 Welcome to the fan dual hurry up. I'm Ariel Epstein here with sports grid We're joined now by the senior analyst and writer for number fire Jim Sonnis Jim Are we going to see a high-scoring game this Pro Bowl weekend? I really hope so because it's always more exciting when we get some points out there And that hasn't really been the case recently last year's Pro Bowl was really weird with Anthony Sherman kind of going off So I'm hoping we get back to normal here and get back to normalcy I'm not sure that's a thing with the Pro Bowl, but we can always hope so Pretty excited to see how things go on Sunday. How are you doing today? I'm doing great, and I think I kind of needed a mental break from the NFL and next week I'll come in rejuvenated ready to look at the Super Bowl as we get to see the San Francisco 49ers take on the Kansas City Chiefs, however, we won't see any of those players this weekend We will get to see a lot of the NFL's best One of your favorite players this week is the Detroit Lions wide receiver Kenny Galladay Galladay led the NFL with 11 receiving touchdowns this year and ranked seventh in receiving yards with 1190 why was Galladay so effective despite having a backup quarterback this season? The easy answer is that he's really good at football And I think that's something we should prioritize in the Pro Bowl, which is weird because they're at the Pro Bowl Everybody's good at football here with Kenny Galladay. I think that you kind of hit the nail on the head there We were looking for guys who had bad situations during the regular season who now get to catch passes and Russell Wilson Drew Brees and Kurt Cousins that is a lot better than Jeff Driscoll and David Blau and you mentioned all the stats for Kenny Galladay And I think that those are all super impressive But just in general for the Pro Bowl We want to use wide receivers and tight ends for the single game slate on Fandle because the way things work is there are Three quarterbacks and three running backs on the roster for each team But there's only to be one of those guys each position on the field at a given time Whereas there are three wide receivers and one tight end and there are only four wide receivers on the entire roster So in general we want wide receivers and we want tight ends Because when we use those guys the snap rate of our team will be higher So we're looking for talented players at those positions and it's hard to get more talented than Kenny Galladay I think that he's a super talented wide receiver. He can go up and get it He can convert on a long catch as well So I think that when I'm filling out lineups and favoring this NFC squad I'm gonna turn to County Kenny Galladay first. He's a really good candidate for MVP slot where you get 1.5 X bonus We know what he can do on low volume. We know what can do with bad quarterback play And I'm excited to see what he can do here catching balls from Russell Wilson and Drew Brees. I like what you said there I didn't think about thinking of the receivers who were in bad situations That still made them good and another Receiver that didn't have to deal with that was Amari Cooper Who had the quarterback that threw for the most passing yards in the NFL in Dak Prescott on the Dallas Cowboys? However, you have Cooper here a top 10 receiver in receiving yards this season with 1189 why is Cooper going to be a big play in this Pro Bowl? Yeah, you're right He had a great situation this year because Dak Prescott was amazing This is not in the same tier as Kenny Galladay But what Amari Cooper has is rest whereas the other two wide receivers on this NFC roster are Michael Thomas and Davante Adams Michael Thomas caught like 170 balls this year. So he's probably pretty tired. Davante Adams is just playing last week He had like 160 yards in the conference championship But Kenny Galladay and Amari Cooper have rest on their side because Amari Cooper did not make the playoffs And as we know this dude is pretty talented as well just like Kenny Galladay now The one thing that concerns me a bit with Amari Cooper and the reason I have him below Kenny Galladay on my list is that Cooper is entering a contract negotiation phase and when that's the case Unless you're Kirk Cousins when he was in the Pro Bowl a couple years ago, you're probably not going to go to nuts So he could play it safe and that's why I want to favor Kenny Galladay over Amari Cooper But Cooper is still a hyper talented player. He is rested unlike some other wide receivers and he just like Kenny Galladay We've seen what he can do in blowing up slates. So I think among the NFC wide receivers even when you consider the Potential contract considerations for Amari Cooper I'm gonna write Galladay first Cooper second and I go with Thomas and Adams after those two guys But Cooper still a really good play despite the question marks around his contract at tight end in the NFC You have Saints tight end Jared Cook. You were talking about Receivers being well rested and how it could help them in the Pro Bowl However, Cook did just come off a nine touchdown season, which is a career high for him How is he not going to be tired this weekend? Yeah, he'll be tired, but he's really good And I think that's kind of the one factor here for Jared Cook because the two tight ends in the NFC roster are Austin Hooper and Jared Cook and no disrespect to Austin Hooper But from a talent perspective, I like Jared Cook quite a bit The other consideration for Austin Hooper is that he is like Amari Cooper where he could be entering free agency Is that coming off season? So I would not blame him if he were to take it a little bit easy if I were in his shoes I would do the exact same thing But that pushes me towards Jared Cook Jared Cook this past year had 16 deep targets for the Saints that is despite missing two games and Playing an offense that doesn't throw the ball deep very often cook with second on the team in deep targets behind Michael Thomas And he converted as you said with those nine touchdowns on those deep targets pretty often I love tight ends for the Pro Bowl if you look back at the past six years There have been multiple tight ends among the top five guys in scoring in five of the past six years at last year Being the lone exception. So you want to use tight ends and on the NFC side I like Jared Cook more than I like Austin Hooper because of the contract and because I just think Jared Cook is a hyper talented player So yeah, not quite as rested as Austin Hooper because Hooper was at home during the playoffs But Cook was eliminated in the first round. I think that helps and I just like his talent a lot So Jared Cook someone I like quite a bit I think he's up there with golly day as being one of my favorite plays out of either team for this game But that being said in the NFC you like Kenny golly day Amari Cooper and Jared Cook Who's your tight end? Let's switch over to the IFC where you have the Denver Broncos wide receiver Cortland Sutton You were speaking about golly day before in the quarterback situation having to deal with a quarterback That wasn't the ideal situation situation with Matthew Stafford going down now on the IFC side The Broncos had to turn to Drew Locke at quarterback Sutton hasn't scored a touchdown since December 1st, and he only had two games where he had over 100 receiving yards Why is he your number one pick at AFC here? Well, it's exactly what you mentioned where he is in a similar situation to Kenny golly day where he goes from Joe Flacco Brandon Allen and then eventually Drew Locke did play pretty well down the stretch for the Broncos but overall that was not a great situation for Denver not a super prolific offense and You can understand why Cortland Sutton's production Wouldn't be that good, but when you look at it from a talent perspective and watch this guy play He's really freaking good. So kind of like Kenny golly day We're just targeting a really talented wide receivers and Cortland Sutton checks that box He had 35 deep targets to the full season He was a favorite of Joe Flacco down the field even when a manual Sanders is there and then when Drew Locke came to town It was basically only Sutton who got deep targets on this team And even though the defense knew where the ball was going Silent Sutton still played really well. He was able to muscle through defenders Get that two touchdown game in the first game that drew Locke played And I think that that is really valuable Cortland Sutton if you look at his pro football focus grades was one of the best wide receivers in football this year and they'll be catching passes from Lamar Jackson and Deshaun Watson I love that because Deshaun Watson can throw it deep and throw it deep really well as can Lamar Jackson And it's just an upgrade for him So the same line of thinking applies to Cortland Sutton as did Kenny golly day finding players moving into better situations than they had during the regular season We'll talk about that with DJ chart coming up as well But I think that's Sutton given the talent he possesses is really hard not to love for this late You mentioned DJ track the wide receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars. He's a rookie playing in a pro bowl He led the Jaguars this year with 1,008 receiving yards eight touchdowns He led the Jaguars and touchdowns too. How do you think that shark lines up against the elite of the NFL? Yeah, it's a it's a good question because you look at the Jaguars schedule this year They did not face a very tough schedule. I think that that doesn't really bode the best for Gardner Minshew But I think that it also says that maybe shark wasn't getting the best quarterback play for this year because Minshew's numbers Pretty below average despite facing the plus schedule But the one guy who was a true bright spot in this offense was DJ shark again Kind of similar to Cortland Sutton and Kenny golly day where he got a lot of downfield looks I want that in the pro bowl where guys they're not gonna dink and duck that dink and dunk They don't want to just you know Play that type of game. They want to bomb it deep We see that pretty often during the pro bowl where average at the targets do go up and DJ chart as we know Can go get those balls down the field if we look at the other two receivers on the AFC roster outside of Sutton and Shark it's guys like Keenan Allen and Jarvis Landry and both those guys are really good They are super talented football players, but neither of them are field stretchers quite the same way that Sutton and shark can do I want guys who can pay off on low volume and in order to pay off a low volume You got to get down the field and you got to get big yardage Sutton and shark can do that And I think that that's what draws me towards DJ shark here where he only needs like two targets to pay off And we're not gonna see a whole lot of targets a whole lot of volume for anybody in this game So I want guys who can pay off in a hurry I know DJ shark can do that because he did so during the regular season now I'd be now I would not be surprised if he were to do so again here in your AFC tight end position You have Mark Andrews of the Baltimore Ravens Andrews in his second season had ten receiving touchdowns Which is the second most in the NFL How do you see Mark Andrews in just his second year in the NFL? Matching up against all the other tight ends who are slated to play in this Pro Bowl Yeah, I think that's a really good way to phrase it because we are kind of choosing here between Guys like Mark Andrews and Jared Cook and to me. I think that I put Mark Andrews second I would put Jared Cook first. I just love again. I love the physicality of Jared Cook I love the size and the talent I'm gonna put him first Andrews is second because he's been banged up kind of all year long and he did play You know one week deeper into the postseason than Jared Cook did so the rest is not there That's why I'm gonna favor Jared Cook over Mark Andrews But I do want Mark Andrews over his teammate Jack Doyle And I probably like him more than Austin Hooper as well And the big reasoning for that is because Mark Andrews got a lot of deep targets from Lamar Jackson this year He had 24 deep targets Which is most of any tight end in this Pro Bowl Jared Cook was second with 16th It's a pretty big gap between Mark Andrews in the field and he showed this year He can convert on that deep of volume as well I mentioned he was banged up in that playoff game against the Titans He did still play 47% of the snaps in that playoff loss It's not a huge number, but it is in line with what he did for the full season So it seems like he's pretty healthy. He's had a couple weeks to rest up as well So I think we should be good to go with Mark Andrews It also helps that he's paired with this quarterback here because Andrews will start for the ASC as well as quarterback Lamar Jackson You've seen those guys have really good chemistry throughout the entire year Now wouldn't be shocked to see that carry over into the Pro Bowl as well So if I'm ranking the tight ends across both teams I go Jared Cook won followed by Mark Andrews Then Austin Hooper and then Jack Doyle on the ASC side But I think you really can go with any of those four guys because tight ends are just on the field more often than most positions in This format so I think they're all in play But if you are gonna make me pick I'll go Jared Cook won followed by Mark Andrews It's interesting you mentioned the injury factor Andrews was dealing with an ankle sprain and it's interesting to see how long He might be playing in this Pro Bowl However, it wouldn't shock me if Lamar Jackson and Mark Andrews just wanted to connect one time in the end zone in the Pro Bowl Before I let you go. Who is your Pro Bowl pick who's winning this the AFC or the NFC? I really love the NFC quarterbacks. It's Russell Wilson mostly That's that's the main thing I like because guys don't run here So I just want the guy the best pure passer in this game. I think it's between Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson I'm gonna give Russ the slight edge. So I am going NFC. What about you? You know, I have to say the same I'm gonna go NFC here even though Lamar Jackson will probably have himself a field day Against a Pro Bowl defense that doesn't usually love to make tackles, right? However, recently we've seen the defense come alive a little bit in the Pro Bowl games in the last two years It's not as much of a shootout as it once was To be a fun game. I'm looking forward to it And it's always a good time when we get to watch Lamar Jackson play more football I agree. Maybe we'll see some trickery or something along those lines. I grew up a Ravens fan So it'll be fun, but Jim Son is from Number Fire. Thanks for joining us. We'll speak to you soon Looking forward to it Super Bowl next week should be a blast. We'll talk to you then and good luck with the Pro Bowl as well Thank you. We'll definitely get your picks next week, but for everyone here at sports grid This is your fan to a hurry up and I'm Ariel Epstein. Enjoy the weekend and enjoy the Pro Bowl