Biggest Storylines + Draft Advice, House of Cards - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/31

On today's episode, we are talking about our absolute favorite storylines of this coming season and some huge news going on. But I think most importantly, there is a historic mailbag drop that cannot be missed on today's episode. Leave a comment. Tell us what you think. Enjoy the show. The fantasy footballer studio is brought to you by Samsung Galaxy. Visit Samsung.com to learn more. Unless one has an affinity for looking ridiculously foolish. It is wise not to stumble aimlessly into a fantasy football draft. The ultimate draft kit from the fantasy footballers contains all the information you need to avoid the jeers of your enemies and to snuff out any glint of hope in their souls. Imagine the gasps those trouser-wearing turnips will emit as you make yet another triumphant draft selection. Imagine their tears forming a formidable puddle

as you assemble an unstoppable force. The Ultimate Draft Kit comes bursting at the seams with fantasy goodness. When you enter the draft room, you'll feel as if you were a monstrous beast let loose in a chicken coop. Head over to Ultimate DraftKit.com today. To the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Okay, we're back. Yeah, buddy. It's almost kickoff, Jason. Oh, man. Someone had a lot of coffee this morning, Mike. It was Andy. This morning, last night. It's just been a constant stream of caffeine. Welcome in. And other constant streams. Yeah. We're drinking a lot of coffee. Streaming quarterbacks. Soon enough. From everywhere.

Mike, right, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, back with you. Hello? Excited to be back, Mike. I like the cap today. Oh, I like your cap. Well, you know. Jason, it's really ironic. Why no cap? I want to show off my receding airline. So, uh, you guys is great hat game really covers up luscious locks. I don't have. any beauty to cover up there. You've never really felt like the hat works with you. Like you don't have a face for a hat. I think it's like, yeah, I feel like I'm not cool enough to rock a cap. Oh, except for Fedora Week. Well, I mean, right. Fedora Week was. That was the worst. We need another Fedora Week bet at some point this year. Fedora Week was.

That was legendary. There has to be a breeze hall fedora bed at some point in time. Excited to be with the Foot Clan today. I just wanted to quickly say thank you to everybody that supported the book launch yesterday. Indeed. It was awesome seeing pictures of moms and dads with their kids reading the book and sharing the best parts of sports with them. And thank you very much for that. A couple of housekeeping things at the top. We will be live once again on Spotify this afternoon. 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. The party room is back, taking questions, talking about everything and anything as we head into the 2022 fantasy football season. Always a great time. The draft kit, if you're drafting this weekend, like the three of us are, our big league of record draft is Friday. Grab the UDK before then. I'll be using it. Well, there you go. No better endorsement than the originator, the founder.

of the draft kit himself. I'm not only the president. That's right. Yes, yes. And so check that out, ultimate draft kit.com. And time is running out to jump into the Megalibol, the largest fantasy football tournament on earth. So much fun. All the listeners of the show together in one gigantic, ginormous, exceptionally fun league. Please come play with us, megalobol.com. It will be a lot of fun. One entry per person. and made some improvements this year just to how the whole thing works. And there'll be leaderboards, and it's going to be fun. Yeah, we'll be talking about it all through the season. So make sure you're in it. Now is the time. There are plenty of drafts coming up starting Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, plenty of different time slots. So go to megalobole.com, sign into your sleeper, and you're ready to go.

Oh, it's that time of year, isn't it? Yes, sir. Everything is happening. Here's your quick question for today's episode of the show. What is your favorite NFL storyline heading into the 2022 season? There have been so many of these throughout the entire off season from Tom Brady's mysterious absence to, you know, all of the trades and transactions. Jason. Yeah, so I am. really, really interested in the second year quarterbacks. There are every single one of them, other than General Mills, is a storyline I'm really, really interested in. I want to know. Whoa, why exclude General Mills? It's, Kellogg's guy? No, it's, it's really like, that is the, that's just the brand cereal. It's so boring. The Houston Texans aren't taking a leap forward.

Oh, not now, not anymore. We know what General Mills is. He's going to take a step forward, be a little bit better than last year, be better than people give him credit for, but not good enough to be a, I mean, he's not going to take that roster and win a ton. So I don't have a lot of curiosity there, whereas look at the jets and all the weapons they supplied Zach Wilson. And my love for Breece Halls, but everything there comes down to Zach Wilson. Does he take that step forward or not? And then the opposite of what they've done to Justin Fields, providing him nothing, can he overcome that? You know, Trevor Lawrence with the new coach. You've got Trey Lance. I mean, I don't think there's anybody more, you know, with more eyes on him in the NFL than Trey Lance this year. So this is the storyline. I'm really curious about this. Mac Jones. You know, I put Mac Jones a little bit more in.

the Davis Mills category. It's kind of boring, and I also think the Patriots offense is going to suck this year. I've completely, like early in the offseason, I was excited because I believe in Mac Jones. I think he's a very good, very capable quarterback. He obviously impressed his rookie year, but I don't know if you can overcome Matt Patricia being the play caller on offense with Joe Judge backing him up. Well, yeah, and in Houston, New England fans, you know where to find him Twitter at Jason FFL. Oh, they know. They agree with me. They're like, yeah. I don't know about the Mac Jones Patriots fans. They haven't really agreed to a negative storyline in a while. Yeah, I mean, again, I'm pro Mac Jones. I'm anti that offense right now. Yeah, Matt Patricia and Joe Judge. All right, Mike, what about you? What are you paying attention to? What are you most excited to see come to fruition? So the quick answer is as my champion for the past couple years, I want to see.

What is the actual truth for Antonio Gibson? His usage. I mean, and now you can't. Can you handle the truth? I don't know. I don't know if I can. And you have the wildcard of the egregious attack on Brian Robinson. Like, what does that look like now? Is there a world where you feel like, okay, Antonio Gibson should see a way higher usage in this first couple months while Robinson's recovering? And then also you're like, Oh, it's actually J.D. McKissick getting a whole bunch of snaps on first and second down. And you're just absolutely furious about it if you bought back into Antonio Gibson. I took me some J.D. McKissick yesterday in a PPR league. I think it is well worth the investment in the draft. Just in case. Absolutely. And then the big one that I'm looking at is we have not just one, but two elite wide receivers who have changed teams.

What's going to happen with them in their new situation? What's going to happen to their quarterbacks? We have a very chicken or egg experiment happening here of who made who great. It's very possible that everyone just was making each other even better and everyone succeeds. But there's a world where. Tyreek Hill, despite all the buzz that he's getting in training camp, there's a world where a couple weeks in, that dude is furious and upset with his decision to move away from Patrick Mahomes. And there's a world where Devante Adams is like, why aren't you as good as Aaron Rogers, Mr. Carr? Or the opposite. Where all of a sudden, we're a couple weeks into the season going, man, Aaron Rogers and Patrick Mahomes are really struggling without, you know, having a dude at wide receiver. It's a great science experiment. I feel like some.

football fan got a genie. It was like, I want to figure this out. Let's put some chaos in here. Yeah, doing the running the Madden simulations in real, real life. I, yeah, or Tua ends up being a bargain that nobody drafted. Sure. And they have a great offense with Mike McDaniel, who's been, you know, got a great history. Sort of a piggyback on the, like you mentioned, Tyreek and then Devante Adams. The AFC West in totality is my favorite storyline. Mahomes without Tyreek and with Andy Reid, the Russell Wilson experiment in Denver with all of those weapons. Let's ride. And then Derek Carr, you know, I sat in the studio yesterday. Like this is so such an interesting situation. It looks like Darren Waller is going to get a contract soon. You have Hunter Renfro who is just incredible, especially finding space. And then you have Devante Adams. And Derek Carr was the sixth most.

passing yards at the position. So all he's missing is this touchdown area that's like, boy, if that came, he could be like a top three passer somehow. Maybe not for fantasy, but it's just the whole division. And then the Chargers. I mean, who doesn't love Austin Ackler, Justin Herbert, Keenan, Mike Williams. They could, he could throw 50 touchdowns there. So the whole division, I will be glued to the television for every one of those head-to-head matchups. And then the fantasy ramifications they're in. There's probably, what, 25 players in that division that could change your fantasy team. And this year, they're playing the NFC West as like, that's how the schedule lined up. So, which is other great teams. It's unbelievable the amount of 50 plus point, you know, over under lines that the.

AFC West has this season. So for fantasy purposes, you want players in that division. There's going to be some barn burners. Yeah. And the way the NFL. No barns will remain. No, no barns. Burnts. No sheds. No outhouses. It's all just to a crisp. No structure is allowed on this long. None. A lot of ash at the end of this season. There you go. All right. We are moving forward. News and notes from around the league. I can't wait to discuss this topic. Yes. and I don't really know where you've settled in about it. The Texans release Marlon Mack. So the writing was somewhat on the wall here. He played deep into the last preseason game. He's been re-signed to the practice squad. But right now, this is Damian Pierce's backfield in Houston. Well, I mean, Lovie Smith won't let us know yet. Along with Rex Burkhead as a compliment. But the question, I guess, to open this up is,

And I know there are people out there that would say, please just don't mention the name Damian Pierce for another few days on the show because I am trying to get him late in drafts this weekend. Sorry. I'm sorry. It's our job. Also, you always talk about future Hall of Famers on the show. So is the hype out of control for Damian Pierce? Would you answer that question with a simple yes? Yes. Both of you. Yes. I am very excited for Damien Pierce. Like these are the type of players that is. It's fun and like it's a good move. It's a good move to bet on youth and upside at the running back position. But he is skyrocketing clearly in ADP. And I think you just make sure you're looking at the entire situation for Damien Pierce. Yes, he's a very exciting player when you saw him. Well, it looked truly dominant on the field. And now his.

What his perceived biggest threat was Marlon Mack to his potential workload this year. He is on the practice squad. So, I mean, they could technically call him up whenever they want, but that's not likely. However, they kept Rex Burkhead. They kept Daria Gumbulli, like the two guys who have a history in the NFL of being very successful pass catching running backs. And yes, I'm not saying Damien Pierce won't catch any passes on first and second down. But if his role is first and second down on a bad team, on an offense that's losing, and then in the second half, they're frequently playing catch up, and you have to go to the past catching running back, not just on third down, but for the primary of the second half where Rex Burkhead's getting a lot of snaps, the Gublewale is in there. Then your downside for Damien Pierce is pretty catastrophic. So all I'm saying is just pump the brakes.

I'm fine with the rise to the sixth round, honestly. Like, that's not a range where I think it's crazy to take a shot and bet on him. But, like, people are really excited. I'm seeing, you know, on Twitter, and I get it. People are like, well, Bruce Hall or Damien Pierce. Because Damian Pierce looks like he's locked into the starting job. Breeze Hall still is not there. Like, the level of excitement is overthrowing. the level-headedness of thinking about the game in probability. The probability that Brees Hall is better than Damien Pierce is so much greater on the Brees Hall side. So just take a breath and collect yourself. Collect yourself and don't over, like don't move Pierce into the dead zone. But you will regret that. We could always do this. Uh-oh. No, I'm making this up as I go along. Oh, okay. We're going to play a game that I just invented.

Okay. And the game is called, could Damien Pierce outperform blank? Okay. And I'm going to toss it. Jason's way first. Could not will? Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, because part of the process of saying he's being overheighted and drafted too high is this idea that, you know, that's a misappropriation of value and that you couldn't get a better season from Damien Pierce than substitute. Sure. And not necessarily. probable but could. We saw yesterday. Let's start with one we saw in a draft yesterday. I did a CBS draft for their draftathon, which is, you know, they do every year in support of St. Jude, which is awesome. Chase Edmonds was drafted by yours truly two picks after Damien Pierce. Could Damien Pierce have a better fantasy season than Chase Edmonds? And what is the probability? I'll have you throw that in there. Yeah, I think the probability is a big part of it. Yeah, because it could. What is the probability that he has a better fantasy season than Chase Edmonds?

Could he, yes, but I would put the probability below 50%. I think that it's, you know, 35% chance that he has a better season than Chase Evans. Okay. What about Damien Pierce versus like Cordero Patterson? What is the probability has a better season than Cordero Patterson? That's a bet I'm willing to take. That he'd have a better year. Yeah, I'm okay making that move and that draft selection. So I would put that above 50%. Yeah, I would still have it slightly below 50%. I think Cordero will be. Doing the same thing he did last year just less efficiently. All right. What about Damien Pierce and then the probability of a better season than Josh Jacobs? Running back for the explosive AFC West Las Vegas Raiders. He's like that's the comp for me where I look at two players that I see as having the same kind of range of outcomes. Both could be really good. Both could be disappointments.

I'll say 49% chance. Ooh. I'm way lower than that. Josh Jacobs may, we could see a Patriots type of a split there, but the Patriots have also had their goal line running back. And if anyone profiles as the goal line running back for that team, and they should score a lot of points, it would be Josh Jacobs. So I would put Pierce over Jacobs 30%. One final one. You've got clarity now, right in Houston. Damian Pierce is going to be the starting running back has juice. Sure. I mean, yours truly said he's going to be a star. You did. It means a lot, right? Yeah. You said that before the big breakout. Yeah. Um, J.K. Dobbins. Oh, man. Damien Pierce. J.K. Dobbins with all these questions flying through the air, Kenyon, Drake, Mike Davis, injuries, Gus Edwards, or Damien Pierce. When you're stirring that decision down in a draft. That is very interesting.

due to their profile for what they will be for the team is pretty similar. Like, J.K. Dobbins is not going to catch passes because Baltimore Raven running backs don't. They don't. Don't catch passes. I will take Dobbins in that. So I guess we'll stick with the Pierce percentage. I would give Pierce a 35% chance to outscore Dobbins. So still low. Yeah, I would be around there probably 40%. However, I think for purposes of why people are listening to this, I prefer Damien Pierce in a draft. And the reason is because of how the beginning of the season will go. I care a lot more about the opening month. You know, I'm going to make transactions. I'm going to make, you know, trades and try to improve the team as, you know, the months go on in fantasy football. And what if I told you Pierce starts against the Colts and the Denver Broncos?

That's a perfect example. That's gross. And I still think he outscores J.K. Dobbins in the first two weeks because I think J.K. Dobbins, if he is playing in week one, which still isn't known, is not going to handle a large workload. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if he, if he is on the field in week one, I think J.K. Dobbins could have fewer than ten or fewer touches. Yeah, no, I'm with you. That's why Pierce is doing what he's doing is because you get into your draft. And when you're drafting Damien Pierce, There's a chance those teams are ones that went running back, or I'm sorry, went wide receivers early, trying to find starters. And guys like Cam Acres and JK Dobbins or Josh Jacobs for, you know, it's so clear that Pierce is going to start week one and you're going to get running back touches. And I think with Dobbins and Acres, you've got this, I'm afraid to count on them if I went wide receiver early, tight end early, oh man, can I count on them as my running back one? Right.

I think that the most interesting this or that player to me is Rashad Penny because no one wants Rashad Penny. Oh, man. He's sure. You know, oh, he's going to get injured. He's, you know, not good. He's on a bad team. He might not be a real pass catcher, but it's like this kind of looks pretty similar. They're both bad teams that want to run the ball and in a neutral game script will run the ball. They both project to be the starter, but there are other backs that are going to be involved. If I had the choice that I would take Damian Pierce, because of the fact, even though Penny has shown us elite upside, it's my mindset of like, do I get a running back for the year? And I feel like Damian Pierce is locked in as a running back for the season. Sure. As opposed to Penny who feels like you are buying a week of.

Good fortune every time you start him. So for me, if I was leaning on that position, it's not a third running back. You know, if there's a third, fourth running back, I might go Penny for upside. Rashad Penny is the most beautiful, like, house of cards that's on a tray that you're carrying. And it's gorgeous and everybody's looking at it. But don't bump that tray or the whole thing is going to be worthless. Yeah, I agree. And by the way, just so you guys know where the hype is at currently. I did ask people, Damien Pierce or oxygen. Damien Pierce is winning 63% to 37%. These are big nitrogen people. Okay. Yeah. Mr. Periodic table over there. Michael Gallup was not placed on the reserve PUP list to open the year after he passed his physical. So this is big news for how that wide receiver room is going to shake out. You go look at that depth chart. It's...

Slim Pickens now with no James Washington, no Cedric Wilson, no Omari Cooper, and Michael Gallup was paid to fill that role. Yeah, I drafted Michael Gallup a little bit above ADP in our listener league because I think he'll be a very involved, very good fantasy player on the course of the season, but he won't be there week one. He's not placed on the reserve PUP, and so that's great. That means that they are expecting him back before week five. He doesn't have to sit out four games. Jerry Jones recently said, Look, if the Super Bowl was week one, he'd be lining up. He's that ready. Thanks, Jerry. But don't worry, Jerry. You won't see a Super Bowl. Oh. It's just, yeah, I know. Sorry, Cowboys fans. That's at Jason FFL over on Twitter. What are you doing, man? I'm speaking truth. I apologize for nothing. But I do think Michael Gallup will be good on the season. I liked your logic yesterday.

comparing him to Hopkins and the wait for Hopkins versus the wait for Gallup. Exactly. Hopkins, you know you're waiting six weeks of suspension and then he comes back and will be good. And you could say, well, Hopkins will be better than Gallup when they're both. And I will say that. Sure. But one is far more valuable over the course of the season because I think come week three, you're going to have a player that you can play by week four a player you are playing because Gallup is going to be very important to this offense. I mean, if Cedley Lamb doesn't,

take the leap, which you'd like to have seen more games evident of a leap in his past. There's a chance gallops the go-to target or the more predominant target or as good as C.D. Lamb for free. There's, there is a chance, but there's also, I get he's not on the pup. There's still, I believe there's other things they could do, like put him on the IR and that guarantees that he's going to miss a handful of games. As of week one, he's now he would be about seven months out in his recovery. Most of the research on ACL stuff and then getting this information from our injury guy, Matthew Betts, says nine months is basically what these athletes really need to recover. So this could be a J.K. Dobbins thing. Like, you're afraid of Dobbins not getting touches in the first few weeks. I'm afraid of Michael Gallup not getting targets because he's not really ready to go. And the comp of him to Hopkins, like when Hopkins is back on the field,

I feel confident that he will return and be a huge part of the office. Which he will. Michael Gallup could struggle like the entire year and you're just waiting and waiting and waiting. Like, when is Michael Gallup really going to be ready to go? When am I going to get that real usable game from him? So it's, it's an really interesting conversation of which side you would go with. You can put Gallup on. You can put Gallup on IR. You can't put Hopkins on IR and you're not paying anything for him so you can just let him go if he's not that thing. That's exactly what I was saying as soon as I drafted him. It was I'm going to throw him on the IR pick up a waiver option. Did you say that out loud to yourself? Because that would be really cool. I said it to Mike. He was like, what are you doing? But yeah, you pick him up. He's currently at the 1213 turn. So he costs you nothing. Throw him on your IR if you have one in your league and then pick up an additional player.

All right, Greg Dulcich, who was threatening for that tight end one position in Denver. We'll miss the first four weeks at a minimum hamstring injury. I are no Bueno. Are you in on Albert O now? No, I'm really not. Okay. It's no likely. I think he's always a threat to score. I mean, that was the case even with Noah Fant there. But the lack of confidence that the team is shown in him. Makes me wonder how often he'll be any type of central focus in the offense as opposed to just a guy. But you never, I could be wrong. He's got a long name, so who knows? He could score. O.J. Howard will not be scoring for the Buffalo Bills, but he is visiting the Bengals and expected to sign. They have Hayden Hurst and Drew Sample right now. Wait, sample's still round? You betcha. All right. The sample size is shrinking with O.J. Howard's arrival.

So whatever. I don't care about this signing. I don't either. Sonny, Jason, do you? No, not really. He wants to. I want to. I could see it in his face. That's okay. Thank you. It's okay to want O.J. Howard to be what we thought he would be. Yeah, the last time he was released from a team was day ago. Free agent. Was he a top 10 pick? Is that what it was? Oh, yeah. I'm pretty confident he was. Man. Let me double check that. I want to say teens. It's top 20. Top 20. Okay. All right. But, man. Top 10 in Jason's heart. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you're right. He was the 19th pick. Okay. Which was still exceptionally high for a titan. Mm-hmm. Sonny Michelle, free agent running back, released by the Dolphins, visiting and likely to sign with the Chargers. Oh, what does that say about Isaiah Spiller? Who was back, he's back active today. But it says that they're not supremely confident in the backups behind Austin Echler. No doubt.

No doubt. You don't worry about that with Echler. They're just shoring up back up. And then, regrettably for the show alone, the Ravens did wave sixth round rookie running back Tyler Beatty. So dude does not look like a baby. No, he's not. Also, David, David Blow is gone. Oh. It hurts. Oh, oh, oh. Yeah, he's gone. He's gone, Mike. The dreams. They're overweight. Someone somewhere. He was Thanksgiving Day game. Was that what it was? Right. With the big pass to, I see Brooksie nodding. The big pass to Gallaudet. Back when Gallaudet ran routes at full speed. And caught them. Well, when you said that the Ravens running backs don't catch passes, my mental picture there was they bat them down. They're getting thrown them all the time. They just bat them down. Like, Lamar, what are you doing? This isn't the plane. You run.