The Fumblerooski Podcast
Your Fantasy -Ep 287 The Fumblerooski Podcast
In this edition of the Fumble Ruski podcast, we'll go over some fancy sleepers for the tight end position and the quarterback position, along with that some breaking news, we'll get to that in a moment, you're listening to the Fumble Ruski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws, back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns, someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rugby, truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. Good evening and you're listening to the Fumble Ruski podcast by Power 88 Dean Radio in secret weapon consulting. Chris Kost is alongside me, Adam Wright as I'm back, better than ever, bear with me, I do have a cold, as we do have some breaking news right off the jump, JJ McCarthy tearing his meniscus. This news literally just breaking as we go live about 15 minutes ago and McCarthy, I mean, he probably would have been the starter, he would have been battling it out with Sam Darnell. It could have been one of those cases where Sam Darnell takes the reins for a little bit and then they slowly break McCarthy into the rotation, but now it seems that McCarthy's probably going to be out for a very lengthy amount of time for all we know could be the rest of the season. So we probably won't see McCarthy until next season in terms of making that starting jump. Yeah, it's looking like one of those things where it was definitely looking like, I mean, a meniscus isn't as bad as a torn ACL, obviously. So there is a chance that he could return, but when he returns, the Vikings, will they really be in playoff contention by then? I'm not quite sure about that. They have a good roster around them, but the quarterback runs the show. And if it's Sam Darnell to over there, then you're kind of screwing yourself over there. I mean, this was kind of meant to be a bridge year anyways, but what makes it upsetting is that is that according to reports, JJ McCarthy was running ahead of schedule. So maybe he would have taken the reins a lot earlier, maybe three, four weeks into the season. Now, they have no choice but to wait at least a few months. And that's if he ends up returning in time for before the seasons before the season ends. And at that point, yeah, sure, start them a couple of games. Look at how they see how the offensive line is performing. Maybe if they're playing meaningful games, but it's good to get them some reps. So you're looking at this, you're looking at this thing and I mean, it's at least before he was getting practice reps, right? During practice in between games from week to week. Now he doesn't really get that much and there's really not much more to it, right? It's more kind of, you know, you're waiting for him to recover and then you continue his development. This is a tough blow, but I don't think it's as tough as people think. Yeah. And I mean, the biggest question really is going to be, as you mentioned, when he does come back, if he does come back in 100% latter part of the year, at that point, you might as well just stick with Donald or whoever you end up having at quarterback at that point of the season because even after you get, JJ McCarthy gets back to 100%, you also got to make sure he's ready to go to actually or back to where he was at this point of training camp, you know? And you know, it's kind of, kind of took everyone by surprise as well with this been Niska's tear granted. He did miss the last three practices that the Vikings had. So there was a little bit concern. And then all of a sudden this just popped up out of nowhere. So obviously a big blow for the Vikings, but we'll see how it ends up shaping out. The big thing, like we said, we probably won't see JJ McCarthy until next season, which won't be the biggest deal in the world in terms of if you're in Minnesota. The other breaking news from yesterday, a son retic requesting a trade from the Jets. Well, we'll touch on this briefly because it's just the whole situation itself is ridiculous. The Jets knowingly making this trade for his son retic from the Philadelphia Eagles. Retic, one of the biggest pieces in their Super Bowl run a couple of years ago where they lost the Chiefs and it's, the Jets knowingly trading for him when he's in a contract here and then not paying the guy at the same time. It's, you know, you have to pay them and now you're just shooting their yourself in the foot. And this is a guy that already wasn't happy with what was going on in Philadelphia. It's a guy that's still not happy and now he's in a different spot and has barely been around for practice. He's missed 21 22 straight days of training camp and it's gone to the point where the Jets released a statement from their GM about how they're not going to trade them and they're going to keep finding him for every single practice that he's going to miss. All in all, it's just a train wreck over there and drama in New York just seems to not leave at this rate, especially for the Jets. Never mind the Giants. It's just all with the Jets. Yeah. Yeah. And the way you look at it. I think CJ said this, I'm going to credit our co-host, CJ, who wasn't able to make it today for this one take and I just think it was an incredible statement about it. For the Jets, what they did to trade for a player that was that had that was going through contract troubles with his other team and then refusing to pay him and then being surprised he requests, he requests a trade is like buying a rundown car and then freaking out when you realize it's an acting surprise when you realize it's engine fails. You saw it coming. You knew the issues before you traded the player, before you rather you traded for him. You refuse to solve them and then you're like, wait, you're requesting to leave the team. Wait, why? We know damn well, why? You play the form and the Eagles. The Eagles, a team that was in playoff contention, they've been in Super Bowl contention the past two years and they couldn't hold on to them. You've been struggling to even make the playoffs and you're wondering with the contracts on top of it why he wants, he doesn't want to stay there right now. Yes, you just required him, but you didn't solve the issues that the Eagles couldn't solve. So why are you surprised by this? The surprising thing to me is how the Jets are so Super Bowl and bust right now that you would think that you brought in Aaron Rodgers as a point to make that it's Super Bowl or bust. You built your team around Aaron Rodgers to make it. You're either going to the Super Bowl or it's a failure and now you bring in a really highly talented linebacker in a song ready, you're not willing to pay the guy. You're just, as an organization it's just confusing to look at based off of that alone. Yeah, I mean, it's just a tough, it's just a bad situation. You can see the Jets over the last two years, you can kind of see where the direction they're going in. They've drafted some good talent, but as far as the pieces that they've been trying to bring in to complete the rebuilds, they've made some kind of dicey decisions. First of all, Aaron Rodgers you bring in as great of a quarterback as he is. Top five talent all time arguably. He has his issues with the Packers and you guys were willing to bend over backwards to bring him in and ignore all of the red flags. Now we'll see if that turns into an issue. The injuries haven't been too much of a problem for him, that's, you know, a torn Achilles sucks and like, I hope Aaron Rodgers comes back and he comes back healthy. Still there's, there's, there's red flags there. Now you bring in, you bring in Mike Williams, he's had issues with his health. You've brought in that tackle from the Cowboys whose name escapes me, he's had issues with his health. He hasn't played more than 12 games in the last five years. So you can kind of see what this is on Reddit situation. They are getting a little desperate with getting themselves into championship contention. And I think looking at the, the Broncos as well who did the same thing a couple of years ago when they acquired Russell Wilson, you're seeing a lot of teams who are trying to copy that mold that the Buccaneers and the Rams kind of, kind of followed where they kind of threw a team together last second and then they ended up winning a Super Bowl 20 in 2020. It was the Buccaneers, 2021, it was the Rams. They were able to do that. And they just threw a bunch of players together. Yes, they had a core of players that worked out, but Matthew Stafford completed the rebuild. Tom Brady completed the rebuilds. And then they brought in some veterans who were, who were attracted to those, those star quarterbacks. They were, they're hoping to do the same thing here with the Jets. And you can clearly see it's very hit and hit or miss and our, our league's history shows that is very, very hit or miss. So it could work out, but nobody remembers Brett Favre's career with the Jets, but they do remember his career with the Vikings. Yeah. Yeah, well, we'll see how the whole son retic thing turns out if the Jets will actually pay him or not or if he just keeps holding out and we'll see if we even see a son retic the entirety of this season, but for now it remains a mystery until week one. For that, we'll step aside for a quick break when we come back. We'll have our fancy sleepers for the tight end and quarterback position. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the flows back to back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie, truly a loose, loose scenario for both sides. You're listening to the Fall Mariskey podcast sponsored by power 18 radio and secret weapon consulting, Chris Kostich, Adam, right? Go into our fancy sleepers first with the tight ends. Adam, I'll let you take the reins on this one. What do you got for us? All right. For my first one, so this guy was a fantasy bust last year who was supposed to be a lot better than he was. He's the tight end for the Tennessee Titans. His name is Chigazim Akonquo and he had an OK season, 54 receptions, 528 yards. As far as tight ends go, that is decent. The problem is it's not nearly as good as he was supposed to be. However, he is one of the few returners as far as passcatchers go. DeAndre Hopkins is still there, but how long is he going to produce how he has throughout his career? On top of that, there's, besides that, there's a lot of question marks and with all these question marks for their quarterback, Will Levis, who is Levis going to really lean on with all this uncertainty? It's Akonquo. So that's a player that with a good offensive line, one of the most improved offensive lines in the league, he'll have time to throw, but with all of these question marks, he's going to be the guy who you lean on. So I think a tight end like that can be a young quarterback's best friend. So I think Akonquo is a guy who you want to look at. I was waiting for you to keep going on that. Do you have any other guys? I have a second one. I have a second one, but I was going to wait for you to bring you. No, I was going to let you go with yours. All right. I'll get my next one. My next one is actually Zach Ernst. The issue with Zach Ernst has been health. Health has been an issue with him, but in the few times that he has been healthy, he's been pretty good and everyone is forgetting about his production with the Cardinals, which was actually pretty decent. He had some good seasons there. Everyone thinks, well, the Eagles is when he really was his true self. That's true, but it doesn't mean he wasn't, he was bad with the Cardinals. And now that, now that the tight end position has fallen apart, Logan Thomas is now gone. You have one tight end and it's Zach Ernst. The fact they were able to bring him in. They were willing to cut Logan Thomas, the younger guy and bring in Zach Ernst tells me they still have faith in that he does, that he is a lot more healthy than we all think. And again, you have a young quarterback and a lot of uncertainty. These are, it's uncertainty because the quarterback is new, but he has not worked, he has not worked with all of, with just John Dodson and Terry McLaurin. So Zach Ernst is that veteran of the group. I think Ernst has an incredible bounce back season. All right, all right. I'll give you one right off the bat. I'm going to go with Kate Ott and from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now he's kind of a similar situation with a Conquo, except 48 receptions, 4 to 79 yards for touchdowns. And the thing with Ott, and obviously this is a guy that's going to be fighting for targets from guys like Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Rashad White out of the backfield. But you know, the thing with me, and this takes me to the wildcard game against the Eagles. He can be a very reliable target. He will have a drop here and there, but I think with the Buccaneers and how they struggle with the run game, and they're looking to improve on it this year, but with them struggling so much in the run game from, especially last year, I think that Kate Ott and can be a guy that will be much more reliable or much more looked upon to make big plays down the stretch for this upcoming season. So I'm going to give the nod to Kate Ott and for my first one. My second one, you could call it a sleeper, you could call it not a sleeper. I'm going to go with Dallas Goddard. And the only reason I was through Dallas Goddard, I mean, look, look, Dallas Goddard's another guy that is going to be fighting for targets this season. Obviously, another guy that's going to be coming off it a little bit of an injury as well, but nothing crazy. He was able to come back for the latter part of the season of last year. But Dallas Goddard is probably one of your most reliable tight ends in the NFL. And the problem is that yes, he doesn't see as much action as guys like A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith. And now you add in, take one, Barkley to the mix. So who knows, maybe, who knows, maybe we see a Dallas Goddard, a thousand yards season. Maybe we only see him for 800 yards, but I could see this being a big season for Dallas Goddard, especially if you're going to be focusing so much on these other three guys. Yeah, I think if both of them are covered, that's a guy who that's a guy who Jalen Hertz will go to. And he's he's been a reliable target over the years. I just don't know if he's going to be end up being a sleeper. You know what I mean? Because yeah, no, tight ends for a few years. And that's what I mean is that you could consider him not as a sleeper. You could also consider him as one of the top 10 guys. But in my opinion, this is also this is a guy that's mainly under the radar for the most part. He's kind of up there. He's kind of up there where you consider him kind of on the radar, but not on the radar. He's more of one of those good tight ends that you sometimes forget about because of all these really good other tight ends in the league. You're like, Oh, Dallas Goddard. Look at that. I'm going to think it'll work out. I definitely think it'll work out. It's these they have a good pass catching core over there. And I think I've mentioned it before, but this this Eagles team as a whole, they have it. They kind of have a chip on their shoulder. Everyone is starting to sort of dismiss them, although they low key did get a little better in some ways. I think they you have better leadership on that defensive front on the as far as their coaching goes. And you also look at their secondary got significantly better and younger. So that's a team that they have saquon Barkley, their offensive line get a little bit a little, I would say worse, but still a good offensive line. As far as as far as things to play for, I mean, they that team has a chip on their shoulder and I feel like they're going to have a much better season than everybody suggests. Yeah, I think I think the Eagles are going to be division champions. But you know, we'll see. Yeah, give me, yeah, I think I think that Dallas got early pretty good. Yeah, that that's long and the short of it right there. I think that you'll put up better numbers than what he did last year, he had 59 catches on 592 yards receiving and wasn't that for some reason, just wasn't that big of a red zone threat, only three touchdowns last year. Mind you, this is also due to him missing some weeks with the broken forearm. But I think that that I think that Dallas God or can be a good red zone threat and will have a big improvement on this next season. Do you have a third? I do not. I do not as well, honestly. That's fine with me. We'll move on to the fancy sleepers for quarterbacks, Adam, who are your two? Um, so my first one, so it's easy to go with the obvious answer in Caleb Williams. But you know what? I'm going to go Spencer Rattler. I think this was a late round pick. He's going to end up sitting behind Derek Carr. But I honestly liked his play with the Saints. He is a player. Let's not forget a couple of years ago in college. He was one of those players who was supposed to be one of the top quarterbacks. If not the top quarterback taken in the NFL draft back in 2020, I believe it was 2022. And he fell off so much that everyone dismissed him. And we're now at a point where, I mean, the quarterback is the biggest piece on the field, but that doesn't mean he's the end all be all. So when you look at Spencer Rattler, he was on a, he was on a bad team. And he started doing a little better. So look at his, look at his play during preseason. I think this is a guy who could potentially take the reins from Derek Carr and eventually, um, um, play a lot better. I mean, the bars set pretty low by Derek Carr, but if, you know, if you look at all of the targets that they have for the Saints, um, and the abilities, the passing and rushing abilities that, uh, that Rattler, that Rattler has to offer, now there's a player who could potentially do some good things. Yeah, Spencer Rattler's a weird one for me, um, I don't know. It's, I guess like him, his time over at South Carolina and Oklahoma, uh, it just didn't seem that great to me, in my opinion. Um, you know, him being over on the Saints, like, seems like a pretty solid idea in general. And maybe there is a time where he ends up beating out Derek Carr, but the problem for the quarterback spot, but the thing with me is that would Spencer Rattler do better than Derek Carr in that, at that point by, I mean, we'll only find out through preseason stuff that he gets, but yeah, Spencer Rattler's always been a weird for me. I, I've never been that fond of him. Maybe it's the attitude. Yeah. I'm not sure. But I mean, as you pointed out, he wasn't on a great South Carolina team last year. That had a lot of offensive line issues. So I mean, you got the experience of playing a lot of great SEC defenses that are now in the NFL that in dealing with the bad, a line over at SC. So who knows? Yeah. What do you got for your second one? Sorry. Yeah, so my second pick is Justin Fields. Now Justin Fields, through a real life perspective on the field, don't get it twisted. This kid probably his days in the NFL are probably limited, at least as a starting quarterback. However, in the short term, looking at his rushing ability and his, I mean, he has a very limited passing ability, but he has some good pieces in that to throw to. This is a guy who could put up some solid fantasy stats. And before last year, playing for a bear's team that had no targets whatsoever, a bad offensive line, just his rushing ability alone gave him some of the best fantasy value we have seen in years from a quarterback of his caliber, of his caliber in the worst way possible. This is, this guy, I don't believe belongs on a start, in a starting role. And we're going to see that eventually, but not without him putting up some good fantasy football stats. He's going to be that type of quarterback who you fill in. He's going to end up being a quarterback streamer for a few weeks. And he could find his way on a fantasy roster where he'll be starting in and out, he'll be platooning with somebody else. But I think if Justin Fields earns the starting role over Russell Wilson, which I guess from reports in camp, there's a very strong possibility. I think this guy offers some high upside value in the later rounds. In fact, he probably will not end up being drafted. But if you end up without a good starting quarterback after your draft, this is one of those positions where you can stream week to week, and Justin Fields is going to be one of those guys who you could plug in. So be on the lookout for this guy. I like it, I like it. So for my two, could be head scratchers, could be not. I'm going to go Juno Smith with my first one for my first fantasy sleeper. And look, he's got the targets round, right? And for stats last year, end up having 3,624 yards, 20 touchdowns, 9 interceptions. He's not one that's going to stop the stat sheet, but he's good to get you that 15 to 20 points that you'll need. And Juno Smith is probably going to be more of that bench role. And for some reason, your starting quarterback and fantasy isn't doing well. Just throwing Juno Smith for just one week, or if you need a quick bye week sub, then that's a good guy to have, in my opinion. And on top of that, he's got targets around him too. Still got Tyler Lockett, Jackson Smith and Jacoba, and DK Metcalf. He's got targets around him, and he's got a good run game in Kenneth Walker behind him in Zach Charbonneau. Zach Charbonneau, right? Yeah. So I think that Juno Smith, in seeing how he's played in the last year or two, he's done very well for himself. So I think this is going to be a year where he continues to improve. Maybe this is probably going to be one of those years where it's going to be similar numbers to last year, but this could still be a year that, hey, maybe creeps a little bit closer to 4,000 because he did miss two games. If he doesn't miss those two games, he's a 4,000 yard passer. Yeah. I like Juno Smith. Juno Smith is, he's another guy who could probably be a streamer, maybe a little better than that. Maybe he could be a backup quarterback somewhere. But it also depends on how many teams are in the league as well, you know? He's going to probably end up being the starter. It's just everything about the Seahawks I really like. And I even kind of like Juno Smith as a starting quarterback. The problem is the only thing that's holding them back from Super Bowl contention is their quarterbacks situation. And I know the Seahawks fans are going to hate that because they love Juno Smith. Well, it's not his fault. It's the coaching. It's everything else. Yeah. Sure. I mean, they've got to get off because of coaching, but were they not Super Bowl contention because of coaching? Because I'm pretty sure that's Juno Smith. I mean, it's the quarterback, the quarterback production was good, but not great. You need great, you need great production out of your, out of your quarterback in order to win yourself a Super Bowl. And if it's not great, then it better be great by the time you get to the postseason, right? Eli Manning wasn't there and neither was Joe Flacco, but at least he was able to elevate his play when it mattered most. Juno Smith doesn't do that. He's a good quarterback. He's a solid one. He's a nice bridge quarterback who I would have loved to be in New England this year. But why do you think they brought in Sam Howell? Because it's still an open, it's, it's an open position right now. He may end up being the starter. He's going to probably be favored to be, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't be bringing in Sam Howell if they didn't think, if they thought that this kid was anything special, because he's not. He's a solid quarterback. I like him. He's not winning you a Super Bowl. And he's not winning you a fantasy championship either. So he won't, but like I said, I, that, I've had Juno Smith as a backup quarterback for myself in the last, in the last, excuse me, at least last year for one or two leagues. And point, like I said, the point goes, if your quarterback is out for a week, he's a good quarterback to sub in. And he'll get, like I said, he'll get you that 15 to 20 points that you'll need to make it through that week. And hey, he, who says he doesn't have a big game, he does have big game stuff to throw out there, but second quarterback that I'll throw out there as a sleeper is Will Levis. Now, for Will Levis, like there's a lot of question marks around him and whatnot, like one of the biggest ones that we've seen is difference between how he's going to throw on the outside and the inside where he's going to actually throw his bullet passes when he's going to throw a little bit more touch on it. That's been the biggest one for him. Because a lot of people aren't really talking about how Will Levis now has pretty solid, some pretty solid weapons around him, granted, bit of an older wide receiver room, you know, he's got Calvin Ridley, DeAndre Hopkins, Tyler Boyd now, and now you got a, or you still have a Conquo as your tight end. So, and now you add Tony Pollard. So the run game is not going to be as strong with Tony Pollard. Now that you don't have Derek Henry for this season, so I expect the tight ends to go a little bit more pass-heavy for this upcoming season, especially with, now you got to improve, now Will Levis is going to improve from last season. Now he's got more targets to rely on for this season. So I expect a much bigger year from Will Levis Grade did sub in halfway through last season and played half the regular season games. But now that he's going to have a full 17 in front of him, I expect Will Levis to kind of slip under everyone's radar, get himself to that 4K, maybe 25 tuddies, nine interceptions. That'd be a nice season for him, especially a second year player who was a second round pick and he didn't really, I mean there's a reason he was projected to go what third, fourth overall, actually some people let him going second to the Texans. I'm glad the Texans weren't that stupid, like Will Levis should not have been in the top five talks in my opinion. He shouldn't have. No, he shouldn't have. He shouldn't have been in the top five talks to begin with. It was just one of those like really big hyped up draft combines and whatnot and he did do great over at Kentucky, but he just got two over heights. But now that that hype's kind of simmering, that's the point. His hype was up here, but now the hype started to simmer down around here. So I think this is the year where he brings that hype back up to here with a good season. Yeah, it was like all the way up here, then it goes way down here and then it goes back up to the level that it should have been at the whole time because he was never supposed to be one of the top prospects in the 2023 draft. That just wasn't supposed to happen. And I think the media kind of hyped him up to be one of those high level prospects. And the rest of the league disagreed. Everyone passed on him and the Titans liked him. They just liked him as their day two pick, not day one. They went Peter Skoransky. So I do like, I do like Will Levis and I think he has some upside there. I don't know how good he will be, but I think he could at least be a decent starting quarterback in this league and he'll have some fantasy value. If he knows how to use Tyler Boyd, Calvin Ridley, DeAndre Hopkins, Chigazim O'Conquell, you have Tony Pollard who you can still throw to by the way, the best offensive line the Titans have had in a couple of years. So I expect them to go a little more pass heavy and I think they'll be a little, if they end up being able to play, at least Will Levis in any sort of way, shape or form. I think they'll have a higher ceiling with this, with this Titans team than the other one did, where they were solely centered around the running game, not, no disrespect to Derek Henry, but we're just at a point in our league's history where run first offenses don't win new Super Bowls. If you center your team around the star running back, usually they don't work out and they get hurt. They'll get you to the playoffs maybe, but are you winning a Super Bowl with your quarterback being Ryan Tanhill, but they're saying, Oh, but Derek Henry is going to take them there. No, no, it doesn't happen. So if this kid, Will Levis can play, it could be one of the better teams in the AFC. And that kind of goes back to when we were talking about the AFC South, it's like obviously you got your top teams in, excuse me, you got your top teams in. The AFC South in the Texans in the Jaguars, but the Colts and the Titans are going to make some good runs at it too. It's the AFC South is going to be a lot closer than it was last year, a lot closer than what most people are going to think. And the Titans are going to be right up there for a potential division title. Yeah, yeah, I'm right there with you. I mean, we made a, we created a reel about it a few, a few months ago where we basically, I mean, there's too much, there's too much on the Titans right now saying that they're going to be bad, but there's not enough on it about the amount that they've done this off season, the player, the players on both the deep, the offensive and defensive sides that they've brought in. I mean, their secondary is loaded right now and their offensive line is almost completely rebuilt. They have a ton of targets to throw to. Good young quarterback. Good young offensive minded coach Brian Callahan did some great things over there in Cincinnati. So I think there's, there's a lot of potential there. I'm not saying that they're going to be good, but I, I'm just saying don't rule them out to be a pretty decent team. It all depends on how Will Levis can play. And if he can play it in any sort of capacity, then I see them being at least in contention for a playoff spot. If Will Levis is even average, I think there'll be nine and eight, 10 and seven. I like it. Do you have any other quarterbacks you want to throw out there? Because I think those the two I threw out were good. I think the two that you threw out were pretty solid. Will Levis was a good pick. I wasn't even thinking about him, but that just shows how underrated the kid is. I have a couple of, I have a couple other names in mind since we're kind of sitting here. Jaden Daniels, I think is one. The offensive line is four fifths of it is rebuilt, but they're missing the left tackle. And from reports in camp and from seeing him in preseason, the kid is way ahead of schedule. We already knew he was going to be the closest we have to big league ready among the quarterbacks. He looked, he looked very good in that preseason game against the Jets. Yeah, extremely good. Another one I have is Anthony Richardson. I was I was thinking about him as well, but I think the way that he played in those first few weeks of the season before getting hurt. I mean, at that point, you could consider him a sleeper because not many people are thinking about those first few weeks and the hype around Anthony Richardson kind of died down right after he got hurt. The offensive line for the Colts has played out of their minds much better than they were supposed to play. You have Alec Pierce, who had a very good season despite playing with a backup quarter back most of the season, granted it was probably one of the best and quarterback backups in the league. You still have Michael Pittman, who you managed to bring back on an extension. And on top of that, you just brought in A.D. Mitchell. So and then you add on top of that, Anthony Richardson is now playing in his second year with big league coaching. So I think he'll be further developed than he was at this point last year and he'll be a little more ready. So yes, that rushing ability in fantasy leagues is very, very underrated when it comes to quarterbacks. Obviously rushing yards count for a lot more than passing yards. So you rack up those rushing yards, the rushing touchdowns, the passing touchdowns. This kid's going to be pretty good and you know, he's going to play a little less reckless when he's actually running the ball than compared to last year as well. Yeah, not trying to take those big hits. Yeah. And I know we're, I'm not sure if you had any other sleepers. And I know we're close to the end of the show, but I did want to bring up one developing story that's been, that's been cooking and that's what we're all thinking about. So Brandon Ayuk, there's been a little, there's been some more rumblings in the past few minutes. So the steel, according to Ian Rappaport, the Steelers and 49ers have a deal on a potential trade and Pittsburgh is in a good place on an Ayuk contract, sources say, if San Francisco gives the final sign off, it's done. On top of that, San Francisco has an offer out to Ayuk for a long-term deal to stay. Obviously Ayuk and from previous reports, Ayuk and the 49ers reopened contract negotiations. So that's still on the table for him to return. But the framework and all of the compensation for a deal between the Steelers and 49ers is all agreed upon, if the 49ers sign off, Ayuk is a stealer. It also depends on if Ayuk actually wants to go though because, I mean, look, like Browns and the Patriots had stuff out there that the 49ers agreed upon and Ayuk didn't want to go there. Yeah. So like, well, I don't know where, listen, this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I think the Patriots are a little further along in their rebuild than the Steelers are. The Steelers have a good roster around them, but their quarterback position is such a cluster that we can't even say that they're further along because you don't have the most important piece. Just drafting a quarterback in the first round does not work. They did that with Pickett. It did not work out. Bringing in a failed first round pick in Justin Fields and an aging quarterback in Russell Wilson, who clearly doesn't look like his old self, that doesn't do it either. So why are we at the point where we believe that the Patriots are, the Patriots are closer. They have their quarterback. They just need him to develop and give them a couple more piece, they're, I'm not saying they're close to contention, but they're further along in their rebuild. I don't think the Steelers are dinking around with things that they don't need to, they just don't need to do. They're playing around with the quarterback position as if it's not a big deal, as if it's a positional battle, like, like the starting tackle or the starting running back position, who's going to make the roster? No, this is the biggest part of your team. And it doesn't seem like they're taking it seriously enough. No. Yeah, Steelers, I mean, they'll find a way to get to 500 again, somehow, some way, but that's the thing that's holding them back and in making a complete rebuild is that they keep finishing at 500. So they don't end up getting themselves to that top 10 pick. And they have, they did a pretty poor job of trying to develop Kenny Pickett, but I mean, Kenny Pickett probably shouldn't have been that first round pick that Steelers go after way back when. And you, you had pretty much on nail on the head, Justin Fields is a field project. Russell Wilson's on the back end of his career and in Seattle very poorly, did not have a good 10 year over in Denver. And you're expecting him to now revive his career in Pittsburgh, but even the weapons over in Pittsburgh aren't even that great. Like you got, you just lost the auntie Johnson, who's a divot his own right, George Pickens, who wants the ball. He's basically another Antonio Brown as well. He's got all the talent in the world, just doesn't have best attitude. Fryer Muth is a pretty solid tight end, but on that, what else do you have? They needed, they needed another, I mean, they needed another wide receiver to pair up with George Pickens. I like what I've seen from Pickens from a talent standpoint, attitude speaks for itself, but it's a different issue, but they needed another wide receiver. And I thought they were going to get that in Brian Thomas, but they didn't end up drafting him. So like where it just feels like they're stuck in football purgatory. They lost Ben Rothlessberger, who even when he was there and healthy, they, they wasn't anything special. He won two championships, but that was earlier on in his career and the rest of the team around him was a lot better. They're kind of stuck in, they're stuck in football purgatory is where they are. And they, they haven't really taken, there's nothing worse for a team than to just take a quarterback simply because it's a need. Obviously it's the biggest need on the, on the team, but I'd rather go on, on a different position rather than just take a quarterback was a penny, can he pick it's there? He's the best quarterback in this draft, the worst quarterback draft in over a decade. That's, that's, that's not the way to go. And if they didn't take a quarterback, maybe they could have tanked and then the next year they would have ended up with CJ Stroud. You see what I mean? Like you take a half, you take a step back before you take two steps forward. And it's, they're, they're kind of stuck in football purgatory. And by trading for Brandon, are you great? But why is Brandon, are you trying to make the argument that they're in a better spot than the Patriots are? Because I just don't think they are. No, I would consider the pit, if you're going to say the Steelers are in football purgatory, I would consider them the NFL equivalent to the Chicago Bulls. They're always finishing it. The Bulls are always finishing in a play in spot in the NBA playoffs and always teasing their fans that they're going to make this weird magical run, but they never have the talent to actually make a run. And so they lose in the play in and then they're stuck with the 15th and the 16th overall pick and the NBA drafts, not no lottery picks, no nothing. And they get stuck doing the same thing over and over and over again, where it, and it's the same thing with the Steelers. They all. It's after Jordan. Yeah. Yep. They always. Well, bull, I would say Bulls in the last five years, probably Patriots are the Bulls after Jordan too. Yeah. But at least Patriots are the Bulls right after Jordan. But like the steel, the Mike Tomlin Steelers are the same exact way from the last few years as well. I mean, great, like like right before or right after like that COVID season, they had Ben Rothelsberger that and they like, they start 11 and O and snuck their way into the playoffs after losing five straight and then lost in the wildcards of the Browns after that. It's been the same thing over and over again, just barely squeaking by into the playoffs or just barely missing the playoffs at 500 and not doing anything with it. Yeah, pretty much. I mean, that's all I have on that. I was, I mean, I've been trying to extend the show to see if that, if this deal would end up getting done, but it looks like this is going to be a standoff all day. But I wouldn't be surprised if Brandon and I because of is a stealer by the end of today. That'd be, that'd really suck. That would really suck. Yeah. And we can't even cover it, not for a whole week. Never mind, never mind not covering it. Just as a Pats fan, that would just be so silly for him to go to the Steelers where he could be the number one guy at the Patriots and get the ball thrown to him by from Drake May or Joe Millan, being on how you'd listen to over at Boston Sports Talk Radio. But that'll do it for us today. Thank you for joining us as we have new episodes that are going to be out Tuesdays at 730. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. We also have all our episodes available on Spotify, speaker, Apple podcast, iHeartRadio, Google podcast, and so much more. And we'll go back to the Friday preview episodes once we get to week one. So do the math. So much that first week of September, be on the lookout for our first preview show in terms of the week one matchups. As also be sure to follow our Instagram, Fumblerski_podcast and our TikTok Fumblerski pod to keep up with our podcast and the latest coverage on the NFL. Otherwise, Chris Costich, Adam Wright, we will see you next Tuesday over and out.