Top 10 Countdown + Upside Offenses

Summary

Podcast Summary: Fantasy Footballers - Top 10 Countdown + Upside Offenses

Episode Information

• Title: Top 10 Countdown + Upside Offenses
• Hosts: Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright (with Jason Moore filling in)
• Release Date: July 5, 2018

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1. Introduction

The episode kicks off with Andy Holloway and Jason Moore welcoming listeners back to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Although Mike Wright isn't present for this episode, Jason aptly fills in, maintaining the show's dynamic energy.

Notable Quote:

• Mike Wright (Ad for Ultimate Draft Kit):

  "I think it's the excitement only a future Foot Clan champion can feel." [00:01]

2. Top 10 Fantasy Football Players Countdown

The hosts engage in a detailed countdown of the top 10 fantasy football players for the 2018 season. Each player is evaluated based on their performance, potential, and overall fantasy value.

Number 10: Odell Beckham Jr.

Odell Beckham Jr. is initially placed in the top 10 but the hosts express skepticism about his placement due to uncertainties surrounding his offensive line and consistent snap counts.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore:

  "Why can we be. And can you be confident? I might rank him there, but are we confident he's going to finish there?" [18:04]

Number 9: Saquon Barkley

Saquon Barkley, the highly touted rookie from the New York Giants, secures the number 9 spot. The hosts praise his exceptional athleticism and versatility in both rushing and receiving.

Notable Quote:

• Andy Holloway:

  "He is a player that is hyper talented in that respect. He's on another level from what we saw in the combine." [19:51]

Number 8: DeAndre Hopkins

DeAndre Hopkins is lauded for his consistency and high target share with no significant bust weeks in the previous season, making him a reliable top-tier wide receiver.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore:

  "He's a very good running back and he gets so much work, there's no one on that team that's really going to come in and say, hey, I'm taking over." [25:00]

Number 7: Melvin Gordon

Melvin Gordon is favored over some wide receivers due to his guaranteed volume in the Chargers' rushing attack, despite some inefficiencies in his past performance.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore:

  "Although he's inefficient, that doesn't mean he's a bad running back. He's a very good running back and he gets so much work." [30:00]

Number 6: Ezekiel Elliott

Ezekiel Elliott is a controversial pick at number 6, with some believing he should rank higher. However, his consistent performance and role in the Cowboys' offense justify his placement.

Notable Quote:

• Andy Holloway:

  "If it's a standard league, I'm going Zeke." [32:25]

Number 5: Alvin Kamara

Alvin Kamara is highly regarded for his dual-threat capability in both rushing and receiving, making him a valuable asset in PPR (Points Per Reception) leagues.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore:

  "He has the passing game skills of McCaffrey with a much bigger, better NFL body." [35:13]

Number 4: Antonio Brown

Antonio Brown is celebrated for his outstanding reception numbers, consistently being a top target in the Steelers' passing game.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore:

  "No player reached either of those plateaus last season. Antonio Brown. Those are the numbers he has averaged." [37:34]

Number 3: David Johnson

David Johnson is recognized for his versatility and high usage in both the running and passing game, making him one of the elite running backs in fantasy football.

Notable Quote:

• Andy Holloway:

  "He is an unfathomable stud. If you took him with the first pick over." [39:01]

Number 2: Todd Gurley

Todd Gurley's explosive performance last season, especially in the passing game, secures his position as the number 2 fantasy running back.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore:

  "Their offensive line hasn't opened up great holes for him. He has been breaking tackles and doing quality work." [41:20]

Number 1: Le'Veon Bell

Le'Veon Bell tops the countdown as the premier fantasy running back, thanks to his unparalleled performance, high volume of touches, and consistent production.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore:

  "He runs like nobody else." [46:38]

3. Upside Offenses Analysis

The hosts delve into various NFL offenses that present significant upside opportunities for fantasy players in the 2018 season. They evaluate teams based on coaching changes, player health, and offensive strategies.

Atlanta Falcons (Matt Ryan)

Matt Ryan’s second year under new coach Kyle Shanahan shows promise with improved touchdown rates, making the Falcons' offense a valuable consideration.

Notable Quote:

• Andy Holloway:

  "Matt Ryan's first season with Kyle Shanahan he had a pretty low touchdown percentage... it jumped way up." [06:22]

Tennessee Titans (Marcus Mariota)

The Titans are highlighted due to the acquisition of Matt LaFleur, a promising offensive coordinator, and the return of a healthy Marcus Mariota, potentially elevating their offensive output.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore:

  "In Marcus Mariota's situation, not only did the coordinator leave because of poor performance, but the head coach did." [08:14]

Denver Broncos

Despite a disappointing previous season, the Denver Broncos show potential with new additions like Royce Freeman and rookie wide receivers, though concerns about quarterback consistency remain.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore:

  "Cortland Sutton. Yeah. I really like what Denver's done." [11:21]

Cleveland Browns

The Browns present uncertainties with changes at quarterback and the emergence of David Njoku, who could provide significant fantasy value if he secures a prominent role in the offense.

Notable Quote:

• Andy Holloway:

  "I will say that yes, I like Njoku to have a second year leap." [12:10]

New York Giants (Saquon Barkley)

Saquon Barkley is emphasized for his exceptional talent and the Giants' investment in his versatility, making him a top consideration despite team's offensive line concerns.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore:

  "I'm fully confident in Saquon Barkley's success." [20:14]

Arizona Cardinals (David Johnson)

David Johnson's dual-threat capability in rushing and receiving makes the Cardinals' offense an attractive option, especially with a healthy return and a stable offensive strategy.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore:

  "David Johnson is both an elite, an absolute elite wide receiver and one of the best goal line between the tackles." [41:34]

4. Player and Team News

Aaron Jones Suspension

Packers running back Aaron Jones faces a two-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, impacting his fantasy value and the Packers' running game depth.

Notable Quote:

• Andy Holloway:

  "Packers running back Aaron Jones was suspended without pay for the first two games of the 2018 regular season." [14:07]

5. Social Media and Live Shows Promotion

The hosts encourage listeners to engage with them on various social media platforms, including Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. They also promote upcoming live shows in Dallas, Philly, New York, and Phoenix, emphasizing the interactive and energetic experience of attending these events.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore:

  "If you want to see what's looking this year, that would be the best resource." [48:53]

6. Listener Questions and Advice

Listeners' questions are addressed towards the end of the episode, covering topics like auction drafts, PPR league strategies, and joining the Listener League. The hosts provide insightful answers, leveraging their expertise to guide fantasy football enthusiasts.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore on Auction Drafts:

  "I love auctions. They are a really cool way that levels the playing field." [48:10]

7. Conclusion

Andy and Jason wrap up the episode by reiterating the importance of joining their live shows and engaging with the Fantasy Footballers community. They highlight upcoming events and encourage listeners to participate actively in their fantasy leagues.

Notable Quote:

• Andy Holloway:

  "Because we love fantasy football. That has never changed." [54:18]

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Overall Insights:

• Top Players: The countdown underscores the importance of balancing consistency and upside, with running backs like Le'Veon Bell and Todd Gurley topping the list due to their high workload and proven performance.
• Offensive Analysis: Evaluating team offenses provides valuable context for player performance, emphasizing the impact of coaching changes and player health on fantasy prospects.
• Strategic Advice: The episode offers strategic insights into draft strategies, emphasizing the value of versatile players and the potential benefits of auction drafts.
• Community Engagement: The hosts foster a strong community connection, encouraging interaction through social media and live events to enhance the listening experience.

Key Takeaways:

• Prioritize running backs with high usage and consistent performance.
• Monitor team offensive strategies and coaching changes for potential fantasy upside.
• Engage with the Fantasy Footballers community for additional insights and support.

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Note: This summary encapsulates the main discussions and insights from the podcast episode, highlighting key player evaluations and strategic advice for fantasy football enthusiasts.

Transcript

[Mike Wright]

For the second time in my life, I'm guilty of committing a crime. Being horrifically ill prepared for my fantasy football draft. Cause I doubt my league mates minding my team finishing 3:10, earning the ridicule of not just my friends and family, but of every man, woman and child I've ever encountered. At this season, I find I'm so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a future Foot Clan champion can feel. A future champ at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is dispersing a wide range of insults upon my leaguemates. Things like, you're one pathetic loser, or you must be a major disappointment to your parents. Or my personal favorite, you suck butt face. You know who's gonna be the Toilet bowl champion this year? Not me. Not me. To join me on this journey, head to www.ultimateraftkit.com. i hope to see you there.

[Jason Moore]

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast, coming to you from Draft.com Studios with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Andy Holloway]

Ah, we're back.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

I'm so happy to be here.

[Andy Holloway]

Welcome in to the Fantasy footballers podcast. Thursday, July 5th. Did you have a wonderful Fourth of July, Jason?

[Jason Moore]

Oh, my Fourth of July was there were firecrackers and children.

[Andy Holloway]

Fireworks.

[Jason Moore]

Fireworks and people. And there was a nightmare.

[Andy Holloway]

Cracker Jacks.

[Jason Moore]

There was a daytime and then there was a nighttime. It's just unbelievable.

[Andy Holloway]

So we're recording this show a day early.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, now you made me look like a liar.

[Andy Holloway]

As we want to give Brooks and everyone here a day off to enjoy the holiday. So we hope you did enjoy the holiday because you're listening to this on Thursday. I'm sure we did. I'm sure it was great.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I can confirm it is fantastic.

[Andy Holloway]

Was. Was fantastic.

[Jason Moore]

I don't know where I am.

[Andy Holloway]

Mike isn't here, but J. Grizz is in the house and he's filling in.

[Jason Moore]

Admirably this week, doing a better job than Mike would.

[Andy Holloway]

And we have Mike back next week. Now, we do have show. This is July and we do three shows in July, which means a show will also hit your podcast app on Saturday.

[Jason Moore]

That's right. And you know, our Saturday shows, we do some cool best ball tips. We do a lot of listener questions. So if you have questions you want on the show, go to the Fantasy footballers dot com. Submit a question, you can dial our voicemail line. Leave us a voicemail.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, man. Do you remember? Do you know the voice?

[Jason Moore]

Oh, I've only heard 550 times. 302684 TFF. I have no idea what it is.

[Andy Holloway]

302-464-Tffb is the voicemail hotline. That is a good idea though, Jason. And we're also. We're going to talk about players that we are super ashamed to love on Saturday, so do not miss that episode.

[Jason Moore]

It's a very difficult question for me to answer because you have no shame. I was gonna say if you listen to the last Spitballers podcast. I have no shame. I have none. You cannot shame me. I do not embarrass. So I'm gonna have to dig deep for. Yeah, I'm afraid to love.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. I mean, you, you tend to feel a slight amount of shame after something goes wrong. Like the desean Watson call last year.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, okay, that's fair. That is fair.

[Andy Holloway]

You have deshaun Watson.

[Jason Moore]

Okay. I guess I'm not immune to the fantasy football takes.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you're just so. You, you take great pride in it.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, I do.

[Andy Holloway]

And the results are there.

[Jason Moore]

There you go.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Ultimate Draft Kit.com is where you can get the draft kit that Morgan Freeman was talking about. A reminder. Foot Clan Vote dot com. Oh, Foot Clan.

[Jason Moore]

You only got one.

[Andy Holloway]

That was one. I was mid drink Wimpy Trumpet Mike normally handles those type of things. FootClan.vote.com. you can nominate us. Please do nominate us for the Podcast Awards, the People's choice and the sports and recreation categories.

[Jason Moore]

Check that box that says you want to be a voter.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it's very easy to do. You just go and you vote and you do it one time and hopefully we can bring home a footclan title when it comes to the Podcast Awards this year. All right, quick question of the day. What are some offenses that you do want a part of fantasy wise in 2018 that you did not in 2017? So there are a lot of, there's a lot of turnover that happens in the NFL. There are offenses that were hands off last year that will probably stay that way. Right? I mean, there are some certainly outside of Shady McCoy, think you're pretty hands off with Buffalo this year. In your case, you're fully no shady either. But there are offenses that are seemingly turning things around. So what's an offense that you were, you know, you didn't want a piece of last year, but you do this year.

[Jason Moore]

Sure. Two come to mind. They are both heavily quarterback related and it is very, it's very common for me to pull this maneuver, which is. I don't always like first year coordinators. When there's a massive shift from something that was good. Like when someone gets promoted and then there's change, I don't always like that. But the second year with that coordinator it's very common to see a tick up. And so last year I was not all about Matt Ryan. I was worried about the Falcons and Sarkeesian and now coming into year two. I think you were talking about this a couple days ago in the.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And I want to give a shout out to Evan Silva on this because it was a piece of his Falcons write up. But he brought to light the fact that, look, Matt Ryan's first season with Kyle Shanahan he had a pretty low touchdown percentage. In fact it was 3.6%. It jumped way up to that astronomical 7.1%. That's when they were the Falcons that set the league on fire, led the league in points. This is two years ago, the year.

[Jason Moore]

Two with Shanahan and now this will be year two with Sarks who last year.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I was going to just highlight last year he was back at 3.8% touchdown percentage which is very low. His career average is 4.6%. If he even had his career average, Matt Ryan would have had four additional touchdowns last year.

[Jason Moore]

Well, there were some.

[Andy Holloway]

So you're saying you are back in on Atlanta.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, because there were some fluky drops by Julio. You know, if you listen to the previous episode we talked about Julio, I discount last season. I don't care that he was inconsistent or you know, had so few touchdowns. I think Julio's great. And the other team that comes to mind is the Tennessee Titans. I think Marcus Mariota is healthy. I think they got an. It's one of those situations where they got a bad offensive mind out of the way and they've got talent there and they brought in a great offensive mind with Matt LaFleur. He comes from the coaching tree of both the aforementioned Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay.

[Andy Holloway]

However, that would. Yeah, that would speak against kind of the situation Ryan was in where the first year in the system. The thing for me with the Titans is that it's twofold. One, I know Marcus Mariota can play well and two, Matt lafor is not going to make him play well. He needs to also improve what he did last year. He was bad. He was a bad quarterback last year and it's not all scheme you saw two years ago.

[Jason Moore]

He was injured.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Jason Moore]

That's what I'm sticking with.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. I mean so Is what. Michael Crabtree was injured. Everybody that struggles is injured. I want to make sure that that's known. My point is, I don't, I don't disagree with you. They were 23rd in yards per game last year. They can absolutely improve. Like you said, you know, old man demarco is gone. They have a couple of weapons in the backfield now. That's fine. I'm just saying Marcus Mariota has to play better.

[Jason Moore]

A couple of quick rebuttals to that. One would be the fact that you.

[Andy Holloway]

Don'T think he needs to play better.

[Jason Moore]

No, I certainly play because I'm wondering.

[Andy Holloway]

What you're rebutting here.

[Jason Moore]

I'm rebutting the fact that, you know, you say he was bad and it wasn't just offensive system, but he was not bad. The two years prior his touchdown rate disappeared. His, his.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, he had the outlier, incredible red zone efficiency. Well, we saw would remind 13 touchdowns last year.

[Jason Moore]

No, he went from his rookie season over 5% touchdown rate. His sophomore year actually got better. He improved on that and then last year was just the abomination. So my point is that when I say he's injured, I think that was. We weren't just watching a quarterback that wasn't good. We were watching a quarterback have a down year. The second thing is while yes, this is the first year in a system and I talked about, you know, I like the second year is it's a different. I said this with Matt Ryan. It's different when a guy is getting promoted and you had a great season and then the coordinator leaves. In Marcus Mariota's situation, not only did the coordinator leave because of poor performance, but the head coach did, which gives them extra time in training camp over other teams when you have a new head coach coming in. So I think that situation of a brand new team that is improving the offensive mind is very different than just I've got a new offensive coordinator because I lost my great one.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, sure, I'm going to put Denver in that category. Last year Denver was 27th in the league in points per game. They were 20th in passing yards per game. This was a bottom half offense that by the end of the season, fantasy owners, they didn't want anything to do with Demaryius Thomas or Emmanuel Sanders or Devonte Booker. Really any piece of that offense. There wasn't a quarterback that you would, you know, gone were the days of Trevor Simeon surprising you and all of a sudden he was being picked up and started. No, the wheels fell off of that offense and yet this year, I think between Thomas and Sanders, Royce Freeman and maybe, just maybe, I know you're a big Keenum truther. Maybe Keenum shows himself to be relevant from week to week, streaming wise. So look, you can't trust weapons on an offense that has no quarterback.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Brock Osweiler and Paxton Lynn.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know if there's a way for you to have said his name more angrily.

[Jason Moore]

Brock Osweiler, Brock Ross.

[Andy Holloway]

Wire.

[Jason Moore]

Disgusting. Yeah, I mean, they obviously couldn't get the job done. I almost went with Denver because I do like the. I do like the pickup of Freeman and their other rookie wide receivers.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Cortland Sutton. Yeah. I really like what Denver's done.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So that's pretty good. Are there any other offenses that jump out? I thought about talking about Cleveland a little bit. Certainly they. But the truth of the matter is is that while I know there will be some relevant pieces in Cleveland, I'm not 100% certain. I've got Gordon at 22, I've got Landry at 28. That didn't make me feel like I. I'm all about them. And then I don't have confidence in Chubb versus Hyde. I do like David Njoku, though. I will say that yes, I like Njoku to have a second year leap. The confidence at the coaching staff level is high on Njoku and unlike the Ingram, outlier. Most often rookie tight ends don't contribute to the degree that Ingram did. And so this is a good opportunity for Njoku with Tyrod Taylor certainly and.

[Jason Moore]

Njoku, if you look at his actual snap percentage, it was very low. We're talking like 40s for a lot of games. That's not going to be what he's going to be on the field a lot more. So I like that. And at the end of the year, a lot of people think I'm a very anti Browns analyst and I have been historically because. Enough said. But I do believe at the end of this year there will be valuable fantasy assets from Cleveland. It's just hard in the draft season to predict who those are going to be because we don't know when Tyrod Taylor's playing or not, when he gets.

[Andy Holloway]

Supplanted by Todd Haley.

[Jason Moore]

We don't know if it's going Jarvis or there's just so much change. I think as time develops and you know, okay, this is what the offense is, you'll be able to pick some guys up off of waivers, you'll be able to make some trades and have some fantasy Relevant pieces from the Browns.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, I'm going to encourage our listeners to head over to Instagram. You can follow us over there. Instagram.com fantasy footballers. We're always posting behind the scenes stuff. Cool stats, pictures, video, all that type of stuff.

[Jason Moore]

A lot of the stuff that goes on the old IG is nowhere else. You know what I mean? Like, stuff we post on Instagram. You can't find it.

[Andy Holloway]

No, it's best look, best practice. Follow us everywhere. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

[Jason Moore]

Really good advice.

[Andy Holloway]

MySpace.

[Jason Moore]

I love MySpace.

[Andy Holloway]

Wherever. Wherever you're at. We're at. Just follow or like or click or.

[Jason Moore]

Does Justin timberlake Still own MySpace?

[Andy Holloway]

I think he owns it.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

He purchased. He probably bought it.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Me and JT. Yeah. Go over to MySpace. It's the two of us there hanging out.

[Andy Holloway]

If you listen to the show on Tuesday, you know, we were counting down the top 20 consensus rankings between Mike, myself, Jason.

[Jason Moore]

Not Mike, but go on.

[Andy Holloway]

No, the. Mike wasn't on the show, but the rankings are the. He's part of the consensus.

[Jason Moore]

I feel the need to apologize.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, tell him you're sorry, but I will not. Okay, you feel the need.

[Jason Moore]

Feel the need, but I'm sticking with it.

[Andy Holloway]

No, you got to stay.

[Jason Moore]

Lean in. Stay with it.

[Andy Holloway]

Don't show weakness to Mike.

[Jason Moore]

I'm going to, you know, take up that mantle.

[Andy Holloway]

But we were. So we're going to count down the remaining 10 players today, also known as the remaining nine players today. I overshot last. On Tuesday's episode, we talked about number 10, but I'll run them back for you. Before we do that, I do want to remind you about a bit of news that just broke a couple of days ago. Packers running back Aaron Jones was suspended without pay for the first two games of the 2018 regular season for violating the NFL policy and program for substance abuse. This stems from the arrest that took place, I believe, before the season last year, but we didn't learn about until late in the season. And then kind of an inevitable situation here with him pleading guilty, I think, to a misdemeanor of some sort.

[Jason Moore]

I am fully convinced that this is horrendous news for Aaron Jones because. Whoa, that's a wrong word. It is. I mean, I brock off what I had previous to this suspension. I know there's a lot of people out there that absolutely love Aaron Jones. I think he's going to be the guy. He's the one that should be the guy. And so I'm not saying that this is the consensus by any means. But my belief has been that it will be Ty Montgomery and Jamal Williams leading the way there and not Aaron Jones with this suspension. What this guarantees is that the other two will get first crack. They will get the opportunity first. Last year when everyone was healthy, Ty Montgomery got first crack when he went down, Jamal Williams got the next crack. It took those things to happen for Aaron Jones to have the relevance. And here's the other thing we learned from last year. The Green Bay running backs are really good for fantasy. Like all three had monster fantasy weeks. All three. So I think unless injury happens, these guys are going, especially with Aaron Rodgers there, they're going to succeed and they're not going to just get Aaron Jones back and go, you know what, let's blow up what's perhaps or I would say probably worked well for the first two weeks.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, I would expect Jamal Williams will get first and second down, work out the gate and you'll see Ty Montgomery on third down. You'll see him in there from time to time. That's how I would expect it to break out to start the year.

[Jason Moore]

I'm a time Mongol truther.

[Andy Holloway]

I know you're a time Mongolian truther.

[Jason Moore]

But you guys, you can love.

[Andy Holloway]

You can love Ty Montgomery and you don't have to make him a three down back on an offense that already drafted two running backs last year with Williams and Jones. I don't know how many times when we argue about this, I have to tell you, I didn't. I have time. Montgomery scoring more fantasy points than the other two players.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, no, and I. And I didn't make.

[Andy Holloway]

But you don't have to make him a banger.

[Jason Moore]

I didn't make him a three down back.

[Andy Holloway]

The Packers.

[Jason Moore]

Packers made him a three down back first three games of last year. Yes, they did.

[Andy Holloway]

This is ridiculous.

[Jason Moore]

All right, moving on.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, they were both rookies.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, they were.

[Andy Holloway]

Jones and Williams.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, they were.

[Andy Holloway]

How did Ty Montgomery hold up?

[Jason Moore]

Not.

[Andy Holloway]

I barely got his name out.

[Jason Moore]

Not. Well, Ty Montgomery.

[Andy Holloway]

Ty Montgomery. All right, so on the Tuesday show, number 20, Devonta Freeman, 19. Michael Thomas, also known as Michael Thomas, 18. Keenan Allen, 17. Christian McCaffrey, 16. Jericho McKinnon, 15. Lashawn McCoy, 14. That's not nice, Kareem.

[Jason Moore]

I didn't do that.

[Andy Holloway]

That was actually 13 when you say his name out loud. Leonard Fournette at 13. Dalvin Cook at 12. Julio Jones was 11. Odell Beckham Jr. Who should have been on this show was 10. And if you want to hear what we said about those guys, we went through them pretty quick on the last show. And again, this is the consensus rankings. Each of us individually have these guys a little different, but when you combine them, when you put them all together, this is what you get.

[Jason Moore]

So.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh yeah, let's kick it off.

[Jason Moore]

Sure. Number nine.

[Andy Holloway]

Say Kwon.

[Jason Moore]

Hmm. We're gonna have to let that one be ignored. They can't all be winners. Brooks is shaking his head. Yeah, we're going to ignore that one. So, yeah, we're not talking to Odell Beckham, but we're going to stay in New York, talk about the team for a second. Why is a rookie going behind a bad offensive line so high in the overall rankings? He's in a top 10 overall. We've got him, you know, consensus, I believe, as our running back. Six, you know, does he deserve that? He has literally never taken a snap on the field. Obviously, I'm making this case despite the fact that we have him here. These are our rankings. So why. Why can we be. And can you be confident? I might rank him there, but are we confident he's going to finish there?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I'm. Look, things happen, you know, not every rookie running back pans out like Trent Richardson. But Bishop, Sinky, Saquon. Yeah, Saquon is a high draft pick. They need a player at this position that has the flexibility to catch the ball out of the backfield. This is a player that is hyper talented in that respect. He's on another level from the, you know, from what we saw in the combine. And obviously the Giants invested and chose to draft Saquon Barkley ahead of a quarterback, a great need that they have. Say whatever you want about Eli Manning. He will not play forever and his days are coming to an end. And the odds of the Giants being in this top five again are low. So this was a heavy, heavy investment in a player that I think a lot of analysts would say has the skill and talent to be a top five running back in the NFL.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, you have a guy that college production and college film was already the clear cut number one. Everyone knew he was the best one out there. So incredibly athletic and electric on the field. He's 230 plus pounds. And so you. Then he goes after. He was already consensus number one in his own tier, goes to the combine where he destroyed.

[Andy Holloway]

They named it after him now.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it is the Saquon Barkley combine. I mean, you're talking not a guy who's like. Like David Johnson set the combine on fire several years ago. Unbelievable. He was a 95th percentile athlete Saquon Barkley is a 99th percentile. He's. There's. You don't get like better than Saquon. And then you go to a team that while the offense looked bad last year, that was because of injury. You also have incredible opportunity for utilizing his pass catching skills. The Giants over the second half of last season had 63 receptions to the running backs, which might surprise you, that was first in the league. That's the team he's going to. Shane Vereen is not taking over anything. He's not even, I don't believe, does he even have a team right now. But my point is the passing work will be there for him and anyone. Look at Christian McCaffrey last year. Christian McCaffrey was a poor running back. He didn't perform well. He wasn't efficient and he was a, he was an RB one for fantasy because he's so good at the passing game. I think you've got the passing game skills of McCaffrey with a much bigger, better NFL body. So yeah, I'm fully confident in Saquon Barkley's success.

[Andy Holloway]

Poor Shane Vereen does not have a home right now. He's a free agent.

[Jason Moore]

Sorry.

[Andy Holloway]

And you really rubbed it in.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I'm sorry.

[Andy Holloway]

That's pretty mean. No, I think we all buy into the opportunity. Look, the opportunity for him to carry that offense is going to be there. You know, you said, you said last year their offense failed due to injury. They failed due to a bad stable of running backs, a bad offensive line. They shored that up. And a bad quarterback play.

[Jason Moore]

Terrible. We haven't even brought up how awful the offensive play calling was last year in New York. And I think that's been greatly improved with the new options there.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, absolutely. So look, speaking of electricity. Talk about quip. Let's talk about quip. The truth is that most of us are brushing our teeth wrong, Jason. Oh, no, not for long enough. And we forget to change our, you know, we forget to brush on time every day.

[Jason Moore]

Not me. I gotta quip.

[Andy Holloway]

Most brands focus on selling flashy gimmicks rather than better brushing. But not quip. And we've talked about quip before. Mike's brought it up. Electric toothbrush costs a fraction of the bulk of your brushes. Packs the right amount of vibrations, keeps your teeth clean. Built in timer. It's easy, it makes it simple. And they have a subscription so you don't have to think about that anymore. And they'll just give you new brush heads every three months for just Five bucks free shipping worldwide. There's this little mount. You stick it on the mirror. When I got my quip, you just right on the mirror. Easy, easy to take on the road with you. One of times best inventions was on Oprah's O list. Quip starts at just 25 bucks. And if you get to getquip.comfootballers right now, you'll get your first refill pack free with equip electric toothbrush. That's your first refill pack free at getquip.com footballers spelled G-E T Q U I P.com footballers. We want to thank them for sponsoring the podcast.

[Jason Moore]

Yes. And the biggest announcement here. We've got to make sure you guys know there's only a week left until we are doing a live show in Dallas kicking off the nffc. It's going to be awesome. If you haven't watched the Minneapolis live show or haven't been to a live show, it's electric. It is so much, so much electricity on this show. We want you to come and you have a week left to get tickets. Our Minneapolis show sold out. Thank you to the foot clan. And look, go to ballerslive.com our tickets for our show, they're only 25 bucks. And if you want to go to the NFFC, you can get a bundle with it which is a field level pass.

[Andy Holloway]

And our ticket 200 plus NFL players will be at the NFFC.

[Jason Moore]

Yes. It's an incredible event that a lot of people were at last year. The bundle price is 85 bucks. Do you know how much a field level passes?

[Andy Holloway]

I actually don't.

[Jason Moore]

120. So you can get a cheaper field level pass with a ticket to our show.

[Andy Holloway]

Why not do that?

[Jason Moore]

So go to ballerslive.com we want to see you here. There. We're so excited.

[Andy Holloway]

One week, number eight, DeAndre Hopkins comes in at number eight. His average draft position. Jason, get this. It's number eight.

[Jason Moore]

Nailed it.

[Andy Holloway]

Here's something crazy. How many bus weeks did he have last year?

[Jason Moore]

I'm guessing zero.

[Andy Holloway]

That would be correct. 0 bust weeks last season.

[Jason Moore]

That's as big as negative.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know what you just said.

[Jason Moore]

I said that's his biggest negative.

[Andy Holloway]

I thought you said that's as big as negative and I said that would make you notice. I need to learn.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I literally have a note here that the biggest negative for DeAndre Hopkins is that he had no negatives. And while that is a little crazy, it's also the truth.

[Andy Holloway]

It's very hard to do that.

[Jason Moore]

You can't find something he did wrong. You can only find things that he did so incredibly well that they are going to be very difficult to replicate. And while it might sound silly to say that that's his biggest negative, it really, really is because you don't see people with over a 30% target market share among the team. He's well over Last season, over 50% wide receiver market share. Those things are astronomically high. Now, he will still be a huge target hog, but in order to, if he were to do that, let's just say if he does that back to back seasons, I think that would be the first time in history. So my biggest worry with Hopkins is simply can he possibly replicate this? I've Talked about how DeSean Watson's touchdown percentage is 100% not replicatable, but he also didn't have Watkins for the whole season. He's presumably going to have him. You know, I worry a little bit about Hopkins. I don't. I have Julio ahead of Hopkins. Really I do. I firmly think that I would rather have Odell Beckham Jr. And Julio and Antonio Brown more than Hopkins in a redraft or keeper league. But that's not to say I don't.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean people are reacting very strongly to the year that he had. I mean Hopkins was four in 2015, had the really bad year with Brock and then in 2017 last year, number one. I've seen the reaction. It's so strong in dynasty leagues he goes number one frequently. So I do think that reaction is too strong. I mean, there's no reason you cannot. And this is one of those things. As a fantasy owner, you have to be willing and able to do is what Jason's doing and say, look, what has happened isn't guaranteed to happen again. Look, people could have had that approach with Matt Ryan. I think the biggest negative for Matt Ryan two years ago was that there was no negative about Matt Ryan two years ago. Right. It's the same argument. And while Hopkins can be great and still regress, that's the point I think that Jason's making there is he could have a 22% market share, a 25% and still be great, still be everything that they need and everything they want. But will Fuller's health, Deshaun Watson's efficiency, those are still question marks. I don't think you should have any fear as a fantasy owner if you decide to plant your flag on Julio Jones or, you know, Odell Beckham Jr. Ahead of Hopkins. So I do love Hopkins I think he's going to be great. I mean, where the numbers were incredible.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Where he's going right now, like you said, we have him at 8. He is the consensus 8 in average draft position. You might be able to grab a running back there and then, you know, I've seen Odell Beckham and Julio drop into that third round, the beginning of the second round, where you could grab one of those guys with a great running back like Melvin Gordon. Like Melvin, number seven.

[Andy Holloway]

Melvin Gordon, number seven. Sorry, Jason.

[Jason Moore]

No, no.

[Andy Holloway]

Announcer talked right over him. But you have to get the number in there or the people, they don't understand.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I know it's tough. It's tough in the street.

[Andy Holloway]

So Gordon's going 1 pick after DeAndre Hopkins in most drafts. Now we have him at 7. We got him a pick ahead. If you're staring down those two players, are you leaning Gordon most often.

[Jason Moore]

But I didn't listen to you. Melvin Gordon and who?

[Andy Holloway]

Hopkins.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, yeah. I would go Melvin Gordon. I would go Melvin Gordon over those. Other than Antonio Brown, when it is a solid, rock solid all star, you know, top five potential running back versus one of those wide receivers. I'm going with the running back right now. That's something that I think looking at last year at the inconsistency versus consistency, I am pretty much a first round running back.

[Andy Holloway]

Gordon was seventh in fantasy in 2016, fifth in 2017. Look, you. You get dirty looks from Mike when we talk about Melvin Gordon, oftentimes because of some inefficiencies in his numbers. But I am a major, major Melvin Gordon fan this year. I have him higher than 7 overall, and I think he's gonna be great. This, this is the thing we were talking before the show about the Chargers. They were not a good. They were a great offense last year. Yeah, a great offense. I believe they were fourth in the NFL in yards per game. Something close to that. And this is a team that, like, you know, the question marks were there last year. They probably should have made the playoffs. You had that crazy play, I think it was by Boyd that got the Bills in instead of the Chargers. This is a great team and he is their workhorse, so I love him.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I was talking with Evan Silva on another podcast recently. We were talking bold predictions and I had the Chargers down. I don't think I actually got to this on the episode, but I had them making a Super bowl run. I think they are legitimately a great team. And look, if you look at the efficiency metrics of Melvin Gordon just About any which way you slice it, he's been not that great. I will grant that because I'm a big Melvin Gordon supporter. He hasn't been that great. But their offensive line, you know, they haven't opened up great holes for him. He has been breaking tackles and, you know, really doing quality work as a running back. Obviously that's how he finished that way. The second half of last season. He broke 24 tackles, which was tied for most in the NFL. So while you say, oh, he's inefficient, that doesn't mean he's a bad running back. He's a very good running back and he gets so much work, there's no one on that team that's really going to come in and say, hey, I'm taking over. Sorry. Austin Eckler.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, no, no doubt about it. Let's move on. Number six, Ezekiel Elliott at number six. Some may consider that a travesty.

[Jason Moore]

In which direction?

[Andy Holloway]

In the direction that we have him. Too low.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, okay, Gotcha.

[Andy Holloway]

We have him at six. The average opposition is four overall right now. He was the RB10 and he played 10 games.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, he's.

[Andy Holloway]

By that logic, he'll be the RB16 this year.

[Jason Moore]

If you assume he could play 16, maybe he only gets one game in. Oh, he's number one running back.

[Andy Holloway]

That'll be a nice week. He was the second best running back in 2016 last year. Like I said, number 10 despite 10 games played. I think that people might be surprised that we have, you know, we have Alvin Camara at 5. I'll just bring it up.

[Jason Moore]

I don't.

[Andy Holloway]

I know you don't.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, this is, it's my fault.

[Andy Holloway]

It's entirely my fault.

[Jason Moore]

I would never take Alvin Camara over Ezekiel Elliott, not even at a full PPR league because Ezekiel Elliott is an unbelievably great running back behind a still great offensive line. And yeah, they're going to stack the box, but I don't think it's going to matter. I mean, Leonard Fournette last year going.

[Andy Holloway]

Into the season, but that was a good point. That was a good team. And Brooks, what's your win total for the Cowboys this year? Brooks is the Dallas Cowboys truther.

[Jason Moore]

Six.

[Andy Holloway]

Six wins. You know, we saw this many times. You can't run the ball the way you want to run the ball if you're losing. And I'm not saying Dallas is going down the drain. They could absolutely have a bounce back year. Dak could bounce back. Zeke is obviously a top five talent in the NFL at the position they've got to find their pass catchers. But if they struggle like I have no doubt that New Orleans is going to be great. I think New Orleans is a locked in playoff team. I don't feel that way about Dallas. So I feel like there are some holes in invest, you know. You know me, I like to invest in running backs on winning teams. So when it's a heads up decision in half point or full point leagues, it's Alvin Camara. For me, if it's a standard league, I'm going Zeke.

[Jason Moore]

Whenever a guy has the amount of guaranteed volume that Zeke has along with the production history, I am willing to completely say it's like you know, for a while the Vikings weren't good but you took Adrian Peterson because he's freaking freaking Adrian Peterson over the last three years.

[Andy Holloway]

That's not even regular Adrian over the last three freaking Adrian.

[Jason Moore]

You're darn right. I mean that was when he was AP all day or as people would get mad at me saying AD all day. AP still works people. It's his initials anyways. Ezekiel Elliott has been if you look at finishes on a weekly basis of games started finishing as a running back one as in the top 12, he's the number one. He's ahead of Le'Veon Bell, ahead of Camara. If you look at finishing as an RB1 or two over that time frame and this is just percentage base, I realize Camara hasn't played that length of time. He's still the number one over Levy on Bell 96% of his games he's a running back one or two and 76% of the time he's a running back one. If you have, if you're staring down maybe Camara went ahead of you. If you're staring down Zeke and you're worried about the quality of his team, I'm just saying like I'm not.

[Andy Holloway]

That's not good. Look but I'm bringing it up because I'm talking about how you decide between the guys five and six.

[Jason Moore]

Sure.

[Andy Holloway]

And for me I was always happens when you do countdowns is you have to decide between two players. And so I'm choosing. I mean Camara. We'll just move on.

[Jason Moore]

Sure.

[Andy Holloway]

Number five I look last year this run that he had from week 7 through 13 is unparalleled. 11914311 in fantasy finishes at the running back position and then you know, oh he took a week off with the concussion and came back for a 10:21:3 finish to the Year. He is everything to that offense and even more with Mark Ingram out. So I love Alvin Kamara. Like I said, if you just took. This is crazy. If you just took his receiving stats, he would have been the wide receiver, 21 by himself. Just the receiving sets and then you get all of the running back ability. There is some regression that's built in. I think it gets compensated for by volume. And I would. I just slightly prefer Kamara over Ezekiel. You don't go wrong either way. There's no real reason to fight back and forth.

[Jason Moore]

Look, while I want desperately desire to bring up how stupid you are because that's what best friends do, I can't. And then I'll let the foot clan in on a little insight here. I had when I started. Everybody I. We stat every team out top to bottom, players that, you know, you don't see on our rankings. We've got the whole league statted out. And when I finished. Do you want to know where Alvin Camara was? He was my running back ahead of Ezekiel Elliott. When I started everybody out, I had him ahead. So I don't blame you for saying no. You go with Camara. I just literally, the way that I draft, I think I can't. I can't get myself because of volume guarantee to take. So I literally had to fudge Camara's stats down a little bit from what I believe he'll do just so that my rankings appeared the. The truth of how I would draft.

[Andy Holloway]

That's fair. Yeah. I mean, I am the reason he is. Where he at. Where he is. You have him at four. That is Zeke. And then Mike has him at five. I've got Camara up at three.

[Jason Moore]

Where do you have Zeke?

[Andy Holloway]

I have him at six.

[Jason Moore]

Yes. Disgusting.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, I have, I have Gurley, Bell, Camara, Johnson, Gordon.

[Jason Moore]

So you have Gordon above Zeke. Wow. All right. I mean, they're a much better team this season. I will, I will give you that. And he does have guaranteed volume, but I just don't.

[Andy Holloway]

I think I understand. I understand that's like a popular opinion if you know. But you just said you'd take Julio Jones over DeAndre Hopkins and it's. It's a similar situation for me on, on that front.

[Jason Moore]

Here's the thing. Whenever you talk About a top 10 list, you're squabbling over little things because we all like all of these guys.

[Andy Holloway]

Let's not squabble over number four.

[Jason Moore]

Number four.

[Andy Holloway]

Little known player, Antonio Brown.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, there's no squabbling here.

[Andy Holloway]

Go ahead and read you Found a stat on Antonio Brown.

[Jason Moore]

This is my favorite stat. I couldn't believe Brooks actually found this. And when I looked this up, I'll tell you, Brooks, I had to digress.

[Andy Holloway]

Is a big fan. I had to re.

[Jason Moore]

Add it a number of times to make sure. Yeah, no, I literally saw this and I went, that can't be true. And I went and I vetted it and I was like, oh, my gosh, this is unbelievable. So listen, in 2017, there was not a single player in the NFL who reached 116 receptions, nor was there a single player in the NFL who reach 1,589 receiving yards. K69, 1569 receiving yards. Thank you. Thank you, Brooks. No player reached either of those plateaus last season. Antonio Brown. Those are the numbers he has averaged. Averaged 116 receptions, 1569 receiving yards over the past five seasons. Not to mention he's averaged 10 touchdowns. I mean, he is. When I said in the, in the Minneapolis live show, one of my topics was saddle a stud. You have to have one of those studs. I said it then. A stud is a running back except. Or is Antonio Brown. He is an unfathomable stud. If you took him with the first pick over. Overall, that's fine. That's 100% fine. Number three.

[Andy Holloway]

He's back. David Johnson comes in at number three. Oh, man, I miss Mike. He is the ADP number three overall. His 2016 stat line is fun to stare at. 293 carries, 1239 yards, 16 touchdowns. And then he was also a wide receiver. 80 receptions for 879 and four. One hundred and twenty targets. Much like that Camara stat. He would have been the wide receiver 30 in PPR leagues, just with his receiving totals. So now we look to 2018. Our staff writer, Dr. Matthew Betts, he says the injury risk is very, very low. And obviously this was not a leg injury. So more than nine months removed. He's back. So if he's back, does it matter? Are the Cardinals good enough to make it matter? I think we say yes.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, definitely. I mean, Carlos Hyde last year because of his work in the passing game on a poor team, was the running back nine. And so will David Johnson be able to replicate the 2016 season where he had 20 total touchdowns? No. Say that right now he's not getting 20 touchdowns. Cardinals aren't going to score enough to have that happen. But he is still the secondary receiving weapon there. He has said himself this offseason that it is still incredibly important to him on a Personal level, to have 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving. That's a goal that the team wants to get him. And I just love when teams actually admit that stuff and the players say that matters because.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, but that would be really expensive. That'll be very expensive for the Cardinals.

[Jason Moore]

How do you mean?

[Andy Holloway]

Well, he's going to be. He's up for a contract.

[Jason Moore]

Yes. And he's going to get it before the season.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I, you know, a thousand and a thousand gets expensive.

[Jason Moore]

Well, that's why they're going to try to, you know, lock it up before. Beforehand.

[Andy Holloway]

He's still holding out.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Whenever you have. I mean, it's like Alvin Camara. The reason we love him is not because he's just some unfathomable between the tackles rusher. It's because of how efficient he is in the passing game. Not to take anything away from his rushing game, but that's not where he. That's not where his bread and butter is.

[Andy Holloway]

In fantasy, you need both to be.

[Jason Moore]

Ranked at the top to be a stud. And David Johnson is both an elite, an absolute elite wide receiver and one of the best goal line between the tackles.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, and right now you have side runners. Just so people understand, Arizona has. You're going to start the season with Sam Bradford. You've got Larry Fitzgerald on the slot, you're going to have Christian Kirk outside, and then you're going to have some mishmash of Bryce Butler and J.J. nelson on the other side. David Johnson's arguably the number two pass weapon on this team behind Larry Fitzgerald. So that is something that has great value and that's why he's in number three. Number two, Todd Gurley. Oh, you old friend. The old so and so. Wow, what a season for Tyne Gurley. We've got him in number two. He only had one more carry in 2017 compared to 2016, but gained over 220 additional rushing yards. And the big one, the one that everyone wants to see from Mizuki Elliott, the target count went from 58 targets to 87 targets last year made all the difference, made him the number one running back in fantasy football.

[Jason Moore]

It made a huge difference and it wasn't just because of an injury. You know, a lot of times it's like, oh, this, this player got involved and was involved in the passing game and it was due to that. This was because of a coaching change. This was because of a coach coming in and saying, wait, this guy has a skill set that we're not utilizing. You saw it in college. Let's get him the ball in space and watch what he does. The one thing I would say, I believe he had six receiving touchdowns.

[Andy Holloway]

Little high.

[Jason Moore]

That's not a number that's happening next season.

[Andy Holloway]

Could, but it's not a little high. Yes.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, you know, it's similar to David Johnson's 22 years ago. I think that Todd Gurley's touchdowns come down. And I will say this, while he is great in the passing game, I don't expect him to seed a lot of passing work. They did draft John Kelly, a running back that I think is very good. He was one of my favorite guys prior to the draft, which now is dead because he's behind Todd Gurley. But he is good in the passing game. So if they did want to utilize him and rest Todd Gurley a little bit more, they now have the opportunity to do that. That they did not. They didn't have someone to come in and actually succeed last season based on.

[Andy Holloway]

How their season went. I wouldn't do that if I were them.

[Jason Moore]

I think they want to keep him healthy more than they want to.

[Andy Holloway]

He was healthy.

[Jason Moore]

It sure was. Then they want more of that health.

[Andy Holloway]

Agreed.

[Jason Moore]

I will say this. I was in a fantasy pros expert mock draft a little bit ago. I had the number two draft spot behind Scott Barrett, and I had him queued up, you know, Lev Bell one, Todd Gurley two. And I thought for sure I'd get Love Bell because Todd Gurley's been going one everywhere. I was really disappointed. I was very sad. How's that make you feel, Andy?

[Andy Holloway]

You were sad that you got Lev Bell?

[Jason Moore]

No, I was sad that I got Todd Gurley.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yeah, that's dumb. Todd Gurley's great. Okay, I agree that six receiving touchdowns might not replicate. Maybe he's sour.

[Jason Moore]

I'm just sour on Todd Gurley because.

[Andy Holloway]

No reason. No reason to.

[Jason Moore]

He scorched me last year.

[Andy Holloway]

But I'm not surprised because, I mean, you like. You like John Kelly and I hate John Kelly.

[Jason Moore]

Well, that's ridiculous.

[Andy Holloway]

I think he's terrible. What? Awful.

[Jason Moore]

No, you don't.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, I do. I don't like him at all.

[Jason Moore]

We're gonna go watch some film. Button. Let's wrap this show. We gotta go watch film.

[Andy Holloway]

He's one of my least favorite running backs in the entire rookie class by far. And there's a reason he went where he went. Do you admit. Look, you want to sing your praises all about Rashad Penny and oh, I got him up in the first round and what I saw was Right. What do you say about John Kelly?

[Jason Moore]

I will 100%.

[Andy Holloway]

He fell. He fell in the draft.

[Jason Moore]

He fell in the draft much further than he is.

[Andy Holloway]

Joe somebody. Look, just an average player.

[Jason Moore]

My notes on John Kelly. I just happened to have this on the desk.

[Andy Holloway]

You've got your diary.

[Jason Moore]

I've got my diary. My notes on John Kelly. In the beginning I have a line that says, read that for me, Andy.

[Andy Holloway]

Completely unspecial.

[Jason Moore]

Completely unspecial.

[Andy Holloway]

Exactly.

[Jason Moore]

And then I kept watching and I changed. I mean that's, that's the thing. He, he. I think he is a very rounded player.

[Andy Holloway]

If you took Marshawn lynch and then you took away about like, like the skill rating in Madden for Marshawn lynch and you took like three points away from every ability. That's John Kelly.

[Jason Moore]

You got to take some lbs away as well.

[Andy Holloway]

Number one, Lev Bell comes in at number one on our consensus top 20. Ho hum. Lev Bell, you're great.

[Jason Moore]

I just don't see how you don't have him here. He might get off to a slow start because of training camp like he did last year, but no one has done it. Look, Todd Gurley was had a down year two years ago. You could argue that maybe it was an outlier this last year for how good he did. David Johnson's been injured.

[Andy Holloway]

Still have the contract situation.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, but he had the contract situation last season as well. It didn't matter. You have never ever, ever seen Le'Veon Bell be bad. You've never ever ever had him be, you know, a starter for a season and not be pretty much the best running back in the league. So yeah, okay, there's possibility from previous suspensions, the previous injuries or contract. There's risk there, but there's risk with everyone. I want the guy who has always done it and will continue to do it. He runs like nobody else.

[Andy Holloway]

And he only running back with 400 touches.

[Jason Moore]

They feed him the ball.

[Andy Holloway]

Sure.

[Jason Moore]

An obscene amount.

[Andy Holloway]

You know what we should do? We should rank him number one on our top 20 based on that.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Not much to talk about. Mailbag.

[Andy Holloway]

Jay Grizz. Don't worry, Jason. Don't worry, Jason.

[Jason Moore]

Thank you. I was ready. Did you see? I was.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't want people to hear you do the mailbag. That close to a holiday, that's just not safe. It's not right. It's not appropriate.

[Jason Moore]

The holiday was yesterday.

[Andy Holloway]

I know. It's too close. I want them to.

[Jason Moore]

They might bring the people back down.

[Andy Holloway]

They might be taking an extra day off of work. And they need to keep their food down that they ate yesterday. So we'll just spare them. If you want to do it, you could do it for the Saturday show. Mike won't be back then I might just do that.

[Jason Moore]

Prepare yourselves people for Saturday.

[Andy Holloway]

We talked about it at the beginning. If you have a question, go to the fantasy footballers dot com, click Submit a question or dial our voicemail hotline. Jason, that number is 302-646-464. TFFB.

[Jason Moore]

Nailed it.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm not asking that again. All right, let's jump into a voicemail. Hey, ballers, this is Jared from San Diego RIP to my Chargers. By the way, just quick question for you regarding auction drafts. We have a guy in our league who is really excited about switching to an auction draft and I just wanted your guys thoughts on if you like them, some tips and tricks and strategies for an auction draft versus a standard snake draft. Thanks guys. Love your show.

[Jason Moore]

Bye.

[Andy Holloway]

Do you like auction?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I love auctions. They are a really cool way that levels the playing field. If you've got. I think though that you need to be in a league where everybody knows how to play. Everybody's a good quality player. Because while you make the accusation that it levels the playing field, it also means that if you've got an uneven, you know, experience level, experience level, that one guy can take advantage everywhere as opposed to just in the rounds where players drop to him. It's not my favorite. I will say that I prefer, you know, redraft. I love the draft. I love the average draft position and all the strategy.

[Andy Holloway]

It's a few months in, it can be fun. We've been in some good ones.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. But I would say this, we have a couple articles on the website, the fantasy Footballers that are outstanding. We've got beginner articles for auctions. We just recently put up an article of early 2018 auction trends. So if you want to see how's this looking this year, that would be the best resource. We just don't have time to get into every auction tip.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. AJ in New Jersey has a question. Me and my league mates were thinking of changing to a fab system and I was wondering how much money each team should start out with. Also, is your podcast on tv? Thank you.

[Jason Moore]

Let me ask you a follow up question. Do you have A.J. is YouTube TV?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, if you have YouTube on your TV, we're on your TV.

[Jason Moore]

Then yes.

[Andy Holloway]

If you have the fantasy sports network, I think we're still on there as well.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I don't even know but yes, if you want a video product that can be put on your TV, we have it for you. YouTube.com TheFantasyFoot Fab.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. I mean how much do you need to start out with? It doesn't matter.

[Jason Moore]

It really doesn't matter.

[Andy Holloway]

But everybody's got the same. But 100 will make it easy to listen to podcasts.

[Jason Moore]

100, yes, exactly. That's the format we talk about. It's easy. If you're listening to someone else that talks percentage based and they say 25% of your budget then you know it's $25. Pretty easy.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Also PSA make sure if you are new, turn on zero dollar bidding.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, absolutely. That way you can keep playing. Yeah. During the week. Noah in California, who would you take in a full PPR league? Demarius Thomas or Stefan Diggs? I've been seeing them picked up pretty close to each other in mock drafts. I'm hesitant on who I would take. Love your show. I watch it on YouTube.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, on YouTube TV maybe.

[Andy Holloway]

I lean the demarious way. And by lean I mean I severely go the demarious way.

[Jason Moore]

I lean the Stefan Diggs way. And by lean I do mean lean. I think just barely, it's a little bit closer. But I have Stefan Diggs ahead in my PPR rankings.

[Andy Holloway]

I can tell you Mike leans the Diggs way by a nose as well.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I will say this. I'm starting to have some worries with the Marius Thomas and I don't like.

[Andy Holloway]

There were some signs that perhaps he's not the same explosive player.

[Jason Moore]

I mean it's so masked by the poor quarterback play like we were talking about earlier.

[Andy Holloway]

But it can happen. You can degradate degradation. Yeah, I think so.

[Jason Moore]

Nailed it.

[Andy Holloway]

Sounds right. I think that can happen during bad quarterback playing. You don't see it. So I still lean Thomas though. I think he's going to play 16. That's one of the things that I don't think Diggs is going to do.

[Jason Moore]

Fair enough.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Daniel in San Diego, how do I get into the Listener league? I'm a two time champ. Love listening to the podcast. Want to take my talents to the FF Ballers league.

[Jason Moore]

Well, Daniel, I don't think it's time. Were you checking the date here, Andy?

[Andy Holloway]

Fourth of July, I believe. This month. We'll talk about that this month.

[Jason Moore]

Brooks.

[Andy Holloway]

We're working it out. Right? The Listener league. Oh yeah.

[Jason Moore]

We will open up submissions. Brooks, the producer of the show. We found Brooks. Or he found us, whichever way you look at it. Because he submitted an unbelievably great submission for the Listener League. We knew he was a great video editor based on his submission, and we used him to cut up some other things in the future.

[Andy Holloway]

And then we hired him and moved him here.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. So what you need to do is you will end up coming up with whatever you think we will love.

[Andy Holloway]

Seeing what we don't love. We don't. I mean, congrats on the two titles. Trophy cases do not get you in the Listener League.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I'm happy if you got them.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

That's great if you don't, but don't.

[Andy Holloway]

Send me a screenshot of your trophy.

[Jason Moore]

It's not a resume to say I'm good enough to be here.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Jason Moore]

It's a. It's an. It's a submission to say I'm awesome enough to be here.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. That is a good way to put it. And I love the show.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

I love the show. And you're a good person and you want to play with a bunch of other good people and have a lot of fun. We. I will say this as well when you do your submission. We get a lot. We get a lot of submissions. So if it is a variety, kind of an assortment of blocks of text, it will probably be hard to make your mark compared to everybody else there is. Doesn't mean we won't read it.

[Jason Moore]

It does.

[Andy Holloway]

Some. It might mean it to some, but.

[Jason Moore]

TL Dr. Is a real thing.

[Andy Holloway]

We try to get through as many as we can.

[Jason Moore]

Too long. Didn't read.

[Andy Holloway]

But need to separate yourself with something fun. And we're not going to tell you what to do because it always surprises us every year. One year, somebody painted a tyrann Matthew picture on canvas and mailed it to us. One time, somebody like Brooks put in a video. We've had people that have sung songs.

[Jason Moore]

We have had people that have drawn pictures. We've had. Which is now a T shirt that you can [e-mail] we had someone edit a video of us talking into the Eye of the Tiger theme song.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, that was really special. We've had somebody that went. Walked around on sightseeing on Hawaii and took pictures. I took a picture of us around and took pictures all in Hawaii.

[Jason Moore]

So, like, we were in Hawaii.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Clever.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. I wish I was actually there.

[Jason Moore]

I thought you were saying you wish you were clever.

[Andy Holloway]

I wish I was in the Listener League.

[Jason Moore]

I bet you wish you were Listener League champion. Except I am.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Back to back again reminder ballerslive.com if you want to come to Dallas, Philly, New York, Phoenix for one of our live shows? They are so much fun. It is always a joy. Look, we, we've done a lot of these shows, but we have the same mindset about them, which is we are here to help you in your league and to entertain you and to become a part of your day. Because we love fantasy football. That has never changed. Nothing has ever changed. So when we go to these live events with fans, the stories that come out of these live events about you and your league and the shirt, the amount of people wearing 55 shirts.

[Jason Moore]

55.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, you were late. You were late. Yeah, you were late. But no, hanging out with you guys is the best. It's the best. That's why we play fantasy football. They have fun. What's going on with draft?

[Jason Moore]

Oh, hey, there's a really cool thing everybody should know about. We love best ball on draft.

[Andy Holloway]

We always talk about it, play it.

[Jason Moore]

Left, right and center. It's like my favorite game to play. They have just announced a million dollar tournament winner. Basically, it's a $25 entry. Enter in and if you have the best lineup, the details are in the app. But if you have the best lineup, you will win a million dollars. And I want to make sure that that's not true. Oh, that is not true.

[Andy Holloway]

That is not. That's the price pool.

[Jason Moore]

Price pool.

[Andy Holloway]

The first place winner will win $100,000.

[Jason Moore]

I want that too.

[Andy Holloway]

And there's a variety of awards.

[Jason Moore]

A Foot Clan listener. Just like last year, Foot Clan listener took down the final table at the draft world series event. So go to draft.comballers Absolutely.

[Andy Holloway]

And Jason's going to be doing a live streamed basketball draft this week on our Twitter channel.

[Jason Moore]

We're giving you tips on Saturday as well. And.

[Andy Holloway]

And that's so fun.

[Jason Moore]

Not only that, but if you're playing anything at best ball, if you go to bestball.com ballers you are entered into the flyaway contest.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

To paid tickets to fly you out to New York, New York City and see us and watch our live event there.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, that is it for today's episode. We'll be back on Saturday the footcast tomorrow for the JoinTheFoot.com followers. And thanks for hanging out with us. Hopefully you had fun. Brooks, did you have fun?

[Jason Moore]

Of course I did. Yeah. Thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on twitterffballers.