Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - Eye-Popping Stats + Offseason Hype

The Browns had 62 fourth quarter rush attempts last season, the whole season. Ezekiel Elliott had 91 on his own, and the year before that, the Browns were worse. One of the problems with the Browns wanting to run the ball more is come the fourth quarter, are you still allowed to run the ball when you're down two and a half scores and the clock is your enemy? It's just going to be more difficult to say,

Well, I'm going to make him a 300 carry back. Sure. No, that's very fair. And I think last year, I think Jackson got into some of this in his discussion. They were worried about getting points early. So they threw the ball early because they needed points. And then by the end of the game, when they're down, they couldn't run either. Crowell was the only running back. He did not have 20 or more carries in any game.

out of that top 20. So he never had a 20-carry game last year. And your point, you know, if the game doesn't hand you the opportunity to do it, wishing it isn't going to make it come to fruition. So Terrell Pryor, here's another bit of... Oh, you're buying it. I know you are. Here's a little bit of hype. Terrell... Troll Pryor spent part of the summer training with Antonio Brown. Also reports of him training with Randy Moss.

So, obviously, is Torel Pryor a combination of Brown and Moss? Right. That's what some people might believe. The interesting thing about Antonio Brown is that every single year he trains with other wide receivers and they do not become Antonio Brown. Dang it. Look, it's good for Torell Pryor to go to the best guys and say, teach me to have that humble attitude where it says, look, I'm a one-year wide receiver. I've got room to get better.

But I'm not taking this for anything other than this is just what he should be doing. Training with the best. Why aren't we reporting that in reverse order? Like Antonio Brown went and worked out with 12 prior, dang it. Yeah, Antonio Brown's going to take a major step back. All right, so you're not buying that. I don't blame you. That's not a lot of tangible hype.

All right. How about this? This one's interesting. A report that Matt Forte might be the Jets' offensive workhorse this season. Gross. I told you this morning that I thought Forte could end up Frank Gore this year. Right. He could end up that older fella that's inefficient, but has a good fantasy season. I think Gore averaged 64 yards a game.

Yeah, I was really surprised when, when, you know, preparing this, I look up all of the snap percentages for Matt Forte last season and for Blal Powell. Look, Blal Powell is their better runner. He's got more, you know, he's got a more pep in his step. Yeah. And I don't know. But the thing is, is the Jets want to lose this season. I've said it as a joke, but it is also the truth.

Matt Forte last year was their bell cow in the early part of that season. As he came down with a few injuries, especially at the very end of the season when he went out, you saw that Belal Powell was the better runner. But if Matt Forte comes out and they just say, hey, this is the team we are. I'm giving him the ball 25 times a game. He's going to be inefficient with it, but enough volume where he's an RB2, you know, a high-end RB2 even.

He's going so late in drafts. I think right now he might be of value. The question is whether or not his body can hold up through the course of the season because obviously it broke down last year. He's a year older. That's the worry. I've made the point. I don't think Bilal Powell or Matt Forte factor into the future for the Jets. So I'm not sure that they're going to view giving Powell an extensive workload as any advantage to them like they do their wide receivers and working those young guys into the lineup. Powell is 28 years old.

Forte is 31 years old. I have Forte, I think, a spot higher in half-point leagues than Bilal Powell, which I think is a surprise to a lot of people. I don't think... It's certainly different than how average draft positions describe each guy. You're right. And it's one of those things where obviously Forte goes down. We saw what Powell can do without him. All right, let's move on here. The Baltimore Sun is reported that, well, they've lost track of how many passes Danny Woodhead caught during mini-camp.

What do you think of Danny Woodhead this year? Are you buying the hype on Danny Woodhead? Yeah, I mean, it's a mistake to not buy the hype because the great thing about Danny Woodhead is that his hype never, ever, ever gets out of control. It never translates into, oh, now he's being overdrafted. You just can't really overdraft Danny Woodhead, especially if you're in any kind of PPR league. And if that's what's coming out of camp right now, Kyle Hughes Check's gone. He had 40 receptions last year.

You got Joe Flacko who's just proven. I mean, remember when Buck Allen was a thing for a minute? Sure. And it was like, hey, we don't have the best wide receivers. Let me just throw to this Buck Allen guy 20 times a game. If you do that with, instead of Buck Allen, you do that with Danny Woodhead, he's as capable as it gets with. I think Buck Allen's still a thing, isn't he? Well, no, he's still. I think he's still on the roster. Yes, he is. But I'm saying, yeah, when he had 10 receptions in the games. Sure.

All right, yeah, I buy the hype on Danny Woodhead. I love the potential, and we're going to drop a stat nugget about him very shortly, so we'll get into it a little bit more. All right, the Bucks GM said suspended running back Doug Martin. Looks like Doug Martin of 2015. Wow. So you're all in. No, nope.

Not in. Sorry. I'm not buying it. If you're suspended the first few games and you're Levi-on-Bell, I'm going to take that value in the draft, and I'm going to put you in my pocket. I'm going to be so excited. But look, the reason he's saying, Matt, or the reason that he's saying, oh, it looks like the muscle hamster of 2015 is because you have to say this looks not like the guy in all the other years that has been bad. Something so weird for him is that he has either.

had over 1,400 yards rushing. He's done that twice. Or he has not been able to get out of the 400 yards rushing on a season. He's done that three times. So you've got to say, oh, he looks like the good one. You have to say that. Yeah, I believe him. He might be. But the fact is, if he can only do those two things in his career and he's missing three games, I don't see him getting 1,400 yards.

So now we know he's not going to get out of 400. Yeah. I'm not taking the risk. Sure. You've said that before as well. All right. Let's talk about, I'm going to skip a couple of these. All right. The Chicago Tribune's Brad Biggs believes Zach Miller's roster spot could be in jeopardy. Zach Miller started very hot last year. Kind of a favorite late round tight-in pick. But at this point in time, they did draft a tight end. And now Zach Miller hasn't been able to get on the field.

ever in his career. That's accurate. He missed, what, two consecutive years at one point in time? Yeah, I mean, it's really, it's really unbelievable. They draft the Adam Shaheen, too. Yeah, it's really unbelievable when you look and you go to his box scores and you see, okay, he's got five different seasons where in those seasons, you've never got him playing 16 games. You know, he's got 10 games or 14 games or four games.

But then you go, wait, he's only played five seasons. He was drafted in 2009. Do the math. Oh, he's missed entire seasons on top of this. And now, guess where he is right now? He's not in the practice field because he's hurt. Ah. So, yeah, I think you've got to part ways at some point. Let the new young tight end take over. I think that's the smart approach.

For the Bears, I don't doubt that that's what they'll do. Before we go on to more. Real news. We're on to real news now. We're going to real news. We definitely want to thank today's sponsor, Audible. I've used Audible for years. They were like the first audio listening that I loved to do. You know, I had a commute and I didn't like the, you know, I'm not, I'm not that big into reading.

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On demand. I mean, that's what it is. You're not subject to, oh, I've got to make this show. You just flip it on. It's very cool. Catch up on some reading. So go check Audible out. Let us know what you think. All right. Real news. Eric Decker signed a one-year contract with the Titans just before we left, I believe $3.85 million. It was rumored he may go to Tennessee. He lives around there. So what does Eric Decker do now that he's a Tennessee Titan? I think he helps the offense as a whole. So when I look at...

what does Eric Decker do, it leads me more to believe this is good news for Marcus Marriota. Marcus Marriota now has, you know, look, his number one weapon, Richard Matthews is still there, and all of a sudden he's the number three weapon. You have Corey Davis and Eric Decker. You still have Delaney Walker. You've got past catching running backs. So Marcus Marriota is looking, you know, a little bit more interesting. I bumped him up. As far as Eric Decker himself, I know Mike's not here to say he believes Eric Decker.

you know, as a wide receiver too. And if that happens, you can't be shocked because you have the combination of Eric Decker has always been so efficient with touchdowns. I mean, he is like, he's that red zone machine. And then you have the unsustainable Hercules of efficiency in the red zone with Marcus Marietta. Maybe if you put these two guys together, maybe Eric Decker catches 40 touchdowns. Doubtful. Doubtful on the 40 count. You and I have Decker much.

We have him affecting Marriota more than we do buying into him as a two. Mike has him at 29. We have him in about 50. Right around 50. Consensus 43 for the show. Part of that for me is I'm not convinced that Eric Decker is the same Eric Decker we've always seen. Exactly. I am waiting until camp to see more from Eric Decker to know what we have there because he's missed some time, because he's in an offense that focuses on running the ball.

and because he's not true, I mean, I think a lot of people look at him as the one. It's very similar to what you've done. You know, you said for a while, like, took my time. You have to make sure that he's back, that his roles established, that he looks good in, you know, in the OTAs, and he was down in your 50s. I think you moved him up into your 20s. If Eric Decker comes out in training camp and is fully healthy and is dominating there, then yeah, I think both of us will move him up. For now, color me a little bit skeptical. Skeptical? All right. Derek Carr.

Congratulations. Making some money. Send in the car full of money. Oh, how in the world do I not have that drop in there? Yeah, $25 million a year average. Getting paid. Five year $125 million extension. Congrats, Derek Carr. I think that's all there is to it. I don't think that we're going to extrapolate that to your performance on the field. I will say this. People don't know this. Oh, tell me. So I have Derek Carr at 14 right now.

12, 13, 14, somewhere around there. And I had moved him down from my top 10. And so somebody said to me, are you expecting a huge regression from Derek Carr? Do people realize that Derek Carr regressed from his first season to his second season? I don't think so because last year was that MVP. Now, his efficiency, he's only had six interceptions last year. But his actual touchdowns and yardage numbers were lower last year. And I know he got hurt in the last part of the season. So he might have surpassed him. But Derek Carr did not take this.

you know, incredible monumental leap forward statistically. I love Derek Carr as a pro quarterback. There are a lot of quarterbacks that I like that way that don't always automatically get handed at a top 10 fantasy spot. That's my case. I just like guys like Kirk Cousins more than Derek Carr. So interesting fact, though, that he did not, you know, last year wasn't a huge statistical jump up. He was just a little bit more efficient.

And now you have Marshawn Lynch, and I do believe they're going to hand him the ball around the goal line. I agree completely. Derek Carr even came out and said, we're not going to make the mistake of not running Marshaun Lynch on the one, alluding to the Super Bowl taking that defeat out of the jaws of victory by running a pass play there. Yep. So, oh. Oh, no, you're not. Jay Gris, do you have any opinion on this matter? Well, look, Kristen Michael, injured reserve.