Free Agent Frenzy! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 3/12

An absolutely insane day of free agency signings that continues even live on today's show. Don't miss a minute as we break down the biggest signings, the fantasy implications, and pretty much go crazy with you. Enjoy. To the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. It's Tuesday, March 12th. We're the fantasy footballers.

Welcome to the show. The cardboard bear you see is not Jason Moore. He is not with us. Too much free agency. Too much. He decided he just wasn't ready to talk about it. That's right. He just wanted to tweet about Justin Fields and then be, you know, subbed in for it by a big bear. I did see you guys talking because I see everything right now. I am plugged in. I am Neo right now, man. I was unsafe driving yesterday. Whoa, whoa. I was. Allegedly. Allegedly. We were, we knew. It was not the place to proclaim your crimes. I don't know if I committed any crimes. I mean, is that a crime to come down a mountain traveling with your children checking Twitter? Some would say. Some would say it's not. Some would those being the police, but.

You know, if, if someone did that. If it's on a mount and I'm just refreshing it. I'm not, I don't have it in my hand. I don't have it in my hand. That's, I don't know what I mean. Yeah. Because that's what it was. I mean, I was. You did it as safe as you possibly could. My car's got, you know, got some automation for moments like this. But no, look, this is the show you all want to hear. And we did not record it yesterday because we knew. We knew that that would. Short change everybody. We've done that before and you're like, man, it's going to be great. You get to the show, you're like, two people have signed a contract yesterday and even this morning, pure pandemonium. It is fabulous. Frenzy of frenzies. Yeah, it's great. Absolute madness. I mean, it's not an understatement to say, like, if you weren't a part of yesterday, you legit don't know who's playing for who. I mean, there are so many.

changing teams, changing faces, and huge implications. Like we're going to go through it all on today's show. Mike and I are going to break it down are raw reactions to these moves. And I will say this at the top, like you don't have to have it all figured out like today on March 12th in terms of how every single backfield is going to play out guaranteed. We're not even to the draft yet. There's more free agents that. News may break in the middle of today's show. I mean, I'm driving into work this morning in the Joe Nixon news breaks. I'm sitting in my seat to hit record in Darnell. The second part. Yeah, the second part of the Nixon news. Because Joe Nixon already had news yesterday. Darnell Mooney found a new team while we were getting ready to hit record. So there will be more news. And there will be more players drafted. And we will have a better picture. So we'll give you our reactions today. We'll let you know what happened if you didn't pay attention to.

Twitter every four seconds yesterday. Congratulations for your mental health. Yeah. Yeah, it was not like our family has spring break with the kids, so we decided to take one extra day on the weekend knowing we recorded this morning. That was just not, it was not the right decision. Because I woke up yesterday going, this is just such a huge day for fantasy. That's all I was paying attention to. I told you. I was in the Matrix yesterday. Yeah. Yeah, I don't blame you. I mean, it was crazy. But our team is all over it. We've got the ultimate draft kit, the dynasty pass. The updates have been constant, and they will continue to be. Free agency is tons of fun. I mean, this is, the musical chairs at running back. I do laugh at it because there are several situations now, Mike, where I don't think that these were, I think they're neutral. Like, like, you lose one guy.

And you get another guy and I think it's the same thing. But different names, right? Yeah. The NFC North in particular is, it reminds me a lot of, you know, like the high school relationships where one couple breaks up and then like. They get back at the other one? Well, no, it's like that dude's best friend. Now he's dating the ex. Oh, yeah. This girl's best. They all date each other? Yeah. And you're just like, no, this is totally normal. This is what we do. Yeah, it's crazy. Okay. So the Dynasty Pass part of the UDK Plus, go to Ultimate DraftGit.com to pick that up. You can get the mobile app and stay up to date with the news, stay up to date with what's happening in free agency, all the dynasty rankings. I even got a little bit thirsty with all the Twitter news and I started firing out Dynasty trade offers all weekend. Like it's getting me in the mood, Mike. The mood to trade. No takers, though. No, you haven't found one yet? No, and you won't reply to mine.

So you're just leaving it. I told you. I was busy. Yeah, for two weeks? Two weeks is too long. I was, uh, that's my bad. Deucer's alley. No, I agree. Deucer's alley. Two weeks too long? Yeah, two weeks is too long. All right. Just saying. It probably expired by now. I don't know. I don't know if I resent it, but. You did here. I got you declined. Yeah. Thanks. That's, see, that's not okay. Yeah. Don't push me. The fantasy hitman has rejected the tray. You only. Give you more time. You needed more time. That sucks so bad. Fine. All right. Anything else at the top here, Brooks, before we jump into all this free agency madness? Let's go. Free agent frenzy. We don't have a big agenda for today's show other than to talk about everything we can talk about. And then there'll be another show later this week. We'll talk about more of it. Just reacted. But.

I forced the crew to move the running backs to the top of the list today, so we're going to start there. Running bags. I will say, just judging by the actions of yesterday and today, because that's what we say. Part of the fantasy football process is careful what the talking snakes will say with their mouth. Look at their actions, see what they are doing. And yesterday was running backs. running like I think the first news out the gate was running backs and then like that became the story of the day to me saying the these teams are not seeing a lot of true backup plans in the NFL drafts of looking at the running back crew that's coming in like no we would rather give some of these players a contract we that last year we would not have given these players and the wide receivers are slower to get they're going to get their money but it's

It's slower because there's a lot of options in the draft. I completely agree. We said it on the show a couple weeks ago. We thought that this might be the case. There's four or five running backs in the NFL draft. We don't know which one's going to go first. We don't know whether even a running back will go in the first two rounds. It's probably not going to happen. And so you have value out there on the free agent market. And you've got big names like Sequin Barclay and Josh Jacobs who have been already franchise tagged and have done the dance.

So let's start with Saquan. That's the biggest news of the day. Saquan Barclay. Boy, I thought they were going to make a splash. I just thought it was going to be Derek Henry. But the Philadelphia Eagles go all in on Saquan Barclay, three years, $37.75 million. Could be worth up to $46 million. 26 guaranteed. He's 27 years old. Here we go. I think the first reaction is Saquan behind an offensive line. What would that be like? It's going to be fun from Pro Football Focus. 30th ranked run blocking unit last year to the third. Now, of course, that offensive line does lose Jason Kelsey, but it has been something that the Philadelphia Eagles have been able to figure out, you know, at least in recent memory. When you think of the Eagles, you think of a strong offensive line, and you think of DeAndre Swift's success where, we'll talk about Swift in a little bit because he got himself a bag of money too, but it was.

When you would watch Swift versus Kenneth Gainwell, it was because Swift was fast. The Eagles could create a truly sizable lane to run through, and Swift was fast enough to get to it. And I think that's what they are really hoping, that Sequin Barclay still has the juice. And of course, he's a three-down running back, which there was a report floated out there. This was shocking for the Eagles to spend this much at the running back position. But, you know, saying, hey, we're looking for, it'll be nice to have someone like LaShawn McCoy, who we had years and years and years ago to be a true three-down running back. And at $37.75 million, 26 fully guaranteed, this dude better be a three-down running back. And I know that the Giants fans out there, I mean, it's just. You all need to calm down.

What are people doing? How can you be mad at Saquan Barclay? I'm not mad. No, that's not... I'm saying the Giants fans. Well, that's silly. But the problem is... They didn't give them the money. Right. You had a whole year, but what would you pay to not have the Eagles have Barclay? That's the funny part to me. It's like, okay, let's say Saquan, you didn't want... You set a cap. You didn't want to spend more than, you know, 21 guaranteed. Well, is five more million dollars worth your opponent in your division that you're fighting with to not have this guy? I'm guessing it would have been a lot more than five. Yeah, I mean, maybe. The way that they treated him, the way that he feels he was treated, combined with the opportunity to win, like, it's going to, you got to pay the loser tax. To stick it to their, his old team. Yeah. This is an upgrade for Sequin Barclay.

People will be concerned about touchdown numbers due to the fact of the tush push. It was the first thing I thought of. It will impact his opportunities on the goal line. But, I mean, look, he didn't score in New York. New York was not on the goal line very often. Sequin was not giving you a ton of fantasy value on multi-touchdown games in New York. I mean, last year he had six touchdowns on the ground. You're telling me he's not going to score six times in Philadelphia. He will, for sure. I'm going to, I'll take the over. And the Swift plays you're talking about, like part of it that was comedic, because we didn't know how much credit to give to D'Andre Swift. Yeah. Because he'd gained six yards before he was touched. I think it was decisiveness as much as it was speed. Like, Saquan has good vision, right? And Swift showed good vision in that offense. If I have Sequan Barclay in a Dynasty League, if I have him, you know, in the Keeper League, I'm enthusiastic. Yeah, I had a chance last year to, I mean, it would have, you know,

paid the tax to get Sequin Barclay. And part of the concern of why I didn't go for that trade was I'm like, where is he going to end up last or next year? Because of all the teams. Could have been a commander. Yeah. It could have been, you know. It could have been a really terrible situation. But you won the, uh, you won the fantasy lottery this, uh, just this year. Yeah. And it makes it fun for dynasty trades that happen before the free agent period too. When you, when you gamble. and all of the emotions you go through. So goodbye, New York, hello, Philly. Yep. And they have themselves, you know, they're a high-scoring office. The Giants have been 30th, 15th, 31st, 31st, 18th, and 16th. Barkley is in, I'm not going to say he's like, like he is in the category now of running backs that could end up one. Yeah. In fantasy finish. He couldn't have done that in New York. Yeah, I mean, just the initial reaction. It's like, yeah, Sequin's easily top five running back. Josh Jacobs.

This was one of the shockers of the day, and it continued to unravel. But we were waiting for the shoe to drop on Josh Jacobs. I thought he might go to Chicago. They made a different splash at the running back position. In DeAndre Swift, we'll talk about it momentarily. Jacobs goes four years, $48 million to the Green Bay Packers. So just 26 years old? Some would remind you that they signed a four-year $48 million deal with Aaron Jones when he was 26. And then now Jacobs is four years $48 million at $26. But it's a four-year $48 million deal. That sounds fantastic. But the $12.5 million guaranteed is very curious where Sequin, 26 fully guaranteed. DeAndre Swift, 15 guaranteed.

Yes, the Jacobs, the overall numbers, which when you look at on paper, Jacobs got way more money than DeAndre Swift. I mean, twice the amount of money, but, you know, Andrew Brandt tweeted out saying, just highlighting the reported deal, four years 48 million, when you really break down the deal, one year 14.8 and then three Packer option years, which puts the team full, it's very strange to me that. I think it's compounded by the DeAndre Swift deal that Barkley, we expected him to get paid, he did it. Swift, I don't know that anyone expected him to get paid the way he did. And then for Josh Jacobs to get such a low guarantee is, it's strange to me. It is a little bit odd. I think it shows you that he wasn't worth what he thought he was after the inefficient year last year.

Yeah, he, the franchise tag was what, $10.5 million last year, 10 million? Yeah. So 14 million, 14.8 is what the one year payout will be. And then the Packers have option year. So it's kind of like a expanded franchise tag to a degree. Yeah. Chance to renew your value. And the team immediately let go of Aaron Jones. Aaron Jones, they tried to negotiate a new contract. He's 29. So this is like, this is a age reset at running back. A.J. Dylan. Not going to be part of the picture, right? Did he sign yet? Did we have any AJ Dillon news? You know what? The big crowd of GMs did not gather for AJ. We didn't miss it? We did not miss it. I could have sworn we missed it. I don't know if we report USFL stuff. All right. Be on that team. Yeah. Lock in. AJ Dillon News. I got my Dillon alert set. Thank you. Thank you. Because some dynasty managers need A.J. Dillon to get a job. You need to.

Yeah, I don't know. Probably not a big deal. So Josh Jacobs, what do you think? This offense, very impressive. You know, Jordan Love at the end of the year. For a team, it's fantastic. Yeah, I mean, for a landing spot that no one saw coming, I thought there was probably panic immediately because of shared backfield. Yes, yes. And then now Aaron Jones leaves and immediately signs the one-year deal with the Vikings. So. So Aaron Jones, one year with the Vikings, but he's older. Look, to me, in a one year window, Aaron Jones is a better running back than Josh Jacobs. I genuinely believe that. Jones was great last year. I think Aaron Jones, when healthy is a top six running back in football, the problem is he doesn't stay healthy. And you don't have very long for that. So the Packers should really stick it to the Vikings and bring Madison in.

Right. Yeah, that's good. That's good. That's the backup. So Aaron Jones, though, going to the Vikings, the Ty Chandler excitement, which I didn't have, by the way. I mean, I did not believe that them letting go of Madison was a big, enthusiastic pat on the butt to Ty Chandler, no matter what they said. Ty Chandler is little. He's a little dude. He's a 200-pound running back. So it makes sense that they would add somebody to the equation here. The Thai Chandler. excitement was the same as like the Tajay Spears excitement where it was at this very moment in time there is a path where this this dude is just the guy and in talking about Ty Chandler but that path is not there anymore yeah I mean if you were excited about Ty Chandler where are you now uh for Ty Chandler I mean it I think he is still a speedy backup and at least the way that Kevin O'Connell was

was talking about him. Again, be careful the way that coaches are talking. But O'Connell talked him up a lot right before the Alexander Madison release. So I think he will be involved, but this will be Aaron Jones show. Yeah, yeah, I agree. So that was big news. DeAndre Swift got a three-year, $24 million deal in Chicago. 15 guaranteed. They. clearly identified the 25-year-old DeAndre Swift as their target. And just, he was the first splash. They were going to overpay. Like Chicago had the money. We were not going to be surprised. I think that this running back free agency, let me, let me see if you agree with me on this. This is a cursory tale of low draft capital running backs that things change quickly. And what I'm saying is like people wanted to talk about.

Tajay Spears and Tony Pollard signs in Tennessee. They wanted to talk about Ty Chandler and Aaron Jones arrives in Minnesota. They wanted to talk about Khalil Herbert all offseason last year, but doesn't have the draft capital or financial backing to be a guaranteed starter. Now he's one of four, where Swift is obviously the guy. Like you gamble. If you think that those guys are going to, they have to really establish it. They have to be like, there is no debate with 10 GMs in a room would have to all agree that Cleo Herbert's the guy or Tajay Spears is the guy for this not to happen. The Roshan Johnson truthers, that's going to be who is bummed the most. Because if we had it in the next season with Chicago not really making a splash and it's, you know, Khalil Herbert versus Roshan again, I think most people would have been on the Roshan Johnson side, but that is not going to happen.

I think it was J.J. Zacharison that pointed out this morning. DeAndre Swift was a lion, now a bear. David Montgomery was a bear now a lion. Yeah. Aaron Jones was a Packer, now a Viking. So we're playing musical chairs in the division and just hoping it works out. But what did you think about Swift's fit with the bears and what they're planning on doing? I think everybody expects it to be Caleb Williams. Yeah, that's the hard part is. The good probability bet for running, like when there's a rookie quarterback, now, yeah, C.J. Stroud happened and it's going to get a lot of people excited. But the bet for basically everyone on the team when there is a rookie quarterback is you have to lower your expectations. So that's probably where I'm going to go just because of that's the probability until I feel like there is a true seismic shift and not just.

an outlier here or there, then I will be, Swift will be a running back too and he'll have spike weeks because he's very fast. He had very few opportunities due to the tush push around the goal line. We are always joking about it. He scored five times in Philly. 47% of his yards came before contact in Philadelphia. He will not have that offensive line. No, he will not. In Chicago. But he is just 25 years old. And so I think it will be interesting. with the new offensive coordinator there, who obviously they identified Swift and said, look, they could have gone out and paid whatever. Could have paid for Jacobs. Could have taken a shot at Saquan. They went younger and more explosive. But I don't know if we, I mean, workload-wise, who's going to share the time with him? Herbert, Roshan. I think all three will play, but Swift. All right. Let's take a quick break. Come back with more running back news.

Well, I said it a minute ago, the Titans. They were one of the early moves during the day yesterday. Tony Pollard. Three-year deal worth 24 million. Some people were joking about the fact that this is the retirement home for early down backs for Dallas because DeMarco Murray went over and finished his career out in Tennessee. They pay Pollard $24 million over three years. What is the guarantee on that, Kyle? Do you have that? I'm looking it up. Okay. Not a good year for Pollard last year. Nope. Not a good outlook for the offense in Tennessee, at least the way we look at it now. You fire your head coach, your weapons, there aren't a lot of them. Some people believe in Will Levis, but Tony Pollard is just taking the money, it seems like. This is where the most money was going to be. Yeah, money. And there should be opportunity. I would not. I'm not.

You were going to say, here's what you're going to say. You're going to say, I'm not going to bury Tajay Spears. Yes. Because I think Spears is a good player. The problem is if this is a bottom five offense in football, which has every chance to be, or at least let's call it bottom third. That's fine. And you break up scoring opportunities across two undersized backs. Yeah, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not excited. I don't think either of these guys, the path of us ending this season. with like, oh man, Tony Pollard or whoa, what, Tajay Spears, it seems like it's out of nowhere. I feel like that's just, that's really low, low odds. Yeah, and I believe there was some talk about dynasty trades of Tajay Spears and what you would do a few weeks ago. And the advice was kind of get rid of him while the iron is hot. Like trade him while people assume he could be the guy. So hopefully that's what you did. If not, hopefully.

In your case, you think Pollard is kind of washed and doesn't resume a solid career and Spears gets more opportunities. But this is not a running back room I'm excited about. We're not. So we can't find the guaranteed for Tony Pollard. It's not being reported, huh? Yeah, their reporters are still trying to find it. Three year deal, 24 million. I bet you, I bet you it's 11. It's not going to be good. I mean, just the seven, the six. Stop, stop me. The Josh Jacobs guarantee took in terms of usually the guarantee comes out immediately or right after. The Josh Jacobs one took some time yesterday too. And then when it came out, you went, oh, that's much lower than I thought. It's a good reminder, right, to not let the first headline hit you too hard. Yeah, very few players ever see the top end of that money. So the commanders made a decision.

to let go of Antonio Gibson and bring in Austin Echler on a two-year deal worth just $8.4 million. He's 28. He'll be 29. He'll be 29, which is what? That's the same age that Aaron Jones is, right? Yeah. And the one-year deal for Jones at 29 was up to $7 million. There's a two-year deal worth $8.4. It was a lost year in many ways for Austin Echler. Brian Robinson, he's... He's going to be a big part of this offense with Cliff Kingsbury. Echler will handle third downs and probably spell Robinson. Is that how you see it? Yeah, that is how I see it. The hope still for Brian Robinson is that Cliff Kingsbury is the offensive coordinator, and we know very well firsthand when Cliff was in Arizona. Once they get close to the goal line, his favorite play of all time was.

run the ball up the middle and if it doesn't work the next play we should run the ball up the middle oh yeah go back up the middle and we will get there we will get there eventually so if we go yeah run up the middle yeah because that's where the action is at so i still think that there is huge uh touchdown upside for robinson but i think robinson is a better player right now than austin ecler yeah yeah i i wouldn't disagree with that but the fact that eckler like the team can't have signed him saying We foresee a whole bunch of groundwork for Austin Echler. He's still a good pass catcher with reliable hands usually. Over the back half of the year, he had one gain of 10 plus yards on 77 attempts. Yeah. And it was 10 yards. They're crossing their fingers hoping that was because of the ankle. News this morning? Well, let's go to the news we got yesterday first. The Bengals signed Zach Moss to a two-year deal worth $8 million.

Love it. By the way, that's the same deal that Austin Echle got. Two years, eight million. Moss is 26, and they re-signed Trayvion Williams, if you noticed, and they were really proud of it. I mean, they put it up on their Twitter. Trayvion Williams coming back for year six or whatever. The Trayvon Williams is so baffling. I mean, you realize it's like year five or six for Trayvon Williams. Yes, yeah. Like he's almost 50 years old. He's still yet to do anything. I believe that he has never scored a touchdown. He must be the most charismatic. Yeah, Kyle just, but yeah, he's never scored a touchdown. Funniest locker room guy. They were so proud of him. But the, the announcement of the, first it was the Bengals, we're going to cut Joe Mixon and then the signing of Zach Moss. It was like simultaneous. It was so cold-blooded by the Bengals of, I don't even know which one was first. Joe Nixon should be happy they didn't do it last year. That was the rumor.

And then he went out and he put up, do you want to know what he finished last year, Joe Mixing? Do you want to, you on a refresher? Sure. He's the RB. Guess it. I want to hear you. He, let's see, RB 9. Five. Five. So he's gone. Offense is great. Zap Moss proved without John, I almost said Jonathan Stewart, but Jonathan Taylor that he could get it done and Bengals save money at running back. They said that they were going to cut Joe Mixon, and then this morning we got news that, nope, the trade bait worked. Joe Mixon did the Houston Texans in a trade, not a release and sign. And now the Texans have Joe Mixon. So if you're in Dynasty, Joe Mixon looked dead, which I believe you have Joe Mixon, Bruxie? Yes, sir. Yeah, and how are you feeling? I don't know. Him and Pollard are my running backs.