Trending or Ending + Combine Hype

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for this season. You won't regret it. Do it now. Ultimate DraftKit.com. To the fantasy footballers podcast. Coming to you from pristineauction.com studios with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, man down. But don't worry. We got this. Yeah, Mike is at home. I hope.

puking his guts out. Whimpering. I mean, if he's not puking, he should be here. In fact, I would argue that buckets are portable, he should be here. You don't want him here? No, I don't. He's very ill. Mike is sick. Jay Grizz is in the house, holding it down. It's a two-man show today. Mike, get better.

I believe he was live tweeting some of his illness yesterday. He was watching movies on the couch. He's got a fever. His wife is sick at the same time. It's Lord of the Flies at the Wright household. The kids are running the show. And he is watching whatever movie comes on the TV because the remote is just a little too far away. So don't get better, Mike. Live your best life. Live your best life. Watch that TV.

Today's episode of the fantasy footballers is going to be a great one. We have trending or ending on the show today, a bunch of news. And look, today's Thursday, February 28th, the Combine, getting rolling. Free agency coming soon. Combine's going on right now. Some of the interviews are starting. Some of the Wayans are starting. This weekend will be, you know, the big show. Yeah. Oh, it's going to be great. Our quick question has to do with the Combine. Have you also listened, Jason? Have you listened carefully?

There's been more. We're getting to that time of year. Yeah. You hear it? I hear some hype trains out there. Yeah, I mean, you're starting to hear all about, I think there was three or four reports today in a row. Mm-hmm. Because if you ask Matt LaFleur, head coach of the Green Bay Packers, a question, his full sentence can be three separate hype trains for the various players on his roster.

So this is the time of year. This is why we say listen in now. We'll try to sift through all of the coach speak, separate fiction from reality a little bit. But with the Combine coming up, there will be a lot of hype related to the scores put up, the John Ross-esque scores. What do you look for most when you're watching the NFL Combine? Because I know we're all looking forward to it. You know, what's your favorite thing to look for? So before I talk about what?

you look for. I just want the foot clan to be aware. And I might get some pushback on this, okay? I might have people that are just vehemently wagging their finger at me saying, no, you're wrong. But no, you're wrong. Ooh, the old you're wrong trick. Combine metrics mean so little for the vast majority of every single offensive skill position player.

There are so few things that actually have any kind of proven statistical impact on, I mean, so, you know, you watch your 40 time and you see the guys that are fast and you see the guys that are slow and you, and you overreact. And, you know, when you look at historical data models that, you know, take into account success in the first few years in the NFL and what are the best metrics to use, I'm not saying that there is zero correlation with what happens at the combine, obviously.

You'd rather have a more athletic guy than a less athletic guy. But if you just look at who's succeeding in the NFL and you look at their combine scores and you go across the board, there is no magic combine score that's going to make your guy better. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, I mean, if you were going to bring up the different things I pay attention to, sometimes I look to see if I'm going to be surprised by a plethora of negative scores or a player that doesn't meet expectations. I mean, I would have to say,

It didn't help Ronald Jones last year to not turn in a fast 40 time when that was his main event. But then you had a player like Dalvin Cook a couple years ago who really collapsed at the combine and from day one looked like a difference making back in the NFL. Yeah, but Ronald Jones, if you remember last year, he didn't turn in his best time because he got hurt, like mid run. But it influenced his draft stock. His did not count. But yeah, I mean, if you look at Dalvin Cook and Calvin Ridley, right?

Their combine scores were horrific. They were never going to. I mean, draft Twitter. Certainly didn't meet expectations. Draft Twitter said they cannot succeed because their combine scores were bad. But then you have player Aaron Donald, Sequin Barkley, who's solidified their draft stock or translated some of those things. There are outliers where like those two players. I think it is a hot take to say that it doesn't matter. Aaron Donald and Sequin, let me clarify. If someone comes out and is.

pretty much 99th percentile in every single metric. Like those two guys, they matter. Okay. It's very rare. So maybe Mike Gisicki, who is last year's rookie tight end of the dolphins, he was like 99th percentile across the board. Maybe he'll turn up in the NFL over the next few years. They're looking for them. Common for tighties. But here's what I'm looking for at the combine. Two things. One.

I love. My favorite thing, I think I said this last year, and spoiler alert, I'll say it next year. My favorite thing to watch for is the receiving drills for running backs. Because you can tell a difference. You can eyeball test, tell a difference between the players that are just, I mean, you go back and watch Christian McCaffrey and how he catches the ball. It's thoughtless, it's effortless, it's second nature. He's just running, grabs the ball, keeps going. There's no mental, like, break. There's no.

There's no, I'm trying, there's no Jordan Howard. I'm trying really hard to catch this ball. Exactly. And then I'll do something with it. I want to see who can catch it in stride and who takes that mental break when they grab the ball. Because everyone's going to catch every ball, but they don't catch them the same. So that's what I watch for. But if you do want one metric that has some semblance of correlation. Correlation to projecting success. It is for running backs. It's not the 40.

It's the weight adjusted speed score. So it is the 40, but when you factor that into how much they weigh. So if you've got a big boy, you've got a 225 pound guy who's running a 4-4-5, that's really good. Don't just look at the 40 time. You've got to adjust it for weight. All right. Tomorrow, March 1st, the workout groups, running backs, offensive linemen, special teams. Saturday, you'll see quarterbacks and wide outs, tight ends.

It'll be exciting. It'll be fun. Follow us on Twitter at the FFBallers. You can follow each of us individually at Jason FFL. Mike is at FFHitman. Jay Gris is Jigris FFL. Yeah. Mine's at Andy Holloway. And we'll all be, I'm sure we'll have some things to say as the combine progresses. So if you want to stay connected with us, do that. You can find us on Instagram. That's Instagram.com slash fantasy footballers. You can subscribe, review.

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Tell the people about the bear. You're a bear evangelist. He's one of the best follows on Twitter. And whoever runs that account, which we all know is Jake Riz. Well, I can say this. It's none of us. Nobody in the studio runs that account. Is so good at it. Yeah, yeah. A lot of thought and effort goes into being a bear on Twitter. That's true. All right. Again, Jason mentioned it to open the show. If you pre-order the UDK before March 1st.

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All right, we're hitting the rumor mill a little bit today, but we've also got some big news. Let's start with the news out of Denver recently. John Elway said the Broncos are indeed picking up the contract option on wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders. I love that they're doing it. I'm surprised that they're doing it. You know, you've got a plus 30 wide receiver coming off of a torn Achilles. That's right. Wasn't it a torn Achilles? You gave me a look like it might not be, but I'm pretty confident that's what it was.

I'm happy for Emmanuel Sanders. He tweeted out, you know, the coach said it's happening to make it a great one. And look, Emmanuel Sanders was dominating last year. Even with Case Keenum, Emmanuel Sanders was a fantasy star. So if he can get healthy and prior to the season, you see him running around and that he is back, he'll probably slip in drafts. And I would be fine taking him. It hurts Deshaun Hamilton. Well, that's what I was going to bring up. And that was my face. It wasn't the injury. He was indeed.

injured Torres Achilles. But it was in the same breath, John O'I talked about expecting big things from Cortland Sutton. You got Deshaun Hamilton there, you know, a quarterback situation that's probably going to be in the hands of Joe Flackle. We don't know that for sure. But is Cortland Sutton taking a nose dive on a one-year glance? No, I don't think so. I mean, Demarius Thomas was great.

with Emmanuel Sanders still there. I don't think that, look, if Cortland Sutton is good enough to be a true one in the NFL, he's good enough to do that with or without Emmanuel Sanders on the field. I don't think, I mean, maybe his top end comes down a little bit. Maybe he has fewer targets he can receive, but I don't think it, you know, Deshaun, on the other hand, who kind of projects more in the Emmanuel Sanders type.

He's not the big bodied downfield receiver the same way that Cortland Sutton is. I think Dajon takes the hit. All right. Let's go ahead and turn here. This is very interesting news, Jason. Free agent running back Latavius Murray is looking for a starting role. Make no mistake about it. He says I want to start. I'm not content being a backup. I am also looking.

for a starting gig in the NFL. So if any GMs are out there, both myself and Latavis Murray, strongly believe in ourselves that we can be a starting running back. None of this backup nonsense. Now, look, we have a platform, right? This is a large podcast. A lot of people listen to it. But ultimately, we decide, you know, what we're going to talk about. You know, you talking about wanting to be in the NFL, it just naturally lends itself to...

The fact that you scored a touchdown. Game winning. A game winning touchdown in our flag football game on Tuesday. Who threw you that pass? Oh, it was this MVP caliber quarterback, Mr. Andrew Holloway, through the game winning touchdown pass to me. And I've heard on the street it referred to as a boss touchdown. Yeah, Jason went with the very Sir Charles rebound strategy. He ramped it up with two hands and then just.