Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Wide Receiver Studs, Duds, Values, News and Mailbag

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Visit snhu.edu slash footballers. 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. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. It is Thursday, April 2nd, and we are back again. No more able fools jokes.

I'm glad we skipped that day because that would have just been painful. April Fool's has been banned in my house. I would have made nonstop bad jokes. I can't tell you how much I hate April Fool's. I love April Fool. I despise it. I hate April Fool's even more since Facebook existed. Because yesterday I was with my brother and sister, and now they'll probably be mad at me. But she said that she played a joke that they got in a car accident and were in the hospital. That's not funny.

I know. How is it funny to trust is this such a fragile thing that you spend a lifetime creating with one person, right? And then so I've created this trust with you that you believe what comes out of my mouth. So why would you not believe what I tell you? Because you get a day.

It's April Fool's Day. Because you get a day to break trust and get away with it. We talked about, welcome to the show, by the way. This is the fantasy footballers. Yeah, we usually talk fantasy advice, but April Fool's is ridiculous. Yeah, if you haven't seen the Brandon Oliver take from last week tonight, watch it. It's fantastic. Brandon Oliver? That's his name, right? That's the name of the running back for the...

San Diego Chargers. I think you mean John Oliver. John Oliver. Hey, we're a fantasy show. So at least I got it wrong. Yeah, I'm here. Andy Holloway, Mike, the hitman, breaking down April Fool's Day, the fantasy hitman. Yeah, it's the worst. And Jason Moore, say hello. Hello. Yeah, we talked about this yesterday. Anything that is over the line like that is crazy. Although I did see a really funny Katie Couric on the late, late show, pretended to fall down the stairs. They had a stunt double come in.

Oh, like on an entrance? Yeah, on an entrance. They have these big stairs. They walk down. And she walks out and she just tumbles and he comes running over and he was absolutely terrified and got him pretty good. There was a Seahawk player. I'm trying to remember. Okay, so it was. It was Bruce Irvin. Do you guys hear about this one? No. Here's how hilarious Bruce Irvin is. About 5.30 in the morning, he tweets out, before it breaks publicly, I just want to apologize to my family.

My team. Oh, come on. Basically implying that he got arrested for a DUI. Oh, my God. And then a couple hours later, oh, did you guys believe that? Like, what? How was that funny? Did you see the one with Greg Jennings? Where he tweeted that he had a new team? Yeah. And then no one really cared. Yeah. And the joke's on you, Greg Jennings. And then he's like, no, I don't.

Help me. We know you don't have a team. And Aaron Hernandez was all like, I didn't kill that guy. April pools. Moving along. Yeah, yeah. We're going to talk some news and notes today. Believe it or not, there was quite a bit of, there was some news between Tuesday's show and today. Today we're going to talk some wide receivers. We're going to bring you our consensus rankings next week. We just got done talking running backs, but today we're going to talk some studs, some duds, and some values based on where guys are going right now.

We're also going to hit the mailbag. If you enjoy the show, if you like what we're doing here and you want to support us, go ahead and go on to iTunes, click that subscribe button and drop us a review. We really appreciate it. You can also follow us on Twitter at the FFFballers or visit us on the web at the Fantasyfootballers.com. In between shows, we actually did, we did come to an agreement on a waterbed. Did we not, Mike? Yes, we did. Let's discuss that and formalize it here because...

In front of the world. In front of the world so that they know how wrong you will be. This is the second bet you've made with me now. No, no, no, no. You're blanketing me. The first bet is between youself. Youself? Youself. Yousef. Yeah, me. And Jason. Okay, so Jason and I did the Sammy Watkins versus Mike Evans. Correct. I've got Mike Evans. Okay. And so now you're piling on to Sammy Watkins with this horrendous bet. Sure. Go ahead and share the bet. The bet.

is a straight-up fantasy production. Jordan Matthews versus Sammy Watkins. Waterbed. Put it on the board. Put it on the big water bet board. We are, uh, I'm happy to take all Sammy Watkins related bets, apparently, which just makes me artificially seem too high on him, which I'm not. But yeah, let's do that. I'll take Watkins versus Matthews all day long. Anything else going on? Just some news. Yeah? Yeah.

News and notes from around the league. Yeah. The exodus of running backs from the Atlanta Falcons continues with Jaquiz Rogers. Jaquiz. Is that how you say it? Jaquiz? I believe. Yeah. Signing with the Bears. Do we care? Nope. It just further cements to me a fall for Matt Forte. But, I mean, you've got to, you know, you're saying forecasting his numbers.

Yeah. You have a lot of thoughts on this. Well, I just think Matt Forte last year was in Tresman's offense and caught, you know, 700 catches. He's going to drop a lot on his yards there and, you know, going and getting a pass catching back is just further indication of that. I like, yeah. Now I see your logic and then that's decently sound. Yes. Yeah, he was only 3.8 to carry last year, Matt Forte.

Yeah. And made up for it with 100 catches. Yeah. So 105 was it somewhere around there? 100, 105. Regardless, it was in the triple digits, and we don't expect that to continue. Nate Washington, old reliable Nate Washington. Nasty Nate. Yeah, signs with the Houston Texans. That wide receiver core is changing. It's a changing. Yeah. So we saw Cecil Short sign with them earlier this offseason, Nate Washington. Any thoughts on him? I'm just thinking what the depth started is. So you got Hopkins one.

Put Washington on the outside and shorts in the slot. Do you think? Yeah, probably. Shorts in the slot in Houston going where he's going, because shorts is going to go at the end of the draft. Don't sleep on Cecil Shorts if he's getting to play the slot. Yeah, Nate Washington sounds like a guy. I like him as an actual player in the NFL. He's pretty reliable. He's a good real-life wide receiver.

But it sounds to me like he's the kind of guy in fantasy that I'd have to get lucky to have picked the two or three weeks that he has. Yeah, he'll be just some decent relevance. Filling. Yeah. Matt Schaub, everybody's favorite quarterback signs with the Baltimore Ravens. And he's perfect to start in leagues that start five quarterbacks. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. So look out for him. Minimum. Minimum. Minimum. Yeah, nothing to see there. Stephen Ridley to visit the Jets. We talked about him on Tuesday.

Visiting Miami? I hope that does not happen to the Jets. To the Jets? Yeah. Why? Because I like Stephen Ridley, and I just don't think that is an optimal place for him to have fantasy production. Yeah, he's basically the same exact player as Chris Ivory, is he not? Yes. Any thoughts on that, Jason? None. Okay. Broncos. The Broncos acquired Center Gino Gradkowski from the Ravens.

And Mike, you had some thoughts on him, basically revolving around C.J. Anderson and Peyton Manning. Yeah, I had read that. And so, 2013, Gradkowski started all 16 games for the Ravens. And pro football focus graded him as the worst center in the league. The next year, he played 10 snaps before losing his job. And as of now, he is the favorite to be the starting center for the Broncos.

What's happening? How is that possible? This is just what I read off of Roder World. Well, he was with around Kubiak in Baltimore, so they're saying. Who's that? Oh, I'm sorry, the Coobes. Yes. He was with the Coobes. He was with the Coobes in Baltimore. And it must have been a real gentleman to be around on the practice field. Just a treat. But do not underestimate the impact of a center on a running game.

Or for Peyton Manning, for that matter. Is that another Alex Mack related? Alex Mack, Max Unger. Yeah. If you look at teams who can run, it's because they have a strong center. Yeah. And last bit of news here is not really too much news, but still don't know anything about Dennis Pitt. I just kind of feel bad for him. So I just wanted to mention him. Because in the, you know. Our condolences. Our condolences to Dennis Pitt.

The Ravens are, quote, praying that he returns in 2015. We know that they're looking at Rob Housler as Cincinnati as well. Was that a quote from them? Yes. Wow. I thought that was a joke quote we put in our show notes. Like, they must be praying for him to return because they're talking to Rob Housler. No, I think it's more one of those out of the hands of the team in the hands of the medical professionals. We're just going to pray that he gets cleared somehow. Rob Housler on the Ravens with Tressman. Really?

Yeah. Rob, what does he have to still, in any offense, will Rob Hauser actually have to catch the ball though? Yeah, that's the problem. He actually have to put his mitts around it and then secure it and then run. Yes, but he, but he's big and has speed. With his hands. Yeah, I mean, the potential, I guess I've burnt out on the potential of Rob Hausler, but we will see. You're probably right. Any other news? Any other headlines you guys want to discuss before we get into our wide receiver talk today? No, I think we're good.

Okay, so today, like I said, we're going to talk wide receivers. We're going to look at some guys that we're fans of. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So we're going to look at, what do you want to look at first here? You want to take a look at the studs? Yeah, let's start. So when we say studs, we're talking about guys who are being drafted in the upper echelon, who we believe will finish there and are going to help you win a championship. Hopefully finish above there. So let's do it. Stud muffins.

Oh, I was expecting much more of a striper scream from you on that one. You got to get into it, man. You can't come out with your pants down. I don't even know what that means. I mean, you got to escalate. You got to... You're saying you're building up. Yes. I'm crescendoing. You're just warming up the vocal cord. Red, leather, yellow leather. That's right. All right, so who wants to take... Who wants to share their stud first?

I kind of wanted to get on your case here, both of you, because your guys were so high.

on the regular ADP list anyway. Yeah, well, I went with, we can talk about Julio, my man, Julio Jones. We've talked about him. Never heard of him. A couple times on this show before. I chose him as the stud, because, you know, normally here for the wide receiver show, we're going through our top guys anyways. We're talking about the top guys, talking about why we've ranked them at the top. And so here's a guy that I believe has every...

every bit of the chance that any other receiver has to finish the year number one. And he's not being drafted number one. So this is my stud. This is a guy I really hope gets on my team. Is Julio! Julio! Here are some... Thank you. Here are some reasons to love Julio Jones. Other than he's a beast, he's just a fantastic wide receiver, has been since he's been in the league.

26 years old right now. He is still growing into his man body. My man body's growing horizontally.