Preseason Power-Up + Rankings Reactions, Megalabowl! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/23

They're doing their best to shut down the possibility of fantasy players drafting their players. Like they've spent the offseason accumulating just too many. Every time we're doing our family draft and every time the rounds go by and my sons need a wide receiver, I'm like, well, this Brandon Cook's guy is, he's all alone and he should get the ball. But it plays for it's like I never know what to do with them. It's probably a little bit of an overreaction.

At the running back, I'm not touching them. A wide receiver, Cooks is fine. And then, like, even in our dynasty league, Chris Conley's on the waiver wire. And he's the opposing starter. So that tells you kind of where the temperature is. Nobody wants to start at Houston Texan. And a lot of the times we're wrong about those situations. So. Yeah, that would be what you call a murky backfield. Very ambiguous. I believe that it's Lindsay and Mark Engra, but that remains to be seen.

It's not David Johnson. More than likely it is not. Go get that number one pick, Houston. Yeah, trust the process. Go get them. There is a battle for the backup to Daryl Henderson. Darnell Anderson is not available to back him up. So they're looking at Jake Funk, rookie running back or Xavier Jones. I think Xavier Jones looked outstanding in the preseason. Neither is on the redraft radar for me in any way.

Is that where you guys are at? 100%. Los Angeles Rams. You can't draft an insurance running back unless you, like we don't usually draft insurance running backs. You know, those are guys you pick up as the season goes on. You've got extra roster spots. You pick them up before a Sunday. You're going into the playoffs. In the draft season, we don't usually do it. Sometimes we'll do it when there's a locked in guaranteed known commodity. Like if this guy goes down, then that guy's the backup. But here, we think it's Xavier Jones. I would agree with you, Andy.

He's looked good. It could be Jake Funk. And then you grab Xavier Jones. And then Darrell Henderson goes down and you're like, yeah, see how smart I was? And then it's not even the guy. Right. All right. Do I get to talk about my biggest? Oh, yes. Oh, there's another running back to talk about. Quickly, we got to talk about the Jets running back situation. Michael Carter was one of draft Twitter's favorite running backs out of North Carolina. He fell to the fourth round, which was.

I mean, it was early in the fourth round, but it was still like, this is already a red flag on a player who is undersized and not, in his athletic profile doesn't, like, break the charts or anything. But the situation for Michael Carter, who the Jets drafted, it seemed like it could be wide open for him to not be the guy, like, oh, we're getting 65% of the running back touches. But no, be the leader of a platoon of a running back by committee.

More, that'll be the system that they use. I mean, you have a bunch of San Francisco, Kyle Shanahan, Coach Tree guys who are now leading the Jets. So you're going to see a running back by committee. But Kevin Coleman, Ty Johnson, those were the guys with the starters yesterday. Michael Carter did play in the game after Zach Wilson was already done. That's not a great sign. If you're drafting Michael Carter to be.

at an impact player for your team right away, that's not going to work out. Yeah. He could by the end overtake, but at least through the first 25% of the season, he's just going to be sitting on your bench. And I brought up drafting Tevin Coleman a couple of months ago just for the first few weeks. Just like, I did it in our mock and I was like, oh, that felt really stupid. Yeah, the hope with Carter. Maybe it's not. And the reason why Carter's ADP is where it was, which is RB35 right now.

is because of the unknown of whether he could establish himself as the guy. You're not interested in Michael Carter, the platoon. You're interested in Michael Carter, the starter for 20 opportunities a game. Right. That's what you're going to need in New York probably. So he's pretty much off my draft board now. He's one of those players where when you were drafting him, it was because of the promise of opportunity of, you know, having a giant workload.

That promise is gone. Like he is not going to go out there and be the lead dog workhorse back. That's that's over. We all know that some promises can be crazy sometimes. Nagy? Yeah. Yeah, Nagy's most recent comments this preseason is that I'm starting to buy the sacrificial lamb theory. The Rams? Yeah. Because they're playing the Rams in week one. And the newest line from the magician is that Andy Dalton.

we need to see him in the regular season. Yeah. It's not fair to judge him in the preseason. Such a strange thing to say. And Dalton's looked fine. I mean, he really has. He's looked pretty good to me. He's had a couple splash plays, but for the most part, I feel like he's been bad. Like to start out, he's three and out, three and out, three and out, and then he gets a good, like one big, you know, home run play. I don't know. His efficiency. Yeah, I mean, I get it. And Justin Fields looks great. I mean.

for the most part other than getting lit up and not sensing that pressure and having his helmet sent to Cancun. But he's looked good to me. And, you know, you've seen the legs. You've seen the escapeability in some of these Russell Wilson rookie year similarities where he escapes and gains, you know, 20 yards. At the wide receiver position, I tweeted this morning. Jason wants to rejoice. I'm so excited about this. I guess he should.

because he had to read earlier than we did. And Mike Knight not be in the camp that I'm in. I tweeted that there are really no good signals right now regarding Jamar Chase in Cincinnati. I did believe that, you know, and it's still possible that he'll have a rookie impact this year for fantasy teams. But like everything we teach on this show is to stay water and adjust your opinion. Like everything that...

fantasy analysts on Twitter do is pronounce a take and stay with it. But that's stupid. Like, my opinion has changed on Jamar Chase's off season, just like this show's opinion on Joe Burrow has changed. I mean, in the early parts of the off season, after the acquisition of Jamar Chase, Joe Burrow was in our breakout category on the UDK from early release. About a month ago, we pulled him.

and because all the signs, all the things that you wanted to see in camp from Burrow and Chase aren't there right now. And because the draft capital and cost is so high, which is the main reason that this is being brought up, like I haven't taken Jamar Chase in any drafts, any mocks, any real drafts in the fifth round because I love all the other wide receivers more there. And now he's struggling with drops. You have established receivers like,

You know, T. Higgins had a great rookie season. And then you obviously have Tyler Boyd. I just think the risk for Jamar Chase having a rugs-esque season right now is rising and the cost is too high. So I am sort of out on Jamar Chase. Yeah. Welcome.

We've needed one more because I've been all by myself. I've had to eat all the donuts every single meeting. The latest is that it's possible. He still gets a dozen, but no one's there to eat them with them. In case people show up, I want to be prepared.

The latest is that he might end up splitting some time with Auden Tate to start the season even. So this is a guy, it's different, right? Like the athletic profile, the combination of the quarterback from college and borough, the number five pick, there were a lot of checkboxes that said, take your shot. It's just draft cost. If he was going where Devante Smith is going, then it's like, well, sure, I'm going to take the shot. But right now you're giving up a Tyler Lockett or someone like that that's like, eh.

Let me throw one other thing in real quick, and then I want Mike's opinion on the whole situation. There are a lot of people that reacted to my tweet like, oh, well, look, B.C. Johnson was getting all the headlines last pre-off season before Justin Jefferson came out and dominated. And so, Mike, how do you react to what you've seen so far? Two preseason games, camp news. Am I overreacting, taking them off my fifth round board? I don't think you're overreacting to the,

ADP. You and I have been in sync. I like Jamar Chase a lot. I like the long-term outcomes. I project that he will be an excellent player, a true number one wide receiver in the NFL. I guess one thing we haven't focused on enough is the ADP. Because the fifth round for me, that's the title locket round. And the sixth round, to me, that's the Chase Claypool round, where...

I'm taking those players 10 out of 10 times if they are there over Jamar Chase. So I guess the Chase discussion hasn't had ADP talked about at the same time enough on this show. And so that's on us. But I think that by the end of the season, Jamar Chase will have a fantasy impact and a rookie impact. The dude has played football in a really long time. He opted out of his last season.

And he looks like it, unfortunately. I was hoping he wouldn't look that way. Yeah, the Bengals were really hoping he would not look that way. So the separation is, that was what was talked about a few weeks ago, but that's there. He was still getting open in these games, but he looks like a player who is mentally, who hasn't played in a long time, and now he's not going, and now he's going from, hasn't played a long time.

What he just played was college ball. That's a bigger speed, a much larger speed difference than the pros. So him trying to catch up mentally, I think it's going to take some time. So 80-wise, I'm out. Over the course of the season, I'm still in. Not a lot of good vibes, I'll say, for rookie wideouts right now. Dailan Waddling off the field, Rashad Baitman's hurt, Elijah Moore's hurt. Devante Smith, baby. Yeah, Devante Smith is still looking good at his ADP. It's funny, though, because even that,

That offense, you're like, what do you do? The offense has been bad. Oh, man, with that, you want to talk about securing your job. You want to secure your job. Put Joe Flacco in the game. They're like, oh, we do Jill. It hurts so bad other than Deshaunson. It's funny. Flacco actually looked pretty darn good the first week. But Cadarius, Tony, as Mike has often said this offseason, is his champion at the rookie wide receiver position, right? That's your, you drafted him in your dynasty league. Is that you're my guy the other day? I went all in on him. I drafted.

back up into the end of the second round of our rookie drafts to get them. All right. I think we can probably hop into the mailbag. One player I want to bring up, though, is tied in for the Pittsburgh Steelers because two touchdowns deserves a conversation. Pat Fryermuth. Number one rookie tied in this year. Which Jason loves to comically say. The truth is, I think both of us had him as the number two behind.

Kyle Pitts in like offseason scouting and collegiate scouting. He is a very talented tight end who is in a pretty good situation with kind of an unreliable enigma of Eric Ebron in Pittsburgh. With a nasty drop. Yeah. That's his. I mean, he does one game. It's just calling card. Yeah. So Ebron will still, I mean, he had, he was four for 59 on six targets. But Fryermuth looks like a dynasty target.

Yeah, no, I... Although Big Ben will be gone. That's who I... I hated the landing spot when he was drafted because I loved Frymer Ruth coming in. And I hated it because right now you're behind Ebron and then Big Ben's going to be gone. So, but keep in mind when he's catching passes from Aaron Rogers, that is going to be incredible next year. You went on my theory? Wait, you have a theory that Aaron Rogers ends up in Pittsburgh? Yeah, I based it strictly on Mike Tomlin was asked, what are you going to, like...

the quarterback position, you know, after Ben is gone, what are you going to do? And he said, I've got a plan. And so I just figured that plan will be trade for Aaron Rogers. The plan can't be Mason Rudolph or Dwayne Haskin. Exactly. And that was part of my decision making. I know it's not them. If Rogers arrives. And it's like AFC, NFC, I mean, they're not going to trade him inside the NFC. Probably more likely that Big Ben has a successful season and then comes back again for another year. I mean, they could. Then my cool Aaron Rogers theory?

Uh, probably. How dear you? But if, the important thing here, guys, I thought about this for a long time. If it happens, can we say the muth is loose? I think we got to go with a friar tuck. See, I was, oh, a friar tuck. I was thinking either friar tuck or father muth. Oh, father meuth. Yeah. Is the father related to the friar thing? Yeah, isn't that what friar means? Yeah, I think so. I don't know. Someone, oh, we got to check. We're a Googling. Because you're a monk.

Are all friars? They're not monks, right? Yeah, friars are monks, aren't they? No, it's a large deep container for frying food. Oh, deep air friar, mute. I don't know. Thank you for doing something in the preseason, Pat, because your name is just unlimited what we could do here. Yeah. How do you? Okay. What, read it to me. Well, it looks like I saw that friar is Padre, which is father. So I think this, I think it's correct. Okay.