Frankly Fantasy Football
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Frankly Fantasy Football
Fantasy Finish: Top 24 QBs of 2024 - A Year in Review
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Looking back at the quarterback performances of the 2024 season reveals a mix of stellar successes, major disappointments, and valuable lessons about drafting strategies. With standout seasons from Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, and Joe Burrow, alongside surprising performances from Baker Mayfield and Jared Goff, this year’s quarterback landscape was full of intrigue. This episode will discuss top performances, who defied expectations and who disappointed fantasy owners. You'll also find out who shows promise for next year and whose uncertain futures raise questions for next year's draft.
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Happy New Year everybody. For today we are diving into a year in review. We are starting with the quarterbacks and checking out how they perform versus that of their projections. Let's get ready.
Speaker 2:All right, all right, all right. Welcome to the show. This is the Frankly Fantasy Football Podcast. We are your hosts, Frankie and Johnny. Happy New Year, brother. Welcome to the end, man. We made it to the end, dude. We're here. We're here. We made it through another season. How about that? We certainly did. We certainly did. Did you get through another season? How about that? We certainly did. We certainly did, did you?
Speaker 1:get any hardware this year, Frank John, I'm going to have to kiss goodbye to my sweet trophies. I've had three years in a row I've had a trophy, and this year I got second. You know, I said it ran through me and I got ran over. So hey, it happened.
Speaker 2:Happens to the best of us. Happens to the best of us. Yeah, shout out to all of you Super Bowl winners. Congratulations to all of you. I hope you're wearing your rings. Get those trophies up on your mantel above your fireplace. Put them right in the kitchen. Piss your wives off or your husbands off. If you're a wife and you've got a trophy and your husband doesn't, please put that right in the middle of the kitchen table every single day and let him know who's boss. Okay, I love it. All right, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Guys, we're going to pop off some videos for you here at the end of the season. We're going to do a year in review and what we're looking at. We're going to do each position. We're going to go quarterbacks, tight ends, running backs and receivers, and we're going to talk about top 24 quarterbacks. We're going to do top 30 running backs and receivers and I think top 12 at least of tight ends. So this video is going to be the year in review for quarterbacks. So we're going to talk about top 24 quarterbacks here in order, starting with number one, and we're going to go all the way to 24 here. We're going to talk about where they ended up. We're going to talk about where they were projected and where they were drafted and we're going to see if they were risers or fallers and see how things went here. Get a little color commentary on those. So let's get after it here, buddy, let's go All right.
Speaker 2:Top 24 quarterbacks let's start these top three guys. I'm just going to throw these guys out here, frank, so we can talk about them. All three are in the conversation for the MVP. All three of them had an absolutely incredible season. Let's start right off here. We've got number one, lamar Jackson, number two, josh Allen and number three, joe Burrow. Man, what unbelievable performances out of these guys this year. If you had them on your teams, I can almost guarantee you went deep in your playoffs this year with these guys. The point differential between the top three and the bottom 23, 22, 24, huge, huge. All right, frankie. So let's break it down. Let's look right at it here. Let's look at Lamar Jackson. Lamar Jackson, number one quarterback on the season 467 points in fantasy. He was projected to start the year at QB2 with 400 points. He far exceeded that. Also had 25.7 points per game. My God, what a foundation for your team. Talk to me about Lamar a little bit, man.
Speaker 1:Guys I mean Lamar coming in right when he was projected to be QB2, it was really splitting hairs. I mean, john, between me and you I mean especially it was between him, josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes. My opinion, my God, if you ended up taking Lamar, you hit gold. And John, what was crazy is again we're talking about MVP season, especially between these three. Well, here's Lamar. He has 3955, 3,955 yards passing. He had 852 yards rushing. He ended up passing the ball for 39 touchdowns, four rushing touchdowns, and he only had four interceptions. John, what's crazy about Lamar is this is his most accurate season ever and he's on par, from an NFL history standpoint, as one of the most accurate passers ever this year. And so for me, man, I mean, what a goldmine if you ended up hitting on Lamar and seeing that paired with Derrick Henry I know people were a little bit freaked out early on. My God, did it work out beautifully.
Speaker 2:It absolutely did. I mean, he was a QB one in every single game, except for one game against Pittsburgh. I mean he was absolutely beautiful for fantasy. I mean, is this a guy you could consider, depending on your scoring, obviously, but is this a guy you could consider taking number one overall and just knowing you've got a solid foundation of having a running back and a receiver like Lamar Jack, or a quarterback and a running back?
Speaker 1:Yeah, john, totally. Guys, this is something that really we need to be thinking about for 2025. Sure, we'll be talking about this more as we're getting ready for your drafts and things like that next year, but absolutely keep that in your back pocket, guys. To have somebody who is rushing for 850 plus yards, with four rushing touchdowns, that's already middle of the pack for top performing running backs. Then you layer on his passing ability 3,900 yards he's going to have over 4,000 yards, assuming he just does what he's supposed to do against the Cleveland Browns. Guys, this is incredible.
Speaker 1:So, john, I think that you can totally make an argument. We've had guys in our leagues that drafted Josh Allen at number two. We've had guys that drafted Patrick Mahomes at number seven, overall, overall, and so if you're now putting Lamar Jackson into this fold and looking at next year, guys, this is a slam dunk, and I don't see Derrick Henry slowing down any time anyways when he's paired with Lamar, which gives Lamar some more breathing room. So for me, man, I think you could make that argument that, hey, we don't know what's going to happen from year to year. We looked at Christian McCaffrey this past year as 101, bad. We looked at Jonathan Taylor when he was the consensus number one overall pick. Bad, why not anchor your team? If you're stuck between, maybe Jamar Chase or you're worried about an injury-prone individual that you're looking to take top three, top four next year, you can anchor on Lamar and be really happy.
Speaker 2:The other interesting thing with Lamar too, is you know he didn't have any top 10 receiving options. So you would think this guy had this many points. He clearly had an alpha. He clearly had somebody who was just dominating his target share. He did not know he spread the ball around, man. I mean. Zay Flowers good year, but not what I was expecting. With the numbers. With Lamar making an MVP run Like he has, you would think Zay Flowers good year, but not what I was expecting, the numbers. With Lamar making an MVP run like he has. You would think Zay Flowers would be a top 12 receiver. He absolutely was not. I think he was 20. Mark Andrews same thing. He did have a very good year, but the tight end landscape sucked anyway. So yeah, mark Andrews was near the top 10. And Rashad Bateman I mean he just kind of came out of nowhere towards the end of the year Lucky waiver, wire pickup to help you win your leagues, but it's not a guy you could rely on all season long. So it's just really interesting to me, which makes me feel so good about him next year not having to worry about the health of a single receiver like a JJ or an AJ Brown or a Jamar Chase. So that's what makes Lamar really interesting to me for next year as well.
Speaker 2:All right, let's get to the number two guy here, frankie. Real big toss up of who was going to be the number one draft pick for quarterbacks. Josh Allen was the consensus one, ended up as the number two quarterback on the season. But again, amazing numbers out of Superman here, man. So let's talk a little bit about this here. Josh allen 429 points. He was projected to be the qb1 ended the qb2. 24.1 points per game. Frankie, talk to me about josh allen guys.
Speaker 1:Josh allen, the stallion, just absolutely doing insane things. When we talk about not having a true receiver, one john, we're to be in the bills camp talking about that as well. Sure, they traded for a Mark Cooper Boy, did he look like shit? So now you're looking at Khalil Shakur. Now you're there trying to get Dalton Kincaid, who was banged up all season trying to get him involved. Then you're trying to figure out okay, james Cook, we can't rely solely on him. So now we got to get Ray Davis involved a little bit as well.
Speaker 1:And so for me, man, seeing what Josh Allen has also done with the pieces around him is nothing short of magical. And so for me, looking at what he did, he had over 3,700 passing yards, 28 passing touchdowns, he had six interceptions, so very, very effective and efficient. But here's the difference Josh Allen had 12 rushing touchdowns. That's just crazy, that is just absurd. And so when we think about, okay, well, james Cook still did very well right, we talked about Lamar, with Derek Henry still doing very well, in addition to those guys, when you look at what Josh Allen did, it was almost like Jalen Hurts last year when he was on the one yard line having 15 rushing touchdowns and he was incredible.
Speaker 1:So for me, man, again, I just think when we're thinking for next year this year's already gone we see how well these dudes performed. When we're thinking about next year, john, I think Josh Allen is going to fall right to where we said you can draft him in the first round again, and I think it's only going to get better if Amari stays there and they continue to develop the chemistry. If they get a couple like Khalil Shakur a little bit more time to develop and continue doing well, and then Dalton Kincaid, if they get him actually healthy and rocking and rolling dude, we could see maybe Lamar two or three and Josh Allen 100% the number one. So, guys, these two guys specifically and especially, can absolutely be viewed as a top first round pick in my opinion.
Speaker 2:Very similar conversation, like I just talked about with Lamar. Like you were saying, he did not have an alpha receiver that dominated all season long. It's not Joe Burrow, say T Higgins isn't on the team. Next year, joe Burrow loses Jamar Chase. It's going to be a very different Joe Burrow, definitely. We didn't see that with Josh Allen, we didn't see that with Lamar Jackson. So that shows me these guys are going to be the creme de la creme for years to come because of that. Now, the other thing that's interesting is you know Josh Allen, you talk about his, his rushing touchdowns, and you're going to talk about people next year. Oh, he, he won't have as many next year, or that he vultures them from James Cook. James Cook led all running backs and touchdowns this year, by the way, 17 touchdowns for James.
Speaker 1:Cook Really? I actually didn't know that. Yeah, I heard that stat.
Speaker 2:And then, while you were talking, I just had to double check it and see but yeah, he had 15 rushing touchdowns and two passing to two receiving touchdowns. So to have 15 rushing touchdowns with Josh Allen had 12. Is that what you were saying? Yeah, he had 12 rushing touchdowns.
Speaker 1:Josh Allen did.
Speaker 2:So I mean, there's enough to eat there, man, you know. So I don't want to hear this shit next year. Make sure you check me If I say it. I'm going to go back and roll the tape here. But don't be afraid of James Cook as well. Just because Josh Allen scores touchdowns, he didn't take away Derrick Henry's touchdowns because Lamar scores either. They all ate this year and there's no reason to believe that they're not going to do it again. All right, let's go to number three here. Number three we've got Joe Cool Burrow 415 fantasy points. Projection at the start of the year was going to be QB7. He ended up at the QB3. This guy just went apeshit this year. 23 points per game, frankie, what's going on with Joe Burrow this year?
Speaker 1:John, joe Cool is a guy that he's, in my opinion, man. He's one of the most underappreciated people in the NFL. I think he kind of gets glossed over. I think it's because he's been banged up. I think he's had some issues. You know, get it with sacks and things like that, keeping him off the ground because the offensive line is just terrible for the most part. But, my Lord John, I mean I've said it two episodes ago I think if Joe Burrow had a better defense, I think and I know that sounds crazy I think Joe Burrow would be MVP, and here's why sounds crazy. I think Joe Burrow would be MVP and here's why he threw, for he's throwing for already.
Speaker 1:We still have one week left, john. He has 4,641 passing yards. 4,641 passing yards significantly more than that of Lamar and Josh Allen. He actually almost has a thousand more yards than Josh Allen alone from the passing perspective. In addition, he's thrown for 42 touchdowns 42. Like, nobody else has thrown for 40s yet he is the guy. I mean it's incredible man. And then he had two rushing touchdowns and, yeah, he's thrown for eight picks. Sure, but that's because he has to throw the ball way more.
Speaker 1:When we talk about passing attempts, john, this is a huge call out here. Lamar Jackson 442. Josh Allen 483. Joe Burrow 606 passing attempts. Guys, when you're thinking about fantasy football and you know that this team is down and that when we talk about game scripts, this is what we're talking about when a guy has a positive game script, meaning they're down, more often than not they have to throw the ball way more to keep up with these teams.
Speaker 1:So what I'm getting at is, guys, next year Jamar Chase might be the consensus number one overall pick. Right Between him, maybe Saquon Barkley, right, something along those lines. Shit, you could end up looking at Lamar, you could end up looking at Josh Allen, you know things like that. But for me, man, I think that Joe Burrow is gold. If you can get a Joe Burrow man and maybe that second or third round, if he ends up dropping right, and you could pair him with the stack of Jamar Chase next year, maybe you have the 101 and you snake all the way back down, john, and you're now taking Joe Burrow at. Give me 212 or 301 or whatever it may be. That's fucking gold, guys. And so this is a guy in my eyes that has been slept on and because of how bad his offensive line is and how the defense is. He's not really talked about as much. So for me, look at Joe Burrow next year. Don't fall for the QB7 projection, don't fall for all that bullshit, because we're seeing he's better than that.
Speaker 2:Anyways best year Joe Burrows ever had. Uh, just looking at the past, what five years on here, a hundred and 9.8 QB rating. Most completions he's ever had for 23,. Most attempts at six oh six eyes. Best completion percentage. Most yards at 4,600, most touchdowns by far, with 42. I mean just an absolutely insane season, man. Yeah, as far as the best pure passer in the league, it's Joe Burrow. It's Joe Burrow close. I mean, you're talking about he's in this same conversation which was uh, what are we talking about here? Uh, 15, 14 points lower than Josh Allen, 14 points in fantasy lower than Josh Allen. Josh Allen had 12 goddamn rushing touchdowns. Lamar Jackson had eight goddamn rushing touchdowns. So these guys are hybrids. It's not an apples to apples comparison. Joe Burrow is more of a Peyton Manning type quarterback or a Tom Brady type quarterback. He's not running the ball. He may sneak a few in here and there. He is a pure passer and his stats are goddamn ridiculous. So absolutely, love that man.
Speaker 2:All right, now let's look at the next three here. Now we've got a little shakeups here. We got some highlights here on some of these guys the four, five and six at quarterbacks Not guys that we expected in these positions, for sure. Number four Baker Mayfield. Number five, jared Goff and number six, Jaden Daniels. Love. This tier right here Scares me a little bit for next year. We'll talk a little bit about that, but the way these guys ended this year is fantastic. Number four, baker Mayfield. 394 points. From fantasy Projection to start of the year was going to be the QB 13. He ended up as the QB four way overperformed. If you were in a super flex league or two QB league and you took Baker as your second, you were absolutely thrilled. 22 and a half points per game Talk about big.
Speaker 1:Absolutely thrilled. 22.5 points per game Talk about big John. Baker had one of the best years he could ever have dreamed of having. You mentioned the numbers, but let's dig into that a bit more, guys. When we talk about him having 22.5 points a game and we just talked about Joe Burrow having 23, think about that. Baker is right on par with Burrow, he's really man. Only about 25 points, 20 points back from Joe Burrow. So when we start digging in, okay, well, what did? 310 yards rushing, 39 passing touchdowns, three rushing touchdowns and he had 15 interceptions. That's where he fell a little bit short, john. If he ended up let's just say he halved those interceptions he would actually be the QB3. Think about that. If he halved those interceptions to put him right where Joe Burrows were, he is having a better overall year than Joe Burrow had, which is absurd to even think from a fantasy perspective. And here's the other cool call-out about Baker is he lost Chris Godwin, he lost Kate Odden, he lost some of these guys, right, the team started off with Rashad White at the running back, then they shift to Bucky Irving and now they're trying to be be a run first team, but Baker's throwing the ball so well that now the entire offense is hot.
Speaker 1:John, you mentioned it. You know thinking for next year, guys. Baker is a guy. That makes me nervous, though, when we start thinking about okay, well, how is he going to compare to this year? This could be a unicorn year for Baker. Let's just put it on the table. This could be a unicorn year. We don't know. We've seen him perform very well, john. We're Browns fans. We're Ryan Dye Browns fans. As sad as that is right, we saw how good he can be, but nothing was even close to this, like not even remotely close. So for me, man, be weary Drafting him next year. If you're thinking his expectation is a top five QB, I think he probably slips just a shade. Next year, teams are going to have a little bit better game script on them. They're going to have a little bit more film. They're going to be able to understand the offense a little bit more. Right. Things change from year to year so drastically, especially for a guy like Baker.
Speaker 2:And you'll assume that that division should get better next year. Way better. It was an unfortunate just pile of dog shit in the NFC South this year and assuming that gets better, he's going to have harder competition as well.
Speaker 1:Great call. Look at the Saints. Look how bad the Saints were. Look at how bad the Carolina Panthers have been. And then you talk that now they're vying for the NFC South division with a rookie quarterback who's not playing well in Michael Penix Jr. Like. So for me, man, yeah, like I think that this division is only going to get better. So great call out there. So just be careful when looking at Baker Mayfield for 2025. Guys level, set your own, your own expectations. But if you can get him around that QB 10 spot, shit, john. And two quarterback league man, there's a lot of value there. In a two-quarterback league man, there's a lot of value there.
Speaker 2:Baker Mayfield finished he was a top 10 quarterback. Top 10 quarterback in all games but four. That's incredible Top 10. Yeah, yeah, incredible year. Bake. Gotta love it, man, I'm proud of you. All right, number five let's go to Jared Goff, quarterback for the Detroit Lions man, 375 points on the year. He started the year with a projection of QB 14, ended at 5. 20.3 points a game. What's going on with Goff King? Goffrey?
Speaker 1:John Goff has just totally taken Detroit by storm. That city loves him. He's bought into Dan Campbell and, my lord, is it showing John Jared Goff right? 4,398 yards. He's going to have a hell of a lot more than that after this week. Right, he's going to have a hell of a lot more than that than after this week, and he's still finished top five. In addition to that, well, what was his passing touchdowns? He still threw for 36 passing touchdowns and only 10 interceptions.
Speaker 1:When we talk about efficiency, when you talk about finding diamond in the rough, when you're thinking about your draft strategies, guys, there's two rooms of thought here. One is you go for one of those top guys, knowing that you can anchor your team on them, praying for you're right, not an injury to occur. Or you're going for a guy that's like a Baker or a Jared Goff, to where you're drafting your team and you're trying to hit on those receivers, running backs, tight end, et cetera, building that depth and then taking a flyer on one of these quarterbacks and hoping they hit. Every single year there's a quarterback like this that hits, and this year we talked about last year's Stafford, or two years ago's Stafford. Last year a few others came into play this year, it's Jared Goff and Baker. When you're thinking about 2025, guys, and what your draft strategies could be, think about what you want to do in terms of are you anchoring that team on a quarterback or you have something in your pocket like a Jared Goff?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean Jared Goff's one of those guys that sure he finishes at five but it doesn't feel like that all the time. He doesn't give you a lot of those boner weeks. He had, you know, two of them in there. Uh, week 11 against Jacksonville with 34 points. Uh, week 15 against Buffalo with 41 points. But most of his, you know, he's generally going to be in the teens. He was right around that 12 to 16 points almost every week and peppering in a few you know, 25 point weeks in there. So, jared Goff, you know, even though he ends up at the five, you don't draft this guy as a ceiling guy. You're not looking at him to win you a week. You're looking at him to give you a solid foundation. I think Baker's kind of. The same way, you're not drafting this guy saying, oh my God, he's going to throw five touchdowns again. All right, he did that twice, take it easy. You know it's a long, long season, but I think these are good floor guys for you to have a solid foundation to you help you win your leagues. All right, let's keep going over to the next guy here.
Speaker 2:Let's go number six here in our trio. Rookie sensation. We got a rookie here, frankie. Jaden Daniels. Rookie quarterback for the Washington Commanders 370 points, five points behind Jared Goff, projected to be the QB6. Frankie, he was the QB six, depending on your scoring here, averaging 22 and a half points per game. Talk to me about Jaden.
Speaker 1:Guys, we were all over Jaden. We had, you know, everybody was coming at us on YouTube saying no-transcript, mind-blowing, his passing attempts. Guys, this is a rookie. This is a rookie on a historically terrible team and a terrible organization that they haven't been able to figure it out. John, they put the ball in this cat's hand. He ended up throwing the ball 468 times.
Speaker 1:Guys, if you go back and look at what that looks like, that is more than Josh Allen, that is more than Lamar Jackson. When you are asking a rookie to do these types of things, and then he's doing them at the highest level possible, it's incredible, man. So shout out to Jaden Daniels, moving forward. Guys, this is absolutely somebody that you can anchor your team on.
Speaker 1:In my personal opinion, I don't think this is a random rookie year sensation. I think next year it'll be very minimal sophomore slump, and I say that because of the options that he has around him in terms of Scary Terry, in terms of them adding even more people in the draft. You have Zach Ertz, who stepped up, you drafted Ben Sinnott, who you got in the second round last year, and now you have Austin Eckler, who was hurt and you sold Brian Robinson Jr. Guys, this is a team that can do some really cool shit for years to come, and it's going to be anchored on Jaden Daniels. I really think Jaden Daniels' ceiling is Lamar. I think that that's truly his ceiling capability. Especially when we're talking about them almost having identical numbers right, that's pretty incredible. So for me, man, I think that this is amazing for Jayden Daniels.
Speaker 2:Yeah, jayden Daniels only had less than 200 yards passing twice in games that he finished. That's insane, and they were just below 200 yards passing. So very, very solid floor. And to have 800 yards rushing and six touchdowns Nuts, nuts I think that's his floor. To be perfectly honest, I really do, and that's why, like, if we're looking at next year, even though you know, let's look at it this way you had Jared Goff and Baker Mayfield finish above Jaden Daniels. I'm taking Jaden Daniels above those two guys because of the ceiling. Like I said, the other guys had floor plays. Jaden Daniels is a ceiling play. I mean, this is a guy that can rush for two touchdowns in a game as well as throw for two or three at the same time. Not a lot of quarterbacks can say that man, and we already talked about the ones who can do that.
Speaker 2:All right, let's keep moving on here. Let's go to 7, 8, and 9. We got number 7 is Sam Darnold. Qb for the Minnesota Vikings. Bo Nix number eight, a quarterback for the Denver Broncos and Jalen Hurts at number nine, quarterback for the Eagles. Sam Darnold All right, absolutely incredible season out of Sam Darnold this year 335 fantasy points. He was projected to be the QB 17. He was a new face in a new place. Well, guess what? He ended up being the QB7 here, averaging 19.5 points per game. What's going on with Sammy?
Speaker 1:I mean, there's so much to be said about a guy who, two years ago, was completely written off right, and let me tell you what did Geno Smith say? They might have written me off, but I didn't write back right, and I love that. I love that because that's what Sam Darnold encompassed this year, guys. He was terrible for the Jets, even worse for the Carolina Panthers Gets an opportunity solely because JJ McCarthy goes down. Let's call a spade a spade, and he ran with it. And, my God, did he run with it, guys? 4,153 passing yards, he had 202 rushing yards and he threw for 35 passing touchdowns and he threw only for 12 interceptions. My Lord, here's what's interesting, guys. If you had Sam Darnold on your team, you were so happy. You picked him up off the waiver wire, you didn't draft him, and, my God, were you happy.
Speaker 1:How do we look at CM Darnold next year? That's what I want to focus on for him, because he might not even be a Viking next year. Guys, when you invest, when the Vikings invest in JJ McCarthy right, they traded up to get him and then you paid JJ, right, you paid him very handsomely. You're going to have to start thinking about Jordan Addison. You're going to have to start thinking about some of these younger guys on your defense, which made you a top five defense all year, right, with all of this kind of happening. And then you look at what Sam Darnold has done. He's going to demand a contract. As crazy as that sounds, this dude is ready to go on any of these teams that need a quarterback. They're looking at Sam Darnold like holy shit. Maybe he is our savior. Were looking at Sam Darnold like holy shit, maybe he is our savior. I'm not trusting that, but that's what these guys are looking at.
Speaker 1:So, when you think about fantasy football and where to hang your hat next year, john, if Sam Darnold is not throwing the ball to JJ Jordan Addison, tj Hawkinson, with Aaron Jones behind him in a very solid offensive line, in a mastermind at calling plays with Kevin O'Connell, I don't know if I'm drafting Sam Darnold. What if you move Sam Darnold to the Giants? Yeah, he's thrown to Malik Neighbors, but we saw what happened there. Do we like that? Fuck no. What if he goes to the Raiders? Sure, you have Jacoby Myers in the number one tight end, who's unbelievable. Is he going to be as good? Fuck no.
Speaker 1:So that's what's so interesting about Sam Darnold, guys, is you need to be thinking about where these quarterbacks ended up. Some of them are bluebirds. Some of them we might miss the mark and see their bluebirds for 2025. And Sam Darnold could be a top 10 quarterback again. But just be doing your research. Listen to us. We're going to be giving you guys this insight as we go through the year, man, because Sam Darnold is going to be a guy that's going to change up a team and is going to change the Vikings on how they operate if they move forward with JJ McCarthy. So this guy is going to be really fun to see what happens in the off season.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're recording this before the week 18 games. I mean, we only want to talk about how we don't want the stats to be padded for week 18 because everybody's fantasy leagues are over. So that's why we're doing the stats now. But sam darnold is crazy because they play the lions for the number one seed in the nf, in the nfc, and you're telling me this guy could be the number one seed in the nfc potential super bowl aspirations here and not be on the same team next year. That's a real fucking scenario. That is bananas to me, crazy. So we're going to have to keep an eye on him for next year. Again, not a huge ceiling guy that you're going to go over and reach for in your drafts next year, but, depending on if he's on the Vikings, I see him very much as a Jared Goff Very, very similar to a Jared Goff where it's a great team averaging 20 points a game, going to be a beautiful floor for you and not a big ceiling for you. All right, let's go on to the next guy here, big rookie sensation, man. Did not expect this guy to be in the top 10 here, but I love it. Man Loved his play this year.
Speaker 2:Number eight, bo Nix. Quarterback for the Denver Broncos 322 points for the year projected to be quarterback 27,. 22 points for the year projected to be quarterback 27,. Ended up as eight 18.4 points per game.
Speaker 1:Love Bo Nix. This year. Man, john, bo Nix was, I mean, and we, I'll admit this when we were doing the rookie review last year, I was torn between putting him on as a top 10 and not and we actually left him off okay, because I didn't think, based on him going into the situation with Denver, there wasn't a lot around him. We knew the running game would struggle, all of this stuff. We were wrong. So was everybody else. Bo Nix proved everyone wrong and it is awesome, guys, to see this young talent come up. This is so big, this is super big. So think about what he did, bo Nix 3,454 passing yards. He threw for 25 touchdowns. He ran for four touchdowns. He also had 383 rushing and only 12 picks. Guys, this is somebody. If Denver can get it right in terms of continuing to add pieces around him, get a running back. That's worth a damn and figure this out.
Speaker 1:John, I'm actually comfortable saying you can draft Bo Nix as the top 10 passer. I really believe that top 12,. What I'm getting at is he can be a QB1 for your fantasy team in 2025. And it's because his rushing capability gives him a solid floor almost 400 yards, and then, on top of it, sean Payton handed over the offense to Bo Nix and Bo Nix handled it beautifully. I mean honestly, man, you could look at Bo Nix's stats and compare that to Jaden Daniels and the way he operated. Bo Nix could be offensive rookie of the year. Like that's not out of the realm of possibility, especially if he takes them fighting through a strong AFC to a potential playoff. So what I'm getting at is, man, this was so fun to see Bo Nix a guy that totally was off everybody's radar to a certain degree to poke his head in and get a top 10 finish. Excellent job by Bo Nix was a great job.
Speaker 2:I mean he was a top 10 quarterback six times this year. I mean just absolutely fantastic with that rushing floor and I think that was low as well. I think they can unleash his rushing even a bit more. But man hats off to Sean Payton. This team was in a total rebuild. I stayed away from the entire team. They started unloading really talented players like Jerry Judy and all of that. I was just like, nah, they're in a rebuild, man Not touching it.
Speaker 2:This year Bo Nix came through in surprise. So yeah, I am very much targeting Bo Nix next year in a super flex to have Bo Nix and team him up with one of those top guys, a Joe Burrow or a Lamar or a Josh Allen. Oh, chef's, kiss baby. All right, let's keep rolling here. Number nine this one's a bit of a bit of a surprise here, frank, but let's break it down as to why it happened. Number nine jalen hurts quarterback for the eagles 314, 10 points lower than bo nicks this year, projected as the qb3, ended as the nine but averaged 21.3 points per game. Like we just said, bo nicks was 18 points a game. Jalen hurts averaged more. Talk to me about it.
Speaker 1:I mean, Jalen Hurts, guys, is exactly who you thought you were going to get when you drafted him. He was probably QB3, QB4 off the board. Honestly, you shouldn't be upset that he finished QB9 because, John, he was a little bit banged up towards the end. We saw him go out with a concussion, all that stuff. But here's what was a little bit frustrating, If you owned Jalen Hurts, it was a lot of the passing attack that was kind of lacking in comparison to years prior when he only and I'm saying only, he didn't even throw for 3,000 yards.
Speaker 1:He had 2,900 yards. He only threw 18 touchdowns and he had five interceptions. But here's where Jalen Hurts makes it up His rushing. He had 630 rushing yards and 14 rushing touchdowns, John, last year he had 15 or 16, I believe. This year we were like, hey, with Saquon Barkley coming in, I was nervous to take him. I said I wouldn't take him in the top three because I thought that he was going to give way to Saquon. What we found, guys, that shit ain't changing. The touch bush is there and it's staying. This is not a Jason Kelsey thing anymore. This is what they do. This is an Eagles identity when they get down to the one or two yard line. They're lining up and tush pushing it. They're not handing it off to Saquon. So what's interesting man is, Jalen Hurts is who you thought he was. He ended up right around where you expected. But, guys, you would really be expecting Jalen Hurts to be where you had drafted him, knowing that he's averaging 21 points a game. Just a really good year overall.
Speaker 2:You know it's an anomaly. It's something you can't bank on and trust or anything like that. He had 14 rushing touchdowns this year. Last year he had 15. Year before that he had 13. Year before that he had 10. This is a thing that's going to happen. You can count on this of having double-digit rushing touchdowns for him. But you're right, what happened this year was the passing stats and I just think that's purely having Saquon 2,000-yard runner.
Speaker 2:That's exact. They didn't have to rely on his arm as heavily as they've had to in the past. Their defense was much, much better this year. He didn't throw nearly as many picks. He had 15 picks last year, so that makes a big difference here. And, yeah, I think Jalen Hurts. He had what? 1,000 yards less than he normally does, passing 100 less completions, and to still, he missed the last two games of the year. Had he played those, he'd still be in, you know, a top 10 between 5 and 10. So I think you can bank on it. Each and every year he's got not only an alpha in AJ Brown but Devonta Smith. A tight end's always going to get involved. And, man, if you got Saquon back there still.
Speaker 2:I still think he's going to be a great pick for next year. Yeah, all right, let's keep going here. Let's do 10, 11, and 12. Number 10, we've got Patrick Mahomes, baby of the Chiefs. Very interesting, we'll get into that here in a second. Number 11, brock Purdy, quarterback for the 49ers. And 12, kyler Murray for the Arizona Cardinals. All right, patrick Mahomes 313 fantasy points, one point below Jalen Hurts, 10 points below Bo Nix. Think about that. He was projected to be the QB4, ended up as the QB10, averaging 18.3 points per game. What happened with Patty this year?
Speaker 1:Miserable Misery is what happened if you drafted Patrick Mahomes, guys, johnny and I, we were in a league together, right 14-man, super flex, super intense league battle of the brands, bunch of podcasters all getting together and really fighting it out. We took Mahomes 101, and boy did we fuck that up, guys. What happened is is just he had a down year. It didn't look like Patrick Mahomes when you start looking at what he did. He didn't throw for 4,000 yards, he had 3,928. He ended up having 307 yards rushing, 26 passing touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Guys, that is middle of the road. That is not a Patrick Mahomes stat line. That's not even fucking close to what he's normally doing. So not a Patrick Mahomes stat line. That's not even fucking close to what he's normally doing. So for me, man, when he was supposed to be QB4, knowing that he had all of these pieces right, he had Rasheed Rice, he had that of Hollywood Brown, travis Kelsey's back and invigorated, and you have Pacheco. Everything changed when Rasheed Rice went down and Hollywood Brown's out now for season, and oh, by the way, your superstar running back is also gone. Hollywood Brown's out now for season and oh, by the way, your superstar running back is also gone. So now it really affected Mahomes' play. So for me, we know what he did this year Number 10, let's look to what do we do with him in 2025?.
Speaker 1:John, I think Mahomes is going to be back to a top five QB I really do, I think once we start seeing Rishi Rice get back and healthy. We already saw the immediate lift that Hollywood Brown provided, in addition to that of D-Hot being added mid-year, which was huge for Patrick Mahomes. I mean, really, outside of Kelsey, his number one target was Noah Gray at some point. I mean, you're not going to be doing a lot from a fantasy perspective. If that's your guy, no offense. Noah Gray, you're great, but there's tears to this shit. So for me, I really think, guys, 2025 mahomes is going to be back. Right, he led them and the defense led them to a 14 15 win team. Right, they're number one in the afc. So it's good to see. But 2025, I expect another top five performance, as long as his teammates stay healthy I don't disagree with you.
Speaker 2:It's very situational. I mean, that's the bottom line is that j Allen did it. Lamar did it without spy spreading the ball around by not having an alpha on the team, but they were. They had healthier receivers. It's healthy. Yeah, it's not as if they weren't throwing out random guys out here. Uh, like, patrick Mahomes was healthier running backs and healthier running backs, yeah, and healthier running games, absolutely. So, yeah, I'm I'm with you. I think we need to temper expectations. Patrick Mahomes is not going to be that quarterback that he is in the actual NFL on fantasy, on paper, it's just not going to happen. You've got guys that are putting up way more ridiculous numbers. Yes, he's going to be fine for you. Yes, he's got a solid floor, but this was definitely his worst year since 2020. And it didn't feel good in fantasy, yeah, I mean fantasy-wise, numbers-wise. We're just going to have to temper our expectations with Patrick Mahomes. The ceiling got much, much lower this year in my mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's capped.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right. Number 11, brock Purdy. This is not a guy. I've always I've never really been in the Brock Purdy fan club. Purdy fan club, let's say, and every time I talk shit about him he plays great. And every time I come around a little bit and say you know what, I think he could start Brock Purdy this week. He takes an absolute shit. So it doesn't make me like him more, because he makes me wrong every time, no matter what I say about him. But, all right, brock Purdy 49ers 288 fantasy points. He was projected to be the QB eight. He did not perform that way. He was the quarterback 11 here, 18.6 points per game. What's going on with Brock Purdy? How do you feel about him for next year? Is he going to be the quarterback next year?
Speaker 1:John. All great points. I do think he's going to be the quarterback next year. I do think they're going to have to pay Brock Purdy next year. This is last year on his rookie contract and that is one of the best contracts the 49ers could ever ask for. When he is literally mystery irrelevant, that is as team friendly as possible. So I think that he's going to be very good moving forward.
Speaker 1:Guys, we saw Brock Purdy finish, as you mentioned, number 11, but that's without Christian McCaffrey all year. That's with Debo having one of the worst years ever. That is, with Brandon Ayuk, literally all the turmoil that happened in the offseason, then to finally get in and start playing and then to tear his ACL so he was gone. All this shit kind of happened. And then they lost Jordan Mason, so on and so forth. So for me, man, it's kind of situational. To Patrick Mahomes, I think there were a lot of things that Brock Purdy did very well. I think there's a lot of things that Brock Purdy struggled immensely and when teams were able to key in on him, man, and basically lock down George Kittle and take away, kind of you know, the rush attack, he struggled and that's just the reality of it. So, with next year, with the players coming back, they're probably going to reconfigure some contracts. They're going to start figuring out how to really make Brock Purdy all warm and cozy again. I think he's going to be fine. I think he's going to be fine. I think he's going to be a QB one once more, like he was this past year. I think you can wait in your 2025 draft, to draft a guy like Brock Purdy super late and get good value out of him, right.
Speaker 1:But here's what's interesting and here's a big key point. Guys, when we talked about the first 10 quarterbacks, right, everything kind of was okay, and what I mean by that is from their projection to what they did, from an actual fantasy output, it was fairly okay. Here is where it starts becoming interesting when you look at how poorly across the NFL, the quarterback landscape and how they performed actually was. When you start looking at what Brock Purdy's projection was at QB8, his projection was QB8, 369 fantasy points. Guys, he finished at QB11 with 288.
Speaker 1:But let's think about where QB8 was. That was Bo Nix. Bo Nix had 322 fantasy points in comparison to 370, 369. Guys, that's a monumental teardrop. That is huge. That's, you know, at 10 points a game we're talking, that's six games, five games, and so for me, man, when we start going through some of these other quarterbacks, you're going to start seeing that outside of a couple of these guys, the quarterback landscape was terrible this year and, honestly, john, we kind of saw it from the product itself, as a business standpoint, from the NFL, it was kind of a weird year for the quarterback.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and two of the quarterbacks that really struggled here, that were in the top 10, that were just on the verge of not even being QB1s Patrick Mahomes, brock Purdy I mean they were just. Their entire teams were riddled with injuries. You know, I think Brock Purdy is more similar to a Sam Darnold or a Jared Goff, where you've got a very good team with a good quarterback, but not a quarterback that puts up gaudy numbers. But he's got to have that team around him, he's got to be surrounded by that team, got to be coached. Well, you know, you lose. Sam Darnold loses JJ. Sam Darnold loses Aaron Jones. Sam Darnold's not a top 10 quarterback. No, you know Jared Goff as well. Amon Ross, st Brown isn't there and they don't have that strong running game with Sonic and Nux. He's not the same quarterback. Brock Purdy lost everything, everything. He lost CMC. He lost Brandon Ayuk. He lost, you know, debo's in and out and disappeared even when he was in Jordan Mason, jordan Mason.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were down to their fifth string running backs. Brad Purdy's not that guy. He's not going to be able to carry the team on his shoulders. I don't think Goff's like that, I don't think Darnold's like that. So I think they're all in that similar category that as long as their teams are healthy, these guys can perform. If they don't, you're going to be under 20 points a game for sure, for sure. All right, let's keep going here. We've got Kyler Murray at the number 12 spot, so just inside a top 12 quarterback here. Kyler Murray of the Arizona Cardinals 283 points, almost identical to Brock Purdy. Projected to be the QB 10, was the QB 12. I don't think he necessarily really disappointed you this year, frankie. I just think the ceiling you thought was there was not 17 and a half points per game, john, he was miserable to me, because it's exactly what you said.
Speaker 1:It was always 14 points, 20 points, 12 points, 22 points.
Speaker 1:There was no ceiling play at all for Kyler and we even were talking about he was a part of a top five stack, john. Before the season it was Marv and Kyler, and so we're like, holy shit, you got James Conner, you got Trey McBride, you got Marv coming in, you got Michael Wilson, you got the team around you in a division that's not that great, right, it's okay, it's middle of the road, but you know, it ain't the AFC North, but it ain't the NFC South. Right, it's right in that middle tier. And so I'm thinking, man, kyler Murray's upside heading into this year was top five, top six for sure, and with him performing double that at 12, it was just like a damn it right, you drafted him to be like that QB 10 mark or whatever, and it's just like a damn it right, like you drafted him to be like that QB 10 mark or whatever, and it's just like you got no value. So that's why I said it was annoying to be a Kyler Murray owner this year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was. I mean, we did have Kyler and Marv as a top five stack, and who knew that it was going to be Bo Nix and Cortland Sutton instead? Right, right, are you ever going to bet on that? If you're betting between those two stacks, would you ever have taken Bo Nix and Courtland Sutton over Kyler and Marv? No, way.
Speaker 2:No way. Yeah, they've got some shit to figure out here. Kyler Murray he's a scary quarterback to draft. You get so tempted because there is a rushing floor, because he is the team. He literally puts the team on his tiny little shoulders, whether or not James Connors in or not. He's throwing to Marv, he's throwing to Trey McBride They've got options as well. So it's super frustrating not to get those ceilings out of him. But yeah, we're going to. We're going to have to see what we're going to do with him next year. He's going to be one of those guys that I think we're going to be arguing about nonstop. He's going to be one of those guys that I think we're going to be arguing about nonstop.
Speaker 2:All right, let's keep moving on here. Let's go to 13, 14, and 15. We've got Jordan Love, justin Herbert and Aaron Rodgers. This will be an interesting conversation. Number 13, jordan Love of the Green Bay Packers 276 points. Very similar to Kyler, he was projected to be the QB 9, ended up as the QB 13, averaging 17.3 points a game. You know, it felt Frankie to me that Jordan Love was better than that. This year Are the stats kind of skewed because he did miss?
Speaker 1:a handful of games in the middle of the season. There, yeah, john, they are. And guys, here's some of his stats. Right, he threw for 3,320 yards, he had 83 rushing yards, he had 25 passing touchdowns, one rushing touchdown and he only threw for 11 picks. Now, when you compare his stats to Kyler Murray, you're like wait, your dog. And Kyler Murray, when he threw for 300 more passing yards, had 500 more rushing yards, right, but he didn't hit the mark when passing touchdowns or even really rushing touchdowns for Kyler. Kyler had 17 passing five rushing. Again, jordan Love 25 passing one rushing.
Speaker 1:So for me, man, what this comes down to is, I think, the hype from him being so well in his playoff run last year leading into this year's draft. It was like holy shit, the ceiling on this guy is through the roof and especially when you have all of the weapons that they had, I mean it's pretty incredible. I actually think Jordan Love man, it was almost like he did what he was doing. He did what he was supposed to do and it's kind of like if you drafted him to be that ceiling play. Yeah, you might be frustrated, but it's a little bit different because for me, there was a higher expectation for Kyler right Versus that of a Jordan Love to where, yeah, man, he was his first year starting last year right, we're starting to see this very young receiving core around him.
Speaker 1:Collectively. They brought in Josh Jacobs to really rely on that rushing attack and it worked, and so the team was phenomenal. But, you know, jordan Love's fantasy stats kind of were just meh. But it was interesting because I still looked at Jordan Love and I think you did too as somebody who was like, yeah, he was solid, he was solid. But it's interesting because we're not having that same sentiment for Kyler, because the ceiling expectation was so much higher for Kyler I would like to see.
Speaker 2:I think in order to get Jordan Love to take the next step to level up, I think he does need an alpha receiver. I think they have a very good receiving core. Josh Jacobs was an absolute goddamn beast. New face, new place, awesome and that took so much pressure off of Jordan Love this year. I really believe that he did miss a few games, so I think he would have ended up in the top 10 had he played. But yeah, that's what I think. To get him to the next level would be an alpha. To get him to the next level would be an alpha. Give him an AJ Brown, give him the JJ, give him a guy like that. Put a T Higgins on that team. That would be very, very interesting man. Yeah, I can see them making a move in the offseason trying to find somebody like that for him, because that will just. Jaden Reed is an excellent receiver and I think his future in the NFL is super bright. He's not an alpha, he's not a one, he's a Debo Samuel-like. Absolutely, you make him a secondary. He's a Devonta Smith. He's, yeah, one of those guys. And Amon Ross St Brown, which Amon Ross plays all over the field, he plays in the slot, he plays, he's everywhere. Similar to that. That. If you can give him though he's a different thing, I'm just saying they're built very similarly and and play very similarly. Yeah, he's a god damn, he's a sun god man, come on, he's amazing, but give him an alpha and I think he becomes one as well. All right, all right, let's keep going here.
Speaker 2:Number 14 we got justin herbert 260 fantasy points. He was projected to be the QB 20. He overperformed that as the QB 14, averaging 16.3 points per game. Justin Herbert's very interesting man. This is kind of a tale of two cities, tale of two quarterbacks here with Justin Herbert, he was projected as the QB 20 because I think they knew they were just going to run the tits off the ball. And you know what they started the season doing? That Harbaugh came in he's installing his guys, his plan we're going to take football back to 1997 and we're just going to run the ball constantly. And that's exactly what he did. And then things started shifting and all of a sudden we went oh shit, justin Herbert's legit. What went on here, man? Talk about how everything went down with Justin Herbert this year. Guys.
Speaker 1:Justin Herbert for the first few weeks was barely startable. Actually, john, I think we even mentioned it he was droppable because of that. Guys, jk, he was the team and then, when JK got hurt, we kept talking about it. This team is a run-first team. It opens up everything else. When that happened, they had to rely on Herbert, and, my Lord, was he efficient as hell. Guys, here's how good Justin Herbert was 3,500 passing yards on a run, first team, okay. He had still 264 rushing yards, which again is an additional 26 points in fantasy football guys. And then he had 21 passing touchdowns in three interceptions.
Speaker 1:John, if you talk about giving somebody an alpha, right, we got McConkie. We saw what Laddie did. Laddie was sensational, especially in the last seven weeks of the year, right, but it takes these rookie receivers sometimes outside of Malik Nabors, outside of the super special, crazy out-of-the-box, elite athletes like those guys, some of these other cats, it takes a little bit of time, like Garrett Wilson, like Amin Ra, like Laddie, right. And so now, if you're telling me that you could end up getting a serious-ass, top-tier receiver to pair with Laddie and Quentin Johnson which, by the way, welcome back way to come back from the dead right, because there was a lot of time. That fuck man. We weren't sure if he was going to be on the team anymore because he couldn't catch the ball. And now, dude, I'm seeing Justin Herbert. I think his ceiling John is top 10 next year If they can get him a true receiver, one to pair with Laddie. I think that this is a sky rocket type of team.
Speaker 2:I do too. I think he's one of those guys that is going to be underdrafted next year. He was underdrafted this year, but it was smart to do so. He did not pull that off until midway through the season when they started opening him up. And Harbaugh I mean to see how much Harbaugh loves him. Harbaugh, calling him a beast, building him up, boosting him up. You give him a guy, maybe a T Higgins. Give him another option on the outside. Josh Palmer is not that guy. He's not that guy. And Quentin Johnston is only kind of that guy because of Justin Herbert. Give him an alpha with Laddie running all over the goddamn field and with Q on the outside. There too, they're going to keep that running game strong. Yeah, man, I mean, I really think Herbert could be one of those surprise quarterbacks next year.
Speaker 1:And John, it goes just like even talking about the downplay of the quarterback this year. Right, you mentioned it QB 20 projection at 323 points. He finished as the QB 14 at 260 points. Guys, this is what we're talking about. Outside of those top few, you're going to start hearing some crazy differences in the projection to where they actually honestly finished and that caused a lot of craziness from your quarterback position in fantasy this year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the other stats that really jumps out to me. With Justin Herbert too, this is the most sacks he's ever taken, by far 40 sacks. He only had three interceptions, but he had 40 sacks. I mean that's going to wear on you. The year before that was 29. So he had 11 more sacks this year than he had last year. So that's something to keep in mind as well. All right, let's move forward here. Number 15, we've got Aaron Rodgers. Really interesting here To tell me, aaron Rodgers only had 10 points less than Justin Herbert doesn't sound right to me, right no?
Speaker 2:Or 25 points less than Jordan Love and Kyler Murray. It doesn't sound right to me. He was projected to be the quarterback 18, came in as a quarterback 15, averaging 15.1 points per game. That's pretty low to be ranking in the top 15 here. Talk to me about Karen Rodgers.
Speaker 1:Guys, Karen Rodgers was tough this year. I mean, yeah, he kind of finished right around his projection, even a little bit better. This was someone that I thought had QB1 potential written all over him. Guys, there was so much hype coming in, you got Devontae Adams mid-season. You end up have Garrett Wilson starting off, Tyler Conklin, Alan Lazard, you name it Brees Hall yeah, dude, I mean it was just insane. And then to see the drop-off, to actually see the drop-off occur.
Speaker 1:Guys, for me and I'm going to be very crystal clear when I say this Aaron Rodgers is off my board for 2025. I think that there's so much younger talent coming up Bo Nix, Jaden Daniels, right, Even Drake May Drake May, who performed very well towards the end. I might even stack rank him over Aaron Rodgers next year. So, guys, for me we don't even know if Aaron Rodgers is going to be a Jet. We don't know if Devontae Adams is going to be a Jet. We don't know if Garrett Wilson is going to be on the Jets, because, from what we're hearing, there's a lot of rumors that the Chiefs are trying to trade for him, right? So there's a lot of shit going on with this Jets team. So for me, man, yeah, Aaron Rodgers, tip of the cap. You performed better than your projection.
Speaker 2:I guess way less in points but you're off my board in 2025. I think the only reason is technically he was above his projections because nobody wanted to draft him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they downplayed him. They didn't know he had an Achilles injury and you know what they should have downplayed him? He's not the same guy. He absolutely is not the same guy. He doesn't move in the pocket, he doesn't move outside of the pocket like he used to. And, man, when you're telling me you got Garrett Wilson and you've got Devontae Adams, you've got that talent that he was surrounded with Crazy talent, and you're telling me he can't move into a top 12 quarterback, I just that blows my mind. Man, I'm very scared of him next year. I mean, I think there's going to be a lot of drama and bullshit in the offseason. I don't know that this team's going to want to put up with that if there's another option that they can make in here. But yeah, really scary. If you drafted him this year it had to be a rollercoaster ride. So sorry, it made you sick there. All right, let's look at 16, 17, and 18 here.
Speaker 2:Interesting group of guys here Geno Smith with the Seahawks, matt Stafford with the Rams and Caleb Williams with the Bears. Geno Smith, all right. Kind of a tale of two quarterbacks as well. Really kind of took off and exploded early in the season and then really went downhill quite a bit. Geno Smith 238 points on the year, again 10 points behind Aaron Rodgers. Just saying that alone makes you kind of want to puke. I don't want to start that guy. Hey, this quarterback's going to end up 10 points less than Aaron Rodgers did this year. You want him on your team? No, sure, don't, no, sure, don't, man? He was projected to be the QB 18. I'm sorry, projected to be the QB 12 ended up at 16, averaging 15.9 points per game. What'd you think about Gino?
Speaker 1:I think he did. I think he did. Okay, I think we're seeing I think last year we saw Gino Smith ceiling John, you mentioned that last year. I vividly remember you saying that in and this year we're seeing the real Gino Smith, which is a competent quarterback, guys, he's a starting NFL caliber quarterback. He's just terrible for fantasy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he had over 4,000 yards passing this year, but, to your point, tell a tale of two QBs with him. He had 17 passing touchdowns, which isn't a lot, and he threw for 15 interceptions, which is a lot. In addition, right, they relied heavily on Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet, which you think would open them up even more. Candidly speaking, man, geno Smith just missed DK on quite a few throws. And so for me, man, yeah, it was miserable if you had him. He was kind of you were floating in purgatory, right. But I think that this is where you can expect Geno Smith, and I think he's a lot of value in a two quarterback league for next year, right, just because the weapons he has around him. But again, he's going to be middle of the pack and that's where you need to level, set your own expectation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and a super flex, great QB too. I think it's a very, very safe value. Qb too, not a guy I want to anchor my team on in a one quarterback league. And a couple of those stats you just said are the reasons why 17 touchdowns but 15 picks and 48 sacks. 48 sacks, 48 sacks, man. So it's just really sloppy football.
Speaker 2:You know, he just kind of reminded me this year of maybe a Jameis Winston or a Joe Flacco, where it's just kind of a wing and a prayer and hoping guys come down with it, and that's not. You know, you're getting negative points for sacks, you're getting negative points for picks. So I mean that destroyed his stat line and fantasy points. All right, all right, let's talk a little bit about Matthew Stafford. Man, you want to talk about a guy that I think. I think his watch has ended, frankie, I don't see a ceiling at all any longer for Matthew Stafford. Am I just overreacting here? Matthew Stafford, 17th quarterback on the year, 232 points, five points behind Geno Smith, projected to be QB 23. I just think people were scared of him. Ended up at QB 17,. 13.9 points per game for your quarterbacks. That's like an RB2, you know, and that's your quarterback. What's going on? What do we do?
Speaker 1:John, I think you're right. I think we're seeing the sunset of Matt Stafford, and I love Stafford. He's been a guy that I think he's a borderline Hall of Famer due to that Super Bowl win and things like that. I think he's right on the cusp of that. But for me, man, when we talk about fantasy football, I think his watch is ending, and I say that because he what better situation could you ask to be in? You had Kyron Williams, you had Cooper Cup, you had Puka Nakua, you finally got Tyler Higbee back, you had Colby Parkinson, who was very good, and you still performed shitty. And you're lucky. He's so lucky.
Speaker 1:The defense was like started doing something towards the end of the year to really make a run and potentially be, you know, representing them as the division leader for the playoffs. But for me, man, when it comes to fantasy, matt Stafford, unfortunately, is a guy that I'm not willing to draft next year either. I would actually go with Gino Smith over him. I would even go with our next guy that we're going to talk about, caleb Williams, man, because I think Caleb Williams at least has an arrow pointing up. It was a tough rookie year. We saw that with Caleb right. His projection was QB 19, man and he ended up QB 18. Projection was QB 19, man and he ended up QB 18, good point differential, really bad. He had 217 points, his projection was 326. But again, he's figuring it out. He was in a terrible spot with the coaching and the team atmosphere and things of that nature. So for me I would lean Caleb Williams over Stafford. But both of these guys, man, it was a tough year. It was a tough year for both.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm with you on Stafford man. I mean, he was a top 10 quarterback only three times this year.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know that's not the Matthew Stafford we know and love and, for whatever reason, it destroyed Puka Nakua at the end of the season or, I'm sorry, not Puka Nakua Cooper Cup, cooper Cup Disappeared completely at the end of the year. Yeah, yeah, I don't know, matthew staffer, maybe one of those guys off my board for next year as well. I, I'm with you on that one, ma'am. All right. Caleb williams so this is going to be a guy. We we did a video, post it right here.
Speaker 2:Rookie caleb williams number one overall draft pick going to the bears. They drafted a receiver and roma duncey as well. Just completely stacked offensive roster. You could not have had more hype on a team in the offseason coming into this year as the Chicago Bears In my mind, very, very disappointing. Caleb Williams 217 fantasy points, projected to be the QB 19. I think that was just being fair as a rookie Came in as the QB 18, but not a guy. You felt good about starting and most, if not all, weeks, you really couldn't start him Averaging 15.6 points per game. Caleb Williams man, what are we doing, caleb Williams?
Speaker 1:I mean, John, we're hey, man, I think he's going to be right there, right around that same thing for next year. I think he could improve a little bit. Maybe we see him move into top 14, top 15 world. But right now, man, I mean they might not have Keenan Allen. They might not have Keenan Allen next year, right, he might be gone. So you still have DJ Moore, you still have Roma Dunzey, who we saw some really nice play from, but outside of that, I mean it was predominantly Caleb Williams who struggled. And that's what gives me. You know, when you see Bo Nix doing incredible things with half the talent around him, when you see Jaden Daniels, who was drafted two overall, sure, he had Scary Terry, but I'm taking Keenan Allen, I'm taking DJ Moore, I'm taking DeAndre Swift and Roman Dunzey over anything that they had right and they being the commanders, even over Scary Terry. So for me, man, I think that we're going to see them right around, see Caleb Williams finish right around. That mark All right.
Speaker 2:Last thing I'm going to say about Caleb Williams, really quickly. We just freaked out about 40 and 48 sacks. Unless they bolster this offensive line and use that money, they're going to lose with Keenan Allen and a few other guys, unless they're signing offensive linemen or draft offensive linemen. I'm not touching Caleb Williams. He was sacked 67 times this year. That's crazy, 67 times. Otherwise, his play was decent, his numbers were decent and efficiency weren't bad. Only six picks with 19 touchdowns, 3,400 yards passing, 61.9% completion percentage Wasn't bad. But the 67 sacks, you're just not putting this guy in a position to succeed. No Bottom line.
Speaker 2:All right, let's go on to the next couple of guys. Here we've got number 19, 20 and 21. All of these guys absolutely killed you. These were guys you drafted to be your qb1 in single quarterback leagues and all three of these guys destroyed you. Probably the worst of the bunch as far as where they were projected and where they ended up. Cj Stroud at number 19. Tua Tunga-Vailoa at 20. Kirk Cousins at 21. All right, geez, this should be a whole other episode by itself, just to talk about these three guys. No kidding Frankie. Cj Stroud 209 fantasy points. He was projected to be the QB5, way overdrafted points. He was projected to be the QB5, way overdrafted, ended as the QB19, not even a QB1. 14.2 points per game. What the hell happened with CJ Stroud this year?
Speaker 1:man, john, he was flustered. It didn't look like the same CJ Stroud. I fell into that trap, guys. I was all about CJ Stroud. I thought there was no way, no way that, with Nico Collins, tank Dell, stefan Diggs, dalton Schultz, you add Joe Mixon, right, all of this shit that he was not going to perform to top five, let alone top 10. Guys, he doubled that. He's almost at 20.
Speaker 1:And, john, this was so miserable to have. Sure, he had still 3,600, almost 3,700 passing yards, 19 passing touchdowns, but he still threw for 12 picks and the disparity between him throwing for the 19 versus the 12 interceptions the 19 touchdowns versus the 12 interceptions wasn't enough to overcome his lack of volume in terms of the passing yardage. So for me, man, this was miserable. This was actually I'm going to say it, this was the worst quarterback to have on your team this year, based on where you drafted him, the value in the stock that you had to get to get him, and where he actually ended up. If you had him, more than likely, you did not make a Superbowl, and I think I'll put money on that.
Speaker 2:That's how bad this was yeah, I mean his. He had. He just had a really bad year after just blowing the world up last year. I mean he had more attempts and more completions this year than he did last year. That's what's really weird about it. But 19 versus 23 touchdowns, so very similar there. 3,600 yards versus 4,100 yards very similar there. But it was the rest of the team as well. I mean he had 12 picks versus five, 52 sacks versus 38 sacks.
Speaker 1:So 52 sacks, yeah Just a very, very different year.
Speaker 2:Like you said, flustered to go from 38 sacks to 52 sacks. That's going to fluster any quarterback. Yeah, really disappointing, matt. I mean I thought he was overdrafted this year anyway, but I didn't think it was by this much. I just thought he was going to come back. He had an incredible rookie year. Maybe he's going to come back down to life a tad. But yeah, and I thought Joe Mixon would bring him down just a little bit, because they're going to have so much stronger of a running game they're not going to need to throw the ball as much as they did. They did they threw the ball even more and his stats were even less. So very, very strange year. It'd be interesting to see what they do with him. I mean, where do you put him averaging 14.2 points per game? I mean, where do you look at him and what range potentially for next year? Are you taking Justin Herbert over CJ Stroud next year?
Speaker 1:That's a really good question.
Speaker 2:Single quarterback league.
Speaker 1:No, and I'll tell you why Because I think that the upside of CJ Stroud is still a little higher now, that is, speaking as of now. If Justin Herbert gets a true receiver one, I'm going Justin Herbert. But if all things are status quo, everything is consistent from this year we're heading into next year, same players, et cetera. Or maybe no tank Dell, obviously, but let's just say Stefan Diggs comes back, I am leaning CJ Stroud just because I think there's a higher ceiling. But if I go CJ Stroud or you guys go CJ Stroud, you damn near better be picking up another quarterback because you want a high possible ceiling. Play quarterback then, like a what could have been an A-rich, right, just throwing out an example. Or a Bo Nix this year, or somebody along those lines, jaden Daniels right, you might have to go QB, qb or something crazy. But yeah, man, like it's tight. But I would probably still lean Stroud unless Justin Herbert gets a receiver one.
Speaker 2:I think it's going to be really interesting as well when you're looking at that draft and you're going to see Bo Nix, you're going to see Kyler Murray and you're going to see CJ Stroud all in a row right there, and that's going to be a hell of a would-you-rather for next year, frankie, of what you're going to do in that situation, because the ceiling and the hope and the tantalizing.
Speaker 2:What could this be? Is there. It's all there three, but they've also been very disappointing as well. So a little bit of both man, it's got to be interesting. All right, keep going here. Let's uh, let's get weird to a tongue of iloa. 204 points. Right, there was stroud um. Start of the year. Projection was qb 15 17.1 points per game. Now his points per game was higher. Tua did miss some games, obviously with devastating injuries, but that's going to come into play next year as well, with the head injuries going into next year. He takes another concussion which we see people do all the time. He may never play again. He almost didn't come back and play again this time.
Speaker 1:So talk to me about Tua just a tad man, man Guys, I think it's the same boat as CJ Stroud Now, with that being said, I think Tua is a more stable option, as long as he doesn't get hurt. I think that, over CJ Stroud, I think that, just with the team around him, tua, in my opinion, is just he's performing consistently better than what CJ Stroud was. Now, if you are going to wait to draft Tua which I might actually do next year right, if he ends up falling to QB 18, 16, something like that and I have an opportunity to pick him up late, same exact thing of what I said with CJ Stroud you got to pick up another quarterback. What we've seen is Tua goes out, the entire team landscape sucks. And I'm not saying you're picking up the backup to Dolphins. That is not what I'm saying. That is not a good option. You need to literally pick up a Russell Wilson, a Drake May, a CJ Stroud, somebody along those lines as well, to pair with that of Tua, just in case.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean Tua missed five games. So yeah, he ended up at the quarterback 20.
Speaker 2:He would have been top 13. He would have been a quarterback one with 17 points per game. Cj Strava was 14 points per game, you know, and he finished right behind him here. So it is injury, but I think that's going to be the norm. I think you have to take that into consideration. So, like you said, yes, you can take him as your QB one, but you have to have a viable plan. So by taking him, you're taking another quarterback early where you could be getting talent at running back, a receiver and depth there instead, you know. So that's something to consider.
Speaker 2:All right, well, talk to us about Kirk Cousins here. Man, I mean, this is going to be a weird one 192 points. Kirk Cousins came in as the quarterback 21, projected to be the quarterback 21, and I think that was because of the achilles, all of that stuff, new team, all of that kind of shit. Um ended up with 13.7 points per game. Though, kirk cousins, first of all, it hurt. It absolutely hurt you this year, no question. He started off really well and then just completely nosedived to where they're cutting him here to save 10 million dollars. We don't know. Where he's going to. Where they're cutting him here to save $10 million. We don't know where he's going to be next year. Is he going to be on a team? Is he going to be a viable fantasy asset? What do you think, john? I?
Speaker 1:do. I think he could actually do the Cleveland Browns. I think that that's a legitimate possibility. I think you bring him in for dirt cheap and I think that that doesn't provide as much fantasy value as what we think. Guys, is it really that bad? Is the Browns situation a better situation from a fantasy perspective for a quarterback than the Falcons? I would say no. No, I would absolutely say no.
Speaker 1:You have Drake London, you have the emergence of a true receiver two in Darnell Mooney and you have a true receiver three with Ray-Ray McLeod. Welcome Ray-Ray McLeodod to fantasy relevance. And then, in addition to that, we could go back and forth all day in Kyle pits Fair. I got it Cool, but the running backs with B John Robinson out of the backfield from a receiving perspective was awesome. And so then you look at the Browns man. You got Jerry Judy, you got in Joku, and that's pretty much where it stops and ends. Yeah, maybe Cedric Tillman, fine, maybe we draft a receiver, fine, but none of that gets me super excited, right. So for me, guys, when looking at Kirk Cousins, it is 100% going to be dependent where he lands, and it is 100% going to be the case that I am not drafting Kirk Cousins next year. At all, he's another guy off my board. There's other options that are around that I could end up being way happier with, with even a safer floor and a higher, higher ceiling than that of Kirk.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, I'm with you, man. He's just one of those guys where it's out with the old, in with the new, and I'm taking some of these younger guys over, guys like Kirk cousins and Matthew Stafford. Yeah, um, you know, I mean, that's, that's just how it works and that's how, uh, that's how's just how it works and that's how, uh, that's how rankings work here, guys out with the old calf and in with the young bull, the young bull, that's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good, stepbrothers, quote there, man. All right, let's, let's touch base with these last three guys here uh, 22, 23 and 24. We've got derrick carr, drake may of the patriots, and anthony richardson, a rich of the colts. All right, we don't need to get into a ton of discussion with Derek Carr. I think we all know who he is. He's basically QB 22,.
Speaker 2:No matter what team he's on and who's around him, don't see a huge ceiling for him. Just see him being kind of a backup quarterback. A higher floor, low ceiling, qb 2. You could play in your super flex, but that's really about it. Um, drafted as a QB 28 and it is the QB 22, did not finish the year either. 15.6 points per game. He's a jag in my mind. He's just a guy, uh, but a solid, solid floor piece. All right, drake may, very interesting rookie QB for the new England Patriots 177 points, projection at the start of the year. Qb 34, not draftable. Ended up with 14.4 points per game. Not a guy you wanted to play, not a guy that's surrounded by a lot of talent. But next year could be interesting, am I?
Speaker 1:right a single quarterback lead. I'm not doing it. There's other options, but in a super flex league, I'm salivating over Drake May. I think that the Patriots are going to get a top tier receiver in the offseason to help. They had terrible receiving options across the board. The running backs were terrible Ramondre and Antonio Gibson. I mean literally. That offense was terrible. The only shining light was actually Drake May, which is a phenomenal sign for the Patriots as a whole, because now you actually have your guy. I truly believe the Patriots found their guy with Drake May. You know what I mean. So when we talk about a fantasy output man, I think that he could be very special for a two quarterback league, especially if the Patriots go out and get some receiving help as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, agreed, man. Last guy, top 24, rounding us out here Anthony Richardson of the Indianapolis Colts 177 fantasy points projected to start the year at QB 22, ended at 24. Now we say projected at 22,. But I just want to call this out All of the fantasy analysts and experts, anthony Richardson was a top five quarterback.
Speaker 2:For that they were, they were, they were drafting him with the rushing floor, with the hopes he's going to take us a season two, uh, you know, second season, bob, and and step up, he did not man this. This was one of the weirdest quarterbacks in the absolute world. The fact that he was still a QB2, the fact that he is still in the top 24 really kind of blows my mind. He did have a couple of decent games to end the year and I think what that's going to do is give all the fantasy experts again going no, no, you don't understand. He's going to run again. Fuck you.
Speaker 2:He threw like nine passes, most of the games he played. I mean, that's just not a guy I'm putting on here. I drafted him in a super flex to get a little piece of what all the experts were saying. They were all wrong man. This is one of the biggest guys. That left egg on your face as a fantasy football analyst and what do you think? What are you going to do with him next year and how did you feel about him this year?
Speaker 1:John, he was off my board this year. We talked about it, it did not matter. I was not drafting him, guys. I watched him in so much in college, right, and I couldn't even believe that the Colts drafted him at four, and it was solely because he was a physical specimen, right. What we saw was, guys this sums it up, this subs up Anthony Richardson, you ready? He had 1800 passing yards, he had 499 rushing yards, he had eight passing touchdowns, 12 interceptions, eight passing touchdowns, 12 interceptions and six rushing touchdowns.
Speaker 1:But here's the caveat he had 264 passing attempts. To put it in perspective, drake May played half the year and Drake May had 337. They are not throwing the ball. They're not throwing the ball when Anthony Richardson is in. So, guys, that caps the ceiling immediately. Then, on top of it, if he's not rushing, you get nothing. So there depletes the floor. It's not like the floor is because of his rushing. That's all he has. And so for me, man, knowing that his injury re-injury risk is super high, knowing he's already been banged up, knowing he's been benched for Joe Flacco, knowing his completion percentage is dog shit, knowing that he threw less passing attempts than Drake May, it just goes back to say A Rich is off my board moving in 2025.
Speaker 2:And what I try to do is say, all right, what would a team add in the off season to make me want this guy more, to make me feel better about him and want him on my team? What are you going to put on this Colts team to make him specifically better?
Speaker 1:Nothing.
Speaker 2:Nothing, there's nothing. You've got Michael Pittman and Josh Downs playing very well. Alec Pierce came out of nowhere with a deep threat, uh. Jt came on like a bat out of hell at the end of the season. When he's healthy, he's incredible. What are you going to add other than a, a Brock Bowers caliber tight end, uh, which isn't going to help him anyway, because he's only throwing the ball, goddamn, 12 times a game, or whatever? Yeah, oh, and it's not like their defense was dog shit, right?
Speaker 1:Oh, and it's not like their defense was dog shit, right, it's not like that. The positive game script, like. No, like their defense was very good. Yeah, I know, the last game with the giants whatever we can argue about that, whatever but for the rest of the season they were pretty damn good. And so to your point, john what could you do to make Anthony Richardson better? Yeah, in my eyes, I don't think there's a cure. I think that this is who he is and how he's always been, and he's athletic and he does incredible shit, but he's injury prone and he can't make the throws.
Speaker 2:That's what it comes down to yeah, and it's the inexperience too. I mean, we talked about it. His entire college and pro was it's been a season and a half, two seasons and a half, something like that. We compared that with Jaden Daniels, who played what? Five seasons in college.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean it's just a difference of experience and we saw that play out. And I mean I just it's not enough for me to say, oh no, he's going to figure it out next year. I need to see it before I even consider him man, yeah, all right, guys, that is the top 24 quarterbacks in the 2024 season. Oh man, I mean you look back and talk about these guys and I see some of my teams and I'm going yeah, no wonder I fucking lost. I drafted A Rich as my super flex, you know. Yeah. Or I put way too much into Kirk Cousins this year, I mean you can see. Or Matt Stafford, you know, cj Stroud, cj Stroud, yeah, Stroud, cj Stroud, yeah, you drafted CJ Stroud. And fourth round, third fourth round that absolutely destroyed you. Or Superflex, who's second? Yeah, exactly. So it's good to look back and it's good to see.
Speaker 2:You know, where did we think these guys were going to be in the beginning of the year? What did everybody say they were? What are they actually? And then, how are we going to feel about them next year? What could change to make these guys better fantasy options for next year? So hopefully this was some good information for you guys, or at least gave you an opportunity to go for a walk or work out and review the top 24 quarterbacks and get our takes on them. So let us know yourself, let us know your thoughts. Please send us comments Like subscribe, share everywhere on social media, but send us comments of what quarterbacks did you have, how did they affect your team, what are you going to do about them next year? Who are you high on for next year? And we'll see if we agree or disagree with you guys. Frankie, what else do we have coming up here, man?
Speaker 1:Guys, tune in. We're going to be dropping our review, our year-end review, for running backs top 24. We're also going to dive into receivers top 24, and then we're going to hit you with those tight ends and really start formulating ideas and strategies and things to think of while we're heading into this offseason, guys. So this is really exciting shit.
Speaker 2:Stay tuned, that will be dropping next week A couple of these episodes coming out, so keep it going with us guys. All right, frankie, we'll see you next time and we'll start talking about running backs. How's that sound? Meet the fantasy gods Smile upon you. Bye, we'll see you next time.