Preseason Power-Up + Rankings Reactions, Megalabowl! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/22

On today's episode, it's a whole bunch of news. It's the preseason. We are breaking things down. Some takeaways that we are looking at from these teams. Who's moving up? Who's moving down? And a gigantic announcement that you do not want to miss. Make sure you subscribe to this channel. Like this video and enjoy. There is a fifth dimension. Beyond that, which is known to fantasy football losers. A dimension where championships flow freely and celebrations are commonplace. It is the middle ground. between light and shadow science and superstition analytics and film the easiest road to this place is the ultimate draft kit imagine stealing a breakout player while your opponent falls for another siren of catastrophe your preparation from over 100 player profile videos will be the difference between the pit of man's fears and the summit of knowledge this is the dimension of foot clan titles

Commit this website to memory and dominate your draft. Ultimate DraftKit.com. A fantasy footballer's podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome, man. All right. Okay. I would say we're back, baby. I mean, it's maybe not a hundred, but you get on the field when you're at 85, and you say I pushed through, and you did. Go! Kind of lost it at the very end. Yeah. I mean, like a couple steps. I know. On the dismount. I know. I was 100% not certain of what was going to happen, but I thought I was getting close. You took it to the limit. Very nice. Welcome in to the podcast. And welcome in to you. Yes. Yes. Well, I mean, it's ain't preseason week one anymore, Mike. That's right. It's preseason week two and a half. It is funny. Like, is like some people say that.

that was preseason week three. Like you see it listed that way. Is that the Hall of Fame? Yeah, because Hall of Fame was week one, which is dumb. It's like Hall of Fame doesn't exist. We have a great show for you. We're going to catch you up on the preseason movers, shakers, what's happening, players turning in different directions, major takeaways, storylines, things to, you know, you had some people that drafted this past week. And a lot of people with draft still to come. And. A lot of what's happening right now is going to make a difference. And your confidence level on certain players, we're going to talk about a ton of them on the show today. We've got news to talk about. We've got a mailbag to jump into. And we have an announcement. It's back. Oh, baby. It is time for.

The Megalobole. Maybe you are new. You don't know what the Megalabole. And scared. Yes. And somehow, you know, you stuck around through that guttural. Gargaly goop. Gargaly goop. No, the Megalobole is, we believe, the world's largest regular fantasy football league to crown the true champion of fantasy football. And what we do every year is we take all of our listeners, all the Foot Clan, and we put them in a giant tournament of 12 team leagues, just like your home league, with real drafts and real people. And then the playoff weeks that come at the end of the year will determine who is the true champion of all of the leagues combined with the winner.

getting into the 2023 listener league. So if you're like you don't know how to make a good submission or maybe you've made great submissions and we got a thousand of them this year and you didn't make the cut. Just be the best. Just be the best and you're in our league. Yeah, megalobol.com. Head over there for all of the details. We had over 18,000 players play together last year. We have seen the tweets. We have seen the messages. Many of you asking when the announcement was going to come. It is here. Megalobol.com. All foot clan supporters receive an entry. Tons of other perks for supporting the show. So check that out. You can only join once. Okay. So one time. One entry. If you were to try to do it again, it will remove.

It will change your draft slot. There are different draft slot days on September 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th. So it's that Labor Day weekend and going right up until the day before NFL kickoff. I have already signed up. So at least 11 of y'all will be playing in one of my leagues, not telling you which time slot. But, man, I'm excited. Yeah, it's going to be great. I think we're going to get over 20,000 this year. And you'll be able to pick, like Jason said, a time slot that works for you. We've made some different scoring system changes to kind of upgrade the strategy. And I'm excited. And Jason, you know, you did the Megalibol. Was that in honor of the new, like, Game of Thrones show there? Yeah, I was the dragon. You were the dragon. You are the dragon. So you can check that out, megalobole.com, the ultimate draft kit available to help you in your drafts right now at ultimate draft kit.com. Let's talk news. News and notes from around the league.

Well, Michael Thomas, missed practice on Sunday due to a hamstring injury. It's a little hamstring thing. A little bit hamstring. It's a little bit hamstring after a lot of bit of ankle. When you're out two years on an ankle and you're approaching 30 years old and you have a hamstring injury, not early in camp, but we're getting closer to the season. You a little bit worried? It's a yellow light. Like it's a yellow, I'm coming to the intersection. Is this the yellow light where you're actually going to go through it or are you going to? I feel like there's a pretty dangerous intersection. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and say like maybe if I'm maybe if there's maybe another player in the same intersection that looks nice, I might pump those brakes and let someone else go into the intersection. Chris Oliva did score his first touchdown of the preseason.

currently being drafted around the top of the ninth round, that will go up, especially if this Michael Thomas news percolates and misses practice. And, you know, there had been a lot of not just Michael Thomas's back, but Michael Thomas looks like the Michael Thomas of old. Yeah, I mean, which. Yeah, no, he checks out. Yeah, so Chris Olavay marching his way towards maybe number one target territory for the Saints offense. We will see. Tom Brady back in the building. Okay. With style. Yeah, we saw some air humping. We saw some other things. But Tom Brady is back in the building going to practice today. Well, because, you know, Masked Singer wrapped up the filming. Is that the, yeah, there were some crotch chops. That's what the Redditors are telling me. Whatever happened, he didn't come back in a bad mood. Let's put it that way.

I don't remember Jason ever walking in after an absence and doing some crotch chops and air humps. But it will happen after my next absence. That I promise you. That being said, it's a TB12 diet. Tom Brady is coming back into, I think he was happy because he had not yet gone under center where his offensive line in the middle is gone. Hopefully he is aware of that while he was on the masked singer. Ken Walker. hernia surgery. Pete Carroll doesn't know when he'll return. You could steal some weeks with all Rashad Penny at the top of, you know, at the top of the season if Penny's fine and healthy. Otherwise, you may get some weird Travis Homer, DJ Dallas weeks in Seattle. And Rashad Penny, assuming that we get the green light that he's all better from the groin injury.

But, Dar. But Ken Walker here, like, he could miss some games, which also puts Ken Walker. I don't know where his ADP will go from here, if it'll slide back a couple rounds or not, but this puts him in the realm of someone that you can draft. You know, if he does fall to the ninth or so, if you want to draft him and just put him on your IR spot, I'm with that plan. Panthers rookie Matt Corral, quarterback, list Frank injury. probably season ending. Patriots rookie Tyquan Thornton, second round draft pick, collarbone injury, expected to keep him out for eight weeks. It's a bummer. He'll be irrelevant for this season at this point. We saw a very impressive Nelson Aguilar in the preseason games this past weekend. It looks like Jacoby Myers, Aguilar, and Devante Parker will be the starting wide receiver core for the Patriots. Yep.

and the Raiders traded away Nick Mullins. The only reason that this is interesting to me, the Vikings got him. It's garbage pick, a conditional conditional seventh rounder. But to me, and I know all teams are, we can all, you know, they tell their players, we can win. We can win the Super Bowl. But this is a move of your backup quarterbacks are not getting it done, and you are going. you're in you are all in trying to make a super bowl push this season so at least that for the viking yeah like that's an it's an actionable move to me if nick mullins had been the backup during the kellen mond week of last year i would have a i would have a title kellen mon did not get it done there you go uh do we have kyle do we have anything else happening this morning that's it are you doing well today kyle i'm doing great yeah

Cool. Sounds like someone's well-rested. Yeah, well, no crotch tops from Kyle either, thankfully. Let's get it going. Preseason power up. All right, we do have one preseason game remaining for week two slash three. Why? Look, I'm trying to be excited here about preseason football, but why are we doing that? You mean the Monday night preseason? You don't like Monday night football, Mike? What do you hate football, Mike? The NFL thinks it's just it can't be stopped. I mean, I guess the advertisers are still buying those slots up. I was surprised there were Sunday games at all. But let's get into some of the takeaways at each position grouping from the week two games. Let's start at the quarterback position and that just amazing quarterback battle taking place in Seattle.

Gino Smith, he's the only one we've seen so far. Drew Locke was going to start week two, out with COVID. Pete Carroll says he will play a lot in week three. Gino has really, he's been Gino Smith so far this preseason, 10 for 18, 112 yards, no touchdowns, no picks. Looked a little bit better in week one to me. Drew Locke, I mean, if he goes out there and looks great in week three, I think he can take the job. I think either guy has a loose grip on the job. Is that fair? Yeah, I think that's very fair. The expectation here is, unlike Carolina, this decision actually hasn't been made. I think they do want to see Drew Locke in there, and he has a chance to win this battle. So it's really TBD, which makes right now, if you're drafting, like right the second, I am in a super flex dynasty startup draft. And we're in the late rounds, and it's like, you know, where you're taking back up.

quarterbacks that aren't even playing, and Drew Locke and Gino Smith are both there. One of these guys is playing football this year, but it's hard to know. I mean, right now, if you had to call it, Andy, who would you say is the starter week one? I guess I'd say Gino right now, but if I'm the Seattle Seahawks, I am trying to find some upside in this situation, and I don't know which player represents that to them. Jimmy Garoppolo. But, yeah, it's so hard to know what Pete Carroll wants because he, He wants run, run, run, run, run. Right. Game manager, Gino or Drew Luck with some more upside for Metcalf. Yeah, I think that, I think it's going to be Gino. All right. Here's the player I want to talk about the most at the quarterback position. Can he pick it? Yeah. Very strong preseason so far went 19 for 22 for 171 and 3. No picks. Mitch Trubisky is, unfortunately, Mitch Trubisky.

That's one of the qualities. For who, him or us? Or both? All involved. For him, for the Steelers, for his family. They picked him. He can run around and then be inaccurate. That is one of Mitch Trubisky's skill set. So I'm just saying, I think this transition is looking like a stronger possibility with the strong preseason for Kenny Pickett. And. You don't have a player in Mitch Trubisky that goes out there like a Jimmy Garoppolo, right? Like last year, we're looking at that transition. Like, Jimmy Garoppolo is the game manager, accuracy, you know, just do enough to win, don't do anything to get you benched. That's his MO. That's kind of what I would see for Gino, right?

Mitch Trubisky can go out and throw five picks in one game and delete himself from the starting roster in a week. So the possibility of picket getting his shot sooner than later, it does exist for that Super Flex league where Mitch Trubisky is a late round draft pick. There's more worry there. Absolutely. I mean, you actually brought up a very similar case with Daniel Jones a couple months ago. And I think Daniel Jones is a very good comp for Mitch Trubisky. They have talent. You can see flashes of brilliance on the field, but they also have a knack of imploding and having a horrific game where you are the centerpiece of this loss, and you are the reason you lose the game. And so I do agree. If Kenny Pickett is playing well behind him in all of training camp and early on in the preseason, it wasn't even a quarterback battle. Pickett was the third.

behind Mason Rudolph, and they were bringing him along slowly, and it was Trubisky's team. And you expect this team to win games. You always expect the Steelers to be in it. And so you think, but you're right. At some point here, if there's a game or two games where Trubisky absolutely is the reason that they took a W and turned it into an L, I think you'll see Kenny Pickett this year. And he's the better quarterback. He's looked. really, really, really good. There's a reason he was the only quarterback drafted in the first round. It's because he's a good quarterback, I believe. Yeah. And it's always difficult at times to weigh things in the preseason with who they're playing against and those things. But it's not hard to weigh the fact that Josh Rosen stinks because he, did you guys see Josh Rosen? No, I did not. He came in and went seven for 20 against the third stringer. Nice. Yeah. So I.

You know, as Cardinal fans, we have to bring that out. Yeah. Now, this next quarterback, I think, is a much more interesting conversation. I want to bring him up quite a bit. I think maybe for different reasons than y'all, but if you want to. Malik Willis. Yes, Malik Willis. The Tennessee Titans. The third round. draft pick. And I want to bring that up because this was a guy at one point in time was the betting favorite to be the number two overall pick in the NFL draft this year. He was supposed to be a first rounder. As he dropped to the back of the first round, people were wondering, is someone going to trade up and grab Malik Willis? They did not. They did not. But of course, what a value on day two to draft in the second round, Malik Willis. And every team said,

Nah, nah, dog, I'm good. And then he fell to the third round where the Tennessee Titans scooped them up. And this was a landing spot that a lot of people have been wanting to replace Ryan Tannahill for a while. I think if the Titans had an opportunity to go out and get a really special quarterback, they would have done that. And falling to the third round, I don't blame them at all for taking Malik Willis. Malik Willis, as a talent, is a very, very special runner. at the quarterback position. Yes. Very mobile. As a quarterback, I think he is very, very bad. I don't think he's even close to NFL ready. And so I know a lot of people are looking at this preseason. They see his rushing. They see his mobility and they think fantasy football gold. When I watched this preseason, and this was when I was paying attention to when I was watching the game, all I could think of is this dude is never, ever, ever going to be a starter.

Unless an injury happens. He's not playing his. Kinney Pickett can play his way into a starting job over Trubisky based on what Trubisky does. But Ryan Tannahill is a good quarterback. He drops back. He reads the defense. He makes a good ball. He builds it. Yes. He can weave a good. Out of trees. Good pig skin. I don't know how he does it. Out of trees. He makes a completely different ball. So my wooden football? Mike, what the world is wrong with you? I guess when I watched him, I just saw a guy that takes a couple steps back, looks, looks, is afraid to release the ball, runs. And I don't think that that's going to get on the field. So, I mean, that's a big, you took a big dump on it. Yeah. I mean, I'll say this. If an injury happened and he had to take over, I do, of all the coaches, staffs, I trust Mike Rable and company to kind of build a system that might accentuate his strengths. I haven't been.

You know, obviously as a passer, it hasn't been great. But the athleticism has been on display. I think I've been more than, I've been a little more positive about the preseason play than maybe Jason. As if I, he has, he has athletic tools. And like for a lot of these NFL quarterbacks, that is the starting place. Is do they, can you shape them into being a professional NFL quarterback? I don't know if he can get there, but he at least has. The running, but he has armed talent. He's just currently inaccurate. Yeah, he had a long touchdown pass, I believe, in week one. Either that or a long downfield throw that. I was like, wow, that ball just kept going and going. Let's talk about some running back situations that we've seen play out in the preseason, especially a very big one in Washington. Yes, I think that this is the biggest one I wanted to take this one in live because.

Look, I love Antonio Gibson, the player, have been a supporter of him over the offseason. And then, I mean, the things have just been horrifically bad. The drum beat for Gibson has been very poor as they took Brian Robinson in the third round and all of the things that have happened over the last couple of weeks. So I don't think we still have a final answer on what's going to happen in Washington. Antonio, diving into the beat report is in them talking about it. Antonio Gibson for years. has been trying to get on kick return. Like this is something that he wanted to do and he wanted to showcase what he can do and it makes sense. So he finally got his wish and he returned the first kick. There was nothing there. I mean, in terms of blocking, so nothing really special could possibly have happened for anyone. But because you're the kick returner, like you're a bit gassed. So I don't know if it's that or is it officially Brian Robinson has supplanted.

Antonio Gibson as the number one runner, which it is a possibility. Well, here's a couple things that I would take away from that, Mike, and I'll let you get back to what you saw in the game. One is that you don't see prolific NFL running backs as the kick returner. That's just not, even if they beg to do it, you don't see that happen very, almost ever. And almost ever, but I'll say like David Johnson for a long time return. Only before he really was the main back. And Antonio Brown was a punt returner. Like big time players who. can make things happen due on occasion. The other thing I'll say, and Matthew Friedman tweeted this out a while back when he was pining for people to draft Brian Robinson Jr. with a higher pick than where he was going. He pointed out the Nick Saban Alabama running backs that have been drafted with a top 100 pick are Mark Ingram, Trent Richardson, Eddie Lacey, T.J. Yeldon, Kenyon Drake, Derek Henry, Damien Harris, Josh Jacobs, Najee Harris.

Every single one of them is at a thousand-yard season at the NFL level. So that's... That was what I just thought. Really? That's got to be combined total. Yeah, I'm sure it's combined total. But you're talking about a long list of successful running backs. And obviously the team went out and got him. So I'm not saying anything about, I'm not just, nothing about what you said. Am I? bringing that up as a counterpoint. I'm bringing that up because I think the biggest question on the table is where do you drop Ryan Robinson? That's the actual question to me. It's like, I expect people to be wavering about Antonio Gibson.

and trying to get someone else in their league to take him because they're afraid. But where do you actually go in on a Brian Robinson? Is this a player that you see having year one potential to hit those numbers that we're talking about if the things go right? I mean, Antonio Gibson surprised with 11 touchdowns in his rookie season or 10, 11, whatever it was. Could Brian Robinson hit that number this year? Yeah, so I think the reality for both of these guys is that they aren't the pass catcher and they will either. unfortunately split the short down goal line work or one of them will win that job. And we don't know for sure who it's going to be. They each can lay claim to it should be me. And so if you want to talk ADP and disparity, they're very similar outcome players here that are being drafted.

worlds apart. I mean, Brian Robinson is basically almost undrafted in your home league. He's in the 15th round right now. While Antonio Gibson, while falling, he gets to a spot where you're like, man, he's been a top guy, and he's in the back of the fourth or the fifth round in home leagues. So I'm not taking Gibson there. I'm fine using a double-digit pick on Brian Robinson at value. But my expectation right now is that both these guys are going to be involved. And if both these guys are involved, and J.D. McKissick has the passing downs roll. I don't think any of them have a great fantasy season. Both becomes three. Exactly. Yes. My overall out. Well, sad. Yeah, what was your takeaway? My takeaway is this is going to be a disaster for fantasy football. Brian Robinson looked good as a runner. But it was, and he was the one, he started the game, but then it was a true rotation of the two. We didn't have McKissick in there to know what, what.

Oh, man. Yeah, you've got to be ready for. Freaking out of me. And then that's where I'm like, oh, man, if you have the three-person rotation, this is going to be brutal. But Gibson, he was mostly a pass catcher in this game, and that's how he was utilized. And he looked fantastic as that, just as a gigantic weapon. So it will be, it's going to be very interesting to see. But as of like right now, I'm probably out just on all of them. That's how I feel, but I'm curious. Al, do you do you do anything else back there? Do you sit there the whole show just waiting for the McKissick drop? Or do you actually have other jobs you do? Because that was, oh, man. That's it. I got one job and I do it well. The offensive line was worse. I know Gibson can catch passes, but it almost scares me more that his job was in the game that McKissick didn't play. That was his job. Like to me, it wasn't like. To me, that seems worrisome. It wasn't just.

Third down stuff. Like he's out there running routes on first and second town. Breaking news. We're hitting the button for this. Baker Mayfield has been announced. Are you surprised, Jason? As the, wait, announces what? As the starter. As a starter in Carolina. Goodness. Wow. Now, they're not going to give them the rest of the first team reps, though, going forward, right? They still want to make sure. Got to be sure. Right. Yeah, I think Matt Rule was finally ready to make the announcement. Let the team know what they already knew. Yeah. Let the team know what the rest of the world already knew. The day you traded for Baker Mayfield, you clown. All right. You've turned on it completely. Big time. I went from love to hate. There is no middle ground. It's not a fine line. Map rule or Malik Willis. I'll take Malik Willis. He has upside with his rock. All right. Back with some more running back news in just a second. All right. Let's talk about the backfield in Buffalo, which I think has become troubling.

to the same degree that it is in Washington. Zach Moss has seemingly earned a role with his performance in camp in the preseason. If you listen to people out in Buffalo, it's been praise for Zach Moss, including goal line work. So you have a situation now where Devin Singletary looks like the locked-in starting running back. Now, I watched every single snap from James Cook. Explosive, different. element brought to this offense. I think he will be good on the touches he gets, but I don't know how many. And then Zach Moss as this, I mean, clog in our clarity for Buffalo. I don't know if I can draft these players. It is tough. I mean, Devin Singletary dominated down the stretch at the end of last year. We got to remember that. And he has.

He looks entrenched as the first guy up. Four for 39, too. He was great. He's being really, I think, more because of James Cook than because of Moss. He's being left for dead in these drafts. So I don't have a problem taking Devin Singletary. Eighth round on Sleeper right now. Yeah, you know, in the eighth round, you could take a shot at having the starter for the Buffalo Bills. And I would say that, you know, the big difference here between, well, this might be a three-headed committee versus Washington is. Okay, Washington does not have enough fantasy football output to split three ways. If you get a passing down guy or the goal line guy or the first and second down guy for the highest scoring team that's going to run so many plays on the course of the season, it's like they get an extra game or two in on the season, then yeah, you could take a shot on those guys. I still have a hard time believing in Zach Moss. He scored two touchdowns.