Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - The TRUTH About Fantasy RB's in 2016, Part 2

Yeah, he's going to be open to taking a regular cut. Yeah. I don't know if he's open to it. I mean, they're just going to. Oh, Andy just looked up saying, you know what Andy's eyes just said? I don't think he's going to, I don't think he's a guarantee he's cut. I mean, he's like $7.5 million. I don't think that he's necessarily going to be cut. I agree. Why would you cut? I mean, that's a pretty good. That's all right. But I think there's a good chance that he gets cut. But Andy's eyes looked up and said, the Cardinals are calling cars. I don't know.

Carson is a step up from Pittsburgh. If John Brown's health isn't going to be there. We already lost Michael Floyd. I'll take him. It's not just Brown. I mean, it's Geron Brown as well. You ready? Are you ready for Brandon Marshall in New England? Are you ready for that? Everyone's going to New England. All right, Spencer Ware. Spencer Ware, number 16, half point ranking, drafted.

Very late, obviously. We all thought Jamal Charles... Yeah, we all thought Jamal Charles would be able to get back on the field and perform based on how he had recovered from previous injury. Did not come to fruition for Jamal Charles. Spencer Ware, to be honest, thought it would be a better season for Spencer Ware. With the amount of work he got, 214 carries 922 yards, only three touchdowns, really did not impress me.

as the season wore on, and it made you wonder if Spencer Ware wore down. That's what I kind of took away from it. Burned bright early didn't seem to be somebody that could take advantage of bad matchups, or in his case, good matchups. Right. That's how he can't. Is that the feeling you guys have? I mean, what if he is the bell cow in Kansas City next year? Still saw him, he acquiesced a lot of work to Char West.

What is Spencer Ware? Man, he is also very difficult, especially when you throw in the variable of Jamal Charles. But let's say Jamal Charles is gone. I think Spencer Ware is still a fine running back too. I mean, he had, the narrative to me is that he wore down. That's what I feel like happened too. He wore down. But if you look at his actual performances, I mean, he had some pretty strong games here at the end. He had.

A couple of games this year, you know, where you get, he had these games where you get 20 carries and still end up with like eight fantasy points. Only scored three times. Yeah, the touchdowns were a disaster. That's an anomaly to me. If you're the Belkow in Kansas City receiving three total rushing touchdowns, I think that would return to a higher number. Right. Well, let's say, and if you gave him, you know, just eight, I think eight is not a crazy number.

If he had scored five more touchdowns, I haven't done the math, but he probably ends up as a running back one. You're speaking on the ground, right? Because he also, I believe, caught two touchdowns. I'm speaking rushing only. Okay. Yeah. He was about the same against top and bottom half defenses. He only had one top five performance, and he did not really bust for you. He had nine top 25 games. I think he's all right. I don't think Spencer Ware is a Carlos Hyde level talent.

You know, you've got a system here that's always produced a good running back, even going back to Philadelphia. And granted, those are more talented guys, right? I mean, Shady and Jamal Charles are extremely talented. But I would expect Spencer where to be able to do more with what he's been given. And if Jamal Charles can't get back. We need to talk about Jamal Charles. Yeah. That's the story here. We need to talk about him because he is, he's only 30 years old. He'll be 30. Only that's pretty old for a running back. We just talked about Frank Gore.

Frank Gore is an anomaly. He can't be the gold standard. What I mean is he did not play. He's had a couple of full missed seasons. He was also playing behind people in the early part of his career. And I don't think that I think Jamal Charles can come back. Yeah, I think he can come back. But can he come back to being Jamal Charles? Answer the question. I don't know. I don't know. This is more of rhetorical. I'm skeptical.

I think it. He basically hasn't played for two years. Right. So that's the problem. But if he's back in Kansas City, it's going to impact where in West. And everybody may suffer from that. So I'm curious where Jamal Charles will go. I'm curious to see if they draft a running back or sign. You know, that will be indicative to me of what they think of Jamal Charles going forward. Jamal Charles, I'm just to throw it out there. Like we said, 30 years old basically has not played for the last two years.

He is owed $7 million. Yeah. They could move on. That is a hefty running back price. And they can cut him with no dead cap. Yeah. So he... Here was the thing about Spencer Ware that disappointed me. He rushed for 10 or more yards, right? On 2% of his carries is what I'm reading. Yeah. So he just did not have as many big plays. Let's move on. Oh, to the real show.

All right. Where are we? Oh, goodness. Number 17 drafted the winner of the poopiest pants award footy, which that thing's probably still in the mail. Still in the mail. Todd Gurley, Todd Gurley drafted at number three. And he came in as the 17th best running back. And here is a beautiful stat nugget.

from our 25 stat article, which you can find out the fantasy footballers.com. Todd Gurley had the highest percentage of any team's total red zone targets, 78 points. Yes, 78.7% of the L.A. Rams red zone carries went to Todd Gurley, and he still finishes the 17th best running back. I mean, you can't ask for more than being the...

highest used red zone weapon in the league. Caught 43 passes. How many touchdowns? How many? Touchstones are they? Oh, zero. Yeah, zero. That's a zero. But to his credit, I mean, that 58 targets to Todd Gurley, that's what we want to see. I had great concerns for Todd Gurley in his workload in that portion of the game, since they didn't really use them like that as rookie year. They didn't use them like that the first couple weeks.

with Jeff Fisher's insistence on Benny Cunningham being in on third down. But that did, it did turn around. So it's not, I'm not completely bailing on Todd Gurney. What is he under Sean McVeigh? Oh, man. I mean, similar. Like, do you expect that kind of a workload? I would. I don't know what else are you going to do. What are the Rams going to do? You're going to lose.

you're going to lose Kenny Britt, most likely. You have Jared Goff still not really showing anything. Your greatest weapon then is Tavon Austin, which, as in your depth chart of weapons. So it's just, to me, you got to give Todd Gurley those close to 300 touches. So is Todd Gurley, I think the real question here, right? Because.

Look, they had a putrid offense this season, but they also had, for the majority of the season, a head coach who was fine just going punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, and just old school. I don't think he wanted to go punt, punt, no, no, but my point is he was okay being a defensive team, low score. Like, he wasn't trying to scheme things up and be aggressive offensively and do things like in today's NFL that.

helps fantasy football players because they're on a higher powered offense. He was more of a yesterday's NFL. So the question is Todd Gurley comes out of college. He's unbelievably talented. He's the next Adrian Peterson. He comes out rookie year and he's great. This year, the film, not just the stats, but the film did not look good for me when I watched Todd Gurley. He didn't look anything special whatsoever. Couldn't break big play. Never. I mean, he didn't run away from anybody. He just didn't look special to me. So the question, because he had a lot of work in college is.

Is this a Trent Richardson type of situation where, look, he was great in college and he had a good rookie season, but maybe he's not going to get back to that high hope. Or was this season the outlier, the aborition? I mean, which way do you lean based on your film and what you see is the future of the Rams? I think he's a really, really talented player. And so I lean the direction of, look, his rookie year wasn't.

just touchdown dependency. No, no, he was amazing. But you compare him to like Trent Richardson's rookie year. He didn't break a thousand yards and it was touchdown dependent. I think if I had to pick a side. Yeah. Look, I know this season will answer it. You've got a different head coach. You're going to have a different opportunity. If he does this for two straight years, I mean, it's not good. Could not, I mean, lowest yards per carrying the league. Lowest average yards, you know, all-purpose yards per touch. It was a bad.

Year. 46 yards, 46 rushing yards a game against top 16 defenses. No. That is just brutal. And the truth is, the only way this doesn't get answered this year, I guess, is if, I mean, if they don't have a quarterback. Well, they have one. They know who it is. But it's okay, guys. They brought in Greg Olson, Olson with an O, you know, to be the quarterback's coach. I mean, this is a guy who's got.

20 years of professional experience. He does. At quarterback coach or head coach or offensive coordinator. Did they really bring Greg Gagos in it? Yeah. You know he's a former Arizona State offensive coordinator that I despised? Oh, well, why would you despise him? Oh, he wasn't any good. Yeah. Oh, here's a great, great stat. So he has been the quarterback's coach or the offensive coordinator in the NFL for basically the last, uh, almost 20 years. He's bounced around from team to team somehow. In the last decade.

How many times would you say he has had a, let's just say top half, like just better than, you know, the top 15 offenses in the league. I mean, you know, in theory it should be at least 50% if you just, I mean, we're just talking top half, not top 10, not top 5. This is not trending well. It would be once, and it was last year with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Blake Borrell's crazy touchdown number. Other than that, every other year has been bottom half of the league.

The savior is here. Jared Goff, you're going to be just fine. Todd Gurley, where does he go next year? Where does he belong? He was obviously, I mean, he's the number three player off the board this year, disappointed, destroyed fantasy owners. You'll have a level of optimism. Some people think he'll bounce back. I don't think he will, I think he's either going to disappoint or surprise. I think he'll go. I think he'll be one of those. I think he'll be drafted as about the eighth. Yeah. Well, I guess I don't think he will play to his draft position, is what I meant. He will either.

disappoint from his draft position? Okay. I don't think he's going to... Well, maybe, because I think he'll go in the second round. See, I think he'll be about the eighth running back taken, which could put him in the second round. Would you take him as the eighth running back? I would not, and I expect that he will not finish. I think he'll... I lean more towards... Not the Trent Richardson side. That's hyperbolic, but I lean more towards he is not a RB1 next year. I am. That's where I lean. Todd Gurley...

And you look at the names above him in this ranking, though. I mean, you would draft him over Gore, Latavius, Crowell, Hyde, and Ware. Yep. Well, no, no, no, maybe not Carlos Hyde. That one would be close. Over Ajai? The others, no, no way. I would rather have a Jai. Yeah. Lamar Miller came in at number 18. The guy, you know, Lamar Miller had one of those years where he seemed like he was hurt through half of it, but only missed two games. Kind of played through a lot of injury. Yeah.

He was the 11th most consistent fantasy running back when you talk about top performances, didn't really bust for you when he played, had 10 top 25 games, played a lot better against bottom half defenses, which makes a ton of sense to me because you get those top half defenses, you're putting Brock Osweiler on the spot, and you're basically saying, Brock needs to beat me. Big yard is difference, 58 yards a game against top 16 versus 95 against bottom 16.

I think Lamar Miller was fine. I mean, he finishes the 16th best running back, but he missed the last two games of the season. 18th best running back. Well, depending on scoring format, yes, 18th, 18th in standard 16th in half point. But he missed the last two games of the season. He, it's hard to run when your quarterback. I mean, ask, you know, the former player. Ask Todd Gurley how it is when you run when your quarterback is atrocious.

I believe Bill O'Brien calling the plays this next year is going to improve the offense. I think he was frustrated with their vanilla play calling. I mean, that's... Isn't it interesting when you have situations like Devante Freeman and Tevon Coleman, right? Dionne Lewis and Ligarrett Blunt. Great offenses, shared backfields. Then you have situations like Ty Gurley and the Mar Miller. Troubled offenses, full opportunity.

We talk so much in the offseason about, okay, it's that balance of opportunity. Yeah. You know, what would you rather have? Would you rather be playing the coin flip of, is it a Lewis or Blunt game? Or would you rather play the coin flip of, oh, no, you know, are they going to shut down the running game? Because that's all we have in Houston or L.A. I think I would personally, I lean more towards the workhorse, the Todd Gurley or the Lamar Miller.