Fantasy Football - Free Agent Frenzy! + Big Trades - Podcast for 3/11

This is Christian Kirk, and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Tuesday episode, The Fantasy Footballers Mike, the fantasy hit man, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway. Back with you. So much. Yeah, not every off-season show has this much action.

So here we are. There's so much and yet there's still so much that hasn't happened. Well, we are in the midst of the wink wink. We're not talking, but we're talking and signing you, period. But also keep in mind that that legal tampering period, which is the moment you can just start talking. Only takes minutes to figure out contracts because as soon as that deadline strikes, it's like, we have agreed to terms. Which is tampering squared, right? Obviously, you were talking before this moment. You didn't just like one o'clock strikes. You call someone up, hey, dude, you want to do 13? You better take it right now. I need a verbal yes. Okay, we're good. All right. We're docu-signing. Go, go, go, go. No, that's true. It should not be able to happen five minutes later. Someone had one. Five minutes. Yeah, five minutes in.

It was a defensive player. I forget who it was, but yeah. That's ridiculous. But we record off season shows a lot of the times the afternoon before so we can release early morning on Tuesday. We delayed this one because we wanted to get as much information into, you know, news and deals happening every second. I wanted to get that Rico Dattle signing, but. But we wait. Oh, yeah. We wait. We'll do a any minute now, Mike. We'll do a very special episode for that one, Mike. And you can, you can solo that one. Just waiting. So we have piles and piles of news to talk about. I've jotted down a few kind of quick takes. I want to see if you guys agree or disagree with on certain signings. We've had trades.

And we're going to break it all down. I know you guys have been looking forward to it and waiting for it. A reminder real quick at the top. You can watch the show on YouTube. YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballer. Subscribe. Click the bell. You'll know when new episodes drop. And then the giveaway is still going on. A signed Drake, London, Jersey, footclan giveaway.com. And you can enter for free. A lot of you have already done so. And that'll, we'll pick a winner. probably towards the end of the month, but you can get in there now for clang giveaway.com, the Ultimate DraftKit, including the newest update to the Dynasty Pass. That's available at Ultimate DraftKit.com. But I don't want to delay any longer. Let's do it. Free agent frenzy. Well, we got a trade. We thought it was coming. And D.K. Metcalfe, welcome to Pittsburgh. Yeah. He wanted somewhere sunny.

Want to be on that West Coast and have a good quarterback. Warm weather, good quarterback ends up in Pittsburgh. It ends up filthy rich. I mean, this is a deal. Yeah, there it is. Not the only NFL player that chose money over victories or, you know, in Pittsburgh you win at least a little bit. But, you know, Miles Garrett as well, taking the money. We're talking fantasy players here. And DK and Metcalf five years, $150 million deal. Largest deal in Pittsburgh franchise history. And I don't know if we know the full guaranteed money yet, but it's $33 million per year on average. Seahawks get a two. He's 27 years old. His fantasy peak was 2020 where he finishes the wide receiver 7. Since then, the wide receiver 12.

18, 16, and 31. We know that Pittsburgh's had issues at the wide receiver spot for a little while here, and they are trying to fix that with an alpha, who, you know, Jason, you and I talked. We agreed that we view DK Matcalf as a needle mover. Yeah, he is certainly someone that's going to improve a football team. This is not great for fantasy football. I think this is good for the product. of, you know, assisting wins for the Steelers, but I kind of hate the deal. Like, he's a good player. I think he's worth trading a two and give him a contract. But a five-year, $150 million deal for D.K. Metcalf feels like, I mean, I realize if he were a free agent on the open market, because there wasn't a lot of options, maybe he would have got that. But that just feels pretty pricey for, you know, he's 27 right now. So obviously I'm...

We don't have the details. I'm sure once he hits 30, that guaranteed money's probably gone. So it's more like a three-year deal, hopefully. But when I just hear five for 150 plus a second round pick, you don't have a quarterback. Exactly. So it's like, this is weird. It's kind of irrelevant. It's not going to help you if you don't have a quarterback. Well, they, yeah, they've, I feel like, bounced back and forth between quarterback issues and wide receiver issues. trying to patch the quarterback position since Big Ben departed. I mean, on paper with Pickens and Metcalf and Fryermuth, and they tendered Jalen Warren. So Jalen Warren should be back. You have the pieces that would be attractive to a quarterback. The problem is you don't really have a quarterback on the open market that is attractive. Yeah. I mean, who's? Who's left? Yeah, Rogers. You got Russell. Russell could return. And then you've got. I think the best quarterback out there who is somewhat available.

would be Kirk Cousins personally. You just gave me a make of all that money. I think that. I get it. I'd rather have him than Rogers. Yeah. Of those of those three, I would much rather have Kirk Cousins. You feel like Kirk Cousins is just, it's over? I don't know if it's over, but to get Kurt Cousins, it will cost a pick and you will take on a bunch of that contract. Maybe. It's a five, somehow, some way. It's a pick. It's a five year gap. between Cousins and Rogers and H. Rogers is 41. Yes. It's, it will cost you a pick or a pick swap of some type. Unless, unless they cut him. I think there is a world where Kirk Cousins gets cut. Yeah, they would, they would owe him. He would be a massive hit on the cap, but they wouldn't be. I mean, that, that is an avenue that's been talked about. So to pay him, what they're paying him right now is the backup. Dead cap is $65 million. Yeah. I'd.

I know Russ got cut and that was shocking back from the Denver Broncos days, but that's a huge dead cap that you've got to live with for a while. It feels like the way to get rid of him is to have him so discontented with the backup role that he renegotiates and facilitates a trade. He could. But agree or disagree, Seahawks are going to miss D.K. McCaff. Agree. Yeah. I mean, yes, of course their offense will miss him, but they are. Like they got Tyler Lockett's out. Metcalf is out. Gino Smith is out. He got traded to the Las Vegas Raiders for a third round pick, essentially. The Seahawks are retooling some stuff right now. So, I mean, they're going to try and win, but I think that their coaching staff is like, okay, we're going to get our guys in here.

It's actually... Like Sam Darnold. It's a weird thing. Geno Smith went... Did we talk through that trade on this show yet? No. No, no yet. So that's part of the news we need to cover. Traded by the Seahawks to the Raiders for a third rounder. The report said... He's back with Pete. Yeah, back with Pete Carroll. The report said that, you know, they made him a pretty generous offer and he never... He turned it down and then never submitted a counteroffer to Seattle and then requested a trade. He goes to Las Vegas. It's a huge upgrade for Brock Bowlers. Oh, my goodness. It's massive. And then the other name just being mentioned that maybe, you know, Jacobi Myers, right? Like, you know, we don't know what they do in the draft and what they have a wide receiver. But right now, like, Gino Smith, I'm not the biggest Gino Smith fan. Like I don't think he's the kind of quarterback who's going to take you the distance. It's one of the things I criticized about him in Seattle. And so.

They agreed, apparently, to the point of making a move. But he's a huge upgrade on what Las Vegas had in their potential. And if they go out and they draft Gentie at six or they get some more offensive weapons. Team Mac. Yeah, yeah. Teteroa McMillan. Yep. If they land some more assets on that offense, it's pretty formidable. They paid Max Crosby. Pete Carroll is the kind of head coach that. is very impactful, I think, your first couple of years in a locker room on a culture. Not saying that they're going to be hyper competitive, but they'll be a better football team. Yeah, they will. If I were building a franchise, and I know the contracts weren't equal, but I would rather have Gino Smith than Sam Darnold without question. So I think that's a huge upgrade for the Raiders, probably the best they could have done this offseason. It's so exciting for Brock. Like, Gino Smith.

has over his tenure as the starter for Seattle, he's been one of the most accurate quarterbacks in football. I mean, you got three years as a starter for him. He's over, he's basically at 4,300 yards for two of the three. One more down year, but he only played 15 games. The touchdowns aren't where we would hope for him to be, but for what, if you got Bowers on your dino team and you're staring down Aidan O'Connell and all these other guys and just, Who could it possibly be? Even a rookie. Like Gino's, exactly. Yeah, it doesn't. There's no, it's better than a rookie. It's massive. It's massive. It's so much better. They're like the Raiders didn't seem like they had an avenue to get yourself a competent quarterback for, for fantasy purposes. But this is a home run if you got Bowers.

Yeah, what were those numbers? You said, 4,300 passing yards? So in 2022, he was at 42, 82, so just under, and then last year was over 4,300. That's just not a realistic goal for a rookie quarterback company. No, it ended up with Sanders or who's the Jackson Dart. Yeah. So this is, it's huge for Bowers and whatever else they have in the passing game. It's weird with circling back to Seattle and losing Geno Smith and losing Metcalfe and losing Tyler Lockett. And then you see what's happening in San Francisco. For those they haven't followed, you know, they lost. Everybody? They lost. They are burning it down. And piles of players. The 49ers also traded Debo Samuel. They let go of Kyle Eusecheck. Yeah. You still got to pay Brock Purdy. Brandon Ayuk is on the edge of being traded potentially, which I, because teams are after a wide receiver. I think New England's still in play there. So.

You've got two teams in the NFC West that are not going to look the same at all. Maybe the Steelers should be looking at Brock Purdy. You know what I mean? Just because the Niners, they want out of everybody. Just go knocking. We had another trade. It had been reported that Christian Kirk was going to get released. We expected him to be released. And the Texans said, let's bypass the open market here. Let's send a seventh round draft pick. and take on Christian Kirk's existing contract. You know, if you're Christian Kirk, are you happy about that existing contract being paid out? Or would you have been happier negotiating your final deal at 28 years old? That's more than one year. But, I mean, you get paid $16.5 million to go to. Yeah, I think he should be happy with that. To go to Houston. Here's my agree or disagree on this one. Christian Kurt is better than Tank Dell.

Ooh, that's a really good question. Christian Kirk is better than tankedel and obviously injury notwithstanding. Yeah, we're talking two-legged tankdell here. Well, yeah, we had two-leg tanked for most of the year before the injury. And it was a- He was like one. I'll go away. I'll give him like one and a half. It was a disappointing year for tankedale. I'm just curious how you would answer that question in reality. My initial instinct is yes. He is better. He's a he's a very. proven veteran wide receiver, who I do not believe is aged out for the way he plays. He's going to be in the right spot. And I think he's a really good match for C.J. Stroud, that accurate be in the right spot, timing, throwing, I think it'll work really well. So a good compliment for Nico Collins in Houston. They did trade away. Their offensive line. Yeah, I mean, Laramie Tunzel dealt to Washington. So C.J. Stroud.

Unless Christian Kirk is going to play left tackle, he's going to need some more help. And they traded their offensive guard. It's so weird to me that they have multiple pieces on this offensive line. I believe they lost three players, traded two of them. And they have multiple players on this offensive line that other teams really want trade a lot for. You know, the Eagles, I forget the guard's name, but the Eagles traded for him. The Texans' offensive line stunk. Kenyon Green? Like their offensive line was terrible last year. So I don't know how to reconcile these individual players being seen as great, but then their offensive line was just like not. I don't think you look at him as great. Tunsell is great. Like the metrics on him are he is an elite left tackle. He is going to like, but he, his contract situation is going to be really intense here coming up very, very soon.

So the other guys I get, yes, we got to get rid of them. But it's you got to get people in. If these guys were the starters and it was not happening, you would have put the backups in if you had options to replace that offensive line. So they're going to have to make some moves. Don't be surprised. Yeah, when the NFL draft transpires and they are heavily into. fixing the offensive line. Tunzel will be 31 before the season starts as well. So some decisions to be made there. So those were the big trades other than the Browns getting Kenny Pickett. Super Bowl champion, Kenny Pickett. They fixed it. Not quite. But let's talk about the signings here. The Seahawks fixed their, you know, they trade away Gino Smith and then they went out and paid $100 million to Sam Darnold, who will depart.

the cozy Minnesota situation with Kevin O'Connell in an offensive line and Jefferson and Addison and Hawkinson and Aaron Jones and we'll go to Seattle where they just let go of D.K. Metcalfe, where J.S.N. is existing all by himself in an empty room right now. How do you feel about this move for Seattle? Do you feel like it was a desperate move because things didn't work out with Gino Smith? Do you feel like it was the right move? Obviously, from an affordability standpoint, they're paying Sam Darnold. Like, if I want to defend them, they're paying a player that led a team to 14 wins that was a higher tier quarterback last year, production-wise. And they're paying him $20 million less per year than Jordan Love. And they got a second-round pick added to the roster. Right. So, I mean, if Sam Darnold is competent or close to Gino or better than Gino,

I mean, maybe he leveled up. The way he played football last year, you have to give him his props. He was an outstanding. Yes, for 15 of 17 games. 4,300 yards, 35 touchdowns, 12 picks, the quarterback 8 in fantasy, 27 years old. So not old. I mean, that was great. That's younger than Burrow, isn't it? Is he? Joe Burrow. Yes, it is. Joe Burrough came in as an old man. So Sam Donald is actually younger than Joe Burrow. But still. Every year it keeps coming back. You know, it is very difficult to see Sam Darnold, who, you know, you were saying before the show, he was a starter in Carolina. He was a starter in New York. We've seen him not be great and get rattled. And then he did awesome work this last year for the majority of his games. But it was in a perfect situation. And I look at the situation in Seattle.

post Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf with a new coordinator coming in. Do you like Kubiak and Darnold as a combination? I mean, I like that I think Kubiak is going to try to focus on setting up the run and protect Donald in that way. But I just don't know that he has the offensive line or the offensive weapons. If you had to bet on Darnold being a top 14 fantasy quarterback this year. I would bet against it. I wasn't sure where to set the line. Apparently I set it too low. Too high. Too high, I mean, yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you had said 16, okay, maybe he could be a top half. Sam Darnel doesn't strike me as a quarterback that makes things happen when things go bad. You look at the trade years ago with the Rams and the Lions. You had two good quarterbacks. Yeah, I know where you're going with this, for sure. You had two good quarterbacks in Jared Goff and Matthew Stafford. But to the Rams, they said, look, golf.

golf can only do so much. And even though they had a good team with them, they were willing to trade a ton a haul to upgrade to Matthew Stafford because when plays break down, when the pocket is moving, when improvisation needs to happen, Stafford can make things happen. I don't see that for Donald. If you put Donald on the Detroit Lions, I think Donald would be awesome. having that great offensive line, a lot of weapons in the receiving game. I mean, we saw that to a certain extent last year in Minnesota. That's not how I view Seattle. I view Seattle as it's going to be a difficult year. And Sam Donald, I don't know that he overcomes that pressure. It's just wild because this is a 10-win team that retools on offense. Your quarterback changes. And the Seattle fans, like, I...

Hopefully you're not taking any of the negativity to be biased from us against Seattle. They're coming out on Twitter and saying, give me hope. Let me know it's going to be okay. That's what I'm here. Sure. So, yeah, I mean, do you have any thoughts on Arnold? The final piece is it was leaked. Allegedly, the Minnesota Vikings offered him a one year, $25 million deal. That was what I had seen. Yeah, because they want him to be. They want McCarthy to take over. They have J.J. McCarthy waiting there, but you're coming off of, like, this isn't the Kirk Cousins Michael Pennick situation in Atlanta. It was like, you got halfway through the season, and Kurt Cousins was failing miserably for you. Like, Darnold was a success. 14 wins, and the Minnesota Vikings didn't really want him back.

A one-year offer to a guy who just won 14 games is not a stamp of full confidence. So that would weigh into it for me, too, if I'm Seattle. Yeah, that's interesting. All right. Justin Fields has a new home. We'll tell you about it in just a second. All right. Well, we, you know, we made our free agent predictions, and this is one that went to the place we thought he would. Justin Fields, two-year deal with the New York Jets. Justin Fields, a starter again. $40 million deal, $30 million guaranteed. Started for now, I should say. Yes. I don't feel like he's the guarantee he started for two years. But 26 years old, averaged 55 rushing yards per game over the last three seasons. He was a top 12 fantasy quarterback and 60% of his starts in the last three years when he does start. Agree or disagree. Justin Fields in New York is a top eight fantasy quarterback. Ooh, that's a good line. Strong line.

I'm going to go, yes. I think he'll be right about there. The tough one. It is. It is tough one. You got a lot of, you know, New York stank. You could have said top 10. I think that would have been an easy, like, yeah, I'll, I'll buy that. Top eights? But I mean, that's the point is he's right around there, a low end quarterback one. He's going to be a very fun later round. When you can run like he runs. I mean, averaging 55 rushing yards a game is monstrous for a quarterback. That's why he's always been so good for fantasy. That's a full touchdown. Right. Yeah, you just auto start with a touchdown. What do you, like big picture for New York, Brees Hall, Garrett Wilson, whomever they add in the draft class, like Justin Fields.

Doesn't he bring quite a few question marks to what you're getting out of those other players? Oh, for sure. I mean, this is not great. This is great news that Justin Fields is a starting quarterback for fantasy at the quarterback position. But at the other positions, this is bad news. Breece Hall, you know, we've talked about how the only place that he has thrived over the last two seasons has been in the receiving game. And that is not usually what mobile quarterbacks are going to, you know, check down, nor should they. It's a, it's, you know, a better move for the, the team to scramble and run. Use your own legs. Have that extra blocker out there versus checking the ball down. So Brees, I think, takes a hit. Garrett Wilson is still. There's hope. Yeah. I know. I know. I mean, there's. Is that the official position of all Garrett? Yes. Wilson managers, Mike. What was that sound? It. It. We. The Wilson. Hi.

We'll look at what DJ Moore did in 2023 and just be like, it can happen. So, okay, that's where I'll put it. It can happen. It can happen. Hey, they played together in college. This is reuniting. I'm sure that they're both super pumped. And it's just, it can happen. It's, I wonder how much Wilson might have impacted the choice. Design. Well, I mean, his whole entire mindset changed with like, hey, I want out in New York and then it's like. Once Rogers left, it's like maybe the writing was on the wall. All right. All right. Hear me out, fellas. Rogers comes in. Okay, Garrett Wilson was there. Garrett Wilson was set to be the star wide receiver. Rogers comes in and he has full control. And what does Rogers do? He brings in all of his guys, right? Lazard Adams, Cobb. And then once he gets Adams, what does he do? He just keeps throwing the ball to Adams. And here's Garrett Wilson watching this going, this is awful. I hate this. Wait, wait.

What if? What if I brought in a quarterback buddy of mine from college? And then he just throws it to me every play. It's not a bad plan. So the quick reminder of like the Garrett Wilson season is so strange. It's so weird because he finished as a top 10 fantasy wide receiver. Man, it doesn't feel like it. Wow. That feels like breaking news. Seven touchdowns. But the like the, the. right before Devante Adams got there. There was this stretch where Rogers and Garrett had figured at least something out, like from weeks five through nine. So, you know, a five game stretch, wide receiver five, two, twenty, fifteen, three, and then Adams took over in the offense. So it's there for Garrett. If we get a full hyper-targeting from Justin Fields, then things could be okay. The rest of the team?

I don't feel great about Brees. No, his target share should go down. And losing potential some goal line, you know, run option situations with Justin Fields, the target totals where Brees did excel. Those are nerve-wracking. Braylon Allen being still a young talent there that could work in. It is a bit nerve-wracking there. Daniel Jones to the Colts. It makes sense. I think it's a pretty perfect signing. They said they want to compete. You know, at the quarterback position, they're not handing the job to Anthony Richardson. You can run the same style of offense. Daniel Jones. Daniel Jones. Then Anthony Richardson? Yes. So do you, how many starts does Richardson get next year? Do you, if you had to. Send me a line. Ten. Under. The line is now seven. Seven. That was where I was going to go originally. That's a good one. So even having this be debated is,

It's not good for Colts fans. Because if that, you're basically guaranteeing some sort of transition to quarterback at some point during the year, which is not a great feeling. Richardson got benched for Joe Flacco. Yeah. For Joe Flacco. Like this is, it, it will be the entirety of the year. Like Anthony Richardson's margin for error is so incredibly small. You give him. Let's say the Colts start 4-0. He rips off two straight bad games after a 4-0 start. The media will be calling for Richardson to get benched. That's the big risk with Richardson is that you can have games that are catastrophic. You can have the game where you have two fumbles and two picks and you complete 31% of passes. And then it just looks like you're desperate.

Yeah, I mean, and then because Daniel Jones is there, that means that Anthony Richardson will almost certainly get the rug pulled out. The only way that Colts fans are happy this year, genuinely, is if Anthony Richardson play 17 games. If Anthony Richardson play 17 games, you guys are thrilled. So every Colt fan out there, don't be rooting for Daniel Jones. That is not your future. That's not a happy path. Yeah, root for wasting 13 and a half guarantee. Yeah, which by the way is way more than Anthony Richardson, I believe, is getting this year. Yeah, that's kind of wild. I mean, Daniel Jones could have gone back to Minnesota. That was an option. But looked at the competition of, you know, McCarthy being anointed versus Richardson leaving an opportunity. And I feel like 13.