Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - 10 Things to Remember for 2016, News, Mailbag

This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Every football fan is different. Some won't wash their lucky mustard-stained jersey until the season's over. Some insist they can't sit down on third downs and some pick their favorite team because, I don't know, just like football fandom, nobody's life is exactly the same. And that's why State Farm gets to know you, not as a policy number, but as an actual person.

so they can help personalize a coverage plan that's just for you. Whether it's game day or just another Tuesday, State Farm has you covered. This is the story of the one. As a shipping manager, he's running the dock, stocking supplies, and making sure every order goes out on time. And Granger helps him stay prepared. From shipping supplies to PPE to hand tools, he counts on Granger to keep products moving and trucks rolling. So his operation runs smoothly.

No matter the shift, call 1-800 Granger, click Granger.com or just stop by, Granger, for the ones who get it done. Hey, folks, seems there's a lot of confusion out there these days. The world is a scary place. That's why I don't go it alone. I get my draft advice straight from the horse's mouth. I use the fantasy footballer's ultimate draft kit. It's chalk full of all kinds of stuff like premium rankings.

Sleepers, values, breakouts, and, of course, my favorite, handcuffs. So don't find yourself stranded all alone, shaking and afraid. Go to www.com.com. Get yourself a roadmap to a fantasy championship. To the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.

That harmonica, man. That was Jason on the harmonica. Yes, sir. If there's one thing he's known for, it's his campfire tunes. Welcome to the show. The fantasy footballers. We're back again Tuesday, May 17th. The year is 2016. The fantasy football season approaching is the 2016 season, and we are excited about it. We've got a great show today. I'm telling you, this is one of the best.

Sure, David Johnson is not on today's show, but it's still one of the best shows. We are talking about... We've got the best shows. It's going to be huge. We've got all the shows. We've got all the shows. Listen, we've got news and notes on the show today. We've got a mailbag listener questions, but the main event is going to be what we're dubbing 10 things to remember for the 2016 season. 10 things that you need to remember as you prepare your fantasy football team for success in 2016.

And these are good. These are very good. So I'm excited about those. Obviously, you heard the intro. Pretend Sam Elliott was back again. Telling you about our draft kit that you can get over at UltimateDraftKit.com. You can connect to us also on JoinThefoot.com, our fantasy football community, on Twitter at the FF Ballers. And we're also on YouTube, the Fantasy Sports Network. We're on Facebook. We are everywhere. We're on Snapchat, right?

We are. We're on Snapchat as well. We don't snap as much as we should, but we are there. We're doing the best we can. And occasionally the snaps will come through. Yeah. And Instagram, too, I guess. And you can check us out on the web, the fantasy footballers.com. That's where you can submit questions to the show. We always choose mailbag questions to answer on the show. And that's where you can see our weekly rankings, our pre-draft rankings, and get more information about us on there as well.

Today's show after the show, by the way, we're going to do a little Game of Thrones recap. Yeah. The show after the show, you can only get it on YouTube, and that's after our podcast. Spoiler alert. It was a really good episode. Yeah, nobody wants to know that. Yep. Geez. Sorry, people. So before we get into the news, I got a quick question for you guys. Which player are you ashamed to love for the 2016 fantasy season? Look, if you.

you know, follow fantasy football, all the different players, all the different vibes around certain players. There's somebody that you probably like that you're ashamed to admit. And so who is it for you, Jason? Yeah, so...

My player that I really like might say love this year is someone that I am ashamed to admit because I know on this show we are a couple of times going to talk about why this player should not be what some people think he, like I do, what some people think he should be. And that is Doug Baldwin. Doug Baldwin, who was in the second half of last year,

The second half of last year, do you know where he ranked wide receiver number-wise? I'm not answering this because you can be really sarcastic about it. I'm just curious if you knew that he was the number one wide receiver. There it is. Yeah, not like a top guy. He was the number one for the whole second half of the season. He's my number one guy.

And he's on a team that I still believe is going towards the passing game. He's the, I believe, the number one clear cut wide receiver. And he's going at a draft position that he can be on your bench to start. So I really like Doug Baldwin this year. And I am a little ashamed to admit it. All right. I'll go ahead and give you mine. I'm ashamed at the amount of love I have for Isaiah Crowell.

Don't be a shame. I threw it out there on Twitter this week, and you always get two reactions on Twitter, by the way, when you mention player names. They're always very measured and very thought out and mild. Well, I guess you have three reactions. There's reaction number one, which is I love the hot take, right? There's reaction number two, which is I hate you and you're stupid. And then there's reaction number three, which is like, shut up. Don't tell anybody about him. That's true.

Be quiet. Like I think I said, T.J. Eldon and Crowell were underval. And they're like, let's keep it that way. But I like Isaiah Coel. Look, Hugh Jackson is a coach that I've spoke about. You know, he's almost at Gus Bradley levels of my affection towards him. He's got to be at least Gus Bradley for you. Oh, you've been. He's more worthy of affection than Gus Bradley probably is. And you love Jackson for.

Ever, back when he was with the Raiders, you were a Hugh Jackson man. I like Hugh Jackson. I think he did. I think we all agree he worked wonders with the offense in Cincinnati. He deserves a head coaching job, and even if it's the hardest one on the planet. And look, they didn't go and they didn't grab another running back to come in and make a big splash and try to steal the job away. But Andy, they only had 14 drafts.

Picks. How could they use one on a running battle? Yeah, exactly. Well said, voice of public opinion. You've made your point. Look, Duke Johnson is a great PPR running back, and Isaiah Crowell's value is limited in PPR leagues. But, look, he's a good player. Do you know where he finished last year? Last year when Isaiah Crowell was on nobody's map. I do not know where he finished. Do you guys want to take a guess? It might be fun, because I think you probably have no idea. Let's see. Okay, Crowell, where did he finish last year?

I would have guessed he'd finish around 30. I would go mid-20s. I'm going to go 25. He was 29. He was 29. So he's outside of that top two. But, I mean, he was close. He was in. He's an RB3. That's a usable right now. He's an RB3. And I think it improves this year with a better offense, a commitment to him as that, you know, he's going to take the big back carries. Well, I will say this because I actually really like Crowell this year for where you're drafting him. He is the starting running back. Yeah. The clear.

first and second down running back on a team that, you know, he's being drafted behind many, many, many other backup running backs. Yeah. So, Mike, who is the player that you are ashamed to like for 2016? So it's a guy that I've been rising on. I was talking to you guys about it in the studio. And it's not that he's bad or anything. It's just there is, there's this weird perception about him and that he's not a useful fantasy player. And that's T.Y. Hilton.

And it seems strange. I understand it's strange for if people are hearing it. And you think, well, but Hilton's been great. He's been good. And that's why I'm rising on him. But it doesn't feel like he's been great. However, three straight years over 1,000 yards, he's averaging about 135 targets a year, even this year. I mean, the efficiency went way down. You can't blame him. Matt Hasselbeck.

was the quarterback generally the entire year, and when luck was in, he stunk. So it's, Hilton seems to be getting pushed to the back of this line of a tier when he's well in the conversation, at least should be. I think that's a pretty good take. You're right about his perception and the way he feels right now, because I don't end up wanting to draft him in mock drafts. I don't end up wanting to look at him like what he actually is and the kind of value he provides. Right now he's going behind.

Kelvin Benjamin. Ooh. Three straight years of a thousand yards. A rookie. And a big contract. Right. Yeah. Behind a rookie who's coming off an ACL injury and was the king of garbage time when he played. He was drafted as the number nine wide receiver off the board last year. It's just perception about what you think of the Colts offense and Andrew Luck. So he's definitely undervalued right now. All right. Let's get into the news. News and notes from around the league.

All right, Zach Zinner's younger brother, Jared Hayne has retired. Oh, wait, that's not the same thing. There's sad news down for our brothers and sisters down under. Well, not really. I think he gets to go, I think he's going back down under to play rugby. Well, but they wanted to see him succeed in the NFL. So Jared Hayne, 49ers running back, kind of multifaceted athlete. A lot of, there's some hype from somebody. I think somebody on this show said, oh, what will Chip Kelly do with him?

Probably Mike. No. Probably Mike. No. There were news blurbs coming out, people saying that they're excited about him. Well, he's retired. So not going to perform this year. Goodbye. Hugh Jackson said it's too early to name a starting quarterback, so did not give the full endorsement. Yeah, the full Yeha. It's not too early for Andy to name a starting quarterback. It isn't? No. Who's it going to be? Robert Griffin III. I believe it will be Griffin as well. It's unanimous. Yeah.

But McCown is there, and McCown played pretty well last year. Yeah. Doug Baldwin said the Seahawks will go back to the run game this season. Thoughts. I think it's interesting to hear the players say it, and in that same conversation he talked about, his numbers are going to go down, he believes. But when you look at the actual splits of passing attempts, if you're just talking volume, there's a very mid...

A very minuscule difference between the first half and the second half of the year, but for attempts for for Russell Wilson, he just became incredibly hyper-efficient. Like he hit a, he had a special saved up, and he hit the square button, and all he did was throw touchdowns. Do you think that that number might be misleading, though, because everything about how they played.

with your eyes and watching them. I mean, I don't think anybody's disagreeing with the fact that they became a pass-oriented team. They took more shots downfield. They passed around the goal line to a much higher degree than they did with Marchion Lynch involved. I think that's the key. Let me ask this. So is that misleading? Well, here's, I mean, the thing is, is I don't think we can take.

Doug Baldwin's opinion or insight, if you want to say insight, that they're going to be a more running team this year as any kind of canon. Because the question that I have is, are they going to be better at running the ball this year without Marshawn Lynch or worse running the ball this year?

I think that they're going to struggle more this year in their running game than they did last year, at least in the first half, be more like what you saw in the second half, which was still okay. They could still run the ball, but it puts them in situations where Russell Wilson has to make the plays that he is fully capable of making. I said this in the studio today to the chagrin of some of you, but I have a sneaking feeling that Russell Wilson is going to end the year as the number one quarterback.

I think everything you said is very possible and very true. You don't just replace Marshawn Lynch with another piece of some guy that you say, well, he's a lot like him. Well, you don't replace kind of a once-in-a-generation type of talent. That being said, you look at success for the team. They went to the Super Bowl. They performed at the level that they wanted to perform at when their team was oriented.