THE UNOFFICIALFOOTBALLERSFAN ARCHIVE↗Transcript links use the exact YouTube video’s clock. Machine transcripts can contain errors.
A heroic produced voice says the UDK stands ready, waiting, watching, and protecting, promises a magnificently hot roster beside stupid, dumb, dumb opponents, and answers its own sales question with probably yes. The desk later says Optimus primed and more than meets the eye. Direct video shows a normal product feature reel, not Transformers imagery.
The hosts say a fourth-round-quarterback comment instantly reveals common ground between strangers, like bruises identifying Fight Club members. Jason says fantasy talk can pierce even his small-talk aversion, although his first response is to judge the analysis and listen without joining.
Jason calls his wager with Mike over Taysom Hill and Adam Trautman a really stupid and silly Water Bet and says he already regrets it. Direct video holds on Jason and never displays a Water Bet graphic.
Mike says finding a late-round tight-end diamond is fun even when the rough contains no diamond that year and the search ends empty. The line supplies a direct statement of the player-loyalty mechanism later attached to Adam Trautman and other speculative tight ends.
Jason says Kyle Pitts hurts his soul and nearly became one of his My Guys for the next day's annual episode, but the third-round cost keeps the commitment unresolved. Pitts is a short-list near-miss here, not a completed My Guy selection.
The desk contrasts George Kittle with Dalton Schultz by saying Kittle can go nuclear, break four tackles, carry twelve men on his back, add his own quarterback to the pile, and walk into the end zone.
Amon-Ra St. Brown's ability to recite every receiver drafted before him reminds the desk of an angry Steve Buscemi list. They first place the image in Armageddon, then correct themselves to Billy Madison and its lipstick list.
Pat Freiermuth's second season produces a rapid desk chain: could the Muth get Luth again, the Muth could get Luth, and he is entering year tooth. No graphic or sound bumper accompanies the wording.
The hosts first insist that a groin should be monitored only from a distance. Near the close, they formally announce a GroinIndex.com update for Mecole Hardman's groin injury and trigger the familiar groin reaction, without showing a website or bumper.
A solo Mike cold open leads into a heroic Ultimate Draft Kit voiceover that watches over Earth, promises to make opponents look like stupid, dumb, dumb idiots beside a magnificently hot roster, and answers its own sales question with an emphatic probably yes. Direct video shows that the speech plays over an ordinary UDK feature reel rather than Transformers imagery; the desk later makes the intended reference explicit with Optimus primed and more than meets the eye. Andy, Jason, and Mike then describe fantasy football as instant common ground between strangers: fourth-round quarterback value in an elevator becomes a Fight Club signal. Jason says even his ears perk up despite treating small talk like the bubonic plague; he first judges the strangers harshly, then listens without joining. The show also announces its Friday UDK-for-Life livestream. During the Taysom Hill question, Jason calls his wager with Mike over Taysom Hill and Adam Trautman a really stupid and silly Water Bet that he already regrets. Mike later defines his preferred tight-end process as hunting for a diamond in the rough even though some years the rough contains no diamond at all. Jason says Kyle Pitts nearly became one of his My Guys, but the third-round cost keeps him from pushing all his chips in. George Kittle's ceiling becomes a nuclear run in which he breaks four tackles and carries twelve defenders plus his own quarterback into the end zone. A Darren Waller prompt triggers Mike's walrus-style Googoochum line, Amon-Ra St. Brown's remembered receiver list triggers an Armageddon/Billy Madison correction, and Pat Freiermuth produces Muth get Luth and year tooth wordplay. An earlier instruction to monitor an injured groin only from a distance pays off at the close when the desk delivers a GroinIndex.com update and the familiar groin reaction. Complete direct review shows only the three regular hosts at the live desk, with no producer cut or voice.
On today's episode, we are breaking down the tight end rankings. There's also a whole bunch of news that we got to cover. But we talk a lot of strategy investing those high round picks on the tight ends. Should you build your team that way? Or should you try and find that late round sleeper, that true breakout at that position? So make sure you stay tuned for that. And by the way, my guys are coming up tomorrow. Leave us a comment on your favorite tight end from this year's draft. Subscribe. Like the video. Enjoy. I have long watched the people of Earth.
and I have witnessed their capacity for greatness. They know that in any draft, there are calms between storms. There are days when their league mates turn against them. But the day will never come when they forsake their fantasy draft and the quest for ultimate glory. Rankings, sleepers, breakouts, values, together at last, united. Within the Ultimate Draft Kit. The Ultimate Draft Kit stands ready, waiting, watching, protecting, and making your opponents look like stupid, dumb, dumb idiots compared to you and your magnificently hot roster. Will you use it to build your team and win a championship? I do not know, but yes, you probably should.
The time for courage and world domination is now at Ultimate DraftKit.com. To the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in one and all. Wednesday, August 17th. The Fantasy Footballers podcast. Mike, the Fantasy Hitman Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway here.
Chalo. Oh, off to a good start. Chalo, everybody. So much to talk about on today's episode of the show. I want to thank the Foot Clan for making us the number one sports podcast in the world right now. That's pretty cool. That's the power of fantasy football. We are always, you know, when we're talking to people about what we do, we always say, The reality, which is you could be doing, you could be people from completely different walks of life, doing completely different jobs, different backgrounds, different whatever. But if you notice one person in the elevator mentioned something about like your fourth round value at quarterback, you have common ground. Oh, yeah. You know. They're one of us. You're one of them. It's basically fight club.
That's what you see a couple bruises and you go, okay, yeah. I know what you're about. Yeah, we're in this together. Even I will, my ears will perk up. Like I avoid small talk like it is. But you're tempted. It's the boobonic plague. But if people start talking fantasy, I'm like, I mean, step one is I judge them harshly. They probably said something stupid. As a professional in, in the industry. But then. I let them continue talking and don't join the conversation. Right, right. But you get close, which is the best you can do. I consider it. The temptation is real. All right. What else is going on? We have the very special ultimate draft kit for life giveaway. We will be dishing out a UDK for life on Friday during a very special live stream, which you can catch by going to ballerslive.com. We'll be on YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, Facebook. The way you enter?
You pick up the 2022 UDK at Ultimate DraftKit.com. You want to be Optimus primed for this draft? Oh, I see what you did there. Thank you. Thank you, computer. Yeah, look, this is the time. A lot of you, you're going to get this draft kit, the day of your draft. You're going to be like, oh, let's go. That's great. It'll work. But if you get it right now. Not only are you entered into the ultimate draft kit for life giveaway, but you get a little bit more time for the extra research, the video profiles, all the information and the toilet time that is outrageously great. Yeah, there's more than meets the eye inside the UDK. You can find us on Twitter at the FF Ballers. I encourage you to follow the main account there and be updated with all the articles. We have a great team of writers putting out content each and every week to help your...
to help your team throughout the season. You can follow Jason at Jason, FFL, Mike, at FF at FF Hitman. I'm at Andy Holloway. The quick question of the day, I mean, we're talking about a number of things on today's show, but tight ends, where our rankings are, you know, this is a position where if you hit, it makes a huge difference. Like, it does. I don't know if I like any feeling more in fantasy than when I have a superior advantage of the tight end position going into the week because, It just kind of gives you buffer for the variance that bite. That's natural, right? Like wide receivers. Jason talks about it all the time. They're all kind of inconsistent. You might have a great big name on your roster, but Jefferson might not get in the end zone and he might go six for 60 this week and you don't get the power. But if you have that tight end, that difference maker at tight end, it just absorbs a lot of that variance. And over the last, you know, seven, eight years, there's been plenty of times.
You have to draft Mark Andrews in the second round right now. But there was a time when he was the late round tied in before his breakout. We had that. Zach Ertz. I remember when we were hot and bothered before the breakout. That's the goal to me is trying to find the player who will be drafted high next year, who's not this year. And if you grab that guy, if we can nail that person down, then your fantasy football year will be awesome. Yeah. And so the quick question is, since we're not talking about this player on today's show. How do you feel about tight-in one Taysom Hill? This question comes in from Joel and Gilbert. Currently, he's listed as a tight-in, which makes Joel believe the coaching staff will utilize them in a way the same way Peyton did. You see him as a value because of his quarterback tied-in hybrid capabilities. I just saw some comments from Taysam Hill basically saying, it's not what I wanted, but it's best for the team.
Yeah, he is going to be used as the old Taysam Hill. He's not a quarterback. He wants to be a quarterback. That's not what is happening. The coaching staff has come out a month or two ago. They talked about using him in kind of that gadget role again. And he's obviously a talented player, but he's a gadget guy. I know we, Mike and myself, have kind of a... really stupid and silly water bet between Taysam Hill and Adam Troutman, which I already regret, because I do think, I do think Adam Troutman will be further involved in this offense. Do you say Chris Herndon? No, I think Adam Troutman will be further involved than Tassam Hill. Tassum Hill's real upside here comes if for some reason, which can happen in the wild world of the National Football League,
He gets back in a quarterback and gets to be put in your tight end slot and we can have that drama all over again. He's listed as a tight end, but the head coach has come out and said he's positionless. So there's not a lot that you can bank on there. Basically, they said they're going to give him snaps to impact the game. That's been the comments about Tayson Hill. So that could be, they said wide receiver, special teams, tight end, just snaps to impact the game. And if that, look. that can be defined any way you want. The head coach can put him in for six snaps a game and say that he impacts a game on those snaps. So, yeah, I mean, I don't think anybody's drafting Tayson Hill. If you have a depth chart issue in New Orleans at tight end and he becomes more prominent snap-wise, then you're paying attention. All right, let's talk more news. News and notes from around the league. Zach Wilson successfully underwent knee surgery on Tuesday. All right. Was deemed a success. They trimmed
his meniscus. So the timeline, um, they are saying is still open for him to get back by week one. That seems unrealistic. But it is not a season-ender. This is something that will keep him out for several weeks from now. And then he will be back and he will be the starter. That is the good news for Zach Wilson. The bad news for Zach Wilson is that his buddy Garrett Wilson dumped on him today. Oh, man. He tweeted out. Oh, this is, do you have to, do you have the quote? He was talking to a reporter and he said, speaking on the difference between Flacco and Wilson, he said there's definitely.
a difference. Joe Flacco throws a more receiver-friendly ball. That's just the way to describe it. And the way that I... That's the way the receiver described it. Yeah, the way I interpret that is him saying Joe Flacco, more accurate, more accurate better quarterback. Maybe he means something different. Probably doesn't throw as hard. I've never played in the NFL. Well, maybe. At this stage in his career, yeah, for sure. Prime. Flacco had a cannon. So I've never played a wide receiver in the NFL. I'm not sure if people fully realize that fact. So I can't, I've never been in the shoes. That you haven't been a whiteout? Yeah. Yeah. At the NFL level, people make the illusion fall away now. People make the mistake frequently. Right. Frequently. So I can't say for sure if that's what he means, but that's what I hear and that's what everybody else hears. It's like when he.
When he throws me the ball, I catch it on the run. The biggest problem is now regardless of who's good and who's not, you will have a transition most likely that takes place during your fantasy season. So if Flacco plays two weeks and then you get hot and bothered by the performance of blank, right? Maybe Garrett Wilson breaks out or Corey Davis is involved again. Elijah Moore looks great. Or even Breeze Hall catches like five passes. And then you're going to go through a transition. to Zach Wilson, and we'll be sitting here at the same desk saying, you know, biting our fingernails going, you're not healthy yet. Get healthier, Zach Wilson. Stay and recover that knee. That's what we'll be saying. Yeah, you will for sure. The athletic reporting Joshua Kelly appears to be firmly in the lead as the backup for Austin Echler. Joshua Kelly was a rookie last year for the Chargers. This year, they spent a draft pick on Isaiah Spiller.
Josh Kelly has clearly performed better. Rookie two years ago. Sorry, two years ago. And you're in a situation now where, I mean, to me, this just means you're fighting for backup scraps, right? I mean, that's the headline. Well, the reality is the backup job here for the Chargers should be a decent one. They should be involved. They don't want to have Echler be someone that's touching the ball 300 times. They just haven't had any talent there. And so the fantasy football community has hoped that Isaiah Spiller is the answer to that problem because he should clearly be better than these other backups. The problem is right now he hasn't been. He is being drafted in underdog leagues like he is the foreshore home run walkaway backup who has locked into that role. So hearing that, you know, the athletics.
Daniel Popper is saying that Joshua Kelly is firmly in the lead is a scary thing for people who have a lot of shares of Isaiah Spiller. We had Austin Eccler on the show a couple weeks ago. We asked him about Isaiah Spiller. I didn't, you know, I didn't expect any, you know, groundbreaking information. He didn't speak negatively about Spiller, but I expected some fluff, you know, for his teammate. Like, oh, I've seen some. He, he just kind of was like, well, rookie's got a lot to learn. Just in general. And then unprompted brought up Joshua Kelly's name. Right. Of like he, he wants to, Echler feeling like he is the backup. So a combination of Echler saying those things and these reports, that's really sketchy if you're going to stash Isaiah Spiller. Yeah, I think, I think we know what Josh Kelly is athletically at this point. And I think we'd all agree that Isaiah Spiller has more potential for a big play.
But that might come late season. That might come not at all this season at all. Or, you know, no opportunities. Drew Locke tested positive for COVID-19 right after it was announced that he would be the starter on Thursday's game. Yeah, whoops. He was finally getting first team reps ahead of Gino Smith in practice. This was going to be his opportunity, but he's going to miss the game due to COVID. He'll probably get another chance in the third preseason game. This is big news right here. I mean, preseason game three. If I had Gino Smith, I would be giving everybody a chance to see what I got. Gino Smith has been a career backup. Sure. Ken Walker dealing with a hernia issue. Oh, come on, man. The opener is what we're shooting for, says Pete Carroll. So all of a sudden, this ping pong between Rashad Penny injuries now has a new entry, Ken Walker, hernia. I mean, we don't know if this is traditional, a sports hernia surgery.
or, you know, that might be required. Does this remove Ken Walker from your board in redraft? Not a full removal here. I'm going to wait and see if we can get some more information. It's just that whole, the Seattle running back, whoever it is, like their value came through the proposition that they would see really solid value or volume because Pete Carroll likes to establish it. But if one guy's got the groin problem, the other guy's got a hernia problem, I can't, I think it was, was it Homer, Travis Homer, Travis Homer, DJ Dallas. Like they're picking up the receiving role, despite what they, you know, Pete Carroll talking about Ken Walker's receiving ability. It looks like Homer or. Homer looked great. He looked great too. That's what I'm saying. Like they're probably in that role. This is, unless we can get one healthy guy to firmly.
take over and be the guy, these feel like roster clogs at this point. If you have a bunch of split reps, unhealthy guys on a bad offense, you aren't in a position to run the clock out, it's not good for fantasy. There is the other spin, though, that, you know, obviously this is saying we're hoping to have him ready for week one from the most optimistic coach in the league. Yes. There's, you know, by simple. deductive reasoning, you could say, well, there's a chance he's not available week one. And if Penny is over his hamstring issue and he comes out week one, he has an opportunity to be the full-time starter with no Ken Walker there. All we have seen in Rashad Penny's career, when he gets the opportunity for a full workload, he has dominated for fantasy. So he's a little bit interesting. We'll be monitoring the groin as from a distance.
You want to monitor them from a distance. Chiefs wide receiver, Juju Smith, Schuster, didn't practice Tuesday due to a sore knee. This is bad news. So as the resident Juju Smith Schuster, truther, that's hard to say. A star is sore. Oh, I like it. I like it. He had his knee drained frequently for the Steelers, like on Fridays. And so he hasn't had like an ACL tear, but. This could be an arthritic knee. I mean, there's a lot like we're reading into this, right? Right now it's just a knee is sore having some rest. So hopefully it could be nothing. But for a player who early in his career looks to have lost a physical step, like not quite as explosive because he's still a young guy. Became much more of a possession.
type of player after his breakout rookie year. Exactly. And you hoped that that was because of Big Ben's noodle arm and the role that he needed to play. And it started to look that way this offseason. But if it is due to any kind of degenerative or arthritic knee, then it's not going to just magically get better as he keeps playing football. I expect they'll have to continue to give him rest and possibly shots. You know, it just to me when I'm looking at it, it made you nervous. It made me nervous. I upped his risk rating in the draft. I didn't really move his stats that much, but there are a few guys right in the same spot with him that I was taking Juju over. And now I'm like, you know, I'd rather take a shot on a youthful guy. You know, Rashad Bateman to break out and take the age. My question for this news becomes, is this why he couldn't get a contract? Like in the NFL, when a player
A young wide receiver, it like breaks out incredibly young, has two monster seasons, and then just falls off a little bit. The NFL usually bets on that player again, and the guy multiple years in a row could not get a long-term contract. So I'm curious if that... Behind the scenes. If this is NFL information that we don't have in the public, but all the teams know about it. And just a little bit of a follow-up, we don't have complete information on it. But speaking of the Kansas City Chiefs, McColl Hardman, went up for a ball, landed awkwardly, went to the tent, and then was carted off. Now, I don't know if we have a Buccaneers carted off situation where it's just a cramp, but this is a situation to monitor that McColl Hardman himself, not someone you're clamoring to get on your fantasy football team, but if for some reason he misses time.
It just makes, you know, MVS and even an injured juju just that much more attractive. I would also throw Skymore in there because I think that's the real benefit factor from this specific injury. I would expect Juju and MVS to be on the field in two wide receiver sets and be on the field in three wide receiver sets while Hardman and maybe Sky Moore rotate through the other roles. If Hardman is gone, then Skymore becomes more solidified. And Juju did not practice today either. The Chiefs run three wide about 65% of the time. So there is a role and a player that will be out there. McCull Hardman almost represented player you never draft but would get in the way of other options. So quick break back with tight ends. All right. We have been walking through our consensus rankings at wide receiver, running back, just took care of the quarterback shows.
Which leaves one position left, Mike. Do we have to? It's time. Tight-ins. I do act. I like talking about the tight-in because what we were talking about the top of the show of like the proposition of you got to spend up. You know, you can get difference makers like Mark Andrews and Travis Kelsey. It's an interesting way to construct your team. And when they really come through, it's a difference maker on a week-to-week basis. But when you don't, and then at the end of the draft, I love, if you've listened to the show, I love trying to find the diamond in the rough. And it's very difficult because sometimes the rough just doesn't have a diamond that particular year. He's been searching and searching. There's nothing in there. But it's trying to find those guys for me is very fun.
Well, since 2015, 71% of tight-ins drafted in the first five rounds met or exceeded their points per game expectations. So the headline number one is that when you draft them there, they generally meet their expectation. However, when you draft a tight-end early, there's an opportunity cost, right? You have the choice of taking a Mark Andrews, a Travis Kelsey, a Darren Waller, or Kyle Pitts, or an early running backer-wide receiver that you may like more. or may fill your roster out better because you're starting two wide receivers. You're starting two running backs on a given week. So there is downside, right? If you spin that pick and you're wrong, right? You aren't in that 71%. You're crushed. You kind of, yeah, you kind of, you know, give yourself a real uphill climb to contend. The data last year on Travis Kelsey. Travis Kelsey was great last year. He was awesome. He was a late first round pick.
And he was great. For best ball leagues, if you want to look at advance rates, that's one of the easiest ways to just take an individual player and say, did they help fantasy rosters or hurt fantasy rosters when they were drafted over a massive scale of data? He was a bad pick. He was just straight up a bad pick. And he was good. The reason isn't because he was bad. The reason is because you're sacrificing a first round running back or wide receiver. So you could win with Kelsey. when he's good, but more often than not, you lost because you didn't have that depth at more important positions. And that was when he was good. If one of those early guys goes down or, you know, just is disappointing, really tough to recover. Well, and let me tell you one of the ways that I look at those top tier tight ends. I like to trade for them. If I'm going to have them on my team, I like to acquire them in the season when I've checked box one, which is that I don't have
a complete flame out, right? You see them establish themselves. And I try to trade for them because people are going to run into problems that draft these guys. They may not have a wide receiver or running back. They could get off to a tough start. And that's when I kind of target a difference maker at the position. Because like I said, at the top, I love having it. I want that advantage or potential advantage going into the week. There's nothing I hate more than going into the week with a, you know, a Titan that I'm begging to catch one. pass for seven yards in a touchdown where I know that I can't have a big performance. And that actually influences the way I rank these guys. We'll talk about that. At number one, Mark. Wait, what? Mark Andrews. Mark Andrews sits at number one. Can you believe it? Yes, that's where he should be. Last year, you know, he had a dominant season, especially from week 10 on. We all have him at number one, 27 years old.
He was essentially the wide receiver six in scoring ahead of Tyreek Hill. That's how influential his role was, 107 catches, 1,300 yards, 9 touchdowns. All you did this offseason was tradeaway Hollywood Brown. You get a healthy Lamar Jackson back to start the season. Those two have had a mind meld for a long time. And much like Kelsey in years past, like Andrews can't, he really can't bust. Right? Not on the field. Not on the field, right? If it gets injured, of course. But there's no way for this offense to function without him as the key cog in the middle of it. Yeah, there's a lot that's been pointed out about some of Mark Andrews biggest, best, most highest targeted games last year coming when Lamar Jackson wasn't on the field. And that makes sense. Lamar Jackson's going to run a lot, but the offense is worse. When you look at actual fantasy production,
Mark Andrews was phenomenal with Lamar Jackson, as he has already been. A couple years ago, he had double-digit touchdowns with Lamar Jackson. The loss of Hollywood Brown, you know, everyone is like, oh, well, Bateman now steps into that role. We hope. And even if he does, this is good for Mark Andrews. It is, he's the number one receiving option for Lamar Jackson on this team. the upside for a player who just had over 1,350 yards at the tight-in position. You know he can get it done. He is the primary best receiving option for what should be a decent offense with Lamar Jackson. And unlike Travis Kelsey, who's going ahead of him in the first round, Mark Andrews is falling to the back of the second. That's where...
Are you taking him there? I am willing to take him there at the two, three turn. When I'm close enough to the two three turn where I know the third player that I would get if I take him second, you know, I say, oh, I'm three picks away from my next pick and I've got, you know, it looks like Leonard Fournette will easily fall to me or someone like that, then I know that I can end up with two great, because you started with the 101 or the 102. You're going to end up with two great wide receiver or running back, you know, one of each or two of one.
and a tight end that we all have as the number one tight end. So he's the one early guy early that I'm willing to take. Okay. Mike, do you have anything to add there with Andrews before we move on? I'll just play the devil's advocate here is what the Ravens were as a team last year, which was not typical for what Baltimore is. They were number one in plays per game because the way that they... the tempo that they were going combined with, remember how bad the defense was for the Baltimore Ravens last year. They had to rely on the offense. That's not the way that Harbaugh has generally run things. And if you want to just to easily highlight how crazy the passing attempt volume was for just Lamar Jackson. In 2020, in 15 games, Lamar threw the ball 376 times. In 2021,