Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - Mid Round Madness + Maaailbag!

To me, you know, basically if I've got four other really good players, which, you know, if you're at the back of the fourth, you can make that determination to use that, you know, after the turn where you're getting an early fifth round pick, I would put enough stock in Joe Mixon's talent to say I'm taking that risk because the upside is what you're not finding from most other backs.

you know, round five and on. Even a Frank Gore, maybe he can be that RB1 or near there, but he doesn't have that upside to say, wow, he took over the league. He came in and pulled a David Johnson or a Jordan Howard or whoever. Leonard Fournett, Joe Mixing, let's say they're both handed the keys to the castle. You're sitting there. Beginning of the fourth, they're both on the board. Who are you taking?

If they're both handed the keys to the castle, I'm definitely going with Joe Mixon because you have a much better proven offense that every year has high value running back fantasy production. And if it ends up being all in one person, then it's a clear winner. All right. I guess I'll go now. I'm going to go with Terrell Pryor. Jason, you probably don't know this. I have an affinity for Terrell Pryor.

Well aware. Going at 405 right now, there are some wide receivers. By the way, that's the 21st wide receiver off the board. So it makes sense for me, somebody who has him ranked much higher than 21, to like him in the middle rounds. Now, there are some wide receivers going ahead of him that I like less, like Keenan Allen, Tyreek Hill, Devante Adams, Sammy Watkins, DeAndre Hopkins. I would take prior over all of those guys. I'm going to make the case. I'm going to make it a little different way to you. Sure.

Because for some reason, I just feel like I'm always talking to you with Terrell Pryor. But here's the reality to me. We've talked all about the target share was very high in Cleveland. And we will concede that reality. It's 140 targets. And Jason's done a good job of breaking down why he does not believe Tural Pryor will get another 140 targets. I agree with Jason that he won't. Last year, there were 14 touchdowns between three whiteouts. Okay. So Jameson Crowder, he had seven, which I think is a bit high.

for the slot receiver type of Jarvis Landry type of guy. And then seven went between D. Jackson and Pierre Thomas. Mike's also made the case. Pierre Gerson. Sorry. Pierre Garson. Did I say Pierre Thomas? I didn't know he was back. Mike's also made the strong case. I mean, 4,900 plus yards for cousins. He had a bit of a low touchdown total. So for me, I believe there are 16 to 20 available.

touchdowns to wide receivers in that office. Now last year, Prior couldn't score in Cleveland. He had four touchdowns on this season. To me, I think it's very easy for me to see that total doubling. I think eight is a realistic total for Pryor, a guy who is very big. You look at his player profile or comparison, it's Des Bryant. These two guys are built the same. Both dominate at the slot route. Here's something interesting I wanted to share with you, Jay. Targets in Cleveland were awful.

Okay, the catchable passes. Kirk Cousins had the sixth lowest percentage of bad passes in the NFL. You know who was 24th and 36th? That's Josh McCown and Robert Griffin III. That's basement level. Here's one last point that I really like about Troll Pryor, and his potential to be a top 12 type of wide receiver. Last year, he had 32 downfield targets. Nine.

were catchable balls, according to pro football focus. So only nine. He caught eight of those nine passes. Deshawn Jackson in Washington with Kirk Cousins had the same amount of downfield targets. Thirty-two. Eighteen of them were catchable. So on the same amount of downfield targets, you moved to Washington and you had twice as many catchable passes that you did in Cleveland. So I think it's a few stair-step type of things. And the other thing I love about prior is that was year one. So if you believe in the talent, the athleticism, something that I personally do,

I think you could get at the 405, a guy that ends up in the top 12. And so he's my mid-round favorite. I don't necessarily think he's going to move from this spot either. No, I don't either. Because those five guys I named, there's reason for people to say, okay, maybe they start liking Josh Doxon. They don't move Terrell Pryor up. He's a mid-round favorite for me. Yeah, and I'll just speak on this really quickly because obviously last episode, we had the splain yourself where I have.

Torrell Pryor at wide receiver 30. That's where he comes in. I think right now he actually moved to 29. Oh, he's moving up. There's got to be enough weeks left for me to inch that up one week at a time. Yeah, I think someone actually fell behind him. It wasn't so much him raising up. But.

But what I want to say, which is in defense of Terrell Pryor is, you know, those are the projected rankings of what I truly believe will happen, but they don't take into account the upside. And what you just described is the upside. He can certainly, you know, if his touchdown total were to double, he has the talent to do something that other guys that might be in that same 30 range, they don't have the talent to say, oh, well, you can be a top 10 wide receiver. Terrell Pryor certainly has that talent.

physically. So if you want to take that shot on him there, then your case holds water. Now, what is the saying? We're going to move to Mike. Fool me once. Shame on you. Yeah? Fool me twice. You can't shame a shamer. Mike has decided to re-roll three times, right? Well, he's re-roll. Is this year three you're saying? It's very possible. I believe in him all three years. Yeah, you've chewed, but choosing wrong?

Well, I'm jumping back on the Amir Abdullah Express. How much of that is so you can play the sound effect with your mouth? Play it with my mouth. So you're going to Mir Abdullah, 607 right now in ADP. The nice thing about Abdullah are when you jump on Expedia, the tickets, the cost of the tickets has come down. People have been a little bit disappointed. And what Amir Abdullah.

has offered. And I cannot dispute that things have been a little bit disappointing for Amir. Yeah, because you paid big money for that train last time and it took you into the mountains where it shot you. But the thing about Amir Abdullah is, by you guys as well now, Amir Abdullah, for whatever reason, is now injury prone. And when you think of Amir Abdullah, you go, well, that guy, he gets hurt all the time.

He didn't miss a single game in college. He played all 16 games as a rookie. He just missed last year. He had an unfortunate foot injury, and he got knocked out for the whole year. So it's bizarre to me for when a guy like that has been proven with workload that all of a sudden he's injury prone, and I think it's just because how big he is. He's not the prototypical 220.

type of running back. He is a little bit undersized, but they don't use him. Year one was the fumbulitis. Year one was four fumbles, two lost. He had to keep leaving the field because of that. And so it just, there was, Joyke Bell was also there. And he was still the veteran who was getting the work. No, and everything. You're right. Things are a lot different now for Detroit. It's Amir Abdullah and, uh, now is theoretic. Theoretic. They've upgraded their offensive line. They brought in free agents, Ricky Wagner.

who was considered by a lot the best right tackle in free agency. T.J. Lang is going to play guard. They did not draft a running back. He's week one last year. He missed the whole season, but week one, over 100 yards from scrimmage. He's a tremendous athlete. They are a very high-scoring offense. He's a great pass catcher, and that's what they do in Detroit. They run through the air, and we've seen it with Riddick, and we saw it with Abdullah to start the year. He had five receptions, week one.

In the back of the sixth round, a guy who, and I had all this prepared before the blur broke today, saying that the Detroit Lions official website feels like the team may be getting a mirror ready for a featured role. So maybe we're getting even more touches than I had first anticipated. But all these touches, a guy who has the potential to be a high-end running back too, in my opinion, in the sixth round.

I think is an absolute steal because he can't get game scripted out. He can catch the ball. Maybe Riddick's a little bit better at it, but he can still be involved in that. So I love him going in the back of the sixth round. He will be a guy who I am targeting in every single one of my drafts. At least you're getting a starter there who has flashed talent and, you know, big playability. I mean, there are things that.

You know what it kind of reminds me of? And maybe you'll probably hate the comparison because I would. I would. CJ Spiller. That's fine. You know, there's a difference between drafting that guy. Very few guys you can believe in year after year after year after being let down as a perfect analogy. Thank you. All right. I'm going to kick it back to Jason. Before I do that, I want to thank today's sponsor. Great friends of the show, pristine auction. Look, last episode on Thursday.

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auction.com when you log in and you sign up to browse the auctions, which is all free. It's all free. It's all free. Just let them know that the fantasy footballers sent you. All right, Jason, I'm going to kick it back to you. You had Jill Mixin with your first mid-round madness favorite. And now I'm going to go the opposite approach, which is my normal approach when it comes to mid-round. Definitely not a rookie. And go for the old man. Because usually, I mean, just like last year with Frank Gore.

It's the old people who get it done year after year after year, but once they hit a certain age, which is usually around that 30, if you're a running back or a wide receiver, you just start getting disrespected. And nobody wants to be the person to draft them when they're done. And because of that, they fall in value. Can I go ahead and interest you in last year's wide receiver 11?

who was the year prior's wide receiver seven. Okay, two years in a row. He has been a top 12 wide receiver. Seven 11. And he's open all the time, man. And that is, that is currently being drafted as the 28th wide receiver off the board. That is old man Larry.

Fitzgerald. In PPR leagues, he led the NFL in receptions. He has not done. Now, this year will be his final year. He doesn't want to end up playing till he's 40. Most likely. Okay. I would say about 90% chance. Now, I, yeah, okay. I would say 99, but sure. Regardless, he is not done.

As far as when you watch the film and you see, okay, has he lost it? Has he lost his ability to really go out there in game to ball? He has not. He led the league last year with 107 receptions. He had 109, you know, the year before. This guy's a PPR machine. And here's an interesting thing that is very silly, but also very real. Now, I'm not giving fantasy analysis here.

You're actually putting this on the show. I am putting this on the air because it's fascinating to me. I'm not calling for it. Oh, Jay Gras FFL weighing in. So when I was looking up Larry Fitzgerald and I wanted to see, okay, what do I think his touchdowns are going to do? Do I think they're going to bounce back this year? You know, because last year, even though he was still a wide receiver one, he only had six touchdowns. But every other year of his career,

Dating all the way back to rookie season, if it's an odd year, he's over eight. He averages 10. And in the even years, he averages six. So I'm just saying it's time for a bounce back. It's 2017. It's odd. Larry Fitzgerald, he's got no Michael Floyd. He has to be used in this offense. And he's being drafted right now as a wide receiver three in PPR. Those were the PPR ADPs. Well, and it's an odd year.