Meat on the Bone + Trade Tips

Hungry. Sure. Because they, we talk a lot about, you know, who's over-efficient, who's inefficient. And we wanted to focus on some guys who were very strong in the inefficient department where you would say they left some meat. They left some meat on the bone. You have players always say, feed me. You know, Z comes out of his tackle. He's like, oh, I'm eating. And these players, they got a Thanksgiving-sized meal handed to them.

But there's a lot. There's a lot left there. They didn't do much with it. And so we can take that for a number of, depending on the player, the situation we're going to go through. Maybe it shows that that player's efficiency is wrecked because they're on the downturn or they're not that good. Maybe it shows that there's an opportunity in. Are they going to eat this year? Workload for them or for another player. Yeah. This year. And right now we're going to be focusing on.

The correlation for running backs of touches to fantasy points, it's incredibly strong. I know it seems like a ridiculous thing to, well, they touch the ball, they get fantasy points, but it's true. I mean, you're talking a very, very strong correlation. If you finish in the top 10 of touches, you more than likely have finished in the top 10 of fantasy points, and the same can be said for wide receivers when it comes to targets.

Give me that opportunity. Opportunity over talent a lot of times produces more fantasy points. So the first player that I wanted to talk about was the Infinity Stone himself, Frank Gore. Frank Gore had the ninth most touches at the running back position, 290. But he finished 10 spots behind his touch count to finish at 19th for fantasy. And now he change his team. He changes teams.

I really wanted more to talk about this situation because there's someone, someone new in town. There is a new sheriff in Indianapolis and we don't know who it is. But this is the hole being left by Frank Gore. There was a lot of meat on the bone. Two hundred and ninety touches in Indianapolis that's being abandoned. That's a lot of touches. And now you have Robert Turbin suspended for four games. Naim Hines drafted and Marlon Matt coming back.

Yeah, and with his inefficiencies, you know, you can make the argument that his inefficiencies were due to, you know, his age being 34 years old playing, you know, it's not the easiest thing to play running back. So maybe that's why. But also some of that inefficiency is because the offense was putrid without Andrew Luck. So you've got the volume plus a better situation coming for someone. I believe that someone is Marlon Mack. I think Marlon Mack showed enough on film last year where he was still people.

you know, say, oh, Marlon Mack was inefficient. He was more efficient than his counterpart who got 290 touches in Frank Gore. That's pretty normal, though. I mean, if you have 290 touches, you're generally less efficient than the player that receives less than that and has the opportunity to be fresh and doesn't carry the ball on third and, you know, third down when you're winning. Fair, but I'm comparing him not just to Frank Gore, but to every running back that was on the roster. So for me, the storyline with Frank Gore.

with the meat on the bone storyline of Frank Gore is the absence from Indianapolis. Is the opportunity vacated? It's not Frank Gore. I don't think Frank Gore has a season that impacts fantasy leagues in any way. I mean, no, in Miami I don't because one, I believe in Kalin Belage. Two, I believe that Drake did enough to earn a role. And three, I think Frank Gore is 35 years old. I mean, look, your head coach can come out and say it doesn't matter.

But this is his sunset tour. He's going through Miami. That's where people go to retire. It ended with Fred Jackson did his sunset tour in Seattle. This is just the opposite corner of the United States. And Frank Gore's time is going to be done. I mean, because he's going to come out, he's not going to be half as explosive as either of those two players. Say whatever you want about Cam Belage.

He's going to get to run straight, Jason. He will get to run straight. And when he does, he will run it at a speed better than almost any rookie running back and with more power than any rookie running back. And he'll bust off a play that Frank Gore couldn't do if you put him on a motorcycle. So I just think at this point in time, I have Gore at 54. Jason has him at 43. Mike has him at 36. Mike, tell me why Frank Gore is worth a late ride pick. I don't know if I can explain that because all I'm picturing now is Frank Gore.

being handed the ball, putting a helmet on, and jumping on a motorcycle. Yeah. Like the Kia commercials? That's how he gets straight line speed. And it's just leaping off the motorcycle. Yeah, a touchdown, baby. Evil can evil. So on the, but I have Frank Gore ranked just at the edge of a running back three. And that's based off of touchdowns. The Miami running backs.

They weren't scoring a lot on the ground. And I think that Frank Gore can still earn that role. I mean, obviously rankings change over time as we get closer to the season and things are trending heavily for Drake and Belage. I will make my adjustments. But right now, I think they brought Frank Gore in for a reason. And he's a battering ram still. I mean, at 3.9 or whatever it is. Frank Gore. He only got one yard to go.

Frank Gore. Three point. That's fine. Frank Gore, greater sign, greater sign, Damien Williams. Sure. And they gave Damian Williams a lot of work when J. Ajai left. Damian Williams is running ahead of Kenyon Drake for some unfathomable reason until he got injured and then Kenyon Drake came. So I do side with Mike in the sense that I think Frank Gore will be involved. He's, you know, a vet they brought in to play a role. But it's going to be a three-headed. Anybody like Miami this year?

No. As a team or the fantasy options? As a team. Because we're going to transition. Miami fans. Well, yeah, Miami. I'm just saying none of us think think that they're going to be a team that's going to get the opportunity to run the ball as much as they'd hope and like. Sure. And that's what happened to Isaiah Crowell. Our next player on the meat on the bone segment. Isaiah Gruel last year. 15th and touches? Yes. 30th in fantasy finish. His opportunity was.

I think it's greater than people remember. This is like giving an Olympic diver a kitty pool to practice in. I mean, the team was so bad last year, right? Winless. Sure. So you give somebody. But now they switched him to an above ground pool. Right. Which is larger. Hey, that's good. But you're not wanting to do a dive. I believe they call those doughboys. Is that true? I thought that was a sandwich. That's a po-boy. Oh, yeah. A dough boy.

Yeah, I mean, there's the Pillsbury client. It's also a, I believe a nickname for a veterans of a certain war. A dough boy? Yeah, I believe so. No. You spell the dough. Is this like Pillsbury? Yes. Doe boy pools. Well, there you go. Not a sponsor. Wow. Definitely accurate. Shout out to Doe Boy Pools. Can have like five minutes of fun in those. It's like the Kleenex of the tissue category. The brand. They got the brand. They're the brand. They're the brand. Oh.

There goes later this, Joe. But the reason more that I wanted to highlight Isaiah Crowell, one was, I mean, a massive outlier in terms of 15th and opportunity, but ranked 30th at the position for fantasy points. But, and you look at pro football focus ranked the Browns as the 14th best offensive line last year. Yeah, that's not. We thought they'd be better. We thought they'd be better. But that's still a top half offensive line. Tons of opportunity.

They are losing their best player, of course, and Joe Thomas, who is, he's going to Miami for a different reason. But what do you guys think of seeing these kinds of numbers? And then you have Carlos Hyde and or Nick Chubb as the grinder for that team when Isaiah Crowell got 234 touches. Well, you almost have to make a choice here, right? You have to say either Isaiah Crowell was really bad, which.

Kind of was. Like in and of himself. Right. Like you either have to determine. It was independently bad. Yeah. Independently the opportunity, either the opportunity there is bad, in which case somebody coming in to take over 15th most touches or share 15th month touches doesn't represent very much. Or Coral was independently bad and it was his fault. And Chubb and Hyde are somehow going to, you know, and what does that translate to? He finished, Crowell finished 30th. Right. So let's say they're much more efficient, but they're splitting.

What equates to the 20th best running back, but it's high-ed-inch up. That's still going to hurt you. This is something that's interesting that the Foot Clan should be aware of. Mike and I were going back through several years of data of where people's opportunity versus their fantasy finish, where they landed. Because we wanted to see the trends of like, for these guys who were very inefficient, do they bounce back? Do they DeAndre Hopkins back or do they fall off?

We have to say there are both. Both things can happen. But the majority was very clear that when we were going back through this list, it did not look good. The guys that had a lot of volume who sucked with that volume, that was very often basically the last year of relevance for their career. And you didn't know it then. So for Frank Gore, for Isaiah Crowell, I lean more on the side of Isaiah Crowell.

is if he got that volume and wasn't able to do anything with it, his situation is not improved to the point where I think he's going to be better this year than he was last year. That's fair. Jayjai, 232 touches, 17th in the league, 36th in fantasy, and yet a whole cauldron of change all year long, right? I mean, changing teams, changing roles, changing opportunity. Do you throw it out?

I mean, do you throw JJ's season out to a degree? Because he was great on a per touch basis in Philadelphia. Right. I think he was over five a carry, wasn't he? I think it was like five point. I can figure that out for you. In Philadelphia, in the regular season, he ran at 5.8 a carry. Yeah, I thought it was almost six a carry. 70 for over 400 yards. So to me, this was just that muddy period in the middle of the season that distorted the 17th versus 36. And the quantity of opportunity got in Philadelphia.

Yeah, I mean, he had an opportunity in Miami. Yes, he did. It's hard to remember exactly what happened to JHAE because so many things changed for him where he was, people were hyping him up. They were very excited for J.J.I.'s fantasy prospects in Miami. He got the volume. He was actually pretty solid week one. And then after that, it was, it was mediocre at best. And of course, you had no touchdowns on the ground for J. J. J.

In seven games, he was on pace for 315 carries. So even at a terrible 3.37 yards per carry, he would have been over 1,000 yards just because of the volume. But it's so weird to have that much volume over seven weeks and never hit pay dirt. Right. That, to me, is more of the outlier in the sense that touchdowns are the thing that is less easy to predict year over a year. Volume is easier to predict.

I actually have Jay Jai in my top 24. I was going to say, I think I remember you saying you're rising on. I did. Yeah, a few weeks ago on the show, I think I mentioned it. While I'm a Corey Clement fan, there's a specific role for him. Legerrett Blunt, leaving all those carries. I think Ajai, look, those numbers are impressive. He was the same explosive player in Philly just with not enough work and not enough touchdowns to be the guy that you want him to be. I got him in the top 24.

I want to contrast two players here because you just brought up Jason more often than not. These numbers actually mean the beginning of the end for a player. Right. And these two players are almost identical in touches and fantasy finish, which was Joe Mixin and Jonathan, second and touches, 34th in finish. Jonathan Stewart, 23rd and touches 39th in finish. 208 and 26 touches, but I think we feel very differently about these two players. Feel very differently in the data that Mike and I looked at backed.

this up because there was also an age association to it. It was when veteran players took that real step of inefficiency. It said, no, they're not going to bounce back. They became inefficient. You know, later in their career, they're done. And that is where it was very rare to find someone bouncing back. So Jonathan Stewart.

If Sequin wasn't there, I would be calling for him to be done. Now, he's done, and he's relevant to Sequin is there. Have you followed the news lately as well? Oh, yeah. The coaches are. Despite the fact Jonathan Stewart got a three-point-something ridiculous guarantee. Good for you, agent. I think he's in music. Like, Jonathan Stewart's like a piano player. I think he must have played a ballad in that meeting. Just something beautiful. Really impressed them. Use the black keys and the white keys. I mean, something.

So nice. This minor, he's major. Major, minor. Beautiful. Sharp. Because finally tuned. The one thing that between all pianists that shows who is very talented is you use all the keys. All of them. I've seen those people only playing in the key as C. They just can't get it done. I used to impress my grandparents when I could run down all the keys, top to bottom. Hit them with the chopsticks? No, not for real. I was a child.