AFC North Breakdown + Tale of Three Seasons, Dome Time! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 7/8

That's my belief. They're going to have to do that. Why? Because they have a very inconsistent wide receiver two on their team, who seems to mentally be there some games and mentally not be there some games. And that's McCall Hardman, who is their number two. Lizard King's gone, Sammy Watkins. Yeah, Sammy Watkins is gone. Obviously, Kelsey.

Tyreek are going to demand a ton of targets. But this is the best thing for the team to do, is to get back to an offense like they had with Cream Hunt, where they do involve Clyde Edwards-Zillare. Yeah, I mean, the reason for all the mega hype when he was drafted in the first round last year, and Clyde Edwards-Aler shot up draft boards. He was a back-in RB1, or back into the first round last year, was because of the past catching work from college and the tying that to this offense that

Andy Reid has used his quarterback to throw the ball to the running back. That didn't happen year one as much as we would have liked. If they throw the ball more to Clyde, you're talking about a top five back because the touchdowns can come. Touchdowns we talk about it. It's not a very sticky stat. Yeah, it's four last year. Yeah, the opportunity. If four turns into eight, which is very reasonable with that offense, and you add some pass catching work, he's going to be a fantastic pick. I was really regretting.

I mean, we just brought up on a recent episode, Michael Thomas, being a great pick. And I regretted taking in our shared Scotty Fish team, Michael Thomas, over Clyde Edwards-Aler. I am definitely warming on the kind of year-delayed breakout for Clyde Writers-Dillard. I think they're going to need him. And I think he has the talent to still deliver in a great offense. Like all those peripheral non- Clyde-related factors are present in Kansas City, right?

Yeah. So then you have to determine, is this a good player or a bad player? I don't think we saw a bad player on the field last year. I thought you saw the variance and touchdowns, lack of pass catching. There's a third round pick this year. Right. I mean, what's his floor? What he did last year? Yes. So in the third round, that's a good pick already with upside. I like CEH a lot. All right. There were some cut candidates brought up by beat reporters recently. I'm going to go through them quickly, all running backs.

Mark Ingram, that running back room in Houston is, it's crowded. There's too many of them. I would expect Rex Burke had to get the cut over Mark Ingram, but that's fine. Either. They can both get cut. Benny Snell from almost taking over the job from James Connor to maybe being pushed out. It would make Kalam Belage, the clear handcuff to Najee Harris. I do expect that to happen. I think that the ship.

The very slow ship that is Benny Snell has sailed. I think the problem was they got a lot of opportunity to see him last year. And if they didn't, if James Connor could have stayed healthy, then maybe they still would have believed in Benny Snell. They need versatility. Like Naji brings, they need their backup to have versatility. Snell can't catch the football. Bill's running back Matt Breda, expected to be on the chopping block. Broncos running back Royce Freeman. This is the only one that matters to me because if you take Royce Freeman out and it's just a, you know,

two good running backs in Melvin Gordon and Giovante Williams, then Giovante has more opportunity for fantasy relevance without Melvin Gordon going down. All right. That was today's news and notes brought to you by Sleeper. You can head over, get the Sleeper app, switch your league to the fastest growing fantasy platform today. If you'd like to, I suggest it. They keep improving that.

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All right. We've got a divisional breakdown to get into Mr. Moore. Okay. Before we do, I want to help the Foot Clan keeps their hair, though, because two out of three men will experience some form of hair loss by the time they are 35. That's more than 50 million men in the U.S. suffering for male pattern baldness. So like if me and Brooks are in a room together. Well, now it's two out of three men have done it. And, you know.

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AFC North breakdown time, Mr. Moore. Let's start at the top. The best team in the division, Andy. Ah, as far as last year's records. Yes, that's true. The Pittsburgh Steelers were 12 and 4 last season. They started 11 and 0. Do you remember that? I do remember. And I remember during the 11 and 0 run thinking what a sham it was.

And I think it was proven to be a sham. They finished one in four. They lost in the wild card game to Cleveland. They were seven and two and one score games. Great defense. Very close finishes. That one score game metric, that's a tough one to stay consistent with year over year. I remember back in the day when the Cardinals had one of those things where it was like all of these close single score games went their direction.

and I thought it was because we know how to close out games. And it turns out it's just sometimes the ball bounces different directions, sometimes towards you, sometimes towards the other guy, and you lose close games. When you're that much of a winner in that close of games, it means you are above expectation for your roster. Yeah, and look, I'll be honest right out of the gate. I am not a believer in the Pittsburgh Steelers this season. I do not think that we will be.

entering the AFC North Divisional Breakdown show next season and talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers first. I think we'll be talking about them third. And Vegas agrees. I mean, Vegas has their win total at eight and a half. Really? Yeah, they have both Cleveland and Baltimore with higher win totals by a margin. I believe they're both at ten and a half. And the Steelers are two games ahead of the Bengals by the Vegas.

odds for this season. That's exactly where I see them. I see them as a third place team on the NFL field. Now that might not matter for your fantasy team. You can have production from this roster. I think the storylines when you talk about Pittsburgh begin with Big Ben. 40 pass attempts per game last year that led the league in attempts. Offensive line was atrocious. We know that. Defense was great. Kept them in games and Big Ben is an experienced quarterback that

does give you an advantage late in one score games. They decided to completely revamp the offensive line and replace their offensive coordinator this offseason and then invest a first-round draft pick in star running back, Najee Harris. Thank you. Is that you? Are you Najee? No, I'm thanking you for calling him a star running back. Yeah, he's a star collegiate running back. Great. I just, he deserves that. I think a first-round pick is proof positive that that's the case. Yeah, Sony.

Yeah, well, Sony was a star running bag. No, it wasn't. In college? Yeah, I didn't like him. Didn't like his tape. Okay. I'm just happy to hear you talk nicely about Najee because it's usually been Mike and I fighting for Najee and you pumping the brakes on him. So I appreciate you calling the star. I pumped the brakes relative to you guys. That's fair? Yeah. Not necessarily not liking the talent or ability. The storyline has been this offensive line. The storyline has been, you know, we want to just kind of grant, like, tenure.

to the Steelers running game, right? Like they just want to run the football and they've wanted to run it long enough. So they're just going to be able to run the football because they're great. Well, they actually haven't ran the ball a lot. You know, pretty much it's funny how fantasy managers think differently than NFL, you know, owners and people that care more about football than fantasy because what Mike Tomlin does is he uses one back.

one running back. He wants someone to be out there in all positions where you don't know if you're passing or running. He can catch the ball. He can run the ball. And because of that, and that back ending the year with usually a large amount of total touches, we think of them as a team that runs the ball a lot. But they actually usually end up very low in the rankings of rushing attempts because they only use that one guy. And when you add up all the other players, it's like it was just that one guy. So this is a team that throws the ball a ton. And I expect they still will.

but they cannot possibly want to throw it like they did last year. 32nd in rushing yards last season, 20th and pace of play, 28th in rushing attempts, 27th in rushing touchdowns. You're 100% right. I mean, they literally ran through the air at the end of the year. They basically hit a wall and they gave up. And then it was two or three, four-yard passes, juju eating up the middle of the field. They can still do that.

But this offensive line ended the year in 2020 with a rank of 17, according to Pro Football Focus. It begins 2021 with a rank of 29th at the NFL level. Now, the question I have, you know, that everyone wants to know is it doesn't matter at all. Because of the things you said, you say, look, he has one back out there. If they cut Benny Snell of his nausea, opportunity will trump efficiency, even if this offensive line struggles. And I mostly believe that. I mostly believe that to be the case.

Either you have to throw the pro football focus offensive line rankings completely out the window, which is fine if you want to do that. But I mean, just look at last season, 26th in the league, Minnesota. Did they have a running back that produced for fantasy? Yes. Okay, what about 27th, Ezekiel Elliott and the Cowboys? Yeah, he produced enough. What about 28, the Dolphins? Did they have an efficient running game?

Enough to have Miles Gaskin be fantasy relevant. Okay, here's one that doesn't count, but the Jets at 29 didn't have anybody. No. But 30, Joe Mixen, 31, Sequin Barclay, 32, the Chargers with Austin Echler. If you have a guy out there on the field, they can catch the football, which I think that might be the prerequisite for all those players, right? Cook, Elliott, Mixon, Barclay, Echler. They're three downbacks. They're three downbacks.

Yeah, I agree. But he's going to have to throw it to Naji for you to get what you want this year. And he will. He will throw the ball to Naji. Naji is an absolutely excellent pass catching back. He doesn't get enough credit there simply because he's big. He's a large, big-bodied running back, and you just don't usually see those guys catch a ball. This is why Mike and I are in love with the talent. Now, the team, I do think, look, I've come around. I think the team's going to stink. Like, I want them.

to be a great team because of Tomlin. I believe in Mike Tomlin. I think he's one of the best coaches in the league. I think he's going to get the most out of his players. I just don't know that he's got the players for it. When they lost their playoff game, and you saw Big Ben on the bench last year after a horrific performance over the stretch of like six weeks, and he was like crying on the bench. I was like, well, that's the last we'll ever see of Big Ben because he doesn't have it is toast. So the only chance that the Steelers get better is that Big Ben somehow gets