Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - The Footies: 2016 Awards Nominations, Studs & Duds, Rising Stars

Best rookie running back this year. Whoa, not Ezekiel Elliott. What? Jordan Howard. Oh, my. Now, look, obviously Ezekiel Elliott, it was the most productive fantasy rookie running back this year. He ran behind the Dallas offensive line was amazing. But Jordan Howard.

Jordan Howard very well might be the better running back. Actually, one of our writers, Eric Ludwig. Ludwig. Ludwig. Our favorite writer to discuss. He wrote an article. Between him and Kyle Bologna. Those two are great writers. They, uh, he wrote an article before the season saying is maybe Jordan Howard's better than Ezekiel. It caught a lot of flack for that because, you know.

is not ezekiel elliott but we saw this year both in film and in the numbers jordan howard is the truth he is legit matt forte has been the prototypical bears running back who came in

you know, just on fire and set rookie records for Chicago, which Jordan Howard just broke. And this is on a bad Chicago team. It is hard to be a good running back on a bad team. Howard didn't even start the first three weeks. Just ask Todd Gurley whether you can be a good running back on a bad team. Yeah, he didn't even start. Yeah, it is not easy. I just saw a stat on him. Small aside, 500 different running backs. 500 have over 250 touches.

he's in the bottom 10 in yards per carry. Yeah. For running back with over 250 touch. I want to say it was like bottom three or something. He was really low. I saw that as well. But, I mean, you're talking about Jordan Howard. You just nailed it. He didn't even start the first three weeks. He was the number nine running back on the year.

So Jordan Howard, he's a rising star to me. He is a absolute locked keeper. If you're in any keeper league, I mean, where you got him is almost certainly worth keeping him. I am depressed because I let him go. I let him go midway through the season and I wish I had him as my keeper. So bad. Mike, Mike, who you got? I'm jumping in here with a man who has a very attractive first name. Michael Thomas. We share the first name. We share the same level of talents.

For different things. For different things. For different things. He is sensational. The second most receptions for a rookie. For a rookie wide receiver. You remember that great class that showed up? $2.92 for over 1,100 yards and nine touchdowns. What's this season? We had that great class. We thought it can't get any better than this. Well, Michael Thomas came in and said, hey.

I'm Michael Thomas. Throw me in the ball. He smashed the Saints rookie wide receiver records. And he gave you a consistent presence for a, and Drew Brees is a quarterback. He throws 5,000 yards in his sleep. Now we will see there could be some shakeup. Of course, if Sean Payton leaves. I still believe. I don't think he'll leave. Just for the record. Sure. Regardless. If there could be some shakeup. However, when normally for that team, you had to pay.

just a massive draft capital price brandon cooks and even then with brandon cooks yeah you get these 200 yard games but you also get just duds michael thomas was not doing that he was giving you a safe floor almost every single week with a nice uh robust ceiling so i just i think moving in net into next year

another another off season with drew breeze more time to build that chemistry and that's what drew breeze is all about finding the guy who was open he went into that marcus colston role yes that was the saint's all-time leader with drew breeze he literally went into the same position and he was he brought the rookie record yeah from marquis colson right so i mean the future is bright i remember when colson did that i love marquis colson he was my guy for i think i drafted him

more than any player over the last decade. All right. Don't forget those were the Raising Cain's Rising Stars of the Week. We thank Raising Keynes for sponsoring the show this past season and that segment. And don't forget with the playoffs coming up, grab your Raising Cain's Tailgate featuring 24-hour marinated, cooked-to-order chicken fingers. In fact, we get more chicken finger feedback on Twitter than the average Twitter account. You want to win your playoff parties and your Super Bowl party?

We did it on Friday night. So check out Raising Canes.com for your nearest location. Guys, we're going to jump into the footy nominations. Are you ready for these? I'm ready. My body is ready. Hold on. Okay. All right. The footy nominations. Remember, we will post a link where you can go and vote for the official 2016 footy award winners. And we'll email it out as well. So if you're, if you're worried about missing that and you want to.

Go to the fantasy footballers.com and get on our mailing list, and we'll email it to everybody. All right. Let's start with the performance of the year. Footy. This is a single game. Yeah, single game performance. The nominees are Lev Bell, that week 14, 236 yard explosion with three touchdowns. You've got Ezekiel Elliott from week 10. He had a monster game. Aaron Rogers.

Julio's 300-yard game. Yeah, that was something special. Matt Ryan had a 513-yard game in week four. With 14. I'll say that's the combo year, or the combo week. With Julio. Ty Montgomery's Week 15 performance. You all remember that. It made a big difference in your fantasy championships. That's the thing about these performances. How much did they impact your fantasy team as well? Marvin Jones, remember him? That week three monster performance, and then Jayadjai had that week six game.

where he went bananas. I think the Marvin Jones is the worst performance of the year because that monstrosity six for 205 and 2. Ruined so many fantasy footballers teams. So those are the nominees for performance of the year. We're moving on now to the nominees. Your favorite category. To the Fantasy Reapers Man of the Year. So define that for our listeners. So this is the guy that got reaped.

by Andy. And the Reaper strikes again, and he got injured because Andy gets guys injured. So here's your list. You've got Andy's personal all-time favorite. Is this your all-time favorite fantasy football player? Yes. Yeah. He's on the wall. Yeah. Right behind me, Aryan Foster, you took him out. Aaron Foster, Doug Martin. Well, first off, I mean, you got to acknowledge you took Aryan out forever.

Yeah, he's done. He's going forever. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not ashamed. It was time to go. All right. This is a player whose season was impacted negatively by injury. Aryan Foster, Doug Martin, Adrian Peterson, Rob Gruncowski, Jamal Charles, Keenan Allen, C.J. Anderson, Thomas Rawls, Sammy Watkins, and AJ Green. Those are the... That's a tough list. That's an All-Star team for another year, but not this year. So you vote for...

The Fantasy Reaper's Man of the Year, the player you think whose injury most affected fantasy football lineups this year. That's a prestigious award. I mean, you, we go to the infirmary and we hand that baby out to one of these guys right away. That's going to be tough. Yeah, that's another difficult category. Who doesn't love this? Oh, the poopiest. We're moving on to the poopiest pants award every week. We break down the pooped in their big boy pants players of the week. This is the season.

But this is a season-long award. So this one, I mean, Huggy's extraordinaire. I feel like this is a three-man race. Okay. But I, you know, I'm interested to see your feedback here. So these top three. Lapuvius Pants Award. Man, how things have changed. Alan Robinson is in consideration. Ended up as wide receiver 25. DeAndre Hopkins ended up as wide receiver 29. Todd Gurley, RB17, after those high expectations. Cameron Newton.

Quarterback, 19. Kelvin Benjamin. He, much like Marvin Jones, flash in the beginning and ruin people. Randall Cobb. Ew. Wide receiver 56. Oh, man. Poopie pants. But maybe he was already starting to get poopie pants last year. So who knows? Brandon Marshall, wide receiver 50. That's, I'm terrible. I don't know. You said you thought it was a three-man race. It's a four-man race. I think all these guys are worthwhile.

for consideration. Randall Cobb. I mean, who was really trusting him this year? All right. So those are the nominees for the Poopiest Pants Award. We're moving on. Here's the most, you know, I say what is probably the most important award for winning championships. Your waiver wire wonder. Waver wire, man, that's where your team goes from, you know, really good to great because you got that waiver wire gold. You got Rob Kelly.

who once he came on finishes RB 31, but he was a revelation for a while. Dak Prescott, quarterback six. That's unbelievable. He was the quarterback six. Jay Ajai after he came back, he finished his RB 11. I lost a water bet with our man Brooks over that. Congratulations. Tevin Coleman. Adam Gase is, he's not happy about J.J. Coleman Waverwire. I feel like most people drafted him. DeVonte. Really? You think Coleman got drafted? He did.

Did he? Yeah. Devante Adams finished as a wide receiver 8. He was scooped off of a scooped up off of mini waiver wires. He knocked me out of the playoffs and I hate him forever. Tyrell Williams. Terrell Prior. There's a guy who started real hot. Tyreek Hill, the freak. Tyrell, Terrell, and Tyreek. I like it. The triple T. Triple T. Cameron Brate finishes seventh best tight in. Kristen Michael actually.

finished as the RB 32 ahead of Thomas Rawls, despite being kicked off the team. And then there's this guy, Jordan Howard. RB 10. And while he might have been drafted, he was usually dropped because early in the year, it wasn't his job. And then you scooped him up a couple weeks in and RB10. Lots of good names to consider there. I have a few that I think are headliners.

Howard included. All right. Let's move on to wide receiver footy of the year. The wide receiver of the year. This one goes to what we think is the best performance, right? Season long. Mike, why don't you break down the nominees? All right. We got the stalwart's Antonio Brown. He's always killing it. Always reliable. And of the big three, I would say probably the most reliable this year. Jordy Nelson, what a comeback for Jordy up in Green Bay. There was.

A lot of concern. Could he come back? It was concerned. I would say even halfway through the season. You saw him at the beginning, just getting touchdowns, but not doing really anything else. Mike Evans, sensational, sensational bounce back year. How many touchdowns did he have that sophomore year? I think it was two or three. Yeah, after a 12 season. Yeah. Well, and then back, back to 12. Yeah. Back to double-digit touchdowns for Mike Evans. Odell Beckham, the entire offense for the New York Giants.

T.Y. Hilton, who, uh, career high in yardage. Yeah, almost. So 1448 yards. I mean, that's a, that's a sensational season. And then Michael Crabtree. The quiet killer. Michael Crabtree, uh, I like him on this list because there's, there's a common theme for the other five guys is that they're all drafted in at least the top four rounds. Meanwhile, Michael Crabtree, you got him.

Where was Michael Crabtree going six, seventh round? Yeah, well after a Mario Cooper. Well, well worthy of a nomination for the wide receiver of the year. Running back nominations, it's a five-man race, and they're all big boys. Yeah, tough call. It's almost a shame that Melvin Gordon doesn't get to be in this. I get that because he ended the year, but these were the guys that won the championships. We're actually in charge of this award show. Really? Yeah. You know, he's not going to win over these guys, so we'll leave it at these five. David.

Johnson. Wow. What a year for David Johnson. He had, uh, was that right? 1,239 yards rushing to go with 879 yards receiving. Oh my goodness. Is that, I got a 80 reception. I got to go basking that real. Levion Bell ended up the RB3 with only 12 games. It's just nuts. Shady McCoy ended up with only three four. No, I said 12, did I? Yeah. Oh.

RB3, yeah. Ezekiel Elliott was the, obviously the rookie sensation, dominated, led the league in rushing yardage. And DeMarco Murray, big time season from DeMarco in his first year in Tennessee. So DJ, left bell, shady, Ezekiel Elliott, and DeMarco. That is a good list. And just a reminder, when you're voting, I mean, it's, you vote for, we take into account multiple things. Like I talked about Crabtree.