Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Fantasy Mailbag, Injury News, Review-a-Saurus

We have a few. We have a few. Give me the few that we know. What we do know is obviously he had a broken bone on the foot and he got a screw placed in the foot. Usually, I mean, it's pretty common if this is the Jones fracture that puts a screw in the foot. What you see with that is a seven to eight week timetable for returning the first time. But you also have a 12.5% historical...

event of having a repeat surgery that the first one doesn't take. So it's pretty good odds, right? I mean, you're almost 90% that he should be fine, be past this. He already has the offseason time to heal. So this is probably going to drive his value down a little bit in the draft. He'll fall a couple spots as people just say, I'd rather take the guy behind him or near him that doesn't have that value. And you're going to take that gamble and say, hey, I got 90% odds he's going to play this season at least before.

through this injury that the foot is healed. So maybe it turns out to be a better thing, but there is that new little piece of a gamble whenever you have a surgery like this, that there's a repeat surgery. And if that happens, just to let everybody know, that timetable for recovery then changes. It's not another seven to eight week recovery. It's usually at that point a four to six month recovery. So if he has another one, he's going to miss a big chunk of the season. And I'll say this.

If it turns out, because like Adam Schaefter is saying, they're hoping he's ready for week one. If he is not ready until that time, he's going to fall in drafts and could be an ultimate steal if he ends up being ready. If you take the risk, let's say, I'm going in on Watkins. I think he'll be ready. I'm going to draft him in the fourth round. You could get a fantastic deal or be the butt of the joke for the entire year. All right. Let's move over to Philadelphia. Coach Doug Peterson has heaped

praise on fifth round running back Wendell Smallwood. Now Smallwood is a guy who I would expect to replace Darren Sproles if they don't see Sproles as part of the kind of backfield group of guys this year. So should we take a flyer on Wendell Smallwood? I mean, it's not like Ryan Matthews has been...

the healthiest of running back to his career. And if he is indeed the guy that's going to carry the load, will that just mean first and second down? I mean, we've had a lot of promise about Ryan Matthews in the past being able to be, I think he is capable of being that past catching type of guy, but you don't draft the guy in the fifth round for no reason. So what is your thought about Smallwood, or is this just more, put him on your radar a little bit? I think that Smallwood, the reason we like Ryan Matthews, the reason I like Ryan Matthews is because I, when I look at the...

The landscape of the running backs there. I see a new coach that comes in who has a history of running the ball and having a guy be successful, both around the red zone and just total yards on the season. And I see no running backs there other than Ryan Matthews, and that's including Wendell Smallwood. Now, he's a talented guy, but he's a smaller guy. He's not a guy that's going to eat in, and I don't expect anything close to a 50-50 timeshare here. But he should be on your radar for exactly what you mentioned. Because should Ryan Matthews go out,

If I thought that there was nobody there beforehand, now Wendell Smallwood is the entirety of their backfield. As of right now, they still have Darren Sproles, but I don't expect a lot of other competition. So, I mean, that's really why I like the backfield situation for the Eagles right now. Because of that trade for Carson Wins, they weren't able to really fill out their backfield the way that they probably would have wanted to going into this year. I still think they will.

I think that's what we haven't seen yet. I think Philadelphia will sign a veteran back. You can't go into the season with what they have right now. So there will be somebody. It might not be Arian Foster, right? But a veteran type of player, a Robert Turbin type of guy could end up in that backfield. Robert Turbin's locking up the backfield for the Colts, my man. Oh, is he really? Yeah. Well, there you go. Something I did not know. If it's a guy that caliber, I'm still not worried. Okay. That's fair. Obviously, Farian Foster comes to town.

Sorry, Mike. Oh, yeah. That's what I'm saying. I would cry if that happened. Michael Thomas, wide receiver, second round wide receiver, signed or was drafted by the Saints. Supposed to have an immediate impact, or at least that's what the report today had. They have Brandon Coleman, Sneed, Cooks, and now Michael Thomas. Kobe Fleener. Kobe Fleener there. Somebody to monitor a little bit more than maybe we thought?

Yeah, I think that's a fair way to put it. The landing spot could not have been better for Michael Thomas. He wasn't kind of the most celebrated rookie coming into the draft, at least talking just dominant athletic like a Coleman and the things that Treadwell and Doxon are doing. He wasn't in that category. Oh, I didn't really mean to hit that until the next piece of news.

I was trying to just adjust the volume on it, but that was 100% for the next piece of news. So I will hit it again. I'm really excited for the next piece. I don't know what it is, but I'm... Okay, so Michael Thomas. So people got real excited as they should with that landing spot. Drew Breeze is a quarterback who has proven.

for you're going to get huge volume of passing. You're going to get deficient in a lot of scoring going on down in New Orleans. So if Michael Thomas can get in on that, and you're talking, the rumors from the bushes, you're looking at a guy maybe six plus touchdowns? I mean, that's immediate fantasy impact. So he will be a name that we need to monitor.

closer for redraft. Clearly, the dynasty people are all over him, but in redraft, he could be creeping into draft consideration now. The saint's situation is a lot like the Patriots, where if Drew Brees and Tom Brady, they attach to a guy they like, it means really good things for them. If they don't have chemistry with a certain wide receiver, they don't. And so for me, it's a lot of wait and see. Will Coleman be that guy ever, or is he going to stay drop-prone and problematic? And so does Thomas build that...

Colston-like rapport right away, or is it somebody that, you know, if he doesn't trust him, he'll go away from him. Well, the nice thing about that to me is that I think you're going to see it right away. I don't think this is something that's going to develop. I mean, look at Willie Sneed, right? Willie Sneed kind of came out of the gate and from practices onto the field, it was like, hey, I like using Willie Sneed. He's the guy that has my trust. And when we come out this year, starting in week one, we're going to...

kind of see who they're putting out there and whether or not there's some trust there. Obviously things will develop. He'll continue to grow that trust if he has any to begin with. But I think that this is a guy where you go, you know, if you draft Chris Hogan with the hope that, hey, maybe he's a guy that Tom Brady attaches to. Here you go, hey, maybe he's the guy that Drew Brees attaches to and Michael Thomas. And then it's a high upside.

low risk because you're grabbing him, you know, with your last pick probably as of right now. Maybe he'll come up a little bit. All right, let's move it on. That means we've got to move to the next one. And that is officially Eric Decker expects free agent Ryan Fitzpatrick to be the week one starter. And so for all Decker and Marshall owners in the world, I hope you're right. I've expected that. I have guaranteed it here on the show. That's Eric Decker looking in the mirror.

in imagining a world where Eric Decker is catching passes from Gino Smith. Ryan Fitzpatrick is going to be back. I believe what you meant to say, Mike, is trying to catch passes from Gino Smith. Trying hard. I've been corrected. Thank you. Yeah. So that is it for the quick news of the day before we get to the mailbag. All right. Before we get to the mailbag, I want to take a second and personally recommend today's sponsor.

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You will love how good it feels and taste to create incredible home-cooked meals with Blue Apron, so don't wait. It's blueapron.com slash ballers. Blue Apron, it's a better way to cook. Mailbag. Buy your bag. Yeah. I had some delicious calzones. I was going to say, your boy. Your boy, the fantasy hitman, was cooking snow peas, foot clan. That doesn't happen normally. No, it was outrageous and delicious. All right.

If you want to ask a question, set it earlier. Head to the website, the fancy footballers.com. You can also dial our voicemail hotline 302-464 TFFB. We know you've got keeper questions right now. You've got dynasty questions. You're getting ready. I mean, it's May, but I mean, May might as well be over. And then June, it's just June's so fast. What month is it? It's got to buy. Bye. I will not indulge that bit. I indulge so much. That will not be one.

Justin Timberlake is not making an appearance on my show. Dude, we could get Justin Timberlake on the show. You're very welcome. Justin Timberlake, if you like to come on. All right, Brendan in Orlando has our first question. And it's a good one because we talked a little bit about Ryan Matthews already. How do you feel about drafting Eagles players this year, such as Jordan Matthews, Nelson Aguilar, Ryan Matthews, even Rubin Randall or Darren Sprouls. Or let's toss Smallwood in there as well. Love the show, and thank you for the hashtag Foot Clan title. Boom.

All right, Brendan. I'll tell you what, I bet he did not have a lot of these players on his team last year when he won his hashtag Foot Clan title. Jordan Matthews had his place being the garbage man last year. But here's the deal. I love Ryan Matthews, as we've already talked about. The wide receiving court, I think that's the extremely interesting and hard to predicting for the Eagles right now. Jordan Matthews, we...

Is he just a glorified slot receiver? We don't know because there was talk of him moving to the outside. And Nelson Agler was actually the kind of the wide receiver one, so to speak, the guy who's getting the high snap percentage on the outside. There's more talk about do we move Matthews to the outside. Can Aguilar return on that first round value of being taken that high in the draft? And even Ruben Randall, where he's flashed and been terrible.

at the exact same time, but they don't have an established one. They do not have, like, you know this is the wide receiver one for the Philadelphia Eagles, so even Randall could be that guy. Yeah, I agree with Ryan Matthews being desirable and...

For the most part, nobody else. Now, I will say I also very much like Zacherts this year. And the reason is... I have them way too high on my rankings. Yes, you do. The reason for my hesitation is because with Doug Peterson coming over, we don't know, especially the change. The change going from a Chip Kelly offense to a Doug Peterson offense. You just don't know exactly yet what his style is. You have to go from what you've seen in Kansas City the last few years, which was a not a huge passing game.

but a great running game. They do involve the tight end a little bit. So to me, Zacherts, Ryan Matthews, I want to love Jordan Matthews. I do. I like him a lot as a player. But I probably won't draft him this year because I just don't know what to expect. You could get lucky and nab the right guy at the right value. But on those like kind of nebulous situations where you just don't have a read, I tend to stay clear of them. All right, let's do a price check real quick then.

So Jordan Matthews currently in the middle of the sixth round, okay? Nelson Aguilar in the 14th round. And I'm sure Ruben Randall is likely undrafted at this point. So would you rather go Matthews in the 6th, Aguilar in the 14th, or free Ruben Randall?