2020 Rookie Review Show + Mike’s Pump and Dump - Fantasy Football Podcast for 2/16

The coaching staff can say we want to protect him. We want to have him manage the game or win with defense. But at the same time, he should be pushing the boundaries of the coaching step and saying, okay, we're going to open things up because he's able to do more. And I don't feel like he showed anything that said, man, this guy is going to be something special. When you had the comparison on that team, too, you have Ryan Fitzpatrick ends the year. Is that Ryan Fats Patrick?

Oh, man. Come on, man. He hasn't retired yet, but oh, man, retirement, Fitzpatrick, that'll be a magical photograph. It will. Did you guys see him talking to our good friend of the show, Man Harmon, about how many buttons, what the etiquette of how many buttons you can have open? I did not see it. Oh, it was a fabulous video. Oh, buttons on the shirt. Gotcha. Yeah. But Fitzpatrick was 7.8 yards per attempt.

Meanwhile, a Tua was down at 6.3. So maybe the coaching staff put the training wheels on him or maybe he just, maybe he was playing that way. Maybe he was playing scared. There's a lot of emotion that went with Tua's opportunities this year because they came at the expense of all your fantasy players and they came at the expense of a player just.

universally beloved, yeah, in Ryan Fitzpatrick. So those were really the quarterbacks worth discussing. Nobody else really. I mean, you can mention Jordan Love. I don't even think better luck next year applies there. Professional clipboarding by that one. Oh, my gosh, yes. Let's talk about the 2020 rookie running backs, all right? Since 2012, there have been at least two rookie running backs in the top 24 every year.

There were six this past year. Six of them. They were hot. Jonathan Taylor, James Robinson, Antonio Gibson, D'And J.K. Dobbins, and Clyde, because we made this top 24, not top 20. Clyde got in there. Clyde was an injury away from being a top 20 running bag. Universally impressive. All those names I just said are in the impressive category. So they deserve a round of applause. But.

Yes. It's too late, Jason. We've already applauded him. But the one that I, five of the six, and then Clyde is the one where I want to debate. Was it an impressive rookie season or a decent rookie season for Clyde? I don't think it's fair to throw him into the disappointing when you finish at RB21, the totality of the work he did. But, well, here's a statenity of 23, 800 yards. In his favor since 1990.

Here's the Rookie running backs with 1,100 total yards and fewer than 14 games played. Marjohn Lynch, Lev Bell, Todd Gurley, Leonard Fornett, Josh Jacobs, and now Clyde Edwards, Aller. So obviously he was good, but for fantasy, I mean, it was certainly a disappointment for fantasy because of the capital of which you paid to acquire him. You wanted the opportunity to be there more, but he wasn't, he wasn't bad. It was not a bad running back.

I would put him in decent. I'd put him right in the middle. I'd put him in the decent rookie season where he did flash at times. He also, I feel like, you know, he didn't really ever take over the way that we thought he might in Kansas City either. Are you in the decent category, Mike? Yeah. Decently impressive is what I will say about Clyde was Aller, who before, this is counting the week 15 injury game. He was the running back 16.

through that point. So he was on the fringe of being in the top 12. He had the real problem, I mean, aside from everything we've laid out to me, where I took Clyde Edwards number one in our rookie draft, even though I liked Jonathan Taylor, the running back more, I just liked the landing spot of Kansas City, plus still liking the talent of Clyde that made the decision for me. I took him 101. He, like you said, Andy, where he didn't take over. He didn't

win me a week. There wasn't that Dalvin Cook week where it was four touchdowns. There wasn't the Christmas Day game with Alvin Camara. And I think that had Clyde given you at least just one of those, you would be feeling a lot different about him moving forward. Do you think that it was fair to automatically put DeAndre Swift and J.K. Dobbins into that category, the way that Judge Giamatti chose to do? Uh...

I think so. DeAndre Swift, RB 9 from week 6 on, finished at RB 18. Okay, I think Swift's locked in. But Dobbins finished what, RB. Yeah, Dobbins was so great. Once he got the job. Yeah, that's the thing is you got away once they finally stopped giving the ball to Mark Ingram and just gave the Dobbins and the Gus balls. Things were pretty great. All right, then how do you classify Cam Acres? Oh, man.

Because it was very limited amount of work, really four weeks of relevance in the regular season. We all like the future, but he feels like he fits into the decent rookie season category. Yeah, you want to try and drive his ADP down and call him just decent. I would appreciate that. No, you know what? I will actually drive it down further. He had a disappointing rookie season. He did. I love. Listen, I love. What about that talk of waiting until they got the job thing? Well, it's different because.

With, you know, in this situation, you thought there was a chance where he could inherit the job week one. He was coming in with a guy in Darnell Anderson who was barely used. And, you know, he had the opportunity to just win the job. He didn't win it up front. Then he had injuries. So it's kind of like.

With J.K. Dobbins, you knew he was coming into a heavy committee where he was behind Mark Ingram. Mark Ingram was the star. He just flat out won the job because he was better. Cam Acres had a disappointing rookie season, but Cam Acres is unbelievable. Once he finally got it, which was way too late in the season to really matter for fantasy, you know, you're talking about, I think, a superstar next year. I always loved the talent.

And but for fantasy this year, I feel like if you drafted him and held on to him, you were very, very disappointed. What'd you have? Like two weeks that you could actually play him and got value? Probably two by the time you believed. Exactly. Okay, that's fair. Yes. He had three great games and then he got injured against the Jets. And then I would put, you know, Kishon Vaughn, although off-season hype, obviously.

Invisible rookie season. Thank you, Brucharians. Thank you, Leonard Furnett. Thank you. Woof. Benchwarming, Shady McCoy. A.J. Dillon, you know, it's hard to call it disappointing when you probably weren't drafted. Zach Moss, I would put him as disappointing. He never really did anything to. Jason's making a really bitter beer face. Are you kidding? Zach Moss had the most impressive season that he could have.

Oh. I mean, I can't believe that he got on the field and good, you know, good for him. Is he getting great? He's getting graded on the Moss scale. He's got an A plus on the, on the curved Moss scale. No, Zach Moss, he can't, he can't disappoint me. You know, he would disappoint me if he did well. That would disappoint me. I would be sad at my scouting. Zach Moss is getting eaten alive. Yeah. So he'll be replaced this year.

480. Yeah, I mean, he's a depth. You think he will? He's a depth player. Yeah, he's a depth player. Yeah, I do. I think he should. Whether they will or not, we'll see. Could it should do. I know. I don't know. Did we have that discussion on this show? We talk football so much. But I think we were. We discussed him recently. Well, I could, because I brought up that Naji Harris was being mock drafted to the Buffalo. Yeah, we talked about it on. Was that on the show? It was on the show. And I was saying, I think that it's more realistic than we think because.

Zach Moss and Devon Singletary are taking up the depth chart for somebody else right now. But we'll see. All right. Let's talk about wookies. Let's talk about wookies. Yeah. Rookie wide receivers. You don't want to spend any time on my dude, my dude La Michael P. Ryan? Well, I mean, Jason seems not ready to indulge that one there. Oh, man.

What would you say? What would you say, Mike? I would say the future is bright. The future is bright for the Michael. Come on. Come on. Come on. I'm doing something. Okay. No, I don't actually really love Michael P. Right. He's a fourth round guy in the Jets, but he's on my dynasty team, so I'm just fingers crossed.

That was a pure. We need to just say the name. Speaking into existence. So that my dynasty team has a shot. I was going, I'll be honest. I was going for a pump and dump. Oh, he's going to be great. The value is going to be great next year. I would go trade for him in your dynasty leagues. Here comes the Michael Dogecoin. All right. Let's talk.

rookie wide receivers, not the first time I've called them rookies before. That goes back years, not the last. Number of rookie wide receivers who have finished in the top 36 of the past seven years. Last year in 2019, we had five, and then it was a dry spell for a while. 2018, we only had one, 2017 had two, 2016 had three, 2015 had one. But last year in 2020, we had five again. Justin Jefferson?

Up at wide receiver 6, Chase Claypool at 19, C.D. Lamb at 24, T. Higgins at 30. Wide receiver 33 was Brandon Ayuk. This was, like, I don't even love that stat, if I'm honest. This was a year of, well, because I don't think, I think Justin Jefferson, end of sentence, really helped you of the rookie class. So even though it's impressive, the other four were tantalizing you with...

the future potential. And so you saw the flashes you wanted to see to know that you drafted the right player in your rookie draft. But Claypool, Lamb, Higgins, and Ayuk, they kind of said, they poked their head out and they scored some points and then they'd hide. And then they said, wait till next year. That's the way that I kind of see those five players. We talked about Jefferson and Claypool. I know, you know, Claypool had some big games. He was impressive.

Jefferson, we don't need to discuss very much. I mean, 1,400 yards as a rookie, not many guys can do that. None, not only Jefferson. Yeah, and then, you know, Claypool, like I said, some big games, some down games, consistency was outside that top 36. So I think that that fits with what I'm saying, where these players were not every week starts unless your name was Justin Jefferson.

No, I agree. Claypool actually did, I think, a little bit of harm because he had some back-to-back good weeks early where you didn't play him, but because they were back-to-back, you started to play him, and you wanted to get that home run, and then you put him in your lineup, and then he disappointed and disappointed and disappointed. I would agree with you, but the tantalizing future is legit. I mean, we saw enough out of C.D. Lamb, who finished as the wide receiver 20 with Andy Dalton in a rookie year in a three-headed,

wide receiver core to believe in C.D. Lamb, I think we saw enough from T. Higgins, again, with backup quarterbacks after Joe Burrow went down to say he looks like he could play in the NFL. He's a legit player. So I'm excited about those two prospects personally. Don't forget about Garrett Gilbert and Ben Danucci. Oh, Ben DeNucci. That was a fun, that was a fun experiment. So out of those four non-Jefferson options, who are you most excited about?

Oh, CD Lamb. CD Lamb. For both of you. Yeah. Who's next on the list then between Higgins, Claypool, and Ayyuk. Higgins, for me. I think that's where I'm at, too. It's probably Claypool for me. But both of those guys, I have no idea who the quarterback is going to be for the first month of the season. I think longer term.

My excitement would be for Chase Claypool, who I think that Claypool can evolve into like a dominant number one wide receiver in the NFL. And I think that T. Higgins can just be like a good one, a good number one. If they both peek at their ceiling, Claypool will be higher. That's where I'm trying to get it. Yeah, no, I get it. And I think that the separation may come with, we don't know who that next quarterback is in Pittsburgh.

But we do know Joe Burrow will be the quarterback in Cincinnati. So I think it splits the difference a little bit for me, but both players have great potential. Help me decide here. Was it a decent or disappointing rookie season for Jerry Judy? Decent? Oh, disappointing. Super disappointing. That's official. Disappointing for Jerry Judy. Yeah, I mean, next year. Yeah. Get him. Seriously. I mean, look, Jerry Judy had.