Bounce Back Players + The Return of the Hitman

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Autograph sports memorabilia. To the fantasy footballers podcast. Coming to you from Draft.com Studios with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome back. The elephant in the room. This is Mike Wright. That's somewhere between an elephant and like a zany clown toy or something like that.

I'll have to listen back. Mike, welcome back. Hey, it's good to be back, America. Well, were you gone like six, eight weeks, something like that? Yeah, it certainly felt like that. Too long. We replaced a bear with an elephant. Yeah. Well, you went to Big Bear Lake. I technically went to Lake Arrowhead, but it's very close to Big Bear Lake. Okay. Because we figured you and Jay Gris actually traded like...

I did. I took care of the baby gris. Okay. Very nice. They are very cute, very cuddly. Did you try to swim upstream and, well, I guess that would make you the salmon. That would make you the salmon. That would not make you the bear. No, we were, we were the catchers. We are the predators. To eat the salmon, you must become the salmon. Do you have a good time?

Great time. It's always a great time with the family. I appreciate the foot clan supporting me while I'm on the road. Well, you see, we had to hold it down. We had three episodes last week. I know. The July season is here. I heard that we have three episodes again this week. Yeah, Mike's in on these. Yeah. I am. You can follow us on Twitter at the FFBallers. We have some exciting news to share with you. We have bounceback players on the show today.

Players that each of us believes have a chance to bounce back in 2018 from disappointing 2017 seasons. Some players can do it. Others cannot. Al-Adez Bryant last year didn't pan out. Adrian Peterson, not exactly a bounce back. I would say that guys like Todd Gurley and DeAndre Hopkins sure bounced back very well last year from a down year. They absorbed the flubber spray.

Very, very well. So they were very bouncing. I can see you're back in true form, Mike. Are you telling me you don't know Flubber? I know Flubber. I don't make Flubber references. Right. That's often. That's what I'm here to do. Flubber. Flubber is great. Oh, fantastic. Does that mean that they're coming back down now? Well, they are, but then they just bounce right back up. All right. It's not the Doug Martin career.

No, don't ever bring up Dunk Martin. Yeah, he was one that did not bounce back. No. I believe he was a pick for a bounce back player last year by one of us. Yeah, I'm not going to point any fingers. We have a great quick question on the show today, and I mentioned the Foot Clan giveaway. We're giving away a sign Keenan Allen jersey, signed Stefan Diggs jersey, a signed to Andre Hopkins mini helmet at Footclan giveaway.com. You can enter for free at Footclan giveaway.com. So before we get into the quick questions, which I think is a great one,

talking about rookie running backs. I want to mention two things. Number one, if you want to simulate a draft, like with a, you know, draft, practice, and then get a grade from us, you can do that for free at draft.com. It's easy. You can practice drafting.

And then you will get a letter grade from us. And a face. And a corresponding face of approval or disappointment. Let you know we mean business. So do that and share it with us. Yeah. If you're used to in years past going to fantasydraftwizard.com, that is the same place, same location. Draft.com for that. And then the big news, which, you know, I mean, Jason did enough tooting of his own. I think his Twitter profile has been updated. But, um...

Did you go right in the bio? He did, right in the bio. So I'll say this because we mentioned it on the footcast this past week, but now that it's official in the articles out there, the results for draft accuracy from Fantasy Pros came in over the last couple of days, and you can see it at Fantasypros.com. They have an article that came out, ranking 130 experts on draft accuracy. And we were fortunate enough to have two.

experts in the top 10, including Jason finishing at number three. We're the only site with what we had two in season inside the top 14. Yep. Two draft season inside the top 10. And, oh, yes, yeah. What has happened? Why is the voice of public opinion? Let it happen. I thought you guys were just funny and entertaining, but maybe you didn't dig super deep on all the fantasy stuff. So I, look.

We try to stay on. This is some fart sniffing going on right now. You call me the fart sniffer. I will sniff these farts. We try to stay humble here. However, it is validating. Jason is like popcorn. Jason is taking a whiff of his ranking right now. The thing is we do from time to time, whether it be on Reddit or on Twitter or something, we get grief for being, you know, we're a goofy show, right? We're three dads.

This is a deadly fantasy football podcast. We try to have fun. But we try to win you your league. And I know a lot of you out there, obviously, you've stuck by us year after year, and you've won your leagues. So it's just... You're preaching to the choir right now. I know. We're just giving them the show. All I'm saying is I'm doing a roundabout way of not directly complimenting Jason. I want to compliment the show. But Jason, nice job. Thank you. And Mike. Well, thank you. Yeah. And you, all three of us were... I mean, your rankings were great. Top...

Top quarter of all experts for all three of us. Two in the top ten. But it speaks to the ultimate draft kit, and you can expect to get quality accurate information from that. And we're very excited about that because it's validating to the analysis and the work we do. And we're proud of that. And so that's the announcement I have. Here's the quick question of the day. All right. This one came in. I think we touched on it on the footcast. I love this question. Regardless of the current opportunity, which rookie running back profiles as a true three down back. In the event,

that an opportunity arises. So obviously a lot of rookies came into situations where there is an incumbent or there is an existing platoon of running backs. But somebody like Kareem Hunt last year lost where, right, ahead of him, Spencer Ware, and then he showed he profiled us a three-down back, came in and carried the ball a ridiculous amount of times. So what running backs do you see as profiling in that fashion?

Yeah, I care about this a lot when I scout them. So I've got my rookies broken into basically three tiers of whether or not they are a true three down, meaning they're a great pass catcher or they're not. To me, and I know we'll argue about this in a little bit as to one of my not a three down back, but I have Sequin obviously as a three down back. Carry on Johnson, Royce Freeman and John Kelly.

are three guys to me that profile, regardless of their situation in the NFL, that they have the skill set to be well-rounded, a three-down back, be a good pass catcher. I believe that Sony, Michelle, and Rashad Penny, I believe that they very well might. We saw enough glimmers in college to say, I believe they can. Like, I actually believe they can. I'm sure about the other guys. The draft equity.

on those two guys. So it's funny that you're, Penny is firmly in the, maybe. Penny is firmly in the yes category for me. Sure. Yeah. Well, no, when I say maybe, I'm just saying, I'm speaking of the film that I saw in college, you add to that their first round draft capital and I think they will be utilized as a three down back. And then to me, uh, Ronald Jones and Nick Chubb, they were not at all pass catchers in college. And here's the big one. Darius Geis.

I do not believe profiles as a three-down back from any of his college production. College production, yeah, I mean, he didn't catch the ball a lot. But he did. I think he caught 18 passes last year, which was more than two of Todd Gurley's three seasons in college. So Gurley didn't profile that way either. It's a matter of whether you trust and believe in the player. And that's fine. I think Ronald Jones, to me, is a maybe. He's not a no. And Darius guys, I think profiles as a full three-down back in the way they want to utilize him.

Guys would be the one that I've been rising on and targeting in more and more leagues. Mike, how do you weigh in on these guys? Do you view them in the same category? Yeah, we're nearly aligned on these guys. The one I just wanted to highlight here, I wanted to talk about, okay, the two guys that if the situation arises, I think they will excel the most. And that would be, number one would be Carry on Johnson. I think that he is the set up as the most well-rounded.

And Detroit throws to the running back all the time. At least they previously had. I know it's a new regime, but it's... Not really. The same offensive coordinator. Yeah, but you still, you have some moving pieces in the management level. But yeah, Riddick has done that for years. And but Carion could take that role. And Royce Freeman is a all-around back. He's not as talented, in my opinion, in the passing game as Carion could be, but he can do everything that you need him to do.

Okay. Well, I think we all agree that Nick Chubb is not. It doesn't profile that way. He certainly doesn't profile that way, but I don't have him as a no. The only guy that, to me, is a no would be Ronald Jones. All right. Anything else you guys want to talk about in that department, or are we moving on to bouncebacks? Moving on. Hello, everybody. I am back.

It's always enjoyable to circle around to these episodes. That is a classic vintage fantasy footballers drop. Yeah, and you're back today. So a little double meaning. Bounceback fantasy player of the year. Did you Instagram that video that you... I think Brooks took care of it, yeah. Brooks did you Instagram? The people are seeing it. And tweeted it. Very troubling video.

Very disturbing. Very upsetting. Very enjoyable, too. So bounce back players, we've each selected two guys that disappointed a little bit last year for one reason or another that we believe are going to bounce back in 2018. And I'm going to kick it over to Mike. Oh, I'm back, so I will go first. Yeah, get it over with. The player I want to bring it. Well, I'm saving that one because I've got to go out with a bang.

But the first player I want to talk about is it's Amari Cooper. Oh. And the thing about Amari Cooper is you got a compliment sandwich, right? And by compliment sandwich, I actually mean that I'm starting with the bad things. Because, yes, nearly half of his yards. With the compliments in the middle? And it's just bad on bad? Yeah.

So it's rye bread. I know you don't like rye bread. How do people eat rye bread? It's terrible. But nearly half of his yards came in two games. Yes, that's true. Yes, he had the lowest charted contested catch rate by Matt Harmon's reception of all time this past season. But I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. He's coming off of two straight thousand plus yard seasons.