Fantasy Football - Stat Surprises + Sneaky Trades, Rice Reactions - Podcast for 5/21

That was a long time ago. I don't look at him through that lens of primary alpha either. I do have Bonex higher than I expected, because of Jalen Waddle, but not as a, like, I'm targeting that stack. Sam wants to know our thoughts on three wide receiver leagues. It's great. I think more depth. Whenever there's more players that you have to play, it becomes, I think, more fun. Obviously, there's a limit to that, where you're playing scraps and garbage, but a three wide receiver league is great. I think that if you're in a super flex league, you have to have three wide receivers.

That really helps balance it out. It makes more decision making. You know, the quarterbacks in a super flex league are usually a little bit overpowered. And so having more depth required to start at wide receiver means if you didn't go the quarterback route, you have more optionality. But I love three wide. Yeah, I would say that when we did our mock draft episode on Tuesday, what jumped out is the running back cliff and then how many totally fine wide receivers were sitting there that I, I, when I looked back at the draft, I was like, man, I wish, I wish I had taken a running

back there because I would have been totally fine with this guy here. Which I will say that was the only thought that crossed my mind because I'm, I, I took CD over James Cook and that question a moment ago, but it did cross my mind where it's like there is more depth of wide receiver later in the draft. So if you want to, you know, if you're more comfortable grabbing late wide receivers versus late running backs, grabbing the running back in the first is the way you get there. Blaze writes in from New York. Blaze. When you guys talk about Ted Hurst, I immediately think of Fred Durst.

Yeah. Could that be a good nickname on this show? It's 1999. I'm sure we can get a drop figured out. Here's what's important to me is I'm looking at this picture. Sleep biscuit. I'm looking at this picture. You're telling me I get to do like Fred Durst impressions? This is what I'm getting at. Yeah. I'm looking at this picture of Fred Durst and I'm already seeing Halloween from one of you guys. Oh man. From one of you guys, the bread hat. If Mike makes that sound effect when we say Ted, when we bring up Ted Hurst. I wish it didn't sound like an insult to nickname him Limp Bizkit, but I'm going to be honest.

It does. You know, because we're going to run into it like, oh, here comes Limp. Right. Yeah. There's a warning. Many ways I can go wrong. I'm talking like Fred Durst. We'll never be wrong. We'll take it under consideration, Blaze. Yeah. I almost got a spit dig from Jason. The water was not in my mouth yet. I don't know how we don't have Fred Durst on the back wall yet. That's yeah. I'm really disappointed. We'll take a break and see if we can remedy that. More questions after this. Welcome back to the fantasy footballers. We're in the mailbag. More questions.

Maybe more nickname recommendations. We'll see. YouTube question from Dresden. Keeper League. We keep one rookie every year. Would you keep Scadaboo or Emeka Igbigbu? Emeka Igbigbu. I'd keep Abuka. I've got both of them around 15 in their position. But one of them is not coming off of a bad injury. So I'd go Abuka as well. Ted Hurst himself. Ted Hurst has appeared on the back wall for those listening at home. He does bear a striking resemblance to Fred Durst. I'll keep workshopping this one, guys. I just, you know, when you think of Fred Durst, what is like the first.

Touchdown. Yeah. What is the first like actual memory you have of. Of Fred? Yeah. Because I cannot. Like there was some school dance I went to where I remember walking in. Get him off the screen. Yeah, come on. It's too much. I remember walking into this school dance and that was, and he and Limbiscuit was playing on the speakers. My first one, first was Faith from $6 bill, y'all. Okay. This is as the kid. Ted Hurst is screwed. Oh my goodness. Who, Jason, you, you, you love Ted Hurst. Yeah. I'm a fan. Yeah. Don't worry. I'll fire that record up tonight and I'll have some more for you later.

Nathan writes in, where would you rank Luther Burden if he was in this year's rookie draft? Great question. It's going to be the first round. It's going to be. It's going to be very high. Burden or Lemon at five? I would, I would go Lemon. I, I, man, maybe you wouldn't. Concepcion is the one where I feel like. No, give me Burden. I would take Burden above Lemon. You would? Yeah. That would be my line right there. Yeah. So one oh four. I'd take Tate and Tyson ahead of him. Then I would take, I'd take him at four. I think I would.

But again, I don't have him ranked at 30. So. I would, as of right now, yeah, I would take him at the one oh four. But I do see a world where you'd be like, well, I should have taken, I should have traded the one oh two for Luther Burden. I am. I'm very hot and bothered by Mr. Luther. You are. Yeah. And I, it'll be very interesting. I mean, there are a lot of weapons, but we don't have a problem with that in Detroit. We don't have a problem with that on the Rams. So it's, if you believe what you said about their offense being as good as it could be.

No more DJ Moore. There's room. I bet. I think there's room. I'm sure the, the, the Venn diagrams of Rome truthers and Luther doubters is a perfect circle because you're just holding on to your Roma dunes. Like if you don't, if you have Burden at 30 and I'm not, I'm not picking on that. That's fine. Your ranking is fine. Rome better be lower. He hasn't done. Well, no, I was going to say Rome better be super high or, or Loveland has to be super high. You have to have a couple of these. If you think their office is going to be great, that'd be like, you know, going to Cincinnati

and saying, I got Higgins and chase low. Like you can't have a good offense without a huge fantasy production. I have, I have, I have Mr. Loveland very high. And I've got, I've got Rome ahead of burden. That's just how the chips fell for me. When I was looking at the games played, I realized later in the season when they were, they were a little bit closer together. But I mean, if anyone says they know for sure who's going to have more targets between Rome and burden, you're, you're lying. You don't know the future and it could go either way.

But I would say to just push back a little bit on the, I do think the bears office is going to be very good, but you compared them to the lions. Like we don't have a problem with that with the lions. Well, it was a step forward comments. I mean, they're, they're only step forward for them. They were the six best offense last year, but I'm just saying Jared golf has thrown 4,400 yards, 4,500 yards, 4,600 yards, 4,500 yards the last four years. If Caleb can take that leap up to 4,500 yards. Oh my gosh. Luther burden is going to be amazing.

63%. Yes. So, I mean, a few hundred yards. That is part of the issue for me is just how big a step forward can Caleb Williams take? If you only look at the games where he threw for a million yards and you project them over the year, he throws for a billion yards. That's a, man, that's some good analysis. What did he, what did Caleb Williams throw last year? It was like 39, 94 or something like that. He just wanted to. It was the, it was the, you remember when Devante Adams had never had a thousand yards? Yes. And you were like, keep eating, you're like, cause he had 990.

Oh, I loved it when he hadn't too. I'd rub that in every week. Braden, Chase Brown or Hampton? He's back to back in our, they're back to back in our consensus rankings. You're on the clock. You've got to pull the trigger. Jason Hampton, Chase Brown. Why'd you say Jason? I don't know. Um, I mean, here's. I'll tell you this. Only one of us has Chase Brown higher and it isn't me or you. Um, yeah, that's it. This is an easy question for me. I'll take Chase Brown. I love both these guys. But I would go Hampton. I, I think. They also went back to back in our mock draft.

They are two of my favorite targets where they're going. Like Hampton could have like a Chase Brown season. If we're lucky. Yeah. Can Chase Brown have another Chase Brown season? He's had two. Or one and a half if you want to call it that. Yeah. Um, safest wide receiver that you would take in round three to be your wide receiver one. So these are always fun questions. I think this one's from a Zerb. A Zerb. Is that the name? A Zerb. All right. Um, some sleeper. Okay. So. ADP wide receivers going in that range. Pickens. Olave. Rice. Brown. Higgins. Tet.

Um. Higgins and Tet are like right on the verge. I think, I think the bigger question there. Like I don't, I don't have a problem with Tet as my one. I don't have a problem with Pickens as my one. I think I get nervous about Olave. You really do. So you, you're going to go McMillan over Olave. I would. But I have McMillan pretty high. I mean, I, I do. I don't know. Like I think Olave was pretty, the touchdown numbers were getting a little wild. Weren't they last year for Olave? Uh, let me remember. Uh, yeah, he, he had a stretch of, he finished the season with nine.

He had, he had a good amount of them towards the end. Yeah. Well, he scored in one, two, three, four, five of his last seven games before the injury. You bring in Tyson. You bring in H and junior. They was, he was a one-stop shop there. I feel a little more nervous about Olave. And you mix injury with it too. AJ Brown is the easy answer. But the question is if he's traded to new England, does he stay in the third round? I mean, I would have said rice as well before this news, which I maybe should still say. I think he'll be good.

But the question was safest. And I would say there is nothing safe with rice. I feel the safest with Ted. His youth and position is pretty secure. Everybody else there competes with somebody. Yeah. I mean, they all, that's number one. It's funny that the, the ADP I'm looking at actually has Garrett Wilson later in the fourth. Yeah. It doesn't apply. Fine with that too. I feel fine with Garrett Wilson as my one. Yeah. YouTube question from Sinji. Best budget tight end for 2026 in Dynasty. Obviously you have the top guys in McBride, Bowers, Loveland, Warren, Phantom, but they're expensive, hard to acquire.

Who's your surprise top 10 tight end this year? Last year, Juwan, Ferguson, Goddard, Henry all snuck into the top 10. Chig. Yeah. If you're going with the, the budget tight end. Oh, nice. Okonkwo could be someone who. Okonkwo. Yes. That's it. I think that's the, I think that's the bit. I have Henry at nine. Henry feels. And I hate it. So the Henry feels safe. And Schultz at 10. They, right. But they feel like real safe. They're going to be nine or they're going to be right around there. And if Okonkwo hits, it's better than those. I think that the ceiling is much higher.

I mean, Ferguson could be an answer to that. He needs George or CD to not play. I mean, I still think. Yeah. Maybe. Oh, dude. The numbers when they're both on the field. I know. But he got banged up, didn't he? I thought Ferguson got banged up. I don't recall. He played all 17. If that's what you mean by banged up. Definitely what I mean. No, I mean. I mean, he had a tight end. Seven, nine, 12. He is. He is very, very capable. Just the word budget came to mind. When I think about Henry, Schultz, Ferguson. They're out there on a lot of snaps.

Britton Strange could be in that category. Britton Strange will have spike weeks. But he just doesn't seem like someone who's going to. He won't overtake all the other guys. Do you have any other names, Jason? I don't know. Maybe with the arrival of Najoku, Gadsden. Gadsden could be budget. In a dynasty league, I'm certainly still very in on Orande. Ariana Gadsden. Nice. And then don't forget about Greg Dulcich. This is super budget. We're in the super budget area here. I mean, that's like waivers on dynasty. Right. But he is at Miami. He finished. You know, these aren't like sensational numbers, but 41 yards, 46, 46, 58.

If you're doing that all year long, that's a thousand yard wide receiver. And he, no one's drafting him. And they don't have anybody. What if Malik Willis is truly good? And then who's the number one option there? Besides H. The Malik Willis discussion is just, that one's like totally funny to me because all the evidence we have is that Malik Willis can play quarterback. Well, that's the evidence we have. We just don't have much of it. On Green Bay. Yeah. Well, I mean, there you go. I mean, the only thing that we can point to possibly for Malik Willis is what he did

on the field. It doesn't, he didn't get to choose how often he played. But he played on. The only team he played for. Yeah. Okay. In recent history. I don't know. Those are some qualifiers. You want to go back to rookie year Malik? He didn't get signed off of that, right? He got signed off of what he did in Green Bay. I just think it's funny. This is exactly my point. Thank you for making it for me. You can't talk about him doing well. Nobody's allowing it. Oh, he played really good. Oh, it was only three games. Oh, he played really well.

But what about before he played well? Like way back in the past. Like four years ago. As a rookie. On a different team. I just think it's funny. Nobody can acknowledge that Malik Willis can throw the football. I can acknowledge it. Even though teams fought for him. In free agency. I can acknowledge that he can run the football very well. Oh, my gosh. Did he play well in his Green Bay starts? Yes. Did he throw the ball well? Yes, he did. Yes, but not. I mean, for fantasy purposes. No, just for real life. No, I mean. He. The whole point of this conversation was supporting the tight end of Greg Dolsage.

I don't think he's going to throw prolifically for a bunch of yards. That's my point. Based on. Even if he's. You're basing that on. The evidence of Green Bay. I mean, he wasn't putting up huge yardage numbers, was he? I mean, he got to start one game last year. He threw for 288 yards. Is that good enough? What about his other two starts? He didn't have any more last year. The year before is 122 and 202. And that was the beginning of the previous year. I don't know. I mean. The door is not allowed to be cracked open for Malik Willis to throw for 300 yards.

That's what I think is. I'm not. I'm not as. I'm not as bullish as you are. I'm not. I'm not saying he will. I'm not out. But what. Hold on. I'm not bullish. I'm not saying he's going to do it. I'm saying that I'm open to the idea. As am I. Okay. No, as am I. Due to the evidence of him doing it, I'm open to him doing it. He is a great late round pick. Do you think he will do it? I'll tell you what I haven't projected for. How about that? Wouldn't that be the best evidence? That is the best evidence.

The best evidence. I hope I haven't projected for more. 3,951 yards passing. 3,900. Okay. So you definitely. Yeah. You think it's going to happen. Okay. Is that what I said? Is that what that means? Yeah. You have him throwing for. That's more than Caleb Williams threw last year, right? No. What? That's right around there. Yeah. Caleb Williams. I think it's about five yards more. I think it was 39, 47. 39, 51 divided by 17 is 232 a week. Whoop-de-doo. Well, I mean, you heard it here from Andy Holloway. Malik Willis, greater sign Caleb Williams. Yeah. More prolific passers. Just as a passer.

Chicago makes it feel like you can't. Like, that's a big number. Chicago makes you feel like 4,000 is impossible. You have hundreds of players do this all the time. I will say, let's see. Last year was. Last year, there was only six of them. Oh, shut up, Mike. There were injuries. Like, Burrow definitely would have been a 4,000-yard guy. Uh-huh. Lamar, maybe. Yeah, cool. This is a saying. I wanted to try to find the – so there were six last year over 4,000? Correct. That's probably a tall task. It's funny because 4,000 doesn't sound like a lot. I mean, it's 238 a week.

I mean, that's what it is. It's 230 a week. I don't disagree with the math. We always joke about, like, 202 is a good streaming quarterback number. Yeah. It's just the – I am not nerfing numbers as we speak. Al sees me over here. He thinks I'm tweaking my numbers down. Malik Willis, for the record, is my quarterback 15 in six-point leagues. Don't ask me about it. And in four? Don't ask me about four-point leagues. I love that you preempted what you knew was coming. He's number six. Oh! Yeah. He's number six. If he throws for 4,000 yards, he's going to be –

39-51. That is for sure. How dare you? I'll tell you what. If he throws for 3,700, he will be – He will be a top six quarterback. He's such a good pick. Yeah. Do it. Remember this. Do it, Willis. Remember this under one circumstance. That he doesn't. All right. We're done. Oh, no. Get that off of me. The spotlight is on. All I was doing is trying to defend the honor of this man who got a big contract. You defended it super. Only for playing well. And nobody acknowledges the chance for 230 yards. You're crazy. He's going to be on my team, apparently.