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

Welcome in the fantasy footballers back once more. Jason Moore, Mike Wright, Andy Holloway. Happy to be with you. Wednesday episode of the show. We've got full deucers. Full deucers in the house. Al Borland, Papa Josh the Falcone. Feeling all right today in the building?

In the building. Yeah. It is ironic that the one day you say we have full deucers. No, Kyle, today on the, on the microphone. Thank goodness.

Yeah. I mean, is he really a deucer?

Not really.

I mean, you need to be in Deucers Alley. Yeah, he's a deucer of another sort. He's on a plane. He's on his way here. We've got league of record draft.

We got so much tomorrow, I want.

To hear from the listeners, because I have, I've heard some, you know, a sprinkling of tweets and things like that about wanting more league of record content in general. So I want. I want to hear about that, because last year, the show. The show. Gosh, the show moment. The show moment of the year was the papa Josh in my situation. And I'm not forgetting you, Al. You're awful. But then, like, we were able to put up on the website, like, the, the matchup and. And so I want to know if people want some more league of record content.

I mean, things like that are always going to be split. You're going to be 50 50. Half the people out there going to be like, that's awesome. And half are like, I don't care about your league, man. That's my guess.

So we'll share some pictures from our league of record draft on Thursday, and it's going to be fun. Gonna break down the Thursday night game. Today.

We're talking real football.

We get to talk about real football on the show. We got news to talk about. We'll see if Mike and will one more contract into existence.

I gave him my best shot yesterday.

Everyone, you have been tweeting relentlessly trying to get this done.

I think I'm out of ammo.

No, you're out of days, too. I mean, you're running out of.

Not on the Joe Burrow schedule.

We'll see what happens.

Yeah.

Jamar Chase is a big topic, especially if you haven't drafted yet. Or even if you have and you added him to your roster, you don't know if you're going to be able to play him.

So stupid. It's so stupid.

Here's some league of record talk Mike, you have the second pick in our draft. Thanks to the lottery. I have the pick just behind you. Our keeper system. Most of the great players are kept. There's a handful, just a few monster great players that fall back into the draft. There's two of them in particular. AJ Brown, Jamar Chase with the Jamar Chase holdout. He might fall to you, Mike. And guess who I play. Week one. You, baby. Go ahead. Get that Jamar Chase and sit him on your bench. Play me.

I think he will. I think you would do that.

It's not a one week game.

Well, all I care about is our matchup.

Okay, we have week one rankings up on the website, the fantasy footballers.com. you can go check those out. 20,844. That was the final count for the awesome. That is the all time record for the Megalo bowl. And I had my Megalo ball draft last night. I let my son handle some of the duties, who's my co manager in league of record. He is acclimating to the advanced fantasy football world.

He's got more and more into it.

He did all right. He made one, one kind of interesting decision. We were very. We had Jamer Gibbs in the first round, and then we went some, you know, he went like a couple whiteouts. We got Marvin Harrison and. And then he took a tight end. So when he was coming back in the fifth round or fourth round for another running back, and pretty much the only other running back we got on the roster was David Montgomery.

Oh, man. All in.

So we're going big, big Lions.

Someone on Twitter told me the Lions were winning the Super bowl.

Yeah, that is a fact.

Yeah, because you read that, too.

Yes. Somebody tweeted that out. So yes. Thank you, everybody, for joining the Megalo bowl. It's going to be fun this year. And then the community for in season tools and resources, including the brand new ultimate dashboard, is at join the foot.com initial feedback has been very positive, and we're going to keep adding more and more to the ultimate dashboard. If you want to know what that is. It is an in season lineup optimizer. It'll help you find spot starts. It'll help you find waiver pickups, a custom team newsfeed, and it's all synced to your league. If you're on ESPN public leagues, if you're on Yahoo. Or if you're on sleeper, those are the three supported right now. You can also manually add your team. And that optimizer is going to keep getting better and better. And that's brand new for 2024.

Gives you a pretty handy newsfeed of what's going on with your specific players as well.

Absolutely. Like, if you have Kyle Pitts.

Oh, my gosh.

Welcome to hungry for more, presented by ubereats. Oh, my. I'm hungry for more news.

You beat me to the joke, Jason.

I had to. I had to get.

You jumped on that grenade.

I gave. I gave you such a great segue to the wrong segment.

You pulled the pin and you just rolled the grenade on the ground, but.

At your own bunker at the end, I kicked it away a little bit.

So just your leg off.

Yeah.

Yeah, we are. We've got hungry for more. We're heading into week one, and I chose an interesting player for this week's segment. I'm hungry for more.

Oh, you and me both, brother.

Brandon Iuke of the San Francisco 49 ers. Why? Why do I want more?

Because you've had none.

Because I want a wide receiver one. If he's gonna be treated like a wide receiver one with the, the purse strings and the trade offers. I mean, we didn't talk about on the show, but it came out that the Browns offered Amari Cooper and a two and a three for the opportunity to vastly, maybe not overpay, but just to write a big contract for Brandon Iuk. And I didn't want to go to Cleveland and he didn't want to go to New England, who also wrote a big check. And I, you know, the Steelers weren't willing to give up pickens on the way back, so San Francisco, that deal didn't come to fruition. Iuke even came out and said over the last month, he kind of made it hard on the team because I think he didn't know what to do. I genuinely think it was a little bit of like contract posturing. And then you get to the standstill and it was like, well, I guess I'm going to just keep holding and then eventually just sign the contract.

You have that pot odds thing where you're like, no, I said, I said I was going to do this.

It's like, ah, let's be honest, players get the chance to miss camp. Who doesn't want to miss some camp?

I've. I've heard they like to miss it.

So I want. When I say I'm hungry for more, Brandon, it's the, it's the level up. I want to see him have his first wide receiver one season of all time. He's never done it. He may have played like a wide receiver one and gets paid like a wide receiver one, but in fantasy, he has not accomplished that goal. He was so efficient. Last year was one of the things we brought up in the offseason about maybe a little bit of a, whoa, be careful with Brandon. I, because, you know, you can't have that many big plays happen year after year. And, you know, he led all wide receivers in fantasy points per target. And so that level of efficiency led to. Wide receiver. 14, missed the game. He was right on the edge of wide receiver. 1.4 game.

I'm trying to look it up real quick, but he was at 13.2. Is that right? 13.2 points per game and he missed the game.

I mean, that, that's right on that, the cusp. But I want top ten, Mike. That's, we'll upgrade it.

I'll let you know. If that would have been top ten.

What do you, what do you think the, the chances are? I mean, we can want anything, but do you believe that Brandon Iuke will be a, you know, look, he's been a top 15 wide receiver the last two seasons.

Yes.

How confident are you that he is a top 15 wide receiver this season?

Pretty confident. And I do think that there's a chance that, like, we look at that offense and we, we look at it with the chart of, of targets, and you say, okay, some go to iuke, some go to Debo. Kid will get some, McCaffrey gets some, and that's how you look at the offense. I do think the dial could be turned. I think this team could support Brandon Ayuk taking a step forward and Kittle and Debo may be taking a step back. If this team is planning for Debo to leave next year, it could be time for Brandon Ayuk to be super Alpha right on this roster. So hungry for more Brandon Ayuk. I have, I've been resistant to get on that train where I believe he could be a top ten wide receiver, but the market says he has the capability.

Top ten. It will be rough if, if the 49 ers keep throwing at the pace that they, they do. They're incredibly. Yeah, they're incredibly efficient when they do. In looking at it, 13.2, I think it puts him like, 11th or 12th in points per game. But that's, I mean, that's point one behind Jamar Chase from last year.

Yeah.

All right, I'm going to go with my. Hungry for more. A very different, same position, but very different situation. It is a rookie who has gotten not a lot of love. Luke McCaffrey, rookie wide receiver for the Washington commanders. There's a player I liked the college film of. I liked the production. 13 receiving touchdowns, a 37% dominator rating. And then they traded away Jahan Dotson. And when that happened, I thought, look, this must mean Luke McCaffrey's having a good camp. He's, he's doing what they wanted him to do. He was a third round pick. This is not like, you know, I know he wasn't the Christian McCaffrey brother, top ten NFL selection, but he also wasn't, you know, mister irrelevant, day three, 7th round pick either. This was an investment the team made into him. And then they trade away last year's first Jahan Dotson. And I'm thinking, okay, he showed enough. And then a report comes out right after that. That's like, I don't know if he's going to get run. And so I was, I was a little scared off of it because I'm always looking for those guys like Malik Washington and Luke McCaffrey, those, those rookie wide receivers that might just sneak into that starting lineup.

But then the official Washington commanders depth chart comes out, and lo and behold, Luke McCaffrey is listed ahead of Diamond Brown on that chart, at least, I mean, TBD until the games are played. But he's listed as the starter, which he should be. He's the next best. You know, Terry is the one. And they've been saying all offseason they're looking for their two. I think they have it. So I I would love to see Luke McCaffrey succeed. I would love to see him start. And we got an early offseason breakfast narrative, boys.

Oh, yeah.

Breakfast with Jayden Daniels.

Well, listen to this early report about Jayne Daniels from an ESPN article says Daniels clocks in around 05:45 a.m. it is what he did at LSU to rookie receiver Luke McCaffrey has been joining Daniels in Washington. The two players watch film and then head to the practice bubble and walk through plays. Rookie, rookie connection at Breakfast, did we.

Get confirmation that they're eating together? Because I think you were trying to.

I was. I'm trying to push it in. Breakfast, I think. I mean, they gotta eat there. You got a whole day of practice.

At least like a breakfast bar. They split one.

I think there's sharing a breakfast bar. Like a protein shake maybe.

They have all their protein. Quote has got to be very high.

At least a gram per pound.

LMC is the pick. I like it.

It. He's a fascinating player of J. Just some more context in there. He started as a quarterback in college and before making the transition to being a wide receiver. So really only two years as a wide receiver, but really strong production. And I. It's real narrative street, but I like the fact, like, that he played quarterback. I think it gives you a different advantage out there if you know how a quarterback is seeing the field.

Is the Julian Edelman narrative a little.

Bit, the Travis Kelsey narrative, the Mohammed.

Sanu narrative a little bit.

Just the more knowledge you can get about the entirety of the football team, I think.

Josh Jacobs narrative. Did you know that?

Really?

The high school quarter. Yeah, he was a high school quarter.

Thinking a monk. No, Montgomery was.

Oh, that is who I think.

All right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that was.

Why.

Didn't know David Montgomery was done an interview the other day.

Wasn't he talking to Almond Raw?

He was talking to Almond Ro.

Wasn't that it?

Yes, that. That shows hilarious, because I'm on Ron, his brother are on it. And I would say about half the show is them just mocking each other's teams and how they think their team suck. But, yes, Montgomery was like, what'd you throw for? And it was like, oh, like 200 yards. You know, like, he threw for like 200 yards.

They were dunking on him.

All right, so, Mike, you got a wide receiver for us as well? Hungry for more.

I have been pushed into this corner, so I will accept it with. With hunger in my belly. It is T. Higgins current wide receiver.

He's kind of a hungry for what's left.

Yeah. Lots of opportunity, lots of leftovers here.

Yeah, that's a leftover situation.

T. Higgins has. If you've been with the show over the last few years, T. Higgins has destroyed my soul in the league of record for multiple years. And with these injuries, not being as productive as I think that he should be, because I do believe that he is a great player. But since his counterpart, Jamar Chase, has come into the league, we've seen t without him five times, and in those five games, it is pure domination. It's from ten points a game up to nearly 17. A climb of two receptions per game. Yardage jumps up almost or no over 40 yards per game. So it. The fact that he. That's a small sample, of course, but it's. We're backed into this situation. You are thumbs up something.

What do we got?

Josh Jacobsen. Oh, Jacob was high school dual threat quarterback.

All right.

Wow. Okay.

What?

Sorry, sorry. We figured it out.

I love it.

I had moved on, but Al found it. So credit to out. Still trying to make up for last year.

I love player who has become professional running back was a dual threat at the quarterback position. Weird. Weird how that happened.

Pocket passer David Montgomery.

But like t Higgins to me had already been shaping up to be a good pick at ADP.

Regarding with Chase there. Yeah, absolutely.

Regardless of everything that was like, Jamar Chase was still a top three pick. T Higgins was looking like a great value where he was going. You didn't have to overpay where it was, you know, the last couple of years. Last year, you know, Jalen Waddle and T Higgins both being drafted, really, really high expectations through the ceiling, and now they aren't there and now you, now we have all this weird, ambiguous stuff. Maybe you get a freebie week one. I mean, I think no matter what you probably do because the reports I saw were now it's Jamar Chase could be trending to not play of. I'm going to hold out if I don't get a contract, but even if he gets the contract, what do you do if you're the Bengals?

I'll go right in that starting lineup.

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

Yeah, you, you do, but I mean.

As a full time player, I don't know that he'll get his full allotment of snap.

That, that could be true. It could be. There could be some consequences from that. But I'm sitting here just like there was a time this offseason was dominated by not paying T Higgins, and here we are with Jamar Chase.

Yeah.

Like, this is not the first wide receiver that's been unhappy with this team. He just, Higgins had to sign his deal and he's going to be moving on after the year. But the Bengals said, you know, Joe Burrow, we got you locked up and we're just going to play around with the wide receiver position, and it's a mess there.

There is a chart that if you mess around, you find out.

Yeah.

And I think that they're about, they're hidden. The apex of the find out part.

It's unfortunate. The Bengals organization has, they've referred to that chart many times.

Yeah, the Bengals organization, the Bengals team as a whole, they're ADP wise, I think they're like, they were one of my favorite, most undervalued. I think t is undervalued, which I still feel weird just calling him t. I don't know why I think Burrow is undervalued. I personally think Zach Moss is undervalued. So I wanted to talk about it before, but I was so scared by the situation, the vibes and the fact that why aren't you paying your players? But to each their own.

All right, that was hungry for more presented by Uber Eats. Get almost. Almost anything for game day like tomorrow. Delivered with Uber Eats official on demand food delivery, partner of the NFL. Order now.

News and notes from around the league presented by USAA insurance.

So we talked about Chase. That is the latest news that it's trending towards the possibility. And again, this is media negotiation tactic 101. But it's getting. I mean, we got limited time. And the news today is Chase might not play like he might not play this weekend or he's willing to not play. Like, he's not willing to come back and. And take snaps without a deal. And so, you know, I'm with. I'm not going to not draft Jamar Chase if it's a heads up in a full redraft between how far Amon Rah. I'm taking Amen Ra. You know, if it's. If you go further, if it's Jefferson or Chase, I'm taking Jefferson. And in our league of record, for what it's worth, the top two names on the border, AJ Brown and Jamar Chase. I do not. I think it's appropriate to take Brown over Chase regardless of the contract situation.

Yeah, I think that's.

This is. We cannot be living in this world where, like, everything's been perfect for Jamar Chase every single game of every single season. This is a player who. I mean, what's his highest fantasy finish at the position?

I think it was five.

He was five as a rookie. Twelve and then 13. He's missed games two straight years. So, you know, we know what he's capable of, but there's really no reason you can't make a decision and say, I like AJ Brown more.

No, I think when you're talking about those tier one guys, the AJ Brown, the Amon ra. For me, I'm a little hesitant with the Justin Jefferson, but I get it because he's.

What about Garrett Wilson? Because I feel like that's in that same category.

That's the tier. The Garrett Wilson, Olavi, Drake, London, those guys. I'm not willing to do that. I'm not. Because I can't imagine that I was.

Getting wint a little bit at Wilson. The rest of them with field.

I just feel like you, you know, if you miss one week, whatever, you're going to have players miss a couple of games for the season. It sucks that it's week one, but whatever.

Okay.

All right.

We have news. Guess what guys. Kyle Pitts. Kyle Pitts is dealing with a hamstring injury.

It was reported just now but apparently it's been going on for a couple of weeks and hasn't affected him too much. I don't know how that, man, I'm not a doctor, but like if my hamstring, it's either bugging me or it's not. It's not like, yeah, it's like 50% I'm out here practicing with 50% hamstring level. I don't know how this works, but you don't want to hear this. Especially for a player whose major excuse since his rookie, you know, quote unquote breakup thousand yards but didn't get touched on.

Did you just quote unquote a thousand yards?

Yeah.

Yeah. Because it wasn't a good season for fantasy.

So there's a fair quote, I'm going to had a thousand yards as a rookie.

Touchdowns and two touchdowns. I'm just saying no one was happy. The people that drafted, the people that drafted Kyle Pitts as a rookie, I'm with you.

If you finish, if you finish at seven at tight end, it's not a breakout.

No. Anyways, my point here is since that time all the excuses have been injury related. Oh, it was the, it was the, was a PCI.

Shoulders, knees and toes. Yeah.

And then it's like, oh, he couldn't turn left or whichever direction because he was coming back from that knee.

Oh yeah, the Zoolander.

Yeah. And then, and now the hamstring. So it's hamstring. It's not what you want to hear you.

I was finally, despite all of those comments, Mike, I was finally ready to pull that trigger in some of these drafts because he does represent this tremendous upside with Kirk Cousins. But now I have pause again because if you're dealing with a hamstring, what are you going to do? Two tight ends. You ready to go double tight end to start the year? I don't want that game.

I get it. I'm just over here still blown away that 1000 yards as a rookie. Tight end is not a breakout for you guys.

It's not a breakout fantasy football season. That's what I meant.

It's so it is for you, you.

Breakout season for the pitts broken out in fantasy football.

No, in football though that we're fancy football show.

I feel like also he is the.

Second tight end ever as a rookie to hit a thousand yards.

How many games?

Very, very good.

17.

Okay. He got an extra, extra game. We don't care about that for the all time. Soon as we add a 17th game, everybody can do it.

Whoo. You guys are just blowtorch.

What if it's 18 games? You're gonna give the next guy the same credit?

Yeah, if he hits a thousand.

Oh, my gosh. 50 games. It's been a long time since those days. A long time. Three seasons. Let's do it on the field. Mister pitts. I don't know. Does it change your opinion of in this hamstring injury, Mike, to pull the trigger?

It makes me more concerned.

Okay. Marsh on Lloyd didn't practice. After practicing a couple days, they're giving him a day off. We don't know how.

They said it was part of the plan and that it was it's gonna time like it was. It was scheduled to miss. It was not a. It's good to hear that. It wasn't like he went out, practiced, hurt himself worse. It was, this was the plan of bringing him back when he's gonna practice, when he's not. I don't know that he plays week one.

I don't think he does. I think he might miss a couple weeks. And then I the the compounded news here is the other backup running back for Green Bay, Emmanuel Wilson, was limited Tuesday with a hip injury, and now.

Their dual threat quarterback is going to go ham.

I believe Josh Jacobs has the most total touches at running back. Over the last three years, he has been the most workhorse capable, and the team has come out and said literally, yeah, that's what he does. He's fine. If we have to do that, we'll just do it.

They have to do it over the.

First, over the first few weeks, Josh Jacobs will be very good.

I don't know how he's not a workhorse. All of the running backs on this roster are injured except for him.

And if you tell me that the biggest threat to Josh Jacobs on a competitive playoff team is a currently injured rookie that has to acclimate and become a part of the offense, I think that's going to last a lot longer than a few weeks, personally.

Yeah, it was a late, late surge.

I don't like the surge for Josh.

Jacobs, but I'm in.

My worry is the second half of.

The year, Ty Chandler has been announced as the kick returner for the Vikings.

That's not the fun one.

The Bengals announced Chase Brown as the kick returner for the. For the Bengals.

That's not the fun one.

Blake Coram was listed as the primary kick returner.

Oh, my God. His value is over.

You can't draft Blake.

We're all gonna die.

He's returning kicks.

Oh, man. Why even be on the team?

You know what? I'd be a lot happier if it was flipped, if it was Chiron returning kicks and coram returning punts. Because the kickoff is safe. Now. The kickoff is completely changed. So the punts, you got to get knocked out.

Well, you. Fair catch?

Yeah, it's a fair catch.

Have have anybody else do it.

Sure.

Hands. You trust his hands?

Yeah. No. You know, you. That's not wrong.

This is not even news. I mean, the rookie returning kicks is called NFL football.

It's news in the fact that people wanted to react to.

They should have.

Tyrant.

They should have reacted.

Then you should react to this.

No, not at all. He's a rookie. He's a backup. He should return kicks. You're starting running back. Okay, let me ask you this, okay? Name all the other starting workhorse running backs of return punch in the NFL. Go. I'll wait.

I could do some research, but it's gonna be low.

Go ahead.

What now?

Saquon returning.

Just. Just to be clear.

Jamier Gibbs returning punts.

Just to be clear. You do. You can't just say player. You have to say running back because. Yeah, because Antonio Brown or those guys. Totally different. Yes.

Starting running.

Starting.

Yes, it is.

How is it different?

Because the workload on a workhorse. Running back. You're not giving your wide receiver, you know, 22 carries a game. It's a big difference. That's why you've never seen it. This is a story because no one's ever done it. I can't think of other than you telling me Kyron, who wasn't their starter when he did it, did it last year. I can't think of another running back. In fact, if you went through the top, the top five rounds of running backs, I don't think you're going to find one.

We will see this. We will see.

Hiring returning kicks tells me it's a committee. That's what it is. It's going to be a committee.

Okay?

And I'm not just saying this to be, like, hot takey on the show. I traded Chiron away for Gibbs in our league of record, after the news. And there are those out there that think that some people reacting to that news is absolutely crazy. And that's fine. Kyron may go out. And by the way, he plays Gibbs Sunday night Football, week one. We're gonna put it to the test. He may go out and just light the league on fire again. Or it could be a committee with Quorum and Ronnie Rivers.

So where. Where have you moved Chiron rankings wise? Like in your head?

Where.

What tier is he in now?

Now that he is guaranteed in a committee, what do you see as his?

I put Gibbs above him. I mean, well, ready above them?

Yeah, Gibbs was already above them for all three of our race.

I have Chiron one spot.

Yeah, I had Chiron ahead before, so I was just telling you what I just said. Let me take a look. Let me get some number.

Some names.

Yeah, go ahead.

Travis. ETN.

Etienne's above it for sure.

Let's go. Derrick. Henry.

I will in a standard. Go Henry. The others. I'll still go, Kyra.

Okay. Devon a chin.

I probably take the shot on a chan that I have in one spot behind a chan I have. I have Chiron at ten. So this. That's where I moved it. Okay, he's at ten. He's behind Barkley. He's behind Cook. He's behind a chan.

Rashad White.

One spot behind. One spot behind Kyle.

Okay. Okay.

He's behind cook for me.

Okay.

For me. So again, I'm not really happy this whole conversation came up. I really. I'm really not because it's just too much air time for the story that. I didn't mean it to be like this. Sounds like. I think Kyron is the worst player in the league. He's incredible.

That's what I heard.

He's number ten on my rankings. But it did move him. It did change him. Because my problem with Gibbs, right. Is ah. Committee with Montgomery, right. You're the hope of Chiron was you were going to get every.

Yeah, yeah.

Yes.

What you got last year.

And again, he didn't have Cooper cup for some of last year too. Like this is a competitive red zone situation. So we'll find out very, very soon how stupid or smart or in between we all are on that decision. It's. It's tough. You're looking for one little tweak on as to who you're going to draft but Ty Chandler returning kicks, we knew he's behind Aaron Jones, Chase Brown returning kicks, we knew he's behind Zack Moss. So those are kind of. They don't. They don't. It actually makes me interested in Zach Moss just in what, like Chase Brown and Ty Chandler with the new kick returns and those players being committee backs where you were drafting them already. It's kind of cool when your guys going to get an opportunity. It might be one, one touchdown extra a year, but if you are starting a committee back and they get one, that's cool.

Yeah. I'm fascinated to see, because a lot of the coaches early this offseason, they were talking about putting more important, more talented players in that role because it's going to be a, you know, a field position changer.

Like, see, the, have heard rumors, of course, all these things, but, like, some teams are just saying, screw it.

Worse.

We're going to boot it in the end zone and we're going to give the other, give the team the good touchback because I think it's the 35.

Yeah.

I've heard teams say that we're just gonna, we're gonna let all the other teams, we're gonna see what happens over the first few weeks, but we'll just start people 35.

Data that I've seen from preseason is that basically the shorter they kick it, the better it is for the kicking team on field position. I don't know why. Maybe it's not going to the right guy.

I was playing.

They just get there.

It's like the end. The rules are, it's a pretty complex play now because if you, you know, you have the area of the field where the ball has to hit. And I was playing Madden with the boy and I didn't remember exactly how it works. And so it.

Do you get a penalty?

No, no, you don't get a penalty. But, like, I'm on the, the one or the two. Right returning the kick. And we're gonna let this thing roll right into the end zone. But because it hit in the zone and then goes in the end zone, then you're on the 20.

Yeah. So you're forced to return it. Yeah.

It's gonna be, it's gonna be weird.

It will. And that's almost kind of been forgotten that that's what we're gonna see debuted as well on Sunday and every game.

Thursday. Tomorrow.

Yeah, tomorrow. Okay. Is there other news you guys have anything else breaking? Does Jamar Chase looking.

No.

Able to buy dinner tonight. Does he have what it takes?

Still able to purchase dinner? Just no new contract.

That was today's news and notes presented by USAA insurance. Learn more@usaa.com insurance. Gonna take a quick break and jump right into our matchup. Also with the news, the IU contract, all the contract stuff, the stuff that happened last year. I am taking the formal approach from this point on that anything goes.

Oh, I love.

If it's within the NFL, Pa, the CBA for the players. And if the team can do it, the ownership, whatever, if it's permissible, it's, it's. I'm not gonna look down upon it from either side.

Everything is fair game. And I completely agree with you. You. I don't, I don't judge the team for wanting to, you know, not pay guys, and I don't judge the players for wanting to get paid. The one place, though, is that I still think stupid decisions are stupid decisions. And so, for instance, let's say after week one, they give Jamar Chase everything you wanted, everything you want. Yeah, she's just dumb. It's just you lost your player, very valuable player that could have helped you. Maybe you lose that game. Maybe you missed the playoffs because of one loss. Like, if you're gonna pay him, maybe do it so he can play well.

And that is stupid. But also maybe Jamar Chase exercising those options that he has, this is the only way he got paid. I mean, that is, that's the, the give and take of the situation. That kind of, you know, I think players make mistakes. Left Bell, took a gamble, didn't work out, ruined his career. Yeah, but then teams have made mistakes, too.

And is the, the Bengals in particular? Like, when you think of the Bengals organization, I know things have gotten a lot better now. You. They made a Super bowl run, and they have great players now, but they.

Historically have, they've pooped the bet on.

Contracts for ruined player relationships, and then I. Completely different circumstance. I get it. Well, we, and we didn't talk about it, but, but Patrick Sir Tan of the Denver Broncos, same draft class as Jamar Chase, same contract situation sitting behind him. They just made him the highest played paid DB in, in history.

It is, yeah. I don't know. I think some of it has been teams with small windows to win with the players they got. Don't negotiate the way that teams building a new foundation do. The Broncos Foundation. DJ Moore foundation in Chicago.

Yeah, could be.

It's weird. It's interesting to me. Brandon Iuko is super transparent about it. He came out when he's like, you know, not just said he made it more difficult than it needed to be at the end, but he said a squeaky wheel has to be silent sometime. Then you have to know when to squeak. Was just trying to find the balance. Like, that's got to be strange. It's got to be weird because you're putting your trust in your agent, right? You're not just making every decision yourself, but you're sitting at home wanting to be with your team going, is this the right thing? Is this not the right thing? Is this the right thing? And we'll get to talk about it every year forever. So there you go.

Thursday night breakdown.

I think Kyron's gonna be good. I just wanna, you know, okay. He's gonna be a good player.

I mean, that's not what I heard, but.

No, I know it's not.

He's a backup.

The Baltimore ra. Oh my gosh, I'm gonna dunk so hard if it pans out that way and ignore it if it doesn't. Baltimore at Kansas City.

Jig and alley oop.

Yep. Yeah. One of you throw it up to the other. The DraftKings sportsbook line for the Thursday Night football kickoff game. Kansas City at home, minus three. The over under is 46 and a half.

Okay.

And we saw these teams face off and score a far fewer points in the AFC title game. Kansas City won 17 to ten and they had the ball for the majority of that game. It was a ball control situation. It was that running game. Baltimore turned it over three times. Kansas City defense, we know how good it was last year is not the same, but it should be very good.

I'm happy to report that both teams have lost important defensive assets because, you know, that was, that was part of the problem with, with these two teams, especially Kansas City last year with sneed. They're just locking down opposing ones. So happy he's gone because I want Patrick Mahomes to have to throw the ball a lot more. And even though I love Pacheco just.

Doing the passing game, I got bad news, though. The Ravens don't have any wide receiver ones, so there's, he wouldn't have been needed. No. We get to see Derek Henry and Ravens purple.

Very exciting.

And we get to see what Zay Flowers has for a sophomore season. Mark Andrews should be back out there. Yeah, he was practicing and, you know, so it's going to be very, very exciting. Very good defenses last year. Like Jason said, we're hoping that, you know, traditionally when you come out of the gate, sometimes the offense takes a little while to get it going. We'll see what happens in this one. You're not going to have Hollywood Brown making his debut on the other side in terms of the injuries, but let's start at the quarterback position in week one. Mahomes has finished as the quarterback 4514 two, one and seven and averages 3.3 passing touchdowns in season openers.

Yeah, I mean, this, this is one of those where if you drafted Mahomes if you drafted Lamar, obviously you're playing them. There is no one. You're going to start over them. They were drafted to be started. It's just a matter of expectation and I do think that both of these quarterbacks have a good week. One, despite the, you know, last year's number one and number two in points per game defenses.

Yeah. I mean, Lamar, it's. It was a lot to ask of him last year. It was a tough game. Are we going to see the same? I mean, this question gets brought up, like, to be fair, it's been brought up with Josh Allen a million times about hitting a wall of the rushing totals being where you want them to be. Josh Allen is how old? 28. Lamar is 27.6. Do you think at some point we're going is 28? Yep. See the transition for Lamar to protecting himself or is that just going to be too integral to his game forever?

I think it's probably going to be.

He's a different type.

Yes.

He's a different type of runner.

Really trying to take the damage that, like Josh Allen, like, these are guys that go, you know, it's like the, around the goal line. They're smashing into defenders and running over them. You don't see, you know, Lamar's rushing touchdowns usually come from much further away and he's avoiding players. So I think he'll run a little later than some of those big body guys. But it's certainly this year. I'm not worried about it at all.

I do think it might be a pretty difficult debut for Isaiah Pacheco if he's not involved in the passing game, which he could be, but we'll also see some RJP right now. This is a very tough matchup. Last year, the, the Ravens were number one against the run. And in the, in that divisional game or, sorry, in that title game, he was 24 for 68. Not efficient. Scored a touchdown. You're obviously drafting him to start him. I'm not saying don't do anything differently. We're nothing. We're not spot starting Isaiah Pacheco's anytime.

Yeah. It's just like Chiron. Like Chiron's week one matchup against the Lions, the Lions had been shutting down running back. He might have a bad week one. Don't, don't overreact from one matchup.

I will.

This game, it, it's fantastic because it's a, it's an easy game of, you're starting everybody. It's just, what are the storylines that I am watching for? I mean, I think.

I think Xavier worthy is the big start. Sick question.

Oh, okay. I mean, yeah, Xavier Worthy.

Here's why you start Xavier worthy. You want to call your shot and you want to see it on the first chance you have to watch football. If that is not the reason you're starting him, I would just, you know, you, you draft him probably as one of your top three wide receivers, in which case, you know, let, let the.

Game much layout, much different player. But I can tell you from personal experience, last year of Travis Kelsey missing week one and Sky Moore then looking like a really good play and he wasn't, he was actually was very detrimental to your team whenever you started him. So it's, if I, I wouldn't be trying. I'm not forcing worthy into the lineup, but the storylines I'm looking for, does Rasheed Rice keep that target share up? What, like, how involved is Pacheco in the passing game? That's, it's so huge. If, and like, especially if week one, like Somajp Ryan, who just got onto this team, is all of a sudden taken a bunch of third down snaps, you know, getting somehow in the, when they're on a passing attack drive, P Ryan's getting a bunch of snapsh. That would be pretty devastating. And then on the other side, what's going to go on here with Mark Andrews and Isaiah likely of it? I don't think it's been a blaring siren from what's been what we're hearing from the Ravens, but there's some murmurs of Isaiah likely might actually be the third weapon for this team of Andrews and flowers.

Their roles are secured. Batemandhouse every single time they talked about Bateman having a great day, he got injured, then he got hurt. I go, Bateman's finally back. Oh, what a, what a day of practice. And Rashad Bateman is hurt.

Maybe that's their fault at this point. It's like, it's a curse. Like, stop talking nice about Bateman. Say some, say mean stuff about him, get him out on the field, break his spirit, pull your best.

Dennis Allen, I think likely is a very, very good player.

I do, too. I think he should be their third primary target in this offense and I don't think that comes at the expense of a Mark Andrews injury. They can play. This is a team that will play with a lot of two tight end sets and he should be more involved.

Tight ends generally have a little bit longer peak. I'm trying to think of how Andrew's athletic peak, how long that's going to last, but he's got some time. He's almost 29.

He's fine.

But at tight end, you know, I think you're going to be okay.

His next gen stats of yards per separation believe he was number one last year. He was really good. The injury makes us forget and makes us frustrated because it seems like it's every year. But please do not forget, when Andrews is on the field, he is as good a fantasy tight end as there is.

He's been the tight end to the first six weeks for three straight years.

Correct.

So, no, that's true, Mike. The storylines there, how much they use Xavier worthy, how much the tight ends get on the field together and then, you know, ze flowers is a good start in this game.

If you had, say, flowers and rushy rice, I could see a situation where those are literally your flex options or your last wide receiver option if you had to start one of this, one of them in this game, right, rice? Yeah, I would as well. Home favored Derek Henry.

How much work is he going to get? What is it going to look like for the, the Ravens in terms of what Henry was used to in Tennessee and what it looks like around the goal line is also going to be interesting to watch. But from a start standpoint, you're starting the running backs, the quarterbacks, rice and flowers, Andrews and Kelsey, and then you're just thinking about that flex option for Xavier Worthy and they gave us a.

They gave us a treat here.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah. I see. Possible chance of thunderstorms. Please don't have delays, okay? I'm gonna be waiting all day for this. Don't, don't delay this game.

This is the first time we've done our league of record draft and then gone straight into week one.

Yeah, we're drafting tomorrow altogether. And then watching the game.

That just means, and I'm gonna just put this out there, that means you might want to watch tomorrow show on YouTube. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna let you know because we're going straight from recording this show into our draft and I'm not gonna change clothes in between.

Oh, okay.

That's all.

I know where you were going.

So you got King robe outfit coming?

I don't know. I don't know what I got coming. Anything else you want to talk about in the Thursday night preview?

Nope.

We'll take a quick break, answer some questions. All right, let's jump into the mailbag.

Mailbag? Mail bag. Oh, yeah.

All right, well, we will. We have a voicemail question now.

We do.

All right, let's jump in.

Hey, Ballers. This is Roadie in Arkansas.

So I took Bijon in the first.

And then Drake London falls to me in the middle of the fourth. Do I try to trade one of.

Those, or do I go all in.

On a Falcons offense with Kirk Cousins coming off the achilles?

Appreciate it.

Love the show.

Later.

So, question is, Bijon was drafted the first. Drake London fell to the fourth, which is unbelievable value.

That's not going all in on Drake.

Now, if you. If he falls to, you know, and normally in this studio, if you talk about a double falcon, that's a clogged toilet problem.

Right?

Like that is a situation in double Falcon would be.

Maybe you're calling a doctor.

It's too much to wipe. There's. It's.

It's.

It's too. That's good. That's at least a two roller rolls. Yeah, but. But, yes. Falcon, how does that make you feel, knowing that you and your name on this show is basically.

I wear it as a badge of honor. Okay, man, that's good. He probably has to he price to.

Go, but that's fine. No, I would. I'd let that play out.

I spare.

Look, if Kyle Pitts. This hamstring injury is. If it is a factor, at least over the first portion of the season. Drake London. Drake London should be so good. He should be so good.

I have a question. I'm going to submit my own mail. Bad question, because I think I need to hear your perspective on it.

Okay.

How long. How many games does it take for a player that has not been, you know, given the whatever, whatever the expression. Yeah. Who is not like Drake London, Garrett Wilson? These players that we want in Chris Olave. We want and expect them to take a step forward. We need them to be in the upper echelon, and we want to give them that. You know, the reason you hesitate about drafting Drake London a little bit is because you haven't seen that. How many games does it take for you to believe that you got the thing that you're hoping for? I wrote because.

Answer because one way to believe in it in a positive way.

Correct. Like, how many games of Drake London success?

Till I fully believe, until you say I.

He is what we thought he was versus. I just had a good, like, I mean, I looked at the. What was it in our last matchup, like, you talked about Sky Moore having a big first game. Like you might have believed after one game. Skymore was a good player.

I believe talked about him not.

Yeah.

Oh, you said he did.

Yeah, he did.

Oh, gotcha.

That was the, like, don't play worthy week one.

The point is there's lots of players that have big week one.

Yes. Sammy Watkins. Sammy Watkins would come out and annihilate in week one. And you're like, I got that dude. And then he's like, gotcha.

You guys remember what Sky Moore's line was?

Sky Moore's line from last year?

Yeah. Week one with no Travis Kelsey.

Is it a zero burger?

No.

Okay.

It is a zero reception and one carry for four yards.

All right, so you guys wrote down, I wrote how many games it takes.

I wrote down my answer for both directions for me to conclude that he is. He is.

Oh, I just went positive. I just.

And then how many it would take for me to go, I'm out and I'm gonna take the l and I'm not gonna keep trying.

What are your answers for?

Yes, my answer is one.

Now.

Is that because of priors, though? I'm talking about neutral.

Like, I want NBA GM.

You're saying one good Drake London game and you've confirmed that he's good because he had those last year.

I'm saying that if he comes out in week one, I mean, this really is the question for Drake London, specifically, if he comes out week one and has twelve targets, has one of the big games he's had before. I will be an early actor or believer. I will believe right off the bat now that is, ironically, it's on the heels of saying, don't always do that. And I. I wouldn't always do that, but this is a situation where we are waiting to see the target market share of Kirk Cousins, the health of Kirk Cousins. And so if he comes out and has a big week one, I'm going to. I'm going to believe that. That doesn't mean he's going to be consistent. Every week is going to be great, but at the end of the year, he's going to be a top ten wide receiver.

So last year, the one that would have been the pulled the rug out name was Calvin Ridley because he came out and he was the wide receiver. Six in week one and had a. An incredible market share and eight catches, eleven targets. That one didn't end up where you want.

If you remember, it wasn't even week one. It was like first quarter, maybe it was first half, but he just started on nuclear fire. The first couple drives were all Calvin Ridley and it was like, oh, my gosh.

Yeah, we're, you know, if you were.

Wrong, you were wrong. And he certainly disappeared from that point for a while.

You know who was the, the running back three and the running back five in week one last year. If you want to blast from the past.

I. I won't remember.

Well, you will after I say it. Austin Eckler was number three.

Shots.

It's not too. It's too early to give up.

Tony Pollard was the running back five after week one last year.

A lot of, a lot of prior.

14 for 72 in week one.

I remember watching his utilization week one going, holy crap.

Wheel, Mike. What was the, what was your answer?

Three games. If I see three games that are productive, then I will be in it.

I'm with you. Three. Three sounds good.

And then to actually be out, it would, you know, it would take a good amount because it. If it doesn't happen week one, don't freak out. There's a brand new situation for. It's a new coach, it's a new offense, it's a new quarterback. Like, yeah, it might take a little bit.

I had four games to be out.

Okay.

Give them a month.

All right, we're looking at the number one most searched player on the website for our start sit tool, which is back up there. So you can plug in a couple players, see where we, where we would have them ranked, who you should start and sit. And it shows you a matchup breakdown. But the number one search player is Jerome Ford right now for week one because where he's going in drafts is normally behind the auto start area. So I'm going to give you three Jerome Ford, week one start sit.

Okay. Jerome Ford's playing Dallas.

Yep.

They are at home, I believe. Right. I'm pretty sure Dallas is on the road in.

That is correct. Ford or Remondre at Cincinnati.

Ford or Remondre.

I will go Remondra.

I will play for.

I'll go Remondre there. Ford or Gervonta Williams at Seattle.

I'll go for there.

I will go.

I'll say four.

I'll take.

I think I'll go Gervonta Ford or David Montgomery? Sunday night Football against the Rams.

I want that game. Give me David Montgomery.

Okay. Got a little bit of.

Oh, that one is really hard.

See the big news on Jimmy or Gibbs. He's 98% to 100% bat better.

So probably like just 99%.

Yeah, he said 98 or 100.

I'm just gonna take.

I just thought that was the most interesting answer also, you have.

I'm totally 100%. Well, I'm not 100, but like 98. So close, man. But I'm not there yet. It could be there. I might be there, but I'm so.

He's like one good sleep away from fully recovery.

You have David Montgomery in league of record. Jason, I'm sure you're hoping for that game. Mike, what was your answer on that one?

My answer was that one is really hard.

Ah.

I think. I think I'm playing Ford.

And then one flex question. Drum. Ford against Dallas or JSN against Denver.

Jason against in a full PPI. It's funny because you've got certain who's probably going to be more focused towards DK Metcalf. Yeah, I think I go Jason there.

I would be on the watch for the Tyler Lockett news. Just make sure that, like, if Tyler Lockett. If there's, there's still some questions about is he fully healthy?

As of right now, it seems like he's fully ready to go and things.

Could happen throughout the week that might make it easy.

Now, if it's a difficult question, what's your answer?

As in? As in there's nothing there. It's just everyone's full goal.

Everyone. I didn't like the question.

Yeah, well, the cool.

The questions always have context, but they also have answers.

What was your answer?

Oh, that's a good. That's a great point, Mike.

That's the best way to answer on this show.

Yes. What was your answer that you haven't given?

Because I didn't hear it for Ford country. Okay. I think I'm Ford there, too.

Okay. This is a good reminder. A PSA, if you will. We all have had times in our lives where our parents told us to do something and we just didn't do it. And so, you know, teenagers. I talked to my teenager all the time. He doesn't listen. No, I try. I have advice for him. I've lived life. You know what I mean? He. I've done all the years he's done, and I was as dumb as he can sometimes be. Not always, but sometimes it goes in one ear and out the other. And that's what probably this advice right here is going to be. But I'm gonna try it anyway.

Okay.

From, from the dad of the show.

All right.

Please. Foot clan, fancy football players of the world, do your best not to lose your mind on week one. Do your best not to react to listening. A great degree.

What did he say?

You lose your mind if DK Metcalf gets shut down by certain on week one, his season's not over and he wasn't the worst pick you've ever made. Okay?

Huh?

And if Chiron struggles against the defensive front, despite my pre priors, he's not the worst player that's ever played.

What I know is that we will know exactly that process. Who the best player this season will be after week one, and who. And whatever happens week one, just copy paste the rest of the season.

Where? This is year ten and I've yet to see anybody follow this advice, but I'm going to try it again. You know what I mean? The heart wants to calm down.

Maybe what you need to do.

I lost. I lost week one last year, by the way. I lost week one. I'm the champion of the league.

Jason, still.

Did you remember that last part?

Still. I can't hear you. Must be a microphone problem or something. I had a point. I forgot it.

Okay. Yeah, no, that's. That's okay. We'll wrap it up today. We got more matchup previews Thursday and Friday because we've got football this week, boys. And then join the foot.com. come check out our community. All the in season tools. Head over there. All right. I'm excited. Tomorrow, YouTube. That's all I'm saying. Just come hang out.

See you tomorrow, everybody.

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 heffbollers.