Fantasy Football 2018 - Rookie Review: 2017 RBs & QBs

Yes. Very interesting because Foreman flashed many times this year. A lot of negative press about Foreman to start the year. Out of shape was the, you know, what we heard, the narrative we heard. Yeah, had the off-field incident. You have Lamar Miller there. You had Alfred Blue there. I want to bring, kind of put this in context. Deonta Foreman tore his Achilles at the end of the year. At the end of a great touchdown play. I look at him and I see Jonathan Stewart.

Okay. But like healthy and like in his prime. And a player that can catch the ball, he can make a big play. Alfred Blue is a free agent. He's not coming back. Assuming. Correct. The health of Deonta Foreman, which right now we're seeing good reports. We're seeing Deonté Foreman in a walking boot. We're seeing Deonté Foreman optimistic about his recovery. And I see next year about a 50-50 split between Foreman and Lamar Miller.

What do you see for Deonti Foreman, a player that should be of value in fantasy drafts? I agree that he's going to be a value. Lamar Miller, will he be a Houston Texan? Here's the contract situation. He will be $6.75 million against the cap, a $2 million dead cap if they cut him. So you can save $4.75 maybe. That's a gray area. Lamar Miller could be back. Here's what's interesting for me for Deonti Foreman.

He essentially played nine games because technically it was 10, but he didn't really play against Seattle. I think he had 1% of the snaps. He played roughly. I had that many as well. I had less or fewer, whatever. In nine games, he essentially played around 25% of the snaps in those games per game. But in five of nine of those games, he had double-digit carries. So when he was on the field,

They gave him the ball. There was a hot hand element to the way they ran that backfield. And there was a much hotter hand when Deshawn Watson was the quarterback. So if Foreman can take a bigger slice of that running back pie, I think he's very interesting. Then he becomes very interesting. Here's the real red flag, the fumbles. His last year of college per pro football focus, he had seven fumbles and 323 carries. That's bad.

That's bad. Last year, he had two fumbles and 78 attempts. And it got him on the bench at times. Lamar Miller fumbled one time with 238 carries. Yeah. Twice in 78 carries. That's bad. He cannot do that and think that he's going to stay in NFL running back. Well, Lamar Miller runs at half speed to keep the ball safe. Another third round pick, James Connor. Is there a world where James Connor has fantasy relevance next year outside of a handcuff?

Yeah, certainly, but it's... Odds of Lev Bell returning are about 95% to me. I would put Lev Bell returning at high 80s. I'm not going in the 90s, but James Connor, if he's the starting running back for Pittsburgh, he becomes very interesting, but other than that, he's just the handcuff. A lot of running backs went off the board in the fourth round of last year's NFL draft. Somaget P. Ryan, Tarek Cohen, Joe Williams.

Oh, Danelle Pumfrey. Joe Williams. Jamal Williams. The tales I've heard of Joe Williams. Wayne Galman and Marlon Mack all went off the board in the fourth round. Let's hit on your favorites and what you see as the future. Tricone, we talked about him. In the quick question, Somaget P. Ryan had his opportunities last year. Never put up what we qualified as a great game in terms of our consistency ranking. So that would be a top five performance.

had 175 carries, had 603 yards in a touchdown, so didn't get into the end zone. At times, certainly looked like a competent NFL quarterback, or a running back. Sure. If you want to, I want to bring up something kind of gross. Okay. Because you said, mention the names that are interesting to me. And you know, you know my love for Somaget, P. Ryan, who was mostly disappointing. But do remember, the Washington offensive line was absolutely decimated. So I'm not giving up.

on the Washington running back situation. It might be Rob Kelly, though, so we're not sure what's going on yet. Wayne Galman, I told you it was going to be gross. I told you it was going to be gross. Pat Schumer's in, right? Final four games for Wayne Galman. This is what he averaged in the final four games when the season was done. They're saying, let's see what Wayne Galman can do. Running back for the New York Giants. Yes, thank you. 11 carries for 51 yards.

five receptions for 31 yards. Now, those aren't incredible numbers, but that's five receptions a game, over 80 yards a game, and his new head coach just saw Jerich McKinnon get 51 receptions last year. Wayne Galman, if... He piques her curiosity a little bit? He does. Now, to be fair, Paul Perkins, smashed Jackson, peaked...

Peaked my interest a little bit last year coming off of a few good games. But the fact that they use so much Wayne Galman as a receiver and Shane Vareen, you know, their receiving guy, unrestricted free agent. He's not coming back in my opinion. If he comes back, this Wayne Goldman Twinge of Hope is probably squashed by a giant boot. But just saying, don't.

Go, oh, New York giant running back. I don't want nothing to do with this. And meanwhile, I'll scoop them up in the seventh round and just see, see what happens. So there, I mean, when you look at the landscape for these fourth round guys from last year, P. Ryan Cohen, Joe Williams, Danelle Pumfrey, Jamal Williams, Wayne Galman, Marlon Mack. Every single one of them has shared backfield question marks there, right? I mean, Goldman's not going to get, he, you know, while Smash Jackson's not the answer. Oh, no.

Oh, no, Paul Perkins. It's not going to be Goldman's entire backfield. Marlon Mack has an opportunity, great opportunity with Gore being a free agent, with Josh McDaniels coming in, with the times that he flashed last year, but he didn't have a ton of work. That's all on Frank Gore. What is your current projection for Green Bay? Their backfield, because you have Jamal Williams, who... Yeah, and you have Aaron Jones, and you have Tom Montgomery.

That's my projection. Is reading their roster. You think Montgomery will continue to be a running back? I think they'll use him. He was good. And I think they'll use him in that capacity, but he's not going to carry the load. And there's going to be question marks. I don't know how that really sifts out. I mean, you're going to have, we talked about it, Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb. Is there a, you know, if Randall Cobb's gone and Tom Montgomery starts playing out of the slot more, maybe something gets.

clarity, but right now I think it's going to be, I think they're okay sharing the backfield. Because they've said that, but they don't actually do that. When they have a guy, he is the guy. I mean, you had time Montgomery who was set to break. They didn't want Time Montgomery to be that though. Right. Jamal Williams was hurt, Aaron Jones was hurt. So when Montgomery got, you know, more work than every other running back in football, that was by necessity. Right. But then Aaron Jones.

Once it went to Aaron Jones, it was all Aaron Jones. He had the two games where he was over to 80% of snaps, which 80% of snaps, that's a lot. Even for great, great running backs, that's a lot. So how do you, I want to know what you see right now. It's January 30th. I think it's Jamal. I think it's Jamal. I think it's Jamal Williams who from week 9 through 16 averaged 18 attempts and four targets.

The interesting thing about Jamal Williams, the only thing I'll bring up about him is that he was elusive-wise. Oh, no. Plays of 10-plus yards, he couldn't do it. No. And so he does seem like the kind of back that will take, he can take a beating, he can catch the ball. You know, if I had to pick one of the three, yeah, I'd probably take.

take the big bodied Williams. That's one of me. Right now you've got to take one. All right. Give me one more name to think about out of the running backs before we talked briefly about quarterbacks here. You got Chris Carson. He was a seventh round pick. Yeah. No. He may have an opportunity. No, thank you. Elijah McGuire. He's got a couple older guys in Powell and Matt Forte. Forte. Forte wants to play. Whether people want him to play is another question. I think he still plays. Forte and Powell are not.

Very expensive in terms of running backs. However, you can cut either of them for pretty cheap against your cap. Forte would be $1 million, and Powell would be only $883,000. So against the cap. If they cut them, I think they both stay on. I just. Corey Clement, undrafted free agent, Austin Eckler, undrafted free agent, Echler and Berita. Yeah. I was going to bring up Corey Clement because he played.

played very, very well. Yes. He earned his way on. He beat out Wendell Smallwood for a role on this team. No, Danelle Pumfrey was hurt. Right. I realized that. I was just going to say, and Danelle Pumfrey wasn't involved. Danelle Pumfrey was a fourth round pick. So how do you, are you projecting anything for Pumfrey who's very undersized? Pumfrey is a Darren Sproles type of running back. Yeah, I was going to say he's going to be involved in special teams, I think. I think they'll utilize them in that capacity.

I think that the way that they run that backfield is it's kind of, you know, pedigree agnostic. You know, it's just. Like, Garrett Blunt is an unrestrictive free agent. It's whoever works. And they're willing to share it. I mean, they've done it all year long. So Doug Peterson, stop it. Well, I mean, it's working. No, I don't care if it's in the Super Bowl. I don't care if it works. It doesn't work for me. Matt Barita or Joe Williams next year? Barita. Okay. Austin Eckler worth a draft pick next year?

Probably. 27. Probably late. Receptions, three touchdowns, 47 carries. He's probably worth a late pick. Melvin Gordon tends to get hurt. All right. Listen, Jay Gris wants to talk about Mitch. Oh. Because nobody beats me. Nobody beats Mitch. Mitchell Trebisky. Is that local? Is what local? Nobody beats Mitch. Like, am I, are we doing a reference that only Arizona understands? Yeah, maybe we are. I think he's shut down too. So if someone beat him.

That's funny. I thought that that was like a Seinfeld reference because I was thinking of. Oh, no. No, that's one of those terrible local commercial. It's a furniture commercial. Nobody beats Mitch. Yeah. Do it again. Nobody beats Mitch. Go look it up. It's terrible. A lot of people. I kind of sounded like Seinfeld. A lot of people beat Mitch. What's the deal with Mitch? A lot of people beat Mitch this year. Nobody beats him. Matt Nagy, new head coach, Mark Halfrick, comes in.

Isn't a naggy a bad guy in World of Warcraft? Nagy? I'm trying to think there's the serpent creatures. Serpent weird? Naga's. Okay. That's a bad reference. I was close. That's rough. I was close. See, baseball fans will know Nagy's name. Oh, sure. And you don't. Nope. All right. Look, Tribisky, there's going to be a lot of hype. I'm going to tell you right now.

Are you going to put on the mufflers? Are you going to put on the headphones? Are you going to block it out? Is there a possibility of a big second year leap for Mitch Chibisky with the offensive minds, you know, coming into Chicago? So you might buy in. I will. You're going to hear this. The next.

The next Jared Goff? Yes. Oh, yes. You're going to hear that. That's already out there. See, I already like Trubisky enough coming in to think that he's going to be capable, but you have to give him weapons. You lost Meredith last year. You, you know, you struggled to put him in a position where he could do very much. I mean, he had games where he started what they won a game with eight attempts or eight completion, something like that. Yeah, nine of 12 games, he had under 200 passing yards. That's what it comes down to.

And there was, of note, there are only two quarterbacks with a worse touchdown percentage than Mitch Trubisky, C.J. Bethard and Brian Hoyer. Bravo. Teammates. So. But that's not really indicative of the future of Trubisky. Yeah. John Fox was limiting Mitch Trubisky. How at some point?

You're John Fox. Please don't tell me that. That doesn't make me feel good. Look, John Fox, I don't like him as a coach. But to be where he is, I have to imagine that John Fox is a decently smart person. Yes. You have to know or feel that your job is on the line. Your team traded up for Mitch Trubisky. You could have sat just.

held your ground at three and hoped that he dropped to you, but they bit, they moved up, they got Tribisky. Your job is on the line. You're out of the playoffs. You have nothing to play for except your job and seeing what this team can do. How do you not just say, all right, Mitch, the second half of the season is yours? Because he's old. That's how. Mitch? No, Fox. Nobody beats Mitch. The Fox is old.