The “My Guys” Episode + Risers/Fallers

for the Denver Broncos. That was going to be my question to you is that I believe wholeheartedly in Royce Freeman. I love him. I think he's a great pick as my guy. I don't have confidence that he will be as valuable in full PPR leagues because of what I see as more of a two-down skill set and because they have flexibility with other players. You believe that by the end of the season, he'll be more utilized in the past catching...

past protection role than we've seen so far in preseason? He can do it. And I'm saying even if he doesn't get into that role, I still love him in the fourth round. I'm saying he has that potential where not a lot of running backs do. You take him. You know what they are. But Royce Freeman.

can evolve into that three-down guy. All right. I'll bet he starts not being a full three-down, but he's going to be involved in the passing game. He's skilled there. I like Royce Freeman a lot. I would draft him in a draft ahead of this next my guy, and it should be no surprise. Right. I mean, if you've been listening. Just get it out of the way. Oh, hit that drop. Oh, carry on Johnson.

You're my guy this year. I've been on you since before the draft. I loved you when... He'd like you to get off. Ain't happening, carry on. Look, I loved you pre-draft. Then when you, you know, got traded up for into the second round by the Lions who also spent their first round pick and free agent capital...

shoring up the offensive line. I believe this is the best offensive line that the Detroit lines have had in several years. And I think genuinely that this is the best running back that the Detroit lines have had since Barry Sanders. I'm not putting him on, don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not putting him on that level. I'm saying there's been a long gap. You talk about, okay, Detroit has not been able to run the ball for a while. And I counter with, who have they had to run the ball?

They've got Amir Abdullah who hasn't been able to get it done in regular season because he's undersized. The starter? Sure. So here's the issue. You know, pros and cons with Carri-on-Johnson. The cons are he's going to get off to a slower start than these other guys. That's why I would draft Royce Freeman ahead of Carri-on-Johnson. There's never been a seventh round, though, that has gone without me drafting Carri-on-Johnson if he's there. I think right now he's going in the back of the fifth, and I...

I am okay taking him there, depending on who else is there. Sometimes on that spot, like he's being drafted head of Marshawn Lynch, I wouldn't do that. He's being drafted ahead of Rex Burkhead. I wouldn't do that. But there's other guys around that area. I would absolutely take him over. But let me just describe. He's not a super athlete. If you're not familiar with Karian Johnson, he's not this freak athlete, but he is a super running back, his vision, his balance. You know who agrees with you? His hands, everybody who's quality analyst. Say Kwan Barclay.

Yeah, Sequin. Who's not real, it's not like their best friends, but Seiquot has gone out of his way to say he believes that Carillon Johnson is a, quote, heck of a back. There is something that I really love, and it's rare to find, but it happens, you know, once every other year or so on average, which is you find a player, a rookie running back coming in, who was incredibly touted from high school.

who did it in high school, was a top recruit, and then did it in college. Guess what they're going to do in the NFL when they've done it their whole lives? He was Mr. Football from Alabama State in high school. He led them to three straight...

high school football championship games. His senior year, he had 1659 yards and 25. Are you giving high school stats? Okay, that's where I start. Then he goes and doesn't sign with Alabama who tried to get him, the Alabama. Instead, he plays against that monster defense in the SEC. Are they signing with? No. Basically, yeah. I mean, are they? That's a whole other conversation. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

No, but he goes and he signs with Auburn in signs. Yeah, I mean, right? Sure, sure. Signing Day. You declare. You declare. I do declare. So he's in the SEC, the toughest, you know, division in football. Who led the SEC in rushing last year? I'll give you a hint. It wasn't Nick Chubb. It wasn't Darius Geis. It wasn't Sony Michelle. It wasn't Jordan Wilkins. It was Carry-on Johnson with 1,585 yards from scrimmage and 20 touchdowns.

In the SEC, he is a true three-down capable back in the NFL. He will win this job out. The offensive line has been upgraded. It's going to take some time. It was a big caution. It was very interesting that Legerra Blunt was displaced this past week in the preseason rotation. I think we've assumed that Amir Abdullah starting each game has kind of been a...

put him on display, see what, you know, he's going to be involved in the special teams game, let him find some confidence. It was interesting that Carry on was the second back out there. Now, he didn't have as great of a performance this week as last week, but Blunt wasn't out there this past week. So it's very interesting. I like him. Carry on Johnson. Let's go to number two, guys. It was a tough pick. I considered several players for this spot, Jimmy Graham, Corey Davis, even Sammy Watkins, who, you know, has not.

earned this spot. So I am going with my guy number two. A guy who's really earned it. Just busting your chops. Yeah, Mike? Yeah? No, no, no, no. This Mike I like. All right. Mike Williams wide receiver for the Los Angeles Chargers. I am going with Mike Williams over a guy like Corey Davis because of the established offense and the established quarterback.

I talked a lot about Mike Williams last year, who ended up, banged up throughout the season and not involved. 6-3-220, number seven overall pick in the draft. The pedigree is there. And here's one of the reasons I love Mike Williams, and I'm making him on my guy this year. The Chargers have lost 153 targets. Antonio Gates is gone. Dantrell-Emman is gone. Hunter Henry, gone. The only piece they've added was Virgil Green.

22 targets last year. And you could argue Mike Williams. And sure. And they drafted, they did not draft him to be a peripheral part of this offense. He is a athletic freak, a red zone talent. I have him projected for 10 touchdowns in 2018. And I have confidence in Mike Williams. That's why he's a my guy. If you go and you look up, Jim Trotter talked about this. He said Anthony Lynn was walking behind one of his players the other day.

He thought it was a defensive lineman, and it was Mike Williams. He's enormous. And you can go watch the highlights from camp. You can go watch the highlights from this last preseason game. He scares me. Anthony Lynn said he reminds him of Terrell Owens. As a physical specimen that can outbody and outperform somebody, you have to have more than Keenan Allen. Keenan Allen will not absorb all those targets. And I think it's going to be Mike Williams.

And he's the 10th, and part of the factor is the draft capital. You spend the wide receiver 45 to get him right now. He's a 10th round pick. I'm going to take him in every draft they can get him in the 10th round. Yeah, he's a cuttable option if it doesn't work out. If it does work out, you could end up with a legitimately great wide receiver in the double-digit rounds. I actually really like this pick, the more that camp has gone on and preseason. You know, I said Mike Williams scares me. He does. Physic, like he is.

I mean, he's a monster. I watched him box someone out. Now, I felt like I got hurt. I watched this and I was like, oh, man, this is a beast. He's not Calvin Benjamin monster, as in not as athletic. I can run away from Kelvin. I love my dog. Sorry, Calvin. Oh, get bodied. Ridiculous. All right, Mike, who you got? All right, I'm going to save my surprise guy.

For last, if you've been listening to this show for the offseason, you should know how much I have loved Marshawn Lynch, and I'm putting him into my guys. His ADP is rising, which when you rattle off a 70-yard rushing touchdown and you're outrunning TBs and people see how great you still are, then your ADP goes up. But the back of the fifth, running back 26 currently, I want to start at the top. John Gruden.

Three of his final four seasons coaching before he came back, top 15 in rushing attempts, top 15 and rushing yards. Quotes from John Gruden. I would like to have a fullback. Those don't exist in the NFL anymore. Quote, I'm trying to throw the game back to 1998. John Gruden wants to pound the football.

Did John Gruden and the Raiders want Marshawn back? They restructured his contract. They restructured it down $500,000, except it went from zero guaranteed to practically $4.5 million guaranteed. They could have cut Marshawn for nothing. Instead, they fully invested into him. He can make up to over $9 million with incentives every 100 yards from $400 to $1,000.

And let's talk about last year, the Raiders. They wanted to save Marshawn for the playoffs. There was a lot of that talk. It didn't work out. And so they finally committed to him. Because there was no playoffs. I'm just saying. They thought they were a shoe in to make the playoffs. And they were being smart and they were saving Marshawn Lynch. And then over the second half of the season.

Marshaun Lynch was averaging 17 carries and two receptions. And in that time, had 135 tens for 4.6 yards per carry. They have the seventh best offensive line coming into the season, according to pro football focus. Doug Martin, Crampus does not concern me at all with it. They gave him a $1.5 million contract to come be the backup. They gave him what veterans make to just sit around. And Doug Martin.

After Chris Warren has been dominating the preseason, Doug Martin might not even be the backup. But a running back who can finish, in my opinion, can easily finish as a top 20 or even better, is being drafted as a running back three. That's stealing. That is stealing a running back in the middle rounds. Yeah, no, I agree. I think we've all moved on Marshaun Lynch based on...

you know, the pre-season. I haven't. Well, that's fair. I've been here for years. You were there. Not years, but this year. Thank you for warming the seat. It's always nice to sit on the warm seat. All are welcome. All are welcome with me and beast. What was our Marshaun bet last year? Yeah, that's why I changed it to two years. Okay. Jason? All right. New information, my man. Jason, take a deep breath. It's time for number two. Mm-hmm.

It's time. Nobody knows number two. Nobody knows better than you. The warm seat. Let's go with number two. I'm going. What is happening? I don't know. With a tight end who reminds me of my last year's pick, my guy of Zach Ertz. It's a guy that I have really liked for a long time, but I've recently come around on much, much hotter in the last few weeks. And that is Trey Boo Boo Boo. Oh. Trey Burton.

Very surprising. Didn't know he was in your my guys. Didn't know you were going to put him in there. Look, this weekend I did a lot of work, a lot of research. You were tilting. Let's be honest. I was tilting because these things matter to me. Like we don't just, you know, take, you know. It's not wheely-nilly. We don't throw a dart at a dartboard and then go, okay, that's my, that's my guy. We've been talking about these guys for months. We've got a board that we've been writing guys down on. And this weekend, I was really wanting to dig in, dive deep. And here's what I realized early in the off season.

When he went over and I did my first projections for the Bears, I had him at 100 targets. And then I went, whoa, that puts him at Titan 4. That's ridiculous.

Trey Burton cannot come over having done nothing and be my tight-in four on the rankings. I adjusted accordingly. I mean, I've always loved Trey Burton. Last year in our, you know, I partook in the FFPC Pros versus Joe's. I drafted Trey Burton with my last pick last year as Zach Ertz's backup because I know if he gets the opportunity, he's a beast. Speaking of that opportunity in four games without Ertz over the previous two seasons, Burton is averaged.