Andy Barns is a fantasy analyst whose work can be currently found on The Deepshot dot com, The Athletic, and with the Harris Football Podcast.

He previously worked for Yahoo Sports, among many other outlets.

He's a Fantasy Sports Writers Association President, a novelist, and he loves Iowa sports.

These are his Late Round perspectives.

This episode is sponsored by DraftKings.

There's no better way to get closer to the action.

With DraftKings Daily Fantasy, the ultimate destination for football fans.

New customers can play free for their share of millions and prizes with their first deposit of five dollars or more.

Download the DraftKings Daily Fantasy app and enter promo code Late Round to play free for your share of millions.

The Crown is yours gambling problem called one hunter Gambler in New York called eight seven seven eight Pope n y in Connecticut called eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven eighteen plus and most stage eligibility stretches apply ends December thirty first see terms at DraftKings dot com slash promotions.

Now back to the show.

You being an Iowa guy, Do you do you get to watch like do you watch a lot of college football during the NFL season.

It's a good question.

I watch a lot of Big ten football during NFL season, and I love you know, I'm sure a lot of people are this way.

If you, if you cover the NFL for a living, like you still want to be a meathead fan about something about some football team.

And so I mean, there's there's no finer there's no finer school to be a meathead fan of than Iowa, because they give you plenty to complain about and also plenty to plenty to kind of sort of squint and you'll feel okay about it.

I feel some kinship there with Pitt in the way that, oh sure, the way that Pitt has been historically like just to like especially you know, at least we had like the a SEC championship a few years ago with Kenny Pity getting stuff and we're able to, like I was, in my adult life, able to experience that, which I don't think will ever happen again.

And then you get you at least get like really interesting players that hit the NFL.

And then as I was thinking about this, this is a shower thought for me today, for the record, I was thinking about you in.

The shower as one does as one does.

Yes, you think about your your future podcast guests while you're while you're showering.

But I was I was also thinking about the Iowa players in the NFL right now.

You guys are kind of running pretty cold right now.

You get you get, you get your tight.

Okay, let's go through this.

I was thinking about Okay, Sam Laporta is fine, Like he's been fine.

He hasn't been like spectacular, but he's been fine, right, I mean, I.

Mean he's been he's been better than fine.

Okay, Okay, he's been he's been above average so far to start the year, or or like what we expected him to be.

Let's say that, right right right.

You have George kittle on I ar, you have TJ.

Hockinson, who what like I mean, he's he's he's like I was.

Low on Hawkinson entering the year.

Never in a millionaires that I think that he'd we'd be sitting here looking at these numbers from Hawkinson through two games so far.

The signature play of his season is blocking a bear into oblivion, while JJ McCarthy scored a uh you know, his only rushing touchdown.

Yeah, it's it's an issue.

I don't put all of that on.

I don't put I don't put on Howkinson at all.

No, I'm just trying to I'm just trying to put down Iowa right now and then and then and then this is the bad, This is the actual bad.

One is Caleb Johnson.

And what there's actually two that are kind of like Tory Taylor Hunter Tory Taylor been a sneaky disappointment.

Could I forget?

How could I forget?

No?

But like the Caleb Johnson thing last week, I mean that's just like the most down bad I've seen any player, really, right, any any like moderately hyped rookie in a while that I've seen.

I mean that play was just really really rough.

He I mean, he shouldn't be active this week.

It would surprise me a little bit if he was active this week because between the you know, the gaff on the on the calf on the kickoff that probably cost you a game and the fumble the week before, or I mean, what you know, if we if we can't trust you in limited duty as a runner, and we can't trust you in the return game, which was always questionable because that wasn't that wasn't Caleb's responsibility in college?

Then we why are we playing you?

Yeah, and you can't.

You can't be a depth chart running back who can't play special teams.

So he's probably not going to be active exactly.

And I'm assuming that's the reason that he's been dressed, is that they like or sorry that he was back there returning kicks.

Is that they're like, well, he's dressed, we got to use him in some capacity or else.

What's the reason for this, right, And so they throw him back there to return kicks.

But to me, it was I mean, I think anyone that like prospected him or watched him in college, like, it seems like a really kind of strange fit to have him in those duties and playing that kind of role.

But I mean, we are seeing some really weird players return kicks under the new roles, right Like samaj p Ryan is returning kicks, and if he if he's doing it, why shouldn't Caleb.

I know you're right, but I agree, Yeah, Yeah, it's a little bit strange.

All right.

So, last time we talked, you were on here.

Was it too years ago that you were on Perspective?

Two years ago?

Wow?

Yeah, the first the first year of Perspectives.

Early days.

Yeah, the early days, you're really like the the third or fourth person that that gets the returns tag and the in the title of the show, Andy Baron's returns.

But things have changed for you.

You've got the Deep Shot now.

So I want to start off this interview in this this you know, conversation with what's going on with the Deep Shot?

What's it's what?

What is it all about?

What you and Dalton are working on.

Yeah, it's been you know, as maybe you could guess, it's been a wild few months for me.

And the Deep Shot is just sort of a natural, uh decision to like, I only want to collaborate with my good friends is basically where we're at.

And Chris Harris and I had been talking for years on and off about like how could we do something together, how could we collaborate together?

And you know, yeah, yeah, for better or worse, Yahoo Yaho gave me the nudge that I probably needed to say, oh, hey, how about we actually do this thing?

And so Chris and I have been launched a subscription podcast.

It's it's been We've been doing it once a week.

It's great because Chris is one of my oldest friends in you know, our friendship predates either one of us being involved in fantasy in any way as except as you know, boneheaded managers.

We have known each other almost thirty years, and so we're like very natural, you know, like he probably yells at me more than he yells at anybody else on the show, and it's fine, Like we have a we have a really good rapport.

We've been arguing with each other for a very long time, whether on podcast or off, and so that's been awesome.

That's the Yacht Club podcast.

And then Dalton and I just wanted to do something together.

And I feel like we each wanted to keep doing the things that we were doing at Yahoo that we loved.

And I really love the job, Like I love the basics of the job.

I love writing it.

I love I love thinking about the NFL.

I love watching all the games.

I love like I love the sort of dirty work of the job.

There's a lot that I didn't enjoy, Like if I never write an article again, that's like the seven players that are gonna smash if they're eighty p like please, I like, so I've I've pruned all that right, Like all the stuff that clicks really well, but that I hate writing.

I'm not doing any of that.

I'm doing the writing that I really love.

And I feel like Dalton's doing the same thing, and so I'm collaborating with him over there.

I'm collaborating with Chris and it's been really fun.

I yeah, is there a market for it, I don't know, but it's been really fun.

Well, well, I think everyone should check it out for sure.

And you know, I've been a fan of yours, not just as you know, an analyst, but a human as well, for for a very very long time.

Now.

It's great that we get to, you know, catch up every year at the Expo and I get to walk into the draft room with my belt over my shoulder and watch you and the rest in the.

Rest of the group just just start to get out of here.

We don't need you in this room.

You were by the way, you were so unfairly attacked by Matt Harmon during the like throughout the throughout the drafts last year.

I was really unbecoming.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

And you know, there's there's one the one player.

I know this is a total aside, but the one player that he attacked me for most.

I attacked him for Brian Robinson and Ramandra Stevenson because it's just the most you know, like boring picks of all time.

And then he destroyed me after taking Javonte Williams.

So eat it, Harmon, eat it.

Eat it.

But no, I'm I'm very excited for you because like you you kind of have like an entrepreneurial spirit too, Like you've done a lot of like solo ventures in the past too.

Correct.

Yeah, I've, uh, yeah, I've I've had I've had a pretty long career in writing that pre dates yeaho, right, Like, so I've I've been through it as a freelancer and I've done some done some fiction writing.

Some of that went well, some of it, you know, some of it went less well, but some of them went really well.

And I you know, i'd written sort of early days at at ESPN, I was writing non fantasy stuff over there.

So I've yeah, I've I've been through it as a lancer.

I know what that life is like.

And I don't you know, part of this part of the decision with the Deep Shot too, and I had some opportunities to do.

Yeah, I'm doing a little freelancing for the Athletic right now, and I had some opportunities to do, you know, to work for another sort of major media company, and I just don't have the appetite for it right now, you know, after the Yahoo experience, and just again the possibility of working closely with Chris and Dalton was just was just too appealing to me to pass up.

I also think that like Chris and I come at it and like come at the job in a somewhat different way from a lot of folks.

And I just think, you know, if you if you're this sort of person who number one can reasonably afford to subscribe to multiple different things, you know, you might as well seek out varied approaches.

Yeah, I mean, look, I know that even you know, just speaking about Chris and Chris alone, like a lot of people say that we're sort of like the Yin and Yang that they use, you know, for their analysis, because I'm obviously more data heavy and he's more film heavy.

And I know that you compliment him very well too, you know, and or you come at it from a more similar perspective as him as well, and so that also would compliment you know, what I'm doing here.

So basically what I'm saying is if any of you guys, like you said, have the ability check out what Andy and Chris are doing.

And one more thought that I want to just throw out there, because as people are listening to this, I think they might just be curious about like what's going on in the heads of fantasy football content creators that are working at bigger media companies and stuff I remember vividly, like when I left Fandel And obviously Fandel is not the same as A and this is sponsored by DraftKings for the record, Obviously, obviously Fandel is not the same kind of you know, media company as like a Yahoo is or an ESPN or anything like that, especially within the fantasy space from like a content perspective.

But there were a lot of people that were like, oh, he got you know, like like like something happened or you know, X, Y and Z went on, and like, I think it's really like it needs to be said that things will go down your individual jobs, and no one needs to know what goes down in those situations, but the choices that you make might just be the choices that you the path that you in particular want to go down, Like you're mentioning like I really wanted to do the deep shot stuff, and like there were these other opportunities, and I said to myself, no, I just want to kind of do this thing where I can control what I'm working on and stuff.

And I thought the same thing whenever I, you know, left, ended up leaving fandle and I really want to, like I want people to feel empowered to like do the thing that they want to do as opposed to what they think they should do, you know, like.

Right, right, you know, I have to be in the right position in life to do it too, right, Like it's obviously it's not it's not for everyone.

But I was definitely in a situation where, yeah, you know, I was at a was a point in life.

I was at a point where just just the idea of if I was gonna if I was going to pitch subscriptions to something, if I was going to try to, you know, pitch people on play in a game or buying literally anything, I wanted it.

You know.

I wanted to be something that I that I felt very strongly about and passionate about, and and something that would obviously accrue to my benefit to not you know, I don't want to.

I don't want to sell subscriptions to somebody else's weird product.

And I don't want to pitch people on playing a game that I would not necessarily myself play.

Right, Right, Well, it's like like and the same thing happened to me.

People were like messaging me and be like, hey, do you want to run the content side of this business and do and and try to get subscribers, et cetera, et cetera.

And I'm like, why would I not just do that for myself?

You know, Like, right, it's a lot more attractive to kind of go about it that way.

I kind of just left that, you know.

And I left that for reason cause I want to, you know, better myself and and and do this, you know, on.

My own, because just it's more rewarding, you know, in the end.

So I'm really happy for you, and I hope everyone checks out what you were working on.

All right, let's get to some fantasy football discussion.

Let's start with a pretty high level broad question, and I'm going to ask you what you think is sort of the biggest surprise in the fantasy football season through the few weeks.

Yeah, I guess I'll give you.

I'll give you a small picture answer and I'll give you a big picture answer.

And the small picture answer is that if you would have told me two weeks ago that Christian McCaffrey was going to be the healthiest member of the forty nine ers, I would have I mean I would I would have absolutely ridiculed you.

It would have been worse than Harmon at King's classic.

That has been shocking to me.

As soon as soon as we got the first like news blurb about the calf I was like, ah, man, if we only knew this two weeks ago, he would have been a third rounder.

This is crazy.

I can't believe this has happened.

I drafted him in all these places, you know, like one of those events where you take the full inventory of, oh my god, where do I have McCaffrey.

I have to write off those teams.

They're doomed, and now maybe he's one of the right answers.

So that's crazy to me.

And the other thing, the big picture thing is really, you know, I feel like one of the general pieces of advice that I was giving during draft season and shoot, this speaks to your brand in fact, was that, hey, if you miss out on those on those top five quarterbacks, those top six quarterbacks.

No big deal.

This position's so deep.

I feel great about the QB twenty.

This is awesome.

You know, they're all all these guys.

I can talk myself into any of these guys.

They're in fine situations.

And you know, there have been some hits, justin Herbert, a notable hit, a couple others.

But man, we're in week three and like I'm in the I'm ranking this position and we're in the mid teens, and I'm staring at Carson Wentz and Jake Browning and Bryce Young and I don't know which is the best option at QB fifteen or sixteen.

I mean, that's crazy.

So that position went from very deep, crazy deep, almost too deep for single QB leagues, to now it's you know, oh man, hopefully you made one of the.

Three or four right choices.

Yeah, from what you've seen, do you think that quarterback play because I kind of am seeing it from the perspective of quarterbacks are like look bad, like they're they're not they're not playing that well, but some of them are kind of getting there, Like KYLEB.

Williams is a really good example.

Of this right where like he's not playing that well, right, but but he's getting there because a scramble raid is there and and like it's he's at least giving you some of that and he's getting some garbage time.

And like there's a very real scenario in my opinion, where Kayleb Williams is actually a really good fantasy quarterback just because that defense is struggling the way that it is and we know the weapons are there, and he is just going to degaff his way to a top seven, top eight, you know season at the position, but in a really ugly way, like a really just not not what you really like feel comfortable with, Like every week when you put him in your starting lineup, you're like, eh, should I really do this?

Are you seeing like, like do you think that there's a just a systemic like quarterback problem or is it like offensive line driven because I think that there's been some offensive line issues you know that's kind of extended from even last year a little bit.

But is is that driving this do you think?

Or is it just like like we just have some really really good quarterbacks and those are the guys that are that are giving us the edge.

Yeah, I think there's I think there's also a couple of other players.

I guess I would put Trevor Lawrence a little bit in that same category as Caleb Williams, and maybe it's not the same.

Like the Bears defense has a chance to be like spectacularly.

Yeah, yeah, they've just got They've been hit with some injuries at just the right spots to perhaps allow thirty five points a game every game forever.

But you know, Trevor Lawrence a little bit the same way, where like the actual experience of watching him is not terribly satisfying, and yet we're probably still going to get a bunch of multi touchdown games.

And I will say that, like the overall look of Liam Cohan's offense has been you know, I imagine if you're a Jags fan, it's really nice to not see two receivers arrive at the same place at the same time expecting the same throw, because that's been just like a hallmark of the last five years.

So that's good, Like, there are some things that you can like about that.

I also, you know, we're in a time and you know this, like over the last ten years or so, so we've basically seen all of the greatest fantasy seasons.

At the quarterback spot.

And so if you've been playing the game a really long time, you've been playing twenty twenty five years, like you you definitely came of age as like a late round quarterback drafter, and now we're in this time where like, yeah, maybe it does make a little bit of sense to say Lamar Jackson in the third round because that guy has the first and fourth i think first and fourth best fantasy seasons in the history of the position, and Josh Allen has like five of the top twenty five, and like, you can get a real edge at quarterback in a way that you you just simply couldn't twenty years ago.

Yeah, one hundred percent.

It's something you know, I wrote about that in the draft guide, and how there's just this predictability aspect of these quarterbacks that you can't ignore.

Like you can do value based.

Drafting type analysis and say this quarterback is X number of points better than a baseline.

But what's missing in that kind of like really basic analysis is the fact that we know who these quarterbacks are going to be.

You know, like we we know who the good quarterbacks are going to be.

It's Lamar Jackson, it's Josh Allen.

I mean, we're recording this before the Thursday night game, So if Josh Allen miraculously has a terrible game against Miami, don't don't come at us.

But but yeah, you know, it's just we.

Knew who these guys generally were going to be, and it you know, I always saw it as like there was at least a dead spot in the third round of a lot of drafts where we're like, okay, you know, like are we how comfortable are we taking some of these running backs and even you know, there's like a drop off around like like after JSN, like around that area wide receiver, and that's where it kind of felt comfortable.

But I think that we'll probably look back at the season, like you're saying, and say they should have been even probably half around or a full round earlier than where they were being drafted, you know, the Josh Allen Lamar Jackson type.

Yeah, no, it might be right.

And that's one of those things where I'm just thinking back to draft season.

You know, one of my one of my principles when I go into any draft, and this comes up.

If you're like, if you're picking in the back half of the first round.

You're you're you know, and this is the drafts are just unfair.

So you're out on the best running backs right and you're out on the top tier at receiver.

I always feel like you've got to give your team a real edge somewhere, and it's not ideal to try to make that edge at either tight end or quarterback.

But it's better having an edge there than not having an edge at any spot at all.

So that's where I was most commonly.

You know, i'd pull the trigger on Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen.

I probably have them equally across across different leagues, but I but I do think it is a real and meaningful edge.

And to your point, there's there's no uncertainty about who the high ceiling quarterbacks are anymore.

It's not really a guessing game at this point.

We know that those two have so many of the best fantasy seasons that have ever you know that anybody has ever authored that it's it's probably going to be them.

Yeah, yeah, I mean I always go back to like the twenty fifteen season because it's such a funny example.

When you look at the correlation of top eighteen quarterbacks and where they were drafted, and how many points per game that they scored.

Literally zero correlation between top eight So like the the QB eighteen that year had just as good of a chance basically of scoring a lot of points as the QB one.

That's how just random and wild and crazy things used to be.

It's just not that way anymore.

And I think we you know, the market has kind of slowly adjusted, but probably not fast enough.

Speaking of quarterbacks, Joe Burrow is now injured.

Sounds like it could easily be season ending.

I know that there's some some optimism, you know, surrounding like maybe three months, but like a lot of you know, doctors out there on the Twitter streets are not optimistic.

About Joe Burrow returning.

How are you viewing Jamar Chase and t Higgins and Chase brown now with this injury?

Yeah, I don't, you know, it's complicated because it doesn't it doesn't wreck the season for them, right, It's we've we have proof of concept with Jake Browning.

We've seen it.

He I mean, he made a couple of just fantastically poor throws and poor decisions last week, and that's that's just that's going to be part of the experience.

But we have a half season of Jake Browning at the controls of this offense, and it wasn't bad.

He completed like seventy percent of his throws.

He had a crazy like yards per attempt I think was like eight point zero.

It was good, well like, it wasn't It wasn't the season that Joe Burrow would have had.

You know, I think you have to kind of recalibrate and if you, if you, I mean the argument for Joe Burrow was, Man, if anybody's got a shot at five thousand yards this year, it's got to be Burrow.

Let's look look at that defense, look at the talent around him.

If anybody has a shot at forty touchdown passes, it's got to be Burrow.

And I think I think that's out the window.

I don't think we're getting that from Jake Browning.

It doesn't mean that we can't get a It doesn't mean that he can't have a bunch of two hundred and fifty yard two touchdown performances, and that can that can support two completely viable fantasy receivers.

As for Chase and Higgins, I think, particularly with respect to Chase, like the ceiling.

The ceiling is not what you thought it was.

Right, Like you if you thought.

Oh, man, I'm drafting a guy who's probably going to win the receiving triple Crown, I think I'm looking at one twenty and seventeen hundred and sixteen and that's probably gone.

It doesn't mean that he can't still finishes the overall wide receiver one.

I think that's in play.

I think I think Jake Browning knows what he's working with.

I think T Higgins can still be a thousand yard receiver, and I think Chase Brown can.

Still be really good.

But he can't be the featured.

Back in an offense that's going to average thirty two or thirty three.

Points a game.

So that's where you have to you know, it's any dream that you had of Chase Brown scoring fifteen touchdowns is probably gone too.

But hey, like, I don't know, twelve hundred yards and eight touchdowns, ten touchdowns, that's a fine season.

We can work with that.

Yeah.

I think like in the end, you know, the work is at least still going to be very concentrated to these guys, right, And yeah, it's unfortunate that that work is now not being distributed by one of the best quarterbacks in the game, and that's going to hurt these guys.

For sure.

I looked at.

Because I always do my rest of season ranks that I compare those rankings to what just the consensus is saying.

You know, I still saw Jamar Chase, And it could just be like, you know how because I'm just downloading from Fantasy Pros and just saying like, Okay, here's how the consensus thinking right now.

And so there might have been some like lack of adjustments happening just early on whenever I went and did this, But like, do you think that Chase should be a top three wide out still or do you think that he should be more in the let's say, Amen Ross Saint Brown range versus you know where he was.

Well, the first thing I'll say is that Amen Ross Saint Brown is not That's not disrespectful.

It's not no, right, yeah, I should be clear that it's not.

And maybe a'man Ross Saint Brown.

I don't know, like either Amen Ra or Puka is probably my wide receiver three if I'm you know, wide receiver two or three.

If I'm redrafting right now, I'd give I'd give a little edge to Ceedee Lamb, But then Jamar Chase is still right there.

I think Justin Jefferson has the dual questions of what will it ever look like with JJ McCarthy and what I mean, there's just a crazy wide range of outcomes for a Carson Wentz led offense.

So I don't know how this is going to go for Dustin Jefferson.

At the high end, it could be good, but I don't know.

I might rather have Pooker and Ross Saint Brown right now.

The thing about the Lions is that I don't think the Lions defense is going to be quite as bad as Cincinnati's defense.

Not that we know for sure, but the argument for Jared Goff should have been pretty similar to the argument for Joe Burrow, and it probably wasn't getting made enough.

Yeah, you're probably right.

I mean, at the very least, Jared Goff at.

Home in that dome we know, is someone that should mostly be started in fantasy football.

Look at you, though, the pro with the segue moving into Minnesota the way that you did a little let's talk let's talk about the Vikings no JJ McCarthy for X amount of time.

We don't need to get into.

The conspiracy theories with McCarthy though I am.

I am kind of a conspiracy theory pilled here with what's going on with McCarthy because he seemed fine towards the end of that game, like I did not see this coming.

And the fact that it happened so fast, you know, and they were able to say that this injury exists and we're gonna put him on, you know, and he's gonna be out, you know, et cetera.

It was a little bit strange, But let's push that.

Aside because people don't need to hear about those weird conspiracies, the pass catchers.

Like you mentioned your concerns about Justin Jefferson.

Do you think, I'm assuming you have similar concerns with a TJ.

Howkinson type and you know, Jordan Addison will be back after this week.

That also obviously just throws this and makes us even muddier.

And then the follow up question, I want to talk about Jordan Mason a little bit with his Aaron Jones as this Aaron Jones injury.

Yeah, I listen, I'm a I'm a big Jordan Mason fan and I have a fair amount of him, and I'm kind.

Of excited to see what this looks like.

I also think that the combination of him and Aaron Jones was a great idea.

Totally agree, and those those two should compliment each other really well.

So it's not like, you know, oh, finally Aaron Jones is out of the way.

I don't feel that way at all.

Like I think they were very well paired.

That was that was really smart, That was really smart team building.

But for the next for the next month or so, I'm also pretty excited to see what it looks like.

If we can just give Jordan Mason eighteen to twenty touches a game, I think that's going to be pretty good.

He's he's fun, He's just an absolute hammer.

He I mean, we got the proof of concept last year over you know, about a third of a season.

It was great.

So I think that can go really well.

I mean, I think you know that the Vikings are just they're like a turnkey operation for a good quarterback and they just don't have one.

I mean, I'm you know, I've heard people more bullish than me on Carson Wentz and I'm willing to say that I have no idea what it's going to look like.

Six teams and six years is crazy.

It probably says something about Carson Wentz right that nobody has invited him back.

I don't know this.

I mean, it could be.

I don't think it can be worse.

Than like what the last game looked like for JJ McCarthy and what most of the Bears game looked like for.

JJ McCarthy, but it could be almost as bad.

I'm somewhat hopeful, but a lot of that hope relies on the fact that, you know, maybe the head coach is truly a miracle worker, and if this, if this reclamation project delivers a useful quarterback, that's man, that's really that's very impressive on the part of koc.

Yeah, it would be.

To me, it would be crazy if a fantasy analyst got behind a microphone and started just saying how confident they were in Carson Wentz.

Right, like it would be.

It would be absolutely absurd, like any anyone should be really really hesitant about what's about to happen.

But then, like you said, there's this Kevin O'Connell effect that we've seen other quarterbacks, not just you know, it wasn't just a Kirk Cousins and a Sam Darnold thing.

I mean, they've had other guys step in that have been at least been able to keep.

Things going, you know, Josh Jobbs, Nick Mullins, like guys, guys that you would not want at the controls of your offense, have been functional r and have delivered good games for good players.

Yeah, exactly, and obviously the weapons are there.

The Jordan masoning to me was always like, I totally agree that the pairing with him and Aaron Jones was perfect because I still think Aaron Jones is top three or four pass catcher at the position in the league.

Like he's just really really good.

I mean we even solid in Week one, he had that great catch against Chicago, you know, in that game, And so I love that pairing because Jordan Mason, you know, I kind of bucketed this the early down grinders and talked about them together a lot this summer where it was tank bigsby Brian Robinson, this is pre you know, trade and Jordan Mason.

But the difference with Mason that I had talked about was if you look back in college he didn't do that much as a pass catcher, but he played the Jamier Gibbs, right, So it's like, well, what do you what do we really expect him to do in that kind of environment?

And then he goes to San Francisco and yeah, he had a really low target share last year when you know, he had some opportunity and I don't think that he's like a massive, massive plus as a receiver, and that could definitely hurt his ceiling a little bit from a fantasy perspective.

But sometimes in these scenarios, when things break the way that they've broken for Jordan Mason, who how is he not going to be a bell.

Cow in this offense?

You know, like like what else is good?

Like I know they brought cam Akers back, I believe, right, and like maybe they I'm just I look at what's going on there, and I say to myself, he should be able to walk into a double digit percentage target share, you know, in that offense and be really really viable even as a pass catcher, because you know, at the end, like in the end, like with pass catching at running back.

And I'm curious if you feel sort of the same way, But I really look at things.

I talk about this during prospect season a lot.

I look at things as like you're either like a huge, huge plus as a pass catcher where you can line up like in the slot and do crazy things like Christian McCaffrey does, or you're just like Gus Edwards or something like that, where it's just you know, like you're you're clearly never going to be using that way.

And then there's this middle ground.

I think Tank Bigsby's in the Gus Edwards area right like he was He's been pretty pretty horrific as a pass catcher.

But I think Jordan Mason could be in that middle ground and be fine.

I think that's the perfect way to look at it.

And I would say that, you know, there's probably part of the there's probably part of these game plans that they just have to toss out, because I do think that Aaron Jones is you know, I don't keep a running list of these guys, but there is.

It's a small list of running backs who can just go run routes, you know, like we can use you as a receiver as needed.

And it's a Chan and it's McCaffrey, and it's definitely Aaron Jones, and it's a small number of players, and it is a it is a rare skill at the position, and it doesn't you know, that doesn't always show up in box scores necessarily because we get a lot of guys who like, they're fine in the screen game and they're a great checkdown option, but you would never put them in the slot ten times and say go run routes and beat somebody.

But Jones, Jones can do stuff like that, and I don't think that Jordan Mason can.

But it doesn't mean that he can't catch.

And it's I don't know, we should we should probably assume that if somebody hasn't shown a skill necessarily in the NFL, that they're not likely to do it.

But we also shouldn't you know, we shouldn't completely close our eyes to the possibility.

Yeah, especially again when there's literally no one else there for like, he should be able to run a good amount of routes.

And this is just how it goes in fantasy football sometimes.

Is that like, this is the contingent upside that we talk about.

And if Aaron Jones, a good pass catcher, is no longer in his way, then we should expect you know, more work.

There Another thing that you probably could have answered with the biggest surprise to start the year, and I think a lot of people might have gone that direction is the rookie running backs and how they're underperforming.

I mean, I'm sorry, do you.

Mean the greatest running back class in draft history?

Yeah, And look, I'm guilty of this from the standpoint of, you know, the Z model really liked these guys.

Now it was brought down to earth a little bit based on the actual draft capital that these guys got.

And so, you know, the pre draft stuff looked great for a lot of these players, and then draft capital hits, and you know, the model had its favor It still liked a lot of the you know, day, It likes Caleb Johnson, it liked r.

J.

Harvey, it liked you know, Trayvon Henderson, and so on.

Regardless, like I saw this as a pretty decent opportunity for a lot of these players to do well in fantasy this year.

Specifically, like a Traveon Henderson, who I thought was one of the best.

I know, he got steamed up towards the end of August and stuff, but he was one of my favorite values up until that point, I want to go one by one with these rookie running backs and just talk about them because I haven't seen panic like this since I don't even know from the fantasy football space, and it stems from you know, people in my discord to people on Twitter and people already burying these guys careers and so on.

So let's just go one by one.

Let's start with Ashton genty, you know, and you don't have to, I mean maybe you could.

Let's let's have you.

Rate it on a panic meter zero to ten, ten being the most panic that you've ever been in your life about a player in fantasy football.

Okay, so here's here's why I would say that Ashton gent is actually and I we can make an argument that you know, things are probably going to be fine for ash and Genzy because the guy behind him on the depth chart is a mere white and there's not like, who.

Else are you going to ask to do things?

Hey, hey, hey, do not talk down to Dylan Lobby.

Okay, I'm sorry, I'll do respect to Dylan Lobby.

But there's you know, it's not a particularly crowded depth chart.

However, he was your first round pick.

So the notion that my first round running back might just end up being a guy who scores seven touchdowns and gives me eleven hundred yards.

I'm probably not winning the league if that happens.

That is a bad outcome for your first round pick.

And it like the numbers sound fine, and that's you know, the Raiders can tell themselves that that was a successful year, and he can tell himself, Hey, I you know, it was my welcome to the NFL year and it was fine.

That's a pretty disastrous year for fantasy and it is.

It is certainly on my radar that he might finish up that way.

So I guess i'd call him.

I'd probably call him a seven.

And I think even some of his comments after the Chargers game up, I don't think it was a throwaway cliche when he talks about adjusting to the speed of the game.

You're coming from the Mountain West, and you're coming from a conference where, like man, you make one guy miss and it's a sixty yard house call, and now you make one guy miss and oh look there's another guy.

You know, it's just you picked up you picked up two yards by making somebody miss.

And the NFL is hard and sometimes like sometimes a three or four yard gain is the right outcome on a particular play, and that is that is not anything he has ever experienced before.

Yeah, and I'm not very bullish on the environment for him.

The line has not been playing very well.

And I also when I look at the list of running backs that we're going to talk about, you know, it's the top five that people were drafting, you know, in fantasy drafts, and top five that that got drafted aside from Quinn Chawn Judkins that got drafted in the NFL draft.

But you know, when I look at like the coaching staffs, I could see a scenario.

Where the Raiders get the goofiest with their rookie running you know, like where like we already have seen like certain scripts and ash Gent's not on the field, like his peripherals haven't been as as you noted first round, second round type running back as you would even remotely want.

So I think versus where people drafted him, this is a problem for sure.

Let's go to Amari and Hampton where I mean we had the clash of the disappointing rookie running backs on Monday night, and you know he didn't get much push from the offensive line and so and you know, I don't think that he's necessarily like shown anything yet either.

But where are you at with Hampton from a panic meter perspective?

Yeah, this would be a six or a seven for me as well.

And this is one that I don't know why I avoided a lot of Amri and Hampton.

I didn't.

I didn't have strong feelings on him one way or the other.

I kind of liked what I saw in college.

I will say that I have found it kind of jarring.

How you know, he's a guy who needs to basically come to a full stop before like changing direction, and that's that is a particular style that you know, is maybe a little bit less appealing and it requires a very specific team context in which to work.

I don't enjoy that.

I do think we're going to see a little bit more nausey as as Naji gets up to speed.

That you know, the that fumble occurred late, and so the fumble is like, you know, the thing that really sticks in your mind.

I don't think the fumble was attributed to.

Hampton, was not no, Yeah, but I'd.

Put it on him, and I'm pretty sure the Chargers are putting it on him, and you know, I think that contributes to probably workload that you'll see over the next couple of weeks.

It just hasn't looked great.

And that doesn't you know, that doesn't mean that Omari and Hampton can't be a great player of the course of his career in the second half of the season or whatever.

But it he looks like a guy who's still finding his way, and you know, the Chargers should be thinking, I don't know, the Chargers should be thinking super Bowls.

So they're not going to mess around with a whole lot of player development when they have somebody else that they trust.

So I do think that is a that is a job that could flip at some point.

So I you know, it's on my radar that I should be worried.

Yeah, I think that the Hampton stuff is now.

Look, he's had twenty three, I think I said on Living the Stream, he's had twenty three American rush attempts so far in the NFL.

And you know, it's hard for me to just go in so far in one direction that I've seen you know, on Twitter and stuff shocking that people on Twitter and social media are being like absolutely insane about these rookie running backs.

But I've felt like watching the Raiders and the Chargers that the Chargers offensive line from a run blocking past blocking, they haven't been as bad from a run blocking standpoint.

It's been pretty horrendous, you know, And I'm trying to pull it in, like hold it, hold in a little bit and not say like this is, you know, trending and so hard in one direction for Marion Hampton, I would agree with you that I think we're gonna see more nausey over the next few weeks at least, and then maybe this is a second half emergence kind of understands the NFL game a little bit better, and maybe the offense offensive line gets a little bit better and healthier as well, and that helps things.

But I've had a hard time isolating.

I think is the easiest way to think of this, isolating Amari and Hampton and who he is as a player from the offensive line play at this point.

Yeah, I think that's fair.

I just will also say that I think there are running backs that you can put behind a sketchy run blocking line and they'll still put up some numbers.

They might not be they might not lead the league in rushing.

I'm not sure.

He's that guy.

Yeah, yes, yes, yeah.

He might be a guy that just needs a clean run to the line of scrimmage and then he will pick up the yards.

But if you make him, if you make him halt, if you make him stop behind the line of scrimmage, he's not, you know, like the quickest feet in the game.

He's not somebody who can instantly change direction and still get you three yards.

Yeah, that's a really good point to make Trayvon Henderson.

You know, he goes to the doghouse after these holding calls and really bad pass pro reps against Miami this past week, and then Ramandre Stevenson has a great game.

So where are you at with Travion?

Yeah, so this is the real problem.

The real problem is how well Remandre just played.

Because I do think that Ramandre picked up some yards that were not necessarily block form.

He looked great as a receiver in that game, and it was sort of the best version of Ramandre Stevenson, and it was a guy that we didn't really see last year, maybe outside the first game or so.

So that's a problem for Henderson.

But I also coming into the season, I feel like even and I landed Henderson in a bunch of places I was.

I was describing it to Chris this way, like, if I was just in a draft with normal humans, I probably got Trevion Henrison, and I probably got him in round five.

If I was in a draft with you know you and other people in the industry, probably went in around three and there was somebody who just wanted to plan a flag and I didn't get him.

So I have enough of him in leagues that I care about that it you know, it is on my radar.

But I also thought coming into the year, there was a real chance that you know, Ohio State looked at him and said, hey, we want to keep you healthy and at your most effective, so you're never going to carry more than a dozen times a game, and we're going to throw it to you a little bit.

And you know that ended with him playing every game and them winning the national title.

Like that worked.

And I always thought there was a very real chance that he'd be like a like a twelve to fifteen touch a game guy.

And now I think that's that's still in play.

It might be the best case scenario, but it's very much still in play, so I'm I'm actually a little bit less worried.

It was.

It was alarming.

You know, he was the guy out of this entire rookie class, it was supposedly most ready to pass block in the NFL, and he was just he was turnstyling in week two.

And maybe that's I don't know, maybe that's an isolated event.

It's clearly something he takes pride in, and you know, I'm hopeful that it gets better.

Maybe again, maybe it was just one game that we can crumple up.

And throw away.

For me, I still see a path to him actually hitting expectations.

So my panic with him is probably a four or five.

Yeah, I'm with you.

I think of all these guys, I mean, well, at least compared to the guys we talked about with Marin Hampton Nation Gent, I'm least worried about Trevion Henderson.

And part of it, you know, of course, we would like factoring cost a little bit, because you know, we got him a little bit later than the other guys.

But I think part of it too is just the fact that he's the kind of player and we know that receiving just matters more.

You know, a target is worth more than a rush attempt.

That's his game and so like, and I talked about this a lot when talking about drafting Traveon Henderson, was that you're drafting him in a spot where more or less it's probably like a not total floor where you're drafting him.

But like, like if he's going to see a ten to twelve percent target share in this offense, let's say, like he can pay off of that ADP as a part time player with that kind of of target share.

And so what we're really buying into here is an outcome where Ramondre Stevenson sucks and the Patriots really want to use a lot of Traveon Henderson because what we saw from Ramondre, like like you said, we hadn't seen Week two Remandre since early last year.

You know, like that over the shoulder catch that he made, he didn't I mean, I don't recall him making a catch like that, you know, over the last year and a half.

And so you know, I think that the unfortunate like sort of like coming together and what happened with Trayvon Henderson last week is that he had a really bad.

Game on when he did like when he's touched the ball.

I think he's looked fine, like I've seen the explosion, Like he looks like he's a really good player.

But it came together.

Where he's holding calls and his bad pass pro happened while they face Miami while Ramandre Stevenson is having the best game that he's had in over a year.

Like, you can't really ask for a worse run than that for Traveon Henderson, which is why I'm like, all right, let's wait and see how things kind of ebb and flow with Remandre and all of this before we completely bury him.

Yeah.

No, I think that's totally fair because also, like Remandre's twenty twenty four season really did happen, Like that's on the resume too, right, right, Yeah, It's not like I expect him to have Week two just every game for the rest of the season, but it was, you know, I mean, if he's really going to be that guy, it is a problem for Henderson, but it's not an insurmountable problem.

RJ.

Harvey, who was kind of like a diet Travon Henderson from like the way that people viewed him, I guess, you know, and what he could do in the Denver offense.

He's been underperforming because Tyler Biday is a thing for Sean Payton right now.

So where are you at with RJ.

Harvey?

Yeah, but day is an issue the fact that JK.

Dobbins has been really He's just good when he plays these last couple of years, He's just really, really good.

So if you were if you were expecting R.

J.

Harvey, and again, I feel somewhat similar to how I feel about Henderson, I didn't I didn't have I wasn't super high on Harvey because I always thought JK.

Dobbins was going to be a problem, and I thought Dobbins probably should have gone ahead of Harvey and drafts.

I don't like to be in a position where like, oh man, I can't wait for the for the JK.

Dobbins injury to happen.

I actually think I think it would be awesome if we finally got a seventeen game season out of JK.

Dobbins.

That would be great.

I think he looks really good.

That that's that's a real complicating factor.

In the fact that Bidet is playing at all is a complicating factor.

So not great.

My panic would probably be a five or six there, And the only reason that it's that low is because I probably didn't draft Harvey as a starter.

Yeah, yeah, that's fair.

I actually I just liked both Harvey and Dobbins, Like I have a ton of Dobbins and I drafted I probably drafted more Dobbins than Harvey, but like I thought that they could both be valuable at different times of the year, and so depending on my builds, you know, I kind of went with Dobbins if I need an earlier production running back, et cetera.

But I do, like I didn't see the Tyler Bidet stuff happening the way that it's happening at all, not at all.

And the problem I'm always when this kind of thing happens, I'm always at this like split because I liked and it's like, I'm kind of embarrassed to say this.

I liked Tyler Biday when he was coming out as a prospect, and so when these guys that I liked, like Jerry McNichols, I like too.

I mean, this is it's a different scenario because he's even you know, more of a of a veteran, been around more.

But you know, I liked these players then whenever they get opportunity, I want to like be excited, Like, wait, is the expense of RJ Harvey that's unfortunate in certain game environments.

I think R J.

Harvey and JK.

Dobbins could both hypothetically be fantasy viable.

It's just that if Tyler.

Bidat is gonna run you know, twenty to thirty percent of their routes and see some looks like that's that's enough to make those guys less valuable.

Like and Dobbins is seeing enough on the ground where he's fine.

You know, it's not a problem for him right now, but it's a problem for RJ.

Harvey.

Yeah, it makes R J.

Harvey almost on flexworthy and at least in a non by week I mean, you're gonna be flexing him for sure when we get to the buys, but right now week three, he's I mean, he's certainly not a guy that you're just set and forget in fantasy lineups.

Yeah, all right, last one, Caleb Johnson, I mean, like, are we I'm bringing him up just because I've seen I've seen the response of like total dust after that play.

I'm saying, like, not going to find the field this year, not gonna be relevant at all.

Do you have any hope for like maybe a late season kind of resurgence from him.

Yeah, I think he's I think he's kind of the classic guy.

Like, listen, you probably got to drop him this week.

I'd be in leagues of normal size, right, if you play in a ten team twelve team league, He's probably not somebody that you're going to hang on to once we get the once the buys start and you actually have like urgent needs.

I can't imagine hanging on to him in a league that size.

I legitimately do not think he's going to be active this week if they can't, you know, if he can't play on special teams, there's no way he's gonna play.

We're still only talking about Kenny Gainwell that he asked a nudge past and like I do still believe that he was a good system fit for this team.

I am a believer in some of the things that I saw in the preseason, like I you know, I'm also an apologist for Caleb Johnson.

He'll never buy another drink in Iowa City.

He was an absolute hero last year.

Everybody always knew what Iowa intended to do, and they couldn't stop Caleb Johnson.

It was a crazy season that said career could not have started worse.

So I think he becomes one of those guys where like he gets dropped now and he probably ends up a success If he's going to be a success story at all, it's not going to be for the team that drafted him, and it's going to be back half of the season.

Maybe it's going to be.

Maybe it's going to be a November December run that he has when somebody gets injured.

Of course, the other problem that he has, Jalen Warren was always going to be a thing in Pittsburgh, and Jalen Warren, just like Remandre coming off a spectacular game and had one of the plays of the year.

I can't imagine that we're going to see ten plays for the rest of the season that are any better than that little dump off to Warren in Week two.

Yeah, I mean, I think I think Jalen Warren is just more of a threat as a player in what he does from a fantasy perspective than a guy like Ramandre would be for Travion because yes, you know, because Warren, we know is good in pass pro and is really good.

As a pass catcher out of the backfield.

He can do a lot after the catch or as Remandre, you know, I mean aside from week two Superhero Superman Remandre.

You know, it's not necessarily like that kind of of player.

But yeah, I have very obvious concerns, you know, with Caleb, and I'm going to just wrap up the rookie running back talk by saying, all roads just lead to bash all Teuton, that's really what that's really what this is all.

I think that's fair, And it's funny.

In conversations that I've had with with Harris, like for the last month or so, we almost use Bachel Tutin as like a punchline because you know, he is whatever you want him to be, right, he sees this fantastic idea that's hanging out there, and everybody knows the combine numbers.

But he looked good.

He looked good.

He looked really good.

And it wasn't even just like the touchdown was great and was a highlight play and I felt terrible for the poor defensive end that dropped into coverage and had to get you know, clowned like that.

But he had some non highlight plays in that game where like he pushed piles, he was running inside and push piles, and if he if he's capable of doing that, like I mean, ETN looks good too.

I don't think it's not like I think ATN is losing a job anytime soon.

But Tutan deserves to play.

Yeah, yeah, it's exciting because my does that model actually like Tutin just as much as R.

J.

Harvey with Draft Capital Factor did and stuff.

So this is a this is a bashall Tuton podcast that you're on right now, very very excited about that.

Let's talk about AJ Brown and DeVante Smith.

This Philadelphia Eagles offense.

I don't want to say struggling because they're winning, but it does not look you know, Kellen Morgan, like things have changed.

Are you concerned about AJ Brown and DeVante Smith or do you think this is just kind of like variants a couple of weeks, you know, no big deal.

I think and hope that it's variants.

I think that I think that Dallas had a pretty interesting and somewhat successful game plan against them in opening week, right, but that game plan also invited Jalen Hurts to run and just take six eight ten yards on the ground anytime he wanted it, and he did, and so so I can kind of forgive that, and then I can look at week two and say, Okay, there was a little bit.

More AJ Brown.

It was all slants, it was all really short stuff.

That's not the best use of AJ Brown.

But fine, it's the Chiefs that you're on the road.

It is a tough opponent.

I don't I don't think ultimately that Philly is just going to pass the whatever it is right now, twenty two times a game.

Or yeah, they've like a thirty eight pass rate right now.

Yeah, it's very low.

It's not going to be like that every week.

So I'm not panicked in that regard.

I also don't think that AJ Brown is a player necessarily in the decline phase.

Yet.

He's not that old.

I've seen him pile up a bunch of fourteen hundred yard seasons for Philly.

So I mean, I know how good AJ Brown is, So I don't have doubts there.

We know how good Smith is.

I don't have doubts there.

It's more a matter of just let's get to a game where they have to throw at thirty two times and if it's bad then and we're if we're getting seven targets to Johan Dotson or something like that in that game, then okay, I'm a little bit concerned.

Yeah, And I think the other thing too, is that like when it comes to the regression on the passing side for Philadelphia, Like, I think people just need to recognize that teams are very healthy and they can run pure right now because nothing's really happened in terms of injury and stuff, and you know, there has it's easier to have good, like defensive performances right now because there haven't been those injuries and such, and once some of that starts to pile up, then that turns into, oh, you know, our defense isn't playing as well, or like if Saquon Barkley knock On Wood, you know, were to get injured or something, and then they're not going to lean on their running backs nearly as much.

And then things change and shift, and you know, last year they ran really pure, Like if we're being honest, you know, I mean, any team that wins the Super Bowl runs really pure, you know, in that in that season more than likely.

And so you know, I think with Philly, you know, I'm not saying I'm not like rooting for for injuries to happen or anything like that, but things are going to happen, you know, during an NFL season.

That makes me feel at least a little bit more comfortable that they'll be forced to throw the ball a little bit more.

It's a that's a really good point that people should just keep in mind generally, because I feel like we've we learned this and relearn it every year, and I feel like I actually feel like Baltimore teaches it to us probably as much as any team.

Like every defense, even the even the ones that you think are the very best in football, they're like they're they're one or two injuries away from actually being a little bit bad.

Yeah right, right, yeah.

And not not only that, but just like defensive performance can vary just as much as like we're so focused on offense all the time, because this is what we do with fantasy football without recognizing and realizing that like a defense could wake up and just have a really good game plan and just play really really well in a given week.

And we've only had two weeks.

So let's chill a little bit, you know, let's just let's let's let's relax for a second before we start, you know, uh dropping these these uh these these absolutes about these offenses.

Yeah, all right, Brian Thomas, he is one play.

We're we're we're very cynical on today's show.

I'm only I'm.

Only really talking about these like these dudes who have been horrible.

But Brian Thomas should they should should his managers be in a panic right now?

I mean, it was an alarming game.

I don't want to I don't want to excuse the game people.

I'm sure saw the interception that I don't know did he did Trevor throw him into coverage and was he going to get lit up?

Yeah, he was going to get lit up.

And also he made a business decision on the play that led to an interception that was bad.

I thought he turtled up a couple times on other catches that was bad.

And yet he still got targets in the end zone.

He wasn't he wasn't that far away from scoring.

It was a horrendous game, and obviously the final drop was ended up deciding the game.

So terrible game for him.

But I don't, you know, I said it earlier, I actually don't hate the look of this offense even though things haven't clicked for either Hunter or Thomas yet.

And yes, it's weird that we're throwing like contested balls to you know, Parker Washington or whatever, like things are a little bit weird.

But I but I also think some of the Liam Cohen fingerprints that you might have expected, where guys are schemed crazy wide oh and have been there.

Like I, you know, it is just refreshing to watch.

And again, I'm sure Jaguars fans would agree, it is so refreshing to watch that team play games where like, okay, the pass is delivered and there's only one Jaguars receiver in the camera frame.

I I don't have.

To look at two guys coming together fighting for the same ball like that was.

I felt like that was a hallmark under Urban Meyer, under Doug Peterson occasionally like it was just kind of a broken offense a lot, and I feel like there are better days out there.

So I'm concerned because it was a legitimately terrible game from Thomas, but I'm also willing to throw it out and say, you know, I saw half a season from him that put him in the first round of Fantasy drafts and so he's still pretty legit.

Yeah.

Again, And I think patience is really really important too.

When there's an offensive coordinator change and coaching change the way that we saw like, it's gonna there's gonna be some growing pains.

It's very hard for offense to just immediately click when there's a brand new coaching staff and system in place.

This isn't like, I know, see getting elevated or something and getting promoted into into the role, you know.

And so that's part of the reason why I'm trying to stay the course with and at least like Trevor Lawrence still had a usable game last week in Fantasy.

It wasn't like you know, it wasn't like he like we said earlier, he's one of those guys that are just uncomfortable but might get there in the end.

Yeah.

Are there any players who have performed well so far but you think are are pretty legitimate cell candidates?

Yeah?

I don't.

I don't want to, like, I don't want to answer this question and make it seem like I don't think these guys can continue to be good, yeah, because that's that's not what I mean.

But like, if you're if you're taking somebody to the to the trade block right now, it better be somebody who's actually performed.

Like the wrong way to play fantasy football is to throw Brian Thomas on the trade block right now or AJ Brown on the trade block right now, because there's just no way you're getting you're getting value with where you drafted him.

Yeah, I guess the guys that come to mind are a Mecca Buka, who I love.

I loved him as a college player.

I didn't initially understand and appreciate why Tampa Bay was drafting him, but I think we all get it now.

He looks great, and I think his rookie year can be really good.

He is going to have assuming Chris Godwin comes back at some point relatively soon and sees the field a lot, because that that guy's got a lot of guaranteed money coming to him, and he's a good player when he's healthy, Like he's going to be a little a little bit of a problem.

And I just you know, a touchdown, a touchdown a week is probably not going to be the rookie season for Igucas.

So I think that's a I think that's a guy that I would be interested in shopping just to get a price check.

I would also say.

That, and some of this is, you know, I was not as high as perhaps I should have been on Devani Chan.

He's he's still a little guy who operates in a really weird way, and his coach might be gone on Friday.

Yeah well yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

This this Buffalo game could go a ways toward determining the future of you know, a play calling in Miami, and if anything changes there, I don't know, I don't know that that any other coach would come in and say, we need to build this whole thing around throwing short passes.

To divine a chance.

So his role, his role has the potential to change, even though he's a wonderful player and a super fun explosive player.

Yeah yeah, no, I like those those those calls, unfortunately, because I like both those players.

But the Igbuka one has been difficult because of the god like we just don't know where Godwin's at, you know, like it's just it's really really difficult because my my general philosophy and fantasy is always like if a rookie shows out early, I probably want to be way more in than out, you know, on that player.

But I do think that there's some extenuating circums and it's not like Agbuka has seen like unbelievable.

He's not seeing a thirty percent target share or anything like that in the offense to start the year.

And so I understand, you know, going that direction.

Although he's become one of my favorite players just because the the off the field Agbuka is also awesome.

He's got he's like a huge nerd like superheroes and thing games and stuff, and like it's like it's like Jamal Williams.

Jamal Williams off the field is also hilarious with.

His his fantasy and tangible Yeah.

Yeah, right, like those and to me, like like keep guys that you want to root.

For, you know in fantasy.

That's also that's also part of this game.

That's why I've got Harold Fannon on all these That is right, that's right.

You were around.

You were around for the Harold fan and mother discussion.

Uh so wild at the expo.

Yeah, it's also wild that he's so legitimate now like like like like like.

We meet the mother and I talked.

I was like talking to his cousin about how Kevin Stefanski had had needed to run more twelve personnel and like how they needed to and they're like the guy, he's just like nodding his head.

He's like yeah, yeah, you know, like just like agreeing with me and stuff.

I feel like you were not as drunk as I was when I actually ran into the fan Ins and started talking to them, and I tried to have the same conversation but probably in a less coherent way.

But they they could not have been more polay.

Oh, they were amazing.

I hope that they come to every fantasy football there's need to be there for us to just chop it up with.

No, it's it's hilarious.

It's just it's so like that's the kind of stuff that I.

Love about the space is that that's literally the one place on planet Earth that Harold Fannin's mom could be where everyone knew her son.

In that moment, you know, like like everyone there.

We were awestruck.

I was so thrilled to be talking to Harold Fan's mom.

That's crazy.

So it's so good.

All right, A couple more questions, which offense that started slow?

Do you think it could could turn it around?

I mean, I feel like, the obvious answer is the Chiefs.

Maybe it's not an obvious answer because it's looked really rough, but they, I mean, they do have an inner circle all time quarterback and we know what some of the problems are right now.

And and this this comes down to basically how healthy Xavier Worthy can possibly be rest of season.

It's a pretty significant injury that he's apparently going to try to play through.

But I mean, man, what did we see him for like four or five plays in the opener, and he was I mean two of them were designed to go to him, and he was going to have the Hollywood Brown workload, right, and I think that was going to be pretty fun.

I think I think a dozen or more touches for for Xavier Worthy was going to be was going to be pretty awesome in that game.

And then obviously we get Rashi Rice back as well, so we're like, you know, and that's a while, that's that's still a month away, which is forever in the NFL, and many they could start really rough and take themselves almost all the way out of the hunt by the time Rashi Rice comes back.

But I feel like they've got we never know with schedules in the NFL.

But I do feel like they've got a pretty nice runway at the end of the season.

And again, like that is a that is a team with the right DNA and the right quarterback, and things can get better there because you can just see, you know, the two best members, the most effective members of that receiving corps are going to come back.

Yeah.

Do you have any concern about what's going on with the backfield right now?

Yeah, that's terrible.

It's terrible.

It's That's been one of the most jarring and unnerving things is that I don't think Pacheco looks you know, he's got like the he's always had the little glitch where he has to you know, he has to fire up his feet, like his feet have to pump like like two or three times before he moves.

It's like he's he's actually like Sonic the Hedgehog in the way that he like has to you know, spind like get ready to.

You see that to go?

Yeah, you see that, You see the spinning legs before you see anything else.

But it just that hasn't been there, and he isn't getting big workloads, and there's I don't I don't know how to explain the the reliance on Kareem Hunt.

I don't think.

I don't think Kareem Hunts looked good last year.

I don't think he looks good this year.

But yeah, you know, the those are pretty smart coaches and they and they see him every day and they have decided to play him about as much as they're going to rely on Isaiah Pacheco, which should tell us something.

I'm in the camp that they need to use Brishard Smith, that they they need to And I remember we were on the panel the expo and I brought up Burchard Smith as like a dart throw kind of like player, but he brings a dynamic that they just don't have in that backfield at all right now, which is the really good pass catching and just explosiveness that the immediate explosiveness, because Isaiah Pacheck can get going once he gets going right like he can he can he can do stuff like once he gets like three or four yards down the field.

But to me and Burchard Smith, even if you watch him from his few preseason reps, like that was there.

I think that obviously, you know, seventh round rookie, Like what are we really going to expect and and and how ready is he really going to be And he doesn't have much experience as a running back in general.

But part of me is just like they need to just get back to this, like insanely pass heavy, use them like Jerck McKinnon approach yep and right, like, like, just just do that instead of trying to make Pacheck.

And I mean, I love Pachecko as a player.

He helped the brand a lot back in the day, but like, I don't think that he looks the part.

You could argue he's never really really looked the part, but he's you know, had the enough juice to sort of get by at times, you know, throughout his career.

And then, like you said, Kareem Hunter just seems so dusty brischard Smith, Like, I think he's a good speculative add like a look ahead player, you know, just to have on your bench this week if you have a spot and then see what happens.

I think it's a really good call.

And I agree on the preseason usage that that that Bears game leaps to mind when like you know, it was the first time that we got to see the full Mahomes offense in the preseason and like he got he got two looks on the on the first series.

I think at least one as a slot receiver.

I don't know that he did anything with it, but like that would be really fun usage for Smith and it's probably the appropriate usage, and I think McKinnon is absolutely the right comp Yeah, if they could just get back to the point where you know, that's the other thing.

This offense has been so uninspiring that like they you know that the days when like Williams or McKinnon or whoever could could end up as an RB one off of like eight touches, ten touches, I don't really see that happening this year.

Yeah.

I mean, look, there there was a day where I traded Damian Williams away in Dynasty for a first round pick.

Like that's that's a real thing that happened.

So so yeah, I mean it was, it was.

There's some very real hype around those those running backs back in the day.

All right, last question, give me a bold prediction here for Week three.

Yeah, I think you know you talked about Caleb earlier.

I think Caleb Williams could be a top five quarterback this week.

I think that I think that Dallas defense is really messy.

I know, I kind of gave him credit for the game plan against Philadelphia in Week one, but man three hundred combined receiving yards to wan Dale Robinson and Malik Neighbors four fifty to Russell Wilson.

I don't think Diggs looks good at all, And I you know, it can be ugly, but I think the Bears are going to have to throw.

They're going to have to try to stay ahead of whatever their defense is giving up.

So this is going to be a pretty pass heavy Caleb Williams season, for better or worse.

I don't even you know, right now.

I don't even know that Caleb Williams is the I mean, he's the biggest problem because he's the quarterback, but I don't know that he's gamed a game necessarily the biggest problem.

That defense is going to be terrible, that the line still has questions.

They're committing ten penalties a game that are not all on Williams, right, So, like, there are a lot of issues here, But I think Caleb's going to throw the ball forty to forty five times.

Vegas seems to think so, right, Like the game total is over fifty now.

I think there's just gonna be a ton of points and yards in that thing.

And Caleb can have a rushing touchdown a couple of passing touchdowns in three hundred plus.

Yeah, love that call.

I'm ahead of the market this week on Caleb.

Do you think that there's a possibility that they that they look at their team right now and they say, all right, zero and two.

You know, hasn't been a very hot start for us.

Maybe we got to shift things around and get Colson Lovelin in there more.

Luther Burden, I think is the easier go to, just given how they've deployed.

I mean, Luther Burton I think ran five routes last week.

Like, do you think that there's a chance that we see some of that this week or do you think it's still sort of going to be slow moving?

Maybe?

But I also think, man, you're you might be underestimating just how much this coaching staff loves Alamidas.

I know, yeah, you're right, yeah, yeah, it's.

A crazy thing to say, but he was beat.

Reporters wrote about him every day, like if you were I know that, like nationally, people wanted Luthor Burden to really be a thing, and it looked good in the preseason, and nationally, we were all telling the story of Roma Dunze the Beat reporters every day, we're telling you about what Zachias was doing in practices, and I'm just I'm just passing it along.

I'm not saying that Alamide z Achias is any different than he was last year or the year before.

We've obviously seen a lot of him, but he was really good in the preseason, and the coaching staff loves him, so I don't I don't know how quickly Luther Burden takes all those snaps.

I do find it curious that we that basically Colston Lovelin is just running like clear out routes.

Right, had an eighty percent raw participation rate last week.

You know, It's crazy to me.

Yeah, and Lovelan was on the field when it was pagent time at the end, and that's but I don't want to I also don't want to say that that's the coaching staff's fault, like they're the guys who see Colson Lovelin every day and they've decided this is what he's ready for.

He was also a guy though that seemed like he was scoring a touchdown every day in camp, and there was a little bit of buzz around him.

I'm still hopeful because I loved Tim at Michigan.

Like I think you and I talked about it previously.

My favorite thing watching the JJ McCarthy tape a couple of years ago was like, I just thought Lovelin was a huge revelation.

Yeah, and I think that can still be there.

It's just it's pretty clearly not going to be there in the first month of the season.

Yeah, I think it.

I mean, it's more than likely going to be just a slow burn, you know, until like they're just going to slowly get more and more reps and it's not just going to be like an overnight thing that that would make it a lot more convenient from a fantasy perspective when it is that over.

It's also it's painful with Loveland because you look at the way that, like the stuff the Colts are drawing up for Warner immediately, the way the Browns are using Fannin immediately, like you're a lead block or you're taking wildcat snaps, you're you're split wide, you're in the slot, you're everywhere, and then Lovelin is only occasionally seeing the field and barely drying any targets.

So it's tough scene.

Yeah, I mean it just goes to show that because like I thought, Lovelin and Warren were both like they were from a modeling perspective, they were in the elite producer tier together.

Like I didn't really see much of a difference between the two from like a talent perspective.

I mean, they're different players, but I just mean, like as an overall grade standpoint, and it just goes to show that, like, how do we know that Colson Lovelin wouldn't be used in a in a high volume way in a different situation right now?

You know.

It's just the way that it goes sometimes with this stuff.

But Andy, this was awesome.

I always love talking to you let everyone know you know more about the deep shot where they can find you and all the stuff that you're working on.

Oh yeah, thanks again.

This was This is really fun and talking talking ball with you is always really fun.

So this was this was great.

I really appreciate it.

Yeah, they can find me at the deep Shot.

It's me.

It's Dalton del don On.

We're doing all the stuff that we that we loved from the Yahoo days and none of the stuff that we didn't necessarily love from the yah Hoo days.

And you can also find me in the Yacht Club podcast with Chris Harris once a week.

Yes, definitely check all that out.

Tell Chris I said hello, also because I talked to him at the beginning of the season and then I don't really talk to him much until after the season's over and stuff just because of schedulings.

Because you need a break.

Yeah, because I mean, yes, that one hour is so taxing.

That's enough.

That's it, That is enough.

That is enough.

The fact that you're doing it now every week.

I mean, God bless you.

Anyway, all my stuff can be find over on lateround dot com.

Make sure you're checking out the Patreon, make sure you subscribe to the show, and make sure you check out the YouTube channel YouTube dot com slash at Late Round FF.

This will be on the YouTube channel.

You can watch this if you're listening to it right now.

And also the Late Round Fantasy Football Show with myself and David Kitchen, the crazier part of the Late Round Fantasy Football brand.

We are live at one pm Eastern every Friday on that U Tube Channel with the Late Round Fantasy Football show.

Otherwise everyone, thanks for tuning in.