Fantasy industry vets Joe Dolan and Tom Brawley are bringing it all season long on the fantasy free agents podcast unrestricted, unaffiliated unparalleled fantasy football analysis. Hello everyone and welcome to the fantasy free agents podcast and I am pleased to say this is the first International edition of the fantasy free agents podcast. I am Joe Dolan and I'm sitting in a hotel room in Toronto, Ontario. I'm up here. I'm an appendage to my wife who is here on an academic conference academic people love to get together with other academic people and talk about being academic people. I don't necessarily fit into those conversations, but I love coming along with my wife because I get to see some really cool places been to San Diego been to Toronto now all kinds of other places and I'm really enjoying it and the great news is because I have this wonderful hotel room. I could sit here and record the podcast. We had a guy traveling last week. He went out to LA to be on Colin cowards program. That guy is great Cosell and because I couldn't keep the people away. From Greg Cosell for too long agonizing weeks. I'm actually going to end up calling Greg here from Canada to talk to him about some of the biggest camp stories as we get into real preseason action. Nobody actually watches the Hall of Fame game and I'm certain Greg hasn't broken it down on tape or at least not so much with a seriously trained eye on it. But once we get actual tape Greg's going to break down what he's seen, however because we don't have that yet. I'm going to just have to ask. His opinions on based on what he knows about coaches and players already about some of the major camp stories and that's going to be the focus for us throughout the preseason. I'm going to be asking Greg about some of the major things people are talking about to get his unique insights on all those things that happen during the preseason Tom Rowley and I will be with you tomorrow to talk the preseason action from tonight. I am in Toronto and I'll be honest. I'm actually really surprised at how much people enjoy fantasy football in the NFL here. I've been sitting at bars and restaurants and people would ask me I what do you do? What do you in town for just kind of a standard question and then I said well believe it or not. I work in the fantasy football industry. I write and I hosts a podcast and host a radio show and people are like, oh I'll I play Fantasy. I'm a Falcons fan. I met a bartender yesterday at a place called the town crier Pub on John Street in Toronto, and he said he's a Falcons fan because a few years ago. He had Matt Ryan and Julio Jones and Matt Brian. It's on his fantasy team and I met another guy who was an Eagles fan because he's had family from the Philadelphia area and a lot of people are Bills fans because it's right across the border here, but I didn't realize how popular the NFL and fantasy football were here in Toronto. So maybe I have some Toronto listeners to the podcast today. So if you are one of them send me a tweet at FG underscore Dolan and I'll be sure to respond or send an email to the website at tff a podcast at gmail.com will be sure to and so I want to thank the people in Toronto who have been wonderfully receptive for me here today, but going to talk to Greg Cosell in a little bit, but I just wanted to remind people tomorrow. I'm going to have Tom Brawley be doing the heavy lifting because it's not as easy for me to get all the NFL preseason games here in Toronto. I'll see what I can watch tonight, but I'm going to have Tom Bradley do the heavy lifting and make some observations and and kind of follow what people are talking about more break all that down on tomorrow's podcast. That's Be Friday, August 9th. We will be doing instant reaction from the preseason looking at snap counts how rookies look at all that stuff. And obviously these things you have to be careful with them because usually it's the third preseason game. That's the most important but as we saw the last couple years the Eagles the Rams these these teams made runs at the Super Bowl Without Really playing there guys during the preseason. So we'll have to see if more teams end up doing that, but I'm going to Take a deep breath now because nobody wants to hear me ramble on about Toronto and Canada. I'm sure you're all happy for me that I'm here. But what you really care about is Greg Cosell and we're going to get to Greg right now. What's up listeners? This has been kookiness producer of the fantasy free agents podcast on anchor FM podcasting. I've been producing podcast and chose for my friends and colleagues Joe Dolan and Tom Brawley for years now. So when we decided to start the fantasy free agents podcast, it was imperative. We find a hosting platform an app that was Easy to use Quick to record and post and track our stats and that's exactly what we found in Anchor. It's the easiest way to make a podcast and gives you everything you need in one place from either your phone or your computer. Their creation. Tools makes my life easier and I felt great knowing that anchor handles the distribution of our podcast to their other platforms like Spotify Apple podcasts Google podcasts and many more and don't worry about any difficult process to monetize your podcast. You can easily make money with no minimum listenership, so, Go download the anchor app or go to Anchor dot f m-- to get started today and thanks for listening to the fantasy free agents podcast unrestricted, unaffiliated unparalleled analysis for your fantasy football and bedding needs. And of course, I am thrilled to welcome into this International edition of the fantasy free agents podcast the legendary Greg Cosell of NFL films follow him on Twitter at Greg Cosell and Greg. I hope everybody enjoyed your segment with Colin coward. I know I did and interestingly enough you discussed Jordan love of Utah State the same guy Matt Brown from the athletic brought up on our podcast last week almost filling in for you. So he's somebody Who's interesting to watch here as we look at the 2020 quarterback class? Well, I knew nothing about them and someone told me I should take a look at Jordan love from Utah State. So I watched our I don't know five or six games and I was very very impressed. So I'm really anxious to see how he does this year. I think he's got the kind of talent that could easily make him a high first-round pick. He'll they'll I know Utah State plays at LSU this year. I'm sure they'll get killed and he likely won't have a great game and then people will The usual garbage of that. Well, he can't play, you know in the big games, but he's a very very talented kid. And you know, like I said, he was Virgin Territory for me, but I really like watching him. Well Greg. Well, we'll talk more about him as we get through the year and obviously once we get closer to draft time, but we got NFL football to talk about and Greg sometimes Serendipity shines upon us all and literally 10 minutes before I called you up for the podcast here Duke Johnson gets Traded from the Cleveland Browns to the Houston Texans for a twenty twenty fourth round pick and this this Greg on the surface is a really good move for Fantasy. It cleans up the Log Jam with Duke Johnson unhappy and Cleveland. It opens up a massive role for Nick Chubb early in the year. But first I want to talk about Duke Johnson the player. What does he give to Houston and will do you think this will kind of tempt Bill O'Brien or Force Bill O'Brien to throw the ball to his running backs more He really hasn't done a whole lot over the last couple of years. Well Duke Johnson is a terrific receiver. And the thing about him is he can line up to touch from the formation. The big question they will have is pass protection because one of the things they did, you know a lot last season was seven men pass protection which featured backs and tight ends and they did that. I'm sure as of necessity because of their own concerns, so that's just something to watch as the season starts. You won't see much of that in the Press. Season we won't know the answer to that but Duke Johnson is a very talented player who's a good runner and an outstanding receiver. The big key is can there o-line hold up so he can be used as a receiver particularly in Long yardage situations and on and on third down and not have to worry about Tas Pro Greg I moved right as I heard this news. I removed Nick Chubb into my top 10 at the running back position and we talked about him a little bit. But to me I saw a guy who can two or three Downs He probably can it'll be interesting to see from just a number of touches standpoint a number of snaps standpoint because he clearly is there feature back their Foundation back. The question is will their offense run through him or will he just be part of a multi-dimensional offense which means they'll still get 240 250 calories, but I'm curious to see with Baker Mayfield and the abundance of weapons they have in the past game. How are they truly structure their offense? What what identity? They have offensively. Okay, Greg. Let's talk about one of the other big story lines of training camp and we've touched on this already. But I mean, it's the biggest story in fantasy football and arguably the biggest story in the NFL and it's the holdouts of Ezekiel Elliott and Melvin, right and you were just talking about Cleveland. Will they run their offense through Nick Chubb? We have the answer for that for Dallas. They run their offense through Ezekiel Elliott. Mine without question feeling is Jerry's going to pay Zeke. That's just my gut feeling I don't Think he wants this to linger into the season. But if he were to hold out, how do you see their offense operating if gq-- does Miss games with Alfred Morris? They just brought him back and Tony Pollard the young rookie. Well quick point. I really like Tony Pollard watching a State from Memphis. He sort of a combination Runner receiver. I think he's a talented guy. He's not a feature back in the strict sense, but he wouldn't be asked to do that. The question is and this is a Jerry Jones decision. Is more what do they think about Dak then the Aquino about Zeke? He's the best back in the leak. The question is what they think about Prescott because Prescott has been really a complementary piece on a team that has been defined by the Run game which then allows their defense to play fewer snaps and deck is a compliment. If Jerry thinks that deck is ready to become more than that. Maybe they'll play hardball who knows it's going to be interesting. Thing to see because I don't know. I'm not a salary cap guy Joe and I don't know how much you study it, but I don't know if they can pay everybody based on what those positions normally demand because they have to pay deck is Zeke Amari Cooper and Byron Jones. Okay. Those are all other than running back. Those are all premium positions in the NFL. So I'm going to be fascinating to see how this plays out, but they got caught because when you let others determine the Market and set the market you kind of get stuck. Well, yeah, they said they weren't going to they weren't going to set the market. But when Michael Thomas is out there signing on the market get then the market gets set by others and you're stuck exactly. So I've been a little confused with their strategy but Greg just just a quick follow-up on that. Do you think DAC can take the next step based on your film study? I would say up to this point. My answer would be a shaky know. He's a very cautious player. I know that there was a big thing on Twitter not too long ago about Jon kitna. Who's the quarterback coach. I'm sure you saw it talking about when he played from Mike Martz and not to be cautious. I'm sure they're working very hard with DAC not to be cautious because if you're going to be the guy you can you have to turn it loose you have to have an aggressive throwing mentality and what I don't know about DAC is whether it's in his DNA to be cautious whether he was coached to be cautious. I don't know the Sure to that. But if you're if Jerry Jones thinks he's the guy and they're going to subtly transform or not. So subtly transform their offense to really be about DAC as opposed to Zeke then Prescott cannot be a cautious player. Well, let's go to the other hold out and that's Melvin Gordon and Greg. I think this is a little more cut-and-dry from your perspective. They're probably better equipped to handle a Gordon hold out then I would agree then the Z cold out and what why is that? Why do you agree? Well, first of all, they've got a big-time quarterback and second of all, I think they've got two backs that could essentially production-wise do the same thing Melvin. Gordon's a good player. No question. He's a good runner. He's a grinder. He's tough inside. He's a good pass receiver. But I think with a Kohler and Jackson the kid from Northwestern who came in last year and looked pretty good and Jackson can't carry 250 270 times just because of his size even though his running style is like that He's just not big enough, but I think with both those players, they'll get production. They're not a team built on. Let's give it to Melvin Gordon. And that's the way we play offense. So I don't think my sense is the Chargers will not give in to Melvin Gordon whether they trade him or not remains to be seen but I don't think they're going to give him, you know, Le'Veon Bell money rolling. I mean, they just lost a major potential trade partner in the Texans as well who had a ton of cap space and now just traded for a back themselves. With Duke Johnson, so I think it's probably going to have to be a meet in the middle and all that being said though Greg the Chargers are a Super Bowl Contender and they do want to put the best team as possible out there as Philip Rivers career wins down here. And as you alluded to Melvin Gordon is part of that. He's part of it that but that's the the way to say it. He's not the reason for it. Yes, their team is not built around Melvin Gordon and he's a good player. That's not the point. But the team is not built around him Greg you were Talking about with Dak Prescott the need to get more aggressive. Well in Tampa Bay, they're discussing the need for Jameis Winston to get a little bit less aggressive to improve his decision-making. Right and that's interesting under Bruce Arians because I've always thought of Bruce Arians as an overly aggressive coach sometimes to a fault oftentimes to success. But my question to you is Jamis says he wants to check down more he wants to make better decisions. But have you do you have any examples of a guy like Winston really improving his decision-making five six years into his career and becoming a higher level player. Well, I can't think of an example off hand because you know, I didn't know you were gonna ask me that question, but I think it can be done. I think it's easier and and maybe quarterback coaches would disagree with me. I think it's easier to tone a guy down than to make him more aggressive. So I think James has always been an aggressive thrower. I think he's a turn it loose guy. I Thanks, Bruce. Arians knows that my guess is it's one reason why Bruce was excited about this job because his quarterback fits Bruce's approach the big issue then becomes turnovers and and that's what you don't want. So you sort of have to find that that that balance and that fine line and I think you know Jameis the one thing you can say about Jamis is he is a worker. He really he's smart. He loves the game, but he's got that little recklessness to him that you know, you're trying to tone down. So that's going to be a fascinating balance, which we will not know the answer to that till we get into a number of regular season games. So Greg, let's discuss here because there seems to be an obsession on avoiding turnovers in the NFL. And of course an interception sucks a fumble sucks. You lose the ball you lose an opportunity to score but I think we saw this last year with Aaron Rodgers. He threw two interceptions, but there were countless times. He's throwing the ball away. He's not even trying to make a throw and I think one of the big Back when we were talking about Buffalo back in the day was Tyrod Taylor who seems like he never threw a pass unless it was right open and what are the problems with that in the NFL? Well, first of all everything situational, I mean obviously if it's first in 10 or let's say you're in deep in your own territory inside your own 20, you know, you don't want to be aggressive for no reason. So everything is situational. There's no this is not a mathematical equation, but there's times in every game whether It's a based on a plate call. Whether it's based on situation where the quarterback has to turn it loose and drive the football at the intermediate levels or a little deeper depending on the route Concepts. And if your quarterback doesn't do that, then you're going to end up getting stuck. Look at what here's what the game has become and this is very general. But true the game has become creating explosive plays on offense and stopping explosive plays on defense. So when explosive play concepts are called by an offensive You get the right coverage the quarterback has to turn it loose and as I said all that is is play called base situation based field position based time of game based. There's many factors that go into it. It's not as if there's 20 times a game or a quarterback has to just turn it loose but you have to be able to do that as a quarterback or you're going to get stuck. So essentially you're saying an interception on First and Ten and an interception on Third and 12 are not equal. No. I mean generally no, I mean obviously as I said now you have to get into the specifics of an interception, but no, they're not equal integrated and Seattle here Brian Schottenheimer changing gears a little bit. He said he's looking to get the running backs more involved as receivers this year. Obviously until Baltimore switch to Lamar Jackson. No team in the NFL ran the ball more than Seattle last year and I think as an aggregate Seattle still ran it more than everybody. Do you see one of their two main backs Penny or Carson is being more moral? More depth to a scheme in which the the Seahawks throw the ball a little bit more to the backs. Well penny is the more Elusive and Shifty guy in space. You know, Carson is a grinder and I think Carson really did a great job for them a year ago. And that's that's the way they sort of founded their offense On The Run game in Carson, you know, no one would say, he's Ezekiel Elliott, but they almost play defense as if he was and Carson when he was healthy and he I guess he missed two or three games was very very good. Penny is better in space. You know penny is the kind of guy you'd like to get the ball, you know out in the flat or in the screen game more so than Carson so we'll see how that impacts snaps. But my guess is Carson will still end up being the number one back and I don't think they'll change their offensive approach very much when you studied Richard Penny coming out of San Diego State. Did you see him as a foundation back in the NFL? I had questions about it because I didn't know. If he was physically Tough Enough for the grind, you know, I didn't see him. As you know, Carson is a very tough Insider honor certainly not a long speed guy. Maybe he's not creative and all that stuff. But you know, whereas penny has a little more of that but I just didn't know if Penny could line up and run between the tackles for you know, 20 22 carries the game and be that guy Greg we've had one major injury on the offensive side of the football here at least four fantasy. When it comes to training camp thus far that's AJ Green and I'm getting sick for this guy with all the battle Yeah, sad, who knows about the field. They're in Dayton or wherever whatever happened there, but it does look like he's going to miss a couple games caveat of the new coaching staff totally acknowledged here. How was Tyler Boyd used differently when AJ Green was out last year and is it even valid to take a look at how he was used last year given that there's a new coaching staff and He had to play well games that Jeff driskel. I would have got I don't think that's particularly valid. I mean again, these are things we don't know the answer to yet. But Zack Taylor is a young coach. He came from the Rams. So, you know, he's well schooled in the Sean McVeigh system. I would assume within the context of that offense Tyler Boyd is Robert Woods now again, whatever that means in terms of numbers will see but could Tyler Boyd lying up You know, we've seen him in the slot. So do we see him as Cooper Cub? I see him more as Robert Woods in the context of this offense, which means he would not necessarily be a slot guy. But hey, that's the way I see it. I don't know. You know, look, I'm not at their Camp I and I haven't read much about it. So I don't know how he's being used. But obviously with AJ Green out, you're not seeing it the way they probably ultimately wanted anyway. Yeah. Well they wanted I mean AJ Green would have been their X, which would be the atom and AJ Green would have You know the Brandin Cooks obviously and he's and he's a different kind of receiver than cook and a healthy AJ Green is the top five six receiver in the league. Yeah. So I mean it's going to be interesting to see but you saw did you like what you saw out of Boyd on tape? Because I remember I think you liked him coming out of pit. It just like yeah. Yes. Yeah. No all he had that good year and then he had sort of a down here. And then last year he sort of came on. You know, I know that just from what I hear that there were some issues with him personally, but who you know, who knows? Those but I think in the context of that offense, you know, assuming all good things about his character and personality and work ethic. I could see him certainly feeling the Robert Woods roll Greg has a lot of Camp height coming out of Detroit where they just cut theoretical about young Ty Johnston. Who's a rookie out of Maryland now, I don't know I watched I watched him on tape and I it's funny you say that because I made a note on him that I thought he could become a receiving back in the league and be very good at it. So which essentially is Theo Riddick? Yeah, and he's probably a little more explosive than theoretical. Theo Riddick is great because you've been doing this a long time and he understands and tie Johnson won't understand a lot of things yet. But I think ultimately tied Johnson's a little more explosive and that's probably a contributing factor to why they released Riddick, but I it's funny because you and I recently just discussed about how carry on Johnson was a better receiver last year than we thought he was coming at Auburn and do you see him being The three down back with with the light spots with Johnson. I don't know if he'll be a 3 down back, but I think he'll be very effective in the screen name. Okay. So again, you know the screen game is not it can be a third-down play obviously depending on the distance and then obviously teams go to screens off and when they anticipate Blitz, but you know, I don't know if he'll be used as a true receiver in the sense that he'll start running will routes and deeper routes he could but I don't know. Oh if he'll play three downs, but I think he'll be used meaningfully in the screen game one thing you and I also discussed was how we agreed that Phillip Lindsay there. There's untapped potential in the passing game there. So I found it interesting Greg that the Broncos went out and signed Theo Riddick and now they have a three headed monster there in the backfield with Lindsay Royce Freeman and Riddick. How do you do you see do you have a feel for how these I don't have I don't have a clue because Me if you're going to sign Riddick, you know what he is. Okay, he's going to be your third down back Assuming. He's still got it. I mean look, you know how this stuff works. Sometimes we guys get signed and we think wow, that's great and three weeks later the guy gets cut so we don't know but assuming Riddick is still Riddick, you don't you're signing him for a reason. He's going to be your third down back. He's going to be your 11 personnel back in given situations. So now you get into to me the larger issue from a fantasy perspective is how they're going to work. The carries out between Lindsay and Freeman and you know, obviously Lindsey became the guy last year coming off an injury, you know new coaching staff. So they always see they may see things differently. So to me the larger question Joe is is Lindsay versus Freeman and I don't know the answer to that grade because I know none of us more none of us do yeah, none of us do well. I mean Lindsey, let's be frank right Greg here and his you ran his ass off last year. He was tough. He was great and I thought he was better than Freeman but there's a lot of people who look Freeman coming out of Oregon. I didn't love him. But you know, he had close to a thousand carries. He I thought his last year at Oregon. He looked a little worn out. So maybe he's more of a compliment. I think Greg one of the interesting things that's happened. So far in training camp is the work that Joe Douglas with the Jets the Jets new general manager has done along the offense of line really good really good. You know, you got a Young quarterback this whole line, you know, they just traded for Alex Lewis. Who's at a Nebraska Ask who started a number of games for the Ravens and was pretty good. So they've really got good depth on their own line. They can have a very nice all line. And now Ryan Khalil is the one I really want to ask you about. Yeah, they signed him now. I don't know what you saw from Khalil on tape last year are a lot of people were saying he struggled and Carolina. I can't can't say I studied him nor did I so I'm not going to speak about it because I wasn't studying Ryan Khalil, but at his best here's what he's been. He's been a very smart very sad. Technique guy very athletic. He can get out in your run game. I mean, I remember a number of years ago watching him and whether he can still do this, I can't answer that but I remember him getting out in front as pulling Center and just looking like he was almost a tight end route they're running. So I don't know whether he can still do that or not, but he's clearly smart. He will absolutely help Sam Donald when it comes to protection calls assembly is the left guard. He's 30 years old. He's been in the league a while. And they'll have a really, you know, smart Savio line, which will really help Donald and I don't know if you can see this on tape Greg, but what what is the relationship between the center and the quarterback? And is that something that you've picked up on through your interviews with coaches throughout the year Well, it all depends on you know, setting protections if we're talking the pass game in particular, you know how you want to do that. I mean veteran quarterbacks, you know, very often set protections. Obviously the Bradys. Donald's in his second year with the new offense. So at this point in time his head swimming a little bit with you know with many things. So now you've got a guy that can really help him out in terms of calling out the mic setting the protections taking some stuff off Donald's plate and in certain situations with the I train towards Sam don't know being able to do those things in the future. Oh, of course, of course, but he's a second-year quarterback with a starting with his new offense. So theoretically he's had three new offenses in three years and you know, and I think it's just interesting with Joe Douglas coming from Philly. I think you could say one of the key factors in Carson Wentz is development is Jason Kelsey and the fact that he had a wonderful offensive line in front of him. I would agree and you know, I think that that's a huge factor for a Young quarterback. So, you know, I think that's you know, Khalil can still play whether he's as good as he was four years ago that remains to be seen but he will be very helpful. The big issue with the Jets is weapons, you know on the perimeter. I mean whether you can't do everything in one year, I mean they've tried to you know, do certain things they feel great about their front seven the two areas. In which the Jets are thin and these are issues and they know it, you know, it's believe me. So you've been around long enough and maybe fans don't think this way but coaches know what their weaknesses are. It's not a surprise so their weaknesses. Are there a little lacking at the skill positions at wide wide receiver and that corner there. They've got some questions to important position groups in the league right now, but that's the way it is the Patriots Gregor hoping to get a Little Bit Stronger at wide receiver. Josh. Gordon has applied for reinstatement. We don't know what the ruling is going to be on that I wrote. For the kid and I root for him more so than I root form for Fantasy. But I'd love to have them out there for fantasy and we haven't seen a whole lot of them over the last couple years. But when you watch Josh Gordon yakked year, what did you say, you know, maybe I'm didn't see it the way others did but I didn't think he was quite the same guy last year in terms of explosive movement. So again, you know, that's not suggesting that he was terrible. He certainly wasn't but I didn't see the same guy I saw I saw back in Cleveland when he was just I mean his combination of size movement speed was he's a top someone could have argued. He was the best receiver in the league, you know that he was right there with Julio in terms of that size speed movement profile. I did not quite see that a year ago with the Raiders Greg obviously hard knocks started up. I have to check it out. I haven't watched it yet because I don't want the last night. I watched last night on TV how entertaining was it it was interred. It's always entertaining, you know, I mean, they've got Yeah, Jonathan Abram the rookie safety from Mississippi state is is a rising TV star. Let's put it that way. Although it's a good he's a good player too. But he's a rising TV star and I know I know Jon Gruden he can he can perform when there's a camera in front of him. There's no to way he performs no matter whether there's a camera or not just in case there is Greg, you know, right right, right, but um, obviously I haven't checked it out yet. But from what I understand David Carr, excuse me, Derek Carr featured quite a bit. Yep, but he's got two guys who can really Ali get down the field and Antonio Brown presuming he stays out of cryotherapy and Tyrell Williams Greg. Do you see the Deep ball from Derek Carr to keep those guys fed down the field? Yeah, I do. I think they're going to try to push it down the field. You know, I sensed just from watching Hard Knocks and just hearing it in my building here at NFL films that that's a focus of for Jon Gruden this year to get the ball down the field because look it gets back to what we said earlier. You're trying to create. Sir plays on offense the days of building in our fence building an offense around 1012 play drives in this league is over. I mean do you want to do that? If you can at times, of course you do, you know, every team wants to be able to do that. But you're trying to create explosive plays and that doesn't mean you just drop back and throw it 50 yards just like in boxing you want to knock the guy out, but that doesn't mean you just swing Haymakers and hope you happen to hit them. I mean, but you have to be able to get the ball down the field and I think for every offensive coach into today's NFL that's the approach they take another player I think is fascinating in this offense Craig and I don't know how much you saw him in the NFL but dating back to college Darren Waller is converting to tight end for the Raiders and he has been getting some Camp buzzes. Well cameras and other fabric member him. Yeah. I remember him. He was a big wide out. I believe he's the Niners. I believe drafted him. If I'm not mistaken, somebody could easily check that he was with the Ravens as well. Maybe yeah. But it'll be interesting because I think he's got some ability, you know, look making moves like that is not just based on talent and size. So you have to wait and see on things like that. Whether that, you know, really really happens Greg another interesting player in terms of the way. He can be used Mark Cavalier who covers the Steelers for the athletic just wrote a piece about Jalen Samuels and last year. He kind of was the backup to James Conner and they used him in a traditional way. But this was an interesting player coming out of South Carolina and did you see any similarities to other players who have played in the NFL and how he can be used because the Steelers seem intent on getting Jalen Samuels out there at the same time as James Conner this year. Well that yes, so I don't know exactly what they see and I'm not saying that in a negative way. I don't know the answer, you know, obviously what kind of got hurt last year he became the back and he actually had some good games as the back but in college he was used as sort of a multi-dimensional weapon so we can line up all over. Over I guess they see him that way the question is how many snaps per game? Will he play? You know, does he become kind of a tight end? Is he an h-back? They stays have Vance McDonald who's a good tight end. Did they find another title? Because I know that Jesse James is gone, but I know they have another type of small dog, but it still has a VR Grimble for the USC case. You might still be there. They also drafted another tight end they drafted. Zach Gentry. Oh the Michigan kid. Yeah. Yeah. Now he kind of you know, he's a big kid, but he's 6 7 6 8 coming from Michigan. I watched him, you know, he lined up on the line of scrimmage as a blocker. So, you know, obviously the Steelers do run the ball. So, you know Samuels his to me a little bit of a wild card at this point. I would have no field Joe at this point about his fantasy production. None whatsoever. Yeah, it's one we're going to have to look at and people are being aggressive. On him for Fantasy. I think a lot of people might see a use check type of player in the way. He could be used I could easily see that. I mean that's a pretty good comparison and also Greg they drafted Benny Snell who's more of a traditional. I mean for lack of a better term of steel or back. He's a downhill no question. I'd like to me and I like snow on tape and I knew he wouldn't be drafted High because he's doesn't he has no quote-unquote the special traits, but he's easily the perfect kind of backup complemented. Connor and then in to me that suggests they do plan on using Jalen Samuels because they brought in Snell as a backup in compliment, right? So so it begs the question. How will Samuels be used with the question being how many snaps per game does he play because for Fantasy if it guy plays 15 snaps, he's not getting nine touches, right? I mean but those could be 15 important snaps to the offense as well Daisy. No. Oh, no, I'm not downplaying that we're talking fantasy. I mean, he could be a huge piece of what they do, you know don't. Forget you know fantasies a little different animal than the way coaches see it. They're not thinking about fantasy amazingly enough, but Samuels could be a huge factor and catch two balls for 22 yards and carry the ball twice for nine yards and depending on when those things happen in the game. They could be very important plays right? We're going to wrap this up with two players in Philadelphia your area there who are just absolutely lighting up training camp after the ball and a ball game tonight. Y'all going to the ball game tonight Greg have fun with that. Obviously. I know you're going to see some friends. Yes, because it's not you know it we're getting ready to make definitive judgments on every player who plays stick snaps. I want dragon and I want you to make a definitive judgment even before those six snaps on my okay Anders the rookie running back out of Penn State who Greg he is getting I'm going to use the scientific term here getting smoke blown up his ass here in in Pre in well training camp, but he's at a I really like I really like the tape at Penn State. I thought overall and you know me joy, I don't necessarily make a lists, but I thought he was the second best running back. Prospect coming out after Josh Jacobs Avella Bama. I've been out of Camp twice. I've obviously talked to people from everything. I hear he's looked very very good. I think he's got three down ability. He's obviously not going to play 60 snaps a game this year because by the way, Jordan Howard's looked very good as well. Join Howard looks better to me. It looks like he lost some weight and I think he's got sort of natural running skill, even though he's not explosive in any way. So at this point in time, we don't No, the breakdown and snaps between Howard and Sanders but barring any injury, I think Sanders will get meaningful snaps really quickly. Great. Just a quick follow-up everybody in the fantasy industry is worried about Doug Peterson's predilection for running back by committee. He that's just what he does, but right in your knowledge of coaches, if they get a guy who can play three Downs do they prefer that even if they've traditionally been a committee approach type of coach. I think that depends on the coach Joe, you know, I think if you're going to build your offense around your running game, which Eagles do not then you need a back. You can't build your offense to me around the Run game and have backfield by committee. The Eagles want to run the ball. No question, but their offense is not built on a week-to-week basis around. Let's start what we do with the Run game like the Cowboys have done like if you're We do play like the Cowboys you need a back. Yes. Okay, Greg and the final player getting a lot of Camp pipe the connection between Carson Wentz and DeSean Jackson has been reportedly phenomenal. I mean everybody's actually looks very fast by when I've been out there. I mean, he looks like DeSean Jackson and what's it's exactly what the Eagles won it. Now. I know two years ago when wences pseudo MVP campaign Torrey Smith didn't catch a lot of passes but his speed was something they lack last year after Mike Wallace went down one of the differences. As in how the offense looked when they didn't have that kind of lid lifter the can opener without Torrey Smith or Mike Wallace in there and well the changes changes everything because the defense can play you differently to Sean's a better player than Torrey Smith and and you know, I think and I've said this many times before that. I think Carson Wentz has an aggressive DNA mindset. I think he wants to push the ball down the field and I think that having DeSean Jackson there they will take their shots every game now that And you hit them all but they will hit some and to Shawn is still can run. He's over the last 10 years. He's arguably the best pure deep threat in the NFL. Maybe there's someone else who I'm missing but he's certainly right there and and I think that that's critical for the Eagles because last year they were lacking Dimensions. I mean just think back to and I know Nick Foles perform very well when winds went down again, but I think it was the third might have Ben laughs last game of the regular season or close to it when they played the Redskins and Falls completed something like 24 or 25 passes in a row. I don't think any of them went more than like seven yards in the air from the line of scrimmage. You know, I mean at some point you've got to push the ball down the field wins has that mentality Jackson's critical to that. All right, Greg. Thank you so much for joining us here. Hopefully next week. We're going to have and Greg we will be making full career judge all we we have we have to make definitive judgments about you know, Playing 15 or 20 snaps in a preseason game. So when you see Daniel Jones tonight just know what Greg Cosell says about them next week. You don't have to listen to him say anything else about Daniel Jones. Now, we know we're gonna Define we're going to Define his career. Yeah great and I am excited to Define some careers next week. We will we will talk to you and all the normal caveats of preseason will apply next week, but I am excited to finally get a look at some of these players and I know Greg displayed it is fake football. I know you're excited too deep down you want to see some Well, I'm actually pretty excited to be heading down to the link tonight. You know, it's yeah, it's this time of year Greg. It's wonderful for all of us. I'm stuck up here in Canada. Toronto is a wonderful City by the way, but I'll see if I can get some of the action on TV tonight follow him on Twitter at Greg Cosell Greg. Thank you so much for joining us today, and we will talk to you next week. All right, I'll get back here smoking jacket and cigar with the academics. I absolutely will what's up listeners? This has been kookiness producer of the fantasy free agents podcast. 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Thanks so much to Graco sell for joining us here on the fantasy free agents podcast. And obviously we're being a little sarcastic there at the end. We are not going to be making full career judgments based on ten throws the Daniel Jones or Kyle or Marie or whoever makes tonight, but it's exciting to look at some things and we're going to get a chance to look at some of the players who have been making Camp headlines thus far and we actually get to see them in a game situation. And as I alluded to in the intro, I'm going to be having Tom Brawley do the Be lifting here in terms of watching the games tonight and picking out some things that happen. And the last thing we want is injuries. But if they do happen, we will be discussing them. I have made a recent rankings update at Fantasy free agents.com where you can check out my rankings Tom's rankings as well. We kind of collaborate a little bit. We're going to be we're going to be updating those constantly and I am excited to announce that we are going to be having weekly cheat. Sheets one sheet printable cheat sheets available every Friday we're going to have positional tiered cheat sheets non pprn PPR. We're going to have PPR non PPR top 150 and we're also going to have a PPR auction cheat sheet that I put together based on the tiered PPR sheet. So you're going to have all those things that you guys have gotten used to from us and our latest rankings update which will which will certainly be happening after tonight's games when we see who gets Who's playing who's not? We're not going to be making any snap judgments with the rankings based on just 10 snaps from a guy but we want to make sure guys don't get hurt and that's really important. So we're going to update those rankings tomorrow and get those cheat sheets out to those of you who are drafting this weekend. I hope you guys really enjoy those. Like I said, I just made a recent rankings update based on the Duke Johnson trade if you were if you didn't listen to the Greg segment, I don't know why you wouldn't have why the hell would you just be listening to me Babble on here in the intro and outro? But Duke Johnson traded to the Houston Texans for a twenty twenty fourth round pick and for that 2020 fourth-round pick that can become a third rounder. It's actually a pretty expensive price. So I'm interested to see how the Texans utilize to Johnson vis-à-vis Lamar Miller. I think they can be complementary. This is no doubt a ding to Miller's value, but frankly Miller was an expensive. Anyway, however, if you've been investing in Duke Johnson, like I have a ton hoping that he got traded this is kind of What you were hoping for you wanted him to go to Tampa. Tampa would have been the spot where he would have definitely been the best back there. But this one isn't too bad either. Hopefully Bill O'Brien finds a way to get Duke Johnson the football the Texans obviously had this in the work. So it's important for them. It's an important fantasy move and it clears up the Log Jam in Cleveland Nick Chubb now a top 10 back in my rankings. I'll be talking about that and the trade with Tom Brolly on tomorrow's podcast. That's Friday, August 9th of 2019 and Of course, we're going to be talking preseason NFL football. Obviously Tom, he's going to be doing the heavy lifting making sure a he watches every single snap of every single game before I talk to him tomorrow. So hopefully Tom isn't too tired when he does that you could follow me on Twitter @ FG underscore Dolan follow Tom Brawley on Twitter at Tom Brawley follow the podcast and the blog at tff a fantasy. You can follow for updates on all of those where we retweet everything. The the site at account will tweet everything out and I also want to thank so much anybody who sponsored the podcast or who has donated to the PayPal on fantasy free agents.com. Tom and I are doing this for free this year and every little bit helps us out and you guys have been kicking ass and it makes me feel good. It makes me feel really good that you guys are enjoying the content because we do have big plants we really do and I know Greg Cosell is just a small part of what we do, but holy crap when he talks for 30 minutes. It's it's like a checkoff novel. There's so much density in there that that he says more 30 minutes the most guys can say in two hours. So I want to thank Greg for his contributions. I want to thank you guys for listening. So for Greg postel, I am Joe Dolan. This has been a wonderful addition of the fantasy free agents podcast and I will be talking to you guys and Tom Bradley tomorrow. Thanks for joining us. I'm a fantasy free agents podcast. 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In the final podcast before NFL preseason action commences, Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) and Greg Cosell (@gregcosell) talk about some of the biggest camp storylines so far. Joe and Greg break down the Duke Johnson trade to Houston, the Jets’ offensive line improvements, Jameis Winston’s decision-making, Dak Prescott’s future, and the explosive Eagles training camp. A special congratulations to our own Joe Dolan for finishing #1 in Draft Accuracy for the 2018 season among 140+ sites and experts! This was Joe’s second #1 overall and third top-3 finish in the last 5 years, making his rankings THE most accurate preseason fantasy football draft rankings on average since 2015. Check out the complete list at fantasypros.com/nfl/accuracy/multi-year-draft.php. To draft against Joe, join the Rotowire Online Championship and select the online draft time of 8/20 at 9:30 PM Eastern. To draft against Tom, do the same on 8/27 at 9:30 PM Eastern. Play for the $200,000 grand prize! 