Hey, this is Austin Ekeler and you're listening to the Fantasy Football podcast. To the fantasy football podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike, right. I welcome in my Gottheimer Hey, hey, hey. You just you just got jacked up. Yes, yes, I was yesterday, I was excited for today. I was not excited today also about the fancy footballers. Well, you were excited yesterday, but you weren't excited today.

No, you burned out.

I was guilty. I tried all night long. Well, night to trade for two of my my guys that are on the same team.

And it seemed like it was so close, kept getting strung along. OK, I think I like I need more time. Any more time. And then eventually it came to the morning. I got to tell you in the morning, I don't know. And then I wake up, I'm ready to record with my guys. So come in, talk about how I traded for my guys is OK.

Now, my gut says no.

When your trade partner says I'm going to sleep on it, you should just go find another trade partner.

I'm sorry, that didn't work out.

I tried to do the same thing this week with my my guys, but certain people just they were not budging.

It's a bit of a catch. Twenty two, because they kind of they kind of pick up on the fact that they're your guys and then the price just keeps going up. Now Mike, I kept my welcome in short, because I thought something might be coming there.

I thought you might be jumping in now everybody, man of the people now give people what they want now that you've all turned your radios down after that introduction radios.

Yeah, the transistor is loud. Don't you still call it a radio in your car? I mean, I guess it's just what do you call it? It's a funny word.

If you play your podcast, what do you play it on your phone? OK, but I play it in my car. Through what? My car. Your stereo. OK, so you say stereo. Yeah. That still sounds old, Mike.

No, not as old as old time radio. That's old time. You said radio.

That is old time. It's we're on Sirius XM Radio this afternoon.

We're on satellite. Yeah. Satellite. This is the future.

We're not, ladies and gentlemen, today on the AM Radio to buy Baim.

No, I like that impression. Moving on, the ultimate draft kit is available at Ultimate Traffic.com. If you get it before our Friday live stream, we are going to be giving away an ultimate drive kit for life live on that event. That is 6:00 pm Eastern will be on YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, Facebook. Make sure you follow us. There will be a countdown on the livestream will be answering fantasy football questions throughout. And then we're going to give away that you for life to be eligible, you need to have purchased the twenty twenty unique prior to that moment in time.

So if you've already got it, you're entered. If you haven't got it yet, ultimate draft gay.com. It is the biggest episode, very excited. YouTube dot com slash the fantasy football, which, by the way, if you want to watch the My Guys episode and see Jason slowly gaining energy over the course of the morning, let me just say this quickly.

There are. Yes, thank you, Mike. You have you have filled my soul. It was depleted. The let me just say this to all the folks out there. You know, I would say the majority are podcast listeners. Maybe you have never even looked at the YouTube. Maybe you've gone when we've had a funny show moment. But maybe you haven't subscribed, right? Just go over there and give us that subscribe. So one ninety five.

Exactly.

It's it's getting close to Fox News. Yep. News& notes from around the league. NFL Network reporting that Dalvin Cook and the Vikings have broken off contract talks with the, you know, hopes they had hopes of an extension. It's not going to happen. He's focused on week one. Do you care for fantasy purposes?

No. Yeah.

I mean, if anything, this now means it's an official contract year where we know he's not holding out and we know he wants to get paid more. So what do you have to do if you want to make that money? Have of I mean, he's not going to get paid the same if he gets injured this year. So all the incentive to play well, play hard, play through injury. But I agree with Mike. I was already drafting him like that.

You could have a situation where the salary cap comes down next year. Teams are not as aggressive and a bunch of agents are in trouble because they didn't get things done in time before this happened. On of the franchise tag is available for Dalven DeAndre Hopkins return to practice on Wednesday.

He had a hamstring tweak, but he's back. That's good news.

That is good news. Did AJ Green get back? Not yet. OK, he's on. He's almost back. He's coming any day now. ESPN reporting Miles Sanders will be ready to play week one. There was the week to week injury. We just have a quote from an unnamed source saying he'll be ready to play week one. Those are upsetting to me. I don't see that as. No, not the unnamed source that he should be ready to go week one is not good news to me.

At least that implies that there's that the concern is that he might not. Well, here's the thing that that I'm going my confidence is in Coach Peterson was I mean, at least verbally giving the all the pat on the back to the running back room, saying, even with a couple of guys banged up, they're still secure in the running back room. They're not looking to add anybody now. Could they still add somebody and blow that statement up?

Absolutely, but at least what we have to go on is there. They're still confident that Sanders is good to go.

We'll see, though, is it good to go for a big workload in week one that is there? The bigger question, if you're making a decision in your draft with any sort of, you know, difference maker in the equation, Myles Sanders or maybe some of the players we talk about the day, this could be the difference. I did tweak my risk rating. And as far as looking at where I would draft Michael Sanders, there are two players today we're talking about that are now in front of him because they're all great.

Why take the one with current risk of of possibly missing week one?

Davante Adams, what's the latest on the injury for Davonte Adams? So if you didn't follow along? Well, this is I mean, there's a hot tip you got to get on Twitter.

Number one, you can follow the show at the fallers, but follow beat reporters.

This is what we have to go off of right now. I mean, Rodel World is is a tremendous news source, but go right to the source, get those beat reporters, follow lists that well, my my source is a man who follows the source.

Yes. And I don't want to use like a like you're a druggie kind of comparison, but like you're a drug.

You find news bits and mainlining all you are training camp news directly into my body. And like a. knows it is like, hey, Mike, is there news? That's that's Handy's news source. I love it. I know when there's not news, you know, after about forty five minutes, it starts shaking. And I know there has not been any breaking news. We've got to get Mike some beat reporters fluff piece at the least. Right.

But so yesterday, Devonta Adams, he got shook on a reception or Mike Murphy caught the ball anyways, but he went down, left the field. He did come back to participate in the final walk through, but he is now not participating in today's practice. It I'm not reading too far into it, but it's these are always just, you know, put a little check mark down. I got to I got to take a peek in on Devonta Adams.

What it did bring to mind was like, there are two situations in the NFL where. If a guy goes down, I have no idea what happens to that part of the offense, Davonte Adams, if he goes down, what on earth is the passing offense in Green Bay?

Los Funchess, you don't have other weapons. I mean, Lazard is not going to be your one.

He would be the fact I mean, he would be. That's the problem.

It would take Aaron Rodgers, who is I mean, look, this is the latest you've ever been able to draft, Aaron Rodgers?

I, I think he still has something left. But I mean, we can't be certain, which is why he's being drafted at the end of, you know, at the end of fantasy drafts. But if Davante Adams misses time, you're not playing Aaron Rodgers. No. And so Adams and for what it's worth, he hasn't played a full season in four years. So he you know, he's missed a game or two each of the past three years, goes down, makes you think about it a little bit.

The other situations, Derrick Henry, the running back, you know, in Tennessee, if he went down in the whole offense, is built around him.

Derrington, Evans, anyone? Yeah, it does, it doesn't. The Davonte Adam situation just highlight how head scratching that draft was for the Packers, where it was like there were so many great wide receivers, just I mean, when they were on the board and then they took AJ Dillon, who, hey, he looks he looks great in those tiny shorts, big thighs. But you've got a good running back corps. Now, if Devonta Adams goes down that GM.

Yeah, but just wait. It went in three or four years. When Jordan love gets a chance to start, we won't be talking about them not drafting a wide receiver, will we? Yeah, I don't know how this team ends up repeating anything close to last year if they lose Devante Adams with their they had one so many one score games. I mean, we're talking about a long time.

Look, I don't think Devonta Adams is really hurt long term. We're just prognosticating here. What would happen.

What's the news on Rob Gronkowski, former superstar, tight end. Sure. So shout out to our friends at roster watch. They have some boots on the ground at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers training camp. And all morning it is simply just been a reminder. Don't draft Rob Gronkowski. The name is is gigantic. He is a Hall of Fame tight end. But OJ Howard is still the number one guy there. And they're saying, look, they're comparing Rob Gronkowski usage, at least in these practices to that of of late career.

Antonio Gates. Yeah, Antonio Gates, he came through in the red zone.

He was a specialist there. He's catching touchdowns. But Rob Gronkowski, if you're drafting him, don't. Don't think you are getting Rob Gronkowski from three years ago if you are drafting him. I think you just have to I mean, an OJ Howard, I mean, terribly disappointing season last year, destroyed fantasy.

How do we get a post type bounce back for how I was going the other direction?

I'd steer clear of all Bruce Arians in his his history with tight titans, combined with a depth chart that has three different guys that are going to be out there and a ton of actual you know, Scottie Miller is back. You have Watson, you have Godwyn, you have Evans. I don't know if you're going to have any consistent production from any specific tight end in Tampa.

That's fair. All right. We are going to jump right in to my guys. But first, I want to remind everybody, go sign up for underdog fantasy. Today, you can enter their baseball mania to a at one million dollars in prizes, which they just launched. You can go to underdog fantasy dotcom. You can also search for underdog fantasy in the App Store.

Underdog is where you want to play baseball. This is a question we get all off season long. And there's been some desperate people out there saying what happened to draft?

I mean, draft used to be our studio sponsor and, you know, such a great product. But the draft was sold. And what do I replace it with? Underdog fantasy is what you want to play on the feedback that we've gotten extremely positive. And you can get in on the basketball mania a chance at one million in prizes. Basketball's a blast that lets you put into effect a lot of these strategic type of things. We've talked about, about, you know, redraft leagues right away into basketball.

And we've been given tips each and every week as well, which you can go back and listen to.

It's it's amazing. If you're good at fantasy football, what you're listening. You're probably good at fantasy football. You've got an edge in these leagues. And if you want to get better at fantasy football, then these are real leagues to to try to check them out and focus. And do not forget about the ultimate draft. I know we've got the big UDCA for life give-away going on right now. If you buy the Utica, you're automatically entered. But we just want to make sure everyone knows, like every every fantasy player in the world will go into their draft with some sort of rankings that we even if even if it's just the average draft position on the platform, not everybody's rankings are the same.

Our rankings, we don't want to toot toot our horn too much, but you always have to look, they've been top ten, three years in a row.

They're very accurate and they are tier based with blurbs that break down the differences between players of the same area. Everybody who gets it usually gets it again the next year. They love it. They succeed. You're building a foundation for your year and you could do that ultimate draft. Get dotcom. Now, let's get in to some guys.

Nothing you can say can tear me away. It's time, that's right. These are confidence picks for 20 20. These are plant the flag players. These are sign your name next to their name players for 20 20. It's always an adventure getting to this point. Last year we had the My Guys show. Early, very early, a little too early, which was tough, but we had the tour and we wanted to do the my guys event on the tour.

Well, that was the the infamous Daunte Pettis. Yes. Yes. Which look. From my guide to Antigua, I mean, that those right on the money. Yeah, I'm really that was a close one.

Quite, quite pleased with that decision, to be honest. But we're going to jump right in. Each of us has three my guys that we're going to bring to you. Did you want to add anything to that introduction, I mean, how do you look at these? Like, so for me here in Europe, I will kick off the show here. I will give my first my guy. It's a wide receiver going in the fifth round my planting the flag saying this is my guy.

Am I saying that D.J. Chark is going to be the number one wide receiver? No, but I'm that's what I heard. I heard it. Cut that up. Cut that up. Ship it. Five did joke number one one receiver. Overall, the draft value is absolutely incredible. I believe he will return ADP at the bare minimum I love is upside. So here's what I want to talk about with D.J. Chaak. First six for two hundred pounds, top four percent speed score was drafted in the second round, was absolutely left for dead guilty.

I left for dead. I wanted nothing to do with him. In the rookie drafts. He went to the Jaguars. The the the fantasy stench of the Jaguars is a real thing. And it happened throughout the entire season. But Digitas still finished as the wide receiver. Sixteen in fifteen games and honestly, before his week. Fourteen ankle injury. He was the wide receiver eight win over a thousand yards, had eight touchdowns. And what I really like moving forward about D.J Chark, aside from his ADP being in the fifth round, he's being drafted behind where he finished last year.

Gardner Minshew is now the full time starting quarterback, Gardner Minshew had the best passer rating on deep passes last year. He's actually a very competent quarterback last year. Chaak, 13, catchable deep targets. How many to come down with all 13, he was tied for six with the perception's with Tyler Lockett. He's an incredible deep threat. And Minshew was talking about his relationship with DJ Chark. And he said, I mean, this is a quote.

I mean, last time this time last year, we didn't get to work together very much at all. We had a few reps in the preseason and then we were kind of thrown in there in the regular season. That was the production that we got from Gardner Minshew just they weren't planning on Minshew being the starter. They gave Nick Foles a huge contract. They draft Minshew and I believe the sixth round. Yeah. I mean, he's a complete afterthought.

He's not getting reps with Jātaka, the receiving crew. And yet he came through and D.J. Chaak, like I said, the wide receiver eight before going down with his ankle injury in week fourteen. Now you get an improved offense. You get Jay Gruden is now the offensive coordinator. Jay Gruden. Offenses have finished top fifteen and passing touchdowns in six of the nine years that he's either been an O.C. or a head coach. And you know who's got experience coaching a later round QB, Jay Gruden.

People don't really remember this. Kirk Cousins was a fourth round draft pick.

He was not drafted to be the guy, but they found the talent. I believe that Jacksonville has found their talent in Gardner Minshew. It's all systems go. They're giving him the chance to be the guy. And I think that the connection with D.J Chark was just natural. Now, let's spend an entire offseason beefing that up on top of that.

I mean, D.J Chaak, he did you Chark is a solid route runner. I'm not going to crown him as an elite Keenan Allen type of route runner yet, but he is very solid. He scores very well and reception perception and he's the number one target. He is the unquestioned number one target for this team that, yeah, they might be trailing a lot by. But when I say might, I mean, they will be trailing a lot and they're going to have to go to D.J Chark.

Yeah. Last year there was question marks as to who is the number one guy and this year it is clear. So is this what I heard is that Gardner meant she was like my guy, like, you're just like you're gone.

I'm fine. I'm late round.

Actually, his guys own my guy like Jarek's. My guy is Gardner. That makes I'm saying.

Yeah, you see him shotgun those energy drinks to question. Yeah.

Because you've talked about a lot this offseason. I'm not surprised he's my guy. It one thing just to point out, the end of season for fantasy owners need to remember this, it just ends up being reflected in the ADP. Sometimes it was a sour end of the season just due to injury and all of a sudden he's a fifth round pick. Yeah, the other question is he's being drafted. Is the wide receiver twenty? He's you're my guy.

I think not that you're calling for him to end up there, but what is the actual ceiling in your mind when you say he's going to be a value at that position? Does that mean you believe he's a top ten wide receiver? The ceiling is absolutely a top ten wide receiver to me. I'm top five is that's probably a little bit too far out of the realistic projections. But like I said, he was he was a top ten wide receiver before he went down with the ankle injury.

He missed a game and then he tried to play through it in the production. Just it simply wasn't there. So it's not that he hasn't done it. He just a couple of games kept him out of the official top ten. So to finish as a wide receiver, sixteen. I don't think it's a stretch to say, yeah, that guy could probably move up into the top ten. I love the pick. I I'm going to go next because one of the kind of points of reasoning that you have for Chaak is one of the same for my guy here, which is you have the evidence last season in a stretch.

Now, it wasn't sixteen games, but you have the evidence in a stretch that he could be a top ten guy, my guy that I have the most confidence in of any player maybe in the last three or four years is Josh Jacobs.

Josh Jacobs is my guy for twenty twenty. I think he is a guarantee. I think he is one hundred percent guaranteed to take the next step in fantasy. I don't know if I've been as sure of a player as I am. And Josh Jacobs, you know, he's that guy that I think is going to go from that second or third tier running back to a top five, running back in fantasy football. And that is the league winning type of pick in the late first round, early second round.

I think he he fits in the category of somebody that could be the number one overall running back. You know, we always say at the beginning of the off season is like, OK, these three guys are here. But the odds of these guys actually repeating. Right. Very, very low. We never know who's coming on. Last year it was Dalvin Cook, Dalvin Cook. I got him wherever I could. He made the jump and.

One of the reasons why is the same argument you have for Iraq, and that is Josh Jacobs actually broke out and most people don't even realize it to that level of talent, starting with the talent. Look at pro football focus, his overall running back Great Neck, Chubb's number one. He's number one. Every metric you can at running back Christian McCaffrey is number three. Number two on pro football focus is running back.

Last year, Josh Jacobs, who absolutely dominant and what's crazy, Josh Jacobs had fewer than 50 percent of the total snaps of Christian McCaffrey last year and yet still ended up an elite producer.

He had that span. I'm talking about eight games in the middle of the year, weeks, four through 11, top five running back in fantasy football last year with a busted shoulder, with a busted shoulder and almost no passing work at all. And if I've seen it in a stretch, I know he can do it for a long stretch if he stays healthy. Second and RedZone touches per game among all running backs. Say what you want about Jon Gruden.

Do the impressions if you want to. But listen, man he trusts is running backs in the red zone. And to me, was that the pressure?

Was that simply using his terminology, hey man, terminology, terminology, I terminology, same point. Say, listen, man, trust.

It's not good. Trusted in the red zone, as I said, and he was a rookie and I love seeing that like going back two years.

We saw it when Marshawn had an opportunity in in Oakland. Now, Josh Jacobs coming into year two, there's one caveat for success with Josh Jacob, it's actually the same with Dalvin Cook or any other running back, and it is health. Gruden came out. He agrees on the fact that he needs to be much more heavily involved in the passing game. And this off season, Josh Jacobs said 60 catches at least last year didn't even come close to that.

Gruden said he had a great year last year. We expect more out of him this year, have to get him involved in the passing game and more importantly, more on the field. On third down, you get him on the field that he's going to make a play. And that's the irony with Josh Jacobs. I like that. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you. It's harder than you think.

I just need some more sentences prepared for me. Did you see the impression of Sean McVay that's going around Twitter?

No. No, I haven't. The McDonald's ordered by Sean McVay.

Unbelievable. Stay with me. Stay with me, man.

But if he can stay healthy, I think Josh Jacobs is a stone cold lock to be in that top five running back room. I love it. I think his production goes way, way up. Like I said, half the snaps of Christian McCaffrey.

Do I think he gets all the way there? Of course not. But the opportunity is right in front of him. Passing work is going to mean so much. The passing work.

You said there's one big question. Of course, health is there for everyone. But the big question really, assuming that every running back plays 16 games and that auto question is how is the passing game work? And that's why I love Josh Jacobs so much this year. If you go back and look at any rookie who dominated on the ground over eleven hundred yards as a rookie and then was fewer than 30 targets, they all go up. They you know, we forget sometimes that Marshawn Lynch, Todd Gurley, some of these guys came in and in their rookie year, they weren't involved in the passing game at all.

You know, they had that skill set. Final thought. You know, when you talk about flag planting on a player, I. As I answer the question that people have of witchcraft, what do you want differently because of Josh Jacobs now, people had you know, if you could draft a draft spot one, two, three. Now I want to be at 10. I want to take Josh Jacobs with my first pick because I have that much confidence in him.

So I will talk about this next my guy, because in multiple drafts this season, I have I've been at the ten in one and the eleven in the other and twice came away with my guy in round one and your guy in round two. And I'm talking about a guy that should not be surprised because I've been talking about it for a long time. Kenyon Drake.

Yeah, here we go. Let's go. Let's go down the rabbit hole of Kenyon Drake's career.

I Jason, we we do have to. Yeah. We have the podcast.

We can cut for time if we have to. Yeah. You're going to want to edit this in post OK.

Because you can't stop me right now. Yada yada yada yada yada yada. My guy, Kenyan Drake is very talented. I loved him coming out of school in twenty sixteen. Unfortunately he was drafted to the B hole when Adam Gase came to the Dolphins and they drafted me as a third running back drafted that year. How did they use him in his rookie year. He had half of his games under five percent of snaps, all but two under 20 percent.

He wasn't he wasn't used in his rookie year at all. Second year? Oh, half of his games under five percent. All but one under 20 percent. Oh, wait until Damien Williams got injured. Oh, but that's that's fun. Wait, Jay Ajayi also needed to get injured. Now, once those guys were injured, Adam Gates was like, all right, fine, I'll be fine. I drafted rookie that I that I grab and they go out.

And he dominated eleven hundred yard pace, over fifty receptions, over four hundred receiving yards, seven touchdown pace with the dolphins. So what do they do. They've got this great back. They're going into the next year they're going to use them. Right. I was excited. People were excited. No they bring in thirty five year old Frank Gore and make Kenyon Drake the backup. Kenyon Drake only had one hundred and seventy nine. Is this a pro or anti Kenyon Drake story?

This is happening, Jason.

This is pro Kanyon Drake, A. Adam Gates. These are two of my favorite things to do and I'm putting them both together here. He he had fewer touches than Frank Gore, who was not efficient or good that year. So I'm I'm saying, you know, the fallacy of rational coaching Adam case is not going to do what we necessarily think. So the question is, OK, what about the Cardinals? Twenty nineteen happened. He was traded to the cardinals.

And what did he do other than dominated? We I mean, we know what happened. We know the story. He arrived on a Monday. He dominated the forty Niners on a Thursday that week. From that time forward, he was the running back three in fantasy football behind only Derrick Henry and Christian McCaffrey, averaging eighteen point two fantasy points per game. This offseason is the first offseason he has. Three days ago he was he was talking about he now understands the why behind Cliff Kingsbury's, like he knew the play, but he didn't know why and what the goal was.

Now he understands the playbook more. Cliff Kingsbury talking about we need to get him. He said the main thing with Drake this year is any way we can get him the ball in space, we're going to try to do. He's hard to tackle one on one in space. Look, the Cardinals offense is going to take a step forward. It's Kyla's year to it's Cliff Kingsbury's year to the offense is going to be great. And Kenyan Drake is the guy.

That's the that's the big question, right? We know we see the talent on the field. It's is he actually going to be the guy? Is he going to get the workload this year? If we knew the answer to that question and it was a yes, Kenyan Drake should be a top five running back last year, whoever the the running back one was for the cardinals finished the year as the running back three. So here's the thing. We know that, in fact, it also just came out that they were aiming to go after Kenyan Drake in this past off season.

If they hadn't have traded for him, they targeted him as their guy. Then they got rid of David Johnson. Then they paid Kenyan Drake ten million dollars. He's their guy. They pay they play at such a fast pace that they just don't get the chance to be like, OK, we're going to really split this up. 60-40 It's just impossible.

Kenyan Drake is being drafted as the RB eleven. What's the ceiling? I think his ceiling is RB three where he finished. I think he absolutely could be a top five back because he's someone that will get north of fifty receptions and, you know, can have eleven, twelve hundred yards on the ground in a high powered offense. I hope you get your wish. And let me just say this about Chase Edmunds. David Johnson, because there's a lot.

Well, Chase Edmunds undervalued right by me is what he's saying, right. Yes. There's a lot of Andy saying that.

So at the end of. Last season, Chase Edmunds was fully healthy, not on the injury report after the bye week, he was there active David Johnson, they're active the entirety of the way. And they so it's like, I don't understand why there's this. Why didn't they do it last year if they think he's so good?

Well, you had never mind. I'm not even going to ask my guy. Episode Kenyan Drake. Jason's my guy number one. Mike, let's move on. All right, ladies and gentlemen, you knew this was going to happen. I had to make it happen. And I truly, truly believe. My tight end sleeper of the year Blake Jar jar when season is upon us, he is look, he's there with your last pick and it is.

Hold on, hold on. Are you calling for the blackout?

Oh, let me. Oh, let it simmer. I need to bring that to a boil, my man. Think about it. And he blackout this year.

Darwin season blackout season is upon us. It's been blacking out. All is OK. I want to I'm breaking this argument down into a couple of sections. First, I want to talk about opportunity. Here is the opportunity that was allowed to Jason Witten with Dak Prescott. Now I get Jason Witten, Hall of Fame tied in. He was not a Hall of Fame tight end at the back of the career. Look, he's had a long career. The best days are behind him and yet still.

He averaged with that eighty eight targets a game he averaged finishing the game, eighty eight targets. Thank you, Brooks. Eighty eight targets the season he was eighty eight targets. The season he averaged finishing as the tight end. Eleven. This is Jason Witten. And now I get it. The tight end. Eleven is not great. Jason Witten, like I said, past his prime because he was putting up six point six yards per target and yet the opportunity was there for Jason Witten.

Last year, Witten ran the seventh most routes at the tight end position. He was out there. He was out there for opportunity to thank you, Jason. Now, moving forward to Blake Darwin, what is available for him? He while he's the number one unquestioned number one tied in on this team that gave him a four year, twenty two million dollar deal. He is the guy with just Jason Witten and Randall Cobb gone. That's one hundred and sixty six targets that are now available.

Dak Prescott threw for nearly five thousand yards last year. That's some opportunity that is available to Blake Darwin, who still received forty one targets last year. As the backup tight in. Let's talk about efficiency. Eight point nine yards per target for Blake jawin, that's a higher yards per target than Mark Andrews, than Hunter Henry, than Noah Fant. When the guy caught the ball, he made things happen yards per route run. So which is dividing the routes by the by the yards, one point eight, two yards per route run, and I get it that that's there's not much context for that number, but that's a top 10 number at the tight end position.

Twenty one percent of Blake Darwin's routes, he was getting a target. Dak Prescott liked to go to him. Let's talk about big plays in his young career. My man, Blake John, when he already has 240 yard touchdowns, he can make the big play happen. This is not just you're hoping that in the red zone from the two, they throw it in the big tight end, goes up and gets it. Now, my favorite stat about Blake Darwin, which.

Maybe it's anecdotal, but it is it blows me away, the names that are on this list, seven tight ends ever in the history of the NFL have ever had one hundred yard game with three touchdowns. These are the names that are on that list. Rob Gronkowski, Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez, Shannon Sharpe, Julius Thomas, Alge Crumpler. There is not one slouch on that list. Blake Jawin is also on that list. Now, flukey, maybe, but if it's if it's so easy to do, why have only these tight ends done it, including Blake jawin.

He is going at the very end of drafts. Unless you're in a draft with me, you're going to have to figure out how you're drafting Blake Darwan in front of me. I don't I'm not calling for the ceiling. I'm not saying Blake. Darwin is a top three tight end, but I'm saying a tight end you can get with your last positional pick is going to be a top 10 guy. And I do believe that Blake Darwin can finish is like a top seven, a top six title.

So so my question here, because obviously we've talked about this, right, Titan, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. They don't help you that much, in fairness, even though they're a tight end one. And obviously you just outplayed that he could break out. He's running routes, there's vacated targets. He has the talent. I see the path. But what I want to know from you is what do you actually think will happen?

What not his range of outcomes. You're making him on my guy. Where do you think he actually finishes high probability? I the highest probability, like I said, actually, he will be a type top ten tight end and I be start every week. Yes. OK, I think that's the one of the better markers. Yeah, that's that's the question. Like I said, I'm not putting him up. He's not George Kittle. I made the joke that he's the next kid.

Look that's that's being hyperbolic. But I believe that you can draft Darwin and you can start him every single week and you don't have to go chase the dragon on the waiver wire opening. You're finding a tight end who get who comes down with a touchdown. You're putting a guy in your lineup that has the capability of putting up one hundred yards and three touchdowns in a single game.

The blackout. The blackout. All right. Leave. My second my guy is a player that seems to be, for whatever reason, forgotten, he put up ninety four receptions for one hundred yards and ten touchdowns last year. He is being drafted as the wide receiver.

Fifteen, yet finished last season as the wide receiver for him.

And his name is Cooper Kupp and nobody seems he finished fourth here.

He finished it for I love this pic so so much. And so I think you know we when you look at the situation in Los Angeles, the big discussion this offseason has been the switch to 12 personnel. Cooper Cups experience not being on the outside compared to being a slot wide receiver. The situation that you have when I looked at this, when I dug into what Sean McVay talked about, 12 personnel, when I look at what Cooper Kupp has done historically.

Here's the headline, SNAP counts are not predictive of Cooper Cups production snap counts at the end of last year was a product of Sean McVay giving his wide receivers who he uses as fullbacks in the running game, so often a break at the end of the year.

He put Johnny Munt tight end on the other side of Tyler Higbee on the field for 70 percent of snaps during those 12 personnel centric games.

Whoo! Yes, that's what I wanted to know when I saw that. Johnny Munt.

No disrespect, Mr. Munt. I'm just not familiar with your work. Sean. Sean McVay made a decision because he came out and said, look, we use our tight ends.

Josh Reynolds, Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods like fullbacks on our run design plays. We said, you know what, let's let Johnny Munt take a few hits instead of Cooper Kupp at the end of the year because he even he came out and said this. He said, then our wide receiver stay sharper. Cooper Cup's biggest bus games last year. Ninety eight percent snap count games. Cooper Cup's biggest week winning break out. Sixty seven percent. Seventy two percent.

Seventy one percent. It's not it when they want to go run heavy. When they do it, they schemed wide receivers off the field. Brandin Cooks and Cooper Kupp. At the end of the year, they put Higbee Higbee on the field. They put money on the field. Cooper Kupp twenty eighteen pace for Cooper Kupp That was the year he got hurt, but he played more than half or half the season. Sure. Eighty four. Eleven hundred and twelve.

Cooper Cup's result last year. Ninety four for one hundred and ten. He gets targeted in the red zone more than anyone in football, not named Michael Thomas and Keenan Allen with twenty three red zone targets, go to wide receiver number one in touchdowns last year. Elite Route runner, elite after the catch. The teams lost 70 receptions between Brandin Cooks and Todd Gurley going into this year, I think Cooper comes as much of a lock for double digit touchdowns as anybody in fantasy football.

And Mike, you've brought this point up over and over again, the absolutely abnormal touchdown percentage for Jared Goff last year. Six hundred and twenty six passing attempts in the Los Angeles offense.

Who are your weapons? Robert Wood, Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp, yeah, Gerald Everett, Tyler Higbee, I, you know, twenty two touchdowns on six hundred twenty six pass attempts last year. Anomalous. Yeah it's way too low. Kupp could have easily had 12, 14, 15 touchdowns in this offense last year if those numbers regulated to the mean. And the end of the result here is Sean McVay is an offensive mastermind. He uses his weapons.

That's why he's a mastermind in this offense. Cooper Kupp is the biggest weapon and I, I'm just shocked that a wide receiver four is going is the wide receiver fifteen right now.

The thing with me for Cooper Kupp, he is he is he is lower in my possession. Big disparity. And I've look, I've been asked, OK, who's the guy that you're you've got him ranked low and your your most your most paranoid is going to make you look the fool. And it's Cooper Kupp I, I love the player, his production, his it speaks for itself. I'm just, I'm taking my shot on what I believe the Rams are turning into but Cooper Kupp.

Could make me look the fool. Absolutely, yeah, I I'm a big fan, I'm glad you went with Cooper Kupp Andy and I think it will work out. I love having him on my team.

The upside is there, by the way, you're my guy award is in the mail Cooper and I think he's a listener of the show. He follows me on Twitter. So we'll get we'll get your award.

Is that the reason that you selected him as a my guy? We've got to dig deep on this. I only select players that follow me.

Yeah. OK, so that's why you have Colusa coming up.

Oh, my God. All right. This next, my guy I'm super excited to talk about on the Sirius XM show a couple of weeks ago, I talked about how he is criminally undervalued. He has wide receiver Tyler Lockett, a.k.a. Hurt Locker.

Thank you. But it was very nice.

This Tyler Lockett finished as the wide receiver fifteen, two years ago, and then his targets go up and he finished as the wide receiver.

Fourteen last year and now he's being drafted as the wide receiver. Twenty one in the fifth round two spots behind D came in.

Give Jason Metcalf what you take personally. I take it it's nonsense, it's criminal. And I like Dick Metcalf. This is not an anti DK Metcalf take. As you'll see, we need a history lesson on Tyler lockets.

Twenty nineteen. Oh goodness. No, no, no. This is just one season. We're OK. Here's the thing that we we talk about all the time. Don't don't look at a player's end of season rankings and forget the context of how it happened. That's part of why we love these guys, is because we remember and we're reminding you of this is how the season played out. Do you guys remember how Tyler Lockett got injured in week ten?

Do you remember that he injured his legs so bad that he was hospitalized?

I do now. Oh, well, there you go.

Yeah. Here's a quote from Pete Carroll. What? There's a quote from Pete Carroll from back from that game. He said that was the bruise. The real bad bruise. Yes, it was.

Tyler Lockett got a really a really bad lower leg bruise contusion that caused some issue we're working on. But it's a pretty severe situation right now for game night. They left him in the Bay Area Hospital as the team traveled back to Seattle. That's not normal. That's a pretty serious thing. But if you look at the game logs, oh, he didn't miss any games. Right, because their bye week was next week and still finished is the wide receiver.

Fourteen, fourteen. Here's his next two. Compelling. Here's his next two weeks after the hospitalization for for a leg contusion ready in the next two weeks. When he got back he finished with one one reception. He had one pass that was caught in those two weeks, in the two weeks man in the two weeks band that he was back from that leg injury.

He was missed two games. But we people don't know it. Yeah. Do you know what he was going up to week nine, the wide receiver before the injury?

I would love to know. He was the wide receiver for me. He was his last time before. But but Jason. Oh, no. Talking to himself. I'm leaving. Yeah. You guys take good. I got it from you. What about Deacon McCaffrey? Here's the thing. Those first nine weeks, DKA Metcalf was the wide receiver. Sixteen, they were both dominating. Tyler Lockett is part of what makes this passing offense go the rest of the season.

Tyler Lockett was the water or back up was the wide receiver. Forty nine. Jason Yes.

Voice low voice.

Sultry We don't know what he came back at ceiling his they can both be wide receiver ones. If they let Russell Cook, they will both be at least wide receivers. Tyus no matter what happened. And the thing is, is he finished the season that last month he was back, he was a wide receiver to then in the playoffs. If you don't remember, he absolutely dominates thirteen receptions, hundred and ninety six yards and a touchdown in two playoff games.

So look at the two. He had two playoff games. He had two games that he was basically injured, not on the field. That's sixteen total healthy games, not an extrapolation. Actual games played and in those sixteen games was one hundred and twenty three targets. Ninety four receptions, twelve hundred yards, nine touchdowns that would have put him wide receiver five on the season. Tyler Lockett is a superstar. He dominates reception perception. In his last one he won eighty one hundred and eighty targets.

Got there, got there. And this is thanks to clutch fantasy on on Twitter. He pointed out Michael Thomas in his last hundred and eighty targets. One hundred and forty nine receptions. Seventeen hundred yards, nine touchdowns. Julio Jones in his last one hundred and eighty targets. One hundred and eighteen receptions. Sixteen hundred yards. Nine touchdowns. Tyler Lockets. One hundred and thirty nine receptions. Twenty, twenty two yards and eighteen touchdowns. Tyler Lockett is a superstar.

He's a. In the 50s, a hidden superstar and the nice thing about that target metric stat that you have is that it does not illustrate passing volume problems for Seattle, which is why it's an illusion that dialogue is not a top talent viewed through the lens of the NFL. He's also not as enormous as Dick Metcalf, which causes people to to doubt things as well. And it's it's perfect that he's a my guy for you. I'm so glad that you and TiVo could come together in this moment.

I love you, Tyler. All right. One my guy left. All right. No history lesson. I'm going to jump in here. I'll try to keep this one a little bit more brief. It's a player from Washington. You know what's about to happen. Antonio Gibson. I love that right now.

We don't know who you're going to say. I know. We still don't know who you're going to say. Oh, that's what say Antonio Gibson is not the actual my guy.

You know that he is everyone. You already know it. Give me the credit. I want to talk about Terry McLaurin. I am madly in love with the number one wide receiver for Washington as a rookie, a rookie, he finished with ninety three targets over nine hundred yards, seven touchdowns. His rookie production is incredibly similar to Andre Johnson, Julio Jones, Juju, Deshawn Jackson. These are great wide receivers in the league. He played two fewer games than the aforementioned DK Metcalf, you know, who finish higher in fantasy, Terry McLaurin.

And he's being drafted behind DKA. Matt Casey. Really? Yes. Despite the fact that Terry McLaurin is the unquestioned number one wide receiver for his team, he opened again as a rookie. He opened the season with three straight top twenty games, was in fact the wide receiver eight through those weeks. And this was on a team that ranked twenty eighth and pass attempts and ranked thirtieth in neutral situation pass rate, meaning when the game is close that Washington last year they ran.

They were a very curmudgeonly we're going to give the ball to Adrian Peterson. And now they have moved on to Ron Rivera and Scott Turner, who last year that combo between the two of them, second in pass attempts, fourth in neutral game script pass rate. They were passing nearly forty times a game. So you're talking potentially a huge opportunity bump here for Terry McLaurin. Coach speak warning. I've given the warning here, but this is do you want me to push the coach back?

But we we right. We really need one. But Ron Rivera talking about Terry McLaurin. He's a guy that could be on the verge of stardom. He really is. He compared him to Jim Moore. Who? D.J. Moore. This is what happens, a better physical comp to. And this is what happened with D.J. Moore from his rookie year to his sophomore year. With the breakout, D.J. Moore went from eighty two targets to one hundred and thirty five.

D.J. Moore was averaging five targets a game and shot up to nine and a half targets per game. Terry McLaurin is a top four percent speed score guy. I found this incredible while I was researching Terry McLaurin, you know, who asked Terry McLaurin for tips on route running Odell Beckham Junior. You know what I like about the game more, Mike? What's that? They didn't have any quarterbacks in Carolina last year, and it didn't matter. It didn't slow the breakout down.

I would go with that. D.J. Moore was able to get it done. Now, if you want to talk about his reception perception, Terry McLaurin had the third best score versus press coverage in rookie history in the in the entire metric of perception perception. Who's in front of him? Odell Beckham and Tyreek Hill.

He passed the eyeball test. He's well, last year. He did watch him.

He passed it week one. Nearly thirty percent of McLarens targets are deep targets. They are the really high value targets. I mean, he could take those more screens to the house, the entrance to the house, but he can also go deep. He had three games with one hundred plus yards and a touchdown that's tied with DeAndre Hopkins, Mike Evans, Julio Jones. Terry McLaurin is a superstar in the making. We just need to get a little a little bit more reliable play from the quarterback, which I do believe is do you believe can happen on top of the huge volume increase that I'm projecting from Washington from last year to this year with the new coaching staff being drafted as the wide receiver.

Twenty three finish this year as the wide receiver. What? What where do I have them finishing? Yeah, where do you think he finishes? I think he easily finishes as a top 15 guy and the ceiling for Terry McLaurin is a top ten wide receiver.

OK, all right. My final. My guy. He did not have a great he did not have a great time last year because it was a difficult situation, but this is really the OG, my guy of the entire year. He's he's what? What are you looking at? Are you pivoting back to AJ Green?

No, no, no, no, I'm not. Same team, though. Nice. One of my favorite pair of runners in all of football. Joe Mixon is my third my guy for twenty twenty. How bad was it for Joe Mixon trying to run the football with what he had in Cincinnati last year? They graded out thirty two of thirty two teams and run blocking thirty second best. Thirty second best this year. Oh by the way he had a combination of Andy Dalton and Ryan Finley behind center, the worst offensive line in football, the worst record in football.

They have trouble now because of it.

What how did he respond to that? Watch the tape. He ran harder, faster, more often, didn't break down, broke out. Now he gets Jonah Williams there, left tackle, by the way, he ran right more than anybody in football, he just ran away from the absence of Jonah Williams on the left side. It cannot be worse on the offensive line and at the quarterback position than what they had last year. And I was just so incredibly impressed with Joe Mixon, much like Josh Josh Jacobs, my first my guy, who I think is this season long breakout, you have to see top five potential in a stretch of games.

Mixing, I think, is one of the best runners in all of football. And over the last eight weeks, with the worst offensive line in football, he was the RB four from week 10 on. You saw it against Pittsburgh, you saw it against Baltimore. And it wasn't just a burse game here. There he was, top five. He he had it consistently throughout the end of the year. So he ran harder. And I love seeing that because this team was losing games.

I don't know what they lost the Baltimore by, but they had a game in there where they lost forty nine to 12 or something like that. Yet Zach Taylor recognized something really quickly and that's why Mixon SNAP Count started to go up. They started to trust him in all phases of the game. They started to realize and did unleash Joe Mix. Do you worry at all that what he realized was we can get that number one pick, let's keep handing the ball off while we're down?

While his comments this offseason reflect what I think he realized, which is that he says this, he says and this from the Brian Callahan, The O.C. gets better the more carries he gets. As the season went along, we got better at getting him those touches. When he's getting the ball, quote, 20 plus times the total of the end of the game means his numbers are usually pretty good. He's effective in terms of touches we didn't see much like Josh Jacobs.

We didn't see the incredible pass catching work from Joe Mixon. His skill set reflects incredible pass catching capability, but we didn't get to see a lot of it. Joe Burrow is who supplied incredible value to Clyde Edwards, Olerud, LSU. I believe he had a fifty five receptions.

Oh, my goodness. They want to get him. When you looked at the pass catching metrics for Joe Mixon last year. It was on par with Austin Ekeler that's the talent level that you had with Joe Mixon in terms of yards per reception at the at the running back position, he just didn't have somebody to get him the ball on the reg like he did the year before.

When you have an offensive coordinator who wants to give a running back, 20 plus carries somebody who runs as who is as talented as Joe Mixon. I am shooting for the Josh Jacobs Joe Mixon combination in at the end of the first top of the second, I think both have potential to be top five running backs. So I'm going to make Joe Mixon my last, my guy.

All righty. Let's get to my final. Got it down, J. I don't think it's going to be a surprise to anyone because I'm going to Hollywood.

Hollywood Marqise, Hollywood Brown is my third and final, my guy for 20 20 here is a player that I loved when I scouted Baker Mayfield a couple of years ago and I was like, who is this little itty bitty guy destroying everybody?

And I didn't know who Maki's Brown was at that time. I didn't know if he was actually an NFL talent. Fast forward two years and unfortunately, he is injured. He can't go to the combine. He is undersized. Oh, he's the first wide receiver drafted in the NFL draft because he is actually really, really good. We see him come out, you know, first game as an NFL wide receiver and put up one hundred and forty seven yards.

Touchdown the Dolphins game. Yeah, he did that on eighteen percent of snaps. So you kind of see the big play upside. But he obviously got injured.

An ankle injury through the season, I believe that was in week five, missed a couple of games, came back and then wasn't really utilized the same. They kept his snap percentages lower, obviously, in the playoffs when it mattered. And they're like they were actually down for once. I mean, you saw seven receptions, one hundred and twenty six yards. He was great. Now, I've talked about him a lot, so I'm not going to, you know, keep droning on.

But I do want to give a shout out to Curtis Patrick. Great follow on Twitter, because I was tagged about a million times in an article that he wrote Talking Up Maki's Hollywood Brown.

A very persuasive article. It is. It has some great research. And here was his findings, because I've given all my research in the past. First round rookie wide receivers, he checks that box, who had five targets per game in their rookie year, checks that box and had a positive fantasy points, overexpectation per attempt. He checks that box. Those that do those three things. Ninety percent score over 200 fantasy points per game and they averaged two hundred and thirty seven and a half fantasy points per game in their sophomore season.

That would be the wide receiver. Ten, the wide receiver, fifteen, the wide receiver, twelve over the past three seasons. And the only guys who had as much this efficiency as Hollywood Brown did were Calvin Ridley, Odell Beckham Jr., Julio Jones and Mike Evans. He was drafted to be a star. He's tied to a great offense, a great quarterback. He also plays.

Yes, voice of public opinion.

What if they signed Dez Bryant?

Oh, please sign out right now, because maybe that means they won't sign Antonio Brown. Antonio Brown would have me a little bit more worried, who is, ironically, the cousin of Hollywood Brown, who they train together, which is, hey, if you're going to learn from someone, maybe learn some tips from your cousin Antonio.

You're only learning about Antonio. Yeah, let's keep it on the football aspect. But my point is this. He was drafted to be great. He's tied to a great offense. He's undervalued. He's in the sixth round. And I don't think he's going to be a super consistent player. He's not a guy that I want is my wide receiver one. But in the sixth round, you're putting a guy in your flex that can just win you a week.

I think he has a major breakout season this year. He's a lock for wide receiver two. To me, I think his upside is a wide receiver one. Hollywood, Hollywood. Up to no good. All right, that'll do it for my guys episode we want to thank pristine auction. This is the final day of Pristine Auctions Fantasy Week. They have an auction dedicated to all the fantasy football stars, all kinds of items. Bidding starts at twenty dollars.

No reserves. Use the code ballers to get a ten dollar credit at pristine auction dot com.

We did it, guys. We made it named the top nine fantasy scores for 2020 in order of fantasy points. I believe it. I can't believe we did it. Unbelievable. See you tomorrow. Goodbye. 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 Fabulous.