Evolving Player Opinions + Dalvin, Zeke News - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/15

But it's not a Jason Moore bit. It's a bit by their parents who named them. David Montgomery. Kyle, look into this. David Montgomery or Delvin Cook? Oh, I hope Jason was just lying. We'll find out. Jason's right. Okay, confirmed. David Montgomery or Delvin Cook? I'll take the passing game potential of Dalvin. I'll go Dalvin as well. I think he's going to be really valuable in the first few weeks. Now, he's not going to practice for another week. Which means that technically Breeze will be back to practice before Delvin. He's still recovering from his shoulder injury. And worth pointing out Nathaniel Hackett. Yeah. Offensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers. That's where he was a couple years ago. And that was Aaron Jones. We had the lightning and the thunder. You had Aaron Jones and you had A.J. Dylan. So that's got a big potential for that. It does. If that, like, that was his tendency when you had, when you have Aaron Jones and like.

We like Dylan as a player, but it's like Aaron Jones. Give this guy the ball all the time, and they would still work in other guys. It's very difficult for me because, you know, I think of one of Breece Hall's huge plays last year. It was a little screen pass, more like a running back screen that he housed from 60 out. And I'm like, I watched Delvin do that handful of times last year. It's like if they're splitting those opportunities, it says a lot for this year. And it's great for. The Jets. The Jets. Yeah. So I know some people think Dalvin's completely washed and they're going to be the people drafting Brees Hall in every fantasy draft. They're going to be the first ones to the table for Brees. And Mike, this is the news that you hadn't quite heard about. Did you know that the Patriots signed Ezekiel Elliott to a one-year deal worth up to $6 million? Guys, I've been lying the whole time. You have heard about this? I did hear about this. I've known about this news.

And it's... Did you get tagged or a little bit? People are checking in. Appreciate everyone out there on X making sure that my mental health is okay. I made it through. It is not as, this news is not as devastating as Dalvin Cook is to Breece Hall and of what that could be. But here's where it really stinks for Remandre Stevenson. Stevenson was not the best at the goal line. this past off season in short area or short yardage situations. That wasn't really his strongest suit. Fumbled a little bit at the end of the year when I needed him to get into the end zone. You do have that. But at the time when I was really into drafting Stevenson, no one else was going, no one else on that roster could possibly take that work away from him. They just weren't good enough. And it was, well, let's wait.

Who's going to actually sign here? And it's Zeke. I think that Zeke has certainly passed his prime, but where he was still successful was short area and at the goal line, far more successful than Remandre Stevenson. And if you have, even with Remandre still getting the passwork, if Zeke comes in and he takes over 50% of the goal line carries, which I don't think is an outrageous thing to say, it could be even more. If that happens, Stevenson's value takes a pretty major hit. Stevenson is still the running back I want. I don't really want to draft Zeke, but it moves Remandre. I'm pretty much at ADP market now with Remandre Stevenson, so it's not, we're not getting a screaming deal in the draft to where I had him ranked. I still want Stevenson on my team, but this is a...

This certainly caps the ceiling. Yeah, I still have Ramandre Stevenson at RB12. I think he's going to be great this season. You saw this last year, right? He moved to 10. With Damien Harris and Ramandre Stevenson, you already had someone that was taking some of that early down work so that they could focus Ramandre Stevenson and let him really be part of the past catching game. Zeke is not the player that would have come in. to hurt him as much. I definitely think Zeke has lost a step. Still, much better than the other backups peer strong and what they were dealing with. But he is the weaker asset in that backfield compared to Remandre. And I'm looking here. It looks like the final two-minute drill yesterday, finished with Remandre Stevenson, taking a shallow crosser, 40 yards to the house. He's still a good player. Here's a couple things to factor in. One, Zeke.

Zeke scored 12 times last year, 12 touchdowns. He'd scored 11 of them in nine games. He had a run of nine consecutive games scoring a touchdown. The schedule. He knows how to score. And he had a pretty good fantasy season. And I agree with everything you guys are saying, except it's very interesting to look at the box scores last year of Remandre Stevenson, even when Damien Harris was missing time. He had games where he had 11 carries seven. carries, three, carries, eight, carries, six carries. I think Zique could get a lot of the between the tackles first and second down work. He could. And obviously, Remandre was still very valuable, but he, you know, he finished at 11 last year and that was on the back of 69 receptions. Nice. So, I mean, you guys laid it out pretty well. It's not as good as if he didn't sign, but he's still going to be competing every week. And the only variable that exists that hasn't been discussed is the fact that Bill Belichick and the Patriots are.

They're wild. Like trust goes a long way. If Ramandre fumbles, there's somebody else there that can get more work. There really wasn't that option for them. No, it was very, sorry, it was very apparent. If you watched the preseason matchup and they were trying to give these backups some carries for the Patriots, I think that was the final straw for Bill Belichick. He went, nope, this is not good enough. I got to go get one of these vets. And I would also imagine now that. both Zeke and Dalvin Cook are off the market, that the domino of Cream Hunt will fall soon. And where's that going to be? Oh, my name is Alexander Madison. I'm a little, yeah, I'm wondering. JK Dobbins off the pup, return to practice. I am very excited for Dobbins. Anthony Richardson is the starter for the Indianapolis Colts. Good for you. You guys watch all the reps during the precept? Yeah, I did. I saw some bad stuff and I saw some.

Just incredibly great stuff. What he can do when it's good is so good. Did you hear his response? He was shocked. Yeah, he was shocked that he was named the week one started. Look, if I'm competing against Garden of Minchu, I'd be shocked if I beat him out too. He's just too cool. Brock Purdy will no longer require any off days now in practice, gearing up for the regular season, ready to rumble. Mike Gisicki, dislocated shoulder, minor, disco, yeah. Mild. dislocated shoulder. He's been having a pretty good camp. T.J. Hawkinson. I don't know why you guys are laughing. I'm laughing because I've never seen it. I've never seen. He's dealing with an ear. He's dealing with an ear infection. Too much time in the tub. It was throwing off his equilibrium. But I've just never seen a practice report that's like, because we've wondered the whole time, is this money? Is this finances? Why has he been off the field? It was an ear infection. And then it finally got revealed there was an ear infection. It was like,

Well, that's a new one. I guess the equilibrium makes perfect sense. Say it's new for us for football, but if you've ever had a bad ear infection, goodness gracious. Imagine getting hit in the head while you have an ear infection. When's the last time you had an ear infection? It's been a long time. It's been a long time. It's okay, Mike. He's a tight end. So he's wearing the big pillow helmets right now. And then Cowboys, they have their guard back. Zach Martin. Zach Martin wins. Those those pillow helmets, which are so funny looking. When it's on a small player, like J.K. Dobbins yesterday watching him, it just looks like how can you hold your head up? I'm sure they're very light, but it looks like it would be. You look like the great gazoo from the Flintstones. Like you put in the code on NBA jam for a bobblehead. You're just full. The proportions just don't look right. I already told Jason this. Like I don't, like they're clearly better for the players, so why don't they just like play all the games with those?

Because the players still want to look cool. Yeah. I mean, it really is. Because they look ridiculous. All right. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Let's hop into the mailbag. Mailbag. All right. If you have a question for the show, you can go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com. Click that submit a question button. Or you can dial our voicemail hotline 302-464. T-F-F-B. We'll go ahead and we'll kick this off with a voicemail question. Actually, no, let me answer this one first because we haven't whispered about it yet. But one common question that came through on socials was, is the Megalabole happening again this year? Yep. Does a bear crap in the woods? Yep. Of course it's happening. It's the biggest best.

tournament of the year. The winner will play in our next year's listener league, and we will be announcing how to join Monday. Also, I mean, like right now, because if you support us at join the foot.com, you're going to have a free entry into the Meglabel. Yeah, it's just the link will not be up. Correct. Until next week. But you could prep up. Yeah, you can, you know. You can go pledge over there, and then you're ready to rumble when I announced them. There you go. Here's a voicemail. Hey. footballers they call me big chungis and i live in tex arcana bonjour i have a question if you could pick your draft slot which one would you take rank them from favorite to least favorite thanks hashtag dinner butter okay first of all i'm not ranking 12 spots in order chungis favorite spot least favorite spot there was a big chungus my favorite spot is number three

Actually, no, I'm changing that. It was four. Then it was three. My favorite spot is now number two. I would like the CMC Jefferson decision made for me. Chase with the calf of borough re-injury risk, cup, hamstring. I'm going to remove those from locks. I guess I could say three and put Tyreek in there, but no, I'm going to go number two. You said exactly my opinions right now. 100% identical. I said my opinions, but, yeah. I'm good with, I share them. You're with them? Everything you said, I was four. Then with those other two issues. Okay. I'm still sitting at four. You're comfortable with cup? Yes. I'm comfortable with the three wide receivers, Christian McCaffrey. And then I get, you know, just a slightly earlier choice for my second pick. All right. Thank you for the question. Big Jungus.

All right, Twitter question from the sports fan says, can you explain on the position premium in smaller leagues like a 10 team and 18 league? Andy briefly mentioned it on the Saturday mock draft show. Sure. I mean, we were discussing it related to the tight end position. When you're in a 12, 14, 16 team league, if you don't end up with Travis Kelsey and Mark Andrews, you still play. the rest of your games other than those two teams that have those two players against people with a very similar tight-in situation to you. So it's not a positional advantage to the degree that it is in an eight-team league where you're probably facing Kelsey and Andrews and Waller two times in a league like that where you're going to be outmaned at the positions. That's my philosophy of it. Yeah, that's one way to look at it. Another way to describe the same thing is to just say everybody's team in a 10 team or an 8-team league is

really good. Like your third flex is going to be a nice player and so is your opponents. And so there are only a few players in all of fantasy football that are outliers. There's only one up. You know, you're Christian McCaffrey, your big three at quarterback, Mark Andrews, Travis Kelsey at tight in. Like you have to, usually when you look at who wins in a smaller league, they've got. they've got one or two of those type of players that set them apart because everyone's roster is great. And it goes the other way too of just looking at how many players are being drafted. Like everyone in normal league, everyone is starting at least two running backs, at least two wide receivers. So if you're now at four, if you go from a 12 to a 14 teamer, how many running backs on average are those teams drafting? Four, five, right?

Okay, now the player pool, now you have 10 running backs that are removed from the player pool going from a 12 to a 14. And Jason's right of you need to have the guys that can separate. You can absorb the draft cost of taking the high-end quarterback or the tight end because there's fewer running backs being drafted. And so your player pool is better. Better ones are going to come back to you. Yes. Yeah. Back into a voicemail question. Hi, this is Dave from Indiana. I'm in a league where it's a superflex league, but quarterback is somewhat undervalued and not drafted as quickly as it should be. What's my best strategy to take advantage of that and draft quarterback's high to get a positional advantage or kind of stick with a herd so I don't miss out on some value picks later on? Thanks, guys. So this is a superflex question, but they're saying that surprisingly it's not just a huge quarterback run at the top of the draft.

So how would you handle that draft? To me, this is great news. This is, I'm going to get two awesome quarterbacks. You're going to spend your heavy capital picks on that one, but then the wide receiver and running back pool is going to be. So in a super in a super flex where obviously you're you're starting 24 wide receivers every single or 24 quarterbacks every single week. Every single quarterback will be drafted. There isn't just a waiver wire where you can go and make changes. You can't stream the position and they they do score the most. Obviously that's why we go from late round quarterback strategy to usually like the first six or seven picks in a super flex are the quarterback position. If.

You know, in the second round, in a normal super flex where the first round is all these, you know, great quarterbacks, I'm almost never taking a quarterback in that second round because they're just, they're a tier or two, too low compared to the running backs and wide receivers that are there. I'm not going to do that. But if this is a league where all of a sudden a really good quarterback is falling into the middle of the second round, someone that is in that, you know, if a Herbert or a Fields or, you know, even like a Lawrence is falling deep into the second round, that's where it's like, that's worth it to me. Because if you could start your draft with a Josh Allen and, you know, another one of those guys, the top seven guys, if you could start, I mean, you're going to be at such an advantage.

That's the way I would personally play it. I would be really willing to take the one if you can get the true top tier quarterback. And then it's just paying attention to the tiers. I mean, we're really saying the same thing. I'm just, I would anticipate that my second pick would likely be a wide receiver or running back. But I think Jason's right. If you're looking at tier whatever, four. tier three, tier four running backs, and there's still somehow a tier one quarterback because your league just undervalues them, then just load up and kill people that way. Kill people? Yeah, with points. Okay. That just sounded really extreme. I take it very seriously. Twitter question from more. He says, where do you find the ADP comparison tool?

that shows you ADP between different platforms. I checked the app and the website. I couldn't find it. We just announced this worth stating it again. We added a new research tool to the ultimate draft kit that allows you to, we've always had an ADP page in there that shows the sleeper ADP by scoring system. And that updates every day. We have now added an ADP comparison tool, which shows you the differentiation between ESPN, Yahoo, Sleeper, Underdog, and that is found under the research. ADP platform comparison tab in the UDK. It is not on the app yet. Not yet. So it is only on the web version. It will be added to the app at some point. But if you looked on the app and you didn't find it, that's why I should have specified, just go to, here's a little shortcut. If you have the UDK, you can go to myudk.com. That's how I get there. And it takes you right into the dashboard and you can click on the research tab and find it there. We will be talking about.

certain platforms where players can be, dare I say, stolen. Yeah, I mean, Dalvin Cook is a perfect example because there are certain platforms that are far more active in the offseason. Like Sleeper is usually much more active. So he's in the sixth round right now. He's the sixth pick in the sixth round. But if you look at some other platforms, like he's not even registering right now on ESPN and Yahoo. He's going undrafted in a lot of those leagues. And so when he starts getting drafted, it will be... very, very late. Their ADP will be lagging and they will be lower. So Dalvin Cook could very easily, if you're playing in an ESPN or Yahoo League, those are the type of players where they probably won't adjust an ADP quick enough, where if you're drafting any time in the next couple weeks, it's probably going to be a value. All right, let's jump into another voicemail question. Annie, Mike, and Jason, love your guys, this podcast, man. You guys are great. Just had a question regarding Derek Henry. He hasn't really been talked about this off season a whole lot.

What do you guys think his potential ceiling is? And also, where do you think worst case scenario he could end up? Thanks, guys. All right. So the question is whether, where do we see Derek Henry's outlook and potential for this season? Where is you going to end up? I know everybody's been waiting for the shoe to drop on Derek Henry, which, you know, he got hurt a couple years ago and then came back last year and stayed mostly healthy. So, you know, what are the range of outcomes for Derek Henry? Yeah, he stayed super healthy. He would have played all 17 games last year. They rested him in week 17 because they had that weird situation where it didn't matter. It didn't matter. So they just, you know, for the playoffs. He was the running back four last year. He had 1,538 rushing yards and almost 400 receiving yards a little bit more involved in the receiving game. The truth for Derek Henry is when he loses it, it's gone. This type of player, we've seen it just.

time after time after time after time we have not yet seen that he's lost anything i do not believe he's lost anything um he is the center of this offense every you know when when they talk about this team this off season They still acknowledge, like, after the Hopkins signing, this is Derek Henry's team. He's going to get the ball a ton, and I think he's a screaming value right now for how he has fallen due to the fears of age and due to the fears of the team. Like the Titans... have been a team that early this offseason seem like they are ready to collapse and fall apart. This division is the Jaguars to, you know, now and they need to move on. They drafted a banana ramma at quarterback. Will Levis. And so, you know, third stringer. They're ready to, they're ready to move on and rebuild and all that. But truly to me, the Hopkins signing was monumental. It changed what I believe this offense.

It took Traylon Burks from a hopeful upside. I mean, it hurt him for fantasy, but it put him into a great position to succeed in the NFL. Now with Traylon Burks as a wide receiver, too, DeAndre Hopkins on the outside, Derek Henry in the backfield, Ryan Tanna Hill should be fine. They're well coached. And for Derek Henry to succeed, you want them to win games. He is the closer. He is the four-minute running back. He is the guy that like... how many Ws do the Titans have? And it looked early this off season like they were going to be a, you know, competing for a high draft pick. Now I'm like, I think they're going to be winning games. If they're winning games, Derek Henry is awesome. Let me make the bare case for the season. And if you agree, Mike, or I don't know which side you stand. The weapons that you brought up, they didn't have any last year. So DeAndre Hopkins, Healthy Trailing Berks, Chiga Conquo broke out over the back half of the year. Those are three viable weapons in the offense.

This team also drafted a player that we haven't talked about, but in preseason, very impressive. Heck of a Derek Henry impression on a stiff arm. Tajay Spears. Tajay Spears running back. They haven't had any viable backup running backs on this roster. Last year, when he didn't score a touchdown, he was at 9.6 fantasy points per game. So he should score a lot of touchdowns. There's not like, the bear case is not Derek Henry's useless. It's just that maybe. Derek Henry has a 1,300-yard rushing season, and he doesn't score 20 times, and maybe you're disappointed, even though it's better than most running backs end up? It's certainly possible. The offensive line for the Titans is not projecting very well if you're into PFF's grading system at all. The Titans currently dead last. They are 32nd best, according to Pro Football Focus.

I am more on the side of... Double-digit touchdowns in five straight years for him. I am more on the side of he is the Yeti. He is a mythical creature. And at this point, he's still going to be dominating on a football field. He is a complete outlier because... It's also discounted if he were to repeat it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, his ADP is a little deflated, but it's like Derek Henry is everything about the profile of Derek Henry says this is a running back that I would fade nine out of ten times. He's going to be turning 30. He's, wow, yes, he caught some more passes this past week. He's close to a zero in the passing game. But this is a different player and he has different rules and he doesn't care about what other people say about those things. And I think that he will continue to see, you know, what.

So much work. Over 300 attempts on the ground. I think that the yards and the touchdowns will be there. Derek Henry was the fourth running back drafted last year. People were calling for the bust. Instead, he finished as the running back four. And now you can get him in the second round. It does it. It feels a little bit like what happened to Nick Chub last year where Nick Chub was, he was like the same spot in the draft. And then he was the best running back for the first like 10 weeks. And we're all like, oh. Probably should have seen that as a possibility. Like, Derek Henry could 100% be the best pick in the draft. Derek Henry is in the second round because of cowards. Because of fear-based drafting. Fear-based drafting. Yeah, that's a new strategy that I don't recommend. I don't either. Where he's going, he might be bad. He's Superman. You just draft it. You can only draft with no more than three seconds on the clock. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, no cheat sheet either. You just have to scream a name. Scream a name outside. Nelson Angler! All right, that is going to do it for today's episode of the show. We'll be back tomorrow, Brooks. What are we doing tomorrow? Oh, Brooks. Uh-oh. Couldn't find the button. We are top 10 tips and tricks. Okay. And then the next day after that? Mock draft mayhem. And the day after that, my guys. Yeah, we got big shows coming up. The Fantasy Footballers.com. If you want access to all of our content and amazing writing staff over there. Pumping out incredible articles. Check that out. Back with you tomorrow. Goodbye. You for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com. And follow us on Twitter at theFF ballers.