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

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Hey, the fantasy footballers are back again. It's Thursday, February 6th, 2016, also known as six years after Leslie Nielsen died, which Jason just found out. Yes, I, well, it was in my Facebook feed, and apparently I missed that for the last five years. RIP, six years. RIP, Leslie Nielsen, hilarious. He was funny. He was a funny fellow. It's great.

Well, to tie it, well, we can tie it into sports. Sure. One of my favorite moments, favorite comedic moments of all comedies. Is it a naked gun? Is the naked gun scene when he is the umpire? Yeah. And he's doing, like, he gets really, really animated when he realizes that the crowd reacts. Right. To his strike calls. Oh, man. That is. All right. That is the good stuff. Oh, well, we won't get into the other pre-show discussions, but we will maybe get into them after the show.

Oh, yes. Because we're starting a new thing where we're going to put some extra content up on YouTube. Exclusive. Exclusive. And it is the show after the show. So you will want to go to YouTube and subscribe to the channel so that you can get access to all of Jason finding out about celebrities that have died long ago. So many things that I am learning as a man here.

today, but the show... He's a sponge. It's five minutes to teach Jason about. Yes, the show after the show should be really good today. Today being the last show before the Super Bowl. That is true. And on today's show, we've got the rookie rundown, running backs and tight ends. So we're going to break down all the rookies from the past year, how we project them forward. Will they be better or worse? Sure, we think they'll be better, but maybe some of these guys just aren't what we thought they were, right? And so...

We've got a good show for you. Today, I've got a good quick question for these guys. If you want to follow the show, you can do so on Twitter at the FFBallers and on the website, the fantasy footballers.com. We're also going to do some mailbag on the show today. So if you have a question, please send them in, dynasty questions, keeper questions. I had somebody correct my grammar.

They were a little offended. We'll hear about it. Oh, yeah, I put that in there. So we'll get to that. And so you can go to the website, the fancy footballers.com, click on the submit a question button and send us your question. We'll answer them on the show every week. We are here all year long. No break. It's February. And let's get it going. Quick question of the day. What fantasy football player was the fantasy community, or just you, one year too early on? One year too early. We thought.

They'd be something. I'll go first. And I'm going to pick a good friend of the show. In fact, if you listened last off-season, you remember that we had him on the show the day that the news broke. The day the music died. The day the music died when he was suspended for... You should say his name. Marty McBride, Martavis Bryant of the Steelers. That's the guy who...

Coming into this year, everyone had really, really high hopes for. Top 12 potential hopes. Top 12, wide receiver won potential hopes. He finished the year as the 34th wide receiver. Definitely had a good stretch. Suspended. But what you saw was obviously he missed a big chunk in the beginning. And then at the very end of the year, he kind of trailed off, which sometimes can be good for.

finding that rough, that value. You know, you don't necessarily think Martavis Bryant had the best year. And yet, from Weeks 6 when he got back to weeks 15 in that stretch where he was playing his ball, he was the number 7 wide receiver. And that is a large chunk of the season. And I expect him to play. That's a big chunk. I expect him to play that way for all 16 games next year. That's including.

Sorry to cut you up, but that's including that stretch with a different quarterback play. That's right. So I think Martavis Bryant next year is absolutely a wide receiver. One, we were one year too early on him. He will be there next year. That's a really good pick. Thanks. I'm going to go with Julius Thomas. Julius Thomas was, I guess in some ways.

similar to Martavis Bryant and the fact that he missed four games this year. When he came back, it was slower than it was towards the back half of the year. And I broke it down like this. In his 12 games played, every major statistic went up in his second six versus his first six. He had more fantasy points per game, more touchdowns, almost doubled the receiving yards he was averaging in those first six games he was back. And I think Julius Thomas is somebody that belongs. I mean, that offense, we saw them.

We had a year to see Bortles and Robinson and Hearns and then be effective, and they wanted to get Julius Thomas involved. He had five touchdowns. He had just under 500 yards, but he didn't have a full season, and he's just getting into the swing of things with Jacksonville. I like Julius Thomas as a top 10 tight end this year. You really saw the Jaguars.

get him involved from a schematically. They actually look and draw up plays for him that they weren't doing in the first half. So I like that pick. And I'm going to go with a guy who we were on and then we were off and now we were bad, then we were on. You were much more on than an end. Yes, yes. And I'm going with Golden Tate. This, it may or may not be influenced by a certain superstar wide receiver announcing retirement.

However, I see myself, assuming that the... Jerry Rice, right? Jason says it's Jerry Rice. He just heard about the announcement. Jerry's gone? No. Assuming the retirement holds up for Calvin Johnson, I expect Golden Tate to become the alpha dog of Detroit and with a more efficient... Wow. Thank you. With the more efficient Matt Stafford throwing the ball.

And we saw Golden Tate the yak, the yak master two years ago, yards after catch. I like that nickname. The yak master? He was the yak. He was. He led the league. Yeah, by a wide margin, he was a monster, and I expect that to return for Golden Tate. He said, he said, don't talk back.

You get you get it? Oh yeah, yacety yak. Don't talk back. I go. I'm with you. All right. Ever since you started explaining your jokes to us, we've really appreciated them much more. I was there. I know. All right. Let's move on. News and notes from around the league. Music.

All right, ESPN's Adam Schaefter has reported the Rams have had internal discussions about signing a certain Peyton Manning and are monitoring his situation, whether he retire or not. LA Rams? And or any other quarterback who has ever played because they found out that they have Nick Fowles. Right. It's Adam Schaefter, though. So it's a valuable source or a reliable source, I should say. What's a...

Interesting for the Rams is, remember when Case Keenum was announced that he will be the starter next year? You know who's not under contract for next year? Case Keenum. Case Keenum, your starting quarterback is not under contract. Please let them have to franchise Case Keenom. The New York Daily News reports Colin Kaepernick once out of San Francisco and the Jets are his preferred destination.

I don't make much of this. I think it's kind of ridiculous when you hear something like that. He may want out of San Francisco. I understand. You've got Chip Kelly. He seems like the kind of guy that could resurrect your career. I don't know why the Jets are involved in this discussion with Ryan Fitzpatrick. You know, they were an eyelash from the playoffs last year. Yes. They were very close. I don't think there's...

much to this. Yeah, Cap might want to go, but why would the Jets want him? And I think Chip Kelly wants Cap and isn't going to let him go. So I agree with you. Non-story. What's going on with Tyler Eifford? The Tyler Eiff, this was just an update of he just has a sprained ankle because he got injured in the silliness that is the Pro Bowl. I won't start him this week. You won't catch me starting him. So it was just a...

A, uh, breathe a sigh of relief, nothing serious happens. Like, I get why that's in there because he had something more severe happen. But when I read it as Tyler Eifford has a sprained ankle in the off season, I'm like, oh no. That is, that is not, not going to be relevant. Just a sprained ankle. There you go. You're right. Um, the Eagles may move on from Darren Sprouls this off season. Yeah. Ryan Matthews, anybody? Uh, yeah, just a little bit.

Just a little bit of Ryan Matthews. What was the, Jason, you brought this up. There were two players in the NFL. There were only two running backs in the entire NFL that actually average over five yards of carry so long as they got. 100 touches. Yeah, at least 100 touches. So they were, you know, a used running back. One was Thomas Rawls. 5.6. And the other was Ryan Matthews, the guy that they should have been using all along. And won't use enough next year. So.

All right, and then we've got Johnny Mansell, Sayanara. The time is on the way. The time is come. The time is nine. All right, so real quick, who are the worst three franchises in the NFL? Because I want to talk about who might sign Johnny Mansell. By worst, you just mean they... Potential to sign him? They beat a quarterback. No, no, no, no. No, no. He's not a starter. I am saying that...

Johnny Mansell can only go to a franchise that is essentially like the Browns that constantly makes the wrong. Don't be so mean. I'm sorry, but Johnny Mansell should not be signed. If I was the general manager of any team. Dallas is a potential destination because of the flare. I would say Washington. I'm just looking historically. Who makes flashy backup signings? Washington's in the category. Dan Snyder. The Rams.

The Rams out of desperation, sure. Yeah, the Rams make the most sense to me. Yeah. I agree.

So there you go. Any other news you guys want to get into? I'm not surprised about the Mansell thing. I think Hugh Jackson's a genius to try to get that distraction gone. The only last news that I would say, because this is our last chance before the Super Bowl, don't forget about your playoff challenge rosters if you're out there in our playoff challenge league. That's right. I really, really banked on the Cardinals and the Patriots players. So I believe I only have two players on my roster that...

that made it through a few rounds. However, don't sell yourself short. In the studio, you are in first place. I am in second place, and Mike is in third. My team is dead. That's what I do. I win championships. You. And playoff challenges. And playoff challenges. So good luck to everybody on that this week. It should be a fun game. I am rooting for and believe that Denver will win a very close game, a very fun game. Oh, yeah, I suppose we should.