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00:00But, you know, everybody's there, and we're going to trade, you know, conversations, hopes and dreams.
00:09What will we find out here in the next few days?
00:12And then, by next week, you have legal tampering and free agency and onward and upward.
00:19Here to help me figure some of this stuff out is my friend Theo Gremminger.
00:23You can see his fine work at Fantasy Points.
00:26And Theo is really omnipresent in the fantasy space and a super hard worker.
00:31And he knows a lot, so that makes him a great guest.
00:34Theo, I'd ask you how you are, but we just talked three hours ago.
00:37Yeah, I had an amazing guest on Fantasy Football Daily.
00:40It was actually Mike Schoep.
00:41So this is twice today, Mike.
00:43My lucky day, but we have a lot to talk about.
00:45I heard you talking about sort of the combine and the rumors, and we broke down some of them earlier
00:51today.
00:52It's a very exciting time for fantasy football and for NFL fans in general.
00:57One question you asked me I wasn't quite fully prepared for, and that's my fault because you always send me,
01:02like, a great list of what you wanted to talk about.
01:05But when you asked me where I thought might be a great landing spot for running back Jeremiah Love, the
01:11considered, the consensus, top running back in this draft, I said the Vikings.
01:16Here's my excuse for saying a team with the 18th pick, when everybody thinks he's going to go much earlier
01:22than that, Theo, is that I had it in my head from, I don't know, mid-November that the Vikings
01:29were bad.
01:30And so they'd be picking early, and instead they went 9-8 maybe and are picking 18th.
01:35So if I'd realized that Minnesota were picking 18th, I wouldn't have said Minnesota.
01:42You mentioned a few teams way up there, including Tennessee, and I wondered about the Giants.
01:48They're not a team that I think we talked about or that you mentioned.
01:50Maybe you did, but would they be – how high can this guy go is really the question.
01:56I think as high as three overall.
01:59I think with a wide-open draft class, if teams are stuck with the pick and no one wants to
02:05pay them for it, I mean, like, the Arizona Cardinals are picking third right now.
02:11And I think most of the draft prognosticators are penciling them in to select guys like Francis Maui Goa, the
02:19lineman from Miami, maybe a Reuben Bain from Miami as well, you know, offensive lineman, defensive lineman.
02:27And certainly on paper, a team like Arizona needs guys who can protect the quarterback and guys who can get
02:35to the quarterback.
02:35But I think in a wide-open draft class like this one where there's very few quarterbacks that are going
02:42to be selected at all, right now it's for Nana Mendoza an absolute lock to be in the first round
02:48and most likely the number one overall pick.
02:51After that, Ty Simpson could go in the first round or he could fall into the second round.
02:57I think that the combine matters a great deal to him.
03:00But sort of the wide-open nature of the draft class makes Jeremiah Love a player who's really in play
03:07anytime you get to those, you know, pick number three, pick number four.
03:11Tennessee's a spot where I do a show, an NFL draft show, with Brent Whitefield over at Fantasy Points.
03:19And we both have sort of mentioned Tennessee as a wild card for selecting Jeremiah Love at four overall.
03:27It's a team that really needs an offensive focal point and a player who can provide support to Cam Ward.
03:35So they draft Cam Ward at one overall last year, would have an opportunity to put him next to a
03:42dynamic running back like Jeremiah Love,
03:44who can catch the ball out of the backfield and is a home run threat, sort of in the mold
03:49of a Jameer Gibbs type who can break off these 40-yard runs.
03:53Jeremiah Love had three touchdown runs that went over 90 yards during his time at Notre Dame.
03:59I mean, he's a real home run hitter, and we've seen it.
04:02We've seen B. John Robinson go in the top 10.
04:04We've seen Ashton Gentry go in the top 10.
04:07So running back sort of back in play, it's in vogue in the NFL.
04:11So I think Jeremiah Love is right there when we're talking about four as sort of the realistic spot.
04:16You bring up the Giants at five, and there's certainly a lot of Cam Scadaboo people out there.
04:23I certainly benefited from having Cam Scadaboo for a short period of time on a couple of teams.
04:28I know you did as well.
04:30He was very productive, but he was also a fourth-round pick last year, got injured this year, sort of
04:35has a violent nature to his game.
04:38Does the new coaching staff value him the same way that maybe Brian Dable did?
04:43Not sure about that.
04:44So I think they're an interesting wild card.
04:46But then you start getting a little deeper into the top 10.
04:50Washington at seven seems like a wild card pick.
04:53Most people projecting them to select a top-notch defensive player.
04:57But I think Love is in play there.
04:59I think that would be an absolute home run for fantasy football purposes, putting that sort of home run threat
05:07next to a mobile quarterback like Jaden Daniels.
05:10And it's an offense that really needs young skill position talent.
05:14They sort of have, you know, churned through a bunch of these older guys.
05:18Their top skill position player is probably Terry McQuarran right now.
05:22So I think they're interesting.
05:24The Saints at eight are very, very interesting.
05:27Kellen Moore sort of has that team on the rise.
05:30Again, you have mobility with Tyler Shuck.
05:32And the offensive line is getting better there.
05:35So I think he ultimately goes inside the top eight overall.
05:39I would be very surprised if he falls into, like, the Minnesota range.
05:43But I do think some teams like Minnesota might be in play to trade up for him.
05:47I think NFL teams are going to value him very, very highly.
05:51How did Minnesota go nine and eight?
05:53I have no excuse.
05:54I do the Purple Insider podcast every week with Matthew Collar.
05:57And they won their last five games and ended up drafting after Detroit, the Vikings, this year.
06:03So I missed that, I guess, even when I was talking to Matthew.
06:07So you think eight is about the floor for love?
06:10How do you think?
06:12I'd say eight is about the floor.
06:14I could be wrong on this one.
06:16And I don't see this as a scenario.
06:18I mean, people talked about Bijan falling.
06:22He never did.
06:23People talked about Ashton Gentry falling to, like, Chicago last year.
06:28Never did.
06:29Teams are pulling the trigger on these elite running back prospects.
06:32And love is certainly there.
06:33And when you look at people like Brett Whitefield at Fantasy Points, you know, people like Dane Brugler,
06:39they're all pushing him up into, like, the elite range of their big boards as well.
06:44Not just the mock drafters, the people who are just ranking the players one through 100.
06:50Love is very, very high on a lot of those respected people's big board lists.
06:54So I think the steam is absolutely there for him to go very, very highly.
06:58What's ironic to me about this, Theo, is that the Raiders' gambit on Gentry, I mean, it's one year.
07:05Even the Falcons with Robinson, who's been really good, they're not in the playoffs.
07:10Like, the argument against the high running back pick has been simply positional value.
07:15And are we at a point where we're salivating over these certain prospects
07:20and just not going to look at the fact that those teams haven't been good teams,
07:25even when their running backs have hit to varying degrees?
07:29So, I don't know, like, that's what's weird to me about this idea.
07:33These are always bad teams picking at the top.
07:36And I think I'd probably recommend, you'll know the player better than I do.
07:40I'm hearing everybody say that he's excellent.
07:42But all these teams need more help than a great running back, I would say.
07:48Yet somebody's going to do it, and that's what's interesting,
07:50is that teams haven't gone the other way, apparently, in this discussion.
07:55I think a counter-argument could be made that the success of a Jameer Gibbs
08:00was a huge, had a huge impact on the Detroit Lions rising up,
08:06you know, eventually winning a lot of games during the Ben Johnson era there.
08:11I don't know.
08:13The other way to look at it is the NFL, these guys don't fail.
08:17When you draft these elite running backs towards the very top,
08:20you'd have to go back to, like, a Trent Richardson to find a real failure
08:25when NFL teams invest, like, top 12 draft capital in them.
08:30So, like, B. John Robinson, did he suffer through the Arthur Smith year,
08:35his rookie year, where maybe the usage was not quite what we wanted to see
08:39for fantasy?
08:40I mean, but now B. John Robinson is looking like maybe the most talented
08:43offensive player in football.
08:45Gibbs was a hit.
08:46But Ashton Gentry, I think, is still a hit, just in a bad situation
08:50with that offensive line and quarterback play last year in Vegas.
08:53So, I think there's kind of two sides to that argument.
08:55Sure.
08:56And, again, it's the right draft for it, Mike.
08:58So, this year, you know, quarterback drives, you know, the needle
09:02when it comes to NFL teams sort of maneuvering around drafts,
09:06and there's just not that there this year.
09:08How many running backs – could there be another running back in round one?
09:13The wild card name that – I'll say no.
09:16I would bet a lot of money on no.
09:19But I think what becomes interesting is who gets drafted as the second running
09:23back off the board.
09:24And I think if – there's a couple of players that I think could get that top 40,
09:30top 50 draft capital that we're looking for for fantasy football purposes.
09:34Because Jadarian Price, who is Jeremiah Love's teammate at Notre Dame,
09:40is a player that I think NFL teams value a great deal.
09:44Also a home run hitter threat.
09:46He actually had a higher percentage of his runs go for 10 yards or more than Love did.
09:53I think NFL teams are going to value him a lot.
09:55He's an early entrant, also has elite return skills.
09:59Someone could pull the trigger in that top 40 range for him.
10:02And I think the athletic testing measurables will help him as well.
10:07Jonah Coleman, who's a bowling ball type running back.
10:11He's, you know, 5'8 and a half, 5'9", 220 plus.
10:16Built like Doug Martin was in his Tampa Bay years.
10:20A very thick back who can sustain volume and also can catch the ball out of the backfield.
10:27Has sort of a fantasy-friendly profile in that regard,
10:30where he can handle a high volume, but he can also catch the football.
10:35Sort of a back that might not leave the field.
10:37He's one that could end up sort of in that top 50 range as well.
10:42I'm not sure what his 40 time is going to be.
10:45Doesn't seem like he's going to be a burner in that sense.
10:48And then the name that's sort of rising up the boards had a huge senior bowl.
10:52It's Mike Washington of Arkansas, who actually spent some time at the University of Buffalo.
11:00Was also at New Mexico State.
11:02Has had sort of a journey here to get to the SEC level.
11:05But he's going to test really, really well.
11:09And he has size.
11:10And he's coming off of a very strong senior bowl week.
11:13So the steam is there that if he tests well at the Combine,
11:18I think that he's going to become more of a day-two lock.
11:22So Mike Washington, a name to remember as a riser.
11:25Good stuff, Theo.
11:26Good to have some UB in the conversation.
11:28Jared Patterson in his turn from UB with the, what, eight touchdown game that he had?
11:34Yes, he did.
11:35Yes, he did.
11:35Jared Patterson, there was kind of a hive for him.
11:38A lot of people really liked him as a prospect.
11:40Never really happened.
11:42But, yeah, definitely good to see some Buffalo guys.
11:44I picked him up last year even.
11:46I think L.A. Chargers for a minute when they had their injuries.
11:49And he got a little bit of work, but never was fantasy viable.
11:53With Theo Gremminger here from Fantasy Points, I'm Mike Shope.
11:56Bulldog is out today.
11:58Let's talk quarterbacks, Theo.
11:59And not necessarily rookies.
12:01I mean, it's well established that Mendoza's the one.
12:03He's going to Vegas.
12:03And we'll see what happens with Simpson and a couple other guys.
12:06I talked to Cody Carpentier recently, who you know.
12:09And he said, in his opinion, after Mendoza, it's about eight guys that will be career backups.
12:15And, you know, I made a joke about how that means they'll all be offensive coordinators by the year 2035.
12:22What the lack of quarterback, considered anyway, consensus, quarterback talent in this draft means to free agency is interesting.
12:33You don't have, like we've had for a couple years, the number of teams, especially two, three years ago, that
12:39were drafting.
12:40We were seeing multiple quarterbacks go early.
12:42What, six and 12 picks the one year when it got to Nixon-McCarthy.
12:46You know, a lot of teams are all set, but not all.
12:49You tweeted about Anthony Richardson when that news came down today.
12:54Do you think the odds are double digits even?
12:58I like the idea, too.
12:59He's exciting.
12:59But will he get into a competition somewhere?
13:03I mean, who knows, maybe.
13:04But you've got him.
13:06You've got Kirk Cousins, even, who might be somebody that a team goes with.
13:10I wonder how you see the board at that position.
13:13Yeah, I think that a couple of dominoes are going to start to fall when we get to the start
13:17of free agency.
13:19Daniel Jones, Chris Ballard actually talked about this, I think it was yesterday, maybe two days ago.
13:25So, Chris Ballard has said that the team wants to prioritize re-signing Daniel Jones as well as Alec Pierce.
13:34They're willing to use the franchise tag.
13:36He sort of insinuated that's not what they want to do, but that's in play.
13:41So, once Daniel Jones, that sort of gets established with him going back to Indianapolis, I'd be shocked if he's
13:46not back in Indy next year.
13:48Then I think the next big domino to fall is Malik Willis.
13:52Malik Willis has got a very fantasy-friendly profile.
13:56He's still relatively young.
13:58I believe 26 years old now for Malik Willis.
14:00Might be 25.
14:01But he was a pretty highly regarded prospect out of Liberty years back.
14:07Ran the 40 in, like, the high 4-5 range.
14:11And we saw him have that smash week towards the end of the season filling in for Jordan Love in
14:18that game against Baltimore.
14:20I think the market's going to value him a lot.
14:23Apparently, the Miami Dolphins are very interested in Malik Willis.
14:26The Arizona Cardinals are interested in Malik Willis.
14:29And then the latest rumor is the Cleveland Browns have some interest in Malik Willis.
14:34And I think there's probably a number of teams that are a little cagier that are probably behind the scenes
14:39that are interested in him.
14:40So he offers you a little bit more than, like, the Kirk Cousin, Marcus Mariota types that are the ultimate
14:48bridge quarterbacks who would sort of keep the candle burning until a young player was able to take over.
14:55It's just kind of a weird market for quarterbacks this year because there's a lot of quarterback-needy teams and
15:01just so few players.
15:02So I think Malik Willis is really the most interesting one.
15:04And from a fantasy football perspective, he has the profile where if Malik Willis is a starter next year, I
15:12would be very surprised if he's not towards the leaders in quarterback rushing yardage.
15:18And I think he's a little bit underrated as a passer.
15:21Again, a lot of these guys where we don't have a sample size on them as the starting quarterback, NFL
15:26defensive coordinators are really, really good at their job for the most part.
15:30And they can exploit weaknesses.
15:32But from a fantasy football perspective, Malik Willis will run for a number of yards, give you that fantasy football
15:40floor with his rushing production.
15:41So he's a very interesting one.
15:44I know a lot of dynasty managers are trying to accumulate Malik Willis' share sort of before he has clarity
15:50with his landing spot.
15:51But I think he's very interesting.
15:53You bring up Kirk Cousins.
15:54I think he's interesting.
15:56There's just so many spots out there that there's going to be some surprising quarterbacks that are in the mix
16:03to start.
16:04Jacoby Brissett is still under contract.
16:07Mack Jones is under contract.
16:09You've got to think that those two quarterbacks are going to be – at least teams are going to be
16:14calling on them as potential trade targets.
16:17The 49ers sort of have a nice card to play with Mack Jones.
16:22They could probably get a second-round pick for him.
16:25I think he would be very interesting.
16:27It's just sort of a weird offseason for quarterback, which makes a guy like Anthony Richardson in play, despite him
16:34having a lot of flaws.
16:35He's still only 23 years old.
16:37He was the fourth overall pick in a recent draft.
16:42He's only had like 15 NFL starts, and a lot of them not so good.
16:46But fantasy production-wise, the guy has 10 rushing touchdowns and 15 starts.
16:51He's averaged over 40 rushing yards per game, which is a really, really strong number.
16:56So he becomes an interesting one.
16:58And even in like a catastrophic year for him where he was benched and all that kind of stuff in
17:042024, he still was the quarterback 18 in points per game.
17:09So he wasn't like bottom of the barrel.
17:11If the situation improves, potentially he could be a guy that, again, lifts tides with his rushing production.
17:18So never say never for Anthony Richardson.
17:20I want to say one thing about Willis before another question here in the few minutes left we have together,
17:26Theo.
17:26And that's, I am the type to be like rushing to, no pun intended, to the Malik Willis prototype.
17:37Justin Fields, Trey Lance, Richardson.
17:39I'm rattled.
17:41And Willis is a different case because he's been in the league here, sort of maybe the way you'd prefer
17:46it, as the player, other than the big money you get from being drafted so high like those other guys.
17:52But this gives you a chance to sort of learn, at least in theory.
17:56And Willis maybe has done that.
17:57But I'm kind of, I need some oxygen from the hits I've taken with rushing quarterbacks that to varying degrees,
18:06I mean, Lance just never played at all.
18:09They've been losing bets in fantasy.
18:12Before we're done, the wide receiver class, it's a big topic in Buffalo always.
18:17You've got pretty much three names up top and then a couple more that might be mid to late first
18:22round.
18:23Do you have a favorite guy?
18:25So, I mean, I'm a big fan of this wide receiver class in general.
18:30I think for Buffalo Bills fans specifically, I think that the big three are going to be gone by the
18:37time you pick.
18:38Jordan Tyson, Carnell Tate, Makai Lemon.
18:42Lemon potentially could fall into a range where Buffalo could maybe trade up.
18:47But I think that the way that he's trending, I would bet on like top 15, top 16 draft capital.
18:53I think the names Bills fans really want to pay attention to, Denzel Boston out of University of Washington, who's
19:016'4", 200 pounds plus, you know, prototypical alpha on the outside.
19:08He's an interesting prospect for you guys.
19:10Still probably gone by the time you pick.
19:13The player that I love, though, is Casey Concepcion out of Texas A&M.
19:18I think he's absolutely electric.
19:20He's a player that I'm very high on for dynasty purposes as well as an NFL prospect.
19:26We've been projecting him to be a first-round pick for a while.
19:30I think that the market's starting to turn there.
19:32You're seeing him projected in that range where Buffalo is picking.
19:35I think if he were to become a Buffalo Bill, Bills fans should be super excited about that.
19:41And then the player that could rise up, sort of a different player.
19:47But it reminds me in terms of where he's at now versus where he could be at on draft day.
19:53Sort of to Ricky Persall.
19:55A couple years back, Ricky Persall ends up being selected at the end of the first round by the San
20:00Francisco 49ers.
20:01And for months, it was like Ricky Persall is going to be a second-round pick.
20:05Ricky Persall maybe goes in the third round.
20:07Just kept sort of trending up.
20:09It's Omar Cooper from Indiana.
20:11Elijah Surratt from Indiana was sort of the more hyped prospect all year.
20:16And Surratt's really good.
20:17But I think Omar Cooper is rising up.
20:21And he's got really strong yak ability.
20:24He's a very good route runner.
20:26And I think he could end up sneaking into the back end of the first round.
20:30Wide receiver out of Indiana.
20:31He's got an awesome highlight reel.
20:34Probably had the catch of the year in college football this year against Penn State.
20:38And I think he could sneak into that range where Buffalo is picking as well.
20:41But it's a deep wide receiver class.
20:44And I think the NFL is going to value this wide receiver class.
20:47So number of players in play for the first round.
20:50But I think those last three names are names that Bill's chance to keep an eye on.
20:53Yeah, six-ish maybe.
20:55We'll see when we get closer to the draft what the betting odds look like for number of receivers to
21:00go in round one.
21:01We'll certainly be watching that here.
21:03Theo, Fantasy Points podcast.
21:05You do a lot.
21:06What are a couple things we can look for that are maybe up?
21:10Including, of course, you and me.
21:11I mean, that's obvious.
21:12Yeah, Fantasy Football Daily is the one that I'm recording very frequently.
21:16Mike was my most recent guest on that one.
21:19You can find Fantasy Football Daily anywhere you get your podcasts.
21:22Also, Fantasy Points YouTube.
21:24I'm dropping a ton of YouTube content over there for people who – I'm guessing people listening to this enjoy
21:30listening to stuff, Mike.
21:31But if you want to take a break from listening and watch Fantasy Points YouTube, Dynasty Life is my Dynasty
21:37podcast.
21:38And then School of Scott with Scott Barrett.
21:41I'm co-hosting that one.
21:43I'm sort of everywhere.
21:44You can find my top 15 free agents for Fantasy Football.
21:50That's up for free over at FantasyPoints.com.
21:54And also, I have a top 50 overall rankings, which I'm updating sort of a very early PPR ranking.
22:02I'm going to be updating that after the Combine.
22:04So you can check that out also over at FantasyPoints.com.
22:07All really smart people you mentioned that you work with there.
22:09I'm a big Barrett fan to name one.
22:13Thank you, Theo.
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