Breakouts, Draft Questions, Yo Adrian!

Yet today we find out that left tackle Matt Khalil has had a knee scope that came from the recommendation of Dr. James Andrews. They've already lost the right tackle. They've lost all pro-guard Andrew Norwell. The offensive line is in shambles in Carolina. Now, of all the players, of all the quarterbacks that doesn't necessarily lead to negative fantasy production, Russell Wilson, for example, Cam Newton, I think.

falls into that category of, look, you got to scramble, you got out of the pocket. That doesn't necessarily hurt his fancy value. It can hurt the fancy value of CMC. So do you have concern? Do you want to pull back on any of your hype for Christian McCaffrey? Yes. Yes and no. I don't pull back on the hype of utilization. No, no, no. I think the utilization is really what I was hyping. I believe he will be.

the predominant runner, the predominant pass. He'll be a three-down back utilized a lot. But it is worth noting he, you know, just because he had a great 70-yard run in preseason does not mean he's going to be more efficient than he was last year with a worse offensive line. So he still very well will be inefficient through the tackles due to the downgraded offensive line. But, I mean, he was a running back 12.

he was a running back one last season due to his past catching, and that's not going away, and his carry volume will increase. So even if he's inefficient, he should have a better season this year than last year. Mike, I'm going to ask you this question. Now, Matt Khalil, the prognosis is week to week after an arthroscopic procedure. If I was Matt Khalil playing the way that Matt Khalil had been playing, I might get a surgery too.

And just be like, ah, guys, get bodied. Load him on blast. I was getting everything. I gave you everything I had, but, you know, the old knee, it's a little rickety. Better go get it checked out. Yeah. I mean, many, you know, kind of thought he was a liability as is. Yeah, which speaks to the Panthers. If he was the best option at left tackle, there's a problem. So I guess in that respect, it's more so.

We already knew Norwell wasn't going to be there. Right. That was all baked in. All right, let's get into breakouts. Breakouts. Mike, we're going to let you kick it off. Oh. Yeah? Whoa. I hadn't even looked at these names yet. Well, well, well, well, well. I think it was a little bit of destiny the way I opened this show, Mike. Maybe you start there. Oh, wow. I thought you saw my name, so you played the intro. No, I was complete luck. Cortland Sutton.

Denver Broncos wide receiver. He is a rookie this year, so we don't have past NFL experience to go off of, but I want to bring his name up as a man who will be fantasy relevant this year. He's essentially going undrafted on fantasy football calculator. He's a mountain of a man, 6-3, almost 220, incredible agility. And he's...

fast for how large he is. What you can't ignore about Cortland Sutton is the drum beat. This is what you have to be paying attention to in preseason. Are they getting hyped at the beginning? Well, yeah, because he was an early round draft pick at the wide receiver position and he was one of the best wide receivers being touted. Everything lined up. Okay, we're checking off some boxes. Making plays and training camp. Okay, we're getting those Twitter highlights of him scoring incredible touchdowns.

Fantastic. Then it just keeps going. The hype keeps growing. Cortland Sutton is making plays in preseason. That's what I am paying attention to. Last year, 65% of the time, according to Sharp Football, the Denver Broncos reigned in 11 personnel, meaning three wide receivers were on the field. That's a little bit more than the middle of the pack. They're going to be running three wide, and they're saying Emmanuel Sanders is going to go into the slot. Cortland Sutton was an absolute touchdown machine.

in college. Double-digit touchdowns east of each of his past two seasons, 10, then 12. Not to mention really his first year, he had nine touchdowns. He is a dominant wide receiver. I'm not calling for him to supplant Sanders or Demerius Thomas. What I am saying is he's going undrafted, and he could be hitting you wide receiver three numbers by the end of the season. Carlson-Sitner-keel and Cole.

Keelan Cole, because I believe that he has an opportunity to emerge as the guy for Jacksonville. There is a world, and I am all in on Colin Sutton with you, there's a world where he is the best receiver on this team today. The upside is built in. Like I said, you can't project that a rookie is going to come in and steal away the position of Demarius Thomas, who's...

just a perennial thousand-yard receiver who has shown that he's elite, but he's also shown he's losing a little bit. Demarius Thomas is getting new quarterback, Case Keenham, no pre-established rapport with anybody. Sutton will have an opportunity. I agree with that. I like that breakout pick.

Yeah, I mean, he was my number one wide receiver coming into the NFL draft. I was so sad when the Denver Broncos took him. I thought he was going to go to Dallas. I thought that's where he'd end up. Yeah, he was, I think that was like the. That way he could be overthrown. Oh, get body, Dak. Get better, Dak. Seriously. We want what's best for you. And it's being a better, more accurate. Completions. Yeah. All right. Am I up here? Yeah. Okay. So I'm going to go with a guy.

There was almost my my guy. I really love the talent of this player. I did when he was in college. I did when he got drafted. I've, I've beat the drum on Kenyon Drake for a long time. So many drums on this show today. Yeah. I mean, I got a 10-piece kit over here. Do you, Neil Pert over there? I guess so. There's no chance he knows that name. I actually, I actually do know that one.

So here's the deal with Kenyon Drake. Kenyon Drake is a player that on the field, on film is fantastic. I don't know how anybody could disagree with that. He catches the ball well. He's decent in pass protection. He's faster to the edge than most players. I mean, if you just watch this preseason, he's had a couple of plays. Like his go-to move now is try to get tackled behind the line of scrimmage. Avoid that.

break loose and run for 35 yards. Like, that's, that's his, that's his, that's his, that's his signature move. Exactly. Um, you know, last year, feign death behind the line. Exactly. We call him the possum. Was this a world of warcraft character? Kenyon Drake the Possum. Kenyon Drake the Possum. He led the league.

In yards after contact per carry last season. He is a quality player. The red flags, the flags that you worry about that stopped me from making him a my guy is simply, will he be given the opportunity? Because if you look at, you know, he was drafted, he wasn't really given the opportunity, but he was behind J. Ajai. They shipped Jai out. Now, part of that is the fact that they thought they could. They had Drake there. But then...

After that, when Drake was clearly the best running back on their roster, they still gave Damian Williams the ball ahead of him, which made no sense. It took an injury to Damian Williams for Kenyon Drake to take over. But once he did, those final five weeks of the season, he was the eighth best running back in half point PPR. He was...

awesome, electric. And now, coming into this season, some of the things have been said by Adam Gase, the fact that, you know, I don't know if you guys are aware there was a fight in Miami this last week in their camp. Someone sucker punched Kenyon Drake, and it was this big to do. And that guy got cut. He gone. And there was a sit down between Adam Gase and Kenyon Drake. And Adam Gase came and told the reporters, he's like, look, I need Drake on the field.

I can't call plays the same way without Drake there. And who does Drake have to beat? Yes, Frank Gore's coming in and he's going to get the ball. He is infinite. He is Gore. Look, I don't want to speak for you two. I was thinking about this earlier. I wanted to say that we all agree, but I don't know that we do. I will speak only for myself. I still believe that Frank Gore is a human being.

Do you, so weigh in on that. A human being? I believe that he is actually human. You're saying like he has not become a god. He is, he's still a mortal man. He is not an alien come to earth to be a football player. Like that is, and if that's true, he's 35 years old, that's all he's got to beat. He's got to beat a 35 year old Frank Gore and Kaelin Belage, who I don't believe is a, you know, is a, as a real threat. He's a, he's a weapon. But.

Kenya Drake is great. And if you look, there's a guy who does great work out there. Joe Holka, follow him on Twitter at Joe Holka, like Polka. He creates the rushing expectation. It's very similar to... Like Polka, not Possum. Polka. Right. It's very similar to Matt Harmon. Matt Harmon does reception for wide receivers. So you could see...

How are they regardless of quarterback play? Just are they good at running rounds? Getting open. Catching the ball. He does this for running backs. And it's basically offensive line agnostic. How good are they despite their offensive line or in spite of their offensive line? He rated his rushing expectation. Kenyon Drake was the second best running back according to his metrics last season regardless of offensive line. And pro football focus has their offensive line.

improving this year nine spots better over their rank from last year. So I believe if Kenyon Drake gets the ball 200 times on the ground, he will be a running back one. I think the breakout is there for Kenyon Drake. The hard part about Kenyon Drake is the argument all offseason. Coming from me has just been, will he see the opportunity? It's not against the talents.

of Kenyon Drake because I think that if they commit to him, he's going to be dominant for fantasy. And you are right that in the fourth round, Derek Henry is going in front of Kenyon Drake. I think that's just a huge mistake because he can turn into a league winning running back if he's given the workload. But it's... And he's a great pass kid. I mean, Derek McKinnon's going two rounds earlier and they have the same upside. Right. But McKinnon's...

opportunities a little safe. He's got to stay healthy too. Yeah, that is always been enough. Preseason last year, hamstring injuries, week 11 last year, knee strain showed up on injury and in college. So there are some things he has to overcome, but the talent is there. Mike? Oh, it's my turn, though, isn't it? Yeah, and before you take your turn, my good sir, I would like to thank today's sponsor, seat geek. It's the easiest way to get tickets for, for any event.

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