Transcript of Jacobs Fallout, Preseason Takeaways + Mailbag - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/31

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Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.

Oh, welcome in. No more breaking news as we start the show. Oh, nothing else going on.

Not yet.

Okay. Welcome into the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Monday, August 31st. September nearly here. Kickoff nearly here.

And what a weekend.

2 weekends in a row where we have one, a ton of fantasy drafts taking place and 2, a ton of fantasy news. That can entirely disrupt the drafts.

Yeah.

But that's what we're here for.

You know what's a shame is that the good news isn't ever the news that like really rocks your draft. You don't ever go into like, oh my gosh, guys, this guy's good. We found out. Yeah.

I mean, technically speaking, if you were in an IDP league this weekend did contain that news.

Oh, I guess that's true. I guess that's actually true.

Because Aaron Donald decided to say, I'm back.

That just, that doesn't happen.

Dude.

It doesn't happen on the offensive side.

$20 million up to $30 million. How do they do that right before kickoff?

I like the comment that you said, which is like, I hopefully this gives you that magical, amazing, best defensive line ever. But they almost like never, the super team never works out.

But I think I saw something where the last 20 teams that were favored by this wide of a margin, like they're They're the clear favorites for the Super Bowl. The last 20 times this has happened, they've gone 0-20. Not that that's shocking because the field will usually have it if you're betting on 31 out of 32 teams, but it doesn't ever— like, I genuinely, I mean, I'm a Cardinals fan kind of, but they're not a serious organization. So I'm not the— I'm like rooting for them to wreck the league. I just want— sorry, everybody else, but I love the idea. of those 2 guys just literally shutting out every team. And it won't happen. It just, the NFL, there's too much parity.

Well, injuries. I mean, you got to stay healthy. And it's like asking the elder statesman, Matthew Stafford, the elder statesman, Davante Adams, returning from—

The elder statesman, Aaron Donald.

Yeah, Aaron Donald and then Myles Garrett. And you know, one of those guys goes down, it changes it. But does this count as positive news? Zach Ertz reunion with the Eagles is on the table, Jason.

Oh man, that is not—

Not quite where you—

No. No, that is nasty. That is— oh my gosh, is that nasty. You even like Dallas Goedert. That would be—

Right. Yeah, that would actually be bad. So much going on. We have a quick question of the day, preseason takeaways. We have news and notes to cover, including our complete breakdown of a situation that we cannot provide every single answer for, but we'll have a lot of analysis for the Josh Jacobs situation. Oh boy. We'll get into mailbag questions on the show today. It is a huge week. A lot of drafts took place over the weekend. A lot more happening this upcoming Labor Day weekend. We just got done with a live show here in Phoenix on Friday night, which was—

It wasn't just a live show, Andy. That was, that was a mega.

It was out of control. Look at, if you're watching on youtube.com/thefantasyfootballers. It was incredible.

That was like an enshrinement ceremony. Oh my God.

Yeah.

Jason surprised us with some shenanigans that I apparently almost ruined.

You and me both, man.

Yeah. I mean, we, we, well, I'll just let people watch it, but it's up on YouTube. You can watch the show. Humongous shout out to the 800-plus people that came out for that show. I met, I mean, we hung around as long as we could. We met tons of people with amazing stories, met people, multiple people that came from Canada, New York, Boston, Texas.

Tennessee. Nashville. Yep.

I didn't even get to talk to— my family was there. All of our families were there. Met JD and Lewis. JD came from Texas, a double amputee who listened to the show throughout his entire recovery process. And, but those stories were throughout the night. I mean, we met so many amazing human beings and it just gave me so much energy for this season. I think people had a good time. I think Jason had the best time.

I definitely did.

And, you know, obviously our bold predictions will be right on the money.

Of course.

I had one friend who had—

They're really just things that are going to happen.

I had one friend who literally— so I said some good things about the Bears and they're like, did you say that because of me?

Yes. Yeah.

Yes, friend.

That's the only answer you could say. Of course, that was all I was thinking. I stay up at night thinking.

So the bold predictions episode, an extra one this week on, on the YouTube for Saturday. Instagram.com/FantasyFootballers on X. You can follow us individually at Andy Holloway, at Jason Moore, at FF Hitman, and at the FF Ballers for the show. But the quick question, we did have preseason football and we just wanted to throw like, what's one kind of reaction takeaway from this final week of preseason? I think there were a few. I mean, I have brought up and I know that I don't have to do it, but I've brought up the fact that Kyle Pitts in this offense for Atlanta, I think is going to be incredible.

Lee slow?

I mean, I saw that play. I mean, that's a tight end. That's not Austin Ekeler trying to run down the sideline.

It's a tight end who used to be fast.

I like that you—

I mean, Kyle Pitts looks fine.

He had a 37-yard run up the sideline and escaped the defense.

It just, when you have Kyle Pitts is going to be great.

I'm just telling you.

It was more of a like young Kyle Pitts, but pre-injury Kyle Pitts houses that. And so it just kind of felt bad.

My takeaway I wanted to bring up was just that like Chris Bell, wide receiver for the Dolphins. Caleb Douglas got a little bit of attention. This offense gets a lot of negative attention for how bad it's going to be. But I think Chris Bell, we got to see him. I think it's a very, very good thing for the Dolphins offensive potential. This is a first-round talent. Chris Bell, wide receiver, in for the final preseason game. You start to look at that offense. Thank you. I don't know if he's earned it yet, but thank you. And you say, well, I like Malik Willis. I love De'Von Achane. What you want from this offense is just to not be a bottom 10 offense. You know what I mean?

Someone's got to do it though.

And they might, they might be, but—

That is actually not true. That is actually not true. We always say that like, oh, it can't get worse. Someone's got it. Someone doesn't have to, like they can continue.

Someone has to be in the bottom 10.

Oh, I thought you were saying someone has to step up for the Dolphins. I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

I think Chris Bell being available to this team is a big deal. And when you look at what they had on offense last year, you're like, oh, they have nobody, right? They got nobody. Well, they didn't. It's not like they had Tyreek Hill last year. You lost Jaylen Waddle. But if you have a couple rookies that can come in and step up, if you have Greg Dulcich, if you have Achane, if Malik Willis can run the football and keep him accountable, I still think they're going to surprise a little bit on offense. I'm not talking about a top 10 team. I just mean middle of the pack means that Achane can be a little safer than people think. Chris Bell can be a little more interesting in redraft. That was one of my takeaways.

Yeah, it's awesome to see him out there. It's crazy to see him out there, how quick it progressed from like, you know, camp opens on the PUP. It's not going to be ready. And then it's like, oh, he's Playing in preseason.

Awesome to see a steal for them.

It absolutely could be. I don't think I'm drafting him even with my last pick in, in a redraft league, but you're keeping an eye on him. I've got 3 rookies as well that just little takeaways. One is that Mekhi Lemon played. It's similar to Chris Bell. It's like, oh good. Now he didn't play well. He had like 3 catches for 3 yards, dropped to turn into an interception. Plenty of bad publicity, but it was nice that he's healthy. He's on the field. As a first-round wide receiver, I'm far more confident that he will, if he's healthy, be worth a shot at a first-round, at a late-round redraft pick. The other ones, Xavien Thomas. Yeah, this is the 4'8 wide receiver for the Chicago Bears. He has a very short—

sorry.

Swish!

No, I loved it. I actually loved that. So he's tiny. Right. He has only 190, but I guess at 4.28, 190. So he's a thick boy. But blazing speed. He showed it for the Bears. I think it's not relevant to him, but it's relevant for Caleb Williams. You know, Andy's my guy, Caleb Williams, who he believes can, can have a breakout. It's always nice to have a 4th weapon in there that can, you know, completely you know, burn the field. And then the last one I would say on a less positive note, Cyrus Allen, rookies had great drumbeat throughout camp, looked like he was playing exclusively with Mahomes. It did. You saw he was playing behind Worthy, Rice, and Tyquan Thornton. As a non-first-round draft pick, I'm more hesitant to draft those in redraft. I still like the outlook in dynasty for the potential there to step up. But in a redraft, I, I don't know that he starts at 70-plus percent of snaps. And if he, if he doesn't, which it looks like he's not going to, then it's irrelevant for the beginning of the season.

I mean, if he does, he's a super outlier. Oh, super outlier. You don't go from a 5th round pick. Yeah. Other than Puka, I get it. But a 5th rounder to a week 1 starting type, it takes the course of the season for those types of players. I'm just going to highlight the rookie running backs who, you know, like Emmitt. Emmitt in Kansas City where DeMarcato had been running as the backup to Kenneth Walker for kind of what felt like the majority of preseason and training camp. DeMarcato got waived. Emmitt has looked fantastic on the field. So he looks like he has, like if you drafted him In your rookie drafts, he looks like he's already the true backup.

He has some hilarious similarities to Isaiah Pacheco when he was at his best. When you compare the way that those guys run, kind of a violent, aggressive runner, he has looked good. There were a couple of the backup running back situations that, and it seems like Pacheco in Detroit is all but not involved.

They're willing to go into the season with You know, Dan Campbell said, I'm comfortable with the name of this player. I've never heard of him.

Oh yes.

Sailors. Yeah.

But so, so you got him.

Sailor Jerry, I think is who it was.

Jacob Sailor.

Jacob Sailors.

A sailor. Mike Washington. Not only does he look like the direct insurance running back to Gente, but he looks like a player who might actually get on the field. The Adam Randall situation for Baltimore was interesting because he was looking, yeah, he was looking very good. Rookie running back for the Ravens, but then they put him on the short-term IR.

So he will miss the first 4 weeks.

So it's just, you know, trying to get the landscape and, oh crap, the Colts running back, his name is escaping me.

Seth McGowan.

Yes. So McGowan, it looks like he is, he's the insurance back for Johnny Taylor.

Over DJ Giddens?

Yes.

All right. By the way, we are still in the midst of filling the Megalobowl. 14,878 is the count as of 10 seconds ago.

More.

So there are draft spots available for each and every one of you the 4th through the 8th. All of those days, multiple draft spots free for every single Foot Clan member. Go to megalobowl.com if you want to play in that tournament.

I'm so excited for drafts. I haven't really Like we're in a slow draft right now that we're doing like a sleeper chop league. I am really looking forward to drafts. And thank goodness based on the news we're about to get to that we have not drafted any of our main leagues yet.

Can I, can I talk about this? I posted. So Ginty was 2 weeks ago the news where we didn't know what was wrong in the middle of people's drafts. And then Jacobs was the news this weekend, which we're about to talk about. So I posted like, hey, just a good reminder to draft as late as you want. I was met with a surprising amount of people who have weighed in and said that they, that I am unbelievably wrong. And the most exciting thing is to draft early and then get the news and like ride on the, be able to mock people when people get hurt.

So here's, here's why you're getting that, Andy. 11 divided by 12 is 91%. So 91% of people who did their draft are happy. that they didn't get that landmine. But that's dumb. That's really objectively stupid.

I was so shocked. They were like, this is the worst advice ever. Draft early and then have the fun of the surprise.

I think if you're in a hardcore league and that's how y'all like to handle the business, that's fine. But we're talking to like a lot of real just casual players who we want them to have fun playing fantasy football. You know what's not fun? When your 2nd round pick moments after you draft him, you find out that they're like essentially suspended.

Hey, that guy just did that.

Yeah. I took Jacobs in the chopped league. So him and I are already on the block.

You're both chopped.

Yeah.

I thought that was surprising. So let's talk news.

News and notes from around the league.

So the headline news that took place yesterday morning was that the NFL has placed Packers running back Josh Jacobs on the commissioner's exempt list. Moments before that news broke, we got word that the Packers had traded for running back Caleb Johnson. Caleb Johnson.

Which that made so much more sense as soon as the Jacobs news— oh, Chase is just sitting covering his face. So he can't, he can't show this smile.

Caleb Johnson is a Packer.

Your eyes are giving you away.

He will be a depth addition behind an injury-prone Marshawn Lloyd and Chris Brooks.

He's a loser. He is going to a— Caleb Johnson is a nothing loser burger.

You don't believe anything you're saying.

I absolutely— I know it. I don't have to believe it.

You don't even believe it.

But I am just telling you, man, in a world where he redeems. No pants, no shirt.

Are you—

you're doing service. I will be leaving. I will be living birthday style the rest of my days.

You're down big, aren't you? You're down big. Listen, here's the story with Josh Jacobs.

Yeah.

And we, we reacted very quickly yesterday. The 3 of us updated UDK rankings for Marshawn Lloyd, for the entire Packers, for Josh Jacobs. NFL, and again, this is not just, I mean, we do not know the outcome. Let me start there.

Correct.

We do not know how long he'll be on the commissioner's exempt list. We do not know what information the NFL became privy to to put him on the list. We, you know, you can go to Drew Davenport and read everything that he has said. What we know is this, the charges came out against Josh Jacobs and they were reduced charges from The original arrest. Then the NFL went and put him on the commissioner's exempt list a few days later. We said on this show that if this video became public and it was indicting of Josh Jacobs, regardless of the charges, the names of the charges, anything of that nature, he might never play a game of football again. You know, is it a coincidence that the NFL Suspended him, put him on, or I should say, sorry.

Yes.

Put him on the commissioner's list a few days later. I don't think it's a coincidence. I think that there's more information that they have from the investigation. There have been players like Julius Peppers who were on the commissioner's exempt list for 47 days. Alvin Kamara for a shorter period of time. There are also players that have been put on the commissioner's exempt list and they don't play football ever again. Mike made the point, like, if he misses the year on the commissioner's exempt list, he may start next year on a 6-game suspension. And then you're older. Does anybody want you in the league?

There is a, there is a, I mean, I don't even want to say non-zero. I feel like greater than 10% chance that Jacobs never plays again.

What the living nightmare? Yes.

You saw it.

You took Batman down.

I'm Batman.

I'm so sorry. We're talking about the most serious thing. And then I turn around and Jason Moore—

is that a Hall of Fame bust?

There's a bust of Jason Moore. If you didn't see the live show, that's awesome. He inducted himself into the Hall of Fame and then now replaced Batman on the set.

Why are you taking it?

Oh, he's putting his jacket on.

I know. Oh, okay.

Yeah.

The gold jacket had to go.

I'm sorry.

This shit.

I had not seen it. All right.

Hall of Famer.

I really should have. not brought this up at this moment.

No, no, no, it's good. But anyways, let's continue on serious business.

So Jacobs is on—

I'm not giving you another day of this.

Jacobs is on the commissioner's list. We've seen, we've seen players get put on it for a very short amount of time. We've seen players put on it that essentially took the place of their suspension and like the time it was then, okay, this is time served. The minimum suspension in the NFL for a domestic violence situation is 6 games. The case— I'm— we're just trying to lay out the facts. The case was scheduled to be heard in court, talking about Jacobs, in November.

So we—

According to Davenport, that's going to be irrelevant to the situation.

Oh, okay.

So, so yeah, I mean, I think what his belief is and what makes logical sense is that Whatever this video that has not, as of this recording yet, hit the open market, the guess is that perhaps the NFL has seen it and they know what's coming and therefore they're getting ahead of it, putting them on the exempt list. If that video happens à la Ray Rice, it could be the situation where we say people just don't want to deal with it. He'll be gone this year. He'll start the season suspended at an older age and be done. However, on the other side, so Connor Allen put out a tweet just showing some of the commissioner's exempt list history. AP got 15, it was on there for 15 games. Greg Hardy, 15 games. Reuben Foster, 5. Kareem Hunt, 5 games. Jabrill Pepper, 7 games. So there is a wide range of outcomes here. I've also seen people say, is Josh Jacobs worth a last round pick? Like, is it even— and I would say, sure. I think at that point, we don't know enough right now. And your last round picks are so low hit rates that should— you know that if Josh Allen— Josh Jacobs plays football as a starting running back for the Packers this year, he's going to be valuable.

Yeah, but then he's on your— I mean, how long is he going to— are you okay with Josh Jacobs taking real estate on your bench? Because you can't IR him.

At least for right now, while we gather more information, I am.

So we went in, Marshawn Lloyd is kind of in that RB 24 to 30 range right now in our rankings with plenty of variability based on Jacobs availability. He has first round talent. He's got the ability. He hasn't stayed healthy. It's a good offense. So, you know, people that were, I mean, I had, I had a funny story from a friend who was in the middle of their draft when this news broke. They saw my video. that I released on our Instagram, just sharing my immediate thoughts. They played it too loud from their seat. And the next person in the draft ahead of him drafted Marshawn Lloyd instantaneously.

Oh no.

Right ahead of them in the draft. So yeah, it's, you know.

So yeah, Marshawn Lloyd is slotting in around, like I have him about running back 24. Trying to figure it out. The role is so incredibly valuable. Like if Marshawn Lloyd is as good as the Green Bay Packers hoped he was when they drafted him multiple years ago in the 3rd round, then I mean, that's, that's absurd. Like he will be awesome for fantasy football. There's just, it's, it's a complete unknown. Everything, everything with Lloyd and Jacobs is just how much risk are you willing to tolerate? Because we don't have, you know, the answers.

What's funny is I saw, and this was, this was a couple of weeks ago, which is ironic, the timing. Obviously we don't know what the teams know well ahead, well ahead, well in advance of us. But a lot of the arguments I've made for Jordan Mason about going to the vertical wide zone and how it fits his play style, some of that has happened with the Packers as well. They've been doing more of that wide zone look and their beat reporters are like, I don't understand how Josh Jacobs fits into this. Because it's not his play style. Whereas Marshawn Lloyd has been really excelling in camp with that. Caleb Johnson also fits that style. So I do think the offense fits Marshawn Lloyd if his meat can stay intact.

Tender?

Okay. No, don't say tender. That's— we, you know.

Here's what I don't think the Packers do. I don't think that they add Caleb Johnson moments before this news comes down if they know the outcome of the news. I don't think that they have enough. If they thought that Jacobs would just be off the list in a week, I don't think you do that.

Agreed.

So this is what you do. You have to kind of break down the situation based on the evidence you have and see where it goes. And that's where we're at with Jacobs and Lloyd and Chris Brooks and Caleb. And ultimately, I think that there was a— there are some that believe, as I am one of them, that this team was going to be a little bit more balanced, use their wide receiver core that is now, you know, healthy. And Jordan Love to me is sneaky. I mean, there are just He's a very, very, very good player. But if you run the ball and you're number 1 in that and you're 28th in passing, you can't get the volume you need from Jordan Love. If they're more balanced, there's the potential for a big season from him.

The touchdowns as well. My big issue with Jordan Love for fantasy football since he doesn't run is he's got to throw for 35 touchdowns. He can, but he doesn't because Josh Jacobs is so good around the goal line. I actually changed some of these. up to where I bumped Tucker Kraft, Matthew Golden, and Christian Watson up in the touchdown department because I think he, I think it makes sense. Like when you get in the red zone, you're going to be throwing more than running without Josh Jacobs. So it's good for Love and good for some of those receiving options.

Well, and just a reminder, 3 years ago, Jordan Love was the quarterback 5 for fantasy football at just under 19 points per game. Then Josh Jacobs shows up for the past 2 years and it goes way down. And part of Jordan Love's success in the, in that season where he was the QB5, 4 rushing touchdowns. Like this was a part of what they did. Yeah.

He had a period of time that he played where he was coming off of an injury where you should not extrapolate anything in his rushing totals for that season because he wasn't able to run. They weren't allowing him to run.

He's an athletic guy.

He is. And I should add, if it needs to be stated, because I saw somebody dropped Marshawn Lloyd to sign Caleb Johnson.

Don't do that.

No.

Please understand that Marshawn Lloyd is far and away the back to roster there. And then Chris Brooks is the next man up. Caleb is his depth. It doesn't mean he won't have an opportunity. I think it'll be Brooks and Caleb behind Lloyd. Lloyd gets hurt. That's the situation. Did you want to add?

Yeah. Last thing, because I think this is what people are really wanting to know is we talk about the round. But I want to give some names to Marshawn Lloyd and ask, are you drafting this person or Marshawn Lloyd? Yeah.

Go on.

Are you drafting Rhamondre Stevenson or Marshawn Lloyd?

Rhamondre.

Rhamondre.

Are you drafting Tony Pollard or Marshawn Lloyd?

Marshawn Lloyd.

Are you drafting Jadarion Price?

Price.

That's, that's like right where he is for me.

That's close. That's right. I think they're back to back in my rankings and that's really close. I probably go Lloyd based on what I think is going to happen, but that's your risk aversion. If you want to be safe with like production, but not that level of upside, go Tootin.

Yeah.

Because it's the Green Bay Packers running back. The Green Bay Packers starting running back can be a top 12 player if they get the work.

It's funny because every single team in that division, that's the truth.

The only problem—

The Vikings.

Yep.

The Lions.

Yeah.

The Bears and the Packers.

It's a great division.

That division's outrageous.

The biggest problem for Marshawn Lloyd is what if he gets the work? How, like, if you give him the work, can he hold up?

All right. We got to take a break and we'll get into some more news. Some of it good. Some of it unfortunate as we seem to get this time of year. I'm going to law school. I just signed up. I registered online. It will be a digital degree, but I'm going. Keenan Allen arrested on Sunday morning, charged with DWI and DWI endangering a person. This will not affect Keenan Allen this year.

Seems unlikely.

The legal situation will not be figured out until the end of the year. That's via Drew Davenport as well. He was also arrested for a DUI. Under 0.8 and not driving the vehicle. He was in a parked vehicle. It is still a DWI. I'm not excusing it. I'm just stating the situation. The anticipation there from those that I've, that are more knowledgeable and have completed their online legal degrees is that this will get pled down to something innocuous and go away. Aaron Donald returning. We talked about that. Sean Tucker agreed to a 1-year deal, did not get cut.

This is so sad.

Sean Tucker had a $3.5 million deal. And then they, at the end of the training camp, said, you can have nothing or $2.5 million.

This man deserves so much more than what the Bucs are doing to him.

It's really kind of sad. I mean, he's— I don't know.

I don't agree because—

You don't?

I don't because he chose to sign with them before the season. He did not have demand from other teams. He could have found like—

Well, he was tendered.

Was he tendered? All this meat and tendering. I'm getting hungry.

He was, he was tendered, which means that they—

He didn't have a choice.

They claimed him and then they're like, hmm, well, now that there's no jobs available.

Yeah, but he was tendered at what level? I mean, any team could have come out and bought him.

I'm guessing $3.5 million.

No, I'm talking about pick level. Oh yeah. Because there's a, there's a pick compensation if someone comes and takes it. I'm just saying a team could have come and saved him. That's all.

It just stinks that the human had to be like, like, for instance, let me put it this way. How great would it be to go to Matt the Falcon and be like, dude, oh my gosh, we want to cut your salary by 25% and you get to keep working here, but we just don't want to pay you as much. Could you imagine that? Because I would love it, but I don't think we'd do it.

Yeah, it's tough in the streets. NFL running backs, it's, you know, in the Buccaneers defense, maybe they got play from another depth running back and they, you know, you don't know what conversations took place in the preseason where they're like, hey, here's your 3.5, but fight for it. I don't know. Tons of roster cuts. Say goodbye. Everyone start waving right now. And I'm going to say names while you wave. Will Levis.

See ya.

Jayden Blue. Phil Moffa.

This is interesting. The Cowboys waived all of their backup running backs other than Malik Davis.

Did you not have Davis as the 2 already? I did.

I did. But I figured at least Mafa or Jayden Blue would hang around.

DeMarcato waived by the Chiefs. Jaleel McLaughlin waived by the Broncos.

Yay.

Jonah Coleman. Damian Pierce was waived by the Eagles.

Also related, Damian Pierce was with the Eagles.

Yeah. Greg Dortch left the Lions. We thought maybe he'd have a role there. Jalen Hyatt, goodbye. OBJ is a member of the Giants.

He's a member of the Giants and the player that had his number is no longer on the Giants.

Yes, I did notice. I 100% noticed Hyatt and those seem conspicuous. Here's a big one. Zach Charbonnet will remain on the PUP to start the season. You're going to get Jahdarian Price as the lead back mixing in with a heavy dose of Halani. This is a humongous opportunity for Ja'Darian Price.

Sure is.

To quote, establish it.

Yeah. I mean, we're going to, we're going to see out the gate day one whether or not he is good enough to hold off an undrafted free agent who has touched the ball like 25 times in his career. I hope he is. He should be. I'm not too worried about Halani. I'm getting more and more bullish on just the opportunity around Ja'Darian Price. He wasn't my favorite prospect coming in, but I mean, you, you just, it's, it's a layup of obvious, you know, upside, upside.

Jordan Tyson on IR to start the year. Yeah. Tank Dell on IR to start the year. James Conner, Christian Kirk.

The James Conner one going to the IR, I would imagine that is, I mean, you have to put him on there if he's hurt, but it's like the moves they have made where they waived Trey Benson injured and now Conner with this. Jeremiah Love with his ankle, probably good to go.

Puka Nacua returned to practice on Sunday, was dealing with the hip flexor. Puka also was not placed on the commissioner's exempt list, which is noteworthy in light of kind of, you know, this was the time to do it. Todd Bowles reported that Ameka Ibuka, he's hopeful, will be ready for week 1. I am at this level with Ibuka. This is a bummer because Turf toe for one, it takes longer than you think to get better from. 2, it can recur. 3, you don't produce at the same level as when you're not recovering from it.

4, he didn't play well through injuries last year.

Yes. It would have been my 4. Yeah. But I appreciate it. Yeah. That, I mean, you're right. All of those things again, Chris Godwin is undrafted or late round. Pay attention to him. But I think they're— I mean, McMillan is hurt as well.

Yeah.

Uh-huh. I mean, it's right to say, yeah, I got an opportunity.

Yeah.

I mean, Ted Hurst.

I packed a chainsaw.

Yeah. I mean, the opportunity is there for Ted Hurst to start the year. We'll see how much they lean on the running game. And Luther Burden looks 100% according to Ben Johnson.

Huzzah.

That's great.

Good news.

You guys want to do some mailbag and see if we can answer some more questions? I feel like—

let's try.

I feel like all we have is questions, Mike. Just a world of questions.

Yep.

Hopefully we get some answers.

Mailbag.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Visit the site and click submit a question if you have a question for the show, thefantasyfootballers.com. Dial the voicemail hotline. 302-464-TFFB. We'll kick off today's mailbag with a voicemail.

Hey, ballers. This is Jameson from good old Alabama. I was just wondering if the legendary Obi-Wan Dale Robinson could actually be the wide receiver 1 in Tennessee this season over Tate. He is a Jedi after all. Thank you. Thank you, fellas. First of all, Alabama, man.

Incredible call. Pretty good.

I didn't know if it was a bit at first. I think it was real.

It was real.

And could Wandale— let's say the percentage chance we think Wandale could end up as the fantasy wide receiver 1 for the hopefully Carnell Tate-led Tennessee Titans. I have my percentage down. What do you guys think? I'm going 15.

I go 35.

Oh, higher.

I wrote 3.

Okay. Okay. I mean, it's a vast minority in any of our names.

Take the full PPR, I guess the odds change.

But if I will say this, if he is the wide receiver 1 for that team, it's not good.

Things have gone terribly wrong.

It's not going to be like, oh, so then Wandale is a great value and dominated. No, it's then that team is not the team that they were hoping to be.

There is absolutely a world where Wandale is useful for fantasy.

Sure.

Yeah.

I think it's better. It's better. Wandale has a better season for fantasy if Tate is good, not if Wandale's the one.

Yeah.

All right. Missy in South Carolina writing in about a chopped league, which by the way, we're in the middle of our second season drafting that right now. I'm trying a chopped league for the first time. Would you please speak to draft strategy and how to use and save fab? A chop league is the same as like a guillotine league. It basically means we have in our league, there's 18 different teams to match up with the amount of weeks in the season. Every week, the lowest scoring team gets chopped. See you later. You're gone. Goodbye. And all your players go to free agency and then you can pick them up. I don't know if you guys have— this will be fun because I don't know what strategies we—

We're still pretty new to the format.

I know that my initial strategy going into the year has been like, I am not drafting Josh Jacobs, right? I'm drafting players that I imagine, that I know, players that I know with certainty have opportunities to start the year and high opportunities. So that's kind of the direction I went is that I'm guaranteed production from my starters to begin the year. But fab strategy is another discussion too.

I would say early in the draft, I like I really like having workhorse running backs. I'll take them over really good wide receivers simply because we talk about it a lot. Wide receivers, even really good, you know, top 6 wide receivers, they're not nearly as consistent as running backs. They'll have their big boom games and then they'll have games where they just don't score a lot. And all you need to do in a chop league is not have the least amount of points. Did you turn my Hall of Fame bust around?

You did.

Sir, disrespectful of a Hall of Famer.

My head on the video.

But so I do prefer earlier running backs. And then I don't mind taking a quarterback if it's, if there's a really good quarterback, I don't mind pulling the trigger a little earlier because again, you just need a lot of points to, to not finish last for those first few weeks. And the best advice I can give— what's happening?

You laughing at the statue?

I'm sorry. Do you want to finish the point and then I'll tell you why I'm laughing?

Sure.

It was going to be good.

Save your fab in the beginning. I know it's so tempting to go all in and then you get, you get a ton of, You know, you get that guy for the whole year. But if you're going to win the league, you really need to hold on to money for a while in your, in your fantasy.

So I'm looking at your, and this is not for the audio audience very much, but I'm looking at this bust of Jason Moore, which he inducted himself into the Hall of Fame on Sunday.

Go watch it. It's a good, good time. youtube.com/TheFantasyCast.

And people have asked us, was that a bit?

No. Well, I mean, it was a bit for sure.

Was that a bit that Mike and I were aware of?

No.

In fact, Like I almost like apparently like they had this hiding backstage and I almost unveiled it.

You literally touched it and started to take the sheet up and I was like, Jer, Jer.

Here's why I was laughing. I was like, this is too close to me. I miss Batman. Right. So I'm like, well, maybe Jason wants it back behind him.

Uh-huh. Yeah.

Or you were trying to put it on the fake shelf.

I actually— I was trying to put him on the shelf behind him because I—

it's—

there's nothing there.

Papa Josh can attest. I came in this morning and started laughing. I did the exact same thing. My plan was to put him on the shelf behind me. And I walked in here and went, wait, those are fake.

You'll have to digitize him.

Yeah.

Oh, goodness.

That we can do.

Mike, any other thoughts on the CHOP situation?

Just the, like, optimally you need to have some, some fab at the end. And in terms of how much do you bid on players, our league was all over the place. Like you'd have weeks where it seemed like—

Desperation spread wildly.

There was weeks where it's like, oh, there's not really someone who should be worth a ton of fab and then a ton of fab gets spent on them. And then the next week you're like, oh my gosh, this superstar goes for way cheaper. People are still trying to figure it out. I don't know that there's like a boilerplate of this is the strat. At the end, you want to have something.

It's the one place people ask us, do we care about bye weeks? That is a place that it is a major impact. Teams got regularly chopped on weeks that their stars had bye weeks. Jonathan Taylor's week. It happened all the time. And, and like, you don't know. I think this is part of it. There's a lot of managers, but you don't know who's feeling the pinch and afraid. Like you get it in, you look at your roster and you go, man, I got these 2 players on bye. I am in so much trouble next week if I don't spend. And then they spend more than you expect. That was the league where Brock Bowers became a curse.

Yeah. That was the—

People kept signing him.

I don't know if this is prescriptive or not, but so Brock Bowers, you know, frequently hurt last year. So people kept trying to buy low, so to speak, of like, oh, I'm going to, I'm going to get him on my roster here while he's hurt. And then when he comes back, it's going to be amazing. I'm going to have Brock Bowers. And then that team would just get cut. It was very, it was, it was the ring. They watched the tape.

I will say that as a side league, it was a great overall—

Yes, as a side league, very, very fun.

It was just a different vibe. You just feel like it was, it was just fun through and through. There was something consequential every week. Somebody you make fun of robustly every week.

My favorite part of this league, and it's so delightful.

Oh, I know what you're going to say.

I was all in. It was important to me. Every single week it was important. It was like, oh, I just made the cut. Oh, the waivers. It's fun. What's my lineup going to be? The first week I was out, I made it, I don't know, halfway, 3 quarters of the way through the season or whatever. As soon as you were out, I just didn't care anymore. Like I didn't, it was like it was gone. It was off my plate. It was great.

I think for us in a lot of big leagues doing this full time, that was a relief to be able to say I'm either all in or all out. This question comes in from Instagram. How do you decide between drafting value for team need when you're at the turn or for team need? I'm sorry, drafting value or team need when you're at the turn. The implication being if you're at the turn, you got a long wait. You don't necessarily— I think that's the position where it's the most difficult to trust ADP, right?

Yeah.

Because you have to wait for such a long time if you You know, you have to either reach or pray.

Yeah, I don't, I don't, I mean, obviously value is going to drop to you and you're going to know, oh, look, I can't believe this guy fell. Great. Scoop him up. But in general, I'm not going by ADP value when I'm at the turn. I'm going by what player do I want? I never ever, you just can't play the game. I mean, you can, you can say, hey, around round 8, these type of players are usually there at this position. But you can't play the game throughout your draft of like, oh, I hope this guy makes it back to me that you're maybe considering with this pick. Not going to happen in any kind of competent league. So you just have to genuinely say of all the players that are in, you know, wide range, who do I genuinely believe scores the most points for a position I need?

All right. We'll take a break. Come back with some more questions. Still good on all that news. Nothing else crazy happening.

Not seeing anything right now.

Nobody else getting cut that we didn't expect or something like that.

We'll let you know.

All right. Mar Chod comes or writes in from X. Have you seen any indications that the year of Mike is officially over? He achieved such a godly level last year. That I'm scared to bet against him this year. Any signs would help.

You should be.

Getting a wrong Starbucks order, t-shirt with a spaghetti stain, anything. Like, did you in life, Mike, are there some signs potentially that we've noticed, Jason, or that Mike, you've noticed? Like, have you, you know, your shoes untied and you thought you tied it and any reason to believe that you may be heading for more of a...

The reason to believe—

On an average year?

Is just believing in sanity and mathematics. Like, that was—

Turn to the mean. Yeah.

I mean, I probably have to, but—

Was that year compensating for any like other things going on?

Oh, personal life's a disaster.

There's also, you know, last year—

You've been building your house a while. Maybe that was the payoff.

Last year, you know, it was a great year for Mike. You had the Ring of Honor twice.

Yeah.

He got usurped already this year. So there's a sign.

You don't know what bothers me is that I know Mike, Mike has his stuff. I mean, Mike has, Mike has his things he's never going to escape and it's going to be things like Ben Sennett.

Yeah.

And his favorite players are his favoritest, but he's been ridiculously reasonable with some of these guys that he was just all over the moon with last year that I tend to believe him. And I hate that about myself.

Yeah, you should. You should. Definitely.

It's so frustrating. We haven't seen it. We haven't seen enough signs. Jason inducting himself to his own Hall of Fame.

It's just a start.

It's a start.

It's so funny. Well, I mean, number one, the bit was—

Yeah, you being outshenaniganed is good.

The bit was incredible. Pulled off flawlessly. Neither Andy and I knew what was going on. And at the same time, because it, The— I don't think this came up because of the Eagles owner, was it?

No, no, it was already happening because this happened the day after your second Ring of Honor. I went, okay, I'm going to Hall of Fame. What's an important show? 2000? Oh, the live show.

Yeah, it was, it was incredibly well done. But then the, the, the, the owner getting put in jail is like, Both Andy and I had the exact same idea. It went in my head. I'm like, could I pull off a 3rd ring of honor at the live show? And I was like, ah, no, I let it go. And then I think Andy turns out, well, you were planning a bit for today.

I came to the whole team last week when you guys were gone. And I go out there and little do I know that this thing's been planned for 6 months. And Al, feel free to weigh in. I came to you and I was like, hey, I got this great idea now that Jeffrey Lurie did this.

You sure did. And my face probably went white.

And everybody in the office apparently heard me.

We had a group chat. We had a group chat about this with basically everybody except you two. And I'm getting GIFs from like Schneider, the sweat GIFs. He's in the other room. It's like, oh my God, what's happening?

And I think it was a great relief that I did not come up with it as an idea for the live show.

So yeah, eventually I just said, when are you? you planning on doing this? And he said, I don't know, next week, top of the week.

And I was like, oh man, sounds good.

I said, I was just really stressed you were going to try to add it to the live show. And I think we wouldn't have time to get it together and it would fall flat.

So gosh. Yeah. You were going to give me all the reasons. I was going to be like, why? Why, Jeremy? This is such a good idea.

I was terrified that, that I was going to let on to something or that you already knew. Part of me thought you might've already No. And that's why you were planting that.

I did not, but it was a great moment.

My kids didn't believe me that you guys didn't know. They're like, no, they knew.

No, that's what my family did too. They're like, you knew about that, right? And we're like, you could, if anybody knows Mike at all, you could tell Mike didn't know because Mike was so bothered regularly. Every 15 seconds he got another wave of, I hate this. Yeah. Matt writing in, what do you guys do when you're on the clock and there's nobody you like on the board? I mean, that's a funny question.

You get sad. You scroll. I mean, usually when you're at that point where there's nobody you like, you're later in the draft. And at that point, I think you honestly, like if you've got whatever your resources for us, it's the UDK. I scroll and I look for the players that I've pre-marked and sometimes they're too far. You know, it's like, wow, do I really pull the trigger here? And it depends on how late you are. If I'm like rounds 9 or later, ADP doesn't matter that much to me at that point. It's all just crapshoots. And if I believe someone should be drafted here and they're 3 rounds later, you know, I'm willing. I still would rather wait another round and get more value. But I think that's my first thing I look for is who, who do I have either queued or highlighted in my UDK that I don't want to forget about?

If it's an in-person draft, that's a, that's often the time that somebody puts that pick on the, on the trading block.

Yeah, but if you're online, the— I would say go look at a different position. Like, do you have your quarterback yet? If you're not liking any of the players, because this happens in like round 7, I'm not really feeling any of these guys. Okay, well, what's been— what's happened at the quarterback position? Or start looking at just rookies that you can see a very clear path for, for quick success. Or if all else fails, just start taking those really high, high profile insurance running backs.

High powered pros.

Yeah. I couldn't figure out which word I wanted to say, but it's like Tank Bigsby. Tank Bigsby should be drafted in 100% of leagues. It's just where is the appropriate spot? Like you take a player where you're just waiting in case Saquon Barkley gets injured. But it's like that, like Kalen Black. You know, there's, there's players where they're not a day one impact on your roster, but crazy stuff happens every week.

Tanner in Canada, high ballers, not a fantasy question, but who decides what bobbleheads are on the table during the show? I think that's the Falcon, right?

I think it's mostly the Falcon.

That is correct.

Okay.

I will say he decides through one other method, which is he picks ones that he hasn't already broken. Fair. Where's Arian Foster? Where's, where's my Arian Foster bobblehead?

Dude, you love Arian Foster.

Where is that one? He had an ankle injury. Ankle? Oh, was it his head didn't pop off? No, he's got his head. Okay. All right. He also—

how did he get the ankle injury?

He did have an injury.

Uh, uh, I plead the fifth.

I got a poop. He stepped off of the curb wrong. We've all done that.

But yeah, he picks them out. It used to be Brooks when he was in the office. And Brooks was meticulous with his like, like nobody probably noticed, but the first 8 years of the show, he always tried to pick guys that like slightly thematically match what we were talking about, which maybe you do as well.

Try to.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then you, you just play Randy Moss. Like, you know, we're going to be talking about Randy Moss.

Randy Moss is always welcome to the table.

Straight cash, homie.

Today is Gente, Mahomes, Moss, and Lamar. But sure, we will accept any and all bobblehead donations. And if they're good and not broken by Matt, we'll put them on the desk.

See, if you're real thoughtful, you would have just put out 4 Hall of Famers.

You know, is that what you think? Oh, because of you. Yeah, I did.

You're going to really—

I think it's coming to mind right now. You're going to really milk this thing.

Just today. Just today. I'll put the jacket away after today.

And Batman comes back.

I don't know.

We'll see.

Okay.

All right. It is a pretty good 3D print there, dude.

Yeah. I will say this.

There were a few Colonel Sanders.

Yes.

That was what I was going to say. A couple of people were like, why does your bust look like Colonel Sanders? And I'm like, yeah, I get it. It kind of does look a lot like a Colonel Sanders. It's a beard, not a goatee, but at the same time, it's got some healthy—

Yeah, I can be on the set now.

There we go. Perfect.

All right. We're going to say goodbye. That's the end of this show. We've got a lot coming up this week. Players we're afraid to be wrong about. Final mock draft episode. Fantasy football MVP episode with very special guests. Go sign up for the Megalobowl right now. Megalobowl.com.

Goodbye.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefootballers.com. And follow us on Twitter @TheFFBallers.