Welcome to the fantasy footballers podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.

Welcome in. Mike, the fantasy hitman. Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, the fantasy footballers podcast back with you Monday, August 12th. Preseason week one in the books. Was that okay?

I thought it was even more than okay.

I mean, some people gave us... Some teams gave us some stuff. Some teams did not.

But it was fun. There was more this year than I think last year. Presumably, that's because of the Rooks being behind center. There was a lot of them, and that was the exciting thing. I'm jumping into it right now, but man, it was fun to watch.

Yeah, I laughed at McDermott in Buffalo. The starters are out there, and then they're mid-drive, but then the quarter, it goes to break because the quarter ends, and then all the starters stay out there for the rest of that drive, except for Josh Allen. We are following the quarter rule. We're not going to finish the drive. We're going to get him off the field because we said one quarter.

You got to follow your word.

But just for him.

So annoying. I just wanted to see the end of the drive. Quarterback ranking show today. Nfl news to talk about. We'll talk about some of our quick player takeaways from week one. And any adjustments you might be making to your rankings. We got ready to roll again on today's show, which was a big hit last week. Jason broke down the red zone situation with the defenses, the zone versus man, and some of the targets around the red zone as defense is changing the NFL. So we'll be doing a bit of a deep dive today to share with you. But I need some announcement horn. I need something... What do you got?

I think we got bigger than an announcement horn for this one. We got, Yeah, let's go, baby.

Jason was feeling super caffinator right then.

I did have quite a coffee this morning right before the show.

We wanted to announce something exciting.

This is supposed to have a big gulp of coffee, man.

A big gulp, he got 64 ounces.

It's not safe.

But I mean, it's appropriate for this. Yes, it is. This particular event because this week, not only is it my guys week, because we'll be announcing our my guys on the show this week on one of the shows. I'm not going to tell you which one, but it's one of them.

It's not this one. It's only four more possibilities.

But this is the week of our UDK for Life livestream, which means on Friday, 6:30 Eastern, 3:30 Pacific, we'll be giving away an ultimate draft kit for life. We do this every year, along with a signed Justin Jefferson jersey.

That's new.

Yeah. How can I enter? What an incredible giveaway. Thank you, Mickey. Mickey Mouse. Mickey, or the one Finnish runner from the Olympics. You can enter by simply purchasing the ultimate draft kit before the livestream. So if you've bought it in the past. You're entered to win. If you have not picked it up, you're not entered. You're not entered. Ultimatedraft Kit. Yeah. Yeah. Ultimatedraftkit. Com. And so- I mean, think about in your your estate planning.

Things you're passing on.

It's very important. All you get.

An ultimate draft kit.

What is this? This goes lineage?

Did we say you could be queath?

I'm saying you can.

Okay. All right. That's incredible.

I'm That's the one rank.

Yeah. No, I love it. But what about the for life part? No, that's a good point.

Bequeath TBD.

Okay. We'll have to get back to you on whether you can bequeath it. But for the rest of your life, you'll get the UDK. And let's be honest, you love the UDK. It's fun. And draft seasons are here. Literally this weekend, my daughter's boyfriend's family, they all had their draft.

Daughters's boyfriend's family.

Got it. They're not in-laws yet.

No, but soon.

There's not a name for that. Very spaceball.

You could have said some friends of ours.

What does that make us?

Okay, some friends of ours.

Absolutely nothing.

You're bragging about- Yes.

Yeah, that's a flex. Hey, everybody, my daughter's got a boyfriend. You see what's up? Yeah, she ain't no loser.

Oh, man.

She's a winner.

That's right. But they got a draft going on.

She is now co-managing that roster, and she will do absolutely nothing.

Yeah, that's frightening. Our family league getting started as well. But ultimatedraftkit. Com, get in on that giveaway. It'll be a lot of fun. Let's jump right in.

Welcome to Ready to Roll, presented by Nissan.

All right, Mike, you're going to bring us some special stuff.

I'm steering this car today.

Okay. Yeah.

So we're- Seared by wire? No, I'm old school, man. Full spinnies of the wheel. Look, it's draft time, and so much of the draft is As long as we're talking, you're in a snake draft here. It's ADP, the average draft position that drives so much of who you're able to get. It drives so much of what your opponents are you're going to do. Because it's a guide. It's staring you in the face. No matter what your plan is or what your rankings are, you still see the ADP, and so does everybody else. You have to understand that where you are, where you're drafting, it affects your ADP, and they can be wildly different. So we wanted to highlight those things. We're working with Sleeper this year, and that's the platform our colleagues are on. So we predominantly talk about ADP from that perspective. But the ADPs are different, like I said. Just for an example here, onesie positions. They are much lower if you're playing on the Yahoo platform. For example, Josh Allen in Sleeper, he's going at the 209, meanwhile on Yahoo, a full round later. Patrick Mahomes is going about a half a round later on Yahoo.

Mark Andrews, a round later. So onesie positions when you're on Yahoo, make sure you're checking that out, because when you're giving advice of, Well, I would take this player in the fourth, but you know that in your system, ADP-wise, they're going in the sixth, you got to adjust. Looking at the wide receiver, over on ESPN, which the default is full PPR on ESPN, the wide receivers are actually going later than the other platforms.

That doesn't make a no sense.

No, it really doesn't, but you need to highlight it.

Speaking in italics again?

Yeah.

You have to be aware of these things. Drake London on Sleeper, the 206. We talked about his ADP and the risk that is baked into it. You feel like you're drafting him at his ceiling. There's such a small margin for error. Over on ESPN, he's going at the back of the third right now for ADP. The boys in San Francisco, Iuk and Debo, about a full round later. Pay attention to these things. Jalen Waddle, one of my favorite players of the year. I'm happy to draft him in the third. I can get him, apparently, in the late fourth if I'm playing over there on ESPN. So it's really just make sure that you are checking these things out. We just highlighted a few here. In the ultimate draft kit, we have our ADP comparison tool where-Desktop only. Desktop only, yeah. Thank you, Mr..

Still getting emails all week and long. We will bring it to the app, I promise.

We'll get it. There are lots of things are being built here at the fantasy footballers. But the ADP comparison tool, it is in the ultimate draft kit. You can go check that out and see what's going on because it really is a big, big deal. When a player is going a full round later, like Malik Nabors, we'll see what happens to the ADP because he had a little footy injury. But he's been going in the fourth on sleeper. That's what we've been dealing with all year. I get the upside, but he makes me a little nervous at that price. But over on ESPN, full round later. That's so much more palatable to me than in the fourth. So pay attention. Adp comparison tool, check it out.

Another way to think about the whole average draft position discussion is just intelligence. You're gathering intelligence because you want to have a plan and a preparation for your draft. I can think back to our League of Record 10 plus years ago, we were so neurotic about it that we were running Having internal mock drafts about what we thought people would do in our league over and over and over again. And that was just to have expectations going into your draft. Nothing's going to play out according to ADP exactly or according to plan. We talk about having home team bias. If you're in a packer fan draft, you might have to reach a little bit if you want your guy. But having the context of every league format, what cheat sheet people might be walking into the draft with, that's what we're talking about.

Yeah, for sure. If I'm playing in Yahoo, using that tool, I look at Mark Andrews and Dalton Kincaida. It's like, That's part of my plan now. Because they're fourth round on other platforms, and you come here, and it's like, I can get them at the back of the fifth, the back of the sixth for Kincaida. It's like, Okay, I'm not going to look at Laporta. I'm not going to look at Kelsey necessarily if I think the value is there. So it just helps you make a plan.

Have you ever tried to convince your league to go draft someplace else because you like the ADP?

I I was, We'll move.

We'll draft over here. We'll move the league back. Don't worry about that.

Yeah, it's just like, Can we go draft on Yahoo today? Because I've got my eyes on Kincaid.

Yeah.

All right. That was ready to roll, presented by Nissan, Find Your Path in the 2024 Nissan Path, to Rock Creek, complete with an exclusive trim that gives extra ground clearance. Learn more at nissineusai. Com. Intelligent four-wheel drive cannot prevent collisions or provide enhanced traction in all conditions. Always monitor traffic and weather conditions.

News and notes from Around the League, presented by USAA Insurance.

All right, we've got news to talk about, some injuries to discuss, and big changes to rankings. Maybe not big changes, but some tweaks and additions and subtractions going on based on depth charts and how they're playing out in the preseason. I wanted to just ask the question, was there a player or two that stood out to you watching the film from Thursday through Sunday? For me, there were two names. It was the performance of Braille and Allen.

Yeah, baby.

For the New York Jets in the backfield. Much like Los Angeles, they would like a reliable change of pace, give Breese a break type of player. And Braille and Allen looked up to the task this weekend. Chunk plays, most effective runner of the preseason.

Yeah, had the strength, and obviously, he's got the size that we loved coming in. Also, shockingly, despite being a gigantic human, he's a baby boy. He is so young. He's 20. He's still 20. He can't get a beer, which is also great for his physical health. That was one.

The other one, I'll just throw out real quick.

Well, before you do, I had a question on Braille and Allen because we just did the Top 10 Running Back show, and one of the points you made was that you felt like the backup to Béjan in Tyler Algier could maybe make more of an impact than the backups that Bries had. If Braille and Allen continues this, does that make a difference in the Bries versus Bries on?

I went through the A lot of exercise. Yeah. I think Breanne Allen showing some explosiveness is a big deal, but rookies, trustworthiness, third downs, important drives. I think Alger has proven more of that. Sure. Yeah. So I hesitated to overdo it through one week. The other player was JJ McCarthy. I thought JJ McCarthy, he started with an interception that looked rather ugly, and of course, gets tweeted around instantaneously, and that is his career, that one interception. But then he just carved up the defense. He was moving in the pocket well, two shutdown passes. I thought he looked incredible. I think JJ McCarthy was one of the guys that jumped out.

Yeah, I'll hop in on the back of that because what excited me, and I mentioned it right at the top the show, was these rookie quarterbacks, man. A lot of times you see the rookie quarterbacks come out and look like they're going to need a lot of time. And obviously, this is preseason. We talked about how good Kenny Picket looked last year in preseason. You don't want to overdo it, but at the same time, they can either come out and look good or they can come out and look bad. You would much prefer them to look good. But specifically, Caleb Williams.

Oh, he looks so good.

Oh, man.

He looks so good. His arm strength, and I don't even know if it's arm strength because I watch when he throws, it's almost like in his core. He's flexing his abs as he throws his body forward on the run with a laser. And he looked great. Jaden Daniels looked good, airing it out down the field. Bo Nicks. Bo Nicks finished the game looking great, scoring on most of his drives. I saw his first interception being shared on Twitter, which was Jared Stittam. That was not Bo Nicks. But yeah, I was just excited because if you look at some of the changes, the kickoff rules, and seeing like, Oh, this could actually increase scoring. And you look at quarterbacks coming in, you figure, how many major quarterbacks were there drafted this year? Is it five?

Five, yeah. You did not mention Drake May in your rundown.

I didn't.

He didn't get much time.

Yeah, we didn't. Jury's still out there. But it's like, you would expect that most of them won't hit. If you're just looking at most years, when there's four or five quarterbacks drafted, you look back a couple of years later It was like, there's two hits. Hopefully. Hopefully, yeah. And so if there was a world where these guys hit, what this does for the whole of the NFL is just so good.

Always great to have some new faces at the quarterback position. Mike, what do you think?

Jordan Mason from San Francisco.

Oh, he really did.

He looked good, which is that's great. You get the offseason, the whispers from the Bushes starting to grow louder for him to be the backup, goes out there while... Granted, everyone's hurt for San Francisco, like Elijah Mitchell, who was the backup. But Mason goes out there and plays extremely well, in my opinion, looks good. And then if you want just a nasty boy, Jordan Wittington from the Los Angeles Rams. He looked like a guy who can play. Who knows at what point if he will factor into the Rams plan this year, but he is a name to pay attention to. He's a rookie wide receiver.

He was getting a ton of buzz before this. There was a question asked on our last dynasty episode about him and whether we should believe the buzz. Obviously, they did a great job drafting Puka last year.

Same round, right?

No, he was a sixth round. Wittington was a sixth rounder. Puka was a fifth. But yeah, a late draft guy, and the drum beats been heavy for him, and so for him to come out and have quite a monstrous showing was very good.

All right, some other news. Malik Nabors. Some fright on the Twitter sphere yesterday. Malik Nabors suffered a mild ankle sprain. He's considered day-to-day. That is good because he had limped off. They didn't know if it was foot or ankle or what was going on. And so we're optimistic, right?

Yes.

Yes, we are.

Yeah, that one looked minor. He was walking. Obviously, they'll get more information now with the ankles. It takes a couple of days, maybe, for the swelling to go But if he's back on the field in a week, then there's no concern.

All right, this was unfortunate. Hollywood Brown, shoulder injury, status for the regular season opener, now uncertain. This is, unfortunately, the story of Hollywood Brown for three years. Right. I mean, he's had these little windows of success with Kyler and Lamar, but then injury has dominated his story. Now, first play. He's off the field, spent the night at a hospital, don't know what the recovery is going to look like. There's so many names in that receiving room right now. I mean, Skymore played a bunch of snaps. You saw, worthy is going to get more and more time. And obviously, Rashi Rice right now, the legal situation is not impacting his play.

Yeah. I mean, as of right now, Rashi Rice looks like a great pick in fantasy, especially where he's going. And if your draft is in the next two weeks, he's not going to rise in ADP to the point where he should to be. To me, Hollywood was already someone that was lower in my rankings, significantly lower than his average draft price. With this happening, he's basically off my board. I think there are players in almost every round that I would just rather have.

I believe that I saw it being compared to… Tyreek Hill had a similar injury back a few years ago. It cost him four weeks. That was in-game. So you're actually in-season. Hill missed four weeks, came back, and then was okay. But the point being, if Hollywood is missing four weeks right now while they are getting ready for the season, it's a huge blow.

Yeah, no established chemistry in season between these guys. I understand having him off the board because you have to ask yourself, Okay, if he comes back and he's healthy, then what is his ceiling? And there's too many other players that I'd rather have.

Yeah.

All right. I've never seen a player cleared for contact more often as a news blurb than Deshaun Watson. He's cleared for contact. He'll get the vast majority of reps in practice.

Okay.

If he's the quarterback, but then the personality of the Browns' quarterback was Jamis, if you wanted to merge that, do you know what I mean?

I know what you're saying because Jamis is just awesomely fun.

Did Did you see his pregame speech?

Wait.

Oh, I haven't seen that.

There's a new one?

You're not talking about the Nicknack Padywack.

No, there's a- There's another one? Yeah. He's like a Mount Rushmore of his pregame speeches that just happened in the preseason game one.

Oh, man.

I got to heard it. Because Jameis is incredible.

Jameis is a cartoon character that is such a happy, fun guy. Man, I wish he was better at football.

Trey Trey Sermon, ham string injury. We had just talked about him on the last episode, I think.

Yes, Colts Running Back. Trey Sermon seemed like he had really locked up the job. He still could, but it was like a... He's gone from the game and then immediately ruled out. That's a pretty strong tell, too, that it's a decent ham string injury that will take some time to overcome.

You don't think that could have been because it's preseason? It's just like, Hey, if we tweak anything, just rule them out. It could be. That's the hope.

Yeah. Marshawn Lloyd. The news has just been worse and worse on Marshawn Lloyd, and now he's got a ham string injury.

It's the opposite of Deshawn Watson. He keeps popping up as not able to play.

Please don't contact him.

Yeah. They say it's not considered serious. That's great news. I consider it serious for his prospects because a couple of weeks ago, you saw the floor with a little bit of frustration over the injuries, thankfully not sharing it in a Dennis Allen way, but still being a human being. And so Marshawn Lloyd, he's just not getting the reps he needs. As a rookie in practice and training camp, he won't get it in preseason. So I very much still think the second half of the year, Marshawn Lloyd, talent can win out his explosive nature. He's a late round dart throw, a sleeper for later, but he's not going to do much in the start of the season. I would be really shocked if he's got a significant role in the first couple in a couple of weeks.

Xavier Leegett, Return to Practice.

Okay. That's good.

Yes. Exciting. And then what was his old nickname?

A Star Has Been Born.

All right. Well, we'll give you the floor. Then Patriots Have Released wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster. He must be what? 40, 50 years old?

The sun has set.

Say that that's not a star. That's just space garbage.

Yes. Space garbage is out there.

I did- Twenty-seven years young.

This is an incredible story. I dropped him in both of my major dynasty Leagues because I had him both places. Several years ago, if you weren't playing dynasty, you might not know. If you were, you might not even remember. He was in many places the number one startup pick, the 101 in startup draughts, and now on waivers at 27 years old.

He made $332,000 per reception last year.

Hey, get that money, Juju.

29 receptions.

All right, that was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at usaa. Com/insurance. All right, it is time to continue our rankings countdown, and we'll talk some quarterbacks.

All right.

If you missed it, last week we went through our wide receiver and running back rankings. We also released a bonus episode of this show on Saturday, where we re-released our February 10 Things to Remember episode.

We record that right after the season so that we can have those things fresh. But it was like, you need to remember them going into the next year or they're pointless.

So, yeah, lots of episodes. And here we go with the quarterback rankings countdown. Our consensus rankings, all of the tier rankings, all of the custom scoring Race rankings. You can see those in the ultimate draft kit. Print out a cheat sheet. At number... Oh, wait, we need a countdown.

Number 10. There we go.

All right. Number 10, Jordan Love. Jordan Love comes in at number 10. Speaking of that, Schmoney. He's been paid.

Yep.

After a long illustrious career, finally got the money.

And in preseason, immediately, through an absolute strike to Duntevian Wicks. That was a shutdown. And then he was done.

Do you remember where he finished last year?

I believe he was quarterback five.

Quarterback five? Okay. I think a lot of players just want to know when to pull the trigger. There's a lot of excitement. I mean, Jordan Love and C. J. Stroud are in the same category. Offenses we're excited about, young players that may Had incredible seasons.

It is ironic that you're hoping that C. J. Stroud takes that leap forward to have a season like Jordan Love just had. And yet C. J. Stroud is several rounds ahead. I guess in truth, when you draft C. J. Stroud, you're hoping he jumps into the Patrick Mahomes tier versus the Jordan Love tier, but he still has not yet made that leap. But Jordan Love was awesome last season. I have him in the lowest tier. This is four point per passing-touchdown rankings. I've got him at nine in my six point, but he's got weapons for days here. There's some worries about Okay, Jaden Reid has the calf. Christian Watson has no hamstrings, and so you worry about health. But with the emergence of Dontavian Wicks, who seems like he could just fill in in a heartbeat If either of these guys goes down, and you've even got depth behind him and Bo Melton, the butterman, out there.

You didn't even... Romeo Dobbs, the other wide receiver who- The perceived number one target? Yeah, Romeo Dobbs, the report I'm not saying he's the fantasy go-to guy, but just the reports at a camp are he has been by far the most consistent wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers. He's a good player.

Yeah. By the way, Jaden Reid is back in practice with the calf. So he's got the weapons. He was at a 5.5% breakdown rate last season.

It's a bit high.

It's worth mentioning because there have been 48 quarterbacks who have had 30 plus passing touch downs at that 5.5% rate in the last decade, and 83% saw a decrease in their touch down rate the following year. So it's something to be aware of because that is a pretty high number. At the same time, he just got better as the season went on, and so did his receiver. So I think that the optimism is warranted. Yeah. And he's an eighth-round pick when we're talking average drop position.

That is something like I have his shutdown rate dropping. But the nice thing about His elevated touch down rate is it wasn't one of those crazy 7%, 9% touch down. Five and a half %. It's definitely above average. It's really good. But it's a number that you could stay at for a career if you're that dude. So if what he did last year, the level up, especially like you said, Andy, the first half of last year wasn't that great for Jordan Love. The second half was incredible. If he levels up, he should be able to be right around there on a touch down rate. And you've got it. They just got a really nice offense, really nice system. They let him throw the ball. They let him air it out. For fantasy purposes, that's really good. I just wish he ran the ball, and that's what he doesn't do that much.

To reiterate your point, Aaron Rodgers career, a breakdown rate of 6.3%. Patrick Mahomes career, a breakdown rate of 6.4%. Exactly. So 5.5 is sustainable.

Yeah. If he really is good, and that's what you got to decide with Jordan Love, because we don't know definitively. We saw- I know. You know definitively that he is great.

Yeah, it's all over.

What about... I think definitive is for fantasy. I think he's a franchise quarterback. I agree with that. But will he be a franchise stud for fantasy football?

That's TB. I just want to point this out because I- That's just D. I do think he is- Determined?

Just determined for me.

I do think he is going to be that guy, if for no other reason than the freaking magic wish that some packers fan made 60 years ago. On his deathbed. They are always going to get the next one every single time, and it's not fair. As a Cardinals fan, it's not fair. But this is really his first year playing, where he came out and looked great. I just want to remind you, Derek Carr's second year, his sophomore year, very, very, very similar. 61% completion rate, 4,000 yards, 32 touchdowns at 5.6% touchdown rate. He looked like, okay, he's the dude. Then it was like, he is a franchise quarterback, but he's not elite for fantasy because he doesn't run the ball. That's my only fear with love.

I feel like hitting the boo button if I had it for you in comparison. Jordan loved the Derek car. All right, moving on.

Number nine.

Cj. Cj Stroud, 22 years old.

Sorry, everybody. That he's number nine. It's my fault.

Yeah, it is. Jason's got him at five. I'm at eight. Mike's at 11. His ADP is the quarterback five. Technically, it's both of our fault, Mike, because Jason's the only one at the ADP. It's hard to... There's just no world where I'm taking C. J. Stroud in the fourth round.

There's just no world. I have C. J. Stroud at number five. He is my quarterback five in rankings. There is no world where I'm taking him in the fourth round. Zero at all. I don't think it's good fantasy playing the game when you look at the range of outcomes and what he would need to do. I still think I got him projected to do it, to be the quarterback five, but that's not good enough in the fourth round. The quarterback five is not going to be worth a fourth round pick from a consistency. If I'm grabbing an early quarterback, I want a Josh Allen, a Jalen Hertz, a Patrick Mahomes, someone that could be the quarterback one.

Well, explain to me the gap you see between Stroud and Jordan Love, because to me, I think I'm with Mike on this where I see them both very similar from an outcome standpoint. Jordan Love is going in the eighth round. C. J. Stroud is going in the fourth. But from a rankings perspective, you have a pretty big gap between them.

Yeah, for me, it's the confidence and the weapons. I like Christian Watson a lot, but Nico Collins proved he is just a superior player. I like Jaden Reid a lot. Tank Dell is just that... I mean, even in preseason, it's always like, he is that guy, man. You cannot cover him. And then you add Stefan Diggs. So I just see it as a slightly upgraded version of the same thing. So I would much rather have Jordan Love at cost because the gap, despite being in six point, being my quarterback five or quarterback nine, there's not that huge a gap. They're pretty much in the same tier, but they're in totally different places in your draft. Whereas a wide receiver in the ninth round versus a wide receiver in the fourth round, give me the wide receiver all day with Jordan Love.

Do you become tempted to take Stroud if he drops to the sixth round? Because there aren't very many players as fun to roster as him in terms of the weapons. Like you said, he had the second-most air yards per pass attempt, the second-highest completion on deep passes. Having C. J. Stroud on your roster is a blast.

For sure. Obviously, this is fantasy-related. If I'm a GM drafting sure, quarterbacks, he would be, I don't know, would he be the second one taken? Maybe. But he doesn't run the ball that much. And so you are going, we talk about this all the time. These pocket passers, they got to throw for 4,500 yards. They have to throw for north of 30, preferably 35, touch downs to be a weekly difference maker at the position. You compare him against Joe Burrow a couple of rounds later, who has done that twice. This is a projection for it. I love CJ Stroud. I think he's He's going to be great. But he's not a good pick in fantasy for where he's going and the way he scores fantasy.

Mike, you love Nico Collins. If you end up with him early in the draft, does Stroud become more tempting?

Not for me in the fourth. If he's the hypothetical that maybe you're in a league where they're going to pass on quarterbacks, be a surprising scenario, but I'm sure it's going to happen out there. In the sixth, okay. I spent my third on Nico Collins, and then I really want to the stack for the upside. I'm okay in the sixth. The hardest part here is just... C. J. Stroud could be one of the guys that does it. He could be the pocket passer that jumps into the top three this year, and you win because of C. J. Stroud. It can happen. It's just the bet to do that is very expensive, and the margin of error is so small. It's compared to Joe Burrow and Jordan Love. Jordan Love did it. Jordan Love actually did it last year. And now you're really hoping that Stroud does what Jordan Love already did. It's a weird place to be.

Number 8. Well, you just said his name. Joe Burrow comes in at number 8, being drafted in the sixth round where you were just talking about hoping Stroud might fall.

Has done it twice.

Yeah, he had a quarterback 8 and quarterback four season. You brought him up on hungry for more last week. Had twelve passing touch downs before the thumb injury in five games, was number one in completion rate. I think the story that's been pushed, Jason, is just, Don't forget about him.

For sure. I mean, he had such a bad season last year. And that is not just, Okay, he got injured, and so you forget about him. Him as far as he missed the second half of the season. He also got injured in preseason with the calf and started the season awful. I mean, that first month, he was a terrible quarterback. Joe Burrow was not a bad quarterback. We know that. There's multiple years of him destroying NFL defenses. He went to the Super Bowl. He's not a bad quarterback. And after the first month, once that calf was healed, you look at his next five games, unfortunately, got injured in that six. But that five-game stretch when he was Jack, 5,000-yard pace with 40 touch downs. He was doing exactly what he did the previous two years. So to me, I actually believe that the ceiling of C. J. Stroud is what Joe Burrow has done already in his career. I'm always going to take Joe Burrow in the sixth over C. J. Stroud in the fourth. He's done it multiple times. He's got a healthy Jamar Chase, a healthy T. Higgins.

If you want to talk about someone who looked good in their preseason snaps, T. Higgins. The argument of, Is T. Higgins a one? We don't need to have that right now. Is T. Higgins a good wide receiver that if Jamar Chase is on the field, and it's those two with Joe Burrow. That, to me is... There is huge upside for Joe Burrow. Again, Ceeja Stroud could be the guy, but I don't want to bet as heavy on on a pocket passer.

If I don't have- Number seven.

Sorry. No, you're good. I thought you were done. I thought I was done.

Wait, say your point again.

Just of the- Number seven.

Thank you.

You walked right into it.

Busting. Dak Prescott's next. I'm not even coming back to you. Dak is 31 years old. It was a blast having Dak last year, and it was from week six on. So it was a wonderful ride. Ended at quarterback three. And this was just the CeeD Lamdack connection and Ferguson. And the fact this offense was passing so much in the red zone was great. We were all worried going into last year that Losing Kelen Moore was going to be a death knell for the offense. That didn't happen. So props to Mike McCarthy for doing the right thing. Showed up big in big games. I If you look at the player profile videos, we have 100 of them in the ultimate draft kit. I watched what we had talked about with Dak for months ago, and we're still waiting for CeeDee Lamb to get a contract. I still think the value of Dak I'm the highest at six, Jason at 7, Mike at 8. I think the value of Dak in the seventh round is the perfect balance to me of high, obviously, league-winning upside. He proved he could do that over the majority of the season, along with not overpaying the price.

It's hard for me to say... When you draft C. J. Stroud in the fourth round, you mentioned he hasn't done it over the course of an entire year, but you're making a commitment to a player in the fourth round that you have to start every single week, no matter what, which means you don't have that option to pivot. Like last year, that was a decision people had to make. You brought up Dak and our waiver show. That was the moment in time for people. And a lot of people in that moment say, I either sign him and play a new quarterback, or I stay committed to the high draft capital investment that I already made. So that's one of the challenges of taking the leap on a quarterback like C. J. Stroud in the fourth round is that it is a commitment to play him or a really hard one to bench, where Dak, I think, is a pretty good balance.

Yeah, you can draft Dak in the seventh and be comfortable benching him. My issue with Dak is that he's going in places where there are more mobile quarterbacks. Thankfully, he did He crashed for 250 yards this last year. But you look at his splits last year, and when he played a top 16 defense, he was mark of the beast, 6.66 points, worst per game. And you look at the schedule to start the season, on the road in Cleveland, New Maryland has a good defense, and then Baltimore. You've got three tough, should be top half defenses where he wasn't that great for fantasy as far as as good as he was against the bottom half defense.

I'd push back of just saying the splits, when he's playing a top-half defense, he's still right around that 20-point mark.

Yes. He just wasn't the league-winning.

Yeah. I think if you're playing a tough game on the road and you're still like, Oh, Dack can still give me 18 plus points. And then I know that the next week, he's going to win me the entire matchup. He's a quarterback to target. The career of Dack is so strange, and not just NFL career, but fantasy football career. He has really been good. He's been good almost every single year, and he's been great multiple times. And Yet he is still a player that just gets drafted here. This is where he gets drafted every single year, and he can finish top three.

Well, here's his fantasy finishes. I'm going to take out the two years where he was injured, okay? I think that's fair because the fantasy finish will be obviously low in those years. If he plays the season, his fantasy finish in his career is quarterback 6, quarterback 10, quarterback 12, quarterback 2, quarterback 7, quarterback 3. Every single one is a quarterback 1, and several of them were top half quarterback ones. Number 6.

Kyler. If Mike was responsible for pulling Stroud down, he is now responsible for pulling Kyler even higher because I got him at seven, Jason at eight, but Mike has him all the way up at quarterback four for 2024. I know you have said it on the show many times, but you see the Cardinal offense as being one of the more up Offside, laden opportunities in fantasy.

I don't know that they're going to be a top five offense. I'm not calling for that. I'm saying that every year there's an offense that takes a jump that you It was hard to predict or rationally make a projection that this team is going to make that jump. But it happens every year, and I think that the Arizona Cardinals are the team that does it this year. They played it completely correct with Kyler Murray last year, Despite, oh, man, the noise of what are the Cardinals going to do with Kyler Murray was extremely loud of, are they going to tank and then dump Kyla Murray, trade him away? And along the way, the coaching staff the whole time was, no, Kyla Murray is our guy. We got to get him ready. And they let him fully recover from the ACL. He was not pushed. And once he got back on the field, he was Kyla Murray. Now, he was certainly lacking offensive skill players. He had Trey McBride last year, but a hurt Hollywood Brown, and then just a cast of characters who are not... They are not main character energy is what Kyler Murray was working with last year.

No, no, no. Greg Dorch is He's got a bit part on the sitcom. He's not one of the headliners.

Exactly. He has two headliners this year, and he's back to being a fully mobile quarterback. To make that jump into the top three, year over year, you have to put up points with your legs. It was a great run for Dak last year, but him getting up to three, a little surprising. Where Kyler Murray, at the end of the year, if he's top three, it will not surprise me in the slightest because he's back. He's been a great quarterback for fantasy football. Qb7 as a rookie. As a rookie, QB7. Qb2 the next year. Qb10 because he only played 14 games, but he was still putting up over 21 points per game. He has been great for fantasy football when healthy, and he's healthy, and now has a true number one wide receiver. Kyler Murray, to me, is the best quarterback pick that you can make.

He is a layup in this year's draft. When he's been on the field, he's always been good for fantasy, always. He was the quarterback nine from the time he got back going forward on a points per game basis. And last year, he had the fewest receiving yards by outside wide receivers in the NFL. The reason is obvious- That's going up. Because he didn't have one. And now, Marv is there.

Yeah, no, it is exciting opportunity-wise in fantasy. All right, Jason will be really happy because we're going to take a break. We're going to take a break. What? We're going to take a break, and then come back with the top five, which I think is- Are these accurate?

Oh, I'm excited.

Okay.

All right, before we took a break, Mike was like- I am flabbergasted. You're flabbergasted? I understand. My flabbers are gasted. Your flabbers have been gasted.

They're fully gast up.

Anthony Richardson comes in at five. You know what? I know why you're flabbergasted. Yes.

Wow. I didn't see it until now. You snake.

Number five. Okay. Thank you. By the way, thank you, Al. My flabbers were also gasted. Your exclamation is because I apparently have Richardson at four, Mike at five, Jason at nine. This is because of four-point scoring. Because I'm not acclimated to having him ranked this high, mentally. Let him wash over you, brother. I'm going to say this right again. There's no way I'm drafting Anthony Richardson over Kyla Merton. That's fine. That's not happening. So my rankings are bad. I have bad rankings.

I think when you look at how we stap people out and we project people for the UDK- Also, he didn't look that great throwing the football, by the way, in his first Yeah, because he has never looked good.

But I have drawn attention to that for a while. Anthony Richardson, the great seasons of the running quarterbacks have to come with the level up in the passing game. It happened with Alan, Lamar, Kyler. You do need that.

Jalen Hertz, Cam Newton. Yes, thank you. They all had... If you want to be that really, really, really elite fantasy game breaker, it has to be both. And so there is far more risk with Anthony Richardson of not hitting there than there is with Kyler. But Anthony Richardson has the body that can do the 15 rushing touch downs like Josh Allen and Jalen Hertz have done. He's got a coordinator in Shane Steiken who has done that with Jalen Hertz, fast pace of play. They've said they're not going to worry about him in the running game. They're going to unleash him. For fantasy purposes, Anthony Richardson has an extremely high floor with his rushing totals, and I don't mind you having him top five.

I mind it so much. I have been informed that the points... Because we do point projections down to the...

Down to the decimal? That's That's what I was looking at. Down to the yard. Down to the yard.

We stat all these guys out. But it's a four-point gap between four, five, and six, and I'm going to fix that.

Take one touch down away.

But I think maybe to spin it to the positive, the fact that I I am resistant to whether Richardson is a passer that can get it done on a consistent basis. And despite that resistance, being intellectually honest in my statistics and having him just end up here, because we're not going into our ranking saying, I want Richardson at this number. We're going in putting in realistic projections based on the offense and the opportunities. And I am intellectually resistant to him, and yet still ended up the result still-I think you're emotionally resistant to him. Intellectually, it seems like- No, I'm intellectually.

You got him right where it should be.

Number four, baby. I don't. I mean, even in the preseason, there's some UGO passes. I mean, he hit a couple of them. To be fair- But then there was a couple of uggos.

Even when Cam was not post-injury, Kam, he still had some uggo throws from time to time. But when you have the ability to throw those just 60-yard bomb passes- An uggo throw in the context of seeing a bunch of great is different than having...

He had a game, what, 33% completion percentage last year in one of his starts?

Was that the second full game? How did he finish Which fantasy was?

Injured. Okay. Sorry. 44% completion, number 2 overall in fantasy. The next week, he was injured. No, no, no. Look, he's there because he's there. I'm just saying, to me, Richardson is exciting for a fantasy. He's also a fifth rounder. He's not going to be my pick. It'll be both of your picks.

He might be. He won't be my pick. I would certainly rather have Kyler when he's dropping in the sixth and seventh over Richardson in the fifth. But we've talked about it many times. I want the mobile rushing quarterback with the game-breaking upside. I want Anthony Richardson or Kyler if I don't get Richardson or Jaden Daniels if I get Kyler.

The question is- I'm going to take them in League of Records. Right in front of you. Enjoy that ride. The sophomore breakout for Jalen Hertz, he was only the quarterback 9, and that was off of 3,100 passing yards. If you draft Richardson in the fifth round, you get QB nine.

Yeah, I was going to ask about that. That's upsetting. That's upsetting.

But the next year, that's when Hertz was absolutely incredible for fantasy football. The QB three in 15 games, averaging over 25 points per week. I'm not saying Richardson is going to do that, but that was 3,700 passing yards, a 4.8% breakdown percentage. That's not why.

You're committed to him in the fifth.

You certainly are.

You're going to be starting him every week. That's my hesitation is he is the highest drafted non-known commodity, right?

Yeah, he certainly is, and you're hoping that he can be the number one. That being said, the more that we Talked through. Jalen Hertz is a great comparison. Great comparison. Because I think that the path is there for him, but that probably means that it's not this season. This season is probably more of a low-end quarterback one because I don't think he's throwing for 3,700 passing yards. And so if you have to pull the trigger in the fifth, that means you've got to get a really outlier elite rare season from him. And I'm not saying it can't happen. I like this college tape. I like his passing. I don't I think he's a terrible passer. That's not what I see.

This gamble used to cost less in fantasy. Yes, it did. This gamble used to cost you a sixth, or seventh or eighth-round pay. Depending on the year.

Man, Kyler at a value later than Richard Richerson, who you're hoping can develop into Kyler, seems…

Yeah, I understand all of that. Probably it'll be more rare for me to have Richardson as well, despite how bullish in my ranking on him, because it's the question of, Okay, Richerson here, Kyler a few rounds later, or say my plan goes in motion of it's going to be Kyler, and I get just absolutely sniped by someone. Then it's like, Okay, well, Jaden Daniels in double-digit rounds who has... Can Jaden Daniels put up 3,700 passing yards and 700 rushing yards? Yeah, he probably can.

Jaden Daniels is a good discussion with Richardson because it's like, they're both basically brand-new rookies.

I mean, Richardson has barely played. Jaden Daniels has a lot more football under his belt. Footbell.

He rings that football.

But I mean, Jaden Daniels has played 10 times the amount of college games and just barely fewer NFL games. But with Anthony Richardson, I play on Sleeper and Underdog, usually, where he's a fifth round. He's always in the middle of the fifth. So I was just curious. I looked up in the UDK, the ADP comparison tool. Where do you think he's going on ESPN and Yahoo? Ahead or behind? We'll just say ahead or behind.

I'll go later.

He's going ahead. What? He's the 411 on both platforms. That's pricey.

His PR team is doing good work, man. I think it's too pricey for me, man. Probably YouTube from three months ago. All right, moving on.

Number 4.

Lamar.

Makes sense?

4:01 right now. Mike at 3, Jason at 4, I'm at 5. The Todd Munkin system for the NFL, and sometimes for fantasy. Highest completion percentage of his career, highest yards per attempt. It would be hard to look at that offense and not say some similar things as you did with Kyler, where you didn't have the pass catchers you expected for the majority of the year. We were dealing with injuries to Mark Andrews. Bateman will never be a thing.

Beckham was no longer a thing.

When Beckham part of your story, you need to write a new book.

But is it any better? No, it's not. The health of Mark Andrews is... If he plays a full season, it's massive for him. But outside of that- The ride?

Yeah.

It's still Bateman, and The wide receiver three is still Odell Beckham Jr. In the sense that it's nobody. You're hoping basically that Andrews is healthy and Zay flowers takes a step forward. Those two things are not even unlikely to happen. Zay flowers should take a step forward in his sophomore year.

Mark Andrews could be healthy this season. No. I mean, the most likely... I mean, Isaiah likely is a weapon in the offense as well. But the most likely thing to happen is that they want to run the football a little bit more than they did last year because they have Derrick Henry, and they can do that. And that will involve the goal line where Derek Henry is not stoppable. And last year already, he was a C in our consistency rankings. Only 47% of the time hit 20 points at quarterback. And You don't love that ride. It's bumpy. It's really fun when you get to watch him with a takeaway run, but you didn't really have as much ceiling with him as you wanted.

Yeah. Lamar is a little bit different.

Mind you, he's at four.

Yeah, obviously, he's great. He finishes the quarterback four last year, but the consistency or the lack of consistency in that ride is based upon rushing touch downs from the team. When you look at the Bills rushing touch downs from that team, are not running backs. When you look at the Eagles, rushing touch downs for that team are Jalen Hertz. And so here, this is not Lamar Jackson near the goal line. This is Gus Buss of the past and Derrick Henry going forward, when those touch downs come, if there's two touch downs on the ground, which is going to happen quite often, that is a significant hampering to the quarterback production for Lamar. So he I think he's where he should be, but for me, he is firmly fourth. He's my quarterback four, but he is a tier behind the big three. Number three.

All right, Mike. Patrick Mahomes comes in at three, but not on your rankings.

No.

You fool. Thank you, Gandalf. Quarterback three is his average draft position in the late third. We know Jason's really bullish, but you're the lowest. Are you just expecting a similar script to last season?

I expect an improvement over last year. The second half of the year was so bizarre for Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs of looking at the games that they had lined up and every week, pointing at yourself in the mirror saying, This is the week. This is when Patrick Mahomes turns back into Patrick Mahomes, not this guy who's out there giving me subpar fantasy points. And it simply never happened. And the Kansas City Chiefs offense to me, maybe Xavier worthy can be the answer. But it's like the wide receiver core, we're having the exact same Conversations here, Rashe Rice notwithstanding of, it's a group of guys. It's a hodgepodge of wide receivers, and I don't see that there's no Tyreek Hill on this team. Travis, Kelsey is, if they actually They are going to throttle down his snaps a little bit like they did in the second half of last year because they're trying to three-peat over here.

How depressing was it to see Skye Morgan as many starter snaps as he did?

Look, in preseason- I think that was the Hollywood injury thing. Yeah, Hollywood got injured, and in preseason, you got to see some things for roster adjustments. I disagree. I think that the wide receiver core is incredibly upgraded this year. You've got year 2, R ushy Rice, which When you look at the first half of rookie season, he wasn't really involved in the offense. The second half of the year is like, Okay, now he understands the playbook. He is on the field more and more.

It seems like- When Mahomes was not putting up numbers.

Sure. When Mahomes wasn't putting up numbers because the countdown rate wasn't there. His countdown rate, Mahomes' countdown rate over his career, 8.6, 5.4, 6.5, 5.6, 6.3. And then all of a sudden last year, it drops to 4.5 %. That's not super normal, but he was throwing to Mostly, you had MVS and Justin Watson on the field for the majority of snaps at Skymore. Now, you trade up for a first-round rookie, the fastest man alive in Xavier Worthing. He will be unleashed by Andy Reid. And even if he is not great for fantasy, he will be great for Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes taking the defense and saying, Hey, you got to account for this guy who is so much faster than your defenders, opening up the middle of the field for R ushy Rice. They did add Hollywood Brown. I'm just saying Hollywood Brown and Xavier worthy and a year or two Rushy Rice, I think are good. And the countdown rate is the thing that is not usually He had an outlierly low countdown rate. Nice. In six point- He's not discounted enough.

They didn't downgrade him enough in ADP.

I agree. I think things are going to be better this year. I don't expect 17 and a half fantasy points per week.

He'll be better than quarterback eight.

But it's- Why do I got to pay quarterback three price? Yeah, you're getting him at the back of the third right now on sleeper. That's the question, Jay, is your confidence in Mahomes so high that you're willing to draft him? I'm not just saying 312, because if you have the 308, you're probably not going to get Mahomes. You would have to go a couple of pics early. Is that where you are with him for the season?

Well, yeah. You could get him at the 308. I mean, his average draft position being in the 3-12 means he's going to be near that 3-4 turn. I am okay if I'm in a six-point per passing TD League. I am okay. He's my quarterback one in six-point leads. Now, still, the majority are four-point leads.

What about eight-point leads?

Still, quarterback one. But if you're in a four-point lead, I still want the rushing shutdown upside of double digits from the big beef boys. Number two.

I want Every argument to end with Big Beef Boys.

Okay.

Jalen Hertz.

He's a big beef boy.

Jalen Hertz comes in at number two overall. It's hurt pretty good for a couple of years. Quarterback three, quarterback two. Going at 309 right now. How are we feeling about that price? He's got elite talent on the outside. Elite pass catcher out of the backfield. Might not get his push pushed as much.

I do worry a little bit about Saquon's touch downs. We talked about it on the running back episode, the fact that DeAndre Swift had a lot of carries inside the five. You don't think of it that way because he didn't have a lot of touch downs inside the five. He had opportunities to score that he didn't. He got it closer, and then Jalen Hertz rushed it in. I can easily, easily see five of those going the other way. And if you take five rushing touch away from Jalen Hertz with last year's production, you might be disappointed. However, they aren't going away from the push-push. If they are at the one, he's going to get the ball, and he's going to put it in the end zone every single time. And he's got great weapons. I love Devante Smith. I love A. J. Brown. I think he's got an upgraded offensive coordinator. And I just like betting on talent and the ability to to rush in double-digit touch downs. I mean, he could lose five and still have double-digit rushing touch downs. Number one.

Josh Allen.

Excellent.

We got to see them play some football without Stefan Diggs this weekend until they pulled him out in the middle of a drive. But quarterback one last year, then two the year before, then one the year before, then one the year before. So it's been automatic. 23 plus points per game for four straight years. There is a tremendous change in this offense. Sure. You're going to have... It'll be very interesting because I want to know what downfield Bill's offense looks like. Right now, I know... The player I have the most confidence in, down the field right now is Dalton Kincaid. And that's a different situation than when we had Diggs and even as much as I didn't love him, Gay Davis. Right now, we have a player James Cook, you could throw the ball out wide, too. You've got a player in Curtis Samuel, who quick release is part of the game. Khalil Shaqir, he can get downfield. Will there be a trust there? Will Keion Coleman get opportunities? He was out there. I don't think he had a target.

I can double check.

But I was watching- He was out there a lot. Yeah, I was watching them in particular to try to see distribution, and he was definitely out there. I think his number is zero, right?

Yeah, zero targets.

Zero was also his Jersey number because that's zero targets. Keion Coleman.

It takes a unique character to go zero.

No target. Let me just get this right. Neighbors had no targets, right? Right. Correct. Harrison?

He played two snaps.

Okay. No targets. How many targets, Mike? None. Just saying, if we were so impressed with these rookie quarterbacks, they should let us watch the wide receiver try to catch the ball.

They're holding on to them. They don't want the people to know.

Maybe. But look, we talked a lot about Josh Allen. He's extremely safe. You got to spend a second-round pick on him. I don't see a precipitous drop, even if things aren't going perfectly for the offense, what are we talking about here? He's still a top five guy.

Yeah, this is a guy who we make so much about his rushing ability, and rightfully so, 763 rushing yards, 762 rushing yards. This past year, 524 rushing yards. When the change came, the offensive coordinator, he was on pace for 640 rushing yards. I don't have the number in front of me, but it's right around there. But we don't give enough credit to the fact that the reason he's the number one three out of the last four years is because he's throwing the ball for 4,300, 4,200, 4,400, 4,500 passing yards. So there is a little bit of worry that that passing yardage comes down without Stéphane Diggs. He was on pace that second half of last year once the offensive coordinator change was made for right around 4,000 yards, which is not what Josh Allen has been doing. That's several hundred yards under. But 4,000 yards with 600 rushing You're still a top two quarterback. So he might not be lapping the field, but he's so consistent, so safe. And I do think that Dalton Cucade steps up this season. I mean, that's just the normal projection and timeline for most tight ends, is that their rookie year, they're behind the curve.

And now he's been great at camp, and I expect big things from him this season.

So Allen, number one, Mike, anything you want to throw in there? Are we good wrapping up the countdown?

He is great.

I do feel a little apologetic that when you have a top 10 quarterback countdown, we're mostly highlighting ways it can go wrong because the ranking itself imbues the fact that we think it can go right. And so a lot of the times, we're just highlighting Things to be aware of so you can make that decision in your draft, team context, how things can go one direction or the other. Because if you draft Josh Allen, it's in place of another highly productive player. So there's our top 10 quarterbacks.

And I think it is worth, I know we mentioned them earlier, but it is worth throwing Jaden Daniels' name in here as the 11th guy because he is a great, great target at the end of your drafts. Right now, he's He's not very expensive. He's cheaper than anyone we talked about on ADP.

Where's his current average draft position?

He's in the 10th round, 10:05. This is a guy who is very similar. I think he's not quite as good as Kyler Murray was, but he's very similar. He's got Cliff Kingsbury as the offensive coordinator. Kyler's rookie year, he was the quarterback seven. That is completely in the range of outcomes for Jaden Daniels, is being a top 10 quarterback, and you can get him for free in the 10th. If I mean, honestly, you should draft him in the 10th. Even if you've got a quarterback, you should draft Jaden Daniels if he's there in the 10th.

All right. One more reminder, the ultimate draft kit for life giveaway this Friday, plus a Justin Jefferson signed jersey. We're going to give those away, two separate winners. All you have to do is order the 2024 UDK by Friday at 6:30 PM Eastern. We'll be giving it away live while we answer questions on Friday. It'll be a blast. So ultimatedraftkit. Com to check that out later this week. We'll be getting into the top 10 tight-end rankings, our top 10 tips and tricks to win your league. We'll be doing a mock draft this week, and of course, The My Guys on this week's show. So don't miss a minute of it. That'll do it for today's show. Shout out to the guys over in Deucer's Alley wearing the really cool garb over there. So thanks, guys. Catch you tomorrow.

Goodbye.

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