Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - Zeke Troubles, Fantasy Answers + Best Ball Bonanza

In the draft, not much you can do unless you have one of those top six picks. Try to trade up. I am willing to trade up to get one of those guys. But that's it. Outside of that, I don't care about Amari Cooper, you know, in his age being younger and maybe he'll have more longevity. It's just the absolute elite because you get to keep them every year. And if you look at the playoffs. In that group? Because you have a positional advantage for multiple years? I think you also need to...

discuss are you reaching on guys like Joe Mixing? You said you want to be all in on him. Can't do it this year. I would imagine next year you will be your lights have your whole entire house have turned the lights on for Joe Mixing next year. So are you willing to reach for him around to ensure that he's on your team and you can keep him for?

a fourth or a third next year? I mean, you're gambling. It's tough making those commitments in a three-keeper league and then saying, well, I reached on Joe Mixon, so now am I not trading Joe Mixon? That's what I would... When he doesn't pan out, am I committed to starting him? I would give the advice to not do that. I would say, do not overreach around earlier on a guy that could be just because he's young. That's my personal advice, because you need to win the championship this year. In a three-keeper league, every single year you're in it.

at this time of the year, every single one. I mean, it doesn't matter who your keepers are. There's enough turnover on everyone's roster where you are a championship contender if you do the right things in this year's track. If you play to win, by the end of the year, three keepers will reveal themselves to you. Nobody drafted Jordan Howard. He's an absolute keeper, and there's players like that every single year that... Some people dropped him in the middle of the year. And some people...

Had Lashon McCoy last year. So they were carrying Mike Gillisley into the playoffs because we want to have the handcuff situation. And now you have a running back one for free. Yeah. Some people named Mike. All right. Jacob in Loganville, Georgia, says I'm wanting to get a quick word about Austin Hooper. To me, he is a very under the radar tight end pick. Obviously, I'm a big fan because you can do the scuba. Hanging with Mr. Hooper. Hanging with Mr. Hooper.

It's a good point. We talk often about rookie tight ends, not being able to make big contributions. Austin Hooper last year only had 19 receptions, but we've seen Matt Ryan lean on tight ends. He's tried to make Toy Lolo relevant. Torlolo has said, no, I will not be relevant. And as stupid as it sounds, those 19 receptions, if you watch them, they were pretty nice. He looked good. You saw him in the Super Bowl. I think they went to him back to back.

plays in the end zone, and one of those was an amazing touchdown reception. Austin Hooper is a very intriguing player to me. I don't know if it's going to happen for him this year. And I'm not calling for it to happen this year, but eventually it's going to be great. I'm very comfortable with him at 21. Sure. Yeah, he's our consensus 21 as well. I've got him a little higher at 17. Mike, you've got him at 28, which is fine. 26. Oh, sorry.

I am much more intrigued with seeing what Austin Hooper does this year than I am Hunter Henry when you're talking about second year tight ends. And that might be blasphemous for some people. But I think that there is a very high ceiling for Austin Hooper. But you wouldn't draft him in a redraft league. That's what I'm saying. It's not this year for me. He's a guy that you just watch. And if he starts, you know, being involved in, you know, the first couple weeks.

Spend your fat. All right. Tyler and Boylan says, hey, guys, just wondering what your opinion is on the value of taking Isaiah Crowell at 402. And most of my mocks on ESPN, I end up with Melvin Gordon and then Ty Michael Thomas, if that affects your thought process at all. But what do you think of the value of Isaiah Crowell at the, in the fourth round? It's delicious. I'm much more comfortable with Corwell there than where he's been ending up. I've seen him.

you know, in the back of the second. He will be in the back of the second. And he was in consideration earlier for who's going to bust. Isaiah Crowell, to me, is a, if he's going in the second round, if that's like where he ends up in August, then he will be one of my higher bust candidates. You're just trying to hurt me? I'm just saying he's not worth that value. I'm pretty sure Todd Gurley and Isaiah Crowell, who I actively sought out in our dynasty league, are my starting to running back? Yay!

And you are trying to hurt me. It's funny because if you ask me, what is Crowell's comp? It's Gurley. I mean, he's a running back who clearly has talent, but he's on a really bad team. They're going to be in negative game scripts frequently. And last year, Isaiah Crowell was among the leaders at the position of his production, what came through huge chunks, a la Todd Gurley, his rookie year, which.

You saw the regression last year. I have the same concerns with any hype surrounding Joe Williams. Where, okay, let's say that all the pieces fall into place in San Francisco. What does that mean? Because I'm, you know, Joe Williams can be everything, but what offense, what offensive performances are we going to see from San Francisco this year? How many touchdown opportunities are you going to get? Are you going to get a player that everything goes right and he's still on the average is 85 yards a game and scores three times, you know?

Something like that. So, Mike, I'm tossing this question to you. Ooh. All right. At BK.G. Hogs. Hogs? Yeah. Given the news on Andrew Luck or lack of news, how concerned should we be? And in Dynasty League, should we consider selling high? That sounds scary. Dynasty League's absolutely not. And my radar is, it's starting to ping a little bit. I had heard some whispers in the bushes.

uh reports that andrew luck was doing a little bit of just playing catch essentially but he's good for a quarterback oh he's he's not out there he i don't he's not going to be a full participant in training camp and so at this point's not concerned because i think andrew luck has enough uh experience under the belt that he can jump in essentially week one and be good to go it sucks for guys like moncrieff

and Kamar Aiken and Dorset guys who are trying to get that chemistry and the rapport going with him. But I'm not concerned on this day. This Saturday, I'm not overly concerned with Andrew Luck yet. All right. We're going to transition now, get into a new segment. We're bringing every Saturday during the off season once a week. We're talking bestball. Bestball Bonanza brought to you by Playdraft.

All right, if you don't know what best ball is, you are drafting right now at playdraft.com slash ballers. It is a league in which all you do is draft. You draft your roster right now. There are 18 players on your roster, and what it does is it selects the best performance at each position every week, and that's the points you get. So you try to construct a roster that gives you an opportunity to score the most points each week, having depth at each position.

And so we talk philosophy there. Mike, you're looking at me. Have we told our friend Paul about best ball? He would like that. Because Paul is one of the fantasy football players who gets incredibly frustrated when it doesn't go according to script. Yeah. You don't get what you expect. And making your roster decisions on a weekly basis. And you don't have to do that. Yeah. Best ball. The computer doesn't afford you. I bet Paul would love best ball. At least he would feel. Paul loves best ball.

In control of his own ship and destiny. So if you are playing, we wanted to let you know about a couple cool things. One, we're all about best ball. We love best ball. It's been so fun this offseason. Mike and one of us on a weekly basis are doing a live best ball draft. And you can get access to that really easy on our Periscope. And on Twitter at the FF Ballers, you'll see that pop up. You can go watch the one that Mike did last week.

You can watch, you can join in the conversation, and you can join in the league. People are asking, how do we get in a league, a basketball league with you guys? It's essentially I'll announce it the morning of on Twitter and I'll say, hey, around this time, be watching for a link. And then the first people who are clicking on the link and get in, you're in and we're going to draft. And then once a week when we do these segments, brief segment, we're going to talk about some best ball strategy and ideas. Jason got into some last week.

I've got a tip for players today who are playing baseball. And I think this is even more appropriate because, look, you use the play draft app on your phone. And so a little bit of a smaller real estate than maybe you're used to drafting on a computer. One of the things that happens when people do drafts like an ESPN for redraft leagues is you get caught up at times with the list of players that ESPN is set in front of you.

And so you can be in the middle of a draft, and they're obviously recommending players based on their recommended list, and it can get very tempting to just take the highest player on the list so you don't make a mistake. Or only consider, you know, three of the names that are in the top six in that list. Whatever list they're giving you, it's like, oh, well, I like this guy best of these five. Yeah, so I want to remind players on draft playing best ball. Don't fall into that trap.

in the best ball app where you're only looking or considering, I think that's the bigger point, that you're only considering the top five or six names that are recommended at each position. A good example of that is a player like Martavis Bryant. He's very far down the list because he's not necessarily climbing into everybody's top rankings. You can do a couple scrolls down. All of a sudden, Martavis Bryant pops in there. Maybe you want to take a guy like Martavis Bryant in a basketball league over a guy like Golden Tate. Pro tip. If you're in my live draft.

Don't do that. And it's the, well, yeah. Pro tip, don't do that. No, if you're in the fourth round and you want Martavis Bryant, you better take him because he's an automatic fourth round pick for me. In all your best ball league. Yes. So just pay attention to the fact that, look, don't fall into that trap. Build your own rankings inside the app. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. You can in that app make your own rankings to make sure you're not falling into the just the ADP trap.

Yeah, so Mike's doing another one this week. Well, one of us is going to sit in on it with him as well. And we'll talk more best ball strategy. We'll be putting a few more articles and things like that up on best ball strategy because we love basketball. We think it's just, it's a great exercise even in helping your redraft league because we always say mock drafting helps you understand player value. Well, playing best ball leagues help you understand player value too. And this is the best version of, you know, I mean, there's a little change because you might.

you know, overvalue those boom bust guys. Like, for instance, Brandon Cook's great pick and best ball, even though I don't want him in redraft. But you're drafting not against a bot. You're drafting against other real people really trying to make the best decisions. Great prep for your regular league. Also, for players who are new to the format, should make sure you mention.

Play draft offers two different ways of drafting. Yes. They offer a fast draft where everyone gets 30 seconds and it is. It's a blast. It's a blast. It's intense. I mean, it is a pressure cooker when you, all of a sudden you're on the clock. You have 30 seconds to make this pick. They also offer the slow draft where everyone gets essentially up to eight hours and these these drafts can usually take, you know, a week or two weeks. I love Michael Keating. Just so, so there's the casual.

Oh, I'm on the clock. I'll take my time here, make a pick. And then there's the, I'm going to sit down for 30 minutes and have a, have a good time. Awesome. Well, we'll be back on Tuesday next week with another show. Very excited about some new features coming out for the Ultimate Draft Kit, most likely released early next week.

We're looking at Jason. That's the pressure being put on. Maybe late next week. Don't miss it. But it's coming. It's coming soon. Check it. Check all of the things that are included in the Ultimate DraftKit out at Ultimate Draft.com. Super excited about what we built there. I think it'll help you dominate your 2017 draft. Again, go to playdraft.com slash ballers. If you want to get in one of those other leaks with us, hope you enjoyed the mailbag. And we will catch you on Tuesday. Have a good one, everyone. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another edition.

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