NFL Coaching Changes + Fantasy Impact - Fantasy Football Podcast for 2/25

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Tuesday, February 25th, the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Mike Wright, Jason Moore, I'm Andy Holloway. Another great episode for you. How are you doing today, Jason? Your head is bobbing. Yeah, well, it usually is during this time of the show. Because, Mike, that music slaps. Thank you very much for creating it. But also, I love the coaching changes episode. We've hinted and, you know, talked in the news over the past couple months about these changes. But this is really, I mean, this matters for fantasy football. I feel like, you know, scheme, are they faster pace of play? And not that we have a perfect crystal ball. They will talk about some coaches on today's episode that.

I don't think their past is going to be indicative of their future, which might sound weird. But, you know, that's what we're trying to do here. Towards the positive? Towards the negative? Towards the negative for fantasy purposes. It's about time. I was going to say we have done this show every year and I feel like it's just human nature to naturally maybe look towards the rosy side of coaching changes and the positives that they can produce. But as we look at today, we'll look at. maybe a quick one or two word reaction to all the head coaching changes from last season and how you're feeling about them now. And I don't know. I don't want to be overly negative either. It's just there's so much turnover at the head coaching position and then specifically offensive coordinators consistency with offensive coordinators. That's just not something you're going to get much of anymore in the NFL. Yeah, pretty much half the league, at least at the offensive coordinator position, changes. It changed this year. Like most years.

It's about half the league. So, yeah, there's not a lot of continuity, which is why general managers, I know some of you are listening. Oh, tons of them, yeah. Dude, stop hiring defensive head coaches, okay? Because what's going to happen is if you have a good offense with your offensive coordinator, you're going to lose them. And then you start over. The only ones with consistent offensive output are the Sean McVease and the Andy Reid's and the Sean Pays. It's like when the head coach is the designer. Right. Then you get to. Keep that into the future. That's just my opinion, which is correct. I mean, I do feel like that that would be my hopes and dreams if I were organization in terms of having consistency. I mean, you're a Cardinals fan, so you get John Cannon. Yeah, pew, pew, pew, pew. Yeah, I mean, you do lose defensive coordinators then, right? I mean, those are the ones that will go on to these stupid franchises, I guess. From time to time. They'll be back. Like.

Once they're done being a head coach, they'll be back. Staley, Sala. Yes, and Sala's back. Yeah, Gannon eventually. We will get into all the coaching changes today. Well, Gannon's a tough one to like, how do you crack what's going on with the Arizona Cardinals? I think they were a four win team. I'm not saying. Two years ago, they went up to eight. I'm not saying that Gannon is a 16 next year is a. bad coach at all. I'm saying that the Arizona Cardinals are a bad franchise and therefore he will lose and therefore he will get fired. That, I mean, that's just kind of what happens for the Cardinals. How does one go from a bad franchise to a good franchise? I don't think that it is, it is quoted a lot. There are two ways. There are two ways to go from a bad franchise to a good franchise. Okay. Way number one, change of ownership. Because it's usually a problem with ownership. For the Cardinals, change of ownership. Way number two. Uh,

draft a really good quarterback with the first pick. Like the Bengals right now look like a good franchise because they got Joe Burrow. Gotcha. That's going to heal a lot of wounds. But still a bad franchise. No, no, no. He's changed it into a good franchise whilst playing. But once he's gone, will they go back? Absolutely. He does seem to be the one forcing the issue with the free agent signing. Oh, he's got great work. So we will get into coaching changes, talk through them all. Today we got news to catch you up on. Our shows last week were pre-recorded, so we have some catch-up to do. And a reminder, this is your final week to head over to Ultimate DraftKit.com. If you pre-order it before March 1st, you'll be entered to win a listener league spot to come and play with us in 2025. We also have some other perks and freebies. We're given away with that early pre-order Ultimate DraftKit.com. If you're already an Ultimate.

Foot Clan member, you have the UDK and you're already entered to win ahead of time. And if you've never had the ultimate draft kit, you know, if you've been a long time listener, you're listening to this time a year. You've probably listened for a long time. Maybe you've never checked it out. It really is a tool that has proven itself valuable. The tier based drafting and the information, the breakdown on each players, the, you know, some of the inside stuff that we've got there, it's a really good tool. So I highly recommend. And now's the time because it's, Pre-order pricing, you can get the dynasty information right off the bat, and you're entered to win a listener league spot. So it's like, it's just, it's a no-brainer to me. Ultimate draftkid.com. And like you said, Dynasty Pass. All the stuff is out there right now, your pre-combine release. And there will be an update here in what? Combine is, two weeks. Combine is approaching. Combines next week, right? Yeah.

27th is the first day, but not with players that we care about it. There you go. Wait till Saturday. That's the big day for us fantasy fans. Yeah, this week. It's wild. All right. Let's talk some news. News and notes from around the league. I mean, I guess we should get an update over here. Al Borland back in studio. Last week we missed him. Good to see you're still completely shielded from the cameras with that hat. You had been involved in a little hit and run. Oh, yes. I can't remember. Were you the one that ran or was it the other? I was not. Oh, it wasn't you. Any progress? Vigilante justice? Finding the person that hit your vehicle? The police were able to give me the person's insurance information and all their personal info. So I've got an insurance claim started. They're doing the investigation. So do they don't give you? Boring. They don't give you any details like we locked them up. We threw them in the slammer. No, they actually said there would be no consequences. No, they did. Yeah.

For leaving? Correct. The scene of an accident? They're not going to do nothing. Correct. Is it because it's a parking lot? I guess. I don't know. They just said there wouldn't be any actual consequences. Right. But their insurance should cover the damage to the vehicle. Jeremy did mention that the other day. And I'm like, what? That's not the society we should be. No. Because I shouldn't be able to hit somebody in a parking lot. Get out. Look at the damage. Say whoopsie, Dacey. Yes. Drive off. Like this is out of control. You know what the rule should be for no consequences is not only do you have to write a note, but it has to be like good penmanship. Oh, I'm in big trouble. You know what I mean? And some nice stationery. If you want. You're not talking like calligraphy. I'm saying just nice, like legible. Do people still do that? Nah. Calligraph. I remember my ma like got into calligraph. I don't think my kids. I think cursive is for signing your name. I'll bet half of our audience right now don't.

Doesn't have no idea what I said when I said calligraphy. A baby boy back there. Falcon. Falcon, do you know what calligraphy is? I do yeah. Okay. What is it? A writing style. Yeah, no. That's fancy writing. I mean, that's all I would call it. Fancy right. People used to do a lot of that. Yeah. Man. Writing? Yeah. Seems boring. Some news for you. Shador Sanders will not work out this week in indie. He'll throw up pro day. I'm shocked. We. We are unfortunately heading into a place. I mean, well, maybe like lower level guys get more of an impact now, I guess, from the combine. But it's like the top guys, they don't go. We got news that Ashton Genti will not participate in the skills part of the combine. Because why? Why do it? Exactly. If you're locked in and there's nowhere to go but up, it.

It unfortunately makes sense to not do it. But Shador Sanders isn't locked in. That's the thing that he thinks he is. He's locked enough. He's locked in. I mean, I guess my point. What could Sanders do skill wise? That could hurt himself. I think he would hurt himself. I think this is a smart decision to not do it because he doesn't profile as that extreme athleticism. If he's throwing the ball next to other guys throwing the ball, he's not going to look like, wow, look at that cannon rocket arm. And so this is probably a smart move, but it's also, to me, it's like a little bit of a yellow flag. He's positioning himself for a specific team anyways.

So that factors in, too. He was going to be somebody that made it known what teams he's okay drafting him. And so I don't think he's necessarily interested in navigating his way to a certain spot as much as a certain team. But he's fascinating of it. I know he is the odds on favorite to be the second quarterback drafted. You know, a lot of mocks put him in the. like pick, what is it, three, is that the Giants? But you still see a lot of dissenters who are like, no, he's a second round type of pick in their evaluation. So he will be interesting to watch. Does it really happen? Well, and you start to see, yeah, Giants are at three. You start to see all of the press that comes out now, either against or in favor of a team for positioning purposes. You know, I think a news blurb came out two days ago about.

how much Shadour has impressed teams with his preparation and, you know, we're a ways away, but it's gamesmanship time, and that means not risking your spot if you're at the top of the draft. Yeah, the larger point of it's, it is kind of a bummer that for plenty of prospects, we just, we don't get their numbers and you can't plug in their athletic measurements into production profiles, things like that. We'd love more. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, unless you're there to break a record. Right. If you're going there to break a 40 record or something or move yourself up. The Bengals announced their plans to franchise T. Higgins. Well, it, reporting. The Bengals haven't said anything just yet. But there are reports going out. And it makes all the sense in the world. The Bengals have plenty of cap. They have, like, they can.

figure out a way to get all of their guys with the money that they have. We just got another announcement that the salary cap per team, the NFL announced that and the number went up far more than teams were expecting. From the 250s to the 280s, is that right? Kyle, are you on the line there? It was a substantial jump and more than was projected. So this is, look, this is great. This is the way that at least we get T. Higgins for one more year. Hopefully they can work out long-term plan. That would just be. I mean, they're going to sign Jamar Chase this year. He's looking for 40 million a year. Yeah. The tag, I think, would be about 26 million. Goodness gracious. To take two wide receivers, put 66 million. They did report that the tag was done with the purpose of getting a long-term deal done. Right. Whereas last year it was the purpose of giving them one more year. Yeah, it's going to fall in the range of 277.5 million or between that and 281.

up from 255. So $53 million over the last two years. Well, let's do it. Let's get T there. We have multiple pieces of news coming out of the Rams camp. First, that the team was said to be working out a contract extension for Kyron Williams, or rather that that is a team priority. He's 25 years old entering the final year of a rookie deal. So Kyron could find himself secure with... Maybe a different quarterback. The Rams have given Matthew Stafford permission to speak to other teams. It's been reported that this is about money. There are other teams that would be willing to pay Matthew Stafford more money than the Rams might be willing to pay him. And there are peripheral challenges that the Rams have dealt with with, you know, just Matthew Stafford and his circle and some of the drama that that creates.

Interesting because that comes out, hey, Rams have given Stafford permission to go talk to people. And you immediately go, wow, he's going to look for a trade partner. Then you had an update on that. That was no, actually the Rams have told Matthew Stafford to go see what other teams would pay him. Like, hey, go do the work for us. They want to test the value of the marketplace because they're in a contract negotiation. And I think they're. a little bit far apart when it comes to money. Matthew Stafford thinks he's, you know, and according to his camp, there are people that are willing to pay, you know, $50 million annually for his services. And then I don't think that's where the Rams are at. So in the end, I expect he will resign with the Rams, but this NFL, if you, whenever you rewind the tape two years, I've said this before, but if you go look at two years ago football, you can't remember who all was on a different team.

Like it's just crazy how things change. I just have a weird feeling about this Stafford situation. Of him going to a different team? Of him leaving and the team being prepared to move on from him. This is bizarre to me because like what would you rather have the number? What world does this work? Would you rather have the number three pick and just take your shot? Let's say it's Sanders. If you're the Giants or would you rather have Stafford for 50 a year? For 50 a year, but you are. You're really setting up Malik neighbors in the offense and you're setting up your head coach. If I'm the Giants, I would much rather have Stafford. That's the question. Yeah. Because that's some discussions around the asking price. Stafford is Stafford just turned 37. I mean, Brian Dable has to win this year. He doesn't want a rookie. If I'm able, you please give me. The Raiders with Pete Carroll, the Steelers who are still searching, right? Russell Wilson may not be back there.

And the Giants are the three teams that I think are the most pressed to find a solution at quarterback. He would have a mark of the problem is the Rams need a quarterback. Yeah, but here's for fantasy. He's 37. For fantasy, I think this would be great because Matthew Stafford's a good quarterback. And he still has some time. I mean, I don't know if I really. I wouldn't really want my franchise investing heavily into Stafford because the clock is running out. But he still has a couple years. And then, I mean, how does, there was already rumors of Darnold going to the Rams anyways. And if Sam Darnold goes to the Rams, I'm happy. I think that McVeigh can work with Donald's skill set and we can still get tons of fantasy output from the Rams. And if Stafford goes to the Giants, we're going to get way more out of the Giants. So.

Fancy football players, this is a win to me. You want the musical chairs. I do, but I'm not a Rams fan. Well, and the Rams are, you know, they're getting younger and it might be time. We'll see. Chris Godwin agreed to push back a contract void date. Some players have done this recently. There are a lot of reports of the Buccaneers and Godwin will be working towards a new deal. Godwin's injury was pretty severe. But he had been cooking with Baker Mayfield. It was. So there's a good chance that the injury actually leads to a pathway for him to go back there. Sure. Dolphin's going to release Rahim Moster. Moster just turned 64 years old last week. So, no, he's going to be 33 and he's a free agent. Bears are releasing Gerald Everett. Andy Dalton agreed to a two-year, $8 million extension to be the B.

backup in Carolina slash starter when needed. And Zach Martin, seven-time all-pro offensive linemen for the Cowboys retiring. So he has the same amount of all-pro selections as holding penalties in his career. No way. That's one of those all-time stats. Like the Larry drops. Yeah, exactly. He has more tackles than drops. Yeah. When you see those superstar players who had a great career. They've usually got one of those crazy stats in their pocket. That's a cool one. Martin was a beast. It will stink for, you know, Dak Prescott. And, you know, he's played better and worse with offensive line being better and worse. So TBD on that. All right, unless you guys have any other news, we'll take a break and jump into the coaching changes segment. All right, it's time. Coaching Carousel. I noticed on that that.

The graphic that just came up because it is a new coaching carousel graphic. Nice job by, you know, Mr. Catcher, the biggest loser. I did notice, though, he chose to put Mike and I in some sort of like coaching beanie type of, you know, hat. Coaching beanie? I mean, it looked like some sort of, but Jason was the only one hatless. When you got luscious locks like, I just thought there was an interesting creative choice. Got a let fly. Sometimes we do things differently. I mean, we don't call them the biggest loser for nothing. Seven new head coaches this year, 15 new offensive coordinators this year. Last year we had eight new coaches, five the year before, nine the year before that. Over the last nine years, NFL teams have hired 60 different head coaches, and only 27 had NFL play calling experience.

including four of the newcomers this year, Ben Johnson, Schottenheimer, Cohen, and Kellan Moore. Kind of wild. You mentioned the non-offensive head coaching hires and how it has not been a good run since 2018. And that is, well, it's a tough list. When you look at the defensive-minded head coaches, there's a few of them. that we kind of say, okay, that's worked out okay. Dan Quinn, year one, seems great. Domingo Ryan's year one seemed great. Dan Quinn is such a year one coach. He's like Doug Peterson. Yeah, it makes. And, you know, he just makes such, like I think Pete Carroll will be great year one for the Raiders. When you listen to Cliff Kingsbury and hear him talk about what he would do differently, he talks about how Quinn came in and really.

set a culture. And I think D'Amico Ryan's did the same thing. You know, when these defensive coaches come in, they can set a personality and a standard. And that's awesome to help elevate a franchise. But can that work long term? You know, will that stick? We'll see. I mean, obviously an amazing foundation in Washington. So he's got every shot at doing it. But if you go through the list, it's a tough, it's a tough list. Jaw rule. Don't forget jaw rule. I mean, Ron Rivera, Brandon Staley, Robert Saleh, Matt Erefluz, Dennis Allen, Gannon, we'll see. Domeico Ryans, you already saw, like, Dimeco Ryans is a good head coach, but you're already dealing with the problems of not hiring an offensive head coach because you had Shane, or not Shane Stike, and Sloic. Slowick. And then now you're making another change already. Drodmeo lasted one year, Antonio Pierce, a year basically, and a little extra.

And the jury's out on whether, you know, last year's higher, Rahim Morris in Atlanta. Is that going to work out? TBD. Dave Canales, you know, probably did the best he could do in Carolina. Hard dog for the Chargers. Okay, that worked out pretty well. Pierce, Mayo, they're gone already. Mike McDonald in Seattle. He's funny to me. He's a TBD to me. He is. He feels so TBD. First season, 10 wins. I mean, with Gino Smith, like he did like. Yeah, that's a good job. I don't know, because they didn't make the playoffs or something. It just feels like he's. They hired their OC. A little bit. Yeah, they fired their OC and they, they were not happy with the results, but I feel like 10 wins pretty good first season. Brian Callahan took about 10 years off his life coaching Will Levis and the Titans this year. And then the commanders with Dan Quinn. Oh, man, Will Levis. That was a good time.

Let's talk about teams with new head coaches and new offensive coordinator, starting with the headline hire Chicago Bears hiring Ben Johnson to replace Matt Eberfluse, and he will be the primary play caller. Declan Doyle will be in name the offensive coordinator, but Ben Johnson will be rebuilding, as he said in his press conference, rebuilding the offense from the top to the bottom. I mean, just new play calls, new system, new everything. Not from the bottom to the top. Both directions. He's starting at the top? Yeah. Usually building it down. He's building it downward. How do you do that? I don't know. It's not the same as with buildings. Okay. Buildings. That's good. Buildings are way different. Gravity would really have a problem with building top down. No. One funny thing that I found this year, I don't know if you guys have seen this trend in preparation for the show, but it is a good year to have been a tight end coach.

If you have experience as a tight ends coach is great for you. Both these guys, Ben Johnson was a tight ends coach for Dan Campbell, who was, you know, a tight ends coach originally and a tight end originally. And then Deacon Doyle was a tight end. This is really, Declan. Declan, sorry. He might be a deacon, but his name is Declan. This is a really funny hire. He's very young. He's 29 years old. Does not have a ton of experience. But he's also not needed in a way that most offensive courts. Like if you listen to him talk about this job, he basically is saying, I'm just here. Oh, it's literally like I'm going to get Ben Johnson his coffee. I'm going to get do everything I can to just support him and get him all the things he wants. And like, I'm going to put some some of these little plans together for him. But it really sounded like, I'm just here to be his. He's there to help the vision that Ben Johnson has.

So we know the story with Chicago, 28th in points per game, 32nd and yards per game, despite throwing the ball the eighth most in the NFL, Caleb Williams. He had his problems that were definitely his problems. He had the highest pressure to sack ratio, which meant, okay, you're getting a lot of pressure, but you're also holding on to the ball too long. He was 44th out of 47 in qualifying quarterbacks in catchable target rate. When we talked about Roma Dunzee the other day and the fact that I really... I believe in Roma Dunesie. I think he is a great player. His uncatchable pass rate is outrageous. There's a lot that needs to get fixed. You never know with a rookie whether that is a bit of a snowball effect. When you start in the NFL, you take a lot of hits. You know the pressure is going to come. Your timing gets sped up in the pocket. So you're trying to put the Bears and Caleb Williams in a position where they can succeed, and this is the best shot you have.

Look, Bears fans, I'm sure are. They're very excited. And I would be too. But I think there's got to be at least a tiny portion of you that you're like, dude, if Caleb Williams has a rough year and you, like, you got the coach, you got the offensive system. And that's just, that's a lot of pressure. Like, Caleb Williams has to improve drastically or. people will be freaking out. Yeah, you kind of, I mean, how do you compare that to what we expected from Canales and Bryce Young making an improvement last year? I know like it's weird because we've been so negative about Bryce Young or started out so negative. Yeah. But it's not a false comparison, right? I mean, the Bears were a five-win team. Caleb had his struggles. Bryce Young.

People basically threw him away as a first round bust, but Dave Canales was the hotness coming out of Tampa. It does seem maybe a little bit. There's certainly comparisons. Caleb showed us more than Bryce Young did it as a rookie. So I think that he has at least that going. Yeah, the skills that Caleb has, if you match it with an offensive mind to set you up for success. Because the big problem with Caleb, I mean, you just brought it up, Andy. His time to throw in the pocket is holding onto the ball is not. knowing where to go, whether it's the speed of the game or whether it's just I can wait and do better. I think the system is going to force Caleb Williams to get the ball out a little bit better and have more clear options. But then you match that with the tools that Caleb has. I think this is going to succeed. I will be, this is one area that we hadn't talked about before. I don't know if you have opinions on it. I do think it's a little bit ironic that Ben Johnson and the, you know, inherits.

a free agent signing at running back. That was the former running back jettison from the Lions. You know, when you're a head coach coming in, do players fit your personnel group? Obviously, he's got Caleb and got to work on that, got Rome. But whether he falls in love with what DeAndre Swift brings to the table, whether they, I mean, are they a team that could surprise in the draft with a, oh yeah, with a running back that fits Ben Johnson's vision for the offense? Not necessarily free agencies, you know, DeAndre Swift last year. I think they probably, they would surprise me if they didn't take a running back. It doesn't have to be splashy, but just the depth of this year's running back class. You could get a guy early day three. By the way, over the last decade, there have been 35 quarterbacks that were drafted in the first round. And 16 of those had a new head coach in year two, 19 had a new play caller in year two.

Wow. So that is 54% had a new play caller of their second year. When you are drafting at the number one spot and you've got 11 guys on both sides of the ball. So much for the quarterback saves my job. Sure. Sure. Yeah. No, that's a good point. Now, real quick, gut feeling right out of the gate. Does Caleb Williams make the leap in year two? Yes or no? Yes. The leap to what? I think he will improve. To the point where you would look back and say he made a leap this year. Well, like, I'm saying, are you like, does he leap to be a top five fantasy quarterback? At the end of the year, are you fully convinced that this is a franchise quarterback? I think that's the leap he needs to make this year. I would say yes. Yeah, the fears that you just brought up with the fan base will they be able to sleep after the season? I believe so. Okay.