Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Early QB Rankings Show

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast Episode Summary Episode: Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Early QB Rankings Show
Release Date: April 19, 2016

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Introduction

In this engaging episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast, hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright delve deep into the realm of quarterbacks, dissecting their importance in fantasy football and presenting their early rankings for the season.

Rams-Titans Trade Analysis

The episode kicks off with a discussion about a significant NFL trade where the Rams exchanged multiple draft picks with the Titans to secure the number one overall pick.
Jason Moore highlights the magnitude of the trade:
"The Rams have swapped first-round picks and essentially gave up two second-round picks this year and a first and a third next year to move up from what, 15?"
This move is seen as a strategic investment for the Rams' future, echoing previous trades like the Redskins acquiring RG3.

Quarterback Position: Importance and Strategy

A critical debate ensues about the quarterback position's significance in fantasy football. Andy Holloway initially downplays the position's importance:
"In sports, but not in fantasy football."
However, Mike Wright counters, emphasizing quarterbacks' high scoring potential:
"The quarterbacks score the most points."
The hosts agree that while quarterbacks are pivotal, the abundance of scoring quarterbacks allows fantasy managers to find value later in drafts without sacrificing team strength.

Top 10 Quarterback Rankings

The core of the episode revolves around the hosts' consensus top 10 quarterback rankings, accompanied by detailed analysis and differing perspectives.

1. Aaron Rodgers
   Andy Holloway commends Rodgers' consistency:
   "Over three of the last four years, Aaron Rodgers has been a top three guy."
   Despite a slightly less stellar previous season, Rodgers remains the top choice due to his exceptional career statistics and reliability.

2. Cam Newton
   Jason Moore praises Newton's dual-threat capabilities:
   "35 touchdowns through the air and 10 on the ground."
   The hosts discuss Newton's potential to replicate his breakout season, weighing his high upside against the risk of inconsistent performance.

3. Tom Brady
   Mike Wright highlights Brady's impressive yardage and touchdown totals:
   "He throws for over 4,700 yards and 36 touchdowns."
   Concerns about possible injuries and off-field issues lead Andy Holloway to rate Brady with a moderate risk factor.

4. Russell Wilson
   Jason Moore positions Wilson as a high-upside, value-driven pick:
   "Russell Wilson has the highest upside of any quarterback that can be drafted because of where you'll get him."
   His consistent performance and the Seahawks' reliance on his playmaking abilities make him a valuable asset.

5. Drew Brees
   Mike Wright defends Brees' steady production despite early-season challenges:
   "He has thrown for 30 or more touchdowns and over 4,300 yards for eight straight seasons."
   Enhanced offensive weapons and improved team chemistry bolster Brees' ranking.

6. Andrew Luck
   The trio acknowledges Luck's talent and potential for a comeback:
   "Andrew Luck could be the number one quarterback this year."
   While not projecting his utmost performance, they see Luck as a safe investment with high rewards.

7. Carson Palmer
   Andy Holloway emphasizes Palmer's stable production within a high-powered offense:
   "Carson Palmer was a successful quarterback and gives you a back-end QB."
   The addition of key playmakers like David Johnson and Michael Floyd supports Palmer's ranking.

8. Eli Manning
   Jason Moore expresses skepticism about Manning's consistency:
   "Eli Manning is the guy I kind of don't want to play."
   Despite steady yardage and touchdowns, Manning's fluctuating performance makes him a wildcard in fantasy leagues.

9. Blake Bortles
   Andy Holloway underscores Bortles' potential regression despite his promising past:
   "Blake Bortles threw a lot in the red zone but has regression here."
   Concerns about his offensive support and touchdown dynamics influence his lower ranking.

10. Philip Rivers
    Mike Wright discusses Rivers' dependence on key receivers:
    "Philip Rivers was putting up massive numbers until Keenan Allen went out."
    The inconsistency in his performance when key players are unavailable affects Rivers' position in the rankings.

Drafting Strategies and Streaming Quarterbacks

The hosts advocate for drafting quarterbacks in the mid to late rounds, leveraging the depth of the position. They emphasize the viability of streaming quarterbacks based on weekly performance rather than investing early draft picks.
Andy Holloway advises:
"If you are one of those guys that can't pass up quarterbacks early, this is where you look."
This strategy allows fantasy managers to maximize value by prioritizing other positions early in the draft.

Community Engagement and Future Plans

Towards the episode's conclusion, the hosts promote their Foot Clan community and tease upcoming features like an NFL-style combine, enhancing listener engagement and offering additional resources for fantasy enthusiasts.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Jason Moore [01:00]: "Not just go through our top 10 rankings, which we will be doing, but also talk about how we view quarterbacks."
• Andy Holloway [12:00]: "In 2015, there were 11 quarterbacks who threw for 30 plus touchdowns. That's the most in NFL history."
• Mike Wright [24:14]: "I would have him at a five or the six," referring to Cam Newton's risk factor.
• Andy Holloway [25:18]: "Russell Wilson right now is the fifth quarterback off the board going in the fifth round."
• Jason Moore [27:52]: "I'm going out on the Cam Newtons, I'm out on the Aaron Rodgers, I'm probably out on the Brady's."

Conclusion

This episode offers a comprehensive analysis of the quarterback landscape in fantasy football, balancing statistical insights with strategic drafting advice. The Fantasy Footballers provide valuable perspectives for both novice and seasoned fantasy managers, reinforcing the importance of informed decision-making in building a championship-winning team.

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For more insights and detailed rankings, visit thefantasyfootballers.com and join the Foot Clan community.

Transcript

[Mike Wright]

Foreign.

[Andy Holloway]

To the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, welcome into the show. It's the show. It's the show before the show, after the show.

[Mike Wright]

That's what the cool kids call it now.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I'm not hip with the kids like I used to be, Mike. Not like you.

[Mike Wright]

Me and the young people, we get along well.

[Jason Moore]

The beard and the tattoos and the poor vocabulary. You fit right in, Mike.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, thank you. Thank you.

[Jason Moore]

Sweet burn. Welcome. It is Tuesday, April 19th, and we're back. We're back again. We're talking quarterbacks, the most important position.

[Andy Holloway]

In sports, but not in fantasy football.

[Mike Wright]

The least important position in fantasy football.

[Andy Holloway]

No, but Mike. But, Mike, the quarterbacks score the most points. And I've seen people win a championship. They always have a good quarterback.

[Mike Wright]

They do.

[Jason Moore]

Public opinion, man. I always, like, you know, fantasy football season is here. When all of your friends start to say that to you. Because that's what I get every year by somebody who's new. And then it's just like, well, the first pick has to be Cam Newton. Right, Andy?

[Mike Wright]

And to be fair, at first glance, it would appear that way.

[Jason Moore]

Absolutely.

[Mike Wright]

So it's fine.

[Jason Moore]

But we're going to get into that and that I do want to take time today on the show to kind of talk about that piece of the quarterback puzzle. Not just go through our top 10 rankings, which we will be doing, but also talk about how we view quarterbacks, how we view the position in fantasy football. Fantasy fantasy football teams, traditionally, unless you're in a league with a special scoring system, they start one quarterback. And so we're going to talk about what that means to you, the amount of quarterbacks that are available compared to that start in your league and those type of issues. So we'll get into all of that today. Today is a quarterback show. We'll go through the top 10 consensus today. On Thursday, we're going to go through 10 more quarterbacks and kind of get into some of that second tier, which is really important. And so it's going to be good. It's going to be a great show. I got a good quick question for you today, but before I do that, I do want to reach out to our listeners over the microphone and let them know about something cool that's going on right now [e-mail] and so we'd like to enlist the support of our listeners to take a couple minutes out of your day, if you're willing, and go over to podcastawards.com and nominate us for the sports category and for the people's choice category.

[Andy Holloway]

You assemble.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, you unite. Assemble.

[Mike Wright]

You ruined it.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm so sorry.

[Mike Wright]

Unite and assemble.

[Jason Moore]

There you go. And it'll be really cool to get the show some recognition in the. In the podcast space. Kind of universal, you know what I mean, where everybody else is. Shows from different categories are getting voted on and getting nominated. And so if you'd like to help us be included in that, you can go to podcastawards.com I think you just scroll down a little bit and you can nominate us for. You only get to do it one time. And so we're telling people to go and it should be obvious, but nominate us for the sports and for the people's Choice and see what we can do. Yeah, let's just see what happens. Let's see the power of.

[Mike Wright]

Let's get nets.

[Jason Moore]

Let's see what power. The power of the foot.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, you've been challenged.

[Jason Moore]

All right. And if you want to follow us on Twitter, you can do so at the FFballers. We're always putting some pretty cool stuff out there. This is the first show since Kobe went. Kobe in the final game of his career. So I was tweeting about that a little bit, which was. It was neat to see. And I think the best thing I read was how Kobe gave a gift to both his haters and supporters in his final game. He gave 60 points to all his supporters and he gave 50 shots, 50 shot attempts to his. To his haters. So that was fun. The Warriors. Congrats to the warriors on an awesome season. Because I'm talking about other sports.

[Mike Wright]

Enough basketball.

[Jason Moore]

All right, let me see here. We've got. Well, let's just get into it.

[Mike Wright]

All right, Quick question.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, that's what I'm doing. Quick question. We had a big trade that went down on Thursday, is that correct?

[Mike Wright]

Correct.

[Jason Moore]

And that was the Rams sending the house for the number one pick. And so that brings fantasy football trades. They did, to my mind. Oftentimes in our league of record, we trade a lot of draft picks. We trade players. So what is your most memorable fantasy football trade? And by the way, Foot Clan, if you're out there and you've got one that pops into your head, send it our way on Twitter @ the FF Ballers. We'd love to read a ridiculous story in your favor or against you. Either way.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. It doesn't have to be good. I'm going to go with. I'm going to go with a different one. I've done The. I've talked about the Doug Martin, Matt Ryan for Adrian Peterson 1. I'm going to talk about a different trade here. I'm going to give some dap to Andy because I don't even know if he recalls this.

[Jason Moore]

I like stories that begin this way.

[Mike Wright]

And I will. I will preface it with neither of us saw this coming. However, I was in a situation where I had Le'Veon Bell and Eddie Lacy. This is the year before. So this is Le'Veon Bell's rookie year. I got into a situation where I had to move one. I was allowed to keep one, but I had to move one. And it was. I don't know who to keep, you know, Lacy or Bell.

[Jason Moore]

I do remember this.

[Mike Wright]

And I was talking with Andy about it. He's like, I think I would keep Lev Bell. And Lev Bell had not become what he is. Lacy was already establishing himself as being a force. And I was like, no, I agree, actually. And I ended up keeping Levy on Bell or over Eddie Lacy, which for a little bit seemed terrible.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, I think I remember you not being happy with it.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, initially it was terrible. But now Le'Veon Bell is the best running back in fantasy. So that.

[Andy Holloway]

How is that a trade, though?

[Mike Wright]

Because I had to trade. I had to pick one to trade away.

[Andy Holloway]

Gotcha.

[Mike Wright]

And I did not trade Bell. I traded.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm with you. I was really hoping that it was just your favorite fantasy trade so I could bring up Rick Smits in basketball. Fleecing of Andy when he was a little child.

[Jason Moore]

We're talking 15 years ago. And I still remember sending you Sean Marion and his fantasy goodness for Rick Smith's and his white height.

[Andy Holloway]

But if we're going football, I think this just. I can't remember if this was on the Join the foot show or on the last episode, but since I'm going to go with my Aaron Hernandez trade, where after some of the news broke and things started looking bad, I was able to get like a 5th rounder.

[Jason Moore]

And our keeper mere moments before a murder indictment.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And then it was like, he's yours. Oh, he's out of the NFL.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I'm going to go back to the well here because I don't know how many people heard me tell this story before, but I still and forever will remember trading Donny Avery for D'Angelo Williams straight up right before D. Will led the league in rushing in the middle of the season, took me to a championship game. So very good memories of the Donny Avery D'Angelo Williams trade. I forgot to mention it. If you haven't been to the website, the fantasy footballers.com Our rankings are on there now too. So you can follow along with us. When we go through our consensus rankings, they'll be changing very frequently. You know, we go in and we put the stat lines that we believe players will assemble or put together on the course of a year. And so those are things we adjust. You know, you get information like we just had with this trade that went through. Maybe it adjusts what we think about, you know, the running game in Los Angeles, maybe the Tavon Austin, those type of situations. So do we have news that we need to get?

[Mike Wright]

The news is really just the trade. And if you have not heard.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, summarize that we spoke about.

[Mike Wright]

The Rams made a huge offer to the Titans. They have swapped first round picks and essentially the Rams gave up two second round picks this year and a first and a third next year. So, I mean, there's a couple auxiliary.

[Jason Moore]

Late rounds to move up from what, 15?

[Mike Wright]

Is that where they were?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, they were at 15 and they moved to the 1.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So they, they moved up quite a bit and they paid quite a bit.

[Jason Moore]

And we talked about this on the Patreon show [e-mail] the fact that when the Redskins did this and gave up the farm to get RG3, it looked really good for the Redskins for the first year. He led them to the playoffs. And so it's a big risk and I can see the logic. I would be excited as a Rams fan because I know I'm investing in the future of my next 20 years. Or that's an exaggeration, but maybe the next 10 years you're hoping to get. Yeah, you're hoping to get the guy that defines your franchise, the Andrew Locke, the Peyton Manning, those type of players. So we'll see how it works out. I'm excited for the draft. We've got good guests coming on the show, by the way, to discuss the draft. Yes, before and after.

[Andy Holloway]

Some awesome guests coming up, I think, but great fantasy analysts, some NFL players. But I do want to give a shout out because this was great analysis from one of our Twitter followers, Kyle, and he, he said, you know, regarding the trade, he just said it's finally happened. Jeff Fisher has helped the Titans win games.

[Jason Moore]

It just took a little while.

[Andy Holloway]

It just took him leaving and trading all of his future talent to the Titans.

[Mike Wright]

But so speaking of paying a lot, you know where you will not pay a lot for some sweet, sweet sports memorabilia that is pristineauction.com. look, Foot Clan. You've heard us talking about them for a while because they are worth it. The website, they just revamped it. It is tremendous. It is beautiful. It is easier than ever to navigate and find yourself fantastic memorabilia. Not just sports, but all kinds of memorabilia. Look, we traversed their warehouse the other day and there was signed autograph.

[Jason Moore]

Mike was everywhere. Mike was freaking out.

[Mike Wright]

I was geeking out. There's Luke Keakley signed helmet. There's a lev bell signed jersey. The guitar, there's a. Yeah, there's a custom Arizona Cardinals guitar. I mean there's all kinds of goodies. I felt like I was at the Willy Wonka chocolate Factory.

[Jason Moore]

You look like it geeking out with.

[Mike Wright]

All this sports memorabilia. And look, authenticity is important to them. It is one of the most important things for pristine auction.com they guarantee authenticity of all their items. They use only the best authenticators around the world. So head on over to pristineauction.com that's P R I S T I N E auction.com and start winning some stuff today.

[Andy Holloway]

Quarterbacks.

[Jason Moore]

All right, it is time for Our consensus top 10 at the quarterback position. We've hopefully, if you, if you haven't just joined us, you've heard our tight end and our wide receiver and our running back shows. Well, now it's time for the quarterbacks and I'm excited to debate a number of the guys that ended up in our top 10. We actually had a fairly good consensus with these guys. So I don't think there will be any maybe extreme tight, you know, like the kind of fights we had with tight ends or disparities that we did not as many at the at the quarterback position. But you can go to the website and view the rankings there and you'll see 4 point and 6 point rankings. So depending on your league scoring format, we are giving you them at. Are we doing this 6.6. We're giving you the six point consensus.

[Andy Holloway]

Ballers preferred scoring format.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, ballers preferred. All right, so. So what are the headlines here at the quarterback position before we get into our number one game?

[Mike Wright]

So just we. When we were talking about kind of unimportant, I mean that's being a bit facetious but the point is that quarterbacks are scoring. All of them are scoring a ton of points. In 2015, there were 11 quarterbacks who threw for 30 plus touchdowns. That's the most in NFL history. The touchdowns are coming.

[Jason Moore]

That's almost a full 12 team league worth of quarterbacks throwing 30 plus which is kind of 10 years ago you never would have seen.

[Mike Wright]

So I mean, it's, it's outrageous. You had four quarterbacks at over 400 completions with Rivers, Breeze, Ryan and Brady and they. It's something I did. A huge breakdown. I'm still trying to work out if, if I'm going to do an article on it or not. Talking about quarterbacks who posted a top 12 week. So how many teams are in the NFL, guys?

[Andy Holloway]

30, 32.

[Mike Wright]

And here's the number of quarterbacks who posted a top 12 scoring week. 40.

[Jason Moore]

That's just an insane stat. 40.

[Andy Holloway]

And so when we say, you know, draft your quarterback later, it isn't because quarterbacks don't matter in the NFL or because.

[Jason Moore]

Or that there aren't really good ones.

[Andy Holloway]

Don'T score a lot of fantasy points. It's because. Because there are so many who will be able to score enough where the difference between wasting one of those early picks where there aren't so many guys in their positions, it hurts you by that you're losing more than you're gaining is the whole issue. And we want our listeners to gain more than they lose.

[Mike Wright]

I believe it was 42 last year. So we got back to.

[Jason Moore]

Not an anomaly is what you're saying.

[Mike Wright]

This is happening.

[Jason Moore]

And part of this before we get into the rankings is to look back a little bit and say not only did we see that with the quantity last year, but you also saw like Jason used the phrase wasting a pick. And I think he's right, it is a waste. It could be a waste of a pick. You know, Cam Newton was the number one quarterback last year. Cam Newton's draft position was nowhere near where we expected the number one quarterback to go. And so the variable of who might end up at that spot. A lot of people spent high draft picks on Andrew Luck after the year he had. And a lot of people will spend a high pick on Cam Newton this year. That doesn't mean Cam Newton will fail or fall on his face. It just means the investments from your league mates on quarterbacks is an opportunity for you to take advantage of. Of better values at running back and wide receiver.

[Andy Holloway]

Cam Newton was just. I pulled it up. He was 15th quarterback off the board in the 10th round.

[Jason Moore]

Where was Brady?

[Andy Holloway]

Tom Brady was sixth round. Yeah, sixth round, seventh quarterback.

[Jason Moore]

Where was Carson Palmer?

[Andy Holloway]

A couple of these guys. Yeah, that's what I was going to bring up. Some of these quarterbacks who went a little bit later did not cost you an early pick and were great. Carson Palmer was in the 11th round of the draft, the 17th quarterback off the board you had Tyrod Taylor, who had a great year, who was the 20th off the board in the 13th round.

[Mike Wright]

Mary Ryan Fitzpatrick.

[Jason Moore]

Ryan Fitzpatrick, can you even find him?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, is not in the data set and he was great. Now let's look at the top. Right up near the top pick, Peyton Manning. He was the third off the board. Andrew Luck was the first. Andrew Luck was the first off the board. Matt Ryan was up near there. So you've got some, some. Now clearly some of the top guys, they will score more. Right. There's a reason they're ranked in a certain order. And we've, we're doing our rankings. We think some guys are better than others but, but all these top guys we're talking about generally speaking are not going to be on any of our three teams because of what you have to give up when you draft them. And that's the whole point really. It's hard to find expert fantasy players who draft quarterbacks high but it is so tough to do if you haven't done that yet to trust that you will be okay later with a, with a lower round quarterback. And another important thing for listening to the fantasy footballers through the season, we every week pick our three guys. We pick someone off of waivers who is owned in less than or is available in more than 50% of the leagues and we do that to stream the position. Last year we ended up with a. Do you remember that was the six quarterback six on average basically every single week through the average of the year. We had the sixth best quarterback from the waiver wire. From the waiver wire. It wasn't even a guy who was drafted. And every week on the waiver wire. So you can do it.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. And so if this is your first introduction to that philosophy, stay with us, stay with us on that.

[Mike Wright]

It is got to stay strong that the draft room can be pretty, pretty rough.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh yeah.

[Jason Moore]

People will want you. And I will admit that it happens to me as well. When you get to a certain point in the draft, start feeling it and you start seeing. I mean I think last year I took Matt Ryan in the sixth round in one leagues partially because we had, we had high hopes for him. And when you do that and you have an expectation, it also makes it harder to switch that guy out and start streaming because Matt Ryan started the. Ah, he'll figure it out. He'll. Well, he'll figure it out here soon. And then it was harder for me to move on to the next guy. Same thing with Sam Bradford. Last year I thought Sam Bradford would be something he wasn't. It took a while for me to trade off. If I had just been streaming the position, I'd have moved right into success earlier. So number one on our consensus rankings. It's not Brett Favre. I thought it was Favre. Oh, Aaron Rodgers Last year, 31 touchdowns, just under 4,000 yards. This is a guy who belongs at number one.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, he had a terrible year. I mean that's how people think of last year for Aaron Rodgers. Even though it was still fantastic. He had a great year. But he was, you know, he has.

[Jason Moore]

Not a Rogers year though.

[Andy Holloway]

No, for certainly not. I mean Rogers, he is the all time in the history of the NFL has the highest quarterback rating of all active or former NFL players. Aaron Rodgers, really? Yeah, he is. Wow. The best career rating with 104. So he is, he is great. Here's the difference with Rodgers from fantasy because not every great quarterback is a great fantasy quarterback. Over three of the last four years, Aaron Rodgers has been a top three guy. I mean that's just, that's what you look for if you are going to spend a high pick. If you know, oh man, I just can't do the streaming thing. I've got to get someone high or.

[Jason Moore]

Two quarterback league or. The need for a quarterback is much higher because the demand for the position is higher.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, and that's, that's really. I'm so happy you said that because we got some people last year that said they tried to stream in two quarterback leagues. It's going to be harder, much harder, almost impossible. So if you are in a two quarterback league, it's really important you understand you're not streaming quarterbacks. You need to draft the quarterbacks like you do running backs. In a two quarter everything flips because now you don't need 12, you need 24 plus backups.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, exactly. And Jason said it, I mean last year Rogers is number one in our rankings because of his consistency in fantasy and in reality where he has so many years of success in a row. Now last year was, it was strange. His rating, we talked about a career rating of 104. He was 92 last year. You know, he had seven less touchdowns, about 500 less yards and he had 5% lower completion rating.

[Andy Holloway]

What happened?

[Jason Moore]

What happened was Jordy.

[Andy Holloway]

Sorry, I've been waiting to get that in on the show forever. From Mighty Wind. Mighty Wind reference.

[Jason Moore]

Someone is going to identify with that.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, good.

[Jason Moore]

The rest of the people are going to be confused.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm done.

[Mike Wright]

I'M done for the show.

[Jason Moore]

But Jordy Nelson, it was gone. And Eddie Lacy, underwhelmed. And Randall Cobb. And Devonte Adams stinks. And Randall Cobb, underwhelmed.

[Mike Wright]

He's not a one.

[Jason Moore]

He's not a one. And so you saw all that. And then I think what you saw in Rogers was him pressing to make things happen, held onto the wall too long and made some mistakes. But look, before last year, you had six straight years of over 100 passer rating, very low interception totals. So that's great for fantasy, even compared to a guy like Breeze who has good years. Breeze normally is in the 15, 16 interception. So I don't think you're going to have much debate over Aaron Rodgers being slotted in there. I think the guy that we need to talk about now is number two, and that's Cam Newton, last year's number one quarterback slash running back. You know, he had just such an incredible year where what he had 10 touchdowns on the ground. Is that accurate?

[Mike Wright]

That is accurate.

[Jason Moore]

And 35 through the air. It was impressive because we went into last year thinking he had no wide receivers and he made wide receivers out of thin air. And now pretty much. And now he has some.

[Andy Holloway]

He's got those guys that he developed something real with.

[Jason Moore]

And then Kelvin, we're talking to Corey Brown, Khatri was there last year. And then you had obviously Greg Olson, huge year.

[Mike Wright]

The biggest question for me is you're talking an extreme and an outlier career. Best year for Cam Newton, 35 touchdowns through the air. That's 11 better than his second highest total. He's thrown 24. That was his highest touchdown total through the air until this year. Can he duplicate that kind of success while maintaining 600 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground?

[Jason Moore]

I have a great question for you because I think it's very possible he can. I think it's actually more likely that he repeats not necessarily the numbers exactly, but the kind of success you saw on the field. So let's, let's presume for a minute he does. He runs for eight to 10 touchdowns, he throws for 32 or, you know, 33 to 35. Where is an appropriate, appropriate place to take the leap and take Cam Newton? If you knew that was his production.

[Mike Wright]

Level, if you knew he was going to do that.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Then you're.

[Jason Moore]

Where would you take him? Like, you know that that's his stat line. Just reprint last year's line. Where could you viably take Cam Newton in light of all that we just said about streaming the position?

[Andy Holloway]

But you where you're not wasting the pick.

[Jason Moore]

We're not wasting the pick.

[Andy Holloway]

And I would say the third round.

[Mike Wright]

Third round was what, Paul?

[Andy Holloway]

Third round is where once those first two rounds of guys are gone, you see a little bit of drop off in talent and those guys are the ones that I'm willing to sacrifice the third round and on. So there's been drafts that I've been in this year where Aaron Rodgers is usually in the third and sometimes I've seen him, you know, get, get lower. I would say he's going, you know, as high as the second, get lower. But if it's just one of those things where I'm going to be put to the test this year with Aaron Rodgers, very similar to how you're asking the hypothetical question on Cam.

[Mike Wright]

When are you getting the sweats for Aaron Rodgers? If what round is it?

[Jason Moore]

The third round, your hands start shaking.

[Andy Holloway]

The third round is where I'm, where I'm going. It's, it's worth considering and I won't do it. The fourth round is where I'm sweating. I'm going, oh, the pits.

[Mike Wright]

You've pitted out.

[Andy Holloway]

I think I gotta, I think I gotta get him in the fourth and I don't usually do that, but that.

[Mike Wright]

Would be so interesting.

[Jason Moore]

One, one component that we're gonna have in our draft kit that we release here in the next couple of months is the risk factor for positions. So I just want to get a gauge for Cam Newton before we move on to number three. One being safe, ten being risky. Where do you have him at quarterback this year on that sliding scale? They're 1 to 10. How risky is Cam Newton? How safe is Cam Newton for putting up that kind of a stat line?

[Mike Wright]

I would. Sorry, do you have a number?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, well, I was going to say there's, there's two different things here because when we're talking about that draft kit risk number, I think it's going to be very low with Cam Newton, but low risk. A low risk because he runs so much. His baseline in his legs is what allows there to not be a lot of risk.

[Jason Moore]

Where I think, okay, so that answers the question.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I don't think he's going to finish, you know, bottom half of the QB ones because of his legs.

[Jason Moore]

So what number comes into your head?

[Andy Holloway]

You know, I would give him like a 4. If 10 is high and 1 is like no risk.

[Jason Moore]

10 is 1 is not risky.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I would give him a 4, maybe even a 3.

[Jason Moore]

I think 3 is about where I have it.

[Andy Holloway]

I Have.

[Mike Wright]

I would have it at the five or the six.

[Jason Moore]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

The reason why. Or talk about Cam Newton's dominance. I was talking about I broke down quarterbacks five times. He was the number one quarterback, which is by far and away the most for any quarterback. So that's why his numbers are so insane for fantasy. If he wasn't number one though, you were getting not a great week essentially from Cam Newton. He did have 2 3rd places. But besides that you're talking.

[Jason Moore]

He carried a lot of people for a lot of weeks towards the end of the year.

[Andy Holloway]

Interesting stat for Cam going into this next year. He has 31 games with both a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown in the same game. Currently tied for the most ever with Steve Young in history. In history. So I think.

[Jason Moore]

Did it gonna break it did it in less than half the games.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

All right. Tom Brady. Tom Brady's number three on this list. I think the impressive thing about Brady last year was the yardage total. He threw for over 4,700 yards, 36 touchdowns. He also finds a way to sneak a couple touchdowns during the course of the year, which, look, it all adds up. It was a valuable part of Andrew Luck's game a couple years ago when he put up a really big season. It's something that doesn't really change for Brady. He gets the opportunity if he's on the half yard line to just somehow snap the ball and jump before everybody else wakes up. I don't know how he does it, but it's clearly a gift that him and Flacco work out together or something like that. But Brady, Brady dealt with injury and his offense repeatedly. Deion Lewis, Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski. He dealt with Brandon Lefell, the man without hands. Brandon Lefell has moved on.

[Mike Wright]

The garbage can they couldn't get rid of.

[Jason Moore]

It's such a zero sum game in the NFL, isn't it? Because you can go from, yeah, basically a one last year to three games of looking like you can't catch to see you later, hit the bricks. I mean it's just incredible. Well, it's really the NFL too. I mean, you see that with kickers, right? You miss a few kicks. See you later.

[Mike Wright]

Goodbye.

[Jason Moore]

It doesn't matter who you are.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, Tom Brady is a guy that I've really heated up on coming into last year. You know, one of the things with Tom Brady I just spoke of like those great NFL quarterbacks that aren't always great for fantasy. And there was a big chunk of Tom Brady's career where he was still one of the, you know, two best quarterbacks in the NFL, but they really relied on a run game. And he wasn't the best fantasy quarterback. Always overdrafted. Well over the last, you know, he had that crazy 50 touchdown year and then he got injured the next one. I remember that. Thanks, Andy, for unloading him to me.

[Jason Moore]

You're welcome.

[Andy Holloway]

That year. But since he came back, he had a slow start and after that he is a touchdown machine. 36, 39, 35, 33 and a 25 mix there. 36 last year. So you've got a lot of touchdowns. Tom Brady is as sure fire a fantasy star when he's playing as there is at the position. But I want to say this because this is kind of an evergreen show we're recording this early. People are going to listen to our quarterback shows for a long time and we don't know the news that will come out. We have to keep the suspension in mind. So you want to talk about, oh, the deflate gate, the possible looming deflategate. That kind of was a big scare last year. And then, hey, he got to play all the games this year. It might sneak up on us. So it's just one of those things where if you're drafting early for some reason, I would right now give him, you know, a seven or eight on my risk factor because I think there's a legitimate chance that he misses four games. And if you're investing a high, if you were taking him in the fourth round and you're missing a quarter of the season, your fantasy season's done.

[Jason Moore]

Now I have Brady at four, you guys both have him at three, is that correct?

[Mike Wright]

That's very possible. And also this is why I have them at four in, in six point scoring. Okay, so why I like Tom Brady for everything that Jason was talking about where he hasn't necessarily been the best fantasy quarterback because of the running game. However, at this point in time, they have re signed legarrett Blunt and Deion Lewis is set to be the primary running back again, assuming he recovers from that ACL tear that to me says Tom Brady is going to sling it, you know, 600 times again. So I think the passing numbers will be there. They don't have a Steven ridley guy. Let LeGarrett blunt for what he can do. They can't ride him the entire season. So it's going to be up to Brady to put up the points which will be great for fantasy.

[Jason Moore]

All right, number four on our consensus list is Russell Wilson. He's My number three, Jason's four, Mike's five. I'm going to make the contention right now that Russell Wilson has the highest upside of any quarterback that can be drafted because of where you'll get him and what he did at the end of the year. And I don't want to overemphasize his last eight games. However, I do want to bring them to your attention because it could mean new way forward. I think most of us believe the sea. The Seahawks without Marshawn lynch are going to be more dependent on Russell Wilson. It doesn't mean he'll do what he did in last eight games. But let me just put that in perspective. If you take his last eight games and you just meet, you just duplicate it for a season, it's 50 touchdowns, it's 50 passing touchdowns, it's 4,500 passing yards and 500 attempts at the quarterback position. You mix that together with, I think he ran for in the 400, 500 range, maybe a little lower this past year because he was throwing the ball.

[Mike Wright]

So well, running, yeah, 553 yards.

[Jason Moore]

So 550 on the ground with the pace that he had last year. Russell Wilson, where is he going right now in draft?

[Andy Holloway]

Russell Wilson right now is the fifth quarterback off the board going in the fifth round. So I think as a better value, you're basically saying, look, Cam Newton, Cam Newton last year was the combination of a lot of touchdowns through the air, passing yards, and he had the legs. Russell Wilson has the chance to do exactly that. If not, if not, you know, the potential for that or even more. And he's being drafted later. Certainly a better value in Russell Wilson than in Cam Newton, because like I said earlier, right. The first two rounds is where I don't want to give up one of those picks. The third, I consider it, I'm fifth, I'm fine with.

[Jason Moore]

I'm trying to find the place where you talk about getting the sweats for Aaron Rodgers in the third round. I'd rather take Russell Wilson in the fifth round than Aaron Rodgers in the third round. I'd rather take Russell Wilson in the fifth than Cam Newton in the third or fourth round even.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, and what you look for is a value, too. So if Russell Wilson's ADP is the fifth, that means you might be in a draft where he drops deep into the sixth round. And at that point, that's hard to, you know, if you're getting Russell Wilson, who can easily finish as, you know, a top three option. He has been good for fantasy for several Years, even when they haven't been a passing quarterback.

[Jason Moore]

And he gives you a baseline every week. Even in the beginning of the season. No, it was a different baseline. Oh, what was it? Yeah, that was it.

[Andy Holloway]

It's different.

[Jason Moore]

It wasn't very deep. It was just a baseline. So anyway, I wanted to bring that to the attention because I think he might represent the most upside mixed with value in the draft of any of those players. A lot of people are going to draft Brady much higher than he did last year. You know, you put those two guys in the same round, I'm going to have a hard time picking between Brady and Russell Wilson. But I think I'm out on the Cam Newtons, I'm out on the Aaron Rodgers, I'm probably out on the Brady's. I think Wilson is. The first time I start going, you know, if I have a really nice first four rounds in the draft and I'm feeling real good about myself, I'm at least going to think for a split second about it.

[Mike Wright]

It will not be hard for me because I'll be passing.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I think I would normally.

[Jason Moore]

I don't like Russell Wilson.

[Andy Holloway]

That's very fair. I don't normally take a quarterback until like round eight or so, so that's probably still too rich for my blood. But the value is there. And I think if you are one of those guys that can't pass up quarterbacks early, this is where you look.

[Jason Moore]

You act like that's a. It's like it's a condition. Like if you've, if you've made up in your mind that you're, you know, biologically you're incapable of giving up a quarterback in the first five rounds.

[Mike Wright]

I got a fever and the only.

[Andy Holloway]

Prescriptions quarterback do you have do dqe. Drafting quarterback early.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

That was the commercial.

[Jason Moore]

Wait, wait, wait. If we're doing a commercial, then you need to drop some, you know, suffer from dqe. Has it plagued you and your fantasy team over the last five years?

[Andy Holloway]

Do your running backs suffer often after the draft because you had to invest so highly at the quarterback position? But we have a solution for you.

[Jason Moore]

Russell Wilson.

[Andy Holloway]

Stop it. Russell Wilson.

[Jason Moore]

Russell. Oh, we hadn't. How did I not bring Russell Wilson out for a long time?

[Andy Holloway]

Surprised that Russell Wilson was announced with his regular name?

[Jason Moore]

We're coming out with a medication that you can actually order online for dq.

[Mike Wright]

It's called the ultimate Draft Kit.

[Jason Moore]

It's called the Kirk Cousins pill of streamers that because everybody who lost, we have so many Foot Clan members that won Championships. Everybody who lost has the same story.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins killed me. I went up against him and Reed in the championship game. All right, let's. Speaking of value, I'm surprised this, this is the most surprising guy on the list so far. Number five on the list is not Andrew Luck.

[Mike Wright]

Nope.

[Jason Moore]

It is Drew.

[Andy Holloway]

Drew Brees. Brees.

[Jason Moore]

Drew Brees. He is three on Mike's, six on Jason and myself. So Mike, the floor is yours.

[Andy Holloway]

And he is somehow, he is eighth on the average person's, which just represents a really. Your average draft position right now. He's the eighth quarterback. Take me all.

[Jason Moore]

When you said average person, I thought you were talking about yourself.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, may I remind you, Champion, Could.

[Mike Wright]

I, could I interest you in a quarterback who has thrown for 30 or more touchdowns and over 4,300 yards for eight straight seasons?

[Andy Holloway]

Is that true?

[Jason Moore]

I'll take one.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Could I interest you in that? Because that is exactly who Drew Brees is. Now, look, I understand that, that it started, it was a little rough to start the year with Breeze. The offense had to find its way. They had gotten rid of Jimmy Graham. They weren't. Brandon Cooks was not, was not fully ready to be the man in New Orleans. And now you bring in a guy or once they finally said, hey, let's go to, let's get the tight end involved and Ben Watson, then the offense really got cooking.

[Jason Moore]

I'm going to make an argument for you, though.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Jason Moore]

I think that was an illusion. It was an illusion. It was a perceptive illusion about Drew Brees in the start of the season. Because if you look at his splits from the eight game mark, eight before, eight after, they are nearly identical. Same touch, really. Same touchdown pace, almost the same yardage, same yards per attempt. He's on, you know, 34 touchdown pace for both of them, almost the same attempts per game. But what you had is started the year real bad in three games, had the seven touchdown game that balanced out his first half of the season, stats wise. But I'm just making the argument that you just said what you said about him having all these years doing the same old thing. Well, he just did the same old thing all season long, but nobody paid.

[Andy Holloway]

I was going to call you out on that seven touchdown game because that's, that's more than. I mean, that's an absurd amount of touchdowns before that game, which. That game didn't happen until week eight. How many touchdowns did he have before that single game, Andy?

[Jason Moore]

Less than eight.

[Andy Holloway]

Eight touchdowns. So I'm saying total.

[Mike Wright]

But no, that Just bound that when.

[Andy Holloway]

You do the game split of. Of halfway in the season.

[Jason Moore]

I get what you're saying.

[Andy Holloway]

First seven games he had eight total touchdowns. So it did take. It did take a minute to realize what is our team, what is, you know, finding their way without Jimmy Graham, who is their main target. And that's why going into last year, I was a little bit down on Drew Brees. He was a year older. He lost his main target. Things weren't looking great this year. I like him a lot because it's the exact opposite. I mean, he's not a year younger, but he's got Kobe Fleener coming in who is much younger than Ben Watson. Brandon Cook's a year older and more developed. Willie Snead now has established a role.

[Mike Wright]

I look at marking Goblin up targets.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, exactly. You found out, oh, he can catch the ball. So now you have so many weapons for him. For him to be the eighth quarterback off the board in average drafts, that's probably my first target. The way that you're saying Russell Wilson might be the first guy you're genuinely looking at. For me, if I can get Drew Brees in the seventh or eighth round, if he could drop there, I won't pass him.

[Jason Moore]

All right. Number six on the consensus ranking and we got to move through these guys. It's fun to talk about them and we will. So Andrew Lucky, he deserves some conversation.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

Is he somebody that can. Let me ask you this. Do you believe that Andrew Luck could be the number one quarterback this year?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, absolutely.

[Mike Wright]

I believe it's. I would. As far as like, do I think it's going to happen? No. But does he have the chance?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, I agree completely with that. I don't. Obviously we're not projecting him to be the number one, but he has the talent. Right. He's done it.

[Jason Moore]

Now Jason and I both have Luck one spot ahead of Breeze. Mike has him lower. Obviously, Breeze is number three on Mike's list. So Andrew Luck, he gets to come back from injury. He's on the cusp of a big contract. This team was supposed to have all the offensive weapons together. Is this a case of kind of what we saw with Aaron Rodgers, only even worse where it just didn't work this year. It wasn't going to be their year. They. They mixed and matched the Frank Gore's and the Andre Johnson and these other pieces?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I think that's. I think that's fair. But what I don't. What I hope people don't expect is 2014 over 4,700 yards and 40 touchdowns.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, you went. He went 23 touchdowns rookie year, 23 sophomore year, 40 touchdowns. He was on pace for about 30. That's perfectly fine if you want to give Andrew luck the low 30s and touchdowns.

[Jason Moore]

He was on pace for almost that many interceptions.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he's. Well, he's always been a high interception guy, but last year was especially bad.

[Andy Holloway]

And while he was playing, he was throwing for an average of 6 yards per throw, which is per attempt for attempt. That. That was brutal. Last second to last only to Case Keenum. And so.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, whenever you're in a stat and Case Keenum is the comp.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, you got to quit.

[Andy Holloway]

Not good. But obviously he was drafted number one overall in the real NFL draft because he is a generational type of quarterback. He's proven he did finish that one year as the number one fantasy option. I have him ranked above Drew Brees because I expect the bounce back, but I don't like him as much as Drew Brees.

[Jason Moore]

One to ten risk factor for Andrew Luck. Ten being riskiest.

[Mike Wright]

What are you. What are you expecting? So I should say that a risk on what expectation?

[Jason Moore]

I'm more taking an overview of safe at the position. Safe as a starting QB1 at the position.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, I would.

[Jason Moore]

That's really the question.

[Mike Wright]

I would put him pretty safe.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it's a QB one, but give him a three.

[Mike Wright]

But as far as safety, to be what? You want a number?

[Jason Moore]

Well, I did. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, two.

[Jason Moore]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

Very, very, very safe to be a quarterback. One. But to be a top three quarterback, I would not.

[Andy Holloway]

Now, is there any chance, because correct me if I'm wrong, but Matthew Stafford was drafted as the number one quarterback overall, right?

[Jason Moore]

Correct.

[Mike Wright]

The number one player in the draft.

[Andy Holloway]

In his third year playing. He threw for 41 touchdowns. Is that correct? Same. Same as Andrew Luck.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, he got luck at 40.

[Andy Holloway]

So my point is there is a world here where what we've seen, because you know Matthew Stafford, oh man, he was on top of the world. But now we look back and we.

[Jason Moore]

See that anything that happens, he's only thrown in reverse.

[Andy Holloway]

He's only thrown for more than 30 touchdowns one other time outside of that. Yep, for 30. Everything else has been in the 20s. And that's what Andrew Luck's trend looked like. So the question is, was. Was that year the year before last, was that the outlier or was that the where he was trending?

[Jason Moore]

Stay tuned, you'll find out. This year, I vote outlier.

[Andy Holloway]

Just.

[Mike Wright]

Just throwing it out.

[Andy Holloway]

Then I'm Surprised that you've only got him in a two risk.

[Mike Wright]

I'd say no two risks for quarterback. One, the risk saying draft him to be a top three quarterback, I would say that's nuclear volatile.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Dangerous. And he's going to cost you more than a Drew Brees.

[Jason Moore]

Number seven is Carson Palmer. On the consensus rankings. We've all got him inside our top 10 and it's a, it's a case of mathematics for me. One David Johnson plus one Larry Fitzgerald plus one Michael Floyd plus one John Brown equals Carson Palmer was a successful quarterback. It's the inverse argument that you have with. If Russell Wilson is going to go throw 30 to 40 touchdowns, someone's got to catch them on that offense and that's the Doug Baldwin, Tyler Lockett. You know, I know you're super high on Jimmy Graham. Jason Moore is.

[Andy Holloway]

And don't you put that evil on me, Ricky Bobby.

[Jason Moore]

So Carson Palmer to me I just don't see. Barring injury, I don't see the way he gives you a bad year. I just don't. I don't know how that happens. 13 and three team. I'm not seeing a way that he has a terrible year. I don't see it.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I completely agree with it. It's a higher powered offense. You have three great options at wide receiver and now you're adding in David Johnson, a spectacular release valve to get some cheapy yards and cheap touchdowns. Carson Palmer had an 8.7 average. He had a YPA of 8.7 which is. That's crazy high. I'm not expecting that to continue. However, what we know about Bruce Arians is multiple times a game he will dial up the shot and between Brown and Michael Floyd you have guys, two guys who that's. They can make their money doing that. So that's going to boost him up. I just, I'm with Andy that I don't see a way he, he doesn't succeed in giving you quarterback one numbers. I think that there's going to be a bit of a regression for him. But low 30s and the touchdowns. Maybe the yards come down a couple hundred. But you're still going to get a back end qb.

[Andy Holloway]

Now what, what about. But, but Mike and Andy.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Couldn't David Johnson get a lot of touchdowns on the ground and take them away from Carson Palmer through the air?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, and he did last year and Carson Palmer still dropped 35 touchdowns.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Keep it down. Voice of public opinion.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm just. Hey, that wasn't me, man.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, you need to actually sometimes Respond to the voice of public opinion yourself.

[Andy Holloway]

I'll just take.

[Jason Moore]

Just show that Eli Manning is number eight on our consensus top 10 quarterbacks. Maybe a surprise for people who would have expected a Big Ben here, maybe a Blake Bortles. I am not surprised because he has a guy by the name of Uda Beckham Jr. To throw to.

[Mike Wright]

That helps.

[Jason Moore]

He also is a volume type of passer. He just puts up large quantities of passing yardage and he has a consistency in the offense this year that I think has us all pretty confident that you get a nice baseline out of Eli Manning. Now I will say this and you guys, Jason, you can speak to your thoughts. And Eli here, I kind of don't want to play him. I don't know why that is. I. Of all the guys in this list, Eli is the guy. I don't like sliding in week after week because he has these dud games.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, that's fair.

[Jason Moore]

That just make you wonder, you know, did he swoop his hair the wrong way? I mean, what happened?

[Andy Holloway]

Very, very hot and cold last year. Last year my two quarterbacks for most of the season were Eli Manning and Cam Newton. So I kind of experienced the ebbs and flows of those two guys. And. And one was a rock steady. You talked about how Cam Newton could really ruin it for you. I feel like Eli Manning far more.

[Jason Moore]

Often five games with one or less touchdown.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's just not going to help you out. So you've got those big boom games and I think he's a perfect streamer. And generally speaking, you will get Eli Manning off of waivers through the year when somebody, he'll go drafted, he'll have.

[Mike Wright]

One of those games and someone will screw you Eli to the waiver wire.

[Andy Holloway]

He'll get drafted, but he'll get dropped. So I agree with you. Even though he's this high, this is where we see him finishing the year. But this is not what we're saying draft order. Our rankings are not necessarily draft order.

[Jason Moore]

I don't want to play Eli and I don't want to play against Eli. That is exactly what happens in my leagues is I. More often than not he beats me when I think I have the. I've got a better quarterback and Eli goes out and throws four or five touchdowns against me and I'm like, where are you?

[Mike Wright]

Where were you the last two years? Ben McAdoo has completed completely revitalized Eli Manning.

[Jason Moore]

It looked like he was going to destroy him in year one.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. But the last two years, I mean, over 4,400 yards he has in his entire career. Has one other season where he had this outlier of almost 5,000 yards, but consistent last two years, over 4,400 yards. 30 touchdowns two years ago, 35 touchdowns last year. So it's. The offense is now gearing into the skills that Eli currently has. Odo Beckham doesn't hurt things. They took. They took a bit of damage. They lost Reuben Randall.

[Jason Moore]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

So you got to knock him down.

[Jason Moore]

A little bit, right? Yeah, a little bit. Well, a little, you know, like a morsel.

[Andy Holloway]

Nope, nope. Here's why. Because I know Reuben Randall.

[Jason Moore]

Did you know what that is? That's when the car gets into. You think it gets in a wreck and then you go up with your thumb and it was just a. You can get the smudge right off the car and you're fine.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And you know who's going to get that smudge off? Odell Beckham. Yeah, he's going to raise his level again.

[Jason Moore]

They're going to draft some finish number one. I think they're going to draft. Somebody will be excited about.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, they will.

[Jason Moore]

A Coleman or something. Sure. All right, let's go to number nine on the consensus, the BB Gun himself, Blake Bortles. But, Andy, what are you doing here?

[Andy Holloway]

Andy, why is Blake Bortles so low? He. He was awesome last year. He was like one of the best quarterbacks. He's young.

[Jason Moore]

Well, voice of public opinion. I know you like Blake Bortles, but. Well, he. He just doesn't have sustainable numbers at the quarterback position.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, you think Al Robinson sucks?

[Jason Moore]

No, I think. I love Alan Robinson, but Blake Bortles threw so much in the red zone. Stay with us, okay. We'll be okay. We still have him in our top 10. Voice of Public opinion.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And. Come on, listen up. Public opinion. He's good, but there's regression here. I think the biggest regression. A lot of people talk about the fact that the team is going to be better, Right?

[Jason Moore]

I think they are.

[Andy Holloway]

The defense is going to be improved. They're not going to have. He was a king of garbage time. He really was. But that's not the issue I have. The issue I have is Christopher Ivory. Chris Ivory is going to. He's going to have seven touchdowns next year. That's. That's probably so. I don't remember the exact number I gave him, but I'm guessing he gets six or seven on the ground, which would be more than double what they had on the ground last year. I think the team.

[Jason Moore]

Kris Kringle could Have more touchdowns. I mean the number they put up last year. The numbers they put up last year were as epically low red zone running numbers that you could ever have.

[Mike Wright]

T.J. elden had two touchdowns on the ground. Denard Robinson had one.

[Jason Moore]

And Toby Gerhardt one week during the year dreamt of having a touchdown.

[Mike Wright]

He was, he was so close.

[Jason Moore]

All so many. Four attempts.

[Mike Wright]

So close.

[Jason Moore]

Alright, so Blake is sitting here at 9, but there is a lot of hype about him. Jason, you do have him higher than we do. It's all pretty close though.

[Andy Holloway]

I still think he's good. And one of the things that it's always important for us to say this is very similar to our tight end discussion because when we get to some of these quarterbacks, there are some of these. I'll give you a, you know, a good example of a guy I really, really, really like, Ben Roethlisberger this year. I, I think he's going to be fantastic. He is my 15th ranked quarterback. We're not even close to talking about Ben Roethlisberger yet. If we were going by my rankings and I really like him genuinely, he's going to have 5,000 yards next year. This is not, you know, we're not knocking guys or saying this pool is so deep of serviceable quarterbacks. And yet again, that's why we just don't waste high picks on the position.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Okay, so number 10, are you ready for this? This is the last guy in our top 10 that we're break bringing to you today. And then we'll have 10 more on Thursday.

[Mike Wright]

You know, I think I need something for this before we get to this crazy man drop. No.

[Jason Moore]

Which one are you looking for?

[Mike Wright]

There's. There's something about my mind. In my.

[Andy Holloway]

Body. My body. Yeah. This player is brought to you by Mike.

[Jason Moore]

I was going to say this is by far the biggest disparity. Mike has him at 7, I have him at 17. Jason has decided to Switzerland this bad boy at 11. And without further ado, no, it's not Big Ben or Derek Carr or Andy Dalton or Tony Romo or Ryan Fitzpatrick or Case Keenum. It's Philip Rivers.

[Andy Holloway]

Old man Rivers.

[Jason Moore]

So make the case, deliver the goods, okay? Shake the beard, see what falls out. Let's hear about Philip Rivers.

[Mike Wright]

Here's the deal with Philip Rivers. Keenan Allen. I would expect Keenan Allen not to lacerate his kidney and play an entire season. Here are the numbers that Philip Rivers was putting up in the first eight games. He was averaging 344 yards a game. That's a pace of over 5,500 yards. He was over two touchdowns a game. He was over 30 completions a game. Now as soon. And if you were riding the Phillip Rivers wagon with me, it was sweet for a while and then Keenan Allen went out and everything fell apart. His Rivers yardage per game dropped 90 yards. He went down by over a touchdown a game. Five completions. You're talking massive numbers to a massive dip because Keenan Allen was so crucial to that, to that offense. Which is why I like Allen so much and why I like Rivers at the back of my quarterback one.

[Jason Moore]

And so you're really appropriating a value on Keenan Allen in that offense. The same way we would look like if. If Matt Ryan didn't have Julio Jones.

[Mike Wright]

Exactly.

[Jason Moore]

If Beckham went down or Antonio Brown for Big Ben or something like that.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

I mean the numbers are. I don't think these numbers are lying.

[Jason Moore]

So let's clarify here. You have them ranked as high as seven.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

But you're talking about getting Philip Rivers at the very end of this draft.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. You're like Jason just said that the, the rankings are not. We're not saying you have to draft people in this order. We're saying that's how I believe that they will finish. You always take into account the average draft position. You always take into account the value that the other league mates place upon that player. And Philip Rivers, generally speaking, should be a guy that you can get near the double digits. I think there's going to be some people who like him. I don't think he's going to be an undrafted guy or anything like that. However, you can get him very late. And the upside is there as he was right around the top three quarterbacks for, for the, for the extended period that Allen was actually playing.

[Jason Moore]

I don't really have anything negative to say about Philip Rivers other than the fact he just slotted in statistically as the 17 on this list. And I think he's going to do well. I do think, you know, if Woodhead's involved in the offense, it reflects well on, on Rivers numbers because you get a lot of passing touchdowns to the running back. You get a lot of cheap yardage, so to speak, where you get the dump off and then, and then you make up some hay.

[Mike Wright]

And I think this, once again, these were in the lower rankings of the quarterbacks. Their projections were, have been squashed. These guys are very close. So like Andy said, while Rivers is 17 for him, I would say you still.

[Jason Moore]

I still like him.

[Mike Wright]

You don't like him like I do. But you think he's serviceable?

[Jason Moore]

Clearly I am drafting most likely a different guy to be that starting week one quarterback than Philip Rivers, but that doesn't mean I don't think he's going to give elite weeks during this year. He's, he's in the streaming mix. For me, he could come up a little bit if I like what I see from that team in this offseason, if they can protect him. The offensive line was such a problem. If Philip Rivers could be rejuvenated, it doesn't matter if he's on his back. So that's the big problem that I have. So that is our top 10. I'm going to read them back real quick. You got Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton, Tom Brady, Russell Wilson and Drew Brees. That's our first five. You got Andrew Luck, Carson Palmer, Eli Manning, Blake Bortles and Philip Rivers. Rounding out our consensus top 10. You can see them all on the website thefantasyfootballers.com that's also where you can submit questions to the show. You can check out jointhefoot.com where we've released our Foot Clan league. So if you are a member, a supporter of the show, you get access to a group of committed players if you want to be in a good league. We talk so much about these, you know, fun leagues that we're in with good people and it's no fun to be in a league with three hardcore people and seven people who don't remember players names or don't use the waiver wire. I mean, it's fun for like a week or two. Then you realize you're not really competing. And so if you want to get involved, check out jointhefoot.com join a Foot Clan league. Get access to the. Some special stuff on the show.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, speaking. Speaking of the. Of join the foot. We have something to pay. Big thank you to our Foot Clan community because now because of them, we actually have to do a combine.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, that just happened, didn't it?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. We just passed the threshold where the three of us are going to be putting together an NFL style combine. You're going to have to watch my overweight self run a 40.

[Jason Moore]

We're gonna do all the combine events that we can and can we break the. I mean, is it done deal?

[Mike Wright]

No, no, that's, that's still top secret.

[Jason Moore]

All right. There's some secret we're working on. Some really good production value will be high. We'll bring it to you.

[Mike Wright]

I'm gonna throw this out there. If my 40 time is slower than Jason will have two hosts 50% because I will be not here. Not here anymore.

[Jason Moore]

Is this why you're going? Is this the last two weeks you're preparing for the combine? All right. Come back on Thursday. Join us on the web podcastawards.com please. Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on twitterffballers. I will beat Mike.