Mid Round Madness + RB Surprises

And I will say this. While I worry a little bit about Marshawn Lynch with Doug Martin, even though I think Doug Martin stinks. Doug Martin, I believe, is far worse than Nick Chubb in reality. So you score some points there. Now, Jason, I don't know. I'm going to toss it back to Jason, but I don't know if you know this, if you could tell. You love this one. This is the one I love. The other one was the one I didn't like so much. Yeah, well, this one. But come on, that's.

That's going back a long way. If you were on the train with Sammy for many years, whatever the opposite of being on the bandwagon with Carlos Hyde is what I've been on. That is true. You've been a height hater for a long time. What is the opposite of a bandwagon? It's called wrong the past two years. Yeah, that's true, Mike. Oh, that's good. Sorry, that's a cheap shot. All right. So this one is pronounced Crowder. Jamison Crowder.

is going in the eighth round, and I believe that he has every opportunity to finish as a wide receiver two this season. That's his eighth round. I'm sorry, that's his PPR average drop position? Wide receiver is 36. 801? Yeah, and I think he provides a good value. He got off to a really poor start last year. He had the hype given to him, and then he was not good. In fact,

Mike, you brought up the stats about targets versus fantasy finish. And there were only in the top 30, there were only four real outliers. And he was one of them. He was a guy that, you know, was like, man, he really should have done better last year. And that's because of that slow start. After week nine, I don't think people realize how good James and Crowder was playing. After week nine, rest of the season. We'd already given up on him. Yeah. In full point PPR leagues, he was wide receiver 14.

Alex Smith now has three years running where he has supported a wide receiver two. And you have a lot of data on separation from like the new advanced metrics from the NFL. So in that Crowder gets open. And Alex Smith is a safe type of player. I've heard Mike Tags talk about it. And, you know, he believes that that's going to play a big role. I don't think Jordan Reed is going to be able to stay healthy. And Crowder to me is a great value there where you could have a,

a guy with enough target volume to where you could play him every single week, get those great weeks when he gets in the end zone. When he doesn't, he's still solid. And you're getting him in the eighth round. One of the things that's kind of fun to do is I like giving perspective across multiple years with players like Jameson Crowder. At this time last year, in August, he was a PPR ADP of 601. Okay, so he's two rounds.

Further back than he was last year. There was a lot of hype last year. In fact, he was on our breakout show last year because we were expecting big things from him with the departure of Garson and D. Jackson, all of that. So possible we were a year too early on Crowder between the bad start, the quarterback change, maybe fitting his role. He's still young. The quintessential post-hype sleeper. Yeah. When you hype a guy up.

A year early, it's so common. Yeah, you lose two rounds. You get even better value. It will be interesting for Crowder how things shake out with Jordan Reed. Because it is a new quarterback, you can't just put this blanket statement on. But we do know that when Jordan Reed was having success, Crowder really wouldn't. And then when Reed would get inevitably hurt, Crowder would really start to have all his success.

This is why Crowder is going to have success. It's almost like a draft pick of James and Crowder is taking a hedge bet against the health of Jordan Reed. Which is not a bad bet, unfortunately. All right. I get to close this out. You do. I'm going to bring up a player, I think, is because I'm falling even more in love with him. Because of you out there.

Those of you drafting are doing, you're doing me wonderful favors. Cam Newton. Cam Newton is right now late seventh round, drafted as the seventh quarterback off the board. I've decided that I want Cam Newton in every league that I'm in. And last year, look, he was a my guy. And he had a very good season. And here's the thing. He is the perfect combination to me.

Because we disparage quarterback so much because you can get value everywhere else. But none of us disagree. When a quarterback does put up a monster week-winning type of week, they can carry your team. We've seen this two years ago with Cam Newton and multiple years ago with Tom Brady and Aaron Rogers has done it. Peyton Manning has done it. The thing is, we're saying, look, don't invest on the guests, right? Don't spend a second down, first, second, third round capital on.

who you hope can be a carrying guy. Cam Newton has not proven at once, not twice, not three times, not four times, five different times he's been in, listen to these fantasy finishes in his career. 343, 17, 1, 17, 2.

He's either... Sounds like a 17th is coming about right. Well, not... No, I mean, you had 3-4-3, Jason. I'm just looking at recent history. Recent history, 117-2. Yeah, okay. If you're playing the back or forth. But my point is this. You're spinning basically an eighth-round pick-on. You're either getting Cam, who's a number one or number two quarterback, or he's a bomb, and you can survive an eighth-round, seventh-round bomb.

The odds in my, look, you add DJ more. I love that. You get, you basically add Greg Olson, okay? He was gone. You get the 700 yards, five to seven hundred on the ground. This is a good team. You get good cam more often than not. And you get him at QB7. You could have the QB1 at QB7 and your odds, you actually have a percentage chance of getting that. Like a legitimate chance. Right. Of getting the QB1.

at the QB7 value. To me, that is what mid-round madness is all about. If I get to spend six, seven picks on other positions, then draft a guy who more often than not is a top three quarterback, I'm just sitting pretty. I'm loving that. I'm loving that life. So Cam Newton, I'm falling more in love with you than I was last year. So that's my case for Cam. I don't.

Hate it. That's the kind of thing. That means a lot to me. That's big of you. That means a lot to me. I thought a lot about what I was going to say. Thank you. I stand by those words. I really appreciate it. I also appreciate our foot cleanse. Let's get into the mailbag. Mailbag. Woo. I don't know if you watched the Minneapolis live show. I lost my eyebrows during the mailbag drop. But I'm pretty sure Jason was tearing up during that mailbag drop.

Cannot confirm or deny. It was, it's such a great moment. Brooks, were you crying a little bit? Were you weeping in the back at how far we've come with this mailbag? Oh, yeah. I'm glad that no one, you couldn't see me back there. Good, good. I mean, that is. So is everybody else. Can we get that cut out, Brooks, the audio so that any time that Jason and I are stuck with the mailbag, we can have the foot clamp behind us?

Oh, that's a great idea. Isn't that a good idea? Yeah. That is a tremendous idea. Thank you. On so many levels. I mean, Jay Grizzie fills in admirably, but that was better. Saving the public from Jason's, uh, what was the, your seductive. Oh, that was terrifying. So good. Um, yeah, so take care of that, Brooks. And then Dallas be ready. Yeah, Dallas be ready for the mailbag drop. Couple weeks.

That's right. All right. Here's a question from Chris in North Carolina. By the way, if you have a question for the show, you can go to the website, The Fantasy Footballers.com, click to submit a question button. You can also dial our voicemail hotline 3024-64 TFFB. We love helping you win your league. Chris in North Carolina starting a Dynasty league this year. You recommended not doing playoffs in week 17, but ESPN has a two weeks per round playoff system default, starting week 14, making the championship depend on week 17. How do you do it?

One week per round, or do you start the two weeks a bit earlier? Good question. Back in the day, we actually did do the two week playoffs. And, you know, sometimes you need to start earlier. We would never do a week 17 championship. But I am a big proponent of the one week playoffs. I think that's, you know, look, that's how football is, right? That's how the real playoffs are. It's not a series. It's you put out the best lineup this week. You win.

And so, yeah, in our league of record, our dynasty main league that we play in. In fact, I don't think I'm in a single league anymore that has two weeks per playoff matchup. It's unnecessary. Yeah, I used to be a big proponent of the two-week matchups, but we're talking like five, six years ago. And I came to the light. I realized that, look, I only wanted to do that because I wanted to nullify the risk.

It certainly does. And it does do that. But it also means you have less teams in the playoffs in most leagues, if that's the case. And you run into situations like this. So I'm in agreement. All right. Interesting. Luke in New Jersey, where do I draft Des today? So let's say you draft Des right now. Where do you draft it? Double-digit rounds. Once you're in that 10th, 11th rounder, I mean, you're grabbing sleepers, guys, that you want to take a shot on.

I am more than okay with grabbing Des Bryant there. Maybe he's washed. Maybe he's a wide receiver one. The range of outcomes for Des Bryant's are so wide that spending an 11th round pick on him, I think, is a wise thing to do. Yeah, it's when you get to the spot in the draft where you don't actually really like...

the options available. I mean, that's, that's where it is. That's kind of the tier-based methodology. Would you draft Des Bryant or Kelvin Benjamin today? I would take Des Bryant. I would take Kelvin. Yeah, I think I would take Kelvin, too. You're never going to play him. Which one? Kelvin. I like it. All right. This question comes in from Andy and Pawnee, Indiana. Oh, Pawnee, huh? You know Pawnee. Hoity tooty. I have Julio.

keepable just this season. And Michael Thomas, Michael Thomas, keepable two more seasons. Julio always finishes with more points, but I feel like Mike is less boom or bust. Who should I keep? It seems like you're way in your situation there. I would keep Thomas. You can keep him for two years. Yeah. I don't usually look too much towards like, essentially this would be like saying, okay, this guy's a year younger. I don't usually do that, but Thomas and Julio aren't that far apart.

Look, Andy is right. Not our Andy, but this, this Andy, in the sense that Michael Thomas is far more consistent. So if that's what you're, if that's what you'd prefer, he might not score as many points on the year, but he also won't disappear on you quite as often. Zach and, oh, goodness, that's a special place. Wyo missing. Nail it. It's like a combination of Wyoming and missing. Wyoming. Or it's a question. Why are you missing?

Well, bonjour! I know the notorious methods of the Dolphins' Offense Hype Department. Yes. They're very good there. Yet I often find myself hopping on board the train on Albert Wilson. Wow. Landry has gone. Tannehill is back. Is it crazy to be all in on a sneaky Wilson grab this year? No, I don't think it's crazy because I think unlike other situations where the hype, look, nobody's hyping them as a...

as an AFC title contender. And so if things go south from a team perspective, you're still throwing the ball constantly. I mean, I think he's a sneaky guy. 100%. When the hype train gets out of control, you're drafting people higher than you need to. Albert Wilson is currently not drafted in most leagues. That's not too high. That's exactly. That's not too high. Take your shot. If you believe in him, it costs you nothing.

It's unfortunate for fantasy players that they've signed two guys that they think can go into their slot with Wilson and Danny Amadola. If you had to just pick one, though, I would be picking Albert Wilson. He's following the money. He's younger. He has a longer track record of health, and the reports have all been very positive on both guys. But I think Albert Wilson does have a bigger, you know, we've kind of seen Amadola.

And so I think from an upside unknown perspective, he's more attractive to me, Wilson, that is. Well, and even if Amandola wins the job, Wilson will have it in short order based on everything we've seen from Danny and his ability to stay on the field. All right, that is it for today's episode of the show. Thanks for tuning in. If you didn't get to check out one of those live shows, yet you can check it out on YouTube. YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers. Make sure you subscribe over there. We're...