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Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast
Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Rising Stars, Preseason Takeaways, News, Injuries
01:06:38
Fantasy Football Podcast for August 29, 2016. It was an eventful preseason week 3 and The Fantasy Footballers tackle all of the fantasy implications, injuries, and much much more on this episode. You can gain an advantage over your league mates by payin
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- [00:00]
A
Hey, Foot Clan, you've heard us say it before. You don't win your league at the draft. You need to stay tuned in here to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast all season long. And head over to JoinTheFoot.com and join our fantasy football community where you can get involved with thousands of listeners from this show, find great leagues to participate in, and get an exclusive extra episode every single week. So head over there to JoinTheFoot.com.
- [00:28]
B
Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast coming to you from the fantasyjocks.com studios with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.
- [00:43]
A
Howdy Doody.
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B
Howdy Doody. Howdy Doody indeed.
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A
Welcome to the podcast. Jason Moore is here.
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B
That's a lot of work this weekend.
- [00:56]
A
Yeah, there were a lot of games played. Andy Holloway here. Mike is not in the building today. Hopefully we'll have him back tomorrow.
- [01:04]
B
Too many games. He passed out.
- [01:06]
A
Yeah, he just, he straight passed out from too many. Too many games. So hopefully we'll have him back tomorrow. And Mike, you know, it's not unlike him to not show up for work.
- [01:18]
B
Right.
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A
It's just kind of normally when he's.
- [01:21]
B
Here, he still hasn't really shown up to work. Yeah, that's, you know, he's like, oh, Tor Smith.
- [01:27]
A
Did you just take a Tory Smith joke?
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B
Yeah. Gotta get the jabs out there while he's not here.
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A
Did you realize I had the same amount of targets as Tori Smith this weekend?
- [01:35]
B
You've actually only had one less than Torrey Smith through the whole preseason.
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A
Yeah, well, you know, Mike, Mike, you'll have to return the jersey he bought. We're going to go through all the preseason games, give you basically the major takeaways from each of the games. We've got our rising stars on the show today. We have a good quick question for you. It's gonna be a jam packed show. It'll probably go longer than normal show. We don't care.
- [01:58]
B
Oh, yeah, I got the time.
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A
I don't care.
- [02:00]
B
Yeah. And so further, when you get, when you get close to your house and you're not there, you haven't finished the episode yet, just go around the block. Yeah.
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A
Or just, you know, if you're on your way to work, just sit in the parking lot and kind of look like you're contemplating life. Nobody knows.
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B
Yeah. Work out longer.
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A
Right.
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B
We can make you in better shape.
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A
Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is. If Eddie Lacy had this podcast, do you know the shape he'd be in?
- [02:20]
B
He'd probably still be very fat because he's worked out A lot this offseason. And you know what? Guess what? Eddie Lacy is still pretty fat.
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A
Yeah, you're right.
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B
All right, he looks good, but he looks fat.
- [02:30]
A
Sure, sure. Yeah, I agree with you. And we're going to jump into the quick question. Before I do that, I do want to say this. I was kind of sad because a lot of teams just yanked their starters early. I mean, they said they took that whole third preseason dress rehearsal, we're going to try them out.
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B
And they said, no, they're washing their hands of that.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And you know what that says to me?
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A
We need two preseason games.
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B
That's right. And that it's coming. And I'm going to like that.
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A
Yeah. Yeah, me too. All right. Well, quick question comes in off of Twitter @LC Kimball. He says waiver wire systems. He has a question about waiver wire systems. Half of the league that he's in wants to do a bidding system. So fab. And the other half wants the worst team to get first dibs every week. And then he says, help. What is your opinion on waiver wire systems?
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B
Well, I think we've shared this many times. I know that the fantasy football. Many, many times.
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A
Oh, okay. I didn't hear the.
- [03:23]
B
I think it was just the S.
- [03:24]
A
Was silent, but that caused grammatical error.
- [03:29]
B
The fantasy footballers are definitely a proponent of the fab waiver system, the bidding system. And you know, I get the argument for you want the worst teams to have, you know, first dibs, but the reality is this is that the first few weeks of the season are usually when the best possible waiver wire pickups happen.
- [03:53]
A
Right? Definitely can be.
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B
Yeah. It's not always the case, but if someone goes down in front and someone else becomes a season long stud, obviously the earlier you get them, the better. So that means that a team that went zero one, say, or maybe just oh, and two, you're saying they're the worst and they get the opportunity to just, hey, because I lost my game, I get the first dibs on a guy. And I don't think that's the best way to go about it. I believe that everybody should be able to bid on whoever they think is the best. And if you're the worst team in the league and you say, I need this guy the most, guess what? You can, you can outbid people and win that player if. If that's what you deem is best for your team.
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A
Yeah. I think the fab system is more exciting. It's more engaging. It adds another day of the week in which the waiver wires, process. And everybody's excited to get onto the system and see who bid what and who didn't get what and who stole my guy and those type of things. That's. I think it's the better, more fair system and it adds strategy to the entire season long, all the way into the playoffs. I mean, you're always a proponent of, you know, hey, hang on to five bucks. Oh, yeah, you can grab a defense or something.
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B
Yeah, it's. I think it's better early season. It's better late season. More strategy, more fun. Go. Fab.
- [05:10]
A
It's fabulous. Fabulous. That's a good point. All right, you can follow us on twitter @the ffballers. We're on YouTube as well. You can go on there, check out the show after the show and other exclusive content. Our official combine video with myself vs. Jason vs. Mike is so close to releasing that it'll probably be released soon. Right? Right.
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B
So close.
- [05:38]
A
Yeah, There you go. So stay tuned for that. It'll be exciting. I've seen it. Still disappointed about some of the things that happened on that day, but we'll get over it. And if you want to submit a question to the show and interact with us, go to the fancy footballers.com and click the Submit a question button. If you have yet to draft, don't forget to head over there and check out the ultimate draft kit. People have been sending their very, very good results.
- [06:04]
B
Oh, man, I have seen some teams that are monsters. But to everyone out there who you got the ultimate draft kit, you drafted and you killed it, please don't think you won the championship. That happens all the time where people, they get too happy, too high on their own team, and then they win a few games to start and then they trail off.
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A
Yeah, I agree. So, all right, we're jumping into the news.
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B
News and notes from around the league.
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A
All right, I have a quote from the city of Dallas. It's not very, not very long ago last week, Mike said, and it's great he's not here, maybe out of punishment. He said, oh, I, you know, I buy into a healthy Tony Romo. And I said, why? That was my exact question. Very, very sophisticated retort.
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B
How does it feel? How does it feel to be proven right so quickly?
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A
It feels better than Tony Romo feels.
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B
Yeah.
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A
I'll tell you that. Look, it's just been happening too long, too much. I mean, and Tony Romo is so important to that offense. Into the, you know, people want to buy into Dak Prescott and say, oh, man, the dudes Had a. You remember Max Hall?
- [07:25]
B
Oh, yes. I own a Max hall jersey because he was a preseason superstar, just like Dak. He had a better preseason than Dak had. And everybody out there going, who's Max Hall? Yeah, yeah, it's easy to carve up preseason.
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A
Who carved it up in preseason? Look, I think Dak Prescott's all right. I think he's, you know, a rookie quarterback in the NFL.
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B
The amount of tweets. So I tweeted out kind of bad news for Des.
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A
Sure.
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B
You know, also, it's going to be bad news for Ezekiel Elliott. And the amount of tweets that I got back at me saying, wait a minute, he's going to target his number one guy now all the time. Or. Or wait a minute. Because they can't pass, they're going to run more like trying to say that.
- [08:05]
A
Write whatever story you want that this.
- [08:06]
B
Is good for Des or good for Easy E. Look, when you go from a good veteran quarterback that can get it done, that could take you into the playoffs to a rookie who was. Where was he drafted?
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A
Third.
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B
Third round rookie.
- [08:21]
A
Yeah.
- [08:22]
B
Somewhere like that, you're taking a downgrade. Your team is not better, it is worse. And when your team is worse, they score fewer points, they pick up fewer third downs, they're losing more, which is bad for the running game, game script wise. And I'm not. I'll still draft Des. If he falls to me at the right spot, I'll still draft Ezekiel Elliott. I'm not scared off of these guys. But you got to understand, this is not good news for them.
- [08:47]
A
You cannot spin it to good news. And maybe one day it'll be good news. Maybe one day Dak will be an elite quarterback in the league, but you cannot come. And I said the same thing. Here's how I evaluate that. And I guess I need to go backwards. Tony Romo has a broken bone in his back. Now, they say he can resume training in three to six weeks, but it'll take time after resuming training to get into game shape. So you're talking six to 10 weeks till he's back. This is a huge injury. It impacts everybody on that team. I bumped DEZ Whitten, both of those guys down. I took Terence Williams way down because Williams with. With Romo was much more effective. And I left Eazy alone. I left him alone. I think people said, well, won't he go down? Because they're going to stack the box against him. Well, I think his efficiency is going to go down a little bit, but they Have a great offensive line there and I think they're going to need to lean on the run more. So I think it balances out. That's my take.
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B
I took him down a little bit because I think, you know, when you get into the red zone fewer times, you're going to have fewer touchdowns and that's going to hurt. Ezekiel Elliott.
- [10:00]
A
All right. Ben Watson tore his Achilles.
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B
Oh, that stinks.
- [10:04]
A
On the first play of the game. And I mean he's. He may never see a snap in Baltimore at this point. Got a $7 million two year contract. Really good guy. Hate to see it. What does it mean for the tight end situation there? Because right now it seems like it's Crockett Gilmore.
- [10:18]
B
You got Betty Crockett Gilmore, who is one of my favorite named players. I don't expect too much. I mean, I think there's going to be situations this season where we're going to recommend picking up and streaming Betty Crockett Gilmore. I would not draft him. There are just too many guys that are better to draft. I don't think Max Williams is ready to produce for fantasy. So for the most part, this is just sad news for Ben Watson. Not very fantasy relevant because I don't think most people are drafting Ben Watson and you shouldn't draft Betty Crockett Gilmore.
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A
Yeah, and the Ravens lost Kenneth Dixon after he had a really good looking game and I thought he was out for the year. It turns out it's a torn mcl. So he will not need surgery. It will be at least four weeks. And what in the world do you do with that backfield?
- [11:07]
B
Look, I'm not a doctor, but I still don't know how you come back in four weeks off a torn McLaren. That being said, we'll talk about this in the game. For the most part, I think that's one of the big takeaways is this backfield is a mess. It's a beautiful disaster in the sense that, like you saw some flashes of good things, but from too many different guys to have any semblance of security there in starting a player and saying, I'm going to roll with this guy. So we'll talk about that when we get to the game.
- [11:36]
A
AJ Green scared fantasy owners when he limped off the field. It's been reported that he banged knees with Devon House of the Jaguars and he's just disappointed that he didn't get to come back in the game. He says he's fine. Let's all breathe a sigh of relief.
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B
Please be fine.
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A
A lot of People probably drafted him about a minute before him.
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B
I was, I had a close friend come over because they wanted me to help with their draft, also known as draft for them.
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A
Right.
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B
And, and I, we drafted AJ Green, felt us in the second round of a 10 team league. And then about 30 minutes later he was coming up limping, seemed non contact and got a little scary there for a minute.
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A
Remember that other guy that Mike used to like a lot?
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B
The Rubes.
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A
Ruben Randall has been cut in the most disappointing off season. I mean, you get signed and they're mesmerized by his lack of effort and he's gone. They, you know, they brought in Doria, Green, Beckham. We'll get into this wide receiver core when we cover the game. But Reuben Randall has been released by the Eagles after playing zero games with them. Colin Kaepernick. Look, I saw this report. Jay Glazer came on and said Kaepernick has an uphill battle to make the team. We'll talk about the performance of Kaepernick in Gabbard in the game review. But you know, at least Glazer's report is that he could be released.
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B
So I wouldn't be shocked. I think, I think it would be good for the 49ers to release him.
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A
I think if he's not going to start, that seems like the best course of action. Steven Ridley. If I had a mediocre signing of the week for running backs, Steven Ridley goes to the Colts. We knew the Colts were probably going to be looking for another running back and so they officially found Steven Ridley instead.
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B
He officially signed?
- [13:24]
A
Yeah, he's on the Colts. Keith Marshall expected to miss three weeks. Redskins rookie running back that is he. That seems like good news to me. When he went down on this play, it looked like he broke his arm to me. So just a sprained elbow. He'll be out. And then we got news this morning that the Broncos have officially named Travis. I'm sorry, Trevor Simeon. They're starting quarterback by Mark Sanchez.
- [13:49]
B
I don't know that they will cut him, but I think it makes a lot of sense financially to cut him. And Simeon seems like the better player. So I'm not, I'm not shocked at this. I think it's smart for them to announce it now. Be able to go into the next, the rest of the preseason getting prepared for, you know, they should be able to be a good team. They should be able to compete. Obviously there's a Super bowl champs. They've got a great defense. So you want to give Clarity there.
- [14:15]
A
I agree. And before we get into the rising stars of the week, I'm very excited about my guy. I want to thank pristineauction.com you've heard us talk about them so much on the show. They're doing something very special for you, the listener. We've got a giveaway that you can win and all you have to do is go to footclangiveaway.com it is a Pristine Auction giveaway of a David Johnson 20 by 30 signed canvas.
- [14:41]
B
Oh, I've seen those. Those are amazing.
- [14:43]
A
Yeah, they are awesome. And they're also giving away an 8 by 10 signed Raymond Berry photo. So you can win either one of those. And we're throwing in a sticker fantasy footballers pack as well. So you know, Pristine Auction is the absolute best place to get signed autograph memorabilia. You guys know this. You got to go to pristineauction.com and go to footclangiveaway.com if you want to get involved with the David Johnson signed canvas. It's awesome that we've got a partner that just gives free stuff away to the listeners.
- [15:14]
B
Pristine Auction is amazing. And if you are on YouTube, you see our place is decked out with Pristine Auction gear. Also, if you are going to games, which we highly recommend going to football games, because football games are awesome, make sure that you are using SeatGeek to go to your games. It's what Andy uses, it's what Mike uses, it's what myself uses. SeatGeek app is so much easier. In fact, we were just looking up tickets for Jim Gaffigan is coming to Arizona. Funny comedian. And you have. I didn't realize how much more control you have of where you're choosing your seats and the price that you're going to get. I was looking on SeatGeek and I could select exactly where I wanted to go. They pull in tickets from all the different ticketing sites, so I can guarantee that I'm getting an awesome price. They got a big green circle where it's easy to say, oh, that's the best price ticket in that area. So it's really great. Nice maps. And if you haven't bought through SeatGeek yet, they're going to give you $20 back in your pocket. So here's what you need to do. You need to go Download the free SeatGeek app. Go on the settings tab, click the add promo code and enter promo code footballers and SeatGeek will send you $20 after you've made your first ticket purchase. So Download the free SeatGeek app, enter promo code footballers and do it today. Raising canes Rising stars of.
- [16:45]
A
All right, so it's a two man show today. So we've got two rising stars for you. These are guys that and this is going to be a regular segment all year long on Mondays talking about somebody from the past weekend that caught our eye that we want to alert you about, tell you about right now so that you can do something about it in your league.
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B
Yes. If you are drafting or if you've already drafted and you want to trade for these players.
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A
Waiver wire.
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B
Yeah. Sometimes they'll be on waivers all season long. Very important. And someday, someday, because this is the most delicious segment we have.
- [17:16]
A
Sure.
- [17:16]
B
Someday it'll be Eddie Lacey. And that's just going to be great. That's going to be great. But for now, I'm going to go with Mike's. Mike sent us in his raising.
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A
Mike's.
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B
Yes, Mike's raising cane. Rising star is desean Jackson. He is a guy that you need to be on the lookout for year after year after year after year. He is, you know, in the, at the end of the year, he finishes as the fantasy like wide receiver, 20, you know, he's always that wide receiver too, who puts up great weeks.
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A
He has that on lockdown.
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B
But last year he was injured for about half of the year. When he came in, he was great. And what we saw this preseason was excellent. First, he's getting targeted. Second, when he got the ball, he made some moves and some jukes that just remind you he is NFL elite when it comes to speed. You know, everybody's fast in the NFL, but he is faster than the fast guys. And so he looked great. He's targeted all over the field. I think he's rising up and his draft value right now is he's in the eighth round. I mean, that's silly.
- [18:17]
A
He's going where Sterling shepherd is, where Jordan Matthews is. That's about the range where he's going. Devonte Parker range, yes.
- [18:25]
B
Michael Crabtree, he should rise up that list. If he falls to you there, take him with confidence.
- [18:31]
A
All right. My rising star is somebody that I've, you know, we had him as a value pick for a while because it's just one. I think we have a Michael Crabtree, Mari Cooper situation. All right.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And the player I'm bringing up is Vincent Jackson, wide receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Everybody and their mother loves Mike Evans and for good reasons. He's enormous. He's incredible. You saw it this weekend. But Vincent Jackson was Heavily involved in an offense that was throwing the ball around this dirt cutter offense. And the draft position between those two guys is just. I mean Vincent Jackson is an 11th round draft pick.
- [19:12]
B
He's. There are plenty of leagues where he doesn't go drafted. Oh yeah, you could have finished your draft right now. Go check out waiver wires and see if Vincent Jackson sitting there.
- [19:20]
A
You are going to have weeks in which Vincent Jackson outscores Mike Evans.
- [19:24]
B
You know, two guys, probably four or.
- [19:25]
A
Five of them this year. And he is, you know, last year, Amari Cooper or in this year's draft. Amari. Amari Cooper goes in the second round. Crabtree is going in the eighth round. You got Evans going in the first or second round. Vincent Jackson in the 11th round. This is not. That doesn't make sense.
- [19:39]
B
That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. And if you look at last year, two guys that helped win championships were guys like Larry Fitzgerald and Brandon Marshall, guys that were old wide receivers. And I don't, I don't want them anymore. They're 32 years old or whatever. Look, when the biggest indicator of future success in fantasy football is previous success and I get it sometimes it's going to be the Andre Johnson's of the world where their time has come and they are done. But in the 11th round, and you can see it in preseason, man, Vincent Jackson looks just fine.
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A
He was four for 78. That's 19.59 targets. Next closest on the team was five. Yeah, that nine targets in this game.
- [20:25]
B
Vincent Jackson is a great value. So I will go with my final raise of cane. Rising star, which is last week's rising star.
- [20:34]
A
That was my guy from last week.
- [20:35]
B
For Andy, I've got to throw out Melvin Gordon again because he is a guy to me that is going to help people win this year. Melvin Gordon, what he's shown in the preseason is that he is kind of. He's figured out the NFL a little bit. Now I will grant you this is preseason work and anybody can look good in the preseason. But it's better to do what he is doing rather than what he did last year. And what he's doing right now is finding a way to get open, to cut into open lanes and use his elite speed. He pulled away from guys this week again on a run and you know it was like 30 yard touchdown. He looked spry. He looked. He's obviously going to be involved. He's going to get a workload and he is the predominant, you know, back there and he's great at catching the ball, too. I mean, when he came into the league, he was, he was supposed to be. It was like, who's better, Todd Gurley or Melvin Gordon? Todd Gurley's going, you know, I've seen him go at the 101 plenty of times. And I'm not saying that Melvin Gordon is Todd Gurley, but I'm showing that the value, the draft value, when you can get Melvin Gordon in the fifth or sixth round, sometimes if you've gone.
- [21:44]
A
Wide receiver heavy, you've drafted a tight end earlier. Melvin Gordon is one of those guys I'm targeting to be part of my core backfield because I think if he's a two on my team, he's going to perform like a one on some weeks. He's gotten the touchdown monkey off his back for the, in the preseason. He's had a couple scores. He's shown he's passing the eye test that I look for in the preseason. It's less about the stats, it's more about that eye test and he's passing those. So those were the raising Canes, rising stars of the week. Don't forget, game day tastes better with the raising Cane's tailgates. By the way, that's exactly what I want for my draft. That's full of fresh 24 hour marinated hand battered chicken fingers and fresh brewed sweet tea. So good, so good, so good. The most delicious segment by far. So check out raisingcanes.com, find your nearest location, and as Mike would say, always get an extra sauce.
- [22:31]
B
Pro tip. We're here to help you.
- [22:33]
A
That's right.
- [22:37]
B
Weekly rewind.
- [22:41]
A
All right, week three of the preseason. We're gonna try to through all the games with you right here, right now, giving the biggest takeaways from each team in their preseason game. A reminder we're not overreacting. So you shouldn't overreact either. But we want to give you some takeaways, things to pay attention to if you haven't drafted or if you already have, what you can look forward to, to the season. Am I right?
- [23:01]
B
You are right. And if we don't mention something about, oh, why didn't you talk about this guy? Probably because it's not that important.
- [23:07]
A
Yeah, yeah. Or, you know. Yeah, that's why.
- [23:10]
B
Yeah. I mean, the reality is, you know, we could talk about every player on the team and then this would be a five hour show.
- [23:18]
A
Yeah. So we want to give you some fantasy perspective, something to kind of hold on to here. We're going to start with the Patriots and the Panthers, they, they played a game of football this week and the Patriots won by a couple points. What was the standout takeaway for the. On the Patriots side of the ball?
- [23:34]
B
On the Patriots side of the ball, I think there were two big takeaways. One was we were, we were saying early in the season, Chris Hog, great sleeper. He's going super late. He's got.
- [23:43]
A
Tom Brady got a little banged up.
- [23:45]
B
With the Tom Brady four game suspension in place and him getting banged up, we kind of were off the Chris Hogan. But what we saw in this preseason game was that Bill Belichick is not off Chris Hogan. He was really involved. They were using him as a tool. They were, they were putting him in motion and they were designing plays for him. And he looked great. He looked good even with Garoppolo and he looked great with Brady. So I would say look at him as a late sleeper. The other takeaway is Gaffney. Tyler Gaffney is possibly going to end up. I think Blunt and Gaffney both make this roster and I think they split. So I've been pretty high on Blunt lately. But Gaffney is playing too good to be cut and too good to not be used in a game. Blunt himself looked great, but I think if you've got both guys playing great, you are going to mix them in in the game, which stinks.
- [24:35]
A
I agree. On the Carolina side of the ball, you know, people are, their eyes are paying attention to the target numbers for Devin Funches, which is, I mean, it's not a bad sign that he's getting those targets. It's a good sign. A lot of, a lot of them came from Derek Anderson. Cam Newton looked a little bit like the 2014 Cam Newton Air mailing guys in. Not as accurate. I think this is just a reminder. Maybe that's the biggest takeaway from the Carolina side of the bowl. This is a reminder that, you know, it's not a guaranteed smooth sailing repeat of last year for Cam Newton. Yeah, hyper efficient last year takes a lot to do that. Didn't have a good game this game.
- [25:13]
B
Yeah. If he was that efficient this year as he was last year, he's obviously a first ballot hall of Famer. If he just keeps that up. I don't expect him to. He's going to have his good games as great games. He's going to have some, some games like what we saw yesterday which aren't going to help you that much.
- [25:27]
A
Where do you have him as your.
- [25:28]
B
He's my number four quarterback.
- [25:30]
A
He's my number one still. Alright, the Redskins and the Bills, the DeSean Jackson talk, we already brought it up. He was being targeted a lot. Looked really good. You know, this is one of the games that Mike watched. He. His feedback was that even if Cousins isn't necessarily a starter in your mind as a fantasy owner, he's going to have those good streaming games like he did last year. He's willing to throw the ball around. You were making the point that a lot of his efficiency happened against the second team in Buffalo though.
- [25:58]
B
Buffalo didn't play their starters, but like a minute, I feel like Buffalo was not. They didn't get the memo that this was the dress rehearsal game. So come on, get with it. Give us some football. That being said, you know, people can see different things. What I saw, and maybe this is because we just did the kind of fantasy face off on or the fandings debate of the week on Kirk Cousins, but to start the game, I don't think he was looking great through a couple picks but then caught fire. And I think to Mike's point, and this is important for fantasy, is you want a quarterback that 1 throws the ball a lot and 2 isn't afraid to take those valuable deep shots. And that's what you have in Cousins. Sometimes it's going to be interceptions.
- [26:39]
A
He had one interception.
- [26:41]
B
Okay, well, he had several early terrible throws, one of which was an interception, and then he caught fire. I mean, I know the numbers in the box score look great. And the reality is, I think this is to Mike's point, if he plays great and terrible at the end of that game, what was his stat line, Andy?
- [26:58]
A
Three touchdowns and a half.
- [27:00]
B
That's great. Yeah, I mean that's what he did.
- [27:03]
A
To end the year.
- [27:03]
B
Yeah. For fantasy that's going to work at the end of the game. And if he can keep that up, then maybe he can be top 12.
- [27:09]
A
All right, my Redskins takeaway is that this is Matt Jones backfield. Not that you didn't already know that. Maybe you questioned it. Rob Kelly seems to have the backup role. Keith Marshall got hurt and I expect Jones to start week one and hopefully give you production, stay healthy.
- [27:22]
B
Yes. My Bills takeaway is that no one important. Played Tyrod Taylor played for about a minute.
- [27:27]
A
Secondary didn't look good.
- [27:29]
B
The Bills looked like they were in a little bit of trouble on defense. They did not have a great defensive game. It was nice to see Sammy Watkins out there again for about a minute, but it was just nice, you know, that's what I wanted. I wanted him to get out there, play, show he's healthy, and then get him out.
- [27:44]
A
All right. The Buccaneers played the Browns. This was a complete opposite performance from the Buccaneers as last week. Specifically Jameis Winston, who looked. You know, I hope that that's not a sign of what's to come. You have a game like last week, then a game like this week. That is my. That's been my concern with Jameis Winston. Mike has him as a big breakout. I think the potential is there because you see games like this. But much like Jay Cutler used to put up these prolific games and then struggled, that's my fear. I haven't seen it enough to want to rely on Winston. I understand that Mike wants to.
- [28:19]
B
I think you have to question whether or not this look. Jameis Winston looked amazing in this game. He looked great, but it was the Browns. So it's like, is he going to look amazing in the right matchups and, you know, struggle against a really good D? That's yet to be seen. But if he could play like this, I mean, what I noticed was with Winston, there were several. I mean, so many deep middle shots where he's throwing the ball 20, 25 yards in the air. Reminded me of a Carson Palmer type of player, where he's looking at those big, medium type of shots down the field and he's finding the wide receivers that have separation. We talked about Vince Jackson looked good, Mike Evans looked great, Humphries looked good.
- [28:58]
A
So Doug Martin played just a little bit, looked pretty good. You saw Sims be involved the way Sims is always involved in the passing game. And, you know, he's still a value light in the draft. The major takeaway from the Cleveland side, I have. Hello, Gordon.
- [29:11]
B
Yeah.
- [29:12]
A
How are you doing?
- [29:12]
B
Welcome back. So what do you do with Josh Gordon?
- [29:15]
A
Because that's a big question.
- [29:17]
B
The question coming in is, will he return to form? And might we remind you, his form was excellent, but you're losing him for four weeks and then he has to return to form. So the question really is, well, where do I draft him? How much do I, you know, I've got to waste a bench spot for four weeks. If I'm drafting him in the. In the earlier rounds, I've got to waste a roster spot.
- [29:40]
A
Well, the fantasy owners out there are drafting him in the fifth round, and that's too soon for me, but I would take him in the sixth round and I'd be happy to stash him. And here's what I see from that offense. You have Corey Coleman, you have Pryor, you have some Big bodied guys. You have athletic guys and you have a coach that has at least thus far, including this game, wanted to put RG3 in a position to take advantage of a slower developing, deep ball type of offense. Now, that cost him in this game. There were six sacks in the first half. Cleveland's numbers looked worse than how I actually thought they looked on film. They had a couple bad drives, but the first drive of the game was very solid. Barnage was still involved. You saw a little bit of Corey Coleman. My takeaway is, hey, Josh Gordon's going to be worth your draft pick. He looked a little big to me. I think he'll be in game shape by the time he comes back around to being activated. And then my own concerns about Duke Johnson, I just don't know what his involvement is going to be in this offense. Was RG3, what were your thoughts on the Cleveland side of the ball?
- [30:37]
B
No, I completely agree with the fear that this might be more of a Crowell backfield because he fits that read option type of scheme. And it doesn't seem like RG3 checks down to that running back as often as he does. He's looking for the tight end. I liked Gary Barnage. I liked what I saw. As far as the targets going his way, I completely agree that they looked better than what the final stats were. And for Josh Gordon, I'm going the eighth round for me.
- [31:06]
A
So that begs the question then, do you take Josh Gordon, Corey Coleman or Pryor? In what order?
- [31:13]
B
I'm going to take Josh Gordon.
- [31:15]
A
So that's Corey Coleman. The eighth round, you're taking Gordon. That's the first.
- [31:18]
B
That's the first Cleveland brownout.
- [31:20]
A
That's what I was asking for.
- [31:21]
B
Yeah, and I'm not doing that. If I've got like a. If I'm. If I've only got four bench spots, he's not in consideration. I'm not going to waste a bench spot for that long a time period. If I've got five, that's where I'll go.
- [31:33]
A
You'll draft Emmanuel Sanders over Josh Gordon?
- [31:35]
B
Yes, I would draft Emmanuel Sanders over Josh Gordon.
- [31:38]
A
Okay. All right, let's move on to the Steelers in the Saints game. This was a game that really showed, you know, an offense for the Steelers. I struggled to speak there. An offense for the Steelers that look good. You know, Le'Veon Bell was in the game. Is this just tantalizing us for when he returns?
- [31:57]
B
Yeah, I mean, he was in the game for a long time. I don't know why he was Playing so late into the game. But it was great to see him healthy. Big Ben, I mean, we've thrown plenty of shade on Big Ben around here. He looked hyper efficient, had two touchdowns, got out of the game. And the big takeaway to me from the Pittsburgh side was that Jesse James looked great. I think you said it before the show. Andy, how did you word what Jesse James looked like? Because I thought it was perfect.
- [32:25]
A
Oh. I said he looked like Heath Miller with legs.
- [32:28]
B
Yes, he was like a young Heath Miller. He was constantly.
- [32:31]
A
He could run the ball.
- [32:32]
B
Those, those, those short little right, you know, in the middle of the field passes and he'd get it. He was looked for. On third down, he got the touchdown. Jesse James.
- [32:42]
A
So the question streaming candidate until a Darius Green place. That's exactly what Jesse James.
- [32:47]
B
There you go.
- [32:47]
A
But if you're going to punt on tight end or you already did pay attention to maybe streaming Jesse James if you know, Green's not out there because I think he's a great candidate for that. We've always seen Heath Miller in his lack of athleticism be effective as a tight end. So I think you pay attention to that. And then on the other side of the ball, the Saints look CJ Spillers, they're definitely giving him a shot in the preseason. I don't know what it means yet. He was the first running back on the field for the offense.
- [33:15]
B
The first team off started the game.
- [33:16]
A
He also returned the kick.
- [33:18]
B
He returned the kick and he was on the field when Mark Ingram was still playing. Before Mark Ingram came out of the game from just the eyeballs. I wasn't writing down every single snap, but my eyeballs said that he played about 60% of the snaps and Mark Ingram 40% of the snaps while they were playing.
- [33:36]
A
He is going giving him a long look.
- [33:37]
B
He is going to be involved. I didn't think he looked great personally. I didn't think he did anything to say. Wow, I really need to look at drafting CJ Spiller other than involvement. Right. Opportunity. We think opportunity is greater than we.
- [33:51]
A
Know that the Saints use a. Whoever's the passing down running back has had a great fantasy production seasons out of New Orleans.
- [33:59]
B
And so what it does for me is it gives me a little bit of. Of scare for the Mark Ingram pass catching role. If Mark Ingram loses that, that takes his value from being essentially a locked and loaded RB1, if he's healthy to being in that, you know, RB late, RB1, upper RB2 cusp.
- [34:23]
A
Yeah. And he, Ingram just didn't have a Good game in general. I mean, he had like 17 yards on seven carries in this game too.
- [34:28]
B
So I'm not sure the Saints had a good game.
- [34:30]
A
No, they didn't. But I mean he, he dropped his only target from Drew Brees and so if you were to say right now whether you thought Ingram was receiving the same amount, more or less of the target numbers from last year, from last.
- [34:42]
B
Year on a per game basis, I would say that he's going to receive fewer targets. Fewer, yes, that would be my guess, but not much. I don't think he's going to be cast out of the passing game. Two years ago, Mark Ingram basically wasn't involved. He will be involved, but I think he's going to. I mean, Spiller didn't exist last year for the Saints. They barely played him. I would say the other big takeaway, and this is really important, this is.
- [35:05]
A
The most important thing we're bringing up for the Saints.
- [35:08]
B
It had been reported that Kobe Fleener had cut his luscious locks, but they were flowing and they are there. Kobe Fleeners, his Samson power exists and he had a very nice 31 yard reception called back at no fault of his own. I thought he looked alright to me. Watching you look at the box score and you go, oh, Kobe Fleener not involved. I think he had one catch. It didn't seem that bad to me.
- [35:36]
A
All right. The packers and 49ers. Look, the packers, to me they look like the same type of problems they ran into last year. They're running into again in the preseason. It's early. I, you know, it's Aaron Rodgers. I know we don't have to throw up a big panic alarm, but can Jordy fix everything that was wrong with that offense?
- [35:56]
B
It seems like he's going to need to. I mean, the narrative is the packers offense wasn't the same without Jordy. Well, Jordy didn't play in this preseason game and it was the exact same as last year. You and I both agree on that. They look like they struggled a little bit at times and this is not. Look, I think maybe the 49ers defense isn't given enough credit, but they're not great. I mean, if I gave them all the credit they deserve, they wouldn't go into the great category. And I think the packers look like they struggled a little bit to find. I mean, it just looked exactly like last year.
- [36:28]
A
So Jared Cook got involved.
- [36:30]
B
Jared Cook is definitely the playing ahead of Richard Rogers. Definitely the tight end to have from the Packers. You know, you hope that he can go back to the who was it, Jamaica Finley days with Aaron Rodgers, where.
- [36:42]
A
You actually have fantasy production from that tight end.
- [36:44]
B
Yeah. And they need that role, especially if Jordy's going to be out. You know, Eddie Lacy looked fine to me. He was the only bright spot here for the Packers.
- [36:53]
A
He did. He looked good.
- [36:55]
B
We're going to have to get reports of Jordy being very involved. And honestly, I think I might even take, you know, from my projections, I might have to take a touchdown or two away from Rogers. He's right now my far and away quarterback. 1. But he looked like the weapons around him were having the struggles they had last year.
- [37:13]
A
Well, you remember what it looked like last year. He would come back in the pocket, he'd go through his progressions, and no one was. And no one was open. No one was open. And that. You saw him do that a couple of times. You know, Devonte Adams.
- [37:26]
B
Devonte Adams had a great play.
- [37:28]
A
Bad play. Great play. Bad play.
- [37:29]
B
Yep. A very nice catch and a run for a touchdown. That got called back.
- [37:34]
A
All right. Other side of the ball.
- [37:36]
B
Do we have to.
- [37:39]
A
That's because Jerome Simpson was cut.
- [37:42]
B
Oh, man.
- [37:43]
A
Jerome Simpson has been cut.
- [37:45]
B
Hi. And Andy has a great day. The day already. Terrible.
- [37:49]
A
He's terrible, man.
- [37:50]
B
You hate Jerome Simpson.
- [37:51]
A
I do hate Jerome Simpson. Carlos Hyde has a concussion.
- [37:55]
B
Yep. I think Carlos Hyde, you know, he looked okay. He had a very nice. He had a couple very nice runs. But having a concussion is not good for you.
- [38:03]
A
Don't you see? I mean, don't you see what I'm saying about Carlos Hyde? This is not a good team.
- [38:10]
B
No, I completely agree. This is.
- [38:11]
A
You can't put it all on Hyde to make this team good. I am officially. You've heard me talk about my. My hope that Kaepernick is somehow earned the job back. He was awful. He's terrible. He's probably going to be cut. I'm stating, Gabbard. I'm not setting Kaepernick. I hoped and I thought he would give me a glimmer in this game and that would make that fourth game important. He was terrible.
- [38:33]
B
Even if he played great. The whole national anthem sitting thing going where the 49ers have literally had to issue a press release apologizing for. For Colin Kaepernick, even if he played great, wasn't there.
- [38:46]
A
Wasn't their press release more that they just respect the decisions? They didn't apologize for him?
- [38:51]
B
No. Their first press release immediately was. It read to me like an apology for him. But we'll look into that. Maybe agree to disagree and go read the press release yourself. Okay, but my point is he came out and he stunk. He had one read and then looked to run. And when he threw the ball, it wasn't good. He has no chance.
- [39:13]
A
No. No chance. No chance at all. And Tori Smith has one target we joked about in the beginning of the show. He's had one target in the preseason.
- [39:19]
B
Is there a 49ers wide receiver to own?
- [39:23]
A
No.
- [39:24]
B
I agree. I think they might be this year's Titans. Yeah, I don't. I don't think I'm going to draft any.
- [39:28]
A
I would still McDonald.
- [39:30]
B
Sure.
- [39:30]
A
Although he's not a wide receiver, so.
- [39:32]
B
Yeah, it was Selleck who was more involved this last.
- [39:35]
A
So look, I'm staying away from the Niners draft guys on teams that are going to have success.
- [39:41]
B
The big salad might be the only value here in the entire game is Sean Drone.
- [39:45]
A
All right, Chiefs and Bears. For me, all the preseason games that I watched, the Chiefs were the most impressive team. To me, I think they're going to be a very, very good team this year. We obviously had the end of the season. They, they won so many games in a row last year, got into the playoffs. To me, they look great. I love the offensive scheme they're running. It's quick hit. It's the type of stuff that Alex Smith is good at. You know, misdirection, a lot of Albert Wilson running behind the line of scrimmage. And obviously you didn't have Jamal Charles out there, but this was still highly targeted. Jeremy Macklin, goal line target for him. Highly targeted. Travis Kelsey, he got a red zone target and they both look good to me. And Conley is a two. I mean, Conley's a two on a low volume offense.
- [40:30]
B
I agree, which makes him irrelevant to me. He is the number two, but I would not draft the number two. I would draft the number two for certain teams, but not for a pass volume as low as Kansas City.
- [40:40]
A
No, I would treat him the same way I treat Travis Benjamin in San Diego right now where when the week comes where I've got buys and I need somebody to stream, I think Conley's going to have his games.
- [40:51]
B
Yeah, I probably still wouldn't be looking for him, but he will have his games. I just don't know that you can predict it based on a matchup or anything like that.
- [40:59]
A
Alex, were you as impressed with the Chiefs as I was?
- [41:02]
B
Not as impressed. I don't think they won the preseason in my mind, but they Looked good on both sides of the ball. And what I loved was seeing Alex Smith run the ball. He was willing. It was one of those things where, you know, when you talk about going through your reads, one of his reads is just the field ahead of him and if that field is open, he was running and he would get 20 yards, 15 yards and take a nice slide. He would only run when he had wide open lanes. But he's not afraid to do it. And we, we, we don't think of him as very athletic but he. Well, I think that the fantasy community that we is the is on a whole, Alex Smith is great to throw dirt on for for short passes and, and safety net opportunities. But he will surprise in fantasy because he's going to, he's going to finish with 250 yards on the ground.
- [41:55]
A
Yeah, probably more than that. Bear side of the ball. They struggled mightily. I think a lot of this had to do with the Chiefs defense playing so well. But you also had struggles for Cutler, frustration for Cutler. Nothing impressive out of Kevin White. Langford looked like the guy and fine but you know you're going to run into a Carlos Hyde situation here if they can't move the ball through the air. And Jeffrey dropped a big touchdown pass that probably would have, you know, he probably would have taken it to the house and he'll be targeted heavily. But not a good game for the Bears.
- [42:23]
B
No, Jeffrey looked very good to me. I will. I mean obviously he did drop that pass where he was streaking open but Jay Cutler was a wreck. I mean Jay Cutler to me and this is one game but he looked like not an NFL quarterback. He did not look how he looked last season where he was hyper efficient with Adam Gase.
- [42:44]
A
And we can hope it's a Jameis Winston situation.
- [42:46]
B
Yeah, yeah. Maybe it's just a last week, but I can't blame it all on the Chiefs. Like I want to give Chiefs credit but there were some wide open receivers he just air mailed and so you know, he just. The Bears look bad to me, but I agree. Length.
- [42:58]
A
Where are you drafting Kevin White?
- [42:59]
B
I'm not drafting Kevin White right now. In a redraft in a dynasty. I still think he's going to be great. But Kevin White has to be. I've got to take him way down. He has done nothing to impress me.
- [43:08]
A
He's an 8th round pick right now.
- [43:10]
B
Don't do it. And I've been, I've been.
- [43:13]
A
I love Kevin White earlier or Kevin.
- [43:15]
B
Oh my goodness, Stephen Diggs. We'll get to that game in a minute.
- [43:18]
A
But he, Devin Funches or Kevin White.
- [43:19]
B
All of those guys keep going.
- [43:22]
A
Tori Smith or Kevin White?
- [43:23]
B
No, no, I will take Kevin White ahead of Tori Smith. But yeah, most. Most guys that are involved. Kevin. Kevin White looks like he's a project.
- [43:32]
A
All right, we got to move on the Ravens and the Lions. We talked about Ben Watson's injury. We talked about Kenneth Dixon's injury. You're gun to your head. You're picking the backfield for Baltimore. You're starting a guy all season. I'm guessing it's four set.
- [43:46]
B
It's four set because he gets the first crack at it and because he's shown that he can do it in the past, I am staying away. I'm now officially staying away from the Ravens. And when I say that. So last night after the Ravens game, I was doing this draft. My opinion was already there. And I drafted Justin Forset, but I drafted Justin Forsett in the 11th round. I mean, at that point, you're going to take the starter for any team. It was great value. But for the most part, where guys are normally going, I don't, I don't think four set does it. For the whole year. Terrence west looked great in this game.
- [44:20]
A
If you could get four set in the 11th, wouldn't you just draft west with your last pick and then see how the beginning of the season shakes out?
- [44:25]
B
Maybe, but I'm not sure. We had that opportunity in the draft last night. I chose to not do it because I didn't want to. My, my shot was, hey, maybe four set will be the guy, but I'm not taking a shot at. I want to. I want to get that whole backfield because I think there's a very easy opportunity for Buck Allen to be involved, Terrence west to be involved, for set to be involved. And there is no guy.
- [44:48]
A
So let me ask you this. If that's the opinion on the running back side, what do you think of Mike Wallace and do you think he will be? I mean, they talk him up a lot. We've been disappointed by Mike Wallace before, but he has been somebody that's produced. Even in his time in Miami when he was annoying, he still got into the end zone. Is Mike Wallace moving up your rankings? Is he somebody you would take a flyer on?
- [45:10]
B
Yes, Mike Wallace is moving slightly up my rankings. Not very high, but he was targeted a lot. He looked good on a couple of plays, but granted, there were also a few plays that he looked out of sync with the offense. Ran. Ran the Wrong route. And the ball went the other direction when he cut. And so there's some kinks to work out, but he's done it before. Joe Flacco, to me, looked great. You know, his arm is strong. I'll say that.
- [45:34]
A
The Lions get, you know, they struggled. The Lions were a little bit out of sync. Tons of penalties in this game. It seemed like Golden Tate was the first read compared to Marvin Jones. I think you're going to see those guys kind of alternate that production. That's why I'm taking the last of those two in the draft. Wherever they're going, I'll just take the second guy. And right now, that's Marvin Jones.
- [45:54]
B
They're getting close to each other. I mean, they're getting real close. Marvin Jones is creeping.
- [45:58]
A
Oh, ADP wise.
- [45:59]
B
Yeah, ADP wise. He is going higher and higher and higher in every draft I've seen. He used to be such a great value. I mean, he was going in the ninth. Now I think he's around the sixth where he is still. Okay. I'm willing to take him. He did have a couple of red zone targets in this game, but, yeah, I mean, it is a 1, A, 1B. And if you want to tell me who the A is, I'd be happy to know.
- [46:21]
A
All right, takeaways from the Eagles and Colts game. The big takeaway that you need to know about the Colts is that they lost their left guard, Jack Muhort, huge loss.
- [46:31]
B
And apparently just watching the game, what they did is where that guard spot was in memory of him is they didn't fill it. They just left a big hole there. And then there was a tackle.
- [46:42]
A
In memorandum.
- [46:42]
B
In memorandum. They just. They just left a hole. That's what it looked like. I have.
- [46:47]
A
Bad, bad, bad.
- [46:48]
B
The ball got to Andrew Luck oftentimes slower than the Eagles did. And that's the Eagles.
- [46:54]
A
Let me ask you this, because I thought this was crazy. See something about this show. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we disagree. We give you the reasons why you can make your decision. A listener wrote in on Twitter and they said, I was offered Dante Moncrief for Melvin Gordon. And Mike.
- [47:12]
B
Oh, I saw this.
- [47:13]
A
And Mike said, amazing. I love it. And I said, gross. So where do you weigh in? Because I thought I would rather have Melvin Gordon. Who would you rather have?
- [47:25]
B
I think as of right now, from what. What I've seen in this preseason, I'd rather have Melvin Gordon than Moncrief just because of position scarcity. I believe.
- [47:34]
A
Exactly.
- [47:35]
B
I believe both are going to be good. I Love drafting Moncrief. If Mike and I, we have the my guys episode coming up this week, I promise you Dante Moncrief will be on that episode. But Mike and I are going to have to arm wrestle for who gets to be that guy because I'm drafting Dante Moncrief wherever I can. Even with this game where the offensive line just looked putrid for the that's the biggest takeaway is they have got to fix their offensive line. It hurts.
- [47:58]
A
Score. It hurts Luck, it hurts the offense.
- [48:00]
B
It hurts. Moncrief hurts. Dorset hurts everybody.
- [48:03]
A
I'm worried about there being a situation. Look at last year. We give Luck a pass, he was hurt. We give Rogers a pass, Jordy was hurt. What if we see kind of more of what we saw last year from those two teams? What if they don't automatically fix, you know, if they can't protect Luck, he's going to struggle.
- [48:23]
B
The nice thing though is that the ADPs, if you haven't drafted yet, they kind of have that struggle built in already. So if they bounce back, you're getting a value. If they don't bounce back, you're still alright for taking those guys where most of them are going. In my opinion. I still love Dante Moncrief. He was heavily targeted in this game. It really is. I feel like when I watch this, it was just like Tate and Marvin Jones. You got a 1A 1B here.
- [48:49]
A
No, I agree. I just.
- [48:50]
B
And the. And the difference between where Ty Hilton and Dante Moncrief are being drafted. That being said, position scarcity. If I can get a very good running back or a very good wide receiver and I'm confident that they're going to be that, I'm taking the running back.
- [49:01]
A
All right, the Eagles takeaway. You know, they look like a team ready to play football. They look like Bradford's the guy. They look like they could do some things. Ryan Matthews had three carries, 31 yards looked fine. They got him off the field. Barner looks to be the backup there. I still like Sprols as a sleeper. I don't think there's any other headlines before we move on.
- [49:19]
B
No, it's just a matter of how good can the team be. If the team is good, then Ryan Matthews will be good. Bradford will be reliable and be out there. If the team is bad, Wentz will come in and the team will go to shambles, fantasy wise.
- [49:31]
A
All right, it's time for New York City.
- [49:33]
B
New York City.
- [49:34]
A
We've got the jets in the Giants game. Talk about the Jets.
- [49:38]
B
Okay, I thank you because this is my biggest takeaway. Like, of all the, you know, I'm. I'm taking notes pen to paper for every single one of these games. Watching every.
- [49:47]
A
You have one of those. Like the ink?
- [49:49]
B
Yes.
- [49:50]
A
Like the feather pins.
- [49:51]
B
I only use a quill. I am a quill only type of guy.
- [49:54]
A
You should livestream your quill notes while you watch the preview.
- [49:57]
B
I get ink everywhere. I mean, I don't know how to use it. If you looked at my notes and you got to just come in and steal them and rob my house like a maniac, you would see one note that sticks out more than any others. Because very often once I see something I like, I put a big asterisk by it. And then if I see something I like again, if the player does something again, I put an asterisk by it. There were four gigantic asterisks by this note, which was the jets defensive line. I mean, I usually am concentrated on the offense. We don't do IDP here. We try to focus and be good at what our main.
- [50:35]
A
Stay in your lane.
- [50:36]
B
Yeah, we stay in our lane. But the jets defensive line looked as dominant as any defensive line I have seen in recent years. They were just manhandling the Giants. I mean, people came and said like, hey, should we be worried about the Giants offense? They weren't able to move. And I give all the credit here to the jets defensive line. I don't think their Week one is a great matchup, but then they've got a couple of weeks that are all right. The jets are a team to look for, you know, in that second to last round when you're grabbing your defense. And their D looked great. Todd Bowles going over there, great defensive mind. And they have some pieces. So to me, the biggest jets takeaway. Their offense didn't look good. Their defense looked amazing to me.
- [51:17]
A
I got to watch Victor Cruz catch a pass this week.
- [51:19]
B
That was cute.
- [51:21]
A
All right, so Eli struggled that often struggled. I'm not worried about them either. I think it's just one of those games.
- [51:27]
B
Very defensive game. Yeah, Vernon looked good.
- [51:29]
A
He did. And Decker caught his obligatory touchdown. I wouldn't say Fitzpatrick looked good at all, but. No, but we'll just move on. Titans and Raiders. The Titans are going to run the ball this year.
- [51:40]
B
Their whole offense looks pretty good. And I don't know if that's them or whether the Raiders defense looked bad. They moved the ball on the ground.
- [51:48]
A
But they've been moving it three games now.
- [51:49]
B
Sure. Yeah. No, you are Right. I told you before the show today that Marcus Mariota is kind of moving up for me as a sleeper pick. Andy, early this off season, way early this offseason, he was like your guy. You were planting an early flag on him. But then as you realize that the Titans are not good. It was one of those Carlos Hyde situations. Right. Where you don't want.
- [52:12]
A
Actually, I'm going to. I want to pull back because we have Tennessee fans. I didn't think that the Titans weren't going to be good. I said I thought they were going to be a running offense, which I still think so. That's why I pulled back from Mariota, is that they're just going to be so focused on the running game.
- [52:26]
B
But what's nice from Mariota is that he's involved in the running game. They're running a lot of read option and he was looking through his reads and pulling the ball down and running just. Just kind of similar to Alex Smith and he's capable of doing that. And they have come out and said they want him to do that. He looked last year like he was trying his best to not do that. Despite the fact that he had the longest touchdown run of the year, they.
- [52:49]
A
Couldn'T protect him last year. He didn't have options this year. If they do that, he'll run more. I, you know, Rashard Matthews got involved a little bit. The offense looked okay for the. For Tennessee this week.
- [52:58]
B
You can go through the entire list. Andre Johnson looked great. DeMarco Murray looked great.
- [53:03]
A
Sure.
- [53:03]
B
Derek Henry.
- [53:04]
A
Derek Henry looked amazing.
- [53:05]
B
Great.
- [53:05]
A
I is. Does Derek Henry have a chance to be this year as David Johnson? That's the question I have for you because last year you had Chris Johnson led the team, led the league in rushing for the first eight games. David Johnson won people leagues. Could Derek Henry win people leagues or is that overstating it by a lot?
- [53:20]
B
I think it's overstating it by a little. I do agree that he could be a true difference maker. The reason I wouldn't say a lot is the difference between what you have in the Arizona Cardinals offense and the Tennessee Titans offense. The Tennessee Titans offense is not going to be putting up points on the board at the same pace that the Cardinals do. And that was what made David John so valuable, was his touchdowns.
- [53:44]
A
The Raiders taking away something from this game. It was good to see Amari Cooper get in the end zone. DeMarco Murray was barely on the field. They came out and publicly said they're looking for the backup. Trying to figure out who that backup for Latavius Murray is. I still feel great about planting my flag with Latavius. As you have done all off season.
- [54:02]
B
Absolutely. I Love Latavius Murray.
- [54:04]
A
DeAndre Washington was welcome to the NFL with one of the biggest hits I've seen in a while.
- [54:09]
B
Go Google it. I mean, that. That's probably my second biggest note was that he got murdered. And what was great, I mean, he got blown up. The. The ball came out like a Follies video, you know, just flew out of his hands for a touchdown going the other way. But that meant that they were back on offense and he got the next carry and the next carry and he looked okay. I will say this. DeAndre Washington could be a my guy candidate because there is no draft. There is not a single draft where I'm at the end. And I'm not desperately wanting to get him on my roster because he to me could be David Johnson. He's the guy where DeMarco Murray could come and have a great first half of the season a la Chris Johnson. And if he goes down, I think that the. The offensive line is far better for the Raiders than it is for the Titans. And that could open it up. And he's great pass catcher. So those, those two guys are good. Good. You know, if you're at the very end of your draft looking for flyers, I think that.
- [55:11]
A
Or if they're sitting on waivers right now.
- [55:12]
B
Yeah. And DeAndre Washington are good grabs.
- [55:14]
A
The Broncos played the Rams. We'll get to see this up close and personal. On Hard Knocks this week. Jared Goff struggled mightily. He left a second of, you know, all three preseason games shaken up. Again, not a lot to be excited about on the offensive side of the ball. Looks like Case Keenum is going to be the starter there for a while. On the other side, the, you know, the Broncos defensive line looks like. The Broncos defensive line, they were dominant again. I don't think they're going to need piles of offense on this team. And we now know that Trevor Simeon is going to be the starter.
- [55:49]
B
Yeah. So what does that do for the wide receivers here, in your opinion? Having Simeon as the quarterback, that seems like a step down from what Peyton Manning. Terrible.
- [56:00]
A
No, it didn't matter to me who was going to start. These guys are going to be involved, especially Demarious Thomas.
- [56:06]
B
How high are you, Thomas?
- [56:08]
A
I'm taking Demarius very high. I think I have him in my. Let me. Let me pull up my exact ranking right now as we talk about the game because I don't want to understate my love for Demarius Thomas.
- [56:17]
B
Yeah. In the draft that we had last night, I took Demaryius Thomas. I got him as my third wide receiver, which was incredible. And, you know, and that was in a full PPR league.
- [56:28]
A
So I like how this draft from last night has now turned into your team.
- [56:32]
B
Like, I tried to tell him, like, hey, these guys, you make the pick. And then he just. Just tell me.
- [56:39]
A
I just like that you're referencing now. It's like, I took this guy. It's my team here. I have Demarius as my number 10 right now.
- [56:45]
B
There you go. I don't blame. I mean, that sounds like a perfect spot.
- [56:48]
A
That being said, look, the Broncos have thrown 89 passes in two games. They've only run the ball 53 times, which is a little strange. I know it's the preseason. I know that they're testing out these quarterbacks.
- [56:57]
B
I think that's what it is. They're going to be a run first team, but they will pass the ball enough. You saw them through a lot of this preseason. Come out four wide receiver sets. They're not going to be running that as their, as their base.
- [57:07]
A
All right, three games left. We're going to talk Vikings and Chargers. We've already talked about Melvin Gordon. He had the big touchdown run. He looked good on four carries. This is a very good game for Woodhead as well in terms of snap percentage. Right.
- [57:20]
B
Woodhead was out there. It was every other play. Melvin Gordon would come out, Woodhead would be in. So he is going to be involved. I've been a little bit down on Woodhead just from the standpoint of, you know, if Melvin Gordon is looking as good as he is and they drafted him as high as they did, then they're going to have him be that lion's share guy. And while I think on the ground they will, Danny Woodhead is absolutely an involved piece for this team. And we can't, we can't sleep on him the way that, you know, fantasy owners sleep on him every single day.
- [57:49]
A
If you translated Danny Woodhead position wise to a wide receiver in your mind, I think you would think of him like Wes Welke. Yeah, like Wes Welker. You would treat him like a slot receiver. That will give you PPR production and that's what he is. On the other side, Bridgewater looked great. You had nothing but good things to say about Stefan Diggs.
- [58:08]
B
Again, Stefan Diggs is the clear cut number one. That would be my number one takeaway from this Vikings game was that Stefan Diggs is the number one wide receiver. He had some great catches. He had some great moves after the catch. You know, the Vikings offense as a whole is not really an air it out style team. So they're not going to be passing in the, in the top half of the league. But it is nice when you've got, when you've got that situation like with Buffalo. It's nice when you know, look, there's a clear cut number one. And I'm not calling Diggs, Sammy Watkins here as far as talent, but he is going to be. I am confident to say that Stephen Diggs will be the number one wide receiver and I would absolutely draft him.
- [58:50]
A
All right, I want to talk about the Texans in the Cardinals game. I'm going to start on the Houston side of the ball. You had a very good game from Brock Osweiler. They protected him very, very well, and he drove the ball downfield. He was almost perfect in this game. It was kind of a perfect storm. The Cardinals played without Patrick Peterson, without Tyrann Matthew, and they lost Mike Jenkins, their other db, very, very early in the game. So you didn't have the best secondary out there, but Osweiler took advantage of it and I was pretty impressed with him. I also think we saw again the evidence of DeAndre Hopkins is a very, very good wide receiver. DeAndre Hopkins has competition to compete with him now. He has Braxton Miller, he has Will Fuller, Jalen Strong, Lamar Miller out of the backfield. You even saw targets to the tight end. You don't have to just be what Brian Hoyer was last year. Fade back and throw it up to Hopkins on every play. You have guys that can stretch the field. Hopkins is elite. He's not a top five guy. To me, he hasn't been all offseason. We've said the same thing and he wasn't for the second half of the year. I think he's great, but I put him more in that Demarious Thomas category.
- [59:55]
B
Yeah.
- [59:56]
A
Where those are guys I'd be picking between. So the Texans, you know, look, Lamar Miller, he's the goal line guy. He's the not goal line guy. He's everything. Because Alfred Blue is Alfred Blue. And so Lamar Miller's on the field all the time. Oh, man, he got into the end zone.
- [60:11]
B
Yeah. I'm so excited for Lamar Miller this coming year. I, you know, the way that you have, it's so ironic to me because your guy for years has been Arian Foster, and I have had, you know, deep years, long Love for Lamar Miller, and it's so ironic that these guys have essentially been traded to each other in free agency. And I'm going to win that one.
- [60:34]
A
I agree. The Cardinals, they struggled again. If you want to continue the struggles from that NFC Championship game right into the preseason, it's, you know, that's the perception. Turnovers again, two tip pass turnovers for Palmer. Playing without Larry Fitzgerald, playing without John Brown.
- [60:50]
B
Are you scared about the John Brown head concussion injuries, the headaches that keep reoccurring?
- [60:55]
A
I am not.
- [60:58]
B
I feel like that was Mike with Tony Roma right now.
- [61:01]
A
I hope that's wrong. I hope you're wrong about that. I think Brown is going to be okay.
- [61:06]
B
Here's what I believe. I believe that J. Brown for the Cardinals will be very good.
- [61:11]
A
There you go.
- [61:11]
B
And whether that's John Brown or Jaron Brown or Jaron Brown, who has also looked amazing, the role is secure.
- [61:17]
A
I expect that. I should have mentioned Will Fuller again. He had another touchdown. He's really beating DB's down the sideline. His speed is stretching the defense. I think he's going to continue to have deep shots because that mixture of Osweiler throwing it over the top to Fuller, it's what this offense needs. And if he can continue. He dropped one, too. I mean, he had like 4 or 5 for 67 and a touchdown, and he dropped a really good pass from Osweiler.
- [61:41]
B
You've seen for running teams, teams that run, run, run, run, run the ball when they've got that deep threat, you know, it opens up for him. Whether that's Sammy Watkins with the Bills, you know, if they're running to Lamar Miller over and over and over, and then they've got a guy who can beat you over the top, it's going to be open. And Will Fuller's on a lot of waiver wires right now.
- [61:58]
A
Yeah, I love him as an upside guy. Let's talk about the Jaguars and the Bengals. The final game, Sunday Night Football last night. This was a Gio Bernard game. This was a game where he looked great, he was patient, he was good. In between the tackles, he caught a pass, ran it in for a touchdown. When the O line got out and blocked for him. GEO got stuffed a bunch. I'm sorry. Hill got stuffed a bunch. He was. Had an inefficient game. It's. It's par for the course with this backfield where you. You'd love to just buy in and say this guy's the guy, and it's never going to be the case there.
- [62:30]
B
Well, it could be the case when there's an injury, which is why I like drafting both of these guys, not at the same time. I think their draft capital kind of precludes you from taking both.
- [62:41]
A
And they only let you take one pick at a time. You can't, you can't take.
- [62:44]
B
I will take Jeremy Hill and Geo, that combo right now. But my point is, I like drafting Jeremy Hill where Jeremy Hill is going and I like drafting Gio Bernard where geo's going. I am fine with either of them because both individually will be very productive and I think will return on where they're going in their drafts.
- [63:04]
A
That's a good way to say it.
- [63:05]
B
But with either guy, should the other one go down, you're going to get, you know, not 100% of the volume, but they're going to get an uptick. They're going to be more involved and, you know, I think that they represent decent floors for where they're going and very high upside.
- [63:20]
A
Really. Like the Bengals, the defense was very good. Jaguars couldn't move the ball a lot. I think their defense, the Jaguars defense did not impress me, which means they could be in a situation where we hope that they took a step forward, would lean more on the running game. They might be throwing the ball again.
- [63:39]
B
Yeah, I mean, that's. The Jaguars have looked good all preseason up until this point. Their offense, and you said that they were struggling, but did you know they won the game, Andy, the all important W in preseason.
- [63:54]
A
Yeah. You know who won the game for me was T.J. eldon.
- [63:57]
B
Yeah, you. You know, he's been my guy all.
- [63:59]
A
Off season and he looks really, really good to me.
- [64:02]
B
He's going far behind Chris Ivory in most drafts.
- [64:05]
A
Crazy talk.
- [64:06]
B
And if I had, if, if they were going right next to each other and you know, let's say they were the only back left, I would absolutely be picking TJ Yelden over Chris Ivory.
- [64:17]
A
He's going. Yelden's going behind Woodhead. He's going behind for set. He's going where Crowell's going. He's going behind Abdullah. He's going behind Derek Henry, Duke Johnson. I would take him over every name.
- [64:27]
B
I just said I would take him over everybody except for Danny Woodhead.
- [64:31]
A
There you go. I just think he looks really good. I'm impressed with him. Ppr, half point leagues. I think Yelden is a running back too. I think he's very safely in that running back to discussion. So other than that, Brandon Lafell started over Tyler Boyd in this game and.
- [64:46]
B
That'S what's going to happen. That's the warning I gave with Marvin Lewis. He wants to bring rookies along SLOW and if LaFell's healthy, Boyd is not going to be the outside starting wide receiver.
- [64:56]
A
Yeah, but if some depth at that position on that team is a concern, you saw when Green went down, it really impacts that offense. So I mean, not that that wouldn't be the case normally, but losing Marvin Jones and losing Muhammad Sanu, they have to find another balance at the end.
- [65:13]
B
Tyler Ifert right now.
- [65:14]
A
Right. And IFR right now, so. But I think they're going to be a really good team, too. I was impressed with the Bengals. I was impressed with the Chiefs this weekend. We have somehow blitzed all the preseason games. I hope that was comprehendable. I hope that was useful. We tried to focus on those takeaways, get through those games. If you're drafting this week, you know, we have two drafts this week. We have our league of record. We have the listener league draft this week, I think tomorrow or Wednesday. And so, you know, every little bit of news matters and this is a.
- [65:43]
B
Big fun, fun week for shows. We're going to have some bold predictions this week and our famous My Guys episode will be coming out this, this week. Last year, I think some of our My guys, we had Allen Robinson in there and Tyler Ifert, some guys that really helped win leagues last year for where they were going in draft. So you don't want to miss the My Guys episode, the guys that the fantasy footballers want on as many teams as we can have.
- [66:09]
A
Absolutely. So thanks for tuning in. Hopefully Mike will be back tomorrow. Don't forget to check out fantasyjocks.com use the promo code footballers to get trophies, rings, things for your league like that. They're the best. Check them out. We'll see you tomorrow.
- [66:25]
B
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.