Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Preseason Wk 3 Review, Fantasy News, Mailbag

But you're ruining the spirit of this round, which is to give me a name that's starting. So, the Falcons, you said, okay, so you said Joe Randall for the Cowboys? Darren McFadden. Is that a question? Ron Burgundy? That is a mess. So Mike doesn't know. Thanks for nothing. No, that. All right, Cleveland Browns. The news that I'm reading is they like Darren McFadden a lot. And Cleveland Browns, which week?

Week one. This is week one. Okay, well, I'm just verified. You guys suck at this, by the way. You're supposed to give me one name. You're debating everything. Crowell. Okay. Fred. No, Corwell. Okay. All right, let's talk about preseason week three. This is the dress rehearsal, so to speak. The dress rehearsal. I heard a T on there. You put it in there. This is kind of...

The starters get to play longer. We get to see more out of guys. We're not paying so much attention to the stats as to what the offenses look like. We know they're vanilla defenses, vanilla offenses. But let's go ahead and start with the Patriots versus the Panthers. Give me the headline news here. Who jumped off the page to you? Who didn't look so good? The Carolina Panthers did not look good to me on offense at all. The one guy that stood out by a mile.

was my boy Greg Olson. He looks like he could have two or 300 receptions this year. I mean, honestly, there's no one. There's just no one else to throw the ball to. It also showed me the need for Devin Funches because they were lacking options. Cam didn't look too bad, but he looked terrible because every wide receiver dropped every pass he throws and he throws too hard. Cam, if you're listening, soften up, okay? A little bit.

But their offense did not look that good to me. Greg Olson is going to be a PPR machine. If you're in a PPR league for a tight end and you're in round, I would even go five now, but especially six, grab Greg Olson. You grabbed Greg Olson last night. Yeah, as my sixth, and it changed my team. I loved it. And I watched a lot of that game completely agree with you. The need for wide receiver is there. We can't necessarily project Funches to be the same as what Benjamin was last year, but my goodness, he's going to have the chance to be.

Yeah, and out of New England, if you are trying to get that pass catcher back, it looks like it's Brandon Bolden now. Oh, in week three. It's just classic Patriots. Well, Dionne Lewis has been shining. Now they're saying James White's in trouble, and then they're going to cut Travar's cadet. Yep. And Bolden. Good luck. Bolden didn't just play passing downs. Bolden was getting early work. Here's the one thing I'll say about Bolden. He has been with the team long enough to know that the team trusts him.

in some capacity, right? He's not just a brand new face. So, yeah, good luck figuring that one out. I would also say the defense of Carolina looked amazing. Yes. So just as far as the trenches, I don't really focus on the scheme and the whole, you know, because everything's vanilla defense right now, but you can, you can kind of trust watching offensive line and defensive line. Who's stronger? And their D-line looked really strong.

Another game I watched was the Chiefs and Titans. And honestly, this is more validation to the mini-bets that I've made. Jeremy Macklin has looked outstanding in the preseason. He's got two touchdowns in the last two games. He was seven for 65 and a touchdown in about a half of a game of work. And this is what I will say for Macklin, where what I'm seeing on the field, it...

was not what I was expecting from the Chiefs, which is something of a actual modern offense, where they're figuring out different ways to get a guy a ball. I mean, they put Macklin in the backfield. They're giving him bubble screens. They're forced feeding the ball to Macklin, which is what they really should do. I just didn't have the faith that they would do it. So Macklin is, I'm buying more into Macklin. When I was in a draft, our draft last night,

I had Sam Bradford as my quarterback, and late I had to decide on a second guy, okay, that I wanted to stream with him or have his insurance for when he gets hurt. I was looking at Tom Brady and Alex Smith, and I drafted Alex Smith. And it doesn't look too bad because he's got weapons there now. You know, Jamal Charles is going to do some things out of the backfield catching the ball, and Zeus.

He looks very good and he'll be used. Travis Kelsey, it took about five guys to tackle him when he got in the open field. It was like he just kept plowing forward until enough other jerseys could like locust around him and bring him down. He would have had another, he would have had another touchdown because he had a wide open. Smith was just kind of moving in the pocket and short-armed him by like 20 yards. And quick note, Kendall Wright looks like Marriota's boy. He does. Oh, yeah.

So he's a guy, I'm guessing who's going undrafted. I'm not saying he's a guy I'm running out to throw on my bench. But if you've got a deeper bench and a PPR, Kendall Wright has been successful in that role before. And he's Marriota, he looks like the go-to guy right now. He is without a doubt now.

scheme-wise, their number one wide receiver. And we're drafting third wide receivers from some teams way ahead of them. Exactly. And if you're in a PPR league, you're going to get all of those extra targets and receptions from him. So I really liked him. Last note, I would say on that, Bishop Sanky, it didn't look good to me. Every time they got in any remotely short yardage, they took him out. If it was third and two, third and three, he came out every time. So I just don't think he's going to get any touchdown. Ken Wisenhunt did say that they might bring in another back.

As well. Because David Cubs is a little hurt, though. All right. Last night's game, the Raiders and Cardinals, there was no room to run in this game for either team. One note that has been mentioned, Latavius Murray hasn't caught a pass yet in preseason. I don't expect that to continue. No. But just a strange fact. It is a strange fact. And hello! Got his first action of the year of the preseason, and he got a couple passes. Yeah.

He did get in there, and it was very funny when he was drafted last night because half the room busted out the Hulu. Saints and Texans. What did you guys see from the Saints offense? I mean, Breezes look good all preseason. Yes, he has. The Texans. And as soon as they got close in the red zone, you saw the absence of Jimmy Graham for them. They didn't have a guy a go-to, just, hey.

We need you to button hook and box out Jimmy Graham, and then we're going to throw you the ball. Maybe they can get it figured out. You got a point? Well, I'm going to ask you this. Is there any universe where you're drafting Brandon Coleman over Marcus Colston? Yes. Because Coleman is now on the field in two wide receiver sets, and Colston's coming in threes. Did you know that? That's exactly where I was going to go, because Coleman is very large. If he can build that dynamic.

with Breeze to be the button hook guy and just be the tall guy in the end zone. He could start racking up some touchdowns. He just has not produced much in the preseason. Yeah, that is the concern is we haven't seen it, but the camp reports are great. Sean Payton has talked him up.

Someone has to catch passes there. Yeah, the sad thing is I just don't think we know who it's going to be. Is it going to be Ben Watson? Is it going to be Coleman? Is it going to be Josh Hill? It's going to be Marquis. It's just a lot of options. Is it going to be Ingram running them in? So it's just something where we don't have the answer from preseason. We're going to have to take gambles. And Spiller will come back. Yep. And Ingram looks good. Yes, he does. His cut looks very strong. Jason, tell me what you saw from Denver, San Francisco. Did you watch that game?

Yeah, the Denver-San Francisco game, I would say that the main things I saw, I wasn't super happy with the offensive line in Denver. They looked, in fact, by not super happy, I mean it was disgusting. And I was really happy with them signing Evan Mathis, but man alive, I've never seen Peyton just, they snapped the ball.

And he's taken down. It was really scary to me from a standpoint of such a great offense that could have real problems with that offensive line. So that was the main, you know, it was just trench work. And it could be the fact that they were working in Mathis and maybe there were some miscommunications. It really looked like the center position. The center just, I mean, was blown up play after play after play. So it might be a matchup based thing to look for, but that was my main takeaway from that. And also, Carlos Hyde.

look like the lone bright spot for the 49. And I got asked, second week in a row. I have to ask the question, this is what the people I'm sure want to know. Colin Kaepernick, what have you to say about Colin Kaepernick? He has looked delightfully bad. I don't know what to say about Colin Kaepernick because I've slowly moved him down over the last few weeks just because of other players. But he didn't look good last year either.

And yet his end-of-the-year stats ascended in many categories. I don't even know what to make of it. He's looked bad in the preseason. I will plainly say that. He has not looked efficient. There's been almost no kind of rhythm for that offense at all. I don't know if they're figuring it out. I don't know if it just won't exist. But, yeah, I have to admit Kaepernick is not looking good. What's amazing about Kaepernick is because I'm sure most people, including myself a couple years ago, you know, were very high on him. I think it was Ron Jaworski said,

that Kaepernick is going to be the best quarterback of all time. Yep, he did. He likes getting in the news. That's also very true, but we all were so high on what Kaepernick could do. What, man, what happened? Well, they haven't looked like they're going to bring Vernon Davis back into the fold to the degree that I had hoped. And the defense is going to be bad. The offense is finding, I mean, Tori Smith's fresh, and I don't know what's going to happen.

It could take him a few games, but the potential is still there. He did run the ball still. That's the thing. He can look that bad, and I think he had like 50 yards rushing. Then you're good to go. So you're fine. Seattle, San Diego. Seattle has not scored an offensive touchdown in the preseason, have they? I'm not sure. I don't think they have. They have not looked super good at all. I bulleted this game with two quick points. Stevie Johnson looks great. Man, he just is getting open.

and making plays. And then you watch Seattle. So Lynch got, the first three snaps, I think, went to Lynch. It was a run, a dump to Lynch, and then it run. And then they took them out. And they were done. And then you watch the Seattle offense go and you go, hmm, that's why they gave him $10 million. I've heard a lot in the last few weeks about how bad, about how bad the Seattle offensive line is. And it is amazing that they don't appear bad when Marshaun Lynch is in the game.

I mean, it's not, I mean, he just burst through, he's like his own offensive line. He's honestly like he's, he is his lead blocker. He just burst through everyone. You know, he's definitely still got it, so. Yeah, no doubt. All right, let's talk bills and Steelers. Martavis Bryant, despite the suspension, he didn't let it get him down. Oh, man, he's really good. No E.R on the field for Martavis Bryant. And I want to have a quick note for people listening with Bryant. It's just a four-game suspension.

I moved him down on my rankings because you have to project and I didn't highlight him. Right? Normally you can highlight some guys in the bottom who have tremendous upside so you remember to pick those guys. You're talking about in your draft last night on your draft board. Yes. I'm sorry. I was getting ahead of myself. Yeah. So in your draft board, make sure you highlight him to start thinking about him. When he comes back, if he comes back.

But when he comes back, he's going to be great. He is going to make a difference to that entire offense. If you have Big Ben right now or even possibly Antonio Brown, you might not be super happy with Week 1 and 2. I mean, they might be fine. But just remember why you drafted them. You didn't draft Big Ben to be the quarterback of a team without Martavis Bryant and without Levy on Bell.

Yeah, Big Ben by week three could be on the waivers, and that's a great time to pick them up. Yeah, especially if somebody got them late and they're playing somebody else that they like. So let's go through two quick other games. For the Bills, they obviously, every quarterback there was almost perfect for the day. You know who is great there? Well, pass, but. But, yeah, they used the tight end. Charles Clay got a big touchdown. The offense moved the ball. The defense is going to be great. Jets, Giants. Yeah.

That, man, you were hoping that week three, like, okay, this is the moment that we can get some clarity on the Giants running backs. And they pooped all over that for us, fantasy players. And they said, this is a mess. No clarity. Yeah, because all three had their moments where they really shine. And it says to me that if I didn't put them in, you said Falcons, you both said Freeman. Cowboys, you guys were split. Randall and McFadden. Browns, you said, who? Cruel? Yeah. And so what do you say for the Giants?