NFC North Breakdown + Buzzkill Train, Happy Hearts - Fantasy Football Podcast

Oh, very nice. Very nice, Mike. Oh, my God. That is the only way it would happen is swiftly. But the truth is, you know, he was too injury prone to take the role of what they needed. They go out, they spend high draft capital on a very talented running back in Swift. But Carillon is still there.

and he will eat into the work that Swift is getting. I don't want either of these guys. I've not had a single mock, a single deep league, or any platform that I have chosen to draft either one of the running backs who are splitting the workload of the Detroit Lions. I'm blind to them in mock drafts. Yeah, you can go ahead and cross their names out. I just don't. 29th and rushing touchdowns last year, 21st and rushing yards per game. I think they had.

14 different running backs at one point in the season. But what you said was last year. And I feel like those stats are true for 14. When did Barry Sanders retire? Because since then, they have never been able to run the ball well. Nor should they if Matthew Stafford played the way he played last year. Oh, Matthew Stafford was unbelievable. He was on pace for 4,998 yards, 38 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. I mean.

Outlandish numbers. Much more aggressive in 2019. He had a league leading 19.2% deep attempts, which is one part, Matthew Stafford, and one part having Kenny Galladay and Marvin Jones as a part of your offense. Kenny Galladay, I think we all have him ranked very highly. He's the wide receiver seven off the board right now. 32% of his targets were 20 plus yards down the field. So, you know, we saw this with David Blow. One or two games.

It only takes one or two catches, you know, for Kenny Galladay, too. Kenny G is so, so smooth. He's going deep. It's a touchdown. It's a little frightening to me. Marvin Jones is still on our kind of value list. It's a permanent selection until he retires because he's Marvin Jones. He's the wide receiver 37 off the board, but he can still drop a three touchdown week on you at any moment.

and having Matthew Stafford back will help. Yeah, Marvin Jones is looked too in the red zone. He's tied with Michael Thomas with eight red zone touchdowns despite missing three games. Marvin Jones is our editor-in-chief Kyle's pretty much favorite player.

in all of fantasy football. He never leaves a draft without him. And that's because of draft costs. Yes, because he's cheap. He takes him in the first. He is. Right. Yes, I make sure I never leave without him. He's always available when I pick in the bag of the first. Yeah, it's just, it's a, it's a very affordable player late in drafts that will provide depth in a year where I think we're going to need depth more than ever.

And he's talented. He's not always going to be the most consistent. But when you're looking at your last flex player, which is where Marvin Jones is basically being, he's being drafted to your bench. So he is a depth piece or a backup player that you throw in the right matchup. And he can win you a week, whereas most of the guys on your bench, most of your depth, most of your last flex, they don't have that ability. So I think that's why we all see Marvin Jones as a value.

Let me ask you two questions, Mike, about this roster fantasy-wise. Number one, if you drafted T.J. Hawkinson, let's say you went late round, tight-end. I think Hawkinson will be drafted in a decent amount of leagues late. What are the odds that he's able to be lined up in your tight-in position for the full 16? Where he's your guy as opposed to just somebody you're drafting to be a streamer?

I would put it very low. Unfortunately, I don't, I didn't see enough out of Hawkinson. I know he had the week one against Arizona. He was one of the major free agent pickups after that week. Yeah. How many, how many fab dollars were? Wasted? Thrown into an engine. Like, it, I don't see it happening for TJ Hawkins in this year. I mean, you had multiple injuries, didn't really get enough time on the field.

So maybe later, I think that he can become the player that they drafted, but I'm not taking the chance on him as a late round flyer. 54% catch rate for T.J. Hawkinson last year. 32 for 367 and 2. That's not great. And you might say, well, he spent half the year obviously without Stafford, but in the games with Stafford, he was a 57.

0.9% catch rate also not great, especially for a tight end. Their catch rates are usually much higher, easier open targets. I do believe in the talent. He was the guy that, you know, I loved the most of that draft class in the tight ends. And we do need to remember he was a rookie tight end. So you can't get mad at him for not perform. It was almost like that week one performance. Yeah, it ruined the 15 weeks afterwards. Exactly. It ruined the 15 weeks afterwards.

And it's a shame because if he came out and put up 60 yards and a touchdown, had a decent game but wasn't the 131 yards, I think we would actually have him higher valued this year in drafts than him having a great game, which is a little bit wacky. I will say that 60 yard mark he never surpassed again after week one. That's true. 56 yards was his next highest. And that was really his next.

highest at all, never above 50 outside of that. Yeah, I mean, if you take Matthew Stafford's pace and you were to be so kind to give it to him for this upcoming year, and you're distributing 38 passing touchdowns, Hawkinson's having a far better year than where we have him. Yeah, it's possible. And I want to bounce back to DeAndre Swift real quick. What, like in the range of outcomes, just percentage chance, what would you put it at? Andy, I'll throw it to you. The percentage chance that

that Patricia says, okay, he is, in fact, DeAndre Swift is the best running back on this team. I'm going to give it to him. I mean, we had, yeah, Carrion Johnson's an injury risk. You had, we did have a four-game stretch with Bo Scarborough. Now they were up against it, but Bo Scarborough was averaging 18 attempts a game for four straight weeks before Carrion Johnson came back from the IR. What I liked about Swift and why I had them graded the way I did coming into this year was the past catching ability.

So if he's on the field, you know, that's what that equates to to me, is you're saying, is he going to give him the opportunity to be the guy, but being on the field more often? And we know Stafford will throw to the running back. Yeah, I mean, we've had many theoretic years where that's the only value theoretic had was catching the ball to the backfield. There's a world where that happens. Yeah, where DeAndre Swift hits the point where he's worth that shot the same way that we've talked about some of these other rookie running backs, carry on gets hurt once a year.

What do they still believe in him? I mean, obviously they spent a high draft capital pick on DeAndre Swift. And we haven't ignored the running back position in Detroit entirely bringing up Theoretic, who's been a flex-worthy player in years past. He's the RB 27 off the board right now. He's being drafted ahead of Carrion Johnson. So the fantasy community is looking at him as a upside carry, what, Karim Hunt range type of player right now.

Yeah, and as the Caryon Johnson truth, or I would draft neither, but if I had to draft one, it would be Swift ahead of Caryon Johnson. The draft capital they put in, the fact that Caryon has had two years to get the job done and hasn't. I think the transition is made to where it's a one two punch with Swift being the one. Okay, anything else you guys want to talk about with the Detroit Lions? No, just worthy mentioning that Stafford is a great late round.

You know, when you think you missed out on almost everybody, Stafford is still usually there. Now, he opens against Chicago. I'm fine with that. Okay. Would you rather be sitting Stafford the whole year or Big Ben on the return? That's a great question. Both coming off of injuries, so you can't use the excuse for either. I would go Stafford. I think I lean Stafford. I think I do as well. That's...

And that's a really tough one of you could look back in 12 months ago. That was idiotic. And yet at the same time, you can look back with either of those picks and be like, I am so glad I didn't invest an early draft pick on a quarterback. On a quarterback. Yeah, yeah. All right, that is it for today's episode of the show. Appreciate you subscribing to the podcast, reviewing the podcast. It means a lot to this podcast. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast.

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