Speaker 1: Welcome to the Auction Brief.
Speaker 2: There's a joy in these games.
Speaker 1: Taking you on a journey through fantasy.
Speaker 2: Football, the law, and life. We saw your depends on
Speaker 2: how much you want, and now you're legal analyst and
Speaker 2: auction draft expert here to help you dominate your fantasy drafts.
Speaker 3: Your host, Drew Davenport, there are full hearts.
Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, Welcome into the Auction Brief. As the lady said,
Speaker 2: I'm your host, Drew Davenport, and thank you so much
Speaker 2: for joining me for another episode. As you know, we
Speaker 2: have one goal here on the Auction Brief, and that
Speaker 2: is to help all of you win more titles. And
Speaker 2: one of the ways that we do that is by
Speaker 2: bringing the best and brightest minds in the fantasy community
Speaker 2: on here from my weekly disc Dicussions with Drew. These
Speaker 2: conversations are there to help you with the most difficult
Speaker 2: fantasy situations you're going to face in your drafts this summer.
Speaker 2: Let's not delay. Let's get right to this week's guest
Speaker 2: on another installment of Discussions with Drew.
Speaker 3: Time for Discussions with Drew, in depth conversations with the
Speaker 3: brightest minds in the fantasy industry.
Speaker 2: Welcome into this week's discussions with Drew, we're running it
Speaker 2: back another year with Fantasy Analyst Extraordinaire Matt Harmon. I
Speaker 2: think that's his new title. We're going to give him
Speaker 2: Fantasy Analyst Extraordinaire. But you can find Matt in a
Speaker 2: lot of different places. He's got Reception Perception dot Com,
Speaker 2: which we're going to talk a little bit about how
Speaker 2: they've expanded their contact quite a bit. And he's also
Speaker 2: over there with a little mom and pop operation called
Speaker 2: Yahoo Fantasy Sports. So you can find Matt doing a
Speaker 2: lot of different things. I'm going to let him tell
Speaker 2: you about that. But Matt, thank you so much for
Speaker 2: coming on the show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's good to be able to, you know, support
Speaker 1: a local small business like Yahoo.
Speaker 4: It's good that you were able to get me out here.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you as always having me Andrew. We have
Speaker 1: like an annual little chat at this point. It didn't
Speaker 1: around this time in the calendar. And then we get
Speaker 1: to see each other sooner than ever here with the
Speaker 1: expo coming up in less than two weeks, not like
Speaker 1: a week here pretty much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I can't believe it. We were just having
Speaker 2: that conversation off the air that it just feels like
Speaker 2: it squeezed this summer. But you know, we still have
Speaker 2: time after the expo that we didn't have before. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm excited to see you and hang out and and
Speaker 2: you know, reconnect and this is a fun annual thing
Speaker 2: for me. My listeners have spoken and they've said that
Speaker 2: Matt Harmon does a great show. So hey, we're going
Speaker 2: to keep running it back as long as you will.
Speaker 2: Let us tell me a little bit about Reception Perception
Speaker 2: dot com for those that don't know, and you know
Speaker 2: where you can find your work in general.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Reception Perception dot com. Right now working on kind
Speaker 1: of some more so established veteran players. I think at
Speaker 1: this point every year I kind of try to bucket
Speaker 1: the groups of players that I drop at a particular time.
Speaker 1: So obviously after prospects after the draft, do like the
Speaker 1: guys that were rookies last year, so incoming year two
Speaker 1: players and then year three and then year four, and
Speaker 1: right now I'm working on the guys that are kind
Speaker 1: of going into that like years five to seven of
Speaker 1: their careers. So that will be dropped actually the Monday
Speaker 1: after the expo July twenty seven.
Speaker 4: That'll come out that full player drop.
Speaker 1: Drake London, Nicocollins, Garrett Wilson, DeVante Smith. I know some
Speaker 1: interesting players that you know are going to be in
Speaker 1: there or that people want to check out. And we've
Speaker 1: got some new tools on the site as well, including
Speaker 1: my Dynasty rankings tool and a player comparison tool that
Speaker 1: I think people have really been enjoying seeing how like
Speaker 1: different this kind of helps you put into context, you know,
Speaker 1: all right, this is what this guy's sort of profile
Speaker 1: indicates based on some players that he compares to.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, and you've expanded some of the content over there.
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's what you want to call it,
Speaker 2: but you've got some quarterback and running back information over
Speaker 2: there as well, so it's not just a wide receiver
Speaker 2: one stop shop. Who have you got behind the charting
Speaker 2: over there with the quarterbacks and running backs?
Speaker 1: Yeah, last year we rolled out the running back charting.
Speaker 1: That's James co the that's what James is doing, the
Speaker 1: running back charting. He's really dove into that the last
Speaker 1: couple of years here, and we're starting to get a
Speaker 1: pretty good database, so we kind of know where where
Speaker 1: like the data is indicating. And I always say, you know,
Speaker 1: this was the most difficult part about doing the receiver
Speaker 1: analysis early on is that you know, I would have
Speaker 1: all these data points, but you didn't. Like I said
Speaker 1: some things in the first couple of years of charting
Speaker 1: the position that I would definitely not say now, you know,
Speaker 1: because receiver is so context dependent and everything like that.
Speaker 1: So I think that's been the cool thing about the
Speaker 1: second year of running back data. Now quarterbacks we have
Speaker 1: actually had on the site dating back to the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two season. We've just had a different person doing
Speaker 1: it every year based on like the first person that
Speaker 1: we doing it was Derek Klassen, who now co hosts
Speaker 1: the Athletic Football Show, so he's moved on and up,
Speaker 1: and now we have Alfredo Brown writing the quarterback profiles
Speaker 1: for us. So he's been doing great work with that.
Speaker 1: I've really enjoyed reading his profiles, and I think it's
Speaker 1: gonna bring It's brought something cool to the site this
Speaker 1: year to have him doing that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and maybe that's why I thought it was new
Speaker 2: because I saw Alfredo in there, and I know that
Speaker 2: you could just you know, recently come on with you guys, so.
Speaker 4: Well, I think that's the fun thing.
Speaker 1: Funny thing is, like I think because we've had three
Speaker 1: guys doing the quarterback profiles essentially the since it launched,
Speaker 1: it was class and for a couple of years, who's
Speaker 1: more like embedded in the NFL space that we had
Speaker 1: Corey Kinnon doing it in one year he's more embedded
Speaker 1: in the NFL draft space. Now we have Alfredo doing it,
Speaker 1: who's more known in the fantasy space. So I think
Speaker 1: that's been like why he's the fantasy folks are seeing
Speaker 1: the quarterback charting out because Alfredo is doing a great
Speaker 1: job like throwing it out there and everything.
Speaker 4: So yeah, it's been it's been great.
Speaker 1: It's James and are trying to come up with different
Speaker 1: ways where we can match the quarterback data two wide receivers, like, oh,
Speaker 1: this guy's a good fit with this player in this
Speaker 1: particular area. So we're looking to hopefully kind of do
Speaker 1: more and more of that.
Speaker 2: Well, that's yeah, that's awesome. That sounds great. And the
Speaker 2: conversations that I always have with you are always enlightening,
Speaker 2: and I know your work is as well. So I
Speaker 2: encourage everyone not only listen to to Matt's shows, and
Speaker 2: there's a lot of conversations that pop up on my
Speaker 2: timeline that I love too, And I think I just
Speaker 2: saw one today talking about Nico Collins. It was Nico
Speaker 2: versus London Drink London.
Speaker 4: Yep. Yeah, yeah, I haven't watched it yet, yep. Okay,
Speaker 4: yeah cool, I won't spoil it for you.
Speaker 2: Then yes, I want to watch it. And so Boone?
Speaker 2: Is Boone going to be there in Campon?
Speaker 4: You should be there? Yep?
Speaker 2: Ex excellent. That guy has never turned me down for
Speaker 2: a drink, which I love. There are some people that
Speaker 2: when I say, hey, you want to you need a drink,
Speaker 2: and they always say yes, they instantly become some of
Speaker 2: my favorite people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say, yeah, one hundred percent success rate
Speaker 1: with Boone and.
Speaker 2: All drink you bet, you bet. We're peas in a pod.
Speaker 2: So I'm excited that he's going to be there too.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, let's talk a little bit about and
Speaker 2: I'm sorry to do this to you again. I'm pigeonholing
Speaker 2: you a little bit here or a lot bit talking
Speaker 2: about receivers. But hey, you're just really good at it.
Speaker 2: And would you say.
Speaker 4: That's what I'm here for?
Speaker 2: Man? Yeah? Great, great, that's a good attitude. To have
Speaker 2: because sometimes it feels like, you know, I get pigeonholed too.
Speaker 2: Hey call this guy up and ask him about Josh Jacobs.
Speaker 2: But you know, your information is extremely valuable. I follow you.
Speaker 2: Your opinions carry a lot of weight with me, and
Speaker 2: I know they do with my audience. So let's talk
Speaker 2: about some of these guys. Yeah, you bet, even you've
Speaker 2: earned it. But let's talk about some of these guys
Speaker 2: that I just have some questions about some of these
Speaker 2: guys that maybe you can answer for me. And so
Speaker 2: I've titled the section of the show Receivers to Believe
Speaker 2: in question mark, can we believe in these guys? And
Speaker 2: the first guy that I want to talk about is
Speaker 2: in Pittsburgh because there is a little bit of steam
Speaker 2: behind Michael Pittman, and I think that a lot of
Speaker 2: people are drawing the connection between the fact that Aaron
Speaker 2: Rodgers isn't throwing the ball deep as much anymore, or
Speaker 2: isn't doing it as well anymore either, and that Michael
Speaker 2: Pittman might be a better fit with Aaron Rodgers. That
Speaker 2: I saw was your opinion that came across my timeline recently.
Speaker 2: Now people are starting to wake up to it a
Speaker 2: little bit, but he's still wide receiver forty one and
Speaker 2: ADP right now, that's extremely cheap. What's a realistic expectation
Speaker 2: for Pittman in his first year with Aaron Rodgers? And
Speaker 2: and what do you think about that that wide receiver
Speaker 2: forty one price tag? And we have a really realistic
Speaker 2: expectation for what kind of target share he can get
Speaker 2: there because it feels like this stuff gets like a
Speaker 2: runaway train kind of fuel and it's like, oh, you
Speaker 2: get ninety five catches, like I don't you know, we're
Speaker 2: not going to see that. But what's realistic about Pittman
Speaker 2: this year?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think, by the way, what a name to start
Speaker 1: off with, you know, Michael Pittman. That's the way to
Speaker 1: lead the show right there. But yeah, yeah, don't be mean,
Speaker 1: but no, listen, I love Michael Pipman. I've been a
Speaker 1: long time Michael Pittman fan and working on him back
Speaker 1: in you know, when the trade happened, essentially, because that's
Speaker 1: how I do this site is when guys get traded
Speaker 1: or you know they're going to be eligible for a
Speaker 1: free agency, they're the first ones that get dropped on
Speaker 1: the site.
Speaker 4: Back in March so.
Speaker 1: When he gets traded, and you know, kind of had
Speaker 1: a pretty good indication that he was going to end
Speaker 1: up getting moved, so I'd already started working on a profile,
Speaker 1: and my first thought was, man if Rogers is the
Speaker 1: quarterback of this team. Yeah, he's a perfect fit, like
Speaker 1: you said, and that's I maintained that opinion. Now very
Speaker 1: interesting that they draft Jeremy Bernard too in Round two
Speaker 1: of the NFL Draft, because I think they kind of
Speaker 1: have like a little bit of a similar ish skill
Speaker 1: set and would be aligned in a similar way. I
Speaker 1: think they will rotate between the slot and Z receiver
Speaker 1: position those two guys, while DK Metcalf almost exclusively handles
Speaker 1: the X receiver duties, So that will be fascining to
Speaker 1: see who ends up taking more as I would bet
Speaker 1: it is Pittman because he is just super reliable. He's
Speaker 1: always in the right place at the right time. He's
Speaker 1: been a high quality zone beater pretty much throughout the
Speaker 1: course of his career in reception perception when he's been healthy,
Speaker 1: which he was for the most part last year, was
Speaker 1: not really healthy the year prior, So I just think
Speaker 1: the way he gets open quickly, the way he settles
Speaker 1: into zones, especially on these like quick hitch routes and
Speaker 1: quick outs like flats and things of that nature. Those
Speaker 1: are really the throws that Rodgers is taking now at
Speaker 1: this point, he will every now and again uncork vertical
Speaker 1: pass and you're like, man, he's still got it in there.
Speaker 1: He just just just doesn't take those throws very often
Speaker 1: because he's you know, forty two or whatever years old
Speaker 1: and doesn't want to get hit. So I do think
Speaker 1: there's a real chance. And again I pretty much believe
Speaker 1: this since they draft, since they got Michael Pittman and
Speaker 1: it was confirmed. We all kind of knew it for
Speaker 1: a while, was confirmed Rogers will be back. Just had
Speaker 1: to do the whole song and dance with that. I
Speaker 1: think the odds are even that. You know, Pittman leads
Speaker 1: the team in receptions over DK Metcalf this year, So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean from a fantasy perspective, I think the only
Speaker 1: my hesitation with him, and just I would be curious
Speaker 1: about your opinion on this. He just goes in a
Speaker 1: range where there's just so many young receivers that I like,
Speaker 1: you know that I think they've just got a higher
Speaker 1: theoretical ceiling. But my colleague at a Yahoo, Scott Pinowsi
Speaker 1: always says, like we all know, yes, upside wins championships.
Speaker 1: That's the that's them. That's the talking point for sure.
Speaker 1: And it is right, like you want to land on
Speaker 1: those big swings, but you still need a couple of
Speaker 1: like solid ADP beaters to be to build your team around.
Speaker 1: And I do think at wide receiver forty one, there's
Speaker 1: a chance you could get a little bit of profit
Speaker 1: on Pittman in that range.
Speaker 2: You need your Jacobe Meyers, Michael Pittman, guys that you
Speaker 2: know can get you ten points in that half PPR
Speaker 2: format or whatever. And when you say that he should
Speaker 2: he could lead the team in receptions over DK Metcalf.
Speaker 2: I was looking at Metcalf's totals last year. I think
Speaker 2: he had sixty six catches. So I don't think it's
Speaker 2: unreasonable to say we could see seventy or seventy five
Speaker 2: on a Pittman, is it No?
Speaker 1: And especially because this year Kenny Gainwell is no longer
Speaker 1: on the team, are we automatically it's pretty insane that
Speaker 1: he let he He was like up there with top
Speaker 1: receivers in the league in terms of targets per route
Speaker 1: run last year. I mean, Rogers loved that guy to
Speaker 1: the point that I am kind of surprised that he
Speaker 1: didn't come back to Pittsburgh. But the Bucks schoolly targeted him.
Speaker 1: So I mean, are we just transferring all of that
Speaker 1: work to Jalen Warren? Potentially is the top receiving back there.
Speaker 1: At the same time, I think it might get spread
Speaker 1: out a little bit more, especially because with Mike McCarthy
Speaker 1: that's more of just a traditional eleven personnel offense, and
Speaker 1: I think that will flow to the wideouts a little
Speaker 1: bit more than what we saw last year.
Speaker 2: All Right, Yeah, and hey, look, I know that we
Speaker 2: led with the dynamite Michael Pittman. We're going to talk
Speaker 2: about Chicago and Jacksonville and Ricky Pierce all you'll get
Speaker 2: yours everybody. All Right, let's talk about another guy that's
Speaker 2: really a hot topic JK. But Chris Godwin is somebody
Speaker 2: that's He's really interesting to me because as people seemed
Speaker 2: to be sort of done with him, they just kind
Speaker 2: of don't care anymore. He came off the major leg
Speaker 2: injury last year, and I was one of them who said, hey,
Speaker 2: I'll take him super cheap and sit him on my
Speaker 2: bench until Week eight, but it just didn't matter because
Speaker 2: the leg injury was so devastating. He never really got
Speaker 2: back to his form. We saw little flashes of it
Speaker 2: at the end of last year. Is it reasonable to
Speaker 2: think that we're going to get a better version of
Speaker 2: Chris Godwin this year? He's going into his age thirty season.
Speaker 2: He's fighting a young a Mecca Buka for targets. I
Speaker 2: know they like Jayalen McMillan quite a bit too, So
Speaker 2: what's reasonable with Chris Godwin this year? And what do
Speaker 2: you see? I don't know if you've charted him yet
Speaker 2: or not, but just in general, what do you see
Speaker 2: it from Godwin last year that tells us? Can we
Speaker 2: expect anything? Or is the Chris Godwin we loved sort
Speaker 2: of gone.
Speaker 1: It's such a tough one and I always say with
Speaker 1: receiver decline, it's one of the more fascinating and yet
Speaker 1: difficult conversations to have because there really are no rules
Speaker 1: with these guys.
Speaker 4: Drew like some some players are able to age really gracefully. Right.
Speaker 1: We've seen like Stefan Diggs and Keenan Allen, these guys
Speaker 1: have really solid years as they've as they've declined, Like
Speaker 1: there's just there's no question that guys like Digs and
Speaker 1: Allen the last I would say three years, even dating
Speaker 1: back to twenty twenty three with Stefan Diggs and dating
Speaker 1: back to that season with Keenan Allen too, Like they're
Speaker 1: putting up big numbers, but they're not the same version
Speaker 1: of themselves. But they've been able to you know, if
Speaker 1: a receiver loses like ten percent, which is I'm just
Speaker 1: saying like a hypothetical number here too completely made up
Speaker 1: like ten percent of their themselves, that's probably still fine
Speaker 1: to hang on. The problem is that some guys the
Speaker 1: first sign of decline is right before the cliff. You know,
Speaker 1: so players like Alan Robinson, Dez Bryant, you know, these
Speaker 1: are some of the players I would throw out there
Speaker 1: that have had that like ooh, there's a little drop
Speaker 1: off and then right off the cliff. AJ Brown's a
Speaker 1: guy that's really interesting with that this year, cause I
Speaker 1: think we saw the first signs of decline last year.
Speaker 1: Is is it an is it a graceful age coming
Speaker 1: or is it the cliff? I don't know, And the
Speaker 1: problem is that we don't know what the answer is.
Speaker 1: You just have to acknowledge like the risk, and I
Speaker 1: do think with Godwin, we saw some warning signs for
Speaker 1: sure when he came back last year. Obviously he's coming
Speaker 1: off an injury, but that's something that usually happens with
Speaker 1: these guys. I mean, Alan Robinson declined at twenty nine
Speaker 1: years old because he had a ton of damage to
Speaker 1: his lower body at that point. And that's the thing
Speaker 1: with Chris Godwin now that we have to acknowledge like
Speaker 1: this was his second truly like devastating injury of his
Speaker 1: career that he's trying to come back from. So I
Speaker 1: think he can still be a useful player based on
Speaker 1: I mean, it was really bad last year. That's the
Speaker 1: hard part about this. This is really bad when he
Speaker 1: first got back. I do think he progressed a little
Speaker 1: bit better towards the end of the year, and if
Speaker 1: he's kind of at that level, he probably could be
Speaker 1: a useful player. But I do think he can still
Speaker 1: Like where he's going in fantasy right now, I think
Speaker 1: is fine. The problem is that, like again, there's just
Speaker 1: no real upside swing there. He probably will be like
Speaker 1: a meat ADP guy, which is why again he goes
Speaker 1: in that range of really interesting young players that I'm
Speaker 1: typically going elsewhere, but and I really like a Mecca Buka,
Speaker 1: and I think his role in this offense is going
Speaker 1: to be a huge difference this year from what it
Speaker 1: was last year, which I think is going to be
Speaker 1: a biggest swing up for him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you've been talking about that a little bit, so
Speaker 2: let's just briefly hit that conversation about the new offensive
Speaker 2: coordinator there and what he's going to expect from like
Speaker 2: Buka as opposed to last year. What are your thoughts
Speaker 2: on that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is something that I think is critical. And
Speaker 1: because last year Buka started off really hot. We know that,
Speaker 1: we know what the statistical difference is. We don't need
Speaker 1: to sit here and unpack that. But one of the
Speaker 1: things I think that was a there was a lot
Speaker 1: of things that went into his production decline in the
Speaker 1: back half of the year, including his own injury like
Speaker 1: a hamstring injury, Baker Mayfield's injury, the whole deal. I
Speaker 1: think the other problem for him and Mega Buca is
Speaker 1: that he ended up having to take a large share
Speaker 1: of the snaps as the extra receiver in that offense
Speaker 1: last year for Tampa Bay because Mike Evans was hurt.
Speaker 4: As we just mentioned Chris.
Speaker 1: Godwin, who's always been a better power slot receiver than
Speaker 1: an outside receiver. He's coming back from major injury. He's
Speaker 1: a diminished version of himself in even at his best. Again,
Speaker 1: he's been a better power slot receiver than an outside guy.
Speaker 1: The other receivers on that roster are you know, Jalen
Speaker 1: McMillan wasn't even there. So the other guys are like
Speaker 1: Sterling Shepherd and Tes Johnson. Sterling Shepherd's in like tenth
Speaker 1: year of his career. He's always been a slot based player.
Speaker 1: Tes Johnson is like freaking one hundred and fifty five pounds.
Speaker 1: You know, I can put up like twenty reps of
Speaker 1: Tes Johnson's weight on the bench press. Okay, So like
Speaker 1: that's not very much the problem there is just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: who's gonna have to take the ex receiver reps? It's
Speaker 1: gonna have to be a Mecca Buca. But he was
Speaker 1: a he was a big slot receiver coming out of Ohio.
Speaker 4: State this year. I thought it would be pretty bad
Speaker 4: news if he.
Speaker 1: Was gonna have to run out as that X again
Speaker 1: and again that with Mike Evans moving on, I thought,
Speaker 1: was he was going to have to be that guy.
Speaker 1: Coordinator Zach Robinson comes out and says he's going to
Speaker 1: play the Z receiver role in this offense, which is
Speaker 1: essentially the guy who's going to be mostly outside but
Speaker 1: off ball, which is huge for him. And with Zach Robinson,
Speaker 1: you can pick knits in Zach Robinson the offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: and the play caller and all that, but I think
Speaker 1: it's objectively true that he's good for wide receiver usage.
Speaker 1: You go back to the twenty twenty four season with
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Falcons, all four of their top pass catchers
Speaker 1: had a slot rate on passing plays of at least
Speaker 1: thirty nine percent. Drake London was the lowest at just
Speaker 1: under forty percent. And it's because there's so much movement
Speaker 1: in that offense that everybody like, at the snap, this guy's,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of barely the outside receiver. He ends
Speaker 1: up becoming the slot option at that point. So with
Speaker 1: all that receiver movement, it's going to allow at Buka
Speaker 1: to get back into some of the positions that he
Speaker 1: succeeded in more as a prospect, and also early in
Speaker 1: the season before Mike Evans got hurt, So I think
Speaker 1: that's really good news for him for his potential upside.
Speaker 1: Being able to run routes from off ball and from
Speaker 1: the slot definitely fits his game much more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and am I remembering right Robinson's McVeigh guy.
Speaker 1: Yes, he was with the Rams prior to being the
Speaker 1: Falcons offensive coordinator the last two years, but he was
Speaker 1: the belief quarterback coach this season that Baker Mayfield had
Speaker 1: that like cup of coffee there after getting released by
Speaker 1: the Panthers.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, some of this makes me wonder if
Speaker 2: we're not paying enough attention to Jaylen McMillan. I don't
Speaker 2: know if maybe I'm on an island with that, but
Speaker 2: I'm wondering if he might be somebody that, you know,
Speaker 2: fills in some of the gaps here. But that's probably
Speaker 2: a deep league thing.
Speaker 4: More than I like him as the best ball option,
Speaker 4: I took him.
Speaker 1: I did a Beastball draft on Monday that we lie
Speaker 1: or we recapped live on the YouTube channel earlier this week,
Speaker 1: and he was I think I took him like in
Speaker 1: you know, the fifteenth round or something like that of
Speaker 1: a best Ball draft because he's going to have some
Speaker 1: weeks because he showed last year that he could even
Speaker 1: while coming back from a next injury.
Speaker 4: I mean, god, they were so banged.
Speaker 1: Up last year Tampa Bay, even coming back from a
Speaker 1: neck injury, he could separate against man coverage down the field,
Speaker 1: which all three of these guys I think probably you
Speaker 1: could argue need reps from the slot, which is why
Speaker 1: I like Zach Robinson being thedoc here because he'll get
Speaker 1: some of those slot reps, but he'll also help dictate
Speaker 1: coverages and win down the football field, which will help
Speaker 1: the other receivers like Godriin and Nabuka, but also will.
Speaker 4: Give him a couple of big weeks every now and again.
Speaker 2: Boy, when you start going through the injuries on that offense,
Speaker 2: it's incredible. I mean offensive line, Bucky Irving, McMillan, Buca Mayfield,
Speaker 2: like its just pretty much just name a guy and
Speaker 2: he was hurt.
Speaker 4: So right a bit, Kate oughten Caate Otton might have
Speaker 4: missed the game or.
Speaker 2: Two, and he played one hundred and thirty percent of
Speaker 2: the snaps and caught nine passes, so pretty much. So
Speaker 2: all right, let's let's move on to Arizona because one
Speaker 2: of the guys that is, of course a constant conversation
Speaker 2: piece is Marvin Harrison. He's going into his third year,
Speaker 2: and I don't know what the heck to think about
Speaker 2: Harrison going to be purely just put it out there,
Speaker 2: or is it time to start thinking about him as
Speaker 2: being a bust? Or are we too early on that call.
Speaker 2: He's wide receiver thirty one. That doesn't seem like a
Speaker 2: difficult price to pay, So that's pretty palatable. But what
Speaker 2: do we think about I mean, we've got quarterback problems there,
Speaker 2: offensive line problems, they want to run the ball. I mean,
Speaker 2: what do we think about Harrison in general as a
Speaker 2: receiver like what you saw of him last year, but
Speaker 2: then also as a fantasy asset.
Speaker 1: Let's take the fantasy asset and the price part of
Speaker 1: it first before we get into I think the more
Speaker 1: difficult question, which is Harrison as a player. So again,
Speaker 1: you're right in a vacuum, Wide receiver thirty one, I
Speaker 1: think is totally fine. The problem is when you start
Speaker 1: to zoom out with the Cardinals. They have a tight
Speaker 1: end who's going in the top twenty picks, so running
Speaker 1: back who's going in the top thirty picks? They have
Speaker 1: Marvin Harrison at wide receiver thirty one, and then they
Speaker 1: have Michael Wilson, you know, not too too too far
Speaker 1: behind then he's like in the early forties or something
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 4: That actually is kind of.
Speaker 1: An awful lot of players for or what is projected
Speaker 1: to be the worst team in the NFL. And I
Speaker 1: think even if they have to get into pass heavy
Speaker 1: game scripts a lot this year, which they likely will,
Speaker 1: how much volume is there really going to be to
Speaker 1: go around for this team? Like they dropped back seven
Speaker 1: hundred and forty five times last year, which was over
Speaker 1: fifty more dropbacks than the second place team in Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: that's probably not That was a complete fantasy scam, right
Speaker 1: and listen, as a longtime Michael Wilson Dynasty bag holder,
Speaker 1: I mean not long time.
Speaker 4: It's not been a lead a little bit.
Speaker 1: But I was happy to benefit from the scam. I
Speaker 1: benefited from the scam a ton in Dynasty because Michael
Speaker 1: Wilson was on my benches. So but it was a scam.
Speaker 1: Is that gonna happen again this year? I think that's
Speaker 1: where it's tough to draft any of these guys in
Speaker 1: fantasy aggressively, especially because in the back half of the
Speaker 1: year they might be playing Carson beck a third round
Speaker 1: rookie quarterback? What's that going to look like? So this
Speaker 1: is just a little bit of like me protecting my
Speaker 1: mental health with this situation because I've realized this drew
Speaker 1: about myself. I am going to be emotionally invested in
Speaker 1: Marvin Harrison Junior being good regardless, so I don't need
Speaker 1: to sit here for the next two months and tell
Speaker 1: people to draft Marvin Harrison Junior in fantasy, so that
Speaker 1: then when he's disappointing, you know, people are like, what
Speaker 1: the hell are you told me to draft Marvin Harrison
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah. Like listen, if he's good, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna feel gratified regardless, because I was very in on
Speaker 1: him as a prospect. So this is me protecting the
Speaker 1: mentals here. If you catch my drift on the fantasy
Speaker 1: part of it.
Speaker 2: I get it.
Speaker 1: So the more complicated question is Harrison as an individual player,
Speaker 1: and that's where I am actually willing to be a
Speaker 1: lot more bullish and go to the bat, go to
Speaker 1: the go to bat for Harrison for the idea that
Speaker 1: I think he's been objectively disappointing for what he was
Speaker 1: supposed to be, but also better than he has been
Speaker 1: portrayed in isolation because I think he clearly has some
Speaker 1: issues that he needs to correct. Things that were minor
Speaker 1: problems for him as a prospect had become big issues
Speaker 1: in the pros. And I can't quite explain why that
Speaker 1: is other than maybe there's a little bit of just
Speaker 1: like a mental thing for him. You know, it sticks
Speaker 1: out to me that game against the Seahawks on Thursday
Speaker 1: night last year. Remember, like he has that brutal I mean,
Speaker 1: one of the most hilariously bad drops of the entire
Speaker 1: NFL season where he bobbles it on a slant and
Speaker 1: it goes up in its interception, and then when he
Speaker 1: scores the touchdown to put them within range of winning
Speaker 1: the game, he like goes to his knees and is
Speaker 1: like it was like a relief that he scored that touchdown. Like,
Speaker 1: I just think there's something going on there in that way.
Speaker 1: So I think that's contributed to some of the issues
Speaker 1: at the catch point. And just again, I think my
Speaker 1: conclusion is that like Drew Petsing is fine, Kyler Murray
Speaker 1: is fine, Marvin Harrison Junior is fine, but they all
Speaker 1: needed to get away from each other because I think
Speaker 1: they just it just didn't quite fit together. And I
Speaker 1: think that Harrison, who is a really good route runner,
Speaker 1: really technically sound as a receiver and is a much
Speaker 1: better separator than he gets credit for. I think he's
Speaker 1: actually been really maximized from a schematic standpoint in Mike
Speaker 1: Lafor's offense, where there's much more motion what we were
Speaker 1: talking about with like a Mecca Buca. He's gonna be
Speaker 1: at times lined up as the outside on ball X receiver,
Speaker 1: but he'll end up being in the slot at the
Speaker 1: snap of the ball because you know, somebody's gonna be
Speaker 1: running off leverage, on in motion and everything like that.
Speaker 1: I think Harrison's gonna thrive much more in that sort
Speaker 1: of environment. It's just you know, can somebody get him
Speaker 1: the football consistently and how much are those targets? So
Speaker 1: from a dynasty standpoint, I think Harrison's a good bye.
Speaker 1: I'm just not quite sure like what it's going to
Speaker 1: look like from a production angle this year.
Speaker 2: It seems like it's being baked into the price. But
Speaker 2: then again, when you start thinking about who you can
Speaker 2: get around him, I'm not sure that I care that
Speaker 2: the price is lower, because yeah, I'd rather be taking
Speaker 2: some of these other guys. And excellent point that you
Speaker 2: let off with. Just if you zoom out and look
Speaker 2: at this entire offense, if we think there's implosion potential
Speaker 2: in the offense, then what do we do in draft
Speaker 2: all these guys so high in fantasy. Somebody's going to
Speaker 2: be disappointed. Maybe everyone's going to be disappointed. I you know,
Speaker 2: I still think the offensive line is a problem too.
Speaker 1: So have you been drafting any train McBride like, he's
Speaker 1: the guy that I yeah, I look, I love McBride,
Speaker 1: He's he's obviously a great player. I got to interview
Speaker 1: him in February. Awesome conversation. Great guy. I just mean,
Speaker 1: shoot this, he led the NFL and routes run last year.
Speaker 1: Michael Wilson was second. That's probably not happening again. And
Speaker 1: I really the one this I don't want to like
Speaker 1: overemphasize one quote in a throwaway conversation between the two
Speaker 1: of us, but one of the things he said to
Speaker 1: me at the during our conversation at the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: this year, I asked him, you know, typically NFL offenses
Speaker 1: don't want to run through the tight end. I was like,
Speaker 1: but that offense ran through you last year. Like, can
Speaker 1: you kind of walk me through what went what went
Speaker 1: into that? And he's like, well, I actually wasn't the
Speaker 1: first read very often. I just got the football a lot,
Speaker 1: which I'm like, oh man, yeah right, that's my point.
Speaker 1: Like this is typically you don't run all that volume
Speaker 1: through the tight end, and I don't think this offense
Speaker 1: that's coming in here wants to do that either. So
Speaker 1: I do think there's just real regression risk with McBride,
Speaker 1: And like, the only way that's been priced in is
Speaker 1: that like brock Bowers goes off the board ahead of
Speaker 1: train McBride. Otherwise he's still going at a really high
Speaker 1: range overall he is.
Speaker 2: And I've been having the fight with myself recently because
Speaker 2: as an auction guy, I think, well, geez, maybe there's
Speaker 2: some potential to buy McBride because people do seem to
Speaker 2: be down on him. But then I get into mock
Speaker 2: the other night and he goes for twenty five bucks
Speaker 2: and I'm like, that's still I'm not getting the discount
Speaker 2: I want in order to price in the risk. So
Speaker 2: all right, let's talk about one more receiver that I
Speaker 2: want to know if you believe in them, and then
Speaker 2: we're going to move on to some burkiy wide receiver
Speaker 2: rooms that are a little bit more difficult to parse.
Speaker 2: Of course, that's why they pay you the big bucks. Man.
Speaker 2: I'm hitting me with all the tough ones. The packers,
Speaker 2: you know, they seem to be telling us that they
Speaker 2: want Matthew Golden to succeed, and they've trimmed their wide
Speaker 2: receiver tree this year, and they're telling us that the
Speaker 2: beat writers have told us that he's on the field
Speaker 2: and two wide receiver sets and that they want him
Speaker 2: to assume a larger snapshare. So what did you see
Speaker 2: in his rookie campaign that tells us whether you can
Speaker 2: handle that or not? And what you know, wide receiver
Speaker 2: fifty right now? I believe this is ADP roughly that
Speaker 2: certainly isn't expensive, but he's just never been a high
Speaker 2: volume target earner at any point in his career in
Speaker 2: college or the pros. What do we think about Golden
Speaker 2: heading into his sophomore season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, they clearly want him to be better
Speaker 1: than he's been so far from they wanted to suc see.
Speaker 1: He was like their first first round receiver in however
Speaker 1: long So I get that, and I also do like
Speaker 1: that the packers have consolidated the room down to essentially
Speaker 1: just three guys. I think Lafleur got a little Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur got a little too cute with like the receiver
Speaker 1: rotation you're talking about, like, oh, yeah, we can have
Speaker 1: four number one receivers. Now you can't, like you do
Speaker 1: need a hierarchy in the room or otherwise guys are
Speaker 1: going to get pissed off about their roles, which is
Speaker 1: essentially what happened last year. Laflour admitted that at the
Speaker 1: league meetings that he said were guys on the team
Speaker 1: last year that were not content with their roles. And
Speaker 1: it doesn't take much to read into it that it
Speaker 1: was the wide receivers, considering that Romeo Dobbs they allowed
Speaker 1: to walk and they traded down Tavian Wicks, and really like,
Speaker 1: there are two guys behind Watson who they extended, read
Speaker 1: who they extended and Golden who's a first round pick.
Speaker 1: Are Sky Moore and save On Williams. I can't imagine
Speaker 1: those guys are playing a lot of snaps this year.
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be a pretty clear three
Speaker 1: receiver set by the way two of those guys have
Speaker 1: been banged up of late in Watson Reed, so a
Speaker 1: little bit of a risk there, and I look at
Speaker 1: that room and I think that'd be a pretty nice
Speaker 1: re receiver set. It would make sense. I can kind
Speaker 1: of parse that out. Golden is just the big kind
Speaker 1: of X factor here, because Watson's coming off a great year.
Speaker 1: Even though he's never been able to play a full
Speaker 1: season consistently or a full productive season, He's coming off
Speaker 1: the best year of his career. I'm still a big
Speaker 1: Jaden Reid fan. Golden is the wild card and really, Drew,
Speaker 1: I just don't have like a strong take on what
Speaker 1: I thought about Matthew Golden's rookie season. Like you look
Speaker 1: at the charting data for him, thirty third percentile success
Speaker 1: rate verse man, twenty third percentile success rate VERSU zone,
Speaker 1: fifty first percentile success rate verse press, Like these numbers
Speaker 1: are not.
Speaker 4: Good, but they're also not like the worst.
Speaker 1: They're not the worst, right, And that's kind of what
Speaker 1: I thought about Matthew Golden's rookie season, Like, well, that
Speaker 1: wasn't the worst rookie season I've ever seen, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't sing words here, Matt, right, I know, I listen,
Speaker 1: trust me, I know people are I have been. I've
Speaker 1: been getting so many Matthew Golden questions and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I just like, don't have a strong take on Golden's
Speaker 1: rookie season.
Speaker 4: They're like, I get it.
Speaker 1: This is again one of the things I like, I said,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have, I know, not to say certain things
Speaker 1: based on like where the data points us in this regard,
Speaker 1: because like a guy with this type of profile, you
Speaker 1: can't It's not so bad that you can immediately cross
Speaker 1: them off and be like, well that's a bust, but
Speaker 1: it's not so good that you're like, well, listen, I
Speaker 1: know the stats weren't there, but year two, trust like
Speaker 1: year two, trust me, this guy is going to have
Speaker 1: a big breakout season. It's just in kind of this
Speaker 1: middle range where I think he could end up being
Speaker 1: a bust but end up being a useful player for
Speaker 1: them too. And I think from a fantasy standpoint, there
Speaker 1: might not be a lot of volume to go around,
Speaker 1: considering it's a run heavy offense at Tucker Craft's coming
Speaker 1: back and everything, So he could work out for the
Speaker 1: Packers as a solid player for them and still just
Speaker 1: be kind of a non needle mover in fantasy.
Speaker 2: Yep, And that's kind of I think the public isn't
Speaker 2: you know, obviously they don't care either because wide receiver fact,
Speaker 2: he's crazy, So it's not really it's not risky to
Speaker 2: take a wide receiver fifty. You know, is he going
Speaker 2: to clog up your roster? I don't know, you know,
Speaker 2: in regular sized leagues ten twelve teamers, it just feels
Speaker 2: like a roster clogger. But all right, I like.
Speaker 1: Jayden Reid a lot, by the way, just as it's
Speaker 1: just I think Read is obviously coming off of down year,
Speaker 1: really a lost year due to injuries. And I know
Speaker 1: he might always struggle to play in two receiver sets.
Speaker 1: They've never really played him in two receiver sets. I
Speaker 1: get that, But he's gonna have big weeks and I
Speaker 1: think is a really talented player. If it was me,
Speaker 1: if I was the Packers, I would I would think
Speaker 1: he's good enough to play as a Z and two
Speaker 1: receiver sets.
Speaker 4: But we'll see if he gets that usage.
Speaker 2: Man, that'd be awesome. I love Jayden Reid too, but
Speaker 2: can't draft him because you know, rich Reebark keeps talking
Speaker 2: about how Reads played like three total snaps as in
Speaker 2: a three wide receiver or two wide receiver sets over
Speaker 2: the couple of years that he's you know, come to
Speaker 2: prominence here. So all right, I we're running a little
Speaker 2: bit long here because I packed the show sheet a
Speaker 2: little bit too tight. So let's move on to some
Speaker 2: murky wide receiver rooms. And the popular ones are Chicago
Speaker 2: and Jacksonville. And we don't have to break down everything
Speaker 2: going on in these passing games, but let's let's put
Speaker 2: these two against each other in Chicago, Roma Dunsay and
Speaker 2: Luther Burden. People are a little bit nervous about o'donza.
Speaker 2: I understand why the comments about his foot and all
Speaker 2: that stuff that's got to be taken into account, but
Speaker 2: he wasn't that bad last year, even when he wasn't
Speaker 2: necessarily healthy. He still finished as I think, wide receiver
Speaker 2: twenty three in points per game before he got hurt.
Speaker 2: And he's going right now like wide receiver twenty nine,
Speaker 2: twenty eight, So it feels like there's some room for
Speaker 2: him to grow still. But Luther Burden's the one getting
Speaker 2: the steam. How do you feel about these two guys
Speaker 2: this year and how that's gonna, you know, break up
Speaker 2: against each other.
Speaker 4: So I've said this a lot. I like both players.
Speaker 1: I don't want to participate in the culture war of
Speaker 1: like you go, if you like Burden, you gotta hated
Speaker 1: Dunsay or vice versa. I will say, though, like I
Speaker 1: am a massive Adunesay fan, and I think like he
Speaker 1: was having the breakout before he got that foot injury.
Speaker 1: If you just look at the first eight games of
Speaker 1: the season, Douns was wide receiver eleven in points per game,
Speaker 1: he was nineteenth in yards per route run, he was
Speaker 1: fifteenth in yards per game, and he trailed only I'm
Speaker 1: on Rustling Brown, Michael Pittman, Davante Adams, and George Pickens
Speaker 1: and touchdown catches. And I think the film was commensurate
Speaker 1: with that.
Speaker 2: Just like I thought Pittman wasn't interesting.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm sorry, I'm gonna.
Speaker 2: Mess with you the entire weekend and Canton for that listen.
Speaker 1: I thought about it, and I was, like Drew said,
Speaker 1: we running along. Don't make a joke about it. Don't
Speaker 1: make a joke about it.
Speaker 2: That I did it for us.
Speaker 1: I was trying to quiet the brain worms, and you
Speaker 1: just ahead in setive anyway.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well what can you do?
Speaker 1: But yes, he he only trailed the aforementioned not interesting
Speaker 1: Michael Pittman. I'm on Rossaying Brown, DeVante Adams, George Pickens
Speaker 1: and touchdown catches, and I was told touchdowns are good.
Speaker 1: So anyways, he was. He was productive in the first
Speaker 1: eight games of the season for all the narratives. Bet
Speaker 1: like well, Ben Johnson inherited Roma Doonza, he he drafted
Speaker 1: Colston Loveland, Luther Burton. Well, that's true. He came out
Speaker 1: and ran his whole passing offense through Romadonsay in the
Speaker 1: first eight weeks of the season, and then he picked
Speaker 1: up the foot injury heading into week nine and just
Speaker 1: ruined his entire season. I think he probably shouldn't have
Speaker 1: tried to play through it. He did try to play
Speaker 1: through it because he's a team player and everything, and unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I do think that it's a variable that we have
Speaker 1: to consider, no question about it. You know, coming off
Speaker 1: the foot injury, we don't know what that's going to
Speaker 1: look like the.
Speaker 4: Player that he was.
Speaker 1: Though, even all throughout last year he got back, he
Speaker 1: still was a solid separator. Not as good though in
Speaker 1: the first eight games of the season he was much
Speaker 1: better as a separator, even in sception perception. I break
Speaker 1: down those numbers in his profile. His usage I think
Speaker 1: is pretty bullish too, Like it's not just this vertical,
Speaker 1: sacrificial X receiver. So I do like if in the
Speaker 1: in these situations where I think the talents are pretty close,
Speaker 1: and I do think the talents are pretty close between
Speaker 1: Burden and a Duneza, And I liked to Dounsay better
Speaker 1: as a prospect, and I've just seen more from him
Speaker 1: in the NFL than I have from Burden so far. Like, yes,
Speaker 1: Burden's yards per rout runs awesome, but he's never been
Speaker 1: a full time player. That's a that's a I've seen
Speaker 1: a Dunesay be a full time load bearing target player.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna take the guy that's cheaper. So I
Speaker 1: like both these players. I end up taking the guy
Speaker 1: that's cheaper more often.
Speaker 2: And hey, you heard it here. First touchdowns are good,
Speaker 2: so that's good. Yeah, And and and being completely serious,
Speaker 2: that could be a problem for Burden, And I think
Speaker 2: that's something that o'dunze. You know, he's that's that's more
Speaker 2: up his alley. And you know, we're talking about fantasy football.
Speaker 2: It feels like these guys should be a little bit closer.
Speaker 1: But that's the thing, the gap. The gap just shouldn't
Speaker 1: be as big as it is. I'm fine, and I
Speaker 1: actually have Burden. I'm doing the head ranking with these
Speaker 1: two guys. In Dynasty, I have a Dunesday ranked higher
Speaker 1: just because I believe the town a little bit more.
Speaker 1: But in Redraft, like I have these two guys basically
Speaker 1: literally back to back, I'm doing the head ranking.
Speaker 4: I have Burden one spot higher because.
Speaker 1: I do think if Caleb Williams doesn't get better, and
Speaker 1: I do think we can all agree Kayleb Williams is
Speaker 1: really promising, but it needs to get little bit better.
Speaker 1: If he doesn't get any better, I think Burden's skill
Speaker 1: set is more insulated from quarterback chaos because he is
Speaker 1: objectively better after the catch, so they'll be able to
Speaker 1: do like the designer stuff, spit the football out to him.
Speaker 1: So honestly, if you don't believe that Kayleb Williams is
Speaker 1: going to get any better, you probably want to draft
Speaker 1: Luther Burden. If you believe Caleb Williams get better in
Speaker 1: year three, I actually think that could lead you more
Speaker 1: into Roma Dunsa as that downfield, big, traditional breaking route receiver.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, I was listening, but my dog went
Speaker 2: crazy in the background. I don't know if the mic
Speaker 2: picked it up, so I hope not. Yeah, we got
Speaker 2: an Amazon delivery, which happens frequently, and the dogs goes crazy.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about Jacksonville for a second here. I don't
Speaker 2: really we don't need to have a conversation about Jacoby Myers.
Speaker 2: We kind of know what he is. But sure, what
Speaker 2: do we think about Brian Thomas returning to form and
Speaker 2: do you feel like Washington has the staying power to
Speaker 2: be a viable fantasy option? What are you thinking about
Speaker 2: these two guys.
Speaker 1: I think Brian Thomas Junior, I'm generally going to give
Speaker 1: him a pass for what happened last season. He obviously
Speaker 1: was not good, but he was also pretty clearly playing
Speaker 1: with injuries. The quote where he said, you know, it
Speaker 1: doesn't hurt to run anymore, I put a lot of
Speaker 1: emphasis in that because he didn't quite look he didn't
Speaker 1: quite look the same, you know, throughout the course of
Speaker 1: the year and even early on, you could tell he
Speaker 1: was kind of laboring through a few different injuries. I
Speaker 1: generally want to give him a pass to what happened
Speaker 1: last year. Now that doesn't mean that I think he's
Speaker 1: immediately going to return to exactly what he was as
Speaker 1: a rookie, because I think his rookie season statistics were
Speaker 1: good and he's a good player, but a little bit
Speaker 1: overinflated because of the end of season. Like and I
Speaker 1: think this matters to me, like that offense, he was
Speaker 1: producing a lot, he was producing a bunch. The offense stunk,
Speaker 1: and there was really no one else around him to
Speaker 1: compete for targets on a lost team with Mac Jones,
Speaker 1: you know, just throwing it when they were behind a
Speaker 1: bajillion points. So again, I think Brian Thomas Junior's rookie
Speaker 1: season is really good. He has a good he had
Speaker 1: a good rookie season profile overall. And I think if
Speaker 1: somebody's going to be the biggest hit from this receiver room,
Speaker 1: Travis Hunter aside, like putting any theoretical like he ends
Speaker 1: up playing a bunch of receiver whatever, I think the
Speaker 1: guy that could be the biggest hit from this room, Like,
Speaker 1: if there's a wide receiver one here in fantasy, it's
Speaker 1: Brian Thomas Junior.
Speaker 4: Just because he's the X.
Speaker 1: He should be on the field all the time, and
Speaker 1: he showed us a really high promising ceiling as a rookie.
Speaker 1: But I don't know how many multiverses that happens, you know.
Speaker 1: I think this room Drew is going to look like
Speaker 1: the Packers which we talked about earlier prior years Packers,
Speaker 1: where it's four guys rotating off and on the field,
Speaker 1: but the guy that was on the field all the
Speaker 1: time was Romeo Dobbs because he's the X receiver. So
Speaker 1: I think that BTJ could end up being that guy.
Speaker 1: And even if he's like ninety percent of the player
Speaker 1: he was is a rookie, he's that guy. He he
Speaker 1: could be a wide receiver one. But in most cases,
Speaker 1: I think Parker Washington is a really good player. His
Speaker 1: charting data kind of compares to like Golden Tate, like
Speaker 1: a vertical slot based option who is less of a
Speaker 1: separator and more of just a badass with the ball
Speaker 1: in the air and with the ball in his hands
Speaker 1: like he's this is like, it's very similar to Golden
Speaker 1: Tate in that way. And that's a pretty cool player
Speaker 1: in a Liam Cohen offense.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm, yeah, Golden Tate. I love that. That's a
Speaker 2: that's a nice poll. I haven't heard that name in
Speaker 2: so long. Gives me chills, like it.
Speaker 1: Well, I used to see this is this is something
Speaker 1: again I'm learning about myself. I compared Barker Parker Washington
Speaker 1: Company in the NFL. I said he was bud Light
Speaker 1: Golden Tate, and I'm on Ross Saint Brown. I said
Speaker 1: he was bud Light Cooper Cup. And I think you
Speaker 1: could just argue that, like those guys are just Cooper
Speaker 1: Cup and then and Golden Tate, So I should just
Speaker 1: ditch the bud Light comp and just go with the
Speaker 1: full ABB version for comps going forward.
Speaker 2: Dude, I love it. I love it. You're speaking my language. Okay, well,
Speaker 2: let's keep chucking along here. I want to ask you
Speaker 2: a little bit about San Francisco and the Chargers before
Speaker 2: I get to a couple of targets and fades from
Speaker 2: you before I let you go. San Francisco is interesting
Speaker 2: because one of the things I've been harping on my
Speaker 2: show this summer is just that we need to be
Speaker 2: better at listening to what teams are telling us when
Speaker 2: they don't actually say it to us. And you know,
Speaker 2: they went out and they got Mike Evans and then
Speaker 2: they drafted a rookie pretty high. Are they concerned about
Speaker 2: Ricky pearsall? Are you concerned about him or are you
Speaker 2: taking shots on him again this year?
Speaker 1: And they signed Christian Kirk too, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: who can now. In fairness, they also had a you know,
Speaker 1: just a ton of injuries there. They always have a
Speaker 1: ton of injuries there, so I think it's good that
Speaker 1: they have depth. And by the way, they're two starters
Speaker 1: Mike Evans and Ricky Piersoll banged up for most of
Speaker 1: last year, so I think you could take that as
Speaker 1: like they just need to be deeper at receiver because
Speaker 1: a lot of times it's like, well, our starters are
Speaker 1: out and then it's these kind of you know Day
Speaker 1: three rookies or you know, Jawn Jennings obviously became a player,
Speaker 1: but he was like a seventh round pick at one point.
Speaker 1: He's another one of these Day three rookies, So I.
Speaker 4: Think it would.
Speaker 1: I still really like Ricky Piersol as a player, and
Speaker 1: I'm definitely taking shots on him in the forties at
Speaker 1: wide receiver because I think the.
Speaker 4: Talent is strong.
Speaker 1: He doesn't need to stay healthy, and he was productive
Speaker 1: when he played last year too. And I actually think
Speaker 1: the addition of Evans helps Ricky Piersaw because Piersaw, I
Speaker 1: think we forget that they had to basically cobble together
Speaker 1: that often. They were expecting to have Brandon Ayuke back
Speaker 1: at some point and then obviously that went the way
Speaker 1: that it went, So they kind of had to cobble
Speaker 1: together the vertical X receiver role with like a mix
Speaker 1: of Jennings and Piersow, neither of which is really totally
Speaker 1: suited for that. So getting like one of the vertical
Speaker 1: X receivers of this last era and Mike Evans should
Speaker 1: allow Ricky Piersol to do a little bit more of
Speaker 1: the things that he's good at. So and piersall was
Speaker 1: good last year in isolation and was productive when healthy.
Speaker 1: So we'll have just have to see if he can
Speaker 1: stay healthy. I think that's a long and short of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And when he came back from the injury, he
Speaker 2: just wasn't right. He clearly wasn't right, And the way
Speaker 2: that he sat for so long, we just didn't get
Speaker 2: updates and then he just sat and kept sitting and sitting,
Speaker 2: and we're just thinking what is going on here? Then
Speaker 2: he finally comes back and he's getting one catch a game.
Speaker 2: I think he had a game where he had one
Speaker 2: catch for zero yards.
Speaker 4: And clearing out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just just not that's not him. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: the price again is super palatable. We can take shots
Speaker 2: on him without really taking a lot of risk. But
Speaker 2: the afore mentioned Mike Evans real quick Evans, you know,
Speaker 2: he's thirty two, He's had his own injury concerns the
Speaker 2: past few years. This guy was a former iron man,
Speaker 2: but now it's starting to fall apart a little bit.
Speaker 2: Do we think he's got some real upside in this
Speaker 2: offense or are we going to look back and see
Speaker 2: a guy with you know, fifty eight catches for six
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty yards and eight touchdowns? Like what do
Speaker 2: you think about Evans in this offense?
Speaker 1: I truly think Mike Evans either scores twelve plus touchdowns
Speaker 1: or misses ten games with the hamstring injury.
Speaker 4: And it's like either or like that. I don't know
Speaker 4: that there's any middle ground there.
Speaker 1: Like the scenario that you pointed out, like painted out,
Speaker 1: where he's six hundred yards and eight touchdowns, that must
Speaker 1: be because he missed time somewhere along the way. You know,
Speaker 1: I just can't imagine a world where he because he
Speaker 1: still clearly has it. He might not be the of
Speaker 1: course he's not the peak of his powers, but he
Speaker 1: is one of these guys when we're talking about receiver
Speaker 1: declined where he's definitely aged gracefully and he kind of
Speaker 1: checks both of the boxes that you want for a
Speaker 1: receiver that ages gracefully. Because the guys we discussed earlier
Speaker 1: Keenan Allen, Stephan Diggs, we know why they've aged gracefully.
Speaker 1: They're like elite, elite technicians. They know all the details
Speaker 1: of routes and when how to break and when to separate,
Speaker 1: so that when they've lost some athleticism, they're still technically
Speaker 1: proficient enough to be a good receiver despite that. Mike
Speaker 1: Evans is one of the most underrated technicians because people
Speaker 1: think of him and they're like, oh, this big bodied
Speaker 1: freak receiver six five, two thirty, he's like just boxing
Speaker 1: people out of no way. This guy has been one
Speaker 1: of the best route runners in the NFL in the
Speaker 1: last I would say five to eight years his reception
Speaker 1: perception data back set up. But he is also like
Speaker 1: a freak athlete, so his his ten percent diminished self
Speaker 1: is still better than most other receivers, and even when
Speaker 1: he got back from injury last year, he still was
Speaker 1: performing at a pretty.
Speaker 4: Solid level in reception perception.
Speaker 1: So I think if he's the guy that he was
Speaker 1: last year and he's on the field, he can produce
Speaker 1: really well for.
Speaker 4: The forty nine ers.
Speaker 1: You just obviously have to account for the fact that
Speaker 1: he's another year older and he's always dealing with some
Speaker 1: hamstring injuries.
Speaker 4: At this point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it makes me pay attention to a little bit
Speaker 2: more of what you're saying to me, because I haven't
Speaker 2: generally been worried about Evans in my drafts to date,
Speaker 2: so maybe I need to be relooking at that.
Speaker 4: And that's like, you haven't, you haven't taken him much,
Speaker 4: or you you I haven't.
Speaker 2: I haven't and and and I think part of it
Speaker 2: is just because somebody wants.
Speaker 4: Him more, and it's usually Yeah, I get.
Speaker 2: That's my big problem because I don't I recognize the
Speaker 2: risk and I'm a bit of a knit so I
Speaker 2: just you know, that's how I play it. Okay, one
Speaker 2: more offense here before I let you go with some
Speaker 2: targets and fades. I'm going to talk about the Chargers
Speaker 2: for just a second, because is there seems to be
Speaker 2: some significant optimism that Ladd mcconkey's going to bounce back
Speaker 2: under Mike McDaniel, And then we've had this retent recent
Speaker 2: run up the draft board by Quinton Johnston, which I'm
Speaker 2: a little bit upset about that, just because Johnston's one
Speaker 2: of my guys, and you know, the steam has just
Speaker 2: it's kind of crazy because there's really hasn't been any
Speaker 2: news that means he should be moving up, but he
Speaker 2: just is. He's just he's moved up like forty spots
Speaker 2: in ADP in the last month. So what do we
Speaker 2: think about a Ladd McConkey bounced back, And is the
Speaker 2: Quinton Johnston's steam valid at all?
Speaker 4: I know?
Speaker 1: And it looked like Quentin Johnson was going to be,
Speaker 1: I don't know, a tenth round pick. I thought that
Speaker 1: was like going to be one of the best picks
Speaker 1: in fantasy this y. Yeah, because I think the reason
Speaker 1: that there's been some steam for for QJ beyond just
Speaker 1: the Mike McDaniel of it all, because that we've looked,
Speaker 1: we've known Mike mccanniel is going to be offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: for you know, five months like that's not valid enough
Speaker 1: for reason. I think a lot of it is just
Speaker 1: this is something I've been saying and having this debate
Speaker 1: with James co on my show, is that I think
Speaker 1: that people still hold Quintin Johnston's rookie season against him
Speaker 1: too much, you know, And to be clear, that rookie
Speaker 1: season we talked about, like Matthew Golden earlier, you look
Speaker 1: at Quintin Johnson's rookie season, it's like one of the
Speaker 1: worst of all time, but he has gotten better every
Speaker 1: year and including to the point that last year his
Speaker 1: data was like, this is a solid starting NFL receiver.
Speaker 1: And if you're a solid starting NFL receiver in an
Speaker 1: offense that's gonna run a lot of heavy personnel and
Speaker 1: he's gonna be mostly two receivers on the field, you
Speaker 1: can gobble up a lot of targets and get efficient
Speaker 1: downfield looks. I've kind of compared it to the season
Speaker 1: that Corey Davis had with the Tennessee Titans his final
Speaker 1: year there, where both him and AJ Brown were top
Speaker 1: five in the NFL and yards per route run because
Speaker 1: they played so much heavy personnel, and like, look, Corey
Speaker 1: Davis was a disappointing fifth overall pick, and I think
Speaker 1: Quintin Johnson is a disappointing first round pick. But they
Speaker 1: both weren't as bad as like they started their careers
Speaker 1: off with at that point. I think that that's like
Speaker 1: I think people have woken up to that, I guess.
Speaker 1: And now they've kind of seamed him up a little
Speaker 1: bit to a point where I'm like, all right, now,
Speaker 1: he's not like a smash every time he's there, but
Speaker 1: I think he's in like still a palatable range.
Speaker 2: Well, and I can't help but look at the first
Speaker 2: four weeks when they had a healthy offensive line, and
Speaker 2: Quentin Johnston himself was healthy because he battled some stuff
Speaker 2: as well and played through it. You know, I think
Speaker 2: he missed one game with the hamstring and came back.
Speaker 2: He clearly wasn't himself. So if you get the healthy
Speaker 2: offensive line, a new offensive coordinator, a healthy receiver, gosh,
Speaker 2: it seems mouthwatering there. All right, What about McConkey.
Speaker 1: I think mcconkeye is like fairly priced at this point.
Speaker 1: He's not a value, he's not a fade. I think
Speaker 1: he's going in the right range. I was saying all
Speaker 1: off season, he's like the most obvious bounce back candidate
Speaker 1: in the NFL, because I think you kind of have
Speaker 1: to throw out a lot of the efficiency metrics from
Speaker 1: last year because the offensive line was such a disaster.
Speaker 4: There was a lot of empty plays. You mentioned rich
Speaker 4: Reebar earlier.
Speaker 1: He's pointed that out that there's just so many routes
Speaker 1: that these receivers are running, and whether due to sacks
Speaker 1: or throws, there's just not even like a pass attempt.
Speaker 1: So you kind of have to throw out some of
Speaker 1: the per rout date, especially because then Keenan Allen's there
Speaker 1: is the safety blanket. We'll come back to Keenant. We
Speaker 1: talk about Keenan Allen a lot. We're gonna I think
Speaker 1: we're gonna come back to him one more time. My
Speaker 1: prediction is before the show ends, but I'll explain that
Speaker 1: in a second. Anyway, So he was just kind of
Speaker 1: soaking up those easy safety blanket targets. Now that Keenan
Speaker 1: presumably is not going to be back this year, I
Speaker 1: think McConkie gets back to being the load bearing player
Speaker 1: of that offense. And yeah, I think he I think
Speaker 1: he's fairly priced. A lot of his variables definitely are
Speaker 1: similar to Jackson Smith and Jig but heading into their
Speaker 1: respective year threes.
Speaker 4: And I kind of think he goes in a fair
Speaker 4: spot right now.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, and he's another guy like I feel the
Speaker 2: same way about him that I do about Evans, that
Speaker 2: somebody that I don't want him, somebody just wants him more.
Speaker 2: And then I'm just like all right, like I don't.
Speaker 2: I kind of shrug like I don't care. Is this
Speaker 2: guy gonna hurt me? But hey, yeabe he will, maybe
Speaker 2: he will.
Speaker 4: And he goes in a range drew of just like
Speaker 4: a lot of guys that I really like. So that's
Speaker 4: why I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't sit here and say I'm hammering mconkey every
Speaker 1: single time there just because there are players in that
Speaker 1: range that he goes that I like it wide receiver.
Speaker 1: So I just yeah, he's a guy that I think
Speaker 1: I'll mix in. And again, it's sort of fairly priced
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he went for twenty nine bucks and a mock
Speaker 2: auction I did the other night, and I just felt
Speaker 2: like that was too much because there's no I scream
Speaker 2: about this all the time. I'm sure my listeners are
Speaker 2: tired of it, But where's my discount? Like twenty nine
Speaker 2: bucks doesn't feel like a discount for what happened last year.
Speaker 2: But yeah, you get all right. We got to move on.
Speaker 2: So I want to ask you before I let you go,
Speaker 2: two guys from each side of the coin. Here, two
Speaker 2: guys you're targeting, two guys you're fading, And I don't
Speaker 2: care whether you're just fading them all together, or whether
Speaker 2: it's because of ADP or you know, you pick. I
Speaker 2: don't care. Let's start with a couple of fades right
Speaker 2: now as we're heading into trading camp.
Speaker 1: So we've talked a lot about my targets in this episode,
Speaker 1: guys I really like, and I think people can tell
Speaker 1: which ones I'm targeting, which ones I like, based on
Speaker 1: the conversation.
Speaker 4: But two more i'd throw out there. One.
Speaker 1: I think Jalen Wattle is the most miss priced player
Speaker 1: in Fantasy this year. I have him way ahead of consensus.
Speaker 1: I think he's just gonna absolutely smash in this Broncos offense.
Speaker 1: The usage is going to be very different than in Miami,
Speaker 1: where he was mostly an outside on ball receiver. Now
Speaker 1: he's going to get to do all the fun move
Speaker 1: around stuff, a lot more explosive to play a lot
Speaker 1: more easy receptions in an offense that was top ten
Speaker 1: in plays per game last year and the Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: were thirty seconds. So that's why there wasn't a lot
Speaker 1: of opportunity in that offense last year. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a lot this year, but there will
Speaker 1: be for Jalen Wattle in Denver, so he's a player
Speaker 1: I'm definitely targeting. And then another receiver I would throw
Speaker 1: out his Josh Downs and again that like, this is
Speaker 1: why I've kind of made the joke about Pittman, is
Speaker 1: that in that range where it's like Red Downs pearsall
Speaker 1: Pittman like and just never ended up taking Pittman's the
Speaker 1: like boring one, so I ended up taking the other
Speaker 1: like younger exciting guys. But Downs is a player that
Speaker 1: I think, obviously we can kind of explain what happened
Speaker 1: with him last year. Just didn't play enough because of
Speaker 1: all the heavy personnel stuff, and Michael Pittman has now
Speaker 1: gone Downs should just assume that role. And like I
Speaker 1: get that he hasn't played a ton in the two
Speaker 1: receiver sets and everything like that, I just refuse to
Speaker 1: believe that Shane Styken is an idiot, and Shane Stiken
Speaker 1: would be an idiot. Anyone would be an idiot if
Speaker 1: they like played Nick Westbrook, a Keene or you know,
Speaker 1: Moali Cox, like the second tight end or the non
Speaker 1: needle moving receiver Ashton Dueling or whatever. Over Josh Downs.
Speaker 1: Who is a good and dynamic football player. My one concern,
Speaker 1: and this comes back to the Keenan Allen thing. There's
Speaker 1: been some smoke about Keenan potentially signing with the Colts,
Speaker 1: and Keenan's like one of my favorite receivers ever, because
Speaker 1: again he's such a good route runner. But my god,
Speaker 1: that would be three years in a row. Roma Junsay
Speaker 1: rookie season got banged with Keenan Allen there soaking up targets.
Speaker 1: Lad mcconkee. Year two got banged with Keenan Allen soaking
Speaker 1: up targets, and then Josh Downs. That would be hard
Speaker 1: for me to forgive Keenan if he, you know, if
Speaker 1: he blocks the lad Rome and Downs and three consecutive.
Speaker 2: Seasons got I hope not, I hope not. Okay, how
Speaker 2: about a couple of fades, A.
Speaker 4: Couple of fades.
Speaker 1: I think the easy one is Malik Neighbors great player,
Speaker 1: great great player, but I mean, my god, like, give
Speaker 1: me one. People took a positive injury headline was you
Speaker 1: know John Harbaugh saying, I don't know. They're like, well,
Speaker 1: it's not a no because everything else has been negative.
Speaker 1: So he's just a guy that again, I'm going to
Speaker 1: let someone else take him because there's so many good,
Speaker 1: again appealing young receivers in rounds two to three that.
Speaker 4: You can't even start to think about him until the.
Speaker 1: Fourth round, and even then in a managed league, that's
Speaker 1: going to be tough to stomach.
Speaker 4: So he's an obvious fade to me.
Speaker 1: And then a guy that I do think, unfortunately the
Speaker 1: market is forcing me to fade. Is AJ Brown this
Speaker 1: year ed wide receiver nine. He's like a second round pick.
Speaker 1: He was round cheaper. I would think about it. But again,
Speaker 1: the problem here is that we started to see the
Speaker 1: decline for AJ Brown last year. You can explain some
Speaker 1: of it away because he was dealing with the hamstring
Speaker 1: in the first half of the season, and he was
Speaker 1: definitely better in the second half in reception perception. Again,
Speaker 1: I split these numbers up for him and his profile,
Speaker 1: but even then those are still diminished numbers from his peak.
Speaker 1: He's a twenty nine year old receiver with a ton
Speaker 1: of lower body injuries, including a degenerate knee condition that
Speaker 1: had him getting his knee drained twice leading up to
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl, and as part of the reason that
Speaker 1: he went the second round in the first round when
Speaker 1: he came into the NFL. So is that a ticking
Speaker 1: time bomb or can he age gracefully? I think that's
Speaker 1: the question. Plus is he going to be the movement receiver,
Speaker 1: the Z the slot in the offense for New England.
Speaker 1: I think that would help him age gracefully, But there's
Speaker 1: also a chance he just plays X and kind of
Speaker 1: gets the low percentage route.
Speaker 4: So I wish he was a round cheaper.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, I'm probably not gonna end up with a lot
Speaker 1: of ag of Brown because I don't think the risk
Speaker 1: of his decline is priced in at all.
Speaker 2: Right now, well, I agree with that opinion. However, there's
Speaker 2: still fighting words because I do think this Landsham in
Speaker 2: his best situation of his career. I'm hoping that allows
Speaker 2: him to age gracefully. But I do agree with your
Speaker 2: opinion that I don't know why we're not getting a
Speaker 2: bit more of a discount again, see you hear me.
Speaker 2: I just whine about discounts because I just feel like, like,
Speaker 2: with what we saw last year, why is he wide
Speaker 2: receiver eight? I'm not he should be twelve eleven, you know,
Speaker 2: at least something that pushes him into the third round.
Speaker 2: So I do agree with that, but I am looking
Speaker 2: for that discount and auction draft certainly Hint Hint will
Speaker 2: be doing this eight days from now, so thanks so much.
Speaker 4: Amazing.
Speaker 1: By the way, if I'm actually just like the biggest
Speaker 1: aj brown Bowl in the world, and like I I.
Speaker 2: Would never forgive you that would I don't think I.
Speaker 4: Was gonna say I don't think i'd be back next summer.
Speaker 2: If you would not, I'd try to hit everybody up
Speaker 2: at your site to see if anybody else could come on. Okay, no, Matt,
Speaker 2: this is always fun. I enjoy talking to you. I
Speaker 2: can't wait to see you and Canton. Thank you again
Speaker 2: for being on the show. This is This is a
Speaker 2: really information packed, actionable episode and it always is when
Speaker 2: we talk. So thanks again, man.
Speaker 1: No doubt you're appreciate it. I'm looking forward to seeing
Speaker 1: you here in less than two weeks as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be fun, so folks,
Speaker 2: don't forget to check out his workover at Reception Perception
Speaker 2: dot com. Also at Yahoo Fantasy. He's got shows, articles, breakdowns.
Speaker 2: This guy's doing it all. Check out Matt's work for
Speaker 2: supporting the Auction Brief every year, coming on with no
Speaker 2: questions and just being able to give us a lot
Speaker 2: of fantasy goodness. So thanks again to Matt Harmon our
Speaker 2: guests this week. That's gonna do it for another action
Speaker 2: packed episode of discussions with Truth. All right, that's gonna
Speaker 2: wrap up another week of discussions with Drew as we
Speaker 2: strive to talk with the smartest people in the business
Speaker 2: every single week. Don't forget to tune in Thursday morning
Speaker 2: for my solo time and the Auction Brief. Mike, thank
Speaker 2: you so much for joining us this week. I'll talk
Speaker 2: to you real soon. The Auction Brief is adjourned.
Speaker 3: The Auction Brief is a art that'll do it for
Speaker 3: this week's episode. See you next time on the Auction Brief.