NFL Trends Deep Dive with Next Gen Stats Research Analyst James Reber
The Rich Eisen Podcast
NFL and Rich Eisen
4.5 • 672 Ratings
🗓️ 19 March 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Marcas Grant, Michael F. Florio, and LaQuan Jones start the show by considering the career of former Colts wide receiver T.Y. Hilton and whether he is a fantasy football hall of famer.
Then they are joined by Next Gen Stats research analyst James Reber to discuss two emerging NFL trends that could affect fantasy football going forward: the increased rate of tight end chip blocks and the greater prevalence of two-high safety coverages.
James explains why chip blocking has become more common, shares the tight ends that catch the most passes off of chip blocks, and discusses which tight ends might return extra value in fantasy based on this trend.
Then James dives into the data on two-high safety coverages and reveals which wide receivers are the best at breaking down these types of defensive looks.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed human. |
| 0:15.0 | Hey, everybody. |
| 0:15.8 | It's Tuesday, March 19th, 2026. |
| 0:18.4 | Welcome to the NFL fantasy football podcast, |
| 0:20.7 | where we're happy to help in past protection. It's me, Uranium G. Marcus Grant, joined by Michael F. Florio and Laquan Jones. Happy start of the tournament, guys. I know it's not fantasy football, but happy March Madness to those who observe. I do not. I enjoy it. I won't act like I've watched a lot of college basketball this year. |
| 0:38.3 | I used to be huge into college basketball, but it doesn't matter, right? |
| 0:42.8 | Like, I don't need to know any of the players on the TV for me to enjoy today and tomorrow. |
| 0:49.1 | Do not care. |
| 0:50.2 | It'll be a great time. |
| 0:51.4 | I would say the next two weekends, this weekend and next weekend, |
| 0:54.9 | or maybe two of the greatest weekends in sports just because there's wall-to-wall basketball on |
| 0:59.6 | from like 9 a.m. Pacific time until, you know, late in the evening. |
| 1:04.8 | And, you know, I feel bad for the poor folks who get their prices right preempted. |
| 1:09.1 | Or, like, you know know i know my grandmother didn't |
| 1:11.5 | particularly care for it because her soap operas got pushed uh because of basketball but for the rest of us |
| 1:16.4 | for the rest of us it is a great time an absolutely great time so we are supposed to to watch together |
| 1:23.2 | this weekend i don't know if you guys are are still coming through but we're supposed to... Oh, I'm pulling up. I'm pulling on it. For sure. Yeah. For sure. So that'll be fun. That'll be fun. It's going to be a good time. Be a good time. So today on the show, going to have a kind of a different time. It should be a good time. Nonetheless, we're going to talk to James Reber, who does research for the next-gen stats team here at the NFL, |
| 1:46.2 | wrote a couple of articles that maybe on the surface you wouldn't think about as fantasy-related articles, |
| 1:52.1 | but we are trying to find a fantasy spin. |
| 1:54.8 | He talked about the increase in chip blocks across NFL offenses. |
| 1:59.3 | Also talked about the rise of split safety's too high |
... |
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