NFC North Breakdown + Depth Chart Takeaways, Christian Kirk

Bears. All right, let's talk about one of the most hype teams of the off season because there's those so many things to be potentially excited about. There are. In Chicago, Alan Robinson, new wide receiver. Welcome to Chicago. John Fox, out the door. You got a brand new head coach in Matt Nagy. You have a brand new offensive coordinator coming in from Oregon in Mark Helfrick.

You have Anthony Miller drafted, wide receiver. You have Taylor Gabriel signed wide receiver. I already hurt. You have the epic and unadulterated return of Kevin White, Prodigy. So fast. You have Jordan Howard coming back in after two great seasons to begin his career. Tariq Cohen, the dinosaur hunter himself, lightning in a bottle. And then Mitch Trabisky and his potential ascension, a lot of people projecting great things from Mitch Rubikski. I've seen the heavy hype of

You know, everything, the comparisons all the way up to Carson wins on Mitch Trubisky this season. Stop! Hey, no, you can't stop the hype, Mike. Have you heard the train coming? Have you heard, you can't stop this. I'm wearing my steel-toed boots. That little toy train doesn't scare me. Not going to run them over? My toesies are fine. Stop, Carson wins. So let's, let's put on the filter glasses.

Let's be. The Bears glasses? Let's be studious in our analysis of the Bears. And let's tell people where they can actually find fantasy value on this roster. The Bears last year were 16th in rushing yards per game. 32nd in passing yards per game. This was an offense that passed the ball for 175 yards a game. If any of their passing offense translates to this year.

it's not a good thing for any of these weapons, right? There's no, I didn't even mention Trey Burton signed a $4-year $32 million deal tied in, athletic tight-in coming in from Philadelphia. So what do you guys want to talk about with Chicago? Yeah, I mean, the only piece that I'm actually excited about. I mean, Trey Burton is interesting because he's a lower-ranked ADP guy that I believe will still have enough relevance to be a week in, week out.

fantasy starter at tight end. But the only player on this roster I'm actually excited about is Jordan Howard. He has shown that he has a good running back, 4.6 yards per carryover's first two seasons, and that's with people stacking the box, knowing they're going to run with a bad offense that is not, you know, they've just been kind of that old school, you know, curmudgeony offense. Now you get a coordinator coming in who's saying good things about Jordan Howard.

clearly, I mean, he has a lot of work to do as a receiver, but he's been, that's what his focus has been on. And if that's what his focus has been on him, the coaching staff's focus, if Jordan Howard were to add receiving numbers to his fantasy line, he's been the 10th and the 12th running back over the last two seasons.

Are we talking about Jordan Howard or Alfred Morris right now? That's exactly what I was going to say. It sounded like we're making the argument. I've made that exact same argument for Alvin Morris and Jason just attacked me and said that's the stupidest thing you could say. It's the stupidest thing you could say because he didn't have the change of the head coach and the system. Tariq Cohen is literally the number one option that you could have. Did he get a hand transplant? Here's the deal. His hands are just too strong.

276 rushing attempts last year. Fifth most in the league. 1,100 plus yards, 6 most in the league. 718 yards after contact, number one in football and by a wide margin. Jordan Howard is an absolute monster. He's just a wrecking ball. Yeah, and the question becomes just where is the value of Jordan Howard because I'm going to give you the scenario. He could score 15 touchdowns.

PPR. Okay. So you got a volume against past catching running backs. So Jordan Howard or Dalvin Cook? Oh, Dalvin Cook. Not close. In what kind of league? Half point. I would take Jordan Howard. Christian McCaffrey. I've got Christian McCaffrey slightly above Jordan Howard. Yeah, I do too. I mean, right now, this is what I'm saying about Jordan Howard is he's got an opportunity to.

add that. But I'm not projecting that he's got it. I've got him with 27 receptions this season. So I'm not projecting that step forward. But my point is, without that, without those chops, without that involvement, I've got him as the 15th best running back. He's being drafted, I believe, right there or maybe a spot or two behind the 15th running back. But he has, I'm not drafting him at a ceiling. That's my point. He has such upside. This team had, this team ran.

The 31st most, as we like to say. Yes, the 31st best amount. They ran the second fewest plays in the entire NFL. This wasn't like last year, okay, we just didn't pass the ball, right? 32nd in the league and passing yards per game. They ran the 16th most rushing plays in the league. They were middle of the road despite that. They ran 929 plays which was the second fewest in the league. This was an offense barely on the field last year.

He had nine touchdowns. It was third most in the NFL on one of the worst offenses that had the least amount of opportunities. If you believe at all in all of these new weapons that they brought in and Matt Nagy and Mark Halfrick and being innovative, I'm telling you, Jordan Howard can score 15 touchdown. Jason brought him up as one of the few guys being drafted outside the top 10 running backs that could actually finish number one. And I 100% believe it. And he does not need to, he needs to catch 35 passes and score.

12 to 15 times to do that. He's Zeke. Yes. You're looking for, you're hoping for Zeke. Exactly. That's the nicest thing that's ever been said about George Howard. I'm just saying for fantasy, the way to finish as a top five guy is the way that.

Zeke does it. Yes. You have to have 1,500 rushing yards and you have to have double-digit touchdowns. But at least he has shown that he can do that type of thing. Right. Yeah. Yards after contact, he almost has a thousand yards after contract last year. He's a beast. At the wide receiver position, a lot of new pieces. In fact, I feel like all new pieces because I don't think Kevin White will be involved. Stop it. But I will say this. Taylor Gabriel, Anthony Miller, these guys, I think, are getting.

too much love because of the newness. We don't know how much passing work is going to go around and there are clearly the second, you know, sometimes we don't want the second wide receiver on a team.

where we should. You know, we've got history of Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree together. They both score well. You know, the Packers always have two in the top 15 or the top 24. But I don't think that the Bears with Mitch Trubisky in year two are going to produce two top 24 wide receivers. That's where I think top 20, what? Alan Robinson. Where's this love that you're talking about for the wider. Anthony Miller's going. Twitter.

Twitter Anthony Miller Love is out of control. But that's different. Loving a player is different than saying projecting him for fantasy. He's going at the 13th round. I'm just talking about the- No one wants him on a fantasy team. I'm talking about the vibes. The news and notes. My Twitter timeline. Because he's a good wide receiver. He's going to be a great wide receiver. I'm with you. Oh.

Breaking News. What do we got? What do we got? It's just really breaking right in the middle of your sentence. Zach Gertz has missed his third Eagles practice in a row with an undisclosed injury. We do not know any more than that. Oh. Dallas Gutter. Yeah. Very interesting. Good bags. Gidea. Dallas. Good day. Good day, mate. Anthony. No, no, no, no, no, no. I regret. So many regrets. My point is this, Mike. I'm not saying he's being drafted as a top 24 wide receiver. I am saying that.

When you draft him, that's the hope. Is that maybe this is a guy that can finish there. And I'm saying he can't. In the 13th round, your hope is that a guy is just on your bench. He can make your starting roster a week or two. My 13th round, every single pick I'm making in my 13th round, I'm trying to swing for an upside guy. And so I'm saying I'm not drafting Anthony Miller. But you guys are free to discredit. Yeah. I just, I see how people are valuing him differently. But let's talk about Alan Robinson.

Because he is the one I believe who is not being discussed. Right now, Fantasy Football Calculator has wide receiver Alan Robinson going at the back of the fourth round. He is going behind. Golden Tate, Josh Gordon, Juju Smith, Schuster, Demarius Thomas, and Amari Cooper. People just don't know what to do with him. Some of those names I would take ahead of Alan Robinson. Some of those names I for sure would not. Alan Robinson is, he's many months.

removed from fantasy dominance. I mean, he had the monstrous year with Bortles. Then he had an okay year. Then he was injured. Then he was traded to a team that literally passes the ball. Resigned. Free agent. What did I say? Traded. Oh, okay. Apologies. Now he joins a team, a new team, new quarterback, off an injury. There's just a lot of question marks. So I think people are hesitant because the range of outcomes on Robinson are everywhere from, okay, he's back. He's great.

but how great, all the way too. He's hesitant off the injury. They have other weapons. They're not going to use them as much. His targets go down. I think that's the hesitancy. People just haven't seen anything in Chicago yet. So there's, you know, you've seen everything you need to see about Golden Tate, you know exactly what you're getting if he's being drafted around Allen Robinson. And I think that's why people are delaying. Yeah, and I understand that. But at the top of the fifth round or the end of the fourth round,

I think that's a spectacular pick. It was a couple years ago, but it was 1,400 yards and 14 touchdowns. And that was with the bad version of Blake Bortles before he became Blake the snake. So this season, I got a snake, man. He was paid to be the wide receiver one. He is the wide receiver one for this team.

a head coach from the Andy Reed tree that I think will have significant improvement to the offense. Alan Robinson, I don't think people should be scared to draft him where he is going. I'm not going to reach for him, but where he is going, don't be afraid to draft him. Where he's going, I would completely agree with that. I mean, you mentioned the names, Juju, Josh Gordon, Golden Tate, Brandon Cook, Jarvis Landry, not one of those guys.

is locked and loaded into the wide receiver one position. There's not one of those guys that just named, you know, is going to be the one for their team, whereas Alan Robinson, you can be sure of that. Fair enough. All right. We are going to extend this podcast just a little bit longer. We had the chance to, well, Jason had the chance to talk to Cardinals rookie wide receiver, Christian Kirk. A couple weeks ago, and we're going to share that interview with you right now. You talking to me?

Christian, so true story, coming into the NFL draft, we pre-ranked, you know, we're analysts, we analyze everybody. You are my number two wide receiver. Apologies, you're number one, but you were still my number two going into the draft. Josh Rosen was my number two kind of tied with Sam Darnold. We're from Arizona, and I was freaking out through the draft when the pair came together. How has it been like working with Rosen so far? Is there chemistry coming there, or are you working more with Bradford?

Where have you been working so far in the off season? It's been really good. And we've been able to take a lot of snaps together. Josh has been taking a lot of reps. And, you know, we've had a previous relationship. So we kind of just kind of picked up, you know, where we left off from, at least in high school and whatnot. So we've been working out a lot in L.A. me and Josh have in the off season. But also, too, through OTAs and minicamp, we've been able to get a lot of reps to Sam. And, you know, I think that's going to pick up throughout training, you know, throughout training camps.

So I'm excited to just keep going and developing with those guys and get ready for the season. Now, you also have a previous relationship with Ricky Seals Jones. Is that correct? So he's kind of one of those sleeper guys for fantasy showed a lot in a few games last year. Does he look more involved in the offense this year? Is there any insight there? Yeah, I definitely think he's going to have a breakout year. I think a lot of people were able to see what he's able to do last season. He showed some signs and some games last year.

and I think he's only just going to go up from there. And I think Coach McCoy is going to really utilize him because he's a mismatch. You know, not a lot of DBs can cover him, and then it's too fast for some linebackers. So it should be really fun to see what he does this year. All right. How smart is McCoy on a scale of 1 to 10? It's like a 10. Oh, all right, all right. That guy is so crazy football smart. He's one of the smartest coaches I've been around. So it's been really fun to be able to learn from him and be able to learn that offense because it's so dynamic. We do so many different.