Fantasy Football - 32 Preseason Takeaways + Key Questions - Podcast for 8/18

The Fantasy Footballer Studio is sponsored by Walmart. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Monday, August 18th, the Fantasy Footballers podcast, back with you. Week two of the preseason, almost in the books, in the rearview mirror. We got one more game. Get some Bengals.

commanders tonight, but we'll talk preseason week two takeaways. I jotted down something for every team that we can blitz through and then I'm going to I'm going to translate the takeaways into a fantasy question for you gentlemen and then you guys can tell me how things are going by way of rankings and adjustments and give you a yes or a no. Nice. Oh, that's the kind of analysis. Also I have to ask it a yes or no question. No, you can ask whatever question you want. Oh, that's just. but you're getting a yes for a no yeah you guys how many yards and i'll be like yes you guys had a long weekend we did yeah we did we were we were out of wedding you were you were out of the middle of august and now i'm very sleepy but we're here and you were it wasn't like a normal destination it was just like you were kind of you traveled a way it was a destination it was it was certainly not close and but you're back we are and we've got a lot of news to cover we've got

mailbag on the show as well. If we have some time, we got a big announcement. If you're, if you're, I told you, man. Things are going to be wacky today. Today's going to be wild, but we've got great stuff for you. The filters are off. Yeah, I got picked up on that when you just went. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Welcome in, everybody. Look, we did have a tips and tricks show last week and we said don't overreact to the preseason, but you don't want to under react. under React either. So you've got to find that balance and we're going to try to do that today. Like I said, we've got some takeaways. But the big announcement, if you're listening to this show, there's a few hours left to enter for your chance to win a UDK for Life. It's our UDK for Life giveaway. We're also going to give away a sign Jemar Chase jersey. He's pretty good at football. Yeah. And you need to enter by purchasing the UDK, the UDK Plus or an Ultimate Foot Clan membership before.

our live stream this afternoon. So we've got a live stream this afternoon. You can go over to YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballer. Subscribe, click the bell. We'll notify you when we're live. We're answering questions. And we're doing those giveaways live on the show this afternoon. Ultimate draft kit.com. If you already purchased the UDK, you're entered to win in the giveaway this afternoon already. And if you are going to draft soon and don't have the UDK, it is the number one tool to help you win your draft. So you can check that out, ultimate draft kit.com. I want to jump right in because we've got news to cover and then we've got all these preseason takeaways and there's just a lot to get through. So we'll jump. We'll jump in right now. News and notes from around the league. Presented by progressive insurance. And Brooksie would like me to remind you there's another very big announcement tomorrow. Oh, just tease. It's just a tease. It's just a monster.

There's just a little. A monster tease. Yeah. I'm sleepy. Wake me up tomorrow. All right. Well, we didn't get to cover this because we had just recorded before we got this news, but the Cleveland Browns. Yeah. There are always updates around the Browns. Quinn Sean Judkins. Yeah, there really are. Who is at one point this off season, other than Ashton Genty, was some of our favorite, like. When I finished outing the UDK, he was the second highest. I mean, obviously, Gentie being like a first round pick was super high, but he came out highest in my expected projections for 2025. So it's been quite a roller coaster because he's gone from, he's gone from, you know, probably the second best pick potentially at running back to I don't know if he plays football this year or signs with the Browns to now the news.

Which is that in a statement Thursday in an NFL spokesperson said the league had been, quote, following developments in the matter. He won't face formal misdemeanor battery charges over an alleged domestic incident in South Florida last month. He is still unsigned. He does not have a contract with the Browns. Right now, if you watch the preseason game, Jerome Ford, Dylan Samson both didn't play because they rested with the starters. So those are the two players that are. lunged up to play running back. You know, obviously Nick Chubb departed this offseason. Jerome Ford came back. Quintan Jenkins was supposed to be the future. Number 36 pick, a very talented running back that was going to be the new Nick Chubb. So now we know he's not facing charges. The NFL can still suspend him. I'm going to project they still will. Right now, Jimmy Haslam said he's cautiously optimistic that he'll play for the team in 2025. That's all we have.

No contract yet. Yeah, he said that back in July. Yeah. This is new news that because it looked like he was definitely, you know, going to have charges brought against him. I mean, he was arrested. So now there is a chance, there is a chance that he doesn't get suspended and is available for the entire season. Which he has not practiced and played with the team yet. And so that'll be something to, you know, from an onboarding perspective, how much do they trust him? When do they trust him? All of that. But we'll follow that news and get along to you as we get it. There was news, I believe, yesterday that the commanders had been shopping Brian Robinson, Jr. to teams around the NFL. If you remember, Brian Robinson Jr. and I believe Austin Eckler are both on the final years of their contracts with the commanders. Jacori Kroski Merritt has gotten a lot of offseason hype and buzz. He was a seventh round pick. He had very little production in college. He had one year.

at I think it's New Mexico or New Mexico State. And then he transferred and played one game in Arizona. That's it. That's all he had. He had a very productive one year. The nastiest of nasty boys, Mike, if you want to hit that drop. But we're at the point. Do you have a giant drop board now? I've had this forever. Oh, really? Yeah. You got the big boy over there. Well, it's, I got, I got these fun knobs and things too. Oh, you got all the buttons. Yeah, I do, but I can swipe. It just caught my eye. I didn't know if you were going to be firing off some sound effects through the show. Uh, the, any horns? The, no, the producers have wisely not given me very many options. Just knobs that do nothing so you can feel like you're doing something. Yeah. That's great. I look like I'm real busy over here, guys. Hold on. Um,

But let's talk about this. Brian Robinson, and maybe the team feels comfortable enough with Kroski Merritt working in with Echler that they were willing to shot Brian Robinson. We don't know a lot more than that one report. Yeah, it's such a weird thing to come out and be. They are going to play football soon. Yeah, I mean, as of right now, Brian Robinson is the presumed 1A of the backfield for a good offense. He's been a target. Both him and Austin Echler have been targets because you're talking double digit, you know, 10 plus round in your draft. where they're going to score fantasy points. So if he left, that would be very interesting for Lil Bill as Jacori goes by. Yeah. And or Austin Eccler. And just to add Andy more context. He really only had one year of true production. I mean, he played a lot of years of college. Like he played at Alabama State. And then he went to a big program in New Mexico and then.

transferred to U of A, where he got, you know, 13 carries. So I struggle very much with this situation of this. He's 24 years old. He was a seventh round pick. And I know, yes, late round guys come out of nowhere sometimes like Isaiah Pacheco. Oh, I'll just bring up who everyone wants to bring up Alfred Morris because he was a, he was that for the literal same team. And they, they want to project that on to Kroski Marr. But the, you know, for, forever. Isaiah Pacheco, it did work out eventually. You know, I believe his rookie year, it wasn't spectacular for fantasy football, but he did take the job. But it's just reminder. Remember Kamani Vidal Sassoon? Oh, yeah. Everyone loved him. That dude's going to take over the chart. Like, it's very difficult for day three guys to truly take over. But this is, you've got to at least pay attention. Yeah, we can name them because they're so few. Yes. Steve Slayton and.

Philip Lindsay and, you know, a handful of guys over the years. But if Brian Robinson was traded, that just makes him relevant immediately. If Robinson is traded, it's a huge deal because he will be, Kraski Merritt would take that role. Terry McLaurin activated off the pop, but he doesn't have the contract he wants yet. You need to activate that money. Yeah. He's not activated off of the business. Yeah. The business pop? Yeah. The one that, hey, it worked for James Cook. Financially unable to perform? Yeah. Yes. The fup? I don't like that. Hey. Tom Pelliserro, your favorite guy, Mike. Oh, who's we hyping up now? He's just saying it's still a possibility that Rashi Rice and the NFLPA and everybody come to an agreement on a.

settlement for a suspension that would allow him to be suspended at the beginning of the year instead of waiting. We did have an update. So the last report was, you know, that they're waiting four weeks or so into the season before he even has his true meeting here with his judge, which we got some more context on that was what I saw from the rumor mill that the league was coming after like 10 games. Yes. And the Rashid Rice Cape was like, oh no, we are not going to take that. So we're going to. move forward as far as possible into, you know, having an independent person look at it. So there is a judge who was not able, schedule-wise, to fit this, to look at this case for the four weeks. That was the reason for the delay. But as of right now, as of right now, between weeks four and five, he's going to have his moment to speak with as a judge.

I believe it is. It's a disciplinary hearing with the same judge that covered the Deshawn Watson suspension situation. It could take her time from the end of the hearing to her decision in one, two, three, four, five weeks. It came quick. It came quick with Deshawn Watson, I believe. I thought you took some time. It's up in the air of this is still extremely messy and you're going to have to make your... own personal decision of how much Rishu Rice risk. I think they'll get to a settlement. I think we'll hear something. But AJ Brown still not practicing, which is not great. No. We're getting closer to the season. That's a heads up for you. I had to increase the risk rating and lower a little bit of my projection for AJ Brown just out of hedging. The Eagles then went and traded for John Metchie from the Texans in exchange for Harrison Bryant and a day three pick swap. John Metchie was, he was a player that there was a lot of excitement for.

He underwent cancer treatment. Yeah, he lost his rookie year to treating his cancer, yes. And then he just hasn't been able to kind of work himself into the rotation enough. So new chance with Philadelphia. And they do this. They find a way to just grab some guys that haven't had the opportunities that they think maybe they deserve. Yeah, they went and got Dotson. Yep. After, you know, it's like these were, they've got wide receivers who were supposed to be better than they, you know, performed on the NFL field. But John Metchie is reunited with Devante Smith. They were both at Alabama together.

That's fun. Yep. We've got more injury updates. Malik Neighbors is dealing with a back injury. So back shoulder, toe. Yeah, it's just normal back tightness. That is the quote. That was the quote. It's just normal back tightness. This is great news for me because that's how I wake up every day. And it's normal. You and Malik Neighbors? Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, pretty similar athletic profile, but also normal back tightness. Yes. Mike McDaniel says he's. currently not concerned about some big news devon a chan who's dealing with a lower body soft tissue issue and you know i i saw some medical experts talk about this basically saying look if this was hamstring um because the the quote from mcdaniel was days and weeks if it was hamstring it would be weeks automatically so he's kind of ruling out hamstring he's kind of leaning towards this is

Either groin adduct or something like that. Well, there's one way to find out. Is he on the index? I'm checking. Well, he might, the reason he might not be telling this what's hurting is because he doesn't want to end up on groin index. Yeah, they do that now. They don't have to fully report it. So this is not great, though, because A. Chan is, he's an undersized back. He has an injury history, although last year he made it through. But previously to that, he had an injury history. And then we're going to talk more in the preseason takeaways about the backup options there. But A. Chan, right now.

not concerned about his week one availability, but I don't like any preseason injuries at this point. Speaking of which, Joe Mixin is still, quote, not considered a lot to be ready for the week one game against the Rams. There was a picture, viral picture spreading from a podiatrist this weekend with, he was featured with Joe Mixing. And it was like, hey, I'm so happy to be part of Joe Mixen's recovery team. And this was like a podiatrist's foot guy talking about this. So there's something going on with the foot. He's still on the NFI. And I've seen a couple of unsubstantiated reports of people pulling them off their board completely. But again, it's like, could this dude just show up in week one? You got to hedge a little bit. He's not a safe draft pick. No. There are a few guys. We're getting to the time of year now where these are, it's so hard to remember that this isn't just some.

piece of paper week one game like there's a human being who either is able to play football or isn't hasn't been able to this whole off season we're 17 days away from NFL games being played you have to you know you have to get out there right now mixing stafford these guys who have just spent the entire off season unable to play football scare the tarnation out of me like i i i certainly am not drafting any of them at adp In Stafford's situation, he affects everybody. That's hurting all Rams. And we'll talk about the backup options there in our preseason takeaways as well. Quentin Johnston, or sorry, yeah, Quentin Johnston went down. Yeah, he got parted off, concussion symptoms. This is in the preseason game. Same with Jaliel, uh, sorry, Jalen McMillan, who that, that looked very painful as well. He folded up and got hurt and we'll talk about the wide receivers for the Buccaneers, but.

The most recent report is that he, quote, avoided anything major, which is good news. Keaton Mitchell, hamstring injury, running back for the Ravens, depth piece behind Derek Henry. The 49ers. Dude, what? Mercy. You can add that's, they're just all yelling mercy. Mercy. Mercy. Have mercy on us. You can add Patrick Taylor and Corey Kiner. Both running backs. I don't even know who Corey Kiner has. Never heard that name in my life. Yeah, well, he was taking like significant snaps because Garendo, Jordan James, Amir Abdullah, all out. Now Patrick Taylor, dislocated shoulder, Kiner, high ankle sprain. Right now... Is this the only way to keep CMC healthy? Is he like siphoning their health? Yes, he is. Yeah. Kishon Vaughn and Jeff Wilson are healthy. My name is Jeff. They have both of those players. Kishon Vaughn and Jeff Wilson. We're back, man. Get on your knees and pray.

Because y'all about to go down. This is like, what's the most recent that movie that just came out again? Oh, Final Destination? Final Destination. Yeah, it's taking everyone. Running back room. You know, Pat, Marshawn Lloyd, he played in the preseason game. He hurt himself in the preseason game. Marshawn Lloyd had a great reception, looked, you know, explosive, people in camp, very explosive. Hamstring. Now injured. He's, he's too explosive. So he is- Or his muscles. I mean, basically he's going to start the season hurt again. And it's not going to be him as the backup for Josh Jacobs. And it's awful because you're never going to see him play football. Last year, last year he had a hip injury, a hamstring strain, an ankle sprain, and appendicitis. Oh, mixing that in? And then he's starting this year off with the groin strain earlier, finally gets back and now hamstring again.

All right, that was news and note, sponsored by Progressive Insurance, quote today at progressive.com, progressive casualty insurance company affiliates and third party insurers, not available in all states or situations, coverage subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. All right, we will take a break and let's jump into some preseason. All right, we had a second week of preseason football. Only one week left of preseason to kind of figure out some things about these players and see them on the field. Time to talk takeaways. Preseason power up. All right, gentlemen. I am going to... Oh, the papers are out. I got the papers out. The papers. I'm going to blitz these. And I don't want people out there to think that I'm going to be exhaustive about every single one of these games, teams or players. That is not what this is going to be. This is going to be just some kind of headline takeaways for each and every team. Or there were a couple teams that literally just didn't play like first and second stringers at all. And those teams don't have takeaways. But I'm just going to ask some questions about fantasy based on what we're seeing.

For Buffalo, they really played no starters. The one thing that was significant to me, Ray Davis played. And Ty Johnson, James Cook, they didn't play. So from a depth chart perspective, I think that's a little bit interesting because I don't look at Ty Johnson at this juncture of his career to be anybody that's a threat to James Cook at all. He is a very complimentary player, where Ray Davis, young, sophomore player, explosive. Him playing in the third spot really feels like it's another boost to James Cook who just signed the contract, like just being secure. I feel like it's a statement that, you know, Cook is the starter, and Ty Johnson just, he has his role. And Ray Davis is James Cook's backup. I think that's fair. Jason, with Miami and A-chan getting hurt. Mm-hmm. We did have Jalen Wright play ahead of Ali Gordon in this game. Yeah. But...

Ollie Gordon was great again. And Jaylen Wright was like point A to carry. Is he just not good? Yeah, before this game. Yeah, no, I think that's the issue. I think Jalen Wright is not good. It's not being good at the game. I mean, his vision is terrible. He's a great athlete. The rookie year was left a lot wanting and we're already in a place of like, hey, look at it. And Ollie Gordon was a day three guy. Yeah, he already looked better. I think that's the headline. Ollie Gordon. From a depth perspective, A chance hurt right now. Prior to this week of preseason football, I personally chose to give Ollie Gordon higher stats than Jalen Wright, which is very against the grain. But I just don't think Jalen Wright is good enough. If he proves me wrong, the opportunity there in that backfield is great. Jalen Wright, among 89 rookie running backs with 70 or more touches since 2017.

right-ranked dead lasting yards per touch. So it is just to put a number to how kind of stinky it was last year. Yeah, he can sprint. Yeah, yeah. His 40-yard dash excellent work. But the vision thing, like they wanted, they're talking about making him the goal line back. That's what the opportunity they gave him in the first week of the preseason. They were stuffed again. They're the worst short yardage team in football. Maybe Ollie Gordon's part of that solution. I don't know if Derek Henry could be a successful goal line back there. Yeah, I mean, it's just, he definitely hasn't been 18. Let's not be hyperbolic, Jason. He'll be fine. He'd be fine. He'd be better for sure. I'm just saying they've got a really bad office of line. All right. By the way, AFC East is where I'm starting here. New England.

First sentence, Trevion seems inevitable. Thoughts, Mike? I believe we know Mike's yes or no answer to that question. So he took all the third downs with the starters in this game. You didn't take any, uh, anything from Antonio Gibson being the actual starter. I was going to say Antonio Gibson was the, we gotta make the rookie earn it was the procedural starter. Is that old man coach? Yes, it is. Can we be like, like, remember the rookie. Very similar to unleash him. Richard. Unleash him, unless you don't want to win. He'll be unleashed. So the question is, is how unleashed will he be an ADP? Yeah. And do you overspend on him because he's so sexy? Yeah. And there will be a timeshare. I just think that Henderson is so good. He will.

be the leader of that. Speaking, and Efton Chisholm, shout out to you. Yeah. That was like another amazing performance. The New York Jets, speaking of time shares, Braylin Allen took all, listen, he took all third downs. That was so weird. And he was seven for 34. I think brief was like six for 36 or something like that. They were, it's going to be a time share in New York. But the past catching has been the like saving grace caveat. And I know third down is not everything, right? Right. You watch this game and there's two takeaways. One, the committee situation. And two, I know Mike doesn't want to hear it. So I'm going to tell you, Jason. Just me and you. I'm willing to hear it because I know what you're going to say. Justin Fields is not a good pass. He's not. Garrett Wilson is going to be hurt by Justin Fields. It's not good vibes right now. No, I mean, we, we have, there's no receiver that has shown us.

that opportunity mixed with bad quarterback play does not equal fantasy success more than Garrett Wilson. He's had the targets, what, the most ever in three years or something like that? So it is depressing to see. Yeah, he had 168 targets and finished as the wide receiver 32 that same year. Yeah, and Justin Fields, like these were bunnies in this game that he missed. He was one for five passing, I believe. But you're talking about like Brees Hall for a dump off. You know what I mean? Like over his head. Like little... It's only five passes. It's not the whole season. You don't overreact to it. But you also understand that Justin Fields has played for three teams now. If he was the super answer for a team, the worst team in football doesn't easily sign you. So that's the concern there. AFC North, I literally have nothing for Baltimore. All the starters rested. Cincinnati, they haven't played. So no takeaways. Future takeaways. They play tonight. Cleveland, I mentioned it, Samson and Ford.

Those guys rested with the starters. We're waiting on Quinchon Judkins. Do you have any gauge of like, if Judkins signs tomorrow, is it just that's the guy you take the shot on late in drafts? You don't worry about the other guys? Yeah, I would take him ahead of the other guys. He's the best running back on the roster. They drafted him to be their main start. It will take time, though. You're going to have to hold for a few weeks. A rookie who has no training camp whatsoever. I mean, I guess if he signed tomorrow, he gets a couple weeks, but they're already making plans.

So you're going to have to hold on. When I talked about the fact that I had him ranked highest right when the UDK was released of the non-ash and Genti rookies, that was because of the presupposition that he would be the week one starter. Yes. That's not in the cards anymore. He's not coming out week one and getting the bulk of the work. Well, that's a good translation into this guy. This is another play. I think maybe we have to wait on a little bit more. That's the storyline on a few of these is maybe we have to wait a little longer than we want. But with Pittsburgh.

Kenny Gainwell started up above Caleb Johnson again. Johnson... I really like this. That's the coach making him earn it. Johnson had like... He got stuffed a bunch. He had some good runs. It was a mixed bag to me. But Gainwell over Caleb Johnson right now, it's Warren sitting with the starters. No Rogers, no Warren. Now Gainwell's playing ahead of Caleb. We may have to wait a little bit longer on Mr. Caleb Johnson. Just make sure if you're out there, don't draft Caleb Johnson. Just don't do it. Let him fall to me really late. I will scoop him up everywhere. So you're not dissuaded by this? No, I mean, it's funny because whenever you see you watch the video, you know, you see the film, you see someone tweet out, oh, look how great he looks or look how terribly looks. And it could be the exact same video. You see what you want to see. I want to see him look great. He looks fine to me. Like genuinely when I watch, I'm like, this is other than the egregious drop last week, his.