Fantasy Football 2018 - The Overreaction Episode, Blake the Snake Gets Paid

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Hi, this is Eric Dickinson, NFL Hall of Famer, and you listen to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. To the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Coming to you from Draft.com Studios with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome into the show. Always a pleasure to be here. I'm so happy to be here with you two gentlemen.

Everybody's happy and healthy and ready to talk football. I know I'm excited for the next few months. I'm excited to talk about the rookie class. I'm excited about free agency. I'm excited for the NFL draft. I'm excited for all the dynasty play. It's just going to be outstanding. And I know if you're here listening to the show with us, that you are excited as well. Because it's late February.

one week one week till the combine uh that means what about two weeks until free agency what do you call the combine again the underwear olympics that's right we learned that on the last show if you didn't hear that which was shocking news that two people in the fantasy football industry had never heard that because our uh esteemed colleague brooks said oh yeah they call it that all the time yeah and they do but the nice thing is when you say something like that you you get an opportunity to pause

and reflect on what is really being said. And that's what we chose to do. It's true. And, Mike, you know you are the most well-rounded in terms of just general pop culture and knowledge. You're a man of the people. I am a man of the people. That's unverified. Very unverified man of the people. But a man of the people. Look, we have a great show today. This is the overreaction episode. We're going to talk about players that we think maybe you shouldn't overreact to.

I was thinking about that. Is this really the overreaction show? Because it seems like it's more of the underreaction show. We're trying to tell you what to not overreact to. Yeah. The overreaction show is like, hey, guys, this is going to be nuts. Let's do this. Well, last year, Matt Ryan was an example of the, we had him on this show. Well, we didn't have him on the show. But we had. We asked. We asked. He said, you guys are overreacting to my top season.

And we said what? We said, don't overreact to the huge year. So that was a don't overreact. But people, the people out there are overreacting, were overreacting to Mount Ryan. Todd Gurley went from being that number one running back, you know, or top five guy I mean the year before to being a disappointment. Yeah. And last year we said, or you said, I said, don't overreact. That's right. That's right. DeAndre Hopkins, we said, don't overreact. You know, he had a down year, but things were amiss.

Maybe we'll talk about some players that are in that category this year on today's show. We each chose three different names that we're going to bring up, make our cases, give our rebuttals. And I'm excited to see what you guys think. So if you want to participate in the conversation, after you listen to the show, go over to Twitter at the FF Ballers. Chat with us. Let us know what you think. Let us know if there's somebody that we...

glaringly left off the list. Yeah, comment on the YouTube comments. Who are you thinking people are going to overreact to that we don't cover here today? If you want to win a Todd Gurley or Les Bell sign jersey, we're giving them away at Footclaim Giveaway.com. You can go over there, participate. It's free to enter. And we're going to give those away by the end of March. A signed Todd Gurley, signed Love Bell jersey. And the ultimate draft kit is available for pre-sell.

On the website, Ultimate DraftKit.com. This is the one-stop shop to dominate your 2018 fantasy draft. Tons of tools, information, stuff you just can't miss. You know you're going to get it, so it might as well pre-order, save some of that cache. And before we get into the quick question, I want to hop into these NFL dates, just make you aware of some things. The Combine, when is it, Mike? It's next week. That's crazy. It starts next week.

It starts Tuesday and runs through March 5th. And then you... Wait, isn't that March 5th? Yeah, I know it runs through March 5th. Okay. I'm just sorry. Wouldn't that be March 5th next Tuesday? I think it starts today, fellas, that we're recording. What? What? Hold on. We're the day before. Am I reading this wrong? Oh, my goodness.

When you just search for NFL Combine, it shows today the 27th through March 5th. Okay, well, that means that the real drills don't start on Tuesday, so they'll start later this week. Man, I got all mixed up. All mixed up. March 6th is the deadline to franchise. March 12th through the 14th is that legal tampering period where teams can start to wink at each other. I call it the tickle fight. Yeah, they just start to try to get Kirk Cousins in the door.

And then March 14th is when actual signings can take place. Free agencies open at 4 p.m. Eastern on the 14th of March. NFL draft is April 16th through the 18th. And maybe Brooks can get us kind of some more specifics on the Combine. Premier event days. And you can kind of touch base with us later on during the show, Brooks. All right, quick question of the day. Actually, can I touch base again right now?

Yeah, yeah, you can. Get that base. Friday. No, my March 2nd. There we go. There we go. Running backs, offensive line, kickers and special team. Saturday, March 3rd, quarterbacks, wide receivers, and tight ends. Wait, special teams? ST is listed. I guess that doesn't, I don't know if that makes sense. Look, if you make it in the NFL, you're a stud. You aren't an elite athlete. But if you're going into the combine just to try out.

I just want to be special teams. You got to aim higher. Got to aim higher. Long snappers? Got to aim higher. I mean, that has to be the main category there, right? Long snapper? We'll find out. Okay. Thanks, Brooks. Yeah, and Sunday and Monday is mostly defensive players, it looks like. Friday and Saturday. Defense. All right.

I don't even know why this is the quick question based on my own answer, but this one comes in from James on Twitter. He says, how do you convince a league to drop their kickers in their defense positions? And my answer to this is lay off. They're fine. I think this quick question comes in. Why are you going to get rid of them? Because we or, you know, I know I do. And Mike, I think you're pretty much there with me. We disparage kickers.

a lot of times, not in the NFL, but for fantasy purposes, because they are not as easy to predict. They're not fun to play compared to the other. Just look at the draft season, and you look at all the time spent on researching all these players, and then look at the end of season rankings and realize what a big deal kickers make, and there's kind of, there's something off there. What I would recommend, and I'm speaking only of kickers, because I actually love.

defenses in fantasy football so long as it's not dynasty. If you're in a keeper redraft, I love playing the waivers for kickers. I recommend nerfing kickers. Start with nerve. If your league, because I tried to get rid of kickers forever in our league of record. Yes, you have. Andy stayed true to his quick question to answer and said, no, leave him alone. Then finally, I was in favor of nerving. Well, that's what I'm saying. Finally, the conversation shifted from get rid of kickers to just.

nerf them because we had like kickers that were outscoring the top five tight ends and you know make it to where they're not impacting the game for example we had we had you know five uh 50 yard kicks and above were five points and 40 plus were four and and then below that it was three and then if you miss something within 30 yards it was minus two and and so we just took that and we just said hey look you miss a kick you get zero you miss an extra point you get negative one you make a kick you get three

Yep. And if you're over 50, you get four. Yep. So we simplified it. It changed the variance because I agree. It's obviously a harder to predict position. It's dependent entirely on game flow and field position and some of these things that, but at the same time, you have good kickers and you have bad kickers. Of course. Did you have any thoughts there, Mike? No, I'm completely with Jason on this one. All right. All right. Let's get into the news. News and notes from around the league.

Well, I made a very public bet on Blake Bortles. I got a snake. That was a water bet, right? Yeah, it's not over yet. Wait, this, it's not over yet? Well, right. What was the bet? Tell me, that was I was not here. Start week one. That was the bet. So you're going to, we're going to have to check the tape. It was. Brooks, you remember this, right? In our log it says, Blake the snake will be a starter this year. Right.

I'm not paying that out until he's a starter. Hold on. That is nonsense. I'm not going to pay it out when there's a chance that an injury nullifies the bet. But the injury would not have at all held to the spirit of what you were saying. That's what I was going to bring up. So you're saying that if he's there and he's ready to be their starter and on the drive to week one, if he got injured for the season, you would say I won the bet. I would say that I was accurate in my prediction.

Well, I'm not inaccurate. Brooks, read the bat to me again. I think he's not to start a game. Oh, man. Blake to Snake will be restarted. Okay. You're the judge. You're creating a, you're greasing that slope on our bets. No, I'm not. Yes, you are. You have to start a game to be the starter, don't you? Thank you. Thank you. It's just common sense. No. I mean, I'm... It's the bet was we'll start a game. That was not the bet. Yes, it was. We'll check the tape for the...

Okay, so how would you pay that bet out? Was the bet, will he sign a three-year, $54 million contract? No, Jacksonville. It was well Jacksonville decide that he is their starting quarterback. No, it wasn't. No, I'm saying the spirit of us. For you, maybe. Well, that wasn't for me. All right, moving on. The Jags have signed Blake Bortles to a three-year deal. What was so funny about this back-and-forth, ping-pong story thing is it was Blake Bortles as a starter. Then a news story broke out this weekend that said,

They are looking at their options elsewhere. We've heard about Kirk Cousins. In my opinion, if I'm Jacksonville with that defense, I'm probably trying to find a better solution than Blake Bortles. The reason they were defeated by New England in the playoffs is because once the second half rolled around, Blake Bortles, they made him beat him, and he couldn't. I think it was play calling. Blake Bortle's played pretty well. Yeah.

I would agree. I think it was more that they tried to turtle up. But that's chicken or egg because if you have a player that you don't believe and can't trust to call plays for because he makes mistakes, you don't call the plays. So if the guy is historically shown you he can't perform, which he has for the most part that you can't trust. And they couldn't commit a big turnover. I get it. We don't get to see what happens if they make those play calls. But maybe they do when he throws three picks. Maybe they do when he wins the game. Either way.