Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - The Rookie Show, Fantasy Outlook, Draft Day Foods

Those things come to light the same way they do for presidential candidates. You know, the media out there wants a story. If you've put yourself in that position, you can be a distraction for your team. And some teams do not want to take any chance of that distraction or some teams basically say a distraction is worth no more than an eighth round pick because at least at that point we can cut that guy if they become. You know, you haven't invested the capital.

that would make it impossible for you to, in a PR situation, cut the guy. So I need to throw more names out there. We've got to jump into the wide receivers here soon. Alvin Kamara out of Tennessee. We'll pause on him real quick because there is actual first round buzz on him. I've seen him go in some first round mocks. I don't get it. I do. Well, okay. I get it as far as the athleticism, but the sample size, you have two years of him as a sophomore and a junior.

107 attempts, 103 rushing attempts. Great in the passing game. And when you watch him, he is a special talent for when I'm scouting him. It was essentially, though it's an all or nothing thing for him on what I would see. If he gets met with contact at the line of scrimmage, it's done. The play is over. But if he is moving with any kind of force or just three yards down the field catching a pass, that dude,

is going to give the slippery fish a run for his money. Yeah, I'll just say this really quickly on him that a lot of people I respect don't like him, don't like his film. I was surprised when I watched him. I went in with kind of a negative view already, and I really liked everything I saw. You know, when I watch him and I watched Alvin Cook, just film, just, you know, what are they making happen? I see very, very similar players. The difference is that I don't think Kamara is going to be.

I see I see the first round, but he could end up being just a satellite back in the NFL, not used as much as a rusher because of that volume. Deonté Foreman out of Texas and Somaget P. Ryan previously mentioned out of Oklahoma. Both of those guys are on a lot of, you know, day two boards. What do you think of?

Deante Foreman and Somaget Pirine and how they project the NFL and for fantasy football. What's funny is this is where, these are lower level guys, but this is a split here of Jason loves Foreman. I do. Love Foreman. You don't have to be sorry. But I do. There's, there's reasons that I do. And I love what I've seen from Samajai P. Ryan. I'm going to let Jason go first here and talk about Foreman.

Sure. Deonteforman, when I watch him, I think he is an athletic freak. He looks like he can take a full workload in the NFL. His actual production is historically great. And you can say for whatever reason, maybe they don't stack the box enough. Maybe it's a product of the system. But other guys who...

don't get the box stacked and have come in that same system, haven't done what Deontifoyne has done. 323 attempts, 2028 yards, and 15 touchdowns in his 2016 season. His box score, just if you're, you know, looking back at what he did, is actually to the point where it is comical because.

Every single game of 2016, he is well over 100 yards. And you've never seen. Jay Jai comes to mind when you look at a collegiate box score that just jumped off the page. This is not real right now. Six foot 233. He's a bigger back. That adds to what Jason said about sustaining NFL workload. Just depends on that team that grabs. That's all I saw when I watched was, and I realize he doesn't catch the ball. And J. J. I did in college.

And he's got a fun way. So he doesn't necessarily hold on to the ball either. So there are, that's why I say, I'm sorry, there are reasons to not like him. But I do think that he has the body to be an NFL back. And I was starting to picture a guy that actually does, he chooses not to catch the ball. So they just.

He just keeps his arms down at his side and it just bounces off his chest. Like, I will not do it. No. It's almost like that. No. No, it's almost like that. When you watch his film, every play is a shotgun snap and they either hand it to him or they fake the ball to him. And then he runs forward and he never turns around. He's not looking for a pass. He never, he'll just go out. So bruiser goal line. Don't throw him. Don't throw to me. Somaget P. Ryan, give me the scoop. It's a similar situation here for these are, these are bruiser.

You know, first and second down guys. Both over 2.30. Well, P. Ryan, I think he can stay on the field because there's not a lot of, if you're looking at what he's done in the production, but he can catch the ball. I feel like he has soft enough hands, and he's solid in pass protection. But what stands out for me for Samage Paynebots, that's what I'm calling him. I call him the pain bot because he brings it. You watch him just mow people over, but it's his balance.

He has Marshawn Lynch-esque-ask balance, where once he gets going, he is able to absorb hits and continue to move forward. And it's when I was watching all these guys, I hadn't seen anyone with that balance. Any concern with Collegian production decreasing each of his last three years, both in touchdown and total yardage? I mean, 2014, he was at Oklahoma. That was the year. Mixing was suspended. So he was, you know.

Sure. More of the main guy. And then in 2016, he was, he's coming back from an injury. He was a bit, you can see it. He's a little more sluggish. So that's possibly a negative on him. And then you've got the mixing combo in, in 2016. Well, that's what I mean. In 2016, his tape is not as special to me. But he's one of these guys that my dream is him going to Oakland.

Sorry, I'm jumping ahead to Thursday show. No, no, it's fine. It's fun. I mentioned a few. Look, I'm going to just drop some names out there that you're going to hear. Kareem Hunt, Jeremy McNichols, Jamal Williams, who I know Mike really likes. Yeah, Jamal Williams, side-stepper. We've got to get on to the wide receivers. Frank Sinatra. So let's do that right now. Wide receivers, bringing in NFL's Matt Harmon. Wide receivers. The fantasy footballers are very excited.

to bring a guest on. It's been quite a while since we've had a guest on the show. And what better way to break that ice than bring on Matt Harmon from the NFL.com. How are you doing today, Mr. Harmon?

Um, good fellas. It's good to be talking to you guys. Uh, you know, the draft is what about it's, is it like 10 days away now or something like that? I don't know, but it's approaching fast. And I'm ready, I'm ready now at this point to just see, see what all unfolds and especially where these wide receivers land. Um, and then really get the takes going about what they might be doing in year one or even down the line for, for dynasty leagues.

through the power of recording. The draft may or may not be in like two days, depending on what people are hearing this. So we'll figure out. We'll figure all that out. But of course, if you've been listening to the show, you know that we have partnered with Matt Harmer, who is the developer.

The mad scientist behind reception, an excellent way to look at how successful a wide receiver can actually be apart from a quarterback. So Harmon, why don't you give people just the brief cliff notes of what reception is all about? Yeah, so if any listeners are new to what reception perception is, or has especially been hearing you guys talk about it for the last few months, what reception perception is, is essentially, like Mike just said, it's a way to try to...

separate wide receiver play from other variables because, I mean, the wide receiver is just inherently dependent on other things for their production to accumulate, whether it be the quarterback, the quality of the throw, the quality of the protection, the target actually designed to go their way or the quarterback choosing to do that. So a lot of other metrics to evaluate wide receiver play is really noisy because it welcomes a lot of other variables in. What reception perception is, is I just look at a wide receiver every single route that they run over a six game sandwich.

for NFL players, the eight game sample for, I mean, excuse me, six game sample for college prospects, eight games for NFL players, because that's where I've seen the data normalize, and essentially just chart how often they got open on each route, what routes they run most often, and essentially how often they get open against man, zone, press coverage, as well as some ancillary metrics like contested catch conversion rate.

And of course, you can check out a bunch of these guys broken down on the Fantasy Footballers.com. Matt's done an excellent job with them. And of course, in the ultimate draft kit, he's going to be breaking down the pros exclusively available inside the draft kit. So let's get started at the top. Matt, we got Corey Davis is kind of heralded as the number one guy on the board. Smaller school, but it looks to be the part. Is Corey Davis still your number one guy?

He is still my number one guy. And the interesting part about Corey Davis's evaluation is that he hasn't done anything in the pre-draft process. He essentially had an injury that was going to put him out of the combine, put him out of the senior bowl. And he's been out of sight and out of mind for a long time. And you're already starting to see the whispers now of whether NFL teams are going to be able to stomach that, especially without getting raw athletic numbers.

because of his inability to test and the fact that he comes from a small conference. But you look at his reception, he really smashed that.

low level of competition with the 79.3% success rate versus man coverage. That's a top three score of the last two draft classes that I've charted, the 94th percentile. It was also really successful against press coverage and his route tree shows he can separate all over the field, deep, intermediate, and short. I kind of liken him to like a Sammy Watkins type player, which I think should get people excited. It also just kind of...

Two or three games a year type of... So now we know why he is missed. So...

So much in the offseason. Yeah, actually, now that you make that point, now that I'm saying that, I've never thought about it. It's a really good comp. Right. When I, when I juxtapose those two things together, it makes a lot of sense now. But yeah, no, I just, I think that the way Watkins separates is maybe not the most dominant, like physical big receiver. I think Corey Davis is that way, even though he has listed, I think a few pounds heavier and a few inches tall. What is his best attribute? Coming to the NFL.

Corey Davis, you think, you know, he's going to excel because of what? So I think the fact that he's really solid at everything is a pretty good thing, is a pretty good way to sell it. Like, I think he has a really safe floor. But if you want to talk about his most impressive trait, I think it's that he's great after the catch. So he's a type of player that you could see.

run a lot of slants or screens. I think that's why a lot of people compare him to like a Demarius Thomas level player, although I don't like that comparison just because of how dominant DT is after the catch. I think Corey Davis can be that type of player in the NFL. Let's move on to the man with the fast feed, the burner, the absolute burner, broke the record at the NFL Combine for the 40-yard dash. Mr. John Ross, it...

Will he translate? Because he's a little bit smaller, but can he translate to the pros? Yeah, it's funny. Like you say, he broke the record. And I think it's almost... That's what people think about him. And he's just really fast. And honestly, I think that's what we should think about him. Because if you... It's almost like at this point, it's been so long since we've seen him break the record that it's like, yeah, yeah, John Ross broke the record. He's a fast player at the combine. But what else can he do? And it's like, well, that's really...