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

his best career year. I mean, his next best year was 17 touchdowns. So we're saying Mark Sanchez, even if he starts, not a fantasy option you want to lean on. There is the narrative that Peyton Manning was so bad, last year, so, so, so bad that Mark Sanchez is an improvement. I don't believe that anymore. That's kind of a narrative I had started buying into, and the more that I went back and I looked, I don't think Mark Sanchez is an NFL quarterback.

that's going to produce fantasy numbers for you. This hurts Demarius Thomas. That hurts Emmanuel Sanders. They've got to find someone there who can actually, you know, throw touchdowns if those guys are going to be able to pay off for their draft positions. I gave the example, I believe, on the last show or maybe two shows ago, of Larry Fitzgerald and what his career did in his peak when the quarterback situation changed. When Kurt Warner left.

And he entered the doldrums of, you know, a cycling quarterback in Arizona. He had three really subparate years. And I compared that to Demarius Thomas, because Demarius Thomas had a down year for touchdowns last season. And so the question is, does he bounce back and give you classic Demarius Thomas? I think that's the most popular answer. And I don't really buy into it. I think they're going to struggle at the quarterback position. And last year, we have to remember, they were about middle of the pack.

You know, they were 14th in total passing yards per game. A lot of that had to do with Brock Oswald. They were 17th in rushing yards per game. I know they want to run the ball. I'm rising a little bit on C.J. Anderson. I think C.J. Anderson was the best pick Jason made in his Dynasty League draft the other night. Where he got him and the age of C.J. Anderson was great, great value. I think you got him in the, poof.

Yeah, I got him. Fifth, six round. Here's why C.J. Anderson was a spectacular pick for any draft situation. Redraft Dynasty. Look, I love C.J. Anderson. I think he's massively talented, well over five yards per carry of the second half of last year. And look at the team situation. The offensive line was, you know, a little bit below mediocre last year. Denver has completely retooled. They added O'Koon.

to their left tackle. And yes, that guy struggles with health, but when he's in there, he's a mauler. He's great. They added a new right tackle in Stevenson. They got Max Garcia, the rookie. He's coming in to be a guard. They have retooled and fixed everything. You've got Gary Kubiak is the coach. We know he loves to run the ball. I just see a high workload coming for C.J. Anderson. So is he your favorite fantasy option now for this roster?

I'm still high on Demarius. I'm not fading him like you guys are, but he probably, because Demarius is in that pack of receivers who I kind of, you know, like, I'll take anyone from that tier.

where I love C.J. Anderson, I think there can be really, really big things in store for him this year. Yeah, to be clear, I'm not fading Demarius Thomas. I still think he's going to get 150 targets. And whenever you've got one of those guys who's a true special athlete getting that volume, he's going to have a good fantasy season. But what he's not going to do, in my opinion, is bounce back to the...

10 touchdown years that he was doing back to back to back before this past year. I think he's going to be around six touchdowns, maybe seven touchdowns on the season. But with the volume, you know, this year you're drafting him as like a wide receiver two. He's a great wide receiver two. Let me ask this, and I should have asked it for our first team, and maybe I'll circle back, but fantasy surprise from this roster. Who could surprise from Denver? Jeff Hewerman.

The tight end? Yes, the tight end. Look, they took him in the third round. He tore his ACL, so he missed all of last year. Like I said, where Kubiak loves to run the ball. He also favors the tide end. And someone has to do it. Who is old man? The Kubiak's tied end forever. Owen Daniels. Owen Daniels is gone. They brought in Garrett. Or is he? They brought in Garrett Graham. There's always the whispers of the freak athlete Virgil Green.

You think Herman's sitting in a film closet someplace being forced to watch years and years of Owen Daniel? Probably. Probably. Be this. If anyone's going to surprise, that's my guy. I will throw a name out there that will make you both vomit. But you said surprise and I honestly. No, for real. No. I'm going to say Ronnie Hillman might surprise us this year. Because right now the narrative is it's C.J. Anderson or you got to draft Avanti Booker, the rookie, right? He's going to come in and take it over.

But they re-signed Hillman. He was in the role last year and he was productive. They like him. They know him. And I just think we're completely assuming that Ronnie Hillman's just gone. And I don't think that's going to be the case. All right. Let's talk about the Oakland Raiders. I was hoping you do that. The Raiders. This is a very interesting year for Oakland. I think this is a, they have an opportunity in this division this season.

to make a mark. Now, last year, they struggled in the second half of the season. They were not a very good running team, despite what will follow from my mouth, which is the fact that I believe their offensive line is top five, maybe top three in the league. Yeah. So...

Well, a lot of that was this offseason, right? And that's something to pay attention to is the offensive line has been vastly improved. And we saw that a couple years ago with the Cardinals, right? We added the top guard in the league, the top run free agent. Yeah. Top free agent. Yes, the top free agent run blocking guard in the league in Iupati. And all of a sudden we were a great running team. And I could see that happening here from a boy.

Latavius Murray. Well, they protected Carr last year, too. So it wasn't like they, they just didn't run block as well, and this is a run blocking guy that they add. I'm going to throw this out there. I think the Oakland Raiders win this division. Ooh. Yeah, that makes one of us. Who you got in this division, Amy? I would love the Raiders. Like, if I had to choose one to root for, I would choose Oakland. I think Kansas City wins the division. I think Kansas City wins the division.

But we're talking about Oakland right now. So anybody that you see stepping out surprising fantasy owners this year, and we'll circle back to Latavius Murray and Amari Cooper in a minute and Derek Carr. But is there a surprise from this roster, Mike? Is there somebody that you think is worth keeping on your radar? Well, I don't think he's a surprise because he researched his career last year, and that's Michael Crabtree. And everyone, look, the people are rightly aboard.

the Amari Cooper Express because he's very good. But Michael Crabtree has, when he's healthy, has been great. He's had great moments in this league, including last year. Better fantasy season than Cooper last year. He's still going to be heavily targeted. It won't just shift. Everything's going to go to Amari Cooper. Michael Crabtree will be heavily involved. You can get him much later in the draft for a team that they're, I think they're going to run a good bit. But Derek Carr has that.

the gun-sling mentality. So when he gets his opportunities, he's going to take the shot. And I think people are forgetting how good Michael Crabtree was last year. Can we talk about Latavius now? Sure. Sure. Go ahead. Latavius Murray. He is a guy that I believe, once again, last year I said he was a guaranteed running back two. Before the year, I said I guarantee he's running back two. I was wrong because he finished as a running back one.

So I apologize. I apologize everyone. This year coming in, this is what I'm going to say about the Raiders. I love the Raiders running game. I love their coach for running the ball. I love their team for running the ball. The improvements they made on the defense for running the ball. I want the Raiders running back tandem. I don't know between Latavius Murray and DeAndre Washington how that's going to break out, but I want them both. I have been trying to trade for both of those guys in our league.

that was just drafted. I think if you grab Latavius, you've got a clear handcuff in DeAndre Washington, because it's two guys there that are going to basically be running the show on a run-first...

capable team that wants to run the ball. And their value, normally when you're talking about teams that are really high at running the ball, they run it a lot. You know, you saw it with the Marshawn Lynch years, Buffalo runs the ball a lot, you know, AP and Minnesota. I think the Raiders are going to be a run heavy team this year. So that's why I'm saying I want their running back. You know when you can't run the ball? When you're down by a lot. When you're down by a lot.

I had two things I wanted to say real quick. They better play defense as long I'm saying. When he threw out the handcuff, I thought he was just rudely clearing his throat directly into the microphone. Right in the middle of a sentence? You've got to clear. I didn't know what was going on there. And two, what happens to Latavius Murray and DeAndre Washington? Let's say the split becomes like 5545. You really want both of them then?

No, I wouldn't want both of them then, but that's not the style of team that this coach has usually used. So I'm going to go ahead and say, I want Latavius with a handcuff because if Latavius goes down, DeAndre Washington is going to be good. And I think Latavius is going to be helped by a little bit less work. And I think his efficiency will rise this year, especially with that offensive line. Would you be surprised at all to see the...

not see a static snap percentage for Latavius Murray. So he's getting, let's say he starts at 65. Towards the end of the year, shave that down much closer to 50% for him in Washington. Or do you think it will continue to be Murray the whole year? I think it'll continue to be him until he either can't do it, fumbles too much, and is pulled, or gets injured. Well, isn't one of the options that he doesn't play well? And then it changes? Yeah, that was the can't do it. Oh, the can't do it? Okay.

Yeah, I didn't know if you meant injury. Just for people, for context, Latavius Murray was a 64% snap count running back last year. That's very high. That's very high. That's very high. All right, the Chiefs, let's get to my pick to win this division, at least of, as of July 11th. Alex Smith leading the very efficient Chiefs offense, the...

mistake-free Chiefs offense. You didn't have Jamal Charles in the fold last year. You had Charkandric West. You had Spencer Ware that did more than enough to get this team to make a very big run at the end of the season. They lost in the playoffs, obviously, but very impressed with what they did with what they had last season. And I just think that they are kind of the team to beat unless Denver can put together a repeat type of season on the defensive side.

Let's talk about Alex Smith. He's everybody's favorite second quarterback. That's what he is to me. Because I love, love, if I'm in a league where I have to draft a second quarterback, I just love it when it's Alex Smith. I just feel like, oh, he's just going to be there. He'll be playing. He won't throw picks and make me angry. I probably won't get very excited unless he takes off with the ball. Yeah, you'll get some points from him running on the ground. You're going to get 16 games out of them. That's true. But you're going to get 16 games out of them. And when you're in a position where you're drafting that second quarterback,

A guy that you're going to maybe look at streaming from your roster, week in, week out. That's an important factor is who's going to not, you know, you're not going to take Robert Griffin and think in week 10 that he's still going to be around on your team helping you. Plus, you know, Smith is nice because he always gives you the round number, 200 yards passing. That's it.

Just 200 yards on the dot, he plans for it, and when they're done, they just hand it off to their 16 running back. All right, well, let's talk about Dirty Cake. Dirty Cake, which is Jeremy Macklin, his number one target. What say you, Andy, you were high on Macklin last year. You were proved right to say that he got over 1,000 yards, barely. And he was a decent fantasy option, certainly more than I thought he would be. Do you expect him to increase, stay the same, or...

Take a step back. To be honest with you, I think he stays the same or he takes a small step back. I like Jeremy McClain a lot. I think he'll be very consistent for fantasy owners, but you're talking about a team that averages 200 yards passing. I wasn't joking. That's what they averaged last year. That doesn't leave a lot to go around. And I like Albert Wilson. I like Chris Conley. I like Travis Kelsey. Divide 200 yards up every game. And then pass the ball to the running back. And Jamal. You know, this team was six in the league in rushing, 30th in passing.