Combine Reactions + 5 Ways to Make Your League Better

I would be real hesitant because this is what the team, they 100% have to do this. You have to drive up the value for your number one pick, no matter what. Even if you're going to take it, you still have to drive up the value. No, I don't disagree with that. And I had a lot of Twitter conversations with the Foot Clan and listeners of the show and people that were talking about Kyla Murray. And look, last offseason.

I wasn't happy with Josh Rosen to Arizona. If you're a Larry Fitzgerald owner, if you're a David Johnson owner, that's the number one, probably to think about Christian Kirk. All you want is the offense to be driving towards improvement. They were the worst offense in football by a wide margin last season. Yes, the offensive line was terrible. And my argument is not every player is going to end up the Jared Goughman-Tribisky story. Some of them end up...

the Jimmy Clausen story or the Blaine Gabbard story. There are other tales to be told. So whether or not, if you believe in Josh Rosen, and I think there are GMs in the NFL that believe in him enough to go and get him. And you know what? If you want to win in the NFL, guess what you do? You have a quarterback on a rookie deal. And whether Josh Rosen is in Arizona or somewhere else, you could go get him.

on a rookie deal. So I think that'll be attractive to certain, you know, Washington, Miami, New England, Pittsburgh, teams with San Diego, sorry, Los Angeles. Still San Diego on my mind. So I think that it'll be very interesting to see what happens. And look, David Johnson, he's a by-low to me right now. All right. Do you agree with that? Oh, I definitely agree. David Johnson, I mean, we saw this with Todd Gurley several years ago when the coaching problems happened with Gurley and their offensive line was bad.

He was the running back 17. He had a worse year than David Johnson had this last season. They improved it, got McVeigh in there, and all of a sudden you had the number one guy. He was still the same guy. It wasn't like Todd Gurley forgot how to be a running back in that in-between year. And it's not like David Johnson slowed down and stunk last year. It was just the situation around him did not allow him to be as fantasy relevant as he could be. I think David Johnson is a very good by low candidate. All right, let's get into the news.

News and Notes from Around the League, presented by Sleeper. All right, the Sleeper app was bouncing all weekend, but this one was not expected. Jason Witten has decided to end his retirement and return to the Cowboys for his 16th NFL season. The one year in the booth was enough for all of us. Too much. A little too much. So Jason Witton. Back in Dallas.

And here's the thing. Look, this is good context. In 2017, the last year he played, he was the tight-in 10, 63 receptions, five touchdowns, 87 targets. Look, he helps Dallas if he has anything left because they didn't get a lot for that position. If he has anything left, it's very interesting because there are the whispers from the bushes that, I mean, they're already talking about Jason Witton will get 25 snaps a game or whatever.

I don't know how you would have that information already. Jerry Jones came out and said that's not true. You know, Jerry Jones came out and said he's not going to play a bit part. He'll be a main part. So what do you believe? Well, it remains to be seen. But Witten, he did it. He found his way out with dignity. With dignity, with class. So I don't know. I don't know his intentions, but.

This was a very savvy move. Yeah, no, it was. And I know it's a little bit later in the career and more difficult, but I would, I would recommend that a booger look to make a, on retirement as well and get back in the league. And we could just have a great Monday night football broadcast team brought in. Ground up. You want to let, who's the Alaska? He's the vanilla.

I don't even know. Yeah, nobody knows. I'm just picturing him. No, I like him. He's fine. I'm picturing him standing there by himself. Like he doesn't have any help. I don't know. Maybe Greg Olson finds his way into the booth, huh? Oh, Greg Olson tread lightly. Tight-ins haven't worked out like Tony Romo. No. All right. So Jason went into the Cowboys. Look, he's going to be a cursory tight-end ad, in my opinion. It doesn't mean you're going to get a bunch out of him, but at the position.

Step one. No, Blake Jarwin's way. I'll tell you that much. Oh, gosh. It's very good for Dak. Yep. And honestly, for the Cowboys. I mean, you pick up a couple more third downs with the, you know, with the hands of Jason Witten, those situational plays. I don't know. Can you get the hands back in shape? He's been blade hands for an entire year. That'll be tough. All right. The Ravens waved running back. Alex Collins.

Just last offseason, we were talking about Alex Collins quite a bit. He was drafted very high, and what a difference a year makes. He was arrested in Baltimore following a car crash Friday morning. The Ravens quickly released him. This is part of why we always talk about what capital does the team have invested in, especially running backs. The Ravens had very little invested. He was someone cut from Seattle, picked up off the street.

paid very little money. If this was someone that they had drafted with a first round pick or a second round pick. Or even a fourth round pick like Kenneth Dixon. I was going to say just look like what the loyalty they've shown to Kenneth Dixon over these years. But if there's capital invested, then, you know, you roll with some of this. But when it's not, I mean, you know, this was always the worry. And this is the worry now. Like I love Gus Edwards. I think Gus Edwards is going to be great if he's the guy.

But I have the exact same worries. Like Gus Edwards could just be kicked to the curb tomorrow. It's 100% a mirror situation when it comes to the required loyalty of the team. Gus Edwards will be a good fantasy running back for as long as he's a good fantasy running back, which sounds ridiculous. But as soon as he's not good, they're not required to stick with him. That's why Gus Edwards has a job today, right? Because they weren't required to stick without. Well, technically he doesn't even have a job.

Because he's not under contract yet. Gus Edwards is restricted, though, right? He, yes. No, I think he isn't, he's that ERFA exclusive rights. Which means he is. He's basically under. Yeah, but I'm just saying, like, the Ravens haven't signed him yet. Yeah, but their head coach has come out and talked about him as the starter. So when your head coach comes out and says, he's the guy right now, which is what Jim Harbaugh, or John Harbaugh is done. He said, hey, Gus Edwards is our number one running back right now.

So you have Gus Edwards, you have Kenneth Dixon, and then you probably have something in free agency in Baltimore. We'll try to sift through all of that over the course of this offseason. All right, guys, I need your reaction. More big news. We're going to be talking a lot of news today. Jason Lockenforah says the Rams are going to consider stem cell treatment for Todd Gurley.

There was a lot of reports talking about Todd Gurley, arthritis in the knee. This is the ACL repaired left knee. Jeff Howell from the athletics said that he has arthritis in the knee. I mean, put yourself in the shoes of a Gurley owner right now. How do you feel? Well, I don't, I think you. Because I can't, I can't relate. Andy is gloating over here because he unloaded Todd Gurley for a haul.

About a week ago. Mere moments before the arthritis starts. And no, we did not have inside. I was going to say it was so close to the newsbreaking that I felt. If we had insider info, we would have put it out on the show. You're darn right. I want my Twitter account going up. But it was so close that I actually felt like apologizing, but of course did not. The truth is, good for you. You know, if you've got a healthy knee, you don't go out and get stem cell. You don't even consider it. It's not an option. To be fair, I'm considering it. Are you? Yeah. Then you don't have a healthy knee.

That's how I know. I mean, if you're considering this, it's bad news. And that means it's more likely that I think the Rams do sign another running back. It's going to be Anderson. Yeah, I mean, maybe they pay up for CJ. His workload, I don't think you even have to pay up for CJ. Pay down. Pay down for CJ. You'll get him back. But his workload will be cut back to the point that maybe now he's the number three pick, the number four pick. I don't think this does anything that that.

crushes him because he's still going to be the touchdown monster. On a great offense. But maybe now you're looking at Zeke ahead of Todd Gurley. There is doubt in the minds of Todd Gurley owners because it's not just, you know, will he be great? Maybe his 90% chance he'll be great. It's just there's more unknown to his dynasty stock. If you have arthritis in that knee, there's unknown on what treatments he will actually require. This goes back to...

When they started working NCG Anderson that heavily and all the denial, denial, denial about injury. And you say, guys, this doesn't make any sense. He's the highest paid running back in football. He's an MVP candidate. You don't play him half of the Super Bowl or less. So something's wrong. That's all we know. All right. The Jets have assigned a second round Tinder to Free Agent Robbie.

Anderson. So he will be a jet. Did I hear you talking about Robbie Anderson earlier today, Jason? No, I was talking about my personal man crush at the rookie running back Rodney Anderson. Maybe he'll go. Maybe the Jets will draft Rodney, Anderson, and they can be Rodney and Robbie. Rodney, Robbie. Rodney, Robbie Anderson. Okay. All right. You confuse me there. But Robbie Anderson, do you think anybody signs him for a second year? No. For a second? No, he'll be a jet.

Jets are going to be interesting. Yeah, Robbie Anderson, he's a good player, but he just has so much off-field stuff that you can't possibly give up a second round pick for him. And a second round pick and a contract and feel confident about it. Yeah, I completely agree. Hey, before we get into the rest of the news, I want to make sure that everybody out there, all the Footland knows where to get tickets for your sporting events, for your comedy shows.

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at the combine talking about Damien Williams saying how he does everything great on the football field. That's why we extended him. And right now, quotes, it's his job to lose. Are you buying the hype on Damien Williams, Mike? Jason Moore. Oh, you know I'm buying. I've said all along, you look, you don't give a guy an extension. Two.

two to three games into his starting career, if you're not going to have him be the absolute top chance that he can get to be the starting running back. Jason, how are you feeling? Well, I feel, um, I feel less good about. Less good. I feel less good. Less gooder. My confidence, my confidence that, uh, Damien Williams will not be the primary, uh,

Belcow running back for Kansas City Chiefs. I feel less confident in that, hoping they take that shot at Rodney Anderson. But, no, I mean, look, I went back, I watched the whole press conference because I wanted to see the context, wanted to see what was said. Of course he did. Well, yeah, no, of course I did, because I want to, look, you have to be able to change and adaptive. I mean, because he was talking about a lot of different players. I wanted to see how he was talking about everybody. And, you know, when Justin is getting brought up, you know,

Is he just saying good things about everybody? And the truth is, I think you have to take him in his word right now. He, I mean, he's clearly, I mean, obviously contractually, he is the starting running back. It looks solid for him. His stock certainly has to move up for me in Dynasty and, you know, redraft will.

set itself by the time that the season comes around. But in Dynasty, I'm more confident that he is the guy. I still believe. I still believe that if they do drive, they're going to bring in a running back. They need a third running back. Yeah, they'll bring someone. And if it turns out that on their board, their big board, a guy that they like drops. And that's where personally, I think a guy like Rodney Anderson who could easily drop to the fourth or fifth round because he was out with an ACL tear.