Free Agency Fallout: 10 Dynasty Takeaways for 2026 - Dynasty Fantasy Football

[music] Welcome to the Fantasy Footballer's Dynasty Podcast with Borg Betts in the Baller. [music] Welcome in! It's Wednesday, March 11th. Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Podcast. I'm your host, Cobb Organoni, and I'm joined by Microite and Pre-Agent Wizard, Andy Holloway. Happy to join one of these. It's good to be here. Matthew Betts is peaking his guts out. He's disturbed. He's down with the sickness. Both ends, probably. Both ends. He knew. He knew it was something to do. Yeah, he did. He told us like five days ago. He's like suspiciously. My kids are sick with this stomach bug. It's probably coming for us. I might not make the show. And what, like 3 a.m. this morning? Yeah, he knew it was coming. He was whining and complaining about it. Which, by the way, do you guys want to give any preemptive like, "Hey, I'm gonna be sick." That's like a, I feel like that's the Josh thing. And then you do the research. It is. And then you find out. Josh is looking aghast, by the way. Oh, Josh has never been sick a day in his life. Yeah. You got to know this. Josh is just also coincidentally. There we go. Always show up when a video game is released. That's what, that's the time. Yeah, get sick. Yeah. He's under the weather. He's not sick. Oh. I did realize that we've done one show on the Dynasty Podcasts together, the three of us. We've done it before. Okay. And. Yeah. That surprised me a little bit, but. Well, I had to figure out what the topic was. And it was old people. We talked about old players. So that's. Oh, that's the hallway special. That makes sense for me. I think it was. I know how to identify players by age. That's one of my skills. Oh, that one. He's old. I think it was when your Dynasty team was holding on for dear life with the old of all the olds. Which now, update on Andy's Dynasty life. He does not have them anymore. I don't have anything. I've got nothing. I've got no picks. So no players. I did. I mean, I have like. You have picks for next. Yeah, I have one. I have five picks this year. But they're not in the first round. I think it's two or three seconds and a couple of thres. I've got almost nothing next year. I stocked up piles and piles of picks for 2028. But, man, let me just tell you. If I can give a message to the Dynasty manager out there. Abandon all reason and just hold on for dear life. It's way more fun. I hate being. It's terribly. I do. It's not fun. I'm not good. My team sucks. I have to rebuild. It took 12 years. I wish you took 20. I don't like it. It's not fun. But my team sucks. It is truly all for the best as the champ. Yeah. Being me. Yeah. my team free agency has been pretty kind to my roster. It has gotten better than it was last year. If you ever see Corey Kroski, Meredith and Julien McLaughlin are my starting running back. Right now. Right now. I'm just looking at my roster. You guys want to know this sick roster? Didn't McLaughlin. Oh, he doesn't have a team. Yeah. He got let go, right? Yeah. No, I'm not for you. He wave. He's a star for me. Nice. Nice. I can move. Don't worry. I can move Dylan Samson in if I need him. You probably will. Um, I've got. Yeah. Jakobie Crockett. I've got apparently, you know, Jakobie reset might start this year. Let me put him in my starting quarterback spot. That I'm. Theo Johnson. Did things break good for him on the free agent day? All right. Let me go and swap him out for Hunter Henry. I'm set now. De and could I'm appalled by my own. I would also not watch day one of the NFL draft if you have high hopes for Jakore Croskey Merit. It's a star player. I mean, good dude. What the odds of Jeremiah love at Washington have gone up. I have. I couldn't have lower expectations for any of my players. I am a waste of space in this league. I've renamed my own team. My gets to name it. That's the punishment if you finish last place. I've renamed my own team preemptively to Mike's butt. So I don't know what he's going to choose for me, but I just don't feel like a server real name. Me and beat Keter are still in the shop. We're working on it. You got some finalists. We do. Okay. We do. And I can't make me feel worse about my team. So I can't wait. Somehow Mike's butt preemptive strike is probably going to lessen the blow. Yeah. It won't be that bad to move off of that. I will serve as Mike's fungus. Okay. Because somehow that sounds worse. It does. Yeah. Keep keep keep workshop in here. On this episode, we are going to break down the free agency fallout from a dynasty perspective. So on the main show, you guys got to talk through a bunch of names kind of quick hitting analysis. We're going to try to zoom out here. So maybe for somebody who's a contender like Mike, definitely a contender like Jeremy and I, which we were right there. Or maybe somebody like Andy that gets to kind of zoom out by years, decades at a time even. Decades, decades and I have a five year plan. Oh, man. So we'll talk about some of these. I really want to get your perspective on some of these quarterbacks. I know we've talked about Malik Willis a little bit. We probably have a little bit of different perspective. And that's, that's good. I want us to disagree a little bit. We'll talk about Kenneth Walker and how things have gone so so well. Oh, man. I'm interested too. We're going to talk about Bucky Irving in a second because the vibes on Bucky Irving a year ago. And then the vibes now are completely different. And do you guys know that I had as many red zone carry or carries inside the five is by Irving last year. It's, it's bad. It felt like it was, it did feel like a loss season for Bucky, like entirely. Like it was almost like, it was like a race that got started and your shoe keeps coming untied and you never actually start the race. It just, it never felt like we got, I think that might be something that talks people into him a little bit is the idea that we know how good of a player he was. But we didn't get to see much from that offense last year. I don't know. Yeah, it's, it's tough because Bucky beat the trend of all of the day three running backs that we said, hey, just don't pay attention to them. We saw a lot of success from those running backs this year, right? Like, oh, scataboo. We saw a manungai. All these guys, jacquart crosskey merit. And we're like, maybe this is a trend. And now we're looking up and we're like, okay, so they add a running back. Are they going to add another running back to that mix? That's the goal line guy. So it's a kick in the nards for the day three running backs. It really is. It is pretty interesting to reflect back on that of the day three guys that were safe. We've seen day three guys be productive. But the advice on that is almost always, this guy is not safe. Do not, do not overly value what happened with Damien Pierce with James Robinson in, you know, like day three guys people come in and they just, they, they want to upgrade at that position. And it seemed like scataboo and Bucky Irving were going to be just fine. But I don't know that the rumors, even though you know, the, the big guys are gone. Like the big free agent names are gone, but there still is the draft. So I think you're, I think you're still on alert that with the amount of smoke that was coming out of giant's rumor mills of them going after Kenneth Walker and, or, or ETN, you know, all the big names got linked to him. And they're still in the Jeremiah love zone of the draft that should he there. Are they have five Kyle? Do you know off the top of your head? The giant. I think that's right. I think the giants are five and Titans are four. So that'll be, that'll be a, a big time watch for, for people who have the 101 versus people who have scat that number four pick, because Jeremiah love is, Jeremiah love is fantastic. If he goes to the Titans, he will, I think he will still have a good career. But the Titans, I don't think are turning it around in year one. And not necessarily the, the, the giants are as well, but I think the giants are more likely to, but it's like if love goes to the, the Titans, I think you will have a little bit of a bum bummer because the giants and Washington were in play. So you have that side, but then you got the people who have scat who are just going to be freaking losing their minds at pick four to see if love goes or not. Yeah, I, I feel like this time of year, and we'll go through it and see how tempered we can be. But it's never really been the best pattern to just project last year's team success onto the future year. We have so much turnover. Like I, I'll forever remember how down we were on, you know, Jalen Waddle because of how terrible Miami was when they made that selection. And there are players, I think, destinations for even free agent signings where we're looking at these teams and going, well, that's not as sexy as it could have been. But teams, it switches quickly like this ETN move. It's like 3-4-5 weeks into the season with ETN. on New Orleans, we might have a completely different thought process where it's like, well, this is a division, you know, Mike Evans leaves Tampa Bay. They're often looked like a problem. They Todd Bulls could be on the last legs there. Carolina's made great defensive moves, but is Bryce young yet, right? And then Atlanta, they are, they don't exist. They are not good. So it's like, New Orleans, if we're, if New Orleans is the Saints of a legit, four and two, five and one, you know, to start the season, all of a sudden, it's like, ET and join the winner. They didn't join the loser. Right, right, right. For sure. If you want to get all the updates of all of the free agency happenings, they are in the ultimate draft kit plus. We just had our post-combined update. And this year, we added brand new scatting reports of all the top players that we have ranked among rookies. We're going to be adding more to that as we get closer to the draft as we kind of figure out which names are in the conversation there. And yeah, like every single one of these moves, our team is like, when Romeo dobs signed, when we're recording, we can talk about that. In case you didn't know, Mike's dynasty squad. Yeah, baby. And he's been there the whole time, right? That's all I've been thinking about. I just thought you were happy for the man. I am. Well, I am. This is where the fantasy and reality converged of how do you believe in that? I've been on situations. I've believed in Romeo dobs more than I think the consensus. I've never claimed Romeo dobs is like this elite electric wide receiver one, but it's a they're not giving him the ball enough in green Bay is how I felt. No matter who your guy is in green Bay, your argument is they don't give my guy the ball enough. Like if your team Watson, team Jaden Reed, they had so many good players, but just their offense did it run that way. So now that with a fresh start and a huge bag of money that keeps the bag of money keeps getting bigger and smaller and bigger, depending on which Twitter reports you're reading. But Romeo dobs being at least slotted as Drake May's wide receiver one is very exciting. Yeah. Yeah. You can get all those updates ultimate draft kit.com. If you want to get on in that, but let's go through some of these free agency fallouts. I was explaining to someone a neighbor the other day of what this week is like in in our jobs, because people ask all the time, I'm sure you guys get this off. What do you guys do now? The seasons over and they're all the time. And so this week is this rush of excitement, which is like on that Monday, when we can finally tamper all together with the NFL, you're like, okay, every five seconds. There's something else that's going to pop up. The con of that, though, is that it feels like we have to like keep reacting and keep giving takes and keep giving implications. And then over time, you're like, I don't know half of what this means for this player. So I will just say quickly reacting is part of the business part of what we do. But we also can overreact like I was looking at a winners and losers article from last year. And one of the statements, which I'm sure all of us did was man, Minnesota, glad they didn't use that money on Sam Darnold. Instead, they used in these other directions. It's dangerous because we're assuming what we know about these teams. And I think we all assumed with J.J. McCarthy, he would be a, you know, they took him in the first round for a reason. And obviously Sam Darnold better than he was. Yes. And Mike still thinks there's life for for J.J. McCarthy. I have been dynasty. I think there's still his life. I'm holding on by a thread, though, man, right? We, it's Kyler where we're still, we need the finalization of Kyler being removed from the Arizona Cardinals and then him exploring the market. I know odds, you know, anywhere that's giving odds of Kyler's destination, Minnesota is the heavy favorite. It makes, it makes way too much sense for it to happen. But I'm holding out hope that it doesn't. So we're going to walk through 10 different situations, signings, releases, trades and give you the dynasty perspective on them. Usually on the show, we count down 10 from one, but you know what? I'm in charge of this thing. So let's go. Number one. All right. The first one, I'm going to ask this question, is do you believe in Maliquilis? And if you have them in dynasty, so let's say you have them in quarterback, or if you haven't been superflex, are you basically playing with free money? Because I don't think anybody had him on the roster saying this is a cornerstone player, even a superflex league. So first off, I'll let you go first, Andy. You've talked a little bit about Maliquilis. Like do you believe in him as a starter and maybe for fantasy? Like this can work. Definitely for fantasy. I think that that one's a foregone conclusion for me. And this team, you know, it's not like they don't have explosive weapons that can enable him to to put up okay numbers in the passing game. Devon H&N is a threat to score. He's going to catch the ball at 10 times. Jalen Waddle is going to be there. I feel confident in the fantasy prospects of Maliquilis. The does it work equation of long term success as their starter? I don't know. I mean, it's tough. It's tough to make that judgment. I loved what he did in limited work in Green Bay. But he had all the perfect structure around him and all the, you know, multi years of practicing with that team. And it's hard to come into new environment, new head coach coordinator and adapt. So I'm very confident that fantasy wise, you're going to be very happy with him. And like you said, in superflex, if you got him on the roster, you're going to be starting his free cheese. Yeah, it's awesome. But, you know, Miami's not my number one scenario situation in that division. It's going to be tough. So juries out on how many years you get that free money. But, um, but that's how I said, I mean, I, I think Maliquilis could be a very good quarterback. But that's a tough situation. You mentioned Andy that Kurt Warner came out and kind of said, he watched the film. So I did the same thing where I was like, you know what? I see what Kurt Warner is saying. I need to go see his throws from this pasture. He attempted 35 passes this past year. And so I went together, put together the thread. And I always said, I posted online. All it said is here were the 35 pass attempts. And the amount of reactions from people saying, you're judging him. Yes, literally the tweet was, here's the film. And people were just like, you must think he stinks or man, this is going to work out. And really it was two games. It was against Chicago and Baltimore and the Baltimore game. I thought he was really good. He hit dogs for a deep one. Like, I thought he was good enough. Now, that's such a small sample size. I think the people, the thing people get hung up on is the money. And in today's NFL, this is not that much money. Like if we're looking at what this cost a year or two ago, this is basically what the Jets gave Justin Fields of like, here's how much this is annually. It's not a huge commitment. It's kind of low risk. And honestly, they're paying the tax for two anyways. So money wise, it's not crazy for a, let's see what he is. They're not giving him a hundred million dollars, right? So I don't think it's crazy. I just think he wasn't asked to really be a quarterback. He was asked to be a, here's a game manager. And here's somebody who's in a good situation in Green Bay. Yeah, it was funny. As I just talked to Mike about this, the best job in the NFL's backup quarter. Oh, yeah. Because you get paid. Mario to just sign, sign to one year deal to do it again. Tyler Huntley, signing a deal to do it again. Gardner Minsch, you signing a deal to do it again. Derbisky. It's the best job because it comes with the expectations that are associated with that title. You come into a game when they don't want you in the game. Every, let's start there. They want the starter to be playing. So now stage one, they don't want you there. Stage two, if you suck, it's because you're a backup. If you succeed, you're outperforming what they're expecting you to do and you're praised. And then in Malik, Willis's case, that goes to a new contract, right? And there were rumors this offseason about Mitch Trebisky having a chance at another starting job. Like if you play well as a backup, you have a chance to get paid. The problem with Malik Willis is that there is no way possible that we can think he's worth the money he's going to get paid as a starter based on the amount of reps he's had. So his position now is automatically. It doesn't matter if it was Arizona, if it was Miami, if it was the Jets, you know, it wasn't going to be, you know, the top teams in the league picking him up. There's just no way you're going to have him land someplace and go, yep, that's right. That makes sense. It's now coming with the expectations of being a star or being a starter at least. So that's just the funny, you know, you won the prize, right? You played the backup role well enough that you now won the bag of money. But at this point, we're just going to look at him as overvalued until he performs. Yeah, and we, I mean, we're not in the locker rooms. We're not part of the team. So it's very easy for me and every and all of us to say, like, do what, do what the Arizona Cardinals are doing this year? I mean, they went and signed Gardener Menchew. That was like the big signing. And it was what in the world? It was, you know, the 10 minutes or so between the signing and then some news coming out was this is, this makes absolutely no sense because we're at, we're starting from the place of you're trying to win. But then they then they come out and they say, no, Jacobi Prasad's going to be our starter. Gardener will be the backup. And you go, oh, you're trying to lose, like, You are, you're not really trying to win. We'll frame it that way. And that it sucks that the, it's kind of, it's the true path forward. Sometimes a free agent quarterback shows up. It's very, very, very, very rare for that type of a situation. So if you find your quarterback in the draft, your probability of a good quarterback is at the top of the draft. So the truth is, for your team to get better, you have to have a year or two years where you just totally stink. And then you still have to maximize the value of those picks. But anyways, I'm saying of, it's easy for me to tell the Cardinals, you guys should just lose. Just no one try for a year, but these are all human beings working their job. So I get going after it. The more time I've sat with it, I think I'm fine with the signing. The money is whatever, it just, it feels, it's, it's all vibes, right? It's all emotion of you just had to cut to a, because you extended him when you shouldn't have extended him and you gave him all this money. And he stinks and now he's gone and you're still paying him. And you're paying this guy of, you have no idea if he's good. - I mean, if he's good at all, it's a bargain. - Exactly, if he's, if that's where I've kind of turned around and I'm okay with it and fantasy football, super flex, I'm holding. If you're in a single quarterback and like, 'cause he got picked up in single quarterback leagues last year. Now, like that tends to happen where backups when they get an opportunity, people just pick him up. If he's like your quarterback three, I mean, I would trade him. If he's my QB two and you just happened to lock into a backup quarterback, I would hold onto him. - Yeah, in this regime, it's a lot of green Bay guys, their new head coach, the GM. And everything that I've heard, everything that I've read is just that he was a great locker room guy. Everybody loved him, everybody wanted to play with him. So you can see that carrying over. Last question here, do you think he gets more than 25 starts in Miami? That's a year and a half. So do you think he has more than 25 starts as the Dolphins starting quarterback? - Yes and no, only options. - Yeah, I'm just wondering that as well. - You want to push, you want that, that's the exact one. - 25, I'm gonna say, I'll go yes, Mike. - I would say, I'll say yes. I mean, you get to play the Jets twice, right? - That is true. - So, I mean, that you should, that's at least two wins. That's my point is, that should be at least two wins and to get the first overall pick, you got to be what a three-win team. So if you're just stealing two wins from the Jets, it does push you down. Although next year, next year maybe the top three picks, we could have another one of those situation where there are three quarterbacks at the top and each team will be okay with any of the three of them. But I think Malik will do enough to keep the job for at least two years. - All right, let's hit quick break, we'll be right back. (upbeat music) - Number two. - All right, speaking of quarterbacks, do you guys have any takeaways or high-level takeaways for quarterbacks that have recently been released? So you mentioned to a, who signed a four-year deal just two years ago, Kyler, who was also released after getting a $230 million deal a couple of years ago, I think at the time when I saw those signings, they felt like really safe assets. Now, two is a player that we've kind of always been down on because he's been so volatile, because he doesn't run. But I have Kyler and a dynasty league, and I felt like at the time, all right, I've got this guy who I know runs for at least the next four to five years that I can feel confident this is the situation. And things just turned over. I mean, since signing that deal, Kyler was 16 and 25, and he was a top 12 quarterback in less than 50% of his starts. So I was hoping he would be top 10, top 12, like pretty consistently that I could piece together my team and it just didn't work out that way. So my question for you is, you guys can speak to the Arizona part and Kyler, but is this like a high-level takeaway for the future of if you have a bad team, and you have a middle-to-road quarterback that signs an extension, like they're not gonna last forever. And there's some names that I wanna bring up in a second, but it scares me that we look at players in Dynasty and go, he's with that team for life, or he's with that team for the next five years, and the deal gets cut short. So any takeaways here? - I think the takeaway is the same takeaway of, you should don't think about dynasty players ever in terms of forever. I have this player forever. Three years, you know, that should be about what your window is for like, I have this guy for three great years, three good to great years. That should be what you're aiming after 'cause anything after that in football is just, it's way too rough of a sport with turnover and injuries for anybody to be the forever player. Even imagine having Patrick Mahomes in year two. - Yeah. - When the breakout happened, if you got Mahomes into Superflex, you were the greatest dynasty player to walk the earth. It was, I will have Patrick Mahomes forever, and then it went for what, three or four years or so before the offense completely imploded, and Mahomes was no longer the electric starter, but for fantasy. But if it can happen to Patrick Mahomes after that run, it can happen to any player in the NFL, so don't think so binary of, I got this guy forever. - Yeah, I mean, that's a great challenge of fantasy football as you wanted all to work out on paper the way that you think it's gonna work out. And teams have shown a new propensity to let players go and eat money. - Seriously. - I mean, this goes back to Russell Wilson. - Russ was that first one where it was holy crap. They're willing to do this. - So that means that you have like three scenarios when you pick up a dynasty asset. Scenario one is they repeat what they've been doing. But the other two scenarios are not good. They are, they regress and aren't as competitive of a player as you hoped. Like Mahomes is that example of like, he isn't the dominant force in fantasy that he once was in dynasty, the asset that he once was in dynasty. And the option two is the team gives up on this player. They're literally off the team out of the situation, moved to a backup. Like, it is a good wake up call, right? To kind of stay, I think you can get into like, you have success in dynasty for a year or two. And these are my guys and they're gonna be my guys. And I think that's the moment where you can be like, oh no, I'm gonna stay, I'm gonna keep turning this roster over and be smart about it. - It's just tough in a super flex league because of the way the position is valued to not look at contracts. And just say like, oh, this guy's got three or four more years. - Contracts, you need to use them. - Yeah, yeah. I'm just saying, we've done the studies where we know almost a third of the league, which feels wild to say, but almost a third of the league will have a different starting quarterback in week one than they did the year before. And some of those are injury situations, but like, it happens every single year. And I just sent you guys a list of everybody that's changing, including ones we don't really know. And maybe don't even care. Like, do I care who the Jets starting quarterback is? - Yes. (laughing) - We know who it is. - Just say it. - Is Geno Smith. - That is a bit more. - Hey, that is offensive. That is, everyone needs to hear this. The New York Jets traded for Geno Smith. Meaning, like, I think they did that. I think there's a reason. - He still has his old locker. It was cheaper. I think, I think because they want what the raiders have, which is the first pick. - Paying the money. - Are they? - I think that's why. - That would, Kyle, normally I would throw to you to vet this while I'm hosting the show, but I'll vet it for you. I think the raiders are paying the money. - That would make more sense. Although, even if you had forced the raiders to cut him, who, honestly, who was gonna go? - So it's a seven, six swap. - Man. - I mean, that's also the Michael Pittman swap. - Yeah. - I would love to see their auction. - The raiders will pay the bulk of the Geno Smith contract. - Okay. - Okay. - Jets will pay just over to the veteran minimum. - Okay. - So it feels like he could be a backup there then. - So, Amy, what? - He won't be, 'cause I want the first pick. - He feels first as Geno. - Do you feel like the veteran minimum is too much? - I feel like, yeah, I do. I feel like that head coach is being paid money to be kicked in the nuts every week. - Yeah, Glenn. - Well. - He kicked a lot of people out. - And because insane stuff happens in the NFL all the time. - This is not a call for Geno Smith to be, oh man, he's back to what he was three years ago. The raider situation last year was atrocious. Atrocious. A lot of it because of Geno Smith. And, but were those like he'd not him not driving with the offense? I mean, essentially the question is, can Geno Smith funnel 150 targets to Garrett Wilson where 70 plus percent of them are catchable, right? That is the new way to approach Garrett Wilson in this life because I don't want 160 targets where we're getting Roma dunes eight targets where you're like only half of them are even catchable. And then you then you have to factor in defense and drops and everything. Care, Care Wilson deserves so much more than this. He may deserve it his whole life, but we may look back and say we might, you know, Rishi Jihi, look what he got out of his life. Yeah. And Garrett Wilson is just living in the dumpsters with money, but with the dumpsters. But he's so good. I know. So I think my final point on the quarterbacks is just for us to be cautious because we will get numbers this summer from Bryce Young or CJ Stroud. They're going to get extensions. I know they just got their fifth year, but that's going to happen. Don't do it. Don't do it. Carolina. So the equation that is like, do these guys have a shorter leash than we think the extension and actually give them. And I love Stroud. I've always loved Stroud. And I'm rooting for him. I'm rooting for Bryce Young too, but for fantasy purposes, I think we kind of know what they are. And I think NFL purposes that Houston and Carolina are in a really, really tough spot. Yeah. Carolina can win that division again, which is still crazy to say. They just spent a ton on defense. So we'll see where they go this next year. Number three. All right. This is a quick one. It's about Ken Bone, Kenneth Walker in dynasty. Where would you rank him? And I know you guys are adjusting some of your ranks with some of these. Yeah. So I have, I haven't pulled up. It is difficult like it of not overreacting and putting him too high up. But let me make it hard from the beginning. Christian McCaffer, Kenneth Walker. Walker. Okay. Just based off of age. Breeze Hall. I have Walker above him. It's like Chadkins. Beijon. He doesn't want these questions. Well, because I want to start at the top of Beijon and Jumeer Gibbs. And I honestly, I swear I'm really not trying to be hot, take you or anything, but it's like Beijon Gibbs. For sure. For sure about water. Water for sure. Okay. I would put love eventually. Okay. Well, what if Jeremiah Love goes to the Titans? I'd put love there. I'd put love there. Okay. Devon H Ann belongs ahead of him. I do have H Ann above him right now, but it's like that could go. That could go south. So you have you have Trayvian below him? I do have Trayvian below him. Do you have Chadkins below him? I do. Bucky Erving. Bucky's below him. James Cook though. James Cook is one spot ahead of him from me right now. I think that's interesting. Hampton is Hampton, Gentie and maybe Jonathan Taylor. Hampton is very difficult because we, I mean, talk about a lost year is, is Hampton good? I think the answers to that are still what, what was your player scouting of the college player? I'm actually a little bit. My, my college scouting was great, but I'm actually afraid because I actually am afraid on the ground. I think you're offended because I think he's good. Oh, I do think he's good, but I don't. I, I can think he's good and, and also believe that he hasn't proven what he needs to prove to be a workhorse yet, to be the dude yet. I think he might be able to do that if they give him the opportunity, but let, let me paint, you just talked about short leashes on these quarterbacks. Let me paint a different scenario. My, Hampton comes out in camp and he is, he's a dude, everyone knows he's the dude. And then a week before the season starts, he, he pulls his hamstring and then he misses like two or three weeks and so come on, Ivedal and free agent or draft asset X comes into the game and they get going. There's a world where like Hampton's just never the full take overdue. I know it in the back of my mind and I love Hampton, but it's, it's frightening to me. And I don't want to be afraid, but I watched a book ago from superstar to nothing really quickly. And so, like, right now I've cook, Taylor, Gentie, they're, they're all still above Walker for me, but I think that is a real, a, a, an object or an object, a, a spot in the draft when you're valuing rookie running bet or running backs where it can just, the, the tides could go either way. That's why I started with bejohn and engineer, for sure, those, all everyone else by the end of next year might be like, Oh, Walker, running back three, I'm not going to get there. Not going to get the three. What's interesting about the chiefs is I feel like whenever they've massively failed, which has only been a couple of times, like in that Super Bowl against Humbra, it was like, we need to fix this offensive line next off season, this is what they do. This past year, the running game was so bad and we've talked about the different metrics that are like, who's the best at forcing missed tackles? Who's the best at getting long runs? And then the thing with Walker is now you're going to get red zone carries that we didn't get and Kansas City through the ball, the second highest rate on early down. So you're getting these targets that are super valuable. You're getting red zone stuff. I think I feel better. I feel better in red draft than I do in dynasty to put him that high. I think he's probably more like in the eight ish nine range for me. Yeah. He is at eight for me right now. But is that eight for me as well with questions around jetkins and Irving and even Traveon? Yeah. But that's the great age equation, right? Like how much time do you really think a player has? CMC, I guess, gets knocked down with the age, but you know, do you get one more year out of CMC or two? Because I would change. If you just told me it was one or two, tell me. Now, I'll tell you if I win a championship next year, yeah, if I do, that means we got one more. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Number four. What happened to Bucky Irving? Because I'm still trying to figure out what he is because rookie Erie's RB 15 down the stretch. He was basically an RB one last year in 10 games, he was the RB 33, but all of the efficiency numbers just died 3.4 yards per carry. The explosive stuff was gone. It was, oh, it was that bad 3.4 and then they didn't give him really any looks. It was like Sean Tucker was there like red zone hammer. Rashad White was somebody that I guess the regime trusted. And then Bucky was kind of like the between the 20s guy like it was a weird role if we're really talking about for fantasy. And now we add in Kenneth Gainwell who we know obviously is a really good pass catcher. So what is Bucky is he somewhere in between the rookie year in this past year? That's kind of like what feels like logical, but I still don't know what he is long term. I think we are in a very dangerous area for Bucky to have the floor completely drop out of Kenneth Gainwell is a better pass catcher than Bucky Irving. The as of the time of this recording, we haven't heard on Sean Tucker, but the latest rumor I read was because they didn't tend to him, but they still want him back. They didn't give him the tender because they thought that would be too much money. That doesn't mean the team isn't interested to bring him back. And if he comes back and the Bucky no carries inside the five go away, I like. But at Bucky Irving's archetype, if he is between the 20s and he's not catching passes and he's not going to touch down, it's going to be it will vanish rapidly. Let me, let me come at it from the other side, which is that Bucky Irving dealt with injuries and bonus issues during the year, during the first four games of the year. We saw, you know, 80 catches as the pace for Bucky Irving. So he did show that like my, my lack of fear around Bucky is my confidence that the coaching staff thinks he's the dude. So that's where my confidence comes in. And I don't think, I think you bring in Kenneth Gainwell and if Tucker isn't back, go on should be Bucky. Yeah. So I, I don't know if we're going from superstar to zero in this situation. I think it's hard with with Kenneth Gainwell there to know how much work he's going to really get. And my, the point I'm bringing, which it, it's not to be alarmist. It is to just be aware of where Bucky really actually is standing of Bucky Irving could easily retain him being still being a top 15 dynasty running back, but it, it could rapidly deteriorate. Confidence is lower than it was last year for sure. I feel like I wouldn't be panicking to trade him away. No, no, no, I'm not doing that because of the value. If it, if he retains his value, it's way too high to be selling short, right? Correct. Yeah. It's, it's a tough situation for a running back that you're like, man, is this, is this like a top five to seven guy for the next three to four years? And you know, he gets in this next stratosphere. He gets in a second contract and then we got kind of got punched in the mouth. I think it's a player that we all love watching play. And then this past year was just kind of stopped. So I would just say it feels more like a hold right now. You don't really have to make a knee jerk reaction just because they signed Gainwell to this deal. But I don't know. Like could they bring in, if somebody offered you Breeze Hall, if somebody offered you Breeze Hall for Bucky Irving, are you taking that deal in a dice? I would take Breeze Hall. Okay. That was not the answer last year. - That's true. - That's true. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Like, this could be a spot they bring in like, Brian Robinson, or just some big back like that. - Sure, sure, yeah, that would be, that would be a problem. - That would be a good idea. He's a free agent, so. - Yep. - Number five. - Any other free agent running back signings that you feel like, man, this has shifted the landscape the most. And I was really looking at the running back market and how it times up with the NFL draft. So a couple of years ago, it was Saquon, Jacob's, and Henry, that got all those big deals. And that was the draft class of like Jonathan Brooks, Benson, that was weaker. You kind of see the same thing this year, where it's like love and we're not really sure what else. But we had three running backs, take home over 13 or more on average, and that's part of that's the salary cap, but that's more than what Barkley got, which is wild to think about that these guys got more money. - This cap is out of control. - It feels so weird to be able to say that, but any other faults from Tyler Algier signing with your Cardinals, JK Dobbins with the Broncos, and Rico with the Steelers. Any of those interests you? - I mean, the Algier feels like the closing the casket on Tray Benson, feels like it, because the fact that Connor was retained, when for a moment, in brief moment of time, when it was just Connor, 30-year-old coming off of injury, like okay, Tray Benson's not still not in the worst situation, there is a path where he surpasses Connor. I don't think there's a path for Benson to surpass Connor and Tyler Algier, so that hope and optimism is really shot in the foot. - Yeah, I think that the other one, the Rico one, it's still hard for me to even think about players in Pittsburgh, and immediately throw the filter of Mike Tomlin onto it. And I have to reset my brain to be like, there is a different plan of action. Everything we've done in projecting from the beginning of the show has been Mike Tomlin as the filter of what they do in that backfield. So you don't have the history of Jalen Warren with Mike McCarthy, you have this regime going out and getting Rico doubtful. I think what it really does right now is put both of those backfields into places where I feel like it's an ambiguous draft selection and redraft with real downside and real upside for both players in both backfields. How healthy is James Connor? How involved did they plan on Rico doubtful to be? You know, how healthy will Jalen Warren stay? Another injury for Jalen Warren in the plan is completely turned on its head. So there have been a handful of these situations where it's like, I mean, even right now I think Album Comar is going to leave, I don't know. And if Album Comar stays around, what a mess. What a mess, 'cause that's just a tough situation to figure out who's going to be in there on what downs. And then the Broncos one, I think it matters. The writing on the wall, at least over the off season, the vibes have been negative on RJ Harvey of when he got his true opportunity. It wasn't, it was not nearly what you had hoped it was. He was scoring a bunch of touchdowns. So coming through for fantasy and that perspective, but he didn't look like he was ready to be the dude. And then you give Jackie Dobbins, it's only eight guaranteed, but it's a deal worth up to $20 million. So this was a, I think that that's a clear signal that it is definitely not going to be RJ Harvey as the primary guy. And I think that they slot right back into what they were doing last year of Harvey's more of a gadgety type of a guy, a change of pace. And Jackie Dobbins is going to be the runner. Harvey, yeah. Harvey is like a weird disconnect of, wait a second, this player got second round draft capital. Yeah, he catches, I'm supposed to like this player. And yet there was, there was pushback called Clyde Edwards a layer. Yeah, it is. It's probably should have been drafted in the second round, but because it was in the first shot, the tail would be my team. He would forever be that one. I'm supposed to like this guy is a good phrase. Harvey, Harvey, I feel like I put this in there. I feel like the time to sell him was like last week or the week before. Yeah, he's been chilling in our trade away targets for dynasty. And I mean, I probably, I think I'm still there, but the value, you won't get as a higher return if you trade him now. You might just want to hold on. All right, let's take a quick break and we'll get to a few more. [MUSIC] Number six. All right, the next one's about Alec Pierce. And do you view him as more than just a flex for dynasty rosters? He got the big bag. And I think you brought this up, Mike. Imagine having a conversation with the Alec Pierce dynasty manager two years ago and saying, you're going to get the biggest free agent bag ever for a wide receiver. And his usage, just the way that it changed from rookie year, he was a second round pick to now he's the ADOT King. He's the dude that's going to get all the deep balls. And slowly, he started earning more targets. Still only 17% last year. Do you feel like that can get to 20% Andy? Yeah, oh yeah. No, I do. I take 20. I don't think it's going to go wild. I mean, there's been a handful of these players that emerged more slowly to superstardom. And I think multiple teams. I mean, New England, they end up with Romeo Dobbs, but they weren't in on Alec Pierce. Nico Collins took a few years to develop. We'd love Robert Woods and Buffalo before he developed. Some of these players, you kind of know that they're hiding to emerge. I compared it on the main show to Mike Evans. I think that's the kind of reception totals you should expect from a player like that. You get to mid 70s. You're probably living large because that ADOT is so high. So yeah, I think you're talking about a wide receiver, too, with week to week wide receiver one upside myself. Yeah, I don't see him taking the jump into the stratosphere. The money says he should. The money says that they better figure out a way to get more than 18% of the targets. This has to be viewed as a huge win also for Tyler Warren. You no longer have Michael Pittman taking the middle of the field, the targets away. And I would think that they'll be split between downs of Warren, but I give the edge to Tyler Warren. So that is a follow up piece. So which a reminder, everyone, there's always, it's not just the guys we're talking about. Always be like, oh yeah, Michael Pittman is gone, you know? Or I feel like that was a really some like a really representative endorsement of Pierce, too. It was like, yes, the future is Alec Pierce. The past is Michael Pittman and nice. And some of them are really obvious, you know, in your brain, your fantasy brain goes right to it of ETN leaving, oh man, tootin. That's a massive upgrade for him. But just saying, make sure you're thinking about things, not just the names that are in front of your faces, but they have left a situation. And what is that situation now? Our situation is lightning strikes in the office. Yeah, we do have some. Some lightning flashing over here. Yeah, just turn them off. This is how I have a seizure from all the way here in Atlanta from the lights flashing. Yeah, we need one of those epilepsy warnings. Your seizure will be your free agents that Atlanta's at it. Yeah, you're fine leaving. Oh, dude, dude, don't, don't, don't, don't hate. Dodson, Dodson, we've got Dodson here. I did want to give this thought about Alec Pierce because I think he timed up the market, which, you know, he can't really control of that. But, no, he ended up just really benefiting right time. Yeah, timing it. And then also what he does best, the NFL hasn't been doing very well recently. The 20 plus yard touchdowns. Right. It's kind of been on a decrease. So if you have somebody who's really good at that and nobody's really doing it, then the market, it just kind of skyrocket. So he'll be interesting. I don't know how I feel about him getting like, I saw a report today from a ESPNB report. He said, he'll get eight to 10 targets. And I'm like, no, what is it getting? A 50% target share. I will say this. There were games last year we was in that range. He had a 13 target game. I know he had a 10 target game like, I think he will have huge games. He will also be one of those players that, but havens used to do that too. Yes. And, and fun players like, I was like, does that happen in the NFL where somebody who never sees targets at a huge level, all of a sudden jumps to eight to 10. So I got curious. But if you didn't see five targets of game your first four years, here's the guys that saw eight plus in year five, like a huge jump, Wes Welker, who was kind of T.J. Hushman Zada, fun name, Emanuel Sanders, Adam Thielin, Devonte Parker, out of nowhere. And then the comp that I have, Mike Williams did this in his fifth year in the NFL. So I see that's a pretty good comp. I think Mike Williams is the best comp there. And, and with Mike Williams, we all love him. But you also didn't know when the best time was to start him, but you just kind of rode the wave. I'm hoping I get these long plays in the touchdown. So, interesting name, like it's, if I had Alec Pierce, I thought I had, due to two years ago. And now. - Right, yeah. - And now you're loving life. - Sure. Number seven. - All right, any advice you wanna give dynasty managers after we have some wide receiver trade. So DJ Moore going to the bills, we talked about Pity City going to the Steelers. At this point in your career, we don't want people to overreact to a new landing spot and start plugging in targets. I was even thinking when you guys were describing the Steelers, like the crew they assembled, Warren, Dowdell, Metcalf, Pity City, whoever the quarterback is, Kurt Cousins, I don't know. Feels like a seventh, eighth place team in dynasty that you look at the roster and you go, okay, I don't really know what happened here. These are fine players, but not like championship winning players. So like Pippin could see a hundred targets and not matter at all for fantasy, or at least not be more than like a wide receiver three or four. With DJ Moore, I think people want a little bit more there 'cause they paid up for him. So what is your pulse on Moore first? - He will, he's a better player than Shakir. - Is he better than Keon Coleman? - Yeah, he has better than Keon Coleman. I bring up Shakir, just like it seems redundant to have Dejan Moore like Shakir. Hopefully, you turn him back into Moore of an outsider so you're like he was in Carolina. - Yeah, hopefully you're trying to replace Keon Coleman with DJ Moore. I mean, it's exciting. If I had DJ Moore, you're super happy because the ride with DJ Moore has been a wild dynasty ride of highs and lows and you were currently in a low. So for him to go back up, if I could get out of DJ Moore, I would be more than willing to do that. Like trade him, yeah, go to the, go to us, Josh Allen. Like, hey, dude, you want the stack? - Yeah, that's the thing that happened. - I traded Amari Cooper once to somebody who had, who believed in the promise of Josh Allen and kind of an agent star. But you know, DJ Moore I think is a much better player than what they were capable of using him as in Chicago. And so, I don't know, but that stuff, it should, that is a little scary. - Uh-huh. - That DJ Moore was on Ben Johnson's team. - Yeah. - And Ben Johnson by the end of the year was like, "Ah, Lutherburden, Colston Lovland, you got, you're the new future. It's no longer DJ Moore." So that, that stuff should concern you at least. - No, I agree. I think he's probably gonna be, I think he's still probably overvalued, even if he improves from Chicago. He's still probably overvalued in trade. - Could you get a mid first round pick for DJ Moore? - No, I don't think so. - This year maybe, actually. - That's what I was thinking about. - And people are really in line. - In tune with the draft class. If you're really in tune and you realize that this is not the strongest, then someone might prefer to take the shot. A contender might be a preferred, the known commodity that is DJ Moore instead of another developmental rookie on the bench. - There's five or six wide receivers that have kind of separated as, I think they're going in the first round of the NFL draft. And then after that, it's like, "Ah, do I want to reach on this running back "that I don't know, or do I want to reach "on the non-sedique tight end at the end of the first round?" So I would be willing to do that. Just to say, I know what he has left on the contract, DJ Moore, and if I can trade him for the 110. - Yeah, they did guarantee more money for him. So he will be a bill, theoretically, will be a bill for at least two years. - Okay. Number eight. - All right. My question is, is this the last ride for Mike Evans? Because the deal was reported as three years, 42. And then you pull back the curtain, it's one year, 16 million guaranteed. And I've brought these up just for fun, but like all the receivers that we thought of as like, you are the greatest of all time for your team. There is a point when they change teams that it just guts you as a fan. And then in fantasy go, Julio Jones was never the same. And even thinking back now, like he was a Titan, or he was a buck, he was an eagle, painful. I mean, so with Evans, do we think there's one more year? And then beyond that, I'm not treating him in dynasty as anything more than that, because we have played that game for a while with him. - I don't know if you have one year. I mean, I think there's a chance it just doesn't go well. - The injury, I mean, the part of the Julio Jones story too, is like his body had just, his body was breaking down for in terms of the demand to be an NFL superstar. And I mean, he went to a team that wasn't great. A lot of these vets that change teams and then they disappear, they go to a bad team. So I think there is at least hope. - Will he catch more than 60 passes? - More than 60? I don't know. But what I do know is Brock Pertie has a career over four years. He's touched down, raised 6.2%, which is very, very high. And Mike Evans specialty is catching touchdowns. So, and then you're gonna be, how long without George Kittle? So I, 60 catches, I don't know. But you might have a 60 catch, 10 touchdown season, which then that's not, I mean, you're not plugging, he's not your wide receiver too, and you're thrilled about it. But if he's in your flex, that's some good nitro. Where I'm, I'm more optimistic about Mike Evans for this year in terms of the scenario of the aged veteran changing teams, where I normally would be. - I mean, they don't, they don't have an X-Wide receiver. So it makes sense when you think about what Pure Saul is, and then the rest of the Dept chart is DeMarcus Robinson. I mean, it's pretty barren with Joanne Judges. - Yeah, they're gonna have to fill it in with a bunch of jobbers. - Jobbers? - Yeah, it's a wrestling term. - Tell me more. - Actress, when you're paid to lose, basically. - Okay, I have never heard that word before. All right, two more. - Number nine. - All right, Isaiah likely signed with a giants should Isaiah likely truthers, which in Dynasty, those are the main people that have been loving Isaiah likely. Should they be happy about this? - Of course they should be happy. - But how? - Yeah, I mean, it's a commitment. It's a big commitment. So much happier than the forever promise, and never delivered Baltimore situation with Andrews. How happy? Top 12 happy? - Which we've established might not mean anything? - No, it might not. It may not. Theo's a good player, it is a problem. He might be right back in a situation where he's now the one A to the one B. - And there's an Alpha, wide receiver there. - We hope, healthy, and my team hopes is healthy and back. But you have all the Wondale targets are gone. If I had likely, I'm pretty thrilled about this situation, going to an up-and-coming quarterback. I mean, that is what you can hope for. - We're still waiting. - Yeah, if you're gonna break out, this is your situation to break out. - We're still waiting on the guaranteed money. Like they haven't put that out there yet, but based on annual average salary, he has the six highest salary among all tight ends, which feels expensive, but this is today's NFL. Yeah, he feels like he's just gonna be their big slot-wide receiver 'cause he's not really a tight end. And that's kind of what you're hoping for in Baltimore is like, "Mark Andrews, can you move aside?" So I say like it can be the main guy, and he never really got to do that. I think people preferred him to stay in Baltimore if Andrews would have been gone, but then he signed the extension. So, I don't know, it feels like a player that like, the values always gonna be higher than his actual performance on the field. - Yeah, it could be. - Okay. - All right. - But it could have been done. Like, likely career for fantasy football, it could have been over. So, I'll take some hope. - Number 10. - All right, I'm just gonna give this final one because I wanted to dig deep and find just one under the radar signing that I haven't seen anybody really talk about very much, and they don't really affect fantasy. You will never start fullback Reggie Gilliam or tied in Charlie Kohler. But both of these teams, Gilliam just signed with the Pats and Kohler just signed with the Chargers. These are two teams that wanna run the ball and they're kind of signaling it as teams that they're trying to help out their offensive line. We know the Chargers was decimated this past year. The Patriots also have added a couple of pieces too. And I just think about these players for the Patriots running game and also with Hampton. Because I really, this is part of why I was like, man, I really like Hampton and I think he's set up and the team set up just they were all injured or dead this past year is what it felt like. So, I wanted to bring these up because Gilliam was the best fullback in football in terms of run blocking. And whenever he was on the field, the bills ran the ball 78% of plays. That was the highest of any player. So, you're gonna see him in Patriots games and be like, "Why is there another running back on the field?" Sometimes and it's gonna be a fullback. And it might. might be frustrating sometimes for Ramanjray and Travion because I don't think they're both going to be on the field, but I think it's going to be good for the team. I love, I love a good fallback, man, it's like Ravens, superstar fallback, great running game. I know they, you have Henry and stuff, but it, it all goes together. Sam Francisco, Juice, great fallback. Oh, please tell me Kyle, you can remember the, the Baltimore fallback from way back in the day. Bernard Pierce? No, no, no, no, no. Bobby McGully? No, no, this might have been out in front of Ray Rice. I'm, I don't even, I'm going to try to figure it out for you guys to keep talking, but so I, I love it, man, I, I love, it's, no, it's not record. Matt, we're going back further into them, man, I'm going to get it. I promise, but I, I do. I think that having a fallback makes your running game better. And so I, I think that's an interesting Vontaleach. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Vontaleach. I think it was, I think it was in Houston and he'd run out in front of Arian Foster, too, but, but it's, it's, so I, I like the, the single that are what it will do for Henderson and Andrew Mondray, but like I said earlier, okay, now what's the mirror of this? Like, what does this do to the bills? And what does this do with, I, I was thinking about James, James Cook, last year was he was one of the players that every time he touched the ball, you're freaking out because he could score. I mean, the, what, that you posted the stat here, Carl, the bills ran on 78.1% of, of Williams offensive snaps in 2025. I mean, how do you, how do you replace that type of a player? Because fullbacks aren't just out there. I mean, this is a, this is one of the skill positions that is almost completely eliminated from professional football. So there's not, there's not great players waiting to fill that spot for you. You have to, you have to re-tool your offense or just have a less than version of what you already had. Yeah. And I forgot to add this in there. Alex Engold, who is with the dolphins for years, they're fullback just signed with the chargers as well. So I just, please, Hampton, please, trust me, I want it to work with collar with Engold are signaling. And I'll bring in all their offensive linemen back. Yes. So I just, I just do it. Just do it. The problem is all those moves could also be good for other players that they choose to run the ball with. So please be Hampton only. It's gonna be me. It's all I want. Okay. All right. That's going to do it for this episode. Make sure you check out the Dynasty pass. All of our updates are there in the app. They're live. And we'll talk to you again next week. Goodbye, everybody. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty podcast. If you want to take your dynasty skills to the next level, check out the fantasyfootballers.com.