Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - QB's 11-15, Sleeper QB's, Combine Hype

But the problem is, in an NFL season, especially on a roster that's good, but not great. And, you know, I'm assuming, I hate talking about schedules beforehand, but division winners do tend to have slightly harder schedules. Like, I just think that in any given NFL season, sometimes the snowballs rolling downhill, and it's the NFL quarterback's job to stop it. And it doesn't seem like Cousins is capable. All right. I'm going to see if you can guess this last guy I want to talk about with one kind of wild statistic, all right? Yeah.

7.5% of his attempts were deep balls. So that qualifies his 20 yards or more downfield. That's dead last in the league. Any guesses who I'm talking about? Alex Smith. You're probably right still somehow. No, Alex Smith is a little bit higher. The answer is Matt Ryan. Matt Ryan with Julio Jones. Yeah, with Julio Jones. He had.

Just 7.5% of his attempts were deep balls. I kind of look at, from a touchdown perspective, you know, we talk a little bit about Bortles regressing in that area. I feel like Matt Ryan did the inverse here, where it's just 21 touchdowns.

He was putrid. I mean, like on tape, putrid around the goal line. Some of these throws were ridiculous. Cousins would have been proud. But what do you think about Ryan? Right now we have him 19 as our consensus. But I still see upside with Matt Ryan because the, I mean, you threw for 45, over 4,500 yards. Yeah. But they just did not avail themselves of this Julio Jones guy downfield. I have him 11. So I'm viewing him as someone I would.

Yeah, I would wait on Matt Ryan and be okay. Like, of course, do I really want Matt Ryan? Like, has anybody ever screamed, like, the number seven quarterback in fantasy ever more than Matt Ryan? Like, his great years, great years, he was number seven. I think it's the most, he's best he's ever been. And he should have always been better, and I've always been a critic. And I think the hate is way too heavy on Matt Ryan right now. I'm not sure exactly. I think people just look at touchdown numbers and just decide.

you said it so well i think that's i wish i'd written that in the almanac it's the inverse blake bordels it's just fluky like uh devante freeman stole so many of those touchdowns that typically you know would just sort of even out yeah i think i remember the the jags stat as being 35 passing touchdowns and five rushing touchdowns on the season like yeah oh it's incredible yeah some of those are bordels too yeah it's insane and um

You know, Ryan was almost the, you know, it's not the same inverse. It's not the inverse in terms of sheer numbers, but he certainly got robbed some. And he was, remember that interception in the end zone against the Colts? That's the one that sticks out for me. Oh, I mean, just so bad. DeQuil Jackson, I think. Where everybody in the entire stadium just kind of goes, ooh. Maddie ice melting. Right. Right. I think you're right about the hate though. Right now he's going, I mean, the three guys we've talked about, Cousins is going 14th.

Tyrod's 15th, Ryan's 18th off the board at the quarterback position. It's probably too low, and yet you'd never want people to be super excited about saying, ooh, cool, I'm going to really go into my draft and get Matt Ryan. I think Matt Ryan's the guy you get when you decide you just don't need to take a quarterback until the 12th round or whatever and just keep loading up on all the other positions. He could be the guy. If you take Brady, if you can get Brady in the eighth round or something, and you can get Ryan late for four weeks. I mean, maybe he's somebody you think about there.

That's good point. But for Brady, Harris, where are you taking him, if at all? We were debating that earlier. Let's say you have a team. You only have five bench spots. So you're sacrificing a pretty big thing to hold him to hold Brady for four games and not get to play him. Where is the investment so great that you're like, Brady's a value. I got to jump in on this. Late fourth, early fifth. Wow, that early for you. Yeah.

He's great. He's great. You're talking to the footy pajama guy. You're talking to the Patriot fan. But, you know, I try to be fairly, you know, agnostic when it comes to my Patriot fandom. Yeah, just listen to him. Talk about Legerra Blunt. You'll know that. That's right. The trash bag. You know, Brady's my number eight quarterback. And I would say, you know, in a 12-team league with fairly slim benches, I would say by the, you know, fifth, sixth round.

You know, if I'm not waiting on quarterback until the very end, I probably want to grab one of those first eight guys or so. And I have a big gap between Brady at eight and Romo at nine. I think in my standard ranks, Brady might be 52 and Romo's like 80 or something. Sure. So that's the point at which I'm willing to take Brady and then no one else. So for context, just for the listeners, if you love Brady that much, so if Cam Newton, Cam Newton right now is your number one guy, where are you taking him in a draft?

I would say late second, something like that, in a standard league. Probably later than that in a PPR, probably late second or early third maybe. To some degree, I feel like I'm always making, you know, it's ridiculous for me to say late second. And the guy's like, yeah, but I have the early round, early second round pick. Like I can't pick late second. It's not where I pick is. So, you know, I'm just going to stick to my guns. I think Newton in the second in a standard in a third and a PPR. And then not another quarterback probably until the.

fourth or so and then they then they would come quicker for me i guess i mean people know their leagues much better than i do and sometimes in some leagues it's super quarterback heavy and everyone goes fast and then you're like okay i got tony romo in the 10th great you know and then in other in other leagues you can wait and still be getting really good players after you've filled out some of the stars early you know other positions on your roster yeah make well tell me tell me tell me you guys you guys on brady like well i

Yeah, before we were recording, I was actually talking with Mike and I was telling him, you know, I love Brady. And I realized I needed to move Brady up and that I'm willing to take him and pay the price of waiting those games because he was just incredibly consistent without DeL Lewis, without Julian Edelman for part of the season, without Gronkowski. I think it was, you know, two or more touchdowns for something like, I don't know, 12 of the first 13 games. It's just kind of you get to lock him in there and you still get big games out of him.

I think about them in maybe the sixth round. Yeah. For me, it's seven or eight, but I'm much more late round QB. For guys like Newton, you know, that you're talking maybe I'll think about it in the fourth or the fifth round. But just how I play, of course. But it's always great to hear another perspective of how other people play. Let me ask you this. How about a two-quarterback league? Because I...

I never really formally did two quarterback ranks for ESPN all those years. I just was ranking so many other things that I never really did two quarterback leagues. And I did it for the Almanac this time around. And I realized I put Cam Newton one overall. I started looking at what the what the opportunity cost of quarterbacks are in a two quarterback league where all of them are going to be owned.

Some teams are going to own three, and I might get stuck with just two, and I better be able to use them. And I realized, man, I think maybe, you know, at least three quarterbacks in the first round, and I think maybe Newton's number one overall. Do you guys have a strong opinion about that? I certainly wouldn't blame anybody in a two quarterback for doing that. I tend to lean towards one top heavy...

stalwart at the quarterback position. Because like you said, I mean, the scarcity of the position changes completely. I mean, it revolutionizes the way you even get to look at it. And if on a show like this where we're constantly going late round, late round, and then you start thinking two quarterback leagues, you have to change your thinking completely. And so I certainly wouldn't blame anybody. I try to get value late on somebody else, one of these, maybe not the three that we talked about today, but maybe a Philip Rivers or even a Carson Palmer or a Stafford or somebody later in the draft to pair with a top-in guy.

But I don't blame me for it. Yeah. Like, honestly, in a two-quarterback league, if I'm, like, Newton and Bridgewater, I'm okay. You know, if I'm Newton and Flacco, I'm okay. Like, because I get those guys solely. You okay with RG3? Excuse me, I have to go throw up in my mouth. Well, we appreciate you coming on. Let me ask you this. When are those 10-page write-ups on the preseason games coming out? Because I want to jump in on that.

No? You guys mentioned that, hey, maybe we could have you on our show. You know, after a couple preseason games, I know you're going to be breaking down the preseason film, and you said it non-ironically, and I was like, I'm not. I'm not doing that. I try all week to tell myself that I will not even watch the preseason games, and then I get too excited, and I do, but then I get mad that I did. And then Amir Abdullah, like, cuts around a few New York Jets and suddenly uses a second round pick. Oh, we've, yeah, the cut that changed the ADP forever.

So, all right. Well, thanks a lot for coming on. Chris Harris of the Harris Football. You can find them on Twitter at Harris Football. We'll have you on down the line. Thanks a lot. Awesome, guys. Thanks for having me on. All right. Thanks again to Chris Harris for joining us on the show. I do want to squeeze in a quick mailbag. You got the pipes for it, Mike. Bumblebee. It's been a little why. Bumblebee. Sounds like you're all right. Yep. Mailbag. Mail bag.

All right, if you got a question for the show, go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com, click on the submit a question button or dial us at 302464 TFFB and leave us a voicemail question on the hotline there. Stephen Massachusetts says, would you still take Antonio Brown first if you were to keep Jordy Nelson and Cam Newton? Or should he take an RB? I can also keep Thomas Rawls instead of Cam and then take Brown. What do you think is my best option? That one.

I think that one is. You're going Rawls over Cam and then take Brown? Yeah. I would take Rawls, Nelson, and Brown. Yes, I would agree with that. All right, this is a great... I was just trying to think, is there a situation where I would keep Cam over Rawls? I think you can keep Cam. Yeah, because, look, for how much we love Rawls, there is still some uncertainty there. And if you're talking about just three keepers...

uh you're the depth of your draft is going to be more shallow so i'm i'm not opposed to keeping cam newton right there great name here salty whiskers salty whiskers in lexican kentucky do you believe in a wide receiver handcuff to capitalize on if one goes down in a pass-first system with injuries being so relevant over the years uh

Alshan and Kevin White, Landry and Devante Parker. OBJ and Sterling Shepherd. Generally, no, I don't like to do this. I'm only going to roster two wide receivers from the same team if I feel I can start them both no matter what. But if you're going to do any of these things, I would go with Kevin White. If Alshan goes down, which is already back on the training table, back in the tub with his soft tissue injuries, Kevin White.

Could turn into a fantasy superstar because Jay Cutler tends to find the guy he wants and locks on. So Kevin White could be showered in targets if Alshan goes down. I don't think that Parker elevates and becomes a superstar if Landry goes down. Same for Shepard.

Chris in Las Vegas, the plan for me is to wait on tight in until around the 10th or 11th round, depending on how the draft falls so I can build depth at running back and wide receiver. Is Jimmy Graham worth the risk at that point or even at all? If not, what are some of the names I should be looking at? Thank you and love the show. I'm going to give you a name that I'd much rather have than Jimmy Graham that you can get there. That's Antonio Gates. Yes. Antonio Gates is back. Antonio Gates is going to, he's already got a team. Stevie Johnson's already hurt. Antonio Gates is a goal line monster.

I have never, here's the thing, I've never seen Jimmy Graham do it in Seattle. I've seen all the promise and hope, but I haven't seen them do it in Seattle. Now you're coming off a torn Patel tendon. A very, or, that's what it was, right? Yes, yes. A very damaging injury, saps your strength, a team in an offense that succeeded without you. Give me Antonio Gates. Please. We're watching Victor Cruz as kind of the case study for tearing your Patel attendant. Look.

Victor Cruz is a much smaller guy, and this is not a doctor talking. This is just a person of, I'm trying to put just life facts together. For a much larger guy in Jimmy Graham, who has that, he has that weight to carry to come back from the injury. To me, seems like that would be a more difficult thing. And we've just never seen, lately, we're not seeing athletes return to a high level. And on top of that,

Jimmy Graham was not great. He was not elite for fantasy purposes. If he's back, he'll score. But the passing yardage numbers he used to put up in New Orleans, they're not there in Seattle. Correct. And going after him, like you said, Antonio Gates, Dwayne Allen, who I think we need to talk about a little bit more these days. Eric Ebron, Zach Miller. I mean, there's Jason Whitten. There's guys who I would much rather take a flyer on late than Jimmy Graham.