After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

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That's ShipStation.com slash audio. I hope that you survived your Monday. Not just survived, but thrived and kicked it in the rear end. I hope you gave it a good swift kick to the rear and that your Monday was one in which you were highly productive. I did not sleep. That's fairly typical of Mondays. But I got a lot checked off my to-do list and for that, I'm going to chalk it up as a win.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. If you posted to our Facebook page or you sent a message on Twitter and I have not had a chance to give you a thumbs up or have it acknowledged, I just want you to know I'm still working through all the hundreds of comments, but also I'm doing my best. And as you can imagine, my phone has blown up making the news of the pending nuptials.

I kind of like that phrase. Hadn't been public for a while. I had been safe in my space, my little cocoon, where it was still private. But now that it's out there, my phone has been nonstop. But thank you. It's all done in a, well, I shouldn't say it's all, it's 95% done from a place of love and caring and support and encouragement and congratulations. And I appreciate those of you who care enough about me to let me know.

So thank you. We'll get back to some of the other Monday morning quarterback responses. Can you call it Monday morning quarterback when it's the coach talking actually? No, there's a reason why we want you to hear from Bill Belichick. He was offering an update on rookie cornerback Isaiah Bolden, who was carted off the field on the stretcher on Saturday night, resulting in the end, the abrupt end of the Packers-Patriots preseason game.

A little more from our QBs, obviously Mike Tomlin as the Steelers have not yet ever had a losing season with him as the head coach. And then not football or not football, the Americano, but the beautiful game, the world's football. And why are we talking about track and field? Oh, we'll explain. So all of that is coming up as much as we can cram into this edition of the show. So thanks again for connecting with us because it's fantasy, fantasy freak out time, right? Like if you don't have your fantasy league yet, that would be me.

Maybe it's time to start freaking out. It is big weekend for the draft as is Labor Day weekend in advance of the NFL season kicking off. So great time to catch up with the one that I consider to be fantasy expert.

Her advice always gives me a bit of a boost, though sometimes it freaks me out as well. Lindsay Rose is joining us now from Los Angeles and she's got the Daily Show from one to three Eastern. That's 10 a.m. to noon L.A. time on Sirius XM Fantasy Radio.

Before we get to any football, Lindsay, you're there in Los Angeles. So what's the weather been like the last 48 hours? Well, the last 24 hours, Amy, it's been lovely here in Los Angeles.

It was a little bit rainy the 24 hours prior. It was I mean, honestly, I think that there were a lot of us, a lot of people that I've talked to that were kind of more curious than anything. Like I was like, OK, let's ride. Let's go.

Let's do this. You know, I never really thought it was going to be that bad. But I don't think anybody thought it was going to be that bad. We just thought that there were some outlying areas where there might be some flash floods. And that's obviously dangerous for people. But I mean, the whole hurricane moniker kind of got a little bit out of control. And then and then there are people here in the L.A. and I fall into this category. They're like, why are you going to do that to us?

Because now we already kind of feel like a ridiculous stereotype. And you're setting us up to fail by saying it's going to be a hurricane and then people are going to go out and buy all the toilet paper and, you know, overreact. And then it's not going to be a hurricane.

It's going to drizzle a little bit and then we're going to look stupid. And we did not fail anyone in that department because there there was no bread on the shelf. I went I went to Target the day of the tropical storm to get bread and there was no bread. There were hot dog buns. If you wanted to grill a hot dog on the day of the hurricane, you could, because there were lots of buns.

But if you wanted to make a sandwich, not for weeks, not for weeks. No, people are stocking up like it was like the apocalypse. I noticed the alcohol was fully stocked, though. I was like, we were doing this wrong. OK, like, what are we doing?

You think you're going to be in your homes for like a month and no one's buying the alcohol? Like, I don't understand. But what was funny was on while I was out driving that errand, I got a notification like an earthquake has been detected.

Stop and drop and, you know, cover your head or take cover or whatever. I was like, is this serious? Like, we're literally it's tropical storm right now. And an earthquake is happening right now, too.

But I didn't feel it because I was in the car moving. So, oh, my God. All the things we put a bucket out to, you know, unscientifically measure. Looks like it was probably about, I don't know, three to four inches. Nice. My guesstimation.

It rained a lot, but it was it was just rain. No need to freak out over it, but you never know. Good to be prepared just in case you need bread for the next eight months. Well, I guess hopefully someone will bring more bread to the store because we don't have that.

All right. So it's here, which is kind of crazy, but we're talking days away. Emotions. What are your emotions about the NFL season getting ready to kick off again? Very excited. I've been living in this offseason space for so long. And the show that I do on Sirius X and Fantasy Sports Radio doing like we're in prediction mode.

Prognosticate what it's going to look like. And I'm excited to actually see what it's going to look like. Week one is one of my favorite weeks because of that. Like you spend so much time figuring out who's going to be good and who are the in fantasy, who are the under the radar players that are going to pop this year. And and week one's the first time that you really get a chance to see what the offenses look like and who they're going to run through and who's going to be targeted. Who's going to get the volume and all that kind of stuff. Like that's the first time you really get answers. And that week in particular, I feel like I'm actually I find that I'm more interested in some of the other teams.

And like, what's it going to look like? The commanders who played in the preseason today and actually played their starters for quite a while. And sidebar, a little bit bummed that Sam Howell looked so good because he's been my sneaky quarterback guy in fantasy that I've been saying, like, I want to go get Sam Howell. Like, I think he's going to have a good fantasy season, even if he's not one of the best quarterbacks in the league, like because he's established a rushing floor. He's a guy who will run. He'll run.

So and he did that in college. And so I think the type of quarterback that he is will actually translate well to fantasy, even if he's not an outstanding high level pocket passer. But he's actually looked good in the preseason. So I've been talking him up big time later in the later rounds of the draft as a guy that, like, I'll go get a quarterback.

Earlier, and then I'll just wait and try and grab Sam Howell to the point where people that I've been drafting with like now now call it out when they snake him from. They're like, Sorry, he's not going to fault you. And I'm like, Damn it. What do you think the impact could be of Eric B enemy with the commanders?

I don't know. I feel like it's a big moment for him in his career. I think it's interesting that there are these there were early reports in training camp that like some of the players were maybe talking about the fact that he was they didn't necessarily love his approach. And we're going to Ron Rivera talking about that. But I could also see I could see that from his perspective, because I think that this is a big kind of prove it moment for him where you take him away from Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. And people will be looking to him and give to either give him credit or to take past credit away from him based on how the offense looks in Washington. So I'm not 100% sure. And I think that that's one of the interesting things about Eric B enemy is that nobody knows what his and what's a product of the people that have been around him.

You know, and so I will be interested to see how this works. I think Washington does a lot of talk about Washington to start the show, man. But I do think that Washington is a really interesting team to me because like Terry McLaurin is a really good wide receiver. I think he's proven that he is a very high level wide receiver route running. He has all the skills.

And then, you know, I'm operating in the fantasy space a lot of times from a fantasy standpoint. He was wide receiver 14 last year without solid quarterback play. He's never had a good quarterback. So I look at him and I'm like, if Sam Howe is an average quarterback, like that could be great. You know, like he walks into a situation where he's got a really good wide receiver that I think has flown a little bit under the radar in his career because of the lack of a quarterback that can throw him a catchable ball. And then you've got Johan Dotson, who I think is a really good complementary receiver, too. I think they've got a really good 1A1B situation going there.

And then Curtis Samuel for a little bit of versatility and then the two running backs. And so I think that and then I think the defense will be better this year, too. I think they've got a lot of guys there who are kind of on prove it years.

Chase Young, they didn't pick up his fifth year options. So he's really motivated. And I think obviously if he's healthy enough, he is a really good player. I think that the pieces are there to surprise people. I'm not I'm not willing to go out to go out of my way to predict that they will. But I do think that they could be a team that could be sneaky. And from an offensive standpoint, I just I think that the missing link is Sam Howe.

And then how Eric the enemy uses them. Only team not to make the playoffs out of the NFCB's last year. But people may not realize they actually had eight wins. They were not a losing team.

They were 8-8-1. We're excited to have Lindsay Rhodes back with us after the long, empty offseason in the NFL. As if we didn't talk about football at all. She's got her show on Sirius XM daily. It's a fantasy channel and it's one to three Eastern. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio.

All right. So I want to talk about this Jonathan Taylor slash running back plight that has been such a big topic in the offseason. First of all, as you think about fantasy, how high are you willing to draft Jonathan Taylor, considering some of the injury issues and everything else is going on? Yeah, I predict that I will have zero shares of Jonathan Taylor across all of my teams. Yeah, because the one that's also like Jonathan Taylor, this was a very specific draft.

I'm trying to remember what the structure was. I've done so many drafts lately. Jonathan Taylor. It was a super flex draft. So that's the two quarterbacks. And obviously that moves the quarterbacks up the board. And so it's not your typical round structure for the wide receivers and running backs.

They get pushed down the board. But Jonathan Taylor was available in the fifth round. Like no one wanted him.

Wow. And just kept pushing him down. Now, I even then didn't click draft, but somebody else did. He went in that round. And the reason is that Josh Jacobs is also falling farther than I think he should because of the whole holdout. People are concerned about what that will mean for him, whether or not he'll even be there week one. There's no guarantee of that.

My read of the those two is that they both have to show up for week one. Like this is a total cut your nose off despite your face situation. If you're going to actually lose more money, your argument is that you're not getting enough money and you're going to lose more money to make the point that you don't have enough money like that. I don't I don't get it, but I do understand. I understand their frustration. It's just not going to change. It just is what it is. This is the ultimate is what it is situation. And the writing has been on the wall for the last couple of years in his situation. I think what Jim or say sort of passive aggressively said this past weekend about and I'm paraphrasing here because I don't have the quote in front of me. It was like I really look forward to Jonathan Taylor proving that he can be the guy he once was again. And I'm like, that is his problem. He wasn't good last year.

Right. He wasn't good. The team wasn't good. I in addition to all of this holdout stuff and the return from injury stuff is that he established such a low floor last season.

And I don't necessarily think it was all his fault. I think the O-line was a disaster in ways that surprised us. The offense was a mess in ways that surprised us. But I'm not 100 percent sure. Like, did they fix the O-line?

Is the O-line way better? I don't I don't know. Like that.

I don't I don't know. And so unless I have answers, when I have questions about why somebody's floor fell out from underneath them, unless I have a really strong answer that the the problems that were created last season have now been addressed and totally fixed. And I have reason to believe that the old Jonathan Taylor is going to be here rather than like more so than just like, I don't know. He was a good one.

She's probably going to be good again. Like unless I have something more concrete than that, I can't use a pick that that high because the opportunity cost is too great. The people you're passing up on are people that in many ways check more boxes. Cults are looking for a first round draft pick or collection of picks that equates to a first round pick.

And so far, no takers, though it certainly could materialize. All right. Let's talk running backs then, because I agree with you. I think the smart move by Saquon Barkley was to do the deal and get the money that you can.

Same thing with Tony Pollard. We see Dalvin Cook has finally gotten a gig to Ezekiel Elliott as well. Who are the most reliable running backs that you would be comfortable drafting up top or telling people to draft up top?

This is not what you're asking, but I'm just going to say this first. I have always, always been a running back running back drafter in fantasy. Like it's just it's the way that the builds work out for me the best.

I feel most confident about that. I've always felt strongly about taking a running back in the first round and probably a running back in the second round to just go get those high. Those those high round guys that are feature backs that are going to have the volume that I'm looking for. And then there's tons of wide receivers that you can get all over all over. I mean, even late round, there's like really good guys here. Like, oh, that guy has a ton of upside. You can get wide receivers all over your draft this year.

I don't feel that way. I am not drafting. I mean, maybe I'm drafting a running back in the second round sometimes, but I'm going and getting wide receivers early. I don't feel strongly about this year's running back group. And the guys that are going first at the running back position are Christian McCaffrey and then Austin Eckler.

And then Bijan Robinson's going later in first round this year. Saquon Barkley is up there in that group. Maybe, you know, RB three or four.

And then it's like Nick Chubb, Tony Pollard. Like now you're getting into some of those guys, but there's there's three or four that are pretty much the top four running backs. And I think when you're comparing them to the wide receivers that you're going to get in that first round. Again, going back to opportunity cost, I just I would rather have the wide receiver. There are some high end wide receivers that I think you can you can comfortably say they're going to average 20 points a game. There's so much more volatility at the running back position in general.

Yes. And then we're moving further and further away in the league from actual feature backs. Like there just aren't that many, which you would think would prioritize or make more valuable the guys that do check that box. But when you look at the group of guys that actually fit that bill now, they all come with various question marks attached to them like Christian McCaffrey, who's easily RB one.

I think there's reason to say like he got through a whole season last year healthy, but he hadn't gone through the two seasons prior. Like, are we a little bit like feeling like this is the year where it all falls out from underneath us? And then you've used your first round pick. But that said, I haven't been in a position to draft Christian McCaffrey.

It hasn't been a purposeful like I'm moving away from it. But again, if it's Christian McCaffrey or it's, you know, one of those wide receivers that's going really early, I'm going to take a wide receiver. Like if I'm sitting there at two, I'm going to take Jamar Chase.

If I'm sitting there one, I'm going to take Justin Jefferson. Like those are easy no brainers to me over Christian McCaffrey this year. And then Austin Eckler, I think he was awesome last year. I think he will still be a big part of the offense. But I think they're going to prioritize running the ball with him this year. And last year, one of the reasons he was so valuable is that there wasn't a run game. Every time they wanted to get the ball to Austin Eckler, it was a point in PPR because they threw down.

And I don't think that's what they're going to do this year. So I think his value comes down a little bit. Bijan is a rookie, so there's a little bit risk attached with that. Plus, I also think that Tyler Algiers, I think he's a pretty good running back. The underlying metrics show that he actually was very, very good last year. And not just in terms, he wasn't propped up by volume. He played well. So it doesn't make sense to me to have Atlanta, even though they use the very high draft pick on Bijan Robinson, to just throw him away.

Why would they do that? So I think he'll be more involved than people are thinking. And so, anyway, this is a very long-winded way of saying, those are the guys that are going really early. But for me, I'm just, they're wide receivers in that range that I'd rather have. Lindsay Rose is with us here after hours, CBS Sports Radio. I don't want to miss this because you bring up Austin Eckler. Last time we spoke, you were really high on Justin Herbert and the Chargers.

He got the deal. They've got a lot of people that are returning. Are you still as high on the Chargers this year? I've had to re-talk myself into the Chargers. This has been quite a roller coaster ride that I've been on with the Chargers. At the end of last year, I was really frustrated.

Because I kept thinking, well, it doesn't make sense to do this. That when they played their starters in week 18, and actually, oh my gosh, my memory is awful. Was it Mike Williams who got hurt?

Somebody got hurt in week 18, right? And I was like, and it was unnecessary. And they didn't benefit their playoff feeding as a result. But they just kept playing them. And I was like, take them out, please, take them out, please.

Protect these guys. And they didn't. And then it backfired.

And then it didn't help them in the playoffs either. I was just at a loss. I just didn't think it made sense. And so, there were certain decisions that were made that made it harder for me to remain rabid. That said, I went to Chargers camp a few weeks ago with Sirius XM. And I was talking to, well, we talked to a bunch of different players and Brandon Staley. And I think that the theme there was push the ball downfield. And Justin Herbert is super comfortable this year. And then there was something that Keenan Allen said that made me feel like it was just, it was volunteered. That he said Justin Herbert was more comfortable this year.

And I was like, back up. Are we talking about comfortable in the offense? Because there were a lot of critics of, I didn't clarify all of this for him. There were criticisms of Joe Lombardi and the fact that there were too many check downs and short yardage. His A dot, his average depth of target was one of the lowest in the league.

And that doesn't match the skill set that we see. We're like, he has this magical arm and you're throwing it six yards. Why are we doing that? But is that Lombardi or is it Justin Herbert in his development had just been checking down the ball and he wasn't willing to take those shots and take a chance.

And so anyway, I'm all over the map here. I was like, to Keenan Allen, is he more comfortable in the offense or is he more comfortable just because he has another year under his belt and he's just more comfortable? And he was like, both. And then he was talking about the fact that Justin Herbert wants to throw the ball downfield.

And I was like, okay, maybe it wasn't all Justin Herbert. Maybe it was he was being told to do certain things and he just hadn't gotten to a point where he was the type of quarterback who felt comfortable, you know, blowing off the message. Or, you know, I think there's something to be said for when a quarterback feels really, really confident and they feel empowered by the organization, which I think some of them have indicated when they get those big deals, it does this to them. They feel like, okay, they believe in me.

I'm the guy. I'm going to go out there and I'm going to do everything I think should happen on the field as opposed to sort of everything they've been instructed to. And they don't necessarily feel comfortable checking out of play, for instance, or something like that. So this is a very long winded way of saying I do think that the offense will look more like what we've all been kind of hoping that the offense will look like this year. I think there's reason to think that they'll push the ball down the field and that his skill set will be more properly utilized.

Fingers crossed. I'm kind of back on board. So when it comes to the Chargers, they will potentially be a challenge for the Chiefs. Just saying last hour that chasing the Chiefs is my big, my big theme for 2023, at least until a team is able to do it successfully.

Lindsay Rhodes is with us here on After Hours. We're going to have you hang on. I want to talk about some of these rookie quarterbacks that we're about to see on the field. And also, I keep hearing that fantasy football is taking a hit with the advance of more and more states that are legalizing sports betting.

So I'd love to get your take on that. But hang on with us. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours podcast.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We've talked about the Los Angeles Chargers. You hear that call there with Mike Williams on the Chargers Radio Network. Can they challenge the Chiefs? Everybody's chasing the Chiefs.

It's After Hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Lindsay Rhodes is with us still from L.A. because we are talking fantasy. And Lindsay, let's go quarterbacks who are brand new. So we've got Bryce Young. We think C.J.

Stroud in Houston, though we haven't gotten the initial announcement. And then also Anthony Richardson with the Colts. Of these rookie quarterbacks, these first year guys, who do you think could put up the best numbers or could really make a difference initially right off the top? This might be the fantasy in me, but it's Anthony Richardson.

I think that he has the highest ceiling is the way I see it. Again, I need to clarify that that's probably fantasy driven because Bryce Young doesn't excite me from a fantasy standpoint because there isn't any rushing component to his game. And so I'm expecting him his stat line to look like a pocket passer as a rookie.

And so I'm not excited about that right now. But I think Anthony Richardson feels like the more vault, the most volatile perhaps of the three, like it could totally not work. But honestly, from a fantasy standpoint, I think he could be bad and still be a good fantasy asset because I think that the rushing volume will prop up his fantasy numbers. Like Justin Fields last year in a lot of ways wasn't a great quarterback. Like people are very critical of what he looked like when he was actually trying to pass the ball. Right. But from a fantasy standpoint, the second half of the season, once they finally figured out that he has some skill, like when he takes off with the ball, like let's do that more frequently.

I don't know why it took so long, but it did. And once they did, he can't be stopped. I'm willing to bet this year that he takes steps forward in his development as a passer. I think he will.

And I think it will be better than what we saw last year. And again, in the fantasy space, what we already saw was like he was putting up back to back 30 point outings. And I think that that's not out of the realm of possibility for Anthony Richardson just because of what his game looks like. His arm is huge.

We've all we've all seen all of that stuff. I think that he'll probably be less consistent than the other two rookies that are starting out of the gate. And I think CJ Stroud will definitely start out of the gate. It doesn't make any sense for Houston to delay that development. Right.

In my opinion. So it's funny that you talk about kind of the potential there, because I'm feeling that way about Tyreek Hill. If Tua can stay healthy all the way through, which I hope for his sake that he can. He looks different.

He's he's bulked up a ton, obviously, has been working toward taking fewer hits. But Tyreek has made it his stated goal to get to 2000 yards receiving in a season. He's the reason I won my fantasy championship, the one league that I played in last year. But he's the number one reason why I did. I would actually go with Tyreek as my top receiver.

Would you, number one? I'm telling you, he has been great for me every time I've drafted him. I think I've had him three years, but last year he's the reason I won my championship. I won in spite of having Aaron Rodgers as my quarterback. Wow. I know. Well, now that is saying something. Rough year for Aaron. It was.

Yeah. I mean, he's he's a very good wide receiver. And there's certainly you'll get no argument for me from a fantasy standpoint that he's a he's a great pick.

I think that he is maybe because of Waddle, maybe not because of Waddle. I think that he's a little bit more volatile than Justin Jefferson. I think I would rather have Justin Jefferson than Tyreek killed just because it's always going to go through Justin. Like the amount of targets that he gets and the double team numbers that, you know, you go look at that kind of stuff. It shows that like he's the dude and the ball's coming here. I'm excited about what the addition of Jordan Addison means for him, too, though.

I think it was really, really obvious that they needed my theory. And it's not my theory, but it's one that I've come to adopt is that the the your best wide receiver is only good as your second best wide receiver. And I think that that same thing is true for pass rushers to your best pass rusher is only as good as your second best guy on the line allows him to be, because you need somebody to draw that defense away. You can't just be like, OK, it's going to be Justin Jefferson and we're going to send the whole house like the defense is going to focus completely on stopping him.

You need somebody else on the field to just stretch the defense out and get those bodies away from him. It made sense that their priorities to go get Jordan Addison or get a wide receiver in the draft. It could better do that than Adam Thielen could at this stage of his career. So I really liked that draft pick for him, and I think that it will it'll be beneficial to both Jordan and to Justin Jefferson and the Vikings in general. But I mean, you see that with Tyreek Hill. One of the things that I think is interesting about teams that do have those two wide receivers is that it doesn't necessarily lower their fantasy value. Like and we've seen that with Jamar Chase and T Higgins over the years, too. Like he's one of the best wide receiver twos in the NFL, right? I mean, there are certainly other people that can make an argument for that.

Jalen Waddle, there's guys around the league. I think that that was an interesting thing that we took away last year when with Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle, Devante Smith and AJ Brown in Philadelphia. Yes, like you can totally support two guys. And I think it actually benefits both in in most of these cases.

Lindsay Rose is with us for just one more question, because I got to run this theory by you. I've heard that fantasy football may have hit its peak or is maybe taking a hit because of legal gambling. But you're in that space and it sounds like you have three dozen drafts that you're managing all the time. Three dozen teams. Do you see any impact on fantasy football when it comes to this influx of states that have legalized sports betting? No, nor have I even thought to think that, honestly, from where I sit.

I don't think so. I think I think it all kind of goes hand in hand. In my mind, like fantasy and betting and it all kind of it all kind of marries up pretty nicely, honestly. So it might it might be hurting marketplace advertising, fighting for faces and dollars and stuff like that.

But I don't I don't see it. I mean, certainly I think fantasy is as popular as it's ever been. And I think that there are different forms of fantasy that have even popped up that I think are merged with the betting space. Like the daily fantasy effectively is gambling, but it's also still a form of fantasy. And if you're also really into fantasy, then a lot of times the player props are going to interest you, too. Like to me, it all kind of goes together. And so there are different companies in a lot of ways.

But we're also seeing some companies that do it all. Which, by the way, have you done best ball? I have not. Let me talk up that format for five seconds here, because I think that anyone who's listening who is unfamiliar with the best ball format or hasn't done it yet, but also does fantasy. This is a really fun way to do fantasy in a way of expanding your fantasy roster in a way that won't overwhelm you in the season. Because I know one of the things that people have concerns about is the management of your roster and set it doing waivers and setting lineups. And it can become too overwhelming to have a bunch of those decisions to make every week.

And I get it. I literally have a checklist so I can make sure that I checked all of my teams with best ball. You draft a team so you get the experience of doing a snake draft and then you get the benefit of seeing where the runs are and where people are likely to go. And oh, if I wait on a quarterback, then what does my roster look like? And you can get into a best ball tournament for not very much money. What they do is they set your lineup every week.

It is what it sounds like. You draft, let's say, 20 people to your roster and let's say you draft three quarterbacks. Whoever the quarterback is that scored the most points is going to be the one that they count in your starting quarterback spot. So you're not setting a roster. They're going to take your best two wide receiver scores and your best two running back scores and your best tight end score. So you're just drafting a roster that has multiple options for them to choose from. And I think it's a beneficial way to get ready for your home league draft. And I think it's more beneficial than mock drafting because people do the first two rounds and then they start leaving the draft and it all goes to auto draft. And to me, your draft is one, you know I'm right, in those mid to late rounds and how you build up the depth of your team. It's not the first few rounds. So what you really need to the benefit is seeing what people are doing in those ranges.

And you can get that by doing a quick best ball draft. Like you could just go, oh, I don't know. Is it winning? Is it doing well?

Is it not? I don't care. Interesting.

I want to check it out. Remind me again, how early is my ceiling? I cannot draft a quarterback before what round?

So that's another thing. I've been taking quarterbacks earlier this year. Oh my gosh, Lindsay, stop it. You're doing it on purpose.

You're setting me up. I've always gone running back, running back, not doing it this year. And then I've always waited on quarterbacks and told people to do that.

I don't think that this is the year. I think there's a clear line of eight quarterbacks and frankly, there's a clear tier of three run quarterbacks at the top. And you know who they are in whatever order, because honestly, I don't even care. Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen, same thing to me, those three. Then there are five other guys that are also going high, but are a clear second and third tier or maybe just I think of them as a second tier. And it's Justin Fields and Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert. What I would do and what I've been doing in different drafts is I'll sometimes I'll take a quarterback in the third round. I never want to break open the tier. But let's say Patrick Mahomes goes and Josh Allen goes and Jalen Hurts is still there.

And it's my turn coming up and he's still there. I'll sometimes click that because I really think that there's benefit. There's such a big difference in the high end quarterbacks and the mid to low quarterbacks in terms of consistency. Those top three are going to give you, you know, mid 20s like regularly. And that's that's huge in terms of winning your week to week versus somebody who might bottom out at 13 or something like that. Those guys aren't going to do that. And that's that's nice to be able to just have that consistency. So I'll do that in the third round, but only if it's the third person.

I'll never crack it open. So sometimes that just won't happen in terms of the flow. And then I do the other ones the same way where I'm just watching the flow of that next group of five and I won't reach for it.

But if it looks like it's coming around to me and we're already in that tier, sometimes I'll grab that. OK, so now I'm having to reset my entire perspective on the draft. We're just getting started.

Lots of drafts that are taking place. Find Lindsay with all of this incredible insight on Twitter at Lindsay Underscore Roads. And you can also hear her one to three Eastern on the Sirius XM Fantasy Channel. Oh, it's so good to catch up with you. We're going to do it again soon. You too. I'd love to.

There are very few guests that I would allow to stick around for 30 minutes, but she is worth it. Great fantasy insight. And now I'm going to try out this new best ball format. I love best ball in golf. I've never tried it in fantasy. Producer J, are you on board?

We need to find ourselves a best ball tournament or a best ball league. I'm interested. Yeah, me too. I've never played it before. I've heard of it. Nice to hear it explained a little more in detail.

Yeah, I'm interested. And now she's changed perspectives with quarterbacks, with running backs. I'm going to have to reset my entire thought process about this upcoming draft.

But just in time, you are listening to the After Hours podcast. Swing of the fly ball deep center. Going back on it back towards the angled wall. It's over his head.

It comes off the wall. It bounds away. Harper's around second. He's heading for third.

Meckler bobbles on the track. Harper coming around third. He's coming to the plate.

He doesn't need to slide, but he does. He's in safely. And it's 5-2 Phillies.

He was snipping it right out of the box. And a bobble out in center field. I'd be curious to see how they score that if they will give him an error in center field. Looks like twice Meckler tried to pick it up and bobbled it.

Meckler never got a very good read on the ball that hit right at the base of the wall. The state farm sign and bounded away like we've seen so often at this park. It's a good team over there. And we're fighting for that one spot. And they played us pretty well when we went out to San Fran. So our fans showed up tonight, which was great for us as well. And I just thought everybody in our lineup and our pitching as well just came out strong and was ready to go.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Mixing in a little baseball Phillies style inside the park home run style. As Bryce Harper manages to leg one out with the help of a couple of different errors by the same guy on the same play. That's the call there on the Phillies radio network and then Bryce himself pointing to a big performance by the offense.

Ben runs on 16 hits and they had four homers off the San Francisco Giants. And he also references the NL wild card race when he calls it the one spot, which is where the Phillies are sitting right now. Their perch is three games up on the Cubs.

The Cubs right now are in the number two spot in the NL wild card race. And then you've got the Giants, who the Phillies beat last night, slipping back behind the Cubs because of this loss. And it wasn't just a loss. It was a bit demoralizing for Gabe Kapler's crew. We're going to get ready for tomorrow's game because we've got two more here in Philly and then an off day and a pretty good gauntlet of games after that. So I don't want to dwell on one, particularly one that didn't go well.

I don't think there's much to look back on other than we probably don't want to do it the same way again in the next couple of games. While we're talking wild cards, man, in the American League, the Seattle Mariners are in full on assault mode. The 2-0 pitch, swing and a well hit ball down the right field line. Stay fair.

It is fair. It is gone. Goodbye baseball. For Cal Raleigh, his last three home runs have been tucked right inside the right field corner. Holy smoke for Cal, number 23 on the year. And he gives the Mariners a 6-1 lead.

Mariners occupied the third wild card spot. Here's the pitch to Cal. Swing and a drive. Deep to right field again and goodbye baseball.

The big dumper does it again. Cal Raleigh with a second home run of the ball game. Way out of here to right field.

To the top row, the bleachers in right. Holy smokes, five RBIs on the night for Cal Raleigh. And it's now the Mariners 12 and the White Sox 1.

What a night for Cal Raleigh. Did he call him the big dumper? Or did I just miss that? Jay, is it possible you can isolate that from the Mariners call? The big dumper does it again. The big dumper does it again.

I feel like that appeals to Dan Campbell initially. We're in the dumpers again. I mean, Cal Raleigh's nickname is the big dumper. You're back in the dumpers again.

Yeah, it's catchy. 14 runs on 15 hits for the Mariners overall as they pummel the White Sox. But big night for the big dumper.

The big dumper does it again. 6 RBI on a pair of home runs for Cal Raleigh. And yeah, the Mariners continue their win streak. As we talked about, wild card is in their sights. Though they don't need to give up on the AL West yet.

Because they've got one of the hottest offenses right now. They've hit 70 wins. So they are sitting in that number 3 spot. But get this, only a half game behind the Astros. Looking at the AL West standings, they're a half game back of the Strohs. And they are just two games back of the West leaders. The Rangers have been atop the AL West for the vast majority of the season. But now the Rangers have dropped 5 in a row. We'll have to hear from Bruce Bochy a little bit later on. But yeah, they have left their 6 exposed. And so now the Rangers can see the Astros and Mariners in their rear view mirror. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.