Speaker 1: This is a man who knows numbers. It's a man
Speaker 1: who knows how to take care of the almighty dollar
Speaker 1: as well, and as a man that we enjoy having
Speaker 1: on this show because when it comes to the world
Speaker 1: of the NFL, no matter what month we're in, he
Speaker 1: gives us his best. He's always one hundred and ten percent.
Speaker 1: Whether it's OTAs or in the middle of training camp
Speaker 1: or December, it's Joe Dolan Fantasy Points dot Com. What's shaking, man.
Speaker 2: Oh, guys, nothing much. It's it's the early June and
Speaker 2: as all of you in the Upstate know, this time
Speaker 2: of year is the ever never ending struggle of should
Speaker 2: I water the lawn or is it going to rain?
Speaker 1: Sickly, yes, this is a very very challenging time for
Speaker 1: all of us right now.
Speaker 2: Yes, and you get so. I just want everybody to
Speaker 2: have me in their prayers, because that's that's what's a
Speaker 2: very very difficult thing for people to have to deal with.
Speaker 2: But it's looked like it's going to rain all day,
Speaker 2: and nonetheless it has not. So I went out and
Speaker 2: gave it a little sprinkle and maybe maybe I'll it'll
Speaker 2: get topped off here in a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so, and it's an unpredictable weather pattern.
Speaker 1: Exavier Lagette. I know chimed in a minute ago. Xavier,
Speaker 1: how we're looking weatherwise? The rest.
Speaker 2: One.
Speaker 1: Let's see if Bryce Young cain start raining on the
Speaker 1: league this year in terms of his talent level showed
Speaker 1: in spades at the end of last year. Joe Dolanfantasy
Speaker 1: Points dot Com. Let's start with this Carolina Panthers team.
Speaker 1: It's it's always tricky to project. I think the second
Speaker 1: year for a head coach who's just come in and
Speaker 1: the season always has a different personality year to year.
Speaker 1: But that season was more about I think how they
Speaker 1: stayed competitive in the close losses and what they showed
Speaker 1: in those games than any win over maybe a New
Speaker 1: Orleans or in Arizona. Uh, talk to me about Carolina.
Speaker 1: We've done this conversation otaser happening. Where are you with them?
Speaker 1: And what gives you hope and what gives you pause?
Speaker 2: Well, the thing that would give me the most pause
Speaker 2: for Carolina would be just the wondering how much of
Speaker 2: Bryce Young's second year kind of elevation is for real.
Speaker 2: And I don't think I'm breaking any news to you guys,
Speaker 2: because It would be a lot easier to say from
Speaker 2: my perspective that Bryce Young's second season improvements are real
Speaker 2: if he did it for the entire season. But here's
Speaker 2: the important thing. When it comes with Bryce Young, there
Speaker 2: is a there's a line of demarcation, right. They put
Speaker 2: him on the bench, they had him hit the reset button.
Speaker 2: Andy Dalton gets rear ended or whatever happens, and then
Speaker 2: Bryce Young comes in and looks like a completely different player,
Speaker 2: and the numbers kind of back that up. I mean,
Speaker 2: look through his first eighteen games in the NFL, Bryce
Speaker 2: Young through just touchdowns, through four touchdowns actually in eight
Speaker 2: of his first.
Speaker 1: Agents and Joe, Joe and you know better than I do,
Speaker 1: but let me help our listeners understand how many of
Speaker 1: those passes were like one yard bubbles. It was really
Speaker 1: rough to watch.
Speaker 2: And like, that's just a one point nine percent touchdown rate. Well,
Speaker 2: he improved that to a four point seven percent touchdown
Speaker 2: rate from Week eight on last year. And now you've
Speaker 2: got Ted Tyroe McMillan to come in. I think we've
Speaker 2: we've established on this program that we're gonna call him
Speaker 2: King ted Ted, even though he doesn't prefer ted.
Speaker 1: I kind of like I like you going against the
Speaker 1: grain here because I want to take you to training
Speaker 1: camp with me and have n't punch you in the nose.
Speaker 1: From that, I'm calling t mac until. Look I like
Speaker 1: King Ted. I like it. Yeah, Okay, we got to
Speaker 1: keep pumping King T Mack with that compromise. Go ahead.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: I will say with Bryce, we're pretty optimistic at Fantasy points.
Speaker 2: We have him rejected for essentially twenty one touchdown passes. Now,
Speaker 2: depending on which sportsbook you look at, sixteen and a
Speaker 2: half is about the line for him. Well, he threw
Speaker 2: fifteen in just fourteen games last year, of which only
Speaker 2: twelve were starts. And you mentioned all those those kind
Speaker 2: of short touchdown passes that he had as a rookie. Well,
Speaker 2: you'll also have to keep in mind this, and I
Speaker 2: think this is an underrated aspect that would indicate that
Speaker 2: Bryce Young was, even beyond the obvious statistics, was just
Speaker 2: a far improoved player last year near the goal line,
Speaker 2: he was running for touchdowns. He had six rushing touchdown
Speaker 2: last year he had zero as a as a rookie. So,
Speaker 2: based on your observations, I would need some time to
Speaker 2: dig into the Fantasy points data suite to really look
Speaker 2: at how exactly how many short touchdown passes he had,
Speaker 2: but the numbers would indicate that, based on the number
Speaker 2: of rushing touchdowns he had visa VI as a rookie,
Speaker 2: the touchdown that he was throwing in his second year
Speaker 2: were of a higher difficulty pass than maybe the ones
Speaker 2: that he was throwing for in twenty twenty three. So
Speaker 2: that's the concern I have for Carolina is how much
Speaker 2: of Bryce Young's improvements are going to be real. But
Speaker 2: that being said, I think you can marry up the
Speaker 2: numbers in the iests and you know, just because I'm
Speaker 2: a stat nerd like which I am, but I much
Speaker 2: more pride myself. I'm just being somebody who loves watching
Speaker 2: the games. So that's pay my bills, but I love
Speaker 2: watching football. You guys know, well, the the Bryce Young
Speaker 2: that we saw at the end of last season that
Speaker 2: was the top half of the league started.
Speaker 1: It absolutely absolutely was. And you know what, it wasn't
Speaker 1: just about the acumen with the timing and the rhythm
Speaker 1: and the poise. It was really more about commanding the huddle, relaxing, smiling,
Speaker 1: and it was also up to the offensive line in
Speaker 1: a way to sort of measure up to what we
Speaker 1: thought they could be with Hunt and Lewis. And obviously
Speaker 1: you've got a great depth corp there with the guys
Speaker 1: that they can step right in and play good football.
Speaker 1: And Shuba Hubbard as well. I mean a guy that
Speaker 1: obviously we can talk fantasy with him, I suppose, because
Speaker 1: you've got other running backs who are in the fold
Speaker 1: always with Carolina and that's how Canalis runs it. But
Speaker 1: I think getting back to Bryce for a second, you
Speaker 1: look back, you just hear from Pro Football Reference and
Speaker 1: I've got don't I got my ass stats here in
Speaker 1: a minute, But I'm just going to the easiest plays.
Speaker 1: It turned around to me in the Denver game. I
Speaker 1: know they got boat Race there, but late in the
Speaker 1: game he opened up the game with a nice slant
Speaker 1: on an RPO. Two. Of all people, that Guett who
Speaker 1: was catching everything early this season. That was against Sir Tan.
Speaker 1: That was a great play against a great corner. That
Speaker 1: was a fifteen yard touchdown pass later in the game
Speaker 1: to Cocher, and then the Tampa game twenty five yard
Speaker 1: pass eighty three he has right now, I can tell you,
Speaker 1: uh seven fourteen seventeen nineteen touchdown passes of ten or
Speaker 1: more yards, and I would say that that is a
Speaker 1: very good improvement versus where we were early on. But
Speaker 1: back to the running game in general in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Start with Chewba Hubbard and what he's meant to Bryce,
Speaker 1: and then let's expand it a little bit. Is there
Speaker 1: really a trend or is it just sort of like, Okay,
Speaker 1: for a couple of years, Derek and Josh Jacobs and
Speaker 1: these guys were right there where they needed to be.
Speaker 1: Are we seeing a shift back to maybe two thousand
Speaker 1: and three, because I don't think we're quite there, but
Speaker 1: it is refreshing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I love a couple of minds with this.
Speaker 2: I remember a number of years ago on my serious
Speaker 2: ExM radio shows talking to Adrian Peterson, who obviously you
Speaker 2: got you guys know Adrian Peterson as one of the
Speaker 2: great bell cow back of his era. He I think
Speaker 2: you can make an argument he might have been the
Speaker 2: best who ever to ever put on a uniform. And
Speaker 2: he was definitely somebody who was of the mind that
Speaker 2: I need my carries to really become the player that
Speaker 2: that that I need to be. It's almost like, you know,
Speaker 2: if you're a golfer, and you got to go warm
Speaker 2: up on the driving range before you before you take
Speaker 2: your driver out on the course. You really got to
Speaker 2: get a feel for how you're swinging that day. And
Speaker 2: I want to look back to Derrick Henry at the
Speaker 2: start of his career. If you look at Derrick Henry,
Speaker 2: look at some of his numbers. In his first couple
Speaker 2: of years with Tennessee, he was splitting work with DeMarco Murray.
Speaker 2: And then Tennessee made a made a signing. Uh you
Speaker 2: might remember Beon Lewis from the Patriots, Well, the titles
Speaker 2: As signed him to essentially be they wanted Dion Lewis
Speaker 2: to be their main running back with Derrick Henry as
Speaker 2: kind of a rotational yeah, and like yeah, you look
Speaker 2: at the sizes, it's wild, but you don't look at
Speaker 2: Derrick Henry's numbers. Like in his first two three years
Speaker 2: of his career. This was not the King Henry that
Speaker 2: we know now and I remember from Alabama. But they
Speaker 2: switched did the Titans this way through that season to
Speaker 2: a team that leaned on Derrick Henry as the foundational
Speaker 2: U of their offense, and Derek Henry overnight became Henry.
Speaker 2: He's the running back we remember now, and look, I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna I don't want to compare Touba Hubbard Derrick Henry,
Speaker 2: Derek Henry is a one of one. But I do
Speaker 2: wonder if Chuba Hubbard, the guy who kind of looked
Speaker 2: like a rotational plotter for a couple of years in
Speaker 2: the NFL, he became a guy who when he finally
Speaker 2: started getting carries, he started getting into a rhythm. Yes,
Speaker 2: and he started feeling the game a little bit more.
Speaker 2: Maybe the game slowed down a little bit for him.
Speaker 2: And I wonder if Chubahabbard is just the kind of
Speaker 2: running back who needs that consistent work. Now, look, there's
Speaker 2: always going to be backups. They went out they signed Rico.
Speaker 1: Dabble ran for a thousand yards, Like, oh yeah, they
Speaker 1: have a surprise to many, But I did see the
Speaker 1: logic go ahead, and I do think they have a
Speaker 1: big stable of backs though to deal.
Speaker 2: With here Trevory Tan obviously, they they drafted him, and
Speaker 2: he's got some speed to him. But I just do
Speaker 2: wonder if you know, from a fantasy perspective, to round
Speaker 2: this into like an overarching like conversation is maybe it's
Speaker 2: just teams were starting to get so cute with these
Speaker 2: running back rotations. And while the logic is sound, oh,
Speaker 2: we have fresher legs and this guy knows his role
Speaker 2: and that guy knows his role, well, maybe some of
Speaker 2: these guys just weren't getting getting their feet under them.
Speaker 1: And make my nerds hate. Is this why nerds hated
Speaker 1: running backs? It was the rotations? Is that? Is that
Speaker 1: what it came down to. There's nerds and then this
Speaker 1: fantasy don't take it. There's analytics, and then there's the
Speaker 1: fantasy crew that just wants consistency. Would line ups right? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean, like, would I love to go back to
Speaker 2: the days when like there was thirteen, fourteen, fifteen guys
Speaker 2: running for one thousand yards every Yeah.
Speaker 1: There old Campbell, Baby.
Speaker 2: I don't think you know, like you go look at
Speaker 2: the Oh god, who's let me let me think of it.
Speaker 2: Let me think of a panther from back in the
Speaker 2: DA Davis never have been h well, Stephen Davis was,
Speaker 2: you know, he was great for fantasy for a while.
Speaker 2: But I think I'm thinking Anthony Johnson.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, okay, yeah, that thing go, that's like
Speaker 1: ninety six, that's welcome into the league. There's toys that
Speaker 1: misfit toys come together. AJ, you rushing for a thousand,
Speaker 1: you're right about him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and an all timer for me, Old Fred Lane
Speaker 2: from Lane College.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, Fred Lane so many I do. AJ's
Speaker 1: the best one though, because it was like a good line.
Speaker 1: Give me four yards two hundred times. Just do that
Speaker 1: four yards two times.
Speaker 2: You look at Anthony john I think he ran for
Speaker 2: like twelve hundred yards in the season one year, And
Speaker 2: I think Fred Lane ran for like nine hundred and
Speaker 2: like half a season one year.
Speaker 1: Out of the game, and then that happened to go ahead.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think Fred Lane, Fred Lane was like one
Speaker 2: his job because Tim Yakabatuca couldn't stay.
Speaker 1: On the field.
Speaker 2: So like you look at guys like that, and like
Speaker 2: for somebody like in this day and age, a guy
Speaker 2: running for nine hundred yards and like half a season
Speaker 2: would be an all timer fantasy season, I doubt Fred
Speaker 2: Lane or Anthony Johnson. Back of the day we're topping
Speaker 2: running back leader boards, you know, for fantasy I have
Speaker 2: to go back and front the numbers. But Touma Hubbard,
Speaker 2: he kind of had that bell cow roll last year.
Speaker 2: He ran for twelve hundred yards. He caught forty passes.
Speaker 2: So we've got him projected as the thirteenth running back
Speaker 2: for fantasy. Depending on how you build your team, if
Speaker 2: you start heavy one receivers, maybe get a fight end
Speaker 2: in there to Hubbard could be your number one running
Speaker 2: back for fantasy. And I think you could. You could
Speaker 2: do okay with that?
Speaker 1: Wow, all right, cared me last year. Trey Falco, Trey Falcon.
Speaker 1: It's all your Steelers, I'm sure. Is the next question
Speaker 1: for Joe Dolan fantasy points about that chue Be Hubbard prediction.
Speaker 1: I'm I like it.
Speaker 3: Think I know who's on my projected fantasy team.
Speaker 1: We got running back and you don't.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's Caleb Johnson, Caleber hey Man, he's looking. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: can talk about Caleb Johnson the second. I will say.
Speaker 3: We're in the projected over five hundred portion of the
Speaker 3: off season for the Steelers right now. You know we
Speaker 3: started off how it always goes Owen six. That's how
Speaker 3: the Steelers six spring.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 3: I want to talk quarterback for a second though. I
Speaker 3: really want to put this whole Will Howard thing to
Speaker 3: rest there. There's this narrative that will Howard is the
Speaker 3: next Tom Brady, the next Big Ben Roethlisberger.
Speaker 1: He throws like him whatever. He's a nice guy too,
Speaker 1: and that's I mean that he's endearing to the He's
Speaker 1: saying all the right thing, saying all the right thing
Speaker 1: on pay I mean, he's the sixth round pick.
Speaker 3: I heard he was projected fourth. He ended up going
Speaker 3: for the sixth round. If you were coming down into
Speaker 3: the season, there's still no Aaron Rodgers. Have no idea
Speaker 3: what's going on with him? We know what we've got,
Speaker 3: Mason Rudolph. Do you give the kid a chance?
Speaker 1: Do you let Will Howard just trot him out there?
Speaker 1: Do you just run with Mason Rudolph? What do you do?
Speaker 2: Mike Tomlin will not run Will Howard.
Speaker 1: Mike Tomlin, Yeah, there's sinse. That's all that matters.
Speaker 2: If there's no Aaron Rodgers, and if there's no Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 2: I still think there's going to be But if there's
Speaker 2: no Aaron Rodgers and there's no pause, there's still sneaky
Speaker 2: fullback plan for the Steelers.
Speaker 1: Limping up ninety one.
Speaker 2: Like there's not a chance. I think it's hurt. There
Speaker 2: is not a chance. Mike Tomlin. It is throwing a
Speaker 2: six round rookie out there. It will not. I mean,
Speaker 2: look at look at what happened last year. Justin Fields
Speaker 2: went four and two and his six starts and Tomlin.
Speaker 1: Six field goals against Atlanta. The shutter thing was was interesting,
Speaker 1: and I that'll play itself out and I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: block Brown's Twitter until we see that the game played.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. Historically, and we've done a deep
Speaker 1: dive into the quarterback market in the draft, we could
Speaker 1: find about a thirty percent hit rate in the first
Speaker 1: round since twenty eleven of true franchise guys. You get
Speaker 1: into the sixth round, you got about one or two
Speaker 1: guys out of like fifty five. Right, you have no
Speaker 1: reason to have faith in this until you see it
Speaker 1: and if it works great otherwise, look at it. A
Speaker 1: very nice guy who looks a little bit like Big
Speaker 1: Ben if you look in the right light, but if
Speaker 1: you squint. But really not, but really not. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is just Stealer fans coping, and I hope they
Speaker 1: cope by just inviting their coach back and maybe the
Speaker 1: owner Ruld, because nine ten wins is pretty damn good
Speaker 1: based on what he's been dealing with the quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1: Maybe to the Steelers, maybe not. We know Joe Dolan
Speaker 1: will be right there at Fantasy Point Central. We have
Speaker 1: to leave now because of the damn clock, but please
Speaker 1: give us the details on what's going on right now
Speaker 1: and how we can find the work.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh, well, we're really expanding the podcast network over
Speaker 2: at fantasy points dot com and we have multiple podcasts
Speaker 2: that you can check out on fantasy points dot com,
Speaker 2: Lash podcasts, all of them on Spotify. Well, we'll serve
Speaker 2: all your needs. We'll have Fantasy Focus podcasts. We'll have
Speaker 2: a Betting Focus podcast if you're an individual defensive player,
Speaker 2: will have an high podcasts, the NFL Focus podcast just
Speaker 2: like not necessarily even for fantasy, we have Dynasty Fantasy
Speaker 2: Football podcasts. We've got all that cover. That's been a big,
Speaker 2: big objective of ourisens all season. You can also follow
Speaker 2: us on YouTube at YouTube dot com slash fantasy Points.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have an ass of the Week segment with
Speaker 1: Joe Dolan. Not what you think, it's Joe, You're always
Speaker 1: great man. We'll catch up.
Speaker 2: I could I could opine on on ASCID the week
Speaker 2: from multiple angles.
Speaker 1: I sure you could. If you will del off this air,
Speaker 1: you will do that. Goodbye, Joe, have a good evening,
Speaker 1: see you brother.
Speaker 2: All Right, boys,