Fantasy Football - Free Agency Winners & Losers + Tush Push Debate - Podcast for 3/25

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Tuesday, March 25th, Jason Moore, Mike Wright, Andy Holloway. Excited to be back with each and every one of you. It feels like it's been a minute. It has for us. Because we, last week we had two new. shows, but we recorded those a little bit early. And so we had some time off. Took our families on vacations or staycations. And now there's a lot of news. Yeah, we got some catching up to catch up on. And I told you, I realized we'll be recording 100 plus player profile videos before June when the UDK releases. And that means all of the UDK needs to be done by June. Like, honestly, we shouldn't even be doing the show. There's so much work to be done.

Well, that's why we took the vacation. It's like now it's time to take a big, take a big breath and get grinding. We still have 17 game seasons though, right? We haven't gone to 18 currently. I believe we are one season away from 18. I'm not sure it'll happen. It will happen in 2026. You think it's that soon? I believe 2026 will be 18 game season. I am calling my shot now and I will be correct. I thought I saw some news from the NFLPA and from the NFL that they weren't pushing it. I'm sure that's what they'll say. But then what happens is. So the thing is, is if you play another game, you make more money. But they have enough. They have enough money. I don't think they think they think that way. I don't think the NFL thinks they have enough money. If you have a Scrooge McDuck, one of those like big vaults and it's to the top, you don't.

What are you going to build another vault? That's exactly what they're going to do. You're insinuating that Scrooge McDuck hit a point where he's like, I have enough money. The guy who's always going on treasure hunts for more money? He's hitting me with the Wikipedia. He is so old and he's like, no, I still got to get out there. There's more money to get. If I recall his giant bank vault was only half full that he could swim in it. That's true. So clearly he did have room to make more money. Yeah. I'm just saying if you get it to a certain point, the cost of the vault. I mean, you need some headspace. You don't want it to feel cramped in your gold vault. Wasn't that the like pinnacle of wealth as a kid was Scrooge? Yeah, to swim in. Jumping into a pool of coins of gold? Yeah. Yeah, it seemed all right. Except for the beagle boys. That's a problem. Okay. All right. With too many layers deep into it.

into Duckburg. I'll start talking Gizmo Duck if you don't hurry it up. Okay. The ultimate draft kit, pre-order it for the lowest price. You'll get all those 100 plus player profile videos, all of our rankings, sleepers, breakouts, bust values, tons of stuff. We're actually in the process right now with our draft analyzer and then the in-season app. And, you know, we've made it a point to. expand the compatibility of the UDK and all of the custom rankings to as many platforms as possible. ESPN private leagues, NFL.com leagues will be added to the list of supported leagues very, very soon. Any minute. Yeah, I'm thinking the next couple of weeks that will be available to you. So those of you that play on ESPN private leagues and couldn't convince people to switch their league to public so you can import your team. But they'll see my league!

We're going to accommodate that for you and make sure that your league can be imported for custom rankings, which you can find out all about that, ultimate draft kit.com. Still have the giveaway going to sign Drake, London jersey at footclane giveaway.com. You can check that out as well. We'll jump right into the news. News and notes from around the league. So we do have a little catch-up to do on the news. We did not get a chance on the show. to talk about Cooper Cup. Three-year deal with the Seattle Seahawks going home, played high school and college ball in Washington. Three years, 45 million. He's 31.8 years old. Entering year nine. Seemed like he took a step back. The team decided, you know, he had been a loyal ram, a Super Bowl champion, a, you know, a normal part of that offense for so long, and the team didn't want him back.

He wanted to begin and end his career there. He said as much on his own post, and the team clearly will get to other news about Devante Adams that they thought they could do better than Cooper Cup. And obviously that matters to some degree. We do caution making that everything. They are also the ones that thought that Alan Robinson was not washed, gave him a giant bag of money. They got that wrong, the Rams. What idiots. You know what? I don't know how to feel about the whole Cooper Cup is washed thing. The last three games plus the playoffs, he disappeared. But that's like, that is literally a month. And the whole season up to that point, other than obviously he was injured for a chunk of it, I think maybe the Rams are just saying they can't rely on his availability. Whereas Devante Adams, you know, he's always out there playing 17 games, it seems like. But I don't.

think that Cooper Cup is washed. Obviously the NFL teams don't. He had a lot of suitors who were trying to give him money. I mean, granted, it was a great market for a wide receiver because bad draft class, bad for agent class. Cowboys, Saints. Other teams are very interested. And so I do not believe he is done. I know Mike, you've brought up in the office just wondering like you got JSN and Cooper Cup both who project to be slot guys. It's weird. It's not project. It's that's what they have been. You know, like you had JSN last year, over 80% of his snaps were in the slot. Cooper Cup, 65% of his snaps. Factor in new offensive coordinator, Clint Kubiak is a, like he was the Saints or 31st and three wide receiver sets last year, aka there's no slot for a slot wide receiver to go into. You have two perimeter guys. What if they get rid of the X position? Did they get rid of their perimeter guys? Just run slot.

formation. So it is, it is very confusing what they are doing. It seems weird to me. It seems weird to me because we've had conversations this off season about the, you know, Mike, you've been excited about Ken Walker and maybe they run the football more. And then you lose Gino Smith and you lose D.K. Metcalfe. And Jason had the breakout season. But now you're bringing in kind of an older Cooper Cup. I don't think any of us would feel like this is a better situation than Los Angeles. No. Right? It's definitely not. It's not the system you know, the offense you know. You don't have Matt Stafford. The play caller, Shaw McVeigh and Matthew Stafford. So you've got Sam Darnold arriving with an offense we're not familiar with, at least in this form in Seattle. So to me it's weird. It's going to be weird from a fantasy perspective on how to look at and project that because I could see him being fairly involved in the offense, but what does that translate to?

None of us are going to take them over JSN. No, no. JSN is the star on this team. But I think both players will be on the field, you know, near 100% of snaps where there's two wide receivers. This is their wide receiver one, wide receiver two. They're both talented wide receivers. I do not believe for one second that neither guy can play on the outside. Like they have both gone there. They've both worked down the field. These guys can play outside and inside. They just have on their current. you know, experience, been more inside. I think it'll work out, but what that means for fantasy. Well, you haven't had a thousand yard season for Cooper Cup since the MVP year, right? The 2021 hasn't played 17 games since 2021, played 9, 12, and 12. How much volume can he get to get where we need him to go? There's a team that wants to run the ball more and they don't have the wide receivers and they have Sam Darnold. So I think this is going to be irrelevant.

fantasy option. In the draft, in the draft, I'm probably bypassing Cooper Cup for, you know, other higher ceiling upside options. But through the season, when you're making start-sit decisions, when you're grabbing a guy maybe off of waivers. Is he entering the Jacobi Myers category? Yeah, absolutely. The Jacobi Myers. I mean, we talked about Adam Thielen when he went to Carolina. Granted, Adam Thielen was like it. His target volume was, you know, all of it. And JSN will be the primary receiver. I don't think he's washed. I think he will be relevant. He's obviously not going to be a fantasy sensation or someone you're excited to draft. If you've got him in Dynasty, I think you're happy. Just not happy compared to him staying a ram, but we already knew he was not going to be a ram. They were going to trade him or cut him. Now he's got a job where, you know, JSN is going to be projecting to be the primary, you know, number one. But there's not.

This is not a volume issue for him. I mean, they can support two wide receivers on this team. Mike, do you, how do you feel about it in a few words? Very concerned. I'm very concerned for. Are you concerned for JSN? Yeah, I'm very concerned for both of those guys. Okay. Because it's for market. Like, the excitement for JSN is going to be through the roof. Like, it already is. And we, in fantasy football, I've been doing a research project. We tend to overdraft guys who break out in year two. Because you're like, oh, it was year two, they broke out. Yeah, they're set. This is locked in. More often than not, they don't meet their ADP in a points per game. It would, like, shocking stuff to me going through all of this information. And then you combine, he's been a slot. Like, and Jason was a slot player in college, too. It's, it's, it's not that guys can't make a transition. It's just, that's what he has.

done and done well you done yeah done well in college and and then his two years as a pro this wasn't justin jefferson at ls u where he was a full-time snot or a snot snot oh man yes full-time he was a slot wide receiver so that was we were all like well i don't know and then he immediately goes to the outside so i just i'm a hanky And right now, J.S.N. on underdog is wide receiver 14. So Garrett Wilson behind him. Terry McClellan behind him. People are very excited for J.S. Marvin Harrison behind him. J.S.N. finished as the wide receiver 10 last year. And he had D.K. Mackap and Aft of Tyler Lockett. Now he's got a 31.8 year old. Nothing. Locket was removed. Sure. But D.K. McCaff, you would say right now today is better than Cooper Cup, right? Yeah. I mean, but that's what's so hard. New quarterback, new offensive coordinator.

So it will be something where, look, we're going to go through very soon and begin the process after the draft of breaking down the target share, the market share, the total numbers, that's part of the UDK, we're going to be getting into there. And maybe I'll be surprised by the distribution that I allotted to Cooper Cup. But what do they do in the draft? If they added one of the top wide receivers in the first three rounds, do you become more concerned with that? Because Cooper Cup is more ancillary. I don't know, but I do know something. And I don't, I know something special that we have to talk about. But I don't know if both these buttons will work at the same time. Okay. But I'm going to try to use them both. And that's what Al Borland loves to hear. We're party. Oh. No, choose. Okay. That was, that's not how you mash up songs. That's not good. Now, I don't know if I, do I, can I stop this? Yeah. Okay. Please.

I was trying to get a party for Jemar Chasing T. Higgins with the money drop. It didn't work. That's money. But they did it. Joe Burrow had his way with the bank accounts of the Cincinnati Bengals. I believe we just posted something on social media about the fact that Burrough Chase and Higgins, who are now under contract. Those three players comprise 33% of the cap. What could go wrong? 33% of the cap. You know what's great though? Don't care. For us, thank you. That's the right answer. This is so good. Because if we sit here and bemoan Jason, which you've done to the Bengals, bad organization, they don't spend the money, they don't do the things they need to do. Then they go spend the money and we're like, they take up so much of the cap. I mean, that is not, that's just sports media as a whole, right? You don't sign them. You're doomed.

You do sign them. You're doomed. Okay, four year, 160. What are they going to do? What's the other option? I might. So they have let Higgins go? The way that they structure contracts in Cincinnati is absurd for winning. It's great for ownership making money, which is why I say they're a bad organization. Maybe they're a fantastic organization if your goal is profit for the owner. Like I don't know their, I don't know their, you know, perspective. This is not a normal move for them. It is not a normal move, but it's done in the normal way. $162 million, $112, $112,000 guaranteed to Jamar Chase. Oh, my. Four year deal. Higgins, four years, $115,000. Up to $1.15, and Burroughs under contract for the next four years as well. So from a fantasy perspective, it's a gold mine. It's sensational. Now, like, Cincinnati, I know y'all probably are clamoring, like, where's the Hendrickson extension? We need to get that in. Now, me with Joe Burrow.

And Jamar Chase on my dino team. Yeah, don't want that. You should probably trade him away. More offense. Just go. 6,000 yards. Full send on the offense. But this is, it's fantastic news for all parties involved. I mean, this is, T. Higgins maybe could have gone somewhere where he gets to be the true number one. And you're like, but it's just there was. There's no where I would have been happy. There was maybe two spots. T. Higgins. when he's on the field, which has been the hardest part. But when he's on the field, he dominates. Well, so to speak to the contract, there's good and bad. My favorite part from a fantasy perspective, $2 million game day bonus. Basically, I mean, this is, he needs to play ball to get the money. Yeah, for tea. And that's fan freaking-tastic. Because, I mean, T is like an early my guy candidate. This is perfection for a landing spot.

Everyone wants Jamar Chase. T. Higgins, there's a little bit of exhaustion with the injury. But, you know, that's something you can't project. He is dominant when he plays in the game, and the Bengals defense is going to be terrible. So this is great. But on the bad side, and to speak to when I'm hymen and hawing, and it's not just whatever you had called it, like, you know, TV rhetoric or whatever. The way that they structure their contracts, I saw this from, I believe, Goodberry on Twitter. They, unlike all the other teams in the NFL trying to win, they. use these massive extensions. They give them most of the money up front. It's a very team friendly deal in the long term. Like, I believe after this season, T. Higgins is only guaranteed another $10 million. Yeah, it's very low. Like, that's it. But, you know, Jamar Chase, year one cap hit this year on this massive extension, $23.6 million on the cap year one. For comparison, Justin Jefferson, 8.6. CD Lamb, 8.8. They pushed the buck. Most all teams in the NFL.

They have these big extensions. And then, you know, Amin Ra gets paid a massive amount. He hits $4.9 million on the cap. Whereas Jamar Chase is $23.6 million on the cap this year. And what's crazy, T. Higgins is even more on it, $24 million on the cap this year. That's just not how any other team does business. And it will take their ability to spend it elsewhere away, obviously. For this year. Yes, yes, yes, for this year, which is all I care about right now. But this wasn't the expectation necessarily that the team would go out and spend the money necessary to keep the offensive core together. We thought Higgins was probably heading out the door when we got franchise tag last year. So at least in that regard, we get to enjoy the fantasy bounty, which we'll talk more about. And Joe Burrow, like Joe Burrow is locked in easy as a top five guy with upside.

It'll be interesting to see how that evolves over the off season because you're 100% right. He has every ability to be there. He could be the number one or two quarterback. It's possible. 50 plus touchdowns. But I will be curious what happens to him in drafts because it's so positive. Sure. The mood, the way he performed last year, MVP year without making the playoffs, so didn't get an MVP, all of that stuff combined with these signings. I'm just a little bit curious if he becomes the Mahomes level of. commitment for fantasy players and drafts where you're like, look, this guy has to smash, which look, he might. Yeah, I would imagine. I would imagine he'll be the fourth quarter. I don't know his ADP right now. He's five, because it's Alan, Lamar, Jaden, and Jalen Hertz are the top four. Maybe someone is maybe someone says, oh, I'm going to go burrow over Jalen Hertz or you're just, you're prioritizing because you want the, you want a stack.

I get that, but it's, I don't think Burrow can make it past four. We had a trade that we didn't get to talk about. The Vikings picking up Jordan Mason. Dude. This one is fascinating. You know, the Vikings, I love them. I just, right now I just am in love with the Vikings. The defensive side of the football is going to be so outstanding. They have all the pieces on offense. Their offensive line is good. They bring back Aaron Jones, veteran presence for the running back room. Then they go and they don't rest on Aaron Jones, who has missed time before, who is older, and they go pick up Jordan Mason from San Francisco. They give them a two-year deal. There's definitely a chance in my mind that Jordan Mason is the better player for this offense at running back this year with just the career trajectory of both of those players. You just put J.J. McCarthy in the most.

cozy position possible to succeed. Head coach we trust, which Mike brought up on the 10 Things to Remember show. Like, I just love what the Vikings are doing. But speaking to Jordan Mason, this is such a great move for them. And then, you know, on the other side of it, you now have a running back room in, you know, Elijah Mitchell's gone. Jordan Mason's gone from San Francisco. So it's, you know, it's, I will say it. It's McCaffrey and it's Garendo and it's a draft pick probably. It's probably Garendo. But. San Francisco has been wild with these third round running backs lately where they just seem to take one every single year. Yeah, in a deep running back draft class, we wouldn't be shocked. But as of now, like I thought about today, you know, we're talking about the winners and losers. I was very close to making the CMC Garindo combination huge winners. With these two guys leaving, it's really solidified. You know CMC is going to get all of the work.

And then Garindo is now the backup as it stands today. But I didn't do that primarily for the same reason you're bringing up, Mike. I thought they might not be done here. Yeah. Yeah. So it'll be very exciting to see this team on the field next year. The whole division's pretty fun. 49ers get a sixth round pick out of it. Giant signed James Winston to a two-year deal. It's a backup deal. $8 million. Could be up to 16 with incentives if he plays more. I've seen a lot of people. that I feel like have reacted like this means he's going to be their starting quarterback. I don't think that's going to be the case. I think what you're seeing is the excitement for if he starts what happens to Malik Neighbors, which let me tell you what happens to Malik Neighbors. He's the best wide receiver in the history of the National Football League. Jerry Judy was a top five wide receiver with James Winston. I mean, Cedric Tillman was like a top 10 wide receiver.

James Winston is going to air it out like crazy. He has the ability. It's identical to the Bengals where it's like a great offense, terrible defense is what you want. Or you could do it by yourself throw a bunch of yards and touchdowns and interceptions. Because if you do both, you got to keep throwing the ball. And that's James's specialty. But the contract is back up money. They're still going after. Barely back up money. They're still going after Aaron Rogers hard. That probably isn't going to happen. There's rumors that Russ is there. They're definitely looking at the top of the draft at a quarterback. I think if they draft a quarterback, James will start the season. He was, he had the six games last year in Cleveland where he was on pace for 733 pass attempts. But then he got. That's an absurd number. He almost got a spit take out of me. He got benched in Cleveland.

Yeah, but you didn't want to win at that point. But this is kind of like the trouble, right? It's like it's too much of a good thing for us and not a good enough thing for. I think he got benched because they thought he could accidentally win a game. Well, no, he lost, loss, loss, loss, loss, win. But I'm saying, James could accidentally win. The other guys that they trot out there, like there's no chance we win. Yeah, yeah. And I just, it's hard because I think we would all love to know that Malik Neighbors has some sort of. consistent passer. Now, I think Russell Wilson might end up in New York and might compete with Winston or be the starter with Winston the backup. You talked about a rookie. It does mean that there's a path for neighbors to be exceptional. It is a really, it's a hysterical signing for an incoming rookie because, you know, a lot of times you want to get that vet, train him under, trade them under, you know, this, this guy who's going to, you know, the tutelage of James Winston. They're like, like James.

Don't talk to the court. Don't talk to the rookie. You're not allowed to talk inside the facility. Just come and play football. You cannot mentor him. You are not his mentor. You can't be his friend. I just see him writing up the play. Yeah, forget the play, man. Forget the play. Just throw it deep. Just look for a guy deep and just throw it, man. Just believe in your heart. You just got to believe in your heart that that guy's going to be open. You just throw it. And he's, you know what? He's going to be open. That's James. That's the play. It doesn't matter. What do you believe?

Uh, Kareem Hunt, back to the Chiefs. Uh-huh. The Chiefs, look, we talked about them many times this off season, how annoying they are. This is more annoying. Cream Hunt, Elijah Mitchell, Isaiah Pacheco. That's your back field right now. Gereoose. But let's put an exclamation point on it. Let's just bring Juju back to be part of that. Yeah. That wide receiver room that's messy. They don't feel good, but they were in the Super Bowl. Mark Andrews, the Ravens picked up his roster bonus for 2025. What's all this? We're getting rid of Mark Andrews. They are both. Well, he could still get traded. But right now, Andrews and Isaiah likely are free agents in 2026. Both guys. So decisions to be made. And maybe that's part of why those rumors existed is because you knew Mark Andrews time there might be ending anyways. He'll be going into year 31, I think.

That's a lot of football. Age 31. Age 31. Year 31 would set all sorts of records. He's in his 50s. Only LeBron could do that. All right. Well, we'll take a quick break. He's broke every record. All right. We'll be back. The Falcons are officially keeping Kirk Cousins on the roster, triggering a $10 million guarantee. I still think he could be moved. I think. Kirk Cousins being the starting quarterback of the Cleveland Browns is what I think will happen. That's my prediction. All right. Brandon Cook's two-year deal going back to the Saints. I don't think Brandon Cooks has unpacked his bags in 10 years. He just lives out of a suitcase. That's smart for him. But all right, the Saints pick up a player that is capable of running routes. I mean, that's something. I mean, they need guys.

Tyler Conklin to the Chargers. Conk, thank you. This deal, it's a one-year deal worth $3 million. It's not a big deal. This says to me that they want a tight end, so they went and got one, and this does not preclude them from grabbing a very high draft picket tied in to me. Nor does it preclude, preclude. Got that. Proclude. Perclude. Perclusion. It doesn't stop them. From making Tyler Conklin they're starting tight in. No, no, no. Because right now he is. He is, you know, we had what, Will Disley there? I would say Tyler Conklin is better than Big Montana in just the passing game. I was fighting words on this show. I know, I know. But I'm still hopeful that like this will be a Tyler Warren landing spot. What about now? Oh, Big Montana is so much better. He's big. He's fast. He's Montana strong.

Will Disley. I'm sorry, Will. I should never have said Tyler Conklin's better than you. Does he have a new home yet? We need to. I said Tyler Conklin was better than him. We need a Disney watch. Because Conklin is, Conklin's a, he's a capable player. Yeah, Disney's still in LA. Big news for. Al Borland, the Packers picked up McColl Hardman on a one-year deal. Oh, we got that speech. Josh Jacobs super happy. Is Josh Jacobs out there like, we needed that wide receiver one? I love our guys, but we need a wide receiver one. We got him. I believe the last four MVPs, I could be wrong. I think the last four MVPs have McCall Hardman on the team. Really? Yeah. Like he's played for the last four MVP's. That's a.

I hope you made that up. No, he played for, played for Rogers in Green Bay, played for Mahomes, played for Josh Allen. I'm fairly certain that is true. McCle Hardman? Did you say Rogers in Green Bay? I am an idiot. I was just going to, I was thinking of Marquez, Valdez Scantley. Oh, yeah, that's a different dude. A player I think of with the same fantasy relevance as McCle Hardman. Say, McCole Hardman is, uh, he's played for a total of one quarterback. Little rusty boys. A little proclude. Proclude there, say. I believe McCall Hardman. You're calling George Love MVP. Just played in a Super Bowl maybe? No. Marquez Valdez Scantling. Who did he just? He signed with Seattle. Yes. No, Hardman's been a chief. So Sam Donald's MVP is what I've been trying to say this whole time. Michael Gallup coming out of retirement to play for the commanders. Okay.