QB & RB Rookie Preview + Nerd Sheets - Fantasy Football Podcast for 4/2

Oh, we've been looking forward to this show for a long time. The rookie previews on today's episode, quarterbacks and running backs. We break it all down. Do not miss a minute. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Tuesday, April 2nd, the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Mike, the Fantasy Hitman Wright is here. Yep.

Jason Moore, he made it in. What a do. I'm Andy Holloway. We're jumping into rookie previews on the show today, quarterbacks, running backs, getting you ready for the draft, which is just 23 days away. This is one of the most fun times of the year for me, the pre-NFL draft. talking about incoming rookies before they've got landing spots. I really enjoy it. I like learning the new players and teaching the new players. Teaching. That's what we're doing. Our listeners about them. Yes, exactly. They don't attend a class where you're a professor. They're here now. It sounded very much like you were offering them. I thought all the rookies showed up at like a special place in time. Right. And I teach them. Fantasy value? Yes. How to produce. You need to catch the ball.

Okay, I don't care what your coach says. You go in there and you tell them, I need to catch the ball. If you're running back and you don't have good hands, you get good hands. That's right. I mean, that's what their coaches should be saying. You never coached Jordan Howard the way you should have. 23 days until the NFL draft, we have really big things planned. I will leave it at that. We're going to have a lot of fun with the NFL draft as it pertains to fantasy football. And you can check out. Our pride and joy. The Ultimate Draft Kit at Ultimate DraftKit.com. That includes our tier-based rankings, all of our premium stat projections. It will include over 100 video player profiles, cheat sheets, sleepers, breakouts, busts and values, all of that stuff. And if you get the UDK Plus, you also enjoy the Dynasty Pass, as well as the draft analyzer. So once you do draft, we will break down your team, give it a grade, strengths and weaknesses.

And we include the Ultimate DFS pass as well if you play any DFS. So all of that you can check out at Ultimate DraftKit.com. I encourage you to do it now, not later, because pre-order pricing will end when it comes out on June 1st. And it gives you more time to check out all these rookies even before the NFL draft. All right, Instagram question for our quick question of the day. Dave writes in and says with so many free agent shakeups. How do you even go about trying to decide who will be relevant this year? So Dave is feeling the swirl. A lot of players went into the – This year was wild. Went into the dryer and they got all mixed up and came out with different jerseys. Yeah, and some of the – it turns out someone put a red shirt in the wash. So now all these players come out with different color. With pink shirts? Yeah, with pink shirts on.

I mean, you know, how do we try to go about deciding who will be relevant this year? The try to go about the process, if that's what the question is. You know, we've talked about this every year, but it's really we, for the ultimate draft kit, we stat these guys out. We wait until after the draft is done, the free agency shakeup has happened. And then we go team by team and actually try to look at every depth chart. history, coaching, you know, change and coaching history. And then we stat out the entire team front to back players who aren't going to be drafted and players who are. And then it kind of, it's nice because in the end of that, it takes a lot of bias out. Like this time of year, we have, we've got a lot of experience. We've got a lot of history to like make our calculated, you know, guesses, you know, hypothesize who's going to be best. But then it really formulates.

into a much more solidified ranking that even surprises ourselves sometimes when we go through that process. So I would say how do we go about trying to decide who will be relevant? Stat out every single player in the NFL. You begin the offseason with a laundry list page after page of questions. And you get answers throughout the free agent period. You get answers in terms of what kind of money is invested. Players that are extended like their contracts. We've been joking about my dynasty team that is old, right? But you get answers like Tyler Lockett getting reworked to extend him. Rahim Moster recently reworked deal to give him an extra year. Mike Evans coming back. Like there are answers to be found in the ways team spend money. They also kind of illustrate what their plans are for the draft if they bring certain players back. So it's a process. Like Jason said, you don't.

decide on April 1st or April 2nd who's relevant. You get the clues and you wait for the draft and then you continue to stat out those players like Jason said. So anything to add, Mike? Nope. That covered it. Nor is he interested to add any. No, nope. I can talk to talk, but I have nothing to add there. Okay. Yeah. That's fine. Can we move on though? Nope. Oh, no. News and notes from around the league. Well, I just mentioned it, but the Dolphins signed Rahim Moser to what amounts to a one-year contract extension. But that puts him under contract through 2025. Apparently he's ageless. He will be 32. It would have been his last year on the current deal. And so they gave him an extra year. And he will be very fantasy relevant for fantasy football. And he'll be a good value because he is so old.

and he's not the new hotness. Devon A. Chan will take more work away. And so people don't want to be holding the bag on the old running backs, but he will be absolutely fine this year. To be clear, he was the old hotness last year. Yes, yes, he was. But my point is, like, he'll be a value in drafts this year for sure. He should be drafted higher than wherever he is being drafted. Mike, I want to get your reaction. Jeremy Fowler reporting the Cowboys and Zeke. Mutual interest in a return. Are you interested? Do you join them in this interest? No. No, I do not. I mean, I guess for fantasy football, you have to. You know, Rico Dowdle will be back. And if the room is Dowdle and Ezekiel Elliott, then we're going to have some mucky muck to wade through because Zeke, he had a couple games there at the end of last year where he was relevant basically because.

He was everything for the New England Patriots. But like the advanced stats, at least that I've seen on Zeke, you know, from last year, they match up with what you saw was it. This is an older running back. This is an older running back who is not anywhere close to the sensation that when he was drafted. But if he's on the Cowboys, again, with Dowdle, tremendous offense, going to score a bunch of touchdowns. So you should have. interest there but it feels like he would he would shape up to be like a dead zone running back and that's the the probability is not great there was a little bit of mutual interest even last year before zeke found a landing spot it came out like oh they're not opposed to bringing him back and they didn't i would expect and of course this is when the breaking news is going to happen that they just immediately sign him but i would expect them to wait until after the draft see how that goes because right now the expectation is

they're going to get their starting running back in the draft. He may want to wait as well, guaranteed playing time and things like that. We are recording this episode of the podcast in the afternoon of April 1st. But the latest information we have here is Rashi Rice. That situation, I'm mentioning when we're recording in case more information comes out. Right. But the Dallas Morning News reporting that Rashi Rice is wanted in connection with a major car accident. There's all this video out there now showing this multi-car freeway. Freeway pile up. And Rashi Rice is wanted in connection with that accident. We don't know anything else. We don't know if he was driving. All we know is that one of the vehicles involved that I believe fled the scene.

was leased or licensed to Rashi Rice. Not good. I mean, it's not a story you want to hear. No. There's, again, there's not a ton we can report on here, but it's a bad look. It's a really, really bad look right now. And it could end up being a very significant situation. Yeah, it could. So you need to be aware of that. But we don't know much more than what's being reported as of right now. Any other big news to report? No, sir? No, okay. Let's do it. Hi, rookie. Welcome to the NFL. All right, it is time to preview the 2024 rookie class. Today we're going to focus on the quarterbacks and the running backs. We will cover the wide receivers and tight ends on the Thursday episode. We will also have some draft predictions on that show. And this is kind of an overview.

A look into the higher level. Yeah, the things that we liked about these players in the scouting process, things we didn't like, fantasy implications and thoughts. Maybe we'll meander down the draft order a little bit with some of these guys and where we think they could land. But starting at the quarterback position, you have teams with major needs. Obviously, Chicago with the first pick in the draft. They just got rid of their quarterback. We know what they're doing. But Washington at two, New England at three, Minnesota. I believe they pick at 11, right? Denver. Denver's at 12. And then Las Vegas is in the mix to move up or pursue a quarterback because they have Gardner right now and Nathan O'Connell. So those are the premium destinations in terms of need. Doesn't mean it's the best place for these players to arrive. But yeah, this is going to be more of an overview. And if you really, like, you're so thirsty and you want to dig in deep and you want to go in depth on every.

one of these players to a much greater degree. All of these prospects have been previewed on the Dynasty podcast. And so you can check that out. And then obviously the Dynasty Pass itself, which is part of the ultimate draft kit, has production profiles, rookie mock drafts, risers and fallers, and more detailed information on the site as well. But we'll start with the man of the hour, Caleb Williams, undoubtedly the number one pick in the upcoming draft. He was a junior at USC when he declared had a much better sophomore season statistically than his junior year. Frequently made the sports center type of plays. Didn't throw a lot of interceptions. Nope. Very evasive in terms of extending plays. Great arm. What were your impressions on Caleb Williams? And let's translate that into how you think he might make an impact in year one and moving forward.

I'll jump in. I mean, he looks like a pro-ready quarterback is kind of just the easiest analysis to give him. He's going to be the first overall pick. And I had, if you've been listening to the Dynasty Pod and I'm talking about these quarterbacks, you know, I've been kind of hesitant to be really ready for Caleb Williams for fantasy purposes because I'm still going to. For year one or in general? For year one. Because I'm still going to bet against rookie quarterbacks. I know C.J. Stroud was incredible. But we'll see. I would need more of those true guys to have a breakout for me to be more in. But the Keenan Allen trade really changed how I'm thinking about Caleb Williams to be on a roster that you have two number one wide receivers already. And there is a chance that.

with their other top 10 pick, the Chicago Bears, are in the market for another wide receiver. That's been floated a decent amount. We'll see if that actually happens. But either situation, now that you have DJ Moore and Keenan, and the Chicago Bears, if you remember over last year, they were getting better over the second half of the season. So I'm very interested in Caleb Williams because he has the guys, you know, the rushing production. It's not that he can't move. But that's not like his calling card by any means. This isn't Jaden Daniels. The next guy will highlight. So you're not really looking at that. Last week we had a show I brought up about the top 12 best fantasy seasons. The majority of them guys are doing things with their legs. But if Caleb Williams really has these weapons at his possession, I think he will be a very interesting quarterback, not only for dynasty, but for redraft to

Just take a shot late and see if he has that Stroud magic. Yeah, he's good. There's a reason he's going to be the number one pick. And if you go back over the last decade and there's always, oh, this is the best player since Andrew Luck. This is the best player since Trevor Lawrence. There's always that dominant one every few years. And I know we weren't quite as, I mean, Trevor Lawrence had all the, you know, the traits. Right. But he wasn't one of those guys we fawned over. To me, Caleb Williams is worthy of that hype. Like when I watch, I'm like, this guy can do some special things that not many other people can do. The numbers were down a little bit this last year, but he also played two fewer games. So on a per game basis, still down a little bit, but he had a good season. And when I watch the film, I'm like, yeah, I totally get it. This is a good quarterback draft class, and he is in a tier of his own.

Kyler finished his rookie year at 7, Herbert at 9, Stroud at 11. Those are kind of the highlight rookies of the last four years. If you had to put Caleb Williams into a box right now, is it 15? Yeah, that's 12 to 15? I would say more like 15 to 18. If you're talking just 24 fantasy finished, Mike's right, he's not a, like we're going to talk about Jaden Daniels, who's. legs are a calling card. Caleb Williams can scramble. There's a lot of, you know, people are saying, oh, his comp is like Patrick Mahomes. And I get why that there is only one Patrick Mahomes, who I think is probably going to end as the greatest quarterback of all time by the end of his career. But you see some of those like, you know,

the creativity, the scrambling, the buying time, and then having a rock of arm to do stuff. But he's got the same mobility to me that Mahomes has. Which is, in all of his full seasons, he averages 321 rushing yards a game. And I think, wow, 320 rushing yards a game. On average? On average, 320 yards, which boosts his numbers. Just a little bit. Yeah, and I think that that's kind of around what I will project for Caleb Williams. He's, you know, he had 382 in his sophomore year. and they do count sacks against you in college. So I think Caleb Williams will not be a pure pocket passer that's, you know, scrambling for 50 yards a year. All right. We're going to take a quick break and come back with a discussion on Jaden Daniels. All right. As we maintain our run through the quarterback previews here, Jaden Daniels from LSU, via ASU, was a senior.

Took him a while to get going and have that opportunity. The transfer made a big difference. He was outstanding. 40 touchdowns. Four interceptions. Super duper senior. He's a five-year player. Yeah. He had been there for a long time. He's 23 years old. And, you know, dual threat to me still the weight concerns me tremendously for the types of things he wants to try to do with his legs. I do worry about injury with him. He also evolved his, you know, I watched him a lot at ASU, but that last year at LSU was a very different story. Yeah, you were before really watching the tape on the, on him as an LSU year. I thought I knew enough about it. Yeah, you were like out on Jaden Daniels because you watched a couple years at ASU and you're like, this dude's not it. That's right. Yeah, I mean, just not a player you see transferring into the NFL game.

and having consistent success. He definitely profiled to me as a backup NFL quarterback, but he had an incredible year and it was well deserving of the Heisman and everything he did at LSU. Everything he did that final year was super impressive. Fantasy football wise, this is a star prospect because you're talking about 3,800 passing yards with 40 passing touchdowns. If that's all you do, That's incredible. You're a high draft pick. He added 1,100 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns. He is outstanding on the ground. He's a lot faster than, I guess, players around him think because he's always... He's always beating the first and second guys getting out into open space and they're getting clobbered out the open. He is not as strong as he thinks that. No, dude, this guy's going to be the first decapitated NFL player because he gets to the outside, beats a man, cuts, and just you think he's gone to the house. And then it's always he doesn't see the safety or someone that just comes to blow him up.

I've never seen someone take such blind downfield hits as Jaden Daniels. Yeah. That is a concern. It is definitely a concern that he will have to work on. The other concern is he is already over the age of 23. You would prefer that your franchise quarterbacks had some dominance at a younger age. Again, a five-year player. And the jump, his 2022 season. statistically for LSU it's not like it's a it's not an awful season but 2,900 yards 17 passing touchdowns almost 900 yards on the ground it's just wild because Burrow did the same thing in LSU made the jump in one year to go from that to the numbers for the next year are I mean it's it's how do you want to look at life this how much water is in the glass because it is this just completely fluky that he had

a magical season. He's got, you know, some, he's got some weapons. He's got a wide receiver that is almost certainly a top, what, six pick or so? And then the other wide receiver he had, it's very Joe Burroughs because Brian Thomas, by all the smoke of the NFL draft community, he will be a first round wide receiver. So that, those are the red alarms if you want to be concerned about Jay. Here's what's crazy to me. is that he profiles to me and statistically what he did in college being a senior, his size, his stats, and maybe the team he's drafted by. But Robert Griffin III is a very similar situation with what he did. RG3 jumped.

in his senior year to a huge touchdown total. He only ran for like 700 yards. I mean, this was a bigger year for Jane Daniels, and he went number two to Washington. Yeah, and RG3, I still think would have had a great career. He was on his way to being a superstar NFL quarterback before being injured out of the league. Over and over again. And this, honestly, it seems like that could be a comp here. So that's the work. That is a fear for Jane Daniels. But I do think that when he's on the field, I would bet on him over everyone else in this draft class to score the most fantasy points while he's on the field. There you go. But also very, you know, we've seen it with Justin Fields. He scores a lot of fantasy points when he's on the field, but then the NFL's like, yeah, but you don't win enough games. Get off the field. Get off the field. I don't know that I look at Jayden Daniels as a guaranteed prospect, but when he's on the field, he'll score a lot of fantasy points. Drake May.

What were your impressions watching Drake May film three years at North Carolina? Really, two. I mean, really a sophomore. Were you impressed? He is, I think, a fascinating prospect. I mean, he's still young, essentially two years as a starter in college. And he does something, he has incredible moments where. He had, like, physically he is very gifted. Like, he has a rocket ship for an arm. He can move around. Like, Drake May won't give you Jane Daniels numbers on the ground, but Drake May is willing to run almost 700 rushing yards in that first year as a true starter, about 450 this past year and two fewer games. So he has, he'll give you, you know, just a little bit of a cushion with some rushing points. But then he follows up.

Like Daniel Jones? He follows up, yeah, Daniel Jones. Is that fair? For the amount of rushing you would expect where you'll just, you'll be, he'll give you nothing. And then the next game all of a sudden you'll have, oh, I got 60 rushing yards from Drake May. That's interesting. But he'll follow up greatness with real head scratching decisions. So he is still a, he is a prospect who needs to have a stable coaching staff around who can get the best out of him. Because if he goes, Like if he's just surrounded by a bad situation, I think that his odds are failing. But his ceiling is that if it all works out, he could be incredible. Jason, he was a lot like Caleb Williams in the respect that last year, 38 touchdown, seven interceptions. The numbers came down a little on two fewer games. So the per game came down a little. What about you? So.

I think Drake May is a great prospect. If I was a GM, I'd be all about him. He is the prototypical, you know, you're not afraid of size here. 6-4-223. He's a big athletic quarterback. You can use him on all the scrambles. You could try to push with him. You know, this is a guy who had nine rushing touchdowns last year. Is that more Josh Allen than Daniel Jones then? I think it is closer there, but it's kind of between those two guys. He's like, if you took those two guys and put them together, that's kind of my expectation for where Drake May comes out, which is very good for fantasy. He's going to have enough rushing yardage and enough rushing touchdowns down near the goal line that he will be very fantasy relevant. The question is whether he can be consistent with this. You know, you see some, like Mike said, some.

head scratching plays, but he's also very young. He's 21 years old right now. And that's really good. The old quarterbacks, Kyle isn't with us today. If he was here, he would want us to rant on how unsuccessful old quarterbacks being drafted are. And there are three of them here we're talking about that are pretty old being in 23. I'm just, I'm wondering if him not being with us sounded like maybe he had passed on. He's just not here today. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah, I think, you know, one interesting fact, May led all quarterbacks in throws between the hashes in terms of PFF grade. Like you said, big arm competitor. J.J. McCarthy, the last of the Fab 4, I would say, being talked about at the very top of the draft. National champion at Michigan in his junior season. The numbers weren't, you know, prolific or out of this world, but he.

executed an NFL style offense and led them to a championship. Very young breakout age, still very young, 21 years old. He's a winner. Yeah, he's also just a very accurate pastor. I think, Mike, you mentioned Brock Purdy's name earlier. Technically sound. Because J.J. McCarthy has really been rising, at least in the terms of the court of public opinion. J.J. McCarthy has gone from essentially, like, early on the process. This is a solid second round pick. And then he, oh, don't be surprised if J.J. McCarthy sneaks into the first round. And now it's, there's a lot of smoke J.J. McCarthy on number two overall. And it's like, whoa. Okay, we've gone from the second round to the number two overall pick. But watching J.J. McCarthy, I think he's good. The numbers.

Andy was talking about they aren't prolific. You have just under 3,000 passing yards, 22 passing touchdowns. We know how they ran their football there. But that exactly. Compared to Drake May, he threw the ball a hundred fewer times in three more games. Yeah, that's wild. So he didn't, the offense was so different. It ran on the ground. It was very high T up there for, for a hardball. I think McCarthy's good. I think if you have. I don't know that he is a like a franchise changing player where you can put him in and then everything builds around him. But if you're missing a QB, like if JJ McCarthy went to Minnesota, I think that would be an incredible move. Minnesota at 11, Denver at 12, Bears, commanders, Patriots, all in the mix. Giants could be in the mix. When you think of those first four names and destinations like,

How impactful is that going to be for you? Because these are all teams that lost a lot of football games. You know, how much better do you think Washington is than New England? Or how much better do you think the giant situation might be than, I don't know, Denver or something or vice versa? Yeah, I mean, when you look at Denver and New England, those are scarier landing spots, I think, from like a weapons perspective. Even with Peyton, though? Peyton is nice to just have, like, confidence that you've got a good coach. But as far as, like, 2024, you know, rookie year value. It's going to be really hard for me to see fantasy relevance with those receivers if someone like J.J. McCarthy goes there because J.J. McCarthy, he's athletic. He's very good at throwing on the run, but he's not using his athleticism to get downfield, get a bunch of rushing yardage and a ton of rushing touchdowns in the NFL. I don't see that as his path towards fantasy points. So it really will be.