Shady & The Wild Weekend + Roster Cut Madness

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Footballers, it's subject to credit approval. Rate includes a 0.5% auto pay discount. Terms and conditions apply and offers a subject to change without notice. Visit lightstream.com slash footballers. For more information, that's L-I-G-H-T-S-T-R-E-A-M dot com slash footballers. All right, the Texans acquired running back Carlos Hyde from the Chiefs in exchange for offensive guard Martinez Rankin.

Carlos Hyde joins yet another franchise. You should... Like his fourth team in... I think it's five teams in two years. Smith-Schuster just... Oh! Oh, Jujo goes down! Oh, Jujo goes down! We just... If you heard a sound on the podcast, we just lost a large frame jersey off the back wall. Now, fortunately, it did not hit Batman's head. Nothing could take Batman down. No, Batman's safe.

However, Juju is not. We've got to go to the YouTube to see... Ladies and gentlemen, that is not a foreshadowing of things to come. Well, I will say this. Week one is not looking... I think Bill Belichick's going to take Juju out week one, but... He's preparing yourself for the long haul with Juju. Now, is it a coincidence that Juju's jersey was hanging behind the Fantasy Reaper? I don't know. When...

It came down? I don't know. Brooks, just let it be. Let it be. You're good. Yeah, I don't know. I thought Brooks is going to come over here and we'll just leave him down there. Okay. Back to Carlos Hyde. Hooray. I didn't care about him when he was on the best rushing situation or one of the better offenses in football in Kansas City. I don't care about him now. I didn't care about him in Jacksonville. I didn't care about him in Cleveland. Carlos Hyde does nothing.

for fantasy owners. So that would be, do you guys disagree with that in any, do you have any interest in Carlos High? I don't think. I know he affects other players, but I'm saying him specifically, that's the question out there. No, I'm not drafting Carlos Hyde. And I was going to say, he does nothing for me. He does things to me. Because we all expected the Texans, they had to make a move for Duke Johnson. They can't say, okay, Duke, you're going to touch the ball 300 times. That's just not who Duke Johnson is at this point.

So bringing in Carlos Hyde. That's best case scenario. It is best case scenario. You were happy when the chief signed him. Yes. Because it represented something for Damian Williams. Yes. So it's certainly he's the backup. He is the backup to Duke Johnson. He's going to get on the field. He's going to get touches. Will he get goal line over Duke Johnson? That's the big question because Carlos Hyde is still a big bruising guy. Now, when you say that he's the backup,

Do you mean that you believe Duke Johnson will have more rushing attempts than Carlos Hyde? I do. Do you, Andy, as well? I lean that way. I find myself on the opposite sides of most of the arguments. I mean, I completely agree. I don't want Carlos Hyde. I don't want to touch him with a 10-foot pole. He's not as good as Lamar Miller, who had the whole role to himself. And, you know, we've talked about this. The utilization of the Texans and Deshaun Watson so far has been near the goal line.

It's a lot of pass plays. It's not a lot of rushing work for the running back, and they don't pass to the running back over the last several years historically. Now, they haven't had a Duke Johnson, so I expect that to go up. They will. They will. They'll do that. I expect that to go up because now they have a good pass catching back. But now you're splitting the situation where, you know, Lamar Miller last season had 210 carries. Neither one of these backs is going to approach that number, in my opinion. I think that Carlos Hyde and.

Duke Johnson will both be sharing those carries, and while the total pass-catching work will go up, it has to go up for it to just be near the bottom of the league. I mean, they've been pretty much dead last over the last five years. So I don't want Carlos Hyde, and this is a good situation for Duke Johnson as far as who's going to come in to replace him, but I still don't think, I think with a big bruising back like Carlos Hyde, I just can't imagine them giving...

the majority of rushing attempts to Duke Johnson. Well, let's say this. If Bill O'Brien was so lucky, so fortunate to have Alfred Blue in his own backfield, a healthy Alfred Blue, Bill O'Brien would give him carries. Yes. And he would give them with no regard to their productivity. So if Carlos I could have handpicked a situation where he could say, hey, I can go and be not productive somewhere.

on the reg. And keep getting the ball. And keep getting the ball. It would have to be Houston. And I do think that they, I think they'll be similar in terms of total carries. Duke will be far more productive. And they picked up Laramie Tunzel. This was a big piece of the puzzle here. Big time. I mean, they acquired, you know, the top, or a top five left tackle in football. One of the top, especially one of the top young left tackles in the league. Yeah. And they signed, they acquired Tunzel.

Kenny Stills, any fourth round pick, and they gave up everything else that they have. Yeah, the offense gets better, which means maybe goal line opportunities do go up if they're able to move the ball. You know, you take a couple sacks away from Deshaun Watson. There will be no goal line, man. It's all Deshaunson. I love Deshaunson. 40-yard touchdowns. Great friend of the show, J.J. Zachoreson, he had a hilarious tweet to me, said the NFL is out here playing chess, and the Texans are playing Madden.

I was like, yeah, that's perfect. The Texans, they peaked over the yard, and they saw what the Chiefs were doing when the Chiefs just have everyone who's faster than everybody else. And now they're... Fuller and Stills on the same field. With Hopkins, who's still fast in his own right, he's not as fast as Fuller and Kenny Stills. But when you have two lightning speed guys who are also a little bit bigger, with Hopkins, good luck.

Good luck stopping that passing attack. Yeah, I think part of stopping the passing attack is going to be whether or not they have a running game with the aforementioned Duke Johnson. Won't need it. And Carlos Hyde. I'm not willing to chase these acquisitions all the way to Sean Watson being my number one, but he's got, he's just set up. I mean, I think Mahomes is still, I still firmly have him there, but Watson's going to be a blast. He's going to be a blast to own for fantasy owners. Yes, he will.

He's going to have some Mondo weeks. I'm really jealous of people because I have him nowhere. He was still, you know, one of the higher drafted quarterbacks and I'm not drafting a quarterback in those early rounds. But I'm jealous of the people that get to play Deshaun Watson this year. Yeah, it's going to be fun. All right. Are we good moving on? Kenny Stills, some people want to know relevance. I don't think he has fantasy relevance for himself. It's just it's a huge upgrade for Deshaun Watson. Probably similar to like,

You know, when you give deep threats to Drew Breeze over the years, those guys you didn't generally play, but man, they help Drew Breeze. Yeah, exactly right. The only thing I want to say before we move on from the Texans is as you brought up Alford Blue, I went back and looked at his game loves last year, and they're delightful. Can I interest you in 20 carries for 40 yards? Yes, give the guy the ball more.

He had 40 yards. Okay, 46 yards. I cut six of them off. You know for a... You know for a fact. He kept getting the ball, 20 carries. I don't think Bill O'Brien cares that much about productivity. Obviously, the evidence shows that. It's more do you set up the play action pass? Do you set up what the offense is trying to do? There is no doubt Alfred Blue. High five Bill O'Brien on the way into the locker room after his 20-for-40 performance. That's what I believe. All right.

Let's talk about Melvin Gordon. Let's talk about Ezekiel Elliott. The great holdouts, they continue. The chargers, they're done. They're done negotiating. They're done talking. Maybe they never began. And so Gordon is either going to put his tail between his legs and roll up at some point during the season. He has to do it before week 10 or his contract doesn't toll. And if I'm Melvin Gordon, I show up.

I need to get out of here. If I'm not going to get my money, I need to get out. The only way I get out of town is if I show up for half the season and move on. Yeah, I mean, it's one of those situations where they're not going to renegotiate until after the season. They've given him permission to seek a trade. So he either gets that trade with a team who clearly has to pay him. I don't think he's going to find a trade. No, I mean, what team at this point in the season is going to pay what he is asking for? And give up pieces.

I mean, this is one of those really, really weird situations where I know that there's all the rules of if he doesn't sign by this time or do this thing, you know, the season doesn't accrue. He'd be on his fifth year option next year. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I still believe there's a chance he misses the whole season. I think that you can't just apply really simplistic binary logic to these situations. Look, left bell.

other than a season-ending injury, he lost a ton of money by holding out last year. Yes, he got paid up, but overall he was going to get paid either way. He lost, I think, approximately like $14 million. It's just really hard, though, because Gordon can't do anything. I mean, they could seek to trade him. Like, if he held out through the year, he's losing the game checks, and is he going to trade all the game checks up to week 10? And then...

he doesn't have any free agency. He has no ability to be released. I just don't know what happens. Do they trade him in the off season? That's one of the outcomes that he doesn't play through the whole year. He gives up all that money. Then they trade him. Then he has to find a paycheck. I tend to believe he's back by week 10, which means I'm basically not even touching him in drafts because there is a percentage chance Jason is dead on, right? Or I guess you're not predicting that he will miss all year. You're just saying he could. That's in the range of all. And I do believe that as well.

Therefore, Gordon is basically a dart throw at the back half of drafts. If you want to be the guy with his pants off running around the room saying, I did it, I did it. I stole Melvin Gordon, you know, week six, seven, eight whenever he shows back up. Melvin Gordon stole you. Yeah, he did. And the thing is, is this team is 100% planning to be without him. They're content with Echler Jackson and what was going to be Shady McCoy or some other option. So.

Melvin Gordon is in a bad spot. Yes. Because he's also not made a lot of money in his career. So you're giving up a lot, not rolling up. And then Ezekiel Elliott, get this. Things are trending in the right way. Things are trending in the wrong way. He's in combo. He's in America. Things are looking real good. Things are looking real bad. So.

Where are we with Zeke? Because now the latest... Oh, we have more. Do you want me to hit the button? Yeah. Breaking news. According to pro football talk. Okay. This, oh my gosh. Okay, let me have it. Reports are the Cowboys are close to signing Ezekiel Elliott to a six-year, $90 million extension. By the time you listen to this, this could be done based on this report.

because he is back in the country and uh oh man i think we almost need how crappy does belvin gordon feel if this goes through like he's he's thinking oh this is a victory zeke has reset the market no

Zeke had two years left and his team said, yeah, we're going to open up the vault and the charges said, nah, bro. No, Melvin Gordon, I totally get what you're saying, but he'll be thrilled about this because he thinks this just raises the baseline of running backs. In the wrong way. Yes, he's probably wrong to do so. This is what we've been saying for this entire offseason. We've been so much more scared of Melvin Gordon than Zeeke.

Now, this not to, maybe the, maybe the deal is done by the time you listen to this podcast. Maybe it's not. And maybe they go backwards and he's not there for week one or maybe week two. But there's communication. They both want the deal to get done. They're just squabbling over all of the details. Zeke is playing the vast majority of this season. I don't think that is really something that is scary at this point, is losing him for. Not based on recent news. And I would tend to believe, I mean, it looks like this thing is.

likely to get done. It matches him flying back into the country. Now, they also sign Loyal Collins to a five-year contract extension locking up their tackle. So if this deal goes through, because we need to talk like that. What do you do if you're a Tony Pollard and you don't have Zeke? Because if you have Zeke, maybe you hold on to Tony Pollard, maybe you don't. I mean, if he signs this deal... Then Tony Pollard is a...