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Tennessee Titans 2021 Fantasy Football by the Good Old Boys Fantasy Football
Intro 00:17
You’re listening to the good old boys fantasy football podcast. Now here’s your host, Kevin, Derek and Alex.
Derek 00:27
Alrighty. Welcome in ladies and gentlemen to another episode of the good old boys fantasy football podcast. I’m Derek, and I’m joined as always, by your co host, Kevin and Alex. Guys. How are we doing tonight?
Alex 00:38
We welcome Kevin back with open arms after the technological debacle That was last week. As it turns out, when you’re doing a show, and 50% of the hosts, doesn’t have reliable internet, you might as well just not have a second host. So, but I think it’s all working today. We’ve got the rabbit ears tuned in nicely, I believe from where my computer is to the router in the living room. And I think Fingers crossed, we won’t have the same issues that we had last week. If you were with us last week. You deserve a gold star for sticking through that one. And I’ll be honest, Derek, I didn’t go back and listen to the audio version of the podcast. Yeah, cuz I imagine it wasn’t very fun to put together and it probably wasn’t very easy to listen to. so apologies about that. But hopefully we’re back on track here this week.
Kevin 01:39
Right on Well, I certainly appreciate you guys holding up the mantle for me while I was down in San Antonio for some work and a little bit of relaxation. But happy to be back. Happy to be talking football again. It’s like a cocaine addict. Man, I missed a week and I got to get my fix. So I’m glad to be back.
Derek 02:02
Well, that’s a that’s a new one tonight. So that’s uh, that’s fun. All right. So, guys, so if yet yeah, if you haven’t done so already, make sure that you’re you’re hopping on the YouTube the Twitch, hitting that following subscribe button. We bring this show to you live every Tuesday night. 11pm Eastern 10pm Central. And for those of us that, you know, never get mentioned and all those things 9pm Mountain and eight 8pm. Pacific time. So lots of lots of fun. We’ve got a great show for you. Tonight, we’re talking Tennessee Titans. And the Tennessee Titans have added some intrigue going on this year. So some offseason moves have made things a little bit more interesting, a little bit more fun. And it’s one of those that a team that when you look at it, they have been kind of the focus of a lot of folks on Twitter and a lot of folks out there on social media and how this is going to work and break down and so a very fun team tonight to talk about that. You know, the the opinions vary widely on this team when you go through it so I’m kind of excited to get in there and unless we wish we got anything else we want to hit up. I’m just going to take us right to the Tennessee Titans. Alrighty guys, I like it. The Tennessee Titans. They’re the team of the week and that’s where we’re heading to and so playoff run team last year. They’ve got some exciting pieces and we’re gonna start where we always do and that is in the running back room. They’ve got a got a good one. You may have heard of him before he goes by King Henry or Derrick Henry and other in other circles but he was the runningback number two overall last year 378 rush attempts, 2027 yards 17 rushing touchdowns, he managed to catch a couple of balls to 19 receptions 31 targets for an additional 114 through the year. Guys your thoughts on Derrick Henry
Alex 04:01
before Kevin goes into it. Henry has a soft spot in my heart because I rode that horse all the way to a fantasy football championship last year
Kevin 04:12
well it’s hard to follow that up Leave Leave that bad taste in my mouth.
Derek 04:19
No it was me that he beat
Kevin 04:22
also true now but as far as Decker and he goes he’s a top five back in redraft leagues guys like you expect as history tells us that there is some regression off of a 2000 yard season but Derrick Henry he’s really kind of been almost like a fine wine of running backs. Like the longer he has been going, the better he’s gotten. You’d like for him to catch a couple more balls which is really going to you know probably cap him at probably RB three this season. You know we missed a couple big names guy’s going down last year and I think that kind of help that number two overall rating, but he’s a guy that they use early they use often. I derrington Evans, a guy that we’ll talk about in a second. And I don’t see him Voltron a whole much a whole bunch and taking up that, you know, mantle to spell him other than a couple touches per game. So, the Tennessee Titans want to run the ball. That’s how they’re established as an offense. They set up their passing game through the run. And so that means lots and lots of Derrick Henry, so if you have your chance, Adam, go ahead and snag him guys. Yes, he’s not going to catch a ton of balls. But his volume on the ground and his volume inside the red zone, and his ability to get inside. In the end zone, excuse me, really makes up for those lack of catches there. So Derrick, Henry’s a guy that you can draft with confidence. very safe floor, very high ceiling, we saw him go for 200 plus yards. Last season in a game or two the season before that. We saw him break off monster long run. So if you have yardage bonuses, he’s capable of that too. He breaks lots of tackles. So he’s really is a very complete back. They just don’t use him as much in the passing game as other teams use their running backs.
Alex 06:22
Yeah, I think with Henry though, he’s kind of like the, this is so weird to say because he’s kind of like an old school running back. He’s a guy that they’re going to hand the ball off the hand the ball off to they’re going to ask him to run the football 2530 times a game and he’s going to get where he gets. Hopefully a lot of that is you know, some good chunk yardage plays and a couple touchdowns or a touchdown, at least the game. So it feels like you know, he’s one of those, you know, what we would think about if we were talking about running backs 10 years ago, like Derrick Henry would be the poster child of it. Now the issue is that running backs are now so much more multifaceted. You know, you’ve got like kind of the scat back that is Christian McCaffrey, you’ve got you know, Alvin Kamara, same mold. That’s, that gets a lot of the work through the air. But with Derrick Henry it is it is he will line up, you know, seven yards behind the quarterback. And they’re just going to turn around and hand the ball off to them and try and stop it. That’s that’s what their kenri is. And to Kevin’s point, you’re right, if you have an opportunity to get in. If you’re picking you know if you’re picking in the third spot and say McCaffrey and Kumar cook, you know, whatever, if there’s two of those guys are gone. You can have confidence that Derrick Henry will be good and will take you to where you need to go provided he stays healthy knock on wood. And he’s one of those guys that what if you have a keeper League, he’s worth the penalty to keep because he is that good. Have a player
Kevin 08:02
he’s really the Alabama running back that everyone wanted for so many years, right. Eddie Lacy and this is what Eddie Lacy was Yeah. And projected to be didn’t happen um Richardson Richards the guy yeah, that’s right. Same thing his rookie season started out well like he might become this guy and then fell off a stinking cliff and hosed fantasy owners big time that following season, but again, that type of mold who you expect this guy to be um you know nachi Harris Nagi Harris is Derrick Henry but can catch the ball better is what everybody you know, that’s the easy comp right? And we’ll see how he pans out and what he does in Pittsburgh but for the long time Alabama running backs had had a bad a bad rep right? They come into the pros, they can’t get anything done. And the first couple years of Henry’s career remember he is behind Dion Lewis like what you know WTF like seriously he was behind Deon freakin Lewis for a season they’re in Tennessee like and they finally released the beast and this is the you know reward you get he didn’t have a whole lot of tread on his tires. So yes, he he’s I guess in prime or slightly on the back end of prime running back age if you’re gonna put a put a number to it. But because he split carries Alabama he didn’t really carry the ball a whole lot. His first two seasons in the NFL. Guys. I think there’s a lot of tread left on these tires. And we could be seeing Derrick Henry for a good amount of time going forward barring any sort of, you know, fluke injury that we all hope doesn’t happen right? Because he’s a hell of a lot of fun to watch.
Derek 09:47
No, you’re you both bring up some some phenomenal points and spot on. But I’m gonna be the contrarian here, as is typically my role, but and it’s I’m gonna ask you Guys some questions here, just to see how, you know how tied into some of these things we are. So when you look at it, there can we got over a, a carry Mark last year with 378 touches that has proven to proven to be a bad stat line to hit in previous years with NFL running backs. And that is 370 or more carries to it where you can you can chalk it up to some of its going to be natural regression because of the fact that you have there’s not many times that are running back, we’ll also get that same amount of workload the following year. Now, Derrick Henry could be that guy that sees that similar workload last year, to this year, and you see some of that carry over. But that’s, that’s one thing that I want to know is, Does that concern you at all? With that 378 carries? Do you see regression coming? Whether it be from you know, him, him putting that many miles on the on the tires last year, being from the standpoint that he may not get that same kind of workload? Like does that cause you concern at all?
Alex 11:12
If he had a different head coach, I would say yes, but I think my grayble is so committed to what they are there in Tennessee, that they are going to ride Derrick Henry to wherever he takes them. Right? You know, you’ve got a quarterback that is a he’s a good quarterback, but I would put him in the you know, I hate to do that thing. Manager mode. But that’s kind of what tannehill is. And you know, he can he can win you again with his right arm. But more often than not, you know, that’s not what he’s out there to do. That could change this year with the additions that they’ve made. But I think that as their kenri goes, so does the Tennessee Titans. And I think that that is the reason that I’m not concerned that they’re that they’re going to back off the workload for him. And keep in mind, we get an extra game out of him. Right we get the extra game this year. So I’m not concerned at all I still think that Derrick Henry is going to get his because the Tennessee Titans in my opinion their offensive gameplan is try and stop it.
Kevin 12:24
I agree with a lot of that Alex I think the floor for Derrick Henry is running back seven maybe running back eight and and I’m okay with that. If I’m drafting Derrick Henry at the middle to back into the first round which is more where you see him going. You know if I miss on him by one or two runningback spots, but he’s the guy wanted. I’m okay with that. Right? Like we’ve his ceilings, two or three. His floor is seven or eight like that’s safe man. And and if anything, you can’t win a draft. You can’t win a fancy football draft with your first pick. But you can really lose it. Right like you can absolutely get crippled. We saw that from McCaffrey owners from CMC owners. We saw that
Derek 13:12
from on Yeah.
Kevin 13:14
Alright. Yeah, sorry. McCaffrey sake one. And really, Lamar Jackson last year, two years ago, even even Patrick Mahomes, right, because he went down with injury and miss so much time, it really crippled teams. So you’re not going to win it. But you can absolutely lose that. So if I’m taking a guy who has a ceiling of being a top two or three player, and the floor is still well inside the top 10. I’m going to take it guys, I’m not going to think twice about it. Because it’s not only is it safe, the volume of production, is there just on a plain base level platform and I can build around that.
Derek 13:56
Okay, another another thought that I had when I was looking through this, because it’s kind of, you know, putting that context at 370. Marker. As far as Karis go, there’s only been one running back in the previous 30 years that has exceeded that and that was Eric Eric Dickerson all the way back in the day. Typically, you see a pretty good regression there so I could see some regression happening with that one just from a workload volume to the point where I don’t know you’re gonna see him get above get up there and that but he’s probably guy that you’re still gonna see get 340 carries and get a ton of workload to it and with the way that they would like to manage that game. I think you’re right, I think you’ll he’ll have some very good volume there. But you kind of brought up another point there. Kevin, when you’re going through that where you’re talking about drafting a guy that even if you’re off maybe a spotter too and you take him at but he’s still finished as of top 10 running back you’re happy with that. And that kind of brought brought up a thought from a running back we saw last year do something similar where Ezekiel Elliott was the you know, typically the third run Back off the board, which is about where Derrick Henry‘s going drafted this year and finished as running back 11. Just outside that the top 10 that that you were talking about there. But if if you see a similar type of workload there and a similar type of production. Are you happy with that with Derrick Henry this year?
Kevin 15:19
I think, at least for me, the thing that made the the Zeke ownership shares that I had last year so frustrating was, it was the peaks and valleys. And you weren’t quite accustomed to that from Zeke now losing, you know, four fifths of your offensive line and losing your starting quarterback don’t help that, right. Like, there are natural things, the fact that the doubt the Dallas Cowboys defense was about as strong as you know, a wet paper towel didn’t help that. So I do think it’s a little bit of apples and oranges. Because, you know, just Jacobs, he’s the guy who finished right around there, too, right. And we’ve talked about Jacobs where he might have finished in the top 10. But the way he got there was just frickin ugly man. Like, I can take a top 10 performance, where I know the baseline, right? If I’m going to get 17 points a game, then by God, I know I’m getting 17 points a game and I can work around that it’s when your first round pick has, you know, 28 points one week, and then eight points the next that it’s hard to build a lineup around it. So give me stability. And and because of how everything’s situated in Tennessee, I think that’s truly what you get here.
Alex 16:38
I also I’d also say that it’s sort of an unfair comparison, as Kevin was saying, with Zeke to to Henry, because Derrick Henry is, and will be the offense, they’re in Tennessee. Like that’s, that’s what they’re going to do. When when, when all of this stuff happened with Dallas last year, Zeke kind of had to become that guy. And that’s not exactly what, you know, he was planning on being going into the season. And I think, you know, I think that’s what attributed I think he put so much pressure on himself to try and make that team go. And that’s when you started seeing, you know, the fumbles and the gifts that he essentially had. Yeah, I mean, he had the, the guy had the yips because he was putting so much pressure. I don’t know this for a fact. But just logically thinking, you know, that’s, that’s what happened. That he was he was thrust into this position that he wasn’t expecting. And he was just doing everything he could to try to help his team win. And sometimes that ended up you know, making him play outside of himself. And that that was an issue
Kevin 17:47
and seeking knowledge that in week 11, they had the fox did an interview with him before one of the games, and Zeke acknowledged that that was Dak going down, he really, you know, felt like he needed to play outside of himself. And we see this in all sports. It’s not just a football thing. It’s any any sport team or individual, that when the athlete plays outside of themselves, more mistakes happen, and they actually hurt their production as opposed to help that production or that team overcome adversity, they become more of a hindrance. So
Alex 18:22
it’s crazy, because because they got they’re doing what they did, right. And so when you change that, that’s not what what got you there. And then everything just gets thrown out of whack. So So yes, I think that that’s kind of an unfair comparison for Zeke last year because of the situation whereas it’s a very clearly defined what’s going on in Tennessee. This is Derrick Henry‘s ball. And, you know, there just might happen to be a few plays on offense where he’s not scripted to get it, but it is, it is Derrick Henry‘s ball to, to run. And, and he knows that and everybody else knows that. And even the defense knows that. And they still have a hard time bringing him down and tracking him down. And I will add, the other thing is, and we talked about, you know, tread on the tires and and Kevin, you’re right, you know, his first couple years. He he only had, you know, he had 110, runs his first year 176, his second year and 215 in his third season. And that was his first season really, as a starter was that third that third year that he was in so he’s only going into his fourth year as a starter there for Tennessee. And we bought we’ve seen it before, you know, with with running backs, as they get more comfortable in the league and they get more established. You know, things start to the game slows down a lot and he understands what he’s doing, but with the way that he’s built, and this is completely contradictory to the tune. I was singing a year ago because I was really down on Derrick Henry last year to the point where I’m pretty sure both of you had to talk me into taking him Yeah, we Our draft this year. Yeah, we did. It was a it was it turned out to be a fantastic move, obviously. But I was super down on him because I thought, you know what, he’s not going to be able to replicate what he did, you know, the previous year. And he exceeded that, because he is six, three, and 247 pounds. I mean, he’s built like a full bag. He is the speed of a running bag, and a knack for the end zone. And so while I don’t know that he gets to, again, the numbers that he had last year, he’s given me no reason to think that he won’t at least flirt with them. So so that’s where I’m at with Derrick Henry, I was singing a way different tune a year ago. He has made me a believer. And, and I, I am all in on Derrick Henry.
Derek 20:45
I they’re not my
Kevin 20:46
my final point on Derrick Henry, because I know we need to move on is, I think the addition of Julio Jones really helps him because getting in that 350 to 370 range. I think that some of those carrier carries are gonna be easier carries now, because they’re not going to be able to stack the boxes much with brown and Julio on the outsides. They’re not going to be able to cheat in a safeties. Right, they got to be able to respect that because Julio, while he doesn’t have blazing speed, is really good about getting 20 yards out, and then cutting straight across the middle of the field. And coming down with that ball. We saw Matt Ryan and Julio do that time and time again. And then you have AJ Brown, who is a big body guy, but youth is on his side and he can blaze too. So the safeties are going to have to respect both of these wide receivers a little bit more than they had to respect Corey Davis last year, even though Davis had a decent year, but they’re going to naturally respect Julio more. So I do think that keeps safeties honest a little bit more. And if, if Ryan Tannehill can make the safeties pay for cheating up when they do and whether it’s the audible or a hard play action, and you can keep them back because you burn them once or twice. Those 370 carries don’t take the toll, right that we would think a traditional 370 would because they can’t stack the box, otherwise, they’re gonna get beat over the top. Right.
Alex 22:21
I will say this, it would be crazy. Two years ago, Derrick Henry had 16 touchdowns in 15 games last year with 17 touchdowns in 16 games. He gets 18 touchdowns in 17 games. I mean, I don’t even know if there’s words to describe just how good and dominant that is.
Kevin 22:43
That even if he falls back and ends up a 13 or 14, you’re happy with that right? Like very happy with double digit touchdowns is just an amazing thing. Regardless of where you draft a guy because they’re so hard to come by so Ellie falls back and he gets 12 wins in 17 games. That’s still gonna be better than 95% of the rest of the league. If not
Derek 23:08
Well, apparently the internet bug bit Kevin right here. So Kevin will be back in but while we’re waiting real quick, just want to give some shout outs to I’m not sure if that’s ikey or L key a czar. But welcome in to the show. Appreciate that and you’re right does Zeke is definitely somebody that we’ve talked about in the past. It looks like JP Kennedy 2121 is also joining
Alex 23:33
PJ Kennedy your dyslexia so right now
Derek 23:35
I’m sorry PJ Kennedy. 2121 I got it right that time. Yes, I would agree with you that the Titans are going to be filthy Welcome. Welcome back. enjoy seeing you in the comments as always there Kevin any final thoughts there on before your internet decided to go all wonky?
Kevin 23:53
No, my hot take broke the stream yard I’m
Alex 23:55
done. That’s the problem. We keep doing this. We get going on these rants and then all of a sudden stream yards like nah, nope.
Derek 24:02
That hot take was too hot. We broke the internet. Alright. Alright. Next. Yeah, I’m I’ve got to agree with you guys. I do have Derrick Henry. I said I was going a little contrary in there. But I’ve still got him run to the ball about almost 1600 yards and about 15 touchdowns what I’ve gotten projected so he’s going to
Kevin 24:20
have 100. Only
Alex 24:24
less than 100 a game. I mean, the average 123 last year,
Kevin 24:28
I hear you angry.
Derek 24:29
Did you not hear my voice regression? Did you not hear my whole thing about regression, he’ll have regression there. That’s where it’s coming to play. But I think you’ll have still have a very, very good season, obviously top 10 and I’ve got to prescribe to your methods as what you guys were prescribing there. So darrington Evans is a rookie that they drafted going into last year didn’t see much last year with only 14 rushing attempts. had two receptions on four targets any any thoughts On derrington Evans,
Alex 25:02
you know, so typically when we talk about a backup running back, it’s in kind of that handcuff, especially a feature bag, which there are very few of those still remaining. There’s a feature bag roll. But, you know, I think if for, you know, if, if Derek Kenner gets hurt, and we don’t want that to happen, but if he gets hurt, I think this offense might change a little bit, and I don’t think they would be so focused on the road, I think they would rely a little bit more on tannehill with those two toys that he’s got on either side of them. So I I don’t know that darrington Evans, you know, he wouldn’t meet he’s not Derrick Henry. Right. And we can all agree to that. And I don’t think that they would even try to utilize him in the same way that that they utilize Derrick Henry. So for me derrington Evans is like a deep bench play that I probably wouldn’t even pay attention to. Because for me in this this Titans running back room, it is Derrick Henry or it is nobody.
Kevin 26:10
Now, Jessica Alex Davidson Evans is the guy that I am. I’m drafting solely as a mark or excuse me as a dare candidate Mark Henry, the World’s Strongest Man. There you go. Some WWE plugs for you guys there, Graham. He’s silly. A Derrick Henry handcuff. So darrington. Evans is a guy that you can get pretty late 14th 15th round, something like that. Like it. He’s not going super high. So he’s a guy that I am going to take as the handcuff I think, you know, we’ll talk about Brian Hill in just a second. They brought him in as an insurance, I think that he’s more of a plat pass blocking insurance than anything else. They had a lot of really good things to say about darrington Evans all throughout last year, it was just why play him when Derrick Henry‘s rushing for, you know, 2000 plus yards in a season. So he’s the guy that I’ll take as the handcuff and I can get him super cheap, where it’s really, you know, just keeping them on the roster and keep them buried. God forbid anything happened. But that’s the only purpose if I don’t have Henry, I’m not going to tie up darrington Evans like it’s not worth you know, the wait and see. Just because Henry’s health record is so impeccable.
Derek 27:25
Yeah, yeah, I think you’re right there. I I don’t know that. I’ve got anything really to add there. Um, yeah, Mikey? Oh, good.
Alex 27:34
I would say this, you know, I tried to do, I tried to employ a strategy. Last year, maybe the year before, I can’t remember right offhand. But I tried to employ the strategy of drafting, handcuffs for guys that I did not have on my team. So my example is I drafted Alexander Madison, because I thought that Madison might be able to have some standalone value by himself, but he would really have value if Dalvin Cook ever went down. And Dalvin Cook kind of has the track record of not playing a full season. And then I thought, well, I could I could draft these guys, and then maybe flip them to the guy who needs him. If if that running back goes down, do not employ that strategy. It does not work.
Derek 28:24
What what you’re describing works really well in a basketball situation type deal, where you’re throwing those late, round Dart throw type of things. And if somebody goes down, you go that way. But no, you’re right with with what you’re talking about. That strategy, it works really, really well. If you’ve put them in as a, you know, you know, piece of candy on top of the trade type of thing. A little bit of trade fodder on top of it, where it’s, you know, not the deal, but it’s an ancillary piece to improve the deal overall for that. And, you know, IPAs are was saying that the volume in Tennessee is increased year over year since variable took over, the defense has regressed a little bit. Last year, they ran about seven more plays per game than they did neither 2019 or 2018. There still are a run first team, the ratios were 51 to 49. So yes, definitely run first team. They do like just plugging and chugging the ball, because that will also help that defense out there as well. But I think some of that, too, has to do with the fact that you saw a lot of teams play faster last year, just simply from the standpoint that there wasn’t some of the crowd noise. There wasn’t some of that kind of stuff going on. So was able to speed the game along, you’re able to get Yeah, I think the average was a each each game and each team saw a couple more plays run on a per game basis than they had in the previous couple of seasons. I think the crowd stadium and some of that had to do with some of that too.
Alex 29:47
That’s a that’s an excellent point because these offenses didn’t have to go to silent count or anything. I mean, they could they could hear each other in the huddle just fine. They didn’t have to, you know, hand signals or anything to just Yep plays called so that’s a very good point that I think offenses, were able to defenses were able to tee off as much as they wanted to last year, so offenses was going to thrive. Hopefully, everybody will be back to at least somewhat capacity stadium. I think the plan is right now that most teams will be at full capacity this fall. So I would see those that that number come back down to the median versus last year’s exception to the rule.
Derek 30:29
Yeah, well, guys, let’s go ahead and Brian Hill, newly coming over from the Falcons as well, in the offseason, any desire to talk about Brian Hill in this running back room.
Kevin 30:39
So here’s my one thing about Brian Hill. The Falcons aren’t didn’t resign Todd Gurley. They brought in Cordell Patterson. They let go of Ito Smith and Brian Hill, and they think they’re fine. Like that’s what they think of Brian Hill. Oh, we brought in Cordero Patterson. Let go, uh, Todd Gurley let go of Ito Smith, and we still don’t need you. Like they think of him that much. So I don’t have great expectations. He can pass block fairly well. Like I really think that it’s the insurance policy, maybe spell Henry on some obvious passing downs. So that way, he’s not taking any of those extra hits from the linebackers that aren’t necessary. But I don’t see him with any great role on this team. I think his snap counts probably going to be somewhere around, you know, maybe 13%.
Derek 31:32
That’s probably pretty fair there. That’s about what I think I’ve got it projected as well. So let’s go ahead unless Alex, you’ve got any thoughts on Brian Hill. All right, let’s go ahead and talk on the wide receiver room. We’ll go ahead and move over there. And the Titans made that a little interesting this year bringing in you know, making a trade that kind of stuff. We’ll talk about Julio next but we’re gonna start with AJ Brown, and AJ Brown finished as the wide receiver 11 last year, 70 receptions, 106 targets 1075 yards for 11 touchdowns. Any thoughts on AJ Brown,
Kevin 32:10
AJ Brown could be the best wide receiver in the league. From a fantasy standpoint, if he received the volume that a new cop skins or Davante Adams or hell even tyreke Hill get his biggest downfall is the fact that he’s on a run first team but the guy’s electric. He, you know, was had some nagging calf believe is a calf injury last year, if I’m not mistaken, that kind of kept him on and off the field for a little bit. But when he’s on, he produced and Ryan Tannehill looks to him first and looks to him often. We’ll see if that trend continues with Julio by his side. But much like with Derrick Henry, I think Julio does help with that, because they’re not going to be able to roll the safety over the top on AJ Brown, all game long, and he’s not gonna have to fight through some of that. So the opposing defenses are going to be forced into maybe a little bit more don’t cover this year, or, you know, if they’re if they’re going into a bass man coverage, they’re not going to be able to rotate over on him at all time. So I think he cracks the top 10 this year, guys, I do see that happening with that extra game, his ability, the pressure off with with Julio there to take some attention away from him. I see his targets increasing somewhere in that neighborhood of, you know, around 120 between the extra game and just some natural uptick, you know, call it at 85 to 88 catches, so I like AJ Brown a lot. And realistically, I wish I had more shares with him. I think at times I just kind of get scared because he’s on a run first team. But if you’re just looking at the numbers and the usage that the Tennessee Titans put on him, he’s a very good wide receiver to have on your team. And I think he will finish top 10
Alex 34:15
Yeah, I like what she had to say there about, you know, if he if he had the same usage as some of these other guys, and I think you’re you’re right on that. He’s just trying to run first team and that that is to no fault of his own. You know, there’s sometimes we when when guys get put into situations, and this was a team that drafted him, so like he he understands I mean, obviously he’s okay with it. It’s all he knows, because he’s only played two years and those were Derrick Henry‘s two best years as a as an NFL player. So I think he understands that his role and his his his position on the team. I would I tend to agree with you, Kevin about the the uptick in terms of the targets, the receptions. What I really like about him, though, is that you can pretty much rely in the two years that we’ve, you know, seen him now, you can pretty much guarantee you’re going to get 1000 yards and you’re going to be around that 10 touchdown mark. Right. Like, that’s, that’s pretty good. And when you, you know, we were talking about the consistency of drafting a player and when, you know, like, Hey, I’m gonna get some some solid production out of this guy. And there’s gonna be I think, with any wide receiver just week to week, there’s peaks and valleys with the exception maybe davante. Adams last year. I think that you’re gonna be okay with that. I was looking up his his ADP here. And Derek, if you’ve got it.
Derek 35:47
Six. Right now he’s a wide receiver, six off the board. Overall, 21.3, so called the 21st. pick off the board. So you’re taking them late. Second, six overall, was a wide receiver coming off the board?
Alex 36:02
That feels right to me. And I think he might even you know, I think he might even that might be a bit of a value if, if that’s where he’s at, because I haven’t gone through. I haven’t gone through receivers yet. So give me a break. But that that feels like you know, with the addition of Julio and I know that Julio is going to eat into it. But you know, they had a Corey Davis last year. I still think that that feels about the right spot for me.
Derek 36:33
Already. So the, for me, Kevin, you kind of you kind of alluded to it already and hit it pretty close to how I had had him started out there. Yeah, I think he’s a guy that’s going to see over 1300 yards receiving, I think he’s going to hit probably that double digit touchdown mark on roughly something in the mid 80s. As far as receptions go. So that’s kind of how I see AJ Brown playing there. I think I’ve got him up there rather about 130 targets. So very similar to what you were saying. But AJ Brown is a guy that’s very interesting, because he is a one touch type of receiver. He’s a guy that can take a quick slant over the middle, Ryan Tannehill can hit him and he can either a run over somebody or run away from somebody, which is not something that you typically see out there with a lot of these NFL wide receivers. He’s a big enough body wide receiver that he can make a contested catch. But also very interesting from the standpoint that he’s got the speed just to blow by people. Yeah, it’s funny to like if you think about how big of a body he is, we just talked about DK Metcalf. Last week when we talked about the Seattle Seahawks. And going into the draft both of those guys coming out of the same school Ole Miss being in the wide receiver room over there and you saw some of the draft photos and all that. How much smaller you know, AJ Brown looked standing next to DK Metcalf but so he is absolutely a huge huge wide receiver can be a top Yeah, he can be a top five finish but I don’t necessarily know that it’s one that I’m subscribing to to you know put in as a top five guy on on any of my rosters there So Alex when you’re talking about putting him as a maybe a value as the six wide receiver off the board I think that’s about where the Yeah, that’s very consistent where where you’ll be able to get him for me He won’t end up on my roster simply from the standpoint of how I typically draft I I like to go running back running back early on. And if I’m gonna go with a wide receiver there I want to ride receiver that’s going to see north of 150 targets I want a pure volume base wide receivers my wide receiver one and with the fact that Julio is there I think that does limit that is that going I don’t think it will it will limit the upside that he has as far as being a volume base receiver. I think Julio there opens things up a little bit more for him to have big play potential. And you’ll see some more of those breakaway plays but from 150 volume 150 target volume I don’t see that happening. And so that’s for me it’s a little too rich for my blood as a late second round wide receiver six overall type of ATP.
Alex 39:18
Okay, so around him in this rankings that I’m looking at, which of these three Would you rather have and this is you have to you are taking a wide receiver good throw your draft strategy out the window, you are taking wide receiver in the second round. In the 20 to 23 range, you have to take one of these three who would you rather have Ridley brown or Jefferson
Derek 39:47
Ridley without thinking about it readily? You also forget DK Metcalf goes slightly above him there too.
Alex 39:57
Yeah. Metcalf is a he’s In the 15 range, I’m in the 20 to 25 range.
Derek 40:04
Yeah, my calf right now is the ADP 18 AJ Brown 21. I Ridley’s right there at 23, which is kind of crazy to think about. I’ll take Ridley all day I’ll take the number one at wide receiver on that team in a pass happy offense, that’s going to have to be playing from behind all day every day. And so yeah, give me a guy like I just said, I want a wide receiver. If I’m going to take one there, I want a wide receiver that’s going to see 150 targets with the with the subtraction of Julio out of that Atlanta offense. I think you absolutely see Ridley get over 150 targets this year. So yeah, that’s that’s a smash the Yes button in a way ago.
Kevin 40:47
I’m gonna go Jefferson. I like I like the idea of Ridley. But what we’ve seen out of Ridley, in the last couple of years is there is a week or two each season, where the guy just forgets he’s playing football. And right, wrong. And it’s again, it’s the consistency like that really, really hurts your fantasy team. When you’re trotting this guy out as, presumably you’re number one receiver, if you’re subscribing to, you know, any, you know, running back, wide receiver fill in the blank in the third round, that’s not a wide receiver. Right. So he’s going in as presumably your wide receiver one for him to take a goose egg hurts big time. Now. I’m not saying Jefferson is going to duplicate what he did last year. But it’s a team that has a shaky defense. Yeah, they’d like to be run first. But Kirk Cousins still manages to find a way to finish at quarterback dwell every single year. Right. And and that’s got to go somewhere. So I mean, I guess I’ll take the guy who Kirk Cousins has done it for a little bit longer than Ryan Tannehill. They both have a older wily veteran by their side in Thielen, or Julio, but at the end of the day, I like the idea that they’re playing in a dome, you know, for a good portion of their games. Yes, they have to go to Green Bay in Chicago. But overall, they get half the games in their dome. I’ll take a flyer on Jefferson, I don’t have many shares of them. So I think that kind of adds into it is I don’t have a whole lot of Jefferson. So if those are the three guys, and I’ll take a stab at them, what the hell.
Derek 42:37
Fair enough, I just don’t see I see Minnesota’s defense being markedly improved this year. And then suddenly back into just running the running the football, playing behind the defense and, and going through it that way Atlanta didn’t make enough moves in the offseason to improve that defense. And they’re gonna have to, they’re gonna have to try and win games 40 to 42 type of thing. So that’s where I see it, I’ll take the the offense, it’s going to put up 40 points over the offense. And I think you have put up about 25 type of points there, just the passing volume. I see it more so for Ridley than I do Jefferson this year. So, Alex, any other thoughts there?
Alex 43:19
Then, you know, drinking Lake Superior water up there and dilute with with the the defense is gonna be better like that is that is the Minnesota Vikings fan rally cry year in and year out, the defense will be better this year.
Derek 43:33
Fair enough. I actually saw them make moves in the offseason to try and bring players in to be better on the defensive side of the ball. So I did not see Atlanta do that. So I tell you,
Alex 43:42
I think I would take i and i i think i would take AJ Brown. So we’re split completely on this. I think I would take AJ Brown because and this is the I think it’s an addition by subtraction. And that’s a weird way to put this. But I think with Julio leaving Atlanta, it’s really going to hinder Ridley because the you don’t have to respect the other side. I mean, Russell gauges is serviceable, right, but you’re not going to have to respect the other side, you don’t have to worry about where 11 is on the field, because you don’t want to get beat by 11. So to me, which he’s not 11 anymore, I think he made the Carson Wentz switch to number two. But to me, I like I like AJ Brown because of the addition of Julio Jones, because it’s going to take attention away from him a little bit more. And Jefferson, I think is Yeah, one year is one year, prove it to me again.
Derek 44:37
Fair enough. I just kind of come back to the same point to that when you look at Ridley he had a couple of finishes as the number one overall wide receiver on a couple of weeks. And those weeks were weeks that Julio missed. So yeah, it’s one of those that that that the Hey, you know, Julio taken focus off of that side of the field. I the weeks that Julio wasn’t there. Calvin Ridley put up a couple of wide receiver one overall week. So you could be right. And it could be the fact that, yeah, that, that they aren’t necessarily as strong over there. But we’ll see how that one comes to play. Let’s go ahead and move on over and talk about Julio Jones. Oh, who had a bit of a disappointing season last year, injury, injury type of season. I’m sorry, a health resistant type of season there. He finishes the 53rd wide receiver, 51 receptions. 68 targets 771 yards for three touchdowns. Your thoughts on Julio?
Kevin 45:37
It’s so weird to talk about Julio Jones and not the Atlanta Falcons. Less. Yes, this does feel a little weird now. What? Wouldn’t it just be right? Just NFL fodder if Julio Jones trots out there. And, you know, has his typical, you know, well, I shouldn’t say typical but gets at reception and nine touchdowns. And people are going well, why the hell Couldn’t you get in the endzone in Atlanta, right. Like that was the biggest thing about Julio is between the 20s he was the guy to have, but once you got the redzone there’s a lot of guys I’d rather have than Julio Jones. Like it just never fell his way. So I do think it’s gonna be a little bit interesting. Um, I like I like Julio I, the the the health scares me guys. It really does. And and I just don’t think that on a run first team, I’m going to be targeting the number two wide receiver in the fifth round. Like, that just doesn’t sound comfortable to me. Now, will he own up to that draft value? Quite possibly. Like, there’s I’m not saying that he’s not going to. But as far as my comfort level with taking my second wide receiver, essentially, who is the number two wide receiver on a run first team. The equation doesn’t add up for my draft strategy. So that being said, I do think he’s gonna see a lot of targets as well. I do think he’s going to see more than his fair share of receptions and and his ability to play on the opposite side of AJ Brown. So yes, there is value there. The health thing does concern me maybe playing on grass helps him that that turf in Atlanta. Right. So maybe the the turf was you know, banging him up and causing the hamstring issue injuries like, uh, you know, not being a sex major. You know, I can’t speak to that I’m not a doctor, but all the all the things that could possibly help out. But God, guys, I just don’t think I can draft him in the fifth. I think I’m just looking at other places and other other people in the fifth round where I can still get I can still get number one options on teams, right? I can still get a Kenny Golladay I can still get a Courtland Sutton I can still get you know, you’re you’re looking at a fifth hell, you can still grab one of the Cowboys receivers, I’d rather have the second option for the Cowboys right? In a range of that. So it’s just depending on your playstyle Keenan Allen‘s available on the fifth and superflex leagues. I mean, hell, we grabbed him up there a ton this this offseason, because everyone’s so focused in on quarterback and running back, there’s a ton of wide receiver value right there. I don’t think you need to reach for Julio Jones at that point. Now, if he falls to the seventh or eighth. You know, for whatever reason, if he falls to that, yeah, I’ll scoop them up, take a flyer on him, because then most likely, he’s gonna be my third wide receiver, you know, flex play something like that. But as my number two guy, I just don’t want the number two on a run first team.
Alex 49:01
So I think when you’re when you’re evaluating Julio Jones, there’s like, you know, the, the little, the little devil and the little angel that comes up when you’re right. It’s like the little the little devil that’s like, you know, he only played nine games last year. And he he’s coming off of an injury, you know, an injury playing season. And this isn’t some sprightly young chicken. This is a guy going into year 11. And then there’s the little angel that’s like, Yeah, but he’s really motivated to to get back at his old team for the way that he was treated. And he’s got, you know, some new life breathed into him because he’s on a new team. And then there’s a little devil that’s like, Yeah, but there’s, it’s Ryan Tannehill. And they’ve got AJ Brown, and I’ve got Derrick Henry. And then there’s the little angel that’s like, it’s Julio freaking Jones, man, like, why would you not at least consider this. So like, That’s kind of the process that goes on. I think you’re evaluating Julio Jones this year. I, I’m not on that. on him. The devil his point about it, he’s called ghrelin, and he’s coming from a pretty injury plagued season. That that, that guy’s shouting a little bit louder than the little angel that’s saying, he’s on a new team, and he’s motivated to do stuff. So that to me, is a cause for concern. And I don’t know what his health situation is, from what I’ve seen from some of the reports, dude, looks fine. Looks good. Looks like he’s ready to go tear it up in a new situation. But that is cause for concern for me and it will give me pause, that if he’s not at the absolute right spot, when you’re picking and when you’re drafting, then it it is not worth it to me.
Derek 50:54
I very much agree with everything that y’all just said. Julio was looking it up actually right now is the ADP 38 off the board said puts him at the 402 in most, most rounds. And interesting enough when you look at some of the names coming off the board after him, Chris Godwin, Amari Cooper, Adam Thielen CD lamb Robert Woods. There’s a lot of receivers out there that that I think would actually probably take over them. That’s
Alex 51:28
that’s a classic case of what Kevin was talking about that wide receiver to on a different team and Adam Thielen is a perfect example. Well, I don’t think he is the wide receiver too. I think he’s still the top show there in Minnesota. But, you know, I think a lot of people after what Jefferson did or viewing him that way. That’s I would rather go Thielen, then I think I would rather go to Julio Jones. And I hope he I hope he makes me eat Crow, because it’s guy kind of guy that you root for in a new situation. But
Derek 51:59
yeah, I think you could see it where Julio does have a bit of a bounce back, right, the narrative streak going on there with the you know, some of the revenge and some of that kind of stuff. I think that that all plays in there. And I think the fact that the I think the fact that they can’t necessarily just key out the on there and you can’t have, you know, a couple of double double high safeties over there, over the top on the cornerbacks because of the fact you’ve got a guy named Derrick Henry running up the middle will help open things up. They’re a little bit forum, the fact that he’s not necessarily, you know, the way that we’re expecting this to look isn’t necessarily going to be the first read on that option may also open some things up there as well, because previously, Julio always drew the top corner assignment from the opposing team. And now he’s probably going to see the second best corner on that. So you could see some things open up there. But now the health resistant issues that he had last year do worry me a little bit there. But I think he could have a little bit of a bounce back in some value, but not where he’s being drafted at right now. Guys any desire to talk about Josh Reynolds or any of the other Titans wide receivers?
Alex 53:07
I can see, Ben, I don’t think any of the rest of them have anything.
Kevin 53:15
Yeah, I’d agree. Reynolds had some intrigue until the trade happened when Julio came over. And as soon as Julio landed in Tennessee, Reynolds went Bye bye. As far as any sort of fantasy relevance on my radar. Now I think he’s probably going to get drafted, right? Like he’s a guy that a lot of guys will pick up as kind of late fliers. And yeah, well, Julio can’t stay healthy. So I might pick this guy up and like the 14th 15th round, and then he’ll kind of assert himself into that wide receiver to roll for that team. But at that point, I think there’s probably some youth that that I’d rather look at and a couple different creative options as opposed to Josh Reynolds.
Derek 53:56
Fair enough. Well, let’s go ahead and move on over to the tight end room and Anthony fixer finish as the Titan 30 last year, 39 receptions, 53 targets 387 yards and one touchdown your thoughts on Anthony fixer.
Kevin 54:15
He’s a guy that now it’s been changing a little bit lately. But there for a while he was so far buried on Titan depth charts and preseason rankings that if you were playing with a group of guys, just going off rankings, you could grab it the first skirt in like the 19th 20/21 21st round. And just if nothing else, sit on that now they’ve come out and said that he’s not guaranteed necessarily that tied in one role, which is kind of put a pause to some things too. So it’s a little bit of buyer beware trying to figure out what they’re gonna do with that offense. Right? Like there’s definitely I don’t know that there’s enough volume to truly support Three mouths now. It’s his usage, right? he’s just he’s a stream tight end for sure. Like, anybody outside of the top, you know, five, six guys realistically, you’re gonna you should be streaming tight ends anyway. But he’s the guy, you play the matchup, he see what it’s looking like maybe you catch him on a good week, maybe he’s the guy that you plug in. If the matchup is right, if your main guy has a buy, right, if you have a Mark Andrews or Travis Kelsey or something like that, but I’m waiting, I’m waiting on tight ends, like if nothing else, like if I’m not dead set on going, Travis Kelsey, or Darren Waller or, or George kittel. If I’m not absolutely hell bent on grabbing one of those three guys, I am waiting a long, long time for tight ends. Like it just I like my teams better when I draft it like that. I’m comfortable streaming tight ends and looking at matchups on a week to week basis. And it’s just something that I’ve done over the years and feel like I’ve been pretty damn successful with so I’m not going to change it and I’m definitely not going to change it for a run first team and a guy who’s playing tied in for
Alex 56:13
you’d think with a run first team, the tight end would be a little bit more involved in the passing game because just the way that you know how those how those teams work. Typically tight ends would be able to to see a little bit more open field especially if the safeties are going to cheat but the problem is they’ve got those weapons that are weapons. Yeah, they’ve got they’ve got AJ Brown, and now they’ve got Julio Jones in the passing game with ferg Sir, I mean, again, you know, tight ends are so tight ends that aren’t named Kelsey kiddle are at Waller are so touchdown dependent. And for him to have three career touchdowns in three years. All pass
Kevin 56:55
he’s no Delaney Walker, this is not the same Tennessee team from you know, four years ago, right where they didn’t really have any weapons on the outside. But they had a decent run game, the defense was made so so and so you can count on Delaney Walker going rough shot. It wasn’t even the same. Johnny Smith didn’t even see that. And he’s a better tight end. Right. We saw him he got paid far more athletic.
Derek 57:17
Yeah,
Kevin 57:18
yeah. And so I mean, it’s just, it’s not overly appealing. And he’s nothing that I don’t feel like I can get from a number of different teams when I’m
Derek 57:32
waiting that far. Right. And that’s, that’s kind of how I see too, when you look at the fact that john smith was a guy that Yeah, he saw a couple of targets on a per game basis, but it wasn’t necessarily enough to really sustain you and really make you happy that you were playing him where john smith really shined was the fact that was when AJ Brown missed those games at the beginning of the year. And that’s where you saw the volume go to john and Smith. And so I bring all of that up because your narrative Street and looking at what that looks like going forward well they’ve got a guy named Julio Jones I got a guy named AJ Brown that both are appearing to be healthy heading into the season. And those are that’s where the targets are going to go in this passing game, though tight end is going to be an afterthought on this one and it’s going to be maybe a check down type of type of maneuver for it and that’s where you know, Anthony first or may have some values is a tight end you know, touchdown dependent type of tight end that falls in the end zone a couple of times and if you pick the right week it it may have some some impact like last year when you when you pick them when he finishes the Titan one because he fell in the end zone and had a pretty good game in the absence of Johnny Smith. But yeah, not a guy that I’m actively seeking to go out there be could very well be a good late addition late add type of thing if if everybody else has gone You know, put the position and pick him up that might be worth it. To start my streaming realm there any other any desire to talk about Jeff Swain who’s also in the tight end room. He’s already Alright, let’s go ahead and talk about that Ryan Tannehill, who finished as a quarterback at number seven last year 315, completions, 481 attempts, 3819 yards, 33 touchdown, seven interceptions. He also put a little bit of work on the ground with an additional 266 and seven on the ground. So your thoughts on Ryan Tannehill.
Kevin 59:33
For me, personally, I’m not gonna speak for the rest of the room here. But for me personally, I always seem to forget about the work that Ryan Tannehill can do with his legs and how that does help create a safer floor for him. It was just you know, looking at my quarterback rankings and kind of, you know, tweaking around with those before the show and I have him at quarterback 12 now I still feel pretty comfortable with him at qb 12 but it does it does lead to Alright, so what are the reasons why he fell? Right like what are we expecting more of? Part of it’s the resurgence of Joe Burrow and kind of I think he’s gonna sneak inside the top 10 I think that Lamar Jackson is going to have a bounce back it more of a bounce back season right and kind of get inside of that level which is going to push him down a spot. I think that Tom Brady is going to be lights out in his second season in Bruce’s offense right traditionally, quarterbacks go bonkers in year two. So I think Tom Brady‘s a guy that can do things like that. I think Matt Stafford can give them a run at Titan 11 or 12 just because of what they’re able to do in in LA with the Rams and having a quarterback that likes to throw down downfield a little bit more so he’s a he’s a guy you can really get as like your second quarterback in a super flex if you want to grab your two quarterbacks early. You can grab him as your second quarterback and feel really really good about that guys like he’s he will put up numbers obviously he can use his legs he has extra weapons to play with the the Titans even though they like to run First, it does create safeties cheating up so he’s able to hit some of those deep plays to AJ Brown or now Julio Jones. So it’s not that I don’t like Ryan Tannehill I think he just gets lost in the wash sometimes. But he is a very valid and very serviceable option to go, you know, top 12 as far as quarterbacks being drafted, and you should feel pretty confident about that if you’re building around him appropriately on your fantasy roster.
Derek 1:01:52
Yep, stir sharp chiming in on YouTube says that he sees Tannahill as a borderline steal but more of a streamer than a weekly start.
Alex 1:02:01
That’s probably kind of how
Kevin 1:02:03
it played, right? How it’s been played the last couple seasons, and towards the tail end, you realize holy shit like this guy’s strung together. A couple really good weeks. Like, let’s go ahead and run again. Yeah, and you end up riding him for a little while. So I’d agree with that. I think that’s kind of the stigma around him. But if you wait on quarterback, especially in a single quarterback League, if you’re waiting on quarterback, he’s not a bad guy to target.
Alex 1:02:30
Yes, so I was going through and doing my positional rankings. And Kevin, you’re absolutely right. I’ve got him. I’ve got him at 13. And that’s really not a knock on him. But I think other guys take steps that that get him, you know that that that push him down, it’s not that he regresses so much. It’s just that other guys will do so much better that that they will pass him by in the rankings. So that’s where I’ve gotten Danielle is at 13. That all could change because I didn’t rank Deshaun Watson when I did those rankings because I don’t know what happened with the Shawn Watson. And so yeah, if he
Kevin 1:03:11
if it’s up, I’ll rank him But until then,
Alex 1:03:13
right. So but you know, some of that still could change, but I’ve got him at 13 right now, and it’s not a knock on him now that he’s got, you know, some other weapons, but again, they’re going to run the football there and in an offense where it was what 51 run 49 pass that balance. That’s it just doesn’t, you know, doesn’t really intrigued me too much. That’s funny. Yeah, you really do too much.
Kevin 1:03:41
Go ahead, finish and then
Alex 1:03:43
it just doesn’t intrigue me too much. Because it for a quarterback. I want somebody who’s going to if they’re not going to be a blazing runner, when somebody’s just gonna throw the football a little bit more and has a few more options. You know, we just got done saying that they don’t really have a tight end to throw to you know, and so that that just limits kind of the options that they have when it comes to throwing the football so I think again, the the way that he he is used as that that second quarterback and and I think you’ll be happy with him. He’ll put up he’ll put up decent numbers when it’s all said and done. It’s just it’s not going to be you know, blow you out of the water type numbers and I don’t see him cracking the top 10 this year.
Kevin 1:04:35
Yeah, so to go off of Oh, shoot. Sorry guys hit the wrong button. They’re sharp. But yeah, they’re sharp. I think he’s right, but they have a lot of juicy matchups just in that division, right. the Houston Texans are probably the worst team in football without Deshaun Watson like they really are so you get them twice. You have this Jacksonville Jaguars team that You know, who really knows how good they’re going to be under Urban Meyer, but they’ve really been tinkering on the offensive side of the ball. So we’ll see how the defense kind of kind of plays in there. But on top of that, as I’m kind of flipping through the schedule, right, you have the Chiefs game, which is going to be a shootout. So I kind of like them for that chiefs game. I think that’ll be a lot of fun. And then oh, my gosh, I just dropped my sorry guys just screwed up. And it just dropped everything. I apologize. They have a game against the Cardinals as well. And so just to kind of highlight some of those juicy matchups, right, high scoring affairs, you have your two divisional bottom feeders, and then you have the Chiefs you have the Cardinals like so there’s six games right off the bat. So you have a third of the season that you feel comfortable starting him. And then you probably have a third of the season where you don’t want to start at all right two games against the Colts, maybe the home game, you start them in the road game you don’t but they play the niners too. So I don’t know that I want to play them against the niners. I don’t know that I want to play them against the Rams. So yeah, you have some of those games where man maybe not so much. So there but there are juicy starts in their schedule to have. So to that point. Yeah, pick them up, especially like I said, especially in single quarterback right, where you can play that matchup a bit more in single superflex you’re kind of stuck, right? Because most teams, you’re not getting three quality quarterbacks in a superflex League, you can get two and the third one’s just kind of a reach in case you know Dak Prescott breaks his leg and then you’re stuck scrambling for the rest of the season. Yep, that’s me. But outside of that, there’s there’s enough matchups there to make it worthwhile.
Derek 1:06:52
Yeah. When you talk about to how much the your the the rankings in the ADP have risen for Ryan Tannehill. From this time last year, right? When you look at it going into 2019 or starting it looking into 2020 he was a quarterback 20 coming off the board. This right this year right now he’s the quarterback 13. So definitely puts him in that very strong quarterback to type of ranking for me. But it’s interesting too, because when you look at the Games, you know, kind of going back to Dr. sharps comment that you want the juicy starts with the juicy stuff. The juicy starts for Ryan Tannehill mirror to other players having good games out there. And one of them being Derrick Henry. So when you look at when you look at that beginning part of the season, right, Ryan Tannehill didn’t have a great start to the season. Neither did Derrick Henry have an overly great start, but you start looking about week 11. For both of those guys, they explode where Derrick Henry is concerned, you know, kind of transforms and puts up weeks. Number three, number one, number one, number four number two on the week, as far as running back, finishes go, well, Ryan Tannehill married that with 69435 type of thing. So when Derrick Henry does well, and they have that established run game going and really pounding that ball and working that thing, well, that just opens things up and how Ryan Tannehill thrives and succeeds in this offense, where he’s able to go up and over the top, they’re able to run some of those play actions. That’s where Ryan Tannehill does really well is that play action pass where they’re able to, you know, get the fact that ball to Derrick Henry, and then you’ve got AJ Brown being able to sneak up in over the top and run by somebody and, and tannehill hitting them on the running away goes. It’s off to the races. And so it’s interesting how those three really kind of have this codependence upon each other to have good fantasy weeks, where it’s not necessarily what you see in a lot of teams where you know, if one or two of these guys have a good week, that typically means the third guy’s not having a great week. But those three guys in there when they have really good weeks, they all tend to have really good weeks. And when you have one or two of them struggles, they all they tend to struggle together.
Kevin 1:09:07
Yeah, so I got my phone to work. My knock on Ryan Tannehill is scheduled going down the stretch and ended the playoffs. So here they have at New England and week 12, which you’re winding down the regular season week 13 they’re on a buy. That’s typically going to be the last week of your regular season. Maybe week 14 depending on how you’re set up. So 14 you have the Jaguars at home so you feel good about that one, but for you. Yep, your quarterfinal and your semi final though, at Pittsburgh and home against San Francisco. Like those are tough playoff matchups to have going in. Again, looking at a single QB league where you can kind of get out of that and move around a little bit. And then week 17 at home against the dolphins which could quite possibly be that could be a while Card playing game. Honestly, like the way those teams are set up, I expect the Colts to win the south and expect the bills to win the East but we’re adding in that extra wildcard team only one team or only one team per conference is getting the buy again. So those guys could play each other in week 17 and then quite possibly have to turn around and play each other again in the wildcard round in, you know, week 19 you know, technically right the wildcard weekend so I that might be the one knock is is throughout some of those juicy matchups I don’t like his schedule going down the stretch and into the playoffs. So it might be something where you try and look to see if you can get some key matchups on him and maybe you’re able to flip them if he’s your second quarterback for a team who has an injury or they don’t like the fact that Trevor Lawrence didn’t pan out or something like that and you can kind of get something out of it right at the trade deadline.
Derek 1:10:57
Yeah Yeah, I think that’s a pretty spot on there well guys any final thoughts on the Titans
Kevin 1:11:05
not fun team right? It has tons of fantasy value. So I mean, I mean, definitely a playoff team right
Alex 1:11:11
so that there’s going to be good pieces right? Yeah. Good pieces there.
Kevin 1:11:16
One in every level right you could go on the run game early if you want a if you want to Derrick Henry. The receiving game early right if you want to AJ Brown and then kind of that mid tier level quarterback if you want to wait on quarterback a little bit and go Ryan Tannehill so there’s definitely value there they should be a fun team to watch they’re gonna play in the division that’s it should be a two team race. They should be the Colts in the Titans and just kind of see how those to battle it out down the stretch. So I expect them to be knocking on the playoff doors once again so they’ll be relevant all season long.
Derek 1:11:52
Absolutely. Well guys, let’s go ahead and
Alex 1:11:56
see related I do like they’re always gonna say I like the right tackle that they that they drafted this year. Don’t write it.
Derek 1:12:06
There you go. Got it. Got to plug those North Dakota State guys any chance you get I like it already. Let’s go ahead and move on over we’ve got a fun little topic that we’re going to talk about, right? Like, you have some of that when you talk in some of the some of the draft strategy out there. And when we talk to handcuffing, some guys stalking some players, that kind of stuff. So we’re going to explore this here a little bit, then when, you know, we’re talking stacks. That’s the strategy tonight. And so, you know, we’ve we’ve gone through some of these things in the past where you’re talking, you know, would you stack this guy? Would you handcuff this guy, you that kind of stuff. And that’s where we’re going to expand that out a little bit. And so the question is, what players are you stacking from the same team, you can have a two player stack. And then if you go with a three player stack, which can happen out there, does that change the team? And who would your three player stack be? So who’s your two player stack Who’s your three player stack?
Alex 1:13:02
Before we get going, I want to make sure that I did the exercise correctly. Here’s a little peek behind the curtain for everybody that like probably should have brought this up before we went live with the show. Did I do the exercise correctly?
Derek 1:13:13
You’ve got to but I’m still waiting for your your three player stack from the same team.
Alex 1:13:19
Okay, go ahead.
Derek 1:13:21
Alrighty. Kevin, would you like to lead us off?
Kevin 1:13:26
Sure. I’ll kick it off. Um, I think that I think there’s definitely some low hanging fruit here. And I’m gonna go ahead and take it and then I can expand later on but I do think that depending on the setup, right and going from there, Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs is is a really fun stack. You get the rushing out of Allen and then obviously, the the passing and receiving totals between Allen and Diggs. So I think between those two players, you really cover a large majority of what this buffalo offense does. I think one that maybe isn’t quite as thought of but one that I think I can get a lot of value out of based off when I’m drafting these guys is a Michael Thomas Jameis Winston stack. I think that’s one that people aren’t quite thinking of, and you can get a lot of value. Now going to the three person if I’m going Jameis Winston Michael Thomas, I can get Alvin Kamara and that’s actually a reasonable like when you think of how your draft board falls, you can get all those three guys and have a have a reasonable stack that you can actually put together. The unreasonable one is you know, dac Zeke and CD lamb is it would be my you know, unrealistic stack right? Because all three of those Yeah, all three of those guys are going in the top four rounds. So that one’s that one’s a little bit unrealistic. But as far as what can actually happen, I, I’d take a Kamara, Michael Thomas Winston. You know, I could also follow that up with a Jonathan Taylor Carson Wentz and Michael Pittman. And pigments probably the oddball out right like, and you know, wide receiver too. But for best ball purposes, right, which is where you’re really trying to stack guys like that. That’s, that’s something that you could absolutely do in a basketball and really hit those high weeks and be pretty damn happy with yourself.
Derek 1:15:37
Absolutely. All right, Alex,
Alex 1:15:40
I’m really glad that you didn’t take any of the ones that I had, which I believe very
Kevin 1:15:45
interesting. You had them written down, dude, I wouldn’t listen to you.
Alex 1:15:53
Alright, so for the two player stacks, which I think are pretty reasonable to get like, these are all you know, fairly reasonable. You’d have to have some things fall your way. But the first stack that I like is in Seattle with Ross and DK. And I don’t know I don’t think you can do it. Alright, thanks, Kevin. I don’t think you could do it with with getting Tyler lock it in. So I think that the three or Chris Carson, I think that the three person stag got to Seattle, I just don’t think is feasible. But I do think that that you could get you could get DK and you could get Russ. I think that that’s that’s plausible. And I really like that stack. Even with a new OC for what is this Russ is like 15th year and he’s had 17 different OCS I think that that’s still that there’s still, you know, something going on there. So I’d take that one. Also, another plausible one is in Green Bay with Davante Adams and Aaron Rodgers, I still think people are very far down on Rogers. And the dude turned in an MVP season last year, take all of his off the field stuff away. He’s just a different cat. And I still think though, when it comes time to put the helmet on and, and go between the lines like you still Aaron Rodgers, so Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams is a stack that I’m pretty interested in and is fairly reasonable, a fun one that I think could have some some interesting results. And I don’t know that it would be possible to do just because of where people’s opinions are on all of these players, especially the first two, but the fun one for the three person stack is a Trevor Lawrence, Travis etn. DJ Chark. That one would be a ton of fun. And I don’t know that you could get Trevor Trevor Lawrence and Travis etn. In the same draft, you think he could?
1:17:49
Oh, hell yeah,
Derek 1:17:50
absolutely.
Kevin 1:17:51
Yeah, you’d probably draft Lawrence around or two earlier as well. So there’s that you can make that happen. Yeah.
Alex 1:17:59
Right. So so that’s a fun one that I think would have a ton of intrigue and if nothing else, there would be some fun weeks. There will be some awful weeks, but there would be some fun weeks with those three.
Derek 1:18:11
Yeah, I like mid round stack. Like that’s what you’re talking about there with your three that’s just the mid round stack. Like that’s the value stack type of thing.
Kevin 1:18:20
I think the one of yours that could be fun is if you added Chris Carson to Seattle stack. And that’s something you could actually do in single QB leagues right? You get Yeah, you get Metcalf in the second you can get Carson in the third which is where he’s going right now and then follow it up in the in the fifth and get Russell Wilson are six then in single QB formats. And you can have a fun Seattle stack right there too.
Alex 1:18:44
I and I and before you’re before you’re sick you know i’m not sure that you can get lock it in there. But but with Carson, you probably could make that happen. You’re rockin Yeah, got a turn. Yeah, you’re right.
Derek 1:19:00
But lock it’s a best ball guy. I don’t want him season long. I want him best ball format. I want the like three games that he’s gonna blow up and cause him to be the top 10 wide receiver on the season because of two games. Like I want him for that purpose. I don’t want to play the season long thing of do I start them or do I not serve them this week? So but interesting, interesting deal there. Some hanging fruit for me on the two player stack would be Kyler and DeAndre Hopkins kind of the same thought process that you were given when you were talking about Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs. You know Tyler is going to give you some rushing upside gonna give you a rushing floor. DeAndre Hopkins is going to be that 250 plus target guy year in year out. I would it would not surprise me to see him finishes the wide receiver number one overall, this year for fantasy. I could see that one happening there as well. So love that stack. If I’m looking for excuse me a little bit more of a value type of two players. Stack. One that I’m absolutely loving right now is a Matthew Stafford and Robert Woods stack, you know a guy that Robert Woods, you can typically pick up fourth, fifth round type of thing. And Matt Stafford is a late round quarterback that you can get. So a lot of value that you can pick up there. If I’m going with the three players stack, you know, we just got done talking about it, and kind of gave the my now or my analysts there, what I’m saying if all three of these guys have a, you know, one or two of these guys have a good game, typically all three are going to have a great game. And so I’ll go with the AJ Brown, Derrick Henry, Ryan Tannehill stack which you could potentially pull off there. You know, granted, AJ Brown may have to follow a couple of picks in that second round to get him back to you. But that is one that you could pull off type of thing. I just don’t know that you’re necessarily comfortable taking running back wide receivers, same team, round one, round two. But that can be a lot of fun there as well.
Kevin 1:20:56
Here’s the fun one. I just thought of Justin Herbert. Austin eckler. And Keenan Allen. Yep, like that. That can be a fun one. And we didn’t even touch on the chiefs. Right? Obviously, the chiefs are a fun stack right? I mean, Patrick Mahomes and and Kelsey or tyreke and then if you like ch and think he’s going to kind of bounce back from rookie season that disappointed some fantasy owners like that’s fun to like there’s a lot of very fun very intriguing three players stacks that are that are quite reasonable in single quarterback formats once you put super flex in. It’s a little bit harder because of where some of these guys go and everything else but single quarterback formats where guys typically can wait on quarterback and you can draft your skill positions first and everything else. There’s a lot of interesting three player stacks that you could do that. Make it interesting, right and and some people don’t like it because you put too many too many eggs in one team’s basket. But one of the funnest fantasy football teams I had was Oh, damn near. Oh, hell a decade ago. I mean, maybe even maybe even more than that. Because I had Andre Johnson, Arian Foster, and the year Matt Schaub went Bonanza in Houston. And that was a fun three players stack. And honestly, I was still a little newer in my fantasy football life. And I just kind of drafted the guys that were coming to me at the time. But I ended up riding me all I think to the finals, I don’t think I wanted that year. But it was fun to play all season long, because it was the one season Matt Schaub actually did what he was supposed to do.
Derek 1:22:50
Absolutely. So I’m just kind of a, you know, overall side note kind of deal that we’ve got a gun through that is this, is this a strategy that you actively like employing with your fantasy rosters, and it’s something that you seek out trying to do?
Kevin 1:23:08
I think, I guess not necessarily actively seek out. I think depending on the team, you always have guys in the back of your head, like, Hey, this is a prolific offense, or PE This is the first option on this team. Even if it’s not necessarily prolific, you know that the the floor is a little bit safe. Or if it’s a guy that you you can snag late, maybe he’s the deep ball threat, especially in basketball, right? Like you can get that stack going and kind of get their home run hitter, and try and do it that way. But when I’m coming into a draft, I’m thinking value. I’m thinking some guys that I’d like to have on my team, some guys that I think will be under drafted, that I can kind of wait on or some guys that maybe if I know I like him, I think he’s gonna have a big season. Maybe I grab him, you know, around too early, just to make sure I get them on my team. I’m not thinking stack so much. But as it is in football, right, we all gravitate towards these high profile offense. So if you can get two pieces of the Chiefs offense, you feel really good about your fantasy team. And and maybe that’s by design, hell, maybe it’s because it fell to you, right? You’re drafting at the back end of the first round sir able to get tyreke then you have the turnaround in the second, like, hey, well, what the hell, you know, if I want mahomes and he didn’t go, I’m not going to get a chance by the time the third round comes around in a single QB. So I’ll grab mahomes here and then then in the third, maybe then you get ch right and you can naturally build that stack that way. So my advice is don’t force it. It’s not worth it in redraft leagues there’s a ton of options and best ball. You want to play off of that a little bit more. But redraft leagues don’t force the stack. There’s just too many options and too many things that you’re trying to do throughout the season when you have to move guys in and out of lineups and play matchups with certain positions a bit more, but they’re, they’re fun as hell to have keep you invested in what’s going on.
Alex 1:25:08
I find myself asking the question when I’m about to draft is do I have somebody from this team already on my roster? And that’s it’s a question that I asked myself every time. So, to your point, dairy stacking is not something that I, I typically seek out. If it if it’s two guys that I really, really want, then absolutely. But on the most, you know, as a general rule for me, I try to diversify as much as possible when it comes to my fantasy football. Because if one team has a bad week, then your team has a bad week. So that that’s kind of the strategy that I’ve always looked to employ is just keep in mind how many guys from one team I have on the roster? from whatever team.
Derek 1:25:58
All right, cool. I like it. Kevin, real quick. Before we get to Final thoughts, Alex and I had a question come in last week while you were gone, and we’re gonna just get your quick thoughts on it. Viewer was wanting to know, who do you take? And the reason we got to ask you is because Alex and I couldn’t come to a consensus. So how do you take in a it’s a rookie draft PPR devonta. Smith, or Jalen model?
Kevin 1:26:27
I think Yeah, I don’t know if there’s a right answer for that. I don’t, I don’t love either one of their landing spots. Right. Like that was the biggest problem with this class of rookies is it’s not that these guys aren’t talented they are. I didn’t love some of the landing spots and some of the guys throwing the ball to these receivers. So I mean, gun to my head have to pick one. I’m probably I’m probably gonna go DeVonta Smith just because waddle waddle screams more scatback or scat receiver to me at the time. And and yes, that’s how this league is kind of trending with the tyreke Hill mimics if you will, but God he’s got to be the clear number one. Right now in Philly. And anytime I can get a clear number one. Yeah, I’ll take my shot arm so DeVonta Smith.
Derek 1:27:30
Gotcha. So that brings the consensus to DeVonta Smith. There we go.
Alex 1:27:34
Well, guys, I got booted out to be agree with me?
Derek 1:27:38
No, he agreed with me. I took DeVonta Smith, Alex was the Jalen Waddell side. And we both gave some pretty good arguments and some pretty good explanations as to our reasoning behind that. So
Kevin 1:27:50
I have a lot of shares of both through all rookie drafts i did i i do i have a good amount of shares of both. So I feel like I’m covered if one has great success in the NFL and one doesn’t. Okay, so be it but I wasn’t necessarily searching out. One guy or the other guy.
Derek 1:28:09
Right. So Alrighty, guys, well, I do believe that that’s gonna take us down to the end of it. Any final thoughts for the listeners?
Kevin 1:28:19
Do your homework we’re getting close in. So we’re a little bit of slow news. But at this point, just pay attention. Keep up on the injury reports and, and a lot of coach speak going on. But if you guys have a good local beat writer, who can give some good, honest feedback on what has been going on at the team facility, you know, listen, listen in on that. Being here in Denver, you know, Philip Lindsay, a couple years ago, undrafted, free agent that they brought in, and all the beat writers were just saying how he popped how he just kept popping and showing up on the field. And so he’s a guy that maybe didn’t go in your rookie draft. Or maybe he’s the guy that if you’re just in a redraft league that you can just, you know, put a little star next to and, and check up on him once a week. You know, it’s nothing that you need to look at daily. Just keep an eye on and get a feel for, you know, a player or two that you think will have some success that maybe no one’s talking about, and just do a little bit of homework on them while we have time in this slow period here in the NFL cycle. I can’t tell if Alex is with us or dots. He’s having some issues go.
Derek 1:29:37
Alrighty. Well, guys, I do believe that that’s going to wrap up yet another episode of the good ol boys fantasy football podcast. Do us a favor, hop over there on the YouTube click that subscribe button, hit the like button, give us some comments, all that good stuff. We are doing this show live every Tuesday night at 11pm Eastern, make sure you tune in. We really enjoy Guys, given some chats and given some comments and it really makes the show a lot more fun when y’all are chiming in and giving us some pointers and some tips Yes.
Kevin 1:30:11
Alex his final thought he texted citizen that was given out he wanted to give a congratulations and kudos to Marius Thomas who is retiring as a Denver Bronco wanted to thank him for the fun years in Denver and wish him better luck on being able to hold on to things like household appliances better than he held on to footballs certain seasons in Denver.
Derek 1:30:34
There we go south like the the look there
Alex 1:30:41
isn’t working. It’s working.
Derek 1:30:44
Kevin just gave a very poignant eloquent speech about your thoughts on to Mary’s Thomas retiring as a bronco today so we had some fun
Alex 1:30:54
and he came in during during the TiVo years so like he lived through it with us and it was fun to be a Broncos fan again. So that was that was fun.
Derek 1:31:04
Absolutely
Alex 1:31:05
gripping the capture did Marius
Kevin 1:31:07
Thomas.
Derek 1:31:08
Love it? Guys, that’s gonna wrap up yet another episode of the good old boys fantasy football podcast. Again, click the subscribe button on the YouTube. You can follow us on our socials Twitter Instagram, Facebook twitch at good old boys FF really enjoy hearing from you guys there. We’ve also got the website good old boys FF the rankings we’ll be hitting those soon. Starting next week, we’re gonna start revealing some of our positional rankings. We’ve got some great guests lined up for you don’t miss any episodes. We look forward to talking with you. And for I’m Derek for Kevin and Alex. Have a great one.