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This is Hunter Henry, tight end for the Los Angeles Chargers, and you're listening to the Fantasy Football podcast. Welcome to the Fantasy Football podcast with your host, Andy Holloway and Jason Moore and Mike. Right. In. Just me and my favorite people and Jason and Mike. Oh, man, welcome in to the show. The Fantasy Footballers back to knock us down. Yeah, but I've got the affection of the two producers now, and that's important.

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Oh, man. I thought you were talking about the foot clan, the listeners.

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But now your body backing them. What, their fifth place. Great job, host.

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Well, they're not physically present with us, are they? Yes, they are.

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Well, why are listening, which is the only reason we record the show, OK? They are physically present. We should now, this has been our studio. It's nice sized. I guess we have some height to it.

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Are we a studio audience? I'm just speaking a live studio audience. But what is what is an audience plural like we have room for one. Yeah. We could fit more if like if we worked out some harnesses and like lifted up minded people, I think people would pay for that. Why they'd pay for the ride.

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I don't know if we want to watch the show and then we have a whole new business. Oh, there you go. Tuesday, February 11th. Oh.

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What have we got here? Oh, it's the live studio audience. Yes, yes, yes. Everybody calm down.

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And it's actually February 9th. Don't know why it's time to 11th.

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I'm wrong. But what you what you know for sure, Brooks, is I'm going to read the date. That's the one thing you know for sure. And I'm not going to vet the date because I'm too busy dealing with the studio audience.

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Now, have you been to you've done some of the like I went to Phalen, I saw Phalen. I've never seen a live talk show. No, I've toured studios. But you benzyl like prices, right?

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No, no, no.

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I auditioned for Family Feud. Oh, that's what I was accepted to be on the family feud and got the card in the mail that says, hey, we're going to be calling you soon. And then the host quit and everything went with the garbage. And I was never on because I was about.

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You ever seen any show life, Jason, any of the late night shows or anything? No. I mean, I was a theater major, so I've been like, I, I don't.

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Audience Oh, my gosh.

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Mike gets it.

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All right. The Super Bowl took place yesterday. Did.

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And but yeah.

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I mean, I see a graphic of three Z's like a snooze fest for Super Bowl 55.

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I was it a snooze fest Brooke's after the first half or so. I mean, I didn't find it to be the best game, I guess, where we are expecting from the Chiefs offense.

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So we went from just real happy to have a full season and the playoffs in the Super Bowl to like, not boring what we're all you need to judge the Super Bowl.

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It it is what is the most watched television event of the year and it must be judged appropriately.

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I look, I thought the Super Bowl was shocked. I thought the Super Bowl was borderline awesome. And I think it's it's a matter of perspective, right.

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Because if you are really, really, really wanting, you know, high scoring and you're wanting Pat Mahomes and you're wanting the offense to be great, which, you know, that's that's everybody wanted to play everybody we're all wanting, then I then I see how, you know, it's a little bit of the boring, but I saw the game as so if so, it didn't have the thing that everybody wanted the game to have. So you can understand why people thought the game was boring.

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Well, I also wanted that. But my point is, if that was all you cared about, now I care about that.

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But I actually enjoyed watching the whopping that the defensive line was handing out to the backups of the Kansas City Chiefs. And like it wasn't like this low scoring, you know, run the ball defensive. It was just like they're crushing them. They are making Pat Mahomes run backwards the second he gets the ball. And I you know, I love Mahomes. I love the Chiefs. You know, I wanted a high scoring game, but I actually enjoyed just watching a complete domination.

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Well, I think that for me, the the legacy aspect for Brady transcended the lack of competitiveness in the game. The fact that you were just seeing history like people needed to appreciate what they had the chance to watch.

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Last night, a young superstar in Mahomes running for his life. That part stunk. Not having the O-line getting the competitive game that stunk, his receivers getting hit in the hands and the face and or the face because their hands didn't collapse on the ball.

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But, you know, but seeing Brady do what he did and reach, you know, this. Another level that you just you just kind of shake your head, and I'm 43 years old. He looked incredible. Yeah, I mean, the first time Winston couldn't have done that, no, the first half when Brady had to throw, he was he was electric. Three touchdowns, 80 percent completion rate went short, went long. He was he was outstanding.

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And I think I've finally come to terms with the fact that he's a decent quarterback. It's a good thing. Yeah. I think he's going to I think he's going to Philip Rivers, but. Oh, goodness. But no, I, I enjoyed watching history. Like Andy said, the the fact that the narrative where you have a quarterback at 43 changing teams, no Bill Belichick, he can't do it without Uncle Billy to a team that didn't make the playoffs last year in a pandemic has to beat in consecutive order.

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Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes. At some point, you got to give the man this do. Yeah, it was it was incredible. And I believe there were some pretty heavy Tampa Bay bets. I think the biggest bet in Vegas was like three point two, four million on Tampa Bay mattress, dude. Yeah. So in two point two four, something of that nature.

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It was also beyond the Super Bowl the day that we were able to celebrate the release of the twenty twenty one ultimate draft kit and the unique plus, which is brand new for this year. You get instant access.

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Oh, great. Yeah. Yeah. Can you put, like, a cap on that button there, Al Borland.

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But the unique plus yesterday, the dynasty pass instant access to that. You can check it all out. The ultimate draft gay.com. The response has been very positive, which we love to see. We're making improvements to it. I can tell you right now, college player profiles are coming to the dynasty pass, so. Be on the lookout and just just to emphasize that point again, you're getting the lowest possible price of the U.K. and you would get into the dynasty past, which is up right now, you could go get into content for dynasty players.

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Yeah. And you also get enter to win a listener spot where you do have a big deal.

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And so if you preorder before March 1st, you get a shot at that listener spot and some other bonuses and ultimate traffic.com, they are loving it.

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Guys, we want to hear. Thank you, people. We love you. But Fran, I don't know how to make it stop.

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I don't have control anymore. I can't stop them, so I don't have control.

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If you could get me like like a, um, you know, like when they when when characters used to smooch in 80 sitcoms, you'd put that in there. Yeah, I know.

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Just just give me a full sitcom. I want to laugh track. Yeah. Nobody wants this and I need them.

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I need their buttons on a power strip near me so that I can flip that breaker, you know what I mean.

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Just for emergencies. I'll work on that. OK, all right. We talked about Super Bowl 55.

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I guess some player highlights there really need to see Gronk have a big game and then play off Lenny Leonard Fournette ran well, he played himself into a contract.

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He's going to be starting running back next year. And depending on where he goes, he could be relevant for fantasy, which is something the Tampa Bay has said.

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They want him back when he was cut from the last place Jaguars this year, you did not think you had any asset left in in your dynasty league.

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We do have the Tide in Truth episode today.

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We'll get into that momentarily. Some brief NFL News & notes.

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I mean, I don't know if you guys are aware of this, but the twenty, twenty one fantasy season has just begun.

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It has.

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And so the Vikings, they hired Clint Kubiak as their offensive coordinator group's new Cowboys.

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Yeah, this is great. I'm an old coot. I love it. I love it. They said they literally want the QB system to stay like they know this. Excuse me, Clint, what do you have to offer us?

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They they know how valuable the Kubiak system is running.

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Yeah, that's true.

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But a noob is something else. No, I knew was a new person. A noob. Yeah. Bunu but it's it's an insult.

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It's not necessarily.

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Well have you ever called someone a Newborough. A new. I've never been in a good way. Thank you.

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Yeah. OK, fair enough. Oh man.

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He's so great and he's brand new. Check out this new. That was Al Borland.

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That's not me. He said that. Yeah but Jason, you're worried about Kubiak and the QB access. I'm leaving. Yeah.

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I mean it's it it matters. Kubiak has had a great running system wherever he's been his entire career, including Miami or Minnesota. When you go, oh, they don't have the best offensive line at work. And so I, I do like look, I don't know if Clint Kubiak has more than the name, but I do love that. I mean, he's he's come up in that system. So I would imagine he knows how to continue running it.

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And it just shows the commitment to what we saw this past season going forward. They they they're not trying to change their offense. They want their offense to stay what it was. So I do like this higher.

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Yeah. It's great news for Dalvin Cook managers Adam Schefter reporting.

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The Eagles are expected to trade Carson Wentz in the coming days.

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Oh man. Chicago on standby. Chicago if you're listening to the Bushes. Chicago is the number one contender right now, Indianapolis.

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But any hilarity, he will go to Chicago who just traded for Nick Foles this past off season and then would be sending Nick Foles back to Philadelphia, although I'm not sure how that works, because Nick Foles also has a really gross and bloated contract that would Philadelphia actually want that or or do we do we get the chaos of Carson Wentz and Nick Foles back together again, competing for a starting job?

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Impossible. You can't have that narrative there. You and I need to speak. I mean, we need it. We need it on the show. But not credible.

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I mean. Forces, you imagine that first knock on the door, Carson Wentz arrives in the training room. Oh hey, it's me. And by all accounts, like you don't you don't hear bad things about Nick Foles character or personnel. You know, he sounds like he's so everybody loves Nick.

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Sounds like he's a good dude. And a lot of people don't like Carson Wentz.

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Just he would lose the locker room the next day. It'd be a nightmare. So we'll see. I mean, tons of quarterbacks potentially changing teams. Ian Rapoport is saying the Texans are standing firm on the fact that they don't want to trade. Deshaun Watson, people have not offered the three first rounders yet. Is that that's what that says to me, I mean, look, if you're if you're the Texans, the best thing you can do is find some way to keep him.

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Yes, he's one. There's always think the reason that rumors of three, four first rounders and three for second rounders, that's because that's what he's worth. And you would be losing somebody worth that many picks and set your team back forever. And it's really up to Deshaun Watson. It's a matter of how how much hardball is he willing to play? Is he willing to sit out? So willing to say no, like you will trade me or you will not have a quarterback playing for you this year.

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Take it to the limit. We're going to find that. All right.

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A reminder off season coaching changes episode coming in mid-March.

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We'll recap all of the offensive coordinator head coaching changes, what their impact could be for fantasy purposes and for your players. And we'll break down the schemes and all of that. So stay tuned for that. We are with you year round twice a week right now, three times a week if you are supporting us to join the footy club. We also have the spitball podcast on Mondays that you can check out a comedy show, which.

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Oh, great. Oh, gosh, they're loving it. I'm not.

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I'm not. Yeah. So that's that's coming up. We've got a rookie review show coming up, some mailbag episodes, a lot of good stuff.

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It's going to be fun.

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And Jason played some pickleball earlier today, and he is a little bit yes, I did a little movement and I'm getting a lot of soreness. You do have to clarify, though, because pickleball it if you don't know about pickleball and you just know a little bit, you know, it's it's a sport for old folk.

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Well, old folk compatable the the retired folk. But there are you can play pickleball as a young buck. Yeah. And out there we basically play like we're playing tennis. You can be a young buck and play like an old fart.

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You can't do that to improve or. Yeah, you could be young buck and move like an elderly fella. So Jayce, just so you know, Jason's recovering from this morning and you said you're very sore.

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That means you did some good work that. But that's that's the embarrassing part is I am sore, but you don't remember. But I didn't do much. So the exercise thing, it's it's twenty twenty one point is new again.

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New to me. All right. I have to get out there with you guys. Mike needs to be humbled. He's he's just taken over the court.

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Impossible and we'll see. You want answers? I think I'm entitled, you want answers? I want the truth. You can't handle the truth.

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All right, our final truth episode of the season. That's right, Brooks, the final one. Yes, sir. OK, the truth of the tight end position in 2020. We finally know everything. We yeah. We've been trying to understand the tight end position for a while and now completed done great games. This is what we classify a great game as. One more fantasy points. As we look at player consistency, 10 or more fantasy points is a good game.

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Seven or fewer is a bust game and we're walking through all of the tight ends that finished.

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We'll probably get through the top ten or so. And then if there's other players you guys want to talk about, you can bring them up. So if you are keeping track at home, that means you catch one touchdown for ten yards and you have not had a bust. Yeah, I guess that's true. And because that's really what you're hoping for from your tight end. We set the bar where they set it, which is the truth about tight ends as a whole.

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Is that for the let me check my math. Fourteenth year in a row, we have thought there is a good list of candidates that could break out. Maybe this year is different and the tight end position is a little bit more deep. And it was wrong. I can't wait to do it again. I can't wait for next year. My favorite part of every year. Yeah, but this year it'll be even better because I will be optimistic about the list of potential break ups and we will be hyping up a rookie tight end.

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Mr. Kyle Pitts. It will say, well, is this the year that a rookie tight end can do it? I mean, what if he stinks? Who is that?

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An armpit joke was it was an attempted one. I didn't think stinky bit, you know. I mean, I'm saying once it was explained, you know, that it was an armpit joke. I was I was they were all the way there.

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I was all the way to make any leaps.

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Here's the thing. I will I will say this from experience. We've done the show for a long time, played fantasy for a long time.

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When you do hit on the someone outside the top ten project, the tight end and they're a home run, that is maybe that's a top five type of moment for your fantasy team when you hit on the player Julius Thomas, the year that Peyton Manning came to Denver, the hit hero, the Walrus.

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We've Sandrew, we've had a good run over the last couple of years of picking that even all the way back to Zach Ertz, his breakout, The Walrus and Mark Andrews.

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So we'll we'll tell you exactly who is going to be.

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So maybe we'll talk about some outside the top ten players that we like going into next year on today's show and then regression candidates, because there are some numbers that jump out at the tight end position to make you go, wow, that's a lot of receptions for a lot of production and that type of thing. So Travis, Kelsey comes in at number one. It's not complicated. Eighty seven percent, good game. Seven percent by sixty seven percent. Great.

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Oh ho hum. What fifth straight year at the number one position for the tight end.

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I mean, that's that's unbelievable. Yes, he is.

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He has been an advantage.

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The second best tight end fantasy season of all time by the way. Wow. Yeah. Oh great.

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One hundred and five receptions. Fourteen hundred and sixteen yards and eleven touchdown.

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The really the only questions because the truth is Travis Kelsie is zus. He's the best pass catching tight end in the game right now and he is in the perfect offensive system with a quarterback quarterback that likes to supply him with targets. The only question for Travis Kelce is what do you believe the truth is next year? Will he hold up and will he continue it? Not that he won't give you the second best tight end season of all time every single year.

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But does he hold up? Because if he does, then he is absolutely worth a late first round pick or an early second round pick. And we're back at this stage where we were playing this game with Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham a few years ago.

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Yeah, I mean, the reality is when when you have a player finish five years in a row as the number one at the position at a position that is very difficult, if you don't get one of those top three guys to stream to find the weekly starts to have any kind of positional advantage.

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Yeah, if he plays sixteen games next year, he is worth the first round pick and I will happily select it to play.

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It was where he was drafted last year. There's, there's more to it as well. Not only do you get the positional advantage all that, but you actually get extra bench spots, you get more roster flexibility when you're not having to play the waiver wire game and spinning fab and spinning waiver priorities and making all those decisions, it really allows you to look elsewhere in your roster. But of course, it won't last forever. He'll be 32 years old next year.

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As of right now, I'm 100 percent in on him being the number one title next year. There's just nothing we've seen on the field. You know, Super Bowl was yesterday. He had ten catches for one hundred and thirty yards. Something, it was the quietest, greatest game of all time. Yeah, I mean, if you're betting, Kelsie, are the field to finish number one next year. My money's on Kelsi again. Yeah, I think that's a smart bet.

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So, no, no huge information there. Travis Kelce, the number one, again, draft him as the number one tight end and it could be good for you for fantasy. As always, before we get to number two, we want to thank today's sponsors. Hello, Fresh. Hello. Fresh is often in my belly and it's always in my heart. Hello, fresh.

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Yeah. Your chef is the word.

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You know, I know I'm a chef. I know, Michelle, but I'm just saying I've started even going a little bit off of the thing. Oh, I'll see this and all your improvising. I'm like tweaking here a little bit more of this thought. Are you ready to eat? Yes.

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He puts the salt on before the basil, not the other way around.

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[00:23:41]

Number two, at the tight end position number two and consistency, Darrin Waller will hit that hit that drop.

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Yeah. Cupido.

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So let's look at the truth of Darrin Waller. Sixty nine percent good games. Thirty one percent great. Twenty five percent bust. All all the while, one hundred and seven receptions again this year, eleven hundred yards, nine touchdowns on a team that had an offense that was far less consistent than Darrin Waller was. And this offense tried to do a full reboot over the. I mean, they spent their first round pick on a wide receiver. They spent a third round pick on a wide receiver.

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I was personally concerned with Darrin Waller because he was he was a volume stud last year, and I wasn't sure that that would sustain over over the next season. And holy crap, Darrin Waller is excellent. And he he just proved that the targets have to go his way.

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I think we all worried a little bit about the volume and what was coming in this year. Definitely did. And it seems like what happened was Darrin Waller is now established himself as potentially a tier above Mark Andrews because volume I mean, that goes a long way. He still is a touchdown threat.

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Nine touchdowns. He was, according to ESPN, the most commonly roster titan among champions this year and per Peter Chung, our writer. If you only counted week seven through seventeen, he still would have finished at number two, which tells me that there was a separation there between him and Mark Andrews this year in particular, or even, you know, Robert trunnion. Where is Walter locked and loaded as the number two next year?

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I don't think he is locked and loaded as the number two. The one hundred and forty five targets is why he was so great this year. The question is going to be, what do the Raiders do in the off season? Mike brought up? They really try to revamp their wide receiver. It didn't work. I mean, there are two rookies were huge disappointments for them this year. Their big acquisition, their number one wide receiver became Nelson or like, yeah, one hundred and forty five targets, according to Waller.

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And that's not to take anything away from the talent, is there. He's he demanded those targets and he could get them again. But should the Las Vegas Raiders go out and sign Allan Robinson out, Robinson is going to demand one hundred and forty five targets. You know, he's going to come in and get that. And I think that will have a negative effect. Whereas you've got George Kittle, you've got Mark Andrews that are in the conversation. Maybe T.J. Hopkins said, well, you know, he is definitely in the second tier of tight ends behind Kelsey.

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But I, I think that it will not just be him there. Well, it will be interesting because, you know, Mark Andrews is on a team with the same situation, a wide receiver, really, that Darren Waller was dealing with. And both of those teams could be destinations for Robinson or Golladay or one of those players. I think the, you know, locked in for Waller. He will be even if Allen Robinson comes in, I think you'll see the Jason special of what they'll be.

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There'll be two targets on that team and Darrin Waller will be the other one that should that if they don't do that, it's stupid.

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Agreed. So he moves the offense, led all tight ends and red zone targets, teams, target share, receptions, share. But it will be interesting to see who goes where in the big wide receiver roulette in the off season.

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It was nice to see the touchdowns show up. The the one stat I was focused on last offseason with Darrin Waller was that he was essentially the players who had seen the volume that he saw last year over eleven hundred yards. They all score an average of seven plus touchdowns. His three last year was just absolutely outrageous. So it was just another win for positive regression.

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For math. Yeah, for math. Like just the numbers. Those other numbers say that the touchdown number was an outlier and won't stay that low. All right.

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I've got some numbers for you to highlight the truth about how much better Wollar and Kelsey really were than the rest of the tight ends.

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Waller scored 74 fantasy points more than the tight end. Three. Robert Tonet The Gap between trunnion and the tight end. Twenty. Was only fifty one points here. So this is why Waller was on so many championship rosters because of the doubts. He didn't cost you exactly. He didn't cost you what Traves Kelsey did, but he was still one of really only two difference makers because we talk about Anders's good or Kittel is good. But those guys were injured and had bad games.

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So there were really only two. You know, someone has to be the Titan three and consistency, but there were only two consistent Titans, period. Yeah, yeah. And then there's the maybe the injury caveat. They can be discussed about George Kittle in his season and you know what he gave you when he did play. But you're right.

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And you won championships with him, which adds to the point of Kelsi going higher. If you think he can give you a number one season again, locked and loaded, guaranteed production. Robert Technium was three. His consistency was sixth. The second half was far more consistent than the first half, at least in terms of, you know, not doing the tight end dance of a couple good games, a couple of bad games. Yeah, the the fascinating thing for Robert Tonin, we talked about Kelsi, 145 targets, the Walrus 145 targets.

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Robert trunnion. Fifty nine. Fifty nine targets, but five over five hundred eighty six yards and 11 touchdowns. He was interesting because it felt like Robert Tonin was not part of the plan for the Green Bay Packers to start to start the season. I mean, they had they had just spent a draft pick on Jay Sternberg's. I know there was some of that dynasty hope and hype for Sternbergh, but Robertson was the guy who came through and just established that, no, I am great.

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I worked with this offense. You need to get me involved. And that's really what happened. You see, like from week eight on, he was a defense making tight end. He feels like the biggest trap to me could be or he's not even under contract yet, whether there you go.

[00:30:11]

But eleven touchdowns on fifty two catches. What does Green Bay do at the wide receiver position, they dealt with injuries with Allen Lazard all year long. He would be the one that, like, doesn't fit the profile of. Draft value to me, because I imagine he will go higher than I would want to take him.

[00:30:33]

Yeah, I mean, this isn't a volume receiver and we are going to talk a lot about the regression that is clearly coming for Aaron Rodgers when you throw forty eight touchdowns and nine point one percent of your passes. Or a touchdown that will inevitably come down, Aaron Rodgers in his long, storied great first ballot Hall of Fame career, has thrown nine percent before. And then the following season, it came back down his you know, that's that's way above his career average of six percent, which is still a good number.

[00:31:06]

So if the touchdowns are coming down and Tongon was the touchdown Reliant weapon, then he is the first guy up that I think is going to have a fantasy fall from grace. I will say it's it's a nice time to just highlight when you're scouting with data.

[00:31:23]

Robert, trunnion was great in college. If you're looking in the dynasty past, this is this isn't a statistic that we made up. This is just this has been out there for a few few years. But it's the dominator statistic, which is what percentage of your team's yards in your team's touchdowns, what percent were you responsible for? And you take a look at these guys and what they did in college town. You had a thirty eight percent dominated rating, which is spectacular.

[00:31:51]

Like, that's an incredible amount of the production for a college team. And we know that that there is a correlation between guys with huge dominator percentages going into the pros. So the NFL missed on Robert Johnson at the beginning, you know, in the draft process. But it shouldn't be a shock that someone who was so good in college is actually pretty good in the pros. And he's close friends with George Kittle, so. Well, he's got to rub off.

[00:32:21]

Which I think is good. Yes, OK, a little dangerous, though, right? Like, I feel like if you're hanging out with George Kittle, you live in a little bit dangerously. Yeah. Cutting down trees probably on a quad right now.

[00:32:34]

Like, right this moment. He's ain't no helmet on that quad. Probably not.

[00:32:38]

No way. We've got to take the quad to cut the trees down. That's right. You cut the trees down with the quad. Oh, yeah, it's knocked down. Yeah, I think I don't know if that works.

[00:32:49]

All right. T.J. Hawkinson it for consistency. Rank of eight. His consistency of percentages perfectly highlight every single thing I thought about T.J. Hawkinson this year, which is.

[00:33:04]

Forty four percent good games. Zero great games. Twenty five percent buss, very reliable. One hundred and one targets. He was there and he was willing to catch the football. He did not make spectacular plays that I put my eyeballs on very often. And yet here he is. He was the Titan three from weeks, one through fourteen and was pretty close to Darrin Waller until a collapse at the end, which, you know. That wasn't just Hawkinson, no, there was a collapse by the Detroit Lions and Matthew Stafford had a hand injury.

[00:33:36]

Yeah, if you recall over those final few games, Hawkinson is extremely interesting. And, you know, I knew he was I knew he finished well, but really looking at his consistency chart of heat, you know, the majority of the time, or I guess not not majority, because 40, 44 percent good.

[00:33:53]

But he did help your team. And if you're looking at the Detroit Lions who are burning it down to rebuild and Marvin Jones doesn't come back in, Kenny Golladay does not come back. Hawkinson is pretty interesting to me. I have no idea. I don't have a gauge right now where his ADP will be. But Hawkinson, you know, in the ninth round or so, if he does drop to there, becomes extremely interesting to you. That could be way too long.

[00:34:23]

You look at the best tight ends, right? Travis Kelce, he's one of two targets there in Waller. He's one of one target. Mark Andrews is one of two targets. And while Hawkinson is with Marvin Jones, Kenny Golladay, he's, you know, obviously the at least third on the on the pecking order.

[00:34:39]

If those guys go away and he is one of the primary targets, he'll be much better for fitness.

[00:34:43]

Yeah, I think I would go the other direction with Hawkinson. I mean, Golladay wasn't there all year. Essentially, Marvin Jones was. But you lost the quarterback. You have it. You've spent the year bemoaning what it felt like to have no offense with Drew Lock.

[00:34:58]

Get ready for T.J. Hawkinson if loud blast off is way better, far less explosive, far less athletic. Goff is so much better than Drew.

[00:35:06]

Yeah, I don't think that you're going to see an uptick for TJ Hawkinson. He had he had a he had an opportunity with Matthew Stafford for the majority of the year with out Kenny Golladay.

[00:35:16]

That's great to me. That being said, he was a second year tight end, which we know like tight ends. Don't break out that early. I mean, not all titans break out also. Absolutely. But he was he was drafted as us. He was a all star tight end in year two. He took a clear step forward and was very good for a second year.

[00:35:40]

Tight end, not what we hoped, certainly didn't dominate. But now coming into year three and the only thing I disagreed with was your.

[00:35:48]

You saying he's going to get better? I don't think it gets better for him in the new scenarios. My point, do you think the offense in Detroit is better without Matthew Stafford?

[00:35:56]

Certainly not. But I do think that there is something to a 23 year old tight end coming into that next year. I mean, usually you've got that year three is around when tight ends, which is the balance of that scale of the offense, decreasing in potency. But the target's going up, T.J. Hokanson could be one hundred and thirty target guy.

[00:36:19]

There's a lot unknown in the wide receiver corps. So I know why that that's a feeling now. I doubt he surpasses the target. It's going to change in two weeks. He also led all tight ends and drops, which is something we saw in his rookie year and saw again in his second year. You know, Hockley's versus the jockstrap, it happened frequently pass to pass. But, um, we'll see.

[00:36:39]

We'll see what they do. A wide receiver. Mark Andrews, consistency, rank of three. Finished fifth at the position. It was a rocky road for the the Baltimore offense and not the Ice Cream Co., which I'm a big fan of, for the record, chocolate ice cream is not that good.

[00:36:58]

Are you a rocky road fan? I honestly, I've never had it. I don't know what's in Rocky Road, really. Let's take a shot here live on the.

[00:37:07]

What do you think is in some rocky road?

[00:37:08]

Well, I'm going to go with the chocolate ice cream based man and spoil that one.

[00:37:12]

All right. Yeah, which is great. By the way, chocolate ice cream is you are a big fan because it's so good marshmallows.

[00:37:20]

Yeah, you got it. Is there another thing in there is another thing.

[00:37:22]

There is nuts. Yeah. Why not. You could really you could oh, you could nail it, Mike Picards. No, no, it's all the arms. It's all but I thought about going cashew, but I didn't feel I didn't feel good about that one.

[00:37:41]

I would never rouselle not I would never get to Brazil, not what nut it was.

[00:37:45]

I just really chocolate ice cream, marshmallows and nuts. Oh. Because you don't like it. Well yeah.

[00:37:50]

Because chocolate ice cream based on ice cream is good.

[00:37:53]

I mean this feels like I can already hear you saying don't hear what I'm not saying. I like ice cream.

[00:37:58]

What is the best base then. A vanilla. Vanilla. Yeah, vanilla really. Only she's right about that.

[00:38:03]

But I mean it's like sometimes you got a chocolate milkshake or a vanilla milkshake.

[00:38:08]

Well, because chocolate milkshakes are made out of chocolate ice cream, you get vanilla.

[00:38:13]

Vanilla milkshake is better than a there is a reason that vanilla is an insult because it is so boring and so plain. Well, that's OK. All right. Hold on.

[00:38:23]

This is more important than anything we could be discussing about ice cream off track from my brand.

[00:38:29]

I don't get a vanilla shake. I mean, sure, if I go to in and out where their options are, would you like vanilla or chocolate? Yeah. OK, vanilla pumpkin, an Oreo cream cookies, a cream milkshake. I'm getting you know, you take a strawberry over a chocolate, I would take a strawberry over chocolate.

[00:38:47]

Have you ever had a strawberry shake? Don't ask stupid questions. But you know, I'm just saying chocolate at the bottom. Put those three in order.

[00:38:56]

Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry. OK, ok. So I don't do fake strawberry.

[00:39:03]

Oh well that is true. It's a lot of times it's vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup in the in the shake. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:39:10]

Because they're like this vanilla is really vanilla so let's take it up a notch.

[00:39:15]

Well it's hard to argue with the base argument though like it's a base for something.

[00:39:18]

Yeah. Chocolate. You're like you know what's great. You like cookies and cream. You know, it's awesome. Chocolate with Oreos. Fantastic sounds. How about that one?

[00:39:29]

All right, Mark Andrews, I as I live and breathe Rocky Road for Mark Andrews to start the year three weeks outside the top. Thirty three weeks inside the top three. Twenty nine percent great games. Yeah, that's what I look for from the tight end position when me a week. Fifty percent good games. OK. Forty three percent but not so good.

[00:39:48]

Lamar Jackson and the miniature sized passing pie of Baltimore had a lot to say about Andrew's taking the next step. I was hopeful we would see a volume increase. I know we talked about it in the beginning of the year. Instead, you got eighty eight target, fifty eight catches.

[00:40:03]

You saw an opportunity for him to see a volume increase. I mean, his routes increased, his snaps increased on a permanent basis. He did miss a couple of games. What's bizarre about Marc Andrew's season is. It was actually fine, it was it if you drafted him, you I don't think you are very you I don't think you should be upset. In the middle of the fourth round, he turns into the tight end five. He missed a couple of games, but he won you several weeks.

[00:40:36]

You're definitely upset. And the reason you're upset, I don't I said I don't think you should. I, I agree.

[00:40:43]

I won't argue with your feelings in the end. But here's what have we had a few.

[00:40:47]

If you wanted Mark Andrews, you had to pay up for him. Yeah. You had to draft him earlier than everybody else. You wanted that Travis Kelce to break up before it happened. You know, that next step forward. And so he comes to a lot. And then those first three weeks, two of those weeks were absolutely irrelevance. I mean, he doesn't score four fantasy points in week two or week three. And you're going, oh, no, what have I done?

[00:41:12]

And when when you have to have extreme capital given in the draft, those early games matter so much. And that's why I think Mark Andrews is probably going to be a value next year. People got burned or they felt like they got burned. And so you're going to have a large chunk of especially the people who believed in Mark Andrews, who are going to say not this time, saying not today.

[00:41:40]

I think I will agree with you just. KOMAKI Same as it was more of a federal reference, but it's not I agree with you on this one.

[00:41:49]

I think that they will sign a big time wide receiver. Yeah.

[00:41:53]

And I think Andrews will between what he did to your team last year and that receiver in the narrative of the pie. Look, Lamar Jackson loves Mark Andrews. He loves throwing in the football in the red zone. And so I think that there's a lot of upside there. I think Mark Andrews is fine. And, you know, the you can look at the beginning of March, his season, and you can also go look at Lamar Jackson. It was it was a bad start.

[00:42:17]

Yeah. Lamar Jackson played offensively instead of offensively. Yes.

[00:42:22]

He played very poor for about three quarters of the season. He did find himself.

[00:42:28]

Yeah, yeah. One year title. I know. I know. No, I'm not even saying that. But thank you for bringing that up. It's a it's a good time to remind everybody that I am a three time champion in the league of record a lot due to Lamar Jackson finding himself and figuring out the offense and getting Hollywood Brown going, getting Marc Andrews going. So I'm I'm with Mark Andrews for next year. All right. Let's get through some more tight ends here.

[00:42:49]

Logan Thomas at six, Miccosukee at seven, Logan Thomas actually at a consistency rank of ninth. He was a hidden gem, not drafted by anybody. Once he didn't have Dwayne Haskins throwing him the ball. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:43:02]

And he weak was a. Was that week six? Oh, it was a genuine question.

[00:43:07]

I don't recall a time I had OK, although he ended up with 72 catches, 670 yards and six touchdowns. That's what you get it tied in six. And consistently ranked, like I said, of ninth. He is he was Mr. Necessary for Washington. Yes, he's definitely Mr. Necessary. I mean, we'll see what they do at the wide receiver position. I have to imagine they upgrade. The biggest question is, what do they do at quarterback because.

[00:43:34]

It still could be Mr. Necessary, Logan, Logan, Thomas, and like the dude is still learning how to be a tight end. He was a quarterback forever. He's only been a tight end for a couple of years. So Haskins started the first three weeks. If you take those three weeks out, Logan Thomas is actually consistency number five. OK, so and he got better as the season went along. He's very interesting to me.

[00:43:54]

Next year, Miccosukee, those kind of a disappointment, 53 catches, seven hundred yards, six touchdowns, fourteenth in consistency. And that's what really hurt. Had to stretch from week nine through 14 where he was. All right. Quarterback changes played a big part in what was going on in Miami. But you didn't pay a lot in the draft. You're taking your shot that it was going to be a breakout year, really wasn't had some spectacular plays.

[00:44:20]

You know, tied for the most in zone targets among the tight ends with 12, so, I mean, he could have had a ton in like season if he had Aaron Rodgers. Not to a ton of by law.

[00:44:30]

I saw a lot of those feeds that were awful. Yeah, but if Deshaun Watson came to Miami, OK, and we're talking now, we're getting sick here. All right.

[00:44:39]

Rob Gronkowski at eight consistency rank of 13. I think that that betrays the truth of Rob Gronkowski, because now I know I'm sick and getting jiggy with it in my head. You're welcome. You're not getting sick. All right.

[00:44:55]

Week six through 17 are really where he got it going. A nice stretch in the middle of the year was better against bottom 16 defenses. And Bruce Arians was willing to throw the ball down the field, which is where Gronk used to make his hay. Most tight end targets, receptions and yards on twenty plus yard attempts. He was a diamond in the rough as well for fantasy teams.

[00:45:17]

He was, but he also had a opportunity presents itself when OJ Howard went down and he had he tore his Achilles. Am I remembering that correctly? So what happens next year there? You know, honeymoon phase. I just won the Super Bowl. Brady I'm coming back. Gronk talking about wanting to come back. Why would you not and try and win another Super Bowl. But if OJ Howard is ready to go at the beginning of the year. What does that do for the role?

[00:45:47]

Oh, it's of course, it's massive, it's massive. People that drafted Gronk were extremely unhappy. Gronk became a gym in the middle of the season because the first four weeks when OJ Howard was playing football, Gronk wasn't really involved in the passing game. He was a great run. Blocking tight in week four is when the injury happened to you.

[00:46:08]

Don't you can't trail it all back to the injury, though. I mean, Gronkowski hadn't played football in two years and he was joining a brand new system with Bruce Arians. And they were figuring out some things in the offense. And it kind of worked out with Gronk at tight end. I don't think it's a I don't think that you're going to have him disappear off the you know, he's a favorite target for Tom Brady.

[00:46:27]

Yeah, but I agree Howard might even be back. Some of that coming back. That's why if he's back, I agree. Some of it is him getting his legs back and yada, yada. But he's he's he's a great run blocker. And OJ Howard was on pace for seventy six targets that, you know, it's one of those things where. If he is back, I think OJ Howard is obviously going to siphon away targets from Gronk, although you could lose one or two of the wide receivers.

[00:46:57]

So, I mean, this is really a nebulous situation with the Buccaneers. We don't know if God is his back. We don't know if Antonio Brown is back. We don't know if OJ Howard is back.

[00:47:05]

Those things if everybody's back. No, thank you. On Gronk. If if if a lot of those or two thirds of those leave, then Gronk should be fine. He looked great. Obviously, he just dominated in the Super Bowl.

[00:47:17]

Well, from week six on your ah I'm sorry. From tight end six seven on, you're looking at spot start streamers. You're not looking at locked in players anyway.

[00:47:25]

So it's just a matter of whether Howard or Gronk or, you know, just psyche can give you a week because they weren't able to be consistent on a regular basis. Hurst was ninth with a consistency rank of sixteen huge wet fart on his hyp. Jones Smith is a free agent. He finished tenth consistency of eleventh. Jimmy Granpa finished 11th with a consistency rank of twelfth. No offense, I think is your, you know, jumping out as a breakout candidate because he finished at twelve consistency of twenty second dealt with injuries.

[00:47:58]

So injuries that he played through. You're not going to see you're not going to see a bunch of missed games, he only missed one, but he was really hampered in the middle of the season.

[00:48:09]

But they lost Alberto as well. Didn't they lead or later?

[00:48:13]

But they also lost their number one wide receiver before the season had even begun.

[00:48:18]

So where do you how do you feel about fans? Let's talk about it, Mike, because I. I get it that he has. He has the athletic profile that you're going to take a shot on for someone who could break out, but I would project that Courtland Sutton will be good to go at the beginning of the year, Jerry Judy in his second year and Drew lock. If he's still the quarterback. Yeah. Then I. I will be not taking the shot to know if.

[00:48:47]

Yeah. I don't I don't believe Drooler can support. No offense to be an every week starter. I think no offense is an every week fantasy option with with a solid quarterback. And to answer like Jared Goff. Right.

[00:49:00]

Albert went down myths started missing games a week ten Eric Ebron finish the fifteenth consistency of 15th no juju. Next year for Pittsburgh is Eric Ebron. You know Vance McDonald retired. Is Eric Brown interesting in any capacity to kind of uh. He had a he had a nice. Well, I should say more consistent second half of the year after a couple of bad games to start the season, he doesn't strike me as someone who's going to turn into a weekly, reliable guy, someone I want to highlight real quick the because he saw 89, nine targets.

[00:49:36]

He didn't really do anything with the production because he wasn't supposed to be the guy who saw eighty nine targets. I'm talking about Donald Schultz from the Dallas Cowboys because my man Blake jawin. Went down in week one. He'll be back, he'll be better than ever.

[00:49:51]

The infinite stat lines in Mike's head for Pharrell Blake, the tight end that I'm Blake. The tight end that I would bring up here is someone that we had lots of debate, an argument this previous season, Andy and I on one side, Mike on the other. But I think we're going to have more debate this year because Beast OK, if Gerald Everett leaves and is not a part of this team, which they're in, not the best cop situation.

[00:50:20]

And I think there's good odds that Tyler Higbee is alone. And if that's the case, we've seen him be valuable on the field now.

[00:50:28]

Why didn't you just lead with the fact he finished at 18 with a consistency rank of 25? That's how he should have opened. Well, right. And but we got enough. You didn't, Jason. Enough.

[00:50:38]

But I. Well, it's weird because I'm kind of making a pro higbee. I know, which is weird. Well, but it's because everything might be gone, right. So are you saying that you don't think Tyler Higbee could be a valuable fantasy asset if he's the only Titan there?

[00:50:53]

Well, I think he could be a valuable asset like four times this year.

[00:50:57]

But there the problem is he's really good at blocking people. Yeah, that's true. Gerald Everett couldn't block anybody, so, you know, I just don't know how consistent. I don't think I'm going to be reading those tea leaves with Tyler, OK?

[00:51:13]

I mean, we're scraping the bottom of the barrel. Let's talk about George Kittle, though. Yes, consistency, rank of four.

[00:51:18]

That's where I mean, George Kittle is the player that will be debated as a draft pick ahead of Darrin Waller. He's the one player that despite the year being, you know, injury plagued, is worthy of that consideration. If you. Mike, are you betting on or I guess you were saying while there's volumes guaranteed by Jason, you're talking about them bringing in some other pieces. Are you going to go George Kittles way? I know you like Brandon IUC and DBO Samuel.

[00:51:42]

I'm sure it'll be healthy for a game or two. So George Kittle or Darren Wollar next year.

[00:51:47]

Right here.

[00:51:47]

Right now. Oh, man. It's an interesting question. Pressure is on. My natural inclination is to go George Kittle because I think he's got higher upside, but I don't know that that is true. If they don't bring in another great wide receiver to the Las Vegas Raiders, I might just want to take the consistency and the volume in the known commodity versus the giant explosion games that George Kittle can give you. And depending on the draft value, George Kittle, I still think, has has a bigger name, more weight to his abilities and name than than Darrin Waller has.

[00:52:22]

I think Carol will go ahead of Waller. That's what I'm saying.

[00:52:24]

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. All right, everybody is accurate, you want to spend 10, 15 minutes on earth, Mike Oh, man, he's done. I mean, so are their quarterbacks, I mean, at least one of them. Yeah, so Zachares to go to Chicago with with cars. Then what do you make of Dallas GUTTA? Dallas is a good player.

[00:52:51]

All right. Well, wrap up today's Truth episode. I want to thank Christine Auction. The aforementioned Brandon IUC signed Jersey, currently at 20 dollars, ends on Thursday.

[00:53:00]

Michael Sanders signed Jersey DKA. Metcalf signed Jersey right now, 20 dollars. That's the current auction bid price at pristine auction dotcom. Those auctions end on Thursday. There are hundreds of daily sports memorabilia auctions.

[00:53:14]

Please check them out. And when you do be kind to your wallet, use the code ballers.

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You get a ten dollar credit towards one of those signed pieces of sports memorabilia at pristine auction dot com. It's time to say goodbye, goodbye to this episode of the show, but another one coming up on Thursday. What's what's happening on Thursday, Andy? Hopefully the studio audience is gone. I'll tell you that, good goodbye, everybody. Thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy football podcast. Join our fantasy football community on Join the Dotcom and follow us on Twitter at the F F Baltar's.