Stat Surprises + Sneaky Trades, Rice Reactions - Fantasy Football Podcast for 5/21

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It's powerful enough to grow with your business, but simple enough that your team will actually love using it. Switch to a CRM built by salespeople for salespeople and join the over 100,000 companies already using Pipedrive. Head to pipedrive.com forward slash audio for a 30-day free trial with no credit card or payment required. That's pipedrive.com forward slash audio. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your host Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Thanks, boys. Back again, the Fantasy Footballers. Jason Moore is here. Yes, I am. Mike Wright, president, accounted for the Fantasy Hitman himself. Yes. Far less tired than Jason because he didn't play golf this morning. That is also correct. I'm Andy Holloway. Welcome in. Every morning now. It has been, you really did. Like Mike is on the outside looking in. He can give the best commentary on what's happened. I mean, in the golf obsession. You did say it was your total and complete identity. It's just who I am. I mean, normal people on the outside would call it a psychotic transformation from never like occasionally we'll mention golf and we'll talk about it for a little bit to playing the other every day. It is literally every single thing. And if you don't play, then all of a sudden we get a message, stopped at the range on my way home and you're like, okay, he's like, it's 8pm. I met, I met the simulator place guys. You're like, what are you, where is your family? I'm taking my son to lessons on Saturday. What are you talking about? I'm bringing him along. My daughter went golfing this morning. That's the way you do it. This is insane. That's all we did with fantasy football. I was like, Jason went golfing to find a way to make money on this. Listen to me. It's just too good. Jason went golfing on Mother's Day with his wife. I don't know how I got that one to work. But it did. Psychotic might be the right word. Listen, the best advice we can give the foot plan is if you have something you like, find a way to make it something you have to do with your living, something your family is required. I don't think you're quite ready to make a living on golf. I'm close man. PGA. You know what you're making the living of others. Yeah. I am supporting the manufacturers, the entire industry, especially the putting industry. When you get into golf, all of a sudden your reels and your the ads you get served, oh my gosh, it's a big market. My algorithm knows who I am. Yeah. Your identity to my core. We have a great show for you today. We are jumping into, well, a good quick question. We're looking at stat surprises from our individual projections for the 2026 fantasy season. We've all gone through and made our first draft heading into the, you know, soon to be released UDK here in less than two weeks. And so we're going to mention a few of the names that popped out in terms of, hey, I didn't realize, you know, we go out and we project every player individually, their line for the season, the game's played, every bit of their projection. And then we go look at the rankings and sometimes we're really surprised. In both good ways and bad ways, like sometimes it's like, oh, wow, I didn't realize I was so bullish here. I know there's, there's one I'm going to bring up here in a second. Sometimes you go, oh, I go, yeah, I don't like this. This is not good. So yeah, we have some of those names we're going to bring up real quick. We're going to give away the signed James Cook Jersey. A winner has been selected. His name is Brad Davis, Brad Davis, Bradley Davis. Congratulations. I think the team has already emailed you or will momentarily. And you've won a signed James Cook Jersey, James Cook. Congratulations. The NFL's rushing leader. I forgot about that. That was a little frightening. But yeah, the UDK is just a couple of weeks away. Less than that. You can check it out. UltimateDraftGate.com pre-order pricing will end when it's no longer a pre-order, you know, looking at it. It's just order. It's just ordering. So a quick question of the day though. Let's start with Jason. Stat surprises in the UDK. You went through, you looked at all the names and numbers. So three names that stood out to me, basically different than I think what consensus is for better or worse. Mike Evans, Derek Henry and Luther burdened the third. Mike Evans was high. He was my Luther, burned the 30th wide receiver. Jason, I know man. This is the one. This is the one where I see it. I do. So here's the truth. I am terrified of it. I just literally yesterday watched more Luther burden film. The way he moves is incredible. I love the guy. And then I go and I look at, I look at the Chicago Bears and I stat them out and I, Rome is going to be involved. And I don't think, I don't think this is a world where you've got Caleb Williams throwing for 4,600 yards. I just don't, I don't think that's the identity of the team. I don't think that that is the Bears normal method. I don't know if that's in Caleb Williams, you know, cup of tricks this year. The cup of tricks. Yeah. Well, it's not a bag. He's got this cup right now. Or a bowl. Those are for kids. I have them over a hundred targets, you know, six and a half touchdowns. And you know, it's not a bad line, but it's certainly if the Bears turn out the way that I view the Bears turning out, it's going to be very difficult for him to capitalize on where you're drafting him way ahead of that. So your, your three numbers, I don't think you said them all. So Mike Evans, I've got it 21. That's, that's above where people are drafting him, where most consensus rankings are. I believe he pairs perfect with Brock, Perti, ADP. I'm seeing 24 right now. Brock, Brock, Perti throws a good deep ball and throws touchdowns. And Mike Evans can do those two things as good as anyone. He took the money. He doesn't throw them. So okay. I just want to be fast on your own fire, Mike. And you know, I think it's a perfect pairing. They really need them, especially with George Kittle, John Jennings being gone. Like there is huge opportunity there. And he turned down a contract to go take it. So I believe in Mike Evans this year. And then the other one was, I believe it's a perfect pairing between their, their injury staff and Mike Evans. He's like, no, if I go over there, no one's going to be mad if I miss four games. That'll be the least amount missed by the team. And then the other one, we talked about this on the mock draft, but I've got Derek Henry at six, which is not outrageous at all, where he is being currently drafted, you know, dropping into the third round and a lot of leagues. I get it. He's old, but it's, it's a, it's a very light depth chart there. Whoa. Whoa. Not a death. Yes. And they're, they're going to be at the win. We've been here before when you have made weird things with your throw. And then David Johnson was never the same. Depth charts away. All right. So those were three guys that stood out to me as like, okay, I guess I'm really high on Evans and Henry and, and I'm scared about Luther burden. Yeah. I mean, the stats are the stats, even if that means you hate somebody now. My, a couple of names that jumped out. I, I have bow nicks at eight, which is six spots ahead of the BDP belief in the bounce bag. I just think the amount, I think a lot of helps. Yeah. Waddle helps a lot. Last year was weird. I get it. I feel like it's make or break to some degree for bow nicks to take a step forward. Just the way I started it out. He ended up at eight. I was a little shocked. I'm not like the biggest bow nicks fan, but just it's so crazy. He finished last year as the quarterback six. Yeah. And it just feels like no, he didn't because it was all so yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's being drafted way, but I mean, there were a lot of injuries last year at the quarterback position too. Players that were, Jadon Daniels never was out there. These guys that like Joe Burrow didn't play a full season. So I think he wouldn't have finished it. Right. Right. With the points per game on the same team. I've got RJ Harvey, 14 spots behind eight. Yeah. Take that. RJ Harvey, really low. We just record. So we're in the middle of recording the hundred player profile videos for the ultimate draft kit, which those are exhausting, but worth it. If you have the UDK, make sure you watch through these. They are very educational for all the relevant players and visually upgraded and visually makes Mike's wall back here. We were not kind to RJ Harvey. No, no, I mean, the, the, the team. Oh gosh. I knew if I said, yeah, those, those listening at home. Yeah. The neon sign. We need, we need one. One is when I could say you could throw it up. RJ Harvey had so much opportunity to secure the leading role last year. And then we came into the off season and I understand the numbers, enough volume equals numbers, no matter who you are, but the efficiency, the advanced metrics bad for RJ Harvey. They spend the off season flirting with every free agent running back. They draft Jonah Coleman. They sign J.K. Dobbins. The patience of Sean Payton is, is, it's not long. So I think that was a surprise to see how low I had him. I've got my homes at 20. That feels weird. I'm not sure exactly where his ADP is. I think it's 12. So well below ADP there. And then Jameson Williams. I have my 11. No one is surprised about that. I have, I know you're not surprised. It's way above. Look, from I think week seven on 81 for 1400 and eight was the pace. I know La Porta wasn't there. Jamal's a special player. He did a lot with a little, the volume increase that happened once they changed offensive coordinator play calling from Morton to Campbell. Campbell has such a heavy hand in this offense. We'll see what happens. But, but I like it. I liked the opportunity for Jameson Williams. I think he's still going to be a value. I think people are, are too down on him. And the rankings I'm about to talk about, this is how you know, when we go in our, we do our projections of how we see a team shaking out that we aren't just saying, Hey, I like that guy. And then I'm going to move him up or I don't like that guy. I'm going to move him down because I currently live in the upside down where I have, look, I've projected Travion Henderson player. I love, I've projected Deandre Swift player. I have not, not said very kind things about and Swift is so much higher than Travion Henderson. I have him as a mid RB two. I don't see any way it doesn't happen. Meanwhile, Henderson's of, and it makes this graphic is great. It makes you miserable. I hate that they're there. And I went like, I've doubled, I've triple checked. I've gone into Henderson and you're like, how who can I, is there anything that we're like the account with the, with the, yes. I'm like, well, I have half a target share here, half a rush percent here. It doesn't change that I have Swift projected for a much stronger fantasy football play than Henderson. Henderson is like, like Luther Burton, things could go so right for that player. And then they're just going to be top tier options. But the way I see the Patriots shaking out and the Chicago Bears who the Bears offense is going to be even, they're going to be even better this year. Imagine that offense and Caleb Williams completes, I don't know, 63% of this passes. What is that? You're asking a little too much. But how good is that team then? That team would be good. It is ironic because I think the team, the Bears, if people are here and meet down on Luther Burton, I think the Bears offense is going to be outstanding. Luther Burton, a big part of that, but there's so many talented players there and Swift will be a huge beneficiary. Yeah. Mike is, he's really in it with this whole situation. I hate it, but this is what it is, man. So yeah, you're high on Swift, lower on Travion than you'd like to be. Yes. And you know, that's another one of the, we did Travion's video for the UDK. You know, there's a hundred plus player profile videos. We did Travion's and it was like, we have to acknowledge the real situation for each of these players. How many people are they sharing the backfield with? What's the true upside based on their offensive line, the chance these teams are around the goal line. I mean, there are a lot of discussions. We did quench on Judkins as well, who, you know, we had some, some video come out. He's looking pretty good in his recovery right now, but talking through the Browns and that offense. So I definitely check them out in the UDK. Let's talk news. News and notes from around the league. Guess who's back? Rashi. Rashi Rice violated his probation by testing positive for marijuana. He has been ordered to serve 30 days in jail, which he was already going to have to serve. So that is a point of clarification that we can share for people that we have. That wasn't new. Like he basically what happened was, is he had been ordered through his last legal trouble situation, the freeway incident. The freeway incident. He was ordered to serve 30 days in jail, but he had the, he had optionality as to when he would serve those 30 days by violating his probation because his probation stipulated no illegal substances and in Texas, it's an illegal substance. So he had to follow one rule. He couldn't do it. And so the judge basically said, well, guess what? You go, yeah, you go, you go serve your 30 days right now. We also found out he is recovering from a cleanup surgery on his right knee that he just, yeah. So he'll be recovering in jail. Yeah. He'll be rehabbing in jail and missing all the practice time with the team. Does he get like conjugal from doctors? Okay. What? He's got to be rehabbing. I wouldn't, I just know what they'd call them. Like, and I don't know if you know what that means. I sure hope not. I hope you don't know what that means. Oh, and, and no. It's going to be a good show. Maybe he's close with some PTs. That's too close. Matthew Betts, our injury expert, talked about the fact we knew that in 2024 he had the season ending knee injury, the LCL hamstring and PCL, right? And this surgery, I guess, is to remove loose debris. It's a concern for, according to Betts, a cartilage injury, which can be common with the previous one he suffered. So legal, medical and really, and mental and decision making. Yeah. I mean, it's just, he is, he's not someone that you want to rely on. Also contract. Now, for this season, we'll find out if a suspension comes from this, the NFL already looked in said they weren't going to previously suspend him, but now there is new information violating the parole. He could end up missing games. We'll find out as we come along. However, I think that he will still be good for fantasy this year. I have him on our main dynasty league and I can't. Is that why you think that? No, no, no, no, no, no. I cannot wait until he is scoring a lot of fantasy points in week five or week six and I am going to do everything in my power to move on. I don't want from a dynasty. Because you want the next shoe to drop. Exactly. You know, it's not like he can't get out of jail and make another decision that is worse, you know, and then they go and then he has a longer stint that he is so fragile, has no contract for next year. Is team dependent? I think if he goes and signs somewhere else and isn't with the Andy Reed, Patrick Mahomes thing, I don't know that his skill set just applies to every team. So from a dynasty perspective, I'm terrified. From a redraft perspective, this is not good, but I still think he'll be very valuable because the shield, they just, they don't like when players show up in the news like this, even though it was not an additional punishment for Rice. This is now like just flaring it up. Was this four different incidents? I mean, even though he didn't get punished for the last one, they got like dropped or whatever, he's still in the news for something off the field and it's disappointing and frustrating. And yeah, I mean, I was like, he was ranked very high. I took a couple of games off just as a kind of a hedge against the risk of the next decision and the fact he could get a suspension for a game. He could get it for two games. He could be dealing with this medical injury, you know, where it slows him down. I had been trying to trade for him in redraft in our League of Records and thank goodness, these two gentlemen to the left of me weren't willing to take a trade off or even send a counter because they could have been out on for she rice for big money that I would never pay now. But yeah, there's your raw she rice update of the day and I hope we don't get to have to keep giving them. Yeah, I mean, just like touchdowns only would be great. Cam Scataboo. Yeah. He'll be ready to play in week one according to Cam Scataboo. I mean, he's, he's funny. I mean, Jackson D'Art did come out and make a comment about the offense being run first. That's one of the things we talk about in the UDK about Jackson D'Art when we were debating the merits of him as a breakout candidate. That's how I saw this offense. That's why with hardball taking over versus Dable, that's my one little cautionary worry about this Jackson D'Art. How do you protect Jackson D'Art from himself? Some a little bit like you do run the football and the ball off to Scataboo. His quote was we're going to keep giving it to Scataboo until they can stop it, which last year people couldn't stop it. So it's just interesting to see what that offense is going to look like in New York because they're probably not starting the year with a healthy Malik neighbors. They lost Wondale. They brought in Isaiah likely and then Cam Scataboo seems like he's on the way back. Well, I mean, he said he was going to get 2000 rushing yards this year. He did. But he did some, he did like fantasy football math on that. He's like I got 400 yards on a hundred. He did a 17 game projection. He did. Yeah. Cam. All right. I mean, we got a call into the show. That's great. Give us some analysis. Well, you may have a chance to chat with them soon. Tua, Tonga by Loa and Michael Pinnick splitting first team reps just like you want your quarterback position to do. All right. Who wins? Call it now. Cam. Week one. Tua. Mike. Week one, Tua. Pinnick's. Cool. All right. Let's move on. Want to answer that question? Well, that's brutal. I could have said two and you wouldn't have to, but okay. Well then. I said Pinnick. So you have to answer it now. Then I will say I think Tua wins. I think he's the better quarterback. All right. We'll take a break and come back with some mailbag. Man. Yeah. Haves and have nots in the quarterback area. Right. The story of the NFL. Back in a moment. This weather's given you ideas, isn't it? Virgin Atlantic holidays has got you. This is your sign to bounce between islands on a long tailboat in Thailand or eat a bagel the size of your face in New York or rain for his trek to hidden waterfalls in the Caribbean. This bank holiday weekend, save up to 300 pounds. Book in store over the phone or online at Virgin Atlantic holidays. Select routes for T's and C's. Visit virginatlantic.com. At all protected. Most CRMs are clunky and slow down your team. It's time to switch to a new one. That's where pipe drive comes in. A simple CRM for growing sales teams. Seal your deals and customer info in one pipeline. It's powerful enough to grow with your business, yet simple enough for your team to love using it. Switch to pipe drive and join over 100,000 companies. Visit pipe drive.com forward slash audio to get started with a 30 day free trial. Mailbag. All right. We are into the Mailbag answering your questions. Looks like we got a voicemail question to start us off. If you want to send your question into the show, you can go to the website, dfantasyfootballers.com. Click the submit a question button. Or you can dial our voicemail hotline 3024640FFB. Let's kick it off. What's up ballers? I was wondering if it has ever come up for you guys or what your opinion is on creating AI fake news posts about players and posting them in league chats to tank people's perceptions and values on the player in order to trade for them. Not saying I do this, but it has come up. I'd love to hear what you guys think. Thanks. A whole new. So the first half is a whole new because we've had Photoshop. We've had, there's ways that you can, you know, like just on your screen, edit a website and their, their headlines that that has been done several times to great joy by us. But it is, it's always so far out of the realm of possibility that you don't, it's not like so and so sprains ankle out four to six weeks. You can't do that. Yeah. That's on the same, that's on the same level of like a player tears his ACL and then the next day you're like trying to trade him and make sure the other person doesn't know it happened. Like it's funny. This, this would be worse than that. You are making up the lies. So have fun with your AI and your fake stuff. But let it be fun. Cause that, that can be enjoyable. I mean, over the years we have joked that we should make an alternate podcast that gives the opposite advice that you could give to your friends. Yeah. But no, fake news as funny as that might be. I don't think we're in on that. As long as it's funny, it has to be satire. Not just, not just sort of might be real entertainment purposes only. Yes. We got an Instagram question. What is the sneakiest trade that you have done or influenced to benefit yourself? Well, I know mine. I got two trades. One awesome, one terrible. The, the ridiculous one I didn't make with you, Andy for seguan. The one sneaky, but sneaky. I traded a guy for a fifth round pick in our league of record. Oh my gosh. You know, you know, the one it was, it was, there was some news layout, some news, there was some news coming out about me. This was over a decade ago, right? So it was a while ago, but Aaron Hernandez. Oh my gosh. Might or might not have killed someone. We don't know the news was looking bad. He might get a rest. I'm like, and everybody saw this news. This wasn't me like, right? Pulling something over the wool on someone's eyes, but I was like, I'm out. I'll take anything. And I traded him for a fifth and I think it was like the next day. He was just arrested and never got out of jail again. Yeah. That's sneaky. You do. There are ripcord moments. I did it last year with Joe mixing in the off season. Oh yeah. Yes, you did. That's a great example. That one was the worst. I got a sixth and it felt bad because he was a keeper. But when the bread trail starts and you are, I saw where it was going. Full slices of bread. You know, which the Hansel and Gretel are about to get cooked. I still feel bad. That was my like former co-manager that just took over a new team. Oh man. And now I tried to trade with him lessons, tried to trade with him this off season. He's like, no, he's like, no, he's like, no, not after what you did to me with mixing. I'm like, I didn't know that to yourself. I didn't know. I didn't get a first. I got a sixth, but it was better than what makes you put up, which was I mean, they're trading guys who after you trade them, never do another thing. And bad. Good and bad. Look, the sneakiest thing that ever happened was in this office. Oh, yeah. I mean, between these two gentlemen. Yeah. I mean, you've got an already Alborland's pointing at Bob and Josh's though he's not involved. But I mean, those of you that have been around for a while, you'll remember those that are new. Let me introduce you to the story. I came up with a three way trade for Jamar Chase in the middle of the season. And I went through and I, you know, dotted my eyes and crossed my T's and like, I got it to where it was just perfect for all three parties. Right. And I introduced it to these guys and we're all talking about it. And somewhere along the way, after I came up with the complicated framework of a three team trade, which is very hard to do. One of these guys whispers to the other, let's just cut Andy out of the whole deal. And they did it. And I saw that trade go through. Wouldn't that make your part of the trade truly indispensable or dispensable? It was like you weren't needed. What do you remember? That's what they decided. Bingo. That's what they even remember. Like what the trade originally was. No, Mike. All I remember is how mad I was. When the trade went through. And I thought the trade went through. I got the alert and sleeper. And I was certain it was the trade that was in sleeper that we were all like you were excited to see your trade because on a three way trade, you have to each all three parties have and two of us had already hit the button on yes. I mean, you see the alert and I'm like, I see the names. I see Chase and I'm like, I got him. Yeah, that's based off of your other Jamar Chase trade. It would have been you get Jamar Chase and you trade away nothing. And then no, no, don't poison the well of this trade with my other exploits. Okay. My other exploits were ridiculous. Speaking of other exploits, I thought what you were going to say is the sneakiest is way back in the day when you shared news with Mike when I undercut him that you were getting was it Calvin Johnson or someone bro bro. That was Mike's worst. Yeah. He's like, Oh, he's available. I tell Mike I have a trade for Calvin Johnson on like I was like, I don't want to tell you this, but I'm going to tell you it. And we were out of flag football game and I was not interested at Calvin Johnson. No. And I'm just sharing with my buddy the trade I'm about to make and I go home and Calvin's traded well, Mike many, many hours later where same night meant I'm just saying you had your chance to close the deal and then I'm like, Oh hogwash. And I was like this. This would be pretty funny. And then it was not funny. It was not funny. It also ruined my season. So yeah, that's for the best and there's and there's season two. I won the title that year. So eat it. I'm still mad about it. Kyron Williams question from C James. What's up ballers. Am I a fool for being scared about Kyron this year? He has been the consistency king. We have actually talked through this amongst ourselves recently. You're not a fool for I don't think you're a fool for feeling scared having to be scared of Kyron. I don't think you need to be that far but too nervous to have some concern about what really happened in terms of the percent of running back attempts for Kyron at the beginning of the year. There was a clear shift where his was going down and Corum was going up and Corum was playing well. It wasn't like they're trying out their third round pick and he's out there failing. He was he was producing for the Rams. So I don't I'm not completely scared away from drafting Kyron but it is the timeshare is more real and there is a chance that it becomes even closer this year. And I see the fact that Blake Corum was good was more involved in the second half of last year. However, Kyron is their primary starter. He is going to play the majority of snaps. I can't I do not believe this will be 50 50. And if you look back at the last the end of last year where the timeshare was more shared it just the last 10 games after that by week Kyron Williams Pace was 1300 yards and 13 touchdowns plus the passing work like Corum doing well didn't mean that did not equal Kyron not doing well. Kyron's a really good player that they have paid a lot of money to be their starter. I would just say that I mean it is a math equation though. Like if you do have lower opportunity you have to have more efficiency. That's what we saw during that stretch. I mean Mike the other day pointed out the the change in opportunities or in terms of like what was it it was snap percentage was the running back attempts running back attempts. It changed quite a bit but Kyron became more efficient in that span. He was actually low efficiency before the change over happened. It does require that to maintain itself or or touchdowns to go way up because Adams is not getting as many or you know there's a number of ways more involvement in the passing game. There are ways you can turn the dials to where okay I don't get as many rushing attempts but I'm still a successful for fantasy but it is something to watch. I mean I like I'd rather I'll say this I'd rather have an offseason where there aren't rumors that my starting running back could be in a 50-50 timeshare. Right. You don't have to believe the rumors. I like situations where they're impossible to be made. That's not one of them. Counter argument. I really like when I get value when dumb rumors say that there's going to be a timeshare and he drops to the third round and then it's like oh man I've just got a guy that's a top 10 running back again double digit touchdowns again on the best or one of the best offenses in the league. The first two years of Kyron it was a 37 percent and a 38 percent workhorse as in so that percent of teams you know targets and running back attempts that dropped to 30 percent in this past year. So an eight percent drop 30 is still fantastic. Still a very snap percentage from 87 to 68. I care more about that. You know like the work is 30 percent. If he stayed there then Kyron's Kyron will be he'll crush where his 80 P is. But if that dips down into the mid 20s all of a sudden it's not looking so great. Kyron right now is the RB 15. Yeah. So the risk is there. All right. It's like it's baked into the 80. Yeah. I mean I but to answer the question I don't think you're a fool for feeling nervous about how it's going to shake out but scared is an overplay. They'll be scared just right having you know pay attention to it. It's tough because you don't really want to you don't really recommend in those situations go out and get Blake Corum because what happens is the worst case scenario here isn't really you know like you're going to have to pay more for Corum than you would a normal hand hand cuff type of back right. Right. So yeah. Corum might be just playable that was but so to that point you can't really go out and have both because then you could get in a situation where you just don't know which one to start or you never start both on the same week. It's it's a little weird. I remember Seattle had running back rooms with Carson and Penny and those guys that it was in that boat where it was tough. So just something to be aware of Ben writes in dynasty follow up question would you prefer Buck your being or Kyren Williams in a dynasty dynasty. I mean Bucky is what 22 or something. So Kyren will be turning 26 this year is 23 and a buck you'll turn 24. So the ages not terribly different. You know the running back kind of cliff that we talk about of when they're 27. This is kind of the peak value you'll be able to get. They may have a couple more years of production but if you're going to get out that's kind of when you got to do it. I think I take I'm going to take Kyren there. I think I am as well. I know I'm the Kyren Apologist but he's got three years left on his contract. They could technically get out after two but that's enough time where you're going to have a real valuable piece. I'm just looking Kyren sitting at I've got Bucky quite a bit higher in dynasty. Yeah. Our consensus startups have Bucky higher. Yeah. But I'm I'm actually I'm moving that right now because having just thought about it I'd take Kyren. Yeah. It's window versus you know potential. I think I think you could definitely end up in a situation where when this season's over I think it'll be a very clear decision. Let me put it that way. Right now it seems murky. I think and I'm not saying I know which answer it will be but I think when the season ends it will be obvious because either Kyren is going to continue doing what he's been doing and you're going to have four years of it or Bucky is going to step up into the role or Bucky is going to fade away. Right. And I think that's the general fear because you asked this question at the beginning of last year. It's Bucky easy for everybody. So that's an interesting one. So good question there been Instagram question from Maddie Wills full PPR question is James Cook or CD lamb a better keeper in a full PPR. So 33 receptions for Cook this past year 32 the year before. So I mean with with Brady at the offense that's probably right of right on target you know mid 30s. I think the PPR would PPR I'm going to take CD. I mean being a keeper I think a keeper league not a dynasty. I view this as basically which player would you draft first. If you're on the clock in a mock draft are you taking James Cook or CD lamb first right. That's that's the only thing that matters. I don't want people to get too caught up with age or position in a keeper league. I'm just thinking of this year. So this year which one are you taking first in the PPR. I think I would stick with CD. I do lean that way as well. I mean I always love having a stalwart number one running back. I mean if you ask this question throw some other names in there for Cook where does the line get drawn because Cook's probably around six in our rankings like if it's Gentier CD this year who do you take CD CD if it's Jonathan Taylor or CD this year. Jonathan Taylor Jonathan CMC. Yeah I'll take McCaffrey. I think that one's tough because I view McCaffrey and James Cook very similarly. I think the Bonnet Chan or CD. Go and eat. I'll go. I take a game. I take a chance. Cook is my line. He's my running back six and I'd take the five other running backs before him. Okay. Yeah that makes sense. It's an interesting one. YouTube question from Brandt why wouldn't bone next in Jalen Waddle be a top five stack. Why wouldn't well if Jalen Waddle finishes as say the wide receiver 24 which is in his range of outcomes not a bad year but not great then you're not a top five stack. You to be one of the best stacks you need the wide receiver to be top 12. Yeah I mean that's that's the best stacks in football right now. Burrow and Chase for sure Stafford Puka. Mm hmm. J. S. Drake may and maybe eventually AJ Brown. That will be one of the best hurts and Devontae Smith. Golf and I'm on raw. Dack and CD or Dack and Pickens. Yeah Dack and either. Yeah. What you're naming there is I think Dax CD Jamar Burrow or my two wide receivers are absolute alphas and so for yeah do you believe that about Waddle. I don't I think he'll be the number one wide receiver for his team. It's just wild because like what he can do. Yeah I mean he's been the wide receiver seven but that was I know it was a long time ago long time ago. I don't look at him through that lens of primary alpha either. I do have bone X hired and I expected because of Jalen Waddle but not as a like I'm targeting that stack. Sam wants to know our thoughts on three wide receiver leagues. It's great. I think more depth whenever there's more players that you have to play it becomes I think more fun. Obviously there's a limit to that where you're playing scraps and garbage but a three wide receiver league is great. I think that if you're in a super flex league you have to have three wide receivers. That really helps balance it out. It makes more decision making and it can you know the quarterbacks in a super flex league are usually a little bit overpowered and so having more depth required to start a wide receiver means if you didn't go the quarterback route you have more optionality but I love three three wide. Yeah I would say that when we did our mock draft episode on Tuesday what jumped out is the running back cliff and then how many totally fine wide receivers were sitting there that I when I looked back at the drafts I was like man I wish I had taken a running back there because I would have been totally fine with this guy here. Which I will say that was the only thought that crossed my mind because I took CD over James Cook in that question a moment ago but it did cross my mind where it's like there is more depth of wide receiver later in the draft so if you want to you know if you're more comfortable grabbing late wide receivers versus late running backs grabbing the running back and the first is the way you get there. Blaze writes in from New York. Blaze. When you guys talk about Ted Hearst I immediately think of Fred Durst. Yeah. Could that be a good nickname on this show. It's 1999. I'm sure we can get a drop. Here's what's important to me is I'm looking at this. I'm looking at this picture. You tell me I get to do like Fred Durst impressions. This is what I'm getting at. Yeah I'm looking at this picture of Fred Durst and I'm already seeing Halloween from one of you. Oh man. From one of you guys the bread hat. If Mike makes that sound when we say that when we bring up Ted Hearst I wish it didn't sound like an insult to nickname him Limp Bizkit. But I'm gonna be honest. It does. I you know because we're going to run into a go here comes limp. Right. Yeah. There's a warning. Many ways I can go wrong. I'm talking like Fred Durst will never be wrong. We'll take it under consideration. Blaze. I almost got a spit from Jason. The water was not in my mouth yet. But I don't know how we don't have Fred Durst on the back wall yet. That's yeah I'm really disappointed. We'll take a break and see if we can remedy that. More questions after this. Is the sunshine putting you in the holiday mood. Virgin Atlantic holidays has the answer. This is your sign to bounce between islands on a long tailboat in Thailand. Or eat a bagel the size of your face in New York. Or rain forest trek to hidden waterfalls in the Caribbean. This bank holiday weekend save up to 300 pounds. Book in store over the phone or online at Virgin Atlantic holidays. Select routes for teas and seas visit Virgin Atlantic dot com at all protected. Most CRMs are clunky and slow down your team. It's time to switch to a new one. That's where pipe drive comes in. A simple CRM for growing sales teams. See all your deals and customer info in one pipeline. It's powerful enough to grow with your business. It's simple enough for your team to love using it. Switch to pipe drive and join over 100,000 companies. Visit pipe drive dot com forward slash audio to get started with a 30 day free trial. Welcome back to the fantasy footballers podcast. We're in the mailbag. More questions. Maybe more nickname recommendations. We'll see. YouTube question from Dresden keeper league. We keep one rookie every year. Would you keep scatter boo or a Mecca big boo. I'd keep a book. I've got both of them around 15 in their position. But one of them is not coming off of a bad injury. So I'll go a book as well. Ted Hurst himself. Ted Hurst has appeared on the back wall for those listening at home. He does bury striking resemblance to man. Fred. Fred. I'll keep workshopping this one guys. I just you know I when I when you think of Fred Durst what is like the first down. What is the first like actual memory you have of of Fred. Yeah. Because I cannot like there was some school dance I went to where I remember walking in the. I was too much. I remember walking into the school dance and that was in here in Limpisk. It was playing on the speakers. My first one first was faith from six dollar bill y'all. Okay. This has to keep Ted Hurst is screwed. Oh my goodness. Who Jason you you love Ted Hurst. Yeah. Yeah. Oh I'll fire that record up tonight. I'll have some more later. Nathan writes in where would you rank Luther Burton. If he was in this year's rookie draft. Great question. It's going to be the first round. It's going to be very high. Burden or lemon at five. I would go lemon. I and maybe you wouldn't. Conception is the one where I feel like I would take Burden above lemon. You would. Yeah that would be my line right there. Yeah. So one oh four. I take Tate and Tyson ahead of him and I would take I take him before I think I would. But again I don't have him ranked at 30. So I would as of right now. Yeah I would take him at the one oh four. But I do see a world where you'd be like well I should have taken I should have traded the one oh two for Luther Burden. I am I'm very hot and bothered by you are you are. Yeah. And I it'll be very interesting. I mean there are a lot of weapons but we don't have a problem with that in Detroit. We don't have a problem with that on the ramps. So it's if you believe what you said about their offense being as good as it could be. No more DJ more. There's room. I think there's room. I'm sure the the the Venn diagrams of Rome truthers and Luther doubters is a like perfect circle because you're just holding on to your Rome of Dunes like if you don't if you have burden at 30 and I'm not I'm not picking on that rest fine your ranking is fine Rome better be lower than that. Well no I was going to say Rome better be super high or or love than has to be super higher. You have to have a couple of these if you think their office is going to be great. That would be like you know going to Cincinnati and saying I got Higgins and Chase low like you can't have a good offense without a huge fantasy production. I have I have Mr. Love Land very high and I've got I've got Rome ahead of burden. That's just how the chips fell for me when I was looking at the games played. I realized later in the season when they were they were a little bit closer together. But I mean if anyone says they know for sure who's going to have more targets between Rome and burden you're you're lying. You don't know the future and it could go either way. But I would say to just push back a little bit on the I do think that Bears office is going to be very good. But you compared them to the Lions like we don't have a problem with that with the Lions. Well it was a step forward comments. I mean they're only stepped forward for them. They were the six best offense last year. But I'm just saying Jared Goff has thrown forty four hundred yards forty five hundred yards forty six hundred yards forty five hundred yards the last four years. If Caleb can take that leap up to forty five hundred yards oh my gosh loser burdens going to be amazing 63 percent. Yes. So I mean a few hundred yards that is part of the issue for me is just how big a step forward can Caleb Williams take. If you only look at the games that we threw for a million yards to project them over the year he throws for a billion. Yeah that's a man that's some good analysis. Brrr. What did he what did Caleb Williams throw last year. It was thirty nine forty four something like that. He just wanted to. It was the it was the you remember when Devonte Adams had never had a thousand yards. Yes. And you were like he'd be like because he had nine hundred ninety something. I loved it when you had to. I'd rub that in every week. Braden Chase Brown or Hampton. He's back to back in our they're back to back in our consensus rankings. You're on the clock. You've got to pull the trigger. Jason Hampton Chase Brown. I just say Jason. I don't know. I mean here's this only one of us has Chase Brown higher and it isn't near you. Yeah. So this is an easy question for me. I'll take Chase Brown. I love both these guys but I would go Hampton. I think they also went back to back in our mock draft. They are two of my favorite targets where they're going like Hampton could have like a chase Brown season. If we're lucky. Yeah. Can Chase Brown have another chase Brown season. He's had two or one and a half if you want to call it that. Yeah. Safest wide receiver that you would take in around three to be your wide receiver one. So these are always fun questions. I think this one's from azerb. Azerb. Was that the name. Azerb. All right. Some sleeper. OK. So wide receivers going in that range. Pickens. Olave. Rice Brown Higgins. Ted Higgins Ted are like right on the verge. I think I think the bigger question they're like I don't I don't have a problem with Ted as my one. I don't have a problem with Pickens as my one. I think I get nervous about a lot of you really do. So you you're going to go McMillan over Olave. I would but I have McMillan pretty high. I mean I I do. I don't know. Like I think Olave was pretty the touchdown numbers were getting a little wild weren't they last year for a lot of me remember. Yeah. He had a stretch of he finished the season with nine. He had he had a good amount of him towards the end. Yeah. He scored in one two three four five of his last seven games before the injury. You bring in Tyson. You bring in H. Ann Jr. He was he was a one stop shop there. I feel a little more nervous about a lot of a mixed injury with it too. AJ Brown is the easy answer but the question is if he's traded to New England does he stay in the third round. I mean I would have said rice as well before this news which I maybe should still say I think he'll be good but the question was safest and I would say there is nothing safe with rice. I feel the safest with Ted. His youth and position is pretty secure. Everybody else there competes with somebody. Yeah I mean they all come to that's number one funny that the ADP I'm looking at actually has Garrett Wilson later in the fourth. Yeah doesn't apply. Fine with that. I feel fine with Garrett Wilson as my one. Yeah. Yeah. YouTube question from Cingy best budget tight end for 2026 in Dynasty. Obviously you have the top guys in McBride Bowers Loveland Warren Fannin but they're expensive hard to acquire. Who's your surprise top 10 tight end this year last year. Joann Ferguson Goddard Henry all snuck into the top 10. Chick. Yeah. If you're going with the the budget tight end. Oh nice. Oh Conquo could be someone who Conquo. Yes. That's I think that's the thing that's the bit. I have Henry at nine. Henry feels and I hate it. So the Henry feels safe. Right. But they feel like real safe. They're going to be nine or they're going to be right around there. If Oh Conquo hits is better than those. I think that the ceiling is much higher. Ferguson could be an answer to that. He needs George or CD to not play. I mean I still think yeah. Oh dude the numbers when they're both on the field. I know but he got banged up didn't he. I thought Ferguson got banged up. I don't recall. He played all 17. If that's what you mean by banged definitely what I mean. So I mean he had a he had a tight end seven nine 12. He is he is very very capable. Just the word budget came to mind when I think about Henry Schultz Ferguson. They're out there on a lot of snaps. Britain Strange could be in that category. Strange will have spike weeks but he just doesn't seem like someone who's going to he won't overtake all the other guys. Do you have any other names Jason. I don't know. Maybe with the arrival of Najoku Gadston could be budget in a dynasty league. I'm certainly still very in on a rendezvous Ariana Gadston nice and then don't forget about Greg Dulcich. This is this is super budget. They were in the super budget area here. I mean this like waivers on dynasty. Right. But he is at Miami. He finished you know these aren't like sensational numbers but 41 yards 46 46 58. If you're doing that all year long that's a thousand yard wide receiver and he no one's drafting him and they don't have anybody. What if Malik Willis is truly good and then who's the number one option there besides a chance. The Malik Willis discussion is just that one's like totally funny to me because all the evidence we have is that Malik Willis can play quarterback. Well that's the evidence we have. We just don't have much of green Bay on Green Bay. Yeah. Well I mean there you go. I mean well the only thing that we can point to possibly for Malik Willis is what he did on the field. It doesn't he didn't get to choose how often played but only team he played for. Yeah. Okay. In recent history. I mean there's some qualifiers. You want to go back to rookie year Malik. He didn't get signed off of that. Right. He got signed off of what he did in Green Bay. I just think it's funny. This is exactly my point. Thank you for making it for me. You can't talk about him doing well. Nobody's allowing it. Oh he played really good. Oh there's only three games. Oh he played really well. But what about before he played well like way back in the past like four years ago as a rookie on a different team. I just think it's funny. Nobody can acknowledge that Malik Willis can throw the football. I can acknowledge it even though teams fought for him in free agency. I can acknowledge that he can run the football. Oh my gosh. Did he did he play well in his Green Bay star. Did he throw the ball well. Yes he did. Yes but not. I mean for fantasy purposes. No just for real life. No I mean he's the whole point of this conversation was supporting the tight end of Greg Dulcich. I don't think he's going to throw prolifically for a bunch of yards. That's my point based on even if he's not even you're basing that on the evidence of Green Bay. I mean he wasn't putting up huge yardage numbers. He got to start one game last year through for 288 yards. Is that good enough. What about his other two starts. He didn't have any more last year. The year before is 122 and 202. And that was the beginning of the previous year. I don't know. I mean the door is not allowed to be cracked open for Malik Willis to throw for 300 yards. That's what I think. I'm not I'm not as I'm not as bullish as you are. I'm not saying he will not out. But what hold on. I'm not bullish. I'm not saying he's going to do it. I'm saying that I'm open to the idea as am I. Okay. Okay. No as I think it's due to the evidence of him doing it. He is a great open to him doing it. He is a great late round pick. Do you think he will do it. I'll tell you what I haven't projected for. How about that. Wouldn't that be the best evidence. That is the best evidence. The best evidence. I hope I haven't projected 3,951 yards past. 3,900. Okay. So you definitely think it's going to happen. Okay. Is that what I said. Is that what that means. Yeah. You have him throwing for that's more than Caleb Williams through last year. Right. No. That's right around there. Yeah. Caleb. It's about five yards more. I think it was 30. 3951 divided by 17 is 232 a week. Whoop de do. Well I mean you heard it here from Andy Holloway. Malik Willis greater signed Caleb Williams. Yeah. More prolific pass. Just as a passer. Chicago makes it feel like you can't like that's a big number. Chicago makes you feel like 4,000 is impossible. You have hundreds of players do this all the time. I will say the last year was last year there was only six of them. Oh shut up Mike. There were injuries like burrow definitely would have been a 4,000 yard guy. Uh huh. Lamar maybe. Yeah. Cool. Is that saying. I wanted to try to find the so there were six last year over 4,000. Correct. It's probably a tall task. It's funny because 4,000 doesn't sound like a lot. I mean it's 230 a week. I mean that's what it is. It's 230 a week. I don't disagree with the math. We always joke about like 202 is a good streaming quarterback number. Yeah. It's just the I am not nerfing numbers as we speak. Al sees me over here. He thinks I'm tweaking my numbers down. Malik Willis for the record is my quarterback 15 and six point leagues. Don't ask me about four points. I love that you preempted what you knew was coming. He's number six. If he throws for 4,000 yards. Yeah. 3951. That is for sure. How dare you. I'll tell you what, if he throws for 3,700, he will be a top six quarterback. Such a good pick. Do it. Remember this. Do it. Willis. Remember this under one circumstance. But he doesn't. All right. We're done. Oh, no. Get that off of me. The spotlight is on. All I was doing is trying to defend the honor of this man who got a big contract. Only for playing well and nobody acknowledges the chance for 230 yards. You're crazy. He's going to be on my team apparently. And that is it for today's episode. Fantasy wildcards on our next. I saw Max Hall beat the New Orleans Saints. He didn't get paid $500 bazillion in the off season. Fantasy wildcards on Tuesday. The ultimate draft kit is 11 days away. Pre-order it at ultimate draft kit.com. You do not want to lose at your draft. That is the foundation you get to set for your entire year. Tons of tools. We've been building out the UDK for over 10 years now. Adding more and more resources, making it easier and easier to use the apps, the online experience, all of our sleepers, breakouts, busts and values that we all agree on are inside of that tool. We've got so many new things coming. You do not want to miss out on it and it's pre-order price. So ultimate draft kit.com. I'm going to go figure out this home. A league willis situation, maybe buy a jersey apparently. I don't know what we're saying. Goodbye. So thank you for joining us for the fantasy footballers. Farewell. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at the FF ballers. Is the sunshine putting you in the holiday mood? Virgin Atlantic holidays has the answer. This is your sign to bounce between islands on a long tailboat in Thailand or eat a bagel the size of your face in New York or rain forest trek to hidden waterfalls in the Caribbean. This bank holiday weekend save up to 300 pounds book in store over the phone or online at Virgin Atlantic holidays. Select routes for T's and C's visit virginatlantic.com at all protected. Most CRMs are clunky and slow down your team. It's time to switch to a new one. That's where pipe drive comes in. A simple CRM for growing sales teams. See all your deals and customer info in one pipeline. It's powerful enough to grow with your business. It's simple enough for your team to love using it. Switch to pipe drive and join over 100,000 companies. Visit pipedrive.com forward slash audio to get started with a 30 day free trial.