Dark Horse Teams, Big-Time Questions, Geography Lessons

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Hey, Folkland, we've got a great show plan for you today, some Dark Horse teams answering some big-time fantasy football questions. Before we get into it, I want to remind you, less than 10 days until the Ultimate Draft Kit is released. You can get it at pre-order pricing right now. Check it out. Ultimate DraftKit.com. Hi, this is Alex from Houston from the Newbies Dynasty League, and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers podcast.

to the fantasy footballers podcast coming to you from pristine auction.com studios with your host Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Oh, welcome in. What was going on over there? I had my eyes closed. I'll bring it up. Welcome in to the fantasy footballers, by the way.

A great show for you today. Very excited to get into it. Tons of incredible fantasy football insight. Get ready. Just prepare yourself. You've come to expect it, but we will begin with why I was laughing to begin the show. Before, as Brooks was getting us set up and we're getting the cameras going and we're getting ready to start the show, we always have a few minutes to jive, right? To chat. Mm-hmm.

And somehow, some way we got onto the topic of Sandra Bullock. Sure. Right. Of course. Because who is, I mean, just the consensus would just understand and acknowledge the fact that she is a beautiful woman. And especially when we talked about speed, the movie Speed. Yeah. And then the childhood, childhood crush on Sandra Bullock. Yeah. And then Jason has a far different take. Well, no, it's not different than.

everybody's. It's just that I think she's a dog. Oh, come on. No, I'm not. Look, she is, uh, no, she's Hollywood. She's beautiful. She's a beautiful woman. If I saw her in person, she's beautiful. But when the standards are, when I'm a boy and I'm watching speed, oh, boo. When I'm watching speed, boo. No, she was. So Jason didn't agree with like he wasn't, she wasn't on your young man's list of, you know,

I remember Alicia Silverstone, right, from the early days, clueless or something. Now you're bringing me into my manhood. But somehow there's a disconnect between Jason and Sandra Bullock. And so he sent me a picture of Michael Jackson right before the show started trying to compare drawlines. Is that what the situation was? Actually, this is a picture of Sandra Bullock. No, it is not. This is the worst. I wish I hadn't brought up. Why did you bring this up? I didn't think it would go here.

How many listeners do we just lose because of Jason? Seriously. Well, look. Both of you? Wait, you're mad at me? How are you mad at me? You brought it up. He's defending her honor. I thought we would get some enjoyment out of it. Clearly, we haven't. Let's transition, okay? Hit the intro again. With great speed. Who's your dark horse team for the 2019 season? That's the question this morning. Last year.

Mike, you took the bears. I took the Ravens. Those turned out pretty, pretty well. Pretty pretty good. This would be a good time to highlight Jason took the Giants. I wasn't going to bring it up. Right. But after that beginning to the show. Well, look, if we're talking bad takes, I'll bring up my dark horse right off the bat. My dark horse for 2019 is a post-hyped sleeper. It's a team that a lot of people thought were going to be a Super Bowl consider last year because of their unbelievable defense.

The Jacksonville Jaguars. I mean, they were atrocious last year. They had no run game. Their offensive line got injured. Their quarterback was Blake Bordles. People thought they could win a Super Bowl or be a contender with Blake Bortles. Now, I'm not a huge Nick Foles believer. You're also very much on Team Bortles.

Right, for fantasy, absolutely. Like Jason's going through all these, like, he's looking in the mirror, talking about himself. No, never as like a real life, but for fantasy, Blake Portles was great because he ran the boss. I got a snake, man. But in real life, while I'm not a gigantic fan of Nick Foles, he is better.

for an NFL team than Blake Bortle's. I think he'll make fewer mistakes. He'll be an upgrade that says, hey, you can't stack the box. You look at how injured the offensive line for the Jacksonville Jaguars was last season. And not only do they get the left side of their line back with Cam Robinson. They had Norwell, their huge free agent signing last year that was injured. But then in the draft, a lot of people's number one tackle.

Juan Taylor falls to them with their second pick, and they get him to plug in on the right side of the line. So the offensive line is going to be better. Pretty much my favorite player in the draft on both sides of the ball, Josh Allen on defense, fell to them at six. So I think their team has really improved, and their defense was not bad last year. Like it might have let people down for fantasy purposes, but in the NFL, when it comes to yards, points, they were good.

I feel like they've gotten better. Their offensive line is going to let Leonard Fournett run the ball, and they upgraded the quarterback. So I think even though it's a tough division. I understand the argument because that team's predicated on defense and running the football. I think it's, I think Nick Falls is this year's case, Keenham, though. That's the situation that, like, yeah, I don't disagree. He had a magical run in Philadelphia multiple times, but he had done that before. Like, he had a 27 touchdown.

Two interception season with Chip Kelly. That season was so great. And you know what he got to do is you got to go be a starting quarterback for the Rams. Well. And now that he didn't have a chance with Jeff Fisher. Jeff Fisher. But. Good friend of Twitter buddy of mine. Having a chance, not having a chance. Whatever you want to say, he had, you know, a week one performance over 200 yards. Then he went 10 straight games without 200 yards passing. I don't know if Nick Foles has matured or become something different.

He's going to be a game manager in Jacksonville. That's why I'm not eager about him in fantasy. But I could see Jacksonville having a better season. It's just a tough division. Yeah. Nick Foles is my 29th quarterback in fantasy. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Exactly where Bullock was on your list growing up. That's way too high. All right. I'm going to go with the Raiders. I'm not playing it safe here, boys. I'm going with the 4 and 12 Raiders is my dark horse.

I don't know how you can have a better offseason. I really don't. They had so much draft capital. They invested on the defense and they invested in free agency, right? Farrow with the fourth pick, Lamarcus Joyner in free agency. On offense, they stole Antonio Brown, the best player in football at the wide receiver position. They then paired him with Tyrell Williams. And I know we like making fun of Derek Carr, but this was a player who...

Two years ago led the Raiders to their first playoff birth since 2002. He was third in MVP voting. He didn't even bother to play the playoff game, though. What a quitter. I know. That was an unfortunate end of this season. But it's interesting. According to Pro Football Focus, the top three highest single season deep passing accuracy rates belong to Russell Wilson in 2016, Derek Carr last year, and Derek Carr in 2016. What? So he is the...

number one deep passer in the league. And now you add, you take away what he had, which was nothing, and you give him Antonio Brown and Tyrell. What's Tyrell Williams known for? Deep ball. Deep ball. That just feels like a lie. It does feel like a lie, but he has weapons that are excellent on deep ball passes. That's what they're known for. Tyrell and Antonio Brown can both get open deep. So Derek Carr, who will stretch the field.

They've reinforced all over the place. They paid Trent Brown, big money. Now, whatever you want to believe about Trent Brown, the tackle, they've fixed their problem. When Derek, or they've tried to fix their problem on the offensive line, it's going to help Josh Jacobs, who was also an addition, Hunter Renfro. I just see a team that's gotten so much better, and I think that they have an opportunity to make a move this year.

All right, I'm going with the Atlanta Falcons. They finished under 500. They're much like the Jacksonville Jaguars. People thought they would be better. But their offense was outstanding. Their offense is too good for them to not make a run back to the playoffs. They were the only team to score over 400 points and actually end up as a sub 500 team. They did finish the season strong. And if you remember what happened to them, their entire defense just seemed to.

be injured one by one in those first few weeks of the season. They also had a strong draft upgrading their offensive lines. So I really like the Atlanta Falcons to bounce back and win that division this year. I remember the beginning of last. I was going to ask you how you think that division. I think they will beat out the Saints next year. Oh, man. I find that, I find that difficult to believe. That just feels like a lie.

as Jason would say. Not quite as extreme a lie as Derek Carr being the greatest deep passer of all time. Isn't that incredible? It's a lie. And for him to be two of the best three seasons. So it's talking accuracy. Correct. So like, you would make the argument that he threw like eight deep balls. That would be where I would go. But, uh, give me the raw numbers. Seven of eight. Here's the thing. When you throw deep. I mean, you now can. You can with those other guys. It'll be interesting.

I think Derek Carr bounces back. There was a report that he was quite annoyed with the fact that they were there were all the rumors about them taking another quarterback. Has he watched himself play? No, never has. Sometimes you've got to take a look. I encourage you to check us out on Twitter at the FF Ballers. The Foot clan community is over at jointhefoot.com and one of the cool perks over there, which is great for this time of the season, is not only an extra episode in case two is not enough. Maybe two's too many after the intro to today's show.

But if two's not enough, you want an extra episode, you go to join thefoot.com, become a member of the Foot Clan, support the podcast, and you also get access to the Foot Clan Leagues. So if you're looking to get into a Dynasty League or a Keeper League or just a redraft league with some good people, which is what makes a good league, we provide that resource at Foot Clanleagues.com through the Foot Clan community. And I did want to mention this as well. There is a superflex 2QB article up on the website. We've had a lot of requests.

for a Superflex, two-quarterback strategy article, and we've listened. So Michael Weinrich, he put that up on the website, one of our writing staff. You can check that out at the Fantasy Footballers.com. News and notes from Around the League, presented by Sleeper. All right, we'll try to get through these pretty quick. Patriots have signed Julian Edelman to a two-year $18 million extension through 2021.

That's fantastic. They don't believe he's slowing down because he's not. A lot of people have drawn the line between this contract and maybe when Brady would be done hypothetically. Here they are actually working on an extension with Brady as well. Well, it's working. It's working well. Things are going well in New England. Pete Carroll said Chris Carson had, quote, a little work done on his knee and should be back in a couple weeks. That is, quote, worse than no work done.

But it is also better than out significantly going to miss camp. I mean, if you're back in a couple weeks, it could have been a cleanup procedure. What we do know about Pete Carroll, when it comes to injuries, he is locked in, man. He gives you 100% the truth. That is sarcasm. Yeah. Chris Carson likely to miss training camp and preseason. That's my call based off of Pete Carroll. Look, what's your real? That's hyper. That this is bad.