Fantasy Football 2018 - Alex Smith Traded! + Rookie Review: 2017 WRs & TEs

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast Episode Summary
Episode: Fantasy Football 2018 - Alex Smith Traded! + Rookie Review: 2017 WRs & TEs
Release Date: February 1, 2018
Hosts: Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright

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1. Introduction

The episode kicks off with the hosts welcoming listeners from Draft.com Studios. They set the stage for a lively discussion centered around a significant NFL trade involving quarterback Alex Smith and the ensuing fantasy football implications. Additionally, the hosts delve into a comprehensive review of 2017 rookie wide receivers (WRs) and tight ends (TEs), evaluating their performances and future prospects in fantasy leagues.

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2. Alex Smith Trade Analysis

Trade Details:

• Alex Smith, a seasoned quarterback aged 34, was traded from the Kansas City Chiefs to the Washington Redskins.
• Washington's Package: Garnered Alex Smith in exchange for Kendall Fuller, a promising 22-year-old cornerback, and a third-round draft pick.

Implications for the NFL and Fantasy Football:

• Leadership Change: The trade signifies Washington's hesitance to commit long-term to Kirk Cousins, their incumbent quarterback, hinting at possible benching or seeking alternatives.
• Smith’s Role: With a new four-year, $94 million extension, Smith is expected to be the locked-in starter for Washington, providing stability but raising questions about his fit within the Redskins' offense.

Notable Quotes:

• Mike Wright (01:20): “We're going to spend a decent amount of time today talking through the Alex Smith to Washington trade. Big time.”
• Andy Holloway (02:03): “... maybe Drew Brees is up there too. But at least in recent memory, the best free agent quarterback.”

Hosts' Perspectives:

• Andy Holloway expresses skepticism about Kirk Cousins' future with Washington, favoring Alex Smith's experience.
• Mike Wright appreciates the trade from a dynasty perspective, highlighting Smith's stability as a quarterback option.

Fantasy Implications:

• The trade impacts player valuations, especially receivers like Jameson Crowder, whose fantasy value may fluctuate based on Smith's performance and offensive dynamics in Washington.

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3. Fantasy Football Implications

The hosts discuss how the Alex Smith trade affects fantasy football strategies, particularly concerning quarterback consistency and the value of surrounding players.

Key Discussion Points:

• Quarterback Stability: Alex Smith’s acquisition could stabilize Washington's QB position, potentially benefiting fantasy owners with Smith while casting doubts on Cousins’ reliability.
• Receiver Dynamics: With Smith's integration into Washington's offense, receivers like Josh Docks and Jameson Crowder may see increased or altered roles, influencing their fantasy rankings.

Notable Quotes:

• Mike Wright (12:08): “Well, I mean, it's better than letting Kirk Cousins go and starting over in the draft.”
• Andy Holloway (13:19): “Kirk Cousins as a starter has never thrown for fewer than 4,000 yards.”

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4. Super Bowl Predictions

In a lighter segment, the hosts engage in predicting the Super Bowl outcome with humorous banter and friendly competition.

Predictions:

• Jason Moore humorously predicts a 28-24 Patriots victory.
• Andy Holloway opts for a 28-20 Patriots win.
• Brooks suggests a 24-21 Patriots triumph.

Notable Moments:

• Attempted live call to Jason Moore was comedic, confirming he was indeed enjoying a churro at Disneyland.

Notable Quotes:

• Andy Holloway (27:16): “Jason said it's weird because it's... he just submitted churro, cinnamon and sugar.”
• Mike Wright (28:44): “I'm going to go with this one.”

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5. Rookie Review: 2017 WRs & TEs

The core of the episode revolves around evaluating the performance of rookie wide receivers and tight ends from the 2017 NFL draft class, assessing their impact on fantasy football.

Wide Receivers

1. Mike Evans:

   • Performance: Consistently reliable with only 20% fantasy bust rate.
   • Discussion: Andy defends Evans' consistency against more erratic WRs like Odell Beckham Jr. and Julio Jones.
   • Quote (07:03): “Mike Evans was actually consistent. He only busted for your team according to our metrics, about 20% of the time and that's extremely low.”

2. Jay Ajayi:

   • Performance: Transitioned from Miami to Philadelphia, facing role changes.
   • Fantasy Outlook: Potential for a strong rookie season despite consistency issues.
   • Quote (07:54): “I'm going to give him a pass through the change of teams.”

3. Amari Cooper:

   • Performance: Exhibits high draft stock due to college production despite an inconsistent NFL year.
   • Fantasy Outlook: Expected to maintain high value in drafts.
   • Quote (09:00): “...the best. I think people will still be guns blazing to draft Amari Cooper so young.”

4. Juju Smith-Schuster:

   • Performance: Showed promise with 917 yards and 7 touchdowns.
   • Fantasy Outlook: Potential to be overdrafted due to exciting play style.
   • Quote (43:28): “He had a consistency rank of 22. He had almost a thousand yards, 917 and 7 on 80 targets.”

5. George Kittle:

   • Performance: Notable as a sleeper tight end with promising numbers.
   • Fantasy Outlook: Positioned as a late-round value pick.
   • Quote (59:04): “Of the rookies, George Kittle is absolutely my sleeper tight end.”

6. John Ross:

   • Performance: Underperformed with negative fantasy points, raising concerns.
   • Fantasy Outlook: Not recommended for fantasy due to limited usage and performance struggles.
   • Quote (38:07): “Not usable for fantasy.”

Tight Ends

1. Evan Engram:

   • Performance: High target volume but low catch percentage (55.7%).
   • Fantasy Outlook: Likely to be overdrafted due to target volume despite drop issues.
   • Quote (56:26): “I think he probably will be overdrafted.”

2. O.J. Howard:

   • Performance: Limited targets but showed potential in final games.
   • Fantasy Outlook: Intriguing for future growth, especially with injury recoveries.
   • Quote (58:47): “Final five games of O.J. howard season, he either had 50 yards or a touchdown.”

3. David Njoku:

   • Performance: Moderate target volume with room for growth.
   • Fantasy Outlook: Viewed as a late-round value with potential upside.
   • Quote (56:45): “I think you're, Jeff Howard can be a value.”

Notable Highlights:

• Corey Davis: Expressed frustration over his inconsistent receptions and yardage despite high targets.
• Curtis Samuel: Noted for his speed and potential role in Carolina's offense, though projections remain cautious due to quarterback uncertainty.
• Sammy Watkins: Discussed as potentially overpriced if he seeks a higher contract beyond his current role.

Notable Quotes:

• Andy Holloway (32:58): “If I get one reception, how many yards is it? If I turn around immediately on the snap?”
• Mike Wright (35:30): “I think he could be a one if that's the role.”

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6. Conclusion

The episode wraps up with the hosts reiterating the importance of staying updated on player trades and rookie performances to optimize fantasy football strategies. They encourage listeners to join their community at jointhefoot.com and follow them on Twitter for continuous updates and insights.

Final Remarks:

• Mike Wright (62:05): “Check out draft.comballers if you want to play some way too early basketball. It's really fun.”
• Andy Holloway (63:14): “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.”

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Key Takeaways

• Alex Smith Trade: A pivotal move affecting Washington's offensive stability and Kirk Cousins' future, with significant fantasy implications for related players.
• Rookie Evaluations: Diverse performances among 2017 WRs and TEs highlight the importance of assessing both consistency and opportunity in fantasy drafts.
• Fantasy Strategies: Emphasis on targeting consistent performers like Mike Evans while being cautious with high-risk picks that may be overdrafted based on their roles and performance metrics.

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For more detailed analysis and fantasy football advice, tune into future episodes of the Fantasy Footballers podcast.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

Psst. Psst. What?

[Mike Wright]

Hey. Fuck clan.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I thought you were talking to me.

[Mike Wright]

I just wanna let them know that the Ultimate Draft kit will be available for presale on Super Bowl Sunday.

[Andy Holloway]

What?

[Mike Wright]

On super bowl Sunday? Ultimate DraftKit.com.

[Andy Holloway]

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers podcast coming to you from Draft.com Studios with your Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Mike Wright]

Welcome in. That's my volume level, but I'm better. I've got a voice. Mike, how you doing?

[Andy Holloway]

No, I'm good man, good. Thanks for asking.

[Mike Wright]

J Griz is here again. If you want. If you want to know the answer. And yes, I just squeaked a little bit. If you want to know the answer to why we record fantasy football podcast all year round, look no further. Oh, than that trade last night. I guess that's two nights ago. When you're listening to this, I've not gone to sleep.

[Andy Holloway]

It was that exciting for me.

[Mike Wright]

So we're going to spend a decent amount of time today talking through the Alex Smith to Washington train. Big time. Fantastic reverberations throughout the NFL, especially for fantasy in each of the cities in Kansas City and Washington and then wherever Kirk Cousins ends up, which will not be Washington. Oh, that's the rope a dope right there. They sign him to a long term deal. They double down two quarterbacks.

[Andy Holloway]

We're going to. They hate him that much that they will franchise him.

[Mike Wright]

To bench him.

[Andy Holloway]

To bench him.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, 34 million for the bench. Sign me up. Can't get CTE from the bench.

[Andy Holloway]

This the signing or I should say the trade of Alex Smith to Washington. He could not have possibly gone to a better spot for the narrative in the NFL of tracking Kurt Cousins because Washington, wow. I think all of us felt like it was a low, you know, a much lower probability that Kirk Cousins ends up back there. Maybe they franchise him a ridiculous third time or he songs signs a long term deal there. We thought it was a low probability, but it could still have happened. That's gone now. Now you have. In my opinion, maybe Drew Brees is up there too. But at least in recent memory, the best free agent quarterback. And look, Peyton Manning. I'll include him in there. But you, everyone knew when Peyton Manning was a free agent you had two to three years of Peyton Manning. You have Kirk Cousins, he's 29. 29. You're talking.

[Mike Wright]

Well, for context, Alex Smith is 34 and just signed a four year deal with Washington.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, so he, and so he's under contract for five years.

[Mike Wright]

Right. And Kirk Cousins is five years younger.

[Andy Holloway]

Tom Brady's 40, right? If Kirk Cousins has at least seven to eight great years of NFL football in him, maybe, and he is on, we'll see. Yeah, I said this is my opinion.

[Mike Wright]

Sure.

[Andy Holloway]

A franchise quarterback is available in free agency. This does not happen.

[Mike Wright]

We will talk much more about it. I want to welcome everybody into the Fantasy Footballers podcast. You can find us on the web. The fantasy footballers.com the Twitter is @ the ffballers, the community where you can find foot clan leagues, which means you can join leagues with listeners of the show that are actually dedicated and committed and won't ruin your league. You can find [e-mail] you get access to that.

[Andy Holloway]

And it's changing scoring systems halfway through the year.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, you don't get any of that.

[Andy Holloway]

Get out of here.

[Mike Wright]

Because these people know how to play and it's more fun and more challenging and that's what makes a league. And that's what we try to do. We try to bring you a show that is entertaining, that is educational, that helps equip you to win your league and enjoy being in your league and enjoy running your league. All those pieces, they come into play on the show. You can find us on itunes. You can leave a review.

[Andy Holloway]

Apple Podcasts.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, you can leave us a review on the Apple Podcasts app. Subscribe over there and then we're pretty much everywhere else. You could listen to a podcast. Spotify, iheartradio. We are on the YouTube.

[Andy Holloway]

Mmm. We are.

[Mike Wright]

We are. All right, I have. I want to get into this quick question and then we'll circle back to the Alex Smith news. We'll talk about the fantasy implications. Jason's still on vacation, by the way.

[Andy Holloway]

Announced. What else is on this show?

[Mike Wright]

No, but people that listen to Tuesday's show. No. All right, so what's on today's show, Mike?

[Andy Holloway]

Well, we're looking back at the rookies. Tuesday's show, we took a look at quarterbacks and running backs. So we're going to look at rookies. How did they perform? Project a little bit. Talk about, you know, coming into the year, our process of what we thought of these guys and how that played out. So we will be talking about that as well. But that's not nearly as exciting right now as the Kirk Cousins News.

[Mike Wright]

No. And I think everybody wants to hear our take.

[Andy Holloway]

I call it the Kirk Cousins News. Yes, you do.

[Mike Wright]

I noticed that. Maybe. Maybe that's appropriate. We'll see. I love this quick question, though. This is a great one. This one comes in off of Twitter. If you Listen to the show. Over the past couple of weeks we got into the truth about every position, the players, where they finished and what their consistency levels were. And this question comes in off of Twitter. It says from the wide receiver and running back, truth shows, who do you want to give a pass to? Okay, so there are players that, that ended up with bad consistency rankings. Who would you give a pass to?

[Andy Holloway]

I'll jump in here. I'm giving my pass. I'm giving it to Mike Evans. And this is because the truth is about consistency like Andy said. And Mike Evans was actually consistent. He only busted for your team according to our metrics, about 20% of the time and that's extremely low.

[Mike Wright]

He was consistently not as good as last year.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. And.

[Mike Wright]

But not a consistent bust. Brooks is nodding. That's what he was. Right. He was a stair step down.

[Andy Holloway]

Absolutely. But to me people get. People are far more likely to swing the pendulum Based on the 0% of great games for Mike Evans instead of looking and saying wow, this guy was actually very consistent.

[Mike Wright]

Is that right? Zero percent?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

That's why people no weak winning weeks, no top three performances.

[Andy Holloway]

Exactly. That's why people think that Mike Evans was bad for fantasy football. When not everyone is Antonio Brown. Not everyone is DeAndre Hopkins. You may have thought you were getting that in Mike Evans. You didn't and you aren't going to get that.

[Mike Wright]

No. And that was why, despite opposition from many, we were hesitant to put him in the pantheon of Odell Beckham Jr. And Julio Jones.

[Andy Holloway]

Antonio Brown, I don't think he is that. I think he's great.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't think he is. He's not a top, top tier guy. But he's going to drop in drafts yet again because he kind of does this right after his rookie season. Everyone loved him. Then his touchdowns, he was double digit.

[Mike Wright]

Touchdowns, then he wasn't and then he.

[Andy Holloway]

Was again and now he wasn't. So Mike Evans back the second, top of the third. Absolutely. I'm loving that.

[Mike Wright]

Maybe it's something with being a Tampa Bay buccaneer because you had the back and forth of Doug Martin, now you have the back and forth. Mike Evans perhaps. Maybe you're not allowed to succeed in successive years. Something to look into. Mike.

[Andy Holloway]

This. We need a study.

[Mike Wright]

I'm going with a player that had 0% great games as well. And I had to think a while to make sure I wanted to do this. But I'm going to give my pass to Jay Ajayi because we expect, we expected a lot from him. But he changed teams. He moved from an established role to a, you know, to establishing a new role on a new franchise. Unexpected quarterback change took place in Philadelphia. There were a lot of variables. One of the ones that I want to bring up again, that we brought up in the Truth show he never had a red zone carry inside the seven this year.

[Andy Holloway]

None. I mean, that's the money zone.

[Mike Wright]

That's the. Yeah, I mean, that's where you want to be. That's that 10 zone type of carry. He had a ton of them last year when he was great with Miami. And now you have a situation like Eric Blunt. You know, I don't think they knew what they wanted to do in that backfield. I don't think Sprouls will come back. I don't think Blunt will be back. Ajay is going to find his way there. And he was the number 33. In terms of consistency. That's not good. No, but I'm going to give him a pass through the change of teams. And I want to give an honorable mention to Ty Hilton.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Because he's a legit quarterback situation. You know, he wasn't going to be consistent with Jacobi Brissette. That offensive line, no other weapons follow up. Who's going to get a pass from the fantasy community that doesn't deserve it?

[Andy Holloway]

The guy that I think will get a pass from the fantasy community because I think he will get a pass forever. I mean, this guy has. He has a. He took his hall pass. He went down to the laminators. He made sure that no one can ever tear this thing up because of his draft stock and his college production. That's Amari Cooper. I think people will still be guns blazing to draft Amari Cooper so young. And this is not disparaging of Amari Cooper, I think that he can improve. We'll see what the Raiders are going to do. Will Michael Crabtree, in fact be released as the rumors.

[Mike Wright]

You cannot. You're already making the case for him. Yeah, he's sounding great. Young. Just Crabtree's gone. Just Gruden's in.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, you've talked me out of it right there.

[Mike Wright]

Well, you. You and Gruden. You. You make that grimace towards Gruden every day.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, yeah. Gruden. Them don't approve of what you're doing, my friend.

[Mike Wright]

All right, I. Look, C.J. anderson, I could see him getting a pass into the year strong.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Didn't have a quarterback. I could see Jordy Nelson getting a pass. No. Aaron Rodgers, his numbers plummeted. Without him, maybe he gets a pass and people give him another shot as a higher draft pick. I don't know. I don't know if he's deserving of that.

[Andy Holloway]

I would. If Jody's going to slip similar to Mike Evans, I will be scooping him up.

[Mike Wright]

All right, can we circle back? I'm not even going to do the news drop. I'm going to go with this one.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, breaking news.

[Mike Wright]

It's January, Mike, and we have a monster trade. Alex Smith traded from the Chiefs to the Redskins, was traded for Kendall Fuller. Who? You said you called it the Kirk Cousins trade. We might be calling it the Kendall Fuller trade soon, yes. I mean, this kid is great. 22 year old cornerback, also got a third round pick and from a, from a high level. This is called.

[Andy Holloway]

We screwed up for Washington. Washington.

[Mike Wright]

We screwed up on signing Kirk Cousins to a long term deal when we could afford it. Now here we are. So Alex Smith lands in Washington, signs a four year, $94 million extension, $71 million guaranteed. Alex Smith didn't have a bad day.

[Andy Holloway]

No.

[Mike Wright]

Alex Smith got traded to a situation where he's the locked and loaded starter, which for me, as a dynasty owner of Alex Smith, that made me happy. You got an extension done with the player. Now he goes to an offense. Now, I don't know if Alex Smith is better in Washington, but at least I know he's a starter as a dynasty owner of Alex Smith once they paid him this money.

[Andy Holloway]

So what did you think of the overall. Let's start with just the trade. Do you think Washington made a good move here or how are you evaluating this trade?

[Mike Wright]

Well, I mean, it's better than letting Kirk Cousins go and starting over in the draft. In this NFL, you know, you need a quarterback, you need an opportunity. I like Alex Smith. In terms of the trade, they got hosed.

[Andy Holloway]

All right.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, is that your perspective?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. I feel like they, they got fully, fully host.

[Mike Wright]

So tell me more about, like, what is the possible outcome for them? What's the best case scenario for Washington?

[Andy Holloway]

The best case scenario is, my goodness, they have to. How you're giving up a young emerging corner and Kendall Fuller and a third round pick. I don't know. I don't know what the best case scenario because here's, here's the thing. I like Kirk Cousins more than Alex Smith moving forward. But if you want to make the argument to me that they are a, they're the same tier of quarterback, I'm not going to argue. If you think. If some people say, well, I've Alex Smith slightly. As a slightly better quarterback than Kirk Cousins. Okay. But the problem here is Alex Smith played the, this was his career year.

[Mike Wright]

26 passing touchdowns, 4,000 passing yards, and.

[Andy Holloway]

He played 15 games. So if you give him his pace, you know, he would have been at about 4,300 yards, maybe 28 touchdowns. Kirk Cousins as a starter has never thrown for fewer than 4,000 yards. Kirk Cousins is a middle 60% completion completion passer. So I, he's five years younger.

[Mike Wright]

This to me. And I don't want to oversimplify this trade. When we talk about the fantasy implications, there are confusing aspects to it. Right. Like Jay Gruden. It was publicized this offseason that he, he kind of had to almost argue with Kirk Cousins in terms of throwing the deep ball.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. So they go get Alex Smith and.

[Mike Wright]

They go get Alex Smith. Now, Alex Smith was the most accurate deep ball throw in the NFL this year. But that's not the same thing as being prone to throw the deep ball. Enjoy liking throwing the deep ball. Enjoying. And look, when I look at Alex Smith and I project Alex Smith, here's what I see. I see a downgrade in offensive mind as a coach. I think Andy Reid's better coach than Jay Gruden. Do you agree?

[Andy Holloway]

Agreed.

[Mike Wright]

I see a downgrade in terms of weapons. I think Travis Kelsey and Tyreek Hill and Kareem Hunt are better than Josh Dachshund, Jameson Crowder, Jordan Reed when he's on the field. Maybe, maybe not. And Chris Thompson. Would you agree with that?

[Andy Holloway]

I agree that it's, it's, it's a downtick. Yes. But I don't, I don't think it's a big, huge step.

[Mike Wright]

Well, we saw what happened to Kirk Cousins numbers last year.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

When they lost Garcon, Deshaun Jackson. No, Jordan Reed. All I'm saying is I don't see those two, you know, those two pieces. Now, you go to an NFC east, they got some decent secondaries in the NFC East. I don't think Alex Smith is going to replicate last year.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't either.

[Mike Wright]

I would put it, you know, well.

[Andy Holloway]

Considering the past five years he's averaged under 3400 yards and 17 passing touchdowns.

[Mike Wright]

There you go. And so then you start talking about the weapons in Washington. Who gets the uptick? I mean, Chris Thompson, Jordan Reed, Jamison Crowder, short yardage guys versus Josh Dockson. I don't think Josh Dachshund. I'm going to move him at much from where I would have had him. Last year, but I don't think I'm moving him up.

[Andy Holloway]

The Washington skill players are not really moving for me. I think Alex Smith can do, can provide fantasy value to those guys the way that Kirk. I think you're saying they're about the same tier.

[Mike Wright]

I think you would have moved Josh Dockson up naturally, regardless of the quarterback just being more established, being a possible breakout. Right. Being a third year guy. Now, now you talk about the other side. This was, you know, Pat Mahomes day as well. And Kansas City fans, I haven't met one that's unhappy, have you?

[Andy Holloway]

I have not.

[Mike Wright]

It's amazing because Alex Smith has the best year of his career. This team you're going to. A rookie goes back to the playoffs.

[Andy Holloway]

Not a rookie, but a guy with zero experience.

[Mike Wright]

And everybody's happy, everybody's thrilled. How unappreciated is Alex Smith in this world by everybody but the Washington Redskins.

[Andy Holloway]

He is so unappreciated that next year Washington will draft a quarterback in the first round.

[Mike Wright]

Oh my gosh, it will just.

[Andy Holloway]

The cycle will continue.

[Mike Wright]

You mean when he puts up 20 touchdowns and like eight interceptions, 3,500 yards. So now Pat Mahomes takes over. And I posted this poll on Twitter a couple days ago. We talked about it on the Tuesday show, Ty Hilton or Tyreek Hill and we talked about not knowing, you know, what was going to happen with Alex Smith. Well now look, from a fantasy perspective is great clarity on Pat Mahomes, clarity on Alex Smith. Now we wait for Kirk Cousins, but we know he's moving on for Pat Mahomes. I want to know where you project Pat Mahomes, Tyree Kill and Travis Kelsey in comparison to where they, you know, not Mahomes hadn't been projected but where you would have seen, you know, the rapport between Smith and Kelsey was great. Tyree Kill Brooks walked in this morning, he asked me, he said out of the last 13 touchdowns scored by Tyree Kill, how many were 30 plus yard plays? Oh, do you know the answer to that question?

[Andy Holloway]

No.

[Mike Wright]

What do you think?

[Andy Holloway]

Is Brooks dropping hot stats on you? This is 13 receiving touchdowns.

[Mike Wright]

13 receive. Yeah, we're not, we're not going to count obviously the rushing but receiving touchdown. He has 13 in his career. How many are 30 plus yard touchdown?

[Andy Holloway]

I'm going to go eight.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, what did I guess? Brooks, I guess.

[Andy Holloway]

You guess 11 and it is 10.

[Mike Wright]

It's 10.

[Andy Holloway]

All seven receiving touchdowns last year.

[Mike Wright]

That's who he is. And if you watch Pat Mahomes, if there's One thing Pat Mahomes can do, it's throw the ball.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yeah. Very, very far, certainly.

[Mike Wright]

Now, will it be accurate?

[Andy Holloway]

That's the bigger question.

[Mike Wright]

Will he make the right read and see, you know, Tyreek Hill? Those things we don't know. But I'm not really changing Tyreek Hill's projection. I'm not going to shoot it through the roof just because I think Pat Mahomes is going to be a gunslinger.

[Andy Holloway]

I would bump him slightly down.

[Mike Wright]

You would?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Because of just the unknown.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, certainly the unknown. And your risk. There's definitely going to be risk built into drafting Tyreek Hill, who.

[Mike Wright]

Same with Kelsey.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. You bump him down. I think there's slightly less risk just because Kelsey is an established, dominant player. But he'll coming. Let's say Alex Smith is still the Chiefs quarterback coming into the draft season. Tyreek Hill is likely drafted as what, at least a top 10 wide receiver.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

And probably a top seven.

[Mike Wright]

I'll say this now. I would still take Tyreek Hill and what I've seen of Tyree Kill and believe about Tyree Kill and the evolution of Tyree Kill. I would take that player over Ty Hilton with Andrew Luck back.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

I would. I would answer that question. Even with Pat Mahomes. I would take Tyreek Hill.

[Andy Holloway]

I would take. It's. It's for sure. Ty Hilton.

[Mike Wright]

Now for me, let me ask you this, though. We saw Andy Reid forget about Kareem Hunt. Is Andy Reid going to be able to resist the urgent to forget about his running back with Pat Mahomes in the backfield running around, extending plays? Is this a bad thing? Is this a good thing for a. For a Kareem Hunt owner? We talked about him and Lev Bell yesterday. There was a listener question. What do you see for Kareem Hunt.

[Andy Holloway]

If anything, maybe a slot down. I don't change things.

[Mike Wright]

That's how I lean. I think if you mix in the quarterback change.

[Andy Holloway]

Kareem Hunt forced the most broken tackles of any running back.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I'm not saying it's not an indictment on his. It's just saying if you mix in the depth chart issues that they had at running back this year with Mahomes coming in, I can't. For the same reason that you moved Tyvey Kill down a little bit. I'd have to move Kareem Hunt down.

[Andy Holloway]

That's fair.

[Mike Wright]

And we've seen rookie running backs take a step back before and it's not. It doesn't mean he's not a great player. But some of that early success that you have.

[Andy Holloway]

Hopefully he took his step back in the middle of the season.

[Mike Wright]

Well, he did. And then he came back out of it. So we'll talk about Kirk Cousins possible destinations in a second here.

[Andy Holloway]

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[Mike Wright]

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[Andy Holloway]

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[Mike Wright]

That sounds easy.

[Andy Holloway]

It is. It's incredibly easy. Most guys get the results they want in about two weeks. It's gradual. So you're going to be able to get the look that you want. Because when you look as good as you feel, every date night, every meeting, every guy's night out will be something to look forward to. And right now you can get 25% off control GX using the code [e-mail] go to controlgx.com, use the code footballers. You're going to get 25 off easy shampoo in. That's it.

[Mike Wright]

All right, Rinse out Kirk Cousins.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

I could probably name nine different places he could go.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Let's do it.

[Andy Holloway]

That's why this is so exciting.

[Mike Wright]

Let's name the potential places for Kirk Cousins. Ready? Arizona, Denver, Minnesota. The Jets. You could say the Giants.

[Andy Holloway]

The Giants.

[Mike Wright]

The Giants.

[Andy Holloway]

Absolutely. You can.

[Mike Wright]

Where else?

[Andy Holloway]

Hold on, I'm trying for this. For this.

[Mike Wright]

Those were just top of the head for this exercise. The Browns.

[Andy Holloway]

I need an actual Buffalo.

[Mike Wright]

Buffalo.

[Andy Holloway]

Let's.

[Mike Wright]

I've heard people say Tampa Bay, which I think is outlandish in obvious.

[Andy Holloway]

But you know what's not outlandish? Cincinnati, maybe they cut Andy Dalton and they go to Kirk Cousins. Just. There's. There are so many teams without a franchise. Jacksonville.

[Mike Wright]

Jacksonville.

[Andy Holloway]

We. There was. We had a water bet, which you apparently already lost.

[Mike Wright]

I felt what?

[Andy Holloway]

Well, you.

[Mike Wright]

I'm holding on to it because you never.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm not dousing you yet. You. A water bet was will Blake Bortles be the starter?

[Mike Wright]

Be a starter.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, be a starter. And then.

[Mike Wright]

And then like three hours later they say they're Going to keep him and he'll be the starter. That's not a good trend.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, Miami.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Miami's on the list, too. So handicap it for me because people. Look, we don't know where he's going. First of all, did we say.

[Andy Holloway]

You said Denver, right?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Second of all, people want predictions. Come on.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I mean, I'm happy to give mine.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. I mean, no, he's not going to the Bears. I thought Jay Grizz.

[Andy Holloway]

Jay Grizz loved him.

[Mike Wright]

Trubisky's Young.

[Andy Holloway]

Risky.

[Mike Wright]

Come on. Risky Mitch.

[Andy Holloway]

Nobody. Apparently we have. We have brought Nobody beats Mitch to the masses and Twitter was very grateful. If you have not checked it out, you got to look up. Nobody beats.

[Mike Wright]

I would recommend not doing that.

[Andy Holloway]

Nobody beats Match.

[Mike Wright]

Don't check it out. So handicap it. Let's do it this way. And Brooks, you're participating, so get your brain going. I guess just give me your. Your favorite. All right, let's do it that way. I was going to say top three.

[Andy Holloway]

But I'm going to go top two.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, Top two. Let's do that.

[Andy Holloway]

Because I think there are two teams that are head and shoulders above everyone.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Because Kirk Cousins, he's come out and he said. Which rightfully so. He said, yes, money will be a factor.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, he's also said it won't be the only factor.

[Andy Holloway]

And that's exactly it. He's. He wants to win.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

The top two destinations for me, Minnesota, Denver. I think it is probably. I'm going to go 50. 50.

[Mike Wright]

That's how you say it.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

I don't agree with Minnesota.

[Andy Holloway]

See, I would be shocked if it's not one of those two teams. Shocked.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. I. Look, I'm going to go Denver for sure. Denver is one of those two for me. We've seen this before. They have an established defense. They could easily bounce back on that side of the ball.

[Andy Holloway]

Kirk Cousins on that team. They're back in the playoffs.

[Mike Wright]

Absolutely. And so I'll put Denver out there. I don't think Minnesota and I don't think Minnesota because I believe that they. I believe that they believe they can get better value resigning one of their guys and replicating than they would. I mean, the amount of money that Kirk Cousins is going to cost, I don't see that as a fit for Minnesota. I'm going to actually throw. It's close between, like the jets and the Cardinals. I'm going to put the Cardinals in there. I think it's Denver, Arizona. Those are my favorite two Brooks I want you to weigh in since we know Jay Grizz is just going to say the Bears twice.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm with you guys on Denver and I'll. I was gonna pick the jets is the other one.

[Mike Wright]

There you go.

[Andy Holloway]

You guys really think the jets have a chance?

[Mike Wright]

I think they do. I think they do. I think they're willing to spend that money.

[Andy Holloway]

What are the. But if he said, okay, it's important that I win. What are the. What are the alluring pieces of the New York jets offense? Robbie Anderson, their best wide receiver who is going to be suspended.

[Mike Wright]

No, there's not. There's not much alluring there.

[Andy Holloway]

That. And that's why I think it's.

[Mike Wright]

But you don't have the history of losing that. The Browns have.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I don't think so.

[Mike Wright]

The Browns are out of contention to.

[Andy Holloway]

Me, but the Browns actually have pieces.

[Mike Wright]

Now to break some more news here. Alex Smith obviously was traded to the Redskins. There were reports today by Ian Rapoport that the Browns and Cardinals were interested in trading for Alex Smith. It's likely that you had similar deal. Similar deal there for the Browns. And he didn't want to go there. He had already kind of scoffed at going to, you know, he wants to be on a winning team or at least a team that has a chance to win. So we all think Denver is in contention.

[Andy Holloway]

I'll point this out. I'm [e-mail] right now looking at salary cap. Who has space? The seventh most space? Minnesota. They have salary cap space. And if you think that Kirk Cousins is a franchise quarterback, I don't care what it costs.

[Mike Wright]

I don't know if they think that.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, maybe. We'll see. I don't know.

[Mike Wright]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

I did see a lot of Minnesota beat reporters and people who cover the team who were very, very excited right away that Kirk Cousins was available.

[Mike Wright]

All right, super bowl predictions right now. Jason decided to submit one and we got it for you.

[Andy Holloway]

Jason said it's weird because it's. He just submitted churro, cinnamon and sugar.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, he's in Disneyland if you didn't know. He is eating a. At any moment in time. If you snap your fingers, he's eating a churro.

[Andy Holloway]

I went 65% on Tuesday. I'm bumping that. I'm going 80.

[Mike Wright]

You mean the percentage chance that right this moment he's eating a churro?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Is he in Disneyland? Yes. There you go.

[Andy Holloway]

Should we call him right now on the show?

[Mike Wright]

That's Brooks. Are you able to do that?

[Andy Holloway]

I'm doing it right now.

[Mike Wright]

You're just gonna do it on your.

[Andy Holloway]

This is never.

[Mike Wright]

You're literally pulling yourself.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm literally gonna try and call him on speakerphone and see if he's eating.

[Mike Wright]

It's been done once before. Like, oh, yeah, we did that to you. But you knew it was coming.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, Jason does not know it's coming.

[Mike Wright]

So this is.

[Andy Holloway]

This is incredible radio.

[Mike Wright]

You got it on speaker, Vaughn.

[Andy Holloway]

Can you guys hear this?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I can hear it. 28, 24 Patriots. That's his prediction. What are you gonna ask him if.

[Andy Holloway]

He'S eating a churro?

[Mike Wright]

Oh, okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Come on. Answer the phone, Jason.

[Mike Wright]

He's probably eating a churro right now, and he can't. Yeah, this was a.

[Andy Holloway]

Wait, no, that was it.

[Mike Wright]

That was it.

[Andy Holloway]

It was gonna go to voicemail.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, man. Which confirms job, Mike.

[Andy Holloway]

Confirms Jason Moore was eating a churro.

[Mike Wright]

Yep. Yep, it's confirmed. All right, Mike, your Super bowl prediction. Give me a score.

[Andy Holloway]

Jason has a 28, 24 Patriots. I think that is very fair, but I don't want to go exactly with Jason. And so I'm going to go. I'm going to go 28, 20 Patriots.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. All right. 31. 28 Patriots. Brooks. Brooks, do you want to weigh in?

[Andy Holloway]

24, 21 Patriots.

[Mike Wright]

All right. Eagles putting on their dog masks. They're underdogs.

[Andy Holloway]

I love the dogs.

[Mike Wright]

Let's get into the rookie review.

[Andy Holloway]

Rookie review.

[Mike Wright]

You know, Mike and I were in the car yesterday, heading to lunch, and I was talking about this. The past couple years, if you were a dynasty player and you invested in wide receiver, you were kind of.

[Andy Holloway]

Not kind of.

[Mike Wright]

You were very unhappy.

[Andy Holloway]

Very, very unhappy. Considering this past year, it was Corey Davis, Mike Williams, John Ross. That was the big three.

[Mike Wright]

Zay Jones.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, but. And then last year, you're talking. Was that last year, though, those. The Josh Docks in you, right?

[Mike Wright]

Well, yeah, on my dynasty, this was fresh off of, like, we had really impressive rookie years many years ago.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

And now you sit here and you're staring down Saquon Barkley and last year, Leonard Fournette, Christian McCaffrey.

[Andy Holloway]

That's why you're so upset.

[Mike Wright]

Well, yeah, I'd be upset.

[Andy Holloway]

It can still absolutely pan out. I love Corey Davis moving forward. I still have. I still have belief in Josh Docks and Corey Coleman's not in a great situation. No.

[Mike Wright]

I had a chance to get him a dynasty the other day. I didn't do it.

[Andy Holloway]

And Mike Williams again, he as well. What's his. What's his ceiling? Knowing that Kenan Allen's the alpha dog. Are they going to bring back Tyrell Williams? I guess we're going to talk about Mike Williams in just a little bit. But while these guys can still pan out, you're seeing instant success.

[Mike Wright]

So is the dynasty template changing and should it change, or do you just look at this as the ebbs and flows of the NFL draft?

[Andy Holloway]

I'm going ebbs and flows because the.

[Mike Wright]

Principle, for those that don't play dynasty or those that are just getting into dynasty, the principle is shelf life with your draft picks. Right. A wide receiver has a longer pick shelf life in the NFL. If you had been a player, a dynasty player that ended up with a Julio Jones that ended up with, you know, haslow, Del Beckham Jr. Who is still arguably the number one Dynasty startup pick, if you have one of those guys, you've got him for a long time. But right now you're staring down, wow. I went Corey Davis over Leonard Fournette.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it feels bad.

[Mike Wright]

And Corey Davis is the first wideout off the board. He's the fifth pick. His consistency rank was 99. Now, he was my pick on yesterday's show to break out in year two out of the rookie crop. Now he's a good player. I think he's a good player. It's just going to come down to opportunity. And where do you see. I've already weighed in. Where do you see him next year?

[Andy Holloway]

I see Corey Davis next year. I'm going to say a middle wide receiver, too, off the top of my head. You had, you had week one with a bang. You know, 10 targets immediately for Corey Davis, six for 69. He got hurt.

[Mike Wright]

Yep.

[Andy Holloway]

And then, but, but 13 games, including the playoffs, he only had five, five or more receptions three times. And I think it's. It was also a huge indictment of Marcus.

[Mike Wright]

It really was. They're connected.

[Andy Holloway]

He was so bad.

[Mike Wright]

He was not good. Look, Corey Davis averaged 5.8 yards per target last year on 65 targets. That's third worst in the league.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

For a player that I feel like.

[Andy Holloway]

I could at least get 6 per target.

[Mike Wright]

Probably not. Probably not. But you're. You're a two per target.

[Andy Holloway]

If I get one reception, how many yards is it?

[Mike Wright]

If you turn around immediately on the snap?

[Andy Holloway]

If I get one reception for seven yards and then my body is split into two pieces. Seven.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

I did it.

[Mike Wright]

You did it one time. Your career average, they'll read it at your funeral. Career average of 7. I'll bring it up for you if that happens.

[Andy Holloway]

Thank you.

[Mike Wright]

But no it is. It's an indictment on Mariota. It was indictment on that line. We saw what happened to DeMarco Murray and look, there's a reason a playoff team lost their head coach. So it goes beyond Corey Davis. But I think you saw him flash in the playoffs and you have a new offensive coordinator.

[Andy Holloway]

He flashed the trash in the playoffs.

[Mike Wright]

You're saying the garbage time.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, he was the.

[Mike Wright]

Not his first one. One handed back of the end zone. I'm just saying you see the skill, but are you going to see the fantasy relevance? And I think you will. I think you'll see fantasy relevance. You didn't see that this past year. He had no great games. He had one good game. That's it.

[Andy Holloway]

His draft stock is going to be very interesting.

[Mike Wright]

Mike Williams, next wide receiver off the board, seventh pick in the NFL draft goes to a team now in a situation with Keenan Allen. He's not the alpha. He won't be the alpha. While Philip Rivers is the quarterback. You agree?

[Andy Holloway]

Completely agree.

[Mike Wright]

10 games, he caught 11 balls.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. You had 23 targets for Mike Williams and eight of those came in one game. So there's one game where all of a sudden he's getting a huge amount of targets. Other than that, three or fewer in every one of the games.

[Mike Wright]

Now he was obviously he was, he was hurt for the majority.

[Andy Holloway]

He had the herniated disc in training. We. I was shocked that he even played this year. I anticipated him being shut down. The question for him is Tyrell Williams. Tyrell the Gazelle is a restricted free agent. Will they bring him back? He's been very good for the Chargers. Antonio Gates, will he retire? He's an unrestricted free agent. Will they bring him back or will they move to the Hunter Henry era? So there's a lot up in the air that needs to shake out before we, we can get a good sense of projecting for Mike Williams.

[Mike Wright]

I overall like Mike Williams.

[Andy Holloway]

Do you?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I do. And I think he will be a relevant player.

[Andy Holloway]

What do you feel like Mike Williams.

[Mike Wright]

Ceiling is though, next year or just first career?

[Andy Holloway]

Just his career. Do you think Mike Williams can be a one or is he just kind of a compliment who has huge touchdown upside because he's a gigantic person?

[Mike Wright]

I think he could be a one. I think he could be a one if that's the role.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, they drafted him clearly thinking he could be a one.

[Mike Wright]

I do. I mean, I. If you asked me what I think next year, his ceiling is, I think it's 55 catches.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

I'm talking ceiling.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

I think it's 55 to 60 catches. 55, 7, 8 touchdowns if everything goes the right way.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. So that's.

[Mike Wright]

That'd be a nice sophomore year. That would be. That would have us all talking about him. Yeah. For the future.

[Andy Holloway]

How much of Keenan Allen's uncertainty with his health led to Mike Williams being drafted by the Chargers where they.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, you're saying from their motivation. Yes, a good portion.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I'm going 90 something. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

It was nice to see him come back and you know, perform.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

So let's talk about the next wide receiver that went off the board or. Mike, are you willing to talk about John Ross?

[Andy Holloway]

I'm willing to talk about it. This was such a baffling pick by the Cincinnati Bengals. John Ross undersized. I mean, fastest man at the combine. I think he can fit into an NFL team and be an asset. But to go to the Bengals where just historically Marvin Lewis and co. Does not utilize a rookie. You saw them grab Tyler Boyd and not use him. Jeremy Hill, you've seen it at the running back position. Jeremy Hill didn't get his shot until Gio Bernard went down. Gio Bernard didn't really get his shot because Ben Jarvis Green Ellis was toting the ball for 2.5 a carry and we can't get Geo on the field. Then we saw it again with Mix and it took injuries and things to get him on the field. They didn't use John Ross at all. He finished with negative fantasy points on the year. Negative points? How is that even possible for a top 10 pick in the NFL Draft?

[Mike Wright]

You also have a situation now where Brandon Lafell is still under contract until 2019. He's under contract for one more year.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh yeah, but Brandon Fell is. So he would count as 4 million against the cap. But they can cut him for zero. Okay, so if they want to move.

[Mike Wright]

On because they saw so much from John Ross that made them just excited to move on. Look, AJ Green's the alpha now. Tyler Ifer won't be back, but that is irrelevant.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I can agree.

[Mike Wright]

And you have two of the top five yard after catch running backs in football with Mixon and Gio Bernard. What's the. You asked me the question about Mike Williams. What's the ceiling for John Ross next year?

[Andy Holloway]

Not usable for fantasy.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, move on then.

[Andy Holloway]

John Ross played 17 snaps. Your number one pick. You can't figure out how to get him on the field because he. Cause he fumbled. You got to teach him a lesson.

[Mike Wright]

Well, and to defend. Oh please do the Bengals, please, please. There were. There was an undisclosed injury for John Ross.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's true.

[Mike Wright]

And so there was a struggle for. He, you know, he felt like he needed to be on the field, but then he wasn't good on the field. We'll see what happens next year. He gets a clean slate from me, but with the built in knowledge that, look, you have. You still have Tyler Boyd, you still have Brand lefell, you still have AJ Green, and you don't even know who the quarterback is. So let's move on. Zay Jones. You dropped a hot stat about Zay Jones.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I gotta find him in my notes. Zay Jones received a very healthy 74 targets.

[Mike Wright]

I was gonna say we talk all about talent and opportunity. It might. I don't know if he just had opportunity and that was the only part that he had. Because you had problems.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Here's. Here's the numbers. 74 targets for St. Joseph.

[Mike Wright]

Nice. Nice.

[Andy Holloway]

27 receptions. That's a 36 and a half percent catch rate.

[Mike Wright]

And how many targets?

[Andy Holloway]

74.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. I want to give people perspective. Juju. Smith Schuster had 80 targets. Okay. So they had basically the same. How many receptions did Zay Jones have?

[Andy Holloway]

27.

[Mike Wright]

Do you know how many Juju had? No. 58.

[Andy Holloway]

And I wanted to give some context here.

[Mike Wright]

Tuesday Joneses, because you could start saying, well, that's.

[Andy Holloway]

That's Ben Roethlisberger throwing the ball. Here's his teammates. Jordan Matthews had 25 receptions, so two fewer on 36 targets. Kelvin Benjamin had a 59.3% catch rate in Buffalo. Andre Holmes at a 59.1% catch rate. So these other guys were managing to catch the ball.

[Mike Wright]

What you don't know about Zay Jones is he has T Rex arms.

[Andy Holloway]

It was baffling. Zay Jones. I.

[Mike Wright]

It's hard to project him because Benjamin. The trade happened in the middle of the year. Tyrod Taylor, you don't know if he'll be back to Buffalo.

[Andy Holloway]

No, he's. I do know he's not coming back.

[Mike Wright]

And you don't know if you would have wanted him back anyway with those numbers. So you don't know the quarterback situation. You don't know the role. And I would be. I'd be pretty off of Zay Jones.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Here on out because he's under contract there and he. And he didn't perform any ad opportunity.

[Andy Holloway]

I think that the arrow will go up for J for Zay Jones. He was a good enough wide receiver in college. He's a phenomenal athlete. I just.

[Mike Wright]

It was not an efficient year.

[Andy Holloway]

The numbers are baffling for Zay Jones.

[Mike Wright]

Curtis Samuel was a second round pick, eighth pick in the second round by Carolina. Supposed to come in and help nullify the loss of Ted Gann, I think. And 15 receptions on 26 targets.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

What's the real upside of Curtis Samuel over there?

[Andy Holloway]

So he only played nine games. He, I mean, he's incredibly fast. 4.3, 140, which the Panthers need. They need that speed. He had three games over 50% of snaps and in those games he received five or more targets. His final two games he had a line of 3 for 23 against Atlanta and then 5 for 45 against Miami. I think Curtis Samuel is interesting because where are you? Who's, who's catching the ball for Carolina? Russell Shepard, Caleb.

[Mike Wright]

It's all Christian McCaffrey. They're just going to use them as their full time wide receiver and running back.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, you traded your, your perceived number one in Kelvin Benjamin, so Devin Funches has to fill that role. But they need.

[Mike Wright]

Who did you say? Kaylin Clay? Yeah, yeah. He's a free agent too.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's what I mean. These guys under contract. Curtis Samuel is interesting to me. Next year.

[Mike Wright]

Right. And he just has to have the volume to make an impact.

[Andy Holloway]

If you and I don't want to be, you know, just John, if you.

[Mike Wright]

Were in a dynasty league, would you rather have John Ross or Curtis Samuel?

[Andy Holloway]

Curtis Samuel.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I would take John Ross.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that I would. I would only want John Ross so I can trade him for Curtis Samuel. Plus because of the perceived value, I love it of John Ross.

[Mike Wright]

All right. I think the most impressive rookie this class this year is the next guy that went with the 30th pick in the second round out of USC, JuJu Smith Schuster. If Jason were here, he would say a star is born. And he had a consistency rank of 22. He had almost a thousand yards, 917 and 7 on 80 targets, 58 receptions. He had 14% good game or great games, 43% good games. And showed the acumen as an NFL wide receiver and the kind of promise you, you know, you look back two years ago, he was a projected number one pick in the NFL draft. So this is not a player that it shouldn't be a surprise that with the right level of focus, the right quarterback, the right offense, we got what we got out of Juju.

[Andy Holloway]

He's finally bucking the trend for USC wide receivers. Maybe we finally get a good one here.

[Mike Wright]

Hey, Nelson Aguilar came around. I think He's a good receiver.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. But generally speaking it's not gone.

[Mike Wright]

Not a guarantee.

[Andy Holloway]

It's not gone well for USC wide receivers at the pro level. For JuJu Smith Schuster, two games without Antonio Brown average 8 1/2 targets, 7 1/2 reception, receptions, 109 yards and a touchdown. And that does not include the game against the Patriots where Brown went out and juju absolutely smashed it.

[Mike Wright]

But isn't that, that's a promising stat.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

And isn't that though the built in cap for him is you need to be in a position where he can have that kind of opportunity.

[Andy Holloway]

And that's why I think juju will be overdrafted.

[Mike Wright]

You do?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Now I think he established himself firmly ahead of Martavis. But Martavis, but the promise of Martavis.

[Andy Holloway]

Martavis is not going to go anywhere though. Martavis Bryant is under contract for $705,000. You're not going to get rid of a player with that talent for that cheap. You're not going to bring him back in two years. But he will be on the field. So I think that the. Do they bring the target cap is limited for Smith Schuster.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, all right. So you think he'll be overdrafted because he's so exciting?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. Yeah. So exciting. To the tune of second best yard after the catch.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, yeah, it certainly helps when you have 100 yard reception. I will say that or whatever, whatever that was in Detroit.

[Mike Wright]

Now I think from a fantasy perspective.

[Andy Holloway]

Was that the Colts, I don't remember no wide out.

[Mike Wright]

Well, I guess in this scoring system he was just behind but Cooper cup came in at number 26. Overall consistency rank of 28. Now he was a third round pick. He busted 40% of the time, was good 40% of the time, had one great week. And overall a very impressive rookie year for Cooper Cup. 62 receptions, five touchdowns, 95 target Cooper. I mean that's great.

[Andy Holloway]

95 targets Cooper cup is extremely intriguing because you saw, you can see a clear distinction in his playing time and his productions. Productions. He's making movies these days. Hey, see the pictures. Weeks one through eight, 66.8% of snapshot. Right. Second half of the year, games nine through 15, that jumps up to 86.4. And in those games he had five plus receptions or a touchdown in six of seven games. Once they finally committed to Cooper cup and a little bit granted a little bit of Robert woods injury is mixed into those games. But once they went to him being on the field as a full time receiver, he really started to make Things happen.

[Mike Wright]

Do you believe that you see a second year jump from Cooper Cup?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

From in PPR leagues?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

And do you expect them to bring back Sammy watkins and his 39 receptions on 70 targets?

[Andy Holloway]

The. The. All this talk of bringing back Sammy Watkins, I think is baffling to me. I. Because you can't franchise Sammy Watkins. You cannot pay. You cannot pay whatever.

[Mike Wright]

You're going to have to pay him, what, 6 million a year.

[Andy Holloway]

You're going to.

[Mike Wright]

More. More.

[Andy Holloway]

Sammy Watkins is going to be 24.

[Mike Wright]

He's 24.

[Andy Holloway]

He will be looking for more than that on the open market and the role that he played for your team. Yes. Was Sammy Watkins beneficial to the Rams? Absolutely. But not for the price that he is going to receive on the open market. So unless Sammy takes a look in the mirror and says maybe, maybe my contract should product or should match my actual production, then he stays with the Rams. But if I'm Sammy, I'm going to go get paid. And I don't think that the Rams are going to offer him that paycheck.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, that's good perspective. All right. The next few wideouts off the board in the NFL draft were Taiwan, Taewon Taylor in Tennessee, our Darius Stewart in New York, who really didn't do anything this year. Carlos Henderson, who was placed on ir, never had an opportunity. And then Chris Godwin, you brought him up yesterday. And Kenny Golladay.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, so out of that five pack.

[Andy Holloway]

So smooth.

[Mike Wright]

Do you like Kenny G's future or do you like Chris G's future?

[Andy Holloway]

Man, that's a. That's a very interesting question because Kenny.

[Mike Wright]

Galladay, I think he.

[Andy Holloway]

He has to wait.

[Mike Wright]

Golladay projects to me more as a. As a one.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Than Godwin does.

[Andy Holloway]

But Marvin Jones contract runs the exact same length as Chris Godwin or as Kenny Golladay's. I think Tate's is up a year earlier. But of course, Golladay does not play the same role as Golden Tate.

[Mike Wright]

So that's a close one.

[Andy Holloway]

It's going to be limited. While I do see a world where the Buccaneers decide to move on from desean Jackson, maybe he loses a step in the next year or two and then Chris Godwin emerges as the number two. So long term, that's crazy.

[Mike Wright]

I would go for it.

[Andy Holloway]

I've never thought about it long term.

[Mike Wright]

But I would look for the 6 4, 218 frame.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

The flashes we saw from Galladay, I.

[Andy Holloway]

Do not blame you. I wanted to bring up Taylor on Taylor just really quick because the Corey Davis and Rashard Matthews. Those are the only notable wide receivers on that team under contract as of right.

[Mike Wright]

Eric Decker, free agent. Harry Douglas, free agent.

[Andy Holloway]

And what's this? What's it? Sharp, Tajay Sharp. He's still, still on the team.

[Mike Wright]

Wow.

[Andy Holloway]

But like I said, the only wide receivers of note.

[Mike Wright]

So you just want people to be aware of the Tay Montello, third round pick. He had a couple plays where he flashed but this is, this is why go with. Do you have any confidence that they want Taylor at the dunk chart situation?

[Andy Holloway]

No, it's very little when, when you have a guy, they gave him an opportunity. There was so much buzz about Taylor Taylor that there was one of the. And I apologize, can't recall his name right now, but one of the trusted beat reporters for Tennessee came out and said he would not be surprised if if Taylor had more receptions than Corey.

[Mike Wright]

Davis before the season, before the season started because of how he showed in preseason.

[Andy Holloway]

In the first seven games he was playing 37 and a half percent of the snaps. The final nine games, 15%.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

So they said enough of you a one Taylor, but growth and everything. We'll see. We'll see.

[Mike Wright]

Is there a future for Chad Williams in Arizona? Third round pick for Dee Dee Westbrook, fourth round pick?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, for Dee Dee, certainly.

[Mike Wright]

So to lay it out for the Jacksonville situation, you have Alan Hearns who is a about to be cut, probably going to be cut. You have Alan Robinson's a free agent right now and you have Marquis Lee as a free agent.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. For people, just the context of Alan Hearns, why I think he will be cut because he is owed $7 million and he can be cut for zero against the cap.

[Mike Wright]

That's just that if you were making 7 million, Mike and I could cut you and it would be zero. I would probably do it if you.

[Andy Holloway]

Cut me and I bled $7 million.

[Mike Wright]

Now you're just confusing me. All right, so Dee Dee Westbrook, Keelan Cole, Alan Robinson, that's who I think the main three guys are in Jacksonville.

[Andy Holloway]

I can agree with that.

[Mike Wright]

And I wouldn't be surprised if Westbrook has a more significant role than Cole does.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, I can also agree with that. The, the efficiency of DD Westbrook was left a lot to be desired. So in his time and he started on the IR, but he came back, he got 51 targets that put him on a pace for 117. If, let's say, you know, he was getting the volume that he got last year, that's tied for the 15th most targets at the wide receiver position.

[Mike Wright]

But DeeDee was 27 for 339 and 1 on 51 targets. Keelan Cole, undrafted. 42 for 748 and 3 on 81 targets.

[Andy Holloway]

Big play guy, Keon Cole.

[Mike Wright]

The problem with the targets were there, though. 81.

[Andy Holloway]

That's what I'm saying. But he would. So he was. Like I said, he would have been on pace for 15th the most targets at the wide receiver position, but only 25th in receptions and 33, 33rd in yards. So not the kind of numbers that you're hoping for for DD Westbrook. Another year of growth. We'll see. So I still believe.

[Mike Wright]

Is there another name to throw out.

[Andy Holloway]

There at the wide receiver position?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I'll throw Trent Taylor's name out there. Fifth round pick. He had 43 receptions on 60 targets. I think that with what Jimmy Garoppolo is doing there, there's an opportunity for Trent Taylor to carve out a role in a PPR landscape.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, there's definitely a role, but I looked up his splits and he was basically one PPR point better with Jimmy Hansen. So there was not a noticeable difference last year.

[Mike Wright]

Sure, sure.

[Andy Holloway]

As far, I do want to bring up Chad Williams because of how disappointing it was that a third round pick plays six games. He's three for 31.

[Mike Wright]

That's just called the John Ross treatment. Oh, yes.

[Andy Holloway]

But here's the deal for Arizona, and while I want Kirk Cousins, just trust me, the pheromones are at their peaking right now. Kirk, if you can smell, you want.

[Mike Wright]

To make a little pitch? Oh, you want to make a little pitch to. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Let's go. Kirk Cousins, this is your number one super fan, Mike Wright here. I'm from the fantasy footballers. You probably don't know who I am, but I have a. I have a situation.

[Mike Wright]

Kirk.

[Andy Holloway]

My Cardinals, this. If Larry Fitzgerald retires, you know who's under contract at wide receiver for us.

[Mike Wright]

No, this is not part of the pitch. Don't tell him that.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm a desperate man. Chad Williams and J.J. nelson. That's why this pitch is actually. I'm roundabout in this.

[Mike Wright]

Larry Fitzgerald, come on back.

[Andy Holloway]

No, no, no. Larry Fitzgerald. I'm look, I'm looking at the camera. Larry Fitzgerald, you have an obligation and a duty. You go get Kirk Cousins. You tell him you're gonna play another five years. I don't care if you're lying to his face. You do what you have to do to get Kirk Cousins here.

[Mike Wright]

All right?

[Andy Holloway]

Thank you. But that's. That's the legit situation.

[Mike Wright]

Great. We have nothing to offer you, Kirk. Come to Arizona.

[Andy Holloway]

We'll send the first part of that to Kirk. And the second, I was gonna say.

[Mike Wright]

If Peyton Manning Arizona with a in prime, Larry Fitzgerald.

[Andy Holloway]

If Larry Fitzgerald does not come back right now under contract, your starters for Arizona, Chad Williams and J.J. nelson. Because John Brown is a free agent. Jaron Brown is a free agent.

[Mike Wright]

All right, well, thanks for that, Mike.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm just trying to lighten the mood.

[Mike Wright]

So Chad Williams is the number one receiver, that's what you're saying?

[Andy Holloway]

Yep. Yep. All right.

[Mike Wright]

We have to touch on the tight ends. The truth about the tight end rookies. Interesting year. O.J. howard went first. David and Joku was another of the first round tight ends. Ten picks later. And then the one that made the biggest impact, Evan Ingram just. Oh, he was obviously he was a first round pick as well. Yes, they went 23, 26, 32 in the first round. Evan Ingram was the fifth ranked tight end. Where do you see the future for Ingram and where do you see the future for Howard and Njoku? That trifecta of very talented first round tight ends.

[Andy Holloway]

So I talked about this a little bit on the tight end truth show, but you were, you were out of office that day. So I want to hear your Evan Angrum take. Because Ingram's on my dynasty team. I'm very excited that he is there. But, but tight ends with over 100 targets this past season, there were six of them. The lowest catch rate of those guys was Rob Gronkowski. 65.7% of the targets. He caught them. Except for Evan ingram who caught 55.7% of those passes. Now he is the first tight end, I say, the only tight end since 1992 besides Jeremy Shockey, a rookie tight end to receive 100 plus targets. And with Odell Beckham, he was really only about a half target fewer per game. So there wasn't a huge difference. We say, oh, Beckham went down, everything went to Angream. But with a catch percentage like that, what do you make for Evan Ingram?

[Mike Wright]

I am less concerned with the catch percentage than I am the 115 targets. And whether or not that will be what we can expect from him year in and year out. I think he will be a very good fantasy tight end.

[Andy Holloway]

So it sounds like you think Ingram will be overdrafted.

[Mike Wright]

I think he probably will be overdrafted. He, he did struggle. He struggled with drops at times this year. He also was put in a position where he was kind of, I mean you didn't have Anybody else? They lost Beckham, they lost Marshall, they lost Shepherd Shepard, they lost four. What, four receivers on in one week.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, something. Oh, yeah.

[Mike Wright]

So if I. Let's put it this way. If Evan Ingram came out next year and dropped 60 for 706, I. That might be. We might be seeing kind of the max of what you have there, at least over the next few years until you have another established quarterback in place. So do I think he'll be overdrafted? Probably. But I mean, look at those targets. David and Joku had literally half, I mean, just about half the targets.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

60. O.J. howard had 39 targets. So when you talk about projecting room to, you know, to be a value, I don't think Evan Ingram can be of value. I think you're. Jeff Howard can be a value. Howard has the skill, talent, ability. And then you have Cameron Brait.

[Andy Holloway]

Who.

[Mike Wright]

What? He's. Is he an rfa?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

So Cameron Brait's a restrictive free agent. I can see more. You know, Howard has the ability, like I said, to be a late round value, to be an undrafted value. He could be.

[Andy Holloway]

He's going to be really interesting because he was a hot, a hot draft prospect.

[Mike Wright]

Six man. Oh, he is in a, in an athlete.

[Andy Holloway]

He is a.

[Mike Wright]

He can block. Evan Ingram can't block. That's why I'm not, you know, fair. You're looking at Evan Ingram saying, you know, he's 60 plus receptions is probably a given for the next five, six years.

[Andy Holloway]

Final five games of O.J. howard season, he either had 50 yards or a touchdown. And that's including the injury game.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

So the arrow was pointing up for O.J. howard. It's going to be interesting to see how drafters respond to his final stat line.

[Mike Wright]

Give me your sleeper tight end for next year. Out of this, out of the remaining rookie class. Gerald Everett, Adam Shaheen, John Smith, George kittle. Last year, 43 receptions.

[Andy Holloway]

That's my guy, George. Of the rookies, George Kittle is absolutely my sleeper tight end.

[Mike Wright]

Kittles and bits.

[Andy Holloway]

Kittles and bits. Here's what I like about George Kittle. I mean, if you want to talk about a shocking athlete, you should check out George Kittle's metrics. They're shocking. I couldn't think of a better superlative, so I went back. Shocking. But here's what I like about George Kittle. He ran a route on 54% of his snaps. David Njoku, 41%, O.J. howard, 34%. So they, they sent George Kittle out to catch passes. 43 for 515. I mean, I will, I will absolutely take that as a step in the right direction. Get Jimmy Handsome and George Kittle and off season together. And I think that George Kittle is going to be on my radar for late round tight ends.

[Mike Wright]

What about Ricky Seals Jones out of Arizona? You just named the depth chart. The wide receivers didn't sound very good.

[Andy Holloway]

Mike, is he even under contract?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, of course he is.

[Andy Holloway]

Is he really?

[Mike Wright]

I believe so. 22 years old, 6, 5, 2, 43, obviously. Flash, three touchdowns, 16.8 per catch. I'm just throwing him out there.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, look, he is in fact under contract for next year. They just, they didn't commit to him.

[Mike Wright]

Well, no, because they committed money to Jermaine Gresham.

[Andy Holloway]

Big grass.

[Mike Wright]

But I'm just bringing him up. Yeah, you probably a couple years from Johnny Smith's relevance with Delaney Walker.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

And Adam Shaheen, I still think he's interesting.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. Yeah, I agree that he's in Chicago.

[Mike Wright]

By the way, I'm sure Brooks is over there saying save the team name for some of these guys.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, Adam Shaheen is somewhat interesting. And so let me get your go ahead. Your temperature check on Gerald Everett, Los Angeles Rams.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Has Sean McVeighs as head coach and Gerald Everett was his first ever draft pick.

[Mike Wright]

Does that get, does that earn him extra snaps?

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, it just, it seems like it would mean something for a coach who doesn't have a first round pick. You already have a tight end to say, okay, I'm going to take Jordan or I'm going to take Everett with my first pick.

[Mike Wright]

Well, we're not in a foreign land here where having a couple of talented tight ends on the roster. Well, they still probably have Lance Kendricks on a roster too, don't they?

[Andy Holloway]

No, no, no, no. Not Lance Kridrick. Tyler.

[Mike Wright]

I'm sorry. Yeah, Tyler Higby.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, he's got a Higby.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And I think you're going to see probably, you know, five or six great plays from Gerald Everett next year. That's about where my temperature is.

[Andy Holloway]

Everett needs an exterminator to get rid of his Higbys. Wow.

[Mike Wright]

Wow, that's judge.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm gonna need a ruling on that one.

[Mike Wright]

It's good.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Now, Brooks, would you say it's good in general or good because it's after the 60 minute mark of the show where no one's listening anyway?

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, it's good in general. Yeah, baby.

[Mike Wright]

He's going to need an exterminator to get rid of his Higby Problem Mike is. Mike is doing well.

[Andy Holloway]

Look.

[Mike Wright]

Hey, just a reminder. Support for today's show comes from Control gx, the first shampoo that gradually reduces gray from Just for Men. You just shampoo it in, you rinse it out, you move on, you use it like a regular shampoo. That's not a complicated instruction manual. If you've never used shampoo before, this will be confusing. But if you've used shampoo, it's pretty easy and most guys get the results they want in about two weeks. Get 25% off control GX. Use the code [e-mail] that is the code footballers to get 25% off controlgx.com Look, I'm going to rest the voice, the pipes. I'm going to be back next week with Mike and Jason.

[Andy Holloway]

No promises.

[Mike Wright]

And we'll be talking about this Super Bowl. Hopefully Jay Grizz doesn't have to run the table back there. Brooks will be back and it should be fun.

[Andy Holloway]

Absolutely.

[Mike Wright]

We've got a lot more coming and that was exciting to see a trade. We'll talk more. Get Jason's thoughts on the Alex Smith trade. And I know he already likes Jameson Crowder a little more than he did before that, the trade. So anything else, Mike?

[Andy Holloway]

Nope, nope, I've let it all out. The Higby joke, I think, speaks for itself.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Check out draft.comballers if you want to play some way too early basketball. It's really fun. Goodbye. 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.