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FantasyPros - Fantasy Football Podcast
NFL Free Agency Day 1: Fantasy Football Impact (Ep. 1976)
00:32:29
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- [00:00]
A
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human Max softness, Max energy, max run. Go on a run that never runs out. In the new Brooks Glycerin Max 2 dual cell DNA tuned cushion is optimized for soft landings and powerful toe offs while a glide roll rocker helps provide a more fluid step through. To help you truly tune out and max your run, shop the Glycerin Max 2@brooksrunning.com welcome in everybody to Fantasy Pros.
- [00:31]
B
This is the fantasy football podcast. It's me, Joey P. Joe P. Zapia and it's time to look ahead to NFL free agency because it came fast and furious and that's a lot of alliteration this late in the afternoon. Andrew Erickson and I are here though, to get you caught up on everything you might have missed. There was a lot going on. There were trades, there were deals, there were rumors, there's a lot happening. But we are going to stay on top of all of it here and break all the the moves down for you. Oh my goodness, it felt like a sprint here. Noon hit and it was certainly high noon because my goodness, Andrew Erickson. The deals just kept flying in the the phone off bing, bing, bing, over and over again. It was crazy.
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C
The news is hot and it just matches the weather here on the East Coast. 65 here in New England 71 where you are, Joe, I mean you're just beaming with that orangeness to your skin tone. Your. You, you went to the beach between this and our.
- [01:23]
B
I was outside for like 10 minutes and saw the sun and I came back and I'm tan. This is just how I work. All right, let's start off here with a big one here. Let's start off with a quarterback move because to a Tua tanga laka work here anymore is gone. To a Tonga violoa released by the Dolphins, Malik Willis takes his place. Now, Willis was a guy that folks were talking about, all right, this could be a really interesting move here. And obviously there's no better position to be in than a backup quarterback on the Green Bay packers whenever free agency arrives. We know this historically. It's taught us many, many times that's the job you want heading into free agency. The Dolphins agree to terms with Malik Willis, formerly of the packers, now three years, 67 and a half million dollars now that certainly I think a little surprising for me. We know the Dolphins were quarterback needy. I'm surprised that that's the landing spot for Malik Willis, new head coach, new situation. I gotta say, I'm a little tepid about it. I'm not like jumping up and down. Super excited. The Steelers were interesting to me. There were a couple under landing spots that I thought, okay, this could be all right. I'm just concerned with where we're at with a new team coming in here with a new head coach and all these new things gelling right away. What was your take in your first instinct when it came to this Malik Willis news?
- [02:43]
C
Well, it's a new city for Malik Willis heading to Miami, but the GM and head coach that are now in place in Miami were with him in Green Bay. So there is a familiarity between the two parties. So they know what Malik Willis does well, they know what he struggles with and they felt confident enough to give him this type of deal. Now a lot of it has to do with the fact that just there's not a lot of quarterbacks and there's a lot of quarterback needy teams. So Malik Willis, to your point, this was the perfect time for him to hit free agency, especially after a small sample size last year which where he looked really good in spurts and it looked like a player that had progressed from his rookie year. Where is this guy going to be able to complete a forward pass to now? Okay, we have confidence in Malik Willis being able to run our type of offense. I think that they're going to just run the piss out of the ball here with Malik Willis. Bobby Slowik is the offensive coordinator. He wants to run the football. Both the packers and Dolphins offenses last year. So Bobby Slick was the passing game coordinator for the Dolphins last season. Both teams, even when Gordon Love was healthy, they ran the ball at a top six rate. So they're going to add a fullback into the fold, a dual threat quarterback. I think that Malik Willis is going to be a fun piece in this Dolphins offense that when you just look at how it's constructed, I mean you have Jaylen Waddle as your number one wide receiver and not that much behind him. So it's run the ball with a chan like that is really what the recipe for success here. And Malik Willis, to his point as a quarterback in his own right, well, he led all quarterbacks in fantasy points per drop back last year. In 2024 he was top three in that category. A lot of that has to do with his rushing. As Fitz pointed out in his recap article. You go on the website, all the recap articles for fantasy football, for all the free agent landing spots. Fitz noted that Malik Willis, six career starts, has averaged almost 45 rushing yards per game. He's averaged 8.5 fantasy points per game with just his legs alone. So we feel confident he's going to be able to run the football. I think that means he's going to be a quarterback that we're going to be talking about. In fantasy football drafts.
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B
I worry about the wide receiver room. Andrew. You said it's Jalen Waddle and he's a question mark already for me and nothing else. So, I mean, the cupboard is bare. There's some decent wide receivers in the draft, but I only think there's only like one or two guys that I would really consider game changing kind of guys potentially. So I don't know where they're going here with this next one. Again, you're right from a rushing standpoint. So certainly that's going to be the full force of the Dolphins going into 2026. No doubt about that. That's good for fantasy, but you're gonna have to throw eventually who they throw the football to that's in question. All right, so we already had the big deal for the quarterback. Let's talk about the big deal for the running back. And it was a big one here. Kenneth Walker iii, now formerly of the Seahawks, he goes to the Super Bowl. He's the Bell cow in the Super Bowl. He ends up getting the Super Bowl MVP. Well deserved to be. Three years, $43 million for Ken Walker for the Kansas City Chiefs. Now, we've been talking about the Chiefs all offseason, Andrew, as being a team in search of a running back. We've had this running back by committee system here for the last couple years, and it has been trash for fantasy. It's been awful. It's been incredibly frustrating. I'm not going to even sugarcoat this at all. Right. It sucked. This is a great opportunity. What the only trouble is I could see ahead is the questions we always have about Ken Walker's durability. So he's going to have to answer the bell here, especially early on, because even when Patrick Mahomes does return eventually to this team from the surgery, they're still going to have to rely heavily on the run game. So Ken Walker, theoretically, certainly, I think, gets a fantasy boost here. But how much, considering you're going to start without Mahomes and now you do have that concern, can he handle a full workload by himself for an entire season? Sure. There'll be maybe one or two other guys kind of working in a little bit, but not to the same degree that it was in Seattle, I think.
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C
Yeah, Definitely not anywhere near the Walker Charbonnet, they're not going to give him this amount of money to then be like, all right, well we're going to give Rashad Smith the Zach Charbonnet treatment and take Ken Walker off the field every time they get into the red zone. So I think that's one of the biggest points is that red zone role. You feel way more confident that Walker is actually going to have that role in this Chiefs offense based on his skill set, based on the amount of money that they paid him and based on what's currently on the Chiefs roster. Now. It's always possible that they just bring back Kareem Hunt and they put him back in that red zone role and that would be really terrible for fantasy football purposes. But until that happens, you got to feel pretty good about Ken Walker as a top 10 fantasy running back. I think I don't know where he was in the ECR before this because I think that we were all kind of ranking him. At least I was ranking him based on the fact that I really kind of want to see where this guy goes first. Okay, I'll kind of put him in that top 20 range because I think he's a top 20 type of running back talent. But he's exactly what the Chiefs needed from a real life perspective. It's, hey, we need someone with juice in this backfield, like anybody that can generate a big.
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B
How about somebody under the age of 30 too? Oh my God, we got Kareem Hunt in there. It was Jericho.
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C
And the thing too with, and I want to give credit where credit suits. Pacheco had juice before he got injured. Like that was a. I thought Pacheco,
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B
most of it was running in place like this up and down, but the
- [07:45]
C
injuries really sapped a lot of his explosiveness. So. So obviously this is a major upgrade from Pacheco, from Kareem Hunt, from that duo from last year. But I think the Chiefs offensive line, especially if they're healthy, I think it's a really good run blocking unit. You look last year, the Chiefs with those two running backs that you were talking about, like not exciting for fantasy, they were still eighth in rushing success rate, third and lowest stuff rate. So yes, you're going to get more stuffed runs with Ken Walker because he's going to just take more risks. But it's so much, it's so worth that because he can rip off a 60 yard rushing touchdown which was non existent in this Chiefs offense in these previous versions of it just because they didn't have any expulsion. Oh yeah.
- [08:23]
B
And I think too, they became one dimensional. It's really hurt them over the last couple of years. Mahomes. Look, Mahomes has done so much, but he can only do so much. Sometimes you have to have a little bit more balance to the team and they've lacked that the last couple of years. It's been exposed in the playoffs and exposed in the Super Bowl a couple years ago as well. The question I have for you, Andrew, is where does Seattle go from here? Because now Seattle has got Zach Charbonnet on the shelf for a year and all of a sudden now they don't have Ken Walker Jr. I understand. Hey. Oh, the third. Pardon me. Now all of a sudden, you know, you're looking for a running back situation. You're gonna have to go in the draft because the, the list of running backs here that we're going to talk about next, they're gone already.
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C
Well, can I introduce you to George Holani Season. No, no, I'm just. Again, I think it's a player. He's a player.
- [09:08]
B
Please don't. It's been a long day.
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C
He's a player. They do like I would say keep an eye out for Brian Robinson Jr. He has, he knows the offensive coordinator for the Seahawks was with the 49ers last year. So that's a guy that, you know, you know, Brian Robinson, he, he's a guy like, he can fill the role. He blocks what's blocked for him. He'll get the yards you need. So he could probably be a stopgap option until Zach Charbonnet comes back. But I agree with you. It is kind of perplexing of how Seattle has handled this backfield based on the fact that Charbonnet is going to enter this year coming off a torn acl. I don't think that based on the timeline when he got injured, he, he's going to be ready for week one. And this team was the run heaviest team in the NFL last year and we don't know who their starting running back is. That, that seems like a problem.
- [09:47]
B
Andrew, bro, I was going to say to you, I was like, this is what happens sometimes to these teams who win the Super Bowl. They get cocky, right? You lose your offensive coordinator, he becomes a head coach, you lose your running back now, like now what you're playing, you know, it's, it's, it's still Sam Darnold. Like, Sam Darnold had a good year. But Sam Darnold is not Josh Allen. Sam Darnold is not Lamar Jackson. He's not An MVP candidate kind of quarterback. So you're gonna have to support him with a run game. I don't know how they're gonna do that right now. I have, I don't see the, the path for the Seattle plan they're keeping in the vault. Maybe we'll get more revealed tomorrow and we'll talk about it. Hopefully. Let's talk about another running back who goes to the Saints. Travis atn. I kept saying forever the Jag's best move this off season would be just to keep Travis atm because it was working well. Now he's going to be working for the saints. So four years, 52 million for him. Alan Camara is still on the roster as of right now. Andrew, I gotta say this one came a little out of me. I kind of like it though. I, I like Kellen Moore. I, I really thought Tyler Shuck put out some good tape in the last few weeks. I thought every week we would come back to the shows and we'd say, you know, Tyler Shuck got a little better this week. You know what? Tyler Shuck improved this week and I think that steady improvement with Kellen Moore and I think that support now with a younger running back who's I think still got some juice left in the tank. He still got Chris Olave. You've got some draft capital this year. I like this. I like ATN to the Saints. I think it's a good move for his fantasy value. I think it, I think it's basically, I would say more or less lateral. Maybe he gets dinged a little bit. Only because it's the Saints and people have a negative point of view on the Saints. But to be honest with you, like the Saints were one or two wins away from winning that division last year. You know, people forget that.
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C
Yeah. Especially if they just started Tyler Shuck earlier in the season, maybe they actually would have had a chance to. I mean they did have a chance to kind of win the division at the end. I know that we were talking about it on the betting pro show where it's like all the more the Saints like letting the Saints go march marching in. Let's go. So I think that this is an interesting spot. We did feel that at least I felt that the Saints were gonna add a running back. I guess I felt they were going to be more shopping in the Rico Dowdle part of the running back market. More of a early down type of grinding type of running back to kind of pair with Alvin Camara. But ETN, we know has a three down skill. Set. So the Chimera thing is weird, right? Because they keep talking about how we're gonna keep this guy around. He has one more. The one more year left on his deal, and he doesn't want to play for anybody else. And they keep talking, he's going to be a big part of our offense. But this suggests that's not really the case because why would you get all this? Again, the money thing can be beskewed because sometimes we get tricked by the amount of money that guys make. However, this is a commitment to Travis Etienne. So he's going to be the lead back. I don't know. I mean, I think it's like, is Camaro like. Like, is he. Like, is he is a handcuff? Like, what. Like, what is Alvin Camaro now?
- [12:39]
B
I don't know if he's handcuffed. I. I think this is a way of maybe forcing Alvin a little bit.
- [12:43]
C
Okay. That would make sense, to tell you
- [12:45]
B
the truth, because I think when you bring it to Travis atn, you're telling Alvin Camaro like, we're ready. We don't need you anymore. We're. We're ready to move on. So either you're moving on from football or you're moving on from the Saints is one of the two things. And you know what? I think they're right. I think it's time. I think it's time. And Alvin Camara can help some folks. You know, I. I think there's definitely some teams that he could be an asset on. It's just whether or not he wants to play somewhere else. And, you know, most of the time, guys don't close their career with the same team they started. It's very rare you get that in the NFL. Very rare. Another running back, too. Who. He would have been a good fit for Seattle. They decided not to go this route instead. Right. The Arizona Cardinals signed Tyler Algier, formerly of the Falcons, two years, $12.25 million. I thought this was a strong signing here by the Cardinals, personally. I think it obviously kills the value of all those other guys that you've seen that we were waiting on last year to work out in that backfield. They just never seem to stay healthy and work out. So you know what? Fresh start. Good move, I think, for Algier. Good move for the Cardinals. I like it all the way around. What are your thoughts?
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C
Is James Conner still coming back to the Arizona Cardinals? That is my.
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B
I think this is another way of saying the same thing, like, hey, James Conner, thank you for your service.
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C
That's where I'm getting hung up on this because if James Connor doesn't agree to this reconstructed contract, then I love this deal. I'm thinking this is perfect that you're getting a younger version of what James Conner has kind of been for you, that banger in between the tackles you have Trey Benson kind of sprinkling as that breather back generates some explosive plays out of the backfield as a pass catcher. But now I'm concerned that is this just like a three headed mess or is it, hey, Aug comes around, James Conner ends up getting cut from the Arizona Cardinals and it's wheels up for Tal Algier because I love Algier. I think that he's been a very underrated player throughout his NFL career and just he had a bad draw where the Falcons just happened to be in a position to draft Bijan Robinson entering his second season when he was coming off a rookie campaign as a former 5th round pick where he rushed for over a thousand yards. So I think he's more than up to the task to be a lead back for the Arizona Cardinals and if they can get healthy up front, just see what they do at quarterback. But I, I like Algeria. Connor out of the way.
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B
Well, here's the thing, it's gonna have to be via trade because he did agree to that revised contract. So now what's interesting about that is they got him to agree to the revised contract, then they went out and
- [15:06]
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signed and he's like, I don't want this contract anymore.
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B
Yeah, maybe I don't want to be here anymore. Or is that contract now more friendly to trade somewhere else?
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C
That is also the question too because it doesn't he make sense to go to somewhere like Detroit where he can just be Dave?
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B
Like yeah, no, that would be a good spot. I mean Seattle certainly has some reps open if you would like to get some there. That's probably not going to happen though. Cardinals aren't going to trade him, you know, to Seattle in the division. That's probably not going to be the case. But if they cut him, that would be interesting and I'm sure Connor would love to stick it up their rear end if they did cut him and go to Seattle. But they're gonna significantly reduce the salary. It was scheduled to be $9.8 million and it's going to come way down. So it becomes very team friendly for somebody else to acquire that. So I don't think we're done here with this Tyler Alier stuff.
- [15:53]
A
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- [16:38]
D
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- [17:27]
B
All right, big star, moving on. Mike Evans no longer a Tampa Bay buccaneer, which is a weird thing to think about and say he's a Hall of Famer in my book, Andrew. I'm sure he is in yours. A million thousand yard receiving seasons in a row. He is moving on though from Tampa and he's going to the San Francisco 49ers in a three year deal. Apparently up to $60 million he could make. I don't think Mike Evans has three good years left. I think this is a go out there for this year. Try to, you know, get in the playoffs. See if you can win one from that one year aspect. I like it. I don't know what the back end of this contract looks like. We don't have the details of it yet as of recording this. So for 2026 I like it in theory Shanahan offenses are very good. The the brand IUK is, is bye bye, he's gone. So it makes sense. But in terms of long term investment on Mike Evans that does not to me. What are your thoughts on this?
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C
This smells like the Stefan Diggs contract from last year where oh it's a three year deal like oh a lot of money and then after one year it's like oh yeah, they can just totally get rid of this guy. So. So that's probably how we should. Again we don't have the exact.
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B
Does that mean he starts dating Cardi B too? I'm just curious.
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C
Hey man, he's moving to Cali. Going from Florida to Cali. Anything can happen. That being said Mike, I do think
- [18:43]
B
Cardi Cardi B breaking up with Stefan Diggs is part of the reason he played so poorly in the Super Bowl.
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C
Save it for the tailgate pod. When we talk all about the Patriots
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B
go subscribe to the YouTube channel the Tailgate. This conversation will be had with Andrew Erickson. Myself we're going to do a short video on why the Patriots lost the super bowl and and why it's Stefan Diggs fault for all the non on
- [19:02]
C
field reasons why the Patriots lost the Super Bowl.
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B
That's the biggest one you could tell. It's like it's like the life was sucked out of the mojo was out of the room for him all of a sudden. God, and he couldn't keep in his pants for another week. Anyway, I will say when it comes
- [19:15]
C
to Mike Evans, he will be 33 years old in his next birthday. So the beginning of the season, he obviously is coming off his worst season as a pro where didn't have a thousand yards. A lot of that is due because he missed so many games because of an injury. He's gonna have another hand. He has hamstring injuries every single year and it's going to become harder and harder to come back for them as you continue to age. You have that whole thing about the 49ers in the facility that's next door so that obviously can help his injury. Now jokes aside, Mike Evans coming off a career low in yards per route run. Now a lot of what he did last year was gobble up volume. He had seven plus targets and almost every single one of his healthy games that he played. Seven healthy games. He had six games where he had at least seven or more targets. He led the Buccaneers in target share when he was healthy on the field at 24.4%. So he was still gobbling up a lot of volume. I kind of feel like he might age similar to what we've seen from Keenan Allen where he's out there and he's going to command targets. But he may not be doing as much as we'd like, especially when there are maybe younger players that are also in that offense. So I want to pose this question to you. Does this, you make. Does this make you more interested in Ricky Piersol? Less interested? Because you think, okay, this is going to.
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B
That's a great question.
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C
I think I like Pearsall as kind of like a buy because I think that maybe the view of this is this totally nukes his potential to be the wide receiver one. But for me it's like, well, which hamstring you going to bet on, Joe? Which hamstring makes it to week one, Ricky Pearsall or Mike Evans?
- [20:39]
B
I'm going to take a page out of the Andrew Erickson book, which is I'll draft Mike Evans. And then after the first six weeks of training him. Yep, the Debo Samuel Keenan Allen playbook that you've been running the last two years, I think it's a good one. I think it's smart. To your point though, if Ricky Pierce all's ADP drops significantly because of this, which it's very possible, it doesn't cost you anything to find out. You just got to be patient enough to hold him through the first six weeks of the season. And whenever you have that inevitable issue there or slow down or just age slowdown for Mike Evans, I mean it's father time comes for us all. So at some point, you know there is going to be more of a slowdown there. And, and on the flip side of this too now obviously a mech at Guka to the Moon Godwin, but also Jaylen McMillan, another guy too. I want to just throw out there. Like don't forget about him. He's had some nice moments there. He's got nose for the end zone too. So things are changing quite a bit for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Also changing for the Colts. So the Colts resigned Alec Pierce four years, 116. So apparently they are in love with Alec Pierce and everything he did last year. But they are no longer in love with Michael Pittman Jr. They're breaking up with him. They're sending him to the Steelers for a late round swap. So let's talk about these two moves here coinciding because clearly we had to make some cap space. The Steelers needed wide receiver help. They got it in Pittman. I can't give you a Pittman answer about value because they don't have a quarterback yet to talk about. I know Mike McCarthy's offense will be more dynamic than anything that Arthur Smith is running ever. So that is at least encouraging. But until I see a quarterback operated, I don't know what to do about it. And then Alec Pierce. Look, theoretically we're good, but we're still waiting on the quarterback situation there too. So these are two wide receivers that have gotten their landing spot and I still don't know what the hell to do with them because I don't know who the hell is throwing the football to him.
- [22:23]
C
Well, I do think that the Colts are confident or they say they're confident that it's going to be Daniel Jones, like that is going to be their quarterback and if he's not ready, it's going to be, I don't know.
- [22:31]
B
You want $60 million a year? That's a lot of money for Daniel Jones.
- [22:36]
C
Apparently Alec Pierce reported that or it wasn't him, the report, but reports about him saying that he turned down more money to stay with the Colts and Daniel Jones as his quarterback. So he is putting his faith into his quarterback where he had success last year. I think that it's very telling. All of these signs are telling us that the Colts are really high on Alec Pierce. And from what he did last year, I mean, he was starting to really edge out Michael Pittman Jr. In that room of no, I am a wide receiver one in this offense and it's crazy. Two of his best games came at the end of the year with Philip Rivers and Riley Leonard at quarterback. He had two top five finishes in the last four weeks of the season. And Daniel Jones wasn't even the quarterback of the Colts in those games. So he showed that he can win in a lot of different ways. He's obviously fantastic as a downfield threat, contested catch receiver, but he's winning at the intermediate level too. I think that's why they have they had the faith to, hey, we can move on from Pittman. We're not going to pay him or re up him. So let's just trade him now and let's buy into Alec Pierce, Josh Downs, he's going to be our future slot player. He's going to continue to be featured in our offense and I think the Colts are committed. And I, I get like, you look at this contract and you think, man, like this is so much money for a guy like Alec Pierce. But I feel like we said the same thing about Jacoby Myers, what did he do was really productive. Christian Kirk, what did he do was really productive. So for a little while. Right. That's what I mean. Like it's not. And that doesn't mean he's going to be a superstar for the next 10 years. But I think that Alec Pierce, I think name brand, I think he might end up being undervalued in fantasy drafts.
- [24:05]
B
I hope for Alec Pierce's sake that Daniel Jones does return and you didn't give up money for nothing. Otherwise it's going to turn into that meme where he's standing in the rain and they're playing I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you and he's just crying in the rain under the umbrella. Just very depressing. All right, so wide receivers, we got one more to talk about. Wandell Robinson gets reunited with Brian Dable, offensive coordinator of the of the Tennessee Titans four years. $78 million there for Wandale. So I think this helps. Cam Ward, you're getting a possession wide receiver. That's something they really didn't have. This was very expected across all rumor sites for some time now. So no surprise. I like it. To me, Andrew Erickson, this is something we anticipated. You certainly were in on this one as well quite a bit. Will this boost his fantasy value though to any sort of level that might be untenable?
- [25:00]
C
I don't think so. I, I'm not sure that we will or the fantasy complex rankers will necessarily hype up Wandell Robinson as is. Oh, you got to have this guy. He's going to smash. He's going to be a wide receiver one in 2026. I don't think he's going to get that far, but I just think that he's going to a place where he should get targets again. He's been with Brian Dabel the last two years and what has he done the last two seasons? 130 plus targets. The only other receivers that have done that besides Wandell Robinson, Jamar Chase, Amon, Ross St. Brown, Jack Smith and Jigba and Justin Jefferson. Right. It's pretty elite company to be and I know that there's injuries that play a part in that. Malik Neighbors didn't play last year, but having that ability to hold up for an entire season and get 130 plus targets back to back years. Look, Juan Robinson was a former second round pick. He got hurt early in his career which kind of derailed the beginning of his NFL success. But now we're kind of starting to See him flourish. He's with a coordinator that has confidence in him. I think that the Titans might not be done adding receivers. So that's kind of where you want to just maybe press pause a little bit. Especially they're a team that's likely going to draft somebody. But in terms of who's that number one slot guy, that's going to be Cam War. It's underneath target. I mean it's going to be Wandell. I think he's going to see a lot of volume. So maybe he's not a league winner per se, but someone that I think, hey, ppr, you're looking for wide receiver value in these, some of these later single digit rounds. I think Wanda might that be that guy.
- [26:22]
B
Yeah, look, position wide receivers for young quarterbacks is a good thing, right? Guys who work in the slot, guys who get peppered with targets, that's what you want. I don't know if Cam Horse taking a lot of deep shots with the group he's got right now. Jim Ray DK is fun. I think there's more to Elic IO Manor still. We haven't seen it yet. Some injuries kind of played a part last year. You've got a conqueror. You got gunner helm in this grouping too. So he's got. He's got some pieces. Slowly, slowly things are getting better there and he certainly got a real head coach. So other positions to talk about too. Isaiah Likely, he is now a former Raven. He is a New York Giant now. So John Harbaugh said I'm out. You signed Mark Andrews to another deal. I'm leaving and I'm taking Isaiah Likely with me. That's what Harbaugh did. What do you think of this move here for the New York Football Giants and Jackson Dart another young quarterback? Well, all of a sudden now, I mean if they draft a big wide receiver and you got Malik neighbors healthy and Scado healthy and now you got Isaiah Likely. Man, there's a lot to like here for the New York Giants. I think they're my worst of first coming into 2026. I know we like to make that bet every year.
- [27:22]
C
Yes. I love the worst of first Hit twice last year. So, so nice. Hit twice last year. It was so nice.
- [27:29]
B
It was one of them we got right. The other one none of us saw coming. We did not see the Patriots coming. It was sad for us.
- [27:36]
C
But that's okay.
- [27:37]
B
All right.
- [27:38]
C
We follow the trends. I love this move. To your point, Likely reuniting with Harbaugh. Harbaugh was the one that was Pushing to sign Isaiah Likely. And I think that maybe the power dynamics between the Ravens and Isaac and John Harbaugh, how they were kind of starting to fall out, we even saw trickles during the season and maybe that was a reason why they end up extending Mark Andrews, not a Harbaugh move and not bringing back Isaiah Likely put his Harbaugh's guy. So I think that, I think the issue with this one, because I think that you see this deal and you think, all right, well, is he going to be the tight end one from Day 1? Theo Johnson's done some nice things for his first two years in the NFL, especially in the red zone, but I think that might just be what his role is. He's relegated to red zone touchdown guy. Whereas Isaiah likely, hey, he is our underneath our number two option on this offense. Malik Neighbors is coming back from that injury. So who's going to be there catching passes every single day in training camp from Jackson Dart? It's going to be Isaiah Likely. And we've seen the ceiling when he's had a full time role when Mark Andrews has missed time in the past. So I think Isaiah likely can easily be a tight end one in 2026.
- [28:42]
B
All right, a couple other things too, real quick and then we'll get out of here. The Raiders were busy. They signed center Tyler Linderbaum, which was their big focus. So he leaves the Ravens, goes to the Raiders. 81 million there, 60 million guaranteed for three years. So protect the new quarterback in Mendoza. And they also agreed to terms with Jalen Naylor, which was an interesting one too. I like Naylor. He's fun. He's not the answer, but he's part of the equation for sure. 3 years, 35. A little surprising for me, but I get it. And there were a lot of sources that were saying that Naylor was going to be a very sought after piece. And look, you know, when you have Justin Jefferson playing ahead of you and some other guys who have some talent as well, you know, you don't see a lot of opportunities. But whenever Naylor got some opportunities, he certainly made the most of them. But apparently he's a darling of the GMs. And, and now he's a member of the Las Vegas Raiders. The Buccaneers came to terms with Kenneth Gainwell, so some running back depth for them. Two years, 14 million. And the Broncos resigned J.K. dobbins. So we're back to square one again. J.K. dobbins, RJ Harvey Erickson, any feelings about the Denver Broncos backfield with Dobbins back in the fold isn't just going
- [29:46]
C
to be the same thing we saw last year where it's Thomas is the guy until he gets hurt and then they give it to Hardy.
- [29:51]
B
Right.
- [29:51]
C
Because I don't know, that's, that's kind of how I feel. I like how Dobbins was effective. He was really good last year, but he just, the guy can't play a 17 game season no matter what.
- [30:01]
B
No.
- [30:01]
C
Which just is really unfortunate because he's such a super talented running back. I guess you're hoping that maybe Harvey can take another step forward as a rusher because I think that the receiving abilities that he came out of college with, they were on display. So if anything, I think this makes Harvey in a situation where you can probably still draft him in fantasy and feel like you're not having to pay an arm and a leg to acquire him. Because I think that we all, again, we already saw this backfield play out last year. So I don't think that Sean Payton would say again, it is a new play caller. So I guess Davis Webb could shake things up a bit. But I would say yeah, split backfield. Dobbins is the lead guy. Harvey sprinkling in, also working on passing downs as a receiver, whereas J.K. dobbins is doing the most of the pass protection. I would say too. I just want to list off the Linderbaum thing. Unless you have something else up at the Broncos, I don't want to shift topics on you like that.
- [30:48]
B
Well, I've got, I've got a, I've got a dropping piece of news here. We started the show and now we're coming full circle. It might be way more interesting to talk about. The Falcons have agreed to terms with Tua Tanga Violoa, who is going to work there. He is going to work there. So two of quarterbacks, I was like, oh, we're collecting all the left handed course. Steve Young come out of retirement. You too, my friend. So Tua now going to the Atlanta Falcons. Interesting move for Stefanski, certainly for Tua. I mean you gotta like this situation. You're playing indoors, right? You're playing in the South. You're not playing in the elements. Like this is good. This is good. You've got Drake London, you got Bijan Robinson, you got some support there. I think this is about as good as Tua could have gotten for himself.
- [31:33]
C
I think that this is a fantastic move by the Falcons to bring in a guy like to, to be Michael Pennix's quote unquote backup. But we don't know. We, we don't know if that's going to shake out that way.
- [31:44]
B
This is going to be a full battle. I can tell you that.
- [31:46]
C
I think that panics has got to show. Hey I got to show that I can stay healthy that I can show up and I think we can feel better as fantasy managers now at least investing into these Falcons top tier players because I don't necessarily see oh there's going to be this massive fall off it goes from Michael Panicks to two or two has to open the season as a starter like Tua can feed the guys we want. We saw him what did he do all in Miami was just throw the ball to the running back like B. Robinson. Saddle up babe. You're going to catch even more passes than you did Last year if 2o if it's PenX guys that can't move. So yeah I love this move.
- [32:19]
B
It's a one year deal. The move now gives the Falcons two left headed quarterbacks heading into the 2026 season. And I don't has that ever happened before? Have we ever had two lefty quarterbacks? least it's consistent in practice. You're looking at the ball coming out the same place.
- [32:31]
C
I, I know so not on the same team. I don't know.
- [32:34]
B
Is this a, is this a buy low point for Pennix in like dynasty keeper situations.
- [32:39]
C
See I don't, I don't know. I mean because he's already an older quarterback anyway. He has so many torn ACLs I think. I mean almost makes me want to buy Tua like but again like he's also a scary guy.
- [32:52]
B
I don't know if I want to buy him concussions but maybe on a one year deal I want to lease him. Yeah I do. Now we've got a lot left going on obviously. I'm glad I refreshed too because I, you know we just snuck that one in there right at the deadline of this show. But we've got more free agency for you coming up in the days ahead. Anything that drops we will cover it every day here at Fantasy Pros. Make sure you subscribe to the channel, drop your comments below and we have a live free agency tracker so you can stay on top of everything from the first transaction to the last. Whether free agency begins right now, this is the time here for you Live free agency Tracker is at fantasypros.com Tracker will update it minute by minute as all news breaks. Thank goodness I refreshed it before I signed off today so we got that 201 right into the wire. But I'm sure more will come here as soon as we log off here. So subscribe to the channel, be with us and Andrew Erickson and I will break down more free agency frenzy here on Fantasy Pros. That'll do it for us, but the story of the game goes on for Erickson. I'm Joey P. We'll see you next time, kids.
- [33:50]
A
Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on apple podcasts@fantasypros.com review or on Spotify. Follow us on X Instagram and TikTok Antasypros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com fantasypros.
- [34:19]
B
Foreign.
- [34:33]
A
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E
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A
At cvs, it matters that we're not just in your community, but that we're part of it. It matters that we're here for you when you need us, day or night,
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E
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A
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- [36:01]
E
This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea after the Big Game. Like most people, I kept thinking about the commercials, and there was one that stayed with me. It was from the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, and it wasn't loud or flashy. It showed a Jewish kid being targeted at school and another student who chose not to ignore it. As someone who was Jewish, that moment felt very real to me. Not dramatic, just familiar. And what struck me was how clearly it showed that hate doesn't always announce itself, but the impact is still huge. If you saw the Blue Square spot during the Big Game, it's worth thinking about. And if you want to show support, sharing the Blue Square is one small way to do that.
- [36:39]
A
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.