10 bold fantasy predictions for the 2024 NFL season | Yahoo Fantasy Forecast

Intro [Music] it's Tuesday September 3rd I'm Matt Harmon welcome to the Yahoo fantasy forecast it is a hell of a day to talk ball because it's September which felt weird to say um September week one is right on the horizon so truly truly it is a hell of a day to talk ball because we we are almost there real games are almost happening and joining me talk a little ball today is the one and only Andy Barons Andy what's going on buddy yeah we're in it it's this is week one I I just ranked players like not for the not for draft purposes but for week one like looking at real matchups um it's crazy crazy times it's here it's actually here uh well good for you you little show off for uh getting getting your homework done early I will certainly not be doing that uh ranking players for week one at any time until um if I have to do it I'm still fighting to not rank players in season I don't know if I should I don't know if I should say that on the podcast uh maybe maybe I get in trouble for saying this from Jason Kaka but uh you know that's a We REVEAL our weekly fall pod calendar for the season good fight that's Noble I I understand indeed so if you see my rankings on the website just know that I lost I lost the fight but but regardless of whether I end up doing inseason rankings or not I guarantee you if I do them they will be done at the very last minute possible for week one so again shout out to you Andy Barons for getting your homework done early we're ranking players or at least Andy's already ranking players cuz like I said I said week one is here and with that we can finally reveal our podcast calendar for the season and I'm so excited to share that with you so here's how each week is going to roll coming to your feeds every Monday morning Andy Barons and I will recap all of Sunday's action we're going to tell you what you need to care about the most what you need to care about a little and you know what you can let fade from your memory very quickly every weekend of the NFL we're also going to have some weekly fantasy Awards to give out very exciting stuff I'm I'm going to also open that show every week with a care don't care monologue about the Sunday night game because Andy has a very strict has very strict rules about his bedtime so uh I will be doing that monologue off the top which should be pretty fun but great to have Andy on the Sunday recap then on Tuesday Panic meter is back with Dalton Delon joining me to go over your submissions for the Panic meter pretty great stuff Andy was awesome at that last year but he asked off the EP off the he asked off the episode specifically because you guys uh buried him with your Lamar Jackson Panic last year so we couldn't have him do that this year it was way too much so we said let's get Dalton Delon suffering this year on that uh we're also going to have a new twist to the end of the show to help you get the most out of the waiver wire every single week looking forward to Dalton joining for that show on Wednesday we have a brand new show with our very own salvet data dump Wednesdays where we share the most important stats you need to know from the past week of action and how these data points will help you the following week and then on Thursday oh man what an electric show Nate Ty joins me for the fantasy film room as we sink our teeth into the biggest X's and O's Trends on the field and examine if they're onewe wonders or sustainable trends that we can Bank on for Fantasy purpose we purposes we're also going to share one prop bet you need to look at I must say just look at you you just look at it what what what you do after that is of your own free will and you suffer the consequences one prop that you you should take a look at for every Thursday night football game and then Fridays Andy Barons two times a week what is this Andy Barons and Tera Rob how I allow this to happen yeah I I don't know man but I mean you know as somebody that pods five days a week I have no sympathy for you so um but I'm very happy that both you and Tara Roberts are going to join me to get ready for the weekend of NFL action Andy and I will look at the biggest fantasy story lines take a macro view of it uh heading into the biggest matchups and then Tara and I are going to look at you know take a micro view players that could make or break your fantasy lineups every single week so Andy this pod calendar baby you're on it twice uh what are your initial thoughts I I I'll tell you that my initial thoughts are this is goingon to be the best season uh of the show yet to date yeah there's there's no way the the people are excited for um two days of Barons there's no way they asked for it aside from that um I think it's a great collection C of shows and it's bunch of people who come at the NFL um in different ways from different perspectives I am you know no disrespect intended to any of the other shows I'm I'm really excited for the Nate Ty experience um I think Nate's great and man the PC just wrote on uh the the coach spags defense in Kansas City and how you know that provides answers to to all sorts of complicated problem like really good stuff Nate has a great way of not just giving you you know you can watch a lot of like film review shows that will give you um like highly specific play specific jargon heavy um breakdowns of like individual moments Nate does such a good job of of putting it within the context of like a a general philosophy um Nate's just really really good at this and um can give you big picture and small picture while he's doing it so I I am particularly excited about that show but the whole schedule was great yeah I'm very excited for that Nate ty show and of course we'll be kind of cross-pollinating a little bit with football 301 the show that I'm also a part of with him so uh we're g to try not to step on the each other's toes with the shows you know we're going to try to get multiple get a bunch of different topics right maybe some continuations of conversations but a multiple different topics and I can't agree with you more Andy the the whole goal of this calendar um was to do what I love to do which is give the listener the viewer whatever multiple different perspectives on the game I love that everybody here approaches fantasy and approaches football in very different ways like the way that I talk about football is very different than the way Tara or Dalton uh talks about the game you know everybody on the list here the way s is going to bring you analysis gonna be very different than Andy or Nate so I think however you know because I said this when we did our compilation show last week about you know when I was talking about running backs my final piece of advice I want to present you information and then you guys out there you listeners make the decision right this is your fantasy team this is your journey you shouldn't be here like I can't wait to get the I I hate the idea of like give me the answers to the tests like I don't really view that as what we do as fantasy analysts it's why I hate the word fantasy expert right because you guys listen to this show you watch the games you consume information we certainly do it more right we have no lives you guys uh hopefully have a life Andy has a bedtime apparently apparently Andy has a bedtime uh but he has two shows a week so he has less of a life than he did last year we don't have lives you have lives so we we give you the information that you don't necessarily have or don't have the time to access and then hopefully you know you come along the ride and you make decisions uh along the way so um I'm very excited about this show I think it's totally going to uh give exact like that's the goal what I just laid out I think that's what we're going to get uh I do just want to say before we uh move on and take a break here I just want to give a shout out to uh both Austin Eckler and Scott P I uh who Austin was not coming Eckler's Edge is obviously not coming back this year as I mentioned in the uh in the in the rundown there he that episode is obviously absent um you know it was great working with Austin the last couple years and I think we had a really good show uh and you know I'm gonna miss doing it with him but guy's working for he he's at the with the commanders now you know what I'm saying like he gonna be busy okay he's gonna have to he's gonna have to do a lot of pass protecting for Jaden Daniels behind that offensive line he doesn't have time uh to be on I'm being factious about all of what I just said so shout out to Austin he was a great teammate for the last couple of years and I'm going to miss doing the show with him of course and Scott is doing a ton of heavy lifting on our newsletter which everybody should be subscribed to and he's also doing work there so um Scott is he's the man and I will go ahead and bold prediction this right now Scott will be on the show in some form or fashion at different points during the calendar year and obviously in the offseason going forward so you're not losing Scott panowski in any way which is great because Scott is I think if you if you if you listen to this show uh and you hear my conversations with Scott I think you know how much I truly like Scott is a friend I love Scott and I love his perspective on Sports and football and life so okay I've talked enough did want to give a shout out to those two guys in addition to uh unveiling the entire calendar here with that being said while the rest of the shows this week fully dive into week one coverage today's pod it's going to sent uh be our season preview pod so Andy and I have five bold predictions for this season and of course it's a secret list let's get into it after the break all right Andy we've got bold predictions you've got five I've got five and even number of 10 what a beautiful thing there let's get it started with our let's go with our most boring bold prediction to start I know you said you have one boring one uh so let's start with that and I will let you go first here since I bagged on you so hard about your bedtime and your SK I'll let you go first that would be the nice thing to do oh yeah man how do you not maintain a bedtime come on like a like a fir I do just I also take a huge L during I take a huge L during football season because I moved back to the stupid East Coast I don't know what the hell I was thinking about that so we'll that's the conversation for another time I'm very old and at a certain point in the evening the nurse just has to put me to bed like that's just the house rules um yeah I was looking at the the Bold predictions that I wrote down and one of one of them is just one of them's probably going to happen and it's not that bold and maybe I should have gone with a higher number of players but here it is I'll start with the most boring one and that is that two rookie Harmon and Behrens each share three bold fantasy prediction for the 2024 NFL season quarterbacks finish among the position's top 10 scores um why is it why is it somewhat bold well this almost never happens right like this is this this would be a historic outlier this this happened in 2012 um this was the Andrew Luck you know RG3 year but doesn't happen a lot we had great rookie performance at Lake CJ strad was great last year didn't finish inside the the positions overall top 10 it's hard um but I think the profiles that we have for both Caleb Williams and Jaden Daniels man like a couple of veterans get hurt um these these guys are definitely going to finish his top 10 fantasy quarterbacks they just need to stay healthy um i' I've talked about Caleb to death he's just got an incredible Supporting Cast and he's a smart opportunistic Runner so I you can see the path there to like 300 rushing yards and five or six touchdowns and then you know you probably you probably heard Dalton Rave about Jaden Daniels uh Jaden daniels's really fun um and he's got weapons and he's got Elite rushing upside he's exactly the sort of quarterback who even when you don't think he's playing well ends up having a fantastic fantasy day so these two just need to give us 15 or 16 games each and and I think they can both slide into the top 10 pretty comfortably um a bolder prediction would have would have put three rookie quarterbacks inside the top 10 or top 12 I guess if you squint a little bit you can see the profile with B Knicks but I couldn't I couldn't bring myself to actually argue it uh yeah that would have been too bold for me I don't know you you're saying this is a boring bold prediction or this is definitely going to happen I think that would be pretty shocking uh just because not any disrespect to those two guys obviously those two guys are good players but it's just there are a lot of good quarterbacks that can that can give you fantasy success this year I mean you know are they going to who are they bumping out right are they bumping out both Joe burrow and you know Jordan love I mean ADP right now actually has this as Jaden Daniels qb1 on Yahoo and Caleb williams' QB 13 so you're right I guess in that way it's not that that that's why I didn't think it was that bold it's pretty it's pretty close to the way I rank it this isn't some like wild Reckless thing and it's pretty close to consensus ranks it just happens to to be something that's historically fairly rare I will say this I have I have a be as bold prediction which I bet you could guess in a second what my bold prediction for the Bears is going to be when when we get there so I actually weirdly even though I I rank it this way orc me I don't rank it this way I'm actually weirdly just feeling better about Caleb Williams and and the Bears right now and just him as a a let me say this as a fantasy quarterback I've started to feel better about Caleb Williams over the last month than I have Jaden Daniels even though I do have Jaden Daniels ranked higher just because of the rushing upside but I will say this Andy and then we we'll move on um and you you can tell me if this is crazy but like the more I thought about the commanders the more concerned I get for Jaden Daniels you know we were just uh Nate Tyson and I were just talking about this last week when we were pre prepping our NFC win predictions uh podcast and you know we start talking about the commanders and it's like well their their receiver room probably got worse trading away Jan doson and now it's Terry mclen who I love Terry mclen but I do think he took a slight step back last year as an individual player he's also like a sneak older guy so maybe that just is what it is um I don't love the way he's going to be deployed in Cliff Kingsbury's offense and then after him it's just I mean it is a gruesome cast of characters for wide receiver two like it's Zack her's probably G to catch 12 passes for 40 yards in week one because Todd BS is gonna Blitz the hell out of Jaden Daniels oh by the way don't worry they have probably the worst offensive line in the league like we really are counting on him to just fall ass backwards into a fantasy qb1 finish because he can run the ball which really it is is all it takes because the position is so boring in terms of the way it's scored now in fantasy but still I I am concerned about the ceiling overall for this offense just after what we've seen here yeah no it it's really fair and and concerns about kingsberry are are really fair as well and and and what exactly we're going to see from like I don't know I Can Dream up a scenario where Terry McClaren is a is a movable chess piece and we we get the sort of usage and Target total that we've always wanted for Terry but I don't think that's going to happen right right like I don't I don't think that's really out there for him um I don't know that everything that they've shown in the preseason is exactly what it's going to look like in the regular season it probably isn't but um it it's been a little bit of a warning of what we might reasonably expect from from this offense um and I I I just think he's the sort of player though where man just get us just get us to 15 games you get us to 15 games and you stay healthy there's there's no way that the the rushing stats aren't going to cover up quite a bit and I feel you know I don't know if this is where you're going on Caleb but and it it's I I shouldn't feel this way about a rookie quarterback but I actually feel like he's got a decent floor um I I just can't imagine the the scenario where Caleb face plants um The Supporting Cast is just too good it would invol it would have to involve you know three injuries like like some crazy sequence of injuries that uh uh you know is just not foreseeable or predictable I mean I I just think he's already mature enough already in command enough um and I don't know maybe maybe this is me drinking the Hard Knock Koolaid but um the The Vibes have been VI The Vibes have been very good and they've been very good from like some local media local media members who in the past have been very good about telling you when when things are not um all that Rosy right like some of the people who were most honest about what it really looked like for Justin Fields last year are are saying really good things about Caleb this camp and I don't know I'm pretty it's terrible I shouldn't put it out there in the world as a Bears fan but I but I'm feeling very optimistic about it I don't I don't know that that translates into some huge win total I'm not saying that um it's just been so long since we've seen competent quarterback play and I think that's on the way well we'll put a pin in the Bears like I said we'll come back to them in a little bit with one of my bold predictions but I just hope that we don't have to like play that audio in week five when you're saying I'm pretty optimistic it comes back to B you okay all right let's move on to my boring uh first B prediction which um this is boring because this player has quite literally done this before uh but I think Josh Jacobs is gonna lead the NFL in rushing this year uh he's QB I me excuse me he's running back uh 12 right now in ADP 33rd overall um it's funny because my journey with Josh Jacobs when he signed with the Packers was immediately I was super excited by the signing um and then you know just over the course of kind of looking at the contract and some of the funny money in it and then you know they bring back AJ Dylan they draft Marshon Lloyd I'm kind of like uh getting a little lower on Jacobs I've always been excited about the passing game and initially when he was when he signed with the Packers did Josh Jacobs I was kind of thinking okay I I can't really pick which receiver is really gonna be the breakout guy here so but I want exposure to the Packers why not just take the running back of an ex an offense I'm really excited about he's probably score a lot of touchdowns and be an efficient rusher and I've kind of almost come all the way back around to that take here Andy just because the reasons we were sort of down on Josh Jacobs and I Royal Wei down on Josh Jacobs at some points were number one the presence of those two other backs in Lloyd and Dylan and then the second was just Matt laf flor's history as a coordinator you know or play caller wanting to platoon his backs I almost always want to fade that se like that second assumption that oh because this guy has done this before he will always do it this way even sometimes as he's saying it in press conferences like I'm oh yeah you know we love to platoon our backs whatever like okay you can platoon your backs all you want until it's Josh Jacobs and nobody else right because AJ Dylan's on IR his season's over you know marshan Lloyd has been banged up this off season I I just feel like Jacobs is actually gonna just get a ton of opportunity here of late I I've moved him up to the second tier of running backs and a player I'm actually now really excited to draft if I can get him in that in that sort of rb1 tier I know you've always been a big big Josh Jacobs guy so I don't think you're going to have a lot of push back here but it is certainly my boring my most boring bold prediction just because he has done this before yeah he's uh since his rookie year he's been one of my favorite players just just a absolute joy to watch I I find it really weird when um you know so many folks have been trying to get rid of Josh Jacobs for for like I don't know goes back to the him playing in the Hall of Fame game I guess right like we've been we've been so ready to bury Josh Jacobs for so long uh and every year he he finishes among the the Miss tackles leaders you know the yards after contact like he's he's good at all I I think part of the problem with Josh Jacobs and his perception is some of his best runs in uh as a Raider were plays where he miraculously managed to get like three or four yards right and it could have easily been a one yard loss could have gone for no gain and Josh Jacobs makes two people Miss on his way to an otherwise unremarkable run um he's been the master of that since he came into the league and the the one year that he really popped it was great to see but that's that's always been within his range of outcomes and now even if you were worried about this back field being cluttered in some way it has become suddenly uncluttered and there is no one uh uh who seems like they're going to be any kind of obstacle for Jacobs whatsoever so I love this call this can definitely happen as you say it has happened he he does need to be a little bit healthier than he was last year but no no obvious concerns present from from camp or the preseason so this one is very much in play all right give me your second bold prediction we'll try to go like spicier save the save our spiciest for our final two or so like that if that makes sense yeah this one's not super spicy but I don't I don't see a lot of it out there so I'll just I'll just throw it out there I think Kyler Murray can finishes the overall qb1 I think he's probably the last guy in in the quarterback ranks of whom you can you can reasonably say that but Kyler already has a qb3 season on his resume uh it wasn't it was kind of a mixed bag for him as a passer last year coming back from the coming back from the injury 6.7 yards per attempt not great but man his his best season uh again he finished as the overall qb3 he was like near eight yards per Passage attempt when we've seen him in the past with uh even even a decent receiving core like you know the veteran version of DeAndre Hopkins and Christian Kirk man he was he was fantastic with that group uh the underlying numbers were really great obviously his ability as a rusher puts him in that qb1 conversation I just feel like a lot of the arguments that I see on behalf of Anthony Richardson should apply to Kyler Murray and you know he's he's more proven um he's actually he's actually done it he's he's been a top three guy at this spot I think he can get to number one uh I love this call uh you mentioned last year wasn't perfect in his return for Kyler Murray but the final three games were really good uh 108.3 passer rating six touchdowns one pick 71% completion rate 8.07 adjusted yards per attempt like just on paper and that was against the Bears the Eagles and the Seahawks Eagles and Seahawks did not have a very good defense but the Bears certainly had a good defense there by the end of the season and that was not like with a great Supporting Cast around him there this year I think he does have a very very good Supporting Cast at least in terms of the pass catchers here like just dropping Marvin like taking Maris Brown out of the mix you know and subbing in Greg dorch fully for Rond Del Moore I think is just such a huge upgrade here um Harrison's a stud I think he's going to be great Michael Wilson was better as a rookie than people think he's one of my favorite kind of deeper sleepers of this season and Trey McBride and I always come back to this note I'm sure I've said it on the podcast a 100 times I can never get out of my head Greg Olson talking I think in the Texans Cardinals broadcast late in the season talking about how Kyler Murray and Jonathan Ganon were both encouraging Trey McBride to improv on his routes like Travis Kelce you know just just get open you know because they thought he was that good that's how good they think TR McBride is I think we should be excited about this Cardinal offense I think we should be excited about Kyler Murray and this a guy who's facilitated a top five receiver before uh DeAndre Hopkins was the wide receiver five overall in 2020 his first year with the team so if you're using like Kyler Murray shouldn't be used as a negative when you're projecting Marvin Harrison for immediate success or any of these guys so uh obviously again it's a little bit of a projection he's got to get back to his pre-injury form uh it's still I think it's a well-designed offense I'm high on Drew ping so there's a lot that needs to come together here but I'm with you that that Kyler Murray can be um can finish as a qb1 it's at least Andy I would say it's at least within his range of outcomes yeah and like I I don't know that he was exactly the rusher last year that he had been in his in his peak season fantasy-wise but if you prate that out over a full year it's still a hell of a rushing line and it's better than we get from most quarterbacks and if he just settles in as somebody who's going to give us 600 rushing yards and five or six touchdowns that's a huge boost yeah I mean 44 Rush attempts for 244 yards uh from week 10 on that's pretty good in terms of quarterbacks you can tell I had Kyler Murray's game log up for Marvin Harrison Jr piece I was writing earlier okay my second bll prediction um this one's I don't think this is one of my spicier ones but I I again I'm trying to save my spicier ones for later I think Jackson Smith and jiga is gonna lead the Seahawks in catches and yards this season um this is a take I've been saying for a while that I'm trying to get myself to believe and I've gotten there okay so here we are I I love DK metf as a player and I've been a maybe Tyler lockett's biggest fan for a long time but I want to admit just sort of the reality of those two guys as players right now and I think by the way both those guys are still good NFL receivers Lockett I do think has started to decline a little bit um it's not surprising he's a receiver who's had a ton of injuries uh he's a smaller guy who relies on speed and separation ability I think that's just ticked down a little bit from him I don't think he's washed or anything like that but I I just think he's gone from to me like a superstar receiver to maybe just like useful starter so there's some opportunity there for jsn to jump lock it that's actually just been assumed in ADP pretty much all offseason certainly as the pro the process has gone on the DK meaf thing I think is a little more interesting again I'm a huge appreciator of DK mef's game long time been a fan of his um separation ability even if his route running and technique is not always the best he can win against press and man coverage off the line of scrimmage because he's so physical but I do think he's another he's a guy that maybe has topped out as not a superstar certainly not an elite NFL receiver but a very very very good like one of the best starting ex receivers in the league I I just wonder if we've seen like if we've seen the best of DK metf that's a that's a really great player that's not anything like you know shameful it's just we might be at the peak of him as a player and so that brings me to jsn who's a guy that I think had a much better rookie season on film than he than he showed in the stat sheet um any type of per route per Target whatever the guy's competing with two really good players last year of course the proute metrics aren't going to be the same as some other guy who's competing with nobody or is not playing like in a ton of 11 personel packages whatever so I'm not holding that against him I think as a player he looks like a great intermediate route Runner I think that's going to be critical in Ryan Grub's system he he's been one of my favorite breakout candidates this year and I kind I do think he's going to lead this team in in catches in yards I will say that I can't I don't think I can afford for this to happen I have a lot of DK um I am somebody who believes there there is probably one more level to DK metf that we haven't unlocked just yet and little bit of volume would go a long way for him um but I am generally excited about the Seattle offense and there's no question that there was one or two plays uh each week over the back half of last season where you could I thought you could really see it with jsn and it wasn't you know it wasn't wasn't necessarily present early in the year which is fine he's a rookie receiver and we shouldn't have Odell Beckham expectations of every every rookie receiver um but I thought by the by the end of the year he popped like once every game and it is really easy to imagine this being the case I also if you didn't say it I was going to point out that for you of all people to say that you know this this third guy could be the most valuable Seattle receiver is quite a statement because nobody has been on Ty nobody was on Tyler lock at Island earlier than you no one stayed longer than you and uh this this is this is quite a statement coming from Matt Harman yeah it got very lonely on Tyler rocket Island probably from like late 2016 2017 really 2018 is when um when those stocks finally started to rise and I finally was like okay thank God we held on to this investment maybe uh so yeah but look the end comes for all players uh and I like I said I think Lockett is still a useful NFL player I think he's like in terms of if he's your third receiver that's a hell of a lot better than most teams third receivers even this version of tile lock it but um you know I've definitely learned over the course of time to not hang on too too long uh to some of my particular favorite pet players but okay Andy let's move on to your uh third bold prediction okay my third I think is pretty bold and it's it's also just one that I'm I'm sort of rooting for it would require three players with pretty significant injury histories to all stay healthy so maybe this is a low probability situation but good start how about Matthew Stafford leading the NFL in passing yards and challenging for 5,000 yards I I would love for this to happen somehow Matthew Stafford has never led the NFL in passing yards which is which is wild since he's gonna hit 60,000 this year he has a 5,000 yard season on his resume as well as I think a couple of other like 4,800 yard seasons he's clearly been great I just man the way that guy played last year and if he played all 17 games he finishes around 4,500 yards he would have been very close to Tua anyway he could have led the league last year um man the way the way the ball came out of his hand last year was just vintage stuff and at least speaking for myself I was really worried about his ability to stay healthy and his ability to ever be like the Vintage version of Matthew Stafford uh uh again after Lake we had elbow concerns we had all sorts of injury concerns last year and the Rams kept telling us that Stafford looked great was great beat writers kept saying it and I didn't really listen to it and then man week one he was he was freaking awesome he was he was dealing um so I just thought he looked fantastic last year if we actually get mostly healthy Seasons from pukaa from Cooper cup man that's that's like 3,000 yards right there then I just need the supporting receivers to do almost anything I kind of like 2 two Atwell a little bit we get a little bit from the running backs and and pretty soon we're at 46 4,800 yards he was third in passing yards in his first season with the Rams but he was 11th last year sub 4,000 obviously uh he he did miss some time but still that's worth noting that that would be a pretty significant jump I don't I don't know man I've gotten I I've have gotten more nervous about the Rams than hopeful as August wore on mostly just because one I mean you look at you look at their defense which by the way actually might help your prediction here if the defense of the pack defense with Aaron Donald come on right I heard Greg Rosenthal point this out uh from NFL Network where you know he said that they just traded Ernest Jones for like nothing you know a little pick swap right and that might not have been headline news or anything but as Greg pointed out when Aaron Donald retired he said to Ernest Jones like this is your defense now and then that guy's just not on the roster I think that just goes to show you that their defense again is in transition they lost their coordinator and rahee Morris to a head coaching job and that's the side of the ball we shouldn't feel optimistic about and then we look at the offense it's just like I I hate to do just injury and alysis because who the hell knows but quite literally all of the main players on this offense has have huge injury questions I mean Stafford is an injury risk cup is an injury risk pukan Neu was hurt this off season and fell in the draft because of injuries Kiren Williams is an injury risk right I mean even and then the offensive line was banged up at times during camp and we it's not as if we have recent evidence of Rams offensive line injuries sink or play sinking an entire season so um I gotten a little more nervous than positive on the Rams but uh yeah if they stay healthy this this this prediction is certainly within range especially if the defense is not good again this year yeah I'm I'm kind of out over my skis here I see one note about puka returning to the practice field and I'm like okay I'm I'm all in on the Rams offense again but I I I've just found it so easy to root for Stafford late in his career and he was just such a he's such a revelation to me last year after I had such low expectations um I there aren't you know there aren't there aren't five quarterbacks in the game Who uh can make some of the absolutely absurd throws that that he can he's in that he's in that sweet spot of a career too where like there's nothing else you can teach him he's kind of seen it all and and he reacts to it all really quickly and he's he's he's probably in the final couple of years where he's still got that just weapons great arm um and uh I I hope we get healthy Matt Stafford for for like two more seasons if we do that guy's going to finish his career with like 7 th 70,000 75,000 yards I mean hell hell of a career I don't know that he's I don't know that he's put himself in the Pro Football Hall of Fame yet but he's he's not out of it yeah no he's definitely within range if he can have a couple of really good Seasons here to finish which is certainly possible uh all my kind of worries laid out there the upside case for the Rams is is very present and you laid a lot of the good reasons out there I couldn't quite decide which of my NE which my next one was more bold than the other but um I think that this Bears one that I have is not that bold anymore well it I'm going to make it bold because I'm going to say that Roman dun is gonna lead the Bears in fantasy points at the wide receiver position um that it's no longer really a bold take to say Roman dun is going to be better than Keenan Allen uh because ADP has got it at wide receiver 35 Keenan Allen and wide receiver 38 for romad dun Rome is certainly creeped up I've heard you talk about this as well I mean we talked about this in person um when we saw each other for two seconds because of everything going on with with my personal life in August but we talked a lot about Roma dunay and Keenan Allen and sort of that Dynamic there and I just think look all respect to Keenan Allen I think he's a very very much like Tyler Lockett I think he's a declining player but still like if he's your third receiver that's a hell of a lot better than most third receivers in the league I think he's going to hold an important role for this Bears offense but I think it will be more in a supporting role whereas I just think the longer that Rome plays the more they're going to want to involve him the more they're going to want to put on his plate um and DJ is a the Bold part about this is saying that he's going to be better than DJ Moore like that's the Bold part because DJ Moore is freaking awesome he was so good last year with the Bears I think he played at a level of like a top 12ish NFL receiver so asking romad dun to come in and be better that than that guy is a lot to ask but I have a lot of faith in romad dun as a prospect who was my second receiver in this class um the 0p gap between you know Marvin Harrison Malik neighbors and then all the way down to Roma dun at wide receiver 38 is just not commensurate with their ability uh as prospects it's just obviously a deference to Marvin Harrison being the top receiver on an offense that should be with a pretty good quarterback and then Malik neighbors is just going to moonwalk into a boatload of targets whereas Rome playing the rookie quarterback got a Target crowded tree here in Chicago but I just think that cre ultimately Rises at the top I I I I think feel pretty confident in having him ranked as the second Bears receiver which I've had all off season the Bold prediction here is just that he's going to lead the team uh in fantasy points at the wide receiver position which I don't even think means that DJ Moore was bad I just think that it means that romad Dunes like led the team in touchdowns which I think it's possible considering what we talked about in August was that Caleb wants to go to Rome in these off scram like the scramble drills and Off Script stuff I I worry that I read too much into that but I man it feels so real like every time anything goes a little bit off script it feels like Caleb is is just searching downfield for Rome and it's worked right like it works consistently and I think there's a just a non-trivial chance that um that that Rome is just a a screen like he looked he looked the part in college that he's just a screaming talent that um is going to force his way into more targets than anybody's projecting for him I think a couple things that I'm I'm thinking about that that uh you voiced there one of them the the gap between him and Malik neighbors Malik neighbors is so difficult for me um because that's another player where I think I think the world of his talent but that could just mean you know a Garrett Wilson type season where he manages through sheer volume to overcome possibly horrendous quarterback play and uh and and put together like a thousand yards and not much of anything else um and I think I think Rome can top that like I think the best case scenario for romad dun is you know is maybe a top 10 fantasy season how however I also think that the fantasy industry to some extent has has soured a little bit on DJ Moore which is weird um and I I get it at some level um this is you know a deep group of receivers and it had not previously been a deep group of receivers he was the clear number one unrivaled number one and yet this is also probably the best passer that uh DJ Moore has ever worked with and so maybe low bar but still true yeah really low bar but but like he just he's coming off a great season with somebody who was just sort of verifiably not you know not not an upper echelon NFL passer by any means and I don't see why he can't run that back with uh with Cale Caleb Williams and and just a much bigger pie available to everyone else like I feel like if you you know if you came into the offseason you had DJ Moore as like your your wide receiver 10 or 12 and then you know the Allen thing happens and they drafted dun and then you dropped him to like wide receiver 20 that's probably too far cuz he's he's just never worked with a great NFL quarterback that hasn't happened yet he was he was snake bit in college too like that was a Rogues Gallery at Maryland too like he's we've just never seen what it looks like when DJ Moore is tied to an upper tier passer and I'm not I'm not guaranteeing by any means that Caleb Williams in year one is going to be that but I do think there's a really good chance it's the best pro passer he's ever worked with I he could he could at the very least do what he did last year if not top it totally yeah that's the part that makes me the most nervous about this uh prediction which is why it's pretty spicy but we'll see if my next two well I know my last one's spicy but if my next one's spicier than this this Bears one but let's take a quick break we come back we're going to reveal our final two uh bold predictions a piece and again I'm hoping they're pretty spicy let's get into it right after this all right Andy give me your second to last bold prediction for the 2024 NFL season this one feels spicy because I I certainly don't have it ranked this way I don't have it ranked anywhere close to this um but I have written this guy up as a as a sleeper a League winner all the all the bad fantasy terms I've applied to this guy uh Jaylen Wright top 10 fantasy running back I I oh man this clearly requires well I'm not gonna say it does this doesn't require two injuries this requires one injury somewhere this requires you know I don't want to I'm not wishing it on anybody but anything happens to Anan or moster Jaylen Wright's gonna play a lot uh we we saw my we just saw Miami's offense deliver two sort of League tilting fantasy backs and and again Anan wasn't the exactly the same after the midyear injury but he was still really good before the injury he was crazy good and while he was crazy good Raheem Mo was also crazy good rahem Mo was carrying you into the playoffs um so we know it's a rich environment for a running back man R has looked really good in the preseason he was he was seven and a half yards per carry in the SEC last year the very good player he's got like every other Miami skill player he's got crazy speed um I think this is a real talent who has a shot probably to begin the season he's just a cameo Runner he's a rotational Runner anything happens to one of the guys ahead of him though and I think he's ready to have that h-and sized impact yeah this guy says uh I hope this last one's spicy and then says jayen right is the is a top 10 fantasy running back yeah that's spicy pal uh and I get you're not no we're in the we're in the range of where we're not ranking things this way like oh yeah I don't have romad dun ranked ahead of DJ Moore spoiler alert but yeah it's just these are bold predictions people we actually legally cannot be held accountable for these if they do not happen that is that is within the terms uh of agreement that you signed when you agreed to listen to this podcast so let that let that be known take it to your lawyer whatever uh the funny thing about this is that ADP all offseason has sort of said that this is possible or at least within the range of outcomes if there is chaos in this backfield because Devon aan is the 23rd player off the board in consensus ADP he's a round two fantasy pick he's a top 12 running back yet Raheem moard is still running back 25 like we're people are we're gonna have a roll here for Raheem moard even if aan takes more of a step I actually think that if these two guys are both healthy all off season or all season I think most are probably out kicks running back 25 where he's currently going but you still have Jaylen Wright as a top 50 running back you know he's a guy that's going right around the 150th overall pick which if all three of these guys stay healthy I don't see how you know Jaylen wri's going to be a usable fantasy back there's an assumption though that chaos is going to hit this backfield and that if chaos hits this backfield Jaylen right will benefit which I totally understand that part of it yeah that's that's the argument and usually when I write about uh Jaylen Wright I I pair him with Blake Corum and I think it's fundamentally the same argument where we just saw that team produce like a a league altering League tilting running back last year we just saw that system do it so it shouldn't be that hard to imagine a really talented rookie Runner especially after Anan did it as a rookie just stepping into the same situation many of the same touches and doing the same thing as long as you think the player clears the bar in terms of in terms of talent and readiness um we know that the situation is Rich all right I will go to my second to last one here and Andy are you familiar with the uh the meme of goofy saying I'll effing do it again with kind of the the eyes know what I'm talking about you know I'm talking about um he won't he won't make a bold prediction based on Deontay Johnson exceeding expectations again oh I I'll effing do it again baby Deontay Johnson is a wide receiver one this season I mean I I think this is spicier than the Roman dun prediction just because people have feelings about Deontay Johnson and you know it's Bryce young it's the Panthers offense um the worst offense in the NFL last season an unwatchable unmitigated disaster last season well guess what Dave Canalis is gonna come in here and I'm not saying he's Gonna Save Bryce young but he's gonna clean things up all right things are going to be a little little smoother of an operation a little more uh Pleasant like The Vibes are going to be better in Carolina under Dave Canalis than they were under Frank young Vibes could possibly be worse so we're saying that but I think going to be a little bit better here under Dave canals most importantly man I think we all agree like Deontay Johnson is gonna get more targets than a wide receiver that's typically ranked outside the top 30 at the position or going outside the top 30 at the position where he does go um in Yahoo drafts right now he's wide receiver 32 he's a 65 65th overall player I've sort of heard people say well okay yeah he's going to have the targets but does he have the ceiling why can't he have the ceiling because in my opinion Deontay Johnson is an excellent football player he's been one of the best separators in the NFL period certainly in reception perception he's coming off a all green route tree last year baby light that thing up like a freaking Christmas tree he's a separator at all three levels he's been great but even if you want to look at like other separation metrics he's good in those two but don't look at that only look at mine I'm I'm being fous but seriously great separator we know that part of it he's he's exactly what Bryce young needed last year and he's going to have that guy this year but then you hear well well but the the efficiency the per Target efficiency uh Hey haters and losers he's coming off of his career best yards per Target career best yards per route run and we want to know why because he didn't play in Matt Canada's offense all season and he didn't have to just line up an X receiver as a sub six foot sub2 200 pound player and just run a bunch of goes and curl routes that's all it took that's all it took for these efficiency metrics to to oh the efficiency I mean give me a freaking break so let's just say that efficiency from last year is combined with the target totals we know he can get we know he can earn because of his separation ability and Bryce young takes a step from bad to right around League averages I think it's totally possible that Deontay Johnson could be a wide receiver one as the 30- second receiver off the board I love that you gave us the voice not once but twice I love that you directly addressed the haters and losers of which there are many um that's fantastic yeah I think I don't think anybody would even argue that Deontay Johnson if he just stays healthy it's gonna see 150 targets it's going to be a it's gonna be a [ __ ] ton of targets right like he's he's absolutely gonna gonna finish among the League's Target leaders and at that point it's really hard for him not to beat his ADP this like the ADP is clearly Rel ated to to team environment nobody nobody trusts the Carolina Panthers to put up numbers nobody trusts them to to put up passing touchdowns um and but like are we really imagining a scenario in which Deontay Johnson sees I don't know 160 165 targets and doesn't score a touchdown scores three touchdowns I don't know pretty that seems pretty improbable to me um great player and as you say just a just a gift to Bryce Young Who who not only needs needed credible receiving threats but also needs uh credible receiving threats who are just open off the snap of the football which is which is Deontay Johnson so great fit we all saw you know even in a terrible offensive environment how how useful Adam thielen was for like half a season last year Deontay Johnson can at least do that um so this I mean this is bold at some level but when you actually when you think about the likely numbers for him in terms of volume and and what he's already achieved in his career this seems very doable yeah I may or may not have done this prediction one just for my own brand and biases but two because I really thought this would be a great opportunity to do the voice uh but all right with that let's finish with our final bold predictions G be tough for me to top the acting performance in the grieved nature of that last one but I will try to do my best but uh Andy you give me your final bold prediction and and I hope it's a spicy one I I thought I needed to have one with just a legitimately no doubt about it good play um so here we go Garrett Wilson wins the receiving Triple Crown um a little it's a little steamy I'll grant you that um but man am I looking forward to a full season I mean we don't even need Aaron roders to be vintage MVP level Aaron Rodgers we just need him to be functional healthy late stage very good quarterback um easing into you know his Hall of Fame induction if he's just I don't know if he if he's a healthier but equal version of the guy that we saw that last season in Green Bay I think this can happen um and and maybe maybe I'm a little bit too enthusiastic right now because I've I've become a victim of all those all those clips of Garrett Wilson and Aaron Rogers in the joint practice against the Giants where they absolutely ended that franchise um that was super impressive but just a reminder in some ways of you know one one of the best traits that Aaron Rogers has had over the years is that when he when he has somebody on the field with him who he knows is an unsolvable problem at receiver that that is where the ball is going and he's going to make you he's going to make you find a way to stop it or he's going to be you with it right um I just like quick eyeballing his career as a packer there there might be more seasons out there but I found at least a dozen seasons in which uh an individual receiver finished with double digit touch Downs right and that's so not just Devonte Adams but Jordy Nelson before him Greg Jennings you know Randall Cobb had one James Jones had one like there's a bunch of them out there um when when he's got an easy answer in the offense uh that's where the ball goes and and I kind of think it's going to be like that with with Garrett Wilson and we've man Garrett Wilson going over a thousand yards despite one of the worst quarterback situations in recent memory o over the last two years was really just heroic stuff you just give him League average or better quarterback play and I I think a monster season is on the way something that something that possibly puts him inside like the first half of the first round next year uh I've talked about this a lot this offseason but just because hey The Season's here and you just brought it up um I'm going to just read this reception perception note about Garrett Wilson off one last time these are the following receivers to both clear the 95th percentile in success rate vers man coverage and go over 81% success UC rate vers Zone in RP history Stefon Diggs Michael Thomas Odell Beckham Antonio Brown Devonte Adams AJ Brown Justin Jefferson and Garrett Wilson last year so yeah if you're asking yourself is he pretty good list if you're asking yourself if you ask yourself is he good enough to be from a talent perspective win the Triple like a Triple Crown winner 100% yes he is that guy so I love Harmon and Behrens share their two BIGGEST and boldest fantasy predictions for 2024 NFL season that prediction I love that you went with a no doubt about a good player I did not do that for my final ball prediction I wanted to go I wanted to go the opposite way with my final bold prediction which is like this is just my most effit why not bold prediction which is perfectly in in the vibe of this player will Levis is gonna be a qb1 this year uh oh hell yeah absolute nonsensical bold prediction uh will Levis is kind of a nonsensical player in the sense that when you watch him there's a lot of uh what the hell are you doing nonsensical moments that's will Levis as a quarterback but I think a few things are true I think number one will Lev's style of play which I compared to this generation's jamus Winston to you uh several months ago that can lead to Fantasy success two I do think that watching the Titans in the preseason and look it's preseason football I get it but I've become just more and more thought like man they're really going to pass the ball and they're going to involve the running backs to get some layups for will Levis um that that just that philosophy of the coaching staff I think is going to lean itself to lean into the passing game that is a potential bonus for will Levis the third thing I think is true is that you know look we have spent almost no time discussing Calvin Ridley in the leadup to Fantasy season uh at least from my perspective we haven't which is crazy because we spent way too much time talking about calv Ridley about 365 days ago yeah but I just think that guy you know all of just who he was as a player last year forget what he was with the Falcons where he was a much better version with the Falcons even the guy he was last year is a huge boost to a Young quarterback like will Levis and I think the way they're going to use him some of the deployment you've seen in the preseason I think just lends itself to um a good number one target for will Levis to to get some efficient throws certainly no one they had on the roster last year is that style of receiver so it's going to take kind of an absurd touchdown season for will Levis and kind of an absurd volume season seon for will L to get there as a qb1 but like I said this was certainly my most eff it why not bold prediction every year there are one or two quarterbacks who sneak into like the top 10 top 12 where like man I I want to say that Trevor Lawrence might have been the qb2 last year and you're like man that wasn't even a good year um and yet and yet they kind of they kind of sneak in a back door just by you know just by playing all the games um and I so I think Levis just has that path right you can you can be healthy and and pretty functional and make some small strides and you can still get there if you just play the whole season also huge arm right like I don't know weird weird rookie season because it felt like half of his stats came in the one game and all of those stats went to DeAndre and it you know just a just a weird I was going to say up and down season but there was like one massive up and everything else was kind of May was flatlined a little bit the the other thing about Levis though he's got I don't want to I don't want to call it rushing upside in the same way that uh you know a lot of the true dual threat guys have rushing upside but like he had a nine touchdown season in college um there's a you can imagine a scenario where they're not totally happy with any of their running backs at the goal line and will Levis ends up with four or five touchdowns like they get at the one yard line and they're just let's call Will ev's number cuz that cuz that worked a little bit in college and it it could happen again so we might get a little bit of a fluky rushing touchdown total you know if if they get passing volume to go along with that you can you can definitely imagine a scenario where will Lis I think finishes qb8 to qb10 I love it I love it um man this is the time to just say some weird stuff and I just said some weird stuff Andy even said some weird stuff and trying to justify this but you know like I said it's that time of the year um but you know what it is time for it's time to talk about what's really important in week one Andy because week one is just a few days away and as you know from the countless live reads got a little thing going on with NBC Sports this year oh do we we do because if you sign up for a fantasy league on Yahoo fantasy you'll be automatically entered to win $1 million even though Andy's on two podcast episodes a week this year he's not clearing $1 million so I mean it's his n worth that's another discussion because we know he has the private jet the palatial Estates the whole thing but still who couldn't use one another $1 million everybody so you'd be automatically entered to win $1 million you just join a fantasy league but if any of the players use start score a touchdown in the week one games on NBC and peacock will Levis will not be eligible for this but still a lot of good players are you'll earn bonus entries into the sweep Stakes bonus entries equals good the deadline people it's September 5th this is September third you only have a few more days left get your fantasy league going on Yahoo Harmon and Behrens share their Super Bowl prediction fantasy draft some actually good players that are going to score touchdowns in week one and potentially profit Andy that is going to do it for us today Banger of a show before we go though I gotta ask you Super Bowl prediction why not let's just say it who is who are you projecting to win the Super Bowl this year oh man I'm not going to I'm not I'm not going to I'm not going to curse the Bears uh I'm not going to get that not um give me give me Chiefs over Lions give me Chiefs over Lions I can I I mean I the Chiefs offense is not going to be as bad as it was last year and they're the back-to-back Super Bowl champs um I I I know history's against us here with with them trying for a third straight but I don't know until I see somebody knock them off when it really matters it's it's hard to it's hard to predict anything else yeah I I'll go Lions over Chiefs um Jared gof beats Patrick Mahomes in a Super Bowl what a stupid prediction to make there there's literally no way we buried the boldest prediction on this show didn't we I mean the Lions should be the NFC favorite I think at this point with everything going on with the 49ers all that nonsense there um you know I I I just feel so good about the Lions right now even though that division is great even though Jordan love I think is an ascending rocket ship of a quarterback your bears are looking better than ever uh I still feel really good about the Lions that's my that's my prediction Jared G beats Pat Mahomes at the Super Bowl I that will be the dumbest thing I say all year so I'm just trying to start myself off with some breathing room here say the stupidest thing that I can possibly say here before week one even gets going so I have some leash the rest of the year and on that note mercifully this podcast is over that's gonna do it for this one tomorrow though Sal vetri joins me as we debut data dump Wednesday could not be more excited about that we identify the stats you need to know heading into week one until then we're out