Pine Pony Podcast
Friends arguing about sports
Pine Pony Podcast
Most Important Position......2025 Fantasy QB Breakdown
Join the OG, Fantasy Uncle, and Persian as we delve into the most crucial position in fantasy football—quarterbacks. We kick off with the latest WNBA news: the Celtics minority owner's potential acquisition of the Connecticut Sun and its implications. We discuss NFL updates, including the NFL's smelling salts policy, ESPN's Red Zone acquisition, and player contracts like Kyron Williams'. We also cover the intriguing Micah Parsons and Jerry Jones saga. Our in-depth discussion highlights fantasy quarterback rankings, Get our take on how QBs stack up for your fantasy football drafts.
If you have a topic or want to respond to the pod, you can always reach us at
Email - pineponypodcast22@gmail.com
Threads / Instagram - @pineponypodcast
🚨 LOOKING TO BET ON THE UPCOMING NFL SEASON🚨
Head over to
signupexpert.com/pinepony
to join the top sportsbooks in your area!.
Welcome, welcome, welcome to another edition of the Pond Pony podcast. It's me, the og. Back again. We got again, fantasy Uncle. What's happening? Persian.
Pershin:Howdy, howdy. Excited to be talking Fantasy quarterbacks most important position in the actual NFL. And so, you know, the, the one that perhaps we all focus on the most for good reason.
Jason:For sure, for sure. So we'll talk about that and then all this other happenings around sports. So let's start the show. Alright, so first of, I got some more WNBA news. They seem to always be in I media lately. The Celtics minority owner is planning to buy the Connecticut Sun and bring them to Boston for a record 325 million. Wow. Such was drama. Yeah, but there's drama. The league responded and said the sale was not finalized and that the league itself is worried that moving the team to Boston would price out its fans and make tickets and food emerge more expensive.
Pershin:Hmm, that's interesting. That's interesting because wouldn't, wouldn't you think that. The majority of the fans for a Boston team would also be living in Boston with, with higher wages and cost of living already kind of adjusted for.
Jason:Yeah, that is a good point. I mean, they do support the Celtics, which I'm sure those tickets aren't cheap, so, right. Yeah. Is this the W-N-N-B-A trying to get in their own way again? Man, I'm sure the sale will go through, I mean, come on. Three 25 million.
Pershin:Yeah. I actually thought you were gonna say like, they, they weren't gonna let him own multiple teams, I think.
Jason:Oh, no, they, everybody, I mean, pretty much every owner has multiple, especially NBA, like WNBA, because they typically use the same court
state arena. Oh, okay.
Jason:So it only makes sense, you know, but that's why there's so few of them. And then when you get to Connecticut Sun being off on their own. They're like, no, no, can't do it. So we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens with that. In a fun news part that I saw the latest Savannah Bananas game, one of the announcers called The Game From In a Barrel behind the mound. So
Pershin:I love it, man. Th these guys run out of ideas.
Jason:They never, never run out of ideas, and I've, I've seen lately they've added a few more teams. They've got like four teams now. So they got the bananas, the firefighters, and like two other teams that I, I mean, they gotta be somewhat new. But anyway, so I mean, it, it's, it's picking up some steam, man. If they can get a couple more teams and then, you know, it's not the same two teams playing each other every night. It's, I'm all for it, man.
Pershin:You could all
Jason:go ahead.
Pershin:I was just gonna say, you, you ain't stopping these guys anyway. This is, these, these guys that own the Savannah Bananas or whatever, man. They are some determined guys, man. These
Jason:yeah, man. And they all only care about the fans, which I love. Bananas going banana. Moving over to N-F-L-N-F-L news. Smelling salts was not actually banned, but it is still banned. After George Kittle did a bunch of crying and boohooing over the social media airwaves this past week, the NFL clarified that they are banning teams, giving players, spelling salts, but that the players can still use them. They're just not, the team can't just hand them out like. Like, you know, a, a dad hands his kid condoms to make sure that they're protecting themselves. You know what I mean?
Pershin:That is, that is a very weird a weird sort of clarification they made there. It, it would make more sense to me that either the league thinks that they need to be banned or they don't, in which case, who cares who's the owner of the salt, if it's the team or if it's the the trainers, or if it's the players themselves. I mean, I, I, that seems like a weird clarification to even make. It's like, if they're not worth banning, then don't ban'em. Like,
Jason:I don't know, I guess maybe they just trying to like further distance themselves from like. If the player chooses to do it, it's on their own volition versus like making it man, like, because you know how that can get, it's like a team can say, no, you must take, take this. And so I guess if you just take the team aspect out of it, I mean, it's a very old school way of thinking, but they're just trying to protect their ass. Yeah. And then have you, have you, well, let's do this part first.'cause the other part's gonna be a big, big topic. So Red Zones going to ESPN. Yeah. Or so their own streaming package, right. ESPN's got their own streaming package. So, but get this, Goodell said today that because Nf ES ESPN will own the rights to Red Zone, it, it doesn't just strictly mean for NFL. Like they own the naming. Right. So they could potentially use it for college football as well, which whoa. I mean like, listen, ESPN and WE and that whole situation annoys me. But this is a, this is, I, I am all for a red zone for college football.
Pershin:That would sell a lot.
Jason:Are you kidding me? I think that would sell like crazy.
Pershin:I I was surprised, personally, I was surprised that the NFL wanted stake, like an ownership stake in ESPN because it
Jason:seems like company that's going,
Pershin:yeah, it seems like they, they've had I guess like at least a decade, maybe even more than that of steady sort of decline. But I will say that. Certainly from the other perspective, from ESPN's perspective, this is a huge move that could Yeah. Save their ass. They could bail, bail them out of you know, just gradually being completely irrelevant. The, like, of course the NFL red zone is already a big deal, but if you were able to start a, a college one, I mean, I, I know that college fans love those sort of ESPN
Jason:multi broadcast. Here's the round up,
Pershin:just the highlights of, of the past couple hours or whatever. I don't know if they still do that. But they used to do that. It would be like, there'd be, there'd be like the pre-game before the day started, halfway through the day there'd be like a smaller thing. And then at the end of the day, and those sort of like highlights, recap shows were like more highly rated than some of the games that ESPN would broadcast. And so I know that college football fans would eat that up and I mean, that would just be a huge, huge, huge boost to ESPN standing.
Jason:Well, I, I think as much as I am moving off of WWE lately for their decisions they are posturing themselves with ESPN as well for all their pay-per-view events. So the ES ESPN Disney is building a. If you, if, I mean those things bring in money, they bring in eyeballs like es Disney's bringing in, gonna start bringing in a lot of money just from that in general. I mean, as many as people are gonna say they're not gonna pay$30 for that service. It's, it's weird because like, we don't know,'cause everything hasn't happened yet, but you apparently will get the service for free if you already pay ca for like cable, like YouTube TV or whatever. Like, you could log into ESPN, like you can now and, and watch all the content that's on there.
Yeah.
Jason:But if you don't have cable, it's$30 a month and you, you'll get like the WWE p you'll get the Red Zone and the NFL network and, and then all the other various things ESPN offers. So. I mean, I, I mean, listen, I, I don't necessarily wanna subscribe to that, but I'm starting to figure, trying to figure out how I'm gonna watch Clemson games being in Costa Rica. I mean, Smith's friend of the pod says YouTube will have it live, like regular ass YouTube. But I don't know. So I, I mean, until I, until it happens and I see it happen, you know, it's, we don't know. So.
Pershin:Right, right. I, I will say, trying to figure that
Jason:one out,
Pershin:I will say though, is like the, the 30 bucks I don't think is going to be like, as much of an obstacle as like a lot. I think a lot of people are kind of still thinking about streaming services like in the classic sense where everything was eight bucks, 10 bucks, whatever. But really they've all been kind of like slowly creeping up in their pricing. And then when you, you're gonna offer a football fan. You know, there's a ton of football fans who follow both college and pro really closely. You're gonna offer them like a red zone for both. I mean, there's, there's a lot of people who easily drop
Jason:30 on. Yeah. I mean, in the college, in the football sense, I think it's a great deal for those fans in the wrestling sense, it's a shit deal because it was$10 prior, so,
Pershin:oh, I see what you mean now with the WWE
Jason:thing. Yeah. But that's, I mean, you know, it all depends on with the way the economy and everybody's going, you know, all the tariffs for everything and the, as more things get more expensive, we'll see who starts tightening their wallets and
Yeah.
Jason:You know, set sale on the high seas. Yeah,
Pershin:that, yeah, for sure. We'll see how it shakes out.
Jason:Anyway, we will see how it shakes out. So Kyron Williams just signed a three year,$33 million extension. Love that form. Great fantasy player. Great. Running back in general, you know, get in the bag a little bit.
Pershin:Yeah. I think this is great, great for him personally to kind of prove people wrong. But also like for people like myself who have invested in Kyron Williams and in Dynasty you know, one of the things that always sort of suppressed his value, even though he had a huge market share on a decent offense, was, oh, you know, he's a. A fifth round pick who's actually not very athletic, he's not that efficient with his touches and they're just gonna draft someone else and replace his ass anyway. They're not gonna give him a nice second contract, and it's not like a huge second contract. But this is starter money. I mean, this is like bam. If you got him in your dynasty league, you're feeling very happy that they got him locked in another couple years. You know, it's a three year deal. The guaranteed money really makes it a two year extension. But still this is, this is great. You know, most people who play in a keeper or dynasty format, they're not necessarily looking forward an entire decade. It's usually just like three or four years out that they're concerned with. And so this is pretty good security for someone who has complete trust from his head coach and is going to get a ton of usage the next couple years.
Jason:Absolutely. I, I completely agree as, Oh yeah, man. Couldn't agree more. Alright. And then the this Micro Parsons and Jerry Jones saga is pretty interesting. You know, micro Parsons comes out and, you know, wants to trade and. Says he hates being the, the way he, he's treated. He, you know, he's in, forced to be in meetings without his agent and blah, blah, blah, those kinds of things. And, and then Jerry Jones doubles downs on him and says, you know, that's the way I do business. And everyone's like, why isn't Jerry Jones being punished? Because, like, why isn't he using his agent? Like, it's a whole sticky situation. And Jerry Jones is what it turns out is he's. No surprise to anyone, but a big old piece of shit who just like, really doesn't wanna pay anyone anything. And as we have said on this show, many, many of times if his team is making money, he does not care what the product is on the field. Exactly, exactly. Just one more example of that whole situation. What are, what are your thoughts on, on, is Micro Parsons gonna be traded, gonna leave, gonna sit out, or, you know, eventually get paid and play?
Pershin:Honestly, I haven't been able to keep up with the back and forth very much. I did see the initial, you know, he officially Michael Parsons that is officially you know I guess you would say publicly let it be known that he would like to be traded. And, i'm assuming there's been some back and forth on social media or just in interviews with media or something like that. And I'm not sure exactly but like you alluded to, we kind of already know, like the Jerry Jones playbook. He really doesn't like, respect these players necessarily in the same way that he respects himself. And I do think that it is shitty, although not surprising that he tries to, to pull stunts. Like, oh, I, I only will negotiate with you directly. Like you, you can't have your agent with you, or something like that. Like, that's, that's just dumb. That's weird. It's like a
Jason:cop trying to get a confession outta you without your lawyer.
Pershin:Yeah. Which, which they do if you let them, but yeah.
Jason:Right. Yeah,
Pershin:exactly. Of course. Anyone who's you know. Ever seen any true crime, anything will they'll go, oh, no sir, no matter how, how innocent I may be you know, I need to be, I need to have my lawyer here with me.
Jason:Yeah.
Pershin:But yeah, it's my initial thought was he's, he's probably not gonna get traded because I think you're gonna, you're gonna have to have Jerry Jones willing, you know, to actually trade, trade him. But I mean, he could, you know, Jerry Jones is, he can be very stubborn sometimes. So if he feels like he just doesn't like Michael Parsons anymore, he'll be like, all right, fine. I don't want him on my team. And maybe he'll pull some kind of stunt. Purposely trade him to some team he wouldn't wanna be on or some, something like that. But
Jason:I mean, I, Hey, look, Packers might be willing to give them something, just saying,
Pershin:oh yeah, every team, well, some teams couldn't even afford anything, but a lot of teams would be ready, willing to pay for sure. But you know, from from the Jerry Jones perspective, I think he probably already knows that he's going to, he's gonna pay Michael Parsons and he's gonna like, make him happy if you will. He'll kind of like sue smooth things over. He's gonna make him beg for it. But I think first he's completely satisfied just having this as a, as a sort of off season news story. He loves the idea that, that yeah. That the Cowboys are just gonna be getting talked about and that he himself is just gonna be getting talked about. When there's, when there's very little important news going on, a lot of pundits, radio people will focus on this story. And I think he'll try to milk that basically before he finally tries to smooth things over.
Jason:Right. Makes sense. Makes sense. Alright, and then just a little co two little fun facts I had before we talk about the Hall of Fame game and then Cubies. Packer's Family Night had 60 k people in attendance and the Bears Family Fest stupid game had 18 k in attendance and the bears still suck, so just wanted to put that in there for everyone. And then the Browns have signed yet another quarterback, Tyler Huntley has, has appeared on the roster. He got picked up this past weekend. So they
Pershin:signed Tyler Huntley.
Jason:I don't like, what are they? I just like, oh my God. God. What do you even, why you have Joe Flacco, Shado Sanders, Dylan, Gabriel. They've got four quarterbacks in the room competing just Don Watson. Wow. They've got, they, no, they've got like six dude. They've, they've got five or six QBs.
Pershin:Yeah. Well before Tyler Huntley they had five, but there, yeah, there's just four competing currently because Deshaun's out of commission and can you pick it? But the thing is just that out out of those four Flaco picket, both of the rookies, they all four must be so bad that they're willing to, to kick the tires on other guys too. I mean, this is bad.
Jason:Well, I'm hearing the training Camp Dylan Gabriel's taking QB one snaps.
Pershin:Interesting. See, I,
Jason:so, we'll, I would've thought, see, it's a preseason game this weekend.
Pershin:I would've thought they would've had flaco as like the defacto number one, unless someone well beat him out or whatever. But
Jason:I mean, does Flaco really need to take QB one snaps at this point in his career? Like, like, why not give the rookie the, the snaps and in preseason games?
Pershin:Yeah, that's true. I mean, because
Jason:Joe Flacco, it is
Pershin:actually the same, the same coordinator in the same system that he played in Cleveland two years ago. So that's a good point. He, they probably already know that he knows it and everything like that, so. Right, right.
Jason:Man, I wish hard knocks was on the Browns. This. And then hall of fame game. Just a couple quick notes. Trey Lance looked, looked pretty good and preseason. Omar and Hampton, he got some playtime, which was he, I mean he had some good runs and stuff, but he did, did pretty good. Scored a tudy. But the main thing that I wanted to talk about was they introduced the virtual measurement system, which while I applaud the NFL for embracing some sort of technology to me, so this particular use of it, it's too much of a gray area because it's only brought out if there's a discrepancy or some sort of situation where they would need the measure. So then they just show it on the board. And to me that's like you could. You could say whatever it is, if you wanted to, like, you could just literally say whatever it was. And so I think the Kremlin could
Pershin:be hacked into that thing, man.
Jason:Yeah. And so my point is, is I, I want them to use that stuff, but I think it should be used the whole game. Like I wanna know, it should be on the board the whole time where the ball is the entire game. So it's like if somebody was going to try and change it, they would have to change it for every single down. Yeah. Where, you know, and this is what are, what are your thoughts?
Pershin:This is just, just to be clear, this is basically the chip inside of the football, right? So they're reading the placement of the actual chip that's in the football. I do. Right. And
Jason:how does the ball determine when it's down is like my point?
Pershin:Yeah, I mean, I like it could move, like if put it
Jason:on the ground, does that, but like when, like how does it trigger to stop in its location?
Pershin:Yeah, that's a good point. They, they're going to have to, well, I don't know. I mean that's technology. I just don't know it, I don't know if they have to, but I guess that the best way to would be to, to do like, do sort of instant replay where you, where you see exactly the moment where progress is stopped and you, and you say, okay, where was the chip at that.
Jason:Oh my God. Specific. No, but I don't know if
Pershin:they're, I don't know if they're gonna wanna do that because that, that might help. No, it was pretty quick. That might help. Help. It wasn't help with accuracy, but it would be, that would defeat the purpose of ha of having the gate. I
Jason:mean, they didn't do all that. They didn't do all that. Yeah. It, it, it was pretty quick. Yeah. Like I'll give them that.
Pershin:Yeah. Well I agree with you though. It, even if it's just in tandem, it's another source of information that can help. But it should be just constantly on display. Like everyone should just be able to see it at all times.'cause like you said, if there's anything funny with it, it's not functioning properly for whatever reason. It'll be apparent. It'll be apparent within the first couple plays, you know, it'll be Right. Right. But I think it's cool that they're trying stuff like this out. I'm sure they'll be growing. Yeah. They're not mad about it. Yeah. I'm sure they'll be growing pains, but it's a good direction.
Jason:Agreed. Agreed. Alright, well, let's get into fantasy QBs. I'm gonna list them in overall draft position. Man, these one seems skewed to me, but seems weird to take a QB in the second round, but depending on who it is anyway, nonetheless,
Pershin:It might be like Superflex rankings,
Jason:Yeah, whatever. It doesn't matter. We'll just, we'll just go through it.
Pershin:Yeah,
Jason:it's, it is,
Pershin:yeah. I got it right here. Oh, now as long as we just have like, the rankings of the quarterbacks themselves.
Right.
Pershin:I could, I could list it off too if you want. I could. I can. Oh, I got it right here, man. I could pull up the underdog stuff real quick. That's false stuff.
Jason:Yeah, it doesn't matter. We're good. We're good. Okay. Yeah. Anyway, so let's run through it. Let's just, let's just see. So first qb, first QB can go either way. You got Lamar Jackson at number one and then Josh Allen at number two. Really? Either one of those could go either way. For number one, I, man, I don't know, man. I like my heart says I, I, I mean, I agree with these 100%, like that's a ye just because they're so dominant. But my brain in fantasy football is like, eh, I don't really like these guys, but they're, they're badass man. So I, I have no issue with, with them being one too. What are your thoughts on them?
Pershin:Yeah, yeah. I think if. Yeah, I think everyone's got it right. Not only are they the top two to me, but also I would have'em in that same order. I think Jackson should have the edge on Alan, but you really can't go wrong with either of'em. I, I think they are they have a really good floor from game to game, and of course, crazy, huge ceiling games too. So
Jason:where are you taking these two, if you have the opportunity to draft them? First round, late, first round, early first round.
Pershin:So if you're doing like a Superflex redraft, I think that makes sense. But if you're, if you're doing one qb, I, I still don't like taking'em in the first round. I would still rate, I mean, I probably like after the range of, like where, like AJ Brown, Drake, London, lad, McConkey probably I would, I would probably take like Lamar Jackson after those guys that I just named right after, like Devon a Chan and both Bower, both Bowers and McBride. I would take before any quarterback. So basically somewhere right in that range of those guys, which I think is more like third round is where I is, where I would pull the trigger on one of them.
Jason:Fringe, fringe, third round, a average draft position 24th pick. So,
Pershin:okay. So it's pretty That's probably good call. Yeah, pretty close to what I was thinking. And then if it's super flex, I mean, I would, I would bump that up to first round. I would, I would, I would probably. Rather have maybe like Bijon, Jamar, chase, Justin Jefferson, like the, like the really elite guys at, at wide receiver and running back. Maybe I would, I would put a head but that's about it. They would go in the first round for me, if it's superflex,
Jason:a hundred percent, a hundred percent. Alright, next two guys I got kind of surprising to me, considering its second year Jaylen Daniels and number three, average draft position, 31st ish, and then Jalen hurts at number four and, and in the forties is what they got him. Surprising to me considering, you know, I mean, you know, you can win the Super Bowl without being a fantasy qb. A good one, but still surprising. You gotta think. The playbook's out on Jalen Daniels, you know, typically second year it's a, you know, more of a wait and see for me. And then with the news it's scary. Terry not wanting to play there. I don't know if I'd take'em as the third overall qb. I might move him back like one or two spots.'cause you got Joe Burrow at five, so maybe, maybe I flip him in Burrow a little bit because they're gonna have to throw the ball in Cincinnati. But yeah, I like Jalen at four though. I mean, that doesn't bother me, you know, somewhere in the third, fourth round.
Pershin:Yeah, I, I, I really like Jalen Hertz at that cost. If you're saying he's going in the forties, whereas like Lamar and Alan are going like around the two three turn. Then, yeah, I, I'd rather just take the dip on Jalen Hurtz. I think that last year they had such an elite defense and, and Saquon Barkley was doing so well on, on the running game that they just never had to pass. And yet Jalen Hurts was still a good fantasy quarterback. I mean, I think that it could be something similar to last year if their defense is super elite again. But I think it, the more likely thing is that they regress a little bit. They're, they're not gonna be, you know, ass or whatever, but I think Philadelphia will have to throw the ball at least a little bit. I mean, it was, it was basically just week in, week out of, by halftime they had a lead, you know, seven points, 10 points by halftime, like every single week almost. And so they just were not passing the ball. But really, I like. I like all the guys other than Saquon to have sort of like a bounce back. Like I think we're probably going to see a dip in sort of expectation for AJ Brown, for Devonta Smith and for Jalen Hurtz based on last year. And I just don't think it's that likely that last year we'll repeat, they had just like an absurdly low pass rate. You know, it's just, they're, they're gonna be something a little closer to, to towards normal and Jalen Hertz is just like Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen in the way that he, he runs the ball. And I would say that he actually is an even more sort of fantasy productive runner because he does so much of the tush push and that's oftentimes not just to get first downs, but it's to get touchdowns. So I just, I just feel like his value's so well insulated. I would take him before Jaden Daniels. I understand why people are excited about Jaden Daniels. He ran a lot and he's been very public and open about the fact that he wants to run a lot, which is great. You wanna hear that. But we've seen a lot of times where rookie, rookie quarterbacks come out and like the world on fire, and the next year all the other teams have much more tape on them and they're more prepared. So there's a little bit of a, something of a sophomore slump. A lot of times that happens, we don't necessarily know. But the fact that the Terry McLaurin thing is up in the air, I don't think they did a good job of. Adding to that wide receiver room that got Deebo Samuel, I personally did not think that Deebo Samuel looked very good last year and he was overweight, so we gotta see if he's actually gonna be that great. They're still gonna be relying heavily on Terry McCluen and Zach Ertz, both of whom are just another year older. So, we'll, we'll see how things shake out. I would not be surprised though, if he ends up, you know, taking a step back in his second year just because defenses are more equipped and ready for him, whereas Jalen hurts. I bet you he goes a little, a little bit closer towards what his average has been, which has been basically right up there with Alan and Jackson. So.
Jason:Right. Couldn't agree more. Next two guys really, really high on Joe Burrow. For me, he was a top three QB last year. I think fifth quarterback overall would be a great spot value wise for him. Like, I mean, that's insane. Like
he,
Jason:I cannot believe they have Jayden Daniels and Jalen Hurtz above him, as I already said. And I think they're, they've already basically said they're gonna have to pass the ball. They're gonna have to score a lot of points because the defense is not gonna be able to, to keep them in games without that. So. I see it very much the same season, barring any injury. Another 372 point to 400 point season for Joe Burrow. And then Patrick Mahomes, last year he had 283 points. I mean, hard for me to say that that won't be the same. I, I could see a little dip, just depends on the, the wide receivers and the tight ends and whether they got the drops or not. So but you know, I mean, it feels like it's, the chiefs can't be on top all the time, so it feels like right. This may be a season where they drop the ball a little bit. I mean, Derek, friend of the pod's gonna kill me'cause I feel like I rag on the Chiefs all the time. So the chiefs are just always so
Pershin:good. I don't mind ragging on them'cause it's like I'm punching up, I'm like picking on someone who's like so successful. You know what I mean?
Jason:Right. Yeah. It's like who cares? Yeah. It
Pershin:doesn't, it doesn't feel very mean. They'll be all,
Jason:but yeah. So I mean, Joe Burrow arrow trending up, or at least not on a decline. And then Patrick Mahomes maybe a slight dip in the, in the stocks for me. What are your thoughts on those two guys?
Pershin:Yeah, I, I actually think both of them might be a little bit overrated coming into the next year, last year. Wow. Joe Burrow just had like an insane amount of. Touch of pass attempts and then touchdown passes. I agree with you that, you know, on paper coming into this next year, the defense looks like it's gonna be just as asked as it was last year. And so they're gonna just need to pass it over and over and over and over again. And that could be the, the case. But the thing that sticks out about Burrow is that like, of all the guys that I could think of that would be like in the top 10 or top 12, as far as like expectation, he's like the only one that doesn't run. Like all the guys we mentioned, Daniels, Hertz, even Mahomes. And then the guys after them, like Bo Nigs, Justin Fields, Kyle Murray, even Brock Purdy is like guys that run more than him. And so on one hand I think it's. I think it's a fair price based on what the expectations for the offense are going into this next season. But I also think it's probably the riskiest because you don't have that rushing floor, that rushing ceiling. It's all about, you know, getting 300 plus yards and three touchdowns every single game, which last year was basically what, what was happening. So I think it's a fair price, but I actually am okay to take a shot on someone who rushes a lot more. Justin Fields, Bo Nicks, Colin Murray that I think will probably go much later in the draft than Joe Burrow. I'm much more solid about those first four guys that we talked about than I am with Mahomes or Burrow. You kind of already touched on Mahomes. He didn't get great play from his wide receivers and they ended up just doing the very conservative sort of defense and Russian game. It looks like, if anything, the defense might, may have actually added going into next season, and so they could be really good again and they could just decide to, you know, play it conservatively, do a whole bunch of these dump offs. I mean, Patrick Mahomes, the way that he reacts to these like three high cover shells is a ton of dump offs. He's not as, you know, running Gun as he was the first couple years of his career which is fine. It makes a ton of sense for winning games. But I don't think that the, you know, last year I think he, he, he just finished as like QB 15 or 16, something like that. I don't think that was necessarily just. A fluke. I think that he could, he could very well just be somewhere in that 12 to 16 range again, and it wouldn't surprise me at all.
Jason:Yeah, good point. I mean, he does get Xavier worthy another year, rashe Rice and in Hollywood Brown, you know, could be back for the full year. So
Pershin:yeah,
Jason:I think the, you could see a little upside there, but
Pershin:yeah, I think the thing that scares me is like, we're still not sure what, like what's going on with rash rice. He might have to miss four games, six games. I'm really not sure. I don't wanna pretend like I know, but he could end up missing a huge chunk, which I think would hurt Mahomes overall sort of projection.
Jason:Yeah. Alright next couple guys we got is baker Mayfield at seven. Then we got. Bo Nicks at eight. Look at that. Bo Nicks at eight 80th 72nd and 80th pick overall. Was that sixth round? Seventh, sixth and seventh round?
Yeah.
Jason:You know, I don't, I mean, that seems about right for what Baker Mayfield and his Renaissance he's having since 2023. So I don't, I don't necessarily hate that draft position. You know, I didn't get the chance to watch a lot of bone Nicks last year, so it's kind of surprising for me to see him up this high in the top 10. But as a Broncos fan, I mean he, you know, he scored a lot of points fantasy wise. I believe. 3 72 or three 17, excuse me. So over 300, which is solid for a quarterback. You ready for some, some big dig nicks?
Pershin:Oh, for sure, for sure. I, I think what, what people are, are sort of doing there is they're looking at like the second half of the season where Bo Nicks was like really kind of on fire as far as fantasy points were going. There's, he was doing a lots of these design runs and he was also getting like these long yeah, long sort of touchdowns like he would. He, a lot of it, I'll be honest with you, felt a little bit fluky. There was like three different times where he just threw to Cortland Sutton in the end zone because they just really needed a touchdown at the end of the game. And Cortland Sutton actually came down with it for like 30 yard touchdown passes. There was one pass to Marvin Whims where he, he threw it for like eight yards down the field. And then Marvin Mims just ran another 80 yards to get a touchdown and all, all that boost Bo N's fantasy production as well, obviously. And so I think people are looking at how much he ran and particularly like you know, peyton's willingness to give him lots of design runs. And so people are like, oh, he's a dual threat guy. And I think that's true. I think he is, but I, I don't necessarily expect like the second half of last season to necessarily keep up for the entirety of 2025. I'm sure he'll have some big games in there. But again, this is kind of like the Jaden Daniels thing where what we typically do with rookies of any position I, but especially quarterback, I feel, is we, oh, he did X, Y, and Z as a rookie. And so next year he is just gonna take that next step. He's gonna develop even further. And. To a large degree. I think that that used to be the trend more so than it is now. It seems like lately past four or five years, it seems like a lot of guys quarterbacks in particularly are actually not necessarily making that year two leap. And so it's, it's, it's a little less easy to predict something like that. And I think that's why Bone X is, is up this high. But I'll admit, I, I think it might be a little, might be a little bit overhyped, although it's not a bad spot, you know, seventies and eighties, that's about where I would think. That it's a good, that it's a good time to take shots on these guys. Kyler Murray, I would take in, in that range. In fact, I, I think I like Kyler Murray more than Baker Mayfield. Or Bo Bo Nicks personally, but they're kind of all in that same bucket for me. Like Brock Purdy I think would be in there too. Justin Fields. I know he, he's not necessarily the best at throwing the football, but he gets fantasy points. So if you plug your nose and just take the points on your team, he's probably a good pick. He, he probably goes a little bit later than that. I, I'm sure you'll get to that, but that's basically my thoughts on Nick's.
Jason:Yeah, no, I mean, you, you hit it right on the head.'cause the next guy up, his next couple of guys are all guys. You mentioned Kyler Murray at nine. Jack Prescott at 10. Jared Goff at 11. Caleb Williams at 12 Brock Purdy at 13. And then Justin Fields. Nice. And, you know, we'll kind of hit all those guys, but I, I agree with the Kyler Murray take, I'm really liking him. He came off one of his best seasons accuracy wise in completion passes. And from the reports of Marvin Harrison really putting in the work and yeah. Getting bigger and stronger. And Trey McBride, I think with the combination of those two. And he played a full season for the first time since 2020. I mean, arrow pointing up for Tyler Murray for me call of Duty has kind of sucked for a little bit. I mean, battlefield six just came out, so maybe he, he might jump on that, but so far so good. Seems like the rules that he's abiding by. Yeah. And I think this is a good spot for him moving to Dak Prescott. I don't want to touch Dallas at all. I mean, if you have to, this is a, this is, I mean, hundredth pick overall, I guess I just feel like there's so many other people behind him that I'd rather have, like I, I would rather have Jared Goff over over
Pershin:him. I mean, Drake May and Jordan Love. I'd rather have both of those over. Dak Prescott. Right. Jordan Love personally. Yeah.
Jason:Yeah, so not high on them. And then Detroit, they really poo-pooed on Jared Goff this season with his a DP 102 and Big Ben Johnson leaving. I mean, people aren't, aren't ready to trust whoever's there. And even I am saying that I'd rather have that over Dak Prescott, so I'm okay with that draft selection, but I definitely see everyone's concern there. And then Caleb Williams, it's the Bears, I think. I think he'll be, he'll be decent. There'll be a little bit better than last season, but it, again, I think it's the Vari, he did get 250 points last year. So at this position, at this spot, I think that's a, that's good value for Caleb Williams if you're in that spot and need a qb. What are your thoughts on, on those last couple guys?
Pershin:Yeah, I think like the more we discuss it here, the more I feel like the, the bucket really should be even bigger. All the way, all the way from like Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield all the way down to like Caleb Williams, Drake May, Jordan Love, Dak Prescott. I think all these guys are probably in a similar bucket. I mean, I have ones I prefer more than others, but I, I think probably the thing that makes the most sense is sort of take the guys that fall the furthest just instead of taking'em right at pick 80 or whatever, right? Yeah. See, just see who's still there at one 10. You know what I mean? Because probably someone of a similar fantasy projection will still be there, you know, I mean, I, I would rather ha, you know, have those guys than. Probably Jared Goff, JJ McCarthy, Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence, CJ Strat. I think all those guys probably have a little bit more in the way of question marks, ways that things could go against them. But you know, the Jared Goff thing I think is, is really, is really interesting because it's people really don't know what to expect. The guy, you know, I did, I forgot his name, but the guy who's taken over for Ben Johnson, he's saying straight out, he wants to, he wants to optimize what Ben Johnson was doing. He wants to make a bunch of changes and he feels like there was plays left out on the field. But to me that makes exactly zero sense because last year they had like a historically successful offense. The amount of points that they put up. I mean, they were able to make fantasy studs basically out of two running backs, two wide receivers, A tied in. Oh yeah. A quarterback all on the same offense. And I, I'm like, it's really rare that you got that many mouths to feed and they all get fed. So I, it's,
Jason:yeah, he had 324 points last year. They're projecting him to two 60.
Pershin:Yeah. And I don't big drop, I don't think That's crazy. I think it, it, and, and, and to be honest with you, it could be, it could be all smoke and mirrors and he, he actually is gonna do the smart thing, which is just, just keep installing the same exact thing that's been working so well past couple years.
Right.
Pershin:And maybe he just wants to throw, you know, opposing teams off of the scent, if you will or something like that. But, certainly anytime there's a a, a coordinator change, there's a potential for a big sort of fall off or even improvement in, in that team's offense. So I, I don't think the two 60 projection is necessarily crazy. And the thing about Jared Goff is if that, if that offense does take a step back, he's definitely taken a step back with it because he is an absolute statue. He does nothing as far as rushing. He does exactly nothing as far as rushing. I mean Drake, me a guy who I think flies under the radar. He actually scrambled a lot last year. But even guys like Brock Purdy, we already mentioned Baker Mayfield and, you know Justin Herbert, Jordan Love, these are all guys who sneakily will get you. At least two 50, probably something more in the range of three 50 rushing yards each season. Caleb Williams, you know, these guys will give you a little bit of extra something, whereas go Goff's not giving you shit. If he doesn't get many touchdown passes, he's gonna suck, but, so,
Jason:yep, a hundred percent. Alright, and then we'll round it out. Who did I, who did I leave off with? Justin Fields.
Pershin:Yeah, I, I kind of already dragged us into the next group of guys probably, but Go ahead.
Jason:Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. Oh no, but no, I left off of Caleb Williams, so, and then we'll just kind of round it out here with the last couple guys. Brock Purdy at one 10. Overall, Justin Fields at one 11. Justin Herbert at one 18. CJ Stroud at 1 37 and Jordan Love at 1 38. Yeah, CJ Stroud, I'm interested in, I, I, I I'm, I'm hesitant to draft CJ's Trout this season. Justin Fields, that's, that whole situation in New York is a no go for me, even to whatever Justin Fields did at his last two campaigns and the Steelers and the Bears. I just have zero faith in Justin Fields, so I also think they'll probably end up using Brie Hall a little bit more. He is, you know, said that he needs to have a balling baller ass season. So you know, and being a Breeze Hall. Owner of in Sleeper I of course want him to do well. So maybe a little bias there. Justin Herbert, I think he'll have a fine season. I don't, I don't think you could go wrong drafting him there. I don't think that's too early necessarily. I mean, he got 2 85, they're projecting him for 2 87 LA this year. So, you know that, that, that is worthy of more of a top 10 pick, to be honest. So this to me, after looking at that would be, would be amazing. And then Jordan Love, you know without being biased on, on my guy Jordan Love and what he can do on the field, you know, he got 2 33 last year and then projected him at two 60. I think that's about right. I, I, you know, anything over 300 with him right now is icing on the cake.
Pershin:Yeah.
Jason:But we do have a significantly upgraded wide receiver core. So, and the season start, the, start, the schedule of the season, the starting part of it is looking really, really favorable with people, with, with teams, with injuries and various other players being suspended and, and all of that. It could look good. I hope I'm wrong, you know, I own him as well and sleep for, but I, you know, I try to stay away from packers as in redraft leagues because I feel like that's more with my heart. So, but I don't hate to pick here, you know, 16th overall. I mean, as quarterbacks. I'm not mad about that. You know, Drake may ahead of him. I don't know why, but in, in one of these different projections and rankings that I got sitting up here. But yeah. So man what are your thoughts on these guys? And then we'll do sleeper picks?
Pershin:Yeah. Well I think your heart is actually right on this one. Not necessarily because I think he's got like a, a crazy high projection, but I do think the two sixty's a bit low. One thing I have noticed with love is that he's kind of like the odd man out in some of these best ball drafts. I've done a few best ball drafts already this off season, and sometimes it seems like he falls like he'll. He'll go, yeah, or like QB 20 or 21 or something like that. It's almost like people just kind of have forgotten that there's some real upside there. I don't think people really realize that just how hurt he was last year. And yeah,
Jason:he really was,
Pershin:LaFleur really tried to change around the offense to make way for that. I, I don't think they were comfortable having Malik Willis out there any more than absolutely necessary. And so in order to sort of, to like minimize injury, risk to love, they were running the offense through, josh Jacobs and that was working well enough to where they, they were able to, to just do decent defense and good running game for the majority of their games. But I don't think that's necessarily the preference. I think Lele loves scheming up various pass plays, and I think they're going to actually be one of the more pass heavy teams when it's all said and done next year. I think a lot of what happened last year, especially to Jordan love's fantasy production, was just that he was injured for a lot of the year some of the year, kind of more injured than other parts of the year. But the thing is just that he, you know, he's one of these guys who does get, have some really good rushing plays from here and there and the sort of touchdown the, the past. Passing touchdown potential is every bit as high for him as it is for some of these other guys. And so I, I don't think he has like a crazy high projection, but I think the fact that he, a lot of times he'll just fall too far he's kind of like the odd man out or the forgotten man this off season, I think. So a lot of times you could just scoop him up way too late and there is absolutely still some upside there.
Jason:Nice man. I like, I like your thoughts on that, man. I did hear a little rumbling that he wanted to use his legs more, so that would be, that would be pretty
cool.
Jason:It's just hard to imagine that with Josh Jacobs in the backfield, you know, so. Yeah. All right, man. Well, my honorable mentions this week. Michael Pennix Jr. Depending on what happens with the Kirk cousins situation, he could be in a very favorable spot to draft him and benefit off of that late round value pick. And then friend of the p Smith's gonna love this. I think Bryce Young. Bryce Young is a candidate to be a late round Oh yeah. Value pick. Value pick. That'll really, really work out for you. He had a great ending to the season. He offense got a weapon in te so I mean, I'm, I'm high on Bryce Young right now, man. Who are you liking?
Pershin:Yeah, I'm right there with you. I was happy to hear you say Bryce Young because he was actually one of my audible mentions too. I was gonna say Bryce Young. Another guy who is kind of sneakily he's not known for the rushing, but the last like six or seven games last year, they let him run and he was running had a rushing touchdown, I wanna say, four weeks in a row. I mean, that's a, that's a huge fantasy bonus. And he was low key, just really fantasy productive. At the end of last year the offensive line is still intact, and they, they, they take the very first wide receiver in the de in the draft te McMillan. You know, I, I think it's likely that Ted McMillan is going to be a good player. And the cool thing about Tet McMillan joining this. Wide receiver room is that instead of having Xavier Legette having to play X every single down, now you actually get to bump him inside and he gets to play kind of that almond raw large right large slot sort of thing. Good point. That he is much more suited to. And then of course, Adam Thilan and Jalen Coker, whoever they like more. I, I'm kind of rooting for Coker as the young guy, but Thilan still kind of had it even at 86 or whatever he is. So, but, but basically Jalen, I thought they were crutches. Jalen Coker, they were playing as like a flaker slash outside guy when he really, he's way better suited for that slot role. And so to have Adam Thilan, Jalen Coker constantly get to play that slot role, having a legit ex that, you know, can hold down that position, it, it really just makes everyone more optimal for that offense. And Callahan really did sort of get Bryce Young on the right page eventually. I think that there's a really good chance that Bryce Young shocks people with how much he runs this year, and that that per that offense, actually takes a step forward. Really good offensive line, bolstering the wide receivers. I love where things are heading. And my last honorable mention might shock some people, but Anthony Richardson. Everyone Whoa, whoa. Yeah,
yeah, yeah.
Pershin:Look, everyone thought that is a shocker to me. Everyone thought it was written in stone that this was going to be Daniel Jones's job. But then all of a sudden, the past couple weeks. They, they got Anthony Richardson splitting first team reps with Daniel Jones and a, a lot of the beat riders and the coaches are saying how improved Richardson is.
Jason:Must, there's a lot of conditioning on the
Pershin:off season, seems that he's got a whole new attitude. He's, he's actually being cooperative and on board putting in extra effort. Now, I'll be honest with you that this could just be like coaches trying to talk him up and it's all bullshit. But if he really is going to get on the field week one. He's just as valuable as Justin Fields is probably even more so. It's one of those things where plug your nose and take the fantasy points. Man. You're, if, if you wanna take a shot on Anthony Richardson, you could probably get him at the very end of your draft. Maybe even he'll just be on the waiver wire. It depends on if it's kind of super flex or something. But the point is just that if he's on the field, you're gonna want him in your starting lineup. Even if he throws a bunch of interceptions and cra does, does crazy shit. Taps his helmet, whatever. He's basically like a mix between like a Mike Vick and a Cam Newton in one with his rushing skills. The, you know, the passing. We'll see if he really has improved. But if he's out there on the field, man, he's gonna be putting up fantasy points.
Jason:Yeah, that's the last resort draft for me, buddy. I'm off the, I'm off the Anthony Richardson train. He's disappointed me one too many times.
Pershin:I know. I feel like I'm probably being silly. Like
Jason:Yeah. Paying any
Pershin:attention to the preseason hype, right?
Jason:Yeah, you are, you're eating right up into training camp hype.
Pershin:But the thing, the thing I like the most about'em though, is like, you don't have to pay anything for'em.
Jason:You know what I mean? That's true, that's true. Like I would, I mean, maybe I'd pick'em up like for a backup and then see where, see where it takes me. Yeah.
Pershin:I mean, you, you gotta love those wide receiver options. I mean, they got Pittman downs, Adam, I, Mitchell Yeah. Alec Pierce. No, I do love. And now they've actually got a good pass, catching tied end to add to that. So it's like, Hey, hey, if, if he's on the field, man, he's, he's probably gonna be fantasy gold, but we'll see.
Jason:Yeah. Yeah. You know, or you can just draft one of the 17 quarterbacks Cleveland has, they're all gonna get a shot.
Pershin:Yeah. But I don't know if I want any part of that past. It's basically Jerry Judy. Well, they did bring in Deontay Johnson, which I think is kind of interesting.
Jason:Oh my gosh. I can't wait for the Browns season to start. I can't wait to watch them.
Pershin:What a hot mess. What a great
Jason:drama. I,
Pershin:I can't wait for that. Tyler Huntley, week one start, man. I'm gonna laugh my ass off. I'm gonna laugh my ass off. Oh God, dude, if that happens, that'll be the best. Imagine all that April, may, even June sort of drama and controversy about. Dylan Gabriel and Shado Sanders. And, but they really secretly want Kenny Pickett to, to win the job. And Joe Flacco's, the Arab pair, whatever. And then it's like, none of them,'cause they're, they're just all that bad.
Jason:Oh my God. That would be great. Any who as always. You can debate with me on Threads Blue Sky. I think we're on another site. Instagram. And then hit me up at email pine pony podcast gmail.com. And as that's all we got, adios.
