Fantasy Football - Top 10 QB Rankings + Listener League is Back! - Podcast for 8/4

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 4th. That's right, Andy. It's a Monday, and the Fantasy Footballers podcast is here. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Thursday, Friday. from here on out every day some extra action on sundays as the NFL season gets kicked off we have been inundated with uh what is it like family day inter squad scrimmage highlight films or low light films highlight films well it depends if you watch caleb william oh that wasn't i think i think i might i think i might be worried now just from that clip

No, no, no, no, no. All of last year as well. Well, right. Well, this is what, so this is what I was talking about earlier in the off season. When I came in, I first added Caleb Williams for the UDK, I was very bullish. I loved everything around him, the offensive line, the weapons, Ben Johnson. And then after I did that, I went and I watched every throw of this and I went. And I was slow to accept your words. Now, the truth is, I want to know what clip you're talking about because there's more than one. Oh, I'm talking about the one. The rolling out right? No. Oh, are you talking throwing into the net? Well, attempting to throw into the net and then missing the two thirds of his balls didn't hit the, uh, the, the, the like target, the Tart didn't hit the whole net, the entirety of the net. And then like here, here's the thing that I kind of got to on that. Like there's still obviously tremendous amount of potential there for the Bears offense. For sure. I, I think I minimized some initial.

negativity around Caleb Williams earlier in the offseason because it was like, oh, it's a play here, a play there. I even tweeted this last weekend about how annoyed I am with Camp Twitter, right? Like every other refresh of my Twitter feed is J.J. McCarthy is a bust that is horrible who throws only interceptions to the next refresh. Hall of Famer looks like Mahomes. He can't stop making great passes. His arm looks great. And so that was annoying me. And so I kind of dismissed the Caleb Williams thing. But then here's where I got to this weekend. I think the way I'm translating camp news and information is that I'm willing to accept good becomes better or good becomes a little bit worse. But I don't know if I'm willing to accept bad becomes good.

Right. I don't think you can prove that this time of year. I don't know. That's it. You can only prove that on the NFL field in real games. Yeah, like I'm fine. I'm fine with you. Look, Tank Biggs will be getting all the work. Maybe he looks really good. Okay, he was pretty good. Now he's better. I'm down with that. But I don't know if I'm willing to accept any non-NIFL regular season game to prove bad becomes good. And Caleb was more on the bad side as a rookie than he was good. So the question is, can you accept bad stays bad?

There's been a lot of Quentin Johnson drops. I mean, he's had some highlights, but he's definitely had a lot of highlights. Yeah. But I mean, I think he's a confusing player to begin with because he's going to get a ton of work. He did do stuff on the field last year for the Chargers that was valuable, you know, scoring. Yeah, I mean, he brought in a lot of past catchers that are. Yeah, I mean, Keenan Allen could arrive there. We got, we got so much to talk about. Today we've got a. We got a two-man show. If you didn't notice, Jay Gris in the house. Go ahead. Go ahead, Al. I'm sure you've got it ready over there. Mike will be back tomorrow for the Ice and Fire episode, which is a fan favorite and one of our favorite shows. But yeah, it was appropriate. Jay Gris gets his song once August begins. A couple of headlines before we get into it. We got a top 10 quarterback show today. We got mailbag. If we have some time, we've got a big announcement to make. We've got news to talk about.

And we've got the Ultimate Draft Kit, which is available right now at Ultimate DraftKit.com. If you got the UDK Plus, you get the draft analyzer, it's going to break down your team and your opponents in your league and give you a grade based on all of your different position groups, tell you where to focus. We've got all of our player projections, 100 plus player profile videos, sleepers, breakouts, busting values. A lot of you have been a part of the UDK family for a long time. We're also adding the value scout tool today. We're adding it today. I just found that out. Yes, we're adding it today. So by the time you listen to this, hopefully it will be live and ready for action in the app. We have iOS and Android app and then on the web as well. You can learn more about the UDK at Ultimate DraftKit.com. Make sure you're ready for your draft. We are five days a week, as you said. We also have a special August mini-series that is on YouTube.

exclusively youtube.com slash the fantasy footballers every saturday we'll be doing a deep dive on some of our research processes and some various tips for you to check out yeah i mean it really truly is getting to where we are pretty much every single day of the week because our saturday specials coming out our sunday live here in a couple weeks we're just the content machines you know Uh, yes, yes. We, uh, we plug into the matrix and, uh, produce content all the time. Thanks to this awesome team that we've got. And here's the announcement. Mr. Moore, we get to do this one without Mike. Yeah. The listener league. Just how we play in the listener league as well. It's like, you know, Mike's usually, you know, straggling behind in the, you know, you know.

in the leaderboard we're all making the playoffs is that what you call the standings in our listener league the leaderboard what you're doing okay this morning you know what it is morning shows now jason first morning show in a long time i did have a coffee at a very large leaderboard in my league um have you won the championship in the listener league no oh okay well i've won twice i've won twice so um that's a leaderboard now anyways if you want to join Our listener league, we are opening up submissions right now. One week. We accept it only for this week and we're only going to talk about it right now. So listen up. It's listener league at fantasy footballers.com. That's where you're going to email your submission. If you make a cool video, you do something cool. It is always humbling and awesome to see, you know, the hundreds of requests and we will have a great year. Also, if you.

For some reason, submit something awesome and you just don't make it in because obviously we make it a 14 team league. Yep. Just so we can have more and more people in. We will have the Megalabole coming out soon. And if you win that, you're also in the listener league. So lots of cool things. But if you want to play with us this year in our listener league we talk about on the show, send your submission to listener league at fantasy footballers.com. And since Mike's not here, I'll say what Mike usually says, which is don't send us this big. Don't give us your leaderboard resume, as Jason would say. Don't give us your stand. How well you've done in all your leagues. Just send us something unique. Don't send us two paragraph essay. We can barely read. We want cool people. We want to play with fun people. So we've had really neat things over the years, videos.

This is where we met- Creativity. This is where we met Brooks through the Listener League. We met Brian Ketren, the biggest loser through the listener league. We've had a lot of- So one week. Yeah, a lot of people, part of this show through that. It's a good time. One more time. Listener League. If you win, the Listener League, you come back for the following year. That is right. Listener League at Fantasy Footballers.com. Yep. All right. Let's talk some news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by Progressive Insurance. All right, we have James Cook now standing on business. Business time for James Cook. He is not practicing Sunday, Monday, due to business. He's got an injured business. Yeah, he has a sore business. We also got the word from Billy Bean, the general manager of the bills, that he was blindsided by Cook's sudden opting out of practice.

blindsided well he had been there he had been there and practicing then all of a sudden one day he just goes no i'm not playing anymore okay so it's not one of those like are you are you shocked that he's holding in yes in this form yes hmm not in if you if you told me he was going to hold in and he had done that since the beginning of camp a la tarry mccorren style or whatever like okay but just randomly like being there and practicing and doing a bunch of stuff he wanted to show them what they had and then be like oh yeah got a little taste you get a little taste exactly

Okay, okay. So yeah, James Cook wants money. That makes sense. He's due for a contract extension. I don't think it gets done. We talked about it on the Dynasty show that there are some contracts. You have to just kind of project in Dynasty. Like I think Kyron Williams deal will get done. I don't believe James Cook's will. But, you know. By the way, I think I said Billy Bean. Not the Moneyball GM. It's Brandon Bean for the bills. You see the bills Brandon Bean for general manager. Okay. I didn't correct you. You never seen Moneyball? I did. Yeah. Khalil Shakir week to week with a high ankle sprain. Not just him. Josh Palmer. With groin. Groin injury. That depth chart there that was already. Yeah. Is this your plan to get Keon Coleman more activity in the offense? I mean. It's kind of mean.

It's good news for Keon Coleman for the opportunity. I still believe he's the only player there that has any chance of a breakout. I don't believe the breakout is going to happen, but at least he has more opportunity to develop a rapport with Josh Allen. Elijah Moore is there. And honestly, if you're talking about Khalil Shakir, that player would be more of an Elijah Moore type of. Curtis Samuel? Yeah, Curtis Samuel, although I believe he is currently injured as well. He's always injured. Yes, he is. Sean McVeigh, Matthew Stafford. This is getting scarier. Is it scaring you? It is. The Rams, he's been navigating a back injury again. The word from camp seems to be like eventually he's going to be back out there and playing. Right.

I hope so. Well, I mean, it hasn't been like ominous from them other than the absence of Stafford, but he's a veteran. He's second oldest quarterback in football, I believe. You knew that he wasn't going to play any preseason. None of the Rams play preseason games, but they do really value their inter-team scrimmages, and Stafford is not taking part in those. And then there was the rumor, I'll call it a rumor. I didn't see any confirmed for sure report, but it seemed. like it was going around that he had another doctor visit. And you just, you don't do that when you're in the recovery process that is expected in the timeline. Like, okay, we're just, he went to seek another doctor. So I'm getting a little scared. Yeah, the last quote from McVeigh, looking forward to getting him and easing him back into football, hopefully in the near future. Yeah, there's a little worry there. Grind Index.com has been active.

A week ago, we talked about like there was nobody on it. And I think we... Yeah, I mean, it was like... Cursed some groins out there. Some groins are hurting. Tucker, Kraft, groin injury. I guess he's been practicing through it. They gave him a couple days off. T.J. Hawkinson, injury. Groin injury. Groin injury. This is, man, Michael Pittman. Mm-hmm. Groin City. Joshua Palmer was a groin. Terrence Ferguson. Groin injury. Marshawn. This is, man, people aren't stretching right. No, no, no, no, do your runner stretch, folks. A.J. Brown. Is that the butterfly? Oh, yeah, that would help the groin. Yeah, sorry about that. AJ Brown dealing with a hamstring injury. He basically swapped spots with Devonta Smith, who came back to practice. It's like they both can't be back. So that's what it is. A.J. Brown hamstring injury. A lot of soft tissue issues in the camp season. And that includes Cam Scataboo, who aggravated his hamstring injury.

but the MRI was optimistic as of this morning. Now, fill me in here. Yes. When I feel like when you get a hamstring injury, you don't always get an MRI. Like I've, I pulled my hamstring. It's a little tight. I don't know for sure, not a doctor, not a team doctor, but do like every time a player pulls their hamstring a little, do they always go get an MRI to check? Because when I saw this and it's like, oh, the MRI. uh was was good it was optimistic it's like i think wait a minute he got an MRI like there's a pretty serious hamstring injury yeah i mean i i would imagine that not everyone that happens to but it's how you grade them so they probably with the reaggravation wanted to see how bad it is because they got like a c plus no not quite not quite but um yeah i mean i think he's they're hoping to have him back he's been making a lot of plays in camp i love

Here's one of the things. You're a big scataboo fan. I am a huge scataboo fan. I think he's fantastic. And I believe that every analyst, when you watch the film in college, you're just like, wow. No one can tackle him. I mean, you look at his numbers and they are legitimately Christian McCaffrey-esque. The question was, can it translate? Can that play style work in the NFL? Still to be determined, obviously, he hasn't played a game. But when you see these camp, videos of him running away from NFL defenders, you know, breaking NFL defender tackles when the pads go on. It's like, oh, okay, he looks like he's doing here what he did in college. What do you think the recipe is? This is one of the reasons why I have a little bit of hesitation on elite neighbors having a spectacular year is just that like the recipe for me in New York doesn't involve throwing the ball as much as they did.

in previous years i mean what do you have 170 targets or something like so it's like and i believe that was with missed games yeah and so you're you're looking at a defense that looks pretty good right and then you've got a running game they're trying to develop with tracy and scataboo and i wouldn't want russell wilson throwing it as much and so i i just wonder if their recipe is not like touchdowns weren't a part of the neighbor's equation it was massive massive massive target volume it just it leaves me a little bit like actually neighbors and brian thomas i have a little bit of hesitation on both of them not because of talent but because of situations like travis hunter has been unbelievable in jacksonville do you have any worry about brian thomas because Travis hunter i mean for a lot of reports is the best wide receiver in camp i would say that's like how do you bring that kind of a guy in there and not in i mean they had no kirk no ingram thomas got all the volume

Did Trevor Lawrence miss time when Thomas was the best? Like it gives me... Brian Thomas has more worry because of Travis Hunter, certainly. Malik Neighbors, I have zero.0 worry. I mean, my worry meter on him is so low. You're right. It was 170 targets with two missed games and they will definitely not want to throw as much. But that's, you know, are they a good team? Are they going to be winning games? Are they going to be losing games? The first half, they're going to try to establish it. have a good defense, run the ball. But I remember when we were going through our divisional breakdown, I believe they have like very few games this season where they're even favored. And so by the end of the game, they're going to need to throw the ball a lot. When they do, there's no one to throw the ball to other than Malik neighbors who had a 35 percent.

target share last year that's that's the thing it's like obviously I think neighbors is uh one of the best talents in the game I guess I just mean like are Brian Thomas and Malik neighbors in contention for you and finish in top three because sometimes in your when you're taking these players because wherever neighbors is going wide receiver seven or something and Brian Thomas I think I haven't ranked lower than you guys but are they still top three finisher contention for you for sure not i think brian thomas is a little bit more capped but i i think malik neighbors is just that dude i mean you want to talk camp highlights right like you see so many dumb things coming out of camp you know like oh look he's making touchdowns look easy when he's literally in one-on-ones or no defender it's you know silly videos but then you watch

I am seeing so many different touchdown celebrations and touchdowns and toe tap touchdowns a touchdown touchdown touchdown touchdown touchdown from a leak neighbors in camp and they're not all coming in like red zone drills. He is special. He's just so good. I'm looking at this because I want to look points per game because he missed time last year. He was eighth and points per game on 170 targets. So like from a target perspective, you see the differential between like him and Chase had the same amount of targets basically. But Chase had 17 touchdowns. He had seven. I mean, it's just like they're not, I mean, like you said, they're going to be down, but that doesn't mean that also means they're not going to score a lot of points. It just makes me wonder if that 7-8 territory is kind of where he's going to be. They are favorite. I don't have any doubt that. I mean, I don't have him ranked in the top three. I think he'll be closer to seven or eight this year because I don't believe he is going to have double-digit touchdowns.

But there is a world here. They're only favored in one game the entire season. How many games does Russell Wilson start? Well, that's another thing that's going to happen. They're going to change quarterback. They're going to change quarterbacks. But they really don't want to bring Jackson Dart in. I mean, that's their hope. Oh, is this your James story? Is this your Jamie James story? Can you even fathom? Jerry Judy was the wide receiver four in points per game with James. Malik Neighbors? Dude. Oh, man. You love James. Oh, I love him for fantasy. Have we talked about Terry McLaren requesting a trade? We have not. I mean, we have, but we haven't on the show. So not only him, but Michael Parsons as well, but McLaren's relevant to this situation here. He's formally requested a trade. It's not likely he'll be traded. That feels like a threat. Like, like Michael Parsons feels like I am not a cowboy anymore. He came out and posted publicly. He'll be a cowboy.

I think he'll be a cowboy. We've been here. Trey Hendrickson. I mean, he's in camp now. Like he's, he requested a trade months ago. It's very, very rare for these guys to get traded in these situations. Yes, it is. I mean, we saw Vaughn Miller got traded in one of these situations. But I do think Michael Parsons leaves. Oh, I don't. But Terry McLaurin, I don't think anyone in the world believes is getting traded. If he does, the implications are huge for Jane Daniels, for Debo Samuel, for Zach Ertz. If he were to depart. that that is going to massive fantasy yeah that's just going to hurt your jane daniels upside a lot yeah unless they don't have other players that i think and you know that are pretty talented and he can get a lot done with the legs and everything but that would suck i mean you need a premier wide receiver yeah i would imagine the only way they traded him is if they were to go get another premium wide receiver that's younger i think they're in a terrible spot too

Washington. Like, this is a 30-year-old writer-serie that wants to break the bank. He wants D.K. Metcalf money. I would pay him D.K. Metcalf money all front-loaded in the first two years of his contract. His per year should be astronomical. So he can be proud of it? So he can be proud of it. He can say he, you know, and get a lot of money, but then he should have no money guaranteed three years from now. He's going to be too old. And then you'll have to pay for Jaden. At least all indicators right now is they have no interest in trading him.

There you go. That was today's news and notes 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. We are going to take a quick break and we'll get into the countdown, Jay. It's time to talk quarterbacks. Quarterbacks. All right. We're counting down our consensus. Top 10. rankings at the quarterback position. We're looking at four point per touchdown rankings today. And it's, you know, it's always interesting diagnosing what quarterbacks you want to take a shot on. Do you want to spend the high draft capital? Where are you in this, you know, year 11 for the show? We've gone through some ebbs and flows on quarterback sentiment and where you want to take them and, and.

maybe a bunch of years of experiencing top tier versus the streaming situation. Like, what are you the most comfortable with going into 2025? Yeah, I think there's a few targets that I have on my quarterbacks this year. And it really, really depends, draft by draft, because the average draft price of some of these players, like Josh Allen, of course I'd love to have them. Lamar Jackson, be awesome for your fantasy team. Jalen Hertz, Jaden Daniels, these guys aren't going to bust. outside of getting injured, so you're not going to be wasting your draft pick. However, there's massive opportunity cost. If Josh Allen is a second rounder, there's no way I'm taking him. Because if he does what he did last year, which was finished, I believe, is the quarterback two, maybe even quarterback one, if you look points per game in that week 17 or week 18 taken out. But he didn't really win people fantasy championships because you sacrifice such a good player. However, in certain leagues, like in our leagues,

You know, when we do our mock drafts on the show that are all humans and we're not just, you know, mock drafting against animals. Animals and robots. Right. You know, all of a sudden you start seeing some of these guys go down into the fourth round, the fifth round, that are the top tier quarterbacks. And at that point, I'll absolutely pull the trigger. You know, once you get to the fourth round, I think that's worth pulling the trigger on the elite quarterbacks. And then outside of that, I'm... skipping and bypassing and getting a late one. Some of the guys we'll talk about today, I think late round quarterbacks that run the ball, hopeful upside from a Drake May, a Kyler Murray. And I, this name has been cycling through. I mean, just a just a a twister of back and forth. Are you going to say Anthony Richardson? I am going to say Anthony Richardson. He needs to be drafted. So.

Last, last off season, I spent most of the offseason telling you not to draft Anthony Richardson. You said, Jane Daniels, not Anthony Richardson, over and over and over. But that, you know, what bothered me so much is he's a fifth round pick. Yeah, and he'd never proven anything. Right. And so as a, you know, that's not the cost, the risk reward for Anthony Richardson at this point. So it is worth mentioning. Right now, Anthony Richardson's being drafted behind Matthew Stafford. Like, he's, he costs nothing. He doesn't even have to be your main quarterback. Just have him be your second quarterback. He could be your last pick in the draft if you ended up with a late round guy, like somebody that you are taking a chance. Maybe it's Jordan Love, Bo Nix, Tyler. Absolutely. And just drop him if he doesn't do anything or isn't the starter. 100%. But he's the one and only player that I think I would do that even if I took Lamar Jackson in the fourth. Just for value potential? Just because if he comes out week one and is awesome and he's just winning the job.

You have an incredible trade asset in either guy. I mean, that's where you, you know, if you believe that it's going to happen, then you trade your Lamar, you trade your Josh Allen for a haul, and then you still have a good quarterback. One of the things that we pulled some data on since 2018, if you look at the top 10 quarterbacks as a group, 88% of their fantasy points come from throwing the football, 12% from running. If you go down to the top five, that goes to 8515. If you look at the number one quarterback since 2018, it goes to 7921 in terms of fantasy points come from running the football. So, you know, the one thing I might take issue with your comments about Richardson on is the, if he's awesome, because maybe he's not awesome for football, but he's awesome for fantasy. Well, that's what I mean. Yeah, I know. I know. I know. It's just like he could be one of those guys that's mediocre as a, you know, as a NFL quarterback, which I think he is.

but come out there. And as long as he's a starter, he could give you some value. And if he's free, that's a lot different than the fifth round. And, you know, fifth round meant you were committing yourself to Richardson as your starter last year. That was the problem, too. It was like you don't even get another choice. You're spinning such a high pick. Yeah. And it bears your season. I mean, if you take a fourth, fifth, sixth round quarterback, you're now saying you're my starter. And if that player stinks for the first three or four weeks, you're in a huge hole. I still believe. 45% of his fantasy points last year came on the ground.