Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Breakouts, Arian Foster, FNTSY Network's Chris Meaney, News, Mailbag

But let's put some statistical backing to this. Why do we like Travis Kelsey? We've got a few people say, well, this is ridiculous. He didn't put up a huge tight-in one year last year. Why do you have him as your number three or four tight-in? That is correct. He didn't last year. He put up 67, 862 yards and five touchdowns. That's on 66% of the snaps. Anthony Fasano, who was the starting tight-in for the Kansas City Chiefs, he is no longer around.

It's now Travis Kelsey's job. You think, well, maybe Kelsey will get taken off the field in certain packages. He graded out as the best run-blocking tight end in football. He's not leaving the field. He's going to be a Jason Whitten type guy where he's there, 90-plus percent of snaps. He had an 82% catch rate, which led tight ends with 60-plus targets, 50-3 yards after the catch. Now, if you don't...

really understand what I'm talking about when I say 500 yards after catch, that's grunkian. The only other guy who's doing that lately is Rob Gronkowski. He forced, Travis Kelsey forced 17 missed tackles. The guy is a physical beast. People were disappointed because he was getting very hype before the season, and then everything came out that the Chiefs had a plan to work him in slowly because of his injury.

I can't argue with much of that. I'd like to see his ball control in terms of, or just ball protection. He did. He fumbled a lot. I mean, but that's going to happen with missed tackles and getting free when you have a bunch of linebackers chasing you down in the open field, but he needs to protect the ball a little bit. He has all the tools. Alex Smith's one of my breakout candidates at quarterback because of Macklin coming in because of the drop percentage he had last year and because Andy Reid another year in that offense, I really like Alex Smith's opportunity to.

excel this year. Maybe as like a kind of a mini Tom Brady. Anything you want to add on Kelsey or are you just kind of nodding your head, Jason? Yeah, I echo all of that. The only shade that I would throw is just you do have to give up a decently high pick to get him. I wonder how many leagues that's true though. I wonder if it really varies. Is that his ADP right now? Yeah, he's in the fifth. So how high would you take him, Mike? I will take him in the fifth. You want to take him in the fourth?

If I'm at the very back, it just depends on what the player is looking at. All league formats? Yeah. Okay. But I mean, and normally I completely agree that if I don't get Gronk at the top of the draft, which I'm not usually looking to do, I'm not going to take a tight end early, but I'm just so confident, feel so good about Kelsey with his everything he did last year combined with Alex Smith.

who was great with Vernon Davis. That Travis Kelsey fits Alex Smith's game so perfectly. Yeah, I agree with that. And I think all the camp reports about Kelsey and how he looks so far good as well. Another guy who has looked exceptional in camp, he is somebody is ending up on almost all my NFL teams, all my mock drafts. And if I don't take, for some reason, Grankowski in the...

back of the first or something. If I don't end up with Grancowski or Kelsey, this is the guy that ends up as my tight end. That's Tyler Eifert for the Cincinnati Bengals. Gresham and Eifert last year combined for 120. In 2013, because Eifert was hurt last year. They combined for 120 targets at that position. Gresham is gone. He's in Arizona now. Eifert's catch percentage is very high, and that offense is very good. And so there are some signs that he can be a very high-volume target this year.

Yeah, for sure. And what you brought up, his camp performance right now has just been lauded, not only by reporters and beatwriters saying that he's making space that other people aren't making, but even by Andy Dalton himself, which of course, in camp, people are going to talk people up. But it's one of those things where I just love seeing Andy Dalton talk about how he's so talented and he's looking for the matchups he gets. And he says, quote, he's going to be a big part of what we're going to do. So I love having them back. You know.

Sorry, he was a first-round pick, and I think the problem that people are having with Eifford is he was one of those tight ends that was getting hyped up for his rookie year, and a kind of a rule of thumb for fantasy is tight ends stink their first year. All of them. It just doesn't happen. And then next year, well, maybe Eifert's, this is the year. And he did something horrific to his elbow, which you can go watch if you want. Don't.

It's terrible. And so now he's back and people are just, I guess they forgot he exists. And he has declared himself 100% before camp. He's good to go. And he said all last year, he hasn't felt, he didn't feel good at all. So other than OTAs before the season, before the injury, he was not 100%. And so a lot of potential there and that's why he's a breakout. And he's a low risk breakout.

Because you're getting him very, very late. There are a lot of bigger named tight-ins that are going ahead of him, from Martellus Bennett to even Ertz, Dwayne Allen. Those type of guys are going ahead of Tyler Difer right now. 13th round. Yeah, he's basically undraft. Really, really great. And there's nothing more satisfying. And a couple of years, Grankowski's first breakout year, Julius Thomas.

It's very satisfying. Greg Olson. It's very satisfying to draft the tight-in late and have them perform. And it's one of those positions where, you know, there's one or two guys on a team. And so if you draft a breakout and he hits, I mean, he's pretty locked in for the season. It's not a week one and week two, week three, wide receiver type of situation where they fall off the map. So let's talk about another couple of breakouts here. One of them, Mike, I know you'll look forward to talking about.

It's not Odell Beckham Jr. It's not Victor Cruz. It's not Larry Dinell. It is Rubin. Randall. Randall. And here's, this guy's similar, I guess, to I. I saw him walking around in camp with a, I'm not sexy t-shirt on. He's humble. I don't know. I disagree. His fantasy numbers are very attractive to me. Sing them to me. So quietly.

And people have heard us talk about Randall in our mock drafts, and people are saying, why do you like Ruben Randall? Last year, 127 targets, 71 catches, 940 yards, three touchdowns. That's the killer, was the three touchdowns. And Ruben Randall, for a man of his stature, and in that offense, should be catching more than three touchdowns. And I took a look at the numbers, and let's give him...

Just a slight increase. Let's say he caught three more touchdowns. He's a wide receiver too. And he's only 24 years old. Yeah, he's still very young. He's six foot two, so he's big. He had nine games. Nine games of nine plus targets. The opportunity is ridiculous. Yes, he's going to have disappointing. He's, I'll compare him to a Patriots running back where he's going to be dominant and look great. And then they'll just be games where he takes a nap.

He's taking a little sleep on the field. You have no idea what's going on, and he won't produce. But where you are drafting Randall very late, you're not drafting him to be a starter. Yeah, I take issue with calling him a breakout candidate because I don't think how I defined saying breakout being a guy that's going to really take that leap forward. Statistically. Yeah, to help you. However, he's one of the best values.

In the draft, like Mike was just saying, you're getting him in the 13th round. And not only did he actually perform last year, he just didn't have touchdowns, but he's got every opportunity to beat that. So I've got him statted right now as about my number 30 wide receiver. So he's a wide receiver 3, but if I can get a starting, finishing wide receiver 3 in the 13th round.

That's incredible value. Nobody is liking him, and I think Victor Cruz is really helping Randall a lot right now because everybody's starting to push. I mean, Victor Cruz we just saw was in the sixth. That's ridiculous. So just for the record, do you take Randall over Cruz? Yes. You do? I do. Mike? I will have Randall on my team and not Cruz, but I certainly wouldn't take him ahead of him. You wouldn't?

Well, I'm just saying draft-wise, I will let Victor Cruz go off the board. Who do you think is going to have a bigger fantasy season? Absolutely, Randall. And I smell what you're cooking here, Andy. Do I smell this right? Are you cooking a water bet? No, I'm not. I'm not. I actually have Ruben Randall ahead of Cruz. The consensus ranking. If you go to Fantasypros.com and you get the consensus ranking from experts. They all have them at 52. Ruben Randall. The 52nd, and that's wide receiving. So if he's not a breakout, he's a value.

Nobody is on... Nobody likes 130 targets, apparently. Let's move on to a quarterback, and I hesitate to use the word break with this guy. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Tread lightly. I don't want to... Tread lightly. Scare him off or cause an issue. But let's talk about another eagle, not Jordan Matthews, but Sam Bradford. In 2013 and seven games, how did he perform? So, 2013...

remember Sam Brad for this was a while ago. He was on the Rams. The Rams. Who were... Hey, now, I like the Rams. They were... Did you a couple years ago? They are a spectacular defensive team. I'm just saying, give them their due. They're not known for their offense, especially a couple years ago. In seven games, four times he was a quarterback one. He was a top 12 finisher with really no weapons around him. He's moving to the power smoothie offense with Chip Kelly.

where the Eagles quarterbacks are dominant, dominant. The only quarterbacks scoring more than the Eagles QBs combined, because of course there was multiples of them, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Andrew Luck. Three quarterbacks are scoring an average, higher average than the fantasy quarterbacks of the Eagles. That's a pretty profound stat. Where's Aaron Rogers in that? He got hurt, if you remember. He missed most of 2013. Loser.

Sorry. I'm sorry, Aaron. That was uncalled for and unprofessional. I can promise you, Aaron doesn't care. Yeah. He's not listening to you. He is the most chill guy of all time. Do you see him doing his workouts with Olivia Munn? Yeah. Yeah. You're talking about sword fighting. Yeah, when she was sword fighting for X-Men and he's in the background, just kind of...

I mean, he looks like he's having the time of his life. He's just like, what am I going to do today? I'm going to go, like, work out with swords behind Olivia Munn. I think he's having the time of his life at all times. Yeah. All time. So, how did we get on to Aaron Rogers? Breakout candidate. Yeah. Oh, can I, can I call Aaron Rogers breakout candidate? I'm really confident he's going to be. Waterbat. No. If you think he's going to break out more than what he did last year, then you go ahead. Well, he will be number one this year. I'll say that. Okay. So anyways.

What? Back to Bradford. Another amazing thing about the Eagles. Chip Kelly took Mark Sanchez a 54% completion passer who is known. What's the number one thing that Mark Sanchez is known for? Butt fumble. Thank you. Yeah, it's the butt fumble.

He took the butt fumbler and turned him into a 64% completion quarterback. The butt fumbler. Close at number two, though, is... Don't talk about number two is when you're talking about the butt fumble. Oh, man. I was going to go with him being tattooed on the Rex Ryan's arm or whatever. The jersey? Yeah, there's that... What if it was Tebow or whatever? No, he had a good year. The system is conducive to quarterbacks, is what you're saying. And to quarterback...

performance and fantasy. And so whoever's starting there, if he can stay healthy, he could be a huge, huge deal and a breakout because he can finally have that good year, that year that we've been waiting for from a quarterback with the pedigree to be an elite quarterback. And Bradford's stats, he's not just a guy. Bradford stats have increased every year. We always talk about wanting guys to get better and better. One ACL injury to two ACL injuries. Yeah, they go up and up. I don't know. That's a good.

Matching the Eagles offense is also his deep ball. I don't think he gets enough credit for throwing a great deep ball because he's been on a team that hasn't really played that way offensively.

But with Chip Kelly and the Eagles, I think he's going to have a lot. If you're a league very common that rewards over 40 yards on a touchdown pass, I think they're going to run so much drawing the defense up. And his accuracy on a deep ball is just a thing of beauty. You can go to YouTube and watch a video of all of his passes over 20 yards. And it's awesome. That leads me to my final stat.