Free Agent Frenzy! + Austin Ekeler Joins the Show

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the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the podcast, the fantasy footballers podcast, if you're nasty. We are bringing you the quarantine content that you need. I'm your host. And you deserve your right. I'm your host, Mike the fantasy hitman right, joined by my best friend.

who is not near me. He is very far away from me. Jason Moore. What's up, dude? You know, to be fair, we're like a mile and a half apart. I mean, you know, that's not, as long distance relationships go, I feel like we're still, we're still very close. I can't talk to you through a tin can tied to a, with a string. That is fair. Like, we can't pull that move.

That's fair. And, you know, I don't know, maybe world record for another video. Maybe we get this done. Longest tin can string challenge? Has anybody done this? Someone's about to. It's going to light the internet on fire. Welcome to the podcast. Maybe we'll do it. People are going to be getting bored these days. But we're here to try and help keep you entertained. Fantasy football. It's happening.

Well, sort of. The news is coming in. It's hot and heavy. It is free agency. Last show, something pretty awesome happened. I just want to remind everybody. I remember the Arizona Cardinals got the Andre Hopkins for Jack. All right, but back to serious business. So someone else acquired a superstar wide receiver.

The Buffalo Bills, they traded for Stefan Diggs. Now, did they trade, or did the Vikings get like a, you know, just a low pick or something? No. They opened up the vault. The Buffalo Bills sent over, or acquired Stefan Diggs for a first, a fifth, a sixth, and a next year's fourth. Yeah, one of four, five.

And six compared to DeAndre Hopkins two and a bad contract. Oh, man. That was good times. But yes, this is huge news because the bills, if you remember, not everybody out there will have been around for the specific day where Antonio Brown was a Buffalo bill. I had forgotten about it.

I mean, there was one day where it was reported, it was done, it was traded, he was going from the Steelers to the bills, and then that fell apart. But it did show that the bills were serious inquirers to get Josh Allen a legitimate one. You know, they go out and they get John Brown last year and, you know, much has been made about the height of their wide receivers, which I believe averaged before this trade, five foot two.

They were very short wide receivers. Wait, what? Don't look that up. Don't fact check anything here. That might be hyperbole. But the point remains that they didn't really have a true one, and they knew they needed to get one, and now they have one. So we're here to break down the fantasy implications. And that is the quick question of the day. What's the fantasy impact from the Stefan Diggs trade? You have a lot of angles to look at it. You have Stefan Diggs himself.

You have Josh Allen. Excellent. Josh Stallion. Then you have John Brown on that team over in Buffalo. Then you have Adam Thielen back in Minnesota left by his lonesome currently with Kurt Cousins. Jay Wood, I have some numbers that you may find shocking. Actually, you won't. You'll just hear them and go, oh yeah, I already knew that. But what's your?

initial takeaway for for these guys well there there's a lot of takeaways i mean i think the ancillary pieces are easiest to deal with like john brown who was actually pretty consistent last year he wasn't a superstar but week in week out you could rely on him is dead to me john brown is worthless now because this is still i know they just paid up to get a wide receiver and they've got a young cannon quarterback but this is still a run first team

a defensive-minded run-first team. That's how they want to play. And so if you're telling me that Stefan Diggs comes in, takes the largest market share, I don't want, I'm fine with the second wide receiver on a team for fantasy when it's a high-flying, high-scoring team. Oftentimes, we've seen historically there's usually anywhere from three to five teams every year that have two multiple wide receivers on their team that finish in fantasy, either in the top 12 or the top 24.

this isn't going to be one of those teams. So John Brown, I loved him, loved him as an Arizona Cardinal, smoke, you're great. He will have his big games, but he won't be on my fantasy roster in any way, shape, or form because I think the consistency will be gone. But the consistency that he did show this last year, I think that builds the confidence. You might not love Josh Stallion.

as far as accuracy, as far as fantasy production for wide receivers. I see you grimacing already, Mike. And I get it. But what John Brown's consistency already proved is that a year older, Josh Allen, will be able to sustain Stefan Diggs. I'm in on Stefan Diggs. I believe he will have, I believe he will be a top 15 wide receiver pretty easily. So, I mean, I, you know, I'm bullish.

You're also completely looking off that Cole Beasley was there, and Cole Beasley had over a 21% market share. Like I said, five foot two average wide receiver. But the Cole Beasley targets aren't just going to vanish. It's not now just John Brown and Stefan Diggs. It's now the three of them. So you think that the market share won't be there for Diggs within the offense? I think that he will have the highest market share in that offense, but it's...

There's not enough to go around for three guys. I agree. And that's why I think those other guys are dead to me. Because I do think Diggs comes in and, you know, gets up near a 30% market share. He's too squeaky. No, no way. Stefan Diggs is not getting a 30% target share. I say he's north of 25%. I would probably take that bet. But so here's the numbers I wanted to bring up. Because you mentioned the accuracy for Josh Allen. You can't talk about him without.

highlighting those things. So here's just some numbers about overall accuracy. Last year, Josh Allen, 461 attempts completed 58.8% of his passes. Kirk Cousins, 444 attempts completed 69.1% of his passes. Nice. That's, it is. That's very nice. I mean, that's an 11 point, near 11 point advantage over Josh Allen. Since 2015,

as a starter, when Kurt Cousins became a starter, he is the third most accurate quarterback in the NFL. Since Josh Allen, or since Josh Allen has been in the NFL, there is one passer with a lower completion percentage than him. That was Josh Rosen. So that's what we're talking about for accuracy. Okay. So let's look at deep passing. Josh Allen went deep on 14.6% of his attempts.

He had an adjusted completion percentage. So actual catchable passes when he goes deep. And deep is 20 plus air yards. Adjusted completion percentage of 28.4. So just over 25% of his passes were catchable. That's so good. Meanwhile, Kurt Cousins, he went deep on 13.7. So like very close in terms of how often Kurt Cousins was going deep.

Cousins adjusted completion percentage, 47.8. I mean, this is a drastic difference when someone is going deep. And my point of saying all this is Stefan Diggs was...

A bit of a malcontent. I guess you could put it lately. Oh, certainly. He's the squeakest wheel in the league now that Antonio Brown is out. He was vague booking every other day, sending out cryptic messages on his social media. And it's, okay, Stefan, here's what you get now, man. You're going to Buffalo with this quarterback. Yeah, he can throw the ball a mile. But you've been playing with one of the most accurate quarterbacks.

in football since he became a starter. So I just, I am concerned for Stefan Diggs. And when you add in the accuracy problems, add in the fact that Cole Beasley is not going away. And John Brown and Cole Beasley will still be involved. Josh Allen's pass attempts, I can't see them going up drastically from 461. Like maybe, maybe he gets to 480. Where do you think his passing attempts will land next year?

No, I think he will be in that 490 range. He'll be sub 500. That's what the team wants to do. So, you know, you add that with the, you know, completion percentage and you say, well, man, he's going to need to do a lot. But I actually think that there is an already existing comp that is fair. That's actually legitimate and makes a lot of sense. Where's McDermott from? Carolina.

Who is his quarterback? Cam Newton. Who is the person who is most comped to Josh Allen? It's Cam Newton. He's that big style, big-bodied, poor accuracy, but a great running quarterback. Mobile picks up first downs, keeps the chains moving, good for the offense with a low, total passing attempt number. And if you look back when he had Steve Smith, when he had Steve Smith, you know, who I think it's fair to say Stefan Diggs is in that tier of wide receiver.

Not to say he's, you know, already, you know, Steve Smith to me is a Hall of Fame. It's a fine. It's a fine thing to compare those to, but when he had Steve Smith, he had Steve Smith. My point is that John Brown is a really good football player. Cole Beasley is also a very good football player. Beasley won't be fantasy relevant, but he will take enough away that Stefan Diggs, I don't know if I'll have him in my top 15 come rankings.

Sure, I mean, maybe he won't. But, you know, I mean, you saw Cam's rookie year. Steve Smith had, what, 1,4007? So my point is, I believe, look, John Brown and Cole Beasley, they were fine this year. They were the 1A and 1B or the 3A and 3B with no 1 and 2 on that roster. But I think at the end of next year, you'll look back and say, well, yeah, but it was Stefan Diggs and nobody. Sorry.

I know everybody's got, you've got the Beasels. But, you know, Diggs is a special talent. And they, he better be. He better be. They paid out the nose. Here's a thing. Well, they did. I was going to say, did they really pay out the nose or did the Hopkins trade just make it look like they? Yeah, they did. I mean, a one, a four, five, and six. That's basically saying, I'm going to keep my two and three and seven and trade the rest of my draft class. That's.

That's a lot of money. All right, so, okay, so we've dug in two digs. Boom, did it. John Brown, I think we can both agree that John Brown and Cole Beasley are not going to be relevant fantasy options next year. I would agree, yes. Okay, so now the last question, or I guess there's two, one, what does this do for Josh Allen? And also, Adam Thielen. Adam Thielen is now left as the last man standing and...