Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Breakouts, Arian Foster, FNTSY Network's Chris Meaney, News, Mailbag

Summary

Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Detailed Summary

Hosts:

• Andy Holloway
• Jason Moore
• Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright

Release Date: August 6, 2015

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1. Arian Foster's Injury and Its Fantasy Impact

The episode opens with a somber discussion about Arian Foster's unexpected injury. Mike Wright expresses his disappointment, stating at [00:31], "What is going on, everybody? It is Thursday, August 6th, and I'm depressed." The trio reflects on their decision to draft Foster, emphasizing their confidence in his upside despite the injury concerns.

At [02:03], Andy Holloway defends their strategy:

"Here's why you're not wrong, because when you make the pick for Foster, that is upside. You're not being safe. You're putting yourself out there and you're trying to win."

The conversation delves into the implications of Foster's surgery to reattach his groin muscle, anticipated at [08:05], where Mike shares:

"He is out to go. He is out for eight games and then they have a bye week. And so earliest he could be back is week 10."

The hosts discuss Foster's potential rankings, projecting him as a late-round pick (RB10-RB50) due to his injury status and the uncertainty surrounding his return.

2. League News and Player Updates

The hosts provide updates on various NFL players:

• Martavis Bryant: Confirmed to be behind Antonio Brown on the Steelers' depth chart, aligning with previous predictions about Marcus Wheaton's initial standing. [09:01]

• LaShawn McCoy and Others: LaShawn McCoy is held out due to toe soreness, while Anthony Dixon and Rashad Perryman face their own injury setbacks. Mike notes at [10:09]:

  "Damian Williams is the leader in the backfield to be the number two guy behind Lamar Miller."

• Zach Ertz: Highlighted as a significant addition to the Eagles, yet concerning due to his limited participation with the second-team offense. Jason Moore adjusts his rankings, expressing caution about Ertz's snap rates. [11:05]

• Michael Floyd: Discussed his injury (a finger dislocation) and the potential for a delayed return, which could impact his draft value. [11:38]

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3. Interview with Chris Meaney from Fantasy Sports Network on Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS)

Introduction of Guest: Chris Meaney joins the podcast to shed light on Daily Fantasy Sports, particularly focusing on FanDuel.

DFS Basics: Chris explains the operational framework of DFS, emphasizing roster construction within a salary cap. At [14:32], he outlines:

"You need two running backs, you need three wide receivers, you need a tight end, a kicker, and a defense. The average that you can spend on each position is about $6,000 per guy."

Strategies for Different Contests:

• Guaranteed Prize Pool Tournaments (GPPs): Large field contests where contrarian picks and high-upside players like Ryan Fitzpatrick can differentiate lineups. [18:35]

• Cash Games (50/50s and Head-to-Heads): Focus on safer, high-floor players to ensure top 50% finishes, such as Julio Jones for his consistent targets. [19:00]

Translating Season-Long Strategies to DFS: Chris emphasizes the importance of exploiting weekly matchups and Vegas over/under metrics to maximize DFS performance. [21:18]

Notable Quote:

"Matchups are key. If you look at the over/under and expect a high-scoring game, you can stack players like Murray on the ground if Atlanta is giving up yards after the catch." – Chris Meaney [22:00]

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4. Breakout Candidates Analysis

The hosts identify and debate several players poised to exceed expectations:

a. Allen Robinson vs. Jarvis Landry

Andy Holloway champions Allen Robinson as a "Target Monster," citing his preseason performance and improved team dynamics. In contrast, Jarvis Landry is seen as a short-yardage, high-catch target but lacks the deep threat potential.

Notable Debate: Mike questions Robinson's touchdown potential compared to Landry, leading to a robust discussion on each player's offensive role and fantasy viability. [28:07]

b. Jordan Matthews

Both Andy and Jason project significant improvements for Matthews, anticipating:

• Jason's Projection: 90 receptions, 1,150 yards, and nine touchdowns.

Jason asserts:

"He is the perfect type of guy that I want because in the fourth round, if he underperforms, his floor is still very high." [31:16]

c. Tyler Ifert and Travis Kelce

The discussion shifts to tight ends, with emphasis on Travis Kelce's potential despite a modest previous season. The hosts highlight his role in the Chiefs' offense and David Gregory's development following injuries.

Notable Insight:

"Travis Kelce is the best run-blocking tight end in football. He's not leaving the field. He's going to be a Jason Witten type guy where he's there 90-plus percent of snaps." – Andy Holloway [35:11]

d. Ruben Randle vs. Victor Cruz

Ruben Randle is lauded as an undervalued receiver with potential for increased touchdowns and yardage. Conversely, Victor Cruz is deemed overrated, prompting the hosts to favor drafting Randle in later rounds.

Notable Exchange: Mike asserts, "You can draft him very late, you're not drafting him to be a starter," while Jason supports Randle's value over Cruz. [43:26]

e. Sam Bradford and Frank Gore

Sam Bradford is discussed as a potential breakout quarterback due to his move to the Eagles' offense under Chip Kelly. Frank Gore is praised for his consistency and potential resurgence in Indianapolis.

Notable Quotes:

• Jason on Bradford:

  "He is going to have a large role in the Eagles' offense, and his deep ball accuracy is phenomenal." [47:29]

• Mike on Frank Gore:

  "Frank Gore is in the same mold as Marshawn Lynch. He is not dead until he's dead." [55:00]

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5. Mailbag and Listener Questions

The hosts address several listener inquiries, focusing on preseason performance and information overload:

a. Preseason Impact on Rankings

Listeners ask how much preseason performance should influence fantasy rankings. Mike emphasizes that while preseason stats can be misleading, they are useful for understanding offensive roles and game plans.

Advice Given:

"Trust your eyes and trust your eyes against first-string defense. Don’t be shocked when a third-string guy is crushing third-string defense." – Andy Holloway [52:08]

b. Ingestion of Fantasy Information

Patrick from Iowa questions whether it's possible to consume too much fantasy information. Jason reassures that as long as the sources are reliable, absorbing extensive insights is beneficial.

Jason's Response:

"You can never ingest too much fantasy football, Patrick." [53:18]

c. Other Listener Comments

A playful exchange occurs when a listener urges the hosts to trust in veterans like Frank Gore, with the trio responding humorously about beach invaders and player ages. [54:51]

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6. Conclusion

The episode wraps up with a reinforcement of breakout candidates and a humorous nod to ongoing draft strategies. The hosts remind listeners to follow them on various platforms and encourage engagement through their website.

Final Remarks:

"Look out for downtown John Brown." – Andy Holloway [58:05]

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Mike Wright on Feeling Down Over Foster's Injury:

  "[00:31] What is going on, everybody? It is Thursday, August 6th, and I'm depressed."

• Andy Holloway on Drafting Foster for Upside:

  "[02:03] Here's why you're not wrong, because when you make the pick for Foster, that is upside."

• Chris Meaney on DFS Lineup Construction:

  "[14:32] You need two running backs, you need three wide receivers, you need a tight end, a kicker, and a defense."

• Jason Moore on Jordan Matthews' Breakout Potential:

  "[31:16] He is the perfect type of guy that I want because in the fourth round, if he underperforms, his floor is still very high."

• Mike Wright on Frank Gore's Consistency:

  "[55:00] Frank Gore is in the same mold as Marshawn Lynch. He is not dead until he's dead."

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Final Thoughts

This episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast offers a comprehensive analysis of the fantasy landscape as of August 2015. From the emotional impact of Arian Foster's injury to strategic insights on Daily Fantasy Sports, breakout candidates, and listener engagement, the hosts provide valuable content for both novice and seasoned fantasy football enthusiasts. Notably, their balanced approach in evaluating player potentials and cautious optimism in drafting strategies underscore their expertise and passion for the game.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

Hey, Foot Clan. Before we start today's show, we want to let you know that it is brought to you by Audible. You can head over to audible.comballers and get a free audiobook download. How much was that? $1. $2. No. Free head over to audible.com ballers.

[Jason Moore]

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike.

[Mike Wright]

R. All right, what is going on, everybody? It is Thursday, August 6th, and I'm depressed.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yeah, it's like, what is the. Where's the lack of confidence for the date? But then I remembered.

[Mike Wright]

I. I almost didn't even show up today.

[Jason Moore]

We. We cut down the noose when we found him in the closet.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, I am so sad right now.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, you burned bright. Ar you crazy diamond?

[Mike Wright]

No. I loved you like a son, like a friend, like a brother, and like a nomuro uno, like my number one running back. And you really tore the groin off the bone on this one. I. I don't know what to say, guys. I'm. I'm down.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, you're a little sad. You had high expectations for Arian this year. How much of that was because you pegged him in that undrafted rookie season? And is any of that from way back in the day when you.

[Mike Wright]

Arian Foster, missed three games last year? He ran for 1250 yards, eight touchdowns at a 4.8 clip. That's why he was my number one, and he had every opportunity there. And you know what? Was I just. Was I wrong about Arian Foster? I mean, yes is the answer. I guess yes is the answer. But was I wrong?

[Andy Holloway]

Like, here's. Here's why you were not wrong. You know, here's why you're not wrong, because when you making the pick for Foster, that isn't. That's upside. You're not being safe. You're not putting on your winter jacket and your gloves and saying, oh, it's so cold that your. Your having stones and you're getting out. You're putting yourself out there and you're trying to win. If you play safe, you can have fun getting in fourth place.

[Jason Moore]

Right? That's what I was just gonna say. You can. You can.

[Andy Holloway]

That's the playoffs.

[Chris Meaney]

Who.

[Andy Holloway]

I got fourth place, and nobody cares. You either win or you don't.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, well, welcome to the show. This is not just the Arian Foster Memorial Hour. This is the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. I am depressed. Andy Holloway joined by Mike the fantasy Hitman. Right? Hello, Jason Moore.

[Jason Moore]

I'm feeling good.

[Mike Wright]

Hey, we have a great show for you today. We've got some awesome DFS content. If you are just getting involved in like fanduel and daily fantasy sports, we brought in Chris Meaney of the Fantasy Sports Network. He hosts a daily fanduel show. We bring him in for a few minutes just to talk about some of the basics of daily fantasy, some of the his strategies that go about building a roster. If you're going to play daily fantasy this year, so that's going to be great. We're bringing you some breakouts, we're bringing you some news and notes on today's show and we're going to answer some listener questions as well. If you want to follow the show, you can do so on Twitter the FFballers. You can also go to our website, the fantasy footballers.com or on Facebook, facebook.com thefantasyfootballers we're also on YouTube. You can check out our YouTube channel. We're everywhere you want to be. Wait a second, that's Visa. Let's go ahead and read a review from our listeners before we get the show going.

[Jason Moore]

Reviewasaurus Rex this one comes in from Like a King. He or she says, these guys work their butts off giving some insightful perspective on fantasy football. They seriously answer all the questions they can. And that, my friends, is passion. Give these guys a try on work ethic alone. They deserve it. Plus they're pretty funny. Thanks. Like a King. We really do try to answer every question that comes in. It would be impossible to do so, but we do our best.

[Mike Wright]

You know how many questions came in today that were mostly just like, I'm sorry Andy.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I'm not kidding.

[Mike Wright]

There were a bunch that were not questions at all. It was just like, hey, I'm really praying for you.

[Jason Moore]

Well, thank you, Foot Clan. Thank you for your reviews. We really appreciate it. If you like the show and enjoy it, please hop on itunes or whatever program you use to listen to our show and give us a five star review. We might read it in our review of Source Rex.

[Andy Holloway]

So good thing for you Andy though is the season hasn't started. So you were not talking about Jamar Charles week two.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, you know what's funny?

[Andy Holloway]

There's time to recoup and redo some stuff.

[Mike Wright]

Well, the bad irony for this show is that we, we had just drafted Arian Foster in the mock draft on Tuesday's show and there were people that were responding to that and going, did you guys draft him after the injury? And I'm like, no.

[Andy Holloway]

I got my, my buddy text me. He's like Sweet draft, bro. Worst timing ever.

[Mike Wright]

Don't worry, I heard about it every 30 seconds for the entirety of the day. So quick question for the day. We're going to stay in the same vein. Who do you draft in Houston? Because we've got a problem.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean. You mean running back? Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Chris. Yeah. Because the answer is DeAndre Hopkins.

[Mike Wright]

Well, okay, let me. I'm saying this because everybody freaked out Alfred Blue and I went on Twitter and I said it right away. Don't go crazy for Alpha Blue.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, you did. And I think I'm with you.

[Mike Wright]

Do you agree with me?

[Jason Moore]

I do agree. I think Chris Polk is a better option for three reasons. One, the reports coming out are that he is probably going to be the starter despite everybody thinking it's going to be Blue. So that's. That's questionable. He could be at least. Right. We don't know yet. The second reason is because his average draft position is far lower. I couldn't even find a mock where he's been going. Granted, you know, Arian hasn't been out very long. Right. But you're going. He's definitely going to be drafted after Alfred Blue. And so if you don't know who's going to blow up, I would rather grab the later flyer and keep getting higher, better picks earlier in the draft.

[Andy Holloway]

I'll tell you, Mike, at this point for me it's still Alfred Blue. He.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, so where then if it's Alfred.

[Andy Holloway]

Blue, if I'm going to get the.

[Mike Wright]

Best of the three, where in a redraft is he behind Chris Ivory?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Is he behind the bottom of Doug Martin?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

He's the bottom of the barrel of.

[Andy Holloway]

Potential starters and he, he would be a two down back at most. As we know that they're looking at Pierre Thomas. Then we heard the contract's not going to go through. Now we're hearing maybe Pierre Thomas could still end up there.

[Mike Wright]

So they're clearly looking other names too, right? Joe McKnight, they're looking for a passing.

[Andy Holloway]

Downs back because Alpha Blue can't do that. But his Alpha Blue last year was given the chance and he really underperformed. We were looking at it with a 3.1.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, that was my third reason. Alfred Blue is just not going to get it done. So if he becomes the starter and has the opportunity, I don't think he's going to be worth much. So I'd rather take a fly and.

[Andy Holloway]

That'S on about 150 carries.

[Mike Wright]

So don't. So don't panic. Draft Alfred Blue. If you were thinking about Arian Foster, right? We like Darian Foster. I like Darian Foster because he's Aaron Foster, because he averaged 4.8 a carry that exact same offense. Alpha blue average, 3.1.

[Andy Holloway]

And for those who are asking about what does this do to Hopkins? I mean, we have a very, very small sample size from last year because it was only three games that Foster was in and his numbers were pretty much the exact same thing. That fantasy points total was down about two points, but he was still in double digits.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, so I pretty much agree with you guys. The answer to the quick question to me is blue might be at the top of the chart, but he's not. He's going to be part of a committee. They might bring somebody else in. You don't know enough yet. Wait and see. Don't freak out. Don't draft too fast. So let's get into some more news.

[Jason Moore]

News and notes from around the league.

[Mike Wright]

I will take a quick moment to give the official news blurb on Arian Foster. He had surgery or is going to have surgery on Friday to reattach the groin muscle to the bone.

[Andy Holloway]

And that's no big deal.

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

So just staple it back on there.

[Mike Wright]

He is out to go. He is for eight games and then they have a bye week. And so earliest he could be back is week 10.

[Andy Holloway]

No, that has not happened yet. But if they put him on IR designated to return, the rules are he must sit out six weeks and then he can practice for two more.

[Mike Wright]

Well, you want to water bet me whether he's going on ir.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm just saying they haven't done that officially yet, but if they do that, he will be back.

[Jason Moore]

And keep in mind week 10, keep in mind that's half of the real season, but that's far more than half of the fantasy season because those last few weeks are playoffs already.

[Andy Holloway]

So if they do that, where are you going to draft Foster?

[Jason Moore]

Late.

[Mike Wright]

Super late. I mean he'll be like RB10, RB50, RB45.

[Andy Holloway]

So like 9th round. Would you take Foster and carry him the whole season?

[Mike Wright]

If I have an IR spot in my league.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, if you have them, but then, then you could take him in the sixth round and put him on your IR spot.

[Jason Moore]

But you're getting up a six round value.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I understand that. But if you have to carry him, let's say you, you have to wax.

[Mike Wright]

An entire bench spot ninth or tenth round. Good. Updating a previous Steelers item on Martavis Bryant. He is officially listed behind Antonio Brown on the Steelers depth Chart confirming what we said about Marcus Wheaton last week, at least initially. So we'll have to see what becomes of that. I think his route running and his, you know, Wheaton's establishment on that team for an extra year probably has got him ahead.

[Jason Moore]

The one thing that is okay on that, they don't run very many two wide receiver sets. They're almost always in three wide receiver sets. Just throwing that out.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, they just, yeah, a couple more guys that are banged up. LaShawn McCoy has been held out of a few drills due to toe soreness. I also read Anthony Dixon's pretty much out for a long time on that. On that running back core, the Ravens Rashad Perryman is expected to miss at least another couple days. Now the good news I guess for him would be that Marlon Brown is out for a while.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

So there's, there's not a lot of options of wide receiver there. Damian Williams is the leader in the, in the backfield to be the number two guy behind Lamar Miller. We also talked about that a little on the last show, but J A Jay has not been showing up in terms of pass protection and really setting himself apart. So don't draft him over Williams until you have a reason. Yeah, just, just wait.

[Andy Holloway]

But that's, that's really disappointing for, for the news. That was the draft Nick community of how high people were on a Jay and then they watched him tumble to the fifth round. It was, oh, it's going to be okay. The news right now is not good.

[Jason Moore]

That's great for Lamar Miller though.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. And I'll close out the news right here with what I think is very significant. Zach Ertz has not run with the ones yet. He has been with the second team offense all off season. So he's a really good example of somebody that.

[Jason Moore]

Jason, you said I've been very high on him in this offseason. But this is a perfect example here where when you're predicting before the offseason you have to then stay with your eyes wide open. And the reason we liked Ertz was because he only played in 50% of the snaps last year and I expected that to go up if he is now practicing exclusively with the second team. I'm not confident that he's going to go to 80% of his snaps on the field, so I'm definitely moving him down a little bit in my rankings but I'm going to keep watching him especially in the preseason, things like that. And I think there's one more piece of news we have to talk About.

[Mike Wright]

Absolutely, yeah. Michael Floyd of the Cardinals has. Is it a dislocation? Is that what it is?

[Andy Holloway]

Initially they said he broke three fingers and it was going to be six weeks. And then Adam Schefter tweeted out it was only a dislocation and that's a three to four week.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So he is going to miss some time. If you want to look at glass half full, you're talking about John Brown.

[Andy Holloway]

You know what time it is.

[Mike Wright]

Is it John Brown time?

[Andy Holloway]

It's time to go downtown with John Brown.

[Mike Wright]

Hey, John Brown was a flash last year. Brand new rookie coming on the scene. Despite the bad quarterback play, despite having injuries in Arizona, he still came in and he definitely flashed. He showed value at that draft pick. So is he. Is this time good for him?

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, it is tremendous for him. The. Before the OTAs, during OTAs, John Brown. For us in Arizona, John Brown was the talk of the OTAs where players were very impressed with him. He put on a good amount of muscle, which was kind of his problem is he was just a little bit too small. But now he, with his new added weight and he's still fast. Do you know who John could hold the job?

[Jason Moore]

Do you know who he's living with?

[Andy Holloway]

Is he living with Palmer?

[Jason Moore]

He is living with Carson Palmer.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I love it.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

So.

[Mike Wright]

So bad news for Michael Floyd. I still think if he's back before the season, he's going to make. He was so much better with Palmer last year than without. So this is make or break for.

[Andy Holloway]

Michael Floyd, though, and Michael Floyd is a tremendous blocker. Tremendous.

[Jason Moore]

Make or dislocate, Andy. It wasn't broken.

[Mike Wright]

That's true. All right, we're gonna take a few minutes and talk a little bit of FanDuel and DFS. Remember, if you are looking to sign up for FanDuel this year, play some daily fantasy football, you want to go to FanDuel.com and sign up with the promo code ballers. Because you get ballers. Yes. You get up to $200 when you do that. So we're going to take a minute right now to talk to Chris Meaney of the Fantasy Sports Network.

[Jason Moore]

You talking to me?

[Andy Holloway]

The Fantasy are now joined by Chris Meaney, a DFS expert from the Fantasy Sports Network. Why don't you say hello to the foot clan, Chris?

[Chris Meaney]

Hello, guys. Pleasure to be on the Fantasy Footballers podcast here. Excited to talk some football as we're just about a month away.

[Andy Holloway]

Ah, yes, we are very excited and thank you so much for joining us. Now we want to get our listeners ready for daily sports because we know it's growing, it is booming, but not, not everybody is doing it. There's some people who are might be a little intimidated by it or don't completely understand it. So let's start from the basics, right? So we're talking mostly FanDuel here, but can you explain how does daily sports, daily fantasy football work?

[Chris Meaney]

Well, daily fantasy football, you know what, it works in a way where it's really, really fun because you basically get to have whoever you want in your lineup. I love my annual leagues. I love drafting. Drafting is so much fun. I think that's the biggest thing about fantasy football that people like. They like to get together with their buddies and whatnot and they like to draft a team. But you know what, daily fantasy sports, for instance, if you weren't able to get ODB Beckham Jr. Last year off the waiver wire and you were able to see all of his one handed catches, his fantastic plays, and you were like, ah, I'm not getting any fantasy points from this. You know what? If you were to play daily fantasy sports, you could have Odell Beckham Jr. In your lineup every single day. There's a lot of websites out There, you know, DraftKings, FanDuel, of course, you know, Fantasy Sports Network. I'm the host of the FanDuel show and a lot of people are learning, a lot of people are trying to get into it. And I say for people that are, you know, just new to it, you know, there's free roles out there, there's contests that you can go into and they're completely free. And sometimes there's prizes that you can win. There's prizes. You can win free entries into money contests as well and just gives you a grasp of how things work. But basically the scoring is pretty much the same as your standard league. You know, some leagues are a full point PPR point per reception. I know FanDuel is half a point per reception too. And all your touchdowns are worth six points and set for your quarterback throwing, it's worth four on FanDuel. But it's just a fun way to basically get whoever you want in there. You know, for example, an Arian Foster, you may be really high on Aaron Foster, you wanted Foster this year.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, Andy, we're talking to you. Andy.

[Chris Meaney]

Yeah, I know Andy's pretty high on him. Just an example. I mean, Arian Foster, I love him too. The upside is huge. This has been when he's healthy, he's, you know, if not the number one running back over the past few years, but maybe you're a little bit wary on drafting him because of the injury concern. And as we found out over the past few days is, you know, he's going to be bothered again this year by the hamstring. But if he's healthy, you get to have this guy in your lineup anytime that you want to have him in there.

[Andy Holloway]

And so how do you go about constructing a roster, how it's for. Because we're talking people that maybe they've never even logged in. You don't draft. Right. Talk about what is the way that players are added to your team.

[Chris Meaney]

Okay, so if you go to FanDuel.com, they already have the first week pricing up there. So you can click any contest that you want to join. You just join it. And you're not paying. You can just go in there. You have to hit submit until you're all done. So you can join a contest. You see up the top, and then you have an average of $60,000 to spend. So that's your purse, right?

[Andy Holloway]

So it's salary cap, salary cap, correct.

[Chris Meaney]

You got a quarterback. You need two running backs, you need three wide receivers, you need a tight end, a kicker and a defense. The average that you can spend on Each position is $66667. Now you're looking at your quarterbacks. The top quarterback off the board is Aaron Rodgers. You plug Aaron Rodgers in there, all of a sudden you only have $6,288 left to spend. Aaron Rodgers is 9,700. The running backs are very similar. AP Adrian Peterson, $9,200. Julio Jones is 9,000. Your tight end, obviously, Gronk plays week, he plays on Thursday, so that doesn't count. It's a Sunday, Monday competition. You won't get your Thursday games in there. So Jimmy Graham is a top 10 at 6, 9. And then your kickers, your top kicker, Justin Tucker at 4, 5, 2, and then your defense, Seattle at 5,000. Now, kickers and defenses, this is just a strategy I like. I like to hunt those positions. It's all matchup dependent. I'm not really worried about my kicker. I'm not going to spend a lot of money on my kicker. That's a way that you can save a few bucks, usually go for a $4,400 kicker. Your defense is obviously really matchup dependent. For example, I love the jets week one against Cleveland. They're my number one D this year. They're not the most expensive defense on the board. You're saving a few bucks that way, but yeah, so that's the lineup that you need to do. There's all kinds of different contests that you can get into, but for the most part, you really want to. That's how you average out your pricing. Just about $6,000 per guy.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, great. So you, you segued nicely for me into building a roster. You talked a little bit about it with your kicker and your defense. How do you personally go about constructing your roster? Where do you start first?

[Chris Meaney]

I think it's all. I start with the quarterback. It's much like baseball where you want your pitcher and that's where you get the majority of the points from. Just from last year on FanDuel, if you're taking a look at QBs, the number one quarterback in terms of points per game was Andrew Luck at 23. So it depends on what kind of contest you want to go into. Now there's contests called gpp. You know, those are just big, big tournaments. They're called guaranteed prize pool tournaments. They're just a large field contests that attract Thousands, sometimes over 10,000 entries. The prize pool is obviously usually large, but it costs very little to get and sometimes a $2. These are. When I'm constructing a lineup for that, I want to be a little bit different. I know for the most part that everyone's probably going to have Aaron Rodgers. I mean, last year against Chicago, we had 10 touchdowns over 600 yards just in those two games against Chicago. So he's going to be a popular play. I'm not going to be contrarian just for the sake of being contrarian, but I want to be a little bit different. I don't have the same people. I know last year somebody won a million dollars because I had Ryan Fitzpatrick in the lineup and he had six touchdowns against Tennessee. I mean, who would have thought that sometimes when you're playing the GPP tournaments, you want to be a little bit different. You want to look for upside, you want to look for some value plays. I love 50, 50 games. Head to heads. Those are called cash games. So head to head, you only have to be one person. That's it. It's just you and somebody else. And those are the. I like to be a little bit less risky when I'm playing those kind of contests. I want to be. I want to have safe plays. I want to have guys that are going to get touches, guys that are going to get targets. And I know Julio Jones is going to get targets. Over the past three years, when he had about nine targets, he averaged 117 yards and I know that he's going to get a lot of targets. So that's a safe play you're going to spend on him, but that's a safe play. So I like head to heads. I feel like it's a better opportunity to win some money. You're only going to beat one guy I like 50 50s, 50 50s kind of work the same way. They're considered a cash game. They're contests that pay with the top 50% of the field. For instance, if you're in a 50, 50 game with 20 entries, there's a $900 prize pool that will pay out $90 to the top 10 people. So you don't need to be the best, you just need to be top 10. And then you get, you double up your money. So if you're going to do 50 50s, head to heads, a little less risk, more safe plays, guys that you really trust and you're going to play big, big tournaments, you want to be a little bit contrarian.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, so to move just the last question for you, because obviously people can't really play right now. We just want to get people used to the idea of daily. And is there, is there anything particular that you know, translates very well from normal to daily? Nor by normal, I mean, I mean season long.

[Chris Meaney]

Right? It's just, you know what, it's all just matchups. It's all week to week. You know, there's a really, there's a different strategy. If you go in and you're playing an annual league, you, you know, you're draf, you know, guys that you think are going to be good all season long. But for instance, it's just, it's all matchup dependent. You know what, you may not like Jonathan Stewart this year, you may not. But week one against Jacksonville, it's not a bad play and it's a very cheap play and allows you to go elsewhere. But for the most part, I mean, it all works the same. It's still football. Like I said, you get your half point for reception. Your points all add up the same. You know, you get 10 yards on the ground, you get one point, you get 10 yards in the air, you get one point. It's just really match up dependent. You really have to exploit those matchups. And I would say like for example, week one, Atlanta and Philadelphia are playing already. The over under, I believe is at 53.5. So you look at the over under, you think that's going to be a high scoring affair. I mean, you can put Murray on the ground. Last year nobody gave up more yards in the air than Atlanta. Nobody gave up more rushing touchdowns than Atlanta. So you can look at it that way as well. Just you look at the over unders. I mean Vegas, they're not wrong. They do what they do and they got their over unders on the game. And you know what, if you look at a matchup and it's going to be high, scoring a lot of points, that's the way you want to go.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, fantastic stuff from Chris Meaney from the Fantasy Sports Network. Is there anywhere that people can find you or anything you want to plug real quick, Chris? Yeah.

[Chris Meaney]

You can follow me on Twitter hrismeeny M E A N E Y Check out the FanDuel Show. If you don't get a fantasy sports network, you can check us out on YouTube, just search fantasy Sports Network. We have a constant, everyday FanDuel show right now. Obviously we're still into football or still into baseball. We have Pat Mayo who's also on the network. We have Kyle Soppi who does some stuff with FanDuel, does some stuff with Roto Expert. So we're talking football right now. Just especially all the people that are really, really new to dfs. We have a month or so to go over the rules, the pricing, matchups. We like week one to get you all set. So I suggest maybe checking out the FanDuel show on fantasy Sports Network.

[Andy Holloway]

Alright, great stuff, Chris. Thank you.

[Chris Meaney]

Thanks for having me.

[Mike Wright]

All right, thanks to Chris Meaney for joining us today. And before we get to the breakout section, we got to take a minute and talk about Audible. Right now. You can get a free audiobook on Audible. A 30 day trial right now. Sign up on audible.comballers we love Audible.

[Jason Moore]

Every single one of us here at the studio has actually used it. I used it for last like four years. You can get A Fantasy Life by Matthew Barry is on there. That's a good read. And there's a lot of cool features on Audible. You can actually speed up the books, get through them faster. That's what I did.

[Mike Wright]

It was basically my commute saver for many, many years. Unfortunately, this show doesn't run 24 hours a day and it should. I mean you have other time when you need to listen to something.

[Andy Holloway]

So yeah, it's a spectacular service, especially for long road trips, commutes like Andy was talking about, you can take that time. You can catch up on, on nearly any kind of book that you've ever wanted to listen to you want to catch up on Game of Thrones because the series is caught up to the books and you say, hey, I want to go back and I can do it. Spoiler free. Guess what? All the Game of Thrones books are available. If you're like me, you're a big sci fi dork. Philip K. Dick, he's all, well, everyone knows it. I didn't try and emphasize that point, but Philip K. Dick, he's all over there. You know what? Blade Runner. How do. Well, I can't even remember the real title. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Spectacular read will make you question reality. I know that you guys haven't read it because big minds are not blown.

[Mike Wright]

That's a big doula thing. So. Yeah. And any of these ones Mike's mentioning, the ones we've listened to before, you can get them for free. You can get on there and just go to audible.comballers that's audible.comballers. get your free audiobook download. Do it right now. That's audible.comb, a L, L E R, S. All right, you guys want to talk some breakouts? Yeah, I think someone tell me what a breakout is.

[Jason Moore]

A breakout is a guy who performed last year, not some guy that was not to be seen, who did a decent job, but is going to take a leap forward this year and be a fantasy difference maker, bringing you championship glory.

[Mike Wright]

We're looking for you. We're looking for.

[Andy Holloway]

I was, I thought that was coming.

[Jason Moore]

No, I was about to explode, so I stopped.

[Mike Wright]

I'm hoping. I'm hoping Jason breaks out next year.

[Jason Moore]

Thank you.

[Mike Wright]

Because he's kind of, you know, he's. He's an analyst performing this year, but next year I'm projecting.

[Andy Holloway]

He's. He on. He's on the sleeper list this year.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

No, no, no. I'm, I'm. Come on. I'm. I'm high enough to be on breakouts.

[Mike Wright]

He's at least an eighth, eighth rounder.

[Jason Moore]

Thank you.

[Mike Wright]

He's like, he's Malcolm Floyd.

[Andy Holloway]

That is really generous.

[Jason Moore]

That is really kind of you guys.

[Mike Wright]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

I really appreciate it.

[Mike Wright]

Let's talk wide receivers. Allen Robinson, he's a guy we've been talking about, but some people have been asking, hey, why, why are you high on Alan Robinson? Mike, why don't you tell him?

[Andy Holloway]

Here's why. I love Allen Robinson and I call him the Target Monster.

[Mike Wright]

Last year, Jacksonville Jack and Jaguars.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. There's no problem with the Jaguars.

[Mike Wright]

No, I'm letting. There might be people out there that don't know.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, so he's on the Jaguars. And so last year, this is including week one, he did nothing in week one, but after that, 81 targets, he was on pace for 130 targets over the year in games. He had so of 10 games, five or more catches and six of them 60 or more yards in six of them, seven or more targets in eight of 10 games. He was just, he was ready to bust out. And his player comps are spectacular. He's, he's big. He actually was one of the, the wide receivers because that, that draft class was so deep. That's why he got pushed down to where he was drafted by the Jaguars in the second round. Cecil Schwartz, 110 targets gone. Allen Robinson is now the numero uno on that team. They brought in Julius Thomas. I think he actually helps Allen Robinson because Julius Thomas's job is to spread the field.

[Jason Moore]

Also reports out of camp are that he's just humiliating people. He is dominating the training camp right now, making one handed grabs over people, I mean just showing up.

[Mike Wright]

So let me ask you a question then. What makes Allen Robinson different in statistical difference than Jarvis Landry of Miami?

[Jason Moore]

I think the fact that, I think.

[Mike Wright]

That because neither of them scored touchdowns really, I mean five or six, seven touchdowns.

[Jason Moore]

Right. But the physicality of those two guys, the physicality of those two guys you've got Alan Robinson I think is much more capable of actually breaking free, of having yards after, after contact that would be. And also in how they utilize the players. I think Jarvis Landry is going to be utilized this year going forward still how he was, which is a shorter, you know, yards per reception. Whereas I don't assume that that's how Alan Robinson is going to be used this year.

[Andy Holloway]

And I'm just making sure.

[Mike Wright]

But are you both drafting Alan Robinson ahead of Jarvis Landry?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, I am for sure. Jarvis Landry, I'm confirming right now, I believe he didn't have a catch over 20 yards, 25, that was his longest catch. So Jarvis Lander is, he's the short stuff.

[Mike Wright]

Alan Robinson, I'm not debating the size. I know the difference between the two guys sides. What I'm saying is that Alan Robinson didn't get in the end zone. What makes you think he's getting in the end zone? He scored two touchdowns last year.

[Andy Holloway]

I think the Jaguars team has improved. They've put a lot of effort improving the offensive line. Blake Bortles was just getting hit nonstop last year and he was a rookie. He wasn't ready for it so that you improve the line, you give him some more time, and Alan Robinson's going to eat.

[Mike Wright]

Where's his ADP right now? Where's Alan Robinson? Average draft position. So when we throw out that. That number there, the moniker. Wait, oh, you're talking about adp.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

That means average draft position.

[Andy Holloway]

Hold on.

[Mike Wright]

Are you efforting that he's searching. I'm just curious, is he still a great value?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, he's at the very back of the sixth round.

[Mike Wright]

Who are some guys going ahead of him?

[Jason Moore]

Oh, I feel like. I feel like I have to be on. On something just so incorrect right now. But I'm not.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, you're. But you're in standard.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I'm in Standard. But it says Victor Cruz is going ahead of him. That's ridiculous.

[Andy Holloway]

What?

[Jason Moore]

Ridiculous.

[Andy Holloway]

This is. And this is.

[Mike Wright]

So give me some other fantasy football calculator for.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, people do. Like, where do you get your ADP fantasy football calculator?

[Jason Moore]

Other. Other guys going. Jarvis Landry's going ahead of him. Jeremy Macklin's going ahead of him. DeSean Jackson, Brandon Marshall are going ahead.

[Mike Wright]

Of him in a ppr.

[Jason Moore]

And this is standard.

[Mike Wright]

Do you still take. You're still taking Robinson ahead of Landry in the ppr?

[Andy Holloway]

In ppr, yes.

[Jason Moore]

Correct.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. All right, let's move on to another breakout candidate, a guy you guys both have talked up that I. I'm on the fence on. So we'll debate this. Jordan Matthews, wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles. He's coming off a 67 catch, 872 in eight year on 103 targets. He played on 67% of the snaps last year. And a headline here is goodbye Macklin.

[Andy Holloway]

Exactly.

[Mike Wright]

Hello. Nelson Aguilar and DeMarco. Murray and Ryan Matthews and some other guys.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, they had LaShawn McCoy last year, so I don't think Murray's pretty much a wash when you're talking about workload.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, well, I was just giving names that have joined the team. Don't worry, you can argue with me in a minute. But. But Jordan Matthews is a breakout candidate. So. So tell me first, tell me where you think his numbers will be because. Compared to last year. Because that would define the breakout. Right. Like if he's at the same numbers as last year, which I think he'll be closer to those. That's why I'm on the fence.

[Jason Moore]

But I have Jordan Matthews with 90 receptions, 1150 yards and nine touchdowns.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. I actually don't think that's very unreasonable.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, well, that. That's a Breakout, my friend.

[Mike Wright]

Well, same amount of touchdowns almost. He just, he basically erases the rookie break in period of his career and he puts up 90 catches.

[Jason Moore]

It puts Jordan Matthews for my ranks.

[Mike Wright]

Where does it put him?

[Jason Moore]

13 in every format. So he is literally just outside wide receiver.

[Mike Wright]

14 is great. I'll go with those numbers and that.

[Jason Moore]

Is a great breakout.

[Andy Holloway]

And we did these projections separately. I have my numbers almost identical to what Jason had and for me he's finishing because I stat a little bit different. He's between 10 and 12. Depends on the format.

[Mike Wright]

And so the crux of why we think he's a breakout, it really has to do with Macklin, it has to do with Chip Kelly and always producing a number one wide receiver.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it's about, it's about the power smoothie offense up in Philadelphia. Chip Kelly came in, he just, he turned DeSean Jackson into a wide receiver one the ultimate boom bust guy had some actual solid week to week play enough to become A fantasy wide receiver 1 DeSean Jackson leaves or whatever, whatever happened up there and people start to freak out. Jeremy Macklin coming off an ACL surgery, he's a beast. He's a wide receiver one and he had 100 and where is 143 targets last year? Those are gone. He played almost 300 more snaps than Jordan Matthews. I mean there's going to be a wide receiver one in Philadelphia. Are you going to put your chips on a guy who's 62 he's already played in the NFL a year, he's massively talented and he showed that last year. Or are you going to, you think it's going to be a rookie?

[Mike Wright]

No, I don't think he's going to be a rookie.

[Jason Moore]

Pro Football Focus has a great stat that I think really shows the value of the quality of a wide receiver which is the essentially what is the QB rating when targeting a specific wide receiver. And so the as a rookie, Jordan Matthews with not the greatest, right. Mark Sanchez was his, you know, for Nick Foles and Mark Sanchez. Nick Foles and Mark Sanchez and his the seventh highest wide receiver rating in the entire league as a rookie with those two quarterbacks.

[Mike Wright]

So let me throw a little bit of shade with the caveat of I have him for about. I have him at 79 for over a thousand yards and eight touchdowns. Okay, so I'm a little bit behind you guys. But don't you think there are some variables in the equation here that we're not seeing? You know that yes, you can dog on Mark Sanchez or Nick Foles. But Sam Bradford hasn't done anything in Philadelphia yet.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

And so we don't know who he connects with. We know that Chip Kelly's goal is to spread the ball around. And there are. There's Josh Huff, there's Nelson Aguilar, there's Sproules, there's these other guys. Do you see any possibility of being surprised and disappointed in Jordan Matthews?

[Andy Holloway]

I see it as a small risk. I know there's a lot of people out there who. They do.

[Jason Moore]

They're.

[Andy Holloway]

They're not on Matthews because his ADP is a bit higher. I think you have to take him in the fourth.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, that's.

[Mike Wright]

That's part of the question.

[Andy Holloway]

And I very happy to take him in the fourth. If you take his season and you cut it in half at the midpoint the first half of the year, he was putting up 8 points a game. He jumps up to almost 13 in the second half of the game or second half of the season.

[Mike Wright]

Did you happen to project out his second half over a full season? Oh, I was just curious. What, what is second half over a full season?

[Andy Holloway]

No, I haven't done it.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. Well. But he definitely went strong.

[Andy Holloway]

He went from 40 yards to 70 yards.

[Jason Moore]

He is the perfect type of guy that I want because in the fourth round, if he underperforms, his floor is still very high. He's the slot guy who is going to be on the field all the time.

[Andy Holloway]

And that's one more thing I'll say, people. Oh, he's going to be in the slot. He's going to be on the outside in two wide receiver sets. And I don't care if he's in the slot.

[Mike Wright]

No, I don't.

[Andy Holloway]

He produced in the slot last year.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that doesn't bother me at all. Travis Kelsey and Tyler Eifert, two breakout candidates that we have at the tight end position. People hear us talk probably a little bit more about Kelce.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

But let's put some statistical backing to this. Why do we like Travis Kelce? We've had a few people say, well, this is ridiculous. He didn't put up a huge tight end one year last year. Why do you have him as your number three or four tight end?

[Andy Holloway]

That is correct. He didn't last year. He put up 67, 862 yards and five touchdowns. That's on 66% of the snapshot. Anthony Fasano, who was the starting tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, he is no longer around. It's now Travis Kelce's job. You Think well, maybe Kelsey will get taken off the field in certain packages. He graded out as the best run blocking tight end in football. He's not leaving the field. He's going to be a Jason Whitten type guy where he's there 90 plus percent of snaps. He had an 82% catch rate which led tight ends with 60 plus targets 503 yards after the catch. Now if. If you don't really understand what I'm talking about when I say 500 yards after catch, that's Gronkian. The only guy who. The only other guy who's doing that lately is Rob Gronkowski. He forced Travis Kelce, forced 17 missed tackles. The guy is a physical beast. People were disappointed because he was getting very hype for the season. Then everything came out that the Chiefs had a plan to work him in slowly because of his injury.

[Mike Wright]

I can't argue with much of that. I'd like to see his ball control in terms of or just protect ball protection. He did. He did have fumbled a lot because I mean but that's gonna happen with missed tackles and getting free when you have a bunch of linebackers chasing you down on the open field. But he needs to protect the ball a little bit. He has all the tools. Alex Smith's one of my.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's the only thing I touch.

[Mike Wright]

On quarterback because of Macklin coming in because of the drop percentage he had last year and because Andy Reid another year in that offense. I really like Alex Smith's opportunity to excel this year maybe as like a kind of a mini Tom Brady. Anything you want to add on Kelsey or are you just kind of nodding your head? Jason?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I echo all of that. The only shade that I would throw is just. You do have to give up a decently high pick to get him.

[Mike Wright]

I wonder how many leagues that's true though. I wonder if it really varies.

[Andy Holloway]

That is ADP right now.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

He's in the fifth round. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

And.

[Mike Wright]

And so how high would you take him, Mike?

[Andy Holloway]

I will take him in the fifth.

[Mike Wright]

You want to take him in the.

[Andy Holloway]

Fourth if I'm at the very back and it just depends on what the player.

[Mike Wright]

All league formats.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

But I mean and normally I completely agree that if I don't get Gronk at the top of the draft, which I'm not usually looking to do. I'm not going to take a tight end early. But I'm just so confident feel so good about Kelsey with his everything he did last year combined with Alex Smith who was great With Vernon Davis. Travis Kelsey fits Alex Smith's game so perfectly.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I agree with that. And I think. I think all the camp reports about Kelsey and how he's looked so far are good as well. Another guy who has looked exceptional in camp, he is somebody who's ending up on almost all my MFL teams, all my mock drafts. If I don't take, for some reason Gronkowski in the. In the back of the first or something. If I don't end up with Gronkowski or Kelsey, this is the guy that ends up as my tight end. That's Tyler Ifert for the Cincinnati Bengals. Gresham and Ifert last year combined for 120. I'm sorry, in 2013 because if it was hurt last year they combined for 120 targets at that position. Gresham is gone. He's in Arizona now. Ifert's catch percentage is very high and that offense is very good. And so there are some signs that he can be a very high volume target this year.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, for sure. And what you brought up, his camp performance right now has just been lauded not only by reporters and beat writers saying that he's making space that other people aren't making, but even by Andy Dalton himself, which of course in camp people are going to talk people up, but it's one of those things where I just love seeing Andy Dalton talk about how he's so talented and he's looking forward to the matchups he gets and he says, quote, he's going to be a big part of what we're going to do. So I love having him back, you know, sorry.

[Andy Holloway]

He was a first round pick. And I think the problem that people are having with Iford is he was one of those tight ends that was getting hyped up for his rookie year. And a kind of a rule of thumb for fantasy is tight ends stink. Their first year, all of them, it just doesn't happen. And then next year they're, well, maybe Ifrtz, this is the year and he did something horrific to his elbow, which you can go watch if you want, but it's. It's terrible. And so now he's back and people are just. I guess they forgot he exists.

[Mike Wright]

And he has declared himself 100% before camp he's good to go. And he said all last year he hasn't felt. He didn't feel good at all. So other than Otas before the season, before the injury, he was not 100% and so a lot of potential there. And that's why he's a breakout that's. And he's a low risk breakout because you're getting him very, very late. There are a lot of bigger name tight ends that are going ahead of him from, you know, Martellus Bennett to even Ertz, Dwayne Allen, those type of guys are going ahead of Tyler Ifer right now.

[Andy Holloway]

So 13th round.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. He's basically really, really great. And there's nothing more satisfying. And I've a couple of years, Gronkowski's first breakout year, Julius Thomas, it's very satisfying.

[Andy Holloway]

Greg Olson last year.

[Mike Wright]

It's very satisfying to draft a tight end late and have him perform. And it's one of those positions where you know there's, there's one or two guys on a team and so if you draft a breakout and he hits, I mean he's, he's pretty locked in for the season. It's not a week one and week two, week three wide receiver type of situation where they fall off the map. So let's talk about another couple of breakouts here. One of them, Mike, I know you'll, you'll look forward to talking about, it's not Odell Beckham Jr. It's not Victor Cruz. It's not Larry Donnell. It is Ruben. Ruben Randall.

[Andy Holloway]

Randall. And here's this guy's similar, I guess.

[Mike Wright]

To I saw him walking around in camp with a I'm not sexy T shirt on.

[Jason Moore]

He's humble.

[Andy Holloway]

I disagree. His fantasy numbers are very attractive to me.

[Mike Wright]

Sing them to me so quietly.

[Andy Holloway]

And people have heard us talk about Randall and in our mock drafts and people saying, why do you like Ruben Randall? Last year, 127 targets, 71 catches, 940 yards, three touchdowns. That's the killer was the three touchdowns. And Reuben Randle, for a man of his stature and in that offense should be catching more than three touchdowns. And I took a look at the numbers and let's give him just a slight increase. Let's say he caught three more touchdowns. He's a wide receiver too.

[Mike Wright]

And he's only 24 years old.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, he's still very young. He had, he's six foot two, so he's big. He had nine games. Nine games of nine plus targets. I mean the opportunity is ridiculous. Yes. He's going to have disappointing.

[Mike Wright]

He's.

[Andy Holloway]

I'll compare him to a Patriots running back where he's going to be dominant and look great and then they'll just be games where he takes a nap, he's taking a little sleep on the field. You have no idea what's going on and he won't produce. But where you are drafting Randle very late, you're not drafting him to be a starter.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I take issue with calling him a breakout candidate because I don't think what how I defined saying breakout being a guy that's going to really take that leap forward statistically to help you. However, he's one of the best values in the draft. Like Mike was just saying, you're getting him in the 13th round and not only did he actually perform last year, he just didn't have touchdowns, but he's got every opportunity to beat that. So I've got him started right now as about my number 30 wide receiver. So he's. He's a wide receiver three. But if I can get a starting finishing wide receiver three in the 13th round, that's incredible value. Nobody is liking him. And I think Victor Cruz is really helping Randall a lot right now because everybody's starting to push. I mean, Victor Cruz we just saw was in the sixth. That's ridiculous.

[Mike Wright]

So just for the record, do you take Randle over Cruz?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

You do? I do, Mike.

[Jason Moore]

I will have Randall on my team and not Cruz. But I certainly wouldn't take him ahead of him.

[Mike Wright]

You were.

[Jason Moore]

Well, I'm just saying, draft wise, I will let Victor Cruz go off the board.

[Mike Wright]

Do you think is gonna have a bigger fantasy?

[Jason Moore]

Absolutely. Randall. 100% Randall. And I smell what you're cooking here, Andy. Do I smell this right? Are you cooking a water bet?

[Mike Wright]

No, I'm not actually. Have Reuben Randall ahead of Cruz.

[Andy Holloway]

The consensus ranking, if you go to fantasypros.com and you get the consensus ranking from experts, they all have them at 52. Reuben Randall 52nd and that's wide receiver.

[Mike Wright]

So if he's not a breakout, he's a value.

[Andy Holloway]

Nobody is on. Nobody likes 130 targets, apparently.

[Mike Wright]

Let's move on to a quarterback. And I hesitate to use the word break with this guy.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

[Mike Wright]

Tread lightly. Don't want to tread lightly, scare him off or cause an issue. But let's talk about another Eagle. Not Jordan Matthews, but Sam Bradford. In 2013 and seven games, how did he. How did he perform?

[Andy Holloway]

So 2013, remember Sam Bradford? This was a while ago. He was on the Rams. The Rams who were.

[Mike Wright]

Hey now I like the Rams.

[Andy Holloway]

They were.

[Jason Moore]

Did you. A couple years ago.

[Andy Holloway]

They are a spectacular defensive team.

[Mike Wright]

They were saying give them their due.

[Andy Holloway]

They're not known for their offense. Especially a couple years ago in seven games, four times he was a quarterback. One he was a top 12 finisher with really no weapons around him. He's moving to the power smoothie offense with Chip Kelly where the Eagles quarterbacks are dominant. Dominant. The only, the only quarterbacks scoring more than the Eagles QB's combined because of course there was multiples of them. Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and Andrew Luck. Three quarterbacks are scoring an average, higher average than the fantasy quarterbacks of the year.

[Mike Wright]

That's a pretty profound stat.

[Jason Moore]

Where's Aaron Rodgers in that?

[Andy Holloway]

He got hurt. If you remember, he missed most of 2013.

[Jason Moore]

Loser.

[Chris Meaney]

Sorry.

[Jason Moore]

I don't. I'm sorry, Aaron. That was uncalled for and unprofessional.

[Mike Wright]

I can promise you Aaron doesn't care.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, he's so chill. He is the most chill guy of all.

[Andy Holloway]

You see him doing his, his workouts with Olivia Munn.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Yeah. You're talking about sword fighting. Yeah. When she was sword fighting for X Men. And he's in the background just kind of. I mean, he looks like he's having the time of his life. What am I, what am I going to do today? I'm gonna go like work out with swords behind Olivia Munn.

[Jason Moore]

I think he's having the time of his life. At all times. Yeah, all time.

[Andy Holloway]

So how do we get onto Aaron?

[Mike Wright]

Roger, breakout candidate.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, I can. I can I call Aaron Rodgers breakout candidate. I'm really confident he's going to water bet.

[Mike Wright]

No, you can.

[Andy Holloway]

If you think he's going to break out more than what he did last year, then you go ahead.

[Jason Moore]

Well, he will be number one this year, I'll say that. Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

So anyways, what another amazing thing about the Eagles. Chip Kelly took mark Sanchez a 54% completion passer who is known. What's the number one thing that mark Sanchez is known for?

[Jason Moore]

Butt fumble.

[Andy Holloway]

Thank you. Yeah, it's the butt fumble. The. He took the butt fumbler and turned him into a 64% completion quarterback.

[Mike Wright]

Close to butt fumbler. Close to number two, though, is.

[Andy Holloway]

Don't talk about number two is when you're talking about the butt fumble.

[Mike Wright]

I was gonna go with it. Him being tattooed on the Rex Ryan's arm or whatever.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, the jersey. Yeah, there's. There's that. Or what if it was Tebow or whatever.

[Mike Wright]

No, he had a good year. The system is conducive to quarterbacks is what you're saying, and to quarterback performance in fantasy. And so whoever's starting there, if he can stay healthy, he could be a huge, huge steal and a breakout because he can finally have that good Year, that year that we've been waiting for from a quarterback with the pedigree to be an elite quarterback.

[Andy Holloway]

And Bradford, he's not just a guy. Bradford stats have increased every year. We always talk about wanting guys to.

[Mike Wright]

Get one ACL injury to two ACL injuries. Yeah, they go up and up.

[Jason Moore]

Matching the Eagles offense is also his deep ball. I don't think he gets enough credit for throwing a great deep ball because he's been on a team that hasn't really played that way offensively. But with Chip Kelly and the Eagles, I think he's going to have a lot. If you're, you know, if you're a league, very common that rewards, you know, over 40 yards on a touchdown pass. I think they're going to run so much drawing the defense up. And his accuracy on a deep ball is just a thing of beauty. Go watch his. You can go to YouTube and watch a video of all of his passes over 20 yards. And it. It's awesome.

[Andy Holloway]

That leads me to my final stat.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, you got another stat on him?

[Andy Holloway]

No, we got to move on.

[Mike Wright]

We got to get to the mailbag on Mark Sanchez.

[Andy Holloway]

He took him from. He was a 6.5 yards per attempt guy. 7.8 on the Eagles.

[Jason Moore]

Boom.

[Andy Holloway]

You don't care about YPA. You don't care about fantasy points.

[Mike Wright]

It's fine. It's good. I'm looking forward to seeing what Bradford can do in that.

[Andy Holloway]

Bradford, no.

[Mike Wright]

If you're in a league with Mike, you're not getting him. That's what I just.

[Andy Holloway]

That's what I. Second round pick Sam Bradford.

[Mike Wright]

All right, let's talk. Let's answer some questions.

[Jason Moore]

Mailbag, Sam Bradford. Yeah. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

I would have loved it if you could have taken your shirt off and you had a Bradford jersey underneath. I would have just fallen over.

[Jason Moore]

I didn't see this becoming the Sam Bradford show here.

[Mike Wright]

I did not either.

[Andy Holloway]

I didn't either. But then I got Mr. Ho humdouder over there.

[Mike Wright]

No, I just wanted to answer some listener questions.

[Andy Holloway]

The listeners want to hear about Sam Bradford.

[Mike Wright]

His ypa.

[Jason Moore]

We love the Foot Clan. Let's hear them.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Well, first of all, if you have a question for us, you can go onto the website thefantasyfootballers.com and click the Submit a question button. It's easy. And then they get delivered to us by courier.

[Andy Holloway]

By pigeon.

[Mike Wright]

Pigeon. Sometimes Jason from Brooklyn wants to know, who do you think would be a better second?

[Andy Holloway]

Wait, what?

[Mike Wright]

Who do you think would be a better second? Keeper Adrian Peterson or Eli Manning?

[Andy Holloway]

It's a. Oh, it's a two quarterback.

[Mike Wright]

I know. I forgot. I didn't look at that and I laughed. My other keeper is Antonio Brown. He has the fifth pick in the draft and it is a two quarterback league 12 team, one point PPR. It's Adrian Peterson.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Yeah, you keep Adrian Peterson. You Drive Eli at 5 if you have to.

[Mike Wright]

I guess. Yeah. Let's answer. Let's answer a voicemail 1.

[E]

Hey guys, this is Nick. Just wanted to say love the show. Had a quick question for you with preseason coming up. My question is about how much does the preseason weigh on your final decision for rankings in both the veterans and the new guys? How does it sway your rankings? And just wondering how much I should be paying attention to preseason. Thanks.

[Andy Holloway]

Thank you.

[Mike Wright]

That is an awesome question for this time because we're about to get the hall of Fame games on Sunday. We're going to see, we're going to see a lot of preseason football and so I mean I can kind of just share how I look at it from a fantasy perspective. I don't look at stats okay. Very often for the preseason. For the preseason, obviously not for the regular. In the regular season. I just go by jersey number. That guy, the highest jersey number, the better.

[Andy Holloway]

I like his shoes.

[Jason Moore]

Does Bryant's great.

[Mike Wright]

But stats in the preseason are obviously super deceiving. I mean you can put in a third string. Kerwin Williams from the Cardinals can go out and run for 150 and five touchdowns. That doesn't matter. But what I do pay attention to is some of the names that we talked about today. Tyler Ifert a few years ago, like we mentioned Julius Thomas. I saw Julius Thomas in the preseason. I saw him come into the first team offense and get targeted to the point where I was saying, wait, is that Demarius? Who? That's not Demarius out there. What's that Thomas running around? Why is he getting targeted so much? You can kind of see evidence of a game plan and so. So I'm watching first team offense and I'm watching confirmation of some of the things we talk about because we can project anything we want. But if you don't see some confirmation that the Ertz news that we got today, if I see Ertz out there in the first team offense catching a lot of passes is going to teach me something about what's going on. Yeah, it's about make sense.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Scheme and depth chart, not so much how good a guy does because you just don't know what competition is.

[Mike Wright]

Well, Chris Henry is the Famous name of superstar preseason. I mean, Chris Henry of the Bengals used to go out and oh, this is going to be his breakout year. And Victor Cruz was too. Yeah. And he was.

[Andy Holloway]

Two quick points to trust your eyes and trust your eyes against first string defense.

[Mike Wright]

Yep.

[Andy Holloway]

Don't, don't be shocked when a third string guy is crushing third string defense. And two of trusting your eyes see when a guy's improved. Last year, I remember watching Mark Ingram in the preseason thinking, this does not look like Mark Ingram. And I didn't move him up my draft boards. I left him where he was because of his reputation of always stinking. Even though my eyes were telling me that Mark Ingram looks a lot different. And then we know what he did last year.

[Mike Wright]

That's a good point. And you can, I mean, other than watching the preseason, they have a pretty good product on NFL.com where you can go back and watch preseason games very fast. You know, they take the commercials out. It's all really quick. So I like looking through the first team offenses on those and just trusting my eyes like you guys said. So let's answer another one.

[E]

Hey guys, Love the show. Just started listening a couple weeks ago. Gets me through my work day. Just had a general question. Do you think there is ever a time that you can ingest too much fantasy information? With all the podcasts, Twitters, Facebook posts, radio shows. So again, if you can enter that big. This is Patrick from Iowa.

[Jason Moore]

Thanks, Patrick from Iowa.

[Andy Holloway]

What's happening?

[Jason Moore]

You can never ingest too much fantasy football, Patrick.

[Mike Wright]

Wrong question.

[Jason Moore]

Well, I guess it depends. It does depend on source. I would, I would say that just in the sense that if you have a bad source and you keep hearing the same bad stuff, like if it's your buddy Joe and he keeps saying stuff and you just hear it from him, I would say check your sources.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I don't mind grabbing from sources, even if I don't necessarily like them. It's just kind of a. I like to get a broad spectrum of what, what everybody's out there saying. I don't. We're not the analysts who say, oh, we keep away from everyone else. We don't want to be tainted. I listen to what other people have to say and I then in my head I say, you're very wrong or you're correct. I agree with you. Just like you guys when you're listening, I agree completely.

[Mike Wright]

And I think that one of the things I think Colin Cowherd always used to talk about is new information means, you know, you're gonna Change your mind. New information means new ideas. So we try. If you get new information, I'm not gonna, you know, like right now. I'm not drafting. I don't know. Arian Foster, number one.

[Jason Moore]

So sad.

[Andy Holloway]

I can't live.

[Mike Wright]

I. If you haven't been onto YouTube, you living is. I did post kind of a memorial goodbye to Aryan. That was not goodbye for the season or his career. That was me saying goodbye from my rankings.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, to his groin.

[Mike Wright]

No, I didn't. It wasn't to his groin. It was to the world. So they can stop tweeting at me.

[Andy Holloway]

That's not gonna stop.

[Mike Wright]

I know. Here we go.

[E]

Hey, guys, love the show, but I'm calling you out. Don't bring it out on all that. Frank Gore. Love. The guy is like 42 years old. I don't know how you can be so high on him. And I'd also like to call you out for invading my beaches every summer. I know you guys are from Arizona, San Diego, so back off my beaches. Actually, you guys are more than welcome. Have a good one.

[Jason Moore]

We're just out there at your beaches.

[Mike Wright]

Well, first, let me just take a few candles off the birthday cake.

[Andy Holloway]

He's 32.

[Mike Wright]

32 years old. And I'll tell you why I like Frank Gore. Because four consecutive 1100 yard seasons.

[Andy Holloway]

Is that good?

[Mike Wright]

That's pretty decent.

[Jason Moore]

What about four consecutive 16 game seasons?

[Mike Wright]

Yep. Yeah. It doesn't get hurt. And he's moving from an offense that, you know, didn't involve him enough in the passing game. Didn't score a lot of points comparatively.

[Andy Holloway]

To he saw eight in the box basically every play.

[Mike Wright]

And so what I'm going to do here with Frank Gore is I'm going to apply the Marshawn lynch rule, which is that you are not dead until you're dead. And when people wanted to doubt Marshawn lynch over the past two years, he just went out and was Marshawn Lynch. Frank Gore is in the same mold.

[Jason Moore]

As opposed to the, say, Arian Foster mold. I'm sorry, one's been missing.

[Mike Wright]

I'm gonna close the show out as a. I. No, no, I'm not Arian Foster. Other than the injuries. Okay, so from an injury perspective, they're polar opposites. Yeah, but as opposed to a guy who shuts it down at age 31 because his career is on a negative arc, I mean, Gore is not going to run for 5.1 a carry. Okay. He's not Jamal Charles, but he's going to be consistent and he's going to be healthy and he's going to score touchdowns in Indianapolis.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Remember Ahmed Bradshaw last year?

[Mike Wright]

I do.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Who's better, Ahmad Bradshaw or the unsigned? Ahmad Bradshaw put up significant RB1 numbers for parts of the season last year.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Frank Gore has never, never run for under 4.1 yards a carry.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Career 4.5 a carry.

[Andy Holloway]

His numbers are spectacular. Yes, he's a little bit older, but big deal. The offense is going to compensate for that.

[Mike Wright]

Hey, being young isn't what it used to be. Just ask Trent Richardson. It's true. Hey, if you're going to mock draft, if you, if you heard the show.

[Andy Holloway]

On Tuesday, if you're going to mock.

[Mike Wright]

Trent Richardson, you can mock draft Trent Richardson on fantasydraftwizard.com Hop on there. That's what we do all our mock drafts through. If you didn't hear Tuesday's show, we did a 12 team standard league draft where we drafted Arian Foster before the bad news came out. But you can listen to the rest of our picks and not laugh at us because I think it was a pretty good draft.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, we pulled it out.

[Mike Wright]

It wasn't too bad.

[Andy Holloway]

So the other day I was on Fantasy Draft wizard and I was trying to draft Trent Richardson. I would click and it would say, are you sure?

[Mike Wright]

And just kept.

[Andy Holloway]

And I would say yes. Are you, are you really sure?

[Jason Moore]

It's very good software.

[Mike Wright]

And then the same the Raiders got before they signed the contract.

[Andy Holloway]

You don't want to do that. And then it just auto drafted somebody else.

[Jason Moore]

Roy, hello. Oh, yes, hello.

[Mike Wright]

All right, all right. We will be tweeting some more breakout candidates. We'll be on Twitter. Make sure you check it out at bff. Ballers.

[Andy Holloway]

Look out for downtown John Brown.

[Jason Moore]

Thank you for listening to another edition of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Don't forget to visit us on the web at www.thefantasyfootballers.com and follow us on Twitter the FFballers.