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

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sit down on third downs and some pick their favorite team because, I don't know, just like football fandom, nobody's life is exactly the same. And that's why State Farm gets to know you, not as a policy number, but as an actual person. So they can help personalize a coverage plan that's just for you. Whether it's game day or just another Tuesday, State Farm has you covered. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway.

Jason Moore and Mike Wright. What is going on, everybody? It is time to talk some fantasy football. This is the fantasy footballers podcast. Friday, September 4th.

And we're back again. This is Andy Holloway, joined by Jason Moore. It's always time to talk fantasy football, Andy. And Mike, the Fantasy Hitman, Wright. Let's get this going. Let's do it. Let's do it. We got a good show for you today. We're talking news and notes. We had a bunch of week four games last night. Not a lot of news from those games themselves. Do you guys watch all those games, I hope.

Every snap of every game. Yes, yes. Very exciting because watching Chris Johnson run the football and try to run the football was kind of the pinnacle of... He had some burst. He looked okay. Yeah. He looked okay. He'll make the team now. We're talking to Matt Harmon from NFL.com. Reception perception. Good stuff today. Yes. You have to hear this. Very sharp man. Very sharp. Well dressed, right? I was going to say, like Zizi Top.

Sharp dressed man, but he, I don't know how he's dressed. Sharp mind, sharp mind. I don't know how he was dressed over the telephone. No, that was tough. All right. And then we're talking kind of, we're just going to open up five big questions for this season, fantasy implications. Talk about some, I don't know if we're going to get to five, actually. So big questions, things that are important, things that are going on. Maybe five. We'll see. Maybe five big questions. So quick question for the day, guys. How do you approach post-draft?

trading, specifically this little period of time in between the draft and week one. Any thoughts? I love post-draft trading because you can... Why didn't you just draft them? Well, because a lot of times what happens is after the draft, you see the needs of your team, and you see some teams that made mistakes. And I really like targeting teams that made mistakes in trades and saying, oh, they...

They had no reason to draft, say that second quarterback, and I can get them really cheap. Or they are desperate for a wide receiver. I've got an extra one, and you can kind of take advantage of people. I also like, if I have ended up with someone else's handcuff, I don't purposely seek them out. But if I've ended up with somebody's handcuff and it looks like their roster that they really should be backing up their guy, like a Nile Davis type for a Jamal Charles owner, I might see if I can swindle a little two for one.

hot action before the season even starts. Yes, I have Sam Bradford on one of my rosters, and when the news broke on Brady, I picked up Brady right away, and then I had a bunch of trade offers for Brady. So I guess part of it is also newsbreaking and things changing and people wanting to acquire guys. Somebody came after him that had gronk, and so he wanted that combination. So, yeah, I like your point, Jay, taking advantage of weaknesses that people discover after the draft is over.

How can you find this show? You can find us on the Fantasy Sports Network, which is awesome. It's awesome to be on there. You can find us on YouTube. All the episodes are on YouTube. You can find the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, on Android devices. We're everywhere that...

You want fantasy football. That you can listen to fantasy football. So the fantasy footballers.com, you can go on there, check out articles, submit questions to the show. One thing we like to do from time to time is read a review that we get in iTunes from our guests. We're going to go ahead and do one of those today. Reviewosaurus regs. This one comes in from Dorff 58. Thanks, Dorff.

He or she says, I've been listening to these mostly bearded wonders since summer. It's a show with so much information amid snarky comments and Oreos that I can't wait for the rest of the season. I owned my draft because of the show. Sorry I can't tell my other fantasy owners about the show, but we can't all be winners. That's true, Dorf. That's true, Dorf. That's true.

Very good review. Thank you very much. And brings up some good points, specifically listening through the season so that we can help you every step of the way. We're going to have all the waiver wire pickups every single week, the guys you need to be paying attention to. We're going to have start, sit advice. We're going to answer listener questions throughout the entire season. So make sure you...

Tune in here. We really appreciate the reviews. They help the show a lot. And so we like to give a shout out to our Foot Clan every once in a while when we pick out a review. So that's what we did there. And anything else going on, guys? Let's get to the news. News and notes from around the league. Brady resuscended. No, no, he's not. I was going to say the news yesterday was Brady's suspensions over. I think right now a lot of cuts are taking place. So if either of you guys see any cuts.

that are of significance while we're on the show here, we can hit the breaking news button. But basically, Brady is back on the field. The NFL has said they're going to appeal the suspension, but they're not going to seek an injunction to take them off the field ahead of time. So he will start at the beginning of the season.

Brown's coach, Mike Patton, said Isaiah Crowell has the edge right now over Terrence West. We know Duke Johnson is recovering. So I think Crowell actually represents some pretty good early season value right now. Agreed. So he's been a forgotten man to some degree. One thing that was interesting about the games last night is two players that played a lot. And their names were Monte Ball, who was pathetic. One point something to carry. I think he's gone. I think there's no chance he makes the roster.

Which is kind of, I guess, humorous considering the beginning of this offseason. It was just him talking about how he's taking the starting job back. Yeah. Except for you can't overcome mediocre skill. So the other guy is, what do you think about Dwayne Bo being on the field for three quarters on a fourth preseason game? After signing a $9.3 million guaranteed contract, there's rumors that he's on the roster bubble. Well, the petting came out and said that's not true.

Which, that could be just coach-speak. But I think it speaks more to a player who has been injured and has gotten no reps and no snaps of any kind of value for during training camp or preseason. So they just wanted to get him a little bit acclimated to game speed, taking some hits. A couple more guys that played last night. Ligarrett Blunt and Devante Parker. Ligarrett Blunt had another poor game. He's obviously missing the beginning of the season, but he hasn't looked very good at all.

that running back situation is always in flux, it seems like. Yeah, so I've been asked, you know, who's a later round last round guy that I'm looking at? I'm looking at Jonas Gray because Jonas Gray, you want to swing for the fences with your last pick because they're so easily cuttable. They represent no cost for you. Go complete upside. Jonas Gray's done it before. You know what's interesting, though? I'm just going to...

devil's advocate, Jonas Gray, would you consider, I might consider Bolden above Gray. Brandon Bolden? Yeah, because if he's going to be the third down guy, and he's taken between the tackle carries too, is there a chance that he ends up with a kind of majority role more than we think? No, I don't think so. Because we've seen him for games at a time. I think with two big backs in front of him in Jonas Gray and Legerrett Blunt, I couldn't see him taking the workhorse type role. And honestly, he's not small, though. I love...

I love the idea of Jonas Gray, but I feel like even if Jonas Gray gets off to a hot start, you just don't know game to game. All of a sudden, they're going to take a different guy and give him a lion's share. You just can't rely on that running back. Right, but we're talking about your very last pick, and let's say he goes off week one. You have a trade chip sitting on your bench that maybe you don't buy into, he'll be the weekly guy, which...

It still happens. I mean, you look at Stephen Ridley a couple years ago. He was fantastic for fantasy purposes. Jonas Gray had a stretch where he was useful and then he overslept. So who are some other guys in that category? Because Marcus Wheaton's another guy that could have a good first few games that you can trade away. So there are certain players that are going to get opportunities early in the season. Steve Smith.

Yeah, Steve Smith is a big one. Just with Perryman coming back in his age? Yeah, because he's a front season. The Ravens really, really need Steve Smith to perform if they want to have a decent looking offense. And to me, it's hard to, you don't want to just take last year's narratives and plop them right into this year. But it seems like a low-hanging fruit that they're going to have to overuse Steve Smith to start the year because they don't have their number one wide receiver.

rookie and he could get he could bust off some big games and then i would look to move him anybody else come to mind as as early season starts rashad jennings okay that's a good one i think anywhere where there's a huge question mark because of yeah exactly all those situations when you when it appears like oh

We finally know who the guy is. At the very beginning of the year, it's going to be Crowell. He got the ball all game or Jennings. If that happens, to me, I am more of the mindset that I can't see any of those situations lasting through the season. So I'm going to take advantage of that in a trade. Now, maybe I'm being a fool and I'm the one being taken advantage of because, oh, man.

Crowell is a 20-touch guy all year long. I just don't see basically with the coaching situations and the running back situations behind those players in those places, you know, New York and Cleveland, places like that, I think you're better off to trade them. That would be my... Let's say you can get an upgrade though right away. You can do Crowell and some scrub on your bench, do a two-for-one, get an upgrade at a starting position. It's the burden-in-hand situation. You know, I'll take it. I'll take the...

the guy who's useful to me right now instead of this maybe on my on my bench yeah i have to agree with that and one of the things that can be really frustrating is you might take a guy as a flyer in the draft and love him but you know how hard it is to keep that roster spot for him two three weeks into the season when he hasn't performed and he hasn't done anything

So one other bit of news that I didn't have written down here, but Jay Jai has a broken rib. He actually put up 5.6 of carry in the preseason and looked okay, but the broken rib could put him on IR, and he's going to miss time regardless. So the clear-cut handcuff for Lamar Miller...

Damien Williams. Yeah, all right. So I agree with that. So before we hit the big questions here, I want to talk to you about stamps.com. Today you can get basically anything on demand. That's what this podcast is all about. You might be listening to it at night. When you're working out, you might be listening to it on your drive to work. Well, just like our podcast, stamps.com is convenient for you. So why are you still going to the post office and dealing with their limited hours when you can go to stamps.com and get postage on demand?