Late-Round Perspectives: Jeff Ratcliffe

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Jeff Radcliffe is the president at FTN Fantasy and an on air talent at both Sirius XM Radio and CBS Sports. Before all that, he spent about a decade at Pro Football Focus. He's got a PhD in anthropology, and I guess he kind of has one in fantasy football too. These are his late Round perspectives. This episode is sponsored by Underdog Fantasy. If you haven't played over an underdog yet, now's the perfect time. There are tons of different bestball leagues that you can join, and there's definitely a league out there that fits what you're looking for, and you can use all the things that I've talked about with guests. I'm becoming a best ball bro to crush those drafts. But like I said, now's the right time to join up because if you go and you sign up and use promo code Late Round, you not only get a nice deposit offer, but you also get a free Late Round Draft guide that's a twenty five dollars guide email to your inbox after signing up for absolutely free. So head to Underdog Fantasy dot com, sign up using promo code late Round and make it a posit. I can confirm it's a really really fun platform to play on. Now back to the show. Yeah, man, I'm super pumped to have you on. I don't know if people realize that, like, you and I go so far back within this space. This is back in Like I don't even know if people realized that I wrote for PFF for like, I don't know how long was it three months something along those lines.

00:01:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was some something like that. Yeah, three months. We were like, oh, this JJ knows what he's doing. Let's offer him some money because we actually had a budget and you turned us down.

00:01:41
Speaker 1: And then I immediately pieced out and I gotta gig at Number Fire and then the rest, as they say, is history. But you spent like a almost a decade, right a PFF.

00:01:52
Speaker 2: It was like, yeah, two months short of a decade.

00:01:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's wild, that is wild. So yeah, like you and I have known each other for a while. We got to hook back up a little bit at the Fantasy Football Expo as we do each year. So it's great to see you. You know, like I said, you've been in the space for a while now. You and I cross paths so many times. We've done plenty of shows and such together. But you know, just for anyone listening that maybe hasn't listened to your stuff or at least recently, or doesn't know your journey or who you are as an analyst, how would you describe your approach as an analyst? Like who are you as an analyst? Jeff Ratcliffe?

00:02:28
Speaker 3: Wow?

00:02:29
Speaker 2: That is They could go in so many different directions, but I think to start, I should say that fantasy is just my.

00:02:37
Speaker 3: Excuse to talk about football.

00:02:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that's a really important thing. Like JJ, part of our generation here, as Rich Rebar calls us, the CD generation. We were in between VHS and then like MP three streaming and all that. But our generation, we didn't just go from We didn't just go out and say, hey, start this player because I work for three or four letter network. It was here's what I'm doing, here's you know, my knowledge of the game, Here's how I'm applying it to fantasy football, and then taking it from there. And I think a lot of that for me comes from my background. You know, I was a grad student in the in the aughts. I was a college professor throughout the course of getting a PhD. And I played a lot of poker as well, I pretty much did anything I could to procrastinate, and I would talk about hands and you know, walk through the process there. And eventually, like poker, obviously the moneymaker boom was over. The whole full tilt thing happened, and I stopped doing that, and I started just lurking in message board forums in fantasy football, and like eighth nine, started writing a little bit. And then in twenty ten, it came around that, uh, you know, everything is timing, and I reached out to a particular person. He said he had an opportunity, but he had to wait about a month. The opportunity ended up being PFF and the person was Mike Clay, and you know, it just couldn't have worked out better. But then even from there, I went, I really had to work my tail off to get into this thing. And I realized along the way there were some parallels to what I did as a professor. You know, I was a teaching I was teaching a subject that most people did not.

00:04:10
Speaker 3: Give a crap about.

00:04:10
Speaker 2: They were there for three credits at B plus maybe an AS and then moving on. And the subject is cultural anthropology. I had to find ways to make it interesting, make it engaging and make it relatable. And I really tried to do that with football concepts and maybe even in some of the advanced fantasy concepts, so that anybody can understand these things, anybody can use them, anybody can apply them, and then ultimately hopefully they can enjoy football more in the process. There was a great realization that happened to me many years ago. I on a Sunday, like a lot of people, was sitting there watching games, had the laptop open with the scores, and I was utterly miserable because whatever was happening with my fantasy teams, and it was like, at the end of the day, I realized, holy crap, I just hated watching football, Like that should not be the case. Yeah, so, I you know, I don't even pay attention to box scores anymore or anything like that throughout the course of the day. I just want to sit there and enjoy the game because we're lucky enough to get to see these players doing superhuman things on the football field.

00:05:16
Speaker 1: That's a really healthy outlook. I wish I could get to that place where I'm not tilting like over every single play, and then at the end of the day it always ends up just kind of being a moot point to begin with, Like you you're frustrated, you're annoyed at like one point thirty, and then it ends up being fine. It's never that big of a deal. That's a really healthy, healthy approach and way of thinking of that. How did you like get so into football in the first place? Was it just you being embedded where you grew up? Obviously, you know in the Northeast especially, it's going to be a place where football is just sort of a part of that city. You know, the city that you grew up in city I grew up in. Same deal. Was it that or were you a player? What was it?

00:05:55
Speaker 3: No?

00:05:56
Speaker 2: I wasn't a player. And also, don't believe Google out there are people I was not former professional lacrosse player. That is another person named Jeff Ratcliffe. This dude actually doesn't live far from me in Pennsylvania, and he knows that I exist. I know that he exists, obviously, but Google does not realize we're two people. So it's his Wikipedia and then my pictures everywhere from doing stuff like this. But anyway, No, I ran track and field in the high school level. In the college level, I actually didn't play football outside of like you know, peewee football. But the reason why I got so into this aspect, believe it or not, JJ, And it's so weird because I don't really pay attention to this sport anymore, but it's baseball. I grew up with baseball cards and my favorite thing to do was look at the back of the cards and like I remember, in like the late eighties, you'd get like some of these guys who had played since the early seventies and the back of the cards just.

00:06:50
Speaker 3: All these sad and I'm like, what did that look like?

00:06:53
Speaker 2: You know, that was like me as a kid, I'm like, what did this look like over one hundred and sixty two games? Like was it up and down? Was it consistent? What did this look like? And so I was always into that. But then also, you know, I was a pretty typical for sport a merit. Like we had four sports in Philadelphia, so it was easy to follow all four major professional leagues. And yet growing up as an Eagles fan, my favorite players were not Eagles. Like going up as a Sixers fan, my favorite player is Michael Jordan's. So I guess I was made for fantasy anyway. But I loved Dan Marino and John Elway, but I especially loved Dan Marino because he was doing these things that other than Warren Moon in that era, nobody was putting up numbers like that, and Warren it was a different discussion onto himself, and I think that was what ultimately kind of paved the way. But I will say this, in the late nineties, when I was sort of coming of age becoming a person I ultimately was gonna be. I remember hearing people playing fantasy I'm like nerds, Like, yeah, you're doing what That's so nerdy, And then only a couple of years later I was super into it myself.

00:07:58
Speaker 1: I feel like that's the path that a lot of people well, whenever they initially hear about fantasy football, they're like, oh my gosh, this is so stupid, this is so dumb. And then you start to like dig in and you just realize the connection that you build around the game of football itself, and it's not just about you know, whooping up on your teammates or your your league mates, rather and you know, building these teams. It's also just like having a deeper appreciation of the game itself. Like people always come up to me and they're like, oh, you're from Pittsburgh, You're a Steelers fan, and like I'm like, I'm still a fan. I guess, like that's my team, you know, if I'm supposed to pick a team and like root for a team, But the feelings I have about that team are not nearly the same as they were, you know, even ten years ago, where I just have appreciation for you, Like like ten years ago, JJ would hate me, or fifteen years ago, JJ would hate to hear me say that I like Lamar Jackson, and I like the Ravens and John Harbaugh and what they've done there, right, But it's just this is what fantasy football does. You just have this natural appreciation for other players, and to me, that's a really healthy relationship to have, you know, with the sport and such. Good to hear you say that. Let's talk a little fantasy. Let's talk about some takes. Let's start more of the on the strategy game theory side. Right now, this season, we're seeing wide receivers get drafted earlier than probably we've seen in the decade plus that we've been doing this stuff. And my question to you, you know, obviously, you know with with Best Ball, it leans in that direction just for a lot of strategy related reasons. But we're seeing more of these like zero RB type teams in season long managed leagues too. My question just is what do you think of that? Do you agree with it? Do you think that that's the way it should have always been, or have people just gone mad and they've just gone way too wide receiver heavy.

00:09:41
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, first and foremost, don't make the mistake if you're listening to this of comparing what you're doing in Best Ball with what's going to happen in your home leagues. It's not a fair comparison because it's a different game, you know, especially if you're in like dB Mania or something like that. You're playing a tournament where you're trying to beat thousands upon thousands upon thousands of of lineups and you don't have to make starts to decisions, and you don't have to make waiver decisions, and you don't have to worry about trading. So it's just a different game. But to answer your other question, I don't know if it should always have been this way, because if we compare the league to what it was twenty years ago, Sean Alexander doesn't exist in today's NFL. You know, like we our top what was McCaffrey was three hundred and thirty nine touches last year? Right, three hundred and thirty nine touches? What would that it finished like tenth twenty years ago in the league. It's just a different game. But in the last say decade to decade and a half, as this evolution has taken place from a more run centric to a more pass centric league, I actually think this is the right way, and I'll tell you where it happened for me. I always say that I'm never going to go out and tell anybody how to play fantasy football. I'm just going to tell you how I play fantasy football. And you can disagree with me all you want. Just realize why you disagree with me. Don't just disagree with me because you don't like me. I mean, find a reason why, a rational reason why, and then apply that to you your own strategy, and you're going to get better in the process. But I play this way because for the longest time, in one of my home leagues, in fact, the first league that I was ever in, it's still ongoing. That's my draft on Saturday is in that league. I have everything my entire career to thank that league for, you know, so it gives me chills even just thinking about it. But there was a long running joke that I could not win that league. So I would make the playoffs every year, you know, and then I would just fizzle out every single year. It even was to the point I was married in twenty eleven and the best man speech, the best man is also in that league, and that was part of the best man speech was how I could not win that league, and everybody left. It was a great time what I did win in twenty eleven, thankfully, and it was the first time I had won that league. It was like fifteen years into the league and I finally win it. But I realized what I was doing wrong is I was doing the traditional approach of running backs early and often. I was convincing myself that there was depth at wide receiver, and then I would get into the playoffs and one or more of my running backs would be hurt. Because we have that volatility, you know, you touched all more often, you're more likely to get hurt. I was investing my most valuable picks and those guys, and even if you handcuff all right, and then I would run into teams with more firepower at wide receiver and I would just get blown out. You know, I'd finish third, I'd make the championship and lose and so on and so two things that I made mistakes on. I invested too many of my valuable picks at running back as opposed to maybe one or zero. I don't mind a hero RB approach if the board is right right. But then also, yes, there's a lot of depth at wide receiver, but JJ, there is not a lot of depth that elite wide receiver exactly. Yes, and that's where I didn't have the firepower. So I do think it is right, but it may not be right for everybody if you can't handle swings because it is a little bit more volatile, you know, week over week, but long term, your ceiling is very high. I just know there are fantasy managers out there who can't take those swings, and as a results, start playing emotionally. And when you play emotionally, you're gonna make bad decisions. I've just told you. I'm kind of real zen about all this stuff. Like when I watch football I'm kind of quiet, you know, I don't really go high or low when it comes to fantasy decisions either, But that doesn't always fit everybody else's perspective.

00:13:17
Speaker 3: For me, it works really well though.

00:13:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that the point about there being few elite wide receivers is a really good one, because, like, if you look at the landscape right now, you get what like seven or eight like really elite guys. You feel good about that, you'll draft in the first round, you won't think twice, and then you get into round two and it just starts to get so flat right where you're like, Okay, what's the real difference between Drake London and Marvin Harrison versus Jalen Waddle And you know, even into like if you want to like the DJ Moore range, let's say for some people, or you know that just that that caliber of player, right, But your point of there beings few elite players and few elite wide receivers, you know, you can make the argument that the position is really really deep, but how many of these guys are actually going to be those difference making type players. It's it's becoming similar to what we've seen with running back with these split backfields where the reason that we feel so good about CMC, Bijon, Robinson, Breeze Hall is because they're unicorns. We just don't have that. They're literally the three guys that we can project. There's gonna probably be another guy that steps up, hopefully this season, that maybe gets to that range in terms of volume that we're you know, maybe it's an Isaiah Pacheco, or maybe maybe Kyra Williams does see the workload that people you know, that you saw last year whatever like we might, or maybe it's Travis Etn. We might see one of these guys like step up and be that true belcal sure, but from a projectable volume standpoint, it's like those are the guys. Those are the elite guys that we can confidently draft. It feels similar with these wide receivers where it might feel kind of deep because to me, running back actually feels kind of deep from the standpoint of you know, getting a Chase Brown, Taj Spears, you know, and these split backfields later or a you know, just whoever you know, name your middle round running back. Like those kinds of players didn't necessarily exist back when we were talking about because a lot of those backfields ended up being just bellcal backfields, right, And so we're in this really weird place where somehow JJ Zach Reaeson is way more okay with drafting quarterbacks earlier, right because because there is this like drop with with these elite wide receivers and elite running backs to where you just feel a little bit more You're like, Okay, what else am I gonna spend this on? Or elite tight ends?

00:15:30
Speaker 2: Right?

00:15:31
Speaker 1: What else am I gonna spend this on? But along those lines, do you think there is any validity to going with a running back running back approach? This has been one of the top questions that I've been asked all off season. You know, going running back running back? Maybe you are in the front half of the draft and you're able to get one of those big three. Would you be okay with going running back then in the second round or are you afraid that you're just gonna fall behind at wide receiver or you're gonna at least lose your opportunity of throwing the right darts at those potential elite wide receivers.

00:16:02
Speaker 2: For me, I look at drafts in terms of making up ground on opponents, and I feel like it is really difficult to make up ground on your opponent at wide receiver. The easiest position I still think is quarterback. You know you still can get away with those late round approaches that you are so closely associated with running back, I can make up ground. So for me, I would not be looking to go running back running back I know in that. You know, when you get out of the running back dead zone period, there are those guys you just mentioned a couple of them who they offer some bang for the buck, and they're also one backfield made injury away from an even larger workload because you know, in both of those backfields, you know, you talk about whether it's Cincinnati, whether it's Tennessee. The number three slash number four not really convinced, like Trevion Williams. You know, shout out triviaon Williams. He's been in the NFL for seemingly twenty five years at this point. But now Chris Evans out, you know, out for the season.

00:16:56
Speaker 3: That sucks.

00:16:57
Speaker 2: It's it's weird with Haskins and Chestnut in the Tennessee backfield. So all of a sudden, you know, whether it's Spears or Chase Brown. I mean with the juice that those guys offer too. You know, a lot of ROI potentials. So but I want to go back to something I said earlier. That's what works for me. You know, if you're listening to this right now and you're like, no, I'm totally comfortable. If I got Bijon to pick four and then I come back around and whoever's there, whatever running back you're looking at Kyrin or whoever cool that works for you, then do it. I just know that I've fallen behind with that approach far too many times. And like you said, I don't want to feel light at the top end of my wide receiver group.

00:17:36
Speaker 3: I really want that group to have some firepower to it.

00:17:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you want to be able to again like throw darts at the potent, like you know, we say that it gets flatter. But a guy like Nico Collins has a much greater probability of being an alpha or being a wide receiver one or a sending. And I'm not to say that I'm like high or low on Nico Collins, but he has a better opportunity or chance to do that than Zay Flowers or even like a Pickin' or something like that like these guys that then go in round four into round five and so on, where you know, those are the guys that you would be having to rely on if you don't go wide receiver early. So there is that opportunity cost aspect. There is one running back though. I was looking at your rankings very quickly, you know, in preparation. I want to ask you just some stuff about you know, some of these specific players in the second round. A lot of people are okay, and I'm part of it, actually okay with drafting devon a Chan and with late round perspectives, I always want the I'm trying to find sort of counter arguments and other perspectives on these particular players a Chan. I think we probably would agree on most of the argument for and against a Chan. It's just a matter of like where you would particularly land on him. But I'm curious about your thoughts on him, because he to me is probably a top five most polarizing player in fantasy football this year.

00:18:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I have him as a mid third round grade RB is it RB five fifteen right now, which you know is a little bit of the highest I've seen him as maybe seven or eight in people's rankings.

00:19:07
Speaker 3: There's there's a couple of things.

00:19:08
Speaker 2: I mean, first and foremost, when you look at the size profile, does he profiles anything more than an eight to twelve touch a game type of player. I would love to say he's ten to fifteen, and I'd love to be proven wrong on that by Mike McDaniel with his awesome new look. By the way, yeah it's pretty epic. I mean, Miami, Mike. I'm here for that, but that's the concern. He being Mike McDaniel is noted in the off season that the backfield is still led by Raheem Mostert, and I realize he's up there in age a little bit, but he's still gonna be used. And then they also drafted Jalen Wright, who I think he's probably closer to Mostert than he is to a Chan. I know a lot of people are looking at him as an echan, but Moster A's not the biggest guy either, and they're they're all fast, but I'm not convinced there's enough touches there. And I'm also not convinced that you can keep up historically insane levels of efficiency. I still love it, but when I'm looking at one of those running backs, especially a top twelve guy like I even struggle with this with Jamir Gibbs a little bit, but there's more volume at least there for him. Is is there competition in that backfield for touches? And then what does the competition look like? And then where are you getting the ball? Like James Cook is another one. Where are you getting the ball? Are you getting the ball down at the goal line?

00:20:21
Speaker 3: Well he didn't. Last year.

00:20:22
Speaker 2: It was Josh Allen and Latavius Murray, And this year they drafted a five 't eight two hundred and twenty pounds bowling ball in Ray Davis, who probably could get that work as well as Josh Allen. So that's part of the equation. I do love him, but I feel like if I'm drafting a running back as a top twelve running back on my board, not twelve, top twelve overall pick, but top twelve running back, I want a few less items in the con category and a few more pro category.

00:20:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's fair like to me, he just has a super wide range of outcomes like you would probably would you agree that he if things hit the right way and break the right way, you can see the ceiling for a guy.

00:21:01
Speaker 2: Like a Jed if things break the right way, like ultimate ultimate ultimate right way, then he's like CJ two K in his prime.

00:21:08
Speaker 3: Meat that type of player, right.

00:21:11
Speaker 2: But I also, you know, I am aware, and I think this gets lost in a lot of drafters like rankings and all of that are midpoints. Projections are midpoints. They're you know, and they don't have to be the precise midpoint. You know, there's a nuanced in rankings. You can move players around, but it's really foolish to rank or project the player at their absolute ceiling. Sure, sure his absolute ceiling. He's enormous, We've seen it, Like it's freakish. Like this is a guy who he could potentially put an entire week of fantasy production up on three touches. And that doesn't even have to be three catches. It could be three carries with this dude, that's how impressive he is. But I you know, I'm I'm a you know, regression type of person, and I think that is a very viable concern with him. I'm still I mean, he's still top fifteen.

00:21:54
Speaker 3: Though, and he's right there.

00:21:55
Speaker 2: I have him right behind Joe Mix and Kenneth Walker, those guys in that range show probably figure to touch the ball a lot more than he does.

00:22:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's fair. And you mentioned Gibbs too. I think that a chan is a pretty good arbitrage on Gibbs if you're thinking about it, like from an archtype standpoint, like I think Gibbs is drafted where he probably should be, Like, I'm not gonna hate on anyone for drafting him where he gets drafted, because obviously the efficiency side is there. And I do think that, you know, given everything that we talked about, and maybe you would disagree, but you know, if you want to chime in, But given everything that we talked about about, like there being true bell cow backs and very few of them in the NFL, that means that there's more running backs who aren't hitting high volume ceilings. And so what do we have to lean back on, Well, we'll have to lean back on efficiency a little bit more, right now? Can we project efficiency as well as people think? Probably? Not right, Like You've you've dealt with this for years and years doing projections and such and knowing that, uh, you know, a lot of these efficiency metrics just end up regressing. And that's the number one thing that we really should be paying attention to. But at the same time, I think that there are some arc types in general, like a Gibbs, you know, like an A Chan to a lesser degree James Cook. And then you know, even to a lesser lesser degree than that, like what we saw last year out of like Keaton Mitchell right before he got banged up and hurt his knee. And so as a result of that, I think that we are kind of in this newish era of football where efficiency will matter more in the individual season. It might just come down to how well we are or how good we are at actually projecting that efficiency.

00:23:31
Speaker 3: I think you're right.

00:23:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you're right, And that is going to be the ultimate challenge, especially when it comes to scoring touchdowns. We know how challenging that is. I tend to take the same approach in the same mindset as our friend Mike Clay that you know, I'm not trying to every year reinvent the wheel or improvement leaps and bounds like he always says. I want to get like one percent better. You know, when it comes to projections, it may not sound like a lot, but that actually is pretty size.

00:23:56
Speaker 1: Of that significant year over year.

00:23:58
Speaker 2: It really becomes a great measuring stick for how effective we can be.

00:24:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, now, speaking on taking on some risk in the early rounds, Marvin Harrison Junior, we have not seen a rookie wide receiver. I mean you could lump Molak Neighbors in here to some degree too, because he's been rising over the last month, month and a half up draft boards as well. But we've never seen a rookie wide receiver get drafted this high. He's a top twelve wide receivers. Being drafted as a top twelve wide receiver. Are people nuts? Because I've seen analysts say people are absolutely nuts for going in this direction. I've also seen others say, no, he's elite, this is where he should be going. Where do you land with that Marvin Harrison Junior discussion.

00:24:36
Speaker 2: He is an impressive talent, there's no doubt about that. But you know, Malik Neighbors was right there with him, and there were a lot of actual, very smart draft analysts who had Moliite Neighbors that tick ahead of him. Now, his quarterback situation is obviously superior. Daniel Jones that preseason appearance was not good, really really bad. I don't know what they're going to do there. But the nice thing is, you know, we've seen wide receivers, talented wide receivers put up decent numbers in bad situations, So I'm not worried about neighbors. But I know he's definitely going before I'm willing to take him, and I think that Marvin Harrison Junior does as well. I actually do have him at twelve, but that's sort of a really clustered like I could rank any of these guys at you know, ten, eleven, twelve, thirty, forty, fifteen and any order any day, because they're all basically largely the same. The challenge that I think a lot of fantasy drafters are going to run into, and this is something that happened with Kyle Pitts even in his rookie season, but especially after that point. But his rookie season, Kyle Pitts goes out. He has a thousand yard season for a tight end, which is unheard of. Like Dicka and that was it, that was the list. Now we have two on that list, and yet he only had, you know, he was it was the two touchdowns that year, so he didn't find the end zone and.

00:25:48
Speaker 3: So therefore he was a disappointment.

00:25:49
Speaker 2: People drafted him at tight end four or tight end five and he finished at tight end six. So he's a massive disappointment because of that. I maybe exaggerating a little bit, but that was the general sentiment. Draft a player at his ceiling, there's usually only one outcome for you, as a casual or even more intermediate.

00:26:07
Speaker 3: Level fantasy player. It's disappointment.

00:26:09
Speaker 2: You're gonna be disappointed because you expected ceiling and you probably got closer to midpoint. So if you're stepping up to draft Marvin Harrison Junior as a top ten wide receiver, be aware of that. Yes, it's an interesting situation Kyler. I think is a good skill set match for Kyler. There's very little competition for targets among the wide receivers Michael Wilson and then a whole lot of nothing. Yes, McBride is there, James Conner will catch the ball out of the backfield a little bit, but it's a good spot. However, that would be my biggest fear is drafting him at his ceiling and then expecting ceiling level production.

00:26:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's fair. There's definitely just in general, like I think that we have to recognize too, just as like a fantasy community, that when you're drafting players in the first first round and a half of a draft, there's only going to be a handful of players that actually like exceed and I say handful, I mean like four guys that like truly exceed that expectation of what we think, like what we're expecting these guys to do based on that draft capital. Like we're all draft you know, we feel very confident about, you know, those the big six or seven wide receivers or however many there are, Like we feel good about Amen Ros, Saint Brown and Justin Jefferson. But number one, some of these guys are probably gonna underperform. And then you get to the latter parts of the first round and you get into a little bit more ambiguity. We can love Garrett Wilson, there's obvious reasons like Errett Wilson, but again, you know, meeting expectation is not very easy, you know, in those early rounds. And I do think you hit the nail on the head with Marvin Harrison Junior. And it goes back to what we were talking about before. When you get into the second round, things just get flat, like it's just a very flat range. And it just goes to show that the front half of your draft usually this is the case, I mean getting the one oh one. You know, people always ask what draft slot is best. It's usually just get the first pick in the draft or get an early pick in the draft right instead of getting at the tail end. This year, it's just so glaringly obvious that the front half of your draft is better than the back half because the front half you end up getting one of those studs, and then the second round comes around, everyone's the same in the second round, and then there's another drop off as you get to the end of the third round, so you get screwed again if you're in that back part of the of the first round. So I think that's kind of why. Because I have Marvin Harrison ranked pretty similar, I actually now have him below. I like Jalen Wattle a lot this year, so I have Wattle ahead of him, and I actually like Chris Alave with the offensive coordinator change and stuff there, and so I think that you can make the argument for him over him over over Harrison and stuff. And I'm not gonna fault anyone if they want to throw like a Nico over him, or DeVante Adams over whoever. Like, there's just so many of those guys. But I still have Marvin Harrison, you know, ranked in that like top twelve ish range. But a lot of that just has to do with the alternatives there, you know, like like what else is there to really throw ahead of him? But I will say that that if you look at like historical rookie production and you look at how they perform versus ADP expectation over the last decade, it's been pretty good. We just haven't seen a wide receiver because obviously expectation rises if you're going in the early second round. But you know, guys like Jamar Chase when they were rookies, and Amari Cooper is another one who was drafted relatively early whenever he was a rookie, those guys dominant, like they had a really good rookie season to be able to beat expectations. So I think that's sort of the the look for Harrison. Were you one of those people who had Molik Neighbors above Marvin Harrison as prospects or were you were you Harrison over Neighbors.

00:29:31
Speaker 3: No, it was Harrison over Neighbors.

00:29:32
Speaker 2: Fortunately, I last year I followed college football more than I ever had in the past because they actually had to cover college football and now it was a short segment for that other pregame show that I'm on throughout the season on CBS Sports Network, but it was like I had to know what was going on and get to watch them very closely. They're both very good, and so is Roman Doday for that matter, very good.

00:29:55
Speaker 3: The landscape is changing. You know.

00:29:58
Speaker 2: Part of this is because running the aren't getting paid what they used to, and especially when you look at the overall salaries in comparison to some of these other positions, like top running guys getting twelve million a year, top wide receiver is getting thirty plus million a year, it's not even fair. And so you know, I actually talked to Mark Ingram when I was at the Super Bowl on radio Row had him on my radio show, and I asked him flat out, like, do you think this is going to change at the youth level, And he said I do. He said, you know, back when I was young, you're the best kid on the on the team you either played running back or quarterback, right yeah, And he said, now a lot of those kids are now playing wide receiver corner like things like that, playing both both ways maybe. And now you also have kids coming into the college level, college level with polished route trees like that. Remember the third year wide receiver. We just don't see that anymore because there's so much more polish coming into this and like all three of those guys that I just mentioned are uber uber polished already. It's it's going to change things for sure, But this this will also be make or break, Like if Marvin Harrison Junior does not meet expectations. We know the pendulum always swings way further than it should. Like remember twenty sixteen, the year of zero RB and Alan Robinson gets hurt in the very first game, DeAndre Hopkins has a down season. Overall passing was down across the league, and the reaction was back to OURB centric in twenty seventeen, that could happen with rookie wide receivers.

00:31:26
Speaker 3: Who knows. I mean, we'll see.

00:31:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good point. It's a good point because I mean, look, like I said, rookies historically have been very very good against ADP in redraft, but we haven't seen ADP quite like this we have at times with running backs. Obviously didn't work out as well for like Bijon and like Ceh, but it did for Zeke and Jamiir Gibbs who had relatively sakuon, like Najie Harris, like It's worked out for a lot of those guys too. It's just this is the first time that we're really entering this landscape with wide receivers. And by the way, you mentioned mark Ingram, if you ever talk to him again, tell them to unblock me on Twitter. I once like it was my fault. It was one hundred percent of my fault. It was when he got suspended for steroid use and he returned to action and I sent a snarky tweet because he had a really really good game the first game back after his suspension, and I sent a tweet out that said something along lines of mark Ingram's running like he just came out that they just just got got done using steroids. So it was a it was a it was a necessary blocker. I deserved it. I deserved I deserve that to Kevin Matumba for that one, for sure. So all right, so we talked about this a little bit with the the backfields with like Tennessee and pitt or in Cincinnati. I want to ask you about Pittsburgh as well, because I'm always advocating and this is just based on my research and stuff. What I call people to target in the middle rounds what I call ambiguous backfields, So backfields where you get multiple middle round running backs from the same backfield. People want to avoid them because of the uncertainty. But really those are the kinds of the back the kind of backfields you want to go after because of the uncertainty. That's why their prices are lower than uh, you know otherwise they otherwise would be. So we have three that I think are the most intriguing from an ambiguity standpoint. You have Tennessee, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati. I want to ask you out of those three backfields at cost so you know you have different ADPs for these guys. You know, they're not really drastically different, i'd say, from like one player to the next. So this really could just be who do you like more period out of these backfields, But give me the player from these backfields that you would prefer, and maybe some of these backfields you're like, I'm just throwing darts evenly across my drafts.

00:33:31
Speaker 2: I think Tennessee is the evenly. If I was to say, of those, and that's based on my best ball portfolio, it's kind of been whoever's there, I'll take, and I just want one of them. I don't want both of them. I don't want to do that. You know, what's the argument that people say, Oh, I want to lock up all the points in the background. No, you just created yourself a weekly conundrum.

00:33:50
Speaker 1: It's a floor not a ceiling player exactly.

00:33:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I don't mind either. I mean Tony Pollard, the volume was great last year. It's just he was exceedingly unefficient in the in the at the goal line, Spears is explosive. So I mean, maybe he gives you a little bit more of a ceiling, maybe a tiny higher floor for Pollard, but we could see a legit fifty to fifty, like no change, Like they're playing the same role.

00:34:14
Speaker 3: They're just rotating in the role. So that's the one drawback there. Pittsburgh.

00:34:18
Speaker 2: You know, I originally was thinking Warren, but and it's not really the hamstring as much like I don't think Naji Harris gets the appreciation that he deserves.

00:34:28
Speaker 1: I kind of agree with you. Yeah, I kind of agree with you.

00:34:30
Speaker 2: If you did that thing that people do on Twitter where they're like here's player X and here's his stats, like nobody would be able to guess that it was Naji Harris. He has not missed a single game in his career. It's top to one thousand yards each of those seasons. Double digit touchdowns, total touchdowns, first two years, eight, last year. He catches the ball out to the backfield. Sure he's a plotter, Sure he's not explosive, but the world needs RB twos as well, Like they can't all just be elite running backs, and Naji Harris kind of checks that box for me.

00:35:00
Speaker 3: Now, of course, it's.

00:35:01
Speaker 2: The RDY party in Pittsburgh with Arthur Smith, so you do have to at least deal with that. As far as Cincinnati, Like, I'm with you on this one, it's Chase Brown and it's not really close for me at this point. I do have Zach Moss Best Ball shares because you have to if you're if you're playing in enough best ball leagues. But Chase Brown gives you that explosive upside. I mean, he is a screen pass dynamo. I mean, get the ball in his hands and let things happen, and you know in the process. Like I had always had this perception because you know, when you don't see these guys in person, some guys maybe play a little smaller or a little bigger than.

00:35:37
Speaker 3: What they really are.

00:35:38
Speaker 2: I thought he was smaller than he actually is. Like he's not a small but it's not one hundred and eighty five pounds out there, so he actually and he handled a big workload at the college level, so he could potentially take that backfield and run with it. The other thing too, And I know you've dabbled in some next gen stats a little bit. Zack Moss was one of if you looked at speeds speed last year, he was one of the lowest backs in the league. And it was like the list was at the bottom of list with Zach Moss Kareem Hunt, who was on his last leg, Like literally yeah, and like do I really want that? Like sure, he can have some plunges for touchdowns, but I don't want to play the Mike Allstock game here. I would rather have that explosive upside in an explosive offense. So Chase Brown there.

00:36:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like those picks a lot that the nause thing. For whatever reason, He's been one of my highest rostered Best Balmania backs and I'm almost I'm like one hundred and thirty five in so I'm almost maxed out in Best Balmania And a lot of the logic there is. I just think that Nasey might be one of those guys that coaching stabs like more than a fantasy analyst does when we're looking at some of these efficiency metrics. But not only that, he really wasn't that bad. I think that you like I faded him last like I wasn't as into him last year at cost just because he was going like the third round. Now he's not going in the third round. And so you know last year, you know, I was part of the well, what if Jalen Warren is bett, like they want to split the backfield up more than we thing, YadA YadA, YadA, which sure like good relatively proper take. But I won't lie Naji Harris his numbers, especially like down the stretch last year, he was a lot more efficient than I think people realize, Like he wasn't nearly as bad of a actual running back then folks realize, and now you get Arthur Smith coming in. It wouldn't shock me if sure like it could end up being a fifty to fifty situation. That's why ADP's look the way that they do. But it also wouldn't shock me if they just slightly favor nause a little bit and that's enough for him to beat ADP, and then you have the upside of Okay, Jalen Warren's already hurt obviously, but if he does get hurt more long term, doesn't seem like it's long term, then nause ceiling will definitely hit. I like the take with Tennessee, I've been getting both of them. I always just say I'm going for Spears because he's been cheaper for the most part. But I think Pollard, like like you said, Tony Pollard last year, from like an expected fantasy points standpoint, was totally fine. He just couldn't find the end zone. He couldn't convert at the goal line. That's been really, really frustrating. And then the Chase Brown stuff man like he carried a huge workload in college, like you said, a little bit bigger. It's like two o nine ish, a little bit bigger than people realize he's not that much smaller. There's not that big of a size difference between him and like a Zach Moss. I think it's just that, you know, maybe it's just like the way that we view things with the explosion and the explosiveness, is that when you see that kind of speed, you automatically think less weight, you know, and you attribute less weight to that player. But yeah, I mean, like, do you think there it's a reasonable thing to think in terms of range of outcomes that Chase Brown could end up being a bell Count Cincinnati this year.

00:38:32
Speaker 2: I mean, it's within the range of outcomes for sure. It's you know, how do we define bell cow Are you talking like sixteen plus touches per game?

00:38:40
Speaker 3: That might be tough.

00:38:42
Speaker 2: But yeah, then again, if Zach Moss is a plotter out there, then you know, strange things happened last year coming in everybody said, oh, it's gonna be Damian Pearson. It was Devin Singletary, right, the guy who we didn't see coming. I think a lot more of a see the Chase Brown thing coming in the beautiful aspect he and this is why I love, you know, avoiding the dead zone and then really attacking after we get out of the dead zone. Is if you hit on even one of these guys the ROI on that is massive for your team, and you're way ahead of your opponents.

00:39:17
Speaker 3: In the process.

00:39:17
Speaker 2: You kept pace with them at wide receiver or maybe even outpaced them at wide receiver, and then boom, you.

00:39:22
Speaker 3: Just caught up to them.

00:39:23
Speaker 2: Hopefully laughed him at running back as well. When you hit on guys like that, and that's what I'm looking for, massive ceilings.

00:39:29
Speaker 1: He does offer that, right, The running backs that are gonna go a round or two ahead of him just aren't gonna give you in terms of even projectable output like the Yes, their projectable output looks better, but the delta, like the actual difference in that output is just not significant enough and not like league winning enough for you to say, oh, I got to get this guy who has his backfield to himself versus this other guy who's more in this ambiguous situation, who can at least give us maybe some flex slow end RB two production without an injury, but with an injury or just talent emerging. It's it's it's rocket ship emojis, all right, So let's talk about the quarterback position. Obviously something that you know, I've written about a lot in my in my history, and I feel like every time I go on podcast now, they're like, you've got to talk about quarterbacks, man, because you're the late round quarterback guy. And I'm like, okay, this is like it's it's it's a little bit of a different landscape these days. But speaking of that landscape, how are you approaching that position this year? And do you agree with me that the market at quarterbacks seems incredibly efficient, especially versus what it was five, six, seven years ago.

00:40:36
Speaker 2: I do agree there the common man, the water cooler drafters out there have caught on. It used to be they drafted quarterbacks early and often because they scored the most points, and they kind of neglected to understand value of a replacement and all of that.

00:40:54
Speaker 3: So yeah, it has caught up.

00:40:55
Speaker 2: But there still are a lot of folks who, you know, feel that need, you know, to draft the quarterback early, or they do this thing that they feel the need to fill their starting spots and then draft their bench. And I always say, hey, if you're drafting bench players, you're not drafting starters. There are players who should be on your bench. So maybe pivot away from that and start thinking about it as a complete roster, like a holistic view to your roster. But yeah, much more so. I still think that there are spots to find value at quarterback, and the way that I've been approaching it is kind of seeing if there's any chance one of the elite guys falls, and I say three rounds, which doesn't happen in home leagues, but it occasionally happens in industry leagues, and I'm gonna pounce on one of those top four. Otherwise I find the best value is usually round ten. Weirdly enough, top twelve guys in one quarterback league's fall to round ten.

00:41:51
Speaker 3: They do.

00:41:51
Speaker 2: You will occasionally see brock Purty. I had a subscriber at Ftnfantasy dot Com who said he got Kyler Murray. There was like, dude, that's stealing. Yes, Like that's great, Like they leave them there, then take them. If not, then yeah, I'm totally happy to go with with a late round approach. But if I can grab Jordan Love brock Purdy, Hell, if you're gonna give me Kyler Murray there, I'm not getting Richardson. We know that he's not gonna make it. I'm not getting Stroud Dak Prescott. I don't know why people have this aversion. They're like allergic to Dak In some fantasy leagues. Guy thirty six passing touchdowns last year and he could be playing for the most lucrative free agency contract in NFL history if they don't figure something out. And it doesn't sound very good right now there, so I would love to do that. That's usually those are the guys. I don't think Burrow gets there, but those are usually the guys who might be available in round ten.

00:42:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I think it mostly most normal leagues, you're gonna find that a low MQB one will just naturally fall because people aren't gonna be taking backup quarterbacks before they're filling out some bench spots on their roster and stuff, and so naturally you might be able to take advantage because there's a pretty decent tier you know of of those players, are you are you drafting the the rookie duo, the Jayden Daniels Caleb Williams duo.

00:43:07
Speaker 2: Well, I was drafting Jade and Daniels until he went up boards, Like if he's going in round nine, then no, Caleb still hangs around a little bit longer, and I'd be totally fine with him if the other guys dried up. You know, PERTY love all those guys at the back end of the the qb Ones. Totally fine with Kayleb Williams. He and this isn't a reaction to the preseason. I watched him all the way through college. This is a kid who came in Oklahoma, had a Heisman candidate, a possible first overall pick ahead of him, and he said, screw that. I'm taking the job from this dude. And obviously Spencer Rattler has turned out to what Spencer Rattler is, but not phased. I loved in Hard Knocks this week where he's like, yeah, I don't The only time I ever got nervous was my first game in high school.

00:43:50
Speaker 1: He's got that blew me away just hearing that, because I believed him too whenever he said that, you know, like, oh.

00:43:58
Speaker 2: He has the ability to play both inside and outside structure. He can make throws that yeah, a lot of these guys can make in practice. He can make an end a game. He has the ability to move. He's not Jaden Daniels from a speed standpoint, he's more mahomesy in and that he will take what the defense gives him. But also that scramble, he did show some athletic chops to scramble out of trouble and then ultimately turn it into six points for his offense. So I like him a lot if I was gonna get any other guy like for you know, the ability to exceed expectation with a ceiling in this range, like Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert they're going in the late round, and I mean rightfully so, but remember last year you weren't even sniffing either one of these guys in this range. They still have that ceiling. Yes, it's a different situation a lot for Herbert, it's not for Trevor Lawrence. In fact, he has maybe better weapons downfield for more of a you know, the upside. So I don't mind those guys. And I mean you can get TUA for freed back here as well, like there are still options if you don't get that that value in the tenth nine tenth round like I mentioned.

00:45:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I think those are good call outs because we're gonna see one of those guys probably have sort of an outlier touchdown rate type season because we do every single year with these pocket passers. Now, are we gonna be able to pinpoint exactly who that dude is? Not necessarily, but I think that you can at least increase your probability a little bit. Like you said, like Trevor Lawrence is something that I've gone to a lot and like best Ball especially not only is it easily stackable, but like you said, it's like you know, they add gave Davis, who at least can play the role that he plays. And then and then Brian Thomas, who I liked a lot as a prospect and already is showing up. You have Christian Kirk who can play both inside out, probably will play inside in three wide sets. I mean it's a good offensive situation, and we know the talent hypothetically would be there for Lawrence. I like that call out a lot speaking of Jacksonville, just as an offense in general, you know, if you're able to pinpoint offenses at a high level instead of just digging into the individual players, you can win fantasy football just by doing that, by understanding which offenses in general are going to exceed expectation because everyone in an offense will then be able to exceed expectation. Do you have any sort of lower key offenses that you think are flying under the radar right now that might be able to surprise people this year?

00:46:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, there are some every single year. I mean you do have to dig in the creates a little bit.

00:46:17
Speaker 3: For sure.

00:46:17
Speaker 2: You can't just say Atlanta because everybody's gonna say Atlanta, right. I think a couple that would stand out to me, Like we talked about the Tennessee backfield, like if Will Levis does take a step forward, and that's I mean, let's read between the lines. That's why Brian Callahan.

00:46:32
Speaker 1: Was hired exactly.

00:46:33
Speaker 2: You know, if he can take a step forward with his ability to push the ball vertically. Now, granted that was to a fault last year, like the age old misnomer, is it quarterbacks? Young quarterbacks check down? No, they don't. They throw vertically, and that's a problem in the NFL with these athletic safeties back there. But you do have downfield dynamo and Calvin Ridley and Andrea DeAndre Hopkins was coming off a rare target year for him too, so there's a lot of juice there. I think those guys could potentially exceed expectations even though they're not. You know, we've never heard of these guys their household names. But there's still much better values, Like Calvin really is way better valued than last year Denver. I really think bo Nix is a solid quarterback. He can move the offense. So Cortland Sutton, you're getting a dirt cheap value. If Javonte Williams can actually get back to pre injury form now that he's a full year removed, returns some value there. And then the squad that I think is probably the most intriguing but by far the most question marks is Carolina. Dave Kanalis was able to revitalize Gino Smith's career. He was able to revitalize and granted give credit to Gino, give credit to Baker Mayfield, but he did the same thing for Baker Mayfield. Can he now do so for Bryce Young only a year two. They may not have Xavier Lagette out there in the beginning of the season because he missed so much time in camp. It might be mingo early, but you don't have to do it at the end of the first round at wide receiver to keep him as your number four receiver Deontay Johnson can stay healthy, he should exceed expectation. And then Jonathan Brooks depends on when he gets on the field, but he is a superior player to Shooba Hubbard and Miles Sanders. So I think that's a team. It's going to take a little bit of time to jael, but let's not forget like last year. You know, five weeks into the season, people are cutting Jordan Love left and right, and then he goes on down the stretch to play at an MVP caliber. He was doing things that really we had only seen out of MVP quarterbacks in the past. So it does take some time for some of these offenses a jail, but you know, those would be some of the deeper ones that I'm not afraid to get exposure to because the cost is so cheap right now.

00:48:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love those calls. I love the Tennessee one in particular. You know you mentioned the Will Levis stuff throwing it downfield. He threw a downfield twenty plus yards at like and eight percentage points higher than any other quarterback last year. It was just absolutely wild. But here's the thing. Like with Will Levis, you get better weapons around him, you get a pass heavier offense too around him with with Brian Callahan stef they're gonna run a lot more eleven personnel. Like could we see just like a d gaff Jamis Winston type year out of Will Levis? And yes, I think we could And if we do, that's fantasy football heaven like that, that's what we would like. We don't care about the the interceptions as much, right, Like, they're not that big of a deal even from a quarterback scoring standpoint. But if you're gonna see that volume and see that volume down the field, I'm with you, man. I have a ton of Calvin Ridley, unfortunately, have a ton of DeAndre Hopkins. I only say that unfortunately because obviously his ADP fell, you know, after the injury. But I am I am. I don't want to say all in on the Tennessee offense, but I think that's the at least my one a offense, uh that that could end up surprising the season because there's just a lot of pieces to be bullish about. And it's not like like I always like when we get this like regime change and like you might see a complete you know, a black and just a flip of what we saw with Rabel and going to a completely different fallo with Brian Callahan. You know, the offensive line is somewhat of a question mark, but they got Callahan to coach the offensive line too, which I think could be a really, really big boom. So I'm with you. I like that call out a ton. All right, Before I let you go, Jeff, give me two of your favorite double digit round picks for fantasy football this season.

00:50:19
Speaker 2: I love drafting for ceiling at wide receiver in this range. So the first one is going to be a d Mitchell and also another player who may not necessarily be a clear starter at the beginning of the season, but he is a speedsier, can play downfield. And it's always alarming if you have a player who does something and then the team drafts kind of the exact same player. So Alec Pierce, even if he is having a nice camp, the writing was on the wall there. Now they'll probably both be on the field as long as Josh Downs is out, but once he's back, I mean, this is like a late season play with that big arm of Anthony Richardson. I love to fit there. And then the other one, all right, let's react to the news of the day. I think Luke McCaffrey's kind of interesting now all of a sudden, I didn't initially, but hey, like a week ago we hear Dan Quinn saying they're searching for their number two receiver, and everybody's like, well, Jehan Dotson, I guess that that isn't a thing, And now obviously it isn't. It opens the door. There's I mean, Diami Brown, Is there a Lamide Zakias? Those guys aren't going to move the needle as much as a guy with the last name McCaffrey who isn't quite his brother. No, but he can be an effective slot receiver. He has a little bit of juice to him as well. He can run after catch, and he's now seemingly going to get an opportunity to contribute in that offense.

00:51:36
Speaker 3: So why not throw a dart at him in the late rounds? Yeah?

00:51:39
Speaker 1: I think that's a great, great call. And for the record, we're recording this on Thursday. Before you know, there's been rumors flying around about like Brandon I you going there and then opening things up, So just to be clear, we have no idea what they're doing. Aside from the fact that they traded Johan Dotson to the Eagles, that's all we know and seeming like look, bottom line is anytime a team makes a trade like that, like I think that ninety nine percent chance that they did that because he was a potential cut candidate and they didn't want to like fully not that they would just full on cut him, but they wanted to get something for him because he they didn't like what they saw out of him. To your point, they were talking about that through the media just last week. The thing though with McCaffrey is like too often fantasy managers just think in terms of like wide receiver, one wide receiver, two, wide receiver three. With these teams with wide every wide receiver is playing like a different position, right, And when it comes to McCaffrey, like you said, he's a slot guy, and that's huge because they were lining up Dotson in the slot to get some slot work. You know, he's played on the perimeter throughout his his brief career so far, but they were lining him up in the slot with Diami Brown on the perimeter, right. And so if Johan Dotson is gone, that is a quite literal replacement place for Luke McCaffrey to step in and see work there. And it's been it's kind of been a position in the Cliff Kingsbury offense that's not been that bad in terms of being targeted at a pretty decent rate. So I'm with you, man. I think it's a very very intriguing pick for short and interestingly enough, ad Ni Mitchell, someone who played on the perimeter in college, is now getting some slot work with Josh downs out. So that's good to see that that like, he's not just stapled to that one place in that one position. And you mentioned him being sort of like an Alec Pierce, just straight up replacement in my prospect model. Alec Pierce was one of Adni Mitchell's top comps statistical comps, and.

00:53:24
Speaker 3: That was type Yeah, that's the alarm bells.

00:53:27
Speaker 2: Interestingly enough, by the way, bo Nix, you know, my comp for him was Russell Wilson. So there you go, Sean Payton real quick too, before before we.

00:53:34
Speaker 3: Do get out of here. You made a great point there. Teams do not think of it this way.

00:53:39
Speaker 2: And I got attacked, imagine this on on Twitter never at the NFL Draft when I said Brock Bauers doesn't play the same position as Michael Mayer, and people are like, oh, but Michael Mayer is an inline tight end, Like he's a catch and fall down dude. Now he can catch quite well and you can also fall down well. Brock Bowers is a dynamic weapon who is a move option who's probably best put in the slot or even out wide. They play different positions. Coaches look at it that way. When you watch them draw up on the board. They don't say wide receiver one, two, three, they're x Z. You know, they're letters for these positions. And some guys can play across those positions, but a lot of them don't, you know. And that's really important intel and great call out on Luke McCaffrey.

00:54:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, look, and that's why like fantasy analysts who are digging into that stuff a little bit more than others, let's say, are just like, you know, average and casual NFL fans, Like we looked at like the Giants last year, for instance, and we're like, why do they have eight slot receivers, like like all they're do And then not only that, but then they draft Jalen Hyatt, who in college and I mean in that really weird system that he played in. He lined up in the slot where he got the majority of his production. So it was like, this is kind of a weird fit too, when they clearly need a perimeter guy. Now, obviously they go out and they get the league neighbors who can play anywhere, you know, this season. But that's the kind of stuff that's more interesting, I think, and most important to us is understanding the type of receiver that we're dealing with and how they sort of slot in, because a lot of times you might see, you know, a guy that looks like he could be the wide receiver too or quote unquote wide receiver two, but maybe he's only a slot guy, and they already have, you know, a very very good slot guy in that lineup, and so that player then is not going to find the field nearly as frequently, which is why this Dotson move the biggest I mean, obviously Terry McLaurin probably a little bit of a winner, but to me, the biggest winner has to be Luke McCaffrey at the.

00:55:32
Speaker 3: End of the day. Yeah, I love that right there, And.

00:55:36
Speaker 2: I think that the fantasy masses will adjust a little bit as we move into these these final two weekends of drafts, but you're still gonna be able to get him in the late rounds.

00:55:45
Speaker 3: So good, good call out.

00:55:47
Speaker 1: One hundred percent Jeff Man. This was an awesome, awesome back and forth. Love chatting it up. Let everyone know where they can find you and what you're working on.

00:55:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely so. Ftmfantasy dot com is the website. If you want to use promo code rat pack, you'd get temptent off of a radio show on Sirius XM nine to eleven am Eastern, the very originally named Jeff Ratcliffe Show Monday through Friday of a podcast called The Rant, And this season will be my ninth season on CBS Sports Network Sunday mornings, eight to noon Eastern. It's called that other pregame show or TOPS. It's a comprehensive look at football. It's not just a regular pregame show. We have all that stuff, but we also talk betting, fantasy, all of that.

00:56:26
Speaker 3: All on one show.

00:56:27
Speaker 2: It's the best show out there, and we're the first show Boots on the ground eight am on Sunday mornings, So tune in.

00:56:33
Speaker 1: I can't believe it's been nine years, all right, neither can I that is wild help flas. You can find all my stuff as usual over on late round dot com. Check out the Draft Guide. Make sure you use that underdog promo. You can get a free Draft Guide if you're not an underdog user with promo code late Round. Otherwise, everyone, good luck this weekend in your drafts, and as always, thanks for tuning into the past.