Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - AFC & NFC West Previews, Fantasy News

Yeah, it's good to get an update on this. So really, really plan everyone out there, plan for Eifert to miss at least one or two. Isn't it one of the most annoying things in fantasy football to have to, whether it was Julius Thomas last year, Antonio Gates last year, like have to roster a tight end that you can't play for the first couple weeks because then you have to roster two? Yeah, if you're taking Tyler Eifert.

You are using two of your spots on a tight end at your draft and sacrificing the ability to draft another sleeper or another flyer. You have to keep that in mind. All right. Thomas Rawls promised he'll be a full go for the start of training camp. And this was out of directly from Thomas Rawls. They went to the source of the information. That's really good news. Because start of training camp is not the same thing as saying, hey, I'll be ready for the season to participate. I might or might not have made several trade offers.

in our aforementioned Dynasty League when I saw this. And the answer is I might. I did. There you go. That's one of the things I like about this show is that we don't just give you information. We apparently act on it very quickly. Oh, yeah. This is where you take advantage of things. Yeah, I was saying, if you want to really believe that we have an opinion, just, you know, that's a good situation. Jason has already tried to take advantage of people. His value's too low. If he's going to be back by training camp,

then he's the guy and his value will be much higher come draft day if you're drafting late in August. I'm not sure this is breaking news with the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Mary Kay Cabot. I don't know how to pronounce her last name. Cabo? Cabot. Reports all signs point to Cory Coleman being the number one receiver in Cleveland. There was just, we've had discussions on this show. Is Cory Coleman automatically the number one?

And if all the reports coming out of camps watching the practices are Coleman, we'll be the one that's just kind of that, just that little confirmation for everybody. All right, one of the guys I drafted in the Dynasty League will tie. It says he caught everything during the offseason program. We don't know whether it's going to be tie or to Nell. I've leaned tie. Mike has leaned tie. Wasn't that the exact same verbiage used on Sterling Shepard that he caught everything?

Like, I think those New York beatwriters really need to... Eli Manning. I was going to say 80% completion rate. This does not say Larry Denal caught everything. No. So, actually, from watching the NFL last year, I know he did not catch everything. Yeah, Will Ty was one of my targets. I was audibly miffed when Andy snatched him up right before I was going to pick him up. How'd you feel when I got Tyler Lockett? I knew you were going to get Tyler Lockett. So it...

I just knew it was coming, so it wasn't as upsetting. All right, Ruben Randall's listed ahead of Nelson Aguilar in the latest depth chart. It continues. Is Randall under value in draft? He will be. If he's going to be a starting wide receiver, look, there's going to be value for old Roobes. We know he can get it done as far as scoring touchdowns. Maybe he can be a little bit frustrating at times.

But we're talking great value in the late rounds. Well, Ruben Randall was not undervalued at this last Dynasty startup draft because I drafted him. And it was a good pick. You know what else is not undervalued? It is football hall.

Football Hall is amazing. We have been members of Football Hall here at the studio for months. At my Chicago trip, I was rocking Arizona Cardinal Basketball shorts nonstop because I got them in Football Hall. That is my team. When you sign up for one of these monthly boxes with Football Hall and you get all this awesome football gear, you get to put in who your favorite team is and you get one or two items specific to that team. This coming month, it's...

a Hall of Fame-themed box. So who knows, maybe a good friend of the show, Marshall Falk will hop out. Yeah, maybe. Hall of Famer galore coming in this box. They give you $75 worth of value for $29. It is a super-duper good deal. You go to Football Hall, ha-u-l.com. You sign up, you get your stuff every month, and it's closing on July 20th, so hurry up and do it. Use promo code, Ballers 5.

Ballers 5. Yeah, don't forget to use that promo code. Ballers 5 for Football Hall.com. Say some cache. Let's get divisional. I hope you had remembered to put it into the soundbox. Oh, not even close. That's one of the best. I didn't remember whatsoever. I mean, Mike, Jason was in the middle of talking about football hall, and I'm over here with five windows open, dragging stuff around, man. I was so proud that I got it in there.

And then you were proud of me. Oh, well done. Made it happen. And that brings back some good... Oh, what am I doing now? After all that good work. Dang. I blew it. Foot shot. I remember that dropped from last year. These were really good shows last year. Look, let the people down this year. The foot clan on the Twitter sphere was demanding almost daily. Like, hey, are we going to get those divisional shows? And I said, yeah.

Keep cool, my people. They're coming. Keep cool. All right, let's start in the AFC West. What do you say? Everyone's favorite division? No chargers. We say that about every division. All right, we'll talk about the Chargers first. It's appropriate to start in the AFC West. That's where the last Super Bowl champion emerged from. Sure. So let's talk about the Chargers. Fantasy relevant players for San Diego. Yes. Include Philip Rivers.

Somebody that I know we're high on as a late round quarterback. Keenan Allen. Keenan Allen is back from his injury. Yeah, he had that old hurt kidney. He's back. And just another reminder that Keenan Allen was a top three wide receiver before he went down. He was on an unbelievable target pace, getting at least 10 a game, was a sensational producer. All right. And then you've added Travis Benjamin to that offensive repertoire.

Yeah, and he will replace Floyd. They're Malcolm Floyd on the outside. And people say, you know, what should we expect from Travis Benjamin? Will he eat into, say, the Keenan Allen? I don't think he does. I think he really replaces Floyd almost identical, which to me, there's fantasy production to have. He could be that, you know, obnoxious guy where you just never know where it's going to happen. So he's not a guy I think you can depend on week to week.

His role could grow. I mean, I think that Travis Benjamin is actually a pretty good wide receiver. We saw a high-level production, almost 1,000 yards in Cleveland when he was the one. So now with a great quarterback in Phillip Rivers, Benjamin could be a solid three. I think Benjamin's one of those guys, like Floyd was, like many other players, who will give you, if you can pick the right week with him, you can be happy. He's the kind of guy that my opponent grabs for a bye week, and I'm like, all right, yeah, he grabbed Travis Benjamin.

catches a couple touchdowns out of the blue because he has the talent to do it. It's just going to be a matter of building a rapport with Philip Rivers. Sure. You can't like Philip Rivers as a late round quarterback like we do without giving some value to the two on this offense. Yeah, I think he's a good guy for DFS too. If you play daily and you want one of those less owned big potential guys, Travis Benjamin's good. I'm not going to draft them in my redraft leagues just because I'm not sure which weeks to start and which week's not. Travis Benjamin or Ruben Randall.

Ruben Randall, right now Ruben Randall has the chance to be the number one on the outside. Yeah. Yeah. So that's why. But the Chargers overall here, I think they're one of the biggest bounce back candidates to be a good team because what you saw last year was an unfathomable.

Amount of injuries. I felt bad for all my friends who were chargers. Every week having to watch them cart 12 guys off the field. Week after week, that offensive line was destroyed. Their defense was destroyed. And coming into last year, they had a really good pass defense, and that just got dismantled. I think they've done a pretty good job this offseason retooling. I was a fan of Joey Bosa. So if you look at the team as a whole, I think that they will be improved.

because of the acquisitions they made, and then on top of that improved again because of the fact that they're healthy. So that means good things for Melvin Gordon to me because GameScript is going to allow you to run the ball. And, you know, he wasn't great when it comes to efficiency, but he has nowhere to go but up. Yeah, I mean, and just to lay, before you speak, Mike, I just want to let the people know where these guys ranked last year.

So from a rushing perspective, they were basically dead last. They were 31st in the league with rushing yards per game. This was a team that gave up a lot of sacks on Phillip Rivers, who's still through for the fourth most yards in the league, despite being beat up. And so if they can protect him, if he has his weapons on the outside, I think part of that is he was holding on to the ball so long because his receivers weren't getting separation. So Jason's right, I think, with the health.

and the changes that they made on the defensive side, I think they have the potential to have a bounce back year, and they bring in Ken Wizz and Hunt as the offensive coordinator again. Yeah, and with Ken Wisen Hunt coming back in, he was there in 2013. Look, the team was fifth and total yards and 12th in scoring when Wisen Hunt was there. Wisenhunt is not a good coach, or head coach. He is a great offensive coordinator. So I think that makes, that's an uptick for San Diego.

All right, let's talk about Melvin Gordon because he may be the most fantasy relevant discussion we'll have on this team. I'm a believer in Melvin Gordon. I'm also somebody who believes that if you swing the pendulum too far into Danny Woodhead's corner, you're going to be very disappointed. You had Antonio Gates missed the beginning of last year. You had Keenan Allen missed the second half of last year and the injuries that we discussed. You know, Woodhead benefited from a bad offensive line. He benefited from the situations we're talking about that...

that Rivers had to deal with. I think if you have those guys healthy and you have Gordon healthy, Gordon's the future of the backfield. They're certainly going to give him the chance. And so I'm a big buyer of Melvin Gordon with the youth and opportunity on that roster. I know you guys are not nearly where I am with him, but I do believe that Gordon is worth an investment in redraft leagues.

Yeah, well, he has, I believe, a better opportunity this year than he did last year because last year his opportunity was kind of taken away from him because of the offensive line destruction. This year, he's in a better opportunity and he's in a better draft position. He's not costing you quite the same. And that's a big deal. You can get him late in the sixth, early in the seventh, and what's the risk there for the potential upside? Because when I watched film at the beginning of last year on Melvin Gordon,

He looked good to me. He did not look like a bad running back, a running back that's, you know, three and a half a carry. He had some special moves, and I feel like the season kind of got away from the Chargers as a whole. So I am rising on Melvin Gordon. I wouldn't put him above guys like Amir Abdullah, maybe some of the other. You know, when it comes to Melvin Gordon versus Matt Jones, that's a good debate to behind. Ironically, Abdullah and Gordon are back-to-back in our rankings right now.

Consensus-wise, we have Abdullah one ahead of Gordon. I personally have Gordon ahead of Abdullah, but they're in that same discussion. So let's go ahead and move on now. Let's talk about the defending Super Bowl champions, the quarterback list, or maybe you would say they have too many. Yeah, maybe you would. The Denver Broncos, Mark Sanchez, Paxton Lynch, and then one bit of news we didn't get to earlier, there are some talk that Trevor Simeon.

Could have a shot to start. Generally, when that sentence comes out of your mouth, you're not in the best quarterback situation. For that sentence to be uttered by anybody who is not a coach trying to pump up Mark Sanchez. The competition. Mark Sanchez, you got to be embarrassed by that. Samians, I believe, a seventh round quarterback. Mark Sanchez with the pedigree of a first round guy had some success, but...

to come into a camp and they think, well, the other guy's got a chance. You got to hope they're just coach speaking Sanchez to try and bring it in the competition. Sanchez is worse than I thought. That's what I'm going to add to this. I remember Sanchez.

being an okay player. And then I went back this last week in, in, I, I just remember like, oh, he was, he was okay. Oh, for Philly. Sure. Okay, for Philly. They, they, you know, no, even, even for the, for the Jets, he, you know, got to the championship game. Oh, no. But I go back and I look, well, I mean, it was the Jets where he had his career high in touchdowns, a year when he threw 26 touchdowns, 3,400 yards. Now, those aren't good fantasy numbers, but those are by a mile.