Early 2018 Breakouts, Top Handcuffs, Juliaaaaan!!!

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast Summary

Episode: Early 2018 Breakouts, Top Handcuffs, Juliaaaaan!!!
Release Date: June 12, 2018
Hosts: Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright

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1. News and Notes from Around the League

The hosts kick off the episode by addressing significant news impacting fantasy football, most notably the suspension of Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman.

• Julian Edelman's Suspension:
  Edelman received a four-game suspension for violating the NFL's performance-enhancing substance policy, which has sparked considerable discussion regarding his value in fantasy leagues.

  "Julian Edelman will drop. He needs to drop extraordinarily far to be a value to me." – Andy Holloway [15:57]

  The trio debates Edelman's potential return, weighing his health, age, and the Patriots' strategies to replace him. The consensus leans towards caution, with Edelman's suspension likely diminishing his immediate fantasy value.

  "If Julian Edelman hits that 8 to 9 range, he'll be 10th. If he's in the 10th, and this is..." – Mike Wright [16:00]

2. Top Running Back Handcuffs

The discussion shifts to the concept of handcuffs in fantasy football, focusing on valuable running back handcuffs beyond the commonly mentioned Tevin Coleman.

• Latavius Murray as a Top Handcuff:
  Murray is highlighted as a premier handcuff due to his proven ability to produce when given a primary role, especially in Dalvin Cook's absence.

  "Latavius Murray is a very valuable handcuff." – Jason Moore [05:23]

  The hosts emphasize the risks associated with drafting handcuffs, citing the unpredictability exemplified by Darren McFadden's retirement, which left Ezekiel Elliott without his intended backup.

  "Projecting a handcuff is a sketchy thing to do and could be a complete and total waste of a draft spot." – Mike Wright [05:34]

• Additional Handcuff Considerations:
  John Kelly for Todd Gurley and Chase Edmonds for David Johnson are also discussed, though with reservations about their long-term reliability.

3. Early Breakout Candidates for 2018

The core of the episode revolves around identifying players poised to exceed expectations in the early part of the 2018 NFL season.

• Juju Smith-Schuster:
  Juju is lauded for his exceptional talent and opportunities within his team, making him a top breakout candidate.

  "Juju Smith Schuster has been at this young of an age; his talent is off the charts." – Andy Holloway [30:08]

  The hosts predict Juju's ceiling to potentially reach Wide Receiver 1 status, emphasizing his chemistry with his quarterback and the offensive strategies that favor his playstyle.

• Cooper Kupp:
  Kupp is recognized for his significant role in the Rams' offense, especially with the addition of Brandon Cooks, ensuring his continued high target volume.

  "Cooper Kupp is extremely intrigued at what Cooper Kupp can do in his second year of already leading his team in targets." – Mike Wright [37:45]

• Joe Mixon:
  Despite a disappointing previous season plagued by limited opportunities and inefficient play early on, Mixon is identified as a potential breakout due to improvements in his team's offensive line and playing time.

  "Joe Mixon disappointed just about everyone last year, but his talent is there." – Andy Holloway [41:09]

• Jerick McKinnon:
  McKinnon's move to the San Francisco 49ers and his new contract position him as a valuable three-down back, offering significant potential in both rushing and receiving.

  "Jerick McKinnon represents one of those guys that... you get a good chance to see who they're going to pick." – Darcy Moore [44:04]

• Sammy Watkins:
  Watkins is presented as an unconventional breakout candidate due to his high fantasy floor, unique skill set, and the Chiefs' evolving offensive dynamics under Andy Reid.

  "Sammy Watkins is the only wide receiver in the NFL to have at least 25 touchdowns and an average of at least 15 yards per catch." – Jason Moore [47:37]

4. Mailbag Q&A

The hosts address listener questions, offering strategic advice on various fantasy football dilemmas.

• Mock Drafting with Fellow League Members:
  A listener from California asks about the disadvantages of mock drafting with frequent league opponents. The hosts recommend strategies to mitigate any potential insights opponents might gain.

  "Just pick a guy you know, don't pick the guy you're gonna pick if you're on the board." – Andy Holloway [51:34]

• Dynasty League Tight End Strategy:
  Danny from Orlando inquires about the handling of Evan Ingram in a Dynasty league. Both Jason Moore and Andy Holloway advocate for retaining Ingram as a high-value tight end due to his youth and receiving potential.

  "I moved Evan Ingram ahead of Zach Ertz in my Dynasty rankings." – Jason Moore [53:45]
  "I have him as my number three tight end overall... Evan Ingram, who's 23." – Andy Holloway [55:16]

• Trade Evaluation Principles:
  Kyle from Canton, Texas, seeks guidance on determining whether to accept or decline trade offers. The hosts emphasize evaluating whether a trade improves the team, encouraging proactive decision-making to avoid missed opportunities.

  "Does it make your team better? Then take it." – Mike Wright [57:06]
  "Look at the players. If you like them better, just pull the trigger." – Andy Holloway [57:13]

• Draft Order Selection:
  Cody from California questions the fairness of a draft order determined by previous season standings, expressing concern over the "rich get richer" scenario. The hosts dismiss the approach as flawed and advise seeking more balanced league settings.

  "Has he never paid attention to how the draft works in every major sport in the history of time?” – Andy Holloway [58:43]

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5. Final Thoughts and Upcoming Events

The episode concludes with reminders about upcoming live shows and community engagement, encouraging listeners to participate in future events and stay connected through social media platforms.

"Tickets are almost gone for that show ballerslive.com if you are in or around Minneapolis, come see us hang out." – Jason Moore [60:00]

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This episode provides valuable insights into managing fantasy teams, particularly in the mid-season phase, by highlighting potential breakout players and offering strategic advice through listener interactions. The hosts blend expert analysis with engaging banter, making it a resourceful episode for fantasy football enthusiasts aiming to optimize their rosters.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, Foot Clan, the ultimate draft kid. Atultimatedraftkit.com it's up, it's live. People are loving it, but they don't even know what they're about to get.

[Mike Wright]

Even more ultimate.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, Mike, even more ultimate. Look, we're adding a market share report, a red zone report, and here's the big news. Foot Clan, you guys have asked for this for years. We didn't want to do it till it was the right time. The time is now. Dynasty startup rankings from yours truly will be in the ultimate draft Kit. So you got to get it. It's only 29 bucks. It's the best value in fantasy football. Go to ultimate draft kit.com right now. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast coming to you from Draft.com Studios with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wr.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, welcome in once again. Not sure what that dance was, Jason.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, I missed it.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, it's just. It was just a happy dance.

[Jason Moore]

He was doing the. The roll, the arm roll thing.

[Andy Holloway]

You know what's crazy?

[Jason Moore]

What do they even call that?

[Andy Holloway]

Traveling? I believe they call that traveling. And they.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it was a traveling.

[Andy Holloway]

Traveling violation. Here's the truth, the honest truth. I'm not making this up. I had no idea I was dancing. I believe my eyes were closed. And I didn't know I was. I was. I'm just happy. This is such a great show. We're coming off of 555.

[Jason Moore]

They say from this point on you just say 555 plus one.

[Andy Holloway]

Right?

[Jason Moore]

That's the show episode number.

[Mike Wright]

It is not shocking to me that Jason's mind is never in full control of his body as it is never in full control of his mouth.

[Andy Holloway]

Part of my body.

[Jason Moore]

Well, it's going to be a good one. As Jason said, that's why he was so excited that he could not control himself. We've got a great quick question. We have some news, some hype train, and then we have the early breakouts. If you didn't catch the last episode, we each shared a couple of early sleepers. And now we're going to talk early breakouts on the show today. We also have another exciting announcement I'm going to get to momentarily.

[Andy Holloway]

If you didn't listen to the last episode, I'll just throw this out there, go back and listen because we had a true dark horse sleeper candidate.

[Jason Moore]

I want to take full credit for justify winning the triple crown. Oh, 100% in horse racing. Because the buzz around horses in general, they're trending everywhere due to episode 555, apparently. Brooks, did you know this? The world loves puns.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. You're doing right.

[Jason Moore]

Mike has a tweet right now. I'm gonna let the. We share, you know, very, very accurate predictions on the show. Last year we were the only show that had two top 15 accuracy experts in the fantasy pros.

[Andy Holloway]

Top 14.

[Jason Moore]

Top 14. Yes. So we pride ourselves on good information winning you your leaks. I just want you to know that Mike's most popular tweet of all time.

[Mike Wright]

All time.

[Jason Moore]

200,000 impress around Twitter. 200,000.

[Mike Wright]

I'm not sure if I'm proud of this.

[Jason Moore]

Are you proud or just. Just sick of it?

[Mike Wright]

No, I mean I'm. Yeah, you got.

[Jason Moore]

It was a Jorti Nelson.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Give it. Give us the toy.

[Mike Wright]

I just. I had. I was shopping with the wife and we.

[Andy Holloway]

It was.

[Jason Moore]

So this was out and about.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

And I was looking for some new shorts because I know I've slimming up. The shorts are getting a little bit baggier and I was. I always wore these cutoff jorts. Yes. And it was the strangest thing because we were talking about jorts and somehow my wife and I had this, this joke pop up at the exact same time and she's trying to take credit for the joke in the right household. Yes. And I say no, shameful, because I was the one who got the name out first. So that means I claim the tweet. But the tweet was if Jordy Nelson puts on a pair of jean shorts, does he become Jorti Nelson?

[Andy Holloway]

And you're darn right he does.

[Jason Moore]

And that's all that it took. No, that's to set the world on fire. That was it.

[Mike Wright]

That's the best I've ever offered the world.

[Andy Holloway]

Apparently our second nickname of 2018, Geor T. Nelson.

[Jason Moore]

Unbelievable. Just 200,000 impressions. And I like how many. How many of your replies were just Mike.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, Mike. Shame on you, Mike.

[Mike Wright]

When you put out a joke like that, there is zero middle ground. It's either this is the funniest thing I've ever read or you need to delete your Twitter account and just. You should be embarrassed. You have shamed your family for future generations.

[Jason Moore]

Alright, quick question of the day from Twitter. James Burns wants to know who is the most valuable running back handcuff not named Tevin Cole.

[Mike Wright]

Man. Well, here's. Here's the thing about handcuffs. Number one, I don't think Tevin Coleman qualifies as. I wouldn't call him a handcuff because he's being drafted.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

If you Remember that he, he is.

[Mike Wright]

Drafted to have standalone value. And people, all people want to talk about handcuffs, who should I go?

[Jason Moore]

So that's why we're, we're omitting guys like the Dion Lewis, Derrick Henry Battle in the backfield, Tevin Coleman and Devonta Freeman, they both have standalone value.

[Mike Wright]

But I just want to remind people, especially at this point, projecting a handcuff is a sketchy thing to do and could be a complete and total waste of a draft spot because you don't know. Last year Darren McFadden was 100% the handcuff for Ezekiel Elliott because that's what the team had done. So we had thought and then Alfred Morris is the guy and Darren McFadden retires because Dallas didn't want him anymore.

[Jason Moore]

I had thought about picking Spencer Ware, but the injury concerns and the fact that it could not be him pulled me back from, from that desire. So I went with Latavius Murray. Latavius Murray last year was the RB9 from weeks 10 through 17. So you know that when he's given a predominant role, he's in a great offense on a great team. He has the ability to produce for fantasy. Dalvin Cook coming off the injury. I think Latavius might have late round standalone value anyway. I think he does around the goal line depending on how they ease Dalvin Cook back into that workload. I mean, we've only seen four games from Dalvin Cook, none of which Latavius Murray was active for. So I think Latavius Murray is a very valuable handcuff.

[Mike Wright]

The interesting thing for Murray is once he was fully worked in and they kind of phased McKinnon out of being the, the early down guy, Latavius Murray got little to no passing work because that was Jerick McKinnon's role with this team. Who on this team, if Dalvin Cook goes down, catches the ball, is going to be the pass catcher. Does Latavius Murray become a full on 3 down guy like he was in Oakland?

[Jason Moore]

And nobody wants Latavius Murray. He is as much the, he's the whole grain bread on the sandwich where you have those little like, oh, he.

[Mike Wright]

Has full cider, whole seeds and that bread.

[Jason Moore]

But you know, it's probably good for you, but you just have to.

[Mike Wright]

That's what they want you to think.

[Andy Holloway]

Of all three of our handcuffs, the only one that I would actually draft would be Latavius Murray because I do think he has standalone value. The other guys, you know, I'm not big into drafting handcuffs later in the season. I'LL pick up a handcuff as I approach playoffs. But the guy that I want to throw out there is a rookie that pre NFL draft I absolutely loved. He was one of, one of my top, you know, four or five favorite guys after the draft, not so much because he went all the way down in the sixth round to the Los Angeles Rams John Kelly. But my point is I think he's actually a really talented running back and he's in a situation where if Todd Gurley goes down, it's a gargantuan hole. It's the shoes that have to be filled, the carry volume, the reception volume that the offense is set up for. And that doesn't mean that they'll just give everything to John Kelly. But I think he is a talented enough back in real life to step in and be fantasy productive for that team. So I'll throw him out there and.

[Mike Wright]

I'm going to throw out. It's a very similar situation for the Arizona Cardinals. Everything will be on David Johnson. He's going to be a three down, lion's share type of running back. And their depth chart is honestly not currently set up for missing David Johnson.

[Jason Moore]

Kerwin Williams left, he's now a Kansas City chief.

[Mike Wright]

Elijah Penny is being converted or they're going to try to convert him to a fullback. And I think we saw last year the Cardinals realized they had to do something to address the, the running back position. They tried D.J. foster, Penny, they were Adrian Peterson, they tried so many running backs and that's why they spent for the Cardinals who didn't seem to have a glaring need. What I considered a pretty high pick on Chase Edmonds who is extremely talented running back. His production profiles off the charts. He missed a bunch of games this past year so perhaps that's what really hurt his stock. But pass catching profile as well as on the ground and if they, if they want to move forward with this is a guy as a 3 down player. I think that Chase Edmonds has that ability. If something were to happen to Java.

[Andy Holloway]

Johnson, he was drafted far ahead of my John Kelly. And when you look inside the draft room videos of how it went down, they were considering him with the third round selection then he dropped to them in the fourth. So yeah, I don't mind that.

[Jason Moore]

To amplify Mike's point though, if Todd Gurley or David Johnson goes down, I mean one of the more rumored spots for DeMarco Murray is in Los Angeles. So you have, you have this kind of tier of handcuff where you might be completely Right. Today. But it might not even matter because if a guy goes down, they might bring in help. And so it is a hard. And that's why you said you don't really draft them.

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Jason Moore]

Unless it's a situation that you know for sure. That's why I think Murray counts, because you know for sure he'd be the guy behind him and you don't have to worry as much.

[Mike Wright]

So I think, I think both John Kelly and Edmonds. This is. This is really in season where the team doesn't have a bunch of options because maybe someone's already picked up DeMarco Murray or someone's already picked up Adrian.

[Jason Moore]

Peterson or the injuries. Three or four weeks instead of a season long thing where they're not going to go sign a guy to play three or four weeks.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Jason Moore]

Guess what? We're on YouTube. You can go over to YouTube, click the subscribe button. Click the bell so you find out when a new episode has released. It's very similar to the Foot Clan horn, only it's a bell. Same sound. Same sound. Twitter at theffballers. The website's thefantasyfootballers.com that's where you can connect with our community of Foot Clan listeners. That's where you can find the ultimate draft kit and a ton of great articles written by our crackpot staff. Is that crackpot?

[Andy Holloway]

That is the opposite.

[Jason Moore]

That's the bad one.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Crackpot is used in a negative connotation.

[Jason Moore]

What was I looking for? What was I trying to find?

[Andy Holloway]

What crack?

[Jason Moore]

Just a crack staff.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I think so.

[Jason Moore]

Not a crackpot staff. We'll say jackpot. Jackpot.

[Andy Holloway]

There we go. There you go.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

The judge comes through. I knew it was wrong, but I.

[Jason Moore]

Was trying to figure out what I. I thought I'd find my way through.

[Andy Holloway]

There are really good, really talented writers that are working for us totally sober. They're putting in great, great work, great articles last year. If you read, you know, some of the content there, you got a leg up.

[Mike Wright]

Yep.

[Jason Moore]

All right. We also have something exciting to let you know about. We are doing a brand new Ballers live giveaway. Here's what we're giving away.

[Andy Holloway]

It's unbelievable.

[Jason Moore]

This is really cool because we have the live shows in Minneapolis.

[Mike Wright]

Well, you got to set it up. This is. This works hand in hand with the Fantasy for the people tour brought to you by draft. We're hitting the road. We are gonna be in Minneapolis very soon. If you don't have those tickets, they're going quick and quick. But Minneapolis Dallas, Philadelphia, New York City, and Phoenix. Now, Andy, we.

[Jason Moore]

We're giving away two tickets to each of the shows. We're giving away a signed helmet courtesy of Pristine Auction for each of the shows. And then you get your chance to have your question asked live at the show and be part of those episodes. That's what we're giving away. That's the prize package. Jason, let them know what. What helmets are giving away at each live show.

[Andy Holloway]

They're. They're creme de la creme. You can either get an Adam Thielen and. Oh, it's Biggs signed. Yeah, both signatures on that one. Or Dak Prescott for Dallas Carson Wentz. Ever heard of them? In Philadelphia, you can get an Odell Beckham signed helmet or Kurt Warner.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, basically, you win the tickets, you come to the show, you get your helmet at the show autographed by that player, and then you get your question on the show. And winners are going to be chosen at random and notified no later than two weeks before that show, with the.

[Andy Holloway]

Exception of the show that is not two weeks away.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Minneapolis show. That's a week from Thursday. So you have to be present to claim the prize, but you can go to Foot Clan Giveaway.com and get your chance to win those helmets.

[Mike Wright]

And those helmets are courtesy of our friends at Pristine Auction, which I.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, I mentioned that.

[Mike Wright]

Did you?

[Andy Holloway]

I did.

[Mike Wright]

Double shout out.

[Jason Moore]

Double shout out. All right, let's get into the news.

[Andy Holloway]

News and notes from around the league.

[Jason Moore]

I also want to mention that whoever was riding in our show Doc spelled the word Helmut with a U.

[Mike Wright]

That's the judge.

[Jason Moore]

That's Helmut.

[Mike Wright]

That was. That was the helmet. Frantically trying to remind us to say, put your helmet.

[Jason Moore]

Put your helmet on, Brooks. Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman. Four game suspension for violating the performance enhancing substance policy.

[Mike Wright]

I've always said.

[Jason Moore]

Which is what our writers are on. That's the crackpot stack.

[Mike Wright]

I have always said that Julian Edelman's beard is just too perfect. It's too good. It's way too good.

[Jason Moore]

Artificially enhanced, apparently.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, he's got bgh. He's taking the beard growth hormones. I can neither confirm nor.

[Jason Moore]

I would love some of that. I'd love to have it nice and thick.

[Andy Holloway]

Here's a reality for Julian Edelman. Missing time. He's going to drop. He needs to drop extraordinarily far to be a value to me. He's a guy that. You're going to have to take a roster spot up for four weeks. I hate doing that. I hate going into week one, week two, when there's replaceable guys I can get that are going to be playing those weeks and then I can drop a player that's not producing for me and pick up great waivers. It helps Chris Hogan, definitely. Jordan Matthews is a guy to keep your eyes on right now. He has at least now an opportunity to come in and make Andy very sad.

[Jason Moore]

Sure. Yeah. Jordan Matthews doing anything else with his career would make me very sad. That is absolutely true. Haters, just certain players.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, I know.

[Jason Moore]

But go ask a Buffalo fan whether they like Jordan Matthews. Go ask a Philadelphia fan whether they like Jordan Matthews.

[Andy Holloway]

I bet the Phillies.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

I think the Philly.

[Mike Wright]

Oh.

[Jason Moore]

In the beginning, in the honeymoon phase, before they knew what they had.

[Mike Wright]

So for Julian Edelman, I'm on a different side than Jason that I am interested in him. If you look at fantasy football calculator, he has plummeted from in PPR leagues right around that 501, he's already at the 608. If Julian Edelman hits that 8 to 9 range, he'll be 10th. If he's in the 10th, and this is. That's easy for me, I would take.

[Jason Moore]

You hold that spot.

[Mike Wright]

I will take the ninth. Because you're talking about a team that should have a top three offense. He is the primary wide receiver, not necessarily pass catcher because that's Gronk. But I believe that Julian Edelman will go right back into being the primary slot guy for Tom Brady and in the 10th round. I know that you got to wait four weeks to get him, but I would rather do that and sit on him and that sounded funny.

[Jason Moore]

Just sit on him. Just sit on it. It would be ideal if leagues had a disappointed dad spot on the roster. Because then that. That's how I feel about the Julian Edelman situation. We haven't seen you for a year. I mean, is it worth it for players to get back and get healthy and just take four games? I'm asking that question legitimately. Like Edelman, he's older, right?

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

And we've seen this happen with players as they're getting older and he chooses what, you know, whatever. They all say they didn't do it. And they had a bunch of doctors that said, you know, he's not aware of it, but, you know, they know what's going on. Is it worth it for these players to come back and take four games if it means that they can prolong their career and make more money?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, but the problem is if. Yeah, if you get caught.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

Look, you. It there's been too many instances that.

[Jason Moore]

Doesn'T cast a shadow on his career at all. Making.

[Mike Wright]

Making money and then getting caught. You. I already got your money.

[Andy Holloway]

But the thing is John Merriman, he is now off. Right. He. He's been caught. So now the stuff that he felt maybe.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

Allegedly. Stuff that he might have felt he.

[Jason Moore]

Needed to get back.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Beard, growth hormone is not able to be continued and he is 32 years old, coming off an injury and will start the season with the Patriots figuring out how to try to replace him. So for those reasons, I don't think we know for sure what Julian Edelman we're going to get in week five.

[Jason Moore]

That sounded like a shark tank for those reasons.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

I'm out, I'm out, I'm out. That's exactly what it is. It makes me perk up about Chris Hogan, who was the wide receiver seven from weeks one through eight last year. It makes me a little bit more interested in the early season impact of Sony Michelle, first round draft pick, running back with Julian Edelman off the field. And obviously Gronkowski gets the stamp of approval. So I mean, where do you draft Hogan now?

[Mike Wright]

He's. I'll take Hogan similar to where he was already going.

[Jason Moore]

For those asking about Malcolm Mitchell hasn't been practicing, missed all of 2017 with knee issues. He hasn't been practicing due to.

[Andy Holloway]

Which is why you still have Philip Dorset there. You still have Kenny Britt there. They brought in Jordan Matthews. You wondered why do they keep like holding on to all these wide receivers and then bring Jordan Matthews in. You kind of get an insight into why.

[Jason Moore]

Now look, that's normally reserved for King Godfrey, but the Duke.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I get it.

[Jason Moore]

The Duke has received a three year, $15.6 million extension. I felt like a royal horn there might be worth it. Duke Johnson extended through 2021. His pouting, his social media pouting has produced $15.6 million.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, this makes a difference. I mean, it's funny.

[Jason Moore]

You can move RB11 in PPR leagues last year.

[Andy Holloway]

You can move a player up or down in your rankings based on a beat reporter saying something that he kind of sees in his opinion. But you can ignore things like this, which is this is the team saying with their money, their most important assets, you're ignoring. No, I'm saying you shouldn't. I'm saying this is actually news where you're saying the team thinks that he's important to what they want to do. And prior to this, I kind of had been leaving. Duke Johnson left For dead. And I, I think I'm going to take a look again at Duke Johnson at that passing game and see what the money is saying about what team they want to be.

[Jason Moore]

Well, a report came out this past weekend after the signing about Carlos Hyde having a pretty big lead on Nick Chubb for the starting role. Duke Johnson is a past catching third down wizard that they've now reinvested in. You have in Joku Landry Gordon and currently a quarterback that throws for under 3,000 yards. It's a strange situation in Cleveland all the way around.

[Mike Wright]

And there wasn't it just this past week?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

So Brown's Brown Zone reporter had said Duke Johnson's wall will be reduced to a degree this season. That was right before the extension happened.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

So what, what are you doing Cleveland? Are you going to, are you going to pull back on his workload after giving him this much money? That would be a very strange thing to do.

[Jason Moore]

All right, we'll take. Before we jump into the breakouts, our early breakouts, let's take a minute for the hype train. We had a ton of Rob Gronkowski trade rum.

[Andy Holloway]

Watch out for that trade.

[Mike Wright]

Twitter went insane.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. You had rumors that, you know, Belichick wanted to trade Gronk. Offers were on the table to the titans and the 49ers. And then there was another closed door meeting in New England which those doors, they're always closed. And you know, then Tom Brady maybe threatened to retire if they traded him. And the statement, official statement from the Pats PR head is that none of it is true and that there is probably an imminent extension for Gronkowski that should go through soon. And do you buy any of it? Do you care about any of it or do you just move on?

[Mike Wright]

As a fantasy owner, I just very much enjoy that. New England is this beacon of craziness. I don't remember if over this off.

[Andy Holloway]

Season if I said it on the show or not, but we had a question of the inside out horse a couple weeks back. The Bright Duck.

[Jason Moore]

More horses on this show than you could ever believe.

[Andy Holloway]

And I originally had.

[Jason Moore]

You don't find that anywhere else.

[Andy Holloway]

I originally had New England in there because at some point they're going to collapse and I feel like it's coming left, right and center. The only place it's not coming from is their division mates. And that's why I still think they'll be all right. But it's bad vibes.

[Jason Moore]

I want a hard knock style reality show where it's all these main players with a like a family counselor in a room and they all air their grievances and talk through it.

[Andy Holloway]

I think they just made that on HBO called Succession or something.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, that's the show. That is the succession with Jimmy Garoppolo hiding in the corner.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

I am ignoring no completely worth.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean nothing to see there with the Gronk.

[Jason Moore]

ESPN's Rob Demofsky writes, Ty Montgomery appears set for a significant role in the off season. Do you buy the offense in the well and the offense. Okay, now in the offense, do you buy the hype?

[Mike Wright]

It's interesting because if you read McCarthy's real quote, he essentially fully says this. It's a running back by committee. No one has been able to go the distance for us and that's why we are this we are in our BBC. And then he just praised Montgomery's versatility.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I buy the hype. Not in that Montgomery is now going to be their clear cut starter, but that Montgomery has just been forgotten about for no reason.

[Jason Moore]

He is on the dark horse show. Jason brought him up. I've had him statted as the highest fantasy point scorer in that backfield despite the fact that I have him as the least amount of carries. He's more versatile, more trusted by Aaron Rodgers, more talented in certain ways than those other two guys, especially than Jamal Williams in my opinion. So yeah, I support Jason's thoughts on time. Montgomery, Ken Wizen Hunt suggested that Melvin Gordon could be a bigger part of the passing game in 2018.

[Mike Wright]

Makes sense.

[Jason Moore]

He's a player that I have at five right now and that means he's ahead of Ezekiel Elliott in my rankings. What he is? Yeah. You didn't know that?

[Andy Holloway]

No.

[Jason Moore]

You didn't understand the inference of him being at 5 that other players had to be behind him.

[Mike Wright]

Well, I just. No, I did not have my.

[Andy Holloway]

You would think that his flame retardant suit on.

[Mike Wright]

I was not ready.

[Jason Moore]

That's fair. No, yeah, that's exactly. Apparently Jason didn't realize that either. No, I knew you had Gurley, Belkamara, Johnson, Gordon, Elliott. Again, that's half point PPR scoring. And when you look at those names, Gurley, Bell, Camara, Johnson, Gordon. The five ahead of Ezekiel Elliott are all bona fide proven pass catchers. Has nothing to do with the talent of Ezekiel. It has to do with the utilization. And now you have another report coming out. Basically just saying, you know, a little pat on the butt of Melvin Gordon's passing game utilization. If this report came out and said, boy, Ezekiel Elliott's going to be used a ton in the passing game this year. It's not going to be Tavon Austin and all these other weapons. Then I'd go, boy, maybe Zeke deserves to be in that spot. But I want the pass catcher.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't blame you there. I actually like Melvin Gordon a lot. You know, I blame you a little bit on the Zeke side, but sometimes it's not a negative on a player, it's a positive on other players. And I think that's what this is here.

[Jason Moore]

Miami Herald has reported the second round tight end Mike Gasicki. Gasicki looked lost at times during OTAs, which coming out of Miami, I would have expected that report to say looked like the new Rob Gronkowski.

[Andy Holloway]

They are saying he looks lost.

[Jason Moore]

He may not have shown up.

[Andy Holloway]

Running down the tunnel at snap. Whoa. The field's over here.

[Jason Moore]

Running down the tunnel during the snap. That. That's funny.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm not. I'm not surprised by this. I mean, Gasicki, the way he was used in college, was nothing like a pro.

[Mike Wright]

Terrible with North, South, West.

[Andy Holloway]

They're lining them up in the backfield running routes, but like from kind of.

[Jason Moore]

It's just these young kids, they don't have their gps. They don't know where they're going.

[Andy Holloway]

It's a hard transition to the NFL.

[Mike Wright]

He has a. Yes, I agree. It's a. It's a really hard transition, but he has a pretty decent path.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

Are you guys excited about the early breakouts?

[Mike Wright]

So excited.

[Jason Moore]

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[Mike Wright]

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[Andy Holloway]

Breakouts from what?

[Jason Moore]

Yes, from what I understand, the only compensation coming back for Gronkowski in that Titans deal were three Carmelo Aple tarlets.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, that's worth it.

[Mike Wright]

And that's a steal.

[Andy Holloway]

Why they didn't take that deal. They're foolish.

[Jason Moore]

I love that. You warned me there. That was great. All right, early breakouts again. We have breakout candidates inside of our ultimate draft kit. These are some guys that we ourselves are falling more in love with as potential breakout candidates. How would you define a breakout, Mike?

[Mike Wright]

A breakout is a player who perhaps they have performed in the past, perhaps they have done nothing in the past. But we are projecting these players to end up in your starting lineup on a near weekly basis.

[Jason Moore]

That's fair enough. Jason, you want to kick us off with the first early breakout? Yes. You're smirking, so that must mean something special.

[Andy Holloway]

Just gonna get it out of the way.

[Jason Moore]

I know where you're going with the the best.

[Andy Holloway]

And look, I said this last year and the star was born last year. Okay? A star has been born, but now it's shooting across the sky. It's. It's a shooting star. This is juju.

[Jason Moore]

Realize he's trying to double down on this breakout is what he's trying to do.

[Mike Wright]

Shooting stars are not actually stars. I just want to make you sure you scientifically understand that I do not.

[Andy Holloway]

And I do not accept your nonsense.

[Mike Wright]

If a star shot across our atmosphere.

[Andy Holloway]

We would be very dead. He is worth 100 shooting stars. Here's Juju Smith Schuster. Okay, Juju Smith Schuster is one of my favorite breakout candidates because primarily of how good he is. That's, you know, sometimes it's opportunity.

[Mike Wright]

It's a good reason.

[Andy Holloway]

It is a good reason, but that's overlooked most of the time when I look towards the guys I like, it's always opportunity based because I think opportunity is a greater sign than talent. But with juju, his talent is just so palpable. You watch the games, you see him run away from guys, you see him break tackles, you see great hands. And he's just a well rounded, really good, dominant wide receiver for his age. You want to talk about his age? He's 21 and a half. Okay, right now he is younger than these rookies. James Washington, Michael Gallup, Christian Kirk, Anthony Miller, Treyquan Smith, Dante Pettis, Courtland Sutton, D.J. shark, I mean Shark, Shark. Almost everybody.

[Mike Wright]

He wishes his name was DJ Shark.

[Andy Holloway]

He sure does. That'd be amazing.

[Jason Moore]

Megalov receiver to be as good as.

[Andy Holloway]

He has been at this young of an age says his talent is off the charts. He's playing for a team that I think is going to have to throw the ball a lot more. We saw the second half of last year where Big Ben was pacing for 5,000 yards over the second half after they lost Ryan Shay Zir for a.

[Jason Moore]

Second I thought he said Antonio Brown was pacing for 5,000 yards. I was like, that'd be really good. Sounds right.

[Andy Holloway]

So I looked at some of the breakdowns because, you know, he was a rookie last year, right? He was. He registered as a receiver playing in week one, except he had zero targets. Zero. He wasn't, he wasn't involved. Weeks two through 16, the rest of the whole season, if you take his pace over 16 games he would have had over 1,000 yards and nine touchdowns. That was the pace he was on as a rookie. Then you look at, okay, how do you do after the bye week, right?

[Mike Wright]

That's when Big Ben went bananas.

[Andy Holloway]

That's when he started going bananas. And he would have paced during that time for 93 receptions and 12 plus yards. And then there was one other breakdown I really was curious about. Martavis Bryant, week eight, went out, missed week nine. How did he do when Martavis Bryant was off the field from week eight on, here was his 16 game projection. 94 receptions, great for 1568 yards. Unbelievable. And nine touchdowns. And you might say accurately. Well, Big Ben, he doesn't really have a history of supporting two top end wide receivers, which is, which is accurate. He doesn't usually have two top 24 receivers. But today's NFL, it's very common. In fact, over the last several years, teams, the NFL averages four different teams that have two guys in the top 24, oftentimes top 12.

[Jason Moore]

I want to interrupt you though. I want to take this swirling reality of juju Smith Schuster, 21 and a half year old shooting star. Obviously you have a picture of him on your mirror, but let's translate this for our listeners when you talk about breakouts. I feel like breakouts are the one category of player that you would reasonably attempt to reach for if you believed in them. Because you don't necessarily want to play with a guy you think is going to vastly outperform his draft position or be a breakout. You don't want to necessarily risk waiting exactly to when they're going to go. JuJu Smith Schuster is a 408 pick in PPR leagues right now. What does this breakout translate to for you in fantasy? And would you take him over for example Alan Robinson or Amari Cooper? Because Those are the two guys going directly ahead of JuJu Smith Schuster.

[Andy Holloway]

So I would take him over Alan Robinson. Amari Cooper would be kind of a team dependent thing because Amari Cooper's volume I think is so secure that if this was my wide receiver too then I would probably lean Cooper. But juju Smith Schuster belongs there.

[Jason Moore]

What about demarius Thomas?

[Andy Holloway]

I would definitely take juju over demarius right now. Look, Demarius Thomas I think is a quality top 24 wide receiver. He's safe. But I don't believe that he can do what juju can do this year.

[Jason Moore]

What's the ceiling fantasy finish wise for juju before we grab Mike?

[Andy Holloway]

He absolutely has a ceiling to me of A wide receiver one that's ceiling. I mean if you look at week week eight through the rest of the year, okay, on a, on a per game basis, the wide receiver 1 in fantasy football was Antonio Brown. Big shocker. The wide receiver five was JuJu Smith Schuster.

[Mike Wright]

Now was that just a product of the situation where he said Martavis missed a couple games and then Antonio Brown missed a couple games.

[Andy Holloway]

Right. And you know they got rid of Martavis. Right.

[Mike Wright]

Oh I understand that. But I'm saying he was able to get into a larger role than absolutely he will have.

[Andy Holloway]

And that's what it takes to hit your ceiling. I'm saying his ceiling is a wide receiver one. So I like him. I'm willing of that where he's going in the fourth round. Early fourth. I'm fine with that.

[Jason Moore]

Okay. And look, we've been there before. We've had Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb finish inside the top 1012 together.

[Andy Holloway]

Lots of times.

[Jason Moore]

Crabtree and Mike give us a breakout.

[Mike Wright]

My number one or I should say my first breakout.

[Jason Moore]

It's got to be better than 100 shooting stars.

[Andy Holloway]

Which spoiler, there's no stars there.

[Jason Moore]

Okay, Science.

[Mike Wright]

The player I'm going to talk about is going currently in PPR leagues at the back of the 8th. So I like this cost a tremendous amount and that is Cooper cup interesting Los Angeles Rams slot wide receiver. Last year he led the team in targets. He had to earn his way onto the field. Everything that I said led the team in targets. And over the second half of the season his SNAP share jumped 20% because it took him time to work into into the offense. He was tied for the third most red zone targets he in despite. And I wanted to talk about Brandon Cooks. Right. Cooper cup heavily utilized in the red zone. Okay, they're bringing in Brandon Cooks. They traded a first round pick for him last year despite Tom Brady having the most red zone attempts and completions in the league. Brandon Cooks had 12 Red Zone targets that was tied on his own team with Danny Amendola and Chris Hogan. Brandon Cooks has never been a predominant red zone weapon. He had 11 red zone targets in 2017 in eight in 16, eight and 15, six in 2014. Cooper cup showed he can be that guy.

[Jason Moore]

And they, they don't have Watkins in the X anymore running around down there.

[Mike Wright]

Well, and here's the thing is Cooper cup gets to stay where he was successful and he's a big slot player. He's 6 foot 2. Yet in all the in the charting that Matt Harmon did for reception perception in the ultimate draft kit. He was in the slot over 58% of the time which is a huge amount and Brandon Cooks allows him to continue to man that slot role. So I'm very intrigued at what Cooper cup can do in his second year of already leading his team in targets as a rookie.

[Jason Moore]

I think that there is great opportunity for Cooper cup in that department and I don't disagree with that. I think one of the ways you can identify breakout candidates is a lot of the times it is the situation where a player eased himself into a role the year before and so their end of season statistics don't match their end of season production and pace Cooper cup earning his way on the field. Like you said, an offense that was finding its way another year in Sean McVay. I think it's definitely possible. I definitely. I'll give you that. I think Cooper cup is definitely a candidate to be a red zone force. I'm going to share a breakout with you. I'm trying to decide which one to go with. I'll go with the running back. I know Mike, I think vehemently disagrees with me.

[Mike Wright]

No, no, no, not at all. We were what the disagreement was the the two players we were talking about in office earlier.

[Jason Moore]

Well, I think Isaiah Crowell is worthy of discussion again.

[Andy Holloway]

But Andy.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, the voice of public opinion. You're back.

[Andy Holloway]

Wasn't he supposed to be good last year?

[Jason Moore]

Sure was. Sure was. And you could make an argument that he did break out two years ago. 4.8 a carry, a pretty nice year in Cleveland. That being said, he's the 806 right now. Okay. And I think he's being vastly underestimated in fantasy league. Signed a three year deal. Two years older than Sony Michelle. He's 25 years old and I like the schedule for the Jets. The jets end up playing in the fantasy playoffs. The Bills and the Packers. He has a league high seven matchups with bottom six opponents against the run. Nobody seems to want to touch him. He's still an over four career runner. He was like I said, up at 4.8 in 2016. He also was a capable pass catching running back which is going to give you some baseline value in fantasy football. Even if the team is much like the Browns were last year. Not always in the position to use the first and second down running back, 40 receptions. Back in 2016 Crowell was signed to be the running back there in New York. And I know they have Bilal Powell.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

And I know he'll fill a role. But Bilal Powell has always Filled that role of utility back and inevitable fill in for Matt Forte. I mean, that's kind of been what the situation was there. There's a lot of confidence in Crowell from Todd Bowles. I think he represents one of those guys that, you know, when we were doing a mock draft a couple weeks ago, you get towards the later rounds and all of a sudden you still see starting running backs on the board and Carell's talented enough, young enough to still be a breakout candidate to me, so I'm going to bring his name up here on the show and say, hey, look, you might steal him at the back of the seventh round.

[Andy Holloway]

I actually really like Crowell's value. I mean, you talk. Oftentimes we talk about a post hype sleeper. That's a guy that he had hype last year. And because he disappointed on that hype, he just gets just destroyed in average draft position. That's Crowell, and now he is a starter. And Matt Forte vacated a lot of quality production over the last two years. So I don't hate it.

[Mike Wright]

Can he get two years worth of production, though, in this one year?

[Andy Holloway]

I'm saying in the last two years, on a per game basis, Matt Forte had a lot of fantasy value.

[Jason Moore]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, am I up?

[Jason Moore]

I think you're up, Jason.

[Andy Holloway]

Me, already? All right, well, let's keep it at the running back position. Here's a guy that I think is. He appears on a lot of breakout lists and I think for good, for good reason. He's a guy that was supposed to break into the league last year and failed in Joe Mixon.

[Jason Moore]

He didn't quite make it in.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, Joe Mixon disappointed just about everyone last year. And there's a couple of reasons for that that I think are. Some are surprising, right? You watch the film and you go, man, he looked so much better in college and he was great. You know, Graham Barfield, he's got his yards created in history. The best yards created per attempt still belongs to Joe Mixon, ahead of Zeke, ahead of Saquon, ahead of Leonard Fournette. He was unbelievably good and I think that his talent is there. But you have to. You have to keep in mind he went to a team that. One of our worries last year, we said this a lot going into the season was you're playing for stinking Marvin Lewis and he hates rookies, and it was week nine before he was actually able to start a game, which is ridiculous. And a lot's been made about the inefficiencies of Joe Mixon last year about his yards per carry being terrible. Look, the first eight weeks when he wasn't a starter, he averaged a yucky 2.9 yards per carry. Yucky? I mean, there's just no other word other than yucky. It tastes bad.

[Mike Wright]

What about icky?

[Andy Holloway]

Guess there's a couple words. But once he became the starter in week nine, from then on out the rest of the season, he averaged 4.28 yards per carry, which is absolutely fine. In fact, he only had one game where he wasn't above 4 yards per carry during that stretch. Their offensive line was just a train wreck last year. They've done a little bit to help get that better.

[Jason Moore]

You know what's interesting about the offensive line coach, I don't know if you guys were aware of this. A listener and I were talking about it. Frank Pollock is the new offensive line coach in Cincinnati. He's the Cowboys. He was the Cowboys offensive line coach. And we know how we feel about the offensive line performance in Dallas. The irony though is Dallas now has the Cincinnati offensive line.

[Andy Holloway]

And this is why Zeke is so low in your range.

[Jason Moore]

No, that is not why.

[Andy Holloway]

I will say this, though. Offensive line coach is one of, one of those super undervalued. I mean, not every coach makes a big difference, but an offensive line coach does. And so that's a great nugget. You also have things like Duke Tobin saying, and that's the Bengals director of player personnel saying that he's going to be our bell cow running back. He said that at the con line. Right? Some of that, some of that hype. But he's going to start week one as the starter. He, he's going to be the bell cow. He was great and prolific in college and I think he, he was a.

[Jason Moore]

Great pass catcher last year.

[Andy Holloway]

At the end of last year, he figured it out. So I think he has a great breakout potential. If he finishes the year as a top five running back, I won't be surprised.

[Jason Moore]

Okay, that's high praise, Mike. Now, see Joe Mixon. I think we're all on board with his breakout potential. I know we're all on board with this next guy, Jerick McKinnon.

[Mike Wright]

You're probably wondering, are we, are we in on that high train? Did we buy first class tickets?

[Andy Holloway]

All.

[Mike Wright]

And you know what?

[Andy Holloway]

All aboard. All aboard.

[Jason Moore]

If you look at Jerick McKinnon's Dynasty ADP.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, it's ridiculous.

[Jason Moore]

From two years ago, ridiculous to now, it's incredible because he had all been.

[Mike Wright]

Given up on because, and honestly he should have been given up. He has been given some opportunities in Minnesota. Never fully came through. Said I'm going to be a three down back in this league and we. Oh, Jerick McKinnon.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, Derek.

[Mike Wright]

There's no place in the NFL that has.

[Andy Holloway]

No one will let you try that.

[Mike Wright]

Three down roll for you. And San Francisco said, here's $12 million for this year. He's going to make $12 million this year. Now granted, San Francisco has the money and they could have just been front loading the contract to. This is their way to protect themselves against McKinnon long term. But they still are giving him $12 million this year. Last year, San Francisco had the third highest.

[Jason Moore]

He's got 750,000 reasons per game to have a big year.

[Mike Wright]

San Francisco third highest target share to the running back position. They were featuring Carlos Hyde, who is. I love Carlos Hyde. I do, I do. But he's not an elite pass catcher.

[Jason Moore]

What is he again?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, as a pass catcher, I would.

[Andy Holloway]

Say he's not average.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. If you want to say he's a below average. He's a below average, that's fine. They still force fed him 88 targets. He had the dude at six drops and they still kept giving him targets. Carlos Hyatt had 299 touches last year. Was the running back, nine on the season. Jerick McKinnon in the passing game this past year, 51 receptions, 421 yards. Here's the depth chart for San Francisco.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, this is the best case.

[Mike Wright]

$12 million. Jerick McKinnon, Undrafted Matt Burrita and then the table pounder Joe Williams from the fourth round who sat on the IR the entire last year. It's Jerick McKinnon or bust for the San Francisco 49ers. Is that a wise decision? I don't know. But you are. You heard Jason say it earlier. Talent greater than opportunity, greater than talent in fantasy football. And I don't know of anyone's opportunity who improved so rapidly more than Jerick McKinnon.

[Jason Moore]

There is not. Look, it's not Terrence west situation either.

[Andy Holloway]

No.

[Jason Moore]

Where it's just opportunity. But you also know that he's not going to catch the ball like McKinnon can. And you also don't believe that he can break a long play. I mean, McKinnon can make up a lot of ground on your week in one play the way that C.J. spiller used to do when he was occasionally relevant for fantasy football. He's a big play type of guy to the backfield, especially with A coach that can get him into that position. I think we're all on board with Jerick McKinnon. The opportunity and talent and age and money and all those things add up. I also like piggybacking on that with my. The final breakout here because I kind of see them in the same vein. Sammy Watkins, look, when you've moved, this is a great move.

[Mike Wright]

The Sammy Watkins truther is over here just smirking.

[Jason Moore]

He's grinning like he just finished a Quarter Pounder. I mean, you are just content over there. I'm just rubbing your belly.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm just gonna sit back and listen.

[Jason Moore]

Just listen. Sammy Watkins is a player like McKinnon. That. Look, the ship has sailed mentally for a lot of fantasy owners. We have moved on.

[Mike Wright]

We've.

[Jason Moore]

And you know where We've moved to Tyreek Hill at 303 in the draft instead of Sammy Watkins. It's 702 in PPR leagues. But Sammy Watkins just collected a $48 million contract extension from Andy Reid. $48 million. There's no established rapport in that offense between Mahomes and one receiver or another. The reports around camp, yes, they're hype. Sammy Watkins owns hype.com, the domain name. That's his. He bought it.

[Mike Wright]

That's a very valuable domain name.

[Jason Moore]

He bought it a long time ago.

[Andy Holloway]

He sold it to him.

[Jason Moore]

But here's what I like about him. Last year he played all X. That's what he played all the exposition in that offense. Andy Reid came out, said, we're moving them all over the place in the offense. He's handling it. We're overloading him with moving him around. He's going to be playing in a very smart offense. Not that he wasn't last year, but he wasn't being moved around in the offense. And he's going to be a real weapon for Kansas City from the beginning of the season. Yes, health issues. Yes, consistency issues. In spite of all the problems of Sammy Watkins. Listen to this. And this came in from BJ Kissel, the beat reporter for the Chiefs since 2014. Sammy Watkins is the only wide receiver in the NFL to have at least 25 touchdowns and an average of at least 15 yards per catch. That's a unique skill set. That's a unique ability. It's just a matter of having consistency in involvement in the offense and targets. You know, a player is talented when they're not used, but they still score a bunch. That's what Sammy Watkins was last year. The targets weren't there. He still made an impact on that roster and now you have a rocket armed Mahomes and he's 25 years old.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. The 15 yards per reception average since 2014 shows a great pairing for Pat Mahomes arm and his ability to get the ball downfield in the Warriors.

[Jason Moore]

The warriors offense over there. Where you got, you got.

[Andy Holloway]

I heard Travis Kelsey the other day on Dan Patrick and he asked about catching, like, what happens when Pat Mahomes puts some zip on it? How is it? And he responded with one word. Did you guys say ouch? No, he said, he goes, what is that like? And his word was shocking. That's Travis Kelsey saying that he, he was shocked by the power from Pat Mahomes.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. So I think Sammy Watkins is a breakout candidate because eighth round pick, first round body. I think wide receiver, top 15 wide receivers is not an impossibility with him. There's no re like Tyree Kill still your odds on favorite to have a higher fantasy total. No reason why Sammy Watkins can't be that. And I've been saying that all off season that there's still a percentage chance that Sammy Watkins is the guy.

[Andy Holloway]

I love it. I love it, Andy.

[Jason Moore]

I mean he probably won't be. He'll probably be hurt. But let's talk mailbag.

[Andy Holloway]

Mailbag, bag, old bag.

[Jason Moore]

I thought you were going up but you stayed down the mailbag. It's time to answer questions from the listeners. We love helping you win your league. You can submit your question on our website, the fantasy footballers.com. or if you have a telephone, you can dial the voicemail hotline 302464, TFFB.

[Mike Wright]

Also, it's 2018. Why do you have a telephone?

[Andy Holloway]

They're getting on those fees. That combo package is nonsense.

[Jason Moore]

Get a cell phone, grab the rotary. Grab the rotary dial in and you can operator leave a voicemail question like this. Give me the footballers like this one.

[D]

Hey, ballers, what up? This is Cody from California. I was curious, do you think there is any disadvantage to mock drafting with people that are in your league frequently? As in, will they maybe pick up on your tendencies or do you have strategies that it could benefit you? Curious what you guys think about this.

[Jason Moore]

Hey, Cody in California, this is Andy in Arizona.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it is.

[Jason Moore]

We do this. We draft like this. It just depends how much you want to be a liar, right?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I mean that's all it is. Yeah, I draft with you guys all the time over the last few years. We'll mock, you know, our upcoming whatever. I've done it with other players in our league. And look a very easy pro. This isn't even like a pro tip. This is just a street smart tip. When you get to your pick, pick someone you don't want. I mean, not, not someone you hate. Don't pick. Just pick a guy you know, don't pick the guy you're gonna pick. If you're on the board. Right there. That's all you gotta do.

[Jason Moore]

You made it very simple, Jay.

[Andy Holloway]

Just don't pick the guy you're actually gonna pick.

[Jason Moore]

Right, but lot's gonna change between now and then, too. So I don't think you're in a lot of danger.

[Mike Wright]

But then, isn't everyone else picking players that they're not going to pick everyone else?

[Andy Holloway]

Here's one of the things that I've learned over the last few years.

[Mike Wright]

It's an exercise in futility.

[Jason Moore]

Don't do it with everybody. You drop with a couple, pick a couple guys from your league and pretend like you're the other owners. And then you get a little bit of a lay of the land.

[Andy Holloway]

And one of the things I've learned over, you know, the last, I would say, decade is that there are, I mean, so many more stupid people than you think. So I think that you can draft and you can be the smart guy, not picking the guy you're going to pick on draft day. And you get a good chance to see who they're going to pick. And the reality is, what Andy said, if you're only picking, let's say you've got two other guys from your league. Well, when they're assigned other teams, you know, if they're drafting for other teams as well, they're going to make good picks there. That's what I always do. I always look and go, oh, this guy's smart. In our league, I'm going to pick who I would pick. So shoot. I shouldn't have said that.

[Jason Moore]

All right, let's move on to another question.

[D]

Hey, guys, this is Danny from Orlando. Just wondering in the Dynasty league what you guys are doing with Evan Ingram. Would you like to move him while he's in the top Dynasty asset before maybe Saquon, Barkley and Odell returning eating to his targets, or are you just going to hold on to him because he's one of the better options in the barfy tight end situation? Thanks for the input and I love to show up.

[Jason Moore]

Well, first of all, Danny, you should live in Denver based on the previous Cody in California. You need the alliteration. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Second of all, he's with the Mouse Man. He's good.

[Jason Moore]

I want to jump in here because we have our Dynasty rankings coming to the ultimate draft kit very soon. Probably by the time you hear this, they'll be in there. I moved Evan Ingram ahead of Zach Ertz in my Dynasty rankings.

[Mike Wright]

Whoa.

[Jason Moore]

So I flip flop those guys from where I think a lot of people might ordinarily have them. So my answer to that question is no. I don't think you need to cash in on Evan Ingram. His statistical output last year wasn't at some level that I don't think he can get back to or sustain. He is a very, very special talent at the tight end position. Pass catching wise. I think he is, he's extremely young. I think he's a great Dynasty player. And I, I, he's one of those guys where I, you know, I'm taking him over Hunter Henry. I'm taking him over Zach Ertz. He's pretty much behind Kelsey and Gronk.

[Andy Holloway]

I, yeah, I mean, to me and my. We obviously were going through our Dynasty rankings. I agree with the premise of what you're saying. I don't have him in the same spot as you. I actually have him as my number three tight end overall, which actually is the same spot but different guys. I have Travis Kelsey behind him, but that's an age issue. When you look at the top guys, right? Gronk, even Ertz and kelsey, they're all 27 and a half and older. But then you've got Evan Ingram, who's 23, and we don't want to overemphasize age, but when you've got a guy.

[Jason Moore]

No, we don't.

[Andy Holloway]

You do near the same tier of fantasy production, but he's got four more years. I mean, that's, that's pretty darn good.

[Mike Wright]

It depends on what the haul is for Evan Angrum. But the fact is, do you still.

[Jason Moore]

Have Gronk ahead of him in your Dynasty?

[Andy Holloway]

I have Gronk, still my number one in dynasty. He's just too valuable.

[Mike Wright]

Since 1992, the only rookie tight ends with 100 plus targets, Jeremy Shockey and Evan Ingram. It, it's hard to argue with something that historical. So it, I'm, I wouldn't want to, I wouldn't be shopping him. I would say that if someone came to me and I have Ingram in our Dynasty league, if someone came to me with an offer that I could not refuse, I'll give you Kyle Rudolph. No.

[Andy Holloway]

All right.

[Mike Wright]

I can easily refuse that. Thank you, Jason.

[Andy Holloway]

You're welcome.

[Jason Moore]

Okay. All right. This one comes in from Kyle in Canton, Texas. First of all, he says 55.

[Mike Wright]

He just.

[Jason Moore]

With a period. Yeah, there's a period at the end.

[Andy Holloway]

Bring up a really good point. That period. Juju Smith Schuster, you want to know how, what percentage of his routes were from the slot?

[Jason Moore]

Wow. Okay, so first of all, 55, period. Secondly, what are the steps to determine whether to pull the trigger and accept the trade offer or to be safe and decline. Thank you. Love the show. We want universal principles here. There is not one on the table. This is any and all trades. How do you know whether to take a trade? Mike.

[Mike Wright]

Come on Mike.

[Jason Moore]

Come on, Mike. Yeah, how do you take a trade or just be safe? So does it make your team better? Change is bad, not change is safe. That's, that's the thought here.

[Mike Wright]

Does it make your team better?

[Jason Moore]

That's good advice.

[Mike Wright]

Then take it.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it sounds like he's afraid of regret.

[Mike Wright]

If you're scared, go to church.

[Andy Holloway]

But the reality is this, the reality is that you can have regrets either way. What if, what if you regret not making the trade? Don't you know that it's faulty logic? So yeah, look at the players. If you like them better, just pull the trigger. And then here's the thing. If you don't like it later, find another trade.

[Jason Moore]

There's one way that you cannot have regret and that's just by you put your hand up over the screen over where the trade is and you just hit decline before you can see it. Ooh, just decline them all. Then you never know and then you can live in your scared world. Alright, another voicemail question.

[D]

Yo, what up ballers? This is Cody from California. Had a question about selecting draft order. So of course I've heard about random selection or reverse order of the standings of last year. Well, my commissioner is very insistent on whoever you placed is where you draft. So if you did really bad last year, you draft bad. I guess it's kind of an incentive thing. I don't know if it's completely fair because the rich get richer. Curious if I'm being crazy here, would love to know what you think.

[Jason Moore]

Hold on a second.

[Mike Wright]

Number one, Did Cody sneak a second question in on this?

[Jason Moore]

Don't worry about it.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, I'm very Judge.

[Jason Moore]

Wait, that wasn't the same guy.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that was 100%. That was Cody from California.

[Andy Holloway]

There's only one Cody, one Cody in California.

[Jason Moore]

100%. Brooks. Judge is on me.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, Judge, my goodness.

[Jason Moore]

He even had the alliteration to let you know the question's still very good. They're both good questions and both kept.

[Andy Holloway]

Short and to the point.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, well, look, take.

[Andy Holloway]

Take a page from Cody in California. Give us the alliteration and keep it short.

[Jason Moore]

So let's get back to the real problem which is has he never. Has this commissioner never paid attention to how the draft works in every major sport in the history of time?

[Mike Wright]

My first response is what?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I think on the best pick by winning on the YouTube when. When he actually said. I think both my and Mike's head shot up like wait, we were looking to the sky to see if we heard that right. When he's like, if you finish bad, you draft bad. Guess where you're going to draft.

[Jason Moore]

We're not the Boston Celtics here.

[Mike Wright]

Nice.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, no, that, that's dumb. Yeah, that's really. You're not crazy, Cody.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, it's. That's rough.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. So he should change it.

[Andy Holloway]

And he said it's an incentive.

[Jason Moore]

An incentive to win with your bad players.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, that's an. That's not how incentive works. Incentive doesn't mean want to win more.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. All the people with the fast cars get the best parts. All the worst cars get the bad parts. Now win the race.

[Andy Holloway]

That's incentive to find a good league. That's what that is.

[Jason Moore]

You know you can find leagues over atleagues.com alright, thanks for tuning in. Lots of great episodes coming up including our live show in Minneapolis next Thursday. We'll be recording it, it'll be live streamed. It'll be awesome.

[Mike Wright]

Check out almost gone.

[Jason Moore]

Tickets are almost gone for that show ballerslive.com if you are in or around Minneapolis, come see us hang out. It'll be a blast. Thanks for tuning in and we will catch you on the next episode of the fantasy football podcast.

[Mike Wright]

That tour of course brought to you by draft and if you head up draft.com ballers you can play some best ball. It's the place to be.

[Jason Moore]

Goodbye.

[Andy Holloway]

Thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at theffballers.