Fantasy Football - AFC North Breakdown + Don’t Be Surprised! - Podcast for 7/7

But 11 fantasy points per game to nine to six. Only 70 targets the last two years. He's a touchdown machine. Yeah, he could easily have 10 touchdowns this year. And you'll be fine for where you draft him in fantasy. If he doesn't get a touchdown in the game, he's no longer the possession guy. He's not going to be up there at 1,000 yards. Last year, in games where he didn't have a receiving touchdown, averaged 4.2 fantasy points per game. However, he's free. I don't even know if he's drafted in every league. He's also free of Isaiah Likely. And so, yeah, Isaiah Likely being gone.

They brought in Smythe, so don't worry about it. And they paid Andrews, so he's still going to be very involved on a good team. I'm fine. Like, you know my strategy. I want one of those top-tier tight ends. And if not, I will grab whoever is left over. No, your strategy is Laporta at all costs. Based on our last draft. Laporta at all costs. Oh, okay. I mean, if he falls to an upright, sure. But I am fine with scrap leftovers when there's guys like Mark Andrews who could go out, be undrafted, and score 10 touchdowns. Your mock draft ended up so good for you.

I like it. Getting Josh Allen in the fifth round and then getting Laporta as late as you did. It's like the ninth. Your onesies were the biggest discounted players. It was great. We'll take a break. We'll talk Bengals. All right, Foot Clan, whether you are on the go or at home, T-Mobile, well, they're built to keep you connected wherever you're scouting your fantasy team. And that on-the-go part, that is important. And with America's Best Network, you'll be connected to the latest news and player projections so when you're on the clock, you can draft a winning team. I can think of so many situations where that element of being connected while you're on the go is fundamental to fantasy football success.

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Again, T-Mobile making that easy to do. Every bit of news. Things are changing all the time. New player contracts, all that good stuff. So from off season to game day, every play is better with T-Mobile. What you got to do is visit T-Mobile.com slash network. Fastest is based on analysis by Ookla of speed test intelligence data of national speed score results for the second half of 2025. The best mobile network in the U.S. is based on analysis by Ookla of speed test intelligence data second half of 2025. All right. Two teams we've talked about. Two more to go. The 6-11 Cincinnati Bengals.

Oh, man. They had an 8.5 win total last year going into the season. They had a tough schedule. Ten of their games were against teams with a winning record, which was the most in the NFL. A lot of those came down to the wire, and they didn't win a lot of those ones that came down to the wire. They were 3-5-1 score games. We know Burrow. The story with Burrow is when he plays football and has a healthy chase in Higgins. He's awesome. It's pretty magma. And we also got to enjoy one of the worst defenses ever for Cincinnati. Very enjoyable.

We'll talk about that momentarily. But, you know, they lost back to that games last year where they scored 37-plus points in both of them. They lost to the Jets 39-38. They lost to the Bears 47-42. They gave up 39 points to the Jets? Yeah. I do not remember this. Man, that defense sucks. It's probably because you were too busy watching the fantasy points pile up on the offensive side. But the projected win total just jumped one game to 9.5. They have the third easiest rank to schedule, at least right now. That looks pretty good. Favored in 15 of 17 games.

And they have a wild amount of games with huge, like, huge lines. Like, you know, 50.4 as the total for a Dallas game. So, crazy. But let's talk about the big picture here for the fantasy production of this team. Let's start with that defense that was so atrocious that meant he had to score a ton of points. They did spend a lot of time this offseason. They made the huge trade for Dexter Lawrence. Jonathan Allen is there. That's huge. I mean, they brought in a safety. They brought in a defensive end. Their draft was focused there, rightly so. I think it will be an improved defense.

But normally you see those transitions take a couple years to get to the point where, you know, I think Dallas will be better than they were last year. I think Cincinnati will be better than they were last year. But when you're 31st, you've got a long way to go. Oh, yeah. Get a little better. But just, you know, stay bottom. Just stay bottom third. You know, they, coming off of last year where they could not rely on a defense. I think that even if the defense is improved, this is going to be an offense with the pedal to the floor to avoid their defense giving up late.

You know, I don't think this is going to be a team that's trying to, you know, halfway through the third quarter, run the ball out, slow it down. This is Joe Burrow's team. They can't. Yeah. Well, that's, I mean, but even if they've got a lead and they think that they could do that, I think they're going to keep putting the ball in Burrow's hands, throw it a lot, score a ton of points. This is an offense that I think everyone wants. And while you're not going to get a discount on Chase, Burrow right now, you know, isn't being overdrafted.

Are you both Lamar over Burrow in your rankings or do you have Burrow higher? I think that's an interesting one for people because like Lamar right now, ADP wise is the cheapest he's been over the last five years in the fourth round. I'm guessing Burrow's in a lot of leagues going ahead of him. Yeah. Right now I've got Lamar in both six point and four point ahead of Burrow. I have Burrow's ahead for me in six point. Here's what I think. The format matters for these ones. I don't feel like Cincinnati is a difficult projection of a team. No. Like what's wild is like Zach Taylor is going into his eighth year.

Every other head coach in this entire division is a first year head coach. He's like the longest tenured guy by a long stretch. And we just know what to expect. We know that he's not going to do anything to like slow Burrow down or stop Burrow from throwing the ball as many times as he did last year. His final six weeks of the year, he was on a 17 game pace. Burrow was a 4,500 passing yards and 43 passing touchdowns. Now there was a desperation to that team trying to find a way to, you know, get close enough to where they could get help to get into the playoffs and all of that.

You know, Burrow is always going to be a little bit of an injury risk, I think. I think we'd all. Yeah, he will be. Even when you drop back, like take the injury history aside, when you drop back and throw the ball that many times, it's a risk. Well, you have. Well, we have six years of Joe Burrow and three of them. He's had catastrophic injury. Yeah, but the three where he's playing, you know, the full season, he's throwing for over 4,500 yards and 30 plus touchdowns. Yeah, I mean, for fantasy, this is really easy. All four guys are good.

Burrow, Chase Brown, Tee Higgins, Marceau. Yep. Those four, where they're going in drafts, I am thrilled to have them on my team. I think they can be actual difference makers. I want pieces of this team. And the best part of getting pieces of this team is it's consolidated. No one else is really going to take away from those four players. So I think they are. I don't have a tight end to give you. You know what I mean? This is going to be. You do if Tee Higgins misses time. Mike Gesicki. Yeah. Sticky Gesicki. I don't like that nickname. But it rhymes.

It's been a while since we've brought it up. And I now am a little scared of it. They're just great. They're just so fantastic for fantasy. They're very similar to Dallas. Legitimately. They're very similar situations. They really are. Because if George or CeeDee misses time, I'm very interested in Jake Ferguson at that point. Otherwise, I'm not. No. And you love Pickens. You love CeeDee. Yeah. You love Dak. No. Chase Brown, to me, yet again, is one of, I think, the best picks at ADP. One thing I didn't mention that I think, at least for these last two teams is worth mentioning,

is the start you're going to get in fantasy from these players. Mm-hmm. The first six matchups for Baltimore, they're favored by 3-1⁄2, 7-1⁄2, 2-1⁄2, 8-1⁄2, 4-1⁄2, 6-1⁄2. They're playing now four road games, but they're favored in all of them. And for Cincinnati, they're favored in five, but they have an early bye in week six. So, I mean, that's just worth noting. They're favored in four of the five. Sorry, four of the five. Yep. Houston, they are not in week two. Which we could use a stronger start from. Yes, we really could. It seems impossible for them to start strong. Week one, Burrow is always bad.

They're at home against Tampa. He should be good, but it's always scary. Come on, you could do it this year, Burrow. We didn't talk about him extensively, but Chase Brown, how safe do you view him as a fantasy pick today? Incredibly. Super-duper safe. He's, like, so perfect because he's not a thumper. So, like you said, they're not going to have these big leads where they give the ball to a Derek Henry that wears the game out. But he's always going to be out there on the field. He can catch the football. He was the fifth most receptions at the running back position.

When they throw it to you and they give you touch-on opportunities and you're on a great offense, that's all I need. Who was the rumored free agent for Cincinnati? There was somebody that they were talking about could go there at running back. I know it'll never happen because Chase Brown's. Like, new ones? Yeah. Camara? Oh, there was a passing Alvin Camara, which is, like, when you located the source of it, it's absolute nothingness. Oh, okay. Also, he could go there and I wouldn't care. By the way, the funny thing, speaking of the Camara news, I saw somebody break down the metrics between Travis H.

Chan Jr. last year and Camara's numbers in terms of, like, all the efficiency metrics and they were the same. Really? Yeah, they were just the same. But talk about running the football. Yeah, they were not. That seems impossible. Yeah, it was an NFL rumors thing about the Bengals being linked to Alvin Camara. Yeah, I'm not worried about it. That's the last thing I want to do if I'm Alvin Camara is leave for your final year of just, like, just be a legend in that city. He feels like Fitz in Arizona. He wasn't going to go. If anything, or if nothing changes for Chase Brown, his competition will be soon-to-be 31-year-old Samajay Pirine and Taj Brooks, a sixth-round pick, which Chase Brown was a later pick as well.

And Taj Brooks has his supporters, but Brooks could not get on. Like my dynasty team? Your dynasty? You have Taj Brooks? I don't know if I do anymore. Probably. I honestly don't. My dynasty team's nickname now is Matthew Golden and the Scraps. My team is so bad. So it's just called the Scraps? It's just called the Scraps. The rebuilding process in dynasty, just to give you the play-by-play, I haven't got to reflect on that yet because I've never done it. How's it going? It's miserable. It's necessary misery. Yeah. And it's multiple years if just you know you have to do it.

It's like construction, man. Right? While it's going on. Sucks. You hate everything. I want those lanes open. Yeah. You're like, those guys making a living. Don't compare it to construction in your situation because my rebuild's going to be five years. Wow. It's very similar because once it's done, you're like, you forget. You forget about the construction. You're just like, oh, this freeway now has two extra lanes. Yeah. I don't have the supplies necessary to build the house right now. Okay. You know who's been under construction for about 30 years? The Cleveland Browns. Any day now. They have not won the AFC North since 1989.

Okay. 30 was kind. Falcon, when were you born? 96. You freaking weirdo. Oh, no. Golly. So, you've never seen Cleveland, you know, atop the AFC North? Nope. Josh has. All right. Cleveland, 5-12 last year. He had a 5-1-2 win total. They delivered the 5. This year, it's up at 6-1-2, guys. Fourth easiest strength to schedule, and it's at 6-1-2 wins. No more Miles Garrett. So, like, your reason to watch has gone down. That's great news for the aforementioned Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals. Cleveland's favorite in two games this year. Against who? Atlanta and Las Vegas. Kyle. Probably both home games. Kyle, the Browns are favorite against your Bounds?

That's got to feel bad. It has to hurt so much. I mean, obviously, that game's got to be in Cleveland. Yeah. Maybe in the winter. Oh, my gosh. And the old adage, you know, if you have two quarterbacks, you have none. What if you have, like, six? What if you have none quarterbacks? You also have none. Yeah, that's how the math works. 30th in points per game last year, or 31st, 30th in yards per game. You just said you love Todd Monkent, but this is a tall task. Year one as a head coach, he's 60 years old. We looked this up.

There are eight first-time head coaches over the last 25 years that were 55 or more. Good cutoff. Yeah. Didn't work out well for them. They averaged 6.4 wins. Only Bruce Arians and Mike Zimmer lasted more than three years. Todd Monkent, congrats on getting that job. Yeah. This was the one you're going to get. Yeah. And to be clear, I don't know that Todd Monkent is a good head coach. There are plenty of great coordinators who are not made to be head coaches. At 60, I think that's going to be even harder. But he's a good offensive mind, which is fun.

Some of the things you've been hearing out of camp, which obviously this time of year, the only things you're going to hear are good. Oh, I really like the offensive system and some of the changes. But they went out and they spent in the draft on. Which we liked it. Yes. Concepcion and Denzel Boston. We liked the players that they drafted. We kind of wish they would have gone to a situation that could have more impact for fantasy football earlier. But Concepcion, Denzel Boston as. Boston's been making a lot of headlines. Those are two players that we really liked. We liked them as prospects.

And they're very, I like that they're different archetypes. And Concepcion, if you're going to do the kind of the surface level, well, Monkent had Flowers. Concepcion is a Zay Flowers type of archetype of a player. So can he maximize what KC is good at? This was a team that was tied for the lowest wide receiver target percentage in the NFL last year. Ah, yes. With the Steelers. So, you know, you have a situation where there is opportunity. One of the big questions about Cleveland is do we care who the quarterback is? I mean, because you kind of say, well, could it get worse?

Like, you know, Watson in 2024 was dead last in EPA per play. Shadour in 2025 was dead last in EPA per play. At the end of the day, I think my answer is still yes. I do care. Like, I want somebody that's going to, I don't care if your EPA per play is, I mean, I do care. But I just want somebody that's going to give some of, you know, the Harold Fannin, Concepcion, Boston opportunities to make plays. You're going to be losing a lot of ball games. You talk about what kept them in it last year. Miles Garrett was a big piece of the puzzle.

Their defense was fourth in yards per game. They will be a worse defense. That is good for fantasy. I do care. I do care which guy emerges. And I just want opportunities for these young players. I want Harold Fannin to not be a sophomore flop. This is the guy that hurts me the most in all of fantasy football is Harold Fannin because I love him. I think he is. We went into the offseason. When last season ended, I had Harold Fannin ahead of Tyler Warren and ahead of Colston Loveland. Then their teams changed. They got rid of DJ Moore. They got rid of Michael Pittman.

You know, it seemed like, okay, now there's clarity in those two. I would clearly take them over. But Fannin was so stinking good. And in the games where Shadur started, which started in week 12, and if you take out the injury game where he was good in fantasy because he got a touchdown. But, you know, he only played 20% of snaps. During that stretch with Shadur in both of their rookie seasons, he was on pace for 142 targets. 31% team target share. Almost 1,000 yards. 10 touchdown pace. Like, he was dominant. And I want to be in on him. Yeah, I mean, I think that the case you have right there is that you were the terrible team and a terrible offense and a terrible quarterback pro bowler.

And you still had the effectiveness of Fannin. I have zero fear about Boston and Concepcion. To me, Fannin. That is my fear. I don't have any fear of that. I think them as a tandem, even in year one, is better than what was going on last year. Jerry Judy's still on the team, everybody. That was all of us last year. That was better than what they had. But you also had David Njoku in this offense. And the numbers you just read for... I love him so much. I love Fannin. The numbers you just read for Fannin were outrageous. I mean, you just need...