"What If?" Scenarios for 2020 + Fournette Fallout - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/31

be better. It doesn't mean he can't be the difference maker because of the on-the-ground work that he'll have if he rushes for 400 yards. It just means that the odds are against him, literally in Vegas, and according to fantasy finish at the quarterback position. I don't disagree. The odds are against Gardner Minshu. Looking back historically, but I saw an excellent tweet from Emmanuel Acho who...

A lot is being made of all the first round busts. It's coming up again for Jackson because Leonard Fournette is now a first round bust. You could have drafted Deshaun Watson. You could have drafted Patrick Mahomes. You screwed up really bad. And so then they just, the list of their first round bust was put out. And it's like, man, look at all these whiffs. And Emmanuel Ocho was making the point. Maybe it's not all these players fault. Maybe the team is doing a terrible job at.

at coaching their guys up. Maybe they just have had really, really bad leadership, and you can't just keep pointing the finger at guys who are 21 years old. What's incredible, though, is that Jacksonville, as an organization, I like Jay Gruden. But Jay Gruden was in the exact same situation in Washington. Organizational failure, talented head coach. I mean, Gruden's making the rounds. Between Cincinnati, Washington, and Jacksonville, he's like,

I know where I could get a job. Unbelievable. So there's just a wide variance there for Gardner. And in other words, I think if it starts poorly, you might want to just move on to somebody else. A couple other things before we get into the news. We invite you to join us in the Meglabel, the largest season-long fantasy football league out there.

Join thefoot.com. You can become a part of the Meglabel. Jason, I don't know. Do you know the current count? Are we over like $6,000 maybe? I don't know the current count. I know the last time I saw it. We were well over $3,000, but that was quite a while ago. So the Megalibol, if you didn't get a chance to get into the listener league this year, you didn't make the cut, or you're going, I just don't have, I don't know how to make some funny video that's going to impress the guys. Well, look, just win here.

And you're in the next... Just win the largest tournament and known existence. Prove you're the best fantasy player out there. All right. Let's talk news. News and notes from around the league. We have a lot to discuss by way of news. Like I said, the NFL season is 10 days away. And it's going to be a very interesting week one for a lot of teams.

Let's circle back now to the Leonard Fornett News. Did you hear about this? Yeah, Jacksonville waved him. And here we are. If you had the UDK, if you've listened to this show at all, we've been talking about Chris Thompson for a long time. Mike is nodding with kind of like Father Knows Best kind of. That's just one of those like, we see the guff and there was definitely some guff given about why are these guys like Chris Thompson so much?

Mm-hmm. He's the only running back right now with history with Jay Gruden. According to camp reports, Chris Thompson has been dominating in red zone work. That is an interesting byline. Because he is very, very good. Like, he is an excellent running back who, if he's on the field, like, the reason Chris Thompson was a sleeper for us is if he's on the field.

The team is better than if Leonard Fournett is on the field. These are facts. He also is part of the big facts is Chris Thompson can't finish the season. He plays like 10 games a year, but he still has a huge impact for his team in those 10 games. He is a more dynamic pass catcher. Leonard Fornett last year, despite the quantity, was terrible. It was like five yards per reception. Yeah, over six, but still that.

If you are getting 100 targets and you're averaging just over six yards of reception, that is a negative play for your team. Certainly. I mean, there's only two players out there who had a larger percentage of the team's total yardage than Leonard Fournette, Christian McCaffrey and Nick Chubb. Leonard Fournett accounted for a ton of the Jacksonville offense, but he was at the same time.

super inefficient. So if you actually have someone more efficient out there, accounting for that, this could legitimately be an upgrade for the team. That being said, for fantasy. Chris Thompson is 29 years old. Yeah. Chris Thompson's not playing 16. He's not going to be the guy who fills in for Leonard Fournett. His role is established back from, you know, on Washington. He is going to come in on the third downs.

You can't make him a three down back. He won't survive it. He'll last three games. This transaction to me shows we have RyQuil Armset from last year. He missed some time in camp, was on the COVID list. I went back and watched film. He looks okay. And then to me, this is more confidence in Divine Ozygbo, who comes out of Nebraska, went back and watched film on him too. He's a banger. He is a good player.

The team must feel confident that they can get whatever inefficiency Leonard Fournett was providing between these two gentlemen. Which honestly, it's an amazing turn. We've just been crapping on the Jacksonville leadership for a while, but to realize you can move forward with Armstead and get the same production that Leonard Fornett was giving you. And you don't, you aren't pigeonholed into having to give Leonard Fornett the ball 250 times. Like you could be more creative.

I was smirking when you were talking about Chris Thompson, Jason, because it's like, in the worlds of what if, what if this is Chris Thompson's Justin Fawcett year? Then he will be very, very good for fantasy. Yeah, that is, people have asked me 5,000 questions this morning about Chris Thompson. So I'm going to ask you guys, I'm going to reiterate some of them. Would you drop Alexander Madison to pick up Chris Thompson off a waiver wire? Yes. Okay. Would you pick up Chris Thompson or would you pick up?

The other two guys, right? Chris Thompson. Okay. Chris Thompson, unequivocally. How high should Chris Thompson go on drafts based on this news? You know, I don't think people are going to be clamoring for Chris Thompson. So you don't want to reach ahead of other really quality players. I find that that usually is in the middle of the seventh round for me where.

There's still really good players in the middle of the seventh. The back of the seventh, eighth round, depending on how your home league goes, is where there's so many question marks that I'm willing to take him there. That's not to say I wouldn't take him even ahead of that spot. I think he will be a quality back if he can stay healthy. Would you draft Chris Thompson over David Montgomery today? Wow. Yes. But, well, no, gosh, you're saying over as in the same draft spot. Because we talked about where David Montgomery could drop in a draft.

kind of sounded like the sixth, seventh, eighth round. I guess I would take Montgomery there still. But to echo what you were saying, Jay, once you're in the eighth round, take the guys that you believe and take the upside. Take where you don't need to follow just a pure rankings at that point. Go get the guys you believe can win you a league, which is what, that's why Antonio Gibson is in that range. And I would draft Gibson over Chris Thompson, but I'm saying you're not.

You're not spending a huge opportunity cost in the ninth round. Yeah, you get it wrong there. It doesn't mean the same thing as getting it wrong somewhere else. Yeah, exactly. Because the guy that you didn't take and you took him instead, that guy's probably not going to do well either. That's the difference. You know, and just to speak on this real quick, I do want to point out, right while Armstead has missed most of camp. Yeah, he was on the COVID list, but he's also injured. He is not there today. He is currently out. When they released Leonard Fournette and they're looking at who they have,

They have barely seen Reikwell-Armston. I think... Interesting. Divine Azigbo? I think Divine Azigbo is the guy that I would prefer to take the shot on of those two. Which is last pick shot. That's what that is. That's last pick. That's dynasty waiver wire. That's what I'm talking about. There are two more things to discuss here. One, I've seen a lot of people speculate about Devonta Freeman going to Jacksonville.

I'm going to handicap that it is 0% chance. Wow. I'll give it a 1%. He already turned down, I believe, a $4 million contract from Seattle. They waived Leonard Fornett and saved $4 million. I don't, unless this was purely spite and not financial, which I doubt because this team is not exactly a Super Bowl contender, why go spend $4 million on a different inefficient running back? I don't have the odds very high at all. It's a better pass catcher.

I mean, he fits more what Jay Gruden would want to do. Yeah, maybe he was. I don't know if he is. I'll put it at good five. Good fiver. The other side of the coin. The last question here before we move on to some other news. Where does Leonard Fournet go? That is the other question is. The bears. Okay, the bears. I know. Look, it's chalk. Sometimes chalk is chalk for a reason. It makes just so much sense for the bears to.

grab four net if they don't really have a backup plan for david montgomery unless it is patterson so i believe that he ends up there he plays for a couple weeks and then david montgomery gets his job back does that okay he plays for a couple weeks so that doesn't change the answer to your earlier question about where you draft montgomery relative to chris thompson no and i'm so let's say this are you going to draft leonard fournett in like the twelfth round

I've been telling people, as a free agent, let's say you're drafting today. We took a poll. There are still more drafts to come for Foot Clan listeners than there are, have passed. Like this week and this weekend, there are a lot of drafts. You're drafting today. Everyone wants to know where do you draft Leonard Forenett, the free agent. I've been saying 10th through 12th round. Okay, so you're still willing to draft him and see where the chips fall. Yes. Okay. But there aren't scenarios where he's getting 265 carries and 76 receptions.

The other teams that are in the back of my mind, and you guys bring up some if you have them, Philadelphia. Right now, injury plagued. Yeah. Injury plague team that needs a running back. Kick the tires with Freeman. Kick the tires with Carlos High. Oh, the fantasy gods. If he clears waivers, Philadelphia becomes an even higher possibility to me. Sure.

How funny would it be if the Falcons? They're like, let's just see what we got in Todd Gurley littered for now. Oh, my gosh. Do either of them have it left? The Rams, who lost Todd Gurley, you know. That was, I believe Melvin Gordon chimed in on Twitter and said he thinks the Rams will pick him up. Melvin Gordon's out there giving analysis now? Look, he needs to do something. He was a running back who knows teams that might have been interested in running backs. Pittsburgh. What about Pittsburgh's up there?

They just never seem to make that flashy signing ever. Yeah. And is it flashy? I don't know. If it's a $1 million deal after he clears waivers. All right, let's pause for a second in the news. Let's thank today's sponsors. It's time to talk about Therogun. We get to bring them up again. I love my Therogun. The Stress of Life.

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