Free Agency Madness + Brees Retires, Big Stimmy - Fantasy Football Podcast for 3/16

A.J. Dillon had a ticket booked. You know how they're sending the first people to space. They're not first people. I mean, they're sending civilians. I mean, he could have been on a rocket ship. And now he's just kind of in middle class on the airplane. I get it. But I also think there's a good chance to first people to space might die. So, I mean, you know, this is safe. This is a safe route for him. Because think about, you know, his comp is who? Derek Henry.

Right. Derek Henry did nothing for many, many, many years behind DeMarco Murray. Save those legs, let him continue to grow into his man body, and then dominate when he's older. If he is still growing into a man body, he's going to weigh 475 pounds by the time he's a mature grown up. He's going to look like Derek Henry. He's going to look like the Hulk. The Patriots have not been quiet during the free agency period. They have...

opened up the vault, and I realized something, Jason. So we have big shimmy, right? Okay, yeah. Bill Belichick, though, with the stimulus, I'm calling him big stimmy. Big, oh, this is stimulus money? Yes. I didn't realize that the NFL franchises get that. They're part of it, yeah. To illustrate that, he has spent.

More than in the first day of free agency, the Patriots, and we knew that they were going to make a big deal because obviously they had a lot of cap room and a lot of needs. But the last decade of free agency, they have spent over half in this day what they spent in the last 10 years in the free agent market. So they have made a big splash. Let's talk about what they've done.

Patriots have signed tight-in Janu Smith to a four-year $50 million deal with $30 million guaranteed. This is the most that Bill Belichick has ever in the Bill Belichick era. He's ever spent on a pass catcher. Third round pick, Devon Ozzy, Dalton Kean. Apparently they did not get enough out of those two guys that they would be moving forward with them. You think?

They did Ozzy, Ozzie caught a touchdown, which is like 30% of Cam's passing touchdowns last year. Here's a stat to illustrate it. The 2020 Patriots had the fewest fantasy points for any tight-in group over the last five years. All right. They didn't have tight-ins. It makes sense. Where are you on the Janu signing? Because I'm seeing people all over the place on social media. There are people hot and bothered, people upset. You know from.

this last offseason, if you've been around with us for a while, I am a Jonu Smith believer. I believe in the talent, the athleticism, and he's getting paid big money. And my official analysis point of view as of day one is, really? Really? You went right to a fart, sir. I went right to a fart. Look, you're leaving a team, right, that had a lot, a lot more passing volume, a lot more passing touchdowns, a much better.

passing quarterback in Ryan Tannahill over the last couple of years. And now you're inheriting a team that, one, they've spent a lot in free agency on their defense. I think their defense is going to be outstanding this year. Cam Newton, you know, we've joked about him being DUN just done. He's certainly not going to be throwing for 4,500 yards or even 4,000 yards. He averaged 191 yards a game in his first 10, that was the 10 week stretch where he was doing great.

And that was 191 yards a game. He's not throwing a bunch of touchdowns. Like the fantasy, all I care about is fantasy. Is this a good signing for the Patriots? Yes. Is he a good player? Yes. Is he going to help the team? Absolutely. Is he going to help my fantasy team win games? Probably not. That's my official stance. I am interested. Bill Belichick clearly had an affinity for John. There are many quotes out there of him expressing his admiration.

For Jonu, especially after the catch, he made sure that he went out and got him. Speaking of other things that they've done, Cam Newton was resigned to a one-year contract. It can be worth $14 million. The baseline of it is not going to be that. I would still expect them to try and draft the quarterback of the future. I agree. But I will say, Cam Newton actually with an offseason with the team.

His second year in the offense, the Patriots offense is, the legends are told of how hard it is to learn, and that's just for wide receivers. A quarterback hasn't had to really learn this system for a long time that we've seen them have to get on the field. And the Patriots have agreed. They've agreed with their wallets that they needed to rebuild because they also signed.

Nelson Aguilar to a two-year deal. They signed Kendrick Bourne from the 49ers to a three-year deal. Now, those aren't guys that will make you say, yeah, well, that's not kidding. That's not Kenigality, Will Fuller. I get it. But Nelson Agilor, he was talked about all the time on this show last year of someone who looked like they're actually. It's actually good. Yeah, maybe he is good. Maybe he can be a consistent player. And Kendrick Bourne is the same thing where.

Yeah, he was buried on the depth chart, but whenever Kendrick Bourne had an opportunity, he would come through and he would be a reliable player, which is far more than you can say for any of the Patriots past catchers that he had last year. Cam Newton. I do completely agree. When it comes to Cam Newton, I mean, last year you're throwing to Jacobi Myers, Demir Bird. James White was the third target on that team. So, yeah, I mean, this is an upgrade, but...

I mean, obviously, I mean, you're hoping that this is like when the Rams brought in Robert Woods. And we said, look, Robert Woods is a good player. He's been buried on a depth chart, but he's actually good. And then he goes, and he was good. He was good for fantasy. But the difference being they also had a complete shift in philosophy. That was when they brought in Sean McVeigh. This is the same Patriots team of last year, adding mediocre pieces. I'm not thrilled. I do think it's good for Cam.

And remember, Cam, to start the year, the first 10 weeks that I was just talking about, there were only two games that he wasn't a quarterback one because he runs the ball, has rushing touchdowns. That was all he could do last year. Yeah, I mean, I'm not super in on anybody here. I expect it to be still an anemic offense. All right. Let's see. Before we move on, we want to thank today's sponsor. Jason, I think you have someone you want to think.

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Don't you dare pay full price at checkout. Get our link in the code is fantasy. It will be auto-applied at checkout. Venterocollective.com slash fantasy. This is a buy. You will not regret. Jason. Yes, Mike. As we were talking and thanking our sponsors, we had a little bit more newsbreak. I saw that. The Jaguars are on the board. They have made some moves. Number one, they added Philip Dorset.

Wide receivers, Speedster. Okay. Look, that's fine. There was a really strange social media war going on of rumors of, uh, there was whispers from the bushes that the Jags were going to send DJ Chark to Baltimore for some picks. And then a ranking official from the Jaguars got on and puffed his chest up. 100% not true. I mean, like this dude was.

This dude was all about it. So they added Philip Dorset, whatever. That's fine. That's great for Trevor Lawrence or whoever they choose. We can just say Trevor Lawrence. We've got to build some suspense into the draft. No, the NFL's got to do that. We can be real with the people. Okay, fine. When Trevor Lawrence is there, he'll be glad that Philip Dorset is there. However, here's the more interesting piece of news.

Carlos Hyde has been signed to a two-year $6 million deal. Now, that's certainly chump change when it comes to an NFL salary. But Carlos Hyde on the field for Seattle last year was good. Was good. He still had juice. And James Robinson has been the hottest topic for Dynasty. What do you do with an undrafted free agent?

who came in and was excellent. Robinson was a fantastic running back, but he was also getting 90% of the market share. And the question was, what happens if someone comes in and is eating into that? Carlos Hyde, instant reaction, because we have not had time to digest and think about this. Where are you at now? Instant reaction is this is really disappointing for James Robinson, but we knew something was going to come.

We knew we were going to be disappointed at some point in time. You cannot have a running back on the roster, especially one that is, you know, five foot nine, undrafted free agent, who's getting the workload that he was.

receiving. You talk about running back attempts of rushing. You had so many 100%, 89%, 100%, 87, 100, 100, 100, 100, 96, 100, 100, 100, 100. He was the only running back there. And you just can't go into a season without that. So in, you know, on one hand, you have to say this is kind of good news because Carlos Hyde is good enough where I don't think they need to address it. Carlos Seine and James Robinson, if that's what they go into the season with.