Fantasy Football - Fantasy Time Machine + Rashee Rice Suspended! - Podcast for 8/27

drafted after the top 30 wide outs last year, finished at wide receiver 5 on the back of 13 touchdowns. So we are traveling for it in time looking to find an older wide receiver drafted later who could have an outlier season thanks to a new offensive system or quarterback. What do you got? I'll go first because this to me seems so similar. You have a brand new top of the NFL draft. quarterback rookie coming in. And we've talked about over the years, a rookie quarterback doesn't usually support a ton of touchdowns and high-end fantasy finishes. But also over the more recent history, things have been changing with that. These rookies are coming in better. And Cam Ward, the number one overall pick in the NFL draft, could just very well make Calvin Ridley a great fantasy asset. Calvin Ridley hasn't.

really lost anything. I mean, he was disappointing last year, but he had over a thousand yards. He just had Will Levis targets. You know, he had really, really bad. He had 24% targets share. Stank targets. But it's like how much of that was catchable? Right now, we still have him projected for a 24% market share, which is a great number. But you're going from Will Levis targets up to Cam Ward targets. And he's looked really good through camp, through preseason. I think Cam Ward will work. And so to me, Calvin Ridley, He's an older guy being drafted outside the wide receiver. You know, he's right now the wide receiver 32. That's exactly where McLaurin was drafted last year, the exact same wide receiver number. Yeah, they're both good wide receivers who dealt with bad quarterback play, who are alone. Like last year, the biggest target competition for Terry McLaren was like Zach Hertz. And yeah, Calvin Ridley, the Titans drafted a gazillion, you know, rookie wide receivers. They cut one of them yesterday. Right.

Restrepo, goodbye. But Calvin Ridley is the clear primary target in this offense. So if Cam Ward comes out and has a good season and throws enough touchdowns as a rookie, it will be Calvin Ridley having a great fantasy finish. All right. This year's Terry McLaren, Mike. Who do you have? So I will start by, I missed our note of. change of offensive system or quarterback. I just want it with an older wide receiver who I think could finally have that year. And things are stacked against him right now because of the calf injury. But the ADP is going down. And Juan Jennings, they just signed MVS. I mean, like that, they signed MVS. That tells you where the San Francisco 49ers are currently with their wide receiver room. We did get news that the Patriots have let Kendrick Bourne go.

i am curious if he ends up back uh with the the 49ers that would certainly put a damper in this but joan jennings like he's he's older he's 28 uh but among wide receivers with 75 or more targets he was 12th in yards per route run in 14th in fantasy points per route run what's your face what your face what's your face what what what's your face what what's what's answer and he just goes and deletes it in the dock he just removes it and changes it. I saw you. I saw you change, you coward. But that's fine. That's fine. I was like, what? I'm like, Joan Jennings is just like a 10th 11th round pick. What are we so upset about over here? I just made a decision between two names, which is my right. Yes, you're right. It's just a bad call. We go on. Go on, Mike was talking. Joanne Jennings, hate the calf injury, but.

As things kick off, I think there's a chance that he still has to be very important to the wide receiver room. All right, Eddie, which answer are you going with? Look, I'll go with two, but what's great is Kyle. So my originally answer was Keenan Allen because I do wonder, like I find myself passing on Ladd McConkey a little bit because what Keenan does great, what they replaced Keenan with was Ladd McConkey. And Keenan was still great last year. Now he's 33 years old, which to some is old. Now to Kyle. His quote was, he's entering his Jesus year, which is a different perspective on 33. But I do think Keenan, Laddmanke, Keenan entirely undrafted, not cared about, wide receiver, whatever, wherever he was, where was he? Where's his current ADP? 56. But the other name I wanted to throw out that fits the mold is.

a player on the same exact team being drafted in the same exact spot as last year's Terry McLaren, so that's why I was going to pivot to Debo Samuel. Now, we've talked about him. You know I believe in him, but he's the wide receiver 36 off the board. He's playing for the same quarterback that did it for Terry McCloran last year, and I don't think he's lost a step. So those would be two answers. I think Keenan is definitely worth a flyer. We've talked about that. I just wonder how much he does negatively impact Ladd-McConkie. I think people just want to...

just want to say, well, McConkey's good so he can't impact him. I just don't find that to be true. I don't think that that makes sense to me. The amount of targets and the fact that Ladd-McConkey had to be there everything for the entire year, I don't know if he has to be that anymore. Harbaugh is a good coach who wins NFL football games. He is not exactly the guy that you want necessarily for fantasy purposes because he's going to want the ball spread around. He's going to want to run it well. He's going to want to play a good defense. So I think Keenan will be very relevant. And I love Keenan as a pick. He's being... Oh, it's why it was my pick. I totally... He's just so absurdly late. And the ADP can't really update quick enough for him because he spent the whole offseason not on a roster. So where are you going to take him? Because he... The ADP won't update. He is going to be a wild card that there's going to be a handful of people in the league who have starred Keenan Allen and realize...

I have to, if I want Keenan, I have to find my place where I just take him. And it's no matter when you take him, it will be multiple rounds ahead of 80P. So are you like the ninth, the 10th? I'm looking. So this is a super flex league, but I just took him in an expert's league in the 12th. Okay. And he got there. I was thrilled. That's interesting. What do we do with finding the 2025 version of Bucky Irving? He was undrafted last year. He finished his RB 15. So we're looking for a day three running back. So Bucky was a late draft pick as well. A day three running back that could overtake an inefficient incumbent starting running back. The names will not sound good because Bucky did not sound good last year. Anybody but Mike? Well, Bucky was.

Bucky was talented. I think that there were the issues were obviously first and foremost his draft capital, right? When you're a day three pick, you just pretty much presume failure from a fantasy football perspective, but he was a talented player, you know, um, in Oregon. And that's what I'm focused on here. I'm focused on. who's the most talented day three running back and to me that's cam scataboo we brought him up through the off season he's outstanding uh fourth round pick went out 105th overall he's in third in yards after contact behind only gentie and omarian hampton in this draft class and this is an excellent draft class the only running backs drafted with 50 plus targets and 1.75 yards per route run in their final collegiate season over the last decade this is

Curtis Samuel, Saquan Barkley, Cam Scataboo, Jamir Gibbs, Tony Pollard. The list of these guys is really, really good players. I believe Cam Scatabu is talented enough to just come onto the scene and say, wow, I can catch the ball, I can break tackles, I can do this in the NFL. I hope he says that actually. Like, wow, I can catch the ball. I think he has to. I think he's got a look in the mirror and hype himself up. Wow. Because nobody believes it. All right. I'm going to go with Jaden Blue. Dallas Cowboy running back. You know, he was very productive in terms of efficiency at Texas, Big 12, SEC football. Can catch the football? I do think we're going to get stuck in the similar Zeke Dowdell situation in Dallas where you kind of persist with Giovante. They keep playing the worst option until halfway through. For a little while until you give in and say, wow, I would like some juice versus no juice. And like Dowdell.

compared to Zeke looks like Adrian Peterson. So I think Javante is not far off of that comparison. And I think Jaden Blue is somebody to pay attention to. You could tuck them on your bench. You could just wait in the waiver wire to see what, you know, if you get a bad week from Javante start to circle Jane Blue on the on the waiver wire. I went the opposite direction. You went, Jason, because you went like the, you went best day three running back. I went. I just want to bet against DeAndre Swift. Right. Worst starting running back. Whenever I can bet against Swift, I'm going to do it. So I will take Kyle Monong guy, or as Jason calls him, Manana guy. Manana guy. He was a seventh rounder. We like bear's head coach Ben Johnson. Quote, I'm very pleased with where he's at. I think he's a guy we're going to be able to trust this fall. He had.

Menangai had back to back 1200 plus rushing yards at Rutgers. The same school as Pacheco. Oh, seventh rounder. Seventh rounder. If these trends continue, like I said, this literally is not a bet on Monongai. This is a bet on Ben Johnson and the Bears and a bet against DeAndre Swift. And I rest my case. Okay. What about finding 2025's Johnny Smith? So. basically undrafted last year ends up tied in four seven top five finishes basically a tight end left for dead it's not Andy you can pivot your pick I've seen you do it already no oh yeah I can't I could do what I want um but I'm not pivoting here tight end left for dead who could be top five that's a high bar it is a high bar you gotta get up into top five I think all three of ours actually could happen um don't Kincaid is my pick a guy who is so I mean this

You want to talk about a disappointment. There was so much excitement for second year Dalton Kincaid. They needed him so bad. His opportunity was great. And in truth, he just didn't look that good. Like to me, I talked about it throughout the season last year. I don't think he's got it. However, there were reports of injuries and all these things that hampered him. His opportunity is still there. You know, tight ends take several years sometimes to develop. So he's a young guy entering year three. the former first round pick, and he's still on a team where, okay, Keon Coleman, maybe he steps up. But if he doesn't, Khalil Shakir, you know, who's really going to take over? There's no one. So the ball's going to spread around unless someone steps up, levels up. And I think that his opportunity to do so still exists. You want a guy on a good offense who has touchdown scoring opportunities. So Dalton Kikade, I mean, right now he's undrafted.

the tight end 14. We have bailed. Like, oh yeah. This was every eject button on Dalton Kincaid was pressed. You want to know why? Kyle Pitts. We, we because some people didn't eject after. after year two. They were like, is an unkind setup to my answer. Yeah. Anyways, go on, Andy. Yeah, who's your guy that's definitely going to be a top five tight end? It's Kyle Pitts. Oh, hey. Do you realize he was five of seven weeks in the top 12 last year to start the year before the quarterback changes happened? I did not. Five of seven weeks. He was actually relevant last year. Wait, the quarterback changes? Like, oh, he got the quarterback that he's going to play with all year now? No. Oh. No. No.

Because, I mean, obviously, Kirk Cousins started, he changed, right? He changed to Kirk Cousins' RIP version. Right. And so Kyle Pitts, they don't have options there. You just picked him. See, you're attacking me. And yesterday's show you picked him as a top 10 time in. I actually genuinely. You're like, don't remember that. No, no, no. I am wanting to dunk on you or Mike or anyone I can whenever I can. And it's not popular. But I actually do think Kyle Pitts is going to be very involved this year and has as good a chance to be a top 10 tight end as anyone else. Does this help if I say, hey, that's Kyle Pitts Senior. His dad's playing? He, well, he had a baby. So now he is Kyle Pitt Senior. And I'll just say, has he grown up? Well, he's looked like Kyle Pitts Senior for a couple years. I'm going to be honest. Is he still like 20 years old? Yeah, yeah. He's 24 years old right now. The problem, by the way, you brought out Dalton Kincaid. What's the problem with Donald Kincaid? Two touchdowns each year.

I mean, that is not going to get it done. Kyle Pitts, you need red zone touchdowns. You need that to change. But you do have the opportunity for that to happen and to build that report that he's been building with Michael. He should get five touchdowns this year. If I'm looking at his career, you know, one touchdown rookie season, two sophomore, three the next year, four the next year. It's funny because he plays a decade. Kincaid was the tight end 11 with two touchdowns in his rookie season. Kyle Pitts was the tight-in seven with one touchdown in his rookie season. They really are parallel to one another, but you look at talent, like athleticism, snap count, like both of those guys, if they get, if things go the right way, I could see being, you know, a surprise to show up. I mean, Johnny Smith, late in his career, got it done. Mike, your answer? I'm going with the tight end who just got paid a big bag of money. A four-comette?

Four year, no, recently. Oh, okay. Four year, $50 million extension, $28 million guaranteed. It's the sixth highest average salary among the tight end position is Jake Ferguson of the Dallas Cowboys. And he is, like, he's being drafted as the tight end 16. He is being completely left off of people's boards. And got to remember what happened last year. Week one, he comes out, he gets hurt. He misses week two. And then after that, he only has six games with Dak Prescott, which he is, he hits the 10-point threshold in three of those six games, all without a touchdown. He literally had zero touchdowns last year. And I'm saying that as a good thing of if you can get 10 points in a half-point scoring format at the tight-end position without a touchdown, that's great. It means that, like, you're primed.

throwing seam routes to the tight end position. Jake Ferguson is a good player. He was rewarded and he is being completely forgotten by people. If we get a full season of DAC, it would shock me if Jake is not in the top 10. Not always the most helpful position to have, you know, tight end 8 through 10. He needs somebody though. But he will, to me, he easily beats his ADP. All right. Let's take another quick break and we'll come back and find 2025 Sam Darnold. This episode is brought to you by prize picks. Preseason football is underway, and college football is here, so don't miss any of the action this season on prize picks. Prize picks is simple to play. Just pick more or less on two to six different player stat projections. If you get your picks right, you can cash in and win up to 2,000 times your money. Price picks is also the best way to get in on the action on sports in more than 30 states, including California, Texas, and Georgia.

prize picks puts their members first so all withdrawals are fast safe and secure this time of year preseason i love taking the young guys with opportunity that i like week one i went caleb johnson and tray benson more and more and you know your boy cashed so get in on the action download the app today and use code footballers and get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That's code footballers to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks. Run your game. All right, hopping into the time machine, we're looking at discovering the 2025 version of Sam Darnold. What are we talking about? A player undrafted, new offense could finish inside the top 10. I will say this. Sam Darnock qualifies. Yeah, it could be Sam Darnold. This year, Sam Darnold could.

That might be the best answer legit. Like I think this year Sam Darnock could be last year Sam Darnock. Do you want to know why it could be the best answer? Because last year, the answer would never have been, like, we didn't want Sam Darnold. We didn't believe in Sam Darnold because he's Sam Darnold. And this year, none of us took him as the answer. He's like, no way. You know what? I'm pivoting to Sam Darnal. Are you really? Yeah, I am. I think it's Sam Darnold. I think Sam Darnold's the answer. You have a team that people don't know for sure if this offensive line's going to hold up.

You like the running game. Tori Horton, Cooper Cup, Jackson Smith and Jigba. That could be a very powerful wide receiver room. Could be. You've got Arroyo and you've got A.J. Barner at Tide-in and then he's looked good. So I think this year's Sam Darnel is going to be also last year. He will definitely need to be efficient. 4,335 last year. He was excellent. People are. He was really good. That system was great and also Justin Jefferson was pretty good. It's weird that we like, we expect Gino to leave Seattle. and be great in Las Vegas. But we don't expect Donald to leave Minnesota and be able to be great in Seattle. I think we expect Gino to continue being what Gino was. But that is an upgrade for Las Vegas. And he's back with Pete. Yeah, he's back with Pete. You know, he's got Brock Bowers. If you really believe JSN is going to become elite, that's helpful. I'll just throw up real quick for that because you were talking about the run game, Andy.

Seattle, like everyone's cutting down, excuse me, everyone's cutting down to the 53. This team has four tight ends and two fullbacks. This team is going to be running the ball. So like Darnold could do it. You'll have to do it through efficiency because the volume I think goes the other way. But just like if you're not in a Walker, you really should be drafting Charbonnet. Okay. That's my answer. Sam Donald is the answer for the Sam Darnold. Jason, 2025 Sam Darnall will be? I think it could be Trevor Lawrence. Trevor Lawrence, sophomore year comes out was already a top 10 fantasy quarterback so we know he could do it, had a down year and then got injured last year. Gets the change at coordinator, gets the added piece of Travis Hunter, has year to Brian Thomas. I think the weapons there. Tim Patrick. Yeah, I mean, Tim Patrick's a nice wide receiver three.

So he's probably five. I mean, Diami Brown and Parker Washington will be above him. Sure. My point is he's not one of the top two wide receivers because you have two kind of stud wide receiving options here. And this is a guy, you know, this is surprising. Fourth most passing touchdowns over the last three seasons that traveled more than 20 yards in the air. And you put, you know, Travis Hunter and Brian Thomas Jr. with a good. you know hopeful upgrade at coordinator and the system i think they have a lot of weapons there and if you look at jacksonville as one of those teams that could take that leap forward offensively speaking warren sharp sixth easiest uh ranked strength of schedule for 2025 i i you could see how like it won't be shocking if the jaguars come out and put up a boatload of points

Yeah, I think the story Trevor Lawrence has always been, can you become, you know, can you go from Jay Cutler to something consistent and reliable and week to week? Because he's flashed. He's had big games. He can, you know, he's got talented receivers. But can you suddenly, you know, can you go Baker? Can you resurrect? Can you be a big time passer without the turnovers every week? It's funny because, you know, obviously he got injured, missed a chunk of this last season. But if you compare his consistency to like Mahomes, you know, who ranks like F inconsistency, he's a C inconsistency. He hasn't been great. But he's, he's shown enough where I do. An average. Yeah. It's a passing grade, Mike. So you say Trevor Lawrence, I'll raise you even nastier. I'm going. It's Daniel Jones. It's Daniel Jones, the new starting quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts.

He has averaged 31 rushing yards per game in his career, which is actually the seventh most of any quarterback since 2000. And this is a tweet from Scott Barrett, who said, Daniel Jones offensive line, rank by year. 32nd, 30th, 28, 32nd, 31st, and now 7th. And the weapons, wow, you're not like, oh my gosh, just an abundance of riches. But he has players that, By next year, like by next year, Tyler Warren could jump into being drafted as a top three tight end. Josh Downs, I think, could be draft. He can make a jump to be a top 24 drafted wide receiver. And of course, checking it down to Johnny Taylor. Okay. Okay, go ahead. Legit philosophical question here for both of you. If you are the quarterback, you are a professional quarterback, would you rather have Malik neighbors?

And nothing. Forget the other situation. Just as a wide receiver core, would you rather have a Malik neighbors with no other great options to throw the ball to? Or would you rather have a pitman, a downs, a Tyler Warren? I lean that. I lean the way of having multiple good weapons over one just elite players. Can I pick the offensive line? And then throwing the offensive line is is average in both situations. I'll go to the neighbor's side because I think Slayton, Wondale are probably, you know, fine. alongside. I would definitely go the neighbors way because I'm going to be one read and get the ball out every time. So my second, if I'm the quarterback, we saw what happened. They did that last year with neighbors and then neighbors was gone. Yeah. I will murder neighbors with my inaccuracy. It's disgusting, but I honestly believe it will not shock me if in week two we're like, hey, stream of the week guys, Daniel Jones. He's still running.

And the Colts offense is a little bit better than we thought. It will be interesting to watch in Indianapolis because that team could be surprising. They have the talent. They've got a division that they could win. Sure. Yeah, the matchups. Or it could just go so. Or Richardson is starting by week four. Yeah, yeah, it could go downhill fast. So there you go. That's the fantasy time machine for 2025. And we've got. football in like a week and a day. So that's pretty exciting. We have fantasy MVP episode tomorrow. Is that right? Is that tomorrow? That is tomorrow. That is tomorrow. The fantasy MVP show. So not only will we bring our fantasy MVP picks to the table, but we will have, I think, seven special guests on the show tomorrow. Is that the right number, Mike? Seven? Several. Anywhere from one to 15. We will have several.

special guests on the show tomorrow sharing their fantasy MVP picks and their perspective on how they're going to get it done. So that's tomorrow. We'll do another mock draft, the final mock draft before a big draft weekend so that you guys can see the lay of the land before you go and draft Saturday, Sunday, Monday as we head into the 2025 fantasy football season. So. Head over to Ultimate DraftKit.com. If you still need the UDK, make sure you use the draft analyzer. If you've already drafted, use the draft analyzer, we grade your team and the rest of your league mates and their teams. We give you perspective on where you can improve on your team, things to watch for, pay attention to, and give you basically a game plan to go into the season with. Because you don't win your league at the draft, you set the foundation, and then you head into the season, and you've got to continue to make improvements and moves, which, you know,

That's why we give you the tools to do that throughout this season to equip you to make the best decisions for your league. So ultimate draft kit.com to check that out. Otherwise, we will catch you tomorrow on the fantasy MVP episode. Take care, everybody. 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 FF ballers.