Bounce Back Players + Mahomes Extension, Hang Gliding - Fantasy Football Podcast

The running back position, everybody has a huge chance of getting hurt, and I think that James Connor can easily bounce back and return massive value of being the 20th running back selected. Yeah, I mean, Connor is kind of like my age of green story of last year. Was I validated? I mean, I was off of Connor all offseason. Was I validated? I mean, people who didn't, who drafted James Connor benefited, or didn't draft and benefited from that advice, but I don't feel like I got to see.

what I should have been able to see with James Connor or juju last year, where on the field, Connor was by far in a way on film the best running back on the team. Yeah. But the team had massive struggles and he had massive injuries. And you had the general manager come out and give a different quote than his head coach talking about the disappointment in Connor and the health last year. So there are question marks. And I don't know how to think about him. I'm just kind of talking about him.

In general. And on the last thing on top of that, Pro Football Focus just released their offensive line rankings heading into the season. They still have the Steelers. They have the Steelers as a top 10 line. Top 10 line, higher scoring team featured running back. It's the same argument as last year, but now instead of the first round, you're getting him as the 20th running back. James Connor could easily be a top 12 running back. The whole question.

is can he stay healthy? He has not proven that he can take that workload yet. And that I think is the issue. You know, he missed with a quadricep contusion. He missed with the ankle. He's missed for a concussion. He has a big injury history. Like you said, running backs get injured more often. That makes sense. But if he is going to be a feature back, can he actually withstand that? Can he?

play 16, and that's my big worry with James Connor. I don't think you need 16 from him. His breakout year was 13 games. If you're getting 13 games from a guy who's very, very often giving you top 12 production, I think that you have, you're very happy with that draft pick. Counterpoint to that, though, is if James kind of can't stay healthy, the team's not going to give him the chance to make you happy in 13 games.

Those 13 games won't be the kind of workload you want because James Connor will have proven that he can't hold up to the workload. Like what we saw at the end of the year when he kept coming back, but they were monitoring his workload because of the injuries. So I don't disagree with the bounceback pick. I'm curious when you compare him to a guy like Mark Ingram. Who would you rather have on this team? Ingram's probably not going to get banged up, but he might not have the workload, but Connor might not get the workload because they don't want to get him banged up.

Right. I have Mark Ingram. Let's see. They're back to back to me, which is why I brought it up. I have Connor one spot ahead of Ingram. I have Connor one spot ahead of Ingram as well. I have Connor two spots ahead of Ingram. So we all would take the shot on the bounce back. He's riskier. He's riskier. But at this price, I mean, what Mike is saying is he still has the same exact everything that made him a back of the first round pick last year. Yeah, he was a high pick.

But he doesn't cost a first rounder this year. You can get him much later in your drafts. All right. My second bounce back is another wide receiver with a very similar narrative to the AJ Green argument. So we don't have to linger too long because I think you guys believe in him. But it's T.Y. Hilton. T.Y. Hilton is being drafted in a very similar place to where A.J. Green is. He's the wide receiver 27 off the board right now. That's wild to me. You know, you kind of have that.

I don't know, just some sort of fatigue with T.Y. Hilton in the fantasy community because he's being drafted as wide receiver 27, but he's literally never finished at that spot. I mean, his entire career when he's played 24, 19, 11, 21, 5, 25, 14. Last year, he missed six games and obviously finished outside of that range. But when he's played 14, 15, 16 games, he always finishes ahead of where his draft capital.

is right now. He's the number one on the team. Same argument I made for A.J. Green being drafted super late. Last year, Philip Rivers, who's his new quarterback. Fourth most deep balls in football, something that I think T.Y. Hilton excels at receiving, and he's just 30 years old. So it's similar to your Adam Thielen story. You know, Hilton hasn't shown anything on the field to show that he's not the same talented, you know, capable wide receiver. He's just not being drafted.

anywhere near where I think he belongs. Yeah, yeah, I think we've talked about T.Y. Hilton a lot this offseason. The fact that he has a better quarterback and perceived health, I mean, he should be, he should definitely be better than the wide receiver 27. My bounceback player, this is a guy that I left the season, pretty confident. I would not believe in a bounceback.

Because I questioned, I told you I picked two guys that I'm wondering, are they D-U-N done? Adam Thiel and I don't think he's done. And David Johnson. Oh my good, David Johnson. Oh, my. I questioned whether he was done. We are Cardinals fans. We watch, you know, we'll watch every NFL game. But we're watching those ones with a little bit more.

desire for that team to succeed. And so we're like, get him off the field. You know, everybody else was faster to the edge than David Johnson. He looked a little bit slow. It looked like we were playing them in slow motion, but it was actually full speed. And so, you know, I thought I would go into the offseason thinking he's DU in. And the reality is I went back and I actually watched the last two healthy games of David Johnson last season because we've all seen the one clip of him.

trudging along. The Tampa Bay clip. You know, barely. Yeah, he just looked like he was carrying a tuba while he was running. There it is. And so, but I went back and I watched and he didn't look bad. He did not look bad before that injury through the, you know, there were a couple of scheme things where he didn't seem to fit the system. But.

Does David Johnson right now have at least what Carlos Hyde has? Yes. I think that right now David Johnson has at least what Carlos Hyde had, and he was a thousand-yard rusher for this team behind this offensive line. I think the scheme matches what David Johnson is good at doing, and they have one of the most vacated...

targets in the league because DeAndre Hopkins is gone. Or highest number of vacated targets. Yes. Highest number of vacated targets. They're among the tops. And we have a lot of proof that when a team loses a lot of targets, they start throwing the ball to the running back more. Now, that's important for a team that hasn't usually thrown a ton to the running back. But they also didn't have great receiving options until Duke Johnson. And they started throwing him the ball. I have David Johnson down for 55 targets.

And I think if you combine, Jason's playing the hits right now. I believe that if David Johnson rushes for a thousand yards, which if Carlos Hyde can do it, so can David Johnson. Bill O'Brien is going to want to prove that he was correct in making the trade. David Johnson is going to be a full bell cow in this system, and I think he's going to get targets. He was really valuable for fantasy last season, you know, say whatever you want about how he looked.

and he was, you know, trudging along. But before he got injured, he was pretty great for fantasy almost every single week. Yeah, I mean, he was all in the past catching. And I don't love the argument that Bill O'Brien wants to prove himself correct because he made the trade for Duke Johnson, too. So he can prove himself that Duke Johnson was the right guy if David can't run. So it comes down to that first argument to me where you're looking at the film, you think he's got at least what Carlos Haid has, if not better.

If that plays out, then I think we all look at him as a volume guarantee. He's a volume guarantee. Of all the players in football, that's hard to find. But what if he's still got it? He's a volume guarantee, and what if he's actually still got it? He was the running back six before he got injured in week seven. He was a running back six through last season. If he still had it, Jason, would you have been doing this dance? Nope. And this was a good dance because the card was got the Andre Hopkins. Yes, sir.

I think we all were, if David still got it, I think he can have it in a volume capacity, but he certainly isn't the guy from two, three years ago. Sure. I have him right now is my running back 14. So he's outside the top 12, but he is. That feels a little spicy. He is in that upper tier because of the volume I expect him to get. Yeah. Where do you have? Mike, are you in on that? 16. I have DJ at 16. Where do I have him? Yeah. Half point. Uh, 50.

So we're all together. We're all together. You know, it's funny because I have your next bounce back candidate right behind him. Oh, all right. Well, I have, then you'll. Well, just look at us. Sorry, hold on one sec. Let's look at the stat line real quick. All right. Because I want to see where you have him projected. I have David Johnson for 970 yards, 37 receptions, 9 total touchdowns. And that's what puts him at 15. I have got him. Just over 1,000 rushing yards. Funny enough, I also have met 37 receptions.

Okay. Got him at 41 receptions, 1,060 yards, and 8 total touchdowns. It's going to be interesting because Duke Johnson, as always, you know, right around 5 a carry, no matter what team he's on whenever he's playing, DJ down at 3.7 last year, but obviously DJ is the guy. All right. Well, I will jump in with my bounceback player. It is another running back. And I honestly, my rank between where his ADP is right now, that differential is not

that high but when you're in these higher rounds these higher draft capital picks it makes a difference and i have levy on bell right now oh man that ringing in your ears no what what that was so happy that that drop is still in the board uh i have lev just outside of of my running back ones

I think that he can bounce back in a pretty decent way. What's interesting about Levi-on-Bout is he was still the RB17 last year. So he finished as the running back in 15 games, being drafted as the running back 18. His biggest competition is Frank Gore? Like, I mean, I don't really get why Levi-on-Bel would be off the field besides a black hole could.

suck him away, of course. That thing, you never know what a black hole is going to do these days. But the Jets were just so bad last year, 17.2 points per game, 31st in the league. I think Sam Donald is better than that. He had mono. Mono just takes, it really takes it away from you. At what point was Sam Donald recovered? I don't know if he was ever recovered. Like, can you recover?

from mono and go into an NFL season. That seems like something that I wouldn't guess you could. We don't really have a lot of data though on players getting mono. Do you guys have anybody else who you know? No, most of the players are over the age of 17. So we don't have a lot of data on mono in the NFL. But Levi-on-Bel, he's, we knew it was going to be tough sledding for Levi-on-Bel moving from the Steelers to,

The Jets, and I didn't like his draft price last year. Now he's at a point where I am perfectly happy to take him. If the Jets improve at all as a team, Levy on Bell will feel the impact of that. But Mike? Yes, voice of public opinion. What about Frank Gore, the Infinity Stone? Yeah, no, I know he's there. I know that Frank Gore is there.

And Adam Gaze did decide that he would play Frank Gore like over Kenyon Drake at one point. When you say Adam Gaze's name, just let me put this out there. The hair on my arm stands up. It is, it's a little terrifying. Is there any team that like the Jets are, the one thing that stands out to me is this could all explode. The Darnold plus Gaze plus Lev Bell situation. Look, and if it is terrifying, if it explodes.

It is what it was last year, which was bad. And he was the running back 17 and 15 games. They spent a lot of the offseason trying to upgrade their offensive line, a first round pick. They grabbed a center in free agency who was a top 10 graded out center from pro football focus last year. They have tried. I can't say for sure if it's going to be upgraded. But again, this is if everything is status quo for Lev Bell,

You got a guy who's going to return his ADP. In regards to the vacated targets, it's Jameson Crowder, who's a pretty good wide receiver. Then you have the unknown of Denzel Mims. We like him, but he's still a rookie. And then Breschard Perryman, who has like, what, six good games to his NFL career? I mean, I think Levi-on-Bel has the same chance to have huge volume again. And things just went so terrible.