Preseason Power-Up + Crucial Draft Questions

what that says for their divisional chances. I mean, it's going to hurt, but I still love this team. So Lamar looked great. I thought Gus Edwards looked good. Justice Hill scored a touchdown. You love seeing the rookies come out. Mark Igrim and Gus Edwards both just look like they're such a good fit for this team. I mean, Mark Ingham didn't get a ton of work, but they're just, they looked powerful. The offensive line looks ready to run the ball. I was, you know, thinking I wanted to take another look.

at where I've got them static because both guys are pretty low in my rankings. Green Bay didn't play Aaron Rogers. Now, are you concerned about that because the expectation heading into the game was he would get a quarter of work, ended up sitting out due to back injury or I should back off of that. Yes. Not back injury, just what? Sornness, tightness. Back tightness. It sounds like a guy didn't want to play in preseason week two. Yeah, it doesn't bother me other than the fact that we can. We still have a minute.

able to evaluate anything from the Packers offense. Yeah, you didn't get to see Aaron Jones. You didn't get to see anybody of real value on the offensive side of the football. We'll see him next week. So let's go to another game. Let's talk about the Jets. Let's talk about Sam Darnold. Let's talk about the Jets Falcons match up. Where are you out with Sam Darnold in the upside? Rising. I talked about it week one. It was shocking to me.

how great Sam Darnold looked. And he was the highlight of this preseason. I want to see what, or of yesterday's slate of games. Sam Darnold did not disappoint. I mean, right out of the gate, he had two just pinpoint accurate throws, one to Quincy Nunewa and won a perfect, threw it just a little bit short so Robbie Anderson could get to the ball off of his coverage. Then he completed it to Robbie near the goal line where he could have scored. Yes. And that was after a scramble play.

where the offensive line let the guy through, he moved around, and pinpoint accurate should have been a touchdown, but the wide receiver, I don't remember who was targeted, dropped it. Sam Darnold, I literally last night went and made a trade offer. I'm going to move him up. I think in Dynasty now is the time to trade for Sam Darnal before he breaks out. Right now, nobody's expecting something good this season. You know, he's ranked 25th and lower.

But I think his future is bright. And you might not remember how young he is. So, you know, in Dynasty, I'm rising on Donald. I think he has every opportunity to take a step forward. Haven't seen him on the field with Levi-on-Bel yet. Got to see a lot of time Montgomery last night. Looked pretty strong in a complimentary role. I know it's a crazy thing to say that Montgomery will see any sort of snapshot when Levi-on-Bel.

gets when they're in the regular season and levy on bell is playing but i don't know i just i have i have those slight concerns inside of me that montgomery will be there more than than fantasy owners hope you want to know what i can't picture levi on bell with his helmet off on the sideline in any aspect of an important part of the game yeah i don't think i don't think it's going to happen time montgomery looked pretty good but what was surprising to me was how the jet's offensive line looked and i kept thinking man levi on can run through this now obviously

everything is vanilla. We're not going to overreact preseason week two. But the offensive lines of this game were a big story to me because the Jets' offensive line looked good and the Falcon's offensive line looked horrendous. I don't know if that was the Jets defensive line, just going complete smash mouth or what, but it felt like every single play Matt Ryan was either getting sacked or throwing...

backpedaling or whatnot. And I was really looking forward to the Falcons. This on paper should be one of their best offensive lines in years. So that's going to be one of those things next week. Week three, when it's like the real, I'm going to be watching the Falcons offensive line because they looked horrific. Edel Smith took snaps ahead of Brian Hill in this game. Matt Ryan looked good to me. He did. Made a couple of impressive throws. And with some of the tumult at the quarterback position with what you have to pay for certain guys,

Andrew Lux injury, Matt Ryan, still firmly, strongly in my top five for fantasy. Any other takeaways that you want to bring up? Devonza Freeman played in the game. And then they got him out, and I loved it. All right, the Bengals took on the Redskins. Jason said before the show, the Bengals tried to compete with the Cardinals for most penalties. It's true. One, Jason.

I think the Cardinals won, but I mean, the Bengals have to be embarrassed that they put in a great effort and lost. I mean, the amount of offensive penalties they got called for was truly impressive. Adrian Peterson looked incredible. He really did. He looked explosive. Why does this guy not age? You just kind of, again, this is preseason. Caviot is reaction, not overreaction. You're looking to see eye test, not statline.

So when you give the ball to Adrian Peterson for his first preseason carry and he breaks off a 26-yard run or whatever it was and he shows explosion. He pulls away from guys. You say basically in the back of my head, well, look, he may break down by the end of the season, but he still got it right now. That's what's the perfect situation of why I love the value of Adrian Peterson later in your drafts. With Geist not being able to play, Peterson is, his ADP has just stayed there.

He stayed very, very low where he will be a usable guy for a running back two spot if he need him. And we don't expect him to be a stud throughout the entire season, but he'll have enough juice to be very productive early on in the season. And Washington eventually will try to give Geis the opportunity to take the job. But at that point, you've already gotten your fantasy football value from Adrian Peterson and maybe you can trade him off before that.

before they try to make the change. Peterson has been a value in our ultimate draft kit since the day it released on June 1st. So he's just going to be, because of his age, it'll be static. He'll stay there as a value. It feels bad. Drafting Adrian Peterson. It felt bad last year. And there was even more assurance that he was going to be the starting running back. It's going to feel bad. Just.

Just plug the nose, do it. He's very valuable late in the draft. Joe Mixen, he only got one carry on the stat sheet. He had another one where he disintegrated Josh Norman, who you can find six feet beneath the turf after the stiff army gave him. Mixon looked explosive. He did. He had a lot of bursts to him. You like seeing that. You still worry about Andy Dalton. Five for nine with an interception. Did not look good.

Dwayne Haskin 7 for 14 with a touchdown through the 55-yarder in this game to Davis. So other takeaways from this game? Do you get paranoid with Andy Dalton anytime something looks like this? Here's the question for Joe Mixing. Should you be worried about Andy Dalton and the offensive line? More so Andy Dalton. Also Giovanni Bernard is he's still there. He's still a.

He's still a good backup running back. Is he going to be used more than he was last year? We're talking this is a new regime in town, so you can't just fully say Joe Mixen is going to be the workhorse running back. JR, what's your concern level with Joe Mixing where he's going?

in drafts right now. Yeah, I'm not concerned about Joe Mixon when it comes to Giovanni Bernard. Okay. I'm actually the most concerned about Joe Mixon is the offensive line. I mean, you saw, look, he is talented. He can do things that very few backs in the league can do. But it doesn't matter if they keep getting called back to holding or when they snap the ball, the defender is in his face. I think about two years ago, when he had a three and a half yards per carry, he was the same dude.

He was unbelievable in college, came out and was just inefficient because the line and the scheme didn't work for him. They figured out how to use him a little bit better last year. The offensive line was a little bit better. They've had major injuries this year on the offensive line. And so Joe Mixon to me is one of those guys that I think we bring up carry on, right? You're on a bad team. That's going to really hurt how many people from a bad team are going to be in the top 12. I worry about Mixon in that capacity.

They seem to be working Gio in with that first team offense frequently. But then you're reminded of the fragility of Gio Bernard as well when he took a peripheral accidental shot. That was a pretty big headshot, though. It was. I'm not going to call him fragile for getting shook by that. I've seen Gio Bernard go down like that more times than most running backs. It happens a lot to him. So it's a reminder that.

As much as you'd say, you'd love to use them. I mean, there were trade rumors surrounding Gio Bernard two weeks ago in Cincinnati. Goes down to a peripheral shot from Josh Norman. I think that just illustrates the team's going to rely and lean on Joe Mixon, not the often injured Gio Bernard. But we'll see what happens. Last game, Eagles, Jags. Huge takeaway for me was...

Miles Sanders starting this game and looking like a running back one. It's happened quickly. You didn't know what the backfield was going to be. Maybe this is going to be, it is going to be detrimental to his average draft position for fantasy owners. We knew this was going to happen, so we said get them when you can. It probably will not mean a rise to the degree of David Montgomery before you draft, which means Miles Sanders is extremely valuable for your fantasy.

team, in my opinion. Yeah, 100%. I mean, he's going to be the later back. He's on a good offense. It looks like he's going to become the starter. You don't know what the split will be there with Jordan Howard. But the fact that he's in one of those murky situations, that's where people emerge from those. And I think that Doug Peterson is a good head coach. I think that the Eagles office is going to be great. And rookie running backs, as I shared yesterday.

Two and a quarter times per year, there are top 12 rookie running backs. So I'm taking a shot of miles for sure. Jordan Howard isn't going away. In particular, off the top of my head, there was a third down play. It was very bizarre. They took Sanders out, put Howard in, and then had Howard leak out to be the dump off checkdown. It was...

Whatever. I'm not the coach of the Eagles. It seems strange to me to go with that over Miles. My point is Howard's not going away. However, I have Montgomery and Miles Sanders ranked very close together. And at least as of a few days ago, the draft position was pretty far apart. We're making Miles Sanders the much better value. If you look at NFFC high stakes drafting right now over the last 24 hours.

David Montgomery is on average, the fourth pick of the fourth round. Miles Sanders is beyond. He's in 607. 607. He's back with Echler, Cohen. So it'll rise for sure. But I look at those guys in the same lens, Mike. I think you've got a better offense in Philadelphia, no doubt about it. So if those guys have equal opportunity, Miles should be able to take more advantage of it. You also have less talent behind him. Jordan Howard is fine.

Maybe he threatens the goal line a little bit, but Tariq Cohen is explosive and reliable. So I think it's an interesting situation. Any other quick takeaways before we jump into some mailbag? Only takeaway is Alfred Blue got injured, hurt his ankle. It's not a huge injury, but it could be up to six weeks. So, I mean, that gives a little bit more to the Leonard Fournett getting work. Yeah, and we're more excited about Jacksonville's offense than we were a couple months ago, too. So that's a good point.

We're not going to get into any other news today. We want to thank Sleeper for sponsoring that segment. Check out the Sleeper app. You get up-to-date news information, preseason injuries, all that stuff. Before we get into the mailbag, before we answer some big-time draft questions, like we're always talking about tears, you know? Mm-hmm.

The ultimate draft kit, we've got our tiered rankings. Yeah. Let's talk about some tires. Oh, G.I.I. Professional transition. Let's go ahead and thank today's sponsors. When is the last time you've thought about tires, Mike? Two seconds ago. Tires are what make the difference in how your car drives and feels since 1960.

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