I WANT YOUR FLEX - Summer Division Preview: NFC East + AFC West

Published Jun 17, 2025, 3:18 AM

It's FOX Sports Radio's official fantasy football podcast! On the most recent FOX Sports Sunday, Mike Harmon and Dan Beyer continue their divisional breakdowns for fantasy football ahead of the season... This week, they hone in on the NFC East and AFC West, taking a look at each team in both divisions from a fantasy point of view.

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Hey, welcome in.

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Dan Bayer with you.

We're pleased to be with you talking about the NFC East for fantasy purposes. Last week we did the AFC East, and you've got Josh Allen, you got eight Chan, you got a couple of heavyweights, and then you've got a bunch of question right well, even going down to Tyreek Hill and guys that had been fantasy heroes in the past, it's what's their role, what's the offense look like?

Is discord? Are they still with the team when we actually break camp?

Because you still have some of those little rumors floating out there in the NFL world. But when we look at the NFC East, you know, writing down based on where Fantasy pros rankings are on average. Right now for the early draft returns, we've got two quarterbacks in the NFC East coming into the top five. Jaden Daniels coming in at number three, with Jalen Hurts right behind him. I might have them flipped. And there's something with Washington that in terms of they're over under win total and successes, while Daniels may be a better, more efficient quarterback to the numbers, wins and everything else follow.

Not to mention the.

Terry McLaurin part of the equation right just sitting out there, he's currently ADP wide receiver seventeen in PPR leagues and he's very unhappy with his contract not showing up now does that settle of that more likely than not, but it does add a wrinkle to things. For a team that greatly overachieved. They bring in Deebo Samuel as his number two. So that just the curiosity up top when you're looking at a guy like Jaden Daniels.

I don't think I'm paying the tax.

You're not. I am, and I am paying a lot of it.

And the reason being is I think that that Daniels gets his points for Washington fantasy wise, whether they're winning or not. And if you look at kind of how last year transpired, it was a mostly successful year for Washington, but early on they lost the season opening game to the Buccaneers.

They had their field goal.

Fest against the Giants that they ended up winning, but you had Jaden Daniels doing some damage with his legs at that point. That still continued, Mike, but he wasn't getting into the end zone via touchdown runs. He was doing so via touchdown passes later on in the season. So that to me is whether Washington is up or down. And they may be ten and seven this year, they may be nine and eight, they may be fourteen and three. I don't know how it doesn't change for Jaden Daniels. And the additions that they made Laramie Tounsel now at left tackle better for Daniels in that way. No real addition at the running back position. So now you've got Eckler and Robinson kind of doing the same thing. So you're not giving the football to somebody who you just gave a bunch of money to that you need to force feed that would maybe take away from Daniels. And you added Debo with where you can use him as a Swiss army knife, but may help in just even short little passes and screens that end up going for further. So I'm higher. You're high on Jayden Daniels, don't get me wrong, but I still would take him over Jalen Hurts.

Yeah, finish as QB five a year ago, about thirty points higher than QB six, who is Jared Goff and just behind Baker Mayfield with the Holing Trinity, keeping with the sin Centers, tame of Jackson, Allen and Burrow.

At the time, I think there's a real chance tougher schedule. We know how many coin flips they won last year. Look at how many times you look at Washington and said, man that they escape right.

I don't know anything about that. And it all started with a Giant play.

I mentioned the Giants game where the Giants didn't have a field goal kicker because they didn't plan for Lawrence Time's getting hurt in the first quarter and so they couldn't They couldn't kick throughout the game, and that's how they won with seven field goals. They won a game against New Orleans that was right at the buzz, like they won crazy games last year, and at some point those aren't going to go your way. And Mike in the same breath with Philadelphia for as great as everything went, and now you have a Super Bowl championship with you, I think there's destined to be a bit of a pullback. I just don't know where it comes. I don't know if it comes from Jalen Hurts. I don't know if it comes from Saquon Barkley, who was magnificent. But I would expect some regression at that point.

So let's go into them a bit.

You know, with Hurts, obviously the tush push remains, so you'll get your rushing touchdown as much as the sugar in of the Saquon Barkley owners out there. Barkley coming in at number three on the draft board right now, the continued run of you know, hey, b Jon Robinson's going to.

Be that guy. He condus to push that so that that works.

But he's third, and then you have Aj Brown at ten, DeVante Smith coming into twenty three, so it's fantasy starters. I was curious as and then we look at the other two quarterbacks, dak at fifteen.

I think it's I think it's way too low.

I know the Deck's numbers went how they weren't magnificent last year, But Mike, I also think in the same way as we look at Washington, my take on Dallas is there not going to be as good of a football team. I don't know if they really addressed the running back room. There's new face there.

Javontae Williams is not the answer.

Yeah, correct, Jayden Blewen actually may end up being the answer for Dallas. But so now you've added George Pickens via trade, so you're gonna want to cash that in. I don't think they're better defensively, so they're probably gonna have to score points. All of that, to me leads to a better situation with Dak. And maybe the thing that's keeping Saquon from the number one spot is the possibility of injury or from his history. I'm wondering if that's what's bringing Dak down so much down to fifteen, because I actually think there's a lot of potential win or lose for the Cowboys.

The only way that they're gonna win any games.

Is if Dak's throwing the ball to Ceed Lamb and George Pickens and Jake Ferguson, the only reason they're gonna lose games is if they lose games, Dak's still gonna be throwing the football.

So I don't know.

I know Brian Schottenneimer is gonna do things differently, but I just don't know how you can with that running back room.

Ferguson at twelve a mon tight ends. That was one that I circled as potential value proposition with the two heavyweight wide receivers, assuming Pickens gets along with everybody in the room, we continue our fantasy previews, going division by division. We look at the AFC West and the tea's was a star losing twenty five pounds. Will it make him a better fantasy player? For myself, I think my brain's a little bit sharper. I'm being able to stay up a little later, so yeah, it might. It might help my twenty twenty five prognostication. When we get to the I want your Flex podcast in earnest here coming up. You can find all old episodes up wherever you get your podcast. As Dan and I and our guy Ian Roddy get back into the lab. But according to reports from Jeremy Foller of ESPN, Travis Kelcey's down twenty five pounds. Now, he was at the Stanley Cup final the other day, great shot after shot, and I know either folks were incensed at their arrival or we're happy to see an extra storyline. When all of a sudden, the camera pans to Travis kelce and Taylor Swift.

They did.

She then went to the children's hospital Nextit like, there's lots in Florida and there's a lot of stuff to it. But and now that that series, you know, Florida taking the stranglehold in theory on Saturday Night. But Kelsey reportedly losing twenty five pounds this offseason. Now, Taylor Swift's eras tour ended last year, so no longer on tour and being plied with brats and beers at every turn. So back in the lab as it were going into his age thirty six campaign, they're saying he's at like two twenty to two twenty five, so lean and mean last year. It didn't look the same for fantasy purposes. Still ninety seven yards or ninety seven catches, eight hundred and twenty three yards, only three touchdowns, but that's still a pretty pretty good year. Pretty serviceable year. Now, if you had some help on the outside, it pushes it over and the team gets over. But certainly from a fan point, he had the regression ninety seven catches. That's a lot of work between the hedges, and he had to block a lot more last year.

Yeah, I think there's I think there's a lot of interesting stuff to look between the the weight that he lost and his actual numbers. But the thing that I actually love about this, and I don't think that this happens with every athlete Mike, is just the dropping of the optics, the dropping of the weight for the optics, because the last time we saw Travis kelce was Travis Kelcey maybe not giving it as one hundred percent in Super Bowl fifty nine. So now when there's a question of are you going to play next year? Are you not going to play? And there was a decision that he made weeks after that, Yeah he's going to come back. I say good on Travis Kelcey. Whether he still has it or not, we'll find out in twenty twenty five. But I think just the optics of being like, I've got to be better, because the takeaways from that Super Bowl, the ones from the chief side. Travis Kelcey not playing as hard as you thought that he should in a Super Bowl was one of those people thought, just there.

Are a couple of yeah, step slow and really not engaging in blocking efforts and route running.

Yeah.

Sure.

So I have no idea if the weight loss will help him during the season. I do know that it's going to help him optically on the type of player you are, and may then also reflect on maybe why these last two seasons haven't been as great and maybe we know he's on the there's he's played more years than he's got left in his career, for sure, but maybe this frees him up. Maybe he doesn't block now as much anymore because he's taken the weight off. Maybe they will use him more in situations in just red zone spots. I mean just eight combined touchdowns the last two seasons in times when we thought that he would be the loan target.

I am.

I don't think that you can get any worse than what he did last season numbers wise for touchdowns and yards. So him losing that weight I am all aboard for, but more so because of the optics than just him bettering his stats from twenty twenty four.

Yeah, I mean you look at what he was doing the rounds and popping up at all the swift European dates and global dates.

It became a does he want to do this anymore?

Right? We asked that about Aaron Rodgers ad nauseams. You know, he finally shows up and gets his contract signed, and you know, you bring out the noise makers from New Year's for that because it's a story that is now done and now we get to see whether he and Arthur Smith get along and what this iteration of the Steelers offense looks like. But it's always the when we're off the field and it's like, all right, are you training?

Are you still committed? Now?

Did you earn some of it based on the Chiefs runs? Because that's the other side you get have said, hey, you know, be ready to go. Well he was kind of right, still have some decent numbers and a couple of games where he took over and showed you glimpses. But if you're carrying that extra weight, you're being charged to do other things because your offensive line is struggling a bit, you're trying to jumpstart a run game that frankly wasn't very good for most of the season. Rice goes down to injury, takes a while for Xavi. You're worthy to catch up. We'll get to him in a minute, and the receivers, but it's just all of that becomes a all right. By the end of the year, he's got nothing left. He looks like every day of his thirty five plus years on this earth. So now you can, at least in theory, leaner, meaner, run him in the slot wherever you're going to line him up, that maybe you can coax an extra big year, because I think Kansas City is one of those squads that people are starting to dismiss and throw away. I was caution that as much as you think the rest of the AI see West may have caught up, you still got to knock them off.

Yeah. Good point.

I feel like you're talking directly to me, because I feel like I am one of those people who's kind of not as bullish on the Chiefs. They are a different team than they were earlier in his career. They are a defensive team now as opposed to an offensive team. If this is going to help them in red zone situations and allow him to extend his career.

Kudos to him doing so.

The real I guess shock to the system for me when it came to Travis Kelcey, and I would assume it's for you. Was it when a couple of years ago in fantasy football we had Mark Andrews, you know, replace him, supplant him a top the tight end rankings and then there was so much love for Sam Laporta last year, so you would see Laporta maybe top him in rankings. And now Brock Bauers is in the NFL. So and as Kelsey has continued his career, it's not that he's been number two. So when he was replaced by Andrews, maybe he was two. Then then he was to three or four, and now he's not to that point anymore. So maybe the value you get for Travis Kelcey will be a lot better than what you expected over these last couple of years, whether he's twenty five pounds lighter or not. But I just love the optics of it of being like, yeah, I didn't the super Bowl did not look was not a good look for me. I got to do something different.

As we look at it currently, Fantasy Prosanaham dot Com, I put my rankings up week to week there and we'll make sure to evangelize on those better here in the twenty twenty five season, and certainly wants the draft process. And I get to ranking, which starts this week. Kelsey sixth amongst tight ends. We've got three guys from the AFC West in the top seven because obviously the aforementioned Brock hours far and away number one. Evan Ingram coming in at number seven.

Opportunity in Denver. I loved him in Jacksonville, and then there were just I mean, a lot of things disappeared in Jacksonville at times, but he.

Disappeared as well.

I don't know this division, Mike, just as a whole is to me, is screaming defense and in a way ball control. And I feel that Denver is better defensively than they are offensively. The Chiefs are better defensively than they are offensively. I think the Chargers play a brand of football where the offense and defense work together. And then you have the Raiders.

That's no diffist.

But the Raiders with two guys in the top five for their position. Sure, because genty is currently the ADP fourth highest ranked running back. Wow, he comes in at forth. And this is where it gets interesting. Right we talked about defense normally complimented by a big running game. You got gent coming in at fourth, and then you look at the rest of the division. Omarion Hampton twenty first, okay, RJ. Harvey coming in twenty sixth, and then just ahead of him, Isaiah Checko at twenty fifth, and then we go to the quarterback side. Okay, ready, they just then well, if these guys are low, what's going on over here?

Patrick Mahomes still sixth?

Okay, I feel it's high, but ye.

Oo, Nicks at number eight, Wow, I.

Mean that's really high.

And then justin Herbert at eleven, I head of Gino all the way down at number twenty five. Jano represents value for me down there. There are weeks you're gonna end up playing him.

I think.

I don't know.

I don't I don't know where Caleb Williams is on this list, but I just know that you've got Lamar, You've got Josh Allen, You've got Jalen Hurts. All those guys would be higher than Bo Nicks, and I just I'm shocked in that scenario. And Mahomes as well, I just wouldn't feel comfortable with them as my starting quarterbacks if I'm playing Week one, unless I decided to completely punt on the situation. And for as great of a season as bo Nicks had as a rookie quarterback, I think it's the Sean Payton factor, I'll say to that.

Sure, the Mahomes one is.

That's the one that's sticking in my mind when you bring that up, because it's not I think that they're bad on offense anymore. I just think they do things differently now and you can count on him to win games, and that's what it's all about. We saw good they were in close games last year, and how they've always been good in close games. That to me is more of the thing that trumps anything, because I look at this division, Mike, and those numbers are flying in the opposite of what I say, but again as a division that is more controlled by defense than it is offense. The Genti factor, And just to make that point, I actually understand that because I think that there are three running backs that you would say, all right, we just they're freaks of nature. We like the situation, we love their offenses. Let's go Bijon Saquan and Jimior Gibbs, but you take everybody under Ashton jen I'm looking at your rankings. We're still wondering if Derek Henry's gonna fall off a cliff Devani chan Is.

I don't know what they're doing.

In mind, I think, yeah, they're gonna have one of the worst offensive lines in the league. He could be the only thing that they have. But with that, there's also been some injury history. Christian McCaffrey, same thing, Jonathan Taylor, same thing. Josh Jacob's coming off of a great season. Maybe that would be one where I'd be like, huh, okay, well, maybe I'd rather have the Josh Jacobs factor. But they also have Chip Kelly in Las Vegas, and you know how much Chip Kelly loves to run the football, And with really no other real competition, it makes sense that gent is going to be the.

Guy rising up. Everywhere else, we're looking at guys like Bucky Irving, Chase Brown and others that start to creep into the back end of that top ten. So just the curiosity there from a receiving standpoint, again, not guys jumping to the top of the line. Outside of Bowers and the under tight ends in division, you're looking at Rashid Rice at seventeen and mconkey comes in at number eleven talking about PPR leagues becoming the norm. So just you know, the Ronco set it and forget it. I got five and thirty before I blink. In terms of its game to game production. Herbert at eleven is just he's one of the more fascinating guys because everyone keeps trying to trumpet the this is the year he breaks out. It's like, that's not how they want to play. You brought up the way Mahomes is now right, last two years twenty six twenty seven touchdowns into double digit interceptions QBR and all that stuff, fun stuff that folks go down in the high nineties. With justin Herbert, you've built an offense and a system with Jim Harbaugh that they don't want him throwing for five thousand yards and thirty five touchdowns if the defense lives up to what they're supposed to be. And Hampton is the half the running back that he's been trumpeted as right because as the draft war on process war on, I should say, yeah, genty was first, but you started to hear the buzz of maybe possibly whatever, and then he finds a place and a home with a guy who wants to run the ball. In Harbaugh, you're gonna be working for balance, so you might have a couple of blow up games, and he did. Last year, he had a couple of Herbert games like, oh, that's the outlier, and I think that'll be the case again. Now in terms of ranking eleventh, it becomes the cumulative effect or maybe the offensive line is good enough. And this is where we parse out the week to week starter versus best ball season when we look at rankings, because Herbert might actually still be standing unlike a lot of other quarterbacks based on those behemos he's got working in front of him in all Slater, et cetera.

Yeah, and they sign McKay Beckton this offseason, so like of their signings on offense, it's Beckton and Najie Harris. So how much does that help justin Herbert? Probably not too much, but it helps the Chargers as a team.

Right, Jagie Harris will fall forward for three point eight, three point nine, but they'll use them right. No, But but that's what Pittsburgh did the great success. Correct, the numbers weren't gaudy meme. Jalen Warren was the more explosive guy. But three yards and a cloud of dust is winning football. Whether it wins you fantasy or not becomes the other issue.

And there's only so many stats per game, you know, snaps per game, excuse me, and the stats that are going to Harris then likely wouldn't be going to Herbert unless they were obviously in passing situations. I did look up one quick stat of the AFC West, and this is why I'm so surprised. Yards per play. Last year, the Chargers were tied for fifteenth in the NFL with about five point four. The rest of the AFC was in the bottom half of the league. So the Chargers at fifteen were that was the high point for teams in the AFC West and yards per play, so that should tell you a little bit on the type of offense that you're looking for in that division that I just don't necessarily think is there. Raiders were twenty eighth, Kansas City was twenty second, Denver was twentieth.

Inside the numbers, We'll be doing more of this. Did I watch flex podcast? Get it downloaded? On your iHeartRadio app, wherever you get your audio. We appreciate you evangelize, continuing to do big things at nan Byron Fox. Find me over at Swollendome. You hear Dan during the week on The Gottlieb Show, as well as Cavino and Rich and here with me on Sunday mornings as we traverse the sporting universe.