Fantasy Football - Draft Worries + Breakout Hopes, Tricky Trades - Podcast for 4/8

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. The fantasy footballers Tuesday, April 8th. The year is 2025. And we got another show for you because that's what we do. Show 1,736. Is that true?

I believe so. It's in the show, doc. That's a lot. That's a lot of shows. So where does that put us on? Is it would be 2026 will be 2000 or 27? I don't know, man. Kyle, figure that out. Go to the deucer camp. Oh, yeah. Kyle the Borgogan's in the He's house. What? Kyle is here. I was trying to be a cool youth from the 90s. The host of our Falcon. Our DFS. Well. Embedding podcast, the host of our dynasty podcast, Kyle, flying into town. Just kind of sit there. Where's Dan? The people love it, Jason. Yeah, the people love the people. Oh, yes, they do. Oh, my goodness. Wake up. Dude, I told you. I'm very tired. Yeah, I was going to say like one minute ago, quote, I'm so tired from Jason. So, that was private information.

Did you, wake up. What did you have for lunch? I had a Mediterranean bowl. Heavy. Heavy on the humus. We have a winner. Is this true? Al Borland, we got a winner of the. That is correct. The footclan giveaway. The Drake London signed jersey goes to Patrick McGrath. Congratulations, Patrick. I would like to file a motion for Patrick to name. It changes last name to McGrathic, because Patrick McGrathic is, that's a good name. Okay. Just saying. Okay, dokey. Just throwing it out there. Oh, yeah. I feel like there's some. No, there's nothing. Reference. I don't understand. Nope. No. Just a, that's a funny sounding name. Okay. Maybe you need to wake up too. You guys both need to wake up. That is that, okay. YouTube.com says the fantasy footballers. Are you doing a joke where you made a guy's name, name rhyme?

We would never do anything like that on this show. Look, I think we gave you more credit than you deserved. We thought. No, that was. We don't know most references that you make. And it could have been anything from your wide range of knowledge. It could have been the world of WWE, which we know nothing about. It could have been. There could be a famous wrestler named Patrick McGrathic. I wouldn't have known. What a great name. That rhymes. It could have been an 80s video game character. I have not have known that. I will say this joke is not for you guys.

So when I'm doing my real shallow dumb people jokes, those are right for you guys. You give us a disclaimer. Yeah. You can follow us on X at the FF Ballers. Our quick question of the day, it's a simple one. Which player's fantasy value are you most worried about being impacted from the NFL draft? And so a chance to bring up a name somebody that you're just kind of nervous about. Maybe they're on a dynasty roster. And you're just, you know, you've set up a little corner of your room. You're saying your prayers. You're hoping nobody. gets drafted to ruin this player. I think the one that could easily get hurt the most, I think probably will, is Devon A-chan. A-chan is, you know, still right now, he's very, very highly drafted, and he will be if he is all alone.

He's very high in my dynasty rankings at Running Back? Absolutely, as he should be. Still only 23 years old. I also don't think if the Miami Dolphins go and draft a running back, I don't think that destroys Devon H. I think it'll come back to the hyper-efficient rookie season versus the more volume-based, still successful fantasy season of last year. But as far as the upside, the value, where he's being drafted, I think who could take a real kick in the sack would be. would be Devon A. Chan. I think the dolphins could draft a very good. I think they should. I'd be like, what is happening? That was a good one. I think the dolphins should draft a good running back in this draft class, but it will hurt A. Chen a lot. Well, they have a 13th overall pick, a second rounder, a third rounder. I, you know, they kind of whiffed on Jaylon Wright last year. Raheem Mostard is gone. They have Madison.

It will definitely concern me because I think getting back to the efficiency level of his rookie season is probably not happening because so many breakaway runs a big place. 7.8 yards per carry? That's why it would concern me. Sometimes seasons like that happen and they're once in a lifetime and you don't. You know, the breakaway runs weren't there last year. There should have been more. I don't know. It would worry me. If you go, you went from 140 opportunities to 290. And that is why he is where he's being drafted in dynasty and in redraft leagues. And it'll make me nervous, but it depends who they draft, right? It depends where, what round. Of course. Do we like them? What we believe about Tua going forward. We all picked running backs for this question. I think running backs are the, it's the position that gets hurt the most at the draft. I don't worry too much. You know, it's like if.

if neighbors had Tetaroa McMillan added. Yeah, and he was drafted, you know, at three or whatever. I don't think that that would take anything away from neighbors. Wide receivers aren't really that hurt. Wide receiver ones. It's like wide receiver twos now you can get replaced. Yeah, that'd be more like lower tier stuff. Like if the Raiders take some whiteouts, Jacoby Myers is no longer, you know, a flex type of guy or a dynasty hold. Mike, you went with. I'm going Najee Harris, the hot signing by the Los Angeles Chargers. And that team is just so primed to drafts a running back. The, the makeup of the team would G. Roe and Hard Dog being the highest of T. And Najee being 27 and just like, Najee's best ability is his availability. 1,000.

330 opportunities in four years. Yeah. And so he's near the age cliff. He's got a ton of work. And they're going to want a young guy. Was he a one year? Yeah, he's a one year contract. Yeah. This is a team that in a deep draft class wants a future of running the ball. It makes complete sense for them to draft someone. Najee right now was a huge free agency winner. So this, and look, this is not. I'm saying, I promise this is going to happen to Najee Harris. It would surprise me if we went through the draft and they didn't do anything. It's not impossible. But I, like, Najee is like a de facto, oh, sweet, I still have a running back too of my team. But if a high profile rookie goes to the Chargers, that is a, that kid's taking the job, the job before the year is over. What if it's a third, fourth rounder? A third high enough profile for you? A third round running back in this draft class would, I would project Najee to lose his starting.

job by half week. Yeah, I think the hope for fantasy managers is that because they signed Najee to this deal and it is a deep draft class that they'll use a fourth, fifth, sixth rounder. And I won't be that scared. It's really just, are they taken on day one or day two? Those are going to make immediate impact for their NFL team. If they're a day three pick, then a quality veteran should hold them off. Especially around the goal line for Najee, unless somebody comes in, that's a big bruiser. I went with the running back as well, and it was all Sunshine and Rainbow's last off season for Ramandre Stevenson. Signed a big contract. Still under contract for three more years. But you just look at the Patriots. They have four picks in the first three rounds. Ramandre, the confidence level in Ramandre, it went down, his yards per carry, down three straight years. His targets, down three straight years.

have had some fumbling issues. When Antonio Gibson's getting worked in or we're getting punitive benchings, right, which it's just not a good vibe where the team may not look at Ramandre like they did last off season. I think last off season, they thought he was more foundational to the offense. I think now it's more, well, if a good player's on the board, we're going to go best player available. We need a running back. And I think Romandre's value in fantasy is diminishing. This is a bad offensive line, by the way. I mean, the worst in the league last year. Yeah, he's approaching the bad age for running backs. And they've been talking about wanting to add a pass catching running back in the draft. There was a recent blurb there where they were saying that that will be a priority for them. Would you in Dynasty roll the dice with these three names or would you try to capitalize on?

The value. I think A. Chan's value is as high as it's going to be. I would agree there, but I am going to hold on to A. Chen. I'm not trading him before the draft because of a fear that they'll get another running back. Like I said, I think he'll have value. Ramandre, I don't think you're getting anything for, to be honest. And no one's like, you know, kicking down the door to acquire Ramandre Stevenson. Najee is interesting. This is Goldilocks. Najee to me is. valuable right now because he's all alone. He's signed a contract for a Harbaugh team. It looks good. He hasn't missed a game in his career. You can get something for Najee. And if they were to take a day one or day two pick, which would not shock any of us, I agree with Mike. He won't finish the season as a starter. I think I lean a hold on Najee, just in how I'd view running backs in Dynasty. And I, we were here last year with the Chargers.

All these exact same narratives. One of the biggest winners in the draft. Take it Dobbins. Because Kamani Vidal didn't do anything and they want somebody they can trust. At this time, it was Gus Edwards was the big winner of free agency because he actually got a contract worth a couple million dollars. And Dobbins was a, I think a vet minimum. Yeah, he was. It was that drum beat. That drum beat. He still has no team, right? Dobbins correct. That sucks. Yeah, it does. I feel like he came back and did the max he could have done after those injuries. He did. But it now has no team. Like watching Dobbins, you're like, eh, it's still not. Right. It's not fully back. And I don't know that we'll ever be fully back. Yeah. Which stinks. Yeah, man, it's tough. Dude. He was going to be so good. And he was, yeah, he's productive for them. Yeah. But we'll never know what the career could have been. No, we won't. News and notes from around the league.

Guys. Mike is feeling good. Team Mac. The Cardinals have signed Trey McBride to afford. Team McBee. Four year 76 million dollar. The people love it. Extension. The people love this one. It's the. Trey McBride getting that shmoney. Biggest contract in league history for a tight in 19 million annual average. So. Oh, man. Just imagine if you scored some touchdowns. It is, look, it's fantastic on, on so many levels of, but I think the highest profile one is the Arizona Cardinals don't give Trey McBride this money if they had any plans to not keep featuring him as a pass catcher. Like you don't look at your offense and say, well, Trey, you might take a step back here. We're going to get Marv more. We think we're going to get another guy. No, you pay this guy because he's going to be a number one on your team. It's Kelsey level.

That's exactly. When you look at the Cardinals, you need to make sure you look at their entire receiving group in how you look at Kyler and all of that. Like McBride, you know, sometimes you can ignore that tight end. You can look at holes at wide receiver too. You can look at disappointment from Marv. Right now today, Trey McBride is their best receiver. Oh, man. That's the actual truth. And that means that they messed up a little bit because I probably wouldn't say that if Neighbors was on the Cardinals. Yeah, that's fair. I hope you're not saying that at the end of the year. But I think we were saying that in the end of the year. Is in and of himself just awesome. The way he goes up and mosses, guys, breaks tackles. The dog. He always got the dog. 147 targets, 111 catches. Yeah, I mean, it was awesome. And the path, you know, Mike and I, we share, you know, our champ, champ, champ team in one of our dynasty leagues. We had Travis Kelsey. Is there two spaces at the end of that team now?

like champ champ blank blank blank there is but like i'm just trying to make sure you can't take away you need to leave the right amount of space after you say it well the nice thing is so we how's your dynasty team championships going andy how would you list them i wouldn't say my champ champ team you wouldn't no is did you win two in a row champ champ champ no i wouldn't decide the way either because it didn't happen interesting yeah i'll bet if you want them back to back you would say that um But anyways, we had Travis Kelsey for that run, and we chose in the first round to take Trey McBride, because we believed in this player in his rookie year as the future replacement. How'd you feel about that a year in? And we felt so bad because we took him over Jahan Dotson. Yeah. And if after a year...

someone would have offered us Jehan Dodson for Trey McBride. Yeah, why didn't you offer us that trade, Kyle? Yeah, because we would have taken that. Really? Well, at the time, yeah, I mean, Trey McBride had a, uh, invisible had a nice rookie season. There's no way you would have offered it. Yeah. Well, where's that's okay. I got Johnny Smith, so watch out. Okay. Gino Smith, two year extension worth 85. Beautiful million dollars. Good for you, Gina. I think some people would be surprised how old Gino Smith is. He is going to be 35. He'll be 35. He gets a 66 million guaranteed deal. The Raiders quarterback situation is 100% Gino Smith for a while. And so if you're looking at Brock Bowers, you feel great. Yep. Because Gino is a professional. Gino targets the tight end. And you've got stability in a position where he produced without it.

Kyle Kyle's chiming in here. Only Stafford and Russ are older than Gino as starting quarterbacks right now. Obviously Rogers will be in there, but he's much older than I think people realize. He had like a decade off of football as a backup. And he's, I think he's good. I think he's good as well. I do believe it will overblow. Brock Bowers a little bit. Like it, I think people are going to say, well, now he's got an accurate quarterback and he didn't last year. But if you look at Brock Bowers, you know, Brock Bowers, you know, Brock Bowers caught 73% of his targets. Mac Bowers. Did I say it weird? Everybody induces his alley's nodding. So, like, like a chicken? It was just a little clucky, man. Okay, all right. But go on. But my point is he, uh,

he caught 73% of his passes in his rookie year. So you can't really say that his quarterbacks were that inaccurate. And how much, you know, he had 153 targets. You're saying that the hype will be. I mean, yeah, how much higher can you go? Right. That's what I'm saying. Geno Smith, Verali, is, you know, the confidence that we have in him. He has one season ever above 21 touchdowns. So that, I mean, that's, it's just. Interesting, right? I mean, he had the 30 touchdown year, then he went to 20 and then 21. He's a very capable quarterback. He throws for more than 4,000 yards. The yards will be there. You hope that the touchdowns can get up into the 25-26 range. The argument for him with Bowers is it's just an argument for the Raiders. The Raiders overall will be a better offense. I think the Raiders are going to be a pretty good team. I do too, and I was. I think he'll draft Gentie, by the way. We were talking to, man.

You think so? Yes. At 6th? I mean, that would be a great offense. And this division... They're visiting with him today, by the way. This division looks to me, like, I think we thought this when Russ came to town, and it didn't turn out to be true. But this division looks unstopably good. What the Chargers are doing, how they've built that team in a year. You know, they've got Herbert, obviously the back-to-back-to-back Super Bowl visiting, you know, AFC representative of the Chiefs. The Raiders... I think are going to be pretty good. Like, I think they're going to be a top half team. I would, yeah, I mean, maybe nine and eight. The hard part is they've got to play their division mates. And then the Broncos with Bo NICs, they look like they're ready to compete. So you're talking about a really good division now. Like the AFC North, where all the teams are going to be pretty competitive. It's good to be in the NFC. Unless you're in the NFC North.

Yeah, in which case it's also bad to be in the NFC. It's bad to be in football. Patriots get a fifth round pick for Joe Milton, the third and a seventh from the Cowboys. This one is. They have added their next Trey Lance backup. I do not get this. So if you don't remember, Joe Milton was drafted by the Patriots, I think in the sixth round last year. He had, you know, like he had his supporters. And then he has one start there. at the end of the year where he looked real good. 22 for 29, 241 and 1, a couple highlight plays that made people turn their head. He looked like a capable player, but this is, it's one game. Week 18. It's the very end of the year. And you have this, you have him under contract for real cheap. You drafted him in the sixth and then you trade him plus a seven for a five. It's, you wonder if there's more pressure from a little head scratching. Maybe from him.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's the impression I'm getting is that he's, he knows Drake May 22 years old. He is the future of the Patriots, who I like. I like Drake May a lot. I think he's going to be good. But you're right. You don't normally just toss away. Weird. Quarterback. Like they brought in Dobbs. Yeah. But it's like, I don't know, to get to get a fifth back when you have, when there's allegedly all this interest in Joe Milton is weird. Well, they probably would have gotten more if there was more real interest. Jordan Mason, this is a bit of news. Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell talking about Jordan Mason's role on the Vikings. If you didn't catch that earlier in the offseason, Jordan Mason traded by the 49ers to the Vikings. Basically, O'Connell says he wants to reduce Aaron Jones' workload, which makes sense. Aaron Jones is, what, 30? At least. 30 or 31. He is. He's 30.

You know, he had a career high in snaps and rush attempts, had some injuries. And he basically said that he can be a game changer, speaking of Jordan Mason. And there's some talk about, you know, 1A, 1B backfield structure, goal line opportunities for Jordan Mason, some series dedicated series, which he should. All of these things should happen. Yes. If you're Minnesota, you know, the Thunder and Lightning, Aaron Jones spent a lot of his career in that type of, you know, workload. It makes perfect sense. It's a great ad by Minnesota, but it means bad things for Aaron Jones fantasy manager. Yeah, I mean, you saw this with how they got players involved in the beginning of the season. You know, you had a committee. And then it wasn't working. We thought it was going to be one of those situations. That would be Ty Chandler. Yeah, Ty Chandler started the year getting 11 opportunities, 10 opportunities, 16 opportunities. They had their biweek early in week six. And then it was like, yeah.

We're not helping our offense when we're doing this. Then he did nothing the rest of the year. Wasn't Cam Acres getting snaps? Yes. Acres took the backup job. It is, Jones will be a tough draft. If he's in the dead zone for running backs this year, then he will not, probably not going to be a guy I want to draft. He seems like somebody to have maybe for the first part of the year, but not count on. I feel like both players will be decent dead zone running back picks because. Mason will probably be undervalued. And I think that they both have the situation where their quality backs on a good offense. But where do you think? You think Mason will be drafted that high? Oh, no. I mean, he might be past the dead zone. No, he'll be late like double digit. I'm just saying for where they're being drafted, you have the built-in upside of it. If either one of them goes down, the other is a really good running back on a good offense. For sure.

And then we do have the announcement officially. I don't know if we've talked about it on the show recently, but the NFL. The NFL will officially switch from using the chain gangs to camera-based technology in 2025 to determine first downs. Don't worry. Chain gains, they are still there. Yeah. How useless can you feel when you're the backup? Yeah. Holding a chain you're. That is not going to be used. They only hire between 67 and 74-year-old men on the chain gang. I have to imagine. when you are completely 100% not used at all for weeks and weeks and weeks. And it's, you know, late in the third quarter and week 16. And like, are you paying attention to your job? Like all of a sudden the hawk eye or whatever. They're looking. They're like way down the field. They never moved. It's like, oh, no, our system isn't working. Let's go to the backup. Oh, it is. They're asleep, Bob.

But this is just the measurement, right? Correct. This is an actual, we're not, we didn't fix the spotting of the ball, which is, we did not. That's the real problem. You're right. Is making sure that, like, I know we've had a couple fiascos with the chain gang, including the, uh, what, who pulled out the note card? Oh, yeah. Skeletor. Whatever his name is. Oh, man. Yeah, Gene Skeletor. From the He-Man series. No one wants to jump in. I think Gene Skeletor is pretty good. Good work, team. Sterator, right? Yeah, that's why I was Skeletor, because I wasn't sure. Now, you got it. It rhymed, and I know you like how things rhyme. We will go ahead and move on here, take a quick break and jump into some questions. Did we find his name? Does anyone know it? I said it. It is Gene Sterator. Okay, Sterator. I'm all over this, Mike. Let's jump 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 the submit a question button or dial the voicemail hotline 302464-64 TFFB. I believe we have a voicemail question today. A quick reminder, don't forget to check out Ultimate draft kit.com. Pre-order pricing available now. If you're not familiar, all the information's over there at UltimateDraftKit.com. It's our draft kit to get you prepared for your upcoming fantasy football draft season with our sleepers, breakouts, values, player rankings, and a whole lot more. A bunch of really unique tools to help you get an advantage. So check that out at UltimateDraftKit.com. We'll jump into a voicemail. This is Uncle Al from Greeley, Colorado. Would you rather keep Malik neighbors for a fourth-round pick or Jaden Daniels?

for an eighth. Love the show. Thanks, guys. I'm going to assume. There was Uncle Al saying Malik for a fourth or Jaden Daniels for an eighth. I'm going to assume because this is a question that this has to be a single quarterback league. Otherwise, Jayden Daniels was an eighth. He wouldn't be an eighth. It's a pretty easy answer for me. Yeah, it's Malik. It's Malik neighbors just due to market. Having Jane Daniels is going to be so much fun. And he's going to be awesome for fantasy football. But there's other guys that you can find that can at least give you a lot of the production that Jaden Daniels is giving you where Malik and the fourth is. And to be clear, like being exchanged for an eighth round pick, I mean, this could be, even if it was Malik for a four and Jaden for free, I would still be taking Malik. Malik in the fourth is a great value right now.

He's the 10th pick off the board in ADP. In baseball? No, this is sleeper dead. Oh, right. Yeah, and look, if you want to take a swing on Jaden earlier than advertised, you can still do that. You're saving draft position on Malik. Malik could be a first round, second round pick. This is interesting to me. I want to get your guys' opinion here. Pulled up Underdog, you know, just checking out their rankings here. They have Brian Thomas at 6, Malik at 7, as in, and like a whole, almost 10 picks, Brian Thomas is in front of Malik neighbors. That's, I'm sorry, that point, that's points. 80, but he's ahead of it. He's closer, yeah. Yeah, I mean, look, I don't, I don't blame anybody for that. Situation in Jacksonville is cleared up. It's Brian Thomas's show. There's a quarterback there. Russell Wilson's not there.

Yeah, I mean, that's, that is a big, big attraction by addition. Yeah, look, you, you have more stability there in the, in the key, you got Trevor Lawrence. Well, so who would you take? You're in a startup, not a dynasty draft, just for 2025. I do feel like there is a magnetism to try to take neighbors there, but I think the smarter pick would be Brian Thomas. I, I don't, I don't know why, why is it that we feel like that's strange? I can't wait to, obviously when we, when we, when we. get working on the statting out of every player for the ultimate draft kit, seeing how those two players, the chips fall, especially after projecting whatever we think Russell Wilson's going to do. I mean, you always have the potential of James stepping in. Right.