Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - News and Notes, Sleepers for 2015, Special Guest, Mailbag

And I do not like Brian Hartline. Good luck in Cleveland, Brian. Jarvis Landry's the guy we like. Yeah, he has... Give me some numbers from last year. So Jarvis Landry was a second round pick. He came in. Week one, he had no catches. So take that into account. This is only 15 games. 84 catches, 758 yards, five touchdowns. He averaged nine yards a catch, which...

To me, maybe that's not the highest number in the league, but when you're talking about a PPR guy, that sounds good to me. There are a PPR guys I like more than him. I mean, he has got so much upside. He's a great player, and his, I mean, the rapport between him and Tannahill is so good in comparison to something like Wallace was like with him. He just, he's a third down monster.

And Kenny Stills is now there. So they still have somebody who can stretch the field. Who's the tight end they just brought in? Jordan Cameron. Jordan, yeah. So they have another playmaker at the tight end position. Come on, news and notes. I know. I know. There's too much going on. So I really like Jarvis Landry. Especially because I don't think people will be, people are still not.

completely on the Dolphins and Tannenhill and the offense that they're bringing. People were really, really slow to get on Landry last year from the waiver wire. So he's a guy who I really like as a wide receiver too. He's being drafted right now, albeit it's very early, in the sixth round. Oh, all day. So he's a humongous value right now.

I like Miami too. I mean, I think I tweeted the other day, you know, you've got to let New England stay on top of that division in your projections. But I still think Miami's the second best team there. I think they're a wildcar team. I love them shipping out Wallace. I like them getting sued. Their chances on offense are going to improve. So I'll have to see what their running back position does as well. But yeah, Jarvis Landry, a great sleeper. Being drafted in the 6th. That's such a value. Love him. Quick. Hit the breaking news button.

Breaking news. Washington re-signed Colt McCoy. Oh. Oh. Not as exciting as I would have hoped from that. I thought something really exciting on Twitter broke. Oh, good old Colt. Good for him. Dastardly trio of Washington. Good for them.

Good for him, still having a career in the NFL. So let's move it on. Mailbag. Sing it, baby. Our first question. Thank you. Our first question today in the mailbag. I can't get over you. It's beautiful sounds here. Just.

climbing through the studio. Michael from the Bay Area, California, sent us a question this week. He has a keeper question, which are really the only relevant questions going on right now. I still love keeper questions. Of course. Of course. We play in a keeper league that we adore that you're the stupid champion on. Here are my keeper options. These are the ones he's considering. He only gets to pick one, and then he has to lose the draft pick in association with it. He's got some good options considering.

the draft picks he has to give up. So, Mike Evans for an eighth, D'Andre Hopkins for an eighth, Sammy Watkins for an 11, and Jerich McKinnon for an eight. And so pick one, you've got three up-and-coming wide receivers that all have quarterback issues, and then you have Jerich McKinnon who has an Adrian Peterson issue.

What are your thoughts when you evaluate this decision? This is actually a very tough question. If, or I say unless, if Adrian Peterson is shipped out, it's Cherokee. It's McKinnon for you? Easily McKinnon in the eighth. I think. Picking up a starting running back with an eighth round pick. I think McKinnon is, if when AP's gone, McKinnon is going to be a beast.

I think, you want me to jump in? Yeah, yeah, and then I'll clarify my thoughts here. Yeah, okay, so let's say McKinnon still concerns me a little bit, regardless, just with, you know, he hasn't scored an NFL touchdown. He has a lot of upside, but I just don't know what it is yet. I agree with you, though, if Adrian Peterson's gone, McKinnon's. McKinnon's my guy picking up a starting running back with upside and value in the eighth round's great. Otherwise, I actually am going to go with Sammy Watkins.

I like Evans and Hopkins a little bit more, but the difference between giving up an 8 to an 11 with three guys that all have massive upside, I'm going to go with Watkins. I mean, he's going to be, all three of these guys are going to be the number one targets on their team. You know, you could argue some concern about...

the run versus pass in Buffalo. But for me, just the value of getting him for an 11 and maintaining the rest of your draft, I'm going to say Watkins and less AP leaves and then McKinnon. Okay, so I've tried to clarify, get it all organized here. I don't have a problem with any of the guys, but here's, I think, the way I would lean. Sammy, if we're talking about this year,

Sammy Watkins has Matt Castle throwing him the ball. Matt Castle, while he's not superstar quarterback, he's a good quarterback. He can get the job done. So for this year, Sammy Watkins with the 11th seems great. But because you're in a keeper league and you're talking wide receivers, you're not just, wide receivers can hold value for a very long time, especially if you're talking eighth round. These guys are.

potential superstars for very late-round draft picks. Mike Evans is the most interesting guy to me because I think I'm pretty sure Tampa Bay is going to take James Winston. I like Winston to be a really good quarterback, really good. But maybe not year one. Maybe not this year. So you might be punting a little value, maybe Watkins. Long-term value. Maybe Watkins finishes a...

higher than Evans this year. But I think if you're talking, you're in it for the long haul of these guys, that Evans is the most interesting. What are we laughing about? Breaking news. Trent Richardson is signing with the Oakland Raiders. That is classic. That is a classic move. I'm not even kidding. That's ridiculous. There are only a couple teams that could do that.

Free Latavius. Oh, poor Latavius. So Michael Bay. Sorry, yeah, we will refer to you. Trent Richardson has stolen your thunder there. McKinnon, if AP is gone, and then I would. So one-year value, maybe Watkins. Maybe Watkins. You have a lot of good options, so be happy with that. And why I'm passing over, excuse me, Hopkins is who, I don't even know who the quarterback's going to be. Hoyer, is it Mallet, or either of them actually.

Any good? Well, that's the problem, right? It's projecting these guys. You know Castle is capable of getting the ball out of his hands. We don't know what Winston's going to be. We don't necessarily know what's happening in Houston. And Watkins is competing with Percy Harvin for targets. And I think I'm going, I'm going McKinnon if AP leaves, and then if it's not, then I'm taking Mike Evans. Okay. There you go. Man, Trent Richardson gets to step directly into the Maurice Jones.

Drew roll of running into the backside of his line. Of two yards per carry. Continuing his scorching record. Two yards of Carrey. Richardson, this must have been your only option because if you want perception to be fixed, you're not, I mean, his odds of 3.0 a carry and above is very low in that offense. He's betting on himself. He's going to resurge his career. Oh, disgusting. Mark from Tuscaloosa has a general fantasy question. He just wants to know what is the most important position in fantasy football?

Defense. Defense special teams. Yeah, you want to draft your defense in the first round, and then you want to move on to probably your first and second kicker. Yes. Got to have a backup kicker. Yeah. So thanks, Mark, for sending in it. You know what? This is one of those questions that I love talking about because the layman in fantasy football just looks at a position like quarterback.

like wide receiver and looks at total points scored and says the most points scored is the better player to take and that is not how it works in fantasy football there are a number number of things to consider position scarcity is one of them um

Are there enough good players at a certain position? What is the difference between a top guy at a position and a second tier guy? These are things you have to consider. Generally speaking, I answer this question with the running back position, especially in today's NFL, where you have a lot of guys that break into the scene at the wide receiver position throughout the year, less than you see at the running back position. And there aren't as many bell cows at the running back position. So for me, I always value...

running back early. And that's why we said in the last question from Michael Bay, Michael from the Bay, we prefer Jerich McKinnon in that upside position in Minnesota, right? Yes. And I'm going with running back as well. And this is a, it's not going to, universal, people aren't just going to say running back. It just depends on your...

strategy, your evaluation of how to play the game. League scoring as well. League scoring plays a huge part of it. But to me, it's running back. And what Andy's talking about, look at the point differential. Look at the number one running back. Then look at the number 12 running back. The points fall off a cliff very quickly. And then look at the number 12 running back and look at the number 24 running back. It's...

The points decrease exponentially and really quickly and exponentially, I suppose. As opposed to the wide receiver that's number one versus the number 12 wide receiver. And I have always had success finding a wide receiver as opposed to finding a running back. Finding a running back is you have the free agent budget or you have the waiver priority to take the handcuff.

of the star who just went down and yet if you are that person then you're going to think oh running backs are super easy to find but if let's on a on a week to week basis and you have a running back in or you have an injured player it's far easier to hit the waiver wire to grab a wide receiver who's going to give you adequate average numbers as opposed to a running back

who will give you anything that's not just garbage. Yeah, and we've talked about it at length. Look how many wide receivers of the rookie class made fantasy contributions last year. We just talked about Jarvis Landry, Odell Beckham. You had a lot of guys that stepped into big roles right away. And so I think your potential, like Mike said, I think that's the key, your chance of getting a valuable wide receiver later.

is higher than a valuable running back. So I think we'd both agree running back in general. If you're in a PPR league, if you're in a league that somehow diminishes the running back position a little bit, maybe it changes and you have to look at that value. That just changes the valuable running back. Because then when you get the running backs who actually catch the ball, I mean, that's gold.

That's true. So if you have a question you'd like to ask the fantasy footballers, go ahead and send us an email, mail at the fantasyfootballers.com. You can also find us on Facebook. You can follow us on Twitter. You can ask us questions on Twitter. We'll be happy to hop in there and have a dialogue with you. I want to plug Fantasypros.com. Mike does some writing for them. They have some great tools that we love using. They have consensus rankings. You can go on there right now and just see if you take all the fantasy experts.

Where do they have guys projected right now? You can start building your board out. And once we get in season, you're going to hear us talk frequently about that site and how we use it for making the best... Mest... Mastis... Steaming hot fantasy tab. You just wanted to hit the new button? Yeah, I just wanted to try that out. Why you mumbled yourself to the... Fantasy pros helps you make the best decision that you can make.