Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Mailbag Episode, Guest: Christopher Harris

I will ask Chris Harris later. Another one of those difficult to figure out situations. But this one comes in from Michael in Calgary. Bonjour. There you go. I'm hearing Joseph Randall isn't looking too hot behind McFadden right now. So, week one, flex spot decision. Joseph Randall, Andre Johnson, Amir Abdullah, week one. Hmm. Abdullah, Andre Johnson, Joseph Randall?

Yeah, the lines play the Chargers, if that makes a difference. And the Colts play the Bills for Andre. And then Joseph Randall and the Cowboys play the Giants. I think I would go Joseph Randall because I don't think the Giants' defense is looking good. He's going to get the first touches before McFadden is still my belief, which means he's going to have the opportunity to run in a...

In a good position, you're going to have a strong offensive line against a weak defensive line, which should open up some good running lanes, and I think that that's where, that's the matchup I would go with. You're going to want to monitor Joyke Bell's health because, yes, he's off the pup. J. I see? He's off the pup right now, but it's not a guarantee that he's ready for week one. If he's not ready, it's Amir Abdullah. If he is ready, I'm going to play somebody against the Giants defense that...

give up a lot of fantasy points to running back. So that'll be Randall. That is correct. All right, let's take a second here and talk about daily fantasy football at Fandual. Okay, you guys have heard us talk about it before. Fan Duel's week one games, they're almost here. Yes! They are almost here, and it is super exciting because we all know, well, not Jason, but most of us know the excitement of playing on a championship weekend in fantasy football. All or nothing.

That's what you get every single week when you play on Fanduel. And that's why we love Fandul. They are the leader in one day fantasy sports. They got more winners and more payouts than anybody else in the entire industry. I think $75 million gets paid out a week, which means people are having fun. Yeah. If you're a winner, you're playing on Fandu. And if you haven't heard of it, we talk daily fantasy. We're going to have a segment every single week with Chris Meaney from the Fantasy Sports Network talking Fandual strategies, guys to start.

You can go on to fandole.com, entry fees start at just a buck. And that's a great point, is it's a buck. There's very low risk. Say you're a little hesitant to get in these huge cash tournaments, which are there if you want to get in. If you want to start small, go ahead. You can start for a buck.

Yeah, I would say that it's one of the more fun changes in fantasy recently is it's a new type of game where you can choose any guy that you want and build your roster. And yeah, it's a ton of fun. If you like it as much as we do, send us some messages on Twitter. Show us who your first week one lineup is. And the cool thing is. At the FF Ballers. Yes, at the FF Ballers. You can actually go to Fanduel.com and click on the microphone in the upper.

right hand corner and use our code ballers ballers and sign up now and uh for new users for every dollar that you deposit fan duel will actually match it up to two hundred dollars did you say one hundred dollars i did not i doubled it two hundred dollars that gets earned as you play that's a bonus of up to two hundred dollars dollars for the promo code

Ballers. Ballers. So don't forget to use the code. Ballers. Go to Fandul.com where every day is a new season. That's F-A-N-D-U-E-L.com and sign up today. All right. You know what's been really cool in draft season? Speaking of Twitter, is there have been a number of tweets, including pictures of people at the draft with their double-stuffed Oreos. You're doing it right. And it is awesome. Like...

I'm so excited when I see that because I know these people are listening. I know they're killing their drafts. And some of them are holding up Roy Hulu placards for us, which I know. When he was drafted in our league, it was loud. It was triumphant. It was triumphant. So if you have drafted and you've brought some double stuffed or you've had a good time at your draft, tweet those pictures to us. We love to see them. It's very rewarding for us. We're here every week because we love...

interacting with you guys i mean that's basically we don't do this to talk into a wall yeah and and we really do we maybe mike does we talk outside of the show how we can better our listeners to championships because i think that that's really we try to entertain we try to be high quality bringing out the two toot horn here but what our real focus is it's been a while yeah but what our real focus is is we want our listeners to

to win. We want you guys to be winners. So that's why we do this. That's why we do mailbag shows and answer questions. All right. So this question is a week one start question, and it is a good one. A very good one. Brandon Cooks at Arizona or Devante Adams at Chicago in week one. Now here's the caveat. His opponent has Aaron Rogers at quarterback. So talk a little bit about if that impacts your decision at all in a good way or a better. Was it Cooks and Adams? It is.

Brandon Cooks at Arizona or Devante Adams at Chicago. Oh, I definitely take Devante Adams at Chicago. I like playing a wide receiver against a quarterback that the other guy has because every single time that that play gets made, I get more points than the quarterback. In many leagues. Yeah, I guess in standard scoring and in most variations of that scoring, when those things happen, I get more points for my wide receiver. Plus, I think the matchup is way better. I mean, give me Devante Adams against Chicago all day.

Yeah, the concern for Brandon Cooks, who looks like a rising talent in the NFL, is he going to get Patrick Peterson, the Patrick Peterson treatment? They haven't shadowed him every single game, but they did start doing it some more. I guess another question is which Patrick Peterson is going to show up? Diabetes? The guy who got burned last year or the $70 million cornerback. I saw video of Amari Cooper, torching.

Patrick Peterson. He did. In this last preseason game. And it was amazing the amount of Twitter responses that said, we don't understand how Patrick Peterson has entered into the discussion as an elite. Like he's a four-time pro bowler, but I just don't think he's elite. We're out here in Phoenix. He doesn't seem elite. But he did struggle with some health issues last year that we didn't know about until the end of the year. So we're curious about that. I'm with you. I probably go Adams in that situation. I go Adams as well. It's a tough call. It's a tough call.

All right, so this is a question about reaching on injured players, okay? Andrew in Montreal. Bon, wait. Hello. There you go. Hey, I liked that. You thought through that one. Hey, guys. That's so rare, Mike. Great podcast. I listen to you guys every day. Quick question. In an eight-team league, would you reach for an injured player like Foster or Gurley because the league isn't very deep? I would say that...

The players you reach for in an eight-team league are only the players who are gigantic difference makers. So your average injured player out there is not. There's not many guys injured right now that are going to come back and make a huge difference. Aryan Foster is one such guy. So I would gladly reach for a guy that can come back and be a top five type running back when he gets back. Todd Gurley, I mean, yeah, I don't know what a reach would be. I would like to have him in an eight-team league because it's a

possible he's really good. We saw some good things from the Rams as far as their formation and looking like they were really all about the run this year. I'm not so high on Gurley, but I would reach for Arian and an 8 team league. So where are we talking about reaching for Arian in 8 team? Because in a normal draft, 12 team, I'm willing to go 5'6 at this point now with all the positive news. I'm going to take the gamble even if it burns me.

for, and he stays out the entire year. But in an eight-man, I mean, your talent is still much deeper in the fifth round. Yeah, I would probably go sixth round because, you know, that's like, I can get with that. So if you've been on our website, you know, we have an ultimate draft report available to listeners of the show where we go through and we look at your draft.

and we tell your strengths, your weaknesses, and overall thoughts on the team and kind of an in-season plan, things we think you can improve on, some strategies that you can do. And it's been cool to see people actually put those into play, like somebody texted me or tweeted me, so they pulled off one of the deals that we had recommended, and it worked out for them, and they ended up getting a better player. But when you look at those, I'm almost always happy with these teams that are ending up with Arian Foster.

in these drafts is what my point was is because he's coming at a value and he represents top five talent. If you've heard me talk before the injury for like six months, Aryan Foster was my guy. The cause of the injury really was you talking him up. He was the cause of the fantasy. Yeah, he was the beginning, the beginning of the ridiculous lore. Well, think about it this way, right? Levy on Bell.

Levy on Bell was originally suspended four games and people were still talking about him. Three games. Three games. And it was, you know, he was still a top three pick in a lot of leagues because he's that good. Well, Aaron was your number one guy. And now there's rumors that Aryan's going to miss like four games. So you're talking, you know, second round, third round. That's a good point. There's the variable of still the unknown. We don't know for sure that it's four weeks. So you're taking the risk.

that it could be longer or he could re-hurt his precious groin? I traded for him. I'm taking the chance. Well, you traded nothing for him, and that upsets me. We won't talk about that. All right, this is a keeper question from John and Kenosha, Wisconsin. Hi, John. This is a great one. Lamar Miller with an eighth rounder or Mark Ingram with a 13th rounder. Oh, man, you really... I wanted to have you fill in the blank. I was going to go 11.

And that would have put it even for you? So is Ingram the guy now for you, Mike? Yeah. Yep. Man, because I like Lamar. I like Lamar Miller so much. And especially with the preseason, what they're doing with his snaps. If you looked at the snap count of the last Dolphins preseason game, I think it was like 22 of 24 first team.

Reps were Lamar Miller. And not only was he on the field, but they were using him in every important way. He was going out for, if he wasn't getting the ball, he was running to catch the ball. So I'm going to go Lamar Miller. I think he's going to be a RBA. Oftentimes in those situations where they're both very late round picks.

I'm not as concerned. I mean, the value difference between a two and a five is so much different than between 8 and 13. And so I will generally go with the better player if you get past the seventh or eighth round. And so for me, it's Lamar Miller as well. Lamar. All right, this is a late round flyer question from Wookie of the Year in Kentucky. If you're taking a late round flyer today, would you prefer to take Coleman out of New Orleans or Hankerson in Atlanta? Coleman.

Sorry, sorry if that one's too easy. Coleman, because it's not based on injury. He's already getting the first team reps. Colston's coming into the slot for when they go three wide. Leonard Hankerson in Atlanta could be spectacular. Spectacular, but right now Roddy White will be back from his elbow surgery. The news is that he's going to have to have his knee drained frequently throughout the year. So Hankerson is not a bad guy.

to, he's not a bad guy, fellas. He's also not. Fred Jackson. He helps ladies across the street. It's also not a bad player to have on your roster for just in case, but that's what he, that's all he is right now is he is a just in case. A JIC. Yeah, where I think Coleman, we haven't seen it yet, but the opportunity is already in front of him. The pastures are wide open and green for Coleman. And that's why Elyne Coleman as well. Mike has explained that with, uh,

Much enthusiasm for Coleman. Yeah, I agree completely. The only question is whether or not it is a foregone conclusion that Roddy White is going to be back and is ready because, you know, we just haven't seen it. Otherwise, Leonard Hankerson is also right there. Yeah, and he could really put up a good season and is not being drafted. Yeah. Neither of them, Coleman's being drafted at the end of a lot of drafts. I have people asking me that. But Jacob in another Canada question.

It's just Canada, so you have to choose your language. Konichiwa. Nah, that's... Nailed it. Nailed it. Book it. Book it. Hello, gents. Here's a trade question, guys, so get ready to write this one down. Oh, goodness. I've been offered Alshon, Jeffrey, Carson Palmer, and Jonathan Stewart for Antonio Brown and Golden Tate. Should I accept this offer? Oh, my goodness. So Alshon, Palmer, J. Stu.