Fantasy Football - Trending or Ending + Changing Offenses - Podcast for 3/19

The Chargers. This is a fun one to talk about. Mike McDaniel replacing Greg Roman. I'm not sure you could have more opposite personalities ages. 11 and 6 last year, second in the AFC West. Mike McDaniel is 43, but he really seems 25. He's got a young soul. He takes a BMX bike to work. And he looks like he's still growing. You know, so it's like he's just a kid. Having fun out there. It is. The dynamic of him and Harbaal together is spectacular. But I think we all really respected. I respected how the dolphins continued to play hard for him, despite the season going to crap and obviously eventually letting Tua completely go. Players have always loved him. You know, we've talked to Juice, a big fan of the show, who worked with Mike McDaniel when he was an OC back at San Francisco.

Everybody loves Mike McDaniel, thinks he's really smart. The fact that he doesn't have to wear the head coaching helmet and deal with all the press and all, you know, let him just go be the- He would fall over. He's a little guy. Be the little scientist creating cool plays. Yeah, they were 24th in points per game last year. Herbert was the first quarterback since 2018 to lead the league in percentage of dropbacks pressured and still make the playoffs. So the Herbert defenders. I will not. ever stopped defending Herbert. It's hard after what he did in the playoffs to not say, uh, it was that was real bad. The charges are very exciting. With McDaniel there. The offensive line is getting massively improved because they already had two great tackles, both of who got injured through the year and they lost both of them. They're getting them back. Yes, Slater and Alt. And then they just went and

got a great center. So now it's like, okay, so your center and your edges are elite. And you go from terrible. And an elite fullback and an elite blocking tight in in, in Charlie Kohler. Yeah, I mean, I'm already pre in love with the Chargers offense. And a guard and another tackle. You're pre in love? Yeah. Okay. It's like, yeah. The her. No, I mean, there's a lot of reasons to be optimistic. No question. And McDaniel should be able to put the. the players in the best position to succeed. I think that's been the thing that's been difficult sometimes. Like huge, he has a role to play. He's not probably a superstar. Ladd-McConkie, you know, we had the amazing rookie year. It was kind of weird last year. You know, can he reemerge under Mike McDaniel? You'd think so. Especially with Keenan Allen, probably not back, but who knows if he's back because he's Keenan Allen. Yeah, it'll be really interesting. I want the news on whether Keenan Allen's back, but I feel like I won't.

know if Keenan Allen is back until kickoff. You know, like... Coming out of the tunnel? Yeah, it's just like, hey, we signed Keenan out. Ah, you got me again. He's going to be so late. He signs the papers on the way out of the tunnel. All right. Another, we alluded to it, the Rams, new offensive coordinator. LaFleur is gone in Arizona as the head coach. Nate Sheelhaus is replacing Mike LaFleur, but they also signed Cliff Kingsbury to be an offensive assistant head coach. If you read about what they're talking about the utilization, it's going to be more Sheal House with, like, Cliff's not going to be taking over an officer coordinator role, but he is going to be a game planning play design assistant. McVeigh, we already know, is calling the game. It's just another good offensive mind to have a round for McVeigh. I don't think we ever look. Every year is like, okay, so who's the?

Who's the OC for the Rams? And it doesn't really matter. We're hoping they're smart. They usually are. And then they can go become a head coach after they get sprits with the McVeigh scent. And then I went smell. Yeah, I heard it. The smint. But yeah, honestly, having more good offensive minds there cannot hurt, especially when you have such a mastermind of running the team in McVeigh. worry about, oh, well, heads butt, what if they've got different game playing ideas? Like, McVeigh is in charge, and they know that. So this is just going to be a great offense. I can't believe they have the Falcons pick at 13. I mean, they're a really, really good team. I don't know what the current odds are to win the Super Bowl, but if the Rams aren't like second or third or maybe first, I'd be shocked.

I know they're the favorites to win the division, even though Seattle obviously won it last year and won the Super Bowl. I think it's very close between Rams and Seattle last I saw. To speak of an offense with the most opposite perspective possible, the Jets have hired Frank Reich. Huh? Huh? I am seeing right now. Is this a big joke, this Jets thing? Frank Reich. Who do you want? I want Gino. The Jets. are very unsurious. I feel bad for very few fan bases more than our own. But the Jets certainly qualify. I don't know how you can stick with that team. Frank Reich will be, I presume, the interim head coach by years end. They're bringing in someone at OC who has been a head coach in the past.

I also presume he will not be the taking over the team next year. No, no. Frank Reich will not make it through the season. Oh, that's the other. He might. Well, no, Andy's bringing up a good point. Because we know Aaron Glenn will. Oh, okay. You know what I mean? Yeah. He's like, he's got his samurai sword out. He's ready to get to work. Like, you will not be the interim. I mean, he's already played the half season situation before, right? In Carolina. Well, yeah, Reich. Reich is, he's, he's not unpacking it all of his belongings. I think it's passed him by. I think that's what we saw very obvious. I mean, this is going to be a disaster. The Jets represent the biggest challenge for the Cardinals getting this number one pick. Yeah, agreed. Man. It's, it's a bummer. I'm sorry, Jets fans. Yeah, and it up and fantasy players. You know it. You have, you have two. Do you have.

Two elite players at their position. And when you go to draft them. Geno Smith and Breeshole. When you go to draft those guys, it's going to be difficult and it's going to. Yeah, because you're going to have to talk about Frank Rag being your officer coordinator and Aaron Glenn still being the head coach and Gino Smith being the quarterback, if not him, Justin Fields. It's going to be a bunch of stuff like that all off season long. It's Andy's Thing to Remember from the Things to Remember episode. Yeah, bad teams ruin good players. Yeah. There you go. I'm sorry, guys. Don't draft them. I'm sorry. That's our analysis on Frank Reich. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We should have someone's got to have odds of like who gets fired first Reich or. Aaron Glenn? Yeah. I think, I do, I do think Frank Reich will be the interim head coach. That might be the case. That might be the case. We'll take a break. We'll be right back.

Well, it's time to talk about Jason's favorite player of all time. Sean Mannion, taking over as the offensive coordinator for your Philadelphia Eagles. My dude. Sean Mannion, my boy, Sean Mannion, or Jason's boy, Sean Mayn. Thank you. Okay. Well, Kevin Petulah wasn't getting it done. We know that. And it seemed like not a lot of people wanted this job. No, no, because they... I don't know, there's just a bad vibe right now with the Philadelphia offense. If Aaron, or sorry, if A.J. Brown is traded. Right now, Goddard has not resigned as of this recording, right? Correct. And as of this recording, AJ Brown is not traded. Correct. But, you know, Sequel and Barclay, last year it was a big difference. You're not getting younger. Question marks around Jalen Hertz's abilities to take the team as far as they'd like him to. Last year, they were 19th in points per game.

The year before they were seventh under Kellynne Moore, the championship year. They were 24th in yards per game, the year before. They were 11th in rush attempts per game. They were number one the year before. That's correlated to success and leading games. And then turnovers per game, that number's still good. So they didn't turn the ball over a 10. But I feel like the OC for Philly, your biggest job is you are a human shield for Nick Siriani. That's why people did not want. Like that's your job is. Oh, that's why they don't want the job. is you show up and then if things don't go well for the team, you get to take all the blame. But at the same time, there is the opportunity that if things go really well for the team. It's possible. That you can leave the team in a good manner like Kellen Moore did. That's true. I mean, they, well, Super Bowl will do that. This is still a talented enough roster both sides of the ball to win a Super Bowl. Yeah, because the defensive side is so good, you're,

task as an offensive play caller is to just be competent. You don't actually have to be a top five offense. Just get in the top half. Now, Sequin last year, and this is a concern for this team, and I don't know if it translates, say Tank Biggsby getting opportunities or what, but among 55 qualified running backs with 80-plus rush attempts, he was 48th in percentage of runs stuffed at the line of scrimmage, 48th in rush success rate, 42nd and yards after contact per attempt. See. That doesn't seem great. Sending the tank. Hopefully that is, you know, hopefully it's an outlier, but. Yeah, Lane Johnson missed a lot of time. Yeah, but when running backs, it. How often do they bounce back from this? When it's gone, it's gone. Like, and it vanishes seemingly overnight. And it does all of our heroes, this, that they play long enough. It just disappears. And then you, they still have like multiple years left in the league.

where you're hoping. Yeah, where they're kind of all right? You're like, yeah, do you remember how good Barclay was? He's going to be really hard. It's going to be hard. It's going to be hard not to draft him where he drops. That'll be the hardest challenge with Sequel and Barclay. Because you could easily talk yourself into the offensive line improving and the team improving. Lane Johnson, you look at the splits with him and without him as a team, wins, losses, everything. He's one of the best tackles in the league. And it shows, you know, so having him back and healthy, you would imagine, hey.

Maybe the run game will work. Maybe everything will open up and be better. And you're not drafting Saquan number one like you were last year. Right. Well, so Jason, just very, very early just off the top of your head. Ken Bone Walker or Saquan Berkeley. Ken Bone Walker. All right. Seattle. Goodbye, Clint Kubiak. You just earned yourself a head coaching job. Also, before we move on, I just was, since we're talking about these teams and we were saying Super Bowl odds, looks like the Eagles are the seventh highest Super Bowl odds. The Rams are, in fact, The favorites. Oh. And Seahawks are second. There you go. 14 and 3 first in the NFC West. Clint Kubiak is now the head coach of the Raiders. And Brian Fleury is taking over. Part-time Viking, full-time offensive coordinator. He's got a Luke. By a look at this picture here, 45 years old, was with the Dolphins and then was with the 49ers. He was with Leif Erickson before that, though.

Lee Ferrickson? Yeah. Is that a Viking? Yeah, okay. I'm sorry. That's your, that's your heritage. Jason didn't know us talking about. Guys, it's, it's called. Are you upset back there, Papa Josh? You know what he's talking about? No, I got it. It's called a book. That's because you look like a Viking yourself. Thank you. That is actually the nicest thing you've ever said to Josh. He took it as a hardcore compliment. And you were probably around with that is that not just an objective compliment if you said. like the look of a viking oh what some people like it i mean depends if you're a man or a woman okay i think most men would take it as a compliment yeah i mean you know you i don't know if i if i told you like you look like you're in a biker gang would you take that a compliment no i wouldn't

Pretty similar. I think that it's a similar look. Yeah. I think the Vikings translated straight into Biker Gang. Yeah, exactly. They retired from Vikings and then they got a motorcycle. Like, I'm old. I'm going to start a viker gang. That's how I see Biker Gangs is old? That's how I see them now, yeah. Oh, they're not all old, man. Riding their land boats. Exactly. The water is too tough on my tummy now. Give me flat ground. They're land boats. The wooden motorcycles. Those are the ones the Vikings ride. Lee Perrickson has a day? October 9th. Leaf Erickson Day. So this is a real person. Yes. Well, you said it's from a book. Genuinely. Yes, a history book, Jason. I wish I could leave you alone, but I thought he was talking about some actor that played a Viking or something. So I am out of the history books. When you go to the library, there's nonfiction books and fiction books.

Oh, you're allowed to go? He is like a very famous explorer. You can go into the nonfiction section? You're allowed. Huh. Hmm. There's no bees. Do they have nonfiction? Do they have nonfiction in audible? Of course. Okay. Well, that's news to me. Expectations for the Seattle offense. Losing Kubiak, you have to say, is a big blow, right? I mean, you were, and you lost Ken Walker. And Charbonnet. They got to refocus the running game. But you got JSN, right? You got Sam Darnold. They really have to pick up the pieces and figure some things out here. They paid Rashid Shahid. We'll see if Barner, Arroyo maybe breaks out a little bit in year two. Tori Horton will come back from injury. You know, you expect them to be a very good team because their defense is very good. They were number two in points per game. I don't know if we see.

That kind of year again, right? A couple years ago, it was like this was the story with the Lions, right? It was like they were that good on offense. Can you repeat that? But top five, top 10 offense? Very difficult. That's what you're aiming for. Do you have confidence that Flurry will get the job done? No. I mean, you've got the same quarterback. You've got a great wide receiver. They're coming off of the Super Bowl. Great. Can they be just as good as they were last year? Yeah. But am I confident in that when you lose your best running back, your entire running back core to start the year? And the guy who is so good at manufacturer, you know, the Kubiak system, that run scheme worked really well. Now he has left to become a head coach. You know, we just talked about the Eagles, right? The Eagles went to a Super Bowl and they had Kellan Moore, and he went and took a head coaching job, and they still were a good team.

They still had the same offensive pieces. But they didn't have Kellen Moore, and the scheme wasn't as good. And then that guy got fired the next year and people were upset. I could see that happening for the Seahawks if Kubiak was really part of the magic sauce of making this offense work. They were extremely run heavy. They were when they threw, they were incredibly successful, especially going down the, I mean, Sam Donald to JSN down the field was. truly magic last year. It seemed like every time he's going to throw it 20 air yards, JSN will be wide open. But that might be because of how run heavy they were. That's what I'm saying of. With no Walker and you, I can't imagine that charges there at the beginning of the year. How do you maintain that? If that's what the team wants to be, which, I mean, that you would think so as you had what Ryan Grubb two years ago gets fired after a great season.

or a successful season in terms of your record because we didn't like how the direction of the offense. We want to run more. So we bring in Kubiak. If you don't have your two top running backs, how do you do that? I think they will make a splash in the draft. I think it's very likely that they will, that running back. I think that was part of the decision. Yeah, could be. You want to pay Ken Walker big running back money? It's just, it's a really difficult year to make a splash. But they got the perfect pick to do it.

last pick of the first round. Yeah, but the issue is, I mean, obviously, Jeremiah Love will be long gone by then. The splash doesn't have to be a top five pick. I'm just saying, like, one of the top two or three running backs on the board. They could easily draft the second running back off the board. Yeah, that's all I mean. With their second pick. Yeah, I mean, you got it. I don't know how much the NFL is going to love this crop. Exactly. Tampa Bay, every year, always. Yeah. Josh Gazard. Is Baker Mayfield the quarterback? Because that means new O.C. Always. I mean, Zach Robinson, though. Do he still like, does he still have enough of the whiff of McVeigh on him? It's starting to wear off. I think he could be tracked by a bloodhound. For sure. I mean, the bloodhounds got. Yeah. There's enough. There's enough. If Robinson was lost in the woods and you gave him a McVe hanky.

I think they could track him down. There's enough. Hanky. The Buccaneer started six and two. After the buy, they went two and seven. It was, it was sad. MVP. For Baker, as it was for Abuka, as it was for, I mean, Evans is gone now. I think the clock is running out on Todd Bowles. This is another situation that I can see. Todd Bowles is on the hot seat. You know, it's like Frank Reich versus Aaron Glenn leaving. I think if this team started slow, you could have Zach Robinson as your interim head coach. Absolutely. So ultimately we've come to expect changes in the office of coordinator position for fantasy purposes. You know, I certainly am not, I don't think that Zach Robinson makes me feel way better. I don't think he makes me feel way worse about the situation. I like that. Evans is out of the way for fantasy purposes for the wide receiver room, for Kate Otten. I think Baker has gotten used to getting it done with different coordinators. But I don't have like great, I don't think this is a,

major move. I like that it's an experienced play caller, someone that comes in and, you know, he's not trying to figure this out. We didn't know how the grizzler would do. Sometimes you are able to be Liam Cohen where, you know, you get that first shot and you prove yourself. And sometimes you get that first shot and you're like, you are found unworthy. It's nice to have someone come in. Be gone, Grizzler. We know you're not bad. Jack Robinson is not bad. My code's not working. I can't get back in the building. Someone had to, someone had to fall in the sword for bowls not to leave. That's the truth of that situation. It's either going to be balls out the door or somebody who's going to have to get the, it's your fault, not mine. It's not me. I'm not leaving. Yeah. So I, you know, I'm going to be.

mildly interested in the in the buccaneers i'm very excited to see where with mike evans leaving where a big boo is drafted will be fascinating emika a big boo i'm guessing that if you look at where he's going on underdog right now it's not where he's going to land come august but we should all guess kyle can tell us but we should guess where we think he's going in underdog like right now like now yeah i i am going to guess he is going at I have my guess. I've got mine. Wide receiver number? Wide receiver. Yeah, I've got mine. I will guess wide receiver 22. I had 23. I had 26. Kyle? He's 21. Oh. I think it will rise. I do too. Yes, I do. Sir. I love the cadence. It was really eager. Yeah.

I think it will rise. I do too. I think that there could be some definite reasons for optimism there as a go-to. Because you go into next year, I mean, Godwin is really reliable, but not explosive anymore, in my opinion. So then you're looking at Abuca, can you take the mantle there? And he's a good receiver. You don't do what you did in the first seven weeks, eight weeks, if you're not. So we'll see. Washington, boy, the wheels fell off last year. Everything went wrong. and then they lost Cliff Kingsbury now. He was a revelation for Jaden Daniels as a rookie. David Blow. Blow, Blow, Blow. Taken over. David Blow. The defense was bad, guys. The backwards hat Dan. I mean, he's kind of like Doug Peterson. It really works in the beginning. That's how I feel about... We have the numbers, Andy. I don't know if you saw them. Okay, go ahead. So in 2024, head coach Dan Campbell went 10 and 4 in the regular season with... Dan Campbell?

I'm sorry. Dan Quinn went 10 and 4 in games he wore a backwards hat. Oh, we have backwards hat number. Yeah. Yeah, no, Kyle gives us the stuff. Now, just in something to note in that year, 2 and 0 with a beanie on. Just a side factor. Undefeated. 2025, it flipped. Head coach, backwards hat games, 3 and 12. 2 and 0 with a beanie. Oh, undefeated. Yeah. So he hasn't lost with the beanie in two years? Correct. And he looks better. What is the... How old is he? Get these numbers to Quinn. Because we've done some math on like when you should be wearing a backwards hat. Don't you... Well, we don't. That's... Colin Coward? Yes. Well, we can lay claim to the head coaching. I mean, he can judge the quarterbacks with backwards hats. We can judge head coaches. Here's what I think. Head coach. I think if you win a bunch of games, you can do whatever you want. And I think if you don't...

You look dumb and stupid. Like that haircut for Matt LaFleur? It's going to look fine if he's a 12 win coach. Yeah, and if you look like that. I'd get the clippers ready. I'd get the clippers ready. We like bad defenses for offenses to have potential. Jane Daniels didn't get a play much last year. Three games with McLaren. He only started seven total. We know the offense is going to look very different. David Blah had good comments about McLaren too. Because the... A lot has been made about the head coach and Cliff Kingsbury arguing about what the offense should be. Cliff is a very, it's a college offense where it's everything is shotgun. And Dan Quinn wants people, he wants his quarterback under center more. He wants to get that, utilize that to a great effect for the run game. And so I would expect that that will happen a lot. Now, what?

What will Jaden Daniels success be in that type of offense? Because it's very different being the shotgun-only quarterback versus the under center. I mean, I think Jaden's good, so he'll be able to adapt to it. But it will be something to pay attention to, especially if he struggles early. David Blah came out and said he wants to run the offense through Terry McLaurin and get him 10-plus targets a game. That was one of the things that he said. He said that's going to be part of the goal of the offense, which you like to hear for fantasy. You do. Mike, you do. It's the 10 targets. Skepticism? How many times are you throwing the ball? Eleven. I mean, are you throwing the ball 28 times, and you're giving McLaurin 10 targets every week? It's just untenable. Okay. It's math. I don't know how untenable it is with their current depth chart.

because they don't have enough. Who else? Who are you throwing the ball to here? Yeah, name somebody. Chig Oconquo. No, well, there you go. Yeah. There's three. You didn't get to hear this guy lose. Luce has been Senate love and Chick-A-Conquo. Do you think he'll be a pretty good asset for fantasy? Because Zach Ertz was a very good asset. For Jaden Daniel, Zachers is coming off major injury. And that was the limited version of Zachary. Yeah. It wasn't young, healthy Okonkwo. No, no, no chance he makes a huge impact for fantasy. Okay. You're out. Chick is fine, but there's, like I said on the things remember episode, they're all, they're all fine, they all suck other than the complete outliers at Tide In. Sure, but it's just you do think he could have an outlier year? No.

No, I think he'll be, even if he's a, you know, a top 12 tight end, it'll be irrelevant. I don't think he is as good as Zach Ertz. I know Zach Ertz isn't as athletic as a Conquo, but there's way more to play in that position. Zach Kurtz is, you know, an all-timer at tight end. And so, yeah, he was an old-timer, all-timer. But still, he got to good spots. I think this team is desperate. for some skill position players. They've got to be just hoping and praying that Jeremiah Love drops to seven. I don't think he does, but I bet they take Tate or Tyson. Whoever, whoever they prefer, I think they'll take one of the three wide receivers. That will definitely change everybody's tune on McLaren's upside for that team if they add one of the big names. McLaren's not young. No, he's not.

All right, we are going to say goodbye for today's episode of the fantasy footballers. We will be going through a full recap of the biggest winners and losers of free agency as we recap all of that and kind of pick some of our favorites in the best situations on our next episode. And then we will do a regress or impress episode on Thursday. Catch you up on any of the latest news we haven't had a chance to talk about yet. Make sure you check out the Ultimate DraftKit at Ultimate DraftKit.com. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at the FFBallers.