Transcript of The Fifth Annual “My Guy” Fantasy Football Draft With Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck New

This episode is brought to you by one of my best friends in life, NFL Sunday Ticket. Man, I missed it. Kickoff's coming. Yeah, we're getting close. We're within a month. With NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV, you get every game every Sunday, all in one place, and it's magnificent. And there's no other way to follow the NFL season. I'm so mad I didn't get YouTube TV until a couple years ago because Um, it's the best. New users, that might include you, can get NFL Sunday Ticket for 8 payments of just $30 a month. You heard me correctly. New users pay $240 or 8 non-cancelable payments of $30 a month, first charged at purchase. Availability varies with NFL Sunday Ticket for out-of-market games and YouTube TV for local and national games. YouTube TV required. Terms, restrictions, and embargoes apply. Commercial use excluded. No refunds. It is the 5th annual My Guy Fantasy Draft. 4th? 3rd? How many years is this?

I think 2022, maybe we started.

I should have been more prepared. I'm Bill Simmons, have the Fantasy Guys here from the Ringer— Ringer Fantasy Show? Ringer NFL Fantasy Show? I can never remember.

Ringer Fantasy Football Show.

Ringer Fantasy Football Show. Yeah, we're off to a great start. Danny Heifetz in town. Danny Kelly. Craig Grobeck. We like to pick, we do our guys, the guys that we like. We go around, we have dumb categories. I'm gonna start before we do the draft. Pretty kind of lousy fantasy prep season in my opinion.

Hmm.

Why? I don't, I don't feel like there's enough kind of crazy, crazy pill guys. There's not enough variance. I'm just a little worried. I'm worried that, I'm worried that this is gonna be a fun podcast, honestly. I just think it's very down the middle, just hitting drives down the middle of the fairway this year and not a lot of variance. What do you think?

It also just feels like nowadays all the sleepers that like, I don't know, maybe 5 years ago you could have gotten in drafts, these like secret guys you could like in the preseason, it's all out in the open now. Everybody knows about Parker Washington. It used to be like 5 years ago you could actually get him. Now all those secrets are out.

Except for AJ Barnard.

Ooh. Oh.

I feel like he's my mild secret.

I like that.

Do you agree with this though? We just have too much information now.

I think, I mean, yeah, I think that, I mean, this becomes like a Brian Curtis media podcast, but I think that like social media has almost replaced regular media as like where people are getting the source of information. So things just go viral, like as a starting point. So like DeJohn's dribbling with the 49ers, like a video goes viral and then that's all people see. So it's almost like people are kind of through the looking glass. And then also a lot of, a lot of interesting people are just hurt and banged up, which is also detracting.

We ask you, yeah, this has felt like, and we say this every year, but really this year feels like one of the worst seasons, preseasons for injuries for some of these top skill players. I mean, every guy that we've kind of mentioned on our show, it feels like it's kind of a running joke now that every guy we mentioned, he just immediately gets hurt.

The new zag now, I think, is because guys like Parker Washington and Dajon Strickland, everybody knows about them. You almost have to go the other way and it's like boring veterans that no one wants to take in a draft anymore. That's where you can kind of find—

That happened in baseball too.

Yeah.

Yeah. Like in the early days of baseball drafts, just take the dude who hits .290 with 20 homers.

Yes. 88 RBIs. No one's going to want Mike Evans, but it's like you should probably just take Mike Evans.

Yeah, I was wondering if there's like a, just a zag theory to do with drafts now.

You go boring vets because you're, they're not gonna get, they're not gonna go super high in drafts. Everyone's gonna reach for all the sexy players and it's like you could just take a vet. Davante Adams will be fine.

But last year there was a bunch of those dudes that nobody was really excited about and then it turned out they were good picks. But like this year I look at Garrett Wilson who I think everybody has either been burned by or wanted to take 'em and were, was glad they didn't. And now he's kind of residing under some line, but he could—

An afterthought. Yeah.

Maybe be awesome this year.

T Higgins is another guy nobody talks about. Nobody thinks about T Higgins is like as dependable and reliable as you could get.

So you think we, do we need to zag back to a different era where we have less information? Just bring, like, do it like this year. I tried to do, I don't wanna say less prep, but I almost felt like I was over-prepped last year.

Well, I think it depends on what you mean by information, because I also think just because there's practice videos going around without any context doesn't mean people know what they're talking about. Ashan Gentry being the perfect example. It's like a game of telephone. Ashan Gentry gets hurt and they're like, well, the team, everyone's surrounding him. And everyone's like, oh, he's out for the season. And then he's like, oh, he has a low ankle sprain. He has a high ankle sprain. No one knows anything. And actually, I think this coincides with real football where Mike McDonald was talking about this and he said, you know, coach of the Seahawks, and he was like, there's less— it's harder to get information than ever before, which makes actual information more valuable than ever before. It's like you used to motion a receiver across the formation, and if the cornerback follows, it's man coverage. Now you don't even know that anymore. And I think that there's a media thing with there too, where you're like, oh, I saw this video of this guy, and you're like, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. So sometimes knowing a little bit's worse than knowing nothing at all.

Did you notice when he said Mike McDonald, Danny just kind of could feel that?

He just seems so happy. He's so dreamy. He's the best.

He's probably the best coach in the league.

Have you been watching Hard Knocks?

A little. I've been watching bits and pieces. I'm gonna watch— I'm gonna like binge it right before the season to get really psyched back. It's actually been—

it is. I feel the other way. I feel like it's the most irrelevant it's ever been.

I have not watched it.

I haven't watched it in a long time, to be honest.

Did social media ruin Hard Knocks? I think it kind of did.

Yeah, the Giants ruined Hard Knocks because the offseason Hard Knocks was supposed to be— it's such a better product having 4 months to be distilled into like, why did the Giants lose Saquon? It's like such a better— and then it comes out in July when there's no football. It's so much better than Hard Knocks being made in like 3-day spurts of training camp where they don't want to reveal anything. It's such a better product. And the Giants were so embarrassing on Hard Knocks offseason that—

and you think that would be a draw though?

No one wants to do it. But I'm like, just the Giants literally just filmed losing Saquon Barkley to the Eagles, and then everyone's like, I'll never do that ever again.

The one thing that we don't have enough that I, I would actually be excited about is the, uh, when the teams kind of do the scrimmage things. What are they called?

Like the joint practice?

The joint practice.

Oh yeah, they're great.

Those are better than preseason games.

I was devouring, like literally devouring, the AJ Brown highlights from the Philadelphia Eagles.

That was the best preseason game.

I was watching different fan angles. Like, I, I was like searching on Twitter, deep dive, and it's like, I would just pay for this if they showed it, because then the actual preseason games are horrible.

Oh yeah.

So why not just have the joint practice? The gambling guys talked about this on Monday, that we would all pay for the joint practices, basically. Because it seems like that's the only way to really evaluate what's happening. I watched the second pass game. Nobody played.

Yeah.

You know?

Well, the coaches are— the coaches talk about, if we have a really good practice today, we're not going to play our starters in the preseason games. Because they're just— I think they play harder in those games than you see in the preseason games. And the starters play like one series. Whereas in these practices, they're probably playing the whole practice.

Before we get to our draft, I wanted to mention you posted another picture of you guys on Instagram together eating. And I think Heifetz has mastered the 40-Year-Old Virgin poster smile when he's in these pictures where he is like, and I just want, I want to flag it.

31-Year-Old Virgin, I'll have you know.

No, you just, you're always, you're the most happy guy to be photographed. 'Cause the House had a picture of you and Dibundo and him. With golf, same thing. Heifetz is just— he's the most paparazzi-friendly guy at the ringer.

He's already prepared to be a dad. You already have like the dad, I'm with my kids in Hawaii vacation photo smile. Totally.

Great.

How is he going to pull off the I'm pretending to be asleep with my young newborn on my chest photo?

Just excited at all times.

Yeah, you fill up the screen.

I got love lines. I don't think we take advantage enough of it.

No. Meanwhile, I'm like Forrest Gump. My eyes are closed in every picture. I just blink, blink every time.

Danny, how has your life changed since the Seahawks won a second Super Bowl?

Honestly, it's been kind of a weird Super Bowl afterglow. It does, it doesn't almost feel real. I don't know. It's been like, it was like a weird Super Bowl in the first place.

Because you got no respect from anybody.

Yeah. And like everybody's like, everybody, they won the Super Bowl and everybody kind of moved on.

Well, this is what happens when you don't have dynasties. When it's like random rings, I feel like people don't even really think about the team. You need to win 2 or go to 2 or 3 years.

No, as a Knicks fan, I had the greatest summer of my entire life. That's the thing.

Basketball is so different than football.

I agree. I will say, I mean, it's been great.

It's been great.

Like, you would not enjoy this.

We have 20 years of Brady going to every other Super Bowl and then Mahomes going to like 5 in 7 years. So I feel like when a random team now sneaks in and wins, you kind of don't know how to take it, right?

Well, he didn't— you didn't enjoy the Seahawks winning the Super Bowl.

I didn't enjoy the game. I enjoyed afterwards.

19-0, was that— you, you would you lose 2 games? 3?

2 or 3 games?

And all of them you could have won, all 3 games, right?

Right.

Like that, nobody kicked their ass the whole year.

Now this year people are like, well, they go 10 6? You had to fake win against the Rams. You have to factor that one—

That was ridiculous!

The Charbonnet 2-point conversion is like the most sliding doors play of all time.

Also this is why coaching points got you home field advantage in the playoffs which then but...

It almost caused Al Michaels to retire during the game he was so confused. Rashid!

Oh come on, they teach him to pick up the football it's something they do from Pop Warner.

Yeah it's a super normal rule and everybody knows it.

And it looked normal. Find a new slammer.

Um, we are going to do our fantasy preview, our My Guy draft. I have categories. The only thing we're doing different this year, I'm just going to read all the categories and we'll go, and if we all agree on a guy, we'll move on. Because I thought, you know, the pace got a little slow. I'm here for the fans, I'm here for the, for the listeners. Want to, want to have a little bit of a better pace.

Sure.

I don't think this should be a 2-hour podcast.

Tight 90.

Yeah, I feel like it's quarterback roll.

100 minutes or less.

100 minutes? Yeah.

It was like—

This needs to be like the movie Speed. If the pod goes below 50 miles an hour, I just blow up.

Yeah. Did you guys know about the whole thing where Craig was getting bummed out because people were mad about the Horlbeck rule?

They misinterpreted what I— the whole point of it. It wasn't like There Will Be Blood's too long, it needs to be 100 minutes. That's not my point. My point is that we need to appreciate when a movie is great that is short, and it's hard to do that.

You're not going to believe this, but the internet took it and ran it the wrong way.

Yeah, I'm like—

It's like, Craig thinks every movie should be 100 minutes.

It's not like The Odyssey should have been 90 minutes.

Was the Odyssey like maybe 10 minutes too long though?

It was too short.

I agree, it was too short. Too short. I thought some of the scenes— I thought Nolan was jamming in every scene and it was like, man, that like whatever the three-headed monster that came out of the cliff was, I'm like, that was like a 2-minute scene.

This is true, the IMAX projectors can't go more than 3 hours, so it had to be under 3.

They heat up, they overheat.

No, I don't believe that's right.

That's a good one.

I, I, I don't know, I should have been longer. It's the only movie I've ever seen where I'm like, that was half an hour.

Shots have to be short because the IMAX camera can't run more than a 3-minute take.

Okay, so that's You know what? I'm not, I'm not gonna go on this podcast and give my thoughts.

I thought it was a little rushed. Yeah. Legitimately felt it was a little rushed.

It's a 10-year journey. I'm like, give me, it's fine.

Would you have thrown in a touch football scene or just something to get the, the guys?

Top Gun beach scenes. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. Fantasy preview. First category is my one true love. This is, this is basically how this whole idea started of who do you just love the most? Um, who has your heart? So Hyphens, you go first. Who has your heart?

It's Brock Bowers, man, tight end for the Raiders. I— it's, it's probably—

we do this every year now.

It's probably a bad thing to love, and I'm probably too early on it for the Raiders, but I just, I just think Brock Bowers is such a baller, man. And it's, it's— he literally had, as a rookie year, he had the second most catches of any rookie ever. And it's not just tight ends, like, only Puka Nuku has more catches as a rookie than Brock Bowers. Last year was incredible, and then he hurt his knee and he came back. He looks incredible this year. And I just look at the, the coach— again, speaking of the Seahawks, the offensive coordinator last year, Clint Kubiak, is at the cutting edge of getting the best player the football. Jackson Smith-Njapo last year had the receiving record in yardage for the Seahawks by Week 11. And I just think those principles, if not the exact same routes and everything, the principles apply of Bowers is going to get the football. And I like him so much better than the receivers in that range— Nico Collins, Drake London. Bowers could just have a better season than those guys straight up.

I was gonna have him as my one true love guy, and also like I was like, Brock Bowers is so underrated. And then I went to our draft guide, we had him for $35. I was like, you know what, that's a fair price. Yeah. It's basically 90% of a receiver price.

Yeah.

I had him last year in every, every league I was in.

Right.

And he got hurt and he came back and he wasn't 100%, but the guy is a psycho.

Yeah.

Like you're watching these games, they're down 17 to like Kansas City in the third quarter and they're throwing over the middle and he's like, bouncing off 3 guys, stepping on, and you're just like, don't get hurt, Brock Bowers, let's make it through this game. You're down 17.

Yeah, there was a video this offseason of like tape on his knee, and people— there was like one video of him on the sideline and he kind of hopped on one leg like he was avoiding the other, and people were freaking out.

That's because of the Piersol thing.

Yes. Well, then he caught 2 touchdowns in the way of practice, which is why the videos are nothing. But I mean, Kubiak called him a football robot from heaven.

Yeah, I love him as well. He's number 20. In our Ringer Fantasy Rankings, which is a great thing that all of you should check out out there.

He's going to be hard to— like, he's going to go early in drafts. I think it's going to be hard to go.

So you have Jefferson at $41, Lamb at $42, and then Brock Bowers is $35, and Nico Collins is $34 as, as wide receiver 8. I think I agree with that.

I like that you're talking, talking auction prices. Yeah, we're doing snake. Are you an auction guy? You snake guy?

No, I just— I think it's a better way to Assess. I'm still auction for the other league I'm in, but, but I think that's right because how many tight ends can sniff within 80% of his stats this year if he's healthy, right?

Not many.

McBride, probably just McBride.

Just McBride.

Tyler Warren.

Loveland and Warren are the only guys that wouldn't be surprising. Even Kyle Pitts or Hale Shannon would be really surprising.

No. Yeah.

Okay.

All right. Good start. What do you got, DK?

This one is one that I just can't be unbiased on and it's Kenneth Walker. The third for the Chiefs. I tried, I tried to think of my one true love. This kind of goes back to your intro. Like, it's kind of a weird season. My one true love is Jahmyr Gibbs, but he's the first overall pick. So like, what's the point of talking about that? So I went with Kenneth Walker. It reminds me just a little bit of— I guess it's maybe a bad analogy, but that Saquon Barkley going to the Eagles thing, like a really good running back going to a team where they're going to make him the focal point of the offense and really get him involved. And then he just goes absolutely ballistic. I think Kenneth Walker has a chance this year to really, really break out in a big way based on like, number one, I've just always loved him. I think he's one of the most elusive running backs in the NFL. If you look at the numbers, it's that, that really bears out. He breaks tons of tackles, explosive playmaker, has like a ton of big plays. I think that's huge for their offense.

That's the reason they focused on him in free agency is because they need to get some explosive runs from the run game. They had like zero last year. It was crazy. And I just think he's going to be used in the passing game more than, more than he has in the past. That's a big part of their game that Andy Reid loves, the screen game. I think he's great. I think Kenneth Walker is perfect for that. Durability, if he can stay healthy, is like the big question. But I feel like you have to ask that about pretty much everybody in the top 20.

Craig, who's our number one if he could stay healthy guy?

McCaffrey.

Yeah.

Every year he's healthy, he's the best player in fantasy, or he misses the entire season.

If it's not him, it's Mike Evans. And if it's not him, it's George Kittle. So I think it's a substation.

We could drool down on a whole team of those guys while they play next to an electric bagel.

Parlay injuries every year.

Where is Conspiracy Bill on the substation and the 49ers?

You know, ironically, I want a Conspiracy Bill, not me. Conspiracy Bill went on the Wait a Second podcast with Jason and Tyler this week, and we talked about it. I'm all in on, yes. You know, it's one of those things where it's like, yeah, it can't be true. Would you want to play with it? Why would it?

But you want to live by that?

Yeah. No, you wouldn't.

You're a, you're a corded headphones guy. I am a little bit of substation parallels there.

It's very early on though. Everybody's doing these wireless AirPods. I mean, I also don't wear a seatbelt, so I'm not, I'm not the greatest guy for self-health, but why don't you wear a seatbelt? I've been wearing it lately and it's, it's, I don't know. I always felt like it was confining. I didn't like—

that's the point.

Yeah, I know. You get it. It confines you.

It confines you from flying through the windshield.

Yeah. People, people really made me feel bad about it in a real way.

That's because they care about you.

Well, then my wife was like, I've been telling you wear a seatbelt for the 27 years we've been together, and you've never listened.

Sometimes you just need to watch the internet.

You make a point to note that you can get to Vegas faster than anyone in your car.

Yeah.

And then you don't wear a seatbelt.

What are you doing?

Listen, it is confounding.

The duality of man.

Ever thought about how lame it would be to be dying at 19 miles an hour in the middle of a cryo parking lot? Like, you're trying to— you've been very healthy the entire time I've known you. You're doing all this stuff. And like, I just, I just fear that you're—

it's like, it's not just wearing it. I'm really trying it. Um, I would not want to play next to the electromagnetic practice field substation, whatever the fuck it is, where you can hear the buzzing from it.

Can they at least put a wall up? I hate that you can see it.

You would have built a wall.

Yeah. Well, just in that, in that one case, but yeah. Can we at least conceal it? I don't know why we have to stare at it. Put a tent over it or something.

They were talking about it on NFL Live yesterday in these grim tones. Like, just this—

they should—

the most grim thing possible. And I was thinking, like, if I had been on the show, it would have been like, maybe it's the electromagnetic thing drove him fucking crazy. All of a sudden he's in a trailer park in Ohio. Too much exposure.

It's like lead from, like, the '60s or whatever.

He's just lost it. Okay, so our number 1, if he stays healthy, guy is still McCaffrey. Yeah. All right, Danny, I could zag on your pick. Yeah.

I don't know.

Maybe he was just really healthy last year and maybe he's not really meant to be healthy every year. I know I have concerns about Kenneth Walker. Yeah. Because they, the rub with him with the Seahawks was always like, we can't count on him for 17 to 20 games. We need Zach Charbonnet. We need, we need insurance. Just, he was a just in case he gets hurt guy.

Right.

Now the Chiefs who are no stranger to injuries. Are not counting on him, but the upside is crazy.

That's what I'm chasing. And I admit fully, I'm not, I'm not unbiased on this. I just love him. I think he's so good.

When was the last good running back they've had?

Exactly.

Kareem Hunt, 2017, probably.

Kareem Hunt, rookie Kareem Hunt.

Almost 10 years ago.

Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know. I agree with DK. It's like, don't overthink it. The Chiefs and Mahomes have a really good running back.

Yeah.

And there's only like 12 good running backs in fantasy. And I think he's one of them.

What do you have for your true love?

So I know I kind of just pitched the whole like, don't buy into preseason hype, get a veteran, be safe. Um, Luther Burden, I'm just a fan.

It's a recurring theme on your podcast.

I don't care that he's got a hurt groin. I don't care about any of that. I completely buy it. I think he's like an Amon-Ra St. Brown mixed with prime Deebo. And I don't know, I think when he was going to—

those are some names right there.

Whatever. If he was going to come out of college the year before he did when he was like— he wasn't eligible after sophomore year. If he came out that year, he would have been like a top 10 pick. And then the Missouri, the final season wasn't as great. But on talent alone, I feel like we're not— when you watch him, he looks like one of the best receivers in the league to me. And I fully buy the Ben Johnson thing. There was that big piece on him. I think it was in The Athletic. He's a psycho. I think it's going to be— it's now like McVay, it's Shanahan, and I think it's Ben Johnson. And I'm just— the quotes around Luther Burden are crazy. I think he's going to be healthy week 1. And I don't know, I think like next year he'll probably be like a first round pick or something.

It was interesting with the rankings. You would have thought Adunze would have been the number one bear and the highest thing, but people— Burden seems to have psyched people out.

I think the way— I think Adunze's more, more high variance. Like he's getting the deep shots, the balls that Caleb has struggled with a little bit more. Burden is in that Deebo sense where they're like getting him screens, little crossers, reverses. They just like get him the ball so much and when the ball's in his hands, He's one of the best players in the league.

We have Burden 24 for receivers and we have a Dunzey 28.

Yeah, I'd rather have Burden. I think they're all good. I think like the big 3 on the Bears are all worth taking, but I do think Luther Burden is very special. If you look at his rookie season, you know, people can go nuts on the stats, but it's like basically the last 15 years it's him, Odell, and AJ Brown in terms of like—

there's some good long hauls throughout them.

Yeah, he's— I think he's very special. And so maybe there's been so much—

means a lot to you.

Well, I'm sticking to my guns even though his groin doesn't work right now.

Well, speaking of groins, I'm shocked you didn't have Luther Burden for the one of these is the Caleb Wilson, there will be no semen left in my body category. And I just thought that was going to be like a shoe-in for you.

I, I, I'm reserving that for Drew Aller when he uncorks the 70-yarder.

Can we—

I'm, I'm all the way in.

Craig, there were like 4 throws he made in the preseason where I was— I—

it was Like, oh my God, he made 2 throws in the last 2 weeks that very few quarterbacks have made in the last few years.

And he's big too.

Huge cannon. His whole problem was like footwork and can you read a defense. McCarthy getting his hands dirty, it's already kind of paying off.

I think you're getting your hands dirty.

I am, I'm getting very—

no, I, I got—

listen, he looks legitimate.

I can't stand the Steelers, but he looked legit.

You can say what you want about him, you have to admit that he looks way better than anyone thought.

Our comp for him coming out of college was with Justin Herbert couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat. And I mean, it's Penn State. He broke his ankle. I think if he had improved at the end of Penn State, like, I think he would've been a way better player.

Wasn't he supposed to be like a top 3 pick at one point?

There was a time. He's a Heisman favorite.

Well, just 'cause of the tools too. I mean, he's a big guy with a big arm.

Which round'd you get him in?

3rd.

Steelers are interesting. We, Sal and I are doing Thursday, we're doing the 2 conferences and the win total over-unders. And there's some buzz. You know, every year there's two coaches that take over a new team and it's always pretty easy to identify who the jumps coaches are gonna be. Like Dan Quinn 2 years ago, Vrabel last year, a little harder this year. McCarthy coming in and doing better than Tomlin did just seems abjectly insane, but might not be insane.

No, I think the offense is objectively gonna be better.

Offense might be way better.

Yeah. And I just think the roster's better. They just like Michael Pittman and I think they drafted really well. I think the tackle they took is good. Jeremy Bernard, the receiver, seems good. They brought in Brisker and Jamel Dean, and their, their new defensive coordinator I think is going to be better than what they had last year. I think they're just a better team.

Well, we always joke McCarthy, Sean Payton, and John Harbaugh, just their resumes on paper with wins, losses are almost identical.

Especially the John Harbaugh thing, where McCarthy's— we've all talked about this on our pods, but McCarthy is considered like this retread, and John Harbaugh is like the savior. And it's like I don't know. How do we know McCarthy's not a better coach? I'm down on Harbaugh and I'm up on McCarthy.

In the name of pronunciation dyslexia, what would happen if I said retreat? You guys are fucking silent.

I was biting my tongue.

Yeah, that's what I thought. When I say it's retreat, which is okay because I have pronunciation—

speech dyslexia.

No one is now attacking Bill every time he mispronounces.

Don't treat treat on me.

I'm attacking you. Yeah, don't treat— I'm attacking you two for not saying anything to him.

Uh, look, I've bit my tongue on that.

Call me out every time. Yeah, for some reason I said retread and it's retread.

Scarcity is my favorite one you have.

Scarcity.

I have them too. I can't say anything right, so it's okay.

Scarse is like a British accent thing. Maybe he was—

oh, I think scarcity should have been the way it's pronounced. How about that?

Yeah.

My one true love.

I can't wait because I— wait, I wanna, I wanna give you credit. Last year, I believe it was Jackson Smith and Jigba was like your big guy last year.

No big deal. I kind of poo-pooed that.

I think we were talking about that last night. We were like, Bill picked JSN.

I had some good ones last year, the last 2 years. What do you think my one true love is this year? If you had to guess?

Oh, well, give me, I think it's AJ Brown.

What do you think, Craig?

He's, he's looking up Twitter.

I mean, AJ Brown would make sense for you probably. Uh, Ibuka.

What do you think?

I would've said Ibuka before the toe injury.

Now I don't know. He was my crazy pills guy last year.

Okay.

My one true love is AJ Brown. I am all the way fucking in on this. He destroyed the Eagles last week. There were Pats reporters tweeting stuff out like, in all the years I've covered the team, I've never seen anyone dominate the joint practices like AJ Brown just did. This guy's unleashed. It might just be one year.

Or it might just be one game when they played the Eagles in practice.

No, stop.

I totally— you know I'm not a Pats— I'm not like just being like, oh, Patriots. Like, I hate the Patriots. I totally— he's my crazy pills guy. I don't understand why everyone's not in on AJ Brown.

He was in the worst possible situation with this weird Eagles offense that used him.

They won 11 games.

They used him basically—

Stop, stop. He was one of the worst picks in the NFC. He's so frustrating.

I'm not going to stop it. Danny, would you go 50% completely used wrong with him?

I think he just checked out, which is what worries me.

I don't blame him.

He did check out.

No, but that's the point is everybody have checked out because they weren't using him right.

But exactly. And I think it's George Pickens this year.

He's on a winning team. They're like contenders to go to the Super Bowl.

He wants the ball. One of the worst offenses in the league.

He wants the offense built around him and he's going to get it now with the New England Patriots.

I 100% agree. I told it's receivers are more like NBA players than football players. They want the ball.

They couldn't get him the ball.

And it's George Pickens, where he's a head case that gets his head on straight. Drake Maye is a better overall passer than Jalen Hurts. You have going from Kevin Patula running the offense in Philly to Josh McDaniels in New England, who not— doesn't have to compare him to Randy Moss in '07, but Davante Adams got like 1,500 yards at 31 years old with Josh McDaniels and the Raiders. And you look at this Eagles team—

you wait, you left out two other key points. Mike Vrabel, who he loves, obsessed with him, grew up as a Patriot fan. This is like, I got divorced with the wife I never liked, and now I'm dating somebody, and I've lost £20, and I have a new haircut and new clothes, and I'm just so fucking happy. This is AJ Brown right now. Anyway, keep going.

No, it's fine. There was just an in-out. There was an easy layup there that we're all going to just pass over.

But what was the layup?

No, it's okay.

You thinking Vrabel?

Yeah, well, he just went from Vrabel. It's fine. Ah, anyway, no, but to your point about using AJ Brown around the offense, just powering through. But the— if you look at the top 120 receivers— anyway, my Pro Football Focus stats, uh, but the 120 top receivers last year, if you just look at how often they were in the slot, AJ Brown was last.

Literally incorrectly last year by them. The guy should get 8 to 12 touches a game. Craig's not— well, you might be old enough to remember this when Randy Moss came to the Patriots.

Yeah, yeah, I'm familiar with that season.

Yeah.

How old are you? You were like 12. I was 13. Yeah, you remember.

Yeah.

You remember the Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

Yeah, I watched that game.

We got Randy Moss, I think for a 4th round pick from the Raiders.

Yeah.

And everybody had decided Randy Moss was no longer redeemable as a professional athlete and he mailed it in with the Raiders. And meanwhile, if you go back and you look at that Raiders team, he's playing with crap QBs.

Totally.

Crap situation. And he's just unleashed when he gets to the Pats. I really think this is gonna happen with AJ Brown. And for some reason everybody's talking about with the Pats like, oh, the schedule is going to be so much harder. But the Pats are just distinctly better than they were last year. They, they— depth is probably the biggest issue, but their offensive line is going to be better. It's the second year of the coaching staff and they have AJ Brown and Romeo Dobbs. They didn't— their best receiver last year was Diggs, who played 35 snaps a game, right? They just traded Ke'Shawn Booty, who was their, their second best receiver. They basically traded him for a backup safety and a 6th round pick. Like, they had terrible receivers last year, and I just think he's gonna be awesome. And I don't know if it's gonna last more than a year. It might just be like, it might be one year and then next year he's unhappy, wants an extension, like whatever. Um, this year he's gonna be happy.

I agree with that.

I totally agree.

And it's— yeah, you didn't say that your crazy pills guy is also AJ Brown, but in the other direction.

Yeah, I had AJ Brown crazy pills.

I just, I sit next to these two guys all day long and They just can't stop talking about AJ Brown. I'm just like, did you, do you remember what happened last year at all? Like he was one of the worst guys to have in fantasy. He was the most frustrating player to have in fantasy.

He was absolutely miserable and seemed like he was trying to get traded during the season.

He was reading books on the fricking sideline. He was completely checked out. I just think we're kind of like selectively forgetting that.

But why would he be checked out again?

That's the point. He was trying to prove.

Yeah, but he, I mean, he, they were on, again, they were on a competing team that had a chance to be like a Super Bowl contender.

But he couldn't get him the ball.

The offense was so limited. He literally tweeted, to quote AJ AJ Brown quoting Jesus: if you're not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw. Don't make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way.

That's not the guy I want to bank like my entire season on. That's all I'm saying.

So you're saying that the fear is if he doesn't get targeted enough, he'll just bail?

Yes. Well, they traded a first for him.

DK, counter. He's gonna get targeted enough. I know. Probably throw him the ball all the time.

I'm just— I'm pushing back a little bit on the hype, that's all. Okay. I feel like I'm taking—

is it hype though? I don't feel like there's been—

I don't think there's any hype. He just hates—

no, he hates this guy.

AJ Brown, that's it.

You were tired of me liking AJ, like ESPN did that Jeremy Fowler piece where they did the top 10 for each position and they had AJ Brown 9th, which is like, he should be in the top 10. The Patriots didn't have anybody in the top 50 last year. No, they didn't have anybody who could get open. Seattle's whole strategy was like, these guys can't get open, we're gonna do this. And they just pulled our pants down for 4 quarters.

How many receivers would you take ahead of AJ Brown in fantasy draft?

I think he has to be top 5.

So let's, so we have, you have like Ja'Marr Chase.

I would take him over Jefferson, FYI.

Yeah, I think that's fair.

I want— I'm gonna trust the, the Kyler Murray, JJ McCarthy, however that plays out, combo over like the Patriots with Drake May, who throws the best deep ball in the league.

I don't have a problem with that. So you would do Ja'Marr Chase, Puka, Amon-Ra, you would take those guys over AJ Brown, and then it's like Justin Jefferson, CeeDee Lamb, JSN.

Would you take Puka over AJ Brown? I'm just asking. I would talk about red flags.

I mean, yeah. But when Puka's on the field—

name one thing.

What I mean, first of all, the biggest red flag is going to happen.

Yeah, well, Matt Stafford is the kingmaker. I mean, look back through his career, like the Cooper Kupp Triple Crown.

Receivers need to be crazy.

Puka Nacua, if he's healthy and playing, which is obviously like a big, big if, if he is going to be the highest scoring receiver. He outscored JSN last year.

You always make the good point that Stafford has 4 of the top 20 fantasy receiver seasons ever.

I would take Puka.

Stafford just going to feed him that.

I mean, I, I'd probably take Puka too.

Yeah.

Push comes to shove. But the red, I mean, he was like, I'm fine, I'm fine. I, I got my shit together. And then there was a story out that he walked through a glass door at the Michael Rubin White Party, which he told 2 months ago. He himself told Logan Paul that 2 months ago.

He's, I'm like, why would you say that on a podcast? Stop going on podcasts.

He said this week he started talking about McDonald's and I'm like, who's allowing him to do these meetings?

If we had a Ringer Christmas party and Craig walked through a glass door And then I go and I'm like, last month was crazy, I ran through a glass door.

But he's supposed to be getting his shit together and then he walked through a glass door.

That was months ago.

No, it wasn't. It was July 4th. Well, well, less than 2 months ago.

The problem with the deep ball tracking is you can't be like, well, my eyesight's not good because you're a receiver. The eyesight, you know, he definitely saw the glass window, right?

Right. It's clear. It's a really nice party.

You make a key point though. Do you need to be crazy to be a receiver like that? Like the way Puka Klay played was so reckless.

Mm-hmm.

And so crazy that maybe that's part of how he's successful.

Yeah.

Or maybe it's all of it.

Every time he catches a pass, I'm worried he's not gonna get up.

But yeah, he peels himself off the turf like, but still 6 times a game.

Nobody is as good as him when he's healthy.

All right.

We are going to take a, take a break, quietly withdraw. We're gonna quietly withdraw and come back with the rest of the categories right after this. This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT. Imagine you're running a professional sports team. Nice. That would be a dream of mine. Imagine the player contract report is due today. Not so nice. You've got performance notes from the coaching staff. You got a salary spreadsheet from your analyst. 3 rounds of back and forth emails with the agent, and all of it is scattered absolutely everywhere. Well, that's where ChatGPT Work comes in. It's a new way to use ChatGPT for bigger multi-step projects. Give ChatGPT work access to your apps and files and can create real work documents. For instance, spreadsheets, slides, structured reports. You can bring all those to your next meeting. And when you don't need answers, you need help just getting the work across the finish line. Guess what? ChatGPT work can move your projects forward while you stay in control. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started. Just go to ChatGPT.com by selecting work mode, available on Plus and Pro plans.

All right, so because we're live on Netflix, we have polls. We have a first poll. What's the first poll?

Uh, we, we asked people to vote on our one true loves, and I guess who, who they agreed with the most. The winner was Brock Bowers, 46% of the vote, then AJ Brown at 22, Ken Walker at 19. And Luther Burden at 11. Everyone's wrong.

What a season.

Craig's feelings are hurt. We're not even done with the pod yet.

Don't take them.

One of the best things about having Brock Bowers is when they go to him after the touchdown and he's just bald and looks like a fucking maniac.

Hey, now, hey, now.

And he's just like high-fiving dudes and just looks like he's all— he gets cast in some action movie.

All he cares about is ball.

He would have been such a good Raider in Oakland. Such a bummer.

Next category.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, he would have. Next category, my Bear from Obsession crazy pills guy. We named it after Bear from Obsession.

Oh great.

Okay, crazy pills for Bear. Uh, Craig, who do you have for this?

Um, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills with people drafting Zay Flowers, the Ravens receiver, so high. I'm like, what are we— why are we in on Zay Flowers? Like, what's changed? This guy, like I don't know what's crazier, where he's going in drafts or the contract the Ravens gave him. 4 years, $140 million. That's, that's, that's Keegan Murray money on the Kings. Come on.

I felt the same way. Yeah, totally. I thought it was so weird, the contract.

He's never had more than 5 receiving touchdowns in a season. And I, I guess like, sure, the new offensive coordinator's gonna be cool. He's like 5'8", £180.

So you're saying he's basically the Amy Adams of fantasy receivers?

Oh, what, Amy Adams?

Just, just can't be an A-lister, but you know the name.

A lot of Oscar noms, doesn't win. Has she ever won?

I think Zay Flowers is gonna be on Cape Fear in 10 years, people wondering what's happening.

I didn't— I just pointed this out. Zay Flowers is the only Ravens receiver ever to make a Pro Bowl. Did you know that? Ever? Ever. One. He made one Pro Bowl and then they gave him $140 million.

My theory is twofold. One, I think that the Ravens gave Zay Flowers this contract because they're like, this is the best guy we've ever seen, and they haven't seen enough people. But my real theory is because the Ravens were the Cleveland Browns and the Ravens scouting system was set up in a Belichick-y way. I think that's Bill Belichick's fault the Ravens can't draft wide receivers.

Another reason to blame Bill Belichick. Sitting here watching on Netflix.

Yeah, we're getting so creative on this.

Um, Danny, who do you have?

Well, I had AJ Brown, but I want to pivot a little bit here to the other guy that I kind of am not crazy about. It is Cam Scatteboo with the Giants. I feel like I'm taking a little bit of crazy pills sitting next to these guys, going all in on this maniac who played, what, 6 games last year before he got hurt?

I want that crazy bastard.

He's like a kid in Toys R Us. I can't be around him. He's— he is a maniac.

Yeah.

Derogatory. You need that.

No, derogatory.

I like you. In the words of Bill Parcells, football's not for the well-adjusted.

I just think— I just think a kid who used to run into telephone poles for fun. That is exactly the type of player you want to get hurt, is what I'm saying. I mean, yes, it is like a good football trade.

I agree. He's, he's on my D&D list.

Really? Yeah.

Stop.

You just don't like fun.

No, he's not fun.

I like running backs that might play 10 games.

Yeah.

Yeah. I don't trust him at all. I think that's a good one. He's being treated like he's a top 20 running back, right?

First.

Yeah.

I think he should be.

I mean, when he's in, he is a top 20 running back.

Yeah.

I will defend you guys on that, but I just don't know. I just, I can't trust it for the whole season.

He's been preparing his whole life to withstand concussions.

He is the guy. He's like, he flies too close to the sun on every game.

Yeah, we have him 18 at the—

at running back.

Like, we have David Montgomery 20 and Cam Scatteboo.

Oh, I'd rather have Cam Scatteboo.

I'll take the David Montgomery 12 points a week for the entire season.

Look, if you're not first, you're last. Come on. Like, this is like—

all right.

Also, the Giants, not for nothing, last 5 years are 30th in touchdowns. Do we think that's going to change dramatically this year?

John Harbaugh, baby.

John Harbaugh is going to get fired before he started playing Lamar, and then Matt Nagy will be the head coach.

It'll be great.

Yeah.

I, I think it's red flags galore. All you have is the, oh, one score games, bad luck last year, it's gonna be better. That's like the only case for the Giants. I don't know if Jon Harbaugh's any better or worse than Brian Dayball.

Uh, I'm, I'm not, I'm not like super, I'm not as excited about the Giants as everyone. It's always a red flag when you hire a coach and everyone unanimously is like, this is the most amazing hire, what a great job. And then the fans of that team are like, good luck. Yep.

The Ravens fans are not Pete Carroll Raiders. Parallels to Harbaugh this year.

Talk about his speech. Talk about his speech to the team.

Did you see the speech that Harbaugh gave his team the other day?

Oh, of course. It was awful.

He just kept saying, you guys are the New York Giants. He had like nothing else to say. It was worrying. It was a little worrying.

I'm worried.

I think when the fan base that you get the person or coach from, the reaction of the fan base. I remember this happened 20 years ago with J.D. Drew with the Red Sox. I can't remember if it was Phillies or the Cardinals, but all their fans were like, good luck, dude. I got so many emails about like, you're going to hate him. I was like, oh no. And it turned out we did hate him.

So Mallory Rubin threw out the first pitch at the Orioles game a few days ago, and that was amazing. And I got to go and they did this giant meet and greet with all these House of R fans, and some of them listen to our show and they came up in Baltimore. I could not believe 6 different people brought up Daniel Filaele, the backup guard on the Giants who started for the Ravens and ruined their season last year. And they were like, God, can you believe Harbaugh brought him with him? Like, he still doesn't know. And I'm like, when people are bringing up your backup right guard to you, yeah, that's a horrible sign.

Who do you have for this?

They just traded him, for what it's worth.

Crazy. Well, they traded him to the Jaguars because he got— he blew up— he almost blew a block in the preseason. My crazy pills guy is AJ Brown. I just don't understand why people I, I won't name any, but why people think AJ Brown has a physical issue with the Eagles. I'm like, he's a— he had a focus issue.

Didn't he also have a physical issue?

He has a chronic knee issue, but he's also had 1,500 yards with that issue.

So that's something.

He was second in yards per route run 2 years ago to Puka.

What about last year?

Jalen Hurts couldn't get him the ball.

Sure.

Okay.

I have a deep cut crazy pills guy. It's Parker Washington, but not for the reasons you think.

Oh, interesting.

Parker Washington, Craig alluded to it earlier, like a lot of buzz, people love him. And now there's a Parker Washington backlash to all the buzz. People thinking this is crazy. Parker Washington. I had Parker Washington in fantasy.

It's great.

He was fucking awesome.

Wonderful experience.

He was unleashed.

Yeah.

And like we have him, we have him wide receiver 30 for $13 and he's right in that no man's land. It might be, well, maybe Myers and he might be the third best Jag. Lawrence loved this guy. He threw to him all the time. He was always open. I actually feel like he, he can sustain that for the whole year. And to me, I like the fact that Zay Flowers is considered a better fantasy receiver than Parker Washington. I don't get it. I watched it. I was very focused on him. It was a little like the JSN in 2024 where it was like I had him on the team and I was just watching him get open every, every play for 8 weeks. That was why I had him as Crazy Pill guys last year. I just, I think that offense is going to be maybe even better than it was averaging, what, 32 a game for the last 8? Like, I don't, I don't like their defense. Their schedule is really hard. They have 6 home games, basically. They have 9 road games and 2 in London.

Oh, they have 2 in London.

Yeah. Bonkers. They have 6 actual games in Jacksonville. So, and there's some harder schedule out of that, but I think he's going to be awesome. So that's my guy.

I totally agree. I think it's honestly, he was a 6th round pick and he's not famous and people are unwilling to admit that he's good. And it just like takes longer for guys who aren't 1st round picks.

Yes.

The way that Cohen talks about Parker Washington is like he's his favorite player on the team. Like first guy in, last guy out. And he has that like 6th round, like dog mentality. Chip on his shoulder. Yeah, the chip on it. It's like the Amon-Ra thing. I totally agree.

Very similar to St. Brown. Very similar to JSN. I just think he gets better the next couple years because of the work ethic. He's just always open. I always gravitate to the receivers that are always open. That's why AJ Brown, um, who I know can make catches in traffic and stuff, but if they use him correctly, he's just going to be open over the middle anyway.

Um, he's one of those guys that I thought that would be more controversial. Well, I like— because I think we all like him. I think the question is, is the hype pushed him up too high?

Yeah, it's like, how early are you gonna have to—

there's a lot of miles to feed.

My zag is I don't think the hype has pushed him up far enough.

Okay.

I think he is a top 15 receiver, and I think he's the best receiver on that team and it's not close. Yeah. Like we all had, well, we'll talk about Brian Thomas Jr. later. Okay. Next category. The, my hate, I absolutely hate myself for doing this guy. This is always a lively category. What do you got, DK?

Jalen Waddle for the, for the Broncos. I, I've have like a long running bit now that I just refuse to take any Sean Payton team players because he, you know, just kind of decides who he wants to feature in any game or any week. And then throughout the year, these guys are not playing enough snaps and everything. But I, I've— I was the Jalen Waddle defender last year when he was on the Dolphins, and now I feel like I, I just have to be the Jalen Waddle defender on a much better team. Yeah, a much better team, better quarterback situation. They're going to pass more, they're going to score way more points. I think we're going to finally see the real true version of what Waddle could be as like a former— you know, he was like a top 10 pick in the draft. Um, the way that they're going to deploy him, I think, could be really big. Like, basically last year he was running routes as an X, and now he could be off the line, moving around, run after the catch, just let Courtland Sutton run like those outside routes and have him more in the slot where he can have a little more space.

I think he's just going to be highly featured in this offense, and he's another guy, if he stays healthy, he's going to score a lot of points. And I kind of hate myself for, for falling for Sean Payton guy again. Uh, but I guess I can convince myself that he's not the play caller for the first week at least.

Waddle is one of the, like, the fantasy darlings. Like, the analysts really love Waddle.

Mina's big on him. Yeah, on him in Denver. That's— it seems like all the nerds really— yeah, not to call Mina a nerd, even though I think she's probably the nerd queen.

If you win Jeopardy, you're a nerd.

Yeah, that's fine. But I think everybody's like, this guy had Tua as his quarterback last year, so nobody's more prepared for a Bo Nix ball that's sailing over his head trying to make a crazy play.

Right.

But yeah, it seems like a good spot for him.

I had Jalen Waddle in this category too.

Really?

I had Jalen Waddle for the— we literally have disagreed on Jalen Waddle for the entirety of our show. Craig and I, we joke about the Waddle model, which is like they have the little projected points next to the guy's name, and if it gets under that number, you're furious at that person. And Jalen Waddle never hits that.

Like, Yahoo never learns about Jalen Waddle. It always says he's projected like 12 points and you're like, great. And then he scores 6 every week and you're like, Stop projecting him for 12. You're ruining my life.

I've spent so much time in my life getting furious at fantasy model for predictions for what's going to be—

it's hard not to let it influence you.

How are we not better at this in 2026?

I don't know.

It's infuriating. But I'm afraid—

this was Drake May last year. He was always too low. The Drake May sets, it's like Drake May is one of the top 5 fantasy guys. You have him thinking he's going to score 12 points this week.

It's almost like they decide at the start of the year what the projections are going to be for each game. They never change it despite how they're playing.

Yeah, I'm afraid. But we hate Jalen Waddle for that reason. And you guys are the biggest— I never want to take—

he's been brutal.

I'm, I'm in on him this year because— and I hate myself for it, but God, he's been playing with Tua. And Tua, I think, might be even so much worse than we even realize. And part of me thinks Mike McDaniel might be a genius after watching him without Mike McDaniel for like 2 preseason games. I mean, Tua is going to be the first quarterback to lose a quarterback battle. Where the other guy couldn't even practice.

Not to step on Thursday's pod, but that's my biggest position on an under is the Falcons.

Yeah, we're joking.

I just can't believe how bad their quarterback situation is.

Michael Penix beat out Tua in a quarterback competition that Michael Penix wasn't even in, right? He wasn't playing. He was hurt and he won the battle.

The Falcons are like, he can't tear his ACL again. He's torn it 3 times. There's nothing left.

Yeah, yeah.

But empty cartilage.

But I just think Waddle going from Tua to Denver, which with Bo Nix, and then also Matt Harmon did a great job pointing this out at Yahoo, where, I mean, Tyreek Hill did all the fun stuff at— yeah, uh, with everything in the Miami offense for so long. And now Jalen Waddle is going to be the guy. And it's as simple as Jalen Waddle was on the line of scrimmage and he was playing the X receiver and he was outside. And now Jalen Waddle, so, is going to be off the line of scrimmage, so no press coverage, no getting hands on him early. And then he's going to be in the middle of the field, right in the slot. So you can go, as you always joke, Craig, when you're in the slot, you can go right or left instead of just out of bounds or left.

Yeah.

And That, those two differences of no Tua and you're gonna be in the slot without dealing with press coverage and he's so fast, I just, he's—

I'm always, one of my weaknesses with fantasy is I overrate concussion guys. Did this with Olave, like he was a DND for me last year. Waddle's had a couple.

Yeah.

That was I think why his stock kind of, plus his quarterback situation. But then a couple years passed where you don't have one, nobody thinks about it anymore. But he has had a couple in the past.

I do agree though. Another, Olave's a guy where I'm like, I, I hope somebody else takes him. Yeah, I don't, I don't dislike him. I just probably want somebody else to take him. I kind of feel that way about Waddle.

Did you go yet?

No, this is the— I absolutely hate myself for doing this.

Yeah.

Um, I'm gonna do Rashee Rice. I'm gonna take the guy who had to rehab his knee in jail, right? Which sounds like a plot of The Longest Yard.

Um, I think that happened in Shawcaller.

Look, man, I don't know why, but I've had Rasheed Rice on my team every year, and every time that guy's on the field, he's awesome. And the Chiefs once again have no good receivers and didn't do anything to add to it. And like, he already came back from the ACL last year and was immediately good, and he's just going to be on the field again this year. And everybody thinks he looks fat and slow in camp. I don't care. Rasheed Rice is good every time he plays. He's like a top 5 guy literally every time he plays.

They feed him.

Yeah, it is one of those things where if you have them And then he plays and he has like the 8 catch for 120 and just he doesn't ever get— he can't be stopped. And you're like, oh my God, I just won my league.

Yeah.

And then the red flag's next to him 2 days later.

100%.

Or he's on TMZ.

You know, he's got his last 17 games, he has 120 catches. Last 17 games.

He's really good.

Yeah. I had him last year for a while and it was glorious.

Yeah. The Chiefs are really the Niners of the AFC. With, uh, with yeah, but guys.

Yeah.

Mahomes coming off an ACL. Kenneth Walker, durability. Kelce, 35, has a dad body now and, and probably doesn't even wanna play football anymore. Rasheed Rice.

Worthy.

Worthy, who got hurt in the first half of the first game last year.

Mm-hmm.

This new rookie that everybody's trying to get us excited about.

Cyrus Allen.

Yeah. Do you buy in on that? No. Okay.

Uh, my guy, There's always a Chiefs, like, fifth rounder.

They always do this. They always do this. My guy is, um, I love Judkins.

Oh, interesting.

And I'll go further.

Did not see that coming.

My— I absolutely hate myself for doing this, guys. Judkins, Concepcion, and Boston.

Oh wow.

I like the Browns skill guys. Then you're throwing Fanon. It's like, I'm in. Who's the quarterback?

Oh no.

But I love—

oh no.

I thought Judkins had a stretch last year where he was completely unstoppable and they had no quarterback. I don't even think their offensive line was very good. And he was just fucking Derrick Henry. Everybody he played.

Yeah.

And now I was more excited for him 72 hours ago because I think he just randomly didn't show up for a practice the other day. And there's concerns about his professionalism and he could easily also be out of the league in about, you know, 9 months. But that guy is one of the 8 most talented running backs. And then you throw in the 2 rookies they got in the second round, the 30s. Those guys are monsters. Concepción, they look like they're gonna use him almost like old Percy Harvin style or Shaheed style. And then Boston, the equalizer, has been a revelation so far. So man, if they can just get a C- at quarterback, I think that team is unleashed.

You excited about Deshawn Watson, giving them a C-. You excited for that?

I think he's gonna play 2 weeks and they're gonna bench him for the home game. And then, yeah, I think they're— I think he's working remote this year. And I said that the owner is telling them to do this. Yeah, yeah, the owner's like, you gotta at least play him for the 2 games, see how it goes.

Deshawn plays remote and then Shador Sanders will go to the office and actually work in Cleveland. Yeah, but I do think I, I— what's your favorite part? It's the lack of professionalism, it's the broken leg he's coming off of, it's Deshawn Watson at quarterback. And then the other part is that I always think of is underrated with the Browns. Every game they have is outdoors in like snow or rain weather from week 9 on. They literally, all the good weather cities are coming to Cleveland and all the bad weather ones are, they're on the road. So it's just like the lake effect snow hits in Thanksgiving and you're like, oh my God.

Yeah.

You stole my answer for the next category.

You have them 22.

Come on.

Really? They're not going to, they're not, are they going to be in the red zone?

I'm just telling you.

Is he going to hit what the end zone looks like?

He hates himself for it. Craig, it's true.

He hates himself.

I mean, I think the Browns—

DK knows you've, you've, you've obviously crunched some Judkins footage.

I mean, I love Judkins. I agree.

He's really good.

He's fucking awesome.

One of the more under the radar rookies from last year. I totally agree. But I feel like the Browns are just a classic, like, year away from being a year away.

There was one game where I bet against them in the second half of this season, and he just kind of took over the game and it was like, oh my God, they can't fucking tackle this guy. He's one of those.

So.

And then the other two, um, that team is, I, I just wish they had a normal quarterback. That team would be one of those, like, I want everybody on that offense.

100%.

Totally agree.

Uh, next. Speaking of that, the next category is I'm staying away from that whole team. Team Browns. Do you have the Browns?

Yeah.

I was gonna say, is this Giants and Jets or just the two answers to this?

I know it's the Browns.

Well, it's the Browns for you guys.

Oh yeah.

I'm picking the Titans.

Yeah, that's fair.

Yeah, not buying the— they have not looked back.

No, I'll take a year off on Tate. I'm not buying Cam Ward. I don't want Tony Pollard, Wandale Robinson.

Yeah, people like Raheem was trying to get the worst to first bandwagon going for Titans. Is Cam Ward good?

That's a good— that's a good question.

His stats were awful last— I know that it was a rookie, bad team and all that stuff.

Yeah, coach got fired.

I don't know, stats were bad.

If I'm wrong and Dayball fixes Cam Ward, I'm happy to take that L, but I, I don't think I'm—

also, you're in a division with Houston twice. That— they have a couple other defenses they're playing against. Yeah, they go— they don't— they go against the NFC North. I think they do. I had this somewhere, but yeah, I didn't like some of the defenses they were going against. Um, so you had the Browns?

Yeah, I had the Browns.

And you had the Browns too?

I mean, he stole my answer. It's basically the In addition to the quarterback situation, which is atrocious, terrible. And I, and I really like all these skill players. Love Casey Conceptual. Love Boston. Love to hear that he's doing so great. I just think I'm going to wait on all these guys till next year when they have maybe hopefully a quarterback high in the draft or whatever.

Well, my thinking is like, I feel like you get all these guys for dirt cheap. Yeah, definitely. That's true. After the 10th round or in an auction, like you're, none of these guys are going for more than $5. I don't think anybody's spending $25 on Judkins.

Probably not. Yeah. You know, but the, but the 8 out of the last 9 games outdoors in cold, either at home or in cold weather city, like Cincy, Baltimore, and New York. It, this is just, I, having a Browns player late in the season sucks because it's like, oh, there's going to be 3 feet of snow and it's going to be a 3 to nothing game.

Right.

Or whatever. It's week 15 and it's like, I need Shador Sanders to throw for 400 yards in the snow.

It's like, he's going to pass for 125.

Maybe that was the beginning of the year of CR, was Chris making one waiver move the entire Ringer Fantasy Football League and then adding Shador Sanders, and Shador Sanders was the number one quarterback that week.

And then Chris won, or Chris got into the finals.

I will not have anyone from the Giants or Jets in any league I'm in.

Yeah.

My shameless homer pick, Cam Scadaboo for the Giants. That's what you have.

I love Scadaboo, man.

I just love—

so Hackett is a Giants fan. DK Seattle, Craig Pittsburgh, um, Pets obviously. So you have Skaduboo, who do you have?

I mean, does JSN count for this?

Yeah.

Yeah, it's JSN. I think even I logically have been talking about this. There's, it's probable that he will regress this year based on what he did last year. I mean, like a 35% target rate last year and 1,700 yards, 10 touchdowns. It's going to be hard for him to match that, but I'm starting to talk myself into the idea that he's not going to fall off that much. Like maybe a little.

Wouldn't the shameless Homer pick be you think he's the number one receiver?

He could be.

I think have him be the Offensive Player of the Year again.

I mean, I think he is one of the top 3 receivers in the NFL.

People are kind of down on him because they lost Kubiak, and it's like, eh, you know what else?

The Pats fucking shut him down in the Super Bowl. I don't know if you guys saw.

Yeah, yeah, that's what I remember from the game.

Yeah, that's the takeaway from that game.

Yeah, shut him down. Is that in his head?

Yeah.

Who do you have? Drew Aller?

Absolutely. If I can pick him, I'll take it.

But you can pick whoever you want.

Uh, I mean, Drew Aller is not a fantasy pick, but I, I would, I would say that any Steelers pick player I would pick would be half-hearted. I don't know, maybe Michael Pittman would be underrated, but like, I honestly, there's not a lot that I could pick on this team.

He has no homerun.

Well, what about Jalen Warren being the new Kenny Gainwell? I think that has to be it. It's like every play is going to be for Metcalf or Pittman, and then if they're not open, it's a check down or a throwaway.

The real guy I think could be underrated is Pat Fryermuth, who used to be a pretty good fantasy player and is still young and I think is really good. And John O. Smith is now gone, and I kind of think there's a chance that Fryermuth could kind of pop back into being a top 12 tight end. So maybe I would say him.

Can you guys do 40 seconds on your whole tight end theory this year? I've heard it on your podcast, but just for my audience, that there's a—

there's only a handful that you want, and the rest of them will just score 8 points no matter where you get them.

Just take them in the last round like a kicker.

There's no point in taking—

I'll take Fryermuth Last round, why not?

If you're not getting Bowers or McBride, literally the odds are that the rest of them will just score 8 points.

Basically, the gap between like the number 9 tight end and the number 17 tight end is like a point a game, not even. And that's assuming you're playing them in their best weeks anyway. And so I, I think getting like— I mean, DK's favorite sleeper this year, at least my favorite sleeper of yours, is Jawan Johnson on the Saints.

Yeah.

Who, now that Jordan Tyson the rookie is out a couple months, Jawan Johnson's probably gonna be second on the Saints in every category and is borderline undrafted. And you get him in the 14th round and like, you don't have to reach.

So good. He had like 800 yards last year.

Like watching a basketball player of football.

Yeah.

Yeah.

My shameless homer pick is Drake May, who's been disparaged by Sal all year. I think Drake May is going to be number 1 in fantasy points this year.

Yeah.

He was, by the way, 3rd last year. Yeah. But I think he is the, not only the number 1 quarterback, but I think he will get the most points. All the stuff that happened last year where he basically had nobody to throw to and his weapons are better. The schedule's more competitive. There were some blowout games last year where he was just out in the fourth quarter. Like, he's— they're actually going to need him more.

Shootout potential.

Yeah, 31 touchdowns last year. He's gonna have to run the ball in more games this year. I think they were a little baby kid gloves with him last year with the running because they didn't want to get hurt. I could see around the goal line maybe doing it more, but I just think he's gonna have a better season.

What I hate about you saying that is that there's a world where if AJ Brown falls to the third round in a fantasy draft, if you can start running back, running back, AJ Brown, and then Drake Maye, And then AJ Brown has the season, you think? Like, that actually would be probably a pretty incredible season.

That was the last time I won my, my fantasy league with Sal, was, was, uh, having the '07 Pats, like trying to build around them and a couple other things. But yeah, um, okay. I think Dobbs is going to be good too.

Yeah, he's underrated.

He's another concussion guy, so that, you know, he's got the big helmet, he's got the big helmet now. But, um, I just think that Packers team was weird. They were they had these 5 receivers and 2 tight ends and it didn't seem like there was any rhyme or reason to who got the ball.

I think Dobbs is super reliable, like a great third down security.

They love him.

Yeah. All right.

Your veal chop guy, Danny. Veal chop. We, we did this concept a couple years ago. The veal chop hit or miss at a restaurant.

It was on the menu last night when we got dinner. We did not order it, but we thought about it.

Chang, this is the most infuriating take I have for Chang. He's, he thinks the veal chop's amazing. It's the bad take. This is wrong. This is a fundamentally flawed exercise. Fuck you, Chang, would be my response.

Wow.

Yeah, you're not the food czar. I am on this podcast. Yeah, well, we argued about it on Friday, though, because he's going to be in the draft.

He's in the draft.

Yeah, Dave's in the draft.

Live ringer fantasy draft on Friday so we can argue about veal chop. You're a veal chop guy, too, Dave.

I bet you we all have the same guy.

Well, we're going to run a Netflix poll because whether people understand what veal chop guy means. My understanding of what this means is when it's done really well, it's elite. But also, if it doesn't go well, you feel dumb for getting it. And also expensive.

It's the riskiest, most expensive order, and it might be an absolute— like, you can't believe how good it is. It's like, you got to try this. Or it could be like, oh, fuck.

I've never had veal chops.

Neither.

Is it that different from a steak? Like, what is different about it?

It can be too rare. It can be too fatty.

But when it's so good, how is it different than a good steak.

It's just, there's something different about it. Okay. I can't explain it.

It's the youth of the meat.

You know, Chang is now driving into traffic.

Yeah.

In downtown LA trying to run over people. Yeah.

He's putting his seatbelt back on. Yeah.

But who's your real chop guy?

It's O'Marrion Hampton for the Chargers.

Okay.

It has to be him because I mean, on one hand, the Chargers offense, Mike McDaniel made Tua look good. Now he's got Justin Herbert. So he is going from like the most physically limited quarterback to the most physically, one of the most physically talented in Herbert. And the whole offense could just be supercharged. And Mike McDaniel compared Omariyon Hampton to Terrell Davis, who ran for 2,000 yards. So that's the upside. And the downside is you have a second-year running back who already had an ankle injury last year in a 3, uh, 3-man backfield behind an offensive line that will probably just— everyone get hurt again. And you're going to take them in the second round over like Derrick Henry and Chase Brown and Ken Walker and AJ Brown.

I have the same guy. To me, Hampton is the only guy that is going like in the top 20 in a draft that you don't officially know is good.

Exactly.

Every other guy, you're like, I know this player is awesome.

I think—

yeah, I think he's good, but you don't know. Also, the interior Chargers line already kind of looks bad.

I hate them losing Tyler Battish right off the jump at center. And I— and they have Jake Slaughter coming in, but it's still a rookie center in the league. We don't want to work your left center.

It's a fucking center. Come on, you lose your left and right tackle.

I mean, but that's the protections when all these like defensive lines come up.

And we've seen teams win Super Bowls after their center got hurt. I'm not, I'm not as scared about that. I think people are like, oh, here go the Chargers again. It's like, I don't know, where are you at with Hampton? You know, it's interesting. As you guys know, I watch football for 11 hours on a Sunday over and over again. He never really jumped out of the TV for me. Like, even like Judge, I was like, oh my God, Hampton was, was good, but like, was he better than RJ Harvey? Like, I just never saw him. Now, his offensive line was so bad, maybe we never saw it. Yeah, but I— he never jumped out of the TV to me.

I think he's a— Omari Hampton is a fake analytics guy where I think that for the most part, I'm not like anti-analytics or anything, but I think that like the advanced stats, which usually are right, he's really great in yards after contact per, uh, per attempt. But almost all of that, and people love to cut the sample size down. This is why advanced math is hard in football because sample sizes are small. They cut it to the first 6 games when the line is healthy, and then within that he did great, but all the carries are just against the Giants in week 4. And the Giants were the worst run defense in the NFL for the first half of the season. So it's like all these advanced things pointing out at Marion Hampton are based on one game with a defense that like was switching systems basically and was like doing terribly.

And yeah, that's like the Pat schedule stuff, not to defend last year's Pat's run, but we had the easiest schedule like in a long time. But then if you actually go game by game, we caught some teams kind of before they sucked. Like we played Miami when they had all their guys, you know, and people thought Miami was gonna be like a 9-0 team.

So what do you say, it was hard? Was it good? It was a hard schedule?

I just don't think it was the easiest schedule of all time because I think how some of the teams performed in the second half skewed it a little bit. It was definitely a fucking cream puff schedule, don't get me wrong. But I have a different guy for this.

Okay.

Same. Tootin. Ooh, I like that.

That's—

That makes sense.

Super fair.

Travis Etienne last year, Was, uh, in my league, which is the normal fantasy league, he was 10th for points.

Mm-hmm.

Tootin's getting the points. I don't— maybe they won't use him out of the backfield like they did with, with Travis, but, um, I just think the other running back is Chris Rodriguez, who I just don't think is very good. I just think Tootin— I liked him. I thought I liked when he was in last year. In that offense. And Liam Cohen, um, I don't know where we had— where do we have him on, uh, he's like a top 60 player.

He's a good example though, because kind of like Hampton, I don't know if I know he's good yet, you know, Tootin. And it's like, you want to bet on Liam Cohen? Liam Cohen had Bucky Irving in Tampa and made Bucky Irving great his rookie season. And now you have Tootin.

But this is a key point, he— we have him 27th. Yeah, to me, those guys should be like this, right?

Who, Omerion Hampton?

I think that's— that's fair, because I've been skeptical of Tootin because I'm torn. But I, I The idea that Hampton was a first rounder.

Yeah.

Tuten in round 5. Oh yeah.

In the real draft.

Who was?

Hampton.

See, that's insane.

The Chargers tried to trade out of the pick though.

They couldn't. I mean, he was a highly thought of prospect and he's big. I don't know.

And Tuten's small.

Right.

Chris Rodriguez is like the boring, reliable, like you need 3 yards guy. Cohen coached him at Kentucky, so he has a connection to him. And I think he likes how consistent he is and Tuten's more like the all-around guy.

He's the Charbonnet.

So I think the fear is that it's a little bit more of a split backfield than you want.

You know who, who I like? The running back on a team that scores 30 points a game. This was Javonte Williams last year, right? Who nobody took. But I think if you have the running backs that could be 10 to 12 touchdowns, he's gonna get the inside the 5 carries. So I don't know, I just, I, I think he's gonna go low, but I, I think he might be worth it as like a top 10 guy. I would rather take 3 swings at guys in that range than pay $65 for Jahmyr Gibbs.

I do think Chris Rodriguez is worth drafting though, solely because he's a good example of a player that will probably go like in the 12th round of a draft because no one is who he is.

If you take Tuten, you also have to take Chris Rodriguez.

It's worth it with him because Rodriguez, no one's heard of him. Like even people who play fantasy football every year might not know who Chris Rodriguez is or have ever heard of him. And he also is the rare maybe starting running back that just is getting no buzz. Like it is possible that he just leads the Jaguars in carries in week 1 and he's just not as exciting as Tuten.

I just don't think he's very good. House was like, eh. All right, one of the most fun character categories for us, the D&D list. Do not draft. I don't think we have to go into this in a ton of detail, but we can just go around the horn. Who do you have on the D&D? Go, you start, Craig.

Xavier Worthy. I just, he's at equal risk to be hurt by his own teammates as he is the opposing team, right? I just, every, every game he goes down like a sack of doorknobs. I don't even think the whole thing is how fast he is. I don't even think he looks that fast.

This is your best take. It's your best take.

I just don't, I don't, it always feels like—

Fastest guy at the combine ever. Not that fast.

I don't think he looks that fast. Yeah. I kind of just feel like it's always a gimmick with Xavier Worthy.

I like this. Danny will get this. You guys won't cuz you don't have kids, but when your kids have friends, there's always the one friend who gets hurt all the time.

Yeah.

It's like, oh, Bobby got hurt in the bouncy castle. Yeah. Castle again. Oh, we're on the playground. Bobby fell off the jungle gym. They, that might be Xavier Worthy.

Yeah.

Who do you have?

I have Jordan Addison for the Vikings. I just don't want to live that life.

He's—

he is— I think he's a good player and he has scored a lot of touchdowns in the league, but I just think in this offense we don't know what to expect from Kyler. We don't know what to expect from Justin Jefferson. I think Jefferson is going to have the vast majority of the targets, and it's going to leave Addison with a very low target rate, and he's going to be very reliant on big plays and touchdowns. I think he's going to be a guy that's just on the waiver wire during the season. People are not going to want to have to deal with it.

The flip to this is like what happened with Jameson Williams last year, who was like the Jordan Addison of the Detroit Lions. And then all of a sudden, I think it was awesome last year.

I think J-Mo's way better though.

Yeah. Yeah.

Who do you have, Danny?

I have Alec Pierce, receiver for the Colts. He does 1,000-yard season and then he waited to get his surgery until after he got his free agent contract. So he delayed it by 2 months just to get paid. He's trying to return to practice this week. I'm like, I don't want a guy recovering from ankle surgery because he delayed it 2 months.

Yeah. And in general, a little fluky.

Oh yeah. 47 catches.

47 catches, some bombs, some things went right. Yeah. That's a good stay away. I have, uh, Jackson Dart. I wouldn't take if he was free. I'm sorry.

How dare you?

What does that mean? I just think he's gonna get hurt.

That means you wouldn't add him off waivers.

Not on my team. Don't have a spot for him. Guy, the guy is a full-fledged maniac. He just seems like he's determined to get hurt. I've never seen anybody with less—

can't help himself—

self-protection awareness.

What?

I just don't want him. I don't want to do that. We'll get along because the worst part about him is like his stats were good last year and he tantalizes you into thinking, oh man, I fucking nailed it with this Jackson Dart pick. And then he tries to take on a 275-pound defensive end and he's out of the game.

He's been in the blue tent. What was it? Scott Barrett, Scott Barrett, 47% of the time he played.

He just cannot figure it out.

You gotta take him and then another, another quarterback. Quarterback and then you just ride Jackson Dart until the car crashes.

Honestly, you should have him and Jameis, you know, have him and he gets hurt in the second quarter and he, you lose the week because he got hurt. I'm just not going near him. I'm also not going near Jayden Daniels this year. The tonsil injury, I'm out. Yeah, thanks anyway. I didn't really love your offensive line or your schedule or anything to begin with. Also, Jayden Daniels got hurt a bunch of times last year, especially at cost.

I mean, he's very expensive.

Yeah, I have a couple more. Okay, can we, can we go in?

Yeah, sure.

Sure, you guys can do a second round if you want.

Um, I can do one. George Kittle.

I had— he was on my list.

Interesting.

Like, why are we betting that the one— we're betting that the one guy who practices next to the substation who's coming off a torn Achilles, we're assuming that's the guy that's going to stay healthy?

Yeah, that one also— tight end torn Achilles seems like a bad combo in his 30s.

He's always been really reliant on run after the catch.

He tore his Achilles in 2020.

Right.

In January.

And he didn't get, didn't he like wait a while to get surgery too?

He's the, I think the number one guy this year that people don't remember that he got injured pretty recently.

Yeah.

It's 'cause he came back.

I'm usually the most skeptical of injuries on this show, but I, I believe in Kittle's recovery. I just, I'm not as worried about it.

The problem with Kittle is that we've all had him at this point.

Mm-hmm.

And he'll have these weeks, like week 6 Arizona, where he is like 10 catches for 140 yards and 3 TDs and just destroys everybody. You're like, ah, I love George Kittle, but yeah, I'm not reliable. Any other DNDs for you?

I'm going with Brian Thomas Jr. Just ruined my— he ruined my league last year. I was like, I can't do this again. I mean, he might be a good player, but I don't want to go down that road again. He was supposed to be so good last year and then he completely— I mean, he was hurt, which, you know, you have to take into account, but I think he also lost his confidence. He was dropping everything, just completely unreliable.

And I think Parker Washington was devastating. Yeah, it was devastating to watch in real time. I was able to rally with Parker Washington, but watching and then the social clips from it, it just sucked to have him on a team. That's a good one. What do you got, Danny? Any second one?

You're talking about people I just hate and just emotional reasons? Kyle Pitts. I just kind of don't want Kyle Pitts. DK is wiser than me and always talks about, like, don't— you got to cut out toxic people from your life. And Kyle Pitts and I have a toxic relationship, and I don't want him in my life anymore.

Fair.

I have Daniel—

any movie where you're, like, taking things out of your backpack? Yeah. Yeah. You just don't have him in your backpack.

Daniel Jones is obviously on here coming off the Achilles. I just don't trust anybody coming off an Achilles injury who plays football like 8, 9 months later. The big one for me, a little controversial. I, now I would take him if he was free, but I wouldn't actually pay for him. I'm just out on DJ Moore. Oh, interesting.

Yeah.

I'm out. That's another one where the Bears fans are like, Good luck.

Yeah.

Yes.

Well, he has a little bit of AJ Brown to him.

Like, I was gonna say, are you gonna try or you're not?

Yeah, I think that exact feeling is why DJ Moore is a great value this year, because you know who loves DJ Moore? Joe Brady, the head coach of the Buffalo Bills, giving him a propot—

they were together in Carolina. I don't know, I think DJ Moore is going to enjoy being the star in Buffalo.

I thought he had a shit year last year for what the expectations were with the great coach, and I think a good quarterback Um, why was he unhappy? Is he just unhappy?

This is the AJ Brown—

AJ Brown, I understand why he was unhappy. It was like, if I was AJ Brown, I also would have been unhappy. Why was DJ Moore unhappy?

Because balls were sailing 12 feet over his head too often, I guess.

I think Caleb was missing him a lot. You know, there's a lot going on in Chicago, a lot of mouths to feed.

I don't think he likes Caleb either. I think they just don't like each other.

Who else is Josh Allen throwing to? DJ Moore's talented.

Brutal.

I had DJ Moore stepping on another category, but looks like he's got to get points. Yeah.

Well, all right.

This next segment is brought to you by PNC Bank. Fantasy football, all about strategy and planning. That's what these guys do in the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. If you want to win your league, you have to be willing to do the boring research or just find some experts you can trust like us to do that boring winning research for you. Same thing applies to your finances, guys. You're better off leaving it to the financial experts at PNC Bank. Um, we're gonna do smart and steady draft strategy. Um, each one of us is gonna do one player that we think is the smart and calculated lock. 12 to 15 points a week, not flashy. Um, just somebody you can just throw in the lineup, trust, not think about. Who do you got?

Bo Nix, the quarterback for the Broncos. Bo Nix. Oh, he had the most pass attempts in the entire NFL last season and you can get him. He's affordable and like he, he's every week he's gonna be good.

Does his ankle work?

I think he's gonna rush for even more yards this year.

Great.

Enzanko works.

Who do you have, DK?

I'm going with Chase Brown for the Bengals. Tough, durable, reliable. He's in there. He plays a ton of snaps, which is really important in fantasy, obviously. And he's in a good offense. And I think that's going to be a big part of it. He's going to score touchdowns. He's going to catch passes. He's going to get a lot of touches.

Can I go with Brock Purdy?

Yeah, you sure can.

Speaking of finances, he kind of looks like he should be your accountant, but quietly like a top 10 guy every single year. Very dependable. Also can run a little bit.

I'm going with Trevor Lawrence, who, um, that offense scored 32 points a game down the stretch. His weapons are better than ever, and I don't think people think he's a top 5 quarterback, but he was last year from points-wise. And you could probably get him for pretty cheap, and it's not that exciting of a pick because it's not like he's a sleeper anymore, but that's what makes it a fun pick anyway. That's the smart and steady draft strategy. This expert fantasy football draft segment was brought to you by the financial experts over at PNC Bank. Brilliantly boring since 1865. All right, Aaron Brooks, please don't ever watch him. Just check the box score Sunday night to see his points, guy. This has to be Malik Willis, right?

That's who I have.

I don't want to watch one minute of him.

No.

Just give me your 23 points and we'll shake hands at the end of the year.

Mm-hmm.

He had—

but he's clearly going to be like a top 12 to 15 QB.

Yeah, he's the, he's the fantasy loophole. You know, it's the rushing thing. It's rushing point or rushing yards are worth more for quarterbacks than running backs. And the rushing yards or rushing touchdowns are worth more than passing touchdowns for quarterbacks. Last year I saw this in the 4 starts he made. He had over the last 2 years, he has a 17% scramble rate. Last year the NFL leader was Drake May at 10%.

And he was running for his life on 90% of those scrambles.

I think that just means in addition to that, he's going to have a lot of design runs. He's just going to be running a lot. And that is a cheat code in fantasy. He averaged in those 4 games as a starter, 10 rushing fantasy points per game. Josh Allen last year averaged 8 for reference. So he is, I mean, obviously he's not going to have the upside as a passer as Josh Allen, but like he's going to be running all over the place. He's, that gives him a really good floor. If he throws a touchdown or 2. In a game, that's a bonus. I think he has a chance to be a top 12 quarterback.

How many quarterbacks do you think had 100+ rushing attempts last year? 100+? 17-game season. It's 6 a game.

Like 4?

Not many. Yeah, 4 or 5?

3.

Yeah.

And the leader was Allen at 112. Hurts was 105, and a lot of those were the 4th and 1s. And then Drake Maye, 103. Probably 90 of them running for his life with 3 guys behind him. Willis might have like 150 rushes this year, especially the garbage time.

I, it's gonna be like so much like they're gonna, Miami's gonna be losing by a lot and then Willis and Achan are just gonna be like, like just absolutely dinking and dunking down their way down the field as they're playing.

We always do this though. It's like, remember the Justin Fields year? It's like, well, Justin Fields, he could run a lot and he'll, he'll be a fantasy loophole. And then it's like the team will be horrible.

He sucks.

He like quite literally couldn't pass.

Is Malik Willis good?

We don't know, but it's the, the whole point of like, the point of those— Malik Willis is not a top 100 player. I think the difference is Malik Willis is legitimately like a 13th round pick. Sure. And the point being that what's the point of that is like, I want someone not who's going to sit on my bench all year and be like a, like a slightly below average. You want someone who will either be really helpful or I can cut. And Malik Willis to me is like the perfect example.

You got to take a second quarterback with him.

Yeah, well, I would go further.

I think there's enough good quarterbacks this year where you could argue you just take like 4 $1 guys.

That's your move.

This is the year it might actually work. You're gonna see it again at the Ringer Fantasy Draft.

Just you wait.

Yeah, no, there's 20 guys I'd be fine starting. Yeah, right.

Same.

Yeah, you go all the way down to Tyler Schuck and it's like, eh, you're just gonna get like Mahomes and Stafford and Malik Willis and Baker and you're just gonna figure out who to start every week.

Yeah, my that 2025 booty call isn't happening again guy, for the guy last year in fantasy who In November and December, good things started happening, but maybe that's where it ends. I had Travis Etienne for this because I don't think good things are going to happen in the same way in New Orleans.

I don't—

I, I— that was the only year last year that he actually put his whole season together. I don't trust it. They paid him a lot of money. I just don't trust it. So that would be mine. What do you have?

Um, I have Travion Henderson, who it's fair— I had a lovely time with last year. I had a great night, $140 night with him. It was wonderful.

He—

what are the other—

West Palestine, Ohio?

Yeah, East Palestine. East Palestine.

Sorry, East.

He and the— she took him to trailer parks.

Yeah, it was, it was great. You know, we got down and dirty because Travion Henderson was just like randomly would just have a 50-yard touchdown every game.

Yeah.

And to be honest, he had one game where he had two.

Yeah. And like the way you say that Omarion Hampton didn't jump off the screen to you. I kind of feel that way about Travion.

Like, listen, you're preaching to the choir with Pats fans. I think he's a good vision. Yeah, but he goes down with the first guy who hits him is the problem.

And I was having a blast with these 50-yard touchdowns. Kind of don't think that's going to hold up. Ramondre's still there, and I think he's probably going to be the starter. So I'm kind of like, I think I'm okay. I think it was a great time last year. I'm going to let it be.

I think that's fair. I didn't watch every play of the Pats last year. I didn't really feel like he could be a reliable, give him the ball over and over again, move the chains guy.

Ramon Dre did everything he could have done if he was going to lose the job. And with all the fumbling and they still get— Ramon Dre is literally one of the 5 or 6 best blocking running backs probably in the NFL. And Henderson's maybe in the running for the worst blocking back. And also coaches hate when you have a run design that they don't hit. And Trevon Henderson doesn't always just set up the blocks to hit the home run. Like he's striking out a lot.

So you have anybody else for this or are those 2 good ones?

I had a repeat in Pierce, Alec Pierce.

Yeah. That's a good one.

That's a great one.

I think it was just too high variance.

I just had Tucker Kraft. It was the first half of the season, we had 6 touchdowns in 8 games.

Dang.

And it's hard, but I'm like, if he had any— towards ACL and like, then he kept playing, it was the same deal.

He had like a couple of huge—

you're good on Kittles, 31 years old, torn Achilles. Tucker Kraft, 23, and his ACL is recovering great. You don't like that?

Well, there's like a 40-spot gap. If people don't like the little questionable list of Kittles, it could be like 5-round difference. I'm like, I'd rather have George Kittle after the top 100. I don't want to take Tucker Kraft over like DJ Moore.

I had him on 25 spots I had him in 2 of my 3 leagues. It was honestly devastating when he got hurt. He was so good. He was so good. He kind of looked like Gronk. He really did like look like baby Gronk.

I believe in Tucker Craft.

Yeah, I'm, I'm not out on him either. My look, somebody's gotta get points on that team, right guy?

I know this one.

Who do you have?

Wandale Robinson for the Titans. Just a PPR cheat code.

That was your guy's best take last year. That Wondale Robinson was Travis Hunter with worst PR. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever that was.

No, he was Travis Hunter.

You were on that in August and he had like 1,000 yards.

They just used, they just used Travis Hunter for like screens and stuff. It was terrible. I think Wondale is, look, he, he had the 11th highest target rate in the NFL last year. 11th. 27% target rate. That's an elite number, and I don't think that's going to change this year. I think it's going to be— he's going to be a huge part of this offense. Dayball brought him over and paid him a whole bunch of money. Talk about the Zay Flowers contract, like the Wandell Robinson contract.

It's kind of crazy, but Dayball seemed like he was all in on him, which I think is probably a good sign for—

Wando's like a hard worker, big Kobe Bryant guy, like, like, like the kind of stuff coaches love.

Tate's going higher than him.

Yes, definitely. I don't agree with I mean, Tate has in 2 preseason games, 5 targets and 0 catches. Like they're not on the same page whatsoever.

And usually the rookie receivers don't put together a whole season. Like even Igboke last year was good for half the season, fell apart.

I think Wandale is going to be an extension of the run game. Lots of screens, lots of design plays, you know, just get him the football, let him do his thing, get 5 yards a pop or whatever and just be good with it.

I like it. Plus he's going to be in some blowouts catching some dumb touchdowns at the end of games. Who do you have?

Maybe I'm cheating, but I just, I have DJ Moore. Maybe the Bills are too good, but I'm like, the Bills are a top 5 team and none of, and the only receiver pass catchers who've been drafted are DJ Moore and Dalton Kincaid. And I'm, I just think DJ Moore is like the epitome of like, he's gonna get everything.

They're 2-3-4 Shakir.

It's, they have Khalil Shakir.

Is Shakir Palmer still on that team? Mm-mm.

Oh no, he's still alive. He was just hurt a lot of last year. Yeah.

Yeah.

And then they still have Keon Coleman, the first rounder.

Who just got hurt though. But yeah.

Who they can't stand and undermine.

Yeah, they dropped Palmer.

That's the thing.

So it's like, and again, pretty rough. They have Skyler Bell, Michael Hartman.

Yeah, it's Tyrod Schaefer's got hurt.

Yeah, Danny, 9-8.

Oh, the Bills are going 9-8, just throwing it out there.

Why do we think the Bills are good? 3rd place in the division, maybe.

Why are the Bills good? Reason 1, Josh Allen. What's your second reason?

Offensive line, run game.

Offensive line is fine.

The NFL in rushing last year.

Okay, cool. You're gonna score points. What else you got?

Well, that's pretty good, right?

Yeah.

The best quarterback in the league and they can run the ball. Defense is okay.

Yeah, it's like, how's your schedule?

Not great. I don't know, I feel like we're better than them.

You gotta, you gotta superhero.

I think we're better than them.

Like, like, because of coaching or because of the roster?

I think we have a better team. I think we have more good players.

That might be true. That might, that might be true, but you don't have Josh Allen.

I could think what I want to think. So I think we have better players.

That's, well, because you have your quarterback rankings and Drake Mayes at the top.

Josh Allen, I think, is the best regular season quarterback in the league.

Yeah.

And it's very far-fetched to ever think of him not going 10-7.

Would you rather have— see, you're emphasizing regular season.

You bet I am.

Oh my God, Drake May or Josh Allen in a playoff game?

Is Drake May going to be healthy for the playoffs? Drake May wasn't healthy last year.

Jesus Christ, the Broncos quarterbacks weren't either. You're giving Drake May a championship game win?

You're forcing him to say something.

I'd probably rather have Josh Allen.

He's like, how can I play this?

This is going to be on Twitter if I say this.

I'd rather have Josh Allen. It's fair. You checkmated me. My somebody's got to get points guy is Jalen Coker.

Oh, I like that.

I'm a huge fan. He got hurt last year. He's a Holy Cross guy, so I was always monitoring him. And was gonna be like a real valuable guy for them. Got hurt, missed most of the season, came back in time and was important for them in the playoffs. They went big on him. They gave him a new contract. And I think that team, the two receivers, that's really all they have. They don't even have a third receiver. It's gonna be those two and running back by committee. But I think, I think Coker is gonna be a 1,000-yard guy. That's my most random, dumb prediction of the, of the pod.

He's another guy that fantasy analysts really like as a player.

He's another one who just makes big catches. Yeah. Especially like they had a lot of dumb fourth quarter games last year and you know, you, you saw down the stretch it was like third and 11 and somehow he would get open and make a play. So I'm a fan. Did you have one for this?

I was gonna go, I, I think if I had to pick any Brown, I would take Harold Fannin.

Mm-hmm.

Who I think I do like him. He set the catch record for a Browns rookie last year. He's really good.

Yeah.

Good skill guys.

Really good. Incredible skill.

Well, I'm kind of like the easiest throw for these quarterbacks is probably just gonna be to Harold Fannin. And Munkin has always done good with tight ends.

Especially if Shedeur is the starter.

Yeah. I'm like, they're just gonna throw screens to Harold Fannin. I think I would, I would pick him if I had to take anybody.

See, the reason they have to start Shedeur at least by week 3, he, I didn't think looked good at all last year. The crowd's gonna be so into it.

Yeah.

You're just completely flipping the energy in the stadium.

Yes.

And they're gonna be, it's gonna be like watching a bunch of parents rooting for their kids in a youth hockey game or something. Like everyone's just gonna want it so badly.

Skip is gonna lose his mind.

Oh, Skip. Did you see Skip yesterday on Twitter?

Went— only because you reposted it.

Yeah. Did you watch all 19 minutes?

I didn't watch one minute of it.

Yeah.

Um, it was good.

It was a little long, but you know, Craig, somebody pointed out that there was a, uh, another like 17-minute Skip diatribe from like a year ago about Shador. Same, same exact thing.

Yeah. I just, I just like the way that Skip is approaching media in the, in 2026. It's an interesting, it's an interesting strategy what he's doing. Okay, 20-minute uninterrupted, sure, direct camera.

Yeah, what people want to see is a 20-minute video on Twitter.

It's what people want.

Brings his wife in sometimes, right?

They're talking politics. Yeah, there's a lot going on there at the Bayless household.

My sorry, that's a little too rich for my blood guy. Uh, for me it's McCaffrey. He's just, I'm What's it get for 30 bucks?

Yeah.

Out.

Good luck everybody.

It's so hard. He was—

I thought last year he defied expectations that the advanced stats weren't even that kind to him.

No, but he caught 100 balls.

Yeah.

He was the number 1 player in fantasy. And if you've drafted him, you won your league probably.

It's like having 2 players in 1 starting position in your, on your roster.

I don't know.

If he's healthy.

Yeah.

If he's healthy.

McCaffrey has literally in the last 7 years been maybe the most important player to have on your team in 4 of the years and the single most important player to not have to worst player.

He's literally the Ricky Bobby first or last. Yes.

He really should be the Vilchap, I guess.

Yeah.

He's the all-time, all-time fantasy Vilchap.

Because like when Tomlinson had his run in the 2000s, he was just good every year. There was no, you just could pencil him in for the numbers. McCaffrey, you have no idea. Yeah. But two people would bid on him and it'll become an eBay auction and somebody will spend $58 on him.

And every week that he plays, he'll probably be the best player in fantasy. Right.

It is like if Tomlinson just missed three of the years in the 2000s. Seasons, like he played like 2 games those seasons.

Danny, who do you have?

Chris Olave for the Saints. I think it's just one of those guys where the, the price has gotten so high now that I'm just like, I'll let someone— Craig said I think perfectly, I'll let someone else take him. It's like he's one, you know, this is morbid, but one head hit away from missing the rest of the season, you know what I mean? It's like Tua kind of a couple years ago where it's just like, ah, don't want to see that. It just worries me the the, uh, like the odds that he could miss the like entire season.

You're a parent. This is why the football didn't score top 5 in the, uh, the youth sport rankings.

By the way, the CTE story this week wasn't great either.

That was a huge downer.

Yeah, that was, uh, I thought volleyball was a great call.

Yeah.

Yeah. Craig's a volleyball guy.

I played in high school. I just think it's a great sport.

It is.

Craig got recruited.

It's a great sport to cover as a high school reporter.

Oh yeah.

Just like really easy to keep track. Sets. Kept your attention. Good parents.

It's a great co-ed sport too. If you have like a son and a daughter, they can kind of play together. It's, it's just like an easy family sport.

You can play after in your 20s. Beach volleyball.

Beach volleyball's great.

Yeah. Did you have a, oh, the too rich for my blood? Yeah. Did you have one or do we do it?

For me, all offseason it's been Drake London for the Falcons. Nothing to do with Drake London. Everything to do with having watched Tua have to get my receiver the ball and I don't want to watch it. If Penix plays, I, I, the idea that Tua might lose this quarterback competition without Penix playing is funny to me.

I just can't do that. They're like, you've lost the competition. Who did I lose to? It doesn't matter.

The guy in the brace over there, you, you've just lost.

He's in the blue tent.

All right, let's do— we're doing bad on pace, so we're gonna speed round. Uh, give me a $1 QB guy.

Craig, Tyler Schuck.

Hey, Adam, that's Schuck.

Daniel Jones or Jacoby Brissett?

I had Schuck and I have CJ, AKA C+ Stroud.

Yeah, he's another one.

C+ Stroud I think could for a dollar, probably have some big games now with Booty. Is Mendoza in the running for this?

He's not going to play for—

not going to play till— I think he's probably—

sure he's not going to play?

No, not sure.

They said this about Drake May and he was out there in week 4.

The difference is Tom Brady is— you have to have an owner who has— is Tom Brady to do it. I think it's the only situation you'll ever have where you actually could have the number 1 pick not play because Tom Brady's been making great decisions this year.

Did you see his TV?

That's your guy. We're very happy with all the Super Bowls we won with Tom, and we wish him the best in his next endeavors.

Is that what you say with Belichick too?

I love Belichick. I'm like the last Belichick defender. This is—

is he a Hall of Famer?

It's a witch hunt right now. Is he a Hall of Famer?

We have a good UNC year coming. What do you think?

Uh, I, I'm— my attention's on UCLA.

Okay.

That's all I care about.

We're on to UCLA.

Do you have a comment on Adam Vinatieri making the Hall of Fame before Bill Belichick.

I had a comment on him coming in as a Colt. This was very upsetting to the Pats fan base. And my challenge with this, as always, is can anyone name one kick he made with the Colts? Can you name one Colts kick from Adam Vinatieri? Just one. You can't.

Can you do a Super Bowl?

You cover football for the Ringer since we've had the Ringer.

I'm notorious for not—

Can you name a big kick?

Not caring about kickers.

That they won.

Was that not— was it because of an Adam Vinatieri?

You're just saying he was on a team that won a Super Bowl?

I don't think that counts.

Nobody can name a kick. Even I, I was gonna do a thing on my podcast about this and I didn't, but I watched an entire YouTube video of his biggest Colts kicks and all of them were like week 8, week 10, week 12. Anyway, it annoyed me.

So he's like a Josh Allen type, only, only a regular season guy, right?

No, he was— he's— so I'm reading the biggest kicks.

He signed with the Colts in '06 and they won the Super Bowl. And he finished his run with the— he had set the record for most field goals in a playoff run for the Colts.

Can you remember any of them?

They're all in the first quarter. Yeah.

Uh, my DeMar DeRozan anti-Lytics guy, we came up with this snack last year. I have Rico Dowdle. Oh, I like Rico. Not that fun to take. 13 for 78 with a touchdown every week and just grind it out. Good carries.

Underrated guys.

Yeah, I like him. He won the job, right? I think it's about to—

it's gonna be a split.

It'll be the first—

um, he'll get most of the carries. I like Rico though. Analytics don't love him. Yeah, but who do you have?

Mark Andrews. I think everyone's kind of giving up on that old man.

Yeah, he's a good zag guy. Yeah, everyone's had him. Everybody's giving up.

Kind of unreliable, can't catch in critical moments, but sneaky late, late round dart throw.

More fun to take.

I'm kind of like Isaiah Likely's gone. Yeah, Mark Andrews might have 10 touchdowns.

He's probably gonna score double-digit touchdowns this year.

Danny?

Mine's Davonne, uh, Davonne Echan for the Dolphins. Everyone's out on the Dolphins. They're gonna have a horrific offense. They're gonna lose every game. They're gonna be behind. I just love Davonne Echan.

My question with the Dolphins, and I'm gonna dive into this more with Sal on Thursday, but are they gonna be kind of funky to play in a way that's actually good to have some of the Dolphins guys? Like, are they gonna have this really weird—

'Cause they're playing like army?

Yeah.

Yeah. You're playing them and it's like you have to practice the whole week, prepare for their weird style.

Willis and Achan is like, instead of Thunder Lightning, it's Lightning Lightning backfield. And then the offensive line is huge.

I think their offensive line's in the— it's above average. I don't even think it's average. I think it's okay.

They have a lot of raw developmental guys, but it is just, um, like the people on that line are like Patrick Pault left tackle and Proctor. I guess Proctor's gonna start as a guard. Like, they're just massive people. And again, I mean, I always felt like Derrick Henry, Lamar Jackson was like this unprecedented backfield. But A.J. and Willis is kind of too, like they're the fastest quarterback and the fastest running back in the league are playing together. That's weird.

Their over-under is really hard because they, I don't know what their goal is for this year other than they need to shed the cap.

Yeah.

Right. But they're going to have like 2 games where they just run for 270 yards on people and people are like, oh my God, the Packers just gave up 270 yards rushing to the, like whoever. Um, who do— did you do one?

My analytics guy's just David Montgomery. He's a classic, like, dead zone running back.

Like, Craig made a face about him earlier.

Yeah, he's 29 years old. I just—

I love the way—

I love the way he plays. I love David Montgomery.

I like him as a person, but I feel like we let that influence the fact that he's just going to be running for 3 yards a carry on the Texans.

The Texans run game has been horrific.

It has been, but if it improves, which the bar is— and I love when we swap out linemen for other bad linemen. We're like, well, it could be better now. But it's also the Texans defense is so good, there's just so much carries in the second half.

Also, they had Nick Chubb coming off losing his entire knee, basically, who just retired. That was their starting running back last year. I mean, they, they had the worst running backs in the league. Woody Marks just didn't need a C+ from him and a C+ from CJ. Yeah, just give us two C+s, we're good. Uh, my— I can't resist, even though I know I'll be afraid to look on Tuesday and see the red flag guy. This has been Mike Evans for 7 years.

I had that.

I think we RIP that one.

It's Mike Evans in this year.

We should name it Mike Evans.

A little bit.

We should name it the Mike Evans Award.

I have Laporta.

Ooh.

Oh, that's a good one.

He's got a back injury right now.

Laporta, red flag next to him basically for the last 2 years.

Yes.

Even though we all love him.

Mm-hmm.

I don't trust him to stay healthy. Takes big hits. Always seems like it's a different body part.

Mm-hmm.

So I had him.

What about Ibuka? Ameka, Ameka Ibuka.

Man. And he's already hurt this year, right?

And he's got a turf toe thing maybe, or a toe injury. And I'm just like, and he showed last year.

He fell off a cliff last year.

He would've been my favorite pick this year if he didn't have a toe injury. I think he's gonna be great.

We kind of saw this in college too. He got hurt, he got banged up, and then his performance dropped pretty significantly. Like, he's one of those guys—

well, the thing is, is his quarterback is the exact same way, right? Where he starts out great and then by week 6, 7 injuries.

Yeah, they're like an injury parlay team where it's like, kind of, I need to hit all 3.

This is the offseason thing where like, whatever was hurt last year, they'll get healthy. I'm like, no, everyone's rehabbing now and can just get re-injured, which happens all the time.

Danny, who can get to 9 wins in the NFC South, if you had to pick a team? Oh, because Carolina's already—

I think I still take the Bucs. I'd take the Bucs.

I would take the Bucs.

I feel like by default it's the Bucs, right?

I think their offensive line is talking to the Saints.

I like Kellen. The reason I'm out on the Bucs is that it's, it's very obvious that this is the last year for Bowles, and that usually goes poorly. He's an old— he's quietly one of the older coaches in the league. He fired a lot of his staff.

Like, you had that day ball last year. Yes, kept them a year late.

This is Yeah, that's why I don't like the Jets. Aaron Glenn's not coaching that quarterback they're taking next year. I'm like, like, it's just, that's every— the vibes disintegrate as soon as anything goes wrong.

Um, my 2022 Cooper Kupp, it's a year after the year guy named after Cooper Kupp having just the most insane single season and then never approaching it. Would you go Drake London or Michael Wilson for this one?

Michael Wilson's a smart one. I think even though I like him. Yeah.

What about Jonathan Taylor?

That's who I wrote down.

Do that as well.

I thought it had to be Jonathan Taylor or Jackson Smith-Jigba. It's like, I just thought it had to be one of those.

Don't you get so tired of counting out Jonathan Taylor and then he just looks like he's the best 45-degree angle running back in the history of the sport?

He's amazing. Our buddy Scott Barrett had this great point where it's Jonathan Taylor, Derrick Henry are the two running backs that have the biggest delta between their fantasy points per game and wins. Versus losses because they don't catch a ton of passes. So they're really great running with good game scripts, even against when the defense knows they're going to run. The difference is the Ravens are probably going to win 8 or 9 of the first 10 games because they don't play a playoff game in the first 2 months— a playoff team in the first 2 months. The Colts, when they're winning all those games, Jonathan Taylor is incredible. Daniel Jones gets hurt. When they're losing, Jonathan Taylor is just not going to rack up the carries, 20, 30 carries a game. So I don't believe in the Colts winning more than 8 games this year. So Taylor's tough for me.

I want no part of Drake London this year. None.

Zero.

Yeah, zilch. I don't want to go near him. Yeah. And if anything, not only— it's the combo of having a terrible QB, but then also having a terrible QB throwing you balls that could get you hurt, right? Out. No thank you.

Whatever. Just every— you need to catch, and it feels like a miracle, as Craig always says. Like, it's just the worst feeling in fantasy.

And I still don't know what happened with Michael Wilson last year. I didn't understand it as it was happening.

He turned into the best receiver in the NFL.

Unstoppable volume, because he ran the most routes in the league over that stretch.

It felt like they were always down 10, having to throw the ball.

Out of principle, I, I will take Michael Wilson over Marvin Harrison Jr. I just like what I saw last year. I'm like, Michael Wilson's better. He just is.

Yeah. 4 Männer mit Beeinträchtigung, die gerade in den Urlaub aufbrechen.

Wer will in den Urlaub? Ich! Was geht?

Dort finden sie mehr als nur ein Versteck und erleben den Sommer ihres Lebens.

Bist ein geiler Typ, du! Du bist auch ein geiler Typ. Das gewisse Etwas. Die Feelgood-Komödie des Jahres.

Ab dem 3.

September nur im Kino. Who is your I just want everyone on that offense, I don't care who team, Craig?

Detroit.

Hmm. I got the Bears.

I'm shocked.

Bears.

Interesting. I, Loveland is a bit expensive, but if he falls a bit in a league or whatever that you're in, just people aren't dialing in.

Bears are very pricey. I think the Lions go deeper.

The Lions could lead the league in scoring.

They have the easiest schedule in the league.

I want the Chargers. I just think Mike McDaniel will, it will be like, oh right, he made Tua look really good. I think Mike McDaniel is going to be amazing for the Chargers.

I like Jacksonville for this. Mm-hmm.

Fair.

I think Dallas is a case too.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Dallas is a case.

The quarterback, running back, and the two receivers. I'm just, just loading up and those are my guys. I'm gonna go with my year too early, fuck it guy. Honestly shocked by the price for this guy. Let me look at where he is on the ringer. He is, oh wow. Oh my, I'm still, oh my God. 25th. I'm all in on Price on the Seahawks.

I know, I knew you were going there.

I'm all in. I love the Seahawks. I've already made the case. I think it's just bizarre that they're not being treated like the favorites again and a team with a legitimate chance to go back to back. I think they have the best coach in the league. They might have the best receiver in the league. They have one of the three best defenses in the league, maybe second. They're going to be able to run the ball. We've seen that no matter who is running the ball for them. He's usually gonna be okay. And, and the only reason we don't talk about Price is 'cause he wasn't mostly the starter last year in college. And people, that always throws people off. But we've seen this happen over the years where the guy who didn't get all the reps in college all of a sudden is awesome as a pro. Charbonnet, I don't see at all. Not to mention he kind of sucked last year anyway, but then he got hurt and people are like, oh, it's a timeshare. There will be no timeshare. They're gonna play. The question is how many carries can you put on him?

Um, not to mention the way they play, like some running back is going to get points for them. He's 25th. I think he should be top 12 in my opinion.

I had Price written down too. It's kind of a zag because there's not a lot of hype on him right now. I think everybody kind of feels like he's going to be in a committee with Hlani and then Charbonnet is going to come back at some point.

Yeah.

But I'm like, what if Jahdarian Price is just awesome? I mean, everything you've seen—

also Hlani, like, come on.

I mean, I think he'll be a good role player for them. But like, it would not surprise me if Price is just 70%, 65% of the rushes.

Yeah. And like 18 to 20 a game.

And ripping off long runs, you know, and I think he could be more in the passing game than he showed in college. The one thing I will say, the tidbits that we've gotten from Hard Knocks is the teammates raving about Price, how he's looked in practice.

As you know, this is one of my favorite things in August. When the teammate buzz about the guys, you can't— you have to take this guy seriously. Yeah, people are like, yo, holy shit.

I think it's a great— I love this point. I— so we do the take purge at the end of each. It's like one of my favorite episodes, and we can't— I can't do it anymore.

But one of my favorite—

one of my ones was going to be that Jahdarian Price would just be straight up better in fantasy football than Jeremiah Love for this season.

Oh, that would be—

that's good. Not as fun anymore because Jeremiah Love has a high ankle sprain, so it doesn't really count.

But like, healthy, I think that might have been the case.

I— well, that's what I was gonna say is I think Jahdarian Price will be better because he he was just stuck behind Jeremiah Love at Notre Dame. But Jerrion Price, I mean, he was one of the most explosive players. Like, he was unbelievable. He just had a couple fumbling issues at Notre Dame and he got benched a couple times, but I think he's incredible.

Um, who do you have for this?

Uh, it's, it's really stupid to usually bet on a rookie playing with Kyle Shanahan, but Dijon Stribling, I'm like, the preseason stuff, I'm believing it. I think he's going to be really good, and I think it's going to be like Mike Evans and Dijon Stribling.

Evans, by the way, has a groin injury right now.

So Kittle's hurt. I'm like, Stribling looks legit.

Evans has a bunk bed in the electromagnetic complex with McCaffrey.

He's like, it's like in the back radiation, just getting killed.

You don't like Stribling? I saw you make a face.

I don't. He feels like an August type guy to me.

Really?

People are pretty split on him in the draft.

You were— I mean, I liked him, but it felt really— everybody thought it was a reach.

Yeah, yeah.

The second he got on the field, I was like, this man looks like a professional athlete. Like, this guy looks like an NFL receiver.

You know what, I think human nature does support your position on this because there's a part of me that thinks Shanahan's gonna be like, fuck all these people that said we picked him too early. I'm gonna feed him 150 targets this year.

So ironically, him on Fanduel, him and Price have seemed— oh no, Price is lower. Price is +650 for Offensive Rookie of the Year. Stribling was +850. Boston has dropped to 22-to-1. It was 45-to-1 when you came on, when I was able to do the bet. But I, I think Price is the best, like, out of all the favorites.

Um, and Stribling would be the other one who's, who's, he's looked pretty legit though.

Yeah.

Everyone's hurting on that. It's like, Mike Evans, is he going to be healthy? George Kittle, is he going to be healthy?

Yeah.

Stribling's looked great.

I had Stribling for this category too.

You know what's sad? This almost could have been a category with, is Deebo coming back? What would that category be named?

Well, Sad Reunion Year, because it's Rodgers and McCarthy, it's Deebo, it's Geno back to the Jets. It's just like this, all these sad pop culture.

Is this sad?

Is it JLo and Ben getting back together?

Yeah, it's like a second marriage after you've gotten officially divorced.

We already know how this is going to play out.

It's bad reboots.

That's bad reboots.

Yeah.

No one asked for Gino Rivera.

I kind of like Deebo. I kind of want Deebo this year.

He's another one that just took too many hits.

Yeah.

Like they ran too many plays where he just got pancaked by two guys over the middle.

Yeah.

Do you have one for this?

Stribling. I had Stribling. Yeah.

All right. Oh, we've talked about this. We circled this one, but the missionary position. We've all had them. This is getting pretty boring. Not even excited to see him in the lineup. So you think Marc Andrews for this or somebody else?

Is this a guy that I like or I don't like?

Neither. You're just complete— it's complete ambivalence.

It's Terry McLaurin.

Oh yeah.

I just, I can see that. I feel nothing. It's like—

you feel nothing.

You feel nothing. It's like frozen yogurt.

He's like, this is where you really need to go to. You really need to go to Palestine.

This is like, let's get frozen yogurt.

It's fine.

It's fine.

They have a new vegan place.

I literally had Terry McLaurin for this too.

We're in the same place.

Terry McLaurin taking shots here. This sucks.

Hey, it's perfectly fine.

It doesn't—

there's no wiggle when you think—

he's He never had like even that crazy year when the Commanders were awesome. He was like the wide receiver, like 16.

Mine was Davante Adams. Oh yeah, uh, he'll put up points. I just kind of know the game. You, you have 2 catches for 10 yards in the 4th quarter and then he catches a 1-yard touchdown and his points seem okay. I'm just kind of good with him.

My guy for this is— I'm going way different than you guys. I went with Jalen Hurts. Just, just won.

That's a really good one.

Just won the hottest quarterback competition, Maxim Magazine.

Yeah, um, you know, it's, it's spreading.

Somebody told Baker Mayfield that he was 7th on the list in an interview. He was happy about it. Really?

Yeah.

He sure, he looks happy anyway.

Just like when somebody asked Bernthal about Wayne Jenkins. Yeah. The beams cross.

No, but I've, it's like you've, I've had Jalen Hurts a bunch of times in fantasy. It's great.

Never feels great.

It never feels great.

But like during the games, it's kind of like, eh. And then in the 4th quarter, he scores like 15 points.

By the way, same for the Eagles fan base.

Right.

I think, and AJ Brown and everyone who's played for him.

Yeah.

Okay.

Did you do one?

Oh, yeah. We had Terry McLaurin too. Yeah.

New category. How many of you watched The Sopranos?

I've watched some of it out of order, which they think is insane, even though I was 10 years old for the last season. How was I supposed to watch it in order?

Okay, we don't need to get into that again.

This category is called my Vito Spadafore reemerging, coming back to Tony Soprano like nothing ever happened and asking if he could run a construction crew again guy. Michael Thomas Jr., right? You know what, I'm whacking you in the hotel room. We can't wait. There's no coming back.

Wait, Brian Thomas?

Oh, Brian Thomas.

Yeah, yeah.

Uh, he's like, hey, we're good, right?

We're good, right? Sorry about last year. Yeah, we're good. Let's talk on Monday. And I'm whacking him that night. I, I will never take him again. I can't do it. It's— the scars will never heal. And, uh, and that's it. Do you have a guy like that, Craig, you would just never forgive for the rest of your life?

I, I gotta say, I, I will get over it, I think. But Lamar Jackson last year was about as bad as it could possibly get. Yeah, he looked—

that's a great one—

terrible.

And especially if he's not gonna run in the same way anymore.

I don't know, I would still take him, and I'm gonna trust that that was like a one-off. But like Week 10 last year, I was like, I'll never look at him again.

You know who I'm kind of thinking of right now? Lad McConkie. Oh, because I love Lad.

Yeah.

And then he really betrayed us last year. He was It was, it was a tough season. I mean, he's getting beat by fricking Quentin Johnston.

Yeah, this is the case. This is why we haven't gushed about Herbert and we are now at the 1 hour 43 minute mark.

MVP of the season just about.

And it's like, oh my God, he's going to be amazing. And yet nobody seems to like a single receiver he has.

I'm very high on Quentin Johnston.

I love Lad.

I love Lad.

I still like Lad. I think he's good.

I like him, but it—

The Pats could have taken him and instead Traded back and took Jalen Polk, and he's now retired from football.

Quietly one of the worst trades there's been in a minute was that trade.

Okay, like a fireable offense. Do you have one for this, Hyphens? For, uh, the veto, the veto, man.

I, I—

anybody you just—

who hurt you the most back in a hotel room?

Uh, the Ringer Fantasy Football League carrying Kyle Pitts's dead body for like 11 weeks, and then I released him for the playoffs, and then he scored like 30 points, and I just was—

I, I mean, honestly, he was my guy 3 years ago. I'll never have him again. I laugh when other people take him. I thought it was hilarious when they gave him an extension. Um, I'm just completely out. Craig has other ideas. Uh, Mike, goddamn it, I fell for the preseason hype guy. Mine is, uh, Lane on the, uh, on the Ravens.

Oh yeah, that's a good call.

Kind of bought in because for what we discussed earlier, I don't really love Zay Flowers, so it's like, if he's good, he might actually get real stats That's, I was watching their preseason game the other day and he caught, and I was just kind of, I had the sound off.

There was a play, he caught a pass like behind him and reeled it in, kept running. And I was like, who was that? That was awesome. Oh, of course it's Lane. And I was like, man, I'm kind of buying this. But then you get into the regular season and he has probably like 2, 1 or 2 catches a game. I'm like, I just can't live that life. It's going to be too, way too—

I was impressed by the clips.

Yeah. He's, he, I think he could be legit, but in that offense.

Who do you have, Danny?

Uh, I— the—

I—

for me, I think it's Cyrus Allen for the Chiefs.

I think that, like, that's another candidate. Jacoby, the guy I wrote down.

Yeah, I'm like, Jacoby Lane for the Ravens. I, I think he's like Isaac Teslaw, where I think Jacoby Lane for the Ravens is gonna have— oh yeah, 20 catches this year, 8 will make SportsCenter. And kind of like how Isaac Teslaw has all these highlights, and then you're like, where are his other catches? Nope, that was every catch. And then I think Cyrus Allen actually has a shot to play for the Chiefs. This isn't in a meaningful role.

See, when I get— there's Chiefs hyperbole about young players they have, I, I now react like Yankee prospects. When the Yankees had like incredible PR for all their prospects, like Dominguez, watch out.

All right, George Lombard's— come on.

Well, that's the thing. George Lombard is really good.

Yes.

But I was so desensitized to all the Yankee prospects and all the guys that failed and the Volpe and everybody that when they actually had a good one, I was like, Oh my God, they actually have a good one.

Buy it.

That's Cyrus Allen. He's George Lombard.

That's— so he would have to be the George Lombard in this. I don't trust the Chiefs at all. And I think probably no team has more media connective tissue to just pump guys up. And I never know what to believe. All right, 2 more categories. This is probably my favorite category because it really speaks to the person too. My 'I'd never root for an injury, but he is one injury away' guy. I have Tyron Tracy. Oh, another guy who could probably win your league in the last 8 games when he's just getting 25 carries a game because got hurt again.

Come on, he doesn't need this, these bad wishes upon him. He's already—

these aren't wishes, these are just bringing it upon himself. Just for the record, you're at a draft, you're just in the back of your head like I'm like, eh, that guy wouldn't take a lot for him to all of a sudden be a guy. Who do you have, Greg?

Jordan Mason. If Aaron Jones gets hurt on the Vikings, another good one, I think could be very— we saw him on the Niners when McCaffrey was hurt, was fantastic.

He was very useful.

He's another one when you watch the games, he just seems better than Aaron Jones.

He just goes downhill. He just gets positive yards every time. Danny, I have Blake Corum for the Rams, who it's an awesome offense. A coach who has shown the willingness to just lean on one guy and give him all the volume.

Also passes the eye test. And he's good.

I think there's so many plays last year where I couldn't tell whether it was Kyren or Corum.

And Kyren was what, he was like a top 12 points guy last year. Kyren's, yeah, he's been amazing. He had an awesome year. And I feel the same way. I've always felt like when Corum was in, I couldn't tell the difference. Yeah. But yeah.

So we're talking about a guy that if the person ahead of him in the depth chart gets hurt, an injury, who could, who could really step up?

Out, basically.

I think it's got to be Chris Ryan, because I mean, the guy ahead of him on the depth chart doesn't wear a seat belt.

Whoa.

And if you think about it, like, slide, big guy, I'm just saying, like, you know, I'm always one injury away. I'm just saying, like, you talk about who's an injury away, or just a little work.

Chris Ryan's a great pick for this.

What are the, what are the helmet, like, thing covers? We got to get one of those.

We got to get you a protect, you know, the Romeo Dobbs.

He just wears it everywhere.

Sitting on LeBron.

Chris Ryan flew too close to the sun with the LeBron signing. That was when the wheel— the wheels have come off now. That just getting LeBron James randomly for $4 million a year, it's just too many good things. Last category, my I know this is good value right now, but I simply don't want to root for him guy. It can't be Deshaun Watson because nobody would take him in the draft. This doesn't mean you personally hate the guy. You just maybe don't like his style of play. Maybe he's burned you in the past, but who do you have?

Uh, yeah, I guess the Browns shouldn't count. For me, it's— I know you love Garrett Wilson and the Jets, but for me it's Garrett Wilson and the Jets because everything on paper, I, I just— it makes so much sense that Garrett Wilson is so talented and Geno Smith and the Jets could be better. But I'm like, Frank Reich's been out of the NFL for 2 years. The 2 years before that he was in the NFL, got fired midseason both times. He was terrible at Stanford. Aaron Glenn is a, is just a lame He fired a third of his staff 3 weeks after the season ended. I'm like, I've seen this Jets season 1,000 times. This is like the 3rd time since I've been at the Ringer that they're like trying to make a last gasp to save the coaching staff. I mean, and I just don't want the Jets. I don't want the vibes in November.

The Frank Reich thing is crazy that he's calling. It's like this is— remember when like Francis Ford Coppola making Megalopolis? You're like, yeah, he's making a move. Somebody hired him. He's doing this. Holy shit.

Frank Reich, like, just funding the whole thing himself.

You're like, Adam Driver, like, Charlotte paying them to be This is fantasy's just slumped over right now.

You just fucking killed fantasy.

I'm like, Garrett Wilson's good.

Like the offensive line is good. Frank Reich analogy. Fantasy's dead.

I'm like, we're doing this? Damn. All right.

It is. He was probably the worst head coach this decade, right? Was Urban Meyer this decade?

Oh, 2021.

So Urban Meyer's taking the crown.

Frank Reich was the worst coach of the last 3 years.

I think it's one of the, it's like the documentary about Megalopolis is better than Megalopolis. And I get it. I feel the same way about, The Jets. I'm like, I want to know. I'd rather watch the documentary of Frank Reich calling plays than watch Frank Reich call plays.

It's really tough. Who do you have, DK?

Jackson Dart? I don't know, he just annoys me.

You guys hate Dart, man.

I don't hate Dart. Now I'm defending the Giants.

I just, I just, look, it's partly a bit because I'm just trying to trigger Heifetz, but my guy that I know it's good value, I don't want to root for Jalen Hurts, I'm kind of like—

Eagles offense, maybe I'm putting too much emphasis on the Patula last year offense, but like rooting for— I had Jalen Hurts and AJ Brown last year, and man, it was 3rd and 10 and I felt like I had no hope. Like there was just no shot. And then Jalen Hurts, it all feels gimmicky.

Mine is Kyler Murray. Oh man, can't do it again. Your body language doctor, he's the worst body language quarterback in a long It's really a bummer because he'll, he also, he, he's a false hope guy and he does put up points, right?

Yeah.

You read any, any fantasy piece this year, it's like, hey, by the way, Kyler Murray, here are his stats and they're pretty good.

Yeah. Him and Malik Willis are the two, like late round quarterback. If you're gonna take anyone, Kyler Murray or Malik Willis.

Fantasy was the number one pick in top 10 in baseball. And Kyler did, has made a bad playoff run. Kyler has been elite in fantasy. Malik Willis has 6 touchdowns in like 3, 4 years.

It, it just—

aren't you saying they're, they're, they're close? They're similar picks.

They are, but Kyler's gonna play all year.

But it goes deeper.

There's more there.

It's just not fun to have him on the team.

Yeah.

It's too frustrating. He'll rope you in, you'll be like, oh, I actually might have struck oil on this, and then he'll be Kyler Murray in the next game. And I just— the body language is bad.

I think that's the big— I think that is probably the number one biggest question in fantasy this year is like, what What Kevin O'Connell did with Darnold in Minnesota, can that happen again with Kyler? And if it does, everybody on the Vikings is one of the best picks.

He's really getting a lot of credit for the Darnold thing, who by the way was a top 3 pick in the NFL Draft and was in the shittiest possible circumstances.

Can you make the same argument for Kyler? I think he's saying—

no, no, I'm saying like, I think KOC is now being presented as a miracle worker.

He's just—

where were the miracles with JJ McCarthy?

Yeah, he's just—

I think no miracles seen in that one. He was fucking terrible.

I honestly do think Grant Udinski, who went to the Jaguars, was a lot of what's going on in Minnesota. And I think Kevin, again, Kevin O'Connell's just a tall, very striking man with a great jawline. And I do think they made him a quarterback whisperer. I think the key with the Vikings is you take Kyler Murray and Justin Jefferson, but you gotta trade him before GTA 6 comes out. 'Cause if Kyler loved Call of Duty, but the GTA 6 drop-off for Kyler's gonna be pretty big.

I think KOC is on my first coach fired watch. Whoa.

Well, that's no way.

Yeah, I said it. First coach fired. I think first coach fired is really, the Ringer gambling guys were talking about this yesterday. The first coach fired. Who gets fired is really hard to figure out this year because we had so much turnover. And you're basically looking at Dan Quinn, Zach Taylor, Aaron Glenn.

Aaron Glenn.

Aaron Glenn. But why would you fire Aaron Glenn?

I'm—

he's my best asset to get the number one pick.

Kevin O'Connell.

Todd Bowles.

Todd Bowles. And then probably a wild card that we're not considering. Somebody was like, oh my God, the Vikings started out 1-4 and they just fired KOC. I can't believe it. And then the media would go nuts because they all love him. But I don't know, he's on my, he's on my radar. I think that division's going to be really hard. People don't seem to know where to place him either. But if I had to pick a 4th place team in the NFC North, I would, I think that's the obvious pick, right? Would you say Green Bay?

I think they'd be, I mean, for how much could have gone wrong for Minnesota that didn't go wrong last year? They won 9 games. I'm like, I just think they're going to make the playoffs. The defense is good enough.

How many good players do they have though? Like for real.

Well, I mean, I think Darrell Sall is good. I mean, first of all, everyone on the offense is a first-round pick. Jefferson's a first-round pick. Addison's a first-round pick. Hawkinson hurt his knee, he's a first-round pick. Kyler was first pick in two different leagues. I know he's been hurt, but I'm like—

They paid Kyler to leave. He was like a $50 million cap hit and they were like, just go.

The flip side, you got him from— he's one— he's 1,000th highest paid player in the NFL.

He's a $50 million hit.

Do you like Minnesota, Danny? Not like particularly.

No, I think missing that McCarthy thing, I think when you miss picks like that, it's devastating.

Yeah, you know, I've been leaning away from Minnesota more. Like, I'm more worried about taking a guy like Justin Jefferson. I feel like all the other receivers, I'm just like more dependable. I just get nervous about like the Kyler thing.

And yeah, it's weird to be— it's weird to be in that world now where you see Jefferson, you're like, yeah, I'm like, I don't know.

Yeah, it was the last year was the first year it just felt like he wasn't standing out, and it was because of the quarterback.

Totally. Right.

But that's why the receivers can't be normal. God forbid. Like, Jefferson actually was like the most professional receiver, elite receiver we've seen in that situation probably ever, who handled it really well and handled everything professionally.

Larry Fitz would like a word.

Fair enough.

Larry Fitz had like 4 years of just shit.

Yeah.

All right. That's it, guys. So give us the schedule for the rest of the way here for you guys for the show.

So we're doing shows every Monday, Wednesday, Friday until the season. But yeah, so this Friday, the 28th. We're doing the live Netflix Draft at 11 AM Pacific with all of us, with Sal and Chang and House and Chris and Mal and Sean and Van Tate. Um, that'll be really fun. And then the week after that, we'll be doing the Take Purge right after Labor Day weekend.

We got our live show at the Fonda on Thursday.

We got a live show in Hollywood this Thursday at the Fonda.

And you have, uh, you're stepping in for Rewatchables on the Monday before football season.

That's right.

Do you want to say the movie or keep it secret?

I always like saying Yeah, you are.

You're a man of the people.

Yeah, I think it's fun.

Say the movie.

The three of us are going to do Talladega Nights, which is— which I can't believe hasn't been done.

I know, there's still some really good movies left that have not been done. Yeah, we're 450.

We're not slowing down.

Yeah, no. Um, but yeah, so you guys are gonna do that, and then, uh, and that's it.

4 episodes a week during the season too, so people stick with us during the season as well.

And it's on Netflix as well. When are you gonna have your Super Bowl When do you pick?

Ooh, right before the season, I guess.

Yeah, we usually do that the Wednesday.

Do you know it in your, in your head?

Repeat.

You have to pick a repeat. Come on.

I think I might actually.

I love it.

Can't pick the Rams. Come on.

The Super Bowl champions are under— people always forget how good Super Bowl champions are out the gate.

Do you know how 5 days in a row I've mailed house, the Rams won't make the playoffs bet on Fanduel plus 350? Rams will miss the playoffs. It's like an easier path than you'd think.

Well, they're also an injury house of cards.

I mean, that's why it's an easier path. It's Stafford, it's Puka. It's like, it's two things and that team is 6-11.

Garrett's already banged up a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can hope, I can dream, you know.

So my schedule is me and Sal live on Netflix on Thursday. We're doing the NFC win total over-unders. The second one's going on Sunday. I'm going to be in the draft with you guys. I was on Wait a— Conspiracy Bill was on Wait a Second this week with Jason and Tyler, and was also on the Flaps Draft with Fantasy.

Oh yeah.

Chris and Manny yesterday.

Yeah.

CR took— we vetoed a CR pick. I think he's still upset. Ooh, a rare L. Yeah, he's still mad. I don't— they're worried he might not come back. So that is all that's happening. Thank you, fellas. Pleasure to do this as always. Thanks to Eduardo Ngahau, Jack Wilson. Everybody behind the scenes as well. And I'll see you on Netflix on Thursday. Must be 21+ in President Select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino. Or 18+ and present in D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming, get in problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET. Call 888-797-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut or mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope Is Here, visit gamblinghelplineMA.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24/7 support in Massachusetts, or call 877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York. For Louisiana, call 877-770-7867. 7.