Wright on his must-draft fantasy football players, which Ravens' have the best value, and what to expect from DJ Moore in Buffalo

0:00All right, online now we got Mike right of the fantasy footballers podcast Mike. How's it going? Going on guys a little bit of tech difficulties. I think get there. We got to figure it out if you could see me if you can hear me. We're all good We got you. We got you and we are definitely all good. It's it's it's the weekend to have you on I mean, this is the biggest weekend of her fantasy football. I obviously coming up with the schedule beginning next week and we're talking about the Wednesday start like what do you make of a Wednesday start to the NFL season? You like it? Don't like it. Where do you sit with that? I'm actually I'm okay with it. It's week one, you know of the NFLs. They're doing everything they can to take over more and more days, but week one. It's all right. We've been waiting months and months and months so give me a give me an extra game of prime time football Takes away takes away a day to draft. That's that's that's kind of the thing too for a fantasy football perspective lots of drafts usually happen on

1:06The eve of the start of the season this year you got to move that up to the Tuesday Wednesdays not a not an option No, not anymore. No, absolutely not So I want to get your thoughts on on this one here Mike. Obviously being a fantasy football expert lots of people Going to be taking in their maybe first draft or their fair weather football fantasy football player What are some do's and don't hips and tricks you have for For those who are maybe taking on their first drafts this weekend Sure, I mean Honestly that you're a little bit late to the game But like truly the number one thing is like you got to plug in you got to have information On bias I think the fantasy footballers is where you should get your information and entertain it from but It's really staying up to date on what's going on that is that's the big thing, you know, we had What was the last weekend, you know, which that was a huge draft weekend boom Josh Jacobs bombshell drops while people like

2:13There's probably people who literally clicked draft Jacobs at five seconds earlier when that thing was going off So or you know if your draft was after it had happened and you're not plugged in to to some source of late breaking news You're really putting yourself at a at a disadvantage, so I would start there make sure you have your information and Man, where do you start for for the beginners? I'd say a good basic strategy for people who are newer to the game is Running backs and wide receivers are that's the bread and that's the bread and butter for fantasy football quarterbacks are fun It's sexy. They're the most important players on the field for real football, but we're playing We're playing nerd football. We're playing a game that at its heart is actually Supply demand. It's a market. It's economics. It's it's just it's numbers and statistics So we were actually pretty separated so understanding that the game is that and you're supplying demand

3:15You need running you need multiple running backs at wide receivers per week where most leagues are starting 12 quarterbacks and 12 tight ends out of 32 options assuming there's no buy weeks while You're starting, you know, 30 plus of the other positions. So if your brand new I would focus on those before I start looking at Quarterback and tight end even to the point of like You're looking at your starting roster. You don't need to fill it up right away You can start putting guys on your bench because you're gonna need them came like you said this is nerd football I I got a nerd buddy that was telling me that he's done picking his fantasy teams He's a he's a huge fantasy enthusiast. He's calling in the AI He's he's letting AI do his fantasy football picking forum because he's convinced like you know computers have a beat Nusset chess human hasn't been a computer to chess for how many years now right like and he's thinking like The computers will win if it's computers versus humans in fantasy football

4:17Where are you on using AI in your fantasy football endeavors? I've got no problem if you're trying to use a new tool that is like accessible to you. I would say Us in the like football is not baseball like we can't money ball You know, there's there's just way too much stuff where baseball is at its core a 1v1 Game until the batter puts the ball in play football. That's just that is not the case and I think for a lot of Newer players or even veterans one of the most disappointing things about fantasy football is you can win on paper You can absolutely destroy everyone on paper and then week two comes in and it's a bloody Sunday and you're like well Wait a minute all my players are gone and so yeah, I think that you know, we're getting more advanced in our analytics Targets per route run yards per route run those have kind of

5:20There they're they're not super mainstream yet But I'm they're starting to break through and people are learning more advanced metrics to find the edge It's getting harder and harder in fantasy football to To truly have an edge over people who are like really in the game calling for a sleeper. You know a sleeper for a newer player is Often sometimes like just someone they've kind of heard of for us who are were seasoned vets if you want to sleeper I mean you are you're diving to like the third string and you're trying to tell yourself the story about how it's gonna work out So I don't mind people using it trying to figure out how to crunch the data, but at the end of it I don't know if it's gonna work out or really help you and also fantasy football is about fun man We want to like we want to root for the players. We want to root for it's it's really fun to win a championship But there's also that connection that you start building with the in-emotional connection you start building with these players as they succeed or fail Uh with Mike right

6:22Let's get into the nitty gritty of fantasy football here Mike you guys do you know your my guys episode each and every year And I'm here is who are who are your my guys this year? Be starting your drafts that you like to come away with Sure my three my guys for this year uh Starts with Kenneth Walker new running back for the Kansas City Chiefs. I've been a Kenneth Walker Truth or believer or whatever you want to call it who just I think he is a a truly spectacular Talent at the running back position who wasn't allowed to fly me look he you know what it was that uh the the good guys The new guys is like I'm a peacock you gotta let me fly and like that's what the Kansas City Chiefs are gonna do for Kenneth Walker he's gonna get so so many touches there's There are people who are like all I'm concerned about his health Ah that if you're only argument of against a player is they might get hurt Then you're on to the right player because I would rather I would rather have a player where the only thing that can go wrong

7:26Is they get hurt as opposed to maybe they just aren't good enough maybe the scheme isn't is gonna change around them If if it's just health like this was my argument for christian McCaffrey last year who was like My my flag was planted while there was many many people were just like I will never draft McCaffrey Okay, but when he's healthy he's the best fantasy football player on the planet and I think that's a dumb reason not to draft him Boom if you had McCaffrey last year you probably won your your championship So I kind of feel like that about Ken Walker Close and lovelin Chicago Bears second year tight end the way that things unraveled at the end of the year in terms of like The his usage you know, we had four straight games including two playoff games of double digit targets for a tight end That is absolutely Lute Chris while I you know I love bower's love McBride I think that close and lovelin going a couple rounds later can end up as the number one scoring tight end at the end of the year and then

8:28Christian Watson you want to talk about a player where it's just health that has really held him back If you want to be scared of Christian Watson getting hurt I can't blame on that one because it has happened every single year But the guy is an electric talent looking at what the team is for the green bay packers now They've Romeo doves is out don't tape into which is out the team has come out and said It's possible that our over rotating of wider sewers has actually hurt our offense and now we're consolidated You know the it's read Christian Watson and Matthew golden and Christian Watson is by far the best player of the bunch in my opinion When he came back last year from his devastating knee injury He was dominating over the second and half where In his second half is like pay attention to that because a lot of fantasy football players And other kind of like they give up too early. They stop paying attention to the what's going on Christian Watson was awesome at the end of last year and now with the Jacob situation

9:30I think the identity of the team of for this year for the packers is going to be Jordan love in the passing attack And Christian Watson's my number one beneficiary of it. Yeah, they paid him too. Yeah, what handsome like that So they did so Mike when you when you get the you know go back to that Kenneth Walker truth or thesis. I mean Am I am I to read into that the euro believer that with my homes back to being my homes after the the knee injury Um that the the chiefs are going to return to prominence and and Walker will be a beneficiary of them becoming the team they've been in the past I think a huge problem that my homes has had over the last couple years for the chiefs Um is truly the running back position of you know like it's been If you years since we've seen the high flying my homes and Kansas the chiefs that we got used to with Tyree kill now Personnel wise they they've tried a couple things that wide receiver But I honestly I think the biggest problem has been they don't they haven't had a cream hunt

10:35And it's like in the the Andy Reed era when they're when his offenses are really kicking but he's got a true bell cow running back Who's a three down guy and it's a dominant player on on top of that The fact that you know Like cream hunt and Isaiah Pacheco that was tower the guys for the chiefs the last couple years and The defenses just didn't really they weren't scared. I'll put it that way They weren't scared of the run and you can put the new defensive meta in and put the two high shell and just Kind of shut down what they're doing they didn't have a threat to open things back up and Kenneth Walker in my opinion is the is the piece that can help us get there I don't know if we can get back to the you know the Like that where you're like oh man, but home is gonna throw for just five thousand yards and 40 touchdowns I don't know if we can get there But I think they're gonna be it's a major major improvement from last year So get us get your thoughts on The Ravens and like how you're looking at the Ravens offense and Lamar Jackson the other day

11:37I saw you did a radio hit and he was talking about how this offense is like nothing we've ever seen And it's gonna be incredible to doing a little bit of everything lots of gadget plays and they're excited They've added weapons like when you're watching the Hearing that and then you try to implement it into your fantasy rankings like where do you have a lot of these Ravens guys kind of landing No, I'll start with Z flowers. I love Z flowers. I don't think you got I don't think he gets the fantasy football respect that he deserves and I just was hitting that all off season and then boom Was like a hundred plus million dollars or something contract comes in for Z flowers and it was I told you guys like the he has a true wide receiver one and Baltimore has paid him like one I'm actually I have some excitement for the Ravens. You know it's a continuation of Things as they once were that that can be nice and very helpful for fantasy But

12:38You know the offense that they were running that they needed to improvement and you get Declan Doyle down There now a disciple of the Ben Johnson offense which If you see the paying attention to the NFL, you know, we had McVay come in Changed everything and then it was everyone we just want McVay offenses and they kept working She and the hand offenses they just were and Ben Johnson is now paving away where I think he's gonna end up with a huge coaching tree out there of Of his offense taking over you know from his time in Detroit goes down to Chicago You know completely turns around what the bears were and just blowing away expectations And I think they're just gonna keep going and improving so the fact that you have that and I mean you can do the well Aman raw is Zay flowers gonna be like Aman raw there is a little bit of a different player But there is some of that game Of Zay flowers that is in there that has me excited for the touchdown upside Zay flowers target share is going up each and every year that he's played and that that is the the truest stat that we should be chasing

13:43Targets are the stickiest of stats touchdowns they come and go I mean look at Mike Evans You'll have it who's an elite touchdown producer you would have years where he's putting on yards and the touchdowns just They weren't there they come and go But targets they come back targets turn into yards and then you so I'm very excited for For Zay flowers and then Derek Henry it he's kind of tough because it's like He's an outlier man. He Derek Henry's his own thing at but I'm on the side of all bet on Derek Henry I'll go down with the ship like eventually it will end and Derek Henry is a human or that we call him the Yeti on the fantasy footballers Because when the temperatures go down the abominable snowman just comes out and people do not want to tackle him Like if you look at his yards precarious over month It's it's hilarious. I would just it steadily climbs and like to November December people just get out of the way So if the Ravens are winning

14:43Then Derek Henry's still going to be an awesome for fantasy football Mike speaking of playing and snow we were just talking before you came on about the bills because you know They're close to us here we their games were on tsn 1050 this year and people are excited about that And we're wondering you were talking about you know the idea of you know How one player can maybe change the way defenses respect An offense and how much do you think the addition of DJ Moore To an offense that obviously is helmed by what many consider to be the best quarterback in the league and Josh Al and how much do you think Moore will make an impact and really make the bills that much more dangerous so DJ Moore has been a pretty controversial fantasy football wide receiver over the offseason I'll start with It should it should definitely make the Buffalo bills better as like as the the past catching weapons The biggest problem is DJ Moore is coming off the basically the worst year of his entire career in that Ben

15:47Jen Ben Johnson offense that I love and just It's weird to me that a guy with an offense a brain like Ben Johnson That's what he got out of him now. Maybe is I don't know you know We're not privy to a lot of stuff that's going on behind the scenes, but it's just weird That that a player of DJ Moore's age Changing teams off for the worst year of his career Yeah, so I'm I'm a little nervous about I'm a nervous in terms of how much it can go because The the the quick analogy to go or comparison is it's the fond digs coming from Minnesota goes to Buffalo That worked out really really well Stefan digs was still in his absolute prime and digs was actually coming off the highest yard as total of his career When he got traded to Buffalo So the decline in DJ Moore while other players were having success for the Chicago Bears and makes me nervous about What DJ Moore how much he actually changes things?

16:48He's got he's fair familiar with Joe Brady So he should know the offense. He should be able to go right in and not have a learning curve And really make an impact, but I will say overall he's not a player. I'm That I'm clamoring to get on my fantasy team sometimes it works out draft price wise Every guy has a price in the market But overall I'm not overextending or reaching to get DJ Moore I don't feel great. I bid up and got DJ Moore my draft couple days ago. I don't feel as good about it now After hearing that I would say that like we disagree on the show A Jason on the footballer. He's he's more in the night I'm praying for like the connection to come back from the Carolina days That's what prey it on her the rocket arm a Josh Allen go balls all day long That's what praying for here and in Toronto Get it done. It's Josh Allen right like that's hope that's the gamble is Is one of the best quarterbacks in the league what Caleb is definitely not

17:48At that point yet where you're saying he's one of the best right Exactly Mike really appreciate it. Glad we were able to get you on after the technical difficulties But for anyone who wants to follow along and get some great fantasy football advice Mike right with the fantasy footballers podcasts is the place to go appreciate it Mike Hey, thank you guys. Have a good one Hi, this is Dave Roberts heading into summer without a medical emergency kit That's a risk summer colds can linger and getting sick on vacation can derail everything That's why everyone needs a medical emergency kit it includes doctor prescribed medications to treat common and serious illnesses So if you wake up sick at home or on the road you already have what you need It's like having an urgent care and pharmacy at home say 45 dollars with code blue at urgent care kit.com slash blue urgent care kit.com slash blue