NFC East Breakdown + Warning Signs, Mustard Man - Fantasy Football Podcast for 7/12

Absolutely. Now, the last player really of note here, we've said his name a few times, but we haven't talked about drafting him, his upside or his downside is Tony Poller. Sure. He's going in the eighth round. That is not an irrelevant pick. That is a pick that, you know, I know you guys are very into A.J. Dylan, right? A player that you think you can play, even though he's the running back two, an injury ahead of him makes him a top five guy. And I do think.

that if Zeke were to go down, Tony Pollard would be a monstrous fantasy option here. But what are you doing in your drafts? Have you found yourself liking Tony Pollard or not liking him just because you like Zeke? I find for me that because I'm making the choice to be back in on Zeke, that I'm out for Pollard. I get all the arguments for him. I believe that Jerry Jones and this team with the contract will stick with Zeke. What do you think they're projected?

Win total is it. Do you already know this? I do not. Vegas win total? Let's go 10 and a half. That was exactly what my number is going to be. 10. Is that right? Is that 10? We busted. Okay. All right. We will be taking a quick break and then we're back with the Eagles. What's up, Foot Clan? You are confident and disciplined and focused on details, just like everyone here at the fancy footballers, right? Those are words you used to describe us. In other words,

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then this is a job for indeed sponsored jobs. All right, let's talk about the Philadelphia Eagles 9 and 8 last season, began last season with a projected win total of 6.5, so they outperform that. Two and four and one score games. This was the biggest red flag of anything I saw in the reflection on their season. One and eight against teams above 500, right? They had a division with, you know,

A struggling Giants team in... Struggling Washington team. But one in eight against teams above 500, where do you think the projected win total is now? Well, I'm looking right at it, so I can't play the game. I would say nine. Nine and a half. Okay. Saturday, eight and a half. But A.J. Brown moved the needle for them. So this team is very, very interesting to kind of...

try to break down what their offensive philosophy is really going to be about. So last year, ninth in pace of play, 12th and points per game, 32nd in pass attempts, 25th in passing yards, 25th in passing touchdowns. So right off the bat, when you hear those numbers, it throws a little bit of concern into the mix for your receiving core that just added more.

complexity right i mean a j brown is a premier talent yeah and mike you mentioned him as a bus candidate recently yeah the a j brown this is like the worst type of fantasy player when you have a podcast and you have to give advice because my process here says that a j brown who's being drafted as a top 10 wide receiver i'd

Like, I don't have him ranked anywhere near that. We've seen since 2018, 90% of top 12 wide receivers. They come from a system where the quarterback averages 235 passing yards per game, and you just mentioned it. They were 25th in passing yards, dead last in passing attempts. That will improve. Like, AJ Brown will be part of the process that makes those numbers go up. But do they go up to a point where?

early in the third round, and you've taken AJ Brown, will he give you enough of the boom weeks? Because AJ Brown, even if he finishes in the top 10, do you get enough of the spike weeks? Like, it wasn't, you just, you happen to get two of them throughout the season where he went just crazy and gives you like 150 and 2, and then it's just destroying your team? Or do you get, you know, five spike weeks, you know, scattered throughout the, through the season?

And I have my concerns. Like, Devante Smith, like, completely buried. His rookie scene is buried because he's being compared to Jamar Chase and Jalen Waddle. Like, so it makes it look like what Devante Smith last year did was not impressive at all, except it was. Like, he had a 22.4% target share that's tied for the 12th highest of rookies since 2014. Like, he was very important to this. And does A.J. Brown?

come in and just bully him completely out of that? Like, do we see Devante Smith drop down to 18% of the targets? Well, I think it's important to know or note that Devonza Smith is a good wide receiver. Yeah. That was his rookie year. He was great for a rookie. He's going to be better this season. He projects certainly to be the number two on this offense. Now, that's not to guarantee that he couldn't be the number one, but you would expect the money, the capital that they gave up to get the veteran AJ Brown. He'll be the one.

The real question here with this team, and you can have really logical, strong arguments for both sides. But the real question is, is this a run first team or is this a past first team? Because this was a new coaching regime that came in last year. And you started this year passing the ball. 27 attempts, 25 attempts, 32 attempts through the first four weeks.

Jalen Hertz was on pace for 616 passing attempts. That is a really good number. But the problem was they were 1 and 3. They were losing. And so they switched. And they said, well, we're able to run the ball really well. We've got a nice offensive line. We've got a mobile quarterback. They ran the ball. They won games. And through the rest of the season, after those first four weeks, he was on pace for 443. So from 616 passing attempts to 443.

It's two different teams here. Now, my belief, because you can, you look, they made an offensive coordinator switch or the play caller switch, and that play caller is still being the play caller. So maybe it's run going forward. But I think that what you saw to start the season was that this was a team that wanted to be modern, wanted to throw the ball, and they couldn't because they didn't have the weapons. Their strength was in the running game. Now you look at what they did financially. They go out and they get A.J. Brown.

And you've got year two to Vonta Smith. So I think they're going to come out and throw the ball a little bit more. And during that time, Jalen Hertz, you know, through the first month was the quarterback three. And so a small sample and a lot of question marks here. Yeah, I have the most confidence sitting in what they did and had success with, which was Siriani passing off the play calling to Stikin. And is it Stikin or Stichin? Stikin.

So I got it right. I could have just kept going. Yeah. You know if you get it wrong. We will jump on you. Yeah, I know. I know. Like rear naked choke mid show. And so should have just kept going. And if you remember, Steichen was, I believe, with the Chargers calling plays for them with Justin Herbert's rookie season. So he had more experience than Siriani did.

They said this offseason are going to stick with him, but you don't bring in a weapon like AJ Brown for no reason. So he'll be a focal point in the offense. I don't know if that just means the targets go to AJ Brown as more of a focus because they had so much success running the football. And it became a joke in Philadelphia. I mean, the crowd was booing on a regular basis when they wouldn't hand the ball up. And they kind of.

comically cheer every time Miles Sanders finally got a carry at the beginning part of the year because they struggled so much with that. So it will be hard for me. I'm with Mike. I think it's just going to be a challenge. A.J. Brown will need to score a lot for him to be able to defeat those statistics about lower passing yards per game numbers. But Jalen Hertz will be fine as a fantasy quarterback. And we have more upside to actually have boom weeks, not just be a stabilizing quarterback.

because of the presence of A.J. Brown, because of Devante Smith having another season in the offense, and hopefully because Miles Sanders is featured on a regular basis in a way that, you know, opens the offense up and gives them the potential to hit this or surpass this Vegas win total number.

Yeah, I think the Eagles project to be a good team. I really do. Their defense is improved from this last offseason. Great offensive line. Their offensive line is great. I think Jalen Hertz can get the job done with these weapons and his legs. I think this projects to be a good team. And if you're a good team, Miles Sanders getting the ball running as well as he was. He was over five yards of carry last year, some freaky weird stuff where he didn't get touchdowns. He should be a fine pick. That being said, I don't think. Touchdown, Jason.

Yes, sorry. I don't think that this team is going to use him as any kind of bell cow, though. They don't really have a reason to say you are the guy and all these other running backs in their running back room are going away. That's probably not what the Eagles are going to do. So for fantasy, I find myself less bullish on Miles Sanders and you guys, even though the talent is there and the offensive line is there. I like the carries at the end of the year. I don't care that he's not a bell cow because he's being drafted in the