Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Early RB Rankings, Sleepers, Mailbag

played repeatedly. We should just set the studio up to where there's a button and cash falls on us. Oh, man. Mm-hmm. Make a rain. Why don't we do that? Yeah, we'll do that. It would rain coins and we would be injured. And our equipment would be broken. Yeah, the fact that he got paid so much, the fact that he got paid so much money and that he's on a team that clearly has, you know, they're going to give him the ball. You want to talk about the opposite of Jamal Charles.

Right. You know that Marshawn Lynch is going to get the ball over and over and over again. You know he's going to get touchdowns, which are so hard to predict. And I think that I'm a little worried because of Max Unger leaving. But Jimmy Graham coming in doesn't scare me. I think that one of the things that's going to do is it's going to improve the overall offense. It's also going to make sure to stretch the field a little bit and open things up. So I think that he has.

has a very similar year to last year. And I'm not going to sit there and say his workload is going to break down on him because some guys are built for that. You've seen it historically. And if we don't think that that's Marshawn Lynch by now, then you're crazy. I love hearing that take because last off season, I was the only human being on the earth that didn't think Marshall Lynch was going to fall off the map. And you can go back and listen if you want to. That is very true.

So Mike, you and I do have them a little bit lower than Jason does, and I think probably for the same reasons. The team's identity is still a running game. I don't think any of us are arguing that. We probably both gave him multiple or double-digit touchdowns. I think I had him at 11 because he hasn't been below 11 in like six years. So I figure he's staying around there. However...

I think he does, just knowing Jimmy Graham's involvement in the red zone, I think you take two or three of those opportunities away, at least in the passing game. And I think that identity begins to shift a little bit. So I don't have any problem with Marshall Lynch. I would love in some ways he's who I'd want the most if I wanted a consistent guy throughout the year, healthy, those type of things. But why do you have him at six? Why is he not a little bit higher where he finished last year? It's all about the trade to me. Because he was three last years.

Max Unger for Jimmy Graham. We went through the numbers. His yards per carry went down an entire yard in the games that Max Unger did not play. Jimmy Graham can't block. That's not his game. Marshawn Lynch, now he gets yards after contact. He's a bruising back. That's why he's not, I didn't plummet him out of my rankings. I still believe in him as a player, but I don't believe that he...

will be exactly what he was last year without Max Unger on the line. I agree. It's a little different. It's a little unknown.

I think it's a little different, though, when you lose a Pro Bowl caliber center in the middle of your year, when you weren't expecting it and you haven't prepared for it and the backup's not quite the same, as opposed to trading them by your own volition in the offseason and then going and healing that spot, you know, either through the draft or free agency. I don't expect it to be an entire yard per carry less like it was last year. But I do agree it's not going to be as good. Fair enough.

Fair enough. So we have Levi-on-Bell. We have Eddie Lacey, Jamal Charles, and Marshall Lynch as our top four. We're going to go ahead and shift gears a little bit. I know, I know. But it's probably good because the next guy on our list, stuff could happen to him. So next Tuesday, we're going to go through a bunch more of these running backs, AP, Arian Foster, Jeremy Hill. We're going to talk McCoy. We're going to talk Murray. We're going to talk running backs for a while. I have a question. Yeah.

So you guaranteed these people that we would make it through five of our top five. All right, let's do it. Let's do it. No, no, no, no. No, I'm just saying, you're just saying I'm breaking my promise to the listener. If you say you're going to make a birthday. Do you want to know why I'm breaking my promise? Why? Because we also promised the listener, we'd answer a couple questions on the mailbag. Okay. Mailbag. Myel bag. Yeah. Driper is back. You can email us.

Mail at the fantasy footballers.com. Send us your questions this offseason. We'll be happy to answer them on the air. You can also ask them on Twitter if you want a quick answer because you're making a crucial keeper decision in the middle of March, which has got to be most of you. That's an intense league. That's right. I love... Lock it in. I love the league that we're in, our dynasty league. It's so fun to have a bunch of guys that are willing to take fantasy football to the end degree.

Yeah, you have to. If you make it extreme, everybody wins, except for the person in last place. They lose. They lose horrifically. That's the most fun. Last year in our league, we were more excited about seeing who ended up dead last because in our league, we have a rule where the dead last player in this specific league gets doused with water by all the other owners before the draft and have to sit and draft.

soaking wet with soggy bottoms soggy bottoms so yeah it's almost more fun to watch people lose which just because i i've never experienced it so i have no idea at the end of the year that everyone was it was the jets and the dolphins it was the oh yeah we're the most intriguing game of all time yeah we were waiting for percy harvin had to put up like a four points to get one guy out of last place and he couldn't do it yeah the month so fun the monday night game

of just the worst match. You're the only people watching the game. Yeah, they looked it up on Nielsen, and there was 12 people watching, and it was the 12 people in our league. Fantasy football's the greatest. It just, it makes every game exciting. So let's answer a couple questions from the mailbag. You guys have them, I think up on your screen. I don't have them in front of me. I got the first question here. This question comes in from Chris in New Hampshire. He asks, Gordon or Gurley, where do you hope they land? So a little, uh,

pre-draft rookie question. Who do you guys think is better? Gordon or Gurley is a rookie? I am the Gordon guy. And I am a girly guy. You set me up. I need to immediately put that cut into our soundbook. That was awesome. What have I done? Regardless of who, I think the destination is an interesting question.

I think San Diego is a great place for a rookie running back to land. Because I don't like Brandon Oliver at all. And I hate to be jumping in with the choir of those people, but Melvin Gordon to Dallas would be so fantastic to get a guy who's projected at least to be a workhorse back behind that offensive line. And we don't have to count on the breaking the law, Joseph Randall taken over. Breaking the law. Yeah.

All right, what's our next question? Just to finish up that question, the one doubt about Gurley is just his availability this year. Will he be ready? With the ACL? He's coming off the ACL. Exactly. Sorry, I should have mentioned that. Where he's a rookie, so he needs that training camp time. He needs to get acclimated with the team. Will a coach be willing to trust a rookie running back? When will that happen? Or how much, too? If he's missed.

all of camp. It could be halfway through the season before he really is getting the bulk of the snaps. Sounds good. What's the next one on there? All right. This next question comes in from Harry needs help in Sacramento, California. All right. What is Harry need? It's like we're, I think Harry thought he was writing in a Dear Abby. Harry needs help. Well, Harry, let me read your question.

I've been hearing you guys talk a lot about the importance of running backs and how you have a slight devaluation of the quarterback position. Given that philosophy, would you keep Aaron Rogers in the sixth round or Eddie or Eddie Lacey in the second? That's tough. Standard scoring league? Do you know? He did not mention.

We can give answers for each. I think if it's a six-point touchdown league with quarterback, I'd make the jump at that point. The value is too good. And Aaron Rogers is literally my only guy in my tier one quarterback. I wish, so I'm going to go ahead and say, Aaron. I wish so much that we had video going on Jason Moore right now. He was, he looks like he was posing for the thinker statue.

Just call me Harry, okay? I need a little help. And so far his notes have just A. Rogers on a piece of air. It looked like he was writing some. I broke down after that. There's a letter E. That's true. E for Eddie Lacey. You were beginning. I want to see what these notes turned into. I thought it was the guy from entourage. I apologize. No. You know, I think that I want to take, here's my thoughts. I'll try to spill my thoughts out. In a keeper league, running backs keeping a good.

Tier 1 running back is super important, right? Because you're not going... Is that in a keeper league? Yeah. We're talking about keeping. No, no, no, I got you. Okay, cool. I don't know why I was thinking. Continuing on. You know, the running backs are even more important in the sense that your first round pick, you're not going to be able to get your top flight guys. You're not going to have the chance to draft, you know, Eddie Lacey in that portion because chances are they're on teams. So I would...

Here's what I would do, Harry. I would try to hold out and find out what your other league mates are doing. Because if they've got great values and they're going to let the Levyon Bells and the Marshaun Lynch's and those guys go back into the first round, then keep Aaron Rogers because you'll be able to use a pick and maybe get one of those top guys. But if everybody is keeping that, I think that you've got to keep Eddie Lacey because otherwise you're going to drop.

too far down there. And Aaron Rogers is probably not going to make up the difference between who you would get late in a draft from the quarterback position. I would probably have to keep Lacey in that situation. I agree that maybe it's an arrogance or confidence that I feel like I can piece that quarterback together to make up a difference, but I do not have a belief that I can piece together in Eddie Lacey.

in the second. And if you're getting lacing in the second, granted, there's going to be another other 11 guys off the board, but in the first round, you're going to be able to get a superstar, at least wide receiver, let's say. Yeah, I think that's just taking the quarterback.

situation too far for me that's what maybe it could be just because rogers is just on another tier from a you just plug them in at that point in the sixth round is the point you know what i mean i'm i'm on board but it's for me it just tips the scale a little bit and and like we just talked about through this entire show there's no guarantees with guarantees at running back even even in those top five you know one concussion one thing here there and obviously rogers can get hurt too but that's for me that's what i do that's you know

We'll talk more running back next week. There will be... Just me and me. Just me and me. Yeah, guys. Hey, guys. What are you burnt? No, that's Bernie. Next week we're going to talk some more running backs. There'll be a fantasy face off. Yeah, we'll have a fantasy face off next week where Jason and myself debate the merits of C.J. Anderson. It's going to be exciting. We did this. I would have been more prepared for today's show if I wasn't burning with anger over your thoughts on C.J. Anderson.

Maybe the world. We'll see. So we'll talk more running backs next week on Tuesday. If you want to help us out, you can go ahead and go online and go to iTunes. That is going to get us a total of zero reviews. Give us a review, five stars, please. Otherwise, don't go on there. And we'll be. We appreciate all the listeners. Mail at the fancy footballers.com. Visit us online. Fantasyfootballers.com. You guys have any closing thoughts, or shall we shut it down?

Just happy birthday, big brother. Oh. You're not really my brother. Thanks, appreciate it. I would like to share just some personal stories from my day yesterday. Is this a supplemental podcast? Is this going to take us a while? No, it'll be pretty quick. I just wanted to share a little adventures and parenting real quick because I think it's a humorous thing. That might be a little too extreme for a lot. But so the family went out to Chipotle last night. So far, I love this story. Oh.

I love it too. And then we sit down to eat. The wife's feeding the baby. Then with no warning, the baby projectile vomits the amount of a grown man. At Chipotle? At Chipotle. All over the floor. And we think this is just the best for dinner. We're going home. We're all getting out of the car. Oh, no.