Good Vibes, Bad Vibes + Waiver Strategy Talk - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/29

Hey, Foot Clan, we got a great show for you today. And if you're drafting this weekend, don't forget to pick up the UDK or the UDK Plus. This is the Ultimate Draft Kit, the number one tool to help you win at your draft set the foundation for your team. We're talking sleepers, breakouts, bus. We're talking cheat sheet. You can print it out. We've marked up all of our my guys, all of those special position upgrades for your team. Check it out at Ultimate DraftKit.com. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway. Jason Moore and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. We're back. Tuesday, August 29th, the fantasy footballers, Jason Moore, Mike Wright, Andy Holloway. Back in the building. I've just barely seen each of you this morning. Back from our trip to Los Angeles. And it seems that you've recovered your voices. Mostly. Yeah, we'll find out. TBD. How's it feel?

It still hurts a little bit. Yeah? Yeah. Everything in me feels like a little, it hurts a little bit. It hurts a little bit. I'm pretty tired. I'm going to be honest with you. We had a, we had a trip. Being old is, it's overrated. But I still recommend it. Being old. Oh, I highly recommend getting there. Yeah. Yeah, I guess it's better than the alternative. Yeah. We are back in business here in the studios. The deucers are here. Judge Giamatti Al Borland, the Ramp Scallion, hanging out in Deucer's Alley today. I believe Brooks told me that he got back from the trip and slept from 5.30 p.m. till 4.30 in the morning, so a solid 11-hour run. Yes, sir. Last night. Yeah. Nicely done. It wasn't as much sleep on the journey. So we drove into L.A. spent a whole day at the NFL, which was a cool experience. Hadn't done that before.

checked out, got to see SoFi and then filmed a dynasty episode of the podcast at the NFL and some other hits around the NFL. Yeah, did a Rich Eisen spot. I mean, the NFL has a new headquarters at SoFi. And let me just tell you the Footland in case there's any concerns. The NFL's doing very well. There's just so everybody is somewhere. I think they're here to stay, man, because when we took that tour, they are doing real, real good. Didn't hit you like a fledgling startup. No, no, they got some cool stuff over there. So we did that. And then obviously on Saturday, we have the Megalus show in Los Angeles. Thank you to everybody that came out. Yeah, it was awesome. That was really cool. An amazing time.

Um, we're hoping Al Borland gets to, uh, to rest up a bit. I mean, he did a few things for the show. Oh, man. He was the general. Everything. Yeah. It was a lot of fun. Uh, and the rap scallion shared on our social, there's like a one and a half minute really well done, uh, edit of kind of the highlights of that trip. And it involved my favorite moment of it. was this very brief second that Al Borland was shown on camera. Oh, yeah. And he just kind of looked. He had his hands, I think, crossed, and he just smiled. And it was like it had been done. That was the, are you actually recording me right now? I know, I know that's what it was, but I want to believe it was, it was peace with the fact that the show went off very well. Oh, no. My favorite part was seeing the, the camera angles from behind us mid show and realizing.

Wait, when the heck was he walking behind us during the show? I had no idea. Good job. You were locked in, man. I was locked in. And Jason did, he broke out the T-shirt Canon. Yes. Which for the record. Sometimes with T-shirts. Sometimes Jason fired off a, if you haven't seen the video, middle of the show. He's like, I'm going to be real cool here. I'm going to fire off a T-shirt in the middle of the show with my Canon. At least he didn't spend. Several moments setting up. Yes. Letting everyone know this was going to happen. And then fired absolutely nothing into the air and realized he was sitting on the t-shirt. That was pretty funny. But welcome. And today we've got good vibes, bad vibes. We'll be reflecting on what's taken place over the preseason, maybe some fantasy insights from what has taken place. We've got NFL news to cover today. We've got a new waiver wire segment today.

Yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be a good show. There's a lot going on. We're not that far away from kickoff. No, I'm realizing it more and more how close we are. I think the thing that really helped me realize like, oh, man, it is upon us is the fact that right now I'm in three different main league drafts. Like right, it's, yeah, as we speak, a couple of slow drafts that we're in the middle of. Yeah, and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is not a mock draft anymore. It's here. It's real. Jason, I'm going to warn you ahead of time. Be careful with the voice here. But the Megalobul is open right now. If you go to megalobole.com, that is our, the largest long, or sorry, largest in-season tournament. So season long. And we are up around 13,000 entries so far.

We're very competitive. We want to break the record from last year, which was about 22,000. So head over there, megalobol.com. You'll learn all the details on how to enter. And the winner, not only do you go down in the annals of history, but you receive a spot in the 2024 listener league with us. So megalobol.com to check that out. Here's today's quick question. Good Vibrations. All right, we're looking at good vibes or bad vibes from the preseason and how that might change the way things shake out for fantasy players because we spend a whole off season with kind of narrative storylines assumptions about teams. Some of these transactions that took place, they changed them. So I will start simply because yours was going to be mine. Was it? Yes.

I'm, look, it's been fun in a way, in the kind of way where you, you know, self-deprecating way, where to make fun of the Cardinals this off season, that was their theme music from the off season. And it continues. They cut Colt McCoy, who was the presumed starter of the Cardinals at the quarterback position with Kyler being on the PUP and not being available. So they just cut him, which. Makes more sense now in the fact that they traded for Joshua Dobbs. Which at the time made no sense. Yeah. And then Clayton Toon, their other rookie option at quarterback, and Dobbs are now in contention to start the season as the Cardinals quarterback. And...

I don't know. Did you hear? And David Blow is still there. No, no, no. No, the clip. Yes. So Jonathan Gannon has come out and said he will not be revealing his starter due to competitive advantage. Fired. Immediately. You're not a fan of that line. It's the stupidest crap in the NFL. There's the old adage. If you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks. And you're right now trying to say we have two potential options. You have no options. If I am. a general manager, and my coach ever does that, immediately fired, immediately. I think that's a bit much. No, no, it's not enough. Like, I wish there was more I could do as an employer. You're in prison. I am firing you and I'm putting you in jail. Yeah, I will put you in front of a jury and we're talking probably seven to ten years. Fired. Okay, so here's the deal. If it's Dobbs, who we watched play briefly last year,

with Tanna Hill out and the Malik Willis looking awful, and then Dobbs pretty much just trying to survive in Tennessee, or it's a rookie and Clayton tune. I think fantasy players have a legitimate concern at this point. James Connor is going to get all the work in that backfield. Hollywood Brown should get all of the targets in the wide receiver room because across from him is going to be a rookie in Michael Wilson. And yet, we are now at a level of quarterback play. at least at the level. No, man, there's two potential starters. We're at a place where this could be potentially real bad. I'm talking Kellyn Monde against the Packers. I'm talking Ian Book for the New Orleans Saints. Like, you're not going to get a ceiling with either of these players. Cole McCoy had some games in Arizona, and I think he was pretty much toast. It's fine. They moved on.

He couldn't get the ball down the field. So at least in that regard, maybe Clayton Toon throws some of them up for Hollywood. But like Hollywood and James Connor no longer have a floor that I thought they have. At least that's my take. I think the floor is lava. Yes, for Hollywood and James Connor and late round last round pick Michael Wilson sometimes for Zach Gertz, for Trey McBride. It's bad. And the Cardinals, I don't know if they are. like in the building tanking, but I think they might be. I think it might be like very, I mean, they gave away Isaiah Simmons for a seventh round, draft pick. Yes, that part is actually a big deal to me. And because why would you possibly do that? Maybe, yes, he's not the player that you thought you were drafting. He was a top 10 pick. Linebacker. He can still make plays for your defense. Like if he's on your roster, he's still going to play. To me, that was a full on salary dump.

Like, they're like, we don't want to deal with this. Which is what Col McCoys was too. I mean, you are, you are settling up for next year. We're going to be bad. So let's start saving some cash. And I heard, you know, Mike Durecki out here in Arizona. He's talking about Kyler will definitely play this year. I don't know if that's true. It seems like he probably will in the back half of the year. But is that to put him on display for a trade in the off season if they have the number one pick? I don't know. The vibes are as bad as bad can be in Arizona.

They are seven point underdogs to start the year. Really? Seven point dogs. Seven point dogs to start. To Sam Howell. To Sam Howell and the commander. I forgot who it was. And so. This isn't, you know, going and playing against Herbert. Yeah. I mean, and Buda Baker on the defense is the last man standing. And I don't think it's going to be very fun. So very, very bad vibes in Arizona. And enough to where I took Hollywood Brown pretty late in a draft. It should have been fine. It should have made me feel good. And it made me feel like, ugh. He has felt like a good pick all offseason based off his ADP being the number one guy, hoping that Kyla will be back sooner than later. And you have an adequate quarterback to support you in the meantime. And now it's maybe Dobbs or Toon actually comes through. I think Clayton Toon, if I'm remembering correctly, was like PFF's highest graded passer.

last year in college. So maybe, but I'm with you that the vibes are just, foof. Now, Jason, you once owned a Max Hall jersey. I sure did. I still do. This seems like your moment. Like a Clayton Toon jersey? Well, the problem is Max Hall dominated preseason. Clayton Toon hasn't even been that good. No one for the Cardinals has been great. in the preseason, certainly not as good as some of the other later drafted quarterbacks. Can't remember the Raiders. Who's the Raiders pick that they got? That quarterback has been tearing it up. I can't remember his name, but he's been great in the preseason. I want to switch gears here and talk. Raiders quarterback? Andy O'Connell. Thank you.

I want to switch gears to talk about a positive good vibrations, right? That was the segment came in with a good vibrations drop. Right. And then we hit them with the Cardinals. Sorry about that. Yeah. I should have let you go first. To me, I think the winners of the preseason are the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yeah. their preseason has looked as good as it gets. And I know, like, this last game, they were playing starters against backups. You better look good. But they still did, right? So you can't, you can only play who's ever across the field. And there was the world where they come out and they look mediocre or average against second stringers. And instead, they just flat dominated them. It was like you blinked your eyes and it was 17 and nothing. And specifically, Kenny Pickett.

to me, he is the question and the answer of how the Pittsburgh Steelers offense will perform. I like Nadia Harris. I love Jalen Warren for where he's going in drafts. I think Deontay Johnson is going to be a huge value this year. Pat Friermuth, great late round tight end. There's a lot of weapons here. Even guys like Calvin Austin late in best ball drafts, I love. Of course, you've got everyone's favorite sensation, and George Pickens, the highlight reel. But it doesn't matter if Kenny Pickett's not good, if he doesn't take a step forward, and everything that I have seen in preseason looks good from him. The way he's reading, the way he's throwing the ball into tight windows, trusting receivers, leading receivers, running an offense, seeming like he's in full command of the leadership, like he's not a rookie anymore.

And he doesn't look like a rookie anymore. His preseason has been great. I think he's got two incompletions through all of preseason, a couple of touchdowns, no interceptions. So the vibes for me have just been really, really positive. And I think this is going to not be a top 10 offense. But I think it's, you know, it's between 10 and 16. It's a top half offense. And when you go from the putrid horse crap we saw last year to... A top half offense, that is a huge fantasy value sauce. All right. I mean, I look, I had you till sauce. Yeah, I mean, that was a bad finish. Yeah. What is it? It's a huge, that gap in value from when they suck last year to being positive this year. I don't know if it's sauce, but it could be. It's like a, you know, it's a secret sauce.

Opportunity. Yeah, it is. There we go. It is an opportunity. And I watched every play from Kenny Pickett this preseason a couple of times. You know, you go to last year, and he did complete 63% of his passes. He had the occasional kind of play where he put, you know, he was able to move in the pocket or escape the pocket and find a guy down field. It just wasn't, he wasn't able to sustain drives the way he was in the preseason. complete them, right? He was the field goal king over that back half of the run where they actually had won some games. But this preseason, that's been the impressive thing, is the drives are being finished. They're actually getting into the end zone. And, you know, it's made me look specifically Deonté Johnson and Pat Fryer Mues sway more in drafts. And Deonté Johnson, if you haven't been paying attention, it's been used a little bit, a little bit deeper, a little bit further downfield this preseason, which is nice to see. You don't want a guy.

finishing the season out here with like 9, 10 yards reception. Right. Yeah, and like Jason said, there's a lot of sauce there. Yeah, secret sauce for fantasy goodness. Mike. I will jump in here, and it's the Denver Broncos, and I have them down from weirdish, too bad. I agree. It all, I mean, it started off. The off season started off hot for the Denver Broncos. It was. They ripped the Band-Aid off. Nathaniel Hackett's out. They trade the draft capital. They give the cash to Sean Payton, who was having a good life on television. He comes in. He's going to save everything. And then we get right into a really strange media fight where there is definitely an unspoken rule among the NFL of coaches. Just don't trash other coaches. You don't do it.

Sean Payton said, I don't care about that rule. And then he just, he went after Nathaniel Hackett, which was like, what is, why? Why are we doing this? And then if you start thinking about the human nature, you go, are you hedging, Sean Payton? Are you saying that this year is? He did so much damage. It's going to take me multiple years to climb out of. Yeah, are you saying that this team is going to be bad? Don't blame me. I'm still cleaning up the mess from the other guy. That's, kind of a strange way to start off the offseason. Then you, the injuries, that's no one's fault, but it's just they're piling up. They are piling up. Tim Patrick, AKA Fireball Jones. I mean, he's out for the year. Who knows if his career is ever going to get back on track? This Jerry Judy hamstring situation, those are like awful. That's an awful way to start the year because your chance of re-aggraving is always so high. The Greg Dulcich was,

a very sought after a favorite late round sleeper at the tight end position. And now with the starters, Adam Troutman has played 24 of 28 snaps with Russell Wilson, Dulcich down at 16. So it's not that it's gone for Dulcich. It's just... Yeah, you have more question marks of like, are you going to get enough? The upside of really being someone who breaks out, he can be useful here and there, but him turning into that week and week out started where you stole him at the end of the draft, that feels like that upside is gone as well. I still believe it is there personally. I think that the way that they're using Dulcich in preseason is more hiding him, but TBD. I will say that the bad vibes with the injuries.

They're good news for Marvin Mims. I've been really rising on Marvin Mims, realizing that his opportunity at the beginning of the season is basically the wide receiver two. He's going to be out on the field a lot. The biggest problem is that a bet on him is a bet on this putrid offense. It's a bet on Russ. It's a bet on Russ. I still don't know. Like my confidence that Sean Payton can fix Russell Wilson is not that high. I don't know that he can do that. I mean, I think Russ last year, he had a handful of games where he had decent fantasy outputs. It was a complete lack of consistency from throw to throw, play to play. You know, the running game, how much Javante do you get? How much Samagee? Like Javante in drafts right now is a, he's a scary pick because you may have some upside there. You probably do, but yeah, if the offense is bad, then you don't.

Yeah. It's been murky. And then you're competing with the Chiefs and the Chargers. And I, you know, I'm sorry. This has been a, it's been a rough road for Bronco fans since the Rust rate. Yeah. So here's a good, if you want, like how we deal with Russell Wilson. Let's talk through something here. Okay. I am in a draft right now. It is a limit. It's a super flex draft. with a lot of great people from the industry, a lot of sharp minds in there. And you. And me somehow. I snuck in. And I'm at the turn. I drafted at the 12 spot. We're going into the fourth round. I'm almost on the clock. And I'm riding dirty in a super flex. I've got no quarterback. 16 quarterbacks already off the board. And I'm sitting here. I'm two picks away. And Russell Wilson.

is still there. And I'm like, I don't think I want them. I don't think, I'm trying to decide between Russell Wilson and Matthew Stafford. And I've got Cooper Cup. And I think if both are available when I'm on the clock, I think I'm going Stafford. And that just seems, that seems crazy. But, I mean, do you think I should take the value of a dropping Russ and hope that Peyton fixes it? No, probably not. Mike, yes. No, I take my stack. All right, quick break, back with the news. All right, we're going to dig into quite a bit of news. All of the cutdowns are happening for these rosters as long. Which they are wild now because it's not like the, it's not the stair step down. It's you have all these players. Okay, this day. We have to go from 93 to 53 and I believe that is correct. Yeah.

News and notes from Around the League. Presented by USAA Insurance. All right. I mentioned it earlier. Kyler onto the reserve PUP to start the season missing at least four games. They released Colt McCoy. We talked about the quarterback situation. It's gross. All right. The Seahawks. Rookie wide receiver Jackson Smith and Jigba, who just underwent. underwent surgery to repair a small broken bone in his wrist, expected to begin the season on the active roster, so not on the PUP. That does not mean he's playing in week one. That is great news. What it does mean is that they expect him to be back before week four. And that is very important because as Mike pointed out, Seattle has a week five by week. So there was always the fear. It was like, will he be back for week one? I'm not sure. He might not be ready to start the season. Timeline seemed like he wouldn't be. But we were afraid that if it got too close to their by week,

then it would be like, well, now they're just going to hold him, rest him, make sure he heals up. And we won't see him until week six. That's too far to make him still a valuable draft pick for where he's going in drafts. But this news says he will probably be back week two or three. Today is the deadline for the Colts to keep Jonathan on the PUP. Jonathan Taylor. No, just Jonathan. Just Jonathan. Or trade could happen. Sure. Because they're either going to put them on the PUP to start the season or they won't. And so there is a chance the trade goes down today. We're recording this very early on Tuesday. So that's the latest on Jonathan Taylor. I don't know what in the world you do with him in drafts right now. Yeah, I mean, hopefully you can just wait a few more hours and figure this out because this is a pretty big deal. If he goes on the PUP, that means that we have a clear and definitive answer to whether or not the ankle issue is still an issue. And if the ankle issue that should not have been an issue come training camp,

is still an issue to where you can't play games. I move him significantly down. And then, you know, if you get a trade, Eagles, dolphins, any of those rumored rosters, I mean, that changes everything for those teams. And people are drafting. And then all of a sudden, I don't know, you know, different players are going to be, different fantasy players are going to be disappointed. Trailing Burke's back to practice. Okay. Great. Okay. Dalvin Cook, practicing. He's been a very interesting potential selection in drafts. Like you see him there and I haven't pulled the trigger yet, but I've just, there's definitely a spot where I will. Even if I get a strong three or four weeks, five weeks to start the year where that's massive. That's super valuable. And if you, and if you ended up like, I don't know, with Jonathan Taylor.

And you could get a few good weeks while you wait on Jonathan Taylor's situation to pan out. I don't know. It could be worth it. One of my favorite tips that we've ever done when we do our top 10 shows is making sure you don't just look at the season as in totality. Break it down. Look at these little chunks of the season, like the first four to five weeks, then the middle, and then getting ready for the closeout, which all of these. sections of the fantasy season, they all have a very different preparation that you take for them. And so I love taking Dalvin Cook. That's a little too hyperbolic. I think that Dalvin Cook is a solid pick where he is going usually in drafts. I'm not reaching, but I'm letting him fall to me. And I think he's a good value right now. Jason, I don't know if you've been sweating a little bit, but Mark Andrews hasn't practiced in three straight.

days, but John Harbaugh says he expects him to practice this week and play in the opener. Well, that's good. Yeah, no, I've been really upset. They've been not practicing either. Yeah. I've been very, very sad at this news. Obviously, I have so much exposure to Mark Andrews, and I have encouraged everyone to draft him in the third round. And the only issue that I see with Mark Andrews truly is just making sure he's on the field. So I hate that he's not on the practice field right now. C.J. Stroud officially named starter. This is so dumb. They're 10 point underdogs against Baltimore in week one. You named C.J. Stroud the starter when you drafted him with the number two pick in the draft. Everyone knew it. Sure, glad he didn't get all the reps, you know, first team practice. It's not hard being quarterback. He didn't look good this preseason relative to some of the other opportunities. Oh, but he had to earn it. How did he earn it by not looking good?

He did not have to earn it. Just because you say someone has to earn a job. Yes, Jason. If you're going to say. Fired. Fired. In prison. Fired and in jail. Immediately. Right to jail. That's another one. I think this one upsets me so much more. I hate it. This one is. The other one, look. Competitive advantage. There is actually. potentially a competitive advantage. No, there's. Yes, there is. If you're trying to prepare for a mobile quarterback or a pocket passing quarterback, there is an advantage of saying, I don't know who we're playing. Absolutely. Maybe it's not a significant one. Maybe it doesn't move them needle, whatever. But there is an actual negative and only a negative thing. Yeah, competitive disadvantage. Competitive disadvantage for your team to say, yeah, I'm not going to let you practice with the starters because of some old crumogy.