Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Rookie Rundown RB & TE, News, Mailbag

at least talk about that one more time since the Super Bowl is on Sunday. I still have the Carolina Panthers. Shalacking? Making fools of the Denver office. So that hasn't changed for you and Jason? It hasn't changed for me either other than my rooting interest. I'm taking Carolina by a close margin in a low-scoring defense defensive game.

But I am, I find myself now rooting more and more. I don't know if it's the Peyton retirement thing, but I'm going to be rooting for the Broncos. I really am. Did you see this morning that Peyton said he's going to need hip replacement surgery? Wait, what? Is that a real thing? Not now, but like he's going to need it. And he said, I think his reaction was, I didn't really need to hear that, like from his doctor. His doctor told him that. So is Peyton Manning going to be the youngest person ever to be a subscriber to Life Alert?

While playing in the NFL. He's on the field, pushes his necklace. Madden did a simulation of the Super Bowl, and the result was Carolina 24, Denver 20. Oh, I can see that. Just putting that out there. So before we get into the rookie rundown for running backs and tight ends, I want to take a second and thank the sponsor of today's show, Squarespace.

This week alone, I personally recommended Squarespace to two different people that I know who need to build a website. Squarespace is the absolute best. And the mindset out there is that you have to go and spend a ton of money to get a professional website. And then, the worst part, pay people every little update that you need to do on the website.

No, not anymore. Not with Squarespace. Their sites look professionally designed regardless of your skill level. There's no coding required. They have intuitive and easy to use tools, and you get a free domain when you sign up for a year. So it is as simple as going to Squarespace.com. Make sure you use our promo code footballers to get 10% off, and you're done.

You can make your website right there, right then, no giant upfront costs, and it is as simple as can be. So go to Squarespace.com, start your free trial today and use the promo code footballers to get 10% off your first purchase. Squarespace, you should. Hi, rookie. Welcome to the NFL. All right, guys. Now, do we want to talk rookie running backs first, or do we want to just go through the tight ends? Let's get the tight ends out of the way. We'll get the appetizer.

before we get into the meat. Okay, so this was not a year in which rookie tight-ins made huge contributions. Well, they never really do. It really, I was going to say, it rarely is. Now, you have Max Williams, you have Will Tye, and you have Clive Walford. And so those are the guys we're talking about today. This is a group where Will Tye had the most catches amongst that group of rookie tight-ins with 42. You have the most yards, 464 and 3.

You had the Larry Donnell situation where Will Ty was able to come in. He scored three of the last four weeks. He was a kind of streaming fan favorite over that course. We talked a lot of Will Ty on the show. So you have Will Ty with the better numbers. You have Clive Walford and Max Williams were both drafted in the first three rounds. Max Williams was a first round draft pick? Max Williams was a first round draft pick. And Walford was a third. So let's talk.

at the top with the guy who went first in the draft, Max Williams. Do we expect him to, because this is the relevant question for the show, we're not debating his entire career on the football field. We're debating fantasy relevance next year. I'm of the camp that believes Max Williams is an okay player on a team with multiple options at the position, and so I don't see him changing a lot. I could see him putting up Will Ties line from this year, 42, 460, and 3. What are your thoughts, Jason, Mike?

I think I have him higher than either one of you. I think Max Williams is needed for the Ravens. I don't see Betty Crockett go more as really standing in his way. What about the one hip, one hip quitta? Dennis Pitta. I wish Dennis.

Dennis Pitta, we wish you will. It's just such an unfortunate career. It sucks, man. Yeah, well, that's the point, though. With Dennis Pitta not stable for the NFL and Betty Crocky Gilmore ahead of him, they spent a first round pick to get Max Williams because Max Williams was an uber talented tight end. They never do great their rookie year. I think he takes a leap forward next year. He'll be someone to watch. You know, I expect him to get 50 receptions.

at least and be more used in the red zone. The potential is absolutely there for Max Williams with Mark Tresman. We know that he likes to use the tight end. Crocket Gilmore, games here and there, but wasn't really consistently used throughout the year. So like I said, the potential is there. I'm not sure at this point. I'm going to buy into it happening this season, perhaps the next, but he is going to be one of those

late round flyers that is absolutely worth taking a chance on. Crockett Gilmore had 33 receptions for 412 and 4. I think one thing to take away from this past season without Dennis Pitta, the utilization of Gilmore and of Max Williams, there wasn't the usage of the tied-in position to match what we had expected. You know, because that was the hope for Max Williams last year was, hey, they're going to come in and they're going to, he's going to be that checkdown guy, not the same rapport.

rapport as Pitta had. And there are a lot of variables in Baltimore. With the wide receiver position coming back, Steve Smith, Prashad Perriman, it's something to watch. And they might need him. If you have to pick a young guy out, why not pick out Max Williams? A first round talent. Somebody who has potential. I need to correct myself. Because as I said that, I was like thinking back to the draft, and I remember they spent their first on Bashad Perriman.

RAP. And he was a second round, but he was the first tight end taken in the draft. Gotcha. Yeah, that makes more sense to me. Did grade out, did great out as a person. I trusted. I trusted you. So let's talk about Will Ty and Clive Walford. Will Ty, was this an opportunity more than it was? Anything else? Yeah, I think it coincided identically with Larry Donnell going down. They needed to use him.

And I don't expect him to just be the guy next year because he put up the best rookie numbers as a tight end this year. To me, I'm not very excited about Will Ty, but it's a wait and see. You saw that he's capable. And that's what you hope for in a rookie tight end. So for Will Ty, he scored three of the last four weeks, which he was averaging five targets a game. I think Will Ty is the guy up in New York. Larry Donnell is just...

He's not on this. He's not a pro-level tight end who can do everything that you need, where I think Will Ty is an athletic guy that can actually catch the ball. So I like him moving forward. I think he'll be the guy. The depth chart next year is going to be really important because what we have seen is that Eli throws touchdowns to the tight-end position. Larry Donnell was popular because he caught a lot of touchdowns. Will Ty came in and did that role. So it's just a matter of.

Who is that guy next year? I'm guessing it's Dinell. But if by week one, Will Tye's first on the depth chart ahead of Dinell, then he'll be first in fantasy. Yeah, Dinell has his flaws. His hands have been a problem. When he runs, to me, it looks like he doesn't ever round a corner. It's all hard turns for me. So I just want to watch him play. So I think there's opportunity there. I don't think that the gap of talent between the two is humongous. Donnell still has his neck.

thing going on. Certainly, yeah. Who knows? I mean, maybe Dennell never plays football again. So I do want to talk about Clive Walford. I know that we have mixed opinions about him. I happen to like him quite a bit. I like him, too. I think he's very talented. He was 28 for 3, 29, and 3 this past year. Those aren't eye-popping numbers by any stretch. But over the final five games of the season, he had an average of five targets a game.

somebody being working the offense. That's the whole essence of this rookie rundown is which guys started to come on later in the season because most rookies don't make a contribution in the beginning of the year, no matter what position you play. And so what do you think about Walford, Mike? I like him moving forward the offense there in Oakland. It's trending absolutely in the right direction as we saw the...

Derek Carr came on really strong for the first half. They struggled down the stretch, but it seemed apparent by the end of the season that Clive Walford was the guy over Michael Rivera, who Rivera kind of was a, he flashed last season. He had a couple of huge games, so people thought, okay, well, Rivera, you know, let's put some stock into him, but then they...

Then the Raiders spent a decently high pick on a tight end and Clive Walford. So I fully expect him to be the guy. He could probably be like a fringe top 10 tight end type of guy to me. That's a pretty high projection for somebody like that. Fringe. Because what I was going to say is this. Let's contextualize this whole discussion on tight ends. Are any of those three guys being drafted in standard 12 team leagues? No, I think the only guy that might.

might be drafted, would be Max Williams. Yeah, based on. But I don't think any of these guys are really drafted. And in Clive Wall for those last five games, we have to remember Amari Cooper was barely, he was half on the field. So I think some of that was to do with his targets going up rather than them just working him in naturally. Okay, so that's probably all we need to say. Now let's get to the state. Well, the last couple tight ends to even mention.

would be Michael Pruitt up in Minnesota, but he's going to be hamstrung with Kyle Rudolph there. And then Jesse James in Pittsburgh is a guy that you can possibly watch. It depends on what Heath Miller is doing. Heath Miller's not getting into younger. That is for sure. I think he's a free agent as well. Is he? Yeah, I'm almost certain. So they're probably going to bring him back, but I'm almost certain. In the event that they don't bring Miller back, then Jesse James could become a guy that you want to look at.

And then obviously when the NFL draft happens, we'll be monitoring some of the titans that come out in this class. And those guys actually might have more hype around them. But like we said, rookie tight ends, just they very, very rarely make any kind of noise. A big splash, yeah, yeah, absolutely. All right, so let's talk about the rookie running backs because it's a pretty interesting crop of guys. I think, to be honest, you could probably make a good and bad argument for most of them.

I don't think you can make a really bad argument for Todd Gurley. However, everybody else has a wart or two. And so let's start at the top and get the guy that's the cleanest out of the way. At least the one that I believe is, Todd Gurley, I think I'm the biggest Todd Gurley fan in the studio. You are the biggest Todd Gurley fan. But you're not far. I'm not far behind. Put it this way. Is there anything that Todd Gurley could have done better this year?

Could you have hoped for more than 1,100 yards and 10 touchdowns in his rookie year missing the first three games? No. You couldn't have dreamed for more. And coming into the draft... I dreamed of 100 touchdown. All right. So some of us have ridiculous. I can dream however I want, Jason. Don't tell me how to dream. You know, coming into the draft, the NFL draft, he was talked about like...

the next Adrian Peterson, that he's an otherworldly once-in-a-decade talent, and those get floated out sometimes. You just don't know. Fred Richardson? Yeah, exactly. You just don't know. But then you wait and you see what he does in the NFL. What he did this year said, that his college background was not a fluke, that he is the guy. So going forward, if you're talking about a dynasty startup, for me, for me personally, I would take him as high as probably five, you know.

And I believe that's being brought up because I am currently engaged. I love that. I'm in a dynasty mock with our good friends over at the dynasty nerds. And I went Alan Robinson over Todd Gurley. And both of Jason and my reactions was, what? I would have taken Todd Gurley there. You're a dummy. Not a dummy. That's not our voice. You know, that's in my head. That's your voice. Both of you have the same exact voice. Did you have any second guesses after we said that? No.

None whatsoever. All right. Well, Gurley's definitely the dynasty running back. I'd run off the board first, regardless of where he goes in that draft. Why don't you read back your team real quick? What's your team right now? Your dynasty team so far. For the dynasty mock? All right. Currently, I would have to pull it up, but off the top of my head, I went Alan Robinson, David Johnson, because, you know, I'm taking David Johnson. It's just going to happen. Then I went really aggressive in round three with Josh Gordon. He was coming off the suspension.