Fantasy Football 2017 - Pump the Brakes, Season Defining Stats, #FootClan Questions

five this year. Carson Wins, Alex Smith, Jared Goff, Russell Wilson, Tom Brady. Those are the players leading the way in terms of touchdowns per attempt. I will go Brady? Is a yes? Yes. Wilson is a yes. I think Alex Smith is a yes and Carson Wentz. I think Jared Goff is the only one I believe will not be a top five at the end of the year. I concur. Thank you. You think Carson Wince will end up at number one where he is now?

No. Yeah, I don't think so. But he's locked in as a top three guy for me. But I would not. I'm not going to put him at number one. One of the bigger surprises this year has been Chris Thompson. He's averaged 13 yards per reception. Best in the league. He's the RB10 in half PPR leagues. He's averaging 55 rushing yards or receiving yards a game. And we know Rob Kelly is on the way out. And thus far.

If I had to give a verdict on Somaget P. Ryan, it would be a, you know, a middling, a middling player. You're sitting to two to four years in prison for your performance. Sure, sure. We'll be severe about P. Ryan's performance. Especially Mike, you were being, you know, you were a big P. Ryan guy. I was. Yeah. But Chris Thompson, can he finish as an RB1? If he's RB10 right now and with the way the backfield landscape is. Yes.

You believe he will? Yeah, I believe he will finish as a league winner type of guy? I mean, I suppose because if you grabbed him off of waivers in those early weeks, he has been close to sensational nearly every week. I mean, you had a downperformance against Seattle two weeks ago, but he's just, he's involved enough where with those targets, I mean, seven targets last week, 41 receiving yards?

Those are fantastic numbers. We've seen Christian McCaffrey. Like Jason said, he's the number 13 running back in a half point scoring format because he's getting past attempts and a bunch of targets. And that's what's happening for Chris Thompson as well, seven, six, nine. I mean, he has one game under five targets and that was week four. Yeah.

I think Chris Thompson is a good player, but I disagree. I do not think Chris Thompson can finish as the RB1. A lot of his current ranking. And RB1. No, and RB1. And RB1. Okay. Oh, you said the. Sorry. I was like definitely. I don't call him that. No, no, no. I don't think he'll finish as a top 12 running back. And the reason why is because he is currently a top 12 running back off of the first three weeks. Those first three weeks where he was unbelievable, he had four touchdowns in those first three weeks.

Anyone know how many touchdowns he's had since then? That's been a long time. He's got one. One. But he also has another game of over 100 receiving yards, another game. And that's where he's getting the targets and the usage to be valuable. I started off by saying I like Chris Thompson. I'd like him to be on my roster. But I think Chris Thompson is much more of an RB2. He's not going to be the guy that I think gets enough touchdowns throughout the rest of this season to...

Justify him as an RB1. Well, I mean, I guess Mike, the right question then is would you feel comfortable with him as your RB1? Oof. If you rolled him out there. Right. That's kind of the game you play with past catching running backs. Even McCaffrey, like, you know, two touchdowns through the air, very limited yardage last week, you kind of, I kind of wince a little bit when I think about him being my number one running back option. Yeah, the thing about if a guy like Thompson is your number one running back, that means that.

your two is not necessarily that far behind. I'm not rolling out Chris Thompson, and then my running back two is Thomas Rawls. I have a guy who is in that running back two range, the way that it should have worked out by him being free on waivers and if you've been managing your schedule or your team. I think if Chris Thompson is your RB1 on your fantasy team, you're not making the playoffs. Okay.

One of the big things that we know, look, we talked about Wins and we've talked about Smith, Goff, their success, their efficiency, their lack of turnovers, that's directly affected the Alshan Jeffries of the world, the, you know, Robert Woods and Todd Gurley and Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelsey. On the other side is the failure of big-time quarterbacks and the big implications that that failure brings about. I found this incredible stat.

Big Ben Rothersberger, he has struggled this year. He has a pass rating of 5.9 when under pressure. Tom Brady has a pass rating of 112.3 when under pressure. It's not often you hear the single digit in reference to a passer rating. When you're terrible and you're like, man, he's really bad. He's got a pass rating of like 46. He's got a pass rating of what, Andy? 5.9. When under pressure. Are you sure it's not 50? Now, he said he had thought about retiring before the season.

That kind of a rating is retiring during the season. Yes. Now, I looked at this, turnover percentage, brought it up earlier. Jared Gough, only five turnovers on the year. Drew Brees, Tyrod Taylor, Tom Brady, and Alex Smith, all under five. Better than that. Three of the bottom five in the league in turnover percentage, Big Ben Rothersberger, Matt Ryan, Andy Dalton in succession. So you've got the connected weapons of Brown, Lev Bell, Martavis, Ju Ju Ju Ju Ju.

Matt Ryan and Devonta Freeman and Julio Jones. And then Andy Dalton, who has been pretty darn bad, 12 turnovers this year. AJ Greens felt that at times. The weapons, you know, losing effort. I get it. But what do we think about the rest of season, you know, predictions in terms of the weapons for these three guys that have struggled immensely? These were offenses we expected to be great, especially Pittsburgh.

We expected them to not just, look, they're winning games. So maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe the narrative in the public isn't big on them failing or struggling. But from a fantasy perspective, we thought high flying top five performances. Yeah. For Big Ben, it's, I mean, this is a, you got to wash the hands. Just move on. Walk away. Matt Ryan has been playing better as of lately. He's in that.

that bottom percentages have for turnovers, but in the last four games, he only has two picks. And in the last three weeks, he's thrown at least two touchdowns per game. So I think that things are looking up there, improving for Matt Ryan. And that includes a performance against Carolina, where he threw 313 yards and two touchdowns. So I do think that for Matt Ryan, it's going to get better. It's not that top five, top six guy that you were hoping for coming off of last year.

with the changes to the offense and the offensive coordinator. But I think that Matt Ryan is towards, for the rest of the year, he's that kind of low end quarterback one that you can play on a weekly basis. That lends itself to kind of the bylaw on Julio argument that was made on this show a couple of weeks ago. I believe by you, Jason. Yeah, I'm certainly.

I've recommended scooping up Julio in a lot of different leagues. Mike is right in the sense that that's my last name. There you go. Mike. Mike's right. That what you, you know, some of those interceptions that happened earlier in the years, those kind of directly stole touchdowns away from Matt Ryan. But if you look at his yards, his complete percentage other things, there should be a bounce back.

for him. And we've seen that over the last few weeks. I expect to continue to see that as the season progresses. One of the more interesting stats that I looked at yesterday was what teams wide receivers have the most touchdowns? So what teams lead the way in terms of wide receiver touchdowns? And I was really surprised to see the number one team had five more receiving touchdowns at the wide receiver position than any other team in the league. And that's the Houston.

Texans. You should not be, yeah, thank you. I'd pour one out for the Eastern Texans. I mean, you should not be with Will Fuller on that 60 touchdown base and Hopkins just smashing it. Dee Watt. I mean, he still lives on. Deshaun Watson lives on in the past. In those stats. Yeah. So ghost touchdowns. DeAndre Hopkins, his place in the fantasy universe has been highly.

can, you know, debated over the last couple of years. Yeah. You had the amazing, you know, first half and breakout. Then you had last year. It didn't seem like he could overcome. Now you have him being forced fed targets. The touchdowns, look, that's a little bit outside the norm being at 18 compared to the rest of the league. But what is Hopkins placed in the fantasy universe now that you've seen him perform the last couple of weeks? And how do you look at him from a dynasty perspective? I mean, if Deshaun Watson is there, is he a top?

Five dynasty pick. Yeah, probably. Yeah. Because Deshaun Watson. Beckham Evans. You put Hopkins in that mix. Yeah, I would absolutely put him in there with the sensation. That is Deshaun Watson. Deshaun Watson. He'll be back next year. Deshaun Watson is currently the quarterback seven. He has not played the last few weeks. He is ahead of Jared Gough, who has averaged 40 points a week.

Well, Deshaun Jackson has been gone, and that's how far Deshaun Watson was ahead of people. Yeah, DeAndre Hopkins, great dynasty asset. Watson is as well. Yeah, I think it's more, we are, we knew he was a great dynasty asset. It just was where did he fit in that pantheon of greatness where with the quarterback problems that they were having and there was, I mean, you didn't know. You didn't know if there's going to be a solution there, but.

They have a solution. Before the season, the idea of taking Hopkins over Amari Cooper would have been foolish. Amari Cooper has a long-term quarterback in place. They're both young, great prospects. But now with Deshaun Watson, it's clearly Hopkins. That begs a question. Hopkins is 25 years old, okay? Odell Beckham Jr. is 25 years old. Same age. Odell Bucking Jr.'s quarterback situation. Right.

is completely in question now. There may be a different quarterback taking snaps behind center in as soon as a week or two in New York the way that they're playing in the way that they need to see what they have with Davis Webb ahead of a draft. You might have a rookie quarterback next year. I feel like if we are questioning Hopkins Place in the world based on quarterback, what do you do with a guy like Beckham? I know the talent should supersede, but we've seen Hall of Famers like Larry Fitzgerald.

in the doldrums of mediocre stats for multiple years because of their quarterback. Are you looking at that situation with concern as a dynasty owner? I'm not overly concerned because Eli Manning has not been very good for years. And Odo Beckham has been incredible. And the good news for the Giants, they're well on their way to a top three pick. So they're...

They'll have their pick of the litter. It's really good news for O'Dowell Beckham. Uh, he'll be coming back from injury, too. Yeah. I'm not worried about him. Thursday night football. The six and three, somehow. Tennessee tight. It doesn't, do they feel like a six and three team? No. Because they started off bad and they won four straight. So the Titans are six and three. They take on the Steelers seven and two. We've talked quite a bit about the Steelers on the show. Uh, it.

What are the storylines in this game that you're looking forward to see? The Steelers are seven point favorites at home, 44 point over under, and we know that the Titans defense has struggled against wide receivers and fantasy. So are you lining up Brown and Schuster and saying they'll get them? Absolutely. I think this is a matchup where both weapons will be good. This is Big Ben at home against a defense that is, you know, they're not that great.

Dick LaBose, you know, revenge game. Oh, revenge game. As the defensive coordinator for the Titans coming back to Pittsburgh. But, I mean, I truly believe that Big Ben has a good game and that Juju Smith-Schuster is a star. The rest of season, I think he's going to be great. I play him and Antonio Brown. If I had them both on my roster, I'd start both. That's how I feel about it. Over on the Tennessee side.

Demarco Murray's coming off, you know, a big fantasy day, not necessarily the most efficient or a great running back day, but the two rushing touchdowns and the past catching touchdown really saved fantasy players. They're going up against the Steelers defense who was allowing under 15 points a game. I'd be trying to avoid Titans. Yeah, I would too. On the road.

Game script doesn't lend itself. Vegas line doesn't lend itself. I think I'd be working to avoid them. Even though DeMarco Murray had that big week, I'm much more, you know, I'll chase points when the yardage and involvement. Right. Not necessarily the touchdowns. I think I've made the decision in our league of record to go Crabtree over DeMarco Murray in my flex position, just because I'm a little.