Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Keep/Trade/Cut + Fantasy Questions

Eddie Royal to me, you know, he's a cut worthy candidate. I think he's a fine play as well. He's kind of a keep or cut depending on your team needs, depending on who's on waivers. I was going to say I'd rather have coats than Royal, but probably not. Well, so it seems like it seems like it's just a laceration. So if he just has a cut, then maybe that's a big deal. With any Royal to me, sorry to get to get back to that.

I think he's a guy that you're going to want to watch the practice reports this week, right? Because he missed all of practice. It's almost, I mean, for a guy to miss every single practice and play almost never happens. That's very, very rare. And he did it last week. He still got plenty of work, right? He got seven receptions like the week prior, but he only got 43 yards. He wasn't healthy. And so monitor the reports this week. If he's healthy, he's probably still a good play.

Yeah, he's all right. I mean, you have the emergence of Cam Meredith also to deal with. You guys have seen the play with Hoyer missing Alston Jeffrey in the end zone? Yes. I think from what I see, from what I see from actual Bears fans, they want Jay Cutler bad. Really? They really do. Yeah, they really want Jay Cutler. They have, I've seen a lot of tweets from Bears fans saying, look, the numbers are an illusion, right? Brian Hoyer goes out and he's great for fantasy football.

But he's missing guys. He's not finding Alshan. He's not throwing the ball. He's a... Alshan's been like third or fourth in targets. All he has to do is throw him the ball and he goes up and gets it. And Cutler means so much to Alshan Jeffrey's fantasy value. They want Cutler back in. They lost last week. The amount of offense they put up and losing, they blame on Hoyer. Is it Bears fans or Bears fans who have Alshon Jeffrey and their fantasy teams? No. Well, certainly those guys. It's Bears fans. Imagine this. And we went through this in Arizona.

Bears fans who know what Alshan Jeffrey is as a receiver. Imagine Brandon Marshall's third or fourth in targets. They see that and they say, what in the world is going on with our offense? Why are you not giving the best player on your offense a chance? And I don't know what the reason is. I don't know if it's people used to speculate about Larry Fitzgerald for contract purposes. Now you've got Alshan Jeffrey in a contract year playing on the franchise tag and you're not using him? So, well, to be fair to Brian Hoyer, he's one at one, correct?

As a starter, he is one and one. Oh, he didn't start three weeks? No, well, he came in a replacement. Gotcha. So as the full starter, he's one and one. I'm not trying to be unfair to with Hoyer. I'm just telling you what I see from Bears. If I'm wrong, come and tell me. I mean, if you all are Bryant. If you're a Bears fan, I'm genuinely. Without a fantasy dog in the race. Right. No, no fantasy implications. You're a Bears fan. Who do you want as your starter? I curious. I curiously want to know. No, I like I curious. Sure.

All right, last guy here. Let's go D'Andre Washington. Keep trade cut. He's just a handcuff and a low-level handcuff at that since the Raiders are going to continue to use two to three guys if Latavius Murray is back. Touches were 50-50, right down the middle between Jalen Richard.

and DeAndre Washington. What was disappointing was what he did with those touches because on the year, he had a yards per carry almost six, and he got nine touches and only produced 23 yards. That's the real disappointing thing is you wait for the opportunity, you get the opportunity, and you disappoint. Yeah, there was a couple of close calls with Washington. He was open on a wheel route on the right side, caught it, but it was past interference, and that would have been a big gainer. I don't know if he caught it.

He might not have caught it. That's probably why he wasn't a big gainer, huh? All right. Hey, last one, Quincy and Nunwa, would you try to acquire him? Would you trade for him or do you just status quo with him? I'd like him on my team, but if there's a advantageous fantasy player who's like, whoa, oh, Eric Decker to the IR, Quincy and Newman's price has gone way up.

I'd say, okay, well, I'm moving on then. Yeah, Nunewa hasn't really done that much in the last three weeks. Ironically, when Decker has been out the last two weeks, he's been okay. You know, he's gotten six catches, four catches, you know, 60 yards, 51 yards, no touchdowns. It was really week one and two where he was super involved, and that was when Decker was in place. So Nunewa is worth picking up, but I wouldn't be trading for him. All right, we have...

We have our Thursday night preview before the mailbag. We got the Broncos going to San Diego to take on the jinxed superchargers. I mean, they just find a way to lose every week. Are they jinxed? There becomes a field goal. I mean, when you drop a field goal, I mean, it hits them right in the hands. Yeah, and I was Tony Romo tweeted out. He said, see, it's not so easy.

Oh, that's funny. He didn't actually do that. Oh, okay. I was really surprised that he would do that, but I was impressed. That was amazing. No, and I think what Andy is saying, though, is legitimate. Because when you have so many games in a row where you're in the game or you're up in the fourth quarter with two minutes left and you lose all of them, you start to get in the fourth quarter, you start to worry it's going to happen again. And that causes it to happen again. Let's talk about Melvin Gordon in this game.

Melvin Gordon has scored in every single game this season. So you talk about taking the touchdown situation from last year and flipping it on its head, two in week one. He's opposite Lamar Miller right now. Sure. Okay. I mean, he has seven touchdowns on the year. Last week he caught one. But he had problems with fumbles, fumbled twice in the past two weeks in crucial situations.

He hasn't been the most efficient running back, but last week he was actually okay on the ground, 16 for 69. I think Melvin Gordon is one of those absolute trust, trustworthy guys. I mean, you're going into week six here. I know it's Denver, but the volume of touches is just through the roof. Yeah. I love Gordon. I do.

Ever since Danny Woodhead went down, you know that he's going to be involved enough, not just in the running game, but in the passing game to where he is trustworthy. You lower your expectations against Denver. Look, they've actually been susceptible on the ground to the running back position. Atlanta carved him up quite heavily.

uh, Jeremy Hill had a good game against him. I don't, I don't reduce any expectations for Gordon. Oh, I do. He's at home and he hasn't needed heavy yardish to be productive. And so if you're talking about efficiency against that defense, look at the numbers. I mean, all he does is get in the end zone. And if they're in the red zone, he scores. Sure. But the last three weeks, by the way, the last three weeks.

were Indiana, New Orleans, and Oakland. And so, yeah, he scored, but their team was putting up a ton of points. Do you think San Diego is going to- You're confusing me. You're confusing me because you simultaneously said you temper your expectations, and then you talked about a bunch of teams doing a lot of damage with the running back against Denver. So I'm trying to figure out what you mean because Denver is 22nd against fantasy running back. What I'm saying is that Denver, as they are now, which is not like a top five, are not nearly on the road. They're at home.

Denver's on the road. Yeah. I'm talking about Gordon being at home. Oh. Yeah, but here's basically what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that the total points that are going to be put up by San Diego against Indiana and New Orleans and Oakland are going to be far higher than the total points they're going to put up against the Denver Broncos. He's been doing most of his damage.

with touchdowns. And so I'm saying touchdown opportunities are going to be less for Melvin Gordon this week against Denver. So I lower my expectations from what he's done the previous three weeks. That's what I'm saying. It's just the red zone opportunities are going to be fewer against Denver than against those prior three teams in my belief. We have not finished the rankings yet, but just off of your initial thought process, you still have Gordon as a running back one. Yeah.

I put him in 11-12 range. It's where I figure he'll follow. I'm pretty sure he'll be a two for me. He's a fifth rank running back right now in fantasy, and I know the workload is his. It's ironic because we seem like we're arguing, but I'll probably have him about 11 or 12. But the last three weeks I've had him like two or three. I was just confused by what sounded like a bounce back and forth train of thought with the...

Broncos giving up a bunch of points to fantasy running backs, and you thinking Gordon would be omitted from that is the way it sounded. If they're giving up a bunch, I don't understand. My Denver giving up a bunch was compared to what your expectation is for Denver. Not they're giving up a bunch compared to the rest of the league. They are, though. That's what I'm saying. That's terrible. I mean, there's 10 teams worse than that. So you just brought it up. Cincinnati running backs, 30 points against Denver.

Indianapolis running backs, 28 points against Denver, Atlanta running backs, 50 points against Denver. Yeah, at least I'll see. So I'm totally cool, Gordon, is my point. Let's look at the quarterback position. You have Simeon expected to start. I don't feel like Philip Rivers is somebody that you're excited about playing this week. No, I'm not excited about starting either quarterback, really. I mean, Simeon should have a good game, but that's...

He's a game time decision. Your shoulder is an area that would be easy to re-aggravate. It just takes one sack and knocks him out of the game. I just don't have confidence starting either of these guys. Rivers had a big game last week, and he's one of those guys that it looks like, you know, as long as he has a matchup that's advantageous to him, you can kind of start him and roll him out there.

The problems we have with Benjamin or Williams or Enman being the focus don't apply to the quarterback because as long as one of those guys is doing something against them, you're pretty set up. But the Broncos are the third ranked past defense and, you know, they're coming off a loss. They won't have Gary Coobes. Coobes. So you don't start any of the wide receivers for San Diego. I mean, I think they're okay starts, but they're not.

It's not a top option. I don't think any of them are okay starts. It's been difficult to start top wide receivers. I mean, Julio Jones just stunk against Denver. Over the last two years, almost every single wide receiver against Denver. There's only one example, and that was Antonio Brown that I can think of who did well against that Denver Broncos passing defense. I don't start Benjamin or Williams or Enman in this game. Yeah, that's fair. I'm thinking of like for my flex spot.

I'm still okay putting one of them in. All right, let's, uh, you ready, Mike? Oh, you caught me in a sip. I know, so I'm waiting for it. All right. Mailbag. Day your bag. Yeah. Yeah. Nico in Astoria. By the way, if you have a question for the show, you can go to the website, the fancy footballers.com, click the submit a question button. Right now, I have way too many running backs when everyone is healthy. I have David Johnson.

Jordan Howard. Doug Martin and Jonathan Stewart, can you give me some advice on which of these guys I should package in a trade and what caliber of players should I get for my running back? Yes, my advice would be you should trade absolutely none of those players. Jordan Howard is great. I love him. You still have the questions of when Langford comes back. I. I am currently injured. Jonathan Stewart is supposed to be back this week, but is injury prone. I love your running back core.

But there's enough there that makes me go, I want all four of them. I would trade Jordan Howard. Sure. I have Jordan Howard, and I'm looking to trade him. So if you want him, come and get him. And let me tell you why. Jordan Howard is awesome. Like I think he's a really great player. He plays Jacksonville this week at home. Should be all right. Should be a good game for Jordan Howard. After that, he plays in Green Bay. He plays Minnesota. And then he has a bye week.

So you've got these next three weeks. If you're a Howard owner and these three weeks are crucial to you getting back into the race, which it is for me. I'm one and four. And I love Jordan Howard. I think his long-term talent is there. I'm looking to move him right off of a 17 and a 25-point week if I can get some premium value for Jordan Howard that has a better matchup in the next year. I like the concept of trading Jordan Howard right now. I just don't know if I like it for this team. Because let's say you trade him and Jonathan Stewart.

doesn't play this week. Well, then you've got one running back. You've literally got David Johnson. No, and that's fair. And he's got Jacksonville this week. So I think you can wait a week to trade Jordan Howard. But I just wanted to give the perspective. I actually didn't want to give it because I don't want anybody to know that in my league. But Martellus Bennett. Let's talk about Martellus Bennett. This is from Dan in Pennsylvania. He says he has Gronkin Bennett on his team. Which one do I look to trade in which good R.B.