Transcript of Draft Fallers + Combine Buzz, New Offenses | Fantasy Football 2025 - Ep. 1725

Welcome to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.

Welcome in. Thursday, February 27th. The fantasy footballers, Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Hollow. I saw you check your watch, Jason. Were you confirming the date?

I was indeed confirming the date. I didn't realize we were this close to the end of the month.

Do you feel like you know when February is going to end inherently? You know how long it's going to be?

I know it's going to be 28 days. And I know I know that definitively, four out of every four years. So a quarter of the time, I'm wrong. I don't know when, and I don't really care. I don't care when I'm wrong. If I wake up on the 29th and it's not the first, I'm like, Okay. You're cool with that. Yeah, I don't care. What happens? Oh, my gosh. I already tore the calendar page off.

Yeah. Well, look, do you know how many this year?

Twenty-eight, yeah.

For sure. This is not a leap year.

Exactly.

Right. So Saturday, March first, arrives, which is the deadline, the final day for the ultimate draft kit giveaway. We're going to give away a spot in the Listener League. As long as you have the ultimate draft kit pre-ordered by then, you will be entered to win a Listener League spot, and you get some other sweet perks. The dynasty Pass available right now, so you want to get over there, ultimatedraftkit. Com. And again, if you are an ultimate member of Join the Foot, you already have the UDK, and you already entered to win.

Yeah, but you go check it out because it's an amazing resource, and we've got more and more information coming on the rookies. There will be a new drop after the combine, which is coming up. I mean, any It's in it now. The combine's this weekend, right? Right now. Yeah, I mean, not really. I mean, really.

He checked his watch again.

Yeah, the combine's-Combine notes on your watch.

That's a second check of the watch. How much of your life is run by that watch?

Is that a teleprompter? Way too much. If I'm talking to someone, I am- Always looking at my watch. I feel so rude because if they're not used to the notifications on the watch, it looks like I'm looking at the time. Can we move this along?

You know, you can also not look at the notification. That's true. I can't do it.

Oh, there's another one.

I would say- It feels worse having to explain that you're getting no...

I'm sorry, I'm only interrupting for a notification, not a time check.

Someone far more important to you is trying to get a hold of me. It could be.

I don't know until I check. Oh, it's not.

You get to keep going.

And there he is again. We thought we were going to do a 10 Things to Remember episode, but- I couldn't remember. We are pushing that to Tuesday because we have some of the coaching changes, OC news that we didn't get to, and then there's a ton of NFL news to talk about as well. So we're going to tackle the remaining coaching changes and get through the news, answer some questions, and then next week, we'll do our famous, now famous, 10 Things to Remember episode. So I know we'll have some good stuff to share. Do you even remember last year at all anymore?

Yeah, barely, which is why we need to do this show quick.

All right. So a reminder, you can find us on X @theffballers, Instagram. Com/fantasyfootballers as well. Let's jump right into the news.

News and notes from Around the League.

Well, Khalil Shaqir, four-year contract with the Buffalo Bills- Your dash money. Worth up to $60 million.

His guarantee was like 30 something. I remember that, correct?

I didn't see the guarantee. You can look that up. But I think, obviously, for dynasty, this is always great when you've got a guy- 32 guaranteed, yeah. That gets an extension. But he had a very good fantasy season. He was reliable, impactful in certain games, for being someone that you come in not really drafting in half of league was undrafted. This is a commitment from the Bills as an organization that he is an important part of their offense. That, to me, is just nice to know that if they bring in another wide receiver, which I think they will, I think they need to, they see Khalil Shaqir as a really core... His role is entrenched to me that he's going to keep doing it next year. He had 100 targets.

Yeah, I like Khalil Shaqir. I think he will probably always be a player that's more valuable to Josh Ellen than he is to fantasy managers. But when we were doing the offseason discussions and A lot of Samuel was making headlines, and they were trying to figure out who the next man up would be. Clearly, Shaqir stepped into that role and more than doubled his target total. Career high, had 76 receptions in 15 games, 821 yards, four touch downs.

Those hips don't lie, man.

Oh, is that a-Sweez. It's a Shaquira thing? Yeah. Okay.

Thank you. You're really doing well today.

Your watch didn't warn you on that one?

No.

Okay. Bad joke incoming.

You gave blood again, didn't you?

Oh, no.

Mike McDaniel said, Tyreek Hill had surgery to repair a ligament in his wrist. Matthew Betz, our injury expert extraordinaire, should be cleared for training camp.

We did also get a full... I don't remember what. It was somewhat recent, a full reversal from Tyree kill. If you remember, after the season, it was, I am out of here. Miami is not where I will be playing. You guys are a bunch of chumps. It softened a week or so later, and then we've had the full, No, I'm going to be in Miami doing my thing.

What percentage of fantasy football players will use the wrist ligament injury to to absolve Tyreek Hill of his one half as good season and give him a- I don't think anyone is going to give him a complete free pass. What about justification to draft him higher than he should be?

Yeah, That will be the justification used because you have to justify it. He was not good. He didn't miss games. And he was, like you said, almost half as many yards as the season prior. I think when you pull the trigger and draft him where he's going, which is to me, I'm still surprised how high he is being drafted.

He is wide receiver 12 right now in best ball.

Exactly. I will not- You would not do that. I will not take him at wide receiver 12.

I mean, 12 seems okay to me.

I think that's okay.

He was still- Give me some names around that, though. He was still good.

You had to throw the draft capital away once we got here, but it's like, week one, 20 plus fantasy points, two of gets hurt. He's gone for a month or so, and then over the... From week eight on, he's still very usable. It just was not the number one or number two wide receiver.

Would you rather have Tyreek Hill on your roster or Garrett Wilson right now?

Tyreek.

Garrett.

Jsn?

Jsm. Tyreek.

Dj More?

Dj More.

I think that one's DJ More.

It will be hard, I think, for a lot of people to pass on Tyreek. Yeah? Because you know the This side is still... I mean, if you believe that it could be there.

Okay, let me put it this way.

We've done this a bit with Cooper Cupp. Let me put it- Break the records and then justify the problems with injury and then- Mike, you said, so from week eight on, right to his back, and he was- Usable.

Usable. Yes. In a points per game from weeks eight on, he was the wide receiver 27. He's usable. That's not someone that you're not going to throw in your flex or not going to even have as your wide receiver, too. But that's not someone I'm drafting at wide receiver 12 when I'm building my roster. Now, obviously, if this year was a blip on the map and he bounces back in a significant way because he's Tyreek Hill and he's the fastest man on the planet, great. You'll be happy you made that pick. But it's very rare for aging wide receivers over the age of 30 to have a down season and then be like, I'm back, baby.

I won't be in on that. The idea of a bounce back, he'll be 31 when he plays this A full bounce back? No.

And part of it is the change of the system. You don't have to a stepping back and airing the ball down the field where Tyree Kill thrived. Once he was back from his concussion injury, he's just get the ball out of his hands as quick as possible. And plenty of targets to tire a kill, but those aren't going to be the same value.

Yeah, and if the offensive line doesn't get fixed in Miami, they won't have time, even if they want to switch back. What's the next bit of news we have? Stealers, General Manager, Omar Khan said the team will tender running back Jalen Warren. Mike, maybe take a second and explain what that means to those that are not familiar with that terminology.

He is a restricted free agent. We're talking about Jalen Warren, which means that the team can... The Steelers are the team that they're negotiating with the first. Jalen Warren will be able to go out and talk to other teams and get a contract offer from them, and then the stealers will be able to say, We're either going to match certain things. There's different levels of tender of saying, This is the compensation that we will get back if another team steals him from us, because with the tender, then we're saying, We're going to give him this amount of money. Are you going to beat that? Essentially is how it will work. This says to me- But we saw that. We haven't heard anything on Najee yet. So this is the team saying, We're at least actively going to do it. Now, it might be original, and I think- That's an RFA Tinder, right? Well, I'm saying an original round, which Jalen Warren was an undrafted player. So it's not like this isn't a heavy investment, but at least they're giving us some signal that they want him back.

It says to me that Jalen Warren will be back on the Steelers, almost definitively, because the free agent marketplace for runningbacks this offseason, considering how strong the draft class is, I don't think general managers are going to go out and spend a ton money for a player like Jalen Warren. They'll want him on the roster. They'll make him a reasonable contract offer. But a reasonable contract offer is something that will be matched by the stealers.

The original round tag, I'm seeing 3. 19 million.

Okay. Is that for a undrafted player?

Yeah, that's not the... The second round tender would be 5. 2. Okay. Original round tag would be 3. 1. Kyle, am I getting that right? That's what I'm seeing. His undrafted status might make it different. Yeah.

We'll figure it out.

So, yeah, we'll see if anybody wants to bring him in. It's such a deep running back class in the draft. Yeah, look, the stealers are not... Right now on offense, it's a demoralizing picture to me. You have two free agent runningbacks. You have two free agent quarterbacks. You have one wide receiver, which I don't think it's even mentioned in the news yet, but there's the talk of George Pickens holding in. And George Pickens has been a boisterous fellow.

If anyone's going to hold in, it's George Pickens.

So, yeah, it just feels like they could commit to the same level of fantasy football and NFL football malaise on offense, or you could rebuild the whole thing. You could bring in a different quarterback and inject some excitement. But right now it feels All right, we have news from the Bangles. This is combined buzz, but the Bangles, their own executive, Duke Tobin, says that Jamar Chase will, quote, be the number one highest paid non-QB in the NFL, which is what he wanted to be last year.

Yeah, the Bangles committed a pretty big whoops of doozles. The Tee Higgins one last year, I get it. As a franchise, you're not sure you want to commit to this guy who's been good on the field But is he worth the money? He keeps getting hurt a lot. Jamar Chase, on the other hand, was, What are you doing? Unless Jamar Chase plays this year and has a career-ending injury, you're going to back the struck up, you're going to give him all that cash. When you wait a year, now that cash has increased.

Let me think for a second. Okay. Help me work through this and tell me why I'm stupid. If you wait on Jamar Chase a year, and yes, you're paying him a more significant per year salary, yes, but you didn't pay it to him last year, right? So you spread out the savings.

No, it would have been an additional. His whatever contract he was on, it would have been additional years on that.

But what you are doing is you're getting in a year on the back end at today's rate, that you would have had to renegotiate another long-term deal with him at the end of this contract at tomorrow's rate.

It's one of those things where- Do you know what I'm saying? Do you care- I do not. Does the franchise care more about the cap number and competitiveness or about the money that they are losing when they pay players a lot of times. They saved money. They saved cash out the door by not paying him last year and getting it started early, but they- In the owner's pocket. Exactly.

They save money, yes.

But from a cap standpoint, now they are going to have a larger cap number to deal with than they would have had if they did it last year. Then you just go back to the top and say, Is this a good organization? When I say good organization, I mean, is this a win at all costs what the fans want? No, the bangles are not.

But I'm saying the cap has gone up, which all the players know that, and all the player agents know that. They'll say, You have more room. You're going to give us more.

He's going to get paid so much more now.

Jamar Chase 100% made more money by not getting the extension last year. But Jamar will get it. And the conversations from bangles officials that we're hearing from the combine, like on Higgins on Hendrixon. It went from last year of them being like, It's impossible. There's no way we can't do this, to now like, We better get this done. Yeah, the NFL- Burro is definitely helping.

The NFLPA had their annual... What is it? Like the team grades- The report cards. Yeah, the report cards based upon the players in the building. They grade a bunch of different things. I think it's like through 10 on a million different avenues, and then they get a letter grade on those. The treatment of families, the Cincinnati bangles, were self-graded as an F minus. Food, dining room, F.

So this is- Ownership a C, though, and A for the head coach, who you don't like?

I don't think that the players don't like him. Okay. And I don't think he's a bad head coach, but I do think he limits them from going... He's not a great head coach.

What's funny is if you just lock up those four players, Burro, locked Higgins, Chase, and Hendriksen. Those four players, as long as they're on that team, they will be relevant every single year, here on out, no matter what the peripheral pieces are, genuinely. An elite pass rusher, an elite quarterback, and two elite pass catchers.

I would counter-argue that by saying they had all four of those players have awesome seasons last year, and they did not make the play.

No, but I did not say make the play. I said stay relevant. Sure. Yeah. They were a They're a much better team than the record last year. They lost a bunch of one-score games, dumb, stupid games that they shouldn't have lost. And then they still missed the playoffs barely at the end of the season. It's just this is the thing, the message you might send to ownership. You're going to make more money. Yeah, there you go. You're going to make more money if you have the best players on your team instead of living in the basement.

Also, you have enough money. You're fine, dude. You're fine. Your children's, children's, children's, children's.

Yeah, but what about They're children.

They're also fine. Also, you have literally infinite money. It is different- Win. Win for your city.

It is different now to have them come out in the offseason right away and say, Chase will be the number one highest paid player. There's no more negotiating in the media. There's no more funny business.

The number that I'm seeing floated is averaging 40.

Yes.

Last year, Justin Jefferson got his contract, and then immediately was, Okay, well, what's Chase going to be? Is Chase going to be slightly under? Is he going to be at it? I'm looking at Spotrack. Jefferson's average salary is 35.

Jamal Chase is so good that I feel like I should contribute some money myself because he's on my fantasy team towards the money he deserves to get paid.

I bet the billionaire owner, would he take your money?

Yeah, he would.

Absolutely. There's still constant chatter with the Rams and what they're going to do organizationally They had quarterback. They've given Matthew Stafford the opportunity to go out there and find either a trade or a contract type of offer that would maybe make a trade conducive, just to show what his market value is. There was a New York Daily news report about, and we should talk about this, about Aaron Rodgers preferring to play for the Rams. Obviously, a California kid. The possibility of him bringing Devante Adams there. We talked about Adams. Adams wants to play in California. Also, them potentially being comfortable with Jimmy Garoppola.

Also, in Rappaport, tweeting out six minutes ago.

Do I need the button? Sure. Come on, man.

Breaking news. Rater's minority owner, Tom braided and the Rams' quarterback Matthew Stafford ran into each other at a ski resort in Montana. Yeah.

That doesn't happen. You don't randomly- Oh, well, you're here, too. Off the beaten path a little bit.

What are the odds? Anyway, Anyways, since I got you- Are you still playing quarterback?

Obviously, he's been given permission to go and test the market, see what the value- I have been on record.

I do not think he's going back.

It's so weird. I feel like it is so weird what the Rams are doing here.

You express confidence. So the Rams won with golf, and then the Rams have the established established offensive operation to bring it. It's like the 49ers with Shana in, right? You can bring players in. You express confidence in if Sam Darnold was the guy, you'd think he would succeed.

For fantasy, yes.

Okay, for fantasy.

And as a team, they will succeed. But can they win a Super Bowl with Darnold?

Jimmy Garoppolo was a starter. I could see an NFL team. I could see Sean McVay believing that what they have in Jimmy Garoppolo would be fine.

It would be enough. That's what's been reported is that they are confident in Jimmy Garoppolo as their starter if they need to be.

Then Rodgers and Garoppolo, maybe they view... Look, Stafford is 37. He'll be 38. No matter what, we're having this conversation at some point soon. It's just a matter of whether the Rams want to spend $50 million on Matthew Stafford for a couple of years, or they want to spend it elsewhere on the team and rebuild and reframe the organization. The best teams do figure out a way to turn over the quarterback. The 49ers have done it three or four times while winning. I just buy into it. I don't think the circus around Stafford, which it is, it's not all coming from him, but his circle, it makes a lot of noise and press.

Yeah. It is nasty dynasty season. Speaking of Jimmy Garoppolo.

Oh, yeah.

You should go see if he's on your waiver wire because he's not on ours. Of course, I picked him up.

You know what?

Why would you not pick up McFace?

He to be on my team in that league, and then he became a backup. And look, Jimmy Gramp.

The odds are not with you. I bet we're talking low percentage odds. But right now, this is when you got to be making those small, low percentage odds of moves.

I'll tell you who you don't need to pick up.

Gronk. We'll talk about that in just a second. We'll take a break. We'll be right back to some more news. Well, we'll be talking I'll talk about another tight in here in a second. But Jason, before the break, you mentioned- It was floating around that Gronk was- Gronk is AI.

Yes.

That Rob Gronkowski was training for a return. That's a different AI, man. That he was training for a return to the NFL, and then he put those rumors to bear. Can we get Gronk AI?

Oh, it's gronk. Hey, dude, tell me about this.

Yo soy Fiesta.

I don't know exactly.

Gronk I'm not going to Google it.

So yeah, no grunk return.

At the very least, when the voice portion of gronk needs to have a gronk-Version? Yeah, just let him do the talking.

Chief's updates from General manager Brett Veach, anticipating Travis Kelsie back and playing in 2025. They also reported that he had been dealing with a big sickness, illness before the Super Bowl.

What about during the season?

I don't know how I could keep that genuinely I don't know how I could keep it under wraps if it were me. I've thought about this. There have been times where you hear that a player has had an injury that they played through. I think I am too weak that I would want the world to know immediately why I sucked.

Everyone is that way.

If Kelsey sucked in the Super Bowl, I'd be like, Yeah, I had the flu.

No, you can't say it. You have to go to the... Because everyone has to talk after the game, and you show up and just Kleenex balled up in your hands. You're like, It's you.

It's you.

It's you.

That's the only way you can do it. Because if you come out and you're like, I'm making no excuses.

We won't know officially until March 14th. The way that this- The roster bonus.

The way that this story has moved around with Kelsey is also super weird. The way that he came out and talked about it, and then yesterday or two days ago, whenever it was, you had the report that, No, we heard. We knew right away that he was coming back. He was fired up. I still don't think we have a real answer yet.

Yeah, March 14th is the start the new league year, and the last day, they remove him from the roster before he earns 11. 5 million in a roster bonus. And the Kansas City Chiefs also said they would like to look to get Hollywood Brown back.

That one makes sense.

Which is the same phrase they said the entire year.

Yeah, but when Hollywood was on the field, their offense was better.

I don't know if you watched the comments from general manager Chris Ballard. I watched it. Just talking about the Holtz' quarterback room last offseason was a lot of Anthony Richardson discussions about his potential for fantasy. It didn't work out. And the team is talking about Chris Ballard is talking about an open competition of a quarterback with a quarterback they bring in, and Richardson. He gave a lot of credit to Richardson saying that, look, he's not dancing around the fact he wasn't good enough, then he needs to get to work, yada, yada.

I think it's the right way to do business. Some Sometimes you worry about hurting the confidence of a player. But in today's NFL, you don't have time for that. They benched Bryce Young. If you're the dude, if you're good enough- Andy Richardson got benched. Right. It's like, if you are going to overcome adversity and be a great NFL quarterback, me putting you in an open competition isn't going to ruin that. It's just not. It's impossible that you could have been that great, but I said, I made it a competition. You failed to win the job because you would have been so great if you just were gifted it.

Like Trey Lance?

I was going to bring him up. That's exactly right. The 49ers, they invested the number three pick in Trey Lance, and they just said, That's not the guy. I want to win football games. That's my goal. My goal is not to justify our picks. Our goal is to make the best picks we can, train them the best we can, and put the best product on the field.

Falcons have come out and said that Kirk Cousins will remain with the team for the foreseeable future? I don't know if that's a leverage comment from them.

Yeah, you do. We don't have good offers yet.

Yeah, you know if that's a leverage comment.

Yeah, the offers are contingent on basically Cousins maybe being willing to lose some money. You have to basically tell Kirk Cousins through the media, Yeah, we'll keep you as a backup. If you like that, you'll get paid well.

I think right now, there is still hope that a team would take on the entirety of Kirk Cousins' contract, that would look at that and say, We need a quarterback. We don't have one. If the Raiders look at Kirk Cousins and say, Yeah, well, if he was on the market, we would pay him that.

No one would.

I agree. I don't think they would, but I think that's still the hope right now.

Is it a team with just- For the Falcons?

Yes. The Falcons just hope that someone will trade for him and take on his contract.

That's why you can't go out and say we're actively willing to trade. Exactly. Yeah. He's on the books for a cool 27, 5, and then 35, 35 for the next three years.

I feel like that's not insanely outrageous for a quarterback.

For a starter?

Yeah, for a starting quarterback? No, for a starter. That's what I'm talking about, for a team to acquire him.

Well, his cap hits 40, 57, 57. That's a little spicy. I was just talking the base salary. That was just what the base is. But yeah, he's on the books for 40, 57, and 57. They could get out with 35 dead cap in 36, so after next year.

And he's 37. Other teams know that the Falcons are in a position where you can't pay for that for a backup quarterback, so just hold out. This will be a game of chicken that last It's too long.

Trey McBride, a priority for the Cardinals in terms of extending Trey McBride. I think we all expect and know this to be the fact.

That is the correct thing to do.

I saw that crazy stat about Kyler Murray. He's 84% passer between the hashes, middle of the field. Completion %. Completion %, yeah. 84% passer. Number one in the NFL towards the interior of the field. Trey McBride, Mike, you brought it up.

That's a lot. That's his zone.

That's a lot of why. I think that's it by way of news unless you guys had anything else that popped up, Mr. Watchalerts over there.

I will keep looking at all times to break news. Okay, thank you. Coaching Karras All right.

Well, the revolving door of head coaches, offensive coordinators every year makes a big impact on fantasy football production. Last episode, we talked about the seven teams with head coaching and OC changes happening: bears, cowboys, jags, raiders, patriots, saints, and jets. Today, we will conclude that discussion and talk about teams with offensive coordinator changes only. That would be the Houns, lions, Texans, eagles, 49ers, Seahawks, and Bucaneers. So I don't know if you want to go through them one by one or if there's one or two names on there that stand out to you, but I think we could start with Detroit. We could talk about Detroit losing-I think that's the big story. Bin Johnson, because you're talking about the team with the number one scoring offense in points per game, number two in yards per game. I could read through all the metrics, their top five, and basically everything on the offensive side of the football.

And Ben Johnson took his assistant as well over with him. So they're losing a lot from an offensive coaching standpoint. And they're bringing in John Morton, who is coming over. He worked with the Lions a couple of years ago.

2022.

Then he upgraded and changed teams, went to the Broncos, worked with Sean Payton for a couple of years. Now, after losing your two top offensive coaches, they have brought this man back.

I think all of us would look at the offense and probably expect some regression, even small, if Ben Johnson was back, just because they were-They were outrageous.

It's hard to stay at the titty top, although we would have a lot of confidence in them.

How do you feel about this move, Mike, with Morton taking over the consistency of offensive weapons, right? You're not rebuilding from the ground up on all your pieces and offensive system. Yeah.

You should have a strong foundation, but I think there should be concerns. Like, Amun Ra, that's fine.

I'm a big Jamieson fan.

This doesn't worry you at all for Jamieson Williams? I mean, I guess this theoretically could be better for Jamison Williams if they get him more involved in the target Sheriff because they already had Ben Johnson already had his ways.

I think it's more about whether you believe this team, for fantasy purposes, I don't care if they're number one. But is this a team that could potentially drop out of the top 10 in terms of offensive efficiency, effectiveness, scoring? I don't think that's going to happen in Detroit under Dan Campbell's watch.

I don't think so. But it's like the David Montgomery would be the biggest question mark for me.

I do think his role could diminish. Yeah.

Does his role diminish a little bit, especially with how good the team looks when it's just Amir Gibbs? But on top of that, if they're not going to score, I think they scored 50 something touch downs this year. If you're not going to do that, then that's where Montgomery takes the hit.

That's his superpower. David Montgomery is great for fantasy football because he gets a countdown every game. Every single game, he gets a countdown. If you're going to end up losing 10 twelve touch downs over the course of the season, which is realistic, I would agree with you. That's the player that needs to be the scariest as far as redrafter them the way that we did last year.

I'm sorry. It was 70 total. I'm looking on nfl. Com right Now, 70 total touch downs for the Detroit lines in 2024. And that number was... Let me get 2023 real quick. That was 58 in '23.

I look at this offense the way I would look at Tampa Bay what they did last year, losing Dave Canales, the name that everybody wanted. And their offense pretty much hummed along because you have consistency and strength at the quarterback position, the head coach. We talked about how you lose These are offensive coordinators when they do well, but I am not as worried, I guess. I can see the Monte argument, but that one is also there in general to me because of Gibbs entering his prime, he showed he could handle a full workload, what he brings to the table on the offensive side in Monte's injuries. I would have been a little bit heavier, Gibbs, anyways than Monte.

This is a great offense, but I do think it will take a hit. The same way that we saw a couple of years ago, the Philadelphia Eagles, who when they lost their offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator in their Super Bowl run three years ago, they go to the next season. It's like, well, they still have a great offensive line. They still have Jalen Hertz. They still with A. J. Brown and Devante Smith. Then the second half of that season, the wheels really fell off offensively for them, and then they replaced the coordinators again.

There's two case studies then? Yeah. I mean, Tampa Bay is an example of an offense that even improved.

Sure. Yeah. I think they added- And with Liam Cohen. Right. I think part of that is because they added weapons. The first half of the season, they had Chris Godwin back and healthy, and then Bucky Irving was added to the offense. We'll have to look at the personnel moves and what they do in the offseason. But they're not going to be bad. Even that season, that downseason for the Eagles, Jalen Hertz was still a top quarterback. A. J. Brown was still a top wide receiver. Devante Smith took a little bit of a the second half of the year. But I think it's correct to just say that the player you're most worried about is the most shutdown-reliant player.

Monte right now is the lowest of the five. Not unsurprising in He should be. Of their core five fantasy options, especially an underdog. But Gibbs, Amunra, Jamieson, Laporta, and Monte. Monte being a pick behind Laporta already, that'll be an interesting one to watch. Another team with a lot fantasy-relevant talent that changed offensive coordinators, Houston.

Oh, man. This one is...

Houston, nick Kaylee, 42 years old, coming over from the Rams. You like the sound of that. Bobby Solwik driving everyone crazy last year after being a darling during the first year of C. J. Stroud. But this was a team, just to give you a lay of the land, 19th in points per game. They were top 10 in passing percentage, so they put it into the hands of their quarterback. Now, they lost Stefan Diggs, they lost Tink Del. They didn't get production outside of Nico Collins, who was hurt. So I think it's interesting with the offensive coordinator change, with how bad they were as an offense, Was this a perfect brew of just a bad year with all of that mixing together?

You also factor in the Houston Texans, their final offensive line grade from PFF was 29th. And not that... I mean, the bangles- It felt like it. The bangles are 30th. So it's not that a quarterback behind a terrible offensive can't succeed. It is just certainly harder. And C. J. Stroud, for He has all the accolades we were wanting to give him heading into year two, he's not where Joe Burrow is at this point of his career. So I think that the line was the bigger problem for me, and just I mean, the crazy success rate that C. J. Stroud had his rookie year going down the field, that was going to regress, but it went to a place where we didn't dare project because it would be too sad to project that much of a regression. So I think that it comes down to that. They got some young guys on the line. Can they actually improve? They did not last year, but can we have an offseason and a new coordinator, figure out what to do with the talent?

I'm excited for the change. C. J. Stroud is a talented quarterback, and they wasted so many second downs last year. It was frustrating to watch. Second long, hand the ball to Joe Mixon. Second longer, hand the ball to Joe Mixon. What are you doing? I mean, the second down, they were 28th. A lot of wasted plays there. They were dead last in play success rate on second downs in the second half of the year. That crushed them. It just killed drive. So play calling-wise, we don't know that it's an upgrade. You It could be a downgrade, but I'm just happy that they're being proactive and that they looked back at the season and said, Unacceptable.

Yeah, they had the five weeks with Del, Collins, and Diggs together. Those were weeks in which Mixon was also very good before he got hurt. Then you had Nico sidelined with the ham string. Then you lost Diggs to an ACL in week eight. Then you lost Tankdell to the knee injury in December. You never had any type of play calling that wasn't predictable, that was able to overcome the injuries. I think there's a lot to be excited about. I agree.

This team needs to make a splash at wide receiver, though.

They got to do something. Oh, yeah, you do. It might be in the draft. That's what I mean. But you definitely... They went from a position where some people wanted to make them the best trio in football to Nico Collins standing alone at the end of the street. The Eagles, new offensive coordinator again.

They did what- Price of success. Yeah, they did what they did the last time, which is they hired, not the previous last time, but the last time they went to the Super Bowl and lost their offensive and defensive coordinators, they hired from within. It didn't work last time. Hopefully, it works this time. I mean, you You can't know. We don't have any knowledge on even what his role was. I don't know. You got to view it as same old, same old for next year, so long as the push-push is allowed.

Well, and if you break it down player by player like we did with the Lions, who would you be more or less concerned with? Saquon had a pretty special season. He's going to be drafted as high as you can draft somebody in fantasy and had a prolific 2,000-yard type of season with a lot of touch downs from a distance. I look at Saquon and say, Look, nobody in the right mind should doubt him, but you could also look at the numbers and say, You don't do that every year. If you change the offense-There are ways to see how it goes. In some ways, you could regress a little bit-worse. Proportion to where he's drafted.

Yeah, he wasn't involved in the passing game a lot and had a ton of touch downs of 2,000 rushing yards. That's very difficult to repeat that. The change of offensive coordinator could hurt.

This is the first head coach, nick Siriani, to have four different OCs in a four-season span for one team.

And two Super Bowl appearances, one ring on the finger. So I think, like you said, the price of success. Some of these, I don't know how much it really has an impact. Like San Francisco 49ers, they got one of the Kube brothers. There's two new Kubs at OC this year.

It would be the Kubiac, right?

Yes. So they got Clay.

You almost made me say Kubiak? Kubiak. Because you call them Cubs. Is there not three of them?

There are three brothers, but there's only- So they're kubed. Oh, my goodness. Wait, there's three brothers? There are three brothers. One, I believe, is a scout for the Dallas Cowboys.

Clint, Clay, and Klein? Is that who you're talking about?

Yeah, he's a scout for the Dallas Cowboys.

We got a real Kardashian situation going on here.

Clint, Klein, and Clay, all with a K.

No.

Clay, Kubiak is the offensive coordinator. Wait, they're all with a K? For the 49ers.

Yes, it's Kardashian.

Clint Kubiak is the offensive coordinator that was with the Broncos at one point in time.

Okay. Personally, I would have spelled one with a C. You choose you. But yeah, so Clay and- Klein is the one with the Cowboys. Yeah. So you've got- And then Gary.

You know what I mean? That's the dad. The dad.

There's no K there. They've been famous for their run scheme. The Kubiak run scheme has always been great, which is really the Shana Han run scheme. It succeeded most places that they've gone to. For the 49ers, it's mostly irrelevant. I think it's an upgrade for them. It's nice for them to have someone in-house, but they haven't even had an OC since McDonald's left. This is simply adding another person to help with scheme and planning. Wait, since who left? Mcdonald's.

Mcdonald's.

Mike McDonald. Mike McDonald. Mike McDaniel. Now you got me to do it. See what? That's what I thought.

Mike, he is ruining this name.

Yes, I know.

Anyway, since he's been gone, they haven't had an offensive coordinator.

You can't just call everybody McDonald's. You know that, right?

I only call one man McDonald's. No, you call many people McDonald's. I only call the head coach of the Miami Dolphins McDonald's.

Wait, you call McDaniels McDonald's. But then McDonald in Seattle is just McDonald.

Yeah, because he's not plural.

So there's a... Okay. We do a little too much with names. I'm going to go out there and say that. Nicknames?

How dare you?

The Kubiax?

Yeah.

The Kubiaks? They did too much.

That's on them.

Sorry, Clay Kubiak- So Clay is added- He's going to fall back behind Shana Han. Added to the 49ers. He's going to be helpful. I think he can help their offense, but he's not going to drastically change it because that's Shana Han's offense. But Clint is a massive change. We talked about the run scheme and what he can bring to the table. The Seattle Seahawks won 10 games, and they made a shift. They've got a defensive-minded head coach. I think they want to run the ball a little bit more. If you look last season, they were number five in passing percentage, number 28 in rushing percentage. That college itch, that college game that they brought in as their former OC, Ryan Grub, I think they just passed too much for the liking of a defensive-minded head coach. So now you bring in a Kubiak who has a great run scheme. I think this is great news for Kenneth Walker.

I am in agreement.

And maybe not so great news for DK Metcalf, aging, coming off a down season.

Metcalf, it is tough. Volume-wise, yes, but it's like, Can we get Metcalf back to where he was thriving? Where he's an efficiency, big play type of a player.

Yeah, I guess I've grown a little fatigued on relying on offensive coaching or offensive changes to make me excited about Ken Walker. I think the only thing that can stop Ken Walker is Ken Walker.

Yes, that has been the case. It's going to be soft tissue. Which he is He's great at it.

Yeah, he's willing to stop himself from doing a great season. So, yeah, they didn't like the grub experience. 20th in points per game, Metcalf's regression. We'll see if Tyler Locket's back. If he is, it'll be on a contract adjustment.

The verbiage has not been strong on that.

Tampa's doing it again, and really proud to let you all know out there.

This is the He's a winning gem.

I said it's Names, man. This is the Nameshow. Yeah. Josh Grisard, the Grizz.

Jay Grizz himself.

I don't make this up, man.

And you know what? He's 34 years old. He's way too young for the job. But the team, they did it because they knew we needed Jay Gris to be an office coordinator.

It gets better, Andy. It does.

Josh Grizard- Tell me more.

Was born in Lizard Lick, North Carolina. We got Josh Grizard from Lizard.

Wait, he's a grizzly?

He's the grizzler. The grizzler. From Lizard Lick.

The grizzler from Lizard.

Hi, what's your name? Josh Grizard. Where were you from? Lizard. Lizard Lick. I'm the grizzard from Lizard. Lizard Lick. This is prime offseason content. Yeah, this is good stuff. I'm looking at Deucers, Ali. They love every minute of this. This is what you're here for.

Who's not loving hearing about Josh Grizard from Lizard Lake?

So they went From Duval to Lizard Lick, baby.

It's a lot of fun.

It's not like we don't have lizard drops.

Oh, we do.

We got cold-blooded. It's not like we haven't been around the- He can't be the lizard. We haven't been around the block.

He's from there.

I don't know, man. I think if you're from Lizard Lick and you become the offensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Bucaneers, you are now the king of Lizard Lick.

Well, that I can agree with.

Wouldn't that make him the Lizard King?

Hold on. Wait. I'm trying to get some... Kyle, I need a population deep dive on Lizard Lick.

It is an unincorporated town.

What does that mean?

Can we do that?

What do you mean? What?

Do you to hire? Baker Mayfield gets to deal with another OC. He proved he could do it. Fourth in points per game after losing Canales. Third in yards per game. This is one of the reasons why I don't know if I believe in Liam Cohen, genuinely.

It's just because sometimes- I've got some reasons I don't believe in him.

Sometimes- Thank you. You just come into the right situation, right, Adam Gays? Yeah. Sometimes you have... How do you know?

But who would have thought that the right situation was Baker Mayfield in 2025?

Well, I mean, I don't know. I would say the people that watched him play the year before. Why did Dave Canals get a job?

The nice thing here about Josh Rizard replacing Liam Cohen. It's in-house. They know the system. It's also the third change. It's like the 800th change in 800 years for Baker Mayfield. He is very used to that. I don't think I will look at this Office of coordinator change at all with any predictability or any change in how I would view the players on the roster.

Yeah. By the way, unofficial population of Lizard lick is 1,300 people. Also, there's not a lot of people that I come from Lizard.

You rule over 1,300 people and say it's not a lot.

Yeah, well, I guess. Making them all happy.

In March 1998, the small town received publicity when Nintendo first released the Nintendo 64-game, Yoshie's Story There, with the name It was a lizard lick. With the name of the host town reflecting the Nintendo character, Yosh's ability to extend his tongue over a long distance.

Thank you.

What is happening?

This was a top five quarterback, top 15 running back, top 12 wide receiver offense.

It was a great offense. Done talking about Baker Mayfield.

That's all lizard lick from here on out. If I was Jay Griz, Josh Grizard is his real name. If I was Josh Grizard, I would come in and do as little as possible to change anything.

Oh, yeah. I would just be cashing checks.

Just cashing checks.

He is going to have to call plays. The one thing that is concerning or uplifting for the Liam Coinsight is simply that because it's a defensive head coach, you're not the play There you go.

All right. We'll take a break. We'll do some mailback.

Before you get into the mailbag, you better be reporting on this. I don't think I'm reporting on whatever it is you think because I have no idea what you think. I'm just saying we did not mention that the Browns also got a new offensive coordinator. I'll get out of here. Tommy Reece replacing Ken Dorsey, but it's really Stefansky. He's going to call the plays now. It's reverting back to what it used to be.

I meant, Brooks told us there's a band called King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.

Now, let me ask you this. Who's the lead singer? Because I swear I'm going to freak out if you tell me it's Josh Gizzard.

I don't know. I I'm going to freak out. I can't confirm nor deny it.

You're going to freak out? If it's Josh Gizzard, wow.

I think they would be- You're going to freak? That would be King Grizard, not King Gizzard.

Okay, fair.

Goodbye, everybody. No, we got some Mailbag.

Mailbag.

I don't know what's more disturbing, the fact that that name exists as a band or the fact that Brooks knows that it exists.

Brooks, did you know them or did you just stumble into them?

Yeah, say hi, Brooks, by the way. The people, they need to hear from Brooks.

Are you still on the space station?

Oh, are you on the space station?

I don't care if he's on the space station.

Hey, everybody. Yeah, still on another planet.

Sounds a lot closer, though.

He He might be in Australia with King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. All right, first question coming in from Louis on Instagram. Which players do you estimate to have the biggest drop in ADP this year?

I saw this earlier in the name I was going to bring up. We just talked about him, but I think CK Metcalf will take a tumble. He's getting older. I think people will be less excited about this offense and more excited about the JSN portion of it. Yeah. He is a player that I think next year will be significantly lower than where he was this season. Kelsey?

Oh, yeah.

Pitman?

Oh, man. Do you even draft Michael Pitman?

Those are a couple of names. Monty might end up losing some ground. I'm trying to think of some Are there- Marvel drop? Tony Pollard, compared to last year. I feel like that name, unless you're really intentional about talking about it. Pollard had a good year. I bet there's no one that won a championship with him on the roster.

My memory, Tony Pollard was the Rb-22. The whole first half. I mean, if people don't want to draft Tony Pollard, that's great. I'll draft him.

I know where a player has fallen, at least in Underdog offseason drafts, Kyron Williams. I don't understand it. He's the 35th pick.

We don't want to believe in Kyren ever.

Dude, I am fully in. If Kyren stays anywhere remotely close to that- That was Underdog?

Yeah. I think when we brought him up the other day, he just doesn't profile on Underdog the way he... He'll be a first-round pick. You know what I mean? In redraft? When we did our little first-round mock, he was, right?

Yeah, I think he was because of me.

Well, you don't know. If you passed on it, maybe we would have taken him. Fair. All right. We did not report on any Mark Andrews news, but there have been rumblings from everywhere. Yeah. Instagram question Nathan wants to know after the roller coaster season, which it was, what do we do with Mark Andrews in dynasty? He basically disappeared, then reappeared, scored a bunch of touch downs. I don't think it was a great fantasy experience, but if you did stick with him and you had him and you could play him down the stretch, you were fine. What do you do with him in dynasty? Jason, you're a dynasty manager of Mark Andrews.

I am. I think you just have to hold him and keep rolling out there. This is the type of player where you're going to hold until the end. I don't believe you're going to get a lot for him. Yeah, I agree. If you're not going to get a lot for him, he's going to score touch downs. Even if he is traded because there's rumblings or goes to a different team, he's going to get a lot of touch downs. Unfortunately, that's not what you'd love to bank on. You'd love to say, Oh, he's getting 150 targets, and I can have consistency every week. But he was the tight in five this year, and that's despite the first month of the season, basically not playing football at looked like. I mean, at least two gooses within that stretch. So he has not aged out of tight-end. You know, tight-ends, you can be 33, 34, 32. He's 29.

Not this one, though, I don't think. Oh, I- That was going to be the next question. I don't think this one. He's aging differently to me. This is not the same explosive player that... We saw Kelsey maintain a level of performance consistently through this age. Mark Andrews did not look the same player to me last year at all. He's still going to be a red zone threat, but he didn't look the same. You can't disappear for that many games. Here's a quote from the Ravens general manager that you can comment on as well. He'll be in our ring of honor someday. We'll figure it all out on the roster. That's a new word. Machinations? Machinations? Machinations? Machinations? Yeah, machinations. Over the coming weeks, but there's no bigger Mark Andrews fan than me. He's been a blessing to have on the team. There was another comment earlier in the week insinuating maybe they were saying goodbye, but go ahead.

I want to go back and look at some late-season film because I don't remember him slowing down. Now, I definitely, obviously, for fantasy football purposes, he slowed down. The targets weren't there. Isiah likely stepped up. Isiah flowers got better. They started... Bateman, all of a sudden, was an important part of the often. Schematically, I don't think he's as important. It used to be basically him as the primary target where he's getting 154 targets in a season, whereas last year, he had 69 targets. I don't think he lost it. I just don't think they needed him the same way.

Targets are earned, my brother.

I agree targets are earned, but this is also an offense that was...

They needed him.

They needed him to catch the overtime tying pass, sure, but they didn't- What do you think is more likely, though?

Rasha Bateman has been there for a while. Why wasn't he a bigger focal point in previous years?

Well, Shad Bayman has been injured in all the previous years. Isiah likely was coming into year two. Obviously, Mark Andrews is not getting faster and younger as he gets older. My point is, Lamar Jackson threw, what did he throw? Like 40, 41 touch downs. So this was an offense. It was just humming. And they were humming wherever Lamar wanted to go. It used to be he had to go to Mark Andrews. Now he doesn't have to. But the point of going back to the original question, I don't think anyone's trading something valuable or even as valuable as the amount of fantasy points Mark Andrews will score the rest of his career. To me, he is just to hold on to him.

Yeah, I would hold on to him. It is just a reminder. I mean, he was coming off of a broken ankle, a very similar injury to which Tony Pollard was coming off of for two years ago in Tony Pollard was very disappointing that year. Then I thought he was a much better player for the Titans than he was on Dallas two years ago. So I think that is a factor. I I agree, though, that he's not elite anymore, but if I got him in dynasty, I'm just going to hold on.

61% snapshot last year for Mark Andrews, which will be something you'll have to factor in. Do you roll the dice? He's the Montgomery of tight ends. You need the countdown. But if you get it, you're really happy, and he does it a lot. Where will Drake London be drafted in 2025? This question from Dane.

Super duper high.

Yeah, he'll be a second rounder, back of the first or second.

Yeah, I don't disagree I like that. People are going to be real hot for Drake.

But are you in on that, that price?

I'm in on Drake London. I'm in on the talent. It looked like... I don't know that we saw enough of Michael Pennix last year to make any really conclusive decisions on, is it going to work? But what did work was, Pennex was all about, I'm just going to throw the ball to my number one guy. So for fantasy, we liked that.

Yeah, Drake London right now is the wide receiver nine. Let me ask you some names around him. On Underdog, and see if you would rather have Drake London or this player. Would you rather draft Drake London or AJ Brown?

Aj Brown.

I'm on the London side.

Man, I think I go London there.

Drake London or Lad McConkey?

London.

Drake London or Tyreek Hill?

London. London.

Drake London or Brian Thomas?

Thomas. Brian Thomas.

Okay, so that's basically where he is at ADP. He's ahead of Lad Conky and Tyreek Hill. Fair-valued. He's right next to A. J. Brown, and he's behind Brian Thomas and Malik Nabors.

Do you foresee this year being a little different with the way the rookie wide receiver is coming in may land? Because we got a great running It will be different.

There's no Malik Nabors or Marv who are going to T-Mack out of U of A, even if he gets drafted as a top 10 NFL pick, we're not going, Yeah, high third-round pick for this rookie. They'll slide back, which is going to be great. The ADP, when you have to risk so much ADP on a rookie wide receiver, sometimes you get Malik, sometimes you get Jamar, sometimes you get Marv.

Where That would be the best destination? Including draft capital. If you look at the first round, the absolute best landing spot. Would you be excited about going to New England because you believe in- No.

Okay, so- Not for a year one.

I had a team popping my head right away. I don't know if it's a good... It was Green Bay.

Green Bay. Okay, so if you made it to Green Bay, Green Bay is 23, which in some mocks, T-Mack has fallen in his 20s.

I've seen them all over.

But for fantasy purposes, I still feel like going being there, now you're in a crowded room. It's definitely one where you can come out number one. I agree. What about Dallas?

Sure. What about Las Vegas?

Las Vegas has a desperate need, but he doesn't have a quarterback. Not yet.

I don't think braided is going to be patient.

No. Braided says, If braided is going to be moving out of that cushy broadcast job, he's going to be trying to win games.

This says to me, I think Mike is correct, that I don't see any location where the combination of draft capital and landing spot opportunity, quarterback can coalesce to where people are really bullish on rookie season T-Mack. And he is the clear bell of the ball of the rookie wide receiver's coming in. It's like, to me, he's in his own tier, and that tier would be behind a lot of last year's wide receiver. Even though he's number one this year, he's not as good. He's not in the tier of Malik, and Marv, and Brian Thomas Jr. So this is a guy that's probably going to be a 6th-round fantasy pick, sixth, 7th-round.

If he makes it to the end of the first, there's some exciting spots.

The reason it even came up is you were reading all those names around Drake London, and I was just thinking about where Drake London falls in the draft. Normally, you'd have a smattering of rookies working their way through and into that range. And I couldn't think If you have any rookies ending up there. No, they won't. If you have a... Of the names you said, Brian Thomas and Drake London and Lad McConkey, all those guys right now, it's hard for me to find that landing spot, like you said, where I'd be like, Oh, I want a team at.

Yeah, we You might have three rookie runningbacks in the top 20.

Yeah. So next week, we're going to cover free agent landing spot predictions, as well as our top 10 things to remember episode as promised. And if you want an extra episode of the show, you can always go to jointhefoot. Com. Come and support our independent podcast, and you will get a bonus episode each and every week where we answer your questions. We catch you up on everything going on around here in Footclient headquarters with all of the new developments and personnel and the apps we're building out for you and everything going on with the community. You can check that out at jointhefoot. Com. And I guess it's worth a final reminder since this is the last show before the March first deadline. But if you pre-ordered the UDK before March first, you will be entered to win, not wintered.

No, we're getting warmer.

It's already 90 degrees here.

Entered to win a Listener League spot at ultimatefoot.

Com. You can do both. What is it? Two birds with one stone. If you are an Let me check my watch. Yeah, that's it. An ultimate FootClan member at jointhefoot. Com, you are automatically entered into that drawing. You have the UDK, you have the extra bonus episode, everything you want.

That's a big stone.

That's a big stone.

If you're getting two birds, don't move.

Some call them a boulder.

All right, that'll do it. Take care, everybody. Goodbye.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot. Com, and follow us on Twitter @theffballers.