Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - Trending or Ending, News & Notes, Mailbag

eighth round for john brown he's going to be under or over whichever one he's going to be ninth or higher yeah he had a 10 reception game last year 10 for 144 that was the kind of thing we saw from him the the year before but really from week four on he was just pretty much non-existent in that offense as he was dealing with the sickle cell

I agree. I think he'll be a low draft pick. I think when Larry Fitzgerald, it's not like Larry's not there, and so you're just waiting for someone to emerge and then move that one player up the draft board. This is somebody who, no matter what, will be drafted behind Larry Fitzgerald, may be drafted behind a rookie that the Cardinals draft that has more of a pedigree or more of a more notoriety. So John Brown, I mean, I can almost guarantee you he will be.

barring new information, he'll be one of our steals of the draft and our ultimate draft kit. Yeah, and we've seen it before with players like Patrick Peterson, where they get a legitimate disease like diabetes, which John Brown had sickle cell this year, and he needed that whole year before he could actually get his body back to right. And then he had that, so he had that down year, came back in his lights out. Victor Cruz. Apparently, there is some interest from Denver to use him as a number three wide receiver.

It's not really a fantasy relevant information when you're already struggling for relevance from, you know, where to draft Emmanuel Sanders and Demarius Thomas with the quarterback situation there. But, you know, Cruz showed me enough on the field last year to make me think he can come in and have a veteran impact the same way that, you know, Anquan Bolden did in Detroit.

I mean, I saw Cruz make some great catches along the sideline. I saw him show enough possession skills to still be a player in the league, but not a fantasy player. I think this is more of a product of, I had tweeted this out last week or a couple of days ago that the leading receivers in order for the Denver Broncos. This is funny. You had Demeris Thomas close to 1,100 yards, Manuel Sanders, right around there. The third leading receiver on that team.

Devante Booker with 265 yards. Yeah, they went through a ton of different players. That's a situation. Yep, yep. But that Cruz can do that. Cruz can come in and be that 30. Cruz can, yeah, he'll give you 265 yards. All right. All right. Hey, this is big news. Steelers expected to retain Lodarius Green. Nothing final, but it's being reported in Pittsburgh that the decision to keep him on the roster.

is likely. And so there will still be the upside curiosities about Laderius Green. I certainly won't be using any of my draft picks on him. I think you'll be able to get him at the very end of the draft. Sure. And to me, that risk, going into week one, that will be completely worth that risk. We saw what he can do. But would you rather have Eric Ebron with your, no. You'd rather Al Darius. I'd rather take Lederius Green. You're crazy.

A green over a healthy La Darius green, which that's a huge factor. I completely agree to that. Unicorn thus far. Yeah. But we saw what he can do for that team when he's actually healthy. It makes sense. Mike likes, you know, Jordan Reed and those type of guys. Yeah, high risk, man. High risk. No risk and no biscuit, my friend. Yeah. All right. What else do we got? The Rams have come out. Well, we'll talk about Todd Gurley. I'm not going to bring him up right now. We'll talk about him trending or ending. And then...

We have reports that the Browns quarterback coach is a big Tyrod Taylor fan. So if Tyrod perhaps was cut by Buffalo, he could end up in. He'll end up a starter somewhere. I believe. He's probably talented enough to be a starter. He's shown enough. And I don't know what the bills did with their contract where if they keep Taylor next year, they have to pay him over $30 million.

It's crazy. That's not what I read. It's not? No. That's not what I read. I thought the number was around 17. Maybe a guarantee turns into 30 or something like that. Yeah, maybe the guarantee. I know that if they keep him, they do owe him a lot of money. I think I saw that his guaranteed money was number one. It does say that he got $9.5 million on signing and another $27.5 million is guaranteed for injury only. So, well, regardless, right, big decision for.

Buffalo. All right, we're going to get into trending or ending. Go through some of these storylines. Before we do that, I want to remind you, we announced this big news yesterday. The 2017 Ultimate Draft Kit is available for pre-order right now. You can go to Ultimate DraftKit.com. You will get it at the bargain basement early bird pricing. You're not going to get it any cheaper than right now because we're putting that out there. The draft kit was a huge success last year. We had tons of...

reviews from people who used it had great drafts set that foundation that's what we say we set that foundation for your 2017 season and this year we're adding to it we took everything it was good last year kept the price the same all that stuff the same but we this year we reached uh we reached out and we got matt harmon's reception perception exclusive content that will be added to the draft kit and so you will not be able to get that anywhere else this is not going to be out there this will be you know

that secret sauce information for you and your fantasy team. So check it out at Ultimate DraftKit.com. We're also coming out with a DFS pass. You can read about that on there as well. Let's get into this very special segment. Mike has prepared a special trip. I have. If these trends continue. Hey. Disgusted. All right. So let's talk trending or ending. I think I'm just going to say that segment name over and over again. Trending or end? It's, it's fun to say.

I want to start Francisco. Before we get into some of these other ones, I'm going to start with Todd Gurley. Oh, he's getting the bump? Because yesterday we had the, he was my Valentine. Yes. You guys, Mike and Jason, we're on a Slack channel. You guys were dropping a very frightening statistic. Yeah, it was. So why don't you share that to set me up for failure? So Lord Rebes on Twitter. If you're not following Lord Reeb's.

Get your life in order. Spectacular fantasy information. But he talked about Gurley, in his first four full games, ran for 146, 159, 128, 133. Monster Explosion was single-handedly winning fantasy weeks for you if you held onto him through those first couple weeks where he was recovering from the ACL. However, in 24 games since then,

It's a large sample size. He's been over 100 yards once. He's been over 80 yards four times. Yeah. And so what Lord Reeves is talking about is... I'm no mathematician, but that means 20 times out of 24, he has not hit 80 yards. So if you're talking trending or ending, I know where you guys are probably going to stand. I'm going with Indy. This situation is ending for Todd Gurley. You have to look at the situation. I understand. That is an overwhelming statistic. There is no...

world in which I could come out. I'm thinking those election commercials, I can't come out with any film last year that makes you want to elect Todd Gurley. But I will say this. The Los Angeles Rams, the run blocking is atrocious. Last year, yes, 3.1 yards per carry. Do you know how many of those yards came after contact last year for Todd Gurley? 2.2 of that 3.1 came after contact for Todd Gurley. That's rough. Over 70% of his yards.

came after contact last year. The run blocking is terrible, according to Pro Football Focus, of the 26th rank offensive line. You had no threat in the offense. You had extremely a horrible offensive philosophy put in place by that team. I believe in Sean McVeigh. I believe in the talent and pedigree of Todd Gurley. And I believe in the opportunity to improve. And all that being said,

all of the horribleness, right? 3.1 to carry and everything that was inefficient about Girdler the last year. He was still the 15th ranked running back. Okay? He is not. I mean, he's a one. He is a one to me. Is he top five? That's a stretch for me. I think seven or eight is a really reasonable expectation. And if he's drafted in a place that does not align with seven or eight, I will be happy to put him on my team. Trending or inning, gentlemen. Do you happen to have a...

the lower ranked offensive lines, or did you just pull the girly? I have them all. You do? Okay, so give me the bottom three. The bottom three offensive lines, according to the... One's got to be Seattle. Pro football focus is San Francisco, Minnesota, and San Diego. Seattle is the fourth to the last. So it's Seattle, San Francisco, Minnesota, San Diego is the bottom four. So San Francisco, below them, below the ramps? Correct. Carlos Hyde. San Francisco? Yeah. Okay.

How was David Johnson's offensive line? According to pro football focus, David Johnson's offensive line ranked 13th. But my point was just Carlos Hyde almost had a thousand yards on the ground and was far more efficient than Todd Gurley. Most players are efficient when they play half a season.

I'm just saying that from when 288 yards. When Todd Gurley leads in carries and, you know, he got the ball in volume because they had no other option. Sure. If you give that much volume to Carlos Hyde, you're telling me his efficiency goes up? I don't think so. That's never happened before. Carlos Hyde did play 13 games. And speaking of an offense that had one effective weapon, it was, I mean, San Francisco is right there to me with the Los Angeles Rams. I share optimism.

for Todd Gurley, you can't just completely garbage bag those first four games of his career and his entire collegiate. I mean, all your arguments are right. David Johnson did a lot with a little. I just share a high concern. And to me, it's all going to be about that draft price. If people are going to cling on to that and say, hey, I'm still taking that chance in the second round.

then he's not going to be for me because I think that's, I think that the trends continues of him being in that, that 12 to 20 range. I know that's a wide range, but I don't, I don't see him as a one. Sure. Moving forward. I think it is the new normal. I would say the trends continue with Gurley because even though they did get rid of Jeff Fisher and they, they're bringing in a new, you know, head coach, a new offense, which, which has to help. I love his offense. Has to help the, the Rams. I think that that is good, but that doesn't.

automatically improve your offensive line. Like what's going to change the offensive line between this year and next year? And when I went and I watched, you know, unfortunately not as much as I wanted to, probably 30 runs. Unfortunately, I had to watch some tuggerly. Unfortunately, I had to watch about 30 different runs between a couple different games last night because I wanted to actually see eyeball. And I will say this, most of the runs weren't his fault. Most of the runs were like, oh, goodness gracious. You get the ball and you got four guys on you. But there were.

In those 30, probably five different plays where all he had to do was just beat one guy. You know, where there was opportunity, like every running back gets. There was an opportunity to just break this tackle and you're going to gain, you know, 12 yards to outrun this guy and you're going to gain 11 yards. And he didn't do it any of those times. None. And when I watched games, you know, we are fans of the Cardinals. You know, the NFC West, we are high on. We watch a lot of Rams games.

He did not pass my eyeball test. He never looked special to me last year, ever, doing anything. And he's not that great a pass blocker. So I think this is the new normal for Todd Gurley. We disagree. I'm sure we'll talk about it all off season. All right. Trending or ending the DeMarco Murray resurgence. He was the RB5 in 2016. He is a perfect follow-up because he was a player who. Bad system for him. The mindset going into the draft. Let's put it this way.

Could Todd Gurley end up being what DeMarco Murray was last year for fantasy owners? Somebody that highly doubted coming off a bad season turns it around? Yeah, there's that possibility. DeMarco represented a huge fantasy gold mine for somebody who took him where he went because he was the RB5. So will this trend continue? He's not changing teams this half season. Going right back to Tennessee, but a year older. What do you guys think about DeMarco Murray's resurgent?

Is it trending or ending? I think it will be trending for DeMarco Murray. I think that he has enough. And we're all, we've talked about the draft kit. I'm getting ready for the draft kit. And I was just collecting so much data, breaking things down. DeMarco Murray in the red zone had nearly 23% of the team's targets in the red zone. Nearly 23%.

of Mario's red zone targets went to DeMarco Murray. I don't think that's going to change. Maybe it's not 23, but he just, such a high probability of scoring when you're getting, you know, just dump-offs inside the red zone, and you can move that even up into inside the 10. He was over, over 23% of the team's targets inside the 10. So they give him great opportunity to score. Plus, he's not in that.