Bounce Back Players + Fantasy Freedom

of Josh Rosen. It was very much like 2012 for him when he had John Skelton at quarterback, and it was a disaster for fantasy owners. Last year, his fantasy production dropped by 20% over the year prior. He's old. Nobody wants to draft him. They'd rather talk about Christian Kirk. If you look over the past three seasons, Fitzgerald's in the top 12. As far as production from the slot...

PFF grades, routes run from the slot. He's still in that category. He's still very consistent. And when you say bounce back, you're not going to get prime Larry Fitzgerald in his career. But you are going to get the single best touchdown threat in the wide receiver core around the goal line, reliable week to week with the kind of offense Arizona is running. I think he's being overlooked for the sake of, and I think he's a consistency type of player this year.

in Arizona. He'll catch more passes than Christian Kirk will catch. And so then you say, hey, can he get to the 68 touchdown range? I think he can. So Larry Fitzgerald and Arizona, to me, is a product of a rising water level that we are projecting for Kyla Murray and the Cliff Kingsbury offense. David Johnson's return. I think you have to at least look his way, so I want to bring his name up now because I don't know if we'll bring it up again. We may not. That's the honest truth. And the rest of this offseason, there's more exciting players to talk about.

But this is, I just don't want people to forget the preceding three years with Carson Palmer, how effective Larry was from the slot, not in an athletic role. He's not expected to be Larry Fitzgerald of 2009. They're not asking him to do something he can't do at his age, at 35 years old. So if he did it at 34, can you do it at 35, I think he can in this office. Sure. The problem for me for the weapons of Arizona, the wide receivers.

I like Kyler Murray as a fantasy quarterback because he can throw, but more of that he can run. And I think he's going to end up running a good bit. Can he hit the mark? When Larry was dominating those years ago, Carson Palmer's putting up 4,600 yards, 4200 yards. Can Kyler Murray, as a rookie, come in and, like, can he, let's say, well, I'll set it over under for you, Andy.

3,700 yards. Yeah, I mean, that's probably where I haven't projected right around there. 3,700, 3,800. Can you do that? To me, if Murray's right around there, which I think he could maybe go under, but it's going to be tough for Larry to even be consistent for me. What did Rosen throw for last year? Oh, man. Because over the last 10 games. I just looked it up, 24 yards.

24 total yos. You're close. 2,278. In a season where Josh Rosen led the team for the majority of the season. Over the last 10 games, Larry Fitzgerald was a wide receiver 3 or better in eight of the 10 games with Josh Rosen in the passing numbers that you said. He also had five of those eight performances inside the top 24 and a top 10 finish with the worst of the worst.

I'm saying he's being overlooked. That's fair. Bounce back means that you get a consistent wide receiver two type of player with not a lot of downside. You're not going to have – I mean, how many consecutive games is he ever with a reception in Arizona? I think all of them. All of them that he's ever had. I don't know. Man, it's funny. I was just reading an article on how the Cardinals were just seconds from trading Larry Fitzgerald to the Eagles in 2008 when his rookie contract was up. Wow. And it was in exchange for – it was like –

very public knowledge. The Eagles had offered their first and third round pick. That was where they ended up taking D-Jax. So it's conceivable that, you know, Larry almost went to Philadelphia back in 2008. But I think Fitzgerald is somebody that people are forgetting about. And I think it's somebody that I don't even want to, like I want Kirk to take the next step and be the guy in Arizona as a Cardinal fan. So that makes him even easier to ignore. Right. I'm going to jump in here with a wide receiver who I believe.

is not done as well. And it, if you look at where he's being drafted, oh, please be Eric Decker. He's coming back. No. Uh, if you look at where he's being drafted, it's, it's just, it's too low to me. And it's Alshon Jeffrey. If we're talking to Philadelphia Eagles last year on a shortened season 65 for 843 and 6, he started that season recovering from a shoulder problem, which if you recall, he played the entire year with a shoulder problem and he still came down with,

with nine touchdowns. And last year, if you give him the full season, he's on pace for over 1,000 and 7. Like, good wide receiver numbers. I'm not sure why people are ready to write Alshan off just yet. He was a wide receiver one or two, over 46% of the time, which that's not elite, but that's still good. Like, that's a player who's in your starting roster every single week. The problem last year for Alshan,

was if he wasn't in that 46% as a one or a two, he busted. He busted over 53% of the time. And in the past few years, that just simply was not who Alshan was. He was a far more reliable guy, a far more consistent player. And you're in on Carson Wentz. You're in on the Philadelphia Eagles and the passing attack. And I am as well, and Deshaun Jackson's a huge part of that. Deshaun Jackson plays a different couple.

A completely different role. A different role. And he makes the whole team better. He adds passing yards. He adds, he has scoring opportunities. That's not taking away from Alshan. To me, that only adds to what Alshan could possibly do. Last year, Carson Wentz, maybe he's recovering from the injury. He was only going deep about 11% of the time compared to 15% when it was his awesome year. Carson Wentz was slinging the ball. He was going down the field over 15% of the time.

And to me, Alishon Jeffrey is being absolutely left for dead. And I think he is. It's so hard for me. I think he's a great value. And we do know that Carson and Jeffrey in particular have had this rapport around the red zone. And I, look, you're right. I believe that Carson Wins is going to be a upper echelon in total yards quarterback this season, top five fantasy guy. Right. Probably can't do it without Alishon. I just don't. To me. I don't like seeing.

peering Alshan or for reception Alshan. Right, but that's what I'm saying. Last year it was, that was anomalous to the rest of his career. And unless you're saying, okay, well, Alshan has lost the step, the injury, recovery took things away from him that he will never get back. I mean, you're talking, it was more like a 30% bust rate for Alshan instead of being really disappointed, but still had huge games last year. Did you mention his?

average draft position right now so right now in half point he's going right he's going at the back of the sixth beginning of the seventh round and it's trended down over the last month people are for fantasy owners people have soured greatly on in fact if you look back in april okay maybe this was pre djacks pre foals transition whatever in april that he was a late fifth round pick he's now being drafted in the

612, 7-1 range? That's insane. Yeah, and still dropping. Maybe not after this show. Well, just let him drop. Like, scoop up that value. That's too cheap. That's too much of a value. Yeah, he's definitely good value. That's illegal. And the reality is, I think it would be very realistic. You know, obviously, Andy, you've talked about this recently, but you could say Carson Wince is the best bounce back possible. And if he bounces back, then Al Sean, you know.

rides the wave with him because very few guys have the ability in the team and the offense that are going that late to have double digit touchdowns. Would you rather have Alshan Jeffrey with, let's call it 601. Let's say draft that he goes 601. Alston Jeffrey at the first pick of the sixth round or Larry Fitzgerald first pick of the ninth round. Alshone. Okay. I think he's probably the right.

call, even though he's going. I pushed Alshan up for that comparison. Yeah. Because he's going basically 701 now, just telling you that he's a steal. Yeah. All right. My bounce back, and you could argue maybe this isn't a perfect bounce back because he hasn't finished super high, but obviously you've seen it on the field. But I'm calling for a genuine full scale bounce back into superstardom for Dalvin Cook. I think Dalvin Cook.

who obviously struggled with injuries so far in his shortened career, has been vultured, you know, on the goal line, but Latavius Murray is not there. I know you're a big fan of Alexander Madison, but while we were at the FSGA talking with some industry people and some industry insiders, we heard that the word from out of Minnesota is that he is...

flat out the goal line back, that when they're on the goal line, it's Dalvin Cook's world. And when I went and I took a look at my rank, he took a look at everything that I believe about Dalvin, because when he's been on the field, he's dominated. He is a full pass catching back.

He has never looked bad on the NFL field. Now you've got the Minnesota Vikings, great defense, great team overall that want to run the ball a little bit more, be more balanced. More than 27th in the league in rushing attempts? Exactly. You go from being one of the lowest rushing attempt teams to, let's just say, nine touchdowns on the ground. Middle of the pack. And then you make Dalvin Cook your actual goal line workhorse because maybe Alexander Madison, maybe you like him. But it's possible he's just a.

rookie backup to their star Dalvin Cook. I think that's more likely. So Dalvin Cook comes out, and if you look at what he did the second half of last year, he's on pace for 1,100 yards just on the ground, 480 through the air. So you're talking about a 1,500-plus yard guy. Don't even look at the back half. Look at the whole season, including the games where he exited due to injury and really upset my personal fantasy team.

I think Dalvin Cook has an exceptional year this year. I've got him right now ahead of Todd Gurley in my rankings. What? Yeah, because. Which is so great because you have Gurley on our dynasty team and I have Dalvin Cook. Want to do a trade? That's super comfortable. Swatskis. No, I'm good where I'm at. Here's the thing. What a world we live in. Oh, my goodness. In a dynasty. I just want to verify this. I think we're out of time.

In a dynasty, if I were to offer you Todd Gurley for Dalvin Cook, what would you do? It's impossible for me to answer at this moment in time. It really is. It's not. It's very easy. No, because my ego wants to say, I'm going to shut you down right here right now on the show, and it's just my guy's better. It would be a tough call. It really would. I would probably, man, that's rough. I'd probably say no, but not because I think you probably should go Gurley over Dalvin Cook in a dynasty.

But I'd probably see, you know, because I don't know if my team can win this year. And I don't want two years away Gurley. I'd rather have two years away cook, I believe. But it's close. Okay. Maybe I just don't want to think about Gurley's knee all year. Maybe that's part of fantasy football as I get to decide what I want to think about. And I don't want to think about Todd Gurley's knee this year. All right, we've got time for a couple questions. Let's hit the mailbag. Mailbag. Mailbag. All right. You got a question for the show?

Well, you know where to go. Too bad. No, actually you can go to the website. Click the submitted question button or dial our voicemail hotline 302464 TFFB. Let's grab a voicemail question. Hey, ballers. This is Brad from Raleigh, North Carolina. I had a question about quarterbacks. I'm in a 14-team league. I hear a lot about streaming quarterbacks, but it's nearly impossible to do in a 14-team league. A lot of people pick up two quarterbacks.

So what is your draft strategy in a league such as that? Thanks. Love the show. It's a great question. And you're probably right that streaming isn't as easy, but value quarterback drafting is still what you need to do. Yeah. If you know that everybody's going to grab two, and so the top 28 quarterbacks are grabbed, then you need to make sure you've got two guys. And the streaming isn't off the waiver wire. It's really just the start sit decision between your two guys. You're flexing two players. Right. Like if you were to grab.

James Winston and, you know, Jared Gough of he slips, or if you go super late and you go Kirk Cousins or whatever. You got to be happy with Cam Newton in the ninth, Philip Rivers in the 10th, or Philip Rivers in the 10th and Lamar Jackson in the 12th? Yeah. Yeah, that sounds pretty good. Yeah, guys like Josh Allen, who are late in drafts and could be great, you still want to basically play the matchup game and not just lock yourself into one quarterback. If you can't do that on the waivers, then I would take two really late quarterbacks.

All right, question from, let's see, we'll go with Larry in Michigan, writes in. He says, when is it too early for a fantasy football draft? When is it too late? And when is the perfect time? This is that Goldilocks draft? Sure. So if you're doing basketball, have had it, man. Get going right now. But I'm sure you're talking about having your redraft. Too late would just be after week one has already started. But even then, if you have to do it. Is it really too late? I don't know that there's ever really.