The Fantasy MVP Show + Team DEF Strategy

also played a part. He still exists. No, yes. And he played a part. With less toe bones. Yeah, he's got the floppy toes. But, but Jordan Reed will not be playing week three. It was announced that he will not. So the first actual game action that Reed is going to see with his new quarterback, you have.

would be week one. I really assumed that you were going to say Jordan Reed will not be playing week three and beyond of the regular season. Fear. New news came out already. No, there's far greater injury risk with Jordan Reed. But I did go the upside of Jordan Reed over Crowder yesterday. Yeah, but the point is that second half of the season when Crowder exploded, Jordan Reed was not there. Yes. Yep. That's good. And even her ambitious projection for him, unless you're, I mean, a full PPR league, where would that put him? Probably in the top.

Probably between 18 and 24 with those numbers. And for a wide receiver you're drafting at the top of the eighth round. It would still outperform that. He's the 35th wide receiver off the board right now. All right. Let's move on to another friend of the show. TJ. What's up, fantasy footballers? T.J. Hernandez here with 444.com. And my fantasy MVP this year is Keenan Allen. If there's a player that can have a DeAndre Hopkins-like 2018, it's Alan.

He ranked 6 in Target Share last season, but was just 0.7 percentage points out of finishing second in Target Share, and Allen was second in the league in Red Zone targets, but ranked 18th in Red Zone touchdown, scoring just four times inside the 20. Touchdowns tend to regress to the mean, and this entire Chargers offense is due for a bounceback.

Philip Rivers converted his touchdowns at well below his career average inside the 20 last season. And with Hunter Henry out for the season, Allen will again be the primary red zone threat in this offense. Alan could also challenge for the lead league in targets and the overall wide receiver won in all scoring formats. Don't leave your fantasy drafts without Keenan Allen this year if you want to win a championship. That's spicy. Well, I feel like...

all the arguments he's making for Keenan Allen potentially being like the top wide receiver are similar to why I believe Mike Williams will have an impact on that team because there is target share and red zone opportunity there. Keenan Allen's the most proven. He's being drafted as the wide receiver six right now. You know, I don't see why not, right? You're looking, as a fantasy MVP, you're looking for a player that can end up as the number one at the position to me. And Keenan can do that. Well, and especially when you're,

when you're going second round. You've got to grab a player who you feel very confident is going to finish at least. You've never liked Keenan before, right? You've never. It's fantastic as the Keenan-Etruthers to see this. We've finally come back around the second half of the season when Keenan Allen was just turned into the human torch. These were his fantasy finishes.

2, 4, 4, 21. Against the Chiefs, it was a bit of a bummer. 40, 30, number one. So over the second half of the season, you have four top five performances, and you have two performances as the number two or number one. And he was actually solid to start the season. I don't want to just completely gloss over that and say everything he did was in the second half.

Keenan Allen is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. He has a very good quarterback. I'm with T.J. that Keenan Allen is a guy who is a wide receiver that I'm very happy to get in the second round. All right. We have one more fantasy MVP pick from a friend of the show, and then we'll give you our picks. And, man, I'm thinking about an audible. What? A mid-show pivot? We might. I don't know. Here we go.

Hey guys, Ben Cummins from the FF Ballers DFS podcast here. And just like in DFS, pricing means everything to me. So give me the fantasy MVP that can be an insane value and can blow his ADP out of the water. Loved Randall Cobb last year and love him again with Healthy Rogers. But I got to give you somebody fresh. And this year, this player I'm going to be using to explain to my future children what a post-hyped sleeper is. Because let me ask you a few questions. Are you interested?

in a wide receiver that projects to see more opportunity this year, plays with one of the best quarterbacks in the league, and can routinely be had in the double-digit rounds. Yeah, you should be interested in that. And this guy is Tyler.

Locking out. Not enough buzz on this guy, and I'm here to change that because so many factors working in his favor, right? Paul Richardson and Jimmy Graham gone. The Seahawks are top 10 in available targets and air yards from last season. Okay, the Seahawks want to run the ball, right? Well, their first round pick breaks a finger. They want to play good defense, right? Well, Richard Sherman, Cam Chancellor, Michael Bennett, and Sheldon Richardson are all off the team. And, oh yeah, Earl Thomas is refusing to play without a new deal.

Okay, well, Doug Baldwin will just soak up all the targets, right? No, because his health is trending in the opposite direction with a sore knee, whereas Tyler Lockett is probably fully recovered now from his devastating end of 2016 injury. 2018 is the year Tyler Lockett finally blows up. All right, Tyler Lockett. That's my man, BC. My teammate over on the Fantasy Footballers DFS podcast.

I don't like the probably at the end. He's probably recovered from that entry. Is the DFS podcast launching next week? Is it the end of August next week? It is the end of August announcements. Yeah. Look, if you play DFS, so we're talking Fandual Draft, Draft Kings. If you play, there is a once a week dedicated DFS podcast that we put out. Mike is the host, Ben Cummins, who you just heard from. Chris Meaney, one of the best minds in DFS, are part of that show.

And so it's a can't miss if you play DFS. Yeah. And the Tyler Lockett pick. He's on my listener league team. Took him last night. He is such a value. And Ben is right. The opportunity is there. Can Tyler Lockett finally seize that opportunity? That's what remains to be seen. But if the Seahawks have to play anything like they did last year where it was get down in games,

then Russell Wilson scramble, scramble, scramble, yells 500 and throws the ball as far as he possibly can, then Tyler Lockett is going to be on the positive side of those fantasy points. All right, it is our turn to contribute to this pot of fantasy MVP's. Jason? Yes. You seem like the right guy to go right now after that Tyler Lockett take.

I'll try to decide whether I want like co-MVPs over here or whether I'm going to change completely. Can I just say something about my pick before I reveal it? I believe you can. You can definitely do that due to the microphone in front of you. You are defending your pick and you have not even made it yet. No, no, no. I am announcing that I love my pick. Oh. There's no defense needed. I just want people to know.

I love this. Hold on. Hold on. Let's hope. So the guy that you are calling as your fantasy MVP, you actually love this. Yes, I do. All right. You ready for this? I'm glad. Ben Cummins was so... Ben Cummins is your pick? Yes, listen to the fantasy footballer's DFS show. He's fantastic. Shameless plug. No, Ben Cummins was so close to being right with his fantasy MVP. He realizes everything...

lining up with that Seahawks offense that is, look, they want to play D, they can't. They lost targets. They're going to have passing volume. And last year, my fantasy MVP was on the heels of an injury to Spencer where I said you have to grab Cream Hunt immediately in every draft that worked out well. This year, I also am picking my fantasy MVP because of injury.

It is Doug Baldwin. This time it's not someone else's injury. It's his own. He has dropped in fantasy drafts to a place where you can actually tailor your draft around him. I, last night in our listener league... I was upset. I built my draft around Doug Baldwin. I knew I could get him in the third of a 14-team league, and I did. I was able to stack great running backs early with Doug Baldwin. Here's why Doug Baldwin is so great.

The last three seasons, he's averaged a wide receiver won in fantasy. That's a great predictor of doing it again. He's averaged over 1,000 yards and averaged over 10 touchdowns. That's great. But the targets, the yards, and especially the touchdowns that are now missing from the Seahawks offense, Jimmy Graham gone, Paul Richardson gone, Luke Wilson gone.

That's 20 touchdowns that are removed from that team. And keep in mind a couple years ago, Doug Baldwin led the league with 14 touchdowns, this is in his arsenal to be able to do it. They lost 1,376 yards just from those three guys alone and 116 receptions. Obviously, Doug Baldwin can't take all of that. But Doug Baldwin will be well north.

of a thousand yards and he will be well north of 10 touchdowns. He's going to be near the league lead and you can have him right now as a locked and loaded wide receiver 1 who is not being drafted as a wide receiver 1. He's the 14th wide receiver off the board because of this injury. So there's a little bit of risk there.

But I am all about capitalizing on this risk. He's running sprints in practice. Pete Carroll, I know he's the hype man himself, but he's saying the right things that he's ready to go. They're not worried. And other beat reporters are saying it does not appear to be a huge issue. Take advantage draft Doug Dougie B. I mean, you know, Dougie B. Mike, I'm going to toss it over to you. You knew it was coming, Foot Clan. He didn't make it into my guys.

Rob Gronkowski, I am all aboard drafting Gronk in the second half of the second round this year. I wanted to go over something real quick, and these are the average draft prices of Rob Gronkowski, a snapshot of the past few years. In 2015, he was going at the 110. Ew. Disgusting. I want nothing to do with it. The next year, the 202.

The next year, the 206, and this year, despite being the number one tight end last year, and always the number one tight end, as long as he plays more than 12 games, Rob Grankowski on Fantasy Football Calculator is going at the 210. That is unbelievable value for one of the most dominant position-changing players in fantasy football. Rob Grunkowski over his past

Two years in games played, he averages a top six tight end, 57% of the time. That is an outrageous advantage. He finishes number one frequently throughout the season. Last year, last year was the number one tight end. Three years ago in 15 games, number one. The year before that, number one. You could.

Rob Gronkowski is locked in. Look at the team. Julian Edelman is going to be gone for four games. I love Chris Hogan as a wide receiver. But he's the wide receiver one on the team. He's not the number one target on the team because that is Rob Grunkowski. His value in the second is so appealing to me. Like I said, if I'm at the turn of the one and two, I'm probably not going to take Gronk. But if I'm anywhere near the middle, Gronk is on my team.

Yeah, I love it. Over the last few years, every time someone drafts Grunk and you look at their roster, you go, you know, I don't love this roster. And then come playoff time, you go, oh, they're in the hunt. They're in the hunt because every week they're outscoring their opponent by six, seven points at the tight-in position, and they've been able to piece together. They're running backs and wide receivers off of waivers. If Gronk plays and you have them on your team, you're making the playoffs.

All right, my fantasy MVP for 2018 is wide receiver Stefan Diggs. His jersey is on our wall today. And when I think about a fantasy MVP and the reason I'm picking, Stefan Diggs, is you have to have somebody that has the ability, talent, opportunity to be a top.