Mike Ryan Curses Out Matthew Berry | Hour 2 (feat. Matthew Berry and Kevin Clark)

The Dan Le Batard Show

In this lively episode of The Dan Le Batard Show, Mike Ryan unveils his 'Top 25 People' list, sparking a heated debate with fantasy football expert Matthew Berry, who strongly disagrees

Key takeaways

• Devante Smith of the Philadelphia Eagles is a top fantasy sleeper with elite upside due to high target share when A.J. Brown is off the field.

Main topics

• Fantasy football draft strategy
• Matthew Berry's top sleeper picks

Notable quotes

"Eagle Eye Nicoletti is the most important and charismatic person I've ever met in my entire life, and if I was in prison, he'd be my first phone call."

Conclusion

The episode closes with lighthearted banter, mutual respect between host

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:09) Against the Spread. Against the Spread is presented by DraftKings Sports. DraftKings, the crown is yours. Mike. I mentioned it already. We're putting the town on alert. I think this is the biggest game of the college football season. It's going to be a game that is cited. I am talking, of course, about Ole Miss and Lowell. And against the spread, I'm going with Jeff Brom and Lowell. I know LSU's dominant at home at night, but that's just a lot of points. We don't really know much about LSU, how they're going to look with Lane Kiffin. Clemson going in there, plus 10. Just give me the points. Give me a close game. Clemson plus 10 at LSU. Speaker 1 (0:55) I get to do one? Yeah, you don't have to. Yeah, if you want to. You got one? Give me the Huskies over Wazoo. We did a third. We're about to have Matthew Barry on the show, but real quick, I do have my definitive top 25 list of the best people I know. And if you're listening to this and you think, Mike, you rushed it, maybe you forgot me. No, take this list personally. Okay, before you jump into it, though. Because there could be some hurt feelings here. These are, you're doing the best people you know. The best people I know. Or... Speaker 1 (1:26) It's more, in my head, a vibe. It's all-encompassing. It's a catch-all. It's not best people. I'm taking all these down. No, it's not moral. Most moral. A lot of these people are very immoral. Okay, okay. That's what I'm getting at. Yeah, all right. I'll just rat-a-tat-tat it because Matthew Barry is so gracious with his time. Number 25, Unda. Number 24, John Isner. Number 23, Rose. Congratulations. Wow. Number 22, Tom Bogart. Number 21, David Sinopoli. Number 20, Mike Radigan. Number 19, my Nicaraguan friend, Joel. Number 18, Billy Luch. Speaker 1 (1:55) Number 17, Cain Gorby. Number 16, Brian Monroe. Number 15, not Ethan Badowski, but his dad, Rob. I like that guy a lot. Number 14, Charles Barkley. Number 13, Dan Dokich. Number 12, Mo Cheda. Number 11, Manu. Number 10, Sabo. Number 9, Dominique Foxworth. Number 8, Marty Fish. Number 7, Kevin Clark. Number 6, Eagle Eye. Number 5, The Bear. Number 4, The Watermelon Man. Number 3, Dave Damoshek. Number 2, Mina Kimes. And number 1, College Mike. Wow. Wow. Take it personally. For real. I'm three? Yeah, dude. I like you. You're a good guy. I like Matthew Barry. Roy likes him even more, apparently. Matthew Barry. Matthew Barry. Matthew Barry. Matthew Barry! Speaker 1 (2:44) He's the founder of FantasyLife.com and host of Fantasy Football Happy Hour with Matthew Barry on NBC Sports and Peacock. He's Matthew Barry. What's happening, man? How's the offseason treated you? And more importantly, how are the drafts treating you? Dave, they've been going well. There's a lot of them and been a ton of them, you know. I'm the owner of guillotineleagues.com over at Fantasy Life, so I'm doing a ton of those. I've been like in 16 of them. We did not run back the Dan Levitar Guillotine League show because they all... Dave, you would have been embarrassed. I know you're a longtime fantasy player, and I played a league with these guys all last year. About half of them took it seriously. The other half, terrible. And then I ended up winning the league, and so... Speaker 1 (3:28) I don't know. It just didn't seem a lot of interest to get their butts beat again. But honestly, there has been no offseason, but it's been great. Everything's good. Everything's good, and I'm happy to be back. I'm pleased to hear all of that. And I do want to say, as a man of justice, this does need to be shouted out. A Lannister pays his bets, so too does a Matthew Barry. The last time I saw you was on Media Row at the Super Bowl about three years ago. And our mutual pal from way back, yours from the Q's, David Feeney, said, wait, tell Matthew Barry he owes me 20 bucks. And you took $20 out of your pocket and said, give this to Feeney. Tell him to suck on it. Speaker 1 (4:06) Something like that. And Dave, did you, in fact, give that 20 bucks to Feeney? I did. I did. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Debt's paid. Good. Fantastic. Well done, Matthew Barry. And as far as that goes, you pay your debts. Are you in your own top 25 people? I would like to think so. But I take issue with I think Kevin Clark should be higher than seven. I know Kevin Clark. He's fantastic. More. But you know me a little bit. Great. Everyone loves Kevin Clark. Yeah, I hear you, but he's not as good as Eagle Eye Nicoletti. I'm sorry. I disagree. As somebody who does rankings for a living. Make your own list. I think your rankings are terrible, Mike. Yeah, yeah. No, here's where Kevin Clark fits. Right above Marty Fish, not as good as Eagle Eye. Don't test me on it. Speaker 1 (4:51) I disagree. Strongly disagree. You don't know Nick. You don't know Nick Aletti. You don't know Dan Nick Aletti. Listen, I know Dave Damoschek. I've known Dave Damoschek for 20 years. Dave Damoschek will tell you right now, he shouldn't be right there. Nobody is more efficient with a funny text than Dan Eagle Eye Nick Aletti. And if you don't know if something's offside in hockey, that's how we got the nickname. Now, wait a second. Wait a second here. I don't appreciate Matthew Barry trying to dupe me. Speaker 1 (5:20) in and trade on my self-esteem issues by saying Dave Damoshek knows he ain't no Kevin Clark because he knows that Dave has low self-esteem and will say, yeah, of course I'm no Kevin Clark. But I'm not going to do it into a microphone. I'm going to FaceTime Kevin Clark right now. I'm going to ask him, who's better, you or Eagle Eye? And I know the answer. He'll readily admit it. I'm going to be very clear. I'm going to be very clear about this. I want to be, Dave, just so you know, I would rank myself below Kevin Clark. This is not about your self-esteem issues. I just think that guy's really nice. I really like him. And I just didn't realize that Mike was doing his rankings based on who texts quickly. It's a big part. It's a huge part. Well, Matthew, he has self-esteem issues, too. And so he's vain. And whoever responds to him most quickly is who gets the goal. Speaker 1 (6:06) Matthew Barry, much like a doctor, is constantly asked about what is this thing on my arm? What is the question you get the most out on the streets? Oh, I mean, like just right now, it's like, give me a sleeper, right? Give me a sleeper. Who's your ride or die? You know, and I get a lot of yeah, I mean, those are those are two big ones in terms of questions. I get a lot of like, you know, miss you on ESPN. Love, you know, love. Hey, you know. Speaker 1 (6:32) I got a lot of Avengers randomly. But anyway, give me a sleeper and who's your ride or die are probably the two biggest right now. Okay, give me a sleeper or a ride or die right now. All right, well, my ride or die is Devante Smith of the Philadelphia Eagles. Ride or die is always a known player that I think takes the next level. I'm at wide receiver 10. He's currently going anywhere between wide receiver 15 and 20. But I think he's got top five upside. I wrote about this last February. Speaker 1 (7:00) when I got out of the NFL Combine, so late February, early March, where I was drunk with an Eagles team source who basically told me, we think Devontae Smith has another gear. As good as he has been, we think he has another gear and another level that he can get to. That if he would ever get the kind of target share that Jackson Smith and Jigba got last year, he could have that kind of season. And that was with A.J. Brown still on the team. Obviously, A.J. Brown, who's had at least a 28% target share each of the last four years. Speaker 1 (7:29) now in New England. So then you think about Devontae Smith, who over the last two years, when A.J. Brown has been off the field, has gotten at least, has been targeted on at least 29% of his routes. It's a number you're like, oh, that's a lot of numbers, Barry. What are you saying? Let me just give you an idea of some of the people that get targeted on 29% or more of their routes. It's Jamar Chase. It's Pooka Nakua. It's Jackson Smith and Jigba. It's the elite of the elite. Devontae Smith has top five fantasy upside. He's going at the end of round two, sometimes in round three. Speaker 1 (7:58) Give me all the Devontae Smith this year. I'm in a sort of sliding scale in my brain of how specific to go or broad. First, I'll go broad here. Man, I could take it in a million different directions with you and dig in on that, on the Eagles offense in particular. But first of all, where are you philosophically on drafting a quarterback and when you should do that? Fairly late. I mean, listen, you know, it all depends on sort of when. Speaker 1 (8:23) that quarterback falls to you. You know, if Josh Allen is there at the end of round three, then okay. You know, but he generally goes to the end of round two, sometimes middle of round three. But quarterback this year, Dave, is so deep. It's deeper than I think I've ever seen it. I have Bo Nix at QB 15, and that's not me hating on Bo Nix, who has been a top 10 quarterback in fantasy each of the last two years. It's just that's how deep the position is. You know, when you sit here and you go like, you know, you can get... Speaker 1 (8:51) Outside the top 15, you can get guys like Jared Goff. You can get Baker Mayfield. You can get Malik Willis, who I think is going to have a very good fantasy year. It's the craziest, the deepest I've ever seen the position, and so I tend to wait. I did a whole draft episode of Fantasy Football Happy Hour, which is my show, and we walked you through, just at a very basic level, first couple rounds, I think you want to go running back heavy. Speaker 1 (9:17) I wouldn't mind a tight end in round three or four. Rounds four through six is where the sweet spot for the wide receivers. Then round seven, I really like the quarterback. Somewhere in the rounds five through seven range, getting a quarterback there, you can get a good one there. And then you can fill out rounds eight and on with just sort of depth and wherever you missed out. But if you start wide receiver early, you're not going to like your build. It gets dicey quick at running back. Speaker 1 (9:41) Before we go