Free Agency Winners & Losers, QB Calamity, Big Dreams - Fantasy Football Podcast for 3/28

This one was surprising to me. Devante Adams is my biggest winner because of what I thought was going to happen this year to the Raiders organization. I figured that they were going to be playing with the fourth best rookie quarterback going into this season, playing with a Will Levis or someone like that. This is what I thought Devante Adams situation was going to be a very bad situation going into... an age that you think, okay, he's going to start twilighting. Nothing on film obviously said Devante Adams lost anything. He was unbelievable last year. I think they made a great transaction here at the quarterback position. Is Garoppolo as good as Derek Carr? Maybe, maybe not. Let's say he's...

a little less good. He's not a tier drop down, and he is way cheaper. So from an organizational standpoint, I completely get it. He can support wide receiver ones. And you have the absence of Darren Waller. Darren Waller made a big impact on Devante Adams last year. You had basically a split season, nine games where Darren Waller was there, eight games where Darren Waller wasn't there. And Devante Adams was way more dominant when Darren Waller was off the field. More targets, more receptions, more yards, and more touchdowns per game. He was on a 15 touchdowns, 1,700, 112 reception pace during the eight games missed with Darren Waller. And, yeah, they signed Jacobi Myers. Jacobi Myers is a fine slot wide receiver. He's probably going to more replace Hunter Renfro than Darren Waller.

a target earner. Darren Waller is a target requireer. You know, he is a difference maker you have to throw the ball to. He's gone. So I, you know, to me, this isn't so much, things have gotten so much better for Devante Adams. It's things look like they were going to be terrible for Devante Adams. And instead, because of this free agency time, he's right back at, you know, he should be drafted at the end of the first round and it'll be worth it. So in some ways he was the biggest not loser. Yes, that is a great summation. He is the biggest not loser. Absolutely. But he's not. My own. Not loser. And I don't have all the numbers right in front of me in particular for this stat. But the only thing I'll say is like obviously Jacobi Myers is a hands guy. He's going to be close to the line of scrimmage. Can Jimmy G. Will Jimmy G. Do?

enough to throw the ball down the field. Yeah, well, that's my biggest question. Because there were so many times Adams just disappeared, and then at the end of the play, Derek Carr was willing to launch it. Hopefully, the presence of Adams will allow him to do that. But Jimmy succeeded with, you know, give Debo the ball on a slant and let Debo run it for a million yards. Yeah, I mean, the Shanahan system is obviously very different. We haven't seen Garoppolo in an errant out type of system, but we have seen Devante Adams play a number of different ways, right?

Last year, 15.2 yards per reception for Devante Adams, that's actually not been what Devante Adams game has been. When he was with Aaron Rogers, you're talking about a guy who is usually 11.9, 12 yards per reception, you know, just like he is a possession receiver. So maybe some of the big long plays come down, but I think volume even goes up. Well, both guys wanted to say the name that I'm going to bring up, which is Justin Fields. Oh, yes. Justin Fields was a very clear winner this offseason. Yes. Secured the starting job by the Bears trading the number one pickaway. Yeah, he did that. Secured a top flight wide receiver, DJ Moore's arrival in Chicago. Yeah, right. You know, the team is going to be guaranteed to be improved on both sides of the ball due to the draft capital acquired by the Bears. And I think he's going to be a future Fantasy Hall of Famer this year. You're darn right he is. Justin Wheels himself will be.

given opportunities with the ball in his hands and then with receivers that can make a lot of plays. And, you know, offensive line is a position I think they'll address in the first round. Their win totals at seven and a half. They haven't seen that in a long time. This is a team that has, you know, Justin Fields is somebody that you might have been freaking out in a dynasty league. Like, I don't know, Trey Lance right now. Yes, that's not great. That is not. But it's over. The freak out is over. Justin Fields is the guy. A couple years ago, this was Jalen Hertz. Jalen Hertz. The Eagles had a bunch of draft capital. Oh, would they replace him? They're going to give him a shot. They're going to give him an opportunity. They go and they get him weapons and all of a sudden he explodes becomes as good as you can get for fantasy, pretty much as good as you can get for the NFL. And now the same situation, a lot of similarities here with Justin Fields, a mobile quarterback that...

could have been replaced. They had the capital to replace him. And they said, no, we're going to invest in you. And he's shown enough on the field. Like with DJ Moore, with a healthy darnel Mooney. The thing I was going to say, the other similarity to Hertz was that we spent a lot of the obviousies and talking about bad low pass attempt numbers. That was a problem. So now you get to see. Not that everybody does the same thing. You know, Jalen Hertz, what he did was kind of. incredible, right? Yes. All the way to the Super Bowl. But you added AJ Brown last offsies. And while DJ Moore's not AJ Brown, he's a really good receiver and getting Mooney back and fixing the offensive line so that maybe he could go through more than one read. So, yeah, the parallels are there. I'm going to name some other potential winners. I want you to tell me if you agree. Daniel Jones. He was in consideration financially for my, he was in consideration for my winner. He was like,

It wasn't, you know, just an outrageously fantastic year. But in terms of fantasy, he was the quarterback nine, you know, 3,200 yards, only 15 passing touchdowns, but 700 rushing yards because he does that in seven on the ground, seven scores on the ground. Adding Darren Waller, like I think it's a big deal. Darren Waller won't be what he was, you know, when he had the breakout campaign, when he morphed into the Walleris. But it's a huge upgrade for what Daniel Jones was working with. They keep adding these slot-wide receivers. Maybe one of them hits. Maybe Wondale Robinson comes back from the ACL injury, and he's good to go. But I expect we'll see more volume from Daniel Jones after the acquisition of Darren Waller. And Daniel Jones is now, you know, he's going to be the starting quarterback for another year for fantasy. Jordan Love becomes a starter. Jimmy Garoppolo, Secured as a starter. Khalil Herbert, David Montgomery, Miles Sanders, Rashad Penny. Do you think that those are all winners? Currently, yes.

Yeah, it's TBD on some of those running backs. Miles Sanders, Rashad Penny, or Miles Sanders, definitely a winner. But Rashad Penny and Khalil Herbert, those two guys. You're holding your breath a little bit. Yes, you are. Yeah, I mean, it's their opportunity could be incredible. And they could be just vaporized in the draft. You know what I mean? They could just poof vanish. Is Darren Waller a winner or a loser? I'd say. Probably a winner. I'll put him in a win. Like, because Devante Adams is the number one on the team. There's a, there's a very strong chance that Darren Waller goes back to being the number one on the Giants. If you look at fantasy tight ends who are good, they are few and far between and they're usually the number one target on their team. You know, when Mark Andrews was the number one target, Kelsey's the number one target, I think Waller has a legitimate shot to be that number one target. Probably should be the number one target for this offense.

What was the pass attempts per game for Daniel Jones? Let's see. So he threw the ball 472 times. Average 29 and a half passing attempts again. That was pure math in his head right there. Amazing. Amazing. Don't check the tape. All right. Let's go ahead and look at the biggest losers of free agency. Jason, I'm going to hand you the baton right now because obviously I agree with this one. I had put my answer in. And then when I saw yours, I was like, yeah, wow, that's a. That's a bad offseason. Yeah, it is sainara to the truthers of D'Andre Swift. I'm not saying he's a bad player at all. He's a very good player. Explosive athlete, great running back. But for fantasy purposes and for the people that believe that DeAndre Swift was a top five running back, locked and loaded, he's going to have a three-year stretch of being a top six guy and a real true fantasy football legend.

does not happen. The Detroit lines don't want it to happen. They don't believe that they can give him a workload that is valuable. I mean, you saw that this last year. Even when he got back from injury, I mean, those first two games, you were like, oh, it's going to be DeAndre Swift's team. He got injured, like he always does, comes back from injury, fully healthy, off of practice reports. That one week. That one week. And it was just, it was Jamal Williams. It was, you know, who do we trust at the goal line? Who's the big power back? And the goal line work is going to go to David Montgomery here.

If you look at the split between Jamal Williams and DeAndre Swift, they do not trust DeAndre Swift. I mean, he had a couple carries in there. They put him in. He's going to get a couple next year. But the vast majority are going to go to go ahead. And David Montgomery's done that through his career. This last season, not a lot of goal line opportunities with Justin Fields and, you know, a bat. I mean, there's a reason they had the number one pick. They didn't win a lot of games and they weren't in scoring opportunities quite as often. But the three years prior, you're talking about 23 attempts inside the 10-yard line.

24, 23. Inside the five zone, 18 attempts, 14 attempts. He's got experience in that role. I think that's why they went after him. They signed him. So to me, the fantasy value of D'Andre Swift is kaput as far as being any kind of, you know, massive presence for fantasy football. I can tell you that there will be people, and I don't know if I'm going to join them, but that are going to try to find a way. to make the path for Swift in their brain. And I think I'm one of them. I think I'm like, oh, is this the time to go buy him in Dynasty? Like the price is so low. Everyone's out on this conversation. He's the biggest loser of the off season. When you, and it's probably a mistake. Everything you're saying is probably 100% true, but it's hard to win talent. And I think this is the position that Gibson was in. I mean, it's so similar. Where it's like, oh, you know Gibson's good. So it's going to work out, right? Talent wins, right?

Usually it does. I mean, the, like, so last year, he averaged 42% of snaps per game, and he was the running back 22. Now you go back, you know, let's, to his rookie year, he averaged 47% was the running back 18. Like, he can be a part-time player and still make an impact for fantasy football. I think what Jason is just pointing out is that that ceiling of where you're like, DeAndre Swift, This is it. Top five season coming for DeAnder Swift. I just, I don't think that that's happening. So, Jason, in your perspective, you've got him in Dynasty right now. Are you riding it out, knowing that he has, like he has potential upside as the one being a timeshare. And then if David Montgomery misses time, maybe you have a true breakout from Swift or.

Are you trying to flip him? And what is that? Yeah, I mean, what are you looking for in compensation? It depends on what you could get for him. There are enough. Late first round pick. The 107. Those type of trades when you're talking 105, six, seven, that could be a yes, that could be a no. You got. But you can't do it now. You have to wait until after the NFL draft so you can actually see, okay, Charbonnet went here, the surprising running back went there, you know, or, you know, however the NFL draft plays out. But yes, what I am saying is not that DeAndre Swift is dead and gone, won't be valuable, can't be used for fantasy. What I'm saying is his upside as a workhorseback, as a league winning bad. We're not disagreeing. That is kaput. He's going to be an RB2. And really, if you look, if you take those first two games out,

for DeAndre Swift, because he played still the majority of the season. Didn't feel like it? But if you take those first two games out, the 12 games that he played, you're talking about a 17-game pace of 484 rushing yards. Not good. Yeah. I mean, that's not where he excels, though. He dominates in the past. 363 receiving yards. So combined rushing receiving on a 17-game pace. would have been not a thousand total. I'm going to put it. I'm going to force you to answer it, though, because the trade just hit your inbox. DeAndre Seth, somebody's offering you the 107 today. Do you accept that trade? Which do you want? So I think I do. Because you did a really nice political maneuver before. Because you're right. If you knew the answers to where everybody went, it be easier. But what do you do today? You think you take it? You're saying 107. I feel like the 107 is not getting you.

You're not replacing running back. No. So you're getting one of the wider receivers. You're getting Zayflowers where he lands. Maybe you're getting Jalen Hyatt, Josh Downs, that you're getting probably that type of a player. So Jalen Hyatt is who I have as my seventh pick right now pre-NFL draft. I would not make that trade. And truly, I think you can get better. There are always DeAndre Swift truthers in your league that will still believe it. They're thin and out. They are thinning out, but it doesn't. Dalvin Cook or DeAndre Swift in a Dynasty League? Oh, man. Because I have Kyle and Jeremy's team over there listening to office. And I'm sitting here going, what do I type back to them? I've got Dalvin Cook on my roster. So I would rather have Dalvin Cook because I want a chance at a championship. And I think that this coming season, Dalvin Cook, I don't even know where he plays, but he has a higher ceiling than Swift. Obviously, if I am.

not in championship mode. If I am a team that is more in a rebuild, I'd rather take the hope of the age of D'Andre Swift and say, I hope he's traded somewhere. I hope he gets a second contract for a different team and gets the, because his talent is there. So if I'm not able to win a championship, I'd rather have Swift. But if I'm going for it, if I think I could take that gold home, you've got to make those moves sometimes and actually put your team over the top to. to not just make the playoffs, but win a championship. All right. For me, the biggest loser are it's the Ravens organization on multiple fronts. Let's start with the fact they don't have a quarterback. Let's move on to the fact that they've done nothing to help whatever quarterback they have. Nelson Aguilar. Nelson Aguilar is the free agent pickup at wide receiver. It's, oh man, that's so Ravens. Yeah. 30-year-old wide receiver? Welcome. Do they have a plan of any kind? They've addressed nothing this offseason.

If they don't have a quarterback, Mark Andrews goes down. J.K. Dobbins, I don't want to see J.K. Dobbins, not catch passes and not be around the goal line because they don't have a quarterback. This offseason has been really, I think, the worst in football so far. And I'm not saying that, you know, look, if they make a splash, they sign, you know, you could fix it. Yeah, but as of today, I mean, it's bad vibes everywhere there. They've, their team looks like. They're in some weird holding pattern that they can't get out of and that they will. I mean, right now it feels like they'll never get out of it. You're right, Andy, to bring up like the Aaron Rogers situation a couple years ago where it was like, it seemed like he was gone. And then eventually they just resigned him and he won, you know, NFL MVP again. But like you have, you have current teammates, you have former teammates all jumping on social media of like.

Bashing the organization. Yeah, yeah, I don't want to be this guy, but everything you're hearing about the Ravens, the way that they treat this position or they handle this. Like, yeah, it's true. It's true. They just don't care. It's just the vibes are bad, the situation, and how it will meander into other talents. I mean, Rashad Bateman didn't even get brought up, right? He's supposed to be running now and going to be healthy. He got brought up a little bit when Mike said that players are complaining about the organization. That's true. He was one of those guys. So. That's a good point. I mean, look, it's just a, to me, it's the worst offseason situation. And, you know, you will hit a point where even if he comes back, you're going to be a little bit, like, let's say he's back tomorrow, you still didn't fix the wide receiver position for Lamar Jackson. And that, like, he played football last year, right? Right. And not having wide receivers was a problem for him then. And I don't think Rashobabayman can carry the load. I don't. So, um,

And it is weird. Yeah, Kyle, you're right. I mean, Baltimore has been the model organization and some things come to a head this off season. And I don't think I'm saying anything Baltimore fans would be disagreeing with right now other than hoping that it gets remedied. The nice thing is that this has been such a longstanding well-run organization that I still have trust that it all gets figured out, that they end up fine enough, maybe not this season, but two years from now. the Browns who like, man, are they going to figure it out? I don't know, probably not. They're the Browns. All right, Mike, who is your biggest loser of the offseason? Yeah, it's unfortunate, but it is the doctor. It is Dalton Schultz who, I mean, Jason, you were advocating of Lamar Jackson needs an agent. I don't, I don't know what Dalton Schultz agent did, but it's, uh,

Kind of career destroying, in my opinion, what has happened here. Excuse me, of the Dalton Schultz was on a true breakout trajectory with the Dallas Cowboys. You had last year where he was the tied in three for fantasy, which that's what we love. But for football, like he was a good player. Over 800 yards. Almost 80 receptions, eight touchdowns. This year was a down season for him. You know, the numbers dropped to 577 and five touchdowns. He had all the knee injuries. He was injured. He had to deal with the Cooper Rush experiment. And over the second half, after the buy week, like it was kind of up and down. But overall, things were pretty good. But he was playing on the franchise tag. So it was just a one year. He gets, you know, nearly 11 million guaranteed. So good for him.

But that's because they couldn't agree on a long-term deal heading into last year. They couldn't agree again. And now he's on the Houston Texans, a rebuilding franchise. He will be playing with a rookie quarterback. That's not good for reestablishing your value if you're trying to put up just raw numbers for teams to look at and get goo-goo eyes for him. Look what Dalton Shultz did last year. Let's get him on the team. And his contract. It is a one-year. Up to $9 million. Ladies and gentlemen, out there, maybe some of you know, some of you don't. You ever heard of a tight end named Josh Oliver? Yeah. I was just looking at this. Well, that guy got a three-year deal worth up to $21 million with $10.7 million in guaranteed money. That is more guaranteed money than Dalton Schultz got to go play for the Houston, Texas. And he rejected a deal, right? Because, yeah, last off season, well,

The numbers we got were it was a three-year $36 million offer. And he said no to that and bet on himself and whoops the doozles because it's done. Like for fantasy football, if you held on Adulton Schultz, just really, really hoping that Dallas was going to get the extension. You don't see a silver lining here? No. I see. No Brandon Cooks. I see. Nothing. I see a path of fantasy relevance. We just talked about tight ends to be relevant. Not with a rookie quarterback. Fantasy football have to be the number one target. He could be the number one target for this team. But you're right, not a lot of scoring opportunities, a rookie quarterback. We know, I mean, you know, going into last year, I was down on Deonté Johnson. Deonti Johnson is way better than Dalton Schultz. It was because there was a rookie quarterback. They don't.

really sustain a lot of production from the receiving core in the rookie season. Even when you're good, there are very few exceptions. Not everyone is Justin Herbert as a rookie. Right. The vast majority aren't even great quarterbacks. I mean, you're talking about first ballot Hall of Flamers playing their whole first rookie season. Usually they aren't that good. So you're right. It's not a perfect situation for him. I think fantasy value wise, he's not dead and dusted because he could be the number one target. Where he's the biggest loser, though, is I think there was an expectation coming that he was getting a huge payday. This offseason is what they thought last off season. Does he have like a nice place in Houston that he didn't want to. I'm trying to, like a really nice community pool or something. Maybe. I'm just trying to figure out why. I just can't spend too much on it. I just can't imagine he couldn't have gotten that exact deal with Dallas. Yeah, I do not know. Other than trying to save face.

That's what it feels like, right? Because how do you not get a one-year deal with Dallas that lets Zieg go? Yeah, that would... And they already rework contracts in Dallas. It would feel bad, considering you were on the franchise tag for nearly 11 last year, and if you come back to the team, be like, fine, I'll play one year, $9 million. But long-term, that would have been a much better situation. Dalton shoot. Yeah, it sucks. He's a good player, but... Do we know what his guaranteed money is? We still do not know. Okay. I'm... That's how good the contract is. The details are still being withheld. I'm worried about that. I feel like I'm worried it's going to come out. Three million. It's like three and a half million dollars guaranteed. Oh, come on. No. I hope it's six, but probably not. Oh, man. Other losers this off season, Chase Claypool, Darnel Mooney. You know, Claypole more than Mooney. Yeah. Mooney's a...

Reason being, Mooney's a great player. Playpool is sometimes okay. You know, sometimes makes a play. Mooney is a great player. I feel like Chase Claypool, they need to, you have to figure out how to use them. And the problem with that is you see just a giant superhero of a human being. He's 6'4, nearly 240 pounds, ran a 4-4-2. So that puts your speed score in the 96th. Let me sorry, the 83rd percentile. His athleticism is in the 96 percentile. And you see that and you go run him down the side, just outside of the numbers, 50-50 ball. But he's not good at that. Despite his size, he does not excel at that. But for that size and speed, there has to be a way that this guy can really contribute to an NFL team. But it's not the normal put him on the outside. Yeah, and I just don't know if the ship sailed.

For him. Sometimes these physical specimens, you know, you just get to a point. But I'm not sure. They thought he was worth the second round pick. Is that right? Yes. Whoopsie dozzles. All right. That is going to do it for today's show. A couple reminders. Number one, Dynasty show next week. Make sure you go subscribe right now. Just search Fantasy Footballers Dynasty. Follow this show. Apple, Spotify. We'll share it on socials. You'll be able to click the button. Follow along. It's going to be fun. Secondly, we are up for a couple of podcast awards if you want to take a moment this morning. And you do. And you might. You do. You do. Come on. Come on. Where do I go? You go to footclanvote.com. Clickety click a couple buttons. And you do us a favor. So footclamvote.com for that. Thank you for joining us. We appreciate you. We'll be back with another episode on Thursday. Maybe I'll have DeAndre Swift on my team. I don't know. We'll find out.

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