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00:00 [music]
00:03 All right, gentlemen, let's pivot over now to the tight end position.
00:07 Davis, on the shows, Joe, that we have hosted, I have made the claim
00:11 that I think that we're headed toward a more positive era of the tight ends
00:16 in fantasy football. That's not to say we're going to have a Kelsey
00:19 or a Gates or a Witten or like this incredible tight end to take number one
00:26 in the first round. I think that coming into the 2024 season, Davis,
00:31 that the days of, let's say you don't take a tight end high and you end up
00:35 taking your starter in the fifth, sixth round and you're hoping for three
00:38 catches and 30 yards, I think the floor is going to be raised a little bit
00:42 this year. I like some of the younger players that I'm seeing.
00:46 I actually agree with you. I think that a lot of the times fantasy analysts
00:51 come into the season and say, "Oh, tight end's deep, man. Tight end is deep."
00:55 And it's never deep. And maybe we will be Charlie Brown with the football again.
01:00 We'll be like, "What? You can get Kyle Pitts in the eighth round?
01:03 You can get Dallas Goddard? You can get Trey McBride?"
01:06 And then it turns out, it's like, "Well, Kyle Pitts had 600 yards
01:10 and Jake Ferguson ended up at a timeshare with Luke Schoonmacher
01:14 and TJ Hawkinson didn't come back until week 10 because his knee is a mess
01:17 and Dalton Kincaid averaged 4.3 yards per reception.
01:21 He's basically Cole Beasley but at tight end."
01:23 I think the biggest difference in tight end this year to the years past,
01:28 I'm just looking through these names and I don't think there's really anyone
01:32 who's capable of doing a 2022 Kelsey season where they score 300 PPR points
01:38 and they beat everyone else by four points per game.
01:41 If there was anyone on this list, it would for sure be Mark Andrews to me.
01:45 We did see the Ravens get more pass heavy.
01:48 It was the most pass attempts of Lamar Jackson's career. He wins MVP.
01:52 And Andrews was maybe on pace to have that season, but he got injured.
01:57 And the thing about his injury was the offense didn't really look
02:01 that much different with Isaiah Likely.
02:04 So I wonder if Andrews, obviously he's going to be as good as he ever was.
02:07 He's still at prime age. The injuries that Mark Andrews has had in his career,
02:10 none of them have been kind of that soft tissue, hamstring, Julio Jones type stuff
02:16 where you're like, "Oh, he's just never going to be the same."
02:19 But I wonder if we see a lot more too tight end stuff, a lot more of maybe
02:22 Andrews plays 70% of the stats instead of 90% of them because Likely just needs
02:26 to be on the field. So I agree with you that it is deeper, but it's definitely
02:31 to me not near as good at the high end, Craig.
02:35 Right. So Joe, do you agree with that sentiment?
02:37 Do you feel like you saw McBride last year and Laporta last year
02:41 and Ferguson and Kinkaid? I mean, these are all names of players
02:45 that are in the top 12. We haven't even seen Brock Bowers play in the NFL as well.
02:51 I don't know. Maybe my narrative is off here, Joe. I don't know.
02:54 But it does seem to me that when young tight ends come into the NFL
02:59 and even have marginal success, isn't it fair to assume the next year
03:04 that they would have a little bit more? If that's the case, then I think that I'm right.
03:07 If not, then obviously I'll be left on the curb at tight end.
03:11 Well, I think you're right in the sense that there's more talent at tight end
03:14 than we've seen in a long time. Now, does that always turn into productivity?
03:17 That's a question we have to ask ourselves depending on where the landing spot is.
03:20 Depending on where Brock Bowers ends up, he's already a top tight end for me
03:23 in fantasy period. Like I'm ready to just jump on that ship right away.
03:27 Laporta, we saw from game one against the Chiefs how he was going to be used.
03:31 And if he was still floating around your fantasy league, you should have grabbed him
03:33 as soon as you possibly could in week one waivers.
03:36 It's funny, too. You're looking at these lists here, and you got the guys playing
03:40 in the Super Bowl, Mahomes and Purdy as QB1s. You got the two tight ends,
03:43 Kittle and Kelsey still on this tight end one list. You see a lot of the talent
03:46 in the Super Bowl. The fantasy talent does filter over into reality.
03:50 Trey McBride, I think, is the guy that, again, I'm circling on this list
03:52 because I think that the target volume you saw was enormous, and that might change
03:56 if they do get a Harrison in the draft, perhaps. But you're going to have
04:00 Hawkinson missing at least the first month of the season, maybe even more.
04:04 Ferguson was a really interesting piece. Dak certainly looked for him in the red zone.
04:07 That's a positive thing. But the guy to me that I think is the biggest conundrum
04:12 and riddle is David Njoku because we've waited years for somebody to unlock
04:16 David Njoku, and it turned out to be Joe Flacco. I don't think that's something
04:21 we can bet on next year because he didn't do this with Deshaun Watson under center,
04:25 and I don't know if he can or if Deshaun Watson's capable at this point.
04:29 So that's the guy that I know everybody was very excited for the Njoku breakout.
04:33 We've all been waiting for it, but can we count on it in '24?
04:36 I think that is a very risky selection there.
04:38 [MUSIC]