Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Early QB Rankings Part 2

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast Summary

Episode: Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Early QB Rankings Part 2
Release Date: April 21, 2016
Hosts: Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright

---

Introduction

In this episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast, the expert trio delves deep into the early quarterback (QB) rankings for the 2016 fantasy football season, focusing specifically on quarterbacks ranked 11 through 20. The hosts provide comprehensive analyses, share strong opinions, and offer matchup-winning advice to help fantasy managers optimize their QB selections.

---

Quarterback Rankings 11–20

11. Ben Roethlisberger

• Overview: Ben Roethlisberger (Big Ben) is discussed as a strong yet potentially underrated fantasy QB. Despite being the sixth quarterback to be drafted on average, the hosts believe he's undervalued.
• Key Points:
  • Projected to surpass 4,500 passing yards and achieve around 4-5 touchdowns this season.
  • Concerns: Limited touchdowns compared to elite QBs like Tom Brady, and the impact of Martavis Bryant’s suspension on the Pittsburgh Steelers' offense.
• Notable Quote:
  Jason Moore (09:10): “I would want Dan Roethlisberger on my NFL team, but I'm not going to have him on my fantasy team...”

12. Jameis Winston

• Overview: Jameis Winston enters the rankings with significant upside as a rookie QB showing promise.
• Key Points:
  • Performance: Threw for over 4,000 yards in his rookie season, the youngest to do so, with a strong showing in the second half of the year.
  • Improvements: Weight reduction and enhanced cardio, aiming to bolster his performance.
  • Projection: Expected to climb in fantasy rankings due to increased responsibility and weaponry on his team.
• Notable Quote:
  Andy Holloway (15:12): “22 years old right now, so he's 21 last year. And in four-point per passing touchdown leagues, he jumps from 16 to 11.”

13. Derek Carr

• Overview: Derek Carr is highlighted for his impressive sophomore season, comparable to Andrew Luck’s performance in his second year.
• Key Points:
  • Performance: Threw for nearly 4,000 yards with over 30 touchdowns.
  • Offensive Weapons: Amari Cooper's health significantly impacts his fantasy value.
  • Upside: High potential if offensive consistency is maintained and additional wide receivers are acquired.
• Notable Quote:
  Jason Moore (17:14): “All of these guys at this range are so close in our points...”

16. Ryan Fitzpatrick

• Overview: Ryan Fitzpatrick experienced a career year, leading to his placement at number 16.
• Key Points:
  • Performance: Threw for 31 touchdowns but struggled with interceptions and consistency.
  • Fantasy Role: Best suited as a streaming option rather than a consistent starter.
• Notable Quote:
  Andy Holloway (31:20): “For him being ranked this high, he really falls into a streamer only category for me.”

17. Colin Kaepernick

• Overview: Colin Kaepernick's ranking is subject to debate, hinging on potential trades and fit within team offensive schemes.
• Key Points:
  • Potential Trades: Speculation around a possible move to Denver, which could enhance his fantasy value.
  • Offensive Fit: Compatibility with Chip Kelly’s system could lead to big games and increased rushing opportunities.
• Notable Quote:
  Andy Holloway (32:34): “We have the entertaining pleasure right now of having this standoff...”

18. Tony Romo

• Overview: Tony Romo is considered a valuable late-round pick with high upside, tempered by injury concerns.
• Key Points:
  • Performance: Led the league in completion percentage and yards per attempt in 2014.
  • Injury Risk: History of collarbone injuries poses a risk but his consistent production when healthy makes him an attractive option.
• Notable Quote:
  Jason Moore (35:18): “I would not mind taking him with my third to last pick if he happened to be available.”

19. Kirk Cousins

• Overview: Kirk Cousins is recognized for his strong passing yards and touchdowns but is held back by inconsistency.
• Key Points:
  • Performance: Threw for over 4,100 yards and five rushing touchdowns but struggled with mental mistakes and turnovers early in the season.
  • Team Dynamics: The presence of healthy receivers like Jordan Reed and the potential return of Desean Jackson could enhance his fantasy value.
• Notable Quote:
  Andy Holloway (41:07): “It can kind of go any way with him and that's why he's down at 19 and higher.”

20. Matthew Stafford

• Overview: Matthew Stafford remains a polarizing figure, with strong yardage potential but concerns about his supporting cast.
• Key Points:
  • Performance: Showed significant improvement in the second half of the previous season, throwing for over 4,400 yards with reduced interceptions.
  • Supporting Cast: Loss of key wide receivers like Calvin Johnson impacts his effectiveness, though his arsenal still includes reliable targets like Golden Tate and Eric Ebron.
• Notable Quote:
  Andy Holloway (44:03): “If the attempts don't change for Matthew Stafford, he'll be efficient enough with them to make his mark in fantasy football.”

---

Key Discussions and Insights

1. Scoring Systems Impact Rankings:

   • The podcast utilizes a 6-point per passing touchdown scoring system, which slightly devalues running quarterbacks compared to a 4-point system.

2. Injury Considerations:

   • Ben Roethlisberger and Matthew Stafford carry injury risks that could impact their season-long fantasy performance.
   • Tony Romo’s history with collarbone injuries places him higher on the risk spectrum, rated around 6-7 out of 10.

3. Weapon Availability:

   • The health and productivity of key wide receivers like Amari Cooper and Jordan Reed are crucial for QBs like Derek Carr and Kirk Cousins to maximize their fantasy output.

4. Trade Speculations:

   • Colin Kaepernick’s potential trade to Denver could create a significant shift in his fantasy ranking, depending on the offensive strategies he adopts in a new environment.

5. Consistency vs. Upside:

   • Ryan Fitzpatrick and Kirk Cousins are seen as inconsistent producers, making them more suitable for streaming rather than as primary fantasy QBs.
   • Jameis Winston and Matthew Stafford offer high upside with the potential for explosive performances, but come with their own sets of risks.

---

Conclusions

The Fantasy Footballers provide a nuanced analysis of the mid-tier quarterbacks, emphasizing the delicate balance between consistency, injury risk, and offensive support. Managers are encouraged to consider these factors carefully when drafting or making moves throughout the season. The episode underscores the importance of understanding each quarterback's unique situation to make informed fantasy football decisions.

---

Looking Ahead

In anticipation of the upcoming draft, the hosts tease a draft preview with special guests, where they will discuss big offensive names, potential team assignments, and strategies to navigate the ever-evolving quarterback landscape. Listeners are encouraged to submit questions via the website and engage with the podcast community for deeper insights.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Jason Moore (09:10): “I would want Dan Roethlisberger on my NFL team, but I'm not going to have him on my fantasy team...”
• Andy Holloway (15:12): “22 years old right now, so he's 21 last year. And in four-point per passing touchdown leagues, he jumps from 16 to 11.”
• Jason Moore (35:18): “I would not mind taking him with my third to last pick if he happened to be available.”
• Andy Holloway (44:03): “If the attempts don't change for Matthew Stafford, he'll be efficient enough with them to make his mark in fantasy football.”

---

Stay Connected:
For more insights and to join the fantasy football community, visit fantasyfootballers.com and follow them on Twitter @FFballers.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

Hey, Foot Clan. We want to thank today's sponsor, pristineauction.com pristine auction is the place to go for all sorts of sports memorabilia. Autographed, unique items specific to your team and perfect for your man cave, your woman cave, your office, whatever you want. It's your way to get something unique and great on the web. And what's so cool is they don't just have weekly auctions, they have daily auctions. Hundreds of auctions that end every night. Mike is addicted to going on there and we have to.

[Mike Wright]

I do have a problem.

[Andy Holloway]

We have to hide the company.

[Mike Wright]

Great problem.

[Andy Holloway]

The company card away from him. So check them out. Pristineauction.com.

[Jason Moore]

Welcome to the fantasy Footballers Podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, welcome. Welcome into Foot Clan headquarters, the studio.

[Mike Wright]

This is the good stuff.

[Andy Holloway]

This episode. This one. Oh, this episode's got the good stuff.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, yeah. These are the quarterbacks that we care about far more than those first 10 scrubs.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, speaking of the scrubs, you can listen to us talk about them on the Tuesday show. Look, we're getting into our. What is it, 11 through 20 at the quarterback position today. Andy, Mike and Jason, the fantasy footballers back again, delivering the goodness. It's going to be a fun show today. We ended with a couple of interesting names on the last show and so I'm excited to get into it. Check us out on the web at the fantasy footballers.com that's where you can submit questions. We're going to answer a bunch of listener questions next on the next episode. We also have a mailbag show every single week, an extra show on jointhefoot.com and so I invite you to go and check that out. It's awesome. You can also find us on TwitterFFballers. And this week we are taking a minute to just enlist the help of the Foot Clan. Foot Clan to.

[Mike Wright]

Is it unite or.

[Andy Holloway]

It never works.

[Jason Moore]

I didn't. Yeah, I didn't know you were going there. Try it again. Foot Clan Unite.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I mean, it's just an oversell, guys.

[Mike Wright]

Nope.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, well, we're missing it here. You can go to podcastawards.com, nominate this show in the sports category and the People's Choice category for an award we put. We're almost to 200 shows. Do you realize that?

[Mike Wright]

I do 200 shows.

[Jason Moore]

I believe the 200th episode coming up is going to be right about. On my birthday.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Happy birthday to you.

[Jason Moore]

You got any special treats for me on my birthday?

[Mike Wright]

I am working.

[Andy Holloway]

Give us the Gift of taking that day off.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, not. I mean, we would love. Yeah. Your gif. Yeah. 200 shows. That's just pretty incredible. And we wouldn't be able to do that without your support. So thank you so much for supporting this show and for helping us. @podcastawards.com the quick question for the day, before we get into the quarterbacks and some great discussion about streaming the position. The quarterback position, I have a quick question. You guys don't know what it is, but I'll give you a hint. It's a good one.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, all right. I think I know the sweet hint.

[Mike Wright]

Sweet hint.

[Andy Holloway]

Do you guys know who had the longest rush from scrimmage in 2015?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, so don't answer then if you know the answer.

[Mike Wright]

The longest rush.

[Andy Holloway]

What was the longest rush from scrimmage in 2015? It was, I have fact, a touchdown.

[Mike Wright]

I have a very strong guess. I'm gonna go with a Marcus Mariota.

[Jason Moore]

That was who I was going with. Where are we going?

[Andy Holloway]

Jason Whitten. No, not really. It was.

[Jason Moore]

I just want to see that.

[Andy Holloway]

I know, I know.

[Jason Moore]

I was picturing it.

[Mike Wright]

The play lasted 25 seconds.

[Andy Holloway]

No, it wasn't Jason Whitten. Believe it or not, it was Marcus Mariota. And so he's one of the quarterbacks we're going to talk about today. A lot has been happening with the Titans in general this offseason. Rashard Matthews, DeMarco Murray, Mike Malarkey becoming the head coach.

[Mike Wright]

The big bajillion picks, the big, big trade.

[Andy Holloway]

There's some talk about them grabbing a wide receiver at pick 15. Another weapon for Mariota. So I think he is going to be. I wanted to remind people about the capability of somebody who didn't rush a lot but does have elite four. What? What did he run? A four. Four something.

[Mike Wright]

What was it? I'll look it up.

[Andy Holloway]

Check out Mario. To sporty time. Just the ability to make a play like that. We saw that with RG3 in the past where somehow a play that looks like it's a 5 or 10 yard run can become an 87 yard touchdown. That was the play from scrimmage that was the longest last year.

[Jason Moore]

There's no guarantee of success. You know who has the number one quarterback run in history because that was the number two longest quarterback run?

[Andy Holloway]

Terrell Pryor.

[Jason Moore]

Terrell Pryor.

[Andy Holloway]

So I tell you what, you hand him the ball, he might do something.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. So what was his 40 time, by the way?

[Mike Wright]

I need to do a vet it by a different Source here. So I'm pulling it up. It was a 4, 5, 2.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, that sounds right. Sounds right. Any. Any news you guys want to get into? Are we saving that till next week?

[Jason Moore]

Let's get right to the quarterbacks.

[Andy Holloway]

I think, I think we're going to get into the quarterbacks. Obviously, we've got. I want to let everybody know, too. We have a couple of great draft shows coming up. We're going to have a special guest on. On Tuesday of next week. Are we revealing that?

[Mike Wright]

Oh, yeah, I think we can. For those who do not know Rotoviz, you're ridiculous. First of all, go check out rotoviz.com and Matthew Friedman, also known as Matt F. The Oracle, has agreed in principle to join us for a.

[Andy Holloway]

What? We didn't secure the deal.

[Mike Wright]

Well, you just. You always got to have a way out.

[Andy Holloway]

Do we need to send a box of cookies or something? Got to lock it down.

[Jason Moore]

Your wife makes great lemon cookies. So let's bring those up here and then. And then we'll continue the show.

[Andy Holloway]

You wish.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I do wish.

[Andy Holloway]

You'll be asleep in eight minutes.

[Jason Moore]

No, I'm excited to talk about the quarterbacks, but before we talk about the quarterbacks, we do want to thank one of our best sponsors, SeatGeek. The SeatGeek app is the place to buy tickets. This isn't something we just talked about all last year, something we use ourself.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, they're great.

[Jason Moore]

We're going to the FSTA Conference. When is that? In June.

[Andy Holloway]

In New York.

[Jason Moore]

In New York. We're going to go to the Mets game. Got our tickets on SeatGeek. If you've ever been frustrated buying your tickets online, most sites make it complicated. They put in all those extra charges. That is why you need SeatGeek. They basically have all the tickets from all the different ticketing sites. They pull them all in one location. You know the maps that you have on all those other ticketing sites that stink. You can't find your seats. This one's great, like color coordinated. Here's your best deal. Super easy. And unlike other sites, they don't charge you nonsense fees at the end that are. That are asinine. So here's what you do. You can also get a $20 cash back by using our promo code. Download the free SeatGeek app. It's completely free. Do that now. And then go on the settings tab and add the promo code. Footballers. And then SeatGeek will send you $20 after you've made your first ticket purchase. So Download the free SeatGeek app today Enter promo code footballers to save 20 Bucks quarterbacks.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, we're getting into 11 through 20 at the Quarterback position. Some of the highlights we brought up last show and so if you want an introduction to what streaming the quarterback position means, go listen to the show from Tuesday. We talked about the fact that there were 11 quarterbacks last year that threw for 30 or more touchdowns. The fact that there were 40, is that right? 40.

[Mike Wright]

That is correct.

[Andy Holloway]

Different quarterbacks that put up a QB one week last year, which means top 12. Which means top 12 at the position at least in one week, which is just incredible. And so we're gonna start right now at number 11 on our consensus list. You can see all of our quarterbacks 1 through what, 32. I'm guessing somewhere right around.

[Mike Wright]

Right around there, yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

On the website, the fantasy footballers.com. just click the rankings tab. You can see it in every scoring system. Our consensus that we're going through on the show is by 6 point per passing touchdown scoring system. So it's. There's some variation there. Obviously running quarterbacks move up a little bit in a four point league because the value of the rush is higher than the passing touchdown. So number 11, I think a lot of people would have expected him in our top 10 or in. I think he's probably in the top 10 of a lot of people. And that's Ben Roethlisberger.

[Jason Moore]

He's the sixth quarterback right now going off the board in average draft. So we've got him devalued here as far as being overdrafted. And what's crazy is he's on pace, you know, for 5, 5000 yards type of season. And I had mentioned this last year or I'm sorry, last episode that I really, really like Ben Roethlisberger. I think it's a guarantee he's going to have 4,500 yards passing, you know, 29 touchdowns. The thing that we don't remember a lot of times with Big Ben, he doesn't throw that many touchdowns by comparison to the other giant name quarterbacks in fantasy, at least over the course of his career.

[Andy Holloway]

21 last year.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

21 touchdowns in 2015 and the highest.

[Mike Wright]

Total that Ben Roethlisberger has ever thrown for. The highest. We're talking in the age where Tom Brady has thrown a 50 touchdown season. Big Ben, you know, fantasy superstar. 32, 32 touchdowns is the most. The highest total for a full season For Ben Rothstein.

[Andy Holloway]

That's the only. He's done that twice. But those are the only seasons above 30 in a what will now be what, a 12 year career. And so there's a word of caution with all the hype that comes around. Big Ben, he has had some of those like mind blowing games in the public eye where he had what, back to back, seven touchdown.

[Mike Wright]

Six.

[Andy Holloway]

Six touchdown games. What was it, two years ago? Yeah, and, and so that kind of gets in your mind. Antonio Brown obviously provides so much upside for a quarterback. And so there are games where he goes out like last year at Seattle, throws for 456 yards, but he also has a game like, you know, week three against St. Louis where he threw for 192.

[Mike Wright]

Well, he also died in that.

[Andy Holloway]

That's true. That game he did. But he had a 229 game, a 220 game. And so there's some variables with Big Ben.

[Mike Wright]

We've talked about the impact that Martevis Bryant's suspension has on Tony O'Brown. Those kinds of guys, it goes up, it brings Ben down.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean that's seven points less per game is the average without Martavis Bryant.

[Mike Wright]

So. And that's a big deal. I mean you're talking a full touchdown less for Big Bend, for the entire team. So it's. Unless someone like Sammy Coates or Marcus Wheaton can step up and fill a void left behind by the immense talent of Bryant. I mean, sure, Roethlisberger is going to dazzle you with his yards, but he's going to like Eli Manning.

[Andy Holloway]

We talked about.

[Mike Wright]

Eli Manning can have these monster games and then just disappear for fantasy. Ben can do the same type of a thing.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, he can. He can beat you when you expect him to stink and he can stink for you when you're playing him. Let me ask this though. If he's 11 on our list, is he on any of our teams in any league? Because I mean, it just doesn't seem like that's going to happen.

[Mike Wright]

It's highly doubtful.

[Jason Moore]

It would pretty much be impossible for, I mean for us, the three of us to draft him because, and I said this last episode, there are a lot of really great NFL quarterbacks who are not always the best quarterbacks for fantasy football. Ben Roethlisberger is a great example. He's a guy that I would want on my NFL team to get me to a Super bowl and win a championship. But I'm not going to have him on my fantasy team. As far as for the value of where other people take him because of his name.

[Andy Holloway]

Not to mention he misses games here and there with injuries. Jason, how much does Lev Bell returning help Big Ben in the fantasy world, or does it.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, no, it definitely does. To have a safety valve where you can get extra yards. You look at the year before where he had Le'Veon Bell healthy and his yards were through the roof. Also, Le'Veon Bell can catch a few passes through.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, just a few.

[Jason Moore]

Get a. Get a few. Well, I was going to say the touchdowns through the passing game can help, but losing, you know, you say, oh, so he gets Le'Veon Bell back. Then it's great. But as Mike mentioned, you lose Martavis Bryant, who's another elite talent. He's more important to Big Ben than. Than Le'Veon Bell is to Big Ben.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, a lot of big play potential with Martavius that you lose if. If Coates can't become, you know, at least a percentage of what he offered or somebody else. So let's move on to number 12 on the consensus rankings. I think our first of several surprises today. To me, he's certainly not there because of me. Yeah, he is 16 on my rankings, though, so not too bad. Mike has him 10, Jason has him 14, and his name is Jameis Winston. I will say this. If you project James Winston's yardage numbers off of the second half of the year, which I think is very fair to do for a rookie who is, who is learning the system, who is really being given more of the reins over the course of a year, it's not just improvement on total efficiency, it's also volume. He was on pace for, I think, 43, 4400 yards. And so I've also heard very good things. I know it's. There's various coach speak out there. We tell you to be careful of it in the offseason, but from a weight standpoint, you really can't coach speed. Somebody's weight.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Cardio on.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, he's down. I think he played as high as 250, 250 last year, I think. I heard he's down to what, 215, 225. 225. Ish. Yeah, I'm gonna. I'll vet that number, but it's a good sign.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he's. He's on that Eddie Lacy, Tony Horton program over there doing work with the cardio. And look, I love Jameis Winston for fantasy this year.

[Andy Holloway]

He's at 236. He played above 250 last year.

[Mike Wright]

Well, that's. That's still a big deal. James Winston, youngest rookie to throw for over 4,000 yards.

[Andy Holloway]

Wow.

[Mike Wright]

So you're talking. It's something that's never been done. Now, granted, he had a pretty low passing percentage under 60, which is not what you want to see with a 58.3. And you could, you could see that when you watch him, especially the first half of the year, especially game one.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, my goodness.

[Mike Wright]

Jameis wasn't. He thought he was ready. He wasn't ready for the NFL and the game. You could see it start slowing down and he acclimates more to the game. And he's not especially coming out with Marcus Mariota. He's not, you think, okay, he's not the, he's not the rushing quarterback. He's not going to run. But he got over 200 yards on the ground and six touchdowns.

[Jason Moore]

Those type of numbers really make a difference for you. Take a look at the difference between him and Big Ben. Now, I don't expect him to get six touchdowns again next year on the ground. That's fair. But the 200 yards, that's a huge difference between him and Big Ben, who gets pretty much zero every year. I mean, it's kind of mind blowing how few yards Big Ben gets at all. But Mariota, you mentioned with Winston.

[Andy Holloway]

You mean Winston.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. You mentioned with Winston that he was the youngest quarterback in the history of the NFL to throw for 4,000 yards. He was the youngest quarterback in the history of the NFL to throw for 3,000. Even if you go take it down to just getting 3,000, we don't realize how young he is.

[Andy Holloway]

22 years old right now, so he's 21 last year. And in four point per passing touchdown leagues, he jumps from 16 to 11. He gets into my top 10 because of what he does offer you to 11.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, but he's not in your top 10.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm sorry, into my top. I meant as a number one. Sorry, I meant a number one.

[Mike Wright]

My brain was exploding.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, 11 is in the first 10 numbers. 1100 50. But he climbs up is my point, because he does. I think he's. I think I put him down for four rushing touchdowns this year. Like Jason said, six is kind of a pretty high number. Obviously, if he gave you that, I mean, just more power to him as a quarterback, a fantasy quarterback. But I gave him four. And I think, you know, you've got the weapons there. We've talked kind of ad nauseam about the factor. Cutter is, is there and it's stable. And Doug Martin's still there and Mike Evans in his ascension. I think they probably draft a Wide receiver. That's my personal opinion. We'll find out here soon.

[Jason Moore]

The weapons are there back Austin. Yeah, I mean it's really going to help. And one other thing you need to keep in mind with Jameis Winston. So I've got him in my own personal rankings, one spot behind Ryan Fitzpatrick. I statted Fitzpatrick as if he's been re signed with with the jets, which he is.

[Andy Holloway]

But in my head.

[Jason Moore]

In your head. But the truth is, is that Jameis Winston has crazy upside his up. His ceiling is much higher than Ryan Fitzpatrick's ceiling in my world because if he comes out and lights, you know, and throws for 4400, 4500 yards, I wouldn't be blown. I wouldn't be like, whoa, I'm never seeing Fitzpatrick coming out and throwing for 4,500 yards.

[Mike Wright]

Because you've never seen him throw for 4,000 like Jameis Winston did in his rookie year.

[Jason Moore]

Exactly. So the upside at his range is nice.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I really like both the sophomores this year. We're going to talk about Mariota a little bit later at number 13. We're going to talk about Derek Carr coming into year number three. Somebody who really had some impressive games last year had some games that kind of. Well, I mean, didn't do much for you.

[Mike Wright]

It fell apart there towards the end of the year.

[Andy Holloway]

But he did throw for almost 4,000 yards, 30 plus touchdowns. So he's one of those 11 guys that did that. And an interesting fact here is that his sophomore season was very comparable to Andrew Luck's, except for Carr had an even better year than Luck did as a sophomore. We talked about Luck on the last show and how on in year three went out and threw for 40 touchdowns.

[Mike Wright]

So you heard it here from Andy. Oh, touchdowns for Derek Carr.

[Andy Holloway]

Not quite yet, but what are your guys thoughts on Derek Carr, the offense? Amari Cooper's obviously huge weapon. Crabtree proved to be a reliable weapon last year. I don't know what you guys think about Latavius and Walford and some of those other guys, but. But Derek Carr, number 13 puts him right outside that top 12 QB1 range. Where do you guys have Carr in your mind?

[Jason Moore]

All of these guys at this range are so close in our points. In fact, he's actually tied for 13th in our consensus ranking with two other guys. But when you're at this level of ranking, very similar to what I just talked about with Winston, what you're looking for this late in rankings is upside. I'm not worried about risk when I take a Guy late or, you know, at the back half of quarterbacks going, I'm looking for upside. And Derek Carr showed he can sling it last year. One of the things that doesn't show up very well on the box score is how bad Amari Cooper was hurt, physically hurt. I remember watching the games just thinking, like, why are they leaving him in there? He couldn't run routes. It was literally like he was hobbling while running routes, and they kept him in the game. Now, it's hard as a quarterback to be efficient when one of your wide receivers can't get open because he's hurt. And you remember his terrible statistics, Amari Cooper, statistics that were so bad in those games. Well, Cooper's going to be healthy. And if he had kept the pace that happened before that injury, we're talking about Derek Carr even better last year than he had. And so he's got high upside. To me, I think that it's really going to depend on what they do in the draft.

[Andy Holloway]

I have an interesting question about Carr. Maybe it's a differentiator for you guys in the draft or in the future. One quarter of his games for the season are against the Denver defense and the Kansas City defense. Being in that division, that could be a point towards how good he played last year in spite of those matchups. But he still has to do it this year, so no. Does that. Does that impact your view on him versus somebody like, you know, in a different. In a different division with different defense?

[Jason Moore]

You have to take divisions into account. You have to, because they play them twice a year. It'd be stupid not to. But is Kansas City's defense going to be better or worse? As of right now, I think it's.

[Andy Holloway]

Still a to be determined.

[Jason Moore]

Okay. And Denver, do you think they're going to be as good as they were last year?

[Andy Holloway]

Tough to be as good as last.

[Jason Moore]

Year when they've lost so many.

[Andy Holloway]

He's still a great passing defense, so.

[Jason Moore]

I think both defenses are going to be good. But the point I'm bringing up is that they've lost. Each defense has lost significant pieces. So coming into this year, it should possibly maybe.

[Andy Holloway]

Don't overemphasize that you're saying.

[Jason Moore]

Right, exactly. Breaking news now.

[Andy Holloway]

This probably won't be breaking news to anybody listening right now, because if you don't know, we're recording this show a little early. Mike is on an anniversary trip. That's right. During this 10th anniversary. So we recorded the quarterback shows before he left town because we wanted to keep him involved. We had to let him.

[Mike Wright]

Well, the people demanded.

[Andy Holloway]

Sure, that's what we told him. And. But the breaking news is this, that just came through here is that Percy Harvin has said he is retiring.

[Mike Wright]

Really?

[Jason Moore]

I was. I was about to be blown away when you said Percy Harvin. I thought you were going to say he signed somewhere and I was going to be shocked.

[Mike Wright]

That man.

[Andy Holloway]

Kind of sad.

[Mike Wright]

That disappoints me personally. I was a really, really big Percy Harvin fan. I was.

[Jason Moore]

What? No, that guy was a huge Percy.

[Andy Holloway]

He was a Minnesota fan.

[Mike Wright]

So, I mean, we were together in the Percival brother. Knowing. Knowing the fantasy power of Percy Harvin in Minnesota.

[Jason Moore]

So.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that's unfortunate.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, and you know, he had unique skills that almost nobody else in the.

[Mike Wright]

Game had to pay the bills.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Well, not for long, though. So anyways, moving. Farewell, Percy. It's sad that I don't get to see you sign and disappoint another team.

[Mike Wright]

Derek Carr, to me, is one of the perfect guys. If you're going to wait late and you are, maybe you're going to hold two guys, you hold Derek Carr and somebody else, and you can play those two matchups. You get Derek Carr because you know that his early schedule is great and you know you can ditch him once the division games are coming up.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, this next guy is part of a group of people basically tied in our consensus rankings, but certainly not tied when you look at them individually. Jason has him at 7. I have him at 25.

[Mike Wright]

That is shocking to me that I.

[Andy Holloway]

Have him that low. You're that low on him, and I'll explain that. And Mike has him at 13 right now. And this is Andy Dalton.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. So Andy Dalton, I guess. I guess I have the floor, huh? Andy Dalton is.

[Andy Holloway]

To me, I think I have the floor. You have the ceiling.

[Mike Wright]

Well done.

[Jason Moore]

What happened last year? He was on pace to be one of the top four quarterbacks last year. We have a track record from two years prior where he finished the year as the number three quarterback. So you're talking about a guy who can do it. He slings the ball and when they get down near the end zone, there are some quarterbacks that don't have that repertoire of passing skills in the red zone, and there are some that do. And Andy Dalton does have it and weapons to do it and weapons. Now, the downside is he's lost Marvin Jones as a weapon and he's lost Muhammad Sanu. So I'm a little. I'm not super hot on Andy Dalton. But he is a guy that I think for, you know, that we're forgetting about a little bit. I think as the draft gets closer, because of losing Sanu and because of losing Marvin Jones, his draft stock is going to fall. And he's still a guy with one of the best wide receivers in the league, one of the best tight end targets who's done it on multiple years. So I just think, what am I. Who around him would I say I've got to have someone else other than Andy Dalton?

[Andy Holloway]

Well, the one that jumps out to me is, obviously you're on the Andy Dalton train as opposed to the Big Ben train. You have Dalton much higher than Big Ben in your rankings. To me, I can make a lot of the arguments you made against Big Ben. Against Andy Dalton, he said one year of more than 30 touchdowns, one year of more than 4,000 yards passing. It's interceptions, huh?

[Jason Moore]

Interceptions. To me, I'm looking at my rankings and the difference between Big Ben and Andy Dalton is interceptions. Last year, you saw Andy Dalton protect the ball very well. And so I think that that's one of the things that's separating him in my rankings. In addition to that, and we brought this up a minute ago about Big Ben, is the fact that Big Ben does not run the ball. Andy Dalton always gets a couple of touchdowns on the ground and he'll get you, you know, 200 yards.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And it's a confidence. It's the differentiator for our rankings is a confidence level. Do I believe that Andy Dalton, from the beginning half of last year is what you're going to see this year? Hugh Jackson is not the offensive coordinator of that team anymore, quarterback coach and.

[Jason Moore]

Is who got promoted to the offensive coordinator.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I understand, I understand. But you do have a change in potentially the philosophy of the running game. Who are they going to give the ball to? Is it going to be more Jimmy Hill? They lost two wide receivers. Is IFRT going to be that potent in the red zone, or is it going to be the running game? I love A.J. green. I like Andy Dalton just fine. But again, one year of more than 30 touchdowns in his career out of five seasons, that. That's enough for me to say, I'm not going to move him up into that upper echelon. Doesn't mean he can't finish there. But that's the disparity that I see, and obviously it's a big one between those two guys. I fall on the side of, hey, I've had enough Andy Dalton.

[Jason Moore]

Okay, that's fair.

[Andy Holloway]

Marcus Mariota at 15 in our consensus rankings. We talked about him earlier. Had the longest play from scrimmage for a touchdown last year. Rush from scrimmage last year. He's somebody who.

[Mike Wright]

Andy's boy.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

How high do I have him?

[Mike Wright]

You have seven.

[Jason Moore]

We have this really unique thing in our rankings that obviously we did not try to do. But I have andy Dalton at 7, where Mike has him at 13, and Andy at 25 at 7, Mike has Philip Rivers where Andy's got him at 17 and 11. And at 7, Andy has Marcus Mariota, where the two of us don't have him nearly as high at 16 and 22.

[Andy Holloway]

So for some reason, it's like a casino thing. It's the. Are you spinning sevens? These are. This is all of our. Our risk position. For some reason. That's very high for Mariota. I think I told you both. I doubt he stays at 7. However, I do see him as a QB one. I think that you saw over the second half of the season, well over the entirety of the season, a very accurate quarterback who had very few weapons. Now you add DeMarco Murray, two new offensive linemen. You add Terry Rubisky as the offensive coordinator, somebody who I think is going to. Who is more creative.

[Mike Wright]

But he lost Ken Wisenhunt again.

[Andy Holloway]

Another plus, another checkbox. We'll see what they do in the draft. I think they could draft another offensive weapon at the wide receiver position to go with Green, Beckham and a returning Ken. The right, a very reliable Delaney Walker and a guy who can run the ball and not make. He does not make a lot of mistakes. You talk about the difference between, you know, I'd bet just about everything on him having about half the interceptions that Winston has next year. Because Mariota takes care of the ball. He's very accurate. He didn't have a lot of weapons. Just from a statistical standpoint, that offense has to improve. I have a lot of confidence in Mariota being a weapon and. And when a guy can run the ball a little bit, put up those yards, I like him.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

The problem. Maybe it's. Maybe it's a little too high. I'll be first to admit, seven sounds too high.

[Mike Wright]

The problem with me for. For Mariota is I just don't see the scoring.

[Jason Moore]

The.

[Mike Wright]

As far as touchdowns. I mean, he had 19 touchdowns in 12 games. You know, that puts him on pace for, you know, like about one and a half a game, which that can absolutely can improve. I'm not saying that. I just don't see. I don't see a huge jump coming for there. I, I would be shocked if Mariota threw over 30 touchdowns. I think.

[Andy Holloway]

Does he need to. To be a one though?

[Mike Wright]

I think he does. I mean you like because for as much as we think of him as a running quarterback, 12 games, 252 yards, 87 yards on one play. That's. That's almost. That's about a third of the production in one play which that was also the second longest rush by a quarterback in history. Now if he's going to continue to give me historical runs, I can jump.

[Andy Holloway]

On board with rushing attempts. Went up in the second half when Malarkey took over.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it is true. I think when you look at his game log and you go back and watch the film, I was actually a little bit surprised with Mariota. I did not think just kind of feelings wise at the end of last year that he was very pass happy. He wasn't a quarterback that was going to put up yards. In my mind he was much more the Russell Wilson build. And as I went back and kind of investigated game by game and look, he surprised me. We forget that on his last game, if you're just looking through the game log, he went out early in that game. So he was actually on pace. He was on pace for almost right on the dot, over 4,000 yards. If you take that injured game that he basically did not play in out of the equation. And I was, I was surprised by that to see that, that Mariota, Mariota was on pace for 4,000 yards, but he's not as big a runner as.

[Mike Wright]

You know, who he feels like. To me now he's a little bit better of an athlete. He feels like Alex Smith. He feels like that's what his career path is going to be.

[Andy Holloway]

It could be. That's not the worst.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And it's not the worst. I think Alex Smith is a good player.

[Andy Holloway]

No, but from a F it wouldn't be good.

[Mike Wright]

Right. Yeah, that's.

[Andy Holloway]

They remind me of from an accuracy perspective. Can move, can run better than people think.

[Jason Moore]

Doesn't really focus on the long ball at all.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Last year I believe Mariota was the least accurate. Over 20 yards.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. Over 20 yards. In the air. He was the least accurate passer in the league.

[Jason Moore]

I just.

[Mike Wright]

That wasn't premeditated. I just thought of that now and then. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go with that. Marcus Smith.

[Andy Holloway]

Marcus Smith. I hope that's not the case. You know, he certainly was more prolific in college. But you know, Smith was in that level too.

[Jason Moore]

So he certainly, the big argument for him is weapons. Last year he had nobody. Kendall Wright got injured and it was basically Delaney Walker. This year that was it. So many more weapons and that makes such a difference.

[Andy Holloway]

0 wide receivers in the top 50 in fantasy for Tennessee. If you, I mean that doesn't do very, that doesn't help.

[Mike Wright]

I would love to see a, one of these like a Coleman, a dachshund. Personally, I wouldn't want them to be on there. But if, if you add a guy like that to a really potent guy to that offense, then that improves my, my opinion on him.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, so let's move on. Where are we at 16?

[Mike Wright]

Yep.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, 16 is Ryan Fitzpatrick. He had a career year last year. He gave two wide receivers the opportunity to be ones essentially with Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker having double digit touchdown seasons. You know, he threw 31 touchdowns, which, you know, when you think of a career year, maybe you don't think 31 is a career year. But for Fitzpatrick, he does run the ball a little bit. Yeah, he does. He had a pretty low passer rating. He's kind of a gunslinger. Interceptions are an issue at times. Consistency is not what you get out of him. For him being ranked this high, he really falls into a streamer only category for me.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I agree with that. He's going to be a situational play, not a guy you draft. When you, when you pick your guy at the draft, you're picking a guy if you, if you're using our strategy and you're picking late, you're picking a guy that you hope can blow up and be an every single week starter. That's why a guy like a, like a Jameis Winston, there's reason to believe if he took a step forward he could develop into that. Whereas Ryan Fitzpatrick, even last year he finished as the 11th quarterback, which is, you know, essentially about where I've got him ranked for this next year, assuming status quo. And so if he finishes 11th, that's not a guy you're going to play every week. Even though he's a quarterback one, that's a guy that you're going to have to pick the matchups and start when he's, you know, on the road against a super easy team or at home in not winter for Fitzpatrick kind of did not do well for a lumberjack man.

[Mike Wright]

He really falls apart in the winter.

[Andy Holloway]

He wouldn't do well in the world of Game of Thrones.

[Jason Moore]

And he's, he is tied again. We'll say this. Our rankings are so close in this group of guys. This is another three way tie for 16th, so him and the next two guys all tied for that slot.

[Andy Holloway]

Now 17, we have Colin Kaepernick, which I think might be interesting for a lot of people, but you know, 17 is right in the middle of the pack. We have the entertaining pleasure right now of having this stand, this standoff between Mike and Jason and myself. We'll call you the north side of the desk.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm on the south side. And the south side believes that Kaepernick is going to be a 49er, which honestly most of my ranking of Colin Kaepernick here has to do with his potential in a Chip Kelly offense to just have some big games, give up, get. Get opportunities to run the ball, you know. That being said, news broke today that Chip Kelly apparently really likes Blaine Gabbard. And so we don't know that Kaepernick's a starter, but if he was in San Francisco, I think he can do some things. You know, Sam Bradford certainly wasn't a pleasant surprise last year, but he did have some good games.

[Mike Wright]

So it will be very.

[Andy Holloway]

You guys believe he'll be traded to Denver and that's the reason why we're having a standoff.

[Mike Wright]

Well, yeah, but that's. And that's for fun. I've actually ranked him in the Kelly system as well. And I think it'll be very interesting to finally see Chip Kelly with his style of quarterback. When you think back of what Kelly has gotten done in Philadelphia, you had Sam Bradford, who is a statue, you have Nick Foles, maybe even more of a statue. I mean, he just. Sanchez can kind of move. Can kind of move, but the. He hasn't had his. It's.

[Andy Holloway]

So I don't know if that's his though.

[Jason Moore]

Would you say that that's his style, though? I mean, if he, if he's. If he's, you know, had the last several years of not really having a running quarterback. Are you just saying it's his style because of his college?

[Mike Wright]

Yes, I'm saying for college because he wanted to run his offense in the pros. And if it's. I just think it will be. I think Kaepernick will be a better fit for certain things that he wants to get done. I mean, you've. You saw they were doing read option type stuff in Philadelphia and Colin Kaepernick can get it done in that Colin Kaepernick succeeds greatly.

[Andy Holloway]

He just has to be accurate because he's a career 59% guy so he has to jump up to that 65% range to be good in.

[Mike Wright]

I think that running really helps improve his accuracy because guys will be more open.

[Jason Moore]

You know, I. It's interesting you guys are talking all about this Chip Kelly system because I believe I will stat him up from where I have him now if he gets traded to Denver because the weapons that you have to throw the ball to in San Francisco, sure he might run the ball or run more plays because of Chip Kelly's system, but I would much rather have a guy that's throwing to demarius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders than throwing to Tori Smith and Garrett Selleck. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

So you know, Smelter. Okay, well that, I mean that is debate with Kaepernick. I think it's kind of a. Even though he's 17, he's kind of don't touch for me right now. Just wait and see what's going on. He's probably a streaming guy, but he's interesting with the. With the Kelly or the Denver situation. At 18 you have Tony Romo. Somebody who I think is probably out of this next group is one of my favorite values. Because. Because he could get hurt again. I mean, that's the real truth. He could get hurt again. So he's going to drop down.

[Mike Wright]

He could.

[Andy Holloway]

But when he plays and he has DEZ Bryant, he's great. He's really good.

[Jason Moore]

I have Tony Romo at 12. He is my last quarterback. 1. I think that he's a sneaky grab this year because of his injuries last year. He's shown in fantasy that he can put up great numbers with DEZ Bryant. I believe Tony Romo is a guy that I'm going to be targeting in a lot of my drafts because if I left my draft with Tony Romo, I'm happy. I think I've got a quarterback that can. If I did a good job in the rest of my draft, I can go and win a championship barring injury.

[Andy Holloway]

So last year obviously was collarbone squared. That's what we'll call the season. He broke the collarbone a couple of times, but in 2014, last full season, he led the league in completion percentage, almost 70% yards per attempt, passer rating and QBR. But he didn't have a high volume of touchdowns because they were. That was the DeMarco Murray's year.

[Mike Wright]

Right. I think this. We need to repeat this. He led the league in ypa, so he's. He's bombing the ball out the yard and completion percentage that like that's ridiculous to lead the league in both of those numbers and Dez Bryant is a huge part of that. He had 21 touchdowns. This is 2014, 21 touchdowns in the red zone. Romo is just. I love Tony Romo personally and that, and that does hurt my heart a little bit because I don't want to root for the Cowboys. But I think Romo is a great quarterback and I was shocked when I saw he was at. He's at 18 for me right now and that's just where he happened to get statted out. But I'm with Jason. I love Romo for fantasy purposes. I would not mind taking him with my third to last pick if he happened to be available and that's my only quarterback going into the season. I'd be perfectly fine with that.

[Jason Moore]

What is the. We talk a lot about, you know, our draft kit coming up and we've got that risk ranking. What is your risk evaluation of Tony Romo since he's broken his collarbone three times but now allegedly has done something to enforce it to stop it from breaking again.

[Andy Holloway]

The way that Tony Romo plays is as much to do with his injury risk as simply his collarbone. He is somebody who makes plays in the pocket, holds the ball a little.

[Mike Wright]

Bit longer, kind of Warner esque, just willing to take that hit.

[Andy Holloway]

And so I've got to put that risk level. If 10's a high risk and one's a low risk, I'm going to put it at 6, 7 for Tony Romo. But it's a 6, 7 that I don't mind taking because it's so late in the draft.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it doesn't cost you anything.

[Mike Wright]

For me, it's actually lower. If you look back at his history, I mean, before this year he only played four games, but in the past, the previous four seasons he only had missed two games.

[Jason Moore]

And every single one of those season he was a quarterback one, fantasy wise.

[Andy Holloway]

And that's the case for Tony Romo. And he's going to be down the list most leagues, if not all. You know, you're going to have the Bortles flying off the board well ahead of Tony Romo.

[Jason Moore]

Tony Romo is being drafted as the 16th quarterback, which is, you know, 10th round and after.

[Andy Holloway]

Is that just because we don't have the training camp buzz of him being maybe back from surgery and feeling healthy?

[Mike Wright]

It's because it happens every single year.

[Andy Holloway]

Ah, that's why you're right. I don't get it.

[Mike Wright]

I don't get it. Why there's.

[Andy Holloway]

Do they draft a quarterback?

[Jason Moore]

I think The Dallas Cowboys. They should.

[Mike Wright]

I wouldn't personally, I would not.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, you're a big Brandon Whedon guy.

[Mike Wright]

I love Brandon Whedon.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, number 19. Wait, he's not even there anymore. Right. Okay. Number 19 is Captain Kellen Moore. You mean Max Hall? Number 19, Kirk Cousins. Captain Kirk, the either hero or villain for your playoff role or zero. Yeah. So he was impressive. He had five touchdowns on the ground, which I think is pretty incredible. But he can move a little bit. He had 29 through the air over 4,100 yards. And really a lot of people want to know why is he this low? Is there any reason why Kirk Cousins can't be, you know, in that top 12?

[Mike Wright]

No, I think he. He could, but you're talking about Cousins really took off in the second half of the season. Really for the majority. He was a one touchdown per game type of guy. Now I think that's. Like I was saying, I think the ability is there. If you have continue to have health with Jordan Reed and if you can find another target like Andy, you know who was, who was unhealthy for a lot of last year. Desean Jackson. Desean Jackson is being a forgotten man in the world of fantasy football, which is ridiculous. He's not my favorite player, but the fact that there's so much shade being thrown on him right now is. Is absolutely outrageous.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I've been surprised with some of the value. I've seen desean Jackson going pretty late.

[Mike Wright]

So you bring desean Jackson back, that raises the ceiling for Kirk Cousins. He. He can get it done. I'm just. We're talking about the risk meter. It's. I don't know if he led the.

[Andy Holloway]

League in completion percentage. The same type of argument we just made for Romo, but not.

[Mike Wright]

Not ypa.

[Andy Holloway]

No, not ypa. Has Jordan Reed, obviously a big weapon.

[Jason Moore]

Finished last year on a streak of very few interceptions. This is the type of guy where.

[Andy Holloway]

It can kind of go any way with him and that's why he's down at 19 and a higher.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. And the truth is that's a great risk. He's a great guy to grab at the end of a draft.

[Andy Holloway]

But do you think you can though? Where's he going right now?

[Jason Moore]

I will effort that he is going 14th at quarterback nine, ninth round. So, you know, if you're looking between Kirk Cousins and Eli Manning and Tony Romo, if you wanted to go Kirk Cousins and hope that the second half of the year, what you saw was the real Kirk Cousins, I think that that's a strategic move that you can make and it could pay off huge for you. And I don't believe it is. I don't believe that he's the guy that barely threw interceptions and was on fire the second half of the year because I saw a big disparity in home and away. I saw some mental mistakes that were just absurd.

[Andy Holloway]

Now you have a division, unlike Derek Carr, going up against some of those prolific defenses. Now the Giants, maybe they're better this year, but you're going against the Giants defense, the Eagles defense, softer, and the Cowboys, you know, softer secondaries than other divisions. So that could be a point in his favor if those guys aren't, you know, those teams aren't shored up at that. In the secondary.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Talking to the interceptions, I just want to actually read them because it's strange. A guy in his first six games, eight interceptions, after that, three the rest.

[Andy Holloway]

Of the year, it was impressive. He is a. He seems to need that confidence. Did he turn on?

[Mike Wright]

Yes, he does. He is. He tilts. If you put Cousins on tilt, the game is done.

[Andy Holloway]

But that's also early quarterback experience, like you said. Did it click? Is this the year? All those questions are why he's worried.

[Mike Wright]

Washington's asking that as well.

[Jason Moore]

Last year, last year, Mike and I talking about, I've never seen a guy that you could look, you could put together a highlight film of a single game of Kirk Cousins and you could say this guy is all world, he's incredible, he's top credible. And the same game you could put together a low light film where you go get this guy off the field.

[Andy Holloway]

You know who that reminds me of, though?

[Jason Moore]

Who?

[Andy Holloway]

Tony Romo. Sure. Tony Romo had these games where you'd watch drive after drive and then he'd just unravel in the second half or in certain drives it would be.

[Jason Moore]

I think that was called playoffs.

[Andy Holloway]

I think it was. You know, Romo had that reputation until he put together consistency for a while.

[Mike Wright]

I just want to remind everyone of the. Of the Kirk Cousins kneel out at the end of the half instead of spiking the ball.

[Andy Holloway]

No need to remind me.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, that was.

[Andy Holloway]

I had that tattooed on my leg afterwards.

[Mike Wright]

That moment was great.

[Andy Holloway]

And Pierre Garcon putting his head down was great.

[Jason Moore]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

The last guy in Our consensus top 20, this is Matthew Stafford.

[Mike Wright]

Why?

[Andy Holloway]

What are you appalled or excited?

[Mike Wright]

I'm excited to talk about it because I don't think there is a single guy who is. He's in your top 10.

[Andy Holloway]

He is in my top 10.

[Mike Wright]

And he is in our 20s.

[Andy Holloway]

Absolutely.

[Mike Wright]

So we are both very off of Matt Stafford. You are still on. He's lost the hall of Fame wide receiver. Sell me.

[Jason Moore]

Matt Stafford can be a hard sell.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, the cell is not going to be built around Marvin Jones replacing Calvin Johnson. It's not. What it's going to be built around is Matthew Stafford. Matthew Stafford in the second half of last year was incredible. I think you had three interceptions in the second half of last year and I'm trying to pull up the numbers right now to give them to you. He had three interceptions. I think he was on pace for somewhere in the 40s in terms of touchdowns. He really turned his entire season around. And I still just believe that the attempts aren't going to change. And if the attempts don't change for Matthew Stafford, he'll be efficient enough with them to make his mark in fantasy football. I believe in the second half of the year. His pace in the second half was 38 for 4,400 yards and he only threw, I believe, four interceptions in the second half. A tale of two. Two seasons. I know Matthew Stafford is a polarizing guy, like a Jay Cutler in the past and those type of players, but I just, you know, Matthew Stafford can turn it on on any given day. He still got Golden Tate, Eric Ebron in the red zone, Marvin Jones, a couple of passing, you know, Riddick isn't running the ball. Riddick catches the ball. 80, you know, 70 to 80 catches. Amir Abdullah is a pass catcher. That's five names that I threw out there that can be good enough for this offense.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

And they might bring another guy on.

[Jason Moore]

If you believe in what Andy is saying. The nice thing about Matthew Stafford, he is actually getting drafted about where we're talking about the 20th, you know, the.

[Andy Holloway]

Right now he's free.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, he's free. He's essentially going undrafted and Andy's got him finishing in the top eight for him. So, I mean, when you get in this range in six point.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

When you get in this range of quarterbacks, you're really talking about a difference of opinion from one person to the next. Where you go, I like Matthew Stafford. I hate Matthew Stafford. I love Kirk Cousins. Oh, he's the worst.

[Andy Holloway]

And you got a sort of.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I mean, it just. It's common with a lot of the players in this range. But the point again and again and again is that this range, I mean, we're at the 20th. If you're in a league that starts 12, there might not even be 20 rostered quarterbacks. I mean, usually you'd probably roster about 20 in a league that's around the range. But we still haven't talked about Matt Ryan or Tyrod Taylor. Ryan, Tannehill, Cutler. I mean, there's so many guys. Flacco.

[Mike Wright]

Flacco.

[Jason Moore]

Well, Andy's talked about Flacco before. I'm not super high on him, but I know Andy's talked about a big bounce back year for the Ravens.

[Andy Holloway]

I have.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

I've talked about a big bounce back here for the Ravens.

[Mike Wright]

I don't, I don't remember this.

[Andy Holloway]

Me neither. Maybe that was.

[Jason Moore]

Maybe it was a dream, but I swear it's happened.

[Andy Holloway]

I think we've talked about the fact that the Ravens have high pass attempts. Yes, but that's not the same as me being in their camp.

[Jason Moore]

I'm going to agree to disagree on this one.

[Mike Wright]

So my, my argument to your argument is the loss of Calvin Johnson is so huge because I think that those other guys you mentioned, Calvin just being on the field makes that entire team better. Calvin makes things easier for everybody. Where Marvin Jones will. Will not do that. We've seen in the past Stafford. It's not a huge sample size, granted, but in the games where Calvin Johnson is not involved, you've seen Stafford just fall on his face. He's gotten better recently. I will, I will admit to this point of. Stafford has become a decent, real life quarterback. You know, cut down on the interceptions. He's just playing better. But it's, it's very difficult for me to get to the point of seeing him lose Calvin and, and him still finishing in the top 10 and that.

[Andy Holloway]

And that's fine. I think that's fair. I don't think he's going to stay eight. Eight's too high. He'll be at that 12, 13, QB1, QB2 range. For me, there's no way I want to go week in and week out with Stafford as my quarterback. Even though he ended so well. I'm not, I'm looking at that saying, okay, I don't really want him in there every single week. So that puts him on the, on the bubble a little bit more. So that, that does it for today's episode. The last half of our quarterbacks. Is there anybody from the remainder that we didn't talk about that you want to say anything highlight for the last, you know. And you're talking about that. Tyrod Taylor, Matt Ryan. I think Ryan Color. Alex Smith. I think Ryan Tanner, Joe Flacco, who Jason loves. No, no, no. RG3, Sam Bradford.

[Jason Moore]

I could be wrong on the Joe Flacco. Not it wasn't a Joe Flacco conversation, but a Ravens bounce back candidate team. I could be wrong on that, but that was the reason I was bringing him up. The guy that I would bring.

[Andy Holloway]

I do like the Ravens bouncing back as a team.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, yeah. The guy that I would bring up is actually Ryan Tannehill because he burned a lot of people last year. The Ryan Tyne fire hype train last year was pretty good. There was a lot of evidence for him to move forward and he. And in my opinion, I think he stunk for a lot of last year. He hurt a lot of fantasy players. So his value is going to be poof, gone. It's just he, you know, he might not go drafted in many leagues, but you've got gaze coming in with a new system. Devonte Parker, who wasn't healthy and was barely used until the end of the year last year, is now added to that team. You could see there are some reasons that Tannehill could come back to fantasy relevance and be good as an undrafted guy.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, I agree with you on that. That's an interesting name and it's just again, a testament to the depth of the position. When you have so many guys like Matt Ryan that weren't talked about. Ryan Tannehill. It's incredible to me, the point I.

[Mike Wright]

Was going to make was that just the guys left on this list, Matty Ice is Tyrod Taylor, Tannehill, Cutler, even Alex Smith in the right scenario.

[Andy Holloway]

You streamed Smith a couple times.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. You know who I streamed in the playoffs? Brock Osweiler.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

And it was the right choice for what I had available. So it's.

[Jason Moore]

We.

[Mike Wright]

These are guys who are not even close to the top of our list. They have value.

[Jason Moore]

And you know who we didn't name? Robert Griffin iii.

[Andy Holloway]

No, we didn't. Robert or any of the rookies. Because obviously they haven't been drafted and put in a position to maybe start on certain teams. Not that they'll climb into the top 10 by any means, but you never know. So next week we're going to have a draft preview. We're going to talk about some of the big offensive names, where they could land, where we think they'll land. We'll have special guests on the show. And again, if there's some, you know, huge piece of news that we didn't talk about, it's not. It's just because we couldn't see the.

[Mike Wright]

Future because it wasn't important.

[Andy Holloway]

We couldn't we couldn't see the future and we had to record this show a little early for Mike to get out of town with his wife and enjoy a 10 year anniversary trip. And so make sure you come back next week. Check out podcastawards.com vote for us. And stay tuned for the show after the show on YouTube if you have a question. We didn't answer a lot of listener questions this week so go ahead and I don't think we got to any this week so go ahead and go on the website. We'll answer those next week for sure. Any parting words, gentlemen?

[Jason Moore]

Well, we're about to answer a whole lot of listener questions right now on Patreon.

[Andy Holloway]

It's Thursday.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Check out Join the Foot if you want Mailbag.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, guys, thanks for listening. Take care. 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 FFballers.