Fantasy Time Machine + Jonathan Taylor Fallout - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/30

Great Scott! If my calculations are correct, you are listening to this before your fantasy football drafts have taken place. I've been to the future, and those that followed the advice from the fantasy footballer's ultimate draft kit had a spectacular season and with certain many victories. It's almost as if Biff had given each of them a copy of Grey's Sports Almanac. I'd highly recommend heading over to www.W.W. Ultimate draft kit.com without any further delay. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Wednesday, August 30th, the Fantasy Footballers. Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, back with you.

If my calculations are correct, we'll be entering the fantasy time machine today, which is always a good time, knowing the future that is. Yeah. And we'll try to let you know who the 2023 Amari Cooper is. The 2023, what do we got next? Josh Jacobs. Okay. The 2023 Gino Smith. What I love about this show, Paul, very surprising. Is. We do, we have actual time machines that we get to use just for this episode. That's what you love about this episode. Yeah. So everything we will be giving you is 100% factually correct. Perhaps not in this universe, but at least in one of them. Yeah. If it does come true in this one. Yes. Yeah. Jump in a black hole and you might end up where. In the multiverse. These are, these are hard to call.

But we take a look at situations and try and compare. There's a little bit of feeling of how that player was looked at last year during the draft and just say, this is it. This is the person who's going to be this or by next year. It's confusing, man. There's too much time to talk. Yeah, I mean time travel is very confusing. Jason knows a ton about it. Yeah, no, a lot of people would be surprised. I built it. I built the time machine. Yeah. With the science. A lot of people think Al would do that for us. Right. But he's too lazy. Can I get, I need one of the deucers to let me know the current count for the Megalibol at some point during the show today. But it is, it is growing. It is mega. It's getting more mega. It's becoming more mega. Megalobol.com. Come compete with us and play in the largest in season.

tournament in all of the lands. Yeah. And if you win that tournament, you will be in our listener league with us automatically, which we are drafting today. Today is our listener league draft. So are we really? Yeah, we are. Yes, Andy. What time is that happening? That is happening at 5 p.m. Eastern. Well, I'll be done. Yeah. I hope you're there. We have a fantasy MVP episode tomorrow. We use this. You could call it a time machine or you can call it a calendar. Okay. And that's where it's penciled in. Yep. Look, my family is in the middle of a move right now. I'm not even alive at this point in time. That's fair. I am living in the mist. And I don't know why we chose to move in the middle of the football season. I'm sorry that I made that decision for you. We're a bunch of idiots. The Dynasty podcast, special episode released this morning.

Live from NFL studios. We did Dynasty My Guys and Rookie Fever. It was a fun episode. I don't really know how long Jason and myself argued about Bijan. Not long enough. But it was a long time. Yeah. I was trying to remember that. Yeah. I was trying to. I'm like, what was, because this weekend is a blur or last weekend. And I knew there was something that we ended up like really digging into it. And it was Bejohn. Yeah. The range of outcomes for Bison Robinson. Well, Kyle normally hosts the Dynasty Pod. I pinch hit this week and hosted it, which was the first time I've hosted the Dynasty Pod myself. And I mean, clearly, based on Jason's behavior, Kyle lets him get away with anything. And I had to push back for a long time. The Dynasty show is a lot of fun because we...

We just let ourselves go. We'll talk forever. In fact, there's a very long episode talking about my guys and the rookies. 13,773 participants in the Megalibol so far. Okay. So hop in there, megalobole.com. The quick question of the day, do you like to use a late draft pick to grab the backup running back to your RB1 as an insurance policy? Or do you view it as a wasted pick? I would say, The vast majority, I view it as a wasted pick. It's drafting for your floor. Look, should something happen to your starter, maybe you have a plug and play running back who's going to come in and give you some production. The problem is, we remember very fondly when it works, but it has only worked a small amount of times. It's great for...

like a week or two here or there. You know, like, oh, Dalvin Cook is going to miss a couple weeks here with his shoulder. Alexander Madison then looks fantastic in those situations. But if you're talking whole season, then that is, it's not likely the answer. You don't, it's hard to say for sure. Who is the true backup? And it's going to be a committee more than likely. Brooks, you made a good point in the slack. What did you just say? I always actually do this where I'd, Not always, but I draft my backup, and then I regret it because I'm afraid to drop them every week. If my RB1 gets hurt, then I'm... Fully committed to them. Yes, exactly. Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, think about the scenarios that exist out there. You, let's say you take... Give me a player that has, like, a clear, defined backup situation that would go in the last round. I don't know if it's last round, but let's say Derek Henry and Taj Spears. Okay.

Because it should Henry go, if Henry went down, Tajay Spears would be the hotness on the way for water. That's a good example. And that's a player you could potentially get with the last round. The trap would be one. You take Taj Spears because they are the backup instead of a player that would have more season long value in general. So that could be a mistake you make because you could take Rahim Moster, who's a starter for the dolphins in the last round. And if you think about if Henry went down, are you going to have enough confidence in Tajay Spears? Maybe over Rahim Moster, but there are just some pitfalls to it. And if the value of the backup is assured, like if you know they're going to be great, they generally go higher in the draft and then you're committing two higher draft capital picks on the same backfield.

And then you're super committed to them when you talk about like a backup going, like for example. Charbonnet. Yeah, that's a good example. If you were to draft Kenneth Walker and then you want Charbonnet so you've kind of got the whole backfield, you're spending a lot of draft capital on those two guys because the backup is really good. So he gets drafted highly. I think the only situation where I would consider drafting the quote unquote backup, the insurance option for my player is. When I know my player's not going to start and I spent higher draft cap on him, if Jonathan Taylor is someone you end up drafting and you know you're not going to have them or Alvin Camara, someone like that, then okay, maybe I'll grab Kendra Miller because I think I'm going to be able to start him right off the bat. It's like an it's an insurance policy that I can claim right away. It's more like a bandaid. Right. Yeah. It's going to help me get to the player. But, you know, if I draft Eric Henry, it is.

I don't think you need to draft Tajay Spears. Not that Tajay Spears is a bad pick. Like I like him in general, but it's not a need. You don't need to be, you know, grabbing your insurance option at the draft day. You didn't benefit from the Hassan Haskins backup pick last year when Henry went down? Oh, we played him. We sure did. Which was a dynasty league. But yeah, we played him. And it was, it's not a lot of production. The other challenge is when you have these kind of backfields like Miami. like Philadelphia, where if you take multiple options in that backfield, I've done it before, long time ago. It's a nightmare. Not because you don't want to have the one that breaks out, but because sometimes no one breaks out and you're stuck with all of them and you don't know which one to start. Or if someone breaks out, you're afraid to drop the other guy that you had. Like, you know, if you ended up with Charbonnet and Kenneth Walker, you're never dropping either guy.

Even if Charbonnet breaks out. If you've been around the fantasy football landscape for a while, Carolina, many moons ago, had two fantastic running backs. They had DeAngelo Williams and Johnny Stewart. And when they were both healthy, it was like, what do I do here? I have two great options. Should one of them miss time, I have an actual fantastic fantasy running back. But when that didn't happen, you were just. getting low output. It's not playing for first. I'll wrap the conversation saying for that. Drafting your backup as the last pick, as opposed to drafting someone else's backup, you're not playing for first. You're playing for, well, I just don't want to have a terrible season. And who cares? If you're last or your third or your second, your goal is to get first place. Your team does not get better when you lose your starter and the backup goes in. Exactly. But your team gets better.

when someone else loses their starter and you add a great asset to your roster. Yes. One final wrinkle. I don't mind it. Obviously, Dynasty is completely different. I like having the backup in Dynasty. That's way different. Because I'm guaranteed to have a starter at that position and you don't have the luxury of taking these late rounders that might be starters. So it is different there. Let's talk news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. The bomb dropped at 4 p.m. Eastern yesterday. Man, Twitter was. And it was a dirty bomb. For the final 20 minutes, as we sat waiting for the news on Jonathan Taylor. I mean, how many times did Twitter get refreshed? Just like from the fantasy community. I was sitting there just spamming it. Spam. I wanted to be the first one to see it. And we knew it was, there was a time limit. We knew it had to come out. The news did come out. No trade.

Jonathan Taylor remains on the Colts. Jonathan Taylor remains on the PUP list, meaning he will miss a minimum of four games. And like, I think we start with the Jonathan Taylor. Yeah, exactly. And here's where you have to dig in. Oh, we're, we're in the, we're in a whole day of training on this one button. It's warm in these rhinos. We're in the signfeld apartment right now. Or Kramer is the Kramer's with the chicken place. See, Al wants to blame me, but there's only one button that does it that way. All the other buttons, I got to turn off. So to Jonathan Taylor, he will miss the first four games. Those four games count towards him accruing a season. Jonathan Taylor, like, I'm pretty sure that he has to work with the team. The team will be like, are you ready to go? And he'll just think, no.

I'm not ready. I'm not ready to come off the PUP. And he only has to get to six games to become like he has fulfilled his contract. As long as he stays on this PUP for six weeks. Yes, the Colts can technically franchise it, but I'm saying he has now moved through his contract and he gets to figure out what's going on during the off season. This is a disaster, a disaster. If Jonathan Taylor wants to do essentially a hold in, He now has a free pass to do it. It was really dumb of the Colts to leave him on the pup. It's bad strategy, even if his ankle is hurting. If they were to trade him, if a team wants to come and get him, that team will not have him for the first four weeks either. Correct. If you're thinking, oh, well, when he goes to Miami, they'll take him off the pup. It doesn't work that way. He's officially on the pup. Can't come off through the first four weeks.

This was never a good faith situation with Jim Earsay and Jonathan Taylor. In Las Vegas, they wanted Josh Jacobs back. They both sides did. Yeah, they just needed to reach that point. It doesn't, we won't see Jonathan Taylor most likely play for this roster is the way it's feeling right now. It feels that way. And things can change with dollars and cents, but you know, you are going to have the overarching. Jonathan Taylor is the really hurt question that is going to be layered on top of the potential trade or returning to a roster that, look, the enthusiasm, before we even knew this situation was happening, Jonathan Taylor was lower in our rankings, then the consensus simply because of the data associated with a rushing quarterback and Anthony Richardson and a roster. And a rookie quarterback. Yes, exactly. And a roster that is questionable. So at this point, you're looking at the draft, and I've been asked a ton over on Twix.

I saw somebody mention it. Yeah, I did. Combine it. Do I go and I invest on Dion Jackson? Do I invest on Evan Hull? I'd love to have Evan Hull in a dynasty just to see what happens. But the truth is, is Zach Moss is going to be back from a broken arm. Maybe not week one, maybe not week two, but soon. Dion Jackson and Evan Hull both had opportunities to start. Dion Jackson started the final two preseason games. But Evan Hull rotated in with the starters at different points in the game. Evan Hull is a fifth round rookie out of Northwestern. You're not going to be happy. You are maybe not going to be super happy with Jonathan Taylor in this offense. It seems like a landmine to try to start one of these guys right now. I can't imagine to start the year, you're in a position where you have to start a Colts running back from this triad. No, I agree. Week one.

You will have no idea. You are just flat guessing when you want to say, okay, it's going to be Evan Hall or it's going to be, even if Zach Moss is active. If Zach Moss is active, I would presume that he will be the starter. As would I. If I was to target one Colt running back, it would be Zach Moss. because I think that's who's going to get the opportunity to touch the ball the most. And that's coming from Jason Moore, ladies and gentlemen, Jason's saying he would target Zach Moss. That is, that's a big step. To be fair, I said, if I had to target a Colt, I would target Zach Moss. This is like a forced targeting situation. Okay. I still do not believe that it will be a good situation, kind of like what Andy was saying. We had Jonathan Taylor on the bus list and the UDK.

all offseason. Five point home dogs in week one against Jacksonville as well. So it's something that I would, it's like the backup running back question. Like are you going to invest a final pick on Rahim Mostert or, you know, Brian Robinson later in the draft? Are you going to try to shoot your shot on one of these three? I mean, the problem is, is last year during the final week of the season, Zach Moss had a number two overall finish. But then Dion Jackson had all the receptions, and he was number 11 on the week. And now you have a guy in Evan Hull that actually catches the ball really well. And then week one, it'll be Kareem Hunt as the star. You just don't know. Yeah. Speaking of Kareem Hunt, four teams offered him deals. He has not signed one, waiting for the right offer. So, you know, right now he doesn't have a team. Jerry, Judy, not going on short-term IR. He said he's hopes to play week one. Okay.

I look, it's good news, at least forward facing that he's not, he wasn't placed on the short term IR. You know what this is? I can't imagine week one. This makes it more complicated to take the later round shot on Marvin Mims to me, who if Drew, if Judy's not back like Mims is going to start week one and you're like, hey, cool, you got an opportunity there. We like his film. I did at least. I loved it. His production profiles. And so great opportunity, but then Judy could be back. I don't think Judy's going to be back. And. But he will be within a couple of weeks. Sure. Not putting him on the pup is a very good sign that he will be back before week four. But I doubt that he is there week one, which gives Mims an opportunity. And if you look at what the Broncos were calling around, looking for wide receivers this week after the Judy injury, that says to me. Well, they're like, I think they have Kyle. They only have four on the roster. Yeah. So they have, so Cortland Sutton, Judy, Mims, and then who am I?

forgetting as the fourth. But even with everything that's going on, they don't have healthy guys to play. It's very strange. DJ Chark, optimistic he can play in week one against the Falcons. That is surprisingly good news. Okay. Dwayne McBride waved running back for the Vikings. They signed Miles Gaskin instead. The gas man. Few. Only one day. Boys. He just needed to fill up. I. Be lying if after the Dwayne McBride release yesterday, I was like, here comes freaking Leonard Fournett. Nope. And it wasn't. It was Miles Gaskin. We're good. We're still on track with Madison. Albert Aguvenom was not released. He was actually traded to the Eagles, a late round swap. Not that important. And then players waived yesterday. Melvin Gordon, goodbye. Yep. He was on the Ravens, everybody. Bailey. Zap, zap, zap, zap. It wasn't just.

Smartest move ever by New England, in my opinion. Really? I completely agree. Ever. I was telling Mike the same thing. Galaxy brain genius, super smart. Don't put the fans and the team in a position where you might have questions about who you're going to start at quarterback, confidence problems with Mac Jones. Just make your Mac Jones bed and sleep in it. I don't know if the sleep's going to be good. but just do it. I would imagine they'll try to sign him to the practice squad should he clear. Right, but that's the, this is a huge risk by the Patriots. I saw some beatwriters talking about what are they doing and it's, it has to do with other injury systems or other injury concerns throughout the team that they had to make some really hard decisions. Because as of right now, Mack Jones is the only quarterback on that roster.

You can't go into a season with the only one guy. No, they'll figure that out. I just personally didn't. I don't think it's healthy for that team to have the situation they had on the table last year. Fan favorites versus what you should be doing. Like, Mac Jones is the better player. Mac Jones needs confidence. Make it obvious. But if he's the better player, he shouldn't be concerned at all about baby Zabby. That's not how the world works. Human nature. Yours going to love the backup. Especially in New England. Or, you know, there's certain cities where it's like. There's not going to be a lot of patience. No, not with a loss. They expect to win. They expect to, you know, it's like, oh, you're not playing well. You're a bum. Get out of town. I mean, did you not see Dak Prescott how furious he is right now with the Trey Lance trade? They didn't give him a heads up. You're adding a, you're adding a dramatic piece to that roster right now. No, that's not what I read from Trey Lance. What do you, Trey Lance is saying he's happy to have him there. Have you watched Dak Prescott talk about this? No, I guess. I just, I just saw the quote.

as controlled fury as you can get. Wasn't told about it. No heads up. Furious about Will Greer being let go, who was playing well for them and a friend of the team. That's fair. He can be mad about that. And then there's the component of, look, you're adding a high draft capital pick to your team that if things turn, look, no patience in Dallas either. If things turn, you're just going to have the whispers in the bushes. And every whisper, affects confidence. This is just my personal opinion on what I would do as a franchise. It fits perfectly with what you were railing against yesterday, which was if you have two quarterbacks, you have none. If you don't go out and definitively tell your team who the guy is and give the guy the ability to make mistakes, because even the best quarterbacks in football make tons of mistakes, in my opinion, it saps you of the ability.

to have that guy succeed. Yeah, and if you've got Pat Mahomes, okay, go out and get the best backup you can so that your team could. But if you've got a middle tier guy who's not proven and you're unsure, you can't, you can't put a lack of confidence, you know. Yeah. I mean, I would say that if that's truly the situation for Mack Jones, it doesn't matter who the backup is. Yeah, but you know that that Bailey Zappy was, I think a fourth rounder. He was two and oh in his starts. So it was like you have a really cheap backup who could come in and actually win games. And if Mack Jones is that fragile, it doesn't matter who the backup is. The crowd will turn on him regardless. Also, Cardinals. No, they won't turn on him to say go put Brian Hoyer in the game if you get a veteran backup. I mean, Bailey Zappy is getting chance from the crowd last year. Yeah, Cardinals go get Zappy. Yeah, that's actually, he should start for us. Yeah, if we wanted to win. Chosen Anderson, goodbye. Yeah. Malik Davis, see ya.

Corey Clement, bye, didn't understand playing football still. Chiefs running back. Sorry, the Malik Davis one, which we knew it was going to happen, but it is official. They've said they're going to try and bring it back to the practice squad. We're talking about the Cowboys running back situation, but Rico Dowdell is officially the backup. Maybe if you're in a Dynasty League that fell asleep at the wheel, perhaps he is out there, but this is also like you need to have this information of. just in case, like know the name Rico Dowdell. Like if week one comes out and he's getting 30% of the work, that won't be surprising. How healthy has James Connor been in recent years? About the same as all the years. Yeah, mostly. So you're one James Connor injury now from Keontay Ingram and Arizona having an opportunity to start. That is. So keep that in mind. Yes, but that is trusting the process. That is 20 carries.

at running back midway through the year is something anybody would dream up from any player anywhere. Yeah, but I don't think he's good. Keonta? It don't matter. I actually think Keonté Ingram's not bad. It just doesn't. I mean, is Dionne Jackson great? Is it better than Keanu? No, I think Ingram's all right. Do you know what he did last year? Deneeric Prince. Deneric for the Chiefs, Darling, running back, goodbye. He's been cut. Yeah, there's only one Isaiah Pacheco. All right. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Quick break back with the time machine. Why you got to dunk on Keonté Ingram, Mike? Due to his 27 carries turning into 2.2 yards per carry. It's a short yardage guy. Literally. You can only get. That's literally what he can do. A few yards. My point wasn't he was good or bad. The point was that James Connor gets hurt every year. And I totally agree with that. And in a Dynasty League.

Put him on your roster. You're going to be desperate for a start at some point in time. He was highlighted in the nasty boys of summer episode of the Dynasty podcast. So we talked about it. I don't like that show. I never listened to it. All right, moving on. Marty, you've got to come back with me. Where? Back to the future. I got to let the chimes do the day. The chimes finish up. I honestly thought the drop might go forever. I kind of hoped it. I wish I could go back in time and relisten. A little sad that we're up now. I want to just keep listening to that.

uh the premise of this segment is if we could travel forward in time who would be this year's version of players that flat out surprise last year amari cooper amazing start to the season josh jacobs surprised everybody but brooks and then you had um gino smith who people did not have high expectations for so we want to talk about What made those players special last year and how we can apply those same filters and potentially narrow the field to identify them as candidates to be that player this year? Amari Cooper was, let me give you the resume for last year. He was drafted as the wide receiver 26. So that was late sixth round in drafts. He ended up the wide receiver 9. 132 targets, 78 for 1160 and 9. He had as many top 12 weeks as.

AJ Brown. He had one more than Jalen Waddle or Alman Ross, St. Brown. His start was shocking and it was great. Briefly speaking to him, he still might be a tremendous value this year. Yeah, usually when a player is a good value like three, four years in a row, it just keeps happening. Like Tyler Lockett. Every year he's undervalued and overperforms. And for some reason, the world does not love Amari Cooper. I love hanging with Mr. Cooper. Yeah, and he keeps dropping in drafts that we've been in. Oh, you're mad because you didn't get this? Yeah. Thank you. Feeling better? Much better. I was pleased to be able to claim this gentleman as my Amari Cooper for this year because Jason talked about him quite a bit. He was a bus pick for Jason last year. He is not that this year. He's a value for Jason this year. Completely agree. I've taken him in two drafts recently.

And that would be Deonté Johnson wide receiver of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who is going as the wide receiver 35 right now. So he's going 11 spots, or I'm sorry, nine spots further than where Amari Cooper went last year. We have them ranked higher than that. The taste of last year's stinky Steelers souffle, which is what that offense was. I like that. It's still in the air. And that's being reflected in his draft position. He has been a wide receiver one before. So that's part of the recipe to me is, you know, when you look at that value, Omari Cooper has had a history of success. Deontay Johnson, I think you just have to watch him play football to know what he's capable of. He's a great route runner. Go-to type of first down receiver. The flashy player is George Pickens on the other side, but Deontay will have more targets. And this Pittsburgh offense, all signs point to it being vastly improved. They have two running backs that are going to be.