NFC West Breakdown + Dinner Dates, High Ceilings - Fantasy Football Podcast for 7/14

You know, it's going to be some guesswork again with Arizona at the beginning of the year when it comes to finding the fantasy stars on this team outside of their quarterback because Biondrey Hopkins has spent it for six games to start the season. And Chase Simmons has departed. And those were two pretty big pieces of the offense. They made the trade for Hollywood, Brown. You got that drop? Got that? Got that for me? We updated that, right? Did we?

Did we get the new one? We'll find out. Yes, we did. Hey. So, Christian Kirk out the door as well. You know, it was a tale of two halves for Arizona. They ended in a putrid fashion. All the offseason narrative around Kyla Murray that has kind of faded away and still doesn't have a new contract, but nobody's talking about this every 30 seconds anymore. But on the field, this was a great offense. And going into.

the upcoming season. You know, I like Hollywood a lot to start this year. This is a player that knows and understands the offense. All reports out of Arizona is that it's been just a smooth acclamation. And he's going to be the most valuable past catching weapon in this offense until DeAndre Hopkins returns and maybe beyond. Yeah, absolutely. With Christian Kirk and DeAndre Hopkins out of the lineup, I mean, when.

when DeAndre Hopkins went down last year, it coincided when Kyler himself went down, but then Kyler got back without Hopkins and was not the same without him. The entire Cardinals' offensive system was not the same without him. So I think the trade for Hollywood Brown was exceptionally important for the Cardinals to even have a chance. Zacherts became basically the, like, number one target in this offense, and when Zacherts is your main target,

It's not going to go well. So having Hollywood Brown there for the beginning of the year, I think he's a good draft pick. You've got an explosive big play guy who was so good on deep targets. He can get open because he's got that electric speed. And Kyler's deep target accuracy has gotten better every single year. He's among the best in the league. It's really a match made in heaven. Or you can say a match made in college where they were college teammates and, you know.

lit college football on fire. So I do think that they are going to get off to a good start those two together and Zach Gertz, which really for us, drafters, for us home leagues, that's really all that matters. Like, if I knew that someone was going to get off to a great six-week start and then trail off, I am always fine drafting that player. Sure. Yeah, and it's not going to be a...

You know, they traded a first round pick for Hollywood. It's not going to be a, all right, well, D'Andre's back, take a seat. It's just going to be, you know, we had plenty of games last year where Christian Kirk was relevant alongside Dandre Hopkins and things like that. So, yeah, maybe the numbers aren't as prolific. Maybe they stay that way. We don't really know. I mean, Hopkins is getting older. It wasn't, you know, his fantasy value was built on touchdowns last year versus the massive volume we saw in his first year in Arizona. So it's very interesting.

What else is interesting is the way this team had to, maybe because of injury, transition into two tight-in sets over the back half of the year. And then, you know, you might roll your eyes and say, well, that's not a big deal. Then they paid Zach Ertz again. And then they drafted Trey McBride, the most highly regarded pass-catching tight-in in the draft. So you might see a lot more of that, despite the, you know, Hopkins is still out. And you might see two tight-ins on the field. And, you know, I don't know if any of us.

would, you know, we're not going to be streaming Trey McBride. No. But in a Dynasty league, you know, he is a very good player. Yeah, McBride is very interesting for Dynasty. Zackertz reluctantly is very interesting for redraft, that hot start that Jason was talking about. I mean, in 12 games, Zachert saw essentially 20% of the targets last year for Arizona. And he's going to see a lot of targets over those first six weeks. Can he get?

In the end zone, TBD, but Zachers could be pulling in five receptions a game while DeAndre Hopkins is out. And that's, then get that late, you know, in the back of the eighth round, in the early ninth round, and then go from there. Like a month in, then try and readdress the tight-in position. But I think that he's just grossly undervalued right now in the draft. Yeah, and gross is the right word. Yes, not that his, he's.

really undervalued. It's gross that I'm saying he's undervalued. Right. rushing production for Kyler went down last year. 8.3 rush attempts for game back in 2020. Last year it was down to 6.3. Hard not to attribute that total in part to the ankle injury and the return after the ankle injury in week 11. He was the fourth best quarterback in points per game. That's the headline for Kyler. And he was great the year before with Josh Allen.

It's hard to remember how good Kyler was over the first seven games before he got hurt in week eight. In that time, he was throwing nearly two and a half touchdowns a game. He was rushing for a half. I mean, on average, Kyler was scoring three touchdowns a game while throwing for 280 yards. Five of those seven games, he was a top ten quarterback. Yes. Two of those games, he was the top.

one quarterback. He was the top one. He was in the top one of all quarterbacks for fantasy football. In fact, it's a league company. The first two weeks of the season, he was 100% of the quarterback ones. Very. That's a good staff. Yeah. Look, pretty wild. When they're fully healthy, it's DeAndre Hopkins, it's Hollywood Brown, and then you do have AJ Green back. You've got Rondale more. I don't want to talk about Richard. I want to talk about Rondale, though.

Yeah, Rondale. Go ahead. Rondale, I don't know if it's being picked up nationally, but there's a lot of, you know, maybe it's just coach speak, but there is still a lot of chatter coming from Cliff Kingsbury about Rondale having a very expanded role in this offense, which, to be fair to Rondale, he doesn't have to do much more for it to be a very expanded role, but a second round pick a year ago, athletics just.

off the chart to start the year, wasn't getting on the field at a time, but his targets per route run, meaning when he was on the field, Kyler was very interested in throwing him the ball, and he projects to be a starter with this team, especially if they're running three wide. He's going extremely late in fantasy drafts, and I think that he, Rondale is one of those players to me that when it's late and you're like, you're just throwing some darts on someone that could.

Have a very surprising season. He fits the mold to me of great quarterback, high-powered offense, huge opportunity. But you'll know in the first two weeks. And you can dump him if it doesn't work. Is Rondell Moore actually increased? Or is it just more of the same and you can move on from him? He was on an 80 target pace last year before the injury. Over under 100 targets for Rondell more this year in Arizona. I'm going to take the under. Yeah, I would take the under, but there's a chance. Yeah, and he's electric. I think he'll get to 100.

They just might all be behind the line of scrimmage. Yeah. I think the last wide receiver here to discuss where people need to know what do I do with DeAndre Hopkins in my drafts. There's giant question marks around that. Thankfully, this isn't one of those questionable injuries. His injury, which he did have, he's good to go.

He's healthy for training camp. This is a six-week suspension for popping positive on PEDs. So you know you're going to not have him for the first six months, but you know he's been a six weeks. For six weeks. But he's been a fantasy superstar whenever he's been on the field. That being said, when you bring in Hollywood and start getting this offense going with Hollywood with Zach Gertz, we don't know for sure that.

When Hopkins comes back, he would be this top six type of wide receiver. Could he be? Absolutely. We've seen it. But could he be a wide receiver 15 type? Absolutely. And if that's the case, waiting six weeks for a guy that could come back and be a wide receiver 15 is a massive mistake in my opinion, especially where he's going. He's going to the back of the sixth. Personally, this is just my take. Here's wide receivers going after him that I would much rather have to start the season. Amun Ross St. Brown.

Brandon Cooks, Darnal Mooney, Juju Smith, Schuster, Devontas Smith. Give me some eighth round wide receivers, just so I understand the context. Sure. Because I think it's about, you know, six weeks is a little more than 40% of your fantasy season, depending on what your format is. Eighth round wide receivers, we've got Rashad Bateman, Elijah Moore, and Gabriel Davis, and Brandon Ayuk. I think I would take all of these guys. No, I'd take Hopkins over all those guys. I would take all those guys, except for Iyuk, over Hopkins.

You would take all those guys except for I would take Elijah. I would take Elijah Gabriel Davis and Bateman for sure over over hop. Okay. Hopkins was very good to start the year. It's just a matter of lowest receiving yards per game since the rookie year. I know. And the route bush, man. The route tree was disintegrated into a lonely desert plant of death. I guess I just have a different opinion. Not that I'm not actively seeking.

DeAndre Hopkins, but he was the number five wide receiver the last time he played a full season in Arizona. Last year was injury marred. You will go into the week seven, or I don't know if they have a buy week seven, but you'll go into their seventh game, and DeAndre Hopkins will be the number one focal point of the offensive game plan. That's what's going to happen in Arizona. So whatever that means to you, if it's worth waiting, if it's not worth waiting, that's going to be the equation. He's paid.

a huge amount of money and heralded as one of the top actual pass catchers in football. So if I'm getting the wide receiver 14, that's amazing. Size of your bench matters. If you have a bench that's shallow, you know, four or five, that's, yeah. It's, it's, there does become, Hopkins is a very difficult decision. To me, there's just a point where it's worth holding that. And the way I would.

rationalize it in my head is you rotate through waiver wire guys that are in and out on your roster every week, including wide receivers you're taking blind shots on, right? I mean, we're going to spend two roster spots a week moving players in and out for most rosters. And you know what he'll be when he gets back. So that will be the game you have to play. You might not, it might not be worth it. Six round, all the names that you said in the six round, I'd rather have over DeAndre Hopkins. No question about it.

So maybe in your league it's a ninth round decision for you. Maybe it's a 10th round decision for you. Or in Jason's case, maybe never. Yeah, I think the 10th round I would hop in. Oh, let's talk James Connor, shall we? To ignore my awesome pun. Yeah, James Connor was great last year. Obviously, he overperformed in the touchdown category. You wouldn't expect him to.

Get as many touchdowns, however. Which was 18. Yes. You do know that he is the premier goal lineback for a team that likes to run it inside the five where you can't stack the box because Kyler will go whoop and go out to the outside. So you've got to spy him. James Conner is going to score a ton of touchdowns. Yes. It will be fewer than last year and still be very, very good for fantasy. Plus.

He can catch the ball. Chase Edmonds is gone. And the running back amalgamation that they've brought in behind him does not seem like. Darrell Williams. Daryl Williams, Keante, Ingram, Eno Benjamin from a couple years ago. It doesn't seem like there is a Chase Edmonds replacement. I think it's going to be a couple guys coming in and spelling James Connor. What is, Kyle, if you can look up, I want to know what the over-under is on total touchdowns for James Connor. Do they have that number? I can look it up. I feel like he's locked for.

double digit. Yes. I mean, he, I'll take 10 plus rushing touchdowns. He had five games last year, five with more than one touchdown. That's kind of wild. And if you go back, he is built for touchdowns. You go back to Kenyon Drake, who wasn't in this system. He was still getting all those same opportunities that James Connor was getting, wasn't quite as effective with him, and the center position wasn't quite as good then. Yeah, so we're not expecting 18 touchdowns, but we know that he's a featured back.

on an offense that was, you know, in the top half of the league. Fair? Yeah, and he's a good value right now. He's not being drafted as like a first round or top of the second round running back. First round would be scary. Yeah, and I've seen the criticism. They think it's bias, hometown bias. But you don't understand how much we hate the Cardinals. I'm not drafting hop. So the line is nine and a half. See, that's why I was wondering. Okay. I think he's a lock for double digit touchdowns over. Now.

Injury. Yeah, I was going to say that's. Betting unders this time of year is usually the smart play just because if you get injured, you hit your under. Yeah, yeah. That would really hurt. You get to about nine halfway through the year and you lose Connor for the rest of the season. The 49ers, 10 and 7 last year. 7 and 2 to finish the season. 5 and 1 score games. The preseason win total was 10 and a half. They were under that. The projected Vegas win total right now is 10 for San Francisco?