Fantasy Football 2017 - Keep/Trade/Cut + AFC South Breakdown

are one of the most interesting fantasy relevant teams in football because you have a world of hype that you can write right into that roster. I mean, who doesn't like Marcus Marriota? Who doesn't like that potential and efficiency? Who doesn't love Derek Henry waiting in the wings behind a super fantasy relevant to Marco Murray? Eric Decker arrives. Corey Davis arrives. But the question that I have is, look, how much are they going to pass the ball? Because it has to go up.

Certainly does. Because that efficiency level in Tennessee was through the roof. This is a team that Marcus Marriota had averaged around 18 receptions a game. You compare that with somebody like Drew Breeze. That's 11 less per game than Drew Brise. Completions. Completions, yes. What did I say? Receptions. Well, that's tough. His team was averaging. He threw and caught. No, yes, you're right. Completions per game. So you're talking about basically Breeze having an extra 30 percent, right?

every single game. So you have to be hyper-efficient or you have to increase passing volume if you think that efficiency was a bit of an outlier. You know, you had the efficiency of a guy Nick Foles years ago. I'm not comparing him to Nick Foles. But at the time, that efficiency caused people to draft Foles very high. So how much are the Titans really going to pass the ball with all these new weapons with Corey Davis and Taiwan Taylor, Eric Decker? There's no way they're going to.

run the ball at the same clip versus their pass because you could see what they want to take the reins off of mariotta a little bit you don't go out and spend you know your your top 10 pick on a wide receiver then your third round pick on a wide receiver then go get eric decker to just continue to be a run the ball team you're you're saying as a franchise we think mariotta is a

is a really good quarterback. We're going to give him the tools to open up a little bit. Now, they'll still be, they're not going to say, oh, we're not running the ball. We're going to be a past first team. Exotic smash mouth, man. Exotic smash mouth is going to get a little bit more exotic with the passing scheme. So look for the running back, you know, the rushing totals from the running back position to probably go down this coming season. The average 25 carries a game. They went 9 and 7.

Mario to coming off the injury? You think that they're going to adjust a winning recipe? No, I don't think they're going to, you know, forcibly adjust. But if Marioita is able to...

passed the ball easier with better weapons. Remember, last year, his best weapon was Richard Matthews, you know, and Tajay Sharp. Obviously, the Titans didn't think those were good weapons because they went out and replaced them with three other guys. So I'm just saying as he succeeds, it's not that they're going to say, hey, we're going to run the ball less. Just passing is more efficient in the NFL. If you need to score points and you need to move the ball, you're going to end up passing more. And you're saying now they can. Yes, that's what I'm saying.

Mike, we talked about Eric Decker earlier. If you compare kind of the proportions of pass run of the Tennessee Titans and the Buffalo Bills, they're very similar. So would you have felt the same level of excitement for Eric Decker if he ended up in Buffalo than if he ended up in Tennessee? I like him more in Tennessee. And it's not necessarily the volume because when it comes to a, when it comes to fantasy quarterbacks.

Yeah, I mean, obviously it's nice to have a guy on a pass a team, but I think efficiency is equally, if not more important. We've seen quarterbacks like Tony Roma where if you, and Dak Prescott last year, if you're efficient, it doesn't matter. And you get into positive game scripts for the quarterback. That means that they're scoring points. And maybe towards in the fourth quarter, then they get to run the clock out with the running back. But being a great quarterback inefficient.

quarterback has never heard a guy like Tom Brady. I mean, he still puts a fantasy point. So I like Eric Decker going to the efficient Mariota. My word of caution for this team is on Marioita himself, where I like the player. I think that he is evolving and he will be one of the top quarterbacks in the next couple years. But people got very excited last year when he went on his run. And I wanted to run through the defenses that he played.

in that eight-week stretch. Miami. And I will also give you, these are the, they're ranking and allowing points to a quarterback fantasy points. Miami 30th, Cleveland, 32nd. The Colts, 23rd. Jacksonville was pretty solid. They were 6th. Chargers 16th, Green Bay 26th. Indie again, and then Chicago 21st. So in that span, he played a top half beat defense once.

And he was the QB 11 that week. I mean, he was absolutely destroying bad defenses. Now, is that bad? No, I want a quarterback who can destroy inferior competition, but I'm not going to allow that stretch to skew what I, to skew me thinking into Marioita has this top five potential when the other times when he wasn't in that stretch, he was essentially a sub.

24-quarterback. Yeah, he had the widest. He had really, really bad games. He had the widest splits between top half defenses and bottom half defenses. So that is something you need to keep in mind. And when you look to the upcoming season, the first four weeks. He was just about to say not games that you'd have a guy coming off an injury and be able to put up big numbers in. Right. He's got the over the first four weeks, the 30th according to you know. He plays Oakland, Jacksonville, Seattle, and Houston. Yeah.

That's the 30th at 32 as far as against the quarterback position last year. So it might be hard to get off the ground for Marioada. He might be a great trade asset or even a waiver wire pickup when someone gets upset and drops him. If he has back to back just albatross games, you're going to be able to get him cheat. They play the NFC West this year as well. So he gets to play Seattle and Arizona, Los Angeles. So the final thing I want to talk about for the.

for the Titans, unless you guys have something else. But it's Delaney Walker. Well, I wanted to bring that up. My exact question was, is it fair to predict the demise of Delaney Walker when he was fourth in fantasy? In terms of points per game at the tied-in. Anthony Fasano's gone. They drafted a third-round tight-in. What do you think about the Delaney Walker demise with Corey Davis, Decker, Walker, and then Matthews breaking out in the second half of the year? The amount of weapons that they've added is absolutely troublesome for Walker. And he's fine.

The problem is you're spending that middle round pick. And here are some tight ends going right around him in the draft. So he's currently the Titan 7, according to Fantasy Football Calculator, right in front of him, and I'm saying not even around in front of him, Tyler Eifford. And this is PPR, by the way. Tighten 9, Kyle Rudolph, Titan 10, Hunter Henry, Titan 11, Zach Ertz, guys who I think are very intriguing. I think they have a...

at least equal upside to what Walker has. Now Walker has history if you want to go back and lean on that, but I'm not going to pay a middle round pick for the seventh or sixth tied end. I want a guy who I can drive late and can explode or I'm just not even going to worry about that position. It's just, it's too much of a premium.

unless I'm getting a top three guy. Yeah, at the end of the year, Delaney Walker will be all right. He'll be a tight in one, but you won't have felt it through most of the year as he's just kind of this 60 reception type of guy unless you're talking about, you know, that crazy abnormal year he had two years ago. All right. It's worth noting as well that last year, the offensive line in Tennessee was ranked fourth by Pro Football Focus. This year, they are currently ranked number one. Yeah.

I'm sorry, they were won last year. They're four right now. So they're a great offensive line. All right. Let's talk about the Indianapolis Colts. Last year, this was a team that, you know, they could pass the ball. We know the story with Andrew Luck. What's the latest in Andrew Luck and his injury, recovery? Do fantasy owners have a reason to be afraid? I was going to say that we got to talk about the Andrew Luck news of he's starting training camp on the PUP.

and which that does not mean he's missing six games, by the way. The training camp pup and the in-season pup are very different. If you're on the pup list in training camp, you can be pulled off at any moment. And Stephen Holder, he is an Indianapolis Colts beat reporter. He was attending Chris Ballard's press conference. And now Chris Ballard did not say this. And Stephen Holder was very specific that this was not mentioned.

But Stephen Holder's take as a reporter trying to read between the lines, he believes that Andrew Luck may not play at all in the preseason, but he should be ready for week one. However, a quarterback not getting any preseason time, a little practice time to get things going again with the receivers. Andy, you've been very, very strong on Andrew Luck coming into the season. As the Andrew Luck guy this year, is that?

Any cause for concern for you? It's cause to pay attention. I don't think the actual playing in the preseason games is going to be the defining factor for any fear that I have drafting Andrew Luck. I think that if he has practice time, if he's trending the right direction, if everything is going towards the beginning of the season, I'm going to be comfortable with him sitting out those games. I don't think that they want to take a chance with the guy that is their franchise.

in every sense. So it's going to come down to is he practicing? I don't care if he plays in those games. Right now I'm not adjusting him. Do I want to see him healthy in practicing? Sure. But we've been down this road with injuries before taking your time on these quarterbacks, limiting reps, making sure he's healthy. My concern is those 16 games during the regular season. So.

I want to bring up the running game in Indianapolis, and I want to ask this question to you, because unlike, you know, Tennessee, who we just talked through, having quite a few changes on the offense, you know, adding a number of pieces. It's really not the case in Indianapolis. You didn't see a big splash made at the running back position. Yes, they drafted Marlon Mac, but you have Frank Gore and Robert Turbin, who may be the least sexy duo in the league. Efficient.

You know, are not efficient, but producers for fantasy. You don't have a big change at the wide receiver core other than Moncrief being healthy going into a season. You signed Kamar Aiken. So my question for this is let's say Frank Gore does hit a wall. What does that look like? What is a break? The wall comes down, my friend. Frank Gore is not stopped by your wall. He runs through it. But if, if, you know, at some point, he's going to Fred Jackson, okay?

He's going to hit the wall where eventually, look, we all made the jokes about it. Fred Jackson, Fred Jackson, he'll play forever. Well, he's not playing anymore. And if Frank Gore was to hit a wall, how does that play out in fantasy football team? Is saying who takes over? Yeah, what are the implications? Or what does that look like for Frank Gore? What does he become? I think it's... All of the above. How does it shake out? Does Robert Turbin have a bunch of fantasy relevance? Is Marlin Mac getting first and second down carry somehow? Yeah, I'll say that even if Frank Gore hits the wall this year, I bet they still...

have him grind it out. I don't see a changing of the guard coming for this team. However, Robert Turman has been talked up very frequently this offseason. You hear about Turbin almost as much as I hear positive things about Doug Martin, which, yes, that's what a team is supposed to do. You're supposed to talk up someone who's in the back, not your starter. But Robert Turbin, over the final seven weeks of the season, he got at least one carry inside the 10.

Every single game. So we lament the touchdown vulture. But Robert Turbent is legitimately turned into a touchdown vulture that the Colts, once they get in close, they want to give the ball to Turbin. And that gives you that cap on Frank Gore because Gore is not going to bust off 30-yard touchdowns with any kind of regularity. Marlon Mack, nice player. He's athletic. He's got some juice, but I don't.

I don't think he's anything but a chains of pace, maybe get some receptions here and there type of guy. So it's Frank Gore bust for me on this running back crew. Yeah, we joke that Frank Gore is and always will be.

the running back 12 because that's kind of where he's finished the last two years. But the reality is I moved him down in my rankings in prep for this show because the more that I dive in and look, I think the touchdown opportunities, he will still have touchdown opportunities, but they're not entirely his. And the workload, I just don't believe he's going to be able to have 265 carries. And if he has the 220 carries because of his inefficiency, since he's been a colt, you know, he's never cracked that four yards of carry. He's been, you know,