Week 1 Hype + TNF Breakdown, Starts/Sits - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/4
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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 deuces.

Full deuces in the house. Al Borland, Papa Josh, the Falcon feeling all right today in the building. In the building, yeah. It is ironic that the one day you said we have full deuces. No Kyle today on the microphone. Thank goodness. Yeah, I mean, is he really a deucer? Not really. You need to be in deuces 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 tomorrow. We've got so much tomorrow. I want to hear from the listeners because 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 to hear about that because last year the show – oh, gosh. The show moment of the year was the Papa Josh and my –

And I'm not forgetting you, Al. You're awful. But then we were able to put up on the website the matchup. And so I want to know if people want some more League of Record content. Things like that are always going to be split. You're going to be 50-50. Half the people out there are 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.

Going to break down the Thursday night game today. We're talking real football. We're going to talk about real football on the show. We've got news to talk about. We'll see if Mike and Will won more contracts into existence. I gave it 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. 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, A.J. 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 and play me. I think he will. I think he would do that. It's not a one-week game. No. All I care about is our matchup. Okay. We have week one rankings up on the website, thefantasyfootballers.com. You can go check those out.

20,844. That was the final count for the... That's awesome. That is the all-time record for the Megalobowl, and I had my Megalobowl draft last night. I let my son handle some of the duties, who's my co-manager in League of Records. He is acclimating to the advanced fantasy football world. He's got more and more into it. He did all right.

He made one kind of interesting decision. We had Jameer Gibbs in the first round, and then he went a couple wideouts. We got Marvin Harrison, and then he took a tight end. So when he's 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. You read that too? Yeah, somebody tweeted that out.

So, yes, thank you, everybody, for joining the Megalobullets. 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 jointhefoot.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 news feed, 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 news feed 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 Uber Eats. I'm hungry for more news.

You beat me to the joke, Jason. I had to. I had to get there. You jumped on that grenade. I gave Andy such a great segue to the wrong segment. You pulled the pin and you just rolled the grenade on the ground in your own bunker. At the end, I kicked it away a little bit. So just scar. Only blew your leg off. Yeah. 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 Iyuk of the San Francisco 49ers. Why? Why do I want more? Because you've had none.

Because I want a wide receiver one if he's going to be treated like a wide receiver one with the purse strings and the trade offers. I mean, we didn't talk about it 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 Ayuk. And Ayuk didn't want to go to Cleveland. And he didn't want to go to New England, who also wrote a big check. And

The Steelers weren't willing to give up Pickens on the way back, so San Francisco, that deal didn't come to fruition. Ayuk 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 you just sign the contract. You have that pot odds thing where you're like, no, I said I was going to do this. It's like, ah, shoot. Let's be honest. Players get the chance to miss camp. Who doesn't want to miss some camp? I've heard they like to miss it. So when I say I'm hungry for more Brandon Ayuk, 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. It was one of the things we brought up in the offseason about maybe a little bit of a, whoa, be careful with Brandon Ayoub because you can't have that many big plays happen year after year. And we let all wide receivers in fantasy points per target. And so that level of efficiency led to wide receiver 14.

Missed a game. He was right on the edge of wide receiver one points per 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 a game. So that's right on the cusp. But I want top 10, Mike. We'll upgrade it. I'll let you know if that would have been top 10. But what do you think the chances are? I mean, we can want anything, but do you believe that Brandon Ayuk

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 look at it with the chart of targets and you say, OK, some go to IU, some go to Debo, Kittle gets 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 on this roster. So hungry for more Brandon Ayuk. I've been resistant to get on that train where I believe he could be a top 10 wide receiver.

But the market says he has the capability. Top 10 will be rough if the 49ers keep throwing at the pace that they do. They're incredibly efficient. Dead last? Yeah. They're incredibly efficient when they do. And looking at it, 13.2. I think it puts him like 11th or 12th in points per game. But that's .1 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 like 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 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 10 NFL selection, but he also wasn't, you know, Mr. Irrelevant day three seventh-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's 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 a little scared off of it because I'm always looking for those guys like Malik Washington and Luke McCaffrey, 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 Diane 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 would love to see Luke McCaffrey succeed. I would love to see him start. And we got an early offseason breakfast narrative, boys. Uh-oh. Is he having breakfast with Jaden Daniels? Well, listen to this early report about Jaden Daniels from an ESPN article. It says Daniels clocks in around 545 a.m.

It is what he did at LSU, too. 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? I think you were trying to... I'm trying to push it in breakfast. I mean, they've got to eat. They've got a whole day of practice. At least like a breakfast bar. They split one or something. I think they're sharing a breakfast bar. Or just like a protein shake, maybe. Their protein quota's got to be very high. At least a gram per pound. LMC is the pick. I like it. He's a fascinating player. Jay, 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 it's real narrative street. But I like the fact 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 this the Julian Edelman narrative? A little bit. The Travis Kelsey narrative. The Muhammad Sanu narrative? A little bit. A little bit. Just the more knowledge you can get about the entirety of the football team, I think it's better. The Josh Jacobs narrative? Did you know that? Did you know that?

Really? He was a high school quarterback. Jacobs was? Yeah, he was a high school quarterback. I did not know that one. Are you thinking Montgomery was, too? Oh, that is who I was thinking. Okay. All right, yeah, yeah. That's why I didn't know Jacobs was a quarterback. David Montgomery was on an interview the other day. Wasn't he talking to Amon Ra? He was talking to Amon Ra. Was that it? Yes, that show's hilarious because Amon Ra and 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 teams suck.

But, yes, Montgomery was like, they're like, what did 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 hunger in my belly. It is T. Higgins, current wide receiver one. This is kind of a hungry for what's left. 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...

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 10 points a game up to nearly 17. A climb of two receptions per game. Yardage jumps up almost, oh no, over 40 yards per game. So the fact that he, that's a small sample, of course, but it's,

We're backed into this situation. You are thumbs-upping something. What do we got here? Josh Jacobs. Oh, Jacobs was? High school dual-threat quarterback. All right.

Wow. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. We figured it out. I love it. I had moved on, but Al found it. So credit to Al 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. You're saying with Chase there. Yeah, absolutely. Regardless of everything that was, like Jamar Chase was still a top three pick. Tee 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 years. Last year, Jalen Waddell and Tee Higgins both being drafted really, really high expectations through the ceiling.

And now they aren't there. And now we have all this weird, ambiguous stuff. Maybe you get a freebie week one. I think no matter what, you probably do because the reports I saw were now it's Jamar Chase could be trending to not playing. 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 put him right in that starting lineup. I don't know if you do. Oh, yeah, you do, but I mean... As a full-time player, I don't know that he'll get his full allotment of snaps. That could be true. 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 is a chart.

And if you mess around, you find out. Yeah. And I think that they're about, they're hitting the apex of the find out part. It's unfortunate. The Bengals organization has, they've referred to that chart many times. The Bengals organization, the Bengals team as a whole, their 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 them T. Um,

I don't know why. I think Burrow is undervalued. I personally think Zach Moss is undervalued. And 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 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 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 and a full redraft between – How far? Amon Ra, I'm taking Amon 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 board are A.J. Brown and Jamar Chase. I think it's appropriate to take Brown over Chase regardless of the contract situation. Yeah, I think that's fair. We cannot be living in this world where 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 his rookie year. Probably his rookie year five. He was five as a rookie, 12, 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 A.J. Brown more. No, I think when you're talking about those tier one guys, the A.J. Brown, the Amon Ra, for me, I'm a little hesitant with the Justin Jefferson, but I get it because he's the best. What about Garrett Wilson? Because I feel like that's in the same category. That's the tier, the Garrett Wilson, Olave, Drake London, those guys. I'm not willing to do that. Because I can't imagine them not getting. I would squint a little bit at Wilson. Chase on the field. The rest of them I'm with you.

I just feel like if you miss one week, whatever, you're going to have players miss a couple of games through 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...

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 breakout 1,000 yards but didn't get touchdowns. Did you just quote-unquote 1,000 yards? Yeah. Yeah, because it wasn't a good season for fantasy. It's a fair quote. I'm going to approve. He had 1,000 yards as a rookie. And two touchdowns. And two touchdowns. I'm just saying no one was happy. The people that drafted Kyle Pitts as a rookie, they had a bust pick. If you finish at 7th,

Add 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 PCL. Head, 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 injury. Oh, yeah, the Zoolander. Yeah, and now the hamstring. Hamstring. It's not what you want to hear. Yoo-hoo.

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 1,000 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. So it is for you. You think that was a breakout season.

Has Kyle Pitts broken out in fantasy football? No, in football. Don't that, we're a fantasy football show. I feel like also. He is the second tight end ever as a rookie to hit a thousand yards. How many games did he play? 17. Okay, he got an extra game. We don't care about that for the all time? As soon as we add a 17th game, everybody can do it? You guys are just blowtorching him. What if it's 18 games?

Is you going to give the next guy the same credit? Yeah, if he hits 1,000. 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, Mr. Pitts.

I don't know. Does it change your opinion of this hamstring injury, Mike? You willing to pull the trigger? It makes me more concerned. Okay. Marshawn 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 on time. It's going to take time. 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 going to 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 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 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 late surges. Incredible surge for Josh Jacobs. Yeah, but I'm in. Yeah, 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 Bengals. That's not the fun one. Blake Corum was listed as the primary kick returner. Oh, my God. His value is over. You can't draft Blake Corum. We're all going to 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 Kyron returning kicks and Corham 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. If it's a fair catch, have anybody else do it. Sure. Hands.

You trust his hands. That's not wrong. This is not even news. I mean, a rookie returning kicks is called NFL football. It's news in the fact that people wanted to react to Kyron. They should have reacted to Kyron. 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. Name all the other starting workhorse running backs that return punts in the NFL. Go. I'll wait.

I could do some research, but it's going to be very low. Go ahead. Saquon returning punts? Just to be clear. Jameer Gibbs returning punts? Just to be clear. You can't just say player. You have to say running back because of Antonio Brown or those guys. Totally different. Starting running back. Yes, it is different. How is it different? Because the workload on a workhorse running back, you're not giving your wide receiver 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 five rounds of running backs, I don't think you're going to find one. We will see. We will see. Kyron 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 Kyron 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 going to put it to the test. He may go out and just light the league on fire again. Or it could be.

a committee with Corum and Ronnie Rivers. So where have you moved Kyron rankings-wise? Like in your head, what tier is he in now? Now that he is guaranteed in the committee, what do you see as his output? I'd put Gibbs above him. Well, Gibbs was already above him. Gibbs was already above him for all three of our rankings. I have Kyron once by all means. Yeah, I was going to say I had Kyron ahead before, so I was just telling you where I adjusted. Let me take a look. Let me get some other names. I'll give you some names. Yeah, go ahead. Travis Etienne. Etienne's above him for sure.

Let's go Derek Henry. I will, in a standard, go Henry. The others, I'll still go Kyrie. Okay. Devon Acheon.

I'd probably take the shot on A-Chan. I have him one spot behind A-Chan. I have Kyron at 10, so that's where I moved him. Okay. He's at 10. He's behind Barkley. He's behind Cook. He's behind A-Chan. Rashad White. One spot behind Kyron. Wow, behind Cook. One spot behind Kyron. Okay, okay. Yeah, he's behind Cook for me. Okay. For me. Again, I'm not really happy this whole conversation came up. I'm really not because it's just too much air time.

For the story that I didn't mean it to be. This sounds like I think Kyron is the worst player in the league. He's incredible. That's what I heard. He's number 10 on my rankings, but it did move him. It did change him. Because my problem with Gibbs, right, is, ah, committee with Montgomery. Right? The hope of Kyron was you were going to get

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. What you got last year. And again, he didn't have Cooper cut for summer 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 was behind Zach Moss. So those are kind of – 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 guy's 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 field position change. Yeah, we'll see. Have heard rumors, of course, all of these things. But some teams are just saying, screw it. We're going to boot it in the end zone and we're going to give the team the good –

because I think it's the 35. Yeah. I've heard teams say that we're going to let all the other teams, we're going to see what happens over the first few weeks, but we'll just start people at the 35. The 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 their... And the rules are...

It's a pretty complex play now because you have the area of the field where the ball has to hit. I was playing Madden with the boy, and I didn't remember exactly how it works. Do you get a penalty? No, no. You don't get a penalty, but I'm on the one or the two, returning the kick, and I'm like,

We're going to 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. Yeah, because you're forced to return it. Yeah. It's going to be weird. It will. And that's almost kind of been forgotten that that's what we're going to see debuted as well on Sunday in every game. Thursday.

Tomorrow. Yep, tomorrow. Okay, is there other news you guys have? Anything else breaking? Does Jamar Chase... Looking... No contract. Is he 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 & Notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Going to take a quick break and jump right into our matchup.

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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 it. If it's within the NFLPA, the CBA, for the players, and if the team can do it, the ownership, whatever, if it's permissible...

I'm not going to look down upon it from either side. Everything is fair game, and I completely agree with you. I don't judge the team for wanting to 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 he wanted. It's just dumb. You lost your player. You're a very valuable player that could have helped you. Maybe you lose that game. Maybe you miss the playoffs because of one loss. If you're going to pay him

Maybe do it so he can play. And that is stupid, but also maybe Jamar Chase exercising those options that he has is the only way he got paid. I mean, that's the give and take of the situation that kind of

I think players make mistakes. Lev Bell took a gamble, didn't work out, ruined his career. But then teams have made mistakes too. The Bengals in particular, when you think of the Bengals organization, I know things have gotten a lot better. They made a Super Bowl run and they have great players now, but they historically have...

They've pooped the bed on contracts for players. They have ruined player relationships. And then a completely different circumstance. I get it. And we didn't talk about it, but Patrick Sertan of the Denver Broncos, same draft class as Jamar Chase, same contract situation sitting behind him. They just made him the highest paid DB in history. 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, it could be. It's weird. It's interesting to me. Brandon Ayuk was super transparent about it. He came out and 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. I 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. ♪♪♪

I think Kyron's going to be good. I just want to, you know. Okay. He's going to be a good player. I mean, that's not what I heard. No, I know it's not. He's a backup. The Baltimore Raiders. Oh, my gosh. I'm going to dunk so hard if it pans out that way.

and ignore it if it doesn't. Baltimore at Kansas City. The draft King Sportsbook line for the Thursday night football kickoff game. Kansas City at home minus three. The over under is 46 and a half. And we saw these teams face off and score far fewer points in the AFC title game. Kansas City won 17 to 10.

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 lost.

We know how good it was last year. It's not the same, but it should be very good. I'm happy to report that both teams have lost important defensive assets because that was part of the problem with these two teams, especially Kansas City last year with Snead there 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 do it in the passing game. I got bad news, though. The Ravens don't have any wide receiver ones, so he wouldn't have been needed. No, we get to see Derek Henry in 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, 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 4-5, 14-2, 1-7, and averages 3.3 passing touchdowns.

uh 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's no one you're going to start over them they were drafted to be started it's just a matter of expectation and 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 uh 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. 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 to 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. Um,

He doesn't seem to take the damage that Cam Newton and Josh Allen. These are guys that go around the goal line. They're smashing into defenders and running over them. You don't see... 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-bodied guys. But 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 IJP right out there. This is a very tough matchup. Last year, the Ravens were number one against the run, and 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 do anything differently. We're not

We're not spot starting on Isaiah Pacheco's anytime soon. Yeah, it's just like Kyron. Like Kyron's week one matchup against the Lions. The Lions have been shutting down running back. He might have a bad week one. Don't overreact from one matchup. I will. This game, it's fantastic because it's –

It's an easy game of you're starting everybody. It's just what are the storylines that I am watching for? I think Xavier Worthy is the big start-sit 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'd draft him probably as one of your top three wide receivers, in which case, you know, let the game play out. 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 very detrimental to your team whenever you started him. So 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? How involved is Pacheco in the passing game? It's so huge if...

And, like, especially if week one, like Samaj P. Ryan, who just got onto this team, is all of a sudden taking a bunch of third-down snaps, you know, getting somehow in the – they're on a passing attack drive. P. Ryan's getting a bunch of snaps. 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 –

I don't think it's been a blaring siren from 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. Bateman, every single time they talked about Bateman having a great day. He got injured. Then he got hurt. Like, oh, Bateman's finally back. Oh, 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 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, I 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 two the first six weeks for three straight years? Correct. So that's true, Mike. The storyline's there. How much they use Xavier Worthy.

how much the tight ends get on the field together. And then, you know, Zay Flowers is a good start in this game. If you had Zay Flowers and Rushie 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 them in this game, I'd go 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 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,

They gave us a treat here. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I see possible chance of thunderstorms. Please don't have delays, okay? I'm going to be waiting all day for this. 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 all together and then watching the game. That just means, and I'm going to just put this out there, that means you might want to watch tomorrow's show on YouTube. I'm just going to let you know because we're going straight from recording this show into our draft, and I'm not going to change clothes in between. Oh, okay. That's all I'm saying. I didn't know where you were going. So YouTube.com. You got like a king robe outfit coming? All right. 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.

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Bose Personal Plus Sound System is an available feature. Bose is a registered trademark of the Bose Corporation. Intelligent all-wheel drive cannot prevent collisions or provide enhanced traction in all conditions. Always monitor traffic and weather conditions. All right, let's jump into the mailbag. Mailbag. Mailbag, oh yeah! All right, well, we have a voicemail question now?

We do. All right, let's jump in. Hey, Ballers, this is Rhodey 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 going off the Achilles?

Appreciate it. Love the show. Later. So the question is, Bijan was drafted in the first. Drake London fell to the fourth, which is unbelievable value. That's not going all in on Drake if he falls to you. No, and normally in this studio, if you talk about a double Falcon, that's a clogged toilet problem. That is a situation. A 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 a synonym where it has a badge of honor? Oh, man, that's good. He probably has to. He probably has to go. But that's fine. No, I would. I'd let that play out. Look, if Kyle Pitts is

This hamstring injury is, if it is a factor, at least over the first portion of the season, Drake London should be so good. He should be so good. I have a question. I'm going to submit my own mailbag question because I think I need to hear your perspective on it. How long, how many games does it take for a player that has not been injured

You know, given the whatever, whatever the expression on the ground. Yeah. Who is not like Drake London, Garrett Wilson, these players that we want. And 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've got the thing that you're hoping for? I wrote down my answer. Because one game... Wait, to believe in it in a positive way. Correct. Like how many games of Drake London's success... Till I fully believe him. Till you say 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, you talked about Sky Moore having a big first game. You might have believed after one game Sky Moore was a good player. I didn't talk about him. Not. Oh, you said he didn't. Yeah, he did not. Oh, gotcha. That was the 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 burger and one carry for four yards. All right. So you guys wrote down your answer on how many games it takes? I wrote down my answer for both directions for me to conclude that he is –

yeah 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 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. I went 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 12 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

I'm going to believe that that doesn't mean he's going to be consistent every week. It's going to be great, but at the end of the year, he's going to be a top 10 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 an incredible market share and eight catches, 11 targets. That one didn't end up where you want it. 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. If you were wrong, you were wrong. And he certainly disappeared from that point for a while. You know who was the running back three and the running back five in week one last year? If you want to blast from the past. I won't remember. Well, you will after I say it. Austin Eckler was number three. Yeah. And

The body shots. It's too early to give up. Tony Pollard was the running back five after week one last year. What? A lot of priors confirmed. 14 for 70 and two in week one. I remember watching his utilization week one going, holy crap. Mike, 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 sounds good. And then to actually be out, it would take a good amount. Because if it doesn't happen week one, don't freak out. This is a brand new situation for – it's a new coach. It's a new offense. It's a new quarterback. 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 would have them ranked, who you should start and sit, and it shows you a matchup breakdown. But the number one searched player is Jerome Ford right now for Week 1. It makes sense. 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 1 start players.

That's it. Okay. And Jerome Ford's playing Dallas. Yep. They are at home, I believe, right? I'm pretty sure Dallas is on the road in Cleveland. That is correct. Ford or Ramondre at Cincinnati? Ford or Ramondre? I will go Ramondre. I will play Ford. I'll go Ramondre there. Ford or Javante Williams at Seattle? I'll go Ford there. I will go...

I'll take Ford. I think I'll go Javante. 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 Jameer Gibbs? He's 98 to 100% better. So probably just 99%. Yeah, he said 98 or 100. I'm just going to take the average. 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 recovering uh you have david montgomery in league of record jason i'm sure you're hoping for that game uh mike what was your answer on that one uh my answer was that one is really hard ah uh

I think I'm playing Ford. And then one flex question. Jerome Ford against Dallas or JSN against Denver? JSN against... In a full PPR. It's funny because you've got Sertan, who's probably going to be more focused towards DK Metcalf. I think I'd go JSN there. I would be on the watch for the Tyler Lockett news. Just...

make sure that like if Tyler Lockett if there's still some questions about is he fully healthy as of right now it seems like he's fully ready to go and then it was better in the rest 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 as in like the question yeah

Well, the questions always have context. But they also have answers. What was your answer? Oh, 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. Ford. 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 talk to my teenager all the time. He doesn't listen. No. I try. I have advice for him. I've lived life. Right. You know what I mean? 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 going to try it anyway. Okay. From the dad of the show. All right. Please. Please.

Foot Clan, fantasy football players of the world, do your best not to lose your mind on week one. Do your best not to react to such a great degree that you lose your mind. If DK Metcalf gets shut down by Sertan on week one, his season's not over and he wasn't the worst pick you've ever made. Okay? And if Kyron struggles against the defensive front, despite my priors, he's not the worst player that's ever played.

What I know is that we will know exactly who the best player this season will be after week one. And whatever happens week one, just copy-paste the rest of the season. This is year 10, 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 what the heart wants. Just try to calm down.

Maybe what you need to do. I lost week one last year, by the way. I lost week one. I'm the champion of the league. Jason. Did you remember that last part? I still can't hear you. Must be a microphone problem or something. I had a point. I forgot it. I'm just going to be honest. Okay. Yeah, no.

That's okay. We'll wrap it up today. We've got more matchup previews Thursday and Friday because we've got football this week, boys. And then join thefoot.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. Bye. Bye.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at the FFBallers.