Fantasy Football 2017 - QB Rankings Pt. 2 + Lev Bell Concerns

Summary

Fantasy Football 2017 - QB Rankings Pt. 2 + Lev Bell Concerns

Release Date: August 16, 2017
Hosts: Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright
Podcast: Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast

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1. Introduction and Episode Overview

In this episode, the Fantasy Footballers delve into their comprehensive quarterback rankings, focusing on quarterbacks ranked 11 through 24. The discussion is enriched with the latest team news, player concerns, and strategic insights to aid fantasy football enthusiasts in making informed decisions for their upcoming seasons.

2. Lev Bell's Holdout and Its Implications [03:29 - 06:00]

The hosts initiate the episode by addressing the ongoing holdout of Le'Veon Bell, a top-tier running back. Concerns revolve around his readiness for the season and potential injury risks due to lack of preparation.

• Mike Wright expresses apprehension:

  "When a running back is holding out, I do not like it. It increases their chance of getting hurt early on in the season because they're not preparing their body for actual football action." ([03:29])

• Jason Moore shares his perspective on Bell's resilience:

  "I don't care. He's good enough for the risk." ([05:30])

Despite the holdout, the trio acknowledges Bell's past performance and his ability to bounce back, deciding not to downgrade his ranking at this stage.

3. Team News and Player Movements [06:07 - 12:06]

The hosts transition to recent NFL team updates, highlighting player releases and suspensions that impact fantasy rosters.

• Ryan Matthews of the Philadelphia Eagles was released after passing his physical, freeing him up for teams to acquire as a cost-effective running back option.

  "If you're playing best ball, I often grab Ryan Matthews in the 16th, 17th, 18th round because he'll sign somewhere." ([09:25])

• Ezekiel Elliott's Suspension: Elliott formally appeals his six-game suspension, with a hearing set for August 29th. This uncertainty affects drafting strategies, especially as drafts occur around this time.

  "If the hearing drags on, all of a sudden Zeke is playing in the beginning of the season and there are more question marks." ([10:41])

4. Quarterback Rankings Detailed Discussion [12:06 - 46:55]

The core of the episode revolves around the detailed analysis of quarterbacks ranked 11 through 24. Key highlights include:

a. Matthew Stafford (Ranked 11) [18:30 - 20:48]

• Andy Holloway praises Stafford's consistency and offensive weapons:

  "He's just consistent. You can count on 4,200 plus yards." ([19:19])

• Jason Moore emphasizes Stafford's offensive line and receiving corps:

  "He's going to score a bunch of touchdowns, and that comes through Ben Roethlisberger." ([19:19])

b. Ben Roethlisberger (Ranked 12) [21:57 - 28:09]

• Mike Wright anticipates a strong season:

  "His offense is unbelievable. His wide receiver core and Le'Veon Bell." ([25:09])

• Jason Moore highlights Roethlisberger's consistency when he plays:

  "When he's playing, especially if he's playing at home, he's probably got as good a shot as anybody to be a top 12 option." ([27:51])

c. Jameis Winston (Ranked 13) [28:09 - 30:35]

• Mike Wright discusses Winston's dependency on game scripts:

  "If the game script is not going in a way that they are trailing, then Jameis is going to be limited in his attempts." ([28:36])

• Jason Moore expresses concerns about Winston's inconsistency:

  "He's a quarterback that has not yet... finished in six point scoring as a quarterback one yet." ([29:36])

d. Marcus Mariota vs. Cam Newton [31:13 - 36:08]

• Andy Holloway is optimistic about Cam Newton's potential:

  "He may end up being my guy with the 9th round ADP." ([31:13])

• Jason Moore leans towards Mariota for higher upside due to his improving offense:

  "I like Marcus Mariota's potential and he's improving." ([34:03])

e. Derek Carr (Ranked 16) [36:08 - 41:05]

• Andy Holloway defends Carr's ranking based on statistical performance:

  "We are giving him exactly what he deserves. He's a 4028 guy right now." ([36:16])

• Jason Moore disagrees, advocating for a higher ranking:

  "I do see him as a top 10 quarterback." ([37:43])

f. Lower-Ranked Quarterbacks [41:05 - 46:55]

The discussion includes quarterbacks like Tyrod Taylor, Carson Palmer, Eli Manning, Blake Bortles, Carson Wentz, Sam Bradford, Jay Cutler, and Joe Flacco. The hosts evaluate their performance prospects, team dynamics, and potential fantasy impact.

5. Listener Mailbag and Draft Strategies [50:28 - 55:43]

The hosts address listener questions, offering tailored advice based on specific fantasy league formats and player scenarios.

• Question on Drafting Antonio Brown vs. Julio Jones or Odell Beckham:

  • Mike Wright and Jason Moore recommend leaning towards Antonio Brown despite potential stack concerns, emphasizing his value in a keeper league.

    "I'm still going to take Antonio Brown." ([51:55])

• Quarterback Strategies in Half Point PPR Leagues:

  • Jason Moore advises that quarterbacks can be drafted later, suggesting flexibility based on league dynamics.

    "I would say you can bump quarterbacks down even further in a 10 team league." ([52:49])

• Keeper Decision between Jordan Reed, Tim Montgomery, or Jordan Howard:

  • Jason Moore and Mike Wright unanimously recommend keeping Jordan Howard due to his higher potential and lower cost.

    "Yeah, it's Jordan Howard." ([54:33])

6. Upcoming Episodes and Conclusion [55:09 - End]

The hosts tease future content, including an in-depth look at tight ends and a "Top 10 Tips and Tricks for Fantasy Football" episode slated for Friday. They encourage listeners to engage via their website and social media platforms.

"It's about learning the ins and outs of how to play fantasy football week to week. You don't just win it at your draft." ([58:12])

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Notable Quotes

• Jason Moore on Lev Bell’s Holdout:

  "He's not enough concerned to drop even to my number three spot." ([05:30])

• Mike Wright on Ezekiel Elliott’s Suspension:

  "There's a huge problem... He’s missing six games right in the middle of the season." ([11:31])

• Andy Holloway on Ben Roethlisberger:

  "I love Big Ben." ([26:47])

Key Takeaways

• Bench Quarterbacks: The trio emphasizes the value of drafting quarterbacks in later rounds, allowing flexibility and leveraging the waiver wire for favorable matchups.

• Leverage Player Holdouts and Suspensions: Understanding the implications of player holdouts and suspensions, like Le'Veon Bell and Ezekiel Elliott, is crucial for proactive roster management.

• Stay Updated with Team Changes: Player releases and team dynamics, such as Ryan Matthews' release from the Eagles, can offer valuable late-round pickups.

• Strategic Flexibility: Tailoring drafting strategies based on league formats (e.g., keeper leagues, PPR) and staying adaptable to weekly changes maximizes fantasy success.

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For more detailed rankings, player analyses, and fantasy football strategies, visit Fantasy Footballers.com.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

Today's episode is brought to you by fantasychamps.com the official trophy partner of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. If you have a league that you love, you need to go over to fantasychamps.com get a trophy, get a ring, get a belt, get a draft board. This is the place to get your hardware for your league. Get something worthy of your fantasy football [e-mail] and use the promo code BALLERS to save 10%.

[Jason Moore]

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast coming to you from the Play Draft studios with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Andy Holloway]

Ah, let's talk football.

[Jason Moore]

Okay, that sounds great.

[Andy Holloway]

It's a football day. We are mixing it up.

[Jason Moore]

I don't know why. It's gonna be a great day.

[Andy Holloway]

We're gonna mix it up. We're gonna talk fantasy football on the podcast today as opposed to. As opposed to every other day.

[Mike Wright]

Alright.

[Andy Holloway]

We're really a political show normally, right? Isn't that how it works?

[Jason Moore]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

No, we're not. Andy, Mike and Jason back on the podcast. Mike, where can they find you on Twitter?

[Mike Wright]

They can find me at ffhitman. You may notice that it's not a verified account, but that's all right. It's still you, I promise. That's me.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, but, but only if it's at FF Hitman, because there are plenty others.

[Mike Wright]

There are.

[Andy Holloway]

It's too dangerous of a name to be verified.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, I'm a dangerous man.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, you are, Jason. Where do they find you at Jason?

[Jason Moore]

Ffl. And you'll notice that blue check mark.

[Andy Holloway]

There's a blue check mark. Yeah, there is.

[Mike Wright]

Firm Jason is Jason.

[Andy Holloway]

There's a lot of Jaron Brown all over his Twitter.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, yeah, Jaron Brown. I've been saying it for, you know.

[Andy Holloway]

Just talking about the number two wide receiver for. There's on the Cardinals.

[Jason Moore]

If you want the earlier takes, you follow us on Twitter because we've been. I've been talking Jaron Brown up for a couple weeks over there.

[Andy Holloway]

He really has. I got to give you credit for that one.

[Jason Moore]

Thanks.

[Andy Holloway]

Because I didn't think it would come to fruition. But then, you know, John Brown, I feel bad for him. Doesn't look like he's going to be healthy maybe ever.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, when you talk about, when you talk about Jaron Brown on Twitter, people respond about, yeah, he's got huge upside, but he's got hamstring problems right now.

[Andy Holloway]

They all think it's.

[Jason Moore]

They all think it's John Brown. There are two J. Brown wide receivers for the Arizona Cardinals. Yes, Jaron Brown is the one that's 6:2 and runs like a gazelle.

[Andy Holloway]

You can find me at Andy Holloway. The show is at the ffballers. The website's the fantasy footballers dot com. We're going to get right into it on today's show. By the way, we have the rest of our quarterback rankings. We're going to go basically 11 through 24 on the show today. We have a bunch of news to catch you up on, including the Ezekiel Elliott situation and what to expect. And we're going to start out kind of debating a situation that is inching closer to the season. We've had a lot of fantasy owners show concern, and rightfully so, for Andrew Luck's situation. Right. We're inching towards the regular season. Preseason week two is here and Le'Veon Bell still holding out. So quick question of the day, guys. What is your level of concern for the Le'Veon Bell situation? How much does it affect how you will rank him? Is there a point in which you will downgrade him? What do you think about Lev Bell's situation? He seems to cause a lot of drama in the offseason for fantasy owners.

[Mike Wright]

I would say that generally speaking, when a running back is holding out, I do not like it. I think that it's. It increases their chance of getting hurt early on in the season because they're not preparing their body for actual football action. And the good news for Le'Veon Bell is, I guess it's good or bad however you want to look at it. He's been suspended before. And when you're suspended, you cannot do anything with the team. Right. You can't practice with the team, you cannot work out with the team. You are suspended. So we have at least some recent history of Le'Veon Bell missing that practice time with his team, but showing back up when the lights were on. And he was perfectly fine. An absolute stud of a fantasy football running back.

[Andy Holloway]

Is there a debate to be had, though, that he wasn't perfectly fine? I mean, he's played six games in 2015. He played 12 last year.

[Mike Wright]

He only played 12 last year because he was suspended for three and then he sat out the last week.

[Andy Holloway]

He does have a bit of an injury history.

[Mike Wright]

No, Certainly does. And that's why David Johnson is my number one is because Lev Bell just has a couple of questions. Otherwise, if Lev Van Bell had no suspension risk, no, none of these past injuries, Levy and Bell would be my number one guy. But I'm just saying we've seen him Skip things whether it was voluntary or involuntary. And he was fine. So I'm not going to adjust his rankings.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I agree. For the most part. I do worry a little bit more. I've bumped up his risk rating because when you hold out and you know, we've seen it before several times in training camps where a player holds out, they get into training camp late and then they come up with a hamstring injury or something like that, that's my only concern with him. But I already had that concern. Right. Injury history was already there. So I mean, he. He's not enough concerned to drop even to my number three spot. So I guess that says I'm not. I don't care. He's good enough for the risk.

[Andy Holloway]

There was some don't care. There was some optimism, some hope that the Devonta Freeman contract would set some sort of pre. That helps Lev Bell get this contract locked up, get it done. Hasn't happened. And so we wait and we see what happens.

[Jason Moore]

I think Lev Bell wants to be there.

[Mike Wright]

Well, and levy on Bell had said.

[Andy Holloway]

He wants to be paid. He wants to be. His quote was he wants to be valued.

[Mike Wright]

I thought he had said he wants to be paid like a number one running back and also like a top receiver.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

So inferring that, I mean, he wants.

[Andy Holloway]

Welcome back to the Jimmy Graham debate of old. Remember when Jimmy Graham, he didn't want to get paid like a tight end.

[Mike Wright]

But he switched his Twitter to pass catcher.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Yeah. But it's. I mean, we talk about him, David Johnson, Lev Bell, we talk about them as two and one. They really are for those teams.

[Jason Moore]

Wide receivers.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, it's. You won't get paid like one. And that's mama, don't let your kids grow up to be running backs. It's just not a good business decision.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, we're going to move on into the news and notes from time to time, we love to read itunes reviews here on the show from the listeners. Look, you're why we do this show. We have the best listeners in the podcast space without question.

[Mike Wright]

So scientifically proven.

[Andy Holloway]

Scientifically proven. I will prove it to you right now.

[Jason Moore]

Reviewasaurus Rex. This one comes in from odd accent from the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Oh, bonjour. They say five stars. It's not a podcast. It's a whole other world. Thanks so much, guys, for what you've created. I signed up just to get some tips and found myself walking through the wardrobe into a whole other world of fun. I'm now in a foot Clan league with a great bunch of people and now get even stranger looks than usual while walking the dog as I laugh out loud to player nicknames, movie references and flexible use of grammar. You're all great. Well, when he, he or she says you're all great, I think he's talking about the foot clan here. Yes, truly, I mean he, you know, he's joined in.

[Andy Holloway]

Welcome to Narnia.

[Jason Moore]

Welcome to Narnia Fantasy Football Edition.

[Andy Holloway]

Thank you very much for reviews. They help the show out a lot over on itunes or wherever you're listening. We really appreciate them. We appreciate your subscribes. We're gonna be here with you all season long, so it's gonna be a lot of fun. Also, footclangiveaway.com we're giving away an autographed David Johnson jersey. If you want to get in on that, head over to Footclang giveaway.com.

[Jason Moore]

News and notes from around the league.

[Andy Holloway]

Here's a fun fact we have, we have a photograph deal with the Associated Press for use of photos on the website and things like that. And Jason has browsed through the teams in the past and organized the pictures and he just happened to notice that for Philadelphia, long ago, right, there were no team photos for two players.

[Jason Moore]

That is correct. Apparently when the teams got together and said, hey, it's the day to take photos, make sure you show up. Two players were not invited or had other things going on that was similar last names Ryan Matthews and Jordan Matthews.

[Mike Wright]

And now they're both off the team.

[Andy Holloway]

The Eagles have released Ryan Matthews. He did pass a physical upon his release. Like, hey, you're looking good. Goodbye.

[Mike Wright]

Well, it's because they had to do that. If you, if you're not aware what the situation was, he had to be cleared by this physical or they would owe him a large amount of money when they cut him for an injury settlement.

[Andy Holloway]

You think he's sitting in there just going, ooh, that hurts.

[Jason Moore]

Ah.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, that hurts.

[Mike Wright]

Well, that's just Ryan Matthews living day to day. But now Ryan Matthews is free to go and destroy some sort of fantasy football running back situation.

[Jason Moore]

If you're playing best ball. I often grab Ryan Matthews in that, you know, 16th, 17th, 18th round because he'll sign somewhere. Especially if, you know, another running back gets injured and they're looking around. Ryan Matthews is still a quality back. He was just too expensive to keep for the Philadelphia Eagles.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Ezekiel Elliott has officially appealed his six game suspension. Per Adam Schefter, a hearing must be scheduled within the next 10 days. If you Read the provisions in the collective bargaining agreement for the NFL. It is very. I guess the word would be liberal in the fact that look, the commissioner has a right to punish a player not arbitrarily but with cause evaluated not by the law but by how that player reflects on. As Mike said at the Shield. Right. How it reflects on the league. They have a right to at their discretion punish a player. That is their right. That is the rule. A lot of people think that this appeal, it sets up a situation very similar to Ben, Ben Roethlisberger where the NFL wanted a four game suspension, suspended him six games appeal process, it might be reduced to four. But if this process drags on, all of a sudden Zeke is playing in the beginning of the season and there are more question marks.

[Mike Wright]

The hearing is scheduled.

[Andy Holloway]

It is. That hearing is not necessarily a completion of sure. But entire process.

[Mike Wright]

August 29th is when things will start moving forward. There's not going to be any kind of updates until that happens.

[Andy Holloway]

But that's a huge problem. The majority of drafts happen on 26 August or in that general vicinity. If the hearing is 29 August and we still don't have. I mean a lot of people are going to be rearview mirror of their drafts.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. When you could have the. You could have a Lane Johnson situation from last year where somehow it keeps. Get things get pushed down the line. Zeke plays four or five weeks and then the ban hammer still remains. Now he's missing six games right in the middle of the season, including possibly early fantasy playoffs.

[Andy Holloway]

So that's why I think this thing.

[Mike Wright]

This thing is just.

[Jason Moore]

Oh man.

[Andy Holloway]

I think it's going to be four games.

[Mike Wright]

Do you?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I think it's going to be going to be four games. And I think look, in the end he's going to have to decide to fight this forever. Risk a more important part of the season or just take it and get four games.

[Mike Wright]

If it's four, I mean then the people who are drafting Zeke in the third. I think you're.

[Jason Moore]

You're going to get a good payoff winning.

[Andy Holloway]

Yep.

[Mike Wright]

But that's. That's what Elliot it's. It's hard to give any strong fantasy advice on how to treat the situation.

[Jason Moore]

This is no risk. It no biscuit.

[Mike Wright]

Exactly. This is up to you. You. How aggressive do you want to be? How big of a chance do you want to take with an early pick?

[Andy Holloway]

A ton of players return to practice. Amari Cooper, Bilal Powell, Doug Baldwin, DeMarco Murray. One player that didn't was Rashad Perryman of the Baltimore Ravens. Grade 2 hamstring strain. That's normally a month or more. This is unfortunate for Brashad Perryman. I feel bad for the guy because clearly has a lot of talent but can't stay healthy. Kevin White, you know, another player that neither of them had a very refined route tree and you can't get on the field and become acclimated NFL DBs when you're injured. So it seems hard to project a future for them. I don't think historically you see players that have missed this much time in their first couple of years turn out to be what they were projected to be.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, he's. He's never going to be an NFL superstar. If you're in a dynasty league and you think it will happen, you know, I don't believe it will ever come to fruition. Joe Flacco will be the quarterback there, you know, for the foreseeable future and they've never developed something special. I mean, the real issue here, I want to move Jeremy Macklin up the more that he is solidified as the number one. But I am still concerned with the Joe Flacco injury. You know, they say he's going to miss the preseason and then he'll. But he'll play week one. You know, that's never a confidence boost, especially for a new wide receiver who now has little to no reps with Joe Flacco.

[Andy Holloway]

So Flacco and Andrew Luck are out at the arcade all day during camp.

[Jason Moore]

Yep, that's what they do.

[Andy Holloway]

And then they're waiting to get playing Asteroids. Right. Jason, you talked to one of the beat writers for Baltimore in regards to Ben Watson, and you haven't heard a lot of buzz around him despite the fact that the tight ends are gone. I mean, you have no Dennis Pitta, no Crocky Gilmore. Ben Watson seems like the next man up, but is he really and is there any reason to be excited for him?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I wasn't sure Ben Watson's health, nothing really has been reported on it. And so I was talking to the beat writer, trying to get some input. They said Ben Watson is healthy and they expect him to maybe be the number two tight end. I mean, what they're seeing at practice does not, you know, does not lead me to believe that Ben Watson will take over the Dennis Pitta role, which previous to that conversation is what I had kind of been projecting there. So, I mean, there are so many receptions up for grabs here. That's why I like Jeremy Macklin and Danny Woodhead. But I don't know who does that.

[Andy Holloway]

Make Nick Boyle A Nick Boyle is.

[Jason Moore]

Who they said would they were projecting as the number one tight end. So, yeah, I would say that's the name. At least be familiar with it. So that if when week one comes, if he ends up with, you know, nine targets, like the tight end sometimes.

[Andy Holloway]

Gets there, something could happen there.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. By the way, it was mentioned to us that we had neglected to speak on Danny Woodhead, you know, RB ranking shield like he was because he's inside our top 24. But he was completely omitted.

[Jason Moore]

I'm thinking he must not have been.

[Andy Holloway]

At the time in our top 24. Oh, you think he is now?

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, Now.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. But that's the reason.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. I thought maybe we had just oversight type of situation.

[Mike Wright]

Just Danny Woodhead's par for the course. Right?

[Andy Holloway]

Let me ask you a question. Overlooked his perfect, perfect example. Mike, let me ask you a question. Why do you play fantasy football?

[Mike Wright]

Because it's fun.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, well, look. The NFL has reported it will loosen its dress code in a memo yesterday. Players can now wear more personalized cleats. This goes along with the amazing news that they can also celebrate touchdowns. What is happening like a normal human being?

[Mike Wright]

Here's my hypothesis. The NFL has been the get off my lawn league for so long. Last year there was finally a scare. There was. They got spooked because ratings. It was a big deal made of. The ratings are down for the NFL and they went, ah, crap, these millennials and they're ruining of everything. And they're young kids and their video games. We got.

[Andy Holloway]

Is the NFL wearing boxers now?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, they've the whitey tighties.

[Jason Moore]

Boxer briefs.

[Mike Wright]

Well, I don't think they've made it to boxer briefs because the real transition is briefs. Boxers, boxer briefs.

[Jason Moore]

I guess you are so.

[Mike Wright]

So they're still in that adolescent boxer phase.

[Andy Holloway]

But is commando the final stage? I'm just.

[Mike Wright]

That's when the rules are gone. There are no more rules.

[Andy Holloway]

Loving every minute of it.

[Mike Wright]

But I honestly think that they saw that, like, maybe we're not as invincible as we thought. We can't just be this. The top button has to be done. Like people want fun. It's sports entertainment for a reason, and they're going to give it to us.

[Jason Moore]

This season's going to be a blast. Really. So many things are lining up for a an incredible 2017 NFL season, and we're only weeks away.

[Andy Holloway]

Let's talk quarterbacks. Guys.

[Jason Moore]

Quarterbacks, real quick. I want to correct myself. We did just miss Danny, the judge stays on us. Judge missed.

[Andy Holloway]

Danny Woodhead, where was he in the top 24?

[Jason Moore]

16. Oh man, this is exactly what you said. I mean that Danny Woodhead is overlooked. I think it's because he's so short. You never see him.

[Mike Wright]

To be fair.

[Andy Holloway]

Poor Danny Woodhead.

[Mike Wright]

We make font size on our show. Docs font size is proportional to height. Proportional to height. So he's very, very small font.

[Andy Holloway]

He was at the six point font.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Very fond.

[Andy Holloway]

Hidden behind the offensive line. I can't believe that.

[Mike Wright]

Brooks, we are very sorry Danny Woodhead.

[Jason Moore]

If you're in a PPR league we love. Great.

[Andy Holloway]

I would rate them around 16. All right, quarterback rankings. We'll try not to forget anybody today. Just for you listening. Look, the rankings are for six point touchdown leagues. You can see breakdowns on the website of all of our rankings of fantasy footballers.com. they are updated frequently. People ask this question about the ultimate draft kit, about the cheat sheets in the ultimate draft kit. They want to know like, how often are these things updated? They're updated almost daily. Pretty much daily. I mean there is some sort of change that happens. We're always digging in, we're always looking at adjusting players.

[Jason Moore]

We talk to a beat writer and we hear something about, you know, inside scoop and we make a change.

[Mike Wright]

Also when we change our projections, cheat sheets, they're updated.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, automatically, instantaneously. All right, Matthew Stafford comes in at number 11 on the QB rankings. Ben Roethlisberger number 12. Let's talk about these guys. I love Matthew Stafford this year. I have him at 10. He's just consistent. You can count on 4,200 plus yards. He's been consistent in terms of games played early in his career. That wasn't the case. You were worried about that. Now he just comes out, lights it up. Somebody's going to benefit. Outside of Golden Tate in this offense because you no longer have Anquan Bolden. We've talked about Kennedy Galladay. Marvin Jones I think is still a sleeper and a value. Matthew Stafford. Jason, you have the highest of Our rankings at 9. What is the story with Matt? With Snapback.

[Jason Moore]

With Matty Snapback. Look, Matty Snapback has been a guy that has proven before kind of like, you know, we talked about Andy Dalton. He has done it before where you've gotten top production from him at the quarterback position. And it used to be one of those things where people were afraid when he lost Megatron and Calvin Johnson would go away, that he would return back to, you know, or, you know, regress To a guy that doesn't throw touchdowns and isn't valuable enough. The reason we like, or especially I like Matthew Stafford is because this is a team that can't run the ball and this is a team that uses their running backs in a way that helps their quarterback. A la Drew Brees and the Saints, they pass to Theo Riddick, they're going to pass to Amir Abdullah when they get around the goal line. Amir Abdullah and Theo Riddick, they might be receiving touchdowns as opposed to banging the touchdowns in through the middle of the line. Now you have a wide receiving core that is, I think, the best he's had in a while. Now, he did lose Anquan Bolden, but Kenny Golladay, you know, the smooth routes of Kenny G. He's looking like a really good rookie. You have a year two with Marvin Jones, which I think is a real value to have him in the system. Maybe he won't disappear as well. Golden Tate and a healthy Amir Abdullah. There's just a lot of weapons here. I think the offense scores, you know, enough points to be really valuable for fantasy. And it's not going to come through the running game, which means Matthew Stafford will be of value.

[Andy Holloway]

You've reminded me of something that I didn't mention. For those of you that have entered the Listener League, the entries, we're basically deciding on those today and sending out the winners. And look, everybody can't make it in.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, my goodness.

[Andy Holloway]

The reason I thought about that is there was an English teacher that sent in a video and he started the J. Grizzly School of Literacy and Grammar, and he had a Jay Grizz on site.

[Jason Moore]

And I believe he had my face with a. With an X through it.

[Mike Wright]

International sign for no.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

There were incredibly high investment entries into the Listener League and we can't thank you enough for it. Even if you were not selected, which, you know, most people weren't, because we can only pick a few people. We watched them, we enjoyed them. We were super impressed with you laughed around the office.

[Mike Wright]

There's joy in my heart from a sincere thank you.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, you know, just like that, you know, review source said these listeners are absolutely incredible. You guys are the best.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, before we talk, Ben Roethlisberger, and by we, I mean Mike, because he has him at number six. Yep.

[Jason Moore]

Hot fire.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, let's go ahead and thank today's sponsors. Keeping the lights on Bombfell. Thanks for sponsoring the show, guys. Do you like shopping for clothes?

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

No. Neither do I. Look, there's an easier way to get Better clothes. And that's Bombfell. It's an online personal styling service that helps men find the right clothes. And this is cool. I've had this experience. I've gotten my Bombfell packages in the mail multiple times. It's always great to get that package in the mail. And what they do is they pair you with a stylist and you basically report on the things you like and the things you don't like. And they refine your style to exactly what fits you, exactly what looks good on you. And look, you're in total control. You only pay for the clothes that you keep. You can send them back. You get something in the mail, you don't like it, you send it right back. You only pay for what you keep. And you can receive clothes once every month, twice every two months, every three months. Look, they're on your side. Bomb fells on your side. They don't make money unless you find something you want to keep. So love them. Best of all, we've negotiated with Bombfell to get our listeners a special offer of $25 off your first purchase. That's a big one. Go to bombfell.com footballers that's bombfell spelled B O M B f e l l.com footballers and a huge shout out.

[Jason Moore]

To the NFL Game Pass. This is a tool, a website, a portal, a web app that we have used for years at the fantasy footballers. People always saying, how do you watch all the games? How you know you can't watch all the games live at the same time. And we've used the NFL game pass to rewatch not only the same game, but you can watch it from every angle. You want to watch the coaches film or the All 22 where you could see the wide receivers running the routes. You could do that on game pass. You want to watch all the plays of a single player and say, hey, how did this guy look? You can do that on NFL Game Pass. We were even talking with our editorial team, like, okay, we want to watch all the preseason games, but we're not even sure. Are they like all broadcast? And we're like, wait, NFL Game pass. You can watch all the out of market games live while it's happening. They've got the condensed games too, which is my favorite.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that's great.

[Jason Moore]

Where you can watch the entire game every single snap in like, you know, 45 minutes or under, because they take out every pause in the action. So it's great. Plus, right now, NFL football is. It's happening. NFL game pass has it. And you can get a free trial. Right now, all you do is go to NFL.com fantasy footballers. That's NFL.com fantasy footballers for a free trial. You will love it, I guarantee.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's talk 12 through 24 quarterbacks. We just talked about Matt Stafford. Let's go through Big Ben and Jameis Winston now, who come in at 12, 13. I think people were surprised. They were mad even that we didn't talk Jameis Winston yesterday in the top 10. But look, he's not in our top 10. So that's why we didn't talk about him.

[Jason Moore]

He's too high right now.

[Andy Holloway]

Ben Roethlisberger, Mike has him at 6. This offense could be explosive. We've seen big Ben in 2014. He was the number five overall fantasy quarterback. But look, there's a long track record here going back to 2007. Only four of those years has he finished inside the top 10. But Mike, you believe this could be the year he does it again?

[Mike Wright]

I do. And what's, what's difficult about projections, right, is we, we go through all the numbers and we project what their final stat line will be. Ben Roethlisberger's, his, his final stat line for me, puts him at the number six quarterback. Does that mean I would draft him as the number six quarterback? No. And that's why it's fantastic for the Foot Clan that they're listening to this show and understanding that it's all about roster construction and knowing that Ben Roethlisberger is, in fact, almost unstartable on the road. But I believe the addition of Martavis Bryant makes that difference different. I think you can actually play him on the road when Martavis is on the field. And you know that those home games, he can go off for five touchdowns at any given moment. His. His offense is unbelievable. His wide receiver core and Le'Veon bell. You guys, I don't know if you realize this just off the top of your head. What's the career high rushing touchdowns in one season for Le'Veon Bell?

[Andy Holloway]

Wow. I'm going to guess. I'm going to guess 10.

[Mike Wright]

8. 8 is the most rushing touchdowns he's ever had. And that was his first and second year. So they don't. That's not the name of Le'Veon Bell's game is getting those 16 rushing touchdowns like Zeke, but they're going to score a bunch of touchdowns, and that comes through Ben Roethlisberger. So I, I think by the end of the year, he's going to be fantastic if he Drops in your draft, then I'm okay picking him up. I won't take him as the number six guy, but I think that he's just going to have monster, monster weeks. Best ball. I love Big Ben.

[Jason Moore]

One of the things that surprised me the most about Big Ben when we were data mining for our, for the ultimate draft kit, consistency charts. And I'm putting all these things together over the last three years going through the data. Ben Roethlisberger gets his rap, especially from us, of being very inconsistent. Right. Because home and away splits and while his road games are games where you usually don't start him. I was blown away to see this stat over the last three years when you're only talking games played. And we have to keep in mind Ben Roethlisberger averages missing about two games a year. But in the games that he plays, there's only three players who have a higher percentage of finishing as a top 12 quarterback. One of them was Dak Prescott. We talked about him already. He's only had that rookie year where he was just consistent but not blow up. The other two, Andrew Luck, Aaron Rodgers, then it's Ben Roethlisberger. So when he's playing, especially if he's playing at home, he's probably got a, you know, as good a shot as anybody to be a top 12 option if you can grab him and pair him with another quarterback. I really do like Ben Roethlisberger. He usually gets overdrafted though, in most home leagues.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I guess for context, Ben Roethlisberger right now is a 9th round draft pick.

[Jason Moore]

I like him there.

[Andy Holloway]

Quite a value.

[Mike Wright]

And that's what I mean. If he drops, there's. There aren't a lot of quarterbacks who have the potential to throw for 5,000 yards.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

And Big Ben with this wide receiver core is one of them.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, Is Jameis Winston one of them? Yeah. DeSean Jackson to the offense. He was only a QB one six times last year. Jameis Winston, just over 4,000 yards, 18 picks and 28 touchdowns. But the excitement for Winston, it's through the roof, you guys. Right now you have him at 10, I got him at 16. What is the effect of Desean Jackson when it comes to James Winston's stat lines and what he can do in fantasy?

[Mike Wright]

You know, that desean Jackson will help him on a handful of weeks and hope. The hope is that desean Jackson helps out Mike Evans, which in so facto helps out Jameis Winston. Jameis, he's thrown for over 4,000 yards his first two years, which is great. But talk about someone who's been inconsistent. You have a solid. Yeah, not even solid. A decent start to the year. But then the final six games wasn't a quarterback one a single time, and that included some games against the Saints. Right. And it's. He's. It's very frustrating to have Jameis Winston where you think that, okay, this is a great matchup. I know I can plug in Jameis Winston. But then it doesn't. Doesn't work out because they are a defensive team. They want to run the ball. So if the game script is not going in a way that they are trailing, then Jameis is going to be limited in his attempts.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I mean, I was going to bring that up. We were doing that sleeper bot league where we start two quarterbacks. Jameis was the highest on my rankings, but I chose not to take him there because he's harder to predict. His. His games don't usually come when you think they're going to come, so I ended up bypassing him there. I do worry. I mean, this is a quarterback that has not yet, in his two years finished in six point scoring as a quarterback one yet. There's a lot of projecting forward, but it's a team that does not want to be a pass first team. And that I think limits his upside.

[Andy Holloway]

You guys see that?

[Mike Wright]

Lots of mistakes still. So, I mean, those interceptions have to come down.

[Andy Holloway]

Delvin. Bro. Bro. They fired. They fired all of their orthopedics who like three weeks ago diagnosed him with a bruise.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, he had a broken bone and they're like orthopedists.

[Andy Holloway]

That is. Yeah, I think I said orthopedics.

[Mike Wright]

That's what Jordan Reed has.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Orthotics. Those are orthodontics.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, dang it.

[Mike Wright]

Man, I was messing up all over the place.

[Jason Moore]

Well, someone's got braces. That's all I know. Someone's wearing braces.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, my goodness. Yeah, that was a misdiagnosis. They put braces on him instead of treating the leg and that was a fool. All right. 1415.

[Mike Wright]

Why'd you hire an orthodontist?

[Andy Holloway]

Mark, we are experts when it comes to the medical field. Look no further than the three of us.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Listening. This is your first time. You didn't realize all three of us are medical doctors.

[Andy Holloway]

Now you know.

[Jason Moore]

Now you know for sure.

[Andy Holloway]

14:15. Marcus Mariota, Cam Newton on our quarterback rankings. I have cam Newton at 9. You do not. You two do not. I am very optimistic. He may end up being a my guy with the 9th round ADP. In PPR leagues. I think Cam Newton has every chance of returning to fantasy glory this year. I don't think the rushing yardage is going to change. I don't think his goal line presence is going to change. But he's, he's got a ton of weapons. You guys have talked about the sleep kind of the sleeper nature of Kelvin Benjamin and now Curtis Samuel's back. McCaffrey Funches is a starter right now, but I just is a guy who.

[Mike Wright]

Plays in the NFL.

[Andy Holloway]

And Greg Olson, Greg Olson is an indispensable weapon for Newton. And you know what else? He's got one of the best schedules in football. We've talked a lot about the problems that you have with DEZ Bryant or Alshon Jeffrey being in the east with all those corners, which by the way got even harder now that Darby is a part of the Eagles staff. So now Des adds two more games with Darby. Look, Cam Newton's got a cakewalk of a schedule compared to a lot of other quarterbacks. He's also got a chip on his shoulder. And depending on what you believe about Cam, that's a chip in his shoulder.

[Jason Moore]

That's actually Delvin, bro, who he gets to play against two times a year or doesn't now.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. So that's his leg. Yeah, that's his leg, bro.

[Jason Moore]

Well, no, I'm just chipping about tomato, tomato, trying to, you know, call it back.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. I like Newton. I like Newton a lot more than Mariota. You guys have him very similarly ranked. So talk about what you like and don't like about those two players.

[Jason Moore]

I like Mariota over Newton. The reason why is because both of these players, I think, can provide a lot of value running the ball. But Mariota is young, is still, you know, actively able to run. I think the team is not worried about him yet. The way that because of last year's injuries with Cam Newton, because of Cam Newton's age years in the league, this is usually, Mike, you've talked about this where those rushing, those massive rushing numbers of yardage and attempts tend to fall off for rushing quarterbacks. And I don't think he is a good enough pocket passer to be a superstar, fantasy relevant player. Now Mariota, on the other hand, he doesn't rely as much already on the running game. He has the capabilities. But now you add in weapons that he has not had. I think Eric Decker is going to make a huge difference for him. And now you have two rookie wide receivers who both are, you know, one was the, you know, a top 10 pick in the NFL draft and the others just looked outstanding in preseason. I think he has the weapons and a great offense.

[Andy Holloway]

That's Corey Davis and Taew Taylor.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, Corey Davis and Taewon Taylor. Mariota to me is a much higher upside guy than my rankings indicate. Right now I've got him at 15.

[Andy Holloway]

But if you had to say which of those two players Cam Newton and Marcus Mariota could end up a top five player, wouldn't you give that to Cam Newton?

[Mike Wright]

If you're going top five, then I would say it's Cam.

[Andy Holloway]

Cam's done it four times in the top five.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. And if you're going completely, completely for top five, it will be Cam. But I think Mariota has a better chance to be a quarterback.

[Andy Holloway]

One interesting, he had the super great streak last year from basically weeks five through what, nine, where he finished the top 12 receiver every single week. He had a very nice quarterback. Yeah, that makes sense. He plays quarterback, so that's where he finished. He had a great matchup.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, his good matchup was great for there.

[Andy Holloway]

But great offensive line.

[Mike Wright]

You take Marcus Mariota, who was the most efficient passer inside of the 10, he completed or he had a, threw a touchdown on almost 61% of his passing inside the 10. That's far and away number one. Now if you want to refer to that as an outlier, I can understand how you want to make that argument. But now the team has added Eric Decker, one of the most prolific touchdown scoring wide receivers of the, of the last decade. I mean Eric, people don't realize how good Eric Decker is and how he just, he gets open and he scores touchdowns. That's, that's what Eric Decker does now. Put him on this team. Rashard Matthews broke out, showed what he can do. And the defenses still have to worry about DeMarco Murray and a great offensive line. So I just like Marcus Mariota's potential and he's improving. He's continuing to improve. I don't know that Cam Newton is improving anymore. I think, are we. I think Cam Newton is who he is now in the league and that, that has me leaning to go with Mariota.

[Andy Holloway]

Let's talk about one of the more polarizing picks in fantasy football. At number 16 on our quarterback rankings.

[Jason Moore]

This one's going to upset some people.

[Andy Holloway]

Derek Carr. I think the love of Derek Carr. Okay, Derek Carr is like a top.

[Jason Moore]

10 quarterback and he's young and he's got a great team. How in the world Is he 16th?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's a good question. Voice of Public opinion. I think it comes down to the stats. Does that work for you?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. I love Derek Carr. I love the Oakland Raiders as a fan. I love rooting for him. I think he's a good NFL quarterback. I think he's a winner. I think he is a growing talent. I think he puts in the work. I think all those things are true. But at the end of the day, the numbers haven't justified this kind of top six, seven quarterback that some people believe he will be. They want us to give him that respect. If you look at the top 10 quarterback episode comments that we received, a lot of them had to do with where's Derek Carr? Where's Derek Carr? You're not giving this guy the respect he deserves. I think we're giving him exactly what he deserves. He's a 4028 guy right now. He has a great offensive line that also facilitates a very good red zone offense and a good red zone rushing attack. With Marshawn lynch last year, Latavius Murray, what is the, what is the actual upside of Derek Carr?

[Jason Moore]

I think the upside is tremendous. To be fair, you guys have him at 15, 18, I have him at 8. I do see him as a top 10 quarterback.

[Andy Holloway]

So you really are.

[Jason Moore]

I side more with the voice of public opinion. It makes sense because you are the. Here's a quarterback that was, you know, two years ago he was the 15th ranked quarterback. Last year he was the 10th, you know, ranked quarterback.

[Andy Holloway]

And now these trends continue.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, these trends continue. I mean, eight is clearly there. Well, it would be five.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it would be five. I was like, what?

[Jason Moore]

Well, it was my ranking. You was actually moving them up.

[Andy Holloway]

You should have gone back another year because he was 20th in 2014, then 15th, then 10th.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, come on.

[Andy Holloway]

We already know number one.

[Jason Moore]

So here's. But here's the argument for him, actually.

[Mike Wright]

Zero.

[Jason Moore]

He is a quarterback that has a great offense who has rapport with his receivers. They've added a good tight end to the mix and he has an excellent offensive line. Marshawn lynch could very well help the passing game. And there's a, you know, plenty of reason to see progress and, you know, stepping up to the next level this year. So I think you guys have him a little bit too low now, Mike, you always bring up really solid points. He struggles in the division and of course the team struggles. Big time. Big time. He does. And he plays this year. He's going to play all of his division teams two times each.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Jason Moore]

So that makes a lot of unusable games for Derek Carr. I'm not going to start him against Denver. The Chargers are going to be way, way better this year, I think defensively.

[Andy Holloway]

And obviously very good.

[Jason Moore]

So you know that that is tough. But outside of those games, I think he'll score a lot of touchdowns and.

[Mike Wright]

I'm looking at having him at 18. Yeah, that's. I agree. I do have him low. So I'll go back and I'll evaluate Derek Carr. But that's, that's the problem with Derek Carr is he's borderline unusable for six games. And I know that people are mock drafting and maybe Carr falls a bit, but in fantasy football calculator, he's going right around that seventh round. And what's nice about fantasy football calculator is that gives you a much better handle on home leagues which predominantly that's what people are playing in. So that's, that's the caution I wanted to get out there about Derek Carr is that he is likely to be overdrafted in your league. Now if he falls to be one of those late round quarterback picks, then I'm fine, I'm fine going with Derek Carr because when he's in a good matchup, he puts a point.

[Andy Holloway]

Send in the car.

[Mike Wright]

That's what you were frantically looking for, sending the cat.

[Andy Holloway]

Took me a while to find it. Going back a couple years, we got it.

[Mike Wright]

But so 18 is too low. He's probably going to get bumped up from there, but he's not going to if he's a quarterback one at all. It's a fringe quarterback one for me and it's. That's someone. I'm not paying a high draft price.

[Jason Moore]

Right. I will agree he is probably overdrafted right now.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it's pretty, you know, 609, 701.

[Jason Moore]

Sometimes when a guy is overdrafted, we tend to make the fact that he is being overdrafted bump him down even further in our rankings because of, I think the bust potential of the value you're spending at the draft. We want to kind of warn people, hey, maybe don't reach for him around his adp. So we bump him back a little bit too much.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's talk about three quarterbacks here at 17, 18, 19. That all may give you pause when sliding them into your lineup that there may be some grimaces that take place. Tyrod Taylor, Carson Palmer and Eli Manning, in that order. Some people might be surprised that Tyrod's still there at 17 despite losing Sammy Watkins. But his dependency on Sammy Watkins, you know, Watkins has been hurt.

[Jason Moore]

He's had plenty of games without Sammy Watkins. This is not a small sample size where you go I wonder how he'll be plenty of games and his total points have been about the same with them as they have been without him. They've come in a different format.

[Andy Holloway]

He runs a ton.

[Mike Wright]

580 rushing.

[Andy Holloway]

Fourth quarter too. When the game is on the line, when this team is down, he runs the ball more often and that gives you a healthy fantasy baseline even in games that look like they aren't going the right direction. So many times Tyra Taylor would come out the line didn't look good, you'd get to the fourth quarter and suddenly he, he pulled the Tim Tebow of.

[Mike Wright]

Days in bowl and just for to take a look at his rushing yards. So 580 rushing yards last year. That's first. Number two was Colin Kaepernick who doesn't currently have a job. Number three was Aaron Rodgers with 369 yards. So Tyrod has a 300 yard gap over the who could be the number two rusher this year. I mean I know Cam is right there as well but in Russell Wilson. But Tyrod when it comes to rushing quarterbacks which in a four point league is going to help out a little bit more. It's. He's usable, he's a very, he's usable candidate as a late round quarterback.

[Jason Moore]

And I would say unlike Russell Wilson, his rushing production usually translates into rushing touchdowns.

[Mike Wright]

Right. And his rushing production goes up when Sammy Watkins was off the field.

[Andy Holloway]

It's one of my favorite targets. If you're in, you know, if you already have Andrew Luck on your roster and you want somebody in the 12th, 13th round starts the season against the Eagles, Ravens and Lions. I think he's a player that you could roll out there. Week one, week two if you have to. If Andrew Luck does miss some time and you can get a very solid baseline of production for him. I mean there are other targets in that category as well but Tyrod very reliable on the rushing yardage and that just gives you that nice baseline. Let's go ahead and you know we talked about Jaron Brown, John Brown, the receiving core in Arizona. Carson Palmer's at number 18.

[Mike Wright]

Do you feel like if Jaron Brown is the two and John Brown is not a factor, does Carson Palmer take take a hit?

[Jason Moore]

Yes, he does.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah he does. And last year his touchdown percentage came crashing back to the norm after his kind of outlier season two years ago.

[Jason Moore]

David Johnson.

[Andy Holloway]

But you know David Johnson's Going to catch, catch the ball. He's going to have 800 plus yards through the air most likely, and that helps Palmer. Fitzgerald will be a chain mover, but without Michael Floyd and without John Brown, you're looking at J.J. nelson and you're looking at Jaron Brown to provide touchdowns through the air. And I don't think that's reliable enough to say I really want Carson Palmer in there every week. He's a late round target in the 13th round. But the story isn't, you know, there's nothing that tells me this is going to be a lot better than last year.

[Jason Moore]

I agree.

[Mike Wright]

Three of the last five weeks he was a top 10 quarterback or three of the last six.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, much better second half and we've talked about that too. He got the ball out of his hands much quicker. They, they seem to try to put him in a position where that line and the lineage.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I was going to bring up the offensive line. That's, that's what it will be for Carson Palmer because this offense generally for Bruce Arians, he likes to, to run the ball and then go deep. And if they can't protect Carson Palmer much like they protected him last year, then it's troubles all over again.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, Arians is a, is the nice kind of potential for Palmer. You know, Arians does like to take shots downfield. That's. His offense is not going to change. It's just whether or not you get 16, 18 interceptions from Palmer because he doesn't have time in the pocket or he hits on some of Those throws to J.J. nelson.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I mean when I look at Carson Palmer and Eli Manning, they're both very similar to me. They're guys who have had top production for fantasy. Both had pretty poor years last year. Two years ago, top 10 quarterbacks last year disappointed you. This year, what's going to happen. And when I look at those two teams, I see the Arizona Cardinals with all my love for Geron Brown, he is a downgrade over a healthy John Brown. And so I see a receiving core that might be getting worse for Arizona. Whereas on the other side, Eli Manning has added Brandon Marshall, Sterling Shepard is healthy. They've had Evan Ingram. That is a receiving core that run better. So I'm starting to lean right now. If I was in the draft and I'm looking at those two players, I might actually be leaning for the first time towards Eli who could get it done. I do still worry that they want to be a defensive team and they have a great defense so it might not need to air it out, but thankfully, they can't run the ball at all.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, 2014 and 2015, he averaged about 100 attempts in the red zone and about 45 attempts inside the 10. Last year, only 67 attempts in the red zone and 29 attempts inside the 10. I mean, I would expect that to change. Yeah, I would expect things to return to the norm. They had the. The. The passing offense was Beckham, and he. When everything is on Odell Beckham, yes, he'll be a fine fantasy wide receiver, but for the team, the offense is going to struggle. They struggled to get first downs, and now you have legitimate. You have Brandon Marshall on the other side who can really help out on third downs.

[Andy Holloway]

I want. I really want Brandon Marshall as my wide receiver, too, in a ton of my leagues so that I can go get running backs early and just fall back on Marshall. Yeah, I just. I love the. Jason brought it up on the show. I mean, look, they throw in the red zone. They cannot run the ball. So, guys, I'm going to give you 20 through 24 here at the quarterback position. Pick out somebody you want to talk about. And I do want to get into the mailbag. Answer some listener questions today. So Blake Bortles comes in at number 20. Carson Wentz, 21. Sam Bradford at 22. And wouldn't you know, Jay Cutler at 23.

[Mike Wright]

There he is.

[Andy Holloway]

And Joe Flacco at 24. So five names there. That is Bortles, Wentz, Bradford, Cutler, and Flacco.

[Mike Wright]

I'll just comment on Bortles really quick. We call him the emergency parachute because you can get him for free. He's been a quarterback, won the last.

[Andy Holloway]

Always open.

[Mike Wright]

The last few years. It doesn't always open. And this year he was better. Once Gus Bradley was fired, he was actually better because they. The coaching improved. Shocking, I know. But. But will Blake Bortles have his.

[Andy Holloway]

How dare you?

[Mike Wright]

Well, Blake Bortles have his job. Bradley in week seven.

[Jason Moore]

You guys saw the video of Alan Robinson in practice.

[Mike Wright]

I hear about it. I didn't watch it, But Alan Robinson.

[Jason Moore]

Is clearly frustrated with Blake Borles. He throws this ball that's just out of bounds, and he, you know, he doesn't realize someone's recording him right next.

[Andy Holloway]

You know, I did not see this video.

[Jason Moore]

Right. Right next to where the ball went out of bounds. He turns around and say, dude, keep the ball in bounds. And with a couple choice words after that. So I want to talk about Carson Wentz. He's a guy. When I look at these Blake Bortles Okay, a security blanket, a parachute that might or might not open, whatever. But whatever.

[Mike Wright]

If your emergency parachute may not open, you was whatever.

[Jason Moore]

Slat. I'm just saying not quick, not exciting. I don't really look forward to having a parachute that might or might not open.

[Mike Wright]

Now, Carson maybe like silver wearing plates like a cartoon.

[Jason Moore]

But Carson Wentz to me has at least the potential to have that second year Blake Bortles step forward. Right? Blake Bortles had the, you know, he was a bad rookie. Then the next year, all of a sudden Blake Borles caught hot fire and was, you know, the fourth quarterback fire in a can. He was the fourth best quarterback.

[Mike Wright]

It took forever, forever for people to buy into what Blake Bortles was doing. It was, it was a joke every week of like, oh, look, Blake Bortles did it again. Oh, maybe we should pick up and play Blake Bortles.

[Jason Moore]

So that, yeah. And that was the year Alan Robinson had his massive breakout. Alan Hearns looked the wide receiving core has been upgraded for Carson Wentz. So if Carson Wentz comes out and you know is very productive, I'm going to be picking him up or, you know, if you drafted him in say a two quarterback league, not dropping him. And I think that there's a good chance that he takes that sophomore year forward.

[Andy Holloway]

I am, I am on board entirely with you. He was part of my bold prediction article was Carson Wentz is going to have a run of games where I think he's inside that top eight because I think the weapons, Alshon, Jeffrey, Mack, Hollins, Aguilar in the slot, Pumphrey and Sprouls out of the backfield and Tory and Zach Ertz, who will we all.

[Mike Wright]

Love, will boost his value on a couple games.

[Andy Holloway]

Absolutely. All right, let's go ahead and hop into the mailbag. You ready, Mike? You got them pipes primed?

[Mike Wright]

Bumblebee.

[Jason Moore]

Bumblebee. Mailbag. Mailbag. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, man. I'm not jumping out of a plane with Blake Bortles. I'm not gonna do it.

[Mike Wright]

Look, we know you don't jump out of a plane with Blake Bortles or Wiley E. Coyote.

[Andy Holloway]

Right? Those are the two. Look, if you have a question for the podcast, send them to us. Go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com. click submit a question. You can also dial our voicemail hotline. We'd love to hear from you. 302464TFFB going to jump right into a voicemail question here to kick things off in the mailbag. Hey, guys, I'm in a half point PPR league where David Johnson, Zeke and Le'Veon Bell are all being kept. I'm drafting first overall and have Martavis Bryant as a keeper. What I want to know is Antonio Brown still an obvious first choice or does that stack with Martavis scare you? With Big Ben's inconsistency on the road, perhaps I should go Julio or Odell instead. Thanks. I think that's a great question because you are in a situation where in a vacuum without Martavis, you're taking Antonio Brown. If it's me, I'm hedging. I'm not drafting to. My first two guys are not going to both be Steelers. Despite all the possibilities there. I think I would go. If I wanted to go wide receiver, I'd probably go Julio and if I didn't, I strongly consider Lashawn McCoy.

[Mike Wright]

I would. If I'm just picking out of those guys, I'm still going to take Antonio Brown. I think that.

[Andy Holloway]

What do you say, Jason?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I think I lean towards Antonio Brown as well. I totally get the argument, but since it was a keeper situation, you probably had really good value on Martavis Bryant which is why you have him capped on your roster. I don't think you're going to be disappointed when you grab Antonio Brown.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. All right, let's jump into another voicemail question here. Hey fellas, this is Jeff from Jersey. I got the ultimate draft kit. It's amazing. Great job. Quick question on quarterbacks. I know you guys like to draft quarterbacks late. In my league it's a 10 team half point PPR. That's all we got.

[Jason Moore]

Let me answer the question for him.

[Mike Wright]

My name is Jeff.

[Andy Holloway]

Why don't you finish the question and then answer the question.

[Jason Moore]

It's a half point ppr but we get six points per quarterback touchdown. So should I bump up the quarterbacks because of that? That's the usual question we get. If that's the question, what do you do? No, in fact, I would say you can bump quarterbacks down even further in a 10 team league. You'll have so many quality. I'm talking really good choice matchups. You'll find Tyrod Taylor on the waivers every single week and you could play him against a team that is a is a predictable matchup where Tyrod Taylor is going to have a top three week and you got him off waivers. That's if you don't land, you know, one of those guys who has the potential like an Andy Dalton or Matthew Stafford super late in the draft that just ends up as a top five.

[Mike Wright]

Quarterback all year, when I'm in a 10 or eight team. So talking small league, I frequently get the question of quarterback, tight end. Do I go in early on them because it's a smaller league, it's no for quarterback. But if I'm in an 8 or 10 team, I play more aggressive with trying to get Gronk. So like the second round, I'm perfectly fine taking Gronk there.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, keeper league. Pickle. That's the name of this question from Dalzy and Melbourne.

[Mike Wright]

Disgusting.

[Jason Moore]

Delicious.

[Andy Holloway]

Melbourne, Australia.

[Mike Wright]

No pickles.

[Jason Moore]

Bonjour. Oh, what?

[Mike Wright]

Oh, yeah, bonjour.

[Andy Holloway]

You don't like pickles, though?

[Mike Wright]

Well, because no one should.

[Andy Holloway]

Pickles are amazing.

[Jason Moore]

Good pickles are great.

[Andy Holloway]

Bad pickles.

[Jason Moore]

Bad pickles are. You know. Get out of here with that.

[Mike Wright]

No, I mean, you're close. Bad pickles are bad. Great pickles are bad.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, we're near the answer. All right, bonjourno, boys, in a full point ppr, would you keep Jordan Reed Time Montgomery or Jordan Howard?

[Jason Moore]

All three will cost a 14th round pick.

[Mike Wright]

Howard.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it's Jordan Howard.

[Andy Holloway]

Absolutely easy. He also says cheers. You guys are legends.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, stop it. You're a legend. Australia, everyone's heard of it.

[Andy Holloway]

Did you just give credit to Australia?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

As a whole.

[Jason Moore]

Legendary continent.

[Andy Holloway]

Here's a little story for you.

[Jason Moore]

That's a continent.

[Andy Holloway]

Here's a little story to highlight our intelligence. We are keynoting at the fantasy sports show. Oh, we're bringing this up in Canada and this takes place next week. Okay.

[Jason Moore]

Get your tickets. If you're.

[Andy Holloway]

Get your tickets and if you. Hey, listen, if you're interested in going, we can hook you up with a ticket. We've got some a deal on tickets, so just hit us up on Twitter. We'll, we'll find a way to get you to the fantasy sports Show.

[Jason Moore]

It's the FantasySportShow.com so long as you have one thing.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Turns out Canada is not part of the United States and because of that you need a passport.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, we knew it wasn't part of.

[Mike Wright]

The U.S. that's not the part of.

[Jason Moore]

The U.S. step one. But if you Google, do you need a passport to go to Canada? Google tells you no.

[Andy Holloway]

This was the equivalent of typing in an address in the Google navigation search and being driven off a cliff somewhere. We just six months ago, when we agreed to this, six months ago, we did a cursory Google. That's the level of intelligence that was coming out of this studio. And turns out you do need a passport and we found this out yesterday and there are only four facilities in the entire United States that can get you one fast enough and luckily we had one in Tucson, Arizona. So Mike and myself and Brooks had to drive down to Tucson for three hour drive yesterday. People wanted to know why the show came out early. It's because we had to record it late the night before because we had to do this day trip to Tucson to get a passport. But I'm happy to report we will be at the fantasy sports show.

[Mike Wright]

We did it, America.

[Andy Holloway]

We did it.

[Jason Moore]

So you better be there if you're up near Toronto.

[Andy Holloway]

We paid the iron price for our mistake, but make sure you got a passport. We're going to be there.

[Mike Wright]

Foot clam, want to remind you about the NFL game pass. Every throw, every catch, every fourth and inches, whatever your favorite game is, NFL game pass has got it. Better yet, they've got you covered for this year's action too. That includes live out of market preseason games, full game replays, condensed games with all the action packed into 45 minutes. If it's NFL football and it happened, NFL Game Pass has got it. So kick off the 2017 season with a free NFL Game Pass trial. Sign up now. This is the important part. Foot Clan. Sign up [e-mail] fantasy footballers.

[Jason Moore]

Not the fantasy, just fantasy footballers.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, I do want to give you a lay of the land the rest of this week. Tomorrow we're going to jump into the tight ends. We're going to get through all the tight ends we can tomorrow on the show. Our ranking shows wrap up tomorrow. Friday. Very excited about this episode. Mark it on your calendars. We've got a tips and tricks episode on Friday. The top 10 tips and tricks for fantasy football. These are the things the show is built, it's built on because you're all in a different. You're all in different leagues. We don't play in the same leagues with you. You got different scoring settings. You got different people. You play with different league sizes. It's more than just breaking down the rankings. It's more than just breaking down the stats. It's more than reading you an Excel sheet. It's about learning the ins and outs of how to play fantasy football week to week. You don't just win it at your draft. You don't just win it on the waiver wire. It's a bunch of little. It's the thousand cuts thing. Right. But in a good way.

[Mike Wright]

Let's go with like the thousand planks to build a house.

[Andy Holloway]

Sure.

[Jason Moore]

I'll go with like top tips and tricks to win your fantasy football.

[Andy Holloway]

That's what it is. That's what it is. So that's Friday's episode. Very excited to get into that. So keep it right here. Subscribe on itunes and check out the website. There's a huge forum at the website Fantasy Football Players. It's filling up tons of questions, people talking, joining leagues. That's over atthe fantasy footballhouse.com if you go over to the forums and hang out with us, it's always a good time. So make sure you tune in and we will be back tomorrow. Thanks for listening.

[Mike Wright]

There will be a best ball draft today.

[Jason Moore]

Play Draft.

[Mike Wright]

Get your account ready. Play draft.com ballers it's supposed to be yesterday but I was in Tucson so it didn't happen. Goodbye.

[Jason Moore]

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 @The FF Ballers.