The TRUTH: Top 10 TEs + SB Lineups, Kupp of Sadness - Fantasy Football Podcast for 2/6

Brock Bowers to me have nothing to worry about competition wise. Like George Kittle, I'm excited for George Kittle right now. But we've seen things change. Things over the offseason for the 49ers could change drastically. They might stay the same, but there is a chance they can change. And if it thinks change for the Raiders or the Cardinals, it does not matter. It's actually better for them, in my opinion. Like Marv gets better. They add another. potential wide receiver weapon for the Cardinals. Now the offense is better. Now they might score more. Exactly. Trey McBride will not lose his spot in the, in the pecking order and of the depth chart of where the targets are going to go. He's a top tier talent. And if you get him on a better offense, just like Bowers, then now we're talking they are, they're lapping the field. And it's the human beings. Like the actual guys, Trey McBride and Brock Bowers.

It was their doing versus, I mean, all of these guys are great. I don't want to take anything away from Sam Laporta. Exceptional tight end, but it wasn't his doing. It was, he is a part of a great offense. I would push back on that. I would definitely push back on that. Scheme that schemed him open that allowed him to take advantage of a great offense that is the number one scoring offense in the league versus, you know, the other two guys, it was. all they're doing. It was you get the ball, you break two tackles, you run for 20 more yards, there's just nothing you can do about that. That's just not what La Porta can do. Yeah, we can agree to disagree in part on that. I mean, the Porta didn't just have one good season. He had two seasons for this team. You know, 120 targets is earned. Targets aren't earned stat. And Tray McBride didn't have years like this his entire career because you did have to have opportunities to make them a center.

a piece of the offense. He didn't outplay Zach Hertz in previous years. So it was his time, but I don't want to take away from LaPorta just because that offense had two amazing running backs, two amazing wide receivers. So LaPorta got 90 targets instead of whatever, you know, these other guys did. My point is more. Like I said, I don't want to take it away from LaPorta. I think you do. No, it's to build these other two guys up because I never saw LaPorta go up and just moss people left and right. You know, you saw that with Trey McBride all the time. His sideline catches that were just like,

And hurtling people, which I wish you would stop doing. Right, stop. It's very cool. Especially for a man your size. But stop it. Porta's got a higher yards per catch than McBride does. I'll tell you that. Yeah, I think he had a couple of real long breakaway reception. It wasn't his doing, though. No, they put him on a cart. They put him on a cart and draw him down the sideline. No, I mean, we're actually saying the same thing because it was like. those broken plays where he was by himself on half of a field. Laporte is an amazing athlete. His season's so good, we must be talking about him next, right? No, we got to talk about Johnny Smith first. Oh, the Leport will be right after that, though, right? No, no, no, a couple more. Right after that, though. No, not yet. Good season in my butt. Yeah. All right.

Johnny Smith is four somehow. Johnny Smith is four. I just love that for no reason. Here's your line. I don't really. Look, I'm not taking nothing away from San Loporta, but the dude sucks. You made me do that. Last year's number one tied in. You brought this on Sam Loporta. You brought this on him. You act like the dude didn't catch a million passes. If Leporta was in the Cardinals' offense, he would have caught that amount of passes. Sam Leporta is no John Hussmith. That's what I know. Johnny Smith was the number four most consistent and number four overall. He was 13 in consistency in the first half, third in the second half, 63% good, 25% bus, 31% great. That 31% great number that's right on par with with Tray McBride. I mean, that's above Brock Bauer. Dude, the second half was.

outrageous. I mean, he was a lead. He had 88 receptions for 884 yards, 111 targets, and really didn't become the central, you know, focus at the tight end position or in the offense until week nine. Yeah, people won championships with Johnny Smith. I mean, he was the tight end two, three, three, five, and then 10.13, but the 1013, you're talking about basically double digit fantasy points those weeks. Those are just, they're not bus games. Not at all. And it is funny. You brought this up a couple times during the season, especially late towards the playoffs that maybe Arthur Smith deserved an apology because the entire world was so sick of him using Johnny Smith over Kyle Pitts. Like you've got this highly drafted top 10 pick and you're, but he's at practice going, uh, that guy's better. Yeah. John is a better player than Kyle. Which I, that is 100% correct. But, but his usage of Drake London, I don't issue any apologies. Fair.

Keep them down, Mike. I like it. This was, you know, Johnny Smith was sort of like what David Njokey did last year to finish the season. You had just a run of games where you're like, this is a guy that's been around and yet is now an elite option indicative of Miami's transformation on offense. They couldn't get the ball. They weren't willing to get the ball down the field as much. Tyreek Hill, we went over that in the truth episode for him, almost half the receiving yards. I don't think any of us would have said, if we told you start in the year.

He's going to have half the receiving yards. Who's the beneficiary? You would have said Devon A. Chan. You would have said Jaylon Waddle. You would have said, Malik Washington. Breakout season as a rookie. Absolutely. It would not have been Jonu Smith. But Johnu Smith was the quick out relief valve over and over down the stretch for Tua. That could run. That could run after the catch. John who is under contract next year for the Dolphins. I don't see the scheme style getting the ball out of two his hands to protect him as well, changing. That's what I was going to say. Is this a blip or not? I don't, well, I don't think the second half is going to continue all throughout next year. Tighten two, three, three, five, two. Right. However, I think he is going to be a really valuable fantasy asset next year. He'll certainly be, you know, I think in the top seven tight ends.

Is that fair? You know, I see him having kind of like... In ADP, you mean? No, no, no, it's fantasy finish. I think at the end of the year he'll be a... Seven or eight. Seven or eight, somewhere around there. Kind of what we had for a couple seasons from, like, Evan Ingraham, kind of volume your way towards, you know, being a very relevant, not bust pick. But you have, that's the question is, are we going to have a Janu A-chan offense, or are we going to have a Tyree kill? Jalen Waddle offense. Not Tyree Kill. Yeah, it's weird because two years ago, if you remember, I mean, they were dead last in Target share. Right. Like this was for the tight end position. Yeah, for the tight in position. This was not a team. And now chicken or egg, right? You know, what like, you know, who are they going to throw the ball to type of stuff? And chicken. And John, who emerges? You don't want to throw the ball at eggs. They'll break. I just, I, this is a really difficult.

thing of not knowing which which which way is the offense going to point they didn't have john who two years ago right he was he was still a smithing it a falcon so i think part of it is that and part of it is tyrie kill i mean you know two years ago tyry kill was two years younger and that's a pretty big deal right now when you're when you're at this age and number five with 55 receptions on just 69 targets not nice 673 yards, but 11 touchdowns. It's Mark Andrews, which the Mark Andrews, what do you want to call it? The journey? No, the roller coaster. I mean, they're building, they're building a Mark Andrews at six flags right now. Oh, does it start pretty crappy? It starts crappy, but it's going to, it's wild at the end. They take you underwater where you're almost drowning. Yeah. And then right before you drown. And it rockets you up. Look, it's Mark Andrews is, it's wild. This was the.

Did you know this is his career high in touchdowns? That was his career high in touchdown. Was it his career high in games played? Yes. Yeah, that's always been his problem. 11 touchdowns. He's only had one double digit year ever. You know, one of the things that happened back in 2021 is we've got, we got this outrageous outlier season from Andrews, 154 targets, 107 receptions. He's played seven seasons. He's never again surpass 73 receptions. Andrew's story is never going to be competing with McBride and Bowers on the PPR reception totals. It's always going to be if Andrews is on the field and Lamar Jackson's on the field, these two have a special red zone relationship. And it surfaced over the course of the back half of the year.

Yeah, and when you say the back half of the year, it really, the first month of the season, that's when at that point, after week four, people were cutting Mark Andrews in half of your leagues. He had just goosed back-to-back games. Oh, man. Oh, the back-to-back goose and then the discussion of do you play Mark Andrews? Yeah, do you play them and do you drop him? He was, you know, we. I think we did our best saying you don't drop Mark Andrews. I might have been done. I might have been done after the first four. I know I was. Which I don't blame anyone. So here's how bad it was, the truth of his season. The first four weeks, he had a total of 65 yards. And 51 of those came in one of those games. No touchdowns. Six total receptions. So it was worthless. 14 yards in the other three games? Yeah. And then if you think about it, you go, okay, so he finished great.

He must have had an amazing stretch run the rest of the way. From weeks 5 through 18, the rest of the way, if you just take the yardage pace of those games once you're finally past the car accident month, remember that narrative? You got in a car accident early. Maybe it took him a while to get going. What do you think his yardage was from that point forward? It would have been a 17-game pace of under 800 yards, 795 yards. So to me... Yeah, but what's the touchdown pace? 14.4. Yeah, okay. All right. But I think it echoes what Andy's saying. He's not going to be a high volume, high floor PPR machine anymore. He has huge game upside because of touchdown. Yeah, his consistency rank was below his fantasy finish, which you're probably going to see from him with touchdown dependency. It was number four in the second half, number six on the season, 17 in the first half. 31% bust rate. He redeemed, you know, all of the.

If you had him still, if you kept him, you could play him and you could rely on him because tight-in, it's tough in the tight-in streets. Mark Andrews delivered with the touchdowns. That's where the value came. But the truth of his season is not, I don't feel like he was the fifth best tight-in. No, no, because, I mean, but despite that first month and the fact that you don't feel that way, still finished above Sam Laporta. Yeah, he did. He did. So there's that. He did finish that of Sam LaPorteur. Oh, man. So, so, no, hold on. Let me just take the logical conclusion. You said, verbatim, McBride earned it. Laporta didn't. Which means that if LaPorte didn't perform, it's also not his fault. Thank you. Because if it wasn't his fault to be successful, it can't be his fault if he failed. Correct.

Yeah, so he's just a product of a system. So he would have been great had they let him be great. Yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, great. So, I mean, there's no point on dunking on him, just dunk on the lion. I wasn't douging him. I was sharing facts. Uh, sure. Mark Andrews finished above St. Laporta. Yeah, no, he did. You feel like you'll be in on Mark? I think, I think Mark Andrews this next year will. plummet in draft, I guess. Early best ball, end of the seventh round right now. End of the seventh. So that's going to be probably ahead of where John is going. And I think I would rather have John who the Mark Andrews next year. I'd rather have that take the one round. Not only the one round discount, if they were in the same round, if I'm on the clock at the beginning of the eighth round and I'm choosing between Johnu and Mark Andrews, I think I'd rather have the PPR floor and the consistency that I would expect from.

the Tua offense rather than just the touchdown upside from Mark Andrews. I mean, 55 receptions over 17 games. You played every game. You averaged 3.23 receptions. Yeah. That clinches the butt cheeks until you get the touchdown. Which, to be fair, make sure I never say that exact line again. You got a lot of touchdown. It's fine. So you unclinched it. Yeah. Regularly. Yeah, those loose butt cheeks. A lot of fiber. All right. Kelsey at number six. Was drafted as a tight-in one in the third round. Whoops. He's 35 years old. Consistency rank of eight in the first half it was 13. In the second half, it was nine. Not a good pick. Just not a good pick. No. He was the perfect, kind of did enough-ish to make you keep playing him because you'd never sit Kelsey, right? But maybe you could have. Maybe you could have shifted from what you got from Kelsey in the second half to a Johnny Smith.

So we've already, if it hasn't become clear, we've already hit the massive tear break of, I know we're talking about Travis Kelsey Hall of Famer first round fantasy pick forever, but he is obviously no longer an elite option, a weekly, reliable player that you're going to bank on. And I don't think Mark Andrews is either. We just talked about him. So like John who's on that bubble, which he's probably not. I don't think he's in that group. He's probably not in that group. No, he's not in that group. Which means there's only three. And the rest of these are all trash. Well, until next year's number one pick. Sure, maybe it'll be four. But then if that happens, if next year's number one pick, if the rookie comes in and achieves greatness, that only means that George Kittle has to be bad then. Yeah. Because of the rule of the tight end. It's kind of like Highlander. Yes, there can only be three. There's generally another. There's normally another Johnny Smith. It wouldn't be Johnny Smith. Right. There'd be somebody else.

But we talked a lot about Kelsey already at the top, talking about his age, talking about how he wants to keep playing, talking about how annoying it is going to be. Just giving you the numbers, 25% great, 50% good, 38% bust. That was the Travis Kelsey story. I'd love to talk LaPorta, but we've got to take a break first. All right. Last year's number one tied in. Totally didn't earn it. Number one, didn't earn it. This year didn't earn it. Number seven. Just kind of a missed out there on the field. Sam Leporta, who's drafted as the tight-in two in the third round, no question. Disaster. Yeah, huge bust. Disaster. He was the eighth most consistent in the second half after a much worse start at number 21, only 7% great, 47% good, 33% bus. Jameson Williams returned this year, made a big impact. We talked about him in the tight-in truth. Huge difference maker.

had the dominance from Gibbs, who ascended Montgomery, who continued. So Leporta can be good. He is a very, very serviceable option in this offense. But he, you know, all jokes aside, he's not the dominant force that demands to be a centerpiece of the offense. He is a great asset to add to an already good offense. Unfortunately, you are right. Yeah, and so, you know, the first half of the season, when you drafted him as that tight in one or tight in two, when you really went in on Sam Leporta, I mean, you dropped Sam Leporto was dropped. Because unlike Mark Andrews where it was one month into the season, we're talking nine games into the season where Sam Leporto was behind Zach Ertz and Mike Kisci and Dalton Kincahate and Colcomette. He was, you know, this was, you had given up. You had given up. You had moved on and a lot of people would stream Sam Leporta second half of the season. Now that turned out good.

because he was kind of more integral to the offense later on. And the thing is, is I know that any game that you're out there, Sam Laporta can finish even the Titan won on the week. That's nice to know, but you're not going to have consistency because he's not a, he isn't part of the, you know, the engine that makes the offense move. He is this year seven touchdowns on 60 catches. I mean, you're in the Andrews territory right there. I had double those touchdowns. Double. You had almost. Your math is bad. I think a part of the situation, part of the situation for Laporta is like. Did you just say that seven times two is 12? Oh, yeah, seven. I think that's what you did. I think you said that. Not letting you leave there. Okay. That's fair. It is. Yeah, like just is remembering the story of the Detroit Lions. The first half of the year when the Lions had their defensive.

pieces and right they were they were killing people on offense but and then the defense was not allowing uh people to score so you just you you you weren't getting whether the offense is still strong it's not as relied upon and then in the second half of the year i'm just like i'm i'm trying to think about this out loud of like could that have been a source of why laporta had a great second half because the lions had whatever You know, 20 plus guys on IR, including losing a bunch of key defensive pieces. And losing Montgomery for a period of time where he had two good games without Montgomery. Look, Jared Gough threw for 4,637. You would have expected a much better year from Sam Laporta. Yes, he would have. If he was indeed the focal point like a McBride or a Bowers or a kiddle. Yeah, he's the fourth receiving option in this office. And we all like Alman Raugh forever. We like James and Williams. We like Jamir Gibbs, who catches the football. He's not changing.

that order. Now, could he have a top five year because he catches 11 touchdown. Yes, exactly. But that's the category for sure. So fight over. Number eight, Tucker Kraft. Number nine, Zach Ertz. Don't worry about Tucker Kraft. Why are we skipping Tucker Kraft? I have no idea. I'm going. Who made this executive decision? I made the executive decision. Our note says skip. Yeah, why are we skipping craft? So, yeah, because we, we wanted to talk about 12 guys because that's kind of how we fit them in. And I wanted to get, poor guy, man. I wanted to get to David and Joku. Didn't earn it. I wanted to get to David and Joku and Dallas gotter. Why? Chuck and Kraft was better. Well, okay, he was a little bit better. Dallas gotter was significantly better. He was the tight in seven in our consistency rankings, but missed games. And David Nogoku is, I mean,

Who are you taking next year, David Najoku or Tucker Kraft? Who's throwing the ball in Cleveland? Tucker Kraft did not have a good season. Did he have more total fantasy points than the guys who missed games? Yes, but he didn't have a good fantasy season. You're not going to draft them next year. It's an irrelevant conversation. And Musgrave was gone. Yeah. Kraft stole his launch money. I mean, Zach hurts. Yeah, these are, this is the, you didn't play that great. This is just the order you're in category. We don't have to talk about any of these guys. Well, Zacherts did it at- Wrap this thing up, guys. Did it at 34 and was the ninth most consistent. Yeah, I think Tucker Kraft was better than you do, apparently. Well, Tucker Crafts, I mean, if you want to look at the numbers, he had 50 catches for 700 yards and seven touchdowns. This is, I think, Ferguson-y, Dalton Schultz a couple years ago, I guess Dallas.

Maybe. Turn style. I mean, it's, it's just more about like, what is the, what is his career path? Like he was, he was a third round pick. He's six five, two fifty nine. He's 24 years old. He was a third round pick. Yes. And that was not an athletic freak. He has a capable. Well, he, his athleticism is actually. Whoa. Whoa. Oh. Hey, let go letticism. Athletics. I was going to go athleticism. And then I bailed out and jumped to do a different word. It happens. You've done that. His athleticism is actually. pretty it's better than you think it is like his uh in quickness and explosiveness uh he's in the 69th percentile on the 75th percentile for explosive like he has good short area he's a piece he's a piece of an office he's only at two two games where he had five or more receptions you also had luke musgrave missed the vast majority of the season played a couple of weeks got injured for the whole season played the couple of the craft is probably probably i think craft is he's going to be the preferred guy

And it's 355 yards as a rookie, 707 as a sophomore. Just saying, like, I would pay attention to the way that his career is unfolding. Mike wants him to get some time on the show. He got some time. You can have as much time as you want for Tucker Kraft. That was it. He doesn't want to talk about Earth. So we probably don't need to. But he had a great year. Yeah, is just, is he back? The muse. Which he will be for half a season before Benson takes over. The Muth was at 10. Nijoku. was at 11, but keep an eye on the consistency rank. He was number five. You talked about Johnny Smith. I'd take Nogoku over Jonas Smith. Yes. Unless I am being dealt the worst hand at quarterback I can comprehend. What about Nogoku or Leporta? Nojoku. Yeah, of course. Oh my gosh. This can't be a thing. It's not going to be. This is a one-time thing. He missed so much time. He missed three weeks at the beginning of the year. He missed week 15. He missed two weeks in the fantasy play or the championship week and the week after.

He missed his quarterback. He had a Marty Cooper traded midseason. The team is collapsing. But you watch and play football and you're saying, okay, this is a dominator. I think he's going to be a humongous bounceback candidate and probably the best value of the non-best, you know, the non-elite tight ends next year. Because at the end of the previous season, we weren't sure. Was it these ancillary pieces or did he level up? Can he be kind of a center of a top two target in an office going forward? And while at the end of this season, it seems like he wasn't because he missed those games, got injured throughout, had some quarterback changes, even James Winston getting pulled. Nobody paid attention to the Browns as the season went on. You kind of forgot about David Najoku. But on a per game basis and watching the film,

He was actually the guy that ended the season prior. He didn't go on that kind of a magma stretch because, you know, if you remember the season prior, it was somehow their schedule lined up with like eight of the best matchups for tight ends in a row. But my point is going into this draft season, there was a question of, is David Najoku that guy or not? And I believe he actually proved he was despite finishing it tight end 11. I can't believe you wanted to talk about Dallas Goddard more than Tucker Craft. Dallas Goddard. We've played the record for eight years. I mean, he finishes at 27. His consistency was seven. His second half was five, but he missed a ton of time. And he did exactly what he always does. He's always willing to give you about a 10 to 12 finish at the position. If he was a video game character, his nickname would be the opportunist.

He's going to take advantage of a certain game here or there. But we're, I mean, we've been here, right? No, I mean, we do not need to talk about Dallas Goddard. There's only one. Seven seasons of Dallas Goddard. There was only one. I got about five more minutes on Tucker Craft. Look, I'm going to be honest with you guys. The tight ends after the top guys are so borderline irrelevant. What's the truth? The truth, the absolute truth, if I'm being completely honest and no jokes. is the reason that I wanted to talk about Dallas gotter was to get was to get turtile in here. The problem is you guys brought up turtile really early in the show. Oh, I'm sorry. So we didn't need, we didn't even need Dallas car here. Oh, he was just a turtile placeholder. Yeah, Tucker Kraft was so I could get turtile into this show, guys. That's more important than Tucker craft. You're that fascinated in the word. I'm that unfastinated with the with the meandering. I mean, because we could talk about a million of these guys. Are we a turtile?

No. A trifecta of, I'm in the top turtile of the. There's three ball. You are the only ring of honor. Yeah, well, that's true. So that's true. But I mean, whether we talk about. Congrats on that, by the way. Whether we talk about Kate Otten or or Mike Gisicki or Cole Comet. I mean, there are so many of these guys. And it's pretty irrelevant. The difference between most of them. You know, so next year, stream the position or get one of the studs. Well, that's good because this triumvirate has another segment for you. I cannot wait to be in on Colcomit. Yeah, maybe. Oh, man, that's going to be fun. He's a talented player. When you were talking about Tucker Craft, all I could think about was Colcomit. Because it's the same, it feels the same.

Yeah, but like, but we're all, we all agree that Colquitt is a talented guy. Exactly. And got hosed this year. And now he's got, he will be hosed for him. He's got Ben Johnson. He's the new Laporta. Oh, no. LaPorta didn't earn it so that you didn't need. Yeah, that's the point. Even better. He just gives it to him. Fantasy face off presented by Draft Kings. Well, it's the final one of the year. We did not have football last week. So we do not have any punishments to dole out. But we do have. Super Bowl lineups. My lineup is punishment enough, everybody. We do have. Hope you got Dallas Guttered in after all this sweet Dallas Gutter talk. Oh, he's in. We're circling back to Super Bowl only captain lineups for the big game. I'm going with a captain, Sequin Barclay. Well, who's your captain, Jaylor? My captain as well is Sequin Barkley. And I knew that both of you would go with the captain of Sequin Barclay. So it was what in the, like, how do you pivot this?