Early Breakouts & Sleepers + The Panderbear: LIVE in Detroit - Fantasy Football Podcast for 6/21

He's not going to attend commanders. Manders. Manders. Minicamp. So this is like D.K. McCaff. Yeah. Ron Rivera came out. We're not trading Terry McLaren. That's just wishful thinking. Mike Brable. You want to see Terry McLaren on a different team? Yes. Yes, we all do. Ron would never do that because he's a coward. What if they just swap like Metcalf and, oh, that'd be bad.

Yeah, no, that's just a bad situation, do a bad situation. Yeah, I mean, one thing I didn't realize, because we've had a lot of debates about, like, Watkins and Lazard, and then we've talked about MBS. Right. But I was telling Jason the other day, like, they literally switched. Like, MBS, spent all this time with Aaron Rogers, and then... Let you down. Let you down. He kept sucking, and you kept waiting. He had all this opportunity, and a Hall of Fame...

you know, quarterback. And Sammy spent three years with Patrick Mahomes and Hall of Fame quarter. And then he's like, he'll be better with Aaron. Right. Oh, and MBS will be better with Mahomes. Probably neither. No, probably neither. We know who they are. Do you think Terry McLaren signs a deal before the season? I still think he does. I think he gets a lot of money. All right, let's talk about Jason's favorite player. Melvin Gordon. Ready to battle?

Yeah, and most people boo Melvin Gordon. No, we're booing Jason because... Oh, okay. If you do not remember, Jason drafted Melvin Gordon in a Dynasty League. Which turns out pretty wise. Yeah, but the problem is you were on the wrong team. Team Javante is a very popular team. Yes, it is. But he says he's ready to battle for a top spot in the Broncos backfield. Yeah, I mean, he came out and said he knows people want him to take a back seat. He gets it.

I'm not going to lay down, he said. That's right. And he's not. He's a good running back. He was good last year. It's good for the Denver Broncos. They will use him. I still think Javante has the majority of the carries. It's not a 50-50 split. But he's not, he is not an afterthought to this offense. He's a big piece of it. We'll come back to the discussion about the committee backfield later in the show when we talk about some breakouts because there's some interesting data about two back.

Two backs that get over 200 touches each, so we'll come back to that. A couple other things, J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards, they came out and said they'll probably manage early season work. To be expected. But, again, the team, other than Tyler Beatty in the draft in like the fifth round, that's off the top of my head, they didn't do anything else. So the team is expecting that those guys are ready. Do you think that Gus is a not-talked-about...

value. I do. Compared to Dobbins. Yeah, we, I mean, you go back. Last year was exciting. We were, we were kind of fading JK for his average draft position and being excited that Gus Edwards was going to be worked in, and he was a double-digit running back, similar to like Melvin Gordon right now. So yeah, Gus Edwards is a name that's make sure it's in the back of your head. Last one, Mike McCarthy says he hopes Dak Prescott will have more design runs, scramble. Me too.

A year removed from the ankle injury? Is there more upside? I mean, we used to come into the season talking about the level of at least touchdowns on the ground for DAC that raised the baseline. Yeah, this is actually big news. I've been the lowest on DAC so far of the three of us this off season because I wasn't confident that the running game...

would be elevated enough post that ankle surgery. I mean, obviously at some point it heals, but he's getting older at the same time. So to have the coaching staff come out and say they want him to run the ball more, to be more involved in that aspect of the game. It's huge for fantasy football because he's going to need another option. When you lose the targets that they have lost, Gallup isn't going to be ready. You've got no Amari Cooper. I mean, C.D. Lamb hasn't really proven he can be a superstar yet. It's really tough for me to get behind Dak Prescott.

If he's not running the ball enough. I mean, he started his career with a Mark of the Beast in rushing touchdowns. Right. A 666 each year. And if he can be in that 4-5-6 rushing touchdown range, that certainly helps his baseline tremendously. Do you echo that, Mike? You agree with that? Absolutely. It's breakouts time. Breakouts. I know. He's got a really big fan in the drops of excellence.

Yeah, nice job on the voice, Jay. Thank you. Let's go to the Pander Bear. Yeah, let's just get it out of the way. Let's get it out of the way. Who's your breakout? Detroit, we told you it was going to happen. It's just, I'm a little hot right now, so I don't know if we should start with me. Maybe I'd just take my shirt on. No, no, no, no. Oh, my God. Ladies and gentlemen, on the audio side. Oh, my gosh.

What is happening? What is happening? Just setting up shop here. Ladies and gentlemen at home, Jason Rookmore has... Is that a Dan Campbell coffee that you got there? Yeah. Jason took off his polo and apparently had a hidden Detroit Lion shirt that legit... I had no idea was there. Andy, did you know this? I had no idea this was happening. This is not a joke. I mean, it's a joke, but... Well, yeah. It's, yeah, we got the big clown in the back.

What is happening? My breakout is none other. First of all, first of all, he's that committed to that gag that he wore two shirts. Oh, do you know how hot I fit? For Jason, I'm amazed. I'm impressed. And that is one heck of a lion's visor you're wearing as well. Thank you. How much money did you spend for this bit? It was actually your money? I don't know. The company card got this. Thanks, Brooks. Oh, my goodness. All right.

My breakout candidate is D'Andre Swift, and it is not... Look, I know I'm known as the Pander Bear, but it is not just because we're in Detroit. This is someone I'm very high on. He's my running back six. When we statted everybody out, I see him as a superstar. I see him as truly a fantasy...

starred that you should be drafting because he's in the second round right now. And right now I see his ADP often at the top of the second. But I've done several drafts recently where I've gotten him middle and back end of the second. I draft him every single time that he is there. He is as talented a running back as there is in the NFL. When him and Jonathan Taylor were coming out, it was not a consensus here as to who was...

Our favorite because D'Andre Swift was that good, unfortunately. I think I had Swift higher coming out. Yeah, yeah, you did. He's very, very talented. He's got the fourth most running back targets, the fourth most receptions, the second most yards created per touch among running backs.

And if you look at what happened last year, from weeks one to 11, the majority of the season, he got injured in week 12, only played a small percentage of those games. He was the running back seven. He was already dominating. We know he's great. He just needs to stay healthy. And we've said it a lot. You assume people are injury prone until they're not. Debo Samuel was someone that I avoided because he was always injured. Oh, you didn't like him? And then he was great.

Because he stayed healthy. You know, the Frank Gore's of the past that you can't even think of him. Matt Forte was one. Yeah, Matt Forte, Frank Gore. You can't even think of those guys as having an injury-prone label because they played, they were Iron Men. But the first couple years in the league is, you know, it's hard on a young man's body, and he is young. He is 23 years old. He's two days younger than incoming rookie Rashad White. He is still, he's a growing boy. Still a little baby.

Over the last decade, here are the running backs who have had 100 plus receptions and 15 plus touchdowns in their first two years in the NFL. Sequin Barclay, Christian McCaffrey, Alvin Camara, David Johnson, Devante Freeman, Levion Bell, and D'And D'Andre Swift. He is... That's a good list. That's a good list to be in. It's a very good list to be in. And I talked about he's only 23 years old. Players that are 23 at running back drafted in the first three rounds...

pretty much always repeat or provide value on their average draft position. The only exceptions since 2010 are Levion Bell who got injured and Saquan Barkley who got injured. Every other player that fit that mold that young.

Ray Rice, Rashad Mindenhall, Ashon McCoy, Todd Gurley, Zigo Elliott, CMC, and Todd Gurley, this was their year where they were the number one running back overall at that age. The offense should be better.

for the Lions. They're not going to be the best, but they're not going to be as bad as they were last year on offense. And they're off to line. He's off to it again, Andy. It's a high bar. A few days ago. Not as bad. What do we talk about? Like 11, 12 wins? Yeah, I mean, I think you're a little low there, Mike, but. No, okay, so take my pandering away, pro football focus, just a few days ago came out with their offensive line rankings, and the Detroit Lions were ranked number three in the top tier.

So that's not me. That's them. So I think that this is... It's not me. It's not me. I'm just saying... I just buy the visors. How good the lions and DeAndre so it's going to be. I think he's a breakout. I think at the end of this year. Next year, he's drafted in the first six or seven picks. That's my true belief. Okay. And Mike, I want to get your take, whether you echo that upside. Obviously, last year I had a lot of excitement for it, so I can see the pathway there. You did give examples of players that didn't...

do what they needed to do and they were because they were injured. That is one of the worries or concerns, workload, being able to be consistent with that, whether Dan Campbell gives him the ball that much. But the talent demands it, right? The talent demands it. And if you actually look at the game logs, he was, you know, after he got injured, he came back, he played two games and there was a lot of promises of like, oh, we're going to give him a lot of workload. They didn't. They give him like four carries one game.

Prior to the injury... Fantasy players did not enjoy that. No. Dan Campbell was not beloved among fantasy players at that moment. But he was escalating in his snaps. He was getting regularly 70 plus percent of snaps. That was when Jamal Williams was on the field. Jamal Williams is not a reason to take DeAndre Swift off the field. So I mean, the injury risk is real.

But, like, what other running back is the injury risk not also there on? So I will take the upside of young talent. He really likes the lions. I mean, even before he bought all this stuff. I mean, TJ... Oh, stop it. He's always been a T.J. Hawkinson guy. That's true. Yeah. Yeah, he's very into the... His cowardly lion hair. He's always been a Lions fan. Oh, yes. So your history with Lions running backs in particular wasn't a deterrent.

It was not a Detroit. But it's a fear, right? It is certainly a fear. It's hard to pick another lion's running back, but I'm going to have the courage to do it here in Detroit. Good work, Jason. Thank you.

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