Fantasy Sophomore Stars + Thursday Night Preview | Fantasy Focus 🏈

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[Music] you're in the 0 601 Focus fantasy [Music] Focus hello and welcome to Fantasy Focus football presented by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV my name is Daniel do joined by Stefan Bell and field jates coming out of the last weekend that we have to breathe before football starts and we are working 80 hours a week guys I don't think about it that way cuz football is just fun how pumped are you that we have football this week oh my God I'm so excited like I cannot wait wait for Thursday night we get it Thursday Friday Friday Sunday and of course you know for me the crem deot creme is Monday Night Football kicking off 49ers and they are feeling better as we enter the week absolutely as uh Trent Williams is about to have a new deal in hand to the extent that we discuss fantasy football offensive line implications it certainly does not hurt Christian mcaffrey who by the way is expected to return to practice today according to our palal Adam shefter yeah where's Damen Woody when you need him to talk about this Trent willing in on Trent Williams news come Sunday morning at 10: a.m. eastern time that's right all you need to know is that Brock prie is that this is huge for him new and that helps Brock to Brandon auk and Brock to Debo and all of these it helps Christian mcaffrey as well so listen this helps all of your fantasy roster that has the 49ers on it by Trent The opening drive Williams 100% And as big a news as the Trent Williams news was we have even bigger news coming out of the weekend so let's get this thing started with the opening drive F jates I've asked you a couple times about this Jamar Chase Saga if we had a panic meter that was green yellow or red we kind of been hovering in the yellow area maybe a little green once Zack Taylor came out and said he's going to play week one now I'm starting to feel more panicked with him not suiting up at practice yesterday it feels like there's a legitimate chance that we might not see Jamar Chase in week one how are you approaching Jamar Chase let's say this for those that have not drafted yet let's say that you are having to go through your first round what are you doing if you have Jamar Chase potentially on your queue and you're trying to decide where he needs to go there's still a chance the deal gets done I don't know how big of a chance there is though Daniel so here's how I'm approaching it I think it matters what size League you are playing in because the deeper the league the more that first round pick is important to you right if you play in a 16 Team league you don't have a chance if you whiff on your first round pick sure if you play in a 10 Team league and you have the ninth overall pick in the draft and you take Jamar Chase and he is either unavailable in week one for some period of time you're still getting a blue chip Prospect at pick number 11 or 12 right like you're getting an awesome player at number 12 if you have the ninth pick in a 16 Team league think about that you're not picking again until pick 24 so you have to be very mindful of what size League you're playing in I think in a 10 Team league nine is where I would take Jamar chase the first eight spots and if you're telling me like who exactly is the cutoff point I believe the five players we' been talking about all the time this preseason it's the CD lamb Tyreek kale bejan Robinson Bree Hall and of course Christian mcaffry yep and I think it's Alan Ros Brown Justin Jefferson uh and also like those two like don't feel any concern about it I think eight I would lean towards one of eight you could make a case for AJ Brown saquon Barkley the point is that so maybe the answer is eight right but like those seven guys that I mentioned I think should be going ahead of Jamar Chase then it's a conversation in the 10 Team league in the 12 Team league I think it's sorry a 16 Team league I think it's gets more like pick 13 or 14 you just can't afford to screw up that first round pick in a 16 team leag can expect to have any chance of winning unless you absolutely Crush pretty much the rest of your draft which as we know it's harder to crush picks the further remov they are from pick number one yeah I'm I'm facing a couple 16 team drafts tomorrow and if there's no movement on this I he's he's not a pick I am taking do you mind where I ask uh you're at in those two leagues I know in the War Room League you're yeah there I meant five so that's easier he wasn't really consideration the other one I don't know yet but it I'm just saying blanket like he's not a choice because I've done these 16 team leagues and I know exactly what you're saying you feel like every pick especially in those first couple rounds that's where your starters are because then you're having to go huge depth and what if he a is willing to miss games which it sounds like he is if this doesn't get resolved so then you don't have him at all uh B we've talked about this before the risk of these soft tissue injuries with guys who are not doing anything football related and how quickly is he going to get acclimated to football and get ramp back up and is he going to be thrust in and be the primary target right out of the gate do you really expect that uh for him not doing anything other than a maybe one light practice that he was involved in it's really that's a tough investment for the last part I'll say about this is that while I do have jaras ahead of the likes of AJ Brown puka nakua those type of wide receivers there's no shame in taking one of those those guys extremely early in your draft so I think the answer in a 10 Team league is around that eight or nine spot but if you're picking an eight or nine and you buy pass Jamar Chase I'm not going to say like a thing to you right no no no no I'm with you on that like my thought process was I would me personally I'd rather go AJ Brown pugan nakua even Garrett Wilson or one of those top running backs and then see if he makes it back to me at the top or middle of the second round because I I just want to take the the attitude of I want to be as risk averse as possible in the first round even in a 10 Team league I would like to see as much of my potential realized as possible so knowing that there is so many things still up in the air about Jamar Chase and this situation I don't think there's anything wrong we would not bat an eye if someone decided to go with any one of those other incredible wide receivers or or that tier two of running backs at that spot just be very mindful if you take a Jamar Chase like you want to then be careful about taking another player who's like entering the season with an injury concern maybe a re R so we know could eventually be suspended I think it's after this year but just be mindful of the risk you incur with Jamar Chase is going to influence the rest of how your draft plays out yep all right we got so much more on this as the week moves on but stick around we got more coming up here on fantasy focus in just a minute CJ Stroud vs. Anthony Richardson back here on fantasy Focus football Daniel do Stefan Bell and field jat guys football is upon us this week we cannot wait I want to mention this really quickly we got a couple of awesome matchups that are coming up first one Thursday Night Football is going to be great we're going to talk about Thursday night football here in just a little bit obviously we have that Friday game in Brazil which is going to be unbelievable sou pal uh which is awesome poo I believe right prob maybe you you probably are better at it than I am stefia you're the one that I always come to no tweeting down there though there's no Twitter allowed in Brazil right now so your updates are going to have to be the old school way you got to watch the game oh I love that I love that all right well here's my question we got a couple of awesome young quarterbacks that we are going to see go head-to-head against each other in CJ Stout and Anthony Richardson I was doing Adam shef's podcast yesterday and he threw out a stat that I had not heard yet let's hear it 24 of the 32 starting quarterbacks in the NFL this year are under the age of 30 the youngest the position has ever been in the history of the NFL I'm not sure that there are two better options when you look at that than CJ Stout and Anthony Richardson obviously you have both of them field sure about that not too better option under the age of 30 I mean there's a handful of them that you can talk about say chiefs fans like I think sometimes it gets a like the the Chiefs fans who think that Patrick Mahomes is disrespected in fantasy football like gets a little bit overblown well I would take Patrick Mahomes over those two guys okay that's fair I'm sure you're not going to have a better group of people that are under the age of 25 at least I get what you're saying it's a I mean it's an embarrassment of riches in young quarterbacks in the world of right now and CJ shroud and I believe Anthony Richardson two exceptional options especially given their age yeah you guys have been all over Anthony Richardson so far this year obviously here's my question for you before we talk about week one what would CJ strad need to do season long in order to overtake Anthony Richardson assuming that he stays healthy all season is it just the rushing upside yeah I think it's probably just doing what he did last year and adding a touch more rushing people will recall this for those who watch Ohio State closely Ohio State uh was very conservative with how much they allowed CJ Stroud to rush maybe in part because you know while Ohio State's competing for championships they also want to groom players to be highly drafted NFL prospects and the more hits you take ostensibly the more likely you are to be at risk his final game of his college career he shredded a Kirby smartled defense in Georgia and also was a terrific runner in that game Texans might let him cook a little bit more in that regard but they have insulated against the need to do that with a an Awesome Trio of wide receivers in the addition of joe mix right yeah but I think it's so if Anthony if TJ stoud is a comparable passer to last year which was good I think he's gonna need a lot of rushing upside if he's a better passer than last year which I think is very good or Elite and I get people say like he was only a good passer last year good relative to Raw stats in fantasy yes not totally ridiculously nuclear like Patrick Mahomes throwing for 50 he was an amazing player but for fantasy football he was more good than he he was very good not Elite this year he can level up by either becoming that Elite passer which I think is very much in that tool bag or if he sprinkles in like three or four rushing touchdowns that could be enough to push him into that like unquestioned tier one of fantasy quarterbacks yeah and it's actually it's basically the opposite for Anthony Richardson we know what he can do with his legs but we need to see what can he do with his arm to be able last year uh I think we talked about it Justin Fields was the lowest ranked quarterback that still had over 500 yards rushing I think he finished as qb12 last season but if you can is that total points or points per game do you know I'd have to look I can look while I'm while I'm looking six games with 25 points I know you Ed that used that so so but if you if you talk about Anthony Richardson being able to take the next step it's being able to figure out what can he do with his arm on a consistent basis stefia yeah and I'm not worried about his arm I think that was the question in the off season was he had this injury week five he goes out with an AC joint separation it was actually more severe than everybody thought so we had to have it surgically reduced repaired uh reconstructed and what does he look like after that not all quarterbacks come back with a smooth return from this type of surgery and he was throwing well and he was throwing well early and I think some people were concerned in OTAs there was a little bit of arm soreness but this is also normal coming freed out I know and they were actually being smart about it like I don't want them making them throw a ton and spr bring OTAs and now I mean he can make every throw there's not a limitation on him this is really just about him evolving in the second year we only got five games and not even five full games because of he had the concussion and then you know this part of the game that he left early so I think we are just starting to see what Anthony Richardson can be as far as availability is concerned you know beat reporters are incredible they're tabulating quarterback stats during practices how about this one how many snaps and he's a backup artback so obviously the number is low how many snaps did Joe flacko take the number two quarterback with the Colt Starting offense this summer 17 as a guess I can't zero oh seriously Anthony Richardson took every single first team rep this summer so all that panic in June was quickly offset by 100% participation in August I've said this but I'll just like finish my piece on it because by Sunday we'll have something to actually react to is that Anthony Richardson being a surgical passer would open up the possibility of him being Cam Newton reincarnated uh as a fantasy football player love cam so fun to I've loved having Cam and fantasy football and I hopefully a little less Maverick than I also I still I love cam as a podcaster too I'm a big cam guy the point is that he doesn't need to be a supernova passer to be an elite fantasy player I'm telling you just go look at the first season as jayen Herz as a starting quarterback in Philadelphia if you get about that the floor for Anthony Richardson assuming he stays healthy which everybody has to stay healthy is 20 fantasy points a game I just meant by the way Les Maverick like cam part of the his shoulder at the end was because he was like diving with an outstretched arm and I think Anthony Richardson one thing you can say given the history he's had is he knows he has to be smarter about how he manages himself like not diving into the End Zone on an outstretched arm for example you know Cam and I like we have that in common right DNA very close we have pretty much nothing else in common physically cam is the most fashionable person I've ever seen in my entire life I would do anything to have one one million inors and scars oh how great got too much swag for me to ever possibly imagine myself in like the same planet or Stratosphere same all right wrapping this up quarterback 11 and fantasy points per game for Justin Fields 657 rushing yards so having that rushing floor obviously elevated am of points per game basis bad yeah bad quarterback play turned into 11th best in fantasy football play just keep that in mind people I don't I don't care if Anthony Richardson looks like Joe Montana on Sunday or he looks like Justin Fields I care about whether he gets you 20 fantasy points which I think is possible all right so these two teams are playing against each other this week we'll obviously dive in a little bit more later on this week but I do want to ask you this obviously Michael Pitman with where we drafted him and what he is he's going to be a locket set it in forget it starter for week one but if Josh DS doesn't play stefo you thinking about ADN Mitchell as someone that's potentially a deep flex play you guys been drafting with me you didn't realize I've drafted him in like every single League because of the value where you can get him and I think people largely missing out on the fact that he could be the wide receiver too starting in week one Josh JS had the high ankle sprain his status still be to be determined for week one but even if he were able to make it back I'm not sure that he takes full compliment of reps we like the way ad Mitchell plays he's big he's physical I think he's developed chemistry with Anthony Richardson like I think he has value even when Josh DS returns uh but I think the value goes up in the absence of him I think week one would be tough for me to want to start him unless I'm in a a league that starts three wide receivers and two Flex there's just so many good wide receivers and having not seen him yet there's a lot of different other people I would probably put in front of him but I definitely love ad I Mitchell not just in week one but potentially the rest of SE this is like he's one of our favorite prew week one waiver wire ads yes right like I would not be starting him as well unless Preston into in a very unique very deep League or something Team league um he will be on my bench but like you know in when they have the player starting to warm up on the sideline because you might bring him into the game that's him ad will be running wind sprints on the sideline just in case cuz we might crank him up as soon as week two 100% all What’s the ceiling for the Texan WRs this season? right let me ask you this Texans wide receivers field I know where where we landed on things based on draft order but let's say week one you're going to start one of these wide receivers is it Nico Collins or is it digs I'm stting you're starting both of them like Mike and I and you and I and I think all of us I think I'm on stfond Dig's Island by myself but I'm still starting both of them like you know it's like I've got Stefan di is wide receiver 16 and Nico Collins is wide receiver 18 you're starting both of them but for the purposes of of of board bets and planting a flag I planted my flag on stfond Dig's Island I'm comfortable with that but both of those players are top 20ish options in week one a wide receiver yeah tank feels like a little bit more of a dart throw just figuring out what that wide receiver three is going to look like in that offense but it has nothing to do with his skill set or his chemistry with with CJ it's just there's a lot of mouths to feed we also make Joe Mixon we didn't even talk about him so you'll be starting him too yeah you're you're starting Joe Mixon of course yes tank is one of those where like again um week one don't overthink things folks it's week one you're like you know if you drafted a guy high you're starting that player most likely right tank Dell is going to be one where you Pro in my my view is that tank Dale is going to be a player you have to get used to it it's going to be a wave and week one the wave could be four catches for 78 yards and a touchdown and you might be saying to yourself I've stolen him now if he's playing every single snap and playing more than either St D or niiko Collins then you may very well have stolen him but if it's four catches 72 yards and a touchdown or whatever I said before and he's playing 50% of the snaps and I might tell you yeah it was awesome but be prepared it may not be this awesome every single week and he's still for rankings purposes going to be wide receiver three within that Texans office I think that's the thing he has the most volatility week to week of all their receivers and we saw last year when he skyrocketed a couple weeks when before he got hurt well ideally these Texans run the most three wide receivers sets in the NFL if they are at all thinking about us here in fantasy football that's what they're going to do them and the Bears and the Seahawks I'm into that all three of that love it all right when we come back we are going to do a Thursday night preview Chiefs and TNF Preview: Chiefs vs. Ravens Ravens stick [Music] around all right guys Thursday night preview Kansas City Chiefs Baltimore Ravens game one of the Slate honestly that sounds good first game of the Seas seon being Chiefs Ravens is a pretty great matchup honestly tasty right there uh you're starting both of these quarterbacks can I ask you this you're starting both Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes field yes a limb thought about it I consulted with uh with with the uh the cabinet this weekend my cabinet of my two daughters um one of them can talk one of them can't yet U and they both agree she can point she can point that's right she can eat that girl can eat that's it I I I I don't want to disrupt the show but holy cow I've never seen a one-year-old eat like Palmer does who's tiny she's like 20th percentile and she ate like nine hot dogs this weekend wow cheeseburger I'm like girl it's okay wow KOB remember last time I could be able to eat nine hot dogs and a cheeseburger without worrying about it for months all right let's talk about this obviously you love both of these quarterbacks it's just going to be fun to be able to watch them more than anything you're starting both of them if you drafted them there's no questions there and at the running back spot that'd be a good board bet though momes versus Lamar for the season you want to talk about it I mean I don't I don't have a strong stance but that would be a good like if you have if if your friends do board bets or if you found if you found a very staunch Lamar Advocate and a very staunch Mahomes Advocate that could be a good board pet I think if I were to if you were to ask me which player has a better chance of qb1 finish I think it's Patrick Mahomes but if you talk about like the ceiling potentially being higher I think it's Lamar Jackson okay so I see then I see I think I think that's where all right so that we could just do this for fun do it do it son you guys got aard here all right so are we doing like who finishes said Chiefs beat my 49ers in this particularly big game last year so I'm I'm going to take somebody the um so basically just who has more fantasy points this season in week one week one or this season oh no we got to do the season the season yeah season long board bet track this one I think this is I think Keith usually tracks these I say Patrick Mahomes outscores Lamar Jackson fantasy football this season I say Lamar Jackson outscores Patrick Mahomes in fantasy football this season put put on the board put it on the board thank you Daniel for that uh good one there I like our board bets going into this year like I think there are some some good ones fun like they're like legitimately could take all year to it's weird the only ones that have Stakes are the ones that I win and if I win I I get a steak specifically from Mike so every it's weird the all the ones that I will end up losing we've decided it's they're they're just they're friendlies right yeah I don't know how that was agreed to but I appreciate you guys being so generous in doing so we'll rethink that let me talk about some running backs because I think this is an interesting conversation Isaiah pcho and Derrick Henry were basically drafted right next to each other now heading into week one Stefan if you had to choose or if you were going to say I think one of these running backs is going to look better in this game would you take Isaiah P or would you take Derrick Henry here well I think most people know that I'm on the Derrick Henry train he is a train yes he is that's fair I really think Derrick Henry is GNA have a season to remember and I think that the Ravens brought him in for that purpose I think he is a goal line threat much more so than Isaiah PCO I think uh that just having him and Lamar Jackson as the two guys you really have to pay attention to for the Run who are very very different and uh you know that I think opens up the possibility for Derrick hen that he never really had in Tennessee when all eyes were on him and when he was touching the ball so much more I mean he was responsible for such a high percentage of the team touches 41.2% his percentage of Team touches that ranked second in the N Le right so I think he can do more with less in this offense and I just you know Isaiah Pacho we know how he runs he runs like a man on fire like I just love watching him run but I don't think his utilization in this offense will be quite the same interesting all right all right I've got Derrick Henry at eight yeah you have him as rb8 this week which is a handful of spots ahead of ESPN consensus is that a reflection so I think the reason why Derrick Henry is a little bit lower this week is because uh this is a week of great offense has taking on great defenses across the board we have this game to start the week we have the uh the 49ers and jets on Monday Night Football to conclude the week with two I think possibly very good defense defenses in Philadelphia and Green Bay Standalone uh Friday night game like the Cowboys and the Browns play each other like a lot of heavyweight matchups no surprise the NFL is coming out strong with some of these games in week one so Henry being a little bit lower is more reflective with the fact he's playing the Chiefs you are saying I'm standing my ground I've got him as running back eight I drafted a guy where I think that he is going to be most all season long the idea of having Derek outside of the top 10 in this Ravens offense just didn't make sense to me just week one yeah so I I want to say even though I haven't seen it yet because we haven't seen the Ravens off the real number one offense there's a part of this that's just I want to see Derrick Henry Unleashed and I think that they are going to utilize him to his full potential here in week one yeah fair just while we're talking running backs real quick Clyde Edwards slair for the Chiefs placed on the NFI list will miss at least the first four games Maj perine new addition to the Chiefs and could end up being the Isaiah Pacho backup so something to think about if you are drafting in fantasy we'll see how much utilization he gets in week one he obviously just arrived there but it sounds like they expect that he could play yeah yeah I think SM will play Thursday night I think he'll be active it may not be you know a ton of snaps but he'll play um Carson steel I know the interet wants Carson steel they don't want was fun just as a point of clarity I don't think people misinterpreted this but just to note while Daniel has Derrick Henry five spots ahead of where I have Derrick Henry we both very much are starting Derrick Henry yes we are yes we are running back eight versus running back 13 I think that's actually a good point that we'll Hammer throughout the week and then again on fantasy football now that I think is important is it's week one there are players who are in really bad matchups this week as I was just describing right like I think of probably the most notable one in that regard is Dak Prescott where he's playing the Browns who were so good on defense last year um but the question I have is like are you really sitting DC Prescott in week one like if you drafted a second quarterback that is an established player in a good matchup and you're like I I just don't buy that the Broncos can hold down Gino Smith I'm going to play him over Dak this week I would maybe entertain it but generally speaking I am playing the players that I intended to have my starters in week one there's so much variance year toe in the NFL that I'm okay with having a onewe grace period for my players to see just how good they actually are as opposed to how good I thought they were coming into the season let's think about this scenario Cleveland offense we haven't seen a lot of them what if they struggle defense gets fatigued Dax start's taking advantage of them you you overthought it and Ben Jack Prescott but now all of a sudden dak's going to town on on a Cleveland defense like these are all scenarios that could happen I would not be Bening him either absent you making plans in your draft specifically to sub out a player because you hated his matchup in week one I would not be taking a player out in week one I agree and which is why we also have Isa peo as as a locked in running back starter for this week as well we'll talk about this more but like Mike has Dak quite a bit lower in the projections than I have in my rankings like I said am I gonna have Dak fifth no but he's going to be a lot closer to 10 than he is 20 and I believe the projections had him down at like 18th amongst quarterback very low based on that a lot of lot of respect for that Browns defense Mike gave him all right let's talk more about this game pass catchers yeah how about Z flowers we're trying to figure out what Z flowers can look like coming off of a last year I mean he was great as a rookie we really saw him come alive especially in the second half of the Season field is he locked in as a starter or is the wide receiver position just so deep that he's one of those guys you have to make a decision on a week one yeah to me he's a lockin starter for a few reasons first of all he's the number one wide receiver in this offense he's a very very talented player he was a top 22 pick just last season he had this incredible year by Ravens receiver standards in the Lamar Jackson era which haven't been great but there's belief and hope that this could become the best wide receiver Lamar Jackson has played with by far in his career relatively early on in Z flower's career and then keep in mind this factor that and I'm not trying to steal Mike's Thunder but I don't think we'll cover this prior to Thursday because we normally are on to other topics is there is no more lerus need in in Kansas City which I don't know that he would have shadowed Z flowers but he was shadowing everybody in their sister last year so the idea of a number one wide receiver who might play a decent number of snaps from the slot drawing a lerus Snee Shadow should not have been overlooked you guys probably remember the famous run that he went on last year just basically shutting down all pro wide receivers left and right Chiefs are going to be fine defensively they're going to be excellent defensively again this year Trent McDuffy is a first team All Pro who may end up following Z flowers a little bit or the Chiefs may say we're not shadowing anymore that's a boost for Z flowers he's by wide receiver 21 this week you have him as wide receiver 19 no reason not to start him in my estimation when I think about it but what about Chiefs wide receiver Stefania I think the big question that everybody has is Rashid rice because he fell down draft board so far and at the end of this draft season he started to Vault back up draft boards based on ADP a lot of the conversations that we had I think it's all based around one thing right it was a question of his status and his availability yeah and I field has spoken to it multiple times and probably can address it one more time for the masses but I think what happened was at the start we saw everybody was concerned so everybody was shying away from Rashi rice and then by the way if you're watching preseason like to me it was Patrick Mahomes rice Mahomes rice Mahomes R like clearly that's his preferred targets his number one Target on that offense and we were getting the vibe that maybe if there is a punishment that happens it would not happen until at least later in the season so why wouldn't you want that value upfront is that fair to say I would say everything you just said agree cosign as a part of that too we're not going to see Hollywood Brown who was someone they brought in to be a part of this offense it doesn't seem like we will see well right not practicing to start the week and and the expectation already was that he would not be available for this game so stay tuned because this is a 4 to six week injury when we see it off you know it's not an injury that happens that often in the first place but it sounds like maybe week two or three could be in play we'll have to see when he gets cleared for contest so then the only big change between last year like the last game that they played last year and this year with their starters is they've got a guy named zavier worthy who ran a 42140 field what are you doing with him this super excting rookie here in week one maybe I'm just you know I I am just uh I'm I'm too busy thinking about the Champs I I am sort of all in on all the wide receivers this week I guess all is not the right word for Xavier worthy uh because I have Rashi rice as wide receiver 18 this week which is seven spots ahead of you and nine ahead of Mike as well so I'm more optimistic on rice but I also have Xavier worthy inside my top 40 and I just going to say this I think that we need to be very careful in terms of like always chasing narratives but if you don't believe that at some point on Thursday night Andy re plans to uncork one to Xavier worthy you have not been paying attention at least one yeah and the Chiefs traded up with a team who they have been like the dragon to the Buffalo Bills I have who needed the wide receiver desperately to get Xavier worthy the fastest player in the history of the combat as thing just noted would you be stunned stunned if the Chiefs open the game Thursday night with like a run to Isaiah Pacho they get seven yards so you're setting up second and three kind of a play where you can get aggressive or you can just try to get the first down and they say you know what let's go for it all bombed Xavier worthy wouldn't surprise me if they take a deep shot or several deep shots early in throughout the night so um not a 10 Team league starter for me but if the story of the night when we go to bed after the game is Xavier worthy exploded onto the scene none of us should be shocked I was going to say this feels like if you told me that he had a Sammy Watkins type week one just right out of the gate omage to refence there well done I love it I think that would be fantastic I am with you though if I had to choose someone to start like Xavier worthy unfortunately just because of the uncertainty he's a little outside in a 10 Team league he's not someone that I am starting in a deeper League I'm very good with it but he might have four targets too like they might all be 60 yard targets but correct yeah and obviously obviously you're starting both Mark Andrews and Travis Kelsey we you see Mark Andrews practic I was just going to say back he had a car accident that was pretty serious and it I think it just kind of went under the radar because no injury reports and so forth but he came back and talked about how it was scary but he's back he's practicing and expects to play week one Thursday night love that you guys I'm gonna take the Ravens oh that's fun that is spicy I'm just gonna take the Ravens just because you know love it I'm taking the Chiefs going here I'm taking the Chiefs and by the way we are doing a Fantasy Focus P pick League yeah I get it I get it uh pix can pick them league is back this year and I want you guys to come after me cuz I'm winning the whole thing so good luck to you we'll have more information on how you we'll talk about that on Friday after the Ravens beat the chief y love that love that all right we'll be back here on fantasy focus in just a Dyanmic Duos: Jahmyr Gibbs & David Montgomery minute in the 61 focant all right now it's time for dynamic Duos presented by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV and we are talking about a couple of running backs I did not create this segment for what you sure about that I did not our producers did this without my knowledge although I definitely co-sign on it as you had already said earlier this show field let's talk about the Detroit Lions running backs because I'm not sure that we're going to have two potential top 25 Running Backs from the same team again this year last year you looked at potentially Divine hhan and Raheem moart I don't think Raheem moart gets there this year but I do believe that jir Gibbs and David Montgomery can be absolutely lights out fantastic Lions have had two top 20 running backs in backto back Seasons field is there any reason and I realiz what this means but is there any reason why they couldn't do that again this year with their offensive line and what these two guys bring to the table now it's normally kind of tough to chase some of the outliers that we have seen from Detroit in back-to-back season I'm not talking about as much jir Gibbs As I Am David Montgomery who took over the Jamal Williams role where it's basically minimal factor in the passing game but absolute Hammerhead at the goal line and yet the Lions have this Elite offensive line they have a quarterback who is not going to run the football so there's no threat of like a three yard quarterback sneak any quarterback can actually a Oney quarterback sneak if they have the football at the 6 in line but yeah David Montgomery should push comfortably for 225 250ish carries and the chance for 10 touchdowns is definitely in play as well much more so than I think the average running back has 10 touchdown upside in which Amir Gibbs it's been said several times and um I I I think that sometimes when you hear players talk about these aspirational goals during the offseason you have to be like I you have to be aware of the fact that of course every athlete has confidence right but like um on the same offense I think I saw that Jameson Williams wants to lead the league in like receptions and receiving yards I hope he does receiving yards and receiving touchdowns he doesn't care how many receptions he has okay which is awesome but like I'd also be happy if we just got like a nice consistent season from J he catches this year I'd be pumped right U when jir Gibbs talks about the possibility of doing something like a thousand and a thousand or like being a 1,000 yard rusher and like a 700 yard receiver I think it's within his bag absolutely I'm super confident the player let's not forget that last year it took a while for them to unleash Jamir Gibbs and for those of us who had drafted him as our starting running back in deep League like I did War Room League champions to find the B very much name after after say for you no problem but the thing is I I did it because of the potential and what you saw hints of during the preseason but there was this hesitancy and it sounded like the Lions Dan Campbell would talk about they they wanted him to get adjusted to being in the NFL they were bringing him out slowly and then once they took the top off the bottle it was unbelievable what he did so when you look at his stats at the end of the year you have to keep in mind that they were holding him back a little bit to start the season and much more rotation with David Montgomery I think one of the best stats for Montgomery if you're wondering about him field alluded to it with all the touchdown potential he was fourth in the league with rushes inside the five yard line yes he was so when they are close that's who they're going to jir Gibbs is not that guy fourth in rushes inside the five fourth in rushing touchdowns last year tied with uh Gus Edwards only three other people in front of him because total yeah yeah just 16 catches from Monty last year which again you're not typically looking for running backs who that like is a reasonable expectation again because they have jir Gibbs and Jared Goff has I'm on St Brown Sam La pora maybe a breakout season for J Etc um but because of the touchdown equity for David Montgomery I think it's in play here I also and Stefania I'll let you take it from here um it does not sound like there is injury concern for jir Gibbs going into week one after missing sometime in the preseason yeah he listed with the hamstering injury and again we don't know the severity you know in the preseason they really don't have to tell us much about it but they were holding him out at practice as teams often do when it's the preseason they don't want it to turn into something bigger back in practice this week no uh question about his status for this week's game I saw during Dan Campbell's press conference I think it was Sunday or Monday that there was only player who was iffy only it was if it was iy that was yester if he was iy but other than that jir Gibbs Sam laa who both Miss time because of hamstring issues both expected let me ask you two questions here field what do G do you think it's in the possibility like the range of outcomes for jir Gibbs to finish as RB won this season yes it's in the range of outcomes you know again being in the range of outcomes does not mean it's a guaranteed by any stretch just means it's a non-zero chance I I think the way that it get I think here's the way it gets there is while Christian mcaffry was by far by far the best running back in Fantasy last season his receiving relatively speaking was modest he had only and this is ridiculous only 67 catches oh my gosh if jir Gibbs gets the 85 catch treatment this year right he does not need 250 carries to go along with along with it if you turn 85 catches into 82 yards and six touchdowns as a running back that's a real path towards potential rb1 season yes totally with you on that all right so let me say it more yeah I'm I'm just keep just keep giving it to me I'm fine with that let me ask you this if d Montgomery were to miss time I don't know that jir Gibbs would Vault up that much higher in his rankings because we already have him as basically a top seven you at least a top 10 running back on a weekly basis if jir Gibbs misses time David Montgomery all of a sudden becomes what a top 12 guy yeah they on that top 12 Mark so you think about like guys like Travis etn like is peo Derrick Henry J Jacobs like that's about the range I think you get to for David montgomry either way this is one of the best Duos of running backs in the NFL both of these guys are fantastic yeah some would say Dynamic Duos as well uh when we come back we got more from answering the Bell but that was Dynamic Duos presented by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV are the perfect pair for watching NFL games on Sunday yeah they're the perfect pair you get to actually watch the game so Shout outout Out YouTube TV and NFL Sunday Ticket I Latest injury news around the NFL promise you it is worth the money we'll be right back you're in the 61 Focus all right back with the little answering the Bell Daniel do Stef Bell and fi jate stf edit the bell I want to start oh that's where it came from I've been wondering I know I missed the Bell uh it's it's somewhere around here I see it all the arrowhead are we not yeah uh oh you're right we did have a game in arrowead all right I want to ask you this question really quickly before we get into actual injuries fi this might be as much of a you thing as it is a stefia thing actual there pretend well well sort of it's not really pretend but I've been getting just so many so many tweets about why is CD lamb out why is there a Big O next to CD Lamb's name field he's not hurt as far as we know and people are angry about the fact that others in their league can put CD lamb on the IR but there is a reason why he is listed as out on the ESPN game and as a matter of fact he's also projecting for a zero so if you go to your score right now in your league your week one projection you have cd you're not going to have his points included but if you see his player capsule you're going to see a week one projection here's the reason why I'll be very quick the Cowboys put CD lamb on the reserve did not report list when he did not show up because of his contract once the contract was done the Cowboys were granted a two game exemption for CD lamb which means that they actually have two weeks for CD lamb to be moved from the commissioner's exempt list to the 53 man roster they're going to do this before Sunday they might wait all the way until Saturday might do it by the time you guys are listening to the show right now fear not zero concerns whatsoever CD lamb is playing in week one it may not be a great matchup against the Browns but you are playing CD lamb and you were doing so very gleefully and if the NFL has someone listed with a specific designation we as ESPN do not just willy-nilly change that designation Source all of our designations to root to wire so if it's a q there it's a q here D there for doubtful D here right etc etc so um yes you are fine uh if you see a CD lamb with a no you're fine don't panic yeah he he will be good to go week one all right Stefano so let's talk about a couple injuries that we just need to keep an eye on obviously we'll talk about these more as we move through the week but a couple of guys we just want to make sure that people have some good information on moving through this week yeah Sam leaport I already referenced obviously tight end for Detroit had a hamstring injury but uh is expected to play back in practice this week Jaylen Warren uh running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers had a hamstring injury that initially sounded like it could be more substantial and then we got some reporting that there was optimism he could be available to play week when Brook PRI who covers the team for us noted that he was back in individual drills this week doing Special Teams work on Monday is expected to join the team periods on Wednesday and that he said that's Jaylen Warren said he will be good to go on Sunday so uh take it from the player he's expecting to play and then a couple Miami Dolphins who might be on your draft list Jaylen waddle Tyreek Hill you've heard of them Tyreek Hill had a thumb sland issue that kept him out for a bit he was back in practice Monday and he said he's 100% healthy so again Tyreek Hill expecting to play jayen Wadd undisclosed I think people were getting nervous about this one because Jaylen wild does get banged up a lot and I think for that reason very physical player they wanted to limit his exposure during practice they didn't talk about what it was that had him out but he was back in practice on Monday uh he had a non-c cont Jersey last week doesn't sound like that's a thing anymore so when the injury reports start to come out with practice practice just injury reports this week uh there will be forced designations for these players but sounds like dolphins will have both uh Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Wadd not to worry all right we'd love to hear that hopefully both of them are out there because if you drafted them very high uh expecting both of them to be able to play week one I want to ask you this question stf and I don't know if you're going to be able to quantify this for me or not but it feels like this year we saw so many teams not play any of their starters through the entire preseason I know both the Lions and the Rams didn't have basically anyone out out there the entire preseason anyone that's going to start does that give you any worry when you talk about ramping up to game speed or are these teams doing enough to simulate impr practice that we don't need to worry about the fact that we didn't actually see them in a preseason game it's so interesting cut to another whole pod that we need to talk about how different teams strategize for example Steelers have brought in new staff who have changed the warm-up program so that certain groupings are doing different warm-ups versus a whole team stretch okay um or I excuse me that's a Green Bay Packer I meant uh the Green Bay Packers doing that so they have different positional groups doing different types of warm-ups that's not something they did last year you have some teams where there's a philosophy including the Chiefs like Super Bowl champions why do they need to play their starters but they really believe in getting the whole Groove down there's a routine to not just getting in the game but getting dressed getting the uniform on the pregame preparation it's a it's something that you go through that becomes part of the whole muscle memory so that when you hit the first week of the season that's not foreign then there are other teams who are scared based on injuries they've had previously and they don't want to take that chance and they say we're going to wait till the season actually begins so there's really a philosophical thing that happens and you've heard a couple players speak out and say you know I would have liked to have get some more reps but they wanted to hold me back kind of protect me from the injury exposure it's all over the map I will say this every player you talk to and I was listening to some of our colleagues on get up this morning who are former NFL players who talk about when you are without the pads you put the pads on you take the hits it's different they were talking about CD lamb like it's going to feel different when you take that first Contact and there is some adjustment to that veterans tend to be more familiar with it don't need it as much but the younger players that can that can be a big adjustment yeah I I thought that was a very interesting just seeing it felt like so many teams didn't even put their starters out there at once this preseason which hopefully we don't have any problems with that a few years from now when there is no preseason we won't have to worry about that sort of thing that's true it's a reference to the fact that I do believe we were headed for an 18 game schedule with zero preseason in the relative near future by the way don't tackle someone without pads that's you know what that's a fair that's a fair thought good injury advice from field I did see this too and this has nothing to do with fantasy football I just want to shout it out real quick though uh kylin granson is going to be the first player to wear a guardian cap it sounds like in in regular games this year which I don't know what the statistics are on Guardian caps and how they keep people down but I was just excited about the idea of just less potential head injuries hopefully continue to we say this I'll revisit a little bit later um there are players who are choosing to adopt the guardian cap for gam playay because not it will be allowed into game playay uh and we may see more players doing it but we also have learned that the position specific helmets are more of those being adopted I believe it's 200 players now adopting position specific helmets so for quarterbacks you'll see a helmet with more padding in the back uh for linemen more padding at the crown of the head where they tend to take the hits and so in some cases the position specific helmet uh is replacing the guardian cap option for certain players other players choosing to go with the guardian cap option they've made a little skin Guardian cap has so they can put the logo of the team over the guardian cap so it looks a little bit more like a a traditional helmet I love that I also loved his reasoning because he was like yeah people also used to think think that seat bels were stupid but you know what they saved lives I am the players really taking ownership of their safety and health more and I love Veteran’s league seeing that field let me ask you this question this has nothing to do with fantasy football but it is well I shouldn't say nothing to do with fantasy football nothing to do with on the field for fantasy football but we've got a veterans league in fact we've got a bunch of veterans leag how many different leagues 26 26 if my math is correct not much of a math guy but yes 26 16 team leagues the commissioner of each of those leagues will be somebody from our team here at ESPN fantasy yep hundreds of you literally hundreds of you submitted an application to be a part of it many of those applications found most of them were accepted and we are doing our best to expand thing every single year so we hope if you didn't make it this year it'll come back for more next year if you're in congratulations there are three people who have not yet accepted an invite from my league and we draft in nine hours so please accept that invitation that would be a problem if we don't have a full League moreover 26 leagues three teams of the six team in each league make the playoffs then we're going tournament style so again math not my strong suit but before the podcast 78 was the number so 78 is teams will make this big tournament at the end of the season and one person just one person will be named the winner of the 2024 veterans league and we're going to pay this thing off much better than we did last season so cannot wait for what's ahead I got to tell you very competitive league very competitive people in my league pretty much crush me oh yeah yes I'm taking Jake Bates in the first round you know what I appreciate that field I appreciate it one of my favorite in the first round maybe Brandon Aubrey in the second round I've taken him in the first round so many times that you got to diversify the portfolio that's what you got to do one of the best leagues that we do all year long one of the most important and special leagues that we do in spite of all the other leagues that Thank you for watching Fantasy Focus! we're in being able to do this with veterans uh is absolutely a ton of fun and it's a great way at least for me to be able to connect with people that often times are uh in a different spot than we are obviously so it's very very cool to be able to do this all right thank you guys so much for hanging out with us we going to have football very shortly we're going to have Thursday Night Football we're going to have Friday Night Football like we talked about it cannot wa wait to be able to be here Thursday Friday Sunday Monday I'm just like we're ready I'm ready for it all right that's going to do it for us Daniel do stefia bell and field jates we love you guys so much don't forget to love each other be kind to yourself and thank you so much for watching fantasy Focus football presented by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV we will be back tomorrow talking rankings week one rankings going to be available on espn.com shortly if not right now and they are available in the ESPN app so you can go check it out whenever you're ready we love you guys we'll see you Tom tomorrow later