Forgotten Players + GRONK'S Smashing Career

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Head over to Ultimate DraftKit.com today. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast, coming to you from pristineauction.com studios with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Ah, welcome in. A birthday. Andy. Thank you. You're welcome. Why did you transform into Eeyore?

My wife always does a happy birthday. I think that's from something. It is from something. I don't have a clue what it's from other than my wife. I don't remember where that's from. Brooks, do you remember? Do you know how much I held back on that? Welcome in to the fantasy footballers podcast. Little known fact. You, um...

You do a lot for the conservation of our... Water. The species and water, all those things. Nature. When you get the UDK. Oh, yeah. Right? Totally. You could hear the birds chirping. Well, because it's a digital product, so you save trees. That's right. We don't use any paper. No more magazines. No. No. Save the earth. Save the magazines. Save the magazines.

Wait. That was a live clip from, I think it was Planet Earth 3. Yeah, soon to be released. Yeah, soon to be released. Welcome into the fantasy footballers. We've got a great show today, some news, some notes, and some forgotten players. That is the focus of today's show, looking at some players that maybe had down years due to injury that have been forgotten, ignored. Maybe you haven't been actively pursuing them in your leagues, but you should remember then.

And that's what we're going to do. We're going to help you remember them today. Yeah. Every year, there are a couple of players that stick out, you know, that, man, you just kind of forgot about. And they came back and they were really helpful for fantasy. So we're going to take a look at all the guys that kind of went away. You might forget about how they did. And we're essentially. You forget because when you're cruising the end of season standings, you're looking at who were the top 20 running backs, top 20 wide receivers. These players won't show up.

because they did not have enough games to get to the top. And for some of them, I think we'll cast a negative verdict of maybe we don't believe that they're going to do well. But, you know, others, it's really a matter of making sure that they don't drop too far on your own. Remember to dislike them. Sure. Twitter at the FF Ballers. You can follow this show over there. Follow Mike at FFF Hitman. Follow Jason at Jason FFL. I'm at Andy Holloway.

Jointhefoot.com is the community for our listeners. There's over 5,000 of you over there. They get an extra episode every week, so check it out. Here's a question brought on by some recent news. 29-year-old Rob Grankowski has announced that his time has come. He is retiring from the NFL. Is he the best tight end of all time? It's a loaded question.

Well, I prefer to answer it only in the fantasy realm, in which case. Oh, that's an answer is yes. Yeah, I mean, for sure. Honestly, I think you could answer it yes and either. I want to make a Mike Ditka joke, you know, because obviously he'd win in a fight as a better tied in. But fantasy is the only thing that really matters. Gronk was dominant to a degree that, look, the peak of Antonio Gates, the peak of Jimmy Graham. Tony Gonzalez.

Yeah, I feel like Tony Gonzalez's... Standing Sharp. Witton's weren't as high. Yeah, Witten was great. But... Gromke was more of a force than anyone was when he was at the top of his game. And he averaged 0.69 touchdowns per... It's very gronkeying. Game. It is. The way I break down the question, because he doesn't have the longevity that Tony Gonzalez or Jason Witten, he doesn't have that. His body started to break down. But...

The way I'm looking at this question, if you could have any tight end at the peak of their career for one game because they are the best, I don't know how you would not pick Rob Grunkowski. No, I mean, you know, he's heralded because of his past catching his touchdowns, but he's an unbelievable run block. He just dominated the game in all facets. And if you were to tell me, pick a career. So not just...

peak year for one year, who would you pick? But if I could have, you know, Gronks, what do you have, nine, ten years in the league versus the longer career of a Jason Witten or Tony Gonzalez, I would take Grunk. Gronk helps you win championships, helps you. Nine completely destroy the defense. Nine seasons in the NFL. Did not play a full 16 games, except for one season in 2011. That was it.

During that season, he was targeted 124 times, 90 receptions, 1,327 yards, 17 touchdowns. Bananas. Do yourself a favor because they're going around right now on the Twitter sphere. Go watch Rob Grunkowski highlights so you can wash your mouth of last year. When you saw them on the field, that was...

That was not the gronk that you're used to watching. Go relive his glory days and go. Oh, yes. That's the guy who I thought I was drafting last year, who just dominates. Fair enough. Goodbye, Rob, Gronkowski. Yeah, see you, buddy. Glad I traded for Vance McDonald in my dynasty league. News and notes from Around the League. Presented by Sleeper.

Despite the retirement, the current reports are that Jared Cook will indeed sign with the New Orleans Saints, giving Drew Brees a... Is that still a report of will sign? As of this recording, Monday, March 25th, he had not signed with the Saints. That was breaking news over the weekend that Jared Cook was signing. I keep waiting for the official signing. What's taking so long? He insists on one of those really big feather pins and they don't have them. So he's waiting for him to bring him on.

That you dip into the ink. Yeah, and then you need an octopus. An octopus? You need to manufacture the ink? To get the ink, yeah. Do people write an octopus ink? That's, it's only the classiest authors do. Really? Yeah, Steinbeck was a huge proponent of octopus. I did not know that. I had no idea. Thank you. The Rams matched the offer to Malcolm Brown. Stupid Rams. Yeah, and sign him to a two-year deal. And so he returns to the Rams.

And C.J. Anderson doesn't expect to resign with the Rams. Yeah, he'll be on the open market, which has been very cold for him. So I don't expect great things there. It's also bad news for Carry on Johnson in case now that Malcolm Brown doesn't come in, maybe they look higher. Anderson's going to go get that Malcolm Brown contract from Detroit. He certainly could. John Lynch, GM of the 49ers, says Jerich McKinnon will remain with the 49ers.

I think that was the original expectation, right? The Freeman and Tavin Coleman role. But now they, you know, there's four guys there. And that's a murky situation. I don't think fantasy owners won a part of. So if you look back to last year and the success Matt Breda has.

I think it's wrong of fantasy owners to presume Jerry McKinnon is the starter on that team. I do not think that is a foregone conclusion by any stretch of the imagination. And a lot of people in San Francisco believe Matt Breda will be the starter of that team, and Kevin Coleman and Jerry McKinnon will split that secondary work.

That's what I've been reading. That's what I've been hearing. Matt Breed was over five a touch last year. They like him. And you're not just necessarily going to give first and second down work to Derek McKinnon just because you paid him money in the past because they could have cut him. I think it's just going to be everybody. And now it'll be a problem. They've gone the route of usually teams have a change of pace running back.

You have guys who have very different styles, but they compliment each other. You got the, got Derek Henry, you got Dionne Lewis. And that's not what the 49ers are doing. They want the exact same player to come in for running back. And we'll see how it works. But I think all four of those guys will be playing. And this is, it's good. I think it's a strong move. It's a smart move for San Francisco, the football team. Right.

But for fantasy purposes, you have absolutely evaporated four players who could be helping your fantasy team. I've always felt like it was dumb to have the, like, big bruiser or the pass catcher. And those are the only two things they do. It's like, who's in the game right now? You're telling me, Jason, you're telling me that old school NFL mentality has, has some cracks in it?

I think, yeah, a little bit. Maybe the new misdirection, the guys on the field, you don't know what he's going to do because he can do everything is the better route. I worry that people will swing the pendulum too far. For that offense, right, you didn't end up with O'Do Beckham Jr. traded to San Francisco. You didn't end up with Antonio Brown traded to San Francisco. Jimmy Garplow coming off the injury. Four competent running backs in the system that.

produces great numbers for them. Last year, look, I don't blame him because last year everybody got hurt. They needed to turn to somebody new at a moment's notice. But what does this say to the offense? You got four competent running backs. Jimmy Garoppolo, where do you see Garoppolo this year? Is this an offense that will be entirely predicated on the run and those running backs? No, not the run. I mean...

why they're so great, why you have all these running backs, they're all great pass catching running backs. None of them are the bruisers. So if anything, if we're talking with the offense, it helps Garapolo. Garapolo is going to be, at this point, he's shaping up to be one of my favorite quarterback targets late in drafts because I think he can easily be a top 12, potentially a top 10 guy with some upside on a weekly basis because of the Kyle Shanahan system.

But last year he was just going too high. I mean, people fell in love. Look, I get it. You look at his face. You fall in love. He's so handsome. But now he's going to be a fair price in your draft. And I'll be interested, assuming I see Jimmy Garoppolo out there doing things coming off the ACL tear. See, I want, you know, as beautiful a man as he is, I want to get a glance at that ACL. Yeah. I want to make sure that that ACLs. I want that thing pristine. All right.

Okay, this is official. Jeremy Macklin, the dirty cake himself has announced his retirement. Are we in a time machine? Yeah, I was going to say years ago. Malcolm Mitchell, retired, free agent, wide receiver. That's unfortunate. Ten knee surgeries. Is that the actual number or are you being hyperbott? That is the actual number that I read. And you'd be like, did you guys follow Malcolm Mitch? Would you go back and just not do any of them then if you could? Like, in hindsight, he never played again.