NFL Coaching Changes, Fantasy Impact + Top Rookie Picks

Great for your fantasy team. And Derek Carr being an MVP candidate through the beginning of the season. And he can hyper-target one person. Yes, he can. And Antonio Brown could get hyper-target. He will request it. He will. I mean, you start to look at the teams with younger quarterbacks and you just wonder, do you even want them in the locker room? Would you want Antonio Brown going into the New York Jets locker room year to Sam Darnel? Yep. And saying, obviously, it helps Sam Darnold from a, like on the field. You would think it would help him.

But you had situations earlier in the career of Tony Romo where, you know, it's like T.O. Every play wants the ball. It's just an interesting decision for GM. Yes, it is. All right. The chiefs are discussing a record-setting deal with contract year-wide receiver Tyreek Hill. Tyreek Hill earned it. That's what I will say. He did. And how does this make you feel about Tyreek and dynasty implications for Palma Holmes? I mean, you've got to feel great, right? Yeah, he's a top five guy for me.

All right, no thoughts, Jason. No, same. It's great news for every Kansas City chief player, their dynasty outlook, all of that. A little bit of news as well about the Colts. Supposedly in strong pursuit of Tyrell Williams. I've seen Tyrell Williams attached to the Raiders as well. Yeah, if they get brown, I wouldn't think they're going to go after Tyrell. I spoke this to due existence. Hopefully. Let's do this. Let's predict right here, right now on the show.

where we think Antonio Brown's going. And if it's the Raiders, that's fine. You can go with it. I'm going to stick with the Raiders. I want the Niners. I think the Raiders. I believe it'll be Tennessee. Nice. I think it'll be the Tennessee Titans. Interesting. Yeah. I have not heard that at all. I've heard a little bit. Yeah. So that was today's news and notes. Look, if you hate your fantasy app, got a solution for you. Download the best one. The best free fantasy app on iOS and Android.

The Sleeper app, you get those news reports, you'll find out where Antonio Brown is, ASAP. You guys ready to talk about some coaches? Yes. Coaching Carousel. Yeah. The nice part about that is there's actually somebody in the room today who I'm sure knows that homage, unlike the uncultured swine who sit before me. You're correct. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to think about it. But I will say it wasn't quite the beatboxing experience we had yesterday.

But that's a good thing. All right. Last year. I don't know. I've heard a lot of chatter for commission tips. Seven coaches. We're on the carousel last year. This year, seven head coaches. Once again, making their way to the top of the ladder. Let's start in Arizona. Let's talk about Cliff Kingsbury. Replaces Steve Wilkes. Steve Wilkes got a one-year try. Mike McCoy, bad hire.

Bad hire. They fired him mid-season. Seems like a big part of Steve Wilkes-Undo. So let's talk a little bit about Cliff Kingsbury. You've had this trend in the NFL. We're going to talk about Zach Taylor in Cincinnati, some of these younger coaches. Maybe they've been quarterback coaches. Maybe they've been in the Sean Mivay tree. Cliff Kingsbury comes from college. It's a surprising hire at first glance. Got fired from his college alma mater.

and took an offensive coordinator job at USC, which he then quit to get a head coaching gig in the NFL. Yeah, and some things you need to know about Cliff Kingsbury. He's a younger coach. He was somebody that coached Pat Mahomes during his time at Texas Tech, so he has experience. And, you know, you're going to hear the air raid offense a lot. And I'm going to...

just summarize what you need to know about the air raid offense as fast as I possibly can. So you understand. So when we talk about this for the next five years as the NFL tries to perpetuate the collegian game in the NFL, you understand it a little bit. And really this came out of the most historical example is Mike Leach ran the air raid and a lot of the coaches underneath him, including Cliff Kingsbury.

run the air raid offense. It's long considered an offense in college that doesn't work in the pros, but in recent years you've seen success from quarterbacks like Baker Mayfield. Case Keenham ran a air raid offense. By the way, Cliff Kingsbury was an assistant coach on a Houston team that Case Keenum ran that offense in. Nick Foles ran an air raid offense and won a Super Bowl a couple of years ago. So it's essentially an offense that's predicated on passing the ball a ton.

There's a lot of simplicity about it, and a lot of the question marks around running that type of offense and the pros has to do with, hey, in college, you don't have as many elite athletes that can react as quickly. You put people in a position to run four verticals up the field, and normally somebody finds a way to be open. And another thing that happens in college, you might not realize, is the hash marks are much farther apart. And so where the ball gets spotted on the left or the right side, there's a lot more room in college.

The hash marks are tighter in the NFL, and so there's some question is, can this work in the NFL game? We're seeing teams move to this to the more exotic, exciting, non-smash-mouth, pass-heavy, rule changes in the NFL lend themselves to protecting the quarterback position, right? I really want someone to get hired, and they label their offense. Coach, explain how do you run things? I run a non-smash-mouth.

That's right. Non-smash-mouth offense. As opposed to Jason with the fedora, which is very, very smash-mouth. Different kind of smash-mouth. Different kind. I was walking on the side. Yeah, so this is, this is good news for fantasy, obviously. Great news for David Johnson. That's the player that I wanted to bring up. David Johnson didn't lose anything last year. He looked great on film. He clocked in fast. He was.

just constantly running right up the middle. He wasn't involved in the screen game nearly enough, especially the first half.

of the season while Mike McCoy was there. I think he lost a lot of fans when you say he didn't lose anything. I think he lost a lot of fantasy football fans. A lot of belief in the fantasy community. But he didn't lose anything from his skill set, his athleticism yet. He's still only 27 years old. So he should be fine. But under Cliff Kingsbury since 2004 in his air raid system, the running back receiving game has been really, really important. I've seen some.

report saying, oh, you know, here's the main running back. He wasn't used that much in the passing game. And that's just, that's just inaccurate. The sixth most targets, the six most receptions, fifth most receiving yards, and six most first downs in the NCAA since 2014 under Cliff Kingsbury. Yeah. And a lot of why people look at the air raid and they worry about it, or maybe you look at his history, his record, right, at Texas Tech.

Seven and six, five and seven, six and seven, five and seven before he was fired. Look. His defense has sucked. Exactly. And that's my point. A lot of the times air raid has looked at as, hey, here's a chance for two teams to go up against each other and the game's 70 to 55. You know, it's these high-scoring games. If you put a person like, 55. Oh. That's fair. That's fair. But if you put them in a position where they brought him Vance Joseph in Arizona, the hope is.

You go up on the offensive side. You improve the defense over what it was last year. Put Patrick Peterson, Chandler Jones, in a good position. This is the Rams strategy. It is the Rams strategy. Everyone wants to be the Rams and have McVe. It's just hard to replicate. Although you did see last year, big improvements on the offensive side for Matt Nagy. More innovative offenses are coming. Any other things you want to add there? I mean, what if Kyler Murray ends up in Arizona? I mean, that is the rumored...

If Kyler Murray ends up in Arizona, Kyler Murray specifically for his value, it would be enormous for Kyler. Kyler would be a rock star for fantasy football because Kyler needs a certain system that can utilize his skill set, period. And not every coach in the NFL can do that, but Cliff Kingsbury could. He literally tried to recruit him out of high school into the college ranks. And they're...

They've got a good relationship. So I think that would be huge for Kyler. I don't know that that would be really an improvement for... For Fitzgerald and the passing weapons or not, but Kyler would get used the right way. Are there any concerns that you would see a situation where he comes in, the offensive line's not strengthened enough, and you have kind of the Lamar Jackson impact on...

The passing game? He's a better passer than Lamar. He is a better passer. All right, Zach Taylor, taking over the Cincinnati Bengals job. Finally, someone replaces Marvin Lewis. Zach Taylor, the quarterback at University of Nebraska in 2005 and 2006. Long coaching history. Quarterbacks coach in Miami. Quarterbacks coach in Los Angeles last year. Comes from the McVeigh line lineage. And the age.

He's a young lad. Yeah, he's what, 36 years old, 35 years old? He'll be 36 in May. So what are we looking for when you talk about Andy Dalton, assuming he remains the quarterback, A.J. Green's return, Tyler Boyd, and then Joe Mixon, and his evolution, his growth as a young fantasy star. Again, I would lean to the running back as the biggest winner because you've got a guy in Joe Mixon who could catch the ball.

so well. That was one of his largest strengths coming out of college, who was used a little bit in the passing game, but can be used so much more, essentially exactly what you saw from Todd Gurley, going from the 40 reception count to the 60 reception count, when you brought in a more offensive-minded guy, getting your best player, the ball in space. Yeah, so I think that it's huge news in the positive for Joe Mixen, who's got every chance to be a top 10, top five.

back in fantasy this year. It'll be interesting to see just how much does he take away from his time with Sean McVeigh. Because if you look at the Rams, they don't have an alpha number one wide receiver. They have an excellent core. And all of those guys are useful, Robert Woods, Cooper Cup. I mean, these guys are useful in Brandon Cooks, of course, but for fantasy purposes.

None of them are elite level wide receiver ones like AJ Green. So for me, it's hopefully solidifying the fact that Tyler Boyd is going to be usable off of his breakout. He's not, I'm not calling Boyd a wide receiver one, but they spread the ball out enough that these other guys, these auxiliary guys, pass catchers for the Bengals, they'll be used.

more than they have in the past. Well, maybe that means something good for John Ross. And I think you kind of had, you have two outcomes here in Cincinnati. If there's anything we've learned about that organization is they are willing to be patient, 16 years without a playoff win under Marvin Lewis. Zach Taylor will have time. Now, the question is whether he can transition Andy Dalton into his future. He's only 31 years old. Or whether they're going to, you know, struggle this season.

And then you'll look at more of the rebuild, reconfigure. AJ Green might not be a part of that future. Andy Dalton might not be a part of that future. We'll have to see what happens. Last year, Joe Mixon, one of the more consistent runners over the last 10 games of the season. Zach Taylor, again, can only help, I think, in this situation to have a fresh mind and Mixon's ability to catch the ball.

it bodes well. All right, Freddie Kitchens is officially taking over for Hugh Jackson, Greg Williams, that combination last season. Freddie Kitchens took over after week eight as the offensive coordinator in Cleveland. And look, the match was a good one between Freddie Kitchens and Baker Mayfield. Yeah, it was great. Baker really flourished under that system over the final eight games. Baker's passing attempts actually went down.

But his passing yards went up, and he went up a full touchdown in game. Now, again, he's a rookie, so maybe we're just seeing the natural progression of him as the season goes along. But there was a big shift for the Cleveland Brown's offense once Freddie Kitchens took over. Obviously, they liked what they saw enough to give him the head coaching job. They talked with Baker.

about do we want to bring Freddie Kitchens in and Baker signed off. Your franchise quarterback was good with it. I think this is great news for the Cleveland Browns. Yeah, I would expect to see more of the same of what you saw the second half of last year, which was great, great for the running backs, great for Baker. Baker's going to take a huge step forward this season going into year two. I think you can like the Browns all the way across the board, even Jarvis Landry. Yeah, I mean, I think one of the things you're going to see them do,