Fantasy Football - Free Agency Winners & Losers + Waddle Trade Reaction - Podcast for 3/24

for the Colts. I think that, I think the probability, I agree with you. The probability of who gets the higher percentage of target share, I would put to the Tyler Warren side. The competition outside of the tight end is greater for Chicago's talent than it is for Indianapolis's talent. Because Josh Downs will get, I mean, he's going to be a beneficiary. Alec Pierce is a beneficiary of this, both of those guys. But 20 picks different for Tyler Warren. That might be a shot worth taking both those guys' big winners. Warren ended the year at a 21% target share. I think he makes the jump to 25 next year. Which is just awesome for a tight end. Yeah. And I mean, I am Team Loveland over Warren, but when all things are factored in to how people are, the market's reacting to Warren, I don't think it's reacting enough how it is reacting to Loveland. Yeah, yeah, I think so.

Mike, who's your big winner? I mean, come on. It's just how, how much winning is the question for Ken Bone Walker, aka Kenneth Walker, the third. If you are, if you are, aka his name, number one enforced mistackle rate last year compared to the Kansas City running backs as a team, as a unit, they ranked dead last in that metric. Last year, the Kansas City running backs had one. run of more than 20 yards. That's crazy. Kenneth Walker himself had 10. And that was Kenneth Walker who had the, I mean, he had a governor on him. Like he had the restrictor that his team was just not giving him a true workhorse role. You could, the anti-walker side will say, well, that kept him healthy. Maybe. Maybe Kenneth Walker would have just stayed healthy. When you look back on.

Kenneth Walker's success as a fantasy running bag. His first three years, his good games, you know, 47%, 53, 50. Thank you. 55% in year three. And the bust rate very, very low. But then last year it jumps up to 41% because you had Zach Charbonnet come in and take all the touchdowns. As of right now, there is nobody in Kenneth Walker's way for... the goal line role in Kansas City. He will be first in line for receptions. He will be first in line for touchdowns. I mean, it's like maybe they bring Kareem Hunt back and they say, well, he was real successful in the short area. I still think that the contract, like the amount of money that they have guaranteed to Kenneth Walker puts him as the guy. It's been a long time. We have.

We have been waiting for the next Andy Reid running back to show up. Because do not forget, Andy Reid was our king. He was the fantasy football running back king. It did not matter who he drafted. There's a reason Clyde Edwards-Aler went, just catapulted to the 101 in rookie drafts over Jonathan Taylor, who was clearly a better player than Clyde, because Andy Reed's running backs give us dominant. Dominion Hunt was dominant. Westbrook was dominant. Shady McCoy. He uses in he's used workhorse guys before. Eric B. enemy being back, I think that is a huge deal. Like those those were the cream hunt years. And so I'm super excited for Kenneth Walker right now an underdog. He's going as the running back 11. And for me, when I've looked at the names who are going in front of him, I think that is just too low. We had this debate.

I don't know if it was on the footcaster when we were talking about it, because we were looking at like, was it Dynasty startup rankings for running backs? Yeah, we did have that conversation. Jason was, yeah, Jason wasn't here on that one. I am curious where you have Ken Walker slotted in. For me, he's at 8 in Dynasty. He is ahead of Bucky Irving for me. He's ahead of Judkins for me. He's behind Jonathan Taylor still, Hampton. H. Angentee, Gibbs, and Bijon. The way I felt about the Walker discussion was higher for you. It was, yes. I mean, for me, it's, well, now, and Jeremiah Love is in that as well. But it's like, the conversation of Dynasty running backs goes, starts with Bijon and Jamir Gibbs. And to me, those are the only two that I can, I will concrete them above Kenneth Walker. Now the rest, but the rest of the list. Really? Yeah. That's, that's where I was.

I mean, I think there's a handful. There's a handful of this. I'm talking firm concrete is only Bejan and Gets. Firm. Asheny is not firm concrete. No, he's not. He is for me. Amarian Hampton is not firm concrete. No, he is not. He is not. He is not weird. To me, I, I'm, it's funny because I'm, I'm kind of more on Mike's side where I, I think with a new contract, he's not that old, even though he was 25. Yeah, he feels older than he is. He's 25.4 years old. It's a great situation. I could see him being a top five fantasy back at the end of the year. However, there's a handful of younger running backs that I would still put in a tier above Walker. Yeah, you're still, you're still depending on him doing something he hasn't done. That's a realistic thing to say. He is not finished in the top 15 at the position, ever.

So you're still counting on this transition of teams. Like it's easy to look through it through the rose-colored glasses when you make a change and the guy is your Super Bowl MVP. I'm just saying that like that's a bet that's tough. Like when everything looks like he can do something he's never done. Will he stay healthy? That is probably his biggest question. He did this last year, but that was due to the infuriating, you know, timeshare. I think the money they gave him. means that he is going to be a workhorse. I thought you were going to say the money means he's going to stay healthy. I wish that was the way of work. I think they're going to give him a ton of work and if he stays healthy will be a steal in. Yeah, this is not being, it's, I think Kansas City is in general the most difficult situation for us year in and year out.

whether it was dealing with Mahomes when he was great and then Mahomes when he was struggling, or dealing with how many different wide receivers since Tyreek Hill we have projected to be incredible, or the Isaiah Pacheco's of the world or all of the, whatever, Brashad Smiths that have opportunities. It's too tantalizing. Andy Reed is too tantalizing because you always know that the best you can get from Kansas City is the best in the league. Right. There's other teams where you're like, if Ken Walker went there, you're like, oh, okay. His ceiling, like the ceiling for Ken Walker on a perfect season is top three. Not every team affords you that. So, I mean, when you talk about where you'd want to go, if you're Ken Walker, I think you wanted to go to Kansas City really badly. And I think that it gives us as fantasy players a huge opportunity. And it's very fun of, like if Kenneth Walker coming off of the season he had goes back to Seattle, you know, especially with the Charbonnet ACL injury.

I mean, he's probably still being drafted as like a top 15 running back. Certainly. After the Super Bowl run? Yeah, but I'm saying, so now his, his price hasn't skyrocketed, but his situation has gotten drastically better. We don't really disagree other than where you slot him in dynasty-wise, which I think is aggressive, but you've had a good year, Mike. You know he's one year older than A-chan. Yeah, I do. I just have like... but a h n's a better player than he is a much better player much better he is definitely a better player than yeah h n is i mean it's the same thing you'd say about gibbs same thing you'd say about bjean i think jonathan taylor is probably a better player than he is johnny the dynasty is an age component yeah he's 27 but i still have him one spot ahead but we were looking today man jonathan taylor he's 27 he's got one year left in indy

Yeah, he will be going to get sketchy and dynamic. He's going to be a situation to pay attention to. He'll be franchised next year. Oh, that's the thing is. Oh, yeah, so he'll do two more years. Is Johnny, Johnny Taylor is going to be on watch this summer of is he going to make any sort of stink? Right. Of like, I need more guaranteed money. He sure should. Or I'll see you guys in week one. Or if they're in the basement, do they talk? Is he a trade deadline chat? All right. We'll take another break. We'll come back and get into the biggest losers of free agency in just a minute.

Okay dokey. Looks like we got a couple of running backs in a wide receiver on our list of players that maybe free agency didn't work out the best for. No. Mine is someone that it, I don't know if it's a chicken or an egg situation here, but Alvin Camara is poof, is vanished, is gone. There's been rumors that I've been seeing that. Oh, we need the reverse sound of that one. I think we have it. Don't we? We have a bad? Yeah, we did have it at one point. I'll dig it up. So the Travis ETN contract coming on board. I mean, this is a massive amount of money. They are saying, we need a running back album, Camara, isn't it? And really, if you look at the metrics of what Camara did this last year, real, real bad. It was not efficient, which has always been Camara's calling card.

When you give out that kind of money, it says to me that they're done with Camara. And I wonder if Camara's done with football. Like, I don't know. I mean, obviously he's not come out and said, I'm, I'm walking away. But the saints seem to know something that the average person might not know about the running back room there in New Orleans because you just don't go out. if you think camara is still your guy are still capable and give travis etienne that much money camara if he is playing for the saints this next year he is a backup and we've never seen that before so to me it's like i don't want to touch camara and if i had him in a dynasty league and i could get anything for him oh you will i will sir you will be offered a bag of potato chips i think right i can eat that

I can eat those. I think right before Free Agency, didn't they restructure him and move a bunch of money into signing bonus? There were people, I think it was like $8 million they moved or they saved off of cap space by moving money into a signing bonus, which might be a lifetime achievement award for Alvin Camara because this is a, this is a Saints legend who year and year out was a dominator. Then he dealt with injuries more and more and more and more. Yeah, they converted 10 million of his salary into signing bonus. I mean, to me, that was the first sign that they were looking to move on from Alvin Camara, whether it's formal or informal and he's just a bit part on this team. The signing of E.TN, to your point, Jason, it just eliminates the possibilities of Camara being relevant again. Hey, Chan. Well, Travis. While Alvin Camara is the biggest fantasy loser, he might be the biggest life winner. Because if I'm Alvin Camara.

Ain't no way I'm retiring. I'm staying on this team. I'm going to let Travis ETN go out there and be the football player. I'm just going to like do laps, high-fiving all the fans, cash and checks, and everyone will still love you. Like New Orleans will love Alvin Kamara forever. Any chance he takes a goal line away from ETN because ETN lost goal line last year to do. And Camara's always been pretty okay around there. It would be very funny. I don't come out of the goal lineback. I don't think that's going to happen, though. I hope they throw the ball to ETN on, you know, at Camara-like levels. I think they will. I mean, that's one of ETN's best attributes. He's got very, very good hands. And they, you know, similar to like the, when you have that level of money that you're giving to a back with Ken Bone and with Travis ETN, you are bringing them into.

do a lot of ball touching. E.T.N. Whoa. What did you just say? Uh, uh, don't worry about it. Oh, you got the big siren behind you. Um, uh, last year, Travis ETN had 12 carries inside the five. Oh, thank you. But I mean, like, time it up better producers. Limitations. Like not mid stat. Last year, I found it. You hold, you hold it. Hold it right now and then you wait for your moment. Travis E.N. No, 12 carries. No, it works. 12 carries inside the five that turned into two touchdowns. Oh, I remember. That's a bad. That's do-do. That's like your-Bashal-Tootenwoods seven carries turned into five. And we were talking this morning now. Yeah. We still, we got to figure out what Jacksonville is going to do in the goal. Drop smash.

goal line packages because tootin was good subbing in for a really bad et n but kraot is bigger than toton that's a fun sentence it is and i was just double checking it is what i meant to say yeah um i was going to go next i'm not going to do that because i was already laughing at what i wrote what i saw in mike's in mike's uh note here for the biggest loser of the off season mike so i'll let you take it away i'm going with r j harvey because Like, I'm factoring everything in. The, the excitement, the rise of RJ Harvey being a shocking second round pick that I don't think any of the mock drafters had. Starting to feel like a little on their board. It was Sean Payton. I'm going to be the smartest man of the room and take a player that I definitely could have gotten at least one round later, if not further on in the draft.

But he's the second round pick. He's taken by Peyton. You just have J.K. Dobbins there. All the back and forth over the off season, J.K. Dobbins was truly their main runner. RJ Harvey was just a bit player. But then, you know, Dobbins loses the season. The injury, RJ Harvey's the main guy. He's getting by with volume and some touchdowns. But in terms of, like, his advanced numbers, they were not. They're not strong numbers. Among 55 qualified running backs with 80 or more rush at times. You're trying to get it on, but it's on the new screen now, Andy. Try to hit the button. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll figure that out. We've got to get Josh back in here now. Among 55 qualified running backs with 80 or more rush attempts, he was 51st and percent of runs stuffed at the line. Stuffed 52% of the time.

49th in rush success rate, 48th in yards after contact per attempt. Like, this is not good stuff. And then, then there was all the, you know, the whispers and rumors of like, well, who else? They're in on, they were in on all the big. Breeze Hall. Yeah. The big free agent names, they were in, even though it seemed like, well, they're a shoot. They'll get J.K. Dobbins back. And then for Harvey to have to worry about Dobbins was a, that would be an issue. If you're talking Bruce Hall level of a player in. and commitment, then RJ Harvey is just, he will be a backup. Well, that didn't happen, but Dobbins is back, and I think that Dobbins is going to be the primary ball carrier yet again. The fact that there was so much smoke around the Denver Broncos running back room, then RJ Harvey's inefficiencies, and he got, like, he got the opportunity. You know, the, the worst in fantasy football is when you believe in a player and they just, you never get to see them fail.

They just, they fail not on the field. Like, that's always a bummer. But RJ Harvey had his chance there at the end of the year to, to tell the team, you don't need to add anybody else. This is RJ Harvey's backfield. That did not happen. Could you make the argument, though, that since there was definite smoke, they cared about, Sean Payton literally came out and said one of the most important positions to upgrade this offseason was running back. He named three, it was like linebacker, tight in and running back. obviously that's bad. They were going to add someone. Couldn't you make the argument that it's kind of good news that the only player they added was J.K. Dobbins off of an injury? You can. Who else are they going to add from that crop of free agent wide? They're not done. They will draft. I would make a wager that they will add someone in the draft. I don't know how strong of a draft capital pick they will use.

But that's another point of the, like, if it comes, they drafted running back in the third round. Your R.G. Harvey shares are gone. Like, your stock is cratered at that point. If you want to wait and take that bet in that dance. This is where, this is just one of the players in conversation situations where fantasy and reality are going to diverge a little bit where, like, R.J. Harvey is not such a bad player that he doesn't have a huge. impact on this team. He's going to helps the Broncos. He can catch the football. He's versatile. Like to me, it's like, you know, Kenny Gainwell is more what he is to me. A very competent, you know, versatile player, but not, none of us are sitting here going, Kenny Gainwell is going to be the lead back on a team. And I think that's the new acceptance that we're going to have to have with RJ Harvey, is that, you know, if you bring back a guy in J.K. Dobbins.

that you relied on on first and second down most often, you're going to have a vastly inconsistent fantasy production for RJ Harvey. And that's, you know, I just didn't see any plays last year when you had that opportunity. That made me go, oh my gosh, he's the dude. It's a lot like Clyde Edwards-Alair and Jonathan Taylor differential. It's sadly true to me. It's like Clyde was fine. He really was. He was like fine for Kansas City. He wasn't special for a front of talent. But when he had it, you know, the ball in the open field and stuff like that, it was like, okay, you get what's there. But it feels really insulting to RJ Harvey. It's not his fault. He got drafted right there. Right. You know, and the expectations for fantasy players were heaped upon him. Only five and a half percent of his carries went for more than 10 yards. That's what you saw. You saw that kind of, you know, okay, he got the ball. That's how it felt. But I guess I'm going.

I guess I'm going with the other side of my fantasy football winner. I got to make sure that I find the right version of this. But Michael Pittman Jr. Wide receiver won for the Pittsburgh Steelers. It is really cool that you went to a team where your name is like the team. I mean, that is awesome. Pity C. That's a win. That's a win for you. And they give him more cash. He got more money. Yeah, he's a winner for sure, just not for fantasy football. To me, he's not for fantasy. I think some people might debate it. Like, oh, he can go there and like, I just don't see it. I think we're going to have to have a new expectation for Michael Pittman. I looked at the Daniel Jones weeks last year. He was on pace for 98 catches. Michael Pittman was before the final four weeks of the year. Up until that, so one through 14, Michael Pittman was an outstanding draft pick.

If he was even drafted in your league. Seven of nine weeks, the first nine weeks, he was in the top 24, on pace for 11 touchdowns, 1,000 yards, 98 catches. We just went through an entire season of frustration with DK Metcalf's inconsistent opportunities in this offense. And we don't have an answer at quarterback that any of us are going to be happy about. If Will Howard is there, you're not making me excited about Pittman sharing with DK Metcalf. What about Ty Simpson? No. No. What about Aaron Rogers? No. No, there's not an answer. Even, oh, Kirk Cousins is now. What about Josh Allen? Okay. If they get Josh Allen. I don't know how they did it, but I'm interested. Yeah, see, now you're interested in. Yeah, if they get Josh Allen, I'm very interested. Wait, wait, wait. The quarterback? Oh, I'm out. Michael Pittman is going to settle into a wide receiver 3-4 existence.

touchdown dependent, handful of catches, very scared of the future for Michael Pittman. Have you seen when people put the list out there and they're like, they specifically show you, these are the quarterbacks that Michael Pittman has played with? I have not seen the group as a whole. Brother. Search Twitter. I bet you'll find it. Living a tough life? It is. For the level of talent that Michael Pittman is, and I'm not saying, oh, he's a top five or what. Michael Pittman is a good wide receiver. Is he living the Terry McClorian DJ Moore Life? He has had it. Okay, Kyle Founder, here we go. Carson Wentz, Jacob Eason, Sam Ellinger, Nick Folles, Matt Ryan, Anthony Richardson, Gardner, Minchew, Richardson again, Joe Flackle, Daniel Jones, Riley Leonard, Phillip Rivers. That's who Michael Pittman has played with. And now add in.

Aaron Rogers slash Will Howard. Like this man. I don't know. I don't know. I see Super Bowl MVP. I see NFL. Yeah, Nick Foll. I see NFL MVP Matt Ryan. Yeah, a Super Bowl champ. Yeah. Don't worry about the year. Aaron Rogers? First ballot Hall of Famer potentially. He just gets a bunch of quarterbacks at the wrong part of their career. It's been a tough run for Michael Pippen. And he's actually been... I'm not taking him over D.K. Metcalf and drafts. That's for sure. No? No. You'd rather have Metcalf? Yeah, I would. I will because I will not draft D.K. Metcalf. That's fine. I'm not saying I want to draft Metcalf. I'm saying if I had them both on the board, so late that I'm happy taking a Steeler wide receiver, I'd still take Metcalf just for Explosivo. But...

But maybe the right thing to do is to take the guy that's going to catch four for 41 with a chance at a touchdown instead of getting completely blanked by D.K. But yeah, those are some other names. There are a lot of other winners and losers, obviously. You know, Justin Herbert, major offensive line help, big time winner. Josh Allen getting DJ Moore, Brock Purdy getting Mike Evans. You know, Jemir Gibbs losing the Montgomery goal line situation, big time winner. Zach Charbonnet, I guess, is a winner. So far. Alec Pierce getting the bag of money. We talked about them a lot. Jefferson, we talked about. And then on the loser side, some other names. I mean, Malik Willis just suddenly has no one to throw two. Hmm. Yeah. I see Drake May. Drake May on. What? Is that from pivoting from to Diggs to Dobbs?

Yeah, I think that's not a, that's not a, that's lateral at worst. I, it's lateral. I think it's more like a disappointment over not getting like, you know, they, something happened on the back wall? Yeah, what just happened? Let's see. What? Oh, animations. And then we, and then we smoke bomb. Oh, yeah, we disappeared. It's just, you know, there were the rumors that they were going to get one of these big wide receiver names. They still could. Yeah. But there's, there's other, Khalil Shakir. I think is a... There were rumors? Big loser. Oh, it doesn't work when I push it! It works when you push it! I'll get that patched up. Uh-huh. Sorry, I cut you off there for the effect, for the special effect. Breece Hall. Big loser. Only because I love Breece Hall and... Breece did nothing. No, he did nothing. You know what? You know what? He actually did? He was too good. That's true. He was too good.

The team was like, we're going, we have the ability to not let you go test the market. We're going to keep you. That is so sad. It's rude. It is. It is. So all right. I think that's going to do it for today's episode of the show. Thank you for joining us. We'll be back with another episode on Thursday. And it'll probably be, it'll probably be okay. Who knows what graphics will have by then? Could be a good one. So shout out to everyone but Matt. Appreciate y'all. 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 theFF ballers.