For many the 2023 fantasy football season is in the books. While there’s plenty of exciting games to talk about in Week 18- which we will do in full later in the week – Matt Harmon and Andy Behrens reveal the 5 things they care most about from this fantasy football season. Secret list style so you know it’s fun.
The two share the biggest lessons we can learn from this season at the QB, WR and TE position and offenses to invest and avoid next year based on current situations. Harmon also gauges the state of the Bears and Justin Fields with die-hard Chicago fan Behrens to see what the polarizing QB and the organization’s offseason options could look like:
0:00 – INTRO
1:15 – 2023 fantasy season is in the books, but we are just getting ramped up 🙂
1:49 – Secret List: 5 things we care about from 2023 fantasy season
3:03 – Andy’s #1 thing: Sam LaPorta was a hit, so were other young TEs
13:49 – Matt’s #1 thing: Jordan Love is a GUY
17:52 – Andy’s #2 thing: Young QBs stepped up, but not the ones you thought
23:11 – Sidebar: The Justin Fields conversation has gotten toxic
31:34 – Matt’s #2 thing: A trio of WRs graduated to elite play
34:12 – Andy’s #3 thing: DJ Moore was a home run trade for Bears
40:52 – Matt’s #3 thing: WRs situations matter A LOT
45:39 – Andy’s #4 thing: Antonio Pierce made the Raiders respectable again
50:03 – Matt’s #4 thing: It was a great year to avoid bad ecosystems
53:40 – Matt’s #5 thing: The fall of the ‘too big to fail’ offenses
57:23 – Andy’s #5 thing: Chiefs weapons (outside of Kelce, Rice) were a disaster
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It’s Wednesday January 3rd I’m Matt Haron welcome to the Yahoo fantasy football show it is a hell of a day to talk ball and joining me to do just that is Andy Barons Andy happy New Year buddy what’s going on oh happy New Year it is
A hell of a day to talk ball I love uh I love week 18 because there’s not like pressure to to get content out in the same way that there was for the rest of the season so like my week eight I’m going to actually go to a bar and watch
Football games which is which is so exciting for me and and so not something that I can do uh for most of the regular season so I’m I’m I’m fired up yeah we are not recording a Sunday night recap podcast we uh I’m not writing my recap article until Monday
Morning I I might actually have a beer during during a Sunday football game at least at least a beer for the official record a beer I will be having a beer on on Sunday which is like you said uh revelatory for us for the first 17 weeks
Of the football season yeah it’s it’s great I can’t wait I’ve got the bar picked out I’m really I’m excited about it I am very excited for you and very excited for me um as Andy mentioned fantasy season it’s over for the vast majority of people out there but this
Podcast it’s soldiers on I cannot stress this enough people the show is going to be a great place to talk real and fake football and all the implications of everything that happens over the next six to seven months before we are right back in the thick of fantasy football
Draft season if you think all this offseason stuff doesn’t matter for fantasy football and just being a smart football fan you are completely wrong with that said while we still have some games to play in week 18 and really it is an ultra exciting slate of games a
Lot of playoff implications multiple of course multiple days of games the NFL just can’t have just one day we got to have multiple games multiple days no matter what this is still the perfect time I think to start doing some look back type of content on the season that
Was and what we can learn from it um and because it is week 18 and there is no brain space up here for any fresh ideas at this point in the calendar Andy and I are ripping off the theme from my weekly recap article the care don’t care recap
That I write every single Sunday uh and we have compiled secret lists of the five things that we care about from the 2023 NFL season Andy no more you know panic no more waiver wire just back to secret list baby that’s how you know fantasy season has come and gone Well I
This is man this is the week for me because I love a secret list too like I love a secret list more than almost anything that I don’t know almost anything else that I do uh professionally I love a secret list um and this podcast brings me secret lists
More often than more often than not so I’m I’m thrilled I’m thrilled by our format today all right well then get us started reveal un you know take down the secret reveal the first item what is the one thing you care about from the 2023 NFL season yeah listen if I’m if I’m
Gonna be perfectly honest uh this would probably be at the the top of my list I did not prioritize my my you know things I care about if I were to do that um essential for me um professionally that Sam leapa didn’t bust I I care deeply
About the fact that Sam leapor didn’t bust okay it would have been just a flaming disaster for me but like I probably would have had to resign in disgrace had Sam lorta busted if he’d had a 25 catch 190 yard season in which he you know was on and off the field
Spent most of his time blocking absolute total nightmare for me um just I can’t even I I started to think about it the other night when I was putting together this list and I just like I you know I cringed it’s it’s it’s too it’s too dire
To even think about the consequences to something like that because obviously he was my he was my default answer whenever I you know I’d go on the radio or I’d go on another podcast and somebody’d be like okay give me your breakout give me your sleeper give me your best value it
Was always Sam laor right like I had my Sam La leor talking points down um so I I needed him to hit like almost no one else and then uh obviously there’s the fact that because I valued him so weirdly I had him on every team um it
Was essential to me that Sam lorta hit and he did um so that was a good thing I guess like if you were to apply this uh one player you know thing I care about to the position as a whole man like the young tight ends kind of had a
Year um not at the level that Sam did but like you you look at the the two kids for the Packers right craft and Musgrave both good um Musgrave went healthy and craft in the second half of the Season Dalton conc had his moments in Buffalo um the seconde guys Trey
McBride and Isaiah likeley awesome um Trey McBride probably somebody that we’re going to draft like top five at the position top seven at the position um I don’t know what we’re going to do with Brock Bowers next year right but he’s another guy and and that’s going to
Make the Kyle pittz stuff look conservative from a few years ago I just I I generally feel like um I don’t know I don’t know that it’s as dramatic as saying that like the roles have changed at tight end because it used to be of course we really like these guys really
Popped on their second contract or they popped in their third year fourth year things like that um and still difficult learning curve at the position and all that could be that leaport is just a little bit of an outlier but number one I love that the tight end position
Generally has sort of been replenished with Talent it doesn’t it doesn’t just feel like it’s Travis Kelce and then everybody else um it it feels like it’s like it’s almost deep that is a good thing uh and it does feel a little bit like maybe we can reset expectations for
First and seconde tight ends to actually make a little bit of noise yeah that’s the thing like Sam Lorton didn’t just hit he is right now heading into week 18 the tight end one overall okay and specifically like it’s obviously it’s always great if you point
Out a player and and you get it right but when you can do it at this position especially which is such a Troublesome position it it really helps and I you know I said all offseason Andy like people even you sometimes buddy even you trying to merge the wide receiver in
Tight end position trying to uh trying to cancel the tight ends you know some some criminals like you and Chris Harris out there some uh some some true Rebels Without a Cause like I think tight end is back we just needed to restore the middle class
And I I don’t even know if we’ve just restored the middle class like I think we potentially you know Sam lorta uh and maybe even try McBride and I mean David and joku too like I know he’s not in the same age bucket as these guys but he’s
Had such a dynamic season like I think we maybe have done more than just restore the middle class but you mention all these names I mean uh we didn’t even talk about like dton King K Jake Ferguson is another guy you know there are so many players you know do you know
Where by the way do you know where Kyle pittz sits in the overall tight end scoring right now I guess is he like I’ll guess that he’s tight end 13 he’s 12 so he is uh in in the fantasy relevant weeks he was a tight end one
Which is which is the most meaningless thing that you can say uh it actually drops off pretty significantly after um Trey McBride we’ve got 130 points for Trey MC R and then tight end 10 Dalton Schultz is 114 Mark Andrews obviously he did not play a full season just 10 games
He’s at 112 points and then Kyle pittz is 107 so there is like definitely a drop off out outside the top 10 at the position Mark Andrews obviously really would have been in from a points per game perspective right in there with the top 10 guys so um Kyle pittz definitely
Was a hey I stayed healthy and played all season even if he doesn’t look healthy I I stayed healthy and played all season type of guy yeah but um you know I think there’s a lot of promise at this position where a few months ago we
Were not talking about that and lorta is certainly a headliner yeah I think I think you’re right to point out that it is not such a dire situation in terms of maybe we should you know I I I’ll I’ll put this as a back burner issue now to
Actually uh eradicate the the position itself itself from fantasy settings maybe maybe I got a little out over my skis on that um because the the position has definitely been replenished in multiple tiers right it’s it’s also it’s just going to be like we’re going to draft this so differently next year like
There’s simply not there’s not going to be the argument for like a singular tight end in the first round or probably even the second round right like I’m we are going to be able to make it you know it’s nice for me whatever nice for for
Uh anybody who had Sam leapor on a roster he actually finished as the tight end one but I don’t I don’t know that he’s going to go into next season as the definitive clearcut tight end one I think he’s going to be one of a tier of
Players uh any of whom could finish that way like there’s going to be a lot of Buzz for McBride next year um there’s just a lot of guys who who pop this this season I should I should have mentioned Ferguson earlier like he’s obviously a I
Don’t know top six top seven tight end maybe higher I don’t like it’s a deep position now and you know the the argument for Kelce in the first round coming into this season is that there’s just nobody else like him like the your forecast for Travis Kelce in all
Likelihood is so much better than the number two guy that like that is worth paying for and it’s just it’s not going to look like that in 20 24 and we’re going to have to treat this differently but I think there’s going to be more guys who who will have a really good
Argument to go in the first five or six rounds even your boy Cole KT um who’s only in his fourth season right now he’s wrapping up his fourth season he’s the tight end six uh or excuse me tight end seven he’s just ahead of like his end
Ofe stats you watch him play couldn’t be I I would say they’re pretty different players but like his end ofe stats are very similar to Jake Ferguson who I think people are going to be really excited about next year 70 catches 678 yards and six touchdowns for Cole KT for
Jake Ferguson 65 catches 692 yards and five touchdowns like they’re pretty from a yards per reception standpoint Jake Ferguson uh actually he’s got a little bit of an edge there 10.6 to 9.7 but yards per targets pretty similar so yeah I mean these there’s just a lot of guys
At this position but I’m very personally glad for you Andy that Sam lorta didn’t just hit he hit to be the tight end one overall where do you think he actually gets drafted next year and I’ll follow that up with I was having a conversation with somebody in my Discord today about
Um I’m on Ross St Brown when the Lions eventually lose Ben Johnson and somebody else is the offensive coordinator there um I was talk you shout out to this person in my Discord they were I I told them I was like I think you’re a little far in the hypothetical um concerns area
Like there’s no new offensive coordinator who’s going to come because basically the thesis of the question is St Brown is in such a specific wide receiver role what if some new offensive coach comes in there and just changes his role completely I was like I don’t think that’s gonna happen like no coach
Is really that dumb I think we’re too far down the hypothetical Road especially because I think there’s a good chance they just Elevate from within but Ben Johnson clearly one of the best offensive coaches in the NFL um if and when he’s no longer the OC there
Um do you think that changes anything for leor or any of these guys yeah it it’s funny like they have a they have a veteran quarterback they’re winning right now like things are going really well and I you know I think we all accept the idea that they lose Ben
Johnson but man like they’re not going to want to change a whole lot like this is working they they’re not going to nobody’s going to come in and say okay we got to build the whole thing around Jameson Williams right like that’s just not like and Williams has been better
Than I thought he would be in the second half here but like that that’s just not going to happen like Aman ra St Brown is super well established as a as a pretty dominant player who gets it open immediately and has been you know I like
This is a sensational year he’s not just like I don’t know I don’t I don’t view him as the as the pure product of of a system that was always going to spit out somebody like Alan Ross St Brown like that’s a very specific Talent um yeah I
I think he I think he holds his value just fine I think lepto holds his value just fine I do think that um there is going to be you know again there’s there’s going to be this cluster near uh the the top of the tight end ranks and
People are going to make cases for all sorts of different players like I think it’s you know I can build a case for Trey McBride and Sam lorta and Travis Kelce um like I I think that’s all in play um a healthy Mark Andrew certainly
Too so like I think all those guys are probably going to be I don’t know I feel like there’s going to be a big tight end run in round three is kind of how I is kind of how I view it yeah um like I
Said I think it was a good it’s a good hypothetical thing to to think about like okay Ben Johnson is clearly one of the best offensive coaches in the NFL you know what does this team look like when he does eventually leave but to your point these players are established
I think leaport is now established St Brown is established I think J Gibbs is by the end of the year we’re going to say he’s he’s clearly established if we don’t already say that um there and and don’t forget too that Ben Johnson wasn’t a guy that like oh man everybody knew
Who he was he was elevated in the middle of the 2021 season um Anthony Lynn started the year as the offensive coordinator for that team and then Ben Johnson ended up being becoming the play caller by the end uh I’ve had a few Lions fans point out I don’t know if
I’ve said this on this show or or a different show whatever um that Tanner angram who’s been with the team for Four Seasons now or this is the fourth season he’s been with the team he’s the passing game coordinator they can probably just go ahead and promote from within to get
This position just like they did promote from within to get Ben Johnson in here I don’t think there’s some kind of big offensive Revolution that’s going to change for the Lions going forward but love the point about leaport and shout out to you and all the Lea Bros but
Mostly just you Andy Barons um I’m gonna bring your Vibe down a little bit with my one point that I really care about from this year because look I think we can officially say here at the end of the year that Jordan love is a guy um
Whether he is um you know a future top five quarterback or if he just tops out as a very good quality starting quarterback I he’s somewhere in that range again we we’re still in like a discovery mode of what his ceiling is but I think his floor is what we’ve seen
This year a very quality starting quarterback and I don’t think people realize like just again end of season numbers his his numbers are really just from an efficiency perspective they’re up there um he’s been top 10 in EPA per play most of the Season he’s now bumped
Up um from a success rate standpoint he’s again up there in terms of basically like any efficiency metric you want to look at from a quarterback perspective he’s gotten there again right now he’s seventh in EPA per play from a success rate standpoint he’s jumped up to 14th and that matters a lot
Because he was at like the bottom of the league to start the year when he was very boom Bush as a player I think over the course of the year he’s established himself S as a really good starting quarterback and I care a lot about that
I know again sorry to you and the Bears fans who are tortured by the Packers quarterback position I don’t know that he’s going to become Brett Favre or Aaron Rogers but I think he’s very good and the reason that I care about that one like we need good quarterbacks in
The league period two Green Bay is loaded with quality young Talent there I mean they have basically again to varying degrees hit on basically every draft pick they’ve made from a pass catcher standpoint that last two years like I don’t think I think Watson was a little overrated coming into this year
But he’s a good player that’s a hit Romeo dobs he was a day three draft pick and he’s a guy that like you are not embarrassed to run out Romeo dobs as one of your top three receivers that’s a hit Jaden Reed looks like a fraking superstar this year Daven Wicks is one
Of my favorite Dynasty sleepers right now and he was a day three draft pick both those tight ends you mentioned Tucker craft Luke Musgrave I can’t wait to for people to just go to war War at each other all offse over like we’re again World War III forget about it
That’s going to be nothing compared to Tucker Musgrave vers Luke musk or I just combined him Tucker craft and and Luke mus I think you’ve actually found the solution is to merge these two players yeah can we just merge them into one tight end they would be uh they would be
Better than Rob gronowski probably not but still like again those two guys are good people are going to go to war over it I’m just gonna I’m G sit back um this is a good offensive ecosystem the fact that love is the is the trigger man for
It and all of these players like I said to varying degrees are going to be good at football I think the fact that love um is not going to ruin the situation is something I really care about yeah I um this this actually connects to one of
The things that I care about I I’ll get into that in a second I don’t I like it’s I’m not how don’t how to how to put this um it doesn’t bother me that Green Bay has a has a great quarterback or a good quarter back or whatever I think
We’ve talked about this before like the the thing over the years when both Aaron Rogers and Brett Favre before him were among the League’s best quarterbacks the thing that made it so painful as a Bears fan is that like our answer to Aaron Rodgers like one of the most efficient
Quarterbacks and one of the most like inventive quarterbacks of of any era our answer to Aaron Rogers was Jay Cutler and then prior to that during the Brett Favre years it was just a a Rogues Gallery probably it probably never got better than Rex Grossman for like half a
Season right like that was our answer to Brett Favre and then Jay Cutler was our answer to to Aaron Rogers and like that’s what made it so painful not the mere fact that there was another great quarterback out there somewhere in the league like you know that’s I the
Rivalry is that it’s best when both teams are really good when they have not lined up that way um in a really really long time so I don’t mind Jordan love being great in fact one of my um one of my points here one of the big things
That I care about is that we have actually added this group of very good young to youngish like love isn’t a rookie or anything like that right he finally got his first taste of NFL action and all that but um not a rookie like not young exactly but we’ve we’ve
Added a group of very good young quarterbacks to the game and it’s not it isn’t necessarily the group that we thought we would be talking about at this point right but like you look at you look at Brock perie basically proving that last year was was hardly a
Small sample fluke like he’s here to stay um Jordan love is like the qb5 right now right like the the efficiency numbers all of a sudden look good but also the overall like just the raw fantasy numbers look really good A lot of that has to do with the huge
Performance in week 17 but man he’s had you know he’s had a bunch of multi-touchdown games lately 30 touchdown passes on the year four on the ground um CJ strad was an absolute Revelation he’s a top 10 quarterback right now on a per game basis did some
Graduate level stuff really early in his career um who else like Anthony Richardson was going to be one of the right answers if he had merely stayed healthy right like four rushing touchdowns in four games so I think I think we have a crop of young
Quarterbacks here who um you know in the same way we’re talking about it at tight end I think much the same thing has happened a quarterback they’re not you know they haven’t cracked the top three or the top four yet but you can feel pretty good about like in fact it’s
Going to be really difficult to sort out going into next year exactly what that sort of qb5 to QB 15 range looks like cuz there’s a lot of good names um and again I don’t I think at the start of this year you wouldn’t have necessarily
Said you know oh boy the list of guys that we’re going to be talking about is is you know Jordan love CJ strad um maybe you would have said it in an with Anthony Richardson because of the rushing upside but like you know we weren’t like Brock pie was like a final
Round pick um Brock py was like a late round super Flex pick um and the and the Trey Lance Bros were out during draft season right and like Brock Pie as a you know until very recently was an MVP candidate he’s going to finish as like
The qb6 qb7 something like that so like we’ve added a we’ve added a great group at the quarterback position and and we obviously need that every year even like we Yad yada over Tua and he’s 25 years old yeah right like and Justin Herbert obviously was having a great season
Before things fell apart and he’s 25 years old um Trevor Lawrence didn’t have the season that we thought he would have but he’s 24 years old um so I think there’s and I think there’s a chance that Lawrence is I don’t even want to say salvageable because that makes it
Like too dramatic about the season that he had he definitely did not have a the third season that you and I were hoping for but um he he was certainly a I I still want to say he was an above average starting quarterback this year again I just don’t think he made the
Leap right but I think that he could make the leap and I think it was fascinating with quarterbacks too Andy um we talk about these guys like once they just get good like that’s how good they are um specifically for I think two is a great example and and Jordan love
Is a good example too because he’s 25 years old this is his first full season as a starter and even perie like P’s 24 years old he these guys are still so early in the in the process of this thing right and I think we just we just talked about the
Lions we talked about Jared gof and and G’s a good example now GTH is still basically the same quarterback that he always was now he’s gone from like sea McVey who’s a great offensive coach and then he’s he’s with Ben Johnson who’s a great offensive coach
Um so I do want to just make that point that like we were oh what is what is jarro g going to look like outside of Shan mcvey’s offense like ah well he just went to another great offensive coach like it’s possible to just kind of stick within a solid P pipeline there
But at the same time I think Jared G is a better quarterback right now at this moment than he ever was with the Rams At His Highest Heights because the Dude is 29 um and he’s seen everything at this point like the flacko stuff is so funny because you can just
Tell like when you watch that guy play he’s just all right yeah cover three cool seen it oh you’re going simulated pressure boy simulated pressure never seen that before right like because he’s he’s a billion years old and he has he has truly literally seen everything and seen the league through multiple eras
And stuff like that but that’s funny with these guys that aren’t like the most highly gifted players I think Love Actually is probably of the guys we’re talking about the most gifted thrower and and like has the best arm talent but like when the brain catches up and and
Not even I don’t say the brain catches up but like the catalog of things that you have seen your experience as a quarterback has caught up to you like I think that just makes you a better operator at the position so for guys like prie and love and um and Tua like I
Said want to keep him in this conversation too for for certainly for I mean for freaking CJ strad and Justin Herbert like and Trevor Lawrence too we’re going to get more and better things out of them the more that they play and like these guys are re B like
Rebirthing and refurbishing the position and we have they’re not even in their Prime yet yeah I guess I would like I would add Justin fields to that as well and I don’t like I don’t know I didn’t know if you wanted to have the Justin Fields conversation because it’s such an
Interesting like I don’t know if I want to either because it’s such a like it’s such a toxic thing right now in in like within the Bears bubble um but he why is sorry why is it a toxic thing um absolutely anything that you say about
The Bears uh at least anything that I have said on uh any social platform about the bears in like the last month gets immediately viewed as either a a condemnation of Justin fields or like your your team Justin Fields like right like like I don’t know they come out of
The Cleveland game and I tweeted something about how terrible the receivers were and I’m I’m immediately met by both sides of the Justin Fields conversation like it’s all anybody wants to talk about like what whatever you you you can’t even discuss like you can’t discuss the coaching staff right now you
Can’t discuss like the receiving Corp you can’t discuss any element of this team without everybody coming at you about Justin fields and everybody has a very firm opinion on it and like I don’t know like I’m in a bad place too because my my feeling as a meathead Bears fan is
That if the team is like hey we want to we want to sign Justin fields to a 5-year deal and we want him to be our quarterback going forward like I love him like I really like the guy and I find him easy to root for his teammates
To a man have rallied to him right like they he’s he’s clearly a well-liked figure um and he’s got a fun style of play too when he’s not turning the ball over he’s got a really fun style of play so I can be like okay yeah I’m in let’s
Do this thing for the next five years that’s fun um but then you know there’s also there’s a part of me that also thinks that probably the smart thing for this franchise to do is um to to reset the the clock on a on a rookie quarterback who probably has a higher
Upside than Justin Fields although I don’t know Justin Fields is really young too um but anyway I think Justin Fields is one of the 32 best quarterbacks in the world I think he will be a starting quarterback in the NFL next year I don’t
Know if it’s for the Bears or not um but like that’s I’m in this painful place where I can go either way like I’m a I’m a fan of the team and I’m going to I’ve always been a fan of the team I’m always
Going to be a fan of the team um so I can I can wrap my head around the idea of cheering for Justin fields for the next five years or 10 years that’s fine I like him um but also I you know I could do the same with Caleb Williams I
Could do the same with may I could you know I I get it like if the team wanted to move on to a quarterback that they think has like all pro upside that they think has like top three in the game that they think has clear Super Bowl
Upside then of course I’m going to be down for that too yeah uh two things one I do think the fact that like DJ Moore has Saidi want this guy as my quarterback and I actually have a point about DJ Moore later so I won’t go too
Deep into him damn it we have super similar lists because I got a DJ we talk to each other a lot so it’s it’s okay um which actually leads me to my second Point here if I’m the reason I think this has become a toxic uh a toxic topic on the
Internet because if I’m sitting here as a neutral Observer I’m sitting here like yo you got multiple good paths to go down here like and I think it’s a defensible decision either way like it’s a defensible decision to say you know what we’re riding with Fields like
Things look pretty good like we’ve been I mean Scott is like obsessed with the Bears on the recap show he’s like I wish the Bears would make the playoffs like I GNA go that far but like I think they’re a very fun team and um they’re getting
The best out of out of the defense right now it sounds like Matt eberl is gonna be back like and you just said it right there you think that Justin Fields is one of the best 32 quarterbacks in the NFL I 100% agree with you and and again
Revisit the topic we just talked about with the Bears quarterback misery over the last few years like you people have a reasonable path to to in the calendar year of 2024 you’ll obviously move on from either the number one overall pick or Justin Fields but at some point in the year 2024
You’re GNA have two maybe top 32 quarterbacks in the NFL on your roster like that is never the case with the Bears fans but I think if I’m to put the Bears fan hat on like I’ve spent a lot of time with you uh our fearless leader
Or editor Jason Kaka he’s a Bears fan a lot of you you people I’ve I’ve come in contact with since becoming in getting into media if I was a Bears fan I’d be like you know what they’re gonna find a way to mess it up like whichever whichever whichever choice that that we
Make it’s G to be wrong like either we’re gonna hold on to fields and he’s just gonna kind of top out or we’re gonna take Caleb Williams and he’s or Drake May and they’re just gonna bust because the Bears ruin quarterbacks and then Justin Field’s going to be playing
For the Steelers next year and he’s going to you know him and George Pickins are going to be 1500 yard seasons and it’s going to suck that’s where I would that’s where I think it gets toxic that that is all very much in play um I I will say like
The the other thing with fields that that makes it a little bit uncomfortable because again I could totally get behind the idea that the team is just is just going to say because because that is one of the factors with Fields is that you have to pay him really soon right like
This is the end of his third year so you got to pay him soon um but I can get behind the idea of Justin Fields is going to be our quarterback for like this next era of Bears football but when you when you do look you know just like
The cold facts of uh the last year’s stats versus this year’s stats there are a couple of things that look different in a good way um he has he has more throwaways this year and like the sack rate has gone down a little bit which is
Good that had to happen um if he’d been healthy for every game this season though he would probably still get sacked 50 times like it is still a problem even though it has clearly gotten better but like he’s still he still has the highest time
To throw in the league by a mile and it hasn’t really changed during this you know they’re on this like they’ve won four or five games right they’re kind of hot right now but it hasn’t changed during that time like he still has the highest time to throw in the league over
The last like four or five weeks um and it’s but it’s not even close to like number two like he’s well ahead of of number two on the list um so that is still an issue um his passer rating this year versus last year is basically the same qbr is down
Um completion percentage is very close like a lot of things just haven’t changed a whole lot um he hasn’t turned the ball over as much but he still has 10 fumbles and double digit interception he’s headed for double- digit interceptions right like it’s not it hasn’t been that clean um he’s averaging
A few more yards per game but that’s because that’s just because they’re throwing a little bit more um it hasn’t like I don’t know he hasn’t made like enormous strides from last year but I will say that he’s made like a significant Improvement in the area in
Which he needed it most um but that’s that’s different from saying oh yeah totally different guy he’s not a totally different guy but he is but he is still really exciting he’s probably the the first or second most dynamic rushing threat in the NFL at the quarterback
Position right now that’s fun like he’s fun um so that’s that’s part of what makes it so difficult to have the conversation right like he hasn’t you know you can make a throwaway comment about much Justin Fields has improved and coaches do that and like local media
Does that but it’s not it’s not in the numbers to the extent that you’d like it to be yeah I I would just point out that he is still working Beyond DJ Moore and I’ll I’ll transition from which that that was kind of I don’t want to have a
Whole Justin Fields conversation but he does sort of epitomize this like group of quarterbacks that we’re talking about right now and hey he’s so young that maybe when yeah though if he hasn’t you know because he do he does take a lot of punishment he gets banged up that’s
Another thing too like can he make it to 30 years old right like a Jared goof type um or are those hits going to add up but when his catalog of experience catches up to his physical ability what type of player can he be so um I would
Just say though again to to to make the point about the bears like it’s still not a great situation around him uh the the coaching has still I think been subpar and Beyond DJ Mort and I guess Cole KT too it’s just I mean Darnell Mooney and like these guys are not
Serious like number two number three number four receivers so there’s a lot that they can do around him but so I guess that encapsulates your second point the thing you care about which is these young quarterbacks so I’ll go to my second thing that I care about here
And I’ll do the DJ Moore thing now and maybe this can can can grab one of yours as well um what I care about number two DJ Moore Brandon auk and CD lamb having what I would call graduation Seasons these guys that are verifiably like good receivers coming into this year I think
Each of them to probably varying degrees have graduated off of like very good number one receiver to I mean I think I think CD lamb is in the officially in the elite tier in the NFL and I think that’s kind of like a group of seven and
I think DJ Moore and Brandon auk are not very far behind like in terms of real life receiver rankings and all these guys were number one receivers in fantasy I mean auk is uh a little bit lower than them he’s receiver 12 but if you if you just look it it’s insane I
Saw the stat the other day and this one comes in from uh Jeff Mueller JM Thrive PT on Twitter Brandon iuk has 1,317 receiving yards that’s six in the NFL all five of the receivers ahead of him have at least 100 plus receptions he has 101 targets like again just what
He’s done on a on a low level of volume is crazy but like DJ Moore’s receiver seven CD lamb is wide receiver one over all and I think for all of these guys and I’m guilty of it definitely with DJ Moore I was kind of thinking coming into
This year man you know is is DJ Moore like has he topped out being just a very good number one receiver and maybe not like an elite number one receiver and again I don’t know if he’s jumped into that Elite category yet but like the change in scenery has been wonderful for
Him you can tell why he wants Justin Fields back as his quarterback as those two guys just see the game the same way and they operate very similarly in terms of how they can beat man coverage and stuff CD lamb was a guy even in like week five people were like well he’s
Never been targeted never been used like a true Elite Alpha receiver well shoot you know when when the Cowboys got smart that’s what they did and then auk also again I think has had this graduation season as well so I really care about those three guys specifically not just
Because like I love those guys have gone to bat for all three of those players over the course of their career but it just shows that like when things around a player can change and when they’re put in the best position to succeed and their talent deserves that level of
Treatment they can jump into um like a higher tier than what we just kind of pened them in as and all these guys are pretty young still too yeah yeah um more more was like a standalone point for me uh in terms of things that I cared about
And this was going to be my way to maybe back into the Justin Fields conversation if you wanted to have it but we’ve kind of already had it um I yeah one one of my points and one of the things that I that I cared about about this season was
DJ more leveling up um and I will say like I like the way you put it I like the idea of the graduation season I feel like I already kind of felt that way about CD l and it was a it was a question of of usage um and I feel like
I you know this it was more of a confirmation season with Brandon iuk right um like I already I was and you’ve helped inform um my opinion about Brandon iuk but I already I don’t know I was already pretty committed to the idea of Brandon iuk as as being a great
Receiver I feel a little bit differently about DJ Moore today than I did 6 months ago um and and some of that is just as simple as has like this is this is the first time obviously in his career that he has had somebody at quarterback who
Is definitively I think an NFL starting quarterback right like it’s you know people know the names it’s been this parade of like Sam darnold and PJ Walker like you look at the list of of quarterbacks who have thrown DJ Moore touchdowns you just go to pro football
Reference and look at that and it’s it’s just it’s sort of shocking right it’s Kyle Allen it’s PJ Walker it’s Teddy Bridgewater um it’s Sam darnold it’s bigger Mayfield until this season and it’s you know and it’s and it’s a bunch of Justin Fields um but this is a this
Is a pretty significant statistical leap for him he used to be the easiest receiver in the game to forecast um cuz you knew he was going to come in at 1100 yards and four touchdowns cuz that’s what he did absolutely every year in Carolina and he did it with terrible
Quarterback play and it was a miracle that he did it um but he was you know it just happened year in and year out um and now we’ve now we’ve seen a very different version like he’s he’s at 1300 yard yards he’s going to he’s got a shot
At 100 catches on the season um th this has been great um he’s caught over seven shot at double- digit touchdowns that’s that’s the thing he’s got he’s got nine touchdowns right now he can reach he’s got eight receiving he’s got one rushing he can reach double digit touchdowns
He’s caught over 70% of his targets which is you know that’s kind of a tight end number that’s like a running back number that’s not even necessarily like we don’t we don’t get that from every great receiver every year so it’s just been it’s just been a phenomenal year he’s averaging
I just brought up his page he’s averaging 10 yards per Target like every Target is a first down for DJ Moore like this has been just a phenomenal year easily the best of his career I totally understand why he is in the bring Justin Fields Back Camp because this is the
First time that it is fully worked for DJ Moore and he like you can go back to like his college days it was a mess for him at Maryland too like he’s literally never had like a good quarterback for his level throwing him the football until right now um and it’s been it’s
Been wonderful to watch and I I again like I I think I thought of him coming into this season as yeah he’s he’s probably one of the 20 best receivers in the league and now I think legitimately DJ Moore might be one of the 10 best receivers in the league I’ve really like
This is I I knew that trade was a win now it feels like a much bigger win to me oh it feels like a smash especially because just in in conjunction with that from a bears perspective not only did you get DJ Moore you also took DJ Moore specifically from the Carolina Panthers
And that matters because like I I don’t know I I I I don’t know that they would have been it’s hard to be worse than than you um than the Panthers this year I mean your damn owner is throwing drinks at the at the fans in Jacksonville which by the way it’s a
Disgrace that nobody’s put out a statement about that and we’re recording this right now Tuesday uh like 2 p.m. Eastern as of right now nobody has said anything that is a a dis disgrace step on digs was was find like $16,000 for doing the beer celebration with fans and
Nobody’s managed to come up with like yeah whoops David terer maybe shouldn’t have done that like thrown a drink at a bunch of fans like come on bro grow the F up if you can’t handle that like don’t own an NFL team or don’t go to the games
At least I don’t know but anyways the fact that you specifically took him from the Carolina Panthers who then if they had DJ Moore again I don’t know that they would be much better but they would be better if they had DJ Moore with Bryce young this year but as of now
They’re the worst team in the league you get the number one pick back like it’s just such a win for Bears fans and again to put a kind of bow on the DJ Mo stuff he averaged 14.1 yards per reception last year he averages an exact same 14.1
Yards per reception this year but you mentioned it the catch rate 53.4% last year in Carolina 70.8% this year in Chicago with a guy in Justin Fields who was like oh he’s not he’s not gonna get the best out of GG more because he’s not accurate because he’s
Not not a runner and that kind of brings me to that point that I said earlier it’s like those guys just see the game the same way like look at what Baker Mayfield and DJ Moore did and look I I’m willing to actually kind of give everybody in Carolina a pass with the
Like show that Matt rule was running down there and like Ben McAdoo is the freaking offensive coordinator but like maybe those guys just don’t see the game the same way like certain quarterbacks certain wide receivers are just going to get each other more uh than other pairings are I think fields and more
Definitely get each other and same thing too with pie and iuk like yeah I’ve said this a lot like pull up the Brandon iuk like outside breaking routes the highlight tape of Brandon auk on outside critical third down breaking routes stuff like that like deep Corner routes
Jimmy G is not even dreaming about you know throwing those passes uh Nick Mullin certainly if he’s throwing those passes they’re he’s throwing them to the wrong team right these guys that the 49ers have had before like PR uh is is willing and gifted enough to
Make those throws so it does matter the quarterback receiver connection yeah it’s it’s such a good point um Nick Nick Mullin by the way is making those throws he is 100% pulling the trigger on those throws somebody’s catching it I don’t I don’t know that it’s like who catching
It but somebody’s catching it yeah um yeah this this like this is this is part of the the complicated conversation about fields for me is I’m totally fine if you just want to say okay we’re we’re next five years Justin fields and DJ Moore together go like I
I’m good with it like I’m I’m good with whatever Lane they pick I think it’s I think it’s fun that they have um played their way into a situation where it is a legitimate discussion I just wish the discussion weren’t as uh as heated and
Uh and angry as it is but I mean that’s the way these things go I guess so that was your third Point what third thing you care about was just DJ more was my third thing I care about yep perfect okay so we managed to wrap that up all
In one thing I’ll just go then to my third point which actually kind of dovetails similarly with these guys number three Nico Collins Michael Pitman Mike Evans prove at three kind of different levels for receivers that situation matters so so so much like for these guys and I was
Obviously in on Nico Collins and in on Michael Pitman and I was so wrong on Mike Evans because I just wish somebody would have come on this podcast and said that Baker Mayfield was going to be the next Gino Smith I wish that have unfortunately unfortunately I can’t give
Props to anybody on I’m just I’m being pH that was it that yeah it was a real shame that I didn’t listen to my friend Andy Baron on that one when they when Colin re I think it was Colin producer Colin resurfaced the clip uh on uh on
Twitter of that from that episode that segment I’m literally like face palming like a jackass that you even willing to bring up Acer map because I’m such a baker hater bro and I I I was wrong about it but um again to three different levels here these guys all again just
Showed that they were held back by the situation that they were previously in which sounds weird to say specifically for Mike Evans because you just think like he’s going from Tom Brady to Baker Mayfield but again to bring back the quarterback receiver like the way they
See the game Evans and and Brady had great success with each other in in the the first two years that Brady was there but that connection was really off last year and if you go back and watch it it wasn’t like oh man Evans has fallen off
He had some drops and stuff he maybe shouldn’t have had he always he’s actually kind of high on the like how the F did he Dro that play to miraculous catch scale um which I don’t really care about the why the F did he dropped that
But he had he had some of those plays in uh in 22 there’s no denying that but just with the way Brady was playing where he was getting the ball out so fast we didn’t want to get get hit like that’s just a really bad fit for a
Receiver like Mike Evans but Baker Mayfield all credit to him is willing to stand in there and take a shot and it’s just the coaching is night and day between Tampa Bay this year and Tampa Bay last year so all that kind of proves the situation very different for Mike
Evans I mean Michael Pitman obvious coaching upgrade from Frank Reich to Shane styken which has really let him Blossom this year uh and then same thing with Nico Collins a guy that like people just didn’t watch Nico Collins play you know and we’re like who’s CJ stad
Throwing to in Houston again just tell me you didn’t watch ni Collins play without telling me you didn’t watch him play uh and and he’s able to have that sort sort of season so just look I mean I’m always obviously always going to hammer this point but these three guys
Specifically like when we go into the offseason remember that situations when they change for the receivers it can really make a whole different group yeah I’ll also say that Michael Pitman was going to have a good season with Anthony Richardson like I don’t I don’t know if
I hate that point I could no let me tell you it does get brought up people bring it up all the time when you try to talk about Michael pman like well he wasn’t gonna have that season with Anthony Richardson it’s like and it’s oh if you
Look at the first three quarters that he played no no no no no like they play four quarters the games are 60 minutes we count all of them and Anthony Richardson had a great week one with with uh Michael there’s no denying that yeah yeah that was going to go really
Well and you could tell like first quarter of the first game that they had schemed up some really nice stuff and were really leaning into what Anthony Richardson could do well this this was going to be a big year for Michael Pitman regardless that was that was more about Michael Pitman simply staying
Healthy um I I think that’s a key point there and I like Collins to me is somebody where like if you told me that the best season of Nico Collins career was going to be I don’t know now like 14400 yards and 12 touchdown like that’s possible for him um that’s out there
Like that kind of dude he’s he’s built for that right like he’s a I mean he’s huge uh he’s a that guy’s that guy’s a playmaker um he needs he needs one year where he plays he gets in 17 games and um we get you know fully operational CJ
Stad for all 17 of those games and man um almost anything is on the table for him I think yeah I agree and the key next year we’ll be and we’ll have plenty of time to do this we don’t need to sit and kick it around right now but like
Who are the next guys in in that group group right like that can not not the graduation again I wouldn’t say they’re they’re not the same level of like oh wow these guys are verifiably good Evans obviously is kind of different than Collins and Pitman but like I wouldn’t
Say they had graduation type season just like when the situation around you dramatically changes at receiver who can be like who can who can kind of take that leap into a not just like a clear-cut starter in fantasy but these were guys you were rolling out every
Week for the most part and you get down weeks you get down weeks from everybody at the position but they’re both they’re all right now Collins missed games he’s receiver 17 Pitman missed games uh at least one game he is receiver 16 Mike Evans is receiver four right now so
Again we that’s will be the key point the offseason trying to find the next guys but all right Andy you give me the fourth thing you care about from this year um the fourth thing I care about and this is this is not so much fantasy
But I care that Antonio Pierce has gone four and four as Raiders head coach he’s got a he’s got a point differential of plus 49 um granted 42 of those are in one game um but he’s done this with Aiden no Connell at quarterback um his team has been competitive in every game
He’s got a couple of signature wins and the schedule hasn’t been like easy right they’ve had Miami in there they’ve had Kansas City twice beat him once um this has been this has been a particularly impressive run and I’m also just like this is this is my age this is my era
But like I I like the NFL better when the Raiders are good and when the Raiders are talked about um I came up in that right like there was never a year when the Raiders weren’t a thing like you could never talk about like the the ultimate contenders for any Super Bowl
Without mentioning the Raiders at the start of a year when I was a kid and that like I don’t know that feels good to me um he feels like a perfect coach coach for this team and I I recognize that they can’t just like lift the
Interim tag at any at any point and there’s a process to go through and all that I just I hope he’s their guy um and I’ve I’ve come to think that maybe I don’t know maybe it would be fun like I don’t think Aiden oconnell is the answer
Quarterback for that team but like there’s going to be some quarterback musical chairs this off season and I don’t know Baker Mayfield Landing with Vegas wouldn’t bother me a whole lot he seems like a perfect Raiders quarterback like I just want I just want a competent quarterback there and I don’t hate the
Idea of Devonte Adams staying in town with a competent quarterback and I don’t know I want I want there to be a path for the Raiders to retain Pierce and for him to be their head coach moving forward and for that team to be good
Like it is so Night and Day from the Josh McDaniels experience that we had in the in the opening weeks and how how what a just Flatline team that was to what they are right now like again competitive in every game they play this has been this has been a really fun end
To their season um I I love this point I do think Antonio Pierce probably should I mean dude even for Mark Davis’s Financial standpoint like he’s still paying to he’s still paying money guden he’s still paying money to Josh McDaniels like let’s let’s just keep Antonio Pierce
Around I also think kind of what we said about Justin Fields where which by the way I actually think if Justin Fields gets moved by the Bears I am a little bit pot committed I am a little bit pot committed to seeing him in a Steelers
Uniform and like I think the way he just was willing to rip it to DJ Moore in man coverage he’d be willing to rip it to George Pickins in man coverage but I also think same thing uh in the Raiders uniform like he would be willing to rip
It to these guys um that would be a pretty fun offense so he’s he a Poss that’s another possible fields landing spot and similarly like I said with the with fields and how DJ Moore is like I just want this guy as my quarterback I
If I’m uh if I’m the Raiders I’m going to Devonte Adams and being like okay you played all these games under Antonio Pierce and like the culture that was here clearly it seemed like it was a good vibe even when things weren’t great from a win Lo like a loss perspective
What do you think we should do because we want you to stick around okay um there’s they could obviously trade him they could cash him in there there’s there’s something with that I mean joshh Jacobs is going to likely I would be I me maybe he’s back because Antonio
Pierce is the type of coach that thinks if you reach 20 Rush attempts you win the game or at least that’s what he says publicly maybe they bring him back but you know he could be on the move there are like bones here I think of a pretty
Good team in Las Vegas and I I feel like Antonio Pierce is kind of the right guy to at least keep the culture on track and like get some of these Superstar players completely engaged with the operation yeah and I feel like we’ve done a lot of talking you know not maybe
Not you I certainly have been have engaged in it like we pick AP this roster all the time and we put the we put the pieces on different franchises right like we’ve been feel like we’ve been doing that with Devonte Adams um I shoot I was doing it before we started
The podcast with with Josh Jacobs as a as a you know somebody who could land in in Dallas like I don’t know I I’ve spent I’ve spent all year like taking guys off the Raiders and putting them elsewhere but like there are some good players here and what if they just stayed and
Got a real quarterback and sort of kept this momentum going I I just find Pierce really easy to root for I don’t even like I don’t even really root for the Raiders exactly it’s not like that I just I just enjoy my NFL a little bit better when the Raiders are totally
Relevant in winning games all right I’ll go into my fourth thing I care about here uh it was a great year to avoid bad ecosystems um if you just look at the top five picks in the NFL draft right now it’s the Panthers the commanders the Patriots the Cardinals and the Giants
And before you come up with yeah but this guy yeah but this guy yeah but that guy I’m aware that there were usable players and useful players to to varying degrees for all of these teams in different parts of the Season like there was an Adam thielen portion of the
Season there was a Brian Robinson portion of the Season there was a there was a God forbid Zeke part of the season and even like a part of RA Andre Stevenson season after he went to the coping corner he had an all right moment Draymond prde came from the Cardinals I
Get that it wasn’t like saquon Barkley kill well it wasn’t a wasn’t a great draft pick but like where did where did say rang back 16 he again there were portions of the season when Barkley was good I understand that but I think that if you sat there and didn’t engage in
The and I did engage in this the oh boy I mean who’s who’s gonna who’s gonna benefit when Daniel Jones uh takes nice little leap in year two under Brian deall that didn’t happen you didn’t engage in that you didn’t engage in um and look even the Cardinals are actually
Weirdly an exception here but like if you didn’t try to chase Maris Brown you could have avoided that um the Patriots I think you could have avoided that entire offense and really not thought twice about it kind of same thing with the commanders even though Sam how had
Moments as a as a streaming quarterback um and again Terry mclen Brian Robinson some of these guys had moments but like if you didn’t engage with that offense I think you would have been fine you didn’t certainly you didn’t engage with the Panthers offense you would have been
Totally fine I feel like this was a great reminder that like if you can see to use a Scott panowski term if you can see like some Lookout below potential with the team and we’re not always going to get it right I mean I know Scott and I talked about Lookout below potential
For the Rams and they ended up being one of the best offenses to invest in this year we’re not always gonna get it right but if you can accurately project like oh boy this is an offense to to completely avoid you there’s still some profit there the uh the flip side of
This it occurs to me is that um some sometimes it’s enough to know that you trust a head coach and you and you trust an environment right like um we were running away from the Rams uh on on draft day like a lot of people were right and there was especially when when
Cup got hurt you were like okay what is there really um cam Acres right right like we came into this season thinking that you know cam Acres was like uh the the number one running back on that team he’d already lost the job when we came
Into the season but like I don’t know we could have looked at the Rams and said you know what I just I I just I trust Sean McVey to get it right um and and wow did they get it right you know um two of the decisive players in this in
This year are going to be Kiron Williams and G and puka nikua um you know cup once once he got healthy um has strung together some really really good games Matt Stafford who like shoot we could we could have just listened to what the beat writers were saying and what
Everybody was saying about how Stafford hey he like he looks fine he looks like Stafford he’s healthy but you know older player and we we remained worried about an injury that he had he had obviously cleared um that was a case where it was just like a known good ecosystem and a
Great coach and we could have just trusted it and if we trusted it and said you know what I’m going to take some flyers on on Rams late in my draft one of those surely would have been nakua and you know that that would have turned
Your season around 100% um I mean I just like ecosystem matters so so much and um I’ll actually and I’ll give you the final say as to who your your fifth um thing you care about because I’m just going to doveet tail into my fifth thing
Right here because it’s kind of on the same path um the fall of the quote too big to fail offenses really um sticks with me from this year the two I don’t know who you want to name but the two that I come back to are the eagle and
The Chargers I think you could throw the Chiefs in here too um but the Chiefs that we knew were going to be good like Mahomes wasn’t a great fantasy pick but I don’t think he killed you same we talked about this a lot with these quarterbacks I don’t think he killed you
Travis Kelce wasn’t as good as he expected but it’s again I don’t think he killed you necessarily Peko was fine you know Rashid rice ended up being like kind of a revelation so I I waffled on the the the Chiefs and throwing them here but I ultimately decided to really
Just hammer in on the Eagles and the Chargers and this one comes back down to coaching to me too um like we just didn’t talk enough about a for the Eagles how big of a loss Shane styen was gonna be it’s like and and hey maybe I’m
Talking out of my ass here because I said similarly with the Ben Johnson thing like Oh They’ll just promote from within and it will be fine well Eagles promoted from within and I it was not fine um and there are real actual I think play calling sequencing and and
Like offensive design issues with this offense like you can point to real real critical problems here um but at the same time I think you know the quarterback hasn’t played at the same level and and you know there there just been issues on that team and and I
Thought they were too big to fail and this offense has definitely failed Jaylen Herz been a great fantasy pick AJ Brown kind of petered off at the end but he had great moments but you know Devonte Smith was frustrating um that sticks to me and the Chargers
Like I I will I will be uh you know shout out to me like Pat myself on the back a little bit that like I offered some skepticism that the IDE to the idea that oh everything that was good in Dallas was Kell Moore and everything bad
Was Mike McCarthy but I didn’t give it enough credit this year like that just was not an upgrade for the Chargers offense and when things started to fall apart because there was obviously issues with the head coach himself when things started to fall apart completely like the bottom completely fell out with the
Char charers and and some of that as injury stuff of course that that’s unavoidable but yeah those the fall of those two offenses and how that relates back to coordinator change um again maybe I should spook myself a little bit about the lion stuff but that does stick
With me from this year yeah it’s a good point about about K Moore in particular um also though the Chargers having just about like in in terms of like injuries that impacted all of the fantasy relevant players um it like that that was a total nightmare right like Herbert
Not luck it’s it’s something we’ve never seen before luckily that’s not something we talk about the Chargers every year yeah exactly um but you know Mike Williams early in the year Keenan Ellen and Justin Herbert late and you know whatever whatever the injury situation was with Austin Eckler he was clearly
Not you know he was clearly not a fully operational Austin Eckler after he came back from the ankle injury so that was that was just an absolute nightmare um it’s a good point on the Eagles too and I I would you know if I can just if I
Can just lob my my final thing that I care about in there because it kind of dove tales with this I I would include the Chiefs to an extent it obviously hasn’t been hasn’t been quite as bad as the the Chargers situation certainly but it’s been kind of like the eagles
Situation I mean if you would have told me if you would have told me at the start of the Season that Patrick Mahomes is going to lead the NFL in pass attempts I’d be like oh that’s 5,500 yards I know what that season looks like that’s you know that’s an MVP like he’s
Leading the league in completions and attempts and it doesn’t like it hasn’t it hasn’t added up to anything um and the final thing that I cared about was going to be like the one really negative thing on my list and that is that like this receiving core is
Mostly terrible um it is not 100% terrible and Travis Kelce is still very good he’s not vintage Travis Kelce and now that he’s 34 maybe we shouldn’t expect that guy again right like he’s he’s reached that point where every game he’s limping around a little bit he
Looks uncomfortable um I don’t you know obviously I don’t think this is about who he’s dating at any given moment I think this is about the fact fact that he’s a 34 year-old um player who’s taken a lot of hits over the years and he’s still going to finish with a, yards like
He’s whatever he’s fine he’s he’s a very good NFL tight end he’s a Hall of Famer all that um Rashid rice has been a revelation but Matt they’ve given 170 total targets to Justin Watson uh Marquez Valdes scantling cadarius Tony and Sky Moore and um th those are some
Of the most wasted Targets in the NFL like I’ll just I’ll just read off the passer rating when targeted of each of those players I think I’ve done this before I think I did it on on FFL earlier this year um Justin Watson 77.4 mvs 73 cadarius Tony 66.7 but it doesn’t
Even begin to tell the story of cadarius Tony’s awful season and skymore uh 50.8 like this these are Patrick Mahomes targets right um like how how do we get to 50.8 um they it it’s just a it’s just an ABS absolutely Dreadful group of receivers Beyond Rashi rice who again
Has been a revelation really fun he’s not you know he’s not a he’s not necessarily an every route win everywhere type of receiver but he’s clearly an asset very impressive player um they got they got two reliable things in the receiving Corp but you have to throw the ball elsewhere and they have
No good answers outside those two players and it’s just you know yeah I guess I guess I would count the Kansas City offense given who quarterback is as a as a pretty big failure this year um and that you know so there are some there are some dudes available
Theoretically in this free agent class at receiver and it it sure looks like a good receiver class uh in the incoming draft so like there are ways to address this but it’s got to get addressed um they got to find a third guy preferably they got to find a third guy and a
Fourth guy and I just I don’t like I don’t need to see them do any of this gimmicky stuff with cadarius Tony ever again I mean I’m glad glad that you ended the show uh it is it is a negative one but I’m glad we’re ending the the
Show on this because it is just like it’s a it’s just like a crime man that like they they rolled this receiver room out um and colins said in the chat it was painfully obvious like kickoff night and it like why wasn’t it obvious to them before the season like honestly I
Think winning the Super Bowl last year just and we all do this right I’m sure in our in our analysis this offseason he like oh you know it doesn’t look like that great a receiver room but they won the rece they won the Super gol with it
Last year and I’m sure the people in the building like yo if you think we say dumb stuff on the outside people in the inside no matter if it’s a good organization they end up saying some dumb stuff and I think there are things that just didn’t happen that they were
Counting on happening like I think they wanted Sky Mo like Sky Moore’s failure which I like Sky Moore as a prospect but he had a bad rookie year I was willing to kind of be like all right let’s give him a pass because they seem to be ready
To give him a pass but then they roll him out there and they play him you know and that’s another thing too I think they’re planning in the receiver they played him on outside on 65% of his routes like no what what usage is that for this player like oh he can’t track
Deep balls like no he can’t track deep balls didn’t do that in college like it wasn’t the way he was successful so they’re playing with him I think they’re playing with thei rice ended up being inspired but then like the other receiver positions the Tony stuff like I
Mean their their rhetoric about Tony is some of the all-time most insane stuff that’s ever been put out by a NFL franchise especially like a good NFL franchise like the stuff about him being a number one receiver and all that it’s like have you watched cadarius Tony play
Football like he’s on your team you you weren’t watching the tape of this guy like you sound like a fantasy analyst Brett V of like look at his targets per route run yeah look at the targets and like look at him look at him out there what he’s really doing when he’s running
Routs give me a break and then the mvs thing like we have almost just like gotten used to the fact that like yep mvs runs the most routes on this team as the rece it’s mvs like what are we talking about here this the guy who
Flamed out with Aaron roders as the Deep threat and they gave him like a big fat contract like he’s a guy that you should be your fourth receiver at most that you have him run clear out routes and just like throw throw him a go route every
Now and again and like ah shoot he might catch that thing that was what he was in Green Bay but he is the most used receiver from a playing time perspective on this team I mean that is Criminal it it’s wild and it’s not like we didn’t
Have several years of like it was a running joke that you know every game we would see Aaron Rogers with his hands on his hips glaring at mvs downfield after like a brutal killer drop on what would have been a field flipping play and the same thing has happened in Kansas City
And like yeah we absolutely could have seen this coming we we all fully saw this coming like that was inevitable that is the player that he had been that is the player that he is now um cadarius Tony has cost you like directly cost you the opening the opening night game um
And you know we can make an argument that cadarius Tony has cost you like two wins this season that’s crazy that’s crazy CRA but but he kind of has like that’s just it’s just wild to allow that player to do that to you um and then Sky
Moore just seems like a like a failure of usage Andor development but he’s basically had the same really bad season now back to back and I don’t I don’t know how they can like I don’t know maybe somebody will get excited about him next summer um maybe somebody will
Think of him as a sleeper but I’m I’m I’m going to be out on skymore for the foreseeable future they just they just absolutely have to address the receiver position in a meaningful way and again there are some free agents out there and it’s a great draft class and all that
And they might be able to but we’ve just it feels like I don’t know the play we you know they’re still the division champs and the playoffs are still up coming so it’s probably a bit much to say that wow we’ve we’ve wasted a year of Patrick mahomes’s Prime but it kind
Kind of feels that way with this receiving core yeah you’re right like they could theoretically still win the Super Bowl like I mean obviously the like not even Theory they could in practice still win the Super Bowl but the fact that I’m saying the words in
Theory about the Chiefs and it is yeah almost 100% because of this and they’re playing an offensive tackle too that’s another thing like that did not go well this year like the Donovan Smith the the jwan Taylor stuff like that was bad just everything with this offense was such a
Big disappointment you’re right that like that failure um and how it did see because you know there are definitely Bros on the internet that will you know not let you gota you got to say something bad about Pat Mahomes like yeah no kidding he’s not having the
Season we all expect like he’s having he’s lowest touchdown rate highest interception rate like lowest adjusted net yards per attempt and like because ultimately when you set players up in bad like great players great players when you set them up in a bad environment like bad habits creep into
Their game there is no question about it and I think that has happened to Pat Mahomes this year but a lot of it could have been avoided a lot yeah we had the conversation following the the loss to the Raiders like that’s what that was I
Mean there were like there were a couple of blatantly terrible plays terrible decisions terrible moments in that game like the turnovers were on him more than they were on anybody else um but I mean you’re right when when there are no good answers on the field for you like some
Bad is going to happen Andy on that note I think that’s going to do it uh what a start like you are officially relieved of your regular season Yahoo fantasy football show duties and uh I mean obviously you’re still going to be on the podcast all throughout the offseason all throughout
The playoffs too but I’m saying this is officially your last regular season episode in what a way Andy to transition you into offseason barrons mode I know you do other sports and all that nonsense but specifically the things that I care about offseason Barons mode by doing a secretless pod where we got
To tell a full scale conversation about the Bears too I mean that’s that’s that’s that’s Baron’s heaven to me I didn’t I didn’t mean to go out on a negative um but the way things worked out and the way that our lists aligned you know I I had planned to go out on
One of those positive notes didn’t didn’t mean to sort of take down the Chiefs for the for the last moment on the secret list but man I I’ll do a secret list anytime you ask uh it was frankly it was cathartic for me so I
Enjoyed it uh but as I mentioned that is going to do it for us uh tomorrow is Thursday as you know and you know what that means it’s Saturn Thursday with Dalton deldon the last official one of the NFL season we’ll catch you all then until then we’re out
4 Comments
thanks for everything this season guys!
Thank you Guys! I appreciate yahoo family football and baseball!
Raiders offense is putrid. I'm hoping they trade for Fields.
Mr. Harmon thank you and everyone you have broadcast with this Football season. I've really enjoyed hearing your opinions all season. Thank you again and looking forward to next season. Be well.