Forgotten Players + GRONK'S Smashing Career

So would you go back and like, I mean, no, keep it down to two or three? I mean, he made some money. But do you guys know, are you aware of Malcolm Mitchell's story of like he? I know he's a writer. Well, he headed into college was reading at like a third grade level going into college and then worked his butt off. He's like he's in this reading group, which was that was highlighted on a Monday night football or something. But it's just it's.

This is really sad for me, seeing what, because I thought Malcolm Mitchell could be a great player, but he was also a great off-the-field story in a world where we don't frequently get those types of players. So goodbye, Malcolm Mitchell. I'm sorry to see you go so young. Yeah. Well, he should have a good post NFL career. Yeah. Hopefully published author. That whole story is basically Jason's story, minus the author and the reading group part. And thankfully, the knee surgery part.

The Raiders GM Mike Mayock said Marshaun Lynch will make a decision about his future following the draft. What a jerk! The draft! Following the draft! Oh, Marshawn! That's great! Yes! Does he want to see how committed they are to him? I guess. That's a... Marshawn, that's not fair to the team? I, you know, I don't know why that is. I don't know why you wouldn't be able to tell him, I don't know, before the draft. Because he's Marshawn. He does what he wants.

Any other news, guys? Not for me. All right, that was today's news and notes. Brought to you by Sleeper. During the off season, now is the time to ask you commission if you're using the right platform. Check out Sleeper. We hear from tons of you guys every day that start new leagues over on the Sleeper platform. All right, main event time. Loud and squeaky, because really, I'm fine. All right, we're talking about forgotten players coming back from injury. They're fine.

Well, they insist it. I would not draft gronk coming off of a banged up year. Coming coming off of retirement? Yeah, coming off a retirement. Now, in fairness, if you don't want to draft gronk coming off a banged up year, that means you wouldn't have wanted to draft ever. Ever. You know, man, really wish I would have traded him a week ago. I tried to tell you, I got, I finally got one of these retirements right. Yeah, finally. Yeah. All right, let's start at the wide receiver position.

That intro to this segment, I think it sums up my feelings on this next guy. A.J. Green played nine games last year. Heard his hip, his groin. Week three was the week the injury happened. Week 8 and 9, he had a right toe injury. He had turf toe in week 13. That's when he was out for the season. That's the triple threat by way of injury.

What do we think about AJ Green coming back? Because look, he and Julio Jones, right? They came out the same year. Right. And so they've had these parallel type of careers. And here's Julio Jones, who by the way, is on the precipice of signing the, what, the highest paying wide receiver contract in football? Yeah. It's rumored to be north of 50 million guaranteed four or five years. To me, the situation, they came out same year, very similar style of players.

Same age, but the tale of two different stories at this point in their career. I literally, in our Dynasty League, just traded A.J. Green plus a couple of other guys to upgrade to Julio Jones. I'm worried about A.J. Green. He is, he is... Short term or long term? More long term, but I see some worries with, you know, the foot problems that he has are...

foot problems that sometimes have, you know, a reoccurrence. And so that worries me, right? Like this season, he's up there in age and he's coming off. He just got the boot off. Like, this was great news a week or two ago. He got the boot off. That's just not. The boot off of your team is what you mean. He did get, he got both boots off. And that's just not what I want. Brooks, you're going to allow that? Brooks loved. Oh, yeah, I'm cracking up over here, man. My goodness. Yeah.

It's the birthday. That's the birthday bonus over there. That's the birthday bump. Now, so I'm a little bit concerned. Look, on a per game basis when he's out there, I think he's going to be great because he usually is. Well, I look back what he did. The only game that was bad for AJ Green, week three, when he got hurt, not really that bad. When he got hurt and he was still like.

For a guy who got hurt, you took your eight points and you took the lumps. And then week 13 when he tried to come back and couldn't. Other than that, AJ Green was good. Now he gets an upgraded offense. You could argue, you know, Marvin Lewis out of the way. They've got offensive-minded people coming in. AJ Green has talked about how they're going back to the system that he had when it was like Gruden and AJ Green dominated. So there is a case to be made that he is, you know, just a top guy slipping in drafts right now.

who'll be a top five wide receiver. It was the same case as last year as well. I mean, last year we made a similar case. He only had 1,000 yards, 75 receptions the year before was only 10 games played. So we've seen three of the last, I don't know, five years. He's not played 16. That's been the concern and the problem. Also a slight lack of confidence in Andy Dalton and the offense and different pieces and what they're going to do.

Matthew Betts, one of our writers. He talked about surgery to repair torn ligaments in the foot. There's a good chance of recurring issues. He doesn't feel confident with him playing 16 games. But when he was in, like you said, 78% of his games were good games. Posted the third best contested catch rate among wide receivers last year. He was the same old AJ Green when he's on the field. But I don't know. He has a little bit of...

There's a little bit of fatigue, I think, for fantasy owners when it comes to AJ Green because you haven't had league winning type of consistency from him. Right. And there's also contract problems, right? Like the Julio contract news that they definitely want to get a deal locked in, sign him for three or four or five years versus AJ Green who's kind of, he's on his last year of his contract. They've been quiet.

He's coming off injury at an old age. You know, maybe he's playing somewhere else next year. Or like you brought up with Andy Don't. What are they doing the draft? What do they do in the draft? What do they do in the draft too? And so would you say this? Considering all of them and not necessarily banking on him or turning to form or not. But do you think he will be underdrafted relative to what he will do this season? Or do you think it's an appropriate bump down? I believe he will be underdrafted. If you know you're going to get eight.

weeks, I think he will be underdrafted. Yeah, I mean, I agree that on, you know, when you draft him, he's going to come out of the gate and be better than where you drafted him at. It's just a matter of can you get the whole season? So draft him and then trade him. So in a dynasty league, Mike, I was deciding, I was trading with Jason a couple weeks ago. I could have had AJ Green, could have had T. Yilton. Who do you take in that situation? Because I, I, in Dynasty.

I went with Hilton. I would take Hilton. Yeah, I was the same way. I was trying to get rid of AJ Green instead of. This year, Adam Thielen, AJ Green. This year, Adam Thielen. Yeah. Keenan Allen, AJ Green this year. Keenan. Keenan. All right. All right, here's a, well, you got something to say. You got something to speak. I do. Would you take those same guys over AJ Green or would you take AJ Green over either? No, I would take all of those guys over AJ Green.

Okay. Well, then there you go. We're in agreement. And we want to thank today's sponsor, Hulu. Hulu is great. I love Hulu. Look, have you ever sat courtside at a basketball game. Andy and I have, and it ruined every other viewing experience for the rest of our lives at any game. That's what Hulu is doing to TV, because they're making your viewing experience so good. You just don't want to go back. That's pretty much...

you know, the gist of the Hulu commercial that I've been seeing going around everywhere. It's all about how now Hulu has tons of shows and movies, exclusive originals, plus live TV for sports, all that. And look, once you get Hulu, it's going to ruin your TV forever. I apologize to everyone for nothing because Hulu is great. Look, start your free trial at Hulu.

Today. Go to Hulu.com. That's H-U-L-U.com. You won't be disappointed. Try Hulu out. Hello. Hello. Well, that's different than Kulu. I'm not familiar with Kulu. I am unaware. Or is it Kuku, as in Cooper Cup? Hmm.

Huh? That's a transition. We're letting that happen too. I'll be honest. I actually read his name is, uh, I definitely read it as Kulu in my mind. Okay. But it wasn't. It's, uh, it's Cooper Cup who we're talking about now. That was, look, that was the rapper from the 90s with Gangsters Paradise. Kulio. Uh, yeah. That's right. That was the transition. All right. Cooper Cup, eight games last year. Kulio Cup. Oh, no. No.

Uh, left MCL sprain, week six, torn left ACL, week 10. Cooper Cup made more of a difference to that offense than I think we all understood until he was, well, he was gone. 63% of his games were good when he was on the field. He monstered out in week four. That was the 33 point performance. Had a couple double-digit games before that. Missed a couple games with the MCL sprain. Came back, looked good. And now?

What to make of Cooper Cup next year. We as fantasy owners have such a hard time looking at Cooks and Cup and Woods knowing who's going to be the most appropriate and highest draft pick. I mean, if Cooper Cup were healthy and not coming off the ACL Terri, he's your guy. He is the easy pick because he's going to be later. Even over Brandon Cooks? Because of the draft costs. Brandon Cooks is still going to cost more. Cooper Cup is just an absolute touchdown monster. I mean, they transitioned his role.

He's the big slot guy. He's a 6-2 wide receiver playing in the slot. Six touchdowns in eight games, and that's not even really in eight games because he missed basically two of those. I think he's a great player, and he fits exactly what they want in that offense. It's just judging how ready is he to come back off a torn ACL was a week 10 ACL.

You're talking, that's at the point where the timeline could be a little sketchy. Yeah, it's going to be dicey. You're not going to see OTAs roll around and him be at full strength. Right. And so, yeah, I agree that there is risk. But this is risk that I am willing to take. I'm willing to buy Cooper Cup wherever he falls in drafts because he will fall a little bit.

He's not the type. He's not, you know, a burner. He's not the guy that, you know, that, you know, sometimes after an ACL, you deal with hamstring issues when you're a speedster guy. He's not that type. So I think he plugs right back into the offense and is great. As the season goes on, he's going to get better and better. This was not. That part I agree with. You know, so I'm fine drafting. I think he is.

the most valuable of the three wide receivers for draft versus what you're going to get. Are you willing to draft Cooper Cup in that fifth, six round with the possibility that it might be three to four weeks into the season before you can even actually use him? I mean, I believe he'll be drafted right around there. When the draft rolls around, we'll know more about his health. So far everything is on track. He should be good to go.

Given that, I don't think you're going to have three or four weeks where you can't play Cooper Cup. I would put him in my lineup week one, and I think he's going to do fine. That doesn't mean he doesn't get better as the year goes on, but I don't anticipate that I'm going to have lost weeks with Cooper Cup. Jared Goff loves him. I mean, you look at the red zone targets 29% in 2017. In the games he played last year, 24%. So when you're around the red zone, he's looking to Cooper Cut to bail him out.

and to put him in a good position. Yeah, I tend to think if he's on the field, he's going to be valuable. That's probably the way to look at it. I want to hear you guys' thoughts on this next guy. Marvin Jones only played nine games, knee bruise last year in week 10, went out for the season in week 12, coming back to a team, no Golden Tate.

but a talented guy that had a monstrous, a top 12 performance the year before. Oh, really? I'm not super excited. I'm back. Sign me up for more Marvin. Yeah, are you really? So, yes. Now, is this the Golden Tate leaving? Because Golden Tate, you know, obviously was gone. I don't remember how the weeks lined up last year. He didn't play much without him. But Kenny Golliday is going to take over. He's the one. That's fine. I can handle Marvin Jones being.