2021 Rookie Review Show + Dynasty Outlooks, Let's Get Spicy - Fantasy Football Podcast for 2/17

Zach Wilson was the starter from day one. He was drafted to be the starter. Justin Fields over training camp was not the starter. It was Andy Dalton and then it was, let's pick up the pieces and try and figure out how to get this office moving with Fields. Let me ask it this way, Mike. Because I know we were all three pretty bullish on Fields as a prospect coming here. Would you say he met your expectations this year? You think he did? I think. Or did he disappoint you? I would say.

He disappointed. He disappointed. But my question that I had asked was, you don't see the path moving forward. And I 100% see that for what Fields was able to do after the very, very terrible start. I'm just letting you guys have it. No, I like digging in. Now, the question.

goes forward. Obviously, it's a little too early to no weapons, right? Alan Robinson, I think the world presumes he will be gone. I don't think he did enough. Don't care. Had the relationship with the bears to be back and probably addition by subtraction considering what he was. Darnal Mooney can grow, but my point is without Alan Robinson, you really don't have a passing core here. I mean, Cole Comette and Darnal Mooney, you might like them for what they are, but that's not a...

That's not a good enough receiving core for an NFL franchise to set a quarterback up for, you know, that leap into year two. I can agree with that, but that to me is a foundation. Like if you add another, I think if you make one kind of splashy move, whether it's in the draft with a first or a second round pick or. It would have to be this year. Yeah. Or somehow you get like Calvin Ridley or the free agents.

of the wide receiver. Yeah, it's pretty rough this year. But I think that the foundation is there that it wouldn't take a complete overhaul to get things going in the right direction. Well, let's just get spicy early on here then. All right. Because I wasn't expecting that discussion. It doesn't really matter what order we have these guys. And there were no excellent fantasy rookie quarterbacks. There was one okay. It was Mack Jones. Consistency rank of 21, QB18 finish.

22 touchdowns, 13 picks. It was an impressive year leading the offense, didn't do much for fantasy purposes. And we talked about him in the QB Truth episode, the second one. But it's simple. I mean, are you taking Mack Jones in a dynasty league or are you taking Justin Fields in a dynasty? Just the Fields easily. Great question. Because it has to be factored in a dynasty. Does the guy have a – like I feel like Mac Jones answered the question of –

Is he the future quarterback for the next 10 years for this franchise? I think the answer is going to be a definitive yes. I think he answered it better than Justin answered it. The ceiling is clearly. Okay. The ceiling, so this is the way I look at these two players and this is a fantasy football philosophy of how you play, especially in Dynasty. The ceiling is definitely higher for Justin Fields. Because of his mobility, rushing touchdown rushing yardage, if they both hit, there's no, Mac won't be able to do for fantasy what Justin Fields can do.

But Mac seems like a pretty surefire prospect as of this moment to at least put out a David Carr or David Car, a Derek Carr-esque career, Matt Ryan asked career where you're going to have plenty of fantasy relevance, not glory, but a lot of important fantasy relevance for Dynasty League. That makes a huge deal and a long, long time. I expect him to play 10 years. Whereas Justin Fields showed some flashes, but he's the type of quarterback that...

three years from now could be out of the league. And so I lean towards the Mac Jones side because if I had to really bet whether four years from now Justin Fields is a starter, I think I would bet against it. The hard part is we've had some rookies in recent history that don't look like rookies. I mean, Justin Herbert was an example. Mac Jones, I think, was an example this year. And then we have several in the disappointing fantasy-wise group for today that look like rookies through the whole year.

And Trevor Lawrence looked like a rookie through the whole year. I think Justin Fields did too. Decision making, that evolution. I don't know how much was, you know, Matt and Aggie's fault, right? If we like Justin Fields, we'll make all those excuses for them. If we don't like them, we'll use them against them. But that begs the question because this is...

I asked you about Mac Jones and asked you by Justin Fields, that situation. So there are probably leagues, Dynasty Leagues. If you're side with Mike, you could go swap Mac Fields for Justin, or Mac Jones for Justin Fields. And I would do that immediately. But then the question gets teased out with a couple other names, right? Where you say, are you a Justin Fields or Trevor Lawrence? Are you a Justin Fields or Zach Wilson with what you saw this year? Lawrence, just to give you the numbers, finished at QB22, 35th most consistent.

It was not a good year for him. He had 12 touchdowns. I know rookies don't throw. 17 picks. Rookies don't throw a lot of touchdowns. That's fine. I don't expect him to go out and throw for 35 or have a Justin Herbert. His 12 passing touchdowns and 214 yards per game were the lowest ever for a quarterback with 600 attempts. So he played the whole year, gave you 0% great games, one good game this whole season, busted most of the time. And then Zach Wilson, look, he did.

Some of what Fields did at the end of the year. He gave a couple of impressive fantasy performances, number six overall in week 13, number four overall in week 16, mostly busted, like Lawrence. He had seven picks in the first three games only through four more of the rest of the season, but this was not a prolific season, finished at QB30. So in a dynasty, again, you can go swap, right? If you've got Trevor Lawrence and you've got Zach Wilson, are you going to swap them for fields?

Zach Wilson, I would swap for fields immediately. Trevor Lawrence is, man, that's far more difficult of the, some guys, when they come into the league, the adjustment is very, very difficult. It clearly was a difficult thing for Trevor Lawrence, and it was compounded by, like, that year with Urban.

And everything that was happening on a weekly basis, it felt like there was some sort of scandal involving that team. Like that must have been a, that had to be a very tough work environment on top of Urban Myers should not have been a head coach in the NFL to begin with. So I'm not bailing on Trevor Lawrence. I would, oh, man, if you could turn Fields into Lawrence, I,

I don't think I would. I think I would just stick it out with fields. Yeah, I have major. I love that they made a coaching change and that they brought someone in who has taken a rookie quarterback up and yada, yada, yada. I'm not burying Trevor Lawrence as in he can't be good, but he didn't do anything. He didn't ever pass the eyeball test. He always looked.

He was inaccurate. Outmatched. Outmatched. I mean, outgunned, he was just, he was terrible. He was, he was terrible. So, but he's got the biggest name. He's got the highest draft capital you can have. Um, if I could go and trade Trevor Lawrence to someone who believes for a Trey Lance who didn't play, I would do that without. I would, I would. Interesting. So you would.

a heartbeat. So as of now heading into year two of this rookie crop, you have Trey Lance at the top. Yeah, Trey Lance would be my number one. He's got the rushing mobility. He's going to have the actual full-time job with a good team with weapons like Debo and Kittle and Ayuk. That's a good topic that you bring up with these rookies. Because if you think about the path, what's the path for Trevor Lawrence or Zach Wilson? The path is you need a year.

in between this last season and fantasy greatness, at least one year. Sure. You need at least one year where he's flashing and doing the Herbert rookie season stuff. So then at best case, maybe you have a really relevant player probably in two years. Whereas you look at Trey Lance and you say, okay, well, we haven't seen him on the field and he can flame out. But if he doesn't, it's kind of a, it's baked in that he'll be a top 10 running, or running quarterback. So I think it's interesting.

I think I like Wilson more than Lawrence. I think that the franchise and the weapons and some of what Zach Wilson is held against him in this rookie season is, I mean, this was a player under fire at every moment in terms of the offensive line was a humongous issue for this team. And he probably tried to do too much. But I wish that Lawrence had tried a few more times to do too much. And I wish I would have got to see, you know, a play that I said,

Wow, that arm is, you know, that blew me away or that decision making or that evasiveness. I didn't see a lot of that from Lawrence. And Wilson, I like the organizational situation for him better. Elijah Moore. You'll have Corey Davis for another year. You're going to have some weapons in the draft. I guess I just like it a little bit more. It's going to say Wilson at least has Elijah Moore. And like those two can grow together. And I think I've seen enough from Elijah Moore to know, yep, that dude has it.

Can he be elite? That remains to be seen, but he can be one of the better wide receivers in the league. The Jaguars, I don't know who that is. And then, like, Wilson still has Michael Carter. I don't think Michael Carter is an elite running back, but he's good. Like, you have some pieces that you can build on for this team, and you had, back when Josh Allen's rookie year, it was, like, I mean, forever ago, but.

Fantasy, he came on at the end where, like, he had these huge games because he was running. Throwing the ball was, it was rough. But at least several times throughout the year, you saw Josh Allen make a throw and you go, holy crap. Like, I don't know if I can list a handful of quarterbacks in the league right now that can make that type of a throw where we just, you didn't see that flash play from Lawrence.

Yeah, and it needs to be remembered by fans and players that there's also the middle ground outcome for a lot of these players. There's the Mariotta, Winston, not, they never ascend to top 10 greatness. But they're just their starter good. But their starter good, are they, their starter okay? I mean, Marioita was okay for fantasy at times. He flames out after his first contract. He's to back up the rest of his career. And for dynasty players.

those outcomes aren't very good either. Right. I mean, if Justin Fields is fantasy okay and flames out or Trey Lance does that, that's the risk. That's kind of the path. That's why you might like Mac Jones. That's exactly. That's the path I see for Fields. I hope that he turns more Russell Wilson than he does Mariotta. But I think he'll have a couple fantasy relevant years and might not get to that next contract. I just wrote down because I hadn't really taken this exercise.

myself and thinking through these guys, what would my dynasty order be of these five quarterbacks? Personally, I would have Trey Lance number one, Mack Jones 2, Justin Fields 3, Trevor Lawrence, 4, and Zach Wilson. I am in the identical list, but I'd flip-flop Lawrence and Zach Wilson. Lawrence to the bottom. Which is, I mean, maybe that's. Yeah, no. Well, he deserves it based on his play. Yeah, work your way up, buddy. Yeah. And I would be Lance Fields.

Probably Mac Lawrence. I might have Lawrence ahead of Mac of just sealing. Like when you're throwing out, well, Mac Jones can be Derek Carr. Derek Carr has never finished higher than quarterback 13. Like we have Derek Carr on our dynasty squad. And it's cool having them be like, oh, we got a backup option. I don't know that we've started Derek Carr once. That's fair. In a two quarterback league, sure, more valuable. But in a single quarterback league, we've had Derek Carr on that team for three years.

And I don't think he started a single game for us. Yeah, the hope is more Matt Ryan than Derek Carr. Yes. If you're talking Matt Ryan, then yeah, because Matt Ryan has had a couple years where he was fantasy dominant. Carr just had never done that. No matter what triumphs are in store this season, legendary game days start with a Miller Light. Miller Light is a true American Pilsner and the original light beer brewed since 1975, made with simple ingredients including malted barley for rich.

balanced toffee notes and its iconic golden color it delivers the dependable taste beer lovers have trusted for 50 years and with just 96 calories and 3.2 grams of carbs per 12 ounce serving miller time is always a good time game days are upon us fantasy football season is upon us when i'm hooting and hollering

I build up a mighty thirst and nothing satisfies that thirst like a Miller light on a Sunday. It goes down smooth. It's refreshing. It never lets me down. Make game day legendary.