NFC East Breakdown + Against the Odds, Hot Stats - Fantasy Football Podcast for 7/25

We are right back in the divisional breakdowns today. Very excited to talk about the NFC East. A lot of storylines are fantasy, and we want to remind you, the Ultimate Draft Kit is available right now at Ultimate DraftKit.com. Enjoy today's episode. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Thursday, July 25th.

Andy Mike and Jason, the fantasy footballer's back with you. Excited to be with you. The news is flowing. Yeah, yeah. We're back, baby. I mean, we do 10 things to remember. That's a show that we do as the season wraps up so that we can remember some things heading into the new year. I got to remember to just take it easy. Oh, never. Take it easy on some of this news. I mean, I will never take it easy on training camp news. Yeah, it's, it's so true, Andy, every single year. We've been doing this. You know, we've got our live show coming up. It's going to be a 10th anniversary show. We've been doing this a long time. This is show 1,600. 1,600. And this time of year, like a month from now, three weeks from now, when news is continuing to roll, it can, I can read it and I can let it go.

right now, because it hasn't been rolling and it's just coming out, every name is like, oh, I got to change. Yeah. Greg Dulcich was the story of the first day of camp. It's not. Now he's my number one target for Denver. I mean, it's great because it's not just the talk of camp. It's a talk of the first day of camp. It's probably the talk of the town. Maybe. Do you see Sean Payton body the other guy? What's the other tight end? Kroll? Yeah, Kroll. The reporter is like, you know, talking about Kroll about how he's been, you know, the best, the best player in camp. And he's like, well, hold off. Did you say the best tight end or the best player in camp? He's like, well, yeah, he's arguably been the best tight end in the camp. He's like, no, not even close. Payton has been refreshingly honest about almost everything. I think he really likes arguing with.

beat reporters and that's fun but yeah i mean the news is coming in um i mean uh the borgon kyle who's on the line right now kyle you're with me right i'm here okay so kyle's here and it was like i don't remember i can't find it right now kyle but he was sharing there's like five plays from jacksonville camp and it was like brian thomas dropped the pass and then gave davis didn't catch one but then etienne did catch one yeah What's wrong with that? Well, there's nothing wrong with that. It's just there's nothing you can take from that. It is not actionable and we want to take action because we've been so thirsty. Yes, yes, we're so thirsty. I mean, based off of that one tweet, I assume that Brian Thomas is his catch rate is at 0% right now. Well, this is what Mike's back for. You know, yeah, we miss them on the last. So are the people listening to this show. No, we want it. Okay.

Okay. Yeah, never mind that. Just totally take everything as actionable information for the rest of the season, right, Jay? Yes. Overreact and do it immediately. The real policy that I try to put in place is that the news about players I have, very relevant if it's good. Players that I have, if it's bad news, not great. You know, I don't pay attention to that. You don't have to roster these players already, say in a Dynasty League, so long as you have priors on them. Thoughts. And so long as it backs up your preconceived notions, and it's very exciting times. Yeah, I mean, now I'm seeing Audric Estime Pictures coming through our DFS or our Dynasty podcast channel. That was more because we talked a lot about the Broncos running backs on the dynasty pod. We all need a new A.J. Dillon in our lives. And Estimate doesn't have the same definition as, uh,

Quadzilla up there in Green Bay. But he's got the same speed. He is. He just, he is a sturdy, sturdy young man. Well, I shouldn't have gotten into all of this because we do have a lot of news that we will tell you about momentarily. The ultimate draft kit available at ultimate draft kit.com. You can check that out right now. I encourage you to do so. It's a good time. We've been making tweaks and adjustments every day, pretty much. Yeah. Based on not actually overreacting to the news, but taking new information that comes out and putting it through our filters. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I like, there's news that I do enjoy reading about this time of year, like who's running with what offense? Yes. Like I like to hear who's running with the first team and the second team. And we are getting quarterback news as well, just head coaches, opinions on the Jacoby Brissette and Drake May situation.

McCarthy and Darnold. And I don't know where your guys' opinion is on what happens in Minnesota. But, you know, if you're a Minnesota fan, I don't think you're rooting for Sam Darnold. I don't think either of those fan bases is rooting for the, you know, for Arizona, that was when that's like the Sam Bradford when we had Josh Rosen. I think if you wanted to see the rookie. Yeah, you'll want to see the rookie, but it's a situation of, I feel. real confident at this point that Sam Darnold will start the season. So you're going to root for him because if he does well, that means that the Minnesota Vikings are doing very well. If Darnold does well? Yes. Like if you get to that that buy week and the whole fan base isn't just screaming for McCarthy to come in, that means that they have a winning record and they're doing well. I have a hard time remembering a situation like that where they were.

Where that team with the incumbent, mediocre guy works out. You know, Tribeschi with Mike Glend. I could think, right? Sam Bradford with, you know. I could think of one example where it worked out. Was it a bad quarter, where a bad quarterback did well for the first half of the year? No. No. It was, what are you talking about like a Hall of Fame quarterback? I'm talking about a Hall of Fame quarterback. He held off a first round draft pick. Exactly right. Matt Liner was the guy who was supposed to get the. job going forward, but old busted Kurt Warner was going to, he's a little start week one, and then turned out he wasn't busted yet. Sort of. But that is not the situation of any 2024. That's not what this situation is. And really, if you look at that by week and you look at the defenses that the Vikings are, the Vikings are playing, they start with the Raiders, great defense, then Brown's great defense, then Eagles great defense. Two weeks later, the Niners.

Great defense. Right before the by week, I believe they played the Jets. So, yeah, Donald, you are the sacrificial lamb. Baby. Yeah, I mean, their head coach just came out and said that he has no. Sacrificial baby? No, he said maybe. Oh, maybe. I was like, you're correcting by sacrificial lamb to an awful? horrendous sacrificial baby? You thought I was correct. I thought you were a monster. I thought I was like, you got it wrong, Jay. The phrase is sacrificial baby. We all know this. That's what everyone has said. Maybe. Maybe. That's a little better thing. I was going to say Kevin O'Connell came out and said he has no preconceived notion of the starter right now and that he's keeping his options open. But let's talk news. News and notes from around the league. Putting Darnold out there as the proverbial.

Sacrificial baby. Yeah. Jason. Woo. It's, it's tough. It's tough. It's tough in the NFL. Amari Cooper agreed to a restructured deal with the Browns. It gets a $5 million raise while the team guarantees him $20 million. Some will be quick to point out this is not an extension. This is still his final year of the deal. They're just, they're giving him some extra cash because he deserves it. And he's been great. And so. We're talking about the NFC East on today's episode. We're going to talk about the Cowboys, and man, I just can't believe. Whoops. You want me to tell you about Michael Gallup retiring? Oh, wow. Same news time, huh? Yeah. Wow. Good job, Cowboys. Michael Gallup was the post-ACL contract that the Dallas Cowboys chose instead of keeping Amaricou. Yeah, the Dallas Cowboys, if you rewind, they bet on Gallup and Zeke.

And that's where they put their money instead of Mari Cooper. And this is not revisionist history of like, well, sure, now you know it worked. Everyone then was like, what are you doing? Why are you paying big money to the running back? When you hear the Michael Gallup is retiring, and he had signed a five-year $57 million contract after an ACL, Terry had shown potential. He had finished that wide receiver 16. That was the highest he had finished. He finished that high? I don't know if it was the year he got hurt or not. I know he has. I think that was his fantasy peak. But they obviously, they signed into that deal. I guess 16 in certain form, it looks like 22nd, but in 14 games played in 2019. All I'm saying is that Michael Gallup did not recover from an ACL injury. Correct. Like that's what happened. Yes. So just kind of interesting that for whatever reason, this does happen from time to time.

We all expect the ahead of schedule. We're back. We're the same. It doesn't always happen. That is a Giovante Williams statement in the sense that he came back a little ahead of schedule and he just wasn't the same. And so now we expect him to get back to it. Just like we, you know, it's common that, you know, it takes two years. Sometimes you just don't come back. And so it's really, really hard. You can't just. bet on the data. You have, you have to see it. Do you guys have the quote? Oh, here it is. From Dennis Allen on Kendrae Miller. Kenner Miller's banged up again. I think a week or two ago, we were talking about how he had been removed from our sleeper list due to the vibes around the backfield. Well, now he's hurt. And the quote from Dennis Allen, head coach. This is via Nick Underhill, one of the best beat reporters in the industry. But this is the quote from Dennis Allen. That's a player who needs to figure out how to stay healthy because you can't make the team in the training room.

Can't make the club in the tub. Get bodied. I mean, what a jerk. He's not wrong. Dennis Allen or Kendrae Miller. No, I'm not going to say. He's a jerk to me. I'm not going to say hurting my feelings over and over, Jason. He got hurt is a jerk. He didn't try to get hurt. You know, if he went out on a motorcycle without a helmet, you body that guy. If he's practicing and trying and he gets hurt and just criticizing him in the public just feels very Dennis Allen to me. Obviously frustration there. He's not the only one when a player is hurt for essentially most of his rookie year. You're excited for next year. It comes back. He's already hurt. It's frustrating. Three injuries last year, I think. Something. I mean, he won preseason, one in season, and at least this one. He was drafted injured. Yeah. Also. Right. Yeah. I mean. But they kind of knew. Like, you know, it's like you chose to draft an injured guy. C.D. Lamb, not reporting to the start of training camp.

Holding out. No contract for DAC, no contract for Parsons. They, like, you, they have botched this. And, like, you have to, sometimes as an organization, you do have to take certain financial leaps, like, say, the Houston Texans with Nico Collins. Like, they didn't have to give Nico Collins that contract. Like, they could have waited, but. If you bet and you wait and Nico Collins has a year anywhere close to what he had last year, now the size of that contract has ballooned. And this is like they've done that now with these three guys. And I mean, I don't know what their cap situation is, but how do you pay all three of these guys where DAC will certainly be looking for the, like, to be the highest paid quarterback? Like, because it's the newest one. It will probably be the highest paid.

if not a top three. C.D. Lamb's going to want Jefferson money, who just reset the market. Parsons is going to want an outrageously large contract. They want to be the highest paid defensive player in general. That he has earned. It's like you should have sat down and tried to strike early with like C. Lam. Do you feel like there's an aspect here where, like they did, they did this with DAC once. This is not the first time we've been talking about DAC in the off season. Like, is this? I want my guys to play super hard because they're playing for a contract. I've always wondered with the Cowboys. I hate to ask that, but you've got to wonder. With the Cowboys and Dak have always felt like there's almost a lack of true belief in the fact that he's like a, you know, he's going to get paid like a top three quarterback. And I think they think he's not really a top three quarterback. I don't want to pay, you know, a guy who's, you know, the quarterback. Jacksonville's like, watch this. Yeah, exactly.

But that's how it feels with them. I agree with Mike. They made a mistake to not get CD-LAM just early. Early in the process, get them a big contract. You know, it's coming. And so the earlier you get there, the better it is by the time the new cap rolls out. Yeah, I, you know, I often ask myself, will I see the Dallas Cowboys win a playoff game before I, you know, die? And I don't know if that's going to happen until Jerry Jones. We need someone else. We need someone else running the Cowboys. Alvin Camara. He is back. Ran hard. Kinnery Miller is hurt. We talked about it. Right now it's starting to clean it up a little bit in terms of that backfield. I think where Alvin Camara saw a depressed ADP in part, you know, the age, but it factors in when you have potential behind him. I don't think any of us would describe Jamal Williams as potential. No. I don't think any of us would describe Tayson Hill as any problem. He's been there with Camara.

for a long time. Now Camara's looking like a value. It could be a goal line problem. Yeah, but Camara's never really been a huge goal line. He's not dependent on it. I mean, he used to have marking room, you know, taking a bunch of touchdowns. Obviously, he was younger. I mean, I can't, but it's a passing game that's. Yes, but. I mean, Alvin Camara scored five total touchdowns last year. Six total. He had one receiving. All right. All right. I'm just saying like the, when it was. The monster years, sophomore season, 14 rushing touchdowns, drop down to 5, 16 rushing touchdowns. Like you're... But from a PPR, like a per game perspective, he was a top 10 guy at last year. Like, still really solid. I'm just saying the foresealing, you have to have rushing touchdowns. Brandon Ayuk is at camp, but not doing anything? A hold in. He is not losing money, is what he's doing. When you do a hold in, do you like...

grab your gear but then walk super slow from the locker room to the field to where like by the time you get to the field practice is over they had it there was a hard knocks with the the chargers and someone was doing yeah that was melvin ingram yeah yeah you're just you're just kind of hang out yeah you're just watching you got good tickets to training camp honestly it's great he's like oh man i've got a reason to not have to do training camp but i'm not getting fined and then if you're jimar chase You're handing out towels, helping out the wide receivers, like a water boy. That's what he's doing? Mm-hmm. We're still trying to get news on that, and that could be a... We don't have two sources. Well, it could... Jamar Chase is not entering the final year of his deal like C. Viam. I think his is a... He's two years away. Yeah. That they're taking it easy with. Maybe he wants to have $5 million in Amari Cooper got. But my point, Mike, even if it's a little tweak.

You're telling me that Brandon and I couldn't be handing out towels and being real supportive? Oh, okay. I see what you're saying. You hold in the right way. Maybe he is. Yeah, I'm not saying he's not. I don't know what I used to. I'd be at there calling place. Nick Chubb on the pub list. Yep. And Matthew Stafford reported to camp after a team adjusted contract. And then there's some more early training camp hype. Yeah, this is the juicy stuff. Is this, uh... A couple of wide receivers that everyone loves. I never remember if I have to stop the train. I'd stopped it. You can't stop a train. Trains don't stop. You do. Javante Williams. Is that a shout out to NHTSA? It was. Yeah, you know. Javante Williams took the first team reps, every first team rep in camp in Denver, which.

A lot of smoke around Giovante Williams, but he's giving every opportunity to be the guy. Yep, for now. Yeah, we said it on the last episode when people were debating whether him or Somaget were going to make the team. I said, it would be blown away if Giovante is not on this team. The question is, does he still have juice? Jim Harbaugh said he agree, or Justin Herbert agrees with Jim Harbaugh on Quentin Johnston, getting a bad rap. He says we're expecting big things from him this year. We've talked a lot about Quentin Johnston. He is a meme of sorts. And so I agree that like globalizing every play that he made in the entire year into like three or four drops is kind of stupid, but also the level of effectiveness that he had on so many snaps is also stupid. Like for the Chargers. That's a good way to put it. But, but I will say this. I mean, like Jim Harbaugh is a brand new head coach. We've had lots of narrative street before where it's like, oh, this is not the guy I drafted and I.

I'm going to, you know, we could be sitting here talking about, like, he's not going to get the first team snaps. And DJ Chark is because he came aboard with Jim Harbaugh. He's going to get all the snaps. Like, I still think Quentin Johnson, you have to give him an opportunity. And Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman are going to say, hey, look, he didn't get what he needed to get in the offense last year. Certainly wasn't supposed to have to step up in place of two injured players. So he certainly was supposed to be able to. his number be called as a first round rookie pick. But this is the perfect type of news to me. When I saw this, I really wanted to go adjust my Chargers rankings. I was like, oh, man. So there's good positive buzz about Quentin Johnston. But I was like, you know what? This is this is just people saying, hey, we expect big things. They're looking good. It wasn't enough to undo what a season of tape and stats and.

historical data does so this is one i left alone so to that regard then you then nothing can happen in preseason for your opinion of clinton johnston because no it's not like you don't believe he's going no if the drum beat kept going and and oh you know that's one of the things where it's like if if from now until kickoff the news is constantly positive and it's always coming out that this is just one strike of the drum you're needing more yeah exactly it's a four count man Okay. If I only give you one click, we don't know what the tempo is. I'm on Ross St. Brown. On my tempo. Said about Jameson Williams. I know I've said this every year, but I feel like this year is going to be huge for him. The quote is the quote is the quote. The quote is not a good way to start a quote. But he ends it with I actually know it is going to be a big year for Jameson Williams. Okay. And the athletic is saying this is Nick Baumgardner. Jameson Williams looks like a different player in training camp.

So you have a mustache or something? He is wearing a wig, actually. Yeah. Yeah, long, blonde. It's actually pretty cool when he runs. Because he's very fast. It is not impossible for either of those players. And their ADPs are at a point where it's like, it's perfectly fine. It will be a comical draft pick. Like when someone else does it in the leagues on a man, I'm going to laugh and point. But you're, it's worth a shot. You're. On the clock, it's your last pick. These two guys are there. No one else is. Which one are you going to take your shot on? I would go, wow. I would take Cuge. What about you, Andy? I was really hoping you only needed one answer. I'll go next so that you have to be the tiebreaker. I'm on the Jameson Williams side. I didn't believe in Cuge that much as a collegiate prospect, and then we saw that.

It's been too long for James and Williams, but I did, man. I thought he was a superstar in college. I would probably, if it's last pick, a player I'm likely to drop, like, I think it's probably, I'll probably go with Q's because, like, Jameson Williams can take a huge step forward and he's still going to be the one, two, three, fourth option in the offense at best. You can't pass Laporta, can't pass Gibbs, can't pass Amon Ra. Huge has the opportunity to be the one. That's a good point. So there you go. Let's take a break. Get into the breakdown. Let's get divisional. All right, we are on our way through the NFC at this point. The NFC eased. Mike, you missed the NFC South. I wouldn't say I missed it. Yeah, that was really rude. You know, it's like make us talk about them, just two of us. I was surviving.

Deadly rains close in Denver. Mike was at an event with a friend in Denver. I think it was a scene from Twisters, the new movie. Yes. Pretty close. You were in threat of your life. It was legitimately an event trapped under just a barely put together tent. And it microbursts. I don't know what to call this thing. Did all the tents stay in place? They did. They were. That's. They were secured pretty well. American manufacturing. And there was moments of the storm happening where I was like, I have a percentage chance right now of if lightning hits this thing, we're all out of here. Sideways rain, freezing cold. It was, it was intense. Jason and I's equity was so close to increase. Yeah. All right, the NFC East, Dallas. The, uh,

Earlier ridiculed Cowboys were 12 and 5. So they won the division. With a point differential of plus 194. They were awesome. Outrageous. I already can, I already know some of the debates we're going to be having in mere moments about these teams. Dallas was 12 and 5. Philly was 11 and 6. The Giants were 6 and 11. And Washington was 4 and 13. This was the largest point differential between first and second place teams in the NFL. So Dallas. When they hit, they hit big. They were blowing people away. Well, if you remember the Eagles last year, the first month of the season, they looked awesome. And then they kept winning games. But they looked horrible. Their performances were bad. And, you know, their defense was good enough and their offense was good enough to squeak out of win. You know, I believe they went eight and three in those one score games. They just, the ball bounced their way. But they looked bad.

Pretty early on despite being 11 and 6. Cowboys, they were just great. They were 11 and 6 with a point differential, positive five points. How do you? That's impossible. Yeah, I mean, Dallas's defense gave up almost 115 fewer points on the year than the Eagles, and they scored 75 more points. So it was a big difference, even though the records were close. And I'm excited to talk about, you know, All of these teams, their storylines for all of them. We'll kick it off with Dallas. By the way, lots of names and faces just moving around in the division. Saquan going from the Giants to Philly. Dan Quinn from the Cowboys to Washington. Kellyn Moore from the Cowboys to Philly. And, you know, don't leave Zach Hertz out of the way. Oh, of course. Going, you know, former Eagle going to Washington. All right, Dallas, 12 and 5. Projected win total was 9.5 last year. This year projected at 10.5.

They have the 10th most difficult schedule according to Warren Sharp. They were number one in the league in points per game last year. There's a reason that if you took Mike's very astute advice, like I did, halfway through the year to pick up Dak Prescott that he won you a title. I mean, he was responsible for lots of championships. You know, if you were able to get rid of like maybe you were rolling Tua halfway through the year and you were able to get somebody. Sounds like an incredible maneuver. Just get rid of that guy, go get Dak, and move forward. I mean, they were incredible. They were from weeks 8 through 18. Which is after their by week. They were number one in points per game, number four in plays per game, eighth in past percentage, third in red zone plays, sixth in red zone touchdown rate. All for a team that said goodbye to Kellyn Moore, who is now in division. But the narrative last off season was, oh, no.

What's going to happen of the great Cowboys passing offense? Well, to be fair to that narrative, weeks 1 through 6, they were 27th in past percentage. And the truth is, the big difference between before the by and after the buy was when they got to the red zone. Before the buy, they weren't throwing the ball. They were running and they were ineffective with Tony Pollard and Rico Dowdle. And then after the by, they're like, let's just keep throwing the ball. Yeah. Like we did last year. They worked like gangbusters. Like they fully, it was just, guys, what are we doing here?

We have a number one wide receiver. Why are we not acting accordingly? And then they did. And hey, really good things happen. Imagine. Imagine in the NFL unleashing your offense with your number one wide receiver. For fantasy purposes, C.D. Lamb and Dacre revelations, but Tony Pollard wasn't. The expectations going into this season for Pollard were not met. Couldn't score touchdowns despite the offense being like. For Tony Pollard, if you told me before the season began last year with all the hype around him, if I told you, just so you know, Dallas is going to be the number one team in points per game. Like, oh, well, I'm going to move him up. He's probably number two off of the draft boards last year, but it just didn't work out. Now it's Mike McCarthy and not Kellan Moore last year was, or rather, last year was McCarthy the year before Kellan Moore. Things got going. They got contracts to figure out. There aren't a lot of changes.