AFC South Breakdown + Pessimistic Hope - Fantasy Football Podcast for 7/8

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast Summary: "AFC South Breakdown + Pessimistic Hope"

Release Date: July 8, 2025

In this episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast, hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright delve deep into the intricacies of the AFC South Division, providing listeners with expert analysis, strong opinions, and actionable fantasy football advice. The discussion spans team performances, key player outlooks, and strategic fantasy considerations, all while maintaining an engaging and informative dialogue.

---

1. Introduction to the AFC South Breakdown

Timestamp: 19:09

Mike Wright kicks off the main content by outlining the structure of the divisional breakdown. He emphasizes the unique challenges within the AFC South, noting the disparity in team performances and the absence of balanced competition.

Mike Wright:
"The AFC South is a weird division because to me it is like there's no conversations today. I believe that will happen. That will not be very two sided, very balanced."
(19:21)

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2. Houston Texans Analysis

Timestamp: 19:21 - 26:56

The discussion begins with an in-depth look at the Houston Texans. Last season, they clinched the division with a 10-7 record but struggled with a neutral point differential, ultimately raising questions about their consistency and the impact on fantasy football.

Key Points:

• Quarterback Play: C.J. Stroud's performance has been a focal point. Despite being highly drafted, his season was marred by offensive line issues and inconsistent team performance.

  Jason Moore:
  "CJ Stroud as a fantasy option was a complete failure last year because he was driven up very high in average draft position by a rookie season where people were just enchanted."
  (09:36)

• Running Backs: The addition of J.K. Dobbins presents a potential boost, but raises concerns about RJ Harvey's role and fantasy value.

  Andy Holloway:
  "Both of these guys will be valuable and they will both be in a committee."
  (12:20)

• Wide Receivers: Nico Collins remains a top target when healthy, but the offensive line's struggles could hinder his production.

  Mike Wright:
  "If things could break the right way where Nico finishes as the wide receiver one at the end of the season, I think he's that good in the connection with Stroud."
  (25:24)

Fantasy Implications:
Houston presents both opportunities and risks. With potential depth in the running back and wide receiver positions, savvy fantasy managers might find hidden gems, especially if Collins returns to form.

---

3. Indianapolis Colts Analysis

Timestamp: 26:56 - 43:22

The Colts experienced a turbulent 8-9 season, with all their wins being one-score games. The podcast hosts dissect the team's quarterback dilemma, offensive changes, and the emergence of young talents.

Key Points:

• Quarterback Uncertainty: Anthony Richardson vs. Daniel Jones remains a pressing issue. Richardson's health and performance could significantly impact the team's fantasy outlook.

  Mike Wright:
  "Does he have what it takes to volume his way back into a top 12 running back?"
  (27:53)

• Tight End Position: Tyler Warren, a first-round pick, offers high potential but comes with skepticism due to the team's passing inconsistencies.

  Jason Moore:
  "I would go Tyler Warren because Dalton Kincaid is the next guy up."
  (36:14)

• Running Back Depth: Jonathan Taylor stands out as an elite option, yet his reliance on a shaky offensive line poses concerns for his fantasy ceiling.

  Andy Holloway:
  "I would certainly use the word elite. This is a running back who should be an overall running back one in fantasy football."
  (38:13)

Fantasy Implications:
The Colts offer a mix of high-upside and high-risk players. Taylor remains a top-tier RB1, while Richardson's development and Warren's potential TE breakout could provide substantial fantasy value if the team's offensive line improves.

---

4. Jacksonville Jaguars Analysis

Timestamp: 43:22 - 60:22

Last season's disappointing 4-13 record sets the stage for significant changes within the Jaguars. The hosts explore the impact of coaching shifts, quarterback decisions, and wide receiver prospects.

Key Points:

• Coaching Overhaul: New head coach Doug Peterson and offensive coordinator Liam Cohen bring fresh strategies, but their effectiveness remains uncertain.

  Mike Wright:
  "Do you think Liam Cohen will be a fix all for this offense? When you have Brian Thomas Jr., Travis Hunter, Trevor Lawrence with Liam Cohen, I don't."
  (44:34)

• Wide Receiver Situation: The departure of key players like Evan Ingram and Christian Kirk necessitates the emergence of Travis Hunter and Brian Thomas Jr. as primary targets.

  Andy Holloway:
  "Between Higgins and Travis Hunter, it's clearly Travis Hunter."
  (48:33)

• Running Back Prospects: Travis Etienne's potential return is weighed against the backdrop of past performance and offensive instability.

  Mike Wright:
  "He is a very big wild card pick."
  (48:56)

Fantasy Implications:
Jacksonville's roster overhaul presents both opportunities and uncertainties. Travis Hunter emerges as a potential breakout wide receiver, while Jonathan Taylor's upside must be balanced against the team's offensive line issues. Etienne remains a late-round gamble with high reward potential.

---

5. Tennessee Titans Analysis

Timestamp: 60:22 - 64:40

The Titans' dismal 3-14 season, marked by the worst point differential in franchise history, prompts a critical evaluation of their quarterback situation and running back prospects.

Key Points:

• Quarterback Transition: Will Levis and rookie Cam Ward represent a pivotal shift, but their effectiveness remains to be seen.

  Andy Holloway:
  "Will rookie Cam Ward put up more than Will Levis did last year?"
  (54:34)

• Running Back Concerns: The Titans' running back room, featuring Jonathan Taylor, faces challenges due to offensive line issues and the integration of multiple backs.

  Mike Wright:
  "How do you look at Hampton vs. Harvey? Amari and Hampton's just a better player."
  (14:00)

• Wide Receiver Strategy: Calvin Ridley's reduced draft value reflects his inconsistent performance, while rookies like DK and Gunner Helm add depth but come with rookie uncertainties.

  Mike Wright:
  "Chig feels a lot like, that's exactly what I was going to say. David Ajokku, early career, not the snap counts that you wanted."
  (60:11)

Fantasy Implications:
Tennessee remains a bottom-tier team with limited fantasy upside. Jonathan Taylor's elite status is contingent on offensive line improvements and stable quarterback play. Ryan is low on fantasy drafts, but his potential as a late-round depth option persists.

---

6. Conclusion and Predictions

Timestamp: 62:12 - 63:31

Wrapping up the AFC South analysis, the hosts offer their predictions for the division's outcome, considering the various team dynamics and offseason changes.

Predictions:

• Andy Holloway: Forecasts "Houston, Tennessee, Indianapolis, Jacksonville" as the division standings, though acknowledges the unpredictability inherent in team performances.

  Andy Holloway:
  "Jacksonville, Houston, Tennessee, Indianapolis, you."
  (62:12)

• Jason Moore: Aligns closely with Andy, anticipating Houston to maintain their divisional lead, followed by the Colts, Jaguars, and Titans.

  Jason Moore:
  "Houston to win the division."
  (62:24)

Final Thoughts:
The AFC South presents a landscape of rebuilding teams with fluctuating potentials. Houston Texans emerge as the frontrunners, while Indianapolis Colts offer stable but fluctuating fantasy options. Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans, despite their challenging past seasons, harbor hidden gems for the attentive fantasy manager.

---

Additional Resources

• JoinTheFoot.com: Engage with the Fantasy Footballers community, access the Ultimate Draft Kit, and participate in their Discord Channel with over 58,900 members.
• Ultimate Draft Kit: Enhance your draft strategy with the latest tools and insights. Visit ultimatedraftkit.com.

Stay Connected:
Follow the Fantasy Footballers on Twitter @FFFootballers and join the conversation on their official website.

---

This comprehensive breakdown equips fantasy football enthusiasts with the necessary insights to navigate the upcoming season within the AFC South, balancing optimism with realistic expectations.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

Now you can stream the best of Hulu on Disney, which means the hottest Hulu series and movies are alongside your Disney favorites with Hulu. Say yes, Chef to a new season of FX is the Bear. And don't miss Marvel Television's action packed new series Ironheart on Disney. All of these and more now streaming with Hulu on Disney with a bundle. Subscription terms apply. Visit disneyplus.com hulu for details. This message is brought to you by Apple Pay. No matter where you're going this summer, odds are you'll need to pay for a few things like a ride, share a souvenir or dinner at that spot on your bucket list. Instead of digging for your wallet every time, just use Apple Pay. It's accepted anywhere you see the contactless symbol and all it takes is a tap with iPhone or Apple Watch. The best part is you'll still earn the card, rewards, points and cash back you love. Easy setup now, easier travels later with Apple Pay terms apply. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, welcome in.

[Mike Wright]

Tuesday, July 8.

[Andy Holloway]

The.

[Mike Wright]

Fantasy footballers, Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway. Welcome in everybody. We're up to three shows a week. We'll have an episode for you today, Thursday, Saturday, through the rest of the month will be three shows a week and then it's on to five a week in August and then 30 a week in September when it's on the actual football. Yeah, we have hall of Fame game at the very, very, very end of this month and then, yeah, we'll be off to the races. And you're already starting to see speculation on certain depth charts that are probably scaring.

[Jason Moore]

Oh my goodness, yes, we are scaring people. Talking about that. Denver Tweet.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, goodness gracious, we can talk about that. I believe that should be in the news. If it's not, we'll get to it. And we have an AFC south breakdown on the show today in the divisional breakdown episodes we began last week. Hopefully everybody out there had a wonderful holiday weekend. Got to enjoy it. I know we can't get July 4th on a Friday every year. That's not how.

[Andy Holloway]

But it was nice work.

[Mike Wright]

But it would be nice.

[Andy Holloway]

It was really nice to have that be on a Friday. I feel like that one. And New Year's we need to, we need to get those locked down to a day of the week.

[Mike Wright]

Do your best, Jay.

[Andy Holloway]

I've been tough.

[Mike Wright]

Those ones are pretty tough. The New Year's Day.

[Andy Holloway]

New Year's Day, that's a tough one.

[Jason Moore]

To get And Halloween, we got.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, thank you.

[Jason Moore]

We got to get Halloween on that one though.

[Andy Holloway]

Legit easy.

[Mike Wright]

That one.

[Andy Holloway]

That one should be like. You can't move the 1st of January.

[Mike Wright]

You could actually move the 1st of January the easiest.

[Jason Moore]

Wait, you can move the 1st of January?

[Mike Wright]

Because you can't. You could just make the rule that it starts on the day you want it to start.

[Andy Holloway]

That the year starts.

[Mike Wright]

The year just starts on the day you want.

[Jason Moore]

Just like the. We observe. Okay, Halloween's the 31st. Fine. That's the data. But we're going to observe it the.

[Andy Holloway]

Last Saturday of the month.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good luck.

[Jason Moore]

No, I know people. They'd rather have their children be just. Or tired or. What about a rule where sugared up that night.

[Mike Wright]

Where the rule is, is whatever day it falls on, from that day all the way through to where a weekend hits, you get all that time off. Okay, so if it falls on a Monday, you're. Goodbye. You got the week off.

[Jason Moore]

Al Borland would love that.

[Mike Wright]

Al would like.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Is he back?

[Mike Wright]

He is back in the building.

[Jason Moore]

We have not started a new one.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, let me.

[Mike Wright]

Not yet.

[Andy Holloway]

Wait. What do you look like again? Oh, yeah, I remember you.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, my gosh. We didn't do the last show with him.

[Andy Holloway]

We did.

[Jason Moore]

It's still a good.

[Andy Holloway]

You could still body bag someone.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, no, you. You did YouTube.com the fantasy footballer subscribe. Click the bell. Make sure you do that. Now. We got more shows coming out every week. We got live episodes and we have Sunday live. And you'll want to know when those are going on if you want to help the show out. An easy way to do that, if you're listening on a podcast app, click that follow button. Make sure that you are following the show. And you can leave us a five star review if you are so inclined. That would be awesome.

[Andy Holloway]

Breaking news.

[Jason Moore]

Who hit that button?

[Andy Holloway]

I did. Halloween's on a Friday this year we did it.

[Mike Wright]

That means.

[Jason Moore]

So I thought something really cool was about to be announced.

[Andy Holloway]

That's pretty cool.

[Mike Wright]

Halloween's on a Friday.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, so that means that. That means that 4th of July on a Friday, Halloween on a Friday. That'll always happen at.

[Jason Moore]

Wait, is that true?

[Andy Holloway]

I cannot confirm that at all.

[Mike Wright]

That's how. I don't know how it works. Well, yeah, because both of them fall after. After when Leap year would be. I'm choosing to believe that.

[Jason Moore]

Yep. Who cares? It's true now.

[Mike Wright]

What day is Christmas this year?

[Andy Holloway]

We'll talk about that later.

[Mike Wright]

Google it.

[Jason Moore]

Andy did. Did you Mention the draft Analyzer?

[Mike Wright]

Not yet.

[Jason Moore]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

Would you like to mention it?

[Jason Moore]

I would.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. First thing Josh Papa Josh said is we're off for Halloween then, right?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, sure, Josh. The Ultimate Draft Kit, which is like, that's the living breathing Draft prep. It's the only draft tool that you need to get ready for this off season. If you bought the UDK plus, the draft analyzer is now live, where you can go in, you can just simply click a few buttons and import your teams if they're on sleeper, NFL.com ESPN and Yahoo. Look at your team, analyze it, break things down. Maybe, you know, strengths, weaknesses. Who likes your team the most? Hopefully it's me because that means your team's pretty good. But it's just a, you know, it's, it's fun, it's a good time.

[Andy Holloway]

It just means they drafted Christian McCaffrey, that's all.

[Jason Moore]

That's so true. That's. So who got him in? Scottie Fishbowl? Jason?

[Andy Holloway]

We did.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, you're right.

[Mike Wright]

And who did you have to ask permission to draft? You had to come to me yelling from the other room, can I draft Christian McCaffrey? And I said, yeah, because you want to win. Yeah, that's the, that's the proposition with McCaffrey is, is if it works, it works really, really well. If it's just what percentage you attribute to if we'll see. But yeah, I would get into the UDK right now because we update it constantly all throughout the off season and you'll get more mileage out of it the sooner you get in there. @ultimate draftkit.com Today's quick question. You can go to the website. You can click the submit a question button if you want to send one in. Today's quick question comes from Erica in Florida. Howdy, ballers. How should your draft strategy pivot or change when your lineup has two flex spots? So they're in a league with two running back, two wide receiver, and two flex. How does that change your mindset?

[Andy Holloway]

Well, it doesn't change much because every league I'm in has it. But I think what it, what it changes from, I guess it kind of comes across.

[Jason Moore]

I play with double flex. No big deal, all my leagues.

[Andy Holloway]

The difference to me is two things, primarily. One is the late round quarterback, the late round tight end become more valuable as you need more depth to fill in starting roster positions at running back, wide receiver, potentially tight end, but not really. And then the other thing is assuming that you're half PPR or a full.

[Jason Moore]

Ppr yeah, that's the big deal.

[Andy Holloway]

Wide receivers will become more valuable than running backs when you go deeper. When you get to like, you know, wide receiver 36, running back 36. And then you go past those, which when you're in a 12 person league and you've got the double flex, you will. That's where the wide receivers are pretty much always going to outscore the running backs in that range. So I'm filling my roster with a little bit, a little deeper at wide receiver.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, that's the biggest changes. You got to know your scoring format, but you want those flex positions more often than not filled wide receivers.

[Andy Holloway]

And if you're in a standard, then change. So okay, don't be.

[Jason Moore]

Change your scoring format.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, change your scoring format.

[Mike Wright]

Easy enough. Let's jump into some news.

[Andy Holloway]

News and notes from around the league.

[Mike Wright]

Well, ever since the day we got the news that the Denver Broncos had signed J.K. dobbins, who had a surprising and very good year last year for Los Angeles, and they didn't bring him back, ever since then we've talked about how that's going to impact RJ Harvey, who is a prolific, highly drafted running back on a team that desperately needs a versatile running back, how it impacts the rest of the Broncos offense. And just to add more fuel to the speculative fire, Cody Rourke from Locked in on Broncos Locked on Broncos said J.K. dobbins will likely be the starter. R.J. harvey seeing extensive work and Jaleel McLaughlin being the most trusted guy from Sean Payton.

[Jason Moore]

This is.

[Mike Wright]

Thoughts.

[Jason Moore]

It's. Look, I'm. I don't have boots on the ground up there in, in Denver, but it is so wild to me. I'm not saying it's wrong, but like this dude was available. Talking about J.K. dobbins, he's on the street. Anybody can sign him. The team that just had him and saw what he can or cannot do, they didn't want him back. And now you're like, oh. And then all the talk about RJ Harvey, of how excited Sean Payton was and of like, this is our guy, we're going after him. And then to be like the guy who was off the street, he's the starter. It is, it's not computing.

[Mike Wright]

I look, RJ Harvey was drafted higher than people expected him to be. It seemed to be the selection by Sean Payton. But the level of what you have to do as a rookie, I think for Sean Payton and for a Denver offense and a team that is expected to compete, it'd be one thing if the Broncos were a Bottom third team in the NFL to expect a rookie to get everything to me but when you are supposed to be competing and you have a veteran presence in J.K. dobbins who is, I don't remember his exact age, 26 and a half years, whatever you tell me is going to be way younger than you think out there. So you have a player that was played a vital role on a very good charger team last year, comes in and is not a rookie, is a veteran, knows the ins and outs of the NFL, knows pass protection, knows those aspects. It's always going to be very difficult, I think to project a team handing all of the reins off, especially a guy like Sean Payton who I think he does like Julia McLaughlin. You watch the games last year he was probably the best of what they had. He's not great but he fits a role. And I don't like having to say three names when we talk about it. I don't like having to have that discussion because you know you have to ask what's the upside for RJ Harvey?

[Jason Moore]

That's everything is does. RJ Harvey was the hand selected golden child to be our new the new face of the Sean Payton running back room. And I don't know if that's true. Like this is creating a very difficult situation.

[Mike Wright]

When we mentioned J.K. dobbins on this show, the signing and talked at all about it affecting RJ Harvey, I saw a tremendous amount of feedback saying you're giving way too much attention to J.K. dobbins. But this time of year it's smoke, it's fire, it's conversation.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Now out of Denver, out of Mile High sports having the same conversation. So you know, what is the value of RJ Harvey in a committee? What is the value of JK Dobbins in a committee?

[Jason Moore]

It should still be.

[Mike Wright]

Dobbins will be free in drafts.

[Andy Holloway]

I think both of these guys will be valuable and they will both be in a committee. I do not think that Jaleel McLaughlin or Audrick estimate will really factor.

[Jason Moore]

I agree with that.

[Andy Holloway]

McLaughlin, you could say all the praises. I mean Sean Payton praises and praises, appraises guys every single year.

[Jason Moore]

He just talked up Odric estimate this.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, absolutely. That does not. That means jack squat.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, you know McLaughlin caught 31 and 24 passes and he was over. He was 5.4 carrying 4.4 a carry in his two years. So to me that's some role.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, my point is last year he was so irrelevant. I mean 140 total opportunities and that was with that was with.

[Mike Wright]

He's irrelevant for fantasy. I thought you were saying in the committee impacting other players. If you get, if you take 100 plus opportunities on the ground, you're going to impact the other guys.

[Andy Holloway]

My point is he could only get that many opportunities last year with no competition there for him. Now with Dobbins and RJ Harvey, I think those two guys will run clearly ahead and McLaughlin will have much less opportunity this coming season than he had last year. That's what I'm. That's the way that I view this back. I think we know it's going to be a committee. Sean Payton has always preferred a committee approach, but there's also been a lot of fantasy value in his committees.

[Mike Wright]

In that case, we've talked about the Chargers and we've talked about, you know, their committee situation. Now Harvey is at least possibly in that type of a situation where Judkins in a. On a Cleveland team that doesn't project to win a lot of games seems to be everything. How do you look at Hampton vs. Harvey?

[Andy Holloway]

Hampton vs. Harvey. I mean Amari and Hampton's just a better player. There's a reason he was the first round draft pick. He has more competition but he is the. He is just an elite prospect in my opinion and in the opinion of the Chargers since they spent their first round pick on.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah and Henderson in New England will have Ramondre to deal with. So there will be a lot of sifting through depth charts and sometimes it takes weeks, sometimes it takes a bit of time. You normally have huge contributions from rookies in fantasy but that doesn't mean it's from week one.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Jason Moore]

J.K. dobbins, like if this is. We'll see if this continues to be the rhetoric out of Denver like let's let training camp open and see there. But I mean J.K. dobbins. Andy, you said free and I was like yeah. Does he. Can he even possibly climb into a position in ADP where it is costing you anything and you're having tremendous upside.

[Mike Wright]

If they come out and say he's a starter, it's going to ruin it. But yeah, right now it's very interesting. We just need to get into training camp and stay water and change opinions and projections as they as they come. We had news of Terry McLaurin. Oh which is, you know, continuing the same refrain. Not happy with where things are with an extension for Terry McLaurin. Makes sense that he would want to cash in on a prolific year. Best year, double digit touchdown year. Also makes sense that Washington might not want to pay him like Jamar Chase.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh yeah, you can't pay McLaurin like Jamar Chase. We expect them to get a deal done. I don't. He's not going to pull a Trey Hendrickson and sit out games and lose money if they don't get a deal. So I don't worry about this now. If he misses camp, you know, there's maybe you have a little bit of the fears of the hammy, you know, people that hold out and come in later as wide receivers sometimes. That 29 I believe so is almost their that's the number closest to 30.

[Jason Moore]

I'm just saying you're on 29.8. So like he will be.

[Mike Wright]

He'll be turning 30 any minute now. But that's tough to give a long contract to a player in that situation. So maybe you see them settle for a more 1, 2 year deal or move money around. We were talking about it in the context of Cortland Sutton in Denver as well, who wants a contract. Maybe those will be very similar. But I think that's the major news to talk about and we'll keep talking about it as we get into camp and where things end up. We'll take a break and we will jump into the AFC South. This is an ad by BetterHelp. If you are like me, you've been out there in the workplace. You know what it's like, the commute, the job, workplace stress. That can be a big deal. And you can take this summer to focus on your wellness by making small steps to manage those workday challenges. Workplace stress is one of the top causes of declining mental health. With 61% of the global workforce experiencing high stress, many of us, we can't just wave goodbye to work, but we can start small with a focus on well being and therapy can help you navigate whatever challenges the workday or any any day might bring. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 5 million people globally. It's convenient too. You can join a session with the click of a button, helping you fit therapy into your busy life. Plus, you can switch therapists at any time. As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com footballers that's betterhelp.com footballers.

[Jason Moore]

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[Mike Wright]

All right, it is time to jump into another divisional breakdown.

[Andy Holloway]

Let's get divisional.

[Mike Wright]

All right, a reminder. This is a general overview of the teams in these divisions. How things went last year, how things are projected this year. What does Vegas have in store for the win totals of these teams? Off season changes, players, rookies, coaches, what we believe individually about their upside and potential. And the AFC south is a weird division because to me it is like there's no conversations today. I believe that will happen. That will not be very two sided, very balanced. I mean, there's no teams that, I think pretty big question marks in this division. Even ones that, you know, last year the winner was 10 and 7. Houston won the division, but it was not the same. Right. As the year before.

[Jason Moore]

They were 10 and 7. And an interesting note of no one in the division finished with a positive point differential.

[Mike Wright]

That's right. They had a zero.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Houston won the division. They were at. They were just neutral. And then everybody else was negative. And I like, I pay attention to those things because like when you're talking about spotting a team that can actually make a run in the, in the playoffs, like there was a year I think the Titans made and there was. They were getting a whole bunch of fanfares like, dude, they are. They have a, like a negative point differential. What are you talking about? And then they got shellacked. The rest of this division is still set up for Houston to take number one. But this is a, it's. These are some weird teams.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. If you had, if you had bet on Houston last year. Their win total was nine and a half. So they beat it. A. But it felt like their season was like a failure. Despite winning the division in a lot of ways. They dealt with major injuries. CJ Stroud regressed in part due to tremendous, tremendous pressure.

[Jason Moore]

Five of their wins was the division.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, well, that. And that makes sense. I mean, Tennessee had a negative 149 point differential, which is the worst in their entire history as since they moved and became the Titans in 99. So no one, like you said, no one with a positive point differential. And you know, Houston was 18th in points per game, 16th in yards per game. 235 quarterback pressures of C.J. stroud, which was the most in the NFL. And so, you know, I don't know where you guys fall on the excuse making for Stroud. You know, you know, gauge. I. I fall on the. Mostly I make excuses for C.J. stroud.

[Jason Moore]

You're going offensive line Bobby Slowik.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. And then combined with Nico Collins getting hurt and digs out for the year and Tank Dell disappearing and the world's slowest player playing tight end for you. Yeah, I give him. There's two conversations around Stroud. Well, he is. He is the slowest person.

[Jason Moore]

He's just living his life.

[Mike Wright]

Slowest person on the planet.

[Andy Holloway]

Every time we watched a game, if Schultz caught the ball, I just. I would just turn to Andy and watch him complain about how the guy is so slow it's cool he can catch it.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, not everyone could do that.

[Andy Holloway]

But you know who you don't call slow? Zach Ertz. Because he just falls down. He catches the ball and falls down. You have no idea how slow. Zach Ertz.

[Mike Wright]

Zach Ertz beats schultz in a 40. Oh, man, that's where I'm going.

[Andy Holloway]

I doubt it.

[Mike Wright]

But. But you know, C.J. stroud as a fantasy option, was a complete failure last year because he was driven up very high in average draft position by a rookie season where people were just, you know, enchanted. It was awesome. They were un. It went from a place where they were completely underdogs. No one expected anything from them. And they run it all the way to the playoffs, to a team that was expected to have a really good year and it went the opposite direction because that's what happens in the NFL.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, and they started. I believe they started 5 and 1. So off to a hot start. Which means the reason we're kind of viewing them a little bit more pessimistically is because the second half of last year, the majority of last year they were really a.500 team and whenever they had any kind of real tests, they pretty much failed them.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And now CJ Stroud has dropped what, six rounds in ADP after what happened last year.

[Jason Moore]

So they zero great games last year. That'll do it.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Yeah. You did not have any fantasy value from him. Essentially, Stefan Diggs. Robert woods is gone. They added Christian Kirk. They added Kyle the Borgogan's favorite player of all time, Justin Watson. If you don't know who that is, that's all right. You don't need to. They added Nick Chubb as depth at running back and Irv Smith Jr. At tight end, who is faster than Dalton Schultz even when he's hurt, which is impressive. But what are your expectations for them this year? They were a good defense and they'll continue to be a good defense. And so you wonder about game planning and what the upside is for fantasy football when you have a team that was number six in total yards given up. And you know, they, they are replacing the offensive coordinator, which is encouraging because Slowik was awful.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, he. He called. I mean, it was. It was widely documented how much he was calling a run play on second and long, which is about as bad a decision as you can.

[Jason Moore]

They'll never see it coming.

[Andy Holloway]

Dude, you're going to get. And that failed a lot. I lean with you, Andy, that I find myself accepting the excuses more for Stroud. I don't think Stroud is a bad quarterback. I think he's going to continue developing and be a very, very good quarterback going forward. So that's where you have to. If you. If that ends up being true, then we'll look back at last season and those excuses will be right. If that is true, that means that some of the best value to be had in fantasy football is on this team with the two rookies that they brought in because the opportunity there for someone to really step forward as the wide receiver.

[Jason Moore]

Jaden Higgins and Jalen Noel.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, Jaden Higgins and Jalen Noel, the second round and third round pick respectively of this year's draft. Those guys are not being drafted high enough, I think currently with their average draft position. And Stroud has had. I mean, Tank Dell was a fantasy superstar his rookie year with with Stroud. And that was while Nico Collins was great. Stefan Diggs looked really good and was good for fantasy before he went down to injury. So you've got Nico as the one and then you don't know exactly what's going on as the number two. But the opportunity is 100% there for someone to step up and be very important for fantasy and there is not really a highly drafted wide receiver too on this team, so.

[Mike Wright]

Well, I love Jaden Higgins and spoiler alert, he's a sleeper in our udk. I completely agree with you. Christian Kirk is a Band Aid type of player at this juncture of his career who can go out there and give you a number of snaps and contribute, but not with the ceiling that you'd hope for. And Higgins is a player that I think is, you know, he's a second round pick. He's explosive, he's large. I'm a big fan of Higgins. I think that's where the value is. I agree.

[Jason Moore]

I think he is worth taking a shot. On the the fact that they're, you know, the end of season rank for their offensive line according to Pro Football Focus, they had him at 29th now going into this year. Friends of the show, you know, Sharp football, their current projections for that Houston offensive line is dead last.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, they, they got rid of, I.

[Jason Moore]

Mean it was, yeah, they traded away Laramie Tonsil because they didn't, you know, they're trying to fix things. They didn't want to pay him more money and all those things. But that is, I love Nico Collins. I think that he is, he is an elite guy. If things could break the right way where, where Nico finishes as the wide receiver one on at the end of the season, I think he's that good in the connection with Stroud and there's chances to take here. But that the offensive line is, is very, very scary for me for, for secondary options.

[Mike Wright]

That leads us into a good discussion around what I think one of the biggest questions about this team is is Joe Mixon and does he, does he have what it takes to volume his way back into a top 12 running back? In spite of the fact the offensive line projects to be a work in progress is the most generous way to put it. I mean, he was the fourth most in red zone touches last year despite missing three games. That was awesome. He was one of the best running backs the first 11 weeks of the season. But you have offensive line issues. So Jay, how do you weigh in?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I mean they had offensive line issues last year. I do agree it's worse this year than it was last year. Through the first 11 weeks last year, Joe Mixon was the running back one. He's not being drafted in a spot where, okay, if he takes a step back, you're not really like holding the bag.

[Jason Moore]

He's in the back of the fourth right now at running back seven.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. I mean, when we've done our live drafts, we're usually seeing him go off in the fifth round. And at that point, I feel like he is a value. I don't worry too much about Nick chubb, who's turning 30 this year, coming off of an injury. And I do think Nick Chubb helps keep Joe Mixon from rising because there are people that are very worried about it.

[Jason Moore]

That's the. It's. Do you have any belief that Nick Chubb can return to any sort of form? I mean, this is. He's now multiple years from the devastating injury. What was the one he broke some deal, like break something in his foot?

[Mike Wright]

Well, you're second. The second.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

A broken foot, I believe. Foot or ankle.

[Jason Moore]

So it's just. Does Nick Chubb have anything in the tank to challenge Joe Mixon? Because. Yeah, last year he was. Joe Mixon looked great those first broken foot.

[Mike Wright]

Week 15.

[Jason Moore]

The first few weeks. But he also didn't have anybody to challenge him. And it like, Jay, if you're like, I don't think Nick Chubb can challenge him. I think. I think that makes a huge difference.

[Mike Wright]

I don't think he can challenge him. But at least Nick Chubb could be somebody that they make the, like, goal line. Yeah. They can make a decision to hand him the ball around the goal line, which would be a problem. That would bother me. I also would feel worse about. I know that their ranking is worse than last year, but I'd feel way worse about this team's offensive line if they ran the same guys out there as they did last year, running different players out when you were already pretty much dead last in the league, at least has the possibility that you have improvement.

[Jason Moore]

One of them is like a great tackle.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. You have hope of change, but it should be. It should be pessimistic hope. They don't have a lot of talent there.

[Mike Wright]

Pessimistic hope. Never heard that before.

[Jason Moore]

That's probably because it's the complete opposite of what hope is.

[Mike Wright]

Dalton Schultz is slow. They're scheduled to start the year three or four. They start on the road against the Rams, then Tampa, then at Jacksonville and then Tennessee. That's a little tough to start the year.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, not the Jacksonville, Tennessee part. That's where they thrive in division.

[Mike Wright]

Well, yeah. On the road against Jacksonville, though. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. I don't know. I'm assuming we'd probably pick the Rams in Tampa to win those first two.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

All right. We Will move on. Talk about the Indianapolis Colts. It was a bumpy 8, 9 season to put it mildly. All eight of their wins were one score games.

[Andy Holloway]

It's an impressive 8 and 9 season too.

[Jason Moore]

And that makes so much sense. I'm like, how did they get to eight wins?

[Mike Wright]

That's what I'm saying. Doesn't it seem exact same?

[Andy Holloway]

Doesn't it seem like they won four or five games last year?

[Jason Moore]

Yes. Yeah, eight.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. They did not win four or five games. For fantasy players, that was, that was one of the challenges. The projected win total was eight and a half. This year at seven and a half feels like it a very crucial make or break type of year for at least Steichen and Anthony Richardson if he, you know, one shot to kind of stay a starter or earn a starting job. Middle of the pack in points per game last year, tremendously bad on defense. So they, they said goodbye to Gus Bradley. Shocker. You love Gus Brown as a head coach.

[Jason Moore]

Oh yes, of course.

[Mike Wright]

As a head coach.

[Jason Moore]

That guy that was leader of men, he needed more responsibility.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. I mean sometimes more is less. Right. But they bring in Ann Arumo from Cincinnati who's he had worn out his defensive welcome, whose team was awful on defense. But you know, personnel problems for both of these teams. It's going to be. Yeah. There's a number of questions I think around Indianapolis quarterback is going to be one of the biggest ones. And you know, what does that really mean to us when it comes to other fantasy players being relevant? We have a prolific rookie tight end, a first round top half Tyler Warren selection and then we've got, you know, Pittman and Downs.

[Jason Moore]

Oh man, Josh Downs.

[Mike Wright]

And then you've got to say, hey, do you care if it's Daniel Jones? Do you care if it's Anthony Richardson? That's you're going to get one of those guys like there isn't a third door to open where Joe Montana walks out.

[Jason Moore]

Monty hall is not offering you the third door.

[Mike Wright]

No. You don't even have Joe Flacco waiting in the wings like they did last year. So you know, to me those are some of the bigger questions about this team. Who do you think wins the job?

[Jason Moore]

The injury to Anthony Richardson. Currently we have to wait because they're like, I think he'll be ready by training camp. Does that mean the first day of training camp, does that mean a like five days in where Daniel Jones is already building up rapport and they're already focused on that. Now you have to steal the job?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, we'll know ahead of time. And really making that call right now feels foolish the more that you read from beat writers because people around the area are. It seems like every week they're very confident that the exact opposite guy is going to be the starter.

[Mike Wright]

I've seen a lot more Daniel Jones.

[Andy Holloway]

I have seen more Daniel Jones. But then after the Daniel Jones, they come and say, no, Anthony Richardson is probably going to be the starter. And then a little bit more if.

[Jason Moore]

You timestamp it and then you're like, I know. I.

[Mike Wright]

Look, I told you, I'm not sure that. And maybe this is kind of like we talked about last week, but I'm not sure that it's going to impact the draft position of these players very much.

[Andy Holloway]

It won't.

[Mike Wright]

And in that case, you know, we like Josh Downs. I like Josh Downs quite a bit, I think. I think Pittman's still a player that's going to be out there all the time. He's not had a real nose for the end zone in his career, but he can be a PPR guy. It's hard to imagine a world where both of them are good. That's. I think that's why you see a lot of people making the choice being great.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

When it doesn't feel like it should be. This real dynamic of this guy's the one. That guy's the one. I think people are choosing one because they don't think more than one can do anything.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Josh Downs is the better value in drafts because he's later. He costs you nothing. He's had some explosives.

[Mike Wright]

Not later.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Him and Pittman, are they right next to each other?

[Mike Wright]

They're five picks apart right now. Wide receiver, 46 and 48.

[Andy Holloway]

And I know both.

[Mike Wright]

They're both very light.

[Andy Holloway]

Both of you guys are like very, very on the. Josh Downs is better than Pittman side.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Jason Moore]

I think he's a better fantasy player. Like just his usage. I mean the. At least the way that the quarterbacks played last year, they. They preferred Josh Downs and going to him very frequently.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I do. I do like Downs and would pick him over Pittman at that spot in the draft. I. You're also going to have Tyler Warren who's. Guess what, Right there, same spot in the draft. So you get to pick one of three Colts or two of three Colts.

[Jason Moore]

Warren so difficult because this is he. If you're just coming back to football. Tyler Warren was a first round tight end selected this year. He is a. He's a beast. I love Tyler Warren, but I don't know what to make of drafting a he's a tight end one. Right now in current adp with all of that stuff going on, you missed.

[Mike Wright]

The too hot to handle. Is that correct? And that. And I think Jason and I were both very much on the not too hot to handle.

[Jason Moore]

Not too hot.

[Mike Wright]

Not too hot at that place. No, because you're at the very, very bottom. I mean, this is lower than where Bowers went last year.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

And people were passing on Bowers. I think it's the right gamble to take in the ninth round.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. There's not other tight ends that are, you know, if you're that late, you're getting a bad tight end. Take a chance at someone that could be special and then stream the position, which you'll do if you don't draft Tyler Warren anyways. So I'm fine with that. The issue here with Tyler Warren is last year this was a team that.

[Jason Moore]

Threw like Tyler Warren or Dalton Kincaid.

[Mike Wright]

Tyler Warren, I think we asked that question.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, did you?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I think that was actually the name that came up. And we both.

[Jason Moore]

I would go Tyler Warren because Dalton Kincaid is. He's the next guy up. And then you got Ferguson and Tucker Kraft, man.

[Mike Wright]

Some of the indifference around downs and Pittman can, I mean, be an encouragement towards Warren. I mean, Warren is going to be the most quarterback friendly for two bad quarterbacks.

[Andy Holloway]

Warren is what scares me for those wide receivers.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Like last year, 71% of the targets went to wide receiver for the Colts. Only 15% went to the tight end position. Those are both kind of out of the normal type of numbers for their positions. They didn't draft a first round tight end who's a talented pass catcher to not throw him the ball. They saw this hole and they said, we've got to, we've got to get a tight end who can open up the field for us. So that's going to siphon a lot of targets away from probably both downs and Pittman. So I'm not quite as bullish on the passing game here as I think the two of you.

[Mike Wright]

The second question that I think stands out for Indianapolis is how we view Jonathan Taylor and whether we view him as elite or continuing to be an elite option. Some things that stand out about Taylor, it was a prolific into the season. We've seen the reception numbers decline after a, you know, the beginning of his career. It seemed like they were going the right direction, but the last three years has gone down, down, down under 20 receptions. I don't think Adding Tyler Warren is going to help the target totals for Jonathan Taylor. He had the fifth most rushing yards ever over a final three games of a season. It was unbelievable to push him towards.

[Jason Moore]

Averaging like what, like almost 30 carries a game.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. When you watch those games, it literally felt like the team said, we don't care what's happening anymore as long as we hand it to Jonathan Taylor. And yet he was also stuffed the most of any running back on third and short last year, which is a weird thing. That is so weird for so many breakaway runs. So do you think elite is the word you'd use with Jonathan Taylor?

[Andy Holloway]

I would, I would certainly use the word elite. Now. If you're talking fantasy elite, he's not tier one for fantasy. But this is a running back who should be an overall running back one in fantasy football. And you know, I think he can be top five in fantasy this year. Obviously the passing has to be there. If it is Daniel Jones, I would expect more volume in the passing game than if it is Anthony Richardson. Obviously Daniel Jones was able to do that with Saquon to a good enough degree where Saquon was very relevant.

[Jason Moore]

But the Saquon numbers went down from Eli.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, for sure. Yeah. This is not Eli. I mean, man, those, those guys who can't move in the pocket.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Give my running back those quarterbacks.

[Mike Wright]

If you. Jason, you probably have the ability to look this up pretty quickly though. But where was Jonathan Taylor? If you just look at where he, where he was in points per game before the three weeks. Because that was the majority of the fantasy season. That was before they gave him 29, 32 and 34 carries. Yeah, before one through 15 points per game. Where did he slot in?

[Andy Holloway]

Because I've got before the bye week.

[Jason Moore]

Which is.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. Yeah, one.

[Andy Holloway]

One game different. One game different, but still awesome. He was averaging 13 and a half fantasy points per game, 80 rushing yards a game. Yeah, no, it was, it was, it was on. It was, it was just really, truly magnificent what he did at the end of last year. And if you don't remember, you know, this eight win team should have been a nine win team. Right. When Jonathan Taylor had that breakaway touchdown run and dropped the.

[Jason Moore]

Oh my gosh, I forgot all about.

[Mike Wright]

That in the Giants game.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that was.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Tennessee, New York, Jacksonville, three very good defenses to face to finish the year. And I'm not, I'm not trying to take that away from the, you know, from him, but for the majority of the season I just wanted to see where it was when there was tumult at quarterback throughout a really difficult year.

[Andy Holloway]

If he could play those bad defenses every week.

[Mike Wright]

He finished at nine with those three games.

[Jason Moore]

I got some good news.

[Andy Holloway]

Those three games he was on pace for 2,946 rushing.

[Jason Moore]

He will play a lot of those teams again.

[Andy Holloway]

That is true.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, I feel like we covered the Colts pretty well. Start they start at home, back to back, Miami, Denver, then Tennessee and Los Angeles on the road. And yeah, I mean there's some other players there. Alec Pierce will be involved, Adnai Mitchell involved. But those are the main, the main guys. So we'll take a break, come back with two more teams from the South.

[Andy Holloway]

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[Mike Wright]

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[Andy Holloway]

Whoops.

[Mike Wright]

They were four and ten and one score games. They have a seven and a half win total this year. They have a nice strength of schedule at least on paper. 6th best and it's a lot of change. Right. There's a tremendous amount of change in what this offense is going to look like. New offensive coordinator and head coach Doug Peterson. Goodbye. They were 26 in points per game, 25th in yards per game. Liam Cohen comes over from Tampa Bay and so I mean horrific on both sides of the football. You get to 4 and 13 through really ineptitude on both sides. Dealt with injuries.

[Andy Holloway]

Why they drafted a guy for both sides of the football.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah they did. They are trying to two birds it with Travis Hunter. He's one of the big additions obviously. No more Evan Ingram, no more Christian Kirk. And you add Travis Hunter and you add a play caller that you know is well respected in Liam Cohen. Do we still have Liam Cohen's do the. We still got his. Yeah. Here we go. Duvall.

[Andy Holloway]

That's pretty close. Oh man, what a goober.

[Mike Wright]

I was gonna say are we enough weeks removed from that?

[Andy Holloway]

Never will never be sure.

[Jason Moore]

That is.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

That is an unlimited time span. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

That's like. That's like playoffs.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

You know that's decades or however long. Infinite. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

This is will wins erase it? I think so.

[Jason Moore]

It will not erase it but they will look back on it and smile.

[Mike Wright]

So one of the biggest busts in fantasy Travis ETN came from this roster last year. One of the biggest surprises and positives Brian Thomas Jr. Came from this roster last year and we still can't get our heads around what in the world Trevor Lawrence is as a player. But do you first question. Do you think Liam Cohen will be a fix all for this offense when you have Brian Thomas Jr. Travis Hunter, Trevor Lawrence with Liam Cohen, I don't.

[Andy Holloway]

Think Liam Cohen is going to be a fix all. I am excited. We had a quick question earlier this year of like, what. What team would you wish you could see how they perform? And this was my answer because there's a path here where it's a good offense. I mean, if Trevor Lawrence comes in, he's much better than Mac Jones. And he adds, you know, the hopeful greatness of Travis Hunter as a second wide receiver. Brian Thomas Jr. Going into second year, and then they've got enough running backs. I know ETN sucked, but you get him the ball in space, he can be a good asset. He was the running back three, two years ago. This could be a good offense. I don't. I don't personally. That was a long two years for Travis Etienne. I mean, no one's had a longer short period of time than Travis etm. But, you know, it could be an extreme.

[Mike Wright]

Pessimistically helpful for etn, as you would say.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm optimistically doubtful.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. I feel that. I get that.

[Andy Holloway]

That one makes sense.

[Jason Moore]

More positive.

[Andy Holloway]

More positive.

[Mike Wright]

Optimistically doubtful. Right.

[Andy Holloway]

I will have to get back to.

[Jason Moore]

We need the English majors to let us know which ones.

[Mike Wright]

Sounds like these words shouldn't be combined. So, you know, with the question mark, no. Fix all Trevor Lawrence questions. Can he support more than one target in a way that you're happy?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Can Travis Hunter. I think I saw Travis Hunter's yardage number right now is set around 750.

[Andy Holloway]

That is very, very low for happiness in fantasy football. Like if, if he, you know, if he crushes that and gets to 800 yards, you will not be happy in fantasy football.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. I didn't know how you'd react to that positively or negatively or how conservative they were. Do you remember where Marv was?

[Andy Holloway]

Marv was a thousand.

[Mike Wright]

Was it a thousand? Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

So, I mean, 750, that was like Rome dunes. It was right around that range, wasn't he?

[Mike Wright]

I think he was above that. Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

And you don't look back, drafting Rome like 734.

[Mike Wright]

No, you're right. He was below.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. You would not have been happy and you wouldn't. I mean, he's not going to score enough touchdowns to where that kind of yardage will make you happy or total receptions to get him that amount of yards will make you happy. So, yeah, you know, you need it to be. It's just kind of confusing for me, if I'm honest. I look at Brian Thomas Jr. And how much of a dominator he is, and I'm just trying to figure out what Travis Hunter can contribute.

[Andy Holloway]

I think he could contribute quite a bit. You Have Evan Ingram gone, you have Christian Kirk gone. There is a very large hole to be filled here. They need other pass catchers. You know, we were just talking about the same thing with the Houston Texans where they really need someone to step up at wide receiver too. Well, both of these teams have a rookie that has the opportunity to do that. But if you're going to ask me which rookie wide receiver is just a better. Who's a better wide receiver between Higgins and Travis Hunter.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

It's clearly Travis Hunter.

[Mike Wright]

It will be very interesting to see what kind of consistency we get out of Travis Hunter.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Especially in the snap count department because.

[Mike Wright]

That 700 yards could come with five or six games that you would have wanted to start in him in fantasy. You know what I mean? But it could be a little less predictable. At least with. With Trevor Lawrence at times.

[Andy Holloway]

He is a very big wild card pick.

[Jason Moore]

I hope right now, right now he's.

[Andy Holloway]

At the seventh round wide receiver, 35. I am personally fine taking the shot at that point. Rookies usually go up in drafts nearer August. If he climbs too far though, you can't be having. You can't be taking him in fifth round. No way.

[Mike Wright]

No, he feels like a fun gamble in the seventh or eighth because. Yeah, I mean that's the kind of player versus a low ceiling option that you could draft in that same spot.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And I think we need to give a shout out to Brenton Strange as well. Their tight end. The whole left by Evan sleeper more likely to be filled by a tight end. They. They will still throw the ball to the tight end. I think Brenton Strange is actually decently good. Didn't he have a game? He had a game. He had like one big breakout game. But he's got the opportunity now. And so if you're in. I mean obviously he's a deep sleeper. He's going to go undrafted in all your redraft leagues. But if you're playing best ball where you're getting three tight ends on a roster. I think he's like my favorite third tight end.

[Jason Moore]

And the.

[Mike Wright]

Well, if Travis Hunter doesn't get a ton of snaps, then even more so the.

[Jason Moore]

I just. It's impossible how you can't give the number two armor pick. Not snaps, not snaps. Yeah, I didn't know how to phrase.

[Mike Wright]

I mean you can give him a reduced snap count and target him when he's on the field and let him play some defense though. That can happen.

[Jason Moore]

And the days of our lives. That is the entire running back room For Jacksonville because it's just like, yeah.

[Mike Wright]

I was going to.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, that's where the soap opera of that thing and ETN Bigsby and Tutin, who was getting draft Twitter was very infatuated with Tutin. And recently, if you're just going on the way that the coaches are talking about him, things have shifted pretty away from Tutin.

[Mike Wright]

It was too early to be. I think it was too early to be enamored with Tootin. I think it was a proportional reaction to how disappointed people were with etn. But you gotta. You gotta kind of reset here with a new offense, a new offensive system.

[Andy Holloway]

Which one of you two is drafting Travis Etna in the ninth round?

[Mike Wright]

I would.

[Andy Holloway]

At what point does he become someone you can't not draft?

[Mike Wright]

I think it's the ninth round.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, but depending on your build, the ninth round is pretty late because it's.

[Andy Holloway]

Like I came into this off season thinking there's no way I would draft Travis Etienne. Like, I don't. Why would I. Why would I possibly draft him, Bro.

[Mike Wright]

I will pay you to have Breece hall and Travis Etienne as your two league of record running backs this year.

[Andy Holloway]

No, no, thank you.

[Mike Wright]

We will let both guys. Everyone in the league will combine to let them slip as far as it takes.

[Andy Holloway]

I believe that. And that's. That just shows you full league collusion. Whether.

[Mike Wright]

Collusion. That's right.

[Andy Holloway]

To help someone. Everyone's going to.

[Mike Wright]

Is it collusion?

[Andy Holloway]

But everyone agrees it's helping with a week. You know what I mean? It's like, oh, yeah, this is real. We're going to help you out, sucker. Right?

[Jason Moore]

Gotcha.

[Mike Wright]

Tank Bigsby could also be. Yeah, I still think he could have a huge role.

[Jason Moore]

That's the hardest part about ETN in the 9th is Tank is in the 11th and he just doesn't catch passes. I know. I. Yeah, I get that.

[Mike Wright]

So they will. I did mention they have a schedule that looks all right. They do start the year against Carolina at home, then it's on the road against Cincy, then at home against Houston, then at San Francisco. I was reading today, San Francisco, I think has the easiest schedule since 2015 of any team. Oh, man. Wonder who's going to be good on that. If you look at the schedule and you just take out the divisional. Because those will be tough games. You know, the Rams, Cardinals, maybe Seahawks games. Those could be tough. But everybody else they play. It's hard to look at San Francisco and not see a really good year.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I know.

[Mike Wright]

It doesn't mean it will be good and he'll be healthy. But if he's healthy, he will be good. That's what it means.

[Jason Moore]

And that's the hardest part.

[Mike Wright]

Goodness. All right, Tennessee. I said it at the top. Worst point differential in the 26 years of the Titans franchise, negative 149. They went 3 and 14. I don't know if there was a head coach that I saw more frequently because we watch every single game, every single week. But the level, like, I was scared for his personal safety and health. There was no player more at risk sideline heart attack than Brian Callahan last year, his debut as a head coach. And he gets to watch Will Levis on a weekly basis, turn his plans for this team into mush.

[Jason Moore]

He kept putting him out there. I mean, eventually he's like, didn't screw this. We're putting Mason Rudolph out there.

[Mike Wright]

That was it. He basically had no choice for a good portion of the year. And it's like it was. It was so difficult to watch. You know, if you listen to this show last off season, a bet on Ridley was a bet on Will Levis working out. It was also a bet on Brian Callahan fixing problems. If you want to look at can it go right for Liam Cohen. Can it go wrong? It can go wrong if your quarterback can't play football. Callahan was a very, you know, exciting name to arrive in Tennessee with the potential of making things better if you had a quarterback. Instead you got a new quarterback because you had the number one pick.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, so, Andy, do they have a quarterback this year?

[Mike Wright]

They have a quarterback.

[Andy Holloway]

They have a good quarterback.

[Mike Wright]

But I will not accept the this year part of your question. Well, I think they have a quarterback for the future, but I think for this year, when it comes to fantasy, we're going to have a hard time.

[Andy Holloway]

Will rookie Cam Ward put up more than Will Levis did last year?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

This depth chart says that Calvin Ridley is still a value. He is lower than last year, obviously older, but he put up a thousand yards last year. Despite what. How that felt. It felt awful. And it was very inconsistent as the quarterback play was. But when I see Calvin Ridley late in these drafts, I'm really, really surprised how late you can get him in the drafts. With humans, I don't know where his ADP is, but in the ones where you're actually doing them, feels like people don't want Calvin Ridley too much.

[Jason Moore]

They don't want any Titans.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And I'm fine if that's the approach you want to take. Honestly, I think Ridley could prove to be a Value. I think this team could also lean on the running game and keeping Cam Ward into. In situations that are going to protect him. It's really tough. I mean, how great can a rookie. What kind of numbers can a rookie provide?

[Andy Holloway]

Usually not great.

[Mike Wright]

What's the feeling, you know, the touchdowns and things like that. Like Calvin Ridley, I think was okay on the field, like on the film last year was okay. Didn't blow me away, got frustrated. Obviously targets were, you know, all over the place and he couldn't. You know, they invested in a lot of rookie wide receivers in this draft. At least a pile of them.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, you have them all in Dynasty?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. I'm so happy. You know, DK and Gunner Helm in the 4th and I.O. manor and they added Tyler Lockett and Van Jefferson. So those guys, yeah, they might not even see the field, those rookies, because I think Lockett and Jefferson could be out there a lot. No more Westbrook Akina touchdown a week. But this was a really, really, really bad team on offense last year, so it's going to get a reset. Cam Ward is going to get every opportunity. But you're still looking at this team as the basement of this division, right?

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, yeah, I mean, it's tough. This team comes down to Cam Ward, period. Like most teams, the quarterback is everything. But if you're looking for a team to take a huge leap forward, you know, Allah the Texans two years ago, Allah the Washington Commanders this last year, it's always on the back of, wow, the quarterback was better than we thought as a rookie. And so that's where I don't mind taking the shots on some of these players because, you know, look, Calvin Ridley's probably not going to be great, but also he was the wide receiver 30 last year and he's being drafted as the wide receiver 38 this year. While having the potential that Cam Ward comes in and has one of these excellent rookie years which we're seeing more and more and more. You know, it was like go back five years ago and the hit rate on, you know, wide receivers succeeding with a rookie quarterback coming in, very poor. But if you look in more recent history since basically since Justin Herbert, you've got a lot of examples of, you know, someone coming in and, you know, Nico Collins being great or Tank Dell being great or Terry McLaurin being great.

[Mike Wright]

The rookie Corland Sutton last year, the rookies coming in. Yeah, there have been some of those. The data still says that the peak for that wide receiver one is pretty low and the most successful ones have Been the super hyper elite players over the last 10, 15 years. You almost never get double digit touchdowns, things like that. But the price you pay for Ridley is not a lot. I think the question marks for fantasy that are going to be more relevant to people are going to be which, you know, is Tony Pollard going to be a value?

[Jason Moore]

That's the question is, do you believe the coaches when they have. They have. They're saying it yet again of we want to have a timeshare with Tony Pollard and Spears. Like, do you actually believe that? Because if you don't, then Tony Pollard should. Tony Pollard is a like. Or is he going in the seventh round? Seventh round. It's like, I know ETN's a little bit later, but it's like Tony Pollard.

[Mike Wright]

Or much rather have Pollard than etn.

[Jason Moore]

I would much rather have Tony Pollard.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. I mean, it's very difficult to have someone say almost the identical thing that they said last year that was not true. And believe them this year, that feels like a fool's errand.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. I mean, it was not close for the first part of the year. Spears had a nice finish to the season where he had more opportunities finally. But it wasn't, you know, it wasn't the year people. People drafted Tajie Spears last year.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

And it was worth nothing. So Chiga conquo gave you a little splash in the fantasy playoffs.

[Jason Moore]

Dude, I do not remember that. Did he?

[Andy Holloway]

Well, that you don't remember when you.

[Mike Wright]

Didn'T remember the call of calls.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, yes, yes, yes. Okay. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Wide receiver or a tight end. Three in week 16 for 81. That was Britain. Strange v Chicacon. This is where you get in fantasy. You have all these exciting, prolific names. And then when you get to week 16, we're sitting here and we're. Every year it's like, that's the good. Was it Jarrett Patterson, the running back for Washington? Yeah. Or years ago Hightower.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yeah. That was a good one.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, you win with some nasty boys, Mike. You got that?

[Jason Moore]

Of course I do.

[Andy Holloway]

That's why we say you don't win your championship at the draft. Because a lot of these guys aren't going to be drafted that are going to be in championship games.

[Jason Moore]

How does this team see what a conquo can do if you're. If you feature him in the offense.

[Andy Holloway]

And be like, nah, they just have too many other pass catches.

[Jason Moore]

They got too many superstars out there.

[Mike Wright]

No. Chig feels a lot like, you know, that's exactly what I was going to say. David Najoku, early career, not the snap counts that you wanted. And then they what, they drafted Gunner Helm and look, Okonkwo is your best or second best pass catcher. That's the truth. He's the most athletic. One of the most athletic Titans. So you got Ridley, and then really, at this juncture of the career, you got a pile of rookies and you got the corpse of Tyler Lockett. Respectfully.

[Jason Moore]

No disrespect to you, but yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Chig is just a weekly dart throw situation.

[Jason Moore]

Unfortunately, it's sadness.

[Mike Wright]

They start against Denver, in Denver, that'll be really tough. And then Los Angeles, the Rams, that'll be tough. Then the Colts at home. And then Houston. If we're looking at the division. Houston, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Tennessee. Give it to me. What is the. How do you think this one's going to.

[Jason Moore]

I'm really trying to see how I can not be chalk. Okay. Someone needs to go first.

[Andy Holloway]

Andy, I nominate you.

[Mike Wright]

I went first last time.

[Andy Holloway]

I know. You're the leader. You're the host.

[Jason Moore]

You went first last time, so you stay first.

[Andy Holloway]

Right? You established the order.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. All right. I'll go non chalk. You ready? Houston wins the division.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, that would know that you can't.

[Mike Wright]

Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tennessee.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, so you're just going to go for just exactly what happened last year.

[Mike Wright]

No, I got it. So. So there's multiple versions of chalk. There's the betting version, and then what happened?

[Andy Holloway]

No matter what you said I would be the way that it was.

[Mike Wright]

Let me just see the way that you lead us in this totally, like, independent thinking version.

[Jason Moore]

Tennessee. All right.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Let's hear it.

[Andy Holloway]

Jacksonville.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Houston, Tennessee, Indianapolis, you. Okay, so like three years ago, the order.

[Mike Wright]

Mike, what do you got?

[Jason Moore]

Oh, man.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Houston to win the division. I think I'm with you, Andy. Houston, Colts, Jacksonville, Jags, Titans.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Well, I really backed myself into a quarter. Yeah, you did.

[Jason Moore]

You did.

[Mike Wright]

I'm so happy. All right. We'll be covering the AFC east and AFC west on the next couple of shows. A reminder, we're three shows a week. Make sure you follow. Check out the ultimate draft kit. We're also going to work a mock draft episode in between some of these divisional breakdowns as well. So we got lots coming your way. The [e-mail] including the Discord Channel with. I don't know if Papa Josh has a recent number, but it's somewhere 30,000 plus 40,000 plus 50,000 plus. What are we at, Josh?

[Andy Holloway]

We are at 58.9 thousand.

[Mike Wright]

Goodness gracious.

[Jason Moore]

Was this 30,000.

[Mike Wright]

I didn't even know there was that many people in the world. That's awesome. And yeah, check it out. JoinTheFoot.com is the community ultimate draft kit.com for your drafts. And we'll be back. We got another episode Thursday, Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And then football.

[Jason Moore]

Goodbye.

[Andy Holloway]

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter the Ffballers. At Firestone Complete Auto Care, we hold our service to the highest standard. That's why we have thousands of ASE certified expert technicians nationally. So if you're looking for car service that's got your back on the road, choose the place that treats every car like their own and every customer like family. Don't wait any longer. Call your local Firestone Complete Auto Care and book your next appointment today.

[Mike Wright]

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[Andy Holloway]

Not insuring your travel trailer.

[Mike Wright]

Progressive RV insurance can protect your travel.

[Andy Holloway]

Trailer when your auto or home insurance can get a'@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.