The TRUTH: RBs Part 2 + Late Round Hits - Fantasy Football Podcast for 1/28

Welcome to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Pack it up. We're done? Pack it up? Yeah, we're done. Oh, no, man, no. I disagree with you. Are you talking about the season like we're all good here? It's a wrap. I think Andy is disappointed. in the Super Bowl outcome of who's playing it. Is that what the take is? Tongue in cheek, yes. I'm not actually, I mean, when it arrives, it will be an event. We're watching history. And, you know, that's what will be on TV that day. I get it. I think everyone in the world, you know, you're always rooting for the underdog. No one's rooting for the chiefs this last weekend, unless you're.

from Kansas City or you're wearing a Kansas City Chief's hat. No one was rooting for them. And I think on the other side, everyone was rooting for Jaden Daniels and the Cinderella story of the commander. So I totally get that. But I think people are really missing the fact that I think the two best teams are in the Super Bowl and they're both incredibly awesome teams. And it's a rematch from a couple years ago. There's a lot of storylines I actually like about this. I could tell that was the angle you were going to take on the show today. You want to know why?

Tell me. Because you're the only person in our live game Slack channel that didn't think Josh Allen got the first down. So I knew, I knew we were coming in here. I didn't think you got it either. I knew we were coming in here and you would be, you know. I mean, make no mistake. I was rooting for the bills. I was very upset with a lot of the play calling, the constant failures on the, the single tush push. There is. taking James Cook out of the game way too often. Yeah, and I think that was Blitz pickup stuff, and I agree with you on the take. I saw you tweet that. I do feel a sense we have a responsibility. I want to get this off on the right track. I want to put the fandom of the NFL, the average NFL fan on the right pathway here, which is not to focus on. Did they get the first down or this play? Did it hit the ground?

or any of those, I mean, yes, there were some bad calls, in my opinion. There were some bad calls. Game was still a great game. Big play still had to happen. Two third downs and had to happen at the end of the game, which Andy Reid is just unstoppable on those. You know, what makes the Chiefs more irritating is that they don't mess them up. Right. And that's what comes down to Mahomes. Like, Somaget Piron, for the third down line to gain in the game instead of giving us a minute with Josh Allen. He hadn't played in the game. Can you drop it? What if you screwed up? What if the chief screw up? What if they had a player like Dalton Kincaid that had the ball go right through hit their hands? And it doesn't have to be, you know, someone that has been a failure like Dalton Kikade. Like you've seen, you've seen Sequin Barclay have a couple of those mess ups this year and drop the importance. Mark Andrew's a great player. Just screw up, Casey. Nobody screws up there. But you know what's funny is like, how they win.

Mahomes is really, really good. And we can complain about the calls. We can complain about the short area passing versus his heyday of airing it out. But it's like, put him aside, Andy Reed is so good. Like Mahomes did nothing great on that third down. I was watching the play. I'm rooting against the Chiefs. I see the whole play developed the entire offense goes to the right. And there's Peter Ryan just leak it out. hidden. No one could see him wide open. You're like, that is such a good design. And on the play where Kincaid drops the miracle throw from Josh Allen, the fadeaway jumper from the back right corner, look, he had Shakir on the same P-Rine play on the left side of the field wide open. That could have been the read. It's funny because you said, okay, give Andy Reed credit, give Mahomes credit. They deserve a lot of credit. What's crazy, though, is it was the supporting cast. It's the Spagnola. It's the defensive side of the ball. Josh Allen has played in

In his three games against the Chiefs in the playoffs, he hasn't thrown an interception. He hasn't fumbled the football. He has nine touchdowns. He's done literally everything you can do, but you can't stop the Chiefs with 13 seconds left two years ago. You can't stop the Chiefs on third down twice on the final drive. He is. As an Arizona native, as an Arizona native, I have always thought, and I think statistically speaking across the major sports, and I don't count baseball on that, we are. We are the saddest fan base. Like we've had winning franchises. We've never won anything of relevance. The Cardinals have never won a Super Bowl. They never will. The sons have never won the championship. They never will never. But we got nothing on the Bills. I feel so bad for the Bills fans who have, I mean, they just, they root through the bad times, through the good times. They've had so many good times that will never, ever result in the championship. It's just, it's so sad. One team wins every year.

Everybody else failed. Everybody else screwed it up. You mean the Chiefs? The Chiefs win every year. So I agree. It's kind of, it's boring in terms of fatigue, like the two teams that are there. But looking it up, because I was like, I don't know of, because this is a game of not just this year. Like that's how I'm going to try and look at this game in my brain. Like, this is a game, this is a legacy. This is greatness of you either have. the three Pete from Mahomes, which that will be a, it's never been done. And that will be, even if he doesn't catch Tom Brady. Like, that'll be its own market. If you're like, that guy got three in a row and it would be what four and five years something like that. You're like, maybe he's, maybe we can just call it. Say that's the greatest of all time. And then on the other side, there's one quarterback who has two Super Bowl victories, at least.

My quick research while you guys were talking, Kyle, you can correct me if you know, there's only one quarterback in the Super Bowl era who has two Super Bowl wins and is not in the Hall of Fame. I mean, like Eli's, we still have time to go for him to see if he gets in or not, but like Jim Plunkett has two Super Bowl wins with the Raiders and no Hall of Fame. Am I right on that, Kyle? You go ahead and vet that. So, but like, that's, I've never thought of. Well, is Jane LaHertz going to be a Hall of Fame type? Well, he would have to get, I was going to say he would have to get another championship after this year. Oh, he didn't. We were at that game. Yeah, no. We had really good season there, Mike. You were right there, Mike. I was mixing the Eagles win in or the Nick Falls one. Yeah. Okay. My bad, everybody. So just undo most of what you said.

I guess it's not, well, what a boring game. But hey, that you're trying to make a reason to root for me. I'm rooting for Sequin. That's the only side of that team that I want to win. You can't win a second Super Bowl without the first. So this is the beginning of your argument. That's true. I agree. Saquan is the storyline on the Eagle side that I'm rooting for the most. I hate to admit it, but like I've. No, you don't. You don't hate to admit it. Oh, I do. I don't want to say it out loud. Oh, no, you've been saying it in every way, shape, and form. I think I'm rooting for the chiefs. Big ref, big chiefs over here. No, you've always been big ref. Not anymore. I'm getting, get rid of all formation rules. Um, yeah, 5523 eagles over the commanders. 3229 chiefs over the bills.

A much closer game for the Commander's Eagles than that score. I mean, the majority of the game was pretty close and tight. They were within. I mean, they were within 11 points. I mean, there you go. I mean, there you go. That's a two-score game. But that's a close game. They had one drive in the middle of the game that they turned the ball over for the third time where they could have brought it closer. When you're down by 11 and you have the ball, that's a close game. I will say that I just felt bad. for Jaden Daniels who played outstanding because his team kept fumbling the ball. Yeah, they did. Yeah, you don't win giving up 55 points and three turnovers. But once you get to the end of the game, like they had to go for it. It was like fourth and long on the 30 or so of you. It's like, well, we don't have a choice. And that's when the score gets blown out of proportion. I thought that game was fantastic. Washington played a really.

strong game despite giving up 55 points in the end and the the future for the commanders very bright is very very bright all right we will talk some more news news and notes from around the league presented by usaa insurance the raiders hired adam feeling as their head coach oh wait that's pete carroll 73 years young He does seem younger than several head coaches. Yeah. I actually think it's a very good hire. You've got a guy who I don't know what's going on today. No, what is happening here? No, it's not. I'm not allowed to have my own opinions here if they don't follow yours. But you're just wrong. Okay. Let's hear it. Okay. Here's, I believe that the Raiders as an organization have not been the most functional, right? You've got this owner at the top who's obviously been a little bit too meddling.

And you're going from, you know, a lot of times random head coach to random head coach. Gruden was a stabilizing force, but that obviously ended in, you know, an upheaval, a bad fact. Yes, because of things that weren't really football related. Right. Pete Carroll is a stabilizing force. I know he's old. He's 73. That's insanely old for a head coach. However, he. For a human. I don't. Sure, for a human, for any job. For a working human, 73 is extremely old. But he's an outlier. I mean, you could say that it 31 is extremely old for a running back. That's also a fact that's true. But Derek Henry's an outlier. And I think Pete Carroll has more energy than I have, has pretty much always been part of winning programs. And when he got fired, it was a surprise. I don't think people were, he wasn't on the hot seat.

And so I believe he is a good coach. So when I look at higher Biden as offensive coordinator. It makes sense. I mean, they're, you know, probably cousins. I, you know, this is to me when I'm thinking, is it a good hire for a head coach? My first question is, well, is he a good coach? I'm going to agree with Jason on this on the principle that of what was remaining, which they failed horribly to acquire any of the coaches they actually wanted. This was the one that's going to most. positively impact the locker room and probably be a bridge to a future situation. Now, it was not a long-term plan. I mean, if they end up like some, I think Jeremiah's mock draft has Shadoor Sanders there at six. You know, we've seen Pete Carroll and a rookie quarterback before make waves. Players will respect Pete Carroll. I agree with that, Brooks. You have a situation that was kind of just dysfunctional through and through over the last few years.

So, you know, in that regard, look, it's probably a better NFL to see Pete Carroll chewing bubblegum on the sidelines. And Peach cobbler back in the business? I'm in full agreement that Pete Carroll is an excellent coach. It's just you're, he's 73. And the Raiders job is that thing, that thing is the ashes right now. There is, there is absolute nothing. That's how you get another job in 73. I'll tell you that. You're trying to build your program up with like, Pete Carroll has taken over an orphaned dynasty team. I see. That's what has happened. And Pete Carroll, I mean. He's probably got more testosterone than the three of us combined. He might. There was the video of him getting into office in, in Raiders office today. And I'm like, I'm, I'm, I'm analyzing this. And it's, that guy does not walk around like he is 73. 73. Like they're good. He just.

I do. He can just move. I do. Like, when I'm walking down the hall, I'm like, oh, my hip. 73. I hope it works. Do you like it more or less than the Jaguars and Liam Cohen? We had the absolute, like a three-movie spectacle, the Liam Cohen Adventures. We announced on our show. Yeah, we did. We had it in the news that. Which was reported because of. It being reported by, you know. Yeah, I mean, it was it was officially reported. It obviously was not officially signed that he was remaining with the Bucks as the head coach. It's great for continuity and all of that. O.C. Or as the O.C. And, um, eight. Nope. Eight offensive coordinators in eight years for Baker Mayfield now. That's got to be a record. And Liam Cohen, what happened is he had, they had extended him the contract to make him the highest paid offensive coordinator ever. And he hadn't signed it.

And instead of signing it on Thursday morning, he secretly traveled on a quote, he reported a personal matter to Tampa Bay. It was very personal. At that point, you have to take that job. And then went to Jacksonville, didn't tell them that he was in Jacksonville and kind of, yeah, set up the next tenure here. Do you? think because it's funny the way that that process played out i keep going back and forth obviously these these are humans with relationships you know baker bowls they're their friend they're they're a friend to this man but also friends can piss you off and do things to end friendships and i wonder if the fact that it seemed like oh you're coming back and then you secretly go and get another job are they happy for him or are they mad at him mad

Yeah, I mean, that was my first guess. I think they're going to feel a level of betrayal. And it, like, this all didn't happen. The reexamination of the hire, that didn't happen until the Jaguars fired the GM, right? Tramalky. Which was like that, to me, it's like this is one of the problems of the Jags of why are you going to go take that job? If you have a GM who you just, you don't have faith in and you, like, this person's controlling so much of my job right now, I don't want to be a part of it. And it was a shock that they kept him on when the season first ended. It kind of figured like this would be a full clear house. They didn't. It almost costs them getting their guy. But eventually they make the decision. Oh, I forgot. I forgot that that was the, that was the Zoom interview. Yes. Where the owner and the GM were both on it. And they were asked like, would you replace the GM? And he's like, yeah, if something better came along, I would. He's right next to him.

You know, you're going to start seeing the Travis ETN and the Bucky Irving role type of videos coming out and all of the projection of how they might run the Jacksonville offense. Because that's how it always works. Well, look, with Jacksonville, some teams you might be able to do that and say, you know what, this is going to really be special when this guy comes into this situation. I'm going to make them show me that first on the field in Jacksonville with the way that Trevor Lawrence has been inconsistent, ETN inconsistent. Maybe it makes you more excited about stability for Brian Thomas Jr. moving forward. The problem with the Bucky Irving role, in quotes, is that it was him. Yeah, it was Bucky. The role was he's super explosive and he's breaking tackles and getting away from people. If you want to talk about the Rashad White role from a couple years ago where he was a great pass catcher, that makes sense. That was more of the role. Well, today's the Truth episode part two for running back, so we will talk about both Bucky and Mr. White.

Yeah. The Seahawks replaced the one-year trial of Ryan Grub with Clint Kubiak, their new offensive coordinator. Run that ball. I mean, this is a defensive head coach that wants to run the ball. Grub came in, said all the right thing, said he was going to run the ball, and then they threw it a lot, and I don't think that that was what was desired. The Cowboys hired Brian Schottenheimer to be their next head coach. They're going to hire Matt Eber Fluse as their defensive coordinator. All right, guys. Tell me how to feel about Schottenheimer. This one is fascinating. So if 10 is excited and one is as unexcited as you can get, Brooks as a cowboy fan, you're on the microphone, I think. Do we have Brooks with us? Yeah, sorry, which is the least excited side? The small number, Brooks. The small number, Brooks.

We'll give them a two. Okay. I think that's been the general sentiment. Jerry Jones coming out and saying, look, I can live outside the box. Here's a guy without coaching experience. I'm making him a head coach. Did you see him get teary-eyed at the press conference? I think that was today talking about how he, you know, he's known this guy and he's talked to a bunch of people about him. I mean, look, I'm fine with it. I really am. What's your one through 10? Excitement? Excitement? It can't be more than a four. I am a four. A four and excitement, but an eight inconsistency. So, like, we thought losing Kellan Moore would lead to the demise of the offense. And instead, what it led to was the success of Dak Prescott as a fantasy asset and C.D. Lamb as a fantasy asset to the nth degree. So in that regard, you're going to have stability. And to that...

I'm happy about that because those are the players that I care about on that offense. Yeah, Jerry Jones did confirm that Schopenheimer is going to be the play caller as well, at least to start, which could be good news for going from McCarthy trying to get a little bit more action in the motion, you know, pre-snap stuff that the Cowboys didn't really do. And it could be like everything in the NFL is chicken or egg, you know, do you have the offense? Do you have the players that can actually run the offense? But there was an ESPN write-up that Hayden Winks had tweeted about with the quote. In 12 years, as a play caller, Schottenheimer had four offenses finished inside the top 10 in points per game and three times in the top half in the league in yards per game. So we have plenty of years of Schottenheimer. You know, it's like, oh, he was with the Jets. You know, so.

It's hard to really know, but did they win? I don't really care about wins and loss. I care about points. For fantasy, yeah. Well, we're talking philosophically why they would hire a player or hire a coach. They do care about wins in the NFL. Yes, and he has, as an OC, you know, like win-loss percentage the last, aside from last year, you know, the four years before that with a couple years with Seattle, it's good. Right. I'm just curious. I didn't know the answer to that. But Bobby Slowick went from a hot. Bobby Sloak was the offensive coordinator for the Texans now fired. We bemoaned his play calling from the jump this year after loving it last year. It's one of the reasons Houston believes they took a step back with C.J. Stroud was predictable play calling, no adjustments. Basically everything that Liam Cohen did well, Sloick did poorly. That man.

flew in not too close to the sun he flew into the sun sometimes you're projected to be a top five pick and you go back to college yep and it don't work out and your career never happens that was that was bobby slow he could have had any of the jobs last year as whatever was open last year i get you didn't want to take him but whoops i'm impressed by the texans to make the change it's very difficult to go to the second round of the playoffs two years in a row and then say we need to remove our offensive coordinator. But having that kind of thoughtful introspection on what is good and what could be improved, I'm pretty impressed because the play calling was, I think, very poor. All right. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. We'll take a break. We'll hit the running backs. All right. It's time to get back into the truth.

You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers. I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. We still have a Saints head coaching job to figure out, don't we? Yes. There was a... Is Cliff going to end up in... So Joe Brady... Or Mike McCarthy? Maybe. I mean, like you said, it's Slim Pickens left. Joe Brady has elected to remain with Buffalo. He's going to stay... He was garnering interest. And so I think... what happened here is he saw what Liam Cohen did on like, I'm totally, I'm totally going to stay with the bucks. And then the, you know, and then the Jags are like, oh, well, we'll, we'll steal you. I don't know. Not really. That is the last coaching job left. We also, Cliff can interview now. He's got time. Monkin, Todd Monken, the OC for the Ravens. It was also, I don't know if he signed it. Yeah. Or if they were working on the extension, but that's, whew.

That's fantastic news for Ravens Fantasy Football. All right. We're back into the running backs. We covered the top eight last week. Today we'll get into the names like Camara, Connor, Chase Brown, Jonathan Taylor, and talk about the truth, which is our analysis of their consistency and their actual value to your fantasy team when contrasted to their fantasy finish. And how impactful were they? We talked through eight names. One of the headline takeaways for running backs in 2024 was that Well, it wasn't a year for zero RB. The elite running backs, they crushed. Yes, McCaffrey was a bust with the 101 or 102 in your league. But you look at the next 10 guys off the board, you had a lot of hits. Bijan, Gibbs, Saquan, Kyran, Henry, A. Chan, these are names that we brought up in the first running back truth episode. There was a small pocket.

of late round hits that happened. Chase Brown in the 10th round, Chuba Hubbard in the 11th round. But, you know, it took Chase Brown a while to get going, so that didn't help you right out of the gate. And then, you know, J.K. Dobbins was a contributor. So there was a little run there in the 10th, 11th, and 13th round. Yeah, I would give. There was reinforcements. There wasn't, right. Like these aren't. Not league winners. Yeah, well, I mean, Chase Brown was a league winner, but if you. managed to hold on to him long. It wasn't a week two. Oh, here we go. Here was the late round hit that's going to be consistent all year long. They were just, they were like band-aids. I will say that, you know, when projecting out these late-round guys, got to give credit to Mike, because he was talking about the teams that you want being, you know, chargers, bangles.

And cowboys. And those were three of the only later round running backs that did much of anything. I think the real reason zero RB didn't work is there wasn't a bunch of waiver wire pickups because the top guys, you know, didn't get injured. So the waiver wire is usually where the anti-fragility becomes a strength. Yes. And outside of Bucky at the very end of the season, there wasn't a whole lot. Yeah. When you bring out Bucky, I started to think about the narrative and data that surrounds the, you know, there's a rookie writing back that always ends up in that top tier. Well, it wasn't the ones you, it wasn't, you know, Trey Benson wasn't one of those guys. And Jonathan Brooks. Blake Corum. It wasn't anybody that was predictably drafted even towards the end, Marshawn Lloyd. Like those were the four names that got brought up a ton, even Jalen Wright. None of those guys contributed. The guy that contributed was a free agent running back, Buck Irving, who came in and just kind of stole away the job. And then, um,

We had. Tyrone Tracy for the Giants was pretty good. All right. So a quick refresh reminder for you. We're looking at their game log. How many great games of 21 or more points? How many good games, 12 or more points? How many bus games? Fewer than seven points. Coming in at number nine on the fantasy finish list with a consistency rank of six. Tried and true. Alvin Camara. We did it again. Now we got hurt. down the stretch. So if you, you know, Camara and James Connor to me were two of the best running back values for the entire season, right? You had Camara in the fifth round, Connor in the fifth round, both of those guys in the top 12. And Camara did it for you pretty much the whole year. You just didn't get them during the fantasy playoffs. Yeah, that was a real shame. And I'm not sure.

How much of that was, you know, towards the very, the very, very end of the season, you know, the final three weeks was just shut him down because you had no one else out there. He's a veteran. You know, you don't have your quarterback. You don't have your wide receiver. You don't have your tight in. Like, everybody got injured. So why put him out there? I'm going to be honest with you. He's 29 years old. I'm not usually in on, you know, aging running backs into their 30s. I'm going to be in on Camara. I feel like we've worried about his age for.

the last two seasons, and he just catches the ball so much that for fantasy football purposes, I think he has a very safe floor. He wasn't always, you know, having those incredibly powerful week-winning performances. You know, he did very early in the season, like week two. But it was very hard for him to not have a good fantasy game when you're targeted as much as he is. There is a, yeah, there is. There is a comfort level with. Derek Carr being back and they seem to have confidence that Derek Carr is going to be their quarterback. That gives me confidence that, you know, he will throw the ball to Alvin Camero and take the path of least resistance oftentimes in the offense. He was much better against bottom half defenses, like eight fantasy points per game better when it was a matchup that, you know, you could see coming, so to speak, and defenses that weren't strong.