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now move the sticks

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with Daniel Jeremiah and

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Bucky Brooks. All

1:38

right, Football World. It's Bucky Brooks and I

1:40

am here with our fantasy expert, Marcus Grant.

1:42

And we are going to do kind of

1:44

a crossover pod where we're going to

1:46

talk a little reality, a little fantasy, put

1:48

it all together and help you get ready

1:51

for your fantasy football season. So, Marcus,

1:53

last time we were on the show, we talked

1:55

about quarterbacks. We talked about running backs and wide

1:57

receivers. But today I want to talk about some

2:00

different positions. We'll talk about the tight ends, we'll

2:02

have a brief discussion about kickers, and then we

2:04

want to put together a team, an ultimate team,

2:07

that people could get excited about. But

2:10

when we last chatted, we were talking about tight

2:12

ends, because we ended talking about Sam LaPorter. But

2:14

I want to talk about the tight end position.

2:16

One, are tight ends

2:18

undervalued in the fantasy football world? I

2:22

don't think so. I think if anything,

2:25

we love tight ends. There just aren't enough of

2:27

them to go around in a league right now.

2:30

I think we're at a point where the

2:32

position is deeper than it has been in

2:34

a long time. But even then, you're still

2:36

looking at maybe six or seven guys that

2:39

you feel very confident you can count on.

2:41

Then there's another five or six guys

2:43

that are hit or miss, depending on the week. And then there's

2:45

a whole bunch of guys who are just question marks and you

2:47

just don't know what you're going to get. But

2:51

that's better than it had been, because for a

2:53

while, you look at tight end, and it was

2:55

Travis Kelsey, Mark Andrews, George Kittle. And then if

2:57

you didn't get one of those guys, you were

2:59

sort of out of luck. So

3:01

now we at least have a deeper roster of

3:04

guys that we can go to. You

3:06

can feel pretty confident you've got

3:08

a steady, quality contributor most weeks.

3:11

Yeah, that's really important. And as more teams,

3:13

and we'll see this bear out with the

3:16

trends, as more teams go to 12 personnel

3:18

packages, one back, two tight ends, you're

3:21

going to see more tight ends have opportunities.

3:23

We know about the Raiders and what they're

3:25

doing with two tight ends. We've heard about

3:27

what the Buffalo Bills want to do with

3:29

Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox. And so as

3:31

we're looking at this kind of evolution of

3:34

the tight end position, who are some of the tight ends

3:36

that you're really vibing with? Well, I

3:38

love to make sure I get myself a

3:40

good one early. But

3:42

Trey McBride has been really popular down in

3:45

Arizona. He was the guy who basically made

3:47

Zach Ertz expendable in the

3:49

desert there. You mentioned Dalton Kincaid,

3:51

who, I mean, you know, Bucky,

3:53

he destroyed USC on multiple occasions.

3:56

And so at that point, I was just like, well, this is

3:58

a guy, I guess I'm drafted in fantasy. And

4:02

here's the, this is a lightning rod, but like, you know,

4:04

I'm still in on Kyle Pitts. And at some

4:06

point, at this point, you have sort of planted

4:08

your flag on how you feel about Kyle Pitts.

4:10

Either you are in like I'm in, or

4:13

you've just decided that, you know what, he's burned me too many times

4:15

and I can't do it. But this is,

4:18

for me, if it doesn't happen this year with

4:20

Pitts, it's never gonna happen. You

4:23

know, they got the quarterback upgrade in Kirk

4:25

Cousins. He is apparently healthy after maybe not

4:27

being healthy the last year or so. And

4:30

last year, you know, everybody was frustrated with

4:32

the way Arthur Smith decided to use him.

4:35

That's not going to be an issue anymore. So

4:37

everything that we would have wanted for Kyle Pitts

4:39

is coming together. So I am totally back in.

4:41

I can't say I'm back in, because I never

4:43

really left. So I'm still in on Kyle Pitts

4:45

drafting him, especially if I can get him, you

4:47

know, in the sixth, seventh round where he's going

4:50

right now. Yeah, no, Kyle

4:52

Pitts is the guy that everyone has been waiting on.

4:54

I feel like there's been a love affair with him

4:56

because so many of us feel for the hype. So

4:58

many of us have talked about him when he came

5:00

in. We thought he was going to be

5:02

one of the tight ends that could potentially revolutionize

5:04

the position. And we have blamed Arthur Smith for

5:06

his lack of production. Now you have Zach Robinson

5:09

coming in. They have Kirk Cousins. They can throw

5:11

it all over the yard. Michael Pinnix has it

5:13

back. Stop. They should

5:15

have every opportunity to throw it

5:17

all over the yard and

5:20

get it done. So now here's where I need your

5:22

help because there are a couple of, we talked about

5:24

12 personnel teams with two tight ends. Both

5:26

tight ends are good. So we

5:28

know in Baltimore, Isaiah Leichle and

5:30

Mark Andrews, that's an intriguing one.

5:33

Dalton Cade and Dawson Knox. But

5:35

I'm really worried about Tucker Kraft

5:37

and Luke Musgrave in Green Bay.

5:40

For a team that doesn't have a true

5:42

number one receiver, the tight ends kind

5:44

of act as that number one

5:47

receiver on sometimes. What did I make

5:49

of it? I had to pick between one of those guys. I

5:53

tend to lean toward Luke Musgrave, but I,

5:55

you know, I'm not necessarily steady on that

5:58

because of Tucker Kraft. I

6:00

feel that way about the wide receivers too

6:02

in green, but I mean, everything about that

6:04

Packer offense, it's one of those things where

6:07

having all these options in real football is

6:09

great because it makes you hard to defend.

6:12

You can't focus on one guy in

6:14

fantasy. It is the worst because you

6:16

can't focus on one guy, you know?

6:19

So everything about the Packer

6:21

offense makes me nervous in terms of fantasy.

6:24

So my answer to the Packer offense has just

6:26

been draft Jordan Love, right? Because you don't have

6:29

to worry about which receivers catching the ball,

6:31

which tight end is catching the ball. You get

6:33

all of that with the quarterback throwing the football.

6:35

You get all those touchdowns, you get all those

6:37

yards, but it really is a roll of the

6:40

dice if you were going to draft a Packer

6:42

skill position player. And that includes Tucker Kraft and

6:44

Luke Musgrave. Yeah, it's

6:46

a tough one. It's

6:49

a tough decision to make when you're trying

6:51

to figure out those guys and some of

6:53

the other tandems that we've talked about. But

6:55

one thing that isn't tough is if

6:57

you have an opportunity to get Travis Kelsey, you

7:00

have to go with the Swifty, don't you? You're

7:02

still drafting Travis Kelsey. This

7:08

is the first year in a long time,

7:10

maybe since the last days

7:12

of Gronk, that we aren't talking

7:14

about Travis Kelsey as the number

7:17

one tight end because Sam LaPorta

7:19

has surpassed him there. But

7:21

Travis Kelsey still brings a ton to the game. Last

7:24

year, we called it a

7:26

quote unquote down year for Travis Kelsey, and he

7:29

was still the number two tight end in fantasy.

7:32

Now they have more options. They have more things for

7:34

people to pay attention to because last year the story

7:36

was, well, who are the Chiefs wide receivers?

7:38

They don't have any wide receivers to make plays. They

7:41

go out to get Hollywood Brown. They draft Xavier

7:43

Worthy. I mean, Rishi Rice showed us some things

7:46

near the end of last season. So now all

7:48

of a sudden, you do have these other options

7:50

in the passing game, which means

7:52

you can't completely focus your defense on

7:54

Travis Kelsey. So yeah, he's maybe not

7:58

the same guy that he was a few years

8:00

ago. Travis Kelsey is still among the elite tight

8:02

ends, both in real football and in fantasy. Yeah,

8:05

so one of the guys that kind of popped up and was

8:07

really productive after Joe Flacco arrived was

8:09

David and Joe Koo. What I do with David

8:11

and Joe Koo now that Deshaun Watson is going

8:13

to be back as a starting quarterback and Ken

8:15

Dorsey is taken over as the play caller. Yeah,

8:17

I mean, so last year what we saw out

8:20

of him with Joe Flacco was kind of what

8:22

we were hoping for for all these years, right?

8:24

I mean, just a big athletic

8:26

tight end. It never really seemed

8:28

to come together. Finally, Joe Flacco

8:30

figured out how to unlock it.

8:32

And so part of me thinks, okay, maybe

8:35

the Browns saw something and they will figure

8:37

out how to get him the football. Part

8:39

of me worries though, because Deshaun Watson has

8:41

not been very good since

8:44

he's joined Cleveland. So I'm sort

8:46

of tempering the expectations. I think the fact that

8:48

it's built in that right now in Joe Koo's

8:50

like a ninth round pick, it sort of sort

8:52

of mitigates a lot of the risk there, but

8:54

I'm willing to believe that what we saw at

8:57

the end of last season was actually the start

8:59

of things. And look, I mean, this is what

9:01

we're coming up on year eight now for in

9:03

Joe Koo, I think it is. It's

9:07

not unprecedented that you get a guy deep into

9:09

his career has a breakout because last year, Evan

9:11

Ingram was sort of that guy, right? Evan Ingram

9:13

had been that guy that a lot of us

9:15

had kind of written off and all of a

9:17

sudden he has a career year in Jacksonville. So,

9:19

you know, who's to say that David and Joe

9:21

Koo can't do something similar this year in Cleveland.

9:24

Yeah, speaking of Evan Ingram, what do you

9:26

also never Ingram and this offense down in

9:28

Jacksonville, like they kind

9:30

of believe less is more. Kevin really walks. They

9:32

bring in Gabe Davis. They

9:34

had a young player in Brian Thomas

9:37

Jr. But Ingram is

9:39

kind of the number one. He and Chris and

9:41

Kirk share the marquee. What do you think about

9:43

Evan Ingram's prospects? Yeah, I think so. What I

9:45

love about Evan Ingram is that he had a

9:47

ton of targets last year. What I didn't love

9:50

about Evan Ingram is that the average depth of

9:52

target wasn't very deep.

9:54

I mean, he average eight yards per catch. So,

9:56

I mean, they were basically extended handoffs is what

9:58

they were giving him. I always

10:00

say this with when I have a, whether it's a

10:03

receiver or a tight end, um,

10:05

in fantasy, you don't love

10:07

it when your guy catches the ball and the

10:09

blue line of scrimmage line is still on the

10:11

screen. And that was kind of Evan Ingram a

10:13

little bit last year. So that, that

10:15

kind of worries me a little bit, but I think

10:17

the volume sort of keeps him afloat. Now, also,

10:20

I think one thing to keep in mind is that a

10:22

lot of that came because they had injuries, right? I mean,

10:25

because Christian Kirk was banged up for a while, Calvin Ridley,

10:27

you know, it was not a hundred percent a lot of

10:29

time. So that is something to sort of keep in mind

10:31

that, you know, will he get those same targets if everybody's

10:33

healthy? But I do think he and Trevor Lawrence found something

10:35

that works together and I think he's going to get the

10:38

ball a lot and that's going to kind of keep him

10:40

afloat. Yeah, it certainly will,

10:42

will keep him afloat. But he's the one that,

10:44

uh, finds a way to get it done. And speaking

10:46

of getting it done, one of the,

10:49

I would say the, the hidden gems in

10:51

fantasy football is the kicker position. I

10:53

know it's one of those things that you talk about, like

10:55

how important it is. It used to be a throwaway position,

10:58

but now it's important. Uh, giving your philosophy

11:00

on kickers and why it is a more

11:02

important piece of the championship puzzle when it

11:04

comes to building a fantasy team. Yeah,

11:06

I mean, I think, look, I think it's, it's overlooked.

11:08

I mean, I think, you know, some people get frustrated

11:10

because there is admittedly a little

11:13

bit of, of randomness involved in

11:15

kickers, right? Because, you know, basically

11:17

if they're coming out to, if a team's coming

11:19

out to kick a field goal, generally it's because

11:22

the offense has stalled. Uh, you know, I mean,

11:24

obviously you have those late game situations, that's different,

11:26

but so there's a little bit of randomness to

11:28

it. But when you have a guy who has

11:30

a big leg and can kick from deep,

11:33

um, you know, then it means something. I

11:35

mean, there's a reason Justin Tucker has been

11:37

a star in this league for a long

11:39

time. There's a reason we talk about, you

11:41

know, Evan Money McPherson in Cincinnati, because these

11:43

guys potentially are game changers. And so I

11:46

tend to be of two minds. One, I will, you know, first

11:48

off, whoever it is, always wait till late.

11:50

You're talking about one of your last couple of picks in

11:52

the draft before you're getting your kicker. First of all, but

11:55

if you want to go for the

11:57

elite guys, you go get one of those, those elite

11:59

guys. I mean, last year, Brandon Aubrey

12:02

looked great in Dallas. I mean, I can always go.

12:04

You can't go wrong with Justin Tucker, Harrison Buckter, those

12:06

kind of guys on offenses that you know are going

12:08

to move the ball and always be in scoring position.

12:11

But if you can't get one of those elite

12:13

guys, I will tell you that maybe don't draft

12:16

a kicker, spend that last pick on a skill

12:18

position guy, because what's going to happen is,

12:20

I mean, you're probably going to, you may cut that

12:22

guy in week one, but spend it on

12:24

a last, spend it on a skill position guy that maybe

12:26

is kind of a deep sleeper. You'll get

12:29

to week one, you'll look at your roster and you'll

12:31

say, okay, maybe this last round guy, look, maybe he

12:33

worked himself into a role and I can

12:35

give him a shot and I can cut somebody else. Or if

12:37

it doesn't work out, sit that guy

12:39

back to the waiver wire, find yourself a kicker for

12:41

that first week and they kind of move from there.

12:44

But I don't think you can overlook kickers. I'll also

12:46

say there are a lot more leagues that are starting

12:48

to factor in kickers a little bit. You

12:51

know, I'm in a big charity tournament that

12:53

the Scott Fishbowl, where they've kind of worked

12:55

it out where your kicker can maybe

12:57

be a little bit more valuable than say a

13:00

late round running back or wide receiver, especially a

13:02

guy who kicks from deep. So check your scoring

13:04

system because you may be able to find a

13:06

hidden advantage in there if you can get some

13:08

kicker points. Yeah. Kicker points

13:10

are very, very valuable. And if you can find

13:13

those offenses that struggle, but are just good enough

13:15

to get the ball to 35 girl, like when

13:17

you have a long distance kicker, it is a

13:19

big win. We'll be back right after the break.

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catch up on the latest episodes

15:17

without the ads. Let's

15:22

talk about some of the rookies. Who are some of the rookies that you're

15:24

on? Well, I think all

15:26

three of those top wide

15:28

receivers, right? When you're talking about,

15:30

you know, obviously Marvin Harrison Jr.

15:32

is maybe the big name off

15:35

the board there, but you know, Malik neighbors is

15:37

one that we're certainly interested in. You know, Romo

15:39

Dunez, I think, I think he's got a little

15:41

bit of a tougher path just because he's got,

15:44

you know, DJ Moore and Keenan Allen there in

15:46

Chicago. So he's going to have to share some

15:48

targets a little bit more, but the talent is

15:50

certainly, you know, undeniable. And

15:52

you mentioned Brian Thomas in Jacksonville. I think

15:54

he's another one there. So the why the

15:57

rookie wide receivers I think are really, really

15:59

intriguing this year.