Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Big Questions for 2015, NFL.com's Matt Harmon, Mailbag

Bortles and Robinson played together from weeks three to week 10, and Bortles threw to Robinson 24 times on third down, which was 13 more than the next highest player. So you know when Bortals is in trouble, when he needs a completion, he's looking for Robinson. So you're right, he's going to get a ton of targets, especially now that Julius Thomas is out early in the season. That just leads to more looks for Robinson. There's really no competition there. Marquis Lee's not a guy that I'm a fan of, and Alan Robbins, I mean, Alan Hurons is a guy who can.

Make some splash plays, but Robinson is clearly the best route runner, the number one guy there. So targets are definitely not going to be an issue. And when I looked at Robinson's reception, I saw a guy getting a lot of separation underneath, running really good slant and curl routes and things like that. So he's going to present an easy, short target for Bortles in the intermediate range of the field. I love Robinson this year. I agree. He could push for 150 targets.

in an offense where they're probably going to have to be playing a lot of catch-up. Look, I don't want to fall for Bortles for two pre-seasons in a row, but the guy does look good. I'm a little confident that he can make a slight step up from his rookie year and not be a total disaster, and that's just more benefits for Robinson. So everything about him is a green light for me, and I like the price in the sixth round. And my league, and everybody knows I love Robinson, so my league may often make me pay up for him.

If I have to pull the trigger in the mid-fifth round, I'll totally do that. I feel comfortable with everything about his outlook. Yeah, he's kind of a forgotten guy from that draft class of where it seemed like just 500 wide receivers were widely touted and excellent prospects. So I think people are not remembering how well Alan Robinson was in college or how well he played in college. I want to move to a guy in Kansas City.

Andy, our co-host here is huge. He's my guy. He's my guy. Jeremy Macklin this year. We know the talent is there, but will he pay off for his draft price in Kansas City? You know, Macklin's been an interesting one for me all year, or again, I should say all offseason, because I think for a lot of these free agents, we oftentimes write the narrative for them before we end up seeing what happens. So I think that

Obviously, Macklin is not going to produce what he did last year in Philadelphia. The opportunity is just, it's going to be a little, it's going to be a little bit less. And we're also going to see, you know, a downgrade in just general offensive efficiency and how many plays they're going to run. So I don't think we're going to see numbers that we saw from Macklin last year. But I think that's already priced into his ADP in the sort of fifth or sixth round range of fantasy draft. So I like, I like targeting.

Jeremy Mack on there because I think he's going to give you wide receiver two numbers. I think he's going to contend with Travis Kelsey to lead the team in Target. I think he's going to get open fairly easily for Alex Smith. And while there is some like, you know, kind of a chicken egg argument to wide, why none of the wide receivers split any touchdowns, was it Dwayne Bo's fault? Was it Alex Smith's fault? I think Boe is not like a terrible NFL receiver, nor do I think.

Smith is a terrible NFL quarterback, but I just think that they just didn't fit together. The way they play the game, the way they play the game just didn't really add up with each other. I think Macklin fits Smith a little bit more. So like I said, some of the regression in his stats is already priced into where you can take him in fantasy drafts. So I like, I like Maclin as a target. I don't think he's going to fall off the cliff or anything, but I can see 80 catches, you know, 900 to 1,000 yards and maybe, you know, six or seven touchdowns.

I like Macklin as a wide receiver two candidate. I'm not totally scared off by him. We have several bets of the outlook for Macklin. So he's also a very interesting guy for us to watch this year. And so this one really quick because we're huge Arizona Cardinal fans. John Brown is the next, John Brown is the next Antonio Brown, true or false? Yeah. That sounds pretty good.

Look, I tweeted this on Sunday. I said that worst case scenario, this guy's T.Y. Hilton, best case scenario, I can totally see him being Antonio Brown. And, of course, I got a lot of pushback from the conservative people on Twitter who don't want you to say anything interesting. But look, if you look at his numbers from a per game basis when he was playing with Carson Palmer and extrapolate them for a 16-game season, he would have had an identical rookie year to T.Y. Hilton. So I don't see how that's even an outlandish comparison.

You know, we weren't expecting T.Y. Hilton to be T.Y. Hilton when he was a rookie, nor were we expecting Antonio Brown to be Antonio Brown when he was a first or second year player. But I can totally see him making that same leap. He can obviously go up and get the football in the deep portion of the game. He was the best deep threat charted by reception perception last year. And I also see him having plenty of potential to run routes in the short to intermediate section of the field and get open and make plays of the ball in his hand.

And everybody in Arizona loves him. I mean, you guys know that. You know Carson Palmer and he have been tight all summer. Bruce Ariens loves those small wide receivers. And Larry Fitzgerald recently said that this guy is the future of their wide receiving course. So I'm all in on John Brown. I pretty much stake the flag to him. I love taking him in fantasy draft. I'm going to really enjoy watching him when the NFL season gets kicked off. Yeah, we completely agree. We think that Bruce Ariens is kind of the master of the small receiver. And John Brown has the potential to be the next one.

So we really, really want to thank Matt Harmon for joining us. Fantasywriter for NFL.com, creator of reception, perception. Where can people follow your work besides NFL.com, obviously? You can follow me on Twitter at Matt Harmon underscore BYB, and you can also find my work on the Backyard banter.com and football guys.com where I'm still contributing a little bit when I'm not slaving away here for the big three-letter, three-letter league here.

All right, so thank you so much, Matt. All right, appreciate it, guys. Thanks for having me. All right, thanks to Matt Harmon for joining us on the show. That's good stuff. Matt Harmon, sharp-dressed man. Sharp-dressed man, sharp mind. All right, we're going to go a little long today. I don't want to avoid the mailbag. We're kind of out of time, but let's answer some quick questions on the mailbag. Mailbag. All right, let's go ahead and hit the voicemail. If you have a question, you can go to the website.

and ask it easily on the website. Go to the upper right hand corner, click the submit a question button. You can also send us a voicemail 302-464. TFFB. Let me ask you this one first, and then we'll get to some voicemails. Jason in San Diego said, who should I start in my flex position week one? Mike Wallace at San Francisco, Marcus Colston at Arizona, or Kindle Wright at Tampa Bay. What do you guys think? I think I would go personally with

Kindle Wright at Tampa Bay. I mean, it's surprising, right? Because you don't see him late. Yeah, that was, if it's a PPR, I'm going Kendall Wright. If it's standard, I'm going to go Mike Wallace. Yeah, because Mike Wallace obviously could get that big long touchdown. But Kendall Wright's going to have the volume there. And it depends right on your roster too, because if your roster needs a big play, if you need a boom.

then that's going to be Mike Wallace. But if you're just like, look, I think I've got this matchup, I can't get nothing out of my flex. You're not going to get nothing out of Kendall Wright. He's going to get targets there and obviously Tampa Bay's defense. Not the best. All right. Ernest in New Mexico says, hey, guys, big fan of the podcast. I was wondering what you guys thought. Who should I play at my flex? So another flex question. Brandon Marshall or Jarvis Landry in a PPR league. That's a good question. That's a really good question. I'm going to start the year.

with Jarvis. I love Marshall. These guys are actually very close for me, but in a PPR, I want the surefire targets, and that's got to be Jarvis Landry. Unless it's Devante Parker. I do agree with that. I think the Redskins are who they're playing week one, and that's just a great matchup. So the Jets have the Browns, I believe, or let's...

Look it up. You sound very confident. I'm Ron Burgundy. Yes, the Jets are playing the Browns. You are correct, sir. I am very high on Brandon Marshall this year. I just think because the team will be better, and I really believe the team will be better, I think he is just a guy who's always been open.

When he's on the field, he's just always open. He makes difficult catches. He has red zone presence. I just really like Brandon Marshall. So one more quick question here. If you're starting week one, which matchup do you like more? Cam Newton or Teddy Bridgewater week one. Ooh. Cam Newton or Teddy Bridgewater. So Cam Newton, the Panthers. Ooh, I love that matchup against the Jaguars. I don't think there's any matchup that I'm going to take Teddy over that. Teddy's playing San Francisco.

Yeah, I'm going to go, Cam. Yeah, San Francisco's defense has actually looked pretty good, but can they hold up an entire game with that depleted roster, and especially in their middle linebacker situation with Agent Peterson just crushing the ball, and then you've got to stack the box, stack the box against Teddy Bridgewater, and Charles Johnson or Mike Wallace are going deep. So I'm going to go with Teddy Bridgewater. Minnesota's looked so incredibly good. Break the tie, Cam or Teddy. I'm going to go with Teddy. Hey.

Completely based on preseason what's happened so far. We want a week one? We want a week one water bet? Do it. Just so somebody gets... I'm not that confident. I am. All right. You guys go. Teddy versus Cam, Waterbet, week one. Put it on the board. Waterbet. Instant payout. Wow. Yeah, that's great. So we'll remember to put that on the site. You can check out the other water bets we've made.

the ones I'm going to win and then the ones that these guys made with each other. So that's it for today's show. Thanks for listening. We're super excited about next week. We're going to talk week one. Get you all ready. Send in your start sick questions. Send in your trade questions. We're going to talk trades next week. Thanks for listening to the show and visit us on Twitter at the FF Ballers. Goodbye. For listening to another edition of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Don't forget to visit us on the web.

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