What is up? It's the rant. My name is Jeff Rackliffe and it is Wednesday June 16th. Uh-oh 3 days in a row. Get used to it.

But hey, on the podcast today, we are going to preview the Cincinnati Bengals. Before I do get into that, though, I do have a brief announcement slash request. So first and foremost, we do now have merch available. Is that what the kids call it? Go over to sawdustpods.com. And we do have a little store there where you can buy rant t-shirts. So if you want this logo on a shirt, I love this logo. I always get comments when I wear my rant t-shirt, but you can go ahead over to sawdustpods.com.

And get a rant t-shirt for yourself. Also though, if you want to get one for free, we're going to run another contest like we did last year. Here's the contest. It is simple. Review this podcast and rate it on iTunes. And in your review, put your Twitter handle. And here in July, we're going to pick a winner.

So if you haven't reviewed the pod already, please do so. And you will be entered into win. Even if you don't listen on Apple podcast, please review it on Apple podcast. Remember, put your Twitter handle in your review. And I'll pick a winner winner will get a t-shirt. The color and size of their choice a rant t-shirt. So sawdustpods.com. Go check that out. All right. So let's get into the Cincinnati Bengals for today.

We're going to start with Mr. Joe Burrow. Now, I know a lot of people were not entirely crazy about this team passing over on penny stool with the fifth overall pick. But it wasn't a lot of ways of vote of confidence for Jonah Williams, who really basically was coming off his rookie season, even though he was drafted in 2019 last year was his first full season. Well, we can't even call it full because he was banged up last year.

But a vote of confidence for him, they do have Riley reef, who they signed in free agency to play the right tackle position. And then Jackson Carmen, who ultimately long term could be that right tackle out of Clemson as a really quality second round pick. I thought that was a solid pick for them. He's going to play right guard at least initially and could ultimately long term kick out to the right tackle. So I don't think it was the worst case scenario that they ended up passing on penny stool.

What we saw at a burrow last year was pretty impressive. I mean, he's throwing the ball a ton. Now that's a little concerning as well. But I thought that he stepped right in and showed he belongs as a starting NFL quarterback. Now he was a rookie. There were elements of his game that you see from rookies.

But as a whole, he's very appealing for fantasy purposes currently projects out 4,280 passing yards, 24 passing scores.

And you know, here's the key 248 rushing yards, three rushing scores. That's the difference between this generation of quarterback in the previous generation.

You know, you have the Philip rivers of the world, the drew breeze of the world, the paint mannings of the world, Tom Brady's of the world. These are guys who, you know,

what were we looking for in terms of rushing yards like 30 rushing yards on the season. Remember every 40 rushing yards you have is the same amount of fantasy points as a passing touchdown. And mostly it's the score passing touchdowns at four points.

So if you have 40 rushing yards on the season, you kind of basically bump your point total up terms of passing touchdowns by, you know, one passing touchdown. What could he freaking do.

Well, when we're talking about Joe burrow here, we're not talking about 40 rushing yards, 250 rushing yards is a significant number.

You know, we're talking now the equivalent of, you know, almost seven passing touchdowns. Now it's called six. Yeah, I'll push it with almost seven. Let's call it six.

But still six takes you from if it's 24 projected touchdowns to 30 in terms of fantasy points. And those are points you just didn't get with the generation of quarterbacks of that breeze Brady Manning Eli Manning as well to a lesser extent, you know, big Ben.

All those guys rivers. You just didn't get those points. Even Matt Ryan, that type of player. Those points don't exist. So burrow. Okay, 24 touchdowns. Is that a big number? No, it's not even one and a half per game, you know, it's not a big number.

But he makes up ground because of his mobility. This modern era of quarterback is so mobile. He's super appealing for me. If he manages to get into the late rounds that's round 10 and beyond, he is an optimal.

Upside target for me. He may go a little earlier than that. It all depends. But really, I mean, hey, super appealing and look who he's throwing the football to. He's got not only Tyler Boyd and T Higgins from last year coming back.

But he also now has the fifth overall pick and guy who he made some magic with at the college level in Jamar chase.

You're talking about an offense here, especially if they throw as much as I think they're going to throw over 600 passing attempts. This is an offense that could sustain three top 36 fantasy wide receivers, which is really difficult to do when you consider their role. There are 32 teams in a league.

So to fit two of them, even in the top 36 is difficult enough. Now in theory, you know, four teams or more could do that. But to fit three in there, that's especially difficult. Now the challenge, though, and NCI love to Higgins, but if you have Jamar chase on the field, Jamar chase could very well lead this team in targets.

But likewise, Tyler Boyd's still going to see his as well. And I actually think it's very evenly distributed. So right now, I have Tyler Boyd, Jamar chase and T Higgins within six targets of each other. Check this out. Chase 120, Boyd 116, Higgins 114. If they do that, all three of them will be top 36 options, but I don't know if any of them will be top 24 options like wide receiver to somebody's almost got a half to be there. But right now I'm ranking Jamar chase at 20.

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