even than RB2. We already have an RB2.

[Adam]

Yeah, that's fair.

[Dave]

But they need playmakers just period. And Genti is one of the playmakers in there. There are very few, like players that you can look at in this draft. And say, all right, that guy's going to be a student. Like there might only be three of those players in this draft and Genti is definitely one of them. It wouldn't shock me if they took Genty and then kind of relegated the other two running backs.

[Jamie]

It's also, that's the spot a lot of people are looking at saying that this is where the Bears try to go, this is where the Raiders try to go from a trade perspective is to get to five. So you know, and it may be they're competing with each other.

[Adam]

They got Jaguars have seven picks in the top 142. They have four picks in the top 88, six picks in the top 126. They do have a lot of ammo. All right, next up we've got Jalen Warren. We talked about Isaiah Pacheco. How effective would he be if the Chiefs draft a running back in rounds two through four? As I'll reframe it here. Isaiah Pacheco effect o meter.

[Jamie]

7 or 8.

[Dave]

It wouldn't it be weird though if they did this because they've already spent. They brought back Kareem Hunt, they've got Elijah Mitchell. Do they need. How many more running backs do they really need? Are they just stockpiling? Is this a team that really needs a running back? This is like the opposite of what Heath was saying with Jacksonville. Like obviously they want good players too, but do they need to go and spend pick 31 on Hampton or.

[Heath]

I sure hope not. Not what I want.

[Dave]

But no, they need offensive line.

[Heath]

I have won it before.

[Jamie]

And don't you think they learned their lesson from that though?

[Heath]

I don't know. But I also like were either Hunts or Mitchell's deals like prohibitive to just like getting to camp and be like.

[Dave]

No, see I mean I think both of them are like that, right?

[Jamie]

I mean you look at their backfield, it might be the least expensive running back room in the league. I mean you have a seventh round guy in Pacheco, you have two one year deals in Mitchell and Hunt. Carson Steele I can't imagine has anything of money involved there, you know, as an undrafted guy. So it, it I wouldn't shock me either way. You know, I mean they, they just made the super bowl and back to back seasons with a seventh round running back, a retread guy and you know, I know they had Clyde Whistler two years ago on the roster as a first round pick but we know what that was for them. So it almost feels as if they're telling us what they doing, what they, you know, can get by with. And why would you change that if you have guys that you're comfortable with? And again, I'll go back to what Andy Reid told me at the meetings which was, you know, they felt that he, Pacheco came back too soon and you know, he said most guys wouldn't have come back from that. But if you met him for a second, you know that he wasn't going to be held back and then expecting him to be better, you know, so coach speak, whatever you want to take it for, just seeing the moves and then hearing that, yes, they could certainly bring somebody in. I would think it's more of a late round variety and hope that they hit on another Pacheco.

[Heath]

We, we had a question in the chat about the guarantees for Hunt and Eli and it's, It's a combined 2.2 million for the two of them. So it's nothing super cheap.

[Dave]

And all three of these guys might not be on the Chiefs roster next year. So at some point they should add a running back. But could be like Cincinnati. It could be on day three.

[Adam]

We know Pacheco is better than what he showed in 2023. Averaged 4.6 yards per carry. He was the number 14 running back per game on pace for 249 carries, 53 catches, about 1450 yards. But so we know he's better than that. So, so here's my question, right? I know based on what we said earlier that if the Steelers or Giants draft a running back in like say round three, we're going to be pretty concerned about Jalen Warren and Tyrone Tracy. So let's say the Steelers, Giants, Chiefs and Bears and throw the Bears in there, they all draft a running back in round three. We, in this hypothetical situation, we like all of these four rookie running backs the same. Right. It's not like, well, I like this guy so much but you know, it's the same draft capital, it's the same type of player. I know you're worried about Warren, I know you're worried about Tracy. How do Pacheco and In this case DeAndre Swift compare in terms of how concerned you are about them losing their roles and becoming non fantasy relevant compared to Warren and Tracy. Does that make sense?

[Jamie]

Warren doesn't necessarily worry me so much as these other guys because I think he's still going to have his role.

[Adam]

Yeah, but, but now he. But right. He's set up. But he could lose the, the potential to be.

[Heath]

I don't really know.

[Jamie]

I know what you're saying, but like, he doesn't like Tracy could be irrelevant. I wouldn't, it wouldn't shock me if DeAndre Swift is somewhat irrelevant. You know, just knowing that it's a coaching staff that knows him that's coming in saying, okay, yeah, you didn't work out so well for me in Detroit. I'm gonna move on from you in Chicago too. So, like, I think Warren just kind of goes. I don't think Warren is worse than what he was. You know what I mean?

[Adam]

Like, no, but he's worse than what he is right now.

[Jamie]

Correct.

[Heath]

You don't believe.

[Jamie]

You want to go off that premise, that's fine.

[Heath]

Right?

[Adam]

That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Like we were drafting, doing a fancy.

[Jamie]

I'm worried about all of them.

[Adam]

I'm worried about Jalen.

[Heath]

A 300 touch running back. He's going to share with somebody. It's just how much he's going to share.

[Adam]

Yeah, but I'm, I'm worried. I, I would, I would think I'd be the least worried about Pacheco.

[Heath]

I'd be the least worried about Warren.

[Jamie]

I'd be least worried about Warren. Tune.

[Adam]

I would think if all four of those teams, if the Chiefs, Steelers, Giants and Bears draft a running back in round three, I think Pacheco has the best chance to be a 250 carry guy out of the four veterans.

[Jamie]

He could also be on the bench the entire game.

[Adam]

Why, though?

[Heath]

I think he probably does have a better chance of being a 250 carry guy than Jalen Warren. I still think Jalen Warren has a better chance of being a top 30 fantasy running back because he's going to catch 50 or 60 passes.

[Adam]

I think Pacheco. Agreed. I think Pacheco has the best chance to be a top 12 running back.

[Dave]

Who'S got the best chance to score seven touchdowns.

[Adam]

I think Pacheco has the best chance to just fend off the rookie running back to be a James Conner from last year, is what I'm saying.

[Heath]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

And I, yeah, he could, I mean, obviously, but is he all the way back from that injury and, you know, like Dave said, this is a guy that they have such little investment in and could be off the team next year. You know, they may be looking at it as they have it. It really comes down to who it is, you know, I mean, if it's more of like a smaller, you know, guy, then I think it's more Pacheco still their physical runner and, and can get the 250 carries. And then maybe we're seeing like a Jerick McKinnon type of player for them as, as a pass catcher and, and a gimmick guy. You know, if, if the Steelers bring in, you know, more of a guy that's apt to run on first and second down, like Jalen Warren just kind of goes back to what he was.

[Heath]

And, and I think it's worth remembering. Like I know Pacheco had a good two thirds of a season or whatever, but like his career high in touches is 249.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Heath]

He was not a high pedigree guy. He's not a great pass catcher. He hasn't, they haven't shown a whole lot of faith of him in short yardage. Like they, they had great success with him and won a Super bowl with him. And that's, that's great. One, two Super Bowls with him. But he, he's never had a thousand yard rushing season. He's never had a 10 touchdown.

[Adam]

No.

[Heath]

But he's never had a 50 catch season.

[Adam]

Have any of these guys had a thousand yards as Swift? Maybe, but I mean none of these guys are. I'm just comparing him. I understand all the risks.

[Heath]

Well, the other guys are almost universally better pass catchers and Swift did have a thousand yard season.

[Jamie]

Okay. Yeah.

[Adam]

I don't know. I just feel like I, I feel like. So someone said this in the chat. The Chiefs draft Caleb Johnson. That was the second one. Sorry, here we go. Ricky says if the Chiefs drafted Caleb Johnson out of Iowa, he's the starter. And I don't know if I agree with that. I mean, I think Pacheco probably, if the Chiefs take a running back in the third round, I think Pacheco opens the year as a starter.

[Dave]

But Johnson could be the starter by November.

[Heath]

Would depend on how camp went. I think like Caleb Johnson has immensely more pedigree and talent coming out of college than Isaiah Pacheco.

[Adam]

I guess, I guess I just look at Pacheco as a good player and he was, he's been a good player. You know, he's, he's a solid running man. The Chiefs, I think the Chiefs have a good running back if he's healthy.

[Jamie]

Oh, they definitely have a good running back if he's healthy. I mean, look, he's, he's outperformed his draft.

[Heath]

Right.

[Jamie]

Capital. And you know, to, to use the, the pedigree word. Sure. It, it wasn't clearly ideal when you're talking about, you know, brock Purdy was Mr. Irrelevant. Well, a few picks before him was when Pacheco Went, you know, in round seven in that same draft class. But he also was the fastest running back of the combine that year and had a good career at Rutgers. And it clearly has done wonderful things for this team, despite the fact that he hasn't reached, you know, some statistical measures that I think we look at and say, okay, they're great. But he was on his way last year, I'll tell you that much. Those first two games were fantastic. When we were talking about him as a top 10 fantasy running back and a guy that could maybe be a top five guy, I know he was on Dave's breakout list last year, you know, so there was a lot to love about what Pacheco looked like in those first two games. And I'm sure the Chiefs are looking at it and saying if we get that guy back, then why would we even spend a draft pick on it when we have to fix our offensive line and add some pieces on defense and, you know, all those things. So I think the later in the draft it goes, the better it is. But yes, round three would certainly raise some red flags.

[Adam]

Completely agree. I not. Just to be clear, I'm not disputing that round three running back pick wouldn't raise red flags, but it obviously would raise red flags in all four of those situations. So I was just trying to figure out which one we thought had the chance to, to really be James Connor. Right. Like, let's just think about they draft. Trey Benson was round three, they picked him, right? Benson, or was it two, three or four?

[Heath]

Yeah. I think we should clarify. We can talk about Pacheco being a good back. None of these guys are James Connor.

[Adam]

I'm not willing to say that about Pacheco. As a pass catcher, you're probably right. But as a rusher, I don't know. I think Pacheco's pretty good. But, but he's also, you know, if the Chiefs, Chiefs have a great offensive season. You thought the lead running back for the Chiefs could be, could be a great pick. I guess. I guess I like Pacheco.

[Heath]

I guess you're a big Pacheco guy.

[Jamie]

I think it's also, again, you know, while it's a loaded class, you know, to go back to Heath's, you know, scenario of being the 10th running back in this class. Like, are we talking about running backs 7, 8, 9 and 10 in the third round?

[Heath]

Right.

[Jamie]

Or are we talking about, you know, we, we could sit here and say, yes, there's a, this is a very talented class and there's going to Be some teams that are going to play roulette with this and say, okay, who's going to fall to round three? Who's going to fall to round four and take other players in round two. Like, most likely are two guys going in the first round. Right. At best, I would think, you know, just how teams operate. Genti's going to first time for sure. Hampton seems like he's going to go in the first round as well. And then it's just how many of these guys go in round two? You know, typically we see three or four going round two.

[Adam]

Right.

[Jamie]

I don't know the number. I'm just off top of my head.

[Adam]

Sounds about right.

[Jamie]

When it's a good class. And, you know, this is a. A pretty special one. But again, as the depth is so good with this class, you know, how many teams are going to say, okay, Henderson versus Caleb Johnson? I know they're different players, but, you know, just terms of how they view those guys or, you know, whichever two you want to throw out there, we don't need to draft him here. We're going to get him in round three. We don't need a draft in round three. We're gonna get him around four, you know, and so then how much do we view the sliding scale of. Based on the talent to the situation that they're walking into, and how much does that impact the veteran?

[Heath]

And I. I will say, like, I had Jacob Gibbs on for this part two of the running back preview, and I don't know if anybody is excited about the running backs outside of the top five, as he is. Like, he. He loves somebody.

[Jamie]

Tomorrow does, I'm sure.

[Heath]

Yeah, I'm sure Alan will as well. Yes. But like RJ Harvey, he got so many of those. He got Dylan Sampson.

[Dave]

Sure.

[Heath]

So it might be that RB9 or 10 is actually RB5 and we just.

[Adam]

Have the order wrong, maybe. Okay, so we've got to move on here from running backs. We'll get to wide receivers. By the way, it looks like I can get a Pacheco Jersey for about 75 bucks, so that's a little bit too much for me. You might.

[Heath]

You might want to wait just a few days.

[Adam]

There you go.

[Jamie]

Might be 7.$5.

[Adam]

There are other running backs that Dave listed. We can't get into it, but Ramandre Stevenson, the Commanders running backs, Jerome for the Broncos guys, Javante Williams on Dallas. Now guys entering contract years. Breeze Hall, James Cook, Kyron Williams, Ken Kenneth Walker, Derrick Henry, Isaiah Pacheco, Jalen Warren, Najee Harris, and Travis DT and Java Romford. Okay. All right. We're gonna take a break and talk about wide receivers when we come back on fantasy football today.

[Jamie]

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[Adam]

Go to your happy price. Priceline.

[Heath]

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[Dave]

There's some big rut out there and.

[Adam]

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[Jamie]

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[Adam]

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[Heath]

You got some place to be on May 2nd.

[Adam]

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[Jamie]

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[Heath]

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[Adam]

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[Heath]

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[Adam]

So who's the wide receiver that could see his value affected one way or the other the most by the NFL draft?

[Jamie]

Jerry Duty.

[Adam]

I think it's either.

[Dave]

Judy is the name that we kind of gravitate to because Travis Hunter is going to Cleveland, or at least that's what we think. We don't know where McMillan's going. If he goes to Las Vegas, that's obviously going to impact Jacoby Myers. If he were to go to New Orleans, it's going to impact Olave Carolina would impact those Panthers guys. But there are. There are teams up and down the round that could use a good wide receiver to further their passing game.

[Heath]

The difference obviously is we don't think that there are five, six, seven, eight wide receivers in this class that could just come in and be number ones right away. Where there are that. That running back, there's. There's a lot of potential number two wide receivers in this class, but not as many potential number ones.

[Adam]

Hey, we got to talk about Calvin Ridley here, right? Calvin Ridley is probably going to get Cam Ward. He's Cam Ward's favorite receiver in the NFL ever. So how big of a boost is that going to be? Can we show one Calvin Ridley screenshot? Look how bad he is in this picture. He's Wide open and I think it was Will Levis does not throw it to him. He's like, come on, throw me the damn ball. I did watch as we Calvin Ridley routes today. I still think he's got some, some juice left. He's kind of a savvy route runner. He was 22nd on ESPN's Open metric. So he can still get open, he can still run by guys. But we need to see a lower adot. A dot was like 15 yards or something too high. Maybe it's 13. I think it was 15 too high. But anyway, yeah, like we're, we're also.

[Dave]

One of those older wide receivers that we're going to be worried about this year. He's going to turn 31 during the season.

[Adam]

That is true. And he's got. Look, Calvin Ridley has two straight seasons with 17 games played and a little bit more than a thousand receiving yards. It's pretty disappointing. So what do we think? How big of an upgrade is Cam Ward and how good could Calvin Ridley be? Dave?

[Dave]

I think it could be very good if the Titans don't do a ton else at wide receiver. But it would surprise me if they didn't draft at least one more pass catcher to go along with Ridley. You can't go into the season with, with trailing Burks as your number two receiver. He might not even be healthy by the time we get to week one. But Ridley, you said it, he still has some juice in his legs. He's still a good target earner. I think they do have to reconfigure his role. He can get open still. And with this quarterback Cam Ward, one of his strengths is keeping plays alive and looking downfield and finding open guys that you can't believe. He finds 20 plus yards open downfield and that could be Ridley so he can really benefit from those scramble plays on top of all the plays that are designed for him. And if they don't add anybody like if they don't spend their second round pick on, you know, Jaden Higgins or you know, some, some of these other top shelf type of wide receivers. Even though it's a down year for wide receiver, there's a path for him to see seven and a half targets per game for Ridley. And with Cam Ward thrown to him instead of Will Levis, it's a better decision maker. It's not necessarily a stronger arm, but a more accurate arm and someone who can find Calvin Ridley three, four seconds after the ball's been snapped and could lead to a first down off schedule. I like it a lot for Ridley.

[Heath]

I, I'm, I'm just going to read you three numbers, Adam, and you tell me what these three numbers are. 208.3, 208.3. 179.8, 214.2.

[Dave]

My weights when I was in middle.

[Adam]

School, his, his fantasy points in his last three full seasons.

[Heath]

Those are the last three quarterbacks passing yards per game that were drafted number one overall. Oh, I do not think you should expect Cam Ward to be general. There's been good rookies recently, but generally speaking rookie quarterbacks are not good.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Heath]

Who are they for the pass catchers.

[Jamie]

If you're taking the optimistic view for Ridley, you're hoping for Cortland Sutton and Terry McLaurin. I mean you know what those two veteran guys were with rookie quarterbacks last year, you know and so the draft capital for Ridley will be fantastic whether he hits or not. You're not spending a huge, you're not spending a significant draft pick on him, you know, for what the upside could be. And it's hard to expect him to be dramatically worse than what he was last year, you know, with Will Levis. So I think you just treat him as a number three receiver and if he hits, he could be a top 20 guy. I don't think he's going to be a top 10 guy but you know, you're hoping that he can find the end zone seven, eight times. You know I, I think that's somewhat hopeful but realistic. You're hoping for him to be 1100 yards, you know, probably on a good year and, and 75 plus catches. I don't think that's huge ass. Especially looking at what this receiving.

[Dave]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're drafting ridley in round six or seven and he gets you 14 PPR points per game, you'd be thrilled with that. That's a good return.

[Jamie]

You want.

[Dave]

That's what DJ Moore had with Caleb Williams last year.

[Adam]

So let's see. 3994 divided by 17K. So Jaden Daniels actually I know he's not the number one pick. Jaden Daniels actually averaged 235 passing yards per game. If you remove. But you gotta look, he barely played in week 18 and he left. No, it was. What was. It was the Eagles game. No, that was Hertz got hurt. It was a week 18 and it was that one game where Mario, the Panthers game he averaged in his healthy games 200.

[Jamie]

I mean throwing the, the rib injury.

[Adam]

Too like you know, 235 passing Bonix, 222 passing yards per game. I think Cam Work could maybe get to that. That's what. That's.

[Dave]

If there's a high concentration of targets for Ridley, then Ridley will get the majority of those 222 yards.

[Heath]

He might get a third of them.

[Adam]

Well, let me just give you the number 130, because Dave, you said seven and a half targets per game. That's 127 targets. So Ridley, let's give him 130 targets. That is what he was on pace for after DeAndre Hopkins was traded and he had 80 catches or his pace. His pace in 11 games without Hopkins was 80 catches, 1,289 yards. It's a lot. Only five touchdowns on 130 targets. In that stretch, Calvin Ridley was the number 30 wide receiver per game in full PPR, 26 per game and half PPR. And actually the Tennessee quarterbacks were on. Were actually on pace for over 4,000 passing yards, which I don't think Cam Ward will do with 25 touchdowns, 20 interceptions. That was their pace. Do we think. What do we think of that? What do we think of 30th overall per game? 30th.

[Jamie]

Right about the spot you should be drafting.

[Adam]

So next question. Cam Ward of the Titans, Jerry Judy or Travis Hunter to the Browns. Which. Which wide receiver you taking first? Well, of the three, Ridley, Hunter, Judy.

[Jamie]

Flaco's a starter.

[Adam]

They draft Jackson Dart in the day two or something.

[Jamie]

So then it changes things for me.

[Dave]

Yeah, yeah.

[Heath]

I'm probably just going Ridley either way. But like, there's too many moving parts. Who's the starter for the Browns? What is the team talking about? Where Hunter's going to play. Where does Hunter actually play?

[Jamie]

Browns don't take a quarterback and we find out Hunter spending 70% of his time at wide receiver. I'm taking Hunter.

[Dave]

Agreed.

[Adam]

Okay, so who, who else should we talk about here? What do you think about lad McConkey? I think they either they draft a tight end or they draft a wide receiver in the first two rounds. What do you think about McConkey? Do you downgrade him?

[Heath]

I don't really care what they do in the draft. I just don't want them to resign. Keenan Allen.

[Jamie]

Yeah, that would be the worst case. Tight end, no receiver, round one. I'd be a little concerned.

[Adam]

Here's a hypothetical. The Raiders draft Ashton Genty. Does that affect Bowers or Myers in any significant way? I. I believe. Before you answer, I believe the Raiders had the fewest running back carries in football last year. They did have the fourth Most pass attempts.

[Jamie]

So not move Bowers from tight end one.

[Heath]

No.

[Jamie]

And I don't think Myers. That moves the needle for him either way. Okay. Myers definitely is. Is a concern if they draft a receiver. When you're talking about what his pedigree is.

[Adam]

The jets drafts shoulder Sanders, what do they have? The seventh pick, eighth pick? They obviously seven obviously have Justin Fields. They draft Shadur Sanders. Does this do anything to Garrett Wilson?

[Dave]

I. It makes me happier with Garrett Wilson. I don't know if I would move him up my rankings unless we knew that Shador adapted to the jets offense quickly and was going to start for them week one. That's what it really would take for Garrett Wilson to go back to being like a top 36 type player overall.

[Adam]

Okay, anything else, guys? Anything else? Wide receivers.

[Heath]

The 49ers are interesting.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Adam]

Yeah. There's a lot 49ers. Okay, what's the scenario that's interesting to you?

[Heath]

They take a wide receiver in the first two rounds. And what does that mean for Jennings and Pearsall? Yeah, I'm just kind of assuming that Iuke's not going to matter until like week 10.

[Adam]

Boy, I would really hate for them to do that. To draft a wide receiver in the first two rounds, that would bother me. Although I don't. I do think rookie wide receivers don't really tend to have a huge impact for. For in Kyle Shanahan offenses. It takes a little while for them.

[Dave]

It does. There are a lot of receivers that kind of fit what they look for. You know, shifty, shifty types of receivers with good hands. It could be somebody as early as a buka if they really fall in love with a Buca in round one. Burden could be.

[Adam]

We.

[Dave]

We talked about burden and compared him to Debo Samuel a ton. What if they just get burdened to replace Debo? That kind of makes some sense. But then you. You go down the line. There's a bunch of other Royals. No. Who else is on this list that's. That's real shifty. Kyle Williams, maybe. Like, there are guys. Jalen Lane, if we're gonna go a little bit deeper, there are guys that they draft who can, you know, run the slant and get open on timing patterns that fit their offense perfectly. And Jennings is a free agent to be. Ayuk is on the shelf. We have no idea what he'll be when he comes back. This is a team that could use another wide receiver for sure.

[Jamie]

It just seems weird, though, with what they got rid of and the things that they were saying. At the meetings you know about, they spent all this money on their defensive line the last two years and they've had to get rid of all those guys. They need linebacker help, they need offensive line help. Like receiver is somewhat of a luxury for them. Yes, they could certainly add another one there, but, like, right after paying IUK and paying Jennings and drafting Pierce, all like, I don't know, it'd be surprising if they, if they spent early capital on it.

[Dave]

Were you surprised when they took Piersol last year?

[Jamie]

Well, you could see the writing on the wall. I mean, knowing that the, you know, Debo's getting older and his contract situation being what it was. And at that point, remember, IUK was going into what they thought was going to be a holdout, which it was, so they didn't know what was happening there. So. Yes, it didn't surprise me at all that. That they drafted a wide receiver that high. Yes, that surprised me. But drafting a receiver early, no.

[Dave]

Okay, that's fair. I don't think there's as much urgency as there was last year, but there's still some urgency. They've got two third rounders, two fourth rounders. They'll get, they'll get one wide receiver before the end of round four.

[Jamie]

It's also, again, you know, not a great class. And so do they play out the string of Jennings with his contract and go into next year with the hope of maybe hitting on somebody that could be a little bit more significant.

[Adam]

I would say if the 49ers take a wide receiver in round three or four or both, even, it would not do anything from, for me personally, for.

[Jamie]

I wouldn't worry anything past round one, to be honest, on that team.

[Adam]

Quite possible. And we'll, you know, I'll get into this more. I'll. I'll update my research, but basically, you know, I, I don't expect much from wide receivers drafted late round two or later. There are definitely going to be exceptions. I, I get that early round two. You still get some really good receivers late round two. Just as rookies. Just as rookies. You don't get a huge impact typically from guys like that. So just something to keep in mind. All right. Tight ends. Is there a tight end that has more to lose than David Ajoku?

[Jamie]

Because they had a receiver or type?

[Adam]

Yeah, because they had a receiver.

[Jamie]

Oh, I see. I don't know about that, though. I mean, you're still talking about its team. If, if it's Hunter. Like, Joe Flacco was awesome with Ninjoku.

[Adam]

Yeah. But he didn't have Jerry Judy. He didn't have said he had a Martin Cooper who didn't have Travis. Travis Prime. Yeah, he did. No, you're right, it was, it was, it was great. He, he was on, wasn't he on like a 5000 yard pace or something? It was insane.

[Jamie]

Flacco.

[Adam]

Yeah, Flacco.

[Jamie]

Yeah, he was nuts.

[Adam]

Yeah. But if, if Hunter's going to hurt Judy, why wouldn't he hurt Nijoku?

[Jamie]

Oh, he's going to hurt him. But I mean you say most to.

[Adam]

Lose, who do you think has more to lose than a joker?

[Jamie]

I don't know if I've given it as much thought as you.

[Heath]

Jake Ferguson.

[Adam]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Dave]

He's in a contract year too, I believe.

[Adam]

Yeah, he's gonna be, he could be useless because the Cowboys could definitely take, you know, Matthew golden in round one or something like that.

[Dave]

I think all the teams that have been mocked tight ends from the, from the mock draft experts are kind of thin at that position. Anyway. I've heard about like the Dolphins getting Colson Loveland for example, and upgrading there over John who Smith, but I don't see that's almost like a luxury item again, like I wouldn't see the Dolphins with all the needs they have spending that type of draft capital on a position that really was not big for them at all until last year. So like I, I, it's going to be a team, there's two tight ends that are going to go in round one. They're going to be the teams that are desperate for a playmaker at that position. They're both playing. Tyler Warren's a playmaker, Colson Loveland's a playmaker. Those guys are going to end up being very good and the teams that draft them are going to utilize them as such. They'll impact wide receivers more than tight ends.

[Jamie]

And I think if you see like Mason Taylor for example, go somewhere like it could be a Ben Senate situation where you know, there's plenty of talent but he could be behind somebody who's still a contributor, you know, that a team views as they're not going to necessarily move away from them or he doesn't prove himself to be as good as the guy in front of him.

[Adam]

So yeah, so in my mind, yeah in my mind when I asked this question, which tight ends have the most to lose if a team drafts another tight end? Okay, obviously that's a huge, that's an issue like Michael Mayer, you know, Brock Bowers. I'm thinking they draft a wide receiver or or they. Or maybe it's Chigo conquo you know, getting Cam Ward or something like that. I don't know. But I was just thinking tight end's probably not going to be too. Too affected, but Najoku comes to mind. And I think Ferguson's a great call as well. Is there anything that could happen for the Raider, like if the Raiders draft. McMillan. Is that gonna. Is that gonna downgrade Bowers in any way?

[Jamie]

Not significantly.

[Dave]

It's target competition, obviously, so you'd be a little worried. But I don't know if it's enough to move them to number two. Like Heath said. I think Bowers would still be number one.

[Jamie]

Like the. The.

[Dave]

There are a lot of older tight ends that are entering a contract year who could get the. The Senate situation. Okay, you mentioned Andrews. Goddard's in the contract here. Ferguson's in the country, Nijoku's in a contract here. Johnnu Kittle. Could it be possible? And then Kyle Pitts is in a contract here as well.

[Adam]

What. What is possible? Are you asking about Kittle?

[Dave]

Is it possible that the 49ers draft the heir apparent to George Kittle?

[Adam]

Sure, but it's not going to change our George Kittle outlook at all. Right. I mean, if they take Tyler Warren, maybe, but if they take a tight end, and anytime other than an elite tight end of the first round. Yeah. No one's taking George Kittle off the field, right?

[Jamie]

No.

[Dave]

No one puts Baby in a corner.

[Adam]

Exactly. Heath, what movie is that from? I don't know. Dirty Dancing. You ever seen it?

[Heath]

Unfortunately.

[Adam]

It's great. It's. It's really good.

[Jamie]

Here we go.

[Adam]

No, it's a really good movie.

[Heath]

Really awful.

[Adam]

Dave. You know, it's good.

[Dave]

It's good. I wouldn't say it with the same enthusiasm you did.

[Adam]

I would say, honestly, you know, there are those movies where you grew up watching and you like them, then you watch them later and you realize they're not good. Like Top Gun, worst movie in the world. Dirty Dancing is movie I hadn't. I didn't see until, I don't know, the last five years or so. It's actually pretty good movie. Very good.

[Jamie]

You've seen it twice?

[Adam]

No, I've seen.

[Jamie]

It's.

[Adam]

It's always on TV. So now I've seen it, you know, 10 times.

[Jamie]

So you've seen Dirty Dancing 10 times with the Soprano Zero.

[Adam]

Correct. Yeah.

[Jamie]

You've invested 20 hours of your life.

[Adam]

Well, you know, it's out of the background. It's one of those. It's out of the background. Movies hungry.

[Jamie]

You're dancing along with the movie, aren't you?

[Adam]

Have you seen when you're dancing?

[Heath]

You're definitely the one that gets lifted up, right?

[Adam]

What's the.

[Dave]

Steve Carell knows at least that much about it.

[Adam]

The Steve Carell. Ryan Gosling movie. Crazy Stupid Love. You seen that?

[Heath]

No.

[Jamie]

That's a good movie.

[Adam]

Oh, that is a great movie. That is truly great, great movie. I highly recommend it. But they do have a Dirty Dancing reference in that. In that moment. Yes. Nobody puts a or A's for them. Thank you, Johnny. That's great. All right, we are.

[Jamie]

We are out of here.

[Adam]

We will talk to you tomorrow with Emory Hunt previewing the running back. So until then, have a great day, everybody. See you. Paramount podcast.

[Heath]

Prepare to be entertained. Gladiator 2 is now streaming on Paramount.

[Jamie]

You hear that crowd?

[Heath]

It's ferociously entertaining. I'm just here for the games. And an absolute triumph.

[Adam]

Take your father's strength.

[Jamie]

His name is Maximus.

[Heath]

Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal. With Connie Nielsen and Denzel Washington.

[Jamie]

Strength and honor. Strength and honor.

[Heath]

Gladiator 2, directed by Ridley Scott. Now streaming on Paramount. Rated R.