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

Oh, welcome in.

It's football Time.

Yay.

Oh, you wore the shirt.

You did. We had.

Keep it secret, keep it safe.

So you whispered it. That was the. Yes, let us, that was the solution.

Let us whisper together. It's one half of teams playing one quarter of its football time.

Soon. Soon, everyone.

Yeah. I mean, I'm excited.

We shall rejoice.

I'm very excited. It's Thursday. We do have football. There's some football.

There are a couple games tonight.

How, I mean, it's. How do you talk in Italics?

How do you talk? How do you speak Italics? I will say this. You know the buzz football time. Wait a minute, that's italian. Oh, not Italic.

My bad. Those are different words.

Yeah, they are. They really are.

Oh, that's a food.

I did watch the first episode of Hard Knocks, Mike, including the introduction of the.

How off putting was that?

It was pretty off. I mean, they should not have narrated. No, I think I know why they did it, though. They shouldn't have. But what happens is they do the intro to hard knocks and this is the Chicago Bears.

Right.

I thought the episode was okay.

It was okay. Yeah, it was good. Not enough Keenan Allen. But, but they go right into a musical intro to the episode. So you got the intro to the show, then they go into this musical intro to the, you know, the stadium and everything. And they, I think they needed, they felt like they needed narration. It was a mistake.

And like the, the actual, like the narration, to be fair, of, of setting up, reminding people that, like the team history, once upon a time, the Chicago Bears were a feared team in the NFL. And it's, they're trying to get back to that. So I get, I understand what story they're setting up. I'm just saying that, that the first time you hear that music in August is like a, an electric jolt to your body.

We have two games, Panthers, Patriots, lions, Giants tonight, preseason, week one, officially getting started. What did you think of either flu?

I think he's, he's interesting. Like, he, I thought he seemed like a maybe a fun guy to be around.

Yeah.

Oh, really? Yeah. That, that's it. So I have, I have not watched, but in press conferences, things I've watched there, Eber Flu hasn't come across really as, like the, the fun guy. So I'm. That'll be interesting.

It's like one, seems like a dad.

Yeah. The one thing that hit me for sure. Yeah. And he's got, his, his daughters are featured. A lot like knowing football, watching all these games and, and what was crazy to me is just that, like, the dichotomy for the Bears and the Bears fans out there between keeping Justin Fields or making this transition, because that was the discussion in the debate long ago. Justin Fields, the fantasy numbers so prolific. And it's just such a different feeling for the future of this team to have. Caleb Williams.

Yes. So very disappointed in his rookie performance.

Oh, that was bad. It was talking about singing in front of the.

Yeah. And, like, not going after it. You're the leader of the team, man. Get after it. You know?

Not a good sign. All right. Ultimate draftkid.com head over there. Hundred plus player profile videos. We break down everybody. We've got player projections. They're changing all the time. We've got our, my guys episode coming up soon, which is an, it's an outpouring. You know, I'm gonna give a hint.

Oh, whoa.

I'm gonna give a little hint because there's really no way for people to figure this out. So I did notice. I have my, my guys figured out, like, they're locked.

You wait, you ain't number three got lucky.

I got, I'm all locked up. I didn't mean I reserve the right to Pettis, but, but they're locked up. But they ended up magically. And I didn't notice this till afterwards. Back to back to back in my rankings for one of their positions. That's all I'm gonna say.

Yeah.

Is that they are somehow right next to each other in one of my positional rankings. So there's, there's a little reveal, but is that next week?

Yes, it is.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I've got, you know, high expectations and excited to hear your guys as my guys on the show, but ultimate draft kid comm available now check that out. Let's do some, let's do some preseason.

Preseason power up.

All right. What are you watching for this preseason? So this doesn't have to be just one player. This could be a team. This could be a position battle. This could be Matt Iberf loses beard. I don't care. Tell me what you're looking.

I mean, the number one thing I, I've been wanting to see and it's ironic that I haven't watched hard knocks is Caleb Williams. I want to, I want to see the number one overall pick, the highest touted rookie in, you know, several years. I want to see what he looks like because from a fantasy perspective, I as well as all three of us are still well behind ADP. His ADP on the, on the. What could be is really, really high. People wanted to take a shot at getting that superstar.

There's great potential.

Oh, for sure. He comes in and rocks as a rookie. But that's why I want to see it because I understand there is huge potential for success with the wide receiver core. He has. I've done, you know, most of my stating on just historical truth, even great hall of Fame, you know, first ballot quarterbacks that don't usually come out guns ablazing in their rookie season, especially when it comes to throwing touchdowns. So yeah, that's, that's one thing that I will be certainly watching and I'll.

Double up because the Chicago Bears are playing the Buffalo Bills and we just got word that Josh Allen and the first team is going to play up to a quarter. We'll see if it might just end up being one drive, but point being, who is out there? Like who is out there immediately? The Bills wide receivers, it's a, an absolute, not an absolute mystery, but it is shrouded in a mist of war that we just, we aren't 100% sure of who's going to emerge and be the guy, if anyone. But on top of that, we know that Josh Allen is probably going to throw for 4000 plus yards and a whole bunch of touchdowns and someone could be incredible. And yet the ADP on all these guys is at a point where if one of them hits, it's a, it changes your entire fantasy roster.

All right, Mike. All right, Mike.

Okay.

The first team's playing their first time. They line up in three wide receiver sets. Call your shot. Who are the three wides?

Well, Curtis and out there.

Yeah, Curtis and Shakira are locked. It's the is key on Coleman out there right away. Or is it someone like Mack Collins who's gotten a little bit of buzz about being an outside wide receiver?

Yeah. Yeah. It's, we don't even need.

And will Matt Collins be wearing cleats?

Yeah, I think by rule he has to. But will he be 8ft tall yet?

Because boys still growing the, the bills. There might not be the guy, but we would like a guy or two to count on for fantasy.

Absolutely.

And I'll throw in another offense, just the Bengals battles like the backfield with Chase Brown and Zach Moss and then beyond Chase and Higgins who have dealt with injuries. Higgins going to move on at some.

Point, but dealing with a hurt bank account right now. Yeah.

Yoshi Vossenhouse, Trenton Irwin, Jermaine Burton and whether he can break into the rotation. We've seen big games from, you know, Jason, you've talked all about Burrow and not forgetting how great Burrow is.

And have we gotten news if, if Burrow is starting in preseason week one? Because I, he is someone that I, I really want to see, like his health. I'm so excited. If he's, if he's back in health.

My vague memory, oh my gosh, I.

Wouldn'T play him if I were them.

Let's see.

Okay, we have, we know Kyler's not playing in the preseason.

Coach Taylor on up and Adams on August 4. I intend for Joe to play.

There was a point where we wouldn't have whispered, it's football time quite as quietly, but the preseason is so different.

Yes, it's been six years a stripped.

Of what it used six, seven years ago. It was just, it's football time. We get a quarter of football. This is like you've got a sleuth downbeat reporters to see who's playing in these games and then you end up with situations where first team offenses play second team defenses and you're not really 100% sure. And like last year, run their offense. The Pittsburgh Steelers look unstoppable. Do you remember this? How, how unstoppable their offense was?

Kenny Pickett's entire career in a week.

He was like 90% completion through preseason. Every drive in a touchdown is like, wow, we should be in. It turns out.

Nope.

Turns out his preseason football against some vanilla second streamers.

He is who we thought he was the, and we let him off the hook.

I don't think you can learn very much at all watching offensive systems in the preseason. Nothing. And so, so when you talk about like, oh, I want to see the Falcons, are they, are they going to be great? I don't. You're not going to know that. But I can watch Brock Bowers runner out. I can watch what he looks like against NFL level defensive players. So, you know, seeing some signs and signals from individual players is, I think, the most valuable thing. It will get the hype chains going. It will move the adp of players in different directions. We all remember the carry on Johnson run around the world that, you know, a couple preseason runs.

Oh, Amir Abdullah. Yeah. Amirab Doula had the one cut to rule them all. Just.

It's true. So, yeah, it'll be. It'll be a lot of fun. Those are a few things we're looking for.

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

The jets activated Mike Williams off the pup list, which is, you know, to me, a great step towards not wasting the money you spent signing him.

Yeah, that. That is. That's great. I mean, if. If they've got him week one, I think it. It changes the offense a little bit.

Jaden Reed, mispractice with a calf injury. He is back today. Christian Watson took a big hit, stayed down for a while, but then returned to practice. And the team said they had just kind of avoided a major injury. And he think. They think he'll be good to go.

It's a little scary.

I mean, I don't want to be on this ride.

Yeah. Really was.

Don't want to go on the ride.

You're saying that specifically and only with Christian Watson ignoring the Jaden Reed calf?

Yes.

Okay. I just wanted to make sure.

No, let's be fair. Jaden Reed missed time at the end of last year. He dealt with injuries. He plays a little bit debo esque with not a debo body. So you're going to get beaten up. But I. Yeah. Christian Watson, we have the longer run of frustration, so I don't.

I actually did make a change in my rankings based on this combination of news, the fact that you got the calf injury, and, yeah, you're back. You're, you know, so it's over. But it's like, Andy, you know this when you. When you tweak a calf, like, you better hope it's over because you don't know until you're out there, you know, exploding off of it. And the Christian Watson's just prenup peanut brittle.

So Romeo Dobson.

I mean, maybe it was actually flipping Jordan Love and Kyler Murray. I had Jordan love ahead of Kyler Murray, and I just see that there's a little bit more risk there to me. If you've got a questionable health of.

The very talented wide receivers, the Cowboys RB depth chart. There's been some comments about Rico doubt. Mike would be remiss for us not to bring it up.

I didn't put this in.

But you wanted it.

Just let the record show I didn't put it in.

I think the quote you're referring to is from John Machada. At this point, it would be a surprise for Rico doubt not to make it. He is my favorite to lead the team in rushing.

I do want to point out it is this guy's favorite to lead the team in rushing, not necessarily Mike McCarthy's favorite.

Yeah, I. And I agree. We broke down Rico Dotto a lot on this week's Dynasty podcast. So you can go back if you want more of an in depth. But it's a like the, the reporting out of Cowboys training camp has been since the pads have been on. Rico Dowdle is the one with the. With the most juice, the most electric player. That doesn't mean that Mike McCarthy and crew will not feature Zeke. It just means that there is an opportunity here for Rico Dowdall.

And I think everyone would agree Rico Dowdall has more juice than Zeke at this point. Right now, the question is, is he as trustworthy, as reliable as, as, you know, entrenched in the, the game plans?

Yeah. I mean, did the Cowboys look at their offense and say, we need the player the most juice here? Or do they look at their offense and say, look what we did last year, trusting the passing game and Dak and CD and Ferguson, and do we just need reliability, like you said? So the Iuke trade watch continues.

Oh, man, I hope it never ends.

Lame.

Lame.

Morning, guys.

I know. No new news the past few mornings. It's.

You can wake up to find, like, 25 beat reporters talking about, he's going here, he's going there. And today was just. Nothing.

Iook wants to thread the needle in such a way with this deal that I started to wonder, is he just going to play for the 49 ers? Because, you know, he. I want. I want $30 million. Okay, we'll give it to you. Oh, not the Patriots. I'm not interested.

He wants the 49 ers to give him $30 million. It. We're at the point now of. Has, has Iuke seen what the market for, like, the teams he actually wants to go to? Does he have the contract with, like, we've seen reports that him and Pittsburgh are aligned in what the contract would be, but San Francisco and Pittsburgh are not aligned in the compensation to trade for IU. I've seen people disputing that, saying that no one, no one has gotten to the finish line of an agreement. It's just, it's all over the place. But we're now getting to the point of, we need a resolution. Like, if Brandon Iuke is trading, changing teams next week.

Yeah.

Then preseason week.

I do worry about. That's not great offensive integration.

Yeah, it's football time.

Yeah, we're already here, man. So where you guys are you at the point of this? Plays it out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, it's the best thing for the 49 ers.

Yes.

Have you seen Nick boses comments? I mean, he's just like, you could tell that dude is depressed about losing IUk on this roster.

It's a, it's a devastating blow to their Super bowl chances if they actually trade him away.

That was today's news and notes presented by USAA insurance. Learn more@usaa.com insurance let's take a quick break and then we're jumping into running back rankings. I will say this before we jump in the IUk news and just the compensation requests from the 49 ers. You know, there's rumors that they wanted Pickens back, they want Amari Cooper back, they want draft picks. All this money. Like, I do think the NFL looks at Brandon Ayuk as at least a player that could reach a top eight, top five range at the wide receiver position because these the compensation. You know, if the pagers are going to give him $30 million in picks, that's just a lot. So I think the view of Brandon Ayuk is very, very, it's very high in the NFL circles.

Yeah. I think the one player not, not getting enough talk in this whole situation, both pro and con, is Ricky Pearsall, their first round wide receiver they drafted this year. Like, he's been injured a lot. If he was tearing up camp, would they be? So we have to get chickens back. We have to get Cooper back. Like, they draft. They knew that they might not be able to play both Debo and Brandon Iook, and so they drafted a first round wide receiver. And it's like that. That should be the solution, it seems like, to the 49 ers so far.

It's like, well, I, look, it's, it's not necessarily Pearsall, right? Like, Juwan Jennings has been a contributor on this roster for a while. You talk about deeper leagues, you talk about dynasty leagues. There's no guarantee that Ricky Pearsall is taking all the snaps like when we, if this trade goes through and they don't get compensation back, a wide receiver. This conversation goes well beyond Ricky Pearsall.

No, for sure. I'm just saying I think Ricky Pearsall, it must not be impressing them that much.

Well, he's just not been on the field.

Sure.

That's, I mean, I think they drafted him, as you would say, to be great.

Running bags.

All right, we are in our running backs ranking countdown 20 through eleven on today's show, looking at our half PPR consensus rankings. So this is not, you know, we have these guys at different spots, but this is where they landed on our big board together and starting out at number 20, Ramondre Stevenson. I am currently the highest at 20 on the dot. You guys are a little bit behind on that one. Got the bag of cash. Obviously, he's on my dynasty team. I made sure to get that done for him. But a four year extension, he's now the 7th highest paid running back on a per year basis. And I have a lot of, I think he is capped by the offense in the team in terms of total fantasy finish upside. But I think, reminder, he's going to do literally as much as he can possibly do this year from a workload perspective. And so I'm pretty, I'm pretty enthusiastic about, you know, his chances to finish between twelve and 20. I think he's like one of the more solid RB two s you can get. And right now the draft cost is at the back of that range.

He's a 6th round draft pick. I could see his name slipping in certain drafts. Right where, you know, there's just not an interest in remandre coming off of RB 36 year. Where are you with Remandre?

Yeah, I'm very, very similar to what you just described. I'm confident in his ability. I'm confident in his workload. Those are great things. I'm also pretty confident in his health. I know he missed four games at the end of last season with the ankle sprain. However, this was a team that was on track for a quarterback pick, and when he got injured in week 14, it was like, hey, let's shut him down. You know, this was not a team trying to make the playoffs where he was trying to rush back from the ankle injury. He's got the body the size to be able to take a workload, you know, work load.

What?

Allow myself to.

Hold on. Let me get that right.

Yeah. Take.

To take a workload. Workload, yes. So workload squared.

Yeah.

So the team loves him. The team is confident in it.

They do.

They want to run the football.

A matter of are they going to be ahead and enough games in enough scoring positions to have. I mean, if, if at the end of the year you've got five total touchdowns for Andre Stevenson because the offense wasn't very good, you're going to have the running back 26 27. But if he ends up with eight or 910 touchdowns, he very well should be around running back 15 or higher.

He was, he was on the my guy finalists list for me and, and I just four and a half win total for New England. Hurt that. But, Mike, could he finish as the wide receiver or as the running back? Ten?

No. No.

You don't think so?

No, I do not think that he can get there. The look, an offense can turn things around. The Houston Texans were projected to be the second or first worst team last year. Obviously, CJ Stroud came in and put that into the garbage can can. Drake may do something similar. I mean, at, at this point, it doesn't seem like it because it certainly feels like Jacoby Brissette is going to start the year for the New England Patriots and then they'll eventually, eventually make a change over to Drake. May. It's. I don't want a, I don't want to bet on a running back in such a bad offense, you know, when, when the guys around him is like it. Deandre Swift. I have a lifelong feud with DeAndre Swift, but, and civil court, right? We're hashing it out.

Yeah.

And I even, I have remondre, you know, it just in my medium projections slightly ahead of DeAndre Swift, probably because of the feud I got. It's personal for me. But like Swift or Naji, he's more of a question. Like, he's kind of really similar, I think, to remandre Stevenson, but there's like, there's guys going right around remandre that he feels more like the consolation prize of the running back in that range as opposed to someone who I think that the offense could really take off. Yeah. The money says that he should be the guy.

And was the RB eleven in 2022?

Yes.

It's not like they won the division that year.

Right. But the. What was his reception?

I was right say in front of you, Mac dump offs.

So that that's.

I still think that's going to be part of his, his, it should recipe this year with the wide receiver.

100% should.

Yeah. He had 88 targets, which is a great way to become an RB. One. I, without Drake may turning things around. I don't see running back ten in remandre's outlook. However, I disagree with you, Mike. I think when I look at the running backs, he's going around Swift, Najee, Zamir White.

He's steadier.

I would much rather have remandrea of all of them.

Josh Jacobs comes in at 1926 years old, being drafted as the RB eleven. Right now that is a big man. Is one of the areas where we unanimously have him a little bit lower than I think. This is one of the areas we could just be wrong.

Oh, for sure.

I mean, this is the number one area where I could see good offense.

Check.

Yeah. And workhorse guy, pass catcher. A lot of talk about that Marshawn Lloyd. Ball. Ball security issues.

And there is a lot of talk of AJ DJ being the running back to.

I think, I think I said we were bringing this up a few weeks ago. Like, this is one of those situations. You may want Marshawn Lloyd to get opportunity, but they like what they have in AJ Dylan right now.

I felt far more confident in our take of Josh Jacobs when it seemed like Marshawn Lloyds, this siding rookie who's going to come in and Green Bay will platoon like this is. They're going to 100% platoon. I know that Jacobs in his history has shown, no, I can be the three down guy. I don't think that's how they're going to use him. And if you have an electric player behind him getting like the. Those efficient, like he's ripping off, you know, chunk runs, I'm less confident Jacobs. But if it seriously is AJ Dylan as the running back to, then this will be a ranking that I move. I eventually scooch him up a little bit.

Yeah. The, obviously everything you're saying is good. And the fact that there's ball security issues right now with Marshawn Lloyd is concerning because that was one of the major knocks on him in college. He put the ball on the ground a lot. So if you're a rookie and you're doing that, it's very hard to trust for a team that is a. Has championship aspirations to say, hey, put the rookie who's going to put the ball on the ground out there. It's. It's tough. But Josh Jacobs is not going to be a workload, a workhorse back. It's just not the system that has ever been here. AJ Dylan, we all remember how bad he was last year and he missed games and he had 208 opportunities. They don't, they don't give it to anyone. And they had Aaron Jones, who was who as well. So I, I will agree that this could be a huge whiff. Josh Jacobs, on a good offense who just led the NFL in rushing two years ago, should have goal line opportunities and catches the ball. This could be a massive mistake. But he was very inefficient last year and won't have the total volume he's had over the last several years.

Yeah, he's only 26.

He might get a lot of that volume. I think that might be one area. I disagree. But I think that there's a very good chance if you're. Could be the workhorse for this.

LaFleur, I mean, if you, if you listen to LaFleur, he has said this more than 100 times. He said, I don't believe in having, like, a workhorse back. He believes in a, in a, in a, in using multiple backs to keep them fresh through the season. Yeah. I mean, I just could, I would be so shocked if it was like, now he changes his mind when he's said that so many. He said that to the beat reporters like, you guys know me. You know, that's, that's not what I do. So I would just. That's what I'm basing it on. Certainly Josh Jacobsen, just based on the talent. If you've got a rookie putting the ball on the ground and you've got AJ Dylan behind you, you, you would want him to get all the work and be a workhorse.

But we talk about injuries with Watson and, you know, Reed earlier, like, Jacobs in the passing game is something they've talked about extensively and that's something they want to use. So he does have opportunity. I don't think he's realistic to finish at 19 where we have him. I think you either have a more disappointment or you end up with way more upside. We're just not willing to throw.

He's at like the two three turn right now. So that, that's where I have ended up with none of him. If he was, you know, where we have him ranked. I would love to take the shot at the upside, but if you look at who's going around, give me some names. Okay. So around the two three.

Pacheco.

Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm easily on the pacheco.

It's like so right in front of him. ADP wise on sleeper would be Derek Henry. I'll take Derek Henry. Pacheco. That one is like, that one's not even close for me. But, like, Rashad White, who is about a round later, let's say you, you know, you are in the back of the third. You're targeting a running back, and Josh Jacobs slips a little bit. Are you going to go with him or are you going to take Rashad White?

No comment.

Yeah, I thought you were asking, and because I'm asking, the room I would take. I would take Rashad White there personally. And it's not just the running backs there. I mean, you, you look at the wide receivers that are around where he's picked and the tight ends, you know, Nico Collins. I would much rather have Nico Collins than, than Josh Jacobs.

I'm curious, do you guys have the ADP comparison tool up right now with Jacobs? I can grab that for you because. Okay, so he's going, he's a fourth round pick over on ESPN.

Underdog.

Wow.

Fifth round pick, an underdog, that's wild. But then his highest ranking right now is that sleepers at 302.

So if you've got the UDK, we have under the research tab, an ADP comparison tool, go look at what platform you're on and see it. Take a look at some of the differences there. We might highlight some here.

Coming up, 18, Raheem Moster.

So, wow, he made it up this high.

He did.

Whose fault is that?

Jason's.

Yeah. And I, and I, and it is my fault. And I've. I. I am an apology for us.

I don't. I didn't mean fault. I meant more like who's doing who's responsibility.

Yeah, no, you know, look, he was the running back to last year. He got money this offseason. He's perfect for this system. I do believe when they get near the goal line, even though, you know, I love Devon a chan, I think most are their better option for goal line opportunities. But goodness gracious, I mean, he had 22 touchdowns last year. I think he had 19 in his career. Heading into last season. He had an outrageous amount of his total fantasy points come from touchdowns. So my ranking of, of Raheem Moster, I believe, is needing an update.

Mostert. Yeah, you were, you were really in on Mostert a couple of months ago. His two seasons in Miami was RB 26 and RB two. His ADP is RB 25. The excitement around Mozart needs to be about the value that he represents in fantasy drafts more than the opportunity for him to repeat last season. Because, you know, even if you, even if you salvage 30% of last season's upside, you're going to finish above RB 26 in this kind of offense. This is a machine. And the machine worked with Mostert as a key cog in the red zone. It just, it just was too abundant to repeat.

It was. Nearly 50% of his fantasy points came via touchdowns. That was the highest of any top twelve running back since 2018. Only three games without a touchdown, and those games were flops.

How often do you have a 7th round draft pick fantasy that you feel like is, has no chance of failing for you? That's what most like right now is that he's like the safest 7th round pick in the history of the game.

Like, what, what do you put his touchdown floor at?

Eight?

Eight is seriously what I was going to say. So, like eight touchdowns in the 7th round for the running back position. With, with what if a Chan gets hurt?

Right?

If hn gets hurt, it's.

Oh, my God, it's.

Holy crap. Raheem Mostert goes to a back to a potential league winning running back. So I love his, I love where he's going. Yeah. Kyle just pulled up his line on underdog is eight and a half rushing touchdowns and he's going that late? It's, yeah, I mean, is, that's a stabilizer.

Me having him at running back 14 feels too high. But where he is, he's an exceptional value. And this is one of those things where sometimes you want to know if you love him. If you love Raheem Mostert and you're like, that is, I think, the best value in the draft, then, then bypass Devon a Chan earlier, you know, so that you can grab him later or, you know, having, having ideas of where you're going when you start your draft.

Yeah. He had 19 career touchdowns going into last year. He has 20. He had 21 last year.

The, the thing about both a chan and mostert is we build our rankings off of a, like a median projection, you know, kind of calling your shot on some guys where you see an upside or you see some regression coming. Truly projecting the Miami running backs is very difficult. Like, to say that what was, HM was like eight yards of carry or something. Absolutely ridiculous. It, you can't. So you can't within good conscience say this guy's going to carry the ball for six plus yards of carry. That's just, it can't happen. So both of these guys h in on the upper end and, and mostered as a value. They're, they're both hard to project, but I want them both on my team.

At number 17, James Conner of the Arizona Cardinals, 29 years old, being drafted as the RB, 19 in the late fifth round, his body is 42 years old, man. No, he's like, he's just, I mean, better with it.

He's buff. He's like, he's got old man strength.

But he's got wear and tear on his body because the way he plays, it takes usually about four or five guys to bring him down. So he, he takes like six hits every play where, right where most players are. Just like, you know, every now and then that first hit brings you down and that's good for your body. Yeah.

He said if there's a certain guy that starts to fall off because of age, he'd be the one to delay that. That was coach Gannon's, you know, thoughts on him. He is the, like, he's the guy in Arizona right now.

Yeah. I mean, all the talk of Trey Benson early in the offseason, the, the fact that they, they spent a day two capital on a, on a really talented back right now, he has not established himself as even the backup to James Conner. There's a three way competition for that. The clarity in the Arizona Cardinals offense is that James connors the dude, and then there are backups, which, he's a.

Team leader, team captain. They run the ball a tiny. He was a league winner last year.

This is, this is not James Connor. This is just a recent update. If you had not caught it, the preliminary depth charts are coming out. These are always to be taken with a grain of salt. Trey Benson was the RB two listed on that initial depth chart despite all of the, the rumblings coming out of training camp. So that, that's, that is something to pay attention to.

What is the chance that James Connor finishes in an RB one?

I think he has a very good chance. I mean, so you look at him.

Much differently than you look at Remondre Stevenson.

Yes.

In terms of, I think, I mean, from a projected, you know, win standpoint, Arizona is a better team. Team.

But I think the Cardinals offense is going to be the, the surprise offense of the season.

Yeah, the, the nice thing about the, I mean, obviously the Cardinals win total is higher than the Patriots. The Patriots have a really, really, really good defense and the Cardinals have a really, really, really, really bad defense. So for fantasy football perspective, the Cardinals are going to have to put up a lot of points and they have the weapons now with Kyler fully healthy Marvin Harrison junior here, where you don't look at the Cardinals offense as a bad offense, even though you look at the Cardinals as not a great team.

RB, 511, five three and one to finish the season last year. That was fun. All right.

Number 16, RB.

6412 515 to finish the year prior.

He loves the end of the years.

He does. Defenders get tired.

What is, what is a yeti? The desert.

That's just Bigfoot.

In the woods.

Too much fur, man.

Yeah.

A desert yeti has to be hairless.

Yeah.

Oh, for sure.

Really?

Yes. Yeah.

Disgusting. I would not look at that. I would not, I would not want to look at that when I see. It's probably cactus, like furred animals. Okay. Yeah. Saguaro.

Yeah. With legs.

The arms grew downward.

Kenneth Walker comes in at 16. Mike, I feel like you have things to say about Kenneth Walker right now. You have him at nine. You are, you're keeping him inside this top 20 for us. Very good. Word from Ryan Grubb over there last week about Kenneth Walker and all of his potential in this offense. I feel like there's a player like, Kenneth Walker is one of the players that has been talked about woefully not enough.

Yeah, the, it has, it felt really like radio silence on Kenneth Walker. And, but the, a thing about that is to not let just a silence dictate what your, your complete thoughts about a fantasy player who, when he's on the field and healthy, the guy is an electric home run hitter. And loving the fact that Ryan Grubb, like, specifically on the quote that came out, he's electric out of the, out of the backfield as a pass catcher, could be coach speak 100%. But the fact that we're even talking about Kenneth Walker as a pass catcher from the coaching staff is a very positive sign. I mean, you want to talk about, it's been radio silence on Kenneth Walker. What about Zack Charbonnet? Like the who? Exactly. So, I mean, if you are, I'm attributing that to, to both of them of that silence means that nothing has really changed. That can't win win on the field. Kenneth Walker is the guy, and Zach Charbonnet is just a backup, a capable backup that would become a bell cow running back should walker miss time. But in the meantime, it's Kenneth Walker's backfield, and he's one of the running backs, like young Saquon, where if you're at the 50, you go, there's, there's a chance that he houses this.

Kenneth Walker is not yet 24 years old. I don't know why it doesn't feel that way.

You know, he's, his road has been exhausting already.

Yeah, exactly. And, and if you look, he's going, you know, he's being drafted next to Aaron Jones, Kenneth Walker has physical capabilities to have upside that other guys just don't because you can end up the season with four different games where he had a 40 yard touchdown.

The pass catching would stabilize him. And I don't think when we did the divisional breakdown show, I think all three of us had Seattle at the bottom of the division.

Yes.

Which, you know, so much talk about the offense and Metcalf and yesterday was JSN and Gino. But like, winning ball games is going to be essential because he's been game script dependent a little bit. Long games, he's much better. Wins, he's much better. So that is just something to pay attention to. But at 16 and his, his ADP right now is right around there. So RB 16, 5th round pick Joe Mixon coming in at 15. Look, Joe Mixon is going to be a selection that you don't take pleasure in making. You don't make that draft pick and say to yourself, oh, boy, it's, it's James Cook and Pacheco and, and youth and upside and unseen capability. It's probably just a pick that you make and you're like, you look back five weeks from now, you're like, you know, I'm really glad I made that draft pick because mix is going to, he's getting all the praise from the entire coaching staff. We are long, we're gone with the, the pierce excitement in Houston and Mixon has been brought in to be the workhorse.

Yeah, I mean, I, I have excitement over Joe Mixon. You, you saw the Damien Pierce experiment in the first half of last year. It wasn't working in this system and he's, he's been talked up kindly from the coaches, but I think they're really going to utilize him in the special teams maybe in the new kickoff return rules. Joe Mixon was brought in and traded for and then paid a ton of money. When you listen to them talk about Joe Mix and they can't, they can't speak kind enough words. They are just espousing glorious adjectives all over Joe Mix. What a pro he is, how he can do everything, his work ethic he is. They're very excited to unleash him. When they changed to Devin Singletary in this offense last year, from the time that he started getting the majority of snaps on, Devin Singletary was the running back nine and he had, I don't have the stat in front of me, but I want to say he, he was north of 50 or he was on a 17 game pace of 50 targets. So I do think there's a world where scoring opportunity is up.

From the Houston, Texas offense last year, you add Stefan Diggs, a second year with CJ Stroud, and if he is used as a three down back and a goal line back, Joe Mixon could easily, I mean, this is, this is a guy who, last year we talked about Raheem Morris, obviously, same team, or Raheem Moster, same team and all that, but Joe Mixon was the running back five last season. Yeah, he was, he was, he was so solid.

He had the second lowest bust rate of any running back, only behind CMC at the running back position. And I just think he's so steady. Like, when you look at Mixon and Walker, who are back to back in ADP, Mike, I mean, that is a, ooh, that's a, that's a very difficult decision to make based on your team makeup.

Yeah. And to be fair, I felt down, I felt low on Joe Mixon last year, and I was a complete l, he still, he was the workhorse for the Cincinnati Bengals. I mean, the, a difficult part is, one is his age and his, the amount of seasons that he has played in the NFL, he is at the cliff of a situation where it could just evaporate and be absolutely gone. Like I'm talking about, he's two steps too slow. He's been very inefficient the last few years, and he's getting it done on volume. The volume is probably the same for there. I'm concerned about the running back targets. It was, I know Jay Singletary started getting more involved.

I've got it now. He was on pace for 51 targets and 40 receptions.

But on the, on the course of the season, it was still the second fewest targets to the running back position. And I just, looking at him compared to other guys, I have huge red flags that I'm concerned about where even when Singletary took over, I mean, you had, you had those outrageous games where he was running back three, running back four, but then 2033, couple good games. So I just, I have concern for the adp of Joe.

You would take Walker?

I would take Kenneth Walker.

What would you do, Andy?

I would take Mexican.

Cool. Next guy.

That didn't help you?

No, it did. I just didn't want to answer the question, but I thought I would, I.

Would take, this team could have brought Devin Singletary back.

Yeah.

And they went out and got Joe Mixer. They had to make that effort. So we'll take a break and then we will come back with the remainder running backs on the countdown. Well, it wouldn't be another year of fantasy football unless we were talking about.

I forgot this existed.

Alvin Camara, super Kamario.

I feel like we didn't get to play that last year, even though he was. It implies right for fiance.

It implies speed.

Yeah. You know, it implies not getting tackled by the first guy, you know, cuz. Yeah.

Star power.

Yeah. You're flashing.

Yeah. He was maybe the smaller version of Mario last year, but it's still, like a pretty right man.

A mushroom.

Yeah.

I mean, I. We're gonna talk a lot about Alvin Camaro over the next few weeks as we lead into the season.

Because you talk about my guy. Hint.

That's not what I said. He's 29 years old. Last season was awesome once he got out on the field. And his skillset is the kind that translates better over time. Right. Like, he is sure handed, knows the offense can pass block. Great release valve for. What do you call somebody who's not courageous?

Cowardice.

Ah.

Derek Carr.

Derek Howard.

Yes.

Derek Carr.

Sure.

Derek. No. Yeah, I'm fine on that.

So airball.

The. The reality for Alvin Kamara is that you just need to accept the boring point.

Guys, Kyle just highlighted it. Good. We all remember.

Oh, boy.

We all remember how disgusting it was to watch the offense timeout the Saints offense if you're in a PPR, absolutely delightful and delicious. Camaro's first game back 14 targets. Believe wide receivers don't get 14 targets.

How many of those did he catch?

He caught 13.

Jason receptions.

An unbelievable catch for what, 200, 300 yards?

33. That's 33 yards on 13 receptions.

Don't care. 13 reception. Point. Point. If you're in a PPR, fantastic.

I hate it. I hate it. But, like, I. I hate it. And I accept that this is probably of another reroll, a good situation.

Fifth round for fantasy.

Yeah. You don't have to spend a third on him.

You're.

You can load up on wide receivers like you. You can literally go get three elite wide receivers.

Get it.

Throw a tight end in there. And then Alvin Camaras, they're just catching.

How old is Raheem o, sir? 31. Right?

Yeah, 31. 30.

Alvin Khmer is 29. He was the RB. Two in fantasy. Points scored from weeks four through 15.

Yeah. And he's in the same system. And the thing is, is.

And who did they find in the passing game to?

That's what I was gonna bring up. You might like Rashid Shahid and believe, like, oh, I think he can catch some downfield bombs and has good sync with car this is not a guy that's gonna be up there at 140 targets at Perry. You know, it's like coming into his second year, you've got Dennis the menace. Dennis the menace up there. No, Dennis the menace does not like.

That's what I thought.

I don't like anybody.

I don't think he likes his players. I think he likes Alvin Camara. Yeah. I mean, equanimous St. Brown, Cedric Wilson, junior. Bub means these are the wide receivers. So the wide receiver, two here after Chris Olavi is Alvin color.

And we've seen, you know, the kindred Miller buzz is terrible. Jamal Williams is mostly toast.

He's burnt.

Taste some hill just comes in here and there. It doesn't matter.

Oh, Dennis Allen loves taste of hill.

For sure. For sure. Like he's in his will. Yeah, like, like Dennis Allen's house. Sorry, goes to Taysom.

So I think the, the headline here gets the vet. We do have him three, you know.

You know, Denis Allen has a. Oh, he is 100% driving a quarter corvette. I probably, if there's some saints, if there's some saints players listening, go out, take a picture of his vet, because I know it's there. He drives a corvette for sure.

You really can't take the disgusting points with Alvin Camara. We've got him three spots ahead of his average draft position.

Oh, man, I hate it.

Yeah, but he's, he's going to be very good for any kind of half PPR.

Full PPR's going to do the research on the vet, dude.

If it's, if it, oh, if it pans out. If it pans out, just on point.

Rashad White at 1325 years old, also gross RB, seven. He's like young camara. I do think that. I think he's a very talented player. I love him in the open field when he has the opportunity to get the football, and it's not, you know, your traditional lineup behind the, the, the fragmented, broken offensive line. I still saw a lot from Rashad White. That was, I think, better than other players in the receiving game, obviously, nearly 100% catch rate. And the question with Rashad White is just what you believe about this offenses ability to come back and, and do enough.

Yeah, it, it is. There's concerns about the offensive coordinator change, and it just like it at this point, point of the career. It would, I think, be shocking if Rashad white is all of a sudden like an explosive rusher, you know, I mean, of, like, if he jumps up to a high four yards per carry that. That would be very surprising. So he, it seems like he is who he is.

Is this the right price?

What? Jason, give me the adp again.

He's the third RB, 13 off the board. He finished his seven last year. Is this the right price for Rashad White? Early fourth round pick.

I think it's a fine price for him. And I'll be taking a wide receiver next to him. It's not that he is a bad player. He's very Leonard Fournette. I think he will get a ton of work. He will receive a lot of passes. So this is, you know, this is, you know, that's not bad. It's very similar to Alvin Camara where. What round was Camaro?

Fifth.

Yeah, I mean, I would rather have a fourth round wide receiver in Camara than a, than a fifth round wide receiver.

And Rashad White, it seems like though Rashad White is somehow feels like a rock solid volume play, but also a house of cards of the, the fragility of. If his inefficiencies continue and the new, then the new old coordinator or whatever, they, they like what they, maybe they like what they see from Bucky Irving or something like that for, for pass catching. If the volume dwindles at all. There's no, there's, there's nothing to fall back on should that crumble.

He's RB seven and they were the, they were dead last in the NFL and yards per carry. You got Liam Cohen now as the offensive coordinator. Canales is gone, but you have stability at quarterback and in the, in the head coach and in what they've been doing. So very comfortable with that spot, personally and depending on what you believe about the player, like, I don't think Rashad White is. I think the efficiency can improve. I really do.

Yeah. If the offensive line takes strides, you know, he had a real bad offensive line last year and I don't think he's got a great one this year. But if it does take strides and steps forward, maybe opening up some stuff for him because he was very efficient in the past catching game. And so it's like, I think some of his inefficiencies in running the ball are team.

I don't want to make a Travis ETN mistake with him either.

Sure.

Like, the depth chart is as. As terrible as a depth chart as you can really get in football.

But for Travis Etienne, it's, I know that if some snaps go away that this guy can, this guy can run it in from 30 yards out where Rashad White's not going to do that. Either you like, since 20 1914, fantasy running backs finished top ten, but at, at point 75 fantasy points or, or fewer. And then 13 of those 14 dropped in fantasy points the next game or the next season. So it's, it's just, it's, it's a very fragile situation. I think. I like jason's take of like if he drops in a draft, I'm happy to take him, but where it is at ADP, I'm probably gonna look at a wide receiver or maybe even a tight end.

James Cook comes in at twelve.

James Cook or James Cook, baby.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah, he's the, he's one behind Rashad White right now.

Keep it that way, people.

I talked a lot about the Buffalo offense and the question marks that I believe exists when I was bringing up Josh Allen earlier. Tough division. Sure your offense worked for a little while, but is Joe Brady going to get figured out? Here's what we can say. James Cook was an extremely effective player for this football team. 20 opportunities per game over the back half of the year as the offense turned into a running offense. Number one in yards before contact. Super explosive RB. Eleven on the year last year. There's tons of reasons to love James Cook this season.

Absolutely. The second half was fantastic and I. We have seen like we have a. Kyle, we have the article still on the website, right? About vacated targets and running backs still there, so you can go check that out. The fantasy footballers calm tons and tons of articles going up there every day. But we, our team looked into it of vacated targets. It's so easy to. For us to put the puzzle piece down. Oh, Stefan Diggs is gone and he vacated whatever, you know, high 20% of the targets. Let's just put key on Coleman in here and we'll give him, you do, you know, whatever, 20 plus percent. It rarely works like that. And often we see the running back is the one who benefits the most from. From siphoning some of those things off. And if. And James Cook more than capable, should those targets go his way, I think that he would be an absolute steal at his ADP by the end of the year.

Yeah, I'm not going to overstate this. This stat sounds pretty cool. I'm not saying that James Cook is Bruce hall level, but Bruce hall last year had 318 opportunities and finished with 1585 total yards. Amazing. James Cook last year had 291 way fewer opportunities. Finished with 1567 total yards. Almost the same as bries hall. You don't remember how efficient he was and he didn't score touchdowns. You know, he had two rushing touchdowns, six total. He had four receiving touchdowns. So this is a player who in his second year was the running back. Eleven. And now is becoming probably a more important piece of this offense going into his year. Three. No, Stefan Diggs, probably more involved in the passing game. And if a few more touchdowns go his way, he has a ceiling out there that I don't think people are seeing.

Do you take any issue with Joe Brady referring to him as Jimbo?

So I would have taken issue with that if not for the fact that in him calling him Jimbo.

Yeah, read the whole quote.

Oh, is it in here?

I've got it for you. I think from a running back, as long as they're able to drive their legs and play physical, it doesn't matter the size of the back. As you know, I feel confident with Jimbo all the way down that it's third and one.

So the question was talking about short yardage goal linebacks and short yardage backs. And in fact it started talking about Ray Davis and he switched it over to talking about Jimbo, that he's confident in him even in short yardage. And that would be, that would be amazing. I mean, obviously the goal line back here is Josh Allen. You're not going to have eight rushing touchdowns for James Cook. So that is a true cap. However, when he's on the field, he's going to be great for fantasy. And when the offensive coordinator shift happened, he was phenomenal.

It is. It's worth saying he had a 35% bust rate. That was the, that was tied with the 2022 Jamal Williams for the highest bus rate among top twelve running backs.

Yeah, but most of that, I believe was during the first ten weeks of the season when he wasn't doing very well. Like the first. You know, you went from 14 opportunities a game to over 20 when the offensive coordinator shift happened and he scored 15.

Tell me all his bus games came from his bad games.

I'm saying that it was a different system. I'm saying that when the system changed, that is what we're gonna see more of James cook this year because it's the air.

His bus games to come from his good games though.

Yeah.

Should be our true trick. It and just the last thing to throw in for me is he was a second round pick.

Like his, this the NFL draft. Yeah. Yeah.

The, the stench of his rookie year I think is still permeating the success of the second year for him. Like he is, he is becoming the player that they hope they drafted.

He is first carry. I'm pretty sure I almost positive James Cook came in and fumbled on the first play of his career.

Oh yeah.

Yep. Kyle is echoing you. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, this year he becomes who he has always been. James Dalvin Cook. It's his.

Yes, we got it.

Forgot that Boston Devon a chan comes in at eleven. The last name we'll talk about today. Jason, you don't get to talk. Just kidding. He was your fire pick on the ice and fire show. And you know, Miami's fast, man. Miami is so fast. It's such a machine. The first half of these past couple years have been incredible for the Dolphins. They just, people aren't ready for the speed. I don't know if it's the lack of practices. I was, when I was watching the hard knocks, I, I just marveled at this conversation between Iber Flutz and Caleb Williams and it was all about seven practices. It's like, wow, you had seven practices with this team and you've made great strides. It's like they don't practice enough, man. They don't anymore. And here's, you know, Miami hits, hits the ground running every single year. His efficiency was out of this world. It wasn't all amazing games for divine a Chan like we, you know, I don't know what the season looks like if you just take away the Denver game, 203 yard, 203 yards on the ground and I think he had four touchdowns in that game.

That did, that'll change things a little bit. But, you know, we saw some more variants over the back half of the year. We saw the upside. We also like Devon a chan, that there's a world where Devon a Chan just doesn't get on certain games. He doesn't get the touches you want him to get. That's all I think is worth saying.

Yeah, I mean, I talked him up on, on the fire episode. If you want to go back and listen to him, I'm fully in. I spent the whole offseason going back and forth because it's a dangerous pick. He's small, he's breakable. He got injured several times last year, but he's also electric. This is the first year coming in where he's not, you know, practicing for track and field in the 40 time he came in to be an NFL running back. And a lot's been made about that. And to answer your question, and if you take away that, that insane Denver game and the game before when he was 10% snapsh the nine games he played, he had a 17 game pace of over 1100 rushing yards, over 300 receiving yards. It would have had a real, real nice season with tons with double digit touchdowns without Denver.

So a Chan comes in. His ADP is RB nine Jason. So are you offended by us having him at eleven?

I am. No, I am not. He's dangerous. He's a risky wild card pick. I will be drafting him. He's dangerous anytime I get the opportunity. I want him on my teams this year. But that's one of those where it's like, you got to be okay if you're wrong and if you want to bypass him. You know what I talked about earlier? If you want to get ream moster later in the draft, that you think he's a good value and so you're going to take someone else just to leave you that ammunition later. No problem with that.

Is there a world, though, Jay, where you take a chan in the second and then you just, you also take Mostert?

Yes. There is a world where I would be willing to do that if it's at a good value. If he, if moster is as late as I've seen him in some drafts where it's just like, what is he doing here? Yeah, grab him it. A good pick is a good pick. Now, in the mock draft we did head to head, I also had Tyree kill. So I'm like, okay, that's a real overload. Much.

What is a group of dolphins? A pod.

Pod.

Yeah. You didn't want a pod.

That was only pod three. We're up to the pod for. Yeah. No one has any idea what. I am on a roll here. You do, Mike?

Yeah. Okay.

All right. That was, that was for you.

But I didn't like it. And his face is of pure disgust.

How, what does the dolphin king think about having three? About having three dolphins on the same roster? Would that be a mistake?

Is there any more office jokes you want to slip into this conversation?

We have a live show on Los Angeles Ballers live. Ballers live.com. if you want to come see Mike and I, ballers live.com in LA on August 24. Tickets are available. Lower levels, pretty sold out, but the mezzanine seats are beautiful.

They're great up there.

That's where Mike, or rather Jason will, if we let him come, he will shoot a bunch of autograph memorabilia and shirts and things up into the crowd and it will be some sweet signed.

Jerseys to shoot up there.

It'll be a lot of fun. And again, that is presented by our friends at sleeper. So excited to partner with them. On the live show and then pristine auction and fantasy cares. Also partners there, ballers live.com for the 10th anniversary megalith show. It is a great time.

Do you think anyone has ever been irresponsible enough to take, to take actual signed memorabilia and shoot it out of a cannon?

No.

Nice.

No. But you'll be, you'll be doing.

Can't imagine.

We have our top ten running backs on tomorrow's show Friday episode. And so looking forward to counting down the rest of those quarterback and tight end rankings next week. Tips and tricks episodes next week and the my guys episode coming next week as well. Because guess what? It's football time. It's football.

It's a football time.

All right. That'll do it for today's episode of the show. Thank you for listening to us.

Oh yeah. Enduring.

We love you.

Catch you tomorrow.

Goodbye.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointthefoot.com and follow us on Twitter heffbollers.