Fantasy Football 2018 - Fantasy Wildcards & Dark Horse Teams

They brought in Frank Gore, and then they draft Kalin Belage, who can profile as either a three-down back. His past catching profile in college is tremendous. What is Kenyon Drake moving into the season, and you are going to have to pay a very high draft pick regardless of anything that happens over the summer, because there's going to be someone in your league who wants Kenyon Drake. They're probably going to pay up a third or a fourth-round pick at the minimum.

for what Drake can do, because like Jason said, he was fantastic to close out the season. He was great on the field. He was great in your fantasy scores. I just don't know what to do or what to project for Kenyon Drake. Yeah, I mean, coming out of college, he was one of those, he was one of the two guys that I liked the most. I loved Kenyon Drake. I firmly believe if they give him the ball and they make him the leader, he will be an unbelievably great fantasy asset. But you're right. You got to follow what they did. And of course,

They lost Damian Williams. They lost J. Ajai. So they were going to replace it. And so you could be happy. You could say, oh, good. They only got Frank Gore and Kalin Belage. Or you can make the argument that they brought in a guy to a guy who replicates what Kenyon Drake does and a guy who's a first and second down guy ahead of him. So very, very difficult. I want, because I love Kenyon Drake, I wanted him to be super high in my rankings. But I just couldn't do it because.

You can't, I don't think we've seen anything from the dolphins that say they're going to utilize Kenyon Drake. Personnel confidence is not something I have. Right. With the dolphins. Yeah. And we've learned that no matter what kind of huffing and fluffing and puffing comes out of Miami over this offseason, do not buy it. It's poison. One of the great offseason lessons we try to reiterate every single year is you got to be able to.

Got to know when the hype train is coming down the station and everybody looks great. Everybody looks great. But not as good as they do in Miami. Miami, there's a little extra sun shining on them. Do you guys ever see the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer is out in a rental car or on a test drive of a car? Yep. And they hit the freeway. And the gas tank's on E and it just becomes about pushing.

the tank as far as it can go. How far can you go past the limit? Take it to the limit. And it's a fun ride. It's exciting. I want to talk about Lamar Miller. But it does. It ends. It does end. I wasn't sure if you were going Lamar Miller or if we're still on Frank Gore. No. Frank Gore, that's true too. But it's a hybrid. It's amazing because Lamar Miller's, I think, 30 years younger than.

Frank Gore, and yet they're at the same stage of their career. Look, the car is running out of gas. Lamar Miller is running out. So as a wild card, is somebody difficult to rank, you see this player who has every bit of opportunity in front of them on a competitive offense. And then you see this vehicle that is just 5.1 yards per carry, 4.5, 4.0, 3.7. That's the last four years for Lamar Miller. Nobody wants that car.

Sometimes you're stuck with a car to get you to and from work that you don't want. It's got no performance. It's just something you got in the garage. Last year, Alfred Blue had nearly 20 more carries than Lamar Miller to finish the year over the final three games. That's just crazy. So you ask why. Why use Alfred Blue give him 46 carries Miller 27 over the final three weeks? Unless you're just kind of

You're just done with Lamar Miller. You got to save that gas? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Has to be the running back. That's the thing that makes him so difficult to rank. Yet last year, pro football focus ranked the Houston offensive line is 32 out of 32. Trash. So here you have a situation where we don't know if Deonta Foreman is going to be healthy in time for the year to begin. I tend to think he will be.

You don't know how much of the backfield they're willing to hand over to Deonta Foreman right away. Alfred Blue is back on a one-year deal. Lamar Miller is still around. He's the old beater. They've paid him money. You're kind of invested. Nobody wants that. You're not going to get nothing for him. But I don't know how to rank him. And even the last two years, when all of these arguments were true about Lamar Miller, all this opportunity, he's still finished the year 18, 16. So he's an RB2.

but he's never made you happy. But he's not going to cost an RB2 price this season. No, I mean, I'm not saying you don't draft him. I just don't know how to rank him. I chose to rank him very, very poorly until I see something that tells me, you know, Foreman's not going to be bad. I did not choose to rank him very, very poorly, but he ended up very, very poorly ranked. Like, that wasn't. Or do you still have him at 28? Yeah.

I don't think that's too bad. The difficulty for me is I think Foreman will be out. I think Foreman will be on the pup list to start the season. There's six games right away. So Lamar Miller, while he's my RB 45 right now, he's one of these guys that could have early season value. So while his end of season ranking is bad, Lamar Miller is...

He's becoming more and more interesting by the day. And when he plays... And he's becoming Terrence West interesting. Sure. That's the kind of interesting. And that's fine. When he played with Deshaun Watson, he was very good. He was an RB one. Yeah. So, I mean, if he ends up being the starter for the whole season with Deshaun Watson, he... He's got... He's got fresh legs, like you said, Alfred Blue.

Elfer Blue took the load for him. If you notice, the hardest player's ranks are these players that can be. I mean, Miller could go everywhere from RB 14 to, you know.

working at Walmart. I mean, that's the range of outcomes for Lamar Miller. I don't think he has to work at Walmart with the contract. He would. That's true. They require over three a carry at Walmart anyway. Oh, that can't be true. That's why Eddie Lacey can't work there. Oh, just putting people on blast. So Lamar Miller was, you know, look, a long, long time.

favorite of mine two years ago he was one of my guys let's talk about one of my guys from last year who is it was looking great it was looking great oh yes this was this was my one uh failure dack prescott last year as far as my guys this was i know i know and and here's the thing about dac

It was looking great. I don't know if you remember, but the first eight weeks, which is, you know, half the season, half the season, the first week eight, the first eight weeks, do you know where Dak Press got ranked? Off the top line. On the quarterbacks, fantasy points per game. Six or seven? Six or seven. What do you think, Andy? First eight weeks. Eight? First eight weeks. You think eight. One.

What? He was the number one quarterback over the first eight weeks and fantasy points per game because he had a week seven by week because he was great. And I was like, oh, my guys are awesome. And then from week nine through the rest of the season, you lose. Not number one? You lose the left tackle, not number one. You lose his left tackle. You lose Zeke. Yes.

And all of a sudden, things start getting exposed. You want to take a guess where he was, his fantasy points per game from week nine through the rest of the season? 25. 25. I'm going to go lower. I'm going 29. 29. 34. There are 32 teams in the National Football League, and he averaged the 34th best. So, I mean, you've got a tale of two seasons. And, okay, you lose Des Bryant.

But so what? He didn't, he never had a connection with Des Bryant. He actually had better scores on a per game basis in the three games he played without Des. And you add Alan Hearns. That's so, okay, you've got the offensive line back. You've got Zeke back. But the thing that really scares me is losing the, you know, the emergency blanket. You know, Jason Witten retiring is, is bothersome. You also have a guy here who in his first two years has been a top 12.

quarterback for fantasy. That's very, very rare. The only guys that have done this in the modern era are Russell Wilson, Andrew Luck, and Cam Newton. And those three guys are great. All three are fantasy superstars and they continue to be. So DAC is one of these guys where I've got him pretty low in my rankings right now out of...

fears of what we saw, fears of him, you know, being exposed. None of us have him as a top 12 or even a top 15 quarterback. I've got him at 20, but I mean, it's, he's a running quarterback. And we know that, you know, that's an exploit. That's a fantasy trick. Get your run, your rushing quarterbacks and they're going to do well. Can I ask you a question? Yeah. So if you finish 34th in the league over the last nine weeks of the season.

Everything in Dak Prescott's career had gone swimmingly up to this point. I saw confidence problems over that second half as things started going the opposite direction. Do you think that that will contribute this year? I mean, he was a player that didn't throw interceptions for the first 15, 20 games of his career, and then the wheels fell off. I think the first week or two of this season is going to be monumental for Dak's.

mind. I mean, if he gets off to a slow start, I think you're going to see the wheels falling off on Dallas. That could crack. That could crack. But the reality is because he is such a good running quarterback, I think his baseline is high enough where he's still probably going to be a guy that you should draft in fantasy leagues. And he'll be all right. Eli Manning or Dak Prescott?

deck i would take deck you want that baseline but i mean such a wild card such a wild card all right the final guy of the wild card show it's a great one my final wild card brandon cooks what the heck do we do with brandon cooks who who old when he's on a team they don't want him

As I say, every year, new teams won him. New team plus a new set of confusing metrics. But here's the thing for Brandon Cooks, who was pretty great for fantasy purposes the last two years, wide receiver 9, wide receiver 12. But he was also the guy. He was the wide receiver 1 on his team. The last three years, 129 targets, 117, 114. Now he has been traded to the Rams and they paid up. They give a first round pick for Brandon Cooks. I like that.

But the past three years, like I said, 114 targets was his minimum. Last year, Cooper Cup led the Rams with 94 targets. And there isn't a huge target vacuum all of a sudden. Well, this target monster has left Los Angeles. And Brandon Cooks is coming into filling. Sammy Watkins has gone. He was only 70 targets. Do you feel like he was the guy in New England last year? Yes. You think he felt that way? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think other than.

other than Gronk. Of course, but he was the wide receiver won due to the Julian Edelman injury. I don't think he would have been utilized the way he was if Edelman played, but of course he got hurt and Brandon Cooks was great last year. The Rams were 24th in passing attempts last year, but they paid up. I love following what the management is doing. I love when they draft a guy high, when they trade up for a guy. You traded a first round pick.

to get Brandon Cooks knowing you're going to have to give him money this season to make sure he's on your team next year. I guess you can technically franchise him, but you're paying him a lot right now. You're going to extend him, but where does he get the targets from? Robert Woods. You think Woods target share goes that far down? Yeah, I do. Woods was. I do. He was not, Woods was not, I think, as predominant statistically as we feel like he was. And I think that's where they come from.

Because those guys can do some of the same stuff. Yeah, the question is, is he going to steal from that or replace the Watkins role? I had him more replacing the Watkins role, getting more targets. But when we first published, he was outside my top 50 wide receivers. And that was pointed out to me, that's just where the chips fell based on the fact that I actually think the target leader will still be Robert Woods. But you're right. If he is going to get up near 100 targets, it's going to have to come.