Transcript of It's FOOTBALL TIME + Super Bowl Picks - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/9

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

Oh, welcome in.

Hey, it's football time.

It's here, baby.

We did it, world.

What a journey it's been.

Eat my butt, summer. It's time for football.

It's time for football.

Get the temp down.

Yeah, no, it was not a bad morning out here. Clouds were out, which in Arizona, that's a great thing. It covers the big fireball.

The most important thing here.

Jason has a golf rule where basically if clouds equal golf. Yes. If no cloud equal no golf.

Correct. And it's a great rule.

It's an important one. But here we are.

I mean, that has to be— I mean, Kyle's the historian, but that has to be the first Wednesday. It's football time, right?

There has been a game on Wednesday before. I know. I don't know if we football time back then.

We've definitely played a Wednesday. We own— I think we might own Wednesday Night Football.

I think we did at one point, but it's expired.

But I mean, that, it is here. It is football time, guys. We did it. We got here. The games count.

Thank goodness.

The fantasy points, they matter.

Do you guys have big plans for the game?

I actually do.

All right.

I do. I have to watch on my phone.

Oh no.

Freshman football is Wednesday nights.

Oh no.

So your boy has a game.

What a loser.

But at least you can do it.

Oh yeah. It will be easy. It will be perfectly fine.

You won't see your son, but you'll be there.

I have priorities. Yeah. Like I'm there and he'll look up and be like, hey, Dad. I'll be like, yeah, son.

You probably had a good play right there.

Was that good or bad?

Oh my gosh. Well, look, it's, it's going to be so much fun. New England, Seattle.

Oh my God.

Halani scored again.

Tomorrow's football time too. Oh my gosh. I mean, I'm rooting for it because I would just love to come in tomorrow and you or George Halani. George Solani is so perfect for Mike. He finds these, these people. No, nobody.

No, I'm not in. I'm not. He's just—

Did you cut him yet?

Did I what?

Did you cut him yet?

No.

He's got to see what happens.

Did you see who I picked up this morning in our League of Records?

I didn't.

You, wait, you made a waiver move?

Yeah, we got a— so did you. Mr. Devon Vailly.

Yeah, baby.

Your team is living large. How in the world did you pick up Devon Vailly when my guy was sitting there?

Which one? Pat Bryant?

Pat Bryant.

Because I will legitimately be playing Devon Bailey this week.

Oh, oh, oh, congratulations to you. So much going on. We have Super Bowl picks on the show today. NFL news to talk about.

Plugged them in. We're good.

The final Megalobowl draft. I don't even know if this is going to come out. It'll probably come out like an hour before maybe the last draft. So you might be able to rush over there and get in there. Megalobowl.com. If not, I just want to say how excited we are to play with 25,000 Foot Clan members in the Megalobowl. It is the in-season mode. It is the time of year where you switch from that UDK app over to the Fantasy Footballers in-season app. So we have 2 different apps. One's the draft kit and one is the in-season, which has all of the, all of our rankings in it. And you'll find the podcast stuff listed in there. You'll find our— Ultimate dashboard, all of the tools and resources.

We don't really do anything that's not ultimate.

We have done quite a few ultimate things. Yeah. Which, you know, might I say we do them well.

That's what I'm saying.

That's what Jason was saying.

We've named it appropriately.

But you know.

Yeah. The articles. Thank you, Brooksie. All the articles are in there as well.

Yeah. Which our writing staff is amazing. And we have new stuff coming out every week if you still know how to read. That is how you do that. You can't like swipe an article really fast like a reel, but you can read them and they're fun and they're well researched. We have bonus episodes every single week answering your questions. That's part of the Foot Clan as well. And all of that at jointhefoot.com if you want to get in there and get access. And then tons of free resources on the website, thefantasyfootballers.com. I should remind you, I know this is the time of reminders, but Sunday morning, Every week we have Sunday Live. And so an hour before kickoff, most often it's Mike, occasionally Jason and I pop in, but Mike is live with Sunday Live answering last minute questions. Things change, weather, injuries, inactives, all that stuff's happening. And Mike tilts live on YouTube completely free.

It's the best.

youtube.com/thefantasyfootballer starting this week. Subscribe over there, click the bell. It'll let you know when Mike is here with one of the producers. Which guy, which producer this week? It'll be me. It'll be Al Borland.

Yes, sir.

And so he'll feed in all of your questions and that's going to be a blast as well. There's just so much going on. How are you doing, Jason?

I'm doing pretty well. I've overcome caring about golf. So my spirit is good. You know what I mean?

Excellent. Good for you, man.

This morning, there were 2 ways to fix the problem. That's right. Way number one was to get better, improve at golf.

I tried.

Number 2 though was to accept.

Accept. And I've gotten to that point today.

I do feel like you've been having fun.

I have been. And what's funny is Al—

and I can't— I mean, it hasn't gotten much—

Al this morning played horrific. He played as bad as he's played in forever.

I will say, and I don't— without overstating it, just to be fair to Al, it was the worst I've ever seen.

Yep.

Him play and like, and so he really did not have any fun.

He couldn't, he just couldn't have a good time. It was terrible.

I need to know what happened because I want the audience to know Al is generally like the best golfer out there.

He's been playing very well compared to us and we basically tied today. And so he realized— You beat me by 2 strokes. Yeah. Oh, thanks for sugarcoating it. But you realized how bad I am today. You're like, oh, I did. I was like, you play this bad all the time. This feels awful.

Yeah.

So I've just decided that I care. So I'm doing well.

Quick question of the day. Here we go. Who are your Super Bowl picks for 2026? It's the day of kickoff.

Oh, wow. I didn't see your guys' answers.

I am going to start us off here and I'm going to do it again because it's got to happen eventually. I keep trying to get them there. I'm taking the Buffalo Bills. over the Detroit Lions in the Super Bowl.

That's a +6,300.

Yes. So there you go. I mean, I love the Rams. Obviously there are a handful of teams in the AFC that I think could be competing there, but I'm going to, I'm going to do it. I'm going Bills. That's, yeah, that's +6,300, not for the Bills to win.

No, no, just for that matchup.

Just for that exact matchup. But I'm taking the Bills over the Lions.

I will jump in. I have kind of been saying the— I'm feeling the Bengals the whole offseason. I'm going to stick with it. And I'm calling for the rematch. We get the Bengals, we get the Rams, we get it again, except this time it will be Joseph Burrow.

Oh, over the Rams rematch.

Yes.

You know, it's funny preseason, especially, you know, the game is at SoFi Stadium this year. And I thought that this is another Legitimate chance for an LA versus LA in LA game. I could, I could see that happening. Chargers, Rams.

The LA Chargers. You're like, you're like, they can make it to the Super Bowl?

Yeah.

Jason.

What? You don't— wait, I'm so confused. Why, why do you think that that's—

I'm a little confused too. I'm not sure where the angle of the joke was. Are you just mocking the Chargers having success?

Yes. They're the 7th highest odds. That's not, that's not outrageous. But I am actually, I came in and I wrote down mine. I hadn't looked at your guys. I am, Andy, Lions over Bills.

No, you're not.

Yeah. That's right. Yeah. So I, okay. We're in the same.

That would be so fun if we got there.

Yeah.

We could.

I would be happy with either one winning to be clear. I would not care. That would be a very fun Super Bowl. I'm curious if our producers have any, is it what, Packers Saints over there? Packers versus whoever. Okay, cool, cool. They'll win. Who dat, baby? Okay, so Tyler Shuck in the Super Bowl.

I was talking to Jason yesterday. I was looking at the NFC and it's like, man, I feel like there are very few teams this year from the NFC compared to the AFC where you're like, I feel like they can really make it.

Let me, I'm going to say something again. You can practically hit a button that says you don't have to do this.

Yes. Okay.

My— let's all say a dark horse. I'll give you a moment to think about it.

I gave you the Bengals.

Sure. I— okay, whatever. You don't have to say dark horse, whatever you want to describe. I do think that the Dallas Cowboys will be very good this year. I think Caleb Downs and that defense will be— I think they will be good. I think they actually are. When you said the NFC, when I think of contenders, you know, everybody in the West minus the Cardinals.

Yeah.

Almost everybody in, I mean, the Packers are a good team. The Lions are a good team. The Eagles and the Cowboys. I mean, those are kind of like the leaders of the pack. Nobody from the South to me looks like a Super Bowl contender. But I mean, here we are. We're going to, we're going to look dumb in like 6 weeks when Carolina's 6-0 and Bryce Young's throwing for 400 a game, right, Jay?

Yeah, we will.

I mean, That would be awesome.

The whole world would look dumb. Bryce Young, please throw for more than 200 yards more than 4 times this year. That's a very low bar, but please do it. There are too many weapons on your team that we like for fantasy that you are ruining. My dark horse team, I don't know how dark horse it is. They've been there a couple of times in the last few years.

Oh, that's right. That's like a light horse.

A light horse. But I think that the, because right now it's like, From the NFC, it's the Rams. Like the Rams are, it seems so favored right now to come out of the West and it makes sense.

They are the highest odds to win.

Yeah. Yeah. They're of NFC and NFC.

Plus 500. But I bet that the Rams are going to win is only plus 500. That's wild.

I think that people are not just to get there.

Yeah. Those are winning.

Wow.

That's what I'm saying. Goodness gracious.

The Eagles to me are a team that I think people are ready for the end of the Eagles. AJ Brown is gone. Hurts is older. The tush push wasn't, you know, as successful last year. Kelce's gone. And it's like, we're just waiting for the collapse. And I think that there is a world where they have a bounce back and they look great this year. Their defense is awesome. Mannion fixes the Petullo problem from last year. So they're more my dark horse, but obviously they're not like, you know, some bad team that is— that I'm calling a shot on.

All right. There you have it. Let's, let's see yours in the comments. We'll see what happens in week 1.

Yep.

Let's get into the news.

News and notes from around the league.

I think we mentioned that Trevo was ruled out yesterday, didn't we?

Yes, we did.

Yeah. Aaron Donald will not travel, will not be playing in week 1 for the Rams. They're going to let him ramp up. Andy Reid said that—

Ramp up.

Nice.

Oh gosh.

Nice.

You did it.

Are you sure they're not just being like protecting him that he didn't get his passport in time?

We've been there.

You would have had to go to Tucson.

Look, it turns out Andy Reid said a good chance Patrick Mahomes starts week 1. I would say a great chance. I'd say a guarantee. That's the way he's framing it right now.

Well, with their left tackle not being available, and so their starting left tackle is going to be an undrafted rookie free agent protecting Mahomes off of an ACL. It's like against the Broncos front.

Let's send Ken Bone to the, to the right.

Yes. He will get tackled from behind.

All right. Baker Mayfield, guys. Yeah.

Good for you, Baker. You let the team know you were disappointed and they've figured it out.

3-year, $165 million deal, $55 million per year. And I'm glad that this— thank you.

He did that for us.

Glad this got done because it seemed like a month ago, whatever it was, a month, 2 months ago.

He said he wasn't going to negotiate anymore. Yeah.

And they must have slinked back to him saying, He had the most honest podium conversation with people of like how disappointed he was. It was so very refreshing. Yes. And it was so genuine. And I don't think he said anything that was out of line at all. And then there was the reports that the Buccaneers were very upset with him for, you know, airing. It's not even dirty laundry. It's just like airing the laundry out to dry. You know, that's clean.

Yeah. It's very clean.

But it was, it was truthful. And I thought that there was going to be some bad blood there and he'd hit the open market. part of me as a Cardinals fan was hopeful for that. But this is good for Baker.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't think we have anything else to talk about right now. The start-sit tool is on the website if you guys have those questions. Without further ado, let's do it.

Thursday Night Breakdown.

Mike, we want you to preview the whole game in a minute. Australian accent.

Crikey. I'm living in a land down under.

He'll just sing. Yeah. The San Francisco 49ers travel to Australia to play a team that also traveled to Australia. It's Melbourne.

But they have taken 2 very different strategies. I don't know. Have you guys been locked into this?

Well, the 49ers went early, didn't they?

The 49ers.

And Kyle Shanahan has no idea which day is what.

He's very confused.

Future in the past.

And I haven't read through it, but people have said like the actual science of it is they say go a week early like the 49ers did. So you're fully acclimated or go last minute. You go last second and then you, and you're, so you don't have the weird, your body doesn't know what's going on. You still have your schedule and you And you play the game and you get out of there. The Rams have been getting absolutely crushed for going with that strategy online. So I'm excited to see how that works out.

Yeah. The Rams are technically considered the home team in this one. So they lose a home game this year. The Vegas line, Rams minus 3.5. The over-under is 48.5. We just did our little like weekly picks pool in the office that we do. And I took the 49ers in this one.

I don't blame you. I mean, having no Aaron Donald, I know that they've There has, there's been a lot of missed practice from Myles Garrett this—

They've been without Aaron Donald for a little bit.

Well, sure. But I mean, I'm saying where the line was set, assuming that you would have him after he signed. Myles Garrett, we expect to play, but he has, he has missed a lot of practices. Maybe that's just veteran rest. And you also have the fact that like usually Kyle Shanahan, I think Sean McVay is a better coach than Kyle Shanahan. But when these 2 match up together, Shanahan usually has McVay's number.

I mean, I think either team can win this game. It was just relative to that 3.5 line. I was just really like, okay, this game will probably be good. They are often very good. This is the oldest venue ever to host an NFL game. That's— I mean, is it better to be near a substation or to play on the oldest— well, in the oldest venue? Why do I— I'm going to interpret that as all of the Earth is also old. Oh, it's not just the stadium. They also have the oldest grass with the oldest rocks. You know what I mean?

Oh, we haven't seeded since 1832.

You got it. It's going to be real tough on the ankles. But so we are, yeah, yeah, we are, we are technically talking about a Thursday Night Football game. We're talking about it on a Wednesday. And the game technically takes place on a Friday because it's in Australia and it's Friday in Australia.

Just so you know.

I don't accept this. And I don't believe we own Wednesday, Thursday, Friday football.com.

Someone get on it.

So week 1, give a little overview of your perspective on how you— because this is the hardest week to preview games. We have no information about all the head new, you know, the new coaches, the utilization of certain players on the depth chart. A lot— we learn a lot after week 1 on how teams are going to approach just rotations and things like that. So how do you think about these previews compared to the rest of the year?

You know, that's what it is.

It's—

this is what I'm looking for. And this game is exciting. Like, there is truly some games you'll go, I'm watching this singular player and then I don't really care. This one is absolutely fascinating.

So much to see. You've got DeSean Stribling.

Yes.

DeSean Stribling, who will he play 75-plus percent of snaps? Right.

Is he a full starter?

That's the most important thing to me. It's not even how he does. Is he a full starter? Is he a full-time starter in week 1? I'm watching Terrence Ferguson to see, is he the 3rd pass catcher? Is he playing a large enough percentage of snaps to matter? I've got him in tons of leagues as my last pick. So I'm ready to kick him to the waiver wire after week 1 or victory lap, you know, a great last round pick. You've got the Blake Corum, Kyren Williams split. Like, how's that going to go? Does Davante Adams still have it or is he?

Look sluggish and it's the both 33-year-olds playing each other and we got Mike Evans does his meat work.

You know, so all sorts of—

there's a meat check.

Yeah, it's a meat check.

What did he say? Hey, did that get amped up? That sounds pretty good.

We fixed it.

There's so much.

Yeah, there are a ton of questions. You know, there's, there's part of me like you can, you can see a lot of scenarios taking place. I could see a world where Kyren dominates the snaps and we all roll our eyes into the back of our head because we made a big deal of Blake Corum again. I can see a world where Mike Evans comes out and dominates after all of this, like, because he came out to the podium for those that don't know and said, look, all this stuff I was dealing with in camp. He's like, none of this would have kept me off the field. We're taking it easy. I'm an older player. You know, none of this was significant enough to where I would have missed a week of football. So in his mind, he's completely healthy going into the year. He said they did a good job taking care of me. I wouldn't have missed any time. So I could see a world where Mike Evans goes out and it's 2 touchdowns and we're all going, oh yeah, that's the world where you liked in the beginning of the offseason. Absolutely.

I mean, I still to this moment think that if any single game that Mike Evans is healthy this year, he's going to be good. You know, he's such a perfect matchup for this. And then speaking of health, George Kittle.

Yes.

How many snaps does he play? Do you start him again with the information that we have at this moment? I would prefer to probably not start George Kittle. Like, I would rather start Juwan Johnson. And he's basically available in almost every league, you know.

Isaiah Likely, I'd play more over Kittle in week 1. Yes.

Juwan Johnson.

Dallas Goedert. I mean, there are, there's plenty of options that are probably like, let's do this. I'm going to literally look at our League of Record, which we just drafted. I'm going to look at the waiver wire at the tight end position and you tell me if you'd start them over George Kittle in week 1.

You ready?

Okay. I am ready.

Dallas Goedert.

Yes.

Okay. Hunter Henry tonight.

Ah, Seattle. That's where they are weakest.

He's the inner dialogue is coming out.

No. I feel like we still do need more info.

Okay.

I want to hear the Dalton Schultz.

Yeah.

Dalton.

Against the Bills.

Dalton Schultz is going to be—

Schultz will be okay.

Thank you. Boo.

Swish. No, I love Dalton Schultz. Oh, you swish it? I actually like Dalton Schultz.

Oh man, I hated it.

I'm saying he's going to be the nastiest, most disgusting, reliable PPR tight end because he's just going to— like, he won't do anything with the catches. But if you're in a PPR—

Britton Strange.

That one's interesting. Yeah.

I need to hear the, we're going to play George in the red zone.

I don't think you're going to get to hear that. Let's say you don't. Let's say you make the decision right now, Mike.

Yeah. I mean, the game's tomorrow.

Yeah.

I mean, that's what I— yeah. But I would, I would take these decisions up till tomorrow.

I'm not saying that you might not get more information, but you probably won't. Would you start Dulcich or Kittle? I'd start Kittle.

Yeah. Then we'll go Kittle.

I mean, I think that there's a, I think there's an all but guaranteed limited snaps for George Kittle.

Yeah.

I mean, there's just no way he's playing full snaps.

I'm not. I'm pretty much not playing George Kittle. There's just too many people. I think I would play TJ Hockenson over George Kittle.

That was the last name.

Yeah. I mean, but when I'm looking at this, it's like guys that are potentially on the waiver, Mark Andrews, Isaiah Likely, Dalton Schultz, Britton Strange, Hockenson. Those are, you know, Cade Otton against Cincinnati. You just, one of these guys is healthy.

Cade Otton's in like the best situation possible, but I don't know if he needs people out in front of him.

Let's take a quick break and come back and talk more about this game. All right. Back into the matchup. I don't know if I mentioned the over-under. If I didn't, it is 48.5 in this game, which it starts at 8:35 Eastern.

We do have a—

from Australia.

We do have a recent— a quote circulating from George Kittle from 9-ish hours ago or something.

He's trustworthy source.

It's from George Kittle. And, you know, poking fun. Remember when Shanahan had his little misspeak when he was talking about guys returning from injuries and he's like, he, but he went with the phrase of George Kittle took a step back and everyone's like, oh yeah, what do you mean he took a step back? Why are we glancing over? So George Kittle says, I've taken a step back toward playing.

That's helpful.

I mean, I agree with you guys, especially in week 1. It's a lot of risk to take on. But man, betting against the Rams are also—

I mean, at tight end, you just need a touchdown. Just one touchdown.

But the Rams are also a good defense. And you're fine. This is, this is a really good defense for the Rams. They've added pieces from last year. You know, we still haven't even seen the Rams with Myles Garrett. This, this is going to be a very good defense. Brock Purdy in 3 starts versus the Rams averaging 213 passing yards. I, I'm not really, really excited about the 49ers pass catchers in general receivers for this specific matchup. Yeah.

Obviously the, the auto starts in this game. CMC is, is there. Puka is there.

How's this look?

Davante Adams is, I think, an auto start for where you drafted him. And then probably Mike Evans in that category.

Yeah, Mike Evans is, I think he's in that category. If he's healthy, you've got to play him. Touchdown upside is there with an over-under of 48.5. You know that both teams are going to score. It might be tough sledding. But yeah, I would put him in the almost certainly going to start category. The last 2 games for Christian McCaffrey against the Rams, 2.5 yards per carry.

Don't care.

But 53 opportunities. They just give him the ball nonstop.

If you were deciding on like a, you know, you're in a deeper league, you have Matthew Stafford, the MVP, and you had to decide him or Purdy in this game or Matthew Stafford or Jackson Dart in his first matchup.

I would, I would go Dart, Stafford, Purdy. I would take Stafford over Purdy in this matchup. The 49ers have, like always, they've lost a lot of pieces in the offseason. They just recently lost Alfred Collins, their defensive tackle, tore his patella tendon. What, yesterday, day before yesterday, something like that?

They are always getting hurt.

Yeah, but I mean, that was a, that's a decent loss. On the defensive side.

And last year, just for the record, dealt with injuries, obviously. And this has been a bad day for this guy. That was a— you really scold that one.

Yeah.

The podcast—

The audio listeners have no idea what we're talking about because it didn't fire.

Al tried to drop a little substation drop on us, but it went as well as his 4-iron. And he freaking scalded it and nothing happened. We got the lighting effects. Oh man. It's been a long month. I will say it has been a long month. Oh, he wasn't— was he going to fix it?

Of course he would try.

Oh yeah. It's been a long month. I'm looking over here and Papa Josh is barely alive.

Yeah. He's been dealing with customer service.

Papa Josh, I want the people to know, like August, no matter what we do, no matter how perfect our systems are, We have a tremendous amount of support requests that come in, people that need to fine-tune, you know, get stuff fixed.

Yeah, it happens.

We have a lot of subscribers on the Foot Clan.

And we don't have 100 employees.

No, we have that guy over there who, according to what I saw, has responded to people in 48 minutes on average in the entire month of August, no matter what time of day the freaking thing comes in.

It's incredible.

Which, I mean, that's why he looks like that.

Right.

He's not Casket Face for no reason. You've put him in the casket support request.

August is the casket.

Yes. Yeah. But I mean, it's, it's been a month, but that's what football is.

Put that, put that to the test.

Send some Josh some emails at like 12:30 in the morning.

What are you doing?

I'm filling his inbox.

Oh my gosh. Why don't you hit that drop again?

Yeah.

I can't. I can't. All right. I was going somewhere. With something. I was going to ask a question, but I don't remember where we were. Oh yeah, I was going to tell you that the 49ers defense last year, 24th against quarterbacks, 22nd against running backs, 26th against wideouts, 26th against tight ends. A great matchup for opposing offenses. Again, the, the, this was the best offense in football at 30 points a game last year in the Rams. So matchup-wise, what you were saying about the offensive pieces for the 49ers. It doesn't matter where the game's at. It's just a better defense for the Rams.

Yeah, I've got the Rams.

I took the Rams on this conversation.

Yeah, I took the Rams on the pick 'em, but there's not a lot of Rams I don't want to start. I think Stafford is a fine enough start. You're going to start Kyren Puka obviously and Davante Adams. So you're good to go. And then you get to watch Corum and Ferguson to see, are either of them really, really involved from week 1?

Yeah. I mean, Ferguson has been, despite the fact that I don't, I'm not on the hype train, but he fits the mold of like, he's been a last round, second to last round pick for me in a bunch of deeper leagues just to see what week 1 looks like.

Yeah.

Just to find out.

That's all it is. Because it's a perfect, it's the perfect type of player where you'll know he is either, it's not, I don't think it's going to change. He's healthy. He's been—

I'm fully expecting 3 Parkinson touchdowns for sure.

Could be. Ferguson, it's year 2 for him. If you're not familiar, year 2, 2nd round pick, absurdly athletic. Like—

Had plays last year.

Yes.

A few.

He fits the mold of a player where you will be at the end of the year and you're like, man, what a breakout for Terrence Ferguson. Yeah.

93rd percentile in his athleticism score. He's a beast.

Which is very important at the— it's far more important to be athletic as a tight end than any other position.

And we've seen very athletic tight ends take 4, 5, 6 years to become—

Sure.

Like, as in, like, just because he didn't have a breakout rookie season, that's not the norm. Just because we've gotten some rookies that have performed. So he could definitely have a breakout. You guys want to do some mailbag?

Let's go.

Mailbag presented by Paramount Plus.

Well, our first mailbag Episode of the year. We got your questions. We got week 1 on the docket. And if you want to send them into us in future weeks, you can go to the website, thefantasyfootballers.com. Click that submit a question button or dial our voicemail hotline, 302-464-TFFB. And if you have questions that you don't hear on the show, we also do a mailbag episode every week for the Foot Clan at jointhefoot.com where we answer questions on a bonus episode. All right. Instagram question. Who is the late round fantasy pick that you're looking most forward to watching in week 1? It's funny because I just mentioned Terrence Ferguson.

Yeah, that is mine.

But I mean, Pat Bryant's in that list. Ontavian Wicks is in that list. All the rookies that you get late in the draft. I mean, you know who I was shocked like is not being drafted anywhere in any circumstance? Antonio Williams. Like there hasn't been—

Yeah, ever since Stefon Diggs.

I know, Diggs arrived, but it's like there are—

From the top rope.

Concepcion. I want to see him in week 1. Denzel Boston.

Yeah.

What are some answers for you guys or players that you've taken late, late, late in drafts?

I want to see George Salami.

You want to see— okay, George Salami. That makes sense. I want to see—

George Salami? That's what I'm calling him from now on because it makes me feel better. What did he say?

George Salami is not bad. George Salami.

Yeah. Oh yeah.

We got our first one, boys.

Coming out of the— the deucers like it.

George. I don't think anybody likes it. I love it.

There's just so much meat talk.

George.

George Salami. So that's somebody you're looking for?

Okay. Yeah, I'm curious. You know, we want to see how the—

It's not George's.

It's George. Yeah.

All right.

George. But the fact that it's an S—

It's fine. No, it's fine.

To start the next word makes it feel George Salami.

That's your problem.

It's a great—

it's not George's.

George Salami.

That's not what it is. Whoa.

That's what you said.

Okay. We're going to have to workshop this a bit.

If they give goal line carries to George Salami, it could impact Ja'Darian Price.

Yes. The Packers.

I'm so happy right now. I'm so happy.

The Packers backfield is one to watch and see how that goes.

Yes. That's not really a late round unless you're talking about.

Yeah. Chris Port.

Brooks, of course. Oh, okay. Not, not Caleb Johnson.

He who shall not be named.

There you go. There's some names. What is up? Curtis writing in on Instagram. What is up with the Mark Andrews disrespect? I kind of agree with him. I do think—

Are you saying like, why did Mark Andrews disrespect all of us so much last year?

Is that what we're talking about? I don't think so.

Here's— here. No, I agree with this. I really do. I mean, I drafted Mark Andrews in our league of record. He's my tight end going forward in 2 different of like my 5 leagues. This is a player who is not as old as you think.

You're going to want to tune in on Tuesday, Jason, on waiver day.

Sure. Yes. He's not as old as, you know, like Travis Kelce is what, 36? You know, Mark Andrews is 31 years old and he has disappointed the last few years.

Are you comparing Mark Andrews to Travis Kelce?

I mean, there was several years where it was like those were the 2 guys you were drafting, right?

Sure.

And I'm not saying he's to that degree at all. He's not a first ballot Hall of Famer. He's not a Hall of Famer. But I'm just saying age-wise, we have a lot of history of tight ends at 31, 32, 33 being okay. Whereas you don't have that much running backs, wide receivers. You're, you've got to be a Hall of Famer to be okay there. You don't have to be a Hall of Famer to be Delaney Walker and be okay in your, in your 30s at the tight end position, especially If you're a touchdown guy, which is what Mark Andrews has been. You lose Isaiah Likely, who's gone. You get a, you know, a new scheme here. They paid him and extended Mark Andrews. So it's like he is completely left for dead. And it's, if you look at which tight ends around the league have the best chance for 10 touchdowns, right? Obviously you got Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, but like how far down on the list is Mark Andrews as a touchdown machine for Lamar Jackson? He's got to be high up there within the tight end realm.

I'm just willing to be wrong on Mark Andrews.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I get it.

I mean, Isaiah Likely was there last year. He missed 3 games and managed to siphon off 307 of the receiving yards. Like Isaiah Likely was not a problem for Mark Andrews who had—

And they will have other tight ends that play. Yes. Smythe is going to be the actual Smythe. Yeah, we'll see. I mean, I get it.

It was by far Andrews' worst year. It just—

would you rather play Mark Andrews all year long or Kelce? You'd rather play Kelce, right?

Kelce for sure. Okay.

Chase is thinking about it.

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I, I guess I, to push comes to shove, I had Kelce in my queue higher. So sure.

I mean, he had, so 2 years ago, when he was scoring 9.5 points per game, he had 69 targets. Last year he had 70 targets and he dropped over 3 fantasy points a game.

Yeah.

Well, that was touchdowns because 2 years ago he had double-digit touchdowns.

Right. But 3 years ago he had 6 and then in 5 years before, I don't know. I'm just—

Well, I mean, his yards per catch, he's had years. I mean, it's at 8. So I mean, that was a huge part of the problem. Yeah. And one of his touchdowns, by the way, last year was that Like part of his fantasy finish was that insane 48-yard fake 4th down run. Do you remember this where he was going to run up the middle and he ran around the edge? So like that also contributed to his points per game in a way that is like not relative to the— I mean, in a small way.

Yeah. I mean, I will say, I will definitely say the, to answer the question why the disrespect is because it looks on film like he is gone.

Like he's a bit slower and You know, I know that Lamar loves to throw him the football. That's the one saving grace. It's a little bit like the Kelce-Mahomes. Like in the red zone, I feel like Lamar is still going to look at him if he's on the field. To Jason's point, parenting advice question. What is this? What piece of parenting advice or adage do you give yourself as a fantasy manager before the season?

Do you need to give yourself?

This is you talking as a parent to yourself before the season. I can see child within.

I can tell you what.

Never draft George Salami.

This, this, this year, what I would say to myself is it's going to be okay. That's it.

You know what you're—

the parenting advice is it's going to be okay.

You know what your original plan was?

Yes.

And now they're— now that the football is here, you're trying to deviate from the plan.

Yeah. I mean, obviously, you know, I'm going for it in all my leagues except for one. But the League of Record is the most important league. And, you know, we're, we are right now.

Just play to win.

Impossible.

What advice do I want to give myself? Stay the course, be patient.

Sure thing, super duper team.

My, so I posted this on Twitter and I just want people to understand like my roster is on paper to start the year, the best I've ever seen.

It's an impossible roster to draft.

You can't, you can't draft it. We have a 3-keeper league. I had a ton of picks. The way this roster was assembled was I had 3 keepers going into the offseason like we all do. I got lucky enough to win our lottery to get the number 1 pick, which we— I got lucky enough to where Jahmyr Gibbs dropped into the draft.

Then you got lucky enough to have the right lottery pick of your keepers.

Correct.

Picked.

Yes.

And then you used a lot of capital that you had from last year when you sold to buy.

So if you just want to follow along with my misery, I have only set myself up for probable misery.

Oh, I wouldn't say probable. What is this?

This guy. Shut up.

Thank you, Mike.

Shut up, nerd.

Shut up, nerd.

Josh Allen.

You got the number 1 quarterback.

Josh Allen.

The number 1 running back.

Jahmyr Gibbs. De'Von Achane. Kenneth Walker.

Okay. So 3 top 10 running backs.

CeeDee Lamb, Amon-Ra St. Brown.

Okay.

2 top 5 wide receivers.

Davante Adams and Kyle Pitts.

And then last year's number 2 tight end and Davante Adams as like your—

Throwaway. Yeah. He's a throwaway crappy player.

You know that the GIF from—

Well, I just mean, Mike, can't you— if you— I'm thrilled and I should be able to win a ton of games and I will.

Yes.

I'm just saying this is championship or bust. That's all.

Yeah.

It's just championship or bust with a roster like that where Everyone in the league presumes I'll win.

Yes.

And we, and there's so much that's going to go wrong in the season.

You sound like the, like Woody Harrelson in Zombieland when he's crying, but then he just wipes his eyes with $100 bills.

Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, that's me.

I'm so sad.

Look how rich I am. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

No, no, I'm with you. It's going to be, it is an impossible roster and I can't wait to find out how I go undefeated. There you go.

There you go.

Does that feel better?

Yeah.

We'll take a break. We got some more questions. Would you drop— Anthony wants to know, would you drop Tank Bigsby or Emmitt Johnson to pick up Josh Jacobs? That is a big yes for me.

Yeah, that's a definite yes. I currently expect— my current guess, I would say, is that he plays the second half of the year. And when he does, he'll be very good for fantasy. It would take an injury ahead for the other guys to be relevant.

No, I don't want him on my team.

That's fair. If you want to, if you just want to not deal with it. Obviously one thing to keep in mind as someone who like part of the reason my League of Record team is toast is because I kept my lottery game with Josh Jacobs.

I kept a guy who was going to play football.

Yeah. And so he can't go into our IR. So not only do I not have a player for half of a year at best. I don't, at best, I don't have a player for half a year.

Right.

But also I don't have a bench spot because he's burning one up. So yeah, but I would, I would still prefer that to a Bigsby.

When did the court case get moved to? Was it, is it tomorrow? September 10th is in my head.

Yes, I think it was September 10th.

Okay.

I'll look at it.

Are you attending?

Yeah. When I say I'll look at it, I mean, I'm going to watch it live. You're going to be from the building.

Is that true crime?

Someone wants to know, Shay wants to know, when will Andy finally admit that deep down he is really a Packers fan? Well, if you've listened long enough and people have asked like outside the Cardinals, who's your favorite team? I have said the Packers. My wife's parents lived in Green Bay, but also technically in Wisconsin, but then I've been there.

If you listen long enough, you go, man, why do you hate my team?

Oh, I know.

Because apparently we hate every team.

We hate every team.

Which is true.

9 AM tomorrow is the court case time for in our time zone.

Gotcha.

Where you'll be there.

Yeah. So I got to, I got to get out of here pretty soon.

Better upside question from Kay. End of bench guy. Pat Bryant, who I just added as my end of bench guy, or Rasheed Shaheed, who I think is also in that category. So it's a close one.

It's probably Shaheed.

Oh, really?

Because I feel more confident in Rashid at the beginning of the season. Pat Bryant is projection. He's still the wide receiver 3 on the team. Like, Pat Bryant can't pass Waddle, you know, like, so he has to overtake Courtland Sutton in terms of game planning. I think it's going to happen, but that's just a, I think.

Shaheed, Shaheed to me has always and will forever until he proves he's worthless. He's just worthless.

Just, just too, just spike weeks.

Yeah. I mean, not that he's not valuable to a team when he catches a 70-yard touchdown. That's great. But for a fantasy, unless you're in a best ball league, like when are you ever going to be able to reliably start a player with that, you know, archetype?

Yeah. I mean, I want it to be Pat Bryant.

I think Pat Bryant at least has, you know, some of the buzz and the draft capital and the youth to where it's like, I'm switching.

Pat Bryant.

Yeah.

Okay.

Let's go.

Some questions about the Bucs and the Bears wide receivers, which I think, I mean, that's a tough place to be. How confident are you with Ibuka with the toe injury? Nick wants to know.

He's back to practice, which is great. It looks like he's going to be playing week 1, which is great. He did not play well through injury last year, and I'm— my confidence is low that he'll succeed. That being said, he's probably someone that you have to start based on the matchup, based on where you drafted him. And I am not without hope. I'm hopeful that he has a great week 1 and, you know, puts everything to bed. But I, I have fears of the injury. I would, I would say in on my League of Record team, man, would I love to start.

I'm not, I'm not worried about the injury very much.

That's great.

Mike, where are you at?

I'm in, I guess I'm in the middle. I am a bit concerned about it.

Okay. Question from Instagram. Flex question. Jalen Coker against Chicago. Kenneth Gainwell against Cincinnati. Hmm. The Bucky-Kenneth Gainwell splits are going to be interesting.

Yeah. And we, right now it sounds like Sean Tucker won't be there.

Correct. He hasn't practiced all last week, didn't practice today. I'd be surprised if he's, if he's there.

Which is, so who gets goal line? Like, does it, do they go back to Bucky?

I think Bucky will get the goal line, but I think the passing work will be Gainwell. In that matchup where the Bengals could, you know, start off strong, score a bunch of points, I believe I lean the Gainwell side. That's tough.

Yeah, it is. I think I lean—

What's Coker's matchup?

Chicago. So it's, unless they have figured things out, then like even Bryce Young should be able to get close to 200 yards.

Yeah. No, I mean, you figure both of them probably end up with near the same amount of receptions, but Coker should be far more valuable per reception. I'll switch to Coker there.

Start-sit question. Meat Higgins or George Salami?

Meat Higgins.

Okay. I just, I just wanted to work that in. Oh man. Better fantasy decisions. Adam wants to know from Instagram, do you make better fantasy decisions on the toilet or in the shower?

Oh, great question.

Where have you made a better call? And would you be willing to like go to that place to make the better decision?

I think it's the shower and yes.

I think you don't know the shower. You don't have the— I feel like on the toilet you've got the phone.

Yes.

But I don't have that in the shower.

I don't have my thoughts because I've got my phone. When I'm on the toilet, I'm brain off. I'm just reading others and seeing other stuff. When I'm in the shower, it's my time to really think through these big issues. And also, if you say, will you go there specifically just to think? I don't want to just go to the toilet and sit for no reason. That's how you get hemorrhoids.

All right. Instagram question from Braxton. It's a good topic, actually, platform projection-wise. I love my teams, but should I panic? They're projected so low for week 1. No. Did we— did you hear the part where I said week 1 is brutal? Altogether to know what to expect. But I understand the psychology. Nobody wants to see it. You want to see all green and high projections.

Yes, you do.

But don't worry about that. Don't worry about the post-draft grades that you're getting on these platforms.

Platforms are great. They do a very important job. They are not— put it this way. At the end of your draft, if you're on ESPN, Yahoo, whatever, if they give you a grade, and you get a D or an F, you probably have a great team. And if you got an A, I'd worry about it. That's like the historical precedence from, from these platforms. Their job is not to project players well. Their job is to track the scores and have functional organization of your leagues. And they do a great job at that.

Who do you keep going back and forth on? Ezra wants to know. And I think for me, it is the Jonathan Brooks-Chuba situation where if I just see Jonathan Brooks like look a little bit.

Has he escaped the general yet?

I think he's still got General Soreness on his butt.

Oh man.

Yeah.

That guy.

Yeah. You gotta, I mean, you gotta follow orders.

Mine is, mine is, uh, there's general. Oh, General Soreness is here in the building.

He looks also generally sore.

See, there's a better one. There's a one with Jonathan Brooks himself that you didn't put up there.

Oh really?

You got that one? I don't think I saw that one.

It's a shame.

Just an off day for you.

I get it.

The player that I have found myself going a little back and forth on and really more, I guess, just fourth because I was off of this one. The player I'm going fourth on is Travis Etienne Jr., artist formerly known as Travis Etienne. You know, it's like everything's gone well for him. Right. Kamara is—

Paid a ton of money.

Paid a ton of money, but I was really, really worried. You know, as the offseason progressed, it was like Kamara is staying a part of this team. Kamara is actively involved in the passing game. Kamara will be the passing downs back. And now Kamara is out of the way. Some of the other backups are injured. And it seems like, you know, Achane Jr.'s got the road to himself. I'm bullish on the upside of this Kellen Moore offense. For the Saints. And when we were in a draft, it's a good name to bring up. When we were in a draft yesterday, our listener league draft, I just kept— I haven't been able to pull the trigger on him. I've got him in our main dynasty league and I didn't want to like double dip, but I was like, I think he's probably better than where he's going right now. And that's the first time I've thought that like the whole offseason. I'm starting to— he's a late riser for me.

Yeah. Yeah. Any other names that you want to mention? Anybody you got in mind?

No, I think that's good.

All right. It is, it is almost that time. That was the mailbag presented by Paramount Plus. Paramount Plus is the streaming home to the NFL on CBS all season long. See you Sunday, guys.

Yes, sir.

Football tonight. Football tomorrow. Football on Sunday. Football on Monday.

Football at supper time.

And even better, George Salami tonight.

Oh, can't wait. Can't wait. Quick reminder before we close out. Look, Sunday is approaching and we have free rankings that you can go utilize right now on the site. But should you want to choose to support and get a membership, we're going to make things even easier for you. Want to remind you about the Ultimate Dashboard. It is the— it's the best tool for managing your league. We show you the moves we would make based off of our projections. We show you potential players on your waiver wire who you're like, in week 1, you know, we have, maybe we have some weaker guys at the end of the bench. We're like, you know, maybe you want to stash this player. This seems like a good idea. And then especially waiver day because we come out with the waiver rankings and it really makes things just far easier because we're all in, we're all in a few too many. Too few, too many leagues. We get it.

I'm about to draft right now in the Megalobowl.

And then managing your waiver wire, it can be tough to jump all over the place while we have it all in one location and we can give you the moves that we think that you should make.

Yeah. Spot starts are in there as well. We have, you know, league-specific spot starts. So you have opportunities to find guys that you can play week to week and it gets stronger as the season goes on. We gather more and more data. You know, you need a few weeks to kind of start to strengthen it all up. You have team-specific news and we sync with every platform. So that's the way to do it.

I mean, it's not going to help you, Andy.

No, my starts, it's boring because you won't have any possible spot starts. No, this is a tough life I'm living.

You have other leagues. Let's talk about his dynasty team.

Absolutely not.

He doesn't have to make decisions there either.

That's true. He doesn't.

This is the other side.

You talking about Matthew Golden and the Scrubs?

Is that your new team name?

That's my team name if I didn't have to have a team name of Mike's Butt because I finished last last year. And now my team is Mike's butt for a year. But anyways, all right. I think that is a good time to stop. But we'll be back tomorrow. We'll recap the game starts of the week matchup previews.

Watch tonight for George Salami. Yeah.

Hey, 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.