7 Players Ruining Our Rankings, Zay Flowers Gigantic Contract, and The Great Almond Debate
STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.
1 hr 32 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Aug 5, 2026
Published
Wed, August 5, 2026
23
Player insights
20
Players mentioned
Topics
DeVonta SmithJustin JeffersonLadd McConkeyAlec PierceBijan RobinsonBrian Thomas Jr.CeeDee LambColston LovelandDaniel JonesDeshaun WatsonGeorge PickensJahmyr GibbsKeenan AllenKyler Murray
Player analysis
Player insights
Alec Pierce
NegativeValue49:55
Alec Pierce is a high-variance fantasy option whose real-life value as a deep-threat field stretcher may exceed his fantasy utility. While he signed a significant contract, his role remains murky due to an ankle injury that required surgery in March and kept him on the PUP list to open camp. He is currently a low-ADP target, but his reliance on deep targets and injury status makes him a risky draft pick.
Insight pageBijan Robinson
PositiveValue4:02
The Falcons signed Bijan Robinson to a massive three-year, $75 million contract extension, cementing his status as a high-value asset; the analysts agree he is a great player who deserves the compensation.
Insight pageBrian Thomas Jr.
NegativeDepth Chart111:52
Brian Thomas Jr. is engaged in a competitive training camp environment with teammates like Parker Washington, with both players vying to be the first in the facility, highlighting his high-effort approach as a rookie.
Insight pageCeeDee Lamb
NegativeProjection37:03
CeeDee Lamb is difficult to rank; while he had an elite 1,700-yard season, his other years have been merely 'good.' There is concern that George Pickens could eat into his target share, and he faces potential risk if he is not the clear focal point of the offense.
Insight pageColston Loveland
PositiveValue115:04
Similar to Luther Burden, the analysts are reconsidering their stance on Colson Loveland, moving toward drafting him based on the positive buzz surrounding his potential role.
Insight pageDaniel Jones
NegativeInjury55:48
Despite positive reports from camp, Daniel Jones has a concerning injury history, having played only one healthy season in his six-year career, including issues with his Achilles, ACL, neck, and knee.
Insight pageDeshaun Watson
NegativeProjection100:28
Watson's outlook is extremely bleak following two Achilles tears and a significant decline in performance since joining the Browns. The offense struggled under his leadership, and there is deep skepticism regarding his ability to return to his previous form, with some questioning if he will even remain the starter.
Insight pageDeVonta Smith
PositiveUsage43:03
DeVonta Smith is a prime breakout candidate following the departure of AJ Brown. In a limited sample of 190 routes without Brown, Smith performed as a top-eight receiver in volume metrics and a top-four receiver in expected fantasy points per route run. The Eagles' shift toward more under-center, play-action heavy schemes should create more space for Smith, making him a potential top-15 player if the offense succeeds.
Insight pageNegativeInjury46:34
DeVonta Smith left practice with a hamstring injury, creating uncertainty regarding his availability and the severity of the issue as training camp progresses.
Insight pageGeorge Pickens
PositiveBreakout36:54
George Pickens is viewed as a potential value who could challenge CeeDee Lamb for target share. He showed elite efficiency last year, ranking third in fantasy points over expectation, and is entering a contract year.
Insight pageJahmyr Gibbs
NegativeInjury5:02
Jahmyr Gibbs is currently sidelined with a back injury, though the analysts speculate he will likely be ready for the season.
Insight pageJustin Jefferson
NegativeProjection16:00
Craig Horlbeck expresses significant concern regarding Justin Jefferson's fantasy outlook due to the quarterback situation in Minnesota. Despite Jefferson's elite 30% target rate last year, he finished as the WR37, and there is uncertainty regarding how the offense will function with the current quarterback rotation.
Insight pageNegativeProjection32:13
Despite being ranked highly, there is concern regarding consistency due to the quarterback situation. He is currently ranked behind Ja'Marr Chase, Puka Nacua, JSN, and Amon-Ra St. Brown, and also behind running backs like Jonathan Taylor, Saquon Barkley, and James Cook. The team is highly committed to getting him the ball to keep him happy.
Insight pageKeenan Allen
PositiveUsage60:44
Keenan Allen's presence in the previous season negatively impacted Ladd McConkey's production, particularly on third downs where Allen dominated the target share.
Insight pageKyler Murray
PositiveUsage33:42
Kyler Murray is motivated to revive his career and is expected to prioritize getting the ball to Justin Jefferson, who is the best player he has ever played with. He will likely look for Jefferson even when scrambling off-schedule.
Insight pageLadd McConkey
PositiveRole39:42
Ladd McConkey is expected to start over Trey Harris in the Chargers' offense. Despite concerns about his injury history dating back to Georgia, he is viewed as a high-upside receiver who should be ranked ahead of players like Tee Higgins, DeVonta Smith, and Tetairoa McMillan due to the significant offensive upgrade provided by Mike McDaniel and an improved offensive line.
Insight pageNegativeRole57:36
Ladd McConkey is a confusing player to rank. After a strong rookie season, his production dropped significantly when Keenan Allen joined the team. While he is expected to be the WR1 now that Allen is gone, his usage in two-receiver sets (12 and 22 personnel) remains a concern for his snap share.
Insight pageLuther Burden
PositiveValue115:04
The analysts are increasingly buying into Luther Burden due to consistent praise from offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, leading to a shift in their draft strategy to target him despite his lack of NFL experience.
Insight pageParker Washington
PositiveBreakout108:37
Parker Washington is generating significant training camp buzz as a potential high-volume receiver for the Jaguars. Despite being a sixth-round pick, his work ethic and late-season performance (WR16 in points per game from Week 7 on) suggest he could emerge as the team's top target, with some analysts even suggesting a top-12 finish is possible in a best-case scenario.
Insight pageQuinshon Judkins
NegativeUsage58:14
Quinshon Judkins is a talented runner with high yards-after-contact ability, but he faces significant risk due to playing behind an offensive line that frequently allows hits in the backfield. He is returning from a major fibula injury, which raises concerns about his explosiveness, though he is currently practicing.
Insight pageRashod Bateman
NegativeDepth Chart10:36
Rashod Bateman is described as a quality player but ultimately a disappointing first-round pick for the Ravens who failed to develop into a true WR1.
Insight pageTrey McBride
PositiveUsage17:11
Trey McBride is highlighted as one of the few pass catchers to record a 1,000-yard season with Kyler Murray, and he saw a significant boost in touchdown production when Jacoby Brissett took over at quarterback.
Insight pageZay Flowers
NegativeValue5:33
Zay Flowers signed a four-year, $140 million extension, placing his compensation in the same tier as Justin Jefferson and CeeDee Lamb. While he is a dynamic playmaker between the 20s, the analysts express skepticism regarding his status as a true WR1 due to his lack of red zone production and small physical stature.
Insight pageFull transcript
Episode Transcript
0:00The Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Heifetz.
0:03Today I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Horlbeck, and today we are doing the 10 most difficult players to rank this
0:09season because we made our rankings up at fantasyfootball.theraer.com.
0:12And Craig, some of them are harder to rank than others.
0:15Yeah, look, there's always a couple problem children during the season where you can't quite figure it out.
0:21And we have a hand. There's a bunch of them this year that I'm excited to dig into because I truly don't know what to do with them.
0:29And D.K., you had no trouble at all. Yeah, these are super easy.
0:33I don't know what you guys are talking about.
0:35Great. D.K. can help me. No, I mean, there's I think there are there's always a handful of players that there's so
0:42many variables with them that it's basically just guesswork.
0:44I mean, that's what we're doing here. We're guessing.
0:47But I do like the idea of kind of breaking down the different variables and trying to figure out if we can
0:53have any more clarity on some of these guys.
0:56I'll tell you what wasn't difficult to rank was was the hottest quarterbacks in the NFL.
1:01People have spoken. The episode is out. It's on Instagram.
1:04Mina Kimes came on and we we figured out who the hottest four quarterbacks in the NFL are.
1:09The seven made their decisions. I think they were wise.
1:12I think they nailed it. And now I think the top four people to do the top four was solid.
1:18I'm seeing some people that were a little concerned that Josh Allen was number two on in the comments on our Instagram.
1:24There's some controversy there, but it is. It is over.
1:27Go follow the ringer fantasy football show on Instagram and go join the discord link for the discord in this episode.
1:33Go ringer fantasy football discord. If you want to scream about the rankings in the hot quarterback.
1:38Actually, no, Craig at the end, you have to give a take.
1:42You kept a take in the holster about the hot quarterbacks.
1:45We're going to say that for the end of the show.
1:48I'll unveil. Oh, we're going to get to the hardest players we had to rank for this.
1:53But first we're going to do news. But before that, we're going to take a quick break.
1:58This episode is presented by Verizon. Let me tell you all about Verizon's new simplicity plan.
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2:27Domestic data roaming at 2G speed. Back from the break.
2:30Deacon Craig didn't like the way I was like before that.
2:33But you know what? Oh, I liked it a lot.
2:36Oh, you did? Oh, yeah. All right. Good. Okay.
2:38A couple of things that happened before we were about to record.
2:42So the Falcon sign B. John Robinson running back to a very large contract extension.
2:46They basically added on three years and $75 million into the year that he still was under contract.
2:52That sounds great. Adding on three years and $75 million.
2:55Sounds cool. It's just a casual. I just like the way I said that.
2:59Yeah. So they just added on three years and $75 million.
3:02Yeah. It's pretty good. No big deal. And then Jameer Gibbs is probably going to get $75 million and $1 added on
3:08to his deal at some point in the next 15 days.
3:12So that's cool for Jameer Gibbs. So whenever he heals from that tragic back injury that Jameer Gibbs is just sidelined with, you know, just rocking, you know.
3:20He'll probably be magically healed. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, Bijan deserves it.
3:24We don't have to do the whole running back value thing.
3:27Bijan's a great player. He should be paid. It's fine.
3:30The next extension, I think, is much more interesting.
3:33Right. So the next guy is Zay Flowers, who the Baltimore Ravens receiver, who signed a somewhat shocking contract.
3:38He had four years, $140 million extension. So basically, Zay Flowers is now making roughly as much money as Justin Jefferson and
3:45CeeDee Lamb, which when you just say it out loud sounds impossible.
3:48Good for him. He's got a good agent. Great for him.
3:52Great team around him. Yeah. Great job, Zay. I do think the Ravens are a little desperate.
3:57ESPN had this good nugget that Zay Flowers is the only receiver the Ravens have ever had to make the Pro Bowl.
4:03Whichever. It's only 30 years, but still, they've had 30 tries and it's just Zay Flowers.
4:08And then last year, Zay Flowers set career highs with 86 catches and no other Ravens receiver last year had more than 25 catches or 400 yards.
4:16Also a career high he set with five touchdowns.
4:18It's weird. It's weird. Well, that's more than Justin Jefferson and CeeDee Lamb combined last year.
4:23So, you know. That's true. That is true. So, Zay is now a top seven paid receiver in terms of no way.
4:29What is he in terms of guaranteed money? Is he top five guaranteed money now?
4:34It's really high. And it's weird because he's not guaranteed money.
4:37There's different ways to count it. But like if you do guarantee it at signing, he's still like pretty high.
4:43It's a really weird situation to be honest. But like it's kind of like.
4:47Total guaranteed is 104. Is that right? No, because it's one of those like, oh, it's 104.
4:52But it's like if you wait two years, then the third year gets guaranteed.
4:56So, yes and no. It's kind of like, is it guaranteed?
4:59Well, the Dolphins cut to it to save monies.
5:02But, you know, it depends how you count. It's complicated.
5:05But the Zay Flowers, it's weird because do you remember a decade ago, like a quarterback became the highest quarterback paid ever,
5:11like every two months for like three years? Like Derek Carr was the highest paid quarterback ever.
5:16And Andrew Luck and then like Rogers and then Russell Wilson.
5:20But like it felt like anyone could do it.
5:22Jimmy Garoppolo had that. And I feel like that's that happened a little bit at receiver where it's like Alec Pierce in
5:29free agency came within puncher's chance of CeeDee Lamb.
5:31And now Zay Flowers is passing him. And so what a great good player like Alec Pierce hits free agency and gets paid like a great player.
5:39And then good players want contract extensions and the team can't let him go.
5:44So what really is going to happen to me is like CeeDee Lamb and Justin Jefferson are going to have to go
5:50back to the table because it's kind of like a few years ago when Christian Kirk got 17 million a year.
5:56Tyree Kill and Devontae Adams were like, excuse me?
5:59It all started with Christian Kirk. He's the domino.
6:01Yeah, he's the Lehman Brothers of receiver market. You're right.
6:04It's like if you're a top 20-ish receiver in the NFL now and you're due for an extension, like you will be paid as a top five guy.
6:13It's also crazy how much he got compared to Bijon.
6:16Um, just receivers are so they are. The pay scale is just so different.
6:20I also think it's funny to look back at maybe the maybe Zay Flowers is a little bit benefiting from the fact
6:26that the Ravens just cannot for the life of them draft a receiver.
6:30That's any good. If you look back in just like the last 10 or 15 years, um, going down the list.
6:36And I think Rashad Bateman is a quality player, but he didn't turn out to be like a first round cow.
6:42He's a disappointing first round pick. Yeah. And then you go back further, you have Marquise Brown who, who flashed the times,
6:49but he ultimately wasn't very, you know, effective for them.
6:52Miles Boykin. Uh, I mean, there's a bunch of mid rounders that didn't do anything.
6:56Chris Moore. Um, and then even further back, you have, uh, Rashad Perriman, who was a first round pick.
7:02I think picking in the very like back end of the first round every year is obviously not as easy as picking in the top 10.
7:09Um, you know, what's interesting to me about that?
7:12Misses. You know how the Ravens are like really good at drafting and developing and being a good organization.
7:18Do you know who actually built the blueprint for how the Ravens scout and do their front office?
7:23Bill Belichick. Oh, really? Because they were the Browns in the early nineties.
7:27And then the entire system became the Baltimore Ravens that Belichick left.
7:30But the infrastructure Belichick left behind is the Ravens.
7:33Famously can't draft a receiver to save his life.
7:35I think there's something in common. There's a reason that Patriots and Ravens both can't find a receiver.
7:41It's, it's the, it's the giant blind spot in the Belichick way.
7:44Whatever you want to call it is they can't find a goddamn receiver.
7:48It's funny. Like if you would have asked me like, what do you think happens next year?
7:53By next year, Zay Flowers gets a four year, $140 million extension or they get rid of him?
7:58I don't know. I would have said it's a coin flip.
8:02Or they let him walk. The Ravens drafted Hollywood Brown in the first round 2019.
8:06Hollywood Brown's third year in the NFL, which Zay Flowers has had, 90 catches, 1,000 yards, six touchdowns, which is better than
8:12any year Zay Flowers has had, I guess, statistically, like from a fantasy perspective.
8:17And then the next year they let him go and he went to Arizona.
8:21I don't know. Interesting. It is. He better be really good.
8:24And it's funny. He better be really good. It's just, it's odd because so on one hand, I mean, this is like
8:30relative to the contract and also to fantasy because we've talked a lot about Zay Flowers this summer.
8:36And if you haven't heard, basically it's weird because he's ranked really high as a top 40 receiver, a top 40 player in drafts.
8:43Like he might be your fourth round pick or even your third round pick, depending on some people think Zay Flowers is really good.
8:50And for this reason, this is from the FTN Almanac.
8:53It's that Zay Flowers had 37% of the Ravens receiving yards last year, which was the second highest number only to Jackson
8:59Smith and Jigba, who had like the highest number ever.
9:02And then Jason had, I think, 56% of all team targets to receivers.
9:06Zay Flowers had like the fourth most targets to receivers of the last decade.
9:10Again, the percentage, like the percentage Zay Flowers was relative to the Baltimore receiving room was like JSN and him, not just
9:17last year, but over like the last 10 years.
9:19JSN, I think it was a historical season. Zay Flowers, I think it spoke more to how bad the other Ravens receiving
9:26options were, which is why they brought in Jacoby Lane from USC who can't get open.
9:30But when he does, his catching is unbelievable. And then Elijah Surratt, who had like led college football in touchdowns last year for Indiana.
9:37But like, I don't know, he's like an Alan Zard.
9:40He's a big, giant blocking guy who maybe can get back shoulder chemistry.
9:44And they added those guys as big, beefy boys around Zay Flowers.
9:48But I don't know, DK, like, does it mean anything to you that Zay Flowers is going to get all this money
9:54and he's going to get all this target share?
9:57But again, we've talked about it. He has, he just, they don't even think about him in the end zone.
10:03It's weird to pay this much money to a player that does not score touchdowns.
10:07Again, it bears repeating the last two seasons. He has the same amount of red zone targets as Alan Lazard, Tim Patrick, and Andre Yoshivas.
10:14Yeah, Andre Yoshivas. Yeah, it's fascinating, really. I don't think of him, I mean, I do think he's a good player.
10:21He's a dynamic player who can run after the catch and make guys miss.
10:25And there's, you know, there's some twitch and wiggle to him as like a playmaker.
10:29But to me, I don't think of him as a...
10:32He looks great with the ball in his hands.
10:35Yeah. I agree. I don't think he's a, whatever the definition of a number one receiver is, because I know that's kind of a fluid, subjective thing.
10:43But he does not strike me as a number one receiver.
10:46And he's being paid as a number one receiver.
10:49He's being paid as one of the top receivers in the NFL.
10:52Like, and I just wouldn't put him there. At least not right now.
10:56It's funny, because between... We need a word for when a guy is like really good between the 20s, but can't deliver in the red zone.
11:04I don't know what... It's like empty calorie player is...
11:06Yeah. Because like between the 20 yard lines, he is elite.
11:10He is worth the money. I mean, he's like...
11:12All the underlying metrics of like the target rate and yards per route run, he is like a top five, top 10 receiver between the 20s.
11:20And then when he gets inside the red zone, he turns into Tim Patrick.
11:24And so we... I don't know what that word is.
11:27Yeah, maybe it's empty calorie, but... Man, I wonder if he'll just score 15 touchdowns this year.
11:32That's what I'm wondering. The Ravens are paying him almost like they're like, he's going to be the focal point of the offense.
11:39Like again, Declan Doyle, who is younger than Craig and I, which I need to wrap my hand around, who's running the Ravens offense this year.
11:46He came from Chicago. He's worked for Ben Johnson.
11:49And, you know, Ben Johnson turned Amon Ross St.
11:52Brown into a huge end zone guy. Amon Ross St.
11:55Brown's had double digit touchdowns how many years in a row?
11:58And like, that's a guy that people thought was a smaller person.
12:01Maybe he won't be that red zone guy than Amon Ra is.
12:05But even Amon Ra is bigger than Zay. Amon Ra's got two inches and almost 20 pounds on Zay Flowers.
12:11Zay Flowers is the size of... Zay Flowers, he's like 180.
12:14I'd say 185. He's probably less than that. He's 5'9".
12:17He's 5'9", 185. Off the top of my head, I think the only player in our lifetime that's like 5'9", 185, short
12:23and light, that's a serious end zone target, is like Antonio Brown.
12:27You can't even say Tyree Kill because Tyree Kill's thicker than that.
12:30That's even like Steve Smith, who's like a short...
12:33Like the Panthers, Steve Smith. That's a player who also played for the Ravens.
12:37But I'm like, he must have been 15 pounds heavier than Zay Flowers when he was the Carolina.
12:43And I'm like, that was a big guy that could get off press.
12:46Zay... I don't know. It's funny. He's not twitchy enough to be elite just off Twitch.
12:51And again, maybe he's going to be the guy that's constantly in motion this season and the Ravens are trying to get
12:58ahead of it because they think he's going to get 30% of the target share and he's going to get a bunch of stuff in the end zone.
13:06And they're like, well, we don't want to pay him more than CeeDee Lamb and Justin Jefferson and we don't want to replace him.
13:13It is a puzzling contract though. It's funny to think that I...
13:16It is a little... Part of me is like, oh, do they know something about his usage this season?
13:22Or they're just like, yeah, that's what it's going to cost and the number's only going to go up.
13:27It's just desperate for like a decent wide receiver.
13:30Yeah. It's funny. So do you guys... Would you guys move him up after this?
13:35Would you... What do you think about this now?
13:37It's like, does it change what you think of him?
13:40Does it... We have him right now as like a...
13:43Like the 39th receiver because we're a little dubious of the end zone stuff.
13:47Damn, really? We have him that low? No, we have the...
13:50Sorry, sorry. Not the 39th receiver. Sorry. The 39th overall player.
13:54Yeah, I was going to say, I was like, that sounds way too low.
13:58No, sorry. Sorry. That's a great... Thank you. Good call.
14:01I do think it makes me a little more confident that he's going to get more looks in the red zone this year.
14:07I don't know if that's stupid of me to be thinking that way.
14:11But like, they clearly see him as a focal point of their offense.
14:15They're paying him like this. Yeah. I saw somebody say this on Twitter.
14:19I apologize. I forget who it was. But it was like, if you want to have a number one receiver in the
14:25league, you have to draft him because they just don't hit the open market anymore.
14:30And I thought that was kind of a fascinating point that for the most part, these...
14:34And again, number one receiver is a subjective term, but like number one.
14:38But he is... These number one receivers rarely, rarely leave their team after their first contract.
14:43I feel very confident that this will be, you know, health notwithstanding, the best fantasy season of Zay Flower's career.
14:49I feel very confident in that respect. But that's not saying a whole lot.
14:53The last two seasons, he has on average the wide receiver 29 in points per game.
14:58Yeah. Because of the touchdowns. He needs to score touchdowns.
15:01He needs to score touchdowns. This is why people tune in for our fantasy expertise.
15:05We're like, I like the guys who scored. He needs to get...
15:09He's never had more than five receiving touchdowns in a season.
15:12I would bet that he has more this year.
15:14But again, maybe that's seven. I don't know if it's going to be 12.
15:19Right. Yeah. So, and I was wrong. We have him 43rd.
15:22Well, maybe we'll touch him up a little bit, but it's like he's near Jalen Waddle.
15:26I'm like, I don't know. By the way, Chris Olave got signed also.
15:30Yeah, Olave got an extension to... He's 6'187". That's what he's listed at.
15:34So, he's not a whole lot. He's a little taller, but he's also very light.
15:39Significantly taller. Yeah. He got four years for 124 million.
15:41It's just... He's, you know, he's a little older.
15:44It's weird. It's just weird. I think... Say Flowers getting that much more.
15:48Yeah. I don't know. CeeDee Lamb is the real guy that's going to need an extension.
15:53Let's get to guys that are hard to rank.
15:55Again, as we're doing this, there are just certain players that just, I feel like, take so much more time to actually
16:02slot into a spot than everyone else. And so, we went through and we kind of just pulled out a few names
16:08that we just thought were really hard. I want to start with Craig.
16:12The first person you suggested was Justin Jefferson for the Minnesota Vikings, which I thought was a perfect example for this whole exercise.
16:19Yeah. I think we were on it that Justin Jefferson...
16:22I was very out on him last year. I was very nervous about the quarterback situation.
16:26I'm obviously not as nervous this year with Kyler Murray, but I still am pretty nervous.
16:31I mean, when you look at the rest of the guys he's going up against in the first round, like, pretty confident
16:38about every other situation going all the way down.
16:40I mean, I'm not worried about CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott at all.
16:44I'm not worried about... I mean, even A.J. Brown with Drake May.
16:48I'm like, I'm not worried about that. I'm on Raw.
16:51Justin Jefferson. I mean, the fact that one, this Kyler Murray and J.J.
16:54McCarthy are splitting reps and it's a battle, I don't love that.
16:58And, you know, I was going back and I was kind of looking through what Kyler had done for his wide receivers when he was in Arizona.
17:06Kyler has only been a part of two 1,000-yard seasons for a pass catcher in his career.
17:11And it was DeAndre Hopkins the first year he came to Arizona and it was Trey McBride in 2024.
17:16And Trey McBride's not even a receiver, really. Right.
17:19And Kyler Murray's been in and out of injury, so it's kind of hard to do that.
17:24But it's really... He's really only had like two really solid seasons from a pass catcher when he was a part of that team.
17:31And also, no one has ever caught more than eight touchdowns in a season with Kyler Murray.
17:36It was DeAndre Hopkins had eight and Marvin Harrison Jr.
17:39had eight. And so, I guess... And too, look, Sam Darnold before he came to Minnesota hadn't thrown more than 20 touchdowns in a season.
17:46So, I know that's the whole point of this is what Kevin O'Connell in Minnesota can do.
17:51But, this is why I had trouble. This is why I thought there's like risk here at the end of the first round.
17:58I have him as my 13th ranked player. You guys are a scotch higher.
18:02But, I do still fear that like, maybe what Kyler can bring to the Minnesota offense will be better than what he
18:09can specifically bring to Justin Jefferson if that makes sense.
18:12Yeah, this is tough. It's crazy how bad Jefferson was last year in terms of fantasy.
18:16I mean, dude, he had a 30% target rate.
18:1930%. I think there was four players last year that had a 30% target rate.
18:23And he still finished as the wide receiver 37.
18:26Like, he was not useful in fantasy at all.
18:29So, it is just really hard. I mean, obviously, we have a long track record where he's been awesome.
18:34He's been incredible. Like, quite literally, if not the best, one of the top three receivers in the NFL.
18:40has nothing to do with him. But, yeah, like you said, we don't know what to expect from Kyler.
18:45Like, Kyler hasn't necessarily been a super, uh, he's not, he's not a regular or whatever, like the prototypical dropback quarterback.
18:52Like, he can't see over the middle of the field.
18:55I think there's issues with that. Um, I think we saw, like, the difference between him and Jacoby Brissette.
19:00When Jacoby Brissette took over for the Cardinals, all of a sudden, Trey McBride scoring touchdowns left and right.
19:06Um, and I think that's because of the way that he plays.
19:09That's the way that Kyler plays. It's stylistically just very different.
19:12He's a scrambler. Gets out of the pocket. Tries to keep plays alive.
19:16But, like, in terms of pure just drop back, hit the back foot and throw the ball, that's not really who he is.
19:23Um, and that was kind of a problem with, uh, with JJ McCarthy last year.
19:27Like, obviously, JJ McCarthy and all the different quarterbacks that they had, uh, out there last year were not good.
19:33But, I do worry consistency is not going to be a thing for Justin Jefferson, despite how highly we have him ranked.
19:40So, um, I think this is kind of one of those impossible things.
19:44And we just lean on trust that you have over Justin Jefferson being awesome and trust that Kevin O'Connell is going to
19:50get it figured out and get more out of Kyler Murray.
19:53Because I think last year, it's like hard to get worse than what they did at quarterback last year, um, is kind
20:00of like the way I look at it. I think all the concerns you guys just laid out is why Jefferson's behind
20:06Jamar Chase and Pukadukua and JSN and Amonra. And Jefferson is fifth, but like really the beginning of the next tier of guys.
20:13And we have him behind Jonathan Taylor and Saquon and James Cook.
20:17And I think the question is, would you take Jefferson or who's elite and has done it before?
20:22And I still, Kyler Murray's going to get Justin Jefferson in the football before.
20:26Like he's going to get, like Kyler Murray's trying to revive his career.
20:30Like it's the money ball scene. They're like, they're paying you to work for us.
20:34Like they're paying you to go away. The Cardinals are paying Kyler Murray to go away.
20:39The Vikings are paying Kyler Murray like a million, like literally the veteran minimum.
20:43Kyler's probably like the 400th highest paid player in the NFL by the Vikings salary cap this year.
20:48He's trying to revive his career. You get the ball to Justin Jefferson.
20:52Like he's going to find a way to do that.
20:55He's the best, obviously the best player Kyler Murray's ever played with.
20:59I think the question is, do you take Jefferson who's done it a zillion times before?
21:03Or do you take the running backs that are cool in theory, the offseason running backs, Ashton Gentry, like the all if
21:10team, Ashton Gentry, O'Marrion Hampton, you know what I mean?
21:13Ken Walker. It's like, do you go with one of those sexy looking second year break?
21:17Not that Ken Walker's second year player, but like those breakout running backs that like, oh, like analytically they have like a high profile to succeed.
21:25Or do you like, I'll just take Justin Jefferson in the second round because that's insane.
21:30I lean towards taking the running back. I think running back is a more scarce position and I would rather load up
21:36on those guys at the front of my draft than go after Justin Jefferson at like the turn of the first round
21:43when I can be, you know, I can go get whatever, Devontae Adams or Jalen Waddler or Lad McConkie or Mike Evans two rounds later.
21:50I don't know. Hyphens, do you feel like, like we have CeeD Lamb and Justin right next to each other?
21:56Do you feel like there is similar risk and upside for both those players?
22:00I, I think I have Jefferson higher because I think he's a better player and the team is more committed to getting him the ball.
22:07Like the Vikings need to make Justin Jefferson happy in a way that the Cowboys don't need to make CeeD Lamb happy.
22:14George Pickens is a better player than Jordan Addison and the focal point, Jefferson's just the son in the offense.
22:20George Pickens might be better than CeeD Lamb. That's the problem.
22:23CeeD. I think CeeD is also really hard to rank.
22:26I mean, I think, you know the meme of Toy Story where they're dropping Woody and they're like, I don't want to play with you anymore.
22:33Like that's just everyone with George Pickens. They're looking at George Pickens.
22:37They're dropping CeeD Lamb. And it's weird because CeeD, he's an interesting player, incredible real life stats, probably not as famous as
22:43you'd think from how good he is and how much he's on Dallas.
22:47Hasn't been very good at the playoffs in real life.
22:50And I think the question to me is, is CeeD Lamb like the worst top tier receiver in fantasy?
22:56Like is he actually, like if he performs relatively close to Jamar Chase and JSN and Amon Run, CeeD, and Puka, CeeD
23:02Lamb's a steal because he's going in the same spot in Jefferson at the beginning of the second round.
23:08But if CeeD Lamb's just not so much Jamar Chase, but he's more like an expensive Nico Collins where, oh yeah, he's
23:14the best player around other good receiving cores. And yes, the Cowboy offense is going to be high flying, but if you
23:21pass up Ashton Jensie or Marion Hampton and then they take a leap as a player, that will be huge.
23:27You will really like be upset about that if CeeD Lamb is kind of getting Pickens mogged every single week and he's just merely really good.
23:34And I think that's just the frustrating part of CeeD.
23:37So I found him really difficult to find a spot.
23:40He's hard because if you look at it at the end of the day, just looking at his career, he's only had one truly elite season.
23:48And it was a crazy season. He had like 1700 yards, right?
23:51Yeah. He had 1749 yards, 12 touchdowns. He also added 100 yards rushing and two touchdowns.
23:56So he had 14 touchdowns that year and he averaged where that was against the Giants averaged almost 20 points per game and half PPR that year.
24:04The rest of his seasons, this is half PPR, 11.2, 12, 14 and a half, 14 and then 11.6.
24:10So he's like, that's those seasons are good for sure.
24:12And I think there's a reason we think he's a very good player, but at the end of the day, man, he
24:19just really has one truly elite season and then a bunch of good seasons.
24:23Well, we're not that far removed from you coming on the show and saying that when it's CD Liam's in your lineup, you feel like invincible.
24:31I know. But I think this was years ago.
24:33This was before last year's Pickens breakout. I mean, Pickens, we always knew was really good and he really took advantage.
24:40I think of CD had a high ankle sprain, I believe, and it really held him back for much of the year.
24:46And then Pickens really like stepped up and was a true number one type receiver.
24:50I mean, he basically can do worried now that like Pickens is closer to CD than we think in terms of just
24:57like the target rate he's going to get this next year, the way that they utilize him in the red zone, things like that.
25:04I think CD is a great player, but I'm not 100% convinced it's going to go back to, you know, this is
25:10CD's offense and Pickens is kind of like the sidekick, you know?
25:14Yeah. Look, I don't think you can understate the high ankle sprain in week three.
25:18Yeah. It's just like derails your entire season. And I wonder if he were healthy, what would be saying about him?
25:24But we should all decide right now, straight up.
25:27You're at the end of the first round, beginning of the second round.
25:31You want to take a wide receiver. You're staring at CD Lamb and Justin Jefferson.
25:35Who do you take? I think it's Jefferson. Oh, I was going to say CD.
25:40I think the CD connection with Dak and the offense that they're playing in, it's going to be, I just have more
25:46confidence that the Cowboys offense is going to be high flying and high scoring.
25:50I think that's fair. I think that I just trust Kyler to get CD the ball.
25:55The argument for CD is very simple. He had a terrible run out last year and that was like the worst season
26:01he's had since CD Lamb was a rookie in COVID and he still was when he played like the 12th best receiver in points per game.
26:09And that was, and that was a run out where he had a high ankle sprain at the first drive basically of week three.
26:16And then he came back from a high ankle sprain and then George Pickens Pickens mogged him, but also CD, again, Rich Rebar had the stat.
26:24If fantasy points over expectation, George Pickens was third and CD Lamb was like 200 to 14th.
26:29That's a stat that's going to even out. And that's kind of already baked into the rankings and everything, but I just,
26:35I think that one, if George Pickens gets hurt, CD Lamb could just be a top five player, but I think that
26:42there's more risk that basically he's not going to get a third of the offense.
26:46He's going to get a quarter or a fifth.
26:49And I think Justin Jefferson, like I kind of think he might get a third.
26:53I think everything's going to be for Jefferson. And also Kyler and Jefferson are going to figure out how to get each other the ball off schedule.
27:01When Kyler's scrambling, he's going to be looking for Justin Jefferson.
27:04Yeah, I have Jefferson one spot ahead of CD and I think I would keep it that way.
27:10Would you take, would you take gently over both these players?
27:13Yeah. Yeah, I know. I think to me, like the, the lesson from talking through this is basically like in the first
27:19round or at the first, the, the turn or whatever, I'm probably looking at running back over receiver and then trying to
27:26grab a running back a little bit later, like a guy like Nico or a guy like Pickens.
27:31I mean, honestly, Pickens might be the value here that we're really kind of missing on, you know, just because of what
27:38we did, what he did last year. Olave, Buka, Ted McMillan, some of those, maybe, maybe take a running back and then grab one of those guys.
27:46It's funny that we don't really talk about Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins the same way we're talking about CD Lamb and Pickens.
27:52Like, you know, Higgins does not hurt Jamar Chase at all.
27:56And we, we always joke that the Cowboys are just the Bengals South.
27:59Right. And they, and honestly, in this offense, it's very focused on two guys.
28:03So, yeah. There is a real dynamic there where it is like a real life friendship where you're like, oh, like, I
28:10mean, Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins are friends. Like they, when Tee Higgins had issues with his contract, they went and got the same agent.
28:17So Tee Higgins stayed in Cincinnati and everyone makes fun of the Bengals for being a small market team, but they kept
28:24Chase, Higgins, and Burrow and they're all friends. Having said that, Burrow and Chase went to college together and Higgins, you know what I mean?
28:31And like, there is like an element of like a real life friendship where they're like, all those three guys, but those
28:38two guys have known each other like forever. And then the Tee Higgins is like the third guy.
28:43He's like a good teammate. He's not demanding the ball.
28:46Is Higgins there with Burrow that's kind of like, uh, what do we talk about?
28:50Exactly. Like, oh, George and Elaine are alone in a room.
28:53Yeah. We've never really hung out just us. And you're saying George Pickens is the opposite.
28:58It's like, he's the hot new person that came into the office and CeeDee Lamb's like, wait, who is she?
29:04Exactly. And then he's the one where it's like, you know, when you introduce friends and they're hanging out without you and
29:10you're like, oh my God, that's cool. But also I'm jealous.
29:14That's Pickens and Dak. Like they got along with CeeDee.
29:17Dak's like, I'm working late again. Pickens needs me.
29:19We're working on a project. Yeah. So, you know, sometimes there's different dynamics, but.
29:23Pickens is in a contract year also. CeeDee needs a contract too.
29:27CeeDee, Zay Flowers is getting paid with CeeDee. He does.
29:30Zach's gotta be CeeDee. Look at the Zay Flowers contract.
29:33Pickens and CeeDee Lamb are about to get 200 million dollars each.
29:36Okay. Well, speaking of CeeDee Lamb, this segment is brought to you by ChatGPT, the Ringer Fantasy Football AI sponsor.
29:42So, CeeDee Lamb has famously been, you know, blinded by the son of the Cowboys Stadium in the end zone.
29:48The ball going right through his hands because he can't see it.
29:52Yep. He's pretty upset about it. So, you know, Jerry Jones, owner of the Cowboys, he can't really figure out where the son's gonna be.
29:59He doubled down on that. He said, what, in the last week, he doubled down on it.
30:04guess what, guys? The sun's in a different place in the fall than it is in the summer.
30:09He was like, look, you see where the sun is right now?
30:13It's not gonna be there in a few months.
30:15It's like, one week it was here, the next week, somewhere else.
30:19God knows where it'll be. So, we asked ChatGPT if it could help us help Jerry Jones figure out which games will be affected by the sun.
30:27Where will the sun be for said Cowboys games?
30:29I mean, look, it's a reason, Jerry's an 83-year-old man.
30:32Modern technology maybe will help him. We can help him see where the sun's gonna be.
30:37Exactly. So, we had ChatGPT make a blinding scale of how blinding the sun will be for the Cowboys home games.
30:43And we had ChatGPT on a scale of 1 to 10 of how blinding the games will be.
30:49And ChatGPT was able to look at the kickoff times estimated sun positioning throughout the game.
30:53And do you guys wanna know the most blinding games?
30:56Right. So, we can set our lineups correctly, you know?
30:59Exactly. So, the biggest sun games, first of all, dude, let me tell you, something.
31:04November, oh my God. First of all, Thanksgiving, Eagles, Cowboys-Eagles, gonna be one of the highest watched games ever.
31:09ChatGPT gave that a 10 out of 10 blinding rate.
31:12Damn. 10 out of 10. My favorite is October 10th.
31:15No, no, sorry, November 15th against the Niners. It's a 10 out of 10 and the line that ChatGPT has here is
31:21peak Cowboys-Sun game fourth quarter is notorious for glare.
31:24Yeah, I love that it gets worse as the game goes on, too.
31:28It's like we're upping the difficulty level as the game goes on.
31:31Send this to Jerry right now. So, yeah, we're gonna email this to Jerry and that way he'll know which where he can put the curtains up.
31:39You know what I mean? I think that would be a smart move for Jerry.
31:44You could literally just put the curtains up on the days where it's like a 9 or a 10.
31:49Yeah. I mean, he doesn't need it on all the games.
31:53You know, for example, what is it? The Cardinals on October 8th, it's a night game.
31:57ChatGPT says the sun won't even come out. No curtains.
32:00Yeah, it's beautiful. Today's smartest thing this week was brought to you by ChatGPT Work, a new way to use ChatGPT for bigger multi-step projects.
32:08It can help turn stats and research into analysis you can review.
32:11You still make the call. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects.
32:16Try ChatGPT Work today. Available to Plus and Pro plans.
32:19Guys, I, while you're doing that read, I hopped over to Dallas to see what was going on and curtains are not up yet.
32:26I'll tell you that. Things are hot over here in Dallas.
32:29Wow. Craig, maybe you could give us a breakdown.
32:32Jerry was mentioning maybe tinting the windows. He's like, I'm never going to admit I'm wrong.
32:36I'm not doing curtains. I like F that. Yeah.
32:39Can you break down like what kind of tinting do we need up here?
32:43Yeah, look, this is my current situation is not an ideal circumstance to play football in.
32:48I can't see a goddamn thing coming my way.
32:51I'm running into people left and right. Can't imagine what CD Lamb is going through, but they're figuring out how to put
32:57up some tinting in the windows here. Now I feel good.
33:00I feel like a ninja sneaking around at night like a cat.
33:04It's going to be hard for DBs to cover you, man.
33:07Yeah, look at me. You can't even imagine double reverses with Pickens and Seedy when all the sun is tinted.
33:13Oh my God. Oh no, Jerry just pulled the curtains away again.
33:16I want to chime in. We should do every time that Jerry doesn't have the curtains up.
33:21I want to come in looking like this too.
33:24So good. On the sun right now? I mean, I'm not even kidding you.
33:28I sent you guys this picture from, I don't know when it was, a couple of years ago.
33:33It was literally the view of a receiver trying to see the ball and he looked worse than Craig.
33:39You can't even like see it. It looked like he was burning up in the sun.
33:44Craig, is there anything, do you want to address Jerry Jones directly from the sun?
33:48Please help. It's hot. It's hot over here, Jerry.
33:51No, I think you need to do it from the light.
33:54I think it helps. Okay. You need to address Jerry directly.
33:57I mean, it looks like, it looks like I'm coming down from heaven to Jerry.
34:02You ever seen the movie Sunlight? No, I haven't.
34:04I think that was with... Would I be next summer movie club?
34:08Jerry, at the very least, can we get SPF 100 for game day?
34:12My goodness. Because are they wearing visors? The CD wears a visor, doesn't he?
34:16Yeah, he probably needs sunglasses and a visor indoors because of all the goddamn light.
34:20Also, Jerry, look, it'd be cool. You'd be the first stadium with a visor around it.
34:25That's cool. You could have a whole visor around the stadium.
34:28You could brand it. Get a sponsor, I know.
34:31I hate it, but Shadir Sanders would love it.
34:33Yeah. Anyway. Sorry, I was thinking of the movie Sunshine.
34:36It's got Killian Murphy and he basically just wants to go into the sun.
34:40He just wants to bake in the sunlight. That's kind of how I feel with the Cowboy Stadium.
34:46He just turns into like a light being. It's kind of a weird ass movie.
34:50Okay. Sounds good. Yeah, I don't recommend it. It's fine.
34:53The next guy doesn't get a ton of sun.
34:56This is Lad McConkie, the receiver for the Chargers.
34:58Oh, are you saying he's white? He lives in LA.
35:01Pasty looking receiver over here in Lad McConkie. When do you get sun in LA?
35:06Is it driving in your car or is it being in the air conditioning?
35:10When? When do you get sun? Go to the pool.
35:13What are you talking about? Go to the beach.
35:15You know what I'm saying. When do I get sun in Los Angeles is the dumbest thing you've ever said.
35:21A little bit. Apartment, car, office, back. Yeah, right.
35:24We don't have weekends. We don't have, we don't do anything after work.
35:28We're just car, office. There's no beaches, I don't believe, down here.
35:31Didn't you see Craig freaking bucket mocking us on the ALS bucket challenge?
35:35The bucket mock. Yeah, he had a big bucket.
35:38Anyway, Lad McConkie. What do we do with all that?
35:41What do you have in here, DK? Why is he hard to rank for you?
35:45I do think he's a confusing player. So basically, let's look back at his career real quick.
35:502024, he played 16 games and he was a sensation.
35:53I mean, he had 112 targets, 82 catches, almost 1,200 yards, seven touchdowns.
35:57As a rookie. As a rookie. And he led the team in targets, receptions, and yards.
36:02Basically, it was him and Quentin Johnston who was the number two essentially on the team and had one more touchdown than him.
36:08But overall, Lad McConkie was like the go-to guy in the offense.
36:12And last year, he played in 16 games. He was a little banged up throughout the year, but he played in 16
36:18games and his numbers just dropped precipitously. I mean, he had 66 catches, 789 yards, six touchdowns.
36:23He went from the wide receiver 18 in 2024 to the wide receiver 38 in points per game.
36:29Do you have that split out? Lad McConkie splits for each individual all eight of the left tackles the Chargers have?
36:35Right. Yeah. And so that's a that's a big variable.
36:38And to me, the biggest variable here and the thing that like I think maybe makes it simple, but also is not
36:44maybe not the simple answer is Keenan Allen showed up and basically mogged him.
36:48He bucket mogged him like Craig does with us always.
36:51Keenan came in, hoovered up 122 targets, which is most on the team.
36:5581 catches, 777 yards. Quentin Johnson basically had essentially the same stat line, more or less, like very close stat line is what he had the year before.
37:03But Keenan Allen basically just stole. He drank Lad McConkie's milkshake and it just didn't go well for him.
37:09So now that now that Keenan Allen is not on the team currently, do we think that we just go back to
37:15rookie year Lad McConkie and everything's all fine and dandy?
37:18Or I also add in that Mike Daniel was there as well.
37:22The offensive coordinator. Yep. I mean, look, I'm very high on the Chargers this year, so I feel like it's reasonable to
37:28assume that Lad McConkie is going to go back to what he did his rookie season, if not better than that.
37:34I think the main thing was that when Keenan Allen was there, the numbers showed that basically Lad McConkie disappeared on third down.
37:41It was like a running back getting taken out on third and long and then because a receiving guy comes in, like
37:48Lad was still doing the same stuff on first and second down, but third down was going to Keenan Allen.
37:53And so I think that's mainly where Lad McConkie lost some of his juice and also Quentin Johnson scored a lot of
38:00touchdowns last year and went really hot in that way.
38:03So I don't know. I feel like you don't overthink this and this is like a classic, we know Lad's good, he
38:09showed us he's good, Keenan Allen's gone, Mike McDaniel's there.
38:12Yeah. I think it checks all the boxes you want.
38:15I think the simple answer is Keenan Allen's gone, it's back to Lad McConkie, wide receiver one on this team.
38:21The only other thing that kind of is a little worrisome and this is sort of what happened, it's not to the
38:28extent that we saw last year with Jaden Reed, but Lad McConkie is not playing that often in two receiver sets for the Chargers.
38:35It was last year it was Quentin Johnson and Trey Harris.
38:38They had to get Trey Harris on the field.
38:40They're doing that a lot in terms of the 12 personnel and the 22 personnel when they only have two receivers on the field.
38:48Lad was only on the field 55% of the time last year when he was on the field, 71% of those situations the year before that.
38:55So like just getting him off the field more is a little bit worrisome.
38:59He's going to be on the field this year.
39:02Well, if he is in 12 and 22 personnel, then that's huge.
39:05But if he's not, I think that's an issue.
39:08And we've talked about Lad's going to be on the field.
39:11I mean, I don't share your confidence. I don't know.
39:14I don't know what to say. I mean, I think you could be right, but I'm not 100% sure on that.
39:20But Greg Roman was their offensive coordinator. He was fired because even though he's one of Jim Harbaugh's best friends because Greg
39:27Roman's a terrible pass game coordinator and Greg Roman's a great run game coordinator.
39:31Works for the Giants now. Not happy about it.
39:34Greg Roman has been holding every passing game he's worked with back for like the last five or six seasons.
39:40And it wasn't, I mean, look, Lad is good.
39:42It was not that long ago that Lad McConkie had almost 200 receiving yards in the playoffs against the Houston Texans.
39:48Lad is great. Greg Roman's passing game is just not, like, again, I think there is a chance that Greg Roman to
39:55Mike McDaniel as an offensive designer is the biggest upgrade we've seen since Sean McVay taking over the Rams from Jeff Fisher.
40:01And I think that Mike McDaniel's an upgrade and also it's probably the biggest offensive line upgrade if the Chargers offensive line
40:08is anything resembling healthy just because they will be on their first string left tackle instead of their eighth string left tackle.
40:14So with the line improving and Mike McDaniel, they're bringing in, they brought in a fullback.
40:19They're going to play Alec Ingle. They're going to play multiple tight ends.
40:23They don't just have a Rondi Gadsden. They have David Njoku.
40:26They have Charlie Kohler. They have blocking tight ends.
40:29So when they have fullbacks and extra tight ends on the field, the ball's going to get fondled to the people on two receiver sets.
40:36They're going to play Lad McConkie over Trey Harris.
40:39I promise. Although I like Trey Harris. Thank you for promising.
40:42That makes me feel better. I think we should have Lad ahead of all these hoes.
40:47I think like T. Higgins, Devontae Smith, Tett McMillan, Lad should be ahead of all these guys.
40:52All these hoes. I think Lad is right. The issue to me with Lad is not whether he plays.
40:57It's just he's been banged up a lot. He's collected a lot of injuries going back to Georgia.
41:02That's my larger issue and so that's the only thing holding me back is also the Chargers.
41:07Like the whole thing is, well, if the Chargers are healthy, they might not be.
41:12You know who might get hurt? All the Chargers linemen recovering from injuries they had last year.
41:17Like that to me is the downside risk with the Chargers.
41:20I mean, Heifetz, melanoma for Lad McConkie we have to worry about as well, right?
41:24Exactly. Is he using sunscreen? I don't know. We should send him some.
41:28People in LA don't get sun is Heifetz's take here.
41:31Can we just pause on that for a second?
41:34Well, look at Lad he's not, look, this man needs a tan.
41:37Yeah. Famously, people in LA struggle to get enough sunlight.
41:40Just pasty white people roaming around Los Angeles. A lot of spray tans for someone, people getting somebody, you know, I'm just saying.
41:47The place where Baywatch was based. But people in LA, all right, I'm being a little facetious, however, Craig, back me up.
41:54People in LA don't go to the beach. Like there are some people in LA that go to the beach, but I
42:00would say, like if you live on the east side of LA, it might as, like you've gone almost 99.9% of the
42:06way to the beach, but there are people in east LA that haven't been to the beach in years.
42:12Yeah, that's fine, but then all the people on the west side of LA do go to the beach and also people are outside all the time.
42:20LA is, people hike in LA. Like LA is a much more outdoor city than you think it is.
42:26Yeah, that's fair. No, I'm not going to die at this corner.
42:29I know. Damn it, I was really hoping you would dig your heels in.
42:33Parks and golfing and walking and running and people are outside in LA.
42:37Well, you're on the beach all the time, bring some fucking ham next time.
42:41Where's your beach ham? You know what? I'm going to the beach this weekend.
42:45Maybe I'll bring a ham. I'll see if the people I'm going with allow me to bring a ham.
42:51They're like, you can't bring that. Ask for permission?
42:53Yeah. Okay. Were we, the other person I actually think is right there hand in hand with Lad McConkie, although I think
43:00this person's harder to rank, is Devante Smith for the Eagles.
43:03I agree. This is a great one. This is, Devante, I have been on record and I'm a little scared at how much I believe it.
43:11I just think AJ Brown's like one of my favorite players in fantasy this year.
43:15And I think AJ Brown's like the George Bickens of the year.
43:19But if we're being honest, if you just look thematically, we've been talking about who's like the next Jackson Smith and Jigba,
43:25which is a little stupid because there's not always that player happens next year.
43:29Yeah, that doesn't happen all the time. However, what happened with Jackson Smith and Jigba?
43:34A number two receiver in Seattle was elevated to number one receiver in Seattle when his very muscular number one guy from
43:40the 2019 NFL draft DK Metcalf was traded. From the Ole Miss football team.
43:44From the Ole Miss team. And then the new offensive coordinator in Seattle, Clint Kubiak, made the Seattle offensive line better, which
43:51established a better running game so that they could have a more explosive play-action game for the number one guy that got
43:57like a 30% target share of Jackson Smith and Jigba.
44:00Now, I'm not saying that Devontae Smith will get like the offensive player of the year.
44:05However, he is a number two receiver who is undeniably talented in college and got a first-run pick who then is really
44:11muscular number one receiver from Ole Miss, AJ Brown, was traded.
44:15And then he has a new offensive coordinator who's trying to make the offensive line better to make a better running game
44:21so that they can then do play-action and give Devontae Smith like a 30% target share.
44:26I'm just saying it's a little weird the narratively that it does line up.
44:30Did anyone ask Devontae Smith about Kevin Petulo and whether he's a good person or not?
44:35Are we live? Is he a good person? For reference, that was JSN when asked about and I can never remember this
44:41guy's name which is obviously not a great sign for him.
44:44Shane, are we live? Shane, are we live? He was, JSN was asked about him, I think maybe Nate Tice.
44:50Was that in an interview with Nate? Anyway. He was asked about him.
44:54He's like, he's a good person. He didn't say he's a good person.
44:58I want to ask you a question because my very complicated equation to evaluate wide receivers this year and to determining who
45:04is dependable and has upside is quarterback plus play caller plus volume.
45:08Which of those boxes do you feel confident Devontae Smith checks in this role?
45:12The volume. And I think that, well, he's going to get a big percentage.
45:16I think this is why it's hard to rank him because like Devontae, the Eagles want to run the ball.
45:22Like when the Eagles won the Super Bowl, they had the fewest pass attempts in the NFL because their defense is great
45:28and they had Saquon Barkley running the ball. So I think Devont, but again, H.E.
45:33Brown's gone. Like, I mean, Devontae Smith is going to get a huge portion.
45:37I think this is my, where I've come to with Devontae Smith.
45:40I've talked a lot of shit about Jalen Hurts and I've questioned Jalen Hurts a lot about whether he's going to be able to adapt.
45:48Can he throw over the middle of the field?
45:50Is he like the new Russell Wilson in that undeniably talented Sphinx who just spits out like cliches and when he's winning
45:57it's cool, when he's losing it's not, but he ultimately is going to have the same version of the offense forever.
46:03If you've been listening to this show and you think that I'm too hard on Jalen Hurts, Jalen Hurts is underrated, Jalen
46:09Hurts is going to be able to adapt, Jalen Hurts is going to be able to play from under center.
46:15If you just think the media is wrong about Jalen Hurts, you should draft Devontae Smith because I don't see how the
46:22Eagles offense can succeed without Devontae Smith having a great year.
46:25Makai Lemon's been fine at training camp. He hasn't stood out.
46:28The only issue with all this is that like an hour ago Devontae Smith left with a hamstring injury.
46:34So we'll have to see if Devontae Smith is back on the field in two days or if it's like two weeks
46:40or we don't know the severity of it, but that's my elevator pitch is if you have been infuriated by people underrating
46:47Jalen Hurts, you should take Devontae Smith because he has a huge, he's an easy candidate to just be like the top 15 player next year.
46:54It's not a huge sample size, but Devontae Smith has run about 190 routes without AJ Brown and when he has done
47:01that, he's a top eight receiver in basically every like volume metric you can chart.
47:05The targets per route run, yards per route run, he's the wide receiver eight.
47:09Expected fantasy points per route run, he's the wide receiver four.
47:13Like again, limited sample size is only like 190 routes, which is like a handful of games.
47:18But when it's happened, it has, it has played out the way Heifetz is describing on the optimistic side and then some.
47:24Like if that is, if he ends up being like that, then he is the JSN of this year.
47:30And he's talented. Like who's better? Devontae Smith or Zay Flowers?
47:33Devontae Smith. He's really good. Like that's the thing.
47:36Do you think though his style of play, like AJ Brown, I feel like what worked with AJ Brown and Jalen Hurts
47:42is that Jalen Hurts could throw a deep ball and AJ Brown was big and got down the sideline and get him, go up and get the ball.
47:50Do you think what Devontae Smith excels at matches with what Jalen Hurts is good at?
47:55No, I think that a lot of teams are, and again, I hate to be simplistic where they're like, he's like their
48:01JSN, but teams are also trying to replicate what works in the NFL and they are trying, like when teams are like,
48:08well, the Eagles are like, we're going to go under center, we're going to play action, we're going to have more tight
48:14ends on the field to take more shots and force the defense to come up and create more space.
48:20And then we don't need a big bulky X receiver like a DK Metcalf to be able to do that or an AJ Brown unhappy.
48:27Like we're going to be able to move Devontae Smith all around with motion, which is what he did at Bama.
48:33I think he scored the game winning touchdown and championship at Bama with the concept that the Chiefs used in the Super Bowl.
48:40And I'm like, Devontae Smith was one of the first players in college football that was elite that you were seeing be
48:47moved at the snap at the goal line. And I think that they are going to try to do creative things to get him the football.
48:54So no, it's not going to look the same, but the Eagles offense in theory is not going to look the same.
49:01I have doubts about whether it'll work, but if you think the Eagles offense is going to work, then it has to
49:07go through Devontae Smith because the alternatives are Makai Lemon, Eli Stowers, and the Hollywood Brown.
49:12Dontavian Wicks? It's funny. I mean, Makai Lemon is a first-round pick.
49:15He is, but he also, he's a first-round pick, but he's a first-round slot player.
49:20I don't know. He's a Belenikoff winner, Craig. Derogatory.
49:23It's bad. Yeah. I was not that into Makai Lemon, but I'm just saying.
49:27I have, I think Devontae Smith is a top 30 player and it's hard to rank because I don't know if that's high enough.
49:34I think that the question, to me, and I think that he's right there with Josh Allen, Trey McBride.
49:39He's right behind like Trey McBride where I'm more confident, but I think Devontae Smith is the best of like Chris Olavi
49:46and Ibuka and McMillan because I just think that Devontae Smith's best season is pretty incredible.
49:50Can I give you my single hardest guy to rank, I think, this season?
49:55Please. Alec Pierce, the wide receiver on the Colts, I have no idea what to do with.
50:00Right now, his ADP, he's going like in the 80s as the wide receiver 33, which is pretty low considering that last
50:06year he was the wide receiver 23 with Michael Pittman on his team and now Michael Pittman's gone and it's kind of just Alec Pierce.
50:13They paid him a bunch of money. They have him and Josh Downs and then after that it gets very, very thin.
50:20There are not a lot of guys with, they have Ashton Doolin, they have Nick Westbrook, Akine, Tyler Warren, obviously at tight end but and Michael Pittman's gone.
50:28So Alec Pierce just like, one of the weirder careers, I mean, last year he had 1,000 yards on 47 catches in 15 games.
50:35He averaged three catches per game. He touched the ball three times per game.
50:39It's just always deep, deep down the field. Yes.
50:4221 yards per catch which is first by a mile.
50:45The ADP is very low on him and a lot of it is probably attributed to his ankle injury.
50:50He's had ankle problems for a while now and he finally, he like, had ankle injuries, he got an injection in his
50:57foot at the end of the season and then he signs this big deal, four years, $114 million deal, 84 guaranteed and
51:03then he gets surgery on his ankle and now he's on PUP to open camp and he's supposed, they think he's going
51:10to be ready by week one but the quotes are pretty murky.
51:13Like Shane Steichen, I think today or yesterday the head coach was like, I don't, I don't have a sense.
51:19He said, I know that he's working and I feel really good about that moving forward.
51:24He's heading in the right direction. The GM, Chris Ballard was like, he's a week or two away from returning.
51:30So, it all looks very murky out there but I guess, you know, if you can trust that he will be on
51:36the field and that Daniel Jones, who is another whole question mark will be on the field.
51:41Our guy Ben Solak was just there in Indianapolis at camp and said that Daniel Jones looks great.
51:47Like you wouldn't know he got, he tore his Achilles seven months ago, looks awesome, looks like the guy he did last year.
51:53If Alec Pierce is on the field week one and Daniel Jones is on the field week one, looks good.
51:59Alec Pierce probably a steal and yet, because of all the other stuff, also there's like a flukiness to his performance that
52:06I just like, I don't know if I can get behind because he's averaging 20 yards of fucking catch.
52:11Right. I don't know. This is, he is the prototypical high, high variance fantasy option at receiver where, like you said, 21 yards per catch.
52:19He's getting three catches a game. The fact that the, the fact that the Colts gave him, he got $114 million contract,
52:2560 million of it is fully guaranteed, which is the sixth most among all receivers.
52:29And so, is this guy the sixth best receiver in the NFL?
52:33Like, that's kind of the bet the Colts are making here.
52:36Not really, but you know, like the money talks here and they, they very, I mean, I think what we're saying he's
52:43the third most talented pass catcher on his team.
52:45Right. You could say Josh Downs and Tyler Warren are better.
52:49I think what the money says, money talks, and I think what the money, what people interpret the money saying here is
52:55that he's not going to be just a 20 yard down the field receiver anymore.
52:59He's going to inherit a whole lot of the Michael Pittman stuff, shorten the intermediate area.
53:04They're going to get him the ball way more, but I don't know if that's actually a guarantee.
53:09Like maybe just have him do what he's best at, which is going deep.
53:14Can I tweet that DK? Yeah. I don't know if the money suggests Alec Pierce is going to have a different role.
53:20I think that the money suggests that Alec Pierce is a lot more valuable to real life football than fantasy football.
53:26Like big, fast, field stretching receivers that can both get open, but also go up and get the ball that force defenses
53:33to like, they don't want to give up explosive plays.
53:36I mean, Bill Barnwell had an amazing stat that explosive plays are now more correlated with winning football games and turnovers.
53:42Yeah. Teams that the last three seasons, especially with like 60 yard field goals on the table.
53:47Always. If you get one explosive play, you're going to score on that drive.
53:51And so Alec Pierce does not have to get the football to create space for Jonathan Taylor.
53:56And so I think the Colts see Alec Pierce as part of the offensive infrastructure that allow Jonathan Taylor to have like
54:0215 rushing touchdowns in the first half of the season.
54:05I also saw it, but I think that's a strike.
54:08Like I think Alec Pierce is not the same player, but similar to Romeo Dobbs in that he's just going to be
54:15more valuable to a real life team than his real, that's strike one.
54:18I also think strike two is he had ankle surgery in March and the team wasn't even sure about it when they gave him a contract.
54:26Why am I drafting a guy who's more valuable to his real life team than fantasy who had ankle surgery in March when I don't have to?
54:34I don't want people who had ankle surgery like four months ago on my fucking team.
54:39I mean, that's fair. I think the only thing, the only argument for him is he's like very cheap.
54:44He's not, I mean, you can get him next to Cortland Sutton.
54:48I don't know. Michael Wilson. Like he's not going high.
54:51He's not going that much for higher than Josh Downs.
54:54No. I, yeah, I just, he's tough though. I mean, because I think Heifetz, I think you're probably right that he's going
55:00to ultimately be more valuable to his real life football team than your fantasy team.
55:05But I think some people believe the money means more targets.
55:08So I don't know, like, I don't know what the actual answer is.
55:12Like maybe it does mean more targets marginally or maybe it means a fuck ton more targets and we're missing out by
55:18taking him a 33rd receiver, 36 receiver. I don't know.
55:21It's one of those things where I'm with, I mean, I agree with both of you.
55:26It's very difficult to rank him. Honestly, it kind of makes me like Josh Downs.
55:30I don't know much. I don't know how much Josh Downs will be on the field.
55:35I hope he's on the field more, but I do think he's extremely makes me like Warren.
55:40I'm also just out on the Colts. I think I feel like I haven't, I feel like I'm in a fever dream with the Daniel Jones thing.
55:48Even a year ago, all you guys would do is make fun of Daniel Jones.
55:52You guys have done nothing but make fun of Daniel Jones for five years.
55:56It's just like being honest. It's just so fun.
55:59He had 10 games to make fun. But he had 10 games that were good towards Achilles.
56:04And now you guys are like, well, Solak said he's fine.
56:07I'm like, okay, do you know that last year is the second most game?
56:11Wow. No, I'm saying that. Second show in a row.
56:14Jeez. Matt, Ben. I love, look, Solak's garden's looking great.
56:17It's looking great. Okay. But I'm not saying about Solak.
56:20I'm saying, do you know Daniel Jones last year had the second most games he's played in a season in the last like five years?
56:27He has literally had one healthy season in six years.
56:30Like it's like, he's just the idea that, well, he's going to play.
56:34I'm like Achilles, ACL, neck, knee. Like he gets hurt every fucking year.
56:38He's had one healthy season basically. His entire career.
56:41Anthony Richardson time? Yeah. I'm just saying like, he's literally had one healthy season.
56:45Okay. That's totally fair. So then Heifetz, like would you, you'd rather have DK Metcalf or Alec Pierce?
56:50At the part of, not about DK Metcalf, but the part of the draft where Alec Pierce is going, there are players that I would prefer.
56:58Like if you look at, honestly, Alec Pierce, I think that the players I like, I, it's a little bit difficult.
57:04I think Jordan. He's right next to DK Metcalf.
57:07Like would you take, would you take, you want to do just receivers?
57:10I would. I mean, honestly, this is going to sound, Quentin Johnson is a good example of he's a worse player in
57:17real life, but he's better in fantasy. I'd rather have Johnson.
57:20I agree. Better upside. Quentin Johnson, I would honestly, I would think about, see, this is a tough spot for receivers.
57:26I'll be honest about that. But like, I don't, I just don't like these styles of guys.
57:31I don't like Quentin Sutton. I don't want to get on the Aaron Rodgers rollercoaster and have to care about what Aaron Rodgers is saying with Metcalf.
57:39I would think about Parker Washington. The tight ends there, like Sam Laporta might be going in that range.
57:45I would way rather have like Sam Laporta if he fell than like Alec Pierce.
57:49Um, and also like Kyler Murray is like right around in that range.
57:53And at that point, I might even think about taking Kyler Murray in like the ninth round.
57:58Yeah. I mean, I agree with you. I do think if he like falls around later than that in drafts because nobody's
58:04interested in him, I think it might be worthwhile to take a shot.
58:08The next guy that's hard to rank, DK, you had Quinshawn Junkins, the running back for the Browns.
58:14Yeah. So I think there's a, there's a Ashton Jenty-ness to Judkins because I think he's a really good player, but I
58:20just don't know what to do with this, with the player in this specific offense.
58:24So when you watch Judkins run last year, I was like, this guy's for real.
58:29It just feels like you could see it immediately.
58:31Um, make, make players miss run after the catch.
58:34Um, in fact, he's fantastic. I saw he had like the second or third most yards after the catch last year.
58:40I couldn't, or not, sorry, after contact yards after contact.
58:43He's, he's just so great at breaking tackles, keeping things going.
58:46But the problem is part of the reason he was always, it's like the, it's exactly what happened to Gentie.
58:52He's just getting hit in the backfield like every fricking play so much so that it broke his fibula, right?
58:58He broke his leg. So that's another variable. He is practicing.
59:01He's back on the field. So that's a good sign.
59:04But I mean, coming off of a major injury, coming off of the injury that Tony Pollard had way back in the
59:11day with the Cowboys where he broke his fibula or fibula.
59:14Um, and then basically just didn't have nearly as much explosiveness the year after.
59:18Also dislocated his ankle, which is funny. Just has like a little throw in.
59:22Judkins also, you're talking about Judkins, right? Yeah. Yes.
59:25Um, so, you know, I think believe in the player, don't believe in the team, but it feels like he's going to
59:31get the vast majority of the volume here. So he's one of the cheaper, I guess, starting running backs, you know what I mean?
59:38In fantasy. So my, I guess my question is like, how much does he have to fall for you to take him?
59:45Because if you look at what the Browns did, number one, Brandon Thorne from established run has the Browns 31st in offensive line rankings.
59:52Um, their, their offensive line has fallen apart over the last like two or three years.
59:57And they did draft Spencer Fano, um, to play left tackle for them next year, but they're, they're kind of just piecing that thing together.
60:04Um, you know, new, I do like Todd Monk and I think he's a good play caller and I think there's a
60:10chance the, the Browns offense is better than people think, but they were just really, really bad at running last year.
60:17Like the, maybe the second worst running team only other to the Raiders last year.
60:21Um, so I just don't really know exactly what to do with Juckins or whether I think he's a value or if
60:28I just want to completely the quarterback is Deshaun Watson.
60:30And if the question is, do you want to watch another Deshaun Watson Cleveland Browns offense, or do you think what are
60:37the odds that Deshaun Watson plays well for the Browns?
60:40Do you want to be part of the Cleveland Browns with Watson handing them all the Juckins?
60:45And then you're watching it every, and then week five, you're kind of like, I can't believe I have to keep playing this guy.
60:52Right. Um, so he's probably a stay away, but again, I just really think he's a good player.
60:57And so, um, you know, there's a chance that maybe he's a really good value where he is.
61:02That's just Juckins is a lot like Gentey last year where you're like Gentey's good and you're like, but the team sucks
61:09I know broken leg plus Deshaun Watson plus worst offensive line in the league is a tough combo.
61:14Strike one, strike two, strike three. I bet Quinchon Juckins will be great for us.
61:19Should we have him lower then? Do you think like should we fade him completely?
61:23Maybe. I don't know. I mean, look, the guys going around him like David Montgomery, DJ Moore, Devante Adams, DeAndre Swift, Mike
61:30Evans, Tootin, probably take all those guys. What happened?
61:32What has to happen for Judkins to be like a great pick?
61:3650 catches. Which Deshaun Watson doesn't do that. Which is, I mean, maybe Shadour starts half the season.
61:41Maybe Shadour starts three quarters of the season. Does Shadour check down?
61:45I think they want to get rid of the ball quickly.
61:48I mean, that was like part of the reason Fannin had like a hundred catches last year.
61:53We haven't even talked about, obviously there's a, Deshaun Watson's a weird player to talk about.
61:57Something I don't even know if most people even remember is he has torn his Achilles twice since we last saw him play.
62:04So among all the other weird reasons it is weird to watch Deshaun Watson, what is he going to look like playing football?
62:11He's torn his Achilles twice. Is it going to be like Kirk Cousins?
62:15I don't know, man. The Deshaun Watson thing is like the weirdest fucking thing to ever happen to the NFL.
62:21Like I, the whole thing is fucking insane. We thought it was like the worst trade when we thought he was just
62:27a weirdo who was really good at football. We were like, this is a crazy return.
62:32He was the worst quarterback in Browns history. I think we haven't even talked, talked enough about the fact that he came
62:38back after all of the shit that happened and then was just terrible.
62:42Like, I just think that's really weird that he was like maybe the best quarterback in the NFL or top three or
62:49top five or whatever you want to say. and then was just horrible for no reason.
62:53And well, maybe they're like for whatever reason, I guess I should say.
62:57I just think that's like crazy that it actually just, he just broke.
63:01Stefanski, Kevin Stefanski, the head coach, his offense was just not designed well for Watson and they made Stefanski have to cater to Watson.
63:08So like the offense they ran for Deshaun was completely different than anything else.
63:12I also, to be honest, I think that I thought being universally reviled affected Deshaun Watson.
63:17That's kind of my main point. He did. It absolutely changed him because Deshaun Watson, it's hard to remember now.
63:23He was beloved. Deshaun Watson was a beloved player before all this information on his way to being the face of the league.
63:29Yes. Like him in Houston, like he was, he was one of the more popular, like it, like a very outwardly religious, like beloved player.
63:37And I think it really affected him. Like then he was suddenly hated and not commenting on like whether he should have or not.
63:44I'm just saying you clearly like it just absolutely affected his like, I know, to his core.
63:49There's like no way to make a comp. That's not just the exact same thing that happened, but I'm just trying to
63:55imagine like an NBA player who's 25 years old, who's fantastic, goes through a wave of awful things.
64:01And then you can't go on the internet and everyone in the world hates you.
64:05Yeah. But it's like, and then like a guy who was averaging 28 a game and then just comes back a year later and is averaging 10.
64:13Like, it's just bizarre that that happened. Yeah. And to be clear, I'm not like trying to empathize with him as much
64:19as just like we're, he's going to start, probably for this team.
64:23And it's really weird. Like the Browns playing football will be a strange thing.
64:27It's the weird thing that he's going to be the starting quarterback this year, maybe, or he loses it.
64:33And that's also so embarrassing because he's getting paid like $45 million.
64:36What's he going to do? Be a backup? Fucking nuts.
64:39I mean, that's what he has been. Yeah, maybe he will.
64:42I don't know. Did he tear the same Achilles twice or was it both?
64:46Yeah, he retoured again rehabbing. He retoured the same one.
64:49He retoured rehabbing. I don't know. What a weird fucking player.
64:53Browns have the fourth easiest schedule per Warren Sharp.
64:55Honestly, thank God the Browns are on, Deshaun is on the Browns.
64:59Can you imagine if he was on like a different team and we had to actually take them seriously?
65:04Yeah, if he was just like on Denver, that'd be weird.
65:08Exactly. Like we mostly have like, thank God we just ignore the Browns anyway.
65:12No offense to the Browns fans, but they know.
65:14DK, any other players he thought were hard to rank?
65:17I think Parker Washington from the Jags is increasingly becoming very difficult for me to rank because he is every day that
65:24every passing day, more the hype builds. I swear to God, every day I see.
65:28And this is from, you know, very, I would say measured beat reporters, John Shipley, one of the best beat reporters for the Jags.
65:35And he's not like a guy who's going to, you know, Oh, he made a great catch and blah, blah, blah.
65:41You should draft him. Like he even said if there was a number, this is from a story the other day, if
65:48I was going to, if there was going to be a number one receiver on this team, which he, he Shipley leaves
65:54the idea open that there will not be a number one receiver on the team.
65:59It's kind of just like a Packer situation where they rotate a bunch of guys, but if there's going to be a
66:05number one receiver on the team, my money would be on Parker Washington, the number one receiver on the Jags, Parker Washington.
66:12And if you look at what he did in, in stretches last year, he looked like the best receiver on the team
66:18and in the Cohen offense potential to be the high volume Amon Ross style player where you get, you're just peppering him with targets.
66:25I think there's a world in which, and this is going to sound crazy.
66:29There's a world in which Parker Washington finishes as a top 12 receiver in the NFL.
66:34I don't think it's maybe the most likely situation, but I'm like, I don't know what to do with Parker Washington because
66:40there's, there's certainly many worlds in which this is, he's just, it's a four way rotation at the receiver.
66:46He plays 60% of snaps and we forget about him by week seven.
66:50You know what I mean? But like the, to me, he's very difficult to figure out.
66:55So Liam Cohen, the head coach of the Jaguars was talking, he gave an interview the other day and he said he
67:01texted Parker Washington over the off season and he said, are you ready for training camp?
67:06And Parker Washington responded, ready to kill. Dude, Travis, Travis Hunter was up on the podium the other day and he was
67:12talking about how he and Brian Thomas Jr. are like in a competition to see who can get to the, the, the
67:19facility first, basically first in last out type of deal.
67:22And he's like, it's me and me and Brian Thomas are chasing that.
67:25We want to be the first person in the building might not be able to beat Parker though.
67:31Parker Washington, I guess, notorious for just, he's outworking everybody.
67:34Like, obviously that's like a preseason narrative. Who knows if that make, like, we'll, we'll translate to anything, but like to me,
67:40the, the drumbeat, the off season drumbeat of him being a high, high volume player in this team is just getting louder and louder.
67:47And I don't know what to do with them.
67:50I, yeah, I think there is an element of you kind of, you can't fake being a sixth round pick in terms
67:56of like how that motivates you as a player.
67:59Yeah. And I think you mentioning Amon Ra earlier is kind of apt because it's another guy.
68:04I think it, it takes like a year longer than it should sometimes for us to admit someone's the guy they are because of their draft capital.
68:12totally. Yeah. And, and Parker Washington, if he was a first round pick, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
68:17And so there is a chance that at the end of this year, we're like, yeah, he's just the best wide receiver
68:24on the Jags, even though he's surrounded by a guy who was taken second overall and another first round pick in Brian Thomas.
68:31Did you know that from week seven on last year, he was the wide receiver 16 in points per game.
68:36He, the playoffs, the Jaguars playoff game. That's a pretty big chunk of time.
68:41Parker Washington had 12 targets in the playoffs versus the bills.
68:44He had 107 yards in a touchdown. He had 12 targets in a playoff game.
68:48It's one of those things where we, I guess we just did the episode, right?
68:53Where it's like training camp buzz to buy or sell.
68:56Sometimes you got to just listen to what the coaches and the players are saying.
69:00I'm kind of buying it. Yeah. On that note, Ben Johnson, I might have to capitulate on Luther Burden and Colson Loveland
69:06because Ben Johnson just keeps talking about how much he loves Luther Burden.
69:10You guys just come on board. There's plenty of room.
69:13I think I'm going to do it. I'm on board.
69:16He's going to be fucking sick and you're going to miss out.
69:20Yeah. Yeah. I've had to wrap my mind around taking Luther Burden over.
69:23I don't know anyone who's had a real season before, but I'm going to just fucking do it and have fun.
69:30I'm glad that you, you, it's only August 4th, so there's time.
69:33I'm happy. Of all these guys, if you had to pick one player that we talked about today that you're like, I
69:40want on my team relative to where they're going.
69:42Parker, probably Parker, Parker, Washington. He's going to get pushed up in the next month.
69:47relative to where he's going. Absolutely. I would pick him.
69:50I mean, he's going like outside. He's going wide receiver 36.
69:53He's going to 87th in drafts. Yeah, I think, or I just take lad.
69:57Yeah, maybe we're talking Smith. If we're talking about like earlier rounds, lad and Devante are like definitely guys I'm targeting this year.
70:04Okay. A couple emails. We'll get out of here.
70:06Yeah. All right. We see emails from Alex. Alex.
70:09Lex. So I, on the previous episode, I was talking about how I had an argument with Jackie about pens.
70:15Yeah. And how the Heifetz household. Well, I was saying Jackie doesn't think that if you click a pen and leave the
70:21tip out, that the pen will dry out faster.
70:24And I think that. Pause. It's like a circumcision thing.
70:27Yeah. Somebody emailed it and said it's like a Seinfeld bit.
70:30It's like, like a clicky pen or like that was not another thing.
70:34But yeah, I just think that the pen, you know, you know what?
70:38The whole thing. No, Craig, you've ruined it. You've ruined the whole thing.
70:42Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. No, keep going. What did Alex say?
70:45Retractable pens. Anyway. So Alex wrote. Be careful. You don't want to leave the tip out.
70:49A lot can go wrong. Zipper situation. Anyway, Alex writes.
70:52The subject line was I all caps. I was a pen salesman.
70:56Lol. They need those. I was going to say, are there still pen salesmen?
71:00Sell me this pen. He literally said very similar to the office.
71:03I just had a bigger bag than just paper, but he basically worked.
71:07Yeah, he's selling his bulk office supplies to places.
71:10So Alex wrote. He says, I damn near. He says, my whole life has been building to this moment.
71:15I damn near swerved off the road when I heard this pen conversation.
71:19What's up to me right now? Breakfast was two eggs over easy, two pieces of meat, bacon, sausage, ham, chorizo.
71:25Wow. Two pieces of sourdough toast, buttered and lightly salted, dash of hot sauce, lots of water.
71:30I often turn basic ingredients into a sandwich burrito scramble.
71:33This is right up my alley. I do something very similar to this.
71:37This guy's going to work in the kitchen in the morning.
71:40Yeah. So Alex writes, I was a manufacturer's representative for nearly a decade.
71:44And I would go to factories across the country and I learned all about how different products like pens were made.
71:50And then I went into dealers like Office Depot, Staples, Office Max, mom and pop places to help them sell our products.
71:57I love that he calls them dealers. Sure. Like Staples as a dealer.
72:00He said, very similar to the office. So he says, pens 100% dry out significantly faster if they're not closed, either clicked or capped.
72:07Buddy, you already won the argument with your wife.
72:10I'd take this one. I'd let this one settle.
72:13I'm just saying. You hear that, baby? You hear that, Charlie?
72:16No, she won't admit. But he said, the key detail is that what most people don't understand is the flow of ink.
72:22When you think about a pen drying out, you think about the entire ink reserve being empty.
72:27Nobody on earth has ever seen the whole tank empty at the end of using a pen.
72:32What actually happens is you're creating a dry spot that doesn't allow the ink in the reserve to continue flowing.
72:38That's why you see people lick the end of a pen to try to save it.
72:43I haven't seen that, but maybe now that I think about it.
72:47I've seen that. Yeah, yeah. I've seen that. He says, an open pen can dry out from the air, evaporation, but also
72:53dust particles that get tossed around a room every time you open a door or walk by your desk.
72:59Clicking or capping it allows the ink flow to stay smooth and extends the life of the pen.
73:04So you can have a brand new pen, leave it uncapped for a while and it basically turns into garbage 1.5 hits.
73:10Wow. I gotta say, as a lefty, I hate a really like wet jelly pen.
73:15The worst. Can't write with it. What kind of pen do you have to go with?
73:19You can't do pencils either because then it just smears everywhere.
73:23I know. It's honestly a good thing that like human beings don't need to write things down anymore because it was hard for lefties, you know?
73:30Smearing all over the place. The lefty bias is funny because it's like the only thing that people don't give a shit about.
73:37Okay. I was just kind of trying to confide in my friends, but no, not being mean.
73:42I'm trying to give you empathy. Like, I think people should be more caring about the, there are like, I didn't know
73:49the scissors thing until you told me like two years ago.
73:52Scissors thing is real. I didn't know there's like no lefty scissors.
73:55No. Well, they make them. There are some. Yeah.
73:58Harder. Like, yeah, you got the pencil shavings on the hand, you're smearing the ink.
74:02When you're sitting in class in like elementary school, they never had the tables or the desks with like the left arm rest.
74:09You only had the right ones. So your arm was always hanging off when you were trying to write.
74:15Oh, yeah. I never thought about that. That's actually a huge thing.
74:18You're like taking a test and you don't even have a place to put your arm.
74:23Do you have to think a lot or do you not ever think about this about like where you sit when people like Oh, of course.
74:31People. Yeah. Yeah. I always got a left edge.
74:33Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That what do you think of people that think lefties are faking it?
74:38People think lefties are faking it. Did Aaron Rodgers say that?
74:41It's a choice, Craig. Yeah. Well, it was for Tua.
74:44Tua's dad. that's funny because like Tua's dad made him be left handed.
74:48Rafael Nadal's uncle and dad made him play lefty because it's an advantage and then Tua's dad made him play lefty which
74:54is like extremely not an advantage in football. It's also way different than a swing as we've talked about.
75:00Throwing with your left hand versus swinging is quite a different thing.
75:03Yeah. Yeah. He should just switch hands. Yeah. Yeah.
75:06Now he should just switch hands. Yeah. It's like Ben Simmons.
75:09It's like just use the correct. What if he was like the rookie like the movie The Rookie and all of a
75:16sudden he switched to the right and he was just had a fucking cannon.
75:20I haven't broken this hip yet. One day some freak is going to be able to throw perfectly both hands.
75:26Yeah. Dude, Mahomes has thrown a lot of lefty passes.
75:29Yeah. Yeah. I like how Heifetz has just turned the email section into validating his opinions on things.
75:34Like I don't read it when I'm wrong. Do you?
75:37I can't remember. I read a hockey email eviscerating me like one week ago.
75:41All right. Anyway, continue. What do you got next?
75:44Another thing I was read about. Yeah, sure. Didn't see that coming.
75:47Well, this is well, this is from Sean. S-bone.
75:50I always these people always sound they always try to sound so much better than us when they start with I do not eat breakfast.
75:57Children. Do I take that personally or I feel like those people are always trying to make a point.
76:03I know. It's like grow up. It's grow up.
76:05I do not eat breakfast. Sean writes, I studied creative writing and linguistics in school.
76:10I currently work as a writer. You guys arguing about almonds and whether almonds you pronounce the L.
76:15He says the almonds conversation. I'm already annoyed at this email.
76:18From the last few episodes has been utterly painful in the most hilarious way.
76:23You guys look things up while recording all the time.
76:25You could have solved this a long time ago.
76:28Ha ha. I just thought the ha ha was really passive aggressive.
76:32Okay. The whole thing has been passive aggressive but yes, let's get to it.
76:36Sean wrote, this almonds conversation has surpassed the insane and insanely incorrect take that Danny Kelly has about the pronunciation of Jeremy
76:42which one of the most famous bands ever Pearl Jam also so happens to be from Seattle has a song called Jeremy
76:49for Christ's sake and it's three fucking syllables. Oh, so Pearl Jam is the fucking like they're the ones that decide how many syllables Jeremy has?
76:56Come on. Who cares? That's just one example. Sean literally says Sean says but I digress.
77:01Yeah, I'm digging my heels in on that one.
77:04He's wrong. Pearl Jam's wrong. Sorry. They say a lot of words wrong.
77:07Weird. Yeah. They kind of have weird accent. I don't think they're actually from Seattle.
77:12How dare you? Bill Simmons beloved Pearl Jam. We're going to break that out.
77:16I don't think Pearl Jam is from Seattle. We're just going to put that fake satellites.
77:21We're going to aggregate you. I think was it was my take that Seattle people say Jeremy that was my take on Oregon.
77:27I don't know about that. Oregon. Eddie Vedder is not from Seattle so good for you DK.
77:32Where's he from? He's from Illinois. Interesting. Okay. None of the current members are from Washington.
77:37The only one is. Sorry. Stone Gossard is from Seattle.
77:40Hell yes. Good. Wow. What a call from DK.
77:43Anyway, Sean writes like Heifetz I'm from the northeast of the US.
77:46He could have been in Pearl Jam at that rate.
77:49I know. Sean writes I hate all of Heifetz's favorite teams and it sounds like he doesn't like me but he says
77:56so it pains me to say that Heifetz is absolutely correct.
77:59It is more correct to not pronounce the Ellen almond and he says look look let me stop you there.
78:05I just I respectfully disagree. I was gonna say let me stop you there.
78:09That's it. I don't want to hear any more of it because that's false.
78:13Sean writes in literally every modern dictionary and pronunciation guide the first pronunciation for almond omits the L sound.
78:19It's silent. He says even the second pronunciation on Merriam Webster also omits the L sound.
78:23Furthermore you will also see that all the dictionaries omit the L in the dictionary in BOM COM POM SOM and QUAM the literal dictionaries all do it.
78:32QUAM It's a QUAM QUAM That one I'll admit that one I don't know something about the Q it throws me off
78:38as well I'll admit that but he says this is a classic East Coast take he says many authorities such as dictionary.com
78:44don't even have a secondary pronunciation that includes saying an L they leave it at the silent L pronunciation and that you
78:51guys making fun of me for and silent L he says English includes an S in Ireland a K in Knight and
78:57a P in Pterodactyl so silent letters are a thing.
79:00This guy this guy's went to the Heifetz school of arguing because this guy it sounds like I'm arguing with Heifetz all
79:07of the look I don't know I guess just Pterodactyl who fucking cares about Pterodactyl I guess so the majority of the
79:13of people who are saying almond this Sean's just saying they're all wrong yeah that's right I cannot speak to what percentage
79:20of people say the L but he I did then fact check him and it is true that basically any site you
79:26can look up for dictionaries or they all have if I just Google almond pronunciation the first thing that pops up the
79:33like Google pushed response is and you play it it's almond and the L sound is deliberately included but I I don't
79:39know uh I was hoping you wouldn't do that Craig all of the words like psalm qualm calm to me all those
79:46words like you pronounce the L I don't know calm down you don't say calm down no east coast weirdos do calm
79:52down calm balm palm calm calm I say the L in all of those so do I to be clear let's like
79:58you guys always make fun of me for moving the goalposts I never said you guys can't say the L you made
80:05fun of me for not saying the L right that is how this started yes yes I think I said oh you're
80:11one of those people who doesn't pronounce the L and I am just informing you that that's how literally every dictionary says
80:18to say it I am not coming for your L I don't care I don't care if you fucking say almond except
80:24for whatever dictionary Google uses also scroll down it says it's a silent L if you google it scroll down listen to
80:31the if you listen to the google pronunciation it say almond I don't know once again we're no closer to the truth
80:37here Cam well Cam our producer is sending the word C-A-U-L-K which you don't pronounce the L there but like that's different
80:44that's like walk you know what I mean like you don't pronounce the L in walk but L-K is a silent L
80:50I mean I asked chat GPT which is the official AI sponsor of the Ringer Fantasy football show it says most American
80:57English speakers pronounce almond with a silent or nearly silent L so it sounds like almond almond almond again I didn't tell
81:03you guys you can't say the L you just made fun of me and it turns out that's the majority hold on
81:10now you're moving did we say you can't say almond okay you didn't say can't you made fun of me for doing
81:16it implying I should not something that we always do you made fun of me I think it sounds funny I stand
81:23by that I think it sounds funny to say almond with an L that sounds stupid no way calm down Craig calm
81:29down calm down Craig calm down it can't sound stupid to pronounce the letters in the word yes it can it absolutely
81:35can sound island okay you know what I mean just saying there are tons of words in silent letters pterodactyl Craig pterodactyl
81:42sure pterodactyl I love that Cam used the word cock instead of what the fuck was that choice instead of like talk
81:48or walk it was like say cock guys just like sabotaging us I don't know look if I go down here with
81:55an L that's fine oh hey literally yeah but I'm gonna I'm gonna walk back into the dugout with my head held
82:01high on this one you gotta walk it's fine walk back walk yeah walk back to the fucking dugout I'm gonna walk
82:08back all right almond give me some almonds oh my god we also have not really grappled the fact that the people
82:14who grow the almonds call it almonds well look the guy who invented a gif said jif and he's just flat wrong
82:21he doesn't get to decide how I say it who is the guy who what is it we had an emailer who
82:27worked who like farmed almonds what was it yeah they're oh yeah they're an almond farmer you want me to read that
82:34one he said they say they say it differently than almond yeah he said almond which pronounces the L big dog no
82:40oh you're you're gonna regret that one just to wait Craig third generation Grant emailed in breakfast is black coffee Greek yogurt
82:47with basil seeds and peaches wow Greek yogurt with basil seeds and peaches four slices of bacon and two eggs I need
82:53to know who's the number one spokesperson for almonds and we need to get him on the fucking horn well Grant said
83:00I'm a third generation almond farmer on 110 acres in California Central Valley and I have to clear this up it's he
83:06says oh fuck he didn't really help he's but he says it's just pronounced I think he's saying almond like everyone says
83:12but here's the thing we 100% say almond there are almonds on the trees and almonds on the ground or he says
83:19they are almonds on the tree and almonds on the ground my grandfather used to joke that the reason the name changes
83:25is that during harvest we knock the L out of them to get off the tree but you got to say it
83:32with a southern accent or it's not funny apparently wait the tree the almonds on the tree are called almonds and then
83:38when they fall they're called almond that's what the farmers say I think the farmers say almond on the tree but the
83:45moment they're off the tree they call them almonds okay well how about that I'll let me compromise I'll go with that
83:51I'm gonna call tree almonds almonds like a normal person and then you know if you're sure eating them almonds deal all
83:58right yeah Craig he's like I've had enough of this conversation yeah let's move on almond joy just I don't know almond
84:04this is just so east coast incredible okay thank you DK thank you Craig thank you again to the seven for emailing
84:11all your hot quarterback rankings check out the ringer Instagram check out the discord if you want to argue with the hot
84:17quarterback rankings and thank you to all the almond farmers almonds almonds thank you to all the farmers who emailed in pen
84:24salesman any other pen salesman anything I'm wrong about email in if I'm wrong DK and Craig think I only I read
84:30plenty of things where I'm wrong okay okay who are you trying to convince I protest too much Craig I didn't say
84:36bring up the almond farmers okay thank you Lord Lord we didn't talk are you doing Craig are you gonna do millennial
84:43bangers or am I gonna do millennial you want to alternate for the month of August yeah let's do it all right
84:49then last week I believe you gave us Sean Kingston's beautiful girls not last week last episode today I'm gonna go a
84:56little bit earlier in the millennial catalog this is for people who slightly older than us high if it's four or five
85:02years older geriatric millennials I'm gonna go with Petey Pablo's 2004 song freak a leak yeah which boys do yourselves a favor
85:09toss that on right now in the background yeah they I say this all the time they don't make fucking beats like
85:15that anymore they don't you put that on in a car you're not gonna want to get out that is this that's
85:22the coolest shit I've ever heard I love I feel like every song the radio host intro to it like he's like
85:28shouting out everybody first before they get into it that's how it goes you know you don't start a song for 15
85:3520 seconds back then dun dun dun dun dun dun dun yeah dun dun dun dun dun dun oh it's the best
85:41people calling in from the radio also Petey Pablo's just a great name this was this was what year was this Craig
85:48because this was straight out of my college years it was oh three actually not oh four right before oh four December
85:542003 legit takes me to a house party in college yeah yeah Craig where's San Juan Capistrano because he's playing it he's
86:01playing in California Petey Pablo he's when the OC oh the Orange County Smoke Show 2026 maybe we should go to that
86:07festival San Juan Capistrano is like OC like like oh this is our dude this is the millennial bangers core it's little
86:13John Bow Wow Soulja Boy the Ying Yang Twins Twins Petey Pablo genuine damn wow what a lineup Montel Jordan that's crazy
86:20Mims damn Mims Mims this is why I'm hot it's just like everybody we've been talking about damn the greatest Madden soundtrack
86:26of all time the smoke show dude Ying Yang Twin Salt Shaker banger yeah were they the ones that did the whisper
86:33song yes we talked about that before I feel like yeah hey little mama let me just that's right I'm adding Freak
86:39League to the playlist it's just too good it's one of those where you're just making that beat and you're like I
86:46can't believe no one's done this before it's almost like it doesn't even matter what you do with this like it doesn't
86:52matter who raps what they say like the beat you're like we did it it's gonna work yep we did it boys
86:59would you do it from the front would you do it from the back see this is like we were saying it's
87:05a little bit angrier rap this is before we pivoted into like we're just all partying having a good time like whimsical
87:12yes there's a little bit more aggression in this song right I love that it came out in December for Christmas this
87:18is technically a Christmas song it is the Christmas movie and then yeah Freak League's the Christmas song oh my gosh yeah
87:25we have Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You and Freak League DK can you make a promise this Christmas
87:31when Calvin is walking around the corner to the Christmas tree can you put on Freak League as he does yeah I'm
87:37in and you have to videotape it I've been trying to get Calvin into a bunch of my music and I'd say
87:44like one out of every four songs he's like okay I can get into this like that is kind of his thing
87:50he's like okay I'm kind of liking this all right okay he's like crazy frog I like this he does almost like
87:57the John Wick thing he's like I'm thinking I'm back he's like I'm kind of thinking I'm liking this what are the
88:03songs that he likes he really likes he really likes Panama by Van Halen is it Van Halen okay Panama you know
88:10oh yeah crazy train oh by Ozzy Osbourne or whatever not the his band what is it I can't remember off the
88:16top of my head yeah I think it's just Ozzy Osbourne crazy train who yeah that one's just by Ozzy all right
88:23and then shit Black Sabbath yes that was what I was looking for the other ones that he likes he also really
88:29likes the song what does a fox say have you ever heard this one unfortunately I have so he likes Van Halen
88:36and Ozzy Osbourne and what does the fox say yeah he likes 80s sort of hair metal rock Bon Jovi Van Halen
88:42nice Sister Christian remember that song Sister Christian oh the time has come we're motorhead oh my god wait I've been waiting
88:49to ask you this DK forever was the playing Black Sabbath records thing backward actually a thing not for my generation I
88:55feel like that was a little earlier yeah they're like oh this is the devil's music what was with that uh religion
89:02but what's yeah but I mean I just people don't people didn't want their children corrupted that's what I'm saying by the
89:08devil it was the whole thing if you played a Black Sabbath record record backward on a record player that it was
89:14like demonic I was like telling you like yeah I don't know I honestly don't know one month we might want I
89:21might want to do like random 80s like stadium rock bangers fuck that's good this is my Craig I can do this
89:27like my calling like foreigner like hold on loosely by 38 special banger I want to know what love is foreigner's good
89:34man foreigner rocks now we're at the point where I need to hear the song because I know what these songs are
89:40by name alone what was the other ones you said Craig foreigner and who hold on loosely by 38 special banger hold
89:47on loosely hold on loosely that's cool you sure that wasn't Creed no sorry I actually applied a Creed accent to that
89:53foreigner sings like yeah I want to know what love is cold as ice you're as cold as ice yeah there's some
90:00just great songs willing to sacrifice I'm watching all these 80s rewatchables movies you know and I'm like yeah like sister Christian
90:06pops up I'm like these rock motor red yeah what's your price for flight like Wang Chung to live and die in
90:13LA banger great one I had him listen to the Kung Fu Fighting everyone wants Kung Fu Fighting that's a great song
90:19for a child Kung Fu Fighting he's into that but he's like kind of into the head head head banging thing like
90:26you know he wants to like rock out a little bit he like does a little air guitar and kind of runs
90:32around he's seven years old so play him I'm Heat of the Moment by Asia banger oh hell yeah I know that
90:38one I like how all these bands in the 80s were named after continents Europe Asia all the names had been taken
90:45also Chicago America someone just got Europe Europe hold on Europe's not taken oh that's crazy I'm starting to unironically enjoy like
90:51that type like Asia like yeah yeah yeah those types of songs I don't know what that says I'm just like watching
90:58so many movies like To Live and Die in LA or Lethal Weapon and I'm like I actually think this is the
91:04best music I mean I would say in 80s hair rock or whatever you want to call it I don't know stadium
91:11rock butt rock they do this thing where it's it takes a while to get into the song it's almost like a
91:17crescendo song where yes they will they'll spend like a minute and a half getting into the chorus and I kind of
91:24like that it's like a build up yeah it delivers when they finally you know when the beat drops in the 80s
91:30version of when the beat drops yeah it's good stuff solos bring back guitar solos you know that's all I want I
91:37can't wait for Pearl Jam to reach out to us after what DK said I say Jeremy wrong Jeremy cancel our show
91:43fuck these guys they aren't real Seattle I'm not saying they're they're not a Seattle band they were formed in Seattle they're
91:50not saying it right they're not saying Jeremy right okay that's all okay Eddie if you're listening goodbye everyone hope is here
91:56visit gamblinghelpline ma.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8 hope ny or text hope ny in New
92:03York for Louisiana call 1-877-770-7867
