Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Election Special, Pump the Brakes, TNF Preview

No, oh, goodness, that's already, they should be done away with. No, I actually like, since we're talking about all this rule, scoring format stuff, I actually like the idea, which is now possible, didn't used to be, of first downs being a bonus point. That does happen some places. Yeah, I know. It's possible. But, I mean, real life importance, you know. Pop quiz. Who's the number one player, wide receiver in first downs this year? I actually know who that is. You do? Yeah. I want to hear it.

AJ Green. It is. It's AJ Green. Yeah, I mean, because, illustrating the importance of going to a guy on third down. Yeah, exactly. Those, those guys you know, like Antonio Gates, you know, when it's third down, you're going to Gates. And, and that matters that. Always a fun balance between simplicity and understanding the scoring and rewarding things that matter. So there you go. Touchdowns being worth less points is my suggestion. I said simple. Defenses shouldn't be penalized for points given up by their own offense. Jason went with Prop 25.

Don't reward quarterbacks more for running yards than passing yards because it disrupts kind of what you know to be true about good quarterback. So, all right, we're moving on to our final category, the most important spot here, the president, the fantasy MVP, the player that we believe will be on the roster of teams that win. Look, every year you have some player that led in terms of the most teams that had that player. A couple years ago,

Odell Beckham Jr. Oh, he was on the vast majority of championship teams. And then David Johnson last year, there's players that things just aligned. The moon, the stars, Jupiter, they all line up and you have a huge end of the fantasy season. And these people go down in glory. So we have three candidates. I'm going to let Jason kick it off. All right. I'm going to kick it off. Here's the thing is that normally year after year,

It's not always your studs that are the guys that really helped you win. It's the kind of lesser player, the less important role that really steps up because it allows all your studs to do what they've always been doing. And that to me is going to be this year. It's going to be Philip Rivers. Philip Rivers has been ho-hum. He's been okay. Actually, if you've been watching the games, I think he's been fan.

He looks really great. He's had to deal with all of his weapons, whether that's Keenan Allen or Danny Woodhead or the offensive line. He's had to deal with so many injuries and he still looked good. He's had to play Denver twice already. And in both of those games, he looked fine. He wasn't too big for him. He's been great. But his playoff schedule, considering the fact that he's already played Denver twice and has been good.

Starting in week 13, which is usually, that's when early playoffs start. That's Tampa Bay. That's great. Then for most playoffs, which are the next three weeks, Carolina, which is, I believe, the last place right now, like the worst passing defense, then Oakland, then Cleveland. You have a complete sweep, home run for the quarterback position.

Philip Rivers is available on waivers on many leagues right now, or I should say on some leagues. He's probably cheap to acquire and get because he hasn't been fantastic when you're coming off of, you know, two games out of four against Denver. I think Philip Rivers this year is going to be your fantasy MVP. I feel like I'm going to need to go last here to have a chance in this category. So, Mike, take it away. I'm going with...

Well, one of my largest man crushes of the season, and it just continues. A large man indeed. Because he's a big guy. Look, Mike Evans, you want to know why I knew the AJ Greenstat? Because I was actually just looking that up for Mike Evans, who is second in the league in first down receptions at 37. He is tied for the league lead with six touchdowns for wide receivers. Mike Evans is evolving into a dominant monster.

Beast Man. That's some genetic malformations happening there. Look, we know he was stuck in an Evolution 1 last year. He skipped too. We're already to Evolution 3. You've got my son's interests right now. And what Mike Evans gets to do in the fantasy playoffs is play against the New Orleans Saints twice. Twice, people. I know you've heard us saying this all year long.

But now it's actually approaching. This is a reality that is quickly approaching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Mike Evans will be taking on the Saints twice. I think that if you get into the playoffs, Mike Evans is a guy that is going to elevate you. You're going to jump on those monster shoulders of his. And he's going to say, hold tight.

And he's going to walt you into a fantasy championship with those delicious matchups and mucho-mutro touchdowns. I love Mike Evans as my fantasy MVP this year. All right. Well, look, I'm going with a guy. Look, last year you said David Johnson was on a lot of championship teams. You know who else was on a lot of championship teams? And he was unexpected. Yes. You know who else was? Jordan Reed. And Kurt Cousins, right? Those were two of the biggest.

The biggest players on fantasy teams, the most important players on fantasy teams, you need difference makers at specific positions. And I think Tyler Eiffert is the guy that will be on more fantasy championship teams than anybody else this year because of what he offers fantasy owners. Red zone presence, yardage presence now that Mohammed Sunu and Marvin Jones is gone. I'm going to take the leap.

and say that Eiffurt will help you close the gap on the teams with Gronk, with Olson, with Reed. He's in that category for me, a difference maker on that offense with the different pieces in place. It's the A.J. Green Show. It's the Tyler Eifert show. On Big Third Downs this past week, Jason was all over it. Tyler Eifert was the man this week.

back into that regular rotation. I think Eifford's going to be a difference maker for fantasy owners. And if you held onto him or you can grab him off of waivers or whatever the case may be, he's probably gone at this point. But if you can acquire him, I would acquire him with the mindset that you're getting a fantasy MVP, a difference-making player, which I know is a bold statement for that tied in, but it's time to jump on board. I love it. It's bold. Mike Evans, Tyler, Eifford, Phillip Rivers. Those are the candidates. We'll put all these up on Twitter at the FF ballers and check those out.

We're going to preview the Thursday night game now, and we'll get, uh, I, we'll answer a few mailbag questions, too. How's that sound? Who's playing? Falcons at Buccaneers. The Falcons, the Buccaneers, 51.5 point over under Thursday night bonanza. My fantasy MVP's in this game. Yes, he is. Mike Evans, um, versus Julio Jones in this matchup. Uh,

Game time decision for Tevin Coleman, I would not roll him out there. I've had a lot of questions from listeners saying, hey, I'm on the fence. Do I try to play Coleman? Look, I take the week off with Kevin Coleman. And game time decision or not, I don't trust him in this matchup coming off the injury. So that's my call on Coleman. Do you guys disagree? No, I agree. I don't anticipate that he will even be active. But if he is, it would be a risky play. What about the other side of the ball?

Look, a lot of question marks at the running back position. You expect Freeman to be happy and healthy? Yeah, yeah. Freeman will have a fantastic game. He's a loaded and locked in either order running back one until Kevin Coleman comes back. Even when Coleman comes back, we know that Freeman's been fantastic. The Buccaneers running back situation. Foot Clan, I wish I could give you a definitive answer, but we have received no answers on what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are going to do at running back.

There's a case to be made for all these guys. Anton Smith, huge play guy, but he's a scatback. He's smaller in stature. Peyton Barber looked great two weeks ago, rattled off that huge 40 plus yard touchdown. Is the prototypical bigger guy? We just, but there's, there's been no tea leaves rattling in the studios letting me know where it's going to be. So what tea leaves do? They rattle. They rattle. They rattle around.

Have you got some old tea leaves, my friend. Those are petrified. They're a little crispy. Okay. All right. So no clear direction on. Yeah. I think either one is worth a shot play. If for this week, while there's so many by weeks and you're going, do I want to go with a guy that, you know, I think he's, he's always involved and maybe he'll go out there and get me six points. I would rather play either one of these guys.

And they might completely, they might go out there and score two. But I could see either one of these guys going off for a good 15. I'm going to put Anton Smith first. But Barber probably has, I think, first crack, the first opportunity and will be more of the first and second number. I leaned the Smith way pretty heavily myself. So you can kind of tell even from that that it's a tough decision. It's a tough pick. Would you rather start one of those guys over another flyer like C.J. Pro Seize?

Yes, I would rather start them over process. What about Chris Thompson? Hmm. Well, this week, he's on by this week. So I'm going to go. Yeah. I was waiting for it. That's a fair point. I'm going Thompson. I had scatbacks on the mine. I too like to live dangerous. Yes, okay. All right, what are the other headlines from this game? Austin Hooper gets to start at tight end for Atlanta, Cameron Brade on the other side. I'd take Brade over Hooper. Sure, but I think Hooper is a fine.

shot in the dark going for the moon. Julio Jones, I think this is the headline of the game. He had the knee injury. They're saying it's a bruise. He's expected to play, but how effective will he be? We know that Julio gets banged up frequently throughout games. He doesn't tend to miss unless he has a catastrophic, catastrophic foot injury. But he plays through the injuries, but he's not always effective. He turned into a decoy for the second half of the game.

That's why I think Mohamed Sanu is interesting here as a wide receiver three play because of the upside the Buccaneers defense. They allow huge plays, which they're allowing passes of 20 more yards on over 11% of passes. So, I mean, like these things can happen for Muhammad Sanu. And we know that Matt Ryan is not afraid to take a deep shot. We saw Gabriel get his a huge shot when you went, Julio, no, that's Gabriel. Yeah.

That was great. That pass was great. Yes, that was my exact reaction of what happened. So I think that Sanoo is an okay wide receiver three this week. Sunu was my number one pickup this week in our Riders League. I am playing him. I agree. I think that he is going to have a decent game this week. Well, I'm going to put myself out on an island. I've been, I think, pretty perfect on the entire year, but this is going to be mine. Andy's almost upset of the wig.

Chance for Tampa to close the gap in the division. They're three and four, Atlanta's five and three. Tampa is at home. They're only three and a half point dogs. I like the opportunity here. I think that there's enough firepower. I think Mike Evans is going to eat. The Falcons defense is allowed 2.4 touchdown receptions per game, which makes them 30th in the league. There's going to be a firefight. I think Tampa has a chance to win this game. Getting buck nasty. I'm getting crazy, guys. Anton Smith time. All right, let's move on. Mailbag.

All right. Woo. I should have let that go. I am apologetic. Brought that hot. You never know. All right. Mailbag time. If you have a question for the show, head to the website, the fantasy footballers.com. Click to submit a question button. You can also dial our voicemail hotline 302-464 TFFB. We're going to answer some questions today. Let's start with a voicemail question right now. Hey, guys. How's it going? This is Nick from Orange County. Just had a quick...

Running back question. I own a lot of stock in McCoy. And with last week's performance, I would just find a note that Gilliskey is a legitimate handker. Just simply a handhold. All right, guys, love this show. Thanks. Bye. I love it. Yeah, Gillisley is a... The guy performed, and if the bills could have kept the game somewhat close, Gillisley would have kept on...

on rolling so i think that he as if mccoy's out gillisley is you just throw him in there you got if there was the only question for gillisley was will the bills commit to him will he actually be that guy you have uh williams the rookie reggie bush maybe these guys are in play but it was it was the mike gillisley show so i guess he's strong handcuffs gillously will be the guy i have i hesitate to make him a true handcuff because you know i i think shady's going to be back next week

if not this week because they're stupid. But I hope he's not back this week. But my point is if he misses this week, that's Seattle. And that's Seattle in Seattle. Far cry different than the Dolphins run the he had to face. So I am thinking that he's a, he's a debate. You mean the Patriots? Or yes, the Patriots at home. You're going to finish the sentence? You said, I'm thinking he's going to be and then you just stopped. I am thinking that he's going to be a.