AFC North Breakdown + Hot Takes

Maybe I need to think of him more of as a 14-game type of guy because he's going to miss a game or two being banged up. He plays too hard to stay healthy. But even if you're giving him those 14 games, like right now on calculator, Julian Edelman is going at the beginning of the fourth round. So to you and what you feel about Julian Edelman, is he still worth? I'm talking about my projected stat line. He's absolutely worth that spot. Oh, he's worth that spot. Okay. But my total stat line is what I'm looking at. Sure.

Um, Yahoo's Charles Robinson just reported the charges are, quote, dug in. This is not good. With their stance on Melvin Gordon's hold at. Gordon says he's going to hold out to get his money. The chargers are presumably taking their stance to try to navigate this situation. We don't know what's going to happen. It's not good for something not to have happened immediately, but, you know, I'm more concerned in, you know, we get to August.

preseason game two, and we're talking about Melvin Gordon as a big issue. There's a lot of leagues that draft early, you know, that are out there. You're drafted now. You're drafting this week, and you've got to make a decision. What do I do with Melvin Gordon? I can tell you for me, and I've said this since the news came out, I'm not drafting Melvin Gordon in the, maybe the very end of the first. But when there's a lot of other good players, look, I like Melvin Gordon a lot more than Joe Mixing.

But if I'm at a point in the back end of the first round, where it's those two guys, and I'm drafting now, I'm drafting Joe Mixing without hesitation because I think there is a really good chance that Melvin Gordon misses a few games, if not a dire Lev Bell type situation. This just nothing here looks good. Melvin Gordon seems like he's completely willing to play the game of chicken, and we've seen the Chargers lose the game of chicken so many times. You know, you just don't want.

This just isn't a, for a first round draft capital that you're spending on fantasy players, why take the risk that you know is there now? Now, obviously, if he signs tomorrow, he's my number five running back. Well, and we just had, now this different situation, but with Tyree Kill, everybody who took the chance on drafting him at the fifth round and things like that paid off because it bent in your favor. I still believe they'll get something done, but one of the things complicating this extension is the fact that.

You know, you're talking about an extension period that's going to go across the new collective bargaining agreement, which is complicating a lot of discussions about extensions because people don't know what that new CBA is going to look like. I think they'll get something done. You do not necessarily think it will be something that doesn't impact the fantasy season. So Austin, Echlor, Justin Jackson, they need to be on your radar. How comfortable would you be of not moving in much in your...

draft spot, but insuring yourself with an Echler? Yeah, I mean, I... Would you start doing that? Or is it... Because then you're taking two picks. Well, we had this situation, right? We drafted Melvin Gordon in our Scotty Fish Bowl league right before the news broke about this. And we turned around a little while later, and we grabbed Echler at a good spot. I think if you do go, Gordon, you need to have protection. Mike, do you think he misses a game? Yes, I do. And that really sucks. Okay.

Let's go ahead and look. Where else are we? Cowboys. They report to camp in a few days. It has not been decided whether Zeke will hold out for, because welcome to another situation. This is the best thing we get to talk about. All of a sudden, Joe Mixing goes number one in all drafts because of this. But we'll find out soon whether Zeke.

decides to try to hold out. His does not have the air of affecting the season. This is like, because it's two years left on the contract, he's sending a message this year. And he has to be back August 6th. Is the 6th? I believe so. To accrue, it was the 4th of my head, but it could be the 6th, to accrue his, a year of playing to get into, to be a free agent where he can actually really have leverage. So he will show up. Eagles have signed Darren Sproles to a one-year contract. Didn't get to talk about it on the Saturday show. It was just breaking.

after Mike and I had recorded that show. This now, now I'm going to do this top ahead, ready? This is interesting. Corey Clement, on roster right now. Corey Clement, Miles Sanders, Josh Adams, Wendell Smallwood, Boston Scott, Danelle Pumphrey, Darren Sproles. You missed the one they traded for. And Jordan Howard. Yeah. That is eight. That is eight rosterbacks. Now I expect three or four to be cut. Oh, I thought they were looking for some more, but I can be wrong about that. Not yet.

Not yet. No, I mean, it says that Corey Clement, Josh Adams, I don't expect them to make the roster. I think Clemens there. I think Clemens are 100% on the roster. Yeah, like Pumphrey. Pumphrey, Boston Scott, and who did you say? Josh Adams? I think those three are gone. Yeah. But look, the team, my only real worry here that I started to think about was, what does it say about Miles Sanders' hamstring? Yeah. Like in a week, I could be stupid to think this, but.

If you're signing Darren Sproles with seven existing backs, maybe he's not that healthy right now. Maybe he's not going to be back and healthy in camp. That's what I'm looking for as a fantasy owner because I love Miles Sanders' opportunity to be the guy from week five on. All right. And Sproles, Sproles still has juice. Like when you use them in small amounts and you get him the ball in space. That's the only way to use Darren Sproles. Well, just saying that he was still effective. Stature joke.

when he could actually play. All right. News and notes brought to you today by Sleeper. Download the free app. Move your league to a modern platform with infinite customizations. We also want to thank a couple sponsors before we jump into the AFC North breakdown. I love that I get to talk about shady rays. You do. Because I've been wearing shady rays sunglasses for at least the past two years.

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All right. Sultry. Let's do it. AFC North breakdown. Last year, the Ravens won the division at 10 and 6th. The Steelers 9, 6 and 1. The Browns battled to 7, 8, and 1. And the Bengals brought up the rear at 6 and 10. So we'll start by talking about the Baltimore Ravens. They went on a run once Lamar Jackson took over this offense, this roster. It's a very interesting one.

Offseason addition-wise, they brought in Mark Ingram at the running back position. You know, we had been dealing with Alex Collins and Gus Edwards and Kenneth Dixon and Javorious Allen and some ensemble. We know that head coach Jim Harbaugh wants to be able to run the ball. Offensive coordinator Greg Roman wants to be able to run the ball this season with Lamar Jackson and that running back core. They also drafted Marquise Brown in the first round. Hollywood. All right.

If you didn't do that there, if you didn't do that there, I was going to cry. Fourth round pick, Justice Hill, who is a really good player. I look forward to talking about him. Miles Boykin, a wide receiver in the third round. So no more Alex Collins, no more John Brown, no more Michael Crabtree, no more Bashad Perryman. That experiment is over. But what are we expecting out of this offense? Last year, they were the second best rushing offense in football, obviously, with Lamar Jackson.

carrying the ball a ton. They also have 55% vacated target. Yes. That is the second highest number of vacated targets. There are new pass catchers in tow and we wonder can Lamar Jackson get them the ball. And can he stay on the field? It is fair to wonder. If you look at how the wide receivers did, look, the Ravens come week 10. That's when Lamar Jackson got his start.

they were so much better. They went on their run. They made the playoffs. The team had great success. But their fantasy players, their receiving core was dead in the water the second that Lamar Jackson took over. So some of these tools might help Lamar Jackson, but can Lamar Jackson help any of the receiving options be viable fantasy players? I'm not going to...

I'm not going to put any of my stock into the receiving core, certainly not at wide receiver. Maybe Mark Andrews is a tight end. But Lamar Jackson himself, he was the number 11 quarterback from the time he took over on week 10. So that's his, that's actually seven games. A lot of times you think 16 weeks season, 17, their biweek was before week 10. So he had seven games as a starter. And he was not a.

top end. He wasn't like what Josh Allen did, where he had these weeks where he finished his number one, number two. What Lamar Jackson did was he finished, you know, 12, 13, 8, 9. Those are still good numbers. But over that stretch, seven games, he was the number 11 quarterback in fantasy. So he is a viable. He's super late, sometimes undrafted. He didn't get the buzz that I think.

going out of last season, we thought he was going to be super overdrafted. Because Kyler Murray, Josh Allen, they're getting the running quarterback hype. I think Lamar Jackson is a great fantasy option late in drafts. The problem for Lamar was he was a running quarterback, but that was it. When it came to throwing the ball, he was averaging about 160 passing yards a game, which is, that's, that's embarrassing. Those are embarrassing.

numbers for a quarterback in today's NFL. 0.7 passing touchdowns per game, but combing that with 0.4 interceptions a game. So it's nearly 12 fumbles, 1.7 fumbles per game. He also had the worst, or sorry, the second worst red zone completion percentage in the league. He just never had the game where he had, I think the reason he's not kind of emboldened on people's minds as much is he never had that breakout game with the.

with the arm. He never had the three touchdown game because he never busted in any of those games that Jason brought up. He was very safe. Super safe, never blew up. He did not have the ceiling and here is my fear for Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens. Now, it's not a complete apples-to-apples situation. Robert Griffin III came into the league, came into Washington, took him right into the playoffs, set the world on fire. Now he was injured right at the end.

Washington the next year went 3 and 13. Do not forget what happened to Lamar Jackson in that playoff game. The Los Angeles Chargers were annihilating the Ravens. I know that the score finished 23 to 17, but in the fourth quarter with nine minutes left, this game was 23 to 3, and Lamar Jackson was able to get literally, literally nothing done. And now it's a completely revamped passing core or wide receiver core. He doesn't.

Willie Sneeds is veteran. I mean, that's really tough to get a kid to, you're going to acclimate to the NFL throwing the ball, and all your wide receivers are brand new to the NFL as well. So that's my concern that the Ravens, things could flip quickly for the Ravens. Their defense will still be elite, but I think that they could, talking about their win total, could plummet at least a few wins. Now, Marquis Brown.