Shocking Stats from 2023 + New Rules, Grandpa Jokes - Fantasy Football Podcast for 2/20

All right, Foot Clan, we got a great show for you today. We're going to talk about a little bit of news, and then we're breaking down six. Surprising stats on today's episode, looking to the future, getting into the mailbag and a whole lot more. Make sure you click subscribe. Stay with us all offseason long and enjoy. The Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in the Fantasy Footballers Podcast.

Tuesday episode of the show. Jason Moore is here. Yellow. Mike the fantasy hitman present accounted for. Uh, blue. No. No? No. I was hoping you weren't going to do that. Why? I'm Andy Holloway. I don't know. I don't like fun. Is that fun? Was that fun? Yeah. I had a good time. Any joke? That's what, that's my kid's policy. Any joke is a good joke. Any joke's a good joke. as long as you're not being serious there are a handful of jokes that are they are not good joke i mean i just can't stand when they're sad and we're pretty close on that last one because it's like it's a color it's a color joke did you get your hair cut if you say who got lots of them cut i'm a slap you yeah see that's where it was really yeah because you're that is an ultimate dad joke that is a dad's dad's a grandpa joke a g-paw joke

That is, it's unacceptable to me. Those are, you know, oh. Did the deucers like the color joke that Mike made? Were you down with that? Yeah, it was good. Oh boy, that's a man who's not sure which boss to please. It's, it's not a joke that's going to get deep belly laughter. Probably shouldn't be discussed, really. It's just more of a. Yeah. If I say, say hi, Mike. Hi, Mike. Oh, my God. Just get rid of my life. Those, there's a handful of those jokes that just, they irritate me like crazy. Okay, I'm making a note. Yeah. Wait to say them more or save them less. No, making a note to point out Jason's jokes to himself. Yeah. Oh, no. Oh no. They're going to be good. No. And you will have to look in the mirror and you'll have a reckoning of are they funny or do you tell bad jokes? We'll find out. Well, we got an episode for you today. We're diving into.

I think we have six shocking stats from 2023. They're electric. They're very interesting and they all have follow-up questions that we'll discuss on the show today. As we look forward to 2024, it is a great time to head over to Ultimate DraftKit.com because if you pick up the UDK before March 1st, you are entered to win a listener league spot, a chance to come and play with the three of us in the listener league. You get the lowest possible price. If you get the UDK Plus, you get a chance to jump right into the Dynasty Pass. There are three releases of the Dynasty Pass, the pre-combine, post-combine, and post-NFL draft releases with rankings. We've got all the college production profiles in there, rookie mock drafts, team opportunity pages, trade targets, a lot of good dynasty content. And the UDK Plus also unlocks the draft analyzer when we released out this summer.

and the Ultimate DFS pass. You'll get access to that throughout the 2024 season. All of that's available at Ultimate DraftKit.com right now, so please check that out. And let's jump into the quick question of the day. What is one uncommon rule you think should be added to every league and how? That's very strong, though. The every league part? To some leagues you're saying? Yeah, I like my answer. First, it's a fun thing, but I'm not mandating this. Well, the second part of the question was how do you know where to draw the line of trying to implement new rules, which I also relate to that question because there are people in our league that just, they're just always coming up with some new, new craziness. I think the, you just don't need to add things to add things. If you find something that makes your league better.

then vote and consider it. And a lot of times what we've done in our league is we've done kind of what the NFL does, which is, hey, we're going to implement this this season. It's not like a forever rule change. And then if we like it, we'll cement it and make it a forever rule change or not. Since I'm talking, I'll answer mine. This has shifted for me, Mike, too. I want it in every league. Every single league I play in now that I've played in this format enough. I prefer playing against the league median as well as the head-to-head matchup. I wasn't sure prior to really experiencing it if I would, because there's something fun about anyone beating anyone on any given week. You know, the worst team can surprise the number one seed. And so I thought maybe, and what playing against league median is, what that means is basically every single week, you get.

You're playing two wins and losses. You're playing against your opponent. And then also you get a win or a loss if you're in the top half of scorers that week or if you're in the bottom half of scores that week. So you can go two and oh on a week, one in one on a week or oh and two. And I thought it might take a little bit of that randomness away in a negative way. But I'm telling you, I never, ever, ever. cared more about the rest of my league and how they were doing and how their matchups were going. And I, like, I paid more attention in those leagues where it was like, okay, I'm not just looking at my matchup. I'm saying, okay, I really want my guys to do well and I want his guys to do bad, but I'm looking at the whole league. Oh, am I going to cross that threshold? Am I going to be in the top half? I need to score more points or whatever. It was just more fun for me. You probably couldn't find out until the next day.

because of how added complexity and where you knew teams would end up. Well, I mean, you're not going to find out until the last snap of the week, but that's probably the same for your matchup as well. So it didn't. It wasn't like a bit of a, you know, I guess it's not quite in that tier, but the whole argument like the participation trophy situation, right? Not at all. We're like you lose some of the extremes of emotion. win or loss because you've got this consolation prize of the median? 100%. That was my worry. Things like that. I really genuinely did not. I thought it would make it less fun. More fair, but less fun. There you go. And it made it more fair and more fun, which is why I think every league should have it. I like the point, Jay, you're pointing out that your rooting interests going into Monday night is no longer just.

that person's matchup. Like there could be a bunch of things that could change. And the kind of the overarching to me, the reason you go with that is, I guess to eliminate, you were worried to eliminate fun, but it's eliminate the really bad beats of you're the second highest score in the league. You just happen to play against the first. Meanwhile, some. some turd over here wins a weekend with 68 points. Meanwhile, you have 150. And it's just like some turd. Oh, that's a turd. That's got to be Josh. It feels so, so bad. And it does happen a lot. So in the leagues that I have played with the league median, it doesn't seismically change everything. But it does prevent a little bit of the weird where like the team scored the seventh most points and they sneak in with the sixth seed because they just.

happened to get that schedule this year? You guys are somewhat persuasive here. I feel like on this one in particular, I'm stuck in the maybe too much of an old ways mindset. Whereas, you know, it does. It does really, really suck to be the second highest score and not get any credit for the week. It also, you know, I haven't done it. We haven't done it in our main leagues. However, I could see it. making the weekend more exciting in the respect that sometimes you face an opponent and it is an unmitigated blowout early and the weekend's over. Whereas if you are fighting for a median score, you are rooting, like let's say you already know you're going to lose your matchup. At least you're rooting for something the rest of the weekend. Yeah. I'm telling you, if you haven't played in this, look to add it in your leagues. I will be bringing it up to vote in our league of record.

Probably the next four years until I convince everyone to do it. Ooh, the odds of that going through are low, huh? No, I don't know. About third years, third times to try. Yeah, sounds like we've got three yes votes potentially here, but it really is fun. So I highly recommend it. Yeah, some turd already said decline. Yeah. He's already, he's already voting against. It makes, it makes sense. Makes sense for him to not want that because it makes it more fair and takes away his illegitimate wins. To me, that's the rule that I think does actually improve things. Your other idea is more like fun. It's first downs. And it's been gaining more and more in popularity. And the argument for it is simply your. Well, like half a point or what? Yeah. I mean, I don't know what it needs to be. A half, a full point. Because you don't, it just like a PPR where you get a whole point just for catching the ball.

That to us over time felt like that's too overpowered, where if a receiver is catching a pass for two yards, they should not be getting more points than an RB who just carried the ball nine yards. You know what I mean? So you have to find the balance, but that trying to at least... So just to be clear, you're talking about rewarding players when they gain a first day. Yeah, so it's third and one. Running back carries the ball. They only get two yards. But those in the NFL... That's humongous. So you just want to make Jalen Hurts even more powerful. And they're more difficult to get. Not every two yards is as easy and difficult to get. When the defense is stacked up against the run because they've got to stop you for one yard, that's a tough yard to get. So the point being fantasy football is not real life NFL football. But if you can find some places where it starts to match a little bit more, I'm not opposed to it. According to Mr. Borgononi.

himself. He said it double rewards touchdowns because touchdowns count as first downs. Yeah, that they shouldn't in this type of a scoring format. Yeah, you'd have to make that adjustment. Well, I don't know if you can. You can very easily. You make touchdowns worth five points. Yeah, that would fix it. You solved the problem. It is. Jason. A problem was was put in front of you and, I mean, a mere moment. Yeah. You solved it. Yeah. Well, to be fair, I already knew that solution. He was figuring that out while you were thinking more color jokes. Yeah. Well done. All right. Let's talk news. News and notes from around the league. All right. We are into the offseason mode. A lot of chatter right now around the NFL around players and whether they'll be on the same rosters in coming weeks. Today is the first day teams can designate franchise and transition tags.

Franchise tag deadline is March 5th. Wow. Free agency less than a month away. So you already have teams talking about, you know, like Kirk Cousin situation is an interesting one to watch, right? Unrestricted free agent. Yeah, I mean, I can't be franchise tagged. I think half the league should be going after him. He's talked about giving the Vikings a discount. But I mean, if, if I'm another GM and I am a quarterback away, there's not. quarterbacks out there to get. So you got to, he'll get a bunch of money offered to him. See, the only reason I could be surprised the other direction is because we sat here last off season expecting an actual battle for Lamar Jackson and the league ignored him. Like if the league knew last year that Jackson was going to come back and the league knows this year that he just prefers to be with the Vikings. Maybe you won't get competition. It wasn't really. This is a different battle because the Lamar Jackson was he was.

I believe non-exclusive franchise tag. Would you say that there was a mistake made by the rest of the league? Oh, yeah. I mean, we said it then. We said it was a mistake by the, I guess not, because the Ravens won. But I was like, this is a mistake by the Ravens. How am I another team? And all I got to do is give up two first round picks. If I don't have a quarterback. I'm probably willing to spend one first round pick on a QB. Then it's just one bonus one to get Lamar Jackson and I give them the new contract. But in addition to that, a lot of the teams said they didn't want to do the work for the Ravens because the Ravens could then just say, okay, I'm going to sign that deal. Which, that's so leasy. Well, here's the thing. We could maybe get, you know, a franchise changing quarterback here, but.

Red tape. I got tea time tomorrow morning. I got to be out of the office by 3 p.m. today. I can't possibly make it happen. That's why they need AI to write these up. How many people are doing the work here? Do they have just one part time? We kind of said it. I think everybody just knew it was going to happen. Jimmy G. suspended for the first two games of 2024 for violating the performance enhancing substance policy. The Raiders are expected to release him already. And I saw the Raiders projected in a mock draft this morning to take J.J. McCarthy in the draft, but they are definitely a team primed to get a quarterback. I mean, the gift that the Raiders were given, because I believe, Kyle, you can correct me if I'm wrong, they can now essentially, his guaranteed money is gone because of this suspension where, I mean, sure, they probably were going to cut him, but they were going to have this huge money hit.

And now because of this weird suspension, they get to say, well, we're not paying you the money. And we get to get out of this. And I'm going to be honest, they didn't work that well. Yeah. Whatever he was on. Well, I don't know what. I imagine this is recovery from his injury. But we don't know. We don't have the information. The Seahawks informed Gino Smith Hill remain on the roster for 2024. For now. Yeah, I was going to say that that's not exactly how I had read it. The contract is fully guaranteed. They could trade him. Yeah. So he's guaranteed contract now. There was a period of time where it was like, we knew that his money was going to go to him and they needed, if they were going to for sure move on, they would have done it by Friday. Tankdale expected to be ready for OTAs. I think we're all excited for that. So typical recovery timeline for his injury was four to six months. I have officially between the Tank Dell and Nico Collins.

Oh, I have officially, I have officially switched 12 times. Oh, 12 times. Right now, I'm Nico. Right now I'm Nico about tank. Now, you were a tank last week. That's what I'm saying, man. I like both and I don't know who I like more. I bet you like the one that's drafted at a lower cost by the time draft day comes around. I have seen. What if they're back to back? I was going to say, I've seen them very close in some 80Ps. Nelson Aguilar, one year deal to come back to the Ravens. They were. So happy. Okay. All right, that is it for news and notes. We'll take a quick break and come back with some shocking stats from last year. Just checking in real quick, Jason. Is it still Nico? No, it's tank. Tankdale now. You've made the switch. Wow. I'm telling you, it's very short term. Yeah. He needs one of those reversible jerseys that's just like one's Nico and one's tank. All right, let's jump in. How'd you do that? I'm not even mad. That's amazing.

All right, we're looking at the 2023 season at some fascinating, interesting stats that we dug up, that the research team here dug up. Dugged up? Dugged up. Oh, yeah. Doing real good. Yeah. Lamar Jackson was the MVP of the National Football League. It was a far cry production-wise from his first MVP campaign in 2019. That year, he had run for 1,200 on the ground, seven touchdowns on the ground. threw for 36 touchdowns through the air. This year, it was 3,600 passing yards. I remember there was quite a bit of off-season debate on that number. We were talking about whether we thought he could get to 4,000 with Todd Monkin. Didn't happen, 3,600, 24 touchdowns, 821 on the ground, 5 touchdowns on the ground. But the numbers that are very interesting is that Lamar Jackson was almost perfect when targeting any Ravens receiver in the slot. And it's kind of...

Wild, the passer rating in 2023, and this includes Mark Andrews, Zayflowers, Nelson Aguilar, Isaiah Likely, Odell Beckham, Rashad Bateman. It's passerating to those players, 137, 130, 133, 154. That was Isaiah Likeley, by the way. 100, Beckham was the lowest, and then Rashad Bateman, 140. So, you know, he had a dominant season targeting those players in the slot. Very interesting. It is interesting. They weren't very good on the outside. And I wonder if that, how much do you think is an indictment of the players that were on the outside? You know, the Odell Beck and Rashad Bateman, they're on this list, but they had very few targets from the slot because they're playing on the outside. I was going to bring it up of it's, it may have something to do with just Lamar's comfort for learning this new system. This new system, learning it, and he was more comfortable.

in between the numbers where there's like there's tape of go watch for shot bateman because that's a huge question of what happened like how was this first round wide receiver who had a couple good games last year then then lost the season to injury how did he just vanish and there's plenty of routes of seeing him beat his defender into a like a real easy catch but for but lamar's just not looking at there was a disconnect I was hoping you'd bring that up yeah Because there were a lot of misthrows down the sideline. There were only 11 of his touchdowns to non-slot situations. So that was the 26th ranked in the league. One fewer than the Cardinals. So there wasn't, I mean, I'm sure it's a little chicken and egg, but at the same time, like, he went with his comfort level. And he's also a player that, you know, pulls the ball down and runs it. And so, you know.

Will teams adjust to this next year? I think that's going to be a big question mark heading into the year. If you drafted Lamar Jackson after his first MVP season, you had some years of struggle. And so it's always going to be one of those dart throw situations. But he was dominant throwing it to, you know, Andrews and likely and flowers in particular. Yeah, I think that's where he thrives a little bit more, but I don't see this as prescriptive for the future of, you know, this was an outlier of just being literally perfect passerating whenever targeting the slot. I can't imagine that that's sticky. They struggled when their defense couldn't give them a lead. Like they were not a play from behind type of offense, which also fits in with, you know, you fail.

The reason they weren't good from behind is they couldn't throw the ball down field. Their drives had to take a long time to get there. They really need an outside threat. Like if Mike Evans came here, I don't know if they've got the money to afford it, but it would be awesome. I mean, part of it is personnel, right? If you've got your two best receivers are definitely Mark Andrews and Zay Flowers. Well, and those two guys are living in the slot. So it makes sense that that's where he's more effective. If you can bring in a good. outside wide receiver, that would be something special to see. All right. Let's turn the page here. NFL draft gold, we'll call it. For the ninth consecutive year, a team drafting in the top eight of the NFL draft also won their division. This year it was the Houston Texans. They went from 3 and 13 and 1 to 10 and 7. And eight of those nine teams that have done that? This is the real stat to me. Eight of those nine teams were in the top five of the draft. So you've had eight.

times in nine years where if you picked in the top five, one of those teams ended up winning their division, which is crazy. That is crazy. This last year you say, okay, well, it was because you got CJ Stroud. I mean, that was the massive difference maker. But you look back at some of the others and it wasn't always the draft pick, the first round hit. You know, Trayvon Walker last year for the Jaguars did it. He was okay, but he wasn't a sensational rookie. But that was also the, that's going from, what's his face? Urban Meyer, right? Yeah. So you have the terrible Urban Meyer into. Well, I think you had a head coaching change for most of these. Yeah, when you're picking in the top of five. I mean, Houston did last year too. But to jump up that many wins. They jump up on average, 6.7 wins. That's crazy. Just to put that into perspective, if that trend continues.

Here are the top eight teams in this draft. Carolina, Washington, New England, Arizona, the Chargers, the Giants, Tennessee and Atlanta. So if you're picking one from the top five or the top eight there to win their division, the two teams that stand out to me, if you're going top five, it would be the Chargers. And if you go top eight, I'd go Atlanta. Yeah, Atlanta seems to be the most likely one because, I mean, there were seven and ten. pretty much contending for the division until the last couple games. Yeah, I think if we're going top eight, I would pick Tennessee simply because they've got a beatable division. And if we're going top five, I would pick the Chargers, but again, they've got Patrick Mahomes to worry about. I would actually go with the Cardinals. The Cardinals. I think you're right. They didn't, they tore it down last year.

They got rid of all their talent. They've got a ton of cap space. Now they've got Kyler Murray back for a full season. Obviously, you've got the Niners there, so that's difficult. But we've seen that the Super Bowl losing team very rarely has a wonderful follow-up season. All right. The Washington commanders became the first NFL team since 2015. to lead the NFL and pass attempts. Yeah. And yet did not contribute a top 20 running back, a top 24 wide receiver, or a top 12 tight end in fantasy football. There was excitement about Eric the enemy. Dotson, you know, you had a good start for Brian Robinson. Yeah. Everyone's always excited about Terry McLaurin. That's the default state of the off season. Just never continues into the season. So.

Not an impressive stat for Washington fans. Pretty hard to do. You know, when Washington does that, and then you get top 15 wide receivers, two of them from Houston with a rookie quarterback. Talk about a surprise from fantasy perspective. If the commanders do draft a quarterback at two, which seems likely, it does. Will any of these Washington options end up worth the investment in fantasy? Oh, man. What's their average stress? The story would be Bounceback Dodson, right? Uh-huh. McLaurant has a quarterback. Right. Number seven, seventh quarterback, or however many he's had. The first time he's had a good one, though. That'll be the narrative. The enemy's gone as well. So, no. That's my answer. Your answer is that the offensive piece is there with a rookie quarterback are not going to do it. We've got them, Jason. We've got your basketball 80Ps. Oh, all right, all right. Do you want to try it?

Guess or you just want me to give him to you? Just kidding. Terry McLaurin, wide receiver 35. Oh, baby. I'll definitely draft him there. That's interesting. I mean, he was the wide receiver 28 this past season with. He could finish as high as 27. I think he was wide receiver 14. That's a return. Brian Robinson Jr. running back 28. That's not bad either. That's not bad. Dotson is the wide receiver. And Curtis, don't forget about Curtis Samuel, or I guess maybe we can now that Sam Howell is out of town. Man, that guy loved Curtis Samuel. What is the lesson there? Because it's the lesson that you can be fooled? My takeaway here is where volume is almost everything for the running back position. If for a quarterback and which translates into your wide receivers, efficiency is a huge part of.

of the formula. I just feel like we're going to be in the pendulum swinging argument making, right? Because then you can, then you got a case for everybody, right? We went into this office season saying, we said Washington might throw the ball a ton and be one of the leading teams in passing. They were number one. We, we meant pass attempts. We said Sam Hal might throw it a bunch. And that could be good. He did throw it a bunch. It was not good. So it's like, but then if you're, if you focus on a low pass attempt efficiency team, we're like, ah, we need more pass attempts. It just feels like I've heard both arguments a lot in the off season. Well, and you're going to have, you're going to have both arguments here coming into 2024 because it depends on what you believe in Drake May or, or, uh, Jalen Daniels. If, if you think Jaden, Jayden Daniels, if you think those guys are great and you think they can truly C.J. Stroud? I mean.

I do think, like, let's say Kirk Cousins came. They decide to go out and sign Kirk Cousins. Yeah, I think that would be. That would be great. That won't happen. No, no, no, it won't. But my point is, Terry McLaurin would be great if he had Kirk Cousins. So if Drake May is a C.J. Stroud, is a Justin Herbert, which I, you know, I've heard that comp a lot for him. Well, then, yeah, it is a value. Now, historically speaking, I prefer to bet against wide receivers with rookie quarterbacks. It is very, very rare, Tank Dell and Nico Collins aside, for wide receivers to succeed with rookie quarterbacks, even future good rookie quarterbacks or good quarterbacks in their rookie season. So I'll be betting against a massive breakout huge success. But given where those ADPs are right now, it seems like they're still probably a little under. All the risk is.