NFC West Breakdown, Jerick McKinnon, Annoying Situations

Season in ranked was six. Sorry, yeah. That's another one of those foundational things for a guy like Gurley. We've seen it in Dallas with Zeke. When your offensive line is ranked highly, you have a better chance of repeating that kind of success out of the backfield. Seahawks. All right, let's talk about the Seattle Seahawks. I don't think there's a ton of excitement that I've garnered from their fan base over the course of this offseason. The defense.

has been blown up. Richard Sherman is gone. Cam Chancellor has retired. Extensive rumors about his name's escaping me. It's their safety. It's escaping me now, too, that you put me on the bottom. Earl. Earl Thomas, thank you. And I also traded Dallas. His name is definitely not Earl Watson. No. But we got there. We did it. Teamwork. Earl Thomas, potential Dallas connection there.

So the defense is struggling. You've lost some weapons on offense. Paul Richards and Jimmy Graham are gone. Michael Bennett as well traded. Yeah. Yeah. Michael Bennett traded away to the Philadelphia Eagles. Last year, the Seahawks were nine and seven. They've brought in Brian Schottenheimer as the offensive coordinator. I think we need that. Is that the official? Yeah.

Welcome to the team, Brian Schontheimer. Run that ball. So we have a lot of things that we can talk about with Seattle. One thing we know is that Russell Wilson, when he plays quarterback, is a fantasy force. He was again last year. You also have to say, okay, how does he become that force? It's with the weapons that he has on the outside. Doug Baldwin, I've seen Evan Silva specifically, has Doug Baldwin having a monstrous year.

Very possible. Tyler Lockett, Jerome Brown, Brandon Marshall, the only other pass catching options outside. No more Jimmy Graham in the red zone. They spent a high pick on Rashad Penny. They still have Chris Carson in the backfield. Where do you want to break down this roster? Yeah, I mean, they are shifting to a run first team. This is the big off-season hype.

It's seen by what they've done. You follow the money. They drafted a first round running back in Rashad Penny. They hired Brian Schottenheimer notorious for being a I Run the Ball guy. He's a Rex Ryan. No matter what you do, I'm running. I'm running, running. That's not his normal voice, but if you watch some of the videos of him in the locker room, it's ridiculous.

All he cares about is I'm going to run the ball. And when they stack the box against the run, we're going to run it. And we're going to run it. And then when they know that it's a running down, I want to run it through them. It's kind of like this is how he's going to motivate his players to just be hardcore and smash mouth. But it doesn't work in today's NFL. And it certainly doesn't work with one of the worst offensive lines in the league. So while I have an absolute love affair with Rashad Penny's talent from college,

this offensive line, it's going to be difficult to run the ball when the other team knows you want to run. You don't have a good offensive line. And then the Chris Carson, Rashad Penny's situation. I'm cooling a little bit on just the Seahawks run game. Yeah, yeah, and as am I. And I think people need to understand right now the expectation is that Chris Carson is going to begin camp as the running back one. Rashad Penny has to make strides by way of pass protection scheme.

All of those elements. It's probably going to be a timeshare on a team that Pro Football Focus has ranked the 30th best offensive line in football after finishing 27th last year. Can you say 30th best when it's 30th? Is that what I said? Yeah. That is correct. I know it's 30th best, but it's 30 out of 32. Now, Brooks, I know you believe Brandon Marshall is the top 10 guy this year. Why is that? Good question. I'm struggling to remember why I think that.

Now Brandon Marshall, does he have any opportunity here? He's done. We haven't seen anything good from Brandon Marshall in several years. He's coming off of multiple injuries. I just will be shocked if I will be blown away if he becomes a normal regular fantasy asset. I'll put that on record. I completely agree. Yeah, I don't disagree. But the potential of the one of the big questions for the Seahawks.

Who's replacing Jimmy Graham? Who's replacing all those touchdowns? If Brandon Marshall morphed into the stats, I mean, you know, like mighty morphin style of taking Jimmy Graham's stats from last year, he's got to make the team first. But just say that that's actually in the realm of possibilities, very, very low percentage, but we're trying to cover all angles here. Well, Tyler Locke is not going to be that. He's not going to be that role. They added Ed Dixon at the tight-in position.

If I had to pick between Dixon and Vinette, it'd be Dixon by a long shot if I have to roll out a tight end for me. And it's still Vanette. Oh, my gosh. I don't even know how you can possibly think it's Vanette. Vanette is a slow plotting, low-end tight-in pick that they've never said, I mean, it said Dixon by 10 miles. He was a third round pick. Yeah, to the shock of everyone.

To the team that took him? Like as in, they wrote it in, they went, oh, crap, it's the third round? Now, I think that there are some that, I mean, this has been very negatively focused, this entire coverage of the Seahawks, where they were in 9 and 17. Let's get to Doug Baldwin then. And, yeah, we love Doug Baldwin. We love Russell Wilson. I think we believe in their opportunity. There is a world where this defense, because it takes a step back, this is not the Legion of Boom anymore.

More opportunity for Russell Wilson to potentially lead the NFL from a fantasy production standpoint. I can see that happening. If you are forced, look, it's one thing to say you want to get back to your running ways. You don't have Marshall and Lynch anymore. You have a terrible offensive line. And you have at this time with Penny and Carson, you don't have the force that you used to have. Maybe you're going to get it. But if you're losing games, you can't run. We saw this with Cleveland.

Hugh Jackson said, oh boy, we're just going to run, run, run, run, run, until you're down three scores in the third quarter. So does Russell Wilson have a sneaky opportunity to be one of those, not just a top three quarterback, but a league winning quarterback? We saw that from Brady many years ago. We saw that from Peyton Manning many years ago. There are quarterbacks that put up numbers so significant, and with his ground ability, could he win your league?

Is there a world where you see that happening? Yes, there is a world where that could possibly happen. And if he gives you another 500 yards on the ground and he leads the league in touchdowns, and they keep doing where last year was Russell Wilson just started playing the game of 500, where everyone would streak down the field play after play after play. And eventually they would hit, which was part of the success for him.

He's a stud. He's a stud fantasy quarterback. I want to go get to Doug Baldwin, who I talked about Brandon Marshall taking the Jimmy Graham stats. Where I'm actually projecting those is Doug Baldwin. When Doug Baldwin was dominant for that second half of the year stretch, that's because Jimmy Graham was doing nothing, right? Was that, now am I remembering, right, was that the year that Jimmy Graham got hurt?

and for missing the second half of the year. Yeah, because it was multiple years. I believe one, his breakout came before Jimmy Graham was on the team, the second half. He was, you know, my time was. Over the last several years, Doug Baldwin is up in the league leaders in touchdowns. He has a great rapport both in and out of the red zone with Russell Wilson. No, I was very correct. It was 2015. That's when Jimmy Graham played 11 games for the Seahawks, and that's when Doug Baldwin.

went full ham and had his 14 touchdowns. So I'm with Evan. I'm with Silva. That Doug Baldwin needs to be respected for fantasy football this year. And if Russell Wilson does end up as one of those league winners, then you will necessarily have some kind of breakout from either Tyler Lockett or Geron Brown. It's 14th round. Lockett, Brown, Marshall.

I'm taking Tyler Lockett. I'm going to take the guy that's been in the system that we've seen, albeit in short, healthy bursts, perform well last year. Is that how you would define it? That's exactly how I would define it. Do you feel like he has performed well? Are you defining that in terms of fantasy production? Yes. When he's going, he is an incredible player. All right, let's move on.

Cardinals. All right, the Cardinals were eight and eight last year. A lot of turnover in this offense. Carson Palmer retired. Bruce Ariens is gone. Steve Wilkes took over. Mike McCoy is the new offensive coordinator. You have Bradford and Rosen at the quarterback position. Hey, don't forget about Mike Glennon. You have Bradford and Rosen at quarterback. Key additions. And then David Johnson returns to the Arizona Cardinals this season.

after the injury that knocked out all of last year. And it's the Larry Fitzgerald show at the wide receiver course. So I think the big questions around this offense is who's going to be playing quarterback for Arizona Cardinals this season. Who outside of Larry Fitzgerald is going to offer you any value? This could be very similar to Dallas, where you don't really know who to buy into on a week-to-week basis because Chad Williams, J.J. Nelson, Christian Kirk, and Bryce Butler are options. And then you have some sneaky sleeper options. Ricky Seals Jones at tight end.

Where are you guys putting your focus when you watch the Cardinals this year? It's a difficult division. They have one of the harder schedules in football. I don't think we're expecting them to be a playoff team. Now, Vegas has them projected for the lowest win total tied with the Browns because you have a new scheme on both sides of the ball.

along with a new quarterback, I think it could end up being rough sledding. As far as where I'm looking, watching definitely in camp and in preseason, it is the number two wide receiver. There could be value there. And if Chad Williams steps forward, I think that would be the best case scenario because, you know, he has the skill set. Like J.J. Nelson is who I've got right now, slot it in as the number two guy. And we know his upside, which is not much. So I think if...

If a Bryce Butler or a Chad Williams could take over that role, you know, then I think they could outperform J.J. Nelson. And, of course, Christian Kirk. Let me illustrate something here. Mike, who's the number two to you? Chad Williams. Jason, who's the number two to you? You just said. J.J. Nelson right now. And I think it's Bryce Butler. Exactly. That's not good. So that's, and none of those. That's not good for fantasy. Let's take the number one. Larry! As you see, and none of those is the highest upside of all, which is Christian Kirk, right? Christian Kirk, uh,

drafted to be a kind of a PPR guy in this offense, a big play guy in this offense, but not yet. Right, not yet. He is so, you know, in college he was so predominantly in the slot. When I spoke to him at the NFFC, I asked him, where does he think he is best? You know, where does he perform best? Was it inside or outside? And he started that by saying inside.

And then quickly was like, and outside. But he knows he is a slot guy. He's learning from the best. I love his prospects long term with Rosen. Dynasty League. Love it. This year, Larry is manning that slot. And the slot is going to be valuable because, first of all, if Sam Bradford could stay healthy, Sam Bradford loves the short slot passes. Yeah. He is, you know, his accuracy in that area is, you know. Possibly the best in football. Right. Exactly. I mean, he, he.

I believe he got the record a couple of years ago. He had the most accurate season before Drew Brees took it back last year. Right. So, I mean, that's why Larry Fitzgerald is locked in as, you know, a perfect option. I will say this. What about Gary Fitzgerald? If injuries happen to everyone, you know, over the course of life in football, and Larry is old. If something were to happen to Larry, I hate to speak it,

Christian Kirk would be a super valuable slot guy and take over that number one role. This was a bad offensive line last season. They ended 31st in the league. 31st best. They're projected to be 27th best, as we say. They added pieces. And the thing is is David Johnson didn't have to battle all last year with that situation. They did add pieces.

But right now, at least, pro football focus doesn't see that translating into a highly ranked offensive line. The attraction for David Johnson is past catching and volume. He is the offense, right? He is. Him and Larry right now look like the offense. And while Sam Bradford, we can joke as much as we want about, you know, or make light of the fact he's never healthy for fantasy purposes.