AFC East Breakdown + Late Round Dart Throws - Fantasy Football Podcast for 7/21

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Find Primal Kitchen Buffalo sauce at grocery stores nationwide or on primalcitchen.com. New England, 10 and 7 last year with a preseason win total of nine, so they outperform that. Three and three and one score games. They're projected for eight and a half wins. So that went down. Yeah. Nonsense. Which could be a product of. Dolphins are better. Yeah, the dolphins. And the Bill's win projection is up. Dolphins win projection is up. I'm fairly sure of that.

Maybe it's the same as last year. But New England last year, sixth and points per game. Does that compute with what you saw in the field? No. It does not. Yeah. As a team, they scored a lot, but this isn't one of those fast-paced teams. And so for fantasy, you didn't get as many plays run. It was very efficient. I mean, tons of field goals, right? Nick Folk was great.

I forgot Damien Harris was out of, like Damien Harris was 15 rushing touchdown. Yeah, 15 rush. Ooh, baby. I mean, it was a really slow style of we are going to play old school smash mouth football and defense, have a game manager and rookie Mac Jones who did everything they asked him to do very efficiently for a rookie. And the question now is, is this is going to be a similar?

style of offense, is this going to be a slow smash you in the mouth type of team? Or with year two, Mac Jones, do they start opening things up more? Do they allow, you know, they went and they got Devante Parker. They drafted the fastest player in the draft at wide receiver in Taekwon. And so do they open up the passing game and speed up a little bit, or do you think it's still molasses? Yeah, I mean, 28th and pays the play last year, and I don't expect much different.

I really don't. You're going to be more effective with a second year quarterback and those weapons. But, I mean, there were 14th in passing yards. Do I think it's going up? No, they're going to be middle of the pack, I think, in that department. They know how to run the football. But, you know, part of that points per game is they blow people out. They've had these games where they dominated on the defensive side, second and points against, 5413, 50 to 10, 45 to 7. So when the going was good, it was good.

But from a fantasy perspective, it's still very hard to, each position group is very difficult to break down. Like, I'll take Devante Parker over the rest. Me too. I'll take Damien Harris over the rest. I will as well. But I don't know if, I mean, let me see where the draft costs of Damian Harris is right now. Six round pick, RB 26 after a 15 touchdown season. Believe it's the final year of his contract. Is that right? It is. Which is, I mean, that's the, what, Josh Jacobs is in that situation too.

You know, he's a great runner. Doesn't catch the football. I'm not too concerned about James White. James White's return because of the injury and just, I don't know how involved he'll be, but Remandre Stevenson was very impressive. Remandry Stevenson is very interesting because you're at that, you're at the point in the double digit rounds where the starting running backs are long gone. And if you're just trying to look for some depth of, I can see, I can see the path forward for Remandry Stevenson to be great.

On the field, he was excellent. He can be a pass catcher. If James White is going to miss time, it's very possible that they turn to Stevenson for that type of the role in the short term. And then Damien Harris is always, like most Patriot running backs, one or two fumbles away from, well, we're going to put Stevenson in now and see what happens. But you get some.

Some high-scoring games and someone with Juice, a younger player, Stevenson, in the 10th, I think it's worth taking a shot. You're going to have to hold on and see what happens so that you're probably taking a roster spot for a few weeks, but I think he can really elevate a team towards the second half. Because of how he played when Damien Harris was injured, which is another concern for Damien Harris, you started to see the way they were going to use these guys.

which they would just give a drive to Remandre. It would be a full drive. It would be first, second and third down to Remandre Stevenson. You also saw games where they had it, you know, it was out of hand, and they'd take Damien Harris out for the second half or for the fourth quarter. So it's not fun to try to figure that out each and every week. So that's why you see the depleted, like for a team that runs the ball as much as they do, to see their first running back off the board in the sixth round. Who was the running back 13 last year with 15 touchdowns? It is a little weird.

Yeah, it is weird. Because here's the reality with Damien Harris. There is a team that Damien Harris is a great draft pick for. Damien Harris is not, look, it's not going to get better than last year because he doesn't catch the ball. He's not going up from 15 touchdowns. So last year was peak Damien Harris as best year of his career. But if you're telling me, 10 touchdowns in a lot of serviceable, usable, startable weeks that you can grab in the sixth round.

depending on how you built your team, if you went wide receiver heavy and you've got four awesome stud wide receivers to start, well, you could plug Damien Harris in there and no, look, I'm not trying to swing for the fences and get the running back five here, but there's a, I'm just taking a single. But there, yeah, exactly. I'm going to put my wide receivers on the bases and just bring in runs. I love you having to do baseball references. It.

It felt like I was putting my hand on a cheese grater. I'm going to be honest. It was not a good time. But like moving it or just resting it? No, no. No. A good slide. A good slide. I'm going to need several little band-aids, just tons of little bannets, just so many little cuts. But the reality is knowing that he isn't that swing for the fences, he's not going to be better. I have, I don't think I've drafted Damien Harris once because where he's going. Rashad Penny or Damien Harris.

I would take Damien Harris for the offense, the touchdowns, and all of that. But it's where he's going, it's the other positions. It's Jalen Hertz. It's Ammon Rae St. Brown. It's guys that I just, I like better at other positions in that sixth round than Damien Harris. I'll come back and grab Ramandre in the 10th. No one spends more money on their wide receiver and tight-in room than New England. They have more money spent there than any other team in football. Yet, if I ask the question, is there one player?

from the wide receiver room or the tight-in room that you'll start every week. Can you give me a name? No. That will be locked into your lineup. No. Is there one drafted inside the top 10 rounds? No. 11 rounds? No.

I do really like Hunter Henry in best ball because you know he is a touchdown monster. They, you know, looked his way last year. He's got a long history. I mean, he's, he's been good for fantasy most of his career. So I think he's a good pick in the 11th round. It's rare for someone who was a real, you know, positive value player last year to still be drafted so low. So I like, I like Henry, and I would agree with you. I'm taking Parker over Jacoby Myers.

Which was the worst off-season signing last year? Johnny Smith for the money he got paid, leaving Tennessee, or Julio Jones for the money he got the trade that they did to acquire him? I would say Julio. Like, Johnu, because we're looking at things from a fantasy football perspective, we're not looking at it as he was relegated to being a blocking tight end.

The team was eighth in rushing yards and second in rushing touchdowns. I mean, he helped the team. He just doesn't help our teams. Right. The dolphins were nine and eight last year. They started one in seven. And unlike Mike's fantasy team, they rallied in the second half of the year. And the rally was not enough to keep Brian Flores around. So they go into the season this year with a projected Vegas win total of nine.

I was very sad because I wanted to dunk on Janu, but he was, in fact, graded as 83.2 in PFF run blocking. So he was a very good run blocker. I just want. Why did you want to dunk on it? So that wasn't a fist pump. That was like, darn. That was a darn. That was a darn. I don't get to besmirch the man, Janu Smith. Slash you? 100%. That is correct. The dolphins were fifth and pace of play, eighth and past attempts, but 22nd and points per game.

They did not get it done 30th and rushing yards. So we all remember what happened last year. It was a disaster. Trying to watch these running backs piece their way through game after game, whether Salvin Ahmed or Miles the gas man who ran out of gas. Empty gas can. So, I mean, they kind of reworked everything in the offense. They went out and got a offensive-minded head coach, Mike McDaniel.

They picked up Tyree Kale, a blockbuster acquisition. They get a second year, Jane Laudeau as part of this offense. And then you have Chase Edmonds, Rahim Mostert, Sonny Michelle, just a re-roll of the running back room. So what's your sentiment about this offense heading into 2022? Are you optimistic like the Dolphins fans are?

No, I think, well, not like the Dolphins fans are. I think it's going to be a good offense. Good, not great is the way that I classify the dolphins. I don't think that they are going to light the world on fire and they're going to be the next chargers. I don't think Tua is going to be able to take that leap forward. I hope I'm wrong, unlike, you know, looking forward to the demise of Jano. Here, I want.

success. So weird. But I just, I don't believe that Tua can run a high pace, you know, like a successful offense that is putting up a ton of offensive points. Last year, this was a team where you had a lot of dink and dunk with Jalen Waddle. And that was.

successful to a degree. And that doesn't remind you of any quarterback in San Francisco who had pretty good amount of success in this system? Sure, but now with Tyreek Hill, you know, sure, bring. I'm just saying like Jimmy Garoppolo is the, is the Dink and Dunk king over there in San Francisco. Would they bring him over? No, but I'm saying, like, Tua is accurate and he's dinking and Duncan, and that's what.

That's what this offense is. Do you think they're going to, that he's going to run kind of a, I mean, obviously it was a very run heavy team with the 49ers? Yes. You think that's the system they're going to do with the personnel here, with Tyreek, with Waddle, and not, you know, the same level of run blocking? You think that, you know, because the dolphins aren't known for their great offensive line here. Their offensive line got a massive upgrade. They got Armstead from New Orleans and they got Williams from Dallas. Like they've.

They've pieced things together. I'm pretty optimistic. I am as well. Because you have players that are, I mean, who's better after the catch than Tyree Kill? Who's better after the catch than Jalen Wattle? Right. So even Chase Edmonds. I mean, Chase Edmonds, look, Chase will probably always end up a better real-life player than a fantasy player. But for the purposes of moving the offense down the field, Chase Edmonds has been elite for his quarterback. And so when I look at...

Making life easy on Tua, I see those three pieces plus a head coach that knows how to make life easy. So what that translates to, you know, this is a team with a lot more fantasy options that are being drafted than an offense like New England, right? Chase is being drafted. Tyreek and Waddle, Gassiki, people have interest in him. Oh, don't do that. So I don't know. I don't know what that means for Tua because.