Fantasy Football - AFC South Breakdown + Booty Scootin' Bhayshul Tuten - Podcast for 7/9

The best mobile network in the U.S. is based on analysis by UKLA of speed test intelligence data second half of 2025. Before we get to the Titans, I do, just because I'm looking at this fresh, the schedule for Indianapolis to start is worth bringing up. Because Baltimore, Kansas City, Houston, three really good defenses. And then at Washington, at Pittsburgh. Yeah. So you're five underdogs. Five underdogs to start. But I could easily see this team that I think is good, I think is going to be a good offense, getting off to a really slow start. And if that happens and you are drafting Jonathan Taylor at number three, it could be kind of the inverse of last year.

Where maybe you're really happy or disappointed you draft him, but then trade for him because it gets brighter. Yeah. And that's, they'll have no games against Jacksonville yet. So there'll be two more against Jacksonville, one more against Houston. All right, man. Doesn't it feel like at any moment that Shane Steichen was going to get fired two years ago? Yes. And then last year, it was like, you're amazing. And then it seemed like he almost got fired again at the end of the year. Very much. They feel like a team that could go, they could have an amazing season again or be a complete bust.

Let's talk about the Titans. Three and 14. The projected win total last year, five and a half. This year, guys, it's way up. Six and a half. All right. It's not, it's not way up. That was, that was untrue. Hey, it is up. It's going up. Brian Dable, new offensive coordinator, Robert Sala, new head coach. We invested in the draft. Carnell Tate, fourth pick overall. Seems like he is the real deal. They certainly needed one. Calvin Ridley wasn't it. Io Manor, DK. Those guys were, you know, those are role players on this offense, not focal points of the offense. They didn't do anything at the running back position.

I mean, they invested a fifth round pick on Nicholas Singleton, but okay. We didn't go out and get it. We thought that they were in play for Jeremiah Love. Yeah. I like Nicholas Singleton. I think he does what is good for fantasy football. The incoming rookie. He doesn't have electric film, but he has a ton of touchdowns in college, a ton of pass catching, but he's a fifth rounder. And Tony Pollard has literally just kept scoring. He's been decent. Tony Pollard. He's been Tony. You just kidding. He's like in his James Connor face for the Titans that Connor did for the Cardinals where you just kind of you're tried and true and reliable.

He's going to be the lead guy. The question is, is it a good enough offense to matter? I mean, last year they weren't. They were 30th in points per game, 31st in yards per game, but don't worry. Their defense sucked as well. Four straight years with a thousand rushing yards. They played the toughest schedule in the NFL last year. So if you want to try to find like, you know, one in two and five and one score games, if you want to try to find a silver lining in a rookie season, that was a struggle. You can say Cam Ward played the toughest schedule in the entire NFL and he got better over the back half of the year.

If you want to turn it that direction, I just tweeted something out. I just tweeted all of his red zone pass attempts. He was the number one in the NFL in completion percentage above expectation in the red zone of all quarterbacks. Well, they expected him to complete none of the passes with the receivers. So our expectation. Holy crap, he did it again. He's 100% over expectation. I guess you can nerf the stat that way if you want to. But look, my optimism around this team is there. I do believe that they have the core that will take them into the future as a winning football team.

But I don't think it's a one-year process. I think Houston and Jacksonville are far, far better football teams. But I do. I could see a world where they're competing for a third spot in this division. And I can see a world where we're actually happy in fantasy for once with Carnell Tate's involvement in this offense. So to me, that's where the real value lies. It's it's not a bunch of names like Jacksonville. We went through seven, eight, nine names in Jacksonville. And we didn't even talk about Britain Strange, who really probably should have been brought up as a sleeper. Sleeper, sure.

Tied in. Here, where does this discussion begin and end? And I think it's just Carnell Tate. I was going to ask. So you're going to leave Wandale out of this? You don't have to. Well, I'm saying they gave him the shmoney. Yeah, but he had as much work as a human can get in previous seasons. And he still was just okay. Maybe a thousand yard receiver last year. He was the wide receiver 19 in fantasy last year. And it's shocking to remember that. Like you. Yeah, no, I'm not. And it was with Brian Dayball, which is nice. But I will say that if if they draft Carnell Tate.

He had a D in consistency. Yeah. 35% of the time he mattered. And if if they draft Carnell Tate and don't make Carnell Tate the one, that's absurd and wrong. And Wandale, I think, is a good two. But for fantasy, maybe he helps the Titans. I I have a hard time thinking that Wandale is going to be very relevant for how many targets did you guys project him for? Because we have our projections. Because he had 140 last year. Look two years ago, too. I know. 140. He's playing in Tennessee now. What do you what do you have him at?

I am down for 115. OK. I thought you were gonna say 50. It's like, whoa, Michael. So. I have him 112. Yeah, that's just hard for me to get him to a point where he's in the top 30. Mm hmm. Yeah. I mean, I like the player and I like him for Cam Ward a lot. Like I like Cam Ward has a potential to have a step forward this year. Big time. Yeah, he does. Thanks to Carnell Tate and Wandale. Carnell Tate is pretty much the only player that I want. Like I if I leave a draft and I have Carnell Tate, I'm excited.

If I leave a draft and I have Tony Pollard, I go, I had to do it. You know, it's like I was in a position where I just had to take him. Tony Pollard pick is so funny. It four years of a thousand yards. It speaks to like this is a quality player. The we had the, you know, two years ago. Oh, we're gonna we're gonna timeshare the running backs. And then I was like, oh, no, well, it actually is just Pollard. And you're like this year or two years ago. I'm sorry. And then last year the way we're gonna do it again.

But they did, you know, the first two the first 12 games Pollard. He's averaging around, you know, 15 touches per game and not producing at all. But then the final five games, he turned into a workhorse. 20 touches per game up to 15 fantasy points. So I bring that up as if if Dable workhorses Tony Pollard. It's going to go from that pick that you just you you regret it's the moment you do it through week. And then week one happens. If all of a sudden Tony Pollard is getting, you know, 18 or more opportunities, you're going to be thrilled that he's on your team.

Yeah, to me, Tony Pollard is 29. He's not getting better. He's getting worse as a player. So he's fantasy vegetables to me. His last like David Montgomery. His last two years running back 22, 23. He said 29 like it's a bad thing. I think the big difference here. I'm saying that you don't have upside in the player. So what situation do you care about? I care about 10, 15 wins, not four. That's all I'm saying. Like Pollard was he played 17 full weeks last year. 283 opportunities and finishes running back 23. And that's what you're going to be in the range of.

Like if it all goes well, you got RB 23. That's my worry about Pollard. Yeah, it's just touchdowns and the offense. I mean, he had a thousand yards and he played every game and all that. But he had five touchdowns. And you just can't be very fantasy relevant. No, we always love the thousand yard marker. That's 58 yards a game. I mean, it's fine, but it's not going to make a big difference. So, Carnell Tate, Jason, you're the highest. You have him ranked at wide receiver 27 or 26. I have him at 27. Mike at 33. We all projected him for seven touchdowns.

I just moved him up, guys, live. Did you? I did. A live adjustment to Carnell Tate? Yep. I gave him a couple more points on the target percentage. Was it the fact that Cam Ward was the number one ranked quarterback in completion percentage over expectation in the red zone? Was that what talked you into it? No, it was more like, he's got to have way more targets than Wandale. Come on, what are we doing here? Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. If the Titans end up not doing that, again, egregious mistake. And by the way, Tajay Spears, they still talk about him in the committee with the rest of this team.

I don't know what we think about him at this point. I think he's fine. He's one of those, I think he is best utilized in small doses, be a high efficiency, low volume NFL player, which makes him irrelevant for fantasy. If one of these backs ends up having a really, really good year, it's probably Pollard. Then I think it's probably Singleton after that before Spears. Yeah, I think part of last year's Pollard, or the Pollard fatigue in Tennessee is like, Spears also didn't play the first four weeks, and we're like, oh, Pollard's the dude. And then he just did nothing for the first four weeks.

So I guess we have to decide who was going to win the division, and I've been talking, so I need you to talk so I can think about it for a second. Well, I need to think about that. You guys didn't jot down your... I've already got mine. I was busy with my Wandale arguments. I've got mine. I think that it is... I mean, this is a difficult division because obviously Houston, Jacksonville, Indy, they're going to play each other, and how you win those games really affects... We were looking at the stats last year of how we picked them, and as soon as you get the division winner wrong,

all the dominoes fall exactly... So get the division winner right. All right, then I believe the division winner will be Houston. Do you want to give your other four teams? Sure. No, I will give my other three teams. I have Houston winning. I go Houston, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Tennessee. Houston, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Indy. Oh, putting Indy at the bottom. Get wrecked! I have the same as Jason. I want to be spicy and put the Colts above the Jags, but I don't have the stones to do it. Okay. You don't. Saturday, the AFC East will be breaking down that division and then the AFC West on Tuesday.

The next Thursday, we'll get into another mock draft episode. I think we're going to do a 10-man mock, so that'll be fun. Who knows? You better tune in and find out. Yeah, we've got three shows a week right now, five starting in August. It's the Ultimate Draft Kit available at ultimatedraftkit.com. And a live show in August. And a live show at the end of August, August 28th at the Van Buren in Phoenix. If you want to go to ballerslive.com, you can learn more about that. We would love to see you there. We have a lot of special things planned for the live show,

and it's just a great chance to connect before the season kicks off. And I can put away one more year of rebuilding in our Dynasty League. Just three more to go. Picks. All right, that'll do it. Thank you for joining us. A lot of lively debates on today's show. Share your opinions with us in the comments, on Twitter, at the FFBallers. We'll catch you next. Well, we'll catch you Saturday. Goodbye! Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter, at the FFBallers.