Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Studs, Duds, Rising Stars, Injuries, Mayhem

And Jarvis Landry, we were all very high on them this week. Tim for 137, big game. Game flow sure helped out the Miami Dolphins offense for fantasy purposes. Game flow? Just the fact they had to pass. And they lost Aaron Foster. Grappolo went, took the Patriots up huge. Gropolo goes down so the Patriots offense starts to turtle and just absolutely feed Lageret Blunt. And that allowed the dolphins to climb back in.

All right, running backs that blew up this week. We already talked about Matt Forte had a monster game. We're a horseback. We don't need to discuss him anymore. DeAngelo Williams doing DeAngelo Williams things always finds his way into the end zone when he has a premier role and had only 32 carries. I was going to say 32 carries. Man. That seems decent. We're going to talk about Melvin Gordon in just a minute, so I will not discuss him in this segment. But he will get...

Some air time, trust me. The Garrett Blunt, 29 for 123 and 1. Mike's start of the week. Yeah, I was going to say, great start there. Latavius Murray had a touchdown again, but very limited workload. Eight carries in this game. He is a stud muffin for the week, and he is a question mark for the next few weeks. He's a slight concern in the sense that, you know, the thing that made Latavis Murray great last year was his incredible share.

of both the running game and the passing game. It wasn't a share. It was a full stranglehold on the rushing. Yeah, now they're getting, they're getting plenty of other guys, Rashad and Washington, involved in that running game. He still led the charge. And because there was a high scoring, you know, down game, there wasn't a whole lot of rushing attempts in general. And he was very involved in the passing game, six for 44. You know who else was involved in the passing game? Oh, I love it. DeMarco Murray. Oh, how much? Demarco Murray was.

For sure. He had a great game. We'll get back to your guy in just a second. Let's talk to Marco real quick. DeMarco 7 for 56 through the air, 12 for 89 on the ground. Integral part of that offense. Now, Jason wanted to talk about Gio Bernard. Yeah. You got nine receptions for 100 yards in a touchdown. That is a great game from a wide receiver. Because AJ Green was like, I don't want any. You can, you can have them. Yeah. AJ Green, he stinks. Antonio Brown, he stinks.

What happened this week? It's a divisional game, man. It's a divisional game. And it, you know, here's what I see. When I see AJ Green and Antonio Brown have the games they do, here's all I think. I'm so jealous of the owner that got to play against them this week because nine times out of 10, you get just destroyed by them. And this week that person got lucky enough to.

to not play a real AJ Green or a real Antonio Brown. CJ Anderson looked great again, 24 for 74 and a touchdown, three for 19 through the air. Very consistent, solid week. Anybody else want to talk about it, the running back position? I think that's everybody. Are you very confident with DeMarco as a RB1? I'm very confident with him as a two. The actual game, his final line on the ground was 12 for 89.

It was really bad. He had a long... It was terrible to start, and then he busted off a huge run, which fixed his total numbers. That's how it works. That's how it works. But every other, his 11, I think he was 11 for 22, which is terrible. While at the same time, Derek Henry was involved in the running game, averaged 4.4 yards per carry and had just a few less carries than DeMarco Murray. Now, DeMarco Murray's involvement in the passing game is what...

you know, lets me be confident in him going forward. But I will say Henry is a good right now is the type of time that I would, I would maybe look at trying to buy Derek Henry. All right, tight ends that produced this week. Yeah, Martel's Benin actually get targeted in the passing game, five for 114 and a touchdown on six targets. Yeah, that's efficient. Big boy game. Big boy game. Not a lot of people probably started him because he was in there blocking last week and didn't give us the gronk type of game that we hope for. Greg Olson, hello.

Eight targets had a 78 yard touchdown, five for one, 22 in a touchdown. Monster game for Greg Olson. Love to see that involvement. Dennis Pitta. The one hip, quitta. Is it one hit? Yeah, the Dennis, Dennis Pitt of the one hip quitter. He is back. Wow. Nine. Nine for a hundred and two from the tight end position. Obviously, Joe Flacco looked to him often in that game. Are you interesting?

to see this. And going forward, he's just going to be a guy you've got to keep on the radar and see if this happens again. But if you had Kobe Fleener, pick him up. Would you drop Fleener and pick up Dennis Pitta? I don't know if I would drop Fleener yet. Yeah, you push comes to shove here, guys. For Fleener or for Pitta, I probably wouldn't, but I do think that there are guys on the waiver right now.

that I would do that for. I would probably do that for Jacob Tammy. Jacob Tammy might not be in our stud muffins, but that's two weeks in a row where he has been incredibly involved. He is, in fact, in the stud muffins. Five for 75 and a hush. Oh, I missed him. Monster game. Yeah, and he's definitely on waivers. Delaney Walker had a great game, 633 and a touchdown. And Vance McDonald in...

This is a situation. He had a great play. He had one play, one for 75 in a touchdown. Touchdowns in two straight weeks. And I hate this type of a situation because I don't want that guy. I don't want a guy who gets two targets is my tight end. I don't care if occasionally gets these long plays. He's not going to do it every game. So I don't want him. I agree. I'll take any other tight end that, you know, I'll take Pitt over Vince McDonald, take Tammy. You might want to keep your, you know, on the radar as well.

Jack Doyle, we should keep him on the radar because he was involved again for the Colts. And so, you know, that week one, you're just not sure is this like, oh, the plays just happen to be there. So just. Jack Doyle's involvement kills the Dwayne Allen. Yeah, upside. Well, it kills the. I love Michael Keaton. Oh, it kills Dwayne Allen. And it also takes care of whatever activities that Jack Doyle has to take care of that in the Tom Clancy novels that he goes in. Right.

All right. Some other honorable mentions. Matt Jones had an okay game, 13 for 61 and a touchdown. Kevin Coleman, 12 for 46 and a touchdown. He saw the field quite a bit. Devanta Freeman and him are sharing, scaring owners of Devanta Freeman. You know who didn't get a target? Devanta Freeman. Yeah. That is inexplicable. That's what changed. That gives him the baseline he used to have. So I don't know what to think about that. We're going to move on.

Raising Cains, Rising Stars of the Week. All right, it's time for our Raising Cain's Rising Stars of the Week. Let's get delicious. Let's get delicious. All right. Melvin Gordon, I said I'd talk about him later on. He's my rising star of the week. Melvin Gordon, 24 carries for 102 yards. If you listen to Philip Rivers talk about Melvin Gordon. He says,

All the right things. He says he's a different player this year that he is coming on, that he's running hard. You see it on the field. And now you have this opportunity with Woodhead being out. You're going to see past targets to Melvin Gordon. He's scored in a couple weeks, has that off his back. I love what I'm seeing from Melvin Gordon. I think he has a really good chance. If he stays healthy, which is a giant fantasy question mark these days, of staying in the running back one category.

Yeah, the Danny Woodhead injury, which we don't know how long Woodhead is out. There was a glimmer of positive news breaking out there on Woodhead. This was a make or break week for me with Melvin Gordon, too. I wanted to see production fantasy-wise, not just that, you know, last week I think he had 60-something yards in the two touchdowns. Show me something else, and he did on the field. And with, you know, Tyrol Williams and Antonio Gates and Travis Benjamin.

Philip Rivers has enough weapons outside of Keenan Allen to keep the offense moving, and that changes the equation for me with Melvin Gordon. So he's my rising star of the week. All right. My Razor Keynes rising star of the week is Kelvin Benjamin. We said it was all about the Benjamins, but the reason that he is rising for me, one is because coming into the year...

You know, I was pretty low on Kelvin Benjamin, relatively speaking. I mean, you know, I wasn't sure whether he was going to bounce back to that rookie form, completely different offense, a whole year later. It's clear now, without a shadow of a doubt, that he is the number one target. He is matchup proof. He is a red zone weapon. And Calvin Benjamin, I can't imagine him not.

being a wide receiver one at the end of the year under any circumstance barring injury he is too involved and too big

I mean, just flat out, he's just too big. When you've got a cannon like Cam Newton that can just rocket the ball in here where you're boxing out, there's just no way to, it's basically like Grunk, right? It's like it's kind of like Gronk and Tom Brady. When you get down near the end zone, if you've got a quarterback that can get it to you where the defender's not because you've got a big body, it's just like an auto touchdown. I just love his competitive, like the competitive catches that he makes.

He doesn't lose the ball in those. He may drop the occasional outside throw. Wide open throw. Right. But if he's in space, look, he's not going to lose the ball on a hit. No. He's enormous. It's, it's fun watching him play, too. I just love watching big guys beat up on these little corners. Yeah, he's a big boy. So Calvin Benjamin is your rising star. Certainly. My guy, I'm going with Stefan Diggs. Look, by now, for me at least, I am completely bought in.

I didn't know what to do with Stefan Diggs over this offseason. Like we talked about, he was the originator of the stay in the flames of he went full, he was heating up, and then he was on fire. He had a four-game stretch where he was unbelievable. And then he completely fell into the background and did almost nothing. I believe he had one or two great games after that. So I just, I didn't know what to do with him coming into the draft with Teddy Bridgewater as his quarterback. Could Bridgewater take that step and did it matter?

Well, and would Laquan Treadwell? Sure. And they spent a first-run pick on a receiver. You still had Charles Johnson peeking his head out of the bushes. But Stefan Diggs, I missed. I missed on Stefan Diggs. And I am here to say that I'm fully on board. Let's test that. Oh, okay. Stefan Diggs or Michael Floyd rest of season. I think I'm going to take Diggs. I would take Diggs. I would take Diggs. Defon Diggs or Alan Hearns rest of the season.

I'll take dig. He's the number one guy. Stefan Diggs or Michael Crabtree. Ooh, crab people? That one, that's very tough. I'll probably still go with Diggs. I'm going to take the number one. Last one here. Calvin Benjamin or Stefan Diggs rest of season? I'll take Kelvin Benjamin in that situation. But for Stefan Diggs, like Jason said, he's leading the league in passing yards. That's what Sammy Biscuits coming in with two weeks of preparation. What is losing Peterson do?

I don't think it changes a whole bunch for that offense. Peterson, I mean, I know he pulls the defense up. And to my eyes, what was really unfortunate for Peterson is I always talk about him. He's a second half guy. And the chunk plays were starting to come. The defense was starting to unravel for Peterson right before the injury. So that was very unfortunate. But I think Stefan Diggs, there are people who are smarter than I who talked about.

The Sam Bradford, he's such a better fit for what they do in Minnesota than what they did, what he did in Philadelphia. And he was solid. The second half of Philadelphia, once he finally got in the system, he was good. So now if he's in a system that is better suited for what he can do, look, a division game. Like we talked about, we saw Antonio Brown and AJ Green soiled their pants for fantasy purposes. You have Sam Bradford with no time to get ready.

comes in and Stefan Diggs connection with him just goes ham. All right, Stefan Diggs, Melvin Gordon, Calvin Benjamin. Those were our Raising Cains Rising Stars of the Week. Remember, game day tastes better with Raising Cain's tailgates full of fresh, 24-hour marinated, hand-battered chicken fingers. Mmm. And fresh-brewed sweet tea. Visit raising canes.com to find your nearest location. And as Mike always says, always, always get extra sauce. Poopped in his big boy pants.

So many big boy pants to be pooped in this weekend. Let's find out who we are actually concerned about. Yeah. That's, let's, we got to get through these because we're already at the 52 minute mark here. But let's, let's skip guys that we're not long-term concerned about it. Okay. Andrew Luck. I'm not long-term concerned. We saw Robert Turvins snatched away a touchdown from him. Not concerned. Do you bench every wide receiver against that Denver defense?