NFC East Breakdown, Josh Doctson, August Hype!

He can't be what he was this past year. That was peak Alex Smith. But his coach is Jay Gruden. Jay Gruden is invested a lot into Alex Smith. They turned away, who Minnesota saw as a franchise quarterback of Kirk Cousins, who was pretty solid for your team. And he put everything, including a massive extension, into Alex Smith. In the past...

Six years, quarterbacks playing for Jay Gruden. Five of those years, he has had a quarterback one, including three top five finishes, two from cousins, one from Andy Dalton. Andy Dalton was a quarterback won twice under Jay Gruden. Please do not forget this. So Alex Smith is quickly becoming one of my...

Late round. If I have missed out on some of my faves in that 10th, 11th round, I'm just going to wait forever. I'm going to grab Alex Smith because it will not shock me at all if Alex Smith once again turns into a weekly starter. And one of the sneaky things with that, if you look over the past, is that they do manufacture a few rushing touchdowns for the quarterback. Think about how many rushing touchdowns Andy Dalton and her cousins had in those systems. And Smith can run.

can run. So the rushing baseline, I think he is one of the best super late. If you're in a two-quarterback league, Alex Smith is a perfect. One quarterback. I'm putting it on the board. I'm fine with that. If that's the guy you want to target, because if you're in a single quarterback league, he's the 19th quarterback taken off the board, meaning he's not taken off the board. You just grab him with your last pick, and he is an absolutely fine starter.

to start the year. He won me a dynasty championship last year on the back of that productive season. And the thing is, in Washington, if you're looking at what he did to get those bonus yards, yards after catch from the running back position, you have weapons and tools there in Washington and Chris Thompson and potentially Darius Geis to get you some of those yards that he needs to be relevant. Let's talk about Darius Geis, Mike. You are a monster Darius Geis fan.

I love Darius Guys. I love the opportunity. I love the talent. In college, he was prolific, right? He was, he's one of the best college running backs in history. And look, Jay Gruden, I think he believes in Darius Geis is a workload type of player. Yeah, I agree with that. It's all projection, of course, because Darius Geis has not taken a real NFL snap. But.

Washington, they love to run the ball. They actually have a good offensive line. This is a thing that should not be forgotten. How many injuries that they suffered on the offensive line, it was out of control. And I talked about him just a couple years ago, or a couple shows ago, how I think that Geis is, he's my pick for a player outside of the top 10 that could finish as the number one running back. Workload will be there. You're talking.

250 carries. If he can be in that 35 reception area, then he is easily a top five running back to me. The goal line attempts will be there. And he will be the guy. They gave a bunch of goal line carries to Robert Kelly and Samadjai P. Ryan this past season. They just couldn't get it done. That's why they spent a second round pick on Jerry Skies. One of the things about Jay Gruden that I love is that...

even when he has an obvious, I mean, like Rob Kelly, nobody's out there saying he's a super athlete, right? Jay Gruden, regardless of what he has in the backfield, whether it's a guy off the street. Because last year, they had so many injuries that they even brought on a practice squad running back. He is relentless with his commitment to the running game and what he believes is required to win a football game in the NFL. He does not want...

a running back that's going to put the football on the ground. He does not want a quarterback that is going to take chances with turnovers. He believes in winning the turnover battle, and he believes in a reliance on the run. Geis has to prove it, right? Guys has to earn it and prove it, but I think he's going to have every opportunity to do that. Jason, unless you want to weigh in there, I want to ask you a follow-up question. Well, I do want to weigh in very quickly just that, you know, I've thrown a lot of shade on Darius Geis because of the past catching.

And I don't want that to be interpreted that I think Darius Geis is going to be a bust or not be valuable. Because I actually think Darius Geis will be an extremely valuable running back this year, a la Alfred Morris. I completely stand by. He's not going to be more than 35 receptions. I mean, Chris Thompson got. Was that where you guys water bet, 35? I don't know. It was either 35 or 40. You guys water bet on the reception total for guys. And I stand by. He's not going to be used in the passing game. But I also don't think he had. I mean, Alfred Morris was a top 10 back.

in this system and he caught like, you know, eight balls. But if you look at the last three years, eight balls caught him. Yes. If you look at the last three years, you know, their big workhorse backs have never hit the 30 mark. And I'm combining people when I do that. I'm saying Somaget P. Rine plus Rob Kelly did not, you know, last year they had 26 receptions. Matt Kelly and Rob, Rob Kelly and Matt Jones had 20 total receptions.

And that's with Chris Thompson being injured for part of last year. But I do think Geis is a quality back. Okay. Here's a follow-up question. If Josh Doxton, if this injury is serious enough to cost him time in the regular season, you are running to draft who in this offense? Is it Jordan Reed earlier than he's going? Is it Jameson Crowder and that rapport with Alex Smith who loves and is very accurate in those intermediate?

shorter routes. Is it Paul Richardson who they invested money in? Now, look, last year they invested money in Terrell prior. That did not pan out. Right. Paul Richardson got paid a $5-year $40 million deal. Who are you running to grab in Washington as a pass catcher if indeed Doxon kind of takes some of the muddiness out of that situation? It would be Jordan Reed for me. A good friend of the show, Scott Barrett, from Pro Football Focus. He's been talking about how.

excuse me, how his tight-end strategy is Jordan Reed and Vernon Davis. It's not a bad strap. Good friend of Alex Smith, if you recall Vernon Davis had a couple years being in. Good friend to fantasy owners in those years. And Vernon Davis still got it done last year when he was called upon. So between those two guys, I think you have you have top five upside when it comes to the tight end position.

especially if Josh Doxon goes down. And I'm saying this because Josh Doxon is a humongous man with an incredible vertical. He is a ultra-dynamic, red zone, end-zone type of weapon. And Jordan Reed can make some serious money there. So if there is one fewer player of competition for him to get end-zone targets...

That's where I'm going to go. You know, I love the strategy, but for me it would be Paul Richardson because then you've got one big tall outside field stretching option in Paul Richardson. And I would vote Jameson Crowder. I think he's an elite talent over the back half of the year. Also, Paul Richardson is only six feet tall just so you know. Fair. But it's pretty good for a wide receiver. If you call me tall, then Paul Richardson is a tall receiver. Defensive backs are generally shorter.

True. Six foot is not, that's a, that's a large size wide receiver. That's a good size wide receiver. It's got what, four, four speed? Larry Fitzgerald looks like a giant out there and he's six to. That's all I'm saying. Let's move on. Giants. All right, let's talk about the giants. Jason has them, what, undefeated? Going to the Super Bowl. Look, I've put it out there before. Got the E.I. Manning tattoo on your wall, the Jonathan Stewart tattoo? I believe that the Giants are a.

Good team. I think they are going to be a contending team, definitely in playoff contention this year. I think this whole division is okay. I'm not huge on Dallas or the Redskins, but the Giants had a huge problem with their offensive play calling ever since McAdoo took over the head coach role. They've just been atrocious in that front. Now, with Pat Schumer and Mike Shula, I think they've got great minds. Plus, the health.

I mean, they had no wide receivers last year. Right. Now you've got a great core. You add Saquan to that. And I think that the defense is not as bad as it seemed last year due to the horrific offense. So I do think there's a huge bounce back here for the Giants. I have been very, I've been thinking long and hard about my approach to Saquan Barclay this year because there's part of me that believes that Saquan Barclay could be the number one.

Running back in fantasy football. The involvement, the guaranteed involvement in the passing game, heading into the season, the otherworldly talent, the fact that they invested what? At the time, they brought in Nate Solder with the most expensive offensive line contract in history, and then they drafted Will Hernandez. The offensive line is going to be improved. Saquan Barkley, to me, represents this kind of...

wild card potential of being, you know, do I, if I have a top pick in a fantasy draft right now, do I want to trade down to three, four, five, six, and just draft Sequin Barclay for that value over Alvin Camara? I don't know if I want to do that. I'm starting to think about doing that because of what I believe Saquan Barclay means to this offense. They spent so much of this never before draft capital where you could have drafted a quarterback to come in.

and replace a 37-year-old in a couple years. And they said, no, Sequin is our guy. And what? Last year, Kreme Hunt, rookie, led the league in rushing. The year before, Ezekiel Elliott was a rookie, led the league in rushing. Barclay could do it for the third straight year. Yeah, 100% he could. The past catching is fantastic, his past catching ability. No one on that team can get him off the field. He will take breaks. He's going to be the goal line.

Yes. He's going to be the past catcher. He better. So what we're saying is he better speaking directly to New York. If Seguan Barkley is not all of these things and you spent the number two pick on him, then you made an egregious mistake. Yeah. No doubt about it. And the nice thing is it's not like Jonathan Stewart will have efficiency. No. In those locations that are going to take them off the field. The greatest value, the best value on New York's offense fantasy-wise is.

Who? If we're only talking value... That is what I said. Then I think it's Sterling Shepard. I think Sterling Shepard is a great receiver in real life for the NFL. And I think that will translate to plenty of fantasy points as, you know, you've got a double or triple or quadruple, O'Dell Beckham, do whatever you can to try to contain him. And Sterling Shepard will have the ability to have big fantasy games. And he is basically free. Double-digit rounds.

you know, it's not going to cost you a lot in the draft. So I think he will outperform where he's being drafted. Mike, I say the best value is Eli Manning. Okay. On the Giants, if Sequin Barclay is finishing as the running back one, if Odo Beckham is finishing as a top five wide receiver, then Eli Engram is finishing as a top five wide receiver, then Eli Manning certainly has to outproduce his draft price. Evan Ingram finishes with fewer?

Or more fantasy points in 2018 than he had in 2017. Ooh. And you guys can both weigh in. Good question. Good question. He finishes with fewer. Yeah. I lean the way of fewer, but a reminder of what he did with the amount of targets granted by necessity, Odo Beckham was out, Brandon Marshall was out, Sterling Shepard was in and out. The amount of targets that he got for a rookie tight end.

since the year 2000 has only been seen by Jeremy Shockey. One player in the history of the NFL since the year 2000 has done what Evan Engram was able to do. And that was his rookie year. So a lot of people are talking about, okay, well, regression, opportunity regression. How about the player gets better? Right. His sophomore year. I mean, he had one of the worst catch percentages at the tight end position. Fine. Take targets away.

improve his actual catch percentage. And then Evan Engram is still the same fantasy player. He's a mismatch in the routes that Eli Manning throws well as well. He's Jordan Reed. We're going to circle back to Josh Doxon here. We had the opportunity to interview him at the NFFC. Now, if Brooks had been really on top of his game today, he would have strategically placed the Giants ahead of the Redskins in our NFCE's breakdown so that we could just seamlessly transition into the Josh Doxon interview.

No, Brooks. Brooks did the right thing here because he made a Josh Doxon sandwich. And before the news, that's not a sandwich I want to eat. Technically, this would be a Giants sandwich. And Josh Doxon is merely the bread. Yeah. You've never heard of a Kaiser sandwich, a sourdough sandwich? Is that where the meat's on the outside and there's one piece of sourdough on the inside? It means I put butter in the middle.