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

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no matter the shift. Call 1-800 Granger. Click Granger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. What's up, Foot Clan? Before we start today's show, I want to remind you, you can head over to Ultimate DraftKit.com and find out about the brand new.

UDK Plus. Oh, UDK Plus. The UDK Plus is our award-winning ultimate draft kit, plus our brand new dynasty pass, the draft analyzer, and season-long access to the DFS pass. Plus, plus, plus. It's for those of you who want just a little bit more. And the thing is, is used to pre-order, and you get all the bonuses, and those are all there. You get discounts, and then you get a chance to be in the listener league as long as you pre-order before March 1st.

But now you get instant access to the Dynasty Pass, which means there is content there for you right now. It's just waiting. It is tantalizing. It is sitting there at Ultimate DraftKit.com. And I want to invite you to head over there right now and check out the UDK Plus. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Another spectacular day.

I hope Brooks got the date right, though. Tuesday, February 16th. Is that right, Brooks? Okay. Welcome into the fantasy footballers podcast. Mike Wright is here. Hello, everybody. And look, man, if you are in this ice storm, I hope people are staying safe because there are places all over the country right now where things are a little cray cray. Yes, Jason Moore is here.

Uh, not frozen. Not frozen in the tundra of Arizona. No, I've seen videos and, um, it doesn't look like a place I want to be. Um, it's freeways don't look like freeways, cars are sliding around. Um, they, I don't know how to live that life. They went north of the wall. Oh, is that what happened? I think so. Very, very large creatures out there. Uh, no, stay safe. That's, it's been crazy.

So we have a really, really fun show today. We're doing the rookie review. We're going to be walking through all of the, you know, we're getting right around to that time of year right now where we are looking forward, the dynasty pass, the rookie prospects. You've got the workouts and pro days coming. You have the draft right on the horizon.

And right now, every single one of those prospects is performing as expected. No disappointments for your fantasy roster, just potential. Off the charts. Off the charts. Yeah. Jumping really high, doing lots of push-ups. Everything looks good. But this shows about reflecting on all the rookies from last year, which one's kind of...

you know, did what we expected and which ones disappointed and which ones we think have hope for the future, even if they did disappoint. So we're going to get into that on today's show. I want to invite you to check us out if you want to watch the video product. We are remote today. You can do that. YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers. You can subscribe, click the bell over there. Mike's video background is a little bit more luminous, I guess. A little Eiffel 65 action going on in here.

uh it's it's you know it mike hasn't upgraded his at home set uh until he started playing dungeons and dragons or something like that and now is correct now it's it's now it's worth it how did you start doing that did you start playing your dungeons and dragons i did we kicked off our campaign last week and uh how did that go it was awesome i killed a goblin with my loot uh

Our good friend of the show, Brian Ketren, thought he was killing a goblin with his sword, but he forgot he didn't have a sword. Oh, what a loser. And he ended up just punching a dude right in the grundle up through the head. Remind me not to ask how it's going with the Dungeons and Dragons anymore. You asked, bro. You asked. You can find us on Twitter at the FF Ballers, Instagram.com slash fantasy footballers and the community.

of thousands of Foot Clan supporters over at JoinThefoot.com getting the bonus weekly episode all offseason, some premium perks, a discount on the UDK, and best of all, you're with your kind. I mean, you're with so many great people at Jointhefoot.com. All right, quick question. News broke recently that Eagles tight in Zach Ertz is bracing for a change of scenery. I think the Eagles may be as well.

Expecting a release, a trade could be included with a Carson Wins trade. Those two kind of connected at the hip. So what would be the best landing spot for a Zach Ertz fantasy comeback? Mike, you have been right at the forefront of the Zach Ertz despair club. Yes. Yeah, I jumped off of that wagon.

We're at the first sign of trouble. Jason has a great answer. I'll let him go first. Yeah, I just assumed, you know, Mike's going to go with like the...

Saskatchewan Rough Riders or something if you want to get value out of Zackertz. But I think the best landing spot for him would be the Colts. I don't expect it to happen. But if he were to wind up there, he'd be reunited with Frank Reich, who loves to utilize tight ends in the system. We've seen, you know, Jack Doyle, Mowali Cox, Trey Burton have certain spurts of value in that system. But the good news is...

Well, Trey Burton is an unrestricted free agent. Mo Ali Cox is an unrestricted free agent. And Jack Doyle can basically be cut for only one and a half million dead cap. They could save a lot of money. Morelli's restricted, just. He is restricted? Yes. Hmm. The point is the opportunity is there. I would expect that if that were to happen, it would come with Carson Wentz. And so then you'd have both familiarity with the passer and the system. So that, I mean.

If he's got something left, I think that he would need something like that to get fantasy value back again. I question whether he has it left or not, though. Well, the thing about tight ends is that someone generally believes somebody still has something left. I mean, you need him to go somewhere similar to Jimmy Graham and them pursuing him in Chicago and him having fantasy value.

from time to time there. I mean, Chicago is a destination that makes sense to me as well. There's the potential that he could go in there and have PPR value. But you need to find that coach or system that believes in him, and it's very easy to connect the dots between Frank Reich and going with Carson Wins. Do you have a place that you think he belongs, Mike? Yes, he belongs in the coaching room. I think he has a lot to offer young players who are.

Still have it. Players that are not washed yet, players that are not a casualty when they're out there on the field, just soaking up targets that are bringing absolutely no value to your team. But I think he's still sharp upstairs. So while his body has betrayed him, I believe that Tray, I believe that that Ertz could coach up one of these younger players. I mean, like you mentioned Chicago. If he goes to Chicago and helps Cole Komet come along, that'd be great for everybody. Win-win.

One year removed from 88 receptions. He's just 30 years old. It happens fast. Yeah, but I will say this. 30 years old for a tight end is not that bad. You know, you've got a lot of tight ends that play well into their 30s. Obviously, Travis Kelsey is currently older. Greg Olson, Delaney Walker. You just, I mean, the list is not short, unlike if you're talking running backs or other positions. So I do wonder.

If it was just, was he injured and really struggling this year? And if he comes back healthy at 30, he still has a few years of a decent career left or not. Do you believe that Zach Ertz was ever elite, Mike? Oh. Or was this just a product of incredible volume? I'm looking at his yard. Yards per reception throughout his peak. It was always around 10. Last year it did dip down. I would say he's like,

At his peak, he was an excellent player. He was, like, he had, he had good hands. He had a knack for getting open. And, but I don't, I wouldn't say that when you watched, when you watched Ertz, you weren't like, that's, that's a Travis Kelsey difference. Because if, as long as he, he breaks one tackle, he's going to go to the house. That just was never what we had. He was always a volume guy. It was Austin Hooper from a couple years ago.

where, you know, he knows how to read his own. He knows how to get open. Good player. If you throw it to him, absolutely good player. But he doesn't have the specific traits that say, I beat these defenders at all times because they can't handle my physicality. If you're right, if the end has come and everything you spoke about Zekertz, poor Zackertz was in incredible past tense there, Mike, five seasons of over 75 receptions.

from his year 25 season to year 29. You know, I looked at him almost the way, not late, late career, but later career Jason Witten, you know, where it was just tried and true, always available. Best first read, second read for Carson Wins. That's where he really made his hay. So, yeah, it'll be very interesting to see what happens over the course of the offseason with both of those players because they're not long for Philadelphia. No. All right. Let's get into the review.

Rookie Review. All right, brand new for this year's Rookie Review show, brought to you by the illustrious Judge Diamati, who has put together this show, Doc. We're going to break down the rookies into three categories. Impressive. These are rookies that help fantasy managers withstand some victories. Oh, the studio loves them.

And then we have decent. I mean, they're not great, but they're not disappointing. They did their job. And, of course, there's disappointing minimal fantasy impact. And all you can really say is... Better luck next year. Yeah. Yeah, better luck next year. So let's start at the quarterback position. This one is rather easy to classify. There are a pair of...

rookie quarterbacks that fit that impressive category that we'll all agree with. By the way, over the past six seasons, only four rookie quarterbacks have finished as a top 15 fantasy quarterback or better. James did it in 2015. He was a quarterback 13. Dak did it as the quarterback six. Kyler as the quarterback eight in 2019. And this past year, Justin Herbert as the quarterback nine.

And so the two impressive rookies are indeed Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow. You'd agree with both of those classifications, I assume. I would. I was thrilled with what I saw from Joe Burrow before he got injured for a rookie. You know, it wasn't always beautiful fantasy success, but you saw the traits that translate. I was very excited for the future.

I still am. I think that he's going to, you know, overcome the injury, have a great career. And then, of course, I mean, Justin Herbert had... Oh, man. It was just flat out the best rookie's quarterback season of all time. Like, can we say that officially? Is that up for debate? I genuinely don't know. At least statistically, you can. I do want to... Just kind of... Because other people would factor in, like, how many games did you... Like, Ben Rothesberger's rookie year.