Fantasy Football 2017 - The “My Guys” Episode + Early Targets

275 plus times. Todd Gurley. He hasn't needed to do that. He has, I mean, think about last year. Okay, last year, Tim Hightower had 133 carries. Okay, so those 132 too many. You're darn right. They were. And so now Adrian Peterson comes in. Now, I expect Adrian Peterson to get more than, more than 100. He sure did. He has worked back from his injuries. He's getting that carry. He deserves it, but not 133.

Adrian Peterson will come in and he will take more than that. But the point is, it's not like Mark Ingram is going from having all of the work to all of a sudden Adrian Peterson's in there now and taking 150 carries. If he takes 150 carries, that's only, you know, 20 carries more than what was out there last year with Hightower. And then you go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Chase, what about Alvin Camara? I mean, he has looked great.

In the passing game, if he comes in, isn't he going to kill Mark Ingram's value? Maybe. You can't kill Mark Ingram. I mean, but Travar's cadet last year had 54 targets, caught 40 receptions. Okay, so let's just, I mean, passes. Caught 40 passes. He had 40 receptions. Whatever. I'm just excited to talk about the fact that Mark Ingram is a guy that's being disrespected right now.

If you want to draft him, you can get him way after Adrian Peterson in the draft right now, which I think is silly. Yeah, that is silly. He's the 27th running back being drafted right now. He's on a super high-powered team that he is the only running back there who is intimately familiar with their system. And while all the news has been so great Adrian Peterson, Alvin Camara, Mike Triplett, great ESPN reporter who covers the Saints, has said, hey, I realize all the news has been great because they're new and shiny.

But Mark Ingram's been great at camp. I mean, Alvin Kamara was great this past weekend. Mark Ingram didn't play. Mark Ingram wasn't involved, so yeah, Kamara, you look great. My point is that Mark Ingram, he will have a role to play. He will get his 166 rushes and his...

35 receptions and his six or seven touchdowns. And if you're getting that guy right now, he's dropping, I've seen him dropping into the sixth round. You want to know who he's going by in the sixth round? Derek Henry and Paul Perkins. I would much rather have a Mark Ingram. What happens if Adrian Peterson, who's 72 years old coming off a knee injury? Well, see that? What if he gets injured? Just so you can take a breath. I'm going to start talking now.

That's what I was going to bring up, though. I can't see a player being drafted that late have more upside if that starter, because everybody's given Adrian Peterson. Look, you'll be happy to know. I move Peterson down earlier today. I'm not happy. You're the Fancy Reaper. That hurts my argument. Move him up. I move Peterson down about 20 carries. But if Peterson isn't Peterson, if he doesn't give them enough, if something's wrong, if he gets hurt again,

all of a sudden Ingram is, he's a top 10 back. And the past catching chops are there. So I understand that. It's all about that value to me. Like if you told me I was paying up in the first four rounds, the first five rounds for somebody whose role, look, I know the end result has been okay over the past few years, but you don't know how he gets there all the time. I wouldn't want to pay that much, but you don't have to pay that anymore.

Yeah, I mean, I'm not saying that Mark Ingram, I'm calling him to be a top five back. He's right now my running back 19. But where he's being drafted, he's 27? Yeah, he's the 27th running back off the board near the sixth round. I think people are, and let's be honest, after this last week, he's going to be falling. With what Alvin Camara did with his first handoff, nobody's going to want to touch Mark Ingram, and I'll touch him. So? Yeah.

Okay, all right. Moving on. So the New Orleans Saints last year as a team for their running backs, just to talk to Jason's point of they can sustain multiple running backs for fantasy. They had the seventh most rushing yards, the seventh most rushing touchdowns. And they had the most receptions, the most targets, the most receiving touchdowns. I mean, there is humongous volume.

Going to these running backs. And it's like that every year. I mean, you can go back to when it was Deuce McAllister. I mean, Reggie Bush and Darren Sprouls and Pierre Thomas, all these running backs who have been on the team at the same time and been productive. All right. We got to move on. Mike, I need another one of your guys. All right. This one's a little risky. Risky business? I know who this is. That's how I do things. Over here is the fantasy hit man. You're always a three days past the expiration date kind of guy.

And the reason it's risky is because technically speaking, this player's still not allowed to play in the regular season. That's Martavis Bryant. But just to go off of that, he's already been reinstated for preseason. Everything is trending towards him being fully reinstated for the regular season. I have seen nothing. No whispers from the Bush is about.

a negative step back or setback for Martavis for his reinstation. His rookie year. Six touchdowns in the first four games. I mean, his production has been absolutely outrageous. In 2015, he was suspended for four games, as been noted, and then he was actually benched for a game. But in his first nine games, he put up a line of 48 receptions, 760 yards and six.

Touchdowns. I mean, that's, he is absolutely ridiculous. Big Ben goes from, in 2014, without Martavis, 266 yards, 1.3 touchdowns. When Martavis gets in, 336 yards a game, 2.4 touchdowns, and a similar increase in 2015. The dude's an absolute monster. There are not very many people.

who can match his athletic profile for how large he is. 6-4 ran around a 4-4-5 when he was coming into the league. And he said, well, what am I going to do this off-season? I can't play football. He was up in the gym, working on that fitness. He now reportedly weighs around 230 pounds. I mean, the reports... He looked like a Whitewalker. He is... The Night King is trying to recruit Martavus Bryant to do some damage. He's...

He's going to dominate, but he is risky. The reason why Martavis Bryant is available in the fourth and the fifth round is because of the risk. If Martavis Bryant had none of that baggage, he would be in the third round. And Big Ben and the passing game for the Steelers can sustain two very high level wide receivers. So I am all in on what Martavis is going to be able to do. And I...

That's the crux of the argument there. So the reality, so once, you know, a couple weeks ago, the NFL came out and said, hey, we're not going to, you know, he's not officially completely reinstated. We're monitoring his progress. I backed off. Yeah. And this is you saying, I'm planting my flag. I'm not afraid. Right. It's worth it. And I'm telling you, this is a risky pick because if something happens, there's going to be.

Twitter is going to be flushed with the I Told You So's of this is why you don't draft risky players in the fifth round. And that's fine. I'm not telling you you have to do this. But I am drafting Martavis Bryant because I believe that he will be a major difference maker. I don't think there's going to be many other people in that range who have the ceiling that Martavis has. It's funny because I'm going to give you my guy. The last three picks we're talking about a fifth round picks. You just talk about Martavis in the fifth. Jason brought him Ingram in the fifth.

Here's a player I would take over both of them in the fifth round. And you might not like it. No, I don't. But I'm going to tell you right now. Who is it? Here's a quote from this player. And this is how I see this season. He said, adversity yields opportunity. All right. Doug Martin. Doug Martin, the suspended. Look, three games. He's out three games this year.

I'm going to tell you right now you want to draft Doug Martin. And every team that I see that has Doug Martin on their bench after they've invested earlier picks, all my receivers on tight end, maybe they don't have the strongest running back core in the league. Get ready for Doug Mark. Doug Martin is one year removed from 1,400 plus yards in 2015. He had 33 receptions that year. He averaged 4.9 yards per carry, and last year was a lost year. That's how you need to look at it. He said when he was suspended, he was looking for support.

to battle and overcome his personal issues. He went to rehab. He went through that process and everything that we have seen in camp, everything that we've seen on hard knocks, everything that we've seen in preseason performances shows, look, Dirt Cutter's not going to come out and award a guy who basically led his whole team down by saying you're the automatic starter when you come back. He's the starter, guys.

He's twice the player, because Rogers is. You could see the burst in preseason already, and you're talking about a player that has multiple times in his career finished in that top five echelon number, right? He was number two running back his rookie season. He was number three in 2015. Where can you get a player that can finish in the top five at running back in the fifth round, if not this year with Doug Martin? You have to pay the price. You have to survive three weeks. I get that. And that makes him scary. That makes him risky.

Right? He's risky like Martavis Bryant is risky. So I don't say you reach. I don't think you go reach up into the fourth round for Doug Martin. But if he's sitting there in the fifth or sixth round, if you don't have the best running backs through those first rounds, absolutely love Doug Martin. Everything I've seen tells me he's going to be the guy. So fifth round is where you'll take him. I will take him in the fifth round. Okay. What about you, Mike? Where would you take Doug Martin? It would have to be.

Seven or later. Yeah, and I think I split the difference. I will agree with Andy in the sense that everything you have seen with your eyeballs right now says he's back. He's explosive. I mean, it's really a lot of the Martavis argument, right? As long as the player's back being the player, you love the upside of the player. Yeah, if you know that you're getting the Doug Martin that has finished as a top three back and you're missing three games.

it's probably worth it would be worth it and that's why people are drafting zeke who has double that suspension in the second round because they believe that they have a top five running back when he comes back the problem with martin is i mean you can spin the wheel and the majority of his career it's come up bust and under 500 rushing yards in three of his season so there is

There's not just the risk of the suspension and maybe him not being the starter. I agree with Andy that once he comes back, he is the starter and he has looked excellent. He has looked like 2015 Doug Martin, but for me, I'm just, this is, Doug Martin is a perfect example of one of those players where I talk about, you put the flag down and you just admit you're okay with whatever the result is. If I miss on Doug Martin, I don't care.

completely fine missing on Doug Martin. And so that's just, that's where he is for me. At the right price, I will go in on him, but it has to be a price that I am willing to pay. And I'm not going to go on. I'm going to let Jason give his next guy, but the offense. We like the offense. We like the opportunity for that office to put him in a good position as well. And they want to run the ball. We saw this last year. They won when they ran the ball. And I can't help but think Deshaun Jackson.

a healthy, you know, Mike Evans, O.J. Howard. Has to. That all helps that office. I will be honest. I have not liked Doug Martin much this year. But some of the arguments you're making, I think they do hold water. And if you can get him, especially in the sixth round, I think you will end up with a good pick there. And this is the first time I've even come around the slightest on Doug Martin. He's been much more, much closer to my do not draft list. So, all right.

All right. Number three, my, I'm sorry, Jason has already given us Zach Ertz and Mark Ingraham. And I know this guy might be the favorite of his list. I'm not sure. It is my favorite of the list. And what's funny is as I was putting this list together, I had those other two picked out. And I had like 10 other names. I'm kind of deciding who do I want to plant my flag on. And this guy wasn't in the list. I took another look.

And I thought, what am I doing? That's my guy. This is a guy I actually believe. This is my guy. This is my guy, Mike. I am the highest on the three of us. I'm higher than most. You're definitely the highest of the three of us. The most high of the majority of experts out there right now. I believe Dak Prescott is a great quarterback. It's as simple as that. I mean, he has the third best fantasy season.