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

setting himself up to move on to yet another franchise's practice squad. So I'm sad for Mike. For not, not. Mike wants to talk about Kristen Michael all the time. Oh, not see Mike, but actually. Oh, not see Mike. Mike. Mike, the fantasy hit man, right. Yeah. Sorry, Mike. I'm glad you don't have to be here for this. But that's why he went away. He went to try to consoling himself in the woods. Any other news you guys want to get into? Brooks, you got anything for us? No, I can tell a Jacob.

Jay Gris has been upset since you haven't mentioned his Twitter handle. Oh, man. Why don't you share his Twitter handle, Brooks? That's J-A-Y, J-G-G-R-F-L at Twitter. Oh, man, you confused the heck out of me. So it's J-A-Y, then J, then G-R-I. So wait, try it one more time. And it's one-Z. Is that like what you wear as a baby? A one-Z. You have to spell out a onesie.

Uh, he's not. Oh, he's angry. All right. Can you spell it out for us again there, bro? J-A-Y-G-R-I-Z. Is J-G-R-I-Z? Is J-G-R-I-L? F-F-F-L with one Z? Yes. Sweet. Got it. He's going to get at least one more follow based on that. All right. Let's, uh, let's move on. If these trends continue. Hey.

All right, let's dive in. We have a number of stat nuggets. You might call them eye-opening numbers from last year, some things that we want to talk about, some things we think you'd be surprised about. But first, I have an important question. Brooks, when you came into the studio today and you looked behind your beautiful producers table that we bought for you, what did you find back behind?

Nothing. Some trolling going on. I want to say I love Amazon because you're able to troll your producer with incredible speed. Next day. Oh, yeah. Speed. Somehow, some way, we found a full 24 by 36 poster of Paul Giamati. It is not the best photo of Paul Giamati has ever taken. No, there's no post-production on this photo. I did not know that he had been arrested at any point in his life because it.

It's a straight mug shot. Oh, we tried to troll Brooks with it, and Brooks tried to troll us back by acting like he didn't see it, but it only lasts about half the day. Yeah, Brooks is the best. All right, Danny Woodhead ended up with one more top seven PPR performance than Todd Gurley last year, despite only playing a game and a half. That's not nice to Todd Gurley? Well, Todd Gurley wasn't nice to fantasy owners, so you don't need to be nice to Todd Gurley.

Full PPR league, you're not taking Danny Woodhead above Todd Gurley, though, are you? No, no, you're still not doing that. Don't be stupid, Andy. Please don't be stupid. But for Danny Woodhead's sake, it's important to remember what he has done as a pass catcher. Just in half-point leagues, if you look over the last five seasons, you know, he was the top 24 back five seasons ago. He was a 16th back, four seasons ago. He was a 16th back. He was a 16th back. He's like, that's kind of like he's got a 16-pack. Uh-huh.

Then he got injured and was gone. Then he was a top six back. Sure. Then he got injured. Now, so he's been a top 24 back or injured every season in the last five. And that's for, you know, obviously a different team, different situation. But he can get it done. They need him, I think, for the Ravens. They believe in him. Sure. And the hype train is rolling. Oh, Cameron Meredith had more top 10 PPR performances than Demarius Thomas, Alshon Jeffrey.

and Brandon Marshall combined last year. What in the world can Cam Meredith be this season in Chicago? Think about that for a second. I'd rather not. That's painful. You've got Alshan Jeffrey, who, yes, he had some injuries, but he played more than people realized last year. Now, Alshan did not have a similar situation to Cam Meredith. He had the exact situation. He was on the same team. Then you had your boy, Brandon Marshall, and of course, Demarius Thomas, one of the.

stalwarts over the last half decade at the wide season. Yeah. So to say that he had more top 10 PPR performances than those three combined says that Cam Meredith on film looked good in the stat sheets looked good. Are we just forgetting Cam Meredith too much because there's been a quarterback change? Because Brian Hoyer, Brian Hoyer does not get enough credit.

But is Cam Meredith going to fall off now? Kevin White is back. They went and signed a bunch of worthless wide receivers and Kendall Wright. Second, third chance guys. Yeah. I think that they're, you know, 24 years old. I don't think we want to like Cam Meredith. I think we might have to the way we kind of have to like Quincy and Noonwa in New York because the opportunity might be there. It didn't help that Meredith has been hurt now in the offseason portion.

still finished 41st last year because he was kind of bursting onto the scene. I think he's just one of those players that do we, I don't know how much I want to play with that fire. I don't know how much it's going to pay off for me. Here's why he was, he was very impressive. Here's why it's okay to play with that fire. In some drafts that I've been doing, he's undrafted. I mean, he's so late that when you're drafting guys, like I would rather take him over.

an upside hopeful John Ross, right? And John Ross is going to go well ahead of Cameron Meredith's, but I would much rather have a guy who, look, I can drop him if he's not involved. If the new quarterback's not targeting him, you know, if the other guys are stepping up there, then whatever. You move on, but he can get it done. I'm happy to say we all have Meredith ahead of John Ross significantly in our rankings.

Just another name for you to keep in mind as a listener out there. Don't forget Cameron Meredith. Take a shot. He's one of the later round guys that you can definitely take a shot with. Here's the last step from, and these are all, these first ones were from Kyle Borgnoni, one of our writers. I'm never going to say his name right. Bargagnoni. That's it. Nailed it. All right. In only five starts last year, Brian Hoyer had as many top 11 starts as Eli Manning did for the whole year. Eli Manning played the whole season.

Yeah, he always does. That's the one thing Eli Manning can do without any issue. Did Brian Hoyer make Cam Meredith? Or did Cam Meredith make Brian Hoyer? It's funny because Brian Hoyer also made DeAndre Hopkins. Yeah, I mean, Brian Hoyer is a gunslinger. He's the Josh McCown imitation that is now the starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. Will he make Pierre Garsohn again? Brian Hoyer is the funniest player to me.

I respect his game. I think he's pretty good. We added to the ultimate draft kit, we added these consistency chart that are, it's really nice to look at because they're very colorful, color-oriented. You could just look at everybody's career or look at last season at a glance and just be like, wow, this guy's been really consistent or this guy's been just terrible. When you look through the pages, everyone who's played, you know, a career in the NFL, they've played for multiple years. They've had their good finishes, right? Because if they're just a worthless NFL player,

they don't stick around and they're not in our ultimate draft kit. But when you look at Brian Hoyer, he's the only player that has nonstop for his entire career red across the board. Left to right, he has never finished as a quarterback anything that registers other than red.

But the reason for that has never been his production on the field. The reason has been his ability to stay on the field or his inability to stay on the field. Or his inability to be a starter versus a fill-in. Well, even when he's been a starter. Four games, three games played, 15, seven. Nine games in Houston, five games last year with Chicago. So I think Brian Hoyer is going to be a great streaming option, maybe even a good guy to get late in two quarterback leagues. But I do not for one second expect Brian Hoyer.

to be able to play 16 games this year, not with San Francisco's offensive line. And I think I wanted to bring him up in that stat up because he is being forgotten, especially in like two quarterback leagues, in best ball leagues. I see Brian Hoyer, one of the last possible players off the board of the starting group. Whereas I think Brian Hoyer's upside, I mean, you have a situation there where San Francisco is going to lose a lot of games. Yeah, and Brian Hoyer will throw for 400 yards and three touchdowns a few times next year. So yeah, if you're doing those play draft.

you know, online drafts, which shout out to play draft because we went to New York. You know, we're from Arizona and we got to get that legislation updated in Arizona, but we're playing those games. That is so fun. Outstanding. Yeah, I drafted tons of teams that are better than yours. All right, Travis. I think, genuinely, I believe that might be the funniest thing you've ever said on our show. Just throwing that out there. Jason and I got into these.

Got into this fiery debate. We had this roundtable draft at the FSTA where... Where I dominated. I just... You're just so wrong. Listen, Footclam. You're talking about the eight-person one, right? Oh, man, I dominated. What do you mean the eight-person one? Like when we were... Yes, the round-tale. I'm telling... Footclan, we need high stakes for this bet because I... Our teams are drafted. They're done. It's a best ball league.

We can post them. Yeah, we should. We will post them. But I don't care about what the posting poll results are. I care about the end of the season. Right. So I need high stakes. Yeah. I want some high stakes. Give us something that Andy and I can bet outside of that and make it big because we'll do a lunch bet and we'll do a water bet. Do all that. But we need something else. Like a tattoo. What do I want to see Andy Holloway do? Because then you get your, then you, then you get to see that. Brooks, you should have seen him. He was, he was, uh,

Straight up, argumentative. Well, it was just a really great team. Not surprised. My running backs were just better than everybody's. Well, good, because you only need to start two. You start three wide receivers. All right, Travis Strickland has a stat for us. On average, this is interesting. On average since 2012, two of the top 12 wide receivers have been 30 or older. So on average since 2012,

At least two of the top 12 have been 30 or older receivers. And none of those have been drafted in the first round. And that's an important part of this. So you've got every year, two of the 12. Two old dudes. They're too old to be drafted in the first round is basically what's being said. They're like, ah, I like him. So Jordy, right? Jordy right now is going in the second round. I definitely think he'll be in the top 12. He's over 30. He's over 30. I agree. But who are the other guys? Crabtree.

Crabtree will be 30 this year. I think he turns 30 like right after. I think Thomas is probably in that same boat. Larry Fitzgerald. Yes. For sure. Yeah. He's in his early 40s also. So the Denver Broncos wide receiving core. Yeah. So I think Fitz is the best illustration of this point. Like Jordy, yes, he's a second round pick, but I can see him like I have him rated really high. I would draft him in the first round. Right. But Fitzgerald, I wouldn't. And most people wouldn't. And he could absolutely turn in, especially in a PBR league, he could turn in at top.

eight performance well if you look at how many carries david johnson got last year inside the five yard line inside the five yard line he had 25 carries that's a number over the last decade that is up with the absolute best with you know the adrian peterson crazy numbers and anything over 17 is a really really good number and i you know i was looking over the last decade when you've had more than 17 carries inside the five

There's been 56 players that have done that over the last decade. And the amount of times that they have had that many carries again the following year or more has been twice. Two times. So that just says there might be a little bit more opportunities for Larry Fitzgerald when they get down near the goal line. History says David Johnson's not getting another 25 carries inside the five. And that might be because touchdowns go to Pro Bowl Larry. Yeah.

No, that's fair. I really, I find this next stat that we're going to talk about pretty interesting. Ryan, one of our writers. Ryan Weiss. Despite being top five in pass attempts every season since 2010, which, by the way, that was a long time ago now. The Saints have never had a hundred reception player. Say what? Now, in fairness, Jimmy Graham did catch 99 receptions once, but the fact is still true. It's still a fact, and it...

adds to one of the reasons why I don't have Michael Thomas quite as high as both of you guys. Yeah, I believe I have him the highest at six. You do. I am a huge believer, firmly believe that he's going to be a 90 reception, 8-9 plus touchdown guy. And that's very fair. But I look at Michael Thomas and I say, didn't face top DBs. The quantity.

How high can it go? That was one of the reasons why I just don't have him guaranteed for that production. I'm saying, I look at last year's numbers and I say, well, you know, can it go way up? What's going to raise? I mean, what's going to go way through the roof that guarantees him that spot? This stat kind of adds a little fuel to that. I mean, he had 92 receptions last year. So what? Does he catch 96 balls? Does he catch 99? Does he match Jimmy Graham? Or does he face coverage and have a regression of some sort?