Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Matt Harmon Mailbag Show!

It's going to be fun. Wait, that's actually you that does that. That's not part of the drive. Now you know. That's live. Now you know. It's amazing because it always sounds the same. Identical. He nails it every time. That is true talent, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. It's his guitar, too. Oh, perfect. So it's perfect. Yeah. So, yeah, this would be great because I got someone else on my side of the desk that.

you know, I'm not alone anymore. You always feel like we team up on you. Yeah. There's always two bad opinions on the other side of the dead. All right. Let's go ahead. If you have a question, I didn't give out the voicemail hotline 302-464 TFFB if you want to leave us a voicemail question. And again, go to the website, the fancy footballers.com. Click the submit a question button. If you want to submit your own question for the show, we are going to start with a voicemail question. Guys, it's C-balls. How's it going? I've got a question about

a fifth round rookie DeAndre Washington out in Oakland. I'm actually a big Texas tech fan. Is there any chance he can go from being a handcuff this year to be in a hand cuff? That was well done. That was nice. Yeah, that was the end. So handcuff, hand, or a... What do you think, Harmon?

It's a really good question. You know, one of the first pieces I wrote for NFL.com when I got hired last year in July, which is, it's almost been a year. Whoa, congratulations. I appreciate that. They haven't wised up and fired me yet. But it's coming, though. They did send me away from us. Yeah, they just sent you across the country. Go take a vacation, Norman. We need a little break from you. We'll see you back in the pre-season. Go camping in remote parts of the world. Yeah, don't come back. That was the kind of subtle hint. But one of the first pieces I wrote was about.

how I'm not really a big fan of handcuffs, and especially if they don't have standalone value in a typical redraft league, it's kind of tough to endorse that. But I think that Washington could have standalone value in PPR as a pass catcher. So I think he could graduate from the handcuff to handcuff. Nice. All right. That was a really, really value. No, that's nice. We'll take it. It was probably the worst I've ever heard, but it was there. A for effort? A for ever. But, yeah, so I think that he could.

But I think we need to follow, you know, that kind of what we always need to hear with young players in the offseason, which is that drumbeat. Like, we need that to start happening soon, continuing to training camp, and then see some good preseason games out of him to know for sure. So a good follow-up to that is a question that was submitted on Twitter specifically for you, and it was about Latavius Murray. So, I mean, the question that they asked was, is he being overlooked? But is Murray the kind of guy that allows that drum beat to push the guy forward? Yeah. Well, it's so hard to know what the Raiders...

really think about Latavius? We were hoping you knew because I have no idea. Listen, if you read on my Twitter bio, the last sentence is, I don't have all the answers. So remember, it's my easy cop-out to these sort of things. But no, Murray's hard to know for sure because they've, at different points, really sounded like they were high on him, but they also said they needed to add other running backs, but we don't know what that really means in terms of what the value they want out of that running back is. But I do think he's kind of being overlooked.

He was, what, top five in the league in carries last year? And I think he probably will be again, especially my biggest problem with Latavus Murray last year was that he was going to be a two-down running back on a bad team. But the Raiders are kind of an ascending team. So if they're on better game scripts this year, he'll still get the volume. Number three in attempts, number five in yards. Yeah, the way that I see the lay of the land there is, you know, they've said nice things about Latavis Murray. They've also said, you know, they need to get more out of him, right? Because we saw a lot of...

bad play out of him. He got benched multiple times. At one point. And yet he still went over 1,000 yards. And so I don't think it's a surprise, though, when the coach comes out and says, we need to add more running backs there because they need to add, like what's their other option? Roy Hulu? Like he wasn't even there last year. So, you know, I think all the times that they've come out and said, we need to get someone else there for running back. I think what happens is that makes us take.

Latavius Murray down when in reality it's just common sense that they need to add more depth at running back there. That's my take. But then again, I'm the Latavius Murray lover here. Here's the thing about Murray. You know, there's a lot of running backs this year.

kind of in that fourth to sixth, maybe even a little bit, seventh round range that they're going to get carries kind of like by default. I've been listening to a lot of podcasts and one of them, including your guys, of course, but on the couch with Sigmund Bloom, he was talking about this with Jake Sealy recently, like this group of running backs like, you know, Matt Jones, Jay Ajay, these kind of guys. Murray kind of fits into that, though. We've just already seen a season of him being that guy, like getting carries because, hey, there's nobody else here. Yeah, we ran through some...

of our tiers on the other show and we our tier four is just this tier of death of you you have no clue i mean one of these one or two of those guys is probably going to hit but it's like it's the matt jones isn't you just you have no idea if there where the teams seem like he's the guy right now because there's no one really behind like a matt jones but

That could easily change. We have so much time for that to change. I think with Murray, you have to accept what he will be in that offense. I think last year there was the shine and potential of being this guy that makes a lot of breakaway plays and maybe goes over the top. But you saw somebody that was more of a volume type of running back, which is fine, and it's great. I mean, look at the numbers. But I think you just have to accept that. Right. So, all right, let's go ahead. Let's go to another voicemail question here. Hey, guys.

Philip out here in Vegas. I play in a touchdown-only league, which has a very expensive buy-in. By far, the most expensive league I play in. So I was hoping you guys should shed a little light on some draft strategy in a league where you only get points for TDs, defense, and kickers. Love the show. Keep it up, guys. Yeah, I don't like this. That's old school. You get.

Touchdowns, touchdowns, defenses, and kickers are the only way you score points. You ever played in a league like that? Step one, leave that league. Yes, that's actually true, and you're putting a lot of money. Here's what's crazy is if you want to win that league, you've got to get the best kicker, which is so stupid. I'm Mr. Anti-Kicker, but kickers put up points every single week in a league like that, and other guys just so often put up a zero. Obviously, you need guys to get touchdowns, but kickers...

are extraordinarily important in a league like that. Andy and I were in a league like that a couple of years ago. Yeah, that was rough. For one year, because we got in, and it was a friend of ours. And Phil Dawson was the real steal of the draft. My, the only advice I'll give is I was in that league with Andy Jace. I actually, I was there. I was forget that. Sorry. Yeah, I won. I think you won it. I won that league. Who was your kicker? And I was in the championship back to back. The kicker I would, what I did was I streamed.

Hardcore with my kickers, my defenses, and my quarterback where you think, oh, I'm in a touchdown heavy league, I got to get the best quarterback. I punt it. I punt it. And I rode, this was the Bills here with Ryan Fitzpatrick. I rode him for a while. I rode Josh McAllen when he was with the Bears. You can find.

two touchdowns a week from your quarterback. They're really hard to find a consistent wide receiver and running back who you know is going to score. So my advice is go heavy with those guys and just find your quarterbacks later. Players like Chris Ivory might get a bump up. Jeremy Hill. Jeremy Hill. You can like Jerry Hill. I love Michael Keith. That was a good moment. You can love Jeremy Hill again. Just get in some TV only league. Gross. Seriously.

All right, this is a good one because I want to know this answer too. At P. Caldwell, 1985, sent in this one for Mr. Matt Harmon. He said, can you give your unbiased take? So make sure it's not the biased one.

Do the unbiased one. On the three receivers in Arizona, he is torn between, he gives 15 and 12 here, so John Brown and Michael Floyd. Correct. Which Jason and I are torn on too. Yep. Well, not torn on. I have an opinion. We disagree. And I want to see the tiebreaker here. He's on my side of the desk, so I know the answer, but go ahead. I saw this one as I was pulling up to your guys' illustrious studio here. Yeah. And I love that it said unbiased, because I think everybody knows that my love and affinity for John Brown. Yes.

But that's the biased. That's the biased answer. But I still think it's the right. Really? See, the thing about Brown, I think he really.

kind of is the best of both worlds of the two other guys like he has the weak winning upside that michael floyd does but he also for a while there when they were all healthy was super consistent like had a really high reception total yeah his catch rate was like 70% while his average depth of target was still pretty deep down the field like just really dialed in on the consistency thing and i think that he and palmer have a really great chemistry and this is sort of you know

anecdotal stuff like out in the air but i really do love john brown he's the guy i have highest ranked because of that and i like michael floyd's upside like i could see him really you know owning this year but it's also still kind of one thing after another with him and i feel like you guys probably would understand that as guys to follow the team i've had to yeah i've had to slide him down my rankings as i've gone from kind of the optimistic view of a perfect season for him because you saw the end of last year

you know, where he had multiple, five of his, five of the last eight games, he was over 100 yards. Right, right. So you see that and then you start to want to project it, especially as a hometown guy for Floyd, but I've had to move him down just from the risk factor. You mentioned the anecdotal thing, so I want to ask you this, because I think I talked about it on the last show. Do you, you know, Matt Harmon is known for reception and really breaking down wide receivers and giving some just.

incredible insight to that position, kind of the industry leader at that position. He shrugs nonchalantly. Yeah, well, I mean, but we love it. We love that analysis. One thing I brought up with a guy like Keenan Allen or some other players is, you know, you don't have the, on the back of the trading card, there's not a stat for, okay, when the quarterback starts rolling out to the right and the play breaks down, does this guy find separation? Does he run to the open spot? Do you consider those type of things in your...

analysis of wide receivers yeah if you look at the uh reception perception route tree charts there's a little thing that branches off on the end called other and that's kind of where i put those but the problem is like it's really hard to because i also include like fade routes in there so it is kind of just that like all that other stuff catch all because unfortunately there's really no way to like make that look aesthetically pleasing sure no i got it but so that is one thing that i definitely take into account you know it plays where the guy like breaks down like that

That definitely goes into the other. Or if it's just like if you can tell which route he was on, he was already open and then breaks it out, I'll usually put it back into the original route that he's running. But there's definitely something to be said about that. I have a question for Harmon, my own listener question now. This is not asking for a friend. Asking for a friend. No, this is, this is, okay, so take fantasy. I'm not asking who finishes higher in fantasy, but you watch so much tape on the receivers. Who is the better?

wide receiver. Julio Jones or Odell Beckham? Oh man, that's a great. It's a great question. Yes. I did it. There you go. A plus for effort again. I think it's Odell. I think that I love Julio Jones and he is.

great at what he does. I mean, he has a litany of what I call Trump cards, you know, things that even if he makes a mistake on the first three plays, that, you know, the fourth one is just going to be outrageous because he has the physical ability and mentality to really dominate guys. But he's still not a very precise route runner, which again is fine for the player that he is. But Beckham is the...

perfect route runner, which is freakish the way he can do things, especially at a young age. Talk about reception, his rookie year, he had the higher success rate versus man coverage that still has ever been charted by the system. So he is just an incredible player, in my opinion. He's the guy that if I was starting a team, I would take him over Jones. And the Kardashian situation. How do you weigh in on that? This is, that was honestly a nightmare because there was a few people that like,