Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - AFC East, Josh Gordon News, Keep/Trade/Cut

And what would you say the odds that he, what would you put him out right now? I put him at 9010. 9010. Okay. The Jets have been extending, according to reports, multiple offers to Ryan Fitzpatrick this week, which is, if that's true in any capacity, that means contact has been made. It had been six weeks, supposedly since the sides had discussed. Jason pulled up the Jets Twitter and there was a nice giant.

wallpaper-sized Gino Smith they put out there was seven days to training camp. Is that what it was? Yeah, exactly. Seven Sundays to the NFL season, and they put up a number seven of Gino-Smith. The professional teams can control as well, is what you're saying? Or they can pump their fans for their future quarterback. We'll see. Yes. Somebody asked an NFL network guy, and I'd give him, I don't remember his name. So what's the backup plan if you can't get Ryan Fitzpatrick? And the backup plan is a backup, is what he said.

You know, the backup plan is to have a backup beer starter in Gino Smith. All right. Now, in fairness, before we move on to that, I know we'll talk to Jets more, but last year, in training camp, Gino Smith won the battle. He was the starter ahead of Ryan Fitzpatrick for the Todd Bowles-led team, but then he broke his jaw when a teammate punched him, sucker punched him from behind, and Fitz took over. So I just want to remind people when they were both healthy in training camp.

Before Fitz was winning games, they did like Gino better than Fitz. Anything that you can say that keeps you firmly on Gino's bandwagon is fine by me because I just want to see you on that bandwagon going off of a cliff, bursting into flames. I wanted to make a water bed with you because the nice thing about this water bed is we'll know soon, right? I mean, in the next seven weeks, you know, the season's going to start and we'll know who's going to be the starter. And I wanted to make a water bed except I don't.

There's just not a... I don't really believe it's going to be Gino. I think there's some dark part of me that just hopes for it, even though I've always loved Ryan Fitzpatrick. Well, no, please don't. Please don't. Peyton has been cleared of the PED stuff by the NFL. Good.

Now this makes sense to me why they said that they were going to investigate it. And I hope they didn't do one second of investigating. I hope all they did was put the game tape on from last year and go, oh, there's no way. He was on BED. No HGH there. He got really old, really fast. Sammy Watkins, we'll talk more about him in the AFC East divisional preview that we're about to do. He suggests that he's near 100%.

That's music to Jason's ears. Yeah, I'm a big Watkins believer, more so in dynasty than in a redraft, but still like him. Peter King arbitrarily has decided to say that Ezekiel Elliott better be ready for 375 carries. He is not the first reporter to suggest numbers like that. Yeah, from my understanding, that wasn't based on research or insight. It was just saying the cowboys run the ball a lot, and I hope he's ready.

he will be receiving a very, very, very big workload. You know, this is, I will say this. I mean, we have to be open to the reality. You know, DeMarco Murray got 392 carries in his heyday. So we have to be open to the reality that Ezekiel Elliott could really come and take the NFL by storm. But it is exactly these kind of reports by Peter King saying things like this that make me actually go, well, hold up.

There's no knowledge. Like, we've never seen it for one game, for one, not even a practice, not even in training camp right now, because Darren McFadden isn't there right now with his elbow. So when week one rolls around, what if he's getting 55% of the carries instead of, you know, the 80% that all the beat writers are just assuming, then the pick that you made in the first round to grab them is going to be not so hot.

That is the inherent risk with Ezekiel Elliott right now. You just haven't seen it yet. And so if you buy in, if you're Peter King's fan club, then maybe you pick them up early. All right, before we get into the divisional breakdown, I want to take a second and thank our sponsor, Seat Geek. Seat Geek is the first place that we go to look for tickets to a game or a concert. My sister and I, when we were in New York, we bought our theater tickets on Seat Geek.

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footballers, F-O-O-T-B-A-L-E-R-S, and you do that right now. So we want to thank C-E-GIC for supporting the show. Let's get into it. Let's get divisional. Well, let's start in New England with Tom Brady, his suspension looming, the impact on the Patriots. This is obviously one of the best offenses in football. Last year they were fifth and passing yards per game. They...

We'll move the ball when Tom Brady's back. The question is, will they move the ball when Jimmy Garoppolo is the quarterback? I think they will for some of the games, because their schedule over those first four. You start in Arizona to kick off their season. Not a good matchup. Not a good matchup. I think Jimmy Garoppolo going to Arizona is going to be a hard welcome to the NFL.

But after that, they've got a couple of cakewalks in their first four for their standards. So I think you'll have some up and down. Jimmy Garoppolo is a guy that, you know, depending on how he does in week one and what we see might be a good streaming candidate in week two. You have to keep in mind as we're covering the AFC East. This year, the AFC East, they're out of conference schedules against the NFC West.

So those are two really good divisions that are going to be kind of hammering against each other this year, which means all of those teams have a little bit tougher schedule coming into this year. And while we say this all the time, like don't worry about strength of schedule too much for fantasy football, especially before the year. In midseason. Yeah, week five, six, you start to see trends. Yeah, then you can start to do that. In draft season, not so much. But it does mean you're probably going to have more primetime games, you know, some big shows. So I'm excited.

You know what that makes me do? Just is not necessarily about the Patriots. Call me crazy. But I'm getting jazzed up for football. Are you excited? I am so ecstatic that we are. I mean, training camps are here. Training camps are starting this week. I am thrilled. Without football, you couldn't possibly be as insanely excited about Lamar Miller as you were on the last day. Right? So those are those are.

I think I'm going to end up making a water bet with one of our writers. Are you? Yeah, he's down on Lamar Miller. And I said, I'm very high. Bring it on. Yeah, bring it on. So staying at the quarterback position, Tom Brady misses four games. Last year, he led the league in passing touchdowns. Top 10 across the board in most of the important passing categories. He has Gronkowski. He has Edelman. He has Dionne Lewis returning.

And that's when Brady was actually at his peak in terms of fantasy production. Where does he belong in fantasy drafts? And is he going to end up on any of your teams as a fantasy owner? For me, he probably won't end up on my teams. The reason we've covered it before, but depending on your bench size, to take a guy, you know, I had someone write me and say, hey, would it be smart to grab Tom Brady and Levi-on Bell?

both and try to wait. And I'm just thinking, well, now your whole bench, if you were to grab those guys the first four weeks, you're not going to be able to drop people easily and pick up good guys that you have to be starting. So I definitely wouldn't do both. But if I had to pick one, I would do Love Bell because he's more of a difference maker. Brady to me, he's right now he's going kind of the back of the six. I expect that'll just continue to drop. Would you take Brady or Palmer in the seventh round? I would take Palmer.

I'd rather have a guy that I think is going to play the whole year who, I mean, let's say they both played 16 games. Is it a guarantee that Tom Brady scores more? No. Right. Not a guarantee. What about Philip Rivers at the 11th pick of the eighth round or Tom Brady there? I would probably pass on both. Well, okay, but you. If I had this. I understand. But like which would you choose? Would you choose like somebody has, let's say, a decision to make? They've got to take Brady in the ninth or Rivers in the ninth.

I would take Brady there. Okay. I think that's the point. That's what I was trying to figure out where it drops to. Well, for me, that would be like the 10th. And that's where I say I would probably pass there and grab whoever's left in the 10th. Okay. So Julian Edelman, vacuum. Is he struggle the first four weeks? Yes. He is the hardest case, I think, of every patriot. Gronk's going to be okay. He'll take a slight step down just because the offense will take a slight step down. But Julian Edelman.

is all about the precision timing routes with Tom Brady. They have developed that chemistry over years. And a couple of reps that keep in mind, Brady and Garoppolo are splitting reps right now in the off season. So he's not even getting full-time Garoppolo. I can't imagine that the game that Edelman plays with is not hurt in those first four weeks. Do you agree or disagree with that? Yeah, I would be tempering my expectations. You're not going to see.

a boom game out of Edelman in those four, in my opinion. I don't think that's going to happen. And so I would temper those expectations. I don't know how much that would really lower him. Where is he going right now? Edelman is, I want to look this up for a second here. Sure. Edelman is going in the fourth round now, and his, you know, his ADP has dropped pretty significantly since the news.

He was going as high as, he was going in the second round. He was 209 in March. Wow. Now he is down at 405. So I would happily take him in the fourth round. Let's put it that way. And I think he probably belongs in a half point or full point league. He probably belongs in the back half third top of the floor. Here's the guys he's going around. Jarvis Landry, Golden Tate, Doug Baldwin.

I would take Julian Edelman over all of those guys. Exactly. And he's not gone. I mean, he gives you production. Those first four weeks, I think he takes a step back from his high-level elite. But I'm happy to play Julian Edelman in my fantasy roster those first four weeks. So really, it's just a matter of value. And if he's dropping to the back of the fourth. Yeah. And so in terms of the other wide receivers in New England, if people are looking for names, I'd look somewhere else, to be honest with you. I mean, the Patriots since 2012,

Their wide receivers have averaged the least yards per reception. They don't move the ball down the field. I mean, Grunkowski catches those seam passes and has a longer depth of target. They run the ball through the air. We've said that before. Yes, they do. Their running game is short passes.

is Dionne Lewis, is Julian Edelman, short gains, and they keep going. You want to know who's a little bit intriguing for me over these first four weeks? Martel's Bennett? Yes. I want to talk about him. The reality is I'm thinking Bill Belichick is going to find a way to scheme success. Yes. And if you've got Garoplo in there and you don't have those timing routes figured out exactly.

perfectly with Julian Edelman, even with Dionne Lewis, those quick screens take perfect timing to throw. Then you just go to big, strong guys on the outside who can just win one-on-one battles. You got Gronk and Martellus Bennett. Yeah. I think Bennett is more intriguing. It's so weird because, you know, it's like Brady goes out and I think I'm more intrigued by Martellus Bennett than I was. That makes no sense, but I just think that that's going to be kind of how they scheme those first four games.