We are so excited as always to welcome in one of the finest minds in
the world of football, our good friend, Joe Dolan, the owner and
operator of Fantasy points dot Com. Joe, welcome back to the show,
buddy. Hey guys, it's great to be with you. Good, that's
good to be talking with you. The NFL is in kind of a lull
here right now, but well that means fantasy football is really starting to creep
up. We have a big charity tournament across the fantasy football universe is going
down now, and it's just that we're I believe, just nine Sundays away
from from week number one. I like that. I like that. That
sounds better than fifty eight days. I like that night. We can handle
line Sundays, right, we can do that. That's not bad. We'll
get through it together. Follow us work at Fantasy points dot Com. We'll
give him a chance to promote all the great things that are coming up in
the Fantasy points world. Joe, we are a big question of the day
today. We've got to ask its a horrible question, in a big gay,
in a big game setting, who would you take if you had to
take one of these guys Dak Prescott or Kirk Cousins. Right now, Prescott,
there you go out a boy. I like it, like at that.
You know, it's hard, it's hard to separate. It's just like
I've at least seen Prescott play in big games. Uh right, yeah,
I mean he's lost them, but I've seen but I've seen him play in
them. So no, I would take I would take Prescott over Cousins,
you know, But I mean, I I think they're two sides are the
same point. And in my in my industry, I'm I'm fine with those
guys, Like yeah, Target, Seedy Lamb one hundred and eighty times,
please do. I mean, like that's what I want to see Target justin
Jefferson one hundred and fifty times Target. I think Fisher would be Drake London
and Kyle Pitt with all of those guys. But no, I would take
Prescott just because I've seen him play in those big games and I feel like
I trust him a little more. Cousins. You know, any given week,
you can see those guys kind of carve up an NFL team, but
you've also seen the brutal mistakes and the one thing I know, I'm not
exactly making the cakes for my guy here that I I mean, it's it's
it's a mid off we're having here. Let's be honest. But you know
you'll see somebody like there. There are there are people on Twitter and in
the discourse who are big Dak Prescott fenders who would argue that Dak Prescott gets
an overload of hate simply because he's the Cowboys quarterback. And I think we
saw that with Tony Romo, and I think there's an element of truth to
that. But one of the arguments that was made was Dak Prescott wasn't the
reason they lost that game to the to the Packers. You know, he
threw for four hundred and three touchdowns fourth fall, they grew for four hundred
three touchdowns, they probably would have won the game. He threw for four
d and pretty yards and three touchdowns. Get what a load of bs that
is? They were behind from the opening kickoff because he turned the ball over
like three times in the first quarter, Like you can't turn it over?
It picked six out of you can't you just yeah, and it's empty calories
at that point. That's a great point. And when you look at the
aggregate stats, which I did a couple of weeks ago. You get to
factor that in that you know, hey, his his numbers are better than
Aikman, better than Romo in the playoffs. But again you're not factoring in
situational numbers, which comes into play. Yeah, and if you look at
the with the exception of a guy like Marino, if you look at the
early nineties or eighty stats, they're just not going to stack up with the
guys of today's today's NFL. I mean I remember growing up well when I
was you know, you're playing mad An NFL and a quarterback has a one
hundred passer rating. You think that guy is Joe Montana on top of Dan
Marino, on top of of you know, like the greatest quarter ever.
Now, if you don't have one hundred pass rating your garment, it's just,
you know, the stats have changed so much that you can't it's so
hard to compare Troy Aikman to Dak Prescott because undoubtedly Dak Krescott has way better
numbers than Troy Aikman. But after cowboy fan, who is the better quarterback?
Joe Dolan. Last time we spoke on this show, you you made
the prediction, but this sort of oh goodness, gross suit. Joe Dolan
has officially had it with Cowboys talk. He knew another one was coming now.
He said, get the hell up out of here with that business.
Uh, we got a whole tech support. We got Joe Dolan back with
us here. Joe, as as as we interrupted you, I think that
was on our end here. I want to let you know that he's with
Fantasy points dot Com And at the end of this interview, I want to
give people a chance to really get a deep dive into what you're doing out
there, because it's just fantastic work. But on the Cowboys, you had
talked to us during our last interview about Cede Lamb and the possibility that looked
two hundred targets maybe this year. Are you standing on business with that?
Do you still feel like that's where they're heading because you look around the roster
and that's about what they've got. They didn't make any improvements. Yeah,
you know, like, look, I don't think Michael Gallop wasn't any good
last year. The Cowboys. The part of the problem for them is they
completely misread the wide receiver market two years ago and gave away Amari Cooper,
and it was just it was a dumb move. But two hundred targets for
Ceedee Lamb, given that the Cowboys didn't make any reasonable improvements at the receiving
spot, I mean, they have this. They have an undrafted kid that
they've been talking up in training camp. They drafted a receiver by the name
of Ryan Flornoy in the sixth round. And you know, I'm not going
to discount the chance that they sat unearthed a gem, but look like that's
a low probability back. They picked up Cavante Topin, who's more of a
return guy. He's the smallest player in the NFL. Obviously he's been a
good returner. But look, just look, Brandon Cooks is a year older.
Jalen Tolbert has just they've drafted him in the third round. A couple
of years ago. He flashed, but not more than that. And Seedee
Lamb led the NFL with one hundred and seventy nine targets last year. And
so I'm sitting here looking at a guy who caught one hundred and thirty five
passes on one hundred and seventy nine targets. I mean, he caught seventy
five percent of it of the balls thrown in his way, which is a
really high rate, especially for an outside receiver. But what I mean,
if we're asking Steedee Lamb to break the single season reception record, which I
think he can do. I'm not betting on that happened, because you've never
been on anybody to break records. But you're asking him to catch less than
one extra pass a game, and he can do that. He caught one
hundred and thirty five last year. Like for fantasy football, we know he's
a target hound. We know Dak Prescott throws in the ball with a lacrity.
He's my number one wide receiver on the board pretty easily this year,
Joe, I think I've pretty much beaten all the Steelers questions into the ground.
We know that they're going to run the ball a lot that George Pickens's
wide receiver one Russ is gonna cook. I want to switch to more of
like a generalized, I guess fantasy type of question, more like quarterback.
So obviously, last year, I don't think any of us could have predicted
the way C J. Stroud just kind of hit the scene and exploded into
Houston's Texans. Do you see a team with a rookie quarterback that is maybe
primed and ready that could make that same trajectory this year? And a little
bit of a follow up as far as c J. Stroud, do you
think he hits that sophomore slump if you will, or does he kind of
continue in the trajectory that we've already seen him in. Well? J.
Shroud, but let me answer that part first. He had arguably the greatest
rookie season we've ever seen from a quarterback. If he developed in that in
that way, he might be the best quarterback in the NFL by year three.
I don't know if that's gonna happen. I just was very impressed with
him and they You know, the thing about the thing about the Texans is
their supporting cast was way better last year than I think we could have anticipated.
Nico Collins was one of those players who had kind of flashed, but
not more than that. And then Tank Dell was a revelation as a rookie
so and their offensive line was a little better. So, look, Stroud
is getting drafted. He's kind of like quarterback five right now, quarterback six.
I think he's getting drafted close to his feeling for fantasy because he's not
a runner, He's he's a pocket passer. So that's the situation. You
know. Actually, last year I was drafting Bryce Young a ton because I'm
like, you know, this kid was the number one overall pick, and
what if he's really good? And it turned out that that fantasy analysis was
not good. But if I applied the exact same line of thinking to c
J. Stroud instead, I would have looked like a genius because that team.
So now I'm not I'm sure you guys on this program have compared Bryce
Young to c jh Shroud enough. I'm not going to do that, But
you asked the question. You asked the question about rookies this year. It's
hard to find a perfect analog here because for a couple of reasons. Number
one, I don't think Drake May is going to start week one. They
have Jacobe Brissett and their entire so the Patriots entire supporting cast is cheap this
year, so you can dabble in that it may blows people away, but
I don't think he's going to start week one. This time last year,
we pretty much knew c J. Stroud was going to start. Caleb Williams,
we know he's going to start, but he's being drafted as if he's
going to start. He's a top twelve quarterback off the board, and all
three of his top wide receivers are drafted inside the top forty at the position,
so they're expensive. H The Jade and Daniels is expensive because I think
Jade and Daniels floor as a fantasy actset is Justin Fields, a guy who
couldn't hit the broad side of a barn but could run run all around.
Michael Pennix is not going to play this year. In a perfect I just
still can't believe that. I cannot believe a team, in a perfect scenario
draft and the player who's not going to play this year a team that needs
rible, a team that needs a lot of things, including pass rush.
It's a luxury pick. Let's wark two rolexes, not one. The So
I guess J. J. McCarthy is the best bet because McCarthy's got a
good supporting cast. The issue is he's probably not going to start Week one.
They still have been talking about Sam Garnold, you know, Justin Jefferson.
They've got Jordan Addison Howkinson's gonna miss about half the season. But you've
got two good receivers. They signed Aaron Jones, who's a really good back.
Their offensive line is strong. So the best bets to be this year
c J Stroud or probably JJ McCarthy. And the forgotten rookie who probably is
going to start Week one is Bo Nicks, the six of the six quarterback
who was drafted and nobody wants the Broncos and fantasy this year. No,
what what are we throwing to there? Sutton? Maybe Courtland Sutton? Courtland
Suton's upset about his contract. The problem for Courtland Sutton is all these guys
who got paid this off season are better than him. Yeah, and the
Probcos don't want to throw that kind of money to a guy that who like
I mean, I guess the closest conference Sutton is probably his former teammate Jerry
Judy, who got a lot of money and never has really been a big
time receiver. But uh so, Bo Nicks. If this is a quarterback
who Sean Payton hand picked and he can coach him into that offense and have
him be some sort of Drew Breesian player, I can see the Broncos taking
step forward, and all their receivers are cheap. They have a second year
receiver by the name of Marvin min who flash last year but was mostly a
return man. But if your fantasy league has return yardage, which is going
to be very important this year with a new kickoff rule, yeah you know
he could, he could, he could step up. They drafted Troy flank
Franklin out of Oregon in the fifth round. Now that he was one of
those guys. There's always a there's always a receiver or two, or a
running back or two who people project is going to be like a second round
pick and then he falls to Day three for whatever reason. He was that
guy this year. But so the Broncos are the one team, just like
the Texans last year, Nobody wanted the Textans for fantasy. Nobody wants the
Broncos for fantasy this year. Maybe that could be the guy. I just
don't think. I don't think Nicks is the level of prospect that Stroud was.
And I even I'm even talking before we knew what Stroud did. Like,
I thought Stroud was a better prospect than Nick, even though I thought
Bryce Young's is the better prospect. Of the two. Joe Owens, our
guest here Fantasy points dot Com. Joe, give me a quick couple of
minutes here on the Jacksonville Jaguars their offense, just from the NFL perspective at
large, in a fantasy perspective, what do you make of what happened last
year and what's your projection moving forward on this particular group. Yeah, so
I struggle with Trevor Lawrence because the tape knowers tell me that Trevor Lawrence is
great, and Trevor Lawrence, you know, his offense wasn't helped out,
you know by the playpong, which I think is true, and the receivers
dropped a lot of passes and then I just don't see the numbers. But
they paid them, Yeah they do. They paid them like like, and
I would have paid them too. Like. I'm not trying to sit in
here and tell you that Trevor Lawrence thinks that's not the case. I can
tell you the biggest problem I have with Jacksonville Doug Peterson. I'm not trying
to say he would still be the coach in Philadelphia, but in twenty twenty,
after the twenty twenty season, he would have still been the coach in
Philamadelphia had he fired Press Taylor the offensive coordinator. I know that for a
fact, and he refused to do it, and that's why they fired Doug.
The Eagles were more than prepared to move on from Carson Wentz and not
Doug Peterson, but they wanted Doug to make an offensive coordinator change. He
wouldn't do it. Do you don't who the offensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Jaguars
is. There would be one Press Taylor. It is Press Tail. So
he Doug's boy. And let me tell you, Jaguar fans do not like
him very much. And it's hard for me to separated by the way.
They lost their number one wide receiver this offseason, Calvin Ridley to the division
rival to Titans. There are team that's at an interesting inflection point because I
think they misused Calvin Ridley for a lot of last year. I don't think
Calvin Ridley's an X receiver. I think Calvin Ridley's a Z. And when
they hadn't Calvin Ridley lined up on the line of scrimmage, he was getting
gobbled up by press coverage. He's a guy that you want moving around off
the line of scrimmage trying to get separations. So they lost him, but
they brought in two guys who, in theory could actually beat Exus. They
signed Gave Davis, who gave Davis is the cardio king of the NFL.
He ran, he ran wind sprints for the Buffalo Bills, and every now
and again he would he would get a target. But it was you know,
I think everybody remembers that four touchdown game in the playoffs, and he's
capable of doing that flash player. And then there's Brian Thomas, who's kind
of in a way the forgotten receiver from the first round because of his Big
three and I'm I think Thomas, and Thomas was the second receiver drafted from
his own team. He's kind of the lynchpin player for them in my opinion,
Like, if he can, if he can be like the prospect they
drafted him to be, I think that can help Trevor Lawrence get unlocked and
the Jaguars can kind of take that next step. But right now that offense
seems a little rudderless, and the fact that it's got so many new pieces
in there have me a little reticent to invest heavily into them. Go follow
this man at FG Underscore Dolan on x and all the social media platforms out
there. At Fantasy Points, he's the owner and managing editor plug time.
Come on, let's talk about what's coming up on the site there. Well,
so we have a charted. We have our Fantasy Points data which is
self charted, not by me, by a staff, and it has a
really really interactive and sulterable suite of stats. Everything that I throw out here
is based off of that, and we have some really cool tools coming with
that. And also, if you want to hear more of me for some
reason, John Hanson, who was the founder of Fantasy Points and industry pioneer
Yes and longtime host on Serious Extent Fantasy Sports radio, he stepped away from
hosting the daily radio show on Monday through Friday mornings from seven to nine Eastern
and I'm now in there. So that's what I do. Congrass a little
promotion for your boys. The problem is I'm not a morning person, so
I've been trying to adjust my routine to account for that. Neither are we.
But you sound great as always, Joe. It's good to catch up
with you and uh come football season, your fanny will be in the studio.
My friend make the trip down the mountain. Let's go. I appreciate
it. Yeah, I mean I'm right up at tr so near PR.
I'm actually in the Greenville City, not in tr I'm near tr I'm tr
Ish. I love it. See you, Joe, thank you so much.
All Right, buddy, We'll see you later. Joe Dolan, Fantasy
points dot com