Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Le'Veon Bell News, Zeke, Fantasy Answers

Summary

Summary of "Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast" Episode: "Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Le'Veon Bell News, Zeke, Fantasy Answers"

Release Date: July 23, 2016

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Introduction

The episode kicks off with hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright welcoming listeners to the Saturday edition of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. They briefly discuss their burgeoning community at JoinTheFoot.com, highlighting giveaways such as autographed Alan Hearns jerseys and an ultimate draft kit. Mike Wright emphasizes the popularity of their community leagues, specifically mentioning the League of Records.

Andy Holloway humorously highlights that many listeners are tuning in on Saturdays despite having other plans, leading into a light-hearted discussion about the hit Netflix series Stranger Things (00:00-01:59).

Main News: Le'Veon Bell’s Suspension

The primary focus of the episode centers on Le'Veon Bell facing a four-game suspension for violating the league's substance abuse policy, specifically for missing a drug test (07:06-10:01).

Jason Moore explains:

"[...] when you've already got the red X there, you miss one, you have failed the drug test." (07:45)

Andy Holloway shares his adjusted fantasy projections, reducing Bell’s value by approximately 25% due to the suspension:

"I took my projections down basically 25%. [...] Normally, he was my number one pick." (08:32)

Mike Wright debates the strategic implications, considering whether to draft Bell despite the suspension:

"Le'Veon Bell is going to miss four games. [...] He is his own tier of running back when it comes to fantasy production." (10:08)

The hosts collectively agree that while Bell’s suspension diminishes his immediate fantasy value, his long-term potential remains high. They discuss strategies for drafting Bell, balancing the risk of his suspension against his elite performance when active.

Main News: Ezekiel Elliott’s Legal Issues

The podcast also delves into reports accusing Ezekiel Elliott of domestic violence, which were primarily covered by outlets like TMZ and Deadspin (14:27-16:56).

Jason Moore provides an update:

"It would appear, at least right now, that Elliott will be recused of all wrongdoing." (15:04)

Andy Holloway raises concerns about the potential impact on Elliott’s reputation and fantasy value:

"If you’re drafting in a league today, there’s the cloud over Elliott. Do you make a different first-round selection?" (16:05)

Mike Wright advises:

"Mr. Avoid risk in the first round. [...] This thing's not going to be able to turn around and become anything more than a bad publicity scene for him." (16:12)

The hosts emphasize caution when considering Elliott for early draft picks, advising fantasy managers to monitor the situation closely.

Other NFL News: Devonte Adams and Philadelphia Running Backs

Devonte Adams is highlighted as a secure third receiver for the Packers, dispelling earlier rumors about his possible being on the roster bubble (17:29-18:02).

The discussion shifts to the Philadelphia Eagles' running back situation, focusing on Darren Sprols potentially fitting into Doug Peterson's offense. Andy Holloway and Jason Moore debate whether Sprols should be categorized similarly to players like Danny Woodhead, ultimately agreeing that Sprols offers more value as a pass-catching back:

"Darren Sprols is a better running back and a better pass catcher than Wendell Smallwood." (20:20)

Mailbag Q&A: Draft Strategies and Player Evaluations

The hosts address various listener questions, providing in-depth analyses on drafting strategies, player evaluations, and keeper league decisions.

Strength of Schedule vs. Contract Year Performance (25:07-31:10)

Listener: Tim Buke asks whether two-quarterback leagues are becoming the new standard and how to balance strength of schedule with drafting players in contract years.

Mike Wright responds:

"I completely had to recant my answer and say one quarterback is the better system." (05:51)

Jason Moore adds:

"I would take him in the second round." (10:08)

The hosts conclude that while two quarterback leagues add strategic depth, one quarterback leagues remain more standard and flexible.

Keeper League Decisions (26:49-41:22)

Listener: Vincent from Dallas seeks advice on keeper decisions between Rob Gronkowski and David Johnson, especially if DeAndre Hopkins is available.

Jason Moore advises:

"I personally would keep David Johnson and then I would draft Hopkins over Gronk." (26:54)

Mike Wright concurs, emphasizing the value of keeping high-producing players and drafting key receivers.

Another question from Mike in New York discusses keeping between Lamar Miller, Alan Robinson, or Jeremy Lankford. Both Andy Holloway and Mike Wright advocate for retaining Alan Robinson due to his reliable performance.

Player Evaluations: Kelvin Benjamin, LaShawn McCoy, and Others (34:55-43:43)

Listener: Dill from New York inquires about why Kelvin Benjamin is ranked below other receivers like Jordan Matthews despite improvements in the Panthers’ offense.

Andy Holloway explains:

"Kelvin Benjamin was the only target in town and he had so many. [...] it doesn't mean Kelvin can't play up to this level." (35:39)

Jason Moore supports the cautious approach:

"I don't see it in Kelvin Benjamin." (36:26)

The discussion covers the volatility of running back performances, referencing Ezekiel Elliott and Cam Newton, and debates the merits of drafting high-upside but potentially inconsistent players.

Fun Segments and Community Engagement

The hosts inject humor and interactive elements, such as making a water bet on Todd Gurley’s reception total (50:10-51:27). They also discuss potential giveaways, including autographed jerseys, and encourage listeners to engage via social media and their website.

Conclusion

The episode wraps up with a reminder about their ongoing giveaways and an invitation to join their fantasy football community at Fantasy Footballers.com. The hosts express gratitude to listeners and sign off with enthusiasm for upcoming fantasy football discussions.

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Notable Quotes

• Andy Holloway:

  "Le'Veon Bell was my number one pick." (09:48)

• Jason Moore:

  "Le’Veon Bell is his own tier of running back when it comes to fantasy production." (10:23)

• Mike Wright:

  "I think it's not going to be two quarterback leagues becoming the new standard." (05:51)

• Andy Holloway:

  "There is a lot of jokes going around about how many people there are in Pittsburgh with that." (08:30)

• Jason Moore:

  "Darren Sprols is a better running back and a better pass catcher than Wendell Smallwood." (20:20)

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Key Takeaways

1. Le'Veon Bell’s Suspension: His four-game suspension significantly impacts his fantasy value, but his long-term potential remains high. Managers should weigh the immediate drawback against his elite performance when active.

2. Ezekiel Elliott’s Legal Issues: Allegations against Elliott necessitate caution in drafting him early. Ongoing investigations should be monitored to assess any long-term impact on his fantasy value.

3. Draft Strategies: Balancing strength of schedule with contract year performance involves nuanced decision-making. Hosts suggest considering factors like team offense efficiency and player motivation beyond financial incentives.

4. Keeper League Decisions: High-performing players like David Johnson and reliable receivers like DeAndre Hopkins are prioritized for retention over players like Rob Gronkowski. Strategic keeper selections are crucial for sustained fantasy success.

5. Player Evaluations: Assessing players such as Kelvin Benjamin and LaShawn McCoy requires analyzing their usage, team dynamics, and consistency. The hosts advocate for cautious optimism, favoring players with stable roles and proven performance metrics.

6. Community Engagement: Listeners are encouraged to participate in community events, giveaways, and provide feedback, fostering a collaborative and interactive fantasy football environment.

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For more detailed analyses and to participate in community events, visit FantasyFootballers.com and follow them on Twitter @theFFBallers.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

But.

[Mike Wright]

But, Andy.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, voice of public opinion.

[Mike Wright]

I want to be part of the fantasy football community. Where can I go?

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, voice of public opinion, I got an answer for you. You can head over to JoinTheFoot.com and get involved with our fantasy football community. Mike's over there.

[Jason Moore]

I'm absolutely over there because I am providing a weekly exclusive episode. On top of everything else, we're giving away tons of awesome autographed gear. We have all sorts of extra benefits and perks you get getting involved with our show.

[Mike Wright]

And don't forget, I think the most popular thing right now, you can join a league with other Foot Clan members. So, you know, you got a great league like our League of Records. Let's get into the show. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Does that explain everything, though? Voice of public opinion?

[Mike Wright]

Not nearly enough. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast coming to you from the fantasyjocks.com studios with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright. Ah.

[Andy Holloway]

Are we coming in good? We coming in hot?

[Jason Moore]

I think so.

[Andy Holloway]

We're hope. We're hoping right.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, welcome to the show. Welcome to the Saturday edition of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. I'm guessing a lot of you are listening on Monday too, because you had something better to do on Saturday than listen to this show.

[Jason Moore]

No, never.

[Andy Holloway]

Mike can't believe that. Mike doesn't want to believe it unless.

[Mike Wright]

They'Re watching Stranger Things.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, man, that's a good show.

[Mike Wright]

Very good.

[Andy Holloway]

We're giving them some publicity right now.

[Jason Moore]

Rightly deserve Stranger Things on Netflix. Go watch.

[Andy Holloway]

Very good, Very good. I. I started watching it a couple nights ago now. These guys have caught up almost.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I started watching it last night. I'm halfway through this.

[Andy Holloway]

You binged it.

[Mike Wright]

I plan to be done by the time this podcast is released.

[Andy Holloway]

That's true. That's true. Welcome to the podcast. There is a lot of news that has been breaking in the fantasy football world. We're gonna get into it all.

[Jason Moore]

My phone was a disaster when I woke up this morning.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Yeah, it was. Well, the bell was tolling.

[Jason Moore]

Oh.

[Andy Holloway]

And it wasn't good.

[Jason Moore]

The bell.

[Andy Holloway]

Toll the bell for bell. So we're gonna get into the Leon Bell news. We've got a mailbag show today, so we'll be answering your fantasy football questions. Anything you got leading into the 2016 fantasy draft, we're here to answer them. That's what we do. So, Andy, Mike and Jason, back again, want to let everybody know right now we're doing a giveaway on the website. You can go to the Fantasy Footballers dot com. We do These all the time. It's a lot of fun. You don't have to pay anything. You just go and enter. And I think if you scroll down on the homepage, you'll see we're giving away a autographed Alan Hearns jersey.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

And a free ultimate draft kit.

[Mike Wright]

Am I allowed to enter?

[Andy Holloway]

No.

[Mike Wright]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

No, because you paid for the jersey.

[Mike Wright]

That's a good point. So I should just get.

[Andy Holloway]

Then you just bought that. Yeah. You already own it, so you can't win. What? You know. So we got that going on in the website. You can follow us on Twitter @ the FF Ballers. We're on YouTube, the fantasy sports network. Go like us on Facebook. We don't have nearly enough Facebook likes proportionally compared to Twitter. I'm just saying we probably need some more likes on Facebook. You guys are both not engaged with that?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, no. Step up the Facebook game. I'm all about it.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, quick question of the day from at Tim Buke. Are two quarterback leagues on their way to being the new standard in fantasy football?

[Mike Wright]

Short answer or long answer?

[Jason Moore]

Well, medium. How about a medium answer? Why does it have to be short or long?

[Mike Wright]

Well, I'm just thinking. I've got my quick short answer. Because it's a word.

[Andy Holloway]

You have a quick short answer.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, it's no.

[Jason Moore]

Okay, I'll say it is not the same.

[Andy Holloway]

We'll go with Mike's answer, whatever that is.

[Jason Moore]

I don't think it is moving in to be the standard. It is absolutely growing in popularity because the quarterback is devalued in fantasy football. This is what we talk about all the time. If you're in a one quarterback league, that's why you can wait. That's why you can stream the position because it is replaceable due to the fact that there are only. You only start one. And when you have to start two quarterbacks, then you have. You. You make the talent pool much smaller. Everyone will hold at probably three quarterbacks on their team at a time. And that's going to make it very difficult, or maybe not very difficult, but it definitely increases the skill needed in the quarterback position. So I like it, but I don't think it's going to be the new standard anytime soon.

[Andy Holloway]

I think this might be a good way to look at the question, what if you cut a league down to one running back? What would that do to the strategy of the.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, and people, we get questions from time to time since, okay, these are the starters. I only have to start one running back. What should I do? Draft like two running backs. I mean, if you only have to play one, it makes it. You only, you only need one great one. And for running backs, that it really devalues the position. So it onesies. As my good friend of the show, J.J. zachary calls him onesies. And that's why you can wait on them.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. For me, we had this question asked on a mailbag show a couple of months ago, way in the offseason of which format is better? And originally I said, you know, I think I like the two quarterback format better because what it does is it makes the draft a little harder and it makes the strategy have to be there. But then the more that I thought about it, I completely had to recant my answer and say one quarterback is the better system. Because while it is maybe even more fun at the draft, and I love me some draft season, it kind of makes the whole entire 16, 17 week season less entertaining, less strategic because you're not playing the waiver wire as much. The, the talent pool isn't there. You're not streaming guys week in, week out. And I love that strategy. That's part of the fun of fantasy football for me. So I, that's why I say I think it's not going to be two.

[Andy Holloway]

I think you're just saying that you think we're in a good place right now. Yeah, because all that logic, I mean, if you, if you had less running backs, less wide receivers, there'd be more waiver wire, there'd be more of all that stuff. But it's more that this is the right balance in your mind.

[Mike Wright]

You know, what I love right now is that you can do whatever you want. There isn't one way to play fantasy football. You want to be in a dynasty with one running back, great, do it. You want to have three starting quarterbacks, you better be an eight team league. But go ahead and do it.

[Jason Moore]

You know.

[Andy Holloway]

Short answer, now, I just wanted to.

[Jason Moore]

Say, you know what I want to start, I want to start a zero bench league. You have no bench spots.

[Mike Wright]

That's kind of exciting to me.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that'd be pretty fun. That'd be pretty crazy because. Because at that point you're actually saying, can I beat this team? I'm playing with a little less than the best so I can keep them for the next week or things like that. That would be.

[Jason Moore]

I'm looking into this.

[Andy Holloway]

That'd be madness. Yeah. So the short answer, I don't think it's becoming the standard, but it certainly is a fun way to play. Sound Good.

[Mike Wright]

Sounds perfect. News and notes from around the league.

[Jason Moore]

I hope you're sitting down.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I don't even know like what button to hit over here. Do you guys got a pick?

[Mike Wright]

I would say the Raining Sadness, you.

[Andy Holloway]

Know, I don't have it here.

[Mike Wright]

Well then not that.

[Andy Holloway]

So probably not that one. It's not Good news, everybody. Le'Veon Bell's facing a four game suspension for violating the league substance abuse policy. The violation in question here is missing a drug test. Not failing one, but some. You know, you stands to reason that you missed it for a reason.

[Jason Moore]

Well, here's the thing. He's already failed. He's already been suspended for last year for this particular extracurricular activity. So when you've already got the red X there, you miss one, you failed. You have failed the drug test.

[Andy Holloway]

And this, do you think this is becoming an embarrassment to the Steelers, the Rooney family and the Steelers, because this is a team that has been known historically as having these upstanding young men and now you've got, you know, you turn on ESPN and a different Steelers being suspended.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, that's.

[Andy Holloway]

But you're, I guess you're talking two years in a row with the same two guys.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, there's a lot of, a lot of jokes going around about how many people there are in Pittsburgh with that. But the reality is if they go out and they win, and I expect that they will and that they're a good team, I don't think the Rooney family is hurt that much. The real question here is now, what do you do with Lev Bell? What do you do with D'Angelo Williams? Does this affect Ladarius Green or Antonio Brown? And thankfully we're here to provide the.

[Andy Holloway]

Answers to those questions.

[Jason Moore]

I sure hope we have them.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, one of the reasons that our, our website, the rankings on the website and the ultimate draft kit, they've already been updated with our thoughts on this. So you can see our projections on there. I didn't try to overthink this. I mean, for me we talked about this at lunch a little bit. There is an aspect where we wondered if Left Bell was going to be fully healthy in time. Now he's got, now he's got four weeks off to rehab for extra. Maybe he can rehab in different ways, but essentially he's going to be off four weeks. I took my projections down basically 25%. I don't think that there's some big, you know, we know historically we've seen this. It's not like D'Angelo Williams becomes. He did as well as he could do in the first two games last year.

[Jason Moore]

He did great.

[Andy Holloway]

That's what well. But it didn't take away from Lev Bell returning. And so I don't think you're going to see if D'Angelo Williams had an amazing start, which I'm not expecting it to be out of this world, even if he did. Leve Bell's the guy. Love Bell's coming in. He offers him so much more passing game, his flexibility. So at this point, where does. And I'll ask this question. You can fill in anything else you want to. About Love. Where does he belong in your fantasy drafts? He was our. No, he was my number one pick. He was my number one guys. He was yours too, Jason.

[Jason Moore]

He was your number one running back.

[Mike Wright]

No, he was.

[Andy Holloway]

He was my overall number one.

[Mike Wright]

Yep. And top 200. He was my number one as well.

[Jason Moore]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

He is. Not anymore.

[Jason Moore]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

Because whoever I have number one, something happens to them in the off season.

[Jason Moore]

Sure.

[Andy Holloway]

Thanks to Arian Foster last year. And now Love Bell.

[Jason Moore]

Third round would be unbelievable value. But we've talked about this a little bit. I would take him in the second round.

[Andy Holloway]

I think you're going to have to. I don't think you're ever going to get him in the third. That's my opinion.

[Jason Moore]

I'm just expressing.

[Andy Holloway]

No, I know, I know. I'm just saying every single person in the draft is going to stare down their board.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

And see that name.

[Jason Moore]

I just.

[Andy Holloway]

It's hard to get through that many.

[Jason Moore]

Just letting people know there will be leagues where no one. Maybe it's a smaller percentage, but there will be leagues where people have not drafted him and take him in the third round. But for me, personally, Le'Veon Bell, he's going to miss four games. I expect when he comes back, the workload is all his. He is above and he is his own tier of running back when it comes to fantasy production. So if. If I miss four games of that, I'm still fine giving up a second.

[Mike Wright]

One of the nice things about doing that, and it stinks because you'll have to invest another high, higher than you wanted to pick. But you can go and get D'Angelo Williams and then. And then you're pretty much safe there because you know he's going to produce at a decent level that's not going to just completely collapse your first four games. Unlike, say, Tom Brady. Right. Tom Brady's gone. You're not going to just plug in Garoppolo and expect to get, you know, Top five quarterback numbers in the NFL. You can kind of bank on that with D, Will.

[Jason Moore]

You can hope for it.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, yeah, you can. You can. It's more realistic.

[Jason Moore]

And let me say this. So Le'Veon Bell was a first round pick. D'Angelo Williams was an eighth round pick. Now we're moving, you know, left back to the second. So where are you taking Dwell?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I was going to bring that up too, because to me, it. I would take D. I honestly, I would think about taking DeAngelo Williams in the fifth round.

[Jason Moore]

I would think about in the fifth, too.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And maybe even late fourth, as silly as that sounds.

[Jason Moore]

I wouldn't go that high because if you have Bell, you probably need to.

[Andy Holloway]

Depending on your team's makeup. Yeah, if you have Bell, you should. But even without it, I don't know, you're getting yourselves. You got four weeks of potential top five numbers from the running back position.

[Mike Wright]

I'm not willing to invest, say a second and a fourth on one running back essentially to take my second rounder and my fourth rounder and trade it. I probably wouldn't have done that before. To trade it for the number four pick overall and get Levy and Bell. Right. That's. That's essentially the same deal now the way that we're.

[Andy Holloway]

So you wouldn't have traded Doug Martin and who's a fourth round pick, Matt Jones. Doug Martin and Matt Jones for Love Bell?

[Mike Wright]

No, I probably would not have. I think with running backs there is a value.

[Andy Holloway]

But in this case you have the handcuff to him too, because Love Bell part of the year.

[Mike Wright]

Right. No, that is, that is true.

[Andy Holloway]

It's just. It's good.

[Mike Wright]

It is. It's on the line. It's close. It makes me pause and say, well, maybe I would.

[Andy Holloway]

Right, right.

[Mike Wright]

You know, if you can get two.

[Andy Holloway]

Starters in the second situation or something.

[Mike Wright]

Like that would be a little better.

[Jason Moore]

And I think if you take. If you're the person who takes left bound the second, I think that D'Angelo will be there for you to take in the sixth round. At this point, that's just my. What I anticipate for drafts and I'd be fine doing that. It was either a one and an eight or a two and a six.

[Andy Holloway]

Sure.

[Jason Moore]

So I'm fine. I'm fine with that trade off.

[Andy Holloway]

I would, I think I would take Love Bell right now as high as 15 overall.

[Mike Wright]

You actually have him ranked just higher than that. The top.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. When I made the adjustments, I didn't even look at it.

[Mike Wright]

Top 200 rankings. You guys both have him at the same spot, which is the 12th best player overall. I have him a little bit lower.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And that'll just be. That would come down to me making that pick at number 12 with the rest of my team. How I estimate it going, what I have, if it's a keeper league, if I got some different guys, I'm going.

[Jason Moore]

To throw some names.

[Andy Holloway]

It's a tough decision in the second round.

[Jason Moore]

You're in the second round of throwing some names at you. Lev Bell. Jamal Charles.

[Andy Holloway]

Jamal Charles.

[Jason Moore]

Lev Bell. Devontae Freeman.

[Andy Holloway]

Lev Bell.

[Jason Moore]

Lev Bell. Eddie Lacy.

[Andy Holloway]

Lev Bell.

[Jason Moore]

Lev Bell. Doug Martin.

[Andy Holloway]

I'll take Doug Martin. Okay, so.

[Jason Moore]

But most of a lot of these guys here in the second round, you would rather have Le'Veon Bell for you, like. And what's crazy about it, I know that you think, well, in my advice, I'm staying away from Tom Brady. But I think Le'Veon Bell, like I said, is that own tier of running back that is so far superior to every. Every other fantasy running back, even. Even my beloved David Johnson. Le'Veon Bell is way above him.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's move on here. We. We have to deal with this Ezekiel Elliott report. These are always, these are always tough because we had the same situation. Well, not the same situation, but a similar situation with the LaShawn McCoy news when that broke in the very beginning and everything appears negative or bad or you jump to conclusions. We don't know what's going on here. Essentially, Ezekiel Ali has been accused. Accused of some domestic violence complaints and his ex girlfriend posted pictures and they've been reported by TMZ and Deadpool. Not Deadpool. Dead spin. Deadpool has them too, though.

[Jason Moore]

Deadpool reporting.

[Andy Holloway]

Deadpool reporting. But essentially that's what's going on. It's an investigation that's ongoing. He has not been arrested. He has not been formally charged. From what I understand at this point here on. We're recording this in the afternoon on Friday the 22nd and so nothing to report.

[Jason Moore]

Well, I would. The reports that we can give out are allegedly there were other. There were eyewitnesses in the vehicle when the alleged attack took place. These witnesses are saying that nothing happened. And Elliot himself has said that he has a proof of some sort on his cell phone of. I think basically of a. Of an admission of guilt from the ex girlfriend saying that she's conspiracy. That she's gonna conspire to set him up. It's really gross and this sucks that this has to be talked about. But it would appear, at least right now, that Elliott will be recused of all wrongdoing.

[Andy Holloway]

You're drafting in a league today. There's the cloud over Elliott. Do you make a different first round selection?

[Mike Wright]

Yes, I am.

[Andy Holloway]

Would you take Doug Martin over Ezekiel A because of this news?

[Mike Wright]

No, I. Mr. Avoid risk in the first round. And I just don't see this as a real risk. The way that the news is coming out, the fact that he was actively chose not to be arrested because in the moment there were. I don't think this thing's going to be able to turn around and become anything more than a bad publicity scene for him.

[Andy Holloway]

You certainly hope not, because the NFL is very sensitive to domestic violence. Yes, rightly so.

[Mike Wright]

Men, treat your women nicely.

[Jason Moore]

Just treat everyone nicely. Well, sure, but stop hitting each other.

[Mike Wright]

It's ridiculous. Yeah, come on.

[Jason Moore]

Completely agree.

[Mike Wright]

The listeners of this show are good peoples and we need more good peoples in the world.

[Andy Holloway]

It's. It's hard not to have a very visceral response. In fact, when I first saw this report, it was easy to want to go and say something about easy. Right. Because it just makes you so upset when you hear about someone being abused like that. So. And you know, and the reality is, if it wasn't him and it was someone else, that sucks for her, too, you know, even if she, you know, even if it's not him, it's a bad situation. So. ESPN packers reporter Rob Demovsky considers Devonte Adams a lock to make the roster.

[Jason Moore]

And this is news and noteworthy because there was a report, I believe maybe last week or just a couple days ago that said Devonte Adams could find himself on the roster bubble if he does not have a strong showing.

[Andy Holloway]

That hasn't been our opinion, though, because we've all said, or Jason and myself have said, he's the three.

[Jason Moore]

I have not. I think Janice can become the three, but. But it's absolutely worth monitoring. But it's strange to have these, these reports. I don't know.

[Mike Wright]

Part of the reason is because they have so many wide receivers there. So when. When the writer comes out and originally says he might be on the roster bubble, it's because he's just looking at the extraordinary amount of talent. Are they going to drop Abrader Darius? Are they going to drop Jeff Janus? Are they going to drop Ty Montgomery? You know, and now the newest report is they believe they're going to keep all of them because they're not going to keep three quarterbacks like they did last year. And I think they had a couple of fullbacks.

[Jason Moore]

And so I'll put this out there for the foot clan. If you know who your trustworthy Green Bay source is, let us know.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I want to know, because it's.

[Jason Moore]

The similar thing for the Cardinals where there was the ESPN beat reporter who said, oh, no, Chris Johnson's still the starter. That's an ESPN guy. Where our local trusted guy, as said, is David Johnson. It's one of those situations. So if you know you have your Green Bay trust this guy, let us know what he's saying.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, one last bit of news before we get into the mailbag. A guy that I'm going to move up now that some of the dust has settled on the off season. The Philly voices. Jimmy Kempsky has considered Darren Sprols a very good fit for Doug Peterson's offense. Sprols is somebody that I've been very hesitant to rank with a workload in mind because I wanted to see what happened with Arian Foster, which that shoe has now dropped. I wanted to see what happened with other free agent running back signings. There were some rumors that Sprols would not be involved in Philadelphia. There's. Wendell Smallwood's involved. Now, if he's there, which it looks like he's just going to be there and he's going to be involved based on this report, is he in the Danny Woodhead category?

[Jason Moore]

I don't know if I'd put him in the Woodhead category, but if you're saying everyone's healthy, I'd much rather have Sproules than Smallwood for sure. I think Sprouls will have a role in that offense. The problem with this, this particular article that came out, it was a Philly beat reporter who says, Ryan Matthews. It's the same article. You know, Ryan Matthews is not a good fit because Ryan Matthews is not a good pass catcher, which is absolute ludicrous when you look back on the career of ryan matthews In 2011, in just 14 games, the guy had 50 receptions on 59 targets. I mean, he's. He's absolutely dynamic and he's a good pass catcher.

[Andy Holloway]

So that being said, we'd all agree Jaron Sprolls is a better pass catcher.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. And I think what this report does do is to me, it says Darren Sprouls. Look, I. We've been saying for a while, Wendell Smallwood, he's just a guy and if Ryan Matthews goes down, maybe his value is good. But the reality is Darren Sprols is a better running back and a better pass catcher than Wendell Small would. And so if you're talking about a two running back system, it's, it's probably going to be Ryan Matthews and Darren Sprols. And you're right to move Sprouls up because there's value in this NFL for that pass catching back. And right now Darren Sprols is pretty much undrafted.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm not using this report to quote, you know, toot my own horn on Ryan Matthews, but I want to use it to illustrate why I am not as high on Matthews as either of you guys. If Ryan Matthews is a first and second down running back, which makes perfect sense to me, he has a history of injuries. He's on this offense that needs, you know, you don't want to give a guy that has a history of injuries three downs. You don't need to. When you have a better pass catcher in Sprawls, a guy that really knows how to play that. And you drafted Smallwood. Why is Ryan Matthews so high if he's a first and second down running back on a team that may very well struggle on the offensive side of the ball with a rookie quarterback? You know, I'm not going to compare him to the Bishop Sankeys of the world because he's a much better player. But if the limited goal line chances are there and he's not there in two minute drills and on third down, hypothetically, he's. To me, he's not that great steel that you guys see. He's a good player, but he's not a steal.

[Mike Wright]

No, to me you're right in the sense that if all of that stuff happens and he's not involved in the, in the two minute drills and he's not involved in third downs. Yeah. Then Ryan Matthews is not going to do what my numbers say that he's going to do. I believe that Darren Sprouls will be involved and that Ryan Matthews will get work in the two minutes work on the third down and you know, it's just going to be a split situation there where Ryan Matthews has the bulk. And if that's the case for that offense, I still think he performs.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, but you guys have him over a guy like Matt Jones.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Who's going to play three downs.

[Jason Moore]

Maybe Chris Thompson is a spectacular pass catcher.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Worthwhile.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, and that a much better offense.

[Jason Moore]

The argument of, well, if he, if he doesn't do what I think he's going to do, I can say that about every single guy in my rankings.

[Andy Holloway]

What do you mean?

[Jason Moore]

Because you're saying, well, if Ryan Matthews turns out to be a two down guy, he's not in the passing game. Well, then he will not be still because he won't.

[Andy Holloway]

There's no. But there's no basis to say he is X today. So I'm telling you what I think he is. There's no, like, Ryan Matthews is a three down back today. He's not.

[Jason Moore]

I say he is.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

So I'm saying we're comparing our opinions of the situation.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

There's not. I'm not saying if something different happens, I'm saying this is what I think is going to happen.

[Mike Wright]

I think you two need to make a water bet while I stand to the side here. Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

If set the Matt Jones.

[Andy Holloway]

Ryan Matthews.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. Oh, breaking news.

[Andy Holloway]

You said I hit the wrong button.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, I was, I thought that was like, oh, Brian Matthews is dead.

[Mike Wright]

Water bet.

[Andy Holloway]

Are you in on that one, Jason?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

I like whenever you react and you.

[Mike Wright]

Say, oh, yeah, yeah, no, I like.

[Andy Holloway]

The term whenever you Kool Aid a bat.

[Jason Moore]

I was really hoping you're like, thank you for taking the bet. I just found out Ryan Matthews tore his acl.

[Andy Holloway]

Gotcha. All right, let's go ahead and get into the mailbag. Before we do that, I want to thank today's sponsor of the podcast. You've heard us talk about them a couple times. We're talking about ziprecruiter.com look, if you are a business owner, if you are in a position where hiring is an important part of your job and what you're doing, you know the key. And the key is finding the very best people to work with. Jason's been down that road before. We all worked with Jason at a company. And it's all about the people that you hire. And when you do this, you want to be efficient about the process. And that's what ZipRecruiter is all about. This is a company that has been used by over 800,000 businesses. That's a lot of businesses, by the way. And what they do is they post your job on all the top job sites at once. And so you get a hundred plus job sites, including social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, all with one click. And so they help you find the very, very best people in the easiest possible way. You don't have to juggle emails or calls to your office. You can screen candidates live on ZipRecruiter. You can rate them, and that ends up with you hiring the right person as fast as possible. And so right now, our listeners can post jobs on ZipRecruiter for free by going to ZipRecruiter.com sportsfan and so that's a special deal that they have for you guys as a sponsor of this show. That's ziprecruiter.com sportsfan one more time to try it for free, go to ziprecruiter.com sportsfan Sound good?

[Jason Moore]

Mm.

[Andy Holloway]

Alright, let's get in the mailbag.

[Mike Wright]

Mailbag.

[Jason Moore]

Mailbag.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I, you know, Mike.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, sir.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know what it is, but we had the Patreon mailbag show, the jointhefoot.com show yesterday and we had a little, you know, we had a little TJ Yeld in Amir Abdullah face off. Now we're sitting here, we're kind of get the season's on its way. Oh yeah, we're getting into it about Ryan Matthews and Matt Jones. Ah, these are, I mean these are big decisions. And you know, when you're dead wrong, I point it out to the listeners. That's the important thing.

[Jason Moore]

And always that's very fair. But I'll point out that Matt Jones 19 receptions. Ryan Matthews has never had less than that. Unless the game he played was Ryan.

[Andy Holloway]

Matthews the third down back last year because that's why I remember him being the third down back.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it kind of was. All right, so wait, I thought he.

[Mike Wright]

Can'T be a third down back, Andy.

[Andy Holloway]

Who said that?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, you were implying me saying he.

[Jason Moore]

Was the first and second down.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I was implying he wouldn't be. That's a big difference between saying he can't be.

[Mike Wright]

No, I'm just saying I like it.

[Andy Holloway]

You guys win all the arguments when you take different words and put them in my mouth.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, it's easy.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. So if you played as a third down back last year sometimes and Sprouls was in there, I think he's the 1 and 2 this year. All right, Keeper league question from Vincent in Dallas. By the way, if you have a question, go to the website the fantasy footballers.com. click the submit a question button. Very easy. Or you can call us 302-464-TFFB. We like to play the voicemail questions as well. Vincent in Dallas, Keeper league question. He has Rob Gronkowski and David Johnson on his team. Which one should he keep?

[Jason Moore]

David Johnson. Oh, well, I want to hear the rest.

[Andy Holloway]

He also says and if DeAndre Hopkins is still available at the fourth pick, should I take him over which one he doesn't keep. So if you drop one back into the pool, which one's Most likely to be there at 4. And would you take Hopkins over that player?

[Jason Moore]

Okay, so it's a smaller keeper league. It's just the one. I personally would keep David Johnson and then I would draft Hopkins over Gronk.

[Mike Wright]

That's exactly how I would order it myself.

[Andy Holloway]

I am with you guys completely. Draft considerations. David in Temecula, California says, hey guys, big fan of the show. Thank you for all your great information. When drafting a team, how much do you take into consideration a player's strength of schedule and do you draft a player higher because they are in a contract year? I feel like those two things can be very important factors when looking to draft all positional players.

[Jason Moore]

I can take these things into account as kind of certain tiebreakers, but I don't allow myself to be overwhelmed by, you know, oh well, the strength of schedule. Funny enough, we were just talking about this on the Patreon show and correct me if I'm wrong, it was Tampa Bay who on our strength of schedule, they have the best schedule for a running back. I'd say the most, most conducive to a running back scoring fantasy point based on last year's defenses.

[Mike Wright]

For the year, yes.

[Jason Moore]

And for the year as a whole. But, and then you look at Doug Martin and which. These guys love him. However, I know that even if you love Doc Martin, you cannot love that opening sketch. No, it is rough, but that, but that's not going to stop you from drafting Doug Martin.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, I know, I'll be honest with you, I didn't know that Tampa had the best running defense. I mean the best, the best situation schedule wise against defending teams defending the running back. I didn't know that. I like Doug Martin. Outside of that, it's a tiebreaker. Maybe the contract year thing is interesting. Yeah, we saw it with Mark Ingram. We've got Eddie Lacey, Martin, you got Alshon, Jeffrey, Doug Martin. It doesn't always come to fruition.

[Jason Moore]

Sure. But you know what? I will buy into that more than I will buy into the strength of schedule. And the reason for that is not that all of a sudden an NFL player is. They turn into a monster or a superhero when they're in a contract year. However, that athlete will take extra steps to make, oh, maybe I'm going to keep my diet extra clean this year. Maybe I'm going to play through this injury that I would think about sitting out for. I'm going to rehab even more. They just. There's a, there's a thing about a multi million dollar contract that can incentivize you to push yourself just a little bit harder than you normally would.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, so not to open up too big of a can of worms here, but if there are certain players that have performed in that situation, does it stand to reason that those players. Because there are certain types of players that will play good all the time, their standard of success isn't just driven by the dollar. Because you're kind of saying that, you know, some guys, it's an extra motivating factor. If that extra motivating factor exists on a guy like Doug Martin, does it stand to reason that now that he's been paid.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

The motivation disappears?

[Mike Wright]

Yes. If you.

[Andy Holloway]

Same with anger, Same with Ingram.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. You can't have it both ways. You can't say that. I believe he's going to play through injuries more now. And then he got paid and doesn't need to. And then.

[Andy Holloway]

Did Ingram get paid this offseason?

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Jason Moore]

Was it this year or was it last year?

[Andy Holloway]

That's what I was trying to remember.

[Jason Moore]

I've been trying to recall. I'll look it up.

[Andy Holloway]

Sorry to interrupt you there.

[Mike Wright]

I believe it was. No, I think it might have been the year before Mike.

[Andy Holloway]

He still had a very good year. So it was just something that came to my mind, thinking if a player is affected by that one direction, it probably happens the other direction.

[Jason Moore]

It's not impossible for a player to, you know, have a great contract year and to continue to play great. I'm just saying we're all human. And when you see a contract of that size staring you in the face to. To be better, that can do some magical things.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And with the strength of schedule, there are teams that, you know are going to be good. I mean, you look at Seattle, they've been, you know, one of the best defenses since 2012. You know they're going to be good. That's something you can easily predict. But other teams that stepped up, you know, you've had Cincinnati that have been up and down as a defense a little bit over the last five years. They had a good year last year. They'd probably be good, but there's so much turnover, so you just don't know.

[Mike Wright]

Take the Jag. Right. If you're looking at the Jaguars, you've got a team that, when you look at putting together strength of schedule for this year, if they're playing against the Jags, oh, man, that's a great matchup. Except the problem is their defense is way improved on paper this year, and they shouldn't be anything the same as they were last year. So now you're literally telling people, hey, this team has a good schedule because they've got two games against the Jags.

[Andy Holloway]

Same with the Giants defense. It should be improved. Same with the fact Houston's going to show up as a great defense on the strengths schedule. J.J. watt might miss a few games to start the year. You can't predict injuries. If the Cardinals lost Tyron Matthew or they have him, that's two different defenses.

[Jason Moore]

Speaking of Cardinals, if I recall correct, they were considered to be up against one of the worst passing in schedules for quarterbacks and receivers.

[Mike Wright]

Yep. Last year.

[Jason Moore]

And they were second in the league in yards. So don't overvalue strength of schedule.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's go to a voicemail question here, assuming I can pull it up.

[D]

Hi, ballers. This is the voice of public opinion.

[Andy Holloway]

No, it's not.

[D]

Hey, guys. Just kidding. My name's Phil, calling from Winnipeg, Canada. My questions are twofold. First, does it make sense to draft bench players prior to actual starting roster spots? I find sometimes in my drafts, the way the draft unfolds, I end up drafting the best available player and that guy is sometimes on my bench. So I'm curious if you think that's a mistake, that I should fill my starting rosters first or if it's drafting the best available player if it happens to unfold that way. It is what it is. Second question, what's the best draft day food? Pizza, barbecue, or just all of the Oreo cookies? Thanks for help and please, brothers, I like the.

[Andy Holloway]

Would you actually get all of them?

[Mike Wright]

Just the double stuff.

[Andy Holloway]

Let's answer the food question first.

[Mike Wright]

Double stuff. I would get the white chocolate covered double stuff. I would make white chocolate covered double stuff, which has been done in my household before.

[Andy Holloway]

I'll go with. I like pizza.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I'm a pizza wing. I'm a classic. Go with the pizza wings. Or. Actually, you know what we need to look into? Getting that Oreo pizza. No, getting that raising cane's.

[Andy Holloway]

That's true.

[Jason Moore]

That raising cane's tailgater.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yeah, yeah, it sounds pretty darn good.

[Jason Moore]

And a bathtub of the sauce.

[Andy Holloway]

And a bathtub of the kiddie pool full of the sauce.

[Mike Wright]

Best draft ever.

[Andy Holloway]

Best draft. All right, to the. The real part of the question. Yeah, it's okay to fill your bench first because we always say the opposite advice of this, which is. Well, not the opposite advice. The same advice said a different way, which is don't just draft to fill your roster. In other words, you know, don't take your two running backs, your three wide receivers and a, you know, then your.

[Mike Wright]

Quarterback and then your tight end.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. So it's okay. There is a point, a tipping point where you know your fourth running back is and you don't got any starting wide receivers that it's a problem.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

The general way that I approach a draft is going to be looking at running backs and wide receivers first. And depending on how many start in each position, I'm going to pretty much fill those starters in my flex position first unless there's incredible value that I can't pass up at a quarterback or tight end. And then after that, once, once my running backs and wide receivers are filled up, I'm usually drafting nothing but bench for a couple more rounds until I'm just drafting the best wide receiver and running back until the value dictates or the tier dictates I need to move. Usually it's more the tier than the value, but I need to move on a quarterback, I need to move on a quarter on a tight end. Unless I need to move on those guys, I'm taking the best running back and wide receiver, which fills my plan.

[Jason Moore]

Look, it's okay to fill the bench first and it's okay to fill your bathtub with raising cane sauce.

[Andy Holloway]

There you go. ADP rankings Dill in New York City.

[Jason Moore]

New York City hey guys.

[Andy Holloway]

I had a question about Kelvin Benjamin. I was pretty high on him coming out of college because of his size and he did impress during his rookie year with over a thousand yards. The Panthers offense has gotten even better since then. So why do you have him ranked below players like Jordan Matthews when he's the clear number one on a high scoring offense? If I were to get Z Zeke as my first pick and Alshon as my second, would it be smart to take Kelvin as my third? Or do you go with a guy like John Brown, Ty Hilton, Jordan Matthews. By the way, great work and congrats on all those awards.

[Jason Moore]

Thank you, Dill. Thank you.

[Andy Holloway]

I really want to answer this one.

[Mike Wright]

Go for it.

[Jason Moore]

Jump in.

[Andy Holloway]

I could be wrong about Kelvin Benjamin. That's the beginning of my. My answer is that.

[Mike Wright]

Good answer.

[Andy Holloway]

But I'm willing to be. Calvin Benjamin had the benefit of a very fortunate first season in the NFL. It doesn't mean he's not talented. It does take something to get over a thousand yards. But that was a team that was very bad. They were down a lot in the end of games. Kelvin Benjamin was the only target in town and he had so many. He was the garbage man of two years ago. If Jordan Matthews, yes. Who is ironically mentioned here, was the garbage man of last year, won the footy. Yeah, Kelvin would have won the footy had we given one out the year before. And so for me, it's just a matter of a lot of targets. Olson funches a running game that's very efficient, a team that tends to be up. And it doesn't mean Kelvin can't play up to this like wide receiver, one type of level. I just, I don't buy it. That's just me personally.

[Jason Moore]

And this is what I'll add into, into there too. Just real quick couple points we talk often about when you're in the draft and you have these guys, you make a decision, you say, I, I'm willing to be right and I'm willing to be wrong on, on this guy because you mean you have to either reach to get them or you just completely bypass that player. I'm with Andy. Kelvin Benjamin is one of those guys for me that it should be there, but I'm just, I'm willing to be wrong because I don't, I don't see it in Kelvin Benjamin. And then I have to bring up the regression that I feel is coming for Cam Newton. He had 35 passing touchdowns last year in his magic season. His best career total passing before that was 24. I mean, I feel like I would like to do a study, so I'll put this on my list of a quarterback who has jumped up, you know, 10, 10 plus touchdowns. Look at their following year. See were they closer to that breakout or did they kind of return to what they normally throw on top of? So I just.

[Andy Holloway]

Let me ask you a question.

[Jason Moore]

To think that the Panthers will repeat as the highest scoring offense in the league, I don't buy into that.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, let's pretend they do.

[Jason Moore]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Do you believe this? Do you believe that Calvin Benjamin will have more than 146 targets?

[Mike Wright]

No, I don't think he would have more than.

[Jason Moore]

Is that what he had?

[Andy Holloway]

Is that's what he had in his rookie year. He was on 90% of snaps.

[Jason Moore]

Maybe make me negligibly.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, maybe you mean like pretty close.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I mean like maybe he goes to 155 or something like that.

[Mike Wright]

Well, I mean, when I was saying.

[Andy Holloway]

I feel like he had as many targets as he's going to get.

[Jason Moore]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

And he had a high, you know, a lot of touchdowns. He was targeted on 30% of red zone. That's probably right. The right number for him.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. When he came out of the gate. Remember, he started as a, as a rookie, averaging almost 10 targets per game, was scoring half a touchdown per game. And I want to remind us that all of that production came at the hands of Derek Anderson, not Cam Newton.

[Jason Moore]

Do I have to. Do you want me to bring that stat out again?

[Mike Wright]

I'm just saying.

[Jason Moore]

Follow my research by Derek Anderson.

[Mike Wright]

2014. Derek Anderson started that, played the first four weeks, game seven and games 14 and 15 for Cam Newton. And he was a big. He really targeted Kelvin Benjamin.

[Andy Holloway]

Do some math here. How many targets did I just say? 145, 146. Cut that in half. That's how many balls he caught. He was a 50% catch rate. He had 73 receptions despite 146 targets. So it wasn't impressive to me. You know, he caught. He caught 22% of his red zone targets. That's not a high number when you look at a guy like what Tyler Ifer last year. Well, remember what Tyler's red zone target number was?

[Jason Moore]

Tyler Ifert makes everyone look like just an imbecile that should not be playing in the NFL. Well, with his red zone conversion, I.

[Andy Holloway]

Mean, Kellen Benjamin's the same size pretty much.

[Mike Wright]

That's true. He is almost. Really? Well, he's 6, 5, I think so.

[Andy Holloway]

Benjamin, 6 5, 2, 40. Tyler Ifert is 6 6, 250.

[Jason Moore]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

It's not too different. But you look at like, you know, the red zone catch rate of a guy like IFERT was 75%, 22% for Calvin.

[Jason Moore]

I would rather have that.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, yeah, Art. His general catch rates 20% higher. I'm just saying, you know, those are the. If you ask why we doubt that, it's because some of the numbers behind the numbers to us didn't seem like they were elite. And I don't think any of us would believe. Let's say you buy into Kelvin being a number one. Do you really think he can finish top five in the league, top 10 as a wide receiver?

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Jason Moore]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. And let's talk about Kelvin the entire show.

[Mike Wright]

Well, to speak a little bit more to that point, you know, he brings up guys like Ty Hilton.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, give me Hilton.

[Mike Wright]

Ty Hilton is so undervalued this year and is fantastic. Also, Kelvin is going ahead of guys like Demarius Thomas and Sammy Watkins, both guys that I would much rather have than Kelvin Benjamin.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

What? True story.

[Andy Holloway]

Wait, who did he say?

[Jason Moore]

Demarius Thomas and Sammy Watkins.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, he would take Ty Hilton over him?

[Jason Moore]

He said no, no, he's saying Kevin.

[Mike Wright]

Benjamin is going ahead of the Marius Thomas and Sammy Watkins in average draft.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

That's crazy.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

What? But Mike.

[Andy Holloway]

No, no, no. All right, all right, let's move on. Keeper question from Mike in New York. I am in a keeper league and need your opinions on who to keep. Well, that's. That makes sense. With the keeper league, I'm between Lamar Miller in round three, Alan Robinson in round six, or Jeremy Lankford in round 16. 16.

[Mike Wright]

I assume he's just keeping one of.

[Andy Holloway]

These guys half point per reception. Yeah. Let's order him for him.

[Mike Wright]

One of these guys. I'm taking Alan Robinson in sixth.

[Andy Holloway]

Me too. Me too.

[Mike Wright]

Because if it's only a one keeper league, that means only 12 guys are gone. You've got a lot of talent in the draft. That third round pick that you're giving up to get Lamar Miller would be really valuable. So I'm going to pair that with Alan Robinson.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. I would go Alan Robinson, then Miller, then Langford.

[Jason Moore]

That is exactly how I would do it.

[Andy Holloway]

Potential bus question from Josh in Knoxville, Tennessee. Just started listening to the show. Welcome aboard.

[Jason Moore]

Hey, thanks.

[Andy Holloway]

Josh says he enjoys it. That's good. Sorry if you guys have talked about this in the past, but who are some wide receiver running backs being taken in the first two rounds that you feel could end up having a C.J. anderson or Eddie Lacy like season we're looking at Last year I assumed the 2015 who didn't get hurt but just simply didn't live up to expectations. So who are some of those guys that are being taken in the first couple of rounds that are in that?

[Mike Wright]

I'll throw a couple names out in the first round. First round, two guys that I think could end up doing that. And you guys won't like hearing me say it, but I'm going to throw out David Johnson and I'm also going to throw out Ezekiel Elliott. Both guys are guys I like. Both guys I expect to do well. So don't, don't hear me saying that they're going to be bustling, but if you look at their situations, you can say, well, you know, Chris Johnson was a starter last year. Maybe this year it's just going to be like a 50, 50 split. And if it's a 50, 50 split, then, you know, he might not get injured and he might not produce to the level. You have to keep in mind Eddie Lacy last year had a pretty decent year. At the end of it, he wasn't like running back 45. He just wasn't what you Drafted. And so I've got a name. And then with Ezekiel Elliott, I realized, you know, high ceiling and a high floor. But there's just the question mark of you have no idea what percent of the, of the carries and targets he's going to get. You have no idea. So it is a gamble.

[Andy Holloway]

The two names that I would say, one is Eddie Lacy. He's going in the sixth pick of the second round right now. I think there's a lot of hype, a lot of assurance that he's going to be back to old form. But you had a year like last year, that could be one guy that disappoints you. The name I want to bring up is Lamar Miller.

[Jason Moore]

That was one of my names.

[Andy Holloway]

Lamar Miller is a late first round pick right now. He's going to a new home. He's never had a giant workload and he's always kind of disappointed, even if it seems like it's not his fault. So to me, that's a name that at least has the potential. You know, a guy like A.J. green, you know what you're getting.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And I'm going to throw this out on Lamar Miller because you guys know that I've been a big Lamar Miller fan for the last several years.

[Andy Holloway]

You guys are very close and he.

[Mike Wright]

Is my keeper on my team. And so a lot of times the keepers on my team are guys I worry about.

[Jason Moore]

Well, for the Foot Clan, Jason handpicked Lamar Miller over Mark Ingram.

[Andy Holloway]

I did this year.

[Mike Wright]

I did this year. That was my choice. And as I've thought about this recently, like this week, I've been really thinking more about Lamar Miller. Dude's going to be awesome. He's going to be so good. Oh, my goodness, I love that I got Lamar Miller. He's going to be the number one running back. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, that went a different direction than I thought.

[Jason Moore]

I will say Lamar Miller and first two rounds say it.

[Mike Wright]

Well, Devonte, you know, I want to.

[Jason Moore]

Say it, but I don't. I don't want to just be so hot. Takey. Go Todd Gurley.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, okay.

[Jason Moore]

Todd Gurley.

[Mike Wright]

Well, I think this, what, what this says is that the running back position in the NFL is very volatile.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. All right. Voicemail question. Draft order question. Here we go.

[Jason Moore]

Hi, guys.

[D]

This is Tom from the Jersey Shore. I love the show, by the way. I got a quick question about our fourth year in the league. It's a 12 team redraft league, but we usually do it online where the order is randomized about a half hour beforehand. And we have about two minutes per round. This is the first year that we're going live. Live drafts. So one, how much time ahead of time should we give to randomize the picks and two, how much time should we allocate per round? If any time. Thanks, guys.

[Jason Moore]

Doing it live.

[Mike Wright]

I like what he added at the end there. If any time I can tell you in our league of record, especially if you've been around for four years, right, you know these owners, you guys know each other. If you're able to do a live draft and you're probably at least pockets of you are close friends, I would, I would recommend you have the no timer but shame rule. We kind of have the. In the first few rounds, you just kind of let people make their picks, let them take their time. If they got to work a trade or something in person, you give them a little bit more time. But then once it's just like, all right, you got to make your pick, you as a group, as the other 11 or 10. If there's one person we're going to trade, start to shame them. And what we did in our most recent draft is we in the later rounds put on a timer because it was, it was a dynasty startup. So a lot of, lot of picks and we put on like a two minute timer and then a one minute timer. And as soon as that bill went off, everyone in the room had to, had to yell at the other person, pick, make your pick.

[Andy Holloway]

Jeremy, who you picking?

[Mike Wright]

And it's hard to make a pick in that situation. You don't want that clock to run out on you.

[Andy Holloway]

And it was very fun. Sure was ridiculous.

[Jason Moore]

All right, but question, were you hope. Were you trying to goat me into saying Doug Martin?

[Andy Holloway]

I was trying to goat you into saying Eddie Lacy.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, no, Eddie Money. Me and Eddie Money are great friends.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, great. He left you broke last year.

[Mike Wright]

He had a second part to that question though, right? It wasn't just the draft timer. It was.

[Jason Moore]

No, you answered and then the rant. When should you randomize the order? Do it right now.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I would.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Know where you're going to pick what the Gronk.

[Andy Holloway]

That's the question coming in from Desmond in Steinbeck, Manitoba, Canada.

[Mike Wright]

Bonjour.

[Jason Moore]

Bonjour.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's a non French speaking. You're good there, Mike.

[Jason Moore]

Bonjour.

[Andy Holloway]

Deciding. Actually, I don't know if it's non French speaking. I don't know anything about Canada. I know that in French. Quebec is over on the, the eastern part and Vancouver is up on the western Part we are Toronto. I know everything about Canada.

[Jason Moore]

We are very uncultured swine. Talking about Canada.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Pat Mayo would be proud. Deciding between Jamal, Charles, DeAndre Hopkins and Gronk for two keepers. With Brady out four games, does that take Gronk out of the equation? Yep.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, man.

[Andy Holloway]

Between those guys? Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

If you've got Jamal, Jamal and Hopkins.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, you're right.

[Mike Wright]

Brady was there for all 16. I would still take Jamal and DeAndre. You are?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Now that I've thought it through, I completely agree.

[Andy Holloway]

Brandon. 411 in Ohio, Standard scoring. Would you rather have David Johnson? Does Bryant. Oh, this is two different choices.

[Jason Moore]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Would you rather have David Johnson and Des Bryant or Julio Jones and Lamar Miller?

[Mike Wright]

Ooh, that's good.

[Andy Holloway]

My pick is give me Julio and Lamar Miller.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that's an easy pick for me. I think Julio is. Of these four guys, he's the best. He's the real difference maker out of all four. And I usually want the trade. That includes that. Add in the fact that I'm in love with Lamar Miller and it's a home run.

[Jason Moore]

Wait, you like Lamar Miller?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, he's a big fan.

[Jason Moore]

That's the combo. I'm going to go Julio, Lamar, Lashawn McCoy.

[Andy Holloway]

Question from Jeremy in Arkansas. Hey, ballers. I have LaShawn McCoy rising in my rankings and I really expect him to have a huge year. Can you talk me out? Going to be huge. Can you talk me out of taking him in the first round ahead of a guy like Lamar Miller, Ezekiel Elliott or Mark Ingram? I cannot talk you out of that. I am totally fine with it.

[Jason Moore]

The only reason I would.

[Andy Holloway]

No problem.

[Jason Moore]

The only reason I would talk you out of it simply because if you are late in the first round, I think that Shady's gonna come back to you in the top of the second. So if you don't want to go rbrb, that's what you're saying, then grab one of the elite receivers. Grab Des. Grab AJ Green. That's the only reason I would talk you out.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that'd be smarter.

[Jason Moore]

Is if you want to throw the dice. But if you're saying I'm going safe, I'm taking my guy here. I'm not going to complain with you taking Shady right there.

[Andy Holloway]

Kyle in Oklahoma. Yeah. Getting back on Shady real quick. He has the upside to be a top three back.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

You know, there's decisions to be made there. And like Mike said, if you think you can get him in the next round, don't take him too early. Get both Those guys. All right, Kyle in Oklahoma drafting fifth this year and he has a tough decision. He assumes that Brown, Bell and OBJ will be gone.

[Jason Moore]

That will not be gone anymore.

[Andy Holloway]

No. And the fourth pick is a wild card in front of me. In order, who should I take from the following guys. So put these in order.

[Jason Moore]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Julio Jones, DeAndre Hopkins, Todd Gurley, Adrian Peterson. This is a 10 man PPR league.

[Jason Moore]

It's a standard PPR league. Kyle, which one is it?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I think like a standard point per reception league is what he means. It's like not an app. It's not an abnormal point per reception league. So Tin man ppr. This is. This is Julio Jones for me, followed by I'm going to take Todd Gurley, then DeAndre Hopkins and AP.

[Mike Wright]

I'm going to say the way he listed them is the way I like him. In a full PPR, I'm going to put DeAndre Hopkins ahead of Todd Gurley. So I go Julio Hopkins, Gurley and Peterson.

[Jason Moore]

I can agree with that.

[Andy Holloway]

You guys want to make a prediction here? I don't know if it's going to venture into a bet. What do you guys think about. Although I an over under on Todd Gurley's receptions.

[Mike Wright]

Real quick, I'm going to interrupt that because I just want to say given this list and he's saying he's picking at the fourth spot, I'm.

[Jason Moore]

Julio's probably not going to be there.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, Julio is not going to be there. But between Julio and DeAndre Hopkins is going to be A.J. green for sure.

[Jason Moore]

Yes. Yeah. Thank you, Jason.

[Mike Wright]

I would take A.J. green ahead of it would go Julio. A.J.

[Andy Holloway]

I'M going to give you. I'm going to give you an interesting number.

[Jason Moore]

Okay, let me look at my numbers here.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, Todd Gurley had 21 receptions last year.

[Jason Moore]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Over. Under.

[Jason Moore]

35 under.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, then I will. You want to water about it?

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, two and one water bat.

[Andy Holloway]

What's great about that is the number I was going to give you is 40 and I just decided to try to get away with 30.

[Jason Moore]

I will take 30.

[Mike Wright]

Pull the. Jason.

[Andy Holloway]

I did.

[Mike Wright]

Very good.

[Jason Moore]

I will take the 35.

[Andy Holloway]

What number would I have had to say for you not to agree?

[Jason Moore]

30.

[Andy Holloway]

So if I had said 30, you would have been like, no. Yeah, don't make.

[Jason Moore]

Because I have him down for 30.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. But you, you have him down for 30, which is, mind you, five receptions different from our bet point. But you are very confident with your 30.

[Jason Moore]

I will take Loves his.

[Mike Wright]

His projections.

[Andy Holloway]

Put that on the Board.

[Jason Moore]

Mike, these are so my projections are the best.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, well, that's exactly what. If you go to our Ultimate Draft kit dot com. It's like that's what Mike's endorsement of it is. They're the best.

[Mike Wright]

My rankings are the best.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, look, when you just say something is the best. I. I hear that you know where.

[Andy Holloway]

You would do good.

[Jason Moore]

I hear that gets you good places.

[Andy Holloway]

You'd be real good at the Republican Convention.

[Jason Moore]

I say that gets you good places.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. You can actually. In the Ultimate Draft Kit, you can see Mike and my and Andy's completely different individual scoring for every player.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. So you can see Mike's 30 reception miscalculation. 7th round value question from Tyler and Kenya.

[Jason Moore]

What?

[Andy Holloway]

That's the first one we've ever had from Kenya.

[Mike Wright]

Bonjour.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, bonjour indeed.

[Andy Holloway]

I love that. Every show, everyone, you know, some new listeners like, these guys are idiots. They don't understand the language of the Kenyans. It's French, obviously.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, how funny. I just wanted to see what I had Todd Gurley down for reception. It's 35. That's what I got.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, we've got time for a couple more here. Tyler in Kenya, Easy three part question. That's called easy Cheating the system. Thanks a lot, Tyler. But you're from Kenya, so that's pretty special. Moncrief Brown or Lockett?

[Jason Moore]

Moncrief.

[Andy Holloway]

Give me Lockett.

[Mike Wright]

Give me Moncrief.

[Andy Holloway]

Wow, that's amazing because Lockett's going in, what, the fifth and Moncrief's in the eighth.

[Jason Moore]

Is he. Is Lockett up to the fifth? I thought he was a kind of a sixth.

[Andy Holloway]

No, you might have been.

[Jason Moore]

Lockett's in the seventh.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. I was thinking Baldwin in my head.

[Mike Wright]

I was. Yeah, I was surprised that like a four they were that order.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, Langford or Jones?

[Mike Wright]

Jones. Jones for sure.

[Andy Holloway]

Matt Jones for me.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it's Jones.

[Andy Holloway]

Keeping one of the above in the seventh round, who would it be? So one of the above in the seventh round. Is that just. Oh, of all of them. Yeah, yeah, it's Lockett for me, but. Oh, no, it's Matt Jones. It's Matt Jones. Yeah, it's Matt Jones.

[Mike Wright]

Agreed.

[Andy Holloway]

I was thinking. Yeah, I didn't put them all together. I had them separate. Yeah, it's Matt Jones, Dennis Locke.

[Jason Moore]

It was funny how we all realized punting.

[Andy Holloway]

This question is from a different Andy in New Jersey.

[Mike Wright]

That's good for a friend.

[Jason Moore]

That's good.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, I'm not in New Jersey asking For a friend. Is it okay to wait on tight end and quarterback to the point where I'm taking Matt Ryan and Zach Miller?

[Mike Wright]

Yep. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

They're both be productive and free. Is this waiting too long?

[Jason Moore]

There could be a quarterback who I prefer in that range of Matt Ryan, but someone had asked me in my. In my quarterback rankings, which you can get those. Those are free on the site. What's the line where you think, okay, that this guy is fine to be my starter in a one quarterback league. And right now where my rankings are, it's Tyrod Taylor, which I think is like my 16th or 17th quarterback.

[Mike Wright]

So that.

[Jason Moore]

That's how. Okay, I am waiting. So Matt Ryan's probably right in that range. Zach Miller. We have Zach Miller as a sleeper. I mean, he. Once he got the job, Martell's. Bennett went down. He was really involved.

[Andy Holloway]

If you're waiting on a tight end, then he's fine.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he. Yeah, he's okay. I mean, there are a couple guys that are going right around him. I'd prefer, like, Dwayne Allen that we.

[Jason Moore]

Talked about last in a ppr.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, and a ppr. No, probably Zach. Maybe Jason Whitten would be in that conversation for me. He's just fine.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, this question is from Keith in Louisville. Who are a few players you would be willing to draft two rounds ahead of their adp?

[Jason Moore]

Oh, two rounds.

[Andy Holloway]

Tyler Lockett is one. I would.

[Jason Moore]

You would take him in the fifth?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, I would.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, all right. All right.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, and again, this is. Who are you willing to do that? None of us want to take anybody ahead of their. Where we think they'll go in the draft. But who are you basically willing put yourself in this position? You're drafting at the turn. Okay. You're gonna have to wait two rounds to pick again. So you now have to decide do you want the guy that slotted in in the end of the fifth or the beginning, you know, or you take him there, you take him in the seventh, eighth round. So who are some of those names?

[Mike Wright]

It's so funny because one of those names for me is Dante Moncrief.

[Andy Holloway]

Sure.

[Mike Wright]

And we just had the Moncrief vs. Lockett debate, which, if we want to go for the trifecta of. I would make that water bet.

[Andy Holloway]

Which one?

[Mike Wright]

Moncrie versus Lockett.

[Jason Moore]

Do we have that already? I feel like there's been. Yeah, we certainly do.

[Mike Wright]

And I. It's me on Moncrief. Andy, unlock it.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Would you take Frank Gore two rounds ahead of his adp.

[Mike Wright]

I wouldn't because, I mean, I think his value is there. Like you said, we're not trying to do this, but he's one of those guys. I don't think like in the draft, I never think I have to reach for Frank Gore. I'm going to let him drop to me.

[Andy Holloway]

I would take Melvin Gordon two rounds ahead of his. Adp. He is currently the eighth pick of the sixth round. I could take him in the eighth pick of the fourth round.

[Jason Moore]

Okay, guys, I'm trying to look later in the draft.

[Andy Holloway]

Maybe Geo as well.

[Jason Moore]

Sure. Guys, who. I would go two rounds, I would say Tori Smith. I would be willing to take him in the seventh if I had to based on the makeup of my team. Willie Snead.

[Mike Wright]

Willie Snead.

[Jason Moore]

I would take him in eight.

[Mike Wright]

Sure.

[Andy Holloway]

For me it's easier when you look later.

[Jason Moore]

You want me to look? I can look.

[Andy Holloway]

No, I think. No, that's fine. I'm just saying it's easier to find those guys, like cruel. Maybe you take them in the seventh round.

[Jason Moore]

If you thought he's going to start and Aiken. And where I was stuck was CJ Pro size. Would I take him in the 8th round? And I think there's probably a scenario where I would.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, well, that does it for Josh Gordon.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, give me Josh Gordon and I'm really.

[Andy Holloway]

I want to find out about that. We didn't talk about that. Josh Gordon. Do you. Do you want to save it for the beginning of next show just so we don't.

[Jason Moore]

Well, no. Well, we can talk it.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, essentially.

[Jason Moore]

And we'll talk.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. The news wasn't anything special, but he's meeting with.

[Mike Wright]

Met with.

[Andy Holloway]

Met with Roger Goodell. So there is somehow there's just not been a lot of like public facing news which honestly, if you ask me, it's better. That's great news for the potential of him returning if you're drafting like I took him in the Dynasty league. I'm in. Right. You know, if you're drafting and you can get him late. Jason shaking his head because he knows how good of a pick it was.

[Mike Wright]

I forgot that you got it.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. I get to pair them with my other wide receivers, Tyler Lockett, Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffrey and Julio Jones.

[Jason Moore]

I have a.

[Andy Holloway]

Are they good?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, it's pretty good.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm going to be able to get myself a running back.

[Jason Moore]

A miniature soapbox here. So the. The other. We're in the Scottie Fishbowl and during the draft, I had searched for Josh Gordon and I Wanted, you know, is there any up to date Josh Gordon news? So I went to Google, I said filter by, you know, kind of new. I think I went a week and there's these sites that like game the system of a clown show that says, oh, I have new news. And it's about a Josh Gordon suspension that just happened. Except it's the news from April, but somehow it's coming up in the Google search as new stupid sites. So if you're doing that, eat a butt, man. That is not responsible.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, fair.

[Jason Moore]

You can't do that with news. You can't say, oh, it's new news. But it's not. It's from four months ago.

[Andy Holloway]

I have a really, really good idea that just came into my head. I hope it's not eating completely unrelated eating butts. We've got the Jordan Reed jersey on the wall right now.

[Jason Moore]

You're not going to give that away.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm not giving it away. Be quiet. It's autographed Jordan Reed jersey. We have an autograph David Johnson jersey for the wall. We've got another frame that needs a jersey. And what I want to do is I want the Foot Clan to decide the player that belongs on the wall through a voting tournament. Four little four person brackets.

[Mike Wright]

I like it.

[Andy Holloway]

You pick one guy out of the four. It would do four brackets and we'll put them all in and the winner will be a hand selected Foot Clan jersey. We'll go out, we'll go to Pristine auction or whatever and we'll find an autographed jersey of that player and they'll be on our wall.

[Mike Wright]

But Andy.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah?

[Mike Wright]

Pristine auction doesn't have any Brandon lefell jerseys.

[Andy Holloway]

I checked.

[Mike Wright]

I really did check.

[Andy Holloway]

You did check?

[Mike Wright]

Not a whole is the only one that owns.

[Andy Holloway]

It's not a hot ticket. Well, you know what you needed to look for? They didn't actually print any up, so. Brandon lefell always signs Ifer jerseys.

[Jason Moore]

I was gonna ask if you looked in the dumpster. Behind McDonald's.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, just signing them, throwing them in there.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, no, that's even better. Is the fact imagining him, him there, Brandon lefell behind the dumpster and they're.

[Andy Holloway]

Landing on like Jerome Simpson's head and he's signing on the garbage.

[Jason Moore]

You ruined. I had a great LaFell story going. And you throw in Jerome Simpson who just ruins everything.

[Andy Holloway]

They're the same person. No, they are.

[Jason Moore]

Not even close. I like Brandon lafell.

[Andy Holloway]

They both played on the Bengals.

[Mike Wright]

I'm going to say this in accurate face. A true story. I would draft Brandon lefell two rounds higher than his adp.

[Andy Holloway]

I can buy it and there is nothing better. Remember, when you think Brandon LaFell, think Jason Moore. Jasonffl oh, and don't forget, head over to fantasyjocks.com if you need a trophy or anything for your fantasy league, use the promo code Ballers.

[Mike Wright]

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.