Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Fantasy Favorites, News, Listener Mailbag

It's because these are our guys. All right. All right. These are our guys. These are the guys we're hitching our wagon, too. We want to bring them up because we think where they're being drafted, they're of value. They're guys that we really, truly, deeply believe in. And so I'll kick it off. You guys ready for this? Yep. Jeremy Maclin. Jeremy Maclin is my guy. I'm going to tell you why. He's going right now in the fourth round.

in ADP. Here are some guys going ahead of him that I don't believe belong ahead of him. Amari Cooper, Andre Johnson, Emmanuel Sanders, to name a few. Jeremy Macklin has been my guy for quite a while. And this preseason has only served to validate my thoughts in Jeremy Macklin because I think people are very much under. He's going to impact that entire Kansas City offense as a whole. That offense will be better. Alex Smith will be better. Jamal Charles will be better. Travis Kelsey is better because Jeremy Macklin's there.

He had the best hands in football last year. He's been forced fed the ball in preseason. He had seven targets in about a quarter and a half in his last game. He's got two touchdowns, which should help people who are worried about the fact they had none at the wide receiver position last year, not worry so much. And the reality is, is Maclin is an elite athlete and talent. And the big thing that I think you'll see from him this season in...

Kansas City is when you get off-man coverage on Jeremy Macklin, him and Alex Smith have shown already in the preseason. Maclin's shown it in his career as he's ascended as a wide receiver that he will get screen passes and do things with them. And so a high volume, high-p-pr guy who I do think will get in the end zone, I think this preseason only goes to show how good he is. And I will say,

If I had to pick a red flag for him, I am concerned that the volume and use could lead to injury because he is a guy who's been hurt. He takes big hits for some reason. I saw that in the preseason too, but I love Jeremy Maclin, and he is my guy in 2015. I have spoken against Jeremy Maclin quite a bit, but the usage in preseason has swayed me. I am a little worried about some of my many water bets against Jeremy McClough. Yes. And the truth is... Oh, time out.

I just want to let people know what a water bet is. We get that question again. He said we've made many water bets. When we are opposed...

on a situation, a player, a team, something like that. We will often make a water bet with one another, and that's what you've heard on the show before. You'll hear the sound effect. A water bet has been made. What that simply means is that at the end of the season, when one of us has proved right, myself, and one of you is proved wrong, either of you. We spin a wheel of water, and you get punished by having water thrown on you in a variety of embarrassing ways. We put our water where our mouth is. Also, we have a new water wheel app.

coming out very soon so that you can make your own water bets as well. Anyway, I just wanted to explain it. People have asked, so go ahead and go back. So Jeremy Macklin, you know, he's only had one season ever in his career over at 1,000 yards. You know, he's been with this coach before, so it's not like, oh, maybe it'll be a change of system thing. However, I do think that the fact that they've got a good running game and that they've got Kelsey, some of those short passes are going to be broken long. He even got some out of the back field.

Yeah, so I think he could be decent. All right, high praise, high praise. You have stuck your claim on Jerry Maclin. Mike, why don't you give me one of your guys this season? So I'll continue with the Kansas City Chiefs. They're all Chiefs. These are our guys on the Chiefs. I've talked them up. I'm not backing down a single bit, and that is Travis Kelsey. Just watch him play.

with your eyeballs. We talk about using eyeballs a lot. Don't tell me what to do. The guy is a monster. It takes four defensive players to bring him down. Last year, he was kind of a preseason hype guy, and so a lot of people jumped on the train, and we're disappointed because his usage to start the year was very low. We found out eventually that this was part of Kansas City's plan to work him in slowly off of his injury because he missed his entire rookie year.

But once he got going, he was red hot. So in limited action, right, that had to scale up throughout the year, 81 targets, 67 catches. That's an 82.7% catch rate. Pretty good. That's extremely high. Over 850 yards, five touchdowns. He had over 500 yards after the catch. So it's not just that he has good hands and he's pulling him down. He's an athlete. He is an athlete.

500 yards after catch, that's gronkian numbers. I know that's kind of a sacrilegious thing to compare anybody to the gronk, but Travis Kelsey is, he is coming, right? He hasn't shown it yet for a complete season, but he graded out as the best run-blocking tied end in the NFL from pro football focus. He's going to be on the field. Anthony Fasano is gone. Travis Kelsey is the man.

There's just so many green flags with Travis Kelsey, the system. Alex Smith has had success with Vernon Davis. He is a perfect fit for what Alex Smith does as a quarterback. All right. I agree with very much of what you said. I have concerns about seeing it. We haven't seen it. So when I was staring down the Olson Kelsey decision in our draft, I was on the Olson side. You...

put your money where your mouth was, and you drafted Kelsey in our big dynasty league. So I am very excited to see what I said a minute ago about their offense being improved. Kelsey's going to do that for Macklin, just as much as Macklin's going to do it for Kelsey. And Kelsey is going, sorry, Kelsey's going in the fifth round. Okay. Yeah. Does this mean that my guy has to be Alex Smith here? Yes. Because his two main options are your guys. No?

I don't think that's what that means. No, it's good. De Anthony Thomas. That's Jason's good. All right. So here's my first guy. My first guy that I am falling more and more in love with lately. In fact, I think I tweeted out the truth that I just traded LaShawn McCoy pretty much straight up for him. Lamar Miller. Lamar Miller. Lamar Miller, let me ask you something. But what about his?

Limited workload. Well, is that similar to the limited workload he had last year? I would say, yeah. I mean, he had limited workload. Everyone complains. Last year, do you know how many games he got 20 carries? No. Zero. Oh. Zero games. He had a limited workload. Do you like having a running back one on your roster, Mike? Usually. Do you want a running back one? I like two of them. Well, yeah. So a lot of times people forget that Lamar Miller last year.

was an RB1. He was a top 12 running back last year in limited work. Okay, so now in the offseason, Joe Philbin comes out and says,

Hey, it wasn't a thing where we tried to not get him the ball 20 times. I got no problem. I've never had a conversation with my coaches where I've said, don't give Lamar Miller the ball more than 20 times. If he's cranking and he's going, I'll give him the ball 24 times a game. I'll use him as a workhorse. He said that. But then coaches say things in the offseason. So come to preseason game three, the real show of what we're doing in the season. And Lamar Miller was involved.

on almost every single play. Now, it wasn't, I think he only got like six carries, six or seven carries. He was in about a half, but he also caught five of five passes and looks phenomenal. He is a key part of a growing offense. Last year who's an RB1, and the thing I love about him right now is that he's going in the back of the second. I mean, if you've got that first or second pick, you know, that third pick in that range and you get a stud RB, you can literally at your

You know, your third pick, you can be looking at him sometimes. So I just think, or your second pick near that turn, the value is there, and he's not getting a lot of love. So I want to love on you, Lamar. Oh, my goodness. Froyo. Let me just get a fro you. All right, so my next guy is...

another guy that I've talked about a lot this off-season, and then there was some Fantasy Reaver stuff that happened. And then I'm leaving him on my board, so I'm sticking with you, Arian. Arian Foster is my guy. His draft spot right now is the back of the fourth round. This is a guy who you've heard the refrains from me before. His career is not trending downward. It's trending up, 4.1 to 4.5 to 4.8 to carry.

If you've watched Hard Knocks at all this offseason, you know the desperate need for both offense and a running back position on the Houston Texans. And they trust Arian. He is a stalwart of that offense and team. And as soon as he's back, he's back. That is my contention. And so because of that and because of the fact that he could be back within two to four weeks, I love Arian Foster. But Andy!

Didn't you just curse him again and break his legs by talking about him? Absolutely not. I will throw any fears away. I think Arian will be great when he returns. And everybody who's submitting draft reports to me right now, they're getting a good grade when Arian Fosters on their bench. So that's your key. Draft Arian and then submit us the draft report if you want that A. Because of what he represents. You just talked about what Miller represents. Miller represented...

That situation I said I wanted where you get two RB-1s. There you go. Well, if you can get him in the back of the second and you've already drafted one and you believe he's that good, that's two RB-1s. Well, Arian represents an RB1 when you need him. You know, for most of the season, towards the back half, and then your team changes, the dynamics of your team changes. So you grab Lamar Miller after taking your stud in the very beginning of the draft and then grab...

Aaron Foster, who wants three RB1? So according to the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Chronicle on multiple occasions has said he could return as soon as the end of September. That's just a couple games. Aren't we in September already? Yeah, that'd be nice. That's just a couple games that you could end up with a guy who can finish as the number one running back. And this is just not a value play. This is because I believe Aaron Foster, he was my number one running back.

at the top of my draft boards before the injury. And so I'm excited to see this next episode of Hard Knocks, because it looked like Arian will be featured in there, and he's recovering, and he's going to get back, and he's going to get healthy, and he's going to do it. Or he's going to die. Well, hopefully that doesn't happen. Mike. Remember, what is it, a negative times a negative? That's a positive. Double reaping. He's in for the best season yet. I like it. All right, Mike, who's your next guy? So my next guy that I am completely attached to is Alan Robinson in.

10 games, he had 81 targets. 81 targets in 10 games. That puts them on pace for over 130 targets throughout the year. Now, what I want with Alan Robinson, who's going in the fifth round, is opportunity. I think the Jaguars offense is improving. They did an overhaul of the offensive line. And all the scouting reports of Blake Bortles say, Blake Bortles does not even resemble the player.

of last year. That's good. Yeah, because he was terrible last year, and Alan Robinson was still getting production. So if you improve Blake Bortles, it improved Alan Robinson, who's, he was now healthy, we had the little scare in the preseason game. Which people blame me for. Yeah, that was your fault. Seriously, Andy? Why can't we just... Don't you know it was Fred Jackson's fault? Ooh.

So a plug for tomorrow, we're going to talk to Matt Harmon, who he created reception perception. And from Matt Harmon's analysis, the only rookies to have a better success against coverage last year were ODB and John Brown. And then it's Alan Robinson. So he thinks he's a spectacular wide receiver. Cecil Shorts, 110 targets, gone. Alan Robinson.

is the man in Jacksonville. I'll be honest. I've gone back and forth with him a little bit. I definitely think he belongs on rosters and he's a value in drafts. But I've gone back and forth on believing that he could be special from a fantasy perspective. There have been times when I'm like, well, yeah, he's going to do that. The target numbers are great. And then there have been times when the offense has bogged that down in my mind.