NFC East Breakdown + Michael Thomas Injury, Happy Days - Fantasy Football Podcast for 7/24

With that pace of play, you talked about it on the NFC West show with Kyler and the Cardinals, it was going to be wonderful. Instead, we got the Dalton Danucci experience, and that was less.

desirable. Now, the defensive side, that's where they spent their draft picks. A lot of them trying to improve that side of the ball because they were 31st against the run, 28th in points against. Both of those things really lend themselves to being a prolific offense, right? You're playing catch up. You're throwing the ball a ton. You're trying to get back into games or stay in these shootouts. So I don't know what those defensive improvements will do. But Kellamore is back. Mike McCarthy's back. And most importantly,

DAC is back. Yeah, I mean, I think with DAC under center, you're going to see a very good offense, certainly a top 10 offense in the counting stats that matter for fantasy football. And so I like drafting DAC in general. I like having DAC on my roster. I don't think I would draft him in the fifth round, which is where he's going. I was surprised. I thought you were going to have a lot of people off this season due to coming back from the ankle injury.

But he makes everything else go. He is the reason that I'm back in on Ezekiel Elliott. He's the reason that I love the value of Amari Cooper if he's, you know, active and healthy. And then you combine him with C.D. Lamb's own reasons to be madly in love. And you see why he's skyrocketing. I think you just want pieces of a great offense. So that kind of speaks to your Michael Gallup questions earlier of if this is going to be a really great offense, won't Michael Gallup have some games?

Yeah, I think he'll probably have a lot of them. I mean, it's hard to complain. Like, Dak coming back from injury with Zeke and those three wide outs. And then two talented wide receivers with Jarwin and Schultz that contributed. Well, Jarwin Will and Schultz did last year. Like, there aren't holes on this offense. You even have a great depth running back in Tony Pollard who can take a little bit of pressure off of Zeke or give you an explosive play. Like, if Dak is himself.

Like it's impossible that this is not a top half offense, and it's most likely going to be a top five offense in football. Yep, I do not disagree. And they're by far my pick to win the division. As much as I'm rooting for Washington, Dallas is my pick. They have the highest Vegas total. Where do you think that's that? I unfortunately just saw it, so I will abstain. I mean, are they really at nine and a half? They're at nine. Okay. Yeah, they were at nine and a half earlier this off season, believe it or not.

With that wide receiver room, just because it's a great one doesn't mean it's easy to project for fantasy purposes because you might not know who to start, when to start them. Cooper and Lamb are going basically back to back in fantasy drafts. I mean, you have both of them as fourth round picks and then Gallops way down in the 10th round. So how do you see this playing out in terms of upside insecurity? I think...

security, if Amari Cooper is active by the time the drafts come around and he's back at camp, which is the expectation prior to the season, then I still have, yeah, I'm going to be hanging with Mr. Cooper because I think the security is there, the upside is there. When he's been with Dak, he's been absolutely phenomenal. He's also, he moves around. They use him on the outside. They move them into the slot. They move him everywhere because he is their primary.

first read target. Even if he's not the most talented, if C.D. Lamb this season has leapfrogged him in talent, I do worry a little bit about the utilization. Well, they do that now that he's not a rookie. He absolutely could explore more. But last year. To the CD? To the CD. I am too a little bit because. And I'm not happy about it. It's just true. Yeah. Well, especially with the Amari Cooper, especially with the Amari Cooper injury, it makes it a lot easier. If there's a window.

and an opportunity given to CD, I know he can capture. And it's, yeah, and it's part of it is just, like, if you're, if you're that good, you get the ball, right? Like, if you're that explosive, Dax's going to find you. And I wonder if we're going to see, I think most, a lot of people projecting it, but I wonder if that Jefferson explosive, Beckham explosive season comes this year from CD Lamb with all that's afforded to him with Cooper.

and Gallup and Zeke and the play action. I just wonder if you will see that, and I'm starting to come around to that way of thought. Yeah, my only question is whether they will use him in more various ways. Last year, he was pretty much exclusively a slot-wide receiver. And he did great, but that will limit. I mean, some of the touchdowns he had was on special teams. It kind of inflates his end-of-season ranking from what he did. But I...

I mean, you know, coming out, he was my favorite wide receiver last year. I was madly in love with C.D. Lamb. And in this offense, first pace of play, yeah, I'm fine taking a shot on either one of them. It's just so brutal with the ADP of C.D. Lamb is it puts you in a tough spot as a fantasy football player of he, like, your margin for error is so small.

taking him in the fourth round. I don't think it is. And here's why. I believe, right now they're being drafted as the wide receiver 16, wide receiver 17. If him, if Cooper, Lamb, and Dak all play the season, right? And nobody's injured. I cannot fathom a world.

where both guys are not top 24 wide receivers. So that's the floor. They're being drafted somewhat near their floor. And we know year after year after year, there are plenty of great offenses that have two top 12 wide receivers and or two top 24 wide receivers. This is the case where it's like you're drafting them near what would be the floor assuming health. And you could have two top 12 guys here. Mike, does Blake Jarwin have the ceiling you would hope for him last year? The ceiling, no.

because of the emergence of C.D. Lamb. I think that Blake Jarwin can still finish as a tight end one. And that's how I have it projected. For everything that you guys have laid out of how great this offense is, I think there will be enough from Dak Prescott to support three weapons, three pass catching weapons. Is there a chance Dalton Schultz gets more snaps than Blake Jarwin? Of course, yes, there is definitely the chance. But it would be.

And Dalton Schultz was, Dalton Schultz, his success last year with bad quarterback play is the reason that I'm, that I still have hope for Blake Jarwin. This is just how you want to look at the situation. You have one person who says, well, Dalton Schultz proved to the team that he can be the player. And so he's going to earn more snaps. And then my side, which is Blake Jarwin, to me, what I've seen of him,

He is by far the more explosive and bigger playmaker, playmaking option for the team over Dalton Schultz, and he is the one who still has the contract. I mean, does the team just abandon everything that they believe they had in Blake Jarwin? Because a guy tore his ACL in week one. I don't think they do. I do not worried about Jeremy Sprinkle.

Rising to the top of that. Oh, Sprinkle. Is he seriously there? Yeah, he is. Oh, man, Jeremy Sprinkle. Yeah, there have been all sorts of speculation out of Dallas camp with the tight end room, to be honest with you. Everything from Dalton Schultz is the secret weapon that they're going to utilize a ton this year to Dalton Schultz could be traded because he's proven that he's valuable and they have Darwin coming back so they can get value on Dalton Schultz. And what's nice here is Jarwin had the ACL, but.

We talked about players that went on to the pup for training camp, not Jarwin. He is there. He is active and ready to go. We don't have to play this game of, is he going to be ready by the season starting. So I still have confidence in Blake Jarwin, but no, the ceiling I had hoped for, I don't think it's there. All right, the Eagles at 411 in 1. Oh, baby. Well, Doug Peterson, gone. Carson Wentz, gone.

They have nine total players left from their 2017 Super Bowl team. Let's get to the Bain show here. Yeah, we want that over under, Jason. What's the Vegas line? I'm putting them at seven. Mike? I'll take the under on that. There you go. It's at six and a half. Ha! Got one. That's not a lot of wins in a newly forged 17 game season. There are issues on this roster.

They lost Wins, Jeffrey, D. Jacks, their head coach. So you've got the first year of Nick Siriani, the first year of Shane Steichen, the first full season for Jalen Hertz, the first season for Devontas Smith. Yep. And the first year that they may be without Zach Hertz in this offense, which, Mike, that's a check in the right column for you. Well, I wouldn't say it's the first year without him. Oh. Well, well done, Mike.

Oh, yeah. Kyle mentioned that they have nine players left on the 2817 team, but only eight if you don't count Zacharts his corpse walking around. This was a rough season for, this was the opposite of the Washington, where you mentioned that they have like players in every single position that were contributing. This was what goes wrong when you're 26th and points per game, and you have nobody.

Right, like other than the handful of weeks with Jalen Hertz. Miles Sanders. Yeah, Miles Sanders was still a... He was still a starter for fantasy. He was a starter for fantasy, but he was a disappointment for fantasy players. Yes. Relative to draft capital in position. And you are the greatest example of that because you have an undying bitterness towards Miles Sanders for what he provided your fantasy team last year. It really is true, Mike, that your...

love for Miles Sanders has created a hate for Miles Sanders, where I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, but if you were in the 12th round and Miles Sanders sitting there on the board, I'm pretty confident. You're like, nope, not on my team. I would take him in the 12th. Just to bench him. Just to cut him, just to get rid of him. It'd be more like a service to the rest of the fantasy football league of, look, ladies and gentlemen.

burns because. Well, look, I'm protecting everybody else from making a mistake. If I take him and I put him on the bench, then I know that you can't play him. I'm protecting you for yourself. Oh, it's selfless. Yes. That is very big of you. Thank you. So there are a lot. I mean, I get why Vegas has this at six and a half, right? And, you know, there have been, there were rumors going into the draft that Philadelphia might take a quarterback. Now, Jalen Hertz, obviously for fantasy purposes, was very good. But I think the jury's out in Philadelphia.

And at the NFL level as to whether he's the long-term answer, those questions will probably get answered. There have been rumors about Deshaun Watson to Philadelphia. An article came out the other day saying that there's kind of three teams that, like, Houston's basically committed to trading him in Miami, Philadelphia, and Denver are the three teams that he can go to. So there's that question mark about their future. But we have to live in the present. And today, Jalen Hertz is the quarterback of the Philadelphia Football Eagles.

Football Eagles. That's right. Nice. So we've talked a lot this offseason, but you might not have heard all that discussion on Jalen Hertz. So let's summarize it. Last year, he had four starts. He finished 13th, first, 12th, and 18th at the quarterback position. And in the last one, he was benched. Right. Remember the final? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he.

There was a lot of storyline in there as well. Players upset and that there was promises made to the backup that he would get in on that game. He probably wasn't going to have a top finish starting 7 for 20 with no touchdowns in that game either. But you're right. So even if you look at the other one, he was a QB1 in that range, three games in a row. We've talked a lot about him. He was...

He's been on bus shows. He's been on breakout shows depending on who you're talking to. I don't really want to fight about Jalen Hertz today. But I want to highlight, I guess, bull case, bear case. If he plays the full season, can he finish as the top five of quarterback? Yeah. Yeah, because he has the ability to.

possibly rush for a thousand yards. I don't expect him to. And I think that top five, when we say does he have the ability, that's misleading. Because I don't think that is a high probability versus being in the back half of the quarterback ones. Because, you know, he's, I think it's been said, he's, you know, 75% of Kyler's rushing, 75% of Kyler's passing. That's great for fantasy. But it's, it's the back half of.