Free Agent Frenzy + Big Trades, List of Demands - Fantasy Football Podcast for 3/16

On today's episode, it is the free agent news, news, and more news. We talk about the moves that we like. We talk about the moves that we do not like and all the implications for these fantasy football players. Make sure you do not miss a moment. Subscribe. Leave us some comments on your favorite moves of the free agent frenzy and enjoy. Hey, this is Darren Wallard. I am the Wallerous and you are listening to the Fantasy Footballers podcast. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway. Jason Moore and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. What was that? I'm excited, Mike. We have a lot to talk about, and we've got to talk about none of it yet. But today's the day. Welcome into the fantasy footballers, Annie Mike and Jason with you. I'm really excited because we have not even shared a lot of our thoughts on some of these landing spots and transactions with each other yet.

We're usually always in the studio around each other just annoying the, you know, the life out of one another. But we've been apart the last few days. Yeah. I'm really excited to get into it. How have you liked the break from us? It's been magical. Really? Yeah. No, I've really missed you guys. The break has been good, but I have been, I mean, I'm just back from the metaverse. Okay. I mean, I went full lawnmower, man. It was just attached. I was inside of Twitter. Like, that's where I digitally lived there for the last few days, just absorbing all of the content. A Twitter, Airbnb. Yes. You checked in. Uh-huh. Very expensive. Right. But look, for, for free agency, spare no expense. Uh, no, we have, we have a ton to talk about, obviously, excited to have you with us. People really enjoyed the, uh, Ducer Built show on Tuesday, the games we were playing.

Jason's in a black shirt today. Oh, yeah. So the stats continue to, what was it? All but eight were navy shirts. The rest were black shirts and once was you dressing up as Hagrid. Yeah. No, today I'm looking good. I'm covering them up and we're going to have a great show. Also, another shout out if you are a Fochland member. If you might not even. necessarily listen to the footcast through the off season. Maybe you do, maybe you don't. You must check out this last footcast because it was not us. It was the deucers. It was a deucer cast. Kyle Brooks and Jeremy entirely doing the whole show as a special one-off version. You must go listen to it. And if you're not, head over to join thefoot.com. You don't want to miss that episode. It was like the behind the scenes of the fantasy footballers. I learned a lot.

Listening to it. Me too. About the work that gets done around here. It was fun. A couple other headlines before we get into all of the big news. Number one here, the Ultimate Draft Kit. It's available at Ultimate DraftKit. The big news there. The Dynasty Pass has its second release, the post-combine update. New rookie risers and fallers. New rookie mock draft is in there. You do not want to miss that content. I think the ability to start predicting these players were becoming more and more able to see where their potential landing spots are, especially as free agency progresses, right? You have teams that have made commitments to running backs or let running backs go. We'll talk about some of that today, but make sure you get in there, ultimate draft kit.com. The other headline, if you go to shopballers.com, we finally have them, fantasy footballers hats available. Now, Mike is wearing one on the show today.

He looks great. I was tipping the hat like you'd go on him. There we go. Okay. Yeah. You needed the camera on you. Yeah. So shotballers.com. If you want to check those out, you can follow us on Twitter at the FF Ballers. Jason is at Jason FFL. Mike is at FF Hitman. Not Hatman. He's almost FF Hatman. I mean, that's my burner. Yeah. And then I'm at Andy Holloway. Anything else, Brooksie, that we need to talk about? No, let's get into it. Pre-agent Frenzy. All right. We're going to cover some of the bigger news first, and then we'll walk through all the teams and transactions that we know about. I mean, stuff is happening even moments before the show, like Chase Edmunds finding a home. Yeah. But we will talk through everything we're aware of. I'm with Jason. I think it's going to be exciting because we have not discussed many of these transactions amongst ourselves until now. But the big one, the first one that broke.

Panthers receiving the number one overall pick in the draft, and they barely gave up anything. Just kidding. The Bears, they get the ninth overall pick, a second round pick, next year's first from Carolina, and DJ Moore. Yeah. Now, we did. This is a Justin Fields. Okay, I just. That is the Justin Fields Hive assembling, saying we did it, fam. We stuck together. There were some very hard times. And we weathered the storm. And we have a superstar fantasy quarterback with a legitimate number one wide receiver to go along with pretty good secondary options. And we are pumped. Okay. Yes. All right. We are. Well, let's break it down because there are. I just did. Okay. That's it. All right. We're done.

No, look, DJ Moore is the, let's talk about his future in Chicago. Because the only team that you could trade him to that had fewer pass attempts than Carolina, or I'm sorry, they were the fourth lowest. The bears were the lowest. They had 22 pass attempts per game. He will share time with Darnell Mooney, who's an elite wide receiver. Chase Claypool will be playing football. Cole Komet, everybody likes Cole Komet's future. I'm curious where you see DJ Moore's, like if you said free DJ Moore, I wouldn't put him in Chicago. No. I don't think that that means he won't have relevance for fantasy, but we did see like Chase Claypool, Mike, somebody that, you know, has had made big plays, done some things invisible in Chicago, despite the fact that Darnell Mooney was injured.

DJ Moore goes to this team. Obviously, it's a little bit of a chicken or egg thing, right? You don't have as many past attempts if you don't have receivers, but I still think that they're going to put Justin Fields in the position to succeed, which will mean probably bottom five, bottom 10 pass attempts in the league, Jason. Where do you see DJ Moore's future now that he's escaped? Yeah, the past attempts will definitely, without a shred of doubt, go up. We've seen this with several quarterbacks. You know, Josh Allen didn't throw the ball much. Jalen Hertz didn't throw the ball much. When you add the wide receiver, they say, okay, well, look, you're not going to win a bunch of games, not throwing the ball. They just can't do that. They can't throw the ball 19 times and expect to win in today's modern NFL. So the passing volume will go up. But this is not a great landing spot for DJ Moore. It's not one of those. Look, here's what DJ Moore is going to be at the end of the season. Wide receiver 20.

Because that's just who he is and what he does. This is not great for DJ Moore. It's not great for Darnell Mooney. But this is phenomenal. For Justin Fields. For Justin Fields. And for the Bears organization, the whole entire offense, I think, will be better. Darnell Mooney is not a one. He is an awesome, too. And I didn't think that there was a world that existed, you know, with the free agents that were out there with this current draft class of wide receivers, where Darnell Mooney could go and be. an excellent wide receiver too stretching the field on the outside. Because you felt like Claypool couldn't be the number one for the Chicago Bears. I thought Claypool has a real chance to be one of the top five wide receivers for the Bears this year. And I still, I still, a chance, a chance to be top five. And I still believe that, even after the DJ Moore trade. So it's pretty big news. But this really opens things up for the rest of the receivers to go and be who they are.

And I don't see how barring injury, Justin Fields is not a top five quarterback in fantasy. His upside is the number one quarterback. Mike, did you want to elaborate on your, we did it, fam? No, I mean, I'm with Jason that. Justin Fields. He's the winner here. Obviously, it's a commitment by the team, the Bears. Yeah, that's the other thing is you still had a little bit of just, well, maybe they should trade fields. And take a quarterback, reset the clock of the rookie contract. But this is down to nine. They're keeping Justin Fields. DJ Moore, I mean, I agree basically with everything Jason said that the volume won't be there. I think there'll be more opportunity for big plays because you have mobile Justin Fields scrambling around finding DJ Moore breaking free. So I think that you'll have more spike weeks than we've had with him in the past. But he won't be.

He's not going to be like a PPR machine. He'll be, you know, an 1,000 to 1,100 yard receiver, six to eight touchdowns, which is good for fantasy football. It's not. But this isn't like Stefan Diggs moving. This isn't like DeAndre Hopkins moving, where even though he had essentially a 28% target share in Carolina, if he gets that, those are still not elite targets. That's six targets a game based on last year's projections. However, Justin Fields is a better passer to his first read in the offense. And that becomes DJ Moore at this point. I'm very excited for the Bears. This was the move. I mean, thank you to Houston from all the Bears fans for winning that game for no reason against Indianapolis. I believe it was a Jordan Aiken Hail Mary. Yes. So it's exciting. Carolina now has the number one pick.

And I know C.J. Stroud is the betting favorite. I still think he's going to be Bryce Young. Interesting. But, you know, Vegas knows better than all of us. So, uh, well, it was Vegas. And then there was the, uh, the Josh McCown video where he was on with friend of the show, Josh Norris, uh, and McCown just, Jimmy, it just, just, just couldn't stop. saying great things about Stroud. And McCown is the quarterback coach for the Panthers now. So this is true inside the building information. I think that is what leads people to believe C.J. Stroud. C.J. Stroud was my number one quarterback, you know, as far as just pre-Nefel draft rankings. And you've got to throw Anthony Richardson in the mix as well as it's possible he could be that number one pick. You know, the story with Frank Reich has been he can't find his quarterback.

Now he will have the opportunity to have his pick of the litter. Still, some people talk about them trading down if they, you know, potentially swap spots. It also puts Arizona in the power position in the draft because the first two spots are going to be quarterbacks. Somebody wants to come up for an Anthony Richardson. It's going to be Arizona that they trade up with. So long as the Colts don't trade for Lamar Jackson. That would be the rich in that. Yeah, I mean, there's still a lot of other teams that need quarterbacks, right? Yeah, but you just wouldn't have to get ahead of the Colts at four. You wouldn't have to trade up to Arizona at three. All right, so the Cowboys, they're parting ways with Ezekiel Elliott. Ooh, doggy. They're going to save a ton of money. Tony Pollard, he was the RB 1, 7, and 3 in 3 starts without Ezekiel Elliott. Now, it would be very cowboys for them to.

somehow drafts a running back. My first thought when this happened, because we know that they want to run the ball. I mean, literally they got rid of Kellen Moore because they were too good at scoring too quickly. I mean, that's kind of what McCarthy was talking about, that they want to run the ball, rest the defense, and pass less. And that's why I did not think that this transaction was going to happen. When you say that out loud, it sounds so stupid. Yeah, because it is so stupid. Just score more points. That's how you win. But imagine being disappointed when the ball's in the end zone because it happened too quickly. Yeah. Oh, my defense has to go back on the field. That's not going to win me games. Do they not realize that like every single additional play on the drive is an opportunity for something to go wrong to? Yeah. Anyways, go on. Ridiculous. I didn't think they were going to cut Ezekiel Elliott for the cap savings.

I know they were up against it, but they need another back. And I believe they think that they need another back. My first initial thought was, well, we know where Bijan's going. They're going to draft them in the first. But they don't draft until pick 26. I don't think Bijan Robinson is around for their pick. It'll be so fascinating. It will be. But I would be shocked beyond measure if the Cowboys don't add. some significant running back, whether through the draft on a, it would probably be a day two pick, but possibly a day one pick, or one of the free agents that are out there that, you know, just cheaper than Zeke. There are a lot of running backs available in the draft and in free agency that I wouldn't want to be one. Like right now, running backs, if you didn't already get a deal, which a couple of guys did.

It's tough. You're going to get a bunch of one-year deal. Mama, don't let your kids grow up to be running backs. I mean, it is not fair. Your body takes a beating, and your career is really short. You get paid nothing, and nobody likes you, and it's told that your position doesn't matter, mostly because it does. I mean, look at Dalvin Cook's situation right now. Like, Dalvin Cook had had two of the better runs all last year in the league. He was paid. He's 27. He was paid. You say that like it's, Good for a running back to beat 27. It's good for a human being, but not for an NFL running back. I get it, but 27 is not 30, like Rahe Moster's two-year deal. So I'm just saying, like, he's still running at, he may not be peak Delvin Cook, but he's still an advantage to your team. And at this point in time, it's not an advantage. You hit the point where the contract is not worth the value.

anymore. And dynasty managers, listen up. We said this the last time that these big running back second contracts came through. We talked about the fact that when Joe Mixen signed his big deal on Dalvin Cook and Ezekiel Elliott, like that's the time to trade on those high-end running backs and capitalize because they're not seeing the end of that deal. Dalvin Cook would not be under contract right now. If he didn't just have surgery, the expectation was that they were going to cut Dalvin Cook for cap savings, except now they can't because if he failed a physical, all the money would be guaranteed. Very smart, Dalvin. I mean, these running backs, they're not spent. They're not washed completely.

But they aren't worth those contracts. So for dynasty purposes, you capitalize on them and stay young. Just keep cycling the younger running backs in dynasty. It's so funny because it's like you can't keep those stars on your team when they are in their peak without giving them that deal. Right. So all these teams have, I mean, you look at the touchdown leaders over the last five years. It is a, it's like an ordered list of players that are in decline right now. that teams are having to figure out what to do. Alvin Kamara and Dalvin Cook and now Zieg gets cut and like these were stars and now they're just too expensive for their performance. Every NFL team should just be using the franchise tag. I saw that if they basically franchised Zeke every year since that big deal, they would have saved more money, paid him less guaranteed money. I mean, it's not fair, but that's what if you've got a star running back, you should just be franchise tagging. And the Dalvin Cook.

News needs to be mentioned with since we were talking about it. Let's just talk Vikings. So Alexander Madison, their backup running back for the past four years was given a two-year deal worth $7 million. I think the guarantee, I don't know if Kyle, if you have that somewhere. Probably almost all that money. Yeah, almost all of it was guaranteed. And so this is, this could really go either way. I've been kind of vocal on the show. I like Alexander Madison as the player. I was really hoping he would get a shot to go be at least the leader of a timeshare because basically everything's a timeshare. I'm not calling for Madison to be a true three-down player. Oh, yeah, so 6.35 was guaranteed for Madison. But now with the guarantees where they are, it does certainly seem like Dalva Cook

They're trying to trade him. That would be what I think is most likely, but that doesn't necessarily mean that's what will happen. The other option is he takes less money. I mean, that was an option for Zika Elliott, to my understanding. Right now, the sentiment thought there was more money out. Oh, if he did, if he took a lower contract with Dallas, he could still, he could make more money in free agency. Yep. This is why he did it. And that Dalvin's going to have to make that decision. Does you want to stay there for less money? Or are they going to move on? And I mean, just look at the overall picture of what Minnesota has been doing. They're trimming down. Like they've been letting players go. Adam Thielen. Yeah, who can still contribute to the team, but they're trying to do salary cap things. So, Jason, do you think Dalvin Cook will be a Minnesota Viking?

I don't think he'll be a Minnesota Viking at the start of the season, which means that Alexander Madison could be an exceptionally good running back this year if they don't add other significant pieces. Yeah, it seems like with that contract, like Mike said, it could go either way. I think they'll add somebody. It's just a matter of, are they adding a Travis Homer or are they adding a Charbonnet? Right. Oh, man. NFL, don't do that to me. That would just be. Oh, you'd be happy about that because you're more into Charbonnet than Madison. Yeah, but my dynasty team has been holding Alexander Madison for four years for this very moment. Is it, though? Is it his moment, you think? I don't know. Yeah. But at least we have a chance now. No more Adam Thielen. I mentioned that as well. K.J. Osborne had a couple big games at the end of the year. If that is, if he ends up in that high, you know, snap count role.

KJ Osborne will be interesting. They're a pass-first offense. Sure. And I was going to say, in your dynasty leagues, just go and check if Ty Chandler happens to be sitting on the waiver wire. We talked about him at the end of the regular season as someone who needs to be stashed just in case a scenario like this pops up, but he could still be out there. We need to say goodbye to a couple of players. Let's start with this guy. Yeah, yeah. J.D. McKissick released. Jady McKissing might not play football again. Yeah, I mean, the guy has had serious neck injuries the past couple of years. We've kind of always been, you know, budding heads on this show with Jady McKissick solely because of my love for my former champion, Antonio Gibson. But Jadie McKissick, incredible player, just unfortunate injuries. Matt Ryan has been released by the Colts.

Oh man, our stupid Matt Ryan Carson-Wince bet is the gift that keeps on giving. Who will be out of the league first? Someone inside Carson-Wist. I don't know. I don't know at this point. Do either one of them get a job as a backup? It's much higher odds that it's wins. I mean, Wynce wants to, he said he's willing to take that role. That's what it comes down to is. And I think that that's the problem. What it comes down to is Matt Ryan just might say, I'll just retire with my. millions and millions of dollars. The Chargers have granted Austin Echler permission to seek a trade. He's entering the final year of his deal, could not come to an extension agreement with the team. He will be 28 when the season starts. Man. He's another player on that list. Yep. The slightly older than ideal, expensive running back. Now, it's hard for me to even picture the Chargers offense absent.

Austin Echler. He is so versatile. He's very necessary. You're legitimately deleting their best running back and maybe one of their best receivers. I would say second best wide receiver. And so when you take those two elements out of the offense, Jason has already been on record to guarantee that they'd win the Super Bowl this year. Mm, they was, Bijon is going to be great for them. Oh, is that what you're? Oh, yes. I thought he was going to Dallas. Oh, no, we can't get to Dallas because the Chargers pick at 21, Dallas is at 26. So we're at the stage now where all of these moves is. Every single move is just seen through a lens of where can Bejohn go now?

That's truly how I am viewing every running back. And the world. That's it. A running back signing happens. I go, how does this affect Bajon Robinson's landing spot? And my biggest worry right now is the Seattle Seahawks at 20 being stupid. Oh, no. No, Jason. I know. It's terrible. No. We can combine forces. Do we need to start like one of the... Like a petition on online? Yeah. Don't do it, Seattle. This legally cannot be allowed. for Kenneth Walker and Bijon. We need, uh, let's get, we need the government involved. I can tell you right now, we have enough shows, Brooksie, between now and the draft. We need. Why are you even bringing that up? I'm sorry. It's a fear in my heart. We need like a Bijon drop that, like the Bijon minute on the show where Jason can reflect on recent happenings and how they affect Bijan Robinson's potential destination. I'll just bring my notebook out, my little diary.

Yeah. I think we need that. Mike, you can get working on that. Oh, gosh. Boy, there's a lot to talk about. My goodness. All right. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back with all of it. Aaron Rogers. Oh. Aaron Rogers said on the Pat McAfee show, he intends to play for the Jets. He's waiting for the trade to finalize. Yeah. Aaron Rogers did what Aaron Rogers does, which is. Uh, he doesn't like the media very much. Oh, yeah, they're dumb. Very much at all. They are able to get under his skin clearly as, I mean, he named several names, including the, the special shout out of, of saying how Adam Schaefter somehow got his phone number and he texts back, uh, I get, what was lose my number. Lose my number. Nice try though, or something like that, which is now.

infinitely memed across the internet because Sheffter screenshoted it and put it up to confirm that it really happened, which maybe that very funny move by Adam Schefter. But so Aaron Rogers went on Pat's show and said, it's not me. It's them. The Green Bay Packers want to move on from me. The New York Jets want me on their team. I want to keep playing and I want to go be on the New York Jets. So that like of the. 45 minute or hour long interview. That was like for football and fantasy football, that was the big spicy nugget. And he just, Aaron Rogers saying, nope, nope, nope, nope, I'm not holding the trade up. The Green Bay Packers are. Which, if you go on the show and you say you want to play for the Jets, you have disadvantaged the Jets.

You have given leverage to the Packers. You've got a frothing fan base in New York who just, now they're just anxious and waiting for their management to get the deal done. The Packers don't have to do anything. Correct. And the power of the negotiations currently sits with the Green Bay Packers. Like all of the financials are better if Aaron Rogers is on the Green Bay Packers. And they don't have to do anything. If Rogers wants to retire, hold out. They have their quarterback sitting and waiting. Meanwhile, the New York... They're going to pay through the nose. The New York Jets over there have... They pushed all their chips in, too, and said, Zach Wilson's not our guy. We're going after Rogers, and all the free agent quarterbacks are now gone. Yeah, outside of them wink, wink saying, hey, we'll make a run at Lamar Jackson. Right. To gain a modicum of leverage back in the deal. Look, they're already signing Rogers' best friends. I mean, Alan Lizard...

signed a $44 million deal. I mean, Jordan Nelson was signed this morning. No, that didn't happen. But they want Randall Cobb. Well, we don't know. Potentially. They want Mercedes Lewis. That was all being floated by the media, which. Accurate. All accurate. A wish list from Aaron Rogers is accurate. 100%. No, Rogers said no. No. Rogers said that he did not send a list of demands. It's more of a wish list. It's like, I mean, that is that you're, I mean, if you're like, look, you want to date me? Okay, well, here's what I want these three things. That's a list of demand. That's a wish list, but that's a, I, look, those are, those are my hostage negotiation letter. I just am shocked at the similarities between the end of Rogers and Green Bay and the end of FAR. We have done this show long enough.

or at least been around football long enough to remember Farv's departure. And what was the number one thing when Farv was leaving Green Bay was that he took over every offseason in the media. Every single year it was about him. And now Rogers is in the same boat, going to maybe the same team to follow his time in Green Bay. And I'm not confident that the Jets are. the franchise capable of making this move in the right way. So I think it's a really high risk move. It's a what, a 40-year-old quarterback? Yep. Who's said multiple years in a row now that I might be done. I'm shocked that when you're on the edge of retirement, that's not good. That's not good in a league like the NFL where every player is playing.