NFC South Breakdown, Stack Attack, RoJo

so many different teams, so many different players. You have such a large sample size that you can really get a grasp for what a coach does. Because he's switched teams so many times, you see, does he change to his personnel? Does he not? Et cetera, et cetera. And over and over and over and over, he is almost always a one-back guy. Now,

For some context, he had some pretty darn good, you know, Emmett Smith, Ladanian, Tomlinson. I would be a one-back coach if I had them. It's unbelievable the running backs he's had. But Christian McAverver was a top 10 pick.

And so if Norve is saying these things. The man who picked Christian McCaffrey top 10 is no longer with the team. Sure, but my point is he was valued to be that coming out of college. It was great last year, guys. Yes. The storyline and the narrative. I'm going to bring this up. I want people to remember something. Last year, all I kept hearing and kept getting thrown at me was Cam Newton doesn't throw to the running back. And all I kept saying was he will if he has a good one.

And he did. He threw it. And it worked. They were 11 and 5. They were a great team. What they did worked. These are not, you know, non-plyable robots. If you have a great player in a great position, suddenly you're great at throwing to the running back. That's the equation. And you're great when you throw to Christian McCaffrey, including in the red zone. And I believe that Norv Turner will try to use.

Christian McCaffrey, as he used. The comp that I see is the Ledanyan Tomlinson Michael Turner years with San Diego. And that was, you know, Michael Turner was involved. He's a good backup. He does need to be better between the tackles. And if their offensive line is downgraded, that could be a challenge. Yeah. And I like that you bring up the point, though, if you have a great player, you get them involved. That's Greg Olson. In the games where Greg Olson played.

Christian McCaffrey had two fewer receptions per game, nearly three targets fewer per game. That's a lot of opportunity when you are the past catching running back. So I'm not saying he won't have value for fantasy, but I think that he's overvalued. You know my retort, though, to that, right? I don't have to tell you it. What? He was a rookie beginning his career. Those are the games that Greg Olson were really active for.

Right? So I don't read a lot into a very small sample size with Greg Olson involved in the offense when Christian McCaffrey wasn't trusted in the passing game yet. That's my only counterpoint. So you're saying that the games, Greg Olson was a second half guy. Greg Olson missed the entire first half of the season. When did he come back? Week 11. Week 11 is when he came back the first time and then he played 13 through 16. He was hurt before game one. He was hurt in week two.

Okay. So that does not fit your narrative. It does for week one. If that's part of the sample size, right? Week one and week two are both in your sample, right? Because he got hurt during week two. So that's my only point is that I think that it is a very small sample. It is not a point that lands on deaf ears, though. If you have more people to throw to that you trust, you probably aren't going to throw to one guy. So I get there. Let's move on, though. Let's talk about Devin Funches. He emerged out of necessity last season. They spent a high draft pick.

in DJ Moore. Wait, he got a cool nickname last year. Who emerged? Ah, this guy. Devin S. scrumptious. I love Michael Key. Not going to be a scrumptious this year. No, no he's not. This is, you know, the, the food has been left out for a season. The chocolate is melted. The chocolate is melted. Scrumble-de-lumptious bar. Look, unless you have injury, I don't see how Devin Funches has the year he had last year because he's not built to be the number one. He's built to be a tight end.

I actually think he's a pretty good number two wide receiver. Oh, yeah. With DJ Moore coming to the team, I have DJ Moore slotted in to immediately year one take over the number one wide receiver role, take it away to be out targeted, to out target Devin Funches. That's how I have this projected this season. Breaking news. All right, big news, guys, this show is going to be extra long. Oh, that's the breaking news. I realize that. We've got two more teams to get through, and I'm not sure we can leave the Panthers yet.

I do want to remind people, Curtis Samuel's coming back this year as well. Yes. It's fair. He's been very, he's coming back, but the injury is coming back from, I think it's been a slow process. And I'm not super, yes, wide receiver, Curtis Samuel, rookie last year for the Carolina Panthers. All right, you guys, you feel comfortable moving on to Maddie Eisen Company? Yep. Valkins. I just, I don't want to get Mike a little, he gets a little finicky. Oh, yeah.

A little bit of a clamped if you move on too quick and there's somebody who wants to talk about. But I guess when you get a chance to talk about C.J. Anderson, everything is well in the world. Whoa, whoa, whoa, we didn't talk about Tori Smith. I could. I could bring him up. He's an upgrade for that team, mostly for Cam. Cam Newton likes to throw the ball really, really, really far off his back foot. And Ted Ginn benefited from that. Tori Smith is no longer fast, though. What?

I think he is. Or are you looking at his game speed? I'm going to look that up. You guys talk Falcons. I find this. A presumptive slowdown for Tori Smith. Well, I did watch football. You had a Tori Smith cam? I was going to say, were your stopwatch out? Were you watching all untargeted receivers last year? We can make fun of me in a second when I verify? Or probably not. Falcons. 10 and 6, the Atlanta Falcons squeezed into, you know.

playoff the playoffs last year um matt ryan disappointed fantasy owner steve sarkesian came in as the offensive coordinator ruined everything and we all blame him for all the toils and problems whereas we really should give credit to jason for the the obvious truth that matt ryan had an outlier season in 2016 so um uh this just in

Tori Smith was anything he ran longer than 20 yards well below the average NFL wide receiver in game speed. Yeah, because he does them backwards. Thank you to air yards.com. He does them backwards. Back peddling. That's, yeah, well, that's interesting to know. I mean, we've all agreed that replacing Tori Smith with Mike Wallace in Philadelphia was an upgrade for the Eagles, but they didn't really have anybody in Carolina. Is Tori Smith better than nobody?

Sometimes there is not a dish. Oh, this just in. Mike Wallace last year way the heck faster than Tori Smith. All right, well. The more you know. Tori Smith is living off of the, how is that not a segment? The more you know a segment. Seriously, we need to drop. The M-M-O-O-R-E.

You know. Oh, that's my last name, Mike. Did you realize that? I did. Clearly, you did not. Because I got the pun and you didn't. Andy's writing it down. Because that's a great idea. The more you know. And then we're not copying that at all. It's really a name tie-in. Very good. All right. Devonta Freeman. Does he return to greatness in 2018?

Greatness as in top five running back. I don't think so. Greatness as in one of the most reliable known commodities.

still in prime condition, yes. One of the best offensive lines in football. I really do like Devante Freeman this year. When you drop into that second round area and you're deciding between a couple players, I find myself so often in mocks and in real drafts taking Devons Freeman because he's solid. You know what you have in him. I can't imagine barring injury that he's not an RB1, a low-end RB1. And to his credit,

He was a running back 13 and he missed two games and essentially missed that third one where he was injured. So you give him his full 16 games. He was easily a running back won this past season. So I'm with Jason or return to top five. I don't see it shaking out that way. But Freeman is actually a good value right now even in the second round.

And this is the second, you know, last year I called for a lot of regression on the Falcons. And I, you know, I'm swung back the other way. I actually think that the Falcons in 2018 will be a much better offense than the Falcons of 2017. This is the year two of this offensive system. You had so many balls just, you know, that were going to Julio in the end zone, that were just dropped. I mean, those things, those things return to form. So I think this is going to be a good year for the Falcons. Mike, how do you approach a player like Kevin Coleman?

You know, the backup running back, dynamic, a pass catcher, somebody that if they did step into the number one role would be probably a top 10 guy because of the volume. But how do you approach him as a fantasy owner? Because it's not always fun to draft a player that doesn't have a week to week to find a role. Now, it's a little bit more palatable this year.

The Tevin Coleman mania has died down a little bit. He's going at the beginning of the seventh round, according to fantasy football calculator. That's a great value. But do you like start? Would you put him into your lineup? In that range, you could get Marshon, you can get Crowell, who are starters for their team. And like Andy said, the role for Coleman is undefined. Good friend of the show, J.J. Zacharison has pointed out.

many times over this offseason, they are rarely, rarely are they both relevant. And I'm talking about Coleman and Freeman. If one of them has a good game, it is statistically rare.

that they both have a good week. I disagree. I disagree. You disagree with numbers? I disagree with where he's putting the baseline of that numbers of what qualifies as good. When you're drafting a running back in the seventh round, you're not drafting an RB1. You're drafting an RB2. He had 10 games last season. Tevin Coleman had 10 games.

where he was an RB2 or better. Now, usually he was in that range of RB2, 19, 24, 23, 21, 23, 20. Those aren't great games. So those would show up for JJ. But if he's your RB2 or even your RB3, I'm super happy to have my third running back constantly put up, you know, numbers that are solid that are in those. Not a bad point. Not a bad point. And then you have the upside of, you know, last year, where was Kevin Coleman going? I feel like it was.

Much higher. Fifth round. Yeah, fifth round. I love Michael. Me too. So I actually like, you know, seventh round. I mean, it's hard, right? Crowell, the known starter. But if you're telling me Crowell has basically the same season Tevin Coleman had last year where he's got 10 top 24 performances, I'm not going to be shocked. But, you know, the opportunity for Tevin Coleman to take over in the sad situation of an injury is a little exciting.

They lost Taylor Gabriel to free agency, and then he signed with the Bears. They added a rookie, maybe surprise people, by drafting arguably the highest ranked wide receiver by some. By some. In Calvin Ridley. Calvin Ridley joins Julio Jones, Muhammad Sunu, as past catchers in this office that can be very prolific. Give me a handicap Calvin Ridley's redraft value.

You know, what are the odds that he contributes in a meaningful way? And would you rather roster Calvin Ridley with the unknown or Mohamed Sanu with the kind of, what, you'd call that the Brandon Lafelle baseline? That's a great question as to which one you would rather roster. I think I would rather roster in redraft. I would rather roster Mohamed Sanu. Am I playing four wide receivers? Right, yeah, because it's. Zeno roster Sanu. Right. So there's no real. Am I playing six wide receivers?

You're probably not starting this. Then I will roster Ridley. Okay, so that tells me that question. I was going to say if. But I did. If Julio Jones gets injured, who do you want to start? Sanu. Sunu. I do think this. I think Sunu is a great basketball pick. When you, because you, you are rostering, you know, nine wide receivers. And.