The Fantasy MVP Episode! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/4

I think that Malik could be a serviceable PPR guy catching, you know, five or six passes. You know what this sounds like? It sounds like three different names that you guys that were going with. Yeah. Malik gets to throw to all of these superstars. All of these superstars. That's what I heard. Take your shots. All right. Next on the list. He's here every single year because he is truly one of our favorite people, one of our just a good man, good human. And.

A spectacular fantasy analyst. What? This isn't. I thought this is JJ. Wait, who is this? Me. I'm talking about me. Oh, yeah, you are a great man of a spectacular analyst. No, it's JJ. But you said nice things. I know. What's that all about? Guys, I'm thrown off here. I'm hosting a three-person show. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with my hands. I mean, I don't think. You just love to talk. Look, JJ's a good guy. Sure. And a good analyst. Okay.

I've seen his pick, but his hair. Oh, yeah. I don't know if you can really listen to a guy like that. We'll leave that up to the YouTube. YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers. All right, JJ, take it away. When I think about a fantasy football MVP, I think about outliers. I think about a player who just ends up being special and doing something special. And sometimes you have to take a chance on those players. And one guy I'm willing to take a chance on this year is Luther Burden.

There's a real chance that Roomedunze is just a better traditional wide receiver than Burden. But I'm a believer that Burden fits exactly what Ben Johnson wants to do. Scheme his guys open, give them a lot of space to work with, and let them do their thing with the ball in their hands. Burden excels at that. Back in college among all wide receivers and my wide receiver Zapp model, Burden had a 98th percentile avoided tackles per reception rate and an 84th percentile yak per reception. And when he got his opportunity last year, he thrived.

He finished with the third best rookie season, yards per route run of any wide out since 2011 with 100 or more routes. And he ran a route on more than half of Chicago's dropbacks in each game from week 11 through the end of the fantasy season last year. In those contests, he was 10th in targets per route run, second in yards per out run, and fifth in PPR points per route run. I actually think Burden's floor is actually okay given the environment in Chicago. But the ceiling case is definitely there. That's why I'm making him...

my fantasy MVP this year. And by the way, even though I know you guys are going to use that picture of me with a bowl cut in your video for this, I still love you. We changed the picture. Yeah, we didn't use the picture. We didn't use the picture. The boy grew up to be a man. Yeah. That was the haircut he had as a boy placed on him as a man. I assume that's what he still has. We might have given him some work work on the teeth. No notes. I love Luther Burton. The.

Man, what if the Bears disappoint? So you know how I do on the bold prediction show? I always pick some hot, new hot offense that I think is going to disappoint. They were like on the short list. I couldn't do it. Of course you can't. I couldn't do it because I literally think Ben Johnson's going to get it done. But everyone is in, you know, obviously we got a Caleb. My guy. We've got a Loveland, my guy. We have a Bears big bold prediction. Now we've got a Burden and Loveland MVP.

Come on. Don't let us down, Caleb. Historically bears bets or bad bets. Yes. This is really genuinely what's funny is like we're betting on all these people. We're betting on the talent. We're betting on Ben Johnson and Burden and Loveland. None of it comes true if Caleb doesn't level up. Good thing. He's in my guy. Yeah, no, I know. Come on, Caleb. The thing, so Luther Burton, if you hadn't heard, he is back at practice. The groin injury is kind of.

Like a... He's not on grindindex.com. It's a bit of a blessing because Luther Burton's ADP had reached a point where it was just, what are we doing? What are we doing here? I love Luther Burton. I love the potential of the upside. But we're drafting them around wide receivers where I'm confident in who they are as players. Where Luther is, we still don't know. But now I'm seeing a sleeper ADP of wide receiver 26 going...

at the 601. That's great. That's so... That's fine. That's so amazing. I mean, I got to draft him in our mock draft for like the first time of this off season. He was being drafted inside the top 20 in the fourth round just like a month ago. So, yeah, I think the groin actually did make him a viable option this year. All right, Royne makes me a viable option as well. This is my contribution to the show. Go on. Gonna keep this train moving.

Good friend of the show, former NFL running back, former NFL fantasy superstar. I think he wants to, I mean, I think former is presumptive. I think there's a chance he could become current soon. Could be. I was a little hesitant, but I went with it anyways. I think a couple injuries happen. I think you see this guy on a roster. It is Austin Echler, champion of workouts, a, like I said, an absolute fantasy superstar for a while. The fantasy community loves and adores Echler.

And he's just, he's in it. He's been on this quite a few times. He has a fantasy guy. So let's see who his MVP is. Austin Echler here in my fantasy MVP this year is Christian McCaffrey. No one gets the volume that Christian McCaffrey does. No one is dependent on a running back like the 49ers are. The upside for Christian to have another massive year like he did last year is right there in his hands.

Yes, he has to stay healthy, 100%. But guess what? In the years that he stayed somewhat healthy in the last four years, three out of those years, he's been a top free back. Come on. Yes, there's some other great options out there, but I think for the most potential point output, Christian McCaffrey, is the go-to. Also, I am running a free-to-play contest this year. It's a fantasy league. If you want to join my fantasy league this year, check it out at Fantasy Rail Sports. If you think...

I don't know what I'm talking about with my pick. Come try and beat me. I'll see you over there. Appreciate you guys. Have it going. Austin Eckler doing his. Oh, no, he's going again. I was like, whoa, he really psyched me out. It was tough because I was in the chat and I was telling Al, I go, really nice presentation on this one, you know, throwing it on the back wall, the picture, and then he does that. And then, you know, the loop, the loop was in there and kept him humble.

So Echler, but really nice. Doing his best fantasy hitman impression going all in on Christian McCaffrey. We don't really need to say much about McCaffrey. If he's healthy, he's healthy is good. If he's healthy, he will be a league winning running back. You know what's really tough is what? Okay, so there are guys like Ken Walker, Mike. You like Ken Walker. Yeah. O'Marney and Hampton, Jason. Mm-hmm. Okay. If you had those guys, Walker and Hampton, you'd rather have CMC.

Is that the answer? Yes. Because, yeah, in your voice is exactly what I'm getting at because I don't know what the compensation should be in a trade for that situation. Like, if you have those guys, there's part of me that's like, I definitely want CMC more. Of course, it could be number one. And then there's part of me that goes, would I really give up that much more than Hampton or than Walker or then, you know, name another, James Cook? I mean,

I find myself in a weird place with CMC where it's like I know how good it can be, but I don't like the San Francisco vibes. And I just, I think part of it is in the back of my head, CMC lost the, like the volume's been there and that's going to get him through and it'll probably be there again. But he did lose some of the explosiveness. I don't know. Yeah, it's tough. I mean, you can take him anywhere from the third pick to the...

You know, you could pass on him to the end of the first round. And I think that that's all reasonable. Obviously, Austin Echler, he's saying, I'm buying in. I'm not afraid of the injury. And, you know, as a former slash current potentially NFL running back, he should know a thing or two. Which I did forget about this. We got a blurb. An Echler blurb the other day of him's talking potential. I mean, he lives in Vegas now. And he's putting the bat signal up.

He was like, hey, Raiders. You want some echoes? That was probably during the prayer circle injury fear for Genti. Yeah. He's talked on his socials quite a bit about like waiting for the right situation and also at this stage of his career just being a great third downback. Yeah. Which I bet he could still be great at that one. Oh, for sure. Yeah. All right. We're going to take our second quick break and come back with the rest of our fantasy MVP's.

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He helps host on the Dynasty Pod and our Fantasy Footballer's DFS and Betting Show, one of our headwriters. Let's see who Betsy's got is his MVP. All right, Foot Clan, it is time for my fantasy MVP. And like most people out there, I love the lion's offense this year. Unfortunately, if you don't have the first pick, you're not getting Jamir Gibbs. If you don't have a pick somewhere in the middle part of the first round, you're probably not getting Aminara St. Brown. So if that's you and you can't get those guys,

I think Jameson Williams is an awesome, awesome pick in the middle rounds of your draft, getting him as your wide receiver two or wide receiver three. I just want pieces of this offense. On paper, they project to be one of the best in football. Their third and average implied team total favored in 14 of 17 games. And that's all with the Lions defense, specifically the secondary projected to struggle this year, especially early on.

as they deal with so many injuries in the secondary. They could be one of these shootout teams similar to the Cowboys, to the Bengals over the last couple years. And if that happens, I think all pieces of the offense are going to eat this year. So give me Jameson, who transformed into a completely different player in the back half of the year last year, what Dan Campbell took over. Basically, with John Morton, he was just a deep ball type guy, high variance, low usage type of receiver. Guns Mahoney said, no, no, no. We need Jameson to this offense to work.

I think that this self-scouting from Dan Campbell and the staff, they just know how important he is to the offense. So I am buying a player who, in my opinion, is still on the ascension as far as a talent in the NFL. Look, you know, Jamo has been a guy we've kind of heard about off and on for various reasons early in his career, usually not the best reasons. It's been radio silent out of Detroit for Jameson Williams, which is actually, in my opinion, a good thing. Like he's learning to become a pro, learning how to be an NFL wide receiver. And the area was still pointing up for a guy.

that is average two plus yards per out run in back-to-back seasons over 11 yards per target two years in a row. So give me James in the middle round of your draft. Take him as your wide receiver two or your wide receiver three and let's go win some foot clan titles. I had no idea this was his pick. I didn't either. I'm a little sad it wasn't Christian Watson. Well, I mean, look, I can't go back to the well and my guy Jamo another year. I would never. But you want to. I would never double up on a lion back to back. Right. The lessons learn.