Free Agency Winners & Losers + Jason’s Voice Mystery | Fantasy Football 2024 - Ep. 1561

It's good to be back, America. On today's show, we break down the big free agent winners, the big free agent losers, maybe medium, maybe small losers. We're going to talk about it on today's show. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss a minute and enjoy. Welcome in. Tuesday, March 26. Greatest day in history. Why is that? Welcome into the Fantasy Footballers podcast. It just is, Mike. Whoa. Oh, something sounds like a pretty big deal. Something really good happened a long time ago. That's al

l I'm saying on the 26th. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. How long ago? Yeah, I'm caught up now. How long ago, Andy? What are we talking about? Four score. Four decades ago? 40 years ago? Yeah. Is it one score? How long is a score? Two weeks? Seven points. No, no, no. That's a fortnight. Yeah, thank you. I thought a score was... I honestly have no idea how much. I thought a score was 40 years. 20 years? 20? Okay. Two score. Two score. Yeah, I'm 40. What happened to you? What's it to you? It's fantastic. Welco

me to the club. drove in in a Miata this morning. That's right. Top down. I mean, and you know how tall I am. I don't fit in that. No, you're the top has to be down. Yeah. Yeah. Welcome in, one and all, the fantasy footballers. Free agency winners and losers on today's show. You heard no bear on the intro. We finally have the gang back together and our first chance to talk through winners and losers of free agency together. And we'll get into the news, some mailbag, and I'm glad everybody's back

again. UltimateDraftKit.com. You can get it right now. The Dynasty Pass being updated daily. And the full Ultimate DraftKit releases on June 1st, so you can pre-order price... or it's at the pre-order price right now. I have to get to the quick question on today's episode of the show. Yeah, I missed out on... Today's quick question was submitted by millions of listeners. Millions. But in lieu of reading all of the comments, I will allow Grant to be a representative for all of them. Grant in Atl

anta says, quote, is everything okay with Jason? On the show, March 21st, his voice sounds substantially different than any time I've ever heard him. Apparently, people really know my voice very well and better than the people in this room. Calamity ensued when last week, apparently, I did not know it at the time in the moment. I knew there was something going on, but I had what's called strep throat. That'll get you. My voice was not its usual silky, buttery smoothness. Instead, I think I was u

p here more or something like that. I think my range was higher. I don't know what it was. On one hand, some people thought it sounded like Mike. So I don't know what they're saying. I don't know. It's me, Mike. What are you doing? I've been accused of many things in my years. Having a really high voice is not one of them. What's funny is, whatever change happened on that episode to my voice, which most people around here couldn't really decipher. They're like, I don't hear anything wrong. The c

omments, the DMs, the total messages, it was like a village on fire and everyone looting. It was pure mayhem. Yeah, pandemonium in the streets. Over my voice. So I hope it's back. Are you okay? Yeah, I mean, maybe I'm like 90% back to my normal voice. I don't know. Maybe. Maybe we'll find out. Because we wouldn't be able to know because the people in this room didn't know when it was happening. I mean, people thought AI was doing your voice for an episode. People thought it was Mike's voice. Soo

n, soon, people. It'll be AI. We're working on it. Yeah. So there you go. Jason just had strep throat. Yeah. Which you tried to give to me. I'm over. I didn't get it this time. Thank you. You're welcome. But you're better. They gave you the medicines. And I got better quick. Good work. I feel like ever since we like pronounced the fact that we had never had two people sick at the same time or two people out on the same day, ever since then, it has been, we'd been tested. We have had some real pu

sh-cumps to shove near one-man shows. When you poke the bear. Yeah. It bites. Yeah. All right. Let's talk some fantasy news. News and notes from around the league. The worst is going to be when the footclain starts diagnosing us before we feel it. Because like if this show goes live and then the comments are like, oh my gosh, Andy's voice. What's wrong? I'll know I'm sick with something. Andy, better check that prostate. Whoa. I have to do that. You're at the age. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. T

hey've heard the age. And now they're hearing the inflections of your voice. Everyone's asking you to get checked out. Everyone. Yeah. That's the people want it. Livestream. I'm pretty disturbed right now, to be honest. Pretty scared. Yes, Al. You are overdue. He was asking if he's overdue. Yeah. You're very old. I thought it was like mid-40s or 50s. Yeah. I think it's 45. Okay. Is it 45? Yeah. They also do some old man health. Yeah. One second. I think they do like some blood, some pre-check no

w for numbers in your blood too. Now I know for a fact, Josh. Because I did that and they're like, you're good. Papa Josh is fantastic. I'm fine. He's the oldest man here. How many are, Bakers doesn't? Wait, of what? Prostate exam. What? Mike is in true form now. Back on the show. He's never done it. Papa Josh, three score. And 13 prostate checks. I'm sorry, everybody. We're just happy to be back together. Yeah. It's the Adam Thielenauer. All right. The NFL will officially not ban the Tush push.

We have known this for a while. I think we've mentioned it once or twice, but it's nice to have conclusive evidence. Like the touchdowns will come from the one yard line regardless of Saquon. I don't know. I love that we get like the science experiment of the Jason Kelsey impact. Yes. Yeah. We'll know whether it was Kelsey or not this year. I promise you, even with Saquon there, week one, week two, they're at the one yard line. They're going to do the Tush push and we're going to get to find ou

t. They should. Wilson has quote pole position from Mike Tomlin says to be the starter for the Steelers, but then said when it's time to compete, Justin Fields will be given an opportunity to show his capabilities. The draft pick that the Steelers gave up goes from a six to a four if Fields plays more than 51% of the snaps. They won't care about that change if Fields leads them to victory. I believe the draft Kings over under when totals came out. Yes. Yes. For teams. And the Steelers were aware

. Seven and a half, which you said they were higher than that. No, they were seven and a half, which is if they were to, I mean, that line is testing the Mike Tomlin never had a losing season. Yeah. I mean, if you were at eight, you have a losing season. Yeah. So we'll see. It could get, I think it could get messy, you know, it's just, I don't think Russell Wilson would handle being benched. Well, he got benched last year. His situation last year was contractual, not play, even though they came

out and said, let's play. I just mean, if you get a new opportunity here, you've been told you're the starter, the team goes out, then picks up Justin Fields. I'm sure that did not make Russell happy. I only know this because he tweeted out happy he was about it. About Justin Fields. Yeah, about Justin Fields coming in. So I don't know. Brian Dabel says there's no guarantee Daniel Jones will be ready for week one. Okay. It's good for the Giants. Yeah. And they did pick up Drew Locke. So there's

been, you know, rumors of them interested in the quarterback market and the, you know, this upcoming draft. I don't know that they've got the draft capital to make a move. So you might end up week one with Drew Locke. There was a bit of news regarding the Gus bus, which I know this is what we're going with just because Gus Edwards, that goes on forever, doesn't it? There was a quote from the Chargers general manager that they called Gus Edwards, the bell cow of the backfield. His full quote was

he's the bell cow, the goal line guy, the finisher, the right mentality for what we're looking for. I told you we wanted to be a bigger, bigger team, play a physical style on both sides of the ball. He helps us do that. Yeah. I mean, as of right now, the depth chart is the Gus bus, Isaiah Spiller, Elijah Dotson, and well, Jared Patterson. Is Jared Patterson on the Chargers? Apparently. All I know is if the, if the backfield stays the same as it is now, Gus Edwards would certainly be the very, ve

ry primary ball carrier. And if I wanted a rookie running back in this draft, I would make sure everyone knows we've got our bell cow already in tow. He's going to be everything he's exactly what we want. Well, it's funny, the finisher and the goal line guy kind of contradict what, how we interpret the phrase bell cow. Like bell cow feels like you get all the totes, like you get all the carries. Yeah. But the other two are like what he probably will really be, which is fourth downs, third and sh

ort, et cetera. If I had Gus Edwards in dynasty, I would try to trade him. Okay. Because you probably thought you'd never get to do that again. So if that would you trade him for, like would you trade him for a second round? Yeah. For sure. Unless you really believe that he's going to be the guy. It just, it's at that, you're at the time of, of year where he is currently winning. So, man, I don't know that I would trade him away. I think I might hold on to Gus Edwards. And I'm not predicting tha

t we're going to go into the season that Gus Edwards will be the only name at the running back position for the Chargers. They'll probably add someone else, but it's just at this point, like running back depth is so needy. Because even if they had a rookie, Gus Edwards, what the money that he got will be involved in Gus Edwards. What do you think right now? Stop ahead. Over under on rushing touchdowns for Gus. Six. Yeah. I was thinking seven. Yeah. You heard it here first. Either keep them or tr

ade them. Well, I'll just, people give in their opinion. I would trade for him. I would, I would hold, I would hold Gus at this point. If I could get a second rounder for Gus, I would certainly cash in. I think this is a deep enough wide receiver class where if I can convert Gus Edwards right now into a rookie wide receiver, I would do that without. I think Gus will be okay for a year. Yeah. But what my bigger point is like the whole identity of this entire team is going to be hard nose, run the

football. And I don't think you go into the season with Gus Edwards and nobody. Like I just don't think that's a part of fulfilling that philosophy. There's a player that's missed time due to injury before. Yeah. There's a strong chance that you would not be able to trade Gus Edwards after the NFL draft. Yeah. So, hey, look, what did he have 13 last year? Is that where he was? I think he was at 13 touchdowns. So something to watch as we head into the draft and the NFL draft rumors. We heard stu

ff right before the show recording time about J.G. McCarthy, maybe going number two to Washington. That's like been the rumor is that that's the guess that a lot of GMs have at number two, which puts the Cardinals at four in a position where they, people will be chopping at the bit to take it. If that happened. Yeah. If JJ goes in the top three. Yeah. I guess even if he doesn't, if the NFL views J.G. McCarthy in the way they seem to, which is right in the same tier as Daniels may, then Cardinals

probably trading out of four. I don't want them to, but that will, and that will really disrupt your, your natural thoughts on where the big three superstar wide receivers are going to be. Because it's easy right now to say, okay, we think that Cardinals will have Harrison and then everyone seems to put a doon say with the Bears at nine and the neighbors go somewhere in between giants, whatever. But it would really disrupt things if there was a big trade. So 30 days till the draft. Man, it's go

ing to be fun. Any other news back there in Deuce or Zalley? Anything you got for us? No, sir. All right. Let's, let's jump in. We're going to win. We're going to win. Free agency winners or losers. We finally get the opportunity to talk through our favorite signings and our least favorite outcomes from free agency. We've had a lot happen this year, right? Mm-hmm. And we've each picked a biggest winner and a biggest loser. At this point, you know, there is no sneaking this player into redraft le

agues and onto your roster. To me, the biggest winner of three agency was Drake London wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons. Yeah. And Drake London, you know, there are players like Terry McLaurin historically and DJ Moore historically where the Drake London story was beginning to model those career arcs, which is super talented, upper echelon, wide receiver ability, stifled by, you know, just a rotating door of quarterbacks for the rest of their career. However, we did get a glimmer of hope la

st year, right? With DJ Moore changing teams, changing quarterbacks, becoming a go to receiver at a higher, with a higher chance of helping your fantasy team on a weekly basis. We know, if you have eyeballs, you know, Drake London is a very, very good wide receiver. I have eyeballs. Yeah. And you have eyeballs. Yeah. Congratulations. I think he's a very, very good wide receiver. That's good. Because if you didn't, I might not have eyeballs. You wouldn't know that. I know. Target shares have been

29% and 23% in the first two years. He's had seven, last year was 74% of the team's wide receiver red zone targets as number one in the NFL. That's great. So he must have been awesome, right? Yeah. Percentages on a Falcons team, they don't count. No, they certainly didn't under Arthur Smith and he's only had six total touchdowns in two years. He's had putrid quarterback play. He's had changes at the quarterback position, low passing volume. Nobody to really help him on the other side of the fie

ld and just a team that didn't even line up in three wide very often. They were a two wide team. They ran 11 personnel. He was a very, very good player in three wide receiver sets. And the nice thing about this upcoming year is you're going to have a rebuilt offense top to bottom. You're going to have a new offensive coordinator in Zach Robinson. You have, I'm sorry, they didn't line up in 11 a lot. That's what I meant to say. Thank you. You noticed that. Yeah, I was staring you down. Yeah, they

need to line up in 11 more. They didn't do that very often. They lined up in 12 with more tight ends. They're going to be in a position now this year to open things up. And the addition of Kirk Cousins is the key component to the entire equation. You're not going to be able to hide Drake Linden in drafts this year. Period. No, that's already done. Have you seen where he's going on underdog now? 14. He's in the second round. I mean, this is, he's being drafted to be a great fantasy wide receiver

this season. He drafted ahead of Diggs, Debo and Chris Olave. He was wide receiver 26 a month ago. And we did like him a month ago. Not because of Cousins because we didn't know that was happening, but because of the change at the head coaching spot and the offensive coordinator. Yeah, 26 was his floor with that change. Without the change to Cousins, you were, he could have hidden. He might have been able to hide as a sneaky value. Now you're just going to have to take him because you love the

opportunity in the player and the youth. We all have him top 12 in our dynasty startup rankings. But to me, huge win for his career, his future pocketbook. Yeah. So, biggest winner to me. I got a question because we all, I know where the rankings are right now, but let's just talk through it. Dynasty wise, Drake London versus Garrett Wilson, which Garrett Wilson, he could find himself on, like, on that Drake London path here. Yes, we were supposed to have Aaron Rodgers as Garrett Wilson's quarte

rback for this year. But then what? Number one, Jay, you've kind of talked about your, you have concerns about just Aaron Rodgers. Does he really even have it remaining to make sure that Garrett Wilson could be great for fancy football? Because Garrett Wilson, like Drake London is a great wide receiver. This is, in my opinion, you cannot argue against Wilson's talent. But what's the future look like where after Rodgers this year, maybe it's okay. Maybe it's Rodgers next year. Maybe you're right

back into quarterback purgatory because if Rodgers is actually good, then you don't have draft capital to get a new quarterback. And so it's like just the Drake London versus Garrett Wilson. Right now we all have Garrett Wilson ahead, but is that really? But before you answer, I want to give you their career numbers. Okay. Because I think it's interesting. Yeah. Two years, same, you know, they came in same draft class. Two years, Garrett Wilson has 315 targets, 178 catches for 2145 yards. Mm-hmm

. Through two years, Drake London has 227 targets, so almost 100 fewer targets. 141 catches for 1771 yards. Like what, 400 fewer yards? But obviously Kirk Cousins is not a spring chicken either. But what is your view on those two? Yeah, I think it's a fair and honest debate. If you look last year you're talking about, or over the last just handful of years, it's been, well, Justin Jefferson has been great with Kirk Cousins and Devonte Adams has been great with Aaron Rodgers. So you've got a litt

le bit more youth on Kirk Cousins side over Aaron Rodgers. And I mean, there's no target competition to me for Drake London. Now that you go out and sign Mike Williams, some of those touchdowns could come away. I think it's an honest debate. They brought in Mooney, they have pits. I mean, you don't have a big tight end target in New York. Yeah. The receivers are great. I think what you've seen on the field makes you lean towards just keeping Garrett Wilson ahead because he's done more. He's done

more with crappy quarterbacks. Yes. I mean, they both had crappy quarterbacks, but he put up bigger numbers. Right. And so I think I've got him, I mean, I do have him ahead in my rankings, but it's a fair debate. If someone thinks it's nowhere near close and you can capitalize on a trade and get a big plus, you know, trading Garrett Wilson for Drake London plus other stuff, I would be fine with that. Six touchdowns for Drake London in two years. How many does Garrett Wilson have in two years? N

ot many. Six? Seven. So they're actually pretty mirrored. I mean, this last year, Garrett Wilson finished at 32. At the wide receiver position with bad quarterback play, Drake London, you know, this past year, where was he? He was 39. So these are two super talented players nowhere near the top 24 this past year. Could be worth noting in a dynasty setting that full year younger is Drake London. They're very close. I think we all have them pretty close in D.C. We do. It's been like Garrett Wilson

since last offseason kind of just got put into, you know, a borderline top five dynasty asset because of how young he is and how good it looks like he's going to be. And it just now it was like that was locked in. Drake London's turned to be in that. Yeah, in that spot this year. But both should have brand new quarterbacks. Quick break and back with Jason's fantasy free agency winner. All right, I went with Drake London. Jason, who do you have as your biggest winner of free agency? I am taking

a running back that I really did not think would find a great market this offseason. Instead, he found a great market. Deandre Swift goes out gets a three year $15 million guaranteed as the first running back signed once free agency opened up. And I think he has not only did he secure the bag. I'm happy for him get paid running backs. But he enters into a really good situation. The fact that, you know, day one they're they're clamoring for Deandre Swift. They're giving him a lot of money. That i

s a commitment to him where I'm not worried about Rochon Johnson. You know, it's not going to be a Christian McCaffrey, Seguin, Barclay level. You know, you get everything and Swift is a little bit undersized. So there'll be some working in. But when you've got a rookie quarterback, there is a lot of reliance on the running back position. We talk about how wide receivers in fantasy football is not usually a good bet when you've got a. Rookie quarterback, but it actually is a pretty safe bet for

the running back for a rookie quarterback because of that. They want to protect. They want to make sure that, you know, they've they've got the running game to help support the young quarterback. Since 2011 lead running backs playing alongside rookie quarterbacks with 10 starts. They've averaged 250 opportunities. They've been a running back to on average. So this is a really good floor for him. And I think that the news there for Chicago, there's so much splash elsewhere on the roster that I do

think DeAndre Swift will go a little bit under the radar. He's not going to fly up boards, but the offense could be good. Caleb Williams coming in as the number one pick in the draft and the splash of Keenan Allen, the big year last year from DJ Moore. To me, DeAndre Swift finds himself in what could be a good offense where he's going to get a lot of work. He's paid to get a lot of work. I think for fantasy wise, I mean, you know, last year he finishes the running back 23 in 16 games. But befor

e Philly fell apart, you know, before their by week and they completely collapsed, he was averaging 14.3 fantasy points per game on over 20 opportunities. 97 all purpose yards every single game. So you've got what is obviously yes, the landscape for him, the situation for him better than expected. He was a winner. Do you see him in that same range, the 20s? Yeah, I think he will be drafted as as a lower end RB two, maybe even outside of the top 20. I think he'll be right around the, you know, 24

and he should that should be his floor. He's only 25 years old. So I really like this spot for Swift. How wild, how wild in to me anyway, DeAndre Swift, the Chicago Bears, you know, running backs, I guess we they sort of got paid this all season, but it's harder to get this get running backs really good guarantee money. DeAndre Swift in his career has averaged 41% of snaps. Yeah. And they just gave him a huge bag of money. Like last year was that was the highest ever at 55% of the snaps. Yes. 5

5! How it still blows my mind. How did he get this deal? They like what they saw. And he did. He kind of took this, you know, did a had a stranglehold is the word I was looking for on the backfield. Gainwell started the year as everybody's darling fantasy. Maybe this guy's going to break out. It wasn't. And I was just curious because like last year, like you would say DeAndre is supposed to better running back than Chuba Hubbard. Yes, for sure. Devin Singletary. No, I think in that tier very dif

ferent style of player. But your point is that those guys were both really good with rookie quarterbacks last year. Yeah. I mean, Chuba finished the year at 26 didn't take over till partway through the year with Bryce Young on the worst offense I've ever seen. And finished at 26. And then Singletary also didn't take over until partway through the year finished at 31. He was a league winner. But he was very, very good. It sounds like an argument for Rochon Johnson. I was going to tell you that. I

t's sure whoever the lead guy is. Because those guys didn't start that way this last year. I didn't think about that. Shoot. But the point is the running back for a rookie quarterback is a much safer bet than wide receivers for a rookie quarterback. Also implied loser Khalil Herbert. Who? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Who? Who? Yeah. Mike, I see you have kind of two-way or two. Yeah. Because I wasn't here to talk about it. But shout out to the largest winner of the free agency period, Jerry Judy's agents. Y

eah. What's his name? Chris Cabot. I don't know. Chris Cabot. Getting it done. But what? That guy's driving a new car. Yeah. You aren't here. But I had the same exact reaction. It was just like, that agent's good. I mean, how does Jerry Judy do that? We're trying to get out in front of it. I understand that. But this is not working. Like, don't give these guys the money. Let them earn the money. But anyways, the real one to me, and yes, it's near and dear to my heart because I had a very strong

reaction to it. But I'm also in dynasty mode right now. So we're talking about, can Gus Edwards hold on to some dynasty value as running backs are getting old? But Derek Henry going to the Baltimore Ravens, he's going to score so many touchdowns. And yeah, he's 30, but he got 9 million guaranteed. Last year with Tennessee being one of the worst teams in the league, he was the running back eight. Over 1100 rushing yards, 12 rushing touchdowns. And he said double digit rushing touchdowns for six s

traight years. And now he goes to a team that Gus Edwards, we just quoted his numbers on it of how Gus Edwards scored all of those touchdowns. That's the real problem for me is I want to come back and I want to be like, but this is old Derek Henry. But old Derek Henry just turns into like Gus Edwards at the worst. Way better than Gus Edwards. That's what I'm saying. You don't have an argument against it. Something catastrophic would have to happen for Derek Henry not to have the most goal line o

pportunities in the league. Baltimore is the highest win total or right behind San Francisco? San Francisco, Kansas City and Baltimore all 11 and a half. When does Henry do well? Wins are losses. He's a front runner. Yeah, the idea of Derek Henry playing a full season and not scoring double digit touchdowns feels impossible. Mike found out he signed with the Ravens live on the show and it changed his life. It felt so good. And you have, you know, there are, we do have some other 30 old running b

acks who have had 10 or more touchdowns. We had the Cordero Patterson year. You had the Wild D'Angelo Williams year and those are both guys on brand new teams. And oh yeah, Mark Ingram on this team when he was 30 changed teams and then came in and gave us that huge touchdown outlier year. I think that and watching just watching Derek Henry last year, it, you knew it wasn't the same guy because this was the like the lowest snaps he's seen since 2018 at only 53% of the snaps. Tajie Spears was work

ing in, but you would still have so many moments throughout the season, including I believe his last, the last touchdown run as a Titan or second to last. I can't remember, but just makes an incredible cut. You're like, oh yeah, no, Derek Henry still has juice left. So the amount of, he's 30 right now. He is, he'll play at 30. Yeah, he'll be 30 this year. And it's the amount of juice that Derek Henry has left combined with just such an incredible situation of a team that's going to win, be grind

ing out games, be scoring so many rushing touchdowns at the age of 30 to give you any kind of life is, it's fabulous. I'm going to read you some additional potential winners. Tell me if you agree. Maybe, maybe tell me if it's just like, okay, you, you, you agree a lot or just a little or not at all. Will Lavis at quarterback? A lot. Yeah. Yeah. The Titans are, they're wild now with that bank account. They're, they're just, they're just rain checks, which good for you as a team. I'm Titans fans.

I'm happy for you. Unless it doesn't work because if, if the flame out happens and you have now all these outstanding balances that sets you back. Sell the team for $20 billion if that happens. Caleb Williams. Caleb Williams. A definite winner to me comes into the best situation. Kenan Allen. Yeah. Kenan and Swift are the big additions. Uh, Mahomes? I don't think he's a big winner. I don't either. Mark Heesbrown. He might suck. Yeah. He might suck. He is not a zone guy and that's what Mahomes is

going to face the most. So I don't know. And then you've got a year older Kelsey. I don't look at Mahomes as like, wow, this off season. So good for Mahomes. So for, for Hollywood 13 and this is his sixth year. Yeah. Something's not working, man. Yeah. Tell that to Brandon Cooks. He did just fine. That's, he was the true journeyman. Yeah. He, he'd be, if Brandon Cooks went to the Chiefs, is it, do you feel the same? That might be the ultimate bar. I might feel better. Yeah. That's weird. Even t

oday's brand of goods. Uh, obviously Gus Edwards is a winner, right? Joe Mikshen's a winner. Yes. Uh, James Conner is a winner. Yeah. Cardinals don't have anyone. Anyone? Well, who did they bring in from Seattle? DJ Dallas. DJ Dallas. Backup. Yeah. Zemir White so far. Huge winner so far. If they don't grab a running back in the draft and I mean, I see Alexander Madison as a clear backup. Yeah, probably. I, yeah. Andy loves Madison. No, no, no. He sees Zemir as the backup. Rashad White so far so

good. Quinton Johnston. I don't know if you're a winner, man. You have to be a winner in this situation. I mean, you, your opportunity as a winner. This is, this is a busy, Quinton Johnston situation is like, he's, he's one cashier at a busy grocery store and he had a couple other cashiers that like, helps get the lines down. And now they're gone and he's got to take everything through his line and it's very stressful. He's not trained for this. He's not ready. It does feel a lot like too much.

This is not, this isn't just an opportunity to show how good at checking people out you are. This is, this is overwhelming. Checking you out. This is too much, man. Yeah. You don't want to be the focus. There's going to be people putting groceries back. Dude, if you drop, leaving. If you drop the ball when you've got other players to take the eyes off of you, the pressure, the pressure's going to be real. If week one comes out and he has a bad drop early in that game, his career is mentally just

never going to overcome it. George Pickens. I think huge winner. Two new quarterbacks that are, they got to be better than what you had. They get ready to Deontay Johnson. But. You don't feel that way. So I, I, I, everything you just said makes me feel that way. Arthur Smith makes me remember Drake London. Yeah. Better quarterbacks, but still I'm like, he just, he has, someone can keep him in check now. When Arthur's over there, he's like, you know what they won't expect? Our third string of ti

tle. Wasn't Arthur Smith the, the O.C. for Tennessee? No, I know, but wasn't he the offensive coordinator when A.J. Brown was doing stuff over there? Yeah, I thought so. Yeah, he was. So you never know. That's what I mean, but I'm saying. Yes, it was A.J. Brown. But I'm saying, he's not, the buck doesn't stop with Arthur on the Steelers. He has Mike Tomlin to go over and be like, don't be dumb. Throw the ball to our good players. Curtis Samuel. Curtis, Curtis Samuel. Like all, all, we talk about

, don't let your children be running backs. Look at Curtis Samuel and the amount of money that he has made compared to the impact that he has really had on football fields for years. I can't believe he got the check that he got. I'm good for you, Curtis. Did you ever get a chance to react to that? No, he hasn't. I'm doing it right now. No, I know that's what I mean. Like this is your first chance to comment on it. Yeah, I, it was shocking stuff, the, the money that he's going to get to end it an

d go behind a championship contending team. And then you have these, like the best running backs in the league. Like they can't get this money. And he's, this is now his third contract. Let's do it. It was a better off season for running backs. Yeah, it was a very good off season for running backs, but it still does not compare to, to the wide receiver market. But Curtis Samuel finds himself in a great position. He's a definite clear winner. He's reunited with Joe Brady. I don't know if we broug

ht that up, but Joe Brady, you know, was with him in Carolina and they, they paid a lot of money to bring him over. So I think they've got a plan for them. They're going to use them in a lot of ways. Would you consider this off season to be good, bad or neutral for Josh Allen, his quarterback? No Gabe Davis. Adds Mack Hollins and Curtis Samuel, right? Yeah, I'll go neutral. Kyle Pitts, winner, Dolan Schultz. Going back home. Yeah, winner's going to go back. All right, we will take a quick break.

And we're going to come back with the losers of free agency. All right, let's jump into some fantasy losers when it comes to what you thought you were going to get, what you hope to get, and what happened during free agency. To me, I mean, this one's an obvious one, but this is why it's a gamble. When you take a low draft capital shot dynasty, I know the hopes and dreams are out there and they don't all end like Rashad White did last year. Tajye Spears, former or I'll say like brief, top of the

deb chart for just a moment after Henry left. Before they signed Tony Pollard, but Tajye Spears, he was a third round pick. He was 81st overall in the draft last year. He's a good player. He's definitely a meaningful offensive weapon in an NFL offense and nothing against Tajye Spears. But the way free agency went when they went out and they took that infinite checkbook and they cut a three year deal for Tony Pollard with a bunch of money guaranteed. It automatically changes every positive outlo

ok you had for Tajye Spears. Now, can he be a complimentary back that makes a big play here and there? Of course, he probably will do that. But I don't expect his workload to increase just because Henry switches out for Pollard. I think it could go the opposite direction potentially or at a minimum stay neutral. And so, you know, last year, what was he, 100 for 453? No one's getting excited about that in dynasty. It was receptions though. You had 52 catches. That's fantastic. Pollard can do that

better than Henry could. Yeah, for sure. So, we were all rooting for the one year trial at starting running back. Did you see his coach was being asked about how you're going to use Pollard and Spears? And the case for Spears is just in the whole quote, it's him saying like, we have two really good players and I see them both as kind of interchangeable. So, at least it wasn't, hey, we knew we had to get Tony Pollard on this team and for him to be a foundational piece. It was equal praise to bot

h backs. So, I think there's a world where this is like a, even Spears out snaps Pollard in some games, but like a 55-45 split for Pollard. I think it'll be close to 50-50, but that really hurts Tajé from the hopes of him being the guy. Do you realize last year, Tony Pollard played, I'm sorry, Tajé Spears played 53% of the snaps, and Derek Henry played 53% of the snaps. So, there's going to be a similar situation here with Pollard. Question marks on the offensive side, and then he's undersized.

He has a full thickness cartilage loss in his knee, no ACL in his knee, and arthritis. So, this is also not a, well, just wait a couple years for Tony Pollard to go away and then he'll be fine. This seems like more of a, you get what you get. If Pollard goes down, you have a player, but that's the case for a lot of backups. So, to me, just a brutal, I don't think any of us expected Pollard. I don't think any of us expected a big running back signing in Tennessee. No. Because if it would have bee

n, it probably would have been Henry coming back, we thought. But they went with the younger Pollard, and Will Levis, who knows if that experiment works out this year, there you go. Yeah, they've given Will Levis, I mean, I said I think he's a big winner. They've given him every opportunity to succeed. I expect him to fail, but I'm hoping he succeeds. Banana Ram is fun for the show. My biggest loser is clearly from free agency. This cycle's just been, I feel so bad for this incredible player. Ju

stin Herbert, I'm so sorry, man. Well, I mean, but I'm not really sorry because you're going to win more games. Like, you can't feel too bad for him. He's going to win more football games, and that's what he wants to do. I can feel bad for us because I want you to score more fantasy points. I feel bad for the dynasty. Like, we've had the advice of like, swapping out the high scoring fantasy quarterback and getting the next up and coming. I know people did it with Justin Herbert. And you're like,

oh my gosh, Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, and Quentin Johnson, a first round pick. And now he's left with just with a grocery store cashier. That's all he has left. And the analogy works well because that's his future profession. So you've got the Chargers here. 14% of their running back targets vacated, 40% of their wide receiver targets, 11% of their targets from the tight end position, 65% of last year's targets are not on the roster. We have talked a lot about Greg Roman's run heavy offense.

We've talked about it multiple times this off season. The problem is that it works for the NFL. His team's average 10.2 wins. And that's over a decade when they didn't play 17 for the majority of that. He has, you know, he only has one sub 500 team in a decade of this system working. He's going to have to be very efficient. That's not what Herbert has been historically. He's been a volume guy. Here's, I think the best stat to just elicit, you know, to illustrate the difference between what we'v

e been used to and what we're about to experience with Justin Herbert. And don't hear what I'm not saying. I don't think Justin Herbert is going to be terrible. He's too good an NFL player. He's going to be on a good team. He'll score some, but he's not going to be like a top five quarterback the way he could be. In his career, he has averaged 26 completions per game. That's his baseline. That's his average. That's just what he normally does in Greg Roman. 10 years, 162 games played. This is rid

iculous. 162 games played 16 times has his quarterback completed 26 passes 16 times of 162 games. And that's what we have been used to with Justin Herbert. So it's going to be a change. He's going to have to be more efficient. He's going to have to run the ball more. But when they get down near that goal line, it's going to be the Gus bus or the incoming rookie. They're going to be scoring the touchdowns. And so I do think Justin Herbert, from a fantasy football perspective, is a huge loser this

cycle of free agency. 8.5. That is the wind total for the Chargers. Now, if it goes quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, and then you have the chance to draft Marvin Harrison Jr. to Justin Herbert. I know they won't. They'd rather be dead. I know they won't. Convert them to running back. Please trade back to the Arizona Cardinals. All right. I mean, look, we all know Herbert. It hurts. It hurts the way like his value right now in leagues has got to be. T

he lowest it'll ever be because it's probably being swung too far. Yeah. In that direction. You could argue he could be a by candidate right now. That's what I'm wondering, even though we can't see the future targets that he's going to throw to Mike, it's time to hear from you on fantasy free agency loser. So I cannot disagree. I think that Herbert is unfortunately the biggest loser, but a player I want to talk about because the value of this player going into his second year, I feel like was an

absolute roller coaster ride over just like the past calendar year. And it's Jordan Addison of the Minnesota Vikings when he was selected in the first round 23rd overall to a team where he could go be the wide receiver to behind Justin Jefferson with Kirk Cousins throwing the ball. It was, I don't know that there could be a better fit for what is for him in his first year as he's starting his career is rookie year overall quite good really, really heavy on the touchdowns one of five rookie wide

receivers with ten or more receiving touchdowns since 2014. And that list is Jamar, Odell, Mike Evans, Calvin Ridley and Jordan Addison. Like that's a group of wide receivers I would like my name to be connected to, but now we have, we kind of talked about it all at the beginning of the show with being so excited for Drake London. Jordan Addison has a Kirk Cousins and a quarterback problem. Right now it is scheduled to be Samuel Darnold who in defense of Sam Darnold I've heard his head coach be

lieves has his best football in front of them. Oh for sure he does. So that you look behind him. He can't be behind them. That can't be. So was that was newsworthy I guess. But and look, maybe Sam Darnold is Gino Smith and you get kind of or what happened with Baker. Maybe there is a research at same Darnold is still I think like 21 years old. He's still like how old is he actually out when he's five or young. The quarterback is so young. Remember. Yeah, he's 26. That's wild. Yeah. To me. So he

will be turning 27 as he goes into year seven of his career. It just, it would be shocking. I think just to say it is it would be shocking if if Sam Darnold is actually works out for the Minnesota Vikings. Or it's the rookie. I mean they've you know they've been they've already made a big trade. All the smoke says that the Minnesota Vikings are going to try and move up and get a quarterback. But now you have a rookie quarterback you have is it and it's a rookie quarterback where it took a lot of

draft capital to go up and get him. So you're you're taking on holes in the other parts of the teams to just like can that quarterback really be the guy rookie quarterback rarely hit. What's their win total right now on a DK. What do we got six and a half six and a half six and a half. Yeah that sounds about right. And so they and then that's a darnold s number. And it's one of those kind of the red flags here for for Addison. His targets per route run numbers. They're not great. And he scored

a ton of touches. Yeah. And he scored which that's great to have that in your catalog. I'm trying to read Jason's face right now and I wonder if it's I have him in Dynasty face. No I do have him in Dynasty because I think it's a great wide receiver. It's just it's the red flags. You know I brought up the name. I think our last episode of like the fear of comping him to Johan Dotson. Oh right. Dotson had the huge touchdown as a rookie. Very bad. Target run but looked good. And then you have a lot

of this where it's like some of those metrics behind the scenes are really bad for Addison but he was propped up by the touchdowns. I still am a believer in the actual talent where I'm hard time moving with Justin Jefferson he average 5.5 targets a game 47 receiving yards a game. So those all just and is that right. It is right. But a lot of those starts were I'm going to let you defend those cousins is on your dynasty. It was because because Jefferson missed a lot of the game. Kirk Cousins was

so you shouldn't have to you shouldn't have to talk that much for the rookie for the rookie wide receivers who had all those touchdowns. Here is their actual routes. Jamar Chase had 579 routes more touchdowns than Jordan Addison who had 606 routes. Okay. 606. Otto Beckham 474 Mike Evans 510 Calvin Ridley 465 all those guys hit or exceeded the amount of touchdowns that Jordan Addison scored as a rookie with far fewer routes and I'm with Jason. He I think he's a great player but he's the number t

wo clearly the number two wide receiver on this team unless a wild Minnesota trade of of Justin Jefferson actually happens. But they have a huge quarterback problem that it's going to be really difficult to fix over the next couple of years. See I thought Josh jobs going to fix all that last year but it never happened. Potential other free agent losers do you same as before. You agree disagree strongly agree. Justin Fields. Yeah. Obviously a huge he may never be a starter again. Yeah. He'll star

t this year. Not not week one. When week four week four nine eleven. Yeah. I mean he'll probably start some games but I don't know that he'll be a starter. Ramon Drey Stevenson. I don't think he's a huge loser here. I think he's a medium loser. His value came first of all Patriots are the lowest when total and football. Correct. When you talk about scoring opportunities and stuff like that it's concerning. Secondly Ramon Drey is he's a he his value came from being used in the passing game quite

a bit. Yes. And that's where Antonio Gibson is going to. He should. I mean he's a better Antonio Gibson is a better receiver to me. I think Ramon Drey might be just as good after the catch but I think in terms of just speed and getting to where getting to your spots I personally think Gibson was signed to do what Gibson does. So to me he's a medium loser. Yeah I'll go medium. OK I'll fine with that. I'll use a word that's never been used with him before. Small. Small loser. OK Damian Pierce huge

. Who's that huge. He was a loser last year. Man that sucks. I just it's not like I was in. I wasn't like it in the Damian Pierce corner. Until I until now he's on my teams. You know what I mean. And then it's like he's your guy. And then it's like oh gross. Like that that just died. The winds change. Sorry. Adam Thielen. Hello. Somebody say my name. Is his father time that caused him to be a loser in the. I mean I don't think he's a loser. Oh man. It's the odd it's the auntie Johnson is there.

Yes the auntie is young and very good. But Dave Kanellis is there. So I consider to watch. Yeah. Thank you. Dude it's the best. It's so you haven't really done it a lot. No it's more. Yeah because because he tried to get on the he's a young man with a deep masculine voice. It's amazing how dominant Adam Thielen was last year for a couple of weeks. Yeah. To start the year. Alan Lazard. Goodbye. Never heard of him. See you later. Cole Comet. I could see him. I don't think he's a loser. He's certai

nly a loser. He goes from being target 100% for fantasy. No I disagree. Really. But you're you're. Yeah I mean obviously disagree. You could be wrong. But the the the truth is Cole commenced value came from being you know number two in the in the target order. Being third in the target order is a massive like you look around the league at all the tight ends were relevant for fantasy when they are doing well it's there they're either the first or second target. That's it. And he doesn't have a ch

ance to anymore. I think that you have a little bit. I mean look at look at. So you hate Kyle Pitzner like compared to what you would have because they added you know Darnell Mooney. Yeah I mean the guy who Cole Comet was the number two over last year. OK that's a fair point. No that's a fair point. That's a fair point. But you added Kurt Cousins right. I mean the offense is going to throw the ball more with Caleb Williams than they did with Justin Fields. Yes the offense is going to run better

with with Caleb Williams throwing the football presumably than Justin Fields. Yeah so I just think Cole. I think Cole commits talent. His ability to get into the end zone is significant. I certainly think he's talented. He won me over last year as a you know a football talent. Those are man catches. Dude some of those in zone box out jump up. I'm not saying it's a free agent winner. I'm not saying that. But if you had to be a winner or a loser. If you had to. I'm saying you have to. You got it.

I made the rule. Small loser. All right. But I think about the Hawkinson. You considered him a bigger target above Addison. Yeah. Yes. Kittle. I have always had a hard time being in on Kittle but also we don't know what team Brandon I use going to play for. It's not gonna be the not gonna be the night. It will be. He will play for the Niners this year. We'll see. What voice is that. I don't know. Was that the voice he was using last week. No it was not. Yeah that was the one that people were won

dering. That was this was the we're at the end of the show voice and. So you think the Niners are going to trade him draft day trade. That's my prediction. Okay. For. Wow. A draft. Okay. I predict he plays for them and then by the time training can't roll around they will give him an extension. Okay. Well that will that will be some crow to eat. And that will be a good extension. Crow nice big plate fork a knife. Wonder where that really started. What is. Is it like that. What do you mean. What

is. Well I know. When you eat crow it's talking about the bird. I always I imagined it was what else would it be. That's what I was asking. Oh let's look it up. Let's let is the crow that you eat. I would assume you're familiar with it. That is not the like that could be the way to go by. Hmm. That won't be the first time you ate crow and Brandon I you by the way. That's true. That is true. I was a year early on Brandon I you. Have you. Have you determined your I can't figure out the source. No

I think it might be crows. That's crows. Eating crow is an idiom. The crow is a carrion eater that is presumably repulsive to eat in the same way that being proven wrong might be emotionally hard to swallow. It is a crow. Yeah it's hard to eat. Okay. Crow I always I'm going to be honest with you right now. I genuinely thought the eating crow was a lighter way to say. Oh it's poop. Oh yeah I thought eating crow meant like you got to you got to eat. I've never taken a huge crow. Yes I have. Yes I

have a plan to write after this show. On that note. Good to have the game back together again. Cheers everybody out there. Yes. And we'll catch on another episode Thursday. Goodbye. Goodbye. And follow us on Twitter at the FF ballers.