Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - Top 20 Players & Best Ball Bonanza

And they're about to sign a long-term deal. That's the rumors in the bushes, is that they're really close to locking him up. And that just says he is, from what I understand from, you know, the circles in Atlanta, he's an important part of the community. He's a cock. He's not a piece that is. He's a franchise player. Yeah, exactly. And, I mean, just watch the film because he's so shifty, so hard to take down, so great at catching the pass. Catching the pass. That's what you do, right? It is. All right.

I mean, if there's just one pass, that's true. Yeah, you say a year way. I said it my way. Number seven. Odell Beckham Jr. comes in at number seven on our rankings. Jason just talked about it, finished the year on hot fire. He had a slower start to the season as well. People were concerned a little bit. But after the buy, he was just, he might not have been liquid magma, but I mean, he was like. Oh, he was the number two, right? Yeah, he was amazing. And the.

The thing is, is he started his career better than just about any wide receiver in NFL history. 654 is his finishes. So number three this year is in the car. Number three is coming. He has, you know... I think he's the best dynasty pick you can make. Absolutely. He's almost always the 101 in dynasty. You know, I just said since 2011, you have, Jordy Nelson, unbelievably, is at the second most receiving touchdowns despite missing a year. O'Dell Beckham is...

the 15th highest in receiving touchdowns. He wasn't drafted until 2014. Since 2014, he's leading the league. He's number one. And it's not going to change because, one, they target him in the end zone, but two, he breaks those, just like Antonio Brown. So many of his touchdowns. He can take a slant route to the house. Exactly. And he's actually tied with, as far as since he's been in the league, he's tied for receiving touchdowns with Antonio Brown. And both of those guys get so many of their touchdowns on those.

Those slants that just, they take it. They make their touchdown. Brandon Marshall can't take that away from him. I think Odell Beckham is safe and awesome and incredible. And it is possible we have not seen the peak at all for Odell yet.

Number six. All right, let's talk about LaShawn McCoy coming in at number six. I think some people might be surprised. Shady sliding up ahead of Odell Beckham Jr. Well, he is a slippery fish. He is a slippery fish. Keep him away from Jay Gris. Am I right? Yeah, pretty much. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Ten weeks as a running back one of his 16 weeks last year. Ten. I mean, that's as good as it gets right there. LaShawn McCoy.

If you told me that this is what I'm getting next year, how do you not take him this high? Yeah, I mean, if you were a shady owner last year, you watched the games and you were so happy with the production you got, and yet you were still so upset because Mike Gillisly had... 200 touchdown. That's what it felt like. It was like they just kept giving him the ball. And Mike's the worst about this. Mike, Mike can be having a 35-point LaShawn McCoy Day.

and riding him to victory. But if Mike Gilsey takes a touchdown, he pops in, we get a text. It's like, why is this happening? It's so terrible. Well, it wasn't terrible. He was great. Yeah. And maybe he's even greater. And Shady is great. You know, you've seen it for two different teams. You've seen it in different schemes. Now you're on a team with Tyrod Taylor. Teams and schemes, one way. You're on a team with Tyrod Taylor, a running quarterback, which always helps the running game. And, I mean, look, he's had.

two seasons, you know, get rid of his rookie season where he didn't really play, he said two seasons where he played 12 games where he was, you know, he was gone for four of those games. Both of those seasons, despite missing four games, he was still an RB2. But every other season of his pretty lengthy career, he's been an RB1. He's been guaranteed for that spot. You know he's catching the ball. You know he's the primary running back for a team that wants to run. You know, he on the injury report is probable.

Oh, if you watch the games, he'll get about three or four times a game, you think he's died on the field. Yeah, crumpled mess, and then he just gets up and runs for another touchdown. There you go. Number five. Julio Jones, number five, dominant season. 300-yard game last year, week four against Carolina, a key cog in an offense that was just dominant. You know, we've had different.

conversations on the show, Jason and myself and Mike with what we believe about the Atlanta offense and whether it can repeat what it did last year. But none of that imposes itself upon Julio Jones and his ranking here at number five. Just a dominant force, 8-2 and 6 for the last three years in terms of fantasy finishes and belongs happily at the number 5 spot. Oh, absolutely. I mean, he finished 6, but he finished 6 missing two games.

last year. Well, we'll count the 300-yard game as two games. Sure, there you go. The fantasy players would have. Yeah, I don't worry. I've been the Mr. regression for the totality of the Atlanta Falcons offense. I think they'll come back to what they were the year before. But that doesn't mean I'm worried about Devonthe Freeman, who was the number one running back, or Julio Jones, who was the number two wide receiver two years ago. They are absolutely fine. And when you talk about the trifecta of the big three wide receivers,

Julio is the only one that's actually big. You know, you got two 510, 511 guys, and then you've got a freak of nature in Julio that should be able to be the number one wide receiver. You know, if he can play 16, it should be him who wins over Odell Beckham. It just comes down to.

Red zone targets. That's been the problem for Julio Jones's entire career. You know, claims now with the new offensive coordinator. We're going to use them in the red zone. Well, genius. You're a genius. You're a genius. Number four. All right, from Julio to the last remaining wide receiver on the list, Antonio Brown at number four, have to kind of have, I think there's a comparison there to the discussion we had about Mike Evans, where Deshaun Jackson comes in as the deep threat. Now you have.

Antonio Brown with Martavis Bryant back as the deep threat. Should open the offense up. Should be a good overall thing, but there will be a drive here or there where Martavis Bryant has a 74-yard touchdown. Takes that possession away from Antonio Brown. I'm not concerned about Antonio Brown in any way, shape, or form. That's why he's number four in this list.

Yeah, I mean, it's very similar to the Devonto Freeman, Tevin Coleman. Antonio Brown's numbers were better with Martavis, not worse. So you don't worry there. Big Ben just basically throws one extra touchdown at home when he has Martavis Bryant. Antonio Brown, there's very little to say. He's a locked and loaded top three wide receiver this year and every year that Big Ben continues to play. That's about all there is to it. That's really it.

Number three. All right, the big three running backs, Zizchio Elliott, coming in at number three on our consensus top 20. Ho-hum, I'm a rookie, and I'm going to take the league by storm to the tune of, well, every single week he played. He was in the top 24. So as consistent as they come, Kekog in the offense, just 22 years old, the only small corner of your eye speck of...

sadness that might exist is a little bit of risk on the legal problems that could be coming about based on the NFL's investigation. Remember that the NFL doesn't rely upon the legal charging of a player to impose discipline if they feel like a violation happened of their personal conduct policy. It's in their right to suspend or punish a player. Probability of that happening, to me, it's not high.

But when Adam Schefter comes out and says, hey, I'm concerned. I might not draft him very high in fantasy leagues. I think he said that the feeling was that a suspension might come down. I mean, it sounded to me like a little bit of a scary proposition. So you have a probability higher than. Yeah, I mean, I feel like right now if I'm on the clock drafting, the 20% chance that he misses, you know, some games due to suspension in my heart would say I'm going to take Antonio Brown over Zeke.

That's the downside for Zeke. The upside is also there, though. I mean, he is a great pass catcher. I mean, great. I think he led, you know, last year when it came to receiving yards or yards per reception at running back, I think only Tevin Coleman's ridiculousness was ahead of Ezekiel Elliott, but he wasn't utilized in that fashion as much as he could have been or probably should have been. So there's still room for him to grow, and you have to keep in mind.

that he didn't play in the last week of the season. Are you telling me I need to invest in Darren McFadden? Is that what you're telling me? You know, right now. Little best ball investment. In the only news comes in my 18th round pick, I might be taking some Darren McFadden. Number two. Levy on Bell, number two. Levy on Bell, absolutely incredible into the season. He missed the first three weeks and was just ridiculous after that. There's no other way to put it. The only thing that you can possibly question about Love Bell would be.

injury concerns, but at this point, who else would you want? We only have one player ranked higher than Levi-on-Bel. Again, another one of those players is only 25 years old. What else can you say about it? Yeah, I mean, you have an injury history that you don't like to talk about with Levi-on-Bel because he's so good. He is a guy that is on so many championship teams when he...

plays the season. When he played last year, his pace would have broke the all-time NFL record for yards. He was that good during that time. Better than David Johnson, who had an incredible run. Lev Bell is, I would say Levian Bell is better than David Johnson, is better than Ezekiel Elliott. Period. The only question for me is injury, history, and concern with that volume. Okay.

Let's get to our last remaining player. Number one. David Johnson was last year's number one running back. He is this year's number one running back in our consensus rankings. Four different weeks. He was the number one back last year. Other than the last game of the season in which he got hurt, he finished inside the top 19 every single week. And he's a volume play. And he's a talent play. And he's a wide receiver. He had...

800 yards receiving last year, was disappointed. We had him on the show. We talked about wanting to get to the 1,000-1-000 mark. Feels like that's well within his reach. Bruce Ariens has talked about 30 touches a game for David Johnson, and you look at that offense, and you look at what worked, and you look at what the future is. There's no other option for the Cardinals than to put the ball into David Johnson's hands early and often and as much as possible. Yeah, he, to me, is very safe.

he's my number one overall player i think you're making a mistake in any in any league if you've got the one-on-one and you don't take david johnson what he does is the equivalent of two players you know he outscored the best wide receivers

and the best running backs by a decent margin. You know, new players come in and they look at how many points quarterback scores, because obviously the whole position scores a whole lot more than every other position. So you draft those high. Andy, who's your favorite quarterback to pick this coming year? You said you thought he was going to be on so many of your teams. You're talking about Andy Dalton? No, no, no, no, higher. Higher end. Andrew Luck. Andrew Luck, who is great.

who was last year's number four quarterback, who did not score as many fantasy points as David Johnson. That's ridiculous. I mean, if you're outscoring quarterbacks as a running back, and that was in standard, that's not even giving him points for reception. You do that, and he's just number one. He outscored Aaron Rogers. All right. So David Johnson, number one, feel very comfortable with that. And like I said earlier, I think a couple episodes ago, it does seem like.

the community is heading that direction. I saw Lev at the top of more boards a month ago than I have recently. For us, it's just a matter. I mean, you're splitting hairs. If you want Levi-on-Bell, I don't blame you. If you want the additional risk of Ezekielia, but the added couple years of youth in the offensive line, go for it. But for us, again, it comes down to the running back position. Go mock draft.

Go see what's sitting there in the fifth, sixth round this year. See how comfortable you are with taking wide receivers early. When you have an option of taking one of these big three, maybe you work LaShaul McCoy in that. Maybe it's Ajay, Gordon, and Freeman. But getting an early running back, I think he's going to be crucial to your success and fantasy this year. It's one of the foundational principles of my teams every year. I want that workhorse back because there aren't a lot of them. It's a position scarcity issue in the NFL.