Rules to Win Your Fantasy League (Part 2)

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Ringer Fantasy Football Show – "Rules to Win Your Fantasy League (Part 2)"

Episode Information:

• Title: Rules to Win Your Fantasy League (Part 2)
• Release Date: August 15, 2025
• Hosts: Dan Hodge, Danny Kelly, and Craig Robeck

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Introduction: Applying Last Year’s Lessons to 2025

In this episode, Dan Hodge, Danny Kelly, and Craig Robeck revisit the lessons learned from the 2024 fantasy football season to enhance strategies for the 2025 season. They acknowledge the common issue of forgetting valuable insights each year and aim to reinforce key rules to avoid past mistakes.

Dan Hodge: "We're going to go over all the lessons from last year and try to apply it to try to fight the amnesia." [00:43]

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Rule 1: Identify Kingmakers

Concept: Kingmakers are pivotal elements within NFL teams—such as offensive coordinators, quarterbacks, or key coaches—that can significantly influence a player's fantasy performance. Recognizing these can provide a competitive edge in drafting and managing your fantasy team.

Key Points:

• Offensive Coordinators' Impact: Identifying coordinators who can enhance a team's offensive efficiency is crucial. For instance, Ben Johnson with the Bears or Liam Cohen with the Jaguars can transform teams into fantasy goldmines.
• Quarterbacks as Kingmakers: Quarterbacks like Michael Penix can elevate the performance of surrounding players, making them valuable assets.

Notable Quote: Danny Kelly: “Finding the guys that are going to be driving fantasy points I think is such an important thing every year.” [03:19]

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Rule 2: Don’t Give Up on Good Coaches After Year One

Concept: New coaching systems often require time to take effect. It’s essential to give coaches at least two seasons to implement their strategies before evaluating their impact on fantasy performance.

Key Points:

• Patience with New Coaches: Coaches like Sean Payton or Jim Harbaugh may have rocky first seasons but can lead to significant improvements in their second year.
• System Integration: Players need time to adapt to new offensive schemes, which can unlock their full potential in fantasy leagues.

Notable Quote: Craig Robeck: “Don't give up on good coaches after year one... it takes a while for this stuff to gel.” [05:23]

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Rule 3: Marry the Whole Family

Concept: Successful fantasy teams often rely on a harmonious combination of head coaches, quarterbacks, offensive lines, receivers, and defensive strategies. Evaluating the entire team structure ensures a more reliable fantasy performance.

Key Points:

• Comprehensive Evaluation: Assessing all key components of a team, such as the offensive line and receiving corps, is vital for predicting player performance.
• Team Synergy: For example, the Bears’ focus on improving their offensive line directly influences quarterback performance and receiver opportunities.

Notable Quote: Dan Hodge: “You take Nico Collins but you turn the game on. You're like, I think Stroud's going to be under siege this year.” [13:17]

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Rule 4: Factors Worth Chasing – Coaching, Systems, and Player Trust

Concept: Combining effective coaching with trusted quarterbacks and robust offensive systems can yield significant fantasy rewards. Investing in teams undergoing positive changes can uncover hidden gems.

Key Points:

• Coordination Between Coach and QB: Teams with new offensive coordinators working closely with competent quarterbacks (e.g., Texans with C.J. Stroud) can become valuable fantasy assets.
• Under-the-Radar Teams: Teams like the Panthers may surprise with improved performance, offering affordable yet high-performing fantasy players.

Notable Quote: Craig Robeck: “Dave Canales is now in year two with Bryce Young and Carolina. And Dave Canales is basically the reason why Geno Smith, Baker Mayfield, and Bryce Young have careers right now.” [10:44]

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Rule 5: Manage Injuries – The 2:2 Rule

Concept: Players returning from significant injuries often require a recovery period before regaining their pre-injury performance levels. The 2:2 rule advises caution when drafting players the year after a major injury.

Key Points:

• Post-Injury Performance: Athletes like Kyler Murray and Christian McCaffrey may not immediately return to peak performance following injuries such as ACL tears or Achilles tendonitis.
• Risk Assessment: Evaluating the nature and severity of injuries is essential to avoid drafting high-risk players prematurely.

Notable Quote: Dan Hodge: “There is a two or three month process that it takes you to feel, so what ends up happening is the next couple seasons later for the player to get back to full health.” [48:12]

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Rule 6: Hold Onto Rookies – Second Half Surge

Concept: Rookie players often enhance their performance in the latter part of the season as they acclimate to the professional level, making them valuable late-round picks.

Key Points:

• Adaptation Period: Rookies like Matthew Golden or Travis Hunter may start slow but can emerge as top performers in the second half of the season.
• Future Potential: Investing in promising rookies provides depth and potential breakout stars for fantasy teams.

Notable Quote: Danny Kelly: “If your rookie wide receiver kind of starts a little bit slow, don't give up right away because generally speaking, these guys come back with a vengeance in the second half of the year.” [60:30]

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Rule 7: Be Open-Minded – Embrace Uncertainty

Concept: Fantasy football requires flexibility and openness to unexpected outcomes. Embracing uncertainty and being willing to take calculated risks can lead to significant rewards.

Key Points:

• Balancing Veterans and Rookies: Combining reliable veterans with high-potential rookies can create a balanced and resilient fantasy roster.
• Trusting Gut Feelings: Sometimes, unconventional picks based on intuition can outperform traditional strategies.

Notable Quote: Dan Hodge: “Only a couple positions where we really know out of the bat if you're any good. So I just be open minded to stuff and I'm trying to be more open minded as well.” [71:05]

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Additional Discussions:

• MVP and Super Bowl Predictions: The hosts discussed various MVP odds and Super Bowl contenders, highlighting favorites like Jalen Hurts and debating the potential of other quarterbacks.

• Hard Knocks Commentary: A brief discussion about the NFL show "Hard Knocks," expressing mixed feelings about its current format compared to previous seasons.

Notable Quote: Dan Hodge: “Mark Zuckerberg named his company Meta and then they... I don't even know if they do that anymore.” [72:00]

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Conclusion: Strategic Integration and Adaptability

The episode underscores the importance of strategic planning, adaptability, and a comprehensive evaluation of team dynamics in fantasy football. By identifying key influencers, managing risks associated with injuries, and maintaining an open-minded approach, fantasy managers can enhance their chances of success in the 2025 season.

Dan Hodge: “The grand secret of adulthood is nobody knows what they're doing. Everybody is winging it at every possible level.” [71:52]

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Note: This summary focuses on the core content and strategies discussed in the episode, excluding advertisements, intros, outros, and unrelated segments to provide a clear and comprehensive overview for those who haven't listened to the podcast.

Transcript

[Dan Hodge]

Foreign welcome to Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Dan Hodge. Today I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Robeck. It is part two of our lessons from 2024. We're gonna apply to 2025. Basically, we're really bad at taking our own advice, but every year at the end of the previous. We're at the end of each season, we do a whole show where we're like, damn, what's all this stuff that we want to remember for next year? Regret things we would do differently. And then every year, usually we just kind of get to the next season and forget everything we wanted to learn. So we're going to go over all the lessons from last year and try to apply it to try to fight the amnesia. Right, D.K.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah, that's right. And I. I'll be the first to admit that I don't always do so well at following all these rules, but it's good to have them in the front of your mind when you're drafted.

[Dan Hodge]

Well, no one takes their own advice.

[Danny Kelly]

That's true.

[Dan Hodge]

That's true.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah.

[Craig Robeck]

Most New Year's resolutions don't work out. You know, you got to stick with them.

[Danny Kelly]

They only last for a round or two.

[Craig Robeck]

And then.

[Dan Hodge]

So, yeah, we're going to get to all of our lessons or the rest of our lessons. But first, quick break. This episode of the Ringer Fantasy Football show is presented by Hyundai. Get into the Hyundai getaway sales event and get away with a deal. So right. It almost feels wrong. You can get huge savings on their adventure. Ready SUVs like the Hyundai Santa Fe and Santa Fe hybrid models. Or go all electric and choose from America's most awarded EV lineup, like the Breakthrough Ionic 5 or Ionic 6. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for details. Offers. End September 2, 2020 5. Getting into the back half of all the lessons we learned from 2024. Starting off, DK, yo, kick us off here. Give us your tattoo. Something you tattooed on your body to make sure you would never forget.

[Danny Kelly]

You tattooed on your body. Identify the kingmakers. And this is. I mean, this is something that actually really matters. Every year is like identifying the team. And a lot of times it's a team that people aren't really expecting. I think last year, the Buccaneers were kind of a big one. Not that they came out of nowhere, but they were a lot more prolific. Obviously. Baker Mayfield. Baker Mayfield won me a league, so, you know, he had to have done something with a lot of people. So you know Mike Evans. Godwin was great for a while. Like later in the year it was Jaylen McMillan. Finding the teams with basically here's, here's a way to think about it. Find the team that's going to have the OC that is the head coach next year. You know what I mean? Like the Liam Cohen's of the world, the Sean McVeighs of the world, the guys who do so well with their offenses. Ben Johnson's a perfect example this year. Obviously we've been all over the Lions for a couple of years because they just have such a great, well oiled offense. Maybe. Can Ben Johnson do that with the Bears? I know Heifetz is not necessarily in on the Bears this year, but this is the type of thing you have to think about before the season. Is Chip Kelly going to do different things with the Raiders? Josh McDaniels with the, with the Patriots? Obviously they don't have a very strong schedule in terms of like the opponents that they're facing. They have a pretty weak schedule. So maybe the Patriots all of a sudden come out of nowhere and they are super fantasy relevant. I think finding the, the, the offensive coordinators and sometimes you could, you could even say Kingmaker is like a quarterback. So maybe like Michael Penix is this year's kingmaker just because he throws the shit out of the ball.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

So it's not necessarily an offensive coordinator, but finding the guys that are going to be driving fantasy points I think is such an important thing every year and it's not always clear obviously, but I think there's enough clues that we can kind of work with that.

[Craig Robeck]

It's the biggest advantage in fantasies. If you can find one the, you know, the one to two teams that are going to make the leap and you get a couple of those players, they will be way cheaper than every other player and they will take off. And it's obviously very difficult to do because it's basically like you're just gambling. It's like find the team that's going to win four more games than they did last year. I mean Darnold and the Vikings were I would say huge last year.

[Danny Kelly]

The Vikings might be another one this year because we've been pushing down a little bit because of JJ McCarthy. We don't know what he's like, we haven't seen him in the NFL. But obviously Kevin o' Connell is established himself as a very smart coach who can scheme guys up and it's. You love the coaches where it's like it almost doesn't matter who the quarterback is. Shanahan's been that for a very long time. In terms of every one of Shanahan's quarterbacks going back the last 10 years has passed like 8 yards per attempt. It's just something that they do. That's an exaggeration probably. I didn't look it up, but that might actually be true. But it's the scheme and you want pieces of that scheme.

[Dan Hodge]

This episode is brought to you by Yahoo. Fantasy. It's my favorite time of the year. The NFL season is almost here and fantasy football season is in full swing. This season Yahoo Fantasy is taking it up a notch and giving you a fantasy football experience like never before. This year we're playing on Yahoo. Fantasy and you should too. We're doing the ringer fantasy football league on Yahoo. Fantasy because it's the best place to do the league. Yahoo Fantasy is dropping 28 big new features over 28 days throughout August. They just dropped Yahoo Fantasy guillotine leagues where the lowest scoring team gets eliminated weekly until one is left standing. Give this new mode a try or stick with the classics in private head to head leagues or public leagues. Stay tuned for more killer announcements and start playing Yahoo. Fantasy football now@yahoo. Fantasy.com theringer this dovetails a little bit.

[Craig Robeck]

Into my tattoo which is a new one. I just got it last night actually. I was out with my friends.

[Danny Kelly]

Nice ink, Craig.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah, it's fresh. It still has the like plastic on it. It's don't give up on good coaches after year one, which ties in with DK's because trying to identify that kingmaker combo. Just because a coach went to a new team and had a mediocre year don't just suddenly be out of them. A lot of new regimes start. There's a lot of buzz like Ben Johnson in Chicago, right? Everybody kind of expects and really wants it to work immediately. And if Caleb and Ben Johnson don't work out this year, year two is probably the year to to buy in. It takes a while for this stuff to gel. Sean Payton Year 1 with Russell Wilson Absolute disaster. Year 2 with Bo Nicks better. You start to bring in you guys, you start to build your system, implement your system. And so you look at like Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman and la year one was pretty good. But like just because whatever happened year one does not mean that the exact same thing is going to happen in year two. Like I think if you trust this coach, if you trust the play caller, like I think expecting a leap is a Good way to identify which teams are potentially going to take off. It's these good play callers. Dave Canales is now in year two with Bryce Young and Carolina. And Dave Canales is basically the reason why Geno Smith, Baker Mayfield and Bryce Young have careers right now. And they're kind of an afterthought. Raheem Morris, Zach Robinson.

[Danny Kelly]

That was one that I kind of.

[Craig Robeck]

Circled to in Atlanta. Like, this is year two now of the system of getting this stuff to Joe. I mean, it's kind of year one and a half for Michael Penix, but like, they, they already set a good foundation, setting the groundwork. Great years out of using Drake London properly, getting a lot out of Bijan Robinson, Darnell Mooney, they revived. Sean Payton, Bonix. Yeah. I mean, even Brian Callahan, his dad, Bill Callahan, Year 2 Offensive Line Coach in Tennessee. So I just think just because last year maybe went okay, didn't go that well, the new buzzy coach comes in and it flops a little bit. Don't. Don't take that into year two with you.

[Dan Hodge]

Bill Belichick's first year with the patriots, who went 5 and 11. Like Dan Campbell's first year with the lions, who at 3 and 13.

[Craig Robeck]

It's like year one of the sitcom. The Office, Parks and Rec, they weren't that good.

[Danny Kelly]

First few episodes. It's like, who are these people that you gotta search out.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah.

[Craig Robeck]

Who you are, your style. I mean, you look at the year one regimes. Last year. Drod Mayo in New England, disaster. Brian Callahan, Tennessee, disaster. Like, Carolina was not great. Mike McDonald in Seattle, Mediocre, you know. Well, I would say Raheem Morris in Atlanta, they won eight games. It's like, it takes a while.

[Dan Hodge]

You know, look, look at any, Anyone in any job. You start a new job, it takes six months or a year to figure out what the hell is going on. So I, I.

[Danny Kelly]

Names of the people in the building.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah. And so I think this is really smart. I think that the question is, which of these do you think matters the most? Because I think the other thing is it's not just coaches, but it's systems. It's because. I mean, I was just. This is why One of the reasons kind of out on the Bears for this year, and I want to preemptively be in on the Bears next year is that. Yeah, you have to marinate in the system. It takes a year to. To marinate in it. Because the first thing you're learning about is like, how do we. What are like, Kirk Cousins is talking about this in the Netflix series for quarterback with the Falcons. And this season that just came out is about last year. Kirk Cousins, who's been in the NFL for a long time, is talking about how, wow, there's 44 different motions in this offense. Learning the names of that is hard. Getting the timing right. And he's, like, really mad because early in the season he motioned a tight end and the ball hit the tight end. And I know I've mentioned that a bunch of the Bears, but the point being, even Kirk Cousins, who's been in the NFL for, like, I guess that was his 13th season, is, like, worried about before the play starts. He's worried about the ball getting to his hands on the shotgun snap. That's not. That's like the epitome of you're seeing the trees. Like, when you've been in the same system for years, you start to see the forest of like, okay, all these details that are prerequisites are taken care of. Now. I can be like, what's the matchup? How do I adjust a route to get there? That's when you get Matt Stafford, Cooper cup situations, etc. Etc. So the year I look at the Seahawks with Mike McDonald as the coach, I'm like, that defense is going to be so much better in year two than year one now that all the defenders know what they're doing. The Falcons are a good example where Zach Robinson in year two, where you're like, the offensive line, Bijan reading the blocks like Michael Pennock's pushing the ball to Drake London. That, to me, is definitely an offense I could see taking, zooming up. I think dk, I think you love Drake London. I think Bijan, like, I don't think. I wouldn't be shocked that Drake London to Bijan could both be like, I mean, obviously Bijan, but like, I think Drake London, Bichon, in theory, could both be the number one guy at their position this year. Like, that would be crazy to me at all.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah. And I think the other thing to keep in mind here is not just head coaches going to new teams. It's new. It's teams with new offensive coordinators. And in some cases, like, we don't really know much about them. And Craig, you mentioned it's like gambling. Honestly, it's just taking stabs at certain teams that you believe in. I think the combination of new offensive coordinators with. With quarterbacks that I trust and I like the Texans kind of come to mind. Nick Kaylee, we don't know a ton about him. We don't know exactly what that offense is going to look like. It might suck, but CJ Stroud, I think is a really good quarterback and they have some good talent on that team. And so this is a team that could, you know, be much better and have more fantasy relevant players than you think. Because right now it's basically like Nico Collins. We're kind of out on mixing. And maybe Jaden Higgins, their rookie receiver, ends up doing big things. Maybe Jalen Noel. There's. There's guys on that offense that could be really interesting late round picks. So there, there's also a handful of teams with new offensive coordinators that it kind of flying under the radar a little bit. That could fall into this category too.

[Craig Robeck]

I, I think Dave Canales and Bryce Young are like really flying under the radar.

[Danny Kelly]

That is an interesting one. Yeah. Cause it seems like people have sort of given up.

[Craig Robeck]

I mean last year was bizarre. Bryce Young got benched, Andy Dalton got in a car accident. Bryce Young comes back, he actually starts to play well. People start to realize maybe he is a starting quarterback in the NFL. And now it's like you have year two Dave Canal system, you bring in Tetaro and McMillan. Bryce Young, number one overall pick for a lot of reasons that people still believe in. And I think the Panthers are just a very under the radar team that everybody is probably just expecting will kind of show up and be the same team they were last year. And you, you don't know that. I mean this team could make the same league CJ Stroud made as a, as a rookie that came out of nowhere and are in the like. I think if I had to pick any truly, truly under the radar team to like make a splash this year, it might be Carolina. I know the defense is a disaster and that's a huge problem, but at least to be relevant and frisky in games.

[Dan Hodge]

That's interesting though for fantasy too because the Panthers you could maybe, I think maybe what you're saying is almost the Panthers are like the. If the Bengals are like the top shelf Tequila, the Panthers are like the rail tequila.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

Because the Panthers have the same formula. The Panthers give the most points in NFL history. Last season, 17 games, but still they added a bunch of free agency on defense. But like you know, offense to Tasharan Wharton and you know, Merrick, the safety that got from the Raiders. Like there is no amount of like handful of tertiary players you're going to add as starters that you're like, this is still going to be a bad defense in Carolina. And so they have this formula to. The Panthers are going to need to score so many points to be competitive. And maybe we are underrating, like, dude, bright, they can say what they want to say about the running game, But Bryce Young, maybe he's going to end up throwing, like, a crazy amount of passes this year because the Panthers are going to be losing all these games and everything's going to be a shootout. Maybe they're just, you know, they're shot to toes. Cuervo. Just the bad version of the Bengals.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah. And I think that there's still a little bit of residue left from Bryce Young's first year and a half, which is, I guess, fair.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah, they're gross. They're icky. The Panthers are like, like, literally, we just did the part one of this on Wednesday. We were talking about, take great, great players in elite teams. And then we're like, yeah, part two, we're like, take the Panthers. And it's like, that's the art of this. Of, like, what is just. Basically, it's two things. It's like trusting your gut and your emotions to follow this. And then part two is, can you take a step back and be like, where are my blind spots? Like, what is the. What are my. Where. Where are my biases? Kind of like filtering in. And the Panthers are an interesting one because to your point, they were way better than we thought toward the end of the season. And maybe it's just like, our emotions haven't really caught up to, like, what we actually saw. I still can't believe Bryce Young, they should have beat the Eagles. Bryce Young, like. Like he was that Leggette who just dropped the ball at the goal line. Like, they should have taken the lead on the Eagles at 50 seconds left. That was crazy.

[Danny Kelly]

This is, again, like, there's some contradictory stuff here in. In a lot of these rules, but at the same time, taking stabs on certain players and certain schemes that you think are going to be really good definitely can help. And obviously, next year, if we look back and, you know, this is kind of like the don't let, don't stop trying to make fetch happen thing with the Jags, but Liam Cohen might just be an amazing play caller. You know what I mean? And that will finally be the thing that kind of puts Trevor Lawrence over the hump in terms of expectations and what we want from him.

[Craig Robeck]

And if it doesn't work, that doesn't mean it won't ever work just because it's year one. Like, it could go okay, but that doesn't mean Year two, it won't go great.

[Dan Hodge]

And so on that note, that leads into my next one, which is the next tattoo I have just across my back is just, you marry the whole family. And it's just head coach, quarterback, offensive line, receivers, defense, everything. Coordinators. And I think the Bears last year were the perfect example of this, where we talked about Caleb Williams, best situation ever, number one pick. And like, we just didn't talk about any of the linemen.

[Craig Robeck]

Look at all those receivers.

[Dan Hodge]

Look at all those receivers that he'll be sacked 63 times before he can actually throw the ball to them. And so I think that's the one. I saw this tattoo and I thought immediately of Jacksonville, where for both these rules, actually, because on one hand, I believe strongly Liam Cohen is a better kind of coach than a lot of the coordinators that get played propped up as some incredible guy. I think, honestly, I, at this point, almost feel like Liam Cohen is a better chance for success in year one than, like, Ben Johnson. Like, that's. I really think Liam Cohen's a different breed than a lot of these guys that just come out of the Shanahan McVeigh factory. The flip side is I'm like, if I am blind spotting something the same way. Last year, the total the. In retrospect were like, the Texans and the Bears offensive lines were awful and we didn't care and we went through. And then week one, the Bears literally looked uncoordinated then. No one knew what to do. The Jacksonville is. Scares me because their offensive line sucks the word. There are two teams, Houston and Jacksonville, coming to the season. You look at them and you're like, those are the worst two offensive lines in the NFL. The Texans, we could get the Texans second. But the Jacksonville. It's like that Walker little left tackle who Trent Walk, his last dying act was basically to extend him in the middle of the season. That was kind of weird. They have Robert Hainsey at center. I. I think that's one of those things where you bring the guy, the center over to teach the line, the offense. But I don't know if Robert Hainsey is necessarily like a great player. He's just. I think he's more like a brain that's going to diffuse the information, tell everyone where to go. I don't know if it's actually about his ability to play. Patrick McCarr at right guard. He's fine. I. I just. I'm a little worried about, like, you're relying a lot really similarly to the Texans on the McVeigh ification of it, making an offensive line better by just scheming around it kind of like what the Seahawks are doing with Clint Kubiak. But you're like, but if the line sucks, you feel so dumb to have the fantasy players in the team. And I will say I'm a little worried that I'm going to talk myself into Travis Hunter, Trevor Lawrence, resurgence, Brian Thomas and then yeah, the line's just going to be terrible for Jacksonville. I'm a little worried about that.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah, definitely, definitely makes you feel dumb very quickly when it's week one, week two and Trevor Lawrence is getting sacked four or five times a game and you're like ah man, they can't even get a pass off.

[Dan Hodge]

And this is how I feel about picking a winner for the AFC south because I feel strongly, I don't think they're getting a wild card. And it's just to me it's Texans or Jags for the AFC south unless you really believe in Cam Ward or the Colts kind of being respectable. But I think it's a two teamed race probably. Unless you really believe in Cam Ward. And I look and I'm like man these teams, these offensive lines are the worst two league in the league and one of them is probably going to win the division. At least the Texans have a defensive line and the Jags should too in theory because they have so much top picks they've made. But I, I, I also can't get over the Texans the offensive line and I keep thinking about this with Nico Collins and Stroud as a sneaky. Maybe Nico Collins is a little risky because I love Nico Collins. I think he's a good example. He's like A.J. brown except Nico Collins went to Michigan and wasn't great immediately and isn't cool on Instagram and doesn't get food poisoning from Chipotle. And Nico Collins isn't like famous but he's like a bully. Old school, awesome, incredible receiver. Top. If you've been a first round pick, we talk about Nico Collins as a top five player at the position and yet I'm like the Texans, dude. They got Cam Robinson at left tackle who came from the Jags. They have Lake and Tomlinson at left guard who had a terrible season. They're I can't even pronounce his name but the right tackle is going to be the rookie out of Minnesota. Dk. How do you say his name?

[Danny Kelly]

Aaron Ursary, I think. Yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

Who is six six three thirty and a good athlete and he went 48th in the draft spoiler alert. When you're left tackle and you're 6, 6, 3, 30 and a great athlete and you go 48th, it's because there's real concerns about your technique. He played left tackle his whole life. They got him on the right side. So he's switching positions going right from Minnesota to the Texans in right tackle in the NFL. And I'm like, that's plan A is this kid has to be ready immediately as a second round right tackle. And Cam Robinson is. He was on his third team in eight months or something like none of this. It just looks such a. It's such a glaring red warning sign that Houston was like, yeah, we have to dump the whole room. But this is just like throwing shit at the wall. Like the Texans don't have a plan. And so that is. So when I say you marry the whole family, I'm like, you take Nico Collins but you turn the game on. You're like, I think Stroud's going to be like under siege this year.

[Danny Kelly]

I think when you're talking about this, I just keep think kept thinking like there's so many teams that just have terrible offensive lines and it's very hard to fix an offensive line when you'd have bad offensive lineman.

[Craig Robeck]

I mean the Bengals have been trying to do it for five seasons and.

[Dan Hodge]

Some teams get around.

[Danny Kelly]

Hardest thing to do quarterbacking.

[Dan Hodge]

That's the argument for Stroud is, you know, has a terrible offensive line. The Dolphins doesn't matter because they what they built it with so much speed on the outside. Two is, is like a Steve Nash s point guard where two is getting rid of the ball in two seconds. Making the right decision every time. We make fun of two a lot, but two is making the right decision with the ball like every time.

[Craig Robeck]

And the Bengals have figured it out.

[Danny Kelly]

To an extent as well.

[Dan Hodge]

Well, Joe Burrow, they do whatever Joe Burrow wants. Joe Burrow's running his Peyton Manning esque offense where it's like simplified plays. Like, you know, it's like you're doing a, a few things incredibly well. You have the rapport with Jamar Chase which is unparalleled. And Burrow though is quarter like Burrow is making up for the. Off the the offensive line and you really. But Stroud has to do that though. Like that's what they're asking him to do.

[Danny Kelly]

I think it's in him. It's just. Yeah, it makes things way, way harder.

[Dan Hodge]

It's just every. The degree of difficulty is so hard. That's the thing And I'm not saying don't take Nico Collins. I think Collins, you could take him sixth for all you care. Like, he's amazing. I just.

[Craig Robeck]

Are there.

[Dan Hodge]

I'm thinking of that as like, are there any other.

[Craig Robeck]

Marry the. You marry the whole family teams that we're not thinking about. I mean, honestly, the Steelers, I think this.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah, the Steelers, you take Dicky Metcalf. But I think the Steelers. There's a good example is the running game. My. I've been very nervous to talk up Caleb Johnson at Iowa where, like, he has to go to his own running zone. Running scheme goes to his own running scheme. I. I want it to be out on him because I'm like, the Steelers are going to run everything out of shotgun for Rogers, and it's going to be another Ben Roethlisberger offense where he takes everything shotgun, but he doesn't want hit. So everything has to be out in two seconds. So there's no deep. And that's the thing with the Steelers. You have DK Metcalf, who there's not going to be a deep game or the deep offense is going to be Rogers just shucking up moon balls for Metcalf down and Calvin Austin down the sideline. But that's not a real deep game because he's not. He doesn't want to get hit. But then the running game gets screwed because the defense feels like they can play up because they know the ball's coming out and it's just so. It's such a hard way to play offense where I'm like, can a rookie adjust to reading zones from. Instead of on. Like, everything's going to be in shotgun. But Caleb Johnson's cheap enough. I don't know if I'm out, but I do think the Steelers, they're going to want to run a lot, but I don't think that's going to be a very efficient running offense in Pittsburgh when everything's out of shotgun.

[Craig Robeck]

I'm also not convinced the offensive line is going to be good. Broderick Jones is. Is. Might be a disaster. And they have Troy Fatou, who might be good. He barely played last year. The guards are fine. They have a good center in Zach Frazier. But, like, I am worried that the tackles might not be as good as we're all. We're like, kind of projecting a lot with the. This young offensive line that's very unproven with Rogers.

[Dan Hodge]

I don't know.

[Craig Robeck]

The receiving options are kind of weird. I'm just like Arthur Smith mixing with Rogers is Very weird. You have to like look at the whole family rather than just like oh, DK Metcalf, oh Caleb Johnson.

[Dan Hodge]

And I do want to reiterate something I said I think a week ago. The Steelers are the inverse. Washington where Washington, Jaden Daniels is young. So you think they're young, but they're the oldest team in the NFL. Washington, you think the Steelers are old because of Rogers Cam Hayward. But like the Steelers offense is crazy young, which makes them wide range outcomes. The Steelers could be worse than the jets were in some ways because as you said, what if Troy Fano is bad or gets hurt like Roman Wilson who's supposed to play a role in this team. Like they have a lot of rookies who had injury profiles in the draft. They took them and they all got hurt and they didn't have rookie years. And you're like, they could be better than we think because we didn't see them. They could also be worse or injured. And then the Steelers like really have that first under 500m Thomas season. But if all the rookies are good, then you're like, holy, this is what the jets wanted Rogers for. But the huge range of outcomes on the stage and they're a young team.

[Craig Robeck]

And the defense is really old, but really fucking good.

[Dan Hodge]

Yes.

[Craig Robeck]

I think the defense has a chance to be the best defense in the league. So you have Ramsey. Yeah. I mean you can see this scenario. I mean the Steelers have hit on a lot of guys like Peyton Wilson and her big.

[Dan Hodge]

And.

[Craig Robeck]

But you can see this. You can see what the season's going to be like. The Steelers are going to be winning games 20 to 19 every week.

[Danny Kelly]

Right.

[Dan Hodge]

The other one than this. I know we're talking about our teams now, but the other one I mentioned for coaching that I think the Seahawks defense will be a lot better. But dk, the other line that it's. It's the Seahawks where I'm curious what just new qb. Their offensive line was tough.

[Craig Robeck]

Offensive line I can.

[Dan Hodge]

And John Schneider, who just got a contract extension for Seattle. I cannot stress enough how much John Schneider, the GM and Mike McDonald the head coach basically are saying the Seahawks at a bottom three offensive line last year it really derailed the whole season. They couldn't run the ball. Mike McDonald, I mean he literally was wearing hats in the middle of the season saying run the damn ball. And the. It's hard to overstate how much they are saying Ryan Grub who came from college as the Washington offensive coordinate like the University of Washington offensive coordina to the pros was basically not ready for the big leagues and he didn't have a modern NFL running game, which is a totally plausible explanation. But it's hard to overstate how much Clint Kubiak being the coordinator and again, his father's the father of the modern NFL running game, Kubiak and everything wides in the system. So he knew he got it from the horse's mouth. But the Seahawks are also another high variance team where it's like if Kubiak fixes this running game, which again, like Kubiak with Mike Shanahan invented modern zone running basically. But the first.

[Danny Kelly]

Remember the Saints at the beginning of the year last year? Yeah, yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

And they all got hurt. So anyway, do you like talk about wide variance teams? If I told you either the Seahawks offensive line is going to suck, there was barely any improvement and it's a disaster. And they, it's just the same team. They can't run the ball. But with Sam Darnold getting pressured or oh my God, look at the difference between going from really bad to like kind of average at offensive line. Sam Darnold looks great. Ken Walker is amazing. Like this offense is humming and they have the best defensive league. They're winning the NFC West. Which of the, which of those do you actually think? I mean, which way do you lean of which of those is going to happen?

[Danny Kelly]

I mean the reality is that they're probably going to be bad again. They've been bad for my entire fucking adulthood other than like going like last time I could remember the CEO having a good offensive line was 2005 when they had Sean Alexander, an incredible offensive line. So probably bad. But I think, you know, there is some hope because I do think they have some interesting young guys on that team. Abe Lucas is getting healthy. He's been hurt basically the last year. Plus people like Grace Abel.

[Craig Robeck]

Right. Isn't he doing well?

[Danny Kelly]

Gray Zabel looked great last night in.

[Dan Hodge]

First round pick for Seattle.

[Danny Kelly]

He could help certainly. And then you know, they have a couple guys, Christian Haynes, Anthony Bradford. These are like mid round picks from the last couple years that, that are battling for the right guard position. Maybe those guys. And I think this is like what John Schneider has been trying to sell to the Seahawks. Like fan bases that look, we've made investments. We just need to see these investments pay off.

[Dan Hodge]

Was he selling to a fan base or ownership because he's got a contract extension?

[Danny Kelly]

Well, both. But again, it goes back to what I just said. It's like very hard to build an offensive line. You have to kind of keep trying. You have to keep putting pieces in and hopefully you find like five that are really good. And sometimes you do and most of the time you don't. The other team. So I don't know. I think the Seahawks are a high variance team too. I really like Ken Walker, you know, Jackson Smith and Jigba. We talked about him recently. He's got a pretty wide variance in terms of what he could do. And obviously Sam Darnold is one of the most high variance quarterbacks you can imagine.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

But the other team I wanted to bring up here before we move on, that I was thinking of the whole time is the jets with, you know, we're all excited about Justin Fields. He's going to run the hell out of the ball. That's exciting for fantasy. But as we saw with, with Anthony Richardson just taking a sack and breaking his pinky like within like five minutes, you know, he could get hurt in week one. It would not be a surprise. And then what do we get out of the jets offense from there?

[Craig Robeck]

Oh my God.

[Danny Kelly]

Get Tyrod Taylor as the backup. Breeze hall from that point probably becomes unusable or he's going to be very, you know, hit or miss. You got Garrett Wilson who's going to be all over the place, probably, you know, getting passes air mailed to him all year. So there's. I feel like we've got like chips in. In the jets offense where this is like the wheels could fall off almost immediately. It would not be a surprise. Plus, like you said, you marry the family. It's the Jets. Brick Johnson up there running.

[Craig Robeck]

It's like the Jags thing that Heifers are saying, like, it's the jets, it's.

[Danny Kelly]

The jets, it's the Jets. So that's worrisome. And also like we're sort of projecting that this offensive line is going to be good.

[Dan Hodge]

Is this what we were. Yeah, this is what we were talking. It's so funny that we were like the, the other episode, which again we're recording this Friday, August 8th. So we just did that episode and we're like, take players at good teams. And then we're like, Panthers, we like it. Jags battle line. But you know what, taking them anyway, you know, all these cursed franchises.

[Craig Robeck]

Well, that's what sucks is that like one out of these ten shitty teams will be great and be the secret key to fantasy this year. That will happen.

[Dan Hodge]

Is it. So what are the facts? So I. We're gonna take a break in a second, but what are the Factors that are worth chasing. How do we marry, so to speak? These things between, like, Liam Cohen's a coordinate, a coach we believe in, and there's talent like Trevor Lawrence. And Trevor Lawrence is on my list of guys of like, all right, he's had a crazy career. Like, I kind of.

[Danny Kelly]

You like him, right?

[Dan Hodge]

I like him. But am I. I would say this.

[Danny Kelly]

I like Trevor Lawrence. I like Liam Cohen. We should probably bet on them. Even though they're the Jags, I think.

[Dan Hodge]

The Bears are like, I like Ben Johnson. I still believe in Caleb Williams. But to Craig's point, it's not that easy. That's a year two team. Like, I just don't. Or maybe it's not. I like, it's like November, but I.

[Danny Kelly]

Don'T trust him at this.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah, it's November. Yeah.

[Craig Robeck]

I just, I. I have a lot to figure out with the Bears in the next four, three, four weeks.

[Dan Hodge]

I just. I think that the way I said it earlier is the way I'm going to just feel about it going forward. Why am I so. Why am I so obsessed with like, yeah, just get in early on the first 4,000 yard passing game in Bears history. They've never done it. Like, I just. It's like a Ponzi scheme. It's like, just sell it to the next. Sell it to the next guy.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah. It's like you want. You want a good coach that you trust. If they're in year two of the system, that's a bonus. You want a quarterback that you trust and you want an offensive line that's decent. The Panthers. Check all three of those boxes.

[Dan Hodge]

I will say the Panthers, an interesting call.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

They had this because they've been bad for five years.

[Craig Robeck]

They've been working on that offensive line for a long time.

[Dan Hodge]

They're a joke. And it's basically. Yeah. You know what the. I think the Panthers are the.

[Danny Kelly]

No one's talking about the Panthers.

[Craig Robeck]

No, dude, I'm telling you.

[Dan Hodge]

McMillan is such a cheap. Relative to like the 8th pick in the draft. Like Malik Neighbors, you know? Well, I guess.

[Danny Kelly]

Have we even said his name this whole time?

[Dan Hodge]

No, He's a total glandsburg. Chuba's a good example because the Panthers overpaid for those two guards, but, like, it revived Rayshawn's career because you can't get into your pressure when he's so short.

[Craig Robeck]

Robert.

[Dan Hodge]

Able to run the ball.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

Damien Lewis.

[Craig Robeck]

Damian Lewis, right?

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

That's a great. That's a great call. Yeah. I think this is Shuba. Are we loving Schubert.

[Danny Kelly]

It's a good call because I don't believe it at all. But there's a lot of variables there.

[Craig Robeck]

It sounds stupid, you know what I mean? Like their offensive line is solid already. It's like Ika Maquan, who I don't think was great, but it's like if he can be a little bit better, it's pff. Made their, their offensive line rankings this year. Carolina's 11th. And I'm like, you can just see the pieces. It's like the wide receiver room was a disaster, but now that Tet's there, it's like, okay, now Leggett as a.

[Danny Kelly]

Now everyone has a new role. Right.

[Dan Hodge]

I think that the coaching with Bryce Young this year will be different now that they feel better about it. I just think that there is more going to be on his plate, I guess I would say.

[Craig Robeck]

And I think we can't overstate Dave Canales's influence on these quarterbacks. I know Liam Cohen gets the credit for Baker, but the year before the Bucks were also very, very good. And that's really when Baker took off from out of nowhere from, you know, being basically unemployed. And that was Dave Canales. And the year before that, Dave Canales took Geno Smith, a quarterback everybody largely thought was washed in a. A career backup, and now made him a, a ten figure, nine figure payday for him. Like. Yeah, I don't know. I just think Dave Canalis is not really in the conversation ever with these, these like guru coaches.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah. And, and it's because it's hard because it's, it is a little bit muddled in terms of like, who do you.

[Dan Hodge]

Give credit, dude, Assigning credit is all this stuff. You know, assigning. One of the hardest parts of this job is even forget our job in the NFL. When you are running a team, one of the hardest things is like, why were we successful? Which people do we keep? Who. And it's like, it seems easy, but like even just look at like the Eagles when they won the super bowl the first time, 2017. At the time it was like, Doug Peterson's the coach.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

And then you're like, Frank Reich was the offensive coordinator. And then you, you go down the line and it turns out, well, sometimes.

[Danny Kelly]

The players are just really good.

[Dan Hodge]

Sometimes Nick Foles. Yeah, man. Like, Nick Foles just happened to like be really great at some of those RPOs, man. Like I, it's, it's, it's, it's really hard to figure out why.

[Danny Kelly]

It's also, I was listening to NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal, and he was mentioning something, and it kind of. This is, like, kind of obvious, but also, I hadn't really thought of it this way. It's like, there's a lot of coaches that are really good at a certain thing, and then they can do that in one year. And then the league takes a whole off season and figures out what your fastball is and then takes that away.

[Craig Robeck]

Mike McDaniel kind of.

[Danny Kelly]

I mean, right. And then you have to fucking adapt. And the good coaches change. Can adapt.

[Craig Robeck]

Shawn McVeigh runs a different offense than he did five years ago.

[Dan Hodge]

This is why McVay and Shanahan or McVeigh and Shanahan is because they understand why they're doing things. And because they understand the why, they know when to move on from it. And then you have Matt Patricia, who doesn't understand the why of anything. And Matt Patricia is just copy pasting what smart people do. And like, that's not. That doesn't work that long.

[Danny Kelly]

It's like you're. You're playing chess. You have to, you know, you have to know all the different options of moves and counter.

[Dan Hodge]

So the last guy I want to talk about before we. I want to. I said I'll take a break in a second, but it doesn't matter. We haven't talked about this guy's name, and we've been. Keep not talking about this guy's name. But going back to the first rule we said of. In this episode of Identify Kingmakers, and this keeps coming up. Devonte Adams is in Los Angeles. Like, Devonte Adams is on the Rams, and he's older. He's like 33, but he has not lost the step. And he has the kind of skill set that. That will age very well. Devonte Adams is like, it's not like a desean Jackson where you're really fast and then you lose the speed. And then like Devonte Adams, he's 32, by the way. 32.

[Danny Kelly]

There you go. Don't give him 33.

[Dan Hodge]

If you don't like the player, you say he's going to be 33.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah, right.

[Dan Hodge]

He will.

[Craig Robeck]

He will be 33 in December, but not.

[Dan Hodge]

So he's 32.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah. So that's a young 32.

[Craig Robeck]

It is.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah. Guys win in different ways. Devonte Adams wins because he has the best release footwork in the NFL if he was in the NBA. Like, it's that moment where you get the. Like, you beat the guy off the dribble. Devonte Adams is literally the best person in The NFL at winning off the dribble at the line of scrimmage. That is the skill set that will age way better than just like blazing speed. That one hamstring injury. Running away from a corner.

[Danny Kelly]

Yes. Yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

So the fact that you think about that though, devonte Adams whole thing is I can get open quicker than anyone. He's with fucking Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford. And you talk about kingmakers. Sean McVay is a kingmaker.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

Stafford is also kingmaker. The player with the most receiving yards in the history of the NFL in a single season is Calvin Johnson. He did with Matt Stafford. The player with the most fantasy football points in a single season ever is Cooper Cup. He did that with stafforder McVeigh. The rookie who had the SEC or the second or third most rookie fantasy points ever for receiver is Puka Nakua who did that with Stafford. McVeigh. Devonte Adams goes there and I think it's one of those.

[Danny Kelly]

Kenny Golladay a huge star in fantasy.

[Craig Robeck]

Yes.

[Danny Kelly]

And I'm like Golden Tate and I.

[Dan Hodge]

Was like barely ever played again. Stafford does it. McVeigh. Stafford is a. We always joke that Mike McDaniels have passed it to the Italians coach where they just give it to the bet. Stafford's a pass it to the Italians quarterback. He's like, he's so confident in his ability to get the ball out. He's like, I'm going to get it to the best two guys. And like I just, it has just been undercovered at every point this year. Like devonte Adams still has it and he's on the Rams like that. If I know the Stafford's back is.

[Danny Kelly]

Like the a red herring.

[Dan Hodge]

That's the thing. Everyone's off it again because Stafford with the back and it's going to be a thing. It's like Stafford is going week one.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

He's gonna. Stafford will die.

[Danny Kelly]

Never heard of.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah, I mean I've heard of that.

[Danny Kelly]

In when someone a woman is giving birth. Right.

[Craig Robeck]

I've never heard the word that word outside of the context of childbirth.

[Danny Kelly]

Right.

[Dan Hodge]

I just, I, I. Anyway, I think the Stafford back is actually an opportunity to get Devonte kind of cheat because the odds of a legendary season are pretty high.

[Danny Kelly]

I, well, I gave my, my, my hot take or not hot take. I guess it's just like a sleeper pick or bed or whatever. Like Devonte Adams is 100 to 1 right now for offensive player of the year and Puka is 16 to 1.

[Dan Hodge]

I'm so glad you brought that up, DK. On Tuesday, August 26th, it's FanDuel Futures Day, a new holiday for football fans. It's 24 hours of deals on all your football season predictions, so you can take a flyer on the MVP race. DK's right 101 for Devonte Adams to be offensive player of the year. I don't think that's that crazy because you're kind of talking about, well, maybe Puka Nukua misses when Puka gets hurt. Yeah, what if Puka gets hurt again? Puka Nakua, who has been hurt in most seasons of his college and NFL career and gets refuses to go down. And it's like, well, Devonte Adams and Matt Stafford and he just forces every ball to Devonte. It's not a bad idea. The other ones, I want to read some MVP odds to you guys because I think that. And again, my take with MVP is always that, like, it's just kind of. It's usually one of the guys with the best two records in the conference that doesn't have a great defense. So it's like Lamar is 4 to 1, Josh Allen 6 to 1, Joe Burrow 6 to 1, Mahomes is 6 to 1, Jaden Daniels is 10 to 1, Herbert's 20 to 1. Jordan loves 21. Hertz is 20 to 1, Baker's 25 to 1, Brock Purdy's 28 to 1. I don't any of these.

[Danny Kelly]

Jordan love is kind of interesting to me because the packers will be good.

[Dan Hodge]

Could any of these teams get the number one seed in the conference? Because I kind of look at Purdy at 28 to 1. When we all like the Niners to make the playoffs and win the NFC.

[Danny Kelly]

West, I'm like, that's going to like that one.

[Dan Hodge]

It's like everyone's like, well, this team's so good. It's like, okay, well, Debo's gone, iuk's gone. Now it's Parasol Jennings. I'm like, maybe people would belatedly give purdy credit. Stafford's 40 to 1, which is interesting. I mean, maybe just something about McAbee being there. We don't. We'll never give him.

[Craig Robeck]

What about what were Jalen hurts odds?

[Dan Hodge]

Hertz is 20 to 1, which is.

[Craig Robeck]

Crazy because, you know, like, the Eagles throw a lot more this year. If anything were to happen to Saquon and the Eagles are still a one seed and like, Hertz has, like, his best throwing season is still rushing a ton.

[Dan Hodge]

That's a good call because again, if you just look at the history of MVPs. And it's different now because it's not two buys per conference anymore, but the history is literally. Outside of Adrian Peterson hitting 2,000 yards, it is just quarterbacks who earned a first round buy and then take out the one with the elite defense. And you look at the Eagles and you're like, aren't the Eagles favored to be basically the quarterback on the team favored to win the conference? Shouldn't be. 20 to 1.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

Yep.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah. Okay, let's. All right, so there we go. That'll be the official pick of the show. Hurts. 20 to 1 MVP seems like pretty good odds.

[Craig Robeck]

I like Purdy as well.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah. What's Kyler right now?

[Dan Hodge]

Kyler's 50 to 1. J.J. mcCarthy's 75 to 1. No, Rogers. Craig is 75 to 1.

[Craig Robeck]

Rogers is 75 to 1.

[Dan Hodge]

75 to 1.

[Craig Robeck]

That's too low.

[Dan Hodge]

Travis Hunter's 200 to 1.

[Craig Robeck]

Oh, you know, you never know.

[Dan Hodge]

What if he just did it? Could he. Would he get MVP vote? If Travis Hunter had like top five most receiving yards for rookie ever and then also was like an above average cornerback, should he. Would he get an BP vote?

[Danny Kelly]

Probably.

[Craig Robeck]

Probably. Oh, I.

[Danny Kelly]

Because the Jags aren't gonna be that good, are they?

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah. Yeah. The Jags would need to like, win 11 games. Probably.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

It is funny that a player playing two sides of the. He's gonna. We're recording this and it probably. He's gonna play in the preseason game on Saturday, so it's kind of ruined it because we. We already know how he played, so this will be dated one way or the other. But I will say he's playing both sides of the ball. 201's a little low.

[Craig Robeck]

I agree.

[Danny Kelly]

Fair.

[Dan Hodge]

Okay. So that's our 20 to 1 for Jalen. Hurts, though. I. I make it make that our official MVP bet of the show because I think that's really good. So you can crown your champion in August. Pick to win the Super Bowl. I'm picking I, I right now. I'm Ravens Eagle super bowl and we could decide the winner, but that's how I feel at this moment in time. The Bills, Bills, Ravens right there. But the Bills have a bunch of injuries in training camp that are bugging me. It's August 8th, so some things have probably happened, but I just think the Ravens to me are incredible and they. I'm not picking against Eagles in the nfc. I refuse.

[Craig Robeck]

I don't know. I don't know.

[Danny Kelly]

Kind of like the Ravens. Kind of like the Ravens, but I.

[Dan Hodge]

Like, I refuse to pick a different NFC team in the in the than the Eagles.

[Craig Robeck]

I think the Chiefs are going to win the Super Bowl.

[Danny Kelly]

Boring.

[Dan Hodge]

We've picked Chiefs over Eagles after what we just saw. Yeah, it's actually the most Galaxy brand I think I've ever seen. That's actually the best day. I think she's going to be the Eagles this year. That's I'm going to take. I'm going to take Ravens. Oh no. I'm going to take Eagles over Ravens. I actually think the Eagles repeat. DK.

[Danny Kelly]

Man Bills.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah, that's hard knocks. That's the most fun one. The Bills are the most fun team. So you can crown your champ, you pick your mvp, pick your super bowl winner, parlay your division winner. Dark horses, mark your calendars. This is your day for your hunches, your hot takes, your calls and your odds. Visit the Fandom app today and start planning your futures bets now. Because Futures day is one day and one day only. FanDuel play. Your game must be 21 plus and present in select states or 18 plus and present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com, call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by Wayfair. Your home, it's more than a space. It's where you express yourself. Like, we've all got our setup for when the guys are over, right? So my thing, when it, when, when everyone's just around watching a game, watching a movie, whatever is I, I go for, I want a corner couch. If it's a L shaped couch, I want the corner. That to me is like I don't know if it's the alpha spot, but I'm like, I. That's where I. That's like the Nestle. That's the cozy. That's where I want to be. And if that's not available, any kind of like single chair, like where I'm not on the couch. Like if it rocks. Unbelievable. Recliner, I'm in heaven. Recliner, cup holder, full leg extension. Like that is the dream. Because you can kind of get up whenever, but you're laying back. It's the best of every world. Like that's the goal to me. So however, whatever your vibe, Wayfair is every style for every home. They've got all your home essentials, storage solutions, decor and more all in one place. I use Wayfair. So Jackie and I, we got a rug And I'm not going to lie, I realized that Big Lebowski, they were right. Like the right room, the right rug really does bring the whole room together. It's so nice to walk on. I just. It's the nicest rug I've ever owned and I didn't realize how much that would bring me joy. Maybe I'm just getting older in life, but I didn't realize that a really, really, really nice area rug just would bring me a ton of joy. But it does get inspired with room ideas and easy to shop collections, all with everyday ways to save. Shop everything [e-mail] with free and easy delivery straight to your door. That's W A Y F A I R.com Wayfair Every style, every home Are.

[Craig Robeck]

You guys watching Hard Knocks?

[Dan Hodge]

No, I missed it this week, but I'm going to watch it. I mean, I'm going to catch up.

[Craig Robeck]

Do you feel the same zest and interest in Hard Knocks that you did years ago?

[Dan Hodge]

No, I think it like personally or like in the water, like people watching it personally, I think that they have done a really good job choosing teams. Yeah, I think the Lions were fun. I think the Bill. I think the Bills are the perfect choice. I think the Bills are the best possible team you could follow because the Bills are just. I think the Bills are America's team right now. Them and the Lions.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah, I think the, the formula of the show I think has, I don't know, made me lose interest a little bit where it's like you get to know these like plucky undrafted free agents. You fall in love with them, they get cut. Right.

[Dan Hodge]

I don't know the problem.

[Danny Kelly]

You feel like there's an over saturation with all this stuff now?

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah, for sure. I think a lot of the access that Hard Knocks offers is like everywhere now. And like you kind of know everything about these players, like whether it's on social or whatever. There's.

[Dan Hodge]

It was revolutionary at the time with like the 2000 Ravens or whatever. Now it's like you have all these training camp stuff. The other problem is that the real problem Hard Knocks has is that the off season one was revolution. It's such a better product. Having the more time to edit it made it way better show. Instead of turning every show around in a few days and it's at a better time of the year, like getting a football, getting an inside look at the Giants that's coming out in June and July when there's no camp, all the players on vacation, like there's nothing. It's the deadest time of year for football. It was great. And then Joe Shane fucked it up for everyone because the Saquon call and then no team's ever going to agree to that ever again. But that was a way better show. And the reason that moment happened is because they were like. They were in these. These opaque draft decisions that you never hear anything about. And it's way.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah, I would say I have like very romantic memories of watching Hard Knocks.

[Craig Robeck]

Oh, it was the best.

[Danny Kelly]

So fucking cool. And now I'm just like, not. I just can't get into it as much as I used to.

[Dan Hodge]

The year that ruined the August product, I think, was the Raiders in 2019. I forget what year it was. The year Antonio Brown was on the Raiders. Jon Gruden was the coach. And we're like, gruden, hard knocks. But the teams get editorial control, which the Giants did not really exercise. And the. Antonio Brown would like flash froze his feet.

[Danny Kelly]

They like didn't put it in the show. Right.

[Dan Hodge]

Biochamber. And he wasn't there. And it was like the biggest story in the NFL was every day Antonio Brown was leaving practice, quitting the team, burned his feet in a cold tub, and the show just had none of it. Yeah. And it was kind of like, why are you here for very little. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

So propaganda.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah, propaganda. Yeah, literal propaganda. Next rules here. Craig, where's this tattoo out on your body?

[Craig Robeck]

This is tattooed on my thigh.

[Dan Hodge]

Sick.

[Craig Robeck]

It says, get you a man that can do both.

[Danny Kelly]

And boy, could be construed in a lot of ways.

[Craig Robeck]

Sure.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah.

[Craig Robeck]

Boy, can I not stress enough how wonderful it is having a quarterback that can run and, you know, the pocket passer stuff. You can throw your darts and you can get lucky. And I went back, I looked at the last three years at the Pocket Pastors who, who popped finish in the top 10. I'm going to give you the four that popped every year. 2024, it was Burrow Baker, Jared Goff and Sam Donald. The year before that, Dak Prescott, Jordan Love, Kirk cousins and C.J. stroud. 2022, it was Patrick Mahomes, Geno Smith, Tua and Burrow. What do you notice about that list?

[Dan Hodge]

It's not Joe Burrow is a repeat.

[Craig Robeck]

They're different every time. Yeah, yeah. It's impossible to predict. It's like, how are you. How are you supposed to decide if it's going to be Sam Darnold or Geno Smith or Jordan Love or Kirk Cousins or Dak Prescott? You Know who's in it every single time. Josh Allen, Jalen hurts, Lamar Jackson, you do have to spend a little bit more. And the last three years there's only been two pocket passers who have repeated in just two of the three years. It's Burrow and, and it's Brock Purdy. And even Brock Purdy uses his legs a little bit more than the average pocket passer. Um, so, man, it's like if you have a very strong conviction about somebody being a great pocket passer, go for it. But there is no safer bet than a guy who can run.

[Danny Kelly]

You're just trying to figure out who's going to throw a lot of touchdowns, which is a very hard thing to do because it's such a. Random is maybe not the right word, but it is a highly variable.

[Craig Robeck]

I was surprised at, to be honest, going back through this, I was surprised there was not more repeats just in the top 10. I was like, there has to be some guys. And this is not, this is points per game. Like, these guys even were allowed to get hurt. And there was. Literally, it was just Joe Burrow. And it was very surprising to me.

[Dan Hodge]

And that's why we have the top four guys can run. We have Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Jalen hurts, Jen Daniels, who, Joe Burrows, the fifth. And that's why I'm so hard on Baker as the pocket passer. Maybe that's the one this year that I'm like, my hardcore take, that's going to be super wrong. But I'm like, Baker Mayfield had never thrown 30 touchdown passes in a year and then last year he threw 40. And so the idea that you're going to take Baker as like the sixth quarterback or the seventh quarterback, you're going to use Baker as like a sixth round pick or something, maybe seventh round pick. And I'm like, okay, but J.J. zacharias did a lot of work on this. Your odds, the odds of like Baker being a top five quarterback are like, really similar to Dak Prescott's odds as the 12th quarterback or Jordan Love as like the 16th quarterback. Like, you'd be shocked. To Craig's point. The difference between the, the number 15 and the number seven quarterback making it to top five if they don't run are like almost identical. It's literally a crapshoot. So we look at it like, why would I take Baker when you could just take a running quarterback like Drake May and pair him with Jordan Love, who's going to run more this year? Or they say, or scramble it more at least, or like Trevor Lawrence, CJ Stroud, like Bryce Young, if you believe in it. Like any. Literally and dak, any pocket passer, their odds are all kind of the same of just having a crazy season. Just pick the team of the team that you think is going to be able to have a good year and pair them with a runner.

[Danny Kelly]

I just think back. I think back to, was it last year or the year before? I think it was the year before when Trevor Lawrence had like seven touchdowns dropped or like a guy on the end line or whatever.

[Dan Hodge]

All the Jags receivers were out of bounds.

[Danny Kelly]

I'm like, Ian Hardest. Does, like his collection of. Of plays that are just like. That make you so mad every week or whatever the Sheesh plays and I'm just like, it was just like all Trevor Lawrence. It's just so hard. It is so hard to predict. You know, it's a oblong ball and there's so many variables. It's just hard to predict who's going to have a ton of touchdowns in any given year.

[Dan Hodge]

But the rush, that's the point, though. The rushing is the easiest thing to predict because we know who's fast and who's not. Like, that's the point, though. That's what, like, we know that Jalen Hurts could run the ball. We know that.

[Danny Kelly]

We know how many designed runs a team is going to, you know, draw up more or less. Like, you know what I mean? It's obviously not exact, but the quarterbacks who get design runs get design runs.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah. And the quarterbacks don't. So with that said, I, Drake May, it's weird because we're at the voyage of pushing him up really high for a guy who's won one game. But like Drake May, I almost am okay to rank him as the ninth quarterback or 10th, just because the supply and demand of. There's really not. Once the top four guys are gone and then Bo Nix and Kyler are gone, there's Justin Fields, and then after that it's like, okay, who can run? Caleb drake, maybe. Maybe J.J. mcCarthy a little. And then it's like, maybe Anthony fucking Richardson and Daniel Jones. And like, that's like, the supply and demand is so limited that, like, I don't mind if you reach for Drake May, just because there's, you know, Matt Stafford's at, like, there's so many quarterbacks. Geno Smith could have a year. Like. Yeah.

[Craig Robeck]

I mean, Jordan Love is going as the 17th quarterback off the board. He was the QB5 two years ago.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah, that's just great. Yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

Where's Dak going.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah, dak was the QB4 two years ago.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah.

[Craig Robeck]

You know what I mean? It's, it's just a slot machine of pocket crashers every year.

[Dan Hodge]

That's my and that, yeah, that is my absolute strongest belief this season is just take and maybe that is this is the thing that ends up being dumb. But I'm like, don't take Baker. Don't take well Bonix runs. But I Brock Purdy's all right. I think a lot of people are in Brock Purdy because the Niners are cheaper. Like I get that.

[Craig Robeck]

I understand why people provide somewhat of a floor where I do feel like if they have decent seasons they can live in that quarterback seven to nine reigns just because of the rushing.

[Dan Hodge]

Bo Nix is a good runner. Like that's like he's not, you know, Lamar Jackson. But Bo Nicks does run pretty well and they do have design runs for him. But yeah, I just totally agree.

[Danny Kelly]

Jordan Love I really like Kyler Murray this year. There's already a lot of talk about him running. He, he's like actually interested in running this year, whereas last couple years he was like I'm not running, I want to be a pocket passer, blah blah blah. I am kind of getting excited about what Kyler can do because I think they're going to have him run a.

[Dan Hodge]

Bunch of so Kyler Kyler said that this is now the closest he will ever feel to how healthy he was before he tore his ACL in 2023. Which leads me to my next rule, which is the 2:2 rule, which is get guys the year after the year after they have an injury, which is like the most basic rule of thumb. And it's a rule of thumb. Sometimes it depends on a lot of factors of what the injury is, when it happened, all that stuff. But generally speaking, there is like this crazy consistent pattern with fantasy football where a guy gets hurt and tears his ACL or something and then the next year he comes back and like oh, back in September or maybe in October and he comes back and people are like this guy sucks. And then don't realize that if you've had an injury. Like you realize there is a gap between when you are physically able, healthy enough to return to an NFL field and again, it's not walking around like it's your life. It's like 100 percentile athleticism. But there's a gap between you and your brain. Trust you to perform these 100th percentile athletic feats. Your brain will is like it's Like a governor on a car. Like they're go kart or whatever. Like they're withholding you from going as fast as you can. Your brain's like, no, we're going to fucking get hurt again. I'm not ready. And there is a two or three month process that it takes you to feel. So what ends up happening is the next. It takes a couple seasons later for the player to get back to full health. And then they're a discount. We see this year after year after year after year. Kyler's a good example of it. If, like, Kyler's like, I feel great now. I can't even tell the examples.

[Danny Kelly]

I think it's kind of hard sometimes. Or maybe I'm giving ourselves credit for doing this. But like, we. Because it's so easy to be like, oh, he's just never going to be as fast as he was before after an injury. I think sometimes we make that assumption and then a year later they're back to what they were before and we're like, oh, probably should have guessed that because I feel like sometimes we. When a guy is coming back from an injury, he doesn't look right. And this is like the Breeze hall thing, Craig. And we're like, he's like, he's got no juice, he sucks, he's cooked or whatever. And I'm like, he was hurt and. And I think it makes us forget how good a player is now. That's not to say that Breeze hall is going to go back to where he was before, because a lot of players are just never as fast as they were before after a major injury.

[Craig Robeck]

He was. For the record. Breeze hall is allowed to be hurt and be. And look worse because he was hurt. I was upset because nobody knew he.

[Danny Kelly]

Was hurt and no one said anything until after the year. I feel like we sometimes just don't talk about the fact that these guys were playing through injuries. Like, we just sort of ignore that part.

[Dan Hodge]

Everyone's hurt. Yeah. And so a list of guys. And again, it's not as simple as just, well, they got hurt in 2023, so it'll be better in 2025. It's not that simple sometimes. But for. We can go into it if you guys want, but for a variety of reasons. Players who I think will be better in 2025 because of a lack of understanding around their injuries. I've talked about Debo Samuel who had pneumonia last year, and everyone's like, citing his yards per catch and yards after the catches. If I give a fucking about his pneumonia numbers. I'm like, he was playing football after his hospitalized just yells, you Craig. God damn it.

[Craig Robeck]

No, I just. I love how productive everybody is. Like, fat. He's fat.

[Danny Kelly]

Said like flashbacks to middle school there. Yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

Debo was hospitalized for pneumonia, played four days later. And people are on the Internet.

[Danny Kelly]

I of all people should understand this.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah, yeah, Washington.

[Danny Kelly]

I had pneumonia. It was the worst I've ever felt in my life.

[Craig Robeck]

No, he's old. Washing fat.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah, he's washed fat washed.

[Craig Robeck]

I love people just like making these grand assumptions just out of nothing. There's a one video of them fat washed.

[Dan Hodge]

Other guys that I think are just were people think are bad, but we're hurt. Jaden Reed. Jaden Reed for the packers is my guy this year. I'm not saying he's going to be the number one receiver in fantasy football, but I just think he was injured all year and people like he rotates in. He's blah, blah, blah. I'm like, he's their.

[Danny Kelly]

He is gonna be honest, I didn't know he was hurt.

[Craig Robeck]

What.

[Danny Kelly]

What happened?

[Dan Hodge]

His ankle thing. He's hurt like all he played through it. This is the.

[Danny Kelly]

See, this is what I'm saying. I always like, we immediately just don't.

[Craig Robeck]

Remember that they were tattoo on yourself TK That Jaden Reed was hurt last year.

[Dan Hodge]

This is the Mari Cooper thing. Army Cooper plays their injuries. So you think he's not as good as he is. He just never not. He just, you know, other guys wouldn't have suited up. TJ Hawkinson is just back. I think that he was back in December. The numbers don't bear it out. But I'm like, he will be better when you week one people be like, TJ Hawkinson, wow. Like he had towards ACL and wasn't himself last year and he will be himself this year. I'm very confident in that. One other guy. The other one. This is the most controversial one. Not exactly a 2:2 rule, but someone who was injured and now we have the ick. And then we're like, oh, Christian McCaffrey because we are so terrible.

[Danny Kelly]

The most complicated player.

[Dan Hodge]

The Achilles tendonitis right now. He didn't like he didn't take 400 tackles last year like Saquon Barkley. So the idea that he's a bigger injury risk than Saquon is frankly probably a fear and anxiety we have in our minds. In reality, he got to rest his fucking body all God. Like he's been training. He's been like, we literally with McCaffrey.

[Danny Kelly]

Already it's so hard because everyone's fucking tearing their Achilles right now. It's an epidemic in Achilles injuries.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah. It's creating a panic, but that's what I'm saying. There's a buy low opportunity here where it's like everyone's so afraid of. With McCaffrey, I just. But when he plays, he's basically the best running back in the history of fantasy football, probably since Ladanian Tomlinson.

[Danny Kelly]

He's like having two players in one spot.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah. And would you.

[Craig Robeck]

Would you rather. Would you feel more confident in Christian McCaffrey this year if what happened last year happened or if he had 482 touches last year?

[Danny Kelly]

I. Oh, I would be way more. I'm way more nervous about last year.

[Dan Hodge]

You're more nervous because you're like. Because the Achilles thing is like, oh, so if he has this, he could just move weird and like, he's just. His career is over.

[Danny Kelly]

He could try and take a step and then his Achilles tendon will pop. Yeah, that sounds not great, but I.

[Dan Hodge]

Think that the touch, like we literally have done this with him.

[Craig Robeck]

I'm only asking because Hyvis is like, he didn't take any hits last year. Like, you could argue. And I'm like, well, would you prefer he did take 482 hits?

[Dan Hodge]

Well, but this is what I'm saying. But this is what I'm saying. We've done this with him in his career. Like in 29, in 2019, he had like this dominant league winning season. If you had McCaffrey in 2019, you had a 50% chance to make your great year 20.

[Craig Robeck]

He also wasn't an early round pick that year.

[Dan Hodge]

He gave him like the third round 15. He had he 400 touches that year. The next year he plays three games and then we. We're idiots. We make him the number one. We make him the number one pick again and he gets hurt again. He plays seven games. It's not great. Then what happens?

[Danny Kelly]

We've just done this a lot with him. Yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah. 2022, he falls. 2022. 2022. He's literally does the sake one. He, like, has. He's the best player in fantasy football, goes to the super bowl and like, should have won the Super Bowl. And then, you know what I mean? Like, we've been here before.

[Danny Kelly]

I think, I think personally less that he missed time last year and more that it was because of an Achilles injury. I think the Achilles injury is the boogeyman. It's scary as.

[Dan Hodge]

It's scary, but I'm just saying you.

[Danny Kelly]

Can, you can pop that thing just taking a step. Like, I know that knees are also. Just go out when you.

[Craig Robeck]

No, you're 100% right, DK.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah.

[Craig Robeck]

We are in an Achilles moment right now.

[Danny Kelly]

Right.

[Craig Robeck]

I don't know why, but everyone is popping like four NBA players pop their Achilles in this playoffs.

[Danny Kelly]

We gotta have somebody do a study.

[Dan Hodge]

I just keep coming back to, he's going to play 90 plus percent of snaps for the 49ers every game.

[Craig Robeck]

Yes.

[Dan Hodge]

And which isn't even a debate because last year when he came back, they gave him 90% of snaps. And I'm just saying, until he tears this Achilles, we're going to rank him first or second. It's going to be. McCaffrey and Saquon are not. Are they not going to be the top two guys? When we put our weekly rankings, which we have weekly rankings every week at fancyfold, the ringer.com Every week he's going to be first or second. And then at some point, if you make it 14 weeks in and he hasn't popped his fucking Achilles yet, you're like, holy fucking shit. I guess I should have took Christian McCaffrey.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

I'm just saying.

[Craig Robeck]

No, no, you're right. I agree with you. I think there's two things. One, the value is starting to disappear because he's creeping in earlier and earlier into the first round. And then it's like, okay, so at what point should I just take Jameer Gibbs, who doesn't have Achilles tendonitis in both legs?

[Dan Hodge]

That's totally chill.

[Danny Kelly]

Bilateral. Bilateral, by the way.

[Craig Robeck]

Bilateral. What was my second point? Oh, it was good. Damn it, I lost it.

[Danny Kelly]

I fucked it up.

[Dan Hodge]

Sorry.

[Craig Robeck]

No, it's totally fine.

[Dan Hodge]

Well, you'll feel stupid. That's the problem. You'll feel really dumb.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

The only other thing I want to say about the injuries is I'm making this rule again for players who are hurt this year if there is a guy. If the. Because how many times do we on Sundays get questions from people like, hey, Christian McCaffrey or Breece hall is a game time decision. And like they're going to give it a go on Sunday and like, they're going to. And I, I have a new.

[Craig Robeck]

Give it a go is my least.

[Dan Hodge]

Literally every single time. My answer will be, I hope. I think it's going to be the same if the player themselves, if the team themselves does not know if the guy is healthy enough when they wake up on Sunday morning to play. Like, you have to Watch him play. He should not be in your lineup.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

Because clearly he's not 100%. If he was, he's not even close to 100% or else they put him in the fucking game.

[Danny Kelly]

If the team. If the team is using warm ups to determine whether a player. To determine whether a player can play. Please stop asking us if you should start it.

[Dan Hodge]

How's.

[Danny Kelly]

How about that for a rule?

[Craig Robeck]

I'm reading the same thing you are.

[Danny Kelly]

But never know if he's gonna play or not. Why would I know what he's gonna do?

[Dan Hodge]

Sean Mc.

[Craig Robeck]

Reading that blurb.

[Dan Hodge]

Sean McVeigh is like watching Kyron Williams and like, seeing how he cuts. And I'm like, I also don't know if this guy's going to play well today.

[Craig Robeck]

You.

[Dan Hodge]

Me, I was like, I.

[Danny Kelly]

How am I supposed to know? The team doesn't know. He doesn't know.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah. So that's my new rules. I'm just never going to tell you to play a guy that was at 11:30 in the morning. Just play him 2. 2. Play him next week. Yeah.

[Craig Robeck]

It's also a way worse feeling when you. You start the guy who's going to give it a go and then he, like, doesn't play than it is to where you don't start him. Then he goes off. At least you're like, all right. At least like, my guy's healthy and playing well.

[Dan Hodge]

You don't start. It goes off. You're like, okay, cool, I'll definitely play him next week. I wish I played him. Whereas if you feel like a place with an ankle injury and then they get one cash for nine yards.

[Danny Kelly]

Do not eat dead dove.

[Dan Hodge]

Do not. I don't know what I expected.

[Craig Robeck]

It's halfway through the first quarter and.

[Danny Kelly]

And you know, he takes one hit and he's out for the.

[Craig Robeck]

Kevin Burkhart's like, yep, Brock Bowers is out for the rest of the game. You're like, God.

[Dan Hodge]

And they. And the broadcast always has information that they weren't allowed to tell you. They're like, yeah, actually, it's funny, you know, it turns out he actually. He actually broke his leg and he's trying to play through the pain. He's getting cortisone injections like they were.

[Danny Kelly]

All week and he was writhing in pain.

[Dan Hodge]

They wanted to put him on ir. He wouldn't go anyway. All right, Craig, you got anything else on the injuries?

[Craig Robeck]

Front injury related, tattoos injuries or tutu.

[Dan Hodge]

Anything tutu related?

[Craig Robeck]

Well, it's funny. McCaffrey is not Tutu. This is not year two after the injury, it's year one.

[Dan Hodge]

I agree. I think it's just that one is. It's related to. I just think the two. The overall thing is people are wrong about injuries a lot. Two years later.

[Craig Robeck]

It's just, you know, the only one that I am willing to overlook is Rasheed Rice. Rasheed Rice got hurt in week three last year and he's going to get suspended probably for like three, four games. So I'm like, all right.

[Danny Kelly]

You know he's Two wrongs can make a right.

[Craig Robeck]

Well, I'm like he's going to get a full year before he plays in an NFL game. And for how he has looked in the off season, maybe I'm just falling into the trap, but for some reason I do feel a little bit more confident that Rasheed Rice will be able to get back to that pre injury form this year.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah, that one, that one's weird because.

[Danny Kelly]

Sure feels like you're falling into the trap.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah.

[Craig Robeck]

Is that my fault? Should I not take? Should you not take.

[Dan Hodge]

I feel better about Rasheed Rice than other players but also he's going to have the ramp like they usually would come back around week five or six. If it's not going great, he's going to start then. So I think it probably helps. He probably on a better.

[Danny Kelly]

I saw him running the ladder drill. He looks really fast.

[Dan Hodge]

Oh you could also.

[Danny Kelly]

So that's great.

[Craig Robeck]

I saw Ellic IO Menorah run a route against like I'm in an assistant coach and it looked good guy football.

[Dan Hodge]

Player looks fast.

[Craig Robeck]

Against a man wearing pants, but man look good.

[Danny Kelly]

Speaking of that, that's a good segue. Hold on to rookie wide receivers every year. Every year, rookie wide receivers in particular in the second half of the year come on really strong. It happens. I think it's happened every year for the last like three or four years. Five years plus where you know a guy that kind of starts a little bit slow ends up being a top 12 top 10 type receiver down the stretch. You go back, let's see, 2020 was Justin Jefferson. 2021 it was Jalen Waddle. 2022, Garrett Wilson and Christian Watson both went off in the second half. 2023, Rashee rice just mentioned him. Pukinakua, Jaden Reed and Tank Dell were all top 14 receivers and points per game. And then last year Lad McConkey, Brian Thomas, Malik Neighbors and Jalen McMillan all were very usable in fantasy. So I think the point here is and obviously it depends on the depth of your of your Bench and everything. But like, if, if, if your rookie wide receiver kind of starts a little bit slow, don't give up right away because generally speaking, these guys come back with a vengeance in the second half of the year once they kind of like learn the, the nuances of the offense and get, gain the quarterback's trust, all that stuff. Gain a coach's trust in terms of like running the most important route. So this year, again, we don't know who it's going to be, but I think there's a plenty of really interesting options here. Travis Hunter, Ted McMillan. A Mecca Buca who I really like Matthew Golden. Hearing a lot of really good things about Matthew Golden.

[Dan Hodge]

I like Matthew Golden.

[Danny Kelly]

It sounds like he's running with the starters in 12 personnel, which is basically when they have two receivers on the field. He's out there. So he's going to be running, but he's going to be running more routes than Jaden Reed, who we all think, I think we all like him as a talent, but he's going to be out there a lot. Matthew golden is.

[Dan Hodge]

I think Matthew Golden's going to get the Miami treatment with McDaniel has all those motions. I think the packers are going to use Matthew golden and get him running full speed at the snap and just do crazy with him.

[Danny Kelly]

It sounds like he's doing big things at camp, making some miraculous.

[Craig Robeck]

He's a 42 guy, right? Like a 4, 28 4.

[Danny Kelly]

He ran really fast.

[Dan Hodge]

He wanted to beat Xavier Worthy's thing. But like literally Matthew golden, like that Seinfeld joke. My motto was a motto. My motto like Matthew Golden's mother was a track star. I think his grandmother was a track star. Like he's just. Track is in Golden's family, but he also knows how to play receiver. Most of those track guys have no touch or feel. Golden has the track.

[Danny Kelly]

He's a football player.

[Dan Hodge]

He like can use tempo with routes. It's not, you know, it's like not Richardson, Anthony Richardson. Just throwing all his throws at one speed. Like Gold. I, I, I like Golden a lot.

[Danny Kelly]

For Green, who did he remind me of? Shoot, I'm, I'm blanking.

[Dan Hodge]

You had him as airbud golden receiver and then you decided like a real comp.

[Danny Kelly]

I'll holler it out if I remember. I think a couple other guys to keep in mind here that are really interesting. Luther Burden, Jaden Higgins and Jalen Noel.

[Craig Robeck]

Noel.

[Dan Hodge]

So Bird in Chicago and then Higgins and Jaylen Noel are on Texans.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

Jaylen Noel.

[Danny Kelly]

It's hard. It's spelled Noel, but I think it's pronounced Noel.

[Dan Hodge]

But they're both on Houston.

[Danny Kelly]

Kyle Williams for the Pats is an interesting sleeper. You look elementary. AO Manar.

[Craig Robeck]

I like that guy.

[Danny Kelly]

I like him too.

[Dan Hodge]

And he's guys, realistically we're not going to draft if you're in Dynasty or something, but we're not going to draft because like those are waiver ads. But I think these top guys I think are worth because they're first round picks. Travis Hunter, Tet, McMillan, I mean those guys are going high. Ibuka Golden, I think though, Bert, like the guys taken in the top 50, I think have the hit rates like 50%.

[Craig Robeck]

Also. This sick route that I am an R ran was not against an assistant coach. It was against a Buccaneers cornerback.

[Danny Kelly]

So sick and better.

[Dan Hodge]

DK if you had to pick one of these guys to be good, immediately stretch to run, which is it. And then one guy to come on.

[Danny Kelly]

Late, immediately egg Buka for the Bucks. I mean I get outside of Ted McMillan who I think is. I mean he's going high enough that it's not like necessarily he's not a secret or anything. And then like second half of the year, Higgins and Noel for. For Texans kind of stand out to me as like guys that might take a little bit to get in, but by the second half of the year are, you know, the number two receiver on the team. Those guys kind of stick out to me. And then Burden. Burden is a wild card thirst trap. Yeah, he. Who knows what's going to happen with him. There's a lot of mouths to feed in that offense and we don't know if the offense is going to be any good, but the talent is clearly there. It's a dick to me. We mentioned this the other day that he has 87 as his number. Hopefully he changes that before the year.

[Dan Hodge]

I like it.

[Danny Kelly]

It's old school.

[Dan Hodge]

Old school guy. I did I like a booker book is I like a book a lot. Okay. TK Another. Another tattoo here.

[Danny Kelly]

This is going the opposite way. This is Ride with the Wild Hogs. One of my favorite movies in theory that I've never seen Wild Hogs. I know I do need to watch it. I think the rule, the thing, the thought that keeps coming to my mind when it comes to just the NFL in general, but especially with this rule. It takes a lot more than you think to unseat a savvy veteran in an offense. Coaches trust him. They know exactly. Quarterbacks trust them. They know exactly where to be in every situation. I think James Conner is like a perfect example of this. He's been around. He's going to pick up the blitz. He's great in the passing game. He breaks a ton of tackles. He's going to protect the quarterback. He does everything. He's just. He makes the right reads in terms of where he's supposed to run all that stuff. He might not be super fast anymore, but he's just a really good player. And obviously like I was a big fan of the guy that they drafted now, whose name I'm forgetting, which I guess is pretty.

[Craig Robeck]

Trey Benson.

[Danny Kelly]

Trey Benson. I was a big fan of him, but like Benson's a rookie, probably making a lot of mistakes in practice. It just takes a lot to unseat a guy like James Connor, even though he's older and not as explosive. Mike Evans, Devonte Adams, Derek Henry, James Conner, Alvin Camara, Aaron Jones. These guys are all going to put up big points in fantasy, I think just ride them till the wheels fall off. Honestly, Zach Hurts is still out here fucking making plays. Can I thought he retired like six years ago.

[Dan Hodge]

Can I pilot something to you guys that maybe should have been an entire episode instead of me burying this like an hour into this episode. I kind of think my signature draft strategy this year, I'm soft launching it might be okay. I think I want to combine the last two rules. DK said veterans that are hard to unseat in their no medium age, old and young. So the first eight.

[Craig Robeck]

So no guys in their prime.

[Dan Hodge]

No, no, I'm saying that's the market inefficiency. No one in their prime.

[Danny Kelly]

That's so good.

[Dan Hodge]

The soon to be dead and the newly bred baby.

[Danny Kelly]

I'm just saying 25 year olds were out.

[Dan Hodge]

You could get easily. You could get your running backs to be like Derek Henry and James Connor. Receivers are Tyree Kill, Devonte Adams, Mike Evans and Calvin Lee. You can get Travis Kelsey at tight end like I. And then however, all your bench is youth. When they get hurt later, your bench is the Matthew Goldens, the Luther Burdens, the Rook, Trey Benson, all the young guys. I call it the Belichick. It's all olds and youngs. It's like the oldest possible and the youngest possible people.

[Craig Robeck]

The May December, the May December team.

[Dan Hodge]

Yes, it's the Belichick system.

[Craig Robeck]

If you tweak it a little bit, it's great. Basically I would say outside of the first two rounds and then switch to the old and young only first two rounds it's like, all right, I'm not going to Knock Jamar Chase the first two rounds.

[Dan Hodge]

It works. I'll take Derek Henry and Ashton Genti. It's done. Easy. Henry and Genti, Olds and youngs together.

[Craig Robeck]

Those are your only two options though.

[Dan Hodge]

But I guess I'm just saying Henry and Genti and then you get Devonte, you got Tyreek.

[Danny Kelly]

This is the funniest.

[Craig Robeck]

Like I like it though. I think once you get into like rounds three, four and beyond, old and young.

[Dan Hodge]

I'm telling you, I'm telling you. Come around, take. You'll take Calvin ridley and Ted McMillan. I'm telling you.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

It'll work.

[Danny Kelly]

All right.

[Dan Hodge]

All right.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah, it's like DK Metcalf, 27. Nah, no, no, no. All these mid round guys, DJ Moores. I don't want any of that.

[Dan Hodge]

In all seriousness though, I know it sounds like a bit and it kind of is, but I have an actual theory to it which is simply put, people in their prime are properly priced.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah, they're overlooked.

[Dan Hodge]

They're young and old guys, guys who are 30 are improperly priced because there's an assumption they're going to fall off. And if they don't, you profit massive. It's that simple. Derrick Henry not falling off is wrongly priced. His fall off is built in. People in the prime are priced right, rookies not. So what you're saying is if rookies do develop faster, that's all you need to have a crazy value in the older guys as long as they don't fall off. Like if Mike Evans doesn't fall off, he's just priced wrong. He should be more expensive. We're just afraid of taking Mike Evans.

[Danny Kelly]

Why?

[Craig Robeck]

At the peak, it's really mostly like about the old people. Because I do think like it is kind of consensus now that it's like you got to draft the rookies. The rookies are under price. Hold on to the rookies.

[Dan Hodge]

Think so. Matthew Golden's going 130th. He was a first round pick.

[Craig Robeck]

That's true. But I think there is more, way more of a stigma against these old players.

[Dan Hodge]

The old guys have stigma.

[Craig Robeck]

Being afraid that you're going to draft a guy the year he falls off the cliff.

[Danny Kelly]

You don't want to be caught holding the bag or whatever. Yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

And so you're. And your dart throws are running backs. Like Cam Scatterbo is a pretty cheap running. But I know he just threw his hamstring, he's gonna get cheaper. But I'm like Camp Scatterboo I think is the hamstring actually makes me want to scattered more because I think the second half of the season he could just be a starting running back. You might. I don't know where he's going to fall to. Woody Marks might be the starting running back for the Texans. Like like you. You just late. You do rookie running backs. And like, like I'm tell. I'm just saying I really think this is going to be what my teams look like, which is really scary because they could be also be horrible. Anyway, that leads to my last rule which is just being open minded, which maybe I'm not, but just being my. This is my last tattoo of just be open minded. Not just because I said don't take Joe Burrow when Joe Burrow probably would have been the MVP if they just made the fucking playoffs. But I just think that the more I do this job, the more I remember the ultimate quote for every industry, which is William Goldman. Nobody does anything. Which is the truest thing ever. And if anyone's listening to this, like in your teens or you're in college, like the grand secret of adulthood is nobody knows what they're doing. Everybody is winging it at every possible level. Nobody has any. No really, it's true. No one knows what's going on. And like, like if you had polled NFL executives on September 25, if Bryce Young was an NFL player, most would have said he's not an NFL player. I felt that way. Not just media though. NFL people were like that guy, you know, when retrospect it's way too small. Why would you bet Bryce Young outplayed C.J. stroud by the end of the season. And like, just look at the Panthers. Sam Darnold left because he was poor. Play 14 wins for the Vikings. Cut Baker Mayfield. Baker Mayfield's second most touchdown, second most yards. Bryce Young. They gave up on Bryce Young themselves. The Panthers get Bryce Young and then he came back. It was good. That's one team.

[Danny Kelly]

Baker Mayfield was like playing scout team defense.

[Dan Hodge]

He's getting 45 million a year to.

[Danny Kelly]

Be like rushing the passer.

[Dan Hodge]

Nobody. And guess what? Every.

[Craig Robeck]

He was the guy guarding Elici Menor in that video.

[Dan Hodge]

Every team could have had Baker Mayfield. It's not just that. It's like the Ravens took Hayden Hurst before they took Lamar Jackson. The point being.

[Danny Kelly]

Right, right.

[Dan Hodge]

None of these people know anything. This is the basis of my belief for Anthony Richardson. But it's not just me saying take Anthony Richardson. It's that for young players in tough situations, like keep an open mind to when things change when there's a coaching situation, when there's an organization change, like 23 year old players are not finished products and so be wary. There's only a couple positions where we really know out of the bat if you're any good. And so I just be open minded to stuff and I'm trying to be more open minded as well but I think that when you see everyone else writing off a situation and the cost, you not only can just la la la everyone else, I told you so. But if everyone else has just written off a situation, like just check again because most people are wrong all the fucking time. That's it. That's my rant.

[Craig Robeck]

I just, I just read that book on vacation. Goldman's book.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah, what is it?

[Craig Robeck]

It's called Adventures in the Screen Trade. Is written by William Goldman. That's where he, he says that nobody knows anything.

[Danny Kelly]

Nice.

[Craig Robeck]

Great book.

[Dan Hodge]

Mark Zuckerberg named his company Meta and then they. I don't even know if they do that anymore.

[Danny Kelly]

No, they don't.

[Dan Hodge]

They do just.

[Danny Kelly]

I don't actually know.

[Craig Robeck]

Now it's all sunglasses, which is definitely not going to work.

[Dan Hodge]

Oh my God. Anyway, okay, any, any other. We have one email here. Any other takeaways? All these lessons we've done too. Now again we record this August 8th traffic.

[Danny Kelly]

Good players, man.

[Craig Robeck]

You know, just take Jamar Chase.

[Dan Hodge]

Just do it. Yeah, yeah, take, take elite players. I, I really do think my big though thing for fantasy this year is just don't crazy reach for players that you like. But overall keep, keep in mind as a tiebreaker, which of these people would you rather be on your team? Like put them in your Happy Gilmore. Like go to your happy place.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah.

[Dan Hodge]

Like which of these guys fits there?

[Danny Kelly]

So like for me, who's, who's in your happy place just carrying the pictures.

[Craig Robeck]

Of beer Travis next to the names that you like.

[Dan Hodge]

Travis Hunter. I understand if I take Travis Hunter this year that he's going to play defense. And I might be dumb, but I'm like, if Travis Hunter is what I think, he could be on someone else's team. I'm going to be distraught that I didn't take him. And if you have people like that, just take people you want to root for. That's all you want to watch. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Prime. Delivery is fast. How fast are we talking? We're talking a cooler for your snacks, a folding chair, a Bluetooth speaker, and a six pack of your favorite seltzer delivered by tomorrow. Fast. Oh yeah. Extra napkins. Last Minute guac bowls, backup phone chargers, even a replacement remote. Fast. I feel like I've ordered all of those things. We're talking everything you need for game day. Fast, fast. Free delivery. It's on Prime. This episode is brought to you by Bleacher Report. Football is back. And downloading the Bleacher Report app puts you in the middle of the action. Make Bleacher Report your go to this season for the fastest breaking news alerts covering NFL and college football. And don't miss a moment with highlights, scores and live reactions in the app. Get expert analysis on your favorite teams and the news that you want this season. Download the Bleacher Report app today. Any other thoughts on these lessons?

[Danny Kelly]

My dog is starting to really bother me.

[Dan Hodge]

Okay, cool. Well, they'll do one email and get out of here. All right. This is an email from Roy.

[Craig Robeck]

Roy, Roy.

[Danny Kelly]

Our bone.

[Dan Hodge]

This one's simple. I was talking about having flat. The bone. I can't think. The bone things lasted so long, I really thought it'd be over by now.

[Craig Robeck]

I love it.

[Dan Hodge]

Roy said I had yogurt and an English muffin for breakfast.

[Craig Robeck]

Oh, nice.

[Dan Hodge]

Like that? Yeah. Email. Put a breakfast in your emails. I we a couple weeks ago, we're talking how I have really flat feet. And then someone sent an email. I was like, yeah, that makes sense. Hyphas looks like a guy with flat feet.

[Danny Kelly]

I talk is barking at me.

[Craig Robeck]

What's wrong with him? What is he mad about?

[Dan Hodge]

What's going on?

[Danny Kelly]

He wants to go out. He just, like, does this thing where he barks at me. Okay, lay down. Lay down. Sorry. Continue. It's super. It's the most distracting thing imaginable.

[Dan Hodge]

He's like, put him on my.

[Danny Kelly]

He's like, look at me. All right.

[Dan Hodge]

So Roy says, dk, let your dog out. Oh, not a size. Roy says, I have the flattest feet ever. And I have more stories that can prove it. Roy says, I once stood on the Dr. Scholl's machine at the mall that tells you what orthotic insert you need. And the machine, the Dr. Scholl's machine scanned my bare feet. And the screen said, please remove your shoes.

[Danny Kelly]

I love it.

[Craig Robeck]

Zero arch detected.

[Dan Hodge]

I thought that.

[Danny Kelly]

Please take the two by fours off the machine.

[Dan Hodge]

The shoe machine thought your feet were shoes. That's.

[Craig Robeck]

Wow.

[Dan Hodge]

Unbelievable. He also said, when I get out of the shower and I walk around my house barefoot, my feet literally make suction cup fart noises like Squidward.

[Danny Kelly]

That's so funny.

[Craig Robeck]

Squidward.

[Dan Hodge]

Suction to the floor. I didn't like that.

[Craig Robeck]

I didn't need to hear that.

[Dan Hodge]

Let's shut George up real quick.

[Danny Kelly]

I gave you guys the heebie chibis there. Sorry.

[Dan Hodge]

That was the egg.

[Craig Robeck]

George just became intrigued.

[Dan Hodge]

Oh, my God. That was. Christ. Yeah, the. Yeah, that's. That's. That's all.

[Danny Kelly]

That's all I got the square.

[Craig Robeck]

It's so funny. Hi, Vids. You got to get him a pair. What was the basketball shoe brand?

[Dan Hodge]

No, it's out of style. Ectio. But shout out Brooks. The Brooks. Brooks are the people. Flat feet. Now them Brooks Beasts. The.

[Craig Robeck]

When you should start a subreddit high. Fitz.

[Dan Hodge]

I. Oh, you think I invented flat feet? Yeah. I mean, I'll join it. Trump started talking about the tariffs.

[Craig Robeck]

I was saying this subreddit.

[Dan Hodge]

I don't know. Oh.

[Craig Robeck]

He was like, I'm not saying you invented flat feet, but you could invent a subreddit that might not.

[Dan Hodge]

Oh, dude. What do you think? I get all my shoe recommendations.

[Craig Robeck]

You guys call it.

[Danny Kelly]

What are the side effects of flat feet? Like what? What's the problem? Other than the clopping noise?

[Dan Hodge]

I'm not well, other than the clapping. Richie Bozick texted me and said all. I told the story of running so loudly that he missed a layup and a transition. And he was like, everyone hit me up about that. But other than that, the side effects are basically, it throws your alignment of your legs out of balance because basically, I'm not walking on the same parts of my feet that you guys are, but my knees, ankles, and hips were designed to walk on the parts that I'm not walking on. So it's just like, by. I'm wearing the weight on my ankles, knees, and hips. And so if you don't. The reason you get orthotics is to force your feet into the position your knees were designed to walk in so you don't develop, like, chronic problems later in life. So they're expensive, but they're worth it because it's kind of like investing in not having this. Is. Is this the most boring possible?

[Craig Robeck]

Kind of.

[Danny Kelly]

Possibly.

[Craig Robeck]

There is a subreddit rflatfeet7000members.

[Dan Hodge]

Yeah, there are 7,000. The other thing. Do you guys know people's. I think my shoe. My shoe. My feet are two different sizes. One's like 11. One's 10 and a half. What, you guys don't have this?

[Danny Kelly]

No, no.

[Dan Hodge]

I want to find my pen pal. I need to find my.

[Craig Robeck]

Do you buy two different shoe sizes?

[Dan Hodge]

No, but, like, I'm just saying this is. It is a Thing where people are just like, it's not crazy, but it's like, it's like I'm rounded. One's probably 10.6 and one's at 11 with 10.9. But it's like one is always going to fit better. And I need to find my foot pen pal who guy who has the same size feet but opposite so we can buy the same shoes and switch them.

[Danny Kelly]

The problem is what are your sizes?

[Dan Hodge]

Well, the problem is My width is 4e which isn't like a.

[Danny Kelly]

Clippers.

[Dan Hodge]

E is wide, Double E is extra wide. Double E is extra wide.

[Craig Robeck]

This is like the most depressing version of Cinderella's slipper ever.

[Dan Hodge]

The ugliest possible shoe monstrosity. 4e, dude. My favorite party trick is at the mall, I'll walk into a shoe store, be like, you have four years. Are all confused. They've never heard of that. Like literally like they've never heard of.

[Danny Kelly]

It for some reason. It just makes so much sense too.

[Dan Hodge]

4E flopping around. Yeah.

[Danny Kelly]

Oh my God.

[Dan Hodge]

That's really funny. Anyone's got flat feet? Email ringer fancy football gmail.com I I I feel your pain.

[Craig Robeck]

Get in that subreddit. Hi Vi. It's a lot of X rays. A lot of people.

[Dan Hodge]

The Dr. Scholl's guy is so funny to me because literally the entire thing that they have to do is just scan feet. So the idea that that machine, that should be the best machine in the world at figuring out feet versus shoes.

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah. And the poor guy not reading his.

[Dan Hodge]

Feet is like, your feet are shoes, sir. All right, thank you dk. Thank you Craig. Thank you Kai. Thank you Carlos. Thank you Ronick. Thank you Austin. Thank you everyone for listening. Email us ringing fancy footballmail.com please subscribe to us on YouTube. Seriously, please, I'm like kind of begging you. Emails. Follow us to Instagram TikTok a lot of fun stuff coming up the second half of August. Thank you for sticking with us and of course, thank you Lord.

[Danny Kelly]

Lord, thank you. Miley Cyrus or hell, Billy Ray Cyrus.

[Craig Robeck]

Which one?

[Dan Hodge]

Switching up. Yeah, which one?

[Danny Kelly]

I don't think I've probably done Billy Ray, so. Billy Ray Cyrus, sure.

[Dan Hodge]

Has he done anything since like that old town?

[Danny Kelly]

Hopefully he hasn't done anything to get himself canceled lately.

[Craig Robeck]

I don't, you know, I don't know.

[Danny Kelly]

I don't know. I didn't. Well, if he did, then I'm sorry.

[Craig Robeck]

I think, yeah, I think on the scale of what gets you canceled in Hollywood, he's okay.

[Dan Hodge]

I think the cancel Thing itself has been canceled. I don't think we're canceling.

[Danny Kelly]

Right. Gets you periodically.

[Craig Robeck]

We're now only canceling people who are like truly horrible people, which I think is good.

[Dan Hodge]

Are we?

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah, I think we're canceling.

[Danny Kelly]

No, we're not. We're not. Well, not all of them.

[Dan Hodge]

You know, some people get fast forwarded.

[Craig Robeck]

That's true. But you know, in Hollywood, I guess at least.

[Danny Kelly]

Oh, sure, sure, sure.

[Craig Robeck]

You know, like. Yeah, why don't we start listing bad people?

[Danny Kelly]

It's just dancing around the.

[Dan Hodge]

Well.

[Craig Robeck]

No, I get. What am I gonna be like Bill Cosby? Like, what's the point of getting into that?

[Danny Kelly]

Sure.

[Dan Hodge]

Billy Ray, though, I'm not familiar with like his actual music from earlier. Yeah. Is there any. You see, he's not a one hit wonder though, right? Like.

[Danny Kelly]

No, but I think that's the main thing he's known for. Yeah. Don't Tell My Heart.

[Dan Hodge]

Keep going.

[Craig Robeck]

He has other songs called could have Been Me, Butterfly, Fly. Oh, no, that's Hannah Montana, dude.

[Dan Hodge]

You know, it's funny. This is the Old Town. Ziplo Remaxes is.

[Craig Robeck]

I think it was his song from the Hannah Montana movie.

[Danny Kelly]

Right.

[Dan Hodge]

I know. It's like, obviously Billy Ray Cyrus's main listenership is not on Spotify. Obviously made music for decades before the Internet. But it's funny to me that Old Town Road Diplo Remix is his third song on Spotify.

[Danny Kelly]

2.8 million monthly listens.

[Dan Hodge]

It's probably Old Town Road.

[Craig Robeck]

He's been dating Elizabeth Hurley, who was a big deal.

[Danny Kelly]

What?

[Craig Robeck]

Yeah, big deal on Austin Powers.

[Danny Kelly]

Fell to my knees in a Walmart.

[Craig Robeck]

I think they are. How do I say this? Mentally and morally aligned in very interesting and unique ways. So I think they are good fits for one another, but are a little bit kind of, you know.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah, that's a abstract. An odd couple. Yeah.

[Craig Robeck]

They have very similarly unique opinions on life.

[Dan Hodge]

Dk dropping the Gen Z slang. Not Elizabeth Hurley.

[Danny Kelly]

Come on.

[Dan Hodge]

Fell to my knees at a wa. We're gonna. We're gonna bring back her.

[Craig Robeck]

Anyone but her.

[Dan Hodge]

It's a good time to announce we're gonna bring back the Gen Z spelling bee. Kai has been in the lab. We're gonna bring back the Gen Z spelling bee. We've talked about it and we're gonna do a Gen Z spelling bee. Probably between.

[Danny Kelly]

Kai's been. He's. He's been gathering them up. He's got some good ones. He's been really good one on us the other day.

[Craig Robeck]

Did he.

[Dan Hodge]

What?

[Danny Kelly]

Dance on it?

[Dan Hodge]

No, he's no, that's it.

[Danny Kelly]

What's it called?

[Dan Hodge]

That's not it.

[Craig Robeck]

Are you saying, Are you saying doing tricks on it?

[Dan Hodge]

Yes, that's what he's trying to refer to.

[Craig Robeck]

Dance on it.

[Danny Kelly]

Hey, I clearly didn't fucking.

[Craig Robeck]

You actually walked right into this trap of the Gen Z spelling bee. What was he. What was Kai saying?

[Danny Kelly]

Kai's texting. He's not doing it now because I said that. He's like, I'm out. I'm out. You boomer.

[Craig Robeck]

Kai just cringed into a coma after that.

[Danny Kelly]

Yeah, that was. Yeah, cringe coma, zero aura, negative aura. There you go.

[Dan Hodge]

There you go. Back.

[Danny Kelly]

I'm back, baby.

[Craig Robeck]

Doing tricks on it. Anyway, that bear in the zoo is for sure dead.

[Dan Hodge]

There's no way so dead. All right, goodbye everyone. Must be 21 + in present in select states for Kansas, an affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 + in present in D.C. kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com, call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text HOPE NY in New York.

[Danny Kelly]

Mama Papa Mi C la Roboura make it.

[Dan Hodge]

Support for this podcast and the following message comes from America's Navy the Navy offers new graduates hands on training and experience in careers like computer science, aviation and medicine, plus education and sign on bonuses. Parents help your grads start their career [e-mail].