Early Top 20 QB Rankings + Draft Hype! - Fantasy Football Podcast

like, you know, an RB1 at 38. That being said, that would be the wrong call for Dynasty if Lamar gave you seasons like this for the next five years. Right. I will take five of those over, you know, ping ponging, you know, touchdown numbers from Mahomes. And two years ago, we saw this narrative play out, you know, the unsustainable touchdown rate for Patrick Mahomes, the regression down from that to still a great season, dealing with the injuries. There are a lot of variables that can happen for any quarterback after a special year.

At three and four, we have Kyler Murray and Deshawn Watson. And when I saw these guys at three and four, I thought to myself, well, that is near, there's no way that that would be the case if Hopkins was on the other quarterback's team. I think that that was the difference maker in, again, splitting hairs between a couple of great options. Jason and I have Kyler at three this year. Mike has him at five.

Mike has Deshaun Watson still at number three, and Jason and I have him at six. So I know, Mike, you've talked to me about Watson and how you believe that he will be forced, he will be backed into the running totals that will, I assume you believe, exceed 82 for 413 and 7 from last year. Yeah, I'm going to, when we stack guys out.

It's off the top of my head. It's hard for me to see Deshaun Watson not above the 600 yard mark. I think he will run a lot more. And Brandon Cooks, he's not Yonre Hopkins, but Brandon Cooks has still been a production monster in the NFL. So even though the tier of the quarterback or wide receiver has gone down, he's still surrounded by.

by players that can go off every single week with Cooks, if Will Fuller somehow stayed healthy. He's surrounded by elite weapons and then just on top of that, having to run a bit more. I'm still very secure with Deshaun Watson being that second tier of quarterback. And the D. Johnson brothers at running back are, you know, a quarterback's best friend. So he can go deep to...

three different incredible speedsters dump it down to David Johnson or Duke Johnson. Be careful when accepting trades this year in platforms. Be careful way on your draft. Yes, seriously. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. As far as Kyler goes, Kyler's probably going to cost too much for me to have in any league. He'll be drafted as a top five quarterback. There's a chance that.

Deshawn Watson maybe drops out of that. I mean, he's my quarterback six, so I don't expect him to necessarily be drafted super high, but he could end up being a value. Kyler finished as the quarterback seven last year in a rookie year where he only threw 20 touchdowns because you have that rushing baseline. Now he gets, if you didn't have Hopkins coming to this team, you would be moving Kyler Murray up from seven based on him taking that leap in his year two. He would probably be a top five guy, but oh, they added.

D'Andre Hopkins. So, yeah, I mean, it's hard to argue against Kyler as the third quarterback off the board. I think Kyler will still run for more yards than Watson will. That part of his game moves these guys way up the board, obviously. Last year. Yeah, there's a theme. It's running quarterbacks. One thing that was strange with Watson last year, even with the weapons that he had, is that he did have those kind of down games.

And then you knew the next game after would be great, but he did it like five times during the year. And I am a little bit concerned about the passing touchdown totals. I can get behind him being backed into running more often, but I don't know if that will equate to sustain drives for this offense on a regular basis. All those guys staying healthy, losing Hopkins around the goal line. That will be something interesting to watch for Deshaun Watson and whether this team can kind of.

maintain its offensive prowess. If David Johnson has something left in the tank, that'll be something to watch. And obviously, Kyler, going into year two. At five and six, we have Dak Prescott and Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson. I thought there was a chance Mike would take Russ and, you know, just throw him down to like 20, 30, maybe below Will Greer.

You would rank him down there. But your victory lap on Russell Wilson did not equate to a like a second tier number. I've never been so right and so wrong at the exact same time. Yeah, your victory lap was not a victory lap because you were. No, I lost. I lost that bet. Yeah, to refresh our listeners memory, what was the exact bet that Russ would be a top what? Top 12. Yeah, I win all in. I said he would not finish as QB1. Dang, that's a bad bet, Mike.

That's just that. Top 12 is a bad bet. That was a bad bet by you. I was, I was being bold. You needed to bet in a way that what happened last year gives you a win because you, because what happened last year was that you weren't happy. You won seven times. Exactly. And he finished as the QB4.

That's not supposed to happen. No, he had monster games and disappearing acts. He was as hot and cold as any quarterback comes. And if you started Russell Wilson, weekend and week out, every, you know, the quarterback four, if you just started him every week, your team lost a lot of games. It's interesting because I do think Wilson is primed for a end of year statistical season at the same level of...

last year, if not better. I mean, they added Greg Olson, Philip Dorset, another year with D.K. Metcalf, and then Wilson just finds a way. He's the one player that kind of takes unsustainable touchdown rates and just makes them a habit. Yeah, and the problem, what hurts me so much is that Russell Wilson should be a top three guy. It's not Russell Wilson who's holding himself back. It's the offense. It's the way that they choose to.

that Pete Carroll is approaching the NFL with the run heavy offense. I can't argue with the results for the most part. The Seahawks have been extremely successful in the last few years. It just sucks to see a player of Russell Wilson's talent and ability to be hamstrung by the guys in charge.

It's, by the way, 30 plus passing touchdowns in four of the last five years for Russell Wilson. That's insane. This is where fantasy football kind of ruins the appreciation for ordinary NFL success, right? Because they've been, like you said, they've been a great team. They've been, they've had better years than we expected them to do based on the rosters that they were putting out there.

over and over and over again, validating a system that doesn't lean on Russell the way that Kansas City leans on Patrick Mahomes. But we all just have that curiosity. We want to see what would Russell do if he was with Andy Reid or in a system that let him chuck it. You would dominate. That's what he would do. So back to DAC, our number five quarterback, I was surprised to see both of you guys.

have him up at number four. I've got him down at seven. Obviously, he finished quarterback two last year, an excellent season. The changes in the offense with the new head coach, Mike McCarthy coming in, the fact that he threw for 596 passes last year. I don't expect them to stay that pass, you know, heavy. However, they did retain the same offensive coordinator. And historically speaking, Mike McCarthy was always yelled at for, you know, not.

running the ball more. So what are your guys' reasons for putting DAC up at four? This is a respect thing for me. I mean, he just had a solid fantasy year where Omari Cooper disappeared at times, was injured at times, and the weapons, you know, Gallup coming into, you know, coming into his own at the position, I just think the weapons with what they're going to put on DAC, you know, he belongs in that top five for me after the QB2 finish. Mike, what were your reasons?

Yeah, that's it. His weapons are fantastic. I kind of alluded to it during our wide receiver talk that I think that of the teams that have a chance to have two wide receivers in the top 20, I think that Dallas has some of the highest odds in the NFL. On top of that, DAC is a really, really good quarterback. I mean, he was one of the most accurate guys going down the field last year. The fact that Zeke is there,

It just, it helps. I mean, teams can't decide, they can't sell out to stop one aspect of the Dallas offense. If you sell it, stop the run, Dak will crush you. If you sell it to stop Dak, then Zeke will crush you. So I think that that Dak, and Dak has the rushing ability as well. His rushing touchdowns were actually down a little bit, but he is, those first few years, he was like six rushing touchdowns every single year. That gives you a nice little bonus.

Every once in a while, I think that he's, he's very, very safe. And he almost hit 5,000 yards. Yeah, that's what impressed me is he didn't need to run. He didn't get the rushing touchdowns last year. 277 on the ground, three touchdowns. And it was all through the air. Allegedly dealing with a banged up of Mari Cooper. I'll use the quotes. And Michael Gallup missed a couple games as well. That narrative about the Mari Cooper, that's the thing that does excite me for the.

you know, the high end deck. If you want to put him at number four or even at number three, because you look at the, you know, how he was the first 11 weeks of the season, he was unbelievable. From week 12 on, for his six games, he wasn't even a top 15 quarterback. And those were the weeks where, you know, Amari was injured and struggling. And I, you know, I remember. Yeah, yeah. Some tough matchups in New England, in New England, Chicago, in Chicago.

Yes, tough matchups and, you know, I just want to remind us all, do you remember the games where Amari Cooper was out there and he was just a decoy? I mean, he looked like he couldn't run. He couldn't cut. He just was a guy struggling to exist on the field. And so, you know, there is upside. If both those guys stay healthy and Amari Cooper isn't just the 50-50 man, but if he's actually the $100 million man,

then then DAC should finish great. All right. At seven, Josh Allen, eight Drew Brees. Allen is kind of the inverse of DAC in terms of the rankings with Mike and I and Jason. Jason has Josh Allen up at four, the addition of Stefan Diggs. The Bills, I'm a big Bills fan this year. Josh Allen passed for 3,000 yards last year. 20 touchdowns. I'm fine getting behind him.

taking a bit of a leap. Obviously, he can run the football. I have a hard time getting up to four, but I'd love to see it, Jay. I'd love to see it. Yeah, I mean, you know, he was the quarterback six this last season. And he was a little bit disappointing because he was consistent, but never gave you those big blowup games. But we saw from his rookie season.

that he can absolutely give big blow-up games. He had monster performances with his rushing and the back half of that rookie season once he got back from injury. So if he finished at six, he's still maturing as a quarterback. And then you add Stefan Diggs to this lineup. I felt I had to move him up. You know, this is a guy who had nine rushing touchdowns this last year. So the 20 pass, it's very Cam Newton-esque. And Cam Newton was pretty much always a top six quarterback if he played the season.

Usually the top three quarterback because you had so many rushing touchdowns that when you get down near the goal line, he is your most effective weapon at running the ball in. And so, you know, how would you feel if he had 29 passing touchdowns and all those touch? A lot better.

I'm saying he scored 29 touchdowns. They were just rushing, which is more valuable for fantasy. The theme Mike was saying earlier, of those top guys are all outside of Mahomes, they are all so good at running the ball because that's the cheat code in fantasy football where it's scored different when you have rushing yards versus passing yards.

I think Josh Allen continues to dominate on the ground. That's why I've got him at number four. There is an argument to me. I mean, Stefan Diggs, I believe he was number two in the NFL and 20 plus yard catches outside. I think Ghaladay was number one. Diggs was number two. Alan is, I know we talk about his efficiency problems, but his completion percentage problems. But in part of this, because he's willing to throw the ball up. And when Kurt Cousins threw the ball up, Diggs was.