Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - NFL Coaching Changes, Fantasy Impact

for a while. He's been an offensive line coach. But the crem de la crem for Rick Denison is he was the Texans offensive coordinator from 2010 to 2013. You should love him, Andy. There is a notable thing that happened for the Houston Texans in those three years. It was called Aryan Foster. Yeah. Just got the ball, dominating. Got the ball, got the ball, got the ball. Yes. So if you are concerned about.

an offensive coordinator's want or desire to feed one person the ball 10,000 times, you should not be. And this just for me confirms that Shady McCoy should still be thought of as a top five running back for this coming year. If he's on the bills. What are you talking about that ridiculous tweet? Yeah. There have been some rumors that they may, the cap number is so big for Shady that they may, you know.

Go on the direction. Oh, that's ridiculous. I mean, his agent doesn't agree, but. That would blow me away. Yeah, that would be absolutely shocking if Lashon McCoy was not on the Buffalo Bill. I do have a little bit of breaking news real quick to jump in here with the Browns. Where's the button? The Browns, I don't, I don't know. It's not that worthy. It's the Browns. The Browns placed a second round tender on Isaiah Crowell. Did they really? They did. That's big news. They're working on a long-term deal.

Wait, do you want me to start that over again? Hold on. Breaking news. The Browns have placed a second round Tinder on superstar Isaiah Crowell. He's not necessarily superstar, but him moving teams was going to be very interesting. So the Browns are keeping him. He's had production there. Wait, wait. You don't think people are going to go and offer their second round pick and a big sum of money for Isaiah Crowell? I do not.

I agree. He had a very good year. He sure did. He had over 1,200 total yards. I mean, they showed a lot of promise in the running game in Cleveland. Yeah. I mean, this might, what's nice about that commitment is, I think you'll have, like last off season, remember the way people looked at Crowell and Duke Johnson as, you know, 1A, 1B or in the rounds. It was 2A, 2B. People wanted Duke.

So, yeah, kind of interesting news. All right, I do want to circle back, though. Sorry about the detour there. It's all right. You make a great point that I hijacked by the rumors about Shady being dropped. He's probably going to be back in Buffalo. And the history of Denison and what he's done with the running back position, you know, we talked about, you know, Anthony Lynn came in with the history. Shady McCoy's not going to get in the way of what they want to do with the running back position.

Do we see things shaking out differently for any other pieces of the offense? I mean, is Sammy Watkins is his fantasy football success simply tied to being healthy for 16 games more than it is with this offensive change? More than anything, it's his health. I would say the second most important thing is going to be more who the quarterback is. We don't know if it's going to be Tyrod Taylor. It's trending to be Tyrod. Seems like it will be Tyrod Taylor. And good, which good for you, Buffalo.

Right. I mean, good for you for not trying to reset a on your quarterback. Yeah, the way that I see all these changes, I mean, you get a new offensive quarter and a new head coach in Buffalo, and it feels like the exact same team. And honestly, I really like what they did. I think that they made for the NFL football, if I'm a Buffalo Bills fan, I think they've kept what works together, but they've replaced with some new blood. I like it. But fantasy won't change that much there. Do you guys remember what the Buffalo Bills record was last year?

Not the best. I want to see how you feel about it. I feel like it was middle of the pack. I'm trying to feel like they were like a six-win team. Seven and nine. Yeah, I was going to go seven. So, I mean, you're talking about a team that wasn't at the basement. Right. So it just adds to Jason's point that maybe changing everything up isn't the solution. Maybe just getting, you know, Rex Ryan out.

All right, the Broncos. Rick's right needs to stop bringing his brother with him. Seriously. Yeah, that doesn't work. You know that, I think Jeff Fisher's son is still the DB coach for the Rams, by the way. So there's still some of that blood. Drain the swamp. Poor guy trying to make it in this world. I know. I know. So we've been talking about a lot of teams that I think have made improvements or sideways moves. Let's talk about a team that, in my opinion, has hurt itself.

with their head coaching changes. Really? Well, they didn't have a choice. That's true. It's not their fault. I just believe that for the Denver Broncos to lose Gary Kubiak is a big deal. I think Gary Kubiak's a great coach, and he's not just flat, easily replaceable. I am not, here's a deal. I trust John Elway at this point. I think most people do. I made enough good moves from head coach, from coordinators, from draft picks, where he has earned that respect.

It is only out of that respect that I can say, okay, Vance Joseph as the head coach, I assume it could be okay. Because everything else I look at, I don't get it. I don't get Vance Joseph as the pick. Mike McCoy coming in as the offensive coordinator. At least you've got enough experience there for not a very... Coming back, yeah. Yeah, as not a very experienced...

head coach. So for me, I just, I worry about this team unless it gets Tony Romo. You know, I, yeah, I mean, I think that does come down to the quarterback position. I think his team's going to be fine. Yeah. I mean, I do. I think this team has the potential to win the Super Bowl if they bring in the right quarterback very easily. Yeah, and I'm with you.

I like... Let's not forget what this defense is. Yeah, let's not forget they lost the best defensive coordinator in the league as well. But you have a defensive mind with Vance Joseph. I mean, you do bring in a guy whose whole history since 2006 has been, you know, DBs or D coordinator. So I just think it's a team with incredible defensive weapons. But that is not, you know, we're not talking defense.

starting strategy for fantasy football. We're talking about the offensive side of the ball. And if your team is built around defense, you do cap your upside sometimes unless you have a guy like Tony Romo that can walk in, make Demarius Thomas relevant again, make Emmanuel Sanders more relevant again. I would say I'm kind of holding back judgment here because the quarterback situation is so uncertain. It's definitely uncertain. Even if it ends up being Trevor Simeon again.

We saw at least some games that say he's capable. Give him another full off season of, I mean, he wasn't, they weren't even 100% sure he was going to be the starting quarterback. If he goes into camp, you're the starter. Let's treat you as such. You're not trying to earn this job. You're just trying to get better. I think that's an improvement. Mike McCoy, to me, is probably more similar to Ken Wisenhunt, where not a great head coach, but a tremendous offensive coordinator. You look at his passing yard.

rankings of his entire career as either an OC or head coach. 13 7th. Here's the one that sticks out, 31st. But you can explain that away because Tim Tebow was his quarterback, which I will throw out the year that Tim Tebow was his quarterback, he had the best rushing team in the league because he's...

Good. He didn't try and say Tim Tebow, you have to do this. You need to be the prototype quarterback. I will mold to your skill set. And then after Tebow, passing yard ranks, fifth, fourth, tenth, fourth, and eighth. I mean, he gets it done in the passing. For fantasy football, that's what I want. I like that they put McCoy is the perfect compliment to Joseph when you lose Kubiak because Kubiak had the ability to, you know, help mold that quarterback.

And now McCoy can come in and do the same thing, whether it is Paxton Lynch, whether it's Simeon, whether it's somebody else. So I think Elway finds himself in the precarious position of, boy, we might be able to get another one if I commit two years to Tony Romo, but we might hijack kind of the transition to the future. I like how the rumors have slowly started to soften as well. But originally it was reports from Elway.

Our quarterbacks are Trevor Simeon and Paxton Lynch. That's it, period. Like, well, if Tony Romo does become a free... We've got to at least look at it. We'll think about it. We'll think about throwing him a boatload of money immediately. Now, I am just shocked at this next report, guys. Gus Bradley apparently is no longer the head coach of the Jacksonville. Oh, man. Jaguars. Now, I mean, I just... Still? We still haven't gotten over this? Dear diary.

Gus is gone. And with him, my hopes and dreams for a championship for Jacksonville. Have just improved. Have just improved. You know what? It's my last chance to say anything about Gus Bradley. We're only talking about the offensive side of the ball here. But don't forget, he got his, he got a head coaching or a defensive coordinator job for the Chargers, right?

Uh, yeah. No, he is. He's the de-coordinator for the Los Angeles Chargers. Should have brought him up before. You're still there, Gus. It's all right. All right. Doug Marone is the head coach in Jacksonville and Nathaniel Hackett as offensive coordinator. Look, last year, it was, it was a very tumultuous year. That's probably the best way to put it for Alan Robinson and Alan Hurons and Blake Bortles and T.J. Eldon and the Chris Ivory optimism and all of these things.

that were wrapped up in this offense that looked like it might not be a winning team, but it looked like it would at least be that Washington Redskins powerhouse type of, you know, the offense is going to have yardage, and that yardage is going to provide for multiple fantasy football options on that roster. Last year was disappointing. In our initial ranks, I am taking the optimistic perspective on Alan Robinson. He had a better second half of the season. I think...

I think I'm going to believe that Blake Bortles can get it together a little bit here under Nathaniel Hackett. The latest reports out of Jacksonville are Tom Coughlin, who was hired for some. The general manager position? Yes, to be a, to wear the britches over there in Jacksonville. That's a good way to put it. He is, he's putting Blake Bortles on notice and essentially said, you improve or you're going to be out. So it's maybe that will like the fire.

If Blake Bortle doesn't know that by this point in his career, thank goodness Tom Coughlin came along because, you know, a lot of these guys, they do kind of, you know, when you've dominated at every level and then you're a high draft pick, you just think you're the guy for a while. I mean, Blake Bortles has to fix it. Get out. Get out the door. I say get out. I would take them.

I don't take Blake Bortles to Arizona. What? He's got the tools. He's a 24-year-old. Define the tools. He's got the arm strength. He throws real far. But at different arm angles by different feet, I mean. I think he was hurt this last year. Let me throw this out. Okay, you can expect a rebound. I don't think anybody, I think you're the first person that after watching what he did last year said the words, I'll take him.

Let's put it that way. Especially when Tom Kaufman comes in and says maybe get out of here. I promise you there are plenty of other NFL teams that would say that. And if he went on the open market, he would get a lot of money. Yeah, just like Jay Cutler. He's brought a lot of playoff success. So Doug Marron. Give me Jay Cutler, by the way. Doug Maron has had some success.

Over Blake Bordels, not in general. Yeah, I don't think many people watched Jay Cutler last year. Give me the best tasting terrible food. Give me the 24-year-old. On the offensive side of the ball, he was the OC in New Orleans for a few years. And surprise, surprise, things went very well. Really? When you got a Hall of Fame level quarterback. You're talking about Doug Marone? Yeah. Doug Maron, he got a raw deal in Buffalo. That's my opinion. I think Doug Maron. I think Doug Maron is a.

Didn't he, like, just leave Buffalo? I feel like he didn't get a raw deal. He gave a raw deal. But he was doing well in Buffalo. I think he was, I mean, if that's your point, I agree. My perspective is that they view Doug Maron as a failure because of the head coaching switches. But I think Doug Maron was a good head coach. I agree. I think you saw his impact on the very successful offense for Jacksonville in 2015. So.

I'm optimistic. Yeah, I'm optimistic as well. I think us Bradley had to get out of the way. I don't think he, I think he's a defensive coordinator. I like the fact that, so Nathaniel Hackett is the O.C. Doug Marone and Hackett have worked together before. There was reports that that's a lot of why Maron went with Hackett. You know, there was the rumors of Chip Kelly to was going to be the OC for a Jacksonville, but Maron went with the.