The NFL is Back! + NFC South Breakdown - Fantasy Football Podcast

whoever would back up Todd Gurley in Atlanta. There was a quote about Brian Hill that some players in the Atlanta organization thought that Brian Hill should have had an opportunity to be the leadback in Atlanta. That's good information for fantasy owners that are looking to ensure the Todd, like independent of a COVID season where Todd Gilly has come out, it was before these agreements took place, so I don't put too much into what he said, but he said, look, at the time he wasn't feeling.

great about the safety plan and he was prepared for the situation where he might have to sit out. He's an injury risk. And here you have a situation on a good offense that you could say, who's the guy behind him? Is it Edosmith? Is it Quadre Olson? And maybe it is Brian Hill, in fact. Yeah, I mean, I was excited to see this quote. When we were in the Scotty Fish Bowl, I know Mike was bringing Brian Hill's name up late, but I was worried.

because there's Edo Smith and Quadra Oluson. I think Brian Hill is the most talented of the three. That's who I, if I was the coach, I would give him the shot. But it seemed like last year, the next man up was Edo, which made no sense. Who is now hurt? Didn't we have a Brian Hill week? We did have. Oh, we absolutely did. Where was he was the waiver pickup. Yeah. Him and Mike Boone went out for some proyo after they let every fantasy owner down. Whoops.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like you had those two. And then who was the running back in Detroit? I know that they rotated through a few. What, Scarborough? No, the other Johnson. Oh, who was before? Because there was Ty Johnson. There you go. Yeah. He's in that group of, oh, no. Like the waiver wire money was spent and you got Jack Squaw. All right. Here's some other news. We've been following the Dalvin Cook situation.

You know, we don't know for certain right now, but ESPN is reporting that they do not expect Alvin Cook's hold out to last beyond the first week of training camp. It's based on the new CBA, which mandates a $50,000 fine per day for a player that does not report. That's a lot of money. Yeah, that's a lot of money. That's no, that's not, you know, oh, 5,000, 50,000 a day. You miss a week and that's,

That's a quarter million dollars. You're not wanting to hold out if your goal is more money. And so I was feeling pretty positive about Cook in general, but they could come to an agreement or he could just show up. And then we did have some news that Tua is feeling all right, ready to go, according to an interview with USA Today. Does that news matter to you hearing it from Tua himself? Nope. Nope.

Not at all. I mean, it's one of those things where... Doesn't matter to me either. Why? The three most difficult positions... We're here to give the news. Yeah. The three most difficult positions for rookies are quarterback, offensive line, and tight end. Those just have so much to learn. And the fact that he's coming off of the injury is coming off and doesn't have that expectation the way Burrow does to be a week one starter. I think it would just be...

insane to throw a rookie quarterback with this shortened camp experience out on the field week one. So I'm not worried about him saying my health is good. Normally Ryan Fitzpatrick goes with the root of he throws that rookie out there after a couple of weeks of performances that you're like, wait. Maybe he's just like a real generous dude. What if it comes out after his career is like, oh yeah, but I wanted to do it to get in. So that's why I threw five picks. He would do that.

He would. He's a nice guy. Him and Josh McCown would do that. All right, we're going to get into the divisional breakdowns. Before we do, I want to thank today's sponsor, WGU. You won't stop working until you reach your goals, and neither will WGU. That's why they've created an online university for people whose ambition never rests. WGU's innovative competency-based learning model was designed specifically to fit the lives of busy adults. They're a nonprofit.

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at wgU.edu slash fantasy footballers. That's wgu.g.u.edu slash fantasy footballers. And footclam, we want to make sure that you are prepped for this season and the ultimate draft kit is the place to be prepped. And look, I know a lot of people listening right now. They already have the ultimate draft kit. They're ready to go. But there are some new features coming out to our website.

These new player profiles we're about to launch are awesome, and you will get special access to things on that with Ultimate Draft Kit. It's just included. We're just including it with that. This season is going to be different than ever. You are going to want the information from the Ultimate Draft Kit this year more than ever. So check it out at Ultimate DraftKit.com. If you want all of our stats, all of our blurbs, all of our projections, video profile breakdowns, everything you need for 2020, get you through this crazy year at Ultimate DraftKit.com.

Let's get divisional. All right, we are continuing our divisional breakdowns, the fantasy football questions, answers for each and every team. And we're in the NFC South today, beginning with the New Orleans Saints last year 13 and 3. They've gone 7 and 1 on the road in back-to-back seasons. Pretty impressive. I think any NFL fan out there looks at the Saints as

that team right on the edge of, you know, Super Bowl contention in the last several years. Yeah, instead of Vikings problem. Yeah, yeah, they did. And what, do we have the one year? I'm sorry, Saints, we'll change the rules so you can throw a challenge flag on pass interference. Oh, no, that was terrible. We'll take it back. Yep.

But the nice thing is the Saints as an organization have a lot of continuity. Offense and defense, they are returning the core of this team. And in this type of an offseason, when you have a veteran team led by the same head coach for a long time, same quarterback, all the main pieces are there. I think it gives the Saints a huge leg up on a lot of the league. This is the make or break year for Super Bowl for the Saints. Yeah, I mean, we talked about.

the Kansas City Chiefs in that continuity. It feels like the Saints are that NFC roster that is together. They have, you know, that element of quarterback, head coach, offensive coordinator. You don't have something new. You're learning. Obviously, Drew Brie is one of the best in the game. The big addition this offseason was Emmanuel Sanders, wide receiver, coming over to New Orleans from San Francisco. No more Ted Ginn. Teddy Bridgewater is now the quarterback in.

Carolina. But when you look at Emmanuel Sanders, let's start there. We've talked about him at times. I really like what he brings to Drew Brees more than my attitude. I have to have Emmanuel Sanders on my roster. I think there's obviously a price that I'd like to pay for him, but it's late in drafts. Right now he's the wide receiver 41 off the board. How do you guys feel about what he brings to this offense? I really like Sanders. I think that he

Still has it, which to me was, you know, a bit of a miracle for him to come off of that injury. Meanwhile, his, you know, his teammate, former teammate, Demarius Thomas, same injury is out of the league now. So he still has it. And I took a look back because we're all, I think we're all a bit jaded right now. One, the passing volume for the Saints over the past couple years has been coming down. But the last two years, it's been Trey Kwan Smith as really the wide receiver two.

And he has let people down in a pretty big way, including I think the Saints organization. He's not the player that they hoped he would become. And if you look at the past 11 seasons, even including the Treyquan Smith past two years, the wide receiver two for Drew Brees and the Saints, he's been a top 30 fantasy wide receiver in eight of 11 years. But not the last two because Treyquan Smith has been that guy. So I think there is.

I think we should like Emmanuel Sanders a little bit more than we do. Yeah, I mean, the top 30 number tells you that if that came to fruition, obviously Sanders is well below that in draft capital. Trachlon Smith felt more like the wide receiver two by result, not by design. You know, a piece of the puzzle beyond Michael Thomas, but Michael Thomas dominated so much of that offense. I think one of the other big question marks about this team is what Alvin Camara are you going to get this season.

He's the RB4 off the board. So I think the consensus is that he'll be back and be one of the most effective fantasy running backs in football. You guys both feel that way? Do you feel like there'll be a return to the touchdown totals at least in part from a couple of years ago? Because, you know, last year was a struggle.

I absolutely think Alvin Camara is going to be a tip-top back. I mean, that's someone that when you take at the fourth spot in the draft, it's ironic because really when you're at that fourth or fifth spot, the two players that you're usually deciding on are teammates here between Alvin Camara and Michael Thomas in your first round. Say, do I want that running back or wide receiver? I would go with Alvin Camara because I like the running back as a tiebreaker.

And the truth is, Alvin Kamara's been great. This offense is great. They have no new competition against him. And last season, he was dominating. He didn't get as many touchdowns early in the season. And then he got injured with the same injury that Saquan Barkley had. It took time to get back. But I remember the first couple games of last year just watching how dominant he is. He gets to the edge. He makes people miss.

I see no reason on film or with any transaction that the team has made to say that Alvin Camara wouldn't be a top option. And I'm glad we get to talk about him today because he's he's really been, there's always the top three, right? You're always talking about Christian McCaffrey, Sequin, Barclay and Zeke. And then we're talking about the back of the first. We're talking, do you go Josh Jacobs or Dalvin Cuccovy slips or Kenya Drake? But Alvin Camara is sitting here and probably Derek Henry is near here as well where you're saying.

He just doesn't get a lot of press right now, but he's still being drafted there. And I fully expect him to have a great season. I think the one thing that Alvin Camara has that is different than those top three guys is that a little bit of insecurity about what you're going to get around the goal line. Because Latavius Murray was pretty good last year. Alvin Camara went from 34 10 zone rushes to 14.

in a span of 2018 to 2019. Yes, there was some injury concerns, and yes, you're going to get the receiving totals from Camara. But I do want, you know, when you look at what the top 10 backs bring you, Camara does bring a question mark as to whether he gets that work. And that's just something you have to accept with what he brings. A little bit. I took a, I was looking at those numbers too, Andy, and where.

Camara's big year in 2018, he had 13 carries inside the five, like the really, really valuable carries. He had 13 of them. Mark Ingram had 12 that year. That's crap though. You got 25 carries. Last year, Camarra only had eight. Now, he was injured. So, I mean, if he doesn't miss a few, miss those games, perhaps he's right back up to the 13. But what's wild to me is Latavius Murray had four. That would...

That's it. So between the two starting running backs, you only had 12 carries inside the five compared to 25 two years ago. And I was trying to look at this from every single angle I could find. Drew Brees, his red zone attempts were very, very close, at least what he was pacing last year, you know, 2019 to 2018. The Saints offense was only six yards a game better in 2018. They just...

They just didn't score as many points. And I think that that's just one of those abs and flows of the NFL. So I really, really like Camara where he's going in the draft. It is, it's difficult for me to shake that quote from last off season. Yeah, I get, yeah, which was John Peyton talking about Alvin Camara being soft. It was not, you know, on record anywhere. But that quote combined with Latavius Murray being brought in and then Camara.

following that quote up with getting hurt. And so that component of whether he can stay healthy to me is still a variable in his projections. I am at the lowest of the three of us. So that's why I bring up at least a wart in my mind. I've met RB7. So, oh, wow, I'm, you know, severely disrespecting him. I hate him. He did, you know, it's one of those things because the touchdowns did come and the injury happened. I don't think you realize how good he was last season.