Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Fantasy Rewind, News & Notes, Mailbag

I want to see what happens when the starters are out there for a very long time to see what happens for Yeldon and Ivory. Guess the ADP, though, the average deposition. What, standard? Yeah, between the two. Oh, I bet they're, let's see. They're both, I'm going to say, in the sixth round. No. One of them is. Yeldon's almost a ninth round pick. Ivory's a six round pick. Okay, it has gone too far. It has gone too far. I can actually get on Yeldon for that. All right. I agree. Texans, Saints. I want to know.

Plain and simple, the headline of this game, it's on the saint's side of the ball. We have to talk about C.J. Spiller. Fair. You have to talk about him. You cannot discuss guys like Sims. Spiller was signed last offseason. Something was wrong physically. He was out there a ton in this game. He got a ton of wraps, played on a lot of third downs, saw him line up in the slot a lot. You know, you talk about why you like Kobe Fleener. Why do you like Kobe Fleener? Because the tight end for the Saints has been a predominant.

position for years. Yeah. And the exact same thing exists for the passing down back in New Orleans, whether it's been Reggie Bush or Pierre Thomas or Ivory last year or anybody, Sprouls. Yes. So if Spillers healthy and he looked fast, I mean, he'd still look like Spiller, but he looked fast and caught it out of the backfield, how is he not?

on the board when we uh had willie sneed on the show early in the off season and we were asking about you know they he had just gotten back i believe from san diego where he was working with drew breeze and some other guys were down there and we asked him who is that guy this year that's going to surprise us his name which surprised us was c j spiller listen to this listen to the sound you hear that sound yep yeah

That's what happens when you try to search for C.J. Spiller's name on a draft board. You don't find it anywhere. So if you're looking late in drafts, 14 team leagues, things like that, maybe take a flyer on a guy who, if he earns that role, and Ingram hasn't been a super healthy guy. They may want to keep Ingram in good health. I'm just saying. Yeah, a late name to monitor. That's all it is. It is preseason.

But, I mean, seeing him out there, you didn't see that last preseason. He wasn't even out there. On the other side of the ball, Osweiler was very up and down to me. He was very hot and cold. I thought that both quarterbacks had bad decisions that they made. Breeze had a bad decision game. Let's talk about Braxton Miller. Is Braxton Miller a flyer as, you know, that wide receiver three? I would rather take the flyer on Will Fuller just because you're going to have the large chunk plays, I think. And I think in two wide receiver sets, that appears to be the guy.

But it's not Jalen strong, as we thought coming in this offseason. Braxton Miller and Will Fuller, those two rookies are running ahead of them, and it seems like that's going to stick. The 49ers played the Broncos. Mike, I feel like this game is all about you, buddy. Yeah. We've got Virgil Green. Yep, love it. He was getting targets. Four catches, right? I don't. Four for four? I believe so. Maybe. I don't have the Stanley right in front of me. Yes, I believe he had four targets, four receptions. So he's moving up your board, you said.

Absolutely. Let's get to the big news here. I want to know your opinion on this. Tori Smith, through two games, he's yet to catch a pass. Gabbert has thrown the ball 19 times. Only one of those targets was to Tori Smith. I know he's a sleeper candidate for you. I know you've been a big advocate of Tori Smith, kind of coming back to form this year. Any concern? Yeah, it's very worrisome. Why I likes Tori Smith.

I think that he's talented, and I felt that he would get a ton of targets. I mean, we're just through a little bit of the preseason, but one total target is not making me feel very good right now. The good thing about Tori Smith is he is much later on in the draft. I'm still comfortable taking a flyer on him for his average draft position, even one round early because of what I believe he can become.

which is the upside is there's not players with that type of ceiling going in that range in the draft. But, yeah. Are you moving him down in your rank? Because I think you've got them as like a low wide receiver two right now. I have them as a low wide receiver two right now. I will wait until game three. But if game three, this continues of not getting him targets, then I have no choice to move him down. Yeah. And do you remember this entire offseason when I've said you're crazy for that?

Just throwing that out there. Okay, moving along. Why don't you speak to the rest of the players in that game? Anybody else stand out to you? Vance McDonald is a guy to me that has to be this year's Gary Barnage. He is involved. He looks good. He can catch. He can run. He can do everything. The Titan is used in Chip Kelly's system. So is the wide receiver one who's supposed to be Tori Smith. Blaine Gabbard.

They're killing me. Hey, that's because Kaepernick needs to start. Fine. If it takes Kaepernick to get Tori Smith the ball, then that's what we're doing. Do you hear me? Your microphone is bouncing around. You just threw it around. He's very upset over here. I want to remind people, the reason Bance McDonald's is this level of value right now is because he got concussed in the end of the last year. He was ascending last year with Gabbard at the end of the season. People picked him up and played him, and then he got concussed in the beginning of the game and missed a couple games.

and fell off the radar. But he would have been one of those names we would have been hyping up had he just not been concussed. So let's move on here. The last game I want to talk about the Los Angeles Rams and the Kansas City Chiefs. I watched this one very closely as well. I wanted to see what Chris Conley looked like on the Kansas City side. I wanted to get a gauge of Travis Kelsey, who I have very highly ranked.

If you watch this game, this was the Jeremy Macklin, before he was ejected, and Travis Kelsey Show. It was target after target after target to those two guys. Alex Smith is Alex Smith. It's like, I look up. If the target's there, I throw the ball. If not, I'm pretty much like pulling my head down into the pocket and running the ball.

That being said, Macklin and Kelsey were super productive. I feel really good about those two guys. Jason and I, I think we've made ourselves a little waterbed about the consistency of Jeremy Macklin. So as long as he's not ejected, I'm feeling pretty good about that. I still feel good about the bet, the fact that I think he is.

up and down, had too many games with less than five receptions last year. But it is nice. I mean, you know he is the number one for this team. That is always a nice position to have. I think Macklin is a value for where he's going in the draft. So I don't want our water bet to make people think I wouldn't like Macklin on my roster. I think Macklin is a good fantasy play this year. And Kelsey, coming into last season, was one of the guys that we were the highest on. If a couple of...

touchdowns went his way, then he would have nailed that expectation. So he is really one of those post-hype sleepers where his value is not where it could be. And maybe we were one year or two early on Kelsey. He is, when it comes to a physical talent, you could see it on the field. He is a Gronkian specimen. He's just a gigantic beast of a human being.

And he can make plays. If you just need to understand the difference of Kelsey athletically than somebody else, go watch his first catch in the game. It's a simple screen pass to Travis Kelsey where he does some things to juke a couple guys and gain an extra five yards. He is so strong. He's one of the best yards after the catch players in the game. And so I think Kelsey is a very, very safe, tight-in value. If Kelsey was on the Patriots, he would be going in the first round. He is talented enough.

I agree. All right. So, Todd Gurley looked good to me in this game. I want to circle back to Chris Conley. I think he's the two there in Kansas City. He seems like, you know, he caught a deep pass from Alex Smith. Do you guys have any strong feelings about Connolly and his value? I was going to say, but does the wide receiver two in Kansas City actually have week-to-week fantasy value? That's how I feel. There were time. No, not really. But there was week-to-week.

starts with those guys. Albert Wilson last year produced at times. So I wanted his name out there in deeper leagues. If we didn't need another tight end to talk about, well, you've got one, in my opinion. I think Lance Kendrix, you don't even mention Lance Kendrick's name, but he does not have Jared Cook there anymore. So I think Lance Kendricks is another guy at the bottom of the tight-in barrel that you probably will see some productive games out of. You don't have a lot of wide receivers to go to there. Kendricks got in the end zone last year at times, even with Cook there.

Just throwing the name out there. Sure. Yeah, that's fair. Names we haven't said on the show, that's one of them. We could play that game. Benny Cunningham. See, now we're speaking my language. Now we're speaking my language with Benny Cunningham. I think he's looked very, very efficient. He surprised me these first two preseason games where when he's had the ball in his hands, he's done good things with him.

Now, it surprises me that you're surprised because Benny Cunningham has been great. He has been great in that role of the past catching back. As the past catching back, I agree. But I'm talking about when he's been taking handoffs. Getting handoffs. He's, he's looked really good. Benny Cunningham is, look, I think that the Rams are going to use Benny Cunningham to a frustrating level on third down for Todd Gurley owners. Yeah, you might be right.

We'll see. That won't, I don't think that'll matter to the bottom line for Tide Gurley. It might not. But it will be one of those eye roll things where you kind of just, you wish you had that every, it's kind of like Adrian Peterson last year. Right. People hoped Adrian Peterson was a one, two, three, every down back. Didn't really hurt his value, but you just, it could have made him otherworldly. You go Matt Azata, really? Yeah. Get off the field. Yeah, Derek McKinnon. All right, we're going to jump into the mailbag. Answer some listener questions. Mailbag.

All right. If you have a question for the show, head over to the fantasy footballers.com. Click the submit a question button, or you can dial our voicemail hotline 302464 TFFB. Leave us a question there. This question comes in from Tim in South Elgin. He said, I only noticed a slight bump in the Garrett Blunt's rankings following the Dionne Lewis News. Why is that? I understand that Lewis and Blunt have very different roles, but don't you think Blunt could see an increased workload with the loss of another playmaker out of the backfield?

What is your response to this inquiry? It's a very fair question. But for me, it's, once Dionne Lewis went out, I don't feel, I feel like James White, you go look back at his box score and his usage. Once White was acclimated to the games, he was actually up at those levels that Dionne Lewis, and I'm talking about targets. I'm not talking about full-on production because.

He's not a special. Dionne Lewis is a much better player than James White. However, the targets, the catches, once he was really getting going. Look, I'm pulling it up right now. So you have a 10 catch game, 4, 7, 5, and then closes out with 2. But so to me, nothing changes. Like, I don't think that.

Legerick Blunt's role doesn't change at all. Thank you. That's where I was trying to go through that mess. Whatever extra carries he might get, you could also argue the offense takes a step back losing Dionne Lewis. So it's like, you know, to me it's a wash. You can't necessarily know that he's going to get more carries. You can't necessarily know that the offense is going to be worse. But it's not his role. It's really James White in a completely different situation.

Tim in Morristown, Tennessee says, do I keep Brandon Marshall with a fifth rounder or Jordy Nelson with a 16th rounder? That is, that's tough, but I think I would have to take that value with Jordy Nelson in the 16th. There's risk to Jordy right now and there's not to Brandon Marshall, but the risk goes away when I'm not risking any draft capital whatsoever.

with my last pick in the draft. Yeah, I'd go, Jordy. I would as well. Late quarterback question from Jeff in Pittsburgh. He said in my 10-man half-point league, he has Dalton and Romo. However, Tyra-Rad Taylor is available on waivers. Should he drop either Dalton or Romo to pick up Tyraud Taylor? Ooh. That's, I would not drop Dalton. Maybe Romo, just if you're trying, if you think that Taylor has that top eight upside, which it.

He's got it. I mean, he had the most rushing yards per game on a per game basis for the quarterback. So it's very possible, but man. I agree. It's possible. I think I would just stay. I think it's possible that he finishes ahead. But I wouldn't predict that. I would rather have the consistency of Tony Romo and Andy Dalton. I side on that side as well. Kai in Vancouver says with Josh Gordon back on the Brown's roster, losing weight, running with the first team, do we really trust?