Fantasy Football 2017 - Fantasy Trade Troubles + AFC West Breakdown

clearly their next best wide receiver and i think that just will mean you've got to rely more on hopkins and i'm the hopkins i'm the anti hopkins guy here um i think he's one of if not the most overdraft drafted player so far up to this point but this does bump him up i think he's up to my like wide receiver 17 you don't even like anthony hopkins don't you say that

Sir Anthony Hopkins. Yeah, that's very true. Jalen Strong, Braxton Miller. Do we have any interest in these? I do think Jonathan Strong has an opportunity. I mean, there have been a little bit of buzz about him. And with this injury, he'll have an opportunity to prove that he's worthy of being a first or second round draft pick. He was, he flashed in the red zone at times. But yeah, opportunity there. I'll be really interested. It seems like.

things are trending towards Watson and Kaiser maybe starting the season as the starters on both of these franchises. So as a fantasy player, look, the unknown is more exciting than the known of Tom Savage and Cody Kessler. So I'm excited if those opportunities happen. I'm not going to read too much into the upside, but at least it exists. Whereas I don't feel like it exists with Tom Savage.

unfortunately. All right, big news this morning, and again, you might have more information by the time you hear this than we do. Ryan Tanoho exited Thursday's practice today. Non-contact left leg injury, the left knee. The team is currently courting chapter. They're fearing the worst. This is the knee, just so people understand, this is the same knee that he injured last year.

He had a partial tear of the ACL, and he chose instead of having surgery to have stem cell treatment and to basically rehab the injury. Now, I was on Twitter this morning, and it was absolutely incredible because five minutes before he was hurt, Beat Riders or the Miami Twitter, I don't remember who it was, said. Were they saying something very positive? They said Ryan Tannehill just scrambled for X amount of yards. Let's stop talking about this knee. That was the exact quote. Like, don't worry about the knee.

One of the medical doctors on Twitter said, hey, the partially torn ACL is not a problem until it's a problem. Like that was the reaction to that tweet. And five minutes later. It's a problem. It's a problem. And we don't know the implications. Jason, you were doing some research into Matt Moore and how Tanna Hill Matt Moore affected that offense. What?

What did you find if Ryan Tanna will miss his time? There were big shifts, and granted, it was only three games last year, but we saw what does Ryan Gase and what would the game plan shift to? Adam Gase. What would the game plan shift to with Ryan Tanna Hill gone? And what we saw last year was a major uptick in carries for J. Ajai. Now, his total production was actually less per game fantasy-wise because the team didn't score as many touchdowns in those games. However,

You're talking about a guy that went from 16 carries a game to 22 carries a game in the three games with Matt Moore, and he averaged over 100 yards a game during those games. What I was also fascinated with was how was Matt Moore targeting receivers? Devante Parker was about the same, but with the difference between Jarvis Landry and Kenny Stills was pretty drastic. Jarvis Landry was on pace for 97 receptions, and his pace with...

Matt Moore would have been 80. That's a significant difference. That seems corollary to the run dependency. Right, exactly. Matt Moore also, if I'm remembering correctly, Matt Moore goes deep. Yes, he does. And Kenny Stills, in those last three games, he caught a touchdown in every single one of those games. Three of his nine touchdowns came with Matt Moore. So that running game to bring the defense up and drop that bomb over the top, Kenny Stills, you know, I...

It changes the landscape for Miami. It really does. Because I think... I think Matt Moore's a competent quarterback, though. No, he is. He is a competent quarterback, but I think that there was something with Tannahill and his evolution that at least offer... I think it offered more upside with Adam Gaze and Tannahill growing than Matt Moore does. Like Matt Moore, I believe he can have some solid games. I think this team can still be a pretty good team. And you wonder, do they...

Let's say you find out Tanna Hill isn't playing. Matt Moore has more time in camp preseason, the offense. Instead of coming in at the back of the season where it's like, okay, let's protect him. Let's hand the ball off. Maybe it doesn't swing that far. Yeah. And so far right now, I'll just call him Mr. Armando because I don't know how to pronounce his last name, but from the Miami Herald, great beat writer. You know, he said they're hoping for the best, but sources are saying after the examination, the team is fearing the worst. But we don't know.

Sam Bradford. That happened to him, right? Where, like, he basically got hurt and then right away the next preseason got hurt again. Yeah, it's unfortunate. Alshan Jeffrey, shoulder injury, missed his third practice in a row on Thursday. Okay. Yeah, I'm not going to over read into it. This is an odd start to the offseason, though, because all of the injury-prone players have at least shown some of their injury-prone nature with, you know, Jordan Reed and Eric Ebron.

and Alshon Jeffrey and John Brown. These are all players that... Keep Keenan Allen off the field this week. Just let him go. Let them take a vacation. We're going to talk a lot about Keenan Allen on today's show. A couple of updates for you. Steelers' third round running back. James Connor, AC joint sprain in the shoulders, so not a massively severe injury. We are looking at that Lev Bell handcuff situation with Connor and Toussaint. And then...

I threw this one in there because I wanted to illustrate what I said on the show the other day. Baltimore's son just reported Buck Allen is, quote, having a very nice camp for those worried about additions to the backfield. This is what I was saying the other day. I don't think there'll be additions to the Baltimore backfield because I believe Buck Allen will fill a depth role on that roster and with West, Woodhead, and...

Talley of Farrow at fullback but able to take short yardage carries. I think this team has what they need. It gets cold in Baltimore and someone needs to keep Terrence West seat nice and warm from when he's on the field. Yeah. Buck Allen can do that. Yeah. Buck Allen having a nice camp being news shows how bad it's been in Baltimore. This is the best they can come up with right now. All right. You guys want to get divisional? Yes.

Let's get divisional. All right, we're going to start out with the Kansas City Chiefs 12 and 4 last year. I have an article that I am finishing up with 30 bold or a bold prediction per team. But are you really finishing it? I am. No, I'm adding to it. Look, there's a time to release these things, Mike, and I have the entire AFC done, and I'm working on the NFC, and I want it all as one big package. We're all very excited for this article. I've been waiting for months. Stop.

You think I want to release that gym of an article back in June? Come on. Oh. It's timing. Savvy. Yeah. This is like a Christmas Day movie release. You hold on to it for a little while. Let's get that Oscar buzz. You got to wait until it's Oscar season. I don't know about that. I'm angling here for... Do we qualify for the Emmys? Yeah. Come on. Emmy. If you're out there, Emmy.

Are you talking to a person? Yeah, Emmy. That's he, he gives, he or she gives the awards out. They're the Emmys. Come on, Mike. Mike doesn't know this stuff. All right. The Chiefs are 12, we're 12 and 4 last year. My bold prediction for the Chiefs, I'm sticking with it, even though I wrote it, you know, like six months ago, like you said. Look, I don't like the way the schedule looks for the Kansas City Chiefs. I think their opportunity to get off to a strong start. They're a well-coached team.

I'm not going to say it can't happen, but my prediction is that Alex Smith and Spencer Ware are not starters at their position at some point during this year. And so the drafting of Pat Mahomes, the high-level investment, the drafting of Kareem Hunt, what his ceiling is talent-wise, and the fact that Kansas City, I mean, they start the year, we're just going to kick it off. You're going to go to New England and you're going to play. Okay, so just go play in New England.

Then you got Philly and Los Angeles in Washington. You're in Los Angeles. Chargers down ramps. But then Houston, Pittsburgh, Oakland, Denver. I just don't like the first eight games. Okay. I think their opportunity to get off to a poor start is there. I think the investment by the front office in these younger pieces because of the cap situation. I just want to warn people that, look, I traded Alex Smith in a dynasty league to get Joe Flacco. Okay.

All things being equal, I'd rather start Alex Smith week to week than Joe Flacco. Unless Alex Smith isn't starting. And that was my concern. I needed insurance for Andrew Luck. I went and got a guy that I know is going to start the whole year for their team. That's fair. I have some concern there. So you'll be sad when Alex Smith is starting for the Cardinals next year. Well, maybe not. Just saying better than Drew Stanton. So Alex Smith, the last two years, this is why we talk about Alex Smith is the perfect streaming waiver wire quarterback.

The last two years, he has been a quarterback won 42% of the time. That's pretty good. He gives you duds. That's crazy. But in the right matchups. And just for some context, Matt Stafford, 47%, Carson Palmer, 45%. So Alex Smith is always there on the waiver wire fee to grab when you see him in a good positive matchup. In which, I mean, some of those are, those games you listed are positive matchups. He's not a guy you have to draft.

But he's always there. And he can give you some points. Yeah, I think the big stories with the chiefs, you've got two. You have the Kareemhunt Spencer Ware battle and you have Tyree Kill. What can he become with Jeremy Macklin gone? So with those, I'll start with the running backs. I do not see a world in which Spencer Ware is not involved. They have a good running back that knows the system.

that has been efficient for them. And this is a team that has always, and I believe will always, you know, Andy Reed coached teams will always be productive for running backs in fantasy football. I think that Kareem Hunt will be involved, and I think he'll be involved from day one. You don't see Spencer Ware as a workhorse.

You don't see him as the guy you want to hand the keys to the kingdom to. That wasn't their intent. Jamal Charles got injured. Jamal Charles left. They trade up for Cream Hunt. They need him to be involved. They want him to be involved. But I think it will be a 50-50 timeshare. And both of these guys are going to have value. I think even for where each of them are going in the draft, they're a worthy pick right now. Spencer Ware had the 18th or tied for the 18th most carries in the league.

Also the receiving game. He had the sixth most receiving yards for a running back. He had 15 fewer receiving yards than Devante Freeman, who is heralded as one of the best past catching running backs in the league. And here's what happened to Spencer Ware, because I know everyone feels disappointed in his production last year for fantasy. But we're going to play a little game, not really a game, but just these guys had more rushing touchdowns.

Then Spencer, where? John Coon, Jeremy Langford, Sean Drone, Andy Dalton. I mean, this was the problem despite him getting carries inside of the 10. He had 18 carries inside of the 10. I mean, that speaks to there should be some regressing to the mean. Yeah, returning to.

Yeah, I don't know how we want to phrase that. You have the variable of Hunt now in the mix, though, because do you expect 18 carries inside the 10 for Spencerware again? Yes. I expect him to be the primary runner. If you look at how they used him the year before, when he only got 72 carries, he got six touchdowns in those 72 total carries. He can get the job done. I think Hunt will help him there. And I do expect him to have maybe not 18 carries.

But I expect him to be the main goal. Well, let me put you in the spot here. Then hunt in the fourth because that's where they're going. I'll take hunt. I'll take where. I think both are good values. I would take. See, I would lean the where side. I think any of these battle situations, there's high upside, high risk. Same situation with Drafted Carlos Hyde in case something goes sideways there. Sure. Problem. Same situation with P. Ryan and Rob Kelly. Same situation here with these two backs. And.

It could pay off in space because if you draft Spencer Ware and you get him late, and he is a bell cow because, hey, they're going to use Kareem Hunt more in the passing game. They're going to give, you know, positive regression to, you know, the touchdowns for Spencer Ware. It's interesting. It's an interesting piece of the puzzle. This is not a very good offensive team statistically last year, despite being 12 and 4, you know, 19th in the league and passing yardage, 15th and rushing yardage. So from a fantasy perspective,