Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - RB's 21-40, Chris Harris Interview, News, Mailbag

Do your mock drafts. And if you're in a Keeper League, you can actually import your players from that so that you can draft the draft that you've got coming up. All right, we're really excited to bring in our next guest, Christopher Harris, formerly of ESPN, Fantasy Underground podcast. He has his own brand new podcast right now. Excited to bring him on. You talking to me?

All right, the fantasy footballers are excited to bring in the Christopher Harris, formerly of ESPN, now of Harrisfootball.com. You can follow them on Twitter at Harris Football. One of my favorite people in the world of fantasy football. Say hello, Chris. Hello, Chris. Thanks for having me on you guys. I really have liked your show for a long time. And my affiliation with the worldwide leader prohibited reaching out. But now that I'm free, you guys are basically one of the first.

First emails I sent out because I, the chance to appear on here, you guys are a lot of fun and you know your stuff. So thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it. Well, thank you. Yeah. Hey, man. That's good stuff right there. Yeah. We love Chris. Chris is not a group think kind of guy. He is a film guy. And we're excited. We're going to talk some back half running backs. Take a look at the rankings. We got some guys that I'm really excited to talk about on the show. So let's just get it started right now.

One of the guys that I like a ton is Joick Bell. Kicking it off a joick right off the bat. If we talk about joick the whole time, that's fine. But joick's a guy that I really like. These guys are on the Abdullah Express, as it is so dubbed on this show. So you have joick, I believe, at 17. So he's inside that top 20 for you. What do you like about Joick Bell? Yeah, and I'll preface it by saying two things. One, everything I do media-wise right now is centers around Joick Bell. People see the rank, and they're like, what do you?

What are you doing? And then, two, you know, we're still, believe it or not, despite all of our hard work, the first, you know, 10 days of August, we're still in the beginning of August. And I definitely do reserve the right to change my mind if he can't get on the field. But I'm going to assume health. I'm going to assume, you know, that the surgeries that we know of warrant major and that, you know, cleanup procedures shouldn't prohibit him from being ready week one being himself. And if we...

Assume that, which the other guys may not want to assume. But if we assume that, I'm going to talk about what I see on film from Bell. And what I see is Eddie Lacey. To be honest, I don't see a lot of difference in their skill sets. Now, it's a different offense. Lacey's in a more friendly fantasy offense, obviously in Green Bay. But big guys with really good feet and a lot of power and who can catch the ball.

I tell you, yards per carry is my least favorite stat in the world. I just don't think it means anything. I was going to ask you about that because I've heard you talk about that before. I just think it's one of those compiling amalgamation stats that, yeah, can it put you in the neighborhood? You know, Jamal Charles's yards per carry, I think, is reflective of something good about him. But Joach Bell being under four last year, for me, isn't reflective of anything bad about him particularly.

Ask the Packers in week 17 when the Lions and Packers were playing for the division how fun it was to tackle Joyke Bell. Ask the Cowboys in that playoff game. I went back and watched that film again just to reconfirm some stuff. And he's a handful. He's a powerful kid now. And he's a really good all-around player and he looks like the goal line threat to me. And I kind of have the anti-

Abdullah stance, which isn't that anti. I sort of think he's a really good prospect, but I just like Bell a lot, but I'll stop talking and let the bell. No, no, I'm going to just play this every night before bed. That's good. So, so I'm curious because I know that you're a big film guy, you're a film guy over, uh, stats guy and you say yards per carry is one of your least favorite stats. I'm curious, are there any stats that you do look for specifically? What's your favorite stat? Probably isn't running back related. I like yards at the target.

for both quarterbacks and wide receivers. I'm a believer that with some exceptions and to some degree, I want my receivers making plays down the field because it's just likelier that they break loose. There are fewer defenders to get around and, you know, they make bigger plays. And I believe that yards at the target, especially for quarterbacks. I mean, you get that sort of anxious, nauseous feeling when you look at Alex Smith and maybe can't quite, you know, fathom why.

And then you see his yards at the target is 33 out of 33 qualified quarterbacks last year. And you realize, oh, he's dumping it off every single time. That's a good one for me. But, you know, honestly, like yards after contact is better for me. And maybe even yards before contact is interesting for running backs. But I just don't know that I think there are great running back stats. You know, I want touchdowns. I want fantasy points. But I'm not sure last years are all that predictive of this year's. So.

Because I cannot possibly move off of joick without talking about it. Just real quick. Yeah, yeah. But so joick, when Reggie Bush was playing, they were both viable fantasy guys. So I just, I want to, what is your opinion of how that shakes out? Do you see Abdullah in that, the Reggie Bush type role that the lions would use him in? I do. I think Abdullah is a good prospect.

in a certain kind of role. I'm not sure he's ever a full-time guy. I feel like my mantra this time around is, you know what? I'm going to let someone else take Andre Ellington and Gio Bernard and Justin Forsett and Amir Abdullah. What do all these guys have in common is they're small? And it feels like that, you know, Forsett didn't get hurt last year. He was, and his tape was legit. He was really, really good. He's maybe a different case study. But the other guys, it's like you're,

darn it if you do and darn if you don't, because if you use them a ton, you obviously love their ability in space and you get some results like Andre Ellington did, but you expose them to so many hits and they're littler guys and I think they get hurt. So for me, Abdullah falls in that category, plus he's a rookie, plus he had fumbling problems in college. All I need is to invest heavily in Amir Abdullah and then have a David Wilson happen in week one. Oh. Right? And suddenly Amir Abdullah is riding pine and now theoretics, the one who's playing behind Bell.

I'm totally with you that Joyick Bell's probably not a full-time back, three down. That's why he's 17 and not 10 on my list. But I think he's the touchdown maker. Listen, you know, we all love to hear that people at Lions Camp think that Abdullah is sexy as anything, right? And, you know, totally turning heads with his ability.

In college, my goodness, I mean, the guy was really tough to tackle. Yeah, really tough to tackle. Yeah, we always tell our listeners, pay more attention to the bad news than the good news in camp. The good news is really exciting when you own a guy already. And you want to get really good advice. Yeah, I mean, I like to look up, you know, all the news on the internet about my guys and how good they're going to be. But yeah, that's good insight on Bell. I appreciate it very, very much. Andy has really needed that.

I could make the other case, and I've had the other case made to me. You know, the other way around. Absolutely. I mean, you're really going to invest as your number two running back in a guy coming off like three separate surgeries who his team drafted a fairly highly regarded running back. I mean, I get that argument too. I'm just sort of choosing to believe my eyes on Bell from last season and things change. We'll bring you back on the show.

We'll bring you back on the show in three weeks when you're with Mike and I. No way. We can all rail on Andy. He's only coming back on if things work out for me and him. I'll tell you that right now. To take my lumps. I'm coming back on in, like, in October to say, so Joyne Bell has four carries. We'll see. That's the great thing about fantasy football. We get to see. I am with Chris in the fact that if he's not on the field.

I'm not taking any lumps from either of you. No, just kidding. All right. So one guy that is in your list that we have had, I think, either problems figuring out or none of us are high on. Number 15 for you is Carlos Hyde. And so much has happened in San Francisco. I like Reggie Bush when he's on the field a lot. I like Colin Kaepernick this year. I'm probably the highest person on Colin Kaepernick. Of all time. In the universe.

And we're not going to talk about that right now. We'll talk about that later. But I know you like Hyde on film. So tell me some of the things that you think stand out about Carlos Hyde and how you think the running back situation will break down there. Yeah, that is a film play much more than a situation play because I'm with you. The 49ers have the potential to win three games. And if that happens, you know, this is probably a good ranking. Cardinal fans will rejoice is what. Yeah, that's right. That's right. You guys are in Arizona. Carlos Hyde on tape this past, you know, his rookie year.

I'll be it in a surprisingly to me limited sample size because Frank Gore play a little more than I expect he would. Frankly, he probably played more than he should have because by the end of the year it felt like he was a little bit gassed. And Hyde, man, he's a big guy and he carries it well. I mean, he reminds me some of Jonathan Stewart. You know, I'm a huge believer in Jonathan Stewart's talent. I think if we were just going based on talent and situation and, you know, potential to...

dominate a backfield carries. Jonathan Stewart's easily top 10, if not top 5. He's a big guy who runs like a little guy, high step, and can make you miss as well as run you over. But, of course, with Stewart, there's all this baggage with injury. Hyde strikes me as a similar player, not as Stewart, but big, and doesn't run like a sloth. You know, he does not like Garrett Blunt out there. So what I see on film I really like,

And I didn't like Reggie Bush's film at all last year. I grant you that maybe I didn't like it because he was hurt. You know, there wasn't a lot of it. That's right. And when he was, when he was playing, he still had sort of forward acceleration to me. But that side-to-side jitterbug stuff that really made his name and, you know, made him such a terror in Norlands and in Miami was, it felt like it was gone. But, you know, there's a danger in saying, well, he could have been hurt. I mean, if he's healthy, maybe that comes back. But he's 30. He is surprisingly older than.

Then we think, I know. Have you done any breaking down of, like, Kendall Hunter? Because he's a name of, he's a really, really forgotten man in San Francisco. But he was very hyped up a few years ago before Hyde was getting the hype to take over for Gore. Have you watched anything for him? Kind of, is he going to possibly take carries? For me, he's not on the radar just because I don't trust him to stay healthy. At this point, he's, for me, damaged goods. And I...

would be surprised if he winds up a major part of the game plan it could happen and i was certainly i'd say three years ago i was aboard the kendall hunter train but i think now chastened i feel like okay you know guys where i have to make an excuse for their size you know the five five nine one ninety nine is what they're always going to be listed at even though we know they're five eight 180 um

I don't see a big role for a player that size. If Bush doesn't work out or if Bush is hurt, could Hunter be the third downback and, you know, take away some stuff that way he could, but kind of not sure I trust it. Do you guys have a different opinion about Hunter? Not necessarily just the fact that he is coming back and he's another guy in the mix and Hyde isn't super proven and Bush is coming into the fold. And so kind of just a mix of players in a backfield on a team that will probably be down a lot more than they're up.

as in the past. So for me, I just think Bush might be on the field a little bit more. That's the angle I've been taking, but height is obviously younger and much more talented. So one other set of running backs that has divided our show a little bit that I'll bring up here. And, you know, Mike and Jason should be happy because you have, in your ranking, cited with... Oh, I wasn't sure we were getting to this. Yeah, you have sided with them on this. So Tevin Coleman and Devante Freeman, Mike has been very quick...

to summarize Devante Freeman's career from last year's tape. Are you with him? Is Freeman not special at all? Can he be special, or is Coleman going to run away with this thing by midseason? I'm not ready to say that Freeman's completely not special. I just kind of think he is what he is, and he's not a feature back in the NFL. I think what he does probably is prized by Kyle Shanahan, and there's some, not so much in the zone blocking sense, but in the throwing it to the running back sense.

There's some upside there in a point perception league. And I'm not entirely convinced Kevin Coleman is a great prospect. What I know is that for his size, he's insanely fast, straightforward. You know, just watch that tape at Indiana and watch him when there was an opening. That dude would go. You know, I mean, all the yards are coming from these crazy long runs where people who are 40 pounds lighter than him can't run him down. Not sure how...

what great a vision he has and how elusive he is, but really, you can't tell that from college tape. We're just going to have to see what it's like once the season starts and probably the Falcons will make a judgment call in that way before we ever get to make a decision. I've ranked Coleman higher than Freeman, maybe because it's the devil I don't know. It's the bright, shiny object that I'm being distracted by, like, or somebody's like shaking their keys at me, maybe.