Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Fantasy News & Updates, NFC East Breakdown

He puts up monster games. And if he starts the year with a couple monster games, send him out at a wide receiver two value and get something else back or trade him out with another, you know, combine him with your Julian Edelman plus Deshaun Jackson after two good weeks and go try to get an AJ Green. That's what I do. I mean, he puts up numbers that make you, that are gaudy, and then you go trade him. And so the next guy I want to talk about, do you guys, do you guys remember who led the league?

uh, in completion percentage for, for quarterbacks. Was it that Drew, Bernie Kossox? Was it Drew Breeze, Russell Wilson? You know, those guys are pretty, they're pretty accurate. No, it was Kirk freaking cousins because he's a good quarterback. That's his middle. And Washington. Yeah, it's a weird. Yeah, Kirk freaking cousin. Look at his license. You like that? That's what he said when he came out of the womb. But look, and it wasn't for low attempts. He was seventh. He had seventh in completions.

And he was number one for completion percentage. He was a very good quarterback last year. It took some time. The first half of the year was a little bit shaky where you think, oh, he's very interception prone. And that was true for the first half. You like that game. There was a huge change in confidence for Kurt Cousins. And he became a beast. He became a beast.

for fantasy purposes and teams, including his own teams, they're still not buying in to what Cousins can do for you. And Kurt Cousins right now is going in the 10th round, which is, to me, he's a perfect late round quarterback. You want to keep passing on quarterback like we talk about. Kurt Cousins is a guy that I'm fine going into the year with because I think that he's got the weapons around him, Deshaun Jackson.

Jordan Reed, who is the, I think the consensus number two, tight end, he's just an absolute dominant weapon. So for me, Kirk Cousins, he's on the rise, and I think he can be even better this season. Kurt Cousins in the 10th, Eli Manning in the 8th. Give me Cousins. He's in a division where he can take advantage of some defenses that aren't necessarily all week, but they're not.

elite either. And so you have some matchups that you like. We talked about Deshaun Jackson. You still got Pierre Garcin. Josh Doxon is getting back from a minor tweak to the Achilles, but reports are good on his recovery. Jason, talk to me about the running back situation. We all know Matt Jones is there. He's going to be given a workload, but talk about Chris Thompson. No.

Okay. Chris Thompson. I don't know what that was about. Chris, I just wanted to. Bad attitude. Yeah, I just want to have a bad attitude. Chris Thompson's a guy that I'm targeting late in drafts because you've got a lot of, if you're a zero RB type of guy where you're looking for the past catching back.

There's the reason that you love Matt Jones is because there's just not a lot of running back depth in Washington. We're still expecting them to go out and sign some old veteran like a Pierre Thomas. You're an old veteran. Hey, I'm available as well. Sorry. Washington if you want to reach out.

But Chris Thompson is a guy who last year really showed some great chops in the passing game. He was, you know, the two-down or the two-minute drill type of running back. He had some injuries, but he is back. He is healthy right now, and he's in a good position to surprise. And if you're in a PPR setting, I mean, you talk about how high these guys like...

you know, you're Charles Sims or Danny Woodheads, how high, they always surprise where they perform at the end of the year. And Chris Thompson is free and, you know, he's one injury away from being forced into a workload that while I don't.

I wouldn't love for him to have to do that for 16 weeks. He represents, and this is kind of the strategy of the zero-r-b, he represents a guy that mid-year can take a huge jump in value because running backs, late-round running backs usually are the guys that see their value rise over the season as opposed to fall. The early-round running backs are the guys that usually have their value fall as they get injured. So Chris Thompson's a name to watch that doesn't get talked about a lot.

And also Keith Marshall is there at the running back position. And apparently he's healthy right now, which is rare. Oh, I was going to ask you, would you take the flyer on Marshall or would you rather just have Thompson? I would rather have Thompson because he's already in that role. You know, I look for him late in deep drafts. Usually he's going to go undrafted.

I think there's guys that I do like a little bit better. And so if it's a normal redraft, you know, five bench, six bench, I'm not going to be drafting Chris Thompson, but you have to pay attention to him if he comes out of the gate strong because he could surprise us here. You don't get to talk about any Redskins, Mike. I already did. You don't want him to talk about Jordan Reed? I talked about Kirk Cousins, but I'm going to shift the conversation over to Jordan Reed. More just where are you comfortable taking Jordan Reed?

in a draft we third round we know that he can be dominant okay so that's the third round oh you're you're you're kind of opening that up to more of a like we're not deciding right now i thought you were yeah i'm not used to being on the other side of the question so i thought you answer it was like what was i supposed to do mike is is tick hold on try it again try it again i was just i was trying to no no no ask the question where would you be comfortable taking jordan reed in fantasy drafts

I didn't need you to him and ha. I was just, I was going to, you know, like elevate. I don't know. I'm starting to lob the pitch so that it's just easier to knock down. But, I mean, you, you, you just chopped it. He got another bunion. There's a lot of people out there that don't, that don't feel comfortable with Jordan Reed. Right now he's going on the fore. Next. Yeah. But here's a couple stats that are interesting. Jordan Reed, and we've got an article coming out soon on the site to kind of compare him and grunk. I will just say this.

Jordan Reed played one less game than Gronk last year. Gronk is a consensus first round. Now he's kind of with the Tom Brady News fall into the second round. In one less game, he had 15 more receptions and the same number of touchdowns as Gronk in one less game. Oh, yeah. Okay, sure. That's great. It's a great stat. Thank you. I will say this. You asked where he would go. I would be fine taking Jordan Reed in the third.

I'd be much happier taking Travis Kelsey later. Yeah. Yeah. I've been passing on Reed. I think Kelsey has a 50-50 shot to beat out Reed on numbers this year. 50? 50? Yeah.

Oh, I would say maybe 20%. Well, yeah, I mean, that's, that's, but so Jason, where are you going to take? You said you've been passing on Reed. Where are you comfortable taking him? I think he's a value in the fourth round, and that's where he should go. But most of the mocks that I've been doing and most of the live drafts I've been doing, I'm kind of with Andy in the sense that there are late guys that I don't have to, you know, I like the guys that are in the third and fourth round when it comes to running backs and wide receivers. I can get a guy who could be a stud for the year.

And then pair him with a guy, you know, I think Kobe Fleener could be right there with Jordan Reed. I think Greg Olson is as safe and sure a bet that I can get a little bit later. I think Eric Ebron could end up blowing up and being a top five guy, and he is so late, I always think that the ADP is broken with him. So that's why I pass on Jordan Reed. It's not because he's not going to produce for being in the fourth round, but I think I compare another late tight end.

better with a high third or fourth round running back or wide receiver and end up with a better team. Yep. Yeah. The difficult thing for me when I'm looking at the Jordan Reed decision is I'm with you. I like, there's late round tight ends that I like that I think are capable. But of anyone at the tight end position right now who you think even has a glimmer of hope of being the number one guy that's not named Rob Grunkowski.

it's Jordan Reed, which is why you have to pay such a premium for him. Fair. Fair enough. Yeah, I don't think Travis Kelsey's outperforming Gruncowski. Right. And if you're right, if those numbers that you put out there, if he could replicate them, which I think is really hard to do. Even without hell, I just think those numbers are just very hard to replicate the way the season ended. But at least he showed he could do it. You know, at least he showed he could do it. All right, let's talk Philadelphia. Let's go to the Eagles. Do we have a 16-game quarterback starter on this roster? No.

No. I know. I knew the answer to the question. No. Yeah, there you go. No, you're supposed to say, hmm. I'm going to answer everything Andy Holloway-esque style from now on. Oh, yeah, I answer this one that way. How much do you like Ruben Randall? None. No, I hate Ruben Randall. Look, the Ruben Randall, kind of that sleeper buzz about Ruben Randall was building.

Apparently he's running with the twos again. Ruben Randall given yet another opportunity and squandering it away. But you know what? That excites Andy for his man. Oh, Nelson Aguilar coming into it. That is, please go to Twitter and share with Andy about how great a player Nelson Aguilar is, how much he loves him. I think one of the biggest questions when it comes to the Eagles as a whole.

is whether or not they are a good team. Because you have, I mean that in a sense of like, is this a team, right now Vegas has their win total at seven and a half. So let me ask you guys, do you expect over or under on the seven and a half mark? I cannot believe they have it at seven and a half. So you're very under. I would take the under. I would bet my house. If you told me it was six and a half, I would have been a little more trepidacious. I mean, you can get yourself six wins.

But man, seven and a half, I'll take the under. Well, it's an easy division, one could argue. We don't know who is going to be the really good team there. Sure. I just don't, yeah. But the reason I bring that up is because I think you're going to see a tale of two different.

fantasy outputs from the Eagles. If they get off to a bad start and they're not a good team, you're going to see Sam Bradford pulled earlier, you're going to see the rookie come in, you're going to see more growing pains and rebuilding process and a low fantasy output. Whereas if they get off to a good start and they're leading the division which could happen, you know, Vegas certainly says it could.

Then you've got a high fantasy producing team. And you look at a guy that Mike and I are high on and Ryan Matthews. And that makes a huge difference to me is, are they a good team winning games where their running game matters for winning at the end of a game? You make the most compelling and important point about Philadelphia you could make. There's a difference between a fantasy team that is going to have a consistency at the quarterback position or one that has the potential to have that change in the middle of the season.

We need to talk about Ryan Matthews. I know you guys are high on Ryan Matthews. Yes. Darren Sproles was just signed for a good chunk of change. Four and a half million dollars. Four and a half million dollars. For a year. You mix the variable that Jason just brought up, which has always been factoring into my Ryan Matthews evaluation, with a rising Darren Sprouls in the rankings. He belong. I mean, he's going to be used now. There's not, you don't pay a guy $4.5 million and not let him walk. If he's not going to be your foundational third down back. Sure. And...

I think going to get some carries because Ryan Matthews is Ryan Matthews. Hasn't he already been banged up in camp? He is currently injured. Yeah, he's currently injured. It was a small, I believe, ankle injury. He's expected to be back this week. You're going to need to change your Ryan Matthews rankings to be more in line with mine, Mike. I certainly am not. Well, we're not that far apart here in our rankings. Andy, you do have him the lowest. You've got him ranked 19th. So you've got him firmly in the middle of that RB2.

He's making a note, lower Ryan Matthews, I'm a grumpy old man. And then Mike, you've got him highest at 13th, which is still an RB2, and then I'm right in the middle, probably accurate, which is at running back 15. And I think 15's a good spot. You know, you've got a talented runner here. You've got a guy who's proven in many years of fantasy football that he can be an RB1, and he's got an opportunity to match his talent. So I do think there's... You know who else is super talented?