Fantasy Football 2017 - Zekepocalypse + Undrafted Gems, Pump the Brakes

What it seems like right now is it comes down to for Zeke, and Andy brought it up, but the temporary restraining order and the preliminary injunction, Mike Fisher, great insider from CBS on the Cowboys, has been talking about this for a long time, and he's really plugged in. If those two things are approved for Zeke, each one takes months usually, and it will more than likely be delayed until the end of the season. So there is a legitimate...

chance here that if those get, you know, approved, the suspension could still happen, but it would in that situation more than likely be in 2018. So Tom Brady style. Exactly, a la Tom Brady and Zeke could end up playing 16 this year. So it is definitely a mess. The way that I view it, if you are still drafting, I actually think it's really a good time to draft Zeke because, you know, look, worst case scenario, he's suspended.

In the middle of the season, you know, he goes from weeks two to week seven. And so what? You're drafting him. So what? Who cares? You're drafting him at a price. Worst case scenario is you have him for the first half of the season, and then the ruling comes in. It's not favorable. Yeah. Right. I guess that would be worst case scenario. But I think you're drafting him at that discount right now. And I'm starting to lean more towards the fact that he might not miss games this year.

I don't know if that's too bold, too, you know. I hesitate to go out and say that. I was saying this morning I'm probably doubling down. Like if I had to put, you know, my chips in one corner, there are more chips on the side that I think will play the majority of the season. But look, how much risk do you want? That's exactly what it is. How much risk are you willing to take on for your fantasy team? And at what?

Yeah, what draft costs. Because like Jason said, there are still people drafting. So this is, I guess we're talking to them. If you've already got him, just buckle up, make sure you have running backs on your bench. And if he's suspended weeks two through seven and he just plays week one, which is, is, you know, very, very likely as well. Then it just gets worse for Zeke, right? Because now the one game that he's in is against the New York Giants, which was his.

You know, his only two bad games last year. His second game was solid. He didn't score touchdown, but he had over 100 yards. All right. Let's talk about the other big news that broke this morning. The NFL has postponed officially the Bucks Dolphins game, which was scheduled to be played in Miami, Florida. They have postponed it until week 11 because both of these teams had a week 11 by. This means if your name's James Winston or Mike Evans, Doug Martin, to Quiz Rogers, Deshaun Jackson, Cameron Bray, Nick Folk.

Jay Cutler, Jay Ajay, Devante Parker, Jarvis Landry, Kenny Stills, Julius Thomas. Who put Nick Folk in this list? I'm just throwing those names out there because if you have them, they're on by. You'll know the name and you need to pay attention. They're on by. And that's how it's going to work. A lot of people are saying, well, what does this mean? How do the points happen? Matthew Berry confirmed at least for ESPN and I'm sure it's the same on the other platforms. Brad Evans confirmed for Yahoo as well. Sweet. So this is a week one by week.

Those players are not playing this week. They will play in week 11. It's just exchanging by weeks. That's all it is. But now you don't have them in your roster. And now they have to play 16 consecutive games, which is ridiculous. And for Miami, that includes a London trip this year. Yeah, it does. I mean, for Jay Ajai, who they've all offseasoned, this guy, we're going to give him the ball until he disintegrates. He's going to disintegrates. I mean, disintegration and increased. They have increased. I mean, that's really unfortunate, not just.

I mean, for fantasy, of course, but just for the dolphins and the bucks, I mean, for a Jai, 16 straight weeks, you get no break. It's not going to. That's rough. I don't think it would change anything for me. Whether you, you know, if you got a week four by, you get, okay, you get a break in a couple weeks, but then you still have a very long stretch. It does. It's unfortunate for them, but for fantasy purposes, I don't think it can affect much. I did see someone tweet out, though, that, uh,

Jake Cutler's only been there a month. He's already taking the first week off. Oh, come on. Hey, Florida. Obviously, thoughts and prayers. Yes, Florida. Stay safe, people. I mean, I remember growing up and Hurricane Andrew was one of the biggest hurricanes. They're talking about Irma as bigger than Hurricane Andrew. It's larger than the state of Ohio right now. And this is on the heels of the horrificness going on in Houston. Thoughts and prayers are definitely out there with you. Absolutely.

All right, let's talk a little bit about some depth chart news. Mike brought up Thomas Rawls. Jeremy Hill is listed as the starting running back in week one. What are the implications of that, Mike? It was inevitable, right? Yes, it's absolutely expected. Marvin Lewis would, he's not going to give his rookie the starting job week one. And that's the entire question for Joe Mixon is when?

When is this going to happen? Is it going to happen this year, him taking over, or will it not happen until next year when Jeremy Hill is off the team? Because Hill's in a contract year, they're not going to re-sign him. But the news has been all over the map. I mean, the rumors in the bushes, they're talking out both sides of the leaves. You just really wanted to stay inside of the analogy there. And he ended up sounding dumb. I think I crushed it. Yeah, you crushed it.

Yeah, I think Mixen will be the guy very soon. Okay, you're going very soon? That's the direction I lean. What's your take? Yeah, I expected him to be third on the depth chart. And I think what you're going to see is you're going to see Jeremy Hill get the ball first. And on Drive 1, I think you're going to see Joe Mixen out there involved. I expect him to have over 10 total touches in this game, which means he's startable to me because his talent will.

will supersede. He's not going to be, you know, a top 10 guy until he has the volume of touches, but he's going to be a flex player worthy option, regardless of where he's listed on the depth chart. All right. I forgot to mention Tyrod Taylor is completed a concussion protocol. He will start week one, and Sean McDermott says he expects Jordan Matthews to start week one as well. Whether he finishes week one is to be determined. Sure. Well, they're playing the Jets, so. He'll finish. Yeah, I mean.

The Jets are just, they just, they're going to take a seat, right? Both of those teams, like I could play both defenses in that game. They're just going to knee it out. It's not going to be good. The first ever tied game is zero zero after overtime. Cooper Cup is listed behind Robert Woods on the initial depth chart in Los Angeles. This is something that we've been warning people about all for the last month. Legerrett Blonde.

Eagles coach Doug Peterson came out, said the game plan and the situation will determine which of the running back. So Blunt or Smallwood or Sproles, look, you're not going to know how many carries is guaranteed to blunt. I've moved his carries down like three times in the ultimate draft kit over the last week just because I don't have confidence that this is a 200 plus carry running back, much less him even getting 200 carries and producing with them. It's a scary kind of running back situation. It starts to mirror.

the giants where you're kind of like, okay, who do I take and do I even want to take somebody? Yeah, I mean, Wendell Smallwood is a name where he's on a lot of waivers and he could end up becoming the starter just because he's better, shockingly, than LaGare Blunt. All right, we want to take a quick timeout and thank today's sponsor, Harry's. We love Harry's. Absolutely love Harry's. Look.

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Surprise her today. I'm still wondering how they make the flowers. They make them in the dirt, man. They make them in the dirt? Yeah, okay. I got you. Hey, look, I want to preview the Patriots game before we get into Pump the Break. Sounds good. Sounds great. Fantasy forecast. Welcome to the NFL. Week one, nearly upon us. I mean, it is upon us. We've got the Chiefs.

traveling to New England to, I guess they're attending a celebration. We're going to see the banner raised, and we're going to make some fantasy presumptions in this game. And week one, week one is tough. Week one is difficult when you're talking about Bill Belichick, not only in the backfield, but with the wide receiving core, with the Edelman injury, we're going to learn a lot. We know what Rob Grankowski is, but let's start on the New England side of the ball in this matchup.

You're at home. They're nine-point favorites. The over-under in this game is 48 and a half points. Nine points? They are nine-point favorites. Wow. I think I'll take the over. Really? Yeah, I really do. Bill Belichick, week one, give them time to prepare. You're saying that on the back of New England's offensive acumen as opposed to just this game being higher scoring? Yes.

Yes, I'm saying I would take, I guess it wasn't just the over. I'm saying I would take New England to cover. I got you. So let's talk about the backfield, Gillisley, Burkehead, White and Lewis spread across that backfield. I don't think we'll know even what situation those players will be on the field. The one with the most kind of.

guaranteed work to me is James White. Yeah. Just in the role, not necessarily the fantasy production. Mike, you have Mike Gillisley on your roster. I got Rex Burkhead in our League of Record roster. Are you starting Gillisly in week one? I am. I am starting Gillisly and do I feel great about it? Not really. Not really. But I still feel confident that...

the Patriots are going to put up points, and I feel confident that if they get into the five, the ball is going to go to Mike Gillisly, and they're going to try and just crush it up the middle. And so I'm still projecting him as the goal line back, so I feel at least somewhat safe with that. But I agree, Andy, that somehow, in some way, James White, after this entire offseason of the Burkehead and Gillisley, love because of Edelman's injury,

James White feels like the safest running back on the team at this point. Certainly if you're in a PPR, he will get a lot of passing work. I feel like what we might end up seeing this year in New England is which running back made the big play of that game. And it might be Burkhead out of the backfield for a 54-yard run or something one day. Then is Dionne Lewis. Then it's Gillisley. But Gillisley at least has the inside the five roll, hopefully.

It's a good role for the Patriots. Yeah, it is. Legerrett Blunt, anyone? All right. So let's talk about the other side of the ball at the running back position. Kareem Hunt? Yeah, baby. Locked and loaded? He's locked and loaded for me. It's not the best matchup. The Patriots were a solid run defense. I mean, they were just, they were, I believe number three last year. They were a great overall defense. And Belichick.