AFC South Breakdown + HYPE Train!

the fantasy production, whether or not the player was the same. All the reports out of camp are great. He's at the peak of his career. He's actually got a quarterback now. And it's not like last year he had to become something else or lost. You know, like I bring up Crabtree. Like Crabtree dropped like seven or eight important metrics in his performance last year. You can blame whatever you want. Right. But at the end of the day, Crabtree statistically was much worse. Hilton, from a fantasy perspective, you couldn't rely on him at all, but his metrics were the same.

That's all I'm saying. Sure. No, and that's valid. All right. So at the running back position. Before we jump into the running back position, we have Brooks make up these show docs and he's giving us the depth chart. There's a glaring omission here from the running backs, Brooks. And I am very disappointed. Talking about Bobby? The woke one is not even listed, Brooks. Get out of here with that. Kristen Michael. Kristen Michael is still there.

Technically. We still have our weekly meetings. Like old mold on a rock. I mean, he's like, he just hangs on to these rosters. You've got to stop talking about him, Mike. He is so not white awake. It's not even funny. Hey, he's fast asleep. Yeah. He's fast asleep. Yep. I know. All right. So let's talk about the, let's talk about the three running backs that are all the rage right now. Marlon Mack, Jordan Wilkins, and Naim Hines. Those three guys, Marlon Mack,

Peers projected to be the starter to get that opportunity. He's been on the team. Right. He's the only veteran guy there who's not suspended. Robert Turbin is there after his suspension. Just doing curls. He's just back in the, just he's staring at the practice doing curls on the sideline. But Marlon Mac projects to be the starter. A lot of people really don't like Marlon Mac.

Call him a jag. He's just a guy. He wasn't great last season. Didn't even get four yards of carry. That's kind of one of the narratives. I actually believe he was okay last season. They call that the Hallaway Wright narrative. Yes, the Andy Holloway Mike Wright narrative. You guys believe that. I'm fine with that. I don't think Marlon Mac is a world beater. But I do believe he's the best running back on the roster. And I think he was better than he gets credit for last season. I went back and watched a lot of film.

The offensive line was atrocious. He was still the best yards per carry on the team, which kind of matters, you know, what they're all dealing with. And that was without Andrew Luck. So my money is on Marlon Mack to have a decent season, but it could absolutely be a Paul Perkins situation where he's the default starter. He's just not good enough to get it done. I look at it. I look at it more like the – I look at him as like Kenyon Drake Light in the sense that –

I worry a little bit about Kenyon Drake situation, and I think Drake is more talented than Marlon Mack is. Right. You know, they invested draft picks in Jordan Wilkins. Camp reports have been good. Naeem Hines, they invested money in. Obviously, he's an undersized more of a Corey Grant type of guy. He's the past catcher. So I don't see a world where it's impossible for Marlon Mack to vastly outperform my expectations. I think that's possible. I mean, Andrew Luck's going to change this offense, but I don't.

believe that he's going to carry the load. Here's the decision you will have to make, though. If you are wanting to grab Marlon Mack in fantasy drafts, carry on Johnson or Mac. Oh, get out of here. Carry on, unless it's a mock draft. Kevin Coleman. A Mac draft? Then it's a Mac draft. That's right. Hey, if you're out there and you're wanting to draft Karen, just draft Marlon Mac. Oh, this is the new policy. Yeah, he's the placeholder. If you draft Marlon Mac.

We'll know that it's Carillon in your mind. Yes, I want to see Marlon Mack's ADP rise. Oh, my God. And Cario Johnson's fall. Kevin Coleman or Marlon Mac? I would take Marlon Mac. I think I'd take Mac in that situation, too, just for the potential. Marshawn Lynch or Marlon Mac. Marshawn. That's close. I think I would go back. What? We were about to get a bet. Crowell or Marlon Mac. Crowell.

That's the decision. He's not crazy expensive for the people who are in on Marlon Mack, 33rd running back off for average draft position. But the guys going around him are far more exciting for me. We talked about what the return of Andrew Luck means. It's hope for the running game. You know what else is hope for the running game? Investing early draft picks on offensive linemen. They invested in a first round and a second round pick.

on a pair of guards. And so that's going to help matters for whoever gets the opportunity to tote the rock behind center, whether it's Mac or somebody else. And the word is we'll be seen luck play for about a quarter during this preseason week one on Thursday. Wow. A quarter? That's must watch TV. That's a report anyway. That's actually really interesting for game one for Andrew Luck to get out there. Is he going out with the bubble, the bubble boy thing from Seinfeld?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. They better have the starters. Their offensive lines playing one series even more than luck. Have you ever used those things, Mike, where you get in the bubble and you run around the field? I don't know what it's called. Knocker ball. Knocker ball. Yes, I have played it. The future of the NFL. I will tell you what. After one sprint with the ball on you, you are gas. Oh, yeah. Is it heavy? Yes. I feel like it's so fun.

So many necks would break. Because your head's sticking out, right? No. No, no, no. You're inside of it. The only thing sticking out are like your legs. You're from about your knees or your shins down. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, heck yeah. You can roll over completely, right? Yes. Yeah. When you're knocked down, getting back up is part of the problem. Harder to throw football with that on, huh? I played. I got to, uh, it was for a men's event and I got to go up against my father. Oh, dear. Oh. Oh.

Did you take them out? Pops took a tumble. Oh, Pops took many tumbles. Oh, my goodness. No remorse. No mercy. All right. Wrapping up our AFC South breakdown. Let's talk to D.D. Westbrook, wide receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars. You talking to me? Didi, tell me what it was like your experience on draft day last year. What was it like the experience? Where were you? We always like to hear everybody's draft day story and get walked through that.

Well, actually, my draft day story was spent in a car ride on my way to Norman, Oklahoma from Dallas. I came down the night before to, of course, celebrate with my agent and my family and friends here in Dallas. But my mother was back in Norman, and so I was actually in a car ride driving back to her whenever I got the phone call from Coach Coughlin. And it was pretty much a crazy experience, a crazy day for me. I started crying in the backseat of the car, you know, because it was just, it felt surreal, you know what I mean?

just a dream finally coming true, something you've always wished for, dreamed upon whenever you was a kid, watching the older guys, you know, all the Hall of Famers before you, and now you get that opportunity to, of course, travel alone that same journey and become a Hall of Famer as well.

Yeah, that's always fun to hear those stories. You're the first one I've heard in the backseat of a car so far. So your rookie year gets off to a slow start in the sense that you weren't playing, you weren't able to get on the field. What was that like to start the season, not playing and wanting to be out there? Was that hard or was that a good learning experience?

I mean, it was tough. It was tough. And for me, that was the first football game I've ever missed. You know, I've never set out in a football game, you know, and then, of course, I had to go down because of the injury that I had. But it was a learning experience because I didn't think, you know, the guys were making so much as a brotherhood as they did, you know, because at the end of the day, it is a job, and we're all in a competition with one another. But whenever I went down, you know, you thought some people, you would have different guys, like, treat you differently because they get the upper hand now. But in the room.

It wasn't nothing like that. You know what I mean? All those guys uplifted me. They were pretty much there. When my surgery happened, they all texted me during the surgery. They kept me up to date with everything as far as the plays go. They would call me over. We would sit down, talk about the plays. So, I mean, we were just 100% in, you know, and I respect those guys for that. And it was a great learning experience because they taught me the brotherhood of it. Very nice. Now, once you got in the second half of the year, you were over a 100 target pace.

So you seem to be kind of the primary target once you got in. This year, you know, do you have personal goals? Everybody, you know, we talked to David Johnson, and he says his goal is 1,000, 1,000. He wanted 1,000 yards rushing, 1,000 yards receiving. You know, every player has their, yeah, it's been done twice. You know, every player has their personal goals. You don't control the coaching staff and all that. But what would your goals be for the 2018 season?

Well, I really don't like to discuss personal goals, you know, because I feel like whenever I speak about it, then you guys would be like expecting it because I said something about it, you know what I mean? And I wanted to be a shocker to everybody, but at the end of the day, I have really big goals, you know, and this year, of course, if it's in God's hand and I stay completely healthy, it's going to be a really big year for both me and the Jacksonville Jaguar. Awesome. Thank you so much, Stevie. All right, that is it for today's episode.

I, you know, it's philosophical when you decide between a guy like, I don't know, Moncrief, right, which you buy into the year after year hype of a player and the capability. He's with Cordarell. Or, yeah, he is on that train. Or you go with the guy like D.D. Westbrook, who you haven't seen everything from. Like, that's a philosophical decision. I still think you roll the dice with the wide receiver from that offense because I think they're going to be a team competing for the playoffs. And they're going to be a team in the position to win a lot of games. So good interview there from Jason.

We'll be back tomorrow. We'll get into our top 10 list. By the end of this week, we'll announce our listener league winners, and check out draft.com slash ballers if you want to play some basketball. We will see you tomorrow, Foot Clan. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com. And follow us on Twitter at the FF Ballers. That's the sound of Lego Pikachu training for battle.

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