Top 10 QB Rankings + Preseason Takeaways, UDK FOR LIFE! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/15

Footland, it is the time for fantasy football. We have preseason games we're reacting to. People's drafts are happening, and we have a huge announcement on today's show. Like this video, subscribe. This is the season to subscribe, turn your notifications on, and enjoy the show. Hey, it's me, the guy who introduces the show. Listen to my amazing voice. Now, check out the amazing ultimate draft kit. The guy's been all offseason creating this bad boy. and they keep it updated all off season. It's got their full projections, breakouts, sleepers, bus, over a hundred player profile videos. It's even got a mobile app. Has my incredible voice lulled you into a deep sense of trust and commitment? Perfect. Now check out Ultimate DraftKit.com and get ready to win your league. Now, back to the show. To the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your host.

Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. We're getting there. I'm broken. I'm a broken man. Good gracious. We got you, Andy. Together, hand in hand. Monday. Red Rover style, sit fantasy football on over. August 15th, welcome into the fantasy footballers podcast. What a game Red Rover was. Oh, man, just murder ball for little kids. Just. Hey, we're going to hold this tight. We're going to try to knock you down while you try to break our arms. Was, do they still do that? I don't think so. I think it's been banished from the playground, which is probably the right call. I mean, there was a lot of injuries from that game as a child. Yeah, but we became resilient. Ah.

Weed it out. Sorry, we got some of the kids. Some of the kids are weeded out. We became resilient. Those losers over there. We became stronger because the broken bones had more calcium. That's what I'm saying because it heals stronger. Welcome into the show. So excited to be with you, fantasy drafts. I mean, really, they're going to be going this weekend, this week, all the way through to the beginning of the year. We've got preseason week one in the books. We have a lot going on, very, very excited to dive into some quarterback rankings today, talk through some of the preseason news. I mean, it's happening right now. Oh, it's happening. It's a big week. And, well, this is as big as it gets because we have something very exciting to announce, Mike. Can I get your trumpet? Thank you very much. Right now, it's our biggest giveaway of the year. We're giving away the ultimate draft kit.

For life. For life. This is our ultimate draft kit for life giveaway. We are also tossing in a Debo Samuel signed jersey, a Stefan Diggs signed mini helmet. But how would I possibly get such incredible prizes? Thank you, Mickey. No, it's me. The voice of public opinion, the public, yes. Well, here's how, Mike. You can order the 2022. Ultimate Draft Kit, which many of you already have and many of you have not. But if you order it by Friday at 630 Eastern, you will be entered to win the Ultimate Draft Kit for life. Oh boy. And you can do that at Ultimate DraftKit.com. We'll be announcing the winner during a live stream event on Friday. Clear your calendars. Make sure Friday you're with us. We're going to have a party.

It's going to be an awesome live stream event, and we will give it away on that live stream. We did this last year. It was awesome. And we have had Ultimate Draft Kit for Life winners in years past. And they just, you know, send Papa Josh an email, and then he gives them a new UDK every year until they die. So, you know, it's a pretty fun giveaway. We'll be live on YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, Facebook for that live stream on Friday. But again, go to Ultimate DraftKit.com. Pick up the UDK or the UDK Plus. This is the time. Prepare yourself for your draft. And if you do it before Friday, you will be entered to win the ultimate draft kit for life, just on autopilot, the UDK. So check that out. Here's the quick question. Takeaway from week one of the preseason. I'd like to skip this question. There are a lot of players that we wanted to see on the field.

We may have seen five snaps, 10 snaps, a second quarter here, a player that we didn't think should be playing in the fourth quarter here. But, Mike, I'll let you start this. Do you need any, do you need like a music bed or anything like that? I think we've been there, done that. So go ahead and share your insight. We don't need the music bed for it. And you got to, like, emotions, we talked about this a lot. And just the emotional connection we get to our. our players because they're on our teams. They help us win fantasy championships. But you got to be realistic about these things. And I've been trying to hold out just, just grasping at the, the small amount of hope that I could for Antonio Gibson since the NFL draft. And this preseason week one, it's just game one, but it went as bad as it possibly could.

Go. Yeah. With McKissick coming back, you're like, okay, that's fine. We can accept what Gibson is now at a third round running back. Okay, we can try and factor that in and Gibson can still be useful. Maybe he's being a little bit overdrafted. But fumbling at practice comes into preseason game week one, can set all of Washington coaches minds at ease, have just a real solid performance, essentially immediately fumbles. gets benched. Brian Robinson comes in to play with the starters, looks good, gets a goal line carry. And then Antonio Gibson is seemingly punished and put back into the game with the backups. This is, yeah, yeah. Wow, this is really long. Yeah, this is like, I have.

You know, he's been my champion for the last couple years, trying to just be like he's okay right now at his ADP. But now the way it stands, it is ADP. It would be a really catastrophic draft pick. It's a shame. It sucks. Because I still think Gibson is extremely talented the player like him. But now the situation is just, he's put himself, he's played himself out. He's played himself into a really bad situation. There are players who have had fumbling issues. who have corrected it and gone all the way to the other side of like they never fumble again. And if one player should have really gotten that message this off season, it was Antonio Gibson. And I don't know what he's doing wrong, but I mean, fumbling. Yeah, I imagine that at this point mentally when the team is just like, don't fumble, don't fumble. We were saying that he's probably saying don't fumble, don't fumble in his head the whole time. He's worried about nothing else but not fumbling. And then.

causes the fumble. Yeah, we saw that with what was it, Chris Carson a couple years ago at the beginning of the year. It was like the fumbling problem was in his head. Yep. Yeah, the headline there, extremely risky draft picket right now. Yes. And Brian Robinson looked good. There were, there's a lot of buzz around George Pickens. Yes, there is. Who made a big play again. He's been making him at practice, but he made a great play in the game. He's so good. I want a piece of pickens. I mean, he's just, I he might be the best wide receiver in this draft class. He is so. History of the NFL even. Thank you. Thank you for taking that up. Romeo Dobbs begs to differ, Jason. Yeah. Some, some great wide, some great rookies. Damian Pierce was the name that, um, stood out.

That was number one for me too. Yeah, not just us, but Coach Lovie Smith, which... Running back for the Houston, Texas. I would say matters. Yeah, he did not run with the ones. Marlon Mack got the first run for the game, so it's worth notating that. Like, he's not the starter. Not yet. Right. He is currently the backup, but he looked good. He's their best running back. Marlon Mack versus this incoming rookie is, I don't think, a fair fight. And if not by week one... Early in the season, I expect Damian Pierce to get the opportunity. We are not usually into day three, fourth round past draft picks for rookie running backs. Historically, it's a terrible bet to make. But this one, the depth chart, the situation, and what he's shown, what the coaches have said, is leaning me towards like, I mean, this isn't a high end pick. This is, you know, one of your last picks in your fantasy draft. He deserves a shot. Yeah, we did a stream with, uh,

uh bleacher report this last week and this that's where the i was highlighting damian pierce on that on that stream before the game and talking like these it's always been day three running backs no thank you but this year i don't know it might be a little bit different pierce looks like he should be able to take over and we're i mean we're still getting buzz that tyler algier sooner than later could be the starter for the Atlanta Falcons. There could be a shift. Pierce's fourth round, right? I believe that is correct. It's an interesting thing for us to take note of now and then as the season progresses, you know, maybe we have to adjust because the NFL is adjusting. Since 2014, 77% of fourth round rookie running backs beat their average draft position. So.

Because they're being drafted. At a minimum. Yeah, at a minimum, you have a shot at, you know, the odds are with you that they'll be better than where you drafted them. And then there's a percentage chance that he would be more than that, right? He looks like the most talented back by like a long shot. So a lot to look forward to there. Let's jump into some more news. News and notes from around the league. Jets quarterback Zach Wilson. Oof. Injured his right knee against the Eagles. What's the latest? Well, it was originally thought to be an ACL tear scare. Then it's looking like a bone bruise and a meniscus injury. The reported timeline was two to four weeks. Then it was said that they're not going to know for sure until they basically get inside the knee. So I think there will be more, you know, as of this moment, as of this recording, what we know is he's got a knee.

injury he's getting knee surgery and they're hopeful he is back soon we will know more definitive answers probably later today tomorrow in the very near future i think that the two to four weeks is unfortunately the best case scenario that's optimistic because they it can only get worse once once they get in there you can confirm okay you know he's going to be out of month or they can get in there and say we got to do a full meniscus repair and that's the season So hopefully that's not the case. Yeah, that's. And Mike White's the backup. Yes. So you're, no, no, we got Flacco up there too. That's right. Yeah. That's right. But Mike White was the one that came in right after him. So both of those guys, Mike White had that little window of a good play last year. But Joe Flacco, you know, there's been comments by their head coach about him deserving of being a starting quarterback. So. Yeah. So Arrow pointing up for Elijah Moore. If it's Flacco.

It's just not Zach Wilson? Yeah, I don't know. Let's see. Drake London, rookie wide receiver for the Falcons. Had a really nice crossing route, but apparently injured his right knee on the play. Head coach Arthur Smith has a plan. And it does not include London being hurt long term. Got a plan. So that was good news because that would have been devastating. First play of your career, you make an actual play. uh, Darren Waller has been held out of camp due to a camp string, a hamstring injury. And it's been a while. He is, he's been gone for a significant amount of time. Uh, last, you know, when we came into this off season, the 10 Things to Remember episode, one of my takeaways was to not draft the players who missed basically all of camp. Last year, it was Curtis Samuel, Sequin, Kenny G. O'Dell, Beck and Mari Cooper, these guys that.

They missed pretty much all of camp, and they were terrible. But Curtis Samuel was really good, right? He still could be. Although, that being said, he was running behind Jehan Dodson. Those were mostly L's. I mean, that tip held up. Yeah. So Darren Waller, Hollywood, who has missed pretty much all of camp as well. There are a couple of names I'm currently monitoring to see, like, are they getting back soon? Because if not, I am taking them way down my board. Is Hollywood still not running? Yeah, I don't think he is at full team activity yet. Well, let's put it to the test with this name, Elijah Mitchell, Jason. Well, this is new. Well, hamstring injury. He's not going to play in the preseason. Expected to be ready for week one. This is bad. In my mind, this is very bad. The nice thing about this for fantasy is that he is generally a running back going in the areas where I'm not taking running backs. I'm planning my drafts. You know, if you listen to the top 10.

Tips and Tricks episode from this last week. One of the things is to map out the draft. And I like the wide receivers and even the quarterbacks in that range better than, better than the running backs. More injury news. Christian Watson, Robert Tunyon. But this is good injury news. They've been activated. Yay. Things can go. Whatever can happen can happen in reverse. Cadarius, Tony, unlikely to practice this week. He has been eased into camp due to an offseason knee scope. I forced him to miss OTAs, managing his reps in camp, but was shut down early last week. So we don't really know if there's a re-injury or, you know, the easing in wasn't slow enough. We do know. We do know that there's been a re-entry because even though that hasn't necessarily been officially reported, I promise you, if things are getting better and better and better for him, they're not going to go, you know what? We're going to shut you down.

Like that just would not happen in real life. Looking too good, Tony, looking too good. So I think that there has been some sort of setback and hopefully it's not catastrophic. But this is a guy that even though he was phenomenal last year, we've talked him up a lot. I've been targeting him. He was going to be a fire shared pick between Mike and I on the fire and ice show once upon a time. This worries me because his problem's been being on the field and he's not on the field. Yeah. It's nerve-wracking. Devante Smith, though, back to practice and Joe Burrow back to practice without an appendix. Okay, a little bit lighter. A little bit lighter. Any other news? How are you doing, Bruxie? Doing great. Yeah? Yeah. Do you enjoy the preseason? Yeah. I say, Brooks, we had a lot of news there to cover from the not real football over the weekend. That's a good, good jab. Is that not real news?

I think Brooks and I both felt a little bit sad. Can I speak on our behalf, Brooks? Good. We were wrong. Oh, good. Good, okay. We overstepped. We overstepped. We were buzz kills, right? We were party poopers. Yeah. I'm so proud of us as a people where we can admit when we were wrong. I reacted too strongly to Mike's emphatic. It's football time because I didn't want it to be like, you know, I didn't want it to. not have its value when the real season hit. That's where I was coming from. But the truth, yes, but the truth is that this is very exciting to get to see these players on the field. So I formally repent. And look, trust me, ladies and gentlemen, when it is week one, it will be a much.

higher rejoicing. I'll be on trumpet. Yes. Full band. That's why I don't know if you guys knew this. I've actually been saving my voice for week one. Oh, fantastic. This has not been. You're the preseason. We're holding you out. That's right. Yeah. I can't welcome people in until the real season. All right. Let's jump into some quarterbacks. Quarterbacks. Well, let's do it. We are fresh off of some wide receiver rankings. running back rankings episodes. We did two of each. So if you want to go back and listen to where our consensus rankings were on those players, feel free. These are our four point per task for, let me just try that again. Four point per passing touchdown rankings at the quarterback position. Number one is Josh Allen. It was funny. I was talking to my son a couple days ago. We're reactivating some leagues. He's my co-manager in my dynasty league.

and we were just talking about how much we love Justin Herbert. And he's like, yeah, we really, he's the best. He could be a great dynasty quarterback. I'm like, yeah, he's a great one. And I go, but we have Josh Allen. Yeah. I don't take Josh Allen. I've got Josh Allen. We've all got him in number one. He's being drafted as the number one quarterback at the end of the second round. 4,400 yards passing, 366 touchdowns, 15 picks, another 763 on the ground, six rushing touchdowns. And more importantly for fantasy, been the quarterback one in back-to-back seasons, incredible stability in terms of offensive system, weapons, expectations. Does lose Brian Dable. He does. He does. He does. But thankfully, it seems the program has been installed, right? We're not still installing here. And so Stallion ends up at the top. Excellent. Yeah, I think that there is.

You know, there's the dream of the 5,000 and 1,000 quarterback. Absolutely. Josh Allen is not going to be a 5,000 and 1,000, meaning 5,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards. Look, Kyler is more realistic to hit that because Josh Allen doesn't run for the level of those yards. But the probability of a 4,500 and 500, which is outrageously good, it's almost like that's what he's going to do. He's going to get at least 500 rushing yards and around 4,500 passing yards. Kyler's a big question mark. Lamar doesn't have probably that passing volume. When you can do both excellently, like we always talk about we want mobile rushing quarterbacks. That's phenomenal. But.

They should still be able to be good passing quarterbacks if you want them to be great a fantasy. And that's the thing that Josh Allen brings. It's a guaranteed production on both sides. So if he throws for his days where he's not going to rush a touchdown in, he's going to throw for three. He is a difference maker. And I wish I could experience having him on my roster in some of these redraft leagues right now where he's going that sometimes second. Or third round. ADP is at the back of the second round. Yeah, I just can't, I can't get myself to not take the running backs and wide receivers there when you need multiple of those over the single quarterback position. But I really want to experience it because I haven't personally had the Josh Allen fun. Yeah, he should be the number one pick in a Super Flex league. And one interesting fact is he only had six rushing touchdowns. The previous three years were eight, nine, and eight. So that number can go up.

on the ground to his mean. But we don't need to say anything else here because we can move on to Justin Herbert. Jason and I have him at number two, Mike, at number four. And he's being drafted as the QB3 right now. Last year was the QB2, ended the year on fire fantasy finishes of 1, 6, 3, 6, 5, 9, 12, 2. This is the Hall of Fame trajectory. Yes, it is. 5,000 yards. 38 passing touchdowns, 15 interceptions. So he threw more passing touchdowns and for more yards than Josh Allen did. Simply didn't have the rushing production. But to me, you know, these two guys, if I'm going to take one, I'm going to take Herbert at the end of the third. Because I don't think the gap is big enough in terms of end of year production. Now you get more risk with Herbert without the 700 plus rushing yardage because the touchdown numbers could go down a little bit. You could end up in.

in some variation and variance there, but not by much. Yeah, I mean, Herbert's great. The truth is both of these guys, for me, when I'm drafting, I'm not taking either one of them because there are quarterbacks. I think that we're going to talk about in a second that are close. They're not, you know, two tiers away from these two guys. These are definitely the top two, but these guys, you're going to pay the premium if you want to draft them. You will be sacrificing a... top end running back or wide receiver. You know, but if you look at the Vegas odds for, you know, who's going to throw the most, who's going to be MVP, I mean, Herbert is at the top of these lists. So his counting stats for fantasy football will be outrageously good. You know, if things break down in the passing game, he's also very mobile. He doesn't run for 750 yards. But if you.

if you comp the physical bodies, the 40 times just the physical athleticism between Josh Allen and Justin Herbert, they aren't that far apart. Let me, let me ask you a question, Mike. Which past catchers do you actually like more? Do you like the Keenan, Mike Williams, and I'm going to include Echler? Okay. Or do you prefer Diggs, Gabe Davis, and then what we get out of James Cook or Dawson Knox? I prefer, I'll take the chargers guys. Me too. Yeah, so, I mean, that's an interesting thing to pay attention to. We already know the division. You know, you think about playing Buffaloes with New England and that defense in Miami. It seems like the offenses in the AFC West are going to be more prolific, which could be a point in the favor of, you know, you're going to be playing two games against Kansas City, two games against, you know, Derek Carr and Devante Adams, two games against Russell Wilson.

Dwayne McFarland has shared a stat over from Pro Football Focus, which is really, really neat. The AFC and NFC West this year, they account for more than 50% of the current projected 50-point games on the over-unders. So you really do want... players in those divisions because they play each other this year. And so there are, if you're just looking at like how often there are big Bada boom games for fantasy, it's going to be in those two divisions. I would just like them to just do all primetime games, AFC West. Sure. So let me ask you this. So we know that like Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, both of these quarterbacks in your your home family office leagues. Like these guys are going to go.

very high. They're going to hit this ADP for sure. Now, you could be playing in leagues, though, with more experienced players who buy into the philosophy of the supply and the demand of the quarterback. I can wait. I can wait, which then presents an opportunity here because these quarterbacks eventually, they just start dropping. So what is the point where, like, and it's probably different for both Allen and Herbert, but is it like, is it fourth round for Josh Allen where you say, well, that? Yeah, absolutely, I'll just grab him right there. Absolutely. You could argue that it's fourth for either player. That's what I was going to say, fourth for either player, because it's not about the player. It's about the opportunity cost. It's who are you giving up? When I look at the players in the third round right now on ADP, Leonard Fournett slips there. Mike Evans is there. Ezekiel, like, I'm not going to, I'm not going to sacrifice that. But if I look at the players in the fourth round, and I'm saying, okay, instead of George Kittle.

or Terry McLaurin or these question mark guys, now I can get a known commodity. That's all it is. It's not anti-Josh Allen or Herbert. It's just that's the gap. So as soon as you get to the fourth round, I'm willing to grab one of those two guys. All right. Let's get to our number three quarterback in a moment. Time to talk about Kyler Murray, Arizona Cardinals quarterback, injured for a portion of last year. He sits at number three on Jason and my rankings. Mike has him at five. He's being drafted as the QB5. You know, last year was broken up by injury, but before that, he had been prolific for fantasy. First two weeks of the year was the number one quarterback. And you know you're going to get a rushing upside situation with Kyla Murray. The Cardinals do have an ambiguous...

wide receiver situation. A.J. Green is back. Rondale Moore, second round pick. Supposed to be more involved. They traded their first round traffic for Hollywood Brown. And then you have DeAndre Hopkins, who is missing the first six weeks due to a suspension. You got Zach Gertz and Tray McBride. You no longer have Chase Edmonds and Christian Kirk. So Mike, are there, that's a lot of names that we're talking about that we don't know what the output's necessarily going to be. Is that why you're at ADP with Kyler? Yeah, that's so much of the season at the beginning to be without DeAndre Hopkins. But do remember, like, welcome back, everybody. Remember what Kyler Murray was at the beginning of the year. The Arizona Cardinals were 7 and 0. Kyler Murray was the overall number one quarterback the first two weeks. Through those first seven weeks, he was absolutely dominating for fantasy purposes.

hurt his ankle and missed, you know, over a month, basically. And he came back and was the quarterback won immediately in his first game back. So, like, his, the deep ball is elite from Kyler Murray, the rushing ability. It's not what he wants to go to immediately, but he could be forced to use that a little bit more over those first six weeks without DeAndre Hopkins. But at ADP in the fifth round, I'm fine going with Kyla Murray there. Let me ask a question to you, Jason. By the way, starts the year against Kansas City and Las Vegas. You might know really quickly because he's going to need to do a lot in those games. You might know really quickly whether he can without Hopkins. Do the Cardinals have enough weapons, Jason, to support Kyler as the overall quarterback one? Yeah, I do think they do. That is presuming Hollywood Brown is healthy.