Fantasy Football 2018 - Rookie Review: 2017 RBs & QBs

is forcing him to retire. So Eric Wood, best of luck with your life, my friend. Tom Brady had his stitches removed. So he's not going to be as good this week. That's big news. So now is it possible that Tom Brady, he's not a snitch, is he? Because snitches get stitches? That's what I've heard. Probably, probably not. Did he snitch on Rex Berkin? I think people snitch on him with the flake aid on the video and those things. So.

Gronk. Rob Grunkowski, he is, he's returned to practice. He's still in the protocol, but... He's not going to miss another Super Bowl. Yeah, I fully expect Rob Gronkowski to play. Robbie Anderson has pleaded not guilty on nine charges. Nine charges? This Rob is not going to be in the Super Bowl. Man. Did you just realize it was nine charges? I knew it was bad. Because I read some of them, I didn't realize it was up to nine charges. You can get eight charges thrown out and still end up suspended. That is a...

He can get cleared on all nine charges and still get suspended. Not good. ESPN's Adam Schaefter report. Blake, Blake the snake. Blake, oh, do we got that? Uh, yeah. I got a snake, man. He's got, he had a surgery on his right wrist last Friday. So ladies and gentlemen, Blake Bortles, who's playing sensational football through, I mean, not the first game in the playoffs, but that, but Brooks is shaking his head. But the next two games. Would you define sensational football?

Did you see Blake Bortle's against the Pats? I think sensational is a stretch. No. Blake Bortle's played great. You know, it's hard because I blame Bortles and Morone equally for what happened because it was one part you don't give your opportunity. You don't give an opportunity to a quarterback to show you whether he can do anything. But then Bortles has also shown you so much that he doesn't deserve the opportunity.

But my point was simply he did all that with a bum wrist. So next year, look out. Yeah, he'll be the best backup in the league next year. Oh, he's starting next year. You think so? Yeah, I do think so. You want to do a really? Oh, yeah, put it on the board. I mean. Waterbed. All right, we'll bet on that. I don't think he's starting. I do think he will start. If I were Tom Coughlin, I would do everything in my power to get Alex Smith.

Alex Smith is the most perfect piece for the Jags you could possibly ask. If you can get out. They're a Super Bowl winning team easily with Alex Smith. At least in the Super Bowl. Yes. They were close this year. With Blake Bortles. That's what I'm saying. So we shall see Ian Rappaport's says Andrew Luck is very close to throwing. Andrew Luck's been very close to throwing now for two years. He's got to be going crazy.

Andrew Luck has got to be going crazy. Rappaport also saying, talking about Dynasty here, Darren Sprouls is leaning towards returning for the 2018 season. Darren Sprouls is an unrestricted free agent. If you are playing in Dynasty, check your waiver wire. You can go ahead and peek because I picked them up a couple weeks ago. Dang it, man. Dang it.

Mike's Tears. Use the promo code Mike's Tears. Yes. At Shawballers.com. But Darren Sproles, he only played three games. Well, two and a half, whatever. But he still had juice. We'll see what happens. Will he be back with the Eagles? They do have Cory Clement, who played great this year. They have Donnell Pumphrey. I don't think he'll be back. With the Eagles? We'll see. I want to circle back to the Andrew Luck thing. I posted a question on Twitter that I thought would be really close.

So with McDaniels coming in and luck seemingly, we think he'll return. I was curious what the T.Y. Hilton versus Tyreek Hale hype would be. Who would go higher? And I know there's a lot of stuff that has to happen. But I threw it out there. 6,000 people voted. 51% would take T.Y. Hilton, 49% Tyreek Hill. And I don't know who I would take. I guess the question was more who's going to be drafted higher in next year's fantasy drafts. They predicted T.Y. Hilton.

I would take Tyree Kill right now. Even if it's Pat Mahomes? Yes. And I want to bring that up because I'm not sure that's not better. I really don't. I think Tyree Kill is a really good wide receiver. And I'm not sure it's not an actual upgrade for his stock. This is not a wide receiver three. This is not a late round wide. This is a one. Tyree Kill is a one. And this is an established offense.

Not a team that, you know, has a broken offensive line and a lot of issues. No running back. You know, talk of the Colts taking Sequin Barclay at three. That's their current state of affairs. So I would take Tyree Kill. All right. In further news, we have coaching news. So Schefter is confirming the Colts will hire the Patriots O.C. Josh McDaniels. The Cardinals hired ex-Broncos O.C. Mike McCoy as our offensive coordinator. And he is also alluded to.

He believes Larry Fitzgerald will be back with the Arizona Cardinals. We shall see. I was reading that this morning. It's all on the quarterback. Yeah. So I think that Fitz will be back. You do? I do. I do. Even if the quarterback is a rookie? I don't know. I think he'll be back. I think he's got too big of a piece of the offensive pie, which represents more records, which represents solidifying his legacy.

And he's playing it too high a lot. He's locked first ballot hall thing. Okay. Solidifying isn't the right word. Accentuating, adding to. Sure, but building. He has Jerry Rice records that are within reach. Some of them. Yeah. So I'm just saying he's playing at such a high level. I think he'll be back. Right. But it's at what cost to your body when you know there's little to note if it's a rookie.

If it's a rookie quarterback, you have little to no chance of making the playoffs, let alone a Super Bowl. I think it'll be a veteran they bring in. All right. Blake Bortles. Then he's starting and then you have lost the water bet. That's true. I will have lost if that happens in more ways than one. Excellent news for the show. The former Saints or Saints tight end coach. Guns Mahoney. Dan Campbell. Guns Mahoney is back. Guns Mahoney will interview for the Vikings OC vacancy.

Dirk Cutter actually going to bring in a full-time offensive coordinator. Thank you, Dirk Cutter. And we talked about the Titans had some coaching changes as well. We kind of already brought those up before we jump into the rookie review. You had a finger up. No, I'm going to jump in first. Go ahead. I want to thank pristine auction. The absolute best place on earth to get signed authentic sports memorabilia jerseys, footballs, helmets, whatever you.

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Sounds better than my voice. It's fresh from the factory. Talk about how we're breaking these down and what we're going over today. So what we're doing, you know, rookie review. We're going to look at how some rookies performed, which you'll notice that a lot of these running backs were featured in the truth episodes. But we're also going to talk a little bit about what we, how we projected these guys, where we hit, where we missed, and then a little bit of future speculation of how we foresee them.

in the 2018 season. Well, a lot of it comes down to talent and opportunity, right? Of course. Opportunity is king. A lot of talent. But will the chips fall where they need to to get them into a relevant role in 2018? And some of them have already established themselves and others haven't. And we want to kind of give you that heads up where we think it's headed. So let's start with Fournette. I mean, we're going to go in the order. We're going to start it running back. We're going to go in the order of

where they were drafted in terms of the NFL draft, the NFL draft, these offensive pieces, these running backs. Now, Fournett, we already talked about him. He was the eighth best running back, the fifth most consistent, and had a great, I mean, this is a successful year. Yes. It's definitely a successful year. There are a, there are still a couple red flags. I mean, you're talking some very strong inefficiencies.

He only had 10 plus yards. He had 10 or more yards on just 18 of 268 carries. That's very low. That's Frank Gore, DeMarco Murray, Adrian Peterson. I mean, that's fourth worst. That's not what you want. It's not what you expected. From a fourth overall pick running back for it has a great defense. Well, yes, great top speed. How much of this is, see, when I look at that number, that's based on percentage of carries. So one, he got.

many more carries than Gore Peterson and DeMarco. Sure. Secondly, he battled through injury this year. And injuries are also a concern for me. Right. No, I agree with that. And then there's the element of a lot of those carries where, look, this is a defensive team. You run out the clock at the end of the game. So your percentage goes down. I did expect more breakthrough, breakout plays from him. But between the injuries and the inefficiencies, you're still looking at him as a top.

What? Yes. It's hard to not put him at a running back one. I'm not trying to be real contrarian here and say Leonard Fernette's a bust. But he's not a third down guy. And I was just going to say fewer, fewer receptions than to Markle Murray, Andre Ellington, and Matt Forte. So this was one of my concerns. Jordan Howard. Yeah. So Fournette coming out of college, I know Jason loved him. You did as well, Andy. I was.

a little more skeptical. And just because of what are running backs today in the NFL of they need to be versatile, they need to be able to catch the ball. And that wasn't in Fournett's profile. I wasn't saying he can't do it. It's just the production in college wasn't there. They didn't use him as that. They have T.J. Eldon is a good running back. And T.J. Eldon's a good pass catcher. They had Corey Grant. We'll see if he comes back or not. But I don't think Fournette will be that.

full three-down running back that you really want or need in fantasy. He'll still be a running back one with that volume. But the injuries are concerned, are a concerned, lower leg, ankle, foot. He had issues in college. He had issues this year. So there's just, there will, he won't be an automatic top five pick for me. And I don't, maybe that's not a hot take or anything, but I think that.

A lot of fantasy players out there are going to be scrambling to get Leonard Fournett on their team, and I will take him if he falls to me. Well, let's contrast him with Christian McCaffrey, running back for the Carolina Panthers, ended up the number 11 fantasy running back, the 23rd most consistent. I'm not as concerned with the consistency numbers on these rookies if their role is established as they grow into these fantasy.