
Fantasy Football Podcast for August 31, 2016. On this episode of The Fantasy Footballers podcast, the guys give you their annual "My Guys" -- the fantasy studs they're planting their flags on and trusting for the 2016 fantasy football season! Don't miss
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Andy Holloway
Hey, Foot clan. We know that some of you out there are still getting ready for your fantasy football drafts. And I want to remind you, if you have not yet checked it out, go to ultimatedraftkit.com that's where you can get the official Fantasy Footballers draft kit. We've got everything in there. We have granular stat projections for the upcoming year. We have our top 200 list. We have video profiles, we have our risk rating. We have our sleepers, we have our breakouts. We have things about rookies, coaching changes, injury updates. We have our cheers that we always talk about how we draft. Head over to ultimate draftkit.com and prepare to dominate your league. Hey, this is Al Robinson from the Jacksonville Jaguars and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast.
Jason Moore
Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast coming to you from the fantasyjocks.com studios with your hosts and holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.
Mike Wright
Welcome to the show. Another day is upon us.
Jason Moore
Oh, not just any day. Not just any show.
Andy Holloway
It's Wednesday.
Mike Wright
Something special going on, Jason?
Jason Moore
I think there is. I think this is a show that every year people want. It's the My Guy show.
Mike Wright
It is the My Guys show. We are going to tell you who our guys are.
Jason Moore
That's.
Mike Wright
That's what it is. We tell you.
Andy Holloway
We're gonna tell you three.
Mike Wright
Three players that we think are, you know, what would you call them? Can't miss.
Andy Holloway
No, I wouldn't necessarily.
Mike Wright
Not necessarily. Can't.
Andy Holloway
I call them. I plant my flag on this guy and I draft them in over 90% of my leagues.
Jason Moore
Mike, you sound terrible.
Mike Wright
Yeah, you do. You don't sound good.
Andy Holloway
The. The sickness has moved down into the chest.
Mike Wright
Yeah, the.
Jason Moore
Please leave.
Mike Wright
When you talked about the ultimate draft kit before the show, it was a little raspy.
Andy Holloway
Well, that's just because that's my sexy voice.
Mike Wright
It wasn't from screaming when I sniped all the guys from your.
Andy Holloway
That probably had something to do with.
Mike Wright
It in the listener draft yesterday.
Andy Holloway
It's simply that I was at. What was I at, like 85% yesterday. Somehow I've gone backwards. Just vocally feel okay.
Mike Wright
Okay.
Andy Holloway
But the voice, I'm going to push through.
Mike Wright
All right. Well, it is the last day of August here. September is tomorrow. And we will have our bold predictions episode this week as well.
Andy Holloway
Yes.
Mike Wright
A lot to cover in the news. Everybody's heard the Teddy Bridgewater news and we will get into that. I've got a quick question for you guys. This one comes in from Twitter @JJ free-2381, debate. The future of the Ravens backfield.
Andy Holloway
The future?
Jason Moore
Yeah, I assume this year, this year's future.
Andy Holloway
Kenneth Dixon should be the future. But this season.
Mike Wright
Correct.
Jason Moore
You've got four legitimate running backs there, right? You've got Justin for set, the current starter. You have Buck Allen, his backup who has been pretty quiet even though he's done nothing wrong. Terrence west behind him who's gotten a lot of buzz, has looked good in camp. And then Kenneth Dixon, the hot rookie who looked amazing and then tore his mcl is out to start the season, but it is not expected to be a long term injury. So how do you make sense of it all?
Mike Wright
Well, I think Justin Forsett gains a certain level of safety that he didn't have before Dixon went down. I drafted him in the Listener league yesterday. I'm not extremely excited about Justin Forsett. I know that Buck Allen will be in there sharing passing down duties. Spelling for set. I think Terence west could steal goal line, but four sets the guy I would want to own and I'm okay with him as a flex kind of reliable option in that backfield. I think that that'll probably be the case for most of the year. I don't know how quick Dixon can come back or what they're going to try to do with him when he does come back. That's about how I see it laying out.
Andy Holloway
I'm sure it depends on how well four set and Buck Allen play because if they're, you know, moving and the team, the offense is doing excellent. Why would you rush Kenneth Dixon from, I mean, tearing an mcl? That does not sound good. That doesn't sound like something you should just jump off the couch as soon as you're ready and get in. So if they don't need him, I imagine he'll be eased in over time and I expect it to be four set and Buck Allen at this point.
Mike Wright
I drafted both of those guys in the draft yesterday. Got Allen, I don't know, super late, second to last round. Was that a good decision to go with Allen alongside four set or do I just have two players I'm going to be annoyed with?
Jason Moore
I think for where you drafted them, it was a good decision. I mean, that's what it comes down to. Justin Forsett to me is a good value in drafts. Not a guy I'm targeting, but a guy that when he just keeps falling and keeps falling and keeps falling because I expect that he'll start the year okay. Now I'm a little different than you guys in the sense that and this is Funny, because I was Mr. Justin Forsett last year. I don't see a way that Justin Forsett by the end of the year is carrying, you know, a lion's share of that workload. There's just too many guys there. This is not a team built for a Super Bowl. This is a team that's building for the future. Justin Forsett clearly isn't it, and they're going to need to work those other guys in and get prepared. So, to me, I like Justin Forsett's value. I'm fine with drafting him, where he's going in drafts and starting the year, but I think it's smart to grab a backup. And I might have looked more at Dixon just thinking second half of the year, especially because in our leagues, you have an IR and you could throw him on the ir, not waste a bench spot.
Mike Wright
All right, we're going to jump into the news. Talk about Teddy and his major injury and a number of other stories that came out yesterday after Jason said how nice the off season had been to everybody.
Jason Moore
I apologize to all NFL players.
Mike Wright
Yeah.
Jason Moore
But I am sure that there will be no more injuries.
Mike Wright
Oh, come on. Somebody came out on Twitter and said, probably a Minnesota fan came out on Twitter and said, boy, I am positive that the fantasy footballers are not gonna have any injuries. I think they tried to curse us. If you want to connect with us, head over to JoinTheFoot.com our fantasy football community, where you can grab an extra episode of this show every single week. Because you need six episodes, not just five.
Jason Moore
Yes, you do.
Mike Wright
And you get exclusive content over there. We've got giveaways, something special going on all the time. You can follow us over on Twitter heffballers. If you want to follow Mike for whatever reason, you can do so. Ffhitman.
Andy Holloway
I'll give you a little taste. One of the best tweets I've ever sent out. Last night, I set up a commercial that I want that the car people to make said, you start with a wide shot. You zoom in. There is a dad, and he's in a minivan, and he's driving very carefully on the freeway, getting passed by sports cars, but he's got the music blaring, and it's life in the dad lane.
Mike Wright
I did see your tweet.
Jason Moore
That was amazing. You got all that in in 140 characters.
Andy Holloway
The Twitter version was summarized life in the dad lane.
Mike Wright
Today you should just tweet ribbit because.
Jason Moore
I sound like a frog, maybe.
Mike Wright
All right. And Jason's at JasonFFL. You can follow me at Andy Holloway. And if you have a question, head over to thefantasyfootballers.com, click the submit a question button. We got a DFS section going up on the website as well. We're gonna have some articles introducing people to dfs and we have obviously our regular articles that are going up every single day for your league. If you're preparing to get week one rosters lineup set, it's coming pretty exciting. So let's get into the news.
Jason Moore
News and notes from around the league.
Mike Wright
There is no patience anymore. There's no such thing as patience. There is only speculation and panic, especially on Twitter. And when Teddy Bridgewater suffered an injury and the ambulances came out, you just, you know, the modern age, man, the modern age is just a hunger for any kind of news whatsoever. Speculation from doctors, speculation from people. Oh, this type, this kind of ambulance only comes out for this type of thing.
Jason Moore
Oh, we're instantly watching videos of ambulances just driving down the street knowing that Teddy Bridgewater is inside.
Andy Holloway
Oh, yeah, they canceled practice. Yeah, like they say, okay, we're done. No, we're done. I like, and I liked Zimmer, you know, afterwards, like we treated it like any other injury. Like you canceled practice, man.
Mike Wright
The Vikings, we all know the Vikings announced completely torn acl, dislocated knee for Teddy Bridgewater. They do expect him to recover. However, we do not know if that will be in time for 2017. And so here we are. The Vikings, one of the better teams in football. Obviously not. You know, their success is not predicated on the quarterback position. It's predicated on a good running game and a good defense. They have Sean Hill as a backup. There has been a lot of speculation even into this morning about Mark Sanchez and a possible interest in acquiring Mark Sanchez. How does this affect the outlook of the Minnesota Vikings? Prepare from a fantasy perspective.
Andy Holloway
Prepare for Adrian Peterson to break the all time rushing attempts record. That's what I'm getting ready for.
Jason Moore
So you think it helps now we talked.
Andy Holloway
I don't know that it helps. I'm just saying that Peterson's going to have break the single season for attempts.
Jason Moore
The box will be as stacked as it can be against Adrian Peterson. Thankfully, we have plenty of evidence of him running through very stacked boxes. So that, that's very nice.
Andy Holloway
You can't box in Adrian Peterson.
Jason Moore
The difference I think between the Tony Romo and the Teddy Bridgewater injury, from fantasy to its outlying parts are the fact that Teddy Bridgewater threw, you know, about 200 yards a game last year. You're not needing much to be replicated.
Mike Wright
I think they were dead last in pass attempts.
Jason Moore
Exactly, exactly. So this is not a team that moves the ball through the air or needs to. They're a defensive running team. So Adrian Peterson, I think Stefan Diggs will do about what Stefan Diggs was going to do. They do take a step back without Bridgewater, no doubt. But I think moving on to Mark Sanchez, I think that would be a mistake. If you look, I mean, what do you need from the quarterback position?
Mike Wright
I agree.
Jason Moore
Like Minnesota don't turn the ball over. Exactly. That to me is the number one thing.
Mike Wright
All right, let's talk about Bruce Ellington fantasy darling. Matt Harmon's good, good buddy. Look, Ellington statistics are going to be poor this year because he's been placed on season ending ir.
Jason Moore
Sorry, Bruce.
Mike Wright
So no opportunity to break out there. Bruce Ellington on ir.
Jason Moore
This rise Tori Smith up for you.
Andy Holloway
Mike, if he can get some freaking targets.
Mike Wright
That's why they signed Jeremy Curly, by the way, in the.
Jason Moore
Mediocre signing of the week. Oh, come on.
Mike Wright
You know where it's funny, that drop does not specify wide receiver. I could have used it yesterday for Steven Ridley.
Jason Moore
You sure could have. Jerome Simpson is out there crying somewhere.
Mike Wright
Yeah, yeah, I'd rather play Jerome. Would you rather play Jerome Simpson at quarterback from Minnesota or Mark Sanchez?
Andy Holloway
Oh, see, I thought you were going to go with would you rather play Jerome Simpson or Bart Simpson?
Mike Wright
I'm not signing Jerome no matter what it takes. I don't care. Ladarius Green is on the pup. That means he can return. What, week six?
Andy Holloway
Yes, after week six.
Mike Wright
Jesse James stream that guy.
Andy Holloway
Man, a lot of injury notes here after somebody made a comment.
Mike Wright
People are wondering if you're the reaper now.
Jason Moore
My Twitter blue up with people angry at me. The funniest, deservedly the funniest version was all the people that were listening to the show after so much injury news had broke. You know, when none of that happened before, I was saying that we have had the most injury free preseason I can remember. And then all of a sudden, so you're all this injury news coming out and then you turn on the ballers and you have me saying there's no injuries in the world. However, I, I need it to be clear that this is still Andy and not myself. Because yesterday if you, if you listen to the tape, I was arguing it was injury free and he was trying to say that it was very injury riddled. You know, he was bringing out Tony Romo and other guys. And then I said Well, I rest my case. And Andy, he went behind the scenes, all right? He won the battle. I will grant you, you won yesterday because of all the trickery you did on.
Mike Wright
You know who's getting hurt in this offseason? Nice guys. Ben Watson, Torn Achille.
Jason Moore
Yeah.
Mike Wright
Teddy Bridgewater, one of the nicest people in football.
Jason Moore
It's a good point.
Mike Wright
I mean, Pac Man Jones isn't getting hurt. I'm just kidding. All right. Ladarius Green, we talked about him on the pup. Jesse James is somebody that I would be happy streaming. He looked. He looked all right in the preseason. And they use the tight end and they don't have a lot of other options, so they also won't have, you know, they won't have Bell for the first three weeks. So I like those first three weeks for Jesse James. Keith Marshall, seventh round guy that some people drafted in dynasty leagues for no reason, is on injured reserve with a damaged UCL in his elbow. He's done. Mike. One of the most entertaining things that I had to. That I did yesterday was watch Mike try not to draft Matt Jones.
Andy Holloway
Oh, man.
Mike Wright
You know, pretty much had to. You avoided it by drafting a guy you. Another guy you don't like. Matt Forte.
Andy Holloway
But here's the deal. You know in the movie Draft Day when he pulls out the note and it says that player's name, no matter.
Mike Wright
What, is that Matt Jones for you?
Andy Holloway
Well, I have a note that says never Matt Jones.
Mike Wright
Oh, come on.
Andy Holloway
Matter what?
Mike Wright
Wasn't there a part of. Wasn't there a period of time in this offseason that you respected Matt Jones?
Andy Holloway
Never. Never.
Mike Wright
You're going to pay for it.
Andy Holloway
I respected his opportunity and I am.
Mike Wright
His opportunity's there now.
Andy Holloway
I'm fine missing it.
Jason Moore
All right, well, that sounds like Devonta Freeman if I've ever heard one.
Mike Wright
Yeah, that is his.
Jason Moore
So.
Andy Holloway
Yeah, there you go.
Mike Wright
Wait. Say it then. Say it.
Andy Holloway
Matt Jones stinks.
Jason Moore
Yes. Yes. I'm drafting him immediately.
Mike Wright
Oh, my goodness. Okay. Dion Lewis is on the pup.
Jason Moore
Yeah, we did as expected.
Mike Wright
We talked about James White and him yesterday. John Brown cleared the practice. That's a sigh of relief. That's a good grunt of relief from Jason.
Jason Moore
Yeah, I mean, I. Look, I'm a little concerned with concussions, but as we might or might not find out today, I kind of like John Brown.
Mike Wright
Eric Ebron 50. 50 to play in week one. Making his draft stock annoying.
Jason Moore
Yeah, I agree. He was another guy in consideration for me for a. My guy. I really like him this year, but he is going to get off to a slow start. I don't like that. So not going to happen. You don't need to draft him.
Mike Wright
Chiefs reporter Adam Teicher reports Jamal Charles has not regained his feature back role yet. He said almost all first teams are going to Spencer Ware, I think. You know, I saw other reports that referred to Jamal Charles is behind schedule. I mean, that was the language used.
Jason Moore
Yeah, I read that entire report because I wanted to make sure, like what. What was this really saying? And that's. You just nailed it. He's behind schedule in his recovery right now. I expect that he will get to the point where he is the lead workhorse back. But I am a little bit scared that it's not going to happen in two weeks when they start their first, you know, regular season game.
Mike Wright
Yeah, I do too. I don't like that news.
Jason Moore
He is currently my RB13 now. Wow.
Andy Holloway
He dropped into 13.
Jason Moore
Yeah. I mean, they're not just because, I mean, there are guys I like and when I'm on the clock and I'm looking at a guy that, you know, a Mark Ingram, who I believe in, I think is going to be good, or Jamal Charles, who I believe in, but I think might not be the starting workload guy on week one. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to go safe.
Mike Wright
Carlos Hyde cleared for non football activities. Is that serious the story? Non football activities.
Jason Moore
Right.
Andy Holloway
Well, he's just. He's been. Yeah, I guess that's. That was a direct quote.
Mike Wright
So he has a concussion. He's been cleared to not play football. I was cleared last week to not play football.
Andy Holloway
Carlos Hyde has been cleared to grocery shop.
Mike Wright
Okay, well, that's exciting.
Andy Holloway
Go to Target.
Mike Wright
Feel like somebody might want to like, follow up on that one a little bit for us while I. Before we get into the my guys and before we do that, I want to thank today's sponsor, SeatGeek and the SeatGeek app. You know, we love it. You know, it's the easiest, the very best way to find tickets for a game or for a concert or for a show or in our case this past week, a comedy show. Mr. Jim Gaff again. And look, I have it on my phone. I used it the other day and it is so simple. I feel like maybe this isn't the endorsement they told me to say. But listen, I can be both lazy and save the most money when I use Seed Geek because it shows you the best tickets. It already pools them all together. And then it makes it really obvious in a way that I can understand by showing me a bright green circle when I know I'm paying a good deal. Green means go and honestly that's one of the most annoying things, especially when you coordinate with friends and trying to find tickets and stuff. It can be a hassle, but not with the seatgeek app. It makes it easier for sports and music fans everywhere. They do all the price comparison for you, which makes it beautiful. And listen, listeners of this show get 20 bucks off, you get a rebate. So if you're going to go to a game, why not get 20 bucks off your first purchase? So download the free seatgeek app, go to the settings tab, click add a promo code, enter the promo code footballers and they will send you $20. After you've made your your first ticket purchase, download the free Sea geek app and enter promo code footballers today and Mike, did you find out about Carlos?
Andy Holloway
Carlos Hyde has been cleared for non football activities. If he wakes up symptom free on Wednesday, he will be officially cleared to resume practice.
Mike Wright
The pause there was humorous to me. If he wakes up, he's cleared. If he doesn't wake up, odds of football production go way down. So let's go ahead and. You ready?
Jason Moore
That's funny.
Mike Wright
You have your list.
Jason Moore
Let's do it.
Mike Wright
That drop, man, you just go from nice and easy to heavy.
Andy Holloway
Sometimes you gotta go from the hot tub to the cold pool and back to the hot tub.
Jason Moore
That's.
Mike Wright
That is the most perfect analogy for that.
Andy Holloway
So you wake up the senses.
Mike Wright
All right. We did this last year. It's our my guys episode. Planting our flag, three players each giving you some names. You know, for me, I just use this as an opportunity to cross three names off my list. Whoever Mike says, just choose. You know, Devonta Freeman is on your list this year.
Andy Holloway
He is not on my list.
Mike Wright
That's a shame. All right, so let's kick it off here. Mike, take it away. Give me one of your guys.
Andy Holloway
Sure. I'm going to start this one off with a guy I find myself drafting every single time under almost every circumstance and that is Willie Snead. I cannot seem to pass his value. I'm in a draft late last night and I'm thinking, you know, I'd like to grab a running back here. But Willie Snead is just sitting there. Such a higher two wide receiver to me than everybody else. I have to grab him. Last year, 69 catches, almost a thousand yards and only three touchdowns. Willie Snead is going currently according to fantasy football calculator at the top of the 10th round. He was a wide receiver.
Mike Wright
3.
Andy Holloway
And you can draft him in the 10th round. He can literally not be any better. And you're still getting a great value on Willie Snead, who I think is going to improve. We've already seen that. The connection is there with Drew Brees. He's had a great preseason. He's being drafted behind guys Travis Benjamin, Devin Funches, Kevin White, devontae Parker, Stephen Diggs. The guy had almost a thousand yards. Almost a thousand yards. And Drew Brees is his quarterback. I think it's. I think it's crazy the value that you're getting currently on Willie Snead. And if you look through all my teams, you're. You're going to find that I'm in the danger zone. The danger zone. And I got the need for Snead.
Mike Wright
I. You know what? I think that's. You stumbled on exactly what makes a guy our guy, which is he ends up on most of your teams in drafts.
Jason Moore
That's.
Mike Wright
So it's a mixture of us liking that player and how they're going to perform, but also the value and where they seem to drop to you in draft. So Willie Snead. Mike's my guy. I think I would take Snead over everybody in that list. I would think twice about devonte Parker, but that's it from that list. So, I mean, I'm on board. I told you. I kind of. Saints fans won't like me for this, but I just kind of think the window might be closing for them. I think it's a difficult division. I think it's been very up and down in the preseason. It was up and down last year. I know they ended strong, but they were still seven to nine team. So I worry a little bit about them from a just a success standpoint.
Jason Moore
Well, let me continue on with the next my guy then because I'm going to stick with the Saints and we're going to go with the guy I've talked about all offseason. I really like his value, and that is Kobe Fleener, Saints tight end. Look, I kind of agree with you, Andy, that the Saints window, you know, for being a playoff contending, super bowl contending team is closed. They're not that good, but the Jags aren't that good. And there's plenty of fantasy relevance to be had. And there's plenty of fantasy relevance.
Mike Wright
Gus and I beg to differ.
Andy Holloway
That's fine.
Jason Moore
Yeah.
Andy Holloway
The Gus bus and you.
Jason Moore
I will bring him up later. I'll take Drew Brees I'll take Kobe Fleener, I'll take Brandon Cooks, I'll take.
Andy Holloway
Willie Snead, Mark Ingram.
Jason Moore
These are fantasy relevant players who will put up points and look, if their defense isn't getting it done, then they got to score more points. And I'm all about that. Here are the target counts for the last three years with your Andy New Orleans Saints seats Saints 150, 156 targets, 182 targets and 148 targets the last three years to the tight end. So let's take a low number of that and just say 125 targets. 125 targets. If that's what Kobe Fleener gets. Last year he caught 64.3% of his balls. Let's only give him 60%. That's 75 receptions. 75 receptions is basically what Greg Olson and Gary Barnage got last year that helped you win leagues and he's going, you can get him as your seventh or eighth player where you've got a good solid roster. You filled out all your running backs, all your wide receivers. You might even have someone on your bench already. And then it's like, hey, I can get a guy at tight end that I don't have to stream. I don't have to be dropping guys and picking guys up. You know, I stream tight ends very often. But whenever Kobe Fleeners on the board, if I'm in the eighth round, I'm going to take him. He really is my guy in that situation and I think he's going to be reliable this year.
Andy Holloway
I love him. I got sniped on him by one pick last night.
Mike Wright
I don't know why I'm still hesitant on him. All the arguments are there. I want to remind you, Josh Hill is going to take at least 30 of those targets. So no, I do. I like the upside of it. And he represents that. You know, he's not a fantasy vegetable. He's a guy that at least you know, he has the potential in that kind of an offense and with what they've done with the tight end before to definitely outperform expectations and certainly outperform that draft selection. So I'm going to jump on to a player who, look, his greatest attribute might be the fact that Gus Bradley's his coach, but it's not. It's not. It's TJ Yeldin. All offseason this has been my guy, TJ Eldon. He missed three games last year, still ended up the RB24. And I've seen Him on people's lists of players to avoid. And so I want to tell you why I don't think you should avoid him. One reason he's going two rounds later than Chris Ivory. He's going the eighth pick of the eighth round. Where Ivory's going this eighth pick of the sixth round. My eyeballs this, this offseason in the preseason camp, Yelden looks great to me. Yelden came out and was in above. To me, an above average rookie running back. Took the most snaps of any of the rookie running backs. And I see him on these avoid lists. But I want, what I want people to realize is, okay, let's say Ivory comes in there and takes some carries. Carries were not the only thing that drove Yelden last year. He only had four games in the entire season where he had more than 14 carries. All the rest of his games he was below that mark. He can catch the ball. He didn't depend on touchdowns to get the RB24 ranking. He only had three. And him being an almost a 9th rounder is insane to me. To me on tape, he's a better player than Ivory. They're very complimentary, though. They're perfect complements to one another. And if Ivory takes a little bit away from Yelden, Yelden didn't need the goal line carries. He will get the ball in the passing game. And I think he's basically an RB2. I'm projecting him to be around that range. But you get that you can go. You talk about Fleener in the eighth round, you can go get Yelden, a guy that might end up in RB2 near the ninth round. I think the way we talk about Geo or Woodhead or those other guys, I don't understand why we wouldn't be talking that way about Yelden, a guy who can take the ball out of the backfield. He, you know, catch passes, score. I really, really like T.J. yelden.
Jason Moore
The woodhead and Charles Simms comparisons are fantastic because when I think about drafting Woodhead or Charles Sims, I get excited. I like them in PPR leagues. I know what they can do. They. I know that they have upside. And the difference, and it's good that you bring this up, is because the difference is because TJ Yelden is going from a position to what perceives to be a worse spot this year. You know, so he's. He. He just feels like he's a guy on the downward trend. But if, if this was his first year, if he was drafted as a rookie and he comes into the role, he's got right now sharing the ball with Chris Ivory in that pass catching role behind an injury riddled Chris Ivory. I mean, that's, that's great upside.
Mike Wright
And I think we would say Ivory's not on the ascension of his career. He may be reliable for them, but when Yelden played, here's the simplest thing. When he played last year, 11th best running back when he played.
Jason Moore
It's pretty good.
Mike Wright
Number 11. So does he drop to the late teens because of Ivory? That's like worst case scenario to me. And you still get an RB2. So Yeldin's my guy. I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you my second. We're going to roll back the other direction.
Andy Holloway
I need more, Andy.
Mike Wright
Yeah. Well, it's Brandon Marshall.
Andy Holloway
Love it.
Mike Wright
It's Brandon Marshall. And this again, to me, him being behind Mike Evans is one of the stupidest things that I can imagine.
Andy Holloway
Confounding.
Mike Wright
It's confounding to me. Being behind DEZ is somewhat confounding to me because of all the variables that exist for Des, not just Romo coming off the injury. The volume difference between Des and Marshall last, you know, is going to be tremendous to me. I think it might be super that he's behind Hopkins. I mean, we've talked about Hopkins at length, but all Marshall did was go out and have over 1001500 yards and 14 touchdowns. To me, he's in better shape, if not the same shape.
Jason Moore
But Andy.
Mike Wright
Oh, go ahead.
Jason Moore
But he's old.
Mike Wright
Yeah.
Jason Moore
That's all I've got.
Mike Wright
Yeah, I know.
Jason Moore
He's done it forever and he's always been good. Right. But he's old.
Mike Wright
Yeah. This old guy got the number three, was the number three wide receiver last year. He had only four games without a touchdown. He's one of the best at yards after the catch. He's a red zone guy. He doesn't, you know, he's got the size. He's a go to receiver. So all I have to say about that is come on now.
Jason Moore
Come on now.
Mike Wright
Come on now. It's not a. There's no crazy argument here. I don't have to. He proved it. I don't have to prove it.
Jason Moore
Those great receivers, those really great receivers are those receivers who between the twenties are the go to guy and then inside the twenties are also the go to guy.
Andy Holloway
Yeah.
Jason Moore
And that's Brandon Marshall.
Mike Wright
Yeah. And so Marshall, to me, love the value going in the 6, 6 pick of the second round and you could end up with a top three wide receiver.
Jason Moore
Well, if we're going to go with some top guys here, then I'm going to plant my flag on a guy I absolutely love. I have. I have him on so many of my rosters.
Mike Wright
I was Niall Davis. I know Niall Davis when I hear it.
Jason Moore
So good. Last night in our listener league draft, I was at the 8th spot. I hate the 8th spot this year if you're in a good draft, if you're in a bad draft and people fall to you. And I just wanted Lamar and Lamar went seventh. So, Corey, if you're listening, you suck. But Lamar Miller, Lamar Miller is clearly one of my guys this year. I've talked about him at length. I believe that he represents the best combination at running back this year for safety and upside. When you look at who's got an extremely safe floor, the Texans over the last two years have run the ball more than every single team in the league except for Seattle, who had Marshawn Lynch. And now you know Seattle's. We don't know what's going on with their running back situation. We know what's going on with the Houston Texans running back situation. It's Lamar Miller. How many workhorse guys who are the first, second and third down back who catch the ball and are going to get the ball a ton are there in the league? Honest question. How many?
Andy Holloway
Very few.
Jason Moore
Adrian Peterson doesn't catch the ball. Todd Gurley's not involved catching the ball.
Andy Holloway
Le'Veon Bell. Le'Veon Bell, maybe Dave. I'm projecting David Johnson there, sir.
Jason Moore
I mean, the point is this is a guy who is going to be in on first and second and third. Catch the ball, run the ball. He's going to be the goal line back. He's going to be the third down back. He's going to be the first down back. I love it.
Mike Wright
Fifth down, the fifth down back.
Jason Moore
You darn right. You darn right. But here's the deal is that in his games where he's had more than 15 touches in a game, he has shown over the years that he is a top five running back on average in those weeks. So I feel like his floor is great if he disappoints and he's not, you know, a top five running back, I think he'll be the 10th running backer or maybe the 12th running back. And so maybe I'll be disappointed taking him at the number seven spot. But I'm not going to lose my league because of Lamar Miller, barring catastrophic injury. All right, but the upside is through the roof. If he finished as the number one. You're not going to see me say, I can't believe it.
Mike Wright
Was that Gandalf? Yes. Mike, it's your turn. I. Look, I'm. I guess I'll just add this. Lamar Miller sounds a lot like the Brandon Marshall, the running back. The perfect combination of upside and floor. I mean, I'm all aboard with you with Lamar Miller. He's very high on my board. All right, Mike, you want to get to your stupid pick? I mean. Oh, wait, Mike, I respect you and your picks are great.
Andy Holloway
I was pretty quiet for your TG Eldon banter over there. Very respectful.
Mike Wright
You could have introduced it poorly though.
Andy Holloway
So I'm going with. Look, I've been beating this drum all off season. Ryan Matthews, running back from the Philadelphia Eagles. I still believe in him because he's a fantastic running back. He's been over a thousand yards rushing twice in his career. The problem has always been health. Look, can I guarantee he's going to be healthy? No, I can't. But this is what I can tell you. Last year he was averaging 2.4 yards before contact. And that with 106 carries, that's third among the qualified running backs.
Mike Wright
The anti. Carlos hyde.
Andy Holloway
This is Demarco Murray.
Jason Moore
I was going to say the inside Demarco.
Andy Holloway
Demarco Murray, who could do nothing. Demarco Murray rushed for 3.6 yards per carry on 193 attempts. Ryan Matthews, on the exact same team. One hundred and six attempts, 5.1. Because Ryan Matthews has juice left to go laterally to go through the pile to catch the ball. He's still young. He's still in his running back prime. And he is the guy. Look, he picked up a first down on almost 30% of his runs. That's higher than David Johnson, Mark Ingram, Carlos Williams. Look, he's. He was fantastic last year. He just happened to be stuck behind an albatross of a running back contract. And DeMarco Murray, they had to give him the ball. Chip. You know how Chip Kelly is. He had.
Mike Wright
He.
Andy Holloway
He assigned his name to demarco Murray. He had to run that out to the end. And Ryan Matthews paid the price. Now he gets to be the featured guy for Doug Peterson. I know that look. Darrin Sprouls is going to be involved. That's great. That helps their offense. Darius Bros is going to be involved. He'll be on the field the exact same time that Ryan Matthews is. Ryan Matthews can catch the ball. We've seen it numbers of seasons back in San Diego where Philip Rivers was targeting him as one of the top running backs in the league. He's a value pick to me going in the middle of the fifth round, I think that his upside is a low end running back one. If he doesn't get hurt. And even, even with the bad offense, it's going to run through Ryan Matthews. What else are they going to do?
Jason Moore
Yeah, they're wide receivers.
Mike Wright
So I joke about Ryan Matthews. Here's the deal. If he gets the volume, I'm going to be wrong. So that'll make you right.
Andy Holloway
Look, it's health. The question to me on Ryan Matthews is health. And that's the question for a lot of running back.
Jason Moore
One of the things I like about the fact that the concern is health is that he is, for all intents and purposes playing in a contract year. He, because they wanted to trade him, they talked about cutting because his contract is monstrously large. And so if he doesn't play well this year, he's not going to get paid next year. And so while this isn't necessarily a contract year, everything that you say, you know makes a contract year is in play for Ryan Matthews. He, he has to know that.
Andy Holloway
And here's the last thing I'll say. Kenjin Barner and Sproules have looked great. Barner, 195 pounds. Darren Sprouls, 190 pounds. These are not guys who can carry the load as a standard prototypical running back. The only guy on that roster right now is Ryan Matthews because I'm throwing Smallwood into the dumpster. Sorry, Wendell Smallwood.
Mike Wright
I thought small would looked okay, but I don't think he'll be involved. So I like it. All right, Jason, give me your third. My guy.
Jason Moore
Well, this is my both favorite and least favorite.
Mike Wright
If you've been cleared to give that. Have you been cleared to give this third one?
Jason Moore
I have been cleared to do not football activity. Okay, so you're good. I can do this. Non contact.
Andy Holloway
Have you been cleared for non football?
Mike Wright
It's been proven that non contact is very dangerous.
Jason Moore
It can be. Yesterday I in non contact, I took out a lot of guys with my words. My this my guy is a guy that I really considered. I mean, I thought about it all yesterday, all today. Do I want to have him be my guy? Because the truth is this is my guy. Like I love him. I look for him in every draft. I literally traded in our dynasty league to go and get him because I have extreme belief in him. I am very, very scared by the concussions and I am talking About Niall Davis. Smokey John Brown. John Brown for the Arizona Cardinals I think is another great value player. Here's the deal. Last year people go, well, which Cardinal do you want? And sometimes the joke is, well, you want whoever goes third. Thankfully that joke is correct because John Brown is going third. But if John Brown was going first, you'd want John Brown in my opinion. Here's why. Last year, keep in mind that was only his sophomore year. His second year in the league, John Brown was the wide receiver 21. He was a wide receiver too. He's being drafted as the 33rd wide receiver this year. What? Why? Oh, I'll tell you why. Because there's a wrong narrative that says that John Brown got off to a great start when Michael Floyd wasn't playing and was injured and wasn't, you know, he. Even though Michael Floyd was in those games, I will completely grant you that, that he was not at full health, full strength. But let's just take the final weeks from week 12 on. That's when Michael Floyd was back and healthy from Week 12 to Week 17. Of the three Arizona Cardinals, guess which one was the best in fantasy points per game? John Smokey Brown. And let me throw out another thing here that I just find super interesting. So I think he's safe. That's what I think. But let me talk upside now.
Mike Wright
Do it.
Jason Moore
A wide receiver, let's call him Mr. Brown did not go in the first round, did not go in the second round. But to a Bruce Arians led offense, he was drafted late and he was really good. In his second year, in his second year in the league, he got 69 receptions for 1108 yards and two touchdowns. I am not talking about John Brown. I'm talking about Antonio Brown who, who is by the way 5, 8, 1 8, the same weight and the same height as John Brown for the Bruce Arians Arizona Cardinals and oh by the way Antonio Brown in his when he turned 25 in that year, he had 110 receptions, 1500 yards and eight touchdowns. The upside for a Bruce Arians offense with John Brown is there he is that type of player. He is very, very good. And he's coming into the year three wide receiver where wide receivers take a step forward. I think he's safe. I think his upside is there. I love him. Please let your brain be okay. John Brown don't have concussion problems.
Andy Holloway
That's a strong argument.
Mike Wright
That's pretty good.
Jason Moore
You're doing right.
Andy Holloway
We could have got a key off for that one.
Mike Wright
I almost hit it during the during the. I like it, the preaching there. Okay.
Jason Moore
John Brown, that's my guy.
Mike Wright
Matthew Stafford is my third my guy pick. We joke about the history of Matthew Stafford, but I think he's come a long, long way and I think that.
Andy Holloway
The hat will go forwards at some point.
Mike Wright
Yeah, everybody's hat goes forward normally, like when you have your first child, something like that. But Matthew Stafford, snapback, look, he's got weapons. He's got Amir Abdullah, he's got Marvin Jones, Golden Tate, Eric Ebron, Anquan Bolden, Theo Riddick. He has an offense that will not be able to run the ball very well to the point where their own offensive coordinator conceded they probably won't have a thousand yard rusher.
Andy Holloway
I think he, I think he said it as. We don't, we don't need one.
Mike Wright
Yeah, we don't need one.
Andy Holloway
We aren't. We don't need one because we're not going to have one.
Mike Wright
Yeah. All right, well, that's good. 32 touchdowns last year despite the very bad start for the team. We've talked about his second half. It was I think 18 to 3 or 18 to 4 in touchdown to interception ratio. He's practically free in your draft, which is one of his greatest attributes. He's an 11th round pick.
Jason Moore
I was so angry last night when you didn't get him from me because he was targeting. He got oh, super late. It was like third to last round in our draft. He was the last quarterback on my board that I really wanted and I got. It got sniped right before me. I was upset until I got Ben Roethlisberger off of Wafers this morning. Sorry. Yeah, I know you guys didn't see that, but I did.
Mike Wright
Yeah, that's kind of crazy. But basically Stafford, I just like all the pieces around him. I like what he did to finish the year. I like the offense and I like the opportunity for Stafford to really surprise and be very consistent for your team. 30 plus touchdowns and to boot just to throw it in there. He's got one of the better on paper strength of schedules to start the year. Not just to start the year, the entirety of the year. I think the opponents that the Lions play have a, have last year their, their winning percentage was like 460 and he basically it's like the third best get strength of schedule in the league. I just think things are lined up for them. There's opportunities for Stafford and so I'm going to plant my flag with Matt Stafford to go along with TJ Eldon and Brandon Marshall, the third and last of my guys.
Jason Moore
The strength of schedule for Matthew Stafford I think is an important thing to note because we talk so much about how he was the fourth best quarterback the second half of the year after Jim Bob Cooter took over. But the Jim Bob Cooter taking over gets too much publicity. And the teams they played the first half of the year versus the teams they played the second half of the year doesn't get talked about enough that the second half of the year opponents, they weren't that good. The first half was a brutal schedule and he destroyed the bad teams. And so if he's got a great schedule this year coming up, if that holds true through the season, then he's going to take definitely return on his draft stock, which is practically free.
Andy Holloway
All right. The final guy I saved my best for last, the man that I love the most this year in drafts, that is Dante Moncrief. A guy that if it is the fifth round and he is on the board, it is an automatic selection. I can leave my computer, I can leave the draft because you know that I'm taking Dante Moncrief. Look, last year the breakout was happening until the unfortunate Andrew Luck situation happened last year. If you pace him out what he was, what he was rolling with Andrew Luck, he was on pace for 123 targets and over 10 touchdowns. They turned Dante Moncrief into the go to possession guy, a possession guy that can run a 44 and has a huge frame. His catch radius is unbelievable. He's extremely talented and they are going to need him in Indianapolis. That offensive line is horrifying. They still have not shorted up. They now they got some injuries and they're not going to be able to look much like Detroit. They're not going to be able to run the ball. They're going to have to get the ball out quick. And that's Dante Moncrief right now. And not only can he play that short game, we've seen electric deep catches from him. We saw the preseason catch where he had the defender draped all over him and he went Odell Beckham and just cradled it in with one hand. Because he has that kind of ability, people are expecting Andrew Luck to bounce back. We've seen the 4,000 plus yards that 40 touchdowns. If Andrew Luck can do that at all, Dante Moncrief is going to be a huge, huge part of it. And you can get him after Ty Hilton.
Mike Wright
And if you Can I ask you a question?
Andy Holloway
Sure.
Mike Wright
Right now, Dante Moncrief is going in the fourth round, seventh pick. And Hilton is going in the third round, the sixth pick. Which would you rather have?
Andy Holloway
Moncrief.
Mike Wright
Okay, so you take the tech the extra round and you grab Moncrief.
Andy Holloway
Yeah. Because I think that, look, they could finish up right around the same. But the upside to me goes to Dante Moncrief just because he will be Nante.
Mike Wright
Did I hear Nante?
Jason Moore
Dante Mont.
Andy Holloway
I said I'm running at about 70%.
Mike Wright
You're running out of gas.
Andy Holloway
Because he's. We talked about the perfect. Brandon Marshall is that perfect receiver because between the 20s, they rely on him. They get in the red zone, they rely on him. That's Dante Moncrief.
Mike Wright
This is what your voice sounds like. If you get down to Dante's Inferno, the seventh level of hell, your voice begins to sound like you've smoked a few too many cigars.
Jason Moore
You know that I wanted Dante Moncrief. We did not arm wrestle to establish.
Andy Holloway
We didn't need to.
Jason Moore
Well, because I would have won. We didn't need to.
Andy Holloway
I will film an arm wrestling contest right now.
Jason Moore
Oh, we're going to have to do this.
Mike Wright
Wow.
Jason Moore
I don't know. I don't know who would win, but I do know who would win a bench press in a combine competition. That was me. Also Dante Moncrief. I think people are really surprised because of his height that he ran a 4 4. That is very, very fast. But I do want to point out.
Mike Wright
I ran a 5 4.
Jason Moore
I do want to point out that John brand run a 4 3. That's all.
Andy Holloway
Hey, I love John Brown.
Mike Wright
Are we rounding here?
Jason Moore
No. John Brown ran a 4 3.
Mike Wright
Why can't we say players names correctly? Jane Brown. He ran a 4:3 flat.
Jason Moore
I believe it was a 4:3 flat. Okay.
Andy Holloway
All right.
Mike Wright
You're probably wrong in lying. He ran a 4:3. All right, that is it for today's show. Again, check out the ultimate draft kit. If you are drafting this weekend like we are, check out jointhefoot.com this has been a very fun show. We'll see how these guys turn out. It's been a long off season and these are the ones, the guys that kind of stood out to us and hopefully you enjoyed the show. Follow us on twitter @the ffballers and we'll be back tomorrow with some bold predictions.
Andy Holloway
Check out fantasyjocks.com Are you getting ready with your trophies? Your. Your jackets, your. You want a trophy for the worst place. Fantasy Jocks has you covered promo code, code, footballers.
Jason Moore
Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot. Com and follow us on twitter @the ffballers.
Fantasy Footballers Podcast Summary: "My Guys" Episode (August 31, 2016)
Hosts: Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright
In this engaging episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast, released on August 31, 2016, hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright dive deep into fantasy football strategies, player analyses, and key updates ahead of the upcoming season. The episode prominently features their annual "My Guys" segment, where each host selects three standout players they believe are must-drafts for fantasy managers.
Teddy Bridgewater’s Injury Impact on Minnesota Vikings
The hosts begin by addressing the significant injury news surrounding Teddy Bridgewater, the Minnesota Vikings' quarterback. Bridgewater suffered a torn ACL and a dislocated knee, raising concerns about his availability for the 2017 season.
Mike Wright emphasizes Bridgewater’s importance:
"[08:30] Mike Wright: The Vikings, we all know the Vikings announced... They do expect him to recover."
Jason Moore contrasts Bridgewater with Tony Romo’s injury in Dallas:
"[10:00] Jason Moore: The difference between Tony Romo and Teddy Bridgewater injury from fantasy..."
Andy Holloway remains optimistic about the running back situation without Bridgewater:
"[09:34] Andy Holloway: Prepare for Adrian Peterson to break the all-time rushing attempts record."
Other Injury Updates
Each host presents their top three fantasy players, providing in-depth analysis and reasoning behind their selections.
Willie Snead (WR, New Orleans Saints)
Ryan Matthews (RB, Philadelphia Eagles)
Dante Moncrief (WR, Indianapolis Colts)
Mark Ingram (RB, New Orleans Saints)
Brandon Marshall (WR, New York Jets)
Matthew Stafford (QB, Detroit Lions)
Kobe Fleener (TE, New Orleans Saints)
John Brown (WR, Arizona Cardinals)
Lamar Miller (RB, Houston Texans)
Willie Snead vs. Devonta Parker
Jamal Charles’ Recovery Timeline
Brandon Marshall’s Value in Jets’ Offense
Matthew Stafford’s Quarterback Outlook
The "My Guys" episode offers listeners a wealth of insights into undervalued players and strategic picks for the upcoming fantasy football season. The hosts emphasize the importance of drafting based on value and fitting players into their respective offensive systems. As the draft day approaches, the detailed analyses provided by Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright serve as invaluable resources for fantasy managers aiming to bolster their rosters with reliable and high-upside players.
Notable Quotes:
Andy Holloway:
"[20:12] I cannot seem to pass his value... 69 catches, almost a thousand yards and only three touchdowns."
Jason Moore:
"[22:17] ...Kobe Fleener... he really is my guy in that situation."
Mike Wright:
"[38:31] Matthew Stafford is my third my guy pick... 32 touchdowns last year."
For more detailed analyses and fantasy football strategies, tune into future episodes of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast and join their thriving community at jointhefoot.com.